English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 21/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.february21.23.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Click On The Below Link To Join
Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group so you get the LCCC Daily A/E Bulletins every
day
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط على الرابط في أعلى للإنضمام
لكروب Eliasbejjaninews
whatsapp group وذلك لإستلام
نشراتي العربية والإنكليزية اليومية بانتظام
Bible Quotations For today
Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your
Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew
06/05-15/:”‘Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to
stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be
seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever
you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘When you are
praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that
they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him. ‘Pray then in this way: Our
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done,on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our
debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of
trial,but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not
forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 20-21/2023
Ash Monday: Repentance Prayers & Forgiveness/Elias Bejjani/February
20/2023
Lent & The Cana Wedding Miracle/Marfaa Sunday/Elias Bejjani/February 19/2023
Lebanon shakes anew as 6.4-magnitude quake hits Turkey's Hatay
Ibrahim’s term may be extended by administrative or govt. decision
Parliament Bureau fails to discuss possibility of holding legislative session
Lebanese parliamentary delegation meets with Assad
Salameh says no one has talked to him about term extension
EU, SKeyes launch 18th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the
Press
Mikati discusses cancer treatment with Abiad, President of “Organisation of
European Cancer Institutes”
European Observatory for Integrity: Lebanese should hold Salameh accountable
rather than renew his mandate
Mikati holds series of meetings at Grand Serail over educational, health and
developmental affairs, discusses cancer treatment with Abiad,...
Nasrallah Snubs Bassil after MP Rejects his Candidate for Lebanese Presidency
Former Hizbullah Commander Burns Posters Of Iranian Supreme Leaders Khomeini,
Khamenei, And Hizbullah Sec.-Gen. Nasrallah In TikTok Video, Says: 'You People
Are Inhumane; These Are Your Dictators'
As Lebanon disintegrates, Nasrallah incites war/Baria Alamuddin/Arab
News/February 20/2023
Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi: Lebanon ‘is a hostage to the veto power’ of
Hezbollah
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February
20-21/2023
Fresh quake hits Turkiye-Syria border area two weeks after disaster
Plight of refugees induces shift of Saudi priorities towards Syria
Saudi Arabia wants to send medics to quake-hit Syria
IAEA Finds Uranium Enriched to 84% in Iran, Near Bomb-Grade, Reveal Diplomats
Iran’s Currency Falls to Record Low as Sanctions to Continue
Iran Rejects Israeli Claims on Oil Tanker Attack
UK Police Foil 15 Iranian Terrorist Plots
EU targets more Iran officials, organizations over crackdown
Israel promises not to approve additional West Bank outposts
Israel Tells US it Won’t Authorize New Settlements in Coming Months
Israel’s Netanyahu Advances Judicial Changes Despite Uproar
US President Biden Pledges Military Aid during Kyiv Visit
King Charles visits Ukrainian troops being trained by British forces
Russia sells weapons at Abu Dhabi arms fair amid Ukraine war
Kremlin: Russia's relations with Moldova are very tense
US Reaffirms Pledge to Deliver Jets to Türkiye
Titles For
The Latest
English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 20-21/2023
Can America Prosper Without War?/Mark Hannah/The New York Times/February
20/2023
The Earthquake Factory/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 20/2023
The Newswashing of ISIS Bride Shamima Begum/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone
Institute./February 20, 2023
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 20-21/2023
Ash Monday: Repentance Prayers &
Forgiveness
Elias Bejjani/February 20/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72716/elias-bejjani-what-is-the-ash-monday/
Before Christianity, The Jews used to scatter
ashes on their heads and bodies while weeping and wailing over their sins, in
order to purify their bodies from sins, and to remind themselves that they came
from dust and to dust they will return. The Jews used to practice this ritual
before starting any fasting, in a bid to atone for their sins. Christians kept
on performing this ritual, but the ashes used were taken from the olive branches
burned on the Palm Sunday. These ashes were used the next year on the first lent
Monday to wipe the foreheads of the repentant fasting believers, with a cross
symbol so that they begin the lent forty period with true repentance befitting
their Christian faith …”Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return
(genesis03/19)”.
Ash Monday is the first day of Lent ,and It is a moveable feast, falling on a
different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It
derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of
adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. On The Ash Monday the
priest ceremonially marks with wet ashes on the worshippers’ foreheads a visible
cross while saying: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return
(genesis03/19)”.
Worshippers are reminded of their sinfulness and mortality and thus, implicitly,
of their need to repent in time.
Ash Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα), is also known as Clean and Pure Monday. The
common term for this day, refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and
non-fasting foods.
Our Maronite Catholic Church is notable amongst the Eastern rites employing the
use of ashes on this day.
(In the Western Catholic Churches this day falls on Wednesday and accordingly it
is called the “Ash Wednesday”).
Ash Monday is a Christian holy day of prayer, fasting, contemplating of
transgressions and repentance. It is a reminder that we should begin Lent with
good intentions, and a desire to clean our spiritual house. It is a day of
strict fasting including abstinence, not only from meat, but from eggs and dairy
products as well. Liturgically, Ash Monday—and thus Lent itself—begins on the
preceding (Sunday) night, at a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which
culminates with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, at which all present will
bow down before one another and ask forgiveness. In this way, the faithful begin
Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love.
The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as “Clean Week”, and it
is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house
thoroughly. The Holy Bible stresses the conduct of humility and not bragging for
not only during the fasting period, but every day and around the clock.
It is worth mentioning that Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief.
When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, “she sprinkled ashes on her head, tore
her robe, and with her face buried in her hands went away crying” (2 Samuel
13:19).
Examples of the Ash practices among Jews are found in several other books of the
Bible, including Numbers 19:9, 19:17, Jonah 3:6, Book of Esther 4:1, and Hebrews
9:13.
Jesus is quoted as speaking of the Ash practice in Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13:
“If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
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.
Lebanon shakes anew as 6.4-magnitude quake
hits Turkey's Hatay
Naharnet/February 20/2023
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake was recorded Monday in Turkey's southern province of
Hatay, the hardest hit by a February 6 tremor which left more than 41,000 dead
in the country, the disaster response agency AFAD said. The quake hit the town
of Defne at 8:04 pm (1704 GMT) and was strongly felt in Antakya and Adana, 200
kilometers to the north. The quake was felt across Lebanon, prompting some
residents to flee their homes, especially in Tripoli and Beirut. Lebanon's
residents have been jittery since a devastating earthquake jolted southern
Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 and was strongly felt in Lebanon where
buildings shook for around 40 seconds.
Ibrahim’s term may be extended by administrative or govt.
decision
Naharnet/February 20/2023
The term of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim might be extended
through an administrative decision or a Cabinet resolution should parliament
fail to hold a legislative session, a media report said on Monday. “Following
the meeting that was held last evening between PM Najib Mikati and Maj. Gen.
Ibrahim, informed sources said a plan was being prepared to extend Ibrahim’s
term with an administrative decision that could be issued by the premier and the
interior minister or by the interior minister alone, seeing as he has authority
over the Directorate General of General Security,” al-Joumhouria newspaper
reported. Ibrahim’s tenure might alternatively be extended in a Cabinet session
that would be held before the end of this month and days before Ibrahim is sent
to retirement on March 3.
Parliament Bureau fails to discuss possibility of holding
legislative session
Naharnet/February 20/2023
A Parliament Bureau meeting that was supposed to discuss the possibility of
holding a legislative session was on Monday postponed to a date that would be
announced later, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said. "While stressing
parliament's right to legislate as happened in the past, the capital control
format that was issued by the Joint Committees must be accompanied by a
comprehensive plan. Accordingly, it has been decided to postpone Parliament
Bureau's meeting to a later date," Bou Saab added after meeting with Speaker
Nabih Berri. The Bureau had held a first meeting last Monday without managing to
agree on the session's agenda. Al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile reported that the
session in question was still being rejected by a “parliamentary majority that
is withholding quorum” and a “Christian majority that is stripping it of
conformity to the National Pact.” Quoting informed sources, the daily added that
Berri had last week discussed the Free Patriotic Movement’s declared boycott
with MP Alain Aoun, asking him whether the stance was related to the entire
agenda or to a specific agenda item. “Aoun told Berri that the FPM is refusing
participation because it does not see that there are extraordinary items that
require holding a session that falls under the legislation of necessity label,
and because the FPM believes that the priority is for the election of a new
president, a point that enjoys Christian unanimity over it,” the sources added.
Extending the term of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is one of
the most notable items on the proposed agenda. Ibrahim’s term expires on March
3.
Lebanese parliamentary delegation meets with Assad
Naharnet/February 20/2023
A Lebanese parliamentary delegation led by MP Ali Hassan Khalil has met in
Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In addition to Khalil, the
delegation included the MPs Hagop Pakradounian, Tony Franjieh, Samer al-Tawm,
Jihad al-Samad, Ghazi Zoaiter, Qassem Hashem, Ibrahim al-Moussawi. “Syria
appreciates what Lebanon has shown at the official and popular levels in terms
of the humanitarian response and the support for the Syrian government’s efforts
in aiding those affected by the earthquake,” Assad told the delegation. “The
relation between Lebanon and Syria is in the first place a relation of
brotherhood between the peoples of the two countries, and this is the basis from
which the official policies must stem in order to serve the common interests of
the two peoples,” Assad added. The delegation’s members for their part said they
were visiting Syria to “express the depth of the solidarity of the Lebanese with
the Syrian people” and “the need to activate bilateral relations and and advance
them in all fields.”A Lebanese ministerial delegation had also visited Syria and
met with Assad in the wake of the devastating February 6 earthquake.
Salameh says no one has talked to him about term extension
Naharnet/February 20/2023
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has announced that he has decided to leave
his post following the end of his term. “No one has talked to me about extending
my term at the Banque du Liban, and with my exit from the central bank I will
turn a page on a chapter of my life,” Salameh told the Al Qahera News TV.
Separately, Salameh said there are financial “difficulties” in Lebanon, not a
“collapse.” “This can be proven with numbers. The banking sector paid deposits
worth around $35 billion over three years and this sector is still implementing
the central bank’s circulars,” he added.
Noting that Lebanon’s current foreign currency reserves are $10 billion and that
the gold reserves are estimated at around $17 billion, Salameh clarified that
“the reserves today are $15 billion,” $10 billion of which can be used outside
Lebanon while the rest are “local dollars.”
“The losses have reached $50 billion in the private and public sectors and the
deposits will remain as long as the central bank has not gone bankrupt,” Salameh
went on to say.
EU, SKeyes launch 18th edition of the Samir Kassir Award
for Freedom of the Press
Naharnet/February 20/2023
The European Union and Samir Kassir Foundation launched today, February 20, the
18th edition of the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press. The award,
which has been granted by the European Union since 2006, honors the Lebanese
journalist and writer Samir Kassir, who was assassinated in 2005. The
competition for the award has attracted since its creation more than 3,200
candidates from the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa and 45 journalists
have won the award so far.“In a region where the freedom of the press is limited
and where information is often controlled by the state, access to trusted and
quality journalism has never been more important. Journalism awards play a vital
role in offering recognition to journalists,” said the Ambassador of the
European Union to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf. “Unfortunately, freedom of the press is
in a difficult position today, but this reinforces the idea that the media
serves as a tool of resistance against repressive regimes. The press plays a
major role in holding people accountable and putting an end to impunity.
