English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 17/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.january17.23.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching people.’When they had brought their boats to
shore, they left everything and followed him
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 05/01-11/:”Once while Jesus
was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him
to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the
fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of
the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way
from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he
had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let
down your nets for a catch.’Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night
long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’When
they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to
break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help
them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me,
Lord, for I am a sinful man!’For he and all who were with him were amazed at the
catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of
Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be
afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’When they had brought their
boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on January 16-17/2023
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
Police Question Lebanese Relatives of 2020 Blast Victims
Police question relatives of port blast victims
Investigation with William Noun, others winds up
Judge Hamade releases relatives of Beirut port victims summoned for
interrogation
Europe investigators hear Lebanon witnesses over central bank chief
OEIL: European investigators came to Lebanon after confirmation that obstruction
of investigations into Riad Salameh’s case is internal
European investigators meet Prosecutor Oueidat, interview central bank's former
deputy governor
Lebanon’s Rahi Rejects ‘Police State’, Spiteful Practices
Mikati calls for caretaker cabinet session on Wednesday
Parliamentary committees approve capital control law
Environmental prosecutor charges Jisr and Arab over Costa Brava
Raad: We want president who would not bow to foreign pressure
Berri meets Siniora, former head of Banking Control Commission, others
Makary meets Representative of International Organization of La Francophonie,
underlines joint cooperation
Abiad discusses health sector conditions and cooperation projects with Qatari,
Chinese Ambassadors
Telecoms employees to stage warning strike on Tuesday
Geagea calls for reconsidering state structure if pro-Hezbollah president
elected
Beirut's Sursock Museum to reopen in late May
Lebanon’s energy minister proposes electricity workaround amid state paralysis
Stricken Lebanon endures 3rd exodus as its people flee disaster
Titles For The
Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on January 16-17/2023
Biden promised a reckoning when Saudi Arabia crossed him. 3 months later, it is
clear he's backed down.
Israel appoints Herzi Halevi as new military chief
In threat, Hamas releases video said to show captive Israeli
Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen in West Bank raid, medics say
Putin and Erdogan discuss Ukraine prisoners, gas and grain
Germany calls for special tribunal against Russia over Ukraine war
Former Russian mercenary commander fled to Norway and is willing to give
evidence of its worst crimes in Ukraine, lawyer says
CIA director secretly met with Zelenskyy before invasion to reveal Russian plot
to kill him as he pushed back on US intelligence, book says
Germany's defense minister resigns amid Ukraine criticism
EU Condemns Akbari’s Execution…UK Reconsidering Support for Nuclear Deal
Kremlin denies conflict between Wagner and defence ministry
Russia Says British Tanks Sent to Ukraine ‘Will Burn’
Kremlin Says Russian Missiles Did Not Target Residential Building in Dnipro
Death Toll in Russian Strike on Ukrainian Building Up to 35
Ukraine missile toll rises to 40 as Russia denies attack
Jailed Iranian American Appeals to Biden, Starts Hunger Strike
Iraqi PM challenges pro-Iranian factions as he backs presence of US troops
Italy arrests Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro
John Kerry tells AP he backs UAE oil chief overseeing COP28
Titles For The
Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on January 16-17/2023
TikTok Must be Banned in US and Free World/Judith Bergman/Gatestone
Institute./January 16, 2023
It is vital for Europe that Ukraine prevails/Col. Taras Dzuba/Arab News/January
16/2023
Iran’s bid to steal Arab identity is an own goal/Baria Alamuddin/Arab
News/January 16/2023
Israel’s Power Shift: To Bibi, or Not to Bibi/David Pollock//The Washington
Institute/January 16/2023
Between the lines: Understanding the Houthi Employment Code of Conduct/Laila
Lutf Al-Thawr/The Washington Institute/January 16/2023
Pope Benedict Told the Grim Truth about Islam/Raymond Ibrahim/January 16/2023
on January 16-17/2023
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
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/114955/elias-bejjani-lebanons-national-and-sovereign-image-was-embodied-in-the-courageous-stances-adopted-by-jbeil-emam-ahmed-laqeess-in-advocating-with-faith-and-love-for-william-nouns-case/
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.
Police Question Lebanese
Relatives of 2020 Blast Victims
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
Several relatives of the victims of the massive 2020 explosion at Beirut's port
showed up on Monday to answer questions by police after they were accused of
rioting and vandalism during protests over the stalled investigation into the
blast. The rioting last week saw the relatives hurl rocks at the Beirut Justice
Palace and burn tires outside the building, decrying years of what they say is
political interference in the probe, The Associated Press said. The Aug. 4, 2020
explosion killed more than 215 people, injured 6,000 and devastated entire
neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of highly explosive
ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers, detonated in a port warehouse.
It later emerged the chemical was shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored
improperly at the warehouse. A handful of senior political and security
officials knew of its presence and the threat it imposed on the city but failed
to take action to remove it. Judge Tarek Bitar’s investigation into the disaster
has been frozen since December 2021 after politicians he had charged in the case
filed legal challenges to the probe. No one has been tried or convicted over the
blast. On Monday, 13 relatives of blast victims showed up to answer police
summons over the rioting. As they were being questioned inside the police
compound, hundreds of other relatives of the blast victims, activists, and some
lawmakers protested outside and condemned the country's ruling elite. They say
the elite's lock on power has kept its members immune from accountability.
William Noun, who lost his brother firefighter Joe in the blast, has been an
outspoken activist. Summoned Monday, he later claimed the authorities are trying
to exhaust and intimidate the families. Security forces raided his home and
detained him overnight on Saturday, after he spoke in a TV interview and
criticized the judiciary. “We want justice, and we want everyone who blew up the
port to be held accountable, regardless of their political affiliation,” he said
as he walked into the compound. Among the protesters outside was the mother of
Ahmad Kaadan, who was killed in the blast. She held a poster of her son and
decried what she said was Lebanon’s “failed state and judiciary.” “Instead of
bringing in the officials with arrest warrants, they’re going after the families
wanting to know how their children were killed,” Um Ahmad told reporters. “In
this country, those on the side of justice are getting arrested while the
criminals are enjoying their lives.” The families, Lebanese activists and human
rights organizations have urged the United Nations to investigate the blast.
Police question relatives
of port blast victims
Associated Press/January 16/2023
Thirteen relatives of the victims of the massive 2020 explosion at Beirut's port
showed up on Monday to answer questions by police after they were accused of
rioting and vandalism during protests over the stalled investigation into the
blast. On Tuesday, victims' relatives had thrown
stones at the palace of justice in Beirut and stormed the outer gate of the
building. Some of them were injured as they clashed with security forces.
William Noon -- whose brother was killed in the devastating
port blast -- was arrested Friday over remarks about "blowing up the palace of
justice". He was released Saturday after his arrest sparked protests in Beirut.
Activists, families of the blast victims, lawmakers and lawyers rallied on
Monday in front of Barbar el-Khazen police station in Verdun to support those
being interrogated by the police. The relatives said
that they are not above the law and that no one should be. The investigators
into the Beirut port blast had attempted to question a former premier and four
ex-ministers over the tragedy, but the probe was repeatedly obstructed before
being suspended. Former PM Hassan Diab and former
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Zoaiter and Youssef
Fenianos, both former ministers of public works, had been accused of negligence
that led to the death of hundreds of people. They refused to attend
interrogation hearings as they enjoy immunity. "The
problem is between the families and those responsible for the port blast," Noon
said. "It is not between us and the judges." "We came (to the interrogation)
because we respect the judiciary," he added. Among the protesters outside was
the mother of Ahmad Kaadan, who was killed in the blast. She held a poster of
her son and decried what she said was Lebanon’s “failed state and
judiciary.”“Instead of bringing in the officials with arrest warrants, they’re
going after the families wanting to know who killed their children,” Um Ahmad
told reporters. “In this country, those on the side of justice are getting
arrested while the criminals are enjoying their lives.”
Investigation with William
Noun, others winds up
NNA/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The investigation with William Noun and the rest of those who had been summoned
to Barbar El-Khazen barracks in Verdun has winded up, and their release
currently awaits a judicial signal, our reporter said on Monday. Upon the end of
the aforementioned investigation Attorney Shekrey Haddad said, “Those summoned
were heard, in the presence of lawyers, and in a legal manner.; they are
expected to be released in half an hour awaiting the signal of the Public
Prosecutor.”For his part, MP Waddah Al-Sadiq said, “We are facing politicians
who have been obstructing the judiciary, and we are facing a judiciary that is
being puppeteered by some politicians. Is it permissible for the judiciary,
which had been on a long retreat, to become suddenly active in the case of
William Noun?”
Judge Hamade releases relatives of Beirut port victims
summoned for interrogation
NNA/Monday, 16 January, 2023
State Prosecutor at the Beirut Court of Appeal, Judge Zaher Hamade, has released
the relatives of the Beirut port blast victims whom he summoned for
interrogation against the backdrop of the storming of the Justice Palace last
week, our correspondent reported on Monday. The Judge asked the relatives to
sign a pledge in which they undertake not to attack public properties and law
enforcement, and to keep their protests peaceful. The Judge also requested the
transfer of William Noun and Peter Bou Saab -- brothers of martyrs Joe Noun and
Joe Bou Saab, respectively -- from Barbar al-Khazen police station in Verdun to
the General Directorate of the State Security agency in Ramlet al-Bayda for
further interrogation ahead of their release.
Europe investigators hear
Lebanon witnesses over central bank chief
Agence France Presse/January 16/2023
European investigators began questioning high-profile witnesses in Lebanon as
part of a probe into Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh's wealth, a judicial
official told AFP Monday. France, Germany and
Luxembourg in March seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a
move linked to a probe by French investigators into 72-year-old Salameh's
personal wealth. Salameh -- who denies wrongdoing and
remains in his post despite a travel ban -- is also being investigated by
Lebanese authorities on suspicion of financial misconduct including possible
embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion.
Investigators from the three European countries on Monday questioned Saad Andary,
a former central bank vice governor, said the judicial official, requesting
anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. The long-serving
central bank chief is among top officials widely blamed for monetary policies
that have led to Lebanon's economic crisis, dubbed one of the worst globally in
modern history by the World Bank. Investigators were also supposed to question a
former employee at the banking control commission Monday, but he did not appear,
citing medical reasons, the official said.
Two Lebanese judges "asked questions on behalf of the Europeans," he said,
adding that the investigators will question Lebanese bankers as well as current
and former employees of the central bank as part of their probe. On Tuesday,
they are set to hear Lebanese banker Marwan Kheireddine and former vice governor
Ahmed Jachi as witnesses.Salameh will not be questioned at this stage of the
investigation, the official said. Last month an official had confirmed to AFP
that investigators from the three countries would visit Lebanon in January to
conduct investigations into financial affairs linked to Salameh.
Lebanon opened a probe into Salameh's wealth last year, after the office of
Switzerland's top prosecutor requested assistance with an investigation into
more than $300 million allegedly embezzled out of the central bank with the help
of his brother. In June, a Lebanese prosecutor probing Salameh on suspicion of
financial misconduct requested charges be levelled against him based on
preliminary investigative findings, a court official said at the time.
The suggested charges include embezzlement of public funds,
money laundering, illicit enrichment, tax evasion, fraud and forgery, the
official said. Both Salameh brothers have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
OEIL: European investigators came to Lebanon after
confirmation that obstruction of investigations into Riad Salameh’s case is
internal
NNA/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The European Observatory for Integrity in Lebanon (OEIL) on Monday said in a
statement that the European probe into the case of “Lebanese Central Bank
Governor Riad Salameh and his accomplices’ embezzlement and money laundering”
has been launched in cooperation with the Lebanese judiciary at the Palace of
Justice in Lebanon. The OEIL indicated further that French judge, Aude Buresi,
who had been tasked to follow up on the case in France, has joined the European
delegation. The statement then called on the Lebanese for “cooperation with the
European justice in order to attain justice in the crime of money theft from the
Lebanese.” “Along with the ongoing investigations, suspicious practices have
surfaced on the part of the Supreme Judicial Council, which has been resorting
to harassment practices against Lebanese judges while carrying out their
required duties,” the statement added.
The OEIL then called on Lebanese magistrates not to cave in to any sort of
intimidation, affirming that the arrival of European investigators to Lebanon
came after foreign countries had confirmed that the obstruction of
investigations into Riad Salameh’s file is “internal”.
“Without a functional justice, impunity prevails. The victims of the Beirut Port
explosion, the citizens that have been kept captive without any charge, as well
as the hard working people that have lost their money should have access to a
fair and equitable trial,” the OEIL said via its Twitter account on Sunday.
European investigators meet Prosecutor Oueidat, interview
central bank's former deputy governor
NNA/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The European judicial delegations visiting Lebanon on Monday began their
investigations into the case of central bank governor, Riad Salameh, and
corruption and money laundering files. They firstly met with State Prosecutor of
the Court of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, in the presence of Prosecutors
Imad Qabalan and Mirna Kallas, at the Justice Palace of Beirut. The
investigators then moved to the main hall of the Court of Cassation, where they
heard the testimonies of former deputy of the central bank governor, Saad Andari,
in his capacity as witness.
Khalil Kassaf, a second witness and a former employee at the Banking Control
Commission, was also supposed to be interviewed, but he did not appear before
the investigators. HIs interrogation has been postponed.
Lebanon’s Rahi Rejects ‘Police State’, Spiteful Practices
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed on Sunday the security
agencies over their “police state” practices in wake of the arrest of William
Noun, a key figure among the families of Beirut's 2020 port explosion victims.
Noun -- whose brother, a fireman, was killed in the devastating August 4, 2020
port blast -- was arrested Friday over remarks made during a television program.
Noun 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. His arrest had sparked demonstrations on Friday night, while activists
gathered earlier Saturday outside the Beirut police station where he was being
held. He was released early on Saturday. During his Sunday sermon, Rahi slammed
the judiciary, saying it “has become a tool for dealing vengeance and spite.”He
said Noun’s arrest demonstrated that the security agencies were operating as if
Lebanon were a police state. “The chaos in the judiciary now allows any judge to
detain a person without thinking about the repercussions and justice,” he
remarked. He added that those who ordered Noun’s arrest should be ashamed of
themselves for detaining a youth who has been striving for justice for those
killed in the 2020 blast. “They raided his home and detained him in complete
disregard for his tragedy and that of his family and all of the relatives of the
port explosion,” continued Rahi. “Don’t they care about how the people will
react?” he wondered. Moreover, Rahi addressed the ongoing vacuum in the
presidency, warning of a plot to create vacuum in Maronite and Christian posts.
He called for the election of a president according to the constitution, saying
the elected figure must uphold national interests.
