English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 21/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.september21.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I
tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of
Christ will by no means lose the reward.
Mark 09/38-50: “John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we
saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because
he was not following us.’But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a
deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.
Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a
cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose
the reward. ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones
who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung
around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to
stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two
hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you
to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two
feet and to be thrown into hell.+t,+u And if your eye causes you to stumble,
tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than
to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and
the fire is never quenched. ‘For everyone will be salted with fire.”Salt is
good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’”.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on September 20-21/2022
Cyprus Helps Rescue 300 Migrants Aboard Italy-Bound Boat from Lebanon
Lebanon maritime negotiator in US as sea border talks enter ‘final stages’
Israeli PM vows to begin production in Karish
UN Readying US-Funded Salary Support for Lebanese Soldiers, Says Presidency
EU envoys express to Aoun 'grave concern' on Lebanon situation
Mikati met Macron at the United Nations: The priority for stability in Lebanon
is to hold the presidential elections on time
Aoun insists on naming 2 ministers as al-Khalil meets Mikati and Paris
intervenes
Lebanon aims to adopt long-delayed IMF reforms in October
Bou Saab meets Hochstein as drafting of final agreement reportedly begins
US court awards millions to 'victims of Hezbollah rockets'
Karish gas field key to Israel's energy strategy
After meeting Jumblat, Bukhari meets Geagea in Maarab
Berri calls for plenary session next Monday to follow up on studying, approving
draft budget
Geagea meets Bukhari, says ready to present presidential program to opposition
Iran to supply Lebanon with 600,000 tons of fuel over five months
Hezbollah Is Now on Israel’s Border/Sarit Zehavi/The Tablet/September 20/2022
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on September 20-21/2022
Israeli Force Penetrates Syrian Territory to Thwart ‘Bombing Operation’
Macron: Ball on Nuclear Deal Now in Iran’s Camp
US Does Not Expect Breakthrough on Iran Nuclear Deal at UN
Iran Faces Global Criticism, Protests over Woman’s Death
Iran Confirms Deaths in Unrest over Woman’s Death
Show of support for Ukraine takes ugly turn outside Russian Consulate in
Montreal
Jailed Putin critic Alexey Navalny says recruiting prisoners as mercenaries for
war in Ukraine makes him question if the Russian army even exists anymore
Putin's troops are performing 'so poorly' in Ukraine right now that many Russian
volunteers are refusing to go into combat, US official says
Russia is reportedly weighing a $50 billion tax hike on oil and gas exports as
its resilience to sanctions fades
Russia's PM sees budget deficit at 2% of GDP in 2023
Islamic State claims first attacks inside Benin
A Newly Established Militant Organization in the West Bank Claims Several
Attacks
U.S. frees Taliban narcotics kingpin in exchange for Navy veteran
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on September 20-21/2022
Are Wars 'Out of Control' in Mideast?/Dr. Walid Phares/Newsmax/September
20/2022
Iranian-backed attacks on Albania highlights need for Cyber Capacity Building/RADM
(Ret) Mark Montgomery/The Cipher Brief/September 20/2022
Ukraine’s Counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson and the Road Ahead/John
Hardie/FDD's Long War Journal/September 20/2022
Palestinians Cuddle up with Arabs Who Kill Palestinians/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/September 20/2022
Mahsa’s Name Is Now a Code for Freedom and Solidarity for Iranians/Camelia
Entekhabifard/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 20/2022
The Hypocrisy in Addressing Iran’s Victims/Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/September
20/2022
UN Secretary-General Remarks at the Opening of the General Debate of the 77th
Session of UN General Assembly/NNA/September 20/2022
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on September 20-21/2022
Cyprus Helps Rescue 300 Migrants
Aboard Italy-Bound Boat from Lebanon
Associated Press/Tuesday, 20 September, 2022
Cyprus has assisted in rescue of a small wooden boat crammed with more than 300
migrants that was floating adrift 203 kilometers (126 miles) west of the island
nation, a Cypriot official said Tuesday. Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center
Commander Andreas Charalambides told the Associated Press that the captain of
the 18-meter (60 foot) boat sent out a distress call Monday afternoon after
experiencing engine trouble. A helicopter and three naval and police patrol
vessels were scrambled to offer assistance to the boat that Charalambides said
had departed from Lebanon three days ago and was trying to reach Italy with many
women and children aboard. Authorities couldn’t immediately determine the
nationality of the migrants aboard the boat but there was no indication that any
had experienced any health issues, Charalambides said. All the migrants were
safely transferred aboard the Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship Paolo Topic
which was in the vicinity. Charalambides said authorities had asked the captain
of the 250-meter (820-foot) Paolo Topic to set sail for the Cypriot port of
Limassol so that the migrants could disembark. But he said the captain opted,
under the directions of the company that owns the ship, to head to his original
destination of Istanbul. Once a country that received refugees, Lebanon has
become a launching pad for dangerous migration by sea to Europe. As the
country’s economic crisis deepened, more Lebanese, as well as Syrian and
Palestinian refugees have set off to sea, with security agencies reporting
foiled migration attempts almost weekly.
Lebanon maritime negotiator in US as sea border talks enter
‘final stages’
Reuters/September 20/2022
Lebanon’s point-person for US-mediated talks to demarcate its maritime border
with Israel has arrived in New York, while Lebanese President Michel Aoun says
negotiations for a rare deal between the two enemy states have entered their
“final stages.”Elias Bou Saab, deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, is set to
meet with US mediator Amos Hochstein to work out a few remaining disagreements
related to the maritime deal, a senior source familiar with the state of
negotiations told Reuters.Aoun wrote on Twitter earlier on Monday that
negotiations had reached the “final stages” in a way that guarantees Lebanon’s
rights to explore for oil and gas. A maritime deal between the two states would
help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country, pave the way
for more exploration and could help avert conflict between heavily armed
Hezbollah and its sworn enemy Israel. Hezbollah has vowed not to allow Israel to
extract gas from its Karish gas field near the disputed sea area before Lebanon
can move forward with its own exploration in a location that straddles the
proposed border line. The source said that Lebanon was set to receive an
official US-mediated proposal on the border arrangement last week but officials
involved in the talks decided to try to work out remaining disagreements in an
informal manner to avoid an official rejection that could delay a deal. “Both
sides agreed to postpone a few days to allow for more discussions. It’s
diplomacy racing against tensions,” the source said.A deal would represent a
rare diplomatic breakthrough between two states with a history of conflict. Read
more: Biden speaks to Israel’s Lapid amid reported progress on Iran nuclear
deal.
Israeli PM vows to begin production in Karish
Associated Press/September 20/2022
Israel's prime minister has vowed to begin production at a contested
Mediterranean natural gas field "as soon as it is possible," threatening to
raise tensions with Lebanon's Hezbollah. Yair Lapid's announcement in a
statement from his office came at a sensitive time in long-running efforts by a
U.S. mediator to resolve a dispute over the countries' maritime border. U.S.
officials have said they are making progress, but need more time to reach a
solution. Lapid said it is "both possible and necessary" to reach an agreement
with Lebanon, which he said would benefit both countries and "strengthen
regional stability."
But he said that production from the Karish gas field is not connected to the
negotiations and "will commence without delay, as soon as it is possible."Israel
set up a gas rig at Karish in June, saying the field is part of its
U.N.-recognized exclusive economic zone. Lebanon insists Karish is in disputed
waters. In July, the Israeli military shot down three unarmed Hezbollah drones
flying over the Karish field. Hezbollah's leader issued a warning to Israel over
the maritime dispute, saying that "any arm" that reaches to steal Lebanon's
wealth "will be cut off."The heavily armed Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong
war against Israel in 2006, has repeatedly said in the past that it would use
its weapons to protect Lebanon's economic rights. Still, Hezbollah officials
have said they would endorse a deal reached between Lebanon's government and
Israel. Israel considers Hezbollah to be one of its greatest threats. The two
countries, which have been officially at war since Israel's creation in 1948,
both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean
Sea. Lebanon hopes to unleash offshore oil and gas production as it grapples
with the worst economic crisis in its modern history.
UN Readying US-Funded Salary Support for Lebanese Soldiers,
Says Presidency
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 20/2022
The United Nations is finalizing a plan to provide US-funded salary assistance
to Lebanese soldiers hard hit by the country's financial crisis, the UN special
coordinator for Lebanon told the country's president on Monday, the presidency
said. Discontent has been brewing in the security forces as Lebanon's currency
has lost more than 90% of its value against the dollar, driving down most
soldiers' wages to less than $100 per month. Many have taken extra jobs, and
thousands have quit. The military has been squeezed so badly by the country's
three-year-old financial meltdown that its canteens stopped offering meat to
troops in 2020 and began offering sightseeing tours in its helicopters to raise
cash. UN Special Coordinator Joanna Wronecka told President Michel Aoun that US
assistance for the salaries of soldiers "is in its final organizational stages
and will be paid to soldiers via a United Nations program". Washington is the
biggest foreign aid donor to Lebanon. The US Embassy in Beirut did not
immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lebanese army spokesperson said
they had no information about any such US support. In January, the US State
Department informed Congress of plans to reroute $67 million of military aid for
Lebanon to include "livelihood support" for Lebanese soldiers, citing economic
turmoil as well as social unrest. Qatar in June pledged $60 million to support
Lebanese soldiers, which a Lebanese Army source told Reuters would allow for
payments of $100 per soldier through the end of the year.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the
matter, said that roughly 5,000 soldiers had left the 80,00-strong army since
the beginning of the crisis. The army command's decision to allow soldiers to
take on second jobs has slowed the pace of desertions, the source said.
Lebanon's financial crisis has gutted public sector salaries and the amount paid
to soldiers is barely enough to afford a basic subscription to a generator
service that could offset the daily 22-hour power cuts plaguing the country.
EU envoys express to Aoun 'grave concern' on Lebanon
situation
Naharnet/September 20/2022
The Ambassadors of the EU and its Members States resident in Beirut, along with
the Ambassadors of Switzerland and Norway, met with President Michel Aoun on
Tuesday to express “grave and growing concern about the current situation in
Lebanon,” EU Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf said. “We urged the President to
do his utmost to support and actively contribute to the implementation of the
crucial economic, monetary and fiscal reforms that Lebanon has committed to,”
Tarraf tweeted. “Though Lebanon’s context is challenging, immediate measures as
detailed in the Staff Level Agreement the LB Government signed with the IMF on
07 April need to be implemented. The time to act is now,” he urged. He added:
“The European Union and its Member States remain ready to support Lebanon in
this critical period, politically and financially, in the context of
implementing a sound economic recovery plan and an IMF program.”
Mikati met Macron at the United Nations: The priority for
stability in Lebanon is to hold the presidential elections on time
LCCC/September 20/2022
French President Emmanuel Macron met Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the United
Nations today. During the meeting, President Mikati praised the speech delivered
by President Macron at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he stressed
the need to work to provide stability in Lebanon. During the meeting, it was
emphasized that the priority of stability in Lebanon is to hold the presidential
elections on time.
Mikati and Hochstein discussed the mechanism of the
American efforts in the file of demarcation of the maritime borders
LCCC/September 20/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati received the US mediator in the file of
demarcating the southern Lebanese maritime border, Amos Hochstein, at his
residence in New York. The meeting was attended by the caretaker Minister of
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdullah Bu Habib, and the advisor, Ambassador
Boutros Asaker. During the meeting, the research was completed on the US
endeavors.
Aoun insists on naming 2 ministers as al-Khalil meets
Mikati and Paris intervenes
Naharnet/September 20/2022
President Michel Aoun is still insisting on “his right to name the Druze and
Sunni ministers who will replace Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine
and Economy Minister Amin Salam,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday. “This
may reflect a difficulty that is still obstructing the announcement of the
formation of a new government,” the daily added. “The past two days did not
carry anything new as to the naming, at a time the name of ex-minister Saleh al-Gharib
moved to the backburner, seeing as it is not appropriate to name a figure who
would provoke Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat,” al-Akhbar
quoted informed sources as saying.Al-Joumhouria newspaper meanwhile reported
that Hezbollah has strongly intervened to mediate between Baabda and the Grand
Serail and that Hezbollah secretary-general’s political aide Hussein al-Khalil
has met with PM-designate Najib Mikati to “stress the need to form a new
government no matter what it takes.”“Hezbollah also communicated with President
Aoun in a bid to ease his stance,” the daily added. Official political sources
directly concerned with the governmental file also told al-Joumhouria that Paris
has also intervened through its ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo, who “has
relayed an urgent request to Lebanese leaders on the necessity to form a
government in an urgent manner.”
Lebanon aims to adopt long-delayed IMF reforms in October
Associated Press/September 20/2022
Crisis-hit Lebanon hopes to adopt key reforms demanded by the International
Monetary Fund for a long-delayed but urgently needed bailout before the end of
next month if there is "political will," Lebanon's caretaker economy minister
said Tuesday. Amin Salam spoke to The Associated Press after meeting with an IMF
delegation that has been visiting Lebanese officials since Monday. The reforms
would include restructuring the country's banking system and banking secrecy
laws. The small nation has been in the grips of a three-year severe economic
crisis that has left three quarters of its population in poverty after the
Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value. Talks between Lebanon's
government and the IMF began in May 2020 and reached a staff-level agreement
earlier this year in April. The Lebanese government has implemented few of the
IMF's demands from the agreement, which lists five "key pillars" that should be
implemented, before finalizing a bailout program. These include restructuring
Lebanon's ailing financial sector, implementing fiscal reforms, the proposed
restructuring of external public debt, and putting in place strong
anti-corruption and anti-money laundering measures.
"The IMF is still very committed to help the Lebanese government move forward
with the prior actions agenda," Salam said adding that since the staff level
agreement was reached, Lebanon has held parliamentary elections while work is
ongoing to form a new Cabinet and President Michel Aoun's six-year term ends on
Oct. 31.Since the economic meltdown began with nationwide protests in October
2019 against the ruling class that has run the country since the end of the
1975-90 civil war, little has been done to help Lebanon out of its worst
economic crisis in its modern history. The political class, blamed for the
decades of corruption and mismanagement that led to the crisis, has been
resisting reforms demanded by the international community. Lebanon's GDP has
sharply dropped over the past few years from about $55 billion in 2018 to $20.5
billion in 2021. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs since 2019 as the crisis
was made worse by coronavirus and a massive blast at Beirut's port in August
2020, that killed over 200, wounded thousands and caused damage worth billions
of dollars. Daily life has become a struggle with rampant power cuts and some of
the worst food inflation rates worldwide.
"We are hoping October will be the magical month," Salam said. He added that
planned actions include a capital controls law, banking secrecy law, banking
restructuring law and passing the 2022 state budget. Salam said the four draft
laws have been extensively studied and reviewed by Parliament and the government
except for the banking restructuring laws that still are in the works.
