English LCCC Newsbulletin For Le

English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 09/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.january09.23.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
John proclaimed, The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
Saint Mark 01/01-08: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” ’, John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”..”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 08-09/2023
Unfolding of new facts related to the Antonine Order scandal of selling apartments and shops to Hezbollah/Elias Bejjani/07 January/2023
Bishop Aoudi: An invitation from to every official who considers himself a “true Christian”
Army conducts raids in Dar Al-Wasa'a - Bekaa
Murtada: Outstanding, visionary presentation tomorrow by Mark Keyrouz at the National Library
Central Bank explains how to calculate daily trading volume on "Sayrafa" platform
Geagea calls on Defiance Axis and Berri to learn from US vote
French Ambassador addresses a New Year message to the Lebanese: I renew my promise, in the name of the President of the Republic, that France will...
Khalaf: Enough with intransigence in failing to manage the minimum level of citizen affairs!
Why Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan rank among the ‘world’s angriest countries’
Rawan Radwan/Arab News/January 08, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/2023
Analysts: Iran Regime Divided on How to Tackle Protests
Marches in Europe support Iran protests, assail government
Iranian Held in Germany Suspected of Chemical Plot
US Condemns New Iran Protester Executions in 'Strongest Terms'
Britain Says Iran’s Execution of Two Protesters Is ‘Abhorrent’
Iraqi Defense Shot Down Drone over Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Air Base
Aid Convoy Enters Syrian Opposition Area Ahead of Key UN Vote
Moscow ends self-proclaimed ceasefire, vows to press ahead in Ukraine
Ukraine Latest: War’s Massive Minefield; Putin’s Failed Gambit
Russia bombards eastern Ukraine as self-proclaimed Christmas ceasefire comes to an end
Famed US lawyer, defender of Israel, opposes legal overhaul
Palestinian FM: Israel revokes travel permit over UN move
Cyprus' new archbishop enthroned, no Russian clerics attend

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 08-09/2023
Erdogan and the Geopolitical Considerations of the Turkish Presidential Elections/Raghida Dergham/January 08/2023
More Foreign Policy Confusion/Pete Hoekstra/Gatestone Institute/January 8, 2023
The Supreme Leader Maneuvers, but/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/January 08/2023
Wasting Environment and Development Aid Continues/Najib Saab/Asharq Al Awsat/January 08/2023
Iranian regime is exporting its revolution beyond the Middle East/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 08/2023
Despite the obstacles, women are our planet’s future/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 09/2023

on January 08-09/2023
Unfolding of new facts related to the Antonine Order scandal of selling apartments and shops to Hezbollah
Elias Bejjani/07 January/2023
الياس بجاني: جديد جريمة وفضيحة بيع الرهبنة الأنطونية شقق ومحلات تجارية لحزب الله
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/114751/elias-bejjani-unfolding-of-new-facts-related-to-the-antonine-order-scandal-of-selling-apartments-and-shops-to-hezbollah-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%ac%d8%af/
Despite the scandal, and sin of the Antonine Order, in selling numerous residential apartments and commercial shops in the Hadath area, which are endowment properties (waqf property), the Maronite Patriarchate, at least in public did not comment, or take any action to stop what happened, nor did it issue any statement in this regard, which is contrary to the laws of the Church that prohibit selling endowment properties. The same approach of silence and indifference applies to the Antonine Order, which committed the sin of selling church endowment properties. It did not comment either positively or negatively, or admit or deny, which simply means a dictatorship-authoritarian mentality, bold deviation from faith, and indifference of all those monks in charge of order, to Christian public opinion and church laws. Their selling act is a blatant preachment of all church principle and laws. The Church prohibits the sale of waqf properties.
We wonder if these monks are in reality temple merchants, clerics, and Pharisees?
By this impeachment, are they still honoring their vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty?
Are they above church accountability?
In conclusion, what is dangerous, disturbing, and even frightening, in regards to this scandal is that, neither Bkerki, nor the Order explained to the public what has happened and what is the truth.
This indifference stance of both church bodies, shows with no shed of doubt. that they do not respect either the canons of the Church, faith, or the intelligence of the believers.
Such derailed practices proves a mere alienation from all foundations of faith, trust and accountability.

Bishop Aoudi: An invitation from to every official who considers himself a “true Christian”
Al-Nahar / January 08, 2023
Archbishop Elias Aoudi in his today's homely called on every official who considers himself a true Christian to “strive for the salvation of God’s children whom he has been charged with the responsibility of taking care of.” And humiliating them and exploiting them for private gains and interests, and through attachment to the homeland and devotion to it and working for the public interest.” Aoudi considered during the Divine Liturgy service in St. George's Cathedral - downtown Beirut, that "the public interest requires stopping the verbal exchange and disrupting the state, and working to reveal the obscured truths in various issues that touched the heart of the country and its people, and to be frank with citizens about them, and to do justice to those who must be redressed and punish those who must be punished." Punishing them, away from populism and commercialism, as required by modern work to revive the country and restore life to its institutions and administrations, and this will not happen unless a president, a true Christian, is elected who takes the Lord Jesus as his sole example and draws inspiration from his teachings. Aoudi renewed his call for “all officials to purify themselves with tears of true repentance, return to the merciful Lord, and work according to His commandments, so that salvation may visit our oppressed homeland.”

Army conducts raids in Dar Al-Wasa'a - Bekaa
NNA/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Lebanese Army Command – Orientation Directorate issued today the following statement: “On January 8, 2023, an army force raided the homes of wanted persons in the Dar Al-Wasa'a region – the Bekaa, and seized a quantity of Captagon, hashish and marijuana pills, machines used for drug manufacturing, military ammunition and military equipment, and destroyed lands planted with cannabis. During the raid, the force came under fire to which it responded with shooting, without causing any casualties. The seized items were handed over and the investigation began under the supervision of the concerned judiciary."

Murtada: Outstanding, visionary presentation tomorrow by Mark Keyrouz at the National Library
NNA/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Muhammad Wissam al-Murtada, tweeted this evening: "Mark Keyrouz is a creative Lebanese young man...A distinguished and visionary presentation tomorrow at the National Library in Beirut about his project...Your presence honors us, and for those who cannot attend, I hope they can watch the attached video."

Central Bank explains how to calculate daily trading volume on "Sayrafa" platform
NNA/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Central Bank issued this morning an explanatory statement about the daily trading on the "Sayrafa" platform, stressing that "the daily trading volume on the platform that it issues on a daily basis includes the following: What the Central Bank sold and bought in US dollars. - The buying and selling of the US dollar carried out by banks and exchange institutions, which must be registered on the “Sayrafa” platform. The statement emphasized that “trading on the platform includes the total dollars that entered the Central Bank and those that were paid, in addition to the operations of banks and money changers registered on “Sayrafa”. Finally, the statement indicated that “the increase in trading volume on the platform in the past few days is normal and expected, as the public was allowed to buy and sell dollars without restrictions through the platform through their banks.”

Geagea calls on Defiance Axis and Berri to learn from US vote
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday called on the Hezbollah-led Axis of Defiance and Speaker Nabih Berri to “draw lessons” from the 15 rounds that were held to elect a US House speaker, rejecting what he called “unconstitutional” dialogue over the election of a new president. “If only the MPs of the Axis of Defiance and Speaker Nabih Berri would draw some lessons from what happened this week in the speakership vote of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Geagea said in a statement. “When competition heated up and no candidate managed to win the needed majority, rounds were held daily, sessions remained open and discussions and dialogues followed the parliamentary sessions until the rivals managed to elect one of them and a U.S. House of Representatives speaker was elected after 15 rounds of voting,” Geagea noted. “This should happen in the election of a president in Lebanon. Instead of holding folkloric sessions whose fate, result and end are known in advance, the parliament speaker should inform all blocs in advance that he would not adjourn the eleventh electoral session… until a president is elected,” the LF leader added. “This is how we would reach the election of a president within hours or several days, not through calling for (political) dialogue,” Geagea went on to say, saying “official dialogue should take place in parliament between one round and another, not around an unconstitutional dialogue table… that would cover up for those who are blocking the presidential election,” Geagea went on to say.

