English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 13/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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15 آذار/2023

Bible Quotations For today
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned
Saint Mark 16/15-20:”‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. ’So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 12-13/2023
Berri calls Parliament bureau to convene tomorrow
Maronite bishops condemn 'attempts to turn Lebanon into regional mailbox'
Qatar says backs inter-Lebanese consensus on new president
Ministerial panel approves hike of public sector wages
Where interests meet: Lebanese leaders find common ground in joint committees and municipal elections
Blame games and absent ministers: Chaos in joint committees session on municipal elections funding
Lebanon municipal services face paralysis amid election doubts
Bou Saab says municipal vote 'impossible' after joint committees session
Bassil condemns 'non-Lebanese' rockets fired from Lebanon
Kheireddine charged, slapped with travel ban in Paris in Salameh probe
Europeans to return to Lebanon in late April to continue Salameh probe
No light at the end of the tunnel: The complexities of implementing Lebanon's emergency electricity plan
Organized theft of high-tension towers causes power outage in Bekaa, Lebanon
In the middle of April, some Lebanese regions are covered in snow
Reform, Recovery, Reconstruction Framework Co-chair Statement by the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the UN Resident Coordinator, and Representatives of...
Mikati chairs meeting for ministerial committee in charge of studying financial crisis impact on public sector, meets Baarini, Murad, LU...
Mikati chairs meeting for ministerial committee tasked with electricity file
The American University of Beirut brings its legacy of excellence to the European Union
Geagea meets French Ambassador
Lebanon judge to lift travel ban on central bank chief: judicial officials
Crisis forces soldiers to desert or take on second jobs
US should oppose Lebanon’s Frangieh, backed by France and Hezbollah: Rayburn/Al Arabiya English/April 12/2023
Waiting for the Package....Saudi-Iranian reconciliation has meant that Tehran and Riyadh are reasserting their interests more strongly in Lebanon/Michael Young/Carnegie/April 12/2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 12-13/2023
Church: Israel limiting rights of 'Holy Fire' worshippers
Israeli curbs on Orthodox Church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter draw ire
Isolated Syria's FM arrives in Saudi Arabia in landmark visit
Regional ministers to discuss Syria's return to Arab fold in Saudi Arabia
Syria and Tunisia restore diplomatic ties after a decade
Saudi Arabia, Syria discuss political solution to Syrian Crisis during FM's visit
US says its forces captured Daesh operative in raid in Syria
Iran's embassy in Riyadh opens gates for first time in years
Iran delegation arrives in Saudi amid thaw between regional powers
Biden aide, Bin Salman see 'progress' toward Yemen war end
Iran exploits quake relief mission to fly weapons to Syria -sources
US Lawmakers Urge EU to Declare IRGC a Terrorist Organization
Tehran Seeks to Reopen Embassy in Riyadh before Hajj Season
Israel Releases Names of Iran Officials Working against Tel Aviv in Syria
Taiwan claims China is getting ready to 'launch a war' as Beijing issues 'serious warning' to Taipei
China to impose no-fly zone near Taiwan
The US could lose up to 900 warplanes fighting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan but would emerge victorious, says think tank
Trudeau shrugs off pro-Russian hack on Canada as Ukraine PM visits
US, UK aim sanctions at Russian oligarchs' finance networks
Kyiv compares Russia to Islamic State after beheading video
Russians accused of beheading Ukrainian soldiers in fresh war crimes
Kremlin says outlook for Black Sea grain deal is 'not so great'
Armenian and Azeri soldiers clash near contested region, seven killed

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 12-13/2023
Central Bank Digital Currencies: Funny Money That Will Destroy What Is Left of Private Property, Free Markets, and Personal Liberty/J.B. Shurk/Gatestone Institute/April 12, 2023
Learning from History: Why Some Nations Reject Muslims/Raymond Ibrahim/April 12, 2023
The Saudis Visit Sanaa/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
A Stand with Naivety/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
Vietnam, Palestine, Lebanon and the Past Ahead of Us/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
Chinese Officials Flock to Twitter to Defend TikTok/Sapna Maheshwari and Steven Lee Myers/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
Hazards Of Nationalism/Matthew Schmitz/First things/May 2023
15-minute cities may increase societal segregation/Mohamed Chebaro//Arab News/April 12, 2023
Lessons from Northern Ireland’s peace/Tony Blair/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Time to revive the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002/Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Arab American Heritage Month is only the start/Ray Hanania Aluwaisheg/Arab News/April 12, 2023
What is behind the change in Iran’s regional tactics?/Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Regional Reactions to Israel’s Protests/Frances McDonough/The Washington Institute/Apr 12, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 12-13/2023
Berri calls Parliament bureau to convene tomorrow
NNA/April 12/2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, called for a meeting of the Parliament bureau body on Thursday, April 13, at 2.30 p.m., at the Second Presidency in Ain El-Tineh.

Maronite bishops condemn 'attempts to turn Lebanon into regional mailbox'
Naharnet/April 12/2023
The Council of Maronite Bishops on Wednesday condemned the latest use of Lebanese soil to fire rockets at Israel. In a statement issued after their monthly meeting, the bishops strongly condemned “the renewed attempts at turning Lebanon into a mailbox for exchanging messages in the regional conflicts.”
“We call on the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL forces to be strict in the implementation of Resolution 1701, including boosting the monitoring and surveillance apparatuses,” the bishops added. More than 34 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at northern Israel on Thursday of which 25 were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system and only five hit Israeli-controlled territory. Israel accused Palestinian group Hamas of firing the unusual salvo of rockets and retaliated through a limited airstrike on a southern Lebanese area and major airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Qatar says backs inter-Lebanese consensus on new president
Naharnet/April 12/2023
The latest visit to Lebanon by Qatari State Minister at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed al-Khulaifi was aimed at “exploring and supporting the efforts to reach an agreement in Lebanon,” a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said.
Doha is seeking to “reconcile the viewpoints of the political parties and support reaching an agreement that pulls Lebanon out of its current crisis in cooperation with the region’s nations,” the spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, added. “The State of Qatar backs inter-Lebanese consensus for choosing a presidential candidate and it stands at the same distance from all sides,” Ansari said. He also reiterated Doha’s condemnation of Israel’s latest attacks in south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, holding “Israel alone” responsible for the surge in violence in the region.
An Arab diplomat meanwhile told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “the Lebanese file will be put on the front burner after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.” “This intensification will be based on the (recent) Qatari visit” to Lebanon and “the solution will be born from an Arab gateway,” the diplomat added.

Ministerial panel approves hike of public sector wages
Naharnet/April 12/2023
A ministerial committee tasked with addressing the repercussions of the financial crisis on Wednesday approved a proposed hike of public sector salaries. “Cabinet will convene next week to study it and approve it,” the National News Agency added. The meeting was chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and attended by the caretaker ministers of education, finance, justice, interior, industry, social affairs, health, labor, public works and culture. The meeting was also attended by the directors general of the Presidency, the Council of Ministers and the Finance Ministry, the head of the Civil Service Council, the head of the Central Inspection Bureau, and Mikati’s adviser Nicolas Nahhas.

Where interests meet: Lebanese leaders find common ground in joint committees and municipal elections
LBCI/April 12/2023
When the interests of Lebanese leaders intersect, they implicitly agree on one common goal. This is how we can summarize what happened in the joint committees on Wednesday and the preceding positions that were launched from here and there regarding the municipal elections.
The intersections became evident when Speaker Nabih Berri called for a meeting of the Council's Bureau on Thursday, coinciding with Deputy Speaker of Parliament Elias Bou Saab indirectly "mourning" the upcoming electoral entitlement and the direct absence of Caretaker Interior and Justice Ministers, who are directly responsible for organizing the electoral process, from the meeting of the committees dedicated to discussing these elections. The meeting of the Council's Bureau on Thursday at Ain el-Tineh includes a number of projects and proposals for laws that some MPs said do not exceed the fingers of one hand, all of which fall under the framework of necessity. Most of them are related to proposals for extending the mandates of municipal councils, including a proposed law submitted by MP Sajih Atttieh. But the most important question is whether the conditions for convening a legislative session of necessity will be met, and whether the quorum will be ensured, i.e., a quorum of majority plus one? It is certain that the two blocs, the Amal-Hezbollah blocs, which together comprise thirty MPs, will be at the forefront of the participants, alongside their seven independent allies and the Independent National Bloc, which includes four members: Tony Frangieh, Farid Haykal el Khazen, William Tawk, and Michel El Murr. Since MP Sajih Attieh is the one who submitted one of the proposals for extending the mandates of municipal councils, his bloc, which comprises six MPs, will be present during the session.

Blame games and absent ministers: Chaos in joint committees session on municipal elections funding
LBCI/April 12/2023
Before the start of the joint committees' session dedicated to discussing eight items, including the allocation of 1500 billion for funding municipal elections, the written agenda was readable from its title. Several ministers responsible for some items, such as justice, finance, and interior, were absent. Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi, who was supposed to provide explanations about the readiness of his ministry, was absent without apologizing for his absence. The session ended with the blame game for the failure to fund the elections and the presentation of multiple proposed laws to extend the mandates of municipal councils, including a proposal by MP Sajeeh Attieh to extend for one year. The government's responsibility became a subject of debate between the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Elias Bou Saab, and MP Waddah al-Sadek. Al-Sadek stated that the main blocs are represented in the government, which bears the responsibility. At that point, MP Bou Saab requested to remove this statement from the minutes, considering it an insult to the MPs, saying: "Your words are unusual and cause unnecessary problems. If you want to attack the MPs, it's their right to defend themselves. Everyone has said that they are supportive of the elections." With each of them sticking to their opinion and the implicit division among the MPs in support of al-Sadek or Bou Saab, the session was adjourned in the hope that the government would fulfill its responsibilities before the expiration of the proposed extension deadline.

Lebanon municipal services face paralysis amid election doubts
Najia Houssar/Arab News/April 12, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s municipal elections set for May could be postponed for a second time following a series of parliamentary delays, leaving local administrations and services paralyzed. The elections were initially postponed for 12 months because they coincided with the 2022 parliamentary elections.
But with deputies refusing to hold a parliamentary session to settle the matter, municipal polls now face a second postponement. Rival Cabinet and parliamentary blocs blamed each other for the possible delay of the elections.Meanwhile, the joint parliamentary committee failed to approve a draft law to secure an advance for the Ministry of Interior to fund the May elections. International observers have repeatedly warned Lebanon’s political class of the need to meet constitutional deadlines. Political leaders have also been urged to meet their responsibilities in holding presidential elections, as well as the municipal and mayoral elections, which are the responsibility of local authorities. The extended term of Lebanon’s municipal councils ends in May. The term of the municipal and mayoral councils lasts six years, while the deputies’ term lasts four.
Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi announced earlier this month that the elections will be held in stages from May 7-28, pledging to conduct them pending the completion of funding.
Joanna Wronecka, UN special coordinator for Lebanon, welcomed Mawlawi’s announcement, saying that the elections “offer an opportunity for citizens to make their voices heard and to enhance their involvement in local governance, and development and foster local ownership.”
She added: “The Lebanese people deserve effective, responsive and accountable state institutions at all levels. Municipalities are also a key partner for the UN in delivering assistance.”The Lebanese government estimated that it required about $8.9 million to conduct the municipal elections.
The electoral process needs about 12,000 workers and 800 judges to organize. However, those targets are affected by a strike by the majority of Lebanon’s public workers and teachers over salary deflation.
Since the outset of the economic crisis in 2019, municipalities have suffered financially. Some have complained about their inability to carry out their developmental role. There are 1,059 municipalities in Lebanon, including 12,741 members, according to UNDP figures.
Since the last municipal elections conducted in 2016 amid a presidential vacuum, there have been 108 defunct municipalities run by the district administrator or governor. There are 3,018 mayors responsible for issuing vital documents for citizens, such as birth and death certificates, as well as handling visa paperwork, extracts of records, residence certificates and more. Municipal elections have often been affected by political and security issues in Lebanon. During the country’s civil war, 21 laws were issued to provide term extensions for municipalities and mayors.
Firas Hamdan, Change party representative, said that he regrets the state of the country in terms of “failure, impotence, recklessness and squabbling of responsibilities.”
He added: “There is an integrated political system and a political decision not to hold elections.”Concerned government officials failed to attend a meeting of the joint parliamentary committees to discuss the elections and related expenses.
“The issue of holding elections has become almost impossible,” said Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Elias Bou Saab after the meeting of the parliamentary committees. “I will, in my personal capacity, propose a law to extend the term of the municipal and elective councils for four months.”Saab blamed “the government and the interior minister” for the possible failure to hold the elections in May. MP Ali Hassan Khalil of the Amal Movement bloc in Parliament said that “there is a logistical difficulty in holding the elections.”MP George Adwan from the Lebanese Forces party said: “Despite our demand for months that the government do everything necessary to hold the municipal elections, it turned out that all the promises were false and the government has not taken any serious step to hold the elections. “We hold the prime minister, the Cabinet and any party that contributed with or within this government, responsible for not holding these elections and all that results from the non-alternation of power.”Adwan announced that he would “not participate in any legislative session convened by Parliament to approve the extension of municipal and elective councils before electing a president of the republic.”
MP Faisal Al-Sayegh said: “Everyone wants to hold municipal elections, but are we able to hold them? The issue is not only related to financing but also to logistical issues.”

Bou Saab says municipal vote 'impossible' after joint committees session
Naharnet/April 12/2023
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced Wednesday, after a joint committees session, that "it has become impossible to stage the municipal elections," as he blamed the government for failing to secure the needed funds. Joint parliamentary committees convened Wednesday to discuss funding the municipal elections, while caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil failed to attend the session. Bou Saab told reporters before the session that Mawlawi's absence "is not a good sign." "He should have been here today to give us answers about the polls' funding," he said. "We got the answer from his absence." Mawlawi had urged the government to secure the necessary funds and complete the administrative preparations for the elections that are supposed to start on May 7. "Mawalwi's representative said that the ministry couldn't get the needed funds," Bou Saab said, adding that he will submit a draft law for extending the municipalities' term by 4 months. Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said that the bloc's MPs will not attend a session that would extend the municipalities' term. "We refuse to attend any legislative sessions amid a presidential void," he added. Progressive Socialist Party MP Wael Abu Faour said before the session that there is no "political decision" to hold the municipal elections. "The PSP MPs want the municipal elections and this will be our stance in the joint committees session," he said. "The vote can happen despite the difficulties, all we need is a political decision." The Lebanese Forces party has accused the Free Patriotic Movement and the Hezbollah-led camp of obstructing the municipal polls.The MPs want the elections, Bou Saab said, blaming the government for not securing the funds.

Bassil condemns 'non-Lebanese' rockets fired from Lebanon
Naharnet/April 12/2023
Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil has condemned a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon that triggered Israeli strikes. "We don't need anyone to use our land to send messages," Bassil said, adding that "we should have learned from our past." A day after Israeli police on Wednesday stormed the prayer hall of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque -- Islam's third-holiest site -- more than 30 rockets were fired from Lebanese soil into Israel. The Israeli army said the attack was most likely carried out by the Palestinian armed movement Hamas. Israel then bombarded the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, targeting "terror infrastructures" it said belonged to Hamas. "We only accept Lebanese weapons on our land, and we want our country to be ours," Bassil said, adding that "the Cairo Agreement is dead and that Fatah Land no longer exists.""Why should we accept that non-Lebanese fire rockets from our land," he asked. After Israel's retaliation with airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday, many politicians denounced Hamas. Samir Geagea, whose Lebanese Forces often battled Palestinian fighters in the civil war, demanded the government ensure peace at the border. He also urged against leaving "strategic decision-making to the Iran-led alliance," a reference to Hezbollah and Hamas.

Kheireddine charged, slapped with travel ban in Paris in Salameh probe
Naharnet/April 12/2023
Al Mawarid Bank chairman and ex-Lebanese minister Marwan Kheireddine has been charged in France and slapped with a travel ban without being detained. Kheireddine “is being mainly questioned over his role in covering up for the money laundering crimes of the Salameh brothers and Marianne Hoayek, especially that Raja Salameh had three bank accounts at Al-Mawarid Bank that grew from $15 million in 1993 to $150 million in 2019,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported. “It seems that Kheireddine, who is stranded in Paris, has no other choice but to cooperate with the (French) judiciary,” the daily said. Informed French sources meanwhile told al-Akhbar that the judicial measures against Kheireddine would be eased if he provided the judge with “names and details” about the suspects. “Should the file reach the court for a trial over the charges against him, the cost will be 10 years in jail in addition to the freezing of his private assets and properties,” the newspaper added. Unnamed sources meanwhile told al-Akhbar that the charges against Kheirddine require a meeting of the bank’s board of directors aimed at sacking him. “Panic has gripped other Lebanese bankers,” the daily said, adding that Kheireddine is accused of “providing the Salameh brothers with fake documents for the supposed bank accounts of Raja Salameh at Al Mawarid Bank.”

Europeans to return to Lebanon in late April to continue Salameh probe
Naharnet/April 12/2023
A European judicial delegation will return to Lebanon in late April, specifically after April 22, to continue its investigations in the embezzlement and money laundering case against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, an NGO said. The NGO – the European Observatory for the Integrity of Lebanon – also called on the Lebanese judiciary to act and follow up on the work of the European judiciary, hoping the Lebanese arena “will witness measures such as those that are being taken by the Europeans.”Salameh had stressed his innocence on March 17, following a second and final day of questioning in Beirut before the European. Salameh, 72, faces allegations of financial crimes including embezzlement in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad, with investigators examining the fortune he has amassed during three decades in the job. Following a three-hour session on March 17, Salameh released a statement saying he appeared as a witness and "not as a suspect or facing charges." "Funds from the Lebanese central bank were not transferred to my account," he said in a statement, adding: "The transfers I made abroad, whatever the amount, were from my personal account." The European investigators, including representatives of authorities in France, Germany and Luxembourg, are looking into allegations of financial misconduct, including possible money laundering and embezzlement. Salameh "answered all the questions" and "pledged to provide all the documents tracing the sources of his wealth" as well as the addresses of people mentioned in the questioning sessions, a judicial official told AFP. When they return, the European investigators also plan to question Salameh's brother Raja and former assistant Marianne Hoayek. Salameh has decried "ill intentions" against him and blamed an "ongoing media campaign" for his legal woes. France, Germany and Luxembourg seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in March 2022 in a move linked to a French probe into Salameh's personal wealth. In February, Lebanese authorities charged Salameh with embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion as part of their own investigation. The domestic probe was opened following a request for assistance from Switzerland's public prosecutor looking into more than $300 million in fund movements by the Salameh brothers.

No light at the end of the tunnel: The complexities of implementing Lebanon's emergency electricity plan
LBCI/April 12/2023
The emergency plan for electricity is facing difficulties in securing and funding fuel for power plants, converting collection money from Lebanese Lira to US Dollars, the exchange rate to calculate tariffs, and the slow removal of violations and increasing thefts that affect the networks. All of these issues were presented by Caretaker Minister of Energy, Walid Fayyad, and the Chairman of Electricité du Liban, Kamal Hayek, in front of the specialized ministerial committee chaired by Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, in an attempt to find solutions to continue with this plan at the minimum level. In this regard, it was decided to communicate with the international organizations concerned with the Palestinian refugee camps and Syrian refugees in order to pay the bills after meters were installed by Electricité du Liban. The Minister of Energy was requested to communicate with the Minister of Finance to secure financial credits for official institutions to pay their dues to Electricité du Liban. Additionally, a meeting with the governor of the Central Bank was scheduled to determine the exchange rate of the US dollar, based on which the amounts deposited by Electricité du Liban in the Central Bank will be converted from Lebanese Lira. The committee agreed to open credits to purchase 66,000 tons of Gas Oil and to conduct a new tender to purchase 66,000 tons of Gas Oil and 21,000 tons of Fuel Oil. However, there is still no indication of achieving financial balance as the billing is still being calculated at a rate of LBP 52,320, while Sayrafa rate is LBP 87,000 and the market rate is LBP 97,000. Calculating the increase in the tariff based on a collection rate of 60% in order to compensate for losses may not be beneficial if the electricity dollar does not match the Sayrafa rate or market dollar.

