English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 06/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
John the Baptis Baptizes Jesus at The Jordan River
Luke 03/15-22/The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 05-06/2023
After Nasrallah's remarks, FPM says it also doesn't want to end alliance
Berri expected to launch presidential crisis initiative
Lebanese judiciary files charges against 7 over UNIFIL attack
Report: Paris meeting unconfirmed, no breakthrough in presidential file
Report: Bou Habib promoting himself as presidential candidate
Report: US, France agree on characteristics of new Lebanese president
Jumblat says leaders using 'flimsy excuses' to disrupt ministerial meetings
Constitutional Council annuls some state budget articles, clarifies others
Electricity crisis to worsen as dispute over funds continues
Fuel prices increase in Lebanon
Luncheon banquet at Beit al-Wasat in honor of newly elected muftis
Power struggle: Political row threatens Lebanon with total shutdown

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 05-06/2023
New Arab allies face quandary as Israel shifts hard-right
Netanyahu’s ‘Big Lie’ Will End Rule of Law in Israel
Israel's new government unveils plan to weaken Supreme Court
Palestinians Say Teen Killed by Israeli Army in West Bank Clashes
UN Security Council to Discuss Israeli Minister's Al-Aqsa Visit
Khamenei Rejects Targeting Iranian Women with ‘Loose Hijabs’
Robert Malley Warns Tehran against Executing Protesters
Iran Pressures Iraq to Prosecute Those Responsible for Soleimani’s Killing before Int’l Courts
France: No Lessons to Take from Iran over Press, Judicial Freedoms
Pro-Iranian Factions Suspected of Targeting International Coalition in Eastern Syria
Iran closes French institute to protest Khamenei cartoons
Türkiye Awaits 'Positive Steps' from Syrian Regime
Turkish court suspends funding for pro-Kurdish party
Libya’s Presidential Council Joins Unity Gov't in Rejecting Egypt’s Demarcation of Maritime Borders
Putin is terminally ill with cancer, Ukraine military claims
Putin orders short 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas, a move some in Kyiv fear is a 'trap'
Putin says ready for Ukraine talks if Kyiv accepts 'new territorial realities'
Ukraine is getting Western armored vehicles as US, Germany, and France agree to send more firepower its way
Russia taking of Ukraine nuclear plant a hit to clean energy future -Holtec
USA/Family of eight found shot dead in Utah home

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 05-06/2023
Why Palestinians Want to Slaughter Jewish Worshippers/Bassam Tawil/ Gatestone Institute/January 5, 2023
Making Iran’s Support for Russia More Costly/Henry Rome/The Washington Institute./January 05/2023
Climate movement inspires optimism at start of new year/May Boeve/Arab News/January 05/2023
What US’ new defense budget means for the Middle East/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/January 05/2023
Action must be taken to halt Iranian regime’s foreign terrorism/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 05/2023
Deterioration in religious values a main driver of war, violence: Egyptian grand imam/Gobran Mohamed/Arab News/January 05/2023

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 05-06/2023
After Nasrallah's remarks, FPM says it also doesn't want to end alliance
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Free Patriotic Movement sources have welcomed Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest remarks about the relation with the FPM.
“The same as Sayyed Nasrallah said that he does not want to withdraw his hand from the Memorandum of Understanding, the FPM also does not want to withdraw its hand, and the current flaw requires steps, initiatives and a discussion,” a senior FPM source told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Thursday. “The FPM is waiting for Hezbollah to take an initiative to pave the way for organizing the relation in a different manner,” the source added. The daily for its part reported that after FPM sources said that “keenness on the MoU should stand for keenness on partnership and coexistence, which requires a different performance from Hezbollah,” FPM chief Jebran Bassil swiftly asked the FPM’s senior officials not to make statements, seeing as “the relation between the two sides is passing through a critical stage” and because “many things are being misinterpreted.”

Berri expected to launch presidential crisis initiative
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to launch a presidential initiative when the conditions are ripe, a source said. The source told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that Berri will launch his initiative, only when the domestic ground is fertile and ready for it. "The main condition for that is to prioritize the will of consensus, and to understand that consensus is key to a presidential solution," the source added. The source went on to say that all Arab and Western countries are not willing to intervene and are rather implying that the presidential file is a Lebanese matter.

Lebanese judiciary files charges against 7 over UNIFIL attack
Agence France Presse/January 05/2023
Lebanon has charged seven people for participating in an attack against United Nations peacekeepers that killed one Irish soldier in mid-December, a judicial official told AFP on Thursday. Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were injured on December 14 when their U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the village of al-Aqbiyeh in the south of the country, a stronghold of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah. UNIFIL urged Beirut to ensure a swift investigation, the first violent death of one of its peacekeepers in nearly eight years. Seven bullets pierced the U.N. vehicle, one hitting the driver in the head, judicial sources said. Only one of the seven charged is in custody, Mohammed Ayyad, who was handed over to the army by Hezbollah last month. On Wednesday, Ayyad was charged "with killing the Irish soldier and attempting to kill his three comrades by shooting them with a machine gun," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they did not have permission to speak to the media. The judge also charged six fugitives "for uttering threats with an illegal weapon, destroying the UNIFIL vehicle and intimidating its passengers," the official added. UNIFIL, made up of some 10,000 peacekeepers, has been deployed since 1978 to act as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, which remain technically in a state of war. There have been incidents in the past between Hezbollah supporters and UNIFIL patrols, but they have rarely escalated. The group has distanced itself from the latest attack, hastening to offer its condolences to the UNIFIL forces. A security official has previously said that Hezbollah was cooperating with the investigation, which is led by Lebanon's military intelligence service.

Report: Paris meeting unconfirmed, no breakthrough in presidential file
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Paris attempts to help Lebanon elect a president are ongoing, diplomatic sources in Paris said, adding that they see no breakthrough on the horizon. The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that there are no signs of a breakthrough in the presidential file in light of the existing divergence between the politicians. And although France is willing to help Lebanon to overcome its crises, a meeting over Lebanon in Paris is not confirmed yet, the sources said. "Nothing is final or certain so far, but the meeting is possible," the daily quoted the sources as saying.

Report: Bou Habib promoting himself as presidential candidate
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib promoted himself as a potential presidential candidate during his latest visit to Washington, telling several officials whom he met that there is a possibility to secure domestic consensus over his name should his candidacy receive U.S. support, a media report said on Thursday. Bou Habib argued that “he was a former ambassador to the United States and enjoys Western and Arab relations that allow for boosting his presidential chances,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported. “While it is still unknown whether Bou Habib’s move was a personal initiative from him to explore the U.S. stance or at the request of Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil,” sources close to the FPM told the daily that “so far, the FPM does not have any presidential candidate.” The sources added that they know nothing about any “serious proposal” related to Bou Habib’s nomination.

Report: US, France agree on characteristics of new Lebanese president
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Washington and Paris have agreed on the “characteristics” that Lebanon’s next president should enjoy, which include being totally uninvolved in corruption, a media report said on Thursday. The two capitals have also agreed that the new president “should have a sober-minded behavior and should be independent and distant from regional political axes,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported. “He should also be able to oversee the project of rebuilding state institutions according to correct and strict standards, away from the policy of clientilism which the Lebanese political class is known for,” the daily added. Moreover, the new president “must be able to communicate with all parties without being subordinate to any political group and must work to restore the state’s prestige and carry out the needed reforms in coordination with Cabinet,” al-Joumhouria said. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had said in his latest televised speech that his only condition for the presidential vote is that the next president should not “stab the resistance in its back.”Commenting on his remarks, Western diplomatic sources told al-Joumhouria that Nasrallah’s statements were “reasonable and an understanding can be reached on them.”The sources, however, said that “it is premature to speak of an imminent settlement, because the issue needs appropriate circumstances that have not yet ripened, neither at the Lebanese level nor at the regional level.”
“This is a promising sign that can be capitalized on later,” the sources added.

Jumblat says leaders using 'flimsy excuses' to disrupt ministerial meetings
Naharnet/January 05/2023
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat accused Thursday the main political leaders of disrupting ministerial meetings by using "flimsy constitutional arguments."In a tweet, Jumblat said that political leaders are obstructing any ministerial meeting that would facilitate people's affairs.
"As a result of the disruption of the military council, the disagreements are now out in the open," Jumblat added.

Constitutional Council annuls some state budget articles, clarifies others
Naharnet/January 05/2023
The Constitutional Council on Thursday announced the annulment of some articles of the state budget and the “clarification” of other articles based on appeals filed by the Change parliamentary bloc and other parties. “Our decisions are binding and the Constitutional Council is an independent authority that is not linked to anyone,” Council chief Judge Tannous Meshleb said at a press conference. As for the absence of a final account, Tannous argued that Lebanon is “not in a normal situation in order to ask the government and parliament to submit a final account.”“That’s why we left it (the budget) as it is in general while amending three articles,” Tannous added. As for the multiplicity of dollar exchange rates in the budget, Tannous said the Council clarified that the official exchange rate should be “unified.”The Council also annulled an article allowing the ministers of public works, finance and interior to exempt certain individuals and parties from airport entry and exit fees, arguing that the jurisdiction to impose or lift taxes belongs to parliament. The three articles that were fully annulled relate to the public procurement law, a ban on the sale of land lots in the town of Kfour and another related to mukhtars.

Electricity crisis to worsen as dispute over funds continues
Naharnet/January 05/2023
The electricity crisis will aggravate over the next two weeks, after production plants ran out of fuel oil, which means that “there will be no ability to generate a single minute of power supply,” a media report said. The dispute over funds needed to benefit from three fuel ships docked off the coast meanwhile continues, with ministerial sources telling al-Akhbar newspaper that caretaker PM Najib Mikati has not agreed to authorize a treasury loan with an extraordinary approval under the excuse that there are “legal” complications. “Finance Minister Youssef Khalil has repeatedly told those asking him about the file to talk to Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri,” the sources said. Mikati and the FPM have been engaged in a war of words over the issue for several days now. Sources close to Mikati meanwhile told al-Akhbar that the decision “needs a decree issued by the government” and that passing it with an extraordinary approval might subject it to being appealed by the Free Patriotic Movement. “Some believe that Berri and Mikati want to hold a new cabinet session in order to corner the FPM, while some have stressed that the funds are not available and that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s pledge is not clear, knowing that the Energy Ministry has received additional confirmations from the Central Bank that the funds will be available once it gets informed of the decision by the Finance Ministry,” the sources added.

