English LCCC Newsbulletin For Le

English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 15/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.january15.23.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed
Second Letter to the Corinthians 04/05-15/:’For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture ‘I believed, and so I spoke’ we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 14-15/2023
Lebanon's national and sovereign image was embodied in the courageous stances adopted by Jbeil Emam Ahmed Laqees's, in advocating with faith and love for William Noun's case./Elias Bejjani/January 15/2023
William Noun released after detention
Lebanon blast victim’s brother freed after outcry
William Noon released after protests, outrage
Arrest of prominent port case activist sparks protests, outrage
Lebanese Army liberates two kidnapped Syrian children
Report: Aoun threatens to put Mar Mikhail Agreement in 'trash bin'
Aoun's Press Office: The President says what he wants openly without hiding behind sources
Bassil: We will continue to fight until the truth about the port blast is revealed
Supreme Judicial Council President explains: What reached the media was a draft statement that did not receive the required approval for its issuance
MP Jumblatt: To achieve justice in port explosion dossier, not to escape responsibilities
FPM: We are continuing to work to release the port explosion investigation to reveal the full truth, do justice to the victims & release those who...
Al-Rahi concludes his visit to Britain: We call on international powers interested in Lebanon to politically help it overcome its current crisis
Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace Marks re-Opening with Celebratory Event
Kochavi: Israeli Operations Thwarted Activity of Iranian Militias in Region

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 14-15/2023
French court orders removal of Virgin Mary statue
Iran Releases Polish Scientist Held for Months
Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act
Iran Executes British-Iranian Accused of Spying, Prompts Western Condemnation
UK Condemns 'Barbaric' Execution of Alireza Akbari
EU Studies Imposing New Set of Sanctions on Iran
Ireland, France Coordinate to Free Dual National Jailed in Iran
Rifts in Russian military command seen amid Ukraine fighting
Abdollahian discusses in Damascus latest regional and international developments
Turkiye ready to push for ‘local cease-fires’ in Ukraine
Crowd attacks Syrian rebel figure over reconciliation push
UK to supply tanks to Ukraine; casualties after barrage of Russian missiles
Get your troops out of Syria, Assad tells Erdogan
Syrian FM: No normal ties with Turkiye without end to occupation
Israelis rally in three cities against Netanyahu legal reforms

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 14-15/2023
The EU and the Biden Administration Still Appeasing and Rewarding the Mullahs of Iran/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/January 14/2023
Is the world heading toward order or disorder?/Kishore Mahbubani/Arab News/January 14, 2023

on January 14-15/2023
Lebanon's national and sovereign image was embodied in the courageous stances adopted by Jbeil Emam Ahmed Laqees's, in advocating with faith and love for William Noun's case.
Elias Bejjani/January 15/2023
The heresy of arresting William Noun, unequivocally demonstrated the resounding failure of the enemies of Lebanon, the message of love, history, identity, peace, sanctity and coexistence.
Failure, disappointment, and brokenness were the harvest of all the mercenaries, the occupation forces, the haters, the Trojans, the temple merchants, the scribes, the Pharisees, the stone ages' officials, and the thugs of the fake hypocritical resistance and liberation merchants.
The scandal of the arbitrary and illegal detention of William Noun, confirmed and proved to Lebanon's internal and foreign enemies, that they can never ever hold on to subjugating the Lebanese people, or maintain their bloody and evil occupation.
Noun's case must be a lesson to Lebanon's enemies and occupiers, that all their criminality, terrorism, theft and arrogance will not achieve their satanic plans.
In this patriotic, courageous, and faith-context, comes the role of f the city of Jbeil's, Emam, Ahmed Al-Laqees.
Laqees's sympathy and support for Noun's cause, was patriotic, remarkable, encouraging and extremely positive, in the scene of the popular crowds that rose up to defend William Noun's rights and freedom.
Emam Al-Laqees was sincerely at the side of Noun's mother, father, family and beloved ones.
Emam Al Laqees bravely and with a spirit of patriotism, emerged as a religious role model in defending freedom of opinion, and in the adherence obligation to law, justice and human rights.
There is no doubt, that with the devotion of honorable, patriotic and courageous Lebanese, of the caliber, education and devotion of Imam Laqees, with efforts of many other free people, with God’s blessings, the determination, faith perseverance of the Lebanese from all denominations and walks of life, Lebanon will be victorious and shall definitely very soon return to its historical bright status, which is an oasis of freedom, love, democracy, coexistence, and common living.
Heartily felt Greetings of respect and appreciation to the honorable, Imam Ahmed Laqees.

William Noun released after detention
Dana Hourany/Now Lebanon/January 14/2023
William Noun, the brother of Joe Noun, a firefighter who perished in the Beirut Port explosion, was released after being detained by authorities after a demonstration organized by the victims’ families.
From day one following the explosion at Beirut Port where over 200 people perished, William Noun, one of the most prominent figures of the families of the victims, has been a vocal advocate for an honest, effective and thorough investigation. Still, over two years later, justice has not been served.
Noun, who had lost his brother Joe Noun, a firefighter, is requesting that the blast investigation be conducted internationally and that prompt conclusions be reached. As a result of his alleged comments that the Palace of Justice would blow up if justice was not served, Noun was detained by the authorities and his family’s home has been searched.
He was released the following day after immense pressure from protesters who held a demonstration outside of the State Security office in Ramlet al–Bayda.
Why this matters
In response to the court’s summons, Noun headed to the Dekwaneh State Security Center with his attorney. There, the Public Prosecutor of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, gave him notice that he would be arrested for breaking windows at Beirut’s Palace of Justice. Having been handed over to the Beirut Directorate, he was placed under the control of Judge Oweidat.
An altercation occurred on Friday between State Security and the families of the Beirut port explosion victims, who gathered in front of the General Directorate building in Ramlet Al-Bayda demanding Noun’s release. “They should fear god! Why don’t they let him out? What has he done?” William’s mother cried as she protested for his release, saying she would not leave without him.
In videos circulating online, Lebanese soldiers are shown beating protestors along with a priest. The videos have caused public outcry among the public and MPs.
Noun was reportedly planning to turn himself in on Monday. People allegedly tried to stop him, but Noun persisted in his intentions. According to some sources, the detention served only as a show of force and a warning to those who dared to challenge the judicial system. Yes, but Noun’s arrest sends a chilling message to the Lebanese citizens and the families of the victims whose wounds have yet to heal. Having to stand alone in the summer heat and winter cold without a semblance of justice rips into the pain of those whose lives have changed forever.
Adding to the pain is the fact that the judicial system appears to be abusing its powers to shield dishonest politicians rather than unraveling the truth of one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions.
What happened next, the police completed their investigation into Noun and informed Judge Zaher Hamadeh of their findings, only for the judge to keep Noun and order the arrest of Peter bou Saab, the brother of another victim. Hamadeh, has been accused by the public of trying to bully the families of the victims by breaking their morale and trying to bring them in line. Over 12 hours had passed since Noun was arrested. It’s been reported that 11 members of the families of the victims were asked to come in for interrogation on Monday.
In conclusion, Noun was ultimately released but only after Byblos, Batroun, and Beirut protesters blocked roads and threatened escalation if Noun is not released. On top of this, opposition MPs as well as some Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement MPs have been vocal supporters of Noun. Despite street pressure and social media campaigning to secure Noun’s release, his future remains uncertain, as the judiciary is choosing to side with politicians over the people it is meant to protect.
*Dana Hourany is a multimedia journalist with @NOW_leb. She is on Instagram @danahourany and Twitter @danahourany.

