English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
He has put
all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all
Letter to the Ephesians01/15-23/:"I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason. I do not cease to
give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and
revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart
enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are
the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the
immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working
of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things
under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on November 28-29/2021
Health Ministry: 1,319 new Corona cases, 8 deaths
Aoun on “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”
Al-Rahi: We warn against any attempt to postpone the elections under illogical
pretexts
Al-Rahi Hails Cassation Court's Ruling on Port Investigation
Archbishop Odeh to the Lebanese: Do not sell your voice for a moment's hunger
morsel!
No Signs of Any Breakthrough in Governmental Crisis
Lebanon judiciary stands firm despite Hezbollah
allegations
Bassil Says 'No Iranian Occupation', Blasts Salameh, Political Rivals
Qaouq: Hizbullah Backing Efforts to Resolve Govt. Crisis
Abiad Reassures: No Direct Flights between Southern Africa, Lebanon
Dentists' Syndicate elections canceled in wake of clashes
Sami Gemayel says attack during Dentists’ Syndicate elections is shameful, does
not well for upcoming parliamentary elections
LF: It is strange that Hezbollah officials would invest the blood of their
fighters in the wrong place
FPM condemns incident at Dentists’ Syndicate, says elections are a democratic
test
Jumblatt cautions against handing country over to Syrian-Iranian axis, wonders
about absence of any talk about reform, financing card
Army: Several arrests in Hermel
The Need for Strategic Prudence in Gulf-Lebanese Relations/Raghida Dergham/The
National/November 28/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 28-29/2021
Iranian arrested in Kenya for planning terror attacks against Israeli
targets - report
Former Iranian nuclear head hints Fakhrizadeh worked on nuclear weapons
Israel Worries Iran Will Get Sanctions Relief Without Capping Nuclear Projects
Iran Delegation Kicks Off Consultations In Vienna Ahead of Monday’s Official
Talks
Iran Seeks to Return Oil Output to Pre-Sanction Levels
US Navy Rescues Iran Seamen Adrift in Gulf for 8 Days
Iraq: ISIS Roadside Bomb Kills 5 Peshmerga, Wounds 4
Russia's Top Investigator, Syrian Officials Discuss Countering Terrorism
Syrian Kurdish Authorities Say 3 Civilians Killed in Blast
Leaked Message From Son of Morsi’s Aide Deepens 'Brotherhood Crises' Abroad
SDF, Damascus Conduct Settlement Operations
Sudan Appoints New Director of General Intelligence
Several Sudanese Soldiers Killed in Attack by Ethiopian Forces
Features of Houthi Sectarian Abuse, Displacement of Minorities
Borders Slam Shut as World Rushes to Contain New Covid Variant
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 28-29/2021
“Christians Enjoy No Rights in This Country”: The Persecution of
Christians, October 2021/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./November 28, 2021
On Satire of the Clannishness that Strangles Us/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November,
28/2021
Israel should ensure that politics don't get in way of Biden-Iran talks -
editorial/Jerusalem Post/November 28/2021
Why the world cannot afford the UN to fail/Hafed
Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 28/ 2021
Iran nuclear talks: Preparing for failure/Baria
Alamuddin/Arab News/November 28/ 2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on November 28-29/2021
Health Ministry: 1,319 new Corona
cases, 8 deaths
NNA/November 28/2021
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health
announced Sunday the registration of 1,319 new infections with the Corona virus,
which raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 668,087. It
added that 8 deaths were also recorded during the past 24 hours.
Aoun on “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”
NNA/November 28/2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, called Sunday on the
international community to "work to end the suffering of the Palestinian people
by restoring the right to its owners, achieving a just and comprehensive peace,
in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab Peace
Initiative, and securing the return of the Palestinians of the diaspora to their
homes from which they were displaced, respecting the right of return as
stipulated by UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194 of 11/12/1948, which
affirmed the Palestinian refugees’ return right and the necessity to work on
their relief until their return, in addition to protecting the holy places,
placing the city of Jerusalem under effective United Nations monitoring, and
guaranteeing freedom of access to it due to its association with the three
monotheistic religions.”
Aoun considered that "the conditions in which the Palestinian refugees live have
declined dramatically in several countries, including Lebanon, which is facing
major unprecedented crises that have negatively impacted the families of the
Palestinian refugees who have been there since 1948, as well as on those who
have been displaced from Syrian territories." “The suffering of the Palestinian
people has increased at home and abroad, as the Palestinians are still living a
daily struggle with the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and
they seek to provide the most basic requirements of a normal life," he
maintained. President Aoun’s positions came in a message of solidarity addressed
to the Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Cheikh Niang, in commemoration of
the "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People".
Al-Rahi: We warn against any attempt to postpone the
elections under illogical pretexts
NNA/November 28/2021
The Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, affirmed that "the
parliamentary elections are not only a periodic constitutional entitlement, but
a stage to renew national life through democracy and popular will.""It is time
for parliamentary life to regularize, so that political forces compete under the
constitution’s roof for change for the better, so we warn against any attempt to
postpone the elections under illogical and non-national pretexts, and we insist
that they happen on their constitutional dates, in order to ensure the people’s
right to vote and change and preserve Lebanon," Al- Rahi added. He believed that
"the decision of the General Authority of the Court of Cassation restored the
judiciary's prestige and restored hope for the completion of the investigation
away from interests."
Al-Rahi Hails Cassation Court's Ruling on Port Investigation
Naharnet/November 28/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lauded the latest decision by the
Court of Cassation on the flurry of lawsuits and legal motions that had
paralyzed the probe into the catastrophic Beirut port blast. “The unanimous
decision of the general commission of the Court of Cassation confirmed the
rightfulness of the judicial investigation, restoring the Lebanese judiciary’s
seriousness, prestige and unity, and reviving hope that the probe into the port
crime can be continued away from politicization, sectarianization and
interests,” al-Rahi added in a sermon. The Court of Cassation on Thursday threw
out two lawsuits submitted by ex-premier Hassan Diab and ex-interior minister
Nouhad al-Mashnouq accusing Bitar of summoning them illegally. It ruled there
was no evidence suggesting Bitar had committed any errors. The same court also
overturned two similar lawsuits filed by lawmakers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi
Zoaiter. Also on Thursday, the Criminal Court of Cassation rejected a lawsuit
filed by ex-public works minister Youssef Fenianos that had demanded Bitar's
removal from the blast probe. The court also said that it is the only authority
eligible to look into recusal requests against Bitar, which prevents the accused
ex-officials from filing motions with the Court of Appeals. Turning to the
suspension of Cabinet sessions, the patriarch lashed out at the “obstructors,”
stressing that they have no right to “prevent Cabinet from convening.”He
wondered whether they are awaiting “further collapse, Lebanese lira downfall,
hunger, poverty, emigration and deterioration of Lebanon’s ties with the Gulf
countries.” “It is unacceptable for Cabinet to remain absent or the hostage of
this or that party while it is the authority concerned with rescuing Lebanon,”
al-Rahi added.
Archbishop Odeh to the Lebanese: Do not sell your voice
for a moment's hunger morsel!
MTV/November 28/2021
The Metropolitan of Beirut addressed the Greek Orthodox ,Archbishop Elias Odeh
to the officials by saying: "They promise the people and do not fulfill the
promises, they harness the energies of the country for their interests and
exploit the people to achieve their ambitions. The people have become captive to
the greed of officials and their attachment to power and the temptations of this
corrupt world." He added in his Sunday sermon: "They want to increase their
wealth even if this leads to the poorerness of the people. They struggle for
what they have, not for Lebanon. They are oppressing, displacing, evading
justice, obstructing the work of the judiciary and neglecting to remedy the
defect, and they have no planning or vision for the sake of justice." building a
modern state. He continued, "Therefore, the people must be aware of their duty
of change and not be complacent on the day of the election, and use reason and
logic before the interest. What is important in the upcoming election is that
the people not become attached to the floor, follow the leaders, and forget the
most important thing, which is the country's salvation from the corrupt juntas
that blew up, looted and displaced. The important thing is that the people not
accept To sell his vote in exchange for a morsel of hunger for a moment, while
in front of the ballot box he can take a wise stance that will reap the results
of change, prosperity, and hope for his future and the future of his children.”
No Signs of Any Breakthrough in Governmental Crisis
Naharnet/November 28/2021
There are “no positive indications” regarding any breakthrough in the
governmental crisis, and “everything that has been said in this regard is
nothing more than hypotheses that are not based on serious foundations,”
political officials said. “The governmental situation is still besieged by the
same obstacles that have prevented Cabinet from convening, whether as to the
judicial investigation into the Beirut port file and the fate of investigative
judge Tarek Bitar, or as to the major obstacle that emerged with the Saudi-Gulf
boycott of Lebanon over Minister George Kordahi’s statements,” the officials
told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Saturday. The officials also
noted that “the latest judicial stance, reflected in the Court of Cassation’s
dismissal of the lawsuits against the state, might further complicate things,”
calling for “awaiting the developments of the coming days.”The officials also
pointed out that there are two possible solutions for the judicial-governmental
crisis, with the first calling for the Justice Minister to take a certain
measure against the investigative judge, seeing as Bitar was named through a
resolution from the Justice Minister.
“Therefore, the official who has the jurisdiction to take the appointment
decision also has the jurisdiction to alter this decision if he finds in the
appointment decision a deviation or objective reasons for having suspicions over
the appointed investigative judge,” the officials added. This proposal, however,
is running into “a governmental stance that says that it is unacceptable to
interfere in the judicial authority’s affairs,” the officials said, revealing
that President Michel Aoun “strongly supports this orientation.”The second
solution would see a partitioning of the investigation file, with parliament
holding a session to refer the accused ex-PM and former ministers to the Higher
Council for Trial of Presidents and Ministers, the officials added.
Lebanon judiciary stands firm despite Hezbollah
allegations
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 28/ 2021
BEIRUT: The Beirut Bar Association has urged all officials to refrain from
interfering with the judiciary and respect the law and work of institutions.
Nader Kaspar, head of the association, said: “The lawyers stand in solidarity
with the judges and the Judicial Council.”
His statement came as the confrontation between Hezbollah and the Lebanese
judiciary took a dangerous turn. The party has accused Judge Tarek Bitar, who is
leading the probe into the Beirut port explosion, of “politicizing the
investigation.”
In the past few days, the Justice Palace in Beirut has been abuzz with news
about the resignation of several judges in protest at the poor conditions the
judiciary is experiencing, due to political interference on the one hand and the
economic situation on the other.
Former public prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi told Arab News: “What is happening
increases the state of disgust within the judicial body. These pressures should
not affect the course of the judiciary's work, but how long can the judiciary
stand its ground in light of a pressing financial and economic crisis?
“Pressure has always been exerted on the judiciary. If the judiciary had
surrendered, the judges would have resigned a long time ago. They want to remove
Bitar at any cost. They have paralyzed the government and they want to do the
same to the judiciary, but the latter has so far been steadfast.”
The president of the Fifth Chamber of the Court of Cassation Judge Jeannette
Hanna, public defender Judge Carla Kassis, and president of the Court of Appeal
Judge Rola Al-Husseini have submitted their resignation.
However, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council Judge Suhail Abboud rejected
these resignations, asking the judges to “hold back.”
The Coalition for an Independent Lebanese Judiciary warned that the judicial
body was facing imminent danger.
It said: “These resignations serve as a warning of what the financial and
economic collapse may cause within one of the most important public facilities,
and of the ongoing systematic campaigns against every judge who dares to
question immunities, which was evident in the Beirut port blast probe.”
It added that the resignations “reflect the feelings of helplessness and
resentment of many judges regarding the financial and moral factors that prevent
them from performing their judicial function properly, and put them in an
embarrassing situation before public opinion.”