French Ambassador addresses a New Year message to the Lebanese: I renew my promise, in the name of the President of the Republic, that France will...
NNA/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
The French Embassy in Beirut distributed a congratulatory message from Ambassador Anne Grillo, on the occasion of the New Year, expressing her warmest wishes for good health, happiness, prosperity and hope for all the Lebanese and their relatives in Lebanon and abroad.
"A year ago, on the same occasion, I promised you, in the name of the President of the Republic, that France will remain by your side in 2022, and so it did. Today, I renew this promise: in 2023, France will remain here, despite the challenges. France will remain here because it has not lost hope in the renewal of Lebanon and because the collapse of institutions does not make us forget that you are here, you are, and you do not surrender," the statement said. Highlighting the accomplishments of her country towards Lebanon in the past year, Grillo underlined France's wish to express its solidarity in a concrete way whose permanent goal is the advancement of Lebanon and responding to the needs of the Lebanese, which she pledged her country would continue to do in 2023. Among the achievements made during the past year, Grillo highlighted the following:
-Stability First: France worked effectively to reach the historic agreement on maritime borders. We urged the Gulf states to return to Lebanon, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has begun to support humanitarian projects in cooperation with us, especially in the health sector. We also contributed to the continued ability of the security forces to carry out their tasks to protect citizens and preserve the unity of the country
- Economic recovery: Container terminals at the ports of Beirut and Tripoli resumed work at their maximum capacity. The prospects for energy resources in Lebanon will also be explored. All this has become possible thanks to the commitment and risk of major French companies and because the French business community is still present, despite everything, to contribute to restoring confidence in Lebanon and restoring its credibility, and to supporting the activity of the private sector
-Education: France has worked to keep Lebanon's educational system alive, extending aid to families, increasing scholarship programs, and inigtiating projects to install solar panels and provide meals in schools
- Culture: The success achieved by the first edition of the Beirut Books Festival increased France's conviction that Lebanon can - and indeed must - return once again to a crossroads in the East, where authors, thinkers, writers, filmmakers and artists meet in the framework of a free and productive dialogue
-Citizenship: France has supported the vitality of Lebanese initiatives in various fields, such as media, equality between women and men, preservation of biological diversity, solidarity between generations, and conflict prevention
-Emergency assistance: France maintained its programs in the field of food security, and was the country that secured the necessary vaccines to curb the cholera outbreak before it worsened.
The French Ambassador continued her message addressed to the Lebanese, saying: “I know that there is still much to be done and that your situation is still difficult to bear. But I also know your courage, your generosity, your talents and your determination...In addition to my promise, in the name of France, to continue the work that we have embarked on with determination and strong will, and my promise, in my personal name, to continue my tours to follow up on my meetings with you wherever you are, I express to you my heartfelt wishes that the year 2023 will be a year of hope and renewal. A year of hope because Lebanon is still here, and because you don't give up. I tell you again: France will defend you and will tirelessly remind, both in international institutions and regional and international partners, of the importance of Lebanon's stability and prosperity in the Levant, as a strategic gateway to the eastern Mediterranean."
Grillo went on: "A year of renewal, so that those who will take charge of your future are finally aware of the extent of the existential challenges facing Lebanon, and reject the demise of the state and also reject the generalized culture surrounding it that is based on impunity, and seriously commit themselves to returning Lebanon to the international community and to carrying out the necessary reforms to advance the country and lay the foundations of a state of law and justice . France will remain vigilant about this and will accompany these necessary steps that you aspire for...""By combining our forces and energies, I suggest that we work together to achieve this. I wish you a year full of hope and renewal,” Grillo concluded.

Khalaf: Enough with intransigence in failing to manage the minimum level of citizen affairs!
NNA/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
MP Melhem Khalaf tweeted today on the electricity dossier, saying: “What kind of darkness is this that these failed authoritarians have plunged us into in the electricity issue? Fuel has been off the coast for weeks, and as usual, they have no sense, no decision, no responsibility, no conscience...Rather, empty political grudges that are costly for the people! Enough intransigence in failing to manage the minimum level of citizen affairs! Your natural place is: prison!"

Why Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan rank among the ‘world’s angriest countries’
Rawan Radwan/Arab News/January 08, 2023
2022 was a year of mounting anxiety, frayed tempers and violent unrest for millions in the Arab world
A Gallup poll found public anger widespread and growing, something governments ought to take seriously
JEDDAH: Many breathed a sigh of relief when 2022 drew to a close, marking the conclusion of 12 months of post-pandemic fatigue, geopolitical tension and global economic instability, to name but a few of the past year’s challenges.
One result of the year’s volatility and upsets is the pervading sense of anger coursing through societies, fed up with the litany of back-to-back crises — solutions for which appear to evade governments and global institutions.
The Arab world has been no exception. Three Middle Eastern countries ranked among the world’s angriest in Gallup’s latest annual Global Emotions Report, owing in large part to a rage-inducing mixture of socio-economic pressures and institutional failings.
Just as the world economy appeared to be recovering from the lockdowns, supply-chain disruptions and travel bans of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine sent inflation spiralling, with rising food and fuel prices falling heavily on the world’s poorest.
Add to this the corrosive effects of political instability, corruption and suspected climate change, and the past year unsurprisingly proved to be a period of mounting anxiety, frayed tempers and violent unrest for millions worldwide.
In the Middle East and North Africa, where price fluctuations, climate shocks and protracted political crises have been keenly felt, Gallup’s polling found public anger is widespread and growing — a development experts say regional governments ought to take seriously.
Gallup first began tracking global unhappiness in 2006 with a methodology based on nationally representative, probability-based samples among the adult population, aged 15 and above, collected from 122 countries. It found that negative emotions — the aggregate of stress, sadness, anger, worry and physical pain — reached a record high last year, with 41 percent of adults globally saying they had experienced stress the previous day. Furthermore, these negative emotions appear to be growing, with 2021 displacing 2020 as the most stressful year in recent history. In the past decade, the Arab world has been roiled by mass protests, regime collapse, corruption, scandals, wars and mass migrations, disrupting regional priorities and internal dynamics.
In the latest Gallup Global Emotions Report, Lebanon topped the list for the highest share of respondents — 49 percent — reporting feelings of anger the previous day. Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of its worst-ever financial crisis, which has wiped 95 percent off the value of its currency and left much of the population subsisting below the poverty line. Meanwhile, with its parliament in paralysis and unable to elect a new president, the country has failed to implement essential structural reforms to address institutional corruption and alleviate the suffering of its people. Millions of Lebanese, many of them still traumatized by the Beirut port blast of August 2020, have chosen to leave the country, including many young people and skilled workers, fed up with poor conditions and a lack of opportunities.
Iraq, which faced a year of political paralysis in the wake of its October 2021 parliamentary election, came fourth in the Gallup anger rankings with 46 percent, while Jordan, itself struggling with persistent inflation, came sixth at 35 percent.
Jordan has seen several waves of protest in recent years due to its rising cost of living and high rates of unemployment, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.
FASTFACTS
Lebanon ranked 1st with 49% of respondents reporting feelings of anger the previous day.
Iraq, which faced a year of political paralysis following its 2021 election, came 4th with 46%.
Jordan, which is struggling with spiraling inflation and high unemployment, came 6th at 35%.
(Gallup Global Emotions Report)
Julie Ray, managing director of Gallup World Poll News, says she is not surprised that Lebanon featured so high on the 2021 list given its multilayered crisis.
“Lebanon was in the throes of political and economic meltdown. People were struggling to put food on their tables and taking to the streets. The situation was so fraught that Gallup also saw a record 63 percent of Lebanese adults saying they would leave if they could,” Ray told Arab News.
Julie Ray, managing director of Gallup World Poll Content. (Supplied)
“Now, the presence of a number of Arab countries at the top of the ‘most angry’ list is also not that surprising given that many of these countries have been on the ‘most negative in the world’ list almost every year.
“Iraq is a good example. About half of the population (or more) in Iraq have felt angry the previous day since 2010. And majorities in the country have experienced a lot of stress and worry.”
Michael Young, a senior editor at Carnegie Middle East in Beirut, says it is understandable many Lebanese feel some form of anger and frustration, as “the system simply does not work, at any level.”
“People feel constantly robbed,” he told Arab News. “The system is completely dominated by these cartels. If the people want to get something from the state, the state, half of the time, isn’t functioning.
“So, the Lebanese feel that they’re being robbed on a daily basis. They’re paying much more than other countries, and they’re getting services that are far more mediocre than anywhere else in the world.
“Since the collapse, many services have declined. Hospitals, education and everything pertaining to energy, and naturally, this has created much frustration. You had many people who were essentially middle-class people who suddenly found themselves in poverty.
“To top it off, the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, in which more than 200 people were killed, half of Beirut was destroyed, and no one was held responsible. When you live in this kind of environment, it is very understandable that you are angry.”
This constant struggle has left many Lebanese feeling understandably frustrated. However, Young says that expectations play an important role in feelings of dissatisfaction.
Compare, for instance, a nation such as Lebanon — a middle-income country that has seen a sudden decline in services and political stability since 2019 — with the likes of Afghanistan, a poor country crippled by war for nearly half a century.
“When you have a nation like Afghanistan, where it’s been riddled with endless conflict and standards of living shooting down since the 1970s, (low expectations are) understandable,” Young told Arab News.
“If your expectations are high, and the reality is very short of these expectations, this will make you more angry than if your expectations are low and what you get in return is also relatively low.
“The question of expectations is a main generator of Lebanese frustration. The Lebanese were used to a life that suddenly, in one way or another, catastrophically collapsed.”
Afghanistan, which had been among the world’s most corrupt nations and which saw the Taliban return to power in August 2021, was ranked fifth angriest in Gallup’s poll at 41 percent.
In recent decades, reported negative emotions have been steadily rising in Gallup’s polling. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accentuated this trend. But, as Ray points out, “every country is different.”
“The common thread we tend to see in countries where negative experiences are high is crisis. The populations are all living through some sort of turmoil — be that economic, political or social.”
The question that arises from the data, however, is whether analysts and governments can predict how populations will react if their grievances are not addressed. Are angry populations more likely to elect populist leaders or even rise up against their rulers?
“These data don’t predict how people will act, but how people feel certainly affects how they act,” Ray said.
“Other non-Gallup researchers have found relationships between negative emotions — like anger, worry, stress and sadness — and civil unrest or populist beliefs and voting.”
What is clear from the data is that governments cannot measure the well-being of their societies based merely on gross domestic product and market data .
“How people feel does matter,” Ray said. “Leaders should pay attention to these data, along with GDP and other metrics they are watching.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/2023
Analysts: Iran Regime Divided on How to Tackle Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Iran's regime is divided in its response to months of unprecedented protests, wavering between repression and what it views as conciliatory gestures trying to quell the discontent, analysts say. "The conflicting messages we are getting from the Iranian regime suggest an internal debate on how to deal with ongoing protests," said Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver. "In most authoritarian regimes, there are hawks and doves" who disagree on how repressive the state should be during crises, he said. The granting of retrials to several death-row protesters, and the release from detention of prominent dissidents, are signs that some seek to take a softer approach, AFP reported. But a reminder of the hardline tack came Saturday when Iran executed two men for killing a paramilitary member during protest-related unrest. Demonstrations began after the September 16 death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, 22. She had been arrested by morality police who enforce a strict dress code which requires women to wear a scarf-like covering over their hair and neck. The protests have escalated into calls for an end to the regime, posing the biggest challenge for the clerics since the 1979 revolution deposed the shah. Authorities have responded with deadly violence that has left hundreds dead. Thousands have been arrested and 14 detainees sentenced to hang, many for killing or attacking security force members, according to the judiciary. The Supreme Court has upheld some of the death sentences and a total of four men have now been executed. The judiciary has also announced retrials for six of the 14. This reflects a "political calculus", said US-based Iran expert Mehrzad Boroujerdi, co-author of "Post-Revolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook". "They know that mass executions will bring more people into the streets and further agitate them. On the other hand, they want to send a signal that they are not reticent to execute protesters so that people are intimidated." In what analysts see as another attempt to calm the situation, two prominent dissidents arrested early during the protests, Majid Tavakoli and Hossein Ronaghi, were freed weeks later. Ronaghi had been on a hunger strike. The regime is using "everything from pressure release valves to long prison terms and executions. They are experimenting with these as they struggle to formulate a more clearly articulated policy," Boroujerdi said. Anoush Ehteshami, director of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the UK's Durham University, said the retrials partly reflected mounting foreign and domestic pressure. "But also within the regime there is division about how to handle this," Ehteshami said, with hardliners on one side and others who see executions as further encouraging resistance. Retrials and the release of dissidents are "measures of appeasement... to try and throw a bone" to the protesters, he added. While such measures may appear insignificant, from the perspective of a "securitized, beleaguered regime... they think they are being magnanimous and responding to public pressure".