"The other three laws, they require a serious political will, a serious
political commitment between the executive power and the legislative power,"
Salam said in English, adding that "I honestly, truly believe that we can
finalize those in October if the political will is there.""We believe that if
those four prior actions are done soon, we get much, much closer to a final
(bailout) deal this year," added Salam referring to a possible full bailout deal
with the IMF, which would provide Lebanon some $4 billion and unlock billions
more from international governments and institutions. Lebanon's central bank
governor estimated that the country needs at least $12 billion in order to
jumpstart its economy. Salam also said that the talks with the IMF have been
partially focused on the unification of the value of the Lebanese pound against
the U.S. dollar, since at the present time Lebanon has at least five exchange
rates for the pound. Also on Tuesday, a warning came from the European Union's
Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf who tweeted after meeting Aoun that he urged
the president "to do his utmost to support and actively contribute to the
implementation of the crucial economic, monetary and fiscal reforms that Lebanon
has committed to." Tarraf met Aoun along with other ambassadors including the
envoys of Switzerland and Norway. "The time to act is now," Tarraf tweeted after
the meeting, calling on Lebanon to implement reforms demanded by the IMF.
Bou Saab meets Hochstein as drafting of final agreement
reportedly begins
Naharnet/September 20/2022
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab met overnight in New York with U.S. mediator Amos
Hochstein to discuss the sea border demarcation file, as Israeli media reports
said a final agreement is expected within two weeks. Israeli business news
website Globes meanwhile quoted a source familiar with the negotiations as
saying that there is “hope is to finalize the agreement within two weeks, but a
few contentious items are delaying the process.”“One is the starting point of
the maritime border on the shore at Rosh Hanikra/Naqoura. Another relates to
islands belonging to Israel that change the line of the border. A third is over
the distance that Israeli defense officials are demanding between Energean’s
Israeli production platforms and the platform due to operate in Lebanon’s
economic waters,” the source added. Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper, which is
close to Hezbollah, meanwhile reported that “the process of drafting the
agreement has started.”It added that the draft agreement contains “an Israeli
acknowledgement -- with U.S., French and U.N. guarantees – that Lebanon has the
exclusive economic rights in the entire area north of Line 23, and that it has
the rights to the reservoir of the Qana field, even if it stretches into the
Palestinian territory, in addition to a pledge that global firms, especially
France’s TotalEnergies, would launch the broadest possible exploration process,
not only in the border blocks but also in the rest of the Lebanese blocks,
according to a mechanism whose details would be agreed with the Lebanese
government.”“The agreement will also include measures by a neutral side to
prevent friction on the two sides of the maritime border, in a way that would
facilitate the exploration and extraction operations of the companies, according
to a mechanism that would organize civilian and military activities in the
sensitive areas,” al-Akhbar said. The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper meanwhile
reported that Lebanon’s leaders and the U.S. mediator have started contacts
aimed at agreeing on “the date of a decisive negotiations meeting in Naqoura in
which the final texts would be formulated in order to be signed.”
US court awards millions to 'victims of Hezbollah rockets'
Associated Press/September 20/2022
A U.S. court has ordered Hezbollah to pay millions of dollars in damages to a
group of Americans who sued saying they were wounded by the group's rockets
during the 2006 war with Israel. The case was brought under the U.S.
Anti-Terrorism Act and alleged that Hezbollah caused the plaintiffs physical and
emotional injury and damaged their property. The judge ordered Hezbollah to pay
damages of $111 million to the plaintiffs. Such civil lawsuits brought against
militant groups are difficult to enforce but Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, one of the
lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said it was an important legal victory
against the Iran-backed Lebanese group. "Only by exacting a heavy price from
those who engage in the business of terrorism can we prevent the suffering and
loss of additional victims to their violence," Darshan-Leitner said in a
statement. Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. Israel pounded
targets in Lebanon, killing around 1,200 civilians, while Hezbollah launched
thousands of rockets at cities and towns in Israel's north. Israel still
considers the heavily armed group a major threat. In Friday's ruling, Judge
Steven L. Tiscione of federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said the plaintiffs
had successfully established that Hezbollah's actions were a violation of the
Anti-Terrorism Act and held the group liable. A Hezbollah spokesman declined to
comment.
Karish gas field key to Israel's energy strategy
Agence France Presse/September 20/2022
Israel is preparing to activate an offshore gas field partly disputed by
Lebanon, aiming to boost energy exports to Europe but risking further tensions
with its northern neighbor. Israel and Lebanon, still technically at war, have
engaged in on-off U.S. mediated talks since 2020 to delineate their
Mediterranean border, which could allow both parties to boost offshore natural
gas exploration. But the Karish gas field has emerged as a potential pitfall.
Israel says that Karish, licensed to London-listed company Energean, is located
entirely within its exclusive economic zone.
Lebanon has claimed that part of the field falls within its own waters. The
powerful Lebanese Iran-backed movement Hezbollah launched unarmed drones towards
Karish in July, after Energean brought a production vessel into the field. It
has threatened attacks if Israel proceeds with extraction. Israeli officials
have consistently said that Hezbollah threats over Karish would not deter
production, insisting that control over the field was not open to discussion.
"Israel believes that it is both possible and necessary to reach an agreement on
a maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, in a manner that will serve the
interests of the citizens of both countries," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid
said in a statement on Monday. "The production of gas from the Karish rig is not
connected to these negotiations, and the production of gas from the rig will
commence without delay, as soon as it is possible," he added. For Israel,
ensuring production from Karish is crucial to achieving its goal of increasing
energy exports to Europe, which is trying to fill supply gaps caused by
declining Russian sales due to the war in Ukraine. "We are going to be part of
the effort to replace Russian gas in Europe," Lapid said, standing alongside
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin last week. Israel was aiming to provide
"10 percent" of what Moscow was delivering to Europe prior to Russia's invasion
of Ukraine in February, Lapid said.
Lebanon tensions -
Israel's options for boosting gas exports to Europe are complex and fraught with
challenges. But experts agree the best short-term option is ramping up sales to
Egypt, which could liquefy Israeli gas before shipping it Europe. Israel and
Egypt signed a deal to June to collaborate on that effort. But if Israel wants
to send more gas from its Leviathan and Tamar fields to Egypt while meeting its
domestic energy needs, it needs "to have stable production from Karish," Israeli
gas industry specialist Gina Cohen told AFP. She said Israeli plans to increase
exports to Europe are also contingent on expanding capacity of the existing
pipeline to Egypt. Despite "Lapid's talking," Israel is "not there yet," she
said. Israel's longer term gas export targets could be achieved by building a
pipeline to Turkey, a scenario with improved prospects amid warming ties between
Ankara and Israel. But officials estimate that could take up to three years at a
cost of $1.5 billion. Another option is the EastMed project, a proposal for a
seafloor pipeline linking Israel with Cyprus and Greece, but there are also
concerns about the cost and viability of that project. At the U.S.-mediated
talks, Lebanon initially demanded 860 square kilometers in the disputed maritime
area but then asked for an additional 1,430 square kilometers, including part of
the Karish field. Lebanon amended its position in June, telling U.S. envoy Amos
Hochstein that it was prepared to back off demands for territory where Israel
planned to imminently extract gas. But Hezbollah's threats over Karish have
persisted and former Israeli general Amir Avivi warned that the risk of
hostilities is possible, even if both governments want to see increased, stable
gas production. "Hezbollah is basically using the issue of Karish and this
maritime dispute to show that they are the one caring about Lebanon's interest,"
he said.
After meeting Jumblat, Bukhari meets Geagea in Maarab
Naharnet/September 20/2022
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met Tuesday with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon
Walid Bukhari in Maarab. Bukhari had met on Monday with Progressive Socialist
Party chief Walid Jumblat. Jumblat said after the meeting in Clemenceau, that he
had discussed with Bukhari the need to hold the presidential election on time.
"Bukhari has stressed his country's keenness on the stability of Lebanon, on the
Taif Accord and on the constitution," he added.
Berri calls for plenary session next Monday to follow up on
studying, approving draft budget
NNA/September 20/2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday called on the House of Parliament to hold
a plenary session at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, September 26, 2022, as well as in the
evening of the same day, to follow up on studying and approving the 2022 state
budget draft.
Geagea meets Bukhari, says ready to present presidential
program to opposition
Naharnet/September 20/2022
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Tuesday held talks in Maarab with Saudi
Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari, who has launched a series of meetings with
Lebanese leaders. “The focus was on the various aspects of the Lebanese crisis
and the current situation, especially that the essence of this crisis’ solution
is the presidential election,” Geagea said after the meeting. Asked whether
Saudi Arabia prefers him for the presidential post, Geagea said: “No, and we
have not tackled names in any way whatsoever. And honestly, they have never
mentioned names and we haven’t as well.”“But what we discussed was the needed
characteristics, seeing as naturally they will not accept to deal with a
president who leans to corruption or bolsters the no-state at the expense of the
state,” the LF leader added. Asked about MP Najat Saliba’s statement that she is
waiting for Samir Geagea’s presidential platform, Geagea said: “If the majority
of opposition MPs ask me to prepare a presidential program, I do not mind this,
although it has been clear for the past 15 years. However, I have no problem to
present it again if the majority of opposition MPs want so.”
Iran to supply Lebanon with 600,000 tons of fuel over five months
Naharnet/September 20/2022
Iran has informed the Lebanese delegation in Tehran of its approval of supplying
Lebanon’s with 600,000 tons of fuel over a period of five months, al-Manar TV
reported. Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mujtaba Amani meanwhile announced that
“good news will be soon declared about what has been agreed on regarding Iranian
fuel and cooperation in the field of electricity between the delegation of the
Lebanese Energy Ministry and the relevant officials in Iran.”Caretaker Foreign
Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has also met with his Iranian counterpart Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian in New York, on the sidelines of the works of the U.N. General
Assembly, where the top Iranian diplomat reiterated Tehran’s readiness to supply
Lebanon with fuel and any other assistance.
تقرير مهم لساريت زيهافي من موقع تابليت الإلكتروني عن خطورة
تواجد حزب الله العسكري والميداني والمدني والمخابراتي على الحدود بين لبنان
وإسرائيل اضافة إلى المئات من مخازن سلاحه في القرى الحدودية
Hezbollah Is Now on Israel’s Border
Sarit Zehavi/The Tablet/September
20/2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/112101/sarit-zehavi-the-tablet-hezbollah-is-now-on-israels-border-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%87%d9%85-%d9%84%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%aa-%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%87%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a-%d9%85/
War fears are no longer alarmist as the terror group supplants
U.N. forces, increases military readiness, and becomes more reckless on
Lebanon’s southern border.
Friction between IDF soldiers and Hezbollah operatives a few years ago was
considered an unusual event; now, it happens daily. I see Hezbollah’s men every
day as I tour the border. Some of them are commando operatives who returned two
years ago from the fighting in Syria. They don’t usually wear uniforms; an
ordinary person won’t notice they’re armed. Sometimes I see them patrolling in a
long column, walking along the fence, stopping and making threatening gestures
and then continuing on their way. Sometimes they pop up from observation posts
with binoculars and cameras, documenting every Israeli movement along the
border.
For 15 years, I have been touring the Israeli-Lebanese border, showing guests
from abroad the integration of Hezbollah into the civilian domain in Lebanon. I
would explain to the guests that we don’t see Hezbollah but they see us, and
reference the tens of thousands of missiles hidden in the Shiite villages that
are visible to the naked eye. But in the last year, the situation on the border
has visibly changed. Everywhere I go along the border, Hezbollah operatives see
me. I’m followed or threatened. For its part, the IDF has renewed the
construction of the land barrier. All this happens in the shadow of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah’s latest threats against Israel, should no compromise be
found between Israel and Lebanon regarding the maritime border and exploration
of natural gas reservoirs.
Hezbollah is a terrorist army with a high level of adaptability. U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war in 2006, forced Hezbollah to change
its operational doctrine. The resolution “Calls for Israel and Lebanon to
support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following
principles and elements: full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the
establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any
armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of
Lebanon and of UNIFIL [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] …”
Hezbollah’s first big investment in the postwar years was in a military
deployment within the urban areas of Shiite villages, using the local civilians
as human shields to conceal its military activities. UNIFIL, with a total of
10,000 troops, is not permitted entrance into private areas. Hence the houses in
the Shiite villages in south Lebanon, within UNIFIL’s active area, quickly
became rocket depots, headquarters, and launching positions.
Hezbollah also sought to create operational redundancy by mapping the entire
territory of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River (UNIFIL’s full area of
activity) and defining it as the “first line of defense.” Within this area,
Hezbollah stores mainly mortars and short-range rockets or missiles: Grad and
Fajr multiple rocket launch systems, with a range of 75 kilometers, and Burkan
mobile short-range ballistic missiles, with a range of 5 kilometers. Antitank
and antiaircraft missiles are also stored in these populated areas, putting
ordinary Lebanese at risk of being used as human shields.
A few years after the 2006 war, Hezbollah began to exploit uninhabited areas and
geographical features for training areas, shooting ranges, and perhaps rocket
launches while gradually barring UNIFIL from these areas. Hezbollah implemented
its strategy through intimidation and threats, blocking roads and claiming that
UNIFIL is prohibited from patrolling this area without a Lebanese army presence.
Over the years, these incidents have been communicated in UNIFIL’s reports, and
analyzing these reports makes it possible to pinpoint Hezbollah’s areas of
activity outside the villages, mainly in wadis and forested areas. At the Alma
Center, we have publicized 10 out of about 20 such areas. Among them is the area
of activity in Yater, where Hezbollah apparently uses natural caves for military
purposes.
Another area was located near the village of Zibqine—the same location where
Hezbollah trained for the cross-border abduction of Israeli soldiers in 2006.
In the latest follow-up report on Resolution 1701 published last July, ahead of
the resumption of the UNIFIL mandate at the end of August, UNIFIL reported three
shooting ranges detected from the air by helicopter patrols. Until now, UNIFIL
has not been given access to these shooting ranges, and it has refrained from
disclosing their exact locations.
Another example of Hezbollah’s presence in the uninhabited areas was a video
interview with a Hezbollah operative in south Lebanon conducted a few weeks ago
by a TV station affiliated with Yemeni rebels. The interview took place in an
area known for Hezbollah military activity. The operative, in uniform, displayed
a kind of underground “museum” with bunkers, rocket launchers, and missiles used
to fire rockets against Israel in the 2006 war. Everything seemed ready for
reuse. In concluding his remarks, the operative sent a message to Israel about
the capabilities of the resistance today, explaining that “it is clear that the
resistance has developed since 2006 and has other great surprises for the
Israeli enemy.”
Alarmingly, in recent months, Hezbollah appears to have moved UNIFIL away from
the border and positioned itself directly facing Israel, building some 20
positions along the border under the cover of a civilian organization with the
cynical name “Green Without Borders.” Some of these positions consist of
portable structures that can be evacuated quickly. Some are built with bricks to
a height of two to three floors.
