English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 08/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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15 آذار/2023
Bible Quotations For today
The world hated me before it hated you &
hated me before you. You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out
of the world therefore the world hates you.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John
15/18-21:”‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated
you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because
you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world therefore
the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not
greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if
they kept my word, they will keep yours also.But they will do all these things
to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 07-08/2023
French President Macron appoints Jean-Yves Le Drian as Personal Envoy to LBCI
Israel threatens to bomb Lebanon into 'stone age' if Hezbollah starts war
Berri: We'll vote for Franjieh, won't cast blank votes
Christian leaders in 'secret' talks with Taymour Jumblat
Assad tells Aoun he 'won't interfere' in presidential file
Aoun slams newspapers over Assad meeting 'lies'
FPM says will 'certainly' vote for Azour
Taymour Jumblatt: Cooperation and interaction with China is a must
In Lebanon, 300,000 hectares are cultivated, vegetable production amounts 85% of
local needs
TotalEnergies fast-tracks Bloc 9 drilling: Optimizing exploration efforts
Fire Patrol: prevent fires with early warnings and precautions
National Social Security Fund resumes operations starting Thursday
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: We will bomb Hezbollah into the stone age
if they make a mistake with us/Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/June 07/2023
Why is Libya’s Hannibal Gadhafi on hunger strike in Lebanon?/Beatrice Farhat/Al
Monitor/June 07/2023
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on June 07-08/2023
Female Iranian security
officer dies mysteriously after criticising regime’s crackdown on protesters
Western Countries Warn Iran against Lack of Cooperation with IAEA
Ukraine makes 'large counter offensive push' with attack along three fronts
Ukrainians‘abandoned to die’ by Russia on banks of Dnipro
Ukraine rejects calls to 'freeze' conflict, foreign minister says
Ukrainians Face Homelessness, Disease Risk as Floods Crest from Destroyed Dam
Russia and Ukraine Say Ammonia Pipeline Was Damaged, in Potential Blow to Grain
Deal
Would Europeans Back Washington in a U.S.-China War? A New Survey Might Surprise
You
Fate of Israel’s Judicial Plan May Hang on June Parliament Vote
No Change Expected in Türkiye’s Approach to Syria as New Govt Takes Office
Egypt's Sisi Begins African Tour Targeting Political, Economic Cooperation
EU, US tell Kosovo to back down in Serb standoff or face 'consequences'
Blinken to meet Gulf officials in Saudi as alliances shift
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on June 07-08/2023
Demographic Jihad: Baby Muhammads Overrun the West/ Raymond Ibrahim/June
08/2023
The Need for a Progressive Right-Wing Intellectual/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/07
June 2023
Russia is in Trouble/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/07 June 2023
Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 07-08/2023
French President Macron appoints Jean-Yves Le Drian as Personal
Envoy to LBCI
LBC/June 07/2023
In an effort to facilitate a "consensual and effective" solution to Lebanon's
deepening political crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed his
former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as his "personal envoy to Lebanon,"
the Elysée announced Wednesday. Regarded as a seasoned professional in crisis
management, Jean-Yves Le Drian plans to visit Lebanon promptly, an advisor to
the French president added. With his significant diplomatic experience and
knowledge of the region, Le Drian is expected to bring new insights and
proposals to help alleviate the country's political deadlock.
Israel threatens to bomb Lebanon into 'stone age' if
Hezbollah starts war
Naharnet/June 07/2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to bomb Hezbollah and
Lebanon "into the stone age," if the Lebanese, Iran-backed group "makes a
mistake" and "starts a war against Israel."During a visit to the Israeli army’s
northern command, he said: “I hear our enemies boasting about weapons they are
developing. For any such development, we have an even better response -- by air,
by sea and on land and through other means of attack and defense."Gallant was
visiting north Israel within the framework of the two-week-long “Firm Hand”
military exercise. During the visit, Gallant held a situation assessment
together with senior army officials. Gallant reassured the Israelis that his
visit and updates from the drill confirmed "that our troops are excellent.”"We
will know how to defend the citizens of Israel and how to strike our enemies
with a decisive blow, heaven forbid, they initiate a war with us," he stated.
