English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 04/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.january04.23.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
Prophet, Anna, Blesses The Child Jesus In The Temple
Luke 02/36-40/There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2023
Hezbollah Ends Impasse with al-Rahi, Says No Differences in Positions
Berri asks al-Rahi about 'alternative' to 'prior agreement'
Report: FPM minister to file appeal against cabinet decrees
Unrest in Khalde as fugitive arrested by army
Daryan: Presidential void threatening both Muslims and Christians
In Nighttime Exercise, Hizbullah Fighters Simulate Breaching the Security Fence Along Israel-Lebanon Border, Ambushing Israeli Forces
Berri sets session to discuss temporary controls on bank transfers, cash withdrawals
Army chief broaches general situation with Caretaker Minister Salam, meets Armed Forces Retirees Association delegation, WLCU’s Chakib Rammal
Berri calls joint committees to convene on Thursday to resume discussion of capital controls
Berri broaches general developments with Egyptian Ambassador, Iraqi Chargé d'Affaires
Geagea: Dialogue underway en route to reformist, sovereign solution to presidential election
Constitutional Council convenes over appeal against state budget law
Sayyed Nasrallah Reassures Supporters, Warns Enemies after Health-related Rumors

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2023
Report: Britain to proscribe Iran's Revolutionary Guard as terror group
Iran’s Judiciary Indicts Two French Nationals and Belgian for Espionage
Iranian chess player was warned not to return to Iran after competing without hijab -source
Russia, shaken by Ukrainian strike, said mulling more drones
Putin’s Chef’ Admits His Mercenaries Hit Dead End in Ukrainian Stronghold
Drone advances in Ukraine could bring dawn of killer robots
Ukraine Latest: NATO Allies Seek Deal to Boost Defense Spending
Xi Jinping is 'preparing the Chinese people for war,' Trump-era National Security Adviser says
Israeli Far-right Minister Visits Jerusalem Holy Site
Looming Catastrophe in North Syria After Suspension of Int’l Aid
Gaza-Based Terrorist Organizations Continue Efforts to Attack Israelis
Netanyahu Signals Israel Will Press Syria Strikes
Israel destroys homes of two Palestinians in occupied West Bank
Where are the Gulf Arab tourists? Israel's hopes fall short
Israeli ultranationalist minister visits Jerusalem holy site
Turkey condemns 'provocative act' by Israel's Ben-Gvir
Top Biden aide planning Israel trip as hard-right coalition takes power -source

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 03-04/2023
The United Nations for Empowering Terrorists/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./January 3, 2023
What Is Happening in Saudi Arabia?!/Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 03/2023
Turkiye’s pipeline politics in Central Asia/Nikola Mikovic/Arab News/January 03, 2023
Turkey’s pipeline politics in Central Asia/Nikola Mikovic/The Arab Weekly/January 03/2023

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2023
Hezbollah Ends Impasse with al-Rahi, Says No Differences in Positions
Beirut - Nazeer Rida/January 03/2023
Hezbollah ended on Monday the impasse with Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. Head of the party’s political council Sayyed Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed visited al-Rahi at Bkirki on the occasion of the holidays. The two parties discussed political affairs, including the presidential vacuum. They did not, however, tackle differences between them, namely al-Rahi's call for Lebanon to remain neutral from regional affairs and for holding an international conference over the country. No prominent member of Hezbollah had paid a visit to the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate, Bkirki, in nearly two years. Contacts between Hezbollah and Bkirki had, however, remained. Hezbollah had rejected al-Rahi's call for Lebanon’s “active neutrality” and for holding the international conference. The party is now keen on reviving ties with Bkirki because “a president cannot be elected without dialogue and agreement.”
Lebanon has been without a president since November when Michel Aoun’s term ended without parties agreeing on a successor. Several elections sessions have been held at parliament, but no candidate has secured enough votes to be declared the winner. Bkirki has been calling for the election of a president through 86 votes of the 128-member legislature. Speaking after meeting al-Rahi on Monday, Amin al-Sayyed said the patriarch had expressed his keenness on electing a president as soon as possible. Parties are demanded to responsibly address the issue because Lebanon is experiencing “difficult circumstances” and the election of a president is a priority, he added. He stressed that channels of communication between Bkirki and Hezbollah “are always open”, but circumstances, such as the coronavirus pandemic and others, had thwarted a meeting. Moreover, Amin al-Sayyed underscored that there were no differences with al-Rahi, but the two sides “had exchanged views based on the keenness on electing a new president” who can carry out his duties towards Lebanon. He added that the election was a “necessity and a priority above all else.”Furthermore, he called for “real” and “serious” dialogue between parliamentary blocs so that an understanding can be reached over a president who enjoys consensus and enough popular support. The new president should not be confrontational, he stated. Amin al-Sayyed also backed parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s call to hold dialogue aimed at reaching an understanding over the new president who would be tasked with helping Lebanon out of its crises.

Berri asks al-Rahi about 'alternative' to 'prior agreement'
Naharnet/January 03/2023
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has hit back at remarks by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. In his sermon on Sunday, al-Rahi had criticized Berri’s proposals for the presidential file, rejecting his suggestion for securing a “prior agreement” on the president’s identity prior to voting. Berri snapped back, according to ad-Diyar newspaper, telling his visitors: “I don’t really know what they want… What is the alternative? Whoever has a solution should give it to us.”

Report: FPM minister to file appeal against cabinet decrees
Naharnet/January 03/2023
Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar of the Free Patriotic Movement will file an appeal before the State Shoura Council against the decrees that were issued in the latest caretaker cabinet session, al-Jadeed TV reported on Tuesday. Speaking to al-Jadeed, the media adviser of caretaker PM Najib Mikati, Fares Gemayel, stressed that “the decrees are constitutional and cannot be appealed.”“This issue is out of the question and I don’t know why they have nostalgia for wars and problems,” Gemayel added. FPM chief Jebran Bassil had decried that “around 10 decrees issued by Cabinet were signed in a flagrant way that eliminated the president’s positions.” “They did not only undermine the presidential post, but also the republic, the Lebanese entity and everything related to partnership and the National Pact,” Bassil added. Mikati and the FPM have been engaged in a war of words over signatures related to governmental decrees amid the ongoing presidential void. The FPM has repeatedly warned against holding any caretaker cabinet session during presidential vacuum, arguing that any decree issued would require the signatures of all ministers.

Unrest in Khalde as fugitive arrested by army
Naharnet/January 03/2023
Unrest erupted Tuesday in Khalde in connection with the arrest of a fugitive from the area’s Arab tribesmen. “Moussa Zaher Ghosn was arrested by army intelligence agents on Khalde’s seaside road and a clash broke out between the army intelligence agents and the tribesmen,” al-Jadeed TV reported, adding that Ghosn was wounded in the clash. The TV network added that the man was arrested over a clash between the Ghosn and Nawfal families and an incident that involved opening fire at shops in the Khalde area around a month ago. “The fugitive Ghosn has been transferred to the army intelligence center in Beirut while the Lebanese Army is working on opening the road,” al-Jadeed said.

Daryan: Presidential void threatening both Muslims and Christians
Naharnet/January 03/2023
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Tuesday called for “finalizing the presidential election as soon as possible,” warning that “the country and citizens can no longer bear this vacuum that is destroying all of the state’s pillars.”Accordingly, he called for electing a president who would be “a statesman who would embrace all citizens and be keen on their rights all.”“He should be outside the regional axes and in good relation with the Arab brothers and the friendly countries,” Daryan added. “Presidential vacuum is a rejected and dangerous thing and it threatens Muslims and Christians in their country that is built on the basis of the culture of citizenship and coexistence,” the mufti warned. He also urged “all the loyals who are keen on their country Lebanon” to “communicate, seek rapprochement, hold consultations and launch constructive initiatives that unite rather than divide.”“The country needs the efforts of all its sons to exit this dark tunnel,” Daryan went on to say.

In Nighttime Exercise, Hizbullah Fighters Simulate Breaching the Security Fence Along Israel-Lebanon Border, Ambushing Israeli Forces
MEMRI/January 03/2023
Source: The Internet - "Al-Manar TV Website"
On January 1, 2023, Hizbullah's public relations department released a video of Hizbullah fighters performing a nighttime live-fire exercise in which they simulated infiltrating Israeli territory and ambushing Israeli forces. The fighters, equipped with night-vision goggles and high-quality combat gear, approached a large concrete wall resembling the security fence between Israel and Lebanon and shot a nearby security camera. They then detonated an explosive device alongside the wall, entered the hole, and fired RPGs, machine guns, and suppressed rifles and handguns at steel targets with a Star of David on them and at dummies wearing Israel Defense Forces uniforms. The video ends with the fighters standing on the beach and with a quote from the Quran in Arabic, Hebrew, and English that reads: "And leave the sea in stillness, for they are certainly an army bound to drown."

Berri sets session to discuss temporary controls on bank transfers, cash withdrawals
NNA/January 03/2023
Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday called the finance and budget, administration and justice, national economy, trade, as well as industry and planning parliamentary committees to a joint session at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 5, to follow up on studying the draft law of decree No. 9014 to set exceptional and temporary controls on bank transfers and cash withdrawals.

Army chief broaches general situation with Caretaker Minister Salam, meets Armed Forces Retirees Association delegation, WLCU’s Chakib Rammal
NNA/January 03/2023
Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, on Tuesday received at his Yarzeh office, Caretaker Trade and Economy Minister, Amin Salam, with whom he discussed the current general situation in the country. Maj. Gen. Aoun also received a delegation from the Armed Forces Retirees Association, headed by retired Major General Nicolas Mezher. Discussions reportedly touched on affairs related to the retired military personnel. The army commander also welcomed a delegation from the World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU) headed by Dr. Chakib Rammal.

Berri calls joint committees to convene on Thursday to resume discussion of capital controls
NNA/January 03/2023
House Speaker Nabih Berri has called the committees of finance, administration, and economy to convene in a joint session at 10:30 am on Thursday, January 5, to resume the discussion of the capital control bill.