He condemned the “bad practices of officials who have led the country to its
current state of deep poverty, complete collapse of basic sectors and
institutions and such deep corruption that is backed by influential people in
power.”The patriarch called on parliament and parliamentary blocs to “cease
destroying the country and its institutions and to cease impoverishing the
people.”Rahi lamented that officials “failed to learn a lesson from the
coronavirus pandemic as they have remained victims of the virus, their
corruption, pride, prioritization of their interests, spite and bad
intentions.”“No one has acted to end the presidential vacuum, chaos in the
judiciary and security instability and address the electricity crisis,” he
noted. “It is also unfortunate and shameful that Arab and western countries are
holding meetings and consultations over how to help Lebanon, while parliament
has remained closed under the farcical claim that an agreement must first be
reached over a president before a vote can be held,” said Rahi. “They are
dealing a blow to the very heart of our democratic parliament,” he added. He
warned officials that the people’s patience has grown thin and that they may
rise up at any moment. No people on the planet had reached such a state of
collapse without rising up and revolting, whether they are living in a
democratic or dictatorial state, he continued. Furthermore, he said the
prolonged vacuum in the presidency will be followed by prolonged vacuum in
constitutional, judicial, financial, military and diplomatic posts, warning of a
plot to create vacuum in Maronite and Christian positions.
Mikati calls for caretaker cabinet session on Wednesday
Naharnet/January 16/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called Monday for a cabinet session on
Wednesday morning. The Free Patriotic Movement had repeatedly warned against
holding any caretaker cabinet session during presidential vacuum, arguing that
any decree issued would require the signatures of all ministers. The Movement’s
ministers boycotted a session held on December 5 and described its resolutions
as unconstitutional. Last week, Mikati reportedly met with Speaker Nabih Berri’s
political aide, Ali Hassan Khalil, and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s aide, Hussein
al-Khalil. Berri had many times voiced support for a caretaker Cabinet meeting.
He reportedly considered that cabinet should convene, "whatever happens". His
circles quoted him as saying, in remarks published Monday in al-Joumhouria
newspaper, that "it is not acceptable to obstruct the country and the people’s
affairs for the sake of a certain political party."
Parliamentary committees approve capital control law
Naharnet/January 16/2023
The Joint Parliamentary Committees on Monday approved the capital control draft
law and referred it to parliament for a final vote, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou
Saab said. “The discussion was beneficial and a final format of the law was
adopted,” Bou Saab said after the session.
“I’m optimistic that the economic crisis in Lebanon has a solution and no one is
legislating the writing off of depositors’ money, but we must approve laws in a
rational way in which we would preserve our economy and banks,” the Deputy
Speaker added. “If banks go bankrupt we will lose everything and the state must
bear the burdens,” Bou Saab went on to say.
Environmental prosecutor charges Jisr and Arab over Costa
Brava
Naharnet/January 16/2023
Mount Lebanon Environmental Prosecutor Judge Fadi Malkoun has filed charges
against the state-run Council for Development and Reconstruction and its chief
Nabil al-Jisr as well as against the contractor Jihad al-Arab and his company,
LBCI television reported on Monday. Malkoun accused the aforementioned parties
of “executing the Costa Brava landfill project without obtaining an
environmental impact approval from the Environment Ministry,” LBCI said.
Malkoun has also referred the file to the environmental investigative judge, the
TV network added.
Raad: We want president who would not bow to foreign
pressure
Naharnet/January 16/2023
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad announced Monday
that his party wants “a president who can reflect the aspirations of the
Lebanese and preserve the current balances between the political authorities and
the components of the Lebanese society.”“The enemy should not be able to bet on
him or on his weakness or to take a signature or a stance from him,” Raad added.
“The president whom we want should be able to remain
resilient in the face of the pressures that we are witnessing,” the lawmaker
said. “We want a president whose entire interests are
in Lebanon,” Raad went on to say.
Berri meets Siniora, former head of Banking Control
Commission, others
NNA/January 16/2023
House Speaker Nabih Berri welcomed, at his Ain-el-Tineh residence on Tuesday,
former prime minister Fouad Siniora, with whom he discussed the current general
situation and latest political developments. Berri later met with former head of
the Banking Control Commission, Samir Hammoud. He also received Director of the
Joint Administration at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Mounir Soboh.
He then held talks with First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Wassim
Mansouri.
Makary meets Representative of International Organization
of La Francophonie, underlines joint cooperation
NNA/January 16/2023
Caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makary, met on Monday at his ministry
office with the Representative of the International Organization of La
Francophonie in the Middle East, Lévon Amirjanyan, accompanied by the
Francophone Organization's Program Attaché, Thi Ha Fu, who came on a protocol
visit on the occasion of assuming his duties as the Organization's Beirut Bureau
chief. The meeting took place in the presence of the Special Representative of
President General Michel Aoun to the International Organization of La
Francophonie, Dr. Jarjoura Hardan, and Information Minister’s Advisor for
Francophone Affairs, Elissar Naddaf. Amirjanian expressed his happiness for
being the first representative of the Francophonie in Lebanon, stressing that
"Lebanon is a country dear to his heart, especially since the relations between
his country and Lebanon are very strong."
He pointed out that his appointment in Lebanon came under difficult
circumstances witnessed in the country, stressing his determination to support
the Lebanese people and to preserve and promote the Francophonie in this
country.
Amirjanian pointed out that "the prime goal of the Francophonie is to preserve
the French language as well as the Francophone values, and to work on several
projects that help the Francophone peoples, such as education, culture, media,
and especially the economy."
He spoke about two Francophone projects, the first related to the displaced
Syrians such as education, health and women empowerment, and the second related
to an economic mission through strengthening economic exchange between the
Francophone countries.
Amirjanian also indicated that the meeting with Minister Makary touched on an
economic mission for Lebanon to be will be announced later. He concluded, "We
will work, through the Francophonie office in Beirut, to strengthen relations
between Lebanon and the Organization, to strengthen the Francophone in the
region, and to support cultural and linguistic pluralism."In turn, Minister
Makary affirmed his adherence to the Francophonie in the state media, such as
Lebanon TV (Tele Liban), Radio Lebanon and the National News Agency (NNA), which
disseminate news in the French language. Makary also called on the Francophone
Representative to visit the Ministry's directorates and the state media outlets,
such as Tele Liban, and hoped that there would be a "partnership between the
Francophone organization, the MoI and the Lebanese state media."
The Minister also underlined keenness on the French language and the Francophone
values. Makary also touched on the Francophone activities through the official
state media, and they agreed on further cooperation.
Abiad discusses health sector conditions and cooperation
projects with Qatari, Chinese Ambassadors
NNA/January 16/2023
Caretaker Minister of Public Health, Dr. Firas Abiad, on Monday welcomed in his
office at the ministry, Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon, Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Sahlawi,
with whom he discussed developments related to the country’s health and hospital
sector, and the most prominent challenges facing this sector and the efforts
made by the Ministry of Health to overcome these challenges.Caretaker Minister
Abiad highly appreciated Qatar’s support for the health and government hospital
sector, "so that it remains steadfast in light of this unprecedented economic
crisis that Lebanon is going through."Discussions also touched on how to move
forward in the current and future cooperation projects. Minister Abiad later
received Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon, Qian Minjian, with whom he reviewed the
current situation of the country’s health and hospital situation and challenges
facing this sector. The pair also discussed joint cooperation projects between
the two countries and ways to enhance and develop them.
Telecoms employees to stage warning strike on Tuesday
NNA/January 16/2023
The employees of Lebanon’s Ministry of Telecommunications announced in a
statement on Monday that they will be staging a warning strike tomorrow,
Tuesday, demanding their salaries, “which are currently withheld by the Ministry
of Finance.”
Geagea calls for reconsidering state structure if
pro-Hezbollah president elected
Naharnet/January 16/2023
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has stressed that the “strongest”
presidential candidate until the moment is MP Michel Mouawad, noting that “his
name is not proposed for entertainment purposes.”
The LF leader voiced his remarks during an overnight interview on al-Jadeed
television. Addressing Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Geagea said: “Do
not bet that we might elect a candidate under pressure, even if it takes 50
years.”
“Let Sayyed Hassan know that we won’t reach the candidate that he is thinking
of,” Geagea added. “Should Hezbollah manage to secure the election of a
president in the way it wants, the entire Lebanese structure must be
reevaluated, seeing as it is unacceptable for us and the coming generations to
remain under Hezbollah’s illegitimate hegemony,” the LF leader went on to say.
“At that moment, there should be a political reconsideration of the state
structure that allows Hezbollah to manipulate it in order to prevent it from
doing so and find a way to end its hegemony over the rest of the Lebanese,”
Geagea said. He added that the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement cannot agree
on a presidential candidate “unless the proposal is acceptable, such as (FPM
chief) Jebran Bassil’s support for Michel Mouawad for example.”“If the FPM chief
possessed any political sense, he would have done that,” Geagea added.
“The LF had backed the FPM in the past and it (the FPM) should have done the
same this time, but Bassil is only thinking of his own election as president and
he is proposing other names to destroy their chances,” the LF leader charged.
Beirut's Sursock Museum to
reopen in late May
Nada Maucourant Atallah/The National/January 16/2023
Cherished Lebanese cultural institution was closed after suffering severe damage
in the 2020 port blast
The Sursock Museum, one of Beirut’s most prominent cultural institutions, will
reopen its doors at the end of May, director Karina El Helou told the National.
The announcement comes after reports on Monday incorrectly said it would
reopened in March, sparking excitement among art-lovers in Lebanon.
“The museum will resume its programming at the end of May. The exact date and
programme will be communicated later,” Ms El Helou said. Beirut’s largest and
oldest independent cultural institution was closed after suffering severe damage
in the deadly 2020 Beirut blast.
Entire sections of the 19th-century villa and its iconic stained glass were
destroyed and the 30 artworks on display at the time of the explosion were also
damaged. As the repairs were made, the museum resumed partial activities,
including art festivals, talks and workshops. But its exhibition spaces remain
closed. “The rehabilitation works are set to be finished by the end of
February,” Ms El Helou said. She said that the Sursock Museum had raised $2
million to save the Beirut architectural landmark, without any government help.
The funding came mainly from the Italian government and Unesco, which jointly
donated $965,000. The French Ministry of Culture and ALIPH, a global fund
dedicated to the rehabilitation of cultural heritage in conflict zones, both
donated $500,000. The museum was once the private villa of Nicolas Ibrahim
Sursock, an art collector and a member of one of Beirut’s most prominent
families, before it was turned into a modern art museum in 1961. Upon his death,
the Lebanese collector bequeathed his villa to the city of Beirut as an art
museum. He said he wished his “country to receive a substantial contribution of
fine artworks” and his fellow citizens to “develop an artistic instinct”.
Lebanon’s energy minister proposes electricity workaround amid state paralysis
Nada Homsi/The National/January 16/2023
The country's electricity sector is caught between an economic crisis and a
power vacuum
Lebanon’s caretaker Minister of Energy and Water Dr Walid Fayad proposed on
Monday a “legal, constitutional and agreeable” workaround solution to stabilise
the country's electricity sector.“Today's initiative proposes a comprehensive
and lawful solution to the electricity crisis,” Dr Fayad said at the press
conference held at the Ministry of Water and Energy. “There is a vacuum and if
it continues like this it will threaten and prevent national co-operation for
the common good from taking place.”Lebanon's state-provided electricity is in a
shambles amid financing troubles and a governance paralysis that has prevented
previous electricity plans from taking effect. The proposal involves receiving a
treasury advance of around $300 million over five months to cover the cost of
four ships loaded with gas oil and fuel oil, in addition to the cost of
maintenance of the sector. The plan would provide around four hours of
electricity per day. The money generated during tax collection would help the
energy ministry return the advance to the Central Bank — creating a rolling line
of credit, Dr Fayad said. “What we propose doesn’t need the council of ministers
to convene,” said Dr Fayad. “Over the weekend I received some signatures on the
decrees I drafted, and I hope the Prime Minister and other ministers will follow
suit.”Monday's plan will produce half the electricity that Dr Fayad’s previous
electricity plan would have. The unsuccessful November plan involved Central
Bank financing to cover the price of costly fuel imports to power energy plants,
but it met a dead end following the end of Michel Aoun’s six-year presidential
term. With no president, the struggling Mediterranean nation was left headed by
a caretaker government with limited power. The root of the state paralysis
following Mr Aoun’s absence stems from rival political parties’ disagreement on
whether a caretaker government can convene in the absence of a president.
Meanwhile, the presidential vacuum appears set to continue. In November Dr Fayad
proposed an electricity plan that would see Lebanon's central bank finance
around $600 million in order to generate six months of state power for around
eight hours a day. But such a move required a full cabinet to meet physically
and reach agreement. The Free Patriotic Movement, which Dr Fayad is a member of,
has been criticised for blocking attempts by the caretaker Prime Minister to
convene the government. The FPM maintains that a resigned government cannot
convene constitutionally. Lebanon’s residents have been dependent on expensive
shared generator networks since the end of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war,
when the nation’s power infrastructure was devastated. But state provision of
electricity has become a phantom event since Lebanon’s economic crisis began in
2019. Where once they switched on for a few hours a day to fill gaps in state
electricity provision, generators have become a primary source of power in most
households. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for a caretaker
cabinet meeting this Wednesday, although ministers of the two largest Christian
parties, the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement are expected to
boycott it — Dr Fayad included. The energy minister said he was open should Mr
Mikati present further options at the incomplete cabinet meeting, “as long as
it’s constitutional”.
Stricken Lebanon endures 3rd exodus as its
people flee disaster
Andrea Lopez-Tomas/Front line/Jerusalem Post/Published:
January 15/2023
Financial collapse has caused the number of emigrants to increase by 450%
in just one year, with many professionals and young people hoping for a better
life elsewhere.
[Beirut] Aly Hammoud has treasured memories of his homeland Lebanon, but
not from his final months there. “Lebanon is a
beautiful country, but life became a constant process of catching up to the
change of the prices and the exchange rates,” the 28-year-old told The Media
Line. “You were not able to think about your future, you could just think about
your current situation.”“Lebanon is a beautiful country, but life became a
constant process of catching up to the change of the prices and the exchange
rates. You were not able to think about your future, you could just think about
your current situation.”
Aly, a member of Lebanon’s Shi’ite minority that makes up about one third of the
population, left the country more than a year ago. He fled in the midst of what
the World Bank has called one of the worst economic crises since the 1850s.
Hundreds of thousands of people flee Lebanon amid economic crisis.
Aly’s story is so many people’s story. Between 2017 and 2021,
approximately 215,653 people left Lebanon, according to the Beirut-based
Information International research center. For the United States, that number
would be negligible, but for Lebanon’s 5.5 million population, the scale of
departure is immense.The center’s report shows that the number of Lebanese
emigrants soared from 17,721 in 2020 to 79,134 in 2021, an increase of 450%.
Almost every day, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport (named for a slain
former prime minister) is the setting for heart-breaking farewells as young
people and even entire families board planes without a return ticket.
“We didn’t choose to go outside the country, to leave our parents, to bid
farewell to Lebanon,” Hammoud tells The Media Line. “We had to leave in order to
be able to survive and provide for ourselves a decent living.”
