Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 24-25/2023
Universal Syriac Union Party honors Christian resistance martyrs in Lebanon
Syriacpress.com/METN, Lebanon
In a gathering attended by political, popular, and religious figures, the Universal Syriac Union Party (USUP) paid tribute to the martyrs of the Christian Resistance during the Lebanese Civil War. The commemoration took place at the Syriac Martyrs’ Square in Metn. On 24 July, in remembrance of the Syriac martyrs who bravely sacrificed their lives during the Lebanese Civil War, the USUP honored the memory of the 1,130 martyrs. The event saw a significant turnout, with people from various political and religious circles, as well as civil institutions, personalities, families, and comrades of the martyrs participating in the commemoration. During the ceremony, speeches were delivered paying tribute to the valor and sacrifice of the martyrs. Notably, the commemoration led to the addition of 100 new members joining the USUP. The Lebanese Civil War, which endured from 1975 to 1990, claimed the lives of numerous martyrs, with a substantial number hailing from the Syriac community. Their courage and dedication in the face of adversity made them the largest percentage of martyrs in the Lebanese Christian resistance. The commemoration served as a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by these brave individuals, reinvigorating the commitment to honor their memory and the values for which they fought.

Le Drian's return to Beirut: Dialogue, third-man solution, or more deadlock?
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive Tuesday in Lebanon on a two-day visit to meet with Lebanese officials and leaders, including Maronite Patriarch Beshara al Rahi and Speaker Nabih Berri, media reports said. Le Drian will start his tour in Lebanon with a visit to Berri during which the two will discuss the national dialogue over the presidential file, al-Akhbar newspaper reported Monday. It added that the five-nation group on Lebanon has given the French initiative three more months. Le Drian, who visited Lebanon last month, met earlier this month with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, a day after representatives of France, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt met in Doha to discuss the Lebanese file. In a statement issued after the Doha meeting, the five-nation group threatened “measures” against the Lebanese parties who are “blocking progress” in the stalled presidential election file, calling for a new president who “embodies integrity, unites the nation, puts the interests of the country first, prioritizes the well-being of its citizens, and forms a broad and inclusive coalition to implement essential economic reforms.” Meanwhile, sources told ad-Diyar, in remarks published Monday, that Le Drian's visit aims at searching for new options and will likely not break the presidential impasse. The sources expected a protracted deadlock until the five nations' next meeting in September. "Lebanese parties are betting on the Saudi-Iranian and the American-Iranian understandings. The Shiite Duo is hoping these agreements would be in favor of its candidate Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh, while other parties believe that these foreign understandings might boost the chances of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun," the sources said.

French Foreign Ministry: Le Drian's visit seeks consensus solution for presidency
LBCI/24 July 202
During Monday's press conference, the spokesperson of the Quai d'Orsay made the following statement: "Visit of Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Personal Representative of the President of the Republic for Lebanon (July 25-27, 2023)" Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Personal Representative of the President of the Republic for Lebanon, will undertake a second visit to Lebanon from July 25 to 27. His first visit, from June 21 to 24, allowed him to meet with representatives of all political formations represented in the Lebanese Parliament. He also held discussions with political, religious, and military authorities. Following his visit to Lebanon, the Personal Representative of the President of the Republic for Lebanon traveled to Saudi Arabia from July 10 to 12 and then to Qatar, where he participated in a meeting in Lebanon with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, and Egypt on July 17, before returning to Saudi Arabia on July 18. This second visit to Lebanon is part of his mission of facilitation and mediation, with the aim of creating favorable conditions for all concerned parties to reach a consensus solution for the election of the President of the Republic. This step is essential for the revival of the political institutions that Lebanon urgently needs to embark on the path of recovery.

Berri, Bassil refuse any extension of Salameh's term
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
A technical extension of Central Bank chief Riad Salameh’s term, his reappointment to the post or tasking him with acting in caretaker capacity “are all impossible ideas that no one can tolerate,” Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly said. As for Salameh’s four vice governors, Berri said that the best move would be their “resignation and their acting in caretaker capacity until the appointment of a new governor and new vice governors at a later stage,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. A source close to Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil meanwhile told al-Jadeed TV that Salameh “will not be tasked with anything after July 31.” “He will not act in caretaker capacity, his term won’t be renewed or extended and not even a consultancy contract will be signed with him. This is what caretaker PM Najib Mikati has pledged to the political parties,” the source added. “The FPM believes that the most appropriate solution is the appointment of a judicial guard on whom the political forces would agree and names such as Naim Abou Jaoude, Karim Saade and Samir Assaf have been proposed, but the rest of the political parties have rejected the proposal,” the sources said.

Mikati meets BDL vice governors ahead of Cabinet session
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
Caretaker PM Najib Mikati met Monday at the Grand Serail with Central Bank vice governors Wassim Mansouri, Bashir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexander Mouradian. The meeting was also attended by caretaker Deputy PM Saade Chami and caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil. “Mikati will listen to the vice governors and will present their vision to Cabinet in the session that will be held today or in another dedicated session,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. “Mikati and political forces are discussing some ideas about the possibility that the government send the vice governors’ demands to parliament through a draft law that would be devise by the government,” the daily said. Al-Jadeed television had reported Sunday that Mikati had communicated with the vice governors and asked them to “wait on their resignation step in order to find a consensual exit.” "Mikati is mulling the idea of a bargain with the four vice governors under which they would not resign in return for the government taking the appropriate measures to cover their work in a legal manner," al-Akhbar said. The vice governors "might not resign, with sources close to them noting that First Vice Governor Wassim Mansouri is the one who wants to resign the most, seeing as he will be in charge of the governor's powers, whereas the other three are against resigning, each for his own reasons, be them personal, political or partisan," the daily added.

Cabinet begins successive sessions to pass 2023 state budget
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
The caretaker Cabinet convened Monday at the Grand Serail to discuss the much delayed 2023 state budget. The Council of Ministers’ General-Secretariat received the budget draft law from the Finance Ministry last week, and cabinet will hold successive sessions to discuss and approve it. The budget exchange rate will be Sayrafa's rate, MTV reporter Joyce Akiki said. Mired in a crippling economic crisis since 2019, Lebanon has been governed by a caretaker cabinet for more than a year and without a president for more than eight months. The FPM ministers have been boycotting the caretaker cabinet sessions, claiming that cabinet can not convene without a president. Last year, parliament passed the 2022 budget in September as debates over the customs exchange rate delayed the budget approval. The 2022 budget set the dollar exchange rate at 15,000 pounds to the dollar -- less than half its rate on the black market then -- contravening calls by the IMF to unify the various dollar exchange rates functioning across the country.

Qaouq: Hezbollah keen on consensus to halt collapse, save country
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Monday stressed that his party is “keen on consensus, because Hezbollah’s priority is halting the collapse and deterioration and saving the country.”“But the other camp’s priority is employing the collapse and exploiting it for political objectives,” he added. “Lebanon is on the verge of a dangerous financial crisis and there is real fear over an uncontrolled surge in the dollar exchange rate. Our national responsibility obliges us and everyone to confront this to rescue the country from the coming crisis,” Qaouq went on to say. “The main responsibility falls on the shoulders of the government and it must take the necessary measures to rescue the country from a new financial crisis, because the people can no longer bear crises,” the Hezbollah official said.

FPM awaits Hezbollah reply to proposal dropping both Franjieh and Azour
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement are holding dialogue without preconditions regarding the two parties’ presidential candidates, a media report said. “Hezbollah is listening to the FPM’s opinion on the presidential file in light of the results of the June 14 session,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported. “The FPM is meanwhile awaiting Hezbollah’s response to its demand that efforts be exerted to reach a choice other than the two candidates who received votes in the aforementioned session,” Suleiman Franjieh and Jihad Azour, the daily added, while noting that Hezbollah is still clinging to Franjieh.

Moscow talking to Jumblat about Franjieh's nomination
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
Russia is communicating with former Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat regarding the presidential file and it has informed several Arab capitals of its support for Suleiman Franjieh’s election as president, a media report said.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the issue in a previous meeting with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan, asking him to relay a direct message in this regard from President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted sources as saying. “Moscow has not received any Saudi answer to its proposal, but it considers that dialogue with Jumblat can lead to a serious breakthrough,” the sources added.

Cracking down on illicit pharmaceuticals: Lebanon's pharmacies face scrutiny
LBCI/24 July 202
Lebanese citizens are urged to pay close attention to the entrances of the pharmacies they visit starting next week. When you step inside, ensure the pharmacy displays an official sticker from the Lebanese Pharmacists Association. his sticker signifies that the pharmacy is legitimate and adheres to the union's decision to follow the official pricing set by the Ministry of Health without any markup or reduction and that it dispenses registered legal medications. pproximately 3,400 pharmacies will receive the official sticker in the coming days from the Pharmacists Association, which will launch the campaign on Tuesday. owever, a significant dilemma persists as illicit drugs continue to flood numerous pharmacies across Lebanon, with sources from Syria, Iran, Turkey, and India. These medications enter Lebanon illegally through smuggling routes, bypassing established health protocols. ishonest pharmacies and clinics are involved in selling illicit drugs, and even mobile vendors carry bags filled with unauthorized medication. The success of the Pharmacists Association's campaign relies on the extent to which legitimate pharmacies commit to the official pricing and legal medications, as well as the government's ability to curb drug smuggling.
But it should be noted that a significant portion of the population gets their medication from Syria through individual initiatives due to the lower prices compared to the Lebanese market. As Lebanon grapples with the challenges posed by illicit pharmaceuticals, the nation's pharmacies stand at the forefront of ensuring the safety and legality of medications dispensed to its citizens.

Makari after the Cabinet session: The extension of BDL Governor Riad Salameh was not discussed
LBCI/24 July 202
Following the conclusion of the Cabinet session, the caretaker Information Minister, Ziad Makari, revealed that the extension of the Governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL), Riad Salameh, was not discussed during Monday's session. He pointed out that the Governor's deputies requested to provide cover for lending to the government and securing salaries. At the same time, the ministers demanded the appointment of a new governor for the BDL. Makari also disclosed that the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati affirmed that the most appropriate option is to appoint a new governor for the BDL when circumstances allow, primarily as the government must ensure the functioning of the public facility. In addition, he emphasized that there is a precise 48-hour time-frame and ongoing meetings. Monday's meeting between the Governor's deputies and Mikati was positive, and they were given 48 hours to return with answers. Consequently, Mikati will call for a government session between Thursday and Friday to avoid delays. In another context, Makari clarified that the budget discussion did not take much time within the government. He confirmed that there will be consecutive meetings regarding the budget, and the ministers will present proposals and remarks. Additionally, the Cabinet agreed, outside the agenda, to promote officer cadets to the rank of lieutenant as of August 1, 2023, upon the request of the President. Moreover, the Cabinet expressed no objection to Displaced Minister Sharafeddine continuing the meetings of the committee responsible for organizing the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

Preserving history: UNESCO and Italy to revitalize Beirut's Mar Mikhael train station
LBCI/24 July 202
As part of UNESCO's flagship initiative LiBeirut, an agreement was signed on Monday between UNESCO and Italy to finance the restoration and rehabilitation of the industrial heritage assets of the Beirut Mar Mikhael Train Station. The project, backed by a grant of €2,000,000, aims to preserve the station's historical significance, which dates back to 1894 but was abandoned during the Civil War and heavily impacted by the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020. The signing ceremony occurred at the Mar Mikhael Train Station and was attended by various dignitaries. This initiative is part of a comprehensive intervention funded by Italy to safeguard the industrial heritage of the old Mar Mikhael train station and open up the space to the public. UN-Habitat will undertake the first component of the Italian-funded intervention and focus on creating a green public space within the train station area to benefit the people of Beirut. The second component enables UNESCO to preserve the site's original function and cultural significance while fostering social and cultural connections through a platform for artistic creativity and experience. Alessandra Piermattei, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) Beirut Director, highlighted the two interconnected projects by UNESCO and UN-Habitat. The combined effort is set to rehabilitate 10,000 m² of the Mar Mikhael Train Station, leading to improved quality of life for Beirut's citizens and reactivating the economic and social development of the area. Leveraging UNESCO's expertise in cultural heritage conservation, six heritage buildings from different historic periods within the site will be rehabilitated. The restoration will adhere to international standards and good practices, utilizing original materials and building techniques to preserve the site's authenticity. Train stations hold significant value as elements of industrial heritage, and today, they are being reimagined as multifunctional spaces for social and cultural exchanges. The Mar Mikhael Train Station, located at the heart of Beirut, boasts enormous potential as a dynamic space where citizens can connect and create meaningful experiences. However, the site has suffered from abandonment and, more severely, the devastation caused by the August 4, 2020 blast.

Lebanon participates in the Jerash International Festival with the Seniors and Art of Joy team
LBCI/24 July 202
The caretaker Culture Minister, Mohammad Wissam al-Mortada, announced Lebanon's participation in the events of the Jerash International Festival for 2023. The artistic painter Majd Ramadan has been selected to lead the Seniors and Art of Joy team to represent Lebanon at the festival under the sponsorship of the Culture Ministry. It is worth mentioning that the team's selection by the festival's management is part of showcasing new and diverse experiences in the world of visual arts. The Jordanian media praised the unique experience of the Happy Painting team. The Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts will host the "Happy Painting and Seniors" team, led by the artistic painter Majd Ramadan. Through her lectures on visual arts at the American University of Beirut and the Happy Painting classes, Ramadan discovered many artistic talents among a group of seniors. They changed their lifestyles and found joy in painting, expressing their passion for colors and distancing themselves from the surrounding negative circumstances. Ramadan organized several online exhibitions for her team during the pandemic's isolation, including the "Isolation and Creativity" exhibition at the American University and other exhibitions. She also chaired her team at the Qatar International Festival for two consecutive years among fifty countries, which received awards as a unique model worldwide for seniors' positivity, giving, and the beauty of their artistic paintings. The "Happy Painting" team participated in various exhibitions, which caught the attention of the Culture Minister to this distinguished phenomenon. He overcame the obstacles and supported them, accompanied by pride and admiration. Furthermore, the artistic painter Majd Ramadan will participate with a special painting for the occasion carrying the festival's slogan, "Jerash Festival, and the Joy Continues."

