English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 16/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.october16.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 25/01-13: “‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 15-16.2022
Aoun receives from Macron congratulatory call on demarcation agreement, stresses pursuit of reforms to achieve recovery
Berri, Aridi convene at Ain El-Tineh
Salam during meeting of American Chamber of Commerce: Lebanon's joining of oil countries as latest player will provide an exceptional business...
Qatar expresses desire to partner in Lebanon oil exploration
Amnesty slams Lebanon 'voluntary returns' of Syria refugees
Bou Saab says border deal to be signed in last week of October
Louis Lahoud: Tribute to Rural Women in Lebanon
Kabbara: Most important thing after demarcation is how this wealth belonging to the people will be channelled

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 15-16.2022
Smoke, gunfire at Tehran jail holding political prisoners, dual nationals
Iran activists call for new mass protests as Biden voices support
Rights Group: 233 Killed in Iran, Protests Enter Fifth Week
Tehran Regime’s Attempt to Use Images of Renowned Women to End Protests Fails
Biden Voices Support for the ‘Brave Women of Iran’
Gunmen kill 11 at Russian military base in latest blow to war in Ukraine
Musk: will keep funding Ukraine, even though Starlink is losing money
Saudi Crown Prince Stresses to Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Kingdom’s Readiness to Continue Mediation
Zelenskiy: Ukraine troops hold key town, Russia firing more missiles
Ukrainian Minesweepers Remove Deadly Threats to Civilians
Defiant Putin says Russia 'doing everything right' in Ukraine
Documents Reveal Israeli Army Poisoned Water Wells in Palestinian Towns During 1948 War
Abbas Tells Putin He Does Not Trust America
3 Palestinians Killed by Israeli Troops in Separate Clashes
Thousands from Rival Tunisian Parties Protest against President
Spain Interior Minister: Morocco Is a Loyal Partner to Madrid
Pakistan Hits Back at Biden’s ‘Dangerous Nation’ Comment
At least 28 killed, more than a dozen trapped in Turkey mine blast
New UK Finance Minister Warns Some Taxes Will Rise in Sign of New U-turn

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 15-16.2022
Biden Administration's Dithering Inviting Worldwide Aggression: Russia, China, Iran/Guy Millière/ Gatestone Institute/October 14/2022
Biden Administration Repeating Obama's Mistake: Is Biden Being a "Russian Stooge"?/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 15, 2022
Resentment and the Crisis in Iran/Omer Onhon/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, October, 15/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 15-16.2022
Aoun receives from Macron congratulatory call on demarcation agreement, stresses pursuit of reforms to achieve recovery
NNA/October 15/2022
French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his congratulations to Lebanon on the achievement reached to demarcate the southern maritime border, stressing that “the road was difficult and arduous, but thanks to the determination of President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, it was achieved, and we have contributed modestly." “It constitutes good news for Lebanon and the entire region, and it will allow us to benefit from large quantities of oil and gas, and you can count on ‘Total’ to honor its commitments, and I will ensure that,” Macron affirmed. In turn, President Aoun reiterated that "Lebanon is grateful for France's permanent support, particularly since President Macron has been personally with Lebanon and its people throughout the various circumstances they have endured." He said: "I would like to thank you, Mr. President, our friend, for your personal efforts to reach this achievement, especially with Total, despite the difficult circumstances the world is going through at the present time."The above Lebanese-French positions came during a phone call that President Aoun received this afternoon from his French counterpart, congratulating him on reaching an agreement demarcating the southern maritime borders. Aoun briefed Macron on the stages that have been achieved, highlighting the importance of signing the necessary documents right now according to what has been reached, in order to start the drilling operations and later on the oil and gas extraction. He considered that this would have many positive results on stability in Lebanon, in addition to launching the process of advancing the current difficult economic conditions. President Aoun stressed that Lebanon and its people depend a lot on France, especially in terms of the good implementation of the commitments of the agreement and benefiting from it at various levels, while President Macron considered that the agreement constitutes an opportunity to achieve stability in Lebanon and the region, reiterating his congratulations to Aoun for the role he played in this framework.
He stressed, "France will ensure the proper implementation of the agreement, especially with Total."
The phone call was also a chance to discuss the current prevailing conditions in Lebanon, whereby the President of the Republic affirmed that he will continue his quest to accomplish the reforms required to achieve recovery, particularly in terms of continuing the forensic audit until reaching its conclusions, leading to the adoption of a law on banking secrecy amendments, and restructuring the sector. Aoun pledged to work until the last moment of his term to preserve Lebanon's stability and respect the constitutional entitlements, expressing his wish that a new President of the Republic be elected within the constitutional deadline so as to avoid any presidential vacuum. For his part, the French President indicated that France also wishes that the course of constitutional deadlines be respected, noting that the election of a new President of the Republic is a sovereign matter for Lebanon and a constitutional priority that must be honored. Macron emphasized as well his support for Lebanon to reach a final agreement with the World Bank, in addition to ensuring food security for the country through relevant international organizations and bodies. At the end of the call, President Aoun extended an invitation to his French counterpart to visit Lebanon, which he warmly welcomed. Aoun also thanked Macron for his continuous support throughout his presidential term, hoping that "this support will continue, in the service of the common friendship that binds our two peoples." President Macron, in turn, affirmed his continued "support for the Lebanese women and men, dear to my heart," praising "the courage demonstrated by President Aoun during his presidency."

Berri, Aridi convene at Ain El-Tineh
NNA/October 15/2022
The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday announced, in a report on Cholera cases in Lebanon, that 9 new Cholera cases have been registered in the past 24 hours, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 43 in the northern regions.  The report added that one death was recorded.

Salam during meeting of American Chamber of Commerce: Lebanon's joining of oil countries as latest player will provide an exceptional business...
NNA/October 15/2022
Caretaker Minister of Economy and Trade, Amin Salam, met with the American private sector upon an invitation by the American Chamber of Commerce, in the context of his visit to Washington to participate in the annual meetings of the World Bank. The meeting was attended by major US companies from all economic sectors, especially energy, telecommunications, technology and health. The situation of sectors in Lebanon was reviewed during the meeting, in addition to the potentials of the Lebanese economy, investment opportunities in various sectors, ways to advance, restore confidence and attract investments, especially in the emerging oil and gas sector which Lebanon relies upon for growth and prosperity. Minister Salam informed the attendees of Lebanon's determination to get out of its crisis and restore confidence internally and externally, and work seriously on economic structural reforms, improving the business environment and enhancing investment opportunities in the productive sectors. He stressed that "Lebanon's joining of the oil countries as a recent player will provide an exceptional business platform," calling on American companies to "consider these opportunities and invest in the energy sector."

Qatar expresses desire to partner in Lebanon oil exploration
MEM/October 15, 2022
The Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water Walid Fayyad revealed on Friday Qatar's desire to join a consortium to explore oil in Lebanese waters, along with French company TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni. Fayyad made his statement in a press conference following his meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati in the presence of members of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, including Wissam Shabat, Wissam Al-Dhahabi, Gabi Daboul and Walid Nasr. Fayyad shared that Qatar wants to join the consortium to enter the oil exploration venture in Blocks four and nine in Lebanese waters to partner with TotalEnergies and Eni. He added: "The Qatari desire was expressed in a message from Oil Minister Saad Al-Kaabi, in which he announced Doha's intentions with Lebanon's participation to enter the consortium to drill in Blocks four and nine."Fayyad explained that Qatar would then become the third partner of TotalEnergies and Eni in the two fields, noting that this is "a very important matter".

Amnesty slams Lebanon 'voluntary returns' of Syria refugees
Agence France Presse/October 15/2022
Amnesty International has urged the Lebanese authorities to reconsider their "voluntary returns" policy for Syrian refugees, saying it puts them at "risk of suffering from heinous abuse." It comes just days after President Michel Aoun announced that the General Security agency would begin sending refugees back to Syria "in batches" starting next week, the London-based human rights group said. "The Lebanese authorities are scaling up the so-called voluntary returns... when it is well established that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not in a position to take a free and informed decision about their return," Amnesty's acting deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Semaan, said. "In enthusiastically facilitating these returns, the Lebanese authorities are knowingly putting Syrian refugees at risk of suffering from heinous abuse and persecution upon their return to Syria." Lebanon hosts more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled more than a decade of war back home, marking the world's highest proportion of refugees per capita in one country. This is not the first time Beirut has sought to return Syrian refugees. In June, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon was ready to expel Syrian refugees living in the country if the international community does not work to repatriate them. Lebanon has been grappling with its worst ever economic crisis that has seen the Lebanese pound shed some 95 percent of its value against the dollar on the black market. Nine out of 10 Syrians in Lebanon are living in poverty, while poverty levels for Lebanese have also risen to cover more than 80 percent of the population. Since 2017, Lebanese authorities have organized "voluntary repatriation" programs that have seen the return of some 400,000 Syrians, according to a list of names submitted to Damascus for approval.General Security director Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, who has organized the programs, said Thursday that the next batch of Syrians to be sent home next week would be made up of 1,600 people.

Bou Saab says border deal to be signed in last week of October
Naharnet/October 15/2022
Lebanon and Israel are expected to submit signed letters regarding their sea border agreement in the last week of October, according to the mechanism that has been agreed on, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab has said. In an interview with Euronews Arabic, Bou Saab added that it is in the interest of both parties to respect and finalize the agreement because “the alternative to it is chaos.”Lebanon and Israel have said that they have struck a "historic" deal over a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of U.S.-mediated talks, in a step that facilitates hydrocarbon production. Negotiations between the neighbouring sides, which are still technically at war, had suffered repeated setbacks since their launch in 2020. But they gained momentum in recent weeks with both sides eyeing revenue from potentially rich Mediterranean gas fields. Lebanon, which is in deep financial crisis but cannot count on gas alone to bail it out, and Israel said they agreed on the terms of the U.S.-mediated deal this week. The text of the agreement sent to both countries by U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said it "establishes a permanent and equitable resolution of their maritime dispute." It will go into force as soon as the U.S. sends a notice confirming it has received from Lebanon and Israel their separate approvals, the deal says. Lebanon and Israel will then deposit maritime border coordinates with the United Nations -- in a move that will override 2011 submissions by both countries.