On Friday, in addition to demanding that Bitar be removed, Hezbollah
secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah went after the entire judicial body because
it had pushed back against attempts by defendants to remove Bitar.
“Hezbollah resorted to the judiciary to confront Bitar's discretion, but the
rulings show that the entire judiciary is politicized,” Nasrallah said. “This
was evident over the past couple of days when the judiciary rejected all
requests to dismiss Bitar.”
He once again claimed that the US, represented by its embassy in Lebanon, was
supporting Bitar. “The investigation is trying to accuse Hezbollah of being
involved in the blast. The current judicial process is on a discretionary path
that does not lead to any justice or truth.”Speaking about the Tayouneh
incident, which occurred when Hezbollah supporters took to the streets and
clashed with residents of Ain Al-Rummaneh, Nasrallah said Hezbollah did not want
personal revenge, but that many people involved had not been handed over to the
judiciary and they were still in Maarab, a reference to Lebanese Forces party
leader Samir Geagea. “The extent of recklessness, in this case, is an invitation
to the families of the victims to take matters into their own hands,” Nasrallah
said. The party has been disrupting Cabinet sessions and preventing the
resignation of Information Minister George Kordahi to fix Lebanon's relationship
with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
Bassil Says 'No Iranian Occupation', Blasts Salameh,
Political Rivals
Naharnet/November 28/2021
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday noted that “there is no
Iranian occupation of Lebanon,” as he lashed out at political rivals and Central
Bank Governor Riad Salameh. “Today they want to convince you that there is a new
occupation that has come to Lebanon, which is the Iranian occupation, but if
there is an Iranian occupation, we as FPM will be the first to confront it, the
same as we confronted the Israeli occupation and Syrian tutelage,” Bassil said.
“Do not be afraid. There is no Iranian occupation of Lebanon, because no one can
occupy our culture, religion or faith. No one can occupy or step on this land
and these mountains,” the FPM chief added, in a speech in Kfardebian. “We want
to have friends in the world, not to be the cronies of anyone,” he stressed.
Apparently hitting out at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Bassil added:
“They take political money from foreign forces to be tools for nations and
foreign intelligence agencies. They kill when they are asked to and they endorse
policies such as toppling the Orthodox (electoral) law and the President’s
powers.”
Moreover, the FPM chief said that President Michel Aoun’s tenure has “confronted
the wrong financial policies and dismantled the regime.”
“This is the most important and no one else would have been able to do it,”
Bassil added. “We are being liberated from the political regime that has ruled
Lebanon since the 1990s and it is disintegrating. They are falling one after
another, but the financial regime remains, led today by the governor (of the
central bank)… The lie of pegging the exchange rate has ended and they can do no
magic after today,” the FPM chief went on to say. He added that Salameh “cannot
remain in his post if we want to restore confidence in the lira.”“He is being
judicially prosecuted in seven countries in Europe… If the United States is
behind him, we want to topple him, and if the political regime is behind him, it
must fall and he should fall with it,” Bassil said. He added: “We will liberate
Lebanon’s economy and this is the objective and the battle, before, during and
after the elections. Remember well that we’re the ones who liberated Lebanon
from every occupier and tutelar, and we will liberate it from them and their
policies.” Referring to political rivals, Bassil accused them of preventing the
FPM from “providing electricity and fixing the financial policies.”
“But we in return prevented them from seizing control of the country,” Bassil
boasted. He added: “Their scheme of seizing control of the country has fallen,
the naturalization (of Palestinian refugees) has fallen and the integration of
the displaced Syrians has fallen, because Syria is rising and the Syrians will
return home.”“The scheme of allowing terrorism to enter from the mountains (of
the eastern border) has failed and we’re the ones who prevented them,” he said.
Qaouq: Hizbullah Backing Efforts to Resolve Govt. Crisis
Naharnet/November 28/2021
Hizbullah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Sunday stressed that his
party is supporting efforts aimed at resolving the governmental crisis and
resuming Cabinet sessions. “Addressing the governmental crisis represents a
necessary gateway for alleviating the suffering of the Lebanese and curbing
collapse in the various fields,” Qaouq said. “Hizbullah is not standing idly by
as to addressing the governmental crisis, and it is rather supportive and keen
on the success of the efforts,” the Hizbullah official added. The efforts “have
not stopped to resolve the only obstacle, whose solution is not impossible,”
Qaouq went on to say, apparently referring to the standoff over Beirut port
blast lead investigative judge Tarek Bitar. He added: “The suffering of the
Lebanese is very big, the living circumstances are difficult, and our major
priority is serving the people and easing their plight. Hizbullah is helping and
offering everything in its capacity to this end.”
Abiad Reassures: No Direct Flights between Southern
Africa, Lebanon
Naharnet/November 28/2021
Health Minister Firass Abiad has reassured that “Lebanon has no direct flights
from South Africa or neighboring countries,” in remarks regarding the new,
heavily mutated Covid-19 strain Omicron.
“Furthermore, very few passengers arrive from these destinations. All passengers
arriving in Lebanon currently undergo PCR testing,” Abiad added, in an
English-language tweet. “Should a travel ban be imposed on passengers coming
from those countries? This will be discussed by the Infectious Disease committee
on Monday morning. This will allow our experts having discussions with @WHOEMRO
(World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office) to better
understand and decide what measures should be taken,” Abiad stated. World
governments rushed to contain the new strain on Sunday, with Israel slamming its
borders shut to foreign nationals and Australia reporting its first cases of the
variant. The variant has cast doubt on global efforts to fight the pandemic
because of fears that it is highly infectious, forcing countries to reimpose
measures many had hoped were a thing of the past. Scientists are racing to
determine the threat posed by the heavily mutated strain -- particularly whether
it can evade existing vaccines. Several countries have also announced plans to
restrict travel from southern Africa, where it was first detected, including key
travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the
Netherlands.
Dentists' Syndicate elections canceled in wake of
clashes
NNA/November 28/2021
The Dentists’ Syndicate elections were canceled due to several clashes,
inconsistencies, and the throwing of ballot boxes,” NNA correspondent reported
this evening.
Sami Gemayel says attack during Dentists’ Syndicate
elections is shameful, does not well for upcoming parliamentary elections
NNA/November 28/2021
Lebanese Kataeb Party Chief, Sami Gemayel, tweeted this afternoon on the
incident during the Dentists’ Syndicate elections today, saying: “What happened
during the Dentists Syndicate elections is shameful and disgraceful…Armed units
of Hezbollah from outside the doctors' circle attack the vote count assistants
and destroy the ballot boxes in a scene that does not bode well for the upcoming
parliamentary elections."
LF: It is strange that Hezbollah officials would invest the
blood of their fighters in the wrong place
NNA/November 28/2021
“It is strange for Hezbollah officials to invest the blood of their fighters in
the wrong place, and to invest it for purely political purposes,” said the
Lebanese Forces Party’s media department in an issued statement this evening.
“Hezbollah, starting with its Secretary General, passing through all of its
officials, and far-reaching MP Mohammad Raad today, has attempted to exploit the
ominous Tayouneh incident in the wrong place, falsifying all the related facts
in order to reach its desired goal,” the statement added. “We remind all
Hezbollah officials that the gloomy incident actually took place in Ain al-Remmaneh
and not in the suburbs area, after armed Hezbollah individuals entered Ain al-Rummaneh
and not vice versa, and following Hezbollah’s call to demonstrate and not vice
versa, and in wake of the breaking and vandalism acts against vehicles, shops
and homes, and assaulting everyone who happened to be in the vicinity,
regardless of their gender or age…all of which is documented by videos that
spread widely immediately after the accident occurred, via social media and TV
screens,” the statement went on. The Party continued to consider that the one to
be held accountable is not the one that defended his land, honor, dignity, home,
possessions, family members, and life, but rather the one who was caught in
crime, flagrantly assaulting the people. “Legitimate self-defense was a heavenly
right before it was enacted in the Universal Bill of Human Rights,” the LF
statement asserted. “Mercy be upon those who fell in the fateful Tayouneh
incident, and those who were inured…and let there be no more of this cheap
exploitation that is unsuitable for a human being."
FPM condemns incident at Dentists’ Syndicate, says elections are a democratic
test
NNA/November 28/2021
The Free Patriotic Movement's professions sector denounced, in an issued
statement this evening, what happened during the Dentists' Syndicate elections
today, recalling its previous warnings against the charged political atmosphere
between the various parties that would negatively impact union solidarity, and
its rejection of such an atmosphere of tension and divisions between colleagues
in the same profession. The Movement reminded in its statement that the priority
of union options are above any other interests. “Today, unfortunately, we have
seen those who insist on violating the simplest norms and requirements of
democracy, imposing the logic of force instead of the logic of democracy and
freedom of choice,” the statement regretted. “The elections are a democratic
test that transcends victory and loss, and today, whoever attempted to break the
ballot boxes and waste the votes of his/her colleagues for fear of clear and
inevitable loss, has actually failed,” the statement underscored. Finally, the
Free Patriotic Movement urged "all parties to abide by the principles of
democratic interaction and to resort to legal means when in suspicion, and to
reject any deviation from respecting the laws," demanding the judiciary "to take
possession of this dossier and restore the right to its owners."
Jumblatt cautions against handing country over to
Syrian-Iranian axis, wonders about absence of any talk about reform, financing
card
NNA/November 28/2021
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, warned against “falling into
the error of handing over the country to the Syrian-Iranian axis,” and against
“the consequences of the equation proposed to convene the cabinet in exchange
for eliminating the investigation into the Beirut Port explosion.”On another
note, Jumblatt emphasized the priority of implementing reform, addressing the
electricity dossier and launching the financing card, wondering why there is no
talk lately about these dire issues of extreme importance to the citizen’s
livelihood. Jumblatt’s words came during his meeting with partisans in a
follow-up encounter to the Party’s 48th General Conference held yesterday in the
region of Iqlim al-Kharroub.Touching on the stalled cabinet sessions, the PSP
Chief noted that the government was welcomed following a year’s anticipation for
its formation, adding that there is still hope that it will accomplish some of
the items on its work agenda. However, he wondered about the sudden absence of
any talk about reforms amidst the artificial and destructive obstacles that have
been placed along the government’s path. Referring to the electricity dossier,
he said: “Suddenly, there is no talk about the Egyptian gas and the Jordanian
electricity, after we welcomed this step as a temporary solution that may
increase power supply from two or three hours to ten hours, which would be an
achievement while waiting for a radical solution."
Army: Several arrests in Hermel
NNA/November 28/2021
In a communiqué issued on Sunday, the Lebanese Army Command indicated that one
of its unit forces, supported by a patrol from the Intelligence Directorate,
raided the homes of drug dealers in the Mrah-Hermel area, where they arrested
three wanted suspects on charges of drug trafficking and the promotion of
Captagon pills, Cannabis and Marijuana, in addition to committing thefts,
whereby a quantity of hashish, marijuana and military weapons were found in
their possession. Similarly, another army force supported by a patrol from the
Intelligence Directorate arrested two citizens at the Haush El-Sayed Ali-Hermel
area, who are wanted for the crime of smuggling people, opening illegal
crossings, kidnappings and shootings. The army force also arrested a Syrian
national who was found in their company after being smuggled from inside Syrian
territory. The arrestees were handed over to the official authorities to be
interrogated under the supervision of the concerned judiciary.
The Need for Strategic Prudence in Gulf-Lebanese Relations
Raghida Dergham/The National/November 28/2021
The Biden team will not back down from its rush to conclude a nuclear deal with
Iran, and lifting sanctions on Tehran. Biden’s team will not admit that their
president’s fixation and desperation for reviving the JCPOA has already
empowered the IRGC in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, and emboldened Iran in its
negotiations with Saudi Arabia seeking to end the war in Yemen. Biden’s Iran
taskforce are on the defensive when it comes to any suggestion of a link between
Iran’s malign regional behavior and the nuclear talks, burying their heads in
the sands out of fear pursuing this would jeopardize the talks.