Berri broaches general developments with Egyptian Ambassador, Iraqi Chargé d'Affaires
NNA/January 03/2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday welcomed at his Ain al-Tineh residence Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr. Yasser Alawi, with whom he discussed the general situation, the latest developments, as well as bilateral relations between Lebanon and Egypt. Berri later received Caretaker Minister of Defense, Maurice Sleem, with whom he broached the country’s general situation, especially on the security level. Chargé d'Affaires of the Iraqi Embassy in Lebanon, Amin Abdullah al-Nasrawi, also had an audience with Speaker Berri over the country’s general conditions and bilateral relations between Lebanon and Iraq.

Geagea: Dialogue underway en route to reformist, sovereign solution to presidential election
NNA/January 03/2023
"Lebanese Forces" party leader, Samir Geagea, on Tuesday confirmed that "dialogue is underway to find a reformist and sovereign solution to the presidential election among various parliamentary blocs that believe in real and serious dialogue.”“This is the path en route to an actual dialogue that can lead to the aspired outcome — not the usual dialogues that we have gotten used to, and which have not yielded any results over the past 17 years,” the LF leader added. Geagea's words came during his meeting with a delegation from the northern Bekaa region.

Constitutional Council convenes over appeal against state budget law
NNA/January 03/2023
The Constitutional Council is currently convening to look into the appeal filed by the "MPs of Change" against the state budget law, our correspondent reported on Tuesday.

Sayyed Nasrallah Reassures Supporters, Warns Enemies after Health-related Rumors
Batoul Wehbe/Al manatTV/January 03/2023
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah reassured supporters on Tuesday that there was ‘no reason to worry’ about his health, offering apologies for bothering them after a speech scheduled for Friday was cancelled.
Commemorating the third martyrdom anniversary of Haj Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis in a ceremony held in Beirut’s Dahiyeh Sayyed Shohada complex, Sayyed Nasrallah gave a televised speech in which he tackled several local and regional issues.
His eminence began the speech with a soft smile, raising supporters’ spirit. “I was prepared as usual to deliver my speech on Friday. I apologize for having worried you and I thank you for having inquired about my condition, as well as offering sacrificial lamb for my speedy recovery. I would like to reassure you, there is absolutely no reason to worry,” he said, pointing out that he has been suffering from tracheitis for over 30 years. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s speech on local issues which was scheduled for Friday (December 30, 2022) had been cancelled over health conditions, the party’s Media Relation Office announced in a statement earlier in the day. Over the weekend, Arab and Israeli media outlets circulated uncountable stories about Sayyed Nasrallah’s health conditions, turning flu into cancer, stroke and heart attack. Sayyed Nasrallah felicitated people on Christmas and New Year; expressing hope that it will be the year of hope and relief for Lebanon and the region, as well. Sayyed Nasrallah offered condolences to the families of the martyrs Hajj Qassem Suleimani and Hajj Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, and their companions.
Hezbollah’s S.G. then delved into Hajj Qassem’s traits and major characteristics which he summarized into three.
“When Haj Qassem entered our fields, he had three major features. The first was his personality, with what he enjoyed of great great sincerity and veracity, as well as a high degree of piety and longing to meet Allah,” Sayyed Nasrallah said. The second, he added, is that he was “a soldier of Wilayat al-Faqih, and what Haj Qassem was doing in terms of basic orientations and strategies was within the controls of the supreme leader, Imam Khamenei.”
“Hajj Qassem was able, through his brainpower, planning, constant presence, and sincerity, to link the forces of the resistance axis, strengthen them and provide them with material and intellectual support through meetings and direct presence on the front lines,” his eminence pointed out.
Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that the American project seeks hegemony, domination, and control of wealth and oil, adding that throughout two decades, Haj Qassem faced two versions of the American schemes in the region.
“The first version of the American scheme in the region, which was confronted by martyr Suleimani and other leaders, is the “New Middle East” project in Lebanon and Palestine,” the Hezbollah leader indicated. He explained that 9/11 (September, 11 attacks) served as an impetus to the American plan to enter Afghanistan and Iraq and get closer to Iran and Syria.
“In 2006, attempts began to unleash in order to strike the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, and the objective was to invade and impose multinational forces at the airport, ports, and borders,” Sayyed Nasrallah said. “At that time, Hajj Qassem Suleimani set foot in frontlines as a leader; Iran stood firm, and Syria, too, leaving the enemy with dilemma in July war,” he added. “Had the Zionists won the war on Lebanon, it would have expanded towards Syria, but that did not happen thanks to martyr Suleimani.”
Sayyed Nasrallah lauded Shiite and Sunni resistance factions in Iraq who fought the occupation forces with utmost sincerity; where exceptional operations targeting the American occupation forces took place, imposing on occupation forces to set a timetable for withdrawal. He said that when occupation forces faltered, the operations increased until they forced them to leave.
“If we combine what the Iraqi resistance has done with the steadfastness of Iran, Syria, along with the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, we conclude that the first version of the American scheme has ended and failed,” Sayyed Nasrallah asserted.
The result of the first version of the American scheme, the Hezbollah leader said, is that [Former US President Donald] Trump was forced to go secretly to Iraq despite spending 7 thousand billion dollars on this scheme.
Turning to the second phase which began with the tenure of Former US president Barak Obama, Sayyed Nasrallah said that when they (the US administration) discovered that large-scale wars are doomed to failure, and that relying on ‘Israel’ in wars is a fiasco, wars took on an internal turn; with the eruption of inner and sectarian strife after the emergence of Takfiris.
“This version was the version of destroying countries and peoples, so that America will come out as the ‘savior’. In this arena, Suleimani and Al-Muhandis were present in public because they were supposed to be in the field to fight off this scheme,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, stating that before these two major and historic failures, Trump decided to deal a decisive blow to the resistance axis by assassinating both commanders (Suleimani and Al-Muhandis).
With a two million-man funeral held for martyr Suleimani, the largest in history, and his emergence as an inspiration and symbol for Iranians, the scheme had an adverse effect on America, Hezbollah’s secretary general said, adding that after the martyrdom of Suleimani, the “deal of the century” fell through, Lebanon established the rules of deterrence, and victory was achieved in the issue of demarcating the maritime borders.
The third version of the American scheme took the shape of economic war, and this needs more talk, his eminence said, promising an upcoming speech to tackle it in details.
Commenting on the frequent attacks on Palestinians and the latest storming of Al-Aqsa mosque, Sayyed Nasrallah said the new Zionist government, which gathers madmen, is hastening its end by committing mistakes and stupidities. “We tried Netanyahu for a long time and we do not fear him.”
“Attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine, and Al-Quds will not only blow up the situation inside Palestine, but may ignite the entire region,” he warned, pointing that one can be “optimistic about the new Israeli government, because that might speed up the demise of the temporary entity.”“We will not tolerate any change in the rules of engagement or any violation of the de facto situation at the level of defending Lebanon. We are facing a government in the Zionist entity that includes corrupt, insane, and extremists, and all of them do not scare us because we have tried them before.”
Ben Gvir storms Al-Aqsa mosque
Turning to Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah said the resistance in Lebanon does not need protection, “it wants a president who does not stab it in the back or conspire against it, and this is our natural right. A president who would not stab the resistance would mean a president who would not drag the country into a civil war.”“Whoever awaits negotiations to take place between the US and Iran over the nuclear program can wait for decades, and we would remain without a president. This is an internal issue and Iran has not interfered in Lebanese affairs for 40 years,” his eminence pointed.
Even if the Saudis and Iranians sat for talks, Sayyed Nasrallah assured that Saudi Arabia’s priority is Yemen, not Lebanon. “We must hasten internal dialogue, and we all must agree that time is pressing in light of the difficult internal conditions, prices hike, and other crises. Whatever the ambiguities, they can be addressed through direct dialogue.”On Hezbollah’s latest disagreements with the Free Patriotic Movement over several internal issues, Sayyed Nasrallah said: We are eager to deal with the disagreement with the Free Patriotic Movement through communication and we’re keen on this relationship.
“Some of our allies and friends criticize us in public. We do not do that, we rather prefer internal dialogue.”“I’ve always told Minister Gebran Bassil that if you feel embarrassed by allying with us, then you are not obligated,” his eminence said, stressing that “we do not leave the hand of an ally or friend unless he does so.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2023
Report: Britain to proscribe Iran's Revolutionary Guard as terror group
Ynetnews/January 03/023
The move means it would become a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings, and carry its logo in public; comes after seven people with links to UK arrested by IRGC. Britain will officially declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which has arrested seven people with links to the United Kingdom over anti-government protests, as a terrorist group, the Telegraph reported on Monday, citing sources. The move, which will be announced within weeks, is supported by Britain's security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the report said. Proscribing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group would mean that it would become a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings, and carry its logo in public. The UK Home Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Telegraph report. Iran's Revolutionary Guards last week arrested seven people with links to Britain over anti-government protests that have rocked the country following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian who was arrested for wearing "inappropriate attire" under Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women. Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged Iran to stop detaining dual nationals, saying the practice should not be used to obtain "diplomatic leverage".

Iran’s Judiciary Indicts Two French Nationals and Belgian for Espionage
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 3 January, 2023
Iran has indicted two French nationals and a Belgian for espionage and working against the country's national security, the judiciary spokesperson said on Tuesday according to the semi-official Student News Network. Tehran has accused foreign adversaries of fomenting unrest which erupted in Iran three months ago after the death in detention of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the country's mandatory dress code laws. The protests mark one of the boldest challenges to the country's leadership since its 1979 revolution and have drawn in Iranians from all walks of life. The news network did not say where or when the three were indicted.