Raad: Resistance stood by state to strengthen its negotiating position
NNA/October 15/2022
Head of the "Loyalty to the Resistance" Bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, stressed that "the resistance stood by the Lebanese authority during its indirect negotiations with the Israeli enemy, in order to strengthen its negotiating position..."Consequently, an understanding was reached on extracting gas from our territorial waters, which began to appear in separate items through the media," he said. "We must also admit that the resistance weapon is the guarantee that the parties will not go further than what is stipulated in the content and essence of the understanding,” Raad added, noting that “we are waiting for the enemy to sign this understanding, after which we will move to the second phase to ensure its implementation, which remains dependent on the choice of the resistance's readiness." On the presidential elections dossier, Raad referred to fears of vacuum in the position of the presidency since political forces in the country are moving away from logic in choosing a president who can serve the country and its interests. He stressed that what is required is having a president to serve the interest of the country as a whole, and who can provide a climate of understanding between the political forces to rebuild the state and form systems and laws in a different way, in wake of the exposed corruption of laws and applications, financial and administrative corruption and slackness at the social and sovereign levels. Raad was speaking during his patronization of a ceremonial festival organized by "Hezbollah" in the area of Jabal Amel marking the anniversary of the Prophet's birthday, held in the southern town of Aitit amidst a crowd of official and popular figures from the region."There are still forces and benevolent and loyal individuals in this country that aim to establish stability on the basis of preserving national sovereignty and restoring society to bearing its responsibility in achieving pride, dignity and justice," he continued to reassure. "We want the presidential elections to take place within the constitutional deadline," Raad emphasized.

Louis Lahoud: Tribute to Rural Women in Lebanon
NNA/October 15/2022
Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Louis Lahoud, tweeted on the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women on October 15, saying: "Rural women have the essential role in feeding the world, promoting agricultural and rural development and eradicating poverty in the countryside. In a year of challenges and difficulties, a year of strengthening resilience and achieving food security, a salute of appreciation to rural women in Lebanon and the world.

Kabbara: Most important thing after demarcation is how this wealth belonging to the people will be channelled
NNA/October 15/2022
MP Karim Kabbara said today in a statement: "The most important thing following the completion of the demarcation, is how will this wealth will be invested, as it is the property of the people, and not belonging to a person or group?!"He declared his fear that it would be squandered "in light of the disintegration of state institutions, the absence of monitoring and the approach of corruption," stressing that what is required is "a clear, transparent and fair work mechanism, so that this wealth does not enter the frameworks of quotas, looting and suspicious deals."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 15-16.2022
Smoke, gunfire at Tehran jail holding political prisoners, dual nationals
DUBAI (Reuters)/October 15/2022
Gunfire broke out at a prison in Tehran holding political prisoners and dual-national detainees on Saturday, witnesses said, and smoke could be seen rising above the jail. State media quoted a security official blaming "criminal elements" for the unrest, which broke out after nearly a month of protests across Iran over the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian. The official said calm had returned, but one witness said gunfire could still be heard. "Roads leading to Evin prison have been closed to traffic. there are lots of ambulances here," said a witness contacted by Reuters. "Still we can hear gunshots."Another witness said families of prisoners had gathered in front of the main prison entrance. "I can see fire and smoke. Lots of special forces. Ambulances are here too," they said. The activist website 1500tasvir shared video footage it said showed special forces on motorbikes heading for the prison.
The prison mostly holds detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality. It has long been criticised by Western rights groups and it was blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2018 for "serious human rights abuses". Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American imprisoned for nearly seven years on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington as baseless, returned to Evin on Wednesday after being granted a brief furlough, his lawyer said. Human Rights Watch has accused authorities at the prison of using threats of torture and of indefinite imprisonment, as well as lengthy interrogations and denial of medical care for detainees. The unrest at Evin prison came after nearly a month of protests across Iran since Amini - a 22-year-old woman from the country's Kurdish region - died on Sept. 16 while being held for "inappropriate attire". The protests have posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

Iran activists call for new mass protests as Biden voices support
Agence France Presse/October 15/2022
Iranian activists called for fresh nationwide protests on Saturday over the death of Mahsa Amini, as U.S. President Joe Biden voiced his support for "the brave women of Iran." Outrage over the 22-year-old's death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by Iran's notorious morality police, has fueled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for years. Young women have been on the front line of the protests, shouting anti-government slogans, removing their headscarves and facing off with security forces in the streets. Despite blocked access to internet services and platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, activists issued an online appeal for a huge turnout for protests on Saturday under the catchcry "The beginning of the end!"They have called on people across Iran to show up at spots where the security forces are not present and to chant "Death to the dictator" -- a reference to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "We have to be present in the squares, because the best VPN these days is the street," they declared, referring to virtual private networks used to skirt internet restrictions.
'Brave women of Iran'
The protesters drew support from the US president, who said he was "stunned" by the mass demonstrations, now in their fifth week. "I want you to know that we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran," Biden said late Friday. "It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It awakened something that I don't think will be quieted for a long, long time," he said. "Women all over the world are being persecuted in various ways, but they should be able to wear in God's name what they want to wear," said Biden. Iran "has to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights," he added. At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more have died in separate clashes in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. The unrest has continued despite what Amnesty International called an "unrelenting brutal crackdown" that included an "all-out attack on child protesters" -- leading to the deaths of at least 23 minors.
International condemnation
The bloody crackdown has drawn international condemnation and new sanctions on Iran from Britain, Canada and the United States. Iran's supreme leader has accused the country's enemies, including the United States and Israel, of fomenting the "riots."On Friday, Khamenei's government condemned French President Emmanuel Macron for remarks in which he expressed solidarity with the protests sparked over Amini's death. Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Macron's remarks served to encourage "violent people and lawbreakers". He said it was "surprising" that France was condemning Iran's security forces for dealing with "violent people and rioters" when it was threatening to use force in response to "labor strikes in the oil and gas sector" at home. "This is clear hypocrisy," he said.
Counter-demonstration
In response to the call for fresh protests, one of Iran's main revolutionary bodies, the Islamic Development Coordination Council, has urged people to join a counter-demonstration after evening prayers on Saturday to "express their revolutionary anger against sedition and rioters."A call also went out this week for "retirees" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to gather on Saturday given "the current sensitive situation", according to a journalist at the Shargh newspaper. The security forces have carried out a campaign of mass arrests that has netted young activists, journalists, students and even minors. Schoolchildren have been arrested inside classrooms and ended up in "psychological centers," Education Minister Yousef Nouri said this week, quoted by Shargh. In a rare show of accountability, the Tehran police department said Friday that it would investigate the conduct of an officer following allegations of harassment during the arrest of a woman protesting against Amini's death. It came after a video showed a male officer appearing to grope the woman from behind while arresting her before she was eventually allowed to leave. Some voices of support for the protesters have come from inside the country. In an open letter published on its front page Thursday, reformist newspaper Etemad called on Iran's top security official, Ali Shamkhani, to stop arrests being made under "pretenses that are sometimes false."The Iranian authorities have organized their own rallies attended by women clad in black chadors -- garments that cover their heads and bodies. A bid to show they had the support of famous women unraveled overnight after a photomontage of dozens wearing the hijab disappeared from a Tehran billboard within 24 hours of being erected as it featured some personalities known to oppose the headscarf.

Rights Group: 233 Killed in Iran, Protests Enter Fifth Week
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Protesters intensified anti-government demonstrations along main streets and at universities in some cities across Iran on Saturday. Human rights monitors reported hundreds dead, including children, as the movement entered its fifth week. Demonstrators chanted “Down with the Dictator” on the streets of Ardabil in the country's northwest. Outside of universities in Kermanshah, Rasht and Tehran, students rallied, according to videos on social media. In the city of Sanandaj, a hotspot for demonstrations in the northern Kurdish region, school girls chanted, “Woman, life, freedom,” down a central street.
The protests erupted after public outrage over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. She was arrested by Iran’s morality police in Tehran for violating the country’s strict dress code. Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated in police custody, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating after she was detained. At least 233 protesters have been killed since demonstrations swept Iran on Sept. 17, according to US-based rights monitor HRANA. The group said 32 among the dead were below the age of 18. Earlier, Oslo-based Iran Human Rights estimated 201 people have been killed. Iranian authorities have dismissed the unrest as a purported Western plot, without providing evidence. Public anger in Iran has coalesced around Amini's death, prompting girls and women to remove their mandatory headscarves on the street in a show of solidarity. Other segments of society, including oil workers, have also joined the movement, which has spread to at least 19 cities, becoming one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the country’s 2009 Green Movement. Commercial strikes resumed Saturday in key cities across the Kurdish region, including Saqqez, Amini's hometown and the birthplace of the protests, Bukan and Sanandaj. The government has responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting activists and protest organizers, reprimanding Iranian celebrities for voicing support, even confiscating their passports, and using live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs to disperse crowds, leading to deaths. In a video widely distributed Saturday, plainclothes Basij, a paramilitary volunteer group, are seen forcing a woman into a car and firing bullets into the air amid a protest in Gohardasht, in northern Iran. Widespread internet outages have also made it difficult for protesters to communicate with the outside world, while Iranian authorities have detained at least 40 journalists since the unrest began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Tehran Regime’s Attempt to Use Images of Renowned Women to End Protests Fails
Dubai - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
A photomontage of dozens of renowned Iranian women all observing hijab disappeared from a Tehran billboard Friday. Authorities hung up the large montage in a bid to show they had the support of famous women amid ongoing anti-government protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. The move backfired and the montage was removed within 24 hours of being erected as it featured some personalities known to oppose the headscarf rule. Outrage over Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by the notorious morality police, has fueled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for years. The montage featured athletes, social and cultural figures, such as late mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, early 20th-century revolutionary figure Bibi Maryam Bakhtiari and poet Parvin E’tesami. Fars news agency said the montage was removed after some of the figures featured had asked for their pictures to be taken down, saying they were not consulted beforehand. Some observers criticized the billboard for showing women who had removed their headscarves during the recent protests, it added. Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya demanded that her picture be removed. “I am Mahsa’s mother, I am Sarina’s mother, I am the mother of all the children who are killed in this land, I am the mother of all Iran, not a woman in the land of killers,” Motamed-Arya said on Thursday in a video that has since gone viral. She appeared in the video without a hijab headscarf, seemingly in a vehicle. The billboard was raised by Owj Arts and Media Organization, known for pro-regime films and cultural productions. The decision to remove the pictures was taken after “controversies and reactions,” the organization said in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA. The billboard on Valiasr Square often features symbolic murals related to religious, social and political themes.