Green Without Borders was registered as a Lebanese civic association with the
Lebanese Ministry of the Interior in 2013. Hezbollah established the civilian
activities of Green Without Borders by planting trees, putting out fires, and
assisting in constructing public gardens. Starting in 2017, individual Hezbollah
positions occasionally surfaced on the border under the Green Without Borders
banner; the IDF reported to the U.N. that Hezbollah operatives were carrying out
intelligence gathering from these positions. In 2019, Hezbollah fired an
antitank missile from between two Green Without Borders positions against a
military ambulance traveling on the Israeli side of the border.
But what is happening today is unlike anything we have seen before. The
personnel manning these positions do not pretend to be activists concerned with
the environment. Instead, armed military operatives belonging to Hezbollah’s
military units man these positions around the clock. Some belong to Hezbollah’s
commando units, the Radwan Brigades, whose mission in the case of war will be to
infiltrate Israeli territory and attack IDF posts and civilian communities
inside Israel. Others belong to the Nasser unit, which operates on the western
part of the border and up to the Litani River, and the Aziz unit, which operates
on the eastern part of the border as far as the western Beqaa Valley in the
north.
Hezbollah’s military operatives monitor and document every civilian or military
movement on the Israeli side. Sometimes they also provoke IDF soldiers. Through
this activity, Hezbollah aims to improve its intelligence gathering capabilities
and operational readiness to respond to or initiate an incident. Hezbollah also
uses the Lebanese Army’s observation towers (touring the border, they can be
recognized by their black color), which are not routinely manned.
Symbolically, such a position also surfaced at the point where Israeli soldiers
were abducted in 2006, a few meters from a U.N. flag on one side and a Hezbollah
flag on the other.
According to various reports, Hezbollah is on its highest alert since 2006. The
terror group reportedly conducted a competency test for its command posts and
military communications system. Its reserve array of about 20,000 to 30,000
reservists was put on alert (but not yet mobilized). Hezbollah units were called
back to Lebanon from Syria, and operatives in south Lebanon were reinforced. On
social networks, Hezbollah is waging a campaign to “rally the troops,” preparing
them for war with clear threats against Israel while demonstrating its ability
to attack in the air, at sea, and on land.
Recently, the Alma Center received a version of an internal Hezbollah flyer,
which addresses Hezbollah operatives and encourages them religiously,
spiritually, and psychologically in preparation for possible combat (the
authenticity of the flyer has not yet been verified by us). The flyer declares
that victory is imminent, the commanders and operatives are ready, and “Sahib-al
Zaman” (the Mahdi’s nickname) stands alongside the activists. It also states
that the enemy (Israel) is frightened and trembling in his house.
The flyer mentions three battles fought by Hezbollah, regarded by the terror
group as “heroic victories”: the Battle of Maydoun in 1988, in which Hezbollah
fought against the IDF; the Battle of Dabsha in 1994, in which Hezbollah
operatives managed to hoist their banner on the outskirts of an IDF post (the
“Dla’at” outpost) in the security zone; and Jarrod, referring to the battles
against ISIS and the Syrian rebels in Al-Qalamoun and Arsal (on the
Lebanon-Syria border) during the Syrian civil war.
Why now?
There are several reasons for the evolution in Hezbollah’s deployment along the
Israeli border.
In the first years after the war in 2006, Hezbollah was engaged in civilian and
military reconstruction. Around 600 Hezbollah operatives were killed in the war,
demonstrating low battlefield capabilities. At the same time, Hezbollah also
lost support within Lebanon due to the great damage caused by the war. In 2011,
the civil war broke out in Syria; by 2019, Hezbollah was busy fighting there.
In 2019, two things happened: First, the civil war in Syria ended in most areas,
and Hezbollah’s military operatives began to return home with a great deal of
military experience and aggressive ambitions. Second, the IDF exposed and
blocked or blew up Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels, which meant that Hezbollah
had to find another way to get closer to the border, which it did by
overpowering UNIFIL and preventing its access to the border. In 2020, COVID-19
emerged, accompanied by worsening economic and political crises, including the
May 2022 parliamentary elections. Today, the pandemic is over. The election
results were not to Hezbollah’s satisfaction. On the border, military operatives
are itching for action. Lebanon is in such a severe state of economic and
political crisis that peacetime may be less desirable than wartime, in which
Lebanon would receive exponentially more unconditional international aid.
We cannot assess with certainty whether Hezbollah is interested in an imminent
war with Israel. But without a doubt, its military preparedness and the level of
friction its military operatives have sought at the border leave plenty of room
for concern.
**Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi is the president and founder of the Alma Research
and Education Center, which focuses on Israeli security challenges on the
northern borders.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on September 20-21/2022
Israeli Force Penetrates Syrian
Territory to Thwart ‘Bombing Operation’
Tel Aviv - London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20
September, 2022 -
Tel Aviv announced on Monday that Israeli troops had entered Syrian territory in
the Golan Heights to pursue a group of four male Syrians it accuses of planning
an armed attack against its patrols. In the operation, one of the Syrian
suspects was seriously injured and was flown by a helicopter to receive
treatment at an Israeli hospital near Tiberias. The other three perpetrators,
however, managed to escape deeper into Syrian territory. According to the
Israeli account, four Syrian men approached the border in the heart of the
occupied Golan and threw unknown objects towards a dirt route on which the
Israeli army patrols.
It later turned out that the objects hurled on the road included a mine that did
not explode. An Israeli military force affiliated with the 402nd Artillery
Brigade penetrated the border and opened live fire at the suspects as they fled
the scene. Israeli troops fired at the suspects without first confirming if they
were armed or not. According to a report made by the hospital treating the shot
suspect, the wounded perpetrator was in a “serious and unstable” condition.
Moreover, the report revealed that the suspect was transferred to the operating
room to undergo surgery. The Israeli operation into Syrian territory is not the
first of its kind. Israeli forces on the occupied side of the Golan heights have
previously come under fire from the liberated Syrian territory in the Golan.For
their part, Israeli forces are known for firing at anyone who approaches the
border. In September 2018, the Israeli army announced that its soldiers had
fired at a group of Syrian gunmen near the border wall in the Golan. The
justification for the firing was that the Syrians came too close to Israeli
soldiers.
Macron: Ball on Nuclear Deal Now in Iran’s Camp
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 September, 2022
The ball on reaching a nuclear deal with Iran is now in Tehran's camp, French
President Emmanuel Macron told journalists on Tuesday after a meeting with
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi. Macron also emphasized the need for the
International Atomic Energy Agency to be able to carry out its work
independently. The meeting is Raisi's first head-to-head with a major Western
leader since he was elected last year.
US Does Not Expect Breakthrough on Iran Nuclear Deal at UN
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 September, 2022
The United States does not expect a breakthrough on reviving the 2015 Iran
nuclear deal at this week's UN General Assembly but Washington remains open to
both sides resuming compliance with the accord, a top US White House said on
Tuesday. "I don't expect a breakthrough in New York," White House National
Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. He said President Joe Biden would
reiterate that "the United States has been prepared for a mutual
compliance-for-compliance return ... and if Iran is prepared to be serious about
fulfilling its obligations and accepting that formula, we could have a deal."
Iran Faces Global Criticism, Protests over Woman’s Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 September, 2022
Iran faced international criticism on Tuesday over the death of a woman held by
its morality police, which ignited three days of protests and arrests across the
country, including clashes with security forces in the capital. The UN human
rights office called for an investigation. The United States, which is trying to
revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, called on Tehran to end its “systemic
persecution” of women. Italy also condemned her death. Iran dismissed the
criticism as politically motivated. The UN body said Iran's morality police have
expanded their patrols in recent months, targeting women for not properly
wearing the Islamic headscarf, known as hijab. It said verified videos show
women being slapped in the face, struck with batons and thrown into police vans
for wearing the hijab too loosely. A similar patrol detained 22-year-old Mahsa
Amini last Tuesday, taking her to a police station where she collapsed. She died
three days later. Iranian police have denied mistreating Amini and say she died
of a heart attack. Authorities say they are investigating the incident. “Mahsa
Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be
promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent
authority,” said Nada Al-Nashif, the acting UN high commissioner for human
rights. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile said Amini “should be
alive today.”“Instead, the United States and the Iranian people mourn her. We
call on the Iranian government to end its systemic persecution of women and to
allow peaceful protest,” he tweeted. Italy's Foreign Ministry called for “the
perpetrators of this cowardly act” to be held to account, saying “violence
against innocent people, especially women and girls, can never be
tolerated.”Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian rejected the
criticism, accusing the US of “shedding crocodile tears.”“An investigation was
ordered into (the) tragic death of Mahsa, who, as (the) President said, was just
like our own daughters,” he tweeted. “To Iran, human rights are of inherent
value — unlike those who see it (as) a tool against adversaries.”
Iranian police released closed-circuit video footage last week purportedly
showing the moment Amini collapsed. But her family says she had no history of
heart trouble. Amjad Amini, her father, told an Iranian news website that
witnesses saw her being shoved into a police car. “I asked for access to
(videos) from cameras inside the car as well as courtyard of the police station,
but they gave no answer,” he said. He also accused the police of not
transferring her to the hospital promptly enough, saying she could have been
resuscitated. He said that when he arrived at the hospital he was not allowed to
view the body, but managed to get a glimpse of bruising on her foot.
Authorities then pressured him to bury her at night, apparently to reduce the
likelihood of protests, but Amini said the family convinced them to let them
bury her at 8 a.m. instead. Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried Saturday in her
home city of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and
police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Several
protesters were arrested. The protests spread to Tehran and other cities on
Monday. A news website affiliated with state TV said 22 people were arrested at
a protest in the northern city of Rasht, the first official confirmation of
arrests related to the protests. State TV showed footage of protests on Monday,
including images of two police cars with their windows smashed. It said the
protesters torched two motorbikes as well, and that they burned Iranian flags in
Kurdish areas and Tehran. The state-run broadcaster blamed the unrest on foreign
countries and exiled opposition groups, accusing them of using Amini's death as
a pretext for more economic sanctions. Iran has seen waves of protests in recent
years, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by Western
sanctions linked to the country's nuclear program. Authorities have managed to
quash the protests by force.
Iran Confirms Deaths in Unrest over Woman’s Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 September, 2022
Iranian authorities confirmed on Tuesday that three people were killed during
popular unrest over the death of a young woman in police custody, but sought to
deflect blame from security forces by saying the protester killings were
"suspicious". Demonstrations continued in Tehran late on Tuesday and police
fired tear gas, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Tehran Governor
Mohsen Mansouri accused foreign agents of fomenting the violence in the
country's capital. He said citizens of three foreign countries were arrested
during gatherings overnight, the Iranian state news agency IRNA said. The unrest
is some of Iran's worst since street clashes last year over water shortages and
reflects popular discontent not only over women's rights but also over security
and an economy reeling from international sanctions. In an apparent effort to
defuse tensions, an aide to Iran's supreme leader paid condolences to the family
of the woman killed in custody in Tehran after morality police arrested her for
"unsuitable attire".
Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said three people were killed in Kurdistan on
Monday when security forces opened fire. The Governor of Kurdistan province
confirmed that three people were killed but said the deaths were suspicious and
did not say who was responsible for them. "A citizen of (the city of)
Divandarreh was killed with a weapon that isn't used by the armed forces.
Terrorist groups are looking to kill," Esmail Zarei Koosha said in comments
reported by the semi-official Fars news agency. Mahsa Amini, 22, from Iran's
Kurdistan province, fell into a coma and died while waiting with other women
held by the morality police, who enforce strict rules in Iran requiring women to
cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public. Amini's father has
repeatedly said his daughter had no health problems, adding that she had
suffered bruises to her legs. He held the police responsible for her death.
Demonstrations broke out in Kurdistan and spread on Monday and Tuesday to
several other provinces in northwestern Iran. The most violent unrest has taken
place in the Kurdistan region.
Videos posted on social media have shown demonstrations in numerous cities, with
women waving their headscarves and protesters facing off with security forces.
The protests, sparked by Amini's death, "also shed light on the groundswell of
issues that ordinary Iranians face every day related to security, freedom", said
Sanam Vakil of the Chatham House think-tank. "I don't think this is an
existential challenge to the regime ... because the system in Iran has a
monopoly of force, a well-honed security strategy that it is already
implementing," she added.
Protests spread
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in the Kurdistan province,
Abdolreza Pourzahabi, paid a two-hour visit to Amini's family home on Monday,
the semi-official Tasnim news agency said, citing comments from Pourzahabi that
were also reported by the state news agency. Pourzahabi told Amini's family "all
institutions will take action to defend the rights that were violated" and that
he was sure Khamenei was "also affected and pained" by her death. "As I promised
to the family of Ms. Amini, I will also follow up the issue of her death until
the final result," Pourzahabi said. Protesters marched through Tehran's Grand
Bazaar on Monday chanting "Mahsa Amini, Rest in Peace", according to a video
posted by the widely-followed 1500tasvir Twitter account, which publishes
footage it says it receives from the public. In one large protest in Tehran, a
crowd of demonstrators wearing black shouted, "Oh the day when we will be
armed", according to another video posted by 1500tasvir overnight. Reuters was
unable to verify the videos. By late on Tuesday demonstrations had spread to a
number of other cities, mostly in northwestern Iran, according to 1500tasvir.
Hengaw said there were protests in 13 cities on Monday and that 250 people had
been arrested. Reuters could not independently verify those reports. In Gilan
province, police arrested 22 people for destroying public property, the deputy
police commander said.
Show of support for Ukraine takes ugly turn outside Russian Consulate in
Montreal
CBC/September 20, 2022
Serge Sasseville lives across the street from the Russian Consulate in Montreal
and has been wheeling a stroller covered in red paint out his door nearly every
day at noon since mid-March.He then stands in front of the consulate, usually
with fellow demonstrators at his side, and blasts the Ukrainian anthem with a
wireless speaker while yelling support for a country that was invaded by Russia
in February. The anthem is preceded by the sounds of sirens and gunshots so the
people inside the consulate can hear what it's like in Ukraine, Sasseville said.
And even though he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, the anthem was still
played Monday as his fellow demonstrators took over the daily ritual. Everything
was going as planned until Sasseville's phone rang. It was Claude Fournier and
Fournier's sister-in-law calling to say something had gone terribly wrong.
Altercation over speaker
Sasseville, a Montreal city councillor for the Peter-McGill district of the
Ville-Marie borough, went to his doorstep.Sasseville's friends told him that a
man from the consulate was harassing them. The man was insisting they stop
playing the anthem and threatening to throw their speaker to the ground.
"Which he did," Sasseville said. But Fournier, who has been demonstrating in
front of the consulate since the war's start, recovered the scuffed up speaker
and continued playing the anthem. "Mostly he was saying, 'get out of here or
else I'll get you out of here!'" Fournier recounted. "At one point, I faced him,
and he said, 'I am giving you five seconds to get out of here or else!'"