Commenting on recent Israeli threats, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
had said that “the Israelis must retract their threats and give up their
arrogance.”“Any mistake might blow up the entire region,” he warned. “I tell the
enemy's premier, war minister and army chief to be careful and not to make wrong
calculations,” Nasrallah added, noting that Israel resorted to escalating its
rhetoric after the failure of its latest military campaign in Gaza. “You are not
the ones to threaten a grand war; we are the ones who rather threaten you with
it,” Nasrallah went on to say. “A grand war would involve hundreds of thousands
of fighters,” he added, in a warning to Israel.
Berri: We'll vote for Franjieh, won't cast blank votes
Naharnet/June 07/2023
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that his political camp will vote
for Suleiman Franjieh in the upcoming presidential election session. “We will
vote for Suleiman Franjieh. We will all vote for him – we and our allies. None
of us has said that he will cast a blank vote. We cast blank votes before our
nomination of Franjieh and had they accepted the dialogue that I had called for
twice we would not have reached the current phase,” Berri said in an interview
published in al-Akhbar newspaper. Asked whether his stance is decisive and
final, Berri said: “Haven’t we nominated him? We have. If we don’t vote for him
we would be abandoning him. There might be other blocs that want to vote blank
because they’re not satisfied with the candidates. This would be a political
stance and we don’t have this intention.”
Christian leaders in 'secret' talks with Taymour Jumblat
Naharnet/June 07/2023
As part of the preparations for the June 14 presidential election session,
“secret contacts” have been held between Christian leaders and Democratic
Gathering chief MP Taymour Jumblat to discuss the issue of supporting the
candidate Jihad Azour, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Wednesday.Media reports
have said that the Democratic Gathering might resort to blank ballots or might
split its votes between Azour and Suleiman Franjieh so that outgoing Progressive
Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat does not dismay his longtime ally and friend
Speaker Nabih Berri.
Assad tells Aoun he 'won't interfere' in presidential file
Naharnet/June 07/2023
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told ex-president Michel Aoun in their meeting
in Damascus on Tuesday that “he is not interfering in the presidential file” and
that he will “remain neutral and won’t discuss this file with anyone,” sources
close to the Free Patriotic Movement told al-Joumhouria newspaper.
Sources close to the March 8 camp also told the daily that Assad told Aoun that
he will not interfere in the presidential file without voicing any other stance.
“Aoun’s visit to Damascus is an attempt to seek rescue, after FPM chief MP
Jebran Bassil himself sought Aoun’s help to protect his bloc from
disintegration,” the March 8 sources said. The visit was an “attempt to find
exits and find a place in the Syrian-Saudi agreement,” the sources added.
Aoun slams newspapers over Assad meeting 'lies'
Naharnet/June 07/2023
Ex-president Michel Aoun has lashed out at some newspapers, especially Annahar
and Nidaa al-Watan, accusing them of publishing “lies” about his meeting with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday. In a statement, Aoun’s press office
said the former president “did not request a mediation or support for the
position of the Free Patriotic Movement leader.”“President Aoun, who dedicated
his life to defending Lebanon’s sovereignty, reassures those newly keen on
sovereignty that he will never waste sovereignty and will continue to struggle
to preserve it,” the statement said.
“The epitome of disinformation is attempting to distort the relation between
President Aoun and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and insulting both of them through
spreading rumors about the failure of an attempt to set up a meeting between
them, something that is totally baseless,” the statement added.