Professional journalism is the most important tool in speaking truth to power,”
Samir Kassir Foundation President Gisèle Khoury stated. The Samir Kassir Award
for Freedom of the Press is open to candidates from North Africa, the Middle
East, and the Gulf. The deadline for sending in contributions is 1 April 2023.
Three awards will be granted for the best:
- Opinion Article
- Investigative Article
- Audiovisual News Report
The contributions must be centered on one or more of the following topics: rule
of law, human rights, good governance, fight against corruption, freedom of
expression, democratic development, and citizen participation. The winner of
each of the three categories will receive a prize of €10,000.
The jury will be composed of seven voting members from Arab and European media
and one observer representing the European Union Delegation to Lebanon. The
names of the winners will be communicated during the prize-awarding ceremony,
which will take place on 1 June 2023 in Beirut, on the eve of the 18th
anniversary of Samir Kassir’s assassination.The contest regulations, application
forms, rules, and conditions are available on the Award’s website:
www.samirkassiraward.org
Registration closes on 1 April 2023.
For more information:
coordination@prixsamirkassir.org
Mikati discusses cancer treatment with Abiad, President of
“Organisation of European Cancer Institutes”
NNA/February 20/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday met with Caretaker Minister of
Health, Dr. Firas Abiad, who visited him in the company of Thierry Philip,
Chairman of the Executive Board at “Institut Curie” and President of the
“Organisation of European Cancer Institutes”. Abiad reportedly briefed Mikati on
Philip’s visit to cancer treatment centers in Lebanon, during which
cancer-related programs carried out by Lebanon’s Ministry of Health were
presented, in addition to the means to boosting areas of cooperation. The
meeting with Mikati took stock of a number of plans and programs being carried
out by the Ministry of Health in order to develop the “National Cancer Plan” in
cooperation with Institut Curie and the Organisation of European Cancer
Institutes. The meeting also discussed the ministry’s quality program for cancer
treatment, as well as the cancer treatment program in Lebanon’s government
hospitals.
For his part, Mikati lauded the role played by France supporting Lebanon’s
health sector.
European Observatory for Integrity: Lebanese should hold
Salameh accountable rather than renew his mandate
NNA/February 20/2023
The European Observatory for Integrity in Lebanon (OEIL) on Monday said in a
statement "at a time when the European judiciary is investigating the financial
crimes committed by Lebanese Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, documents
appear to reveal a magical increase in the Lebanese state's public debt by USD
16 billion!” Consequently, the OEIL expressed in its statement utter
astonishment at the “resounding silence of Lebanese officials letting this
matter go unnoticed — as if nothing had happened.” “Salameh should be held
accountable and be prosecuted immediately, rather have his mandate be renewed,”
the statement added, wondering where “all the Lebanese judiciary, starting with
the top of the pyramid, stood from all this.”
Mikati holds series of meetings at Grand Serail over
educational, health and developmental affairs, discusses cancer treatment with
Abiad,...
NNA/February, 20/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday held a series of meetings at
the Grand Serail, devoted to an array of educational, health and developmental
affairs.
In this context, Premier Mikati met with Caretaker Minister of Education and
Higher Education, Dr. Abbas Al-Halabi, who said on emerging that they discussed
an array of educational affairs and the current educational situation in the
country, in light of the ongoing strike in the public education sector.
Premier Mikati also presided over a meeting at the Grand Serail attended by
Caretaker Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, and
Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, as well as MP
Sajih Attieh, Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Commission, Major General
Mohammad Khair, Dean of the Order of Engineers Syndicate in Tripoli and the
North Bahaa Harb, Mayor of Tripoli Ahmed Qamar El-Din, and the UN Deputy Special
Coordinator for Lebanon, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Imran Riza.
On emerging, Caretaker Minister Hamieh said that the meeting discussed the issue
of conducting surveys of buildings with cracks and weak structure as a result of
the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, and the quakes that
occurred in Lebanon.
Minister Hamieh also pointed out that the meeting decided to task the Minister
of Interior to communicate with the municipalities and ask them to provide the
Ministry with the list of buildings with cracks and weak structures, especially
in Tripoli and Minieh.
Mikati later presided over a meeting devoted to Akkar district's demands,
attended by Ministers Mawlawi and Hamieh, MPs Mohammad Suleiman and Sajih Attieh,
Major General Khair, and MP Walid al-Baarini’s representative.
The Caretaker PM also met with Caretaker Minister of Health, Dr. Firas Abiad,
who visited him in the company of Thierry Philip, Chairman of the Executive
Board at “Institut Curie” and President of the “Organisation of European Cancer
Institutes”.
Abiad reportedly briefed Mikati on Philip’s visit to cancer treatment centers in
Lebanon, during which cancer-related programs carried out by Lebanon’s Ministry
of Health were presented, in addition to the means to boosting areas of
cooperation.
The meeting with Mikati took stock of a number of plans and programs being
carried out by the Ministry of Health in order to develop the “National Cancer
Plan” in cooperation with Institut Curie and the Organisation of European Cancer
Institutes.
The meeting also discussed the ministry’s quality program for cancer treatment,
as well as the cancer treatment program in Lebanon’s government hospitals. For
his part, Mikati lauded the role played by France supporting Lebanon’s health
sector. Among Premier Mikati’s itinerant visitors for today had been
respectively Lebanon’s Ambassador to the Vatican, Farid Al-Khazen, Director
General of Ogero, Imad Kreidieh, and a delegation from Dar Al Iftaa in
Australia.
Nasrallah Snubs Bassil after MP Rejects his
Candidate for Lebanese Presidency
Beirut - Mohamed Choucair/Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 20/2023
Head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah has refused to hold a meeting with Free
Patriotic Movement (FPM) chief MP Gebran Bassil over his rejection of the
party’s candidate for the Lebanese presidency. Bassil has compiled a list of
potential candidates that does not include the party’s favored pick, Marada
Movement leader former MP Suleiman Franjieh. A leading source from the Shiite
duo of Hezbollah and Amal revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Bassil was seeking to
hold a meeting with Hezbollah. The MP contacted the party’s Liaison and
Coordination Officer Wafiq Safa to arrange the meeting that would tackle
Bassil’s list of candidates. Safa asked Bassil if he had included Franjieh’s
name on the list, to which he replied that he had not. Bassil did not disclose
the other names on the list. Safa then asked him why he chose to leave him off
the list when Nasrallah had previously informed him that Franjieh had the
highest chances of being elected president. Safa then frankly told Bassil that
there was no need to hold a meeting with Nasrallah if he continued to maintain
this stance, revealed the source. There is no possibility to mend the relations
between Bassil and Hezbollah given that the MP had chosen a direct confrontation
with Nasrallah, it explained. The source wondered if Bassil had chosen to wage
such a confrontation in order to improve his image before regional and
international forces. Perhaps they would lift the American sanctions imposes on
him. It questioned why the MP appears eager to sever relations with Hezbollah.
Has he been promised by the European right that they would approach Washington
on his behalf to help remove the sanctions? At any rate, the party will not
remain silent and will be forced to declare a position to clarify its stance
from the dispute. Hezbollah now believes that Bassil has taken a position that
is opposed to the party, added the source. Moreover, it said that Bassil was
waging an open political battle against his rivals in the hope of gaining time
that would increase his chances of joining the race for the presidency. He has
also taken it upon himself to eliminate other candidates. Lebanon has been
without a president since October when the term of Michel Aoun, Bassil’s
father-in-law, ended. Several elections sessions have been held at parliament
since but no single candidate has garnered enough votes to be declared the
winner.
Former Hizbullah Commander Burns Posters Of Iranian Supreme
Leaders Khomeini, Khamenei, And Hizbullah Sec.-Gen. Nasrallah In TikTok Video,
Says: 'You People Are Inhumane; These Are Your Dictators'
MEMRI/February 20/2023
Source: The Internet - "Hajj Walaa Aytet on TikTok"
Hassan Muhsen a.k.a Hajj Walaa Aytet, a former Hizbullah commander, posted a
TikTok video on his account showing himself burning a poster with the image of
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the founder of the Islamic Republic,
Khomeini. The video was posted on February 15, 2023. In the video, he recounts
his grievances against Hizbullah, and says: "You people are inhumane. These are
your dictators, these are your mujahideen." In another video he posted on his
TikTok account, he is shown standing in front of a burnt poster of Hizbullah
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, saying that whenever such a poster is hung
in his village it will be burnt.
Hassan Muhsen: “This a message to the mujahideen and to your Secretary -General
[Nasrallah].
Hassan Muhsen: "Those who give you orders to attack people's homes will not have
their posters in our midst. I am here in my village, in the area where I live.
If you have any honor come here. I am waiting for you in my village.
"This is the dictator from whom you take orders, you and your mujahideen, at
this (Hizbullah) party. When you set up ambushes in this village, and shoot me
in the leg, and then put me in a cell in the Dahiya (suburb or Beirut), you will
have to be held responsible.
"Twelve years of your law, with no result. You people are inhumane. Those are
you dictators, these are your mujahideen, these are your rulings, these are your
courts, this is your law.
"Whenever a poster of sayyed (Nasrallah) is placed here, it will be burned. He
is a dictator. He gave you, Hizbullah, an order to attack me, and therefore, his
poster must not be placed here. Whenever it is placed here, it will be burned.
بارعة علم الدين/عرب نيوز: مع تفكك لبنان يُحرّض
حسن نصرالله على الحرب
20 شباط/2023
As Lebanon disintegrates, Nasrallah incites war
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 20/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/116032/baria-alamuddin-arab-news-as-lebanon-disintegrates-nasrallah-incites-war-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a8-%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%88%d8%b2/
In recent days, a rash of angry demonstrations have torn across Lebanon’s urban
centers, with banks the focus of particular outrage in this cash-starved
country, after the lira lost 98 percent of its value.
So, as Hassan Nasrallah strode up to his rostrum, what themes did he choose to
focus on in his address to the nation?
In fact, he treated us to a bizarre tribute to the Iranian people’s “massive
participation” in nationwide rallies celebrating the Islamic Revolution’s
anniversary. Disregarding the civil disorder in his own nation and continuing
anti-regime protests across Iran, Nasrallah carped that the media had ignored
these “millions-strong marches” in support of the Islamic Republic. He added
that those who bet on the downfall of the ayatollahs’ regime would be
disappointed. Indeed, in such a scenario, none would be more disappointed than
Lebanese people themselves, who continue to be held hostage by the shameless
puppets of this theocratic regime.
To our astonishment, an enraged Nasrallah revealed that all of Lebanon’s
travails are the fault of the “Great Satan,” thundering: “I tell the American
government that if they want to sow chaos in Lebanon, you will lose everything.”
And how will Hezbollah retaliate for these US “conspiracies against Lebanon?”
Nasrallah warned America that, “If you push Lebanon into chaos, we are ready to
use our arms against your protege, Israel … We are ready to resort to the option
of war. Today, I say that whoever wants to push Lebanon into chaos or total
collapse must expect from us the unimaginable.”