Biden Voices Support for the ‘Brave Women of Iran’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
US President Joe Biden voiced his support on Saturday for "the brave women of Iran", as Iranian activists brace for renewed nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. Outrage over the 22-year-old's death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by Iran's notorious morality police, has fueled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for years. Young women have been on the front line of the protests, shouting anti-government slogans, removing their headscarves and facing off with security forces in the streets. The protesters drew support from the US president, who said he was "stunned" by the mass demonstrations, now in their fifth week. "I want you to know that we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran," Biden said late Friday. "It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It awakened something that I don't think will be quieted for a long, long time," he said.
"Women all over the world are being persecuted in various ways, but they should be able to wear in God's name what they want to wear," said Biden. Iran "has to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights," he added. Despite blocked access to internet services and platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, activists issued an online appeal for a huge turnout for protests on Saturday under the catchcry "The beginning of the end!"They have called on people across Iran to show up at spots where the security forces are not present and to chant "Death to the dictator" -- a reference to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more have died in separate clashes in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. The unrest has continued despite what Amnesty International called an "unrelenting brutal crackdown" that included an "all-out attack on child protesters" -- leading to the deaths of at least 23 minors.

Gunmen kill 11 at Russian military base in latest blow to war in Ukraine
David Ljunggren/Reuters/October 15, 2022
Gunmen shot dead 11 people at a Russian military training ground on Saturday, the defence ministry said, in the latest blow to President Vladimir Putin's forces since the invasion of Ukraine. RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 other people were wounded in the shooting on Saturday in the southwestern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine when two men gunned down a group who had volunteered to take part in the war. It said the two assailants - nationals from an unspecified former Soviet republic - had been shot dead. The attack took place a week after a blast damaged a bridge in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. Earlier in the war, Russia's flagship in the Black Sea blew up and sank. "During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation (against Ukraine), the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit," RIA cited a defence ministry statement as saying. Just a day earlier, Putin said Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a YouTube interview that the attackers were from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan and had opened fire on the others after an argument over religion.
Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim nation, while around half of Russians follow various branches of Christianity. The Russian ministry had said the attackers were from a nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups nine ex-Soviet republics, including Tajikistan.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the comments by Arestovych, a prominent commentator on the war who appears in the media on an almost daily basis. The independent Russian news website Sota Vision said the attack occurred in the small town of Soloti, close to the Ukrainian border and about 105 km (65 miles) southeast of Belgorod. Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops were still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the larger Donbas region remained very difficult.
Although Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square kilometres (miles) of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv's forces meet more determined resistance. Ukrainian forces and civilians are relying on Starlink internet service provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company. Musk said on Friday he could no longer afford to fund the service but on Saturday said he would continue to do so. Zelenskiy said almost 65,000 Russians had been killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion, a figure far higher than Moscow's official Sept. 21 estimate of 5,937 dead. In August the Pentagon said Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded.
RUSSIAN MISSILE, DRONE ATTACKS
Putin ordered the mobilization three weeks ago, part of a response to Russian battlefield defeats in Ukraine. He has also proclaimed the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces and threatened to use nuclear weapons. Zelenskiy, speaking in an evening address, also said Russian missiles and drones had continued to hit Ukrainian cities, causing destruction and casualties. Kyiv said on Friday that it expected the United States and Germany to deliver sophisticated anti-aircraft systems this month to help defend against the missiles. Fighting is particularly intense in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces bordering Russia. Together they make up the larger industrial Donbas, which Moscow has yet to fully capture. Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Both are situated in the Donetsk region. Separately, the Ukrainian armed forces' general staff said in a Facebook post that troops had on Saturday repelled a total of 11 separate Russian attacks near Kramatorsk, Bakhmut and the town of Avdiivka, just to the north of Donetsk.

Musk: will keep funding Ukraine, even though Starlink is losing money
Reuters/October 15/2022
Elon Musk said on Saturday that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, a day after he said it could no longer afford to do so. Musk tweeted: "the hell with it … even though starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding ukraine govt for free".It was not immediately clear whether Musk's offer was genuine or if he was expressing sarcasm. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk said on Friday that SpaceX could not indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine. The service has helped civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia. He made his remark after a media report that SpaceX had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations of Starlink. The billionaire has been in online fights with Ukrainian officials over a peace plan he put forward which Ukraine says is too generous to Russia.

Saudi Crown Prince Stresses to Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Kingdom’s Readiness to Continue Mediation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, held telephone talks on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Crown Prince Mohammed stressed Saudi Arabia’s support to all efforts aimed at easing the escalation in the conflict with Russia. He also expressed its readiness to continue its mediations. Saudi Arabia revealed that it will provide $400 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation to the Saudi leadership for the aid that will help ease the suffering of the Ukrainian people. He added that the aid was evidence of Crown Prince Mohammed’s keenness on easing humanitarian suffering. The Ukrainian people will not forget this noble gesture that demonstrates Saudi Arabia’s friendship with Ukraine, Zelenskyy stressed. He also congratulated Crown Prince Mohammed on his recent naming as prime minister.

Zelenskiy: Ukraine troops hold key town, Russia firing more missiles
David Ljunggren/(Reuters)/October 15/2022
Ukrainian troops are still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the Donbas region remains very difficult, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday. Zelenskiy, speaking in an evening address, also said Russian missiles and drones had continued to hit Ukrainian cities, causing destruction and casualties. Although Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square kilometres (miles) of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv's forces meet more determined resistance. Fighting is particularly intense in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces bordering Russia. Together they make up the larger industrial Donbas, which Moscow has yet to fully capture. Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Both are situated in the Donetsk region. "Active fighting continues in various areas of the front. A very difficult situation persists in the Donetsk region and Luhansk region," Zelenskiy said. "The most difficult (situation) is in the direction of Bakhmut, as in previous days. We are holding our positions."Separately, the Ukrainian armed forces' general staff said in a Facebook post that troops had on Saturday repelled a total of 11 separate Russian attacks near Kramatorsk, Bakhmut and the town of Avdiivka, just to the north of Donetsk. Zelenskiy said Russian forces, which rained cruise missiles on several Ukrainian cities on Monday, had hit targets in seven regions over the last two days. "Some of the missiles and drones were shot down but unfortunately, not all of them. Unfortunately, there is destruction and casualties," he said. Kyiv said on Friday that it expected the United States and Germany to deliver sophisticated anti-aircraft systems this month. Zelenskiy also said almost 65,000 Russians had been killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion, a figure far higher than Moscow's official Sept. 21 estimate of 5,937 dead. In August the Pentagon said Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded.

Ukrainian Minesweepers Remove Deadly Threats to Civilians
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass — a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces. Nearby, a group of Ukrainian minesweepers with the country's territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance — a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation, AFP said. The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine's territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds. Two soldiers, each with a metal detector in hand, slowly advanced up the road, scanning the ground and waiting for the devices to give a signal. When one detector emitted a high tone, a soldier knelt to inspect the mud and grass, probing it with a metal rod to see what might be buried just below the surface. The detector's hit could indicate a spent shell casing, a piece of rusting iron or a discarded aluminum can. Or, it could be an active land mine. Oleksii Dokuchaev, the commander of the minesweeper brigade based in the eastern Kharkiv region, said that hundreds of mines have already been discharged in the area around the village of Hrakove where they were working, but that the danger of mines across Ukraine will persist for years to come.
“One year of war equals 10 years of demining,” Dokuchaev said. “Even now we are still finding munitions from World War II, and in this war they're being planted left and right.” Russian forces hastily fled the Kharkiv region in early September after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukraine's military retook hundreds of square miles of territory following months of Russian occupation. While many settlements in the region have finally achieved some measure of safety after fierce battles reduced many of them to rubble, Russian land mines remain an ever-present threat in both urban and rural environments.
Small red signs bearing a white skull and crossbones line many of the roads in the Kharkiv region, warning of the danger of mines just off the pavement. Yet sometimes, desperation drives local residents into the minefields. The local man whose body lay near the abandoned Russian camp was likely searching for food left behind by the invading soldiers, Dokuchaev said, an additional danger posed by the hunger experienced by many in Ukraine's devastated regions. The use of the kind of tripwire land mines which killed him is prohibited under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty — of which Russia is not a signatory — which regulates the use of anti-personnel land mines, he said. “There are rules of war. The Ottawa Convention says that it’s forbidden to place mines or any other munitions with tripwires. But Russians ignore it,” he said. The deminers had cleared the road of anti-personnel mines the previous day, allowing them to search for anti-tank mines hidden beneath the ground that could destroy any vehicles driving over them. They hoped to bring vehicles deep enough into the area to retrieve an abandoned Russian armored personnel carrier, the engine of which they planned to salvage. A vehicle would also need to be brought in by local police to retrieve the body. The minesweepers reached the abandoned camp, set in a grove of trees and strewn with the remains of the months the Russian soldiers had spent there: rotting food rations in wooden ammunition boxes, strings of high-caliber bullets, a stack of yellowing Russian newspapers and trenches filled with refuse. After a thorough scan of the area, the servicemen recovered two Soviet-made TM-62 anti-tank mines and six pneumatically armed fuses and placed them in a depression on the edge of the camp, taped into a bundle along with 400 grams of TNT. Dokuchaev placed an electric detonator into the explosive charge and connected it to a long length of wire before taking cover with his men at a distance of more than 100 meters (yards). When the charge was detonated — something the servicemen laughingly called “bada-boom” — the immense blast ripped through the air, causing a cascade of autumn leaves to fall from the surrounding trees and emitting a tall plume of gray smoke. After the mines had been destroyed, Dokuchaev — a former photographer who enlisted with the territorial defense forces after the outbreak of war — said the work his brigade is doing is essential to keep civilians safe as they pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Despite the dangers, he said, he enjoys his work. “I don't know what I'll do after our victory,” Dokuchaev said. “Life is boring without explosions.”