Tehran has excelled at exploiting the Western decision to let it escape
accountability, even as it deepens its alliances with Eastern powers. Iran is
also confident that the repercussions of the Arab stances vis-à-vis its sphere
of influence will favor its interests and those of its local partners.
In Lebanon, for example, Hezbollah and the IRGC are celebrating what they
believe was an easy win, namely the calculated provocation of the Arab Gulf
states that led them to lose their patience and angrily leave Lebanon to fall in
the Iranian lap. However, Iran may have won only a battle but not the war, if
the Arab states read Iran’s actions and plans for ambushing them well. The Gulf
states, Egypt, the Arab League, and the GCC can retake the initiative and
overturn the plans of Iran and its proxies. This requires clarity in their
vision and policy, and steadiness in the face of provocation. Indeed, boycotts
are not a policy and stooping to the level of Lebanon’s corrupt, intransigent
leaders is unwise and unbefitting. There are many ways in which the Arab states
can take the moral high ground and avoid the trap of falling into positions that
punish the victims of arrogance, corruption, and armed bullying.
The anger of the Gulf states over Hezbollah’s armed intervention in their
domestic affairs is justified, and they have the right to adopt bilateral
measures against it. But these countries know the ‘address’ of Hezbollah’s
backers and it’s Iran, not Lebanon. These countries are also fully aware that
the Biden administration and the Europeans bear significant responsibility for
Iran and Hezbollah’s excesses in Lebanon, and for the sense of impunity they
feel because of the sacred priority the Western powers have assigned to the
JCPOA.
Tehran and Hezbollah care little about Australia becoming the 13th nation to
designate both political and military wings of the militant group as a terrorist
organization. Tehran and Hezbollah see the forest past the trees and pursue a
strategic not tactical thinking. And bringing Lebanon fully into the Iranian
fold is a strategic decision made by the IRGC, which is confident the European
governments and the Biden administration are fully subservient to the nuclear
priority, to the point that they have shamelessly washed their hands clean of
everything that is happening in Lebanon, even as it falls under Iranian
domination and undergoes the collapse of its state and the exodus and
impoverishment of its people.
Lebanon is a founding member of the Arab League. Its people are Arabs not
Persians. Its language is Arabic. Its social components are far removed from the
doctrines and traditions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its constitution is
democratic, its army is patriotic, and its people are modern and enlightened.
True, the country is controlled by a corrupt cabal, but it is also true that the
fear of a major civil war is what has prevented the Lebanese from showing
courage and persistence in confronting Hezbollah’s weapons and the corruption,
greed, and arrogance of the ruling class.
During the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, a prevailing notion was considering
Lebanon’s developments a domestic crisis, as though neither Iran nor Hezbollah
have anything to do with it – despite Hezbollah’s insistence on removing the
Beirut Blast investigative judge Tarek Bitar, for example. In truth, every
important strategic or tactical decision made by Hezbollah is an Iranian
decision endorsed by the IRGC. For this reason, Iran is at the root of Lebanon’s
crisis, which is not a domestic one, despite the rampant corruption and the
responsibility born by President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Najib Mikati,
Speaker Nabih Berri, and the entire political class culminating with Hezbollah
chief Hassan Nasrallah, the true ruler of Lebanon.
What should be done?
The Biden administration and the European governments should stop their
ambiguity about imposing sanctions on Lebanon’s top leaders. The recent
sanctions announced by the US had been inherited from the Trump administration.
Of course, the Biden administration did not backtrack from imposing sanctions on
the likes of Jamil el-Sayyed, Jihad el-Arab, and Dani Khoury because of what was
described as their large-scale corruption that undermines the rule of law in
Lebanon. However, the Biden administration can sanction another list of corrupt
figures – and there is no shortage of them in Lebanon – to prove it is really
serious.
More importantly, the Biden administration must work with the European states to
impose sanctions on Lebanese leaders who are destroying the country, dismantling
its social fabric, and planting the seeds for terrorism. The first country that
must be recruited in the effort for accountability through sanctions is
Switzerland, which possesses intimate information about the men of the Lebanese
ruling cartel and their partners, and their role in Lebanon’s collapse. France,
Germany, Britain, Italy and the rest of the European countries must not hide
behind the lack of unanimous agreement that they claim prevents agreement on
imposing sanctions. These countries must cease their duplicity that borders on
shameful hypocrisy, which undermines their claim to modernity and integrity as
they watch the death of a country and its people with nothing to offer but
expressions of pity. The main reason they are not stepping in is their fear for
the fate of the nuclear talks with Iran and their reassurance that no migrants
will flow to their borders thanks to suspicious guarantees.
Credit is due to Washington and the European states for establishing an
international fund to pay the salaries of the Lebanese army, to soften the
economic crisis and maintain this important institution of the Lebanese state.
This is a crucial step that must be expanded to cover security forces in other
institutions. The Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have an important role to
play here. It is crucial for them to join the countries lending support to the
Lebanese army through the international fund. Such a move would mean avoiding
the trap of being excluded from playing a natural and important role in saving
Lebanon from its terrible predicament. The Arab countries, especially the Gulf
powers, should not remain divested from Lebanon, either as a result of
provocations or previously planned moves these countries activated after the
straw broke the camel’s neck. For one thing, anger is not a policy.
The resignation or not of George Kordahi from a worthless post – information
minister – should not be the issue. The man should be ignored and sidestepped.
He has received too much attention and as much rebuke as he deserves. He has
placed his ego above the livelihoods of his countrymen and history will not be
kind to him. But there is no justification for assigning any more value to his
person or what he represents.
There are many ways in which Lebanon can be brought back to the Arab fold and to
restore Arab support for Lebanon. Funds like the Kuwaiti Development Fund and
the King Salman Fund can provide aid directly to the Lebanese and bypass the
government. There is an urgent need to deploy these funds to assist the Lebanese
people from all religious backgrounds in a way that lets them all sense the
keenness of the Arab states, especially the Gulf states, to not leave them to
their fates.
Iran has been claiming it has the ability to help the Lebanese in crises like
the fuel crisis, but has only proven that its capabilities are limited and meant
for showmanship only. The Arab Gulf states can provide real support by thinking
outside the box, delivering aid to the people to spare them from descending to
violence and hatred, and splintering from their Arab belonging out of
desperation or revenge. Lebanon’s president and prime minister have shirked
their responsibility to sack George Kordahi and rein in the Shia Duo from
meddling with the judiciary and the Beirut port investigation, drawing disgust
and distrust from local, regional, and international parties.
Lebanon’s foreign minister has meanwhile engaged Moscow asking for Russian help
to convince the Gulf states to end their boycott. Biden administration officials
for their part have asked Gulf leaders to restore ties with Lebanon before the
point of no return is reached. The interests of both Lebanon and the Gulf states
requires an urgent Gulf strategy with clear timetables to rehabilitate Lebanon’s
Arab identity and rescue the country from the clutches of Iran and total
collapse. Obvious steps include supporting the salaries of the armed and
security forces through the international program, and the immediate activation
of development funds.There are Lebanese and international appeals for the Gulf
to end the boycott and the time has come to heed them. There is much prudence in
preventing yet another Arab country from disintegrating. There is real suffering
and unprecedented poverty in Lebanon, which has long been the “lung of the
Arabs”, in the words of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz. Then there is the strategic
prudence in avoiding the traps set for the Gulf countries, to drive them out of
Lebanon.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
November 28-29/2021
Iranian arrested in Kenya for planning terror attacks against Israeli
targets - report
Jerusalem Post/November 28/2021
An Iranian man, Mohammed Saeid Golabi, has been arrested in Kenya on suspicion
of planning terror attacks against local and Israeli interests, according to an
exclusive report in the daily Kenyan newspaper The Star.
Kenyan police had monitored the activities of Golabi and his local associates,
and were convinced of his links to terror activities, multiple Kenyan police
sources told The Star. “We have profiled him and his contacts over time,” said a
senior officer at Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit. “We have enough reason to
believe that he has been working with those terror groups.”Golabi visited the
region frequently, and is suspected of working with a group of Kenyans to gather
intelligence against establishments both private and state-owned, with the aim
of attacking them, the report said. The Iranian government did not respond to
Kenya’s inquiries. The announcement came during a period of heightened security
in the east African country, after three terror convicts escaped recently from a
maximum-security prison, the report said. The three were later captured as they
tried to make their way to Somalia to join the terror group al-Shabaab that has
links to al-Qaeda. In 2015, Kenyan authorities arrested two Iranians suspected
of planning an attack in Nairobi, the Kenyan Interior Ministry announced at the
time. In June 2012, two Iranians who were arrested were found to be in
possession of 15kg of explosives that they had planned to use to carry out
bombings in Kenyan cities. Investigators said at the time that it was unclear
whether the two had ties to terrorists in Somalia with al-Qaeda links, or if
they were part of another network. Following their arrest, prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the men were part of an Iranian plot to attack
Israeli targets in Kenya.
Former Iranian nuclear head hints Fakhrizadeh worked on nuclear weapons
Jerusalem Post/November 28/2021
A former AEOI head hinted Iranian nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh had worked on a
nuclear weapons program, despite earlier denials. A former head of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization (AEOI) hinted that Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen
Fakhrizadeh had worked on a nuclear weapons program, despite a fatwa (Islamic
legal ruling) issued against nuclear weapons by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei, in an interview with Iran's IRNA news agency on Saturday. Fereydoun
Abbasi-Davani, the former head of the AEOI, told IRNA that despite Khamenei's
fatwa, Fakhrizadeh had "created this system," adding that the scientist was
tasked not just with defending Iran, but also with supporting the proxies backed
by Iran. "When you get into these issues, the Zionists become sensitive," said
Abbasi-Davani, adding that Fakhrizadeh had "characteristics" that Israel
recognized "needed to be physically eliminated." The former AEOI head added that
Israel is looking for other similar targets. The former AEOI head also told IRNA
that he worked with Fakhrizadeh on "nuclear defense." Abbasi claimed that
Fakhrizadeh had been targeted by Iran's enemies for years, but "when the
country's all-encompassing growth came concerning satellites, missiles, and
nuclear weapons, and [Iran] crossed the various frontiers of knowledge, the
issue became more serious for them." Despite the statements hinting at a nuclear
weapons program, the current head of the AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, stressed that
Iran has shown that its nuclear path was "merely peaceful" during a ceremony
marking the one-year anniversary since Fakhrizadeh was assassinated east of
Tehran. The statements also came as Iran and world powers are set to renew talks
on the JCPOA nuclear deal on Monday. Fakhrizadeh was shot and killed in
Damavand, east of Tehran, last November. Iran has blamed Israel for the
assassination and has threatened revenge. Israel has neither confirmed nor
denied responsibility for the killing. Documents revealed by Israel in 2018
showed that Fakhrizadeh led Project Amad, Iran's secret nuclear program which
the country denied existed when it entered the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2015. Then
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Fakhrizadeh continued work on
nuclear weapons in the SPND, an organization inside Iran's Defense Ministry.
Israel Worries Iran Will Get Sanctions Relief Without
Capping Nuclear Projects
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 28/2021
Israel worries Iran will secure a windfall in sanctions relief in renewed
nuclear negotiations with world powers but will not sufficiently roll back
projects with bomb-making potential, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said
on Sunday. "Israel is very worried about the readiness to remove the sanctions
and to allow a flow of billions (of dollars) to Iran in exchange for
unsatisfactory restrictions in the nuclear realm," Bennett told his cabinet in
televised remarks, Reuters reported. "This is the message that we are relaying
in every manner, whether to the Americans or to the other countries negotiating
with Iran."Negotiators will convene in Vienna on Monday in a last-ditch effort
to salvage a nuclear deal which the US under then-President Donald Trump quit in
2018, reimposing sanctions on Iran. That led to breaches of the deal by Tehran,
and dismayed the other powers involved. Six rounds of indirect talks were held
between April and June. The new round begins after a hiatus caused by the
election of a new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric.