Fuel prices increase in Lebanon
NNA/January 05, 2023
Fuel prices have increased in Lebanon on Thursday, with the price of a canister of gasoline rising by LBP 17,000, that of diesel by LBP 19,000, and that of LP gas by LBP 11,000.
Consequently, prices are as follows:
95-octane gasoline: LBP 713,000
98-octane gasoline: LBP 732,000
Diesel: LBP 792,000
LP gas: LBP 451,000

Luncheon banquet at Beit al-Wasat in honor of newly elected muftis
NNA/January 05, 2023 
The press office of former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, announced in a statement that "President Saad Hariri, represented by the Head of the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development, Bahia Hariri, held this afternoon at the "Beit al-Wasat " a luncheon banquet in honor of the recently elected muftis, in the presence of the Representative of Grand Mufti of the Lebanese Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, Head of the Sunni Shari'a Courts, Sheikh Mohammed Assaf. The luncheon banquet was attended by the Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Mohammad Imam, the Mufti of Akkar Sheikh Zaid Bakkar Zakaria, the Mufti of Zahle and the Bekaa Sheikh Ali Al-Ghazawi, the Mufti of Baalbeck Sheikh Bakr Rifai, the Mufti of Rashaya Sheikh Wafiq Hijazi, the Mufti of Hasbaya and Marjayoun Sheikh Hassan Dalleh, and the Mufti of Tyre and its Neighborhood Sheikh Madrar al-Habal.
The luncheon was also attended by former MPs Samir El-Jisr, Assem Araji, Bakr Al-Hujairi, Rola Al-Tabash and Tarek El-Merhebi, as well as Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Sharia Council Omar Miskawi, Judge Sheikh Khaldoun Aramit, the former head of the Tripoli Bar Association Mohammed Mrad, Hariri’s Advisor for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Dr. Ali Al-Janani, and other dignitaries.

Power struggle: Political row threatens Lebanon with total shutdown
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 05, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s only functioning power plant has been shut down as a result of a worsening political dispute between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the rival Free Patriotic Movement, which controls the country’s energy ministry. The closure threatens to plunge Lebanon into almost complete darkness. Electricite du Liban, known as EDL, urged the authorities to solve the issue by opening the necessary credits to unload fuel ships after a row over advanced payments led to a delay in gas oil shipments. The company’s plea came as a shortage of gas oil, the fuel used to power the plants, forced it to shut down the Al-Zahrani site. EDL also said that about 6,000 tons of fuel left in the Deir Ammar power plant could only be used for general maintenance work for the installation’s steam turbine.
A political source said that a settlement is unlikely amid the deepening political dispute, with further government paralysis and threats to other essential services a growing possibility. FPM ministers have overseen the Ministry of Energy since 2009.
The ministry has supplied gas oil ships to meet the needs of EDL’s production plants, which provide one hour of electricity daily for various Lebanese regions, and additional hours for Rafic Hariri International Airport and essential state facilities. However, the ministry is seeking a $62 million advance to buy 66,000 metric tons of gas oil because of its inability to secure funds. According to the ministry’s tenders, a shipment of gas oil was due to be unloaded last December, but the failure to issue a treasury advance payment decree delayed the process.
Mikati has refused to approve an emergency decree to pay the advance. His adviser, Faris Al-Jameel, told Arab News that any advance required Cabinet approval. He added that EDL had to explain how the advance would be paid back, so it would not be added to already outstanding advances that so far have cost the Lebanese state $40 billion. Before granting a treasury advance, Lebanon’s central bank had requested a written undertaking on EDL’s readiness to repay the funds. However, EDL failed to provide an undertaking in its advance request.
Procedures for requesting the advance have been hampered by the deepening government dispute, with the FPM refusing to hold Cabinet meetings in view of the presidential vacuum.
A political source said that the energy ministry team is pressuring Mikati to make decisions outside the Cabinet, while the caretaker prime minister wanted to establish his role by taking decisions during Cabinet meetings.
Meanwhile, three gas oil ships remain anchored offshore, resulting in delay penalties, with daily losses estimated at $20,000. Energy Minister Walid Fayyad claimed that docking fines have exceeded $300,000 to date. Ghassan Baydoun, former director-general of the ministry, said the ministry is accountable for losses incurred by the state as a result of fines. He said that FPM ministers who took over the ministry were accustomed to outsourcing and concluding agreements while funding was not available, leading to considerable fines incurred by the state. Jean Ellieh, head of the Public Procurement Authority supervising tenders, said that energy ministry deals were taking place without legal foundation, and energy ministers had broken laws to cover their violations. An emergency trade union meeting on Thursday in Beirut called on officials to elect a president without delay and launch an immediate rescue program for the country. Representatives from the Free Professions Unions, General Labor Union, education associations and the Teachers Syndicate called for action to be taken against officials who “fail to promptly carry out their constitutional and national duties.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 05-06/2023
New Arab allies face quandary as Israel shifts hard-right
Nidal al-Mughrabi, Dan Williams and Aziz El Yaakoubi/Reuters/January 05/2023
Israel's sharp tilt to what is likely to be the most hard right government in its history puts its new Arab allies in the awkward position of having to deal with ultra-nationalists while trying to do more than just pay lip service to the Palestinian cause. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, sworn in last week, includes hardcore rightist parties who want to annex occupied West Bank land where Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent state. That poses a dilemma for four Arab states - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan - that moved toward normal ties with Israel two years ago and now have to balance this new partnership with historic support for Palestinian aspirations. When the UAE, the Gulf business and investment hub and a rising regional power, became the first Gulf Arab country to strike a deal with Israel in 2020 to establish ties, it hoped that long-standing, combustible issues such as Israeli settlements in occupied territory could be resolved. While Netanyahu has said he will have final say on policy, his government's commitment to expand West Bank settlements and the inclusion of ultra-nationalists in his cabinet militates against any compromise with Palestinians. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is a pistol-packing, ex-member of an outlawed Jewish militant group. He came up through the Kahane Chai organisation, which is blacklisted in Israel and the United States for its virulently anti-Arab doctrines. On Tuesday he infuriated Palestinians and drew a barrage of condemnation by visiting the Al Aqsa mosque compound, a flashpoint site revered by Muslims and Jews that is located in east Jerusalem, captured in 1967 and later annexed by Israel. Another of Netanyahu's coalition partners is Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party who like Ben-Gvir is a West Bank settler averse to Palestinians' self-rule, let alone their hopes of statehood. "Both the UAE and Bahrain would have certainly not preferred this government as this will certainly test their relations with Israel," said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst specialising in Gulf-Israel relations. "If there is conflict..., both the UAE and Bahrain would experience pressure to do something."However, Alghashian said both Gulf countries had invested political capital in the agreements with Israel, known as the Abraham Accords after the ancient patriarch revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, and are unlikely to break ties if open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians erupts again.
DISCREET CONTACTS
For the UAE, the diplomatic breakthrough with Israel capped years of discreet contacts in important commerce and technology and may help the Gulf monarchy craft an image as a force for stability in a turbulent Middle East. The UAE did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on this article. The two countries ratified a comprehensive economic partnership agreement in December, after Netanyahu's election victory. It is expected to be the widest-ranging deal of its kind between Israel and an Arab state. Ties have also been bolstered by shared fears that Iran poses an existential security threat to much of the Middle East, and early signs suggest both countries want to keep the relationship strong. UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan called Netanyahu to congratulate him on his inauguration and voice his hope "to push forward the path of partnership and peace between the two countries", the UAE state news agency said. For its part, the Bahraini ambassador to Israel, Khaled Al Jalahma, reaffirmed its commitment to normalisation. Bahrain's king had "wisely ordained that we aspire to co-existence and prosperous peace. The historic Abraham Accords restored hope and underscored the importance of dialogue," the ambassador tweeted on Dec. 19. Ben-Gvir, in a videotaped interview given at a hotel reception put on by the UAE embassy in Israel on Dec. 1 – after he signed a coalition pact with Netanyahu but before the government was installed - indicated that he was interested in developing even closer relations. "This is the proof that one can make peace without concessions, without capitulation - but rather, peace, peace, between people who have affection for one another," he said in comments published by the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper.
BETRAYAL
Palestinian officials have said they feel betrayed by fellow Arabs for forging relations with Israel without first demanding progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. In Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, called on Arab states to review relations with Israel. “Arab countries who formed normalisation ties with the state of occupation are required more than ever to revise these agreements,” he told Reuters by phone. “What is required today is to impose a comprehensive siege and isolation against the occupation state and the government of fascist policies and to expose its crimes before the world."That may be wishful thinking. There appears to be no sign of danger to the Abraham Accords, even though they may not be so popular on the Arab street. But Palestinian options are limited. Netanyahu has pledged to build on the achievement during his previous term of the Abraham Accords that opened the way for a possible normalisation of relations with other Arab countries. He wants to cultivate relations even with Saudi Arabia, the most conservative and cautious Middle East heavyweight. "Peace with Saudi Arabia will serve two purposes," he told the private Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya last month. "It will change our region in ways that are unimaginable. And I think it will facilitate, ultimately, a Palestinian-Israeli peace."Saudi Arabia is opening up somewhat under its de facto leader Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but has been cool to normalisation with Israel in the absence of progress in the Palestinians' statehood quest. “Normalisation with Israel will not help us at all, on the contrary it will increase the brutality against us, it will cause a war, we will face problems and massacres," said Rawan Abu Zeid, 18, a resident of Palestinian Islamist-ruled Gaza.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Dominic Evans and Mark Heinrich)

