English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 22/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
Mark 10/17-27: “As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 21-22/2022
Blinken: US Will Continue to Work with Lebanon for Peace and Prosperity
Aoun Decries Constitutional Chaos, Says It is Difficult to Run a State with Three Heads
Mikati meets with Blinken and Hochstein in New York
Hochstein to present draft within days as US presses for deal this month
Lebanon: Gas Import Agreement from Egypt Disrupted by Unsecured WB Financing
IMF Adamant on Linking Agreement with Lebanon to Reform Laws
Israel's Right Accuses Lapid of Surrendering to Hezbollah
Judicial rift over naming of alternate judge in port blast case
Peace cannot be achieved alone: UNIFIL marks International Day of Peace
Israel tests missile for defending maritime assets after Hezbollah threat
Instant folk hero: Lebanese woman who stole own savings says she’s not the criminal
Banks inclined to extend strike as Mawlawi denies recommending closure
Lebanon’s bank strike extended
Why a maritime deal with Israel may be good for Lebanon
Al-Gharib says being named minister not on the table
US urges UN court to drop case of Iran assets frozen over Beirut attack

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-22/2022
US Urges UN Court to Toss Out Iranian Frozen Assets Case
Iran president defiant as eight reported dead in protests over woman's death
Deaths, internet blockages in Iran as protests spread over death of Mahsa Amini
Iran Unrest Death Toll Rises as Protests Intensify
Iran’s Khamenei Gives Second Speech after Report of Illness
Iran Dissidents File New Lawsuit against Raisi in US
Alarm Grows over Deadly Iran Crackdown on Protests
Iranian Women Are Cutting Off Their Hair in Protest After Mahsa Amini’s Death
Iranian women burn hijabs in protest of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death
A New Iran Deal Would Empower the Houthis
Putin's partial mobilisation is a 'nervous moment' for those who don't want to fight
Putin escalates Ukraine war, issues nuclear threat to West
Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons as he escalates his invasion of Ukraine: 'This is not a bluff'
Putin orders partial military call-up, sparking protests
Putin’s 'partial mobilization' has unleashed more turmoil at home than in Ukraine
World won't let Putin use nuclear weapons, says Ukraine's Zelenskiy
Türkiye Will Not Withdraw Forces from Syria
WHO sends supplies to Syria to deal with cholera outbreak

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-22/2022
Iran Acquires 2.5 Million Acres of Venezuela/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/September 21, 2022
So Qatar Is Free Of The Muslim Brotherhood? Really?/Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 412/September 21, 2022
Deep divisions mark the opening of UN General Assembly/Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/September 21/ 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 21-22/2022
Blinken: US Will Continue to Work with Lebanon for Peace and Prosperity
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
The United States stressed on Tuesday that it will “continue to work with Lebanon for peace and prosperity.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “We discussed the need for a timely presidential election and the urgency to implement reforms to support the people of Lebanon,” Blinken tweeted on Wednesday. Ahead of the meeting, Blinken told the press in New York: “We are working very closely in support of Lebanon in a number of ways, particularly working through the incredibly challenging economic issues, and very much supportive of Lebanon moving forward in dealing with these challenges, including with the IMF.” “At the same time, I think it's quite extraordinary that we see even as Lebanon is dealing with these acute challenges the incredible generosity of the country, particularly in giving refuge to so many people from conflict, I think the highest number of refugees per capita of any country in the world – something we greatly admire and also are trying to find ways to help you continue to support,” he added, according to the US embassy in Lebanon. For his part, Mikati expressed his gratitude to the support extended by the American admiration to his country. On Monday, the Lebanese Defense Ministry revealed that the UN is finalizing a plan to provide US-funded salary assistance to Lebanese soldiers hard hit by the country's financial crisis. UN Special Coordinator Joanna Wronecka told caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim 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”. 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.

Aoun Decries Constitutional Chaos, Says It is Difficult to Run a State with Three Heads
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said he was working on “forming a government of full powers”, which would assume all of the presidential authorities if no agreement was reached on his successor at the end of the presidential tenure on Oct. 31. “Lebanon needs political and sovereign reform, in addition to structural changes in the system,” Aoun said, pointing to “constitutional chaos under a caretaker government and a newly elected parliament with divergent affiliations.”The Lebanese president stressed that it was difficult to manage the state with the presence of “three heads.”He referred to efforts to obstruct the investigations into the explosion of the port of Beirut and into the responsibility of the Banque du Liban for the current monetary crisis. Aoun was addressing a delegation of European Union ambassadors, headed by Ambassador Ralph Tarraf, who underlined the importance of Lebanon implementing reforms and respecting constitutional deadlines, in particular the presidential elections. “Political and economic reasons come at the forefront of the factors of the crisis that Lebanon is currently witnessing,” Aoun said, pointing to “the corruption that plagued (the system) that was ruling in the past, in addition to mistakes committed in managing the deposits in the Central Bank.”“Lebanon today needs political and sovereign reforms, in addition to structural changes in the system,” the president remarked. For his part, Tarraf said: “More than three years have passed since the economic system started to decline and more than two and a half years since Lebanon failed to pay its debts and the government submitted a financial recovery plan, while the Lebanese decision-makers are still unable to implement the necessary measures to get Lebanon out of the crisis.”French Ambassador Anne Grillo said that her country had stressed, since the CEDRE conference, on the need to adopt new rules for work. “We are all witnessing the decline of the Lebanese institutions… As members of the EU, we are ready to help Lebanon and assume our role in the international community in this context, but in return we must be able to convince the concerned authorities of the commitment of the Lebanese authorities to the required reforms,” she told Aoun.

Mikati meets with Blinken and Hochstein in New York
Naharnet/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
PM-designate Najib Mikati held a meeting overnight in New York with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the presence of U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein. Describing the meeting as fruitful, Blinken said he discussed with Mikati the need for Lebanon to hold its presidential election in a timely manner and to implement reforms, vowing that the United States will continue to work with Lebanon in order to achieve peace and prosperity. Mikati for his part said that the talks tackled the various files, including the presidential vote, Syrian refugees, the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, electricity and education. Responding to a reporter’s question, Mikati confirmed that the sea border demarcation file is witnessing “major progress.”

Hochstein to present draft within days as US presses for deal this month
Naharnet/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
The indirect sea border demarcation negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have been completed and U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will present a draft agreement within days, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday. “The United States is pressing for an agreement to be reached before the end of the month,” the daily added. Noting that Hochstein will present his draft before the end of the week, al-Akhbar said the agreement might involve resorting to the U.N. Security Council to introduce amendments to the role of U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) so that it include “a disputed area that is now known as a security zone inside Lebanon’s territorial waters.”Several sources concerned with the file meanwhile said that “the U.S. is very serious in this regard and is seeking to finalize the file as soon as possible, for reasons related to it and to what’s happening in the region and the world in the gas and oil file, and certainly not because of the Lebanese interest, which has coincided with the U.S. need to demarcate the border.”

Lebanon: Gas Import Agreement from Egypt Disrupted by Unsecured WB Financing
Mohamed Choucair - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
An agreement to transport Egyptian gas to Lebanon via Syria is currently disrupted by Lebanon’s failure to meet the conditions for obtaining a World Bank loan and Washington’s reluctance to give an official approval confirming that the deal is not affected by the Caesar Act, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday. They said Lebanon continues to suffer from a severe crisis in electricity supply, while concerned officials are only offering temporary solutions to the problem, either by renewing a contract to import fuel from Iraq or searching for other sources from Algeria and Kuwait to secure fuel. “There is a failure in revealing the main reasons behind the delay to benefit from importing gas from Egypt and electricity from Jordan, even though Lebanon had signed an agreement with the governments of both countries in this regard,” the sources said. Last June, Lebanon signed a deal with Egypt to import gas to a power plant in northern Lebanon through Syria. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they fear the deal would remain ink on paper, and that Lebanon’s alternative would remain the reliance on illegal private generators that are treated as a fait accompli. The political sources then accused some ministers, specifically caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad, of colluding with the owners of generators and providing them with official protection on the pretext that they cover the government’s inability to provide electricity to the Lebanese. “The Egyptian government may be forced to explain to the Lebanese the facts related to the gas file at the appropriate time,” the sources said, accusing the Energy Ministry of conspiring with influential people who control the generator mafia to keep the electricity situation as it is. Meanwhile, they revealed that the delay in benefiting from the use of Egyptian gas awaits US “clearance” from sanctions that penalize anyone dealing with the government in Damascus, and also awaits financing from the World Bank. US ambassador Dorothy Shea had repeatedly announced that Washington does not stand against the deal. But, the sources asked why the US Congress has not yet sent a letter to Egypt and Jordan confirming that both countries will not be subject to sanctions. They affirmed that Cairo has nothing to do with this delay. “The problem is limited to the US administration that is hesitant in sending a message to both Egypt and Jordan clearing them from being penalized by the Caesar Act,” they said. Moreover, the deal with Egypt is linked to the failure of the Lebanese government and Fayyad to approve a list of reforms in the power sector, which the WB has set as a precondition to financing the deal. Lebanon has failed to revamp the electricity sector by increasing power supply and then raising prices in an effort to close the state-run electricity company's deficit amid a crushing economic crisis.

IMF Adamant on Linking Agreement with Lebanon to Reform Laws
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Lebanese caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam affirmed on Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation visiting Beirut this week carries a very clear message stressing an urgency that Lebanon approves and passes reform laws. “The IMF carries a very clear message, which is the urgency in approving these laws; otherwise, we will not be able to move forward to reach a final agreement with the fund,” said Salam. The Minister spoke at a press conference after his meeting with a visiting IMF delegation with whom he followed up on the details of the draft laws and the preconditions that the organization had requested in order to reach a final agreement with Lebanon. “In today’s meeting, we discussed all the recent developments as per the reform laws requested by the IMF, namely the Capital Control Law, the Banking Secrecy Law, the Bank Restructuring Law, and the 2022 Budget Law,” he said.
The Economy Minister stressed that regardless of the “ambiguity” of the situation, the IMF delegation has echoed a positive message, which expressed full commitment to the agreement that started five months ago. “The IMF has full intention to reach a final agreement with Lebanon and has confidence that the consultations and sessions held between Parliament and the government within the past few weeks will show positive results in terms of approving the required laws,” the caretaker Minister added. Lebanon has been trapped in an economic meltdown since 2019 that has impoverished more than 80% of the population and drained state coffers. An April staff-level agreement between Lebanon's government and the IMF called on authorities to increase revenues to fund the crippled public sector and more social spending by calculating customs taxes at a "unified exchange rate". Lebanon has barely advanced on the IMF's 10 pre-requisites due to resistance from political factions, commercial banks and powerful private lobby groups. Meanwhile, Salam said his discussions with the visiting IMF delegation also touched on the country’s faltering food security.“There are clear instructions by the IMF and the World Bank that Lebanon needs special care to achieve food security; thus, during the World Bank’s annual meeting, we will reiterate Lebanon’s need for support on the level of food security,” he said. He stressed that food security means rebuilding a sustainable national capacity to secure the country’s strategic stock, and fostering the development of Lebanese agricultural and educational programs as a bridge to agricultural industrialization. “The IMF will consult with the World Bank so that Lebanon can benefit from the $30 billion that the fund has allocated to support food security projects worldwide, keeping in mind that the IMF has classified Lebanon as one of the first three countries in the world that can benefit from these funds,” Salam explained.

Israel's Right Accuses Lapid of Surrendering to Hezbollah
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Former Likud MK Danny Danon accused on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid of offering major concessions in the agreement between Lebanon and Israel to demarcate the maritime borders.
“These concessions amount to a maximum surrender to Hezbollah,” the Israeli former deputy said. His comments came amid statements in Tel Aviv and Beirut about a great progress in the Israeli-Lebanese negotiations on demarcating the maritime borders between the two countries and the rights to extract gas. “Why this rush now?” Danon asked, “Is it because Hassan Nasrallah threatens us? Shall we give up the huge gas reserves because of the Hezbollah threats?”He then said the negotiations are done in secret without public discussion in the Knesset or the government. “Lapid is playing a constitutional trick on this issue,” Danon stressed, adding that the PM does not have the ability and experience to manage these negotiations with Lebanon. Officials close to the negotiations in Tel Aviv had indicated significant Israeli concessions to Lebanon, but most of them supported this step. Amos Yadlin, the former Head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Division, said Israel was showing flexibility regarding the disputed maritime border with its neighbor. He said that the government of Israel acted wisely when it made concessions to Lebanon. “This would reveal the reality of Hezbollah, whether it stands by its country and its people in this economic leap, or does it want to thwart the agreement and inflict heavy losses on Lebanon to serve its leaders in Iran,” Yadlin wrote. He added that the agreement means opening a new page and new rules of the game with Lebanon. “This is not in the interest of (Hezbollah) and of those setting the party’s policy in Tehran,” Yadlin said.