European Parliament's decision to support Syrian refugees' stay in Lebanon violates sovereignty: Lebanese PM
IANS/24 July 202
The European Parliament's recent decision to support Syrian refugees' stay in Lebanon clearly violates Lebanon's sovereignty, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said. PM Najib Mikati said that the European Parliament's resolution overlooks Lebanon's multifaceted complexities and challenges. "Lebanon is disappointed with the recent decision of the European Parliament. This decision is a clear violation of Lebanese sovereignty and does not consider the concerns and aspirations of the Lebanese people," the Prime Minister said on Sunday, according to a statement by Lebanon's Council of Ministers. Mikati's remarks came during the International Conference on Development and Migration held in Rome, Xinhua news agency reported. He added that the recent European Parliament's resolution overlooks Lebanon's multifaceted complexities and challenges. The severe repercussions of the long-term presence of displaced Syrians in Lebanon destabilise the country's social fabric and directly threaten its existence as a model of diversity, he said. On July 12, the European Parliament issued a series of decisions on the situation in Lebanon, emphasising that conditions are not met for the voluntary, dignified return of refugees in conflict-prone areas in Syria. Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with an estimated 1.5-2 million Syrian refugees scattered across the country. Lebanese officials insist on returning Syrian refugees to their homeland as the country's internal security and economic situation can no longer tolerate their stay in Lebanon.

Lebanon prepares for end of central bank chief Riad Salameh's term
The National/Jul 24, 2023
Meeting reportedly to name successor held between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and four deputy governors
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with the four deputy governors of the country’s bankrupt central bank on Monday in preparation for the end of Riad Salameh’s controversial term. The meeting, which also included Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Chami and Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, aimed to have a succession plan in place before the end of the central bank governor's term. To date, a successor to Mr Salameh has not been named.The four deputy governors – Wassim Mansouri, Bachir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexandre Moradian – have previously threatened to resign if a successor is not chosen. Legally, if a successor is not named in Mr Salameh’s absence, the first deputy governor would take his place. But first vice-governor Mr Mansouri told Reuters earlier this month that the role was similar to inheriting a “ball of fire”. Mr Salameh, 72, has been in the position for 30 years and is the world's longest-serving central bank governor. He will end his term on July 31. He is largely blamed for the financial crisis that ultimately led to the collapse of Lebanon’s economy. He will leave behind an impoverished country desperately in need of reforms and struggling with a major leadership vacuum. Before the collapse, Mr Salameh was hailed as a financial virtuoso for attractinging regional and international investment to Lebanon and keeping the pound stable. He now faces multiple international and domestic charges which include money laundering, embezzlement, fraud and illicit enrichment. There are arrest warrants for him in France and Germany. He denies any wrongdoing and maintains that he is being made a scapegoat for the country’s economic meltdown. The role of central bank governor is challenging. Mr Salameh’s successor will inherit Lebanon’s dying economy. The economic collapse has left around 80 per cent of households without enough food or the money to buy it, according to a UN report in 2021. In Syrian refugee households, the figure reaches 99 per cent. The Lebanese pound has plummeted, now worth only a fraction of what it once was. Inflation is in triple digits and depositors remain locked out of the majority of their savings. Numerous economic reforms must be implemented before Lebanon can benefit from an international bailout. But with no president, a caretaker government and soon no central bank governor, change appears increasingly distant.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 24-25/2023
Iran kicks off air force drill as US sends more fighter jets to region
Associated Press
Iran has begun an annual air force drill in the central part of country, state media reported, as the U.S. sends more fighter planes to the region to deter the Islamic Republic from seizing commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf area.
The official IRNA news agency said 11 Iranian air force bases participated in the drill, dubbed Fadaeian Velyat-11, or Devotees of the Supreme Leader-11. It said an air base at the southern port of Bandar Abbas at the mouth of the strategic Strait of Hormuz is active in the drill. The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all crude oil passes. The report said more than 90 fighter planes, bombers and drones would participate in the drill. Air Force Chief Gen. Hamid Vahedi said the drill's message is one of friendship, peace and security in the region. "Sustainable security, improving and fostering regional ties, peaceful coexistence and defending air borders are on the agenda," he said. From time to time Iran holds such drills and says they are designed to assess force's combat readiness and demonstrate the nation's military capabilities. The U.S. said last week it is sending additional fighter jets and a warship to the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman to increase security in the wake of Iranian attempts to seize commercial ships there. The Pentagon said the USS Thomas Hudner, a destroyer, and a number of F-35 fighter jets will be heading to the area. The Hudner had been in the Red Sea. The U.S. move comes after Iran earlier in July tried to seize two oil tankers, the Marshall Islands-flagged TRF Moss and the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, near the strait last week, opening fire on one of them. The U.S. Navy said in both instances the Iranian naval vessels backed off when the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on the scene. The U.S. Navy says Iran has seized at least five commercial vessels in the last two years and has harassed more than a dozen others. Many of the confrontations have happened in and around the Strait of Hormuz. The West accuses Iran of using seized commercial vessels as bargaining chips. Iran denies the charge saying it seized the vessels after they collided with local vessels and polluted the waterway. Tensions have steadily risen since the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers and restored crippling sanctions. Iran has responded by ramping up its nuclear activities — which it says are purely peaceful — and also provided drones to Russia for its war against Ukraine.

Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary is charged with directing a terrorist organization
AP/July 24, 2023
LONDON: High-profile British radical preacher Anjem Choudary appeared in a London court on Monday, charged with leading a terrorist organization. Choudary, 56, was charged Sunday with three counts under the Terrorism Act: directing a terrorist organization, membership in a banned organization and addressing meetings to encourage support for the organization between June 2022 and this month. Prosecutors say the charges relate to the radical group Al-MuHajjiroun, which was outlawed by the British government in 2010. It has since operated “under many names and guises,” including the Islamic Thinkers Society, prosecutors say. Prosecutors allege Choudary gave lectures for the Islamic Thinkers Society “on the establishment of an Islamic state in Britain and how to radicalize people,” the BBC reported. He was arrested at his home in London in July 17. He was charged alongside with Canadian national Khaled Hussein, 28, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport the same day after arriving on a flight. Hussein, from Edmonton, Alberta, is charged with membership in a proscribed organization. Prosecutors say he worked online with Choudary to provide “a platform” for the group’s views. Neither man entered a plea during separate hearings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Both were ordered detained until their next hearing at the Central Criminal Court on Aug. 4. Nick Price, from the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division, said that “criminal proceedings against Mr. Choudary and Mr. Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial.”

62 arrested in Europol-Interpol human trafficking crackdown
Reuters/July 24, 2023
AMSTERDAM: Law enforcement from five countries have disrupted an intercontinental criminal network that was smuggling migrants from Cuba to the European Union, with the move leading to the arrest of 62 people, Europol and Interpol, who coordinated the international investigation, said on Monday. A Europol statement said the criminal network focused on Cubans in vulnerable situations, and that for 9,000 euros ($9,969.30), it would organize their journey to Europe and provide false documentation. In total, it is suspected that the criminal network successfully smuggled around 5,000 Cuban nationals into the EU. Besides the arrests, police also seized 18 pieces of real estate, 33 vehicles, and 144 bank accounts, alongside vast sums of cash in various currencies.

Israel’s Knesset adopts first judicial overhaul bill despite US warnings
Jack Dutton and Rina Bassist/Al Monitor/July 24/2023
Israel's Knesset on Monday afternoon adopted the first element of the government's controversial judicial overhaul plan, after hours of debates since Sunday morning. The first element, called the "Reasonableness Clause," will prevent Supreme Court oversight over government decisions, including the nomination of ministers and other senior positions.  The Knesset vote took place despite protests across the country throughout the weekend, including thousands of people who marched by foot for two days from Kibbutz Nahshon to Jerusalem, nearly 30 kilometers (19 miles) away. Talks mediated by President Isaac Herzog up until the second and third decisive Knesset readings failed to reach a compromise. The vote curbing the Supreme Court was along party lines, with a narrow majority of 64 (out of 120) allowing its passage. In a symbolic move, all 56 members of the opposition, including the Arab parties, left the Knesset plenum, boycotting the final vote. The Tel Aviv stock market closed with a sharp drop of 2.3% after the adoption of the ‘’Reasonableness Clause,’’ and the shekel weakened by 1.2% against the dollar. Small drops were registered earlier on Monday before the adoption of the bill, increasing after it was approved by the Knesset — some two hours before the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed for the day.Released from the hospital on Sunday after having a pacemaker installed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu championed the passing at the Knesset plenum of the first bill of his judicial overhaul plan.
US calls it “unfortunate”
Axios reported that President Joe Biden also appealed to the Israeli leadership to halt the judicial overhaul, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition should not rush their “divisive” bid, given the numerous threats and challenges Israel faces. In a statement to Axios, Biden called upon Netanyahu not to move forward with the planned Knesset vote, saying he is highly concerned about the legislation and its potential implications. “Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus," Biden said. This was Biden's second warning after an interview with The New York Times' Tom Friedman last week. In that interview, the US president was described as "deeply worried for the stability and future of Israel, America’s most important Middle East ally and a country for which he wears his affection on his sleeve."In a statement on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Biden’s concerns and hoped for a compromise. “As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major democratic changes to be enduring must have as broad a consensus as possible,” the White House said. “It is unfortunate that the vote today took place with the slimmest possible majority. We understand talks are ongoing and likely to continue over the coming weeks and months to forge a broader compromise even with the Knesset in recess,” it added. Washington said it supports broader consensus through political dialogue.Monday's controversial vote followed months of mass protests that have paralyzed Israel. Netanyahu's coalition, the most far-right government in Israel's history, started pushing its judicial overhaul plan for eroding the powers of the courts in favor of the Knesset soon after it won the last elections in November 2022, triggering mass demonstrations against it both in Israel and abroad. Protests have continued outside the Knesset after the adoption of the bill. Demonstrators have also blocked the Jerusalem main traffic route Begin Road, which passes through the west of the city from north to south. Some of the demonstrators had set up mobile fences on the road while security forces are using water canons to try and disperse them. Tel Aviv police are now preparing for a mass demonstration expected to take place Monday night in the center of the city. Several main roads in Tel Aviv are blocked by police to prevent vehicles from driving where crowds are expected to gather.
Strikes on the table
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called Monday evening on more than 1000 reservists officers who threatened to end volunteer duty to reconsider their threat. ‘’Israel will not turn into neither Poland nor Hungary,’’ warned Lapid. He explained that his party will submit to the Supreme Court a petition against the bill on Tuesday morning. Israel’s biggest public sector union, which represents more than 800,000 workers, threatened strikes and said it would announce a labor dispute in the coming days in response to the vote. “From this moment on any unilateral advancement of the reform will have grave consequences,” Arnon Bar-David, head of the Histadrut Labor Federation, said. He added that the consequences include “up to and including a full strike” of workers’ unions throughout the country. Bar-David has been trying to mediate a compromise between the government and the opposition but with little success so far. "From this moment on, any unilateral progress in the reform will have serious consequences. … Either things will progress with [a] broad agreement or they will not progress at all," the union head added. The judicial overhaul has led to 68% of Israeli startups taking active legal and financial steps, such as withdrawing cash reserves and changing the location of their headquarters due to a lack of foreign direct investment, a survey by Start-Up Nation Central on Sunday found. The survey found that 22% of companies report that they have diversified cash reserves outside of Israel, and 37% of investors say businesses in their portfolios have withdrawn some of their cash reserves and moved them abroad. Addressing the Israeli public late on Monday, Netanyahu claimed the vote strengthens the hand of politicians over the Supreme Court and is at the heart of the democratic process. ‘’Israel will remain a democratic state, a liberal state. It will not turn into a state run by Jewish-religious laws. … Realizing the voter’s will is not the end of democracy, it is the essence of democracy,‘’ pledged Netanyahu. He then blamed leaders of the protest movement for striving to topple his government, unrelated to the judicial overhaul issue. Netanyahu said that for three months his coalition proposed to the opposition all sorts of compromises, but ‘’the hand we offered them stayed hanging in the air.‘’ The Israeli premier warned against the growing refusal to serve reserve duty in the army and against allegedly dragging the military into a political debate. Contrary to speculations before his televised statement, Netanyahu did not offer to renegotiate the new bill, saying merely that talks on the issue ‘’are still taking place’’ and ‘’the door of the coalition will always remain open.‘’

Israeli parliament approves key part of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul as opposition exits chamber
AP/July 24, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s divisive plan to reshape the country’s justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. The vote came after a stormy session in which opposition lawmakers chanted “shame” and then stormed out of the chamber. It reflected the determination of Netanyahu and his far-right allies to move ahead with the plan, which has tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawn concern from its closest ally, the United States. The overhaul calls for sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions to changing the way judges are selected. Netanyahu and his allies say the changes are needed to curb the powers of unelected judges. Protesters, who come from a wide swath of Israeli society, see the overhaul in general as a power grab fueled by personal and political grievances of Netanyahu — who is on trial for corruption charges — and his partners. In Monday’s vote, lawmakers approved a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are “unreasonable.” With the opposition out of the hall, the measure passed by a 64-0 margin.
After, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the plan, said parliament had taken “first step in an important historic process” of overhauling the judiciary. More mass protests are now expected, and the Movement for Quality Government, a civil society group, immediately announced it would challenge the new law in the Supreme Court. The grassroots protest movement condemned the vote, saying Netanyahu’s “government of extremists is showing their determination to jam their fringe ideology down the throats of millions of citizens.”
“No one can predict the extent of damage and social upheaval that will follow the passage of the legislation,” it said. Earlier, demonstrators, many of whom feel the very foundations of their country are being eroded by the government’s plan, blocked a road leading up to the parliament, and big mall chains and some gas stations shuttered their doors in protest. Further ratcheting up the pressure on Netanyahu, thousands of military reservists have declared their refusal to serve under a government taking steps that they see as setting the country on a path to dictatorship. Those moves have prompted fears that the military’s preparedness could be compromised. Ahead of Monday’s vote, opposition leader Yair Lapid had declared: “We are headed for disaster.”The vote came only hours after Netanyahu was released from the hospital, where he had a pacemaker implanted.
His sudden hospitalization added another dizzying twist to an already dramatic series of events, which were watched closely in Washington. The Biden administration has frequently spoken out against Netanyahu’s government and its overhaul plan. In a statement to the news site Axios late Sunday, President Joe Biden warned against pushing ahead with the legal changes that were sparking so much division. “Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus,” he told the site.
Biden has also been critical of the government’s steps to deepen Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The massive, sustained democracy protests have shunned mention of Israel’s 56-year occupation of lands the Palestinians seek for their hoped-for independent state, fearing the issue might alienate supporters. But critics portray this rule over another people as a major stain on Israel’s claim to be a liberal democracy and accuse the protesters of harboring a significant blind spot in their struggle. As lawmakers debated, tens of thousands of people gathered for mass rallies for and against the plan. Protesters banging on drums and blowing horns blocked a road leading to Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, and police used water cannons to push them back. The protest movement said one of its leaders was arrested. “The state of Israel stands before destruction and ruin that is being brought upon it by a gang of extremists and kooks. We must go up to Jerusalem today!” one branch of the protest movement called out to demonstrators on social media. Netanyahu’s supporters, meanwhile, thronged central Tel Aviv — normally the setting for anti-government protests. Despite the attempts to project business as usual, Netanyahu’s schedule was disrupted by his hospitalization, with a Cabinet meeting and trips postponed. His doctors said Sunday the procedure had gone smoothly and the prime minister said in a short video statement from the hospital late Sunday that he felt fine. Netanyahu paused the overhaul in March after intense pressure by protesters and labor strikes that halted outgoing flights and shut down parts of the economy. After talks to find a compromise failed last month, he said his government was pressing on with the overhaul.

