English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 07/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old
Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21/34-38/:”‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.””.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 06-07/2021
Ministry of Health: 796 new cases, 7 deaths
Israel Says Lebanon 'Can't Dictate Lines' in Sea Border Talks
Miqati to Up Daily Power Supply, Make Long-Term Energy Reforms
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan Agree Plan to Supply Lebanon with Electricity
Cypriot FM after Meeting Bou Habib Urges Reforms to Unlock Int’l Aid
USAID Launches $29 Million Project to Deliver Reliable Energy across Lebanon
Protestors, Depositors Besiege Sfeir in Bank of Beirut
As Lebanese Got Poorer, Politicians Stowed Wealth Abroad
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus tours Karantina Hospital, pledges Cypriot aid
Army receives 6 helicopters as a gift from the US
Fourteen monthsظDana Hourany/Now Lebanon/October 06/2021
Aux dirigeants du monde libre: Oyez oyez oyezظJean-Marie Kassab/Octobre 06/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 06-07/2021
Pope Expresses 'Shame' at Scale of Clergy Abuse in France
French Senate approves adoption of IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
Palestinian state will not be established'
Canada/Joint Statement on Iraq’s Early Elections
Israeli Military Chief Hints of Covert Action Against Iran
Iraq's Militias Seek to Consolidate Political Power in Vote
Red Crescent Says Bodies of 17 People Washed Ashore in Libya
Sunday's Vote in Iraq Clouded by a Disillusioned Electorate
In Brazen Attack by Settlers, Palestinians See Larger Threat‎
U.N. Envoy Visits Yemen for Talks with PM, Separatists

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 06-07/2021
U.S. still committed to Iran diplomacy but has options if it fails -Biden aide/Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland/Reuters/October 06/2021
White House Quiet as U.S. Allies Rehabilitate Assad. Congress Should Not Be/David Adesnik/FDD/October 06/2021
Why Arabs Are Annoyed With the Europeans/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 06/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 06-07/2021
Ministry of Health: 796 new cases, 7 deaths
NNA/October 06/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced 796 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 627,722.
Seven deaths have been recorded.

Israel Says Lebanon 'Can't Dictate Lines' in Sea Border Talks
Naharnet/October 06/2021
Lebanon "cannot dictate the lines" in its sea border talks with Israel, an Israeli minister has said. "We need to look for a solution that leads to a breakthrough and not try to think in the old ways of drawing lines," Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar said. "We started (negotiations) by one line and then they (Lebanon) pushed the line. Pushing and pushing the lines literally," Elharrar added. "It's not the way to have a negotiation. They cannot dictate the lines," she went on to say. "We share a gas field and have to find a solution on how to use it so that each side will have its share of it in a fair way," the Israeli minister stated. "We are willing to give it another shot," she added.

Miqati to Up Daily Power Supply, Make Long-Term Energy Reforms
Naharnet/October 06/2021
Prime Minister Najib Miqati is working on short- and long-term plans to tackle the energy crisis, al-Liwaa newspaper said. Political sources told the newspaper, in remarks published Wednesday, that Miqati is working with the minister of energy to prevent a total collapse in the sector. The sources pointed out that Miqati’s short-term plan is to work immediately on increasing the daily hours of power supply by 8-10 hours, within a few weeks. “Miqati is planning to fast-track the importation of Egytian gas to the Deir Amar Power Plant,” the sources said.
“There is a possibility to augment the quantities of imported gas in order to raise the power production at the Deir Amar plant to its highest possible level.” The sources added that Miqati is planning to “secure quantities of Egyptian or imported fuel to re-operate the Zouk and al-Zahrani power plants and increase their power production.”There is also a long-term plan to revive the sector entirely, based on the French initiative. The plan requires making reforms from “appointing a new regulatory body and a new board of directors,” to “building new plants and regulating and modernizing the distribution and the collection.”The reforms in the sector will be financed “from expected Arab and international donations and loans,” the sources said. The energy file was discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Miqati, and a French delegation is following up on the topic. The plan is being studied with French and German companies to find one or more companies that will carry out the implementation of the plan, the sources added.

Lebanon, Syria, Jordan Agree Plan to Supply Lebanon with Electricity
Naharnet/October 06/2021
The energy ministers of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria met in Amman on Wednesday and agreed on a timeframe for supplying Lebanon with Jordanian electricity via Syria. During the meeting, “a work plan and a timeframe were presented to reactivate the electrical connection line between Jordan and Syria, and to carry out all the technical studies and prepare the necessary treaties for the implementation of the supply process,” Jordan’s news agency said. “Specialized technical teams have been tasked with finishing the necessary works within a specific deadline,” Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala al-Zawati said. “The work plan focuses on repairing the infrastructure on the Syrian side and on the readiness of the three parties to abide by the necessary treaties to supply Lebanon with electricity,” the minister added. Syrian Electricity Minister Ghassan al-Zamel for his part said that Damascus is “keen on the spirit of brotherhood and cooperation with each of the Jordanian and Lebanese sides.”“The teams of the Public Establishment for Transmission and Distribution of Electricity have started repairing the electrical connection line that was destroyed by the armed terrorist groups,” Zamel said.
“They are securing the necessary material for that despite the difficulties that we are facing as a result of the siege imposed on the Syrian people. Most material has been secured and efforts are underway to cover the shortage,” he added. He also said that the repair works need three months to be completed. Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayyad for his part said that “the next step will be focused on the issue of financing the treaties through the World Bank.”

Cypriot FM after Meeting Bou Habib Urges Reforms to Unlock Int’l Aid
Naharnet/October 06/2021
Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib met Wednesday with Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides in Beirut. The meeting was followed by a joint press conference. Bou habib said the meeting was “fruitful” and thanked Cyprus for its donations to Lebanon and for “hosting many Lebanese families in the recent period.” About 5 million euros were donated by Cyprus particularly for hospitals and schools that were damaged in Beirut port blast. From his side, the Cypriot Minister called on the Lebanese government to implement reforms quickly “in order for the international community to unlock aid for Lebanon in its worst economic crises.”He also conveyed to Bou Habib an invitation for the tripartite summit that will bring together Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece in Nicosia. Christodoulides is in Beirut on a two-day visit to meet with Lebanese officials.

USAID Launches $29 Million Project to Deliver Reliable Energy across Lebanon
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will "provide up to $29 million to deliver reliable energy across all regions of Lebanon," the U.S. Embassy said on Wednesday. The Embassy added in a statement that USAID has awarded a contract to IMC Worldwide, Inc. to implement the Innovation for Affordable and Renewable Energy for All (INARA) Activity under the Initiative to Deliver Essential Assistance and Services (IDEAS) Project that is designed to provide up to $29 million to deliver reliable energy across all regions of Lebanon. "The USAID is seeking to increase the supply of electricity generation at the community level and to increase the cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness, sustainability, and reliability of power supply, while clarifying and strengthening the enabling environment for renewable energy-based electrical power generation," the Embassy said. “We are excited to introduce this new project, which will target all regions of Lebanon and improve the delivery of basic services," Eileen Devitt, USAID Mission Director, affirmed. "We believe that projects like this are important to energize communities to seek out affordable, sustainable, local solutions to challenges they face every day,” Devitt added. Since 2012, USAID has implemented more than 15 green energy solutions to keep homes and businesses lit, reduce fuel consumption by 30 percent, and minimize pollution for nearly one million people. More than 20 projects are still being implemented across Lebanon to provide backup electricity and access to water.