After moving to Qatar with his brother’s help, Aly now works as a finance
supervisor in a hotel, a couple of hours away from Doha. The two brothers share
a room and Aly also works occasionally as a model.
“At the beginning, starting a life far from Lebanon was very hard, but you have
to do it in order to survive,” he says.
Murielle El Feghaly is a general surgeon who now lives in France. It has been a
few months since this Lebanese Christian medical professional left her country,
and she knew it was what she had to do.
“Since the economic situation affected both my personal and professional life, I
decided that staying was a waste of time and I tried to find a way to move
abroad to continue my training, live better and start building my career,” she
tells The Media Line.
El Feghaly looks back on her last months in Lebanon with sorrow.
“After the crisis started, life wasn't the same, and the joy and happiness we
had before disappeared slowly, replaced by despair and loss of hope for our
country and ourselves,” she says.
Coming from a big family, she had the support of her parents and relatives to
take the step that would boost her career. And she is not the only physician to
seek her fortune elsewhere; data from September 2021 indicates that more than
40% of Lebanon’s doctors had already left the country.
In Murielle’s case in particular, leaving was almost mandatory as she had chosen
a field “not commonly for girls.”
“I would like to build a career and a reputation outside of Lebanon, learn as
much as I can and maybe one day I'll go back and prove to my people that I can
be an even better surgeon than male ones,” Murielle says. But walking away from
one’s culture and community is not an easy thing to do, and besides not everyone
can afford the departure. One fifth of those who do leave go into debt to
finance their travel to a new country, from where they try to support the family
that remains in Lebanon. Those who stay endure life in a crumbling state. They
are forced to exist in a country without public utilities such as power and
water, with a local currency that has lost 95% of its value and one of the
highest inflation rates in the world. Three quarters of the population are
living under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
The desire to leave the small Mediterranean country that was once called “the
Paris of the Middle East” cuts across generations, faiths, nationalities and
professions. All are in agreement; a better life awaits outside Lebanon.
A Gallup poll from December 2021 found that 63% of Lebanese still in the country
say they want to leave forever. Some of those who want to leave are unable to do
so, because their savings are frozen in the banks. Others have decided to get
out no matter what.
Increasing numbers of desperate people have been boarding small boats trying to
reach European coasts hundreds of kilometers away, some perishing in the
attempt.
After 13 months without a job in Lebanon and going through dozens of interviews
in which he was offered very poor salaries, filmmaker and video and media
producer Ziad Al Zayyat chose to try his luck abroad. He was accepted into a
university in Paris, to study towards his master’s degree.
“It was my dream come true,” he tells The Media Line. But then he had to wait
for months for his visa – and it never came.
“I was depressed for almost two months,” 32-year-old Al Zayyat says of the time
after he realized he could not take up his place in Paris.
Back in his native Tripoli, the poorest city on the Mediterranean coast, Al
Zayyat has not lost faith, and is applying for jobs in Lebanon and abroad.
“Now I came back to refresh myself so I started applying to Dubai again and
maybe I will reapply to France in October,” the Sunni Lebanese says.
Third wave of mass emigration out of Lebanon
Historically, Lebanon is going through its third wave of mass emigration and the
first triggered by the economic collapse. The first exodus occurred in the early
20th century when famine and World War I caused around 300,000 people to leave.
The second came during the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 when some 900,000
people fled. Now the children of those who insisted on staying throughout the
brutal conflict are the ones leaving in what seems to be an irreversible exodus.
The country is already suffering the consequences of this loss of human capital.
Ninety percent of Lebanon’s youth have indicated that they are thinking about or
actively seeking immigration, according to the Arab Youth Opinion Poll, which
says this is the highest ratio among all the Arab countries. Many specialists
and professionals, especially health care workers and those in higher and
secondary sectors, including state employees, are choosing to leave. The Crisis
Observatory at the American University of Beirut warns this exodus is one that
will last.
“With the absence of political decisions to approach it seriously, the country
is likely to collapse deliberately: state institutions will disappear, and fall
into a two-decade deadly vortex, which will form a pressure factor on hundreds
of thousands of citizens, who will rush to leave their homeland in search of
investment, work, study and retirement,” it said.
“The effects of the third migration wave will be devastating through a difficult
loss of Lebanese human capital, which is the key to rebuilding the country
socially and economically,” it warned.
Lebanon is already one of the countries that is home to the highest proportion
of elderly in the region. This new exodus will lower the birth rate and raise
the average age of the population even more while falling productivity and job
options impact the economy.
Despite these terrible consequences, Lebanese keep leaving. Beyond the typical
destinations of Europe, the US, Australia and the Gulf states, many Lebanese
have found a new life in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia or Serbia, as Western
countries are not making it easy for Lebanese citizens to obtain visas.
“Lebanon will always hold a special place in my heart, but at the same time I
feel sad when I think of the situation there,” El Feghaly says. “It's forcing
its best people to move to other countries looking for a future we're no longer
finding there.”
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on January 16-17/2023
Biden promised a reckoning when Saudi Arabia crossed him. 3
months later, it is clear he's backed down.
Tom Porter/Business Insider/January 16, 2023
President Joe Biden had pledged to hold Saudi Arabia to account over cutting oil
supplies. It came after Saudi Arabia and Russia cut oil supplies, sparking
inflation fears. But Biden has been notably silent on
the issue since, as the nations quietly repair ties. Back in October, relations
between the US and its usually firm ally Saudi Arabia were on the rocks.
In concert with Russia, Saudi Arabia had cut oil production, an economic
kick in the shin for the US just in time for the midterm elections. President
Joe Biden vowed in response that unspecified "consequences" would be follow for
the Saudis. As relations went into tailspin, officials from the countries
exchanged petty insults. Three months later,
Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, remain unpunished.
Biden has been notably silent on specifically what form his retaliation
might take, and has made no moves for proposed Congressional action. US
officials told the Wall Street Journal in early January that the threat has been
dropped. Giorgio Cafiero, the CEO of Gulf State
analytics, told Insider that the Journal article seemed to match reality.
"The White House's commitment to actions that would make the Saudis face
consequences has faded," he said.
One key factor, he noted, is that oil prices did not rocket in response to the
Saudi supply cut, despite predictions that they would.
China's economic slowdown as it wrestled with a severe COVID-19 outbreak helped
reduce demand and keep a lid on prices. Cafiero noted
a series of other developments he said had focused minds in both the US and
Saudi Arabia on common interests. The most significant, he said, is the threat
posed by Iran. Iran has rejected Biden administration
attempts to revive the 2012 nuclear deal to limit its ability to develop its own
warheads.
The Islamic Republic has also strengthened its military ties with Russia,
providing exploding drones that have been used in waves of attacks against
civilian targets in Ukraine, a US ally. And Iranian proxies continue to wage war
against Saudi Arabian-backed forces in the long and costly conflict in Yemen.
There are concerns among US and Saudi officials that riots in Iran that have
rocked the regime could lead it escalate external conflicts as a distraction,
said Cafiero. "The situation in Iran is relevant here
as both the US and Saudi Arabia have concerns about Tehran trying to regionalize
its internal unrest in ways that could entail lashing out in nearby countries,"
he said. In November, the US scrambled jets amid
reports that Iran was preparing to launch missiles at Saudi Arabia, a move
credited with helping deter the aggression. And the US has continued to provide
broader security assistance for the Saudis, last year approving $5 billion in
arms sales. Officials from the US and Saudi Arabia told the The Journal that the
countries were cooperating on sensitive intelligence and military projects aimed
at containing Tehran. Tensions between the US and
Saudi Arabia remain, with Riyadh's bid to build stronger ties with US rivals
China and Russia likely to be a continued sticking point. Crown Prince
Mohammed's ruthless suppression of domestic dissent is another issue which could
cause a rift. But for now, shared interests prevail.
"Those shared concerns serve to reinforce to team Biden the importance of
Washington's partnership with the Kingdom," said Cafiero.
Israel appoints Herzi Halevi as new military chief
AFP/January 16, 2023
Major General Herzi Halevi was appointed Israel's new military chief of staff
Monday, in a ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We will
prepare the army for war on fronts near and far," Halevi vowed at the ceremony,
at the start of his three-year term.
A former military intelligence chief, Halevi was serving as deputy to his
predecessor, Aviv Kohavi, until taking the helm. Netanyahu said Israel will not
get dragged into "pointless wars, but on decisive days we will fight."The
appointment of Halevi, who led forces along the Gaza border, comes as violence
surges in the occupied West Bank. Halevi's nomination as Israel's 23rd army
chief has been criticised by some members of Netanyahu's government, because it
was made by the former defence minister Benny Gantz shortly before elections
last year. Gantz's successor, Yoav Gallant, attended Monday's ceremony at the
premier's office in Jerusalem. The new military chief was born in 1967 to a
religious Jewish family in Jerusalem and enlisted as a paratrooper in 1985. He
advanced in various command positions before joining the elite Sayeret Matkal
commando unit in 1993, according to the army. Halevi served as commander of
Sayeret Matkal for three years from 2001, and then continued to climb the ranks.
He became head of military intelligence in 2014 and head of the southern command
in 2018, the army said.
Married with four children, Halevi lives in Kfar Haoranim, which is partially a
settlement in the West Bank.
In threat, Hamas releases video said to show
captive Israeli
JERUSALEM (AP)/January 16, 2023
The Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video Monday of an Israeli it
said was being held captive in the Gaza Strip, rare footage it described as a
warning to Israel's new army chief. Hamas’ military
wing, the Qassam Brigades, shared the video, which purportedly showed Israeli
prisoner Avera Mengistu calling on the Israeli military to secure his freedom.
It remained unclear when the video was taken. Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian
descent, independently crossed the Israeli fence that surrounds the blockaded
Gaza Strip in 2014, following a devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas.
His family has said that he has psychiatric problems.
The issue of Israelis in captivity is an emotional one in Israel, with the
Israeli government having paid a high price for the return of its citizens or
the remains of its soldiers in past politically contentious prisoner exchanges.
Hamas is also holding another Israeli citizen captive, Hisham al-Sayed, as well
as the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two soldiers killed in the 2014
war. Hamas has not said where it is holding the
prisoners or the soldiers' remains, and it has not allowed humanitarian visits
by international officials to see them. The militant group has on rare occasions
released photos and footage of the captives. Last year, Hamas released a short
video showing a sickly al-Sayed splayed on a bed and struggling to breathe with
an oxygen mask. “How long will I be here?” the man purported to be Mengistu asks
in the video, broadcast Monday on the Hamas-run satellite channel Al Aqsa. “My
companions and I are in captivity. ... Where are the state and the people of
Israel?” The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Hamas released the video
on the day that Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi was sworn in as the new commander of
Israel's military. In a statement accompanying the footage, the militant group
warned Halevi that he would “bear the burden” of his predecessor's failure to
free Israeli captives held in the Palestinian enclave. As Halevi formally took
office on Monday at a ceremony in Jerusalem, he vowed that he would protect the
military from political interference in the chain of command. His predecessor,
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, and other leaders in the Israeli security establishment
have rebuked plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to divide
the military's authority over the occupied West Bank. Powerful far-right
ministers in the new government now have control over a department within the
defense ministry overseeing the bureaucratic aspects of the occupation as well
as a paramilitary police force. Halevi said in his inaugural address that the
army would be “devoid of all considerations that aren’t security.” He is the
first West Bank settler to serve as military chief. Israel captured the West
Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war —
territories the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Some 500,000
Israeli live in West Bank settlements that the Palestinians and most of the
international community consider illegal and obstacles to peace.
Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen in West Bank raid,
medics say
RAMALLAH, West Bank /Reuters/January 16/2023
Israeli troops killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy on Monday during a raid in
the occupied West Bank that touched off confrontations with residents, medics
and witnesses said. The West Bank, among areas where Palestinians seek
statehood, has seen a surge in violence since Israel stepped up military sweeps
in response to a spate of street attacks in its cities last year. Palestinian
medics said the boy was shot dead in Dheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem,
during what witnesses described as a face-off between Israeli soldiers and
stone-throwers. It was not immediate clear if he had taken part. The army said
troops opened fire after Palestinians attacked them with rocks, Molotov
cocktails and improvised explosive devices. There was no word of any Israeli
casualties.
Putin and Erdogan discuss Ukraine prisoners,
gas and grain
MOSCOW (Reuters)/January 16, 2023
President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke
by phone about exchanging men wounded in Ukraine, the creation of a gas hub in
Turkey and the export of grain from the Black Sea, the Kremlin said on Monday.
"The exchange of views on the situation around Ukraine continued," the Kremlin
said. It said the question of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine was
raised, following talks between human rights commissioners from both countries
in Turkey last week. "Vladimir Putin drew attention to the destructive line of
the Kyiv regime, which relies on the intensification of hostilities with the
support of Western sponsors, increasing the volume of transferred weapons and
military equipment," the Kremlin said in its readout of the call. It said the
export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports and ways to unblock fertiliser
and food exports from Russia was discussed. Erdogan and Putin also talked about
energy, the Kremlin said. "Among the priorities is cooperation in the energy
sector, including the supply of Russian natural gas and the creation of a
regional gas hub in Turkey," the Kremlin said. They also discussed the
normalisation of Turkish-Syrian relations, it said.
Germany calls for special tribunal against Russia over
Ukraine war
Alexander Ratz/THE HAGUE (Reuters)/January 16, 2023
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Monday for the establishment
of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Moscow's
invasion of Ukraine. What is needed is "a tribunal that can investigate the
Russian leadership and put them on trial", said Baerbock in a keynote speech at
the Academy of International Law in The Hague, where the International Criminal
Court is based. The Ukrainian government is understandably concerned that Russia
cannot be prosecuted for its aggression before the ICC, she said, as it can deal
only with cases in which the plaintiff and the defendant are members of the
court, or a case is referred by the U.N. Security Council. Russia is not a
member of the ICC, and, as one of the five world power who are veto-wielding
permanent members of the Security Council, would probably block any referral to
the ICC.
"We talked about working with Ukraine and our partners on the idea of setting up
a special tribunal for crimes of aggression against Ukraine," said Baerbock,
adding that such a body could derive its jurisdiction from Ukrainian criminal
law. It could be supplemented with international elements - "at a location
outside Ukraine, with financial support from partners and with international
prosecutors and judges, so that impartiality and legitimacy are guaranteed", she
said. Ukraine, the European Union and the Netherlands have publicly backed the
idea of a special tribunal. Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a
"special military operation", has denied accusations of war crimes including
deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians, thousands of whom have been killed.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan, however, has warned of the potential for legal
fragmentation and said his court was in fact best placed for trials involving
crimes of aggression, as member states could fix "gaps that are said to exist".
During a news conference later in the day, Baerbock addressed Ukrainian reports
of children being deported to Russia and given up for adoption there.
"Russia must account for the whereabouts of these children," the minister said,
while her Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra said the children must be brought
home and Russia's practise of deporting them ended.