Iranian chess player was warned not to return to Iran after competing without hijab -source
DUBAI/Reuters/January 3, 2023
An Iranian chess player arrived in Spain on Tuesday after receiving what a source close to her said were warnings not to return to Iran for competing without a hijab at an international tournament in Kazakhstan. Sara Khadem, born in 1997, took part in last week's FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty without the hijab - a headscarf mandatory under Iran's strict dress codes. The source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Khadem subsequently received multiple phone calls in which individuals warned her against returning home after the tournament, while others said she should come back, promising to "solve her problem". The source also said Khadem's relatives and parents, who are in Iran, had also received threats, without giving further details. Iran's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case. Khadem, who is also known as Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, arrived in Spain on Tuesday, the source said. She has not responded to Reuters request for comment. Newspapers including Le Figaro and El Pais reported last week that Khadem would not be returning to Iran and moving to Spain. The phone calls led to organisers deciding to provide security with the cooperation of Kazakh police, resulting in four bodyguards being stationed outside Khadem's hotel room, the source said. Iran has been swept by demonstrations against the country's clerical leadership since mid-September, when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of morality police who detained her for "inappropriate attire."Laws enforcing mandatory hijab wearing have become a flashpoint during the unrest, with a string of sportswomen competing overseas appearing without their headscarves in public. Khadem is ranked 804 in the world, according to the International Chess Federation website. The website for the Dec. 25-30 event listed her as a participant in both the Rapid and Blitz competitions. The protests mark one of the boldest challenges to Iran's leadership since its 1979 revolution and have drawn in Iranians from all walks of life. Women have played a prominent role, removing and in some cases burning headscarves, while protesters have taken heart from what they have seen as shows of support from both female and male Iranian athletes.

Russia, shaken by Ukrainian strike, said mulling more drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)//January 3, 2023
Russia is preparing to step up its attacks on Ukraine using Iranian-made exploding drones, according to Ukraine's president, as Moscow looks for ways to keep up the pressure on Kyiv after a Ukrainian attack killed at least 63 Russian soldiers in the latest battlefield setback for the Kremlin’s war strategy. “We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by Shaheds (exploding drones),” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address late Monday. He said the goal is to break Ukraine’s resistance by “exhausting our people, (our) air defense, our energy,” more than 10 months after Russia invaded its neighbor. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be exploring ways to regain momentum in his flawed war effort, which in recent months has been frustrated by a Ukrainian counteroffensive backed by Western-supplied weapons. That has brought sharp rebukes in some Russian circles of the military’s performance. In the latest embarrassment for the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. Other, unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago. In the attack, Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system and two of them were shot down, a Russian Defense Ministry statement said. However, the Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s Armed Forces claimed Sunday that around 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim couldn't be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the area of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the vocational school. Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show the apparent aftermath of the strike. An image from Dec. 20 showed the building standing. An image from Jan. 2 showed the building reduced to rubble. Other days had intense cloud cover, making seeing the site by standard satellite imagery impossible. Vigils for soldiers killed in the strike took place in two Russian cities Tuesday, the state RIA Novosti agency reported. In Samara, in southwestern Russia, locals gathered for an Orthodox service in memory of the dead. The service was followed by a minute’s silence, and flowers were laid at a Soviet-era war memorial, RIA reported. Unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media said that the victims were mobilized reservists from the region.
For the Russian military, the Iranian-made exploding drones are a cheap weapon which also spreads fear among troops and civilians. The United States and its allies have sparred with Iran over Tehran's role in allegedly supplying Moscow with the drones.
The Institute for the Study of War said that Putin is looking to strengthen support for his strategy among key voices in Russia.
“Russia’s air and missile campaign against Ukraine is likely not generating the Kremlin’s desired information effects among Russia’s nationalists,” the think tank said late Monday.
“Such profound military failures will continue to complicate Putin’s efforts to appease the Russian pro-war community and retain the dominant narrative in the domestic information space,” it added.
Zelenskyy warned that in the coming weeks, “the nights may be quite restless.”Putin's additional reliance on drones might not help him achieve his goals, however, as Ukraine claims a high success rate against the weapons. During the first two days of the new year, which were marked by relentless nighttime drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, the country’s forces shot down more than 80 Iranian-made drones, Zelenskyy said.
Since September, Ukraine's armed forces have shot down almost 500 drones, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat claimed in a television interview Tuesday, news website Ukrinform reported.
As well as hoping to wear down resistance to Russia’s invasion, the long-range bombardments have targeted the power grid to leave civilians at the mercy of biting winter weather as power outages ripple across the country. “Every downed drone, every downed missile, every day with electricity for our people and minimal shutdown schedules are exactly such victories,” Zelenskyy said. In the latest fighting, a Russian missile strike overnight on the city of Druzhkivka in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region wounded two people, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, reported Tuesday.
A reporter with French broadcaster TF1 was live on television screens when a blast from one of the strikes erupted behind him in Druzhkivka. A German reporter with Bild newspaper suffered a minor injury from shrapnel in the same bombardment.
Officials said the attack ruined an ice hockey arena described as the largest hockey and figure skating school in Ukraine. Overnight Russian shelling was also reported in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
In the recently retaken areas of the southern Kherson region, Russian shelling on Monday killed two people and wounded nine others, Kherson’s Ukrainian governor, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said Tuesday. He said the Russian forces fired at the city of Kherson 32 times on Monday.
*Jon Gambrell in Rome contributed to this report.

Putin’s Chef’ Admits His Mercenaries Hit Dead End in Ukrainian Stronghold
Allison Quinn/The Daily Beast./Tue, January 3, 2023
Russia’s shadow army boss has tried to explain away his mercenary group’s failure to take the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut by claiming Ukraine has “500 lines of defense” there. Yevgeny Prigozhin made the claim in an interview with RIA Novosti published Tuesday, telling the news agency that the Wagner Group can’t seem to break through Ukrainian defenses around the city. Ukraine’s military has fended off a Russian takeover there during months of brutal battles against the notorious mercenaries. In the face of relentless Russian attacks, the city has gained huge symbolic significance.
While pro-Kremlin pundits and Prigozhin himself have for weeks taunted Ukrainians with threats that Bakhmut will soon fall to Russia, the Wagner boss now appears to be acknowledging what Western experts and British intelligence have already predicted: Russia is unlikely to achieve any major wins in the area any time soon. “It’s a fortress in every home,” Prigozhin said in video published by RIA Novosti. “The guys lock horns for every home, sometimes not just for one day. Sometimes for weeks over one home. They take one home, they take a second, a third,” Prigozhin said.
But they still can’t break through defenses. “To say [there are] 500 [lines of defense] would probably not be a mistake. Every 10 meters there is a line of defense,” Prigozhin said while meeting with his mercenaries. One of the men under his command can be heard complaining in the footage that they don’t have enough equipment or weapons to push further into Bakhmut. How 46 Toddlers Were Disappeared by Putin in One Fell Swoop. The Wagner boss’ admission comes after Western intelligence noted that the manpower behind Russian attacks in the area had been thinning out. The British Ministry of Defense noted in its latest assessment on Tuesday that while Russia has “increased the frequency” of attacks around Bakhmut, “many of these operations were poorly supported.”
A Ukrainian soldier near Bakhmut also says it seems the Russian side is “running out” of prison inmates to send to the frontline. In an interview with Radio New Times, Yevgeny Oropai said Russian troops seem to be “out of breath” after unsuccessfully attempting to storm Ukrainian positions around the New Year holiday, leaving Wagner with “heavy losses.” But they’re also learning from their own mistakes and not “mindlessly” carrying out so many offensives anymore, he said. Both sides have suffered staggering losses in and around the city, leading even some pro-Kremlin figures to question whether Russia’s offensive there was worth the “senseless meat grinder” it had created for them. But the city appeared to take on heightened significance for Moscow after a series of crushing losses elsewhere saw Russians retreat from territories Putin had proudly declared to be part of Russia. Bakhmut, seen in some ways as Russia’s “last stand” after Ukraine took back Kharkiv and Kherson, was also part of the Donbas region Putin had dubbed a priority after the Kremlin’s failure to take Kyiv. Prigozhin, who for months has boasted that his guys are more ruthless and able to do what ordinary Russians troops cannot, released a series of attention-seeking propaganda videos said to be from Bakhmut in late December, in which he ordered his mercenaries to fire off weapons and taunted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with invitations to meet on the front line. “Maybe by the evening we’ll be able to meet,” he said. “I’m sitting, waiting for you near Bakhmut.” Days later, however, Russian airborne troops were sent to the area to prop up Wagner’s operations—a move widely seen as evidence that all was not going according to plan for Russia’s tough-talking shadow army boss.

