English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 20/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
‘Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 06/16-21: “‘Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 19-20/2023
Lent & The Cana Wedding Miracle/Marfaa Sunday/Elias Bejjani/February 19/2023
Al-Rahi to politicians: You turned the wedding of Lebanon, its people, the beauty of its nature, and the richness of its resources into a large funeral and clothed it with a black robe of poverty, hunger, deprivation and displacement
Bishop Aoudi to the officials: Elected a President who could Navigate the ship to the port of salvation
15 dead in Israeli strikes on Iran-Hezbollah targets in Damascus
Report: Salameh to address lira crash, banks to end strike
Abiad to visit France this week, holds press conference tomorrow to present cooperation projects between Health Ministry, OECI Organization & Curie...
Lebanese delegation meets Premier: We express support for Syria with available possibilities to face aftermath of quake
Erdogan discusses with Mikati earthquake repercussions, thanks Lebanon for its support in relief work
Foreign Ministry denounces attack on Damascus: Confirms Israel's indifference to human suffering
Khalaf: Is it possible to hold a five-party meeting on Lebanon without the participation of any Lebanese party?
Khalaf, Saliba appeal to parliamentarians to join them at Parliament House & not to leave before electing a President: Your refusal to attend is a...
Banks' Association confirms its continued strike, denying circulated news of suspending it tomorrow
Lebanon going back into a war economy, and the consequences will be disastrous
Report: California bishop found dead of gunshot wound

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 19-20/2023
Report: California bishop found dead of gunshot wound
Israel carries out airstrike in Damascus suburbs
Aid Group Issues Urgent Appeal for Quake-Hit Syria
Arab states need new approach towards Syria, says Saudi foreign minister
Iran 'takes major step towards acquiring a nuclear weapon'
Rishi Sunak urged to put Britain on war footing as Russia rebuilds forces
US averts UN diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements
Israel blames Iran for attack on oil tanker
The first phase of Putin’s war is over – now the West needs a new strategy
Macron says he wants Russia defeated, not crushed
Israel Blames Iran for Attack on Oil Tanker
Blinken exhorts Israeli, Palestinian leaders to 'restore calm'
Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Russia hit by "extraordinarily significant" losses in east
Time to Ramp up Support for Iranian People, Former Shah’s Son Says
US warns China not to send weapons to Russia for Ukraine war
Putin critic Bill Browder says Russian president is 'terrified of his own people'
Blinken arrives for tour of Turkey's earthquake zone
Rescue Efforts Wind Down in Türkiye, Many Left to Mourn without a Funeral
200 scholars discuss contemporary jurisprudential issues in IIFA 25th session

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 19-20/2023
Innocent People… Indicted and Sentenced to Death’: The Persecution of Christians, January 2023/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./February 19, 2023
Is Biden A ‘Manchurian President,’ Facilitating Nuclear Cooperation between Iran’s Mullahs and Russia?/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute/February 18, 2023
Has the Hour Come for Direct War Between Russia and the West? The Answer Could Be in Putin’s Speech/Raghida Dergham/February 19, 2023
One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves/Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times/February 19/2023
The Survivors Brigade/Samir Atallah/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023
Oil for Climate Action/Najib Saab/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023
Iranian Terrorism/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 19-20/2023
Lent & The Cana Wedding Miracle/Marfaa Sunday
Elias Bejjani/February 19/2023
The lent period is a spiritual battle that we chose to fight our own selves and all its bodily and earthly instinctual pleasures in a bid to abstain from all acts and thoughts of sin.
Lent is ought to strengthen our hope and faith in a bid to fight Satan and to keep away from his ways of sin and despair. Praying and contemplation teaches us that Almighty God is there to guard us and to lead our steps during the entire Lenten period.
When we fast and pray, we find time for God, to understand that his words will not pass away.
Through fasting and praying we can enter into that intimate communion with Jesus so that no one shall take from us the faith and hope that does not disappoint.
Fasting is a battle of spiritual engagement through which we seek to imitate Jesus Christ who fought Satan’s temptations while fasting in the wilderness. He triumphed over Satan, and we faithfully endeavour during the Lent period to tame and defeat our earthly instincts and make our hearts, conscience and thinking pure, immaculate and pious.
We fast and trust that the Lord is our loving Shepherd.
“Psalm 23:04: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and staff comfort me.”
Reading the Holy Bible and praying offers us God’s Word with particular abundance and empowers our souls and minds with His Word.
Mark 13:31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”
By meditating and internalizing the Word Of God we learn precious and irreplaceable forms of prayer.
By attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.
Prayers and fasting allow us to gain a new concept of time and directs our steps towards horizons of hope and joy that have no limits.

Al-Rahi to politicians: You turned the wedding of Lebanon, its people, the beauty of its nature, and the richness of its resources into a large funeral and clothed it with a black robe of poverty, hunger, deprivation and displacement
NNA/February 19/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115973/%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%b7-%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%88-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b0%d9%8a-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a3%d8%b3%d9%87-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%85-19-%d8%b4%d8%a8/
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi, while presiding over the annual mass of the "Caritas Lebanon" Association, expressed "the deep pain of the martyrdom of 3 soldiers of the Lebanese army while carrying out their national duty, which was their martyrdom in a raid operation in Hortala."
Rahi stressed that "the Baalbek-Marmel region cannot continue and remain outside the control of the state, and is protected from those in power with arms."Al-Rahi indicated that Caritas begins its annual campaign this Sunday, noting that "the Caritas campaign seeks everyone's help as usual," explaining that the association worked to open up with the international community, international organizations and donors.
You political officials, MPs, influential people, and those unemployed in one way or another, you have turned the wedding of Lebanon and its people, the beauty of its nature, and the richness of its resources into a great funeral. And you clothed our country with a black robe of poverty, hunger, deprivation and displacement. You displace the people from his homeland, and open its doors to two million and three hundred thousand displaced Syrians, which has begun to exceed half of the Lebanese people. You reject any advice from friendly countries that are keen on stabilizing Lebanon and restoring its strength, and every urgent call to elect a president for the republic, so you call that interference and an insult to your dignity. They want to protect Lebanon from you, from every enemy that comes to it from within, and to free the people from the clutches of your selfishness, your pride, and your destructive projects. Lebanon is not yours, but its people's! Nor are the people a spoil in your hands, but rather riches for Lebanon. So pull out your hands from Lebanon and from its people.

Bishop Aoudi to the officials: Elected a President who could Navigate the ship to the port of salvation
LCCC/NAA/February 19, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115973/%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%b7-%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%88-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b0%d9%8a-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a3%d8%b3%d9%87-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%85-19-%d8%b4%d8%a8/
Archbishop Elias Aoudi in his today's sermon, said “theeternal judgment of people who do not know love is great,” but: “How about if they are responsible for an entire people?”
He added, “Years have passed while the political and economic conditions are collapsing, as well as deterioration of our national currency to an unprecedented levels, and we have not witnessed any effort to save the people from this fate.
Aoudi asked: “Has patriotic feeling gone, or does the absence of human feeling make a person lose his humanity and turn into a human monster who only thinks of his selfishness, even at the expense of the sick, hungry, and afflicted one?” Isn't everyone who calls himself an official or a leader ashamed of turning the living and creative Lebanese people into a fearful, hungry, begging, and seeking emigration? Are you not ashamed of your stubbornness and your clinging to your positions and putting your interests and those of those you are associated with above the interest of your country and your people? How do you live with the weight of the sins you are committing against your country? Doesn't the situation to which you brought the country move your conscience? Is the leader responsible for his people or responsible for the whole nation? Is the official responsible for his sect or for the homeland?”
And he continued his questions, saying: “When will we recover our country from the clutches of selfish people, interests and tyranny? Isn't it time to curb the cravings that control the souls? And is the president who should be elected a president of a class or a president of the republic?”
He added, "It is the duty of the MPs to move quickly in order to facilitate the election of the president and start the reform and the rescue process."
Aoudi also affirmed that “the judgment of officials is great because the people were hungry and he did not feed them,. Aoudi concluded his sermon by calling on the MPs to elected a president who would lead the ship to the port of salvation, and facilitated the formation of an authentic government that can manage state institutions and get them out of their crises.”

15 dead in Israeli strikes on Iran-Hezbollah targets in Damascus
Agence France Presse/February 19, 2023
An Israeli air strike in Syria killed 15 people early Sunday and badly damaged a building in a Damascus district that is home to several state security agencies, a war monitoring group said. Civilians, including two women, were among those killed in "the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital" so far, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The overnight strike damaged a 10-story building near an Iranian cultural center in the capital's Kafr Sousa district, which is home to senior state officials and Syrian intelligence headquarters, said the Britain-based Observatory. It was not immediately clear who was the intended target of the strike which AFP correspondents reported left a large crater in the rubble-strewn street below and blew out windows of nearby buildings. Other missiles overnight hit a warehouse that belongs to pro-regime Iranian and Hezbollah fighters near Damascus, said the Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria. Syria's defense ministry confirmed the Kafr Sousa attack shortly after midnight and gave an initial death toll of five, including one soldier, and 15 wounded civilians, some of whom it said were in critical condition. "At 00:22 am, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several areas in Damascus and its vicinity, including residential neighborhoods," it said. Syrian defense forces had "shot down several missiles," the ministry added in its statement. An Israeli army spokesperson on Sunday said only that "Israel does no comment on reports in foreign media."
More than decade of war
Israel, during more than a decade of war in Syria, has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbor, primarily targeting the country's army, Iranian forces and Hezbollah, allies of the Damascus regime. Israel's military rarely comments on its operations inside Syria, but regularly asserts that it will not let its arch enemy Iran extend its influence to Israel's borders. Late last year, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate, Major General Oded Basiuk, presenting an operational outlook for 2023, said that the army "will not accept Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria."In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Sunday "strongly condemned the attacks of the Zionist regime against targets in Damascus and its suburbs, including against certain residential buildings." The raids had left "a number of innocent Syrian citizens" dead and injured, he said. The Syrian conflict started in 2011 with the violent repression of peaceful protests, and escalated to pull in multiple foreign powers and global jihadists. Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes. The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad receives military support from Russia as well as from Iran and Tehran-allied armed Shiite groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which are declared enemies of Israel. The latest attack comes more than a month after an Israeli missile strike hit Damascus International Airport, killing four people, including two soldiers.
The January 2 strike hit positions of Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups inside the airport and nearby, including a weapons warehouse, the Observatory said at the time. The Damascus government is currently seeking to recover from the February 6 earthquake, which did not affect the capital but which killed more than 43,000 people across the country's north and southern Turkey.

Report: Salameh to address lira crash, banks to end strike
Naharnet/February 19, 2023
Contacts were held over the past 48 hours between senior officials and political leaders, especially Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker PM Najib Mikati, in a bid to defuse the tensions related to the latest Lebanese currency crash and the banking sector strike, a media report said. “Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who will chair a meeting for the bank’s central council tomorrow to discuss means to halt the monetary deterioration, had stressed in the latest financial meeting chaired by Mikati that any plan or measures in this regard would require ending the banks’ strike and their return to work,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Sunday. “Mikati stressed that he would personally exert efforts and carry out the necessary contacts to address the situation with the banks so that they end their strike,” the daily added. “Over the past hours, he actually made contacts in this regards and there are advanced results indicating that banks are inclined to end their strike next week and that they may announce that tomorrow,” the newspaper said.

Abiad to visit France this week, holds press conference tomorrow to present cooperation projects between Health Ministry, OECI Organization & Curie...
NNA/February 19/2023
Caretaker Minister of Public Health, Firas Abiad, will hold a press conference at 1:00 pm tomorrow, Monday, at the Higher Institute of Business, ESA, in the presence of the President of the Organization of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) and the President of the Executive Board of the Marie Curie Cancer Institute, Professor Thierry Philippe, during which they will present the outcome of Professor Philippe's visit to Lebanon and the cooperation projects between the Ministry of Health, the OECI Organization and the Curie Institute. The Health Minister will also provide a briefing on the objectives of his visit to France during this upcoming week, which will include several meetings aimed at developing projects to support the health sector in Lebanon, most importantly his scheduled meeting with the French Minister of Health, the French Development Agency, and the President of the French Red Cross.
Abiad will also visit leading scientific institutes specialized in cancer diseases, such as "The Curie Institute" and leading institutes in the fight against infectious diseases such as "Pasteur" and the "Meriot Foundation".

Lebanese delegation meets Premier: We express support for Syria with available possibilities to face aftermath of quake
NNA/February 19/2023
Damascus, SANA - Prime Minister Hussain Arnous met on Sunday a Lebanese Parliamentary delegation, headed by MP Ali Hassan Khalil, Chairman of Lebanese-Syrian Parliamentary Brotherhood and Friendship Committee. The committee chairman extended the condolences over quake-victims which struck a number of provinces in Syria, expressing the Lebanese solidarity with Syria and the families of victims, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured. ” We express our support for Syria with available possibilities in Lebanon, and we all hope that it will be able to get out of this ordeal, and rehabilitate the afflicted areas, despite the difficult circumstances it is going through in terms of aggression, terrorism, blockade and looting of its resources of oil and wheat. Arnous, in turn, underlined the importance of the brotherly ties binding the two countries and people. Arnous pointed out that the state institutions, civil society, and civil communities, alongside the support of the brothers and friends, had an important role in limiting the repercussions of the earthquake and contributed to rescuing the lives of many stuck under the rubble, removing the rubble, and providing relief assistance to those affected. ---- SANA

Erdogan discusses with Mikati earthquake repercussions, thanks Lebanon for its support in relief work
NNA/February 19/2023
The media office of Prime Minister Najib Mikati indicated that a call took place today between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, during which they discussed the repercussions of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey.
During the call, the Turkish President offered condolences to the Prime Minister for the Lebanese victims who lost their lives in the earthquake, and thanked Lebanon for its support in the relief work that took place. In turn, PM Mikati also offered his sincere condolences to Erdogan over the earthquake victims, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured. Mikati hoped that Turkey would "quickly recover from the earthquake disaster and overcome its difficult ordeal," wishing the Turkish people safety and wellbeing.