Judicial rift over naming of alternate judge in port blast case
Naharnet/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
A Higher Judicial Council meeting to name an alternate judge in the Beirut port blast case witnessed heated disputes that reached the extent of the withdrawal of Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud from the session, a media report said on Wednesday. The session was adjourned to September 27 in order to take a decision on six candidates proposed for the task, including Judge Samaranda Nassar, al-Liwaa newspaper reported, describing Tuesday’s meeting as the longest in the Council’s history. Families of detainees in the case meanwhile rallied outside the Justice Palace, threatening to escalate their protests and vowing that they will no longer remain silent over the continued detention of their relatives. They also stressed that they want an alternate judge in the case because “there is no other solution” to secure the release of their relatives, noting that “this solution was decided by the justice minister and the Higher Judicial Council, who are the two authorities eligible to settle this file.”The controversial decision to name an alternate judge in the case, in violation of the law according to some experts, had infuriated the relatives of the victims of the blast, calling the move an attempt by the country's political class to prevent justice after one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions. The investigation into the blast, which killed 218 people, injured thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage has been blocked since December by Lebanon's political powers. That's after three former Cabinet ministers filed legal challenges against investigative Judge Tarek Bitar effectively suspending his investigations as well as his ability to look into requests for the release of the detainees. Many blame the tragedy on the Lebanese government's longtime corruption, but the elite's decades-old lock on power has ensured they are untouchable. The Aug. 4, 2020 explosions occurred when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at the port. It later emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since. Senior political and security officials knew of its presence but did nothing. Bitar has been the subject of harsh criticism by Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah called Bitar's investigation a "big mistake" and said it was biased. He asked authorities to remove Bitar. Bitar is the second judge to take the case. The first judge, Fadi Sawwan, was forced out after complaints of bias by two Cabinet ministers. If the same happens to Bitar, it could be the final blow to the investigation. Bitar charged four former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of people. He also charged several top security officials in the case.

Peace cannot be achieved alone: UNIFIL marks International Day of Peace
Naharnet/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) held on Wednesday a ceremony to commemorate the International Day of Peace at its headquarters in Naqoura, South Lebanon. Peacekeepers representing UNIFIL’s current 48 troop-contributing countries were joined at the event by representatives of the local authorities, religious leaders, Lebanese armed and security forces and members of the international community. UNIFIL’s Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major General Aroldo Lázaro, reviewed an Honor Guard and, together with Brigadier General Roger Helou representing the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), laid wreaths at the cenotaph in memory of the over 300 UNIFIL peacekeepers who have lost their lives in the line of duty in South Lebanon since 1978. Maj. Gen. Lázaro noted that “along the Blue Line, we have seen relative stability, not peace. But thanks to the commitment of the parties and to the effectiveness of UNIFIL’s liaison and coordination mechanisms, so far, that stability has held.” The UNIFIL Force Commander confirmed the mission’s “commitment to peace and security in south Lebanon” and stressed the “importance of the partnership with the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing Security Council Resolution 1701,” a UNIFIL statement said. However, Maj. Gen. Lázaro was cognizant of the challenges ahead. “Peace is not something that we, international peacekeepers, can achieve alone. We rely on our strong relationships with the communities who host and welcome us, who greet us every day as we perform our daily activities, and with whom we may share a coffee or a meal to discuss their needs and concerns,” he added. During the ceremony, military staff officers were awarded with the U.N. Peacekeeping Medal in recognition for their participation in UNIFIL, and as is customary, white doves were released at UNIFIL’s cenotaph to symbolize peace. The International Day of Peace was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1981. It is dedicated to cease-fire and non-violence and is an occasion during which all promote tolerance, justice and human rights. Each year on this day, the United Nations invites all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities and to commemorate the day through activities that promote peace.

Israel tests missile for defending maritime assets after Hezbollah threat
Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/September 21/2022
IAI's Gabriel 5 surface-to-surface missile can hit mobile and stationary targets, on land or at sea.
As Hezbollah continues to threaten Israel’s gas rigs, the Israeli Navy and the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Research and Development (MAFAT) successfully tested the Gabriel 5 surface-to-surface missile. The Israel Aerospace Industries short-range cruise missile is co-developed with Singapore’s ST Engineering defense company and marketed by joint venture company Proteus Advanced Systems. The fifth-generation surface-to-surface missile also known as Blue Spear is designed to strike targets in contested, congested, and complex scenarios even when dealing with sophisticated countermeasures. According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the “complex test” of the missile was carried out in August and part of a series of tests for the Navy’s new Saar 6 missile ships. The INS Oz participated in the test, which also evaluated the ship’s abilities to deal with various threats with new weapons systems like the Gabriel 5. “The advanced missile ensures the advantage of the Navy and the preservation of the IDF's naval superiority, and will be used by the Navy in its missions, including the protection of the strategic assets of the State of Israel,” the statement said. The system has combined anti-ship and land attack capabilities with a range of 290km at high sub-sonic speed. It has beyond the line of sight strike capabilities and can strike both mobile or stationary targets. With a state-of-the-art radar seeker and advanced weapon control system, it can provide precise target detection and engagement and operate under all weather conditions as well as during both the day and night. The missile weighs 760 kg, is 4.3 meters long, and possesses a 150kg high explosive munition warhead that uses active radar-homing for target acquisition through INS-based navigation. The missile, that can be launched with a fire-and-forget mode or fire and update version, does not fly in a straight line toward its target making it difficult for a radar or optical system of an interceptor to detect and hit. It also features sea-skimming capabilities that make it difficult for radars to detect and intercept.
Navy's statements
IAI CEO Boaz Levy said that the “integration of these capabilities on the Sa'ar 6 constitutes a significant leap forward in the field of naval warfare, for the protection of the strategic assets of the State of Israel.""The Navy continues to develop and change in the face of a variety of increasing operational challenges and regional changes,” said Rear Admiral Guy Goldfarb, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Navy, adding that the missile system will “strengthen the operational and defensive capabilities of the Navy.” “The Navy believes in preserving freedom of navigation, the preservation of the maritime arena, as well as the economic waters and the strategic assets of the State of Israel,” Goldfard continued, adding that the Navy provides the country with strategic depth. “The Navy believes in preserving freedom of navigation, the preservation of the maritime arena, as well as the economic waters and the strategic assets of the State of Israel.”
Rear Admiral Guy Goldfarb
Estonia has already purchased the missile and is expected to use it for coastal defense against hostile ships. On Saturday evening Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned that any gas extraction from the Karish gas field by Israel would be a “red line” for the group who would need to respond. “We are following up on the negotiations and all our eyes are on Karish and our missiles are locked on Karish,” he warned. “As long as extraction has not started, there is a chance for solutions.” “We've been calm over the past weeks because we were giving a real chance to negotiations… Our objective is to enable Lebanon to extract oil and gas and we are not seeking a problem,” he was quoted by Lebanon’s Naharnet News as saying in a televised address marking Arba'een, an annual Shiite religious holiday that marks 40 days after the death of Imam al-Hussein in the Battle of Karbala. “Lebanon is before a golden chance that might not be repeated.” There has been cautious optimism that Jerusalem and Beirut are close to signing an agreement on the maritime border dispute after back-and-forth diplomacy by the United States. According to reports, the deal would see the Karish gas field remain in Israel while the Kana field will be owned by Lebanon. Despite continued threats by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, the Greek-French-owned company that drills in Karish, said that gas extraction is expected to start within weeks.

Instant folk hero: Lebanese woman who stole own savings says she’s not the criminal
Reuters/September 21, 2022
BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon: On the run from authorities after forcing a bank to release her family savings at gunpoint to treat her cancer-stricken sister, 28-year-old Lebanese interior designer Sali Hafiz insists she is not the criminal. “We are in the country of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you,” she said, standing on a dirt track somewhere in Lebanon’s rugged eastern Bekaa valley where she has since been in hiding. Hafiz held up a Beirut branch of BLOM Bank last week, taking by force some $13,000 in savings in her sister’s account frozen by capital controls that were imposed overnight by commercial banks in 2019 but never made legal via legislation. Dramatic footage of the incident, in which she cocks what later turned out to be a toy gun and stands atop a desk bossing around employees who hand her wads of cash, turned her into an instant folk hero in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are locked out of their savings.A growing number are taking matters into their own hands, exasperated by a three-year financial implosion that authorities have left to fester — leading the World Bank to describe it as “orchestrated by the country’s elite.”
Hafiz was the first of at least seven savers who held up banks last week, prompting banks to shut their doors citing security concerns, and call for security support from the government.
George Hajj of the bank employees syndicate said the holdups were misguiding anger that should be directed at the Lebanese state, which was most to blame for the crisis, and noted some 6,000 bank employees had lost their jobs since it began. Authorities have condemned the holdups and say they are preparing a security plan for banks.But depositors argue that bank owners and shareholders have enriched themselves by getting high interest payments for lending the government depositors’ money and are prioritising the banks over people rather than enacting an IMF rescue plan. The government says it is working hard to implement IMF reforms and aims to secure a $3 billion bailout this year. The series of raids have been met with widespread support, including from crowds that gather outside the banks when they hear a holdup is taking place to cheer them on.
“Maybe they saw me as a hero because I was the first woman who does this in a patriarchal society where a woman’s voice is not supposed to be heard,” Hafiz said, adding she had not intended to harm anyone but was tired of government inaction.“They are all in cahoots to steal from us and leave us to go hungry and die slowly,” she said. When her sister began losing hope she would be able to afford costly treatment to help regain mobility and speech impaired by brain cancer, and the bank declined to provide the savings, Hafiz said she decided to act. BLOM Bank said in a statement that the branch had been cooperative with her request for funds but asked for documentation as they do for all customers requesting humanitarian exceptions to the informal controls. Hafiz then returned two days later with a toy gun she had seen her nephews playing with, and a small amount of fuel that she mixed with water and spilled on to an employee.
Before her raid, she watched popular Egyptian black comedy Irhab w Kabab — or “Terrorist and Kabab” — in which a man frustrated with government corruption holds up a state building and demands kebabs for the hostages due to the high price of meat. She managed to get $13,000 of a total $20,000 — enough to cover travel expenses for her sister and about a month of treatment — and made sure to sign a receipt so that she would not be accused of theft. To aid her escape, Hafiz posted on Facebook that she was already at the airport and on her way to Istanbul. She ran home and disguised herself in a robe and headscarf and placed a bundle of clothes on her belly to make herself appear pregnant. A police officer who knocked on her door “must have been scared I would give birth in front of him. I went downstairs in front of them all, like 60 or 70 people... they were wishing me luck with the birth. It was... like the movies,” she said, after they failed to recognize her. Two of Hafiz’s close friends with her at the bank hold up were detained after the incident over charges of threatening bank employees and holding them against their will, and ordered released on bail on Wednesday.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces did not respond to a request for comment on the case.Hafiz said she would hand herself in once judges end a crippling strike that has slowed legal procedures and left detainees languishing in jail. Abdallah Al-Saii, an acquaintance of Hafiz who held up a bank in January to get some $50,000 of his own savings, said more hold-ups were coming. “Things will have to get worse so that they can get better,” Saii said, taking drags from a cigarette at his convenience store in the Bekaa.“When the state can’t do anything for you and can’t even provide a tiny bit of hope over what lies in store, then we’re living by the law of the jungle.”

Banks inclined to extend strike as Mawlawi denies recommending closure
Naharnet /September 21, 2022
The Association of Banks in Lebanon is inclined to extend the closure of banks until Monday, al-Jadeed TV reported on Wednesday. Quoting unnamed sources, al-Jadeed said the decision to extend the strike “came after days from a meeting that was held with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, who advised the Association to extend the strike until a security plan for protecting banks is finalized.” Al-Jadeed, however, communicated with Mawlawi, who denied advising the Association to extend the strike. “Banks must shoulder their responsibilities towards employees and depositors and the Lebanese state has a duty to protect all citizens and public order and to preserve security in the country,” Mawlawi said. “Bank also have a duty to protect their branches,” he added. Lebanon saw at least seven bank heists by angry depositors last week, with five taking place on the same day. As a result, Lebanese banks sealed their doors on Monday as part of a three-day closure due to mounting security concerns. A financial crash widely blamed on government corruption and mismanagement has caused the worst economic crisis in Lebanon's history. The World Bank has branded the financial crisis one of the world's worst since the 19th century. Making matters worse, Lebanese depositors have been locked out of their foreign currency savings by banking controls that have gradually tightened since 2019. Unable to transfer or withdraw their dollar deposits, many have resorted to desperate bank heists to free their money.

Lebanon’s bank strike extended
Najia Houssari/Arab News/September 21, 2022
BEIRUT: The Association of Banks has extended its strike throughout Lebanon until the beginning of next week. Arab News has been informed that the decision was taken on the advice of caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi. The banks closed on Monday following a series of holdups by a number of angry depositors who targeted branches and ended up receiving a sum of their deposits. Banks are seeking safety assurances from the authorities so they can reopen. However, according to a security source, the plan of the Ministry of Interior to protect them “needs more time” to be implemented.
In the meantime, banks have decided to only receive customers who have prior appointments, and they may be inspected on arrival. The association said the measures were to protect bank employees after a number of attacks. A trader who wanted to pay his debts, a woman who wanted to pay her sister’s medical bills, and a soldier have been among depositors who have broken into banks. Banks in Lebanon have 20,000 employees which, taking their families into account, means that around 50,000 people are reliant on employment in the sector.
Head of the Bank Employees’ Union George Al-Hajj said members would abide by the association’s decision as it “is meant to financially, morally and physically protect employees and preserve their safety.”Al-Hajj emphasized that “any attack on the dignity of any employee in the banking sector is an attack on the dignity of the union.”He added that the recent detention and release of intruders would “encourage others to follow the same path, knowing that no one denies depositors their right to their frozen money.”Al-Hajj said the holdups placed depositors against bank employees, adding: “This is not fair. If some depositors manage to retrieve their deposit by force, others do not want to choose this method, and this is also not fair.”A Beirut court decided on Wednesday to release the two detainees in the case of the storming of BLOM Bank on Sept. 14. A number of activists, and the families and friends of the detainees, had staged a sit-in in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut. Clashes also took place on Tuesday evening between the activists, the families of the detainees and security forces, which resulted in the injury of more than 10 activists and four soldiers, according to the Lebanese Army Command.
Economic expert Jassem Ajaqa said the closure of banks “constitutes a harmful blow and inevitably leads to a rise in the exchange rate.”Ajaqa warned that “if the political authority does not initiate reform measures, things are heading for the worse, and we may reach a stage where the central bank, Banque du Liban, loses its ability to curb the dollar’s rise.”