Fournier is 91 years old and has a pacemaker. He decided it wasn't safe to stand
up to the man. He stepped into the street. His sister-in-law took out her phone
and tried to film the altercation, but the man went after her, Fournier said.
"He grabbed and held her. And tried to get her phone. So she started yelling,"
Fournier said.
Undeterred demonstrator plans return
They called the police. Officers came about five minutes later and took witness
reports. According to a spokesperson with the Service de police de la Ville de
Montréal (SPVM), officers did respond to a call at the consulate, but no
complaint was filed. The spokesperson said there is no law prohibiting music
from being played on a public sidewalk. Fournier said the man who confronted
them spoke French like a Quebecer, and he wonders if the man was hired to
intimidate demonstrators. It wasn't his first altercation with consulate
employees, he said, and he suspects it won't be the last. He plans to be better
prepared when he goes back to play the anthem at noon on Tuesday, he said, this
time with a camera ready and the speaker attached to him rather than on the
ground so it can't be easily tossed. "It was a bit scary, especially because I
wasn't at all prepared for that," Fournier said. "[Tuesday] it will be OK
because I am going to proceed differently." He will continue to fight for
Ukrainians because, he explained, no matter what happens here, "it's nothing
compared to their suffering."
Continuing to fight for Ukraine
Sasseville said his friends, interrupted by the confrontation, never completed
the ritual. So after they left, he went out to his car which was parked in the
driveway. "Even though it was raining, I rolled the windows down and played
three times that recording of the Ukrainian anthem," said Sasseville. "They have
to understand, we will not stop doing what we are doing because they are
threatening us." Sasseville said a consulate employee attacked him in early June
as well, and he filed a complaint with the Montreal police. But he is
undeterred. As long as the war continues, he said Ukrainian flags will be
displayed on his house and the anthem will be played every day by him or his
friends. "No threat from the Russians will stop me," he said. He said the
intimidation has to stop, and that's why he is in contact with Canadian Foreign
Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, insisting the consulate and all its employees be
expelled from the country. "It's unacceptable. You have citizens who are
committed to demonstrating their opposition to a genocidal war and you have
employees from a consulate who are attacking them," he said. "They are not only
killing people in Ukraine. They are attacking Canadians." CBC News reached out
to the Russian Consulate by phone and email Monday but did not get a response.
Jailed Putin critic Alexey Navalny says recruiting
prisoners as mercenaries for war in Ukraine makes him question if the Russian
army even exists anymore
John Haltiwanger/Business Insider/September 20, 2022
Imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny questioned whether Russia even has a
military anymore. This came in response to footage that appeared to show a
mercenary group attempting to recruit prisoners. Russia has suffered staggering
troop losses in Ukraine. Imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny questioned the
state of the Russian military amid the war in Ukraine as he offered his thoughts
on a video that appeared to show an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin
attempting to recruit prisoners. "As an inmate of a maximum-security prison, I
too would like to give my opinion on the recruitment of criminals for the war,"
Navalny said in a statement released via Twitter. "I think the first thought of
any convict who saw this video was: 'Dear God, if they are recruiting us for the
war, then what is the state of the regular Russian army? Does it not exist at
all anymore?'"Though he's behind bars, Navalny has been able to communicate with
the outside world through his lawyers. That said, the Russian opposition leader
has recently complained of authorities limiting access to his legal team. In
August 2020, Navalny was poisoned in Siberia with the Soviet-era nerve agent
Novichok. After being treated in Germany for several months, Navalny returned to
Moscow and was promptly arrested on charges widely decried as politically
motivated. The anti-corruption campaigner has been behind bars in Russia since
early 2021, and earlier this year, he had more time added to his sentence.
Navalny has been a fierce critic of Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine, calling
on Russians to stage mass protests against it.
The war has been disastrous for the Russian military, which has suffered
staggering troop losses since Putin ordered the invasion in late February.
Western intelligence has suggested that the Wagner Group, which has close ties
to the Kremlin, would seek to recruit prisoners to fight in the war as Russia
struggles with manpower issues. Footage that recently surfaced appeared to show
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Putin ally believed to be the head of Wagner, telling
Russian prisoners they would be pardoned if they fought for the mercenary group
in the war. Many Russian prisoners are refusing this offer, a US official told
reporters on Monday. "Our information indicates that Wagner has been suffering
high losses in Ukraine, especially and unsurprisingly among young and
inexperienced fighters," the official said.
Putin's troops are performing 'so poorly' in Ukraine right now
that many Russian volunteers are refusing to go into combat, US official says
Business Insider/September 20, 2022
A senior US defense official said Russian volunteers are refusing to go into
combat. The official said this is because Russian forces are performing "so
poorly" in Ukraine right now. Western intelligence said previously that Moscow
has been hamstrung by personnel issues. Russia is struggling to find volunteers
to fight in Ukraine as devastating losses and poor battlefield performance have
lead to refusals to go into combat, a US official said. Ukraine's punishing
counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the significant damage
its forces have inflicted on Russian troops have led to a personnel shortage
within President Vladimir Putin's military, a senior US defense official told
reporters on Monday. "We're seeing the Kremlin increasingly straining to find
new recruits to fill out their thin ranks, and the Russians are performing so
poorly that the news from Kharkiv province has inspired many Russian volunteers
to refuse combat," the official said. The official also said the Wagner Group —
a shadowy Russian mercenary group with close ties to the Kremlin — is having its
own recruitment problems. Wagner, which has fought alongside Russian troops in
Ukraine and has been connected to atrocities around the world, has tried to
recruit over 1,500 convicted felons to fight the Ukrainians — offering freedom
if they take up arms but death if they desert. However, many of these prisoners
are refusing Wagner's offer, the official said. "Our information indicates that
Wagner has been suffering high losses in Ukraine, especially and unsurprisingly
among young and inexperienced fighters," the official said. In a recent
intelligence assessment, Britain's defense ministry said Wagner's push to
recruit prisoners and shortened training courses at Russian military academies
indicate "critical shortages" for Moscow.
"The impact of Russia's manpower challenge has become increasingly severe,"
Britain's defense ministry said. As Putin's war in Ukraine nears its
seven-month-mark, Russian forces continue to suffer widespread casualties as
Ukrainian troops advance along multiple fronts. Pentagon estimates from last
month said Russia has suffered as many as 80,000 casualties and lost thousands
of armored vehicles. Russian troops have also been hamstrung by exhaustion,
supply issues, and other morale setbacks. And the manpower issue is further
compounded by the fact that Putin calls the war a "special military operation,"
instead of what it actually is, therefore avoiding a mass mobilization. Since
the start of September, Ukraine has made significant advances to liberate
territory occupied for months by Russian troops, who left behind grisly scenes
in their retreat. In an attempt to hold on to captured territory, pro-Moscow
separatists in the occupied eastern Ukraine's Donbas region announced on Tuesday
that they would hold referendums on joining Russia, a move that both Ukraine and
the West have decried in the past as a total sham.
Russia is reportedly weighing a $50 billion tax hike on oil and gas exports as
its resilience to sanctions fades
George Glover/Business Insider/September 20, 2022
Russia's finance ministry is considering plans to raise taxes on energy exports,
Kommersant reported. The tax hike proposals could bolster the government's
budget by around $50 billion. The Kremlin's resilience to western sanctions is
finally starting to fade, economists told Insider. The Kremlin is weighing up
plans to hike oil and gas taxes in a bid to bolster next year's federal budget,
according to a report, as western sanctions appear to be taking a heavier toll
on Russia's economy. The new levy would raise around 1.4 trillion rubles ($50
billion), according to Russian newspaper Kommersant, which cited sources
familiar with the matter. Russia's government wants to raise export duties on
natural gas to up to 50% and to introduce a new tax on liquefied natural gas
exports, Kommersant said. The finance ministry has also reportedly proposed a
plan to hike taxes on oil exports. News of potential tax hikes comes as experts
say that Russia's isolation from global markets is starting to damage its
economy. The US and the European Union have imposed embargoes on Russian oil,
while major gas importer Germany hit its winter storage targets two months early
as it tries to wean itself off of Russian fuel. Oil and gas exports account for
around 45% of Russia's federal budget, according to the International Energy
Agency. The finance ministry has stopped publishing monthly reports since war in
Ukraine broke out in February, but documents reviewed by Bloomberg showed it had
lost billions from western sanctions, with its budget surplus falling by 137
billion rubles ($2.1 billion) as of August. "The fact that they're not
publishing a lot of economic data indicates that they know there are costs, but
they would like to hide the extent of those costs," Don Hanna, an economist at
UC Berkeley told Insider last week. "All of that is designed to obscure the
consequences of the invasion of the Ukraine on the Russian economy." Revenue
from oil and gas exports has also fallen because of the ruble's appreciation
against the US dollar - with Russia's currency soaring 112% against the
greenback since hitting its 2022 low on 8 March. A strong ruble chips away at
Russia's income from oil and gas exports because both of those commodities are
valued in dollars, or other non-ruble currencies, on international markets. When
Russia converts its energy revenues back into rubles, a high exchange rate means
it's losing money. Russia's Ministry of Finance did not immediately respond to
Insider's request for comment.
Russia's PM sees budget deficit at 2% of GDP in 2023
Reuters/September 20/2022
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday Russia's budget deficit would
come in at 2% of gross domestic product in 2023 before narrowing to 0.7% in
2025. In televised remarks, Mishustin said the budget gap would be covered
mainly by borrowing. Last week, the Finance Ministry returned to local debt
markets for the first time since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into
Ukraine, triggering unprecedented Western sanctions that have locked Moscow out
of international debt markets. Mishustin's prediction that Russia would run a
budget deficit for at least the next three years came just two weeks after
President Vladimir Putin said Russia would post a surplus in 2022, contrary to
most expectations. Mishustin estimated government revenues of around 26 trillion
roubles ($433.6 billion) versus outlays of 29 trillion roubles for 2023 ($483.7
billion). The government deficit will come in at 1.4% of GDP in 2024, falling to
0.7% of GDP in 2025, Mishustin said.
Islamic State claims first attacks inside Benin
Caleb Weiss//FDD's Long War Journal/September 20/2022
Through its weekly Al-Naba newsletter earlier this week, the Islamic State
officially claimed its first two operations inside Benin. The attacks now join
the chorus of strikes committed inside the littoral West African country by its
main regional competitor, al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
On Thursday, the Islamic State retroactively took credit for two assaults inside
Benin’s northern Alibori Department, which borders both Burkina Faso and Niger.
In its first claim, the Islamic State said its men were responsible for an
ambush on Beninese troops near the town of Alfa Kawoura on July 1, reportedly
killing four soldiers. This incident does not seem to correlate to any known
reported attack. However, in its second claim, it stated its men carried out the
July 2 attack in Benin’s northern Parc W that killed two Beninese soldiers. The
jihadist group also released a graphic photo showing the two killed troops. For
both assaults, the Islamic State said its Sahel Province, which is more
colloquially known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), were
responsible. Including the uncorroborated Islamic State claim, Benin has now
suffered at least 19 jihadist attacks since 2019. This number, however, could be
higher. The vast majority have been committed by JNIM. ISGS has previously used
Benin’s northern areas as a transit route between the Sahel and Nigeria and as a
safe-haven for its operations in southwestern Niger. That the Islamic State has
now conducted – and later officially claimed – attacks inside Benin demonstrates
it has decided to operationalize its presence in the country.ISGS thus joins its
rival in JNIM in conducting attacks inside littoral West Africa. JNIM has
conducted dozens of raids and assaults across the Ivory Coast, Togo, and Benin,
killing over 100 people, as violence continues to push further south largely out
of Burkina Faso though it also recruits locally across the littoral states. Much
like the Islamic State, JNIM also formerly used the littoral countries as rear
bases and staging grounds prior to changing its posture in the countries into
conducting offensive operations. The attack claims come as Benin has publicly
sought foreign assistance in its fight against jihadist violence within its
borders. Last week, Benin confirmed that it was in talks with Rwanda to provide
logistical and advisory support in its military operations. Rwanda currently has
troops deployed in northern Mozambique, where it has helped the southern African
country combat the local Islamic State wing, and inside the Central African
Republic. Though the military dimension is indeed important, this move
nevertheless carries many implications as a military-only policy and
heavy-handed approach for its northern regions may risk inflaming the conflicts
in Benin. This includes both jihadist violence and the area’s communal violence
and banditry as non-jihadis may be lumped into the same category in such a
heavy-handed strategy. It is clear, however, that Benin, much like its regional
neighbors in Togo and Ivory Coast, must enact comprehensive strategies that help
both stymie the flow of jihadist attacks into their countries and improve
societal conditions that detract local jihadist recruitment and more indigenous
jihadi efforts across littoral West Africa. That the Islamic State now joins al
Qaeda in publicly attacking Benin further highlights this necessity.
*Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal and a senior
analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the
Islamic State in Central Africa. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan
research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
A Newly Established Militant Organization in the West Bank
Claims Several Attacks
Joe Truzman/FDD's Long War Journal/September 20/2022
A nascent Palestinian militant organization called The Lion’s Den (TLD) has been
established in the West Bank and have publish statements claiming shooting
attacks against Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops. In late Aug., TLD published
their first official statement claiming responsibility for an armed clash
against IDF soldiers in the Palestinian village of Rugib, located in the West
Bank. Though, Palestinian media reported about the group’s activity on Aug. 15.
Days later, the organization held what appears to be its first rally in honor of
two militants who were killed in late July during an armed clash with IDF troops
operating in Nablus. In the following weeks, TLD made several more claims of
responsibility for shooting at IDF troops operating in the Balata camp, al-Ain
camp, and detonating an IED inside Har Braha, south of Nablus. On Sep. 9,
Israeli police foiled a large-scale terrorist attack in southern Tel Aviv. The
would-be terrorist was apprehended when he arose the suspicion of police
officers. After his arrest, a rifle, two IEDs and a bandana bearing the logo of
TLD was found on his person. FDD’s Long War Journal reached out to an Israeli
Police spokesperson for further information on the suspect’s possible
affiliation to TLD and was told the investigation was being led by the General
Security Services (Shin Bet) which prevented the spokesperson from commenting on
the matter. Lastly, on Tuesday morning, TLD published a statement and
documentation claiming responsibility for a shooting attack against the Har
Braha settlement near Nablus. Not a lot is known about the organization’s
background. Though, the Dheisheh camp, located south of Bethlehem, has often
been referred to as “the lion’s den” suggesting the group may have originally
been founded by members from the camp. Additionally, it remains unclear if TLD
is a splinter organization of an established militant group such as Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad or al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. However, there are some
clues that suggest their affiliation to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.On several
occasions, TLD has published its logo with the picture of two militants killed
in late July, Muhammed al-Azizi and Abdul Subh, both members of the Fatah-linked
al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Furthermore, TLD said in a statement published on Sep.