Foreign Ministry denounces attack on Damascus: Confirms Israel's indifference to human suffering
NNA/February 19/2023
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemned, in a statement on Sunday, "the Israeli bombing that hit the capital, Damascus, at dawn today, causing destruction and casualties among civilians, in a new attack on the sovereignty and people of Syria, which is still recovering from the effects of the devastating earthquake that struck it."The statement considered that "this blatant aggression and the persistence of Israel in violating the most basic rules of international law, comes to reaffirm Israel's indifference to the human suffering resulting from its attacks on the peoples of the region in all circumstances, especially in times of tragedies, which makes its moral condemnation double".

Khalaf: Is it possible to hold a five-party meeting on Lebanon without the participation of any Lebanese party?
NNA /February 19/2023
MP Melhem Khalaf stressed Sunday that "the first step that must be taken today is to restore order in the state's constitutional institutions by reconfiguring the authority through electing a president of the republic, first and foremost, and then forming a new government that will deal with the intractable crises."In an interview with "Voice of All Lebanon" radio channel this morning, Khalaf emphasized the government's role and responsibility in addressing the prevailing crises. "As for the parliament, it has a primary responsibility to elect a president and form a government to alleviate people's pain," he said. Commenting on the Paris five-party meeting, the MP questioned: "Is it possible to hold a five-party meeting on Lebanon without the participation of any Lebanese party?"

Khalaf, Saliba appeal to parliamentarians to join them at Parliament House & not to leave before electing a President: Your refusal to attend is a...
NNA/February 19/2023
MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun Saliba made an appeal this evening, marking one month since their continuous presence at the Parliament Hall, to their fellow parliamentarians to join them now and remain at the House of Parliament until a President of the Republic is elected, noting that their failure to respond would denote "a flagrant breach of the provisions of the Constitution."“Today, on February 19, 2023, a full month has passed since our continuous presence inside the Parliament hall. Time has passed, crises and wounds of the Lebanese people have deepened, the tragedies of the citizen increased, the state of law collapsed, the law of the jungle took the place of the constitution, justice and the law, the great chaos began - and we warned of it," the MPs said in their appeal. "Today, at this tragic moment, we light the assembly with candles, to say that we, from Parliament, can illuminate the country, break through the wall of darkness and defeat injustice..We light a candle, perhaps its light illuminates the path of those who have strayed from the path of salvation and rescue. Today, and in this fateful moment, there is no salvation except with a stand of conscience that the deputies take before history to save the people and the country, and there is no salvation or rescue except by returning to the provisions of the constitution through reconfiguring the authority," Khalaf and Saliba underscored. They urged all members of parliament to head immediately to the House of Parliament, "so that we will not leave before electing the head of state. This is how the provisions of the constitution are, and these are our constitutional obligations that are binding and restrictive for us," they said. "By God, know that your refusal to attend and fulfill this entitlement is a flagrant violation of the provisions of the constitution...and a betrayal of the confidence entrusted in us by the people, a mass suicide, and even a deliberate killing and extermination of an entire people,” the MPs strongly underlined. They ended their appeal by urging their fellow deputies of the nation "to take an honorable and heroic stand in the face of devastation, vacuum and the forces of darkness, because the aching people are waiting."

Banks' Association confirms its continued strike, denying circulated news of suspending it tomorrow
NNA/February 19/2023
The Association of Banks issued a statement on Sunday, confirming the continuation of its strike. “For the thousandth time, the Association of Banks reminds that it announces its decisions in an official manner and not through leaks via some websites in search for scoop before verifying their news," the statement said, denying circulated news of accepting to end its declared strike tomorrow. The statement stressed that such news is false and groundless, since the Banks' Association is pursuing its strike until further notice.

Lebanon going back into a war economy, and the consequences will be disastrous
Jad Chaaban/February 19/2023
The recent crisis affecting Lebanon has been designated by several characteristics: “deliberate depression”, “economic crash following a ponzi scheme”, “mismanagement of the economy”, and so on. Yet what has been overlooked is in fact much more worrying: A gradual redistribution of wealth and social and economic outcomes similar to what war economies go through. An yes, Lebanon is witnessing yet another war, but this time it is waged by its ruling class against its people. Since the end of 2019 the corrupt government supported by the cartel of ruling parties, backed centrally by Hezbollah, violently crushed a peaceful uprising which demanded an end to endemic corruption. The banking cartel in parallel decided to wage a financial war on citizens, instituting unlawful capital controls and causing through coordinated actions with the Central Bank an unprecedented monetary crisis that crippled the economy. Three years after, the Lebanese pound lost 98% of its value to the US dollar, inflation exceeded 200% per year and the ordinary Lebanese lost all of their purchasing power, savings, pensions and whatever hope they had for a better future.
Yet not all Lebanese have suffered from this crisis. In fact a minority has benefitted from it and continues to thrive on what could be called a new war economy.
The crisis has substantially increased poverty (with the national poverty rate increasing from around 33% in 2019 to more than 80% in 2022) and destroyed traditional income sources. A look at the distribution of households income and its evolution between 2018 and 2021 reveals a significant downward shift: In 2018 57% of households earned more than 1000$ per month, while in 2021 this share was down to only 2%. In parallel, while 18% of households earned below 400$ a month in 2018, their share dramatically increased to 92% in 2021.
Source: Author computations based on data from the Central Agency of Statistics and Human Rights Watch. LBP earnings have been adjusted to the prevailing average black market exchange rate in 2021.
This substantial decline in earnings mirrors the massive drop in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). World Bank estimates have put GDP at almost 21 billion USD in 2022, compared to 55 billion USD just four years before.
Yet one would expect that lifestyles and consumption trends would be affected by this massive (deliberate) depression. It turns out this is not true for everyone. A look at some import patterns reveals interesting, albeit not surprising, findings. Car imports for instance dropped significantly by 2020 (divided by 6 compared to their 2018 level), yet increased since then to reach a level in 2022 higher than 2018!
A similar trend can be found for meats imports, which dropped from 34 thousand tons in 2018 to about 21 thousand tons in 2020, yet increased again to 30 thousand tons in 2022.
Caviar imports also followed a U-shaped trend: declining significantly from 3.7 tons of imported caviar in 2018 to 0.5 tons in 2020 and 2021, and then dramatically increasing again to 3.2 tons in 2022.
So how is it that in an economy undergoing economy depression several commodities such as cars, meats, caviar and certainly many other commodities have been witnessing a reversed trend? While there are no new national detailed data about individuals’ expenditures, incomes and wealth distribution, these trends from commodity imports reveal a pattern of redistribution of wealth that is definitely at play.
As the formal economy composed of regular income sources from traditional economic sectors (such as government employment, services, and other formal private sector activities) is being shattered, it seems that Lebanon’s shadow economy is flourishing. A war-like economy based mostly on cash transactions where informal and shadow trading mostly governed by the USD currency is thriving.
A shadow economy is usually defined in terms of two major types of activities: illegal and legal. Illegal activities are linked to drug dealing and illegal trade in various goods and people trafficking; while legal shadow economy activities are mostly linked to tax evasion and avoidance.
The estimates of the shadow economy for Lebanon related to legal activities range from 32% of GDP on average (1991-2017) (Medina and Schneider, 2019) to a more recent estimate of 36.61% of the country’s GDP in the year 2018, with a tax evasion share reaching 30.04% in 2018 (Dahdah Kareh 2020).
With respect to illegal activities, there are no formal estimates, but one could safely assume a range between 10% – 20% GDP. Various estimates have for instance put cannabis production at 3$ billion annually, and captagon production and trade at 1$ billion. There are no estimates for arms smuggling, illegal people trafficking, black market trade in currency, and many other illicit activities that are currently thriving.
All in all, the shadow economy estimates for Lebanon including legal and illegal activities could easily reach 50% of GDP. This would amount today to an estimated total of around 10 billion dollars annually. For comparison, the government’s annual revenues are now worth just $0.5 billion, twenty times less.
The shadow war economy is therefore taking over the country and dwarfing the role of the state. This could engender significant and irreversible damage on the Lebanese society and its survival, and it would require decades to build back what this war economy is currently destroying.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 19-20/2023
Report: California bishop found dead of gunshot wound
LOS ANGELES (AP)/Sun, February 19, 2023
A Roman Catholic bishop in Southern California was found dead Saturday of a gunshot wound, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reported that Bishop David O'Connell was found in Hacienda Heights around 1 p.m. According to information from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, homicide detectives responded to “a shooting death investigation.” A male adult victim was located and pronounced dead at the scene. The block in question is a residential street lined with one-story ranch-style homes. Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez confirmed the death, saying O'Connell, who served in the city for 45 years as a priest and later a bishop, “passed away unexpectedly.” “It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness,” Gomez said in a statement, calling him “a good friend.” “Bishop Dave was a man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother,” he said. “He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected.” Hacienda Heights is an unincorporated community about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.

Israel carries out airstrike in Damascus suburbs
Abbie Cheeseman/The Telegraph/February 19, 2023
Israel carried out a rare strike in the heart of Damascus early on Sunday in what is thought to have been its deadliest attack on the Syrian capital in a decade-long campaign against Iran and its proxy forces. The airstrike targeted Kafr Sousa in the Damascus suburbs, an area that while residential, is also known to be home to senior members of the regime’s political elite, intelligence headquarters and Iranian installations. Photos released by Syrian news channels of the damage can be geolocated to Kafr Sousa, with the attack hitting near an Iranian school. Other strikes were reported to have hit the Damascus countryside. Iran has several security installations in Kafr Sousa, including a large cultural compound that is thought to be home to much of its security apparatus. Civilians were among the 15 people killed in the strike, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In a preliminary toll after the strike, Syria’s defence ministry reported that five people had been killed, including a soldier, and 15 other civilians had been injured. It was not immediately clear if the unusual strike in a densely populated area was an attempt to eliminate a specific figure. Israel did not immediately comment on the strike, but rarely acknowledges its operations in Syria. This week marked the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, one of the most senior leaders of Iran’s biggest proxy force, Hizbollah, who was also killed in Kafr Sousa in 2008. His death was reported to have been a joint operation between the intelligence services of the US and Israel. Israel has carried out hundreds of both declared and undeclared strikes in Syria over the last 10 years as part of a campaign to stop Iran and its allies from entrenching its power in neighbouring Syria. In recent months it intensified strikes on air bases and airports – both civilian and military – in what diplomatic sources say is an effort to disrupt aerial supply lines of weapons to its proxy forces. The latest strike, less than two months ago, put Damascus airport out of service for the third time in six months as Israel targeted Iranian-linked assets surrounding the airport.

Aid Group Issues Urgent Appeal for Quake-Hit Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 19 February, 2023
The group Doctors Without Borders called Sunday for the "urgent scaling up" of earthquake aid to northwest Syria as it delivered a convoy laden with emergency assistance. Aid has been slow to reach Syria's rebel-held areas since the February 6 quake killed a combined total of more than 43,000 people across Türkiye and Syria. "An urgent increase in the volume of supplies is needed to match the scale of the humanitarian crisis," said the French aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF). It charged that supplies "currently fail to even match pre-earthquake volumes". "Aid is trickling in in negligible amounts for the moment," said Hakim Khaldi, MSF's head of mission in Syria. "We emptied our emergency stocks in three days." "According to UN data, five days after the earthquake, only 10 trucks had entered" opposition-held areas of Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Türkiye, MSF said.
It added that "in the 10 days following the earthquake, the number of trucks that crossed the border into northwest Syria was lower than the average weekly number for 2022". A convoy of 14 trucks laden with 1,269 tents and winter kits sent by MSF had arrived in Syria through the Al-Hammam crossing in the Afrin area on Sunday. "The delivery was arranged outside of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian mechanism," the group said. Activists and emergency teams in Syria's northwest have decried a slow UN response to the quake in opposition-held areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports. Before the quake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in opposition-controlled areas was being delivered through just one crossing, Bab al-Hawa. The UN announced on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to open two more border crossings from Türkiye to northwest Syria to allow in aid. Since the quake, the UN has sent more than 170 aid trucks to northwest Syria. The conflict in Syria started in 2011 with the Damascus regime’s brutal repression of peaceful protests and escalated to pull in foreign powers and global extremists. Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.