Lebanon has undergone one of the most severe economic implosions of any nation
in modern history. Does Nasrallah seriously believe that it is in any shape for
embroilment in a wholesale conflict with the amassed armies of America, Israel
and the remainder of the Western world? Israel’s latest deadly airstrike against
Damascus security apparatus targets appears like a retort to Nasrallah’s
delusions, demonstrating how easily Hezbollah’s capabilities could be shattered.
What American conspiracies are we talking about? Did the US ambassador secretly
incite Hezbollah and its allies to sabotage Lebanon’s political establishment
and leave the country without a functioning government for years on end? Did the
CIA trick Nasrallah into stockpiling enough explosives to blow up half the
country in Hezbollah-controlled port warehouses? Did Joe Biden goad Iran and the
“resistance” into exploiting Lebanese financial institutions for money
laundering, in order to scare off the International Monetary Fund and have these
banks targeted by sanctions? Please enlighten us, Mr. Nasrallah.
But Nasrallah’s real bete noire was how Israel is already reaping megabucks from
gas exploitation, with no prospects of an imminent Lebanese cash windfall. “If
there is intentional procrastination regarding the issue of oil and gas from
Lebanese waters, will we allow Israel to continue extracting oil and gas from
Karish?” Nasrallah declared. “I tell you never. This means if you want us to
starve — we will kill you.” Yet it is Hezbollah’s aggressive brinkmanship and
Lebanese dysfunction that have delayed progress toward exploiting Lebanese
reserves.
Lebanese people reacted with abject horror at Nasrallah’s warmongering speech.
Meanwhile, inept measures by the state risk exacerbating Lebanon’s financial
chaos. The caretaker economy minister announced that businesses would be allowed
to price their goods in dollars. Who can access dollars, other than Hezbollah
employees?
Following the targeting of banks, Prime Minister Najib Mikati dismissively
commented that those out burning tires and protesting did not look much like
investors — a sign of how detached the ruling classes are from Lebanon’s current
reality, where even the middle classes have been reduced to considering sending
their children to orphanages for their own survival, while people die due to a
lack of medication for preventable diseases.
Beirut’s devastated banking sector — once the region’s Switzerland-like
financial hub — will take decades to recover from this implosion in its
capabilities, reputation and workforce. Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s Al-Qard Al-Hasan
banking network exploits this collapse to relentlessly expand its own branches,
capitalizing on Hezbollah’s and Tehran’s capabilities, which run parallel to
Lebanese state institutions.
Hezbollah propaganda outlets have been pedaling a pipe dream of salvation that
the region is on the brink of a diplomatic breakthrough between Iran and the GCC
states; including possible outreach by high-level Gulf officials to Damascus.
Diplomats closely appraised of the behind-the-scenes negotiations told me this
is pure fantasy. They note that negotiations have been led by hard-line Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps figures, who only want to talk about reopening
embassies and facilitating two-way travel, while refusing outright to discuss
the primary GCC concerns of IRGC entrenchment in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.
Hezbollah commanders — with their luxury SUVs, access to dollars and foreign
goods — having grown fat on narcotics smuggling revenues, are insulated from
economic ruination. But their opulent lifestyle in upmarket Beirut neighborhoods
will abruptly end if war were really to reach Lebanon’s shores.
Nasrallah knows his conspiracy theories are dangerous nonsense. However, he
apparently would rather see Lebanon entirely destroyed than make the necessary
political compromises that could extricate Lebanon from its predicaments;
particularly as Hezbollah’s relationship with its former Christian allies
appears to be disintegrating due to wrangling over the presidency and other
issues.
In 2006, Israel decimated Lebanon, reducing hundreds of thousands of homes to
rubble and killing well over 1,000 citizens after Hezbollah rockets killed about
10 people. Doing the math, with Hezbollah’s massively upgraded missile arsenal
courtesy of the IRGC, if for every 100 Israelis Hezbollah kills, retaliatory
strikes kill 10,000 Lebanese; then, following such a conflagration, Nasrallah
would have to crawl out of his bunker and relocate to Tehran because there will
not be a country left. He does not care that his supporters in south Lebanon
will again bear the brunt of Israel’s military fury.
Nobody anywhere should be lightly contemplating war, least of all
disaster-afflicted Lebanon.
In 2006, post-conflict Lebanon benefited from massive international aid,
including billions of dollars of reconstruction funding from Gulf allies. In
2023, Lebanon has no friends to rush to its aid. Hezbollah must also think twice
about whether crisis-wracked Iran would be willing to fund its reconstruction
and rearmament.
At a time when most Lebanese citizens are consumed by trying to ward off
starvation for their families, such warmongering is grotesque. Faced with
Nasrallah’s inhuman logic, Hezbollah supporters must conscientiously ponder
whether they are willing to unthinkingly destroy themselves and their homeland
in order to do Tehran’s bidding.
Nobody anywhere should be lightly contemplating war, least of all
disaster-afflicted Lebanon, which, following the past three years, already looks
like it has been to hell and back.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi: Lebanon ‘is
a hostage to the veto power’ of Hezbollah
Arab News/February 20/2023
Regards Lebanese crisis as part of a ‘broader regional problem, which needs to
be treated as such’
Says shortcomings of the political class does not justify calls for the
abolition of the entire system
DUBAI: Eighteen years ago this month, Rafik Hariri, a prominent politician and
former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated by a suicide truck bomb in
Beirut. Originally a philanthropist before his engagement in politics, Hariri,
who had made his fortune in construction, donated millions of dollars to victims
of war and conflict in Lebanon, and later played a major role in ending the
civil war and rebuilding the capital city.
Hariri’s assassination marked the beginning of dramatic political change and
movements calling for democracy in Lebanon. For years after his assassination,
politicians and important figures opposed to the influence of both Syria and
Hezbollah in the country were targeted.
Despite an international tribunal finding members of Hezbollah guilty of
Hariri’s assassination after passionate calls for an investigation into his
death, the Iran-backed militia group has only tightened its grip on Lebanon,
keeping the country in a dire state.
“Hariri was killed 18 years ago and it took about 15 years to destroy the whole
country after everything he tried to build,” Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi
said on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News current affairs talk show which
engages with leading policymakers and business leaders.
“The Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the independent international
investigation commission came to Lebanon, and it took them about 15 years to
produce their result. And for the first time in the history of Lebanon, where we
have had several assassinations, for the first time, we had a conviction,”
Shehadi said.
But according to him, despite a conviction in Hariri’s case, Hezbollah’s
influence over Lebanon means that the real perpetrators of the assassination
will go unpunished, and the group will continue to hold the country hostage.
Lebanon’s various political and economic crises have only intensified in recent
years, with inflation in the country rising to the highest in the world in 2021
and the value of the Lebanese lira plummeting drastically.
Last year witnessed a series of bank holdups by armed customers seeking to
withdraw their frozen deposits. In a country whose capital was formerly referred
to as the “Paris of the East,” two-thirds of the population now suffers from
poverty, with regular electricity blackouts and shortages of basic necessities
such as medicine and water increasingly commonplace.
The country’s chronic instability has deepened in recent years in the wake of
the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the 2020 Beirut port explosion which killed
hundreds, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and damaged over half of the city
while inflicting massive economic losses. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, the two international organizations which campaign against
injustice and inequality, have called the investigation into the blast a
“farce.”
Shehadi asserts that despite Lebanon’s historically “very healthy and
functioning judiciary,” Hezbollah has interfered with the investigation.
This series of disasters have pushed many Lebanese to call for the removal of
the entire political class, something that Shehadi views as a “ridiculous
demand.”
Lebanese wait to fill their gas cylinders in the southern city of Sidon amidst a
deepening economic crisis, on August 10, 2021. (AFP)
In his opinion, Lebanon’s political system is not “sectarianism,” as some
observers term it, but rather “a political system based on a social contract
between communities and which has maintained the country … even before the state
was created.”
“We have a banking system which was the banking center of the region. We have
political parties. These are pillars that distinguish Lebanon … and the
revolution is asking almost for the dismantlement of all these pillars,” he told
Katie Jensen, the host of “Frankly Speaking.”
While Shehadi acknowledges there are definitely issues with Lebanon’s political
class, which he says was compromised by 15 years of occupation and political
infiltration by the Syrian regime, “this doesn’t justify calling for the
abolition of the whole system.”
Eight months after the country’s general elections, Lebanon still has not
reached a consensus regarding its president or a functioning parliament.
Urgent political reforms are needed to unlock the $3 billion in emergency funds
from the International Monetary Fund, but with Lebanon’s political system in
tatters and its parliamentarians regularly staging walkouts, accessing these
funds seems unlikely.
Shehadi said that while he is not opposed to a “fragmented” parliament with
diverse political opinions, “what we have is not a fragmented parliament. What
we have is a paralysis of all institutions that’s been building up for 15 years,
17 years almost.”
He added that Lebanon and its institutions are “a hostage to the veto power” of
Hezbollah, which has gained footholds in Lebanon by means of assassinations and
building of political alliances.
Shehadi compares Hezbollah’s gradual infiltration of state institutions in
Lebanon to the behavior of drug cartels in power in narco-states in Latin
America.
“They bribe politicians, the judiciary, the police, the army. Those who cannot
be co-opted, if you like, are probably dead, and those who can be framed or
blackmailed — that’s how criminal organizations gain power in a country,” he
said.
The Lebanese parliament has held eleven electoral sessions to elect the
president since Sept. 29 last year, with every session failing to elect a
candidate.
In recent days, Joseph Aoun, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, has emerged
as a potential contender. However, this would require a constitutional
amendment, and consensus from the parliament, which is currently headed by
Speaker Nabih Berri.
Though he calls Berri “a brilliant operator” who is familiar with the ins and
outs of Lebanon’s tangled political web, Shehadi says Berri is “also a hostage
himself.”
Berri is the leader of the Amal Movement, which engaged in a years-long war with
Hezbollah in the 1980s which saw thousands killed.
“It ended with an agreement between them, sponsored by Iran and Syria, whereby
they basically formed one block in parliament and one list, which means they
have the monopoly of Shiite representation. They do not have a monopoly of
Shiite support, but they have the monopoly of Shiite representation because of
the way they manipulate lists in their areas,” Shehadi said.
During multiple electoral sessions stretching from September 2022 to January
this year, many MPs left their ballot papers blank, with some in early sessions
even casting their votes for “For Lebanon,” “Righteous dictator,” and “Nobody.”
Shehadi explained that major decisions and appointments within the Lebanese
administration must be made by consensus, and with the signature of the
president, speaker of the parliament, and prime minister. In the midst of the
current political power vacuum, this means that the government in Lebanon has
all but ceased to function. “We had that for 29 months, without a president,
without a parliament, and without a functioning government … we had a caretaker
government, until our politicians, if you like, compromised and accepted to
elect the favorite candidate of Hezbollah. So, we are in the same position, and
it’s a difficult position because the longer we resist, the more damage there
is, and I think our economic collapse is mainly caused by paralysis,” Shehadi
said.
“The priority now is to have a president and a functioning parliament and a
functioning government so that state institutions do not collapse
further.”Shehadi added that though there is no shortage of credible candidates,
the parliament is “held hostage, and the whole system is held hostage because
you need a certain majority to start the process of elections. You need a
two-thirds plus one majority, which means that one-third of parliament can spoil
the process.”
Even if this litany of political challenges were overcome and Lebanon managed to
receive assistance from the IMF, Shehadi said that IMF funds would not be a
solution to all of Lebanon’s financial problems. However, he stressed that
“engagement with the IMF is crucial.”
