English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 10/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.october10.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 05/24-30/:”Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. ‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 09-10/2022
President Aoun receives a phone call from Hochstein, briefing him on the outcome of recent contacts over southern maritime borders demarcation
Paris tells Beirut Israel wants no escalation as report says US behind Qana row
Gas talks: Lebanon 'won't offer concessions' as US works on new wording
Gantz threatens Lebanon anew, says deal would be good for both sides
Mossad says Nasrallah doesn't want war, Gantz urges pre-extraction deal
Fresh missile strike on Ukraine city kills 17
Al-Rahi: We don't want a 'settlements president'
Mikati follows up with Health Minister on cholera cases, calls for a meeting early next week
FPM outlines its presidential priorities
Abiad concluding Akar tour: We detected a frightening decline in the level of basic services that exposes us to matters other than epidemics
Lebanon wins largest number of medals on first day of "Beirut Open Taekwondo Championship" held under auspices of President of the Republic...
Hajj Hassan during the Syndicate of Veterinarians Exhibition: You carry a large part of the farmer's burdens/Raghida Dergham/The National/October 09/ 2022

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 09-10/2022
Protests continue across Iran as rights group reports 19 minors killed
2 killed as demonstrations around Iran enter 4th week
Empty stomachs and suspicion: Fights over food in liberated Ukrainian town
Ukraine says it recaptured 1,200 sq km of Kherson region in ongoing counteroffensive
Russian state TV embraces Tucker Carlson's baseless suggestion that the US is behind the attack on Nord Stream gas pipelines
Trump blames US for 'almost forcing' Putin to invade Ukraine, says 'dumb' rhetoric taunted Russia
Israeli troops hunt for shooter in deadly Jerusalem attack

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 09-10/2022
U.S. Presidents Refuse to Protect the U.S. from North Korea's Nukes/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 09/2022
Neo Totalitarianism, Civic Rebellions and Belligerence/Charles Elias Chartouni/Face Book//October 09/2022
Khamenei Regime Thugs Attack Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, MIT the country’s most globally connected institution/Mariam Memarsadeghi/The Tablet/October 09/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 09-10/2022
President Aoun receives a phone call from Hochstein, briefing him on the outcome of recent contacts over southern maritime borders demarcation
NNA/October 09/2022 
The Presidency Information Office indicated, in an issued statement Sunday evening, that President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received this afternoon a phone call from the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, briefing him on the results of the recent rounds of contacts with the Lebanese side on one hand, and the Israeli side on the other, during which the observations made by both parties were studied. Hochstein explained that the discussion rounds were concluded and the notes he will be sending in the next few hours were specified in a copy that includes the final version of the proposal related to the demarcation of the southern maritime border. Hochstein thanked President Aoun and his team for the wise management of the negotiations file and the way in which the points under discussion were addressed, which facilitated the completion of the negotiations through relentless efforts in the past few days. The Lebanese side will study the final version carefully in preparation for taking the appropriate decision. Prior to Hochstein's call, President Aoun met with Deputy Speaker of Parliament Elias Bou Saab, who briefed him on the details of his discussions with the American mediator during the past three days.

Paris tells Beirut Israel wants no escalation as report says US behind Qana row
Naharnet/October 09/2022
The French intervened following the latest Israeli rejection in the gas talks with Lebanon and Paris told Beirut through PM-designate Najib Mikati that "Israel does not intend to escalate," al-Akhbar newspaper quoted prominent sources as saying. The sources added that "the Americans are behind the Israeli stance, especially in the point related to financial compensation, seeing as the U.S. wants to help Lapid's government in the face of the campaign that he is facing prior to the Israeli elections." "The insistence on the word compensation is aimed at giving the impression that Israel has managed to win a Lebanese recognition of its right to the Qana field," the sources said.

Gas talks: Lebanon 'won't offer concessions' as US works on new wording
Naharnet/October 09/2022
While the Israeli "political shelling" against the draft gas agreement with Lebanon has "calmed down," Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab has received from U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein a letter containing Israel's remarks to the draft and Israel's comments on the proposed Lebanese amendments, al-Akhbar daily said on Saturday."The atmosphere in Beirut does not point to the presence of major obstacles, while the enemy is busy with the repercussions of its stance on the Israeli public," al-Akhbar added. A Lebanese official source meanwhile told the newspaper that Lebanon "has no concessions to offer," as President Michel Aoun reportedly told his visitors that Lebanon is "standing on firm ground and has voiced its stance out of awareness and knowledge." "The response to Hochstein's latest letter will be clear and imminent," Aoun added. The official source meanwhile said that the Americans are working on "different wording for the articles contained in the draft," stressing that "any new attempt to drop Lebanon's amendments will be rejected." The source also noted that Lebanon is clinging to its stance regarding the buoys line on the sea border and its "full right to work in the Qana field and elsewhere without awaiting prior permission from the enemy under the excuse that Israel wants an agreement with the exploration companies."

Gantz threatens Lebanon anew, says deal would be good for both sides
Naharnet/October 09/2022
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that Israel would move ahead with plans to extract gas from the Karish field even if no deal is reached Lebanon, warning Hezbollah that any attack would meet a “resolute” response, the Times of Israel has reported. “If Hezbollah makes that mistake and attacks Israel in any way, by air, sea or land, Israel will defend itself resolutely, it will attack resolutely, and if things develop into a broader conflict, we will take Lebanon apart, and that would be a great pity,” he told Channel 12, according to the Israeli newspaper. “We’ve said so and it’s in Lebanon’s hands now,” Gantz stated. In a separate interview with Kan TV, Gantz said: “If we reach a deal with the Lebanese government it will be good for both sides. It will be good for stability and serve all players.” He said Israel was “not anxious” over Hezbollah’s threats. “We keep making clear that Israel is prepared for a deal, (but) Israel is determined to maintain its economic and security interests," he added. Gantz also rejected opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of the proposed accord. The former prime minister has accused the Israeli government of bargaining away Israel’s “sovereign territory” and has said he will not be bound by it if he returns to power. Gantz brushed away the comments, saying Netanyahu “would have rushed to sign” such a deal. He added that the former premier is “engaged solely in political manipulation.”Gantz’s office on Saturday invited Netanyahu to a security briefing to provide him with details on the proposed deal. On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides also shot down right-wing claims the accord was a surrender to Hezbollah. “That is ridiculous,” Nides told JTA. He also said Netanyahu “supported a very similar deal a few years ago.”

Mossad says Nasrallah doesn't want war, Gantz urges pre-extraction deal
Naharnet/October 09/2022
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, has told Israel’s security cabinet that, according to his evaluation, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah wants the gas deal with Israel to be finalized and “does not want a military battle with Israel at the moment,” Israel’s Channel 12 has reported. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz for his part told the cabinet that the agreement should be signed prior to the extraction of gas from the Karish offshore gas field. “The security threat is big and this agreement must be defended because it’s good,” Gantz added, according to the channel.