Protestors, Depositors Besiege Sfeir in Bank of Beirut
Naharnet/October 06/2021
The Association of Banks and the Bank of Beirut in central Beirut closed their doors Wednesday to protect their Chairman Salim Sfeir as depositors arrived at the place in a protest, the Mottahidoun protest movement group said. One of the depositors tried to go into the bank to claim access to her deposits and was prevented from entering the bank, the Mouttahidoun added.Riot police were meanwhile called in to protect the building.

As Lebanese Got Poorer, Politicians Stowed Wealth Abroad
Associated Press/October 06/2021
A trove of leaked documents confirmed that for years, Lebanon's politicians and bankers have stowed wealth in offshore tax havens and used it to buy expensive properties—a galling revelation for masses of newly impoverished Lebanese caught in one of the world's worst economic meltdowns in decades. Some of the newly outed holders of offshore accounts belong to the same ruling elite that is being blamed for the collapse and for derailing the lives of ordinary Lebanese who have lost access to savings and now struggle to get fuel, electricity and medicine.
Bold-faced names in the leaked documents include the longtime central bank governor, a pivotal figure in the failed policies that helped trigger the financial crisis, as well as Prime Minister Najib Miqati and his predecessor.
The documents, named the "Pandora Papers," were examined by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with the first findings released Sunday. The ICIJ report exposes the offshore secrets of wealthy elites from more than 200 countries and territories.
It was based on a review of nearly 11.9 million records obtained from 14 firms that provide services in setting up offshore firms and shell companies. Clients of such firms are often trying to hide their wealth and financial activities. Setting up an offshore company is not illegal, but reinforces the perception that the wealthy and powerful play by different rules—a particularly upsetting notion for many Lebanese.
The papers show how members of the political class were sending wealth abroad for years, even as they urged people to deposit money in Lebanon's banks, assuring them that it was safe, said Alia Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalist. "We are not talking about regular citizens," said Ibrahim, a co-founder of Daraj, a Beirut-based independent digital media platform, and one of sores of journalists across the world who worked with ICIJ on the investigation into the documents.
"These are politicians who served in public office for years, and they are partly responsible for the current crisis Lebanon is going through," she said.
Lebanon is in the midst of what the World Bank says is one of the world's worst economic meltdowns in the past 150 years. More than 70% of the population has been thrown into poverty, their savings nearly wiped out in the crisis that began in late 2019 and was in part caused by decades of corruption and mismanagement by the political class.
Hundreds of thousands of people staged nationwide protests against corruption starting in late 2019. Yet two years later the same politicians still run the country in the same way, protected by the sectarian-based system.
One of the protesters, Samir Skaff, said that the Lebanese are not surprised to be told that the political class "is made up of a bunch of thieves."
"We have been saying that for years," he said.
Offshore companies, though not illegal, can be used to elude taxes or hide illicitly gained money. The leaks only add further confirmation to what Lebanese have long said about their ruling class — though repeated report of graft or illicit activity in the past have failed to bring change.
One of the 14 firms listed by ICIJ as providing offshore services is Trident Trust, with 346 Lebanese clients making up the largest group, more than double the second-place country, Britain.
One focus of the revelations is Riad Salameh, who has been Lebanon's central bank governor for nearly 30 years.
Daraj reported that the documents showed Salameh founded a company called AMANIOR, based in the British Virgin Islands, in 2007. He is listed as its full owner and sole director, which Daraj said appeared to violate Lebanese laws forbidding the central bank governor from activity in any enterprise. Salameh's office told The Associated Press that the central bank governor has no comment on the documents. ICIJ quoted him as saying that he declares his assets and has complied with reporting obligations under Lebanese law.
Salameh, 70, is being investigated in Switzerland and France for potential money laundering and embezzlement. Local media reported over the past months that Salameh and his brother as well as one of his aides have been involved in illegal businesses, including money transfers abroad despite the capital controls imposed at home. Salameh had denied making such transfers.
Other documents showed that Marwan Kheireddine, chairman of Lebanon's Al-Mawarid Bank, was involved in setting up a flurry of offshore businesses in the months just before the economic crisis hit in late 2019. In November that year, his bank and others began imposing capital controls that meant Lebanese could pull very little money out of their accounts even as the currency crashed, wrecking their savings' value.
The Pandora Papers reveal that in 2019, Kheireddine received control of an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands, which he then used to buy a $2 million yacht. In January 2019, he and his brother set up four firms in Britain on the same day, all based at the same London address, and all registered as "small companies," which Daraj said meant they are exempt from auditing. In 2020, Kheireddine bought a $9.9 million New York penthouse sold by American actress Jennifer Lawrence, Lebanese media reported at the time.
Kheireddine is a former Cabinet minister and a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party. He did not respond to calls and a text message by the AP.
Prime Minister Miqati, a businessman who formed a new government last month, has owned a Panama-based offshore company since the 1990s. He used it in 2008 to buy property in Monaco worth more than $10 million, Daraj reported from the documents.
The leaked documents also show that his son Maher was a director of at least two British Virgin Islands-based companies, which his father's Monaco-based company, M1 Group, used to obtain an office in central London. Miqati released a statement saying his family fortune was amassed prior to his involvement in politics and was "compliant with global standards" and regularly scrutinized by auditors. Contacted by the AP, Miqati's media adviser Fares Gemayel said he had no comment.
Speaking to Daraj, Maher Miqati said it was common for people in Lebanon to use offshore companies "due to the easy process of incorporation" and denied the purpose was to evade taxes.
Miqati's predecessor as prime minister, Hassan Diab, was a co-owner of a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, Daraj reported.
Diab's office said in a statement Monday saying he helped establish the company in 2015, but it did not do any business and he resigned from the firm and gave up his shares in 2019. "Is the setting up of a company against the law?" the statement said. Diab's government resigned days after a massive Aug. 4, 2020, blast in Beirut that killed and wounded hundreds and destroyed the city's port and nearby neighborhoods. Diab was charged with negligence in the case. He denies any wrongdoing but has refused to be questioned by the judge leading the investigation.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus tours Karantina Hospital, pledges Cypriot aid
NNA/October 06/2021
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, toured the Karantina Governmental Hospital accompanied by the Ambassador of Cyprus to Lebanon, Panayiotis Kyriacou, and an accompanying delegation.
A donation from the Cypriot authorities will be made for the hospital to rebuild the pediatric and obstetric departments that were destroyed by the port explosion on August 4, 2020. During the tour, Christodoulides, praised this hospital "that provides life-saving services in the heart of Beirut, often under adverse conditions." "The Beirut port explosion, which we heard and felt all the way to Cyprus, was a watershed moment because of the damage and shock it caused. I must commend the courage and selflessness of everyone who worked to rescue the wounded from the explosion, and volumes can be written about their ability and courage in the face of adversity," he said. "My visit today is a realistic experience, as I had the opportunity to see the destruction caused by the explosion on the one hand, and on the other hand, I saw the dedication of the hospital staff to continue providing high-quality services, and this should be an example to all," he concluded.

Army receives 6 helicopters as a gift from the US
NNA/October 06/2021
The Lebanese Army received at Beirut Air Base six helicopters (MD-530F +) presented as a gift from the United States, in the presence of a number of officers and members of the Defense Cooperation Office at the US Embassy in Beirut.