FPM says will 'certainly' vote for Azour
Naharnet/June 07/2023
The choice of voting for Jihad Azour in the presidential elections is “certain
and natural,” the Free Patriotic Movement said. Voting for Azour is aimed at
“stressing rejection of the election of the imposed candidate from whom no
reform or change of the establishment controlling the country can be hoped,” the
FPM’s political council said in a statement. “Intersection over this nomination
has consumed time due to the FPM’s insistence on refraining from endorsing any
confrontation candidate who might challenge any party of the Lebanese,” the
statement said, noting that the FPM has called for the triumph of the “consensus
and rapprochement approach.” Criticizing the Hezbollah-led camp, the FPM said
that “intransigence in imposing a certain candidate and rejecting any dialogue
over any other candidate contradicts with the rules of national partnership.”
Taymour Jumblatt: Cooperation and interaction with China is
a must
LBCI/June 07/2023
Head of the Democratic Gathering Bloc MP Taymour Jumblatt affirmed on Wednesday
the Progressive Socialist Party's keenness to develop and enhance relations with
the Communist Party of China. He emphasized the necessity for Lebanon to benefit
from China's leading experience in various sectors, highlighting China's role in
the region alongside Lebanon and emphasizing the need for cooperation and
interaction. Jumblatt's position came during his reception of a delegation from
the Communist Party of China, headed by Central Committee member Qiushi Qing
Shan, who is visiting Lebanon upon the invitation of the Progressive Socialist
Party. The meeting was also attended by Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon Qian
Mingjian, Deputy Wael Abou Faour, Secretary-General of the Progressive Socialist
Party, Dhafer Nasser, and the Commissioner for Foreign Relations Zahir Raad. The
Chinese delegation, on their part, emphasized the need to strengthen trust
between the two parties, inviting Jumblatt to visit China. They also affirmed
their country's keenness on the stability and unity of Lebanon and its
development. The delegation presented Beijing's perspective on various current
issues, explaining the content of the "Silk Road" plan and the results of the
20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, expressing interest in working on
different aspects of development.
In Lebanon, 300,000 hectares are cultivated, vegetable
production amounts 85% of local needs
LBCI/June 07/2023
Caretaker Minister of Agriculture Abbas Al Hajj Hassan indicated that there are
300,000 hectares being cultivated in Lebanon, and "we can expand the cultivated
areas to 700,000 hectares," he said. He added that Lebanon needs 800,000 tons of
vegetables, and" we produce 700,000 tons." He affirmed that Lebanon imports and
exports commodities, and before 2019, the economic situation was normal, and
food security was not threatened. "In light of the crisis, we held many meetings
to develop solutions, but we were standing on one fact: We are a country that
imports wheat to make its own bread, which is sad and unfortunate." The
Agriculture Minister's words came during the "2nd Arab Forum for Equality,"
where he affirmed that "we are helping with our partners in international
organizations and donor agencies to draw up a strategy that can get us out of
the crisis." During his participation in the forum, he said that the Lebanese
Ministry of Agriculture had developed a strategy after the war in Ukraine based
on four main points: activating cooperative work, agricultural extension,
securing water, and expanding cultivated areas. Based on this strategy, he
called for partnership in this region within the project launched by the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia, specifically Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in what is known
as the Middle East Green Initiative. He indicated that he was talking
about "very vast areas," expressing his readiness "from now on for Lebanon to be
part of this project because it is a country that believes that the region has
begun an extensive stage of openness, which establishes the return of us, as
Arabs, to a leading role in this international system, and work to be a positive
part in climate change and global warming." He stressed that "the Lebanese
government is adopting a strategy of zeroing out problems and that the region
also needs to eliminate problems." On the issue of the Lebanese government's
sense of danger threatening food security, Al Hajj Hassan revealed that the
Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture launched a plan to grow soft wheat suitable for
bread production and that work is underway in the Ministry to expand foreign
markets to Lebanese market products, and a large part of this plan has been
achieved.
TotalEnergies fast-tracks Bloc 9 drilling: Optimizing
exploration efforts
LBCI/June 07/2023
TotalEnergies is expediting the drilling process in Bloc 9, which was not
expected to occur between late September and October but is now possible between
late August and September. Regarding TotalEnergies, it has been revealed that
the well being drilled by Transocean Barents in the North Sea, the rig that will
be brought to Lebanon, has shown no commercial discoveries. Therefore, the rig
will be able to leave the site early and head to Norway for maintenance. Once
the maintenance is completed, it will sail towards the drilling location in Bloc
9, a journey that will take five weeks.