Fresh missile strike on Ukraine city kills 17
Agence France Presse/October 09/2022
An overnight Russian missile strike killed 17 people in Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said on Sunday, in the latest deadly attack to hit the southern Ukrainian city that President Volodymyr Zelensky called "absolute evil.""After night missile attack on Zaporizhzhia, at least 20 houses and about 50 multi-story buildings were damaged. 17 people died, as of now," Anatoliy Kurtev, secretary of Zaporizhzhia city council, wrote on Telegram. Four educational institutions were also damaged, he added. Zelensky and regional official Oleksandr Starukh provided a lower death toll of 12, with the latter saying that more victims may be under the rubble as a search and rescue operation was launched. At least 17 people including a child died when seven Russian missiles hit Zaporizhzhia before dawn on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities announced in an upwardly revised toll on Saturday. "Zaporizhzhia again. Merciless strikes on peaceful people again. On residential buildings, just in the middle of the night," Zelensky said on Telegram of Sunday's attack, adding that 49 people including six children were in hospital. "Absolute meanness. Absolute evil. Savages and terrorists. From the one who gave this order to everyone who fulfilled this order. They will bear responsibility. For sure. Before the law and before people." Zaporizhzhia lies close to the frontline where Kyiv's forces have been carrying out a large-scale counter-attack against Russian troops. The Ukrainian-controlled industrial city is located in the eponymous Zaporizhzhia region, also home to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant that has been the site of heavy shelling. Moscow claims to have annexed the region even though its forces do not control all of it. Ukraine said at least 30 people were killed last week when a convoy of civilian cars in the Zaporizhzhia region was shelled in an attack Kyiv blamed on Moscow.

Al-Rahi: We don't want a 'settlements president'
Naharnet/NNA/October 09/2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday rejected what he called the election of a “settlements president.”Turning to the issue of the new government, al-Rahi called for the formation of “an inclusive rather than a partisan government.”“It should be the government of the people, not the government of a party, coalition or a group that wants to impose hegemony on the country through it,” the patriarch added. “The people reject a government and a president who would be tailored to fit the interests of some parties,” al-Rahi went on to say. "We do not want a settlements president," said Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, this Sunday from Bkerki, adding that "the Maronite Patriarchate does not distribute its support to specific candidates, contrary to what is being promoted by some.""The time has come to reveal the features of the candidate for the presidency, and to impose himself with his personality, experience and solidity," the Patriarch went on. Finally, Rahi demanded that the deputies elect a president in the upcoming October 13 session, and then form the government.

Mikati follows up with Health Minister on cholera cases, calls for a meeting early next week
NNA/October 09/ 2022
Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati followed up with Minister of Public Health Firas Abiad the file of cholera infections that were recorded, and the measures taken by the ministry to treat the infected and limit the spread of the epidemic.
In this context, Mikati called the Ministers of Health, Interior, Municipalities, Energy, Environment and Agriculture to a meeting to follow up on this matter during the upcoming week.

FPM outlines its presidential priorities
NNA/October 09/ 2022
Outlining its priorities for the upcoming presidential elections, the Free Patriotic Movement issued today the following statement:
"At a time when the political forces compete to establish the qualifications of the candidate for the forthcoming president of the republic, the Free Patriotic Movement approaches the presidency based on its conceptual understanding of the constitution and the role and position of the president. While we are fully aware that the constitution has entrusted the executive powers to the Council of Ministers and granted it the authority to set the general policy of the state, the President of the Republic, according to the constitution, remains the head of the state and the symbol of the nation’s unity. He ensures respect for the constitution as he is the only one who takes the constitution oath, and as such, he is called upon to determine his positions on national issues regardless of the limits of his constitutional powers.
Accordingly, the Free Patriotic Movement determines its position regarding the presidency based on the following matters:
1- IN FOREIGN AND DEFENSE POLICY:
A- Preserving national sovereignty, protecting borders and national rights in full, and developing a defense strategy in which the state would be the main reference.
B- Preserving and developing Lebanon's foreign relations and shielding it away from conflicts in which the country has no interest.
C- Achieving a rapid and safe return of the displaced Syrians and insistence on the return of Palestinian refugees to prevent their settlement in Lebanon.
2- IN NATIONAL BALANCE AND PARTNERSHIP:
A- Recognizing the representation base of the President of the Republic as a basic charter clause to preserving his role.
B- Preserving an electoral law that guarantees the 50/50 validity of actual representation, and the right of the diaspora in direct representation and participation in both candidacy and voting within the designated districts as per the law.
C- Reinforcing the rule of respect of parliamentary balance and representation, and constitutional partnership in formation of governments.
D- Respecting the national balance in the public administration positions on the basis of qualification, in accordance with Article 95 of the Constitution.
E- Respecting the national consensus of ascendency of authorities on the basis of full and balanced partnership between Christians and Muslims, as well as refusing dedicating any ministerial position to any one sect, and abstaining from any exploitation of the legitimacy with the aim of arbitrarily disrupting the work of authorities. The respect of the national consensus legitimacy is a condition for the constitution of authority and does not apply to the daily functioning of institutions and ordinary resolutions.
3- IN DEALING WITH THE FINANCIAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COLLAPSE:
A- Presenting a comprehensive financial recovery addressing the unification of the exchange rate, the restructuring of the banking sector, consisting in the recovery of stolen, gifted, smuggled and transferred funds, and including a fair and proportionate distribution of losses between the state, the central bank and the commercial banks while preserving the rights of depositors, especially small depositors. The plan should also include the establishment of a trust fund for the management and investment of state assets, in which shares are allocated to depositors and the diaspora according to their desires.
B- Enacting the necessary reform laws, including: the budget, capital control, banking sector restructuring, banking secrecy law, transferred funds recovery, disclosure of accounts and properties of those in charge of public service...
C- Completing the forensic audit and defining responsibilities aiming to establish a system of accountability and justice and for right institutional practices.
D- Reforming the public finance by completing the financial accounts auditing and accounts cut-offs in compliance with the constitution, and enacting actual budgets targeting economic and social development and not based on simple balancing of numbers. These budgets would include ways to stop waste, gradual zeroing of the deficit, tax evasion and customs system reforms…
E- Adopting a fair, balanced and progressive tax system that provides the necessary income for the state, on the basis of the family unified tax rate.
F- Transitioning toward a production-based economy on the basis of developing the agricultural, industrial, touristic and knowledge economy sectors.
G- Establishing a social safety net and comprehensive health care, through the issuance of the following cards:
The senior citizen card, the medical health card, the youth and student card, the social card, the biometric card, and the adoption of the educational identity card that controls the distribution of grants and aids and achieves justice in benefiting from state support and forms the basis for scientific statistics.
4 - IN POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM:
A - Holding of a national dialogue table to develop the political system based on the implementation of the National Pact Agreement.
B - Addressing the gaps and imbalances of the constitution (especially with regard to the structure of constitutional institutions, deadlines and decrees...).
C- Adopting the expanded administrative and financial decentralization plan.
D - Abolishing of sectarianism and adopting a civil personal status law, down to a civil state. Establishing also a Senate on the basis of the Orthodox law, which legislation revolves around the entity issues.
E- Presenting a modern law for parties that imposes sectarian diversity within them and defines the means of their financing.
F- Ridding the public administration of the impurities resulting from clientalistic recruitment and restructuring the public sector according to efficiency and need criteria.
G- Adopting good governance and e-government, and endorsing a one-stop window for administrative transactions and automating the administration.
5- IN THE JUDICIARY, ITS INDEPENDENCE AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS:
A - Passing a modern law for the independence of the judiciary that separates the judicial authority from the political authority (provided that the accountability authority be independent of it), and ensures the proper exercise of this independence to ascertain speed and effectiveness.
B- Completing the investigation and passing judgments in the crime of the Beirut port explosion.
C- Conducting investigations and prosecuting, holding accountable and indicting those involved in financial crimes.
D- Establishing a special court for financial crimes.
E- Preventing executive powers from interfering with supervisory bodies, strengthening the independence of these bodies and activating their work.
F- Putting an end to the times of impunity and implementing sanctions against the perpetrators.
G- Activating the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and launching its mechanisms.
6- IN THE NATIONAL WEALTH:
A- Extracting oil and gas in national waters and on land and establishing the Sovereign Fund to preserve and invest the proceeds for the benefit of future generations.
B- Protecting and using the water resources, completing building dams, and making use of solar, hydropower and air for renewable, sustainable and viable energy.
C- Building interactive relations with the diaspora by way of exercising their right to regain and adopt the Lebanese nationality, involving them in national economic projects and benefiting from their intellectual and financial capabilities and their global expertise.
D- Protecting the cultural, archaeological and natural heritage and making it the basis of ecological, sports, heritage, gastronomical and religious tourism.
E- Increasing the participation of women in political and economic activities by removing the obstacles preventing them, as well as activating the role of the young generation in political life and the productive economy.
F- Completing the work of establishing the Human Academy for Convergence and Dialogue approved by the United Nations at the request of President General Michel Aoun, thus building its headquarters and launching its activities.
7 - IN SAFETY, STABILITY AND PROSPERITY:
A- Strengthening the prestige of the state by imposing the rule of law on the basis of justice.
B- Developing the armed forces institution and strengthening it with quality defensive capabilities, for them to be more capable and effective in preserving the national sovereignty and borders.
C- Developing the national security forces in a way that enhances citizen protection and the sense of security.
D- Controlling the land and sea borders to prevent all sorts of smuggling which will reflect in increasing the state's income.
E- Developing an infrastructure investment program, especially a modern transportation policy related to airports, commercial and touristic seaports, land cross boarder facilities, and a road network, in addition to a policy concerning sewage, water, communications, and a comprehensive energy policy.
F- Reviving Lebanon’s economic role at Eastern, Arab and Mediterranean levels and interaction with regional and international economic and financial organizations.
--- FPM Press Release