Netanyahu’s ‘Big Lie’ Will End Rule of Law in Israel
Noga Tarnopolsky/The Daily Beast./January 5, 2023
JERUSALEM—Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, who is on trial for corruption, ended his first week back in office embroiled in two new legal entanglements of his own creation. On Thursday at the Supreme Court, he was forced to defend appointing a convicted tax fraud to two key posts, that of minister of interior and of minister of health. A few hours earlier, across a Jerusalem rose garden at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Netanyahu’s justice minister announced a colossal judicial overhaul widely viewed as an attempt to overthrow Israel’s system of government, and save Netanyahu’s skin. Former prime minister Ehud Barak, an opponent of Netanyahu, told The Daily Beast that the judicial reform was “a big lie covering up régime change.”“He is trying to blackmail the country with threats to save himself from trial,” Barak said, adding that “it’s a straight line from [Al] Capone to where we are today.” In an assessment echoed in some Israeli political and legal spheres, Haaretz, a liberal daily, declared that Netanyahu’s “judicial reform” amounted to “a régime coup in prime-time.”Enacting the new judicial review, Haaretz’s political analyst wrote, will result “in a government without any checks and balances, morals or reins, that will do anything and everything that crosses its crude mind.”In a speech on Wednesday night, Netanyahu himself said he would undertake a “fundamental revision” of all the powers of government.
Israel Is Now a Province of Red State America
Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, said that an urgent correction was necessary after years of “rampant judicial overreach.”“There are not only judges in Jerusalem,” Levin said, reaching for a Biblical phrase, “but the Knesset is here, too.” At the heart of Israel’s crisis is the fate of an indicted prime minister, in the midst of a trial, whose hold on power depends on a coalition with another party leader, Aryeh Deri, a convicted criminal, who served two years in jail for corruption in the early 2000s. He was also convicted of tax fraud in February, 2022, and escaped jail as part of a plea deal in which he committed to remaining out of public life. “The problem is the Knesset is granting itself unlimited power,” said Amir Fuchs, a professor of law affiliated with the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent Jerusalem think tank. The result of Netanyahu’s proposed reforms would grant a simple majority of 61 out of the Knesset’s 120 members almost absolute power, with no judicial review.
Thursday’s fiery Supreme Court hearing, with an unusually large panel of eleven justices helmed by Chief Justice Esther Hayut, addressed multiple petitions against Deri’s appointment to the top jobs of interior minister and health minister. “I think we need violence,” said Oren Moda’i, 62, a techie who took a day off work on Thursday to join a few hundred protesters outside the court. “We have no other recourse. Not murder, not that kind of violence, but breaking storefronts like the ‘gilets jaunes’ did in France. The problem is, the opposition has no leadership.”Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, left for a weekend in Paris on Thursday morning, to significant criticism from his camp. He said on Wednesday night that the government, “like a gang of crooks,” had “put a loaded gun on the table. Yariv Levin did not propose reform, but a threat. They threaten to destroy the entire constitutional structure of the State of Israel.”A major anti-government rally is scheduled for Saturday night, in Tel Aviv. Among the reforms announced in a hurried last-minute press conference held on the eve of the Supreme Court’s hearing Thursday is a law allowing a parliamentary majority to overrule supreme court decisions, and another eliminating the “reasonability standard,” Israel's version of a court ruling determining unconstitutionality. Under current Israeli law, for example, the courts can disqualify as “unreasonable” any law that violates basic rights, such segregation among school children. The coalition agreements underpinning Netanyahu’s new coalition, which includes radical extremists and religious nationalists, contain a U.S.-inspired “discrimination law” which would explicitly allow businesses and physicians to refuse service to individuals who offend their religious beliefs. In addition, Levin—in office under a week—announced his intention to transform the Judicial Selection Committee into a largely political entity, convert ministries legal counsels (currently career civil servants) into political appointments and pass yet another law, precluding the supreme court from striking down Basic Laws, Israel’s constitutional foundations.
Netanyahu’s new coalition numbers 64 members, a majority of whom serve in double roles, as legislators and as ministers or officials of the executive branch. It is a position to pass the proposed changes into law within weeks. Despite his victory in the November, 2022 election, Netanyahu risks losing public support over the radical changes proposed by his cabinet, which are rejected by a solid majority of Israelis. Sixty-four percent expect street demonstrations to take hold against the government. In a Twitter Space late Wednesday night, Professor Ido Baum, Director of the Brandeis Institute for Society Economy, and Democracy near Tel Aviv, said that Netanyahu's judicial revolution “will amount to nothing less than a coup d'état. Poland and Hungary will be here. It will transform Israel’s DNA from its foundations.”
Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Blitz Is the ‘Most Corrupt’ Day in Israeli History
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Fuchs said the outcome of Netanyahu’s reforms “is that the majority coalition will be able to do what it wants, turning Israel into a questionable, illiberal democracy like what you see in Poland and in Hungary, in which the only remaining safeguard is a majority of the public, public opposition. The courts will no longer be able to protect LGBTQ rights, for example. The public will have to express its opinion.”Fuchs said Israel’s future if the reform passes was akin to “mob rule. Absolute majority rule. A hollowed-out democracy with elections as its only defining characteristic.”
Under Israeli law, a minister, if indicted on criminal charges—cannot remain in post. Netanyahu retained his ability to serve as prime minister by arguing the role of prime minister differed essentially from the role of minister, granting him a loophole, but he remains liable to charges of conflict of interest due to his trial and involvement in the judicial review. In a second phase of reforms, Levin is expected to create a new position, that of a public prosecutor who could decide no longer to pursue Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial, and to decriminalize fraud and breach of trust, two of the three charges for which he was indicted, along with bribery. “We are in a state of emergency—Netanyahu has to decide if he wants to break the rules of the game or preserve the State of Israel,” said Benny Gantz, the head of another opposition party, who said the “state of emergency” triggered by the announced judicial reform demanded the formation of a committee composed of coalition and opposition legislators.

Israel's new government unveils plan to weaken Supreme Court
Associated Press/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's justice minister has unveiled the new government's long-promised overhaul of the judicial system that aims to weaken the country's Supreme Court. Critics accused the government of declaring war against the legal system, saying the plan will upend Israel's system of checks and balances and undermine its democratic institutions by giving absolute power to the most right-wing coalition in the country's history. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a confidant of Netanyahu's and longtime critic of the Supreme Court, presented his plan a day before the justices are to debate a controversial new law passed by the government allowing a politician convicted of tax offenses to serve as a Cabinet minister. "The time has come to act," Levin said. The proposals call for a series of sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, including by allowing lawmakers to pass laws that the high court has struck down and effectively deemed unconstitutional. Levin laid out a law that would empower the country's 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, to override Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes. Levin also proposed that politicians play a greater role in the appointment of Supreme Court judges and that ministers appoint their own legal advisers, instead of using independent professionals. Levin argued that the public's faith in the judicial system has plummeted to a historic low, and said he plans to restore power to elected officials that now lies in the hands of what he and his supporters consider to be overly interventionist judges.
"We go to the polls and vote, choose, but time after time, people who we didn't elect decide for us," he said. "That's not democracy."The planned overhaul has already drawn fierce criticism from Israel's attorney general and the Israeli opposition, though it is unclear whether they will be able to prevent the far-right government from racing forward. Yair Lapid, former Prime Minister and head of the opposition, said he will fight the changes "in every possible way" and vowed to cancel them if he returns to power. "Those who carry out a unilateral coup in Israel need to know that we are not obligated to it in any way whatsoever," he said. If Levin's proposed "override" law is passed, Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies have said they hope to scrap Supreme Court rulings outlawing Israeli outposts on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. They would also seek to allow for the protracted detention of African asylum-seekers and make official the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox from the country's mandatory military service.
In Israel, Supreme Court judges are appointed and dismissed by a committee made up of professionals, lawmakers and some justices. Levin wants to give lawmakers a majority in the committee, with most coming from the right-wing and religiously conservative ruling coalition.
"It will be a hollow democracy," said Amir Fuchs, senior researcher at Jerusalem's Israel Democracy Institute think tank. "When the government has ultimate power, it will use this power not only for issues of LGBTQ rights and asylum-seekers but elections and free speech and anything it wants." Recent opinion polls by the Israel Democracy Institute found a majority of respondents believe the Supreme Court should have the power to strike down laws that conflict with Israel's Basic Laws, which serve as a sort of constitution.
In a speech Wednesday ahead of Levin's announcement, Netanyahu appeared to back his justice minister by vowing to "implement reforms that will ensure the proper balance between the three branches of government."Since being indicted on corruption charges, Netanyahu has campaigned against the justice system. He denies all charges, saying he is the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media, police and prosecutors. Levin said his plan is "not connected in any way" to Netanyahu's trial. Just hours before Levin's speech, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a prime target of the new government, declared her opposition to the ministerial appointment of one of Netanyahu's key coalition partners who has been convicted of tax offenses. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is expected to hear petitions against Aryeh Deri serving as minister. As part of negotiations to form the current government, Israel's parliament last month changed a law to allow someone convicted on probation to serve as a Cabinet minister. That paved the way for Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve half a term as the minister of health and interior affairs, before becoming finance minister. He will also hold the post of deputy prime minister. Deri was convicted of tax fraud and given a suspended sentence last year. Good governance groups saw the legal maneuver as a green light for corruption by a government cavalierly changing laws for political expediency. Baharav-Miara made her standing clear in a note to the Supreme Court. She said the appointment "radically deviates from the sphere of reasonability." She has said she will not be defending the state in court against the appeals, because of her opposition. Levin's proposed changes also include eliminating the test of "reasonability" when reviewing government decisions. Baharav-Miara was appointed by the previous government, which vehemently opposes Netanyahu's rule. Netanyahu's allies have floated the idea of splitting up the post of attorney general into three roles including two that would be political appointments. That would water down the current attorney-general's authority while opening the door for Netanyahu to install someone favorable to throwing out the charges against him.

Palestinians Say Teen Killed by Israeli Army in West Bank Clashes
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
A 16-year-old Palestinian was killed Thursday by Israeli fire during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. It was the latest bloodshed in the region that has seen Israeli-Palestinian tensions surge for almost a year. An Israeli rights group said earlier this week that 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2004, a period of intense violence that came during a Palestinian uprising. Palestinian health officials said Amer Abu Zeitoun, 16, died after he was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, AFP reported. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Abu Zeitoun was shot during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers during an army arrest raid. It was not immediately clear if Abu Zeitoun was taking part in the confrontations. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the incident. 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. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, according to B’Tselem’s figures, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, when 197 Palestinians were killed. A fresh wave of attacks killed at least another nine Israelis in the fall. 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. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle "militant" networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank. Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek those territories for a future state.

UN Security Council to Discuss Israeli Minister's Al-Aqsa Visit
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
The UN Security Council will meet Thursday to discuss the controversial visit to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound by an Israeli minister that has enraged Palestinians. The 15-member Council will convene at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) at the United Nations headquarters in New York following a request by the United Arab Emirates and China, AFP said. "It is the international community that decides the fate of defending and protecting the historic status quo in Jerusalem in the defense of the Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem," Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said. "We will not be satisfied with beautiful statements which will be uttered tomorrow in the Security Council. We want them to be implemented in a concrete way," he added. There have been fears Tuesday's visit by Israel's new national security minister, firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir, could spark a war. Al-Aqsa mosque lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and is the third-holiest site in Islam. Under a longstanding status quo, non-Muslims can visit the site at specific times but are not allowed to pray there. In recent years, a growing number of Jews, most of them Israeli nationalists, have covertly prayed at the compound, a development decried by Palestinians. Western governments warned such moves threaten the fragile arrangement at Jerusalem's holy sites. Ben-Gvir's visit sparked a wave of international condemnation, including from the United States, a longstanding ally of Israel. "This is an action of extremism that purports to create a new cycle of violence," Jordan's ambassador to the UN Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud said. "The Security Council has to take its responsibility seriously and stop such attempts," he added. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, reiterated Wednesday that the secretary-general "calls on all to refrain from steps that could escalate tensions in and around Jerusalem." The UN Security Council has adopted several resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years and supports the two-state solution to peace in the Middle East.