Organized theft of high-tension towers causes power outage in Bekaa, Lebanon
LBCI/April 12/2023
A loss of around $1.5 million has been estimated due to the theft of five high-tension towers, each 57 meters long, in the barrens of Makneh, Bekaa. The towers collapsed due to three organized robberies on March 28, April 3, and April 10. According to sources, the pattern of the theft did not change. A group of young men arrives in their SUVs at the exact remote location, which is about ten minutes away from residential areas. Then, they break the base of the columns using hammers and steal the iron corners of the towers' mesh. With specialized tools, they remove the ground iron using saws due to the thickness of the cables, as the diameter is equal to 570 millimeters. Once the thieves loosen the tower's ground, they leave only to return the next day to access the iron wires they could not steal because of the towers' height. However, the theft of each tower amounts to around 30 tons of iron, totaling 150 tons stolen in Makneh. As a result of these crimes, work on the 220-kilovolt power line that supplies Deir Nbouh in Baalbek has stopped. This line feeds the central Baalbek station and, consequently, Laboueh and Hermel. Thus, Electricité du Liban (EDL) has diverted the power to line 66, which currently supplies all areas of Baalbek Hermel province. The bigger problem is that line 66 has also been subject to theft and is currently working partially. If it goes out of service, all Baalbek Hermel towns will be deprived of electricity. What is peculiar about this story is that the thief is the victim himself. In collaboration with the Information Branch, the Lebanese army raids arrested two people from the Al-Mokdad family, who are from Maqneh. Iron and cables stolen from the high-tension towers were found in their homes. Fifteen houses and five farms in the area were raided, leading to the pursuit of more than 15 suspects.

In the middle of April, some Lebanese regions are covered in snow
LBCI/April 12/2023
Lebanon is known for having four seasons, with the spring season showcasing in the country with blossoming nature and blooming flora and fauna represented by the season's vibrant colors. However, the Lebanese woke up on Wednesday with wintery weather and snow covering some mountainous regions in the country. Villages like Bcharre, Laklouk, and Fakra were again covered in a beautiful white coat in the middle of April. Instantly, many social media users rushed to showcase this gorgeous scene in springtime.

Reform, Recovery, Reconstruction Framework Co-chair Statement by the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the UN Resident Coordinator, and Representatives of...
NNA/April 12/2023
The Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF) was set up after the devastating explosion in the Port of Beirut, as a uniquely inclusive platform to coordinate people-centred recovery in the affected areas, as well as provide a comprehensive plan to support national reforms and investments in reconstruction. Eighteen months after the launch of the 3RF, a wide range of stakeholders were consulted on the strategic way forward. Stakeholders agreed that reform is critical to help Lebanon return to a path of sustainable development, starting with the IMF staff-level agreement. To this end, the 3RF will be continued as a unique platform for inclusive policy dialogue and to make progress on implementing reforms to unlock international support for and investments in reconstruction. Furthermore, the 3RF will not extend its focus on recovery, since other coordination structures in Lebanon are better equipped to address recovery and humanitarian needs.The Lebanon Financing Facility (LFF) will continue to channel funding to support the implementation of 3RF priorities and will provide financial and technical support for implementing the priorities defined by the sector working groups led by government representatives. The LFF 2023 annual workplan will reflect the shift in focus to reforms and their link to mobilization of funds for reconstruction. These decisions will not affect recovery projects currently under implementation. Access to information about the 3RF will be improved through the launching of a dedicated website, which will include a reform tracker, an overview of sector priorities, as well as key results and outcomes of discussions. This will also support the Independent Oversight Board to deliver on its important mandate. The 3RF Consultative Group will provide strategic guidance and mobilize political support at the highest level. Inclusive technical discussions will continue taking place in empowered sector Working Groups where Lebanese state institutions will lead by presenting their proposals and challenges. This will help international organizations and donors prioritize their interventions. Local civil society, including private sector actors, will provide their expertise, monitor progress, promote priority issues, and highlight any challenges. Encouraging collaboration between civil society and state institutions is a priority to build and foster trust between local stakeholders. Convening the full range of stakeholders will bring together the resources needed to make progress possible for the people of Lebanon.

Mikati chairs meeting for ministerial committee in charge of studying financial crisis impact on public sector, meets Baarini, Murad, LU...
NNA/April 12/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is currently chairing a meeting for the ministerial committee tasked with addressing the repercussions of the financial crisis on the public sector and services. The ministerial committee tasked with addressing the consequences of the financial crisis on the public sector endorsed a proposed raise of the civil servants' salaries. The Council of Ministers shall convene next week to study and approve the raise. Mikati had earlier met today with MP Walid Baarini over the municipal and mayoral elections' file."The Prime Minister informed us that he is ready to hold the polls," said the lawmaker following the meeting.The PM also received former deputy Abdel Rahim Murad. Mikati later met with President of the Lebanese University, Professor Bassam Badran.

Mikati chairs meeting for ministerial committee tasked with electricity file
NNA/April 12/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Wednesday chaired a meeting at the Grand Serail for the ministerial committee in charge of the electricity file, attended by Caretaker Minister of Energy and Water, Dr. Walid Fayyad, Caretaker Minister of Finance, Dr. Youssef Khalil, Caretaker Minister of Industry, George Boujikian, Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, Caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Hajj Hassan, Caretaker Justice Minister, Judge Henri Khoury, Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, and the Chairman and Director General of Electricite Du Liban (EDL), Kamal Hayek. The meeting continued discussions over the electricity dossier, especially with regard to the improvement in the process of collecting bills, as well as the required procedures against public departments that are not committed to the payment process, and ways to secure the funds necessary in this regard.

The American University of Beirut brings its legacy of excellence to the European Union
NNA/April 12/2023
Within the framework of the global AUB VITAL 2030 vision, the American University of Beirut is creating a twin campus in Pafos, Cyprus, named the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo. This marks the first time in its history the American University of Beirut establishes a campus outside of Lebanon, after having educated the best and brightest students and cared for the health of its community and beyond for over 155 years. This key milestone comes as a reaffirmation of the university’s global vision and a translation of its pioneering role in the region. The official agreement to establish the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo campus in Cyprus, a member of the European Union, was signed between the American University of Beirut and the Municipality of Pafos on April 8, 2022. The new campus in Pafos will blend the rich cultures of Lebanon and Cyprus, uniting the American University of Beirut’s two campuses in a powerful and sustainable way. The project will also allow for an extensive interaction with the Beirut campus in the form of student exchanges, faculty exchanges, collaborative research projects, in addition to expanded online and hybrid learning opportunities.
Anticipated to welcome the first class of students in fall 2023, The American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo campus will offer students a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs. Bachelor’s degree programs will include politics, philosophy, and economics; psychology; computer science; industrial engineering; and business administration - management. While master’s degree programs will include engineering management and business analytics. American University of Beirut President Dr. Fadlo Khuri said, “In order to serve a broader audience, we are becoming a more global, diverse, and inclusive American University of Beirut, while remaining firmly anchored in our eternal home Beirut.” He added, “The establishment of this new campus in Cyprus will enrich the interchange of ideas, knowledge, and purpose that is already taking place at our campus in Beirut, and spread the unique culture of our magnificent university, enhancing both AUB’s diversity and its excellence simultaneously.” The vision of the interlinked twin campuses will forge the idea of networked locations, eliminating silos by fostering more interaction, mobility, connection, and integration.

Geagea meets French Ambassador
NNA/April 12/2023
Lebanese Forces leader, Samir Geagea, held talks with French Ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, who visited her host at his Maarab residence on Wednesday. The pair reportedly discussed the latest political and economic developments in the country.

Lebanon judge to lift travel ban on central bank chief: judicial officials
AFP/April 12, 2023
BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge will lift a travel ban imposed on the country’s embattled central bank chief, who has been summoned for a hearing in Paris next month, two judicial officials said Wednesday. Riad Salameh is part of a political class widely blamed for Lebanon’s unprecedented economic crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with wars. He is the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and illicit enrichment, among other allegations — including in France where he has been summoned for a hearing on May 16. “Judge Ghada Aoun will lift the travel ban on Riad Salameh tomorrow,” the first judicial official told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Aoun slapped Salameh with the ban in January last year after an activist group filed a lawsuit against the central bank chief, alleging financial misconduct. A second judicial official, also requesting anonymity, confirmed the restrictions would be lifted on Thursday. “He will have no excuse not to go to France” for the hearing, the second official added. France, Germany and Luxembourg in March last year seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a probe by French investigators into 72-year-old Salameh’s personal wealth. Salameh, who denies wrongdoing, is also being investigated by Lebanese authorities on suspicion of financial misconduct including possible embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion. Lebanon opened its own probe into Salameh’s wealth in 2021, after the office of Switzerland’s top prosecutor requested assistance with an investigation into more than $300 million allegedly embezzled out of the central bank with the help of his brother Raja. Both Salameh brothers have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. A source close to the French investigation said Raja, Salameh’s former assistant Marianne Hoayek and his son Nady Salameh were mentioned as potential accomplices but have not been charged with a crime. A French judge is also investigating Marwan Kheireddine, head of Al-Mawarid Bank, which is suspected of having bypassed proper checks on Salameh’s accounts, the source said. Kheireddine is being probed for potential financial crimes including criminal association with the aim of embezzling public funds, aggravated breach of trust and corrupting a civil servant, according to the source.

Crisis forces soldiers to desert or take on second jobs
France 24/April 12, 2023
Lebanon's economic meltdown has plunged most of the population into poverty. It's now also threatening the country's security. As the currency has plummeted to new lows in recent months, salaries too have fallen, as prices rise. To make ends meet, soldiers are being forced to take on second jobs, or even desert their ranks. Our Beirut correspondents went to meet two of them. In Israel, visits to Eviatar have been officially banned by the military since it was evacuated by the previous government in 2021. But this week, several cabinet ministers led thousands on a march to the settlement outpost, signalling that Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government is intent on speeding up settlement building on occupied lands, despite international opposition. The march came amid soaring tensions following last week's police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, and after Israeli air strikes targeted areas in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria, from where rockets had been launched by Palestinian militants. In the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, tens of thousands of priceless artefacts were stolen from the Baghdad Museum – just one of many sites looted at the time. Two decades on, many of them have never been recovered and millions of euros worth of antiquities are still being smuggled out of Iraq, as our Baghdad correspondent Marie-Charlotte Roupie has been finding out.

US should oppose Lebanon’s Frangieh, backed by France and Hezbollah: Rayburn
Al Arabiya English/April 12/2023
Sources familiar with the ongoing discussions have told Al Arabiya English that France stubbornly supports Frangieh and has been pushing for his election.
Concerns are growing over who will become the next president of Lebanon, especially after the Hezbollah-backed candidate was seen in the streets of Paris in recent weeks.
Lebanon has been without a president since October, when former President Michel Aoun’s term ended, and lawmakers have been unable to elect a successor. Some argue that having no president is better than having one backed and supported by the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies.
Others see an opportunity to change the political scene in the crisis-struck country drastically. At the same time, a different set of observers believe a neutral candidate is needed for a transitional period. In Washington, despite little attention being placed on Lebanon amid great power competition with China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is bipartisan opposition to another presidential candidate aligned with Iran-backed camps.
The US position has been ambiguous as multiple officials have sent mixed signals about not having an issue with a Sleiman Frangieh presidency.
Saudi Arabia, which has significant influence in Lebanon, has been unwilling to support Frangieh in his bid.
It’s worth noting that comments by Frangieh’s minister, George Kordahi, on Yemen sparked a rift with the Gulf.
And while Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, look to unfreeze ties with Syria, the attitude on Capitol Hill has not changed. Reports of a regional or international-backed deal in Lebanon that would see a president, prime minister, central bank governor and army chief agreed in harmony with the rehabilitation of the Assad regime would face stiff opposition from the US Congress. Syria-related sanctions are in the process of being reinforced by Congress.
Joel Rayburn, the former deputy assistant secretary for Levant Affairs and special envoy for Syria, fears that the Biden administration’s softened approach toward Iran and its allies would allow for a Michel Aoun-like president again.
Rayburn said it would be a “complete shame” for the US to have to try to work with another Hezbollah-backed candidate for six years. Aoun’s son-in-law and former foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, was hit by US sanctions because of his close ties to Hezbollah.
Rayburn said the sanctions were meant to send a direct message that anyone who provided political or material support to Hezbollah would have a price to pay and would be unable to do business in US dollars.
Aoun was elected after former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, both seen as pro-West, threw their support behind him.
Today, one of the front-runners to succeed Aoun is Frangieh. Other names being circulated include former Lebanese politicians with a history of cooperating and answering requests for camps backed by Syria and Iran.
Frangieh was pictured in France earlier this month, where he reportedly met with Emmanuel Macron’s top advisor for the Middle East and North Africa. Pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar reported that Frangieh informed people close to him that France supported his candidacy.
Sources familiar with the ongoing discussions have told Al Arabiya English that France stubbornly supports Frangieh and has been pushing for his election despite Riyadh’s clear opposition, which was relayed to French officials in several meetings. It has also been reported that Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire with close ties to the French, has played a key mediating role between the French and Frangieh.
Chaghoury was forced to pay $1.8 million in the US after being accused of conspiring to violate federal election laws in the US through illegal campaign contributions to US presidential and congressional candidates. According to the US Justice Department, he admitted to making illegal conduit contributions.
Frangieh was indirectly targeted under the Trump administration when they issued sanctions against one of his top aides, Yousef Fenianos.
This was meant to signal to Frangieh that he would be next on the list if he did not break his alliance with Hezbollah.
Rayburn, one of the main architects of the pressure campaign against Syria and Iran, said the targets included Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, Frangieh’s Marada Movement, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement, and even Hariri’s allies. The latter had a “tacit relationship” with Hezbollah, according to Rayburn.
Other high-profile targets that were hit with US sanctions included Ali Hasan Khalil (Berri’s top aide and former finance minister from 2014-2020), Jihad al-Arab (close to Hariri) and Dany Khoury (close to Bassil).
Hariri stepped down weeks after the 2019 nationwide anti-government protests called for his government’s resignation. He has since bowed out of the political scene in Lebanon and currently resides in Abu Dhabi.
The previous US administration’s time ran out after Donald Trump lost his re-election campaign to Joe Biden. The pressure campaign was initially dialed back as the new administration tried to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Speaking about the sanctions campaign, Rayburn said the point was to try to impose a cost on political leaders and parties for their political alliances and cooperation with Hezbollah, “not just their material support or financial relations.”
He added: “We wanted to try to break the political coalition that Hezbollah was benefiting from inside Lebanon.”
Rayburn said sanctions need to be ramped back up in the short term. The US sanctioned the Rahme brothers earlier this month, which was initially suggested under the Trump administration.
“There is no other political strategy now, and the sanctions on the Rahme brothers is recognition of that,” Rayburn suggested. Moving forward, Rayburn said the sanctions campaign on both Lebanon and Syria should be reinforced. He recommended that Washington push for truth and accountability in the devastating 2020 Beirut Port because the culprits would almost certainly be aligned with Hezbollah.
Fenianos was the transportation and public works minister until 2020. He has an arrest warrant tied to the explosion, and Frangieh has defended his decision not to show up for questioning.
Frangieh, a close friend of Bashar al-Assad, has repeatedly praised Hezbollah for its stance against Israel. He has been pictured alongside Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah operative who played a key role in the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Mughniyeh, before he was assassinated in 2008 while in Syria, had been helping train and arm Shia militias in Iraq as they attacked US troops.
“It would be a shame to have a second [Lebanese] president with no ties with the US,” Rayburn said of Frangieh.