Fourteen months
Dana Hourany/Now Lebanon/October 06/2021
https://nowlebanon.com/fourteen-months/
Families of victims of the port explosion gathered in protest to mark the passing of fourteen months with constant obstructions to the current investigation, and no justice served.
The sit-in was quiet, as most sit-ins organized by the Beirut blast victims’ families are.
It had been 14 months since his 25-year-old daughter died in the August 4, 2020 explosion, and Majid el Helou, a tall man in his late 50s, held her picture alongside other fathers with photos and mothers wearing black scarves. They had gathered at gate 3 of the Beirut port to mark the dark anniversary. They were barely 20 people.
Fourteen months since hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate left to rot in a Beirut port hangar blew up after catching fire and killed over 227 people, wounded over 6,000 and pulverized large parts of Central Beirut. Fourteen months since his daughter died.
El Helou was angry on Monday, but, unlike only a week before, he was hopeful and willing to keep fighting for justice.
“We have faithful judges, we have courageous judges, they showed no fear and we won’t either. Together we will reach justice,” he told NOW.
A child of a victim of the port explosion holding a picture of his father as families gather to commemorate the lives of their loved ones as 14 months have passed since the explosion without accountability. Photo: Dana Hourany, NOW.
Tension and politics
Just a few days earlier, on September 29, scores of protesters, families of Beirut blast victims and supporters of political parties had scuffled with police and with each other in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, divided by political views.
The chief investigator in the Beirut blast probe, Tarek al Bitar, was suspended from the port investigation last Monday, on September 27, after one of the politicians he called in for interrogation, former Interior Minister Nohad el Mashnouk, filed a complaint with the court to remove him, citing lack of objectivity in the probe. Bitar was suspended the minute he was served Mashnouk’s citation, but Amal MPs and former minister Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil had also filed lawsuits at the same court, citing the same “bias” in the blast probe.
Moreover, MP and minister Youssef Fenianos, also a suspect in the Beirut blast investigation and summoned for questioning by Bitar, sued Bitar at the Supreme Court.
All former ministers who submitted cases against Bitar are current MPs and, according to Lebanese law, they have the right to immunity from prosecution. But, this immunity stands only while the Parliament is officially in session, which begins on October 19. Before that, they can be summoned for investigation.
The United Nations and France both pressed Lebanon to proceed with transparent investigations after the probe was suspended last week. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused authorities of brazen obstruction of justice and callous disregard of victims’ families.
Bitar’s suspension had enraged families of victims. It also coincided with the judge reportedly receiving threats from Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa. Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah has slammed the probe on many occasions, claiming it was orchestrated by Western powers. Bitar himself admitted officially that Safa had threatened him.
So, on September 29, in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, scores of protesters and families of victims demonstrated, demanding that politicians stop tampering with the investigation. But the scuffles started when part of the crowd chanted “Hezbollah is a terrorist”, raising objections from other protesters, who said the attempts at dismissing Bitar had come from various parties, and not just the Party of God.
If they remove judge Bitar, I don’t think I can trust the one that comes after. He’s a good man and he really wants to arrive at the truth.
But the Appeals Court rejected the cases against Bitar on Monday, saying such cases were not in its jurisdiction, and fined Mashnouk, Zeaiter and Khalil 800,000 LBP (US$530 at the Central Bank rate which is still used by official institutions in Lebanon, but only about $50 at the current market rate) for intentionally submitting the cases to the wrong court.
Victims’ families and lawyers say that the cases were meant to delay Bitar’s push to question the suspects until they regain immunity. In fact, the day after he was reinstated, Bitar summoned the MPs for questioning once again: Khalil on October 12, Machnouk and Zeaiter on October 13. Former Premier Hassan Diab, was also summoned on October 28.
So far, the investigation has dragged on, facing obstacles and procedural complaints at every turn.
The first chief investigator, Fadi Sawan, was suspended and then fired in February 2021, after Zaiter and Khalil sued him at the Supreme Court for bias in the investigation, and for not following procedure.
Bitar replaced Sawan renewing the investigation following procedures by the book, and requested that all institutions lift immunities of current deputies and dignitaries, something Sawan hadn’t done. Eventually, after hearing scores of witnesses, Bitar called in the same former dignitaries and security officials for investigation.
The victims’ families say they will not stop the sit-ins until the Lebanese government allows the investigation into the catastrophe to follow its due course. All the attempts to remove judge Bitar indicate that he has ruffled some feathers that haven’t been ruffled before, El Helou told NOW.
“If they remove judge Bitar, I don’t think I can trust the one that comes after. He’s a good man and he really wants to arrive at the truth,” Helou said.
Man holding a sign that says "against politicization and diluting" as a reaction to the interference of ex-ministers in trying to remove judge Bitar. Photo: Dana Hourany, NOW.
A call for unity
Rima, who lost her son Mohammad Alaa Din Damaj in the blast, has a difficult time holding back her tears when she talks about the probe.
“I’m happy that we still got to keep the judge Bitar and I have hope but will they go through the same suffering as our loved ones did? I doubt so,” she said, referring to the politicians she believes are responsible for the blast.
“Despite all the issues we have in our justice system, we still have a few good judges and we hope more of them will join our case,” he said.
He also addressed the Lebanese people in his speech and asked them to join their protests. But under the condition of unity and without targeting “certain political parties”.
“We need to be united under one slogan – “Truth, justice and accountability”. We will refuse any attempts at turning our case into a political fight, this is a judicial issue and it’s about pain and suffering so please spare us your political fights,” he stated.
Rima al-Zahid, whose brother was a port employee and died in the blast, said that she indeed felt as if their case was being manipulated from different angles.
“We have been suffering for 14 months from the interference of politicians and sectarian leaders meddling with the investigation,” seh pointed out. “When I heard that the investigation was halted, I felt that we were being betrayed again, and that they were killing us a second time,” she added, breaking into tears as she spoke.
Struggling to keep hope alive
Although Hotteit said he had hope in Judge Bitar, he still warned against the possibility of the case being lost or dismissed, and added that their “options were open”.
He refused to elaborate and said that he was not meeting with anyone yet to look into options to take the case to the international level. But he stressed that the families would not let the case die down, even if the justice system in Lebanon did so.
Another gimmick Hotteit warned against was the tactic of postponement that the politicians were playing in order to delay the investigation.
“We ask for judge Bitar to hurry up with the investigations so they [the politicians] don’t manipulate the law and find another way to postpone the sessions.”
Hotteit also stressed the importance of the support of the people and called for all the Lebanese to join their movement so that their case doesn’t become a lost cause.
“We will get justice, we definitely will,” one of the members of the families yelled before the crowd dispersed.
*Dana Hourany is a multimedia journalist with @NOW_leb. She is on Instagram @danahourany.

Aux dirigeants du monde libre: Oyez oyez oyez !
Jean-Marie Kassab/Octobre 06/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/103005/%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%83%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d9%84%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%b1-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%a7/
Écoutez bien, ouvrez vos yeux. Scrutez vos écrans télé. Lisez bien vôtre courrier et les rapports de vos ambassades.
Regardez , voyez, comment les Libanais ont commencé à résister. Observez les bouger , crier, hurler contre l'occupant Iranien, contre les usurpateurs, contre l'intrus qui souille nôtre sol. 
Et ce n'est qu'un petit début. Le reste est à suivre. Nous avons été appauvris mais nôtre âme demeure libre. A genoux? JAMAIS.
Nous ne voulons pas de vos sous. Nous ne sommes pas des mendiants. Que Mikati aille mendier tout seul. Que Aoun se mette à genoux en adoration. Ils ne nous représente pas. Nous ne sommes pas eux et ils ne sont pas nous.Nous sommes la première ligne de défense contre les mollahs . Faites de sorte que ce ne soit pas la dernière. 
Lisez vôtre histoire et la nôtre aussi. Occupés plusieurs fois , nous nous sommes libérés, par la force et un courage sans égal. 
Monsieur Macron vôtre pays et l'Europe ne se sont pas libérés tout seul: le monde entier y a participé. Mister Biden, des centaines de milliers de vos boys sont mort pour en finir avec le Nazisme.
Nos "boys and girls" sont prêts à tout pour leur pays. Tenez en compte en faisant vos calculs et en jouant aux dieux. 
Kissinger avait fait la même gaffe en mettant une croix sur le Liban en 75: sa lecture était superficielle et son jugement faux. Il ne savait pas qu'une  poignée de jeunes étaient d'un avis contraire et enrayèrent ses desseins par la force de leurs bras et leurs coeurs de lions.
A suivre et attentivement...
Vive la Résistance Libanaise

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 06-07/2021
Pope Expresses 'Shame' at Scale of Clergy Abuse in France
Associated Press/October 06/2021
Pope Francis expressed "shame" for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first. The pope spoke during his regular audience at the Vatican about a report released Tuesday that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950. "There is, unfortunately, a considerable number. I would like to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma that they suffered,'' Francis said. "It is also my shame, our shame, my shame, for the incapacity of the church for too long to put them at the center of its concerns."He called on all bishops and religious superiors to take all actions necessary "so similar dramas are not repeated."The pope also expressed his "closeness and paternal support" to French priests in the face of a "difficult test,'' and called on French Catholics to "ensure that the church remains a safe house for all."