Arab states need new approach towards Syria, says Saudi foreign minister
DUBAI (Reuters)/Sun, February 19, 2023
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said consensus was building in the Arab world that isolating Syria was not working and that dialogue with Damascus was needed "at some point" to at least address humanitarian issues, including a return of refugees. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud's remarks at a Munich security forum on Saturday mark a shift from the early years of Syria's 12-year civil war when several Arab states including Saudi Arabia backed rebels that fought Bashar al-Assad. "You will see not just among the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) but in the Arab world there is a consensus growing that the status quo is not workable," he said. The minister said without a path towards "maximalist goals" for a political solution, another approach was "being formulated" to address the issue of Syrian refugees in neighbouring states and suffering of civilians, especially after the devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. "So that's going to have to go through a dialogue with the government in Damascus at some point in a way that achieves at least the most important of the objectives especially as regards the humanitarian angle, the return of refugees, etc," he said. Asked about reports that he would visit Damascus following visits by his Emirati and Jordanian counterparts after the earthquake, Prince Faisal said he would not comment on rumours. Riyadh has sent aid planes to government-held territory in Syria as part of earthquake relief efforts after initially sending aid only to the country's opposition-held northwest. Shunned by the West, Assad has been basking in an outpouring of support from Arab states that normalised ties with him in recent years, notably the United Arab Emirates which aims for Arab influence in Syria to counter that of Iran. Other Arab states remain wary and U.S. sanctions on Syria remain a complicating factor. Kuwait's foreign minister told Reuters in Munich his country was not dealing with Damascus and was providing aid through international organisations and Turkey. Asked if this stance would change, Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah said: "We are not going to change at this point in time." Assad has recovered control of most of Syria with support from Russia along with Iran and Iranian-backed Sh'ite Muslim groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Iran 'takes major step towards acquiring a nuclear weapon'
James Rothwell/Bloomberg/February 19, 2023
An overview of Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, south of the capital Tehran
Iran has taken a major step towards acquiring a nuclear weapon, it emerged on Sunday, after Western diplomats revealed that it has enriched uranium to its highest levels so far, standing just short of the threshold for a bomb. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] found enrichment levels of 84 per cent at Iran's nuclear sites, the highest levels recorded so far and just six per cent shy of the threshold for acquiring a nuclear weapon. The disclosure, which underlines how Iran could be on the brink of creating another major global crisis for the West, came from two diplomatic sources who spoke anonymously to Bloomberg news. It also increases the risk of a major confrontation between Iran and Israel, its arch foe which regards the nuclear programme as an existential threat. Israel is suspected of carrying out a series of surgical strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in recent years to slow down the Iranian weapons programme.Iran, which denies it is planning to build a nuclear weapon, has until now insisted that the centrifuges at its nuclear sites are only able to enrich uranium to a 60 per cent level of purity. The regime, which is increasingly at odds with the West over crippling sanctions and its support for the Russian army in Ukraine, did not immediately respond to the report last night. According to Bloomberg, IAEA inspectors are trying to confirm whether Iran enriched uranium at such a high level on purpose, or if it had accumulated by accident in pipes connecting centrifuges on nuclear sites. Earlier on Sunday, Tom Nides, the US ambassador to Israel, said that President Joe Biden would never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and that Israel was free to do whatever it felt was necessary to prevent this. “As President [Joe] Biden has said, we will not stand by and watch Iran get a nuclear weapon, number one. Number two, he said, all options are on the table. Number three, Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with and we’ve got their back,” Mr Nides said. “The threat of a nuclear Iran is not just for Israel, it is for the Middle East and America. We are focused on this,” says the ambassador. “The cooperation between Israel and the US vis-a-vis Iran is lockstep. Every day.”

Rishi Sunak urged to put Britain on war footing as Russia rebuilds forces
Danielle Sheridan/The Telegraph/February 19, 2023
Rishi Sunak must put Britain on a war footing and boost defence spending, a senior Whitehall source has said. The Ministry of Defence is currently embroiled in a row over defence spending in the upcoming budget, with Ben Wallace said to have asked the Chancellor for £10 billion for his department. However, a top Whitehall source told The Telegraph there was “deep concern” among the upper echelons of the military and that the problem to getting more money was not Jeremy Hunt, but the Prime Minister.
“I cannot think of any Prime Minister that would behave this way,” they said. “They have no sense at all of the UK’s role on the international stage and the contribution our allies expect us to make. There is a war in Europe, we are hollowing out our forces, our allies and partners are all investing in defence, every single previous prime minister I can think of would have responded to that.” They cited Mr Sunak’s background in investment banking as his reason for having “no instinctive feel for statecraft”. It comes after world leaders met at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend and discussed how to continue to support Ukraine, with Mr Sunak pledging to help other countries send fighter jets to the war-torn country. He also highlighted the UK’s own commitments in recent weeks, including a promise to send main battle tanks, advanced air defence systems and longer-range missiles to Ukraine, as examples for the international community to match. The source added: “Some people say they are a wartime prime minister and chancellor content to stand up on the international stage at places like the Munich Security Conference and give away British equipment for a good cause and urge others to do the same, but are not willing to put their hands in their pockets and replenish gaps they have created like anything with the urgency the situation demands.”
Last week The Telegraph revealed that French officials had raised concerns over the state of the British Armed Forces due to budget cuts. Thomas Gassilloud, a leading French MP, warned there were concerns in his country that Britain had given weapons to Ukraine from its own supplies, leaving its forces depleted. Following a recent announcement that 14 of Britain’s Challenger 2 tanks would be sent to Ukraine, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the Army, warned that his force would be "temporarily weaker" as a result. However, Mr Sunak has not yet set out whether he will increase defence spending in line with inflation. Emmanuel Macron announced last month that he would boost military spending by more than a third by 2030, and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has pledged his country will now spend 2 percent of GDP on defence - Nato’s minimum requirement. Last year President Biden signed off on a record increase to the defence budget, while Poland has vowed to double its military spending to four per cent of GDP this year. Radoslaw Sikorski, a former Polish foreign minister and a member of the European Parliament, cautioned that since the UK had left the EU, defence was an area where it had “leverage”. Poland: 'We want to see the UK invest more' He told The Telegraph: “Everybody recognises the UK is a desirable partner and has clout but of course we want to see the UK invest more. A lot of its money is spent on its nuclear deterrents and aircraft carriers which are difficult to use on the European continent. The UK needs to rebuild its army.”The Whitehall source added that “Russia is putting its defence and economy on to wartime footing,” and Moscow would “regrow and re-equip” its defence forces at scale over the next five years. “What every European ally has done is recognise there is a threat coming downstream and it will take a long time to regrow so they are starting now. We are not. None of this is cutting through into No 10. We are falling behind our allies and our influence will be diminished.”They added: “You can see there is a storm coming because all the trends and indicators are that we will find ourselves in trouble at some point in the next five to 10 years. “We have a leaking roof and rather than fixing it we are removing roof tiles and making the roof worse.”

US averts UN diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements
UNITED NATIONS (AP) /Sun, February 19, 2023
The Biden administration has averted a potential diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements at the United Nations that had threatened to overshadow U.S. efforts for the world body to focus on Russia’s war with Ukraine ahead of this week's one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion. Multiple diplomats familiar with the situation said Sunday that the U.S. had successfully managed to forestall a contentious U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by the Palestinians that would have condemned Israel for settlement expansion and demanded a halt to future activity. To avoid a vote and a likely U.S. veto of such a resolution, the diplomats said the administration managed to convince both Israel and the Palestinians to agree in principle to a six-month freeze in any unilateral action they might take. On the Israeli side, that would mean a commitment to not expanding settlements until at least August, according to the diplomats.
On the Palestinian side, the diplomats said it would mean a commitment until August not to pursue action against Israel at the U.N. and other international bodies such as the World Court, the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the highly sensitive negotiations. The tentative agreement means the U.S. will not have to go ahead with a planned veto of the resolution that would have been a political headache for President Joe Biden as he approaches the 2024 presidential election. Biden is struggling to balance his opposition to Israeli settlements and his support for a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict with moves to improve ties with the Palestinians that have wide backing among his progressive supporters. And, although the administration has already denounced Israel's latest settlement expansion and called the Palestinian resolution “unhelpful," top congressional Republicans have warned Biden that a veto would have severe consequences for his legislative agenda. A veto would also alienate U.N. member countries supportive of the Palestinians, like the United Arab Emirates, which was sponsoring the resolution in the Security Council, as it relates to Russia and Ukraine. The U.S. will be looking to the UAE and other council members sympathetic to the Palestinians to vote in favor of resolutions condemning Russia for invading Ukraine and calling for a cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of all Russian forces. The deal was arrived at on Sunday after days of frantic talks by senior Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Sullivan's deputy Brett McGurk, the top diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, and special envoy for Palestinian affairs Hady Amr. The Palestinian push for a resolution came as Israel’s new right-wing government has reaffirmed its commitment to construct new settlements in the West Bank and expand its authority on land the Palestinians seek for a future state. Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The United Nations and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements illegal and an obstacle to ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. In December 2016, the Security Council demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It stressed that halting settlement activities “is essential for salvaging the two-state solution.”That resolution was adopted after President Barack Obama’s administration abstained in the vote, a reversal of the United States’ longstanding practice of protecting its close ally Israel from action at the United Nations, including by vetoing Arab-supported resolutions.Yet, the Ukraine situation looms large. On Thursday, the 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion, reiterating its demand for a withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukraine and a cessation of hostilities. On Friday’s anniversary, the Security Council will hold a ministerial meeting on the invasion and its impact.
*Lee reported from Washington.

Israel blames Iran for attack on oil tanker
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/Sun, February 19, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Iran was responsible for a reported attack on an oil tanker last week. An attack on the Liberian-flagged Campo Square was confirmed on Saturday by the ship's captain, who said it was lightly damaged by an airborne object on Feb. 10 while sailing through the Arabian Sea. Shipping databases linked the tanker to Zodiac Maritime, which is controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. "Last week Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and harmed the international freedom of navigation," Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting. Regional defence and security sources have said they suspected the assault was carried out by Iran, which did not comment on the incident. Tehran has rejected accusations it was behind similar attacks in the past few years. British maritime security company Ambrey Intelligence said unmanned aerial systems had attacked two tankers and one bulk carrier in the Arabian Sea and assessed that Tehran had mounted the attack. Two of the merchant vessels were Israeli-owned and one was Emirati, it said.

The first phase of Putin’s war is over – now the West needs a new strategy
Matthew Lynn/Ukraine - Reuters/Sun, February 19, 2023
A swift Russian victory, with its troops parading in victory through the streets of Kyiv. A collapse of power in the Kremlin, with Vladimir Putin despatched in a palace coup. Or perhaps even a quickly negotiated peace settlement, with small parcels of land changing hands as the borders were redrawn.
When Russian troops moved across the frontier a year ago this week, there were plenty of different possible outcomes to the war. There was one, however, that we did not expect. An endless war of attrition. And yet, 12 months later, that is what we have arrived at. Both sides have dug in for a long fight across a stretched front line, the likes of which Europe has not witnessed since the First World War. To survive that, and eventually triumph, Ukraine is going to need a lot of weapons, but it will need something else as well. An economic plan. A war of attrition is very expensive, and Ukraine was hardly a rich country to start with. It is going to need plenty of financial assistance; massively increased trade with the rest of Europe through opening up our markets; and lots of investment in the bulk of the country not caught up in the fighting. The West has done well so far at providing military help – but there is still very little sign of an economic plan for the battered country.
The losses Ukraine has suffered in the year since Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of the country on February 24 last year are mainly counted in the dead and wounded of its heroic armed forces, and the devastating damage to its towns and villages. But there is no escaping one simple fact. Its economy has been devastated as well. In 2022, its GDP shrank by 30pc according to the economy ministry. It was not exactly wealthy to start with, with a pre-invasion GDP of $200bn (£167bn). Factories have been destroyed. Power stations have been bombed out of action. Road and rail links have been shattered, and access to the Black Sea, the main artery for its commodity exports has become sporadic.
An exodus of refugees, with an estimated five million Ukrainians now living abroad, has meant critical shortages of labour. It is, to put it mildly, a difficult place to do business. Even so, a war of attrition means there has to be a functioning economy to support the billions the Government has to spend every year on men and equipment for the frontline. Indeed, wars of attrition are generally won by the side with the strongest economy. Where is that going to come from? True, in the short term it can come from loans and grants from Europe and the United States. In the medium-term, however, Ukraine will need to start supporting itself. And that will mean plenty of help from the rest of the world. Such as? Here are three places we should start. First, Ukraine is going to need massive amounts of straightforward financial support. The European Union last year pledged $18bn in emergency aid for the country, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lent more than $1bn. It is enough for it to pay its bills for now. And yet Ukraine will not be able to survive just on handouts, nor are loans, no matter how soft the terms, appropriate for a country that has lost a third of its output in a single year.
Even with a projected growth rate of 2pc this year, it will take decades for it to claw its way back to where it was before the invasion. In reality, Ukraine needs simple, no-strings cash transfers running into tens of billions every year to make up for all its lost output. One place to start would be with the frozen assets of Putin’s oligarch cronies. One or two yacht sales would fund a lot of reconstruction – and would put the money to appropriate use.
Next, trade. Ukraine needs to be able to export its way out of trouble as quickly and easily as possible. There is no excuse for any trade barriers to remain in place, or for any tariffs on Ukranian goods. It is easy to talk about membership of the EU, but realistically that is still a long way off. Most import restrictions were lifted last year, but shockingly there is talk of reimposing them in the EU after complaints of unfair competition from its farmers. That is unacceptable. The more we buy from Ukraine the better, and if some of our agricultural producers suffer then so be it. We can compensate them in other ways if necessary.
Finally, investment. Western companies should be building factories, IT centres, research labs, and distribution centres in the regions of the country that are largely insulated from the fighting. All it would take would be a handful of major companies to lead the way.
Sure, they might be worried about war damage, and that is understandable. But it would be simple to offer state backed insurance to pay for that, and it would be a statement of the West’s commitment to the country if more giant firms had operations there while at the same time exiting from Russia.
Britain has been in the vanguard of military support for Ukraine, leading the donation of weapons and ammunition, and encouraging other countries to do as much as they can. It was a good start, and it was the right response for the first phase of the war.
Over the coming year, however, we should be leading the economic package as well, building a coalition of financial and trading partners that can help build a wartime economy durable to survive what now looks as if it will be a long fight. In reality, if the war is going to last for years, then we need an economic as well as a military strategy – and the hard work on making that happen needs to start now.