Waiting for the Package....Saudi-Iranian reconciliation has meant that Tehran and Riyadh are reasserting their interests more strongly in Lebanon.
Michael Young/Carnegie/April 12/2023
https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/89514
Saudi-Iranian reconciliation has meant that Tehran and Riyadh are reasserting their interests more strongly in Lebanon.
Amid reports that the Yemen conflict may soon be resolved in the aftermath of the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, what are the prospects for a breakthrough on the presential election in Lebanon? Optimists would say that they are good, and they may be right. However, what we’ve seen in recent weeks is something more complicated, namely an effort by the Saudis and by Hezbollah and their Iranian patrons to define their margin of maneuver in Lebanon and clarify how they interpret implementation of the reconciliation on the Lebanese scene.
When Hezbollah endorsed Suleiman Franjieh as president in March, the Saudi reaction was immediate. The kingdom’s ambassador in Lebanon visited the Maronite patriarch, Bishara al-Rai, and reportedly expressed his opposition to Franjieh. This was not surprising, as the Saudi position is that since the speaker of parliament is in Hezbollah’s camp and a future prime minister would be closer to Riyadh, the next president must be somewhere in the middle.
That thinking is precisely why the Saudis were so irritated initially by French efforts to peddle Franjieh’s candidacy to them. The French argued that a Franjieh presidency could be counterbalanced by a pro-Saudi prime minister such as Nawaf Salam, until Riyadh reminded them that they had forgotten Berri in their calculations. Franjieh’s recent visit to Paris added to the confusion. He was invited by the French after a conversation between President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which Macron thought he saw an opening for Franjieh to present guarantees that would assuage the Saudis.
Saudi coolness toward Franjieh suggests that, for all the talk of the kingdom’s indifference to Lebanon, the country remains on its list of concerns. In fact, the kingdom apparently sees its reconciliation with Iran as paving the way for a greater Saudi role on the Lebanese scene, one in which it is entitled to both expand and defend its political preferences. And indeed, the speed with which the Lebanese authorities (certainly with Hezbollah’s approval) recently closed down two Houthi television stations broadcasting from Beirut suggests the Iranians and Hezbollah are willing to bend to certain Saudi demands in the country. This is all the more evident in that Hezbollah accepts the idea of negotiating with the Saudis over a president. The proposal for a quid pro quo in which the pro-Hezbollah Franjieh would be elected alongside a pro-Saudi Salam was first mentioned in the Al-Akhbar newspaper by its editor Ibrahim Amin, who frequently launches the party’s trial balloons. For Hezbollah, Lebanon’s dire financial situation means that a reconciliation with the Gulf states is desirable, as potential Arab aid would allow Lebanon to rely less on the International Monetary Fund, which the party regards as an institution controlled by the United States. But are there limits to how far Iran and Hezbollah will concede to the Saudis? The answer came last week, when rockets were fired against Israel’s north. The alleged culprit was Hamas, but only the most naïve observer would assume that Hezbollah had nothing to do with it, all the more so as the very next day Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, met with Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. There has been much discussion that Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and pro-Iranian Syrian groups have set up a joint operations room in Beirut to coordinate their military actions against Israel, a collaboration that perceptive commentators already saw coming a year ago.
In the context of the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, the attack implied that when it came to Hezbollah’s regional role, the reconciliation did not change much, at least when the party’s actions did not affect Saudi Arabia directly. If anything, it seemed to indicate that from the Iranians’ perspective, the fact that they no longer had to worry about the Saudis allowed them to focus more on combating Israel. Like Saudi Arabia, Iran appears to be interpreting the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation as a green light to accentuate its own stakes in Lebanon.
What does this mean for the presidential election? It means we are probably heading toward a package deal that goes beyond electing a president, to agreeing to a prime minister as well as a consensual governmental program, with some money thrown in. Saudi Arabia and Iran will be central actors in this process. If things are taking time, it’s because it’s more difficult to negotiate a multifaceted deal in which most sides must get what they want than it is simply to approve a president.
The party that is best able to mediate in bringing all these disparate pieces together is Qatar. France had wanted to play such a role, but Macron’s ill-advised endorsement of Franjieh has undermined Paris’ credibility. When France hosted a five-country meeting on Lebanon in February, the participants pointedly avoided mentioning any names. They preferred to outline the characteristics of the candidate they would support—primarily that of a “centrist, who belongs to none of the political camps, and who is not viewed as a provocation by any of the protagonists,” according to an Arab diplomat cited by journalist Mounir Rabih. By jumping ahead and naming Franjieh, the French not only ignored this approach, they chose a candidate with attributes in complete contradiction to the ones publicly sought by the participants in Paris. By backing Franjieh, the French are now seen to have divided the members of the conclave, to Hezbollah’s advantage. Earlier this month, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign relations, Abdel Aziz al-Khulaifi, visited Beirut and met with, among others, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad. More time is needed to reach a broad consensus, but at least the mechanism of progress appears to be taking shape. Amid reports that the Yemen conflict may soon be resolved in the aftermath of the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, what are the prospects for a breakthrough on the presential election in Lebanon? Optimists would say that they are good, and they may be right. However, what we’ve seen in recent weeks is something more complicated, namely an effort by the Saudis and by Hezbollah and their Iranian patrons to define their margin of maneuver in Lebanon and clarify how they interpret implementation of the reconciliation on the Lebanese scene.
When Hezbollah endorsed Suleiman Franjieh as president in March, the Saudi reaction was immediate. The kingdom’s ambassador in Lebanon visited the Maronite patriarch, Bishara al-Rai, and reportedly expressed his opposition to Franjieh. This was not surprising, as the Saudi position is that since the speaker of parliament is in Hezbollah’s camp and a future prime minister would be closer to Riyadh, the next president must be somewhere in the middle.
That thinking is precisely why the Saudis were so irritated initially by French efforts to peddle Franjieh’s candidacy to them. The French argued that a Franjieh presidency could be counterbalanced by a pro-Saudi prime minister such as Nawaf Salam, until Riyadh reminded them that they had forgotten Berri in their calculations. Franjieh’s recent visit to Paris added to the confusion. He was invited by the French after a conversation between President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which Macron thought he saw an opening for Franjieh to present guarantees that would assuage the Saudis.Saudi coolness toward Franjieh suggests that, for all the talk of the kingdom’s indifference to Lebanon, the country remains on its list of concerns. In fact, the kingdom apparently sees its reconciliation with Iran as paving the way for a greater Saudi role on the Lebanese scene, one in which it is entitled to both expand and defend its political preferences. And indeed, the speed with which the Lebanese authorities (certainly with Hezbollah’s approval) recently closed down two Houthi television stations broadcasting from Beirut suggests the Iranians and Hezbollah are willing to bend to certain Saudi demands in the country. This is all the more evident in that Hezbollah accepts the idea of negotiating with the Saudis over a president. The proposal for a quid pro quo in which the pro-Hezbollah Franjieh would be elected alongside a pro-Saudi Salam was first mentioned in the Al-Akhbar newspaper by its editor Ibrahim Amin, who frequently launches the party’s trial balloons. For Hezbollah, Lebanon’s dire financial situation means that a reconciliation with the Gulf states is desirable, as potential Arab aid would allow Lebanon to rely less on the International Monetary Fund, which the party regards as an institution controlled by the United States. But are there limits to how far Iran and Hezbollah will concede to the Saudis?
The answer came last week, when rockets were fired against Israel’s north. The alleged culprit was Hamas, but only the most naïve observer would assume that Hezbollah had nothing to do with it, all the more so as the very next day Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, met with Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. There has been much discussion that Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and pro-Iranian Syrian groups have set up a joint operations room in Beirut to coordinate their military actions against Israel, a collaboration that perceptive commentators already saw coming a year ago. In the context of the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, the attack implied that when it came to Hezbollah’s regional role, the reconciliation did not change much, at least when the party’s actions did not affect Saudi Arabia directly. If anything, it seemed to indicate that from the Iranians’ perspective, the fact that they no longer had to worry about the Saudis allowed them to focus more on combating Israel. Like Saudi Arabia, Iran appears to be interpreting the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation as a green light to accentuate its own stakes in Lebanon.
What does this mean for the presidential election? It means we are probably heading toward a package deal that goes beyond electing a president, to agreeing to a prime minister as well as a consensual governmental program, with some money thrown in. Saudi Arabia and Iran will be central actors in this process. If things are taking time, it’s because it’s more difficult to negotiate a multifaceted deal in which most sides must get what they want than it is simply to approve a president.
The party that is best able to mediate in bringing all these disparate pieces together is Qatar. France had wanted to play such a role, but Macron’s ill-advised endorsement of Franjieh has undermined Paris’ credibility. When France hosted a five-country meeting on Lebanon in February, the participants pointedly avoided mentioning any names. They preferred to outline the characteristics of the candidate they would support—primarily that of a “centrist, who belongs to none of the political camps, and who is not viewed as a provocation by any of the protagonists,” according to an Arab diplomat cited by journalist Mounir Rabih.By jumping ahead and naming Franjieh, the French not only ignored this approach, they chose a candidate with attributes in complete contradiction to the ones publicly sought by the participants in Paris. By backing Franjieh, the French are now seen to have divided the members of the conclave, to Hezbollah’s advantage. Earlier this month, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign relations, Abdel Aziz al-Khulaifi, visited Beirut and met with, among others, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad. More time is needed to reach a broad consensus, but at least the mechanism of progress appears to be taking shape. It is worth looking elsewhere to see how things might play out, namely toward Syria. There has long been a perception that the Arab states are comfortable dealing with Lebanon through Damascus, which, though weak, still has networks in the country. As Syria is brought back into the Arab fold, is a return to the past possible? The Syrians are too weak to resurrect the hegemony they once enjoyed, but if, alongside Hezbollah, they support Franjieh in any package deal, it is not impossible that he may emerge as president, provided other leading Lebanese parties get what they want in return. Until all the bricks fall into place, all options will remain open.
**Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 12-13/2023
Church: Israel limiting rights of 'Holy Fire' worshippers
LAURIE KELLMAN and AUDREY HOROWITZ/April 12, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Greek Orthodox Church on Wednesday accused Israeli police of infringing on the freedom of worshippers with "heavy-handed” restrictions on how many pilgrims can attend the “Holy Fire” ceremony amid soaring tensions. Israeli police said the limits are needed for safety during Saturday's celebration at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the 12th-century holy site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected. Saturday’s “Holy Fire” celebration comes during an unusual spate of violence in the Old City, touched off by an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound that’s home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The tensions spiraled into a regional confrontation between Israel and Hamas, and were punctuated Friday when two British-Israeli sisters and their mother were killed after their car came under fire near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. The mother succumbed to her wounds on Monday. Israel, which imposed similar restrictions on the “Holy Fire” event last year, says it wants to prevent another disaster after a crowd stampede at a packed Jewish holy site left 45 people dead. Christian leaders say there’s no need to alter a ceremony that has been held for centuries. Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that on the Saturday before Easter, a miraculous flame appears inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek patriarch enters the Holy Edicule, a chamber built on the traditional site of Jesus' tomb, and emerges with two lit candles. He passes the flame among thousands of people holding candles, gradually illuminating the walls of the darkened basilica. The flame will be transferred to Orthodox communities in other countries on special flights. The source of the Holy Fire has been a closely guarded secret for centuries, with an abundance of skeptics. Church officials told reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday that negotiations with the police over their "heavy-handed" restrictions had failed. “After many attempts made in good will, we are not able to coordinate with the Israeli authorities as they are enforcing unreasonable restrictions on access to the Holy Sepulchre,” the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said. The restrictions “will limit access to the Christians, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and to the Holy Light ceremony.”
Israeli police officials acknowledged that they are increasing security and blocking some routes into the dense Old City and that attendance is limited in the ancient church and courtyard. But in a conference call with reporters, officials said the attendance limits — 1,800 people inside the church which Greek Orthodox officials said was a fraction of previous years — were set by the church. Chief Superintendent Yoram Segal of the Jerusalem District Police told reporters during a conference call that the police's top priority is safety on a day when Muslims, Christians and Jews are celebrating their own holidays in the square-kilometer (square-half mile) Old City. “We are going to regulate the movement of crowds,” Segal said, adding that the holy fire ceremony will be available throughout the city on video screens and that meetings with the churches are ongoing.Since the rise this year of Israel’s most right-wing government in history, Christians say their 2,000-year-old community in the Holy Land has come under increasing attack.

Israeli curbs on Orthodox Church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter draw ire
James Mackenzie/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/Wed, April 12, 2023
Israeli police will curb the number of worshippers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for safety reasons during Orthodox Easter ceremonies on Saturday, drawing anger from church leaders who said they would not cooperate. With huge crowds expected in the cramped alleyways of the Old City, the restrictions - which will slash the number of worshippers to one-fifth its size in recent years - are aimed at ensuring safety for thousands of Christian worshippers, as well as Muslims and Jews holding their own celebrations, police said. However, the decision to limit access on Saturday to the Holy Fire, the most important Easter celebration for the Eastern Orthodox Church, angered church leaders who saw it as part of what they consider long-standing efforts by Israel to restrict the rights and freedoms of the local Christian community. Complaining of "heavy-handed" measures, they said they would not cooperate with police. "We shall continue to uphold the Status Quo customs, and the ceremony will be held as customary for two millennia and all who wish to worship with us are invited to attend," the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate said in a joint statement. In contrast to previous years, when as many as 10,000 worshippers packed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, only 1,800 will be allowed inside this year, with another 1,200 outside. Additional checkpoints around the Old City will also restrict access to the area around the church. This year, the sensitivity around religious festivals in the Old City has been particularly high, with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Jewish Passover holiday and Easter coinciding at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Jewish visitors would not be allowed into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for the last 10 days of Ramadan after a police raid last week set off a furious reaction from the Arab world and exchanges of cross-border fire with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. The hilltop site, holy to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, has been among the most sensitive points during the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
'IN FULL READINESS'
After the bout of rocket attacks and air strikes last week, the situation has been calmer over the past few days but Israeli officials said the potential for trouble remained. "When I look ahead, Ramadan is still a sensitive period," said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, adding that the coming Friday, which could be the last Friday during the Ramadan fasting month depending on the lunar calendar, was being watched particularly closely. "We are in full readiness," he said. The issue of access to the Old City for Christian worshippers was not directly connected to the tensions between Muslims and Jews at Al-Aqsa mosque, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray. But it reflected complaints from Christians that they are being gradually but systematically shut out of the Old City by Israeli authorities, who they say are upsetting longstanding status quo arrangements between the three communities. The churches say the Holy Fire ceremony on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, when a light is held to emerge from the tomb of Jesus, has been held safely for centuries with five times as many worshippers as the authorities are allowing. Police say a deadly stampede at an Orthodox Jewish festival in northern Israel two years ago, when 45 people were killed, underlined the risks of large crowds of worshippers gathering in restricted spaces.

Isolated Syria's FM arrives in Saudi Arabia in landmark visit
RIYADH (Reuters)/April 12, 2023
Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, state media said, in a major signal that Syria's decade-long regional isolation is nearing an end. Mekdad landed in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah following an invitation from his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement. It is the first visit by a senior Syrian diplomat to the kingdom in more than a decade, following an agreement between Riyadh and Damascus to re-establish ties and reopen their embassies. "(The two ministers) will hold a session of talks on efforts to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves the unity, security and stability of Syria," the Saudi statement said. Facilitating the return of Syrian refugees and humanitarian access will also be discussed, it added. The resumption of ties marks the most significant development in moves by Arab states to normalize links with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was shunned by many Western and Arab states after Syria's civil war began in 2011. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in response to Assad's brutal crackdown on protests. Mekdad's visit came two days before Saudi Arabia hosts another meeting of regional foreign ministers that will discuss Syria's return to the Arab League. Foreign ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) will gather in Jeddah on Friday, Qatar's foreign ministry said. The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia plans to invite Assad to the Arab League summit that Riyadh is scheduled to host on May 19, a move that would formally end his regional isolation, sources have told Reuters. Syria and Tunisia also agreed to reopen their respective embassies, the two countries said on Wednesday.

Regional ministers to discuss Syria's return to Arab fold in Saudi Arabia
DOHA (Reuters)/ April 11, 2023
Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of regional foreign ministers on Friday to discuss Syria's return to the Arab League, a Qatari official said on Tuesday, adding that an "Arab consensus" plus a "change on the ground" would shift Qatar's position. Foreign ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will gather in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said. The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. "The main aim is to discuss the situation in Syria. There are many developments regarding the situation in Syria and points of view of Arab states about the return of Syria to the Arab League," Al-Ansari said in a briefing to local media. Reuters has reviewed a video recording of the briefing. Saudi Arabia plans to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit Riyadh is scheduled to host on May 19, sources have told Reuters. Qatar, which has previously said it had no plans to normalise ties with Damascus and had spoken out against efforts by some countries to do so, has not changed its position, Al-Ansari said. "Any change in the current (Qatari) position on Syria is mainly linked to an Arab consensus, and a change on the ground that achieves the aspirations of the Syrian people," he said. Assad's attendance would mark the most significant development in his rehabilitation within the Arab world since 2011, when Syria was suspended from the Arab League. Assad had been boycotted by many Western and Arab states over his brutal crackdown on protests - violence that led to a protracted civil war. Syria's return to the 22-member body would be largely symbolic but it reflects a change in the regional approach towards the Syrian conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the war, which drew in numerous foreign powers, and splintered the country.

Syria and Tunisia restore diplomatic ties after a decade
BEIRUT (AP)/April 12, 2023
Syria will reopen its embassy in Tunisia after the North African country announced the appointment of a new ambassador to Damascus, Syrian state media reported Wednesday. Tunisia has become the latest Arab state to reestablish diplomatic ties with Syria, after cutting off relations a decade ago. The move by Tunisian President Kais Saied to appoint a new ambassador was immediately approved and reciprocated by the Syrian government, a joint statement from the two countries’ foreign ministries read, according to Syrian state news agency SANA. The announcement is the latest step in a regional trend of rapprochement with the war-torn country, which has picked up pace since the deadly Feb. 6 earthquake in Syria and Turkey and the Chinese-brokered reestablishment of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on protesters and later civilians in an uprising-turned-civil war that began in 2011. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League. Tunis shut down its embassy in Damascus in 2012. Earlier this year, Assad visited Oman and the United Arab Emirates, two nations that had backed fighters trying to topple his government. The Syrian government is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia to reopen their embassies in each other's nations. Saudi Arabia is hosting the next Arab League summit in May, where most states hope to restore Syria’s membership, the league’s secretary-general, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has said.

Saudi Arabia, Syria discuss political solution to Syrian Crisis during FM's visit
LBCI/April 12, 2023
A session of talks was held between Saudi Arabia and Syria, during which they discussed the efforts being made to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves the unity, security, stability, Arab identity, and territorial integrity of Syria, while achieving good for its people, according to a joint press release issued on Wednesday evening on the conclusion of Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad's visit to Saudi Arabia. "In the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's keenness and interest in everything that serves the causes of our Arab nation, strengthens the interests of its countries and peoples, and in response to an invitation from Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, visited the Kingdom," the press release said. The two sides agreed on the importance of solving humanitarian difficulties, providing a suitable environment for aid to reach all areas in Syria, preparing the necessary conditions for the return of Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons to their areas, ending their suffering, enabling them to return safely to their homeland, and taking further measures that contribute to stabilizing the situation in all Syrian territories. The two sides emphasized the importance of enhancing security and combating terrorism in all its forms and organizations, enhancing cooperation in combating drug smuggling and trafficking, and the necessity of supporting the Syrian state's institutions to establish its control over its territories to end the presence of armed militias and foreign interventions in the Syrian internal affairs.The two sides also discussed the necessary steps to achieve a comprehensive political settlement of the Syrian crisis that ends all its repercussions, achieves national reconciliation, and contributes to Syria's return to its Arab surroundings and the resumption of its natural role in the Arab world. The two sides welcomed the resumption of consular services and flights between the two countries. The Syrian Foreign Minister expressed Syria's appreciation for the efforts made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to end the Syrian crisis and provide humanitarian and relief assistance to those affected by the earthquakes that hit Syria.

US says its forces captured Daesh operative in raid in Syria
Reuters/April 12, 2023
WASHINGTON: The US military conducted a helicopter raid in eastern Syria late on Saturday and captured a Daesh operative and two of his associates, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday. “The capture of Hudayfah al Yemeni and his associates will disrupt the organization’s ability to plot and carry out operations,” the statement said, adding no civilians were killed or hurt. Earlier this month, the US military said it killed a senior Daesh leader in Syria, naming him as Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad Al-Jabouri. The US said he was responsible for planning Daesh attacks in Europe and Turkiye and developed the group’s leadership structure in Turkiye.

Iran's embassy in Riyadh opens gates for first time in years
Aziz El Yaakoubi/RIYADH (Reuters)/Wed, April 12, 2023
Iran's embassy in Saudi Arabia reopened its gates on Wednesday for the first time in seven years, a Reuters witness said, under a deal to re-establish ties that could ease a long-standing rivalry that has helped fuel conflicts around the Middle East. The heavy gates of the Iranian embassy's compound were open in Riyadh with a team inspecting its premises, a Reuters reporter said. A white truck was seen arriving at the gate. The diplomatic mission opened hours after the Iranian foreign ministry said a technical delegation arrived in the kingdom. "The Iranian delegation will take the necessary measures in Riyadh and Jeddah to set up the embassy and consulate general," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said in a statement. The mission had been closed since Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran was stormed during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite cleric. The kingdom subsequently asked Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours while it evacuated its embassy staff from Tehran. The relationship had begun worsening a year earlier, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen's war, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement had ousted a Saudi-backed government and taken over the capital Sanaa. Riyadh accused Iran of arming the Houthis, who went on to attack Saudi cities with armed drones and ballistic missiles. In 2019, the kingdom blamed an attack on Aramco oil facilities, which knocked out half of its oil output, directly on the Islamic Republic. Iran denied those accusations. The hostility between the two regional arch-rivals and major oil producers helped to fuel strife around the region. Last month, they agreed to end their diplomatic rift and reopen their diplomatic missions in a deal brokered by China. Both countries' foreign ministers met in Beijing earlier this month for the first formal gathering of their top diplomats. Saudi officials also arrived in Iran to discuss procedures for reopening Riyadh's embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Iran delegation arrives in Saudi amid thaw between regional powers
Agence France PresseApril 12, 2023
Iran delegation arrives in Saudi amid thaw between regional powers
An Iranian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Tehran said, to pave the way for reopening diplomatic missions as the Gulf rivals prepare to normalize relations, seven years after an acrimonious split. The announcement came just days after a Saudi delegation made a similar visit to Iran's capital, following a historic meeting in China between the two governments' foreign ministers who vowed to bring stability to the turbulent region. "In accordance with the implementation of the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia on the resumption of diplomatic activities... the Iranian technical delegation arrived in Riyadh at midday Wednesday and was welcomed by Saudi officials," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani. "The Iranian delegation will take the necessary steps to reopen the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate general in Jeddah as well as the activities of Iran's permanent representative in the (Jeddah-based) Organization of Islamic Cooperation," he said in a statement. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has been invited to Saudi Arabia, according to Tehran, in what would be the first visit of its kind since Mohammad Khatami made the trip in 1999. The flurry of diplomatic activity follows last month's landmark, Chinese-brokered announcement that Iran and Saudi Arabia, who have backed opposing sides in conflicts around the Middle East, would work towards resuming ties.Riyadh broke off relations in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following the execution of Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr -- one in a series of flashpoints between the long-time foes. Since the March 10 announcement, the two countries' foreign ministers have met in China and a Saudi technical delegation met Iran's chief of protocol in Tehran last week, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The Saudi delegation, which arrived in Tehran on Saturday, is due to fly on to Iran's second city Mashhad on Thursday, Kanani said.
Yemen truce talks
As the contacts grow, Saudi Arabia is also negotiating with Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, eight years after launching a military intervention aimed at dislodging them from power in its impoverished neighbor. Saudi ambassador Mohammed Al-Jaber travelled to Sanaa, Yemen's rebel-held capital, this week hoping to "stabilize" a lapsed truce and work towards a "comprehensive political solution" between the Huthis and the ousted government. Saudi Arabia gathered a multinational coalition to fight the Huthis in 2015, after the rebels took control of Sanaa and large swathes of the country, forcing the government to flee. It has become a major battleground of Riyadh's proxy wars with Tehran, which also include conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Analysts say Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, now wants to exit the eight-year war to focus on domestic projects aimed at diversifying its energy-dependent economy. Washington has cautiously welcomed the rapprochement between the Saudis and US adversary Iran despite the role of China, which it sees as its biggest global challenger.