“Following the IMF recommendations is very important, especially on fiscal and
monetary policy. There’s a lot of opposition to some of the IMF reforms, which I
understand,” he said, adding that many observers say that $3 billion in funds
will do very little to alleviate the country’s $90 billion deficit.
“But I think, in my view, it’s more important to remain engaged. The country is
being paralyzed and isolated from the West, from the Arab countries, and now
will be isolated from international institutions too, like the IMF and the World
Bank and the UN and all that. It’s very damaging to ignore the IMF route.”
Shehadi concurs with the World Bank’s assessment of the meltdown in Lebanon as
one of the worst modern crises in recent history. But asked if he thinks there
is a way out of the quagmire, he replied: “Yes, but I don’t see it only for
Lebanon. The whole region is suffering from the same problem. The Lebanese case
is similar to what is happening in Palestine, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, and
this could spread to other countries in the region who could be vulnerable.”
He continued: “It should be treated as a regional phenomenon, which is,
basically, the role of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC, as a
paramilitary, non-state actor, has taken over the Iranian state and society in
the same way as Hezbollah is acting in Lebanon, in the same way as
Iranian-sponsored militias are behaving in Iraq, and definitely in the same way
as Hamas has paralyzed the whole of the peace process in Palestine.”
Under the circumstances, Shehadi said the multidimensional crisis in Lebanon is
part of a “broader regional problem, which needs to be treated as such. Lebanon
is the fault line or the weakest point. A lot of the region’s ills, or problems,
surface in Lebanon first.”
Because of this, Shehadi added, international and regional engagement and
cooperation are crucial components to solving Lebanon’s crisis, and that the
international community must refrain from seeing Lebanon as a hopeless case.
“We are definitely hostages, but we still have a say in the country and we need
international support to get out of the grip of (Hezbollah). And again, the grip
is regional. So, our fate is similar to Iraq, similar to Palestine, similar to
Syria, and similar to Yemen,” he said.
“I don’t think one can see it in a fragmented way. And it’s wrong to abandon a
place just because it’s considered to be lost. Lebanon is not a lost case.”
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 20-21/2023
Fresh quake hits Turkiye-Syria border
area two weeks after disaster
Reuters/February 20, 2023
Monday’s quake, this time with a magnitude of 6.3, was centered near the
southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon
It struck at a depth of just two km, the EMSC said, potentially magnifying its
impact at ground level
ANTAKYA: Another earthquake struck the border region of Turkiye and Syria on
Monday, just two weeks after the area was devastated by a larger quake which
killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of
homes. Monday’s quake, this time with a magnitude of 6.3, was centered near the
southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. It
struck at a depth of just two km (1.2 miles), the European Mediterranean
Seismological Center (EMSC) said, potentially magnifying its impact at ground
level.
Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the latest
quake hit. “I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,” she
said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.
Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Turkiye
that Washington would help “for as long as it takes” as rescue operations in the
wake of the Feb. 6 earthquake and its aftershocks were winding down, and focus
turned to toward urgent shelter and reconstruction work. The death toll from the
quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkiye, the country’s Disaster and
Emergency Management Authority AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb
further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously
damaged and many people still missing.
President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in
11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkiye would begin next month. Total US
humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkiye and Syria
has reached $185 million, the US State Department said. Among the survivors of
the earthquakes are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to
health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) has said.
They include 226,000 women in Turkiye and 130,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom
will deliver in the next month. Many of them were sheltering in camps or exposed
to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean water.
Syria aid. In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most
deaths have been in the northwest, where the United Nations said 4,525 people
were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to
President Bashar Assad, complicating aid efforts.
Syrian officials say 1,414 people were killed in areas under the control of
Assad’s government. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy
of 14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria from Turkiye on Sunday to
assist in rescue operations. The World Food Programme (WFP) has also been
pressuring authorities in that region to stop blocking access for aid from
Syrian government-controlled areas. As of Monday morning, 197 trucks loaded with
UN humanitarian aid had entered northwest Syria through two border crossings, a
spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
said. Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkiye have returned to their homes in
northwest Syria to get in touch with relatives affected by the devastation. At
the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing, hundreds of Syrians lined up starting
early on Monday to cross. Mustafa Hannan, who dropped off his pregnant wife and
3-year-old son, said he saw about 350 people waiting. The 27-year-old car
electrician said his family was leaving for a few months after their home in
Antakya collapsed, taking up a pledge by authorities allowing them to spend up
to six months in Syria without losing the chance to return to Turkiye. “I’m
worried they won’t be allowed back,” he said. “We’ve already been separated from
our nation. Are we going to be separated from our families now too? If I rebuild
here but they can’t return, my life will be lost.”
Plight of refugees induces shift of Saudi
priorities towards Syria
The Arab Weekly/February 20/2023
When combined with the UAE’s approach, the Saudi shift of priorities towards
Syria will make a “political solution” close or even within reach, considering
that “maximalist goals” are no longer the only option, analysts say.
The humanitarian crisis posed by the plight of the four million Syrian refugees
currently struggling to survive in the areas affected by the recent earthquake,
in addition to uncertainties surrounding the fate of more than a million other
Syrian refugees who are about to return home from Turkey, has prompted Saudi
Arabia to follow a new direction in its relationship with Damascus. Remarks made
by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud at a Munich security
forum on Saturday signalled a shift from the early years of Syria's 12-year
civil war when several Arab states including Saudi Arabia backed rebels and
Islamic extremists who fought Bashar al-Assad. "You will see not only among the
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) but in the Arab world there is a growing
consensus that the status quo is not workable," he said.
The minister added that in the absence of 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,
etcetra," he said.
Analysts point out that indications of a shift towards acceptance of the
continued rule by Assad preceded the recent powerful earthquake in Syria and
Turkey. The humanitarian disaster, however, provided an ideal impetus for the
turning point.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan had meeting a few weeks ago with the UN special envoy
for Syria, Geir Pedersen, to discuss the Syrian crisis and its repercussions.
The Saudi-Egyptian Follow-up and Political Consultation Committee, which was
held in Riyadh on January 12, also announced the two countries’ support for “a
political solution in Syria in accordance with Resolution 2254 and the rejection
of any threats of military operations affecting Syrian territories and
terrorising the Syrian people.”
The committee indicated that the two parties agreed on “the necessity of
supporting Syria’s independence and territorial integrity, combating terrorism,
the return of refugees and displaced persons and backing the efforts of the UN
envoy to advance the political process in Syria.”
Saudi Arabia’s permanent delegate to the Arab League, Ambassador Abdul Rahman
bin Saeed, said late last year, “We hope to see Syria return to the Arab fold.”
He added that when Arab and international decisions are implemented, “the
kingdom and all Arab countries will be keen on the return of Syria and the
Syrian people.”In conjunction with these developments, the Syrian foreign
ministry said on January 16 that Damascus had no political objections to
importing products manufactured in Saudi Arabia. The government’s economic
committee recommended allowing the import of chemicals and petrochemicals from
Saudi Arabia. Analysts said that Riyadh's abandonment of "maximalist goals" does
not mean it is not interested anymore in a political solution. But such a
solution is no longer viewed by Saudi Arabia as a priority compared to the
humanitarian crisis posed by the situation of refugees in Syria’s northwest and
in Turkey. The Syrian authorities have allowed the Saudi relief to reach areas
outside government control in northwestern Syria. Saudi shipments were not
impeded on the way to the quake-affected areas. What has changed, also,
according to experts, is that Saudi Arabia no longer insists on Syria’s
severance of ties with Iran and Hezbollah as a precondition for Syria's return
to the Arab fold. Experts see two main reasons for this development. The first
is that Iran has nothing to offer to Damascus that could compete with what Saudi
Arabia and the UAE can give Syria. The second reason is that the UAE's pragmatic
approach to resumption of relations with Syria, based on mutual interests rather
than competition, has proven to be workable. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia considers
that aiding the refugees helps de-escalate tensions, stabilise tragedy-stricken
regions and deprives extremist organisations of fertile ground for recruitment.
Gulf states remain however attentive to Ankara’s designs in Syria and are wary
of the possible consequences of an Erdogan defeat in next Turkish elections, as
it could create a vacuum that other powers could try to fill. Experts expects
changes in the near future. When combined with the UAE’s approach, the Saudi
shift of priorities towards Syria will make a “political solution” close or even
within reach, considering that “maximalist goals” are no longer the only option,
analysts say.
Saudi Arabia wants to send medics to quake-hit
Syria
Agence France Presse/February 20/2023
Saudi Arabia hopes to send medical volunteers to areas of Syria rocked by the
recent earthquake that killed thousands in the war-torn country, an official
told AFP on Monday. The kingdom severed ties with the regime of isolated Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad in 2012.
But it has sent aid to both rebel-held and government-controlled parts of the
country in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude tremor that struck southeastern
Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, killing more than 44,000 people. On
Monday, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center announced nearly $50
million in additional relief to both Syria and Turkey. The new pledges, unveiled
at the start of a two-day humanitarian forum in the Saudi capital, include a
project that could send Saudi medical volunteers to Syria for the first time,
said Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, the center's supervisor general. "On the medical
side, one of the projects we signed in the forum was related to actually the
Syrian territories, because they are actually short of mobile clinics," Rabeeah
said. "That's the first phase, and we hope that we'll see our Saudi volunteers
on the ground."Riyadh has so far avoided direct contact with the Assad
government, coordinating instead with the Syrian Red Crescent on aid going into
government-controlled territory. Last week a Saudi
plane carrying aid landed in Syria's second city Aleppo -- the first in more
than a decade of war. Saudi Arabia has sent 14 flights
to Turkey and Syria so far, and mobilized some $200 million through government
allocations and fundraising for the relief effort, Rabeeah said.
"We did not see from the fundraising process in Saudi Arabia... any
differentiation between the two populations, whether they are Syrians or
Turkish," he said. "We did not see the diplomatic or the political side
affecting the humanitarian side."Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on
Saturday that a consensus was building in the Arab world, that a new approach to
Syria requiring negotiations with Damascus would be needed to address
humanitarian crises including the quake. "There is a consensus within the Arab
world that the status quo is not working and that we need to find some other
approach," Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the Munich Security Conference. "What
that approach is, is still being formulated," he added. A policy change could
also help resolve the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan and Lebanon, he said.
"That's going to have go through a dialogue with the government of Damascus at
some point, in a way that achieves at least the most important of the
objectives," including refugee returns, he said.
IAEA Finds Uranium Enriched to 84% in Iran,
Near Bomb-Grade, Reveal Diplomats
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
The UN nuclear watchdog has found uranium enriched to 84% in Iran - very close
to weapons grade - diplomats said on Monday, while the watchdog said that it was
in talks with Tehran about recent findings there. Iran has been enriching
uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021. Three months ago, it started
enriching to 60% at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons
grade is around 90%. Two diplomats told Reuters the International Atomic Energy
Agency, which inspects Iran's nuclear facilities, had detected uranium enriched
to 84%, confirming an initial report late on Sunday by Bloomberg News. "The
issue is whether it was a blip in the reconfigured cascades or deliberate. The
agency has asked Iran for an explanation," one of the diplomats told Reuters.