Lebanon blast victim’s brother freed after outcry
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 14, 2023
Protesting families join chorus of condemnation over ‘idiotic’ detention
BEIRUT: Families of victims of the Beirut port explosion blocked roads in Beirut and Jbeil on Saturday in protest at the arrest of their spokesman, William Noun, by Lebanon’s national security agency. Pressure by protesters, politicians and activists led to his release after 24 hours in detention.
Noun was arrested after a televised statement last Thursday in which he expressed indignation at the obstruction of the investigation into the port explosion in 2020 that claimed the life of his brother Joe, a fireman. The massive blast, triggered when a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse exploded, caused at least 218 deaths and up to $15 billion in property damage. In his statement, Noun criticized an attempt to appoint a substitute judge for investigator Tarek Bitar, who was removed from the case a year ago, and threatened to “blow up the Justice Palace.”
His arrest was based on a judicial notice issued by Beirut Attorney General, Judge Zaher Hamadeh. Noun’s house was also raided by state security personnel searching for explosive material. A political observer told Arab News that Hamadeh has boasted of his ties with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.
Hamadeh was a judicial investigator in the case of Imam Moussa Al-Sadr’s disappearance and has been touted as a possible replacement for Bitar in the port explosion probe, the observer said. Neither the President of the Higher Judicial Council Souheil Abboud nor the General Prosecutor Ghassan Ouweidat attended a council meeting on Saturday.
In a statement, those present defended Hamadeh’s decision to arrest Noun, and condemned what they described as “an attack on the judge’s work and dignity.”Families of the victims gathered in front of the state security headquarters, vowing to remain until Noun was released.
MP Melhem Khalaf, former president of the Bar Association, joined the protesters, saying that Noun’s comments “were the result of grief and that he didn’t actually mean it.”Noun’s mother, who visited her son while he was in detention, said: “William is doing fine and is strong.”
She added tearfully: “Is this how they treat the parents who lost their children? I buried my first son and now my second son is detained. Why? Are we the ones responsible for the explosion? Are we the criminals? If the judges had lost their children, how would they have dealt with the case?”
Inhabitants of Jbeil, Noun’s birthplace, took to the streets on Friday to protest his detention.Scuffles broke out between protesters and security forces personnel, who stepped in to open the roads.
Families of victims of the port explosion claimed Noun was “lured into a trap set by the corrupt and failing judiciary.”His detention was an attempt to “scare and subjugate the martyrs’ families, in order to discourage them and undermine their determination to find out the truth,” they added.
Former prime minister Fouad Siniora described Noun’s detention as “an idiotic and shameful act.”He called for the completion of investigation and the arrest of the “real criminals responsible for the port deaths.”Elias Bou Saab, deputy speaker of parliament, described Noun’s detention “in this scandalous way as a questionable idiocy done for malicious purposes,” while former Labor minister Camille Abousleiman said the arrest was “a joke and an insolence.”MP Bilal Abdallah said that “the state has turned into a police state in the case of the port explosion and the way the families of the victims are being treated.”
Samy Gemayel, head of the Kataeb party, said: “The fact that they are switching roles and turning the victims’ families into criminals means that we have reached the final chapters of the law of the jungle.”The investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion case faced demands for his removal after he issued a series of subpoenas against politicians and security personnel. Subpoenaed suspects, including deputies affiliated with the Amal Movement, refused to be questioned.
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement took to the street to protest Bitar’s decisions, which resulted in a bloody clash over a year ago that obstructed the investigation.

William Noon released after protests, outrage
Agence France Presse/January 14, 2023
A key figure among the families of Beirut's 2020 port explosion victims was released Saturday after his arrest a day earlier sparked protests in the Lebanese capital and other Lebanese areas. William Noon -- whose brother, a fireman, was killed in the devastating August 4, 2020 port blast -- was arrested Friday over remarks made during a television program, a judiciary source told AFP. Noon is among those who have been urging the continuation of a probe -- on hold for more than a year due to political pressure -- into the explosion, which killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and decimated vast areas of the capital."We just want the full truth, and that justice be served," Noon told journalists upon his release on Saturday afternoon. Known for his outspokenness, Noun had threatened during televised remarks Thursday to "blow up the palace of justice" to protest moves to replace the judge investigating the blast.
His arrest had sparked demonstrations on Friday night, while activists gathered earlier Saturday outside the Beirut police station where he was being held. Embattled judge Tarek Bitar has faced a series of complaints against him, part of a campaign led by Hezbollah and its allies seeking to block his probe into the blast.
'Political move' -
The 2020 disaster, one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, came after a stockpile of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrate caught fire. On Tuesday, victims' relatives including Noon had thrown stones at the palace of justice in Beirut, where they gathered again on Thursday in protest over Bitar's possible replacement. Noon's lawyer, Ralph Tannous, told journalists on Saturday his client had agreed never to throw stones at the building again or insult judges. Noon's mother had spent the night at the headquarters of one of the State Security agency along with lawyers including Melhem Khalaf, who is also a member of parliament. "What did William do? Ask that whoever killed his brother face justice?" his mother Zeina said at Saturday's rally outside the State Security HQ. Lawmakers, lawyers and Christian clerics had joined the protest, denouncing what they called an arbitrary arrest. "This is an attempt to intimidate but it won't work," lawyer Tannous had told local television before Noon's release. "This is a political move, not a judicial one."Lawmaker Khalaf told AFP: "I wish they would implement with the same enthusiasm all the warrants issued by the judicial investigator" over the port blast.
- 'Not independent' -
Bitar has attempted to question a former premier and four ex-ministers over the tragedy, but his probe was repeatedly obstructed before being suspended. Khalaf described the replacement of the investigator as a "distraction from all the abnormalities that are happening in the country."Aya Majzoub from rights group Amnesty International said Noon's arrest "clearly shows that Lebanon's judiciary is more interested in protecting those in power and those responsible for the Beirut blast than protecting the public interest.""Our judiciary is not independent," she added on Twitter. "It's a tool of the political class."
Relatives of victims as well as human rights groups have called for an international inquiry, which Lebanese authorities have rejected. France is also investigating the blast, which killed some of its nationals. A French judge is due to arrive in Lebanon on January 23 to collect information. Relatives of the victims intend to "escalate" their protest, said Paul Naggear, whose three-year-old daughter died in the blast."Our cause is not moving forward," he told AFP. Rita Hitti, who lost her son and two other relatives in the explosion, said the Lebanese judiciary "faces a decisive test."
"Either it speaks out and ignores all political pressure, or this is its end."

Arrest of prominent port case activist sparks protests, outrage
Naharnet/January 14, 2023
The arrest of a prominent activist in the port blast case, William Noon, has sparked protests across the country and political condemnation. Noon, the brother of port blast victim Joe Noon, has been arrested by the State Security agency at the request of Beirut Attorney General Judge Zaher Hamadeh.
According to media reports, Noon is accused of threatening to “blow up the Justice Palace with dynamite” during a protest.As news of his arrest broke overnight, a large number of relatives of port blast victims staged a sit-in outside the State Security dept. in Beirut’s Ramlet el-Bayda area where the young activist was being held. MPs Melhem Khalaf, Razi al-Hajj and Jihad Pakradouni also joined the sit-in along with a number of lawyers before entering the dept. to follow up on the case. Scuffles later ensued between protesters and security forces in Ramlet el-Bayda as demonstrators blocked a road there as well as the Saifi road in Beirut, the Jbeil highway and the eastern lane of the Kfar Abida highway. The Jbeil highway eventually witnessed scuffles the army in which a protester was injured. MP Ziad Hawat of the Lebanese Forces bloc also joined the demonstrators there.
According to media reports, more protests are scheduled for Saturday.Families of Beirut port blast victims had on Tuesday stormed the Justice Palace in Beirut in protest at perceived political and judicial obstruction of the investigation, a few days after the judiciary ended a lengthy judicial strike.
The investigation into the blast, which killed over 230 people, injured thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage has been blocked for months now by Lebanon's political powers. That came after three former ministers filed legal challenges against investigative Judge Tarek Bitar effectively suspending his investigations.Many blame the tragedy on the Lebanese government's longtime corruption, but the elite's decades-old lock on power has ensured they are untouchable. The Aug. 4, 2020 explosion occurred when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at the port. It later emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since. Senior political and security officials knew of its presence but did nothing. Lead investigative judge Tarek Bitar has charged four former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence. He also charged several top security officials in the case.

Lebanese Army liberates two kidnapped Syrian children
Associated Press/January 14, 2023
The Lebanese army has said that troops have freed two Syrian children kidnapped by criminals along the Lebanon-Syria border last October.
The case had been followed closely in Lebanon where the kidnappers had demanded $350,000 in ransom and released videos showing the children being tortured. Lebanon is home to nearly 1 million Syrian refugees who fled the war in the neighboring country.

Report: Aoun threatens to put Mar Mikhail Agreement in 'trash bin'
Naharnet/January 14, 2023
Former president and Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun has reportedly threatened to “tear up the Mar Mikhail Agreement” with Hezbollah and “throw it in the trash bin.”According to the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, Aoun voiced his remarks during a recent meeting with FPM youths.“If Hezbollah continues to violate the constitution and isolate a main component, I will personally and publicly tear up the Mar Mikhail Agreement and throw it in the trash bin,” one of those who took part in the meeting quoted Aoun as saying. Hezbollah’s decision to take part in a controversial caretaker cabinet session has sent tensions soaring between the two allies. The FPM has repeatedly warned against holding caretaker cabinet sesions amid the ongoing presidential vacuum, describing that as an attack on the Christian president’s powers. Hezbollah has meanwhile announced that it is ready to take part in another caretaker cabinet session should its agenda be limited to the electricity file.

Aoun's Press Office: The President says what he wants openly without hiding behind sources
NNA/January 14, 2023
Former President Michel Aoun's media office issued a statement this afternoon, in which it denied what was published in "Nidaa al-Watan" newspaper attributed to General Aoun regarding the document of understanding between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah, claiming it was revealed by a participant in an FPM youth meeting with the President. The statement denounced this "provocative method" in attributing groundless words that "lack professionalism, credibility, and morals."It explained that the understanding between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah is entrusted with the leadership of both parties, and is not a rigid framework, whereby it is prone for amendment the day one of the parties feels the need to reconsider some of its articles. The statement concluded by stressing that whenever President Aoun has something to say, he would say it openly without hiding behind sources.