Biden aide, Bin Salman see 'progress' toward Yemen war end
Associated Press/Wed, April 12, 2023
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has spoken by phone with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid signs that the Saudis and Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen are making "remarkable progress" toward finding a permanent end to their nine-year conflict, according to the Biden administration. The crown prince, often referred to by his initials MBS, has had a strained relationship with President Joe Biden over human rights and oil production concerns. But the de facto Saudi leader and the president's top national security adviser decided to talk amid encouraging signs on winding down the long and bloody war, a top priority for Biden. The call came after Saudi diplomat Mohammed bin Saeed al-Jaber met with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday for talks that were aimed at accelerating negotiations on ending the war.
The White House said in statement that Sullivan "welcomed Saudi Arabia's extraordinary efforts" to pursue a more comprehensive roadmap for ending the war and offered full U.S. support for those efforts. A nongovernmental official familiar with the ongoing negotiations said a deal is close at hand and could be reached within the next seven to 10 days. The official was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive private talks.
The White House remains cautiously optimistic about the way ahead. But the two sides still have work to do and the negotiations remain complex, according to a senior Biden administration official familiar with the negotiations. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, added that a final agreement has not been reached and cautioned that the situation remains complex. Biden's special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, is being dispatched to the Saudi capital Riyadh this week for follow-up talks with Saudi officials, according to the White House. CIA Director William Burns traveled to Saudi Arabia last week to meet with intelligence officials.Al-Jaber's visit to the Houthi-held Yemeni capital came after the Saudis reached a deal with Iran last month — in China — to restore diplomatic ties that were cut off in 2016. Iran is the Houthis' main foreign backer in Yemen's conflict.
It was a flashy moment of diplomacy for China — the United States' top global competitor — that Beijing touted as evidence of its ability to be a diplomatic player in the Middle East. White House officials note significant progress was made during several rounds of earlier talks hosted by Iraq and Oman, well before the deal was announced in China during last month's ceremonial National People's Congress. Since last month's announcement, China has not taken a major role on resolving the Yemen conflict, according to the Biden administration official.
Sullivan and the crown prince largely focused on Yemen but also discussed Saudi Arabia and Iran's reestablishment of diplomatic ties, Iran's nuclear program, and other issues. Iran-allied Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemen's exiled government in 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting created a humanitarian disaster and pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine. Overall, the war has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, according to The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
A six-month cease-fire, the longest of the Yemen conflict, expired in October. Biden has made finding a permanent peace among his highest priorities in the Middle East. The call also comes amid fresh concerns that the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance plans to cut oil production could stymie efforts to curb global inflation. OPEC+ announced last week it would c ut oil production by 1.1 million barrels per da y, or roughly 1 percent of global production, beginning next month. The Saudis have said the production cuts were "precautionary," helping to keep up prices as the world economy appears to be slowing and demand for oil is dropping. But along with cuts announced in October, world oil supplies are down by 3%. April's announcement could have a ripple effect on the U.S. economy in the form of higher gasoline prices, possibly forcing the Federal Reserve to be more aggressive in rate hikes to lower inflation.
The official said Sullivan and the crown prince discussed macroeconomic issues but did not dwell on the OPEC move. As a candidate for the White House, Biden vowed that Saudi rulers would "pay the price" under his watch for their human rights record. But in July, amid rising prices at the pump around the globe, Biden decided to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia. During the visit, he greeted the crown prince, whom he once shunned, with a fist bump.
Relations hit another rocky patch last fall.
In October, the president said there would be "consequences" for Saudi Arabia as OPEC+ alliance moved to cut oil production. At the time, the administration said it was reevaluating its relationship with the kingdom in light of the oil production cut that White House officials said was helping another OPEC+ member, Russia, soften the financial blow caused by U.S. and Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its ongoing war in Ukraine. The administration's reaction to last week's production cut was far more subdued, with Biden saying, "It's not going to be as bad as you think."
Separately, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., met Tuesday with the crown prince in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Graham said they discussed ongoing reforms in the kingdom as well as trade between the countries. The Saudis announced last month that the two national airlines would order up to 121 jetliners from American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, a deal worth up to $37 billion. "I look forward to working with the administration and congressional Republicans and Democrats to see if we can take the U.S.-Saudi relationship to the next level, which would be a tremendous economic benefit to both countries and bring much-needed stability to a troubled region," Graham said.

Iran exploits quake relief mission to fly weapons to Syria -sources
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, James Mackenzie and Parisa Hafezi
AMMAN (Reuters)/Wed, April 12, 2023
Iran has used earthquake relief flights to bring weapons and military equipment into its strategic ally Syria, nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli and Western sources said. The sources told Reuters that the goal was to buttress Iran's defences against Israel in Syria and to strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters is the first to report this development. After the Feb. 6 earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey, hundreds of flights from Iran began landing in Syria's Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia airports bringing supplies, and this went on for seven weeks, the sources said. More than 6,000 people died in all of Syria, according to the United Nations.The supplies included advanced communications equipment and radar batteries and spare parts required for a planned upgrade of Syria's Iran-provided air defence system in its civil war, said the sources, two regional sources and a Western intelligence source said. Reuters spoke to Western intelligence officials, sources close to the Iranian and Israeli leadership as well as a Syrian military defector and a serving Syrian officer about the flights for this article. When asked if Iran had used humanitarian relief planes after the earthquakes to move military equipment to Syria to enhance its network there and help Assad, Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York said: "That's not true."Syria's government did not respond to a request for comment. Regional sources told Reuters that Israel quickly became aware of the flow of weapons into Syria and mounted an aggressive campaign to counter it.
Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, an insider and former head of research in the Israel army as well as ex-general director of the Ministry of Strategic Affair said Israeli air strikes against the shipments relied on intelligence so specific that Israel's military knew which truck in a long convoy to target.
An Israeli defence official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters: "Under the guise of shipments of earthquake aid to Syria, Israel has seen significant movements of military equipment from Iran, mainly transported in parts."
He said the aid was mainly delivered to Syria’s northern Aleppo airport. Shipments were organised, he said, by the Unit 18000 Syrian division of the Quds Force, the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, led by Hassan Mehdoui. Ground transportation was handled by the Quds Force's Transport Unit 190 led by Bahanem Shahariri, he said. Reuters was unable to reach Mehdoui and Shahariri for comment. The Revolutionary Guards declined comment. "Israel's strikes also targeted a meeting of commanders of Iranian militias and shipments of electronic chips to upgrade weapons systems," said Syrian military defector Colonel Abduljabbar Akaidi, who retains army contacts. Akaidi did not say where the meeting was held. Aleppo's runway was hit by Israel just hours after two Iranian cargo planes had landed with arms shipments under the pretext of aid relief, said a regional source, information that was confirmed by two other Western intelligence sources. Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was the first foreign official to set foot in Syria's quake zone, a few days before Assad himself arrived. Reuters could not reach Qaani for comment. The Revolutionary Guards declined comment. In the event of a humanitarian catastrophe, U.N. relief planes are allowed to seek landing rights from local authorities and humanitarian goods are exempt from sanctions. In this case
Syrian authorities have granted landing rights to direct flights coming from Russia and Iran. "The quake was a sad disaster but at the same time it was God's help to us to help our brothers in Syria in their fight against their enemies. Loads of weapons were sent to Syria immediately," said a regional source close to Iran's clerical leadership. Israel has for years carried out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting Assad in the civil war that began in 2011. A Syrian army officer who asked not to be named said the Israelis were stepping up efforts to defeat Iran in Syria. "Why now? Simply because they have information that something is being developed quickly. They must stop it and hit it to slow it. The quake created the right conditions. The chaos that ensued allowed Iranian jets to land with ease," he said. In the aftermath of further earthquakes on April 3, Israeli targets have included weapons warehouses in the Jabal Manea Kiswa mountain range south of Damascus where Iranian troops and Lebanon's Hezbollah have built what is probably their most fortified military site in Syria, a regional security source and two Western intelligence sources said. A radar station used for drones was also hit on April 3, the regional source added, corroborating what two Western intelligence sources had told Reuters. "We believe that Iranian militias have transferred huge quantities of ammunition – they have restocked quantities lost in previous Israeli drone strikes," a Western intelligence source said, referring to Iranian flights since the Feb. 6 earthquake.

US Lawmakers Urge EU to Declare IRGC a Terrorist Organization
Washington - Rana Abtar/Asharq Alk Awsat/April, 12/202
A bipartisan group of 130 lawmakers urged the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. In their letter to Borrell, the lawmakers urged the European official to resolve the issue urgently, noting that the IRGC had "freely and openly carried out plots targeting citizens in countries across the EU. The representatives, led by Kathy Manning, Bill Keating, and Thomas Kean, added that Iran is a leading state sponsor of terror, and the IRGC has supported and participated in human rights abuses and terrorist activities.
The letter is based on a study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which showed that Iran "instigated more than 33 plots to surveil, abduct, or assassinate citizens in Europe." The lawmakers responded to Borrell's statement that the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guards on terrorist lists must take place through the courts, despite the European Parliament's vote in favor of it. "We understand the legal complexities involved in designating the IRCS as a terrorist organization pursuant to EU law," the letter read, adding that they "fully appreciated the need for this decision to be adjudicated by either a judicial or equivalent competent authority. But given the growing threat that Iran poses to EU countries and their citizens, we urge you to treat this issue with the utmost urgency."Last January, the European Parliament voted in favor of an amendment to a law that would approve including the IRGC in the terror list.
Borrell said it was "something that cannot be decided without a court. A court decision is needed first. You cannot say: "I consider you a terrorist because I do not like you"."It is not the first time that Congress has criticized the European Union's "reluctance" to include the Guards on terrorist lists, as Republican senators previously considered that this hesitation would threaten efforts to confront Iran and Russia. In a previous letter to Borrell last month, they said: "We write to express our disappointment in the European Union's (EU) hesitation to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran as an addition to the EU Terror List.""Amidst the IRGC's ongoing support of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, EU reluctance both weakens our collective resolve against Russia and ignores the Iranian government's goal of sowing terror in the West."
The Senators, led by the senior Republican in the Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, referred to the European Parliament resolution identifying Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. The growing alignment of Russian and Iranian activities, including using Iranian drones in Ukraine, complicates the IRGC in Russia's terror. An IRGC terror designation will sharpen and align the US and EU responses to Russian aggression. In 2019, the US put the Revolutionary Guards on the terrorist list, a year after former US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Tehran and to adopt a policy of maximum pressure by imposing sanctions. Iran stipulated the removal of the IRGC from the terrorist list after the nuclear negotiations faltered in March last year, but it retracted this condition after the Biden administration pledged to meet Tehran's demand to reduce regional tension. The EU adopted a policy of imposing sanctions on Iran in January because of its support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, but without including the IRGC on its list of terrorist organizations. IRGC commanders warned the EU against placing the organization on its terrorist list.

Tehran Seeks to Reopen Embassy in Riyadh before Hajj Season
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 12 April, 2023
Director of the GCC Affairs Department Alireza Enayati at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Iran was making efforts to reopen its embassy in Riyadh and its consulate in Jeddah before the Hajj season. For his part, Iranian Minister of Economy Ehsan Khandozi said that he intends to make a working visit to Jeddah, in mid-May to discuss means to benefit from the financing capabilities of the Islamic Development Bank. The Iranian official pointed to the arrival of a Saudi diplomatic technical team in Tehran earlier this week, within the framework of the two countries’ agreement to reopen embassies and consulates within two months. In an interview published by the state-run ISNA news agency on Tuesday, Enayati said: “Based on information received from the Saudi brothers, this delegation, after returning to Riyadh, will take measures to reopen the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad.”The state agency cited reports about the possibility of naming Enayati as ambassador to Riyadh. The official took part in the Saudi-Iranian rounds of talks in Iraq and China, which ended with an agreement to resume relations on March 10. The Iranian diplomat noted that his country was seeking to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia before the Hajj season. “We are trying to reopen the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah before the Hajj season,” he stated. On the other hand, the IRGC-Fars news agency reported that Iranian Minister of Economy Ehsan Khandozi intends to conduct a working visit to Jeddah, in mid-May, “to discuss benefiting from the financing capabilities of the Islamic Development Bank.”The minister said that the establishment of a joint Iranian-Saudi Chamber of Commerce was on the agenda, adding that the Iranian Trade Promotion Organization was working on a roadmap for bilateral cooperation, targeting an economic exchange worth one billion dollars.

Israel Releases Names of Iran Officials Working against Tel Aviv in Syria
Tel Aviv – Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 12 April, 2023
Top military officials in Tel Aviv revealed on Monday details of an upcoming Israeli battle against Iran in Syria, where there are attempts to build an advanced Iran-made missile defense system that relies on Russia’s expertise in advanced missiles such as the S-300 and S-400. Those who will activate the system include several generals and senior officers from the Revolutionary Guards. Even though Israel has attacked and thwarted Iran’s primary attempts to anchor its forces in Syria, the Revolutionary Guards have yet to abandon their agenda for strengthening their presence in the Levantine nation, senior military officials told Hebrew media under the conditions of anonymity. In recent years, the Revolutionary Guards has been trying to surround Israel with a belt of missile batteries that can withstand airstrikes and shoot down aircraft, which poses a strategic security threat to the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli officials, which included research and intelligence figures, ten senior Revolutionary Guards officials have been killed in Israeli operations so far. The Israelis also disclosed the names of several Iranian and Hezbollah officials who are conducting operations on Syrian soil to alter the balance of power with Israel. It was evident that the Israelis publishing these names and linking them to the names of killed leaders was a hint of a threat to their lives. Ali Hassan Mahdavi, the head of the Syria and Lebanon division in the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm, was among the names listed by the officials and published by the Haaretz newspaper. Mahdavi had replaced Javad Ravari, who was dismissed earlier over condescending and violent behavior against Syrian army officials. Israeli officers claimed that Iran is planning to establish air defense networks not only in Syria, but also in Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, aimed at other armies in Gulf countries and other countries in the region.

Taiwan claims China is getting ready to 'launch a war' as Beijing issues 'serious warning' to Taipei
Sky News/April 12, 2023
China seems to be getting "ready to launch a war" against Taiwan, according to a senior politician from the island nation. Beijing has warned that recent drills simulating the encirclement of the island nation were intended as a "serious warning" to pro-independence politicians. Speaking to CNN, Taiwan's foreign minister Joseph Wu said: "Look at the military exercises, and also their rhetoric - they seem to be trying to get ready to launch a war against Taiwan. "The Taiwanese government looks at the Chinese military threat as something that cannot be accepted and we condemn it." The three days of large-scale air and sea exercises named Joint Sword that ended on Monday were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US house speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week. China had warned of serious consequences if that meeting went ahead. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Chinese cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a news conference: "The People's Liberation Army recently organised and conducted a series of counter-measures in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding waters, which is a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces.""It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," she added. Beijing is also reportedly planning to impose a no-fly zone in the coming days. China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary and regularly sends ships and warplanes into airspace and waters near the island. Such missions have grown more frequent in recent years, accompanied by increasingly bellicose language from the administration of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Any conflict between the sides could draw in the US, Taiwan's closest ally, which is required by law to consider all threats to the island as matters of "grave concern". China has kept up military pressure against Taiwan despite the formal conclusion of the military drills. On Wednesday, Taiwan's ministry of national defence said it tracked 35 flights by People's Liberation Army warplanes within the previous 24 hours, as well as eight navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island. While on Tuesday, President Xi inspected China's Southern Theatre Command, according to state media. On his visit, Mr Xi reportedly said it was necessary to deepen military training and preparation, speed up transformation and construction, and comprehensively raise the level of modernisation of the armed forces. Though the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command would be the lead force in any potential invasion of Taiwan, the Southern Theatre Command would likely have a significant backup role in any such attack. The vast majority of Taiwan's population favours maintaining the current de-facto independent status, while the island's president, Ms Tsai, has said there is no need for a formal declaration since the democracy is already an independent nation. Despite that, China - which does not recognise Taiwan's government institutions and has cut off contact with Ms Tsai's administration - routinely accuses her of plotting formal independence with outside backing. When China refers to outside help for Taiwan, it is usually thought to mean the US. "External forces are intensifying their endeavour of containing China with Taiwan as a tool," Ms Zhu said. She also repeated China's assertion that its military threats are "targeted at Taiwan's independence separatist activities and interference from external forces, and by no means at our compatriots in Taiwan". What that means in practical terms is not clear, although Beijing has long exploited political divisions within Taiwanese society, which boasts a robust democracy and strong civil liberties. The Chinese military issued a threat as it concluded the exercises, saying its troops "can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of 'Taiwan independence' and foreign interference attempts".

China to impose no-fly zone near Taiwan
Sophia Yan/The Telegraph/ April 12, 2023
China is preparing to impose a no-fly zone just north of Taiwan after conducting three days of military drills around the island nation. The restrictions will be in effect on April 16, with the impacted area falling within Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, its defence and transport ministries said on Wednesday. “China has unilaterally set up a no-fly zone on the convergence areas of many international routes to restrict flights on the grounds of ‘space activities’,” according to Taiwan’s transport ministry. The Chinese government has not said how it plans to enforce the flight ban, and a foreign ministry spokesman denied knowledge of the matter. The original flight ban was expected to last three days, from April 16 to 18, as earlier reported by Reuters, citing four anonymous sources. But Taiwan’s transport ministry said the closure was shortened to a 27-minute window from 9.30am to 9.57am on Sunday after it protested to China. Beijing told Seoul it was related to a falling object from a launch vehicle set to land north of Taiwan. International flights in Asia and to North America could be affected, as well domestic flights from the main island of Taiwan. The restrictions follow more than a week of retaliatory measures from China after Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese president, met Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, in California. China views such meetings as a direct challenge to its claims over Taiwan as its territory, which the latter’s democratically-elected government rejects. Taiwan also has its own military, foreign policy and currency. The Chinese military conducted three days of live-fire drills around Taiwan, practising a “sealing off” of the island nation. At least 71 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line in the strait between China and Taiwan. Chinese J-15 fighter jets also approached Taiwan from the east in what appeared to be the first simulation of airstrikes from the side furthest from the Chinese coast. China also conducted what the government called “patrol operations”, inspecting ships sailing in the Taiwan Strait. A naval and air blockade of Taiwan – essentially cutting it off from the rest of the world – is one potential attack scenario by Beijing. The recent measures add weight to the repeated threats by Xi Jinping, leader of China’s ruling Communist Party, to annex Taiwan. Last summer, China staged its biggest-ever war drills in August when Nancy Pelosi, Mr McCarthy’s predecessor, touched down in Taiwan and met Ms Tsai. She was the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, infuriating Beijing. Chinese authorities also imposed controls over six areas of airspace – what it called “danger zones” – around Taiwan for three days after Ms Pelosi’s trip, which led to numerous flight cancellations. Taiwan is a key supplier of the world’s semiconductors and represents a major flashpoint that could potentially escalate into a military conflict between the US and China as bilateral tensions worsen.