Khamenei Rejects Targeting Iranian Women with ‘Loose Hijabs’
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said he rejects accusing Iranian women with loose hijabs of being “anti-religion or anti-revolutionary.”The leader’s statement comes four months into the protests that were set off by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in a hospital days after being arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s dress codes. Khamenei said that women in loose hijabs are “our daughters” and urged that they are not ostracized. “The hijab is a religious and inviolable necessity, but this inviolable necessity should not mean that someone without a full hijab should be accused of anti-religion or anti-revolutionary,” added Khamenei. Khamenei also expressed his openness to hiring women in decision-making positions. “The proposal to employ educated women with knowledge, experience and wisdom at various levels and in decision-making is an important issue that has been on my mind for a long time. God willing, we will find a solution,” said Khamenei. In his speech, Khamenei criticized the positions of Western countries regarding the protests that shook Iran under the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom.”He accused the West of “hypocrisy,” and said that his country was under “attack” regarding women’s rights, according to Khamenei’s official website.Although Khamenei has commented several times on the protests and accused Iran’s enemies of fueling them, this is the first time he has commented on the debate over the hijab, in light of the demands to drop the compulsory hijab law in Iran. The Human Rights Activist News Agency, or HRANA, said that, as of January 2, at least 516 people had been killed during the unrest, including 70 minors, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent.

Robert Malley Warns Tehran against Executing Protesters
Washington - Elie Youssef/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
The US envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, has warned against the execution of two detainees arrested in the protests that have rocked Iran since mid-September. “Mehdi Mohammadifard and Mohammad Boroughani are 18 and 19 - two of the young Iranians sentenced to death in sham trials. The world is watching. Iran’s leaders should listen to their young people, not kill them,” said Malley in a tweet. The US envoy’s tweet came after Iran’s Supreme Court sentencing Boroughani to death over charges of setting fire to the governor’s building in Pakdasht and attacking an official on duty with a knife.
Mehdi Mohammadifard, an 18-year-old protester, was sentenced to death on charges of setting alight a traffic police kiosk in the western town of Nowshahr in Mazandaran province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group told AFP. IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP that based on available information, Mohammadifard appeared to be the youngest person yet sentenced to death over the protests. US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, in a press briefing, pointed to the fact that the protesting movement in Iran is spontaneous. “It has crossed ethnic lines, it has crossed geographic lines inside of Iran, and it has in a sense been leaderless. That has allowed these protesters to continue and to persist with their efforts in ways that previous movements in Iran have not been able to,” Price told reporters. Price moved on to note that the Iran nuclear deal is no longer the focus of Washington. “It hasn’t been on the agenda for months. It hasn’t been our focus,” he said. “Since September especially, our focus has been on standing up, as I was telling your colleague, for the fundamental freedoms of the Iranian people and countering Iran’s deepening military partnership with Russia and its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine,” added Price.

Iran Pressures Iraq to Prosecute Those Responsible for Soleimani’s Killing before Int’l Courts
Baghdad/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
A day after the Popular Mobilization Committee and a number of pro-Iran armed factions organized an event to commemorate the third anniversary of the assassination of the IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, Tehran renewed its calls on the Iraqi government to reveal the “killers”. Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, demanded on Wednesday the Iraqi judiciary to prosecute the plotters of Soleimani’s assassination before international institutions. The Iranian general was killed in a US strike near Baghdad Airport on Jan. 3, 2020.
“The terrorist operation carried out by the United States to assassinate Soleimani, who was invited by the Iraqi government to travel to Iraq, is a flagrant violation of international laws and is considered a public crime according to the Charter of the International Criminal Court, and the perpetrators can be prosecuted in that court,” Velayati said during the first international conference on the assassination of Soleimani, which was held in Tehran. He added that the assassination “contradicts many international laws and norms, including Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents of 1973.” In conjunction with Velayati’s call, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid met with the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad, Muhammad Kazem Al-Sadeq, on Thursday. According to a presidential statement, Al-Sadeq described the relations between his country and Iraq as “historic,” but the meeting did not point to any reference to the killing of Soleimani and whether Baghdad had taken action in this regard. Tehran did not exert pressure during the tenure of former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, contenting itself at the time with providing evidence of the Americans carrying out the assassination with accusations of a number of undisclosed elements. Based on statements by Iranian officials, Tehran was satisfied with the measures taken by the former Iraqi government. But the mounting pressure on the current Iraqi government raises questions among political observers, who see that Iran is increasing its demands at a time when the Coordination Framework forces are divided over the relations with Washington. Iraqi political sources said on Tuesday that the third anniversary of the assassination of Soleimani has sparked sharp divisions between the parties of the Coordination Framework, following reports that the government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani agreed to a US request to prevent a “million-strong memorial march” for Soleimani in the country.

France: No Lessons to Take from Iran over Press, Judicial Freedoms
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Iran should look at what is going on at home before criticizing France, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Thursday after Paris' envoy in Tehran was summoned over cartoons published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Ties between France and Iran have deteriorated in recent months as efforts to revive nuclear talks, to which France is one of the parties, have stalled and Tehran has detained seven of its nationals. Charlie Hebdo this week published dozens of cartoons depicting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which it said aimed to support anti-government protests sparked by the death of a young woman in September while in the custody of morality police. Speaking to LCI TV, Colonna said it was Iran that was pursuing bad policies through its violence against its population and detention of French nationals. "Let's remember that in France press freedom exists contrary to what's happening in Iran and that this (freedom) is overseen by a judge within the framework of an independent judiciary, which is something that Iran, without doubt, doesn't know well," she said, adding that there were no blasphemy laws in France. Facing their worst legitimacy crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's religious leaders have accused its foreign foes of orchestrating the anti-government mass protests to destabilize the country. The Charlie Hebdo cartoons triggered an angry response from Iran with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warning that the "offensive and indecent" move would receive a firm response from Tehran. He accused the French government of going too far. The magazine said it published the caricatures in a special edition to mark the anniversary of a deadly attack on its Paris office on Jan. 7, 2015 by militants, after the weekly had published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

Pro-Iranian Factions Suspected of Targeting International Coalition in Eastern Syria
Beirut/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Two missiles targeted on Wednesday morning the international coalition forces in eastern Syria, without causing any losses, according to the Central Command of the US Army (CENTCOM). The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) accused pro-Iranian groups of being behind the attack. AFP noted that the attack came a day after Iran and its allies commemorated the third anniversary of the assassination of the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, in a US raid near Baghdad Airport.
The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), said in a statement that the “two rockets targeted coalition forces at Mission Support Site Conoco” in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.”“The attack resulted in no injuries or damage to the base or coalition property,” it added. CENTCOM spokesman Joe Buccino said “attacks of this kind place coalition forces and the civilian population at risk and undermine the hard-earned stability and security of Syria and the region.”For his part, the director of SOHR, Rami Abdel Rahman, accused “pro-Iranian groups of being behind the missile launches, the day after the commemoration of the third anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination.” US bases in northern and eastern Syria have been repeatedly targeted during the past few months. On Nov. 26, the Coalition Forces at Al-Shaddadi base, south of Al-Hasakah Governorate (northeastern Syria), were targeted in an attack that SOHR suggested was carried out by members of ISIS. On Nov. 17, two missiles targeted the Green Village base, one of the most prominent coalition bases in eastern Syria, in an attack that the SOHR attributed to pro-Iranian groups. Meanwhile, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the security units of the Self-Administration intensified operations to chase ISIS cells in northeastern Syria, with the support of the International Coalition. SOHR said that the intensification of campaign came in response to “the most violent and bloody attack carried out by ISIS cells on Dec. 26, targeting the intelligence prison and security centers in the city of Al-Raqqah.

Iran closes French institute to protest Khamenei cartoons
Naharnet/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Iran announced Thursday the closure of a Tehran-based French research institute in protest against cartoons of the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. "The ministry is ending the activities of the French Institute for Research in Iran as a first step," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement, a day after Tehran had warned Paris of consequences. Iran has been shaken by over three months of protests triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, an Iranian Kurd who was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women. It has responded with a crackdown that Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said has killed at least 476 people in protests, which Iranian officials generally describe as "riots".Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday published the caricatures of Khamenei in support of the protests, in a special edition to mark the anniversary of the deadly 2015 attack on its Paris office which left 12 people dead, including some of its best known cartoonists. Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted in response that "the insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response". Iran's foreign ministry also summoned French ambassador Nicolas Roche on Wednesday. "France has no right to insult the sanctities of other Muslim countries and nations under the pretext of freedom of expression," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said. IFRI, affiliated with the French foreign ministry, is a historical and archaeological institute founded in 1983 after the merger of the French Archaeological Delegation in Iran and the French Institute of Iranology in Tehran. Located in the center of Tehran, it had been closed for many years but was reopened under the 2013-2021 presidency of the moderate president Hassan Rouhani as a sign of warming bilateral relations.
'Show our support'
Charlie Hebdo, seen by supporters as a champion of freedom of speech and by critics as needlessly provocative, has a style that is controversial even within France. But the country was united in grief when in January 2015 it was targeted in a deadly attack by Islamist gunmen who claimed to be avenging the magazine's decision to publish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The latest issue contained a variety of sexual images depicting Khamenei and fellow clerics. Other cartoons pointed to the authorities' use of capital punishment as a tactic to quell the protests. Charlie Hebdo's director Laurent Sourisseau, known as Riss, wrote in an editorial the cartoons are "a way to show our support for Iranian men and women who risk their lives to defend their freedom against the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1979". In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price, asked about the row on Wednesday, said the United States stood "on the side of freedom of expression" whether "that's in France, whether that's in Iran, whether that's anywhere in between". Khamenei, the successor of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is appointed for life. Above day-to-day politics, criticism of him is prohibited inside Iran. Khomeini in 1989 famously issued a religious decree, or fatwa, ordering Muslims to kill the British author Salman Rushdie for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of "The Satanic Verses". Many activists blamed Iran last year when the writer was stabbed at an event in New York but Tehran denied any link.