Iran Delegation Kicks Off Consultations In Vienna Ahead of
Monday’s Official Talks
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
An Iranian delegation headed by Ali Bagheri Kani Deputy Foreign Minister for
Political Affairs arrived in the Austrian capital and began preliminary talks 48
hours before the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and major powers to
revive the 2015 nuclear agreement. Discussions over the nuclear deal, which will
kick off on Monday, will be headed by the European Union, in the presence of
delegations from France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. The US delegation,
chaired by Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley, will be outside the direct
negotiating room, similar to the six previous rounds, at the request of Iran.
State-run ISNA news agency stated that the first round of talks between the
parties to the nuclear agreement following the election of President Ibrahim
Raisi “will be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers,” pointing to
Tehran’s insistence on “lifting all the sanctions” in order to return to the
negotiating table.Iranian news sites reported that the negotiating team includes
40 people, including the deputy governor of the Central Bank, and
representatives of the ministries of economy and trade. It was not clear whether
the Iranian experts and officials, who attended the last six rounds, will be
present at Monday’s talks.
Permanent Russian Envoy to International Organizations Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted
that informal bilateral consultations began in Vienna in preparation for the
resumption of official talks. The Russian official pointed out that reviving the
nuclear agreement “requires a great effort.”
“If the opposing parties are willing to return to their full commitments and
lift the sanctions, it will be possible to reach a good agreement, even an
immediate one,” Iranian Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in a telephone
conversation with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell. “Iran wants a good,
verifiable agreement,” and it will attend the talks “in good faith,” he added.
In turn, Borrell wrote on Twitter that he told Abdollahian that getting the
nuclear deal back on track was more urgent than ever. His call came after the
United States and its allies - France, Germany and Britain - issued an explicit
warning to Tehran, saying that if Iran’s non-cooperation is not immediately
addressed... the Council will have no choice but to re-convene in an
extraordinary session before the end of the year to deal with the crisis.
The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael
Grossi, said following a visit to Tehran on Monday that no progress had been
made on a number of issues. “In terms of the substance... we were not able to
make progress,” he told reporters, saying that the lack of agreement had come
“in spite of my best efforts”. Grossi had sought to tackle constraints put on
IAEA inspections earlier this year, outstanding questions over the presence of
undeclared nuclear material at sites in Iran, and the treatment of IAEA staff in
the country. Parallel to the tension between Iran and the IAEA, Israel escalated
its rhetoric, threatening to resort to a military strike. On Thursday evening,
Israel’s Channel 12 revealed a British intelligence report, which until recently
was only available to senior Western intelligence officials, indicating that
Iran has enough enriched uranium to develop a bomb within a month. The channel
quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Tehran accumulated invaluable
knowledge, and thus the agreements signed with it became devoid of content. But
he noted that Iran currently lacks a design for a warhead that is small enough
to be affixed atop any of its arsenal of ballistic missiles, which will take
them two other years to develop.
Iran Seeks to Return Oil Output to Pre-Sanction Levels
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
Iran wants to pump more oil than it did before the Trump administration
tightened sanctions, a top official said ahead of high-level nuclear talks whose
outcome would directly impact the country’s energy-market ambitions. “Plans are
in place to increase oil output to more than five million barrels a day,” said
Mohsen Khojastehmehr, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, the
state-run news agency IRNA reported. He provided no details or time frame for
the target. Iran’s daily production capacity is set to reach four million
barrels by March, the end of the current Iranian calendar year, Bloomberg quoted
Khojastehmehr as saying. Iran pumped around the same amount of crude before
former US President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal in and
reimposed tough economic sanctions that also targeted the nation’s energy
sectors. Iran hasn’t been close to its peak crude output level of 6 million
barrels since the 1970s.
US Navy Rescues Iran Seamen Adrift in Gulf for 8 Days
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
The US Navy has rescued two Iranian seamen who had been adrift for eight days on
a fishing boat in Gulf waters, a statement said on Sunday. The men were in "good
health and spirits" despite their ordeal, the navy said. "A US Navy vessel
rescued two Iranian mariners (on Saturday) from a fishing vessel after it was
adrift for eight days in the Gulf of Oman," the US Naval Forces Central Command,
or NAVCENT, said, AFP reported. Navy cargo ship Charles Drew arrived at the
scene with food, water and medical care six hours after a distress call from the
mariners, the statement said. The two men were transported to an Omani
coastguard vessel near the capital Muscat. "The mariners were in good health and
spirits at the time of the transfer," it added. "We appreciate the government of
Oman for its assistance and support in helping us return the mariners home,"
NAVCENT commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said in the statement. The United
States and its regional allies share concerns about Iran, which has previously
been accused of orchestrating attacks on shipping in the region. Tehran rejects
the allegations. Since February, Iran and its arch-enemy Israel have been
accused of engaging in what analysts have called a "shadow war", in which
vessels linked to each nation have come under attack in tit-for-tat exchanges in
waters around the Gulf.
Iraq: ISIS Roadside Bomb Kills 5 Peshmerga, Wounds 4
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
A roadside bomb attack by ISIS group militants in northern Iraq killed five
Kurdish forces and wounded four others, Kurdish state news agency Rudaw reported
Sunday. The peshmerga fighters were killed in the Garmian district in Iraq's
Kurdish-run north late Saturday. ISIS militants then attacked a peshmerga post,
wounding four, according to the report. Attacks targeting Iraqi security forces,
including Kurdish peshmerga fighters, are common and have been on the rise since
ISIS was defeated on the battlefield in 2017. Militants remain active through
sleeper cells in many areas, especially across a band of territory in the north
under dispute between federal Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional
Government. Militants from ISIS still conduct operations, often targeting
security forces, power stations and other infrastructure. Kurdistan Region
President Nechirvan Barzani offered condolences to the families of the dead
Sunday, The Associated Press reported. “The increase in the ISIS attacks sends a
dangerous and serious message and brings forth a serious threat in the region.
Therefore, further cooperation between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi
security forces with support from the global coalition is an urgent need,” he
said in a statement. The US-led coalition to defeat ISIS announced the end of
its combat mission and said troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of
December. Advisers will remain to continue to train Iraqi forces.
Russia's Top Investigator, Syrian Officials Discuss Countering Terrorism
Damascus – Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
Head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin met with the
head of the Syrian National Security Bureau, Ali Mamlouk, and Justice Minister
Ahmed al-Sayyid to discuss bilateral cooperation and means of countering
terrorism, Russia Today reported citing an official statement. The Russian
Investigative Committee and the Syrian special services and law enforcement
agencies agreed to continue close cooperation to end terrorist activities and
bringing terrorists to justice. Mamlouk also handed Bastrykin several documents
that help investigating terrorist crimes and achieve significant progress in
this regard. They agreed to further cooperate in the search for suspects in
criminal cases, including Russian citizens who arrived in Syria to carry out
terrorist activities.
Syrian Kurdish Authorities Say 3 Civilians Killed in Blast
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
Two women and a child from the same family were killed and five other people
were wounded in an attack Saturday in Syria's northern city of Minbej,
authorities said. A "terrorist explosion" occurred as a vehicle carrying
civilians passed the entrance to Minbej, an Arab-majority city under Kurdish
administration, the Minbej military council said without providing further
details. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said
the blast was a car bomb. AFP quoted it as saying that two civilians were killed
and five wounded, including two members of the Kurdish Asayesh security forces.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the regional administration's main
fighting force, spearheaded the fight against ISIS. It controls vast areas of
territory in war-torn Syria's east and northeast.
Leaked Message From Son of Morsi’s Aide Deepens
'Brotherhood Crises' Abroad
Cairo - Walid Abdulrahman/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
A leaked message from the son of Essam El-Haddad, aide to former Egyptian
President Mohamed Morsi, on the Brotherhood’s political future, deepened the
crises of the organization abroad. According to the researcher in the affairs of
fundamentalist movements in Egypt, Amr Abdel Moneim, “[the leaked message]
reveals the distress of the organization, which is facing a major deadlock
within its internal structure.” He noted that the message will open disputes
within the Istanbul Front led by Mahmoud Hussein, the former Secretary-General
of the organization. According to Al-Arabiya channel website, Abdullah
Al-Haddad, son of Essam Al-Haddad, Mohamed Morsi’s assistant for foreign
affairs, demanded the release of his father imprisoned in Egypt, in exchange for
a pledge to quit politics and stop engaging in any related activities. In an
article published on a local Egyptian website, Abdullah said that Morsi’s death
“ended a painful chapter in Egypt’s modern history.”“His death became a clear
statement that the new local and regional political landscape will not allow for
a recurrence of any form of political activity like that which occurred between
2012 and 2013,” he stated. Abdullah added that his father belonged to a past
political era that has ended, in reference to the Brotherhood rule.In remarks to
Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdel Moneim said that Al-Haddad family used many of such
methods during the last period to pressure Egypt to release Essam and his son
Jihad. Essam Al-Haddad was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case of
“espionage with foreign parties.” He was a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance
Office, and was appointed as Morsi’s assistant for foreign affairs during the
Brotherhood’s rule in 2013. He obtained British citizenship. As for his son,
Jihad, he was responsible for foreign relations and the chief advisor to the
organization’s Al-Nahda project. Regarding the “leaked letter”, Abdel Moneim
said that it was “an attempt to gain international sympathy with Al-Haddad
family.”He added that the message will raise disputes within the Istanbul front
and will open room for many questions about the situation of the organization
there, especially that Essam’s brother, Medhat, is one of the leaders of the
Brotherhood in Turkey.
SDF, Damascus Conduct Settlement Operations
Qamishli, London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
The Military Council of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) held a meeting with
the dignitaries and sheikhs of different regions of al-Hasakah Governorate,
while regime forces sought to impose “compromises” in Deir Ezzor. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the Military Council of SDF
organized a meeting with tribes’ dignitaries from al-Hasakah province, in
al-Ivan Hall, south of Darbasiyah, to address the demands of the people and to
consult with tribes’ dignitaries on the release of 850 detainees arrested by the
SDF. It noted that the detainees were arrested on charges of belonging to ISIS.
Tribes’ dignitaries have also called on improving the living conditions of the
people in the region, providing basic services, adequate fuel for agriculture,
and supporting the agricultural sector. SOHR sources reported that Syria
Democratic Forces were preparing to release a large number of detainees arrested
earlier for “belonging to ISIS”, as it was expected that at least 850 prisoners,
mostly from Deir Ezzor and al-Hasakah, would be freed. This development came
after mediation by tribes’ dignitaries in the region. In parallel, SOHR pointed
to “settlement and reconciliation” operations that the regime’s security
services started in the city of Deir Ezzor and Al-Mayadin, in the presence of
high-ranking leaders and intelligence officers. It added that the head of the
Syrian General Intelligence Department, Major General Hossam Louka, and the
leaders of some security branches, arrived in the city of Al-Mayadin, which is
under the control of pro-Iranian militias, to start the “settlement” operations
for those wanted by the security branches and those who have failed the
mandatory service.
Sudan Appoints New Director of General Intelligence
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
Sudans’s sovereign council has appointed Ahmed Mufaddal, formerly deputy
director, as the new director of the general intelligence service, official
sources told Reuters on Saturday. This came as Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok
Prime Minister said Saturday he has replaced the country’s police chiefs after
at least 42 people were killed in a crackdown on protests following October’s
military coup. Military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power and
detained Hamdok on October 25, but after international condemnation and mass
protests he reinstated the premier in a November 21 deal.