Bassil: We will continue to fight until the truth about the port blast is revealed
NNA/January 14, 2023
“No matter how arbitrary you are, you will not be able to stop justice. We will continue the struggle to uncover the truth about the port [explosion], liberate the unjustly detained, and uncover the theft of the era and the depositors’ money,” wrote MP Gebran Bassil this afternoon via his Twitter account. "You can manipulate some puppet judges, but Lebanon will still have disobedient patriotic judges. You will not be able to stop the external judiciary," MP Bassil went on.
"We will continue to chase you, until you meet your destiny," Bassil concluded.

Supreme Judicial Council President explains: What reached the media was a draft statement that did not receive the required approval for its issuance
NNA/January 14, 2023
President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Suhail Abboud, issued a clarification this evening that what was circulated in the media about a statement issued by the Supreme Judicial Council today is baseless, since “no statement was issued by the Council in accordance with the approved legal principles.”“Rather, there was a discussion about issuing a statement related to the prevailing situation in the last phase, but no agreement was reached regarding its content which is still under review. Hence, what reached the media is a draft statement that did not receive the required approval for its issuance,” Judge Abboud explained.

MP Jumblatt: To achieve justice in port explosion dossier, not to escape responsibilities
NNA/January 14, 2023
Head of the "Democratic Gathering" parliamentary bloc, MP Taymour Jumblatt, denounced "the authoritarian practices of those who are supposed to advance humanitarian systems and laws over methods of oppression and authoritarian justice that still control some minds towards the families of the victims of the port explosion in particular, who are still waiting for the full truth of their just cause to be revealed and to hold those responsible for this tragedy accountable.”He said in a statement: "The prolonged measures against William Noun, brother of Martyr Joe Noun, and the reprehensible treatment of Father George Soma and other civilians, confirms the urgent need to conclude this file by achieving absolute justice and not escaping from responsibilities, whatever the results and the extent of the interventions."His words came during his meetings with popular delegations who visited him at Al-Mukhtara Palace today to raise their daily-living demands, in the presence of MPs Bilal Abdallah, Hadi Abou Al-Hosn and Wael Abu Faour.

FPM: We are continuing to work to release the port explosion investigation to reveal the full truth, do justice to the victims & release those who...
NNA/January 14, 2023
The Free Patriotic Movement issued this evening the following statement: The Free Patriotic Movement affirms that it is continuing to work to free the investigation into the port explosion case in order to reveal the full truth, do justice to the victims, and release those who were unjustly and arbitrarily arrested.
The party considers that the continued obstruction of the investigation and the circumstances resulting from it, are the responsibility of the Supreme Judicial Council and its president in particular, due to the failure in managing the work of the judiciary to reach the truth.
The party believes that the judicial failure to apply the law and allowing evasion of justice in countless cases, in addition to being silent and even covering everyone who insulted the presidency of the republic for a period of 6 years, legitimized selectivity in accountability, while what was required, and still is, is to hold accountable everyone who commits slander, harm and abuse, without discrimination. And while the party is fully confident that the truth in the port bombing will come out, no matter how long the arbitrariness, procrastination and manipulation of the facts takes, it warns the regime that fabricating one crisis after another, as it did in the recent hours, will not spare it the sword of justice and will not obliterate the effects of the European judicial actions which exposed the fragility of the judicial dealings with the biggest theft of the era and robbing depositors' money.

Al-Rahi concludes his visit to Britain: We call on international powers interested in Lebanon to politically help it overcome its current crisis
NNA/January 14, 2023
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros al-Rahi, concluded his official and pastoral visit to the British capital, London, which included meetings with officials in the House of Commons, the government, and some heads of official departments interested in Lebanese affairs, in both its political and economic aspects. The Patriarch also held meetings with Maronite parishioners and members of Lebanese community residing in London, with intense participation of Lebanese expatriates especially since al-Rahi’s visit was scheduled for 2019 but was postponed due to the Corona epidemic.
In his meetings, the Patriarch touched on various dossiers related to the Lebanese situation, reiterating his call to international powers concerned for Lebanon, including Britain, "to help it politically to overcome its current crisis, and spare it the repercussions of the worsening regional conflict."
He also renewed his previous call for "creating internal and external conditions to perpetuate Lebanon's positive neutrality, which guarantees its pluralistic future within its unity, and its historical civilizational message in the East and in the whole world, within the framework of international care and support."
The economic crisis also featured high during his talks, particularly its serious repercussions in terms of pushing the Lebanese to more emigration, and threatening the Lebanese land by emptying it of its owners amidst the presence of about two million displaced Syrians and about half a million Palestinian refugees.
In this connection, al-Rahi renewed his call to the international community "to find a solution to the crisis of the displaced Syrians and to ensure their return to Syria in order to preserve its heritage, unity, civilization and role," in addition to reiterating the “need to implement the right of return of the Palestinians in accordance with international resolutions." The Patriarch also reviewed with officials "how to ensure economic support for Lebanon through the development of sustainable development initiatives, which guarantee people's steadfastness in their land in Lebanon. These initiatives focus on the environmental and cultural field, which was launched with a number of British official bodies since 2003 with the visit of Patriarch Sfeir to London.

Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace Marks re-Opening with Celebratory Event
NNA/January 14, 2023
Hilton Metropolitan Palace hosted last night local senior officials, foreign dignitaries, celebrities and key representatives from the local press to the occasion of the hotel’s recent re-opening. Accompanied by live musical performances, guests were invited to enjoy a selection of food and beverage options curated by Hilton’s world-class chefs. Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace is owned by Al Habtoor Groupand is located in the heart of Lebanon’s cosmopolitan capital of Beirut, in Sin El Fil district.
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Kochavi: Israeli Operations Thwarted Activity of Iranian Militias in Region
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
Outgoing Israeli Chief of Staff General Aviv Kochavi said Friday that operations carried out by his army and Mossad agents in recent years managed to curb most of the activities of Iranian militias against Israel in several countries in the region, notably Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. He added that his forces have many plans and targets to strike Iran itself and Hezbollah. Kochavi was speaking in a farewell interview with the Hebrew media just days before his successor Herzi Halevi takes the job on Monday He said Israel has dramatically increased the number of its targets on Iranian soil. Over the past year and a half, “we carried out to major maneuvers against these targets and will carry out the third one soon,” he revealed. “If it comes to entering a major battle, military sites and additional sites will be included in the list of targets,” he stated. “We have been engaged in accelerating preparations to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in recent years, and many other types of targets.” Kochavi said the most correct strategy now is to further tighten the sanctions on Iran and to create pressure that will lead to a situation similar to 2003, when the Iranians decided to halt the military dimension of the nuclear program. He praised the Israeli attacks in Syria, which he said were aimed at preventing the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria and to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In March, Israel will mark a decade to what the Israeli forces calls the “Mabam” – a Hebrew acronym for the war-between-wars, otherwise known as the covert shadow campaign that the country wages fiercely against Iran and its regional proxies. According to Kochavi, the attacks in Syria turned into a strategic war and expanded to include other countries. “The pro-Iranian militias are no longer able to carry out their missions freely, neither in Syria, nor in Yemen, nor in other places,” he said. He also warned Hezbollah, saying the Israeli army had prepared offensive plans against the Lebanese party if it decided to escalate the situation. Meanwhile, Kochavi stressed that Iran has amassed enough enriched nuclear material to make four bombs. He said his forces are working on two important objectives: “the first is to locate Iranian missiles so that in the event of an attack we will be able to hit as many as possible; the second is to establish an air defense system to neutralize these missiles.” Kochavi added: “We are starting from the practical assumption that an attack in Iran can lead to a wider war in the northern region, in which Hezbollah will participate.” In the event of an attack by Hezbollah, Israel is ready to set Lebanon back 50 years, he warned. “It will not be enough to target the armed organization, but we will hit all Lebanese infrastructure,” he said.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 14-15/2023
French court orders removal of Virgin Mary statue
shalomworld.org/January 14/2023
An appeal court in Bordeaux, France, has ordered La Flotte municipality to remove the Virgin Mary statue that is located at a crossroads on Île de Ré island. The statue was installed on the island in 1983. It was made by a family after second world war to celebrate the return of a father and son from combat zone.The court observed that this is in violation of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State. “..Virgin Mary is an important figure in the Christian religion, in particular the Catholic religion, and that the statue itself has a religious character,” the court said. It has given 6 months to the municipality to remove the statue. The ruling follows a similar judgment by a court in Poitiers. The demand to remove the statue was first made by La Libre Pensee 17, a French secularist organization. Jean-Paul Héraudeau, the mayor of the municipality has been against the removal of the statue. Politician Karim Ouchikh, a Catholic convert from Islam, expressed dismay over the ruling. “My heart bleeds to see how much our country denies its Christian roots, on the Ile de Ré as elsewhere,” he said on Twitter.
https://www.shalomworld.org/news/french-court-orders-removal-of-virgin-mary-statue

Iran Releases Polish Scientist Held for Months
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
A Polish scientist held in Iran for months was released and returned home to Poland in December, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday. Maciej Walczak, a researcher at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, central Poland, is "safe and sound and with his family", Lukasz Jasina said in a message to AFP, without elaborating. Copernicus University spokesman Marcin Czyzniewski said several months ago that Walczak had been held in Iran since September 2021.

Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act
AFP/January 14, 2023
DUBAI: Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defense minister, its judiciary said on Saturday, defying calls from London for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.
Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari, 61, as politically motivated and called for his release, condemned the execution. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people.”The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the execution early on Saturday, without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence — a call echoed by Washington. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Paris over the execution, the ministry said in a statement, expressing its indignation about the case. “He was also warned that Iran’s repeated violations of international law cannot go unanswered, particularly with regard to the treatment of foreign nationals whom it arbitrarily detains,” the statement added. The execution looks set to pile more pressure on Iran’s long strained ties with the West which have deteriorated further since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year.
In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture. “Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government’s intelligence service ... was executed,” Mizan said. The Mizan report accused Akbari, arrested in 2019, of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for spying. Sunak said on Twitter he was “appalled by the execution.” Cleverly said in a statement it would “not stand unchallenged.” “We will be summoning the Iranian Charge d’Affaires to make clear our disgust at Iran’s actions.” British statements on the case have not addressed the Iranian charge that Akbari — who was arrested in 2019 — spied for Britain.
Meanwhile, Iranian arm of Amnesty International said on Saturday that Akbari's execution after he was sentenced to death for spying for the UK was ‘abhorrent’. “This morning's execution... by Iran's authorities again displays their abhorrent assault on the right to life. The use of the death penalty is appalling under all circumstances,” Amnesty Iran wrote on Twitter. The group said it was “particularly horrific given the violations he revealed he was subjected to in prison, including torture & other ill-treatment" and "being forcibly administered chemical substances & being held in prolonged solitary confinement which caused him great distress”. Amnesty called on the British government to “fully investigate Alireza Akbari's allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, and pursue all avenues to hold the Iranian authorities to account.”Iranian state media broadcast a video on Thursday that they said showed that Akbari played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel. In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.
Iran’s state media often airs purported confessions by suspects in politically charged cases. Reuters could not establish the authenticity of the state media video and audio, or when or where they were recorded. Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy as part of the administration of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
‘3,500 HOURS OF TORTURE’
Reflecting Iran’s worsening ties with the West, London-Tehran relations have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive the nuclear pact, to which Britain is a party. Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on anti-government protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September. Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown, executing at least four people. A British foreign office minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering proscribing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization but has not reached a final decision. In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture. “With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness... and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats,” he said. An Iranian state TV report broadcast on Saturday said the intelligence ministry had him under surveillance and arrested him in 1998. He was arrested on espionage charges again in 2008 before being freed on bail and leaving the country, it said. Reuters could not independently verify the details.

Iran Executes British-Iranian Accused of Spying, Prompts Western Condemnation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defense minister, its judiciary said, defying calls from London and Washington for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain. Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari politically motivated, condemned the execution, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling it "a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime". Akbari, 61, was arrested in 2019. The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported the execution without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence. The execution looks set to further worsen Iran's long-strained relations with the West, which have deteriorated since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year. France and the United States both condemned the execution.
In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture. "Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government's intelligence service ... was executed," Mizan said. The Mizan report accused Akbari of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros ($1.95 million), 265,000 pounds ($323,989.00), and $50,000 for spying. Sunak said on Twitter he was "appalled by the execution", saying Tehran had "no respect for the human rights of their own people". Cleverly said in a statement it would "not stand unchallenged", later announcing Britain had imposed sanctions on Iran's prosecutor general. US Ambassador to London Jane Hartley called the execution "appalling and sickening". The US State Department on Saturday described the execution as being politically motivated and unjust, adding it was working with the UK and other allies to hold Iran accountable for alleged human rights abuses. British statements on the case have not addressed the Iranian charge that Akbari spied for Britain. Iran's foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador on Saturday over what it called London's "meddling in Iran's national security realm", the state news agency IRNA reported. Iranian state media, which have portrayed Akbari as a super spy, broadcast a video on Thursday, which they said showed that he played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in an attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel. In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.
Iran’s state media often airs purported confessions by suspects in politically charged cases. Reuters could not establish the authenticity of the state media video and audio, or when or where they were recorded.
Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy as part of the administration of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. He fought during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s as a member of the Revolutionary Guards. It marks a rare case of the Islamic Republic executing a serving or former senior official. One of the last occasions was in 1984, when Iranian navy commander Bahram Afzali was executed after being accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
‘3,500 hours of torture’
French President Emmanuel Macron said the execution was a "despicable and barbaric act". "His name adds to too long a list of victims of repression and the death penalty in Iran," he wrote on Twitter. Iran's ties with the West have also been strained by its support for Russia in Ukraine, where Western states say Moscow has used Iranian drones during the invasion. Britain, which has a long history of fraught ties with Iran, and other Western states have been fiercely critical of Tehran's crackdown on anti-government protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September. Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown, executing at least four people. In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture. "With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness... and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats," he said. Amnesty International said the execution displayed again Tehran's "abhorrent assault on the right to life". In Akbari's case "it is particularly horrific given the violations he revealed he was subjected to in prison," it said in a Tweet. The Iranian authorities have not responded to accusations that Akbari was tortured. An Iranian state TV report - details of which Reuters could not independently verify - said he was arrested on espionage charges in 2008 before he was freed on bail and left Iran. It 2009 he went to Austria under the pretext of medical treatment, then to Spain and eventually to England, the report said. In an interview with BBC Persian broadcast on Friday, Akbari's brother Mehdi said he had returned to Iran in 2019 based on an invitation from Shamkhani.

UK Condemns 'Barbaric' Execution of Alireza Akbari
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
Britain on Saturday called the execution by Iran of British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari a barbaric act and said it would not go unpunished. Earlier, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported the execution of the former Iranian deputy defense minister who had been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain. "I am appalled by the execution of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari in Iran," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter. "This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people."British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also tweeted to say: "This barbaric act deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms. This will not stand unchallenged." Iran had accused Akbari, without offering evidence, of being a spy for Britain’s MI-6 intelligence agency. It aired a highly edited video of Akbari discussing the allegations resembling others that activists have described as coerced confessions. It did not say when it happened. However, there were rumors he had been executed days ago.

EU Studies Imposing New Set of Sanctions on Iran
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
The European Union is considering imposing new sanctions on nearly 40 Iranian individuals and entities, according to draft documents seen by the American Politico website. Additional sanctions are being studied as part of the EU’s response to the Iranian authorities’ deadly crackdown on protesters following the passing away last September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being held by the morality police. Politico reviewed 27 of the EU documents, which are called the “evidence pack” because they include information - mostly press reports - that support the proposed sanctions.
According to the documents, the European Union is considering imposing sanctions on 17 people, including regional governors, a lawmaker, a minister and a senior official of the Iran Broadcasting Service (IRIB). The sanctions will also target current and former officials of the IRGC, which has played a major role in suppressing the demonstrators. Included on the list is the Iranian sports minister, Seyed Hamid Sajjadi Hazaveh, who the document says is “responsible for pressurizing Iran’s athletes into silence, to prevent them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran.”
The list also included 12 regional corps from the Revolutionary Guard, as well as Iran’s Communication Regulation Authority (CRA), which “enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter Internet content through a spyware called SIAM” and the Ravin Academy, a body that has trained hackers “involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime.”According to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights, Iran government forces have killed at least 481 people, including 64 children and 35 women, in recent months. European Union countries, led by Germany, France and the Netherlands, are separately debating whether to take further steps against the IRGC and designate it as a terrorist organization. Last Monday, German Foreign Minister Analina Baerbock tweeted support for the proposal, saying: “This step is politically important and meaningful.”