Drone advances in Ukraine could bring dawn of killer robots
FRANK BAJAK and HANNA ARHIROVA/KYIV, Ukraine (AP) /January 03/2023
Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world's first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare. The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, according to military analysts, combatants and artificial intelligence researchers. That would mark a revolution in military technology as profound as the introduction of the machine gun. Ukraine already has semi-autonomous attack drones and counter-drone weapons endowed with AI. Russia also claims to possess AI weaponry, though the claims are unproven. But there are no confirmed instances of a nation putting into combat robots that have killed entirely on their own. Experts say it may be only a matter of time before either Russia or Ukraine, or both, deploy them.
“Many states are developing this technology,” said Zachary Kallenborn, a George Mason University weapons innovation analyst. ”Clearly, it’s not all that difficult.” The sense of inevitability extends to activists, who have tried for years to ban killer drones but now believe they must settle for trying to restrict the weapons’ offensive use. Ukraine's digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, agrees that fully autonomous killer drones are “a logical and inevitable next step" in weapons development. He said Ukraine has been doing “a lot of R&D in this direction.”“I think that the potential for this is great in the next six months,” Fedorov told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Ukrainian Lt. Col. Yaroslav Honchar, co-founder of the combat drone innovation nonprofit Aerorozvidka, said in a recent interview near the front that human war fighters simply cannot process information and make decisions as quickly as machines. Ukrainian military leaders currently prohibit the use of fully independent lethal weapons, although that could change, he said. “We have not crossed this line yet – and I say ‘yet’ because I don’t know what will happen in the future.” said Honchar, whose group has spearheaded drone innovation in Ukraine, converting cheap commercial drones into lethal weapons. Russia could obtain autonomous AI from Iran or elsewhere. The long-range Shahed-136 exploding drones supplied by Iran have crippled Ukrainian power plants and terrorized civilians but are not especially smart. Iran has other drones in its evolving arsenal that it says feature AI.
Without a great deal of trouble, Ukraine could make its semi-autonomous weaponized drones fully independent in order to better survive battlefield jamming, their Western manufacturers say. Those drones include the U.S.-made Switchblade 600 and the Polish Warmate, which both currently require a human to choose targets over a live video feed. AI finishes the job. The drones, technically known as “loitering munitions,” can hover for minutes over a target, awaiting a clean shot. “The technology to achieve a fully autonomous mission with Switchblade pretty much exists today,” said Wahid Nawabi, CEO of AeroVironment, its maker. That will require a policy change — to remove the human from the decision-making loop — that he estimates is three years away. Drones can already recognize targets such as armored vehicles using cataloged images. But there is disagreement over whether the technology is reliable enough to ensure that the machines don't err and take the lives of noncombatants. The AP asked the defense ministries of Ukraine and Russia if they have used autonomous weapons offensively – and whether they would agree not to use them if the other side similarly agreed. Neither responded.
If either side were to go on the attack with full AI, it might not even be a first. An inconclusive U.N. report last year suggested that killer robots debuted in Libya’s internecine conflict in 2020, when Turkish-made Kargu-2 drones in full-automatic mode killed an unspecified number of combatants. A spokesman for STM, the manufacturer, said the report was based on “speculative, unverified” information and “should not be taken seriously.” He told the AP the Kargu-2 cannot attack a target until the operator tells it to do so. Fully autonomous AI is already helping to defend Ukraine. Utah-based Fortem Technologies has supplied the Ukrainian military with drone-hunting systems that combine small radars and unmanned aerial vehicles, both powered by AI. The radars are designed to identify enemy drones, which the UAVs then disable by firing nets at them — all without human assistance. The number of AI-endowed drones keeps growing. Israel has been exporting them for decades. Its radar-killing Harpy can hover over anti-aircraft radar for up to nine hours waiting for them to power up. Other examples include Beijing’s Blowfish-3 unmanned weaponized helicopter. Russia has been working on a nuclear-tipped underwater AI drone called the Poseidon. The Dutch are currently testing a ground robot with a .50-caliber machine gun.
Honchar believes Russia, whose attacks on Ukrainian civilians have shown little regard for international law, would have used killer autonomous drones by now if the Kremlin had them. “I don’t think they’d have any scruples,” agreed Adam Bartosiewicz, vice president of WB Group, which makes the Warmate. AI is a priority for Russia. President Vladimir Putin said in 2017 that whoever dominates that technology will rule the world. In a Dec. 21 speech, he expressed confidence in the Russian arms industry’s ability to embed AI in war machines, stressing that “the most effective weapons systems are those that operate quickly and practically in an automatic mode.” Russian officials already claim their Lancet drone can operate with full autonomy. “It’s not going to be easy to know if and when Russia crosses that line,” said Gregory C. Allen, former director of strategy and policy at the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
Switching a drone from remote piloting to full autonomy might not be perceptible. To date, drones able to work in both modes have performed better when piloted by a human, Allen said. The technology is not especially complicated, said University of California-Berkeley professor Stuart Russell, a top AI researcher. In the mid-2010s, colleagues he polled agreed that graduate students could, in a single term, produce an autonomous drone “capable of finding and killing an individual, let’s say, inside a building,” he said.
An effort to lay international ground rules for military drones has so far been fruitless. Nine years of informal United Nations talks in Geneva made little headway, with major powers including the United States and Russia opposing a ban. The last session, in December, ended with no new round scheduled.
Washington policymakers say they won’t agree to a ban because rivals developing drones cannot be trusted to use them ethically. Toby Walsh, an Australian academic who, like Russell, campaigns against killer robots, hopes to achieve a consensus on some limits, including a ban on systems that use facial recognition and other data to identify or attack individuals or categories of people.
“If we are not careful, they are going to proliferate much more easily than nuclear weapons,” said Walsh, author of “Machines Behaving Badly.” “If you can get a robot to kill one person, you can get it to kill a thousand.”Scientists also worry about AI weapons being repurposed by terrorists. In one feared scenario, the U.S. military spends hundreds of millions writing code to power killer drones. Then it gets stolen and copied, effectively giving terrorists the same weapon. The global public is concerned. An Ipsos survey done for Human Rights Watch in 2019 found that 61% of adults across 26 countries oppose the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems. To date, the Pentagon has neither clearly defined “autonomous weapon” nor authorized a single such weapon for use by U.S. troops, said Allen, the former Defense Department official. Any proposed system must be approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two undersecretaries. That's not stopping the weapons from being developed across the U.S. Projects are underway at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, military labs, academic institutions and in the private sector.
The Pentagon has emphasized using AI to augment human warriors. The Air Force is studying ways to pair pilots with drone wingmen. A booster of the idea, former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work, said in a report last month that it “would be crazy not to go to an autonomous system” once AI-enabled systems outperform humans — a threshold that he said was crossed in 2015, when computer vision eclipsed that of humans. Humans have already been pushed out in some defensive systems. Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield is authorized to open fire automatically, although it is said to be monitored by a person who can intervene if the system goes after the wrong target. Multiple countries, and every branch of the U.S. military, are developing drones that can attack in deadly synchronized swarms, according to Kallenborn, the George Mason researcher.
So will future wars become a fight to the last drone? That's what Putin predicted in a 2017 televised chat with engineering students: “When one party’s drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender.”
**Frank Bajak reported from Boston. Associated Press journalists Tara Copp in Washington, Garance Burke in San Francisco and Suzan Fraser in Turkey contributed to this report.

Ukraine Latest: NATO Allies Seek Deal to Boost Defense Spending
Bloomberg/January 3, 2023
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said allies are pushing to strengthen the alliance’s target of spending 2% of output on defense, with the aim of reaching an agreement by July. Ukraine warned that Russia may launch more attacks over the Orthodox Christmas holiday later this week even as Kyiv continued to down Iran-made Shahed drones being sent into the country, the country’s air defense command said on Monday. Germany, meanwhile, is open to using billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild as long as legal issues can be resolved and allies follow suit, according to people familiar with the discussions. Ukraine’s air defense systems intercepted every drone from two consecutive nights of Russian strikes since Dec. 31, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Russian forces continued to carry out unsuccessful attempts to improve their tactical positions northwest of Svatove after a tactical pause, the ISW said. Russian forces, trying to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are concentrating efforts on offensive operations in the Bakhmut region in Donbas, Ukraine’s general staff reports. Russian crude shipments slid to the lowest for 2022 in the final four weeks of the year as sanctions crimped Moscow’s exports. Cargoes bound for China, India and Turkey, which have become a lifeline for Russian supplies displaced from Europe, saw a third straight drop. The country’s overall seaborne flows fell by 117,000 barrels a day to 2.615 million barrels on a four-week average basis.
Germany is open to using billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild as long as legal issues can be resolved and allies follow suit. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government supports Ukraine’s demand for war reparations but hasn’t yet taken an official position on seizing assets from the Russian state. The issue is complex and some parts of the ruling coalition are more ardent than others, according to people familiar with the discussions. Some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members want the alliance to sharpen its target of spending 2% of output on defense by making the guideline a minimum, according to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. In 2014, NATO agreed that members whose military spending was below 2% would “aim to move toward” the goal within a decade, yet more than half remain well below. “We will meet, we will have ministerial meetings, we will have talks in capitals,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with German news agency DPA, adding that the aim is to seal agreement no later than the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July. Moscow plans a protracted drone attack on Ukraine to “exhaust” the country’s energy infrastructure, air defenses and people, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukraine’s anti-missile forces have intercepted more than 80 Iran-made drones launched by Russia against the power grid and civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the year, and many more are yet to come, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation on Monday. “Over coming weeks, nights may be pretty troubled,” he said. “We have information that Russia plans a protracted attack by Shahed drones.” The attack is meant to reassure the Russian people as its troops suffer painful battlefield losses, according to Ukraine’s leader.

Xi Jinping is 'preparing the Chinese people for war,' Trump-era National Security Adviser says
Matthew Loh/Business Insider/January 3, 2023
Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster warned that Xi Jinping is preparing China for war.
McMaster said Xi has been increasingly signaling aggression in his speeches about Taiwan.
He urged the US to bolster its military presence, to deter China from making a move against Taiwan.
Herbert Raymond McMaster, a former National Security Adviser, said on Monday he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping is "preparing the Chinese people for war."Speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation," hosted by Margaret Brennan, McMaster said the US should take care "not to fall into the same traps we did with Vladimir Putin" when it comes to the threat of conflict with China over Taiwan.
He and several pundits, including Michèle Flournoy, the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, were on the show discussing US foreign policy on various fronts, such as dealing with Iran, the war in Ukraine, and China. McMaster, a retired lieutenant general who served as National Security Adviser in 2017 and 2018 under former President Donald Trump, said the US should take potential threats from Xi seriously, adding that the leader "means what he says." "I think we have to be careful not to mirror image, not to fall into the same traps we did with Vladimir Putin, of confirmation bias and optimism bias," said McMaster. He added that Xi has been posturing aggressively in recent speeches, telling Chinese people that it would take sacrifices to restore China to national greatness.
McMaster said Xi has "made quite clear" through his recent statements that he is preparing to move against Taiwan and toward "subsuming" the island. "China has become increasingly aggressive, not only from an economic and financial perspective and a wolf warrior diplomacy perspective, but physically, with its military," he added. McMaster urged the US to increase its military presence in the Asia Pacific region. "We talk a lot about relying on our allies and that maybe if we take a step back, the allies will do more," said McMaster. "I think actually the opposite is the case. If Americans just do a little bit more, many of our allies will follow suit and bolster their defensive capabilities and capacity as well." Xi said in October that China is "striving for the prospect of peaceful reunification with Taiwan," but also repeatedly signaled aggression toward the democratic island while he consolidated his power last fall.
He opened China's 20th Communist Party Congress by saying his government would "never promise to give up the use of force" to seize Taiwan. In November, Xi urged the Chinese military to be ready for potential war and outlined a vision for the People's Liberation Army to become a world-class force by 2027. The Chinese president also denounced "foreign interference" with Taiwan — a veiled threat against the US that came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's August visit to Taipei. Beijing, bristling at the visit, responded by announcing a slew of renewed military drills near the island. On the part of the US, President Joe Biden angered Beijing in October when he broke from long-term US policy by saying that Washington would defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China. The White House later clarified that the president's comments hadn't signaled a change in foreign policy and that the US still opposed "any unilateral changes to the status quo." Biden's rhetoric then shifted as he met Xi in November for the G20 summit, when the president emphasized cooperation between their nations and peace in the Taiwan Strait. McMaster did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment via email.