French Senate approves adoption of IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
Arutz Sheva/October 06/2021
Resolution was overwhelmingly supported by a majority of parties with a show of hands in the Senate. The French Senate has overwhelmingly voted to support a draft resolution adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, Le Point reported.
Citizenship Minister Marlène Schiappa pointed out that the France’s National Assembly adopted a similar resolution in 2019. “This is a resolution, it has no binding legal value, it does not change our law," Schiappa told AFP. However, "it can serve as a basis for the application of the law as well as serve for a basis for public policies."She added that adopting the definition will enable “better identification, better characterization of anti-Semitism.”The resolution was put forward by the Senate’s right wing majority and given support by the government. In the Senate, the measure was supported by a show of hands vote on Tuesday by all parties except for the communist CRCE, who refused to participate in the vote, and the ecologist party, who abstained. The co-author of the motion, Bruno Retailleau, said that the definition in the resolution is "sufficiently broad to take into account all the new expressions of anti-Semitism" and "sufficiently strict to not to hurt freedom of opinion.” The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been adopted by the EU parliament, along with 20 countries in Europe, and was supported by French President Emmanual Macron at the 2019 annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) umbrella group. In Frebruary 2021, the IHRA definition was adopted by the Paris City Council, becoming the first capital city in the world outside Israel to do so officially, according to a statement by the Israeli Embassy in France.

Palestinian state will not be established'
Arutz Sheva/October 06/2021
Israeli Interior Minister says during visit to UAE that Bennett government will not consider Palestinian statehood. The current Israeli government will not back Palestinian statehood, Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) said Wednesday morning during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Speaking with the UAE-based news outlet The National, Shaked ruled out talks on Palestinian statehood, both during Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s term, as well as after Yair Lapid rotates in as premier. “The Israeli government won’t deliberate on the establishment of a Palestinian state under the present government of Bennett or Lapid when he comes into office under the rotational agreement,” said Shaked. There is a consensus among the parties [in the government] not to get involved in the issue, which could cause an internal rift.”“We believe in economic peace as a means of improving Palestinians lives and to create cooperative industrial zones. But not a state with an army, absolutely not.”Shaked pushed back on the description of Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria as being “illegal settlements,” calling the area “disputed territory”.The Interior Minister also slammed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as “hypocritical”.“They’re anti-Semitic by opposing Israel’s right to exist. BDS is the new form of anti-Semitism.

Canada/Joint Statement on Iraq’s Early Elections
October 6, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
“The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Secretary of State welcome the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission’s (IHEC) preparations for the October 10 election. This early election is an opportunity for Iraqi voters to democratically determine their future. “We recognize the importance of this moment in Iraqi history. In response to requests from the Iraqi people, substantial resources have been mobilized in support of free and fair elections.
“In May 2020, the UN Security Council enhanced the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq’s (UNAMI) electoral assistance mandate. The resulting UNAMI electoral assistance mission, tasked with supporting IHEC, is the largest of its kind in the world, with five times more UN officials than were present during the 2018 election. “In late 2020, Iraqis coalesced around the idea that international monitoring was a prerequisite for electoral legitimacy. Accordingly, the Government of Iraq submitted a request to the UN Security Council. On May 27, 2021, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2576, authorizing a UNAMI election monitoring team. On June 21, 2021, the EU announced a separate election observation mission, which now comprises a significant number of experts from EU member states. Both missions have already deployed monitors and observers, respectively. These missions represent a good-faith international effort to fulfill Iraqis’ request and bolster the integrity of the election. “The Iraqi people now have an opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to vote. We support the Iraqi government’s efforts to ensure a safe, free, fair, and inclusive electoral environment for all Iraqis, including women and youth, who have long faced violence and intimidation in the pursuit of reform. Likewise, we support the Iraqi government’s efforts to ensure that internally displaced persons can safely participate in the election. We call on all parties to respect the rule of law and the integrity of the electoral process.”

Israeli Military Chief Hints of Covert Action Against Iran
Associated Press/October 06/2021
Israel's military chief has vowed to step up actions, including covert operations, against Iran and its nuclear program. Speaking at a ceremony, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi said Israel and its intelligence community "is working against Iranian regional entrenchment throughout the Middle East.""Operations to destroy Iranian capabilities will continue — in various arenas and at any time," he told the ceremony, in which the army appointed Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva as its new intelligence chief. "The operational plans against Iran's nuclear program will continue to evolve and improve," he added. Whatever developments there may be, "it is our duty to provide an effective and timely military response."Israel considers Iran its greatest threat, citing its military presence in neighboring Syria, its support for hostile militant groups and its development of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.
Israel accuses Iran of trying to develop a nuclear bomb — a charge Iran denies — and has vowed to prevent that from happening. Israel has been suspected in a string of attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists and facilities over the past decade, but does not confirm or deny involvement. Kohavi spoke as Israel's national security adviser, Eyal Hulata, was in Washington for discussions with his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan. Israel has opposed U.S. efforts to renew an international nuclear pact with Iran that unraveled after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018. According to a U.S. statement, Sullivan said the U.S. believes diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, but is prepared to turn to other options if that fails.