Why a maritime deal with Israel may be good for Lebanon
Osama Al-Sharif /Arab News/September 21/2022
In the midst of all the solemn reports that have come from Lebanon over the past few years, there is suddenly a chance for some good news that could alter the country’s current downward trajectory. Both Israel and Lebanon have sent signals that, after years of intermittent indirect talks to define their maritime borders, a US-mediated offer could soon get their seal of approval. On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun tweeted that negotiations to demarcate the country’s southern maritime borders had reached the “final stages” in a way that guarantees the nation’s rights to explore for oil and gas. Aoun — an ally of Hezbollah in the country’s bitterly divided political stage and whose term is about to end — would not have sent such a positive tweet without checking with his key supporters first.
On the other side of the disputed border, Israeli officials have hinted that a recent compromise proposal by US mediator Amos Hochstein regarding the exact route of the border in the Mediterranean Sea may be acceptable to Israel, even though, according to Tel Aviv, it leans more to the Lebanese side. According to Haaretz, the compromise proposal focuses on the so-called Line 23 — an intermediate line between the Lebanese demand regarding the location of the border (farther south) and the Israeli demand (farther north), albeit closer to the Lebanese demand.
A decade ago, Lebanon had accepted Line 23 as its maritime border with Israel. It has since insisted that its southern maritime boundary should include Line 29. Israel’s Karish gas field straddles Line 29 and is within a few miles of Lebanon’s Qana field. The maritime dispute has been going on for decades, but the discovery a few years ago of large quantities of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean’s waters has renewed claims of sovereignty over disputed boundaries.
Israel had announced that drilling would commence in Karish this month, only to receive direct threats from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the most recent of which was made last week. But while repeating his threats, Nasrallah appeared to be giving his blessing to an anticipated agreement. In his words, “Lebanon has a historic opportunity before it that won’t be repeated. It’s our own chance to produce oil and natural gas to deal with the economic crisis and our lives.” He later said that Israel would not start drilling in September but would instead prepare pipelines. Ironically, the fact the two offshore fields are within striking distance of each other may work to assure mutual keenness to preserve stability. If Lebanon and Israel accept the amended Line 23 offer, then both will have great interest in preserving the tense peace along their borders. That alone is an achievement, especially for economically crippled Lebanon
The discovery of large quantities of natural gas has renewed claims of sovereignty over disputed boundaries. The changes in position of both Israel and Lebanon are based on expediency, both political and economic. The US would have walked away if Lebanon had insisted on sticking to the Line 29 claim. That would have hurt both sides. Israel may not be able to exploit the Karish field for the time being, but it can continue exploiting other fields farther south. For Lebanon, a US withdrawal from the talks would leave it with nothing.
Aoun and Nasrallah both need to deliver some good news to an increasingly frustrated Lebanese people. Since the May elections, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has been unable to form a new government and pass a state budget. Lebanon’s economic troubles are mounting, with the currency in freefall and essential services breaking down.
A maritime agreement may revive talks with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank over a financial bailout. It may even persuade Hezbollah to allow a new government to form ahead of the crucial upcoming presidential election.
Of course, Lebanon’s path toward finding, drilling, pumping and selling offshore oil and gas is long and risky. On Monday, the Lebanese government said it was interested in taking over a 20 percent stake in the consortium that is licensed to explore two oil and gas blocs after the Russian company Novatek said it was withdrawing. Reuters reported that, in 2020, the consortium, led by Italian and French companies, announced that it had completed exploratory drilling in Lebanon’s offshore Bloc 4 off the coast of Beirut and said it had not found a commercially viable amount of hydrocarbons. So far, and unlike the Karish field, there are no proven hydrocarbon reserves in the Qana field either, according to experts. Initial surveys suggest that the field has “high prospectivity,” but one cannot be sure without conducting exploratory drills — something that has not been done so far. But whether or not there is oil and gas, a deal with Israel could lead to a political breakthrough that Lebanon badly needs. It could reopen talks with international financiers and even pave the way for a compromise among Lebanon’s power brokers. A maritime deal would also achieve border stability between the two countries, sending the message that, for now, Israel is the least of Lebanon’s problems.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010

Al-Gharib says being named minister not on the table
Naharnet/September 21/2022
Former minister Saleh al-Gharib, who is close to Lebanese Democratic Party leader ex-MP Talal Arslan, said Wednesday that no one has discussed with him the issue of being appointed as a minister in the new government. “I don’t intend to assume any ministerial portfolio at the moment,” Gharib told al-Jadeed TV, dismissing media reports in this regard. “Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil knows that I don’t want to take part in the government and we’re in constant communication,” Gharib went on to say.

US urges UN court to drop case of Iran assets frozen over Beirut attack
Associated Press/September 21/2022
The United States on Wednesday urged the International Court of Justice to throw out a case brought by Iran seeking to claw back around $2 billion worth of frozen Iranian assets that the U.S. Supreme Court awarded to victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Tehran. The leader of the U.S. legal team, Richard Visek, told the U.N. court that it should invoke, for the first time, a legal principle known as "unclean hands," under which a nation can't bring a case because of its own criminal actions linked to the case."Iran's case should be dismissed in its entirety based on the principle of unclean hands," Visek told the judges sitting in the court's Great Hall of Justice. "The essence of this threshold defense is that Iran's own egregious conduct, its sponsorship of terrorist acts directed against the United States and U.S. nationals, lies at the very core of its claims," Visek said.
The Hague-based court has never used the "unclean hands" defense as a reason to toss out a case, but it has been successfully cited in international arbitration cases, Visek said. "The United States submits that if there was ever a case for application of the principle of unclean hands -- one that we recognize should be considered only in narrow circumstances -- it is this case," Visek said. On Monday, Iran said the U.S. asset confiscation was an attempt to destabilize the Tehran government and a violation of international law.
Iran took its claim to the world court in 2016 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money held in Iran's central bank could be used to compensate the 241 victims of a 1983 bombing -- believed to be linked to Tehran -- of a U.S. military base in Lebanon.
The world court ruled it had jurisdiction to hear the case in 2019, rejecting an argument from the U.S. that its national security interests superseded the 1955 Treaty of Amity, which promised friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
"The freedom of navigation and commerce guaranteed by the treaty have been gravely breached," Tavakol Habibzadeh, head of international legal affairs for Iran, told the 14-judge panel on Monday.
At stake in the case being heard this week are $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulated interest, belonging to the Iranian state but held in a Citibank account in New York. Visek also told judges that Iran's claims should be rejected because the frozen assets are state holdings not covered by the treaty. In 1983, a truck bomb detonated at a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American troops. Minutes later, a second blast nearby killed 58 French soldiers. Iran has denied involvement, but a U.S. District Court judge found Tehran responsible in 2003. That ruling said Iran's ambassador to Syria at the time called "a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and instructed him to instigate the Marine barracks bombing."The United States terminated the 1955 Treaty of Amity in 2018 in response to an order by the International Court of Justice in a separate case to lift sanctions against Iran. Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said withdrawing from the treaty was long overdue and followed Iran "groundlessly" bringing a complaint to the court alleging that U.S. sanctions were a violation of the pact.
Both the sanctions case and the asset confiscation case are continuing because they were filed before Washington scrapped the treaty. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover by militant students in Tehran. Judges are likely to take months to issue a ruling in the case. The court's judgments are final and legally binding. Wednesday's hearing in The Hague came on the day that U.S. President Joe Biden and Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi will be giving speeches on the second day of the U.N. General Assembly 's first fully in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-22/2022
US Urges UN Court to Toss Out Iranian Frozen Assets Case
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
The United States on Wednesday urged the International Court of Justice to throw out a case brought by Iran seeking to claw back around $2 billion worth of frozen Iranian assets that the US Supreme Court awarded to victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Tehran. The leader of the US legal team, Richard Visek, told the UN court that it should invoke, for the first time, a legal principle known as “unclean hands,” under which a nation can't bring a case because of its own criminal actions linked to the case, The Associated Press said. “Iran’s case should be dismissed in its entirety based on the principle of unclean hands,” Visek told the judges sitting in the court's Great Hall of Justice. “The essence of this threshold defense is that Iran’s own egregious conduct, its sponsorship of terrorist acts directed against the United States and US nationals, lies at the very core of its claims,” Visek said. The Hague-based court has never used the “unclean hands” defense as a reason to toss out a case, but it has been successfully cited in international arbitration cases, Visek said. “The United States submits that if there was ever a case for application of the principle of unclean hands — one that we recognize should be considered only in narrow circumstances — it is this case,” Visek said. On Monday, Iran said the US asset confiscation was an attempt to destabilize the Tehran government and a violation of international law. Iran took its claim to the world court in 2016 after the US Supreme Court ruled that money held in Iran’s central bank could be used to compensate the 241 victims of a 1983 bombing — believed to be linked to Tehran — of a US military base in Lebanon. The world court ruled it had jurisdiction to hear the case in 2019, rejecting an argument from the US that its national security interests superseded the 1955 Treaty of Amity, which promised friendship and cooperation between the two countries. “The freedom of navigation and commerce guaranteed by the treaty have been gravely breached,” Tavakol Habibzadeh, head of international legal affairs for Iran, told the 14-judge panel on Monday.
At stake in the case being heard this week are $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulated interest, belonging to the Iranian state but held in a Citibank account in New York.
Visek also told judges that Iran's claims should be rejected because the frozen assets are state holdings not covered by the treaty. In 1983, a truck bomb detonated at a US Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American troops. Minutes later, a second blast nearby killed 58 French soldiers. Iran has denied involvement, but a US District Court judge found Tehran responsible in 2003. That ruling said Iran’s ambassador to Syria at the time called “a member of the Iranian. Revolutionary Guard and instructed him to instigate the Marine barracks bombing.”The United States terminated the 1955 Treaty of Amity in 2018 in response to an order by the International Court of Justice in a separate case to lift sanctions against Iran. Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said withdrawing from the treaty was long overdue and followed Iran “groundlessly” bringing a complaint to the court alleging that US sanctions were a violation of the pact. Both the sanctions case and the asset confiscation case are continuing because they were filed before Washington scrapped the treaty. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 US Embassy takeover by militant students in Tehran. Judges are likely to take months to issue a ruling in the case. The court's judgments are final and legally binding. Wednesday's hearing in The Hague came on the day that US President Joe Biden and Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi will be giving speeches on the second day of the UN General Assembly ’s first fully in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Iran president defiant as eight reported dead in protests over woman's death
Agence France Presse/September 21, 2022
Iran's president on Wednesday accused the West of hypocrisy in its criticism of Tehran as eight people were reported dead in growing protests over the death of a young woman arrested by morality police. President Ebrahim Raisi struck a defiant tone on a visit to the United Nations, with demonstrators also trailing him on the streets of New York and dissidents filing a human rights lawsuit against the hardline cleric. Public anger has flared in the Islamic republic since authorities on Friday announced the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been held for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an "improper" way. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish first name is Jhina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who have announced an investigation. Some women demonstrators have defiantly taken off their hijabs and burned them in bonfires or symbolically cut their hair before cheering crowds, video footage spread on social media has shown. "No to the headscarf, no to the turban, yes to freedom and equality!" protesters in Tehran were heard chanting in a rally that has been echoed by solidarity protests abroad. Iranian state media reported Wednesday that, in a fifth night of street rallies that had spread to 15 cities, police used tear gas and made arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people. London-based rights group Article 19 said it was "deeply concerned by reports of the unlawful use of force by Iranian police and security forces," including the use of live ammunition.
Demonstrators hurled stones at security forces, set fire to police vehicles and garbage bins and chanted anti-government slogans, the official IRNA news agency said, adding that rallies were held in cities including Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan and Shiraz. "Death to the dictator" and "Woman, life, freedom," protesters could be heard shouting in video footage that spread beyond Iran, despite online restrictions reported by internet access monitor Netblocks. At the United Nations, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told AFP that "the Iranian leadership should notice that the people are unhappy with the direction that they have taken.""They could abandon their nuclear weapons aspirations. They could stop the repression of voices within their own country. They could stop their destabilizing activities," he said. "A different path is possible. That is the path that we want Iran to take and that is the path that will see them with a stronger economy, a more happy society and a more active part in the international community."
'Double standards'
Raisi, addressing the UN General Assembly, pointed to the deaths of Indigenous women in Canada as well as Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories and the Islamic State group's "savagery" against women from religious minority groups. "So long as we have this double standard, where attention is solely focused on one side and not all equally, we will not have true justice and fairness," Raisi said. He also pushed back on Western terms to revive a 2015 nuclear accord, insisting that Iran "is not seeking to build or obtain nuclear weapons and such weapons have no place in our doctrine." But attention has quickly shifted to the protests, which are among the most serious in Iran since November 2019 unrest over fuel price rises. French President Emmanuel Macron said he asked Raisi in a meeting Tuesday to show "respect for women's rights."
'Significant shock'
The wave of protests over Amini's death "is a very significant shock, it is a societal crisis," said Iran expert David Rigoulet-Roze of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. "It is difficult to know the outcome but there is a disconnect between the authorities with their DNA of the Islamic revolution of 1979 and an increasingly secularized society," he said. "It is a whole social project that is being called into question. There is a hesitation among the authorities on the way forward with regard to this movement." Protests first erupted Friday in Amini's home province of Kurdistan, where governor Ismail Zarei Koosha said Tuesday three people had been killed in "a plot by the enemy." Kurdistan police commander Ali Azadi on Wednesday announced the death of another person, according to Tasnim news agency. Two more protesters "were killed during the riots" in Kermanshah province, the region's prosecutor Shahram Karami was quoted as saying by Fars news agency, blaming "counter-revolutionary agents."Additionally, Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said two protesters, aged 16 and 23, had been killed overnight in West Azerbaijan province. An additional 450 people had been wounded and 500 arrested, the group said -- figures that could not be independently verified. Video spread online showing security forces opening fire on protesters in the southern city of Shiraz.