Abiad concluding Akar tour: We detected a frightening decline in the level of basic services that exposes us to matters other than epidemics
NNA/October 09/ 2022
Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad concluded his Sunday tour in the Governorate of Akar with a press conference this afternoon, in which he said: “Today we are at the conclusion of a tour in Akkar that started in the morning from the waste water station in Tripoli, then the North Lebanon Water Corporation station, followed by the field visits to the camps of the displaced, and then to Halba Governmental Hospital, and finally to the Akkar Governorate Serail."He added: "The aim of the visit is to first of all monitor the situation on the ground, and we have seen a decline in the level of basic services, whether for the Lebanese people or for the displaced, that reached the level of exposure to epidemics that have not entered Lebanon for a long time.""This frightening decline exposes us to other matters, not only epidemics. It may affect public health or other matters related to the citizen or the displaced," cautioned Abiad.
He continued to indicate that officials from the Ministry of Public Health and the Parliament accompanied him on his Akar tour visit, including MP Bilal Abdallah and fellow parliamentarians, colleagues and international partners, as they all had a closer look at the new reality and detected a decline in the level of services provided by Lebanon's international partners under many excuses, as he explained. Abiad said: "Of course, we will not accept these excuses, because we consider that addressing displacement in Lebanon is not only Lebanon's responsibility, but primarily the responsibility of the international community towards this 11-year crisis."The Minister continued to point out that "the preparedness at the level of the health system is good, but we consider that the problem is not here. It begins with providing safe water to citizens or displaced people, in addition to effective sanitation to get rid of any germs present in waste water."He added that "the end of the tour was at the governorate's center, where there is a very significant role that must be played by municipalities, NGOs and everyone, because in this effort all must be involved, to cooperate to put an end to this epidemic and to prevent any exacerbation.""I thank all those who participated in this visit and those who welcomed us, because we felt the utmost cooperation and response from everyone, and this gives us hope that we will be able to stop this epidemic at its start," Abiad concluded reassuringly, stressing that in the field of epidemics, beginnings are very important to determine the course of the epidemic and prevent its wide spread.

Lebanon wins largest number of medals on first day of "Beirut Open Taekwondo Championship" held under auspices of President of the Republic...
NNA/October 09/ 2022
Lebanon reaped massive victory on the first day of the fourth annual Beirut Open Taekwondo Tournament, organized by the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation, under the auspices of the President of the Lebanese Republic, General Michel Aoun, and under the supervision of the International Federation, held at the Nohad Nawfal Complex Stadium in Zouk Mikael. Twenty countries are partaking in the tournament, namely Lebanon, Turkey, Congo, Ivory Coast, Iran, India, Greece, Libya, Iraq, Lesotho, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Netherlands, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Syria and Oman.
The grand opening ceremony was held in the presence of a large audience, led by Caretaker Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, representing the President of the Republic; Olympic Committee Head Pierre Galakh; Attorney Ibrahim Al-Shweiri, representing the Caretaker Youth and Sports Minister; Colonel Fadi Stephan, representing the Army Commander; Major Walid Tannouri, representing the Director-General of the Internal Security Forces; Major Dimitri Saqr, representing the Director-General of Public Security; Major Labib Saad, representing the Director-General of State Security; members of the Olympic Committee; ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps led by South Korean Ambassador to Lebanon Il Park; President of the Arab Taekwondo Federation Idris Al-Hilali and members of the Arab Federation; Observer of the International Taekwondo Federation Othman Deldar; heads of delegations, heads and members of Lebanese sports federations, Taekwondo players, and members of the press. In his opening word, Minister Nassar said: "I would like to welcome the International Taekwondo Federation, its delegate, the president and members of the Arab Federation and the participating delegations. I warmly congratulate the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation for its good organization and for hosting this international championship and the Arab championship."Nassar affirmed that "the participation of twenty countries in the championship is nothing but the best proof that Lebanon is a country that is safe, stable and open to its Arab neighbors and the brotherly Arab countries, as well as the countries of the entire world," adding that "work is underway today to stabilize it economically and politically, as it is a country entitled to attract international tournaments in various fields and sports, tourism, entertainment and cultural sectors to restore its presence and active position in the region and the world.”"On behalf of His Excellency the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, I announce the opening of the tournament, wishing all participants brilliance and victory, and that Lebanon would remain as it has always been, the land of convergence for all countries and a focal point for international activities, as it proved that it is always ready and present, despite all the difficult circumstances to host this tournament and all similar tournaments with constant success."," Nassar concluded his welcoming address.
A commemorative shield was then presented to the Tourism Minister by President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation, Dr. Habib Zarifa. Prior to the start of the competitions, the South Korean battalion operating within the United Nations forces in southern Lebanon also presented a show that won the admiration of the audience.

Hajj Hassan during the Syndicate of Veterinarians Exhibition: You carry a large part of the farmer's burdens
NNA/October 09/ 2022
Caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Hajj Hassan, patronized Sunday the annual exhibition held by the Syndicate of Veterinarians entitled "Together for a Better Future", where he thanked the organizers and participants for their valuable efforts in putting together the event. "I salute you as you carry a large part of the farmer's concerns in general and hold absolute faith in this country and its sectors," Hajj Hassan said. He commended their role and contribution to the image of the homeland with its pluralism, determination and steadfastness in achieving the aspired goals. "The relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Syndicate of Veterinarians is an integrative one," Hajj Hassan asserted.