3 that Azizi and Subh were its founding members. The evidence suggests TLD is
following the same pattern of other sub groups that have been formed this year
who are affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad or al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) rule in pockets of the West Bank has weakened
over time thus leading to militant organizations strengthening their positions
and expanding their activity in a handful of Palestinian cities. While militant
activity has not developed to the level it was during the second intifada, the
growing trend in violence presents a significant challenge which will likely
continue if major changes are not implemented by the IDF and the PA.
*Joe Truzman is a contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow him on Twitter @JoeTruzman.
FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on
national security and foreign policy.
U.S. frees Taliban narcotics kingpin in exchange for Navy
veteran
Bill Roggio/FDD's Long War Journal/September 20/2022
The Taliban released Mark Frerichs, an American veteran who had been held
hostage since early 2020, in exchange for Haji Bashir Noorzai, a convicted
Taliban drug kingpin who was serving a life sentence for smuggling heroin into
the United States. The U.S. routinely claims it does not negotiate with
terrorist groups, but this prisoner swap is just the latest example. The
Taliban, which also claims to be against narcotics production and smuggling,
gave Noorzai a hero’s welcome upon his return to Kabul on Sept. 19. He was given
a military escort and showered with garlands of flowers. Before his arrest in
2005, Noorzai was added to the list of the U.S. government’s foreign narcotics
kingpins and was considered to be one of the world’s 10 most wanted narcotics
traffickers. The U.S. government claimed Noorzai smuggled more than $50 million
in heroin into the U.S. In 2008, Noorzai was sentenced to life in prison.
Noorzai had longtime ties to the Taliban. At the time of his arrest, U.S.
Attorney David Kelley described Noorzai as “perhaps the most notorious Afghan
drug lord and has built, over the last 15 years, a multimillion-dollar heroin
business by forging an unholy alliance with [Taliban founder and first emir]
Mullah Mohammad Omar and the Taliban.”“Between 1990 and 2004, Noorzai and his
organization provided demolitions, weaponry, and militia manpower to the
Taliban. In exchange, the Taliban permitted Noorzai’s business to flourish and
served as protection for Noorzai’s opium crops, heroin laboratories, and drug
transportation routes out of the country,” Kelley said. Frerichs, a U.S. Navy
veteran who was working as a civil engineer in Afghanistan, was kidnapped in
Jan. 2020, just one month before the Trump administration cut a deal with the
Taliban that paved the way for the U.S. withdrawal under the Biden
administration. Frerichs was kidnapped in the eastern Afghanistan province of
Khost, a bastion of the Al Qaeda-allied Haqqani Network, the powerful and
arguably the most influential Taliban subgroup in Afghanistan. Frerichs’
disappearance triggered a multi-agency search across Afghanistan. While the U.S.
military was frantically searching for Frerichs in Afghanistan, it was highly
likely he was moved across the border to Pakistan, where the Taliban has
previously detained other U.S. and foreign hostages. The Haqqani Network
controls territory in the Pakistani tribal districts of North and South
Waziristan, as well as in Kurram, despite claims by the Pakistani government and
military that it has rooted out the group through military operations.The
Haqqani Network is led by Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sirajuddin is the Taliban’s
Interior Minister, and also serves as one of the two deputy emirs of the
Taliban. Sirajuddin played a key role in the Taliban’s military takeover of
Afghanistan. The Haqqani Network is closely tied to Al Qaeda and other foreign
terror groups, and helped institutionalize suicide tactics within the ranks of
the Taliban.
*Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and
the Editor of FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow him on Twitter @billroggio. FDD is
a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on September 20-21/2022
Are Wars 'Out of Control' in Mideast?
Dr. Walid Phares/Newsmax/September 20/2022
It has become increasingly clear that since the Biden administration’s chaotic
withdrawal from Afghanistan a year ago and the transfer of power to the Taliban,
what one might coin as “wars out of control” could spread in the Greater Middle
East, causing danger to U.S. interests, national security and the security of
our allies in the region. Since the 2021 pull-out, the collapse of the Afghan
army (which was trained and funded by the United States for 20 years), and the
rise of a Jihadi regime, anti-American powers and forces on the continent and
worldwide have been moving on the offensive, dismissing American deterrence and
reactions.
The disastrous withdrawal was a dramatic foreign policy move by the Biden
administration, but it was also accompanied by a sharp return to the Iran Deal
talks and the reversal of the tough decisions made by previous administrations
regarding full isolation of the Iranian regime. The Afghanistan and Iran “deals”
were unmistakably seen as critical signs of weakness, prompting a rush by the
anti-American bloc to seize the moment. On February 24, and against all
expectations in international relations, Russian forces invaded Ukraine,
reaching the capital and taking the control of vast areas in the north, east,
south and most of the Black Sea coast. A devastating war, devouring Western
treasures and bleeding European economies, has been ongoing with no end in
sight, with a paralyzed U.N. Security Council, and without clear cut U.S.
policies on deterrence and solutions.
The administration’s limited position in the Ukraine war is bound by its
relentless attempts to return to the Iran Deal. Russia, and later China,
realizing the Biden administration is showing signs of irreversible commitment
to the deal, unleashed their campaigns: Moscow in Ukraine on the ground, and
China upping the ante around Taiwan.
As a result of this chain reaction that started in Afghanistan, the inability of
Washington to stop either power from engaging in offensives or threats has had
deep impact on the Greater Middle East, where wars could explode and America
would again be unable to ensure stability. Here are the most dangerous:
Iran-Israel: Iranian-backed militias are building their offensive military
capabilities from Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to Gaza, to surround Israeli
territories and target them with long and mid-range ballistic missiles. Israel’s
air-force is busy with preemptive strikes across Iraq, Syria, and against Hamas,
to weaken this gigantic pincer. But this confrontation risks exploding into a
devastating war involving four countries — including inside Iran. The
administration is unwilling to escalate pressures against the regime to deter it
because it is negotiating the “deal.” Such a war would be out of control.
Israeli cities would be targeted, and bombardments would hit a chunk of West
Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Iran-Gulf: Iran’s regime has been targeting the countries of the Arab Coalition
for years, mainly from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the
UAE have been targeted with ballistic missiles and drones over the past year and
a half without serious U.S. reaction in return. President Biden met the Arab
leaders at the summit of Jeddah, but U.S. forces were not directed to silence
the active missiles launchers. Why? Again, the Iran Deal.
War on Kurds: Iran is pressing Iraqi Kurdistan from the east and the south with
its forces and militias. Its goal is to subdue Erbil as a vassal state via
Iraq’s militias. If that autonomous province is invaded, Turkey will move from
the north and dominate a security zone as well. In East Syria, the Assad regime,
Hezbollah, and Iranian militias from the west and south are inching in to topple
the Kurdish and minorities’ de facto autonomous zone. Turkey is threatening to
invade from the north. The U.S. is present in both Kurdish areas in Iraq and in
Syria, but as in Afghanistan, the Biden administration could depart overnight if
the deal with Iran requires it. An endless war would ensue.
Turkey-Greece: Over the past three years, tensions between Turkey and Greece
have been brewing over the east Mediterranean and, most recently, over Greek
islands in the Aegean. What was a decades-old conflict stabilized by the heavy
pressure of U.S. diplomacy and hopes of NATO membership is now about to reignite
in the post-Ukraine invasion era. Such a potential conflict would collapse the
southeastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance. Ankara, detecting weakness in
Washington, has been inching closer to Russia and China. Greece fears a
Ukraine-like operation over the islands. A lack of U.S. pressure to prevent such
a dangerous clash would also lead to an uncontrolled war with tremendous
consequences.
These potential wars due to lack of U.S. firmness overseas are also perceived by
the hostile actors as more possible because of the dizzying political division
at home. Dangerous American times. Dangerous times in the Middle East.
*Dr. Walid Phares, is a Newsmax foreign policy analyst — beginning in April of
2022. Since 2009, he has served as co-secretary of the Transatlantic
Parliamentary Group. He has also served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald
Trump in 2016 and was a national security adviser (in 2011) to now-Sen. Mitt
Romney, R-Ariz. Dr. Phares is a noted author, professor and Mideast expert, as
well as a former Fox News and MSNBC contributor. Read Dr. Walid Phares' Reports
—
Iranian-backed attacks on Albania highlights need for Cyber
Capacity Building
RADM (Ret) Mark Montgomery/The Cipher Brief/September 20/2022
Albania, a NATO member state, cut diplomatic ties with Iran earlier this month
after blaming Tehran for a cyberattack against Albanian government networks. It
is an unprecedented response to a cyberattack that highlights the impact of such
attacks and how they could rapidly move NATO into a crisis or contingency. Cyber
deterrence relies on both maintaining offensive cyber capabilities and improving
the resilience of cyber networks. This reality reinforces the importance of
building the cyber defense capabilities of NATO allies. Albania says July’s
ransomware attack destroyed government data and temporarily disabled digital
services. A group calling itself HomeLand Justice, claiming to be Albanian
citizens, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said in a telegram
message that it was upset about the government’s decision to provide refuge to
roughly 3,000 members of the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK),
which the United States has designated as a terrorist group. But in announcing
his country’s decision to sever diplomatic ties, Albanian Prime Minister Edi
Rama called the cyberattack “state-sponsored aggression,” explaining that
investigations aided by Microsoft and the FBI provided “indisputable” evidence
that four Iranian government-backed groups were responsible.
The United States and United Kingdom expressed agreement with Albania’s
attribution, with Washington pledging to “take further action to hold Iran
accountable for actions that threaten the security of a U.S. ally.” NATO also
condemned the attack. Following the severing of diplomatic ties, Albania
experienced further cyberattacks last week, allegedly from Iran, that disrupted
Albanian police and border control networks. Albania is not the only NATO ally
to come under attack from state-backed and criminal hacking groups. An
independent Russian hacking group, for example, has declared “war” against 10
countries, including the United States and several of its allies. Earlier this
month, the criminal Cuba Ransomware group crippled government systems in
Montenegro. Like Albania, Montenegro is receiving remediation and investigative
support from Washington and its NATO allies.
NATO takes these attacks seriously at least in part, because if the critical
infrastructure or government systems of NATO member states are disrupted, the
alliance’s ability to project power in a time of conflict could be weakened.
Recognizing this problem, NATO allies pledged in June to “significantly
strengthen our cyber defenses through enhanced civil-military cooperation.”The
Biden administration should support this pledge by having the Department of
State’s newly formed Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy spearhead a
resilience summit with NATO allies. This gathering should have the goal of
improving member states’ cyber defenses and coordinating an alliance-wide cyber
capacity building effort to strengthen vulnerable NATO allies. The
administration should also work with Congress to ensure full resourcing of the
numerous State and Defense Department programs that improve the cyber defenses
of U.S. partners.The administration can fund this capacity building support in
at five least ways.
First, it can expand State Department funding for the Assistance to Europe and
Eurasia program to support cybersecurity programs in Eastern Europe that improve
incident response and remediation capabilities. These programs could also train
personnel on international cyberspace law and the policy and technical aspects
of attribution of cyber incidents. Second, there are funding opportunities to
counter international cybercrime within the State Department’s Bureau of
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The INL
programs build the capacity of partners to counter cybercrime by strengthening
their ability to develop and implement national laws, policies, and procedures
to hold malign actors accountable. Third, Washington could utilize the Digital
Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership. This State Department program
supports international capacity building efforts that foster government-industry
cooperation on cybersecurity and that build cyber resilience in partner
networks.Fourth, the State Department could expand Foreign Military Financing
for cybersecurity capacity building efforts. This funding strengthens the
readiness of partner military forces and encourages regional cooperation against
nation-state cyber threats such as those demonstrated by Iran as well as Russia,
China, and North Korea.
Finally, the Department of Defense could continue to expand funding for “hunt
forward operations” by U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). These operations allow
forward deployed CYBERCOM operators to sit in partner networks and observe and
identify malicious activity that threaten partners. The operators can then use
these insights to increase the resilience of critical allied networks. As of May
2022, CYBERCOM had conducted 28 such hunt forward operations in 16 countries.
The United States and its NATO allies must support the alliance’s less developed
partners in protecting their critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. Attacks
like the ones by Iran on Albania are best countered by a combination of cost
imposition efforts that hold malicious cyber actors accountable for their
actions and proactive measures to strengthen the defense and resilience of NATO
systems. Investments in the cyber capacity building efforts highlighted above
will go a long way to addressing the defensive requirements. *Rear Adm. (Ret.)
Mark Montgomery is a senior director at the Center on Cyber and Technology
Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he is also
a senior fellow. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCMontgomery. Michael Sugden, intern
with CCTI and a master’s student in security policy studies with a concentration
in science and technology from The George Washington University, contributed to
this column. FDD is a nonpartisan research organization focused on foreign
policy and national security issues.
Ukraine’s Counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson and the
Road Ahead
John Hardie/FDD's Long War Journal/September 20/2022
Ukraine’s stunning victory in Kharkiv Oblast has reshaped the battlefield and
dealt a powerful blow to Vladimir Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine. Meanwhile,
Ukrainian forces continue to wage a more gradual but no less important
counteroffensive in southern Ukraine. This analysis will unpack them both and
highlight some factors that will shape the road ahead.
Kharkiv Counteroffensive
The Ukrainian General Staff, with Western assistance, formulated a plan to
retake territory on two fronts: Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine and Kharkiv
Oblast in the east. For months, Kyiv telegraphed its intention to launch a
counteroffensive in Kherson, while keeping its plans in Kharkiv under wraps.
This led Russia to bolster its previously thin presence in the south, including
by redeploying much of its forces from the area around Izyum, where Russian
forces had been trying — without success — to push toward Slovyansk, one of two
major cities in the Donbas that remain under Ukrainian control.
In recent weeks, Russian military correspondents and commentators began warning
of a Ukrainian buildup south of Izyum and particularly near Balakliya, a city
key for protecting the northwestern flank of Russia’s Izyum grouping. Ukraine
had already been pressuring at Russian positions south of Izyum and around
Balakliya, where Russian forces had been left thin. Yet the Russian military
command evidently did not add reinforcements. The top Russian-installed official
in Kharkiv Oblast later said Ukrainian forces outnumbered Russian troops by
eight to one during the counteroffensive.
Ukrainian forces in the Balakliya area included some of the country’s most
capable units, comprising elements of the 14th and 92nd mechanized brigades,
25th Airborne Brigade, 80th Airborne Assault Brigade, 3rd and 4th brigades,
214th Separate Rifle Battalion, 112th and 113th territorial defense brigades,
and possibly the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, along with a battalion from the
1st Special Purpose Brigade and various other special operations forces. Near
Izyum, Ukraine had elements of its 30th and 93rd mechanized brigades, including
the latter’s Carpathian Sich Battalion, as well as the 95th and 79th airborne
assault brigades, 81st Airmobile Brigade, and 71st Jaeger Infantry Brigade.
Elements of several artillery brigades were also deployed in the area.