Deaths, internet blockages in Iran as protests spread over death of Mahsa Amini
AP/September 21, 2022
TEHRAN: Iranians experienced a widespread Internet outage on Wednesday amid days of mass protests against the government, including a loss of access to Instagram and WhatsApp, two of the last Western social media platforms available in the country. An Iranian official had earlier hinted that such measures might be taken out of security concerns. The loss of connectivity will make it more difficult for people to organize protests and share information about the government’s rolling crackdown on dissent. Iran has seen nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely. Demonstrators have clashed with police and called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic itself, even as Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi addressed the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. London-based rights group Amnesty International said security forces have used batons, birdshot, tear gas, and water cannons to disperse protesters. It reported eight deaths linked to the unrest, including four people killed by security forces. It said hundreds more have been wounded. Iranian officials have reported three deaths, blaming them on unnamed armed groups. Witnesses in Iran, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, told The Associated Press late Wednesday they could no longer access the Internet using mobile devices.
“We’re seeing Internet service, including mobile data, being blocked in Iran in the past couple of hours,” Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Kentik, Inc., a network intelligence company, said late Wednesday. “This is likely an action by the government given the current situation in the country,” he said. “I can confirm a near total collapse of Internet connectivity for mobile providers in Iran.”NetBlocks, a London-based group that monitors Internet access, had earlier reported widespread disruptions to both Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook parent company Meta, which owns both platforms, said it was aware that Iranians were being denied access to Internet services. “We hope their right to be online will be reinstated quickly,” it said in a statement. Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour was quoted by state media as saying that certain restrictions might be imposed “due to security issues,” without elaborating.Iran already blocks Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube, even though top Iranian officials use public accounts on such platforms. Many Iranians get around the bans using virtual private networks, known as VPNs, and proxies. In a separate development, several official websites, including those for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the presidency and the Central Bank, were taken down at least briefly as hackers claimed to have launched a cyberattack on state agencies. Hackers linked to the shadowy Anonymous movement said they targeted other Iranian state agencies, including state TV.Central Bank spokesman Mostafa Qamarivafa denied that the bank itself was hacked, saying only that the website was “inaccessible” because of an attack on a server that hosts it, in remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency. The website was later restored.
Iran has been the target of several cyberattacks in recent years, many by hackers expressing criticism of its theocracy. Last year, a cyberattack crippled gas stations across the country, creating long lines of angry motorists unable to get subsidized fuel for days. Messages accompanying the attack appeared to refer to the supreme leader.
Amini’s death has sparked protests across the country. The police say she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account, saying she had no previous heart issues and that they were prevented from seeing her body.
The UN human rights office says the morality police have stepped up operations in recent months and resorted to more violent methods, including slapping women, beating them with batons and shoving them into police vehicles. President Joe Biden, who also spoke at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, voiced support for the protesters, saying “we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran, who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.”The UK also released a statement Wednesday calling for an investigation into Amini’s death and for Iran to “respect the right to peaceful assembly.”
Raisi has called for an investigation into Amini’s death. Iranian officials have blamed the protests on unnamed foreign countries that they say are trying to foment unrest. Iran has grappled with waves of protests in recent years, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions linked to its nuclear program. The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have been deadlocked for months.
In his speech at the UN, Raisi said Iran is committed to reviving the nuclear agreement but questioned whether it could trust America’s commitment to any accord. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. It began ramping up its nuclear activities after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 agreement, and experts say it now likely has enough highly-enriched uranium to make a bomb if it chooses to do so

Iran Unrest Death Toll Rises as Protests Intensify
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Iranian authorities said on Wednesday three people including a member of the security forces had been killed during unrest sweeping the country, as anger at the death of a woman in police custody fueled protests for a fifth day. Rights groups reported at least one more person was killed on Tuesday, which would take the death toll to least seven. The death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for "unsuitable attire", unleashed simmering anger over issues including freedoms in the country and an economy reeling from sanctions. After beginning on Saturday at Amini's funeral in Iran's Kurdistan province, protests have engulfed much of the country, prompting confrontations as security forces have sought to suppress them. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei did not mention the protests - some of Iran's worst unrest since street clashes last year over water shortages - during a speech on Wednesday commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. A top Khamenei aide paid condolences to Amini's family this week, promising to follow up on the case and saying the Supreme Leader was affected and pained by her death. The official IRNA news agency said a "police assistant" died from injuries on Tuesday in the southern city of Shiraz. "Some people clashed with police officers and as a result one of the police assistants was killed. In this incident, four other police officers were injured," IRNA said. An official quoted by IRNA said 15 protesters were arrested in Shiraz. In Kermanshah, the city prosecutor said two people had been killed on Tuesday in riots. "We are certain this was done by anti-revolutionary elements because the victims were killed by weapons not used by the security apparatus," the semi-official Fars news agency cited prosecutor Shahram Karami as saying. Two Kurdish human rights groups - Hengaw and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network - said a 43-year-old man was killed by security forces' gunfire on Tuesday in Urmia, a city in the western Azerbaijan province. There was no official confirmation of that death. Amini fell into a coma and died while waiting with other women held by the morality police, who enforce strict rules in the country requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public. Her father said she had no health problems and that she suffered bruises to her legs in custody and holds the police responsible for her death. The police have denied harming her.
Tehran rally
Women have been heavily present in the protests, with many waving or burning their veils, or cutting their hair in public. Videos shared on social media have also shown demonstrators damaging symbols of the country. One showed a man scaling the facade of the townhall in the northern city of Sari and tearing down an image of Khomeini, who established Iran's government after the 1979 revolution. People rallied again on Wednesday in Tehran, with hundreds shouting "death to the dictator" at Tehran University, a video shared by 1500tasvir showed. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos. Hengaw, the Kurdish rights group, said internet had been cut completely in the Kurdistan province, where protests have been particularly intense and Iran's Revolutionary Guards has a history of suppressing unrest. It also reported the death of another man killed on Tuesday in Piranshahr, also in the western Azerbaijan province, while saying that another died from wounds sustained on Monday in Saqez, Amini's hometown. There was no official confirmation of these fatalities. Hengaw said all the civilians it reported killed were Kurds. The governor of Kurdistan province has blamed the deaths of three men in Kurdistan province on unspecified terrorist groups. Hengaw has said they were killed when security forces opened fire. The Tehran governor said authorities had identified 1,800 people with a "history of taking part in previous riots, including 700 who have significant records within various police, security and judicial institutions".

Iran’s Khamenei Gives Second Speech after Report of Illness
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spoke for the second time in less than a week in a televised speech on Wednesday, appearing healthy after a report that he had been under observation by a team of doctors. The New York Times reported on Sept. 16 that Khamenei, 83, had cancelled all meetings and public appearances after falling gravely ill and was on bed rest under observation by the team of doctors, quoting four people familiar with his health situation. Khamenei, who has led the republic since 1989, appeared on Wednesday to deliver remarks at an event commemorating veterans of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Dressed in his usual clerical robes, he spoke for 55 minutes, focusing mostly on the Iran-Iraq war and "the need to teach young Iranians about the conflict and for them not to fall for Western powers' deception". He did not mention protests that have swept Iran for the last four days over the death of a young woman while she was in the custody of Iran's morality police. Prior to his address, Khamenei sat for close to an hour on a podium listening to speeches by army commanders and religious songs, wearing a face covering. He got up unaided from his chair to deliver his remarks and spoke clearly. Khamenei, a staunch opponent of the United States and its allies in the Middle East, has been supreme leader since the 1989 death of Khomeini, who established Iran's republic after the 1979 revolution. On Saturday, Khamenei received a group of visitors during a religious ceremony. It was his first public appearance for more than two weeks. Two sources close to Khamenei denied to Reuters on Friday that his health had deteriorated, responding to questions about his health. Until Saturday's appearance, he had not been seen in public since Sept. 3, sparking social media rumors that he was ill. During his more than three decades in charge, Khamenei has continued to defy the United States, spread malicious Iranian military power in the Middle East and kept an iron grip at home.

Iran Dissidents File New Lawsuit against Raisi in US
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
Iranian dissidents and ex-prisoners including a Western academic on Tuesday announced the filing of a civil suit in New York against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as he attended the UN General Assembly. The republic's hardline president is the target of the complaint for his role as a judge in the 1980s when thousands of people were sentenced to death in the country, according to the advocacy group National Union for Democracy in Iran. The suit had yet to be made public Tuesday evening by a US federal court in Manhattan, said AFP. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic imprisoned in Iran from September 2018 to November 2020 for espionage, appeared by video at a New York press conference and painted a harrowing picture of her ordeal behind bars, including a year of solitary confinement. "I was subjected to a range of different psychological and physical tortures and was routinely subjected to cruel and degrading and humiliating mistreatment," Moore-Gilbert said. The litigation "is a step towards justice and an attempt to help victims regain their dignity," former prisoner Navid Mohebbi told reporters. "I have seen the very worst of what this regime and Raisi have done to my compatriots," Mohebbi added. The civil suit invokes US legislation protecting victims of torture. NUFDI political director Cameron Khansarinia said "the plaintiffs in this case, Iranian dissidents, former Iranian hostages, former Western hostages, are coming together in an unprecedented fashion to take a step forward for justice." He said that the dissidents and former prisoners were "echoing the cries we hear today on the streets of Iran," a reference to a deadly crackdown against protests that erupted after the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by morality police who enforce restrictions on women's dress.
The complaint is not the first against Raisi on American soil. In August in New York a civil lawsuit filed by a separate exile group challenged US authorities to take action against Raisi ahead of his UN appearance. According to that filing, Raisi in 1988 was a member of the so-called "death commission," four judges who directly ordered thousands of executions as well as torture of members of the armed opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, known as the MEK. Raisi, elected in August 2021, is due to address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. Earlier Tuesday he met in New York with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said he discussed Tehran's nuclear program and "respect for women's rights" after the demonstrations in several Iranian cities.

Alarm Grows over Deadly Iran Crackdown on Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
International alarm mounted on Tuesday over a deadly crackdown in Iran against protests that erupted over the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Tehran's notorious morality police. Amini, 22, died on Friday three days after she was urgently hospitalized following her arrest by police responsible for enforcing Iran's strict dress code for women. Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has not been confirmed by Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation, reported AFP. Women and men took to the streets in cities and towns across the country for the fourth evening in a row Tuesday, despite the deaths of at least three people in the protests on Monday, shouting slogans against Iran's clerical leadership, images posted on social media showed. The protests are among the most serious in Iran since the November 2019 unrest over fuel price rises, and marked this time by the presence of large numbers of women. They have on occasion removed their headscarves in defiance of the republic's strict laws and sometimes even set them on fire or symbolically cut their hair. The protests first erupted in Iran's northern Kurdistan province where Amini was from. They have now spread across the country to Tehran and also major cities including Rasht in the north and Bandar Abbas in the south as well as the holy city of Mashhad in the east. Kurdistan province governor Ismail Zarei Koosha confirmed the deaths of three people, insisting they were "killed suspiciously" as part of "a plot by the enemy", according to the Fars news agency. Activists say, however, that dozens of people have also been wounded and accuse the security forces of using live fire that has caused the casualties. New York-based Human Rights Watch said witness accounts and videos circulating on social media "indicate that authorities are using tear gas to disperse protesters and have apparently used lethal force in Kurdistan province". In Geneva, the United Nations said acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif expressed alarm at Amini's death and the "violent response by security forces to ensuing protests". She said there must be an independent investigation into "Mahsa Amini's tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment".
'Stop further state killings'
The Kurdish human rights group Hengaw, which is based in Norway, said it had confirmed a total of three deaths in Kurdistan province -- one each in Divandareh town, Saqqez and Dehgolan. It added that 221 people had been wounded and another 250 arrested in Kurdistan, where there had also been a general strike on Monday. A 10-year-old girl -- images of whose blood-spattered body have gone viral on social media -- was wounded in the town of Bukan but alive, Hengaw added. Images posted on social media have shown fierce clashes especially in Divandareh between protesters and the security forces, with sounds of live fire. Protests continued on Tuesday in Kurdistan, around Tehran's main universities and also, unusually, at the Tehran bazaar, images showed. "Death to the dictator", and "Woman, life, freedom", protesters shouted, while demonstrators were shown starting fires and seeking to overturn police vehicles in several cities. "It is not surprising to us that we are seeing people of all walks of life come out in Iran to object vigorously to that, and say that is not the kind of society that they want to live in," said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said countries with diplomatic relations with Iran must act "to stop further state killings by supporting the people's demands to realize their basic rights".
'Systemic persecution'
IHR said security forces used batons, tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and live ammunition in certain regions to "crush the protests". The Netblocks internet access monitor noted a more than three-hour regional internet blackout in Kurdistan province and also partial disruptions in Tehran and other cities during protests on Monday. The situation will add to pressure on Iran's ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi who is in New York for the UN General Assembly this week where he was already set to face intense scrutiny over Iran's human rights record. Dissidents and ex-prisoners on Tuesday announced in New York the filing of a civil lawsuit against Raisi, over his role as a judge in the 1980s when thousands of people were sentenced to death in the country. Cameron Khansarinia, political director of the advocacy group National Union for Democracy in Iran, said the complainants were "echoing the cries we hear today on the streets of Iran".