Israeli Far-right Minister Visits Jerusalem Holy Site
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 03/2023
An ultranationaThis picture taken from the Mount of Olives shows from shows Jerusalem's Old City with the Dome of the Rock in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, on January 2, 2023. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)list Israeli Cabinet minister visited Tuesday a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site for the first time since taking office in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government last week. The visit is seen by Palestinians as a provocation. Earlier in the day, Palestinian officials said a 15-year-old boy was killed by Israeli army fire near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. The Israeli military said its forces had shot a person involved in violent confrontations with soldiers. In Jerusalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary flanked by a large contingent of police officers. Ben-Gvir has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site, which is viewed by Palestinians as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel taking complete control over the compound. The site has been the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces, most recently in April last year.

Palestinian Leaders Denounce Ben-Gvir's Visit to Aqsa Mosque
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 3 January, 2023
The Palestinian leaders and factions condemned on Tuesday the visit of Israel’s extreme-right firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh cast the visit as a bid to turn a major mosque there "into a Jewish temple". Addressing his cabinet, Shtayyeh also called on Palestinians to "confront the raids into Al Aqsa mosque" after Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the periphery of the mosque compound. Ben-Gvir did not approach the mosque. Palestinian president spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaina said in a statement that the visit constitutes a “challenge” to the Palestinian people, and to the Arab and International communities, Palestinian news agency Wafa said. He rejected Israel’s continued “provocations” against Islamic and Christian religious sites, denouncing Israel's attempts to change the historic and legal face of al-Aqsa which he said “will turn to no avail.”The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Ben-Gvir's visit as an "unprecedented provocation and a serious threat to the arena of conflict". Moreover, Jordan condemned in "severest" terms the visit by Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir visited Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound Tuesday for the first time since becoming a minister, enraging Palestinians who see the move as a provocation. Ben-Gvir's visit comes days after he took office as national security minister, a position which gives him powers over the police. Ben-Gvir has lobbied to overhaul management of the site to allow Jewish prayer there, a move opposed by mainstream rabbinical authorities. Waqf guards told AFP that Ben-Gvir was accompanied by units of the Israeli security forces, while a drone hovered above the holy site. After he left the site on Tuesday morning, visitors arrived at the plaza and the situation remained quiet.

Looming Catastrophe in North Syria After Suspension of Int’l Aid
Idlib - Firas Karam/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 3 January, 2023
Local humanitarian organizations in northwest Syria warned Monday of “catastrophic consequences” resulting from the closure of Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border with Türkiye, which allows access for medical assistance to millions of citizens, including 2.5 million displaced persons.
The Syria Response Team, an organization concerned with monitoring the humanitarian situation in NW Syria, warned in a statement that some 2.2 million people will be affected from the closure of the humanitarian lifeline that secures food provided by the World Food Program.
Other organizations and around 2.65 million people will be deprived of clean or drinking water, it added. The Syria Response Team said this catastrophe looms as the mandate of UN Resolution 2642 approaches an end while international agencies insist to legitimize the entry of humanitarian aid through crossings of the Syrian regime. Last month, local and international humanitarian organizations have called on the UN Security Council to renew and extend the Syria cross-border resolution 2642 for at least 12 months to allow humanitarian aid into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The resolution will be put to a vote on January 10. The Syria Response Team warned Monday that the closure of Bab al-Hawa crossing will interrupt bread support in more than 725 camps, and deprive more than a million people from obtaining bread on a daily basis.
At the medical level, the Team said that “stopping the entry of aid across the borders will reduce the number of hospitals and effective medical facilities to less than half in the first stage, and more than 80 percent will be closed in the second stage.”
It noted that starting 2023, eight medical facilities have already seen reduced or no aid while less than 20 percent of facilities in the camp are receiving medical support. Also, humanitarian organizations are unable to provide support to repair damages within the camps, the Team said, noting also the increase in the birth rate, and the arrival of new displaced people. Meanwhile, medical authorities in NW Syria spoke of a new crisis with the interruption of support for dozens of hospitals and medical facilities, and the near depletion of operational materials in a number of other hospitals that provide multiple medical services to more than two million civilians, most of whom are displaced people residing in camps. The medical authorities said a number of hospitals already stopped providing medical services to civilians suffering from heart, respiratory and orthopedic diseases starting the first day of 2023. They named the Atma Charitable Hospital, HIH Hospital for Children, Armanaz Hospital, and Al-Quds Hospital north of Idlib. Ahmed al-Hassan, director of Syria's Al Khair camp, which houses about 800 displaced families north of Idlib, said “a horrible catastrophe may affect millions of people residing in the area, unless the mechanism for entering international humanitarian aid is renewed as soon as possible.”He also spoke about a possible famine among the displaced, and the spread of epidemics and diseases. More than 2.5 million displaced people from different regions of Syria are unemployed and have no source of income to survive, al-Hassan said. He stressed that most of the displaced families in the camps depend on the monthly baskets provided by international partner organizations of the UN and WPF.

Gaza-Based Terrorist Organizations Continue Efforts to Attack Israelis
FDD/January 03/2023
Latest Developments
The Shin Bet stated on Monday that it prevented a “significant terror attack” earlier in December. The Shin Bet, also known as the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and Shabak, reported that Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians in the West Bank, confiscating an explosive device disguised as a fire extinguisher that the terrorists planned to detonate in an unspecified Israeli city. According to ISA, the group was taking orders from two Gaza-based terror organizations working together — the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Expert Analysis
“The Palestinian Authority has been on life support for many years. Its failure to collect taxes, violent crackdowns against political activists, and widespread corruption have been growing. In this vacuum, Palestinian terrorist organizations have enjoyed greater freedom of action.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
The Popular Resistance Committees and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
The PRC, founded in 2000 as an offshoot of Fatah, is the third-largest Palestinian terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. The PRC has claimed credit for more than a hundred attacks against Israelis and Americans. For example, on October 16, 2003, the PRC planted a roadside bomb that struck a U.S. diplomatic vehicle in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, killing three Americans and injuring one. Despite the numerous attacks claimed by the group, the latest plot is the first time the PRC has activated a cell in the West Bank.
Like the PRC, the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, established in 2000, is active in Gaza and the West Bank. It represents one of the largest terrorist organizations in the West Bank, and has significantly contributed to the uptick in violence in the territory since last May. Since its inception, it has claimed dozens of attacks, including suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Washington designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2002.
A Growing Threat from Gaza
The foiled attack is not the first time this year that the Shin Bet has busted a terror cell in the West Bank taking orders from Gaza. In October, the agency arrested a Hamas cell in the West Bank — directed and funded by a Hamas militant in Gaza — that was reportedly planning to commit shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. A month earlier, the Shin Bet arrested a Hamas terror cell directed from Gaza that shot at an Israeli vehicle in the northern West Bank.
A Concerted Effort by Terrorist Groups
The uptick in violence that has occurred over the last year and a half is a concerted effort by Palestinian terrorist groups to destabilize the West Bank and undermine the Palestinian Authority. These developments warrant close attention, as the operation of key Gaza-based militant groups in the West Bank is a relatively new phenomenon, suggesting that opponents of the Palestinian Authority feel newly emboldened to advance their drive for power.

Netanyahu Signals Israel Will Press Syria Strikes
FDD/January 03/2023
Latest Developments
Syria said Israel attacked Damascus International Airport today, briefly putting the site out of service. According to preliminary media reports, the target was a position run by the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Syrian military said a second predawn Israeli strike killed at least two of its personnel south of Damascus. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly promised to push back against Tehran’s regional belligerence and nuclear advances.
Expert Analysis
“Almost a decade has passed since Israel began its ‘campaign between wars’ in Syria, whose pace of airstrikes — according to IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi — has increased from once in every four months at the outset to once per week today. Syrian airports have increasingly been targeted — a reflection of their increasing use by Iran for unloading advanced weaponry destined for terror groups on Israel’s border and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That Damascus International Airport appears to have resumed some operations within eight hours of Monday’s strike is a testament to Israeli precision in carrying out the strike.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD Chief Executive
“Despite Russia’s Ukraine invasion, in Syria, at least, the rules between Jerusalem and Moscow seem to be holding: Israel carries out strikes against Iranian targets without encountering Russian resistance, presumably with some advance warning to avoid unplanned clashes or casualties. This serves Israeli interests and can be expected to weigh on Netanyahu’s mind against considering any dramatic Israeli policy shift in the Ukraine crisis.” — David Adesnik, FDD Senior Fellow and Director of Research
The ‘Campaign Between Wars’
The Israeli operations — which Israel did not immediately confirm or comment on — appeared to be the first in its so-called “campaign between wars” since Netanyahu returned to power last week. Tehran has exploited the decade-long civil war in Syria to entrench itself militarily in the country and to deliver large quantities of advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon. In October 2022, Israeli military officials asserted that Israel had destroyed 90 percent of Iranian military infrastructure in Syria over the course of recent years.
The Russia-Syria Nexus
The Israeli operations follow a December 22 phone call between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in which the Israeli leader, according to a statement from his office, said he was “determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and to halt its attempts to establish a military base on [Israel’s] northern border.” As Damascus’ big-power ally during the Syrian civil war, the Russians maintain air defenses in the Arab country as well as a military deconfliction mechanism with Israel.

Israel destroys homes of two Palestinians in occupied West Bank
euronews/January 03/2023
Israel destroyed the homes of two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as part of its controversial practice of demolishing the homes of Palestinian accused of deadly attacks.