Fierce protests have been rocking Israel for months. What's fueling them?
Associated Press/July 24, 2023
Oceans of Israeli flags, steady drumbeats, cries of "Democracy!" Water cannons, police on horseback, protesters dragged off the ground.
For seven straight months, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen.
The protesters are part of a grassroots movement that rose out of opposition to a contentious judicial overhaul spearheaded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies. The overhaul calls for sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court's ability to challenge parliamentary decisions, to changing the way judges are selected. While the government says the overhaul is needed to reduce the powers of unelected judges, protesters, who make up a wide cross section of Israeli society, say the overhaul will push Israel toward autocracy. With a key portion of the overhaul nearing a final vote early next week, protesters are vowing further "days of disruption" and calling for strikes and general unrest. Here's a look at why they are still protesting, months into the government's efforts:
WHAT'S IN THE OVERHAUL?
Netanyahu's ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox religious allies say the package is meant to restore power to elected officials. Critics say it is a power grab fueled by various personal and political grievances by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, and his partners, who want to deepen Israel's control of the occupied West Bank and perpetuate controversial draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men. The proposals include a bill that would allow a simple majority in parliament to overturn Supreme Court decisions. Another would give parliament the final say in selecting judges. On Monday, parliament is expected to vote on a key bill that would prevent the Supreme Court from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are "unreasonable."Proponents say the current "reasonability" standard gives judges excessive powers over decision making by elected officials. But critics say that removing the standard, which is invoked only in rare cases, would allow the government to pass arbitrary decisions, make improper appointments or firings and open the door to corruption. Protesters say Netanyahu and his allies want to change the law so they can appoint cronies to government posts — and particularly so that they can fire the country's independent attorney general, according to Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. Supporters see Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara as a bulwark against the overhaul. The measures "make it more difficult to conduct oversight" over arbitrary decisions of elected officials, said Yohanan Plesner, the institute's president. "This is one chapter of a broader plan and program of the government to weaken the checks and balances."In a speech Thursday, Netanyahu dismissed accusations that the plan would destroy Israel's democratic foundations as absurd. "This is an attempt to mislead you over something that has no basis in reality," he said.
WHY ARE THERE STILL PROTESTS?
Netanyahu's government took office in December and almost immediately unveiled its plans to weaken Israel's Supreme Court. Protests sprang up in major cities, business leaders balked at the plan and, perhaps most critically, military reservists in Israel's air force and other key units threatened to stop reporting for duty if it passed. The protests prompted Netanyahu to pause the overhaul in March and enter talks with opposition lawmakers. After talks broke down last month, Netanyahu announced in June the overhaul would move forward.
Protesters accuse Netanyahu of changing tactics, but not his broader goals, by moving forward in a slower and more measured way in a bid to lull the protesters and dull their opposition. "The government got smarter," said Josh Drill, a spokesman for the protest movement. "They saw the fallout of trying to ram the overhaul through, and they decided instead to do it piece by piece."Protests have intensified as the coalition's efforts to make the overhaul into law have moved forward. On Tuesday, protesters crippled the city's main highway and blocked train stations, and thousands of people marched nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem over the weekend ahead of Monday's vote.
WHY ARE PROTESTERS SO DETERMINED TO PROTECT THE JUDICIARY?
With a relatively weak system of checks and balances, the judiciary plays a large role in checking executive power in Israel. In the U.S. for example, Congress has two houses that operate independently of the president and can limit his power. But in Israel, the prime minister and his majority coalition in parliament work in tandem. That leaves the judiciary as "the only check on governmental power," according to constitutional law professor Amichai Cohen. Israel also has minimal local governance and lacks a formal constitution. This means that most of the power is centralized in parliament, Cohen said. The "basic laws" — foundational laws that experts describe as a sort of informal constitution — can be changed at any time by a bare majority. With the overhaul, Cohen said, the Israeli parliament now threatens to further consolidate its power by weakening the judiciary.
"The government can do whatever it wants, because it controls the ability to change even the basic laws," Cohen said. Historically, the Israeli judiciary has played a role in protecting the rights of minorities, from Palestinian citizens of Israel to noncitizens and African asylum seekers, Cohen said. By weakening the judiciary, critics say, Israel's government — led by a male-dominated coalition whose members have advocated full annexation of the occupied West Bank, discriminating against LGBTQ+ people and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and limiting the rights of women — will be granted near-total control. "It will be a hollow democracy," said Fuchs.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Over the weekend, Israeli media reported that the country's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, alarmed by the growing refusals to serve in the military, was pushing for a delay in Monday's vote. It was unclear if others would join him. If the "reasonability" bill is passed, it will mark the first major part of the legislation to become law. Fuchs predicted the law would be appealed to the Supreme Court. If the court strikes it down, Netanyahu's coalition will have to decide whether to accept the ruling. That could set the stage for a "constitutional crisis." In the meantime, the protests that have rocked the country for seven months will likely grow in intensity.

Netanyahu released from hospital ahead of key vote on legal overhaul
Naharnet/July 24, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital Monday after an emergency heart procedure, facing an unprecedented national crisis.

Germany tells Israel 'independent judiciary' key for democracies
Agence France Presse/July 24, 2023
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed the importance of independent judges to her Israeli counterpart, Berlin said Monday, as Israeli MPs were set to vote on a judicial reform clause that has sparked mass protests. "Strong institutions, an independent judiciary and clear rules for the separation of powers are important for every democracy... and that includes Israel, as well," a ministry spokeswoman told reporters, adding that Baerbock had stressed the point to Israel's foreign minister over the weekend.

Herzog races to reach compromise as tensions over judiciary overhaul simmer in Israel
AFP/July 24, 2023
Protesters chained themselves outside Israel’s parliament on Monday, as the country’s president led a last minute bid for a compromise on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul ahead of a crucial vote in the Knesset. Police used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators opposed to the judicial campaign by Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition that has plunged Israel into one of its worst crises in decades. “We are in the midst of a national emergency,” President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. “We are working around the clock, in every possible way, to find a solution. There is a possible basis for understanding but there are still gaps that require the sides to show responsibility.”With banks and businesses joining in the protest, pressure mounted on Netanyahu, who was released from hospital on Monday morning after a two-night stay during which he was fitted with a pacemaker. The crisis has spread to the military, with protest leaders saying thousands of volunteer reservists would not report for duty if the government continues with the plans and former top brass warning that Israel’s war-readiness could be at risk. At least six people were arrested in the protests outside parliament which was due around midday (0900 GMT) to start an hours-long final vote on a bill limiting the Supreme Court’s powers to overrule decisions made by governments and ministers. It would be the first change written into law from a package critics fear aims to curb judicial independence, but which Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges which he denies, insists are needed for balance among branches of government. Herzog on Sunday met Netanyahu in the hospital where he was treated in hope of closing the rifts between the religious-nationalist ruling coalition and opposition parties, which were convening at the Knesset to discuss their next steps. Compromise talks continued on Monday even as lawmakers were debating the bill, which would amend a law enabling the Supreme Court to void decisions it deems “unreasonable.”Netanyahu is being urged by Washington on the one side to reach a consensus over any judicial reforms, while his hard-line coalition partners are pushing for legislation to go ahead with more judicial changes to follow. Netanyahu’s coalition has been determined to push back against what it describes as overreach by a Supreme Court that it says has become too politically interventionist. Critics say Monday’s amendment has been rushed through parliament and will open the door to abuses of power by removing one of the few effective checks on the executive’s authority in a country without a formal written constitution. The government announced its plans to change the judiciary in January soon after it was sworn in, setting off unprecedented street protests, stirring concern among allies abroad for Israel’s democratic health and denting the economy. The shekel has weakened around eight percent since. Israel’s two biggest banks, Leumi and Hapoalim , said they would allow workers to demonstrate on Monday without losing pay. A forum of some 150 of Israel’s largest companies went on strike and Azrieli and Big, two of Israel’s largest malls, said stores in their shopping centres would remain closed.

Macron calls for 'return to authority' after French riots
Agence France Presse/July 24, 2023
President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France needed a return to authority "at every level" in response to recent riots sparked by the police shooting of a teenager. The killing of Nahel M., 17, during a traffic stop last month prompted protests, riots and looting, with many accusing the government of allowing a culture of institutional racism in the police force to fester. Condemning "the burning of schools, city halls, gyms and libraries" and "the violence of looting", Macron said: "The lesson I draw from his is order, order, order."Speaking on French television during a trip to New Caledonia, Macron added that "order must prevail. There is no freedom without order," he said. "Our country needs a return to authority at every level, starting with the family," he said. "We must invest massively in our youth to provide them with a framework," Macron said. The president also reiterated his previous criticism of the role of social networks during the riots and looting, saying "public digital order" was needed "to stop excesses". He said many young people used social media to organize meetups and riots, and even "to enter into competition with each other" during the riots. Of the around 1,300 people being prosecuted for their alleged role in the riots, nearly half are under 18. The most intense urban violence since 2005 sparked a debate about law and order, immigration, racism and police brutality. Following a reshuffle of his cabinet, Macron warned last week that the riots had highlighted "a risk of fragmentation, of deep division, of the nation."
There is a "need for authority and respect", he told Friday's cabinet meeting, and asked the new government "to draw the lessons from what happened, and provide sound answers." New Caledonia is the first stop of Macron's Pacific trip which also includes Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and during which he is expected to lay out a "French alternative" for a region marked by China-US tensions, his office said last week.

Sudan war 100 days on: Over 3,000 deaths, millions displaced, no ceasefire
Beatrice Farhat/Al Monitor/July 24/2023
The war in the East African nation has killed thousands and uprooted millions from their homes since it broke out in April..
The war in Sudan continues to rage as it enters its 100th day with no prospects of any near solution to the conflict that has devastated the country.
The conflict in Sudan erupted in the capital Khartoum on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) vying for power after years of instability that followed the fall of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. The fighting has since spread to other areas of the country. More than 3,000 people have been killed since, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. UNICEF said at least 435 children had been killed and 2,025 injured. Another 14 million children are in need of humanitarian support, according to the agency, and over half of Sudan's 48 million people need humanitarian aid to survive. More than 2.6 million have been internally displaced while at least 730,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, according to July data from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. In addition to the almost daily strikes, civilians have been subjected to human rights violations, including sexual assault and summary executions, as well as other forms of violence. In mid-July, a mass grave where at least 87 bodies of ethnic Masalit were buried was discovered in Sudan’s West Darfur state. The UN human rights office, OHCHR, said it had credible information that those buried were executed by the RSF and its allied forces in the region. The RSF was also accused of looting homes and burning down villages in the region. Tensions between Arab and non-Arab communities in Darfur are deep-rooted. The RSF, which is estimated to include nearly 70,000 fighters according to the International Crisis Group, emerged in 2013 from the notorious Janjaweed militia that Bashir deployed to crush a non-Arab rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s. The militia was accused of atrocities including war crimes. On Saturday, at least 16 civilians were killed in rocket fire at a residential neighborhood in the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state. Separately, nine people, including four military personnel were killed on Sunday when a civilian plane crashed in Port Sudan airport. The army said the crash was caused by a technical failure. As fears grew that the Sudanese conflict could destabilize the already volatile region, regional and international actors have activated their diplomatic efforts to end the war. In May, Saudi Arabia and Washington brokered talks between the rival Sudanese parties in Jeddah in a bid to resolve the conflict. But the talks soon broke down in June as the army accused the RSF of lack of commitment. Reuters reported in mid-July that the Jeddah talks might resume soon after representatives from the two sides arrived in the Saudi city. However, Washington and Riyadh have yet to confirm the report. Egypt has also launched its own peace efforts. On July 13, the leaders of six countries neighboring Sudan — Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Libya — convened in Cairo to discuss a long-term cease-fire agreement, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors and a dialogue framework that includes all of Sudan's political forces. Meanwhile, numerous cease-fires have collapsed, and the repeated failures to halt the fighting are leaving civilians fending for themselves as the violent battles continue unabated.