Iranian Women Are Cutting Off Their Hair in Protest After Mahsa Amini’s Death
Rosa Sanchez/Harper's Bazaar/Wed, September 21, 2022
Iranian women are protesting the death of one of their own, Mahsa Amini. Amini, a 22-year-old local journalist, died on Friday, three days after being arrested by Iran's morality police. The police are in charge of enforcing the country's strict dress code mandates for women, including wearing a hijab in public to cover one's hair and neck. Amini was taken to the Vozara Street Detention Center Tuesday to be educated about the hijab, Tehran Police said, per CNN. But while in custody, Amini collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where she later died. Local police claimed she suffered a heart attack, while her family said she had no prior heart conditions. During a news conference on Monday, Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein Rahimi denied claims that Iranian police harmed Amini in any way, and said they had "done everything" to keep her alive. He called her death "unfortunate."
Since Amini’s death, protests have broken out across Iran, with women standing up against the morality police by chopping off their hair, removing and even burning their hijabs in public, and dressing up as men to fight the officers. Videos on social media show women running through the streets of Tehran, as well as more conservative cities, like Mashhad and Kermanshah, putting on flash protests and shouting, "Women, life, freedom."Some are even setting fires and destroying posters with images of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, internet monitoring website Netblocks has documented internet outages in the country since Friday—a tactic the local government has previously used to minimize the spread of protests. Amini's death comes amid growing controversy and pushback over the dress code for women—which is enforced since they turn nine years old and applies to people of all nationalities and religions living in the country, not just Iranian Muslims.

Iranian women burn hijabs in protest of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death
Jade Biggs/Cosmo/September 21, 2022
Female protesters in Iran have been burning headscarves and hijabs following the death of a woman who was detained for breaking hijab laws. Twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini fell into a coma last week, hours after Guidance Patrol – also known as morality police, a force tasked with arresting people who violate Iran's strict dress code – detained her. They accused Amini of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. According to witnesses at the scene, Amini was beaten while inside a police van that took her to a detention centre. She then spent three days in a coma, but passed away in hospital on Friday 17 September. Since then, Tehran's police chief has branded Amini's death an "unfortunate" incident that he does not want repeated. The force also rejected allegations that Amini was beaten, and claimed she suffered "sudden heart failure" while waiting with other women at the facility to be "educated". The force later released CCTV footage that showed a woman they identified as Amini talking with a female official, who grabs her clothing. She is then seen holding her head with her hands and collapsing to the ground. Iran's interior minister said on Saturday that Amini "apparently had previous physical problems". But her father denied the claim and said (via BBC) that she was "fit and had no health problems". He also said his daughter had suffered bruising to her legs and that the CCTV footage showed an "edited version" of events. On Monday Tehran's police chief, Brig-Gen Rahimi, expressed sympathy to Amini's family, but insisted that she suffered no physical harm. "The evidence shows that there was no negligence or inappropriate behaviour on the part of the police," he told reporters. The 22-year-old's death has sparked protests in the capital and across western Iran, with demonstrations continuing for five consecutive nights. Videos posted on social media appeared to show a crowd throwing stones in the town of Divandarreh and later running after coming under fire. Other clips showed protests in the capital, where women removed their headscarves and shouted "death to the dictator" – a chant often used in reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Two people were reportedly killed in clashes with riot police on Monday, whilst Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said on Sunday that at least 38 people have been injured. Our thoughts are with Amini's family at this difficult time.

A New Iran Deal Would Empower the Houthis
FDD-Flash Brief/September 21/2022
Latest Developments
Iran would receive approximately $275 billion in sanctions relief during the first year of a new nuclear deal and more than $1 trillion by 2030, according to an FDD assessment. If past is prologue, a significant portion of these funds would flow to Iran’s network of terror proxy groups, including the Houthis in Yemen. In the year after the implementation of the original 2015 nuclear accord, Tehran’s military budget increased by 90 percent, enabling the regime to send additional weapons and funding to its proxies throughout the region.
Expert Analysis
“If Tehran receives a massive infusion of cash accompanying a new nuclear deal, expect more weapons flowing from Iran to the Houthis, resulting in more conflict and humanitarian suffering in Yemen. More broadly, the success of Tehran’s regional strategy depends on division and insufficient coordination between Washington, Jerusalem, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi. The Islamic Republic of Iran benefits when these capitals neglect the strings connecting the puppet master in Tehran with the terror proxy puppets launching the attacks.” – Bradley Bowman, FDD’s CMPP Senior Director
Why Iran Supports the Houthis
Iran uses terrorist proxy groups to undermine, control, and attack regional governments. By employing proxies, it seeks to methodically advance its radical agenda while avoiding direct consequences. Support for the Houthis in Yemen is part of this longstanding strategy, accruing significant gains for the regime in return for relatively limited investment. In Lebanon, Iran supports and arms Hezbollah to control the Beirut government and threaten Israel. In Iraq, Iran supports Shia militias to enable a land bridge to the Levant and undermine Iraqi sovereignty. In Gaza, Iran supports Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to conduct attacks against Israeli civilians and threaten Israel. Each of these groups employs human shields, deliberately targets civilians, and has the same benefactor in Tehran. By funding, arming, and training the Houthis, Tehran empowers a group it can control or at least influence, enables attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and establishes strategic depth alongside the Red Sea—one of the world’s most important commercial and military maritime routes. In 2014, soon after the Houthis seized Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, an Iranian member of parliament reportedly bragged that Sanaa would be the fourth Arab capital under Iranian control.
Iran Supplies the Houthis with Missiles and Drones
The extensive military support from Iran enables the Houthis to execute missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent the United Arab Emirates. Between 2015 and 2021, Houthis reportedly launched 430 missiles and 851 drones at Saudi Arabia from Yemen. “The Houthis launch these terrorist attacks with enabling by Iran, which supplies them with missile and UAV components, training, and expertise,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in March 2022. In January 2022, the Houthis also launched two attacks against the United Arab Emirates, one of which targeted the Al Dhafra Air Base, where American troops are housed. In 2016, Houthis fired anti-ship cruise missiles at a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Mason, while it was operating in international waters near Yemen.
The Houthis Terrorize Yemen
In addition to attacks outside of Yemen’s borders, the Houthis have terrorized the Yemeni population, significantly contributing to what is widely viewed as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The Houthis withhold aid from civilians, torture their opponents, attack refugee camps, recruit child soldiers, and use human shields to deter coalition strikes. Despite continuing to earn its U.S. designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and doing nothing to warrant a change in U.S. policy, the Biden administration revoked the designation in February 2021. Additional support from Tehran could allow the Houthis to rearm and break the cease-fire once they regenerate their forces. This would undermine further humanitarian conditions in Yemen.

Putin's partial mobilisation is a 'nervous moment' for those who don't want to fight
Sky New/September 21, 2022
Here then, is President Vladimir Putin's answer to Ukraine's successful counter-offensive a little under two weeks ago. He needs more troops on the battlefield fast, to fix the manpower problem at the heart of his "special military operation" so a partial mobilisation starts now. Only 300,000 men, his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says, stressing that the potential reserve force is 25 million. That is presumably an attempt to assuage the fears of the millions who might be called up and don't want to be. But those numbers could creep up, 300,000 is not insignificant in and of itself and it is only the Russian Ministry of Defence who's counting. Putin orders 'partial mobilisation' in Ukraine - The decree also deals a blow to those who volunteered to sign contracts and might be looking to get out of them. Now those contracts are valid until the end of the period of partial mobilisation whenever that might be (ie when all of this ends). Not so voluntary anymore. Dismissal is permitted only for reasons of age, health or imprisonment. There's been a lot of reporting around the fact that many of those who signed up for volunteer contracts came from Russia's poorer regions, attracted by the sums involved and the promise of benefits and housing. Now it is the Ministry of Defence calling the shots on who they want to pick as long as they've done military service, have a particular military speciality and have previous combat experience. It's not clear whether the ministry will target reservists geographically in areas less likely to kick up a fuss (ie. not Moscow or St Petersburg), or whether it'll be a call-up across the board of whoever's best qualified. Human rights lawyer Pavel Chikhov, who has been handling a lot of the cases of contractors looking to quit, has written on Telegram he believes the Ministry of Defence will draw up quotas for each region which governors must then fulfil. Sergei Shoigu made clear that the decree does not apply to students or conscripts currently doing their military service on the territory of the Russian Federation. A message to the mothers, perhaps, that your 18-year-olds won't go in to fight. Or maybe that's just for now. Come next Tuesday, when polls close in the 'referenda' in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, Russia will presumably declare those regions Russian territory. That means, in theory, conscripts could be moved there. All as yet unclear. This is a nervous moment for many in Russia who do not want to fight. Prices for aeroplane tickets have sky-rocketed. It's probably too late for those on a list to leave - that moment was yesterday. The advice from the human rights group OVD-info on Telegram: "If you want to protest, prepare to be arrested."

Putin escalates Ukraine war, issues nuclear threat to West
Guy Faulconbridge/(Reuters/September 21, 2022
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
In the biggest escalation of the Ukraine war since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, Putin explicitly raised the spectre of a nuclear conflict, approved a plan to annex a chunk of Ukraine the size of Hungary, and called up 300,000 reservists.
"If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people - this is not a bluff," Putin said in a televised address to the nation. Citing NATO expansion towards Russia's borders, Putin said the West was plotting to destroy his country, engaging in "nuclear blackmail" by allegedly discussing the potential use of nuclear weapons against Moscow, and accused the United States, the European Union and Britain of encouraging Ukraine to push military operations into Russia itself. "In its aggressive anti-Russian policy, the West has crossed every line," Putin said. "This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them."The address, which followed a critical Russian battlefield defeat in northeastern Ukraine, fuelled speculation about the course of the war, the 69-year-old Kremlin chief's own future, and showed Putin was doubling down on what he calls his "special military operation" in Ukraine. In essence, Putin is betting that by increasing the risk of a direct confrontation between the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and Russia -- a step towards World War Three -- the West will blink over its support for Ukraine, something it has shown no sign of doing so far. Putin's war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, unleashed an inflationary wave through the global economy and triggered the worst confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many feared nuclear war imminent.
MOBILISATION
Putin signed a decree on partially mobilising Russia's reserves, arguing that Russian soldiers were effectively facing the full force of the "collective West" which has been supplying Kyiv's forces with advanced weapons, training and intelligence. Speaking shortly after Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia would draft some 300,000 additional personnel out of some 25 million potential fighters at Moscow's disposal. The mobilisation, the first since the Soviet Union battled Nazi Germany in World War Two, begins immediately. Such a move is risky for Putin, who has so far tried to preserve a semblance of peace in the capital and other major cities where support for the war is lower than in the provinces. Ever since Putin was handed the nuclear briefcase by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, his overriding priority has been to restore at least some of the great power status which Moscow lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Putin has repeatedly railed against the United States for driving NATO's eastward expansion, especially its courting of ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia which Russia regards as part of its own sphere of influence, an idea both nations reject. Putin said that top government officials in several unnamed "leading" NATO countries had spoken of potentially using nuclear weapons against Russia. He also accused the West of risking "nuclear catastrophe," by allowing Ukraine to shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which is under Russian control, something Kyiv has denied.
ANNEXATION
Putin gave his explicit support to referendums that will be held in coming days in swathes of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops -- the first step to formal annexation of a chunk of Ukraine the size of Hungary. The self-styled Donetsk (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republics (LPR), which Putin recognised as independent just before the invasion, and Russian-installed officials in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have asked for votes. "We will support the decision on their future, which will be made by the majority of residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson," Putin said.
"We cannot, have no moral right to hand over people close to us to the executioners, we cannot but respond to their sincere desire to determine their own fate."That paves the way for the formal annexation of about 15% of Ukrainian territory. The West and Ukraine have condemned the referendum plan as an illegal sham and vowed never to accept its results. French President Emmanuel Macron said the plans were "a parody." Kyiv has denied persecuting ethnic Russians or Russian-speakers. But by formally annexing Ukrainian territories, Putin is giving himself the potential pretext to use nuclear weapons from Russia's arsenal, the largest in the world. Russia's nuclear doctrine allows the use of such weapons if weapons of mass destruction are used against it or if the Russian state faces an existential threat from conventional weapons. "It is in our historical tradition, in the fate of our people, to stop those striving for world domination, who threaten the dismemberment and enslavement of our Motherland, our Fatherland," Putin said."We will do it now, and it will be so," said Putin. "I believe in your support." (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons as he escalates his invasion of Ukraine: 'This is not a bluff'
Sinéad Baker/Business Insider/September 21, 2022
Putin escalated his war on Ukraine, announcing the partial mobilization of his country's reservists. He also threatened nuclear retaliation, saying ominously that "this is not a bluff." He said Russia may use them in defense, baselessly accusing NATO of making nuclear threats of its own.Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the use of nuclear weapons as he ramped up his invasion of Ukraine. Putin announced the partial mobilization of his country's reservists in a speech on Wednesday, when he also baselessly accused the West of threatening to use nuclear weapons and gestured to Russia's own nuclear arsenal. Putin accused the West of "nuclear blackmail," saying Western nations had encouraged Ukraine to shell the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Ukraine said Russia was responsible for the Zaporizhzhia shelling. He also said that officials in NATO countries had spoken "about the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction against Russia — nuclear weapons."NATO officials have not threatened Russia with nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Putin offered a scenario in which he would launch a nuclear strike. "To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components more modern than those of the NATO countries," he said. "And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff."Putin's reference to "territorial integrity" came alongside efforts from the Kremlin to organize referendums to formally annex the parts of Ukraine its military has captured. That process — which Western officials have denounced as illegitimate — could give Putin a pretext to claim a more expansive definition of "Russian" territory including these parts of Ukraine. As Insider's John Haltiwanger, Jake Epstein, and Dhany Osman reported, Putin's speech represented a broad ramping up of Russia's war effort after weeks of setbacks where Ukraine unexpectedly reclaimed vast swaths of territory
Some Russian public figures have repeatedly threatened nuclear attacks as the conflict in Ukraine continued. Putin himself raised the prospect of nuclear escalation on the first day of the invasion of Ukraine in February.
But several experts previously told Insider that Russia was unlikely to use nuclear weapons, even if it made the threat.