Hamdok said he had sacked the director general of the police, Khaled Mahdi
Ibrahim al-Emam, and his deputy Ali Ibrahim. In their place, he appointed Anan
Hamed Mohamed Omar with Abdelrahman Nasreddine Abdallah as his deputy, the
premier said in a statement.
Medics have accused security forces of targeting protesters in the "head, neck
and torso" with live ammunition, as well as with rubber-coated bullets and tear
gas canisters. The police have denied reports they opened fire using live
bullets. Dozens of political activists, journalists, protesters and bystanders
watching the rallies have been arrested in recent weeks, and remain in custody.
Hamdok has recently stressed he partnered with the military in order to “stop
the bloodshed”.
Several Sudanese Soldiers Killed in Attack by Ethiopian
Forces
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
Six Sudanese soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack by Ethiopian forces
on a Sudanese army post near the border between the countries, Sudanese military
sources told Reuters. Sudan's army said in an earlier statement on Facebook that
"groups of the Ethiopian army and militias attacked its forces in Al-Fashaqa Al-sughra,
which resulted in deaths ... our forces valiantly repelled the attack and
inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment on the attackers."The army
statement did not provide any details about the death toll. Ethiopian government
spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a Reuters message
seeking comment on the incident.
Features of Houthi Sectarian Abuse, Displacement of
Minorities
Aden - Mohammed Nasser- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
The Houthi militia’s hostility towards other sects and religions in Yemen dates
back to before the Iran-backed group staged a nationwide coup. It expelled all
Jewish community members in Saada governorate a year and a half after declaring
its rebellion against the central authority in mid-2004.
The contentious Houthi policy had spread to affect the Salafist movement,
whereby Houthis targeted their education centers in the Dammaj area and forcibly
displaced faith group members in a campaign reminiscent of the imam’s rule in
Yemen. Houthis later expelled the rest of the followers of the Jewish religion,
the followers of the Baha’i religion and Christianity, to begin the stage of
doctrinal change in Yemen through altering school curricula, changing mosques
and overtaking public media. By the end of 2020, the Houthi militia had
completed the expulsion of all adherents of the Jewish religion from Yemen, a
religion that had existed in the country for millennia. Reports have said that
the very last Jews in Yemen were forced to flee the country in exchange for the
release of Levi Salem Marhabi, a Jewish man who has been imprisoned by the
Houthis since 2016. But Marhabi remains imprisoned despite a Houthi court
exonerating him. It was also confirmed that a group of Yemeni Christians,
including Reverend Mushir al-Khalidi, had been deported after several months of
detention.
Moreover, clerics from the Baha’i religion, which had been practiced in Yemen
since the 1940s, were also deported.
According to a report released by ACAPS, from 2015, Houthis have been gradually
enforcing policies linked to suppressing the religious practices of some Islamic
sects. Reports on such incidences increased between July–September 2021.
The Houthis are repressing the population in two different ways:
1) imposing generic religious norms including taxes and celebrations.
2) suppressing non-Zaydi practice (such as the weddings, Salafi centers, and
Tarawih prayer which is conducted during Ramadan).
There’s a mixture of ideological and pragmatic intentions behind this such as:
- Increasing revenue by collecting Zakat and taxing religious celebrations.
- Encouraging people to join the frontlines through sermons and other religious
messaging, thereby increasing the number of fighters
- Emphasizing that ‘true believers’ are those from the Zaydi school of thought
(implying that those unaffiliated are infidels) to increase supporters for Zaydi
Islam and hence the Houthis. There are deliberate attempts to create division
among people from different Islamic sects. Incidents related to religion
reported between July–September built on previous incidents related to tax
collection, music suppression, the closure of Salafi mosques, the replacement of
Sunni imams who didn’t reinforce Houthi policies, and making changes on the
school curriculum, especially with regard to history and Islamic and social
studies. Sanaa residents told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthis replaced mosques'
imams who refused to abide by the group's policies. They also altered some of
the Quran verses in their curriculum to teach and encourage violence instead of
coexistence.
Borders Slam Shut as World Rushes to Contain New Covid
Variant
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 28 November, 2021
World governments rushed to contain a new, heavily mutated Covid-19 strain
Sunday, with Israel slamming its borders shut to foreign nationals and Australia
reporting its first cases of the variant. The variant now known as Omicron has
cast doubt on global efforts to fight the pandemic because of fears that it is
highly infectious, forcing countries to reimpose measures many had hoped were a
thing of the past. Scientists are racing to determine the threat posed by the
heavily mutated strain -- particularly whether it can evade existing vaccines.
Several countries have also announced plans to restrict travel from southern
Africa, where it was first detected, including key travel hub Qatar, the United
States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands. The strictest among
them is Israel, which said Sunday it would close its borders to all foreigners
in a bid to curb the spread of the variant -- just four weeks after reopening to
tourists after a prolonged closure due to Covid. "We are raising a red flag,"
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, adding Israel would order 10
million PCR test kits to stem the "very dangerous" strain. Israeli citizens will
be required to present a negative PCR test and quarantine for three days if they
have been vaccinated against the coronavirus and seven days if they have not,
the prime minister's office said.
No entry
But the virus strain has already slipped through the net, and has now been found
everywhere from the Netherlands to Hong Kong and Australia, where authorities
Sunday said they had detected it for the first time in two passengers from
southern Africa who were tested after flying into Sydney.
The arrival of the new variant comes just a month after Australia lifted a ban
on citizens travelling overseas without permission, with the country's border
also set to open to skilled workers and international students by the year's
end. Both cases were fully vaccinated, authorities said, and landed the same day
that Canberra announced a sweeping ban on flights from nine southern African
countries, including South Africa and Zimbabwe. The speed at which
governments slammed their borders shut took many by surprise, with travellers
thronging Johannesburg international airport, desperate to squeeze onto the last
flights to countries that had imposed sudden travel bans. In the Netherlands, 61
passengers tested positive after arriving on two flights from South Africa in an
ordeal one passenger described as "Dystopia Central Airline Hallway". New York
Times global health reporter Stephanie Nolen said passengers, including babies
and toddlers, were crammed together waiting to get tested, while "still 30
percent of people are wearing no mask or only over mouth".
Blame game
Scientists in South Africa last week said that they had detected the new
B.1.1.529 variant with at least 10 mutations, compared with three for Beta or
two for Delta -- the strain that hit the global recovery hard and sent millions
worldwide back into lockdown. The variant has also revived geopolitical fault
lines exacerbated by the pandemic, with the U.S. quick to hail South Africa's
openness about the new strain -- a thinly veiled jab at China's handling of
information about the original outbreak. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Saturday "praised South Africa's scientists for the quick identification of the
Omicron variant and South Africa's government for its transparency in sharing
this information, which should serve as a model for the world," a State
Department statement said. But South Africa has complained it is being unfairly
hit with "draconian" air travel bans for having first detected the strain, which
the World Health Organization has termed a "variant of concern." "Excellent
science should be applauded and not punished," its foreign ministry said in a
statement.
The Latest The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on November 28-29/2021
ريموند إبراهيم/معهد كايتستون: جردة
بقائمة الأضطهادات التي تعرض لها المسيحيون عالمياً خلال شهر تشرين الأول/2021
“Christians Enjoy No Rights in This Country”: The Persecution of Christians,
October 2021
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./November 28, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104453/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-institute-christians-enjoy-no-rights-in-this-country-the-persecution-of-christians-october-2021-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87/
Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old Muslim man of Somali descent, lunged at and
repeatedly stabbed British MP Sir David Amess with a knife. Amess, 69, died soon
after…. It is worth noting that, when it comes to severely persecuting and
slaughtering Christians, Somalia is the world’s third-worst ranked nation, after
Afghanistan (#2) and North Korea (#1) . — United Kingdom.
“The Christians are treated as slaves bounded to Muslims… Christians enjoy no
rights, no dignity, and no protection in this country. The overall system of
society is based on religious hatred against Christians and other minorities.” —
Asif Muniwar, local human rights defender; International Christian Concern,
October 12, 2021, Pakistan
[T]hree Christian workers died after Muslim emergency staff refused to rescue
them because Christians are supposedly “ritually unclean.” Problems began when
the Muslim employers of sewage worker Michael Masih, aged 33, threatened to fire
him unless he entered a highly toxic sewer without any personal protective
equipment or masks…. “An emergency team got to the sewer within 10 minutes but
on arrival they looked down the pipe and could see the men but refused to save
them. This was on account that they were choorah [dirty cleaners] and would
cause the Muslims to become ritually impure.” — British Asian Christian
Association, October 8, 2021, Pakistan.
“Many shops were looted after they set them on fire. Church of Christ in All
Nation (COCIN) was also burned down…. “[M]any houses were set ablaze. Bulls used
for farming were also killed.” A local eyewitness said the murderers were
dressed in Nigerian army uniforms and traveling in two vans owned by the
Nigerian army. — International Christian Concern, October 17, 2021, Nigeria,
which U.S. Secretary of Antony Blinken just removed from its 2021 List of
“Countries of Particular Concern”.
“[T]he herdsmen returned and shot [Dr. Habila Solomon, a medical doctor who also
served as a Christian pastor] in his chest, killing him instantly. He was the
reason why many people saw hope…. In the course of doing missions, God used him
to provide drinking water, shelter, free education and feed the poor…. [and]
also provided the [Muslim] herdsmen and their families with free medical care.”
— Morning Star News, October 25, 2021, Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s government seems unable or unwilling to stop the growing carnage….
More Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria in the last year
than in the entire Middle East. Unless we find our voice, what is happening in
Nigeria will move relentlessly toward a Christian genocide.” — Former U.S. Under
Secretary of Education, Gary L. Bauer, calling Nigeria a “killing field” of
Christians;” The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
2021 annual report; Nigeria.
Although the abduction, rape, and forced conversion to Islam of Christian girls
and other religious minorities is rampant in Pakistan—with Muslim police,
judges, and authorities often siding with the kidnappers and rapists—the nation
is now witnessing record breaking numbers…. a nearly 300% increase from 2020….
This report comes on the heels of the Pakistani government’s rejection of an
anti-forced conversion bill, which would have helped protect such minor girls. —
Union of Catholic Asian News, October 14 and 18, 2021, Pakistan.
“My cross has been with me for 40 years. It is part of me, and my faith, and it
has never caused anyone any harm…. At this hospital there are members of staff
who go to a mosque four times a day and no one says anything to them. Hindus
wear red bracelets on their wrists and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre.
Yet my small cross around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer
allowed to do my job.” — NHS nurse Mary Onuoha, who had fled from Uganda to the
UK for religious freedom; Daily Mail, October 5, 2021, United Kingdom.
“Why do some NHS employers feel that the cross is less worthy of protection or
display than other religious attire?” — Andrea Williams, chief executive of the
Christian Legal Centre; Daily Mail, October 5, 2021, United Kingdom.
On October 15, Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old Muslim man of Somali descent, lunged
at and repeatedly stabbed British MP Sir David Amess with a knife. Amess, 69,
died soon after. It is worth noting that, when it comes to severely persecuting
and slaughtering Christians, Somalia is the world’s third-worst ranked nation,
after Afghanistan (#2) and North Korea (#1). Pictured: Sir David Amess in 2020.
(Image source: Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout
the month of October 2021:
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
United Kingdom: On Oct. 15, Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old Muslim man of Somali
descent, lunged at and repeatedly stabbed British MP Sir David Amess with a
knife. Amess, 69, died soon after. The murder took place inside Belfairs
Methodist Church in Essex, where Amess had gone to meet with his constituents.