Defiant Putin says Russia 'doing everything right' in Ukraine
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is "doing everything right" in its nearly eight-month invasion of Ukraine despite a string of embarrassing defeats against Kyiv's forces, who will receive $725 million in new U.S. military assistance. Putin's comments Friday hours after Kremlin-installed officials in the southern Kherson region urged residents to leave as Kyiv said its soldiers were advancing on the oblast's main city. Moscow also hinted at the extent of the damage dealt to the Crimea bridge -- the sole land connection between its mainland and the annexed Ukrainian peninsula -- following a blast last Saturday, saying it could take many months to complete repairs. "What is happening today is not pleasant. But all the same, (if Russia hadn't attacked in February) we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us," Putin told reporters after a summit in the capital of Kazakhstan. "So we're doing everything right," he insisted. He did, however, acknowledge that Russia's ex-Soviet allies were "worried." Putin said there was no need for further massive strikes against Ukraine at present and claimed the Kremlin did not intend to destroy its pro-Western neighbor. "There is no need now for massive strikes. There are other tasks. For now," he said. He spoke days after Russia unleashed a wave of missile strikes on cities across Ukraine that left at least 20 civilians dead. Putin said the strikes were in retaliation for the explosion on the Crimea bridge, which he has described as a "terrorist act."The bridge is a logistically crucial transport link for moving military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
New U.S. military aid
Washington on Friday announced an additional $725 million in military assistance to Kyiv, including more ammunition for the Himars rocket systems that have been used by Ukraine to wreak havoc on Russian targets. The aid comes "in the wake of Russia's brutal missile attacks on civilians across Ukraine" and "mounting evidence of atrocities by Russia's forces," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. It brings the total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine to $17.6 billion since the Russian invasion on February 24. "We will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence with extraordinary courage and boundless determination," Blinken said. Separately, Elon Musk said his SpaceX would not be able to pay indefinitely for the Starlink satellite internet vital to Ukraine's communications in the fight against Russian invaders. The US military confirmed it was communicating with the billionaire's company about funding for the key network. Ukraine, which is clawing back territory in both the east and south, feted its first Defenders Day public holiday since the start of Moscow's invasion, pledging victory. "On October 14, we express our gratitude... gratitude to everyone who fought for Ukraine in the past. And to everyone who is fighting for it now. To all who won then. And to everyone who will definitely win now," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address to mark the occasion. "The world is with us, more than ever. This makes us stronger than ever in history," Zelensky said, referring to unprecedented Western aid. Saudia Arabia announced $400 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, the official SPA news agency reported early Saturday, adding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had made a phone call to Zelensky. Saudi Arabia last month played an unexpected role in facilitating a prisoner-of-war swap between Moscow and Kyiv. The kingdom has however come under growing criticism from Washington after the Saudi-led OPEC group of oil exporters agreed on a drastic production cut with Russia and other allies, which could send energy prices soaring even higher.
Advance on Kherson
In southern Ukraine, Kyiv's forces have been pushing closer and closer to Kherson, the main city in the region of the same name just north of Crimea. On Friday, Moscow-installed authorities renewed a call for residents to temporarily leave. "The bombardment of the Kherson region is dangerous for civilians," Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian regional administration said, and urged residents to take a trip for "rest and recreation" elsewhere. Kyiv, which announced its counter-offensive in the south in August, said it has already recaptured more than 400 square kilometers (155 miles) in the Kherson region in under a week. But in the east, pro-Russian forces said they were closing in on the industrial city of Bakhmut after reporting the capture of two villages on the city's outskirts this week. An official of the so-called Lugansk People's Republic, a pro-Kremlin breakaway region in east Ukraine, said "active hostilities were under way" within Bakhmut. "Our forces are confidently marching and liberating this settlement," the official, Andriy Marochko, was quoted as saying by Russia's state-run TASS news agency.

Documents Reveal Israeli Army Poisoned Water Wells in Palestinian Towns During 1948 War
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
The Israeli army used chemical and biological weapons during the 1948 war, including poisoning water wells in several Palestinian towns, original documents stored in the Israel State Archive, as well as other archives revealed. The documents showed that Israeli political and military leaders and some scholars were partners in the decision, and had even planned to poison the waters in Cairo and Beirut, but changed their mind at the last minute. Haaretz reporter Ofer Aderet wrote on Friday that the poisoning was partially exposed decades ago by Arab sources when rumors and oral testimonies were reported in newspapers and books about an attempt by the army in 1948 to poison wells in Acre and Gaza by adding bacteria to the drinking water. However, the details of Israel’s secret use of biological weapons and poison against Palestinians during the 1948 war was revealed in a recent article by historians Benny Morris and Benjamin Kedar. Published by Middle Eastern Studies, Morris and Kedar’s research is a rarity because it was researched and published against the wishes of the Israeli security establishment, which has tried for years to block any embarrassing historical documents that expose war crimes against Arabs, such as murdering prisoners, ethnic cleansing and destroying villages, Haaretz wrote. The poisoning targeted dozens of Palestinian water wells, including the Acre and the Galilee village of Ilabun in the north. Aderet wrote that the plan was to poison wells in abandoned Arab villages, as well as in Jewish locales that were due to be evacuated by the state-in-the-making. The goal wasn’t mass poisoning, but rather an act of deterrence that would prevent Palestinians from returning to areas where the water is poisonous. Morris and Kedar said that the substance used in the poisoning was causing mass infections of dysentery and typhoid, adding that such diseases spread in Acre. The poisoning started on April 1, 1948 with the knowledge and supervision of several officials, including then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, the documents revealed. The two researchers also said some Israelis objected against the poisoning, most notably archaeologist Shmarya Gutman, who in 1988 testimonies, said he vehemently opposed the operation on moral grounds and warned that poisoning the water could also harm Jews. As for Beirut and Cairo, Morris and Kedar revealed that the plan aimed to poison their waters in retaliation against the Arab armies that tried to invade the country to expel the Jews. However, the Israeli operatives who would be tasked with traveling to both capitals received sudden orders to stop the operation. Apparently, the operation was exposed in May 1948 when Egyptian authorities arrested in Gaza two Israeli soldiers, posing as Arabs, with tubes containing typhoid germs in their possession.

Abbas Tells Putin He Does Not Trust America
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Russian President Vladmir Putin this week that he does not trust the United States, informed Palestinian sources affirmed on Friday. Abbas met Putin on Thursday on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, Kazakhstan. According to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, Abbas restated to Putin his reservations about the role of the US as an unbiased mediator in any future negotiations with Israel. Abbas reiterated his support for the so-called Quartet of international mediators - Russia, the US, the UN and the European Union - but said the US could not be left a free hand to act alone. “We don't trust America and you know our position. We don't trust it, we don't rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party in resolving a problem,” Abbas told Putin. Later in televised remarks, the Palestinian President said Washington can be within the Quartet since it is a great country but that the PA will never accept it as the only one. In return, Abbas said he was “completely satisfied” with Russia's position towards the Palestinian people.
“Russia stands by justice and international law and that is enough for us,” he stressed. “When you say you stand by international legitimacy, this is enough for me and that is what I want. Therefore, we are happy and satisfied with the Russian position,” Abbas added. On Friday, the Palestinian presidency ignored Abbas’ reported statements about not trusting the United States. It only said that the President briefed Putin on the latest political developments regarding the Palestinian issue, as well as on the continued Israeli violations against the Palestinian people, land, and Muslim and Christian holy sites, in addition to the ongoing construction of settemnets. The statement added that both men also discussed the latest developments in the region, international and regional issues of common interest, and the ways to promote bilateral relations between the two countries and leaderships.
Abbas then praised Russia’s positions at all international forums in support of the Palestinian people and their just cause.