Marches in Europe support Iran protests, assail government
LYON, France (AP)/January 8, 2023
Hundreds of people marched Sunday in France to honor an Iranian Kurdish man who took his own life in a desperate act of anguish over the nationwide protests in Iran. French police estimated the size of the crowd that gathered for Mohammad Moradi at about 1,000 people. They marched in the city of Lyon, where the 38-year-old Moradi took his own life in December, drowning in the Rhone river. In videos in Farsi and French recorded before his death, Moradi criticized Iran’s leadership and called for solidarity from Western governments against it. The recordings featured him saying, “When you see this video, I will be dead.”The protesters Sunday marched with placards that read “stop executions in Iran” and other slogans. Some traveled from other parts of France. Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Rome and London in support of the Iranian protest movement. Moradi arrived in France in 2019 with his wife and was pursuing a Ph.D. in history. His death resonated among the Iranian diaspora. “Mohammad took his life with incredible courage,” said Lili Mohadjer, one of the Lyon march organizers, who addressed the crowd. “His hope was that the media and Western governments continue to support the Iranian people.”
The protests in Iran began in mid-September, over the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly removing the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.
Sunday's marchers in Lyon shouted Moradi's name. They also observed a minute of silence for him and for two men that Iran said it executed on Saturday for allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer during a demonstration. Iran’s judiciary identified those executed as Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, making it four men known to have been executed since the demonstrations began in September. All have faced internationally criticized, rapid, closed-door trials. The Lyon marchers also paid homage to victims of the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2020 that killed 176 people. Iran’s military mistakenly downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 with two surface-to-air missiles. In London, protesters waved Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag as they marched to Trafalgar Square and carried banners with pictures of demonstrators killed by the Islamic Republic’s authorities. They chanted “woman, life, freedom,” a slogan of the Iranian movement. Outside the Iranian Embassy in Rome, demonstrators chanted “killers!” and stacked up boxes outside its closed doors containing signed petitions. The Turin daily La Stampa spearheaded the collection of 300,000 signatures against what it decried as “unjust incarcerations, torture, death sentences of those in Iran demonstrating peacefully to change their own country.”Turin and other Italian cities and towns also saw protests against Iran’s crackdown.
Among the demonstrators in Rome was opposition lawmaker Mara Carfagna. In a tweet, Carfagna decried the death sentences and “the brutal repression against women and young people.” She asked Premier Giorgia Meloni to press for a European Union initiative when the Italian leader meets in Rome on Monday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Jill Lawless in London, and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed to this report.
*This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 988 in the U.S. or contact 988lifeline.org. Helplines in other countries can be found on befrienders.org.

Iranian Held in Germany Suspected of Chemical Plot
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
An Iranian man has been arrested in western Germany suspected of preparing an attack using cyanide and ricin, police and prosecutors said Sunday. Munster police and the Dusseldorf prosecutors' office said in a press release that officers searched a residence in the town of Castrop-Rauxel for "toxic substances" intended to carry out an attack. The 32-year-old Iranian was "suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence threatening the security of the state by obtaining cyanide and ricin” with a view to committing an attack, said investigators. Another person was arrested during the operation and taken into custody, AFP quoted them as saying. The main suspect will be presented in the coming days to an investigating judge ahead of possible pre-trial detention, they added. According to The Associated Press, German news agency dpa reported that specialists wearing anti-contamination suits carried evidence out of the man's home. Tabloid newspaper Bild reported that German authorities had received a tip from an allied intelligence agency about the alleged plans for a chemical attack.

US Condemns New Iran Protester Executions in 'Strongest Terms'
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
The US State Department on Saturday condemned "in the strongest terms" what it said were the "sham trials & execution" of two men in Iran for killing a paramilitary force member during protests sparked by a young woman's death in custody. "These executions are a key component of the regime's effort to suppress protests. We continue to work with partners to pursue accountability for Iran's brutal crackdown," State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Twitter. The latest hangings double the number of executions to four over the nationwide unrest, which has escalated since mid-September into calls for an end to Iran's clerical regime. Iranian authorities have arrested thousands in their crackdown on the wave of demonstrations that began after the September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish woman Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran's dress code for women.

Britain Says Iran’s Execution of Two Protesters Is ‘Abhorrent’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
British foreign minister James Cleverly on Saturday condemned Iran's execution of two protesters and urged it to "immediately end the violence against its own people". "The execution of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini by the Iranian regime is abhorrent," Cleverly said on Twitter. "The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances." Iran hanged the two men for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests that started after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini last September.

Iraqi Defense Shot Down Drone over Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Air Base
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Defense systems at Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts US forces, intercepted and shot down a drone while it was hovering near the base, Iraqi military sources said on Sunday. The sources said it was not clear whether the drone was on a surveillance mission or if it was carrying any explosives. No damages or casualties were reported, the sources added.

Iraq Reopens Baghdad’s Green Zone to Ease Traffic Jams
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 January, 2023
Iraqi authorities reopened Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday in an attempt to ease traffic jams in the capital after it was closed and reopened several times in recent years. Starting in the early hours of the day, Iraqi authorities removed checkpoints and opened major roads and tunnels that cut through the zone on the west bank of the Tigris River. Cars will be allowed to pass through the area while trucks will be banned, officials said. The Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and the sprawling US Embassy, will be open every day for 14 hours starting at 5 a.m., Maj. Gen. Jassim Yahya told The Associated Press. During that period, Yahya said, “all the Green Zone will be open for the public.” The 4-square mile (10-square kilometer) zone with its palm trees and monuments has been mostly off limits to the public since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein. It was opened for the first time in 2019, then closed and opened again several times since. “The Green Zone has been opened to make it easy for people to reach work on time,” said traffic police Brig. Gen. Muhammad Mahmoud. He added that the opening of the area was ordered by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. In the past, only Iraqis with special security badges could enter the area. The walled off area surrounded by cement blast walls became a hated symbol of the country’s inequality, fueling the perception among Iraqis that their government is out of touch.
“We have been waiting for a long time for the Green Zone to fully become open,” said Baghdad resident Usama Hassan who works at Baghdad University. “This will make our life easier.”

Aid Convoy Enters Syrian Opposition Area Ahead of Key UN Vote
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2023
A humanitarianAn aerial view shows trucks carrying aid packages from the World Food Program (WFP) driving through the town of Saraqib in the northwestern Idlib province on January 8, 2023. (AFP) convoy on Sunday delivered urgently needed supplies to Syria's last opposition stronghold, a day before the UN Security Council is set to vote on a resolution that would determine whether aid deliveries to the war-stricken territory can continue. Syria’s conflict has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million since it began in March 2011.
The convoy of 18 trucks entered the area of Idlib through frontlines held by Syrian government forces. Russia, which is allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, has moved to replace humanitarian aid crossing the Turkish border into Syria with convoys like Sunday's shipment, which pass through government-controlled areas. In the early years of the war, Türkiye strongly supported Syria’s opposition. In July, the UN Security Council approved a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to Idlib, which is home to 4.1 million people. Many of the people sheltering in the area have been internally displaced by the nearly 12-year conflict. Russia is expected to abstain in Monday’s vote. The draft resolution would continue aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to opposition-held northwest Syria for six months, until July 10. In Idlib, dozens of paramedics on Sunday protested outside a main medical center against any attempt by Russia at the UN to prevent the flow of aid from Türkiye. On Friday, 14 aid trucks crossed from Türkiye through the Bab al-Hawa frontier point — Idlib’s only land connection with the outside world. Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a report that the already dire humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening, and said if aid deliveries from Türkiye to Idlib aren’t renewed millions of Syrians may not survive the winter. In July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Türkiye for humanitarian aid into the northern Syrian opposition stronghold. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa, and this has been the case since. Russia has repeatedly said the cross-border aid deliveries that began in 2014 were meant to be temporary. Guterres said deliveries have increased across conflict lines within the country, like Sunday’s delivery, which Russia has pressed for. But he said they cannot substitute for “the size or scope of the massive cross-border United Nations operation.”