Macron says he wants Russia defeated, not crushed
Agence France Presse/Sun, February 19, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview released that he wanted Russia to be defeated in its war with Ukraine, but not "crushed."He was speaking after returning from the Munich Security Conference, where he urged allies to intensify their support for Ukraine, and said France was prepared for a drawn-out conflict. "I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine, and I want Ukraine to be able to defend its position," he told French newspapers JDD and Le Figaro and broadcaster France Inter. "I am convinced that, in the end, this will not conclude militarily," he added, predicting that neither said could fully prevail in the conflict. But he did not, like some, want the fight to be taken on to Russian soil. Such people, he said, "want above all to crush Russia. "This has never been the position of France and it never will be."

Israel Blames Iran for Attack on Oil Tanker
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 19 February, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Iran was responsible for a reported attack on an oil tanker last week. An attack on the Liberian-flagged Campo Square was confirmed on Saturday by the ship's captain, who said it was lightly damaged by an airborne object on Feb. 10 while sailing through the Arabian Sea. Shipping databases linked the tanker to Zodiac Maritime, which is controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. "Last week Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Gulf and harmed the international freedom of navigation," Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting.
Regional defense and security sources have said they suspected the assault was carried out by Iran, which did not comment on the incident. Tehran has rejected accusations it was behind similar attacks in the past few years. British maritime security company Ambrey Intelligence said unmanned aerial systems had attacked two tankers and one bulk carrier in the Arabian Sea and assessed that Tehran had mounted the attack.

Blinken exhorts Israeli, Palestinian leaders to 'restore calm'
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 19 February, 2023
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, reaffirming U.S. support for a "two-state solution" in the region and asking the two to "restore calm."Blinken spoke by telephone with both men to reaffirm U.S. commitment to "a negotiated two-state solution and opposition to policies that endanger its viability," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. "The Secretary underscored the urgent need for Israelis and Palestinians to take steps that restore calm and our strong opposition to unilateral measures that would further escalate tensions." That message followed a decision by Israel's new hard-right government to give retroactive permission to multiple settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank -- a move that drew nearly unanimous criticism among major powers including the United States.
The White House said Thursday it was "deeply dismayed" by the Israeli decision, but it nevertheless voiced opposition to a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution to demand Israel end settlements in the occupied territories. Blinken met with Abbas late last month in the West Bank at the end of an intense series of diplomatic meetings planned before the latest flare-up of violence. In their phone call, the two "discussed efforts to improve the quality of life of the Palestinian people and enhance their security and freedom," Price said in a statement. Blinken and Netanyahu spoke about broader regional challenges, Price said, "including the threats posed by Iran," and Blinken underscored the United States' "ironclad commitment to Israel's security."Last year was the deadliest year in the West Bank since the United Nations started tracking casualties there in 2005, and the deadly violence has continued this year.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Russia hit by "extraordinarily significant" losses in east
Reuters/Sun, February 19, 2023
Ukraine's military is inflicting "extraordinarily significant" losses on Russian forces near the town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. "The situation is very complicated. And we are fighting. We are breaking down the invaders and inflicting extraordinarily significant losses on Russia," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. Zelenskiy referred to several towns in Donbas, where fighting has been focused for months, saying "the more losses Russia suffers there, in Donbas - in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna - the faster we will be able to end this war with Ukraine's victory". Zelenskiy outlined the state of defense in other sectors after what he described as an "extended" meeting of the military command. Matters were under control near the Black Sea port of Odesa, he said, and troops were "protecting" the central region of Zaporizhzhia, partly controlled by Russian forces. There were "very good results" on the northern border with Russia and its ally Belarus, areas where Ukrainian troops retook cities from Russian forces in September and October. "Of course, military issues and intelligence details are not something you can share with everyone," Zelenskiy said. "But I want our people to have predictability right now. And a sense that Ukraine is moving towards its goals." (Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov;

Time to Ramp up Support for Iranian People, Former Shah’s Son Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 19 February, 2023
A group of exiled Iranians will increase support for opposition movements in the country so they can continue to pressure the authorities there, amid a crackdown on protests, the last heir to the Iranian monarchy said on Saturday. Iran has been rocked by unrest since the death in police custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September after she was detained for flouting a strict dress code. The protests are among the strongest challenges to the regime since the revolution. Eight Iranian exiled dissidents, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the toppled Shah, discussed ways of uniting a fragmented opposition earlier this month, amid pro-government events marking the anniversary of the 1979 revolution inside the country. "It's important we have to have a component of domestic pressure on the regime because external pressure by sanctions weakens the system but it is not enough to do the job," Pahlavi told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. "We are to looking at means on how we can support the movement back home," Pahlavi said. "There is a lot of discussion on maximum pressure and more sanctions, but parallel to maximum pressure there needs to be maximum support."The Washington-based Pahlavi said the immediate focus would be to ensure Iranians had access to the Internet, help finance labor strikes through a fund, and find ways to ease money transfers to Iran.
Good, bad and ugly
Unlike in previous years, the Iranian government was not invited to Munich this year as a result of its crackdown, but also due to its support of Russia in the war in Ukraine. Instead, opponents to the Iranian governments were invited, while anti-government rallies took place in Munich. Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly four decades, since his father, the US-backed shah, was overthrown in the revolution. Opposition to Iran’s clerical government is atomized, with no clear recognized leader. Pahlavi said the priority now was for unity, with in the end a democratic system decided by Iranians.
It remains unclear how much support Pahlavi has on the ground, but there have been some pro- and anti-slogans in demonstrations. "We have to look at the good, bad and ugly, and that's the only way we can progress in future," he said, adding that Iran's young population was savvy and knew that any future political system would need strong institutions to ensure the past was not repeated. Western powers have been reluctant to speak to opponents to the ruling authorities, fearing a rupture in ties would harm efforts to release dozens of Western nationals held in Iran, but also kill any chance of reviving a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. However, that has begun to change. French President Emmanuel Macron was filmed in Munich on Friday with US-based women's rights advocate Masih Alinejad. "I would be very happy to meet you all together because this message of unity is very important," Macron said.

US warns China not to send weapons to Russia for Ukraine war
WASHINGTON (AP)/Sun, February 19, 2023
U.S. intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that would be a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Blinken said the United States long has been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia. He pointed to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of a partnership with “no limits” when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Since then, ties between the two countries have only grown stronger. “We’ve been watching this very, very closely. And, for the most part, China has been engaged in providing rhetorical, political, diplomatic support to Russia, but we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine,” Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday, a day after his meeting at a security conference in Munich with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official. "It was important for me to share very clearly with Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said. With Putin determined to show some progress on the battlefield as the war nears the one-year mark, Russian forces have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine. “The Ukrainians are holding very strong, the Russians are suffering horrific losses in this effort,” Blinken said. He estimated that Russia has 97% of its ground troops in Ukraine. The Russians also are eager to capture more territory before Ukraine receives the more advanced weapons recently pledged by the U.S. and its European allies. “But what Secretary Blinken said is big news to me,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham said the world should “come down hard on China” if it provides lethal weapons to Russia and he advised Chinese leaders not to do anything rash. “To the Chinese, if you jump on the Putin train now, you’re dumber than dirt,” he said. “It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie. Don’t do this.” Graham said it would be the “most catastrophic thing that could happen to the U.S.-China relationship. … That would change everything forever.”Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been heightened in recent weeks after the U.S. shot down what it says was a Chinese spy balloon. China insists it was used mainly for meteorological research and was blown off course. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, also expressed her concern about any effort by the Chinese to arm Russia, saying "that would be a red line.” Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff, said he agreed with the Biden administration’s decision to expose China’s possible readiness to provide some lethal weapons to Russia. He said it may persuade China to hold off. And I think coming out and exposing and I would go further and tell them what we think they are attempting to provide, China will pull back likely after that public exposure,” Keane said. Blinken and Graham were on ABC’s “This Week," Thomas-Greenfield appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Keane spoke on “Fox News Sunday.”

Putin critic Bill Browder says Russian president is 'terrified of his own people'
DUBAI (Reuters)/Sun, February 19, 2023
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said consensus was building in the Arab world that isolating Syria was not working and that dialogue with Damascus was needed "at some point" to at least address humanitarian issues, including a return of refugees. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud's remarks at a Munich security forum on Saturday mark a shift from the early years of Syria's 12-year civil war when several Arab states including Saudi Arabia backed rebels that fought Bashar al-Assad. "You will see not just among the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) but in the Arab world there is a consensus growing that the status quo is not workable," he said. The minister said without a path towards "maximalist goals" for a political solution, another approach was "being formulated" to address the issue of Syrian refugees in neighbouring states and suffering of civilians, especially after the devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. "So that's going to have to go through a dialogue with the government in Damascus at some point in a way that achieves at least the most important of the objectives especially as regards the humanitarian angle, the return of refugees, etc," he said. Asked about reports that he would visit Damascus following visits by his Emirati and Jordanian counterparts after the earthquake, Prince Faisal said he would not comment on rumours. Riyadh has sent aid planes to government-held territory in Syria as part of earthquake relief efforts after initially sending aid only to the country's opposition-held northwest. Shunned by the West, Assad has been basking in an outpouring of support from Arab states that normalised ties with him in recent years, notably the United Arab Emirates which aims for Arab influence in Syria to counter that of Iran. Other Arab states remain wary and U.S. sanctions on Syria remain a complicating factor. Kuwait's foreign minister told Reuters in Munich his country was not dealing with Damascus and was providing aid through international organisations and Turkey. Asked if this stance would change, Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah said: "We are not going to change at this point in time."Assad has recovered control of most of Syria with support from Russia along with Iran and Iranian-backed Sh'ite Muslim groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Italian PM Meloni to visit Kyiv on Monday to meet Zelenskiy
ROME (Reuters)/Sun, February 19, 2023
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will travel to Kyiv on Monday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political source said on Sunday. Meloni, who took office in October, had said she planned to visit Kyiv before the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. Despite friction on the issue within her rightist ruling coalition and divided public opinion, Meloni has been a firm supporter of Ukraine. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the conservative Forza Italia party that is part of Meloni's coalition, last week said he would not seek a meeting with Zelenskiy if he were still head of government because he blames the Ukrainian President for the war with Russia. The European People's Party (EPP), of which Forza Italia is a member, said on Friday it was cancelling a planned event in Naples in June due to Berlusconi's remarks on Ukraine. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, one of Forza Italia's founders, said on Saturday he had met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting in Munich, reassuring him of Italy's support. Italy and France have recently finalised talks over delivery of an advanced air defence system to Kyiv in the spring.

Blinken arrives for tour of Turkey's earthquake zone
ISTANBUL (AP)/Sun, February 19, 2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in southern Turkey on Sunday and set off on a tour of the earthquake disaster zone accompanied by the Turkish foreign minister. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Blinken and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu left Incirlik Air Base near Adana by helicopter for nearby Hatay province, one of the areas hardest hit by the Feb. 6 quake that killed at least 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Blinken arrived at the air base, where U.S. troops are stationed, after attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Blinken is on his first trip to NATO member Turkey since he took office two years ago. He is scheduled to visit a tent city in Hatay established for people displaced by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and to tour an aid distribution center, according to Turkish officials who were not authorized to be identified publicly. On returning to Incirlik, he plans to meet with U.S. and Turkish service personnel, as well as Turkish military families affected by the earthquake. Incirlik, home to the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing, has been a crucial logistics center for aid distribution. Supplies from around the world have been flown into the base and sent by truck and helicopter to those in need, including in difficult to reach villages. Blinken is set to fly to Ankara, Turkey's capital, later Sunday for discussions with Turkish officials on Monday, including an anticipated meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As well as the effects of the earthquake, Blinken is expected to discuss Sweden and Finland's efforts to join NATO, which Turkey has delayed.