Demarcation of the Lebanese-Israeli Maritime Border: A Qualitative Shift for Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Iran
Raghida Dergham/The National/October 09/ 2022
When Lebanon and Israel reach a deal to demarcate their maritime border, the oil and gas will not be the only benefit reaped by Lebanon, as a deal will also mean there would be no war between the two countries as long as the basic guarantees in the agreement stipulate that the front would not be heated, there would be no tension, and no provocation from either side. Hezbollah is a silent party to the pledges of pacifying the border and not starting a confrontation. This means that Hezbollah, backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, has decided to ‘dissociate’ itself from any developments in Syria and Palestine, and refrain from using the Lebanese borders and front to retaliate for the sake of Syria and Palestine. Whether this transformation has taken place for pragmatic, financial, and political calculations for both Hezbollah and Lebanon; as part of a behind-the-scenes deal between Iran and Israel/the United States amid ongoing efforts to revive the JCPOA; or as a result of gains-and-losses calculations by Tehran and Hezbollah, it is important to stop and take stock of the benefits while insisting on protecting Lebanon’s national wealth from the greed of the ruling class in Lebanon. This requires creating a sovereign wealth fund and overcoming suspicious and selfish opposition whether from the Shia Duo (Hezbollah-Amal) or the Free Patriotic Movement, or anyone else with their disgraceful agendas. However, this also will not be enough: All parties taking part in the current effort, be it the United States, the United Nations, the energy companies, or the insurance companies, have a responsibility to not allow the national oil and gas wealth to become an easy prey for the corrupt powers in Lebanon.
The demarcation of the border will be a guarantee for donor countries that Lebanon will be on solid ground and that there would be no war there. The priorities of the Najib Mikati government have included the demarcation of maritime borders, legislative and presidential elections, respecting constitutional commitments, and reaching an agreement with the IMF. A source close to the government said that Lebanon has reached the midpoint in this journey, with the demarcation set to pave the way for the IMF, investments, and renewed confidence from donor countries.
Negotiations set to take place in the coming days over technical details of the border demarcation deal will be direct talks between Lebanon, Israel, and the United States with the participation of the UN. This means that the United States is present as a party on the negotiating table, as a guarantor of a deal not just a broker. The role played by the skilled mediator Amos Hochstein has been central to the optimism surrounding the deal, and he will not fail to do his utmost to complete it and safeguard it against the manoeuvres of Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon. It is a crucially important achievement for both countries and the Biden administration, which is in need for such a win.
There are verbal pledges that Israel will not provoke Hezbollah, because its interests are better served by extracting gas and not becoming implicated in a war that will prevent the exploitation of oil and gas wealth – as long as Hezbollah does not provoke it first. There are verbal pledges from Hezbollah too that it will not heat up the Lebanese front with Israel, on condition that Israel does not provoke it either. Hezbollah too, not just Lebanon, will reap benefits from the demarcation of the border and the exploitation of oil and gas.
In the equation of non-provocations and silent understandings on pacifying the Lebanese-Israeli border, Lebanon will enter a qualitatively new phase of relations with Israel. Iran and Hezbollah, in turn, are entering into an agreement with Israel, which is also a major shift, despite their denials and protestations. Indeed, pragmatism has required the Iranian regime to recalculate and reposition itself, in light of its domestic situation, the stalling of the nuclear negotiations, and the requirements of economic recovery in Iran which means Iranian money is needed in Iran, not to finance Hezbollah’s projects against Israel in the Lebanese front.
Meanwhile, the Syrian front between Iran/Hezbollah and Israel needs venting of tensions and not escalation, which would harm the IRGC and the Iranian regime’s domestic and regional projects. For this reason, the Iranian leadership has concluded that turning a blind eye to agreements with Israel is useful, while not being compelled to deal directly and publicly with these agreements.
The uprising led by young Iranian women and men following the death of Mahsa Amini and dozens others in recent weeks impacts Iran’s general calculus, but is not directly linked to Iran’s decision not to block an agreement to demarcate borders between Lebanon and Israel. That is unless a sudden development takes place after the time of writing. The Iranian leadership has resolved to put down the uprising and deflate it of all potency, confident that the protests are fleeting. However, the Iranian leadership is not certain that the nuclear talks are completely finished.
The US midterm elections have forced all sides to take a step back, and think again about how to reach a deal between the United States and Iran, but after the elections in November. This is perhaps a key reason why Tehran has shown good will and has not disrupted the agreement to demarcate maritime borders to extract oil and gas. Europe remains vital for Iran, and on it the latter relies to push the Biden administration into signing the nuclear deal. The European powers have urged Tehran to show good will also in this issue, for reasons related to oil and gas supplies as well as the nuclear issue.
The international environment must have also influenced Iran’s calculus, especially the developments in the Ukraine war that are unfavorable to Russia, from the astonishing defeats that have exposed the Russian army, to the voices talking about a change in the regime in Russia, meaning Vladimir Putin.
This unexpected development cannot pass without an effect on the regime in Tehran, which understands the language of regime change. Amid these developments, a self-reassessment is probably being undertaken by Iran’s rulers and their partners in Lebanon, particularly in light of the isolation of Iran and Hezbollah compared with the openness and change in the Arab Gulf states, for example. Perhaps Hezbollah’s leadership concluded that pacifying the Lebanese front would bring relief, and started using the language of the Lebanese state’s exclusive responsibility for demarcating maritime boundaries with Israel, to avoid admitting it was instructed to consent by Iran, and that it was responsible for blocking the extraction of Lebanon’s natural wealth amid economic collapse. This does not mean that Hezbollah has finally returned to the Lebanese fold, but it may be an important step towards the Lebanonization of Hezbollah.
Proving the intent that this wealth will be allowed to belong to Lebanon requires an honest commitment to establishing a sovereign wealth fund. Popular pressure is important here so that Lebanese citizens are not kept out of the loop of deciding their future.
The sovereign fund must be under the supervision of the Lebanese state, the exploration companies, and the UN, although the Lebanese state will be the one to sign the agreement. One of the key conditions in the agreement is establishing the sovereign fund – including for practical reasons such as the cost of insurance, which will be lower if there is a sovereign fund.
Today, the Lebanese government and parliament’s first responsibility is approving the creation of this fund. If they fail to do so, Lebanese citizens and the international partners must hold them to their responsibilities.
A source who has been part of the efforts that brought us to where we are now, on the verge of signing an agreement to demarcate maritime boundaries, said that all sides are in agreement not to mix the issue of sea borders with land borders. Hezbollah does not support the demarcation of land borders with Israel or Syria. Hezbollah does not want an end to arms supplies and smuggling through Lebanese-Syrian borders, and does not want Damascus to have to answer a years-long question from the UN: Are the Shebaa Farms Lebanese or Syrian?
The Syrian government has never responded, and most likely will not respond. It considers Shebaa Syrian territory and will not accept to remove the mandate of UNDOF between it and Israel and remove Shebaa from the scope of occupied Syrian territories and grant the region to Lebanon. Who knows, perhaps silent accords are also being prepared along the Syrian-Israeli front, and Damascus does not want to get ahead of itself or close the options available to it.
As one Lebanese expert who took part in preparing the agreement said, “Perhaps we have reached this point after suffering for long under the culture of coexistence with war…today we are yearning to live in a culture of peace”.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 09-10/2022
Protests continue across Iran as rights group reports 19 minors killed
DUBAI (Reuters)/October 09/2022
Protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody continued across Iran on Sunday despite a fierce crackdown by the authorities, as a human rights group said at least 185 people, including children, had been killed in the unrest.
Demonstrations that began on Sept. 17 at the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in her Kurdish town of Saqez, have turned into the biggest challenges to Iran's clerical leaders in years, with protesters calling for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"At least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the nationwide protests across Iran. The highest number of killings occurred in Sistan and Baluchistan province with half the recorded number," said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights in a statement on Saturday.
Denying use of live bullets, authorities have described the protests as a plot by Iran's foes including the United States, accusing armed dissidents - among others - of violence in which at least 20 members of the security forces have been reported killed.
Videos shared on social media showed protests continued in dozens of cities across Iran early Sunday with hundreds of high school girls and university students joining in despite the use of tear gas, clubs, and in many cases live ammunition by the security forces, according to rights groups. A video posted on Twitter by the widely followed activist 1500tasvir showed a man shouting "don't hit my wife, she is pregnant," while trying to protect her from a dozen riot police beating the couple in the city of Rafsanjan. Other videos showed protesters blocking some streets in southern Tehran.
Some posts on social media said shops were closed in several cities after a call by activists for a mass strike. Reuters could not verify the videos and posts. Details of casualties have trickled out slowly, partly because of the restrictions on the internet imposed by the authorities. Amini was arrested in Tehran on Sept. 13 for wearing "inappropriate attire". She died three days later at a Tehran hospital. A state coroner's report on Saturday said Amini had died due to pre-existing medical conditions. Her father has held the police responsible for her death with the family lawyer saying "respectable doctors" believe she was beaten while in custody.