Prior to launching the counteroffensive, Ukraine conducted shaping operations
targeting ammunition and fuel depots, command-and-control nodes, and other
high-value targets in the Russian rear. Early on September 6, Ukraine reportedly
massed armor and punched into western Balakliya and the nearby suburbs of
Verbivka and Yakovenkove as well as Chkalovs’ke to the north, while pushing
toward road junctions at Volokhiv Yar and Shevchenkove.
Russian lines broke quickly. Forces from the so-called “people’s republics” in
Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, who typically are poorly trained and equipped and
have low morale, reportedly manned the front line around Balakliya. Two units
from Rosgvardia, or Russia’s national guard, which is not trained or equipped
for heavy combat, apparently manned the second line. Rosgvardia generally has
low interoperability with regular Russian forces, reportedly resulting in poor
coordination between those Rosgvardia units and their artillery support (likely
provided by forces from the 288th Artillery Brigade of Russia’s 1st Guards Tank
Army). Personnel from the “Redut” private military company reportedly were also
in the area.
Russia seems to have had few reserves nearby that could stem the Ukrainian
advance. Russian forces in the area consisted primarily of understrength units
from the Western Military District, which took debilitating losses during the
first phase of the war. Elements of the 20th Combined Arms Army’s 144th and
possibly 3rd motor rifle divisions were in the area, including the former’s
488th Motor Rifle Regiment. So were elements of the Baltic Fleet’s 18th Motor
Rifle Division, including its 7th Motor Rifle Regiment, along with the 26th Tank
Regiment of the 1st Guards Tank Army’s recently formed 47th Tank Division. Some
elements of the 150th Motor Rifle Division, part of the Southern Military
District’s 8th Combined Arms Army, also appear to have been in the area.
Unconfirmed accounts from Ukrainian and Russian sources suggest at least some
regular Russian units simply abandoned Balakliya.
The Russian Air Force also appears to have been ineffective in staunching
Ukrainian advances. While open-source information provided a very partial
picture of the air domain, it appears Ukraine had dense air defense coverage of
the area, having deployed additional air defense systems near Balakliya during
its buildup there. This reportedly led Russian aircraft to be particularly
cautious, degrading their ability to support Russia ground forces — a task with
which the Russian Air Force has already struggled throughout the war. The
Ukrainian General Staff reported Russian airstrikes in three or four different
settlements in the Balakliya-Izyum area on September 6 but none thereafter. The
chaotic battlefield may have caused friendly-fire concerns or made Russian
forward air controllers — on whom Russian aircraft reportedly relied almost
exclusively for target acquisition — unable to deliver timely coordinates.
Ukrainian forces quickly exploited their initial breakthrough. Ukrainian
commanders employed shrewd operational art, largely bypassing Volokhiv Yar and
Shevchenkove to penetrate deeper behind Russian lines, pressing toward Vesele,
Sen’kove, and Kup’yans’k, while also pushing northward — and eventually
southward — toward Izyum. Ukrainian forces appear to have been effective in
combining infantry and armor, much of the latter donated from the West.
Russia scrambled to send reinforcements, including elements of the 90th Guards
Tank Division and possibly parts of the newly formed 3rd Army Corps. But they
did not arrive in time to halt Ukrainian advances, although one Russian source
indicated the reinforcements in Izyum may have bought Russia some time to avoid
the encirclement of its forces there.
By September 10, Ukraine had taken part of Kup’yans’k, the key road and rail hub
supporting the Russian grouping at Izyum. This left Moscow little choice but to
abandon the Izyum axis or risk the encirclement of a large portion of its
forces. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that Russian troops in the area
would retrograde across the Oskil River, attempting to spin the defeat as a
refocusing on Moscow’s original goal of taking the rest of Donetsk Oblast.
However, Ukraine’s stunning victory in Kharkiv Oblast has almost certainly
dashed Russia’s (already small) chances of taking Slovyansk and nearby
Kramatorsk. Russia’s enormous equipment losses during the counteroffensive will
further degrade its offensive potential. The Oryx blog documented over 580
visually confirmed Russian equipment losses from September 7 to September 13,
many of them abandoned by fleeing Russian troops.
What is more, Russian positions in Luhansk Oblast and norther Donetsk Oblast,
for which the Russian military sacrificed a great deal of blood and equipment
during the summer, are now at risk. Indeed, Ukrainian forces have already
retaken or contested a number of towns in those areas.
Kherson Counteroffensive
Kherson Oblast and its eponymous capital city carry greater strategic importance
for Ukraine than does the east. Kherson is a key port city and holds
considerable political significance as the only regional capital taken since
Putin launched his full-scale war in February. Militarily, retaking Kherson
would close the door to an (already unlikely) Russian push toward Mykolaiv and
Odesa. Kyiv also sought to thwart Moscow’s plans for a sham annexation
referendum, which a Russian-installed official last week said had been “paused”
due to the security situation.
Ukraine preceded its Kherson counteroffensive with a monthslong effort to strike
high-value Russian targets such as ammunition and fuel depots,
command-and-control nodes, air defense systems, and several key bridges on which
Russian forces relied to move supplies across the Dnipro and Inhulets rivers.
Ukrainian forces conducted long-range precision strikes using HIMARS rocket
artillery systems and other Western-provided weapons, while Ukrainian special
operations forces and partisans worked conducted sabotage and provided
intelligence behind Russian lines.
Russia has sought to compensate by dispersing its depots and using pontoon
bridges and ferries, which Ukraine has also targeted. Russia has continually
repaired the damaged bridges, enabling a lower volume of light vehicles to use
the bridges in between Ukrainian strikes. But now, at least one of the bridges
has fully collapsed, and the others are likely on their last legs. The strain on
its logistics makes it harder for Russia to supply its troops on the western
side of the Dnipro River and has likely resulted in a decrease in the rate of
Russian artillery fire there.
Following several days of particularly intense strikes, a spokesperson from
Ukraine’s southern command announced ground operations had commenced on August
29, although they may have begun slightly earlier. Ukrainian forces have
advanced along three axes. The main effort centers on Ukraine’s pre-existing
bridgehead over the Inhulets River near Andriivka, with auxiliary efforts in the
Vysokopillya and Posad-Pokrovs’ke areas.
Ukraine evidently aims to split the Russian grouping on the western side of the
Dnipro by pushing from its bridgehead to split the grouping of Russian troops on
the Dnipro’s western bank, while continuing to squeeze Russian logistics. Kyiv
likely hopes to force the Russian command to abandon an untenable position and
withdrawal across the river, allowing Ukraine to liberate Kherson city without a
destructive urban battle.
So far, Ukrainian forces have made modest progress, with the most notable gains
coming in the Andriivka area, where Ukraine has expanded its bridgehead by
around 15 kilometers. While it is difficult to discern through open sources
exactly how Ukraine allocated forces between the Kherson and Kharkiv
counteroffensives, it is clear the Kherson effort is well-resourced, although it
will likely take time given the substantial Russian presence there.
Russia likely retains advantages in massed artillery, electronic warfare, and
aviation despite Ukraine’s success in using Western-supplied weapons to degrade
Russian logistics and free up Ukrainian manned and unmanned aircraft by
suppressing or destroying Russia’s capable air defense and electronic warfare
systems. Ground warfare generally favors the defender, and the region’s open
terrain and irrigation canals enhance that advantage.
The Road Ahead
Ukraine appears to have seized the strategic initiative and will likely continue
to pressure Russian defenses across multiple fronts. The Ukrainian military has
proven it can resource two simultaneous counteroffensives, while Moscow faces a
dilemma between allocating its increasingly thin and exhausted forces between
the east and south, and redeploying forces between the two takes time. Ukraine
has already capitalized on these challenges through its Kharkiv counteroffensive
and will likely look to continue exploiting them to maintain its momentum and
retake additional territory.
In addition to pressing in Luhansk Oblast as discussed above, Ukraine could
launch a counteroffensive in the Vuhledar or Zaporizhzhia areas. Over the past
week, Russian observers have warned that Ukraine is massing forces and removing
minefields in the Vuhledar area, potentially seeking to retake Volnovakha, a
road and rail hub, and then push down to Mariupol, thereby severing Russia’s
“land bridge” to Crimea. Russian sources have offered similar warnings about the
Zaporizhzhia direction.
In fact, Kyiv reportedly initially planned to pursue something along these lines
but opted to go with the Kharkiv counteroffensive on U.S. advice. Russia is now
reinforcing its defensive lines in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with
elements of the 3rd Army Corps and units withdrawn from Kharkiv Oblast,
according to Ukraine’s General Staff.
Indeed, manpower has been Russia’s central weakness since the war’s second phase
began and will remain so. As the analysts Michael Kofman and Rob Lee have shown,
many Russian units came into war significantly understrength. Russia’s heavy
casualties during the Battle of Kyiv exacerbated that problem. Russian forces
continued to take significant casualties during the summer campaign in Luhansk
Oblast, achieving relatively meager gains while undermining Russia’s ability to
sustain the war effort.
Putin could ameliorate his manpower issue by deploying conscripts en masse or
conducting a partial mobilization. Conscripts comprise around 30 percent of
Russia’s military and a slightly higher percentage of its Ground Forces, making
them a substantial pool of potential manpower. Likewise, mobilization would
allow the Russian military to take in additional troops, particularly reservists
with key specialties. It would also impose criminal penalties for servicemen who
refuse to participate in the war, whereas they currently are not supposed to
face criminal consequences for refusing to fight. This has led many Russian
troops — probably in the thousands — to quit the conflict, a number that will
likely increase as Russia’s forces grow increasingly exhausted.
However, these measures would be politically unpopular, and Moscow has
repeatedly promised they are not on the table. Instead, Russia has pursued
half-measures: offering high pay to recruit former servicemen and untrained
volunteers on short-term contracts, forcibly mobilizing men from occupied
Donetsk and Luhansk, and relying on private military companies, chiefly Wagner,
which has been recruiting in prisons.
In addition to having lower training and motivation (with the exception of some
Wagner forces, who are relatively few in number), these pools of manpower are
also finite. Piecemeal solutions will likely offer diminishing returns as the
war progresses and Moscow exhausts the number of Russians willing to volunteer
and the number of Donbas men who can be pressed into service. Still, the Kremlin
continues to resist growing calls from Russian hawks for mobilization.
Meanwhile, Russia is cannibalizing its regular forces. Although Putin will not
deploy conscripts, Russia likely has deployed many of the officers and
non-commissioned officers responsible for training and leading them. Russia is
also trying to fill shortfalls in infantry with personnel from other types of
units, degrading their effectiveness. For instance, personnel from the 11th Army
Corps’ 152 Missile Brigade appear to have fought as infantry during the Kharkiv
counteroffensive, which tracks with Ukrainian military intelligence’s previous
reports that Russia is attempting to recruit missile specialists and sailors to
fight as part of ground units. Likewise, one Russian source blamed Russia’s
shortage of infantry for its failure to destroy Ukrainian air defense systems
during the Kharkiv counteroffensive, as personnel ordinarily tasked with
locating such systems were instead diverted to the front lines.
Conversely, Kyiv possesses a large pool of well-motivated manpower, which has
enabled Ukraine to replace losses and fill out reserve units with Western kit.
However, many of these people have no prior military experience, which
particularly limits their effectiveness in offensive operations. To address this
issue, the United Kingdom in July launched Operation INTERFLEX, seeking to
provide basic training to 10,000 mobilized Ukrainian troops every 120 days. A
number of other Western contributors have since joined the effort. The Ukrainian
General Staff said this week that almost 5,000 have completed the program, which
reportedly is now being expanded from three to five weeks per training cycle to
allow for more advanced training.
Overall, the correlation of forces will likely continue to shift in Ukraine’s
favor — provided Western military aid continues to flow. Kyiv’s needs are vast.
The country is increasingly reliant on Western largesse to sustain the war
effort. Ukraine’s stocks of ammunition for its Soviet-made artillery systems are
running low, and Kyiv is clamoring for more tanks and armored vehicles to enable
further offensive success. Last week, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian
military’s commander-in-chief, wrote that he hopes for enough Western kit to
equip 10 to 20 combined-arms brigades, which Kyiv could use “to launch several
consecutive, and ideally, simultaneous counterstrikes throughout 2023.”
In this respect, Ukraine’s success in Kharkiv Oblast was important because it
demonstrated to Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine can put their aid to good
use in retaking territory. For Kyiv, maintaining enthusiasm among its Western
supporters will be critical as the Kremlin squeezes Europe’s gas supplies this
winter and U.S. and European governments deplete their own stockpiles of
materiel.
The war is far from over. There will likely be many months of hard fighting
ahead. But there is room for cautious optimism that the conflict has reached a
turning point.
*John Hardie is the deputy director of FDD’s Russia Program and a contributor to
FDD’s Long War Journal. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research
institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Palestinians Cuddle up with Arabs Who Kill Palestinians
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 20/2022
A report published on September 18 revealed that 638 Palestinians have been
tortured to death by Syrian intelligence officers in the past few years. The
victims include 37 women.
"What is happening inside the Syrian detention centers against the Palestinians
is a war crime by all standards." — Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS),
September 18, 2022.
AGPS also revealed that 4,121 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the
beginning of the civil war there.
The fate of 1,797 Palestinian detainees, including 110 women, remains unknown
despite repeated appeals to the Syrian authorities.
By rushing to embrace the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hamas, whose
leaders control the Gaza Strip from their luxurious villas, hotel suites and
spas in Qatar and Turkey, has again shown its contempt for the Palestinians and
other Arabs who have fallen victim to the atrocities committed by the Syrian
authorities, especially over the past decade.
Iran's mullahs want to make sure that their terrorist proxies and the Assad
regime remain on good terms. The mullahs are hoping that the renewal of ties
between Hamas and Syria will strengthen the Iranian-led "axis of resistance" in
the Middle East. The "axis of resistance" refers to an
anti-Western/anti-Israeli/anti-Saudi political and military alliance between
Iran, the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Syrian
regime and Hezbollah.
Hamas... apparently has no problem embracing an Arab regime that has so much
Palestinian blood on its hands.
The Hamas embrace of the Assad regime is yet another example of how Palestinian
leaders care nothing about their own people, let alone the lives of other Arabs.
The leaders of Hamas, who are living the good life in Qatar and Turkey, are much
more interested in stuffing their coffers with money from the mullahs in Iran
than in seeing the suffering of their people in the Gaza Strip or in any Arab
country, including Syria.
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority are not much different. They too are
preoccupied with looking after their personal interests and making sure that
they remain in power forever.
Shortly, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will head to the United
Nations General Assembly to spew yet more venom against Israel. The plight of
his people in Syria and other Arab countries will be at the very bottom of his
list of priorities, if at all. Like Hamas, Abbas too does not seem to care if
his people are being slaughtered by an Arab dictatorship.