Earlier this month, the IAEA criticized Iran for failing to inform it of a
"substantial" change to the interconnections between the two cascades, or
clusters, of centrifuges enriching uranium to up to 60% at Fordow. Several
diplomats said the change meant Iran could quickly switch to a higher enrichment
level. Those rearranged cascades are the ones the first diplomat was referring
to. The United States in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran
and major powers that had lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs
on its nuclear activities. Iran responded to the reimposition of US sanctions by
breaching those restrictions and going well beyond them, to the point that IAEA
chief Rafael Grossi has said the deal is now an "empty shell".
Still no IAEA report
Prospects for reviving the deal are dim, diplomats say, with tensions between
Iran and the West high over protests in Iran, the war in Ukraine, and Iran's
continued nuclear advances eroding the time it would need to produce a nuclear
bomb if it chose to. Iran denies having such intentions. "The IAEA is aware of
recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran," the IAEA
said on Twitter on Sunday. "The IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of
recent Agency verification activities and will inform the IAEA Board of
Governors as appropriate."The IAEA, which inspects Iran's nuclear facilities,
flags significant developments in Iran's activities either in ad hoc reports to
the 35-nation Board of Governors or regular quarterly ones issued before board
meetings. Diplomats said on Monday that the IAEA so far had not issued any such
report. The next quarterly Board of Governors meeting begins on Monday, March 6,
and quarterly reports are usually issued in the week before a meeting. "So far,
we have not made any attempt to enrich above 60%. The presence of particles
above 60% enrichment does not mean production with an enrichment above 60%," the
spokesperson for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on
Monday, according to the official IRNA News agency.
Iran’s Currency Falls to Record Low as Sanctions to Continue
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
Iran's troubled currency broke below the psychologically key level of 500,000
rial per US dollar on Monday, as market participants saw no end in sight to
sanctions. The Iranian rial plummeted to a new record low of 501,300 against the
US dollar, according to Bonbast.com which gathers live data from Iranian
exchanges. Facing an inflation rate of about 50%, Iranians seeking safe havens
for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies or gold,
suggesting further headwinds for the rial. The reimposition of US sanctions in
2018 by former President Donald J. Trump have harmed Iran's economy by limiting
Tehran's oil exports and access to foreign currency. Since September, nuclear
talks between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange
for the lifting of sanctions have stalled, worsening economic expectations for
Iran's future. Over the last six months, Iran's currency has slumped nearly 60%
in value, according to Bonbast.com. Meanwhile, the central bank said it was
opening a new foreign exchange center to ease access to foreign exchange and
increase the volume of official transactions. "The rate set in this exchange
will become the market's rate. It should be free from expectation factors that
do not reflect our assessment of the country's financial situation," Mohammad
Reza Farzin, the central bank governor, told state TV on Monday. Farzin was
appointed in December as governor with the key job of controlling the value of
foreign currencies, according to IRNA.
Iran Rejects Israeli Claims on Oil Tanker Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
Iran denies Israel's accusation that Tehran targeted an Israeli oil tanker on
Feb. 10, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.
The captain of the Liberian-flagged Campo Square said on Saturday it had been
lightly damaged by an airborne object on Feb. 10 while sailing through the
Arabian Sea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Iran
was responsible. Shipping databases linked the tanker to Zodiac Maritime, which
is controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. "We strongly reject the
Zionist regime's accusation against Iran regarding the attack on the Israeli
tanker," Kanaani said during a weekly news conference. "We are very active in
maintaining security and freedom of navigation in international waters and will
continue to do so," he added.
UK Police Foil 15 Iranian Terrorist Plots
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
Police and the security services have foiled 15 plots by Iran to either kidnap
or kill British or UK-based individuals it considers "enemies of the regime,"
announced the head of the counter-terrorism policing at the Met, Matt Jukes.
According to The Guardian, Jukes confirmed that Iran International TV has
"reluctantly" closed its west London studios and moved the operation to its
offices in Washington DC after receiving threats from hostile threats. Iran
International, established in May 2017 in London and employs more than 100 media
professionals and employees, announced that it had stopped operating from London
and transferred all its 24-hour news bulletins to Washington. The channel said
that despite the temporary suspension of the London office, the 24-hour
broadcast would continue from Washington, asserting that it would remain
committed to providing accurate and unbiased reports on developments in Iran and
the world. Last Monday, London police announced in a statement that an Austrian
citizen named Mogamed-Husejn Dovtaev, of Chechen origin, was charged with
collecting information likely to be helpful to a person committing or preparing
an act of terrorism. Dovtaev was arrested on Saturday, Feb. 11, on the site of
Chiswick Business Park and appeared before the court on Feb. 14. He was remanded
in custody to next appear at the Old Bailey on Mar. 03. Before his arrest, the
police found Dovtaev looking into the security arrangements of the Iranian TV
channel opposing Tehran's policy. After his arrest, he denied through an
interpreter the charge against him. Dovtaev was in a hurry to target Iran
International by collecting information for others to target the channel,
according to The Times. The newspaper indicated that Dovtaev traveled from
Vienna on Feb. 11 and went directly to the channel's headquarters upon his
arrival at Gatwick Airport in London. On his arrival, he is alleged to have put
on a face mask and donned a baseball cap before appearing to take images on his
phone of security. When a patrol arrived, they found him at a Starbucks coffee
shop in the compound where the Iranian channel is located and arrested him. The
Director General of the Security Service (MI5), Ken McCallum, revealed last
Thursday that Iran had made at least ten attempts to kidnap or even kill British
nationals or individuals in the UK. McCallum said that targeting the Iranian
channel was among the thwarted terrorist plots.
EU targets more Iran officials, organizations over
crackdown
BRUSSELS (AP)/Mon, February 20, 2023
The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on two organizations and 32
Iranians, including the culture and education ministers, intelligence officials
and lawmakers, accused of links to Iran's security crackdown on protesters. The
protests began after the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her
arrest by the Islamic Republic’s morality police and have grown into one of the
most serious challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
At least 529 people have been killed in demonstrations, according to Human
Rights Activists in Iran. Over 19,700 others have been detained by authorities
amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent. Some people linked to
the protests have been executed. The EU said it had imposed asset freezes and
travel bans on the 32 officials and frozen the assets of the two organizations
due to their involvement “in serious human rights violations in Iran.” The
27-nation bloc had already imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iranian officials
and organizations — including other ministers, military officers and Iran’s
morality police — for alleged rights abuses.
Israel promises not to approve additional West Bank
outposts
JERUSALEM (AP)/Mon, February 20, 2023
Israel has told the Biden administration it will rein in the approval of new
West Bank settlement outposts, the prime minister's office said Monday, a day
after a potential diplomatic crisis was averted at the United Nations over
Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not
greenlight any new wildcat settlements in the West Bank beyond nine such
outposts built without authorization that it approved retroactively earlier this
month. The statement, however, made no mention of the thousands of additional
settlement homes in existing settlements officials say are to be soon approved.
A contentious U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by the Palestinians and
their supporters slated for Monday would have condemned Israel for settlement
expansion and demanded a halt to future activity. According to multiple
diplomats, the Biden administration managed to forestall the vote by convincing
both Israel and the Palestinians to agree in principle to a six-month freeze in
any unilateral action they might take. “Israel notified the U.S. that in the
coming months it will not authorize new settlements beyond the nine that have
already been approved,” Netanyahu's office said. Dozens of unauthorized outposts
dot the occupied West Bank, in addition to scores of existing settlements. These
outposts, which sometimes are little more than a handful of trailer homes but
can also resemble small villages, are built without authorization but are often
tolerated and even encouraged by Israeli governments. The international
community considers all Israeli construction on occupied land to be illegitimate
or illegal. The U.N. vote presented a headache for the Biden administration at a
time when it is focusing its diplomatic efforts on Russia's war with Ukraine,
which is coming up on one year this week. Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on
Monday. It also highlighted the deep differences between Biden's administration,
which supports Palestinian statehood and opposes settlements, and the Israeli
government, which is made up of ultranationalists who oppose Palestinian
independence and have pledged to ramp up settlement building. The pledge to hold
off on approving outposts contradicts the government's guiding principles and
Netanyahu could face a backlash from his far-right, pro-settler coalition
partners. Construction in established settlements is expected to continue, as it
has under successive Israeli governments. Netanyahu's office also said it would
continue to demolish illegally built Palestinian homes in the 60% of the West
Bank that is under full Israeli control. Palestinian residents in these areas
say it is almost impossible to receive a building permit from Israeli
authorities.
The United States, along with much of the international community, say the
settlements are obstacles to peace by taking over land sought by the
Palestinians for their state. Over 700,000 Jewish Israelis now live in the West
Bank and east Jerusalem — territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war and
claimed by the Palestinians..
Israel Tells US it Won’t Authorize New
Settlements in Coming Months
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
Israel will not authorize new settlements in the occupied West Bank in the
coming months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday, after
behind-the-scenes talks to head off a planned UN Security Council vote on the
contested issue. Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition on Feb. 12 granted
retroactive authorization to nine settler outposts that had been erected without
government approval, angering the Palestinians, who want the West Bank for a
future state. The move also drew condemnation from Western powers and Arab
countries, who deem all the settlements illegal. But the United Arab Emirates
told the UN Security Council it would not call a vote on Monday on a draft
resolution against the settlements. Citing "positive talks between the
partners", UAE said the council would instead issue a unanimous statement.
A Security Council vote might have tested Washington's willingness to cast a
veto on behalf of Israel after publicly warning its Middle East ally not to
authorize new settlements. Israel has sponsored some 140 settlements in the West
Bank, which it sees as a historical birthright and a security bulwark, while
dismantling or turning a blind eye to dozens of outposts. "Israel informed the
United States that, in the coming months, it will not authorize new settlements
beyond the nine already approved," said the statement from Netanyahu's office.
Israel’s Netanyahu Advances Judicial Changes
Despite Uproar
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
Israel’s government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to
overhaul the country’s legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has
included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls
for restraint by the United States. Thousands of demonstrators were expected to
gather outside the parliament, or Knesset, for a second straight week to rally
against the plan as lawmakers prepared to hold an initial vote. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies say the plan is meant to fix a system that has
given the courts and government legal advisers too much say in how legislation
is crafted and decisions are made. Critics say it will upend the country’s
system of checks and balances and concentrate power in the hands of the prime
minister. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for a series of
corruption charges, has a conflict of interest. The standoff has plunged Israel
into one of its greatest domestic crises, sharpening a divide between Israelis
over the character of their state and the values they believe should guide it,
according to The Associated Press. Monday’s vote on part of the legislation is
just the first of three readings required for parliamentary approval. While that
process is expected to take months, the vote is a sign of the coalition’s
determination to barrel ahead and seen by many as an act of bad faith. Last
week, some 100,000 people demonstrated outside the Knesset as a committee
granted initial approval to the plan. It was the largest protest in the city in
years. On Monday, protesters launched a sit-down protest at the entrance of the
homes of some coalition lawmakers and briefly halted traffic on Tel Aviv’s main
highway. Ahead of the main demonstration in Jerusalem, hundreds were waving
Israeli flags and protesting in Tel Aviv and the northern city of Haifa, holding
signs reading “resistance is mandatory.”“We’re here to demonstrate for the
democracy. Without democracy there’s no state of Israel. And we’re going to
fight till the end,” said Marcos Fainstein, a protester in Tel Aviv.