Where are the Gulf Arab tourists? Israel's hopes fall short
ISABEL DEBRE/JERUSALEM (AP)/Tue, January 3, 2023
When Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to open diplomatic ties in 2020, it brought an electrifying sense of achievement to a country long ostracized in the Middle East. Officials insisted that Israel’s new ties with the UAE, and soon after with Bahrain, would go beyond governments and become society-wide pacts, stoking mass tourism and friendly exchanges between people long at odds. But over two years since the breakthrough accords, the expected flood of Gulf Arab tourists to Israel has been little more than a trickle. Although more than half a million Israelis have flocked to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, just 1,600 Emirati citizens have visited Israel since it lifted coronavirus travel restrictions last year, the Israeli Tourism Ministry told The Associated Press. The ministry does not know how many Bahrainis have visited Israel because, it said, “the numbers are too small.”
“It’s still a very weird and sensitive situation,” said Morsi Hija, head of the forum for Arabic-speaking tour guides in Israel. “The Emiratis feel like they’ve done something wrong in coming here.” The lack of Emirati and Bahraini tourists reflects Israel’s long-standing image problem in the Arab world and reveals the limits of the Abraham Accords, experts say. Even as bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE has exploded from $11.2 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion last year, the popularity of the agreements in the UAE and Bahrain has plummeted since the deals were signed, according to a survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an American think tank.
In the UAE, support fell to 25% from 47% in the last two years. In Bahrain, just 20% of the population supports the deal, down from 45% in 2020. In that time, Israel and Gaza militants fought a devastating war and violence in the occupied West Bank surged to its highest levels in years.
Israeli officials say Gulf Arab tourism to Israel is a missing piece that would move the agreements beyond security and diplomatic ties. Tourist visits from Egypt and Jordan, the first two countries to reach peace with Israel, also are virtually nonexistent. “We need to encourage (Emiratis) to come for the first time. It's an important mission,” Amir Hayek, Israeli ambassador to the UAE, told the AP. “We need to promote tourism so people will know each other and understand each other.” Israeli tourism officials flew to the UAE last month in a marketing push to spread the word that Israel is a safe and attractive destination. The ministry said it's now pitching Tel Aviv — Israel’s commercial and entertainment hub — as a big draw for Emiratis. Tour agents say that so far, betting on Jerusalem has backfired. The turmoil of the contested city has turned off Emiratis and Bahrainis, some of whom have faced backlash from Palestinians who see normalization as a betrayal of their cause. The Palestinian struggle for independence from Israel enjoys broad support across the Arab world.
“There's still a lot of hesitation coming from the Arab world,” said Dan Feferman, director of Sharaka, a group that promotes people-to-people exchanges between Israel and the Arab world. “They expect (Israel) to be a conflict zone, they expect to be discriminated against.” After leading two trips of Bahrainis and Emiratis to Israel, Sharaka struggled to find more Gulf Arab citizens interested in visiting, he said. When a group of Emirati and Bahraini social media influencers in 2020 visited the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam, they were spat on and pelted with shoes in Jerusalem's Old City, said Hija, their tour guide. When another group of Emirati officials visited the flashpoint site accompanied by Israeli police, they drew the ire of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who issued a religious edict against Emiratis visiting the mosque under Israeli supervision.
Most Emiratis and Bahrainis who have visited Israel say they forgo their national dress and headscarves in order not to attract attention. The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque, declined to answer questions about the number of Emirati and Bahraini visitors and their treatment at the compound. Palestinian rage against Emiratis is not confined to the sacred esplanade. Emirati citizens visiting and studying in Israel say they face frequent death threats and online attacks. “Not everyone can handle the pressure,” said Sumaiiah Almehiri, a 31-year-old Emirati from Dubai studying to be a nurse at the University of Haifa. “I didn't give into the threats, but fear is preventing a lot of Emiratis from going.” The fear of anti-Arab racism in Israel can also drive Gulf Arabs away. Israeli police mistakenly arrested two Emirati tourists in Tel Aviv last summer while hunting for a criminal who carried out a drive-by shooting. Some Emiratis have complained on social media about drawing unwanted scrutiny from security officials at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport.
“If you bring them here and don’t treat them in a sensitive way, they’ll never come back and tell all their friends to stay away,” Hija said. Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned for a sixth term as prime minister last week, has pledged to strengthen agreements with Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE and Sudan. Formal ties with Sudan remain elusive in the wake of a military coup and in the absence of a parliament to ratify its U.S.-brokered normalization deal with Israel. As a chief architect of the accords, Netanyahu also hopes to expand the circle of countries and reach a similar deal with Saudi Arabia.
Yet experts fear his new government — the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative in Israel’s history — could further deter Gulf Arab tourists and even jeopardize the agreements. His government has vowed to expand West Bank settlements and pledged to annex the entire territory, a step that was put on hold as a condition of the initial agreement with the UAE. “We have a reason to be worried about any deterioration in relations,” said Moran Zaga, an expert in Gulf Arab states at the University of Haifa in Israel. So far, Gulf Arab governments have offered no reason for concern.
The Emirati ambassador was photographed warmly embracing Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the coalition's most radical members, at a national day celebration last month. And over the weekend, the UAE's leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, called Netanyahu to congratulate him and invite him to visit. It's a different story among those who are not in the officialdom. “I hope that Netanyahu and those with him will not set foot on the land of the Emirates,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist, wrote on Twitter. “I think it is appropriate to freeze the Abraham Accords temporarily."