3 Palestinians Killed by Israeli Troops in Separate Clashes
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Israel's military carried out an arrest raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and killed two Palestinians in gun battles Friday, according to Palestinian reports. Later Friday, troops killed a Palestinian who carried out a shooting attack near a settlement, wounding an Israeli civilian, the army said. It was the latest bloodshed in what has become the deadliest year in the territory since 2015. Palestinian armed groups claimed both slain men in the Jenin refugee camp as members, though there were conflicting statements about the circumstances surrounding the death of one of them, a hospital doctor.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Dr. Abdullah al-Ahmed was on duty, attending to the wounded outside his hospital when he was shot. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah party, claimed he was a member. In a poster announcing his death, the group said he died “in an armed clash” with Israeli forces “defending the homeland." The poster showed him posing with two assault rifles. The second man killed in Jenin on Friday was identified by the armed group Islamic Jihad as a field commander. The camp is a stronghold of Islamic Jihad, a Fatah rival, and has been a frequent flash point for confrontations. Five people were wounded in the fighting, including two paramedics as an ambulance was caught in the crossfire, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported. Video showed an ambulance trapped in a narrow alley of the camp trying to retrieve a dead body as gunshots rang out.
The Israeli army said it entered Jenin on Friday to arrest a wanted Hamas gunman who had carried out recent attacks against Israeli security forces. Diaa Muhammad Yusef Salama, 24, was armed with an M-16 assault rifle as Israeli security forces apprehended him and two other suspects, it added.
The raid set off a gunfight between soldiers and armed Palestinians. Photos showed smoke billowing from the camp after gunmen apparently detonated explosives. The army said it opened fire on the armed men and warned uninvolved residents that they were risking their lives by being in the area.
At one point, a firefight erupted outside the local hospital, witnesses said. The doctor who worked in the licensing department was shot in the head as he left the building to tend to a wounded man in the hospital yard, said hospital director Wisam Bakr, adding he knew nothing about reports al-Ahmed belonged to an armed group. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned Friday's shootings as “extrajudicial killings.”“The Israeli government has crossed all the red lines,” he said. On Friday evening, the Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian attacker who opened fire and wounded a civilian near the Israel settlement of Beit El, outside the Palestinian city of Ramallah. It said a search was underway for more suspects.
Settler attacks
Also on Friday, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian houses in the village of Hawara in the northern West Bank, the Wafa agency reported. Videos posted online showed settlers from a nearby Jewish settlement throwing rocks at a house in the village. Other videos showed Israeli soldiers scuffling with Palestinians who tried to protect the houses from the settlers. Palestinian medics said 66 people were hurt in clashes with Israeli forces, two of them with live bullets. Most suffered breathing difficulties due to tear gas. A day earlier, settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement rampaged through the village. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2015. The fighting has surged since a series of Palestinian attacks in the spring killed 19 people in Israel. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed have been gunmen. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed. Israel says the raids are needed to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so. The Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at cementing Israel’s open-ended 55-year-old occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state. Hundreds of Palestinians have been rounded up in such raids, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge. The tensions spilled over into east Jerusalem this week, as Israeli police fired live rounds, tear gas and stun grenades on Palestinians throwing stones and fireworks across several neighborhoods in the contested city. Two Israelis were hurt in the confrontations, Israeli police said on Friday, adding that security forces arrested 18 suspects on charges of disturbing public order. The police said they scaled up their presence at flashpoint areas across the city. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Thousands from Rival Tunisian Parties Protest against President
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Two rival Tunisian opposition groups staged one of the biggest days of protest so far against President Kais Saied on Saturday, denouncing his moves to consolidate political power as public anger grows over fuel and food shortages. Thousands of supporters from the Islamist Ennahda party and the Free Constitutional Party held parallel rallies in adjacent areas of the capital, Tunis, accusing Saied of economic mismanagement and of an anti-democratic coup. "Tunisia is bleeding. Saied is a failed dictator. He has set us back for many years. The game's over. Get out," said protester Henda Ben Ali. Saied, who moved to rule by decree after shutting down parliament last year and expanding his powers with a new constitution passed in a July referendum, has said the measures were needed to save Tunisia from years of crisis. In a speech on Saturday to commemorate the departure of French troops upon Tunisia's 1956 independence, he demanded the departure today of "all who want to undermine independence" - an apparent allusion to his political foes. Saied's opponents say his actions have undermined the democracy secured through the 2011 revolution. Ennahda and the Free Constitutional Party have long been bitter foes, but both are now more focused on their struggle against Saied. Tunisians are meanwhile struggling to make ends meet as a crisis in state finances has contributed to shortages of subsidized goods including petrol, sugar and milk on top of years of economic malaise and entrenched unemployment. The president, who has blamed hoarders and speculators for the shortages, appears to retain broad support among many Tunisians, but the growing hardships are causing frustration and increasing the flow of illegal migrants to Europe. In the southern town of Zarzis this week, residents protested over the burial in unmarked graves of local people who had died in one of the many shipwrecks of migrants trying to reach Italy. "While our youth are dying at sea in boats to escape from hell, Saied is only interested in gathering power," said Monia Hajji, a protester. In Tunis, there have been some isolated clashes this week in poor districts between police and protesting youths, and there was a heavy police presence in the city on Saturday. The Free Constitutional Party leader Abir Moussi criticized the stringent security arrangements in a speech to protesters, asking Saied: "Why are you afraid?". At both rallies, protesters chanted "the people want the fall of the regime", the slogan of the 2011 revolution. "The situation is about to explode and is dangerous for the future," said the Ennahda former prime minister Ali Larayedh.

Spain Interior Minister: Morocco Is a Loyal Partner to Madrid
Rabat - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Spanish Minister of Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska stressed on Friday that Morocco is a "loyal" and "fraternal" partner with which Madrid maintains "excellent" ties. "Morocco is a state that cooperates with Spain. It is a loyal partner and, of course, I would even say fraternal," Grande-Marlaska said to the press. The relations between Spain and Morocco are "so satisfactory" and the mutual trust is "so important", the Spanish minister added, highlighting the April 7 Joint Declaration that launched a "new stage in the bilateral partnership.""There is no need to worry, because relations between the two countries are exceptional and excellent," he stressed. In September, the Spanish government welcomed the "intense" strategic partnership between Spain and Morocco, which reflects "a new stage" based on "transparency, permanent communication and mutual respect. "We have an intense bilateral program covering all aspects of our bilateral relationship, based on transparency, permanent communication and mutual respect. These are the principles of a sincere cooperation between two strategic partners like Spain and Morocco," said Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares after meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Pakistan Hits Back at Biden’s ‘Dangerous Nation’ Comment
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Pakistan pushed back Saturday against a comment by President Joe Biden in which he called the South Asian country “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.”Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said his office would summon the US ambassador for an explanation, and the current prime minister and two former prime ministers rejected the statement as baseless. Biden was at an informal fundraising dinner at a private residence in Los Angeles on Thursday sponsored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when he made the comment. Speaking about China and its leader Xi Jinping, he pondered the US's role in relation to China as it grapples with its positions on Russia, India and Pakistan. “How do we handle that?” he said, according to a transcript on the White House web page. "How do we handle that relative to what’s going on in Russia? And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
Zardari said in Karachi on Saturday that he discussed the matter with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and it was decided to call the US ambassador to the Foreign Office for an explanation of Biden's remarks. “I believe this is exactly the sort of misunderstanding that is created when there is a lack of engagement,” he said, apparently referring to the former government of Imran Khan and its perceived lack of engagement in international diplomacy. “When Pakistan has nuclear assets, we know how to keep them safe and secure, how to protect them as well,” Zardari said. Sharif in a statement rejected Biden's remarks calling them factually incorrect and misleading. He said Pakistan over the years has proved itself to be a responsible nuclear state, and its nuclear program is managed through a technically sound command and control system. He pointed to Pakistan's commitment to global standards including those of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Sharif said Pakistan and the US have a long history of friendly and mutually beneficial relations. “It is our sincere desire to cooperate with the US to promote regional peace and security,” he said. Zardari, speaking to reporters, said if there is any question about nuclear weapons security in the region, it should be raised with Pakistan's nuclear-armed neighbor, India. He said India recently fired a missile that landed accidentally in Pakistan. Pakistan and India have been arch-rivals since their independence from British rule in 1947. They have bitter relations over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between them and claimed by both in its entirety. They fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. Two former prime minsters took to Twitter to respond to Biden's comments. Former premier Nawaz Sharif, the current prime minister's brother, said Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state that is perfectly capable of safeguarding its national interests while respecting international law and practices. Pakistan became a nuclear state in 1998 when Sharif was in power for the second time. “Our nuclear program is in no way a threat to any country. Like all independent states, Pakistan reserves the right to protect its autonomy, sovereign statehood and territorial integrity,” he said.
Former premier Imran Khan tweeted that Biden is wrong about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, saying he knows for a fact that they are secure. “Unlike US which has been involved in wars across the world, when has Pakistan shown aggression especially post-nuclearization?”Khan was ousted in April in a no-confidence vote in parliament and has put forward, without giving evidence, a claim that he was ousted as the result of a US-led plot involving Sharif. The US and Sharif deny the accusation. Zardari noted that Biden’s statement was not made at any formal platform like a news conference but at an informal fundraising dinner. “I don’t believe it negatively impacts the relations between Pakistan and the US,” he said. Pakistan and the US have been traditional allies but their relations have been bumpy at times. Pakistan served as a front-line state in the US-led war on terror following the 9/11 attacks. But relations soured after US Navy Seals killed al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden at a compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad, not far from Pakistan's military academy in May 2011.

At least 28 killed, more than a dozen trapped in Turkey mine blast
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Rescuers worked on Saturday to free more than a dozen miners still thought to be trapped underground at a coal pit in northern Turkey, where a methane blast a day earlier killed at least 28 people. "58 of our miners were able to come out unharmed. We estimate that 15 of our miners are (trapped) below and we are trying to rescue them," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in the small coal mining town of Amasra on Turkey's Black Sea coast. Soylu said earlier some 110 people had been working underground when one of Turkey's deadliest industrial accidents in years struck Friday at sunset. According to Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, "a fire erupted in one of the tunnels after the explosion." The tunnels affected by the blast were estimated to lie 300 and 350 metres (yards) below ground. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca earlier tweeted that 11 of those pulled out alive were being treated in hospital. Some of the miners were able to leave the mine on their own after the blast, while others were rescued. Television images showed anxious crowds -- some with tears in their eyes -- congregating around a damaged white building near the entrance to the pit in search of news of their friends and loved ones. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due to fly to the scene of the accident on Saturday. "Our hope is that the loss of life will not increase further, that our miners will be found alive," Erdogan said in a tweet. "All of our efforts are aimed in this direction."Most initial information about those trapped inside was coming from workers who had managed to climb out relatively unharmed. But Amasra mayor Recai Cakir said many of those who survived had suffered "serious injuries". Turkey's Maden Is mining workers' union attributed the blast to a build-up of methane gas. But other officials said it was premature to draw definitive conclusions over the cause of the accident.
2014 disaster
Rescuers sent in reinforcements from surrounding villages to help in the search and rescue. Television footage showed paramedics giving oxygen to the miners who had climbed out, then rushing them to the nearest hospitals. The local governor said a team of more than 70 rescuers had managed to reach a point in the pit some 250 metres below. Turkey's AFAD disaster management service said the initial spark that caused the blast appeared to have come from a malfunctioning transformer. It later withdrew that report and said methane gas had ignited for "unknown reasons". The local public prosecutor's office said it was treating the incident as an accident and launching a formal investigation. Turkey suffered its deadliest coal mining disaster in 2014 when 301 workers died in a blast in the western town of Soma.