Although initial reports indicated that the motive was unclear, police later
declared it a “terrorist incident,” with “a potential link to Islamist
extremism.” It is worth noting that, when it comes to severely persecuting and
slaughtering Christians, Somalia is the world’s third-worst ranked nation, after
Afghanistan (#2) and North Korea (#1).
Uganda: Two Muslim men murdered Pastor Barnabas Musana for his role in bringing
Muslims to Christ. Discussing what happened, Pastor Simon Okot of the same
church, Life of God Ministry, said that
“In February 2020, the Muslims got irritated and furious when he said that Jesus
is the Son of God and hence is more than prophet Muhammad. They shouted at him,
and the church members whisked him away before they could mount an attack. Since
then, he started receiving threatening messages that he should leave the area.”
At that point, Musana stopped evangelizing and debating and spent his time
training other evangelists. They, in their turn, won over 15 Muslims within six
months. “This angered the Muslims most,” Okot continued, “and he was given a
second warning to leave the area.” Before long, area Muslims began to harass
their church: “Whenever they met me going to church,” said Okot, “some shouted
at me, calling me, ‘Kafir! [infidel],’ and a[t] times they sent children to
throw stones on the roof of the church to interrupt the service.” As for Pastor
Musana,
“Muslims started saying abusive things to him, his wife and two children, along
with throwing stones on top of his roof at night. One of the killers, Faluku
Gaju, at one time said that if he killed him, then Allah will reward him with
Jannah [Garden Paradise] in a place called Firdausi [highest level of heaven],
where the prophet will be.”
Soon thereafter, Musana was found murdered; witnesses saw two local Muslims
following him around earlier that day. His body was found “strangled and with
numerous deep wounds and scars, caught in water plants at the river’s edge.”
Pakistan: On Oct. 8, a Muslim mob shot and killed two Christian brothers. “A
Muslim family had religious hatred against us and other Christians living in the
village,” Indriyas Masih, an eyewitness and survivor of the attack, explained.
“They never like the development of Christians in the village and therefore
opposed us in getting a contract for a piece of land for cultivation.” When,
finally, local authorities granted the Christians lease of six acres of land for
cultivation, “five of us went to the agricultural fields for irrigation work”;
once there, “a mob of over two dozen armed men attacked [us].” While shouting
“anti-Christian slogans,” the Muslims opened fire on the five Christians. “The
attack resulted in the killing of Yaqoob and Haroon.” “The Christians are
treated as slaves bounded to Muslims,” Asif Muniwar, a local human rights
defender, said while discussing this incident. “Christians enjoy no rights, no
dignity, and no protection in this country. The overall system of society is
based on religious hatred against Christians and other minorities.”
In another incident in Pakistan, on October 3, three Christian workers died
after Muslim emergency staff refused to rescue them because Christians are
supposedly “ritually unclean.” Problems began when the Muslim employers of
sewage worker Michael Masih, aged 33, threatened to fire him unless he entered a
highly toxic sewer without any personal protective equipment or masks. According
to the report:
“Michael tried to refuse the work but received a heavy verbal tirade full of
expletives. The disgusting language included the use of the term choorah, an
insult given to Christians meaning dirty cleaner and was heard by many of his
colleagues…. Faisal grudgingly entered the dangerous sewer at around 10pm with
intent to clear a blockage. Three sanitary supervisors—Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad
Amjad and Muhammad Rashid—were present when Michael entered the sewage pipe
without any safety equipment. Within minutes Michael had passed out, and other
staff raised the alarm. The result of which was a barked command from Mohammad
Farooq to two other Christian men Nadeem Masih (40 yrs) and Faisal Masih
(34yrs), to enact a rescue. The two men terrified for their own lives asked for
some PPE [personal protective equipment] but were refused; desperate to save the
other man’s life, however, they quickly entered the main sewer… The two rescuers
grabbed Michael from the floor of the main sewer and managed to heave him out
above of the sewer with the help of other workers. But as they were to begin
their ascent out of the sewer to safety they were caught in a heavy current of
water which dragged them to the floor far away where they became unconscious.
Only at this point did Muhammad Farooq call emergency services … An emergency
team got to the sewer within 10 minutes but on arrival they looked down the pipe
and could see the men but refused to save them. This was on account that they
were choorah and would cause the Muslims to become ritually impure.”
The three Christian men died soon thereafter.
Democratic Republic of Congo: A number of lethal Islamic terror attacks launched
by the Allied Democratic Forces—which, despite its name, is an affiliate of
ISIS, which is striving to create an Islamic caliphate in the heart of
Africa—struck the predominantly Christian nation (nearly 90%). Over the course
of three terror attacks, approximately 27 Christians were hacked to death.
Nigeria: Some of the more notable slaughters of Christians and the destruction
of their churches during the month of October follow:
In late September, Muslims butchered 38 Christians in one region; they were all
buried in a mass grave that was 15 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 5 feet deep.
According to the Rev. Michael Cosmas Magaji, who spoke at their funeral, all 38
were murdered “simply because they were Christians.” The same report quotes
Ephraim Kafang, the incumbent Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria
(CAN):
“The situation of Christians in Nigeria is no doubt extremely pathetic. Such
killings have been on for no less than two decades. The state government has
shown no concern to bring an end to it. Obviously, there’s no political will to
rescue Christians…. [W]hat is happening to us in Nigeria is an Islamic agenda,
an effort to Islamize the country.”
During another ambush, Fulani Muslim herdsmen murdered four Christians,
including a priest. According to a survivor quoted in the October 1 report:
“The attackers came with guns shouting ‘Allahu Akabar’ (Allah is greatest). I
did nothing to them—the [Fulani militants] wanted to kill me because I am a
Christian. My friends and our catechist were killed because they were
Christians.”
“The killing is against Christians,” confirmed another local Christian, Ezekiel
Bine. “Christians are persecuted daily in my community, most especially villages
in Plateau state. The government continues to remain silent. We are left under
the mercy of gunmen.”
On October 5, Boko Haram Islamic terrorists descended on a Christian community;
they randomly opened fire on the villagers and set homes ablaze. “Two committed
and dedicated Church members were killed,” a local pastor said. “Many shops were
looted after they set them on fire. Church of Christ in All Nation (COCIN) was
also burned down…. “[M]any houses were set ablaze. Bulls used for farming were
also killed.” A local eyewitness said the murderers were dressed in Nigerian
army uniforms and traveling in two vans owned by the Nigerian army. The report
adds:
“The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of
Christians in Nigeria and displaced millions in an attempt to discard western
influence and impose strict Islamic Sharia law. They target those who do not
share their radical interpretation of Islam, often attacking villages and
forcefully converting Christians, other religious minorities, and the many
Muslims who they feel do not appropriately adhere to the teachings of Muhammed.
While the Nigerian military repeatedly insists that the group has been defeated,
attacks are ongoing.”
On October 11, Fulani Muslim herdsmen opened fire on and murdered a Christian
pastor and his traveling companion as they were returning home from their farms.
Fulani shot to death Dr. Habila Solomon, a medical doctor who also served as a
Christian pastor and president of Charity and Hope Ministry. According to a
fellow pastor who knew Solomon,
“This is the second attack on him, as he was first attacked by herdsmen in his
house on Oct. 1, but God shielded him. However, on Oct. 14, the herdsmen
returned and shot him in his chest, killing him instantly. He was the reason why
many people saw hope. Dr. Solomon was a great missionary, as he positively
impacted thousands of lives for Christ. In the course of doing missions, God
used him to provide drinking water, shelter, free education and feed the poor.”
According to another source:
“[Solomon] also provided the [Muslim] herdsmen and their families with free
medical care. I believe that because some of them have professed Christ, some of
the fanatical herdsmen must have seen Dr. Solomon as a threat to Islam, hence
their decision to kill him.”
On October 13, Muslim gunmen abducted Father Godfrey Chimezie of St. Theresa’s
Parish. While driving away from his church, where he had just concluded morning
mass, the kidnappers forced his car to a halt and “bundled him into their SUV
jeep and escaped,” an eyewitness said. Later that same day a woman believed to
be Christian was also abducted, near a Catholic hospital.
Discussing the plight of Nigerian Christians in The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom 2021 annual report, Commissioner Gary L. Bauer
called Nigeria a “killing field” of Christians, before elaborating:
“The hour is late. Nigeria’s government seems unable or unwilling to stop the
growing carnage. In large swaths of the country, Christian parents fear for
their children every day when they go to school. Those children are targeted by
savage Islamists who kidnap and force them to renounce Christ or face death.
Every time a Nigerian Christian family worships at a church, they are painfully
aware it may be the last thing they do on this earth. The churches are ripe
targets for Boko Haram and other jihadists. Christians have been blown up or
‘mowed’ down in their places of worship. All too often this violence is
attributed to mere ‘bandits’ or explained away as hostility between farmers and
herdsmen. While there is some truth in these assertions, they ignore the main
truth: radical Islamists are committing violence inspired by what they believe
is a religious imperative to ‘cleanse’ Nigeria of its Christians. They must be
stopped. The failure of many in the international human rights community and the
Western media to accurately describe what is really happening in Nigeria is
inexcusable. More Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria in the
last year than in the entire Middle East. Unless we find our voice, what is
happening in Nigeria will move relentlessly toward a Christian genocide.”
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
France: On October 11, an illegal Muslim migrant from North Africa barged into
the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption Basilica in Nice, a city that has a significant
Muslim population. He began to “scream in Arabic” and spit on the church’s
floor. He left, only to return 10 minutes later and resume his yelling and
spitting; he also began to threaten the sacristan, who contacted police.
Although the Muslim migrant tried to escape, police managed to apprehend him.
Three months earlier, in July, another Muslim was arrested after entering the
same basilica and shouting at the congregants, “I’m going to come back and I’ll
kill you all.” And a year earlier, on October 29, 2020, a Muslim terrorist
slaughtered three Christians in the same basilica.
Germany: A migrant from Afghanistan vandalized church property in the city of
Nordhausen. The man, who came to Germany as an “asylum seeker” in 2015, was
found angrily removing many of the church’s objects—including the crucifix that
hung on its main wall, altar items, and hymn books—out of the church building.
When the pastor confronted him about his actions, the man replied that he “can’t
accept the Christian faith.” According to the October 30 report:
“The ‘refugee’ describes the Christian faith as ‘wrong’ and takes the view that
it is fundamentally a mistake that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, which is why
he felt compelled to redecorate such a house of worship… He made his point of
view clear that he cannot accept the Christian faith.”
Police were eventually called and the man expelled from the premises. Some of
the church’s items were damaged by him, including the Christ figure which broke
off the cross; and “a showcase inside the church was also broken into and
cleared out.”
Muslim Attacks on Converts to Christianity
Uganda: Two separate accounts of Muslims beating, starving, and even trying to
set their family members on fire for converting to Christianity surfaced in
October:
Mustafa Obbo—a former sheikh who converted to Christianity and was beaten and
expelled from his village in 2018—learned that his mother was deathly ill and
hurried back to her homestead on Oct. 19. It was his first visit since he was
driven out of the region. Once there, his family ambushed and beat him. Obbo had
told one of his brothers that he was coming only to be betrayed: “As I arrived
home,” Obbo later explained, “my dad and uncles ambushed me, tied me up and
flogged me with several long sticks and said they were going to kill me if I did
not recant my Christian faith.”
His brother who betrayed him was among those beating him. The convert was so
thrashed that “he felt he was going to lose his life.” But just as “they were
sending someone for petrol to burn me up, a Toyota vehicle was approaching the
homestead. When they saw the vehicle entering the compound, they took off each
in his direction.” It was a school friend, who was bringing food to his ailing
mother; he found and untied Obbo. According to the report:
“Obbo sustained injuries to both legs, including a bone fracture in one, along
with a back injury, bleeding and swelling. Fearing retaliation from his family
or other Muslims, he has not reported the assault to police.”