Former Russian mercenary commander fled to Norway and is
willing to give evidence of its worst crimes in Ukraine, lawyer says
Joshua Zitser/Business Insider/January 16, 2023
A former commander for the notorious Wagner Group fled Russia and is now seeking
asylum in Norway. Andrey Medvedev left Russia fearful for his life after leaving
the group, his lawyer told Insider. Medvedev intends to cooperate with any
war-crime investigations into the group's actions in Ukraine. A commander in the
notorious Wagner Group, which has been accused of war crimes in Ukraine, is
seeking asylum in Norway, and his lawyer said he's willing to blow the whistle
on the actions of the infamous private mercenary army.
The Associated Press was the first to report that Andrey Medvedev fled Russia
last week and is now seeking shelter in Norway, citing confirmation from the
Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. Medvedev's
Norwegian lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, confirmed in a call with Insider on Monday
that Medvedev was in the country and seeking asylum. Risnes told Insider that
Medvedev enlisted with the Wagner Group last summer. He wanted to leave the
group at the end of his four-month contract, which was due to expire in
November, but feared it would be indefinitely extended without his consent, his
lawyer said. "He saw no other option but to run away,"
Risnes added.
Last week, Medvedev illegally crossed the border into Norway, having been in
hiding in Russia for more than a month. Medvedev is
now seeking asylum because he "fears retribution and, actually, for his life,"
his lawyer said. According to his laywer, Medvedev has
already spoken to Norwegian immigration authorities and intends to cooperate in
any investigations pertaining to possible war crimes committed by the Wagner
Group in Ukraine. He added that Medvedev intends to share "everything he knows
about the way the Wagner Group works on the inside," including potentially with
the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Wagner Group, which is
increasingly recruiting from Russian prisons, is alleged by a variety of
organizations to have committed actions in Ukraine that would constitute war
crimes. Ukrainian prosecutors say that Wagner Group
mercenaries killed and tortured civilians near Kyiv in April 2022, while the
German foreign-intelligence service said it has evidence that the group's
mercenaries massacred civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, in March 2022.
Its mercenaries have previously been accused of raping women in a
maternity ward in the Central African Republic and of deliberately targeting
civilians in Mali. The group's brutal tactics aren't limited to those on the
opposite side of the conflict. In December, Medvedev told The Insider, a
Latvia-based media outlet that is not affiliated with this publication, that he
knew of ten cases in which the Wagner Group had executed mercenaries who refused
to take part in combat.
He added that he was present at several killings and claimed to have video
evidence of two prisoners being executed by the group for refusing to fight in
Ukraine. The Wagner Group has previously been deployed in Libya, Syria, and in
other destinations across the world.
CIA director secretly met with Zelenskyy before invasion to
reveal Russian plot to kill him as he pushed back on US intelligence, book says
Nicole Gaudiano,John Haltiwanger/January 16, 2023
CIA Director Bill Burns met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a
secret trip to Kyiv ahead of the Russian invasion last year to share news that
appeared to surprise the Ukrainian leader: the Russians were plotting to
assassinate him. At that time, in January 2022, Zelenskyy had been dismissing
the idea that Russians would carry out an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and was
suggesting America's public warnings were creating a "panic," noted Chris
Whipple in his forthcoming book, "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's
White House." It was unusual for the US to publicly disclose intelligence like
this, suggesting Washington was confident in its assessment of Russia's
intentions. But just weeks before Russia invaded, Zelenskyy expressed concerns
that such warnings would have a negative impact on the Ukrainian economy — and
emphasized that Kyiv was used to facing threats from Russia.
"Burns had come to give him a reality check" and the CIA director shared that
Russian Special Forces were coming for Zelenskyy, writes Whipple, adding that
President Joe Biden told Burns "to share precise details of the Russian
plots.""This immediately got Zelensky's attention; he was taken aback, sobered
by this news," Whipple wrote in the book, set for release on January 17. Russia
invaded Ukraine the next month, launching the largest military conflict in
Europe since World War II. Since that time, Ukrainian officials have spoken
about Zelenskyy surviving more than a dozen Russian assassination attempts. But
Whipple, who interviewed Burns, gives readers a glimpse of how the stakes were
laid out to Zelenskyy as he tried to push back on US warnings about an impending
invasion. "The intelligence was so detailed that it
would help Zelensky's security forces thwart two separate Russian attempts on
his life," he wrote.
As previously reported, Burns also shared a "blueprint of Putin's invasion plan"
during that visit in Zelenskyy's office to help him prepare. Whipple wrote. He
previewed Russian plans to attack Antonov Airport north of Kyiv and to use it as
a staging area for an assault on Kyiv. Whipple wrote that most interviews for
his book were on "deep background" which meant that he could use the information
but he agreed not to quote sources directly without permission.
The US has been a key partner for Ukraine throughout Russia's unprovoked
invasion, which began in February 2022. Kyiv has received billions of dollars in
security assistance from Washington since the war began, and the US has
continued to provide Ukraine with vital intelligence to aid its forces on the
battlefield.
Germany's defense minister resigns amid Ukraine criticism
GEIR MOULSON and FRANK JORDANS/BERLIN (AP) Germany’s much-criticized defense
minister announced her resignation Monday, as her department steers the massive
project of modernizing the country’s military and oversees expanding weapons
deliveries to Ukraine. Christine Lambrecht said in a
written statement that she had submitted her resignation request to Chancellor
Olaf Scholz, adding that “months of media focus on my person” had stood in the
way of a factual debate about the military and Germany’s security policy.
“The valuable work of the soldiers and many people in my department must
stand in the foreground,” she said. A spokesperson for
Scholz said the chancellor had accepted Lambrecht's resignation.
“The chancellor respects the decision by Ms. Lambrecht and thanks her for
her good work in these difficult and challenging times," Christiane Hoffmann
told reporters in Berlin.
She said a replacement would be announced “soon.”Hoffmann added that it was
important to Scholz to ensure gender parity among ministers, but declined to
comment on a possibility of a wider Cabinet reshuffle. The 57-year-old Lambrecht
has been defense minister since Scholz became chancellor in December 2021.
Critics have long portrayed her as out of her depth. But Scholz stood by her,
describing her last month as “a first-class defense minister.” Pressure on her
mounted recently after an ill-judged New Year's video message.
Lambrecht’s resignation comes at a sensitive moment, as Scholz faces mounting
pressure to make another significant step forward in German military aid to
Ukraine by agreeing to deliver Leopard 2 battle tanks. Earlier this month,
Germany agreed to provide 40 Marder armored personnel carriers and a Patriot air
defense missile battery to Kyiv. Germany has given
Ukraine substantial support in recent months, including howitzers, Gepard
self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and the first of four IRIS-T surface-to-air
missile systems. But critics, some inside Germany’s governing coalition, have
long complained of Scholz’s perceived hesitancy to step up aid. Lambrecht was
overshadowed on the issue by the chancellor, who made most major announcements.
Lambrecht was then Finance Minister Scholz’s deputy before being appointed
justice minister in 2019. She also was minister for families and women in the
closing months of then Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.She was respected
in those roles but was widely viewed as one of the Scholz government’s weakest
links at the Defense Ministry. The notoriously unwieldy department has a history
of diminishing ministers’ reputations. Its importance
increased with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That prompted Scholz to announce a
special 100 billion-euro ($108 billion) fund to upgrade the German military, the
Bundeswehr, which has suffered for years from neglect and in particular from
aging, poorly functioning equipment. Last month,
Lambrecht dismissed suggestions that the government had been too slow to get
going on its spending drive. She said officials have moved fast but that “such
projects must be carefully negotiated — this is tax money.”The minister also
drew criticism for hapless communication, starting with a January 2022
announcement that Germany would deliver 5,000 military helmets to Ukraine as “a
very clear signal that we stand by your side.”In April, she took her 21-year-old
son along on a military helicopter flight, which became public when he posted a
photo to Instagram that it turned out the minister had taken herself. Her
ministry said she had applied for permission and paid the costs herself, but
critics said it showed poor judgment. An amateurish
New Year's video message on her own private Instagram account prompted new
opposition calls for Lambrecht’s departure and strained political allies’
patience. It showed a barely audible Lambrecht
speaking against a backdrop of loud New Year’s Eve fireworks in a Berlin street.
“A war is raging in the middle of Europe,” she said. “And connected with
that for me were a lot of special impressions that I was able to gain — many,
many meetings with interesting, great people.”
EU Condemns Akbari’s Execution…UK
Reconsidering Support for Nuclear Deal
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The European Union joined on Sunday the widespread Western condemnation of
Iran’s execution of Iranian-British national Alireza Akbari. “The European Union
condemns in the strongest terms the execution in Iran of Iranian-British
national Alireza Akbari and recalls yet again its strong opposition against the
application of capital punishment in any circumstance,” the EU said in a
statement. It added that the Union offers its
condolences to Akbari’s family and expresses its full solidarity with the United
Kingdom. “The execution of a European citizen is an appalling precedent that
will be followed closely by the EU,” it said. Akbari served as Iran's deputy
defense minister during the tenure of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami
(1997-2005). Iran executed him on charges of spying
for Britain, defying calls from London and Washington for his release.
The EU on Sunday called on Iran to refrain from any future executions and
to pursue a consistent policy towards the abolition of capital punishment. The
European statement came after the UK condemned the execution of Akbari and
withdrew its ambassador to Iran for consultations. British Prime Minister Rishi
Sunak accused Iran of a “ruthless and cowardly act, perpetrated by a barbaric
regime with no respect for the rights of its own people.”British Foreign
Secretary James Cleverly said on Saturday that Britain has imposed sanctions on
Iran’s Prosecutor General, Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri, has summoned Iran's charge
d'affaires and temporarily recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultation
in response to the execution. It was also reported Sunday in British daily
newspaper The Telegraph that London is reconsidering its support for the Iran
nuclear deal. Senior Whitehall sources said the “context” had changed
significantly since the negotiation process began, and as a result Britain was
currently reviewing its options regarding future involvement in the talks.
Meanwhile in Tehran, Akbari's execution was highlighted by some Iranian
newspapers. The official Kayhan newspaper called on Intelligence Minister Ismail
Khatib to publish Akbari's confessions.
According to the Iranian judiciary, Akbari 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.
The Iranian media had announced Akbari’s execution but did not say when it had
taken place. 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.
Commenting on the execution, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of
Iranian newspaper Kayhan, said: “There are questions about how this spy
infiltrated the sensitive and strategic centers of the system, which should not
be simply ignored.”Shariatmadari lashed out at Western countries that condemned
the execution, saying: “Now it is our turn to take revenge, and it is expected
that the Ministry of Information will provide some information related to the
leads, commanders, and agents of the British and Mossad intelligence services
who were involved in technical interrogations and publish the expert knowledge
obtained.”This move, if undertaken quickly, he said, “would be a terrible blow
to the body of the British spy system and its foreign intelligence and espionage
department, MI6”.Also, the Vatan-e Emrooz newspaper, which is close to the
"Revolutionary Guard", headlined that the execution “had burned London,"
referring to the angry reactions of British officials.
For his part, Abdullah Ganji, the former editor-in-chief for Javan Newspaper,
wrote in a tweet that the British embassy recruited the spy Akbari and
fabricated a stroke scenario to get him out of the country.
“This embassy is as effective as the US embassy, and it should be called den
of espionage No. 2,” he wrote. Iran's Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage,
Ezzatollah Zarghami, was the first Iranian government official to comment on the
execution of Akbari.
Zarghami in a tweet on Saturday he wrote that "Alireza Akbari's fate was a
bitter experience for the regime,” saying that “I am worried about the
repetition of this process.”
Kremlin denies conflict between Wagner and defence ministry
Reuters/Mon, January 16, 2023
The Kremlin on Monday denied any conflict between the Defence Ministry and the
Wagner mercenary group fighting for Russia in Ukraine, calling it an invention
of the media. Tension between Wagner and the defence
establishment burst into the open last Friday when the ministry claimed the
capture of the Ukrainian town of Soledar - which Ukraine disputed - but made no
mention of Wagner's role in the fighting. Wagner's boss Yevgeny Prigozhin
complained of attempts to minimise his forces' role and belittle their
achievements. The defence ministry later issued an update praising the
"courageous and selfless actions" of Wagner fighters. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told reporters it was unhelpful for pro-Russian media to take part in
media "manipulations" about an alleged rift between the armed forces and Wagner.
He said Russia recognised both as heroes, and "both of them will be
forever in our memory". "As for any conflicts, these are mainly products of
informational manipulations, which are, okay, sometimes arranged by our
informational opponents, but sometimes our friends behave in such a way that
such enemies are not needed," he said.
"Everyone is fighting for their country. So this is how it should be viewed."
Russia Says British Tanks Sent to Ukraine ‘Will Burn’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The Kremlin said on Monday that the tanks Britain plans to send to Ukraine "will
burn", warning the West that supplying a new round of more advanced weapons to
Ukraine would not change the course of the war. Since President Vladimir Putin
ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States and its allies have
given tens of billions of dollars' worth of weaponry including rocket systems,
drones, armored vehicles and communications systems. Britain said on Saturday it
would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks as well as other advanced
artillery support in the coming weeks. "They are using this country as a tool to
achieve their anti-Russian goals," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when
asked about the British tanks. "These tanks are burning and will burn just like
the rest," Peskov said. Peskov said the new supplies from countries like Britain
and Poland would not change the situation on the ground. German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz is under pressure to approve an increase in international military
support for Kyiv by allowing the export of Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine by
Germany, which makes them, and other countries that have them.
Kremlin Says Russian Missiles Did Not Target Residential
Building in Dnipro
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian forces did not strike residential
buildings in Ukraine, two days after an apartment complex in the city of Dnipro
was hit during a major Russian missile attack that Kyiv says killed at least 36
people. During a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The
Russian Armed Forces do not strike residential buildings or social
infrastructure facilities. Attacks are made on military targets, either obvious
or disguised." The Ukrainian Air Force says the apartment complex was hit by a
Russian Kh-22 missile, which Kyiv says it does not have the equipment to shoot
down, Reuters reported. Peskov suggested that the strike had been the result of
a Ukrainian "anti-aircraft counter-missiles" intercepting the Russian missile,
saying that "some representatives of the Ukrainian side" had reached the same
conclusion. Oleksiy Arestovych, who advises the Ukrainian president's office,
said on Saturday evening that it looked as though the Russian missile had fallen
onto the apartment building after being shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. The
comment sparked anger in Ukraine, prompting him to apologize. He then retracted
his online apology, saying that he had made clear in his initial comments that
his conclusion was only a preliminary theory. Dnipro, a city of almost a million
people which serves as a crucial supply hub for Ukrainian forces in the eastern
Donbas region, has come under repeated bombardment from Russian missiles.
Death Toll in Russian Strike on Ukrainian Building Up to 35
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The death toll from the weekend Russian missile strike on the apartment building
in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 35, an official said
Monday. Rescuers continued searching through the rubble for more victims,
regional Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. At least 75 people were wounded and 35
others were still missing after Saturday's strike.