Sceptics doubt success of inter-Palestinian meeting in Cairo
AFP/July 24/2023
Palestinian analysts and observers are casting doubt on the success of a meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to be held on July 30, in view of the widening gap between the rivals and the absence of common ground to settle differences. Analysts and observers say the Palestinian factions do not want to cancel or postpone the meeting, for fear of being blamed by the Palestinian public, which accuses the various political players of not being interested in reaching an agreement, at a time when the need for a united front is increasing. In an indication of ongoing tensions between rivals, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Sunday set a condition for attending the meeting in Cairo, saying unless its members imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank are released, the movement will not attend the extraordinary meeting. “We will not go to the meeting as long as our mujahideen brothers are detained in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority,” Nakhala said. The Palestinian Authority, however, has made no statement on the latest development. On July 10, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the extraordinary meeting of Palestinian groups’ general-secretaries in Egypt, in response to the latest Israeli operation in Jenin. The meeting is scheduled to include 14 Palestinian factions, most notably Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian People’s Party, according to a report in the Palestinian al-Quds news. The meeting in Cairo is expected to address the dangers and challenges facing the Palestinian cause following the 48-hour attack by Israel on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. However, the day after President Abbas’ announcement, PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah voiced his objection to the Palestinian Authority’s arrests of movement members in the West Bank, saying these arrests hindered the success of the general secretaries meeting to be held in Cairo. For its part, Hamas has responded positively to Abbas’s invitation after the release of one of its leaders in the northern West Bank. Mustafa Abu Arra was detained July 20 in his home village of Tubas, between Jenin and Nablus, on charges of slandering PA officials. He was released July 23 following calls from Hamas activists and a deterioration in his health, according to Palestinian news website Palinfo. Hamas had claimed Abu Arra’s arrest was “political.”
During a public meeting held in Gaza on July 23, Khalil al-Hayya, a prominent member of the Hamas political bureau, said that the group intends to take part in the Cairo talks and will do “everything it can for the success of the meeting.” The talks will explore the possibility of forming a new Palestinian National Council through elections, or to find an agreement for the formation of a transitional national council and a joint government with Fatah. The stated goal of the upcoming round of talks between Palestinian rival factions, like numerous previous failed attempts, is to find reconciliation and end the internal rifts that have plagued the Palestinian leadership since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Observers are, however, casting doubts as to the usefulness of the talks. They are concerned that the meeting will only deepen the disagreements and divisions among different Palestinian groups and exacerbate popular discontent, entrenching a loss of confidence. Writer and political analyst Rasem Obeidat from the West Bank said that the meeting of the general-secretaries of factions, which is supposed to constitute an important entry point for addressing the Palestinian national affairs and how to manage the conflict with Israel, must enjoy the elements of success and offer guarantees for the implementation of the agreed outputs.
Obeidat added that the general-secretaries must depart from the norm by not using the same old phrases and terminology, because doing so will inevitably lead to the failure of talks, deepen the crisis and entrench divisions. He added that the participants in the meeting are required to stop working on the transitional phase of the Oslo agreement signed between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel in 1993, which means abandoning the recognition of Israel, completely halting all forms of security coordination with the Jewish state and attempting to end any economic dependence on Israel.
Obeidat believes that “the failure of the meeting of general-secretaries of factions means that the Palestinian political arena will enter into more crises, disagreements and divisions, deepening popular discontent and losing confidence in the factions, which makes any upcoming dialogue useless.”Gaza-based writer Mustafa Ibrahim said, “There is no information about the agenda and issues that will be discussed in the meeting, and the goals of the talks are vague. “Therefore, the faction leaders are required to back down from policies that increase the state of tension, stop political arrests and attempt to ease tensions.”He added that some of the ruling elite are serving their own interests, at a time when the Israeli occupation’s policies are destroying the lives of ordinary Palestinians and impoverishing them. He added that some Palestinians are living in difficult economic conditions amid mounting unemployment rates and extreme poverty. He said that if the factions come back from the Cairo talks weaker and more divided, it will cost them a lot politically, economically and socially. This, according to Ibrahim, will lead to increased incitement, hatred, submission to the occupation policies, and contentment with the economic conditions, imposed by the Jewish state, in a way that keeps people suffering between life and death. He pointed out that the return from Cairo without results will create more disappointment among the Palestinians, those who love and support Palestine. “Failure will also give states that normalised ties with Israel another opportunity to strengthen their relationship with the Jewish state, because we were unable to present a model for managing our affairs and for highlighting our quest of freedom and self-determination,” he added.

At least 125 tombs discovered at Roman-era cemetery in Gaza — officials
Reuters/July 24, 2023
The impoverished Palestinian territory was an important trading post for civilizations as far back as the ancient Egyptians and the Philistines depicted in the Bible, through the Roman empire
At least 25 engineers and technicians were engaged on Sunday, despite the soaring heat, in digging
GAZA: Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found at least 125 tombs, most with skeletons still largely intact, and two rare lead sarcophaguses, the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities said. The impoverished Palestinian territory was an important trading post for civilizations as far back as the ancient Egyptians and the Philistines depicted in the Bible, through the Roman empire and the crusades. In the past, local archaeologists reburied findings for lack of funding but French organizations have helped excavate this site, discovered in February last year by a construction crew working on an Egyptian-funded housing project. “It is the first time in Palestine we have discovered a cemetery that has 125 tombs, and it is the first time in Gaza we have discovered two sarcophaguses made of lead,” Fadel Al-A’utul, an expert at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, told Reuters at the site. One of the two sarcophaguses was decorated with images of grapes and the other with dolphins said A’utul, whose organization is supervising the work with help from French aid agency Premiere Urgance International.
“We need funds to preserve this archaeological site so that history does not get washed away,” he added. A’utul said he hoped the site would become a tourist destination, with a museum to display the findings. At least 25 engineers and technicians were engaged on Sunday, despite the soaring heat, in digging, clearing the dirt, and preserving the skeletons. They have also been piecing together clay jars found inside some of the graves. “This is unprecedented,” said Jamal Abu Reida, General-Director of Gaza’s Antiquities Ministry. “It deepens Palestinian roots on this land and shows they date back thousands of years,” he said. Gaza has been under an Israel-Egyptian economic blockade since 2007 when the Islamist militant group Hamas, which opposes peace with Israel, took control. The narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents have since endured several wars.
US-brokered peace talks, aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014 and show no sign of revival.

Rome conference seeks new approach to curb illegal migration as security policies fail
AFP/July 24/2023
Participants from more than 20 countries agreed to make funding available to support development projects in what Meloni said would be a “Rome Process” that would last for several years.
Italy hosted some 20 national and international leaders in Rome on Sunday, at a conference trying to find a different approach to tackle the deep roots of illegal migration, after security steps alone have failed to stem the flow of illegal migrants to European shores. Attending Sunday’s meeting were the presidents of Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Mauritania, along with EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, plus Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency. Prime ministers from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta and Niger were also present, while Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait sent ministers. Notably absent were representatives from France and Spain. France, a major Mediterranean power with traditionally close ties to North Africa, has clashed in the past with Italy over immigration. Meloni said the main focus of the conference was to support development in Africa, with “non-predatory, long-term partnerships … based on mutual respect,” in a thinly veiled poke at France’s colonial role in the continent. During their one-day conference the leaders committed to crack down on people-smuggling, but also looked at improving the prospects for poorer nations and combating climate change with better cooperation in areas such as renewable energy. They agreed to make funding available to support development projects in what Meloni said would be a “Rome Process” that would last for several years. She welcomed a pledge by the United Arab Emirates to provide $100 million and said the next step would be to organise a donors’ conference. Tunisian President Kais Saied, who had been calling for an international conference on migration, said that “tackling illegal migration cannot be done unilaterally or through bilateral agreements” and that “the international community must search for solutions after identifying the roots and causes of the problem.” He stressed that Tunisia will not accept becoming a transit point nor settlement venue for illegal immigrants. He also pressed for “the establishment of a new global financial institution that will be financed from cancelled loans and from looted funds after they are recovered.” The head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Muhammad al-Menfi said “The security approach alone is not enough to solve the dilemma of illegal migration”. Abdulhamid Dbeibah, interim prime minister in Libya’s Government of National Unity insisted on his country’s right to international support in tackling migration, adding “Libya’s vision does not include settling illegal migrants in areas of transit”.
Political analyst Nabil Rabhi told The Arab Weekly, “There may be indications of a budding a development-oriented approach, after the security approach failed to contain the crisis.”Rabhi added, “The development approach today is very important” especially for North African countries such as Tunisia and Libya, which “boast natural reserves that could enable them to be partners with Europe in several fields and boost their level of development.”During the 2022 election campaign that brought her to power, Meloni vowed to “stop the disembarkation” of migrants in Italy, which the government puts at nearly 80,000 coastal arrivals since January, compared to 33,000 in the same period last year. But while the government has put obstacles in the path of humanitarian ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, it has failed to stop the departures themselves, which mostly originate in Tunisia and Libya. She has since looked for a new approach beyond security measures and softened her past hard-line rhetoric. She said that her government was open to taking in more people through legal routes as “Europe and Italy needed immigration” even if “halting the people-trafficking networks” remains a major goal. While struggling to cope with the influx of migrants, Italy has an ageing and declining population and needs additional workers to support its economy. Earlier this month, Italy pledged to issue 452,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2023 to 2025, increasing the number of permits available each year to a high of 165,000 in 2025. In 2019, before COVID struck, Italy issued just 30,850 visas.
Tunisia “template”
Italy and the European Commission have sought to step up engagement with Tunisia. Meloni has also sought to act as an intermediary between Tunisia, cash-strapped and on the cusp of a major debt crisis, and the International Monetary Fund, where a nearly $2 billion bailout package for the North African country has stalled amid an IMF demand for structural reforms. Last week, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Tunisia that provides for 105 million euros ($117 million) in direct European aid to prevent the departure of migrant boats and combat smugglers. The deal also provides for more illegal Tunisians to be repatriated and for sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia to be sent back to their countries of origin. A much larger EU package to Tunisia, a long-term loan of around 900 million euros proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in June, is conditional on approval of the IMF loan. “We want our agreement with Tunisia to be a template. A blueprint for the future. For partnerships with other countries in the region,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told the conference. A senior European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the EU is hoping for similar partnerships with Egypt and Morocco. Federica Infantino, researcher at the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute, was sceptical about short-term fixes.“You can’t think of migration as the water that comes out of the tap, to be turned on and off as certain politicians see fit”, Infantino said. But for Meloni’s political needs, there are “strong symbolic stakes”, she added. Independent researcher Yves Pascouau said dialogue between Europe and the countries of migrants’ departure is positive, as are attempts to boost trade and investments in green energy. According to the UN, in the first six months of 2023, more than 100,000 migrants arrived in Europe by sea, most to Italy, from the coasts of North Africa, Turkey and Lebanon. There were just over 189,000 such arrivals last year.

Food security, Wagner key questions at second Russia-Africa Summit this week
Associated Press/July 24, 2023
Russia wants allies, so it is hosting an Africa summit.
As Russia seeks more allies during its invasion of Ukraine, longtime U.S. security partner Kenya might not be an obvious choice. But hours after Russia terminated a deal to keep grain flowing from Ukraine, Moscow's ambassador saw an opening to appeal to one of the African countries that would feel the effects the most. In an opinion piece for two of Kenya's largest newspapers, Ambassador Dmitry Maksimychev blamed the United States and European Union for the deal's collapse, asserting they had "used every trick" to keep Russian grain and fertilizer from the global markets.
"Now, my dear Kenyan friends, you know the whole truth about who is weaponizing food," he wrote. It's the kind of brash outreach expected this week at the second Russia-Africa Summit. Grain supplies are in question. The future of the Wagner military group is, too. It's a notable time for Russia to host nearly 50 African countries that rely heavily on Moscow for agricultural products and security. It's not clear how many heads of state will attend. President Vladimir Putin's government is under new pressure to show its commitment to a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage. Africa's 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia's invasion. If they leave the two-day summit on Friday feeling unheeded, they might distance themselves from Russia, said analyst Cameron Hudson with the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I think you could see Africans beginning to vote with their feet," he said. "This is a decisive moment for both Africa and Putin in their relationship."
Putin has repeatedly said that Russia would offer free grain to low-income African countries now that the grain deal has been terminated. "The countries in need will definitely receive the necessary assurances regarding their need for agricultural products" during the summit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said last week. The Russian military company Wagner, after its brief rebellion against Moscow, will be an urgent issue for countries like Sudan, Mali and others who contract with the mercenary group in exchange for natural resources like gold. Russia's foreign minister has said Wagner's work in Africa will continue.
As for a peace proposal for Ukraine that African leaders have tried to pursue, that "could be discussed" at the summit, Russian ambassador-at-large Oleg Ozerov told the Kommersant newspaper. Putin himself is a question. He has visited sub-Saharan Africa only once in more than two decades in power. Last week, after considerable diplomatic pressure, South Africa announced that Putin had agreed not to attend an economic summit there in August because of an arrest warrant for him by the International Criminal Court over Ukraine.
South Africa's debate over whether to arrest him was another sign of the ambivalence toward Moscow by a once-steady U.S. ally. But President Cyril Ramaphosa's office on Friday made clear that African leaders are working "for an end to the destabilizing Ukraine-Russia war," saying it would be in the continent's economic interests.The U.S.-backed Africa Center for Strategic Studies has predicted that Russia will try to pull other influential countries including Ethiopia, Congo, Nigeria and Senegal into its orbit. Africa is "the most welcoming region for Russia of any other region in the world," the center's Joseph Siegle said. Like China, Russia tries to appeal to African nations' distaste at feeling dictated to by global powers. A busy tweeter, Russia's ambassador to Kenya drew the praise of that country's foreign minister last week when he objected to a statement by the U.S. and allies expressing concern about live bullets used against Kenyan protests over the rising cost of living. "If it is not interference in internal affairs, what is it?" Maksimychev asked. "Thank you @russembkenya for this principled position," Kenya's foreign minister, Korir Sing'Oei, replied — just a day after he called Russia's decision to end the grain deal a "stab on the back." Despite its high profile in Africa, Russia invests relatively little in it. At the first Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, Putin vowed to double Russia's trade with the continent within five years. Instead, it has stalled at around $18 billion a year. Moscow offers less than 1% of what goes to Africa in foreign direct investment, with almost no humanitarian aid.
But Russia can connect with African nations in ways that the West cannot, said Tim Kalyegira, a Ugandan analyst and writer. "Russia is one of the few European countries allied with Africa in views about homosexual relations: 'We are a traditional Christian country. Every time you have an anti-gay bill, we're with you,'" he said. That could play to U.S. allies like Nigeria and Ghana as well, Kalyegira said. Uganda faced Washington's criticism this year for a new law that prescribed the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality." President Joe Biden threatened sanctions amid "democratic backsliding" by a longtime partner.
Now Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is listed as a panelist at the Russia-Africa Summit for a discussion on "What forms of new colonialism are being imposed on the global majority by the West today?" Uganda also has been one of the largest buyers of weapons from Russia, Africa's top arms supplier, along with Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, Angola and Burkina Faso. Kalyegira said Russia now could broker grain supply deals with individual African nations, weakening any continental stance on the war. The U.S. hosted its own Africa summit last year as part of a growing number of such Africa gatherings by powers including China, France, Turkey, Japan and the U.K. "It's worth asking why Americans should care about competing in Africa or investing in its stability. The answer is clear: Africa is poised to shape the 21st century as the world's fastest-growing demographic and economic power," Joseph Sany with the U.S. Institute of Peace told a U.S. House subcommittee this month. "By 2050, Africans will make up a quarter of the global population," he said. The delegations heading to Russia are being urged to use that to their advantage. "African states would no doubt rather be kingmakers than be caught in another proxy war," a consultant with the Africa-based Institute for Security Studies, Ronak Gopaldas, wrote earlier this year. "A smart approach is to straddle these powers for maximum benefit."