Iraq's Militias Seek to Consolidate Political Power in Vote
Associated Press/October 06/2021
Among the candidates running in Iraq's general elections this week is a leader in one of the country's most hardline and powerful militias with close ties to Iran who once battled U.S. troops. Hussein Muanis joins a long list of candidates from among Iran-backed Shiite factions vying for parliament seats. But he is the first to be openly affiliated with Kataib Hizbullah, or Hizbullah Brigades, signaling the militant group's formal entry into politics. The group is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and is accused by U.S. officials of targeting American forces in Iraq. Muanis himself was jailed by the Americans for four years from 2008 to 2012 for fighting U.S. troops. "Our entrance into politics is a religious obligation. I battled the occupiers militarily and now I will battle them politically," he said, speaking to The Associated Press recently in his office in central Baghdad.
Muanis, 50, says he has given up his militia fatigues in favor of politics. He now heads a political movement called "Harakat Huqooq," or Rights Movement, which is fielding 32 candidates and an electoral program stressing the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq.
The Kataib Hizbullah group has been struck by U.S. forces near the Iraq-Syria border several times. In December 2019, the U.S. carried out strikes targeting military sites belonging to the group after blaming it for a rocket barrage that killed a U.S. defense contractor at a military compound near Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Around 20 militiamen were killed. Harakat Huqooq's campaign advertisements decorate the streets of Shiite dominated areas in Baghdad and southern Iraq. Iraq is holding elections on Oct. 10, the fifth parliamentary vote since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, which shifted the country's power base from minority Arab Sunnis to majority Shiites. The vote was brought forward by one year in response to mass protests that broke out in late 2019 over endemic corruption, poor services and unemployment.
While a new electoral law has allowed more independents to run, Shiite groups continue to dominate the electoral landscape with a tight race expected between pro-Iran parties and their militias — the largest of which is the Fatah alliance — and the political bloc of Shiite nationalist heavyweight Moqtada al-Sadr, the biggest winner in the 2018 elections. The Fatah alliance includes leaders associated with the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units, an umbrella group for mostly pro-Iran state-sanctioned militias, including Kataib Hizbullah. But the group has lost some popularity following the 2019 protests, with activists accusing hardline armed factions of brutally suppressing protesters by using live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds. Protesters demanding change and reform were also often railing against Iran's heavy-handed interferences in Iraqi politics. More than 600 were killed and thousands injured during the months-long protests. Analysts say the entry of Kataib Hizbullah — the group is separate from the Lebanese group of the same name — might be an attempt by Iran to strengthen its allies inside Iraq's parliament.
Bassam al-Qazwini, a Baghdad-based political analyst, said after the 2019 protest movement Iran pushed for hard-liners to go into politics. "Harakat Huqooq opens the door for hardline factions to enter the realm of politics and the parliament building," he said, adding that he did not expect them to win a lot of seats. Muanis, a slender man who sports a light beard, said his reasons for entering politics is the people's disappointment with the current political situation and politicians' failure to implement reform. "So we are participating in order to bring about change," he said. If he wins, he says he will work from inside parliament on "regaining Iraqi sovereignty by having the occupier leave," he said of the Americans. Asked about the proliferation of arms outside state control, he said: "Whenever the occupation is no longer there then we can discuss it. Then there would be no need to bear arms."

Red Crescent Says Bodies of 17 People Washed Ashore in Libya
Associated Press/October 06/2021
At least 17 bodies, likely of Europe-bound migrants, have washed ashore in western Libya, the Libyan Red Crescent said. They were found Tuesday near the western Libyan town of Zawiya, the Red Crescent's branch in the town said. The bodies were handed over to authorities for burial, it said. The migrants likely drowned. The U.N. migration agency says more than 1,100 migrants were reported dead or presumed dead in numerous boat mishaps and shipwrecks off Libya so far this year. The Red Crescent posted images purporting to show its workers carrying white body bags with the Mediterranean Sea in the background.Libya was plunged into turmoil by the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The North African nation has since emerged as a popular, if extremely dangerous, route to Europe for those fleeing poverty and civil war in Africa and the Middle East.
Oil-rich Libya is largely governed by local militias, many of which profit from the trafficking. Rights groups say migrants traversing Libya have been tortured, raped and subjected to forced labor at the hands of traffickers and inside official detention centers. U.N.-commissioned investigators found that the practice of arbitrary disappearances and violence against migrants inside Libyan prisons could amount to crimes against humanity.

Sunday's Vote in Iraq Clouded by a Disillusioned Electorate
Associated Press/October 06/2021
Blinking under the garish lights of a hotel ballroom in southern Iraq, Wael Makhsusi argued his case to a young audience.
Microphone in hand, the engineer in his 30s stood onstage in Basra with other novice candidates in Sunday's parliamentary election. Among them were independents and hopefuls drawn from the protests that filled the streets two years ago with demonstrators angry about high unemployment, government corruption and lack of basic services like electricity and water. If elected, Makhsusi told the crowd, he'd fight tirelessly for their rights, but a bespectacled man who stood up wasn't buying it. "You've painted such a rosy dream for us, but I am not convinced I should vote for you," the man said as the crowd burst into applause. The scene last month underscored the difficulties faced by the candidates: They are telling Iraq's disillusioned youth, the country's largest demographic, to trust an electoral process that in the past has tainted by tampering and fraud. But apathy and distrust are widespread, and some of the same pro-reform activists whose protests in 2019 led to the vote now are calling for a boycott at the polls after a series of targeted killings.
"The election won't be perfect," acknowledged candidate Noureddine Nassar in Basra, but he added that even if it improves by only a third over those in the past, that will be "better than the current system."
Activists like Nassar are pinning their hopes on a redrawn map of electoral districts — a concession to the reformers — and argue that voting is the only path to change. "We have a new generation, born after 2001, who are eligible to vote now," said Awatef Rasheed, an independent candidate in Basra. "I am relying on this generation."The increased number of districts allows for better local representation and gives independents increased chances of winning. In addition, 70% of registered voters will use biometric cards, eliminating the multiple voting that plagued the 2018 election.
That balloting saw a turnout of only 44% of eligible voters — a record low since the U.S.-led invasion that topped Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The electoral law changes fell short of demands by protesters. Activists had wanted more of the smaller districts, but after 11 months of talks, lawmakers agreed on 83, up from 18. The lines were drawn to facilitate a 25% participation quota by women for 329 parliament seats.
The smaller districts also favor powerful local tribes and religious figures, and the mainstream parties already have forged alliances with them.
Still, the new law paved the way for parties drawn from the protests to emerge, such as the Imtidad Movement, which is expected to do well in the southern province of Nasiriyah, a flashpoint in the demonstrations. One of its candidates is Makhsusi, who says he wants to chip away at the entrenched political establishment. But it also helped better-funded and more experienced mainstream grassroots parties such as the Sadrist Movement of populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the most seats in 2018. Its members already are anticipating a favorable outcome.
"The Sadrist Movement will get a lot of voters because we have our people in the whole city of Basra," said Mohammed al-Tamimi, a Sadrist official and the deputy governor of Basra.
Their calculations rely on the assumption that people like Wissam Adnan won't vote. He is the founder of Jobs in Basra, a social media platform created to help the unemployed in the city.
"None of them have made any changes for the people, so why should we vote for them?" Adnan said of those in power. That's a popular opinion in Basra, which despite its oil wealth is plagued by poverty, joblessness and a crumbling infrastructure that delivers filthy tap water and chronic power outages.
"Given the absence of credible alternatives and the overwhelming sense among Iraqis that the system is immune to internal reforms, the choice of not voting can be the only means for a voter to express their rejection of the status quo," said Randa Slim, of the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Over 600 people died in the October 2019 mass protests, known in Arabic as the Tishreen revolution for the month they occurred. Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
The protests died down after few months because of the brutal crackdown and the coronavirus pandemic. But since then, 35 people have been killed in targeted assassinations of activists, protest organizers and independent candidates, creating a climate of fear and intimidation. Another 82 people have been wounded in attempted killings that many suspect were carried out by militia groups, according to the Iraqi Human Rights Commission. Calls for an election boycott rang out in particular after the slaying in Karbala this summer of prominent activist Ehab al-Wazni. There have been vocal demands for serious efforts in bringing weapons under the control of the state — a tall order in a country awash with militias and guns. Among those groups seeking to consolidate their political dominance through the election are hard-line Shiite militias backed by Iran.
The United Nations is ramping up a rare monitoring mission that many hope will boost turnout, and Iraq's electoral commission is working to correct systemic flaws exploited by elites. But some parties are resorting to the well-worn tactics of buying votes through favors, jobs and cash.
Ali Hussein, a young religious scholar running as an independent, admitted he didn't know how to get people to vote for him.
"I have been shocked by the requests from people, asking for roads, electricity. Some candidates are giving people food for votes, or taking their personal information and telling them, 'I will hire you if you vote for me,'" he said. "It's created confusion about what our duties are supposed to be and we don't know how to talk to the people."In the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, women were promised new abayas - loose robes worn by many Iraqis - for voting for a specific candidate. In Basra's Zubair neighborhood, a party is helping residents sort out bureaucratic paperwork. Others said militias offered to protect their communities if they voted for their parties. With such tactics arising long before election day, few have faith in U.N. poll watchers. For months, the U.N. has been providing technical assistance to Iraq's electoral commission to close loopholes exploited by parties. According to three U.N. officials, a key condition was that ballots not be moved before an initial count in individual polling stations, eliminating the chances of manipulation. Back at the Basra rally, a dark mood settled over the audience as Ali Abdel Hussein al-Eidani told the candidates that his son had been killed during the protests. "Will you avenge him?" the elderly man asked, tears welling in his eyes. The moderator, activist Ahmed Yaseri, stepped in to return the discussion to increasing turnout for the election. "We want to see the future. We don't want more blood," he said.