2 killed as demonstrations around Iran enter 4th week
Associated Press/October 09/2022
Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed. Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage. Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran's state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read "Join us and stand up!" and "The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws," a reference to Khamenei. A song with the lyrics "Woman. Life. Freedom" — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background. The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran's feared morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and were met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested. In the city of Sanandaj in the Kurdish-majority northern region, one man was shot dead Saturday while driving a car in a major thoroughfare, rights monitors said. The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said the man was shot after honking at security forces stationed on the street. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience. Video circulating online showed the slain man slumped over the steering wheel, as distraught witnesses shouted for help.The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the elite paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdistan's police chief denied reports of using live rounds against protesters. Fars claimed that people in Sanandaj's Pasdaran Street said the victim was shot from inside the car without elaborating. But photos of the dead man indicate that he was shot from his left side, meaning he likely was not shot from inside the car. The blood can be seen running down the inside of the door on the driver's side. A second protester was killed after security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds in the city and 10 protesters were wounded, the rights monitors said. A general strike was observed in the city's main streets amid a heavy security presence and protesters burned tires in some areas. Patrols have deterred mass gatherings in Sanandaj but isolated protests have continued in the city's densely populated neighborhoods. Demonstrations were also reported in the capital Tehran on Saturday, including small ones near the Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran's premier centers of learning and the scene of a violent government crackdown last weekend. Authorities have closed the campus until further notice. Images on social media showed protests also took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad. Other protests erupted at Azad University in northern Tehran, in other neighborhoods of the capital and in the city's bazaar. Many shops were closed in central Tehran and near the University of Tehran. President Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting with students from the all-female Al-Zahra University in Tehran alleged again that foreign enemies were responsible for fomenting the protests. He has made the claim without giving specifics or providing any evidence. "The enemy thought that it can pursue its desires in universities while unaware that our students and teachers are aware and they will not allow the enemies' vain plans to be realized," he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in The Hague, Netherlands chanted and sang in a solidarity demonstration in support of the protesters in Iran.

Empty stomachs and suspicion: Fights over food in liberated Ukrainian town
Sky News/October 09/2022
The hunger is sharp in Lyman but the instinct to survive, even sharper.
It's been exceptionally honed in those Lyman residents who've remained through months of fighting, bombing and Russian occupation. And there are a surprisingly large number of them.
We see crowds on the outskirts of the town, gathering around a small warehouse where there is a rare handout of emergency supplies. Now that the terrifying crashing sounds of battle are further away, many are emerging for the first time since the rapid pull-out of Russian troops about a week ago.
But life after liberation of this Donbas town is still an extraordinarily tough endurance test. There's little food, no power, no running water, and no communications. They've been cut off from everything as the war raged around them, edging ever closer until it finally set up camp inside their town. They only realised the fighting had moved on and control of the town had changed hands when the howling rumble of war faded. So, word-of-mouth about donated bread immediately leads to long queues and there's a barely contained desperation in the crowd as they each try to secure one of the boxes of aid being handed out.
Empty stomachs and suspicion
"I've waited for hours," one elderly woman complains.
"My legs are very tired. How do you think it is? I've been cooking on a fire for months now. Do you think that's a good life?" When another pensioner using two crutches is called ahead of her in the queue, she cries out bitterly again. "You weren't like that before," she says accusingly to the old man, looking at his crutches suspiciously and eyeing his limp with disdain and doubt. Empty stomachs and sheer war weariness have ground down everything but some of the most basic impulses in some. A loud and angry argument breaks out between a young mother-of-four and the elderly woman. It's over who is in more need of the emergency supplies. But Olga's brought her young son with her, and she's not about to lose this fight. "People have become very aggressive," she says. "I thought the war would bring us all together. But no, the war's done the opposite. People are just looking after themselves and don't help each other. Everyone's on their own." In the end, both women are among those to receive aid. A kind of uneasy harmony is restored... for now. The drift of the fighting as the Ukrainians press forward into the Donbas has meant the forests, the town of Lyman, and the surrounding areas are finally giving up their secrets.
The national police chief Ihor Klymenko, who's in Lyman, says he's called in experts including a United Nations team after police were directed to two possible mass graves with what appeared to be several hundred people buried together including babies and older children. "We first questioned every civilian who remained in Lyman during the occupation and we discovered there'd been some burials," he says. "We checked out the sites and then started excavating. And on exhuming some bodies, we called the specialists in - investigators, forensics, and prosecutors - and after that, full exhumation began. Only after they've been examined, can we answer questions about how they died; when they died, and whether they're civilians or military who're in the mass graves."We see large tents and teams of investigators - some in hazmat suits - sifting through the graves to try to determine the facts but police ask us not to film the area or their work until they've been able to establish a few facts. And there are still many Russian corpses being discovered in the wake of the Ukrainian advance. Those we spot in the woodland around Lyman and the nearby towns also now liberated by Ukrainian troops are already badly eaten by forest flies and rats. But they lie there, mostly untouched.
Booby-trapped corpses
Some have been found with booby traps under them so the mine-clearance teams concentrate first on the roads and verges. The small mine-clearance group we're with tell us they find about a hundred mines daily - including internationally banned cluster bombs disguised as leaves so as to go unnoticed and cause maximum damage. The head of this anti-mining group is Anatolyy Krasnopyorov and he says: "We're finding a lot of them in Donetsk - particularly the 'leaves'. They're forbidden under the Geneva Convention but they (the Russians) are still throwing them all around." He continues: "There are also lots of different anti-personnel mines too which are also forbidden by the Geneva Convention. They're called black widows and they can blow off half your leg." Alex Crawford reports from a newly recaptured Lyman and the Ukrainian Eastern frontline with cameraman Jake Britton and producers Chris Cunningham and Artem Lysak Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.