About 1,700 people lived in the multi-story building, with residents saying
there were no military facilities at the site. The reported death toll made it
the deadliest attack in one place since a Sept. 30 strike in Ukraine’s
Zaporizhzhia region, according to The Associated Press-Frontline War Crimes
Watch project. The strike on the building on Saturday came amid a major barrage
of Russian cruise missiles across Ukraine. Russia’s renewed air attacks came as
fierce fighting raged in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, where the Russian
military has claimed it has control of the small salt-mining town of Soledar but
Ukraine asserts that its troops are still fighting. If the Russian forces win
full control of Soledar, it would allow them to inch closer to the bigger city
of Bakhmut. The battle for Bakhmut has raged for months, causing substantial
casualties on both sides. With the grinding war
nearing the 11-month mark, the U.K. government announced it would deliver tanks
to Ukraine, its first donation of such heavy-duty weaponry. Although the pledge
of 14 Challenger 2 tanks appeared modest, Ukrainian officials expect it will
encourage other Western nations to supply more tanks.
Ukraine missile toll rises to 40 as Russia
denies attack
Associated Press/Monday, 16 January, 2023
The toll from a devastating Russian strike on Dnipro rose to 40 on Monday, as
more bodies were pulled from the debris of one of Russia's deadliest attacks
since its invasion. Residents gathered to watch as cranes removed collapsing
sections of the Soviet-style residential building that was ripped open by the
strike in central Ukraine on Saturday. The emergency services gave the new toll
specifying that three children were among those dead and that 34 people were
still unaccounted for. The Kremlin claimed to reporters its forces were not
responsible and pointed to an unsubstantiated theory circulating on social media
that Ukrainian air defence systems had caused the damage. "The Russian armed
forces do not strike residential buildings or social infrastructure. They strike
military targets," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Ukraine leader
Volodymyr Zelensky said late Sunday that search operations would go on as long
as necessary and condemned Russia's "cowardly silence" over the attack. EU
presidency holder Sweden condemned "in the strongest terms" the attack, with
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson telling reporters that "intentional attacks
against civilians are war crimes".
- 'Defensive' Belarus drills -
The rising cost of the strike came as Russia and its close ally Belarus
announced the beginning of new joint military drills. Belarus, which has been a
key ally to Russia throughout the conflict, allowed Moscow's forces to launch
their invasion from Belarusian territory last February. Its defence ministry
said the air force exercises would involve joint "tactical" flights and that
every airfield in Belarus would be involved. "The exercise is purely defensive
in nature," Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarus's Security
Council, said in remarks carried Sunday by the defence ministry.
The Institute for the Study of War, based in the United States, said in an
analytical note Monday that the risk of a new offensive from Belarus was "low"
and "the risk of Belarusian direct involvement was very low". Meanwhile, UN
atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi was expected in Ukraine on Monday to deploy
observer missions at nuclear power plants across the country that have been a
key concern throughout Russia's invasion. "I'm proud to lead this mission to
Ukraine, where we're deploying in all of the country's NPPs (nuclear power
plants) to provide assistance in nuclear safety and security," he said on
Twitter. Ukraine in recent weeks has been pressing Western backers to supply its
forces with advanced tanks, in particular the German-designed Leopard model.
Observer teams at nuclear plants -
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned on Monday after months of
heavy criticism over Berlin's stuttering response to the war in Ukraine. Britain
this weekend pledged 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, which would make it the
first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been calling for.
Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, told reporters Monday that fighting in
Ukraine would continue with or without the deliveries. "These tanks are burning
and will burn," he said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an
interview with German media on Sunday that "recent pledges for heavy warfare
equipment are important -- and I expect more in the near future."Separately on
Monday, Ukraine officials said that Russian forces had continued shelling the
southern city of Kherson, which was recaptured by Kyiv's forces late last year.
The regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said one woman was killed in an
attack on a residential building and that Russian forces also damaged an empty
children's hospital. In Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula annexed by
Russia in 2014, the Moscow-appointed official responsible for the military city
Sevastopol said Russian forces had downed seven drones over the last 24 hours.
Jailed Iranian American Appeals to Biden, Starts Hunger
Strike
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
An Iranian American imprisoned in Iran for more than seven years on spying
charges that the United States rejects as baseless appealed to US President Joe
Biden on Monday to bring him home and said he was starting a seven-day hunger
strike. Siamak Namazi made the plea in a letter to Biden seven years to the day
that Iran released five other US citizens in a prisoner exchange choreographed
to coincide with the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "When the
Obama Administration unconscionably left me in peril and freed the other
American citizens Iran held hostage on January 16, 2016, the US Government
promised my family to have me safely home within weeks," Namazi, 51, said in the
letter to Biden released by his lawyer, Jared Genser. "Yet seven years and two
presidents later, I remain caged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison," he added.
Namazi asked Biden to spend one minute a day for the next week thinking about
the suffering of US citizens detained in Iran, who include environmentalist
Morad Tahbaz, 67, who also has British nationality, and businessman Emad Shargi,
58. Namazi, whose father was allowed to leave Iran in October for medical
treatment after being detained on espionage-related charges rejected by
Washington, said he would be on a hunger strike for the same seven days. "All I
want sir, is one minute of your days' time for the next seven days devoted to
thinking about the tribulations of the U.S. hostages in Iran," he added. "Just a
single minute of your time for each year of my life that I lost in Evin prison
after the U.S. Government could have saved me but didn't."
Asked for comment, a White House national security council spokesperson
said the government was committed to securing Namazi's freedom.
Iraqi PM challenges pro-Iranian factions as he
backs presence of US troops
The Arab Weekly/January 16/2023
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani defended the presence of US troops
in his country and set no timetable for their withdrawal, in an interview with
the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday. Iraqi analysts described his
position as “daring”, since it challenged some of the mostly strongly-held
notions among pro-Iranian factions, which are backing him in power. Sudani must
take into consideration, in particular, the position of the Coordination
Framework, a coalition of pro-Iranian formations providing him with political
support especially in parliament, They note that even former Prime Minister
Mustafa al-Kadhimi, although perceived as critical of Tehran’s influence in
Iraq, did not go as far in defending the US presence on Iraqi soil. Referring to
the US and NATO troop contingents that train and assist Iraqi units in
countering Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group, but largely stay out of combat,
Sudani said that the foreign forces are still needed. “We think that we need the
foreign forces,” Sudani said. “Elimination of ISIS needs some more time,” he
added. Sudani made sure to leave no doubt as to the role of the US and NATO
troops. “Inside Iraq we do not need combat forces,” emphasised the Iraqi
premier. “If there is a threat for Iraq, it is the penetration of the [Islamic
State] cells through Syria,” he explained. Sudani had
voiced a similar position during his visit to Germany, last Friday. He was
quoted by Iraq’s official news agency INA as saying during a joint press
conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Berlin: “Iraq does not need
combat forces from the international coalition and what exists is a support team
for consultation and training.”. He added, “The process of having the advisors
of the international coalition is currently undergoing a review to determine its
size and the type of tasks in light of the need to support the Iraqi forces with
training, because the threat of ISIS terrorist gangs still exists”.
Challenging the Framework Coalition
Sudani is seen to face pressure from forces within the Coordination Framework to
reconsider his country’s strategic agreement with the United States, at a time
when he needs good relations with the US administration and wants to avoid
unnecessary turbulence with Washington. Iraq and the United States signed a
strategic framework agreement in 2008, which included a number of provisions
regulating the presence of US forces in the country, as well as bolstering
cooperation in economic, cultural and political fields. After the killing of
Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards, along with Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy chief
of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), in a US drone strike on Baghdad in
January 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted a resolution committing the Baghdad
government to the withdrawal of American troops. These had been deployed in the
country as part of the international coalition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS)
extremist group. The parliament’s decision was the result of strong pressures
from pro-Iran Shia factions which were infuriated by the US attack on Iraqi
soil.The government of Kadhimi subsequently reached an agreement on the US
forces’ ultimate exit from the country and the shift of part of the American
troops tasks to advisory and training missions. This move sparked a wide-ranging
controversy in Iraq and was rejected by Shia political forces as too
accommodating to the US.
Now, some Shia groups are trying to take advantage of the presence of a
pro-Iranian government in Baghdad to push for the removal of all US forces from
Iraq. Sudani, who is wary of the adverse effects such a move would have on ties
with the US, is working to block or delay any decision. The Iraqi prime
minister, who is the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, stressed
the importance of cooperation and coordination with the United States earlier
this month, during a meeting he had with the visiting head of the US Central
Command, General Michael E Kurilla. The number of American troops in Iraq is
estimated at about 2,000, deployed in three main locations across Iraq.
Sudani could be also challenging Iran’s vested interests in Iraq,
especially in the electricity sector, as he announced, last week the signing of
a memorandum of understanding with the German company Siemens to increase energy
production and improve the country’s electricity supplies.
So far, Iraqi has been dependent on Iran to meet its electricity needs.
Sudani told reporters: “Iraq is an important country in the field of
energy in terms of oil production and strategic storage and we have plans to
invest in associated and natural gas and we have large reserves that have not
been invested,” calling on German companies to “invest in the gas sector.”
Sudani, who took office last October, told the Wall Street Journal that
he planned to send a high-level delegation to Washington for talks with US
officials next month, adding that Iraq would like similar relations with
Washington to those enjoyed by Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Gulf oil and gas
producers. “I don’t see this as an impossible matter, to see Iraq have a good
relationship with Iran and the US,” Sudani told the newspaper.
Italy arrests Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo
Messina Denaro
Associated Press/January 16/2023
Italy's No. 1 fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested
on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after three decades on the
run, Italian paramilitary police said. Messina Denaro was captured at the clinic
where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, said
Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force's special
operations squad. In a police photo showing him sitting in a police van, Messina
Denaro was wearing a brown leather jacket and white skull cap and his trademark
tinted glasses. His face looked wan. He was taken to a secret location by police
immediately after the arrest, Italian state television reported. A young man
when he went into hiding, he is now 60. Messina Denaro, who had a power base in
the port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, was considered Sicily's Cosa Nostra
top boss even while a fugitive.
He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for
decades eluded capture. Messina Denaro, who tried in absentia and convicted of
dozens of murders, faces multiple life sentences. He is set to be imprisoned for
are two bombings in Sicily in 1992 that murdered top anti-Mafia prosecutors,
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Among other grisly crimes he was
convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat's young son, who was strangled
and his body dissolved in a vat of acid. The arrest Monday came 30 years and a
day after the Jan. 15, 1993, capture in 1993 of convicted "boss of bosses"
Salvatore "Toto" Riina, in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run.
Messina Denaro went into hiding in summer of that same year, as the Italian
state waged a crackdown on the Sicilian crime syndicate following the murders of
Falcone and Borsellino. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni tweeted that Messina
Denaro's capture is a "great victory of the state, which shows that it doesn't
surrender in the face of the Mafia."Italy's Mafia boss who set the record for
the longest time on the lam was Bernardo Provenzano, captured in a farmhouse
near Corleone, Sicily, in 2006 after 38 years as a fugitive. Once Provenzano was
in police hands, the hunt focused on Messina Denaro, but despite numerous
reported sightings of the boss, he managed to elude arrest, until Monday. That
all three top bosses were ultimately arrested in the heart of Sicily while they
conducted decades of a clandestine life won't surprise Italy's police and
prosecutors. Law enforcement have long said that such bosses rely on contacts
and confidentiality of fellow mobsters and complicit family members to move the
fugitives from hideout to hideout, supply basic needs, like food and clean
clothing and communication, and a code of silence known as "omerta."
John Kerry tells AP he backs UAE oil chief
overseeing COP28
Associated Press./January 16, 2023
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates' decision to
appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming U.N.
climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects. In
an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, the former U.S. secretary of
state acknowledged that the Emirates and other countries relying on fossil fuels
to fund their state coffers face finding "some balance" ahead. However, he
dismissed the idea that Sultan al-Jaber's appointment should be automatically
disqualified due to him leading the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Activists,
however, equated it to asking "arms dealers to lead peace talks" when
authorities announced his nomination Thursday. "I think that Dr. Sultan al-Jaber
is a terrific choice because he is the head of the company. That company knows
it needs to transition," Kerry said after attending an energy conference in the
Emirati capital. "He knows — and the leadership of the UAE is committed to
transitioning." Still, Abu Dhabi plans to increase its production of crude oil
from 4 million barrels a day up to 5 million even while the UAE promises to be
carbon neutral by 2050 — a target that remains difficult to assess and one that
the Emirates still hasn't fully explained how it will reach. Kerry pointed to a
speech al-Jaber gave Saturday in Abu Dhabi, in which he called for the upcoming
COP — or Conference of Parties — to move "from goals to getting it done across
mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage." Al-Jaber also warned that
the world "must be honest with ourselves about how much progress we have
actually achieved, and how much further and faster we truly need to go.""He made
it absolutely clear we're not moving fast enough. We have to reduce emissions.
We have to begin to accelerate this transition significantly," Kerry said. "So I
have great confidence that the right issues are going to be on the table, that
they're going to respond to them and lead countries to recognize their
responsibility."Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations nominates a
person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat as the talks
can be incredibly difficult to steer between competing nations and their
interests. The nominee's position as "COP president" is confirmed by delegates
at the start of the talks, usually without objections. Al-Jaber is a trusted
confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He also led a
once-ambitious project to erect a $22 billion "carbon-neutral" city on Abu
Dhabi's outskirts — an effort later pared back after the global financial crisis
that struck the Emirates hard beginning in 2008. Today, he also serves as the
chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company that grew out of the project.
Skepticism remains among activists over al-Jaber, however. A call by countries,
including India and the United States, for a phase down of oil and natural gas
never reached a public discussion during COP27 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh in November.
Activists worry that COP being held in a Mideast nation reliant on fossil fuel
sales for a second year in a row could see something similar happen in the
Emirates. Asked about that fear, Kerry said: "I don't believe UAE was involved
in changing that.""There's going to be a level of scrutiny — and and I think
that's going to be very constructive," the former U.S. senator and 2004
presidential contender said. "It's going to help people, you know, stay on the
line here.""I think this is a time, a new time of accountability," he added.
Still, the Emirates and the U.S. maintain close military relations, regardless
of the federation making policy decisions disliked by Washington. Dubai's Jebel
Ali Port is the most-used port of call for the U.S. Navy outside of America.
Some 3,500 American troops are deployed in the country, including at Abu Dhabi's
Al Dhafra Air Base and a Navy outpost in Fujairah. The UAE has some $29 billion
in pending defense sales with the Americans, including purchasing its
most-advanced air defense system known by the acronym THAAD. For Europeans in
particular, Russia's war on Ukraine has led to a reckoning on the continent's
reliance of Moscow's natural gas to heat their homes in the winter. Though aided
by an unusually warm winter, Europeans are trying to source gas elsewhere while
also looking for renewables to fill whatever gaps they can. "No country is
advantaged by having a petro-dictator be able to control their future and their
prices and their economy with reckless behavior," Kerry said, referring to
Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "To the degree there's something that's coming
out of it that will change things for the better, that is Europe's deep
commitment to big reductions in emissions and to a whole shift in the nature of
their energy supply," Kerry said.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on January 16-17/2023
TikTok Must be Banned in US and Free World
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute./January 16, 2023
Chinese law requires all Chinese companies to turn over information to the
Communist Party upon request -- and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, reportedly
employs more than 130 Party members to ensure compliance, among other matters.