Putin orders partial military call-up, sparking protests
KARL RITTER/KYIV, Ukraine (AP)September 21, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists Wednesday, taking a risky and deeply unpopular step that follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine.
The first such call-up in Russia since World War II heightened tensions with Ukraine's Western backers, who derided it as an act of weakness and desperation. The move also sent some Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets to flee the country, and others into the streets to stage anti-war demonstrations.
In his 14-minute nationally televised address, Putin also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing about using everything at his disposal to protect Russia — an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal. He has previously told the West not to back Russia against the wall and has rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to Ukraine. Confronted with steep battlefield losses, expanding front lines and a conflict that has raged longer than expected, the Kremlin has struggled to replenish its troops in Ukraine, reportedly even resorting to widespread recruitment in prisons.
The total number of reservists to be called up could be as high as 300,000, officials said. However, Putin's decree authorizing the partial mobilization, which took effect immediately, offered few details, raising suspicions that the draft could be broadened at any moment. Notably, one clause was kept secret.
Despite Russia’s harsh laws against criticizing the military and the war, protesters outraged by the mobilization overcame their fears of arrest to stage street protests in several cities across the country. More than 800 Russians were arrested in anti-war demonstrations in 37 cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info.
Associated Press journalists in Moscow witnessed at least a dozen arrests in the first 15 minutes of a nighttime protest in the capital, with police in heavy body armor tackling demonstrators in front of Moscow shops, hauling some away as they chanted, “No to war!”“I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid of anything. The most valuable thing that they can take from us is the life of our children. I won’t give them life of my child," said one Muscovite, who declined to give her name. Asked whether protesting would help, she said: “It won’t help, but it’s my civic duty to express my stance. No to war!”
In Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, police hauled onto buses some of the 40 protesters who were detained at an anti-war rally. One woman in a wheelchair shouted, referring to the Russian president: “Goddamn bald-headed ‘nut job’. He’s going to drop a bomb on us, and we’re all still protecting him. I’ve said enough.”The Vesna opposition movement called for protests, saying: “Thousands of Russian men — our fathers, brothers and husbands — will be thrown into the meat grinder of the war. What will they be dying for? What will mothers and children be crying for?”
As protest calls circulated online, the Moscow prosecutor’s office warned that organizing or participating in such actions could lead to up to 15 years in prison. Authorities issued similar warnings ahead of other protests recently. Wednesday's were the first nationwide anti-war protests since the fighting began in late February. Other Russians responded by trying to leave the country, and flights out quickly became booked.
In Armenia, Sergey arrived with his 17-year-old son, saying they had prepared for such a scenario. Another Russian, Valery, said his wife’s family lives in Kyiv, and mobilization is out of the question for him “just for the moral aspect alone.” Both men declined to give their last names.
The state communication watchdog Roskomnadzor warned media that access to their websites would be blocked for transmitting “false information” about the mobilization. It was unclear exactly what that meant. Residents in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, appeared despondent about the mobilization as they watched emergency workers clear debris from Russian rocket attacks on two apartment buildings.
“You just don’t know what to expect from him,” said one Kharkiv resident, Olena Milevska, 66. “But you do understand that it’s something personal for him.”In calling for the mobilization, Putin cited the length of the front line, which he said exceeds 1,000 kilometers (more than 620 miles). He also said Russia is effectively fighting the combined military might of Western countries.Western leaders said the mobilization was in response to Russia's recent battlefield losses in Ukraine. U.S. national security council spokesperson John Kirby said Putin’s speech is “definitely a sign that he’s struggling.”
President Joe Biden told the U.N. General Assembly: “We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression, period." He said Putin’s new nuclear threats against Europe showed “reckless disregard” for Russia’s responsibilities as a signer of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Zelenskyy was due to speak to the gathering in a prerecorded address later Wednesday. Putin is not attending.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said the mobilization meant the war “is getting worse, deepening, and Putin is trying to involve as many people as possible. … It’s being done just to let one person keep his grip on personal power.”
The partial mobilization order came a day before Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine plan to hold referendums on becoming integral parts of Russia — a move that could allow Moscow to escalate the war. The referendums will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The balloting is all but certain to go Moscow’s way. Foreign leaders are already calling the votes illegitimate and nonbinding. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they were a “sham” and “noise” to distract the public. Michael Kofman, head of Russian studies at the CNA think tank in Washington, said Putin has staked his regime on the war, and that annexation “is a point of no return,” as is mobilization “to an extent.”"Partial mobilization affects everybody. And everybody in Russia understands ... that they could be the next wave, and this is only the first wave,” Kofman said. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said only some of those with relevant combat and service experience will be mobilized. He said about 25 million people fit that criteria, but only about 1% of them will be mobilized. It wasn’t clear how many years of combat experience or what level of training soldiers must have to be mobilized. Another key clause in the decree prevents most professional soldiers from terminating their contracts until after the partial mobilization. Putin's mobilization gambit could backfire by making the war unpopular at home and hurting his own standing. It also concedes Russia's underlying military shortcomings.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive this month seized the military initiative from Russia and captured large areas in Ukraine from Russian forces. The Russian mobilization is unlikely to produce any consequences on the battlefield for months because of a lack of training facilities and equipment. Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said it seemed “an act of desperation.”“People will evade this mobilization in every possible way, bribe their way out of this mobilization, leave the country,” he said.He described the announcement as “a huge personal blow to Russian citizens, who until recently (took part in the hostilities) with pleasure, sitting on their couches, (watching) TV. And now the war has come into their home.”In his address, Putin accused the West of engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and cited alleged “statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”He didn't elaborate. “When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said. In other developments Wednesday, relatives of two U.S. military veterans who disappeared while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces said they had been released after about three months in captivity. They were part of a swap arranged by Saudi Arabia of 10 prisoners from the U.S., Morocco, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Croatia.

Putin’s 'partial mobilization' has unleashed more turmoil at home than in Ukraine
Michael Weiss and James Rushton/Associated Press/September 21, 2022
After delaying it overnight, much to the frustration of a sleepless Russian press corps, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning announced a “partial mobilization” in Russia to replenish the ranks of a “special military operation” meant to be long over by now. Yet few observers or political stakeholders in the West think this half-cocked call-up will fundamentally alter the calculus on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s counteroffensives have been surprisingly effective. Moreover, Putin’s vague threats against the “collective West” have been met with more shrugs and yawns in the United States and Europe. If anything, there is more panic in Russia. Partial mobilization, Russia’s first since World War II, falls well short of mass conscription and is likely to be confined (for now) to the country’s 300,000 reservists. Contract soldiers already deployed in Ukraine will see their service indefinitely extended just as the weather cools and winter approaches. “This is a very risky step from Putin,” a senior Western intelligence officer told Yahoo News. “There are big doubts whether this call-up will succeed in the first place, and if not, what message will it send. It also increases public antiwar and anti-regime sentiment throughout Russia.”
That has already begun. “No war!” people chanted in the Old Arbat, a famous street in Moscow. “Life for our children!” they shouted in St. Petersburg, along with the more provocative “Putin in the trenches!” The president’s ukase (edict) has been met with chaos and confusion in the streets. Authorities even have difficulty distinguishing the war objectors from the proponents. One man wearing a Russian Army sweatshirt in Yekaterinburg declared, "I am leaving for war tomorrow. ... I am for Russia,” before he too was hauled away by the authorities, presumably because they mistook him for an antiwar demonstrator.
In the past several hours, flights out of Moscow have skyrocketed in price, with some carriers charging as much as $16,000 a ticket to travel to Dubai. And that’s one of the few flights still available: All planes to visa-free countries were completely sold out, according to Russian news portal RBC.
Partial mobilization has also already separated those in Russian society who qualify for the frontlines from those who do not.
A colleague of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny rang up Nikolai Peskov, the son of Putin’s press secretary, pretending to be an enlistment officer and demanding that Peskov report for a medical examination. “You must understand,” replied the younger Peskov, who is also a correspondent for the Kremlin-controlled RT media network, “if you know that I am Mr. Peskov, how much it is not entirely correct for me to be there. In short, I will solve it on a different level. Outside of the internal strife surrounding the decision, the influx of manpower will not suddenly transform the depleted Russian army into a more capable fighting force.
Putin’s call-up will not suddenly establish Russian air superiority over Ukraine — something the Russian Ministry of Defense has frequently boasted of achieving, despite having lost 55 combat aircraft since Feb. 24, and at least four in the last two weeks.
It won’t let Russian ground forces counter Ukraine’s supremely effective Western-supplied missile artillery, which the Kremlin can seemingly neither locate nor destroy, despite the Russian Ministry of Defense’s claims to have eliminated more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) than Ukraine has been sent. It won’t solve crippling morale and leadership problems in the Russian Army — it’s likely to make them worse. When Ukraine’s intelligence service publishes the intercepted Russian phone calls of Russian contract soldiers, who sign up for service for a fixed period of time, a consistent theme is their intent to leave the Russian Army at the end of the enlistment due to the horrendous conditions and high casualties they’re experiencing. Not allowing these kontraktniki the prospect of an end to their service effectively means soldiers wanting to go home will now be forced to stay until they’re killed or wounded on the battlefield. Some of these contract soldiers may simply refuse to fight, preferring to take their chances with a Russian military court or as POWs instead of risking returning home in zinc coffins. (Also underwhelming is the fact that at least some mobilized soldiers will be sent to Ukraine without so much as basic training.) “This feels more like an act of desperation than one of escalation and will probably be taken that way,” said Eliot Cohen, a former counselor in the U.S. State Department and now the dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “There have always been those in the West whose fear of Russia outweighs their support of Ukraine, but on the whole, it seems to me the U.S. and its allies have been remarkably staunch.”
That staunchness was further displayed Wednesday amid the United Nations General Assembly, as Putin obliquely threatened once again to use nuclear weapons if Russia’s “territorial unity” came under threat. Yet Russian territory, as defined by Moscow, is now expected to expand into areas that Russia only partly or tenuously holds.
Putin alluded in his speech to backing a series of slated “referendums” in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — all designed to legitimize their forcible annexation by Moscow. Yet none of these regions is fully under Russian military occupation. The provincial capital of Zaporizhzhia, in fact, is still governed by a Ukrainian political administration. Kherson, where Kyiv has been pressing a gradual, weeks-long counteroffensive, is increasingly falling back into Ukrainian hands. And the strategically important city of Lyman, in Donetsk, is nearly encircled by Ukrainian forces. There is no indication that Kyiv intends to slow or halt its counteroffensives. “The only appropriate response to Putin’s belligerent threats is to double down on supporting Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Wednesday. “More sanctions on Russia. More weapons to Ukraine.” An officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency told Yahoo News before Putin’s speech that sham referenda and mobilization were long expected and have already factored into Ukraine’s strategy. “We saw it coming and we’re prepared,” the officer said. As did Ukraine’s Western partners.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO General-Secretary, echoed the need to “step up support for Ukraine.” Ditto Kajsa Ollongren, the defense minister of the Netherlands. Even French President Emmanuel Macron, once seen as a wobbly rung on the ladder of European escalation, was unambiguous. Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Macron declared, “Those who are silent now on this new imperialism, or are secretly complicit with it, show a new cynicism that is tearing down the global order without which peace is not possible.”The question now is: Will Putin treat any attacks on Russian forces in soon-to-be annexed territories as an attack on Russia itself? The short answer is: No one really knows, and he may not either. However, the Kremlin’s combative public rhetoric often overstates eventual Russian actions, and humiliation on the battlefield is routinely met with the deployment of euphemisms rather than WMD.
Russia illegally seized and annexed Crimea in 2014, yet the Crimean Peninsula has been under sustained bombardment by the Ukrainians for the first time in eight years, using drones and as-yet-unknown long-range weapons systems. On Aug. 9, Ukraine’s military hit the Saki air base, which lies 180 miles behind enemy lines and is home to much of the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation group, more than half of which was wiped out by a “series of successful missile attacks,” according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
That certainly translated as an infringement upon Russia’s internal — but internationally unrecognized — definition of “territorial unity.” Indeed, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and now the deputy chairman of its security council, had even warned on Telegram that any attack on Crimea would precipitate a “judgment day” response “very fast and hard.” But a day after the Saki air base bombing, Medvedev quietly deleted his post. The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, denied that the attack even happened, writing off explosions as an “accident.” Nor has it yet acknowledged a total rout in Kharkiv, where Ukrainians reclaimed as many as 3,500 square miles of land in the past three weeks, much of it owing to the flight of terrified Russian soldiers. That defeat, according to the Kremlin, was a “regrouping.”