Türkiye Awaits 'Positive Steps' from Syrian Regime
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Türkiye pledged to respond to any “positive steps” taken by the Syrian regime in kind, but noted that it was too early to talk about a specific date for a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad. Ankara also announced the possibility of increasing joint Turkish-Russian patrols in northern Syria, in parallel with meetings of experts from both countries. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that it was too early to talk about the date of Erdogan and Assad’s meeting, adding: “We cannot now say that the meeting between (the Turkish and Syrian presidents) will take place in the next 3 or 6 months... There is no specific timetable for that.” “There may be new meetings and negotiations in the coming months. There is still much to be done before talks reach the level of leaders… It depends on the course of this process,” he told a television interview on Tuesday. Kalin stressed that Ankara would respond in kind to “positive steps that are taken with sincere intentions from the Syrian side,” pointing to the possibility of achieving “very important and good developments”. In the same context, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that he does not expect a tripartite meeting to be held in the presence of Erdogan and Assad, in reference to the Turkish president’s proposal to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to hold a meeting that would also include the head of the Syrian regime. The Turkish minister added that the matter depended on the meeting of the foreign ministers, based on which a decision might be reached to hold a summit. On a different note, Kalin underlined the need to eliminate the presence of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees to their country. He added that the meeting of defense ministers and heads of intelligence services in Moscow last week saw positive messages and indicators, pointing out that Türkiye’s main approach towards the Syrian file was based on maintaining the constitutional path and political negotiations in light of the relevant United Nations resolutions. Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that his country could develop joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria, saying that this process would continue in the form of a meeting of experts, with the “hope that it would be maintained in a reasonable, logical and successful manner.”Akar stressed that Türkiye respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all its neighbors, especially Syria and Iraq, and its only goal is to defend its security and the safety of its people and “eliminate terrorists.”

Turkish court suspends funding for pro-Kurdish party
Agence France Presse/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
A top Turkish court on Thursday suspended funding for the main pro-Kurdish party over its alleged ties to terrorism. The court decision deprives the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) -- parliament's second-largest opposition group -- of a key source of revenue heading into a general election due by June. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the party of being the political wing of banned militants who have been waging a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. The HDP denies formal links to the fighters and accuses the government of targeting the party because of its strong opposition to Erdogan.
The HDP's future could play a major role in deciding Erdogan's success in parliamentary and presidential elections now posing one of the stiffest challenges of his two-decade rule. Turkey's constitutional court is hearing a prosecutor's request to ban the party before the vote. Chief prosecutor Bekir Sahin is due to argue his case in court on Tuesday. The court will then have the option of either dissolving the party or banning some of its members if it rules against the HDP. Turkish media reports say the party was due to receive 539 million liras ($29 million) in treasury funding this year. An HDP party spokesman told AFP that the party's only other source of revenue is donations from supporters. The spokesman could not immediately say what percentage of the party's funding comes from the state.

Libya’s Presidential Council Joins Unity Gov't in Rejecting Egypt’s Demarcation of Maritime Borders
Cairo – Khalid Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 January, 2023
Libya’s Presidential Council, headed by Mohammed al-Menfi, has joined the interim unity government in rejecting Egypt’s demarcation of the maritime borders. Abdullah al-Lafi, member of the Presidential Council, noted that the border demarcation was not “a matter of unilateral action, as it is regulated by stable rules in international law, and is governed by recognized mechanisms that preserve the rights of all countries.”His comments came during his meeting on Tuesday with the head of the Land and Maritime Borders Committee, Mohammed al-Harari. Al-Lafi stressed that the Libyan state, like all member states of the African Union, was committed to the (former) Organization of African Unity’s decision to respect the borders inherited from the colonial period. He added that the council “attaches the utmost importance to this issue, which is related to sovereignty and national security.”Last month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a decision to demarcate Egypt’s western maritime borders in the Mediterranean, but the Libya unity government rejected it, offering to “hold official talks between the two countries.”The Libyan House of Representatives also rejected Egypt’s announcement of the demarcation of the maritime borders “unilaterally, without any previous consultations,” and considered it “a violation of Libyan sovereignty” in the waters of the Mediterranean, as stated by Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committees. In a joint statement, the two committees expressed their surprise at Egypt’s declaration, without any prior consultations. They stated that this step “at this difficult time that the country is going through is a violation of Libyan interests in the Mediterranean.”The statement added: “This is an unfair demarcation under international law, which clearly encroaches on the Libyan maritime borders.” The committees stressed that any demarcation should take place “through negotiations that guarantee the mutual interests of the two countries, and in accordance with the principles of the UN and the Laws of the Sea.”

Putin is terminally ill with cancer, Ukraine military claims
James Hockaday/Yahoo News UK/January 5, 2023
Vladimir Putin has been terminally ill for a "very long" period and may die soon, Ukraine's head of military intelligence has claimed.
Kyrylo Budanov said Kyiv believes the 70-year-old Russian leader is suffering from cancer, citing sources close to the president.
"He has been sick for a long time; I am sure he has cancer. I think he will die very quickly. I hope very soon," he told ABC News.
Some, including a US senator, have suggested Putin's death is needed to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
When ABC correspondent Britt Clennett suggested the "transfer of power" following's Putin's death will not necessarily mean the end to the invasion, Budanov said the conflict "should be ended" before he dies.
Pressed on how exactly Kyiv knows about Putin's condition, Budanov said: "We think it’s cancer. We know it, we just know it, from human sources."Since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February, there have been frequent reports that the leader is suffering from some kind of illness, including claims of either cancer or Parkinson's disease. The rumours appear to have originated from leaked audio, obtained by New Lines magazine, in which a Kremlin-linked oligarch appeared to suggest Putin had blood cancer and was "very ill".
However, a former CIA officer warned the publication that Moscow has an "instinct" to spread disinformation, and that encouraging chatter may be part of its plan. Throughout 2022, a number of photos emerged appearing to show track marks on Putin's hands, which some, including a former British Army chief, have suggested could mean he is receiving intravenous drips. Video footage of Putin gripping onto a desk in an apparent attempt to stop his hands shaking have led to further rumours, while others have suggested photos in which his face appears "puffy" could mean he is taking steroids as part cancer treatment.
US intelligence appears divided over whether the former KGB agent really is terminally ill. Officials told Newsweek in June that they believed Putin was treated for "advanced cancer" in April, but the following month CIA director William Burns told a security conference: "As far as we can tell he's entirely too healthy". In June, defence and security expert Professor Michael Clarke said there was "no convincing evidence" that Putin has Parkinson's or cancer, adding that the "little team of doctors" he keeps with him may just mean he's a "hypochondriac". The Kremlin has denied claims that Putin is in poor health, with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov telling French TV channel TF1: "I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment."Despite the denials, speculation has remained rife, and Putin's decision to cancel his end of year press conference for the first time in a decade added fuel to the fire. As the Kremlin offered no explanation for the cancellation, some suggested this was another sign of his ailing health. However, the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted: “Although questions are almost certainly usually vetted in advance, the cancellation is likely due to increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia.”

Putin orders short 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas, a move some in Kyiv fear is a 'trap'
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/January 5, 2023
Putin has ordered a 36-hour-long truce in Ukraine over the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday.
The ceasefire will last from 12 p.m. local time on January 6 until 12 a.m. local time on January 7.
His order, cited by the Kremlin, came after he spoke with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a short 36-hour ceasefire along the entire front in Ukraine for the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday. If it is implemented, the ceasefire would be the first major truce of the war. Putin instructed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday to introduce the ceasefire, which will last from 12 p.m. local time on January 6 until 12 a.m. local time on January 7, according to a Kremlin notice. The Kremlin's announcement of the upcoming ceasefire came after calls from the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, to temporarily stop fighting so people could attend church services, state media TASS reported. Kirill has been known to support Putin and the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He previously said that Russian soldiers who fight and die in Ukraine are committing a sacrifice and will be absolved of their sins.
Putin's order to stop the fighting is unprecedented in the 10-month-long war in Ukraine that he started last February, but it remains to be seen if the truce will actually be carried out and, if it is, whether or not it actually holds. Some officials in Kyiv have already expressed skepticism.
"ROC is not an authority for global Orthodoxy & acts as a war propagandist'. ROC called for the genocide of Ukrainians, incited mass murder & insists on even greater militarization of RF," Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on social media Thursday before the ceasefire was formally announced by the Kremlin. "Thus, ROC's statement about 'Christmas truce' is a cynical trap & an element of propaganda," he said. In a follow-on tweet, the senior Ukrainian official said that Russia "must leave the occupied territories," arguing that "only then will it have a 'temporary truce.'""Keep hypocrisy to yourself," he added. Putin's call for the ceasefire comes after an outpouring of domestic anger and frustration triggered by a recent Ukrainian strike involving US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that killed scores of Russian troops in the occupied Donetsk region over the New Year holiday. Moscow said in a rare disclosure of battlefield losses that 89 troops were killed, though Ukrainian and other estimates are significantly higher, and blamed the strike on cellphone usage by its own forces. The claim, however, has been met with pushback and criticism of Russian military leadership. Some expert observers have suggested that in calling for a ceasefire, Putin may be attempting to avoid a repeat scenario.

Putin says ready for Ukraine talks if Kyiv accepts 'new territorial realities'
Agence France Presse/January 5, 2023
President Vladimir Putin told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan he was open to dialogue with Ukraine if Kyiv accepts territories occupied by Moscow as Russian, the Kremlin said Thursday. "Putin again confirmed Russia's openness to serious dialogue on the condition of Kyiv authorities fulfilling the well-known and repeatedly voiced requirements of taking into account the new territorial realities," the Kremlin said in a statement. Erdogan had called for peace talks in the phone call with Putin, his office said earlier. Russian troops occupy large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. The Kremlin claims it has annexed the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions despite not controlling them in their entirety. "The Russian side emphasised the destructive role of Western states, pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment, providing it with operational information and targets," the statement added. The leaders also discussed the implementation of a landmark grain deal, brokered by the UN with the help of Turkey, to unblock Ukrainian grain. The Kremlin said the pair discussed "the unblocking of food and fertiliser supplies from Russia" and the need for "the removal of all barriers to Russian exports." Russia briefly exited the deal in October after a drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet. It re-entered the deal within days but officials have complained of restrictions on Russian products.
Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February last year.