Moscow, Crimea hit by drones as Russian forces bombard Ukraine's south
Associated Press/July 24, 2023
Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early Monday that saw one of the drones fall near the Defense Ministry's main headquarters, while the Russian military launched new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two non-residential buildings. The Defense Ministry claimed that the military jammed both attacking drones, forcing them to crash. Russian media reported that one of the drones fell on the Komsomolsky highway near Moscow's center, close to the main Defense Ministry building. Another drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting its upper floors. Ukrainian authorities didn't immediately claim responsibility for the strike, which was the second drone attack on the Russian capital this month. In the previous attack on July 4, the Russian military said four of the five drones were downed by air defenses on the outskirts of Moscow and the fifth was jammed by electronic warfare means and forced down. The raid prompted authorities to temporarily restrict flights at Moscow's Vnukovo airport and divert flights to two other Moscow airports. Russian authorities said that another Ukrainian drone attack early Monday struck an ammunition depot in Crimea and forced a halt in traffic on a major highway and a railway crossing the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said the authorities also ordered evacuation of several villages within a 5-kilometer (3-mile) radius of the depot that was hit. Aksyonov said the military shot down or jammed 11 attacking drones. On Saturday, a similar drone attack on Crimea hit another ammunition depot, sending huge plumes of black smoke skyward and also forcing the evacuation of residents, Russian forces, meanwhile, struck port infrastructure on the Danube River in southern Ukraine with exploding drones early Monday, injuring four workers and destroying a grain hangar and storage for other cargo, the Ukrainian military said. It said that Ukrainian forces downed three of the attacking drones. The strike was the latest in a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. The Kremlin has described the strikes as retribution for last week's Ukrainian strike on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with Crimea. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum via video link over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the bridge a legitimate target for Ukraine, noting that Russia has used it to ferry military supplies and it must be "neutralized." Since Moscow canceled a landmark grain deal a week ago amid Kyiv's grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories, Russia has launched repeated attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain. On Sunday, at least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in an attack on Odesa that severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city, including the Transfiguration Cathedral. UNESCO strongly condemned the attack on the cathedral and other heritage sites and said it will send a mission in coming days to assess damage. Odesa's historic center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year, and the agency said the Russian attacks contradict Moscow's pledge to take precautions to spare World Heritage sites in Ukraine. The Russian military denied that it targeted the Transfiguration Cathedral, claiming without offering evidence that it was likely struck by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

Russia launches criminal probe into death of journalist in Ukraine
Reuters/July 24, 2023
The munitions are banned by many countries because they rain shrapnel over a wide area and pose a risk to civilians
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Sunday it had launched a criminal probe into the killing of a Russian war reporter, an incident the country’s defense ministry previously blamed on Ukraine’s use of cluster munitions. The committee said on its website that “armed Ukrainian formations targeted and deliberately fired at a group of Russian journalists” working near Pyatikhatka, in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. It did not specify the type of weapons or munitions used, but said Rostislav Zhuravlev, a journalist for RIA state news agency, was killed. It said his RIA colleague and journalist Konstantin Mikhalchevsky, and two employees of Izvestia newspaper, Roman Polshakov and Dmitry Shikov, were injured. “As part of the investigation, investigators will establish all the circumstances of the crime against media representatives, as well as those involved,” it said. It said the chair of the committee was nominating Zhuravlev, “one of those journalists who always defended and informed the truth,” for a medal. Ukraine, which received supplies of cluster munitions from the United States this month, has vowed to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers. Reuters could not independently verify details of the incident. Both sides have used cluster munitions during Russia’s 17-month invasion of Ukraine. The munitions are banned by many countries because they rain shrapnel over a wide area and pose a risk to civilians. Some bomblets typically fail to explode immediately, but can blow up years later.

Iraq offers to mediate end to Yemen war
Agence France Presse/July 24, 2023
Iraq has offered to mediate between warring parties in Yemen in an effort to end the country's years-long war, Iraq's top diplomat said at a press conference. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein put forward the proposal during a visit from his Yemeni counterpart. Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, before a Saudi-led military coalition intervened the following year on the side of the country's internationally recognized government. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the fighting or from indirect causes such as lack of food in what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. A six-month truce brokered by the United Nations expired in October last year, but fighting has largely remained on hold. "Currently, there is an unofficial truce. In practice, there is some form of ceasefire... We hope this situation leads to dialogue between all Yemeni parties," Hussein emphasized during a press conference with Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak. "Iraq is ready to help in this matter. We have good relations with all parties. We can use our influence for stability and security in Yemen, and we can act on a regional level," he stated. Baghdad has consistently tried to highlight its role as a regional mediator, and hosted several rounds of relatively low-level talks between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia from April 2021. In March, Riyadh and Tehran announced a resumption of diplomatic relations in a surprise deal brokered by Beijing. The reconciliation raised hopes for peace in Yemen. "Unfortunately, for now, we have not seen any direct impact of this agreement on the situation in Yemen," the Yemeni minister said in his speech. "But we remain hopeful," he added. "We believe the time has come to put an end to this war in Yemen." In April Riyadh's ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, travelled to Sanaa as part of a plan to "stabilize" the truce. Although no deal was struck, Jaber later said warring parties are serious about ending the conflict.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 24-25/2023
Drugs, crime and terror: Welcome to the ‘New World Disorder’
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/July 24, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/120441/120441/
In the context of the Ukraine war, the manner in which the world functions, and rivalries between superpowers, have been profoundly transformed in ways that are scarcely yet understood.
The Western world has awoken to the fact that it no longer unilaterally calls the shots as it did in the 1990s, while states such as China, Russia, India, North Korea and Iran strive to subvert the old order and remold the world according to their interests.
Paradoxically, decades of Western sanctions have given rise to a new generation of transnational networks and institutions that render those sanctions largely non-operable. See how heavily sanctioned oil producers such as Iran and Russia clandestinely export in massive quantities to India and China, while payments are facilitated through opaque institutions, or even untraceable barter arrangements. The dollar no longer reigns supreme as the ultimate means of transaction.
Iran is now the principal exporter of drones and other munitions to Russia, while the US has voiced concerns about mushrooming Chinese exports of dual-use goods to Russia, Iran and other rogue states.
Central Asia has become the arena par-excellence for the transit of illicit goods. For example, a flush of newly incorporated front companies funnelling materials for the Ukraine war is apparently behind a 250 percent increase in Kyrgyzstan’s exports to Russia. China is intensively engaging with the woman-hating ultra-regressive Taliban, viewing Afghanistan as another square on its Asian chessboard and hungry for its largely untapped mineral resources.
Iran has been doing its own empire building, rendering Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon mere satellite states occupied by immense Tehran-controlled militia armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands — constituting an uninterrupted zone of control from Tehran to the Mediterranean, facilitating the transit of illicit goods. International sanctions against banks in these states are ineffectual recognition that much of the world now dances to a new financial and geopolitical tune. With Iran, North Korea and other shadowy entities routinely sharing nuclear and ballistic technology, the potential for terrorist groups acquiring weapons of mass destruction increases exponentially.
Criminal and paramilitary networks are primary benefactors. Syria is already a narco state, with Lebanese ports and borders repurposed for transiting drugs and other contraband, and the Iraqi economy hijacked for the profit of Revolutionary Guard-controlled militias. These Iraqi paramilitaries are establishing narcotics production facilities in areas they control, auguring murderous epidemics of addiction, wasted lives and oblivion. Iranian oil is routinely smuggled across the border and rebranded with an Iraqi flag for sanctions evasion purposes. Revenues from such criminal activities are parasitically sucked out for the corrupt benefit of the ayatollahs’ off-the-books budgets.
Moscow’s recent halting of Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea, and its manipulation of gas and oil exports during 2022, illustrates how catastrophic monopolisation of trans-Asian trade routes can be for food and energy security, threatening much of the developing world with starvation and impoverishment.
China’s Belt and Road initiative exemplifies this “New World Disorder,” via globe-straddling land and maritime routes with the goal of economic influence gradually transitioning into political hegemony. Beijing’s multibillion-dollar pact with Iran reflects this evolving interdependence, bankrolled by massive levels of investments and loans from Beijing, in the face of which numerous regimes have joyfully mortgaged their sovereignty and independence.
There is no longer any semblance of “international order,” only the law of the jungle and survival of the cruellest.
Meanwhile, a rancorous technological war has erupted between China and America, particularly in the fields of semiconductors, microchips and artificial intelligence. Washington fears that Beijing steals Western technology for military purposes, while China accuses the US of aggressively containing its natural expansion. There is an understandable desire to halt the flood of Western tech finding its way into drones and munitions used by Russia on Ukrainian battlefields, or for future conflicts – yet China is integral to the supply chains of the companies producing such technology. There is also no alternative to intense cooperation between the world’s two largest economies on the climate agenda, if we don’t want the planet’s atmosphere to boil in the near future.
Xi Jinping has explicitly told his armed forces to be ready for an invasion of Taiwan within six years. America has belatedly realised that after mothballing its industrial-military complex in the post-Soviet era, it doesn’t necessarily possess the military capacity to halt such an attack, or provide Taipei with what it needs to protect itself, particularly with a hot-war still underway in Ukraine. Since around 2000, China’s military budget has been expanding by about 10 percent year on year, ballooning to $230 billion in 2022 with a likely additional $60 billion off the books — allowing China to acquire new weaponry at an estimatey rate of six times that of the US.
We are thus on the threshold of a new arms-race era, as both sides massively ramp up their arsenals, aspiring for a brinkmanship of mutual deterrence — but more probably triggering new proxy conflicts, or, in a worst-case-scenario, a third world war. Rivalry between states such as India, Pakistan and China over territory and regional hegemony poses similar threats.
Consequently, the emerging nexus of sanctions-evading transit routes will gain a heightened level of significance, as China, Iran and Russia insulate themselves from a new onslaught of Western measures seeking to isolate them and starve them of technology and funds.
While a vengeful Putin has sought to sow disorder throughout Europe via Trojan-horse extreme-right entities, the Western world is wracked by dysfunction and polarization. In the US, Donald Trump wades through a torrent of legal woes seeking to recapture the presidency, dominating the news cycle every bit as much as in 2016. Europe’s populist far-right thrives on turmoil, with Spain’s elections and rioting in France opening new opportunities for power and influence. World leaders are consequently distracted or asleep at the wheel, in the face of oncoming catastrophe.
There is no longer any semblance of “international order,” only the law of the jungle and survival of the cruellest. Pondering the future facing my own grandchildren, I view the all-prevailing tensions, threats and chaos gripping the world with abject horror. We are on the threshold of a terrifying “New World Disorder,” largely cultivated by the same players and forces who spent decades neutralizing international law and sabotaging global institutions.
If we don’t want terrorism, warmongering and anarchy to prevail, this is the optimum time for conscientious world leaders to urgently reconsider a new set of rigorously enforced rules for how the global game is played — before soaring geopolitical tensions escalate beyond everybody’s control.
• 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.