The US could lose up to 900 warplanes fighting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan but would emerge victorious, says think tank
Alia Shoaib/Business Insider/April 12, 2023
A think tank ran war game analyses for a conflict between the US and China over Taiwan. One of the analysts told Insider the US and Taiwan would likely succeed in beating back a Chinese invasion. However, both sides would likely suffer devastating losses. Up to 900 US warplanes could be destroyed.
The US and Taiwan would likely be able to fend off a Chinese invasion, but it would come with heavy losses on both sides, a think tank analysis says. This week China conducted three days of military drills around Taiwan shortly after Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, traveled to the US to meeting US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The drills involved practising encirclement of the island, with Beijing considers its own, and simulating direct strikes on Taiwan from the sea, air and China's mainland, in what some analysts described as an escalation of drills conducted in August. The Washington-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, conducted war games last year to imagine how such a conflict would play out. "The good news is that at the end of all the iterations so far, there is an autonomous Taiwan," Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider. "The United States and Taiwan are generally successful in keeping the island out of Chinese occupation, but the price of that is very high – losses of hundreds of aircraft, aircraft carriers, and terrible devastation to the Taiwanese economy and also to the Chinese navy and air force."
In one of the more pessimistic scenarios, 900 American fighter and attack aircraft would be lost in four weeks, equivalent to half of the US Air Force and Navy's combat planes, according to The Times of London. But while the US would likely suffer heavy losses in a full-scale conflict with China, Cancian notes that, in general, China would likely suffer more. "I would say in most scenarios, the Chinese fleet suffers a lot more because it's very exposed," he said. He noted that they would likely lose over 100 ships during an amphibious invasion. The war games are designed to help envision how conflicts would play out. In this imagined conflict, which would take place in 2026, each side only possesses military capabilities that it has already demonstrated in real life. The games involve two boards with an operational map of the Western Pacific, including Taiwan, Japan, China, and counters that are moved across the board.
The team uses computer models and combat results tables to decide what happens based on analyses of historical experience. Dice are used to add an element of randomness.They then move onto a separate map for Taiwan, which plays out the ground game of when the Chinese land and the Taiwanese try to defend the island. Cancian pointed to one of the games, reported on by the Wall Street Journal, which involved two pessimistic elements: the US being distracted by another crisis elsewhere in the world, such as Ukraine, and the Taiwanese being slow to react because of Chinese information operations and sabotage. Out of the 24 games conducted, 18 tested pessimistic scenarios. Although the pessimistic scenarios yielded significant better results for China, none resulted in a clear Chinese success, such as occupation of Taipei, according to the report. Cancian said that the CSIS would suggest some improvements to US strategy which could deter China, such as buying more long-range missiles and building shelters in Guam and Japan to protect aircraft because most of the aircraft are destroyed on the ground. Differences over Taiwan have heightened tensions between the US and China, and some military analysts believe that China might eventually invade the island. China has for decades pressured governments not to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation and has promised to "unify" the self-governed island with the mainland by 2050. The US has long attempted to maintain a delicate balance between supporting Taiwan and preventing war with China, but tensions have recently risen. In August of last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, Taiwan's capital, despite China repeatedly warning her not to. China called it an "egregious provocation" and said it would sanction the Democrat and her family, but experts said its response was overall within its standard playbook. Pelosi defended her trip, telling NBC: "We cannot allow the Chinese government to isolate Taiwan."China conducted military drills around Taiwan following Pelosi's visit and said that further "training and war preparation" would continue, The Guardian reported. A five-member congressional delegation led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey arrived in Taiwan less than two weeks after Pelosi's visit, risking further inflaming tensions with China.

Trudeau shrugs off pro-Russian hack on Canada as Ukraine PM visits
AFP/Wed, April 12, 2023
Pro-Russian hackers disrupted Canadian government websites during a visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal Tuesday, but this will not weaken Ottawa's strong bond with Kyiv, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The official websites of the Canadian leader and the Senate, as well as others, were down in the morning. Trudeau confirmed they'd been hacked, while a group calling itself NoName took responsibility in a post on Telegram. "It's not uncommon for Russian hackers to target countries as they are showing their steadfast support for Ukraine, as they're welcoming Ukrainian delegations or leadership to visit. So the timing isn't surprising," Trudeau told a joint news conference with Shmyhal. "But in case anyone was wondering, Russia being able to bring down an official government of Canada webpage for a few hours is in no way going to dissuade us from our unshakeable support of Ukraine," he said. Robyn Hawco, a spokeswoman for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency, said in an email to AFP that an unspecified number of Canadian government websites were offline. But she added that the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack had "very little impact on the systems affected." Shmyhal, who is scheduled to visit Washington next, and Trudeau also announced the conclusion of talks to modernize free trade between their two nations, new Canadian shipments of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, and a deal with Canadian firm Cameco to supply Ukraine with nuclear fuel until 2035.Ottawa also unveiled new sanctions targeting Russians and Russian entities including those with links to the Wagner mercenary group and Russia's aviation sector, as well as the Belarusian financial sector.

US, UK aim sanctions at Russian oligarchs' finance networks
WASHINGTON (AP)/Wed, April 12, 2023
The United States and Britain announced new sanctions Wednesday aimed at Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, targeting the financial networks of two of Moscow's wealthiest businessmen who are close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Usmanov has been subject to U.S. and European Union sanctions since shortly after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine last year. Abramovich, who amassed a fortune in Russia’s oil and aluminum industries following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, was forced to sell the Chelsea football club after he was cited last year.
U.S. officials said the new designations, which were coordinated with the British government, aim to reinforce existing penalties and further disrupt Russia’s importation of critical technologies used in its war against Ukraine. The departments of State and Treasury announced sanctions on 120 entities and individuals, across more than 20 countries and jurisdictions, connected to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The United Kingdom named 14 individuals and entities.“We are closing the net on the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their money for war," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. “There’s no place to hide. We will keep cutting them off from assets they thought were successfully hidden."Usmanov and Abramovich were early targets of Western sanctions aimed at key Russian sectors and individuals close to Putin. The Treasury Department was also citing the International Investment Bank, a Russia-controlled financial institution in Budapest, Hungary. Three current or former executives of the bank — Russian citizens Nikolay Nikolayevich Kosov and Georgy Nugzarovich Potapov as well as Hungary national Imre Laszloczki — were designated for sanctions. A Treasury Department statement said the bank “enables Russia to increase its intelligence presence in Europe, opens the door for the Kremlin’s malign influence activities in Central Europe and the Western Balkans, and could serve as a mechanism for corruption and illicit finance, including sanctions violations.” Germany had previously seized Usmanov's superyacht, known as Dilbar. The yacht, named after Usmanov’s mother, has an estimated worth of between $600 million and $735 million, according to the Treasury Department. Dilbar has two helipads and one of the world’s largest indoor pools ever installed on a yacht, and costs about $60 million per year to operate. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted the new sanctions cite the All Russian Children’s and Youth Military Patriotic Public Movement Youth Army, and the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education of the Republic of Crimea Crimea Patriot Center. Blinken alleged that the two organizations “support Russia’s efforts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine through the militarization and indoctrination of schoolchildren.”

Kyiv compares Russia to Islamic State after beheading video
KYIV (Reuters)/Wed, April 12, 2023
Ukraine compared Russia on Wednesday to Islamic State and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate after a video emerged online showing apparent Russian soldiers filming themselves beheading a Ukrainian captive with a knife. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity or provenance of the video on social media, which showed a man in uniform beheading a man who wears the yellow arm band used by Ukrainian soldiers. The Kremlin described the video as "awful" but said its authenticity needed to be checked. Moscow has denied in the past that its troops carry out atrocities during the conflict. "There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video message. "There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Twitter: "A horrific video of Russian troops decapitating a Ukrainian prisoner of war is circulating online. "It's absurd that Russia, which is worse than ISIS, is presiding over the UNSC," he said, referring to the U.N. Security Council, where Russia took up the rotating presidency this month. "Russian terrorists must be kicked out of Ukraine and the UN and be held accountable for their crimes."Militants from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were notorious for releasing videos of beheadings of captives when they controlled swathes of those countries from 2014-2017. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing: "First of all, in the world of fakes that we live in, we need to check the veracity of this footage." "Then it could be a pretext to check whether or not this is true, whether it happened, and if it did, where and by whom," Peskov said. Ukraine's foreign ministry called on the International Criminal Court to "immediately investigate yet another atrocity of the Russian military". Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told people online not to name the soldier publicly until his identity has been officially established by law enforcement. She urged people to stop sharing the video online. "Remember, the enemy wants to frighten us. Wants to make us weaker," he said. Ukraine's domestic security agency said it had started an investigation into a suspected war crime over the video. "Yesterday, a video appeared on the Internet showing how the Russian occupiers are showing their beastly nature - cruelly torturing a Ukrainian prisoner and cutting off his head," the SBU agency wrote on Telegram. In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was appalled by what it called "particularly gruesome" videos posted on social media. As well as the purported execution, another video shows mutilated bodies of apparent Ukrainian prisoners of war, it said. "Regrettably, this is not an isolated incident," it said in a statement. "The latest incidents must also be properly investigated and the perpetrators must be held accountable."

Russians accused of beheading Ukrainian soldiers in fresh war crimes
Joe Barnes/The Telegraph/April 12, 2023
Russian forces have been accused of war crimes after two videos emerged online appearing to show the beheading of Ukrainian soldiers. Western analysts blamed mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group for the alleged atrocities, which are likely to have taken place close to the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut. Two videos were shared via pro-Russian social media channels purportedly showing separate beheadings of Ukrainian servicemen. Separate images were also posted online of what appeared to be the head of a Ukrainian soldier on a spike. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, on Wednesday said: "There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill. "We're not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to give the murderers. There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of the terror is necessary."Mr Zelensky used the harrowing footage to call on world leaders to respond with extra support for Ukraine's armed forces."No one will understand if leaders don't react," he added. "Action is required now! "We in Ukraine must focus on the frontline as much as possible."
'There will be accountability
'Shortly after the videos emerged on Tuesday night, Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, tweeted: “There will be accountability for everything.” A spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR on Wednesday described the video as an act of Russia's deliberate psychological warfare against Ukraine. "The goal of this (video) is among other things to demoralise the Ukrainian armed forces and to sow panic," Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian public television. "Those publicly displayed atrocities aim to cow their own soldiers as well. As in 'Don't you think about surrendering because they will do the same thing to you in Ukrainian captivity as we do to Ukrainian PoWs'." The first video, reportedly filmed by Wagner mercenaries, appeared to show the corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle. "Got f---ed by a mine," a Russian voice can be heard describing the incident. "They killed them. Someone came up to them. They are up to them and cut their heads off," the voice added. Russian social media outlets claimed the video was shot near Bakhmut, where Wagner fighters are spearheading Moscow's efforts to capture the Donetsk salt-mining city. The Telegraph is unable to independently verify the location of the video. The second clip shows a live Ukrainian soldier, identified by a yellow tactical armband, struggling on the floor as a Russian attempts to behead him. The Russians in the clip hold up the Ukrainian's tactical vest to the camera, displaying the patch worn by members of Kyiv's armed forces. "Get working, brothers," a Russian voice can be heard saying. "Break his spine, f--k, have you never cut off a head?" At the end of the clip, there are cheers at the Ukrainian's decapitated head is held aloft towards the camera. It is likely the footage was shot last summer given the amount of green foliage around the scene of the brutal murder. The Institute for the Study of War, the US-based think-tank, earlier this week wrote in a battlefield assessment: "Wagner forces are reportedly continuing to commit war crimes by beheading Ukrainian servicemen in Bakhmut. "Russian social media users published footage purportedly showing the remains of a head belonging to a Ukrainian serviceman on a spike at an unspecified area in Bakhmut."Fighters from Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group have a history of brutally executing members of opposition forces, as well as their own troops. In Syria, members of the Kremlin-linked private military firm were filmed beating a prisoner with a sledgehammer before beheading him and amputating his arms with a sapper's trowel. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of videos have emerged online of what purportedly showed Wagner troops executing deserters with a sledgehammer - a signature of their brutality.

Kremlin says outlook for Black Sea grain deal is 'not so great'
Guy Faulconbridge/Wed, April 12, 2023MOSCOW (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Wednesday said the outlook for the landmark U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal was not great as promises to remove obstacles to Russian exports of agricultural and fertiliser exports had not been fulfilled. The grain deal is an attempt to ease a food crisis that predated the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but has been made worse by the most deadly war in Europe since World War Two. The agreement, due to expire next month in its current form, was first signed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations in July last year and twice extended. On paper, it allows for the export of food and fertiliser, including ammonia, from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports. But Moscow says that Russian food and fertiliser exports are compromised by obstacles - such as insurance and payment hindrances - that it says must be removed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the current agreement was not working for Russia, despite some efforts by the United Nations to get the parts of the deal relating to Moscow's interests implemented. "No deal can stand on one leg: it must stand on two legs," Peskov told reporters. "In this regard, of course, judging by the state of play today, the outlook (for its extension) is not so great." Russia and Ukraine are two of the most important producers of agricultural commodities in the world, and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil markets. Russia is also dominant on the fertiliser market. More than 27 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs have been exported from Ukraine aboard 881 outbound vessels since the Black Sea Grain Initiative began in August, official data shows. Last month, Russia said it would extend the deal for another 60 days even though the United Nations, Ukraine and Turkey had pushed for a repeat 120-day roll over. Moscow says it is due to expire on May 18. "Exactly half of this deal has not worked and is not working so far," Peskov said. "We know that U.N. representatives are making some efforts, but they are not succeeding and still the second half of the deal does not work," Peskov said. Russia has repeatedly said that any further extension of the deal will require a host of its demands to be fulfilled by the West, including the reconnection of Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the SWIFT payment system. Other demands include a resumption in supplies of agricultural machinery and parts, a lifting on restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, access to ports, the resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline and the unblocking of assets and the accounts of Russian companies involved in food and fertiliser exports.