New UK Finance Minister Warns Some Taxes Will Rise in Sign of New U-turn
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 15 October, 2022
Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday that some taxes will have to go up, signaling another abrupt policy U-turn by Prime Minister Liz Truss who is battling to save her leadership just over a month into her term. In an attempt to appease financial markets that have been in turmoil for three weeks, Truss fired Kwasi Kwarteng as her chancellor of the exchequer on Friday and scrapped parts of their controversial economic package, Reuters said. In a hurried news conference shortly after dismissing Kwarteng, Truss said the corporation tax rate would increase, abandoning her plan to keep it at current levels, and government spending would rise by less than previously planned. Big, unfunded tax cuts were a central plank of Truss's original plans, but Hunt said tax increases were on the cards. "We will have some very difficult decisions ahead," he told Sky News. "The thing that people want, the markets want, the country needs now, is stability," Hunt said. "No chancellor can control the markets. But what I can do is show that we can pay for our tax and spending plans and that is going to need some very difficult decisions on both spending and tax." Hunt is due to announce the government's medium-term budget plans on Oct. 31, a key test of its ability to show investors that it can restore its economic policy credibility. He said spending would not rise by as much as people would like and all government departments were going to have to find more efficiencies than they were planning. "Some taxes will not be cut as quickly as people want, and some taxes will go up. So it's going to be difficult," he said. Kwarteng's Sept. 23 fiscal statement prompted a backlash in financial markets that was so ferocious that the Bank of England had to intervene to prevent pension funds being caught up in the chaos as borrowing costs surged.
Hunt said he agreed with Truss's fundamental approach of seeking to spark economic growth but the way she and Kwarteng went about it had not worked. "There were mistakes. It was a mistake when we're going to be asking for difficult decisions across the board on tax and spending to cut the rate of tax paid by the very wealthiest," he said. "It was a mistake to fly blind and to do these forecasts without giving people the confidence of the Office of Budget Responsibility saying that the sums add up. The Prime Minister has recognized that, that's why I'm here."Truss was due to spend the weekend trying to shore up her flagging support within the Conservative Party, with newspapers quoting lawmakers who questioned her ability to stay in the job. On Monday, the British government bond market faces a test when it will function for the first time without the emergency buying support provided by the BoE since Sept. 28. Gilt prices fell sharply late on Friday after Truss's news conference.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 15-16.2022
Biden Administration's Dithering Inviting Worldwide Aggression: Russia, China, Iran
Guy Millière/ Gatestone Institute/October 14/2022
The West is not threatening Russia. Putin is threatening the West.
Putin might desperately try to reverse the situation, whatever the cost... Ukraine and its heroism have shocked the world. Ukraine's army can win, but it will require the unwavering support of the West.
The men Putin recently began sending to the front may be reservists, but most have not held a weapon for a very long time and have no will to fight. Some who managed to send messages on Telegram channels say they know they are destined to be cannon fodder.
Putin has almost no allies and could lose what limited support he has. Chinese President Xi Jinping has in common with Putin a clear hostility to the West, but has reportedly not supplied Russia with weapons.
During a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan last month, Xi reportedly told Putin that it was necessary to "instill stability and positive energy into a world in turmoil". Whatever that meant, it was not a message of support for the war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on September 20 that "Russia should return the occupied lands to Ukraine" -- not exactly the direction in which Putin would like to be going.
The Chinese Communist Party, which openly says it wants to dominate the world, apparently does not want a larger war just now. On September 24, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, was even more explicit...
The United States has, once again, like it or not, emerged as the only power capable of defeating an aggressive enemy of democracy; when it does, the status of the US and NATO are strengthened. It is, however, impossible to forget that America's debacle in Afghanistan, the Biden administration's frenzy to sign a lethal nuclear deal with Iran under almost any conditions, and the extreme weakness of Biden's White House before Putin invaded Ukraine. These failures no doubt played into Putin's decision to invade.
The Biden administration's failure to arm Ukraine before the invasion and his comments that a "minor incursion" might be acceptable were catastrophic. The same failure to provide sufficient deterrence to Taiwan is unquestionably inviting Communist Chinese aggression.
The weakness of the Biden administration has created aggression everywhere -- Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, North Korea; assaults on the dollar as the World's reserve currency -- even domestically.
Will the Biden administration ever learn from its mistakes? Or is its ultimate, unspoken goal actually to hand over the United States quietly to Russia, China and Iran?
The Ukrainian government has been defending its country against Russian aggression; the West has been helping Ukraine to defend itself. Putin is now in a dire situation. He is in danger of losing the war that he chose to start seven months ago. He might desperately try to reverse the situation, whatever the cost. Ukraine and its heroism have shocked the world. Ukraine's army can win, but it will require the unwavering support of the West. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers carry the body of a civilian from a house that was destroyed by shelling in Yakovlivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on October 13, 2022. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
September 21. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a pre-recorded speech on Russian television, announces that Russia is being attacked by the Ukrainian government and the West. He defines Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army as "liberated zones". He speaks of the referendums he staged in the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson to try illegally to attach them to Russia. He says that he has decided on a "partial mobilization" to defend the Russian fatherland; adds that the West threatens Russia, and that any aggression against Russian territory will lead to a response by "all weapon systems available to us".
Putin, in short, described a parallel position that that bears little relation to his real position. It is clear that Russia was the aggressor and that Ukraine was the country attacked. The Ukrainian government has been defending its country against Russian aggression; the West has been helping Ukraine to defend itself. The Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army are still, according to international law, Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian military, not "liberated zones". The referendums are a sham, intended to cover up an illegal annexation. No one will even recognize the annexation, except perhaps a few failed states. The mobilization is not intended to defend Russia, but to try to avoid the complete debacle of the Russian army in Ukraine. The West is not threatening Russia. Putin is threatening the West.
For weeks, even Putin's most fanatical supporters have been sending alarmist messages that Russia was on the verge of defeat. His supporters appeared partially satisfied with Putin's decisions, but apparently wanted more. Those who spoke on official Russian television delivered extremely violent speeches, such as Ukraine "cannot continue to exist", or threatening a "nuclear annihilation" of Britain.
Moderate Russians, on the other hand, are seeing that Putin now wants to send tens of thousands more Russians to wage a war that they reject. Demonstrations have been taking place in Moscow and St. Petersburg, even though the protesters know they are risking long prison terms.
A large part of the Russian population have not protested loudly, but, it seems, refuse to die for nothing. Those who could afford to leave the country have already left, or are trying to. Flights to countries where Russians can enter visa-free sold out fast. Roads leading to the borders of Georgia and Finland were immediately clogged – and still are.
Leaders of the Western world were not intimidated by Putin's speech; they learned nothing that they did not know already: Putin is in a dire situation. He is in danger of losing the war that he chose to start seven months ago.
Earlier remarks by Putin on Russian television, on February 24, clearly show he thought he was launching a brief military operation intended to overthrow the regime in power in Kyiv and replace it with a man on his own payroll. The operation failed completely. Russian intelligence seems to have told Putin that the Ukrainian people would warmly welcome Russian soldiers, especially in Russian-speaking areas, and that the Ukrainian military would put up little resistance.
The Ukrainian population, however, saw Russian soldiers as invaders, even in the newly illegally-annexed Russian-speaking areas. The Ukrainian military proved remarkably capable of resisting Russia's crushing assaults. Putin also apparently thought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be eliminated or would agree to leave the country. Zelensky stayed, behaved with breathtaking courage and determination, and succeeded in mobilizing Western opinion in favor of Ukraine. Putin thought he had an effective military. He discovered that the Russian army was not only flawed, but also inefficient, and riddled with corruption.
When the Russian army withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv, it had already suffered heavy losses in both men and materiel. A war that was supposed to be one of conquest saw few territories conquered, and the cost was exorbitant. At the end of June, British and American intelligence services estimated that Russia had lost 80,000 men as well as most of the modern military equipment at its disposal. As early as April, Russian soldiers were using obsolete equipment dating from the Soviet era.
In July, Russia's general staff announced that it was implementing an "operational pause". The Russian army was out of breath.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive started from that moment, and led to the present stalemate. The Ukrainians had received American HIMARS artillery rockets that allow precise strikes from a distance of 50 miles, and began systematically destroying Russia's ammunition stocks, logistical forces and command bases.