Ukraine is getting Western armored vehicles as US, Germany, and France agree to send more firepower its way
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/January 5, 2023
The US, Germany, and France are sending Ukraine Western-made armored vehicles for the first time.
Ukrainian forces will be trained by the US and Germany on how to use their respective systems.
The move would give Ukraine a significant ground combat capability boost for offensive operations.
Western-made armored vehicles from the US, Germany, and France will be heading to Ukraine for the first time since Russia started a deadly and destructive war with its neighbor 10 months ago, and they are expected to give Kyiv a significant firepower and ground combat capability boost.
The White House announced in a joint press statement on Thursday that the US intends to provide Kyiv with Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, while Germany plans to send Marder infantry fighting vehicles. Reports have indicated that Ukraine will receive 50 Bradleys and 40 Marders.
Ukrainian forces will be trained by both countries on how to use their respective systems, which are capable of carrying troops into battle and also providing them with fire support. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the decision public after speaking on the phone Thursday, when the two leaders discussed military, diplomatic, humanitarian, and financial support for Ukraine. Earlier, both countries had hinted that Western armored vehicles could be included among future military aid. The White House also announced that Germany will send Ukraine a Patriot air defense missile battery. The announcement comes just a few weeks after the US said it would do the same. And a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that a new round of security assistance is expected to be announced on Friday. The joint press statement from the US and Germany came just one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, who decided to "transfer light tanks and Bastion APCs" to Kyiv. Zelenskyy did not specify which light vehicles he was referring to, though French politician Benjamin Haddad later confirmed that they are AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles.
The AMX-10 RC is French-made armored combat and reconnaissance vehicle designed in 1970 and has seen decades of service in places like western Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. The Bastion is a more modern French armored personnel carrier.
"Agreed with [Emmanuel Macron] on further cooperation to significantly strengthen [Ukrainian] air defense and other defense capabilities," Zelenskyy said. "We also agreed to work on the implementation of #PeaceFormula. Thank you friend! Your leadership brings our victory closer."Ukraine's defense ministry said on Thursday, before the announcement from the US and Germany, that Macron's decision will move Ukraine closer to victory, "especially when the AMX-10 RCs are joined by their American and, we believe, German peers."Ukraine has repeatedly requested tanks and other armored vehicles from Western countries. Although the infantry fighting vehicles won't necessarily deliver the same effects as heavy tanks, they still provide valuable transport and mobile firepower capabilities for Ukrainian offensive operations. The news that France, Germany, and the US plan to send armored vehicles comes ahead of the anticipated start of a 36-hour-long ceasefire that was announced earlier on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday. If it is implemented, the ceasefire would be the first major truce of the war, but Kyiv has not been very receptive of the proposal.
"After 10 months of genocide, after hundreds of destroyed Ukrainian churches, isn't it too late for the kremlin to think of God?" the Ukrainian defense ministry said on social media.

Russia taking of Ukraine nuclear plant a hit to clean energy future -Holtec
Timothy Gardner/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/January 5, 2023
The head of Holtec, a private U.S. nuclear power company working in Ukraine, said Russia's occupation the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is a serious hit to the future of clean energy. Russia took over the plant, Europe's biggest, soon after its Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plant has suffered shelling and cut power lines during the war, raising concerns of a nuclear catastrophe. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling. Kris Singh, the chief executive of New Jersey-based Holtec International said in an open letter published on Thursday that Russia President Vladimir Putin's military occupation of the plant should be viewed as a "serious blow to humanity's clean energy future."Singh said it has "normalized a new horrendous instrument of war". Nuclear power backers, including the Biden administration, say the electricity source is critical to fight climate change, because it generates virtually emissions-free power. Nuclear's critics say it's too costly and building new plants is too time-consuming to do much to curb climate change, though some acknowledge that current reactors should keep running if they operate safely. In Ukraine, Holtec works on storage of spent nuclear fuel and wants to build next-generation small modular reactors there. Russia's war in Ukraine and the taking of Zaporizhzhia could be costly for its international nuclear business. Last year a Finnish-led consortium scrapped a contract for Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant in Finland, citing delays and increased risks due to the war in Ukraine. The Hanhikivi 1 project would have increased Finland's dependency on Russia for its energy. Singh urged the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to call on its member states to agree resolutions that make attempts to interfere with peaceful generation of nuclear power "punishable by expulsion of the aggressor state."The IAEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sandra Maler)

USA/Family of eight found shot dead in Utah home
Reuters/January 5, 2023
Eight members of a family including five minors were found dead of gunshot wounds in a southwestern Utah home on Wednesday, a tragedy that officials said devastated the small town of Enoch City. Police were summoned to the home for a welfare check after the family had not been heard from for an extended time, and they found the bodies of three adults and five minors, City Manger Rob Dotson said. Officials said in a statement there was no threat to the public and no suspects were believed to be at large. "We don't know why this happened. We're not going to guess," Dotson said in a video interview that was emailed to reporters. Several law enforcement agencies are cooperating on the investigation, which could take days, Dotson said in a video interview that was emailed to reporters. "This community is feeling pain," Dotson said. "We all know this family. Many of us have served with them in church and the community and have gone to school with these individuals. "The community ... is feeling loss, they're feeling pain, they have a lot of questions," Dotson said. Enoch City, with a population of about 8,000, is in southwestern Utah, about 250 miles (400 km) south of Salt Lake City. ------

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 05-06/2023
Why Palestinians Want to Slaughter Jewish Worshippers
Bassam Tawil/ Gatestone Institute/January 5, 2023
The Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of security in Nablus, has -- despite official agreements in the Oslo Accords -- nevertheless refused to fulfill its commitment to protect and ensure free access to Joseph's Tomb.
So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites.
Encouraged by the silence of the international community, the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent Jews from visiting another holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem... which is abutted by the Western Wall.... This wall happens to be the holiest site in Judaism where Jews are permitted to pray.
Instead of denouncing Abbas for his incitement and the Palestinians for their denial of Jewish links to the holy site, the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
Without the presence of the Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, Jews would have been attacked and slaughtered every day on their way to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
If the city or these sites were ever to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, Jewish worshippers would have to visit their holy sites in bullet-proof vehicles accompanied by platoons of soldiers and police officers, as is necessary these days at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.
The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for means the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.
Tolerance and freedom of worship are not terms that can be found in the Palestinian lexicon. The Palestinians will be satisfied only when they replace Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state and erase all traces of Jewish history and faith.
So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites. Pictured: Palestinian children play in the charred ruins of Joseph's Tomb, on October 16, 2003, after Palestinians attacked and torched the site following the visit of Jewish worshippers the previous night. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
In the past several years, Jews visiting the holy site of Joseph's Tomb in the city of Nablus in the West Bank have been targeted by Palestinian rioters and gunmen.
The most recent attack took place on December 21, when Jewish worshippers and the Israeli soldiers guarding them came under heavy gunfire.
According to Palestinian sources, during the Palestinians' attempt to prevent the Jews from entering the holy site, one gunman, Ahmed Atef Daraghmeh, was killed and four others injured.
The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 and 1995 between Israel and the Palestinians, placed Nablus and Joseph's Tomb under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
At the beginning of the Second Intifada (uprising), which erupted in 2000, the site was looted and burned by Palestinian rioters. Two years later, after the Israeli army launched a major military operation against Palestinian terrorists in Nablus and other Palestinian cities, Jewish worshippers began intermittently returning to visit the tomb.
Between 2009 and 2010, Joseph's Tomb was renovated, allowing Jewish worshippers to resume their visits.
Since then, the site has been repeatedly vandalized by Palestinian rioters in a conspicuous violation of Article 32 of the 1995 Oslo II Accord, which stipulates:
"2. Both sides [Israel and the Palestinians] shall respect and protect the listed below religious rights of Jews, Christians, Moslems and Samaritans:
a. protection of the Holy Sites;
b. free access to the Holy Sites; and
c. freedom of worship and practice."
According to the same Article:
"3. a. The Palestinian side shall ensure free access to, respect the ways of worship in and not make any changes to, the Jewish Holy Sites..."
The Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of security in Nablus, has nevertheless refused to fulfill its commitment to protect and ensure free access to Joseph's Tomb.
In 2015, hundreds of Palestinians stormed the site and set it on fire. Earlier this year, Palestinians again stormed Joseph's tomb, shattering the tombstone and damaging a chandelier. The following day, two Jewish worshippers were moderately wounded by Palestinian gunfire while trying to enter the site.
The recurring attacks on Joseph's Tomb and the attempts to kill Jewish worshippers appear to be part of Palestinian efforts to deny any Jewish link to Jewish holy sites.
"Joseph's Tomb is an Islamic site, and the Jews have no right to it," claimed Muhannad Sayel, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. "They [the Jews] are trying to falsify history."
In October, the Lions' Den, a terrorist group operating in Nablus under the nose of the Palestinian Authority, threatened to kill any Jew who enters Joseph's Tomb. "[Jewish] settlers are banned from entering Joseph's Tomb," the group warned. "They will be the target of our guns and explosive devices."
Last May, another terror group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia affiliated with the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on Jewish worshippers and the Israeli soldiers guarding them at Joseph's Tomb.
Needless to say, the Palestinian Authority never arrested any of the terrorists from the Lions' Den or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Moreover, the attacks and threats against the Jewish worshippers have been ignored by the US administration and most of the international community.
So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites.
Encouraged by the silence of the international community, the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent Jews from visiting another holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
As with Joseph's Tomb, the Palestinians deny any link between Jews and the Temple Mount, which is abutted by the Western Wall – a retaining wall, all that is left of the Second Temple (also known as Herod's Temple), destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, as was the First Temple (built by King Solomon) by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the year 586 BCE. This wall happens to be the holiest site in Judaism where Jews are permitted to pray.
In recent years, Palestinians have been trying to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. Palestinian rioters have attacked visitors and the police with rocks, fireworks, iron rods, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails.
The Palestinian Authority and PA President Mahmoud Abbas have played a major role in inciting the violence and spreading lies about the Jews visiting the Temple Mount.
In 2015, Abbas declared:
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [the Jews] have no right to defile with them with their filthy feet. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah."
Instead of denouncing Abbas for his incitement and the Palestinians for their denial of Jewish links to the holy site, the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
Such resolutions embolden the Palestinians to continue their campaign of terrorism against Jewish worshippers.
In 2010, the Palestinian Authority claimed in an official document that the Western Wall -- a retaining wall, all that is left of the Second Temple -- belongs to Muslims alone:
"The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel... This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction. No Muslim or Arab or Palestinian has the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq [Western] Wall or other religious sites."
Fortunately for Jewish worshippers, Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, are under Israeli sovereignty and security control, guaranteeing free access for Jews, Muslims and Christians to their holy sites.
Without the presence of the Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, Jews would have been attacked and slaughtered every day on their way to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
If the city or these sites were ever to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, Jewish worshippers would have to visit their holy sites in bullet-proof vehicles accompanied by platoons of soldiers and police officers, as is necessary these days at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.
The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for means the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.
Tolerance and freedom of worship are not terms that can be found in the Palestinian lexicon. The Palestinians will be satisfied only when they replace Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state and erase all traces of Jewish history and faith.
*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.