World won't let Putin use nuclear weapons, says Ukraine's Zelenskiy
BERLIN (Reuters)September 21, 2022
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he did not believe the world would allow Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons and vowed to press on with liberating Ukrainian territory captured by Russian forces. Zelenskiy was speaking to Germany's BILD TV in an interview published hours after the Russian president announced a partial mobilisation and warned that Moscow would respond to what he called the West's "nuclear blackmail". It was Russia's first such mobilisation since World War Two and signified the biggest escalation of the Ukraine war since Moscow's invasion in February. "I don't believe that he (Putin) will use these weapons. I don't think the world will allow him to use these weapons," Zelenskiy said, according to a text published by the newspaper. "Tomorrow Putin can say: apart from Ukraine, we also want a part of Poland, otherwise we will use nuclear weapons. We cannot make these compromises."Ukraine has recaptured swathes of its territory after a lightning counter-offensive in recent weeks, inflicting mounting casualties on Russian troops. Putin's mobilisation has come in response to Russia's failings on the battlefield, Zelenskiy said. "He sees that his units are simply running away," Zelenskiy said, adding that Putin "wants to drown Ukraine in blood, including the blood of his own soldiers". Zelenskiy also brushed off plans by four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine to hold referendums on Sept. 23-27 on joining Russia, saying they were a "sham" that would not be recognised by most countries. "We will act according to our plans step by step. I'm sure we will liberate our territory," he said.

Türkiye Will Not Withdraw Forces from Syria
Idlib - Firas Karam/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 21 September, 2022
There is no plan for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria’s Idlib governorate and Aleppo countryside, a Turkish military source told a meeting of opposition factions in northwestern Syria. According to the source, Turkish forces present in those areas are “purely combative” and are deployed in compliance with an agreement concluded in early 2020 between Türkiye and Russia within the framework of the Astana Agreement. “A special meeting was held in northwestern Syria in recent days. It included several opposition soldiers and a Turkish military official,” a Syrian opposition leader told Asharq Al-Awsat. The meeting, said the source, tackled recent developments in Syria in addition to plans for warmer ties and normalization between Ankara and Damascus. In a speech during the meeting, the Turkish official stressed that Türkiye has no plan or intention to withdraw from Syrian territory, and that this matter is strongly rejected “in the near term.”The official affirmed that Turkish forces will not be pulled out of the country despite the withdrawal of forces being one of the key conditions of the Syrian regime for agreeing to rapprochement with Ankara. “Turkish forces in the region are there to confront any advancement of regime forces towards Idlib and the opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria,” the official told the meeting. Moreover, he stressed that opposition factions have every right to confront any advancement attempt by regime forces and crush any attacking force. “Regime demands for the removal of Turkish forces from Syrian territories are unrealistic,” TRT HABER’s news website quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu as saying on Friday. Cavusoglu noted that terrorist groups are still a threat in the areas where Turkish forces are stationed in Syria. “If we withdraw from those lands today, the regime will not rule them. Instead, they will be overrun by terrorist organizations,” he warned. “This is a danger to us, to the regime, and to all of Syria,” added the minister.

WHO sends supplies to Syria to deal with cholera outbreak
AP/ September 19, 2022
A plane carrying medical supplies to deal with the spread of a deadly cholera outbreak in war-torn Syria landed in the capital of Damascus on Monday, the World Health Organization said, and another one will follow. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO's regional director, told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to Damascus that Syrian health authorities are coordinating with the international organization to contain the outbreak.“It is a threat to Syria, to the region, (to) neighboring countries and to the whole world,” he said. Al-Mandhari's comments came days after health officials in Syria reported at least five deaths and about 200 cases in different provinces. It is the first such outbreak since before the conflict began in March 2011. The U.N. and Syria’s Health Ministry have said the source of the outbreak is believed to be linked to people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River and using contaminated water to irrigate crops, resulting in food contamination. The cases were reported in several provinces, including Aleppo in the north, Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, and Deir el-Zour along the border with Iraq. Al-Mandhari said WHO is working on strengthening surveillance to identify cases and give the sick the proper treatment as well as trace those who are infected and those who were in contact with them. He said an airplane supported by WHO carrying around 30 tons of supplies to support health authorities to deal with the crisis landed in Syria on Monday. Al-Mandhari said the supplies will be equally distributed depending on needs including in areas in the rebel-held northwest and northeast controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters. He said another plane was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday with a similar amount of supplies. The outbreak comes at a time when Syria’s medical sector has been badly damaged over the past 11 years in a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people, wounded over 1 million more and displaced half the country’s pre-war population. Al-Mandhari said 55% of health care facilities are not functioning in Syria and about 30% of hospitals sometimes do not function because of a “lack of electricity, which pushes them to use generators, which is not sustainable.”He added that many Syrian health workers have left the country over the years, leading to a lack of staff to run different services. “The health situation in Syria is really very difficult. It is very challenging,” Al-Mandhari said.
Separately, Al-Mandhari said around 15% of Syria's population has received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, or about 2.5 million people. “It is really low compared with our targets which is supposed to reach 40% by the end of June and 70% by the end of the year." He said 13% of Syria’s residents have received two doses.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-22/2022
Iran Acquires 2.5 Million Acres of Venezuela
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/September 21, 2022
The land grant will ostensibly be used to grow staple crops... allowing water-starved Iran to better feed its population... Iran's current use of Venezuela, however... combined with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), raise the possibility that Iran and its surrogate terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, might be using the vast acreage for military and terrorist operations.
The Maduro regime has apparently been so welcoming to Iranian intelligence agents that some of Hezbollah's long-established Latin American network at the tri-border nexus of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay has been overtaken by Hezbollah activities on Venezuela's Margarita Island [a tourist area northeast of the country's mainland].
Iran, along with the Chinese Communist Party, is in the process of strengthening Venezuela's military against the US, for instance by deliveries of military drones, which are also considered a threat by Columbia.
Iran's alliance with Venezuela most importantly provides Tehran with opportunities to target US interests in Latin America and potentially the southern United States.
China, Russia and Iran were reported to be running military drills in Latin America last month. According to the Center for a Secure Free Society, this is a "strategic move that seeks to preposition forward deployed military assets in Latin America and the Caribbean."
Iran, along with Venezuela, seems to be using its influence with other Latin American governments to develop an anti-US coalition in America's backyard. In addition, Iran sent a destroyer, the Sahand, and a support vessel -- the intelligence-gathering Makran -- to Venezuela in the spring of 2021. The Makran set sail on the mission "with seven high-speed missile-attack craft strapped to its deck."
Iran's massive interference in Venezuela's affairs should raise concerns about the hemisphere's democracies and whether Caracas is still sovereign.
Iran and Venezuela also appear to have established an air bridge between Tehran and Caracas. The flights are manned by Iranian crews and enable both regimes to maintain secrecy in the possible global transport of weapons and terrorist operatives.
Tehran's cooperation with Venezuelan intelligence agencies, although less visible, is also intense. The Islamic Republic's support for Hezbollah terrorist operations is pervasive throughout Latin America.
Occasionally Iranians have been apprehended by US border guards illegally crossing America's long, porous border with Mexico. These illegal aliens could be fulfilling passive missions such as manning Iran's Hezbollah cells in the US, while others could be commissioned to execute intelligence or terrorist-support operations.
Latin America's Iranian Hezbollah network appears poised to strike democratic interests throughout the hemisphere.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro this June during a visit to Iran signed a multidimensional, 20-year cooperation treaty. The pact includes agreements on science and technology as well as deals on agriculture, communications, culture and tourism. The Maduro regime's startling provision of one million hectares (roughly 2.5 million acres; nearly 4,000 square miles) of farmland to Iran was kept under wraps until Iranian agrarian economist Ali Revanizadeh disclosed it to the Venezuelan media.
The land grant will ostensibly be used to grow staple crops, such as corn and soy beans, allowing water-starved Iran to better feed its population. Iran's current use of Venezuela, however (here, here and here ), combined with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), raise the possibility that Iran and its surrogate terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas , might be using the vast acreage for military and terrorist operations.
Hezbollah already runs paramilitary training centers in restricted sections of Venezuela's Margarita Island, a tourist area northeast of the country's mainland. The terrorist group has considerable support from some of Venezuela's prominent Lebanese clans such as the Nasr al Din family, who reportedly facilitated Iran's penetration of Margarita Island. Intensive recruitment efforts by Shiite Islamic clerics among Venezuelans and elsewhere are have been known to include zealous converts to undertake revolutionary missions.
The Maduro regime has apparently been so welcoming to Iranian intelligence agents that some of Hezbollah's long-established Latin American network at the tri-border nexus of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay has been overtaken by Hezbollah activities on Venezuela's Margarita Island.
Iran's alliance with Venezuela most importantly provides Tehran with opportunities to target US interests in Latin America and potentially the southern United States.
Iran, along with the Chinese Communist Party, is in the process of strengthening Venezuela's military against the US, for instance by deliveries of military drones, which are also considered a threat by Columbia.
China, Russia and Iran were reported to be running military drills in Latin America last month. According to the Center for a Secure Free Society, this is a "strategic move that seeks to preposition forward deployed military assets in Latin America and the Caribbean."
Iran and Venezuela began developing close links during the 2002-2013 tenure of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Iran's then President Ahmadinejad signed many bilateral agreements with Chávez, capped by Chávez's visit to Tehran in 2010.
The US and some allies have challenged Venezuela's cooperation with Iran. As early as 2008, Turkey seized 22 containers off an Iranian ship. Among the cargo were explosive materials, destined for Venezuela.
Iran also has exploited its close ties to Venezuela in order to legitimize the anti-US and anti-Israeli themes of Iran's state-owned Spanish language television channel, HispanTV, broadcast throughout Latin America.
Iran, along with Venezuela, seems to be using its influence with other Latin American governments to develop an anti-US coalition in America's backyard.
In addition, Iran sent a destroyer, the Sahand, and a support vessel -- the intelligence-gathering Makran -- to Venezuela in the spring of 2021. The Makran set sail on the mission "with seven high-speed missile-attack craft strapped to its deck," according to a report published by the U.S. Naval Institute. The report continued:
"If the boats are delivered, they may form the core of an asymmetrical warfare force within Venezuela's armed forces. This could be focused on disrupting shipping as a means of countering superior naval forces. Shipping routes to and from the Panama Canal are near the Venezuelan coast."
Iran's massive interference in Venezuela's affairs should raise concerns about the hemisphere's democracies and whether Caracas is still sovereign. The US and Latin American democratic states need to monitor how much Venezuelan sovereignty is being surrendered to authoritarian enemies of freedom.
Tehran initiated its ongoing trade in oil with Venezuela during Chávez's reign. Both the Venezuelan and Iranian economies suffer from American sanctions. Consequently, they have found ways of diluting the effects of the sanctions by bartering in oil and foodstuffs. This pattern of fuel deliveries from Iran to Venezuela is occasionally thwarted. In 2020, for example, US ships halted four tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and seized oil bound for Venezuela.
Now, remarkably, the two countries' cooperation involves the cession of Venezuelan national territory to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran and Venezuela also appear to have established an air bridge between Tehran and Caracas. The flights are manned by Iranian crews and enable both regimes to maintain secrecy in the possible global transport of weapons and terrorist operatives. In May and June of this year, former IRGC/Quds Force aircraft flew several missions carrying only Iranian and Venezuelan nationals. One aircraft was a formerly Iranian-owned Boeing 747 with no cargo aboard.
While air and seaborne arms deliveries are high-profile evidence of Iran's ties with Venezuela, Tehran's cooperation with Venezuelan intelligence agencies, although less visible, is also intense. The Islamic Republic's support for Hezbollah terrorist operations is pervasive throughout Latin America. Hezbollah recruits from Venezuela's ten million strong Lebanese diaspora. Iran and Hezbollah cooperate in training of intelligence agents and in developing sources who reside in Venezuela and Colombia, as well as in the tri-border region of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
Emanuele Ottolenghi, a specialist on Iranian and Hezbollah operations in Latin America, in testimony before the U.S. Congress, outlined Hezbollah's links with major drug cartels to raise funds for Iranian-sponsored operations in the region.
Two other Venezuelan clans from Lebanon who are helping to expand Iranian influence in Latin America are the Rada and Saleh extended families. These networks have hooked up with local gangs and drug cartels, forging these groups into transnational criminal organizations. Their relationships have secured financially rewarding deals for Hezbollah, such as its trafficking in the amphetamine Captagon.
A Rada clan principal, Amer Mohammad Akil Rada, helped plan the terrorist bombings of the community center of Argentina's Jewish social organization (AMIA) and the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1994 and 1992, respectively. The Saleh Clan chiefly operates as a Hezbollah-associated terrorist and narcotics group across the Colombian-Venezuelan border. Hezbollah bases in Venezuela have facilitated intelligence networking in the Mideast as well, including enabling meetings of Venezuelan security officers with intelligence operatives in Syria.
This Iranian Hezbollah terrorist network in the region also has been one source of proselytizing efforts to convert Latin Americans to Iran's version of Shia Islam.
One Shia cleric, Teodoro Darnott, a convert to Islam, identifies himself as the "Imam of Hezbollah in Venezuela." Occasionally Iranians have been apprehended by US border guards illegally crossing America's long, porous border with Mexico. These illegal aliens could be fulfilling passive missions such as manning Iran's Hezbollah cells in the US, while others could be commissioned to execute intelligence or terrorist-support operations.
Venezuela's comprehensive, invasive links with its authoritarian allies are continuing to challenge Maduro's administrative control of his regime and the country's territorial sovereignty.
Maduro's links to Iranian intelligence agencies are additionally being used to execute operations inside the US. Iranian terrorists in mid-July had planned to kidnap anti-Islamic regime activist Masih Alinejad from her Brooklyn home, to then transport her by speedboat to Venezuela. Latin America's Iranian Hezbollah network appears poised to strike democratic interests throughout the hemisphere.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 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.