Rescue Efforts Wind Down in Türkiye, Many Left to Mourn without a Funeral
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 19 February, 2023
Rescue efforts in earthquake-hit Türkiye wind down on Sunday, nearly two weeks after the country's deadliest modern disaster struck, with many praying only for bodies to mourn. "Would you pray to find a dead body? We do ... to deliver the body to the family," said bulldozer operator Akin Bozkurt as his machine clawed at the rubble of a destroyed building in the town of Kahramanmaras. "You recover a body from under tons of rubble. Families are waiting with hope," Bozkurt said. "They want to have a burial ceremony. They want a grave."According to Islamic tradition, the dead should be buried as quickly as possible. The head of Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), Yunus Sezer, said the search and rescue efforts would largely end on Sunday night. More than 46,000 people have been killed after the quake struck Türkiye and Syria on Feb. 6. The toll is expected to soar, with some 345,000 apartments in Türkiye now known to have been destroyed, and many still missing. Neither Türkiye nor Syria have said how many people are still missing following the quake. In one of the last efforts to pull people out of the rubble, 12 days after the earthquake, emergency teams began clearing debris with their hands at a rescue site in Antakya on Saturday night. Search dogs and thermal cameras had detected signs of life from two people, rescuers said, but just after midnight, eight hours into the operation, the teams called off the rescue. "No one is alive," said Mujdat Erdogan, a member of AFAD, his uniform and face covered in dust. "I don’t think we can rescue people anymore."Workers from Kyrgyzstan tried to save a Syrian family of five from the rubble of a building in Antakya in southern Türkiye. Three people, including a child, were rescued alive. The mother and father survived, but the child died later of dehydration, the rescue team said. An older sister and a twin did not make it. "We heard shouts when we were digging today an hour ago. When we find people who are alive, we are always happy," Atay Osmanov, a member of the rescue team, told Reuters. Ten ambulances waited on a nearby street that was blocked to traffic to allow the rescue work. Workers asked for complete silence and for everyone to crouch or sit as the teams climbed to the top of the rubble of the building where the family was found to listen for any more sounds using an electronic detector. As rescue efforts continued one worker yelled into the rubble: "Take a deep breath if you can hear my voice."
Millions in need of aid
The World Health Organization estimates that some 26 million people across both Türkiye and Syria need humanitarian aid. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to arrive on Sunday in Türkiye to discuss how Washington can further assist Ankara as it grapples with the aftermath of its worst natural disaster in modern times. In Syria, which has reported more than 5,800 deaths, the World Food Program (WFP) said authorities in the northwest of the country were blocking access to the area. "That is bottlenecking our operations. That has to get fixed straight away," WFP Director David Beasley told Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The bulk of fatalities in Syria are in the northwest, an area controlled by opposition factions at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. "Time is running out and we are running out of money. Our operation is about $50 million a month for our earthquake response alone, so unless Europe wants a new wave of refugees, we need get the support we need," Beasley added. Thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge in Türkiye from the civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone - at least for now.

200 scholars discuss contemporary jurisprudential issues in IIFA 25th session
NNASunday, 19 February, 2023
Under the auspices of HRH Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Governor of Makkah Al-Mukarramah Region, the twenty-fifth session of the conference of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) kicks off tomorrow, Monday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The session will be launched in the presence of the IIFA President, His Excellency Sheikh Dr Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Mr Hissein Brahim Taha, and the IIFA Secretary General, His Excellency Professor Koutoub Moustapha Sano.
The session will be held during the period 20-23 February 2023 with the participation of 200 scholars from the OIC member states with expertise and specialization in Sharia disciplines, economics, medicine, and sociology are participating in the current session to discuss 160 research papers on the issues and topics of the session. It investigates several vital issues with social and economic dimensions that require special jurisprudential treatment, including "clarifying the shariah ruling on compulsory education (religious and worldly) for both males and females in Islam", "the impact of Corona pandemic on the Shariah rulings on worships, family and crime", "the impact of Corona pandemic on the legal rulings on contracts, transactions, and financial liabilities", and "the ruling on performing prayer (Salah) in a language other than Arabic with or without excuse and the ruling on following a prayer by listening to the mobile phone or the radio." The session also discusses "clarifying the rulings concerning social media and its principles", "Shariah's vision to address the phenomenon of people of unknown parentage", "the ruling on abortion due to rape or sex change in Islam" and "the role of the Islamic social financing mechanisms in supporting humanitarian work in areas of conflicts and disasters."IIFA Secretary General Koutoub Moustapha Sano explained that this session studies contemporary issues and problems (nawazil) and considers them by performing collective jurisprudential reasoning (ijtihad) to clarify their appropriate shariah rulings.
"This is achieved through the issuance of jurisprudential resolutions agreed upon among the recognized scholars of Islamic Ummah in the present era," He added. Sano expressed the Academy's gratitude to the host country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and HRH Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, for the permanent care of the Academy and the support given to this session through the Saudi Permanent Mission to the OIC.
The Secretary-General also expressed the Academy's thanks and appreciation to HRH Prince Khalid Al Faisal for his patronage of this session. The IIFA is a universal scholarly organization and a subsidiary organ of the OIC. It was established following a resolution at the Third Islamic Summit in January 1981, with a headquarters in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The IIFA's members are eminent Muslim jurists, scholars, researchers, and intellectuals who specialize in jurisprudential, cultural, educational, scientific, economic, and social fields of knowledge from different parts of the Muslim world.
The IIFA is entrusted with elucidating the rulings and provisions of Shariah on issues of concern to Muslims worldwide, in complete independence and based on the Holy Quran and the Noble Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH). It also studies contemporary life issues, performing an authentic and effective Ijtihad, aiming at providing solutions stemming from Islamic heritage and open to the developments of Islamic thought.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 19-20/2023
ريمون إبراهيم/ معهد جيتستون: قائمة بأحداث ووقائع اضطهاد المسيحيين خلال شهر كانون الثاني لسنة 2023/ابرياء يتهمون باطلاً ويسجنون ويحكم عليهم بالإعدام
Innocent People… Indicted and Sentenced to Death’: The Persecution of Christians, January 2023
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute./February 19, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115978/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-institute-innocent-people-indicted-and-sentenced-to-death-the-persecution-of-christians-january-2023-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87/
“[In Pakistan,] blasphemy is misused to settle personal disputes… to claim that religion has been defamed…. [T]hose who use spurious motives to accuse and stir hatred are not prosecuted, while innocent people who comment on social media end up being indicted and sentenced to death. In Pakistan, blasphemy has become a pretext for lynchings and extrajudicial killings. Islamic extremists have weaponised the… legislation [on blasphemy] to strike against religious minorities without legal due process Blasphemy accusations have become a quick way to exact appalling revenge and settling scores.” — asianews.it., January 14, 2023, Pakistan.
“I want to burn Christianity …. I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers…. Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don’t want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia.” — Tarek Namouz, 42, barbershop owner and recipient of COVID money, accused of sending £25,000 to Islamic State fighters in Syria, Express, January 5, 2023 and Daily Mail, November 22, 2022, United Kingdom.
The highest court of appeals [in Egypt] closed the door on the possibility of justice for Soad Thabet, a now 76-year-old Christian grandmother who was stripped naked and publicly abused by a group of Muslim men nearly seven years ago. According to one report: “Not only will the men who assaulted Thabet not be held accountable, but Thabet is facing litigation that could see her have to compensate the three men who assaulted her.” Earlier… some 300 Muslim men… stripped her naked, and then beat and spat on her and dragged her through the streets by her hair—to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of “Allahu Akbar.” Her “crime” was that her son had been accused of being romantically involved with a Muslim woman. Several Christian homes in the village were also looted and torched, in keeping with Islamic law, or sharia, which prescribes the collective punishment of non-Muslim “infidels.” — Mada34.appspot.com, January 16, 2023, Egypt.
On January 25, a Muslim man screaming “Allahu akbar” murdered Diego Valencia, a sacristan at the Church of La Palma, and stabbed 74-year-old Father Antonio Rodríguez, a parish priest at the Church of Santa María Auxiliadora, and wounded three other people in attacks on several churches in Algeciras, Spain. Pictured: The scene of Valencia’s murder in Algeciras. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of January 2023:
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Democratic Republic of Congo: On Sunday, Jan. 15, Muslim terrorists bombed a Pentecostal church during a baptismal ceremony. At least 14 Christians were blown to pieces—the Islamic State, which claimed the attack, said 20—and 63 were seriously wounded. From their hospital beds, survivors recalled that black day:
“People were just flying in the air and falling down lifeless — it was a painful Sunday, everyone inside was trying to get his or her way out, but some couldn’t because their legs had gone off. The bomb killed children and their parents. I… suffered some pain all over my body, but thank God I survived … Bibles were in pieces and there was blood all over, and when I checked around me I was in a pool of blood…. [I]n a hospital bed … I saw my fellow church members covered with blood, while others were crying… in pain … This was done… to instill fear in the hearts of Christians of attending church services within the province.”
Nigeria: The ignored genocide of Christians continued non-stop. Muslims slaughtered roughly 60 Christians, raided churches, and kidnapped women and children (based on several reports from January 2023: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). During one of these raids on a church, on Sunday, Jan. 15, Muslims terrorists burned a Catholic priest, Fr. Isaac Achi, alive. They also shot and wounded his assistant priest. Discussing another massacre of Christians, on Jan. 19, a clergyman said,
“The images of the attack are horrifying not even ISIS is capable of such brutality. After killing, these guys decapitated some and took the parts away as proof to whoever is the sponsor.”
Such brutality is not uncommon. In another recent attack on a Christian village, Muslims cut off the breast of a Christian woman.
Spain: On Jan. 25, a Muslim man screaming “Allahu akbar,” slaughtered a Christian sacristan and stabbed a 74-year-old priest. The report details:
“A North African man armed with a machete has killed one person and injured four others in attacks on several churches in Algeciras. The attack took place around 7:30 p.m. this Wednesday [Jan. 25] and is being investigated by the National Court as a case of terrorism. According to legal sources cited by Efe, the attacker shouted ‘Allah!’ …[T]he deceased is Diego Valencia, sacristan of the church of La Palma. The images encloed show his body covered by a thermal blanket in the Plaza Alta in Algeciras. In addition, one of the injured is Antonio Rodríguez , parish priest … has been stabbed and has undergone surgery at the hospital… Antonio Rodríguez, 74, was celebrating the seven o’clock Eucharist at that moment.”
Uganda: On Jan. 2, a group of Muslims slaughtered a Christian man after a theological debate that ended with 13 Muslims converting to Christianity. Ahamada Mafabi, a 37-year-old married father of four, was returning home after the debate, when Muslims ambushed him and slit his throat. Speaking of the preceding debate, the slain Christian’s pastor, who was also present, said:
“Muslims responded openly to receiving Christ. There were shouts from the Muslims demanding that Mafabi leave the grounds of the meeting, saying, ‘Mafabi, stop your blasphemous utterance of equating Issa [Jesus] to God, calling him the Son of God.'”
Seeing that Mafabi was under threat, the pastor sent two men to escort him home. Discussing what happened afterwards, one of his escorts said they saw two motorcycles coming behind them, carrying four men: “As they bypassed us, they shouted the Islamic slogan, ‘Allah Akbar’ and then hit our motorcycle down with a metal object.” Before he and the other escort fled for their lives, they saw how “The attackers overpowered him and cut his neck with a long Somali knife”:
“Mafabi had left Islam to put his faith in Christ in December 2020 after several visits with the pastor… Initially the pastor housed him to protect him from Islamists upset with his conversion, and later his church rented a house for him elsewhere. Knowledgeable in both Islam and Christianity, Mafabi helped the pastor begin Christian-Muslim debates in mid-2021, and in one year more than 100 Muslims put their faith in Christ… Mafabi faced severe Islamist hostility, escaping four assassination attempts, and the pastor also received threatening text messages. One such message, he said, read, ‘Stop taking our members to your church. Let this be known to you that your church and your life is [sic] at risk.'”
Pakistan: On Jan. 11, a group of Muslim men murdered a struggling Christian guava farmer, after he told them to stop trespassing on his farm and stealing his fruit.
“Around 2pm three Muslim men entered the farm and began destroying guava fruit on the farm. The culprits Usama, Intizar and Muhammad Awais began plucking, tasting and throwing away unwanted fruit while they digested the best produce. They also began trampling on fruit they did not like, laughing and joking as they left their destruction in the well kept guava orchard. The three men were known to the Christian family because they had undertaken such theft and vandalism before; they were from wealthy Muslim families and looked down on Christians and often treated them harshly.”
Hearing them, Alladitta, the 55-year-old Christian farmer and his son, “walked across to the loud, loutish men and asked them not to waste away his fruits, explaining they were owned by him, and that the fruit was not ripe anyway as it was winter season.” The Muslims “became enraged” and verbally abused the farmer. “You’re a Choora (filthy Christian)!” cried Intizar. “How dare you prohibit us from taking fruit from this farm! Grab him and kill him.” Usama then pulled out a pistol and shot Alladitta in the chest. He died soon thereafter. “The men then ran away laughing and destroying more fruit as they exited the crime scene,” while shouting, “you Christian chura [filthy sweepers] have no chance of justice, we can kill you any time we want!”
Burkina Faso: On Jan. 2, unidentified gunmen assassinated a Catholic priest in the Muslim majority nation. Father Jacques Yaro Zerbo, 67, had been a caring priest since 1986. According to one human rights activist, “The situation facing Christians in Burkina Faso is now similar to Nigeria.”
Sudan: On Jan. 23, Muslims shot dead Ibrahim Kandr, a Sudanese-American pastor, and four other Christians. Another four Christians were seriously wounded. The attack occurred around 3 a.m., after the Christians, who had been traveling, settled in for the night in the city of Kadugli:
“Islamic extremists who have been terrorizing people in the area since 2011 monitor movements in and out of town and likely saw the ministry team arrive for the night.”
Blasphemy Accusations in Pakistan
After a Muslim, Muhammad Imran, filed a complaint against a Christian man, police arrested and beat the Christian on “charges of defiling Islam and hurting the feelings of Muslims, by sharing offensive content about the Prophet Mohammed online,” according to a Jan. 14 report:
“The accusations stem from a video posted on social media showing the accused with blasphemous tattoos; however, his family claims that he is innocent, saying that he is illiterate, unable to understand the meaning of the Arabic words tattooed on him.”
Now Ishtiaq Saleem, a 31 year-old married father, and formerly a sanitation worker — a job usually reserved for “unclean” Christians — is facing a lengthy prison sentence, or possibly execution. Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency’s Cybercrime unit alleges that Saleem,
“with criminal intentions and ulterior motives illegally and unauthorizedly created/developed and further uploaded/transmitted/disseminated as well as publicly projected/displayed Holy and Sacred name of The Almighty, The Holy Prophet, The Holy Wives of The Prophet and The Holy Companions and Family of the Prophet on private parts of the human necked [sic] body along with sacrilegious/loathsome narration/speech using WhatsApp and Facebook.”
Although Saleem was arrested on Nov. 29, 2022, his family, members of the Anglican Church of Pakistan, did not go public until now, from fear. His wife insists that he is a victim of a “conspiracy,” due to his Christian faith. “We have a two-year-old son,” she added. “The family is living in constant fear and trauma.” According to the report:
“[In Pakistan,] blasphemy is misused to settle personal disputes and social issues are given a confessional twist in order to claim that religion has been defamed…. [T]hose who use spurious motives to accuse and stir hatred are not prosecuted, while innocent people who comment on social media end up being indicted and sentenced to death. In Pakistan, blasphemy has become a pretext for lynchings and extrajudicial killings. Islamic extremists have weaponised the aforementioned legislation [on blasphemy] to strike against religious minorities without legal due process, Christians and Hindus, but Muslims too, avenging in the name of Islam any alleged offence to the Qurʾān or the Prophet Mohammad. Blasphemy accusations have become a quick way to exact appalling revenge and settling scores.”
In a separate incident, on Jan. 7, a Muslim man threatened to accuse his Christian coworker, a Catholic widow, of blasphemy, if she did not do what he said, which was against company policy. According to Samina Mushtaq, a security official with Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, Muhammad Salim, a Muslim official, demanded she allow an unauthorized vehicle into the parking area of the cargo terminal at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport:
“Salim threatened to accuse me of blasphemy when I refused to surrender to his illegal demand. He said he would call clerics and cut me up.”
She wisely recorded Salim’s threats as proof of her innocence and shared them with her employers, who temporarily suspended Salim while they conducted an inquiry.
“I don’t know what would have become of me had I not recorded Salim’s threats on my phone and shared the video on social media. This is not the first time I’ve faced challenges at my workplace due to my Christian faith, but when Salim openly threatened to entrap me in a blasphemy case when I was only doing my job, I have become very fearful about the security of my family.”
Hate for and Violence against Christians
Israel: On Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2022, a group of Palestinian “youths” assaulted a Coptic Christian church in Jaffa. After hurling stones and empty glass bottles at St. Anthony’s Church, they stormed it and savagely beat Fr. Michael Mansour, its priest. While loudly cursing Christianity and personally insulting the elderly clergyman, they pepper sprayed him. The same Muslim “youths” then proceeded to curse and hurl stones at a Latin church in the vicinity. Discussing this incident in a later interview, Fr. Michael, who has lived and been serving his Coptic flock in Jaffa for some four decades, said that he had felt “dizzy and short of breath” after being pepper-sprayed, and had collapsed, but thankfully recovered. He prayed for peace and calm to be restored, and asked that God may shed his grace on his assailants. During the assault, no property was stolen from the church or Fr. Michael’s adjoining home, thus suggesting it was a hate crime. In a statement, Fr. Constantine Nassar, the head of the Orthodox community of Jaffa, said:
“We strongly condemn this barbaric and tribalistic act and call on the responsible authorities to arrest and bring the perpetrators to trial as soon as possible, thereby making an example of them to others.”
Although the few Arabic language sources reporting on this incident portrayed it as an aberration that does not represent Muslim-Christian relations in the Holy Land, the Muslim persecution of that region’s Christians and their holy places has, in fact, been growing (as documented here).
United Kingdom: A Muslim man on trial for financially supporting the Islamic State in Syria told the judge:
“May Allah destroy you, may Allah destroy you. We will meet on judgment day. You are a Catholic and you will end up in hell.”
Earlier, a court heard how Tarek Namouz, 42, a Muslim barber shop owner in London and recipient of thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded Covid grants, had on seven separate occasions sent £25,000 to Islamic State fighters in Syria. The court also heard that he had said:
“I want to burn Christianity … we have incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from history…. I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers…. Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don’t want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia.”
Egypt: “Unknown persons” vandalized a beloved Christian icon belonging to the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, in Durunka, Asyut Governorate. The large icon depicts the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. As part of their tourism efforts, Egyptian officials had asked the monastery—built atop a spot frequented by the Holy Family when they fled to Egypt during Christ’s youth—to bring the icon out to the entrance of the road about a mile away from the monastery. As a Dec. 25, 2022 report details:
“For the first time this year, travelers to Egypt can follow what is believed to be the trail that the Holy Family followed in this foreign land, thanks to the completion of a long-anticipated project by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The project, which connects twenty-five locations [including the monastery in Durunka] connected to the Holy Family’s journey through the country, had been under development since 2013 and launched in May 2022, when the final sites of the trail were opened for the public.”
Despite such “ecumenical” efforts, on Jan. 9, the monastery’s monks discovered that the large icon had been defaced with black spray paint smeared over the faces of the Holy Family. Another, less valuable icon also at the entrance was similarly vandalized. Monastery officials immediately removed the icon back into the monastery, where they have reportedly managed to restore it. The desecration of Christian icons is common throughout the Muslim world, and has been spreading abroad, as well. In one instance in Greece—where 2,339 incidents of church desecrations have been recorded since migrants first flooded the nation in 2015—Muslims videotaped one of their own, topless and dancing to rap music, utterly desecrating a small church and smashing its icons.
Separately, on Jan. 9, Egypt’s Court of Cassation—the highest court of appeals—closed the door on the possibility of justice for Soad Thabet, a now 76-year-old Christian grandmother who was stripped naked and publicly abused by a group of Muslim men nearly seven years ago. According to one report:
“Not only will the men who assaulted Thabet not be held accountable, but Thabet is facing litigation that could see her have to compensate the three men who assaulted her.”
Earlier, on May 20, 2016, in the village of al-Karm, Minya governorate, some 300 Muslim men descended on the Christian woman’s home, stripped her naked, and then beat, spat on her and dragged her through the streets by her hair—to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of “Allahu Akbar.” Her “crime” was that her son had been accused of being romantically involved with a Muslim woman. Several Christian homes in the village were also looted and torched, in keeping with Islamic law, or sharia, which prescribes the collective punishment of non-Muslim “infidels.”
In fact, just one day before Thabet was denied justice, on Jan. 8, a Muslim mob rose up against and severely punished the Christian minorities of Ashrouba village, in Minya, after an individual fight between a Muslim tuk-tuk driver who crashed into a car driven by a Christian. According to the report,
“A street fight ensued, which quickly escalated into collective punishment of the village Copts by a Muslim mob. The mob attacked Copts’ homes, looted their shops, and even threw stones at the village’s church of the Apostles. A number of Copts were injured and moved to hospital.”
Iraq: During a Dec. 30, 2022 interview, Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, discussed the continuing plight of Christians in post-ISIS Iraq, including how he remains a “second class citizen.”
“Some things violate the rights of the Christians to the core. The conversion of minors to Islam is one example. How can such a thing be possible today?… This cannot happen in any other country. In addition, the shari’a and some Muslim practices are imposed on everybody. This is unacceptable. If you want to fast during Ramadan, do it, but you do not have the right to force others to fast. What is this fasting worth if it is not real? There are other things. The old laws and the constitution…I’ve said before that there are Christians who were forced to convert to Islam by ISIS or Al-Qaeda. They converted under death threats. So they proclaimed the shahada but have no understanding of Islam. They did not teach them anything in order to persuade them to become Muslims…. Why? The constitution talks about freedom of conscience, but it is just on paper. This mentality and these practices—all this inherited tradition—must end. The world has become a global village. Just look at the Muslims abroad. When I visit abroad and meet with heads of state, I see that the Muslims there have the same rights as the Christians and atheists. Here, however, I am treated as a second-class citizen.”
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19420/persecution-of-christians-january

د. ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: هل بايدن “رئيس دمية يسهل التعاون النووي بين ملالي إيران وروسيا؟
Is Biden A ‘Manchurian President,’ Facilitating Nuclear Cooperation between Iran’s Mullahs and Russia?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute/February 18, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115983/115983/
The US Congress urgently needs to pass legislation introduced by the Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that will “prohibit the Biden administration from waiving Congressional sanctions that prohibit cooperation on Iran’s nuclear program.”
It is stunning that the Biden Administration is offering Iran’s mullahs sanction waivers for their nuclear program while the Iranian regime is openly getting closer to obtaining nuclear weapons.
“There is absolutely no reason to continue issuing these waivers, which allow Iran and Russia to cooperate on building up Iran’s nuclear program. These waivers were nevertheless renewed in August, because the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime. Now the administration says it is committed to countering cooperation between Iran and Russia. They should embrace this legislation.” — Senator Ted Cruz, February 3, 2023.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously made it clear to US lawmakers that the Biden Administration will not stand in the way of Russia cashing in on the $10 billion contract, as well as Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation.
Biden has already been called “the Manchurian President.” After seeing the Biden Administration’s capitulations to America’s enemies over the past two years, it is important to ask: Has the Biden family effectively been paid to hand over America to Russia, China and Iran?
It is stunning that the Biden Administration is offering Iran’s mullahs sanction waivers for their nuclear program while the Iranian regime is openly getting closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. (Image source: iStock)
Not only is the Biden Administration disregarding the escalating Iranian-Russian military and nuclear cooperation, the Administration actually seems to be facilitating these two tyrannies’ becoming more empowered and emboldened.
Recently, the Biden Administration renewed a series of waivers of sanctions that will allow Iranian and Russian leaders to cooperate more closely with each other to advance the Iran’s nuclear program at various enrichment sites. According to the Washington Free Beacon:
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized the waivers on Jan. 31, but Congress was not notified of the decision until late on Feb. 3, after the Free Beacon began making inquiries about the exemptions. Senior congressional sources said the Biden administration is trying to sweep the sanctions waivers under the rug amid renewed concerns about Iran and Russia’s military alliance.”
The US Congress urgently needs to pass legislation introduced by the Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that will “prohibit the Biden administration from waiving Congressional sanctions that prohibit cooperation on Iran’s nuclear program.”
“These waivers were originally issued pursuant to the catastrophic Obama-Biden nuclear deal with Iran, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The Biden administration issued these waivers in February and renewed them in August.”
The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn), Mike Braun (R-Ind), Bill Cassidy (R-La), Tom Cotton (R-Ark), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-Mont), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn), John Hoeven (R-ND), Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rick Scott (R-Fla).
It is stunning that the Biden Administration is offering Iran’s mullahs sanction waivers for their nuclear program while the Iranian regime is openly getting closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. As Cruz pointed out:
“There is absolutely no reason to continue issuing these waivers, which allow Iran and Russia to cooperate on building up Iran’s nuclear program. These waivers were nevertheless renewed in August, because the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime. Now the administration says it is committed to countering cooperation between Iran and Russia. They should embrace this legislation.”
Additionally, the Biden Administration has continued to send a message to Russia and the Islamist mullahs of Iran that the US is still in favor of reviving the nuclear deal in which Russia, Iran’s staunch ally, plays the dominant role. Biden’s nuclear deal will reportedly allow Moscow to cash in on a $10 billion contract to expand Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Blinken previously made it clear to US lawmakers that the Biden Administration will not stand in the way of Russia cashing in on the $10 billion contract, as well as Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation. State Department spokesman Ned Price had previously reiterated the Biden administration’s stance, saying:
“We, of course, would not sanction Russian participation in nuclear projects that are part of resuming full implementation of the JCPOA”.
Worse, the Biden administration’s nuclear deal has been trusting Russia to conduct the negotiations on behalf of the US; to be the sole country to oversee compliance with the nuclear deal, and to keep Iran’s highly enriched uranium — able to return it to Iran at the mullahs’ request.
As Gabriel Noronha, who served as Special Advisor for Iran in the U.S. State Department from 2019-2020 pointed out, the Biden administration “cannot honestly claim to be supporting Ukraine if they are going to keep giving a green light to support the Russian-Iranian alliance at the very same time.”
“Renewing these waivers would provide Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company, a get-out-of-sanctions pass to build two new nuclear reactors in Iran—a contract worth $10 billion—while they have been helping take over Ukraine’s two largest nuclear power plants. If Biden is serious about moving on from the failed [nuclear deal] and actually pushing back against Iran’s terror plots and nuclear extortion, the administration needs to act like it and put real pressure on Iran for once. The same goes for punishing Russia.”
Biden has already been called “the Manchurian President” (here, here, and here). After seeing the Biden Administration’s capitulations to America’s enemies over the past two years (for instance here, here , here and here), it is important to ask: Has the Biden family effectively been paid (here, here and here) to hand over America to Russia, China and Iran?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Has the Hour Come for Direct War Between Russia and the West? The Answer Could Be in Putin’s Speech
Raghida Dergham/February 19, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver a speech next week, marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. All ears will be tuned to carefully listen to his messages at this crucial moment. It is unlikely that the Russian leader will present a roadmap to a political solution that has become unattainable, not just between Russia and Ukraine, but also Russia and the US-led NATO alliance. More likely, Putin will announce that Russia is now in an overt war with the West, not just Ukraine. He will say that Russia must be prepared for war with NATO, with all that this entails on the battlefield, including the possibility of expanding the theatre of war into Poland with strikes against NATO military supplies to Ukraine. In that scenario, there will be no escape from a direct war between NATO and Russia with all its deadly consequences. But why do the leaders of the United States and Europe seem undisturbed by the prospect of a global war that may see Putin deploy nuclear weapons, as he has threatened? How will the anticipated spring offensives of both Russia and Ukraine shape the fate of the war if neither side can achieve a decisive outcome, turning the conflict into a long war that could last many more years? Finally, on the one-year anniversary of this war, who appears to be winning and who is losing? Who has lured whom into a trap, and who will foot the bill or prevail, ultimately?
A year ago, no one could have predicted that war would return to Europe or even imagine the possibility of a tactical or strategic nuclear war. Today, there is a kind of coexistence with this doomsday scenario, yet without the panic that once accompanied the mere mention of nuclear weapons – a new phenomenon indeed.
While nuclear fears have receded, the possibility of strategic nukes being used is still an option for Russian military as well as NATO commanders. Remarkably, the use of tactical nukes has become an almost acceptable course of action, in that it causes almost no panic. Even in the event of strategic nuclear weapons being deployed, there is a kind of impression that both sides, Russia and the United States, that expects things to stop with the first strike by either one of them. In other words, the discourse around strategic nuclear weapons no longer expects a doomsday scenario by default.
The decline of nuclear fears, however, does not mean they are completely dispelled. Indeed, decision-makers in Western capitals will be listening very carefully to what Putin will say in his speech, and adjusting their nuclear calculus accordingly. Threats and tensions are one thing, and mobilizing nuclear assets is another completely. Officially, the United States continues to warn against the dangerous consequences of any use of tactical nuclear weapons, but American leaders know full well that Putin will not hesitate to use them if the equation of the war becomes existential for him personally and for Russia.
Ironically, the United States, Germany, and other NATO members are lobbying China to adopt a categorial opposition to Russian use of nuclear weapons. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s efforts had led him to China where he met President Xi Jinping. Together they at the time announced their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. China’s foreign minister will head to Moscow following the Munich Security Conference this week, to coordinate an expected summit between the two countries’ leaders possibly in April. It is worth recalling that Putin’s visit to China during the Beijing Olympics in early 2022 had helped delay the start of the ‘special military operation’ as Putin dubbed it, because China did not consent. China remains unwilling to support the war.
Worryingly, if the Russian president and his military feel they must not be defeated at any cost, including the cost of using nuclear weapons, China will not be able to influence this decision. China does not want the West to defeat Russia as this would take the latter out of the equation of international decision making, and deny China an important partner. However, China will not be advantaged by the use of nuclear weapons, and herein lies its dilemma.
The political and military leaders of the West and Russia are fighting a war of nerves. But why are Western leaders unperturbed by the potential nuclear reactions of the Russian president? Most likely, they believe it is him who fears their reaction. But this is a dangerous gamble.
Military escalation in the coming weeks will intensify, as NATO powers insist on shifting the war equation in favor of Ukraine on the battlefield. On the other side, Russia is determined to launch major offensives to overturn the current stalemate in its favor. Vladimir Putin’s speech on Tuesday, 21 February, will be an important milestone. Indeed, together with the incoming Russian and Ukrainian offensives, it could decide the next steps which could determine who will win the war.
Some are moving behind the scenes to try to create a forum to launch talks between Russia, and Ukraine and NATO, to reach temporary agreements and security guarantees, but not to reach the currently impossible goal of a peace agreement. These efforts are being made in preparation for the day after the major battle, namely the offensives of the two sides, which may not conclude with one side winning and another losing.
The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko this week said that European powers are sending messages to Minsk requesting itss mediation, expressing a desire to end the conflict. Some of Lukashenko’s efforts appear to be unserious, such as his invitation to US President Joe Biden to come to Minsk, expressing his willingness to organize a meeting between him and President Putin in the Belarusian capital. Lukashenko has repeatedly denied that his country will join the war alongside Russia in Ukraine, affirming he would not order his forces to fight unless his country is attacked first. This is reassuring news, and his mediation could be met with some acceptance while he is very keen to improve his relations with the West.
President Biden will visit Poland on Monday and Tuesday, where he will meet the leaders of the Bucharest Nine (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Estonia). President Biden’s visit to Poland, which plays a crucial role in delivering military supplies from NATO states to Ukraine, carries important political implications that could be translated into military scenarios if President Putin finds them too provocative for Russia. The equation of intimidation now plays an important role in the psychology of war of both sides and this is an additional risk factor.
There is also the element of calculated provocations, such as the US statements suggesting Washington supports Ukrainian strikes on Russian military targets in Crimea. For example, US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said this week, in reference to this issue, that “these are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them and we are supporting that”. Recall that Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and for Putin and his prestige in Russia, the issue of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula, is extremely delicate.
One year ago, on 27 February 2022, I wrote my column here, titled As the Iron Curtain Falls on Russia, Putin Has No Exit Strategy. I wrote that among the Russian president’s biggest blunders was that he entered a war without an exit strategy, and that his assessment of NATO’s reaction and of Ukraine’s military calculations was mistaken. Putin allowed Russia to be dragged into a war of attrition designed to exhaust Russian forces in Ukraine, a war that will be more costly than the USSR invasion of Afghanistan that had triggered the countdown to the end of the Soviet Union.
President Putin has no strategy for remaining in Ukraine or exiting from it. He has backed himself into a corner and can no longer backtrack. He developed his policies out of his anger at what he considered the West’s arrogance and the personal humiliation it has brought him, when the United States and the European powers rejected his threats. They ignored the ultimatum he issued to them in December 2021, following his famed meeting with his top brass at the Russian Ministry of Defense. At the time, Putin demanded written guarantees NATO would not be expanded and its footprint in Eastern Europe would be reduced.
Vladimir Putin decided to blow up the international system to reshuffle the deck and negotiate the birth of a new system. Instead, the West hit back, and perhaps it was the West that had lured him into this predicament. Indeed, the United States had verbally pledged not to expand NATO membership – after the late President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to dissolve the Warsaw Pact – then reneged on its pledge.
The NATO powers knew well the meaning of their words when they had spoken about Ukraine’s accession into the alliance, and how provocative such a development would be to Russian pride and the balance of power between Russia and the West. In other words, there was a deliberate chain of events on the part of NATO, possibly to lure Putin into this bind.
Ultimately, however, it is Putin who is responsible for falling into the trap, just like many did before him, most prominently the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Some may protest such a comparison, but what is meant here is how both fell into a trap, rather than a comparison of their fates. Indeed, Putin leads a nuclear armed nation, and has means at his disposal. This is a terrifying reality, regardless of whether or not the fear of tactical nukes has receded.
Today, Russia is paying a heavy price for its military and political blunders. The West has dropped an iron curtain on Russia through sanctions that have crippled its economy, paralyzed its banks and corporations’ financial transactions, and shackled its oil and gas and technology sectors. The Russian people may eventually come to understand the impact of these sanctions on their lives and rise up.
Western leaders could be betting on a protracted war that weakens Russia, in the event the war is not settled quickly on the battlefield. This would be a catastrophic scenario for Russia that will further weaken it and stoke its internal tensions leading up the Russian presidential elections of 2024. In that case, NATO will emerge as the victor in the war. NATO has already become stronger and more coherent along with Ukraine, in the wake of the war. And the loser will be Russia and Putin, because of his fateful blunders. This is the scenario imaged by Western leaders.
All this, however, could be upended by the unexpected, or by decisions that could overturn all wagers by both the West and Russia. And once again, the focus here is on nuclear weapons in the hands of a nation whose civilian and military leaders will never accept surrender.
Raghida Dergham/Founder and Executive Chairman at Beirut Institute