Armenian and Azeri soldiers clash near contested region, seven killed
TBILISI/BAKU (Reuters)/April 12, 2023
South Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday accused each other of opening fire around the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region in a clash that killed a total of seven soldiers. The two neighbours - both formerly part of the Soviet Union - have fought repeatedly over the last 35 years for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but home to a mainly ethnic Armenian population. The Azeri defence ministry said three troops had died in a clash close to the contested Lachin Corridor, a key road into Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia that crosses through Azeri territory. The Armenian defence ministry said four of its soldiers had died and another six had been wounded. Yerevan had earlier accused Azerbaijan of opening fire on Armenian troops performing engineering work near the village of Tegh in Armenia's southern Syunik province. It said its forces had taken "countermeasures", without providing details. Tegh is the last village on the Lachin Corridor in Armenia before it enters Azeri territory. Baku said its troops came under "intense fire" from Armenian troops stationed in Syunik province. Russia dispatched a thousands-strong peacekeeping contingent to the region in 2020 as part of a deal to end weeks of fighting that killed thousands and saw Azerbaijan make significant territorial gains. Moscow is an ally of Armenia through a mutual self-defence pact, but also strives for good relations with Baku. The latest stand-off has been seen as a key test of Moscow's ongoing influence in the region as it wages its own war in Ukraine. The latest stand-off is over control of the Lachin Corridor - the only road route linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijanis claiming to be environmental protesters have been blocking the route since the end of last year, resulting in what Armenia calls a humanitarian crisis. Baku denies those claims, saying essential supplies can get into the territory and has defended the protesters as rallying against legitimate environmental concerns. Yerevan calls them government-backed agitators.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 12-13/2023
Central Bank Digital Currencies: Funny Money That Will Destroy What Is Left of Private Property, Free Markets, and Personal Liberty
J.B. Shurk/Gatestone Institute/April 12, 2023
[E]ven when you have followed every law to the letter and paid every fee to the cent, there is still no guarantee that government agents will not later invoke eminent domain laws to swipe what you own because they believe they can use your private property more fruitfully for the "public good" – and, since Kelo v. New London, even for someone else's private good. So much for private ownership.
Competition, in theory, forces markets to naturally discard bad and expensive products, while keeping the prices of the best products low.... In practice, however, mature students of capitalism understand that entrepreneurs are never in search of markets for competition but rather conditions for maintaining monopoly.
The end result is that capitalists are always in pursuit of ways in which they may take advantage of laws and regulations, specialized knowledge, government contracts, or other exclusionary mechanisms to restrict potential competitors from ever entering the market.
The usefulness of money over traditional bartering for goods and services comes from its three chief functions providing (1) a unit of account, (2) a store of value, and (3) a medium of exchange.
[O]ver the last century and a half, the important steps have all been the same: First, some form of paper money is introduced and backed by the government's promise to pay the holder of each note a fixed sum in gold or silver. Next, the introduction of a private central bank comes into existence holding a de facto monopoly power to print paper money according to its best judgment for maintaining a healthy national economy. Finally, the gold or silver backing of those paper money currencies is revoked.
[G]overnments... spend money like drunken sailors precisely because central banks right across the street will buy up their debt and facilitate the printing of more money. How could politicians object to an arrangement that allows them to spend recklessly without any normal free market consequences?
Now with the central banks printing money and reckless government spending pushing Western economic systems to the brink, a new kind of financial hocus-pocus has been proposed: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
If governments and central banks control the creation, distribution, and exchange of virtual money, whatever remains of free markets will disappear. If governments and central banks monitor every transaction between consumers and producers, then all industries will be subjugated to the centralized command of the State. If governments and central banks assert the legal power to determine who may store value, how much value may be personally stored, and how long that value will be permitted to last, then whatever remains of private property will cease to exist. If governments and central banks maintain a digital monopoly over the only legalized forms of money, then they may redistribute wealth or penalize personal behavior without regard for individual rights or limits to their control.
No doubt propaganda campaigns will cloak this oppressive monitoring in the West's own "politically correct" language of fighting "hate" or "racism" or "climate change" or the next COVID-like scare, but the West's system of control over its citizens will be no different from the Chinese communist version: Individuals will have their digital wealth confiscated or replenished according to whether their behavior conforms to the strictures of the State.
[A]n overhaul of the financial system and a transition to mandated CBDCs threaten what remains of Westerners' personal liberties.
[T]hose who value liberty know that personal ownership and the unfettered exchange of goods, services, and ideas remain the bedrock of those free nations that refuse to be enslaved.
During the Cold War, the East-West divide was commonly portrayed as pitting communism against capitalism. The Soviet Union, its satellites, and allies operated command economies in which centralized authorities directed the allocation of resources, agricultural production, and industrial manufacturing of the State. The United States and the Western Bloc championed liberal democratic norms and free markets. That division, of course, was always too simplistic. Not only did the US support third-world dictatorships when doing so would produce strategic advantages against the USSR, but also the demarcation between free and controlled markets was never so plainly cut-and-dried.
When young students learn the basics of capitalism, they are taught about markets in which people may freely bargain for the exchange of goods and services according to their personal needs and interests. They are taught that privately-owned property is the hallmark of capitalism and the key distinction separating that system from various socialist and communist economic systems in which property is variously shared among the people or owned exclusively by the State.
When young students mature, however, they realize that throughout the West, private ownership and free markets are neither quite so private nor free. Property may best be understood as a bundle of sticks tied up together with a bow. In an economic system in which what you own is yours and no-one else's, all those sticks stay bundled together tightly. However, when others have an independent claim on what you "own," then one by one, those sticks come undone.
You might think you own your home after you have made every payment, but what happens if you fail to pay local property taxes or refuse to grant the municipal government permission to build a sewer system below your dwelling? You will soon learn that any number of city administrators, revenue agents, state regulators, Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats, public utilities commissioners, and even a motley crew of private citizens objecting to how you choose to use your property all believe that they have an ownership stake in what you own, too.
In most places throughout the West, they would be right. Statutes, regulations, and tax obligations all encumber what you think is yours, and even when you have followed every law to the letter and paid every fee to the cent, there is still no guarantee that government agents will not later invoke eminent domain laws to swipe what you own because they believe they can use your private property more fruitfully for the "public good" – and, since Kelo v. New London, even for someone else's private good. So much for private ownership.
Likewise, free markets are hardly free from government intervention. Federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and rules constrain the activities of every industry. Before starting any new business venture, an entrepreneur must consider a multitude of State-imposed restrictions: What kinds of products may be bought and sold? What kinds of raw materials must go into those products? What types of government permits must first be obtained? What types of skilled employees are required to do the work? How long are those employees allowed to be on the job? What safety and industry standards must be followed? What means of transportation may be utilized to move finished products from one location to another? In what types of storage can those products be kept? What downstream customers may legally purchase goods? Can those goods cross national borders without violating international treaties or national security restrictions? Bargained-for exchange of goods and services is hardly simple when rules and regulations govern every part of the market transaction and the failure to abide by those rules results in fines, lost inventories, delays, or even criminal punishment.
Young students of capitalism learn that markets operate according to the laws of supply and demand, through which Adam Smith's "invisible hand" guides both the production and prices of finished goods. When demand for a particular product is high, its price will rise. When prices rise, new entrepreneurs will enter the market and produce new supplies. When those entrepreneurs compete against each other, their desire to attract customers creates a natural incentive for them to construct the best possible products in the most efficient ways at the lowest cost. Competition, in theory, forces markets to naturally discard bad and expensive products, while keeping the prices of the best products low.
In practice, however, mature students of capitalism understand that entrepreneurs are never in search of markets for competition but rather conditions for maintaining monopoly. Wherever and whenever producers may make and sell goods free from competing sellers, they alone determine the quality and price of their product. When their product is something that consumers must have, monopolists control the market. That is how real fortunes are made. The end result is that capitalists are always in pursuit of ways in which they may take advantage of laws and regulations, specialized knowledge, government contracts, or other exclusionary mechanisms to restrict potential competitors from ever entering the market. There is nothing "invisible" about the ways in which large corporations and financial conglomerates use their leverage to prevent smaller firms from ever challenging their dominion. In this way, most markets could hardly be described as entirely "free."
If neither private property nor free markets exist outside of abstraction, the rise of fiat national currencies — whereby gold money has been replaced with government-imposed, innately-worthless paper notes — has only exacerbated the problem. The usefulness of money over traditional bartering for goods and services comes from its three chief functions providing (1) a unit of account, (2) a store of value, and (3) a medium of exchange. When sound money exists within society, market transactions are easy and trade flourishes. Rather than trying to determine how many rabbit pelts might be worth a slab of beef or bushel of wheat or lawyer's expertise, consumers save time and energy by using standard monetary instruments that are easy to hold and transport and have consistent value. Although everything from pearls and shells to teeth and bones have been used as forms of money, gold has remained the, well, gold standard of money across cultures for thousands of years. Possessing a stable value over time due to its relative scarcity and human beings' shared perception of its innate worth, gold has provided an ideal medium of exchange. That is why so many standard currencies throughout history and from nations and cultures around the globe have been minted coins made of precise measurements of this precious metal.
By slowly replacing the use of gold coins with mandated paper currencies, however, nation states have engaged in a bit of hocus-pocus to conjure funny money out of thin air. Although the particular order of events has been different for different nations over the last century and a half, the important steps have all been the same: First, some form of paper money is introduced and backed by the government's promise to pay the holder of each note a fixed sum in gold or silver. Next, the introduction of a private central bank comes into existence holding a de facto monopoly power to print paper money according to its best judgment for maintaining a healthy national economy. Finally, the gold or silver backing of those paper money currencies is revoked.
Throughout the West, that slow but steady transition from money with innate value to currencies with no innate value has operated like a long con against the public. People were conditioned to use paper money over the course of decades; the supply of and demand for paper money was decoupled from Adam Smith's "invisible hand"; and government mandates precluded citizens from returning to the universally stable mediums of exchange that gold and silver have long provided. Abracadabra, Western treasuries and central banks replaced free markets securely denominated in fixed quantities of gold with centrally controlled paper currency markets that distort the value of anything privately owned.
This rather Machiavellian switcheroo has enabled governments to spend money like drunken sailors precisely because central banks right across the street will buy up their debt and facilitate the printing of more money. How could politicians object to an arrangement that allows them to spend recklessly without any normal free market consequences? On the contrary, decades of currency printing has only artificially inflated the prices of houses, stocks, and other assets denominated in those paper notes — giving ordinary citizens the false impression that some of what they own is gaining value. If a house today is now twenty times more expensive than in 1950, however, it just might have something to do with the fact that the U.S. dollar has lost over 97% of its value since the private Federal Reserve central bank came into existence in 1913 and the United States slowly but surely decoupled its currency from gold backing during the course of the next sixty years. Housing prices have certainly risen, but any savings in U.S. dollars have gone up in smoke. So much for the stored value of money.
Now with the central banks printing money and reckless government spending pushing Western economic systems to the brink, a new kind of financial hocus-pocus has been proposed: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The idea is that consumers and producers will transact entirely in virtual currencies that do not physically exist outside of the stored memories of interconnected machines. If replacing sound gold monies with worthless paper was not bad enough, now worthless paper will be replaced with the ephemeral ones and zeroes of computer code. What could possibly go wrong?
Put aside the financial system's fragile house of cards destabilizing global markets today and central banks' suicidal penchant for playing Russian roulette with eight billion lives linked through common dependence on money. Instead, consider what the transition to CBDCs would mean for the West. Succinctly put, any lingering Cold War distinctions between capitalism and communism would vanish.
If governments and central banks control the creation, distribution, and exchange of virtual money, whatever remains of free markets will disappear. If governments and central banks monitor every transaction between consumers and producers, then all industries will be subjugated to the centralized command of the State. If governments and central banks assert the legal power to determine who may store value, how much value may be personally stored, and how long that value will be permitted to last, then whatever remains of private property will cease to exist. If governments and central banks maintain a digital monopoly over the only legalized forms of money, then they may redistribute wealth or penalize personal behavior without regard for individual rights or limits to their control.
The same surveillance systems and social credit scores that are already pervasive in communist China will invariably become pervasive throughout the formerly free West, as well.
No doubt propaganda campaigns will cloak this oppressive monitoring in the West's own "politically correct" language of fighting "hate" or "racism" or "climate change" or the next COVID-like scare, but the West's system of control over its citizens will be no different from the Chinese communist version: Individuals will have their digital wealth confiscated or replenished according to whether their behavior conforms to the strictures of the State. Free markets, free will, free speech, and even free thoughts will be regulated just as easily as central banks regulate each citizen's digital wealth. In effect, the implementation of CBDCs will give Western governments the ultimate monopoly over every life within their dominion.
For too long Westerners have remained quiet while market competition has given way to government-sanctioned monopoly, and private property has transformed into something much less personal or secure. The funny money of paper currencies has destroyed most ordinary Westerners' savings, while artificially inflating the prices of stocks and other assets increasingly beyond the reach of many. Now an overhaul of the financial system and a transition to mandated CBDCs threaten what remains of Westerners' personal liberties. Before the last vestiges of the Cold War's ideological dichotomy evaporate and nothing remains to distinguish East from West, this is the time for friends of freedom to stand and be counted. For while Klaus Schwab may desire a future where Westerners find happiness in owning nothing, those who value liberty know that personal ownership and the unfettered exchange of goods, services, and ideas remain the bedrock of those free nations that refuse to be enslaved.
*JB Shurk writes about politics and society.
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Learning from History: Why Some Nations Reject Muslims
Raymond Ibrahim/April 12, 2023
Knowledge or ignorance of history tends to have a profound impact on how knowledgeable or ignorant one is concerning what is really happening in the present.
Consider the question of Islam in Europe: European nations that had little history with Islam—mostly in the northwest of the continent—are precisely the ones most open to (and suffering from) it; European nations that had much history with Islam—mostly in the southeast of the continent—are averse to it.
After observing that “The leaders of the Muslim masses can clearly see that the situation is ripe to occupy the apostate continent [Europe],” in a recent interview, Archbishop Emeritus Gyula Márfi of Hungary, explained why his nation is so dead set against Muslim immigration:
They [Muslims] have been here in Hungary for 150 years; we know how much destruction they have caused. We Hungarians still carry the memory of this in our genes to some extent.
The archbishop is referring to Islam’s conquest and occupation of Hungary from 1541 to 1699. Then, Islamic jihad, terrorism, and Christian persecution were rampant (as amply documented here and here).
Nor was Hungary alone. Much of southeastern Europe and portions of modern day Russia were conquered, occupied, and terrorized by the Turks—sometimes in ways that make Islamic State atrocities seem like child’s play. (Think of the beheadings, crucifixions, massacres, slave markets, and rapes that have become IS trademarks—but on a much grander scale, and for centuries.)
That these Islamic depredations are so etched in the minds of at least some eastern European leaders—namely, the more historically knowledgeable—is evident in the fact that Hungary’s own president, Viktor Orbán, who is committed to securing his nation against Muslims and preserving its Christian identity, has made the same observations as the archbishop. Back in 2015, he said of migrants
Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity…. We don’t want to criticize France, Belgium, any other country, but we think all countries have a right to decide whether they want to have a large number of Muslims in their countries. If they want to live together with them, they can. We don’t want to and I think we have a right to decide that we do not want a large number of Muslim people in our country. We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Muslim communities that we see in other countries, and I do not see any reason for anyone else to force us to create ways of living together in Hungary that we do not want to see….
The prime minister went on to invoke history, sounding just like the Hungarian archbishop:
I have to say that when it comes to living together with Muslim communities, we are the only ones who have experience because we had the possibility to go through that experience for 150 years.
Back then, the Western establishment responded to Orbán’s invocation of history with derision. The Guardian mocked:
Hungary has a history with the Ottoman empire, and Orbán is busy conjuring it. The Ottoman empire is striking back, he warns. They’re taking over! Hungary will never be the same again!… Hence the wire; hence the army; hence, as from today, the state of emergency; hence the fierce, unrelenting rhetoric of hatred. Because that is what it has been from the very start: sheer, crass hostility and slander.
Western media characterized Orbán as “xenophobic,” “full of hate speech,” and Europe’s “creeping dictator.” Sounding like the mafia boss of the Left, the Guardian simply referred to him as a “problem” that needs to be “solved.”
Yet history has vindicated Orbán. Unlike those many West European nations that have been inundated with Muslim migrants—and whose crime and rape levels have soared—Hungary’s national integrity remains secure.
Incidentally, while the Western media pretend that “racism” and “white supremacism” are the real reason nations such as Hungary reject migration, in fact, several “yellow” and “brown” nations reject Islam for the very same reasons cited by the Hungarians.
In Myanmar (Burma), non-indigenous Muslim minorities are behind the same sort of anti-infidel mayhem, violence, and rape found elsewhere. Accordingly, anti-Muslim sentiment has grown among Buddhist majorities.
Thus popular Buddhist leader Ashin Wirathu—whom the media refer to as the “Burmese bin Laden,” and who was banned by Facebook—staunchly opposes Islam’s presence in Myanmar: “You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” says the monk in reference to Muslims: “I call them troublemakers, because they are troublemakers.”
Reminiscent of the Hungarian position, Wirathu also warns that: “If we are weak, our land will become Muslim.” The theme song of his party speaks of a people who “live in our land, drink our water, and are ungrateful to us”—a reference to Muslims—and how “We will build a fence with our bones if necessary” to keep them out.
Wirathu’s pamphlets warn that “Myanmar is currently facing a most dangerous and fearful poison that is severe enough to eradicate all civilization.”
Or consider the words of Fr. Daniel Byantoro, a Muslim convert to Christianity, discussing the ramifications of Islam’s unchecked entry into what was once a non-Muslim nation but today is the largest Muslim nation:
For thousands of years my country (Indonesia) was a Hindu Buddhist kingdom. The last Hindu king was kind enough to give a tax exempt property for the first Muslim missionary to live and to preach his religion. Slowly the followers of the new religion were growing, and after they became so strong the kingdom was attacked, those who refused to become Muslims had to flee for their life… Slowly from the Hindu Buddhist Kingdom, Indonesia became the largest Islamic country in the world.
If there is any lesson to be learnt by Americans at all, the history of my country is worth pondering upon. We are not hate mongering, bigoted people; rather, we are freedom loving, democracy loving and human loving people. We just don’t want this freedom and democracy to be taken away from us by our ignorance and misguided “political correctness”, and the pretension of tolerance. (Facing Islam, endorsement section).
Indeed. Nations as diverse as Hungary and Myanmar—and leaders as diverse as the Christian Orbán and the Buddhist Wirathu—are well acquainted with Islam, including its history vis-à-vis their nations. Accordingly, instead of judging and dismissing them as “racists” and “xenophobes,” Western nations would do well to learn from their experiences.
The alternative is to learn from their own experiences—that is, the hard way.

The Saudis Visit Sanaa
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
Approximately three months ago, a vessel carrying a staggering cargo of 5,000 weapons, over 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, and 7,000 missile components was intercepted and seized en route from Iran to a Yemeni port under Houthi control. This is just one of dozens, if not hundreds, of similar shipments that have been fueling the war for nearly eight years and seven months.The war has taken a heavy toll on both sides, with Sanaa airport and the port of Hodeidah rendered inert. Arab Coalition forces must approve every plane landing and search every ship before docking. The Houthis and the areas under their administration have faced immense hardships, compounded by the displacement of millions of Yemenis in search of a better life in the country or abroad.
Both sides have made simultaneous declarations to end the fighting and restore peace. Intensive meetings were held to discuss a halt of war and a return to normalcy. One remarkable and surprising sign of progress is the recent visit by a Saudi delegation to the Houthi-controlled Sanaa, which suggests a genuine dedication to pursuing peace.The accelerating pace of these historic developments can be attributed, in no small part, to the recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by China. The resolution of longstanding tensions between the two regional powers is expected to have a ripple effect throughout the region, including in Yemen.
The recent agreement has inspired a great deal of hope, particularly with regard to the Yemen war and the prospects for peace.
The war has left behind a trail of challenges, including the displacement and migration of millions of people, the deployment of deadly landmines that have claimed innocent lives, the disruption of education for nearly a decade, the lack of healthcare services, and the large-scale destruction in affected areas.
While the end of the war may not end the futile debate as to who emerged victorious, it is crucial to acknowledge that in the context of wars, there are no real winners. The war was born out of dire necessities, which made it impossible to respond with peaceful means.
The Iranians, Houthis, and Saudis have all suffered, but now, they have come to the realization that the only viable way forward is the proposed solution of internal political participation and a halt to attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Iran, in particular, has come to understand that it cannot isolate itself from the dangers of regional chaos and that it must work toward securing regional stability rather than sabotaging it. It is only when all parties involved come to this realization that a peaceful resolution becomes a possibility.
In the past, dozens of rounds of negotiations took place. Successive international and regional negotiators visited the relevant capitals. Agreements were signed. But the fruit of all these efforts was less-than-ideal peace for everyone involved.
This time around, there are many reasons to be optimistic. The announcement of peace in Yemen has been accompanied by concrete actions, such as the cessation of military operations, the withdrawal of forces, and the release of prisoners from both sides. This is an encouraging start toward achieving lasting peace in this vital region. Ending the war and establishing security and stability is in the interest of all parties.

A Stand with Naivety
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
A new movement has been gaining steam since the China-brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran concluded. This boisterous movement has struck iron with iron, as "funding" has been halted, beneficiaries have been identified, and obsolete tools have been destroyed or suspended. They will be kept in the cellars of conspiracy theories for a while. This has empowered "naivety" in our region and the West, giving rise to a misleading narrative about Saudi Arabia's involvement in Yemen. Professor Abdulrahman Al-Rashed discussed this matter in his article "Saudis in Sanaa." "The end of the war will not end the Byzantine and childish debate about winners and losers."This naivety was pushed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the left in the past, and by countries, including Western ones, as well. There is nothing new here. Rather it has long been a feature of the history of the region and its politics. Accordingly, the discussion of this matter will swing between different events and dates. Thus, whatever the outcomes of the negotiations in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is no occupier. It does not have forces on the ground to bring back home like those that the US withdrew from Afghanistan. Rather, if the negotiations succeed, Saudi Arabia would have succeeded in preventing one Yemini component from swallowing all the others. Saudi Arabia's success lies in the fact that it put down a coup and quelled the attacks on its borders without implanting militias. History will remember that the Saudis never sought to divide Yemen, but to unite it and integrate all of its components. Moreover, the Saudis have respected a long truce, and Riyadh is now ending a war that had already ended.
Backing up, this movement began after China's mediation efforts, which followed a long set of statements by Iran calling on the Saudis to engage in dialogue and reestablish ties. Meanwhile, US Envoy Robert Malley was trying to negotiate with Iran, even through intermediaries - negotiations in which he is in one room, the Iranian negotiator is in another, and an interlocutor sits between them!
Highlighting the statement that former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made after relations with Riyadh were reestablished would suffice. "I pray that God will not forgive those who had prevented Iran and some neighbors from having positive relations…"
The fools did childish and stupid things and attacked diplomatic buildings. If it were not for these attacks, we would be in a better position today." Despite all of that, some continue to speak of Saudi concessions!
The fact is that what Saudi Arabia did was take an independent position and decision. We have seen American writers criticize the Saudi foreign policy after it did so, including Fareed Zakaria, David Ignatius, and others. As I have said earlier, Saudi Arabia does not strive to zero problems but to serve its development strategy. As for those who are naive, they don't say anything new. They said the same as the courageous late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat liberated Sinai. The same is true for the rhetoric they espoused during liberation of Kuwait and the Arab Spring. Indeed, we heard it a few months ago. After Cristiano Ronaldo was signed, their leader Hassan Nasrallah discussed Ronaldo and entertainment! To sum up, the victor is the one who stops the bloodshed, consolidates stability and development, and safeguards the communities of his neighbor. This is what Saudi Arabia has done, and this is the role of the wise. What matters, beyond the narratives of the naive, is that the story in Yemen will not end with the signing of a peace agreement. The peace marks the beginning of the story.
And the Saudis must keep in mind that half of the battle is fought in the media.

Vietnam, Palestine, Lebanon and the Past Ahead of Us
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
The news just passed us by. It drew neither our attention nor our commentary:
Vietnam announced that it would sign a free trade deal with Israel. This happened after seven years of negotiations between the two countries.
The details of the reports on this development are no less interesting than the headline: bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 18 percent last year, rising to $2.2 billion. Israel exports electronics and fertilizers to Vietnam, and it imports smartphones, shoes, and seafood.
As for the bilateral and multilateral agreements signed between them since the 1990s, their number exceeds 15. More importantly, Vietnam - which fears the power of its Chinese neighbor - is among the most prominent importers of Israeli military equipment. Only Russia exports more arms to Vietnam than the Jewish state, which is also seeking to sell the Vietnamese a satellite.
It is worth noting that, in 2011, the two countries signed an agreement to keep their security ties secret, which has reportedly “accelerated the development of these relations” according to news agencies.
The talk about Vietnam is not an irrelevant detail. The actual significance of those developments is immense, but their symbolic value is greater. We are talking here about the country that the political culture prevailing in the Arab world considered “closely allied with the Palestinian cause in its battle against imperialism and Zionism.” It was the example that many, in the 1960s and 1970s, called on us to imitate, as it managed to inflict a “crushing defeat on imperialism,” which is, of course, Israel’s “objective ally.”
Indeed, the popular Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Najm had reassured the Palestinians:
“Vietnam heralds a sacred Annunciation
Victorious, it arises
From under a hundred thousand raids”.
The sacred Annunciation, it now seems, does not inspire reassurance. It has become more of an omen than a promise.
The fact is that a political culture more dynamic than ours would have chosen to reconsider rather than disregard: reconsidering what has happened in Vietnam and why, as well as reevaluating what we have said about it in our analysis, rhetoric, and poetry. This task is made more pressing by the fact that Vietnam witnessed neither a military coup, nor the emergence of an alternative administration elected by the people.
Nevertheless, it has witnessed a generational and intellectual shift that unfolded in parallel with its transition from prioritizing the cause to prioritizing the country and what Vietnam’s rulers believed to be its interests.
And if we had opted to reconsider instead of disregard, this is certainly among the issues we would have had to contend with: how can we ensure that our friends remain friends after they go from prioritizing the cause to prioritizing their country and interests? The countries of our friends are bound to undergo this shift sooner or later, unless, God forbid, we assume that the people of the world will live in their trenches forever or we want this for them.
More important, and this partly explains our failure to revise, is the contrast between the path taken in the Arab Levant and that of the Vietnamese. Our exaltation of this “resisting” country continued into the mid-1970s, and with the liberation and subsequent unification of Vietnam, mention of it continued to decline until it eventually almost disappeared from our discourse. At present, Vietnam seems in Arab writings like a country that no longer fits on the map and has resigned itself to nonexistence.
A few days ago, as missiles were fired at Israel from Lebanon, some Lebanese and Arab commentators claimed the incident marked a “return to the 1970s,” that is, to the decade that Vietnam has walked away from, leaving the trench it had dug itself into behind with it.
In Lebanon, there is talk of “the resistance forces’ joint operation room” and “the unity of battlegrounds”. as well as the country becoming more and more implicated if the Israeli fanatics continue to violate the sanctity of the holy Muslim sites in Palestine…If the widespread narrative that Hamas fired the missiles is accurate, the resemblance with 1975 - the year that the Lebanese civil war broke out - would be very strong indeed. Hamas stands in for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and Hezbollah stands in for the Lebanese National Movement, though there is a marked difference in strength between the two forces of the latter pair. What does this mean? It means more broken-down borders, economic frustrations, scorched earth, the exacerbation of sectarian and ethnic schisms in the countries concerned, and, of course, stretching the path to consolidated national sovereignty in Lebanon, Syria and the Arab Levant in general.
Accordingly, the difference between the Vietnamese and us seems to apply to time as well. They chose to forgo the rifle and trench for the sake of their state and interests. They have thus chosen an approach we might not agree with, but that is another matter.
As for us, who perpetually reside in the cause rather than a particular country, forgoing the present day for the 1970s, and if we were evacuated from it, we would have probably turned to the 60s or even 50s. The decades of the past are ahead of us, so long as the trench is always there. The only ones who have outdone us in this regard are the Jewish religious settlers, whose leaps to the past are measured in centuries rather than decades. We should make sure to catch up!