A report published on September 18 revealed that 638 Palestinians have been
tortured to death by Syrian intelligence officers in the past few years. The
victims include 37 women. The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria also
revealed that 4,121 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the beginning
of the civil war there. The fate of 1,797 Palestinian detainees, including 110
women, remains unknown. Pictured: The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, near
Damascus, on May 22, 2018, days after Assad regime forces regained control over
the camp. (Photo by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images)
A report published on September 18 revealed that 638 Palestinians have been
tortured to death by Syrian intelligence officers in the past few years. The
victims include 37 women, according to the report by the Action Group for
Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), a human rights watchdog that monitors the
situation of Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria.
The group called on the Syrian authorities to disclose the status of hundreds of
Palestinians who are being held in Syrian prisons and whose fate remains
unknown. "What is happening inside the Syrian detention centers against the
Palestinians is a war crime by all standards," it said.
AGPS also revealed that 4,121 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the
beginning of the civil war there.
"AGPS data indicates that 79% of the Palestinians of Syria killed since the
outbreak of the conflict are civilians.
"21% of those killed are members of armed groups affiliated with the Syrian
regime or opposition forces.
"The causes of death vary between shelling, clashes, torture in government
jails, drowning, field executions, the blockade [on Palestinian communities],
and medical neglect."
The fate of 1,797 Palestinian detainees, including 110 women, remains unknown
despite repeated appeals to the Syrian authorities.
"The real number of detainees and victims of torture is greater than what has
been documented due to the Syrian regime's refusal to release information about
those being held in its prisons," according to AGPS. "In addition, the victims'
families are afraid to announce the death of their sons under torture for fear
of prosecution by the Syrian regime."
The publication of these disturbing figures coincided with the announcement by
Hamas, the Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorist group, that it has decided to
renew its relations with Syria. Some Palestinians have welcomed the Hamas move,
while others condemned it a betrayal of Palestinians and other Arabs.
By rushing to embrace the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hamas, whose
leaders control the Gaza Strip from their luxurious villas, hotel suites and
spas in Qatar and Turkey, has again shown its contempt for the Palestinians and
other Arabs who have fallen victim to the atrocities committed by the Syrian
authorities, especially over the past decade.
The Hamas leaders are crawling back towards the Assad regime ten years after
they were expelled from Syria for refusing to support the brutal crackdown by
the Syrian army against the opposition, which was made up of various secular and
Islamist groups, including the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and
Opposition Forces, the Free Syrian Army, Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham and the
Southern Front.
In Assad's Syria, failure to support the crimes perpetrated by the regime is
itself considered a crime. Hamas's crimes, according to the Assad regime, was
that it did not take the regime's side in the civil war.
Assad has evidently been hoping that Hamas would come out in support of his
regime and even participate in the crackdown on the opposition, as some pro-Assad
Palestinian groups did, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine – General Command, headed by arch-terrorist Ahmed Jibril. Now that
Hamas is about to return to Syria, there is a high probability that its men will
join Assad's crackdown on the Syrian opposition.
According to some reports, Iran and its Lebanese terrorist proxy, Hezbollah,
acted as mediators between Hamas and the Assad regime. Iran's mullahs and
Hezbollah are staunch supporters of Assad and have even sent troops and security
experts to Syria to assist him in suppressing and oppressing the Syrian people,
as well as the Palestinians living there.
Iran's mullahs want to make sure that their terrorist proxies and the Assad
regime remain on good terms. The mullahs are hoping that the renewal of ties
between Hamas and Syria will strengthen the Iranian-led "axis of resistance" in
the Middle East. The "axis of resistance" refers to an
anti-Western/anti-Israeli/anti-Saudi political and military alliance between
Iran, the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Syrian
regime and Hezbollah.
The Hamas-Assad rapprochement has enraged a number of Palestinians and Syrians.
They are calling out Hamas for its hypocrisy and demanding that it refrain from
normalizing its ties with Assad.
The Syrian Islamic Council condemned Hamas for disregarding the feelings of
millions of Syrians who were tortured, displaced and killed by the Assad regime.
"By proceeding with normalization with the criminal gang [in Syria] and throwing
itself into the arms of Iran, Hamas has abandoned Jerusalem and Palestine and
failed the Arabs, especially in Iraq and Yemen, where the mullahs and their
gangs have wreaked corruption, murder and destruction," the council said.
Palestinian political analyst Ibrahim Hamami said that there was widespread
discontent among the Palestinians over the Hamas reconciliation with Syria. "Hamas
will lose the support of many Arabs and Muslims," Hamami wrote. "The decision
will have a disastrous impact on Hamas. Hamas's decision is a disaster and
tragedy and even a sin."
Palestinian political activist Issa Amro asked: 'What is the justification for
the return of Hamas-Syrian relations? Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is a war
criminal who killed his own people, and our position towards him can't be
changed."
What is bizarre is that Hamas is now praising Syria's "effective and historical"
role in supporting the Palestinians. This is the same Syria that is responsible
for the massacre of thousands of Palestinians in both Syria and Lebanon over the
past five decades.
Hamas, however, apparently has no problem embracing an Arab regime that has so
much Palestinian blood on its hands. When an Arab regime kills and imprisons
Palestinians, the leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups prefer to keep
their mouths shut. They are afraid of criticizing the Arab regimes for
committing atrocities against the Palestinians because they know that they would
be punished and humiliated by their Arab brothers if they dared to do so.
The Hamas embrace of the Assad regime is yet another example of how Palestinian
leaders care nothing about their own people, let alone the lives of other Arabs.
The leaders of Hamas, who are living the good life in Qatar and Turkey, are much
more interested in stuffing their coffers with money from the mullahs in Iran
than in seeing the suffering of their people in the Gaza Strip or in any Arab
country, including Syria.
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority are not much different. They too are
preoccupied with looking after their personal interests and making sure that
they remain in power forever.
Shortly, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will head to the United
Nations General Assembly to spew yet more venom against Israel. The plight of
his people in Syria and other Arab countries will be at the very bottom of his
list of priorities, if at all. Like Hamas, Abbas too does not seem to care if
his people are being slaughtered by an Arab dictatorship.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 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.
Mahsa’s Name Is Now a Code for Freedom and Solidarity for
Iranians
Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 20/2022
A young and innocent girl was hunted down on the streets of Tehran. In her
innocent dreams, Mahsa Amini never thought the entire Iran will rise up in her
name. The blows received by this young and lonely girl felt like they had been
aimed at the entire Iranian people. The blood that came from Mahsa’s ear was the
blood of our Iran whose body is wounded and sick these days. Mahsa showed our
desperate state. She reminded us that the nation is in danger. The women of our
country are in chains and under strangulation. We were reminded that this could
happen to all women and men of the country and that the government won’t be
responsible. Her mother said her name was a secret code. Even thinking of what
the mother said and her prediction of events to come shakes us to our core. We
see that in less than three days, Iran has risen to avenge her blood and demand
national sovereignty. The key to this code is solidarity of the Iranian nation
and support of all groups and parties inside and outside the country for each
other; and their support for the people’s movement against the authoritarian,
misogynist and destructive government of Iran. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s
declaration of solidarity with Mahsa’s family and two days of national mourning
(Sunday and Monday) is an important action to alleviate those who, for forty
years, have not received any empathy; no one has spoken of their pain.
Many of the valiant youth have been sent to death, each in their own way, by
these guardians of hell without their families even finding an opportunity for
their burial.
Nightly burial of victims in a securitized atmosphere and under the supervision
of regime goons had become an ordinary matter. But Mahsa Amini broke this cycle.
Our Kurdish compatriots didn’t tolerate a lonely nocturnal burial for Mahsa. Our
country is one of civilization and history. Our people were full of happiness
and poetry not long ago and their concerns was about the competition of their
offspring in the classroom, their higher education and their marriage
ceremonies. But they now live a catastrophe and have to be in a daily fight with
the goons of the regime. They’d be lucky if they can make ends meet. Regret has
become an inseparable part of lives of many Iranians. Many others have to live
through separation from family, migration and life away from home. Others are so
mired in poverty that they end up seeing suicide or drugs as a solution for
their endless problems.
Those who are protesting are either killed or die in prisons to suspicious
deaths.
Where in the world are youth buried overnight with cement poured over their
graves? A nightmare for these hunters of humans is that grieving families would
open up graves to see the bodies. Navid Afkari, a valiant young man, was hanged
to be a lesson for other protesters.
Haleh Sahabi received a blow in her father’s funeral but it was said that she
had had a heart attack and was buried overnight. The same group beat Zahra
Kazemi, Satar Beheshti and dozens of others in the head. In demonstrations, if
they were to attack with blows to the head, they wouldn’t kill enough people.
This is why they resort to shooting instead. This is how they killed Neda Agha
Soltan. Iran shed tears for Neda. For years, Iran has been shedding tears for
hundreds of other protesters who were killed; tears for victims of nightly
burials. The country’s bankruptcy is obvious. Their plans include raiding of the
country’s natural resources, destruction of the environment, wildlife, language
and culture and leading the country to collapse. They have scary plans for the
Iranian nation.
But the innocent dreams of Mahsa Amini have ruined these plans. She was not the
easy victim they took her to be.
“Iranian nation” and the “great people of Iran” were the phrases last heard more
than forty years ago from Iran’s national radio and television. This is how the
Shah of Iran addressed the people in an era where not every home had a TV or
radio set and many also didn’t own TVs since they saw it as violation of the
Sharia. To be Iranian has always been a honor. But people haven’t felt it for
forty years. This regime has left them worry after daily affairs so that they
have no time for life, hope, joy and Iranianness. But today everybody has a
satellite dish at their home and people watch all sort of news media. They have
internet at home and on their mobile phones and they now know that the secret to
victory is solidarity and unity. The phrase “the Iranian nation” is hopeful,
beautiful and powerful. They want to close down the libraries of the Institute
for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults so that the
Iranians wouldn’t read and instead be raised on the ignorant version of the
religion made up by the Mullahs.
The most influential book I read in my childhood was published by this same
institute; it was a fictional story of earth being occupied by extraterrestrial
forces. This was a trilogy by the British writer John Christopher: The White
Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and Th Pool of Fire.
Even as a teenager, I saw the fictional story in the book as similar to the
conditions of Iran. People from other planets had come and dominated more than
half of the earth. These Gods were called “tripods” in the story. They’d take
free humans in slavery or hunt them for pleasure.
But the big plan of these space creatures was to destroy humanity as a whole.
This is similar to the plan that the regime has. It wants to destroy Iran and
its great nation. But this trilogy had a happy ending. Youth from all over the
world gathered to defeat the occupiers. They suffered a lot and many of them
were killed but at the end they defeated the enemy and saved humanity and the
world. Mahsa Amini’s life was brief but it will prove memorable. She reminded us
that the nation and homeland are under threat. To commemorate the first victims
of freedom at the outset of the Constitutional Revolution, Aref Qazvini wrote a
most beautiful song 100 years ago.“From the blood of the nation’s youth, tulips
will grow,” he sang. I console the Amini family and the great nation of Iran.
The name of Mahsa Amini, daughter of Iran, will be the code for liberation of
Iran.
The Hypocrisy in Addressing Iran’s Victims
Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 20/2022
The young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died under torture at the hands of Tehran
police. The punishment that led to her death was not for murder, terrorism, or
espionage. This little 22-year-old girl went from Kurdistan with her family to
visit relatives in Tehran, and her crime was that she had not been wearing her
veil in accordance with the criteria set by the theocratic government. The
“morality” police arrested her while she had been with her parents and escorted
her to the police station to be taught about religion and how to wear the
state-mandated hijab, but she ended up in a coma and then passed away.
Iran’s human rights record is unlike that of any other country in the world.
Violations are leaked and shared on various social media sites- prisoners’ cries
for help, amputations, burn marks, rapes, and other forms of torture. Despite
all of this cruelty, the international community stands idly by. Not only has it
failed to save the victims, but it also overlooks the crimes, feeling enough has
been done with cold condemnations. Days go by, and we see the same things happen
again. Distressingly, the Iranian government has gone to new lengths in its
efforts to restrict women’s freedom, using highly sensitive technology to
identify the women who do not wear the state-mandated hijab. An official from a
committee for the Promotion of Virtue in Tehran even recently bragged about it.
Like many others, I was following the news about the victim and the series of
events and global reactions (nothing worth mentioning was said or done by
international powers) that followed. Amnesty International reiterated its plea
to the Iranian government to allow the organization to inspect the prisons in
Evin, and the government refused. Through National Security Adviser Jack
Sullivan, the White House called her death “unforgivable.”Thank you for clearing
that up, but these words mean nothing to the Iranian regime, whose
representatives are now sitting across those sent by Washington at the
negotiating table in Geneva. The frailty of the international system has allowed
the clerical regime in Iran to stand strong. Even with all the scandalous crimes
that this monstrous regime has committed: assassinations, money laundering, drug
trafficking, and human rights violations in its notorious internal prisons, it
always survives in the end. I contemplate and think. What if Mahsa Amini had
been the name of a girl from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, or anywhere else in
the world; what sort of reaction would we have seen from democratic governments
or UN bodies and INGOs tasked with promoting human rights? If she had been a
girl from Riyadh tortured to death at a local police station by investigators
from the “morality” police, and her story and pictures had been spread all over
the place, how much attention would this affair have been given in the Western
media in particular? How many reports would have been issued? How many articles
would have been written? How many measures would governments have taken? How
much political money would have been spent to emphasize the incident and keep it
in the news cycle for as long as possible? The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi,
who had approved the technology used to monitor compliance with the
state-mandated hijab, went out and said that an investigation would look into
the events that led to the young woman’s death. Let us wait and see. Will there
be an investigation in which the victim’s lawyers are allowed to take part
alongside representatives of international organizations? Or will it end up
being conducted purely for show in the best of cases?
We now understand that human rights are politicized. The issue has been sullied
by the dirty money of organizations working to push a particular agenda that has
nothing to do with ensuring that people are treated humanely. The hypocrisy is
clear for all to see. Indeed, the Tehran regime’s horrific crimes are met with
smiles and good wishes by journalists, columnists, and talking heads working for
the world’s most renowned news outlets. Meanwhile, these same journalists and
commentators seize every glimmer of an opportunity to follow any incident that
unfolds in a different country, highlighting without paying any mind to
professional ethics or objectivity, which tells us just how dangerously low
their ethics and morals have sunk. That is why the regime in Tehran is not
weighed down by statements about or condemnations of its actions. It knows that
they are just empty words and that it is their interests, not ethics, that shape
relations between states. The regime is comfortable in the knowledge that while
the murdered young woman’s photos were spreading in the media, leaving the
people of Iran horrified and furious, Iran was negotiating a deal with the West
that would free its blood-stained hand to continue terrorizing and horrifying
the world and reward it with billions of dollars it can use to expand its evil
empire.
UN Secretary-General Remarks at the Opening of the
General Debate of the 77th Session of UN General Assembly
NNA/September 20/2022
The following is the address by the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio
Guterres, to the UN General Assembly: "Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and
gentlemen, Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities
are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther. But as we come together in
a world teeming with turmoil, an image of promise and hope comes to my mind.