Israeli ultranationalist minister visits Jerusalem holy site
ILAN BEN ZION/JERUSALEM (AP)/Tue, January 3, 2023
An ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister visited Tuesday a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site for the first time since taking office in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government last week. The visit is seen by Palestinians as a provocation and drew fierce condemnation from across the Muslim world and rebuke from Israeli allies. Earlier in the day, Palestinian officials said a 15-year-old boy was killed by Israeli army fire near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. The Israeli military said its forces had shot a person involved in violent confrontations with soldiers. In Jerusalem, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary flanked by a large contingent of police officers. Ben-Gvir has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site, which is viewed by Palestinians as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel taking complete control over the compound. Most rabbis forbid Jews from praying on the site, but there has been a growing movement in recent years of Jews who support worship there. The site has been the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces, most recently in April last year. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem said that Ambassador Thomas Nides "has been very clear in conversations with the Israeli government on the issue of preserving the status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites. Actions that prevent that are unacceptable.”
The United Arab Emirates, which diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, “strongly condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard by an Israeli minister under the protection of Israeli forces.”
A Foreign Ministry statement urged Israel to “halt serious and provocative violations taking place there.” The ministry also “called upon Israeli authorities to assume responsibility for reducing escalation and instability in the region.”Bahrain, which also recognized Israel at the same time, did not immediately acknowledge the incident. A separate statement from Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the Israeli minister's action, as did statements from Kuwait and Qatar, all of which don’t diplomatically recognize Israel over its occupation of lands sought by Palestinians for a future state.
Turkey, which has recently been working toward normalizing its strained ties with Israel, condemned what it said was “the provocative action” by the Israeli national security minister.
“We call on Israel to act responsibly to prevent such provocations that would violate the status and sanctity of religious sites in Jerusalem and cause an escalation in the region,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which acts as custodian of the contested shrine, condemned Ben-Gvir's visit “in the strongest terms." Egypt warned against “negative repercussions of such measures on security and stability in the occupied territories and the region, and on the future of the peace process.”
Ben-Gvir's stated intention of visiting the site earlier this week drew threats from the Islamic militant group Hamas. He wrote on Twitter after his visit that the site “is open to all and if Hamas thinks that if it threatens me it will deter me, they should understand that times have changed." Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that Ben-Gvir entering the site on Tuesday was "a continuation of the Zionist’s occupation aggression on our sacred places and war on our Arab identity.”“Our Palestinian people will continue defending their holy places and Al-Aqsa mosque," he said.
Ofir Gendelman, who has long served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesman, released a video showing that the “situation is completely calm” at the holy site following Ben-Gvir’s departure. The hilltop shrine is the third-holiest site in Islam and an emotional symbol for the Palestinians. It sits on a sprawling esplanade that also is the holiest site for Jews, who call it to the Temple Mount because it was the location of two Jewish temples in antiquity.
Israel captured the historic Old City of Jerusalem, with its holy sites to three monotheistic faiths, along with the rest of east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move unrecognized by most of the international community and considers the city its undivided, eternal capital. The competing claims to the site lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have sparked numerous rounds of violence in the past. Ben-Gvir is head of the ultranationalist religious Jewish Power faction and has a history of inflammatory remarks and actions against Palestinians.
A day earlier, opposition leader Yair Lapid, who until last week was Israel's prime minister, spoke out against Ben-Gvir’s intended visit, saying it would “lead to violence that will endanger human lives and cost human lives." His visit came following months of mounting tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. On Monday, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem said 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2004, a period of intense violence that came during a Palestinian uprising. It said nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Israeli military has been conducting near-daily raids into Palestinian cities and towns since a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis killed 19 last spring. A fresh wave of attacks killed at least another nine Israelis in the fall. In Tuesday's shooting incident, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Adam Ayyad, 15, died of a bullet wound to the chest. The Israeli military said Border Police officers came under attack in the Dheisha refugee camp next to Bethlehem. It said troops shot at people throwing firebombs and confirmed that a person was shot.
The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
*Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Rome and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Turkey condemns 'provocative act' by Israel's Ben-Gvir
ANKARA (Reuters)/Tue, January 3, 2023
- Turkey condemned on Tuesday a "provocative act" by Israel's new far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, referring to his visit to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. Ankara's statement came amid efforts by Turkey and Israel to normalise ties, after a four-year deterioration in relations, and mutual appointment of ambassadors. "We are concerned by the provocative act of Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir towards Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli police and we condemn it," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. "We call on Israel to act responsibly to prevent such provocations that will violate the status and sanctity of holy places in Jerusalem and escalate tension in the region," it said. After Benjamin Netanyahu won an election in November and began forming one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israel's history, he and President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to "work together to create a new era in relations" on a basis of respect for mutual interests. Turkish officials, including Erdogan repeatedly said Ankara's warming relations with Israel would not diminish Turkey's support for the Palestinian cause.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Top Biden aide planning Israel trip as hard-right coalition takes power -source
Jeff Mason/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/January 03/2023
U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is planning a trip to Israel this month after the formation of a new government topped by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a White House official said on Monday.
The meetings in Israel will come as Netanyahu's new alliance with ultra-nationalists has worried White House officials about the prospects for worsening Israel's relations with Palestinians. On Monday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants during clashes near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian sources said.Biden is also working to find common ground with the new Israeli government on an approach to stalled Iranian nuclear talks and has been re-evaluating Washington's alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Biden said on Thursday that he looked forward to working with Netanyahu, who he called "my friend for decades," and committed "to support the two state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values."
Dates for Sullivan's meetings have not been set yet, said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 03-04/2023
The United Nations for Empowering Terrorists
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./January 3, 2023
Hammouri's affiliation with the PFLP and his involvement in planning terror attacks against Israelis, does not, however, seem to concern the UN Human Rights Office. Instead of condemning the convicted terrorist, the UN Human Rights Office chose to condemn Israel for daring to take measures to protect its citizens against terrorism.
This is also the same UN whose representatives have failed to condemn Hamas for building tunnels beneath schools run by its United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip.
Take note: here is a senior UN official sitting with representatives of a terror group whose charter calls for the elimination of Israel and who is expressing "concern" over the rise of right-wing parties in Israel.
The UN official appears unaware that many Israelis voted for right-wing parties because of the increased terror attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups.
It is ironic that a UN official, whose title is "Special Coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process", sits with a Palestinian group that is entirely dedicated to sabotaging peace.
As Article 13 of the Hamas charter states: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
This is hardly how to "prevent and remove threats to peace," as the UN claims in its charter. In fact, the actions of the UN clearly demonstrate that the organization is actually cozying up to terrorists while denouncing those who combat terrorism.
In its defense of, and engagement with, terrorists, the UN is boosting the ability of Hamas and the PFLP to continue their slaughter and genocide.
The United Nations agency UNRWA on December 1, 2022 revealed that it found a terror tunnel under one of its schools in the Gaza Strip. Yet, instead of coming out strongly and unambiguously against Hamas for building a terror tunnel under a school, the UN dispatched one of its top officials to meet with leaders of Hamas. Notably, this is the same UNRWA that never misses an opportunity to condemn Israel. Pictured: A school run by UNRWA in Gaza City, photographed on December 1, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the United Nations, the deportation of a convicted Palestinian-French terrorist from Israel constitutes a "war crime."
This is the same UN whose officials hold meetings on a regular basis with leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group designated as a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Australia, Israel and the United Kingdom.
This is also the same UN whose representatives have failed to condemn Hamas for building tunnels beneath schools run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip.
On December 19, the UN Human Rights Office issued a statement condemning Israel's deportation of Palestinian-French "human rights defender" Salah Hammouri to France. "Deporting a protected person from occupied territory is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, constituting a war crime," according to the statement.
The "human rights defender, " about whom the UN is so worried, was arrested in 2005 and accused of plotting to murder Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, founder of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Hammouri, who was accused of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was released in a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas in December 2011.
The PFLP, the second-largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, is also designated as a terrorist organization by the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, Israel and the European Union.
Hammouri worked for the Palestinian "human rights group" Addameer, which "offers free legal aid" to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel for their involvement in terrorism.
Addameer is an affiliate of the PFLP and several of its employees have links to that terror group. On October 22, 2021, Israeli authorities declared Addameer a terrorist organization because it is part of "a network of organizations" that operates "on behalf of the PFLP."
Israel's Interior Ministry said Hammouri had "organized, inspired and planned to commit terror attacks against citizens and well-known Israelis."
Hammouri's affiliation with the PFLP and his involvement in planning attacks against Israelis, does not, however, seem to concern the UN Human Rights Office. Instead of condemning the convicted terrorist, the UN Human Rights Office chose to condemn Israel for daring to take measures to protect its citizens against terrorism. The UN Human Rights Office apparently believes it is perfectly all right for a Palestinian terror group to plan the murder of Israeli civilians.
It seems the UN also has not heard of the PFLP's involvement in suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations against Israelis over the past few decades. The PFLP, which was the first Palestinian organization to hijack airplanes in the 1960s and 1970s, was responsible for the assassination of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001.
Rather than taking a tough approach against Palestinian terror organizations, senior UN officials are meeting with Hamas, the Iran-sponsored Islamist group that seized control of the Gaza Strip in a violent and bloody coup in 2007.
Hours after the deportation of Hammouri to France, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland met with a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the group's deputy chief, in the Gaza Strip.
At the meeting, the Hamas officials "reiterated that the Palestinian people and parties have the right to resist the Israeli occupation."
Hamas, in short, told the UN official that the Palestinians are entitled to continue their campaign to murder Jews. When Hamas talks about the "resistance," it is referring to suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, car-rammings and rocket attacks.
Hamas does not endorse any form of peaceful "resistance" against Israel. As its charter states, Hamas believes only in one form of resistance: jihad (holy war). According to Article 15 of the charter:
"In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of jihad be raised. It is necessary to instill the spirit of jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters."
The UN official informed the Hamas officials that the international community is concerned about the results of the latest Israeli elections and the rise of "extremist right-wing parties to power."
Take note: here is a senior UN official sitting with representatives of a terror group whose charter calls for the elimination of Israel and who is expressing "concern" over the rise of right-wing parties in Israel.
The UN official is not worried about the rise of Hamas to power in the Gaza Strip and the terror organization turning the area into a launching pad for rocket attacks against Israel. He is not worried about Hamas diverting billions of dollars donated by the international community to construct terror tunnels from which to attack Israel. He is not worried about Hamas's daily calls to increase the amount of Jewish blood spilled by Palestinian knives.
The UN official appears unaware that many Israelis voted for right-wing parties because of the increased terror attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups.
It is ironic that a UN official, whose title is "Special Coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process", sits with a Palestinian group that is entirely dedicated to sabotaging peace.
As Article 13 of the Hamas charter states:
"Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."What will happen next? Will the UN send one of its "peace envoys" to meet with leaders of the Islamic State (ISIS) or Al-Qaeda terror groups?
The meeting between the UN official and the Hamas representatives came three weeks after another UN agency, UNRWA, revealed that it found a terror tunnel under one of its schools in the Gaza Strip. Yet, instead of openly and directly calling out Hamas for endangering the lives of schoolchildren and UN staff, the agency published a bizarre statement that failed to mention the terror group by name as being responsible for the tunnel. The statement, in addition, failed to use the word tunnel. Instead, it described the tunnel as "man-made cavity."
Notably, this is the same UNRWA that never misses an opportunity to condemn Israel.
In its charter, the UN declares that one of its purposes is "to maintain international peace and security and to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace." The recent actions of the UN, however, show that instead of boycotting and condemning terrorists, the organization is more concerned about the rights of terrorists who plan to murder Israeli civilians than achieving peace and security. Instead of coming out strongly and unambiguously against Hamas for building a terror tunnel under a school, the UN is dispatching one of its top officials to meet with leaders of Hamas.
The UN appears to be doing its utmost to run cover for the terror group by failing to hold it directly responsible. This is hardly how to "prevent and remove threats to peace," as the UN claims in its charter. In fact, the actions of the UN clearly demonstrate that the organization is actually cozying up to terrorists while denouncing those who combat terrorism. In its defense of, and engagement with, terrorists, the UN is boosting the ability of Hamas and the PFLP to continue their slaughter and genocide.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 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.

What Is Happening in Saudi Arabia?!
Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 03/2023
I shall introduce my article by quoting this sentence from the Western media. It paves the way for much of what I would like to say. “As the world plunges into crisis, Saudi Arabia seems set to become a modern superpower.”As some had been betting on the imminent downfall of the Kingdom and its standing as a major regional power becoming a thing of the past, Saudi Arabia was busy renewing itself. It is making itself anew, launching a process of reinvigoration and renewal that has already left its mark on every domain. This time, oil is not the sole source of income, as the Kingdom is rediscovering sources of strength - its religious standing and stature, mineral wealth, human capital, and geographical position - that had not been tapped into. What has happened in a mere few years is remarkable. Its progress has gone against all the skeptics’ dreams.
Until recently, talk of Saudi Vision 2030 seemed fantastical; that’s how the skeptics had seen it in any case. However, the Kingdom’s actions have spoken loudly. The evidence began accumulating swiftly. At an increasingly rapid pace, we saw project after project and success after success.
Until 2015, Riyadh’s standing as a political and economic power stemmed from a robust religious legacy due to its housing of the Two Holy Mosques and the honor of managing them and serving the visitors - those performing Hijra and Umrah - who flock to them. However, it did not concern itself with capitalizing on the potential that other fields presented, which hindered its ability to branch out.
The modern Saudi methodology was based on benefiting from all sources, diversifying sources of income, building innovative strong arms, in addition to maximizing the impact of the returns of all possible resources.
In the past, everyone spoke of the “American dream.” The successes of Singapore and South Korea were celebrated next. In every field, one finds a pioneering country that is taken as a reference... Our success has led many around the world to refer to the Kingdom as a modern developmental state, setting the standard regionally in an array of domains and leading the world in a number of fields. The West was betting - and it still is - on democracy being a necessary prerequisite for any serious achievements, and it now has found out that monarchies have their own recipe.
The amazing thing about Saudi Arabia’s progress is how quickly it is being made. Decades worth of work has been completed in a matter of years. This rate of progress required strong will from the state, sound planning, exceptional components, solid human capital, and strong willingness on the part of society to go along with these major transformations and changes.
All of that had been available, waiting for someone to tie everything together. And so, we saw what no one had been expecting to unfold. The dream of the Saudis, which others do not share - and some even worked to prevent - was achieved. I will make do with these remarks.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his development project arrived, finding enthusiastic support awaiting them. Everyone - without exception - played their part in his ambitious project and turning his vision into reality. Everyone found something in themselves in this process for change, per their expertise, concerns, desires, and needs.
I do not deny, nor would any reasonable person, that this immense project faces serious challenges. However, the speed and flexibility with which these hurdles have been overcome are remarkable. It is not unusual to hear of projects or initiatives being canceled, developed, or merged, or the particular circumstances that come with each of them being responded to in a manner that reflects positively on the fundamental objectives of overarching structure.
The declaration of war on extremism was perhaps the most consequential step, as it has laid the groundwork for everything else. Early on, Saudi Arabia led a domestic project to combat extremism... militarily, intellectually, in the media, and financially. To this end, the Kingdom has supported state bodies and established alliances and centers, thereby foiling the project of the extremists and sowing the seeds of development.
The way I see it, if another country had tried to curb extremism under similar circumstances, we would have found what we could call catastrophes…. Calamities would have emerged as a natural outcome of the comprehensive changes to collective thinking, but this did not happen in Saudi Arabia. The project to “destroy them now… immediately” went precisely according to plan. The best possible outcome was achieved with the least possible amount of damage incurred. However, where are the just assessments?
Despite everything that has been achieved, it is merely the first seed of an immense Saudi tree. We will see massive projects that had not been achieved anywhere else in the world, economic cities being constructed, investments being drawn, entrepreneurs being supported, leading innovations being made in new fields, and many other things… All of this is part of a process through which real progress is being made. The outline of some of this progress is already apparent, while other aspects require more time.
A long period of stagnation had weighed down on the desire to respond at the beginning, but successive achievements have taken the genie out of the bottle. An unprecedented developmental renaissance awaits us. The impact of this process will go beyond our geographical borders, encompassing all the countries that endeavor to join us and become our partners in this development project. Indeed, the region has long been awaiting such a project after decades of suffering from conflicts and crises.