Political gain should not dictate the fate of investments in agriculture
Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed/Arab News/July 24, 2023
Investments in agriculture have long been a subject of controversy, as political interests often overshadow the needs of local communities. The case of Saudi Arabia’s investment in Arizona serves as a stark example, where accusations of water theft against a Saudi-owned farm, Fondomonte, have sparked outrage and highlighted the inherent political nature of agriculture.
This article explores the public perception of sustainable agricultural development in Saudi Arabia and emphasizes the importance of informed decision-making. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for collaboration and responsible policies to ensure agricultural investments contribute to the well-being of both rural and urban communities without sacrificing political integrity.
When analyzing a sample of public opinion on the statement, “If you analyze a sample of wheat, you will find that it consists of 12 percent protein and 88 percent politics,” varying perspectives are revealed. A significant percentage of respondents (47.06 percent) maintained a neutral opinion on the matter, while others strongly agreed (23.76 percent) or agreed (21.72 percent) with the statement. In contrast, a smaller percentage strongly disagreed (2.94 percent) or disagreed (4.52 percent). These findings underscore the divergent opinions and perspectives surrounding this crucial issue within Saudi society.
One particular investment, the acquisition of farmland in Arizona by Saudi dairy company Almarai through its subsidiary Fondomonte, has drawn considerable attention. Almarai purchased 9,834 acres of farmland in Vicksburg, Arizona, in 2014. This investment aimed to secure a high-quality alfalfa hay supply for Almarai’s dairy business and align with the Saudi government’s strategy to conserve local resources. The acquisition cost $47.5 million and involved a mix of freehold, agriculture leasehold and grazing leasehold land. Additionally, Almarai committed to investing in infrastructure to efficiently supply alfalfa hay from the US to Saudi Arabia.
However, water scarcity is a sensitive issue in the Southwestern US and media and political figures have exploited this to accuse Fondomonte of water theft. This case illustrates how agriculture can be manipulated for political gain, furthering hidden agendas. However, it is essential to prioritize public policy and informed decision-making to address the complex challenges faced by the agricultural industry and the communities it affects.
Hasty decisions based on misinformation may lead to the abandonment of Fondomonte and other farms operating under similar leases, thereby jeopardizing thousands of jobs and causing significant damage to Arizona’s agriculture industry.
Visiting Fondomonte reveals significant improvements and contributions made to the area. With advanced irrigation technology and experienced management, Fondomonte has transformed Butler Valley into one of the most efficient and highly productive farms in the Southwest. An economic and fiscal impact report confirms these contributions, supporting thousands of jobs and generating millions of dollars in wages and economic activity. By commissioning such reports, Fondomonte aims to highlight its positive impact and underscore the necessity of considering the long-term implications for both rural and urban areas.
Collaboration and responsible decision-making are imperative in ensuring agriculture investments contribute positively to both rural and urban communities.
Balancing agricultural development in rural areas with meeting the needs of urban centers presents a dilemma, particularly when significant financial interests are at play. While leasing land to Fondomonte currently earns the state about $50,000 annually, selling water to a water-thirsty city like Phoenix could generate at least $1.2 million each year. Nevertheless, water transfers are complex and controversial, creating animosity in rural parts of the state. The challenge lies in prioritizing marginalized rural communities while addressing the demands of urban residents.
The decision-making process must be guided by a commitment to sustainable agricultural practices and equitable development. Political gain should not dictate the fate of agriculture investments. Instead, a comprehensive approach is necessary, considering the needs of all stakeholders involved. Thoughtful and well-informed decisions are required to ensure agriculture investments contribute positively to both rural and urban communities, maintaining political integrity throughout the process.
Amid global concerns, including climate change, poverty and public health crises, collaboration and responsible decision-making are paramount. Rather than perpetuating divisions and conflicts, unity and cooperation must be promoted. The challenges we face transcend borders, cultures and ideologies. Sustainable development, equitable wealth distribution and respect for human rights should supplant resource exploitation and destructive practices. Collaboration between nations, relying on diplomacy instead of aggression, can lead to fruitful outcomes. Transparent governance, inclusive decision-making and responsible policies are imperative to address pressing issues and foster a more harmonious world.
While certain events may dominate media attention, it is essential to remember the significance of collective action for the betterment of humanity. By prioritizing collaboration, responsible policies and a shared vision for the future, we can pave the way toward a more prosperous and sustainable world. Unity, empathy and cooperation should be embraced to shape a future that benefits all of humankind. Let us work together to ensure that agriculture investments align with sustainable practices.
*Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Biosystems Engineering. He is the author of “Agricultural Development Strategies: The Saudi Experience.”

Putin’s Black Sea grain gambit is a win for Turkey
Nikola Mikovic/The Arab Weekly/July 24/2023
Russia’s recent decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-backed agreement that has allowed Ukraine to export food during the ongoing conflict, will have repercussions that go beyond threatening global food security.
It could also rewrite the region’s political map.
In the eyes of many Russian propagandists, the grain deal reversal is payback for humiliation levied by Turkey on July 7, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repatriated five captured Ukrainian commanders.
The fighters had spent several months in a secure facility in Turkey after surrendering to Russian troops in the port city of Mariupol last year. The soldiers were part of the Azov regiment, which Russia considers a terrorist organisation.
From the Russian perspective, Erdogan’s decision to send the men home was a slap in the face. If Russia had extended its participation in the grain deal, which uses Turkey as a transit hub, Putin would have looked even weaker, the thinking goes.
But Russia’s withdrawal from the deal does not mean that the Kremlin is ready to reimpose another full blockade of the Black Sea, as it did at the beginning of the war, or that it plans to jeopardise its relations with Ankara. However, there is no doubt that one of the major goals of Russia’s recent missile strikes on Ukrainian ports is to prevent, at least temporarily, the country from exporting its grains.
Despite having different views on the UN-supported initiative, Putin and Erdogan remain “friends,” according to the Turkish leader. Putin is expected to visit Turkey in August, and the grain initiative will be high on the agenda. Although Russia has shown its hand, Erdogan insists that Putin is interested in a continuation of the agreement. What any new deal might look like remains unclear. Russian officials claim that Turkey will have to purchase Russian grains “at normal world prices.” Ankara, on the other hand, hopes to continue buying both Russian and Ukrainian grains at discounted prices.
And yet, because Erdogan seems to have the upper hand, it is conceivable that Putin will have to accept Turkish conditions. Failure to do so could be costly for Moscow. For one, Ankara could effectively close the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to the Russian navy and civilian ships headed to Syria, complicating Russia’s engagement in the Middle East country. Russian energy companies involved in multibillion dollar projects in Turkey could also be squeezed. Rosatom, which is building a nuclear power plant in Turkey’s southern Mersin province, and Gazprom, which seeks to turn Turkey into a gas hub, would almost certainly pressure the Kremlin not to anger their Turkish counterparts. Barring that, Turkish authorities could follow the West and impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs who have found safe haven in their country. Turkey and Ukraine might even start implementing a grain deal without Russia’s participation, which would represent another humiliation for Moscow. Under this scenario, Ukraine could simply continue exporting its grains to Turkey, ignoring Russia’s threats. Along these lines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently called on Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to support grain shipments without Russian involvement.
Kyiv and Ankara understand that the Kremlin would unlikely dare sink Ukrainian or Turkish civilian ships, as such an action could lead to direct Turkish involvement in the Ukraine war. Thus, Ukraine and Turkey could simply continue doing grain business as usual. However, if Moscow decides to escalate, and really starts attacking ships going to or from Ukrainian ports, Kyiv will almost certainly respond. As a last resort, Turkey could even start supplying Ukraine with weapons via the Black Sea route, which would represent another blow to Putin and his war effort. To avoid any of these outcomes, the Kremlin may have no choice but to take Ankara’s steer. Its propaganda machine could always spin Moscow’s policy as another “goodwill gesture,” with the goal of helping poor countries in Africa. Erdogan might even insist that Moscow continue sending free grain to nations such as Mali, Djibouti, Sudan, and Somalia, places where Turkey has been trying to increase its influence. The fact that Turkey’s combat drone producer Baykar has begun building a plant in Ukraine clearly indicates that Erdogan feels self-confident and does not see Russia as a threat to its interests. Erdogan knows that if Turkey is at the table, Putin’s room for political (and even military) manoeuvring is limited.
For now, Turkey is in the driver’s seat. Erdogan will not hesitate to push Putin to reach a new grain deal that saves Ankara money, and keeps the world fed. Moscow’s move might appear strategic, but in reality, it is a desperate ploy by a leader quickly running out of options.
*Nikola Mikovic is a political analyst in Serbia. His work focuses mostly on the foreign policies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with special attention on energy and “pipeline politics.”

China to Wage War on America from the Arctic
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/July 24, 2023
This month, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that "China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean."
The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.
Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had "never planted a listening device there."
That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada's Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.
"China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes." — Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to Gatestone, July 2023.
All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.
The U.S.'s generous "engagement" approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.
China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.
[F]or China the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.
China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
[F]or China the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air.
This month, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that "China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean."
The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.
China had installed the "polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system" on floating ice in the Arctic on August 9, 2021. Information obtained by the device was uplinked to Chinese satellites.
The research institute, a Chinese central government agency that "plans and coordinates China's polar activities," stated that the devices could be used for "subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection, and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters." This buoy "can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network."
Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had "never planted a listening device there."
That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada's Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.
Not much is known about the removed Chinese devices. Pierre LeBlanc, a former commander of the Canadian armed forces in the Arctic, told Voice of America that Canada has not revealed the location of the removed buoys or their type, but it is nonetheless apparent the Chinese military placed them in or near Canada's Northwest Passage without permission.
"China's intent to dominate the Arctic region of North America is of increasing priority for the Xi Jinping regime," Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute told Gatestone. "Moving forward from the illogical assertion that China is a 'near-Arctic nation' and Xi's touting of the 'Polar Silk Road,' China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes."
Retired Lieutenant-General Michael Day told the Globe and Mail that China's buoys would likely have been mapping environmental conditions such as seabeds and ice thickness. Buoys can also monitor ice movement, ocean currents, water temperature, and salinity.
All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.
The frozen Arctic is a hot topic these days, and China is trying to control it. The Polar Research Institute of China attempted to buy an airport in Lapland, Finland, but under U.S. pressure the government there blocked the purchase.
In addition, a Chinese state mining company attempted to buy land close to a facility maintained by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the joint Canada-U.S. military command that provides early warning. That purchase was also stopped.
"Since the advent of the Cold War, the Arctic has been the domain of two nuclear powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation," said James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy to this publication. "These two states demonstrated an understanding of the balance of power and observed an uneasy truce within the waters of the Arctic. Since 2017, the People's Republic of China, led by Xi Jinping, has made it clear it covets access to the Arctic and recognition of its major-power status there."
China has, Fanell points out, announced three Blue Economic Corridors, one of which includes the Arctic. These corridors are part of Xi's worldwide Belt and Road Initiative.
Unlike Moscow and Washington, Beijing, with its forays into the Arctic, is upending stability. As Fanell, also a former U.S. Navy captain who served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, points out, "Beijing arrogantly believes they deserve a place in the Arctic Council to 'call the shots' and expand Chinese influence and access to this vital region atop the planet."
The U.S.'s generous "engagement" approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.
There are eight states with territory inside the Arctic Circle. With the exceptions of Russia and Sweden, all are NATO members. This year, Sweden should join that alliance.
Moreover, the five Arctic littoral states—the Arctic Five of Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States—are all NATO members other than Russia. This gives America the ability to determine outcomes in the Arctic, especially if Washington were to oppose China's initiatives, as it of course should.
China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.
The Chinese know the value of the Arctic. Warming temperatures are melting Arctic ice, making drilling and mining in the region more feasible. Moreover, melting ice opens up shorter routes for container ships and other vessels.
Yet for China, the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.
China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
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The Islamic ‘Reformation’ Is Here, and You Won’t Like It
Raymond Ibrahim/July 24, 2023
With the Protestant Reformation in mind, many Western thinkers continue to insist that Islam is in need of a similar “reformation.”
Comparing apples and oranges, they overlook reality: In many respects, what is today called “radical Islam” is representative of the reformation of Islam. And it follows the same pattern of Christianity’s Protestant Reformation.
The problem is our understanding of the word “reform.” Despite its positive connotations, “reform,” according to the Oxford Dictionary, means to “make changes (in something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it.”
Synonyms of “reform” include “make better,” “ameliorate,” and “improve”—splendid words all, yet only when infused with Western connotations, which are not always applicable.
Muslim notions of “improving” society may include purging it of “infidels” and their corrupt ways; or segregating men and women, keeping the latter under wraps or quarantined at home; or executing apostates and blasphemers.
Banning many forms of freedoms taken for granted in the West—including religious freedom and gender equality—can be deemed an “improvement” and a “betterment” of society.
In short, an Islamic reformation need not lead to what we think of as an “improvement” and “betterment” of society—simply because “we” are not Muslims and do not share their reference points and first premises. “Reform” only sounds good to most Western peoples because they attribute Western ideas to the word. At its core, the Protestant Reformation was a revolt against tradition in the name of scripture—in this case, the Bible. With the coming of the printing press, increasing numbers of Christians became better acquainted with the Bible’s contents, parts of which they felt contradicted what the Church was teaching. So they broke away, protesting that the only Christian authority was “scripture alone,” sola scriptura.
Islam’s reformation follows the same logic—specifically by prioritizing scripture over centuries of tradition and legal debate—but with antithetical results that reflect the antithetical teachings of Christianity and Islam.
As with Christianity, throughout most of its history, Islam’s scriptures, specifically its “twin pillars,” the Koran (literal words of Allah) and the Hadith (words and deeds of Allah’s prophet, Muhammad), were inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of Muslims. Only a few scholars—the ulema, literally, “they who know”—were literate and/or had possession of Islam’s scriptures. The average Muslim knew only the basics of Islam, or its “Five Pillars.”
Times have radically changed: millions of more Korans published in Arabic and other languages are in circulation today compared to just a century ago; millions of more Muslims are now literate enough to read and understand the Koran compared to their medieval forbears. The Hadith, which contains some of the most intolerant teachings and violent deeds attributed to Islam’s prophet, is now collated and accessible, in part thanks to the efforts of Western scholars, the Orientalists. Most recently, there is the Internet—where all of these scriptures are now available in dozens of languages and to anyone with a laptop or smartphone. As a result, many of today’s Muslims, much better acquainted than their ancestors with the often black and white words of their scriptures, are protesting against earlier traditions in favor of scriptural literalism—just like their Christian Protestant counterparts once did.
Thus, if Martin Luther (d. 1546) rejected what he characterized as extra-scriptural accretions of the Church and “reformed” Christianity by aligning it more closely with scripture, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (d. 1787), one of Islam’s first modern reformers—and a “radical” in Western parlance—“called for a return to the pure, authentic Islam of the Prophet, and the rejection of the accretions that had corrupted it and distorted it,” to quote Bernard Lewis (The Middle East, p. 333).
The unadulterated words of God—or Allah—are all that matter for the reformists.
How Christianity and Islam can follow similar patterns of reform but with antithetical results rests in the fact that their scriptures are antithetical to one another. This is the key point, and one admittedly unintelligible to postmodern, secular sensibilities, which tend to lump all religious scripture together in a melting pot of relativism without bothering to evaluate the significance of their respective words. A point by point comparison of the scriptures of Islam and Christianity is beyond the purview of this article (see my “Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam” for a more comprehensive treatment).
Suffice it to note a few contradictions:
The New Testament preaches peace, brotherly love, tolerance, and forgiveness—for all humans, believers and non-believers alike. Conversely, the Koran and Hadith call for war, or jihad, against all non-believers, until they either convert, accept subjugation and discrimination, or die (e.g., Koran 9:5, 9;29, etc.).
The New Testament prescribes no punishment for the apostate from Christianity. Conversely, Islam’s prophet himself decreed that “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”The New Testament teaches monogamy, one husband and one wife, thereby dignifying the woman. The Koran allows polygamy—up to four wives—and the possession of concubines, or sex-slaves. More literalist readings treat women as possessions.
The New Testament discourages lying (e.g., Col. 3:9). The Koran permits The prophet himself often deceived others, and allowed his followers to lie, including to their wives. It is precisely because Christian scriptural literalism lends itself to religious freedom, tolerance, and the dignity of women, that Western civilization developed the way it did.
And it is precisely because Islamic scriptural literalism is at odds with religious freedom, tolerance, and the dignity of women, that Islamic civilization developed the way it did. Those in the West waiting for an Islamic “reformation” along the same lines of the Protestant Reformation, on the assumption that it will lead to similar results, must embrace two facts:
Islam’s reformation is well on its way, and yes, along the same lines of the Protestant Reformation—with a focus on scripture and a disregard for tradition—and for similar historic reasons (literacy, scriptural dissemination, etc.);
But because the core teachings of the scriptures of Christianity and Islam markedly differ from one another, Islam’s reformation has naturally produced a civilization markedly different from the West.
The “Islamic reformation” some in the West are hoping for is really nothing less than an Islam without Islam—secularization not reformation; Muslims prioritizing secular, civic, and humanitarian laws over Allah’s law; a “reformation”—or rather enlightenment—that would slowly see the religion of Muhammad go into the dustbin of history. Such a scenario is certainly more plausible than believing that Islam can be true to its scriptures in any meaningful way and still peacefully coexist with, much less complement, the modern world the way Christianity does.