In Brazen Attack by Settlers, Palestinians See Larger Threat‎
Associated Press/October 06/2021
Dozens of Jewish settlers swept down from the dusty hills, hurling rocks at a small Palestinian village in broad daylight, smashing windows, cars and water cisterns as families hid inside their homes and Israeli soldiers looked on.
Palestinians in this rural part of the occupied West Bank say last week's attack was especially violent but not unusual. They view it as part of a much larger effort by Israel to force them off their land, including by cutting off vital water resources in a parched region.
Days after the attack — in which a 4-year-old boy was hospitalized after being struck in the head by a stone as his family hid inside their home — residents of the village of Al-Mufagara surveyed the damage. It included the smashed water cisterns on which the Bedouin community and its livestock rely. "They attacked everything we have, our water containers, our animals, our trees, our houses," said Mohammed Rahbi, deputy head of the rural Yatta regional council. "It was an attack on humanity itself."
The hardscrabble region is in what's known as Area C, the 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control, according to agreements reached in the 1990s. Palestinians say it's nearly impossible to secure building permits, even for basic infrastructure like water and electricity. The military has designated an area that includes Al-Mufagara as a firing range, making it even harder for residents to remain on the land.
Israeli authorities have meanwhile tolerated the construction of two nearby settlement outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law, where those who took part in last Wednesday's attack are believed to have come from.
After ambushing a local shepherd and killing a number of his sheep, the settlers — shirtless with scarves wrapped around their faces — rampaged through the small cluster of stone homes and animal pens.
Footage released by the Israeli rights group B'Tselem showed Israeli soldiers standing among the settlers as they hurled the stones. At one point a soldier threw a tear gas grenade and shoved the Palestinian who was filming the attack. "This is our home," the Palestinian shouted.
Israeli police said they arrested five Israeli suspects, including a teenager. All have since been released.
The military declined a request for an interview. But its top commander overseeing the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, last week held a rare meeting with Palestinian residents and said Israel is committed to the security of everyone in the area.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid condemned the attack as "terror" and blamed it on a "violent and dangerous fringe" that he said should be brought to justice. The U.S. State Department also condemned the violence.
But rights groups say settlers have launched several similar attacks over the past year, with the military doing little to stop them.
"This is happening all the time," said Hagai El-Ad, the head of B'Tselem. "Soldiers sometimes even participate directly in such assaults on Palestinians. And this is part of that bigger state project of forcible transfer of Palestinians from their communities in large parts of the West Bank."
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war and has granted the Palestinian Authority limited autonomy in cities and towns that make up less than 40% of the territory. The Palestinians want the entire West Bank to form the main part of their future state.
Around 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank amid more than 2.5 million Palestinians. Most settlers live in the more than 120 settlements authorized by the Israeli government, but more radical settlers have built dozens of outposts without state permission in rural areas.
The nationalist parties that dominate Israel's political system view the West Bank as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people and support the settlers. Israel's current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is a longtime supporter of settlements who is opposed to a Palestinian state.
Israeli authorities are reluctant to evacuate outposts because doing so ignites clashes between soldiers and settlers, and successive governments have retroactively authorized 15 outposts. Israel subsidizes settlements and provides water and electricity to many outposts.
The Palestinians view all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace, a position with wide international support.
Even as the settlements develop largely unchecked, the 1,300 Palestinians living in Al-Mufagara and the surrounding area, known as Masafer Yatta, are unable to build or maintain basic infrastructure. According to statistics published by Peace Now, an anti-settlement Israeli monitoring group, Israeli authorities approved around 1% of Palestinian requests for Area C construction permits submitted between 2009 and 2016.
"Israel is just trying to empty Masafer of the communities that have lived there for generations," said Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, director of Haqel, a rights group that works with local communities.
Rahbi said he has submitted dozens of applications for new housing and irrigation projects that have been rejected. He says Israel only approves such projects in the nearby community of Al-Tuwani, which is outside its declared firing range.
A spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli defense body that grants the permits, said the refusals in the military zone were for the safety of the residents. Speaking on condition of anonymity under military guidelines, he could not explain why settler communities, including unauthorized outposts, do not face the same barriers.This was not the first time local sources of water have been harmed. Over the last two years, the military has destroyed nearly all the pipelines linking Masafer to Israel's national water carrier, as well as more than 20 local wells, according to Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group. COGAT had no immediate comment. Rural Palestinian communities often struggle with shortages. A report released Friday by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said 660,000 Palestinians have "limited access to water" and denounced Israel's recent destruction of vital water sources in Masafer. Israel refused to comment on the report, saying the U.N. is biased against it.
According to Rahbi, most communities have built small pipes that connect to al-Tuwani, the only village in the area connected to Israel's water supplier, Mekorot. But Rahbi said it isn't enough. Residents collect rainwater during the winter months in plastic cisterns and purchase expensive water tankers from nearby cities. Suppliers often charge extra because of the poor roads.
During the settler attack on Wednesday, many of the plastic cisterns and pipes were damaged and will be costly to replace.
Despite the growing hardships, the Palestinians say they are determined to stay. "People here are rooted, in love with the land," Rahbi said.