US President Biden Pledges Military Aid during
Kyiv Visit
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
US President Joe Biden announced new military aid for Ukraine during an
unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital on Monday, showing solidarity with
Kyiv days before the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of
Ukraine. Air raid sirens blared across the Ukrainian capital as Biden visited
Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but there were no reports of
Russian missile or air strikes. Biden said Washington would stand with Ukraine
as long as it takes. The United States has been by far the largest supplier of
military assistance to help Ukraine repel better-equipped Russian invaders.
"Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians,"
Zelenskiy said.Biden said Washington would provide Kyiv with a new military aid
package worth $500 million that would be announced on Tuesday. He said it would
include more ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. In a speech,
Biden commended Ukraine's courage during the war and noted that he had visited
Kyiv six times when he had earlier served as vice president. "I knew I would be
back," he said. The air raid sirens wailed while Zelenskiy and Biden were inside
the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral on a square in central Kyiv where
burnt-out Russian tanks have been placed. Ukraine is preparing for what it
expects to be a major new Russian offensive that some military analysts say is
already under way. Biden's trip fell on the day that Ukraine marks the deaths of
more than 100 people - now known as the Heavenly Hundred - at anti-government
protests that eventually toppled a Moscow-backed president in 2014.
King Charles visits Ukrainian troops being trained by
British forces
The Telegraph/Mon, February 20, 2023
The King has visited Ukrainian military recruits undergoing training in
Wiltshire. The monarch watched a short defensive training exercise and met some
of the recruits training with British and international partner forces. The
five-week mission delivers basic combat training to Ukrainians, who will then
return to fight in their country. The King, accompanied by General Sir Patrick
Sanders, the Chief of General Staff, also met other international military
personnel who are helping the Army with the Ukrainian recruits. He met
instructors from 1st Battalion Irish Guards, the UK’s Ranger Regiment, New
Zealand, Australia, Canada, Lithuania, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden
and Finland. British forces began training Ukrainian soldiers in the UK last
June, four months after Russia invaded Ukraine. The programme has seen 10,000
Ukrainian troops brought to battle readiness in the past six months and aims to
train a further 20,000 this year. The recruits, who have little or no military
experience, are training in techniques such as the use of Javelin surface-to-air
missiles and studying different types of Russian vehicles.
Russia sells weapons at Abu Dhabi arms fair amid Ukraine
war
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/Mon, February 20, 2023
Russia offered weapons for sale on Monday at a biennial arms fair in the United
Arab Emirates, ranging from Kalashnikov assault rifles to missile systems —
despite facing sanctions from the West over its war on Ukraine. The event, known
as the International Defense Exhibition and Conference and held in the UAE
capital of Abu Dhabi, underscores how the Gulf Arab federation has sought to
embrace Moscow while balancing its ties to the West. As Russia's war on Ukraine
approaches its first anniversary on Friday, Russian money continues to flood
into Dubai's red-hot real estate market. Daily flights between the Emirates and
Moscow continue as the war grinds on, providing a rare lifeline for both those
fleeing conscription and the Russian elite. The U.S. Treasury has already
expressed concerns about the amount of Russian cash flowing into the Arabian
Peninsula country.
The arms fair typically sees the Emiratis host individuals that could be seen as
problematic in the West. Former Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir came to the
2017 edition. Chechen regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov, himself now deeply
involved in the Ukraine war, came in both 2019 and 2021.
This year's event drew Libya's Khalifa Hifter, the commander of the self-styled
Libyan National Army who faces a U.S. lawsuit accusing him of orchestrating
indiscriminate attacks on civilians and torturing and killing political
opponents.
But while not directly acknowledged at this year's show, the tendrils of
Russia's war on Ukraine could be seen everywhere at the fair Monday. To reach
Russia's exhibition tent, those attending the fair had to leave Abu Dhabi's
cavernous National Exhibition Center and cross along a skybridge to an outdoor
area.
Russian officials delayed Associated Press journalists from going inside their
tent as an event was going on, initially without explanation. About an hour
later, AP journalists saw Denis Manturov, Russia's minister of trade and
industry, come out of the tent.
Manturov is sanctioned by both the United States and the United Kingdom, with
London describing him as being “responsible for overseeing the Russian weapons
industry and responsible for equipping mobilized troops” in the war on Ukraine.
Yet Manturov described the ongoing war as providing advertising for Russian
weaponry. “Any military action is further accompanied by interest in those
products, those weapons that are in demand in a given military conflict," he
said, according to the Tass news agency. “Therefore, certainly, interest is now
high in air defense systems — short-, medium-, and long-range ones.”
He added: “Each transaction is subject to close scrutiny from our Western
colleagues — they are trying to create obstacles; we ensure the security of such
deals so that they are as effective as possible and implemented privately.”
Emirati officials did not directly acknowledge Manturov's presence. The U.S.
State Department did not respond to a request for comment about Russia's
presence at the arms show in a country that hosts thousands of American troops.
Manturov visited the Emirates as U.S. President Joe Biden was in Kyiv,
Ukraine.Inside the Russian tent, a video screen proclaimed the power of Moscow's
surface-to-air missile systems, like those now being used to strike cities in
Ukraine. Salesmen showed off Kalashnikov assault rifles to Emirati troops. Other
model missiles sat on display.
Just outside of the tent, Russian Helicopters displayed several of its civilian
aircraft, flanked by attractive young women in silver flight caps. UAE leader
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was not seen at the opening, which was
attended by his brother, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. However, one
Russian magazine at the arms fair printed an English edition that carried photos
of Sheikh Mohammed smiling and shaking Russian President Vladimir Putin's hand
during an earlier visit to Moscow. In contrast, a giant armed drone by Baykar
was parked next to the Russian tent. The Turkish drone company's Bayraktar
drones have played such a key role in Kyiv campaign against Russia there's even
a song in Ukrainian about the aircraft.
A short walk away, U.S. Army troops showed off a model of a Javelin anti-tank
missile, allowing the curious to fire it in a computer simulation. U.S. Army 1st
Sgt. Evan Williams of the 2-116th Cavalry Regiment said he and his soldiers had
talked to Russian visitors at the fair and others curious about the weapon,
which Ukraine has used to deadly effect against Russian armored vehicles.
“You've seen people walk by and kind of do a double-take about it,” said
Williams of Boise, Idaho. “They come talk to us, ask us questions about it.”The
U.S. Army also had a Patriot missile battery on display at the fair. American
forces used the battery in combat for the first time in decades in 2022 to help
defend Abu Dhabi against an attack by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
Meanwhile, Israel as well had its first full contingent of weapons companies on
display, for the first time since the UAE diplomatically recognized the country
in 2020. Both Israel and the UAE's leadership have a deep suspicion about Iran's
intentions, though the UAE has tried to deescalate with Tehran, which now
enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Israeli-Emirati ties
have warmed even as Israel continues to build settlements on land the
Palestinians want for their future state and as more Israeli-Palestinian
violence spikes.
*Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
Kremlin: Russia's relations with Moldova are very tense
Reuters/Mon, February 20, 2023
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia's relations with Moldova were very tense
and it accused Moldovan leaders of pursuing an anti-Russian agenda, one week
after Chisinau said it had foiled a Russian coup attempt. Moldova's parliament
last week approved a new pro-Western government after the previous
administration resigned en masse following months of political and economic
scandals. The new government, led by Prime Minister Dorin Recean, has vowed to
pursue a pro-European path and also called for the demilitarisation of the
Transdniestria region - a Moscow-backed separatist region which borders Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was acting
"responsibly" with regard to peackeeping forces it has stationed in the
breakaway region and warned Moldova against inflaming the situation further.
"Our relations with Moldova are already very tense," Peskov told reporters. "The
leadership always focuses on everything anti-Russian, they are slipping into
anti-Russian hysteria."Moldova's President Maia Sandu - as well as Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy - said earlier this month they had intelligence
which suggested Russia was plotting a coup to "overthrow" the Moldovan
authorities and sow chaos in the small former Soviet republic. Russia has denied
those claims, but Moscow has bristled at the possibility of Moldova - which is
sandwiched between Ukraine and NATO member Romania - joining the European Union
US Reaffirms Pledge to Deliver Jets to Türkiye
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 20 February, 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday reaffirmed Washington's
commitment to delivering F-16 jets to Türkiye despite Turkish insistence that
their approval should not depend on Ankara lifting objections to Sweden joining
NATO.
Türkiye wants modernized versions of F-16 fighter jets for its ageing air force,
but US Congress must approve any sale. "The Biden administration strongly
supports the package to both upgrade the existing F-16s and to provide new
ones," Blinken told a press conference in Ankara.
But Blinken added he could not provide a "formal timeline" for approval and
delivery. It was Blinken's first visit to Türkiye as secretary of state in a
trip that was planned before a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6, which has
now killed nearly 45,000 people in Türkiye and Syria.
The top US diplomat is due to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan later on Monday in Ankara. The United States, whose relations with
Türkiye have been strained in recent years, has been looking for ways to
persuade Erdogan to ratify NATO membership applications by Finland and Sweden.
Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied to join
the US-led defense alliance last year in response to Russia's invasion of
Ukraine. But Türkiye has yet to ratify their applications and Ankara has opposed
Sweden's refusal to extradite dozens of suspects that Türkiye links to outlawed
Kurdish militants and a failed 2016 coup. On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu dismissed any attempt to apply conditions to the F-16 jets
approval. "It would not be right to make Sweden and Finland's NATO membership a
condition for the F-16s. They are two different issues," he said. "Our hands
should not be tied."Blinken said the United States "strongly" supported Finland
and Sweden's admission into NATO "as quickly as possible". "Finland and Sweden
have already taken concrete steps" to address Türkiye’s concerns, he said.
Türkiye has signaled it is ready to accept Finland into NATO, but Cavusoglu said
Kurdish militants continued "all kinds of activities including recruitment,
terrorist propaganda" in Sweden. Blinken arrived on Sunday at Incirlik air base
in southern Türkiye, through which the United States has shipped aid after the
earthquake. The United States has now contributed $185 million in assistance to
Türkiye and Syria.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on February 20-21/2023
Can America Prosper Without War?
Mark Hannah/The New York Times/February 20/2023
Without a fresh vision for America’s role in the world, many people in
Washington link today’s geopolitical challenges with those of yesteryear.
China is cast as the new Soviet Union, and its high-tech military advances
threaten a potential Sputnik moment. The ominously named Committee on the
Present Danger, which stoked public support for military spending during the
Cold War, was revived with its sights set on China. In support of Ukraine,
America’s stockpile of missiles and rockets dwindles, spurring calls for the
United States to once again “become the arsenal of democracy” and “bolster the
defenses of the free and open liberal order.” Vladimir Putin is viewed
archetypally as a lethal combination of an old K.G.B. spy and a ruthless Soviet
leader.
Evoking America’s titanic struggles against fascism and communism can be
rhetorically useful. It conjures an era remembered for its economic dynamism,
its unity of purpose, its spirit of patriotism.
Yet simplistic renderings of the past tend to romanticize the effects of war on
American society. These gauzy memories are as dangerous as they are perverse.