In another incident, a Muslim man starved his wife and 8-year-old son by locking
them in a bedroom for two weeks without food—all because he found Bibles in her
bags while she was fetching water on Oct. 5. On returning, “he slapped me, then
pulled out the bag and removed two Bibles and started questioning me concerning
the Bibles,” Jafalan Muduwa said. She remained quiet as he continued to slap
her.
“When I realized that he could kill me, I told him that the Bibles were mine. He
started reciting Koranic verses and labeling me a blasphemous wife. He continued
beating me with a stick, and also beat our child. After that he locked us up in
the room whenever he left the home. He gave us only a little piece of bread.”
Imprisoned on October 5, the woman and her son finally managed to escape on
October 18:
“My husband received a call in the morning from his business partner that he
needed him urgently. He forgot to lock the door, and there we managed to escape
back to my family with my son…. People were very shocked to see the state we
were in. I thank God that we’re still alive. I cannot think rightly at the
moment. We need prayers so that God my restore back our health.”
General Abuse and Discrimination against Christians
Pakistan: Although the abduction, rape, and forced conversion to Islam of
Christian girls and other religious minorities is rampant in Pakistan—with
Muslim police, judges, and authorities often siding with the kidnappers and
rapists—the nation is now witnessing record breaking numbers. According to an
October report, during the first 10 months of 2021, 36 underage non-Muslims
girls (21 Christians and 15 Hindus) were abducted and forcibly converted to
Islam. This represents a nearly 300% increase from 2020, when only 13 cases were
reported.
This report comes on the heels of the Pakistani government’s rejection of an
anti-forced conversion bill, which would have helped protect such minor girls.
Discussing these developments, Nasira Iqbal, a retired judge of Lahore High
Court, said:
“Religion is yet again being used to defend the abuses against minority women
and children. In fact, it is a huge disservice to religion in the current
context to try to cover up heinous crimes perpetrated against minor girls of the
minorities in Pakistan.”
Libya: On September 30, at least 17 Coptic Christian workers from Egypt
disappeared; they were living in a predominantly Egyptian village in Tripoli.
Their whereabouts remain unknown. Some family and friends believe that they were
taken by authorities, while others fear they were abducted by Islamic terror
groups. Many fear that these 17 Copts will end up like the 20 Copts (and one
Ghanaian) that were abducted in a similar fashion, only to appear in a 2015
video being decapitated by ISIS.
United Kingdom: A 61-year-old Christian woman who escaped her Nigerian homeland
to Britain in 1988 in order to worship freely is now experiencing something
similar in her adopted home. Mary Onuoha, formerly a nurse at Croydon University
Hospital in England since 2002, was pressured and finally “bullied” out of her
job by management for refusing to remove her small cross necklace. As she
explained in an October 8 interview:
“This has always been an attack on my faith. My cross has been with me for 40
years. It is part of me, and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm….
At this hospital there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day
and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and
female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was
deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job. From a young age
I naturally always wanted to care for people—it was in my blood. All I have ever
wanted is to be a nurse and to be true to my faith. I am a strong woman, but I
have been treated like a criminal. I love my job, but I am not prepared to
compromise my faith for it, and neither should other Christian NHS staff in this
country.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is
representing Mary, said:
“From the beginning this case has been about one or two members of staff being
offended by the cross—the worldwide, recognised and cherished symbol of the
Christian faith. It is upsetting that an experienced nurse, during a pandemic,
has been forced to choose between her faith and the profession she loves. Why do
some NHS employers feel that the cross is less worthy of protection or display
than other religious attire?”
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the
David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle
East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by
extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but
rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or
location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any
given month.
© 2021 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.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17980/persecution-of-christians-october
On Satire of the Clannishness that Strangles Us...
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November, 28/2021
It is sectarianism. It is ethnicism or factionalism. To use a broader term, it
is clannishness or the extended kinship system.
We say this as though we are discovering something, and we may slap our hands
together in lamentation for what we are saying. We discover this truth whenever
a civil war breaks out, a revolution fails, two sides find it impossible to
reach some kind of settlement, a modern party collapses, shrinks or regresses,
and age-old loyalties emerge behind the facade of a political facade that gives
a modern appearance…We repeatedly discover them because we had spent decades
denying this clannish solidarity’s existence, downplaying their impact, or
tracing them back to this or that factor. What separated us from one another,
according to our culture’s most broadly accepted narrative, is nothing but the
colonizers who pursued a policy of “divide and conquer,” a scarcity of
awareness, education, and refinement, or some class interests that hate to see
those who toil united. With that, we, at the end of the day, are brothers, and
brothers will inevitably heed brotherhood’s call, if not today, then on a day
that will surely come soon. Thus, there is no need to put any effort into
fighting this fleeting symptom that will die on its own. As for our efforts, all
our efforts should be directed against imperialism, Zionism, and all kinds of
large and small demons.
This is what we were told by both conservatives and revolutionaries; they
continued to reiterate it for tens of years, and they still do.
The United States, on the other hand, has made its simplistic contribution to
the discussion: democracy and elections. Since the crime of 9\11, especially
after the 2003 Iraq War, this tune has been playing: insufficient democracy is
the reason for terrorism, as well as being the reason for backwardness. The
experience of using democracy as a remedy worked in Japan and West Germany after
the Second World War, and in Central Europe after the Cold War, so why wouldn’t
it work in the Arab world? This text came with many footnotes, which
international organizations were particularly well versed in empowering civil
society, empowering women, and empowering youths...
There is no doubt that democracy and its elections, as well as the empowerment
initiatives that come with it, are like national independence, improvements to
education, and bridging the class divide… They are all gains for the country
that enjoys them. However, too many experiences to count undergone in our region
teach us that the capacity of clannishness for containing those principles, or
to distort them in practice, is far greater than that of these principles
capacities for subordinating clans or suppressing them. Of course, this does not
stem from a particularity of the Arab world alone. Indeed, minor identities have
been striking an uncountable number of countries around the world, and even
advanced countries, industrial and post-industrial, have not eluded them.
Nonetheless, here, this (clannish) form of communal solidarity almost operates
solo. They have the entire arena to themselves, with almost no political,
technical, economic, or development competitor. No ideas. No policies. No
parties. No wills. No industries or railroads… It is our difficult malady, one
that poisons every value of our politics and consciousness and any social bond
that could one day compete with it: these solidarities do not merely make the
emergence of a national sense of belonging more difficult, it destroys this
sentiment by creating transnational alliances with the members of the same group
in another country.
These forms of communal solidarity also prevent classes from becoming conscious
of themselves as classes, and thus, from turning into political actors.
Education comes to create more modern and effective cadres to serve the group
those receiving the education sprang from…Even elections, as the experiences of
Iraq and Lebanon, have shown us time after time, and Libya and Algeria are
currently showing us, are recycled into a process that presents new
opportunities to entrench this solidarity, strengthen communal loyalties, and
reinforce their drive to confront other communities:
To this record, which could perhaps be called the deceptive effect of modern
ideologies, we can add two factors:
- The tyrannical legacy of the majority of the region’s countries, with
factional governance widening the inherited schisms between local communities.
Furthermore, as it reproduces them in stronger and broader forms, it forbids
them from expressing themselves, pushing them only into greater radicalization
and frustration.
- The extent to which, owing to the void in national politics and its failure to
take solid form, our fates are influenced by external conditions and foreign
interventions. As for the worst-case and most recurrent scenario, it is when the
interfering countries are undemocratic, if not to say anti-democratic, powers.
With the blend of all these factors, their abundance, and overlapping, there
are, of course, things that are difficult to influence. However, on the level of
political culture, we can, at least, start by recognizing this dangerous given
and strive to contain it. Past experiences, as well as the catastrophes we are
currently witnessing and the bleak prospect for the future, all compel this.
Taboos, in this regard, should be considered the only taboo.
Israel should ensure that politics don't get in way of
Biden-Iran talks - editorial
Jerusalem Post/November 28/2021
This does not mean that Israel should not do what it can to try and impact the
outcome of the talks. It should. But it needs to have realistic expectations.
With nuclear talks set to renew in Vienna this week, Israel has spent the last
few days engaged in a diplomatic blitz aimed at getting the world on its side.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will meet with British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson and will then fly to Paris for talks with French President
Emmanuel Macron. He will lobby both leaders to not be simple bystanders in the
P5+1 talks that will take place in Vienna and to not just follow the American
lead. Be aggressive, Lapid will urge both and make sure that the Iranians do not
get what they want.
An illustration of how serious the parties are taking these talks is in
Johnson’s willingness to even meet with Lapid. The British prime minister met
last week with President Isaac Herzog for a conversation about Iran and the
issue was also one of the main focuses of the bilateral meeting he held with
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in
Glasgow earlier this month. Three meetings with three different Israeli leaders
in the span of a month is not something to be taken for granted.
Next week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz will travel to the United States where
he too will bring up the matter with American officials as will Bennett, on his
visit to the United Arab Emirates, likely to take place by the end of December.
The chances that this diplomatic blitz bears fruit though are slim. The world –
and particularly the administration of US President Joe Biden – is bent on
reaching a new deal with the Iranians, even if it means one that has less
restrictions and assurances than the JCPOA brokered by the Obama administration
in 2015 and which Donald Trump withdrew from only three years later. This does
not mean that Israel should not do what it can to try and impact the outcome of
the talks. It should. But it needs to have realistic expectations and more
importantly, it needs to ensure that it doesn’t let politics get in the way.
The country received a taste of politics last week when Bennett spoke at
Reichman University and said that Israel would not see itself bound by a new
deal if it did not stop Iran’s race to a bomb. “Even if there is a return to an
agreement [with Iran], Israel is not a party to it – is not obligated by it,”
said the prime minister.
What Bennett also did was slam his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. While it was
not the first time that Bennett attacked Netanyahu for mishandling the Iranian
threat, it is not immediately clear what benefit it brings the country right
now. Israel, Bennett said, fell asleep after the 2015 deal and that, he
promised, will not repeat itself. Bennett was referring to what IDF sources have
already confirmed – after the 2015 deal was finalized, Israel stopped its
preparations for a military operation against Iran and those capabilities fell
to the side. Israel is now in the midst of rebuilding the capabilities, but
defense officials have said that the work will take at least a year.
Explaining that Israel will retain a military option is important and will
hopefully serve as something of a deterrent against Iran as well as motivation
for the nations participating in the talks to ensure that the deal is stronger
and longer so that Israel will not have to act, something they definitely don't
want to see.
Attacking Netanyahu and playing politics with Iran is something else and while
it might bring some political points, it doesn’t do much to help the country
boost its deterrence against Iran.
What value, for example, is there in Iran knowing that Israel fell asleep – as
Bennett put it – after the 2015 deal? Does it help Israel when top IDF officers
openly talk about how there is no viable military option currently available?
Iran’s nuclear program has long been a challenge for the world and particularly
the State of Israel, which is openly threatened and attacked by the Islamic
Republic and its proxies. But to confront it appropriately, Israel needs to
focus on policy, not politics.
Why the world cannot afford the UN to fail
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/November 28/ 2021
The UN has faced mounting criticism in recent years, but remains the foremost
manifestation of a multilateral world order, still well-positioned to navigate
the complexities of trying to balance sovereign equality with great power
politics in order to preserve and promote relative global peace.
However, our world faces an unprecedented confluence of crises that are slowly
upending accepted conventions about multilateral cooperation and repeatedly
stress-testing its limits. The UN finds itself lacking the capacity to oversee
its clear-cut mandates, constrained mostly by its own member states increasingly
prioritizing sovereign — often militarized — interests above the preservation or
promotion of regional or global “commons.”