Ireland, France Coordinate to Free Dual National Jailed in Iran
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 14 January, 2023
Authorities in Dublin are working closely with France to free Bernard Phelan, an Irish-French national, who was jailed in Iran in October, Ireland’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday. Phelan, a Paris-based tourism consultant, is being held in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad city on multiple charges, including disseminating anti-regime propaganda and taking pictures of security services. Phelan has denied all the charges. “The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of the case and has been providing consular assistance in close coordination with France since the outset,” a spokesperson for the department told AFP. “The case has also been raised directly with the Iranian authorities,” he added, declining to comment on specifics. Originally from Clonmel in the southern county of Tipperary, Phelan, 64, was travelling through Mashhad in the wake of recent protests against Iran’s clerical government when he was arrested.
According to the Irish Times, he began a hunger strike at the start of the year. His family has said they are concerned for the health of the tour operator who suffers from a heart condition, explaining that as well as refusing food he has also stopped taking his medication.
His sister, Caroline Masse-Phelan, has highlighted the cramped and cold conditions her brother has been forced to endure in Vakilabad Prison. She believes he has been detained in a political dispute between Paris and Tehran and was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Phelan is one of dozens of Western nationals held in Iran, described by activists as hostages innocent of any crime and detained at the behest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to use as leverage against Western powers. The individuals have been jailed against the backdrop of talks on reviving a 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program. Nationals of all three European powers involved in the talks on the Iranian nuclear program -- Britain, France and Germany -- are among the foreigners being held. Since September 16, Iran has been rocked by a wave of anti-regime protests that have further strained ties between Tehran and the West and risk limiting the scope for diplomacy with Iran. Almost a year ago, an Iranian court sentenced French national Benjamin Briere to eight years in prison on spying charges. Tehran has insisted all the foreigners held are on the grounds of domestic law but has also expressed readiness for prisoner swaps.

Ukrainian officials report Russian missile attack on Kyiv
AP/January 14, 2023
KYIV: A series of explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday morning and minutes later air raid sirens started to wail as an apparent missile attack on the Ukrainian capital was underway. Deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that critical infrastructure in Kyiv was targeted. Kyiv’s city military administration said that an unidentified object of infrastructure was hit in the city and emergency services were operating at the site of the strike. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that explosions were heard in the Dniprovskyi district of the city and that fragments of a missile fell on a non-residential area in the Holosiivskyi district. No casualties have been reported so far. It wasn’t immediately clear whether several facilities in Kyiv were targeted or just the one that was reported hit. The Ukrainian capital hasn’t been attacked with missiles since New Year’s night. In the outlying Kyiv region, a residential building in the village of Kopyliv was hit, and windows of the houses nearby were blown out, Tymoshenko said. Earlier on Saturday, two Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, the governor of the Kharkiv region reported. Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the industrial district of Kharkiv. The extent of the damage from the strike wasn’t immediately clear, but no casualties have been reported.

Rifts in Russian military command seen amid Ukraine fighting
Associated Press/January 14, 2023
As Russian troops wage a ferocious house-to-house fight for control of strongholds in eastern Ukraine, a parallel battle is unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow, with President Vladimir Putin reshuffling his top generals while rival camps try to win his favor.
The fighting for the salt mining town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut has highlighted a bitter rift between the Russian Defense Ministry leadership and Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire whose private military force known as the Wagner Group has played an increasingly visible role in Ukraine.
Putin's shakeup of the military brass this week was seen as a bid to show that the Defense Ministry still has his support and is in charge as the troubled conflict nears the 11-month mark.
Prigozhin declared Wednesday that his mercenary force had captured Soledar, arguing the prize was won exclusively by Wagner. The Defense Ministry waited until Friday to announce its capture, saying that it became possible thanks to air and artillery strikes and airborne forces' maneuvers. A Ukrainian army spokesman denied that, saying Kyiv's troops were still in Soledar.
The Defense Ministry initially didn't mention the private contractor, but after Prigozhin accused the military of "constantly trying to steal Wagner's victory," it acknowledged his group's "courageous and selfless action" to storm the city.
The 61-year-old Prigozhin, who was known as "Putin's chef" for his lucrative catering contracts and was indicted in the U.S. for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has expanded his assets to include Wagner, as well as mining and other spheres. He has scathingly criticized the military brass for blunders in Ukraine, saying Wagner was more efficient than regular troops. He has found a powerful ally in Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has deployed elite troops from his southern Russian region to fight in Ukraine and also assailed the military leadership and the Kremlin for being too soft and indecisive. While both have pledged loyalty to Putin, their public attacks on his top generals openly challenged the Kremlin's monopoly on such criticism, something that Russia's tightly controlled political system hadn't seen before.
In the reshuffle announced Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said the head of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, was named the new chief of Russian forces in Ukraine, while the former top commander there was demoted to Gerasimov's deputy after only three months on the job. The Washington-based Institute of the Study of War saw the reshuffle as an attempt by the Kremlin to "reassert the primacy of the Russian Ministry of Defense in an internal Russian power struggle," weaken the influence of its foes, and send a signal to Prigozhin and others to reduce their criticism. Prigozhin and his allies have repeatedly criticized Gerasimov, the main architect of the Russian operation in Ukraine, and held him responsible for military defeats. Russian troops were forced to retreat from Kyiv after a botched attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital in the opening weeks of the war. In the fall, they hastily pulled back from the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southern city of Kherson under the brunt of a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The former commander in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, directed the retreat from Kherson, the only regional center captured by Russia, and was credited for shoring up command and increasing discipline in the ranks. But a Jan. 1 Ukrainian missile strike in the eastern town of Makiivka killed scores of Russian troops and tainted his image.
Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya observed that Gerasimov's appointment marked yet another attempt by Putin to resolve his military problems by shaking up the brass.
"He is trying to reshuffle the pieces and is therefore giving chances to those who he finds persuasive," she wrote. "But in reality, the problem is not with the people, but with the tasks at hand."
Stanovaya argued that Gerasimov could have asked for "carte blanche in the heat of verbal battles against the background of some very tense discussions." For Putin, "this is maneuvering, a tug-of-war between Surovikin (and sympathizers like Prigozhin) and Gerasimov," she added. Gerasimov, who began his military career as a Soviet army tank officer in the 1970s, has been chief of the General Staff since 2012 and was seen at the start of the conflict in February sitting next to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a very long table with Putin. His appointment to directly lead the forces in Ukraine drew stinging comments from some Russian hawks. Viktor Alksnis, a retired Soviet air force colonel who spearheaded botched attempts to preserve the USSR in 1991, noted that Gerasimov had overseen the action in Ukraine even before his appointment. "This decision reflects the understanding by our political and military leadership that the special military operation has failed and none of its goals has been fulfilled in nearly a year of fighting," Alksnis wrote on his messaging app channel. "Replacing Surovikin with Gerasimov will change nothing."
Mark Galeotti, who specializes in Russian military and security affairs at University College, London, said the appointment handed Gerasimov "the most poisoned of chalices" as he now will bear direct responsibility for any more setbacks.
"Gerasimov is hanging by a thread," Galeotti said in a commentary on Twitter. "He needs some kind of win, or a career ends in ignominy. This may well suggest some kinds of escalation."
Galeotti also warned that frequent reshuffling of Russia's generals could erode allegiance in the officer corps.
"If you keep appointing, rotating, burning your (relative) stars, setting unrealistic expectations, arbitrarily demoting them, that's not going to win loyalty," he said.
Prigozhin, meanwhile, has taken advantage of military setbacks in Ukraine to expand his clout by making the Wagner Group a pivotal element of the Russian fighting force, augmenting the regular army that has suffered a heavy attrition.
Ukrainian officials alleged Wagner contractors have suffered massive losses in the fighting in Soledar and Bakhmut, advancing "on the bodies of their own comrades."
Once convicted of assault and robbery, for which he served time in prison, Prigozhin in recent months went on a tour of Russia's sprawling network of penal colonies to recruit inmates to join Wagner's forces to fight in Ukraine in exchange for pardons.
He recently released a video showing about 20 convicts allowed to leave the ranks of fighters after a half-year on the front line, while also making clear that anyone breaking ranks will face brutal punishment.
Footage posted in the fall showed a Wagner contractor being beaten to death with a sledgehammer after allegedly defecting to the Ukrainian side. Despite public outrage and demands to investigate the incident, authorities have turned a blind eye to it.
Observers have warned that by giving Prigozhin a free hand to run Wagner as a private army governed by medieval-style rules, the government has effectively planted dangerous seeds of possible upheaval. "In the end, there is chaos and the expansion of violence -– extrajudicial and illegal," predicted Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment.