Moscow ends self-proclaimed ceasefire, vows to press ahead in Ukraine
Reuters/Sun, January 8, 2023
Russia's bombing of regions in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people overnight, local officials said on Sunday, after Moscow ended a self-declared Christmas ceasefire and vowed to push on with combat until it reaches a victory over its neighbour. President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact from Friday at midday to observe Russia and Ukraine's Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday.Ukraine rejected the truce, and the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said Russian troops had shelled dozens of positions and settlements along the front line on Saturday.
A 50-year-old man died in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as a result of Russia's shelling overnight, Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app. The news came minutes after midnight in Moscow. One person was killed in another attack overnight on Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, local officials said. Reuters could not immediately verify this. Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians have traditionally celebrated Christmas on Jan. 7, as have Orthodox Christians in Russia. But this year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the country's largest, allowed also for a Dec. 25 celebration. Still, many observed the holiday on Saturday, flocking into churches and cathedrals.The Kremlin said Moscow will press ahead with what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, an invasion that it launched on Feb. 24 and that Kyiv and its Western allies call an unprovoked aggression to grab land. "The tasks set by the president (Putin) for the special military operation will still be fulfilled," the Russian state TASS agency quoted Putin's first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, as saying.
"And there definitely will be a victory."
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of Ukrainians. Ukrainian officials reported blasts in regions that make up the broader Donbas region - the war's frontline where fighting has been raging for months. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, said that there were nine missile strikes on the region overnight, including seven on the battered city of Kramatorsk. Blasts were also heard in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the administrative centre of the Zaporizhzhia region, a local official said, without giving any immediate report on damage or casualties.
Shellfire echoed on Saturday around the near-deserted streets of Bakhmut, an eastern city that is currently the focus of the most intense fighting. Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, said on TV there was heavy fighting in the region and Russian forces had deployed their most combat-ready units and heavy equipment to the city of Kriminna that they occupy, which he said meant the Russians were slowly retreating in the region. With nighttime temperatures dipping to minus 15-17 Celsius degrees (5 to 1 Fahrenheit), fighting activity would soon increase as hard frosts mean it is easier to move heavy equipment, Haidai added. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russia is planning a major new offensive. The Pentagon said on Friday that Putin's aim of seizing Ukrainian territory has not changed, even if his military continues to suffer blows. There has been growing concerns that Belarus - a staunch backer of Moscow - could be used as a staging post to attack Ukraine from the north after increasing military activity in the country and fresh transfer of Russian troops there. Unofficial Telegram channels monitoring military activity in Belarus reported late on Saturday that some 1,400-1,600 Russian troops arrived from Russia into the northeastern city of Vitebsk in Belarus over the past two days. Reuters was not able to independently verify the information.

Ukraine Latest: War’s Massive Minefield; Putin’s Failed Gambit
Bloomberg News/Sun, January 8, 2023
The cease-fire unilaterally declared by Moscow over Orthodox Christmas ended Saturday night. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian troops had violated Vladimir Putin’s order, continuing to shell the town of Bakhmut and other Ukrainian positions. Ukraine’s general staff said civilian infrastructure was targeted by multiple missile strikes. The Biden administration on Friday unveiled its latest, $2.85 billion package of weapons for Ukraine, including powerful offensive equipment that was previously withheld.
Ukraine announced sanctions against 119 mostly Russian cultural figures, including soprano Anna Netrebko and various show business personalities and propagandists. Ukraine’s prime minister said Russia’s invasion has created a minefield the size of the UK.
On the Ground
Ukraine’s forces repelled Russian attacks near 16 settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the General Staff said on Facebook. Russian forces continue offensive in the direction of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Lyman. Ukrainian aviation delivered 21 strikes at Russian strongholds and three strikes at Russian anti-aircraft complexes. Three Russian reconnaissance drones were downed. A UN mission delivering humanitarian aid to Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region came under Russian shelling, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said. The outskirts of Zaporizhzhia were also shelled. A civilian was killed in missile strikes on the town of Merefa in the Kharkiv region. Mild weather, an expanded array of suppliers and efforts to reduce demand are taking the sting out of Vladimir Putin’s plan to squeeze Europe by weaponizing energy. Gas reserves are still nearly full, and prices have tumbled to pre-war levels.
“The danger of a complete economic meltdown, a core meltdown of European industry, has — as far as we can see — been averted,” said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
An explosion at a gas pipeline near Luthuhyne in Luhansk on Saturday left about 13,000 people without gas supplies, Interfax reported. A preliminary investigation showed the blast was deliberate, the newswire said, citing emergency ministry of the occupation administration.
Russia’s war has resulted in a minefield of some 250,000 square kilometers (96,000 square miles), Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. That would be roughly the size of the UK.
“It is currently the largest minefield in the world,” Shmyhal said in an interview published on Sunday. “It’s not only making it difficult for people to travel, but also causing major disruptions in farming, which is one of our main industries.”Russia Bracing for New Ukrainian Counteroffensive, UK Says (8 a.m.)
Kremlin troops have bolstered defensive fortifications in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast in anticipation of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive either in northern Luhansk or in Zaporizhzhia, the UK defense ministry said in a Twitter Update. “Deciding which of these threats to prioritize countering is likely one of the central dilemmas for Russian operational planners,” the UK said.
Russian forces are violating their own cease-fire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. He said Russian shells again hit Bakhmut, a city’s that has been embattled for months, and other Ukrainian positions. The president noted the number of Ukrainian soldiers who attended a Christmas service in the 11th-century Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, where services were held in Ukrainian for the first time in decades.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree Saturday imposing sanctions on 119 individuals, most of them Russian show business and film stars, as well as media personalities.
The list includes Vienna-based opera singer Anna Netrebko, Oscar-winning movie director Nikita Mikhalkov and pop singer Dmitry (Dima) Bilan, who has performed at the Eurovision song contest.
The list also includes nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, whose daughter was killed in a car bombing in August; Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state-run RT media group; and the heads of think-tanks known to advise the Kremlin, including Fyodor Lukyanov and Sergei Karaganov. Russian forces are firing “along the entire contact line” as the 36-hour cease-fire declared by President Vladimir Putin enters its final hours, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter, without offering more details.
The halt in hostilities, tied by Putin to Orthodox Christmas holiday, is scheduled to end at midnight Moscow time, or 10pm CET. Russia’s defense ministry said Saturday its troops were repelling Ukrainian offensives in the Donetsk region.
In extending best wishes to members of the Eastern churches celebrating Orthodox Christmas on Saturday, the pontiff sent greetings “in particular” to “the suffering people of Ukraine” and called for concrete steps toward peace. Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin warned against delays in decisions on future military support, days after Germany’s government announced it would supply Kyiv with Marder infantry fighting vehicles. Oleksii Makeiev said he was optimistic that Leopard-type tanks might be offered next. The Iris-T air defense system and Gepard flak tanks previously provided by Germany were “already showing a fantastic result” in intercepting Russian missiles and drones, and the Marders “will benefit our ground forces enormously,” Makeiev told the German magazine WirtschaftsWoche. It’s understandable that Germany wants to coordinate decisions with its partners, “but it is crucial not to hesitate too long in supplying weapons. Every day costs us many lives,” Makeiev said.

Russia bombards eastern Ukraine as self-proclaimed Christmas ceasefire comes to an end
Namita Singh/The Independent/January 8, 2023
Russian troops bombarded eastern Ukraine early on Sunday, bringing an end to the 36-hour unilateral ceasefire that president Vladimir Putin ordered around Orthodox Christmas. A 50-year-old man died in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as a result of Russia’s shelling, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the region said on the Telegram messaging app, sharing the news minutes after midnight in Moscow. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region in Ukraine, said that there were nine missile strikes on the region overnight, including seven on the battered city of Kramatorsk. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties. Blasts were also heard in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the administrative centre of the Zaporizhzhia region, a local official said, without giving any immediate details on damage or casualties. The call of a temporary truce had little impact, after widespread reports of infantry fighting as well as artillery fire heard from the frontline. Air raid sirens have also rang out across the country, including the capital Kyiv, during the 36-hour period. The Russian president announce a ceasefire from midday on Friday after the head of the Russian Orthodox church, which uses the Julian calendar, suggested that Christmas fell on Saturday. But Ukrainian officials denounced the unilateral pause as a ploy and said it appeared to have been ignored by some of Moscow’s own forces anyway, pressing ahead with the nearly 11-month invasion. Ukrainian officials reported Russian shelling attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions on Saturday. Russia’s defense ministry insisted that all its forces along the 1,100km frontline were observing the Kremlin-ordered truce, but returned fire when attacked. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president praised the US for including tank-killing armored vehicles in its latest multibillion-dollar package of military aid, saying they are "exactly what is needed" for the battle against Russia. The White House on Friday announced $3.75bn in weapons and other aid for Kyiv, the biggest package to date. It included 50 Bradley armored vehicles and 500 of the anti-tank missiles they are equipped to fire. Germany also announced it would supply around 40 Marder armored personnel carriers and France promised wheeled AMX-10 RC tank destroyers. Together, this week’s pledges were powerful signals that Ukraine can count on continued long-term Western aid against Mr Putin’s drive to dismember the country. In his nightly televised address on Friday, the Ukrainian president hailed the US aid package as "very powerful”. "For the first time, we will get Bradley armored vehicles – this is exactly what is needed. New guns and rounds, including high-precision ones, new rockets, new drones. It is timely and strong," Volodymyr Zelensky said. He thanked US president Joe Biden, US lawmakers and "all the Americans who appreciate freedom, and who know that freedom is worth protecting".
*Additional reporting by agencies

Famed US lawyer, defender of Israel, opposes legal overhaul
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)/Sun, January 8, 2023
Prominent U.S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz, long a staunch defender of Israel's policies on the international stage, said Sunday he cannot defend sweeping judicial reforms planned by Israel's new government. The proposals call for an overhaul aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, including by allowing lawmakers to pass laws that the Supreme Court has struck down. The reforms would give politicians more power over how judges are chosen and limit the independence of government legal advisers, among other steps.
The legal reforms were essential to solidifying the current coalition government, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and made up of conservative ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties who seek to advance their agenda through less judicial oversight.
Dershowitz said the reforms pose a threat to civil liberties and minority rights in Israel. “If I were in Israel I would be joining the protests,” Dershowitz told Israeli Army Radio, referring to a protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the reforms that drew thousands.
“It will make it much more difficult for people like me who try to defend Israel in the international court of public opinion to defend them effectively,” he said. “It would be a tragedy to see the Supreme Court weakened.”It was unusual to hear Dershowitz, who has written bestselling books supporting Israeli policies and is close to Netanyahu, so forcefully opposing the proposed reforms. Dershowitz said he had informed Netanyahu recently of his “very strong, negative views” of the reforms, saying they would also expose Israel to legal challenges by global bodies such as the International Criminal Court.
The reforms could also help Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, evade a conviction or see his trial disappear entirely. Dershowitz said he believed Netanyahu agreed to the reforms not to save himself from a conviction but rather to appease the partners of his new governing coalition. At a meeting of his Cabinet later Sunday, Netanyahu defended the reforms, saying any change will be carried out cautiously. “The claim that this reform is the end of democracy is absolutely baseless,” he said. Critics accuse 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. The government says the plan strikes the right balance between the executive and judicial branches while streamlining governance and legislation.