In short, the world is rapidly approaching an inflection point. Should the UN
remain curtailed by veto-wielding powers in its Security Council, while funding
cuts continue to erode the organization’s capacity to act, it is unlikely its
legitimacy will survive, spelling doom for global cooperation at the worst
possible time.
Beyond the glaring failures at dealing with the pandemic, slow mobilization to
counteract the outbreak’s socioeconomic fallout in the developing world, and the
ineffectual climate fight, the UN also remains notoriously poor at intervening
in conflicts. Its preference for cleaning up rather than pre-empting not only
fuels concerns about the UN’s political impotence, but also undermines any
UN-led interventions aimed at forging long-term peace.
For now, a climate crisis looms — alongside the perennial threat of resurgent
COVID-19 waves and mutations, hobbled economies, and a rising tide of
socioeconomic ills — that threatens to drown the world’s poorer regions. The
Middle East and North Africa, in particular, face growing turbulence as
democracy, long thought to be the panacea of most of the Arab world’s troubles,
retreats, leaving societies crippled by political upheaval or ripe for
extra-territorial skirmishes sparked by far-off interests competing for regional
hegemony.
Elsewhere, the very powers entrusted with the world’s relative peace now bicker
and exchange insults — a symptom of the yet unresolved trauma of the previous
White House administration’s flirtation with a fragmented international order.
In the Trump leadership’s protectionist view, US national interests were better
served via a raft of lop-sided bilaterals that benefited US military largesse
and wealth. Working through few multilateral frameworks, where the balancing of
varying interests was fundamental to their continued existence, had become a
major constraint, especially in instances where Washington became a de facto
underwriter of the growth, development and security of others, while its
domestic priorities suffered.
Beyond the WTO and WHO, the Global South is also intensifying pressure on the
International Criminal Court, denouncing its lopsided focus on the developing
world, while major powers consistently intervene to limit any of the court’s
activities deemed detrimental to their national interests
In the end, the inevitable US “pivot” has had a profound impact on the UN and
most other international organizations’ capacity to act. For instance, a
beleaguered World Trade Organization remains crippled by the inability to
resolve trade disputes, as well as regulate international trade, while
criticisms from farmers, environmentalists, labor groups and policy-makers
mount. Stalled talks and largely ineffectual incremental interim agreements have
only accelerated the WTO’s slide toward irrelevance.
Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand’s ratification of the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership — the world’s largest trade deal covering 2.2
billion people and over $26 trillion in global gross domestic product — signals
a worrying trend in international trade. This growing proliferation of regional
trade blocs risks undermining the multilateral WTO system since they often
exclude nonsignatories.
Additionally, most developing world economies have had relative gains from
participating in global markets governed by common frameworks. However,
switching to regional trading blocs risks that progress, coupled with the fact
that exclusionary trading blocs will not revive a fragmented and outdated
multilateral system. If the 2021 Ministerial Conference starting in Geneva on
Nov. 30 fails to make substantial progress toward addressing WTO paralysis and
liberalizing global agricultural trade — a major aim of the Doha Development
Round — there is little hope the WTO system will survive.
Elsewhere, the World Health Organization is struggling to get ahead of the
pandemic as advanced economies resist vaccine sharing, preferring to release
limited quantities in a bid to shore up their soft power, rather than act
decisively to eradicate the virus. Now, new variants have cropped up in southern
Africa, prompting travel restrictions and reawakening last year’s fears of
reinfections and fresh waves. Vaccine uptake in sub-Saharan Africa is well under
10 percent, but there has been no corresponding urgency to ramp up vaccine
production and deliveries, or mobilize populations to confront a global threat.
Beyond the WTO and WHO, the Global South is also intensifying pressure on the
International Criminal Court, denouncing its lopsided focus on the developing
world, while major powers consistently intervene to limit any of the court’s
activities deemed detrimental to their national interests. An attempt at a
“rebrand” a few years ago failed despite a shift from protracted, often
politically sensitive, trials toward the prosecution of cultural or
environmental crimes.
The move was panned as further stigmatization of the Global South to the benefit
and protection of the military and economic interests of the Global North,
despite the latter’s complicity in many of the injustices carried out in the
former. Despite its relative youth compared with other multilateral agencies,
the ICC also finds itself paralyzed by the perception that it has too little
authority, making it ineffective at prosecuting certain crimes, while others
believe it has too much power and even threatens state sovereignty.
Outside of the UN umbrella, the short-lived US hostility toward multilateralism
also doomed other multilateral bodies to an era where competition, rather than
cooperation, became a key focus as countries scrambled in a reshuffling prompted
by legitimate fears of growing US isolationism. It remains to be seen whether
the Biden administration’s course correction toward a more conventional
multilateral diplomacy will bear fruit. After all, the pre-2016 global landscape
is very different from the current dynamics shaped by the lack of guaranteed US
permanence in global affairs. Even if the world were to overcome the pandemic
and accomplish the impossible via robust, highly inclusive climate action, the
scars of the temporary US abdication remain, preserved by the swift realignments
that took place after Washington upended the status quo.
Saving the global order and, in turn, the UN will take more than the rebranding
of aging international bodies to reinvigorate participation in them or US
re-engagement. More equitable partnerships, particularly within and among
developing world nations, must become the foundation of a more resilient
multilateral order, capable of surviving the political mood swings in the
developed world.
Additionally, as untenable as it is, the world must push for major reforms in
the UN, particularly the composition of the Security Council, to better reflect
contemporary geopolitics. The General Assembly alone cannot hope to achieve
effective multilateral initiatives without the sponsorship of great powers.
Meanwhile, the permanent five cannot hope to safeguard their interests without
the backing of an increasingly vocal General Assembly, united by shared woes
regarding climate change, the pandemic and stalled economies.
Granted, it is largely impossible to return to the heyday of the early UN based
on collective security, free trade and self-determination, and neither will
America’s return miraculously transform this “me first” world.
However, the greatest folly will be to surrender and/or pursue ineffective
alternatives in some “new” Concert of Powers in an effort to cure
multilateralism’s many ills. After all, the first such concert, in 1815, was
successful for a mere three decades, only to end up ushering in a century of
tumult that included two world wars.
Meanwhile, the post-1945 global order that gave birth to the UN has so far
preserved relative peace for close to 80 years. The world must not give it up.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy
Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advance International
Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy
Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a
member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC
and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell
بارعة علم الدين: المحادثات الخاصة بالنووي الإيراني التي ستستأنف غدا تتحضر للفشل
Iran nuclear talks: Preparing for failure
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 28/ 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/104467/baria-alamuddin-iran-nuclear-talks-preparing-for-failure-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%ab%d8%a7%d8%aa/
There was one thing everybody wanted to ask US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
at last week’s Manama Dialogue: Had America abandoned historic commitments to
Middle Eastern security? No amount of reassuring platitudes and references to
tens of thousands of troops present in the region could allay these concerns. Is
America willing and ready to do what it takes to address regional strategic
threats, especially the likelihood of Tehran achieving nuclear breakout
capacity?
With Iran nuclear talks recommencing on Nov. 29, I asked every US official I met
in Manama about their expectations. The problem was that, while none of them
expected any progress, there was a dire lack of strategic thinking about what
would happen when talks inevitably failed.
When I pushed one senior US official about prospects of a military solution
ultimately becoming necessary, he reluctantly acknowledged: “It might very well
come to that.”
Europe, Russia and China remain mired in denial about the gravity of the threat.
However, there are indications that at least some of Biden’s foreign policy
experts have gazed into the abyss and are beginning to comprehend that they must
grapple with the consequences of the failure of these negotiations. Regarding
prospects for a return to the 2015 deal, the US State Department’s Iran envoy
Robert Malley retorted: “You can’t revive a dead corpse!”
General McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, acknowledged that America was
developing “other options” for the day after talks failed: “Our president said
they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. Central Command always has a variety
of plans that we could execute, if directed.”
Regarding Iran’s proximity to nuclear capacity, McKenzie said: “They’re very
close this time. I think they like the idea of being able to break out.”
Following his failed visit to Tehran, the IAEA’s Rafael Grossi warns that his
institution is “going blind” in Iran as a result of Tehran’s deliberate
impediments upon IAEA inspections, at a moment when Iran is enriching uranium to
60 percent. Grossi stipulated that this is a level of purity which “only
countries making bombs have.”
Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani stubbornly rejects the legitimacy of
talks, saying: “We have no such thing as nuclear negotiations.” Kani merely
awaits the removal of “unlawful and inhuman sanctions.” Iran dismissively
rejected US speculation about an interim deal. Meanwhile, how can there be
confidence-building when the two sides won’t even sit in the same room as each
other?
Iranian officials tediously parrot their three impossible conditions: Washington
must immediately lift all sanctions, guarantee no future administration will
exit the deal, and admit to wrongdoing in pulling out of the deal. Yet Biden has
no legal means of compelling successors to abide by his decisions. This can only
be achieved through a deal enjoying bipartisan US support, by closing down all
Iranian routes to military nuclear capabilities.
Reporting from within the White House suggests wholesale policy confusion in the
event of negotiations failing. Non-military options are likely to be
ineffective, particularly as Trump already imposed sanctions on every
conceivable Iranian target. Biden and his European counterparts desperately
don’t want to countenance worst-case scenarios. Yet this flagrant squeamishness
is precisely what makes the ayatollahs believe they possess the window of
opportunity for nuclear breakout.
Iranian officials tediously parrot their three impossible conditions: Washington
must immediately lift all sanctions, guarantee no future administration will
exit the deal, and admit to wrongdoing in pulling out of the deal. Yet Biden has
no legal means of compelling successors to abide by his decisions.
As former British ambassador Sir John Jenkins said in an excellent Arab News
article: “The issue is not troop numbers. It is political will. The idea that an
administration that has made clear its desire to leave Middle Eastern conflicts
behind will seek to put Iran back in its box, is fantasy. And Tehran knows
this.”
Despite spectacular Israeli acts of sabotage, Iranian scientists have gone to
extraordinary lengths to rebuild and keep nuclear development on schedule, even
at a time when thousands of impoverished citizens are dying from neverending
COVID-19 outbreaks and much of the country runs out of water.
According to intelligence officials, Tehran replaced damaged equipment with new
technology that operates faster and at higher volumes. Hence, reliance on
cyberattacks and pin-prick sabotage has only made Iran double-down on its
efforts.
Off the record, I was told by Western officials that the Israelis were “100
percent certain” to decisively hit Iran’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities,
along with having the ability to severely degrade Hezbollah’s weapons arsenals,
if matters came to this.
US officials gloomily recognize that they would be sucked into such a conflict.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the 2015 nuclear deal acted like a
“sleeping pill” for Israel. He pledged not to repeat the mistakes of his
predecessor, and stated that Israel would not be bound by any new deal.
Iran’s attainment of nuclear capacity has immediate implications for global
security. As with North Korea, the world would be forced to grapple with Iranian
aggression very cautiously because of the likelihood that it could rain down
ballistic and nuclear weapons upon neighbors.
Unlike North Korea, Iran has proxy forces deployed throughout the region which
henceforth could act with impunity, shielded by Iran’s nuclear umbrella.
Multiple regional states are readying themselves for developing their own
nuclear arsenals if Iran achieves breakout – a recipe for Armageddon in the
world’s most chronically unstable region.
The US dilemma is simple: If Iran is hellbent on developing nuclear weapons, and
the world is serious about stopping Iran, then ultimately there may be no
alternative to some form of military force, such as surgical strikes for
permanently eliminating nuclear sites. There is no sugaring this pill.
The ayatollahs must be under no illusion that they can stealthily filibuster
their way toward nuclear breakout capacity.
Western ambivalence and naivety have only made matters worse. Iran must be
bluntly and forcefully told: If you proceed down this path. We will stop you!
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.