The blitzkrieg action the Ukrainian army launched from the Kharkiv region on September 7 led to yet another humiliating defeat for the Russian army. Russian soldiers did not even try to fight. They ran. They left behind many of tanks and military vehicles, as well as confidential documents. Many soldiers reached the Russian border, others surrendered. The Ukrainians recaptured almost 3,000 square miles in less than a week, including Izium, a way-station that Russia had been using to resupply its troops in the Donbass. On October 1, the Ukrainian army recaptured Lyman, in the Donetsk region.
"This week alone, since the Russian pseudo-referendum, dozens of population centres have been liberated. These are in Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions all together," Zelensky said earlier this month.
Russia's army is in tatters. It still has old howitzers that fire inaccurately but can nevertheless cause destruction. It is trying to defend the positions it holds, but seems to be slowly retreating on all fronts. On September 26, the Institute for the Study of War published a tweet saying "Putin is likely coming up against the hard limits of Russia's ability to fight a large-scale war."
In all the Ukrainian towns and villages liberated by the Ukrainian army, war crimes committed by the Russian army are being uncovered: executions of tortured civilians, mass graves, torture rooms. The horrors discovered in Bucha were just the first in a long, sickening list.
Putin doubtless knows the state of his army and the horrific atrocities committed by his soldiers. He has ordered other horrific atrocities, not only in Chechnya and Syria, but also in Ukraine. Two million Ukrainians from the "occupied areas" reportedly have been deported to remote regions of Russia -- some are children taken from their families and offered up for adoption in Russia. These are serious violations of the 1949 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Putin is trying not totally to lose the war. He sees that he has no easy way out, that Western leaders want to try him for war crimes, and that dictators who lose wars they start often end up quite badly.
Putin has to continue to lie. Were he to say anything other than what he has been saying from the beginning -- that he had to conduct "a special military operation", not a war, to "protect" the people of Donbass against a "Nazi" Ukrainian government -- would be to reveal that he was lying all along. He is not going in the direction desired by the most fanatical Russians: the total destruction of Ukraine, but no one knows what he will decide in the weeks to come. The "partial mobilization" has already sparked discontent in the Russian population. A total mobilization would no doubt arouse even more, but does Putin even care about the discontent he arouses?
Putin might desperately try to reverse the situation, whatever the cost. The Ukrainian government might never forgive the crimes committed and is unlikely to make any concessions. Ukraine and its heroism have shocked the world. Ukraine's army can win, but it will require the unwavering support of the West. Zelensky said he would only accept a full recognition of Russian defeat, the full withdrawal of the Russia's army from all Ukrainian territory, and Russia's punishment.
To many, Putin's future looks grim.
The men he recently began sending to the front may be reservists, but most have not held a weapon for a very long time and have no will to fight. Some who managed to send messages on Telegram channels say they know they are destined to be cannon fodder. It would take months to make these reservists effective combat soldiers. Even with the required training, their lack of will to fight would render them ineffective. They have to rub shoulders with criminals recruited from prisons and people released from mental institutions who have been given a uniform and an old gun. Cases of mutiny reportedly have multiplied over the months. Deserters who managed to reach European countries are providing testimonies. One man who found asylum in France described the army as if from a third world country.
Russia's army, which now lacks modern weapons, seems unable to acquire them. Due to Western sanctions, also applied by some Asian allies of the West, Russian arms factories have difficulty obtaining the electronic components needed to manufacture advanced weapons that would enable them successfully to confront those supplied to Ukraine. Only two regimes are openly ready to supply weapons to Russia -- the North Korea and Iran -- and these regimes cannot supply modern weaponry; they do not have it.
Ukraine's soldiers, however, are well trained, they now have some of the best weapons, and they have the will to fight.
Putin has almost no allies and could lose what limited support he has. Chinese President Xi Jinping has in common with Putin a clear hostility to the West, but has reportedly not supplied Russia with weapons.
During a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan last month, Xi reportedly told Putin that it was necessary to "instill stability and positive energy into a world in turmoil". Whatever that meant, it was not a message of support for the war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on September 20 that "Russia should return the occupied lands to Ukraine" -- not exactly the direction in which Putin would like to be going.
When Putin referred to "all weapon systems available to us", many analysts assumed he was referring to nuclear weapons. Some commentators think Putin might use them if he thinks he is losing everything. All analysts agree that if Putin uses a nuclear weapon (even a small one), he will trigger a strong response.
Biden and Europe are weak; Putin can see it. The Chinese Communist Party, which openly says it wants to dominate the world, apparently does not want a larger war just now. On September 24, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, was even more explicit than Xi in Samarkand:
"China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace. The fundamental solution is to address the legitimate security concerns for all parties. President Xi called on the international community to pursue common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries."
Putin might not want to want to lose China's slim support, almost the only support he has. This view may have led some analysts to believe, perhaps as wishful thinking, that the likelihood of Putin resorting to nuclear weapons is small.
Putin seems to be counting on the fear of nuclear weapons to intimidate the West -- a tactic that has been working -- and on Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territories to claim that he is acting to liberate Russian territories and that any counter-offensive could mean the Ukrainians are attacking Russia. Putin also seems to be counting on energy shortages in the West during the coming winter to force Europeans to lift the sanctions they imposed on Russia. Discontent and angry outbursts among the Europeans are expected: Europeans are not interested in being cold. European leaders have sworn, inexpensively, that they will not give in.
Because Putin has no way out and no way back, he will persist. The sham referenda gave results resembling those of "elections" in the Soviet Union. 99.2 % of "voters" in the Donetsk region chose annexation, 98.4% in Luhansk, 93.1% in Zaporizhzhia, 87% in Kherson. Meanwhile, the Russian army has kept on retreating; Putin nevertheless officially declared the annexation of the regions to Russia. He said that their populations are now Russian "forever", railed against "satanic" West, and proposed a ceasefire that Ukraine did not accept.
It is not certain that that Putin will be able to remain in power. On September 11, Dr Mike Martin, a War Studies Visiting Fellow at King's College London wrote bluntly : "Putin is finished". If, in spite of everything, Putin does manage to stay in power, he will be a diminished dictator, his reputation as a strongman and wise strategist dramatically reduced; he will probably be coasting on borrowed time.
The Russian army has been humiliated. Dozens of generals and senior officers reportedly have been killed. Others have been fired. The Russian economy is slowly falling apart; the possibility for Russian entrepreneurs to do business in the West has weakened and could weaken even more in the months to come. Will the Russian oligarchs indefinitely accept that condition? Some of them in recent months have supposedly "committed suicide". Will these "suicides" continue without Russia's oligarchs asking Putin pointed questions and conspiring with the military to try to redress the situation by removing Putin?
European leaders have, for now, adopted an attitude of verbal firmness. When the war ends, will they learn from their mistakes and finally get rid of their fairy-tale illusions?
In 2019, then US President Donald J. Trump warned then Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel that making her country dependent on gas imports from a regime hostile to the West could expose her country to blackmail and supply disruptions. Merkel was not interested in hearing it. Other European leaders were not interested in hearing it, either, and are now facing the consequences of their own daydreams.
Trump also cautioned the countries of Western Europe to abandon the fantasy that perpetual peace would reign on earth and to respect their commitments as members of NATO, including more funding for their own defense. He added that enemies of the West could strike, and that the US should not be alone in bearing the burden for Europe's defense.
No one listened. French President Macron called NATO "brain dead". Other European leaders have promised to spend more on their defense. Will they do it? For how long? The European countries that were courageous and determined from the start of the war were the United Kingdom and Poland, full stop. France, Germany and Italy took weeks to show some grit.
The United States has, once again, like it or not, emerged as the only power capable of defeating an aggressive enemy of democracy; when it does, the status of the US and NATO are strengthened. It is, however, impossible to forget that America's debacle in Afghanistan, the Biden administration's frenzy to sign a lethal nuclear deal with Iran under almost any conditions, and the extreme weakness of Biden's White House before Putin invaded Ukraine. These failures no doubt played into Putin's decision to invade.
The Biden administration's failure to arm Ukraine before the invasion and his comments that a "minor incursion" might be acceptable were catastrophic. The same failure to provide sufficient deterrence to Taiwan is unquestionably inviting Communist Chinese aggression.
Ruthless dictators dream of conquest; they do not even try to hide it. Enemies of the United States and democracy are ever on the watch for opportunities to strike. In the world as it really is, only the fear of a credible American response can deter enemies and preserve peace.
The way to maintain peace is, as President Ronald Reagan used to say, by "Peace through strength." It was a formula successfully followed by President Trump. The weakness of the Biden administration has created aggression everywhere -- Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, North Korea; assaults on the dollar as the World's reserve currency -- even domestically.
Will the Biden administration ever learn from its mistakes? Or is its ultimate, unspoken goal actually to hand over the United States quietly to Russia, China and Iran?
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
© 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.