Palestinian FM: Israel revokes travel permit over UN move
JERUSALEM (AP)/Sun, January 8, 2023
The Palestinian foreign minister said Sunday that Israel revoked his travel permit, part of a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians that Israel's new hard-line government announced days ago. Riad Malki said in a statement that he was returning from the Brazilian president's inauguration when he was informed that Israel rescinded his travel permit, which allows top Palestinian officials to travel easily in and out of the occupied West Bank, unlike ordinary Palestinians. Israel's government on Friday approved the steps to penalize the Palestinians in retaliation for them pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation. The decision highlights the tough line the current government is already taking toward the Palestinians just days into its tenure. It comes at a time of spiking violence in the occupied West Bank and as peace talks are a distant memory. In east Jerusalem, a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, Israeli police said they broke up a meeting by Palestinian parents about their children’s education, claiming it was unlawfully funded by the Palestinian Authority. Police said the operation came at the behest of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist with a long record of anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts who now oversees the police. The Palestinians condemned the revoking of Malki's permit, saying Israel should be the one being “punished for its violations against international law.” Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday the measures were aimed at what he called “an extreme anti-Israel” step at the U.N. On Friday, the government's Security Cabinet decided Israel would withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and transfer the funds instead to a compensation program for the families of Israeli victims of Palestinian militant attacks.
It also said Israel would further deduct revenue it typically transfers to the cash-strapped PA — a sum equal to the amount the authority paid last year to families of Palestinian prisoners and those killed in the conflict, including militants implicated in attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian leadership describes the payments as necessary social welfare, while Israel says the so-called Martyrs’ Fund incentivizes violence. Israel’s withheld funds threaten to exacerbate the PA’s fiscal woes. The Security Cabinet also targeted Palestinian officials directly, saying it would deny benefits to “VIPs who are leading the political and legal war against Israel.”The police operation Saturday came days after Ben-Gvir took office. Police alleged the parents' meeting was funded by the Palestinian Authority and attended by PA activists, which it said was in violation of Israeli law. Police said they prevented the meeting from taking place and that they were operating under an order by Ben-Gvir to shut it down. Police declined to provide evidence backing up their claim and a spokesman for Ben-Gvir referred questions to the police. Ziad Shamali, head of the Students' Parents' Committees Union in Jerusalem, which was holding the meeting, denied there was any PA involvement, saying it was being held to discuss a shortage of teachers in east Jerusalem schools. He said he viewed the claim of PA ties as “a political pretext to ban” the meeting. The Palestinian Authority was created to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. Israel opposes any official business being carried out by the PA in east Jerusalem, and police have in the past broken up events they alleged were linked to the PA. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it, a move unrecognized by most of the international community. Israel considers the city its undivided, eternal capital. The Palestinians seek the city's eastern sector as the capital of their hoped-for state. About a third of the city's population is Palestinian and they have long faced neglect and discrimination at the hands of Israeli authorities, including in education, housing and public services.

Cyprus' new archbishop enthroned, no Russian clerics attend
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)/Sun, January 8, 2023
The head of Cyprus' Orthodox Church Archbishop Georgios formally assumed his new duties Sunday following an enthronement ceremony evoking the splendor of centuries of Byzantine tradition before an audience of clergy from around the world with the notable exception of the Russian church.
Russian Patriarch Kirill sent no representatives at the St. Barnabas Cathedral ceremony following following the Cyprus Church's decision to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's independence, in line with the position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul. Conversely, the Ukrainian Church’s Metropolitan Symeon and Archbishop Efstratios were in attendance as Archbishop Georgios, bedecked in crimson and gold-trimmed liturgical vestments, trailed a procession of senior clerics into the cathedral. Although some pro-Russia bishops dissented against the 2020 decision by the 16-member Holy Synod, the Cyprus Church's highest decision-making body, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24 consolidated that support. The Russian Orthodox Church cut ties with Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I after he granted independence to Ukraine's Orthodox church in 2019. In an interview with the Greek weekly newspaper To Vima, Archbishop Georgios said the Cypriot church's backing for Bartholomew's decision flowed out of orthodoxy's own laws that put the Ecumenical Patriarchate's primacy over all other Orthodox churches. But he offered an olive branch to the Russian church, saying he would reach out to Moscow to dispel any notions of enmity and help restore Orthodox unity. Christian unity was the central message of greetings by Pope Francis conveyed by the papal nuncio to Cyprus Adolfo Tito Yllana. “I know that your Beatitude will continue in this commitment to fostering the unity of all Christ’s disciples," said the Nuncio. “In these difficult times marked by injustice, violence and war, it is all the more important that Christians give an authentic witness of unity so that the world they believe in the Lord’s message of love, reconciliation and peace."
Georgios' enthronement became official after he signed the Church's constitution with red ink — a privilege granted to the head of the Cyprus Church by the fifth-century Byzantine Emperor Zeno after he was gifted a gospel found in the tomb of the Cyprus Church's founder and apostle of Christ, Barnabas. In his own address, the Archbishop said his prime goal will be to reinvigorate the Christian message in modern spiritual discourse, carry on with the Church's outreach to the poor and to convey that scientific thought isn't in conflict with the precepts of Christianity. He also said the Church would continue to have a voice in matters of education and would oppose any political negotiations aimed at resolving Cyprus' ethnic cleave that would embolden Turkey's “expansionism" and facilitate Ankara's full control of the country.
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup aimed at union with Greece. Georgios was elected archbishop last month following the death of his predecessor Archibshop Chrysostomos II after a long battle with cancer. The new Archbishop studied chemistry and theology in Greece and later in the U.K. before rising through the ranks within the church to be elected Paphos bishop in 2006.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 08-09/2023
Erdogan and the Geopolitical Considerations of the Turkish Presidential Elections
Raghida Dergham/January 08/2023
Who is afraid of Recep Tayyip Erdogan? The man behind the dream of Greater Turkey is planning to win another presidential terms in the elections in the spring. The elections will not have just local importance but will have big geopolitical implications. So who wants him to win and who is afraid of his victory on the world stage?
Russian President Vladimir Putin leads the camp of those who need Erdogan to remain president. For Russia, the reasons are existential, because Putin has staked the whole Russian-Turkish relationship on Erdogan personally, given how much he needs him owing to the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions. For Russia, the issue not just politics, but also economic survival. And despite the complicated relationship between the two men, Putin fears Erdogan’s absence from the scene now, not his presence on it.
European leaders are for their part afraid of Erdogan’s stubborn personality and policies that they see as provocative and opportunistic on various issues, from the standoff with Greece to his encouragement of migration to Europe.
The US administration and Congress both fear a new Erdogan term, which could establish him as a neo-Ottoman ‘sultan’ as he aspires to be, in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, Caucasus, and even Europe through the Russian gateway. Moreover, Erdogan has become a thorn in the side of NATO, a rogue who deviates from the ‘culture’ of the alliance.
In turn, the Iranian leadership fears Erdogan and his regional project that rivals its own and vies with it for dominance. Tehran does not want Ankara to expand at its expense in the Arab geography and sees Erdogan a threat to be reckoned with.
Arab leaders do not trust Erdogan and his alleged dissociation from the Muslim Brotherhood, which they see as a threat. Countries like Egypt and the Arab Gulf states are normalizing relations with Erdogan to open a new page. But they know who he is and fear his regional ambitions.
Israel has experienced the bitter taste of Erdogan’s impulses. Tel Aviv sees him as a permanent friend of Hamas and as a saboteur of its projects from Syria to Sudan.
Iraq’s problems with Erdogan’s Turkey are related to its territorial integrity and sovereignty and their Kurdish dimensions, and thus fears him. Syria fears him even more, given the threat he poses to its territories, and his support for terrorist groups, and now, given Putin’s need to appease Erdogan with implications for Syria.
Erdogan poses a challenge to everyone today. For this reason, the Turkish presidential elections are not strictly local but carry big geopolitical implications.
The biggest loser from an Erdogan defeat would be Russia. The fate of the the Russian economy now hinges on Erdogan personally; if he were to be defeated in the elections, the Russian economy could well collapse. Today, Russia almost completely relies on sanctions-busting trade with Turkey, including oil exports, tanker transit, technology transfer, and other activities affected by US and European sanctions on Russia. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, trade between the two countries doubled – along with Western frustration over the increasingly warm relations between the two leaders and their governments, be this temporary or not.
For Putin, an Erdogan defeat would mean the defeat of his own regional and international policies, given how the Turkish president has become an economic and political lifeline for Putin. Erdogan has become a rare partner of Putin, alongside the likes of Hungary’s President Viktor Orban even as the West insists on isolating him internationally. This infuriates the West and prompts it to resent an Erdogan victory in the spring election.
Washington is angry because the Turkish president is Putin’s lifeline. The United States is now threatening to impose secondary sanctions on Turkey if it continues helping Russia dodge sanctions. Washington can inflict devastating damage on Turkey’s economy, for example if it imposes financial sanctions and blocks banking transactions with Turkey. That would be a devastating move that could destroy the already brittle Turkish economy. But Erdogan appears confident this would not happen, and if it did, he could exploit it in the election by accusing the United States of attacking his country.
The last meeting held between the ministers of defence of Russia, Turkey, and Syria in Moscow riled the US administration and triggered a campaign against normalization of relations with Bashar al-Assad. However, the real anger was directed at the Turkish president, who is resolved that this trajectory is crucial for his electoral chances.
Erdogan is seeking a deal to exit the corner he had backed himself into, when he had stubbornly threatened to launch military operations in Syria to establish a buffer zone along the Turkish border. Erdogan has realized the extent of the possible fallout of such an offensive for his electoral chances and has thus sought an offramp.
According to informed sources, Erdogan has requested absolute guarantees from Moscow that Russia and Syria would not cause Turkey further problems that would then precipitate Turkish operations inside Syrian territory. He asked for guarantees to maintain the status quo for the next six months until the elections. In this manner, Erdogan can present these guarantees as a triumph of his policies, giving him leverage in the elections.
Putin will give Erdogan what he wants because he needs him and because the Turkish elections are now one among his priorities too. Erdogan’s role as an intermediary between the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships is crucial for Putin, but even more important is Erdogan’s role as a saboteur inside NATO. Erdogan is today a player in both the regional landscape, especially in Syria, and the global geopolitical landscape. In other words, a change in Turkish leadership is a change in the geopolitical equation. For this reason, the Turkish elections will be part of many international calculations.
Europe is also closely watching the Turkish elections: Erdogan’s personality is a component in the geopolitical equation. His arrogance is provocative, but it is the tools he is willing to deploy that cause fear in Europe. Moreover, getting Erdogan out of the Turkish presidency would weaken Putin, at least according to the view in Washington and European capitals. For this reason, the West is hoping to see Erdogan lose.
The Arab states are trying not to interfere in the Turkish elections. They’re following the Arab adage “Keep away from evil and sing for it if you must”. In other words, the Arab states want to keep the Turkish ‘evil’ at bay, while complying with Turkey’s demarches as a prelude for normalizing relations. However, most Arab leaders do not trust that Erdogan has truly broken with his Muslim Brotherhood project, because the latter is the crucial part of his ambitions to establish a Greater Turkey.
In the current juncture, it suits Erdogan to put his Muslim Brotherhood card in a dormant state, while making all preparations to activate it when the time comes, sooner or later. The fate of the Brotherhood is linked to his fate, and vice versa, in the context of the neo-Ottoman project in the region and the world, in turn linked to the person of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish people will ultimately decide the fate of Erdogan and Turkey. In recent times, Erdogan became a weak player. Today, he is back at the heart of the geopolitical equation, not just because he is a seasoned politician who has been able to contain the hostile Turkish military, but also because his fortunes have benefited from the eruption of the war in Ukraine.
Turkey’s membership of NATO has always been a source of tension for the remainder of the member states, who see Erdogan’s Turkey as rogue. The Turkish president imposed a new trajectory on previously secular Turkey, moving it in an Islamist direction despite the opposition of large swaths of the Turkish people. He has cut arms deals with Russia, exposing NATO security to potential risks, prompting Washington to take measures in parallel with European protestations against Erdogan’s policies that encouraged immigration to the continent through Turkey’s borders.
With Turkey moving away from NATO consensus regarding the Russian war in Ukraine, there has been growing anxiety in the West vis-à-vis the Turkish president. But Erdogan has leveraged the war to his advantage, brokering a ‘grains deal’ between Russia and Ukraine, in a move that has been welcomed internationally for helping global food security. Erdogan has also engaged in attempts at mediating between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine.
Erdogan reinvented Turkish membership of NATO and cultivated a rebel persona of someone who mutinied against the West, to serve his electoral goals. He has recalibrated his relationship with Putin, who to a large extent has fallen under Erdogan’s mercy when not long ago the shoe was on the other foot.
For all these reasons, everyone is keeping a close watch on the Turkish presidential election and its geopolitical implications. It may yet prove to be one of the year’s most fateful events, not just for Turkey and its global standing, but also Russia, which has morphed from a peacock on the world stage into a bird with broken wings, needing Iran’s military assistance and Turkey’s economic lifelines in the hope that one day it will fly again.