U.N. Envoy Visits Yemen for Talks with PM, Separatists
Associated Press/October 06/2021
The U.N. special envoy for Yemen met Tuesday with the prime minister of the country's internationally recognized government in the port city of Aden, officials said. Hans Grundberg landed in Aden in his first visit to the war-scarred country since taking up his post last month, according to the U.N. mission in Yemen. He met with Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed in Mashiq Palace, the mission said in a tweet. Aden serves as interim capital since the civil war erupted seven years ago. They discussed the latest political developments, and the U.N. envoy reiterated the importance of the Riyadh Agreement, which ended the fighting between government forces and United Arab Emirates-backed southern separatists, the mission said.
Grundberg also met with Aydarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the separatists' Southern Transitional Council, according to the council. Saeed said the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi "supports ... any political settlement ending the suffering of Yemenis," according to Yemen's official SABA news agency. The Prime Minister accused the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of undermining a political settlement with "military escalation and targeting civilians and displaced people," SABA reported.
Grundberg met last month with Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam in Oman's capital, Muscat. "It is imperative that all efforts are directed towards revitalizing a political process that can produce lasting solutions that meet the aspirations of Yemeni women and men," Grundberg said at the time.
The U.N. envoy's efforts come amid an escalation in fighting around the crucial city of Marib, which the Houthi rebels have been trying for months to capture from government forces. Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital of Sanaa and much of the northern part of the country, forcing Hadi's government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 backed by the United States to try to restore Hadi to power and threw its support behind his internationally backed government. The war has killed more than 130,000 people and spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 06-07/2021
U.S. still committed to Iran diplomacy but has options if it fails -Biden aide
Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland/Reuters/October 06/2021
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-aides-tell-israelis-us-will-pursue-other-avenues-if-iran-diplomacy-fails-2021-10-05/
President Joe Biden's national security adviser told his Israeli counterpart on Tuesday that diplomacy is the best way to rein in Iran's nuclear program even as he reaffirmed Biden's warning to Tehran that Washington could turn to other options if negotiations fail.
Biden senior aide Jake Sullivan hosted Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata for talks which, according to a U.S. official, gave the two allies a chance to share intelligence and develop a "baseline assessment" of how far Tehran's nuclear program has advanced.
Under a 2015 deal, Iran curbed its uranium enrichment program, a possible pathway to nuclear arms, in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. Then-U.S. President Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018 and the Israeli government opposes U.S. efforts to revive it.
U.S. experts believe the time it would take Iran to achieve nuclear "breakout" – enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb – has "gone from about 12 months down to a period of about a few months" since Trump pulled out of the pact, the U.S. official said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iran, Israel's regional arch-foe, has consistently denied it is developing a nuclear bomb. Sullivan in Tuesday's talks "emphasized President Biden’s fundamental commitment to Israel’s security and to ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon," the White House said in a statement. "Mr. Sullivan explained that this administration believes diplomacy is the best path to achieve that goal, while also noting that the president has made clear that if diplomacy fails, the United States is prepared to turn to other options," it added. Sullivan's words echoed the message that Biden gave Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a White House meeting in August. Tuesday's meeting of the U.S.-Israel Strategic Consultative Group included military, intelligence and diplomatic officials and came amid stalled international diplomacy with Iran.
Western powers have been trying for weeks to get Tehran to commit to resume indirect negotiations with the United States in Vienna. The talks have been on hold since June, after hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected Iran's president, and Tehran has been vague about when it might return to the table. read more U.S. officials have declined to specify what actions are under consideration if diplomacy with Iran collapses.
Asked whether that includes military options, the senior U.S. official, who briefed reporters ahead of Tuesday's talks, said only that "we'll be prepared to take measures that are necessary."
Behind Tehran's stalling is an attempt to gain leverage to extract more concessions when negotiations do eventually resume, some officials and analysts have said, including by advancing its uranium enrichment program.
Bennett, a far-right politician who ended Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister in June, has made clear he wants Biden to harden his stance against Iran, which Israel considers an existential threat.