War becomes a solution to America’s economic and political problems rather than
what it truly is: a key contributor.
The hawkish instincts of American leaders only exacerbate standoffs and risk
worsening the country’s war addiction. Tensions with China over Taiwan and spy
balloons continue to escalate. The war in Ukraine is stretching into its second
year, with no end in sight. Yet given his awareness of the limitations of
American military might, President Biden has only cautiously ratcheted up
support for Ukraine and has been measured in his approach to China compared with
his predecessor. He also cut America’s losses by ending the doomed
nation-building campaign in Afghanistan.
That hasn’t muted Washington’s Greek chorus of foreign policy functionaries who
cry out for a new Cold War with China, further escalation of what’s become a
proxy war with Russia and a return to maximum pressure on Iran.
Behind a mind-set that invites the burden of policing a rules-based global order
is a conventional assumption: War, though tragic, is a boon for economic
vitality and patriotic vigor. This assumption is at best outmoded. The economy
is no longer fueled by wartime industries in the same way. When wars are fought
by a smaller corps of volunteers and financed by borrowing from financial
institutions and foreign governments more than taxes and war bonds, a public
spirit of common cause hasn’t materialized. In fact, America’s most recent
military misadventures contributed to the steady accumulation of more than $30
trillion in debt — now being weaponized by partisans in Congress for political
gain.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Elliott Abrams, who led Middle East policy in the
Bush administration and Iran and Venezuela policy in the Trump administration,
insisted that the United States should seize the “new Cold War” opportunity to
foster bipartisan consensus.
Bipartisanship sounds appealing. But unanimous war talk isn’t what America needs
or what will help it thrive — and indeed, dissent is most valuable when the
stakes are reaching geopolitical crisis levels. Unity is not uniformity, and
principled opposition is what separates our bottom-up democracy from their
top-down autocracies.
The mythologized connection between war and civic unity falls apart under
scrutiny. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The End of the Myth,” Greg
Grandin chronicled how, after the Civil War, northern and southern soldiers were
sent together to the western frontier to pacify Native American tribes.
These military campaigns against Indigenous people were viewed in part as a way
to reintegrate former Confederates into the U.S. Army and were cast as a
“rehabilitation program” for the South. The Spanish-American War and World War I
were also sold, to some extent, as a way to unite North and South. But none of
these wars prevented the divisions that have endured from the Civil War and Jim
Crow through to today’s debates about Confederate monuments and flags. Did the
Second World War allow America to realize its full economic potential and escape
the Great Depression? Did the Cold War struggle against a common communist
threat produce a period of unity and technological progress? While there is some
truth to this nostalgia, it overlooks uncomfortable realities. America’s entry
into World War II was motivated primarily by vengeance, not a widespread desire
to save the free world. The war helped industrialize the country but also left
many Americans in a state of deprivation. Popular myths about Cold War social
harmony conveniently leave out the traumas of racial segregation and red scares.
And the civic unity felt by Americans after 9/11 did not survive the calamitous
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 1990s provide a vivid illustration of how prosperity and political
compromise can flourish when we shed a false sense of national insecurity and
the militant global posture which often accompanies it. American participation
in major conflicts was limited, and the Clinton administration’s primary foreign
policy goal was to promote trade.
Defense contractors might argue military spending creates commercial activity
and jobs (conveniently distributed across key congressional districts). After
decades of overly militarized foreign policy, Americans should be wary of using
the defense budget to contribute to economic growth. Younger generations don’t
see the need to trade peace for prosperity: A recent survey by my organization
shows a majority of American adults under the age of 30 support a smaller
defense budget.
At a moment when American democracy seems vulnerable and economic waters are
rough, it’s understandable some might look for inspiration in the Pax Americana,
however apocryphal. It’s also understandable that, without novel ways of
understanding this new era of international politics, policymakers are liable to
fall back on old ways. That is, they might slip back into the habit of
minimizing the costs and exaggerating the benefits of armed conflict.
But the notion that a war footing can remedy democratic backsliding and economic
stagnation is backward: Our democracy is threatened and our wealth is wasted
because unwise wars have expended public trust and resources that might have
been used productively at home rather than so destructively abroad.
The Earthquake Factory
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 20/2023
We were watching the earthquake on screens. The scenes were heart-breaking.
Villages were crushed as if they never existed. The buildings killed their
occupants. Distress calls from under the rubble tried to beat time but were
often beaten. Time was long and difficult for those who observed the rubble from
the outside. It was deadly for those who were captured in its grip.
Deaths were soaring. Tens of thousands of families are wringing out their
remaining tears. How hard it is for the children to be betrayed by their own
home. How painful it is to see your sanctuary become your grave… your shelter
become your dreadful enemy…
Buildings became scattered. Balconies and windows were no more. Houses formed a
terrifying pile, crushing the flesh of those who thought were being protected.
The earthquake took centerstage during the conversation with the Iraqi
politician. He was confident that the scenes would shake the conscience of the
world, which would not be late in extending a helping hand. It’s not the time to
express reservations or settle accounts. The horror of the catastrophe demands
the utmost solidarity. He was right in his assessment, as countries near and far
rushed to assume their humanitarian responsibilities.
He said that we were the people of a region that resides on a faultline, and
that from time to time, nature committed such terrible crimes. As if this part
of the world needed more cemeteries and more refugees! He noted that this
monstrous earthquake was less terrifying than the earthquakes that struck the
region due to seismic policies.
He asked me: Don’t you think that the number of victims, no matter how high,
will be less than those killed by the earthquake that struck Lebanon, starting
from 1975? I do not underestimate the horror of what is happening. Do you recall
the earthquake caused by the Iraq-Iran war? It lasted eight years and produced a
river of dead and injured and we are still paying those bills today.
The Iraqi politician started counting the upheavals: Did you forget that we are
approaching the twentieth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq? It is an
earthquake with persisting aftershocks, not only in Iraq, but also in the maps
that pay the price for the imbalance caused by the invasion of this part of the
world.
Between these two upheavals, we find the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which placed
the region on the edge of a cliff. Moreover, we cannot forget the Israeli
invasion of Beirut in 1982 and its occupation of an Arab capital.
The Iraqi politician said it was painful to see the Lebanese capital, which had
resisted the Israeli military machine, to be later killed by its own sons or at
least some of them.
This century has been full of earthquakes. The uprooting of Saddam Hussein’s
regime, and less than a decade later, the overthrow of Moammar al-Gaddafi that
turned into a violent tremor with ongoing aftershocks. The assassination of
President Ali Abdullah Saleh put Yemen on the faultline. Luckily, Egypt
succeeded in averting the great earthquake that threatened to destroy its
identity and shed its blood.
The Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza endure successive bloody cycles,
and they will continue to do so unless the Israeli public opinion accepts that
the earthquake will not come from the Palestinian state, but rather from the
continued failure to establish it.
Somalia, meanwhile, slipped into chaos and has not regained stability.
Is it possible to make a comparison between the victims of the Turkish-Syrian
earthquake and those of the wide-open Ukrainian disaster?
The politician said that natural earthquakes were impossible to prevent, but
their horrors can be mitigated. He pointed to the need to commit to seismic
building codes, which are applied by other countries, such as Japan. He
emphasized the importance of promptly addressing the problem of slums and towns,
where some buildings are collapsing even without earthquakes.
He talked about confronting the monster of corruption that exploits the funds
allocated to the construction sector and gambles with people’s lives without
fearing accountability.
If nature cannot be prevented from committing its crimes, let us at least try to
thwart the earthquakes that the people of the region unleash on other people’s
maps or on their own land. The politician believed that the residents of the
region do not have the right to continue to swallow the poison in a world that
is witnessing successive technological revolutions and is preparing to surrender
its future to artificial intelligence.
He said the first step begins with the ethnic, religious and sectarian groups
taking a firm decision to coexist and give up the illusion of imposing a uniform
or a dominant color on the maps of others… He stressed the need to refrain from
violating international borders under any pretext or slogans that hide imperial
appetites lurking under the rubble… He highlighted the need for a firm decision
to catch up with the progress in education and health, fight poverty, provide
job opportunities, improve people’s lives, and combat drought, desertification
and environmental degradation.
The speaker realized that I saw in him a dreamer in a region addicted to
earthquakes and the art of not learning lessons.
He underlined the impossibility of forging ahead towards the future while
corruption continued to hold sway and with false elections that are influenced
by fanaticism, money, militias, explosives and drones.
The future can only be reached through the state, through a government that
combines integrity, efficiency and institutions that are worthy of the name.
The Middle East remaining an earthquake factory is a severe punishment for its
people. Add to that the injustice of nature. The cruelty of the earth is
seasonal, but the harshness of the earthquake factory is continuous.
It is essential to get rid of the culture of darkness, vengeance, victory,
oppression and the assassination of rights and roles. We must recognize the
other, their right to be different and to choose their own path.
Only the values of justice, progress and dignity can help in shutting down the
bomb factory, which was founded by a thorny history in a treacherous region of
the world. But who will open all these windows to a new Middle East? Who will
dry all these tears?
The Newswashing of ISIS Bride Shamima Begum
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute./February 20, 2023
ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's genocide and crimes against humanity. Never
mind that hostages were hung upside down and then burned alive, or locked in
cages then lowered into water to drown, or crucified for hours "like Jesus;" or
that children were crucified or sold as sex slaves; or that countless others
were tortured, raped or lined up to have their throats slit.
The Free Yezidi Foundation recently wrote of ISIS and Begum: "Not only terror
death cult, but mass-rape genocidal organization. The decision to join was hers.
Her actions contributed to unspeakable acts of brutality, which she would have
continued had ISIS, Daesh not been militarily defeated."
"Ms. Begum, for example, claimed that she was only a housewife and did not
participate in any heinous crimes or violation of human rights as an ISIS
member. Some portrayed her as an innocent schoolgirl who was brainwashed,
uninformed, and simply wanted to return home to Britain.... evidence now
suggests that she was in fact a member of the ISIS 'morality police, a group of
ISIS women which was an integral part of ISIS' terror and atrocity apparatus,
and was armed with an automatic weapon on her patrols. The crimes allegedly
committed by the morality police include major human rights offenses, including
support to ISIS' slave trade of Yezidis." — Free Yezidi Foundation, September
19, 2019.
"'Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?': 'Sickened' viewers slam
broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that 'parades ISIS bride as a
celebrity' just weeks after it launched 10-part podcast 'retracing her steps'. —
The Daily Mail, February 18, 2023.
"What we Yazidis expect from the international community is support and
solidarity, not digging into our wounds. ISIS criminals must face justice for
what they have done and practiced. We expect the West to hold ISIS accountable
in court rather than putting them on the cover of their magazine. Such stories
are particularly difficult for us as Yazidis because these ISIS women tortured
and abused Yazidi women while they were in ISIS's captivity." — Activist for
Yazidi rights who lives in Iraq, to Gatestone, February 2023.
The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding
with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?
"I think this is a slap in the face of all those who suffered in the hands of
terrorism, not just ISIS but other death cults such as Boko Haram. This is a
spit in the face of all those whose loved ones were murdered, and I do not mean
only Yazidis, Assyrians or Nigerians, but all the innocent Westerners who
perished to Islamic terrorism such as in France, the UK, the US and elsewhere.