Abdollahian discusses in Damascus latest regional and international developments
NNA/January 14, 2023
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian arrived in Damascus on Saturday on a visit to hold talks with senior state officials on bilateral relations, issues of mutual concern and the latest regional and international developments in the region.
Foreign and Expatriates Minister Dr. Fayssal Mikdad received the Iranian Minister upon his arrival in Damascus International Airport. Last Sunday, Dr. Mikdad received a phone call from his Iranian counterpart as they discussed the strategic bilateral relations, and the high standing coordination between the two countries on various domains to serve the interests of the two friendly peoples. --- SANA

Turkiye ready to push for ‘local cease-fires’ in Ukraine
AFP/January 14, 2023
ISTANBUL: Turkiye said Saturday it was ready to push for local cease-fires in Ukraine and warned that neither Moscow nor Kyiv had the military means to “win the war.”President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalin conceded that it seemed unlikely that the warring sides were ready to strike an “overarching peace deal” in the coming months. But he said that the brutal cost of fighting might soon see them reconsider and accept localized truces in specific parts of the war zone. “Turkiye is willing to push for local cease-fires and small localized de-escalations,” Kalin told reporters.
“Neither party is in a position to win the war militarily, on the ground.”Erdogan has used his good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv to try and mediate an end to the nearly 11-month war. NATO member Turkiye hosted two early rounds of peace talks and helped strike a UN-backed agreement restoring Ukrainian grain deliveries across the Black Sea. Erdogan has also held repeated rounds of phone consultations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at finding common ground. Kalin said Russia was primarily interested in “security guarantees” from NATO and respect on the global stage. “What Russia wants is to be respected as a major player and to (avoid) having NATO in their backyard,” Kalin said. “Ukraine is not going to join NATO but they need to get enough security guarantee from Russia,” he said.

Crowd attacks Syrian rebel figure over reconciliation push
Associated Press/January 14, 2023
Angry protesters in Syria's rebel-held enclave have rallied against reconciliation attempts between Turkey and Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and scuffled with a local Syrian opposition figure involved in those attempts. The crowd of several dozen demonstrators in the rebel-held town of Azaz first chanted slogans against the political efforts, then shouted abuse at Salem Meslet, head of the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, who showed up at the gathering. The protesters shouted "thug" and "traitor" at Meslet, who took part in past Syrian peace talks between the opposition and the government that were held over the years in Geneva. Those talks failed to lead to any substantial peace agreement. Several men then chased Meslet down a street and slapped him. He was not seriously hurt and managed to flee from the scene as the men banged on his car. Since the outbreak of Syria's civil war nearly 12 years ago, Ankara has supported anti-Assad forces and the Syrian opposition. In a videotaped statement, Meslet later said he went to the rally after attending Friday's prayers at a local mosque. He said he tried to explain to the young men protesting that "we reject Assad and his crimes." Russia has long been pressing for a reconciliation between Turkey and the Syrian government - Moscow's close ally - which have been on opposite sides in the conflict. The efforts toward a Turkish-Syrian reconciliation also come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - who faces presidential and parliamentary elections in June - is under intense pressure at home to send Syrian refugees back. Anti-refugee sentiment is rising in Turkey amid an economic crisis. Syria's civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed large parts of the country. It has also displaced half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million.

UK to supply tanks to Ukraine; casualties after barrage of Russian missiles
AP/January 14, 2023
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday promised to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine, amid renewed missile attacks by Moscow targeting multiple Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks. Five people were killed and 39 wounded in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike destroyed a section of an apartment building, regional Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. Photos showed a large gap in the nine-story building. Infrastructure facilities were also hit in the western Lviv region and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, in the Odesa region on the Black Sea and in northeastern Kharkiv. Kyiv, the capital, was also targeted. Sunak made the pledge to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, the British leader’s Downing Street office said in a statement.
It didn’t say when the tanks would be delivered or how many. British media have reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to Eastern Europe immediately, with eight more to follow shortly after, without citing sources. Zelensky tweeted his thanks to Sunak on Saturday “for the decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners.” Ukraine has for months sought to be supplied with heavier tanks, including the US Abrams and the German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders have been treading carefully.
The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukrainian forces. Poland has also expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks, but President Andrzej Duda stressed during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that the move would be possible only as an element in a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv. Earlier this month, France said it would send AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to Ukraine, designated “light tanks” in French. The US and Germany announced the same week that they would send Bradley fighting vehicles and Marder armored personnel carriers, respectively, for the first time. Sunak’s announcement came as Russian forces fired missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine on Saturday in the first major barrage in days. In Dnipro, rescuers were using a crane to try to evacuate people trapped in the apartment building’s upper stories, some of whom were signaling with the flashlights on their mobile phones, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Telegram. He also said there were likely people under the rubble. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said two Russian missiles hit an infrastructure object again on Saturday afternoon, following a similar attack in the morning, In the city of Kharkiv, the subway suspended operations amid the attacks, according to its Telegram channel.
Another infrastructure facility was hit in the western Lviv region, according to Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi.
Air defense systems were activated in other regions of Ukraine, as well, and as another round of air raid sirens sounded across the country in the afternoon, regional officials urged local residents to seek shelter. Vitali Kim, governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, hinted in a Telegram post that some missiles have been intercepted over his province. Military top commander Valeri Zaluzhny said that Russia overall fired 33 cruise missiles on Saturday, of which 21 were shot down. Earlier in the day, explosions also rocked the capital, Kyiv. The blasts occurred before air sirens sounded, which is unusual. It’s likely the explosions came ahead of the warning sirens because the attack was by ballistic missiles, which are faster than cruise missiles or drones. According to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles flying from the north. “The ballistics are not easy for us to detect and shoot down,” he told local media. The warning about the missile threat was late because of the lack of radar data and information from other sources. An infrastructure target was hit in the morning missile attack, according to Ukrainian officials. Explosions were heard in the Dniprovskyi district, a residential area on the left bank of the Dnieper River, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Klitschko also said that fragments of a missile fell on a nonresidential area in the Holosiivskyi district on the right bank, and a fire briefly broke out in a building there. No casualties have been reported so far.
This was the first attack on the Ukrainian capital since Jan. 1.
On Saturday morning, two Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The strikes with S-300 missiles targeted “energy and industrial objects of Kharkiv and the (outlying) region,” governor Syniehubov said. No casualties have been reported, but emergency power cuts in the city and other settlements of the region were possible, the official said. In the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine where fighting is most intense, three people were killed in Russian artillery attacks on Saturday, mayor Vitalii Barabash said. One person died in a rocket attack in Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Reznichenko said. The attacks follow conflicting reports on the fate of the fiercely contested salt mining town of Soledar, in Ukraine’s embattled east. Russia claims that its forces have captured the town, a development that would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield. Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Malyar said Saturday that the “fiece battles for Soledar are continuing.”Moscow has painted the battle for the town and the nearby city of Bakhmut as key to capturing the eastern region of the Donbas, which comprises of partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and as a way to grind down the best Ukrainian forces and prevent them from launching counterattacks elsewhere. But that cuts both ways, as Ukraine says its fierce defense of the eastern strongholds has helped tie up Russian forces. Western officials and analysts say the two towns’ importance is more symbolic than strategic.

Get your troops out of Syria, Assad tells Erdogan
Arab News/January 14, 2023
JEDDAH: Bashar Assad on Friday broke his silence on Syria’s growing reconciliation with Turkiye by demanding that Ankara pull its troops out of Syria and end its support for opposition groups. Syria and Turkiye have been at odds since Ankara became a major backer of the political and armed opposition to Assad during the 12-year civil war, and has sent its own forces into large parts of the north. Russia is brokering a reconciliation between Damascus and Ankara. Moscow hosted talks between their defense ministers last month, and the aim is for meetings between the foreign ministers and eventually presidents Assad and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Syrian FM: No normal ties with Turkiye without end to occupation
Reuters/January 14, 2023
LONDON: Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad said on Saturday that Turkiye would have to end its military presence in his country to achieve a full rapprochement. “We cannot talk about resuming normal ties with Turkiye without removing the occupation,” he said after meeting his Iranian counterpart in Damascus. Turkiye has been a major backer of the political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad during the 12-year conflict in Syria, and has sent its own troops into swathes of the country’s north. Russia, a key ally of Assad, is supporting a rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, hosting talks between their defense ministers last month and aiming for meetings between the foreign ministers and eventually presidents. Mekdad said on Saturday “a meeting between Assad and the Turkish leadership depends on removing the reasons for the dispute,” without providing more details or mentioning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by name. Mekdad was speaking after meeting in Damascus with Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Assad’s other main ally, Iran. Amirabdollahian, who also met Assad on Saturday, said on Friday that Iran was “happy with the dialogue taking place between Syria and Turkiye.”Assad said on Friday the results should be based on the principle of ending the occupation and support for terrorism, a term that Syrian authorities use to refer to all opposition armed groups. A source with close knowledge of the negotiations said Syria wanted Turkiye to pull its troops from swathes of the north and to halt support to three main opposition factions. The source said Syria was keen to see progress on those demands through follow-up committees before agreeing to a foreign ministers’ meeting. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he could meet Mekdad early in February, rejecting reports the two could meet next week. Syria has made no official comment on the timing of any such meeting, which would mark the highest-level talks between Ankara and Damascus since the Syrian war began in 2011.