Chinese Officials Flock to Twitter to Defend TikTok
Sapna Maheshwari and Steven Lee Myers/Asharq Al Awsat/April 12/2023
When members of Congress grilled TikTok’s chief executive last month on Capitol Hill, the app’s supporters sprang to its defense online.
The lawmakers were “old, tech-illiterate,” one said. “Out of touch, paranoid and self-righteous,” said another. The hourslong hearing “destroyed the illusion that US leads in cyber era,” read another post.
These particular barbs did not come from TikTok’s users — 150 million and counting in the United States — but from representatives of China’s government.
In an information campaign primarily run on Twitter, Chinese officials and state media organizations widely mocked the United States in the days before and after the hearing, accusing lawmakers of hypocrisy and even xenophobia for targeting the popular app, according to a report released on Thursday by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan initiative from the German Marshall Fund.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, has sought to assure American lawmakers that it is independent from China’s influence, and that it has extensive plans for securing Americans’ data and providing oversight of its content recommendations. Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, explicitly said at the House hearing that ByteDance was “not owned or controlled by the Chinese government.”
China’s information push, however, showed just how deeply invested Beijing was in the company’s fate. Just hours before Mr. Chew’s testimony last month, China’s Commerce Ministry said it opposed a sale of TikTok in a direct rebuke of the Biden administration, which is pushing a sale.
Chinese officials “clearly feel a stake in it,” said Michael H. Posner, a former assistant secretary of state and now director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
The report from the Alliance for Securing Democracy found that Twitter accounts from Chinese diplomats and state media outlets posted nearly 200 tweets about TikTok in the week around the congressional hearing on March 23. That compared with fewer than 150 posts in all of January and February.
Chinese state media accounts also ran more than 30 stories about TikTok in outlets like China Daily, the report said. The researchers said in an interview that they had found similar content on Facebook and YouTube.
Asked about its support for TikTok, China’s foreign ministry said it opposed American actions that violate market principles and rules under the World Trade Organization to target foreign companies. “What the US should do is to stop smearing and slandering, and provide a fair, just, open, and nondiscriminatory business environment for companies from all over the world,” the statement said.
China’s effort has echoes of its defense of another Chinese company that has found itself in the cross hairs of American legal and political controversy: Huawei, the telecommunications giant, which the United States has identified as a potential national security threat.
The scale and tone of China’s criticism of the US government have intensified, though, reflecting the sharp deterioration of relations between the two countries despite a halting effort last year by President Biden and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to reverse the decline.
“This is how the US talks to the world,” a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, wrote last month on Twitter, in English, with the hashtag #TikTokHearing.
Her post, which was retweeted more than 1,200 times, included a clip from TikTok showing Representative Kat Cammack, Republican of Florida, who during the hearing called the app “an extension” of the Communist Party of China. When Mr. Chew asked for a chance to respond, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington and the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said it was time to move on.
“What I think is surprising is how direct the attacks against US lawmakers were,” said Etienne Soula, a research analyst at the Alliance for Securing Democracy who wrote the report with Lindsay Gorman. “It’s par for the course for them to go after the US system in general, saying it’s dysfunctional, that democracy doesn’t work and that it’s not a real democracy.” It is far less common, he added, to see “very open insults.”
Chinese officials, including diplomats around the globe, have become adept at using social media — including platforms like Twitter and Facebook that are banned in China — to spread their political views to an international audience. The latest campaign, however, sought to directly influence the political debate in the United States.
Posts by officials and state media mocked the political process. At least one stoked speculation of a potential “Gen Z rebellion” if lawmakers or the administration succeeded in banning the app or forcing its sale, as the Biden administration had been proposing.
“China is careful not to interfere with other countries’ internal affairs or internal politics, so to have them weigh in so openly to encourage voters to riot — it’s outside the ordinary,” Mr. Soula said.
Other posts compared tense photos of the roughly five-hour hearing with pictures of Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, who was visiting China around the same time and smiling and posing with locals.
“Isn’t it clear which side supports free trade and which side is against it?” said a post from the Twitter account of Global Times, a nationalist paper owned by the Communist Party.
Still others sought to deflect attention from TikTok, asking why lawmakers were highlighting its risks to young people while “doing nothing on gun-control legislation.” They also called the criticism of the app “xenophobic.” (TikTok’s chief operating officer has also said calls to ban the app are xenophobic.)
More recently, Chinese state media outlets have continued to push the campaign on their Twitter accounts, with China Daily posting an article on March 31 titled: “US says China can spy with TikTok. It spies on world with Google.’”
On TikTok itself, many users also rallied behind the company and Mr. Chew, who has become an unexpected celebrity. The hashtag #TikTokBan has been viewed more than two billion times. Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said Mr. Chew’s popularity on the platform had increased organically.
The Alliance for Securing Democracy did not track Chinese propaganda on TikTok’s service as part of the report. Several Chinese media outlets already have accounts on the app. Their accounts and videos are identified with labels that say “China state-controlled media,” and their profiles have fewer followers than they do on Twitter, suggesting that the latter remains the principal platform for China’s global messaging.
“We label state-affiliated media so our community is clear if they are engaging with content that may be controlled or influenced by a government,” Ms. Oberwetter said. “This is an ongoing process, and we’ll continue to review new accounts and add labels as and when they join the platform.”
CGTN, the English-language channel of the Chinese state television network, posted a TikTok video on March 24 that featured defenses of the platform from some of the influencers the company flew to Washington to help defend it before the hearing.
“When it comes to hot-button topics involving autocratic actors, it can be difficult to tell the difference between organic arguments and arguments derived from autocratic propaganda, even in open, democratic information spaces,” the Alliance for Securing Democracy said in its report. “Should geopolitical debates occur on Chinese-owned social media platforms like TikTok going forward, it could become even more difficult to differentiate between organic arguments and propaganda.”
The potential to shape public opinion is one of the major security concerns that American intelligence officials have raised about TikTok.
“If there are 150 million US users, and God knows how many in the rest of the world,” Mr. Posner said “it’s a platform for disinformation just waiting to be exercised.”

Hazards Of Nationalism
Matthew Schmitz/First things/May 2023
Anti-Christian vio­lence is on the rise in Israel. Jewish extremists have attacked Christian sites six times since the new year, compared to nine such attacks in the whole of 2021 and thirteen in 2020. At the Protestant cemetery on Mount ­Zion, Jewish youths desecrated more than thirty graves, pushing down stone ­crosses and breaking them with heavy rocks. At the Church of the Flagellation, a Jewish American man shattered an image of Christ with a hammer, declaring, “You can’t have idols in Jerusalem. This is the holy city!” Most recently, two Jewish men disrupted the Sunday liturgy at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, wielding a stick studded with nails and injuring one cleric. Standing behind these attacks is a clear logic: Since this land belongs to the Jews, non-Jews don’t belong in it.
In January, Jewish settlers followed this logic to its conclusion by attacking the Taboon Wine Bar in East Jerusalem. Dalia Dabdoub, who owns and runs the cafe with her husband, described the attack to me:
It was around 10:30 at night. There were a lot of people sitting outside—foreigners, Jews, Arabs. The settlers came and started attacking, telling the Arabs to go back to Gaza, telling the Christians to go back to the Vatican. We were against forty settlers. A random guy—we still don’t know who he is—helped us prevent them from going inside. So they broke a lot of the tables and chairs, and then they left.
Dabdoub is a Palestinian Christian. Her husband, Miran Krikorian, is part of Jerusalem’s deeply rooted Armenian community, which occupies the southwest quarter of the Old City. Neither has antecedents in the Vatican. Yet they are viewed as interlopers by fringe members of Israel’s settler movement, whose vision of purgation is no less fierce than the one expressed in the Palestinian slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
A century ago, Christians made up 25 percent of the population of Jerusalem. Now they are a mere 2 percent. Without an indigenous Christian presence, the Holy Land risks becoming a hall of antiquities through which foreign visitors awkwardly pass, rather than a place in which faith is lived and breathed.
“Every day I come here I think, is it safe today, is it not today?” ­Dabdoub says. “What can we do? No one can save us. Even on the day of the attack, the government didn’t do anything. They didn’t do anything. So who is supposed to give us support? Who’s supposed to give us safety?”
The attack on the café was part of a broader pattern of violence that targets Christian holy sites, businesses, and institutions. “The day after they came to our restaurant, they attacked the Armenian ­Quarter,” Dabdoub says. “They started peeing on the door of the convent, and they tried to remove the Armenian flag. And in the Old City you can see on the walls, it is written, ‘Death to the Arabs; death to the Christians.’”
One particularly alarming attack occurred on March 16, when a Catholic convent and girls’ school in Nazareth was fired upon. Even as their numbers decline, Christians remain an important institutional presence in the Holy Land, operating a disproportionate number of charities. Catholic schools have a high reputation and attract many Muslim students. Rafic Nahra, the Catholic bishop in Nazareth, decried the attack in a statement. “We take this incident very seriously, because Christian monasteries and schools have always been outside the cycle of violence that occurs in Arab society.”
Israel represents the greatest triumph of modern nationalism. For if Zionism expresses a very ancient idea—the Jewish longing for the Jewish homeland—it ­also was shaped by distinctly modern circumstances, above all the rise of German, Italian, Hungarian, and Slavic nationalisms. These European nationalisms broke up the older imperial order in which Jews had found a degree of protection, flourishing in cosmopolitan centers such as the Vienna of the Habsburgs.
Some who witnessed the destruction of the Habsburgs’ creaky but capacious empire conceived a hatred of what Stefan Zweig called the “arch-plague” of nationalism. Zionists, by contrast, believed that Jews needed their own nationalism, and in Israel their hopes have been realized to a stunning degree. Israel can boast of a thriving tech sector and a successful entertainment industry. Minorities enjoy greater religious freedom in Israel than in neighboring countries. Israel is perhaps the only country in the Middle East where one can drive from one end to the other without paying a bribe.
On many scores, Jewish nationalism has surpassed its European counterparts. Irish nationalists dreamed of reviving Gaelic, but the Irish still speak English. By con­trast, Israelis successfully revived Hebrew—for centuries a strictly liturgical language—as a living modern vernacular. German na­tionalists solemnly announced a Thousand ­Year Reich, which end­ed after twelve years; Israel has lasted for seventy-five. Hungarian nationalists have cast off the Austrian yoke and survived the So­viets, but they still have to deal with the EU.
Yet if Israel expresses to a unique degree what is admira­ble in nationalism, it also ex­hibits nationalism’s limits, one of which is a difficulty in dealing with non-national communities. Not ­only in the violent acts of young settlers, but in the careers of certain government officials, one can detect disdain for the Christian minority. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of National Security, has a long career of defending Jewish extremists, including anti-Christian ­terrorists. In 2015, he led the legal defense for an extremist who had set fire to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Galilee. After his recent election win, Ben-Gvir thanked his longtime collaborator Bentzi Gopstein, an anti-Christian activist who has described Christians as “blood-sucking vampires” and urged his followers to “throw the vampires out of our land before they drink our blood again.” (­Ben-Gvir said, “We don’t agree on everything, but he’s my friend.”)
Faydra Shapiro, an Israeli academic active in Jewish–Christian dialogue, notes that many Israelis are horrified by anti-Christian violence. “I hear a chorus of condemnation from academics, tour guides, and people on the street,” she tells me. “The question is whether religious and right-wing politicians and rabbis are also willing to add their ­voices, insisting that this is absolutely ­unacceptable.” Shapiro praises David Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, for issuing a letter that unequivocally condemned the Jewish attack on the Protestant cemetery on Mt. Zion.
For some, the Jewish experience of being a persecuted minority is an inspiration to constitute a bet­ter sort of majority. “Israeli Jews are making the connection between our historical experience as a vul­nerable minority in the Diaspora and the challenges of Christian life here in Israel,” Shapiro tells me. If this can be done, Zionism will be able to claim another distinction from its rival nationalisms, whose hostility to heterogeneity has often proved self­-defeating. If not, it will continue to be plagued by some of the same problems as have those ­nationalisms.
*Matthew Schmitz is a founder and editor of Compact.
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/05/hazards-of-nationalism?fbclid=IwAR0i9k5CX-v9t8nFVlyOkzeJVxE0G4qu0NlMdmOjZoURzhEMiCnVbQvuiDs

15-minute cities may increase societal segregation
Mohamed Chebaro//Arab News/April 12, 2023
While the world has been busy celebrating some of the holiest days in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim calendars, I tried to take a break from the information cycle and its relaying of news of war, destruction and intolerance, from the Middle East to Ukraine, in addition to the uncertainties associated with a warmer planet, alarming methane emission increases, melting ice sheets, water rationing, and the multiplication of diseases. Instead, I decided to leaf through the material I set aside for what would hopefully be some lighter reading over the Easter break.
I returned to an old article I had kept aside from the days of pandemic-related lockdowns, when people suddenly rediscovered the values of down-to-earth living within small and supportive urban or rural communities. In such communities, individuals became born-again family members, tasting the safety and certainty that comes with relying on one another in smaller, more limited areas of existence that some later called “15-minute cities.”
This concept was suggested as an answer to our polluting lifestyles and as a way to live a slower, more sustainable and more inclusive existence within the convenience of limited proximities, where work, leisure and entertainment are all available within a small area. I started to wonder if that was not how our ancestors used to live and whether or not what was being proposed by some policies and avant-garde city planners was not akin to a return to basics that we long ago abandoned in favor of seeking individual achievement and progress as societies and states.
Humanity has, for centuries, grappled with the testing of all measures and means to organize society and its people alongside various versions of capitalism, socialism and communism. Now there are attempts to marry our modern lifestyle with a slower, more ethical existence modeled on a format that resembles yesteryear, when we lived a less polluting, more basic life in limited environs.
It is Carlos Moreno, a Franco-Colombian urbanist, who has been credited with coining the term 15-minute city and making the concept popular. It focuses on efforts to think about ways to meet global warming targets by reinventing and redesigning cities and the way people live in them. Moreno began his research in 2010 and his concept was introduced in a French newspaper article in 2016 as part of a proposal to reduce cities’ “environmental impacts ... and to put livability and sustainability as the ultimate goals.”
Though his work and that of others before him had the main driver of finding the means to make cities more comfortable to live in and more adapted to sustainable living to meet climate change targets, the term was popularized during lockdown. However, it was used by misinformation and conspiracy theory protagonists, who wrongly claimed that lockdowns, the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes seen in cities to make them greener, more local and more inclusive were a means to imprison people and limit their freedoms.
They might create a disconnect and indirectly encourage what could be seen as an unequal form of existence.
Experiments with different versions and aspects of the 15-minute city concept have been carried out across the globe, from Paris to Melbourne and Ottawa to Scotland. They are aimed at bringing everything that people need close to them, instead of them having to spend hours commuting and polluting, while also strengthening the sense of community that has long been missing from big cities. Moreno insisted this was never thought of as a prison, but a driver “for happy proximity.”
This was not a totally new concept, as the pedestrianization of city centers and other efforts to curb car usage and promote the use of public transport or nonpolluting modes of transport like bicycles have often stumbled in the light of economic realities and behavioral resistance.
Having lived and worked in London for several decades, one cannot fail to notice its recent gradual transformation to a city that moves more slowly and has more restrictions, such as the Ultra Low Emission Zone. You even have to pay to enter parts of the city, which often led me to question the longer-term impacts of such steps on London’s future and the livelihoods of its residents. Will they be able to interact while also providing vital returns for the Treasury and local authorities to sustain the city?
Yes, the 15-minute city model could represent a major departure from the past and how we respond to climate change, pandemics, globalization and the shift of large chunks of our trade activities to online platforms, further limiting our human-to-human interactions and experience. But I am hesitant about embracing the creation of 15-minute bubbles, as they might create a disconnect and indirectly encourage what could be seen as an unequal form of existence. Our neighborhoods have long struggled with multiple levels of segregation, such as affluence and class. In the future, if concepts like the 15-minute city are applied, those areas might become segregated into successful or unsuccessful urban projects, those with working bubbles and those without.
This idea, like many plans to reform human existence and adapt it to saving our planet, might need to dig deeper into behavioral changes rather than drawing lines on maps and coloring in some neighborhoods. We need to scratch the surface of the mindset change needed to preserve cities and countries’ longer-term viability by eradicating some forms of excess, such as greed and other individualistic ills, and promoting a sense of inclusivity. This needs to form the essence of human existence in rich and poor nations alike if we are to overcome all of the human-made adversities threatening our planet.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist, media consultant and trainer with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.

Lessons from Northern Ireland’s peace
Tony Blair/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Twenty-five years ago, I, along with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, US President Bill Clinton and the leaders of Northern Ireland’s four main political parties, presented what became known as the Good Friday Agreement. That accord resolved a conflict that had caused thousands of deaths and untold grief and destruction for decades, arguably for centuries. The peace, like the political institutions to which the GFA gave rise, was imperfect and fragile, and it remains so. But compare Northern Ireland today with how it was a quarter-century ago, and you can legitimately call what has been achieved a transformation. The peace has held, the economy has doubled in size, and Belfast, a city which used to be dressed in barbed wire and covered with military patrols, is now a thriving European city with a burgeoning technology sector and a bustling night life.
So, we have grounds for cautious celebration on this anniversary. It is hard to think of another truly successful peace process in recent history.
I am often asked whether there are lessons from the GFA for conflict resolution elsewhere in the world. The reality is that every conflict is unique, differentiated by cause, duration, outside support and many other factors. Nonetheless, some lessons are discernible and worth discerning.
First, peace cannot take root without an agreed framework seen by both sides as conceptually fair. In the case of Northern Ireland, the core part of the GFA was the so-called principle of consent: Those who want a united Ireland must accept that the North should remain part of the UK for as long as a majority there wish it. This was a big concession to Northern Ireland’s Unionists.
In return, Unionists accepted the principle of equal and fair treatment for the nationalist, predominantly Roman Catholic community, underpinned by new institutions in areas such as policing and justice, and by the recognition, through cooperation with the Irish Republic, of the nationalist aspiration for unity of Ireland. It is hard to think of another truly successful peace process in recent history. But the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, based on the so-called two-state solution, shows that a framework alone is insufficient. Second, therefore, a peace process needs constant attention by those involved. An agreed framework is just a beginning. It is the roadmap, not the destination.
Achieving peace requires time, patience, creativity and dogged, never-ceasing determination. Peace processes are exactly that: A process, not an event. So, we spent long years — nine in total — on implementation, with many crises, setbacks and stumbling blocks along the way. Any one of them could have shut down the process had we not kept at it.
Third, negotiators must be unafraid to seek outside help. “No one really understands our dispute like we do,” they say. That is correct, but sometimes not understanding the dispute like they do holds the key to resolving it. The interventions by Clinton and US Senator George Mitchell, and the subsequent visit to Northern Ireland and support for the process by President George W. Bush, came at points that were instrumental for ensuring structures of financial and political support. The EU, too, was always looking for ways to help, and the EU’s flexibility in the face of the recent Brexit-related turmoil in Northern Ireland is another classic example of external assistance helping to overcome internal tension. So, don’t fear outsiders; use them.
That of course requires a fourth component: Exemplary leadership. The peace in Northern Ireland would never have happened without it. Leaders had to be prepared to tell their supporters uncomfortable truths, take the criticism and bear the shrieks of betrayal. Time and again during the process, there were moments when the easiest thing to do contradicted the right thing to do. Fortunately, we had leaders willing — often at great personal cost — to take the right path, not the easiest one.
Fifth, a successful process is more likely if those who are engaged in it have confidence in one another. I always tell students that politics is personal; it’s a people business. Because there are so many tricky issues to resolve, because the politics of each person may point in different, if not opposite, directions, you must be able to have conversations that are open, frank and strategic. Your partner in the process has a problem? See it from their angle. Discuss it. Find a solution together. Friendship may be too hard to achieve, but partnership isn’t. Sixth, all parties must recognize that the conflict will have given rise to the deepest mistrust. Striking an agreement is not the same thing as developing trust. The first is formal. The latter is emotional. So, acknowledge it. Seeking ways to build confidence is an investment that will pay the richest dividends. Finally, never give up. People are so cynical about politics, usually because they see little change in their daily lives. But step back a moment. The broad sweep of history is like an impressionist painting: What looks like a blur up close reveals itself at a distance. With the distance of 25 years, we can see that the GFA brought real, far-reaching change. Many living today are the beneficiaries of it. Whether they know it or think about it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it was done.
*Tony Blair, a former prime minister of the UK, is executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2023.