Turkiye’s pipeline politics in Central Asia
Nikola Mikovic/Arab News/January 03, 2023
Central Asia and the South Caucasus have long been within Russia’s geopolitical orbit. But as the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine stumbles on, Turkiye is looking to take advantage by increasing its influence in these strategically important regions.It is no secret Ankara views Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as countries that belong to the Turkic world — an idea that former Turkish President Abdullah Gul once formulated as “One nation, six states.” Yet cultural ties are not what drives his successor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now. Today, it is all about energy.
Turkiye’s ties to Turkmenistan are particularly important. Despite not being a member of the Organization of Turkic States — an influential regional grouping of Turkic-speaking countries — Turkmenistan plays a key role in Ankara’s Central Asia strategy. As Erdogan put it bluntly last month, “I hope that Turkmen gas will soon begin to flow to Turkiye through the Caspian Sea.”
Turkmenistan ranks fourth globally for natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar. Although China is the main buyer of Turkmen gas at the moment, Ankara aims to start purchasing energy from the former Soviet republic to help turn Turkiye into a regional gas hub.
Here is how that would work: By investing in the political and economic conditions needed to import large volumes of natural gas from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Turkiye could redirect energy to Europe and become an intermediary in gas sales.
While the Kremlin supports this idea in principle — especially given that it can no longer supply Europe with natural gas via the Nord Stream pipelines — Turkiye’s energy strategy has drawn some Russian opposition. Most notable is Sen. Alexander Bashkin, who wrote recently that Moscow would not allow construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, an essential part of any future linkage to Turkiye. Bashkin blamed environmental concerns for his stance, but the geopolitical subtext was clear.
Still, even if the Kremlin shared Bashkin’s view, it is unlikely that Moscow has the means to push Turkiye off course. Bogged down in Ukraine, Russia is unable to dictate to other countries, especially not to Turkiye.
Hypothetically, Moscow could offer its own gas pipelines to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for exporting gas to Europe. But given Russia’s isolation in the global arena, it is doubtful that the former Soviet Central Asian republics would be willing to do business with the Kremlin.
Thus, Ankara will almost certainly continue expanding its energy ties with Turkmenistan without fear of Russian retaliation.
Turkiye is already purchasing energy elsewhere in the region; Ankara is among the main buyers of Azerbaijan’s natural gas. But because Azerbaijan’s resources are limited, Ankara still sees Turkmenistan as the lynchpin in its geoeconomic strategy.
Because Azerbaijan’s resources are limited, Ankara still sees Turkmenistan as the lynchpin in its geoeconomic strategy.
While energy and economic interests are driving Turkiye’s strategy in the post-Soviet space, Erdogan will undoubtedly continue emphasizing the importance of pan-Turkism, given that most Turkic nations share historical, ethnic and cultural ties with Turkiye. Pan-Turkism helps Turkiye further its ambitious goals in the Eurasian heartland — namely, to compete with Russia and China in the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea.
Turkiye was the first country in the world to recognize the independence of the former Soviet Central Asian republics in the 1990s. Ever since, it has maintained close ties to the region, engaging in economic and educational projects and enhancing its military cooperation.
Turkiye is also making inroads in Kyrgyzstan, opening mosques and schools and strengthening its energy collaboration. While Kyrgyzstan remains Russia’s ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Union, the Kremlin is struggling to preserve its cultural influence in the country. In neighboring Kazakhstan — another Russian ally — Turkiye has plans to invest about $2 billion, mostly in light industry. Ankara’s economic presence in the oil-rich Central Asian nation is modest; trade between Ankara and Astana was just over $5.3 billion in 2021, while the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Russia topped $11.6 billion during the first six months of 2022.
More recently, however, Kazakhstan has shown signs of distancing itself from Russia as it looks to diversify its foreign policy. To take advantage, Ankara should move to become a transit point for Kazakh oil and rare earth metals bound for the EU, as well as create an energy corridor connecting Turkiye and Central Asia. Turkiye’s timing could be perfect. Kazakhstan is expected to approve a draft agreement on a transport corridor that would connect China with the EU through Kazakhstan and Turkiye. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, better known as the Middle Corridor, would bypass Russia and position Turkiye as an important transit country. It will take time to build all these corridors and pipelines. As Turkiye waits for its energy strategy to materialize, expect its leaders to use every tool at their disposal to achieve the economic and energy goals they covet in Central Asia.
• Nikola Mikovic is a political analyst in Serbia. His work focuses mostly on the foreign policies of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, with special attention on energy and “pipeline politics.” ©Syndication Bureau

Turkey’s pipeline politics in Central Asia
Nikola Mikovic/The Arab Weekly/January 03/2023
As the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine stumbles on, Turkey is looking to take advantage by increasing its influence in the strategically important regions.
Tuesday 03/01/2023
Turkmenistan's Chairman of the People's Council Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, from left, arrive to the Organisation of Turkic States summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, November 11, 2022. (AP)
Turkmenistan's Chairman of the People's Council Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Ja
Central Asia and the South Caucasus have long been within Russia’s geopolitical orbit. But as the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine stumbles on, Turkey is looking to take advantage by increasing its influence in the strategically important regions.
It’s no secret Ankara views Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as countries that belong to the Turkic world – an idea that former Turkish President Abdullah Gul once formulated as “One nation, six states.” Yet cultural ties are not what drives his successor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now. Today, it’s all about energy.
Turkey’s ties to Turkmenistan are particularly important. Despite not being a member of the Organisation of Turkic States – an influential regional grouping of Turkic-speaking countries – Turkmenistan plays a key role in Ankara’s Central Asia strategy. As Erdogan put it bluntly last month, “I hope that Turkmen gas will soon begin to flow to Turkey through the Caspian Sea.”
Despite being one of the world’s most isolated regimes, Turkmenistan ranks fourth globally for natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran, and Qatar. Although China is the main buyer of Turkmen gas at the moment, Ankara aims to start purchasing energy from the former Soviet republic to help turn Turkey into a regional gas hub.
Here’s how that would work: By investing in the political and economic conditions needed to import large volumes of natural gas from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, Turkey could redirect energy to Europe and become an intermediary in gas sales.
While the Kremlin supports this idea in principle – especially given that it can no longer supply Europe with natural gas via the Nord Stream pipelines – Turkey’s energy strategy has drawn some Russian opposition. Most notable is Senator Alexander Bashkin, who wrote recently that Moscow would not allow construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, an essential part of any future linkage to Turkey. Bashkin blamed environmental concerns for his stance, but the geopolitical subtext was clear.
Still, even if the Kremlin shared Bashkin’s view, it’s unlikely that Moscow has the means to push Turkey off course. Bogged down in Ukraine, Russia is unable to dictate to other countries, and especially not to Turkey.
Hypothetically, Moscow could offer its own gas pipelines to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan for exporting gas to Europe. But given Russia’s isolation in the global arena, and the fact that President Vladimir Putin has turned his country into a pariah-state, it’s doubtful that the former Soviet Central Asian republics would be willing to do business with the Kremlin.
Thus, Ankara will almost certainly continue expanding energy ties with Turkmenistan, without fear of Russian retaliation.
Turkey is already purchasing energy elsewhere in the region; Ankara is among the main buyers of Azerbaijan’s natural gas. But because Azerbaijan’s resources are limited, Ankara still sees Turkmenistan as the linchpin in its geo-economic strategy.
While energy and economic interests are driving Turkey’s strategy in the post-Soviet space, Erdogan will undoubtedly continue emphasising the importance of pan-Turkism, given that most Turkic nations share historical, ethnic, and cultural ties with Turkey. Pan-Turkism helps Turkey further its ambitious goals in the Eurasian heartland – namely, to compete with Russia and China in the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea. Turkey was the first country in the world to recognise the independence of the former Soviet Central Asian republics in the 1990s. Ever since, Turkey has maintained close ties to the region, engaging in economic and educational projects, and enhancing its military cooperation.
Turkey is also making inroads in Kyrgyzstan, opening mosques and schools and strengthening its energy collaboration. While Kyrgyzstan remains Russia’s ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Union (EAEU), the Kremlin is struggling to preserve its cultural influence in the country.
In neighbouring Kazakhstan – another Russian ally in the CSTO and the EAEU – Turkey has plans to invest around $2 billion, mostly in light industry. Ankara’s economic presence in the oil-rich Central Asian nation is modest; trade between Ankara and Astana was just over $5.3 billion in 2021, while the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Russia topped $11.6 billion during the first six months of 2022.
More recently, however, Kazakhstan has shown signs of distancing itself from Russia as it looks to diversify its foreign policy. To take advantage, Ankara should move to become a transit point for Kazakh oil and rare earth metals bound for the European Union, and to create an energy corridor connecting Turkey and Central Asia. Turkey’s timing could be perfect. Kazakhstan is expected to approve a draft agreement on a transport corridor that would connect China with the EU through Kazakhstan and Turkey. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, better known as the Middle Corridor, would bypass Russia and position Turkey as an important transit country.
It will take time to build all these corridors and pipelines. As Turkey waits for its energy strategy to materialise, expect its leaders to use every tool at their disposal to achieve the economic and energy goals they covet in Central Asia.