Making Iran’s Support for Russia More Costly
Henry Rome/The Washington Institute./January 05/2023
To foster doubts about the wisdom of deepening the relationship, Washington should stoke longstanding Iranian skepticism toward Russia and work with Europe to sanction additional entities involved in the drone program.
Tehran’s relationship with Moscow has expanded substantially since the invasion of Ukraine, from weapons deliveries to a flurry of political and trade delegations traversing both capitals. This evolution has led to murmurs of concern inside Iran, with some fearing that the government made a significant error by throwing its lot in with an untrustworthy Russian partner. Although these voices have so far been isolated, Western governments should feed this doubt as part of their strategy to curb Iran’s military aid.
From Friction to Support
Russia and Iran have had turbulent relations for much of the past 500 years, fueling deep mistrust among many Iranians today. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, Russia and Persia fought multiple wars, while the twentieth century saw Moscow repeatedly meddling in Iran’s affairs (e.g., opposing its constitutional revolution; supporting secessionist and communist movements; occupying its territory). Relations began improving in the late 1980s, but friction persisted over various issues, including Moscow’s differing ambitions in Syria, its desire to balance relations with Israel and Saudi Arabia, its support for UN Security Council resolutions against Iran, and its slow pace in expanding commercial and energy ties.
Yet Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a tightening of ties. Facing diplomatic isolation and battlefield weakness, Moscow needed political and military support, while Tehran apparently saw an opportunity to make itself indispensable to the world’s biggest nuclear power and reap economic, technological, political, and military rewards. Despite their historical mistrust, Russia is now more important to Tehran than it was even a decade ago, when Iranian leaders still sought to improve ties with the West. Siding with Moscow at its time of need also likely made strategic sense to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in terms of advancing his “look to the East” strategy.
The recent intensification has both covert and overt components. Tehran has become Moscow’s most important military supplier, with Iranian drones repeatedly being used against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. According to Western governments, Tehran has also deployed personnel to Crimea to train Russian soldiers in operating these drones. Both parties have tried to keep this assistance a secret, with Tehran denying that it has provided drones during the war (though international pressure did compel it to claim that it had sold such systems to Russia—in 2021). The Iranians may also have reached an agreement to manufacture drones in Russia and sell short-range ballistic missiles to its military. Moscow’s compensation to Tehran is less clear at this point.
Talk of commercial cooperation has increased during the war as well. The two governments have focused on expanding trade, improving transportation links, accelerating energy cooperation, and establishing adequate banking infrastructure. In July, they signed $40 billion worth of energy-related deals—though many of these projects will face potentially insurmountable implementation challenges. In November, the Iran Chamber of Commerce hosted a delegation of 120 Russian businesspeople—billed as the largest in decades—and held a high-profile conference to discuss expanding ties and lowering barriers. Iran likewise sent commercial delegations to Moscow, and their banking officials have held frequent meetings. Bilateral trade may have increased somewhat as a result, though the Iranian and Russian customs agencies differ on the scale of the increase. Beyond that, no major changes have emerged from this slew of announcements, and the two countries continue to compete economically in commodity markets.
Diplomatically, the tightening in relations has been marked by frequent meetings between senior officials. Most notably, President Vladimir Putin visited Iran in July and met with Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, one of his first international trips since the invasion. He has also met with Raisi two other times during the war.
Criticism Has Grown, Modestly
Even as officials across the Iranian system engage with their Russian counterparts in an apparent “whole of government” approach, some internal criticism has emerged. Although this dissent remains modest to date and limited to figures outside the hardline faction that currently runs the country, it presents an opportunity that the West could exploit.
In November, a group of thirty-five former Iranian diplomats characterized support for Russia’s Ukraine invasion as a “grave mistake,” especially considering that Iran bills itself as a “standard bearer against arrogance and supporting oppressed and suppressed people in the remotest parts of the world.” The statement also implied that Moscow was engaging in “duplicitous behavior,” from continuing talks with Washington to selling advanced weapons and collaborating in energy markets with Iranian rivals such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Another former diplomat, Mohammad Sadr, argued that Russia has dealt a “fatal blow” to Iran’s international standing by using its drones against Ukraine.
Other figures offered more direct criticism of Russia’s credibility. Hossein Alaei—a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy who has taken controversial positions in the past—argued that Moscow sought to drag Tehran into the war from the beginning, both to hold Iranian foreign policy “hostage” and to relieve its own isolation. Similarly, Nematollah Izadi, Tehran’s former ambassador to Moscow, suggested that his country had fallen for a Russian “deception operation” that imperiled its national interests—a sentiment echoed by the moderate conservative lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahat Pisheh, former chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
Alaei and Falahat Pisheh also accused Russia of intentionally leaking details about the drone shipments to the media, reminiscent of a past episode of bilateral tension touched off by Russian boasting. In 2016, Moscow publicized an arrangement whereby Tehran had secretly permitted Russian bombers to use an Iranian air base to strike targets in Syria. The revelation triggered public outrage in Iran, spurring the regime to criticize Moscow and cancel the agreement after less than a week. Although there is no evidence that Russia has actually leaked details this time, Iranian concerns about Moscow’s trustworthiness appear deeply entrenched.
Doubts about commercial ties have been voiced as well. Although Iran’s business community recognizes the opportunities offered by Russia’s large consumer market and newfound international isolation, suspicions have emerged about how far Moscow is willing to go. In November, the Tehran Chamber of Commerce published a report urging officials to seek more strategic opportunities for partnership with Russia, such as further developing the International North-South Transport Corridor and Chabahar port. Yet it recommended developing these ties quietly, out of the media spotlight and in ways that would not get tied up with Western sanctions on Russia. It also noted that Tehran should not allow Russia “to use the ‘Iran card’ in international fora.” And in a separate report published in December, the Iran Chamber of Commerce criticized the government’s policy of prioritizing relations with Asia (namely Russia and China), stating that “neither the West nor the East can replace one another in Iran’s economic diplomacy.”
Policy Recommendations
To exacerbate these latent tensions, the United States should focus on emphasizing two points: that Tehran faces escalating costs for its alignment with Moscow, and that Russia may eventually betray Iran. The main goal of such efforts should be to deter or reduce Iran’s arms transfers.
First, Washington should adjust its messaging. Although Western officials have already noted the dangers of the expanding relationship and applied new sanctions and political pressure on Tehran, U.S. talking points should also emphasize the potential for friction and mistrust between the two partners. For example, disclosing details about their secret deals and/or their hesitations about each other may generate the most intense reaction in Tehran. Washington should consider declassifying such information to the extent that it is substantiated and that the risks of disclosure are outweighed by the possible benefits. Officials should also emphasize how Iran and Russia are still competing intensively on the economic front, as a way to raise doubts about whether deepening the relationship is worth it.
Second, Washington should publicize some of the information that Western allies are learning about Iranian drone capabilities in Ukraine—including how they were built, how they perform in battle, and how they can be intercepted. In doing so, officials should underscore how these lessons are advancing the work that the United States and its regional partners are doing to strengthen defenses in the Middle East.
Third, Washington should impose a greater economic cost on Tehran for supporting Russia, thereby showing Iranians that such assistance is hurting them, not helping them. Although the U.S. government has already imposed some sanctions in response to drone shipments, it should go further by attempting to depress the revenue that Tehran earns from energy sales. In doing so, it could point out that every barrel of Iranian oil smuggled and sold helps to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Finally, Washington should encourage the European Union and Britain to impose new sanctions on Iranian entities involved in the drone program—especially those already sanctioned under weapons of mass destruction authorities, since those sanctions are set to be lifted in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Potential entities to be targeted include the IRGC, the Aerospace Industries Organization, the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries, the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, Fajr Aviation Composite Industries, Yas Air (renamed Pouya Air), and Pars Aviation Services. European governments have already imposed similarly layered sanctions and should do so again. Washington should also urge the EU and Britain to add the IRGC to their lists of terrorist organizations, as London is reportedly considering.
*Henry Rome is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute.

Climate movement inspires optimism at start of new year
May Boeve/Arab News/January 05/2023
Last year was a tumultuous one in many ways. While climate-related shocks became even more prevalent and severe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis that continues to affect millions of people’s lives and livelihoods. Following that shock, unprecedented heat waves across Europe, Asia and North America, and then devastating flooding in Pakistan, highlighted the urgency of reducing our fossil fuel dependency and reshaping our energy systems.
Fortunately, other big developments in 2022 offered grounds for hope. The passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act — the largest emissions-reduction investment in the country’s history — was a landmark achievement. Historically, the US has been the world’s biggest carbon polluter and one of the biggest laggards in international forums. But this legislation should put it on a course to reduce its own emissions sharply, which will help drive down the price of renewable energy around the world. Many emerging markets and developing countries will have a chance to leapfrog past coal-fired power plants.
Yes, fossil fuel lobbyists are pushing governments in Africa and elsewhere to invest in natural gas development in response to the energy crisis. Many newly planned projects would be “carbon bombs” that would emit more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetimes. But the climate movement has wasted no time in calling out these efforts and in denouncing the “dash for gas” in Africa.
As a result, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline has suffered setback after setback. With 22 commercial banks and insurers pulling out of the project, the “StopEACOP” campaign was gaining momentum ahead of November’s UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, where it drove the message home. Governments and other stakeholders are finally recognizing that climate change and biodiversity loss are inextricably linked
COP27 in Egypt was a major moment for the climate movement in 2022. By working through existing global networks and coalitions, organizations pushed for more meaningful decarbonization commitments, human rights protections and financing.
In the end, the conference produced an agreement to establish a separate global fund to compensate vulnerable countries for climate-related “loss and damage.” Given that advanced economies had long refused to even discuss the issue, this is a huge win — one driven by front-line activists and spokespeople from across the Global South. But the summit’s final agreement did not include any specific language about the need to phase out fossil fuels.
Finally, other positive climate policy developments in 2022 included the launch of Just Energy Transition Partnerships in Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam. With the goal of helping countries leapfrog past fossil fuels, these partnerships — if done right — could be game-changers in the global transition to renewable energy.
The international community also did more to protect nature in 2022. As the year drew to a close, governments at the UN Biodiversity Conference, known as COP15, adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — a deal that many observers are likening to the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement. With a commitment to protect 30 percent of all land and sea areas by 2030, the framework opens a new chapter, following the collective failure to meet any of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020.
Governments and other stakeholders are finally recognizing that climate change and biodiversity loss are inextricably linked. Rainforests and mangroves are not just habitats for millions of species, they are also crucial for slowing the pace of global heating because they absorb and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Scientists have shown that conservation, ecosystem restoration and the better management of natural areas could contribute more than a third of the emissions reductions that we need by 2030. More to the point, there is simply no way of limiting the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius without reversing the decline of nature.
The COP15 deal also explicitly recognizes that Indigenous peoples are central to protecting nature and it calls on rich countries to mobilize $30 billion per year in biodiversity financing for developing countries by 2030.
But setting targets is merely the first step. We must move at an unprecedented pace to restore biodiversity and halt global warming. That means remaining alert to vested interests’ efforts to block progress and pushing back against false solutions, such as carbon offsetting, nuclear energy and hydraulic fracking. Restoring nature must not come at the expense of local communities. To create and nurture a healthier relationship with the environment, we should take our cues from Indigenous peoples.
Outside of UN conferences and corporate boardrooms, a quiet revolution is gathering speed. Those demanding more financing for locally owned renewable energy systems are piercing through the long-standing barriers and refusing to be marginalized. They are building a new consensus and making clear that matters of climate justice are nonnegotiable. I consider this quiet revolution to be one of the most exciting things that has happened over the past decade. The cyclical interplay of progress and retrogression is an enduring feature of policymaking — and of nature itself. The inevitable slumps must be met not with despair but with hope for the next upswing. While the 2022 energy crisis created a new pretext for those advocating greater investment in fossil fuels, such investments are rapidly becoming financial losers, because renewables are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels.Around the world, communities, towns, cities and regions are experimenting with creative climate solutions. We must identify the ones that work, mobilize support for them and scale them up. That is how we will launch the decisive next phase of the decades-long fight against climate change and environmental destruction.
*May Boeve is Executive Director of 350.org. Copyright: Project Syndicate.