"Its algorithm is at once simple and sinister. Download the app on your
smartphone and you have given China access to all your data... And history shows
they use that data for nefarious purposes." — Adonis Hoffman, The Hill, October
18, 2022.
"First, the app can track cellphone users' locations and collect
internet-browsing data — even when users are visiting unrelated websites... That
TikTok, and by extension the CCP, has the ability to survey every keystroke
teenagers enter on their phones is disturbing... it could also be used to subtly
indoctrinate American citizens. TikTok has already censored references to
politically sensitive topics, including the treatment of workers in Xinjiang,
China, and the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square." — Senator Marco Rubio and
Representative Mike Gallagher, The Washington Post, November 10, 2022.
"It's almost like [the Chinese] recognize that technology is influencing kids'
development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok,
while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world.... If you're under
14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum
exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos," said Harris, adding that
children in China were limited to only 40 minutes a day on the app.... There's a
survey of pre-teens in the U.S. and China asking, 'what is the most aspirational
career that you want to have?' and in the U.S., the No. 1 was a social media
influencer, and in China, the No. 1 was astronaut. You allow those two societies
to play out for a few generations and I can tell you what your world is going to
look like." — Tristan Harris, former Google employee, 60 Minutes, November 24,
2022.
In December, it was revealed that ByteDance had used the app to surveil several
journalists to track down the journalists' sources.
Chinese law requires all Chinese companies to turn over information to the
Communist Party upon request -- and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, reportedly
employs more than 130 Party members to ensure compliance. In December, it was
revealed that ByteDance had used TikTok to surveil several journalists to track
down the journalists' sources. Pictured: The headquarters of ByteDance in
Beijing, China.
The United States recently banned TikTok from all federal government devices
over growing security concerns. That is a good start.
TikTok, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned at the beginning of December, is
controlled by the Chinese government, which is a national security concern.
TikTok, a video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has, according
to TikTok's own estimates, 1 billion users worldwide. In 2021, TikTok had
approximately 87 million users in the US, according to Statista. Disturbingly, a
recent study found that 10% of US adults get their news from the Chinese app, up
from 3% in 2020.
Wray said that China's government can control the app's recommendation
algorithm, "which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use
it for influence operations."
"All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn't share our
values, and that has a mission that's very much at odds with what's in the best
interests of the United States. That should concern us," Wray said in a speech
at the University of Michigan.
Wray's comments echoed those he made at the "Worldwide Threats to the Homeland"
hearing held at the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee on
November 15.
"We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI's end about
TikTok," Wray stated.
"They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to
control data collection on millions of users. Or control the recommendation
algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to
control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to
potentially technically compromise personal devices."
Wray's concerns are not new -- actually, they come a bit late. In 2020,
President Donald J. Trump, citing similar security concerns, tried to ban the
app in the US, in addition to sanctioning the company, but several federal
judges ruled against both sanctions and a ban, blocking his attempts. One judge
ruled that the ban failed "to adequately consider an obvious and reasonable
alternative before banning TikTok" and that the ban was "arbitrary and
capricious."
"ByteDance's submission and compliance with Chinese law has rendered it a
reliable, useful, and far reaching ear and mouthpiece for the Party and State,"
the Trump administration wrote at the time in a document motivating the proposed
ban. The document cited ByteDance's commitment to the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) as resulting in "systemic censorship of content across its platforms" and
"the harvesting of user data."
In the document, the Trump administration stressed noted:
"ByteDance, as a company, and its subsidiaries are subject to PRC national
security laws that require or compel the assistance of any Chinese citizen or
entity in surveillance and intelligence operations. As ByteDance is subject to
PRC jurisdiction, PRC laws can compel cooperation from ByteDance..."
Chinese law requires all Chinese companies to turn over information to the
Communist Party upon request -- and ByteDance reportedly employs more than 130
Party members to ensure compliance, among other matters.
The Trump administration stated :
"One of the foremost national security risks presented by the TikTok mobile
application in the United States is the possibility that the PRC government
could, through lawful authority, extralegal influence (Communist Party)
influence, or PRCISS, compel TikTok to provide systemic access to U.S. user's
sensitive personal information. A number of press reports clearly indicate the
PRC Government has already compelled TikTok to assist them for domestic
surveillance, censorship, and propaganda action within China, and their
compliance is indicative of how they are likely to respond to intelligence
requests on U.S. users. Given the bounty of information TikTok could offer on
foreign users, as well as the aforementioned cyber tactics employed by the PRC,
the Department of Commerce assesses the PRC and PRCISS would not limit their use
of TikTok to domestic concerns and would instead use it for foreign intelligence
and surveillance."
Furthermore, similar to the concerns expressed by Wray, the Trump administration
argued,
"The PRC government and the CCP can exert influence on ByteDance and, through
the TikTok app, censor and shape content available to U.S. users in ways that
can influence their opinions and views of China."
In April 2021, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley wrote:
"TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on
government devices—or any American devices, for that matter.... TikTok has
repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor."
According to Adonis Hoffman, a former chief of staff and senior legal advisor at
the FCC who has served in legal and policy positions in the U.S. House of
Representatives:
"Its algorithm is at once simple and sinister. Download the app on your
smartphone and you have given China access to all your data... This opens a
treasure trove of data on millions of Americans for the Chinese government to
use whenever and however they choose. And history shows they use that data for
nefarious purposes."
President Joe Biden reversed Trump's attempt at banning TikTok, signing an
executive order in June 2021 that revoked Trump's proposed ban. Instead, the
Biden administration has sought to work out the security concerns with ByteDance
through a negotiated deal with the Chinese company that would reportedly allow
TikTok to continue operating in the US without any change of ownership.
"Well, I think Donald Trump was right," Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., chair of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, recently said.
"I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat. So, if you're a parent, and you've got a
kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned. All of that data that your child
is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing."
Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications
Commission, said in November that the only way to resolve the national security
concerns regarding TikTok would be to ban the app.
"I don't believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban," Carr
said. According to Axios:
There simply isn't "a world in which you could come up with sufficient
protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it's not
finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party]," Carr
said.
In October, Forbes revealed that a China-based team at ByteDance had planned to
use TikTok to track the locations of an unspecified number of Americans.
In December, it was revealed that ByteDance had used the app to surveil several
journalists to track down the journalists' sources.
According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott:
"TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users' devices -- including when,
where and how they conduct internet activity -- and offers this trove of
potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,"
Also in December, Indiana became the first U.S. state to sue TikTok, for
misleading users about the Chinese government's capacity to access their data
and showing mature content to minors.
"The company's ownership of TikTok is problematic for two reasons," wrote
Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican US Representative Mike Gallagher.
"First, the app can track cellphone users' locations and collect
internet-browsing data — even when users are visiting unrelated website.
"That TikTok, and by extension the CCP, has the ability to survey every
keystroke teenagers enter on their phones is disturbing. With this app, Beijing
could also collect sensitive national security information from U.S. government
employees and develop profiles on millions of Americans to use for blackmail or
espionage...
Even more alarming than that possibility, however, are the potential abuses of
TikTok's algorithm...
Its algorithm is a black box, in that its designers can alter its operation at
any time without informing users... in the hands of ByteDance, it could also be
used to subtly indoctrinate American citizens.
TikTok has already censored references to politically sensitive topics,
including the treatment of workers in Xinjiang, China, and the 1989 protests in
Tiananmen Square. It has temporarily blocked an American teenager who criticized
the treatment of Uyghurs in China. In German videos about Chinese conduct toward
Uyghurs, TikTok has modified subtitles for terms such as 'reeducation camp' and
'labor camp,' replacing words with asterisks."
In China, the content available on TikTok could not be more different. China
serves up the "spinach version": science, physics, engineering and patriotism.
In the US, TikTok serves up the "opium version." Tristan Harris, a former Google
employee, said of China's approach to TikTok on CBS' 60 Minutes:
"It's almost like [the Chinese] recognize that technology is influencing kids'
development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok,
while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world."
"If you're under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at
home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos," said Harris of
the content served by TikTok within China, adding that Chinese children were
limited to only 40 minutes a day on the app.
"There's a survey of pre-teens in the U.S. and China asking, 'what is the most
aspirational career that you want to have?' and in the U.S., the No. 1 was a
social media influencer, and in China, the No. 1 was astronaut. You allow those
two societies to play out for a few generations and I can tell you what your
world is going to look like."
TikTok urgently needs to be banned from the US and the rest of the free world.
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished
Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
It is vital for Europe that Ukraine prevails
Col. Taras Dzuba/Arab News/January 16/2023
It is a well-known fact that climatic conditions affect the pace of hostilities,
and they affect both sides. The winner is always the one that is more ready to
act in these climatic conditions.
We can say straight away that the winter months in the Ukraine-Russia war will
be challenging from a military point of view. Low temperatures, limited duration
of daylight, the need to create proper conditions for the presence of military
personnel, the increased load on medical services and units typical for this
time of year, etc., are added to the high dynamics of fire strikes. The
combination of these factors reduces the pace of active offensive actions, but
Ukraine has two significant advantages. The first is that we protect our
homeland from the invaders, i.e., we fight on our territory with the full
support of our population. The second is the real and effective support of the
international community.
As for the enemy’s actions, we expect a possible continuation of missile strikes
on the territory of Ukraine, in particular on civilian infrastructure.
The success of the Russian occupying forces on the battlefield is unlikely.
Still, they can continue offensive actions to fulfill the orders of their
military-political leadership, which does not count on losses and often does not
recognize the realities of war.
We are preparing for any possible scenario and will do everything to liberate
the territory of Ukraine from the occupiers, regardless of the season, weather
conditions or anything else.
It is essential to understand the motivation of the opposing sides to assess the
chances of one side or the other.
We are preparing for any possible scenario and will do everything to liberate
the territory of Ukraine from the occupiers.
If we do not repeat the cliches of official Russian propaganda, which even the
most ardent supporters of Vladimir Putin already doubt, the main motives of the
servicemen of the Russian occupation army are the fear of disobeying orders and
the desire to improve their material condition at the expense of participating
in the war. Some of them are still hoping for a “trophy.”
We have a completely different motivation. The armed enemy came to our land with
one goal — to take away everything we have: Our lives, our territory and our
homes.
That is, we have no choice. Win or die. This is the main thing that determines
our chances. For Ukraine, this is a patriotic, people’s war.
In other words, if the enemy believes that some “special military operation” is
being conducted there, then for our people it is a real war and victory is
necessary for the complete liberation of our temporarily occupied territories
and the creation of guarantees for a future peaceful life. These guarantees of
peace are necessary not only for Ukraine today. Having unleashed aggression
against Ukraine, Russia continues to deepen regional instability in Europe. This
in turn will have negative consequences for the security architecture that
developed in the world after the Second World War, the collapse of the Soviet
Union and several regional conflicts in Asia and the Middle East.
Based on this, it can be said that we have the chances necessary for victory
over the enemy. No matter how difficult it is for us.
Currently, Ukraine’s economy and armed forces receive assistance from many
countries in Europe and the world. Our state is very grateful to its partners
for their humanitarian, military and economic aid.
The amount of assistance depends significantly on the partner countries and
their capabilities. If we talk about quantitative indicators, the total military
aid provided or planned for Ukraine by allies in 2022 was €41.3 billion ($44.7
billion).
The decision was made last month regarding another package of military aid to
Ukraine from the US of $275 million. This includes aid for energy
infrastructure, military support (including the training of specialists on the
territory of other states) and humanitarian assistance. In addition, at least
another $800 million has been earmarked in the US defense budget to support
Ukraine in 2023.
Aid to Ukraine for 2023 of €18 billion from the EU has also been announced.
However, one should not get attached to these quantitative indicators. Aid to
Ukraine is directly proportional to the level of the Russian military threat to
European regional and international security. If this level of threat increases,
then, accordingly, we expect an increase in the amount of aid.
Yes, of course, we are concerned about the level of international support for
Ukraine in repelling Russian armed aggression, the prompt restoration of
critical infrastructure facilities, the restoration and development of Ukraine
after the end of hostilities, and the bringing to international criminal
responsibility of all war criminals.
As for the possible weakening of the global economy this year, this issue is
quite debatable. It is right to wait until after this week’s World Economic
Forum in Davos. We can already say that, for example, last year was difficult
for European countries, but almost all nations were able to find alternative
sources to Russian energy and implement effective energy-saving programs. Green
energy received another push for development. Not to mention strengthening the
role of defense-industrial complexes by most countries of the world.
Last year was difficult for European countries, but almost all nations were able
to find alternatives to Russian energy.
The consequences caused by the war, primarily economic, are felt by the citizens
of countries all over the world and we are clearly aware that, the longer the
armed aggression continues, the more resources it will require. At the same
time, drawing historical parallels, it should be noted that if the civilized
countries “leave” Ukraine as a victim for the aggressor as “pacification,” then
they will merely postpone a more global conflict that will be provoked, as
happened in Europe in the last century.
In response to all international initiatives to end the conflict and return to
negotiations, Ukraine clearly states its position. We are ready for
negotiations. And we always were ready. But only to negotiations that will
actually end the war and provide security guarantees. This is a key condition
officially presented to the international community, in particular to the
aggressor state, by the president of Ukraine in the form of a 10-step program.
We are ready for such negotiations.
Regarding the attempt to take a pause in the war in order to accumulate
resources, prepare mobilized reserves and then resume aggression, we do not
consider this as a proposal to end the war and, accordingly, it is unacceptable
for Ukraine.
There is only one possible scenario — liberation of the whole territory of
Ukraine. How will it be done?
Perhaps Putin will show a gesture of goodwill to the whole world and permanently
withdraw his troops from the territory of Ukraine and refrain from further
aggressive actions.
Perhaps the international community will find effective mechanisms to transfer
the war to the political dimension.
It is quite possible that the declared lend-lease for Ukraine will work at full
strength and we will have enough means to end this war with the victory of
Ukraine.
In any case, there are plans of the military command to conduct operations to
liberate the territories, and these plans will be implemented.
We can see that Europe has never been so united as it is today. The processes
taking place around our state give a clear understanding that there is an urgent
need to ensure the security of European countries bordering the Russian
Federation. We see signals coming from countries that are part of the NATO
alliance.
Europe has a common security model and resources, which provides an opportunity
to respond to the threat in a timely manner and provide a decent response to the
Russian aggressor and stop the advance of Russian troops.
And today, both for Ukraine and for Europe, there is simply no other choice than
to hold out and win this war. Russia will not stop; therefore, if Ukraine does
not restrain its aggression, an immediate military threat will arise for the
countries of Europe.