Information suggests that there is an effort to supply the rig with equipment
and technical preparations during its maintenance in Norway, which may be
necessary for drilling in Lebanese waters. This allows the rig to proceed
directly to Bloc 9 without stopping off Beirut to acquire these equipment and
technologies. To obtain quick results from the anticipated drilling operation,
TotalEnergies is reportedly willing to increase the cost to provide the rig with
technologies that provide early information during the drilling process about
what the well in Bloc 9 may contain. This process is known as testing and it
could potentially save time for TotalEnergies and even lead to the drilling of a
second well.
Fire Patrol: prevent fires with early warnings and precautions
LBCI/June 07/2023
Do you know that we can now know beforehand about the possibility of a fire
occurring before it happens and prevent its outbreak? This is what the Fire
Patrol app, which is now available for free on all smartphones, can do. When you
download it on your phones and log in, you specify the area of your residence,
and you will receive alerts ahead of time about the danger of a fire breaking
out in your area if anyone fabricated it or caused its outbreak out of
ignorance. This warning is based on many factors, including weather, such as
humidity, temperature, and air, and factors related to the nature of the earth.
With the alert, you will be informed of the steps you can follow to take the
necessary precautions to avoid a fire. We also use this application to report
scorched or burning land. As a first step, you should press on the “report fire”
option if there is a fire or on “report burnt area” if the land was previously
burned.
You take a picture of the place, specify the geographical location, and press
the word “report.” The season of fires in Lebanon is approaching. Every one of
us can contribute to reducing forest fires. Download this application, report
quickly, and protect our forests from fires.
Related Articles
National Social Security Fund resumes operations starting Thursday
LBCI/June 07/2023
After a series of communications, Mohammed Karaki, the Director-General of the
National Social Security Fund (NSSF), has officially announced the resumption of
work in all directorates and offices of the institution, commencing Thursday,
June 8, 2023. These actions were taken after Karaki communicated with Prime
Minister Najib Mikati, Minister of Labor Moustafa Bayram, and President of the
General Labor Union Bashara Al-Asmar, and in the presence of the President and
members of the Fund's Employees Union, who confirmed the legitimacy of the
employees' demands and highlighted their inclusion in a decree mandating the
payment of four monthly salaries. Emphasizing the importance of
implementing this decree, the President entrusted the Minister of Labor to
address the issue upon his return from the International Labour Conference held
in Geneva, urging the necessary measures to be taken to ensure that the
employees of the Fund receive their rightful compensation. Additionally,
the Fund's Employees Union decided to suspend their protest movements. This
decision was made to preserve the smooth functioning of the country's economic
wheel, particularly regarding import and export operations and the higher
interests of the state. Karaki seized the opportunity to urge insured
individuals and employers to visit the Fund's directorates and offices to attend
to their pending transactions, specifically those related to obligations
clearance.
Underlining the significance of maintaining the institution's continuity, the
Director-General highlighted the positive stance of insured individuals.
Recognizing the Fund as a safety valve for Lebanese society, they acknowledged
its pivotal role. This sentiment has been strengthened by the actions taken by
the Director-General last week, which included raising the tariff for kidney
dialysis sessions. Looking ahead, Karaki reaffirmed his commitment to
implementing further corrective measures. This will involve increasing medical,
hospital, and pharmaceutical tariffs within the Fund. Recently, the Higher
Medical Advisory Committee and the Drugs Committee approved proposals to raise
these tariffs, aligning them with the available financial resources. These
adjustments will be based on the additional revenues generated through the
raised official minimum wage, increased wages, and an elevated ceiling for
participation in the Health and Maternity Insurance Branch.