Ukraine says it recaptured 1,200 sq km of Kherson region in ongoing counteroffensive
KYIV (Reuters)/Sun, October 9, 2022
Ukraine has recaptured over 1,170 square kilometres (450 square miles) of land in its southern Kherson region since launching the start of its counter-assault against Russia in late August, a military spokesperson said on Sunday. Ukraine achieved lightning success with its offensive in the north-east, but its drive in the south to wipe out a Russian foothold on the west bank of the vast Dnipro river has been a longer, more laboured affair. Southern military command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said that Ukraine was making progress on the Kherson front, but that lots needed to be done to secure newly recaptured territories. "Work is continuing on consolidation of territory, clearing it and conducting stabilising operations, as the settlements we enter contain many surprises left by the (Russian) occupiers," she said on Ukrainian national television. "As of today, from the beginning of the counter-offensive, over 1,170 square kilometres have been liberated in the Kherson direction," Humeniuk said. Ukrainian officials have long talked up the priority of recapturing Kherson, a flat, agricultural region which Moscow captured in its near-entirety in the early days of its invasion. Any major territorial losses in Kherson would threaten Russia's supply lines to the strategically significant Crimean peninsula further south, the return of which Kyiv has coveted since its occupation by Russia in 2014.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Russian state TV embraces Tucker Carlson's baseless suggestion that the US is behind the attack on Nord Stream gas pipelines
Sam Tabahriti/Business Insider/October 9, 2022
Russian state TV channels have embraced Tucker Carlson's comments about the Nord Stream pipelines. The Fox News host suggested that the US was behind the damage to the two underwater gas pipelines. The Russian channels repeated his claims at least 12 times on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. Russian state television channels have seized on claims made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that suggested the US may have been behind the suspected attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. Russian television programs replayed or discussed portions of his commentary at least 12 times on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. Carlson hinted on his Fox News program on Tuesday that the US sabotaged the two pipelines running from Russia to Germany. The host said during his show: "Where might some Americans have gotten the notion that the Biden administration might have been involved directly or through a proxy in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines?"Carlson pointed to a tweet from a Polish European parliamentarian and a statement made by President Joe Biden in February opposing the activation of the pipeline to suggest that he may have had some role in destroying it. Russia previously said that the damaged area of the pipeline is "fully under the control" of US intelligence agencies, per Reuters. It also said the damage caused to the pipelines was likely directed by state-sponsored "terrorism."Neither Russia nor Carlson offered any evidence that the US was involved in the pipeline leaks, however.The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) issued a statement saying the leaks were of "deep concern," and that if the damage was caused by sabotage, it would be met with a "united and determined response."The pipelines were not operational, but they contained natural gas that was bubbling to the surface, creating patches of churning sea several hundred yards in size. Sabotage suspicions have intensified in recent days. Sweden's security police issued a statement on Tuesday, which said: "The crime scene investigation that the Security Police conducted at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines is now complete. The investigation has strengthened the suspicions of gross sabotage."But no clear evidence has emerged to prove who might be behind any attack on the pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building. Adm. Sir Ben Key, first sea lord and chief of the British naval staff, said he would "steer clear of direct attribution" because the cause was not "at all clear." The leak was first detected on September 27. The following day, the pipeline operator said there was "unprecedented" damage to three of the four lines that compose Nord Stream 1 and 2. Four leaks have now been found — two in Swedish waters and two in Danish waters — in roughly 250 feet of water.

Trump blames US for 'almost forcing' Putin to invade Ukraine, says 'dumb' rhetoric taunted Russia
Joshua Zitser/Business Insider/October 09/2022.
Donald Trump blamed the US and its leadership for "almost forcing" Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.
Appearing on Real America's Voice, Trump accused the US of taunting Putin with "dumb" rhetoric.
Trump repeated a baseless claim that the Ukraine-Russia war would not have happened if he was still president.
Former President Donald Trump blamed the US for "almost forcing" Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine, Newsweek was the first to report. During an interview on Saturday morning on Real America's Voice, a right-wing network, the former president accused the US and its leadership of goading Putin into waging a botched invasion of Ukraine on February 24. "They actually taunted him, if you really look at it, our country and our so-called leadership taunted Putin," Trump said. "I would listen, I would say, you know, they're almost forcing him to go in with what they're saying. The rhetoric was so dumb."
Trump did not provide any examples of how the US or President Joe Biden "taunted" Putin or what was the supposedly "dumb" rhetoric. Earlier in the interview, the former president claimed that the war between Russia and Ukraine would never have happened if he had won the election and served a second term.
"Ukraine and Russia would not be fighting," Trump claimed. "It doesn't mean they'd love each other, but there's no way they'd be fighting, and there's no way Putin would have actually gone in."In the build-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Trump made the same baseless claim that Putin would not have invaded if he was still in power. He cited his positive relationship with the Russian leader."I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him," Trump said during a "Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" appearance on February 22. "I mean, you know, he's a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride, and he loves his country."Trump also controversially described Putin's justification for invading as "savvy" and "genius."