After Feb. 24, 2022, the entire civilized world realized that the security model
that existed for more than 70 years is no longer there.
There is a certain fatigue in world public opinion from the war, but any
significant changes are possible only as a result of significant changes in the
state of the war itself. Changes that will allow not only Ukraine, but also the
international community, to consider itself safe.
**Col. Taras Dzuba has more than 30 years’ experience in the Armed Forces of
Ukraine.
This article first appeared in Asharq. It is part of a series titled “2023: A
year of difficult questions.”
بارعة علم الدين/عرب نيوز/محاولة إيران سرقة الهوية العربية هو هدف خاص
Iran’s bid to steal Arab identity is an own goal
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 16/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115006/baria-alamuddin-arab-news-irans-bid-to-steal-arab-identity-is-an-own-goal-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d8%b1%d8%a8-%d9%86%d9%8a/
After decades during which Gulf Arabs rarely visited Iraq, there has been great
excitement this month about Iraq hosting football’s Arabian Gulf Cup for the
first time since 1979. Nevertheless, those on Iran’s payroll are desperate to
sabotage Iraq’s relationship with its Arab brothers at all costs. This was on
show for all to see at the tournament’s opening ceremony in Basra, when an ugly
altercation caused the departure of the Kuwaiti delegation, along with other GCC
delegations and nationals.
Tehran’s theocrats were particularly incensed by Prime Minister Mohammad Shia
Al-Sudani welcoming “Arab guests from the countries of the Arabian Gulf,”
because they were under the impression that he had been appointed by their Iraqi
puppets as part of Iran’s “Persian Gulf” expansion project. Furthermore,
Sudani’s participation in last month’s Arab-China summit in Riyadh, and
December’s Jordan-hosted Baghdad Conference, were widely interpreted (rightly or
wrongly) as a gesture of intent to improve ties with Arab states.
Iran has strived to detach nations such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen from
their Arab roots and culture, and convert them into inanimate Persian satellite
failed states. Although this project is doomed to fail, and these basket case
appendages will scarcely outlast the soon-to-collapse ayatollahs’ regime, such
hostile policies have wreaked chaos, mass slaughter, sectarian cleansing and
crimes against humanity upon these long-suffering Arab states.
Esam Hussein, a leading official from the Shiite Sadrist movement (an entity
that Tehran previously sought to co-opt) condemned Iran’s inflammatory responses
to Iraqi officials having dared even to utter the name “Arabian Gulf.” He said:
“Iran is very disturbed by the closeness between the Iraqis and peoples of the
Arab Gulf states. Iran does not want this rapprochement, for fear of a future
increase in tourist trips and development of economic and investment ties.”
In fact, the Arabian Gulf Cup has been thus named since it was first played in
1970. Tehran raises the issue only because it sees Iraq as its private fiefdom
and thinks Baghdad’s leaders can be humiliatingly bullied at every opportunity.
Curiously, Iran (which habitually questions the legitimacy of Western “colonial
powers”), in its fantasies about a “Persian Gulf,” takes colonial-era documents
as unquestionable gospel. It even insists on referring to Arabian Peninsula
nations as “Persian Gulf states,” as if they somehow exist under Iranian
hegemony. This assertion is particularly pernicious given occasional illegal
claims that Bahrain and other Gulf islands and territories belong to the Islamic
Republic.
The Arabian Gulf throughout history has been an Arab lake. Over recent
centuries, the territories along the eastern coast of the Gulf — isolated from
inland Persia by the Zagros mountains — were mostly occupied by seafaring Arab
tribes and self-governing Arab statelets. The Hawala Arabs are among the
best-known inhabitants of this coastline; many of them later established
themselves in Arab states, fleeing persecution from the Shah’s regime and the
Islamic Republic.
Iran’s disciples fear that once the Arabian Gulf Cup has whetted Basra citizens’
appetite for Arab unity, Arab Iraqis will be inspired to fling open their doors
to fruitful renewed relationships with their Arab sisters and brothers.
Tehran’s Iraqi proxies have hilariously tied themselves in knots over the
“Arabian Gulf” issue, with some staying silent altogether for fear of angering
their Iranian masters. Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi leaders such as Qais Al-Khazali have
spent years fighting against Iraq’s Arab identity, including campaigns to chase
away investment from Arab Gulf states. One Hashd official ludicrously suggested
renaming the region the “Gulf of Basra,” such is their hatred of any mention of
the Arab blood running through their veins. That would hardly be likely to
placate the ayatollahs, who see the entire region — and perhaps the planet — as
belonging to them.
For decades Tehran disdainfully treated Shiite communities throughout the Arab
world as demographics under its theological hegemony, who should obey its every
command. Yet these efforts to enforce loyalty have failed miserably because
Shiite Arabs have seen enough to know that Tehran disregards their interests and
views them as second-class citizens. Arab pilgrims to Qom who were spat on, had
travel documents stamped upon, or were kidnapped for ransom, bear ample
testimony of routine racism. Shiite businessmen have been financially ruined by
the flood of cut-price Iranian goods dumped in their markets. They see how those
on Iran’s payroll have sold out their homelands to the devil.
Persia is one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures, manifested in poetry,
art, architecture, science and philosophy. Classical Islamic civilization is an
inseparable synthesis of the best of Arab and Persian cultures, but the barbaric
theocratic regime in Tehran has no cultural riches to export — only missiles to
strike peace-loving Gulf states, proxy armies to dominate Arab nations, drugs to
pollute the minds of the region’s youth, and ceaseless efforts to suffocate the
region’s enlightened and diverse heritage with their monolithic culture of
death.
Sudani’s crusade against corruption in Iraq has run head-on into these Iranian
aspirations for regional hegemony. Corruption mushroomed under Nouri Al-Maliki
from 2006 to 2014, when up to $1 trillion may have been stolen, including
massive transfers to Iran and huge investment in Tehran-backed paramilitary
forces. In consequence of such corrupt dealings, Iraq now faces a currency
crisis after the US halted dollar transfers to 14 Iraqi banks, seeking to
prevent tens of billions of dollars being transferred to Iran. Muthanna Amin, a
member of the Iraqi parliament, has claimed that Sudani himself handed Iran $4
billion during his latest trip to Tehran. Hashd warlords play a major role in
these transfers through shell companies and planeloads of cash delivered to
their Tehran paymasters.
Iran executed former regime official Alireza Akbari last week for no other
conceivable “crime” than being a British dual-national — just as countless other
dual nationals and foreign nationals have been rounded up and given arbitrary
jail sentences as hostages in pursuit of diplomatic trade-offs. With their
softly-softly approach toward hostage-takers, Western states exacerbate these
mafioso foreign policies. When Britain hands Iran $400 million in exchange for
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, are they surprised when the regime rushes to detain a
crop of new victims? This is the same regime that murdered Mahsa Amini and
thousands other innocent young people. Enough of these meaningless statements of
condemnation. Western nations must treat Iran’s leaders like the criminals and
mass murderers they are.
The Arabian Gulf Cup put two Iraqs on display: One is passionate about welcoming
back Arab and Gulf states with open arms, but the dark side of Iraq is perfectly
encapsulated by Basra — the city of militia corruption, targeted killings, a
narcotics pandemic, environmental meltdown, and rampant poverty. That is why
Basra has been the crucible of successive outbreaks of mass protests against
corrupt Iranian hegemony.
Tehran’s tantrums over the triviality of the naming of a football tournament
highlight the regime’s weakness and inferiority. The ayatollahs know they are
doomed, and their own citizens can’t wait to be rid of this scourge. Is it then
any surprise that the people of Basra, Beirut, Sanaa and Damascus are hungry to
re-embrace their Arab identity?
Iran’s disciples fear that once the Arabian Gulf Cup has whetted Basra citizens’
appetite for Arab unity, Arab Iraqis will be inspired to fling open their doors
to fruitful renewed relationships with their Arab sisters and brothers.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
Israel’s Power Shift: To Bibi, or Not to Bibi
David Pollock//The Washington Institute/January 16/2023
Once Netanyahu finds a way out of his legal troubles, he stands a realistic
chance of balancing the demands of his most militant coalition partners with the
expectations of the wider Israeli, Arab, and international community.
Political power in Israel has clearly shifted sharply rightward since the
November 1 election, but expert views still differ intensely about who is really
in charge today. How much will Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, back in power as
Israel’s prime minister, prove either willing or able to restrain the most
hardliner religious nationalist members of his coalition? That is the question
this note attempts to answer.
Early indications are mixed, depending upon the issue, the timing, and the
influence of other internal and external factors. Netanyahu himself is saying
little in public, beyond vague assurances that he intends to preserve Israeli
democracy, individual religious liberties and LGBT rights, and ties to the
country’s American and Arab partners and to world Jewry. And indeed, on balance,
Bibi the master political manipulator and relative pragmatist seems likely to
prevail on most fronts yet again. That is because he will soon face pressures,
incentives, and opportunities to divide and conquer the extremists in his own
government.
Right now, however, Netanyahu is in a relatively weak position, since his top
priority is to acquire some kind of legislative “get out of jail free card” on
his corruption charges. That gives his junior coalition partners, whose
parliamentary votes provide half his government’s 64-seat majority in the
120-member Knesset, great short-term leverage over the prime minister. They are
using it to move quickly on a wide range of legal and bureaucratic fronts,
against both Israeli liberals and Palestinians.
But whenever the corruption indictment hurdle is passed, Netanyahu’s margin for
maneuver will widen. There is no fixed deadline for this parliamentary gambit,
but most observers reckon the likely timeline in the range of a few more months
at most. And it is even barely possible that some opposition legislators will
heed the calls from various centrist Israeli pundits to oblige Netanyahu on that
personal issue sooner rather than later, precisely in order to lighten his
dependence on his far-right allies.
At that point, the hardline coalition agreement will become, like so many
political platforms and campaign promises worldwide, little more than words on
paper. Other, countervailing factors will offset some of those words. Those
factors, already gathering strength behind the scenes, include both Israeli
domestic and foreign policy calculations.
On the domestic front, the most talked-about yet actually the weakest such
pushback, from Netanyahu’s probable perspective, is mass popular protest. Media
hype notwithstanding, the largest demonstration against the new far-right agenda
attracted barely 20,000 souls, in a country of nearly 10 million citizens. And
the most recent credible poll shows that the majority of those citizens—58
percent—are in fact little concerned about the sweeping judicial “reforms” just
proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, which would make the parliament
effectively supreme over Israel’s generally liberal Supreme Court. For most
Israelis, those outside the realm of politics or media, life simply goes on much
as before. There will be more protest demonstrations in the coming days, but the
country’s tested social resilience can survive even these turbulent times, and
there will be no revolution against Netanyahu.
More important will be the resistance of Israel’s powerful security
professionals to other proposed rightwing initiatives. For example, the military
chief of staff, Gen. Aviv Kochavi, has reportedly told Netanyahu that if the
Border Patrol comes under cabinet firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir’s control, that
crucial unit should be moved out of the West Bank altogether. The commander of
Israel’s national police has warned publicly against further provocations, by
Ben Gvir or others, at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And out of the public eye,
the security apparatus seems determined to avoid another armed conflict with
Hamas in Gaza. Thus, we witness this paradoxical spectacle: Israel’s new
government is adopting additional financial, travel, and other penalties against
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—while avoiding any
such new measures against Hamas, still sworn to Israel’s destruction, in Gaza.
Also on the domestic front, and even less well understood abroad, are the
internal divisions within the hardline right camp. A particularly striking case
in point was the public statement by Moshe Gafni—a leader of the ultraorthodox
Degel Hatorah faction of the United Torah Judaism camp in Netanyahu’s
coalition—that Ben Gvir’s latest visit to the Temple Mount was both a violation
of Jewish law and a “needless, useless provocation.” On the other hand, Gafni
and his party are bitterly opposed to gay rights—while Netanyahu’s own Likud
party just successfully nominated Israel’s first openly gay Speaker of
Parliament, Amir Ohana. And some in the traditional national religious milieu
resent the ultraorthodox for avoiding military service and contributing but
little to Israel’s economy. Netanyahu can exploit all these divisions, and more,
to refuse some demands by one group in his camp on the grounds that they would
alienate a different group.
Looking further afield, two foreign actors—Americans and Arabs—will also urge
caution on Netanyahu, probably to good effect. The U.S. government has all but
stated that it will not attempt to intervene directly on purely internal Israeli
issues, beyond mild rhetorical gestures. But Washington has also already urged
more strongly—in the words of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to his new Israeli
counterpart Yoav Gallant—that Israel avoid anything that would “undermine
security and stability on the West Bank.”
Here the motives, means, and limits of American influence on Netanyahu must be
clarified. The U.S., long before Netanyahu’s revival, has in practice abandoned
pursuit of a “two-state solution” as an operational goal except in a very
distant aspirational sense. Nor is this a matter of conditioning American
economic aid to Israel on that or any other issue—if only because Israel’s
strong economy no longer needs American financial support. Rather, the key
leverage at stake is U.S. coordination with Israel against Iran, which could be
undermined by upheaval in East Jerusalem, Gaza, or the West Bank.
Netanyahu is all too well aware of this trade-off, and he is clearly stating
that Iran remains his foremost foreign policy priority. He can therefore be
expected to adjust his Palestinian policy accordingly, at least up to a point,
even as the two-state solution slips ever further behind Israeli settlements
into the hazy future. That endless grey zone is shifting rightward, but it is
highly likely to remain grey. Outright annexation of the West Bank, whatever
Netanyahu’s coalition agreement says, is almost certainly off the table.
Much the same holds true, finally, of the Arab dimension of Netanyahu’s emerging
policy. He is determined to preserve and, if possible, expand his legacy Abraham
Accords. And his actual and potential Arab partners have already made haste to
condemn Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount—while still hosting a high-level
Negev Forum meeting with Israel, Morocco, Egypt, the UAE, and the U.S. in Abu
Dhabi this very week. From Arab, Israeli, and American policy perspectives, this
too is not all-or-nothing; a balance will be sought between bilateral
normalization and progress (or at least stability) on the Palestinian front.
On the Arab street, that balance is well captured in polls supervised by the
author just after Netanyahu’s latest re-election. In the UAE, nearly half of
citizens say that “people who want to have business or sports contacts with
Israelis should be allowed to do so”—even though just a quarter think the
Abraham Accords have already had a positive effect on the region as a whole.
Remarkably, those percentages are almost identical in Saudi Arabia, which has
yet to join those accords. And even more remarkably, the proportion in both
countries who accept contacts with Israelis is quadruple the figure in Egypt,
which has officially been at peace with Israel for over 40 years.
Altogether, then, Netanyahu will need to juggle the prospect of the decent
relations he needs with Arabs, Americans, and his own Israeli public, against
the demands of the most militant elements of his governing coalition. He will
temporize, then compromise, and so probably remain in power. Ironically, he is
for now the most realistic hope of containing the clear rightward drift of
Israeli public policy, both at home and abroad. The next question is whether or
not he will take on that unprecedented challenge quickly, before the end of
March, when the coincidence of Ramadan and Passover once again threatens to
ignite major tensions on the Temple Mount and beyond.