One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves
Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times/February 19/2023
The grievance, paranoia and imperialist mindset that drove President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine have seeped deep into Russian life after a year of war — a broad, if uneven, societal upheaval that has left the Russian leader more dominant than ever at home.
Schoolchildren collect empty cans to make candles for soldiers in the trenches, while learning in a new weekly class that the Russian military has always liberated humanity from “aggressors who seek world domination.”
Museums and theaters, which remained islands of artistic freedom during previous crackdowns, have seen that special status evaporate, their anti-war performers and artists expunged. New exhibits put on by the state have titles like “NATOzism” — a play on “Nazism” that seeks to cast the Western military alliance as posing a threat as existential as the Nazis of World War II.
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Many of the activist groups and rights organizations that have sprung up in the first 30 years of post-Soviet Russia have met an abrupt end, while nationalist groups once seen as fringe have taken center stage.
As Friday’s anniversary of the invasion approaches, Russia’s military has suffered setback after setback, falling far short of its goal of taking control of Ukraine. But at home, facing little resistance, Putin’s year of war has allowed him to go further than many thought possible in reshaping Russia in his image.
“Liberalism in Russia is dead forever, thank God,” Konstantin Malofeyev, an ultraconservative business tycoon, bragged in a phone interview on Saturday. “The longer this war lasts, the more Russian society is cleansing itself from liberalism and the Western poison.”
That the invasion has dragged on for a year has made Russia’s transformation go far deeper, he said, than it would have had Putin’s hopes for a swift victory been realized.
“If the Blitzkrieg had succeeded, nothing would have changed,” he said.
The Kremlin for years sought to keep Malofeyev at arm’s length, even as he funded pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and called for Russia to be reformed into an empire of “traditional values,” free of Western influence. But that changed after the invasion, as Putin turned “traditional values” into a rallying cry — signing a new anti-gay law, for instance — while styling himself as another Peter the Great retaking lost Russian lands.
Most important, Malofeyev said, Russia’s liberals had either been silenced or had fled the country, while Western companies had left voluntarily.
That change was evident last Wednesday at a gathering off the traffic-jammed Garden Ring road in Moscow, where some of the most prominent rights activists who have remained in Russia came together for the latest of many recent farewells: The Sakharov Center, a human rights archive that was a liberal hub for decades, was opening its last exhibit before being forced to shut under a new law.
The center’s chair, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, once a Soviet dissident, told the assembled crowd that “what we just couldn’t have imagined two years ago or even a year ago is happening today.”
“A new system of values has been built,” Aleksandr Daniel, an expert on Soviet dissidents, said afterward. “Brutal and archaic public values.”
A year ago, as Washington warned of an imminent invasion, most Russians dismissed the possibility; Putin, after all, had styled himself as a peace-loving president who would never attack another country. So after the invasion started — stunning some of the president’s closest aides — the Kremlin scrambled to adjust its propaganda to justify it.
It was the West that went to war against Russia by backing “Nazis” who took power in Ukraine in 2014, the false message went, and the goal of Putin’s “special military operation” was to end the war the West had started.
In a series of addresses aimed at shoring up domestic support, Putin cast the invasion as a near-holy war for Russia’s very identity, declaring that it was fighting to prevent liberal gender norms and acceptance of homosexuality from being forced upon it by an aggressive West.
The full power of the state was deployed to spread and enforce that message. National television channels, all controlled by the Kremlin, dropped entertainment programming in favor of more news and political talk shows; schools were directed to add a regular flag-raising ceremony and “patriotic” education; police hunted down people for offenses like anti-war Facebook posts, helping to push hundreds of thousands of Russians out of the country.
“Society in general has gone off the rails,” Sergei Chernyshov, who runs a private high school in the Siberian metropolis of Novosibirsk, said in a phone interview. “They’ve flipped the ideas of good and evil.”
Chernyshov, one of the few Russian school heads who has spoken out against the war, described the narrative of Russian soldiers fighting in defense of their nation as so easily digestible that much of society truly came to believe it — especially since the message meshed seamlessly with one of the most emotionally evocative chapters of Russian history: their nation’s victory in World War II.
A nationwide campaign urging children to make candles for soldiers has become so popular, he said, that anyone questioning it in a school chat group might be called a “Nazi and an accomplice of the West.”
At the same time, he argued, daily life has changed little for Russians without a family member fighting in Ukraine, which has hidden or assuaged the costs of the war. Western officials estimate that at least 200,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine, a far more serious toll than analysts had predicted when the war began. Yet the economy has suffered much less than analysts predicted, with Western sanctions having failed to drastically reduce average Russians’ quality of life even as many Western brands departed.
“One of the scariest observations, I think, is that for the most part, nothing has changed for people,” Chernyshov said, describing the urban rhythm of restaurants and concerts and his students going on dates. “This tragedy gets pushed to the periphery.”
In Moscow, Putin’s new ideology of war is on display at the Victory Museum — a sprawling hilltop compound dedicated to the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. One new exhibit, “NATOzism,” declares that “the purpose of creating NATO was to achieve world domination.” A second, “Everyday Nazism,” includes artifacts from Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, which has far-right connections, as evidence for the false assertion that Ukraine is committing “genocide” against Russians.
“It was scary, creepy and awful,” one patron named Liza, 19, said of what the exhibit had shown her, declining to give her last name because of the political sensitivity of the subject. She said she was distressed to learn of this behavior by the Ukrainians, as presented by Russian propaganda. “It shouldn’t be that way,” she said, signaling her support for Putin’s invasion.
Hundreds of students were visiting on a recent afternoon, and primary schoolchildren marched in green army caps as their chaperone called out, “Left, left, one, two, three!” and addressed them as “soldiers.” In the main hall, the studio of Victory TV — a channel started in 2020 to focus on World War II — was filming a live talk show.
“The framework of the conflict helped people to come to terms with it,” said Denis Volkov, the director of the Levada Center, an independent pollster in Moscow. “The West is against us. Here are our soldiers, there are the enemy soldiers, and in this framework, you have to take sides.”
Weeks after launching his invasion, Putin declared that Russia faced a much-needed “self-purification of society.” He has glibly wished “all the best!” to Western businesses that left the country and said their departures created “unique development opportunities” for Russian companies.
But in Khabarovsk, a city on the Chinese border in Russia’s Far East, Vitaly Blazhevich, a local English teacher, says the locals miss Western brands such as H&M, the clothing retailer. When it came to the war, he went on, the dominant emotion was one of passive acceptance and the hope that things would end soon. “People are nostalgic for what turned out to have been the good times,” he said.
Blazhevich taught at a Khabarovsk state university until he was forced to resign on Friday, he said, for criticizing Putin in a YouTube interview with Radio Liberty, the American-funded Russian-language news outlet. They were the kind of comments that would probably not have been punished before the war. Now, he said, the government’s repression of dissent “is like a steamroller” — “everyone is just being rolled into the asphalt.”
Malofeyev, the conservative tycoon, said Russia still needed another year “for society to cleanse itself completely from the last fateful years.” He said anything short of “victory” in Ukraine, complete with a parade in Kyiv, could still cause some of the last year’s transformation to be undone.
“If there is a cease-fire in the course of the spring,” he said, “then a certain liberal comeback is possible.”
In Moscow, at the farewell event at the Sakharov Center, some of the older attendees noted that in the arc of Russian history, a Kremlin crackdown on dissent was nothing new. Yan Rachinsky, chair of Memorial, the rights group forced to disband in late 2021, said the Soviets banned so much “that there was nothing left to ban.”“But you can’t ban people from thinking,” Rachinsky went on. “What the authorities are doing today does not guarantee them any longevity.”
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The Survivors Brigade
Samir Atallah/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023
As crises and disasters storm through the region, the afflicted have found a steady helping hand in its immigrants. The community of around four million Turkish-German dual nationals was the first to help its kin. The approximately one million Syrians who had taken refuge in Germany amid the political turmoil have sent as much as they can back home. With Egypt's economic crisis, around ten million Egyptian immigrants send their families the money they need to make ends meet. Lebanon's expatriates send over 7 billion dollars a year to family members who have not emigrated, which has helped delay the collapse of the banks, the economy, and every other sector of the country's economy. The Lebanese were the first Arabs to emigrate. First, they went to the Americas (North and South), then to Africa. Many Yemeni flew to Britain and East Africa, while people from the Gulf went to India, albeit in limited numbers, in the early twentieth century. Egyptians had not immigrated to distant lands before the fifties because of their famous attachment to their territory.
As economic conditions declined, every country in the East became a country of immigrants. Iraqis, Syrians, and of course, the Palestinians have become immigrants, escaping refugee status and seeking a normal life abroad. Far from the sorrows and problems plaguing their countries, these immigrants have formed a "survivors brigade" that serves their people. Most of them have succeeded in turning their exile into beautiful homelands where they live in freedom and prosperity. They sent money used to build villages, mosques and schools. Since the middle of the twentieth century and the rise of the oil boom, immigration has been primarily channeled to the Gulf.
In the Gulf, the less fortunate migrated to the more fortunate. The ambassador and thinker Abdullah Bishara tells us, for example, that the former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the Sultanate of Oman, Yusuf bin Alawi, had been an officer in the Kuwaiti army in his youth. Indeed, Kuwait recruited many Arabs when it was first establishing its independent state, including the chief of police and the Kuwaiti ambassador to Russia, to say nothing about the people of Hijaz and university education.
The "brigades" that survived the pitfalls or impulsive actions in their countries of origin have channeled a lot of money and effort into helping their homelands. The expatriates of Lebanon had, to a large extent, kept it alive during the war that killed over 150 thousand human beings. While their compatriots were fighting in the country, the survivors sought refuge from the seas of death and brutality. The "survivors brigade" will continue to expand amid the ongoing cold war. The process will be even more brutal from here on out.