Israeli troops hunt for shooter in deadly Jerusalem attack
Associated Press/October 09/2022
Israeli police arrested at least three Palestinian suspects Sunday in connection with a deadly shooting at a Jerusalem checkpoint, as security forces searched for the suspected gunman. The shooter opened fire on a military checkpoint in east Jerusalem late Saturday, killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding three other soldiers, one of them seriously. The Israeli military identified the soldier as 18-year-old Noa Lazar. It was the latest bloodshed in the deadliest violence in the region in seven years. It also came less than a day before Israel was to begin celebrating the weeklong Sukkot holiday, a time when tens of thousands of Jews visit the holy city. Police said a large force of officers, soldiers and Shin Bet security agency operatives were involved in the search to apprehend the Palestinian attacker. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid offered condolences to Lazar's family. "We will not be silent and we will not rest until we bring the abominable killers to justice," he said. The attack came hours after two Palestinian teenagers were killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank. A day earlier, two other Palestinian teenagers, ages 14 and 17, were killed by Israeli fire in separate incidents elsewhere in the West Bank. Rights groups accuse Israeli forces of using excessive force in their dealings with the Palestinians, particularly young men, without being held accountable. The military says it contends with complex, life-threatening scenarios. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that is not recognized internationally. It considers the entire city, including east Jerusalem, home to the city's most important holy sites, to be its capital. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem for the capital of a future state with the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 09-10/2022
U.S. Presidents Refuse to Protect the U.S. from North Korea's Nukes
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 09/2022
The U.S. has the power to stop North Korean missile tests but has chosen not to do so. This is true not only of the Biden administration but also its predecessors. The U.S. has continually decided to adopt feeble options.
Chinese banks have been laundering the North's proceeds of criminal and prohibited activity for decades. The Trump administration in June 2017 designated, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, China's Bank of Dandong to be of "primary money laundering concern." The designation meant the bank could no longer clear dollar transactions through the U.S. banking system.
If the designation was meant as a signal, Beijing ignored it. And the Chinese assessed the situation correctly. The Trump administration in 2018 decided not to enforce money-laundering laws against two of the "Big Four" Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, which were handling suspicious transactions involving North Korea. Such a designation would have put these banks out of business everywhere outside China, and Beijing, as a practical matter, would have had to stop money-laundering for North Korea.
As a result of inaction, President Donald Trump gave Chinese institutions free passes to violate American statutes. The administration's decision, an abrogation of its responsibility to uphold the law, was deeply prejudicial to its efforts to disarm the Kim regime.
The Biden administration has continued Trump's lax posture.
The administration has the goods on the North Koreans and the Chinese but has continually failed to act. "This failure is a choice. The money Kim Jong Un obtains by fraud, computer hacking, and ransomware and which he uses to build bombs to threaten us is being laundered through our banks. We're giving Xi Jinping and Kim de facto immunity to keep right on doing it." — Joshua Stanton, sanctions expert, to Gatestone Institute, October 2022.
North Korea's accelerated testing of missiles is a reminder that Kim Jong Un is quickly developing the power to destroy American cities. Perhaps the only things his technicians cannot do is miniaturize a nuclear device and shield it from heat upon reentry to the atmosphere. These are, however, capabilities his military, perhaps with China's help, will develop soon.
Americans might wonder how one of the most destitute regimes on earth can build weapons capable of killing most every American. They may also wonder why Washington has done almost nothing to stop the North Koreans from selling their weapons to Iran, among others.
The U.S. has the power to stop North Korean missile tests but has chosen not to do so. This is true not only of the Biden administration but also its predecessors. The U.S. has continually decided to adopt feeble options. Pictured: A launch of the Hwasong-12 ballistic missile from an undisclosed location in North Korea, on August 29, 2017. (Photo by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency/STR/AFP via Getty Images)
North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile on October 4 over Japan. The Hwasong-12 traveled farther downrange than any other of Pyongyang's missiles. Setting a record pace, the test was the North's 23rd of the year. Two days later, it fired off two short-range missiles.
The Biden administration has done little to stop the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), so that regime is likely to engage in even more provocative behavior soon.
The U.S., in response to the launch, asked for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting, which was held on October 5th. As expected, nothing came of the session. China and Russia, blaming the United States for the North Korean launches, blocked any tightening of sanctions.
The Security Council in recent times has been deadlocked because Beijing and Moscow, each with a veto, have been adamant in protecting the Kim regime from international action. In May, both of them vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on ballistic missile launches. All other members of the Security Council voted with Washington.
The Asia Times online news platform said that Chinese and Russian diplomats have "knee-capped" the Security Council.
China's and Russia's failure "to fully and completely fulfill their obligations... has only, we fear, emboldened the DPRK in undermining the U.N. Security Council, the international rules-based order, and global non-proliferation regime," said Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, shortly after the October 4 launch.
"I don't think anyone should doubt our resolve in terms of pursing sanctions and other authority to impose a cost on these actions," Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for the region, added.
On the contrary, everybody should doubt American resolve. The U.S. has the power to stop North Korean missile tests but has chosen not to do so. This is true not only of the Biden administration but also its predecessors. The U.S. has continually decided to adopt feeble options.
How so?
Without money, the Kim regime could not, among other things, launch missiles. The United States, without China's and Russia's approval, can cut off money to the Kims.
Chinese banks have been laundering the North's proceeds of criminal and prohibited activity for decades. The Trump administration in June 2017 designated, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, China's Bank of Dandong to be of "primary money laundering concern." The designation meant the bank could no longer clear dollar transactions through the U.S. banking system.
If the designation was meant as a signal, Beijing ignored it. And the Chinese assessed the situation correctly. The Trump administration in 2018 decided not to enforce money-laundering laws against two of the "Big Four" Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, which were handling suspicious transactions involving North Korea. Such a designation would have put these banks out of business everywhere outside China, and Beijing, as a practical matter, would have had to stop money-laundering for North Korea.
As a result of inaction, President Donald Trump gave Chinese institutions free passes to violate American statutes. The administration's decision, an abrogation of its responsibility to uphold the law, was deeply prejudicial to its efforts to disarm the Kim regime.
The Biden administration has continued Trump's lax posture. As sanctions expert Joshua Stanton told Gatestone, Biden "is on track to a record low level of enforcement, both qualitatively and quantitatively."
"Treasury has issued small civil penalties to an American bank, and Australian shipper, and an American gift card company for unlicensed deals with North Korea," Stanton points out. "It did not announce any indictments or major penalties against three major Chinese banks that defied a Washington, D.C. grand jury investigation into laundering money for North Korea." The failure to designate is particularly egregious because these banks had been held in contempt of court.
The administration has the goods on the North Koreans and the Chinese but has continually failed to act. "This failure is a choice," says Stanton, who also writes on North Korea sanctions issues at One Free Korea. "The money Kim Jong Un obtains by fraud, computer hacking, and ransomware and which he uses to build bombs to threaten us is being laundered through our banks. We're giving Xi Jinping and Kim de facto immunity to keep right on doing it."
North Korea, analysts believe, will detonate a nuclear device sometime soon, perhaps later this month or next, in what will be its seventh test of a nuclear device. At some point, the Kim regime will make good on its promise, made in front of a New York City audience in September 2017, to detonate a thermonuclear weapon in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. North Korea in November 2017 tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-15, which can reach any part of the continental United States.
North Korea's accelerated testing of missiles is a reminder that Kim is quickly developing the power to destroy American cities. Perhaps the only things his technicians cannot do is miniaturize a nuclear device and shield it from heat upon reentry to the atmosphere. These are, however, capabilities his military, perhaps with China's help, will develop soon.
Americans might wonder how one of the most destitute regimes on earth can build weapons capable of killing most every American. They may also wonder why Washington has done almost nothing to stop the North Koreans from selling their weapons to Iran, among others.
The answer is that every American president from George H. W. Bush on has refused to wield American power to protect Americans from a known and existential danger.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Neo Totalitarianism, Civic Rebellions and Belligerence
Charles Elias Chartouni/Face Book//October 09/2022
It’s no coincidence to observe that the three variables are on a continuum, since the resurgence of totalitarianism, the opposition it elicited all along various geopolitical spectrums, and the topography of conflicts overlap systematically. The revamping of a wearied and anachronistic Russian imperialism, the rise of Chinese economic imperialism tainted with vengeful suprematism, the imperial overstretch of a bankrupted Shiite dystopia in Iran, the dregs of leftist autocracies in South, Central America and Cuba, and the destabilizing dynamics triggered by Islamic radicalism and its shifting tectonics, are resuscitating the choreography of the Cold War without a common narrative, since there is none. We are dealing, as a matter of fact, with a congregation of Totalitarian States and movements which have nothing in common, but their apprehension towards Western Liberal democracy and its geopolitical and institutional configurations. Their hackneyed rhetorics, contempt for Constitutional Statehood, open imperial ambitions and subversion objectives, are the common threads that bind them together and convey the illusion of a rising countervailing system. Actually, they have nothing in common but their animosity, and the residual effects of discredited and defeated dystopias, their sabotaging capabilities and nihilistic propensities. This aggregation of disparate actors should be dealt with sequentially, and each in its own right, with a panoply of containment strategies ranging between military containment (Russia, Iran), economic sanctions and restrictions (China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Islamist Turkey, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador….), military annihilation (Islamist terrorism in its Sunnite and Shiite variants, Narco trafficking States and organized criminality and their actors). Their ability to build a countervailing international system is definitely overshadowed by their inevitable tendency to destabilize extant geopolitics, undermine civil concord, propel terrorism, expand the reach of political wastelands and rogue States, instrumentalize failed States and propound political nihilism.
The urgency of ad hoc and mobile alliances to contain and defeat imperial subversion (Russia, Iran, China, Islamist movements), secure strategic resources, enforce economic sanctions and trade protectionism stipulations, undermine the strategic continuum between political subversion, organized criminality and terrorism and rupture their interfaces, and strengthen the democratic and civic opposition all along various geopolitical spectrums.
The actual agenda revolves around different geopolitical nodes: the military containment of the Russian imperial aggression in Ukraine, the dampening of its nuclear overtones and corollary moral and political delinquency, matched with mutating economic sanctions; the firm stand on Chinese equivocations and malevolent opportunism through economic and technological sanctions, blatant exclusion from WTO and strategic encircling; the containment of the Iranian imperial agenda through strategic checkmating (Larger Middle East), and combat of terrorism and organized criminality represented by Hezbollah and satellites (Middle East, Europe, South and Central America wastelands), and the full endorsement of civic and political opposition movements. As for the rogue States and their wide range of actors, they should be firmly controlled through military containment, economic sanctions, litigations and bolstering of civic rebellions. The islamic radicals ambivalence structured on the interfaces of failed Islamic States, Muslim migrations and their manifold instrumentalisations by terror power brokers and advocates, should be strictly restrained through repression, open warfare, financial obstruction and draining, and the advocacy for religious, political and socio-economic reforms.
Having set these coordinates, we should remind ourselves that our best defenses should rely on revising NATO’s predicates and membership, setting a firm line on Islamist Turkey prevarication and ultimate exclusion, and the creation of an international democratic coalition to make up for the structural flaws of a self defeating United Nations with unequal democratic credentials. The new world order is not as orderly as purported, hence, democratic countries should base policy making on mobile coalitions, changing consensuses, and steady partnerships to stem the tide of political subversion, and diminish the uncertainties of clashing temporalities and civilizational disparities. We are dealing with a highly complex equation, whereby mutating variables and actors are making strategic planning and operational issues more difficult to grasp and deal with, still the outcomes are no less than the safeguarding of basic rights and liberties and the future of World security in nihilistic times.