So Qatar Is Free Of The Muslim Brotherhood? Really?
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 412/September 21, 2022
One of the main drivers for the founding of MEMRI 25 years ago was to present voices and narratives in their original languages, translated into English for a broader audience. That is still a key part of the mission and a valuable function. There is indeed much that is said in the original language, be it Arabic or Farsi or Chinese, that is watered down or edited for outside audiences.
But sometimes the shocking content is not hard to find and is readily available in Western languages. So it was with a September 14 interview done by the important French weekly Le Point with the current Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.[1] Here the striking content was the Qatari Emir's statement that Qatar has no relations whatsoever with the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamist organization which has become anathema to other governments in the region, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He is quoted as saying: "This relation does not exist, and there are no active members of the Muslim Brotherhood or any groups related to it on Qatari land... We are an open country, and a large number of people with different opinions and ideas pass through it, but we are a country, not a party, and we deal with countries and their legitimate governments, not with political organizations."[2]
One thing I learned from decades of government service is that there are many ways for government officials, all of them, including Western ones, to lie that skirt outright falsehood in some technical fashion while covering up an inconvenient reality. Such sophistry can range from the political to the venal, such as Bill Clinton's notorious tergiversations about what constitutes sex and what exactly the word "is" means in a sentence. Politicians and governments lie all the time, for good and bad reasons.
It may well be that Sheikh Tamim is absolutely right that at the precise moment of his remarks there were no card-carrying Muslim Brotherhood members being hosted in Doha, no one who was waiting on a check or a bag of money from Qatar or whose work was being facilitated in some way by the Qatari state. The remarks have, of course, a huge loophole because the two Muslim Brotherhood type or analogue governments in the world, the ones in power in Ankara and Gaza very much do receive billions in Qatari support. So that covers for the AKP and Hamas. It also would also have covered another Qatari favorite, the Islamist Nahda party of Tunisia, which held power until recently in that country.[3]
Tamim's remarks also have a carve out for his mentor Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, longtime Egyptian MB leader but for many years now a Qatari citizen and connected to Islamist organizations created for him and funded by Qatar, such as the very much MB-flavored International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). And while the Al-Jazeera Arabic television network funded by Qatar and based in Doha is chock-full of Islamists, who is to say whether or not they are "active" MB members, perhaps just inactive ones who think exactly like them? To watch Al-Jazeera Arabic is to go through the looking glass where most topics are seen through an Islamist lens (sometimes also a non-Islamist but still anti-imperialist or anti-colonial one when it comes, for example, to countries like Venezuela). And it must be said that Al-Jazeera is often catholic in its tastes, always pro-MB certainly, but also providing space to Salafis and even Salafi-Jihadists. My old acquaintance, Jordanian Yaser Abu Hilaleh, who was managing director of Al-Jazeera Arabic from 2014 to 2018 is certainly an Islamist but Tamim wanted to talk about the future rather than the, very recent, past.[4]
Qatar also only provided a brief shelter for Egyptian MB leaders after the 2013 Egyptian coup that removed them from power and brought General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the presidency. Most of those leaders were farmed out to Turkey where they were able to set up and for some years run opposition television networks broadcasting bitter, incendiary content against Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Turkey's and Qatar's recent keenness to mend fences with Egypt has meant that those channels, some of which were hosted on Qatar's own satellite, either have disappeared or have been scaled back.[5] President Al-Sisi visited Qatar for the first time in eight years only last week so burying Qatar's MB angle was extremely timely.[6]
Interestingly, one place where it seems you did not see the emir's words about the Muslim Brotherhood highlighted was in Al-Jazeera itself. An Arabic language news article on the Le Point interview in Al-Jazeera was headlined "Emir of Qatar: Doha's Foreign Policy Aims at Bringing Views Closer Together." The article included no mention whatsoever of Tamim's Ikhwan remarks.[7] A second Al-Jazeera piece also did not mention that exchange but did detail Qatar's pledge to help schoolchildren and the unemployed in the Arab world.[8]
Emir Tamim certainly wanted to present a positive face for Qatar before a Francophone audience a mere few months before the World Cup.[9] He (or his advisors) likely know that, in contrast with past years, the Muslim Brotherhood has become a toxic subject among Western audiences. The alliance of Islamists with leftists in the West has become, increasingly, a partisan domestic political issue in some Western countries. Antisemitism in the West is often the fruit of this "red-green" leftist/Islamist alliance. And many in the West are by now familiar with the cliched figure of the Islamist "refugee" or migrant finding refuge in the West while using that very same Western freedom to arrogantly curse the West and call for its destruction.
Perhaps poor Tamim deserves a bit of mercy. His dissimulation on Qatar's decades-long support for political Islam, "let's not talk about the past," is not the biggest political whopper out there. For that possibly the biggest recent Olympic or Nobel champion of lying is Turkey's President Erdoğan, a close Qatari ally, going before the United Nations to preach peace while being involved in either open threats or outright war against Greece, Cyprus, Libya, Armenia, Syria, and Iraq (as well as opponents within his own country). Pro-Erdoğan propagandists on Twitter actually pushed the hashtag #ErdoganforWorldPeace playing up his mediation between Russia and Ukraine.[10] Compared to that, Tamim's is only a little white lie about something everyone already knows and that will not be actually believed anyway.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Lepoint.fr/monde/exclusif-le-grand-entretien-avec-l-emir-du-qatar-14-09-2022-2489997_24.php, September 14, 2022.
[2] Egyptindependent.com/emir-of-qatar-denies-links-to-muslim-brotherhood, September 16, 2022
[3] See MEMRI Daily Brief No. 330, Qatar's 'Democracy' Charade, October 25, 2021.
[4] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1527, Al-Jazeera Unmasked: Political Islam As A Media Arm Of The Qatari State, August 12, 2020.
[5] The MEMRI Daily Brief No. 222, The Arabic Propaganda War From Istanbul, July 17, 2020.
[6] Youtube.com/watch?v=SfR9e5PBt2E, September 13, 2022.
[7] Aljazeera.net/news/2022/9/14/%d8%b9%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%84-%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%82%d8%b7%d8%b1-%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%84%d9%88%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d8%b1%d9%86%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%a9, September 14, 2022.
[8] Mubasher.aljazeera.net/news/politics/2022/9/15/%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%82%d8%b7%d8%b1-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%ad%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d9%84%d9%88-%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d8%b1%d9%86%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%a9, September 15, 2022.
[9] Youtube.com/watch?v=dJxvtZs76yA, September 17, 2022.
[10] Twitter.com/search?q=%23ErdoganforWorldPeace&src=typeahead_click, accessed September 21, 2022.

Deep divisions mark the opening of UN General Assembly
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/September 21/ 2022
Not since the Cold War has the world been as divided as it appeared on the opening day of the UN General Assembly’s General Debate on Tuesday. Heads of state and government, foreign ministers and lesser diplomats from around the world are taking turns this week to speak in this annual ritual, which precedes the assembly’s sessions that will continue for months, long after these leaders have departed.
The Ukraine war cast a shadow on the first day of proceedings. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose job is to remain hopeful, appeared to lose almost all hope in his opening speech. He lamented: “Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther.”
The fact that this is the first fully in-person gathering since 2019 has injected some enthusiasm into the delegates, as COVID-19 put a damper on UNGA activities over the past two years, but that energy was not enough to mask the deep divisions in the international community.
Last week, the secretary-general warned that it is a time of “great peril” because “geostrategic divides are the widest they have been since at least the Cold War,” adding that: “The war in Ukraine is devastating a country — and dragging down the global economy.”
This week, again citing Ukraine, Guterres said: “The war has unleashed widespread destruction, with massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The fighting has claimed thousands of lives. Millions have been displaced. Billions across the world are affected. The risks to global peace and security are immense.”
Since the UN’s founding in San Francisco in 1945, this annual event has served as a barometer of how the world is doing. The first few years were marked by unity and hope that wars and conflicts were things of the past. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and similar ambitious documents were adopted during those early years. That harmony did not last long. By 1950, there were divisions surrounding the Korean War, followed by nearly 40 years of division over decolonization, the Vietnam War and the Middle East, among other conflicts. The Cold War divided the UN membership and nearly paralyzed the organization, especially the Security Council.
The emerging victors from the Second World War designed the new organization to prevent another devastating war, but also ensured their permanent control through exclusive veto power in the Security Council, the most important UN organ. Until today, China, France, Russia, the UK and the US retain permanent status and veto power at the council, while 10 other nations are chosen to serve rotating two-year terms without a veto.
Since the UN’s founding in San Francisco in 1945, this annual event has served as a barometer of how the world is doing.
When the five UNSC permanent members agree on an issue of peace and security, the UN machinery is able to work, but when they disagree — or when a veto-wielding superpower is itself involved in an international conflict — paralysis sets in.
Superpower polarization and the fact that Russia is a permanent member of the UNSC with veto power have made the council unable to do much to deal with the Ukraine conflict. Last week, Guterres told the press that he did not think there was any chance of dialogue between Russia and Ukraine in New York, saying that they were a long way from the conditions for a peace agreement.
The UNSC is planning yet another session on Ukraine on Thursday, but it is not expected to make any headway. But while the Security Council has not been able to do much in the Ukraine conflict, the General Assembly adopted a number of resolutions early in the war, including Resolution ES‑11/1, adopted at a rare emergency session on March 2, when 141 of the 193 UN member states deplored Russia’s actions and demanded a full withdrawal of its forces from Ukraine. While UNGA resolutions do not have the power of UNSC decisions, they do carry a lot of political and moral weight when endorsed by such a clear majority of nations.
While there is overwhelming support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and criticism of Russia for launching the war, some diplomats from Africa, Asia and Latin America said that they felt pressured to take sides on the war and that the conflict is diverting international attention away from their countries’ issues. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, appeared to address those concerns when she said last Friday: “We know that as this horrible war rages across Ukraine, we cannot ignore the rest of the world. There are conflicts taking place elsewhere. There are issues that impact us all.”
While Ukraine dominates the headlines, there are several hot issues this year. First is the impasse in the talks over Iran’s nuclear program and serious concerns that Tehran is moving rapidly toward a nuclear weapon. French President Emmanuel Macron’s talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York this week did not appear to move the latter’s position toward compromise.
Raisi is a controversial figure at the UN, where critics cite his long record of abuses, having allegedly played a key role in the executions of thousands of Iranian political prisoners in 1988, as well as in the crackdown on the country’s Green Movement in 2009. This year, he is expected to face more criticism over the death last week of a 22-year-old Iranian woman while in religious police custody for violating Iran’s strict dress code. Guterres said he will raise concerns about human rights and Iran’s nuclear program if, as expected, he meets with Raisi.
In his remarks before the UNGA and in press briefings, Guterres went through a long list of trouble spots, including Palestine, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Most of these issues will be the subject of discussions among the leaders gathering in New York this week, and those discussions are expected to continue throughout the year in the various committee meetings and high-level gatherings that will no doubt be convened regularly over the coming months, especially now that COVID-19 restrictions have been eased and delegates are eager to resume their deliberations.
*Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views. Twitter: @abuhamad1