More Foreign Policy Confusion
Pete Hoekstra/Gatestone Institute/January 8, 2023
The recently released Biden National Security Strategy points to the "acute threat" posed by Russia to United States national security. Yet the administration continues, with the support and encouragement of the European Union, its futile attempt to restart the "nuclear deal" to enable Iran's expansionist regime to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes and the ballistic missiles to deliver them -- and on top of that, using Russia, of all countries, as its proxy negotiator.
One can only wonder at how the Biden administration believes the U.S. can negotiate the nuclear agreement using Russia, a nation it labels as an "acute threat," to work on a deal with Iran, a nation that it labels as a "persistent threat."
Not surprisingly, most Middle Eastern countries do not want to see a nuclear-armed Iran. U.S. President Joe Biden and the Saudi government made this point abundantly clear at their summit earlier this year. Given the unified messaged and shared strategic goal, you would think this would be case closed. Far from it.
It is the Saudi kingdom and its oil wells that Iran has been attacking. The Saudis might therefore be understandably alarmed by the efforts of the Biden administration to finalize a new agreement that would enable Iran to legitimately have nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia, unlike Iran, has not been invading its neighbors. At present, Iran, through its proxies, effectively controls four countries in addition to its own: Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
The rational Saudi view seems to be: Why should we help the U.S. empower a neighbor who is trying to kill us?
The Saudis, admittedly imperfect, have never encroached on their neighbors or how done anything remotely comparable -- not to mention the gruesome way Iran brutalizes its own citizens. If that is how Iran treats its own people, how can one expect it to treat other countries any better?
Why the U.S. even expected the Saudis to help it while the U.S. was cuddling up to Iran -- which has been attacking Saudi Arabia for years through its Houthi proxy in Yemen -- is unfathomable.... Why should a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead not be far behind?
Why does the U.S. continue to work on disruptive deals with countries that are "acute" and "persistent" threats to the U.S., and which will improve Iran's economy -- so that Iran can be in an even stronger position to help Russia attack its neighbors, while Iran attacks its neighbors?
The bottom line appears to be that American citizens, whose tax dollars are underwriting massive amounts of assistance to Ukraine, are paying more at the pump because the Biden Administration wants an Iranian nuclear agreement with a key supporter of Russia.
If you are confused, it is because the Biden administration's foreign policy is confused. If the Biden administration really believes Russia is an "acute threat," it needs to act like it and stop propping up Russia's allies, which are also threats to the U.S. Instead, the U.S. should be working with countries in the Middle East to support efforts against Russia.
The U.S. also needs to stop this foolish obsession with getting a new Iranian nuclear deal. It is inconsistent with all U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.
One can only wonder at how the Biden administration believes the U.S. can negotiate the nuclear agreement using Russia, a nation it labels as an "acute threat," to work on a deal with Iran, a nation that it labels as a "persistent threat." Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
A lack of clarity, previously mentioned by this author concerning the lack of clear direction and goals for the West's involvement in Ukraine, also, if you consider its many contradictions, seems to extend to much of the Biden administration's foreign policy.
The recently released Biden National Security Strategy points to the "acute threat" posed by Russia to United States national security. Yet the administration continues, with the support and encouragement of the European Union, its futile attempt to restart the "nuclear deal" to enable Iran's expansionist regime to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes and the ballistic missiles to deliver them -- and on top of that, using Russia, of all countries, as its proxy negotiator.
One can only wonder at how the Biden administration believes the U.S. can negotiate the nuclear agreement using Russia, a nation it labels as an "acute threat," to work on a deal with Iran, a nation that it labels as a "persistent threat."
Not only is Iran an ally of Russia, it is also a strong backer of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is providing Russia with "kamikaze drones," training and military advisors, all while helping Russia evade international sanctions imposed in the wake of its scorched-earth invasion of its peaceful neighbor, Ukraine. Iran is also reportedly in the process of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia, including the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar.
Another serious contradiction is how the U.S. is undercutting relations with other key players and allies in the Middle East as it tries to legitimize Iran's attempts to develop nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, most Middle Eastern countries do not want to see a nuclear-armed Iran. U.S. President Joe Biden and the Saudi government made this point abundantly clear at their summit earlier this year. Given the unified messaged and shared strategic goal, you would think this would be case closed. Far from it.
Saudi Arabia is evidently deeply concerned that the Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. is apparently still trying to negotiate, will open the door for a nuclear-armed Iran in the near future. It is the Saudi kingdom and its oil wells that Iran has been attacking. The Saudis might therefore be understandably alarmed by the efforts of the Biden administration to finalize a new agreement that would enable Iran to legitimately have nuclear weapons.
While Democrats and others opposed to Saudi Arabia have seized upon OPEC's decision to cut oil production by two million barrels per day as a pretext to bash the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia, unlike Iran, has not been invading its neighbors. At present, Iran, through its proxies, effectively controls four countries in addition to its own: Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Many leaders believe the oil-production cut was a direct signal to Biden about the Saudi's apprehensions over the continuing negotiations. The rational Saudi view seems to be: Why should we help the U.S. empower a neighbor who is trying to kill us?
Saudi leaders may well have hoped that if they offered to cooperate with the U.S., the Biden administration would, at the last minute, reciprocate by abandoning its negotiations with Iran. When that did not happen, the Saudis may have concluded, as OPEC earlier had: "If you want more oil, pump it yourself."
Oil production cutbacks in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have already had major economic consequences both in Europe and in the U.S. -- not only at the gas pump. Worldwide, electricity generation, manufacturing and transportation currently depend overwhelmingly on fossil fuels, not windmills or solar panels. Many Democrats were so concerned over the damage that could be done to the party's election prospects last November that the Biden administration even asked the Saudis to delay any cuts until after the midterms.
In response to the Saudi cuts, Biden said he will examine all aspects of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, thereby conceding that his fist-bump diplomacy was a failure. Why the U.S. even expected the Saudis to help it while the U.S. was cuddling up to Iran -- which has been attacking Saudi Arabia for years through its Houthi proxy in Yemen -- is unfathomable.
Just a few weeks into Biden's term, the U.S. removed the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, after which the Houthis launched attack drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Why should a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead not be far behind? Even so, some in Congress are calling for "NOPEC" legislation that would allow legal action in U.S. courts against OPEC as a cartel.
Imagine the confusion of the American citizen at this point. The U.S. is supplying tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine as it attempts to defeat the Russian invasion. Russia is being aided by Iran, which is helping it with weapons supply and sanctions evasion. Why does the U.S. continue to work on disruptive deals with countries that are "acute" and "persistent" threats to the U.S., and which will improve Iran's economy -- so that Iran can be in an even stronger position to help Russia attack its neighbors, while Iran attacks its neighbors?
In addition to its in-house militias such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij mercenaries, and the Quds Force, Iran does not hesitate to use its military proxies -- such as the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Iran, through Hezbollah, has approximately 200,000 missiles in Lebanon that at pointed at neighboring Israel from the north, and has been trying with Syria to do the same from Israel's northeastern border. Iran, since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, has called for "Death to Israel," which it also calls "the Little Satan" and "a one-bomb country."
The Saudis, admittedly imperfect, have never encroached on their neighbors or how done anything remotely comparable -- not to mention the gruesome way Iran brutalizes its own citizens (such as here, here and here). If that is how Iran treats its own people, how can one expect it to treat other countries any better? National security and economic alliances in the Middle East are being badly damaged by the possibility of a new Iran-U.S. agreement, especially if the U.S. seeks to punish any country opposed to its efforts to land a genocidal nuclear agreement. The administration argues that OPEC, by cutting production, is doing the bidding of Russia. Wrong. The Iranians, also since their 1979 Revolution, have called for "Death to the America" and refer to the U.S. as "the Big Satan" -- you at least have to give the mullahs credit for being honest. So OPEC is actually saving the U.S. -- as well as the Gulf states, from strengthening the growing Russia-Iran axis.
Punishing energy producers in the Middle East will mostly hurt American consumers, whose purchasing power has already collapsed as they face an inflation and a recession. They are paying more for food, gas, heating -- everything -- caused by a self-inflicted oil and gas shortage. The bottom line appears to be that American citizens, whose tax dollars are underwriting massive amounts of assistance to Ukraine, are paying more at the pump because the Biden Administration wants an Iranian nuclear agreement with a key supporter of Russia.
If you are confused, it is because the Biden administration's foreign policy is confused. If the Biden administration really believes Russia is an "acute threat," it needs to act like it and stop propping up Russia's allies, which are also threats to the U.S. Instead, the U.S. should be working with countries in the Middle East to support efforts against Russia. The U.S. also needs to stop this foolish obsession with getting a new Iranian nuclear deal. It is inconsistent with all U.S. foreign policy and national security interests. Send a clear message to Russia, Iran, Europe, the Middle East and, most importantly, to American citizens: the Iran deal is dead, dead, dead. Stop the confusion. Stop empowering terrorist states.Peter Hoekstra was US Ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration. He served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the second district of Michigan and served as Chairman and Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. He is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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The Supreme Leader Maneuvers, but...
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/January 08/2023
Four months after the eruption of the protests in Iran over the death of a young woman held in police custody for allegedly improperly wearing the hijab and after all the oppression against the Iranians, supreme leader Ali Khamenei declared that he rejects accusing Iranian women wearing loose hijabs of being “anti-religion or anti-revolutionary". Speaking before an audience of Iranian women, he said: “Those who wear an incomplete hijab are our daughters.” “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,” he added. “The loose hijab is not correct, but that does not render their wearer as anti-religious or anti-revolutionary,” he remarked. Moreover, he expressed his openness to women assuming sensitive posts, saying: “The employment of women in various positions is an important issue that has been occupying my mind for a long time.” Alright, here we are with an Iranian supreme leader who represents a regime that is based on three pillars: The export of the revolution, obligating women to wear the hijab and championing the slogan “Death to America”. Now that his regime has been rattled and the Iranian people have turned against it, he is trying to weather the storm and maneuver. This means that the supreme leader is ready to compromise over anything - even one of the pillars - to support his regime and consolidate his power. He is now ready to redefine “religion and the revolution” just because it is in his interest. The supreme leader is doing this now after wasting four decades of the lives of the Iranian people and after the destruction Khomeini’s Iran has brought to the region, its peace and security, economy and even Islam.
The supreme leader is doing so now after innocent Iranian blood has been shed and after backwardness has crippled Iran, which is suffering from a brain drain, corruption and a weak economy. He led Iran to being paralyzed by endless sanctions just so he can consolidate his power.
Everything is now up for negotiations and review in order to consolidate the mullah regime. This begs the question: How many opportunities and generations have been wasted in this region due to people in power seeking to consolidate their authority, while completely disregarding the dignity and lives of man?
Another important question: What if some countries in the region had gone to the end in their game of challenging Iran and its agents, and the withering regimes that are aligned with it, to prevent Iran from monopolizing the scene, especially in wake of the rhetoric of political Islam and the emergence of the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas? What then would have the region looked like?
All these points call for pause and a moment of assessment, especially by those who look to Iran or political Islam, which at the very first sign of the weakening of the regime, the supreme leader is willing to negotiate over in the name of “religion and the revolution.”
The supreme leader is not doing so out of his keenness on reform and development, which are the fundamentals of life, but in order to boost his authority and power and secure the stability of the mullah regime that has destroyed the lives of Iranians, the entire region and everyone who wants to emulate them.