مريم معمار صادقي/موقع ذي تابليت: بلطجية النظام الخامنئي يهاجمون جامعة الشريف للتكنولوجيا الإيرانية المعروفة عالمياً بمستواها الرفيع
Khamenei Regime Thugs Attack Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, MIT the country’s most globally connected institution
Mariam Memarsadeghi/The Tablet/October 09/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/112605/mariam-memarsadeghi-the-tablet-khamenei-regime-thugs-attack-irans-sharif-university-of-technology-mit-the-countrys-most-globally-connected-institution-%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85/
The Biden administration’s destructive cooperation with an anti-American tyranny is undercutting a brave, principled, and popular opposition movement.
Iran’s Islamist regime wields varied instruments of violent repression and totalitarian control, but most detested may well be the Basij force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary militia of young ideologues that polices Iranians’ everyday lives. Since the beginning of the nationwide uprising sparked by the gruesome killing of Mahsa Amini for not covering her hair, the Basij have been called up to provide their usual service of clubbing and shooting protesters. This time the response from demonstrators has been a deep fury that is expressing itself in open rejection of the regime.
In the face of brutal repression that has taken the lives of over 100 mostly youthful protesters, Iranians are fighting back with bare hands and engaging in kharabkariyeh sherafatmandaneh or “honorable vandalism,” sabotaging the regime’s surveillance cameras, hacking its cyber infrastructure, demolishing security force vehicles, burning banners of the supreme leader and Qassem Soleimani, blocking streets, setting fires, destroying signs emblematic of regime ideology such as Palestine Street, pulling down statues, and surrounding security forces to beat them back. Videos from street protests show panicked Basiji thugs trying to escape the wrath of protesters in unprecedented scenes that have helped sustain the morale of the most sweeping and powerful nationwide protest movement in Iran since the 1979 Revolution.
But Basijis are still deeply feared. On Oct. 2, students at Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s MIT and the country’s most globally connected institution, joined the nationwide uprising by protesting against the killing of Mahsa Amini as well as the imprisonment of four of their own classmates. Silent sit-ins were held in the university’s different colleges and a rally was held in front of the university’s main entrance.
Sharif is not an ordinary Iranian university. Every year, its graduates fill slots at the world’s best science and technology graduate programs. Stanford and other top schools in the United States regularly take in its graduates and Silicon Valley startups and the top brass at large American technology corporations include many of its alumni.
Compared to previous protests at the university, the Oct. 2 rally at Sharif University was unprecedented in size. As the crowd of students grew louder, Basijis left a nearby mosque and surrounded them. The students decided together to change locations to avoid the Basijis and also because the previous day new surveillance cameras and telecommunication antennas had been installed at the university entrance.
The students went to another entrance of the university where street protesters also joined them. Here they found uniformed security forces with vans waiting to arrest them. One student was badly beaten on the head with a baton. Students began to panic as all doors to the university were shut, trapping them. Basijis and security forces began to shoot at the unarmed students as the university was surrounded on all sides by vans and security forces waiting to take the youthful protesters to regime dungeons. For incoming freshmen, this was only their second day on campus.
The president of the university and the security forces agreed to allow the students to escape through the university’s parking garage. But once students filled the garage, the Basij ambushed them there, and started firing and yelling insults, particularly at girls. Video footage from students inside the parking garage shows them in stages of shock and fear. Many describe the scene as a war zone.
Some professors from the university tried to protect the students and at one point even the regime’s minister of science, Zulfi Gol, intervened, but none succeeded in stopping the violence. At one point the university’s security forces were attacked by the regime’s security forces.
Video recordings from the Sharif protest showing students being taken into the vans with black bags over their heads outraged the public. A woman filming a young man being taken away on a motorbike with his shirt pulled over his head was herself shot.
Messages and videos of terror filled Twitter as the country’s best and brightest minds were bludgeoned and terrorized. The Basijis clubbed and beat the students, deployed tear gas, and fired live ammunition at the unarmed students. Many were wounded and more than 30 arrested. As of this writing it is unclear how many students are still in regime custody, at risk of torture, solitary confinement, forced confessions, and show trials. Students who have been released have given their parents’ homes as bail, in order to ensure their silence.
Aside from Sharif’s international prestige, another reason for the regime’s quick and brutal response to the student protests there is the inherent security risk involved in having the country’s leading research center—for nuclear technology, missile development, drone technology, and internet censorship—fall into the hands of the country’s most intelligent young revolutionaries.
Ordinary Iranians were livid at the attack on the country’s brightest young minds. With the wall of totalitarian fear crumbling and protesters occupying many disparate parts of Tehran, they formed a caravan of honking cars and surrounded the school. By the next morning, students who had not been rounded up were able to exit safely.
Outside Iran a group of prominent Sharif graduates released an open letter demanding independence for the school and no interference by security forces, prosecution of those who perpetrated the violence, and release of all students in prison, as well as a call on all professors to refuse teaching until the imprisoned students are all back home and safe. The organizer of the letter is Ehsan Afshari, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan who was once himself a vigilante enforcer of Islamist ideology while a student at Sharif. His journey from supporter of Islamo-fascism to ardent believer in liberal norms and academic freedom is striking. A letter by professors of the electrical engineering faculty at Sharif released soon after was just as forceful, with the very same demands. Since their letter, more faculties have joined the ongoing teacher strike.
Though the signers of the letter are ensconced in elite positions at NASA and companies like Tesla, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, and Intel, they were still hesitant to call for prosecution for those responsible for the violence, a mark of the fear Iranians in the diaspora still carry with them.
Perhaps the most profound result of the attack on Sharif is the response by students at schools and universities across Iran, especially young teenage girls whose removal of headscarves and loud, angry denunciations of their school administrators—all proudly captured on social media. It has become the stuff of history, drawing the admiration and support of people across the globe, including luminaries from J.K. Rowling to the Pet Shop Boys to Juliette Binoche, as well as impassioned solidarity from Iranian schoolboys fed up with the subjugation and segregation of their sisters.
Iranians believe their feminist revolution cannot be defeated. Their courage has shaken the world. Theirs is a yearning for secular humanism and for an egalitarian society that embodies Cyrus the Great’s universal declaration of human rights. Instead of accommodating regime demands for nuclear weapons and its hold over regional states like Lebanon while paying occasional lip service to the protesters’ bravery, the Biden administration must listen to their demands: removal of the regime that brutalizes them daily and transition to a democratic government that is bound to be among America’s greatest allies. To do so will require an honest reckoning about an Iran policy that has done nothing but legitimize America’s greatest enemy.
As the example of Ukraine makes clear, it is both morally destructive and geopolitically foolish for the United States to side with anti-American tyrannies while undercutting brave and principled opposition movements that are backed by large popular majorities. The logic of Cold War accommodation with tyrants makes little sense in a world where the Soviet Union ceased to exist over 30 years ago. The Iranian regime is not powerful, except when it comes to beating up unarmed students and murdering women who refuse to cover their hair in the streets. The Iranian regime is visibly weak, and—as of now, at least, with no thanks to successive teams of accommodationist American negotiators—it lacks nuclear weapons.
President Biden should halt the nuclear negotiations with Iran and end any prospect of handing the oppressors of the Iranian people another cash windfall. The girls of Iran deserve their freedom—and they deserve at least not to be murdered in the streets by weapons purchased with American dollars.
*Mariam Memarsadeghi is Founder and Director of the Cyrus Forum, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a leading advocate for a democratic Iran.