*David Pollock is the Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute and director
of Fikra Forum. This article was originally published on the Newslooks website.
Between the lines: Understanding the Houthi Employment Code
of Conduct
Laila Lutf Al-Thawr/The Washington Institute/January 16/2023
Since the failure of international efforts to renew the ceasefire in Yemen this
past November, the Houthi movement has—with increasing speed—spread its
influence and dominance over the men and women living under its control.
There has been concern about a process of institutionalized indoctrination of
children and youth through coordinated changes to school curricula in
educational institutions. Of late, indoctrination in public-sector employment
has also come to light. The vast majority of Yemen’s public-sector employees are
under Houthi control, accounting for around one million public- sector employees
out of 1.2 million nationwide. This indoctrination is most thoroughly evidenced
by the public-sector Code of Conduct that has been forcibly imposed on all state
agencies since November.
Ever since the Houthi movement took power in 2014, it has worked to gradually
spread its influence to state agencies and all public-sector positions and
sought to get rid of public-sector employees who are not associated with the
movement—particularly those in decision-making roles. The movement has
established numerous bodies with which it maintains direct ties, and these
bodies have taken power from revenue-bearing ministries and other entities,
rendering them fully subject to the movement. These include zakat (through the
Houthis’ establishment of the General Authority for Zakat) and international
cooperation (through the replacement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a
new administration called “SCMCHA”). It is SMCHA that, in accordance with the
movement’s laws, administers donors and international relief organizations and
their projects carried out in Houthi-controlled areas. SMCHA also selects the
Yemeni organizations (mostly associated with the Houthis) that partner with
international organizations.
The Houthis have also imposed mandatory cultural courses on public-sector
employees in order to propagate their perspective, with sections dedicated to
the movement’s chief, Hussein al-Houthi. This is intended to attract and
indoctrinate employees. Those who refuse are punished and face accusations of
treason, leading many to be fired and replaced by unqualified and incompetent
followers.
Meanwhile, high-level employees and officials in public-sector and
Houthi-associated entities, as well as their associates, are receiving generous
monthly salaries under the rubric of “incentives” and “gratuities,” as evidenced
by their rising standards of living. In contrast, government employees who are
not associated with the Houthis have not received their salaries for more than
seven years. Various excuses have been put forward: the relocation of the
Central Bank to Aden, along the withholding of funds from oil and gas revenues
from Marib, some areas of which remains outside of Houthi control. Even so,
billions in revenue are coming in from organizations in the hands of the
movement, and these funds could be used to fund the salaries of all government
employees throughout the country. For example, under the 2019 Stockholm
Agreement, revenues from the port of Al Hudaydah should have been earmarked to
cover the salaries of government employees.
Now, public servants are subject to the Code, which is considered mandatory and
part of employees’ performance standards. All who refuse to sign are under
threat of being fired and replaced. The Code is based on the beliefs and
statements of movement leadership and Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, as well as on the
movement’s lectures and lessons about the Holy Quran, rather than being based on
the Quran itself. The hadith of the Prophet are completely excluded, and the
Code is chiefly based on Malik al-Ashtar’s statements about Imam Ali. Yemen’s
constitution and laws are considered only secondary reference materials. In
reading the Code of Conduct, one finds that it strives to fully impose the
perspective and authority of the Houthis on public-sector employment. This is by
imposing loyalty to the movement’s leader (Abdul-Malik al-Houthi) instead of to
the nation or to human rights principles. Signing and acknowledging the Code is
being imposed as a requirement to remain in public-sector employment. This
denies the existence of any diversity in perspective, political affiliation,
religion, or sect. Any violation of the code is considered treason for which the
employee must be punished. As one finds in the concluding clauses, it is even
considered a violation for an employee to comment on, amend, or criticize the
Code.
The Houthi movement adopted the Code before it was affirmed by the House of
Representatives in Sana’a, and was then illegally applied to the House itself so
that the movement could silence dissenting voices and monopolize power. The goal
was to affirm the Code and legitimate its application across the board—quickly
changing conditions to the movement’s benefit and subverting the normal order of
legislation. Such a move hints at the Houthis’ expectation that an agreement
will soon give them the right to spread their influence in areas currently under
their control, a dangerous inclination that would violate Security Council
Resolution 2216. It would oppress millions of inhabitants who have already been
subject to slavery and human-rights abuses since the temporary rule of warring
parties was imposed with international support.
Within the Code’s language, a careful reader can find: continually distorted
religious concepts; constitutional law used in twisted ways; and vague terms
that hold particular underlying meanings for the Houthis. The contradictory
texts of the Code are like honey adulterated with poison. The opening states
that adherence to the Code must be based on conviction, yet numerous clauses
oblige employees to sign in order to remain employed, identify objecting to the
Code as treason, and penalize anyone who violates the Code, as reaffirmed in the
guarantees clause.
As an example, employees are to celebrate religious occasions regardless of
their personal perspective under the provision, “Carry revolutionary spirit and
participate in enlivening national and religious celebrations.” Most such events
are particular to the Houthi movement rather than Yemeni society writ large.
Employees are also to “adopt unambiguous positions regarding enemies of the
country and nation and actively participate in public mobilization activities.”
This means mandatory conscription at any time the movement wishes to build a
mass army with millions of combatants, much like the Popular Mobilization Forces
in Iraq. Resistance to this is considered an ambiguity in position and,
therefore, treason. The Code also considers revealing or leaking documents about
corruption to be an employment infraction to be punished appropriately,
legitimizing and protecting corruption. It likewise prohibits combatting or
shedding light on instances of corruption—which, of late, has been worsening
across all sectors and government agencies in the absence of the state and its
oversight mechanisms.
The Code addresses employees collectively without referencing or taking into
account gender or women’s rights. It simply stipulates a requirement for
“modesty and virtue”—a term certainly directed at women. There is also a vague
sentence stipulating, “adherence to legal regulations between male and female
employees in the workplace.”
Employees refer to all this as a contract of slavery that dedicates the
resources of the state and its agencies to the service of the movement and its
associates. Despite popular opposition to the Code, the Houthis have continued
to forcibly impose it. Employees must choose the lesser of two evils: surrender
and sign or be fired and rendered a traitor. Public-sector employees have
already endured more than seven years of fear for their positions in the hope
that a political normalization would return their stolen rights and salaries.
The Houthis have taken advantage of this to gain workers who, like slaves, toil
without rights or pay. The Code requires full-time presence, thereby cutting
public-sector employees off from opportunities for salaried side-work that could
help them survive. This shows the movement’s insistence on using employees
effectively as slaves and eliminating opportunities for them to live with
dignity and provide the barest means of sustenance for themselves and their
families. This could also be a way to push public-sector employees not to sign
the Code, leading to their firing and replacement with adherents of the
movement.
Observers of the Houthis see the Code as another tool to eliminate opponents
within state agencies. The Code prohibits appointments based on loyalty or
kinship ties, but the opposite is unfolding on the ground, as the movement
repeatedly hands over open posts to its followers. Most roles and appointments
are being reserved for particular “Hashemite” families who claim descent from
the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the right to govern, while the rest
of the Yemeni people is being excluded.
This favoritism is part of the Houthi movement claims to speak in the name of
“Hashemites” in Yemen as an ethnic, sectarian, and religious minority. When the
movement first appeared, this was a way to gain power, ease military
recruitment, and gain a limited degree of international support via sympathy for
minorities. In reality, the Houthi movement does not represent the “Hashemites,”
many of whom are movement opponents and face persecution and threats like other
Yemenis. This indicates that the standards for belonging to the movement are
based more on ideology and social group then on “Hashemite” ethnicity. There is
substantial public opposition on the Yemeni street to this Code. Resistance is
bubbling up from the grumblings of men and women about the Houthis’ continued
monopolization of power and decision-making, the movement’s imposition of its
perspective to the exclusion of all others, and its repeated violations of
employee rights, particularly in state agencies. This has emerged through such
instances as the Showra Council issuing a statement rejecting the policy, and a
dedicated episode on the Alghad Almushriq TV channel on this policy where guest
speakers likewise rejected it. Although the Code contains clauses related to
employment matters, it has clear political and ideological dimensions, with
politicized religion deployed to achieve its goals. However, those who have
resisted these efforts face threats, forcing them to flee to other areas inside
Yemen or outside the country.
It has become critical to seek rational solutions to bring peace to Yemen
outside the logic of partition and support for armed factions. This is the
principal cause of the continued rebellion of armed actors. The international
affirmation and subvention of each group’s dominance over its area of control
must stop. The peace that Yemen demands must encompass the building of a state
that protects law and order and equal citizenship throughout the country. This
would ensure the success and integrity of Yemen, its people, and its neighbors.
For peace to be achieved, the economy and public-sector employment must be made
neutral. The Stockholm Agreement must be adhered to in regards the disbursement
of salaries to public-sector employees. To date, the Houthi movement has failed
to adhere to this requirement. Instead, the movement has used the salaries of
public-sector employees as a bargaining chip in negotiations and to gain the
support of the Yemeni public that it claims to defend.
This is possible because, for reasons that are unclear, there are no controls
built into the Agreement to guarantee its implementation, thereby causing the
Agreement to fail. Parties must be required to use available resources to pay
salaries to all public-sector employees in regions under their control, without
exception and throughout the duration of the conflict. The salary issue should
be used to push parties to return to the negotiating table and not away from it.
This mechanism would be a strong influence to improve humanitarian conditions,
reduce the conflict, and bring about a durable peace.
Side talks between any individual actor and the international community must
also be stopped. These obstruct comprehensive negotiations and lead to hubris
among negotiating parties rather than putting pressure on them to move towards
peace. Instead, those affected by the cutoff of salaries—the men, women, unions,
and large labor federations that are the main stakeholders here—should be
mobilized to play a role. In particular, the representation of women should be
safeguarded. Female party-members, activist networks, and feminist groups
associated with the state should be guaranteed participation at a rate of at
least 30 percent. Peace will not come about through begging. It will not come
about through partial or patchwork solutions. Peace will come about through
liberation from the contracts and bonds of slavery that have been imposed upon
the people and by improving the economy and daily life for men and women in all
parts of the nation.
**Laila Lutf Al-Thawr is the Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the
Political Bureau and Relations for the Arab Hope Party. She is also Head of the
Sam Initiative for Peace and Human Rights. She is a political and human-rights
activist in the field of peacebuilding and an expert in negotiation
Pope Benedict Told the Grim Truth about Islam
Raymond Ibrahim/January 16/2023
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things
only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he
preached.”
In certain respects, this is the sentence that Pope Benedict XVI will be most
remembered for. And while those who cite it do so to disparage and dishonor his
memory—to portray him as an “Islamophobe”—that notorious assertion is of
profound significance, and in more ways than one.
Pope Benedict read the above assertion on Sept. 12, 2006, during his Regensburg
address on faith and reason. He was quoting Eastern Roman (or “Byzantine”)
Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (b. 1350-1425). An erudite and pious man, Manuel
knew much about Islam, both abstractly and experientially.
In 1390, Manuel’s father, John V, submitted to becoming a vassal to, and sent
his son, Manuel, as a hostage of, the Ottoman sultan, Bayezid I (1360-1403),
whom the contemporary chronicler Doukas described as
a feared man, precipitate in deeds of war, a persecutor of Christians as no
other around him, and in the religion of the Arabs [Islam] a most ardent
disciple of Muhammad, whose unlawful commandments were observed to the utmost,
never sleeping, spending his nights contriving intrigues and machinations
against the rational flock of Christ. . . . His purpose was to increase the
nation of the Prophet and to decrease that of the Romans. Many cities and
provinces did he add to the dominion of the Muslims.
Unsurprisingly, the sultan never seemed to miss an opportunity to humiliate the
heir apparent of Constantinople. Bayezid even sadistically forced Manuel to
accompany the Turks and witness the final destruction of Philadelphia, the last
Christian bastion in Asia Minor. The “sight of destroyed Christian cities”
produced much “intense suffering” and even “sickened” the prince, writes one
historian.
One year later, in 1391, Emperor John V died, and his son, Manuel, became
emperor—after escaping from the sultan’s court to Constantinople. It was not
long before Bayezid declared a fresh jihad, put Constantinople to siege
(1394-1402), and once again began slaughtering Christians.
Earlier, during his time with the Turks, Manuel had regularly debated religion
with Muslims. It was then that he said to a learned Muslim, “Show me just what
Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and
inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
As inflammatory as this sentence may be to modern sensibilities—and despite all
the criticism Benedict received for quoting it—it is hard to gainsay it. The
jihad promulgated by the Muslim prophet has led to the slaughter of millions and
brutal conquest of much of the earth’s surface, including some three-fourths of
what was once the Christian world. The Middle East and North Africa—like
Constantinople, now Istanbul—were more Christian than Europe until the sword of
jihad Islamized them.
Indeed, almost as if to validate the claim that Muhammad had only taught “evil
and inhuman” things, when Benedict quoted this assertion, anti-Christian riots
erupted around the Muslim world, churches were set aflame, and an Italian nun
who had devoted her life to serving the sick and needy of Somalia was murdered
there.
Be that as it may. This is not the place to document the veracity of Manuel’s
statement—I have already written two books that fulfill that purpose—but rather
to get to the emperor’s point, which was theological: God is rationale—as the
Logos, the very embodiment of rationalism—whereas the teachings of Muhammad were
not. This comes out clearly in Manuel’s own words on the three options Islam
offers non-Muslims:
[1] they must place themselves under this law [sharia, meaning become Muslims],
or [2] pay tribute and, more, be reduced to slavery [an accurate depiction of
jizya and dhimmi status], or, in the absence of wither, [3] be struck without
hesitation with iron.
Manuel argued that these three options are “extremely absurd,” irrational, and
therefore unbecoming of the Supreme Deity. For example, if being a non-Muslim is
so bad, why would God allow money, jizya, to “buy the opportunity to lead an
impious life?” asked the emperor. Clearly these are very self-serving and
manmade rules, designed to empower one group (in this case, Muslims) against
another. Manuel continued:
God is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably [σὺν λόγω, “with logic”]
is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever
would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason
properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does
not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening
a person with death…
Benedict had quoted all of this less to defame Islam, and more to argue for the
importance of reason, and its compatibility with faith—both of which are under
assault today more than ever (as when a society cannot tell the difference
between men and women).
As for Islam—which is inherently irrational—Benedict had closed his address
with,
“Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of
God,” said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in
response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth
of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures.
Here, one cannot help but remark how utterly different Pope Benedict and his
successor, Pope Francis, are in their approaches to Islam. Whereas Benedict knew
that without agreement on a first premise—namely, the (rational) nature of
God—“dialogue” with Muslims would achieve nothing, Francis has become the
champion of dialogue, and all apparently for show—rationalism and reality be
damned.