Wasting Environment and Development Aid Continues
Najib Saab/Asharq Al Awsat/January 08/2023
A former senior official at an international organization reminded me, when we met recently, of an article I wrote in 2000, entitled 'EU Follows UN in Wasting Development Aid.'
This official, who retired years ago after decades of international development work, said: "When it was first published, we thought that your article was an exaggeration and an unjustified attack on what we honestly considered to be noble work for the good of humanity. However, experience has shown that most of the money was spent on ad-hoc short-term tasks, from which few people benefited, while the programs faded away when external funding drained."
The article pointed to countless examples in the Arab region of the chaos created by international programs in the field of environment and sustainable development, on which hundreds of millions are spent without credible accountability. Those who undertake the task of evaluation are either employees of the donors and executing agencies, or consultants whose contracts depend on the approval of the officials of these agencies. This explains why the relationship is based on exchanging benefits and interests, embodying the motto "Live and Let Live".
Some of the loudest dissenting voices, whether in media or civil society, who usually expose irregularities, are often absorbed by the system and silenced, or suddenly start to sing the praises and achievements of corrupt ministries and aid agencies, after being bribed by a token job as "experts" or "consultants" or "project managers", or invited to sightseeing holidays under the pretext of international conferences.
In the absence of actual accountability, the bulk of the millions allocated for development and environment is spent on repetitive reports, meetings and sporadic initiatives, including, for example, covering the cost of street decorations for the holidays by an international development program, in a country where the majority of the population falls below the poverty line. Among the biggest money squandering schemes are the international programs that aim to collect data on the state of the environment and development, and end up, after spending millions, publishing tables full of voids, reading “n/a” (not available), because most of this data had not been created in the first place. It would have been more appropriate to allocate larger budgets to laboratories and scientific research centers that are competent to produce reliable data, as how can the level of air pollution be calculated, for example, in the absence of reliable measuring devices operated by specialized scientific centers?
Environment and development funding in third world countries either goes to government departments, most of which are, at best, inefficient and often corrupt, or to NGOs. However, the corruption and incompetence of government agencies does not justify the transfer of funding for public projects, especially in infrastructure, to civil society groups, as this is not their job. The NGOs mission is to involve the civil society in environment and development work, by raising awareness and building pressure groups to induce and pressure for change on the basis of clearly structured programs, capable of influencing government policies. NGOs may go beyond this to build pilot projects to demonstrate the validity of their ideas. If, for example, they build a waste sorting and recycling project in a specific area, the aim is to encourage local authorities and governments to adopt and replicate the idea. Whatever the objections to the incompetence and corruption in government agencies, public programs related to infrastructure can only be managed through them. Hence, it is required to train and supervise government agencies to develop and manage programs such as waste collection and treatment, water treatment and distribution, sanitation, as proxy bodies cannot offer a sustainable long-term solution. The answer is certainly not to create parallel departments within ministries, as some international development programs do. There are countless examples of this in Arab countries, where international organizations implement programs within the ministries, by hiring what they call "experts." Those are paid many times more than regular public employees with whom they share the same offices, and often similar qualifications.
This hampers work, creates conflicts, and impedes continuity, not to mention the ambiguity of the monitoring and accountability mechanism. What the public does not know is that inflated payments that these people receive, in many cases, are borne by their almost bankrupt governments, and channeled through international programs. Whereas many of the employees working as experts, under the umbrella of international programs, do enjoy high qualifications and perform great tasks, a large proportion of them occupy their positions because of loyalty to political leaders who impose them on international programs within the framework of exchanging interests.
Therefore, it is not surprising that evaluation reports always talk about the success of the programs and the need for their continuation, in turn to ensure the continuation of the exchange of services and interests. A case in point for the absence of transparency and strict accountability is the cover-up of squandered millions by the WHO office in Damascus, under the auspices of its director, as a result of the alliance of interests between 'international' employees and local officials. It is unfortunate that the successful 'locals' who take up jobs with international programs often use their temporary position as a means to a higher permanent assignment in organizations outside their own country. This leads to losing experienced personnel, trained at the expense of their own governments, or from grants and loans destined for the support of local development programs.
Days after the late confessions of the retired international official, a former high executive of a UN program commented on a recent article I wrote, about the need to reduce the number of participants in climate summits, limiting them to the main stakeholders from governments, experts, relevant private sector and active civil society organizations. My friend said: "It is true that it will be impossible to reach serious results in the carnival atmosphere that hangs over some international conferences. But who dares to demand that, after tens of thousands have become accustomed to travel to environmental conferences as a sort of tourism?"We would be better off if those in high positions speak up early enough to help rectify faults and affect positive change in time.
*Najib Saab is Secretary General of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development- AFED and Editor-in-Chief of Environment & Development magazine.