What US’ new defense budget means for the Middle East
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/January 05/2023
A week after Congress passed the US defense budget for the fiscal year 2023, President Joe Biden last month signed the budget — which amounted to $858 billion, exceeding his proposal by $45 billion — into law. It offers vital benefits, such as enhancing access to justice for military personnel and their families, as well as powers critical to supporting national defense, foreign affairs and homeland security. The Defense Department’s massive final budget contains several notable provisions related to Middle Eastern security.
The secretary of defense has called for the creation of a strategy aimed at supporting regional air defense networks in the Middle East to protect the US’ allies and partners from missile attacks from Iran and its proxies. The aim is to implement an integrated air and missile defense structure to protect the people, infrastructure and territory of these countries.
The defense budget, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, also legislates a requirement for the US to establish an interagency strategy to disrupt and dismantle narcotics production, trafficking and affiliated networks linked to the Assad regime in Syria.
According to the American Coalition for Syria, Bashar Assad has turned Syria into a drug state, as traffickers produce and distribute huge quantities of Captagon pills. This is currently the most in-demand drug in the Middle East and neighboring Mediterranean countries, with more than 40 tons seized last year. In 2021, the Captagon trade generated an estimated $5.7 billion in revenue for the Syrian regime, allowing Assad to circumvent the sanctions aimed at denying him access to hard currency.
The secretary of defense has called for the creation of a strategy aimed at supporting regional air defense networks
This year’s National Defense Authorization Act also amended the current required report on Iran to include the proxy groups associated with Tehran, particularly those assessed as being prepared to carry out terrorist operations on its behalf or in response to a military attack by another country related to Iran.
None of the amounts authorized under this act may be used to facilitate the transfer of currency platforms or currencies to the government of Iran. It also prohibits the allocation or transfer of any authorized funding to the Iraqi Badr Organization, which has close ties to Iran. This sends a strong warning to the Badr Organization that Washington is closely monitoring its activities and that it could face sanctions in the future.
The act demanded a report that will include a detailed assessment of whether the proliferation of Iranian weapons, particularly of drones, increased following the end of the UN arms embargo on Iran in October 2020.
Given that Israel is one of the staunchest friends and allies of the US, and that it faces a number of potential challenges at present, including continuing threats from Iran, the act affirmed the amendment and expansion of cooperation between the US and Israel to counter aerial systems, including directing energy capabilities and authorizing a $15 million increase in funding — to $40 million in total — to support it. The law also provides $80 million to the government of Israel to purchase components for the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system, as well as providing $40 million for the so-called David’s Sling weapons system.
Based on the role played by the multinational forces in promoting stability and maintaining peace in the Sinai Peninsula, the US must continue to maintain its strong support. And the Department of Defense was also requested to “seek to expand cooperation with the Jordanian Ministry of Defense in military cybersecurity activities,” to include the establishment of a regional center for cybersecurity, bilateral activities and training in the field of cybersecurity, in addition to efforts aimed at effectively defending military networks, infrastructure and systems, and eliminating malicious cyber activities.The act affirmed that the US must act decisively against counterintelligence threats posed by foreign commercial spyware, as well as individuals who lead entities that sell foreign commercial spyware and who are reasonably believed to be engaging in, or presenting a significant risk of, engaging in activities contrary to national security or the interests of US foreign policy. It can be said that the items related to the countries of the Middle East in the national defense budget for the year 2023 are remarkably consistent with the existing US foreign policy orientation regarding reducing the country’s involvement in the region and turning toward Asia. At the same time, it commits to the campaign to combat Daesh to preserve US interests and maintain relationships with regional partners and allies to ensure regional stability and protect the US presence in the region from any potential threats, whether from Iran, its proxies or other terrorist groups.
**Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher and writer. She has a master’s degree in political sociology from the University of Lyon. Twitter: @bilarakib

د. ماجد رفي زاده : يجب اتخاذ الإجراءات الفاعلة لوقف الإرهاب الذي يمارسه النظام الإيراني خارج إيران في العشرات من الدول
Action must be taken to halt Iranian regime’s foreign terrorism
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 05/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/114722/dr-majid-rafizadeh-action-must-be-taken-to-halt-iranian-regimes-foreign-terrorism-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d9%8a%d8%ac%d8%a8-%d8%a7/
In spite of the protests and major domestic crisis that the Iranian regime is facing, the Islamic Republic is showing no signs of backing down on its terror activities abroad.
For example, the Associated Press reported last month that an Albanian court had convicted an Iranian citizen on terrorism-related charges and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment, according to court officials. He was suspected of working for the Iranian secret services. “Albania’s Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime found Bijan Pooladrag guilty of funding terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organization. No details on Pooladrag’s age, home city, or when he had come to Albania were made known,” the AP wrote. It continued: “Pooladrag was arrested two years ago on suspicion of spying on members of the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, some 3,000 of whom live in exile in Albania.”
It appears that in some countries, where the Iranian regime cannot set up militia groups, it instead tries to set up terror cells. Pooladrag’s conviction came just a few months after Albania had detained six other Iranians. The Albanian news outlet News24 reported in August: “Pooladrag is accused of being part of a terrorist cell that intended to attack senior officials of the Iranian opposition, who live in Ashraf 3. He received orders and instructions through the Telegram application … One of Iran’s intelligence officers had ordered the defendant to procure a Kalashnikov machine gun in the black market and find trained people who could commit murder.”
In addition, Albania’s Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime issued search warrants for the property and premises associated with Hassan Heyrani, Mehdi Soleimani, Gholamreza Shekari, Mostafa Beheshti, Abdolrahman Mohammadian, Hassan Shahbaz, Sarfaraz Rahimi, Mahmoud Dehghan Gourabi, Mohammad Reza Seddigh, Reza Islami, and Ali Hajari. They were accused of “receiving money from Iran’s secret services, the Quds Force and the IRGC.”
In some countries, where the Iranian regime cannot set up militia groups, it instead tries to set up terror cells
It should not come as a surprise that one of the regime’s own diplomats, Assadollah Assadi, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in Belgium over his role in a 2018 terrorist plot. Assadi reportedly delivered explosive materials to his accomplices with the aim of bombing an Iranian opposition rally in Paris, which I attended. Had the plot not been discovered at the very last minute, hundreds of people could have been killed, including international dignitaries and many European parliamentarians.
The Iranian regime apparently uses its embassies, cultural centers and diplomats in foreign countries to act as cells to organize and construct terror groups. A 2017 Supreme Court ruling in Kuwait revealed how Iran’s embassy there played a role in forming terror cells. Iran’s ambassador and other diplomats were expelled as a result.
Last June, Turkey detained eight members of an Iranian cell who were planning to assassinate Israelis in the country. The IHA news agency reported: “The hitmen in the assassination team, who settled in two separate rooms on the second and fourth floors of a hotel in Beyoglu, were (detained) with a large number of weapons and ammunition.” Then-Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said of the plot: “We’re not only talking about the murder of innocent Israeli tourists, but also a clear violation of Turkish sovereignty by Iranian terror.”
The Iranian regime’s terror plots can be found in other European countries as well. For instance, another agent of the Iranian regime, Mohammed Davoudzadeh Loloei, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a Danish court in 2020 after being convicted of spying for Iran and for his involvement in a plot to kill the leader of an Iranian Arab opposition group.
It is worth noting that, in a rare interview with a state-run TV channel in 2019, former Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian revealed that the Ministry of Intelligence has long used the services of “friendly journalists” and “scholars” to advance its agenda abroad, including its misinformation campaigns. “We don’t send an agent to Germany or America and for example say, ok, I am an agent of the Intelligence Ministry … Obviously, he would work under the cover of business or other jobs including reporters. You know, many of our reporters are actually ministry agents,” he boasted.
In order to adequately address and counter the Iranian regime’s terror plots abroad, the international community must hold it accountable. Governments can also adopt firm policies and even pass legislation to expel Iranian “diplomats” and intelligence agents, who may be plotting further terrorist attacks. Closing down Iranian embassies until Tehran halts its terror activities is also a critical step. In addition, and most fundamentally, they need to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies as terrorist organizations.
In summary, until firm action is taken against the Iranian regime by the international community, the Islamic Republic will continue to engage in terror activities abroad.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Deterioration in religious values a main driver of war, violence: Egyptian grand imam
Gobran Mohamed/Arab News/January 05/2023
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb calls for Islamic, Christian unity in promoting global security, stability during Christmas, new year greetings to Coptic pope
CAIRO: A deterioration in religious values was one of the main drivers of war and violence around the world, a prominent Egyptian faith leader has claimed.
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, made his comments during a recent meeting with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Al-Tayyeb said: “The wars we are witnessing today are mainly caused by the deviation from the morals of religion, the spread of atheism, and disbelief in God.”
Accompanied by a delegation of senior scholars from the Islamic scientific body and the largest religious institution in Egypt, he was visiting Tawadros to pass on Christmas and new year greetings.
He pointed out the need for Muslims and Christians in Egypt and around the globe to draw closer to God in times of crisis in order to bring about international security and stability.
Many of the world’s problems, he noted, stemmed from the “spread of selfishness, arrogance, and tyranny of power and money, as well as the distance from values and morals, and alienation from identity.”
Tawadros said Al-Tayyeb’s visit carried with it “cordiality, love, and good feelings,” and that such meetings delivered “a message of reassurance to all, as they reflect the strength of the relationship that binds Christians and Muslims in our country, praying to God to preserve Egypt and perpetuate the blessings of security and safety for us.”
Al-Azhar Al-Sharif has been encouraging the sending of Christmas messages of good will to Christian communities worldwide, evidenced by Al-Tayyeb’s greetings to Pope Francis, Tawadros, the British Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Archbishop Bartholomew I of Constantinople, and other international church leaders.
In a statement, Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism said: “These greetings carried an explicit call to raise the voice of brotherhood and peace in order for security and stability to prevail everywhere.”
Tawadros also received Mahmoud Tawfik, Egypt’s minister of the interior, Mohamed Maait, the country’s minister of finance, and their accompanying delegations, at the papal headquarters in Cairo.
He presides over the Christmas mass prayer on Friday evening at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo, in the presence of dignitaries.