What Happened to Robert Malley?
Lee Smith/The Magazine/July 25/2023
The downfall of the White House’s favorite Iran whisperer is a mystery wrapped inside a cover-up.
In late June, reports started circulating that White House heavy Robert Malley had been suspended from his job in the Joe Biden administration. That was surprising. Before he was pushed out, Malley had been seen as the visionary architect of the Democratic Party’s Middle East policy. He’d been Barack Obama’s conduit to Iran before Biden named him to do the same thing for his White House. For someone in his position to lose that job amid renewed talks with Iran was notable, but the most intriguing detail, hidden by the Biden team for months, was the reason why he was sidelined: He had reportedly mishandled classified documents.
So what was Malley doing that compelled the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to open an investigation on him before passing it to the FBI? Security clearances are a kind of currency in Washington and it’s unusual for a senior official to lose access to his colleagues’ secrets, especially a policymaker of Malley’s status. Had he been amassing boxes of documents in his home like former President Donald Trump? Had he taken classified documents from secure facilities and moved them to private work and residential spaces like Biden?
A large part of Malley’s work was to circulate information throughout the U.S.-based Iranian diaspora that eventually found its way to Tehran. According to Iran press reports that have foreign policy circles talking, those contacts are what got him in trouble. And the fact that the details about Malley’s suspension are coming from Iranian rather than U.S. media is a big clue that something big is missing from the White House’s highly minimized account.
At the beginning of July the Tehran Times, an Iranian regime English-language media outlet, published an article with insider details but no definite answer to the central mystery. According to the article, Malley’s clearance was suspended on April 21, two months before the news went public. Since then he’s met with CIA Director William Burns and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to try to resolve his situation but, according to the article, has not yet been granted an audience with Secretary of State (and high school classmate) Antony Blinken.
The story hints at a bureaucratic turf war. “The collection of opinions and news published about Robert Malley’s removal indicates extensive and coordinated subterfuge at the highest levels of the U.S. government.” The Tehran Times doesn’t identify any sources by name, but the details suggest that the account comes from Malley’s associates. Curiously, the reporter concludes that the same group likely responsible for leaking the details that appear in the article is the one that got Malley in trouble: “Malley’s overly close proximity to his non-official Iranian assistants and advisers created the ground for the fall of this experienced diplomat.”
A follow-up story identifies those around Malley who play the role of “broker and middleman between Iran and the Democratic administration of the U.S.”: Vali Nasr, a former Obama policymaker and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies professor; Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council and currently the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute; and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, which Malley headed before joining the Biden administration. Also, according to the Tehran Times, Malley held “secret talks” with Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Saeid Iravani.
Except these are exactly the people he was hired to engage to revive the JCPOA. Vaez, for instance, has relayed his former boss’s insights and information to the media. Malley must have shared something really bad with his Iranian associates because otherwise the Tehran Times account makes no sense.
Perhaps more to the point, the White House that hired Malley doesn’t care about keeping American secrets unless the failure to do so can be used as an instrument to hurt political opponents. Biden hoarded classified documents for decades and kept them in his garage. Unlike Trump, he never had the executive authority to declassify the documents he collected as senator and then vice president, but it was Trump who was indicted on charges related to holding classified materials. The Justice Department handled Biden’s classified documents case the same way it managed evidence of his son Hunter’s alleged crimes—by burying it under a phony investigation.
The Biden administration’s open contempt for the rule of law is just a security regime acting like a security regime. In this context, using law enforcement authorities to prosecute enemies and exculpate allies is normal. The ruling party fights to control all levers of power inside and outside the government to reward loyalists—for instance, the party’s top donor, George Soros, supports Malley’s work at ICG with more than $75 million. What’s not normal is sidelining the party’s leading Middle East strategist with the same premise used to target Trump.
Biden appointed Malley shortly after his inauguration and made him responsible for restoring the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative but then Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018. Trump implemented a maximum pressure campaign that included hard-biting sanctions and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the terror unit attached to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). To get back into the deal, the Biden team brought back many of the officials who pushed it through the first time but none as important as Malley.
Malley has served in three Democratic administrations over the last four decades, handling high-profile, sensitive diplomacy such as the Arab-Israeli peace process and the Syrian war. After leaving the Clinton administration, he joined the International Crisis Group where, as he told me for a 2010 Tablet profile, his “mandate” was “to come up with ideas about how to prevent or resolve deadly conflict.” This brought him into contact with organizations like Hamas, a relationship that forced candidate Obama to remove him from his advisory role with the 2008 presidential campaign.
But it’s precisely Malley’s willingness to deal with the hard men of the Middle East that sets him apart from other U.S. diplomats. Where others who work in the region prefer to engage moderates, cultivate them with cash incentives, or invent them out of whole cloth, Malley makes no apologies for dealing with the men who really run the show. Accordingly, Obama named him lead negotiator in 2014 to bring the JCPOA home.
The fundamental untruth about the deal is that it was designed to stop Iran from getting the bomb. The agreement’s so-called “sunset” clauses tell the real story. These are the provisions restricting Iran’s nuclear activities that are scheduled to expire after only a few years, at which point Iran’s nuclear weapons program becomes entirely legal. From the beginning, the purpose of the JCPOA was to get the world to accept a terror state’s nuclear weapons program.
With Malley at the helm, the U.S. foreign policy establishment assumed he’d revive the JCPOA in short order. But his appointment signaled something else to the Iranians.
For the 2015 agreement, the U.S. side negotiated with Javad Zarif, the slick-talking diplomat lionized by the D.C.-based Iran lobby, including the Malley associates identified in the Tehran Times stories. It’s unclear whether Zarif’s U.S.-based friends project any power inside Tehran’s political circles, but by tying their influence inside the Beltway to Zarif, Malley’s Iranian associates earned the contempt of rival factions.
One of those factions came to power when Ebrahim Raisi was made president of Iran in June 2021. Almost immediately the new leadership started messaging against Zarif, whom they accused of giving away too much to the Americans. The Raisi crew also began attacking Zarif’s U.S.-based interlocutors, in particular the International Crisis Group. The English-language vehicle of choice for those attacks was the Tehran Times.
In an opinion article days after Iran’s presidential election, the Tehran Times wrote: “The Crisis Group began spreading rumors that Iran’s elections will be rigged, presenting Raisi as a pre-announced winner, estimating that the participation would be very low. The high voter turnout and competitive election changed the direction of the Crisis Group. Now they have focused on obstructing the process of reviving the JCPOA, implying that the president-elect will throw immovable obstacles on the way of reviving the nuclear deal.”
This broadside served two purposes. First, it was meant to inculpate Zarif, whose D.C. allies, according to the Tehran Times, had brought talks to a standstill. Ali Vaez mocked the paper’s assessment on social media, prompting the Tehran Times to ask him directly if the ICG was responsible for trying to “strengthen” the JCPOA—that is, deny Iran its rightful place as a nuclear power. Because Vaez didn’t validate his interpretation of reality, the reporter assessed that he “dodged our question about the role of the Crisis Group in the negotiations.”
But the article was also a warning to Malley, without naming the U.S. negotiator, that if he expected to revive the JCPOA, he’d have to agree to all of Iran’s demands. Malley hardly needed the hint: He came to the job prepared to give the Iranians everything in his power to give.
The problem, I believe, is that the Iranians wanted what was beyond Malley’s ability to grant: a guarantee that Biden’s successors wouldn’t withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions as Trump had. Tehran also wanted the IRGC taken off the foreign terrorist blacklist and the U.S. agreed, provided Tehran called off the hit squads detailed to kill Trump administration officials it blamed for assassinating Soleimani: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, and National Security Adviser John Bolton.
According to Vaez, Tehran wouldn’t budge. “It is politically impossible for the Iranians to publicly close the file on taking revenge for Soleimani.”
The Iranians would have been pleased to see accounts of how much money the Americans spent on security details to protect the three Trump aides, with Diplomatic Security watching out for Pompeo and Hook and the Secret Service guarding Bolton. Reports of Hook’s wife crying in fear for her husband’s life amused at least one former Iranian official. If Malley couldn’t guarantee the next administration would stay in the deal, the Iranians could incentivize a future White House by threatening American diplomats who’d dared to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. On hearing that their foreign interlocutors were planning to murder Americans, other U.S. diplomats would have walked away from negotiations. But Malley didn’t flinch.
Naturally Iran’s ruling faction would be happy to advance the theory that Malley’s relationship with Zarif’s vain and careless Beltway crew led to the fall of America’s Iran whisperer. And thus the Tehran Times account of the Malley affair appears to be a feint to shape it as a nonstory: Malley was talking to his friends—what’s the big deal? It seems the real story, whatever it is, is bad enough that Malley’s Iranian associates had no choice but to use a rival Iranian faction that despises them to put Malley in the clear.
*Lee Smith is the author of The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President (2020)
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/what-really-happened-to-robert-malley-lee-smith