وزير الدفاع الإسرائيلي يوآف غالانت: سنقصف
حزب الله ونعيده مع لبنان إلى العصر الحجري إذا أخطأوا معنا
يونا جيريمي بوب/ جيروزاليم بوست /07 حزيران/2023 /ترجمة موقع غوغل
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: We will bomb Hezbollah into the stone age
if they make a mistake with us
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/June 07/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/118893/118893/
The defense minister was visiting the North within the framework of the
two-week-long “Firm Hand” military exercise.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday threatened to bomb Hezbollah and
Lebanon “into the stone age,” if the terror group “makes a mistake” and “starts
a war against Israel.”
During a visit to the IDF’s Northern Command, he said, “I hear our enemies
boasting about weapons they are developing. For any such development, we have an
even better response – by air, by sea and on land and through other means of
attack and defense.”
The defense minister was visiting the North within the framework of the
two-week-long “Firm Hand” military exercise. During the visit, Minister Gallant
held a situation assessment together with senior IDF officials.
Gallant reassured Israel’s citizens that his visit and updates from the drill
confirmed “that our troops are excellent.” “We will know how to defend the
citizens of Israel and how to strike our enemies with a decisive blow, heaven
forbid, they initiate a war with us,” he stated.
The defense minister’s threat comes after a series of threats and counter
threats between Israel and Hezbollah in May.
IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and IDF Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen.
Aharon Haliva had warned Hezbollah in May of a conflagration if it pushed Israel
too far. More specifically, they had said that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah
might get overconfident and misread Jerusalem’s situation and think he can
gamble against it.Halevi said Hezbollah “thinks it understands how we think
which can lead it to dare and challenge us in scenarios where we won’t go to
war” in response.
This came one day after Haliva said that Nasrallah might miscalculate his
understanding of Israel and accidentally drag both sides into a larger conflict.
Haliva referenced Hezbollah’s recent daring in carrying out a bombing at Megiddo
inside Israel.
Some had viewed that Hezbollah move as showing it was ready to pressure the
Jewish state more than in the past.In early April, Hezbollah also allowed
certain Palestinian terror groups to fire rockets on Israel from areas it
controls.All of this was in the context that generally, since the Syrian civil
war mostly ended, Hezbollah has tried a variety of ways to show it is still in
conflict with Israel. The Jerusalem Post has witnessed that Nasrallah has
increased the presence of Hezbollah operatives close to the Metullah border with
Israel, even if in civilian clothes. Nasrallah has done this quietly, by
erecting numerous new observation towers under the guise of the “Green without
Borders” organization. Hezbollah has initiated several clashes with IDF soldiers
Besides these quieter, but consistent moves, Hezbollah has also initiated
several clashes with IDF soldiers along the border who were working on
completing the fence or marking the border.
“You are not the ones threatening war, it is us who do so,” Nasrallah emphasized
in his May speech. “And any such war will include all of Israel’s borders.” He
further said that “any wrong action in Palestine, Syria or Iran could lead to a
major war.”
Why is Libya’s Hannibal Gadhafi on hunger
strike in Lebanon?
Beatrice Farhat/Al Monitor/June 07/2023
Hannibal Gadhafi’s health began to deteriorate after he began a hunger strike to
protest his detention without trial in 2015. Meanwhile, an Amnesty International
report warns of poor conditions in Lebanese prisons.
BEIRUT — The health of Hannibal Gadhafi, son of the late Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi, was deteriorating three days after he began a hunger strike to protest
his prolonged detention without trial in Lebanon.
Gadhafi was suffering from headaches and muscle pain, his lawyer, Paul Romanos,
told The Associated Press. He was also feeling back pain in his small cell.
Gadhafi, 47, began a hunger strike on Saturday to protest his “arbitrary and
political detention” over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of
Lebanese Shiite cleric Musa al-Sadr in the late 1970s.
In a statement, Gadhafi called for his immediate release after being detained
for years for a crime he said he did not commit. “How can a political prisoner
be held without a fair trial all these years?” he added.