Iranian regime is exporting its revolution beyond the Middle East
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 08/2023
The Iranian regime’s attempts to export its revolutionary ideals and principles to other countries in the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, are well documented. But it is important to point out that this key mission of the regime is not limited to this region.
In particular, it seems that the Iranian leaders are looking at Latin America as a safe place they can relocate to in case the ongoing nationwide protests succeed in overthrowing the theocratic establishment. The Iranian regime’s officials are, in fact, in the process of obtaining passports and asylum from Latin American countries, particularly Venezuela. According to one media report last month: “Western diplomatic sources told Iran International that the regime has started negotiations with its Venezuelan allies to ensure they’d offer asylum to regime officials and their families should the situation worsen, and the possibility of a regime change increases … A delegation of four high-ranking regime officials visited Venezuela in mid-October for negotiations to ensure that the Caracas government would grant asylum to high-ranking officials and their families in case ‘the unfortunate incident’ happens.”
This development reveals that the Iranian leaders are concerned that the widespread demonstrations have the potential to endanger their hold on power. According to Iran International, a source at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport told Kayhan London that three flights a day are leaving Iran to Venezuela with “a considerable amount of cargo,” adding that “these people get their suitcases out in hours, with fewer passengers and flights. This began about two weeks ago, and we see these movements about two or three times a day.”
The Iranian regime has long invested in exporting its fundamentalist ideology to Latin America. The regime’s plan to expand its influence and presence in the region dates back to the mid-1980s, after the regime was founded by late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The regime’s key mission is even incorporated in Iran’s constitution, which states: “The constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community.”
The regime’s plan to expand its influence and presence in Latin America dates back to the mid-1980s.
In 2012, the Iranian regime set up a Spanish-language television station, Hispan TV, to spread its propaganda. Iran’s terror cells slowly grew in Latin America. It is worth noting that Hezbollah and Al-Mustafa International University play a key role in expanding the mullahs’ presence and ideology in Latin America. According to United Against Nuclear Iran, Al-Mustafa International University is tasked with “training the next generation of Iran’s foreign Shiite clerics, religious scholars and missionaries … It is estimated that Al-Mustafa has 40,000 foreign students enrolled at present, roughly half of whom are studying at campuses within Iran. Many Al-Mustafa graduates are selected by the Iranian regime to establish religious and cultural centers in their home countries, where they can then recruit students and inculcate loyalty to the revolution among local populations.”
Such attempts are not only seen in Latin America, but also in Europe. As United Against Nuclear Iran adds: “Al-Mustafa operates several branches in European countries, most notably the Islamic College of London. Graduates of Al-Mustafa, such as Italian cleric Abbas DiPalma, have gone on to form Iranian cultural centers in their home countries, such as the Imam Mahdi Center in Rome. Al-Mustafa has also dispatched Lebanese graduates as missionaries to Latin America, where they seek to create inroads with expat communities and proselytize among local populations.”
The regime appears to have succeeded in expanding its influence, as evidence presented at court hearings linked Tehran to the bombings in Buenos Aires of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994.
Latin American countries have become opportune places for Iranian covert intelligence operations. In 2014, the Washington-based Center for a Secure Free Society published a paper titled “Canada on Guard: Assessing the Immigration Security Threat from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.” It stated that Venezuela granted more than 173 passports to radical Islamists. These passports could be used for travel to North America or Europe. And Nathan Sales, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, pointed out: “We’re concerned that (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups … (including the) supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah.”
In conclusion, it is critical to examine and counter the Iranian regime’s efforts to export its fundamentalist ideology not only in the Middle East, but also beyond.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Despite the obstacles, women are our planet’s future
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 09/2023
Women have made huge global strides in securing greater rights, respect and opportunities, despite theocrats in states such as Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq doing their utmost to reverse this arrow of history.
In a double blow for women, the Taliban has excluded them from both university education and working in NGOs, in addition to the earlier ban on attending secondary school. As well as being a crippling setback for women’s life opportunities, the exclusion of so many family breadwinners — half the population who should be economically active — is a catastrophe for a country already in economic freefall. About 150 humanitarian agencies already suspended operations after the loss of a significant proportion of their workforce.
It is impossible to exaggerate the dehumanizing psychological shock for professional women who went from senior positions overseeing sizable teams of staff to being incarcerated in their homes, forced to cover from head-to-toe, and surviving at the capricious whims of male guardians – with all future hopes summarily extinguished, as if they were nothing. Women say it’s as if their very souls had been ripped out.
Despite Islam calling for women to be educated and respected, regressive theocrats in Afghanistan and Iran simply hate women and seek to exclude them from the public sphere.
In Iran, women-led protests have endured for months against a regime determined to repress both female and male citizens. Each of those poor, innocent executed men have mothers, sisters, wives, who are now suffering the ultimate agony. Some female detainees have gone on hunger strike, protesting against lack of medical care and inhumane conditions. A quarter of the world’s incarcerated female journalists are held in Iranian prisons.
The situation of female prisoners has also reached crisis levels in Lebanon, where mothers in detention don’t have access to formula milk or medicines. A high proportion haven’t even had their cases heard, with nearly 80 percent of the prison population in pre-trial detention. Prison occupancy nationwide is an unsustainable 323 percent.
Thousands of families have already fled Lebanon and experts warn of a collapse in the birth rate as women choose “optional infertility” because having children has become unaffordable. Between 2017 and 2021, births decreased by about 25 percent. With the collapse in value of the Lebanese pound, the average cost of delivery of a baby exceeds $800, assuming there are no complications. Young families must then bear the costs of diapers, milk, medicines, vaccines — if such things are even available.
Despite more than 80 percent of the population being mired in severe poverty, less than 5 percent of Lebanese households receive any government assistance. Around 80 percent have a member who lost their job since 2019. Women were usually first to be excluded, as companies inexorably downsized.
Meanwhile, entities such as Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi in Iraq have vigorously sought to negate the intrinsic role of women in the region’s vibrant cultural heritage, as they try and turn these nations into dysfunctional carbon copies of the Islamic Republic. Female activists and journalists have been terrorized and murdered by mafiosi seeking to exclude women from their deserved roles in society.
Throughout Africa, Daesh and Al-Qaeda have brutally repressed women in areas under their control, conflicting with the strong roles that matriarchs have habitually played in many traditional African societies.
In Ukraine, each side in the conflict has suffered an estimated 100,000 casualties, inflicting unimaginable suffering on innumerable households. With Ukrainian men deployed to freezing frontlines, wives and children have been dispersed across Europe to face precarious futures.
Elsewhere, however, there is a proliferation of hugely exciting opportunities for women. In Saudi Arabia, female participation in the workplace has doubled in five years, from 17 percent to 34 percent. Last week the Kingdom appointed its fourth and fifth female ambassadors following the trail blazed by Princess Reema bint Bandar, the ambassador to Washington. Over the past year a Saudi national women’s football team has established itself, and Saudi Arabia’s first female international referee, Anoud Al-Asmari, was appointed last week by FIFA. The freedoms and rights we as women enjoy are precious and vulnerable, and must never be taken for granted — particularly when Hezbollah, Daesh, the ayatollahs and the Taliban are working so hard to turn the clock back.
I stayed recently in Bahrain, where I found a climate of irrepressible optimism at opportunities opening up for women. Girls dominate many faculties of the region’s universities and excel in key subject areas. A new generation of female role models demonstrates how women can lead and set the highest standards. In this context, I am immensely proud of my friend, the lawyer and academic Prof. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, for being elected in June to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
The greatest battle we have to fight is against passivity and disengagement. When I was a student at the American University of Beirut, hardly a month went by when we weren’t mobilizing on behalf of one global cause or another. Perhaps we were naive, perhaps we couldn’t have the impact we aspired to, but we had passion and a belief in our duty to try and change the world.
Such aspirations are rare these days. Israel’s extreme-right leaders can hardly keep quiet about their ambitions to gobble up every square inch of Palestinian territory, but where is the Arab world? Where is the democratic West? Where are the Palestinians themselves?
Iranian women burnt their hijabs in extraordinary acts of bravery, but the world can scarcely muster the motivation to follow developments, let alone take action or affirm our solidarity and common commitment to freedom from tyranny.
The freedoms we women already enjoy in fortunate parts of the world were not freely granted to us. Historical female activists risked jail, disgrace or even death to win the right to vote, to work, to participate in government and gain our rightful place as equals, and sometimes superiors, to men. Self-confidence is a crucial factor in women’s readiness to seize their richly deserved opportunities with both hands.
The freedoms and rights we as women enjoy are precious and vulnerable, and must never be taken for granted — particularly when Hezbollah, Daesh, the ayatollahs and the Taliban are working so hard to turn the clock back.
Our most assured means of protecting our own privileges and opportunities is by doing everything in our power to ensure that our sisters around the world can live equally blessed existences — because no society on earth can flourish unless its women are empowered to play their full part.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.