The Palestinian Authority attempts to restore its system of governance
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center/July 24/2023
Overview
The Israeli most recent security force activity in Jenin at the beginning of July 2023 was a major operation conducted to prevent the continuation of the anti-Israel terrorism which began in March-April 2022, when Jenin and its refugee camp became a focus for terrorist attacks carried out in Judea, Samaria and even inside Israel. Following the most recent activity, senior officials in Israel expressed concern about the PA’s instability and on July 9, 2023, Israel’s Political-Security Cabinet decided to take action to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Despite the PA’s weakness, Israel considers it as principally responsible for combatting the terrorist groups in northern Samaria. The Israeli security forces therefore lowered their level of activity in the area to allow the PA and its security forces to restore governance, and especially security control, over the area.
About two weeks after the operation, as part of the efforts to restore governance PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas paid an official, media-covered visit to the city and its refugee camp, the first in 12 years. While there he delivered a speech threatening those who would try to harm the PA’s rule and Palestinian unity. The visit took place at a time when the PA leadership was facing claims and criticism and trying to restore its image in the PA territories. Its main objective was to prove the PA was capable of controlling the city and managing its reconstruction (with the help of foreign donations). It was also intended to show Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that it was still the legitimate presence in control of the territory.
In the meantime, the PA’s security forces were deployed to the area and began detaining wanted, armed Palestinians. The forces were condemned by various parties, mainly Hamas and the PIJ , whose operatives were the ones being detained. On July 17, 2023, armed Jenin Battalion operatives held a protest demonstration, calling on the PA to immediately stop the detentions. In response, additional security forces were deployed to the city.
One of the most critical tests currently facing the PA is restoring its governance to the Jenin region. For the time being, the security forces operate in the city, but the real test will be when they try to enter the refugee camp to disarm terrorist operatives. The Jenin refugee camp is considered one of the most fortified locations in Judea and Samaria, with stockpiles of weapons and explosives and where dozens of armed operatives freely roam the streets. Part of the PA’s urgency to restore control comes from the fear that Hamas will take control of the territory, because during a long period when Hamas did not claim responsibility for attacks in Judea and Samaria, its military-terrorist wing now formally does claim responsibility for them.
The recently-formed groups of armed operatives in northern Samaria, and especially in Jenin and its refugee camp, are a significant challenge to the PA. For the most part they are not affiliated with any specific organization and include former Fatah and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AAMB) operatives previously affiliated with Fatah, and operate under a single umbrella framework which unites the organizations. That may make it difficult for the PA forces to operate, and in addition, there is concern that armed terrorist operatives, mainly from Hamas, will try to incite violence against the PA’s activities.
The attacks originating in the Jenin refugee camp are a source of inspiration and imitation, and therefore the PA cannot confine its activities to the Jenin area but will have to take similar action in other terrorist centers. According to reports, security force operatives were also deployed in Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron and Ramallah, but the extent of their activities has not been made clear.
Additional Information
Since the IDF most recent activity at the beginning of July 2023, the Israeli security forces have lowered their level of engagement in Jenin and its refugee camp and allow the Palestinian leadership, and especially its security forces, to restore governance and security control. So far, that was manifested by Mahmoud Abbas’ well-publicized visit to Jenin, the first in 12 years, and the detentions of operatives begun by the PA security forces immediately after the visit.
Mahmoud Abbas visits Jenin as part of restoring PA governance
On July 12, 2023, about two weeks after the IDF activity in Jenin, Mahmoud Abbas arrived in a [Jordanian] helicopter for a short and well-publicized visit to Jenin and its refugee camp, accompanied by several senior PA officials. He was received by PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, Akram al-Rajoub, the governor of the Jenin district, the heads of the security forces and senior members of the Fatah movement. The objective of the visit was to prove to the Palestinian public that the PA was capable of controlling the city and its reconstruction (with the help of foreign donations). It was also intended to show Hamas and the PIJ that it was still the legitimate presence controlling the territory.
According to the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar, the visit was the first phase of the plan to regain control of Jenin (al-Akhbar, July 16, 2023). Painstaking preparations were made for the visit: thousands of Palestinian security personnel were deployed throughout the city and its refugee camp in numbers not seen in Jenin for many years. Forces were sent to the area, mobile barriers were set up and drivers were stopped for inspection and questioning (Palestinian General Intelligence Telegram channel, July 11, 2023).
Checkpoints erected in Jenin (Palestinian police in Jenin District Facebook page, July 10, 2023).
While in Jenin, Mahmoud Abbas visited the refugee camp cemetery, where he laid a wreath in memory of those killed in the recent events, then continued to the refugee camp where he gave a speech to an assembly of local residents. He emphasized the issue of unity (“One authority, one country with one law and one weapon”). At the same time, he called the Jenin refugee camp “a symbol of heroism, struggle and firm stance.” Before he left he visited Jenin’s general security headquarters, where he was briefed on its operations (Wafa, July 12, 2023).
The visit was mocked, mainly by Hamas-affiliated media outlets. They claimed it had lasted less than an hour, during which Mahmoud Abbas refused to meet with local figures and activists, or even tour the camp itself, even though it was his first visit in many years (Shehab Twitter account, July 12, 2023).
Detentions
Immediately after the visit the PA security forces began detaining Hamas and PIJ operatives in the Jenin region, but not in the refugee camp. The camp is a hothouse of terrorist activity and entering will be their real test. Fatah sources reported the security forces intended to expand their activities and confront the Jenin Battalion operatives in the near future. The sources added that the PA security force leadership asked its operatives in Jenin to collect information on armed operatives and conflicts between “resistance operatives” [terrorists] and other groups, thereby finding excuses to detain them (Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, July 19, 2023).
security forces Telegram channel, July 17, 2023)
According Hamas and PIJ sources, the PA security forces have recently increased the “political detentions” of their operatives, including released prisoners, operatives wanted by Israel and activists in student councils at the various universities (Independent website in Arabic, July 13, 2023). Palestinian academics noted that the PA forces targeted the student councils and their heads. Lawyers for Justice, and organization based in Ramallah, claimed that since the beginning of 2023 there had been “300 political arrests, 80 in June alone, carried out illegally and without warrants” (aljazeera.net, July 15, 2023). The Ma’ata[1] Palestinian information center also claimed that during June, the PA security forces detained 411 students (“carried out violations’), in particular Hamas Islamic Bloc activists. It was also reported that the PA security forces increased pressure on Balata Battalion operatives in Nablus to turn themselves in, and threatened that otherwise the camp would be invaded by Israeli forces who would “eliminate” them (Palinfo, July 10, 2023).
Reactions to PA security force activities
The security force detentions provoked a wave of angry reactions. Eight Palestinian organizations, among them Hamas, PIJ, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian National Initiative, the Popular Front – General Headquarters (PFLP-GH), the Palestinian People’s Party, the Organization of the Pioneers of the War of Liberation, and the Palestinian Democratic Union issued a joint statement of their opposition to detentions in general and the detention of senior officials, activists and released prisoners in particular. They claimed it was a serious violation of the law and behavior contrary to the national consensus. They demanded that the PA leadership and its security forces immediately stop the detentions and release all the political detainees (al-Araby al-Jadeed, July 11, 2023).
The PA media reported demonstrations in the Jenin refugee camp and the village of Jaba. A Jenin Battalion commander spoke at a demonstration in the Jenin refugee camp and demanded the immediate release of all detainees. He declared that despite the PA’s activities, they would continue aiming their guns at Israel. According to reports, after the demonstrations large numbers of PA security forces were dispatched to prevent anarchy and loss of control (Daffa_media Telegram channel [the PIJ Telegram channel in Judea and Samaria] July 17, 2023).
Jenin Battalion sources claimed that in a message they issued as part of contacts and agreements in preparation for Mahmoud Abbas’ visit, they had received a promise from “sources in the security forces” and in the Jenin refugee camp that Battalion detainees Murad Malisha and Muhammad Brahma would be released immediately after the visit if it took place without disturbances (Jenin Battalion Telegram channel, July 17, 2023).
Hamas strongly condemned the PA security services’ political arrests, especially at a time when the Palestinians were engaged in confronting Israel, calling it cowardice and deserving of condemnation, and claiming it threatened societal peace and opened the door to civil strife (fitna), the last thing the Palestinians currently needed. Hamas called on the PA to stop security coordination with Israel and political detentions, and to immediately release all detainees (Hamas website, July 11, 2023). Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said that political detentions had recently increased and included many instances of torture and interrogation based on political activity. He said that the security services had to stop the arrests and release all political detainees, so that Hamas and the other organizations in Gaza could work to make Mahmoud Abbas’ initiative succeed (independentarabia website, July 13, 2023).
Ziyad al-Nakhalah, PIJ secretary general, issued a statement threatening that they would not attend the summit meeting of the [Palestinian] organizations’ secretaries general in Cairo until their operatives had been released from PA prisons (Filastin al-Yawm, July 23, 2023). Khaled al-Batash, a member of the PIJ’s political bureau, said that due to the PA’s continued detentions of “resistance fighters,” the organization was reconsidering its attendance at the meeting expected to take place in Cairo at the end of July (Filastin al-Yawm, July 22, 2023). He claimed the detentions were a deviation from the national consensus and demanded the immediate release of all the operatives detained by the security forces (Islamic Jihad website, July 10, 2023). PIJ spokesman Tareq Salami condemned the detentions, which included several released prisoners. He claimed they deviated from the national consensus and demanded the immediate release of all those detained by the PA security forces (PIJ website, July 10, 2023).
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general, said they were aware of the increase in the number of detentions carried out by the PA and were concerned people were being detained because they “had taken advantage of their freedom of expression” (al-Quds al-Arabi, July 19, 2023).
PA and Fatah reactions to the detentions
Sources in the PA and Fatah rushed to deny that the arrests had been political, claiming they were carried out for criminal offenses. Talal Dweikat, spokesman for the PA security forces, claimed the reports were untrue and no one had been arrested for political affiliation (Wafa, July 13, 2023). Lawyers for Justice said in response that his claims were out of line and expressed disregard for freedom and human rights (Lawyers for Justice Facebook page, July 14, 2023).
Akram al-Rajoub, governor of the Jenin District, gave a series of interviews where he rejected the Jenin Battalion claim regarding the detentions. He said the detentions in Jaba, for example, were not connected to a “resistance” political or security matter but rather to the arson attack on the police station in Jaba. He added that the leaders of the struggle did not seek to harm the “Palestinian National Authority,” and no one had the right to sabotage or destroy PA institutions. As to what the Jenin Battalion had written about coordination with those responsible for Mahmoud Abbas’ visit to Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, al-Rajoub claimed that he had no idea, but did not believe it because Mahmoud Abbas did not need permission or mediation or negotiations to visit [any location in the PA territories] (Sada News, July 17, 2023).
In another interview, asked if he had a problem with the presence of armed operatives in the Jenin refugee camp, al-Aroub said that as long as they did not hold displays of force in the streets and did not damage property or institutions, he had no problem. However, they were forbidden to run amok, drive stolen vehicles or display their weapons in the street (Facebook page of Muhammad al-Atrash, who interviewed him, July 18, 2023).
Full document in PDF format/https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2023/07/E_139_23.pdf
[1] The Palestinian information Center Ma'ata was founded in 2022 and according to the Center and its website, it specializes in monitoring and documenting all aspects of the Palestinian issue, especially in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. The center issues periodic reports about the Palestinian situation and focuses on Israel's activities. It has a general database of the history of the Palestinian issue for use by experts, researchers and media outlets, and also follows the activities of the "resistance" and the "Israeli occupation" (Ma'ata Center website, July 17, 2023). ↑

Inside Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church battle with Iran-backed Christian group'
Adam Lucente/Al Monitor/July 24/2023
The Babylon Movement and its sanctioned leader, Rayan al-Kaldani, are feuding with Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, leading to significant controversy that now involves the United States and the Vatican.
A dispute between the Iraqi government and the Chaldean Catholic Church has prompted the church's patriach to move from Baghdad to the Kurdistan Region, and is inflaming tensions with the United States.
The issue relates to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoking a decree that codified the patriarch's management of the community endowment, as well as the escalating battle between the church and an Iran-backed Iraqi Christian leader.
Background
On July 3, Rashid revoked a 2013 decree that recognized Patriarch Louis Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and allowed the religious leader to administer the community’s endowment. Rashid said the decree had no constitutional basis, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is based in Iraq and is in communion with Rome. Iraq’s Aramaic-speaking Christians are divided into communities identifying as Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac. Sako is based in Baghdad, though the majority of Christians now live in the northern Nineveh province and the autonomous Kurdistan Region.
The Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs form one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. There were around 1.5 million Christians in Iraq before the US invasion in 2003, but the population has since dwindled to around 150,000. The community faced several attacks in the chaos following the war, most notably by the Islamic State (IS) in 2014.
Rashid's revocation follows a months-long war of words between Sako and Rayan al-Kaldani, the head of the Babylon Movement armed group and political party. The Babylon Movement was founded in 2014 to fight IS alongside the predominantly Shiite groups in the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). Babylon has been accused of illegal land seizures in the Nineveh province and corruption.
During Iraq’s most recent elections in 2021, the Babylon Movement won four of the five seats allocated to Christians in the Iraqi parliament. A 2021 report from Chatham House noted that some of the Babylon Movement’s voters are actually Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq.
The revocation of the decree has led to an ongoing controversy in Iraq. Last week, there was a protest in the predominantly Christian town of Ankawa in the Kurdistan Region against the move, the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.
On Saturday, the Chaldean Patriarchate published an open letter from Sako announcing that he is moving from Baghdad to a monastery in the Kurdistan Region because of “the deliberate and humiliating campaign led by the Babylon Brigades.”
The same day, Kaldani issued a statement clarifying that the Babylon Movement is a “political movement” and not “brigades,” as Sako described them. He also said, “We confirm that the decision to revoke the decree was a decision of the republic’s presidency, not Babylon’s.”
On Monday, Rashid met with the head of the Vatican Embassy in Iraq, Father Charles Ssuuna.
“The Holy See does not have any observations or objections regarding the procedures of the Presidency of the Republic,” said Ssunna, according to a statement from the presidency.
However, the Vatican Embassy in Baghdad also issued a statement on Monday, saying it "regrets the misunderstandings and inappropriate dealings concerning the role of ... Sako as the custodian of the properties of the Chaldean Church," according to Reuters.
Rashid also tweeted on Monday that his decision "is not an attack" on the Chaldean Church, adding that it "does not impact His Eminence’s (Sako's) status or ability to conduct his duties."
The Vatican embassy in Washington did not respond to Al-Monitor's request for comment. The Iraqi embassy was unable to comment before publication.
The revocation is only the latest setback to befall Iraqi Christians since 2003. The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the most prominent churches in Iraq, and the issue has led to significant concern in the wider Christian community.
An ‘ongoing effort undermine the patriarch’
Other Chaldean officials have criticized the revocation of the decree. Bashar Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region, told Al-Monitor, “The President of the Republic could have convened a meeting with all the church leaders to explain the history of these decrees and his decision to retract them. Instead, the matter was played out in the media.”
Warda, whose archdiocese includes Ankawa, said that churches have authority to independently manage their endowments per the Iraqi constitution. "The Ministry of Justice should issue an authority document for each church head, granting them the power to manage the endowments as per the ecclesiastical laws," he said.
The archbishop also noted that the patriarchs of the Assyrian Church and the Old Assyrian Church requested similar decrees earlier this year, but were denied.
One Iraqi researcher, who asked to remain anonymous due to possible militia threats, said that Kaldani instigated the president to revoke the decree under the justification that Babylon holds most of the Christian seats in parliament. “It is part of their ongoing effort undermine the patriarch and centralize authority for Iraqi Christians to themselves,” the researcher told Al-Monitor, adding that there is now "confusion" in the community over who controls endowments.
Iran’s influence
The Babylon Movement is regularly described as a pro-Iran group. Iran’s allies in Iraq oppose Sako for a number of reasons, including his support for the anti-government Tishreen protests that began in 2019, according to the researcher.
The researcher also noted that there is a dispute among Iraqi Christians over control of the abundant property left behind by Christians in Baghdad and Nineveh. Thousands of Christians have fled these areas in recent years, including after the rise of IS in 2014.
Some observers allege that Iran-backed groups have been involved in the seizure of Christian land in order to foster demographic change. In a 2019 report, the US-based Assyrian Policy Institute referenced a plan by Nineveh authorities to build new settlements in a part of the Hamdaniya District controlled by the Iran-backed Brigade 30 of the PMU. The proposal included the "seizure of agricultural lands belonging to Assyrians" and "alarmed members of the local Assyrian community who fear demographic change,” according to the report.
Bilal Wahab, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Iran has a history of supporting politicians from different religious backgrounds, pointing to Lebanon as an example, “whether they’re Shia, Sunni, Christian, or whatever.”
The dispute over the decree ties into Iraqi politics in numerous ways. Wahab said that Iraq has been experiencing more intra-community competition recently, such as the tensions between the two main Kurdish parties.
“Iraqi politics used to be a competition among the different communities. Much of the competition has actually shifted to intra-community. I think this one among the Chaldeans follows that trend,” Wahab told Al-Monitor.
To a lesser extent, Wahab said the dispute between Sako and Kaldani is related to tensions between the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is led by the Barzani family, while the the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is led by the Talabanis. Rashid is a member of the PUK.
“Sako has been closer to the Barzanis than he has been to the Talabanis. On the other hand, Kaldani has been becoming increasingly friendly with Bafel Talabani,” said Wahab, referencing the current PUK leader.
Wahab also noted that the KDP was pleased with Sako for helping bring Pope Francis to Erbil in 2021.
US response
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday, “We are disturbed by the harassment of Cardinal Sako, the patriarch of the Chaldean Church, and troubled by the news that he has left Baghdad. We look forward to his safe return."
Miller also noted that Kaldani was sanctioned by the US government in 2019 for alleged human rights abuses and corruption.
Rashid responded to Miller's comments on Wednesday, saying he would summon the US ambassador over the issue.