Oil for Climate Action
Najib Saab/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023
The appointment of Sultan Al Jaber to lead the 28th climate summit this year unleashed criticism of some Western media, especially in Britain, and fueled skepticism among environmental activists. While the reaction of most environmental and climate action groups is driven by genuine concern, the organized campaigns led by major British media carried a lot of malice, not to mention certainly inconsistent with the journalistic ethics and standards they claim to revere.
Reports and articles in the BBC and The Guardian criticized the relationship of Al Jaber, alongside some of those he chose to help him run the climate summit office, with the UAE oil sector, calling this a conflict of interest. This is a highly prejudicial oversimplification, as it ignores the economic, scientific and cultural characteristics of a country in which development was based on investing its oil wealth. Had those in objection looked more closely, they would have realized that what the UAE did was to bring the oil and gas sector closer to environment and climate action, not the other way around.
It is true that Sultan Al Jaber is the CEO of ADNOC, but his appointment as President-Designate of COP 28 is not the same as appointing the head of Shell or BP, for example, to chair a climate summit in the United Kingdom. While these two companies constitute one part of the British economy, modern UAE was exclusively built on the oil sector, which was its only dependable natural resource, before the diversification drive. This sector is led by a state company, ADNOC, owned by the government. Therefore, it’s not unusual for senior officials in this young, modern country to have built their scientific and professional expertise in the oil sector and its companies, or under their umbrella. With the diversification of the economy beyond fossil fuels, the situation will certainly change, and high-level expertise will definitely have to come from different sectors.
There is no cause for shame in the UAE’s choices and Sultan Al Jaber’s background, but rather reasons to be proud. The UAE used its oil wealth in the right direction, going far beyond creating advanced infrastructure and adopting a rapid and balanced approach to economic and social development, to providing education and training opportunities for its youth. Those include Sultan Al Jaber, who studied chemical engineering and business administration in the United States, on a scholarship from ADNOC, and obtained a PhD in business and economics from Britain, before starting his work in the energy sector. His qualifications were behind his assignment in 2006 to establish and lead the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), which he succeeded to place at the forefront of renewable energy companies in the region and the world, before becoming Chairman of its Board of Directors. Al Jaber was also the driving force behind the establishment and hosting of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi in 2009. Furthermore, in his capacity as President of the Emirates Development Bank, he led several initiatives to achieve the goals of comprehensive economic and social development in the country.
This career path, which represents a new UAE generation, was behind the appointment of Al Jaber as Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. His success in transforming renewable and clean energy initiatives into unprecedented programs and achievements, locally, regionally and globally, was behind his appointment as the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change. Therefore, Sultan Al Jaber was actually the ideal choice to lead the climate summit, after the UAE was elected, with international consensus, to host its twenty-eighth session. The UAE, this young oil-producing country, has the right to be proud of what it has accomplished on the path of diversifying the economy and balanced development, including the rapid transition to clean and renewable energy sources. And while those in the media are voicing their protests, their governments are panting after more supplies of oil and gas from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and other producing countries, to make up for the deficit caused by the war in Ukraine.
I first met Sultan Al Jaber while he was manning as a humble professional, a small booth for Masdar on his own, at an energy exhibition in Abu Dhabi, enthusiastically trying to attract interest and support. Shortly after he started his assignment in 2006 from scratch, Masdar City was established and started its pioneering work in the fields of clean energy. It soon embraced IRENA in Abu Dhabi. Years later, we collaborated on the reports of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) and its conferences, with another brilliant Emirati young man, Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, who used to head the Department of Energy and Climate Change at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented the Emirates in IRENA, before becoming Minister of Climate Change and Environment and later Minister of State for Foreign Trade. Such people represent a new generation that believes in sustainable development rooted in safeguarding the environment, whose qualifications and achievements awarded them with well-deserved opportunities in leading positions to serve their country.
The unjust campaign against the Emirates today was preceded, for similar reasons, by a similar stance against Saudi Arabia. The huge oil wealth, which placed the Kingdom at the forefront of global energy markets, made it natural for major state and private entities to focus on oil, not only in economic and development manifestations, but also in science and research. In the vicinity of the Saudi Oil Company (Aramco), the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals was established in Dhahran, to become one of the most important centers for research and higher education in energy-related issues. It was followed by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in the vicinity of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, and the Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Riyadh, which have become two world leading research centers in clean and renewable energy. Funding for these universities and research centers comes from oil, the country’s primary source of income. Oil is also the source of financing development projects in the Kingdom, programs to diversify the economy, switch to clean and renewable energy, and combat climate change by reducing emissions. The recently announced Saudi plan to produce electric cars locally, with an initial production capacity of half a million cars starting from 2030, would not have been possible without income from oil.
After all this, is it justifiable to object if Saudi experts, scholars, and negotiators come from successful universities and research centers funded by the state-owned national oil industry? Or should we rather applaud if the stances of the Saudi Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, on environment and climate issues exceed the commitments of many environment ministers in other countries? Let alone that the Chief Climate Negotiator, Khaled Abuleif, who has led a new era which witnessed the largest Saudi involvement and positive turnaround in the negotiations, comes from a background of working for Aramco and the Ministry of Energy.
What is required is that oil-producing countries be held accountable for their actions in developing their societies, diversifying their economies, protecting the environment, and adhering to pledges to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, according to the ambitious goals they have committed to. But they are not to blame if they satisfy the world hunger for traditional energy sources which they possess, during an inevitable transitional period. Recent events showed that a transition period is inevitable before eliminating carbon emissions by enhancing efficiency, carbon sequestration, and switching to renewable energy sources. Using oil wealth in the right direction can expedite climate action. And those who are being condemned as felons might emerge as pioneers.
Najib Saab is Secretary General of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development- AFED and Editor-in-Chief of Environment & Development magazine.

Iranian Terrorism
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/2023
Any news about the mullah regime in Iran is never positive. Rather, it often focus on the systematic terrorism of the Iranian state, such as the attacks on regional marine navigation, the armament of the Houthis in Yemen and Iranian drones that are killing Ukrainians in Europe.
The mullah regime has tried and is trying to target Iranians in Britain and the United States. It recently tried to kidnapped a journalist who is originally from Iran. Official accusations have been made against the parties involved in the plot.
A recent United Nations report said that Saif al-Adel, one of the most dangerous al-Qaeda operatives, has become the terrorist group’s “uncontested” leader, succeeding Ayman al-Zawahiri. Washington has set a reward of 10 million dollars for anyone who would provide information that would lead to his arrest or killing. The most important piece of information is that he is currently in Iran. The US State Department confirmed the UN assessment, with a spokesman saying that Saif al-Adel “is based in Iran.”
This is not new information. He has lived there for some time now. An attack against Saudi Arabia in 2003 was carried out at his orders from within Iran.
The new information is that the new al-Qaeda leader is officially living in Iran. This confirms that the mullah regime has and still is al-Qaeda's main backer and protector of its leadership. In August 2020, the group’s second-in-command, Abou Mohammed al-Masri, was assassinated in the streets of Tehran.
All of the above confirms former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statements in his memoirs, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love.” In it, he said that he had realized early on that the Iranian regime was just a terrorist organization. He concluded that al-Qaeda had taken up Tehran, not Tora Bora in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or Syria, as its main headquarters.
Therefore, all damning evidence, including from western countries and their security agencies and the United Nations, point to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism. This is coupled with its actions in the region, from Iraq to Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, and against its own people.
At this, one has to wonder when will the US, West and UN believe that Iran has crossed all red lines? When will they say enough is enough to the mullah regime which has yet to acquire nuclear weapons?
The truth is, the regime – led by its supreme leader and acts carried out by its terrorist proxies – has outdone Saddam Hussein’s regime or any regime in recent memory. And yet, the international community has not taken any serious action against the Iranian regime.
We have not seen media, especially American, coverage that matches the extent of the Iranian crimes. We can only describe American media as hypocritical. The continuation of Tehran’s crimes can be blamed on the international community’s leniency with the mullah regime and this is shameful and suspicious.