Israelis rally in three cities against Netanyahu legal reforms
Dan Williams/TEL AVIV (Reuters)/Sat, January 14, 2023
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in three major cities on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reform plans, with organisers accusing him of undermining democratic rule weeks after his reelection. Bestriding a religious-nationalist coalition with a solid parliamentary majority, Netanyahu, now in his sixth term, wants to rein in the Supreme Court in what he has described as a restoration of the balance of the three branches of government. Critics say the proposed reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel's courts system of credibility that helps fend off war-crimes allegations abroad. Among those opposed are the Supreme Court chief justice and the country's attorney-general. After President Isaac Herzog appealed to polarised politicians to "lower the temperatures" of the debates, organisers of the demonstrations - held under chilly winter rain - sought to strike a note of national unity. "Take an Israeli flag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and come out to protect democracy and law in the State of Israel," said centrist ex-defence minister Benny Gantz, who attended the Tel Aviv rally but, like other opposition figures, was not due to address it. "We Are Preserving Our Shared Home," read one demonstrator's placard. Netanyahu was guilty of a "legal putsch", said another. Israeli media put the number in attendance at some 80,000, with thousands more at protests in Jerusalem and Haifa. Social media footage showed a small number of Palestinian flags on display, in defiance of Netanyahu's far-right allies. One of these, National Security Ministry Itamar Ben-Gvir, told Kan TV he wanted such flags removed but was awaiting the opinion of the attorney-general before ordering any crackdown by police. The 73-year-old Netanyahu on Friday signalled flexibility on the reform plan, saying it would be implemented "with careful consideration while hearing all of the positions". Polls have diverged on public views of the reforms. Channel 13 TV last week found 53% of Israelis were opposed to changing the court appointments' structure while 35% were in support. But Channel 14 TV on Thursday found 61% in favour and 35% opposed. Critics of the Supreme Court say it is overreaching and unrepresentative of the electorate. Its proponents call the court a means of bringing equilibrium to a fractious society. "Tens of thousands of people were at tonight's demonstrations. In the election held here two and a half months ago, millions turned out," tweeted Miki Zohar a senior lawmaker in Netanyahu's conservative Likud party. "We promised the people change, we promised governance, we promised reforms - and we will make good on that."

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 14-15/2023
د. ماجد رفي زاده / معهد جيتستون : حتى اليوم، لا يزال الاتحاد الأوروبي وإدارة بايدن يسترضيان ويتملقان ويكافئان ملالي إيران
The EU and the Biden Administration Still Appeasing and Rewarding the Mullahs of Iran
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/January 14/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/114940/dr-majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-the-eu-and-the-biden-administration-still-appeasing-and-rewarding-the-mullahs-of-iran-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af/
The Obama-Biden administration had also kept the US Congress, the American people and US allies in the Middle East in the dark about what it was negotiating with the ruling mullahs of Iran. When Biden was vice president, the Obama administration made multiple secret deals with Iran's mullahs.
"[T]he JCPOA was designed as an instrument to break pro-Israel Democrats, who represent what Obama saw as the most powerful of the internal constituencies that might oppose his reordering of the Democratic Party. That is, the real realignment [ostensibly with Iran] isn't in the Middle East, which America is leaving anyway, but inside Obama's own party." — Lee Smith, Tablet, March 10, 2021.
The Obama-Biden administration kept the US Congress, the American people and US allies in the Middle East in the dark about the multiple secret deals it made with the ruling mullahs of Iran.
While the Iranian regime has become more belligerent, the European Union and the Biden administration are still attempting to restore the nuclear deal that will lift economic sanctions on Iran, empower and embolden the regime, enhance its global legitimacy and pave the way for what the US State Department has called the "world's worst sponsor of state terrorism" to legally become a nuclear-armed state.
The Biden administration claimed that the nuclear deal was "off the table," but regrettably this statement appears merely an attempt by the administration to keep Congress and the public in the dark, to let their guard down, about the revival of the nuclear deal with Iran. A few days after President Joe Biden claimed that the nuclear deal was dead, Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy to Iran, revealed in interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda on December 22 that the nuclear deal is in fact not dead.
On December 20, 2022, the European Union's head of foreign policy, Josep Borrell, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian by the Dead Sea in Jordan, and stressed that the revival of the nuclear deal is an important step. According to Mehr News, Borrell said:
"I still believe that when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation, there is no alternative to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Those who think otherwise simply fool themselves."
Borrell added that he would "continue working towards restoring the JCPOA based on the results of the Vienna negotiations... I also stressed that bringing the JCPOA back to life does not happen in a strategic vacuum. It is part, a key part, of a broader picture."
On January 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
"Unfortunately, contrary to the popular opinion that this dangerous nuclear agreement has been scrapped, despite the recent events in Iran, I think that this possibility has not yet been definitively removed from the [global] agenda... "Therefore, we will do everything to prevent the revival of this bad agreement that will lead to a nuclear Iran with international sponsorship... We will act powerfully and openly on the international front against the revival of the [Iranian] nuclear agreement."
The Obama-Biden administration had also kept the US Congress, the American people and US allies in the Middle East in the dark about what it was negotiating with the ruling mullahs of Iran. When Biden was vice president, the Obama administration made multiple secret deals with Iran's mullahs. One of these secret deals consisted of permitting the Iranian regime to have access to US dollars by sidestepping sanctions.
"The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran," said Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who chaired the Senate panel conducting the investigation at the time.
In addition, the Obama-Biden administration secretly agreed to lift sanctions on several Iranian banks, including Bank Sepah and Sepah International. Another major concession was that the deal actually did pave the way for Iran legally to become a full-blown nuclear state. The JCPOA's sunset clauses, which enshrined that commitment, had set a firm expiration date for restricting Iran's nuclear program, after which the country would be free to have, legitimately, as many nuclear weapons as they like.
The Biden administration has reportedly already made a major concession to allow non-US persons to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. According to a leaked draft agreement:
"Non-U.S. persons doing business with Iranian persons that are not on the [U.S. sanctions list] will not be exposed to sanctions merely as a result of those Iranian persons engaging in separate transactions involving Iranian persons on the [U.S. sanctions list] (including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its officials, or its subsidiaries or affiliates)."
That is apparently why a group of 50 US House Representatives, mostly Democrats, urged the Biden administration to release the text of the nuclear deal:
"We are writing to respectfully request that your Administration provide Congress with the full text of any proposal to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including any side agreements, and consult with Congress prior to reentering that agreement."
As Middle East Scholar Lee Smith notes:
"The Biden administration's determination to reenter the Iran deal is a macabre scam virtually handing off a bomb to a terror state....
"America's Middle East allies are in fact only the most visible targets of the Iran deal: As an intervention in American domestic politics, the JCPOA was designed as an instrument to break pro-Israel Democrats, who represent what Obama saw as the most powerful of the internal constituencies that might oppose his reordering of the Democratic Party. That is, the real realignment isn't in the Middle East, which America is leaving anyway, but inside Obama's own party."
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19318/eu-biden-rewarding-iran