Biden Administration Repeating Obama's Mistake: Is Biden Being a "Russian Stooge"?
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 15, 2022
"While the majority of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Parliament chants 'Death to America' & supports the Khamenei loyal police for their barbaric actions the leader of the free world (Joe Biden) is silent. Why?" — Iranian Americans for Liberty, Twitter, October 2, 2022.
Nika Shakarami, a 17-year-old girl, was one of the many women who was arrested for burning her hijab. According to the forensic doctor, she was repeatedly raped, beaten and her dead body was delivered to her family with smashed nose and broken skull.
In August 2015, Obama delivered another speech justifying his [Iran] deal, also immediately exposed as a lie: "After two years of negotiations, we have achieved a detailed arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. It cuts off all of Iran's pathways to a bomb. It contains the most comprehensive inspection and verification regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program."
However, as the "sunset clauses" quickly revealed, there was nothing "permanent" about it. Iran was to have all the nuclear weapons it wanted in a few short years, along with ballistic missiles to deliver them.
Obama's billions which were reported as part of a plan to turn Iran in to a "friend," did the opposite. Iran took the billions, enriched even more uranium, hid what it was doing even further from inspectors, took over Lebanon, and began a war in Yemen.
So far, sadly, instead of standing with the people of Iran heroically confronting a regime that chants "Death to America", Biden tsk-tsks, says he is "gravely concerned," but effectively says nothing. He still wants a deal with the mullahs that will quickly bring Iran to nuclear weapons capability, reward Iran's aggression with a trillion dollars, enable it to oppress women and kill more of its innocent citizens, and empower it to help Russia with even more military equipment to crush Ukraine.
Is Biden -- whose family received $3.5 million from the widow of the mayor of Moscow; who, on day one, effectively crippled US oil and gas exploration and exports, thereby, as the price of oil and natural gas suddenly shot up, funding Putin's war on Ukraine, and who gave Putin the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to blackmail Europe in winter -- once again just being a "Russian stooge"?
US President Joe Biden still wants a deal with the Iranian regime that will quickly bring Iran to nuclear weapons capability, reward Iran's aggression with a trillion dollars, and empower it to help Russia with even more military equipment to crush Ukraine. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
While the Iranian regime is arresting, wounding, torturing and killing protesters, all the Biden administration appears to be concerned with is trying to revive a nuclear deal that will soon give Iran unlimited nuclear weapons capability; lift sanctions against the expansionist regime of Iran thereby pumping billions of dollars into its treasury for further adventurism; build nuclear weapons; provide Russia with still more deadly military equipment; and empower the mullahs even further to oppress and murder their innocent, fed-up civilian population for the "crime" of women showing too much hair. Their mothers must be very proud of them. In a further blow to the Iranian people heroically confronting the brutal regime of Iran, the Biden administration is reportedly releasing $7 billion to the ruling mullahs. Iranian Americans for Liberty wrote in a tweet:
"While the majority of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Parliament chants "Death to America" & supports the Khamenei loyal police for their barbaric actions - the leader of the free world (Joe Biden) is silent. Why? "
The Iranian regime has cut off access to the Internet, and security forces continue to fire rifles and tear gas at the protesters, resulting in at least 185 people killed and hundreds of wounded.
Twenty-one human rights groups, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran, signed and sent a letter on October 6, 2022, to the offices of U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the U.S. Representative to the UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stating:
"The death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini in state custody in Iran on September 13 has set in motion massive nationwide protests and strikes in at least 103 cities and towns across all 31 of Iran's provinces, with scores of protesters killed and many more injured.
"Thousands of people have been arrested, including journalists, activists and artists. A number of recent detainees are facing grave custodial abuse and torture. On September 30, Islamic Republic security forces cracked down violently on protesters in Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran, killing dozens of Baluch-Iranians. On October 2, students at the prestigious Sharif University were under siege for hours, with security forces shooting at them and detaining them en masse. On October 4, it was reported that 16-year-old protester Nika Shakarami was killed by Iranian state security forces and forcibly disappeared. Many more deaths, injuries and arrests may be obscured by the government's internet black out."
Nika Shakarami, a 17-year-old girl, was one of the many women who was arrested for burning her hijab. According to the forensic doctor, she was repeatedly raped, beaten and her dead body was delivered to her family with smashed nose and broken skull.
Just the same, amidst Iran's bloody protests, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pointed out that the "JCPOA [Obama's nuclear deal] is the best way for us". This obsession with reaching a deal with the mullahs and lifting sanctions against them, all while turning a blind eye on all their crimes and human rights violations, existed during the Obama administration as well.
Middle East scholar Walid Phares wrote in a tweet:
"The collaboration between the #IranLobby in the #Biden Adm & the #IranRegme has culminated through an underground deal, where billions will be transferred to the regime and the latter would release hostages kept in detention for that purpose, while the people of Iran is uprising."
During the 2009 nationwide uprisings in Iran, the Obama Administration policy was silence in the face of the Iranian regime's bloodshed, human rights violations, and crackdowns that killed and wounded peaceful protesters. In July 2015, Obama justified his deal by incorrectly claiming:
"The bottom line is this. This nuclear deal meets the national security interest of the United States and our allies. It prevents the most serious threat, Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon."
In August 2015, Obama delivered another speech justifying his deal, also immediately exposed as a lie:
"After two years of negotiations, we have achieved a detailed arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. It cuts off all of Iran's pathways to a bomb. It contains the most comprehensive inspection and verification regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program."
However, as the "sunset clauses" quickly revealed, there was nothing "permanent" about it. Iran was to have all the nuclear weapons it wanted in a few short years, along with ballistic missiles to deliver them.
Obama's billions which were reported as part of a plan to turn Iran in to a "friend," did the opposite. Iran took the billions, enriched even more uranium, hid what it was doing even further from inspectors, took over Lebanon, and began a war in Yemen.
As Mitt Romney said in 2012:
"[W]hen millions of Iranians took to the streets in June of 2009, when they demanded freedom from a cruel regime that threatens the world, when they cried out, 'Are you with us, or are you with them?' – the American president was silent".
The 21 human rights groups told the Biden administration in the October 6, 2022 letter that the Iranian people need the support of the United States and called on President Biden to:
Forcefully and publicly to condemn, at the highest levels, the Iranian government for violence against women and civil society activists; call on the authorities to end the internet blackout, call off the violent crackdown, allow for peaceful protests, and release all wrongfully detained individuals;
Lead, in concert with democratic allies at the United Nations in Geneva, diplomatic efforts to establish an urgent special session immediately after the conclusion of UNHRC's 51st regular session to bring governments into a debate addressing Iran's current violent crackdown and its ongoing human rights crisis;
Lead, in concert with democratic allies, the establishment of an independent, impartial investigative mechanism at the UNHRC that investigates crimes committed against the Iranian people by their government and documented over decades by UN human rights mechanisms.
So far, sadly, instead of standing with the people of Iran heroically confronting a regime that chants "Death to America", Biden tsk-tsks, says he is "gravely concerned," but effectively says nothing. He still wants a deal with the mullahs that will quickly bring Iran to nuclear weapons capability, reward Iran's aggression with a trillion dollars, enable it to oppress women and kill more of its innocent citizens, and empower it to help Russia with even more military equipment to crush Ukraine.
Is Biden -- whose family received $3.5 million from the widow of the mayor of Moscow; who, on day one, effectively crippled US oil and gas exploration and exports, thereby, as the price of oil and natural gas suddenly shot up, funding Putin's war on Ukraine, and who gave Putin the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to blackmail Europe in winter -- once again just being a "Russian stooge"?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Resentment and the Crisis in Iran
Omer Onhon/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, October, 15/2022
The wave of protests in Iran ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 17 continues to this day. The number of people killed is unknown but it is said to be close to 200 and maybe even more. In fact, this is one of the many crises Iran has experienced throughout the years. For instance, in 2009, many Iranians who believed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected for a second term only as a result of irregularities and election rigging took to the streets. In 2019, they were back on the streets because of steep increases in fuel prices. Every time, they were faced with forceful and fatal intervention from security forces.
There are three main features of the current crisis.
- Women are at the forefront. Amini became a victim and the symbol for what she was not supposed to do as a woman. Iranian morality police detained Amini, because in their judgement, she was not wearing her headscarf properly. Many female demonstrators are now burning their headscarves and their slogans show that their patience has reached its limits.
- Amini was ethnically Kurdish and there is a big Kurdish angle to the present crisis. The riots first started in her hometown and spread all over the country. The western press is especially keen to emphasize these aspects.
- Demonstrators on the street are mostly young people, including the generation Z. (Iran has a population of 85 million out of which 24.11 percent are between the ages of 0-14 years and 62.3 percent between 15-54 years).
Even though each group has its own specific reasons for not being content with the regime, they have common ground on a majority of issues built on the basis of expectations and disappointments.
On the domestic front, political oppression, corruption, economic mismanagement and abuses of all sorts are very much present. In fact, these were among the main reasons which pushed Iranians to rise up against the Shah regime and topple it in 1979. Actors have changed, but the essence is the same.
On the economic level, inflation, a very weak currency, a percentage of the population living below the poverty line and loss of wealth are among major problems.
We need to remember that we are talking about a country which is among the richest in the world in terms of proven natural gas and oil reserves. These ever-valuable assets are even more so at a time when most of the industrial world is in search of alternative gas suppliers. Sanctions have a lot to do with the current economic difficulties Iran is facing, but to put all the blame on them would be misleading. Regarding international relations and foreign policy, Iran is a major regional actor. It has ambitions; regional, nuclear and other.
Iran is at the center of what is called the “resistance axis” against Israel. This and the position it pursues in the Shiite world, the so-called Shiite Belt extending from Iran to Lebanon, deep involvement in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen are worrisome for many in the East and West.
The Iranian regime must have been concerned with the current crisis which is said to be different from the previous ones in the country’s history. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called Amini's family and promised a thorough investigation. The Speaker of the Parliament talked about the need to reform the morality police’s approach. The parliament set up a committee to investigate.
All these may be seen positive. But at the end, the official investigation report stated that “Amini had died of a disease rather than as a result of beating” and protestors continue to be countered with brute force and more repression.
A regime of that sort cannot be expected to give in easily. This regime, as all others like it, is convinced that any concession or step which could be perceived as a concession would lead to the weakening of absolute power, leading to an eventual total loss of power. The reflexes of the Iranian regime are the same in all countries where leaders and regimes are unsure and unsafe and their preferred method to control is oppression and use of force. Look what happened in Syria and how Iran acted there.
One of the most remembered self-protection moves by the regime was back in 2021 when Khemani took measures to make sure that his candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, won the presidential elections. These measures included barring any candidate who could pose a challenge to Raisi.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij Resistance Force and the morality police are the ideologically loyal bodyguards of the system. They have identified their lives with that of the regime’s as they make a living out of this system. If the system is gone, they will lose all that.
Under direct command of Khamenei, the Iranian security apparatus appears to be determined to protect the system at the expense of going to the very extremes.
It must also be said that the regime continues to have its staunch supporters. Not all Iranian women are burning their headscarves.
Iran blames the west for inciting the protests. It argues that this is one of the many conspiracies against Iran by the enemy. True, Iran has many enemies, but the crisis can by no means be attributed to this alone.
The Iranian regime vows not to allow chaos and disorder. But the fact is that it is basically their way of ruling and their actions, which have led to what they call chaos and disorder.
At one point there is always an incident which leads to an outburst of negative energy in society. This is not unique to Iran.
The street riots in the US when George Floyd was killed by the police were a revolt against the never-ending racial prejudices and discrimination. The street riots in France on a number of occasions also fall in the same category.
I remember listening to Iranian officials who claimed at the time that these demonstrations and riots were purely because of the system and attitudes in these countries. The same Iranian authorities claim that crises in Iran are a result of outside intervention.
Iranians who are out in the streets challenging the regime demand changes. Many want to get rid of it. They have the courage but there is no symbol figure as leader and no organizing political structure. On the other hand, some Iranians who are not happy with the way the country is run, do not want to change the regime but to improve it. These are the reformers from within the system which the conservatives dislike and probably even fear more than the other group. The West in general is backing the demonstrators but nothing like the support they give to Ukraine. That is not surprising on many accounts. Just imagine a crisis of such a magnitude in Iran which would have effects beyond its borders especially at a time with all that is going on in Ukraine and with Russia.