White House Quiet as U.S. Allies Rehabilitate Assad. Congress Should Not Be.
David Adesnik/FDD/October 06/2021
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2021/10/05/white-house-quiet-assad-congress/
King Abdullah of Jordan spoke by phone on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first public contact between the two leaders since the conflict in Syria began in 2011. Their call marks the culmination of increasingly high-level contacts between the Syrian regime and its neighbors over the past two months, driven by a perception that the Biden administration tacitly supports Assad’s rehabilitation.
The Jordanian king met with President Joe Biden at the White House in July, where Abdullah reportedly pushed for a “road map to restoring Syrian sovereignty and unity.” Also in July, Arab diplomats began to press the Biden administration to let Syria participate in a multi-state deal to export gas and electricity to Lebanon, an arrangement that would require Biden to waive human rights sanctions mandated by the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019.
The following month, the United States informed the Lebanese government that it would approve the energy deal, including Syrian participation. Whereas its predecessor had enforced the Caesar Act aggressively, designating more than 100 individuals and entities in the latter half of 2020, the Biden administration has sanctioned only a handful of targets, none of which are economically significant.
A flurry of high-level meetings took place after the United States indicated in August that it would waive sanctions. Beirut sent a delegation of ministers to Syria during the first week of September, the first official Lebanese visit in a decade. The Jordanian minister of energy then hosted his Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian counterparts in Amman. In mid-September, the Syrian defense minister met with the Jordanian army chief for the first time since the war began. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Syrian foreign minister met with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts. Jordan also reopened its main border crossing with Syria, while Royal Jordanian Airlines, the state carrier, announced plans to resume flights to Damascus, suspended since the beginning of the war.
The State Department sent mixed messages about these developments. When a reporter asked on September 28 about the resumption of flights by Royal Jordanian, a department spokesperson said, “When it comes to commercial travel and Jordan, we certainly welcome this announcement.” A second correspondent then pressed for clarification regarding whether “the U.S. [is] supporting a rapprochement between the two countries,” eliciting a response that there had been no change in official policy.
A follow-up email to the press flatly rejected any prospect of normalizing U.S. relations with the Assad regime, adding, “nor do we encourage others to do so.” Yet a lack of encouragement is very different from actively opposing the rapid move toward normalization now underway. In Amman, Beirut, Cairo, and other regional capitals, there is a growing conviction that the United States has abandoned its efforts to isolate Assad.
Before taking office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep regret for the American failure “to prevent a horrific loss of life” in Syria during the Obama administration. After his confirmation, Blinken committed to “putting human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy.” The president and his administration should vindicate that commitment by making clear to Washington’s allies that the United States rejects their efforts to rehabilitate Assad, whose atrocities continue unabated. There should be no waiver for Syrian participation in regional energy deals; instead, the administration should enforce the Caesar Act aggressively. If the United States wants to help Lebanon secure additional energy imports, it should find a way to do so without benefitting Assad.
Bipartisan pressure from Congress will likely be necessary to reorient the administration’s policy. The Caesar Act passed in 2019 with overwhelming bipartisan support. Congress deliberately made Caesar sanctions mandatory, rather than discretionary, to emphasize the need for vigorous enforcement. Yet the law may become a dead letter if Congress is not prepared to speak out when the president is drifting toward acceptance of Assad’s impunity.
*David Adesnik is research director and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from David and CEFP, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on Twitter @adesnik. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Why Arabs Are Annoyed With the Europeans
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 06/2021
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17798/arabs-annoyed-with-europeans
The European Parliament... has enraged many Arabs by calling for boycotting Expo 2020 Dubai...
The timing of the resolution is problematic. It implies that the European Parliament is seeking to punish the UAE for signing a peace treaty with Israel. The resolution coincided with the first anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, the term used to refer to peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain.
By singling out the UAE, the European Parliament has chosen to side with the enemies of peace, cooperation and normalization between Israelis and Arabs.
Worse, the European Parliament saw no reason to call out Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for their daily human rights violations against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Resolutions such as the one taken by the European Parliament are the kind that give the enemies of peace in the Middle East -- evidently now including the European Parliament -- ammunition to keep fighting to achieve their goal of destroying Israel.
They are opposed to the existence of Israel. They do not want to see Israel in the Middle East. Most of them want to replace Israel....
"[The decision] raises a question mark about the real reasons that led to this hostility practiced by the European Parliament towards a country that has achieved a lot on human rights issues.... The European Parliament is supposed to support these issues, not the exact opposite." — Mona Ali Al Motawa, prominent writer from Bahrain, Al-Watan, September 21, 2021.
[T]he UAE does not need "a certificate [of honor] from malicious entities and will not be affected by desperate attempts to disrupt its achievements." — Saudi columnist Dr. Ali Al-Kheshaiban, Al-Ain, September 22, 2021.
Some very vocal Arabs, in short, are loudly telling the Europeans to mind their own business.
The Arabs are also telling the Europeans that if they have to meddle in the internal affairs of the Arab countries, they should at least support those states, such as the UAE, that have made real strides in human rights, rather than supporting and emboldening terrorists through calls for the boycott of global cooperation events.
The European Parliament has enraged many Arabs by calling for a boycott of Expo 2020 Dubai, taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between October 2021 and March 2022. The timing of the resolution is problematic. It implies that the European Parliament is seeking to punish the UAE for signing a peace treaty with Israel. Pictured: The Israel pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020, on September 27, 2021.
The European Parliament, one of three legislative branches of the European Union, has enraged many Arabs by calling for a boycott of Expo 2020 Dubai, taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between October 2021 and March 2022.
The theme of this year's Expo 2020 Dubai, one of the world's biggest events, is "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future." The sub-themes are "Sustainability, Opportunity and Mobility" with a focus on industries, financial capital, governance, employment, education, and technology.
The European Parliament resolution calling on the EU member states not to participate in the Dubai event, and for international companies to withdraw their sponsorship, is based on the Gulf state's alleged human rights violations.
The timing of the resolution is problematic and implies that the European Parliament is seeking to punish the UAE for signing a peace treaty with Israel. The resolution coincided with the first anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, the term used to refer to peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain.
Israel is participating in Expo 2020 Dubai and visitors to the Israeli pavilion "will be invited to take an emotional 'Journey for Tomorrow' combining Israel's past, present and future that aims to forge significant relationships, create new opportunities and build a better and brighter future for all."
Shortly after the European Parliament issued its resolution against the UAE, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which calls for the elimination of Israel, condemned the Abraham Accords, dubbing them "a Zionist-American project aiming at promoting regional normalization with the Zionist entity and integrating it into the region."
Like the European Parliament, Hamas has in the past called for boycotting Expo 2020 Dubai event on the pretext that such activities promote normalization between Israel and the Arab countries. More recently, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, condemned the UAE for opening an embassy in Israel.
The European Parliament resolution targeting the UAE is a valuable gift from the Europeans to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and all those who oppose the Abraham Accords and any peace agreement between Israel and the Arabs.
By singling out the UAE, the European Parliament has chosen to side with the enemies of peace, cooperation and normalization between Israelis and Arabs. Worse, the European Parliament saw no reason to call out Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for their daily human rights violations against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The European Parliament did not call for boycotting Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or even the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, for their terrible human rights record, including restrictions and assaults on freedom of speech and the media.
Resolutions such as the one taken by the European Parliament are the kind that give the enemies of peace in the Middle East -- apparently including the European Parliament -- ammunition to keep fighting to achieve their goal of destroying Israel.
The enemies of peace are not only opposed to peace and cooperation between Israel and the Arabs. They are opposed to the existence of Israel. They do not want to see Israel in the Middle East. Most of them want to replace Israel with an Islamist state. Additionally, they do not want to see any Arab, especially those living in the Gulf, make peace with Israel or host Israelis in their countries.
The European Parliament, by calling for boycotting the Dubai event, has emboldened extremist Arabs and Muslims. It has also emboldened the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which followed suit and joined the call for boycotting the Dubai event and "escalating worldwide pressure on the UAE dictatorship to end its support for Israel's apartheid regime."
There is no doubt that the anti-Israel movement was inspired and encouraged by the European Parliament's resolution when it employed this scathing anti-Israel rhetoric in its call for boycotting the event.
The movement apparently sees the resolution as part of a European effort to intimidate and deter Arabs from even thinking of making peace with Israel -- all under the excuse of caring for "human rights violations" in the Arab world.
Many Arabs, especially those living in the Gulf, have reacted with fury to the European Parliament resolution, highlighting the hypocrisy of the Europeans on human rights issues.
The Syrian writer Abdel Jalil Al-Saeed commented:
"The decision of the European Parliament ignored all the important achievements of the UAE in the field of human rights, due to the clear politicization of the work of a European legislative institution... The Europeans need to take a look to see human rights violations in their own countries, including prisons they built to house refugees, and the large number of homeless people on the streets, for whom rich Europe was unable to secure a decent living."
Al-Saeed pointed out that the European Parliament should have mentioned the efforts of the UAE government and people to help Afghan refugees "at a time when the Europeans, and their American ally, turned their backs on Afghanistan and abandoned the Afghani people."
Calling out the hypocrisy of the Europeans, Al-Saeed said that the European Parliament lacks fairness in its approach to a large number of Middle Eastern issues, such as its silence on the terrorist crimes of which the [Iranian-backed] Houthi militia in Yemen.
According to Emirati political analyst Dr. Amal Abdullah Al-Haddabi:
"The European Parliament decision will only harm the image of those who approved and adopted it because it reveals the ignorance of those who prepared it about the policies and positions of the UAE... These lies and slanders will not affect the image of the UAE. The resolution is based on unfounded and unreliable allegations driven by special political agendas, especially since it was issued while the whole world is waiting for the [Dubai] event, and as the UAE is working hard to hold it in an honorable manner."
Al-Haddabi added that the European resolution is:
"not only biased and based on illusions, but completely ignores all the important achievements of the UAE in the field of human rights, both in terms of caring for residents and spreading the values ​​of tolerance and coexistence that made people from more than 200 nationalities live in the UAE in peace and coexistence, unlike anywhere else in the world, including European countries where many suffer from discrimination and racism."
She pointed out that the UAE has passed a strict law prohibiting discrimination and hatred as part of a legal system that supports tolerance and coexistence, as well as the adoption of policies and laws to protect the rights of children, women, the elderly, and even prisoners.
Mona Ali Al Motawa, a prominent writer from Bahrain, denounced the European Parliament for its "worrying and suspicious" call for boycotting the Dubai event.
The decision, she said, "raises a question mark about the real reasons that led to this hostility practiced by the European Parliament towards a country that has achieved a lot on human rights issues."
"This resolution leads one to ask about the surprisingly hostile background emanating from a parliament whose movement is supposed to be towards supporting human rights issues and international principles of peace, coexistence and tolerance. The European Parliament is supposed to support these issues, not the exact opposite."
Al-Motawa said that there are attempts led by parties within the European Parliament to thwart the Dubai event, "which is considered the most important global event and a platform for developing a sustainable future vision, in which dozens of countries, companies and international organizations participate."
"Targeting this global event does not mean targeting the UAE as a country only, but also targeting aspects of development, the international economy, and the interests of major international companies and organizations. If the European Parliament had any credibility, it would have issued a statement on the issue of foreign workers or the issue of human rights violations in Iranian prisons."
Saudi columnist Dr. Ali Al-Kheshaiban wrote that the European Parliament chose strange timing for its decision regarding what it called the human rights situation in the UAE with the launch of the largest global event in Dubai. "Does the expected success of this event have something to do with issuing such crude decisions that go against logic and reality?" Al-Kheshaiban asked.
The success of the UAE in organizing the event, he added, is a foregone conclusion, and the UAE does not need "a certificate [of honor] from malicious entities and will not be affected by desperate attempts to disrupt its achievements. The best evidence of this is the huge number of people from 200 nationalities, including Europeans and Americans, who were received by the UAE and have never complained about anything that the European Parliament falsely charges."
"The European Parliament's decision was based on incorrect information, lacks credibility, and contradicts the remarkable achievements of the United Arab Emirates in the field of human development, preservation of human rights and the promotion of human rights," Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response to the European Parliament decision.
In addition to Bahrain, the Arab Parliament, the legislative body of the Arab League, also expressed its total rejection of the European decision and stressed that it included incorrect information and fallacies that are not based on facts or objective evidence.
"This decision is an extension of the non-objective and non-neutral approach by which the European Parliament deals with the human rights situation in the Arab world," the Arab Parliament said in a statement in which it also voiced full support for the UAE.
"The unacceptable language included in the European Parliament's resolution represents an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the UAE, and there is nothing in the dictionary of international parliamentary work that authorizes a regional parliamentary organization to assess the human rights situation in countries outside its regional scope."
Some very vocal Arabs, in short, are loudly telling the Europeans to mind their own business. The Arabs are also telling the Europeans that if they have to meddle in the internal affairs of the Arab countries, they should at least support those states, such as the UAE, that have made real strides in human rights, rather than supporting and emboldening terrorists through calls for the boycott of global cooperation events.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
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