Is the world heading toward order or disorder?
Kishore Mahbubani/Arab News/January 14, 2023
The next 10 years will be absolutely critical in shaping the world order of the 21st century. Why? World orders are the results of geopolitical shifts. And in the next decade, we will probably see the world’s greatest shifts of power since human history began. How the world navigates this decade will determine the nature of the world order that will emerge.
As the world navigates the treacherous geopolitical terrain that lies down the road, we will have to deal with a major paradox. There is no question that it was the West, especially the US and Western Europe, that bequeathed the benign 1945 rules-based order that has generated so much human progress in the last eight decades, especially the past three decades. In theory, the West should take the lead in defining the future world order. In practice, it will not.
The sad reality is that both the US and Europe are now truly lost. In the past, especially after their glorious victory in the Second World War, they represented the most confident and optimistic societies. Now they do not. Both the US and Europe are deeply troubled, internally and externally. Hence, both are making serious strategic mistakes. The goal of this essay is to help the US and Europe to craft wiser policies to deal with a vastly different world. This essay will also explain how they lost their way, in different ways.
The US today has probably never been so divided internally, at least not since the civil war of the 1860s. Yet, despite these massive domestic divisions, American society is completely united on one geopolitical proposition: It is time for the US to stand up to China. Yet, what is shocking is that the US has launched this contest without first working out a strategy.
Both the US and Europe are deeply troubled, internally and externally. Hence, both are making serious strategic mistakes.
This is puzzling on several counts. The US still has the world’s best universities, the best-funded strategic think tanks, the globally most influential media. In short, it has the world’s largest strategic thinking industry. Yet, despite this, Washington is devoid of long-term strategic thinking, especially on China. Instead, a remarkable groupthink has enveloped it. The US is still the world’s most powerful country. It is also widely admired around the world. Indeed, I remain an admirer of American society and consider myself a friend. One of the obligations of friendship is to point out to a friend when they have lost their way.
Many would doubt that the US has lost its way. Yet, it is America’s greatest living strategic thinker, Henry Kissinger, who personally confirmed to me twice that the US does not have a comprehensive long-term strategy to manage the return of China. There is also powerful evidence that supports this claim. A strategy is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. Before the US can work out a strategy toward China, it first needs to specify what goals it hopes to accomplish. No such goals have ever been specified, despite the proliferation of “strategy” documents from key agencies in Washington. For example, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last May: “We’ll compete with China to defend our interests and build our vision for the future.” But Blinken does not specify what goals the US hopes to achieve in this “competition” with China.
In theory, the US could have these goals: To stop the economic resurgence of China; to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party; or to isolate and contain China, as the US successfully did with the former Soviet Union. Yet, none of these goals are attainable.
The economic resurgence of China is now unstoppable. Even though China is still the No. 2 economy, it now has a bigger retail goods market than the US. In 2010, the size of the US retail goods market was $4 trillion, more than double that of China at $1.8 trillion. Yet, by 2020, barely 10 years later, China’s had become bigger at $16 trillion, while the US was only at $5.5 trillion. Hence, by launching its “dual circulation” strategy, China can rely on both its domestic and external markets to continue growing. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the Anglo-Saxon media, President Xi Jinping and his new team have not turned their backs on economic opening or reforms. Hence, China’s economic growth cannot be stopped.
Similarly, the Chinese Communist Party cannot be overthrown in the way that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was. Unlike the Soviet population, the Chinese population has seen the best 30 years of social and economic development in 3,000 years of Chinese history. It would be irrational for the Chinese people to overthrow the party that has delivered so much prosperity and well-being to them. Hence, a serious academic study by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center showed that support for the central government among the Chinese population had grown from 86.1 percent in 2003 to 93.1 percent in 2016. Equally importantly, no policy of containment of China will work. China now does more international trade than the US. According to World Bank data, China’s total trade was $6.6 trillion in 2021, while America’s was $4.9 trillion. More than 120 countries in the world do more trade with China than with the US. It would be irrational for any country to reduce its trade with China just to make Washington happy. Even a country as geographically close to the US as Brazil would have difficulty doing so, since its trade with China is now three times its trade with the US.
If the strategic thinkers and policy planners in Washington could take a step back and critically reflect on their policies and actions toward China, they would see that none of them will seriously stop China, not even the latest technology war the US has launched. They should also understand that China’s resurgence is driven by a deeper historical trend: The longer cycles of ups and downs in Chinese history. China, the world’s oldest continuous civilization, is rediscovering its natural civilizational resilience. Curiously, most countries of the world can see this clearly. As a result, most countries are stepping up their links with China, responding positively to new initiatives by Beijing, like the Belt and Road Initiative. Indeed, more than 140 countries have voluntarily and willingly signed Belt and Road Initiative agreements with China.
So, is there a wiser course for the US to take vis-a-vis China? Yes, there is. Bill Clinton spelled out such a wise strategy when he spoke at Yale in 2003, 20 years ago. He said that to prepare for a world in which the US would become No. 2, it should strengthen multilateral rules and norms, institutions and processes. Clinton clearly implied that this would be the best way to constrain China when it became No. 1.
All this explains why the next 10 years will be critical in determining the shape of the future world order. As of now, especially while it is No. 2, China is still prepared to work within the 1945 rules-based order created by the West. Chinese words and deeds confirm this.
As modern history shows, to establish a fair and equitable international order is the goal mankind has always strived for. From the principles of equality and sovereignty established in the Peace of Westphalia more than 360 years ago to international humanitarianism as affirmed in the Geneva Convention 150-plus years ago. And from the four purposes and seven principles enshrined in the UN Charter more than 70 years ago to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence championed by the Bandung Conference over 60 years ago. Many such principles have emerged in the evolution of international relations and become widely accepted. These principles should guide us in building a community of shared future for mankind.
China is also acutely aware that its spectacular economic resurgence was facilitated by the 1945 rules-based order, especially the World Trade Organization. Before China joined the WTO, the US economy was eight times bigger than that of China. Now it is only 1.5 times larger. Curiously, all the theories of the benefits of free trade were given to us mainly by American economists. Yet, while Chinese society can accept these American theories (which explains China’s willingness to sign free trade agreements), American society cannot.
Since China is still willing to work with the 1945 rules-based order, while it is No. 2, the US should seize this moment and work out a grand new global compact with China to strengthen this order, based fundamentally on the UN Charter. However, if the US is to succeed in this, it has to first admit, in all honesty, that, contrary to American public claims, the US has steadily worked to weaken, rather than strengthen, the UN system. I learned this in great detail when I served as Singapore’s ambassador to the UN for more than 10 years. This has also been comprehensively documented and explained in “The Great Convergence.” Tragically, given the strategic groupthink in Washington, no major American voice supports the strengthening of the UN.
In theory, this job of defending the UN could be done by America’s most powerful global ally, the EU, which remains the world’s most successful regional multilateral organization. Indeed, the EU lives and breathes multilateralism. Yet, through a combination of political cowardice, intellectual dishonesty and a deep sense of insecurity (especially after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine), the European leaders have lost their strategic spines and developed a culture of being supine toward Washington.
Tragically, given the strategic groupthink in Washington, no major American voice supports the strengthening of the UN.
In private, many European leaders and thinkers disapprove of America’s post-Cold War unilateral policies toward China. This is why Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China last November, against the explicit wishes of the US. Yet, despite these few expressions of geopolitical independence, the EU remains committed to supporting unwise American policies, instead of guiding the US toward adapting and adjusting to new global realities.
With the EU abdicating its moral and political responsibility to strengthen global multilateralism, there remains only one other great power to provide this badly needed global leadership: India. In purchasing power parity terms, India is already the third-largest economy in the world. It will surpass all European economies in nominal terms very soon. This is why I have argued that India should be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (with a veto) yesterday, not tomorrow. India also understands deeply that the world is now moving in a new multipolar and multicivilizational direction. India’s competitive advantage is that it has relatively good ties with all major powers, although its ties with China have been strained since the military clash between them in June 2020 in Galwan.
India can strengthen its case for immediate permanent membership of the UNSC by taking full advantage of its chairmanship of the G20 in 2023 to demonstrate how it is the most effective country in managing and leading global multilateral processes like the G20.
Fortunately, one clear opportunity has presented itself to India. It is clear that the whole world outside the West and Russia is getting weary of the Ukraine war. India is today the only major country that enjoys good relations with both Washington and Moscow. Using the precedent of Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy, India should immediately begin consultations with both Russia and the US. In theory, the peace should be negotiated between Kyiv and Moscow. And Kyiv should be consulted. Yet, the undeniable reality is that the deal will have to be made between Washington and Moscow.
Kissinger has provided India with a new opening, as he argued in his December article on Ukraine in The Spectator that it is unwise for the West to render Russia impotent by the war. He adds: “For all its propensity to violence, Russia has made decisive contributions to the global equilibrium and to the balance of power for over half a millennium.” India would heartily endorse Kissinger’s statement, since Russia has been a good friend of India for more than 50 years.
No other country understands better that we are entering a new multipolar world order than the newest great power in the world order: India. By steering its G20 chairmanship forcefully and wisely, India will educate Washington on a new undeniable truth: It is better for the US to abandon its unilateral impulses and learn to build new multilateral muscles to manage the new world. As one of the founding members of the nonaligned movement, India also understands well the wishes and aspirations of third world countries in all continents, especially Africa, Asia and Latin America. The majority of the nonaligned countries have made it clear that they do not want to take sides in the US-China geopolitical contest. India can give voice to these views of the majority of the world’s population.
One of the most precious pieces of wisdom deeply entrenched in America’s Declaration of Independence is that the US should show “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” One reality that Washington has to accept is that only 12 percent of humanity live in the West; 88 percent live elsewhere. Most of those 88 percent have been passive bystanders in the past two centuries, when the US was emerging as the world’s greatest ever power. Now, as demonstrated by the spectacular resurgence of China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (the new “CIA,” which will drive global growth), these 88 percent want to have a greater voice in global affairs. And the vast majority of them want to avoid taking sides either in the US-China geopolitical contest or in the NATO-Russia clash over Ukraine, as shown by the fact that 88 percent of humanity has not imposed sanctions on Russia.
All this explains why the world order is facing such a plastic moment in world history today. If we make the right decisions to strengthen multilateralism to manage the new multipolar and multicivilizational world that is emerging, we may end up in a happy destination 10 years from now, with the 1945 rules-based order based on the UN Charter emerging strengthened. However, if key capitals, especially in the US and Europe, refuse to accept that they will have to adapt and adjust to a new multipolar and multicivilizational world, we are going to enter a more troubled world. Disorder rather than order will reign.
It is always wiser to push for order. Let us seize this window of opportunity and create a better future for all of humanity, including the minority 12 percent of the world that lives in the West.
*Kishore Mahbubani is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, NUS, and the author of “The Asian 21st Century,” an open access book that has been downloaded 2 million times since its release in January 2022. He is also the author of “Has China Won?” Twitter: @mahbubani_k
This article first appeared in Asharq. It is part of a series titled “2023: A year of difficult questions.”