Media has utterly lost its moral values." — Juliana Taimoorazy, founding
president, Iraqi Christian Relief Council, to Gatestone, February 2023.
Many in the Western media are portraying Shamima Begum, a former "ISIS bride,"
not only as a victim but as a celebrity. ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's
genocide and crimes against humanity. ISIS murdered thousands of people, and
forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands, especially from non-Muslim
communities, including Yazidis and Christians. Pictured: Yazidis in a camp for
internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area of the autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan region, on January 17, 2023. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty
Images)
While around 3,000 Yazidi children and women are still being held captive at the
hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, many in the Western
media are portraying a former "ISIS bride" not only as a victim but as a
celebrity.
The ISIS bride in question Shamima Begum, a British citizen who left the UK to
join ISIS in Syria in 2015, and was later stripped of her British citizenship.
Begum was chosen by The Times Magazine in the UK to lionize on February 4, both
on its cover and in an eight-page feature. She is now part of a glamorized "newswashing"
campaign to help get her British citizenship back.
The UK's Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal is scheduled to rule this week on
Begum's appeal against being stripped of her citizenship.
ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS's genocide and crimes against humanity. Never
mind that hostages were hung upside down and then burned alive, or locked in
cages then lowered into water to drown, or crucified for hours "like Jesus;" or
that children were crucified or sold as sex slaves; or that countless others
were tortured, raped or lined up to have their throats slit. Never mind the
beheadings of journalists such as James Foley or Steven Sotloff, or the Syrian
scholar Khaled al-Asaad, 82, who was tortured for a month, then beheaded because
he refused to turn over Palmyra's priceless antiquities to ISIS. The list goes
on....
The Free Yezidi Foundation recently wrote of ISIS and Begum:
"Not only terror death cult, but mass-rape genocidal organization. The decision
to join was hers. Her actions contributed to unspeakable acts of brutality,
which she would have continued had ISIS, Daesh not been militarily defeated."
At its height, ISIS held about a third of Syria's territory and 40% of Iraq's.
On June 29, 2014, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the formation of a
caliphate stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq. Wherever ISIS
invaded, they brought unspeakable death and destruction, especially to
non-Muslim communities, including Yazidis and Christians.
ISIS murdered thousands, and forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands. ISIS also
systematically committed crimes such as forced conversions, hostage taking,
rapes of children and women, sexual slavery, theft, destruction, smuggling,
disappearances and recruitment of boys as child soldiers. Their methods of
violence not only included beheadings and crucifixions, but also mutilations,
dismemberment, stoning and forcing hostages to kneel on explosives. Countless
people became refugees and remain displaced due to the ISIS genocide.
By December 2017, ISIS had lost 95% of its territory, including its two biggest
centers: Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and the Syrian city of Raqqa, its
nominal capital.
Since March 2019, when ISIS was ousted from the last of the territory it had
seized and since the fall of their caliphate, many ISIS terrorists (some of whom
are citizens of Western nations) have been trying to return to their home
countries.
The European Network for Investigation and Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes
Against Humanity and War Crimes (the "Genocide Network") noted in a 2020 report:
"ISIS, which has been classified as a terrorist organization, perpetrated
horrific acts of violence in armed conflicts in Northern Iraq and Syria. The
issue of investigating and prosecuting its members and foreign terrorist
fighters returning to their countries of origin led most EU Member States to
focus on preventing and punishing terrorism-related offenses. However, ISIS
should not only be considered as a terrorist organization. ISIS has fulfilled
criteria according to International Humanitarian Law as a party to a
non-international armed conflict in Iraq and Syria acting as an organized
non-state armed group. Therefore, its members and foreign terrorist fighters
could be responsible for committing war crimes and other core international
crimes." [Emphasis added.]
The BBC is another media outlet that seems to have an obsessive fascination for
Begum, producing both a film and podcast series regarding the former ISIS
member's so-called journey to Syria. The broadcaster announced on July 11, 2022:
"The BBC has today announced a landmark documentary for BBC Two and BBC iPlayer
and a 10-part audio series for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, on the story of
Shamima Begum. The podcast comes from the team behind the multi award-winning
I'm Not A Monster, the BBC's most awarded podcast series."
Instead of focusing on the genocidal crimes ISIS committed against its victims
and interviewing the victims directly, the BBC's series and documentary largely
deal with a glossy portrait of why and how Begum joined ISIS and her subsequent
life there.
BBC viewers forthrightly responded, according to The Daily Mail on February 8:
"'Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?': 'Sickened' viewers slam
broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that 'parades ISIS bride as a
celebrity' just weeks after it launched 10-part podcast 'retracing her steps'.
"Viewers have vowed to cancel their television licenses as they slammed last
night's 'sickening' 90-minute Shamima Begum documentary on the BBC."
The Free Yezidi Foundation reported in 2019:
"Female members of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) have actively
engaged in terrorist activity and gross human rights violations, and in many
cases seek to manipulate lack of evidence, lack of independent verification, or
other means to plead for sympathy in the court of law and the court of public
opinion to avoid accountability. Most importantly, individuals who joined the
terrorist and genocidal organization must not be allowed to reshape the
narrative in an effort to downplay or avoid their own agency and responsibility
for the horrors they have inflicted or facilitated.
"Female members of ISIS are often perceived as being passive, naïve, or even as
victims. This is a dangerous and wildly inaccurate characterization. The
Netherlands Ministry of the Interior publication, 'Jihadist women, a threat not
to be underestimated,' states:
"'The role that these jihadist women play within the jihadist movement should
not be underestimated. In many cases, jihadist women are at least as dedicated
to jihadism as men. They pose a threat to the Netherlands by recruiting others,
producing and disseminating propaganda, and raising funds. Moreover, they
indoctrinate their children with jihadist ideology. Women form an essential part
of the jihadist movement, both in the Netherlands and in the conflict area in
Syria and Iraq.'
"The behavior and actions of female ISIS members has been a subject of
legitimate legal and policy debate as well as morbid fascination. This has been
seen in the cases of the United Kingdom's Shamima Begum, the American Hoda
Mothana, and other such cases. When citizens of foreign countries joined ISIS
and have either surrendered or fled from ISIS, serious debate over international
law has arisen. The fact that the alleged crimes occurred abroad do present
genuine challenges for security and justice officials in terms of the collection
of evidence and the construction of solid, prosecutable cases. For the Yezidi
community, it is important that the crimes committed by ISIS, including those
allegedly committed by ISIS women, must not be forgotten...
"Ms. Begum, for example, claimed that she was only a housewife and did not
participate in any heinous crimes or violation of human rights as an ISIS
member. Some portrayed her as an innocent schoolgirl who was brainwashed,
uninformed, and simply wanted to return home to Britain. Some human rights
proponents, politicians, and other commentators challenged the comparison of Ms.
Begum to ISIS fighters. However, evidence now suggests that she was in fact a
member of the ISIS 'morality police, a group of ISIS women which was an integral
part of ISIS' terror and atrocity apparatus, and was armed with an automatic
weapon on her patrols. The crimes allegedly committed by the morality police
include major human rights offenses, including support to ISIS' slave trade of
Yezidis.
"Two essential points: first, reports from Yezidi survivors suggest that female
members of ISIS were accepting of ISIS enslavement and abuse towards Yezidis;
and second, ISIS women were more complicit in the commission of mass rape, human
trafficking, crimes against humanity and genocide than they claim, and with
greater agency."
On February 5, one day after The Times Magazine released its issue featuring
Begum, news came out that two Yazidi children, aged two and four, were
reportedly killed after a fire swept through a camp for "internally displaced
persons" (IDP) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The reason Yazidis are still
living in IDP camps is because Begum's organization, ISIS, largely destroyed the
Yazidi homeland of Sinjar in Iraq.
When ISIS invaded Sinjar in 2014, they murdered or kidnapped around 10,000
Yazidis, according to the book The Last Yezidi Genocide by Amy L Beam. More than
83 Yazidi mass graves have since been discovered in Sinjar. Hundreds of
thousands of Yazidis had to flee and become IDPs or refugees. Almost nine years
later, much of Sinjar remains in rubble, making it difficult for Yazidis to
return. As a result, approximately 180,000 Yazidis remain internally displaced,
mostly spread across 15 IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
According to the Free Yezidi Foundation, ISIS abducted, raped and enslaved 6,417
Yazidi women and children. Today, more than 2,693 Yazidis remain missing. In
2021, a UN team investigating ISIS atrocities in Iraq established "clear and
convincing evidence" of genocide against the Yazidi people. Germany's lower
house of parliament, the Bundestag, on January 19, 2023 recognized the 2014
massacre of Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq as a "genocide," and called for measures to
assist the persecuted minority.
An activist for Yazidi rights who lives in Iraq shared his opinions with
Gatestone on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. He said he was
in Sinjar during the ISIS invasion in 2014:
"What we Yazidis expect from the international community is support and
solidarity, not digging into our wounds. ISIS criminals must face justice for
what they have done and practiced. We expect the West to hold ISIS accountable
in court rather than putting them on the cover of their magazine. Such stories
are particularly difficult for us as Yazidis because these ISIS women tortured
and abused Yazidi women while they were in ISIS's captivity."
ISIS also devastated Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. At a 2015 hearing
before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives,
Sister Diana Momeka, of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena, in
Mosul, Iraq, described ISIS's war on religious minorities:
"On June 10th, 2014, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS,
invaded the Nineveh Plain which is where Qaraqosh is located. Starting with the
city of Mosul, ISIS overran one city and town after another giving the
Christians of the region three choices: Convert to Islam; pay a tribute, a jizya,
to ISIS; leave their city, cities like Mosul, with nothing more than the clothes
on their back. As this horror spread throughout the Nineveh Plain, by August 6,
2014, Nineveh was empty of Christians, and sadly, for the first time since the
seventh century A.D., no church bells rang for mass in the Nineveh Plain.
"From June 2014 forward, more than 120,000 people found themselves displaced and
homeless in the Kurdistan region of Iraq leaving behind their heritage and all
they had worked for over the centuries. This uprooting, this theft of everything
that the Christians owned, displaced them body and soul, stripping away their
humanity and dignity."
The violence of ISIS was not limited to Iraq and Syria. ISIS expanded into a
global network, which has carried out attacks beyond the borders of its
now-destroyed caliphate. On November 13, 2015, for instance, 130 people were
murdered and more than 300 injured in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris,
France. And in June 2016, a terrorist who pledged allegiance to ISIS murdered 49
people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding
with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?
Other advocates for survivors of Islamist terrorism have also denounced the
manner some Western media portray ISIS members. Juliana Taimoorazy, the founding
president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, has been helping survivors of
Islamist terrorism, including ISIS, since 2007. She told Gatestone:
"I think this is a slap in the face of all those who suffered in the hands of
terrorism, not just ISIS but other death cults such as Boko Haram. This is a
spit in the face of all those whose loved ones were murdered, and I do not mean
only Yazidis, Assyrians or Nigerians, but all the innocent Westerners who
perished to Islamic terrorism such as in France, the UK, the US and elsewhere.
Media has utterly lost its moral values. What is sadder, to me is that we, as a
society, have become desensitized to things that were once outrageous. We are
beat to accept and not speak up or take serious action against what is unjust."
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the
Gatestone Institute. She is also a research fellow for the Philos Project.
© 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.