This ship is the Brave Commander. It sailed the Black Sea with the UN flag
flying high and proud. On the one hand, what you see is a vessel like any other
plying the seas.
But look closer. At its essence, this ship is a symbol of what the world can
accomplish when we act together. It is loaded with Ukrainian grain destined for
the people of the Horn of Africa, millions of whom are on the edge of famine. It
navigated through a war zone -- guided by the very parties to the conflict – as
part of an unprecedented comprehensive initiative to get more food and
fertilizer out of Ukraine and Russia. To bring desperately needed relief to
those in need. To calm commodity markets, secure future harvests, and lower
prices for consumers everywhere. Ukraine and the Russian Federation – with the
support of Türkiye – came together to make it happen -- despite the enormous
complexities, the naysayers, and even the hell of war.Some might call it a
miracle on the sea. In truth, it is multilateral diplomacy in action. The Black
Sea Grain Initiative has opened the pathway for the safe navigation of dozens of
ships filled with much needed food supplies. But each ship is also carrying one
of today’s rarest commodities: Hope. Excellencies,
We need hope …. and more. We need action.
To ease the global food crisis, we now must urgently address the global
fertilizer market crunch. This year, the world has enough food; the problem is
distribution.
But if the fertilizer market is not stabilized, next year’s problem might be
food supply itself. We already have reports of farmers in West Africa and beyond
cultivating fewer crops because of the price and availability of fertilizers. It
is essential to continue removing all remaining obstacles to the export of
Russian fertilizers and their ingredients, including ammonia. These products are
not subject to sanctions – and we will keep up our efforts to eliminate indirect
effects.
Another major concern is the impact of high gas prices on the production of
nitrogen fertilizers. This must also be addressed seriously. Without action now,
the global fertilizer shortage will quickly morph into a global food shortage.
Excellencies, We need action across the board. Let’s have no illusions. We are
in rough seas. A winter of global discontent is on the horizon.A cost-of-living
crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding. Our planet is
burning. People are hurting – with the most vulnerable suffering the most. The
United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy.We have a
duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked in colossal
global dysfunction. The international community is not ready or willing to
tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age. These crises threaten the very
future of humanity and the fate of our planet. Crises like the war in Ukraine
and the multiplication of conflicts around the globe. Crises like the climate
emergency and biodiversity loss.
Crises like the dire financial situation of developing countries and the fate of
the Sustainable Development Goals. And crises like the lack of guardrails around
promising new technologies to heal disease, connect people and expand
opportunity. In just the time since I became Secretary-General, a tool has been
developed to edit genes. Neurotechnology – connecting technology with the human
nervous system – has progressed from idea to proof of concept.
Cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies are widespread.
But across a host of new technologies, there is a forest of red flags.
Social media platforms based on a business model that monetizes outrage, anger
and negativity are causing untold damage to communities and societies. Hate
speech, misinformation and abuse – targeted especially at women and vulnerable
groups – are proliferating.
Our data is being bought and sold to influence our behaviour – while spyware and
surveillance are out of control – all, with no regard for privacy. Artificial
intelligence is compromising the integrity of information systems, the media,
and indeed democracy itself.
Quantum computing could destroy cybersecurity and increase the risk of
malfunctions to complex systems. We don’t have the beginnings of a global
architecture to deal with any of this. Excellencies, Progress on all these
issues and more is being held hostage to geopolitical tensions. Our world is in
peril – and paralyzed. Geopolitical divides are:
Undermining the work of the Security Council. Undermining international law
Undermining trust and people’s faith in democratic institutions. Undermining all
forms of international cooperation. We cannot go on like this.
Even the various groupings set up outside the multilateral system by some
members of the international community have fallen into the trap of geopolitical
divides, like the G-20. At one stage, international relations seemed to be
moving toward a G-2 world; now we risk ending up with G-nothing. No cooperation.
No dialogue. No collective problem solving. But the reality is that we live in a
world where the logic of cooperation and dialogue is the only path forward. No
power or group alone can call the shots. No major global challenge can be solved
by a coalition of the willing. We need a coalition of the world. Excellencies,
Today, I want to outline three areas where the coalition of the world must
urgently overcome divisions and act together. It
starts with the core mission of the United Nations – achieving and sustaining
peace. Much of the world’s attention remains focused on the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. The war has unleashed widespread destruction with massive violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law. The latest reports on burial
sites in Izyum are extremely disturbing. The fighting has claimed thousands of
lives. Millions have been displaced. Billions across the world are affected.
We are seeing the threat of dangerous divisions between West and South. The
risks to global peace and security are immense. We must keep working for peace
in line with the United Nations Charter and international law. At the same time,
conflicts and humanitarian crises are spreading – often far from the spotlight.
The funding gap for our Global Humanitarian Appeal stands at $32 billion – the
widest ever. Upheaval abounds.
In Afghanistan, the economy is in ruins, over half of all Afghans face extreme
levels of hunger, while human rights – particularly the rights of women and
girls -- are being trampled.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed groups in the east are
terrorizing civilians and inflaming regional tensions.
In Ethiopia, fighting has resumed underscoring the need for the parties to
immediately cease hostilities and return to the peace table.
In Haiti, gangs are destroying the very building blocks of society.
In the Horn of Africa, an unprecedented drought is threatening the lives and
livelihoods of 22 million people. In Libya, divisions continue to jeopardize the
country. In Iraq, ongoing tensions threaten stability. In Israel and Palestine,
cycles of violence under the occupation continue as prospects for peace based on
a two-state solution grow ever more distant.In Myanmar, the appalling
humanitarian, human rights and security situation is deteriorating by the day.In
the Sahel, alarming levels of insecurity and terrorist activity amidst rising
humanitarian needs continues to grow.
In Syria, violence and hardship still prevail.The list goes on. Meanwhile
nuclear saber-rattling and threats to the safety of nuclear plants are adding to
global instability.
The review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty failed to reach
consensus and a nuclear deal with Iran remains elusive. But there are some
glimmers of hope. In Yemen, the nationwide truce is fragile but holding. In
Colombia, the peace process is taking root.
We need much more concerted action everywhere anchored in respect for
international law and the protection of human rights. In a splintering world, we
need to create mechanisms of dialogue to heal divides.
That is why I outlined elements of a new Agenda for Peace in my report on Our
Common Agenda. We are committed to make the most of every diplomatic tool for
the pacific settlement of disputes, as set out in the United Nations Charter:
negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial
settlement. Women’s leadership and participation must be front and centre. And
we must also prioritize prevention and peacebuilding.
That means strengthening strategic foresight, anticipating flashpoints that
could erupt into violence, and tackling emerging threats posed by cyber warfare
and lethal autonomous weapons. It means expanding the role of regional groups,
strengthening peacekeeping, intensifying disarmament and non-proliferation,
preventing and countering terrorism, and ensuring accountability. And it means
recognizing human rights as pivotal for prevention. My Call to Action on Human
Rights highlights the centrality of human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.
In all we do, we must recognize that human rights are the path to resolving
tensions, ending conflict and forging lasting peace.
Excellencies,
There is another battle we must end – our suicidal war against nature. The
climate crisis is the defining issue of our time. It must be the first priority
of every government and multilateral organization. And yet climate action is
being put on the back burner – despite overwhelming public support around the
world.
Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed by 45 percent by 2030 to have
any hope of reaching net zero by 2050.And yet emissions are going up at record
levels – on course to a 14 percent increase this decade. We have a rendezvous
with climate disaster.I recently saw it with my own eyes in Pakistan – where
one-third of the country is submerged by a monsoon on steroids. We see it
everywhere.Planet earth is a victim of scorched earth policies. The past year
has brought us Europe’s worst heatwave since the Middle Ages. Megadrought in
China, the United States and beyond. Famine stalking the Horn of Africa.One
million species at risk of extinction. No region is untouched.And we ain’t seen
nothing yet.The hottest summers of today may be the coolest summers of
tomorrow.Once-in-a-lifetime climate shocks may soon become once a year events.
And with every climate disaster, we know that women and girls are the most
affected. The climate crisis is a case study in moral and economic injustice.
The G20 emits 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. But the poorest and
most vulnerable – those who contributed least to this crisis – are bearing its
most brutal impacts.Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds
of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets
shrink and our planet burns.
Excellencies,
Let’s tell it like it is.
Our world is addicted to fossil fuels. It’s time for an intervention. We need to
hold fossil fuel companies and their enablers to account.That includes the
banks, private equity, asset managers and other financial institutions that
continue to invest and underwrite carbon pollution.
And it includes the massive public relations machine raking in billions to
shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny.Just as they did for the tobacco
industry decades before, lobbyists and spin doctors have spewed harmful
misinformation.
Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster – and more
time averting a planetary one. Of course, fossil fuels cannot be shut down
overnight.A just transition means leaving no person or country behind.But it is
high time to put fossil fuel producers, investors and enablers on notice.
Polluters must pay. Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the
windfall profits of fossil fuel companies. Those funds
should be re-directed in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused
by the climate crisis; and to people struggling with rising food and energy
prices.
As we head to the COP 27 UN Climate Conference in Egypt, I appeal to all leaders
to realize the goals of the Paris Agreement.Lift your climate ambition. Listen
to your people’s calls for change. Invest in solutions that lead to sustainable
economic growth.
Let me point to three. First, renewable energy.
It generates three times more jobs, is already cheaper than fossil fuels and is
the pathway to energy security, stable prices and new industries. Developing
countries need help to make this shift, including through international
coalitions to support just energy transitions in key emerging economies.
Second, helping countries adapt to worsening climate shocks. Resilience-building
in developing countries is a smart investment – in reliable supply chains,
regional stability and orderly migration. Last year in
Glasgow, developed countries agreed to double adaptation funding by 2025. This
must be delivered in full, as a starting point. At minimum, adaptation must make
up half of all climate finance. Multilateral
Development Banks must step up and deliver. Major economies are their
shareholders and must make it happen.
Third, addressing loss and damage from disasters.
It is high time to move beyond endless discussions. Vulnerable countries need
meaningful action.
Loss and damage are happening now, hurting people and economies now, and must be
addressed now -- starting at COP 27.
This is a fundamental question of climate justice, international solidarity and
trust.
At the same time, we must make sure that every person, community and nation has
access to effective early warning systems within the next five years.
We also must address the biodiversity crisis by making the December UN
Biodiversity Conference a success.
The world must agree on a post-2020 global biodiversity framework – one that
sets ambitious targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, provides adequate
financing and eliminates harmful subsidies that destroy ecosystems on which we
all depend.
I also urge you to intensify efforts to finalize an international legally
binding agreement to conserve and sustainably use marine biological diversity.
We must protect the ocean now and for the future.
Excellencies,
The climate crisis is coming on top of other heavy weather.
A once-in-a-generation global cost-of-living crisis is unfolding, turbocharged
by the war in Ukraine.
Some 94 countries – home to 1.6 billion people – many in Africa -- face a
perfect storm: economic and social fallout from the pandemic, soaring food and
energy prices, crushing debt burdens, spiraling inflation, and a lack of access
to finance.
These cascading crises are feeding on each other, compounding inequalities,
creating devastating hardship, delaying the energy transition, and threatening
global financial meltdown.
Social unrest is inevitable – with conflict not far behind.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
A world without extreme poverty, want or hunger is not an impossible dream. It
is within reach.
That is the world envisaged by the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development
Goals.
But it is not the world we have chosen.
Because of our decisions, sustainable development everywhere is at risk.
The SDGs are issuing an SOS.
Even the most fundamental goals – on poverty, hunger and education – are going
into reverse.
More people are poor. More people are hungry. More people are being denied
health care and education.
Gender equality is going backwards and women’s lives are getting worse, from
poverty, to choices around sexual and reproductive health, to their personal
security.
Excellencies,
Developing countries are getting hit from all sides.
We need concerted action.
Today, I am calling for the launch of an SDG Stimulus – led by the G-20 -- to
massively boost sustainable development for developing countries.
The upcoming G20 Summit in Bali is the place to start.
This SDG stimulus has four components:
First, Multilateral Development Banks – the World Bank and regional counterparts
– must increase concessional funding to developing countries linked to
investments in the Sustainable Development Goals.
The banks themselves need more finance, immediately.
They then need to lift their borrowing conditions and increase their appetite
for risk, so the funds reach all countries in need.
Developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States, face too many
obstacles in accessing the finance they need to invest in their people and their
future.
Second, debt relief.
The Debt Service Suspension Initiative should be extended – and enhanced.
We also need an effective mechanism of debt relief for developing countries –
including middle-income countries – in debt distress.
Creditors should consider debt reduction mechanisms such as debt-climate
adaptation swaps.
These could have saved lives and livelihoods in Pakistan, which is drowning not
only in floodwater, but in debt.
Lending criteria should go beyond Gross Domestic Product and include all the
dimensions of vulnerability that affect developing countries.
Third, an expansion of liquidity.
I urge the International Monetary Fund and major central banks to expand their
liquidity facilities and currency lines immediately and significantly.
Special Drawing Rights play an important role in enabling developing countries
to invest in recovery and the SDGs.
But they were distributed according to existing quotas, benefitting those who
need them least. We have been waiting for redistribution for 19 months; the
amounts we hear about are minimal.
A new allocation of Special Drawing Rights must be handled differently based on
justice and solidarity with developing countries.
Fourth, I call on governments to empower specialized funds like Gavi, the Global
Fund and the Green Climate Fund.
G20 economies should underwrite an expansion of these funds as additional
financing for the SDGs.
Excellencies,
Let me be clear: the SDG Stimulus I am proposing is only an interim measure.
Today’s global financial system was created by rich countries to serve
their interests. It expands and entrenches inequalities. It requires deep
structural reform. My report on Our Common Agenda proposes a New Global Deal to
rebalance power and resources between developed and developing countries.
African countries, in particular, are under-represented in global institutions.
I hope Member States will seize the opportunity to turn these ideas into
concrete solutions, including at the Summit of the Future in 2024. Excellencies,
The divergence between developed and developing countries – between North and
South – between the privileged and the rest – is becoming more dangerous by the
day. It is at the root of the geopolitical tensions and lack of trust that
poison every area of global cooperation, from vaccines to sanctions to trade.
But by acting as one, we can nurture fragile shoots of hope. The hope found in
climate and peace activists around the world calling out for change and
demanding better of their leaders. The hope found in young people, working every
day for a better, more peaceful future. The hope found in the women and girls of
the world, leading and fighting for those still being denied their basic human
rights. The hope found throughout civil society seeking ways to build more just
and equal communities and countries.The hope found in science and academia,
racing to stay ahead of deadly diseases and end the COVID-19 pandemic. The hope
found in humanitarian heroes rushing to deliver lifesaving aid around the globe.
The United Nations stands with them all. We know lofty ideals must be made real
in people’s lives. So let’s develop common solutions to common problems —
grounded in goodwill, trust, and the rights shared by every human being. Let’s
work as one, as a coalition of the world, as united nations." -- UNIC