In December 2015, the Lebanese judiciary arrested Gadhafi on charges of
withholding information on the disappearance of Sadr and two of his companions,
Sheikh Muhammad Yaacoub, and journalist Abbas Badreddine, in Libya in 1978.
Reports at the time claimed that Gadhafi was lured from Syria, where he had been
living as a political refugee since the fall of his father’s regime in Libya in
2011. In an interview with the Saudi channel al-Hadath last September, Gadhafi
said he was taken by the Lebanese Yaacoub family to demand information on the
disappearance of their relative and Sadr.
Gadhafi insists that he does not have any information on the disappearance of
the three men. The Libyan man was only a toddler when Sadr, the founder of the
Lebanese Shiite Amal Movement, went missing in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Supporters of Sadr believe he is still alive in a Libyan prison. Others claim
Moammar Gadhafi ordered his killing. Libyan authorities have denied the claim,
saying Sadr and his companions had left Libya for Rome. Italy denies that Sadr
entered its territories.
Since Gadhafi’s arrest in 2015, his supporters have repeatedly called for his
release. In a statement last year, the Gadhafi family condemned the conditions
in which their son was held and urged Lebanese authorities to immediately
release him.
The new developments in Gadhafi’s case coincide with a report about worsening
conditions in Lebanese prisons and deaths in custody.
In a report released on Wednesday, Amnesty International blamed the Lebanese
authorities’ neglect and lack of medical care for the rising number of deaths in
Lebanon’s prisons since the country’s economic crisis in 2019.
According to figures by the Ministry of Interior, which Amnesty reviewed, the
number of deaths in prisons nearly doubled within four years, with 34 deaths
registered in 2022 compared to 18 in 2018.
Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and
North Africa, said in the report, “The sharp increase in custodial deaths must
be a wake-up call to the Lebanese government that their prisons need urgent and
drastic reform.”
Lebanese authorities have blamed the economic crisis that has engulfed the
country since October 2019 for the deteriorating conditions in prisons. The
Ministry of Interior’s prison budget has decreased from $7.3 million in 2019 to
around $628,000 in 2022 due to the collapse of the local currency.
“The economic crisis is no excuse for prison authorities to deny prisoners
access to medication, shift the cost of paying for hospitalization to the
families of prisoners or delay prisoners’ transfers to hospitals,” Majzoub added
in the report.
Amnesty interviewed 16 people, including prisoners and relatives of people who
died in custody. Most of them said prison authorities have ignored requests by
prisoners for healthcare or medication.
In August 2022, Khalil Taleb, 34, died in Roumieh, Lebanon’s main prison east of
the capital Beirut, after the prison pharmacist refused to administer
medication.
In addition, Amnesty says Lebanese prisons are 323% over capacity. “The
authorities should also investigate to what extent the sharp increase in deaths
is linked to structural factors such as overcrowding, lack of adequate resources
and impunity for ill-treatment, all exacerbated by the economic crisis,” the
UK-based rights organization said. In May, two prisoners also died in Roumieh in
less than two days. The Internal Security Forces (police) said a 16-year-old
prisoner was found hanged in his cell. Another 32-year-old Palestinian died from
cardiac arrest, according to police.
Roumieh houses nearly 4,000 prisoners, three times its intended capacity,
according to the Prison Insider website. In November 2021, prisoners in Roumieh
staged protests against harsh conditions.
Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published
on June 07-08/2023
Female Iranian security officer dies mysteriously after criticising
regime’s crackdown on protesters
Ahmed Vahdat/The Telegraph/Wed, June 7, 2023
An Iranian security officer who quit her job in protest at the regime’s massive
crackdown on protesters has died in mysterious circumstances, prompting
thousands to attend her funeral in a show of support. Mansoureh Sagvand, 18, had
posted a series of messages on social media criticising the regime’s brutal
response to mass protests in the country, and resigned from her role as
“volunteer security personnel”. “As someone who has been active in the police
forces, I tried to tell the truth to those who are ignorant. We had seen the
crimes with our own eyes and told the facts. This revolution will happen sooner
than you think,” she said in one tweet. But according to Iranian human rights
activists, she fell ill soon afterwards and was taken to a hospital in the
restive Iranian city of Abdanan over the weekend, where she was later pronounced
dead. Local media reports soon emerged stating that earlier she had been
detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which is loyal to the Supreme Leader,
and a hospital report claimed that she died of a heart attack. Local media
reports stated that Mansoureh Sagvand had been detained by Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard before her death. Local media reports stated that Mansoureh
Sagvand had been detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard before her death Her
death immediately caused suspicion and speculation on social media as the regime
has also claimed that Mahsa Amini, a figurehead of the protest movement, died
from heart problems. In September Ms Amini, 22, was beaten to death in the
custody of Iran’s morality police for incorrectly wearing her hijab, a case that
shocked millions of Iranians and triggered nationwide protests. Thousands of
Iranians attended her recent funeral despite a heavy presence of security
forces, with some holding placards that called for “resistance and justice”. The
details surrounding her death were circulated by 1500tasvir, a prolific social
media account of activists, which emerged as a major source of independent
information on the protests last year. According to some reports, Ms Sagvand was
only briefly detained by the Revolutionary Guard and then released without
charge, as officials in Ilam province feared it would cause a major public
outcry.
‘They threaten us with death’
In another social media post explaining her decision to resign, Ms Sagvand
wrote: “They threaten us with death, as if we are alive under the current
conditions…till eternity, I will sacrifice my life for my motherland.”In a
message to one of her friends, Ms Sagvand had said she received death threats
from intelligence officers, adding that “if something happens to me, I want
everyone to know that I did not commit suicide”. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of
the former Shah of Iran, posted a message on his Twitter account calling Ms
Sagvand “the daughter of Iran whose murder by the mercenaries ruling our country
will not be forgotten”. While the issue of mandatory hijab continues to dominate
domestic politics in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on
Monday blamed the United States and Israel for protests that gripped the country
for more than ten months. He also accused those countries of trying to stop
Iran’s “progress”. Speaking on the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, 87-year-old Mr Khamenei
branded the anti-government protesters as “thugs and hooligans at the service of
foreign powers”.
Hypersonic missile unveiled
It came as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps unveiled a new hypersonic missile,
called Fattah (conqueror in Farsi) that can allegedly travel at 15 times the
speed of sound with a range of 1400km. Iranian military officials also claim the
Fattah missile can bypass any air defence system in Israel, though on Wednesday
Israel’s defence minister insisted this was not the case. “I hear our enemies
boasting about weapons they are developing. To any such development, we have an
even better response – whether it be on land, in the air, or in the maritime
arena, including both defensive and offensive means,” said Yoav Gallant, a
minister. The missile is a potentially major challenge to Israel, which has
threatened strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, and the West which is increasingly
concerned about Iran’s security cooperation with Russia against Ukraine. Israel,
which regards the nuclear programme as an existential threat, has increased its
preparation for a potential “multi-frontal” war with Iran and its proxy groups
in the region. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try
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US-exclusive offer.
Western Countries Warn Iran against Lack of
Cooperation with IAEA
Vienna : Raghida Bahnam/Asharq Al Awsat/June 07/2023
Western powers have warned Tehran that its cooperation with the International
Atomic Energy Agency is “significantly lacking” and “far short of the
expectations”, following an agreement between the UN agency and Tehran last
March. The European Union expressed its concerns about the increasing risk of a
nuclear proliferation crisis in the Middle East as a result of Iran’s escalation
of its nuclear program. Laura Holgate, US Ambassador to the Vienna Office of the
United Nations and to the IAEA, told the Board of Governors of the IAEA meeting
this week: “Iran’s level of cooperation remains significantly lacking overall,
and far short of the expectations outlined by the Board in November.
Holgate pointed to a resolution passed by the Board of Governors in November
condemning Iran’s behavior and calling for “immediate and urgent” cooperation.