Time to revive the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002
Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Two realities have been highlighted by the recent flare-up in Gaza and South Lebanon. One is the presence of a vigorous and consistent resistance movement, which is linked to Iran and able to trigger war at will, and the other is the total absence of any peace plan for the Palestinian-Israeli issue or any Arab-led alternative.
When the region is on edge, about to blow up, it is wise to calm things down. We have seen this with the recent Saudi Arabia-Iran agreement, with hopes that this will bring stability and help to resolve other conflicts. The eruption in Gaza and Lebanon reminds us that the absence of justice for the Palestinians makes us all vulnerable. It is time to revive the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 to fill that gap.
There is a pattern emerging. First, TikTok clips go viral, showing images of Israeli brutality against Palestinian civilians praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque or celebrating in Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan. Hamas then seizes the opportunity to attack and assert its position as the sole protector of the holy site and defender of the cause. The Palestinian Authority is thus embarrassed and made to look both weak and like a collaborator. Finally, the media of the so-called axis of resistance goes wild, not only against Israel but also against the Arab states that are pursuing peace and normalization.
This also happened in May 2021. Then, the clips were of a Palestinian woman pleading with an Israeli settler who had just taken over her home in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and of Israeli police beating up Palestinians during Ramadan celebrations and storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque during prayers. We also saw images of Israeli radicals making hateful statements. The flare-up inevitably followed, with Hamas sending rockets into Israel in retaliation, provoking a predictable reaction and more atrocities.
This time round, Hezbollah has joined in. No one believes that it had no part in the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. Both Hamas and Hezbollah were the winners — they asserted their resistance credentials and demonstrated once again that their agenda of violence and armed struggle is the only one that works. The Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, also known as the Abdullah Plan, is the only viable alternative.
The first hint of the plan was revealed to Thomas Friedman of The New York Times in a meeting with then-Crown Prince (later King) Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Friedman told the story in a column on Feb. 17, 2002. He had suggested in an earlier article that there should be a clear Arab initiative for peace with Israel and he spoke about this with Crown Prince Abdullah, who replied that it was exactly what he had in mind and he was going to announce it in a speech ahead of the Arab League Summit in Beirut the following month.
The eruption in Gaza and Lebanon reminds us that the absence of justice for the Palestinians makes us all vulnerable.
The international and regional conditions were even more explosive then than they are today. The dust had barely settled since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York by Al-Qaeda. One month later, the US invaded Afghanistan, and there was already talk of an American invasion of Iraq, which everyone in the region predicted would create far more problems than it would solve. The Palestinian Second Intifada was still ongoing and there was a right-wing government in Israel headed by Ariel Sharon. Tensions were high. It looked like the whole region was on the verge of blowing up in a major confrontation with the West. It was in these circumstances that the Arab Peace Initiative was proposed. The carefully worded plan built on the previous Arab League declaration of 1996 that a just and comprehensive peace remained a strategic option. It put forward three conditions to Israel, asking it to reconsider its policies and accept the idea of a just peace, while offering normalization with the Arab world in return for declaring the conflict over.
The first condition was that Israel withdraw from the Occupied Territories to the June 4, 1967, lines, including the Syrian Golan Heights and remaining territories in South Lebanon. The latter was in reference to the Shebaa Farms.
Second was the achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, to be agreed in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. This was a watered-down wording from a version asserting the right of return of refugees, leaving it to be agreed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Third was accepting the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The wording here was also moderated by accepting sharing Jerusalem as the capital of both states. However, the Arab Peace Initiative went nowhere, as it was overshadowed by the fact that, one day before its declaration, a Hamas suicide bombing in a hotel in Netanya killed 30 Israelis and injured 140 during a Passover Seder feast. This was the deadliest attack of the Second Intifada and became known as the Passover massacre. It was followed two days later by the start of Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield, which lasted more than a month and during which Yasser Arafat was besieged in the Mukata’a. It was the biggest military operation by Israel since 1967 and the Arab Peace Initiative was forgotten with it. Twenty years later, a revival of the Arab Peace Initiative could be a game-changer in terms of relations with the US and Europe, who would be involved in its implementation. This would also be a test for the Iranian-Saudi agreement. After nearly 40 years of continuous conflict, there is a need to change course; the people of the region deserve stability and better prospects for the future.
• Nadim Shehadi is a Lebanese economist.
Twitter: @Confusezeus

Arab American Heritage Month is only the start
Ray Hanania Aluwaisheg/Arab News/April 12, 2023
The ongoing celebration of April as Arab American Heritage Month is a reflection of how far the community has come. However, it is also a reflection of how far Arabs in America still need to go.
Celebrating Arab American heritage was an idea that slowly evolved among Arab Americans as the community grew and as a natural response to the increasing anti-Arab discrimination in the US.
The first Arab to arrive in America — according to the official website of the State Department, which in recent years has expanded its acknowledgement of racial diversity to include Arabs — was Moroccan Estebanico Azemmouri in 1527. He was followed by Antonio Bishallany, who arrived from Lebanon. So, it is no surprise that Morocco later became the first Arab nation to recognize America after it declared its independence in 1776 or that the Lebanese American community is today not only the oldest and largest Arab group in the US but also the most engaged in American society.
Living in America is not easy for immigrants and it has certainly not been easy for Arabs. Negative stereotypes of Arabs quickly morphed into racist depictions in the American media, including in books and newspapers, on television and radio and in Hollywood movies.
It did not help that the term “Arab” was inherently challenged by its own people, who had differences emanating from their 22 countries of origin. Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser tried to correct that and create an Arab nation in the 1960s, but the idea drifted away after the defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War.
Arab diversity is one reason why there is an ongoing debate on how to count the number of people from the Arab world or Middle East in the US Census. Being included in the census triggers laws that strengthen the voting and political rights of minority groups, while also mandating the distribution of federal money to strengthen their empowerment. However, Arabs are not included, leaving them in a state of limbo in which they are easily targeted by haters, marginalized by the government, and denied funding.
The word “Arab” has become a so-called four-letter word — a phrase used to reflect disgust rather than a source of pride to be shared with other Americans in a nation that claims to be based on diversity and an empathy for immigrants.
Yes, things have gotten better since 1972, when President Richard Nixon launched Operation Boulder, which was intended to monitor the immigration of “subversives” and individuals seen as threats to America. It was later expanded to target Arabs. Most Arabs in America were targeted by this surveillance.
In the meantime, fear of Arabs was being fanned by the anti-Arab themes that dominated the Hollywood movie industry. Of course, Hollywood has portrayed many ethnic and racial groups in a negative way. But for most of these victims of racism, Hollywood also included positive role models and characters to balance the stereotypes. It is only very recently that Arabs have started to see a few positive Hollywood characters.
Living in America is not easy for immigrants and it has certainly not been easy for Arabs.
Even today, as 45 states recognize Arab American Heritage Month, five states do not. And some 26 states have passed laws targeting Arab American activism by making support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement illegal. While Joe Biden last year became the first US president to officially recognize Arab American Heritage Month, only one state — Illinois — has passed a law officially designating April as such.
Biden has also appointed more than two dozen Arab Americans to serve in his administration, filling a gap that had put Arabs at a disadvantage for many years. But those appointees have been prevented from making public statements about America’s Middle East policy. They have also had to “cleanse” their social media accounts of unpopular opinions and are rarely allowed to speak on the record. I am not sure if that is really an achievement — to have more Arabs working for the US government while keeping their political views muzzled.
Although the mainstream news media celebrates the heritage months of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and others, there is very little acknowledgement of Arab heritage during Arab American Heritage Month.
Racism against Arabs still exists in America. It is compounded by the multifariousness of the Arab people — 22 different nationalities along with even more diverse subgroups that all celebrate their own individuality. Although Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Saudis all see themselves as having distinct identities, Americans do not. America sees us all as the same, even including people from South Asia and others who share our features and our dominant religion of Islam.
The Arab American community needs to recognize this challenge and stress its identity as being Arab, not as being from the Middle East and North Africa. We should not contribute to America’s uneducated and uninformed approach to Arab culture and ethnicity. Until we stand up as Arabs, we will always be pushed down by negative stereotypes.
Arab American Heritage Month is a moment of pride. But it is only a start.
• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.
Twitter: @RayHanania

What is behind the change in Iran’s regional tactics?
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/April 12, 2023
Many were surprised when Iran accepted China’s mediation and appeared to seek peace and reconciliation with Saudi Arabia. Without discounting China’s diplomatic achievement, Iran had its own reasons.
At the start of 2023, Iran’s economic outlook appeared bleak, with widespread protests at home and growing isolation abroad. While its neighbors were growing rapidly, Iran had stagnated. The failure to revive the nuclear deal meant there was no relief in sight from US sanctions; on the contrary, more sanctions were piling up as a result of Iran’s intervention in the Ukraine war. That there were no prospects for regional peace meant that foreign investment was not forthcoming. The government was out of tricks to deal with popular discontent and policymakers at the highest levels knew that.
Iran was on track for stagflation — minimal to no real growth combined with high unemployment and high inflation of about 50 percent. More than half of Iranians were living below the poverty line, according to official figures. The rial was trading at more than 420,000 to the dollar, hitting a record low of 447,000 on Jan. 21. By comparison, it traded at 70 to the dollar prior to the 1979 revolution.
On Jan. 30, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressed the nation and criticized his government’s failed policies. He admitted in a televised speech that Iran’s economy was “a decade behind,” saying that the economy stagnated between 2011 and 2021, referring to “many negative indicators showing this.” Borrowing some of the opposition phraseology, he added: “These are reliable indicators from official organizations and are not just empty claims.” He called the high unemployment among young professionals a “disgrace,” blaming it for their high rate of emigration. He attributed the sluggishness to exogenous factors, such as sanctions and fluctuating oil prices, but admitted that poor government management and overregulation were to blame. Surprisingly, he cited the over-focus on the nuclear program as one of the contributing factors to Iran’s poor performance.
On youth unemployment, Khamenei said that the country can no longer take pride in the growing numbers of university graduates because it cannot provide them with jobs, making it a disgrace instead of an honor.
He lambasted government red tape and the “arbitrary interventions of regulatory and non-regulatory institutions.” Khamenei called for sustained economic growth over the medium and long terms. “We must concentrate our efforts for at least seven, eight or 10 years,” he said, with a focus on knowledge-based companies and job creation.
Interventions in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen have been devastating to those countries but also costly to Iran.
The unusual public rebuke of the government was likely meant to deflect criticism directed at the government by protesters. Khamenei’s choice of 2011 as the starting date of Iran’s malaise was interesting because it coincided with the change in Iran’s regional policies following the so-called Arab Spring. It may indicate a long-overdue reckoning about the devastating effects at home of Tehran’s overreach in neighboring countries since 2011.
Interventions in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen have been devastating to those countries but also costly to Iran. Instead of adding to its prestige, they have lowered Iran’s international standing and soured its relations with the Arab world. More importantly for a domestic audience, they have deprived the Iranian people of the resources they need to have a decent standard of living.
Instead of growing as their neighbors have, Iranians have seen their standard of living stagnate. Post COVID-19, the Gulf has been the fastest-growing region in the world, while Iran bucked that trend. In 2022, the GCC countries grew at a clip rate of 6.4 percent on average and saw their combined gross domestic product exceed $2 trillion for the first time. Iran, by contrast, struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels of growth, with its nominal GDP registering a mere $407 billion in 2022, according to the World Bank, or 20 percent of that of the GCC. The per capita comparison is even bleaker. With a population of 84 million, per capita GDP in Iran was $4,809 in 2022, less than 15 percent of the average per capita income in the GCC states.
The little growth that Iran managed post-COVID-19, aided by rising oil prices, was nearly wiped out by the high inflation rate of about 50 percent, compared to an average of 3.7 percent in the GCC countries, and by currency depreciation, which made imports more expensive. Labor participation rates have declined and unemployment among university graduates has risen, especially among women, whose unemployment rate exceeded 25 percent, no doubt contributing to the intensity of the women-led protests that have engulfed the country since last September.
While the protests in Iran have their roots in other issues, such as undue restrictions on women, economic discontent certainly plays a role. Khamenei mentioned some of the sources of that dissatisfaction and there are many more. Led by the so-called Generation Z, or Zoomers, the protesters have frequently cited failed government economic and social policies and bemoaned Iran’s falling behind compared to its neighbors and the rest of the world.
While Iran’s apparent change in regional policy is welcome, it has to go beyond tactics or the resumption of diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia. For Iran to return to the fold and benefit from the synergies of regional integration, the changes have to go further. One of the main issues for the region and the rest of the world is the commitments Tehran made in the joint statements it issued with Saudi Arabia in Beijing on March 10 and again on April 6, including respect for the rules of conduct between states, namely respect for international law and the UN Charter.
The people of the Middle East, including Iranians, will reap the benefits of detente and de-escalation, if not peace and integration, when the nations of this region focus their energies on making peace and achieving prosperity, instead of the endless and nihilistic wars waged for the past four decades, which have drained their resources and sown enmity and hate between their peoples.
• Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the Gulf Cooperation Council 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.

Regional Reactions to Israel’s Protests
Frances McDonough/The Washington Institute/Apr 12, 2023
Many Middle Eastern outlets have used the crisis to reinforce their inflammatory rhetoric, but some have provided nuanced analysis through the lenses of democratic principles and Arab-Israel peace.
Israel’s unprecedented protests in recent weeks have caught the attention of observers across the Middle East and North Africa. Regional responses have varied, including among Israel’s Arab partners. Many commentators have capitalized on the strife to advance negative portrayals of Israel, particularly after its forces conducted raids on al-Aqsa Mosque. Yet some have genuinely sought to analyze and explain the ongoing events. A closer look at the responses provides a useful picture of how Israel is currently viewed in the region, and how its dynamics with the Palestinians remain central to those perceptions.
Capitalizing on the Strife
Anti-Israel voices have largely used the protests to spread their usual messaging. This trend was especially true in Iranian outlets such as the Tasnim News Agency and Tehran Times, which have published numerous stories arguing that Israel’s social unity is eroding, its security services are vulnerable, and its relations with the United States are deteriorating. They convey this message in part by disseminating videos and photos of protesters and police violently clashing without explaining the context in which these incidents are occurring.
Media commentators in Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and elsewhere have likewise portrayed the protests as a precursor to Israel’s “imminent collapse,” with some describing the demonstrations as “out of control” and the internal divisions as “permanent.” One writer in Algeria advised the region to “let Israel destroy itself.”
In Qatar, Al Jazeera has emphasized the alleged divisions in U.S.-Israel relations, citing President Biden’s recent comments as “the latest step in exposing the idea of ‘shared values’ as a foundational myth of the relationship.” Another article described the protests as “the beginning of the end” for Netanyahu’s government. Commentary about sociopolitical “weakening” has been seen even in countries with which Israel has official relations. In the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, for example, pundits have described the crisis as a “descent toward fascism and racism” and a sign of the government’s “inevitable” overthrow. In Egypt, the popular pro-government television presenter Ahmed Moussa declared that Israel was “burning and collapsing” as a punishment from God—a conviction reiterated by some Twitter users.
Indeed, the hashtag #Israel_is_eroding was used more than 12,500 times on social media in the week following Netanyahu’s decision to pause his government’s proposed judicial overhaul. Users have also circulated a substantial amount of misinformation, including a viral video showing a rabbi tearing apart an Israeli flag and waving a Palestinian one—an incident that did not occur during the current crisis and can be traced as far back as 2019.
Official Reactions and the Palestinian Factor
As noted above, recent Israeli raids on al-Aqsa Mosque have exacerbated these negative portrayals, as has the annual flow of Jewish holiday visitors to the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif. To be sure, many commentators have legitimately questioned the conduct of the raids, including several U.S. legislators. Yet some voices have also seized on the clashes as another opportunity to rally anti-Israel sentiment.
For example, during an April 9 phone call with his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi emphasized that Tehran’s “axis of resistance” was benefiting from such dynamics, then called for the formation of a wider anti-Israel coalition in the region. Elsewhere, the raids spurred Twitter users and activist groups to renew their critiques of the Abraham Accords and other Arab-Israel normalization steps.
Regarding countries that hold normalization accords or peace treaties with Israel, none have issued official government statements about its judicial crisis or protests, in keeping with their traditional tendency of avoiding public comments about domestic developments in other countries. Yet several officials have openly criticized Israel’s recent posture toward the Palestinians, particularly the actions of Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right politician who heads the Finance Ministry and has been given a significant role in the Defense Ministry as well.
For example, Smotrich recently made comments calling for the Palestinian town of Hawara to be “erased” and denying the existence of the Palestinian people. The Foreign Ministries of Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE strongly rejected this rhetoric, calling it “irresponsible” and “racist.” Shortly before this incident, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry had strongly condemned Smotrich’s appearance at a conference in Paris, where he stood behind a podium that displayed a map depicting the Hashemite Kingdom as part of “Greater Israel.”
The raids on al-Aqsa Mosque spurred even more direct condemnations. After an emergency meeting called by Jordan, the Arab League issued a statement rejecting Israel’s “crimes against defenseless Muslim worshipers” and warning of potential escalation. Statements from the Foreign Ministries of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE likewise condemned the raids, with some calling for Israeli authorities to avoid escalation and respect Amman’s custodianship over the holy site.
Indeed, the dynamics surrounding the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif and Palestine writ large are still the main lens through which many in the region depict Israel’s politics and policies, even in situations unrelated to Israeli-Palestinian relations. Besides the strong government reactions noted above, this perception can be seen in much of the region’s media commentary. For example, one writer suggested that “Palestinian resistance to occupation is a key underlying cause” of Israel’s current judicial protests, while an Al Jazeera article argued that the demonstrations and Israel’s “discord” with Washington present an opportunity to bring the Palestinian issue to the forefront.
An Opportunity for Analysis
Less commonly, some observers in the region have contextualized and analyzed the protests—a sign that certain people now see Israel as a country to be studied like any other. Some have even voiced support for the protests in the interest of democratic gains.
In Egypt, for example, opposition media presenter Mohamed Nasser hailed the protesters for “defending their rights and democracy,” describing the demonstrations as a “Hebrew Spring.” Amr Adeeb used the same sobriquet on MBC Masr, noting that some Arabs are “waiting” for internal divisions to collapse the Israeli state—something that will not happen, he concluded. Some voices on social media have likewise attempted to provide greater clarity and challenge the narrative that Israel is simply collapsing. One academic and media columnist suggested that the protests are an internal matter “within the framework of the struggle of political parties,” describing predictions that Israeli institutions will fall apart as a “baseless lie.” Another researcher provided resources to better understand the judicial overhaul plan and the corresponding backlash.
Nadim Koteich, an influential Lebanese journalist operating in the UAE, provided a nuanced critique of Netanyahu’s coalition in the context of Arab-Israel peace, but also noted the important role of “those who hold firm to the belief in, and the pursuit of, a future where peaceful coexistence in the Middle East is possible.” In another piece, he wrote that the demonstrations showed the “maturity of Israel’s democracy” since protesters were fighting for the rule of law regardless of the country’s current national security concerns. He also rejected using the Palestinian situation as the “sole metric by which to measure Israel,” arguing that the protests provide a “valuable lesson for the rest of the Middle East.” Perhaps most important, an appetite for visible cooperation with Israel persists despite the strong reactions to the current crisis. Most recently, the UAE finalized a free trade agreement with Israel aimed at strengthening bilateral economic ties, while President Muhammad bin Zayed and Netanyahu expressed their desire to “promote peace” and “continue dialogue” during an April 4 phone call. And in Morocco, the palace has defended its diplomatic ties with Israel against criticism from the country’s largest Islamist party.
*Frances McDonough is a research assistant with The Washington Institute’s Project Fikra.