In March, the Director of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, announced that an agreement
was reached with Iran for cooperation and the re-installation of surveillance
cameras. But since then, Tehran has only allowed the agency to install
surveillance cameras at one site and surveillance equipment at two, which Grossi
described as “slow progress.”The US ambassador also expressed her concern about
the increase in Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium by 60 percent, saying: “No
other country in the world today utilizes uranium enriched to 60 percent for the
purpose Iran claims. We again call on Iran to end this deeply troubling activity
that runs counter to the behavior of all other states worldwide. Iran argues it
is unfairly targeted by others. The reality remains that Iran continues to
single itself out through its own actions. Iran should cease its nuclear
provocations that pose grave proliferation risks.” France, Britain and Germany,
issued a statement expressing similar concern, and stressed that there was no
“civilian justification” for enriching uranium at such a high rate. “The risk of
a nuclear proliferation crisis in the region has further increased as a result
of Iran’s escalating nuclear trajectory. The EU remains committed to the JCPOA.
We regret that Iran has not made the necessary decisions and not taken the
necessary steps. On the contrary, it continues to significantly escalate its
nuclear program,” the statement read. It added: “Iran’s actions, which have no
credible civilian justification in Iran’s declared nuclear program, carry very
significant proliferation-related risks. These actions, which raise grave
concerns about Iran’s intentions, include continued and accelerated accumulation
of enriched uranium, far beyond JCPOA thresholds for quantity and level of
enrichment, including a sharp rise of material at 20%, as well as at 60% which
is of particular proliferation concern. The stockpile of HEU enriched at up to
60 per cent has increased by almost 30% since the last quarterly report.”For his
part, the European Union ambassador in Vienna, Stephan Klement, warned of the
increasing risk of a nuclear proliferation crisis in the Middle East as a result
of Iran’s escalation of its nuclear program. He said on Twitter that the EU
“strongly urges Iran to reverse its alarming nuclear trajectory. We call on Iran
to return immediately to its non-proliferation commitments...”
Ukraine makes 'large counter offensive push' with attack
along three fronts
Joe Barnes/The Telegraph/Wed, June 7, 2023
Ukrainian forces on Wednesday launched assaults along three major axes on the
front lines, strengthening claims the counter-offensive is under way. Kyiv said
its forces had clawed back territory from Russia in an attack on the flanks of
the eastern city of Bakhmut. Meanwhile, Russian sources claimed Ukraine launched
a major new offensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, armed with tanks and
multi-launch rocket systems. Probing attacks were reported by analysts in the
Luhansk region of the Donbas, as infra-red satellites also picked up an increase
in fires in the Kherson area. The apparent pushes came a day after Ukraine
accused Russia of destroying the Soviet-era Kakhovka dam, which unleashed a
torrent of water that displaced tens of thousands of people and potentially
hindered Kyiv’s plans for its counter-offensive. Ukraine has a strict
communications blackout surrounding counter-offensive activities. “When we start
the counter-offensive everyone will know about it, they will see it,” said
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council,
dismissing reports of advances. However, Kyiv is being open about continuous
fighting around Bakhmut, the city Russia captured after nine months of
attritional war. “Over the past day, we have advanced from 200 to 1,100 metres
in various sections of the Bakhmut direction,” Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy
defence minister, said. “In the direction of Bakhmut, our troops switched from
defence to offensive,” she added. At the same time increased activity was
reported across the entire stretch of the front lines dividing Ukraine from its
Russian occupiers. Russian military bloggers, some with close ties to the
Kremlin, said advancing Ukrainian forces used artillery and armoured fighting
vehicles in a new push towards Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region. “Judging by
the actions of the enemy, one should expect another attempt to attack this night
or in the morning,” the War Gonzo blog wrote on Wednesday on Telegram. A short
video shared alongside the post appeared to show clouds of white smoke rising
above the horizon after strikes from a Ukrainian grad rocket launcher. Analysts
have long-predicted that Ukraine’s spring-summer counter-offensive could attempt
to push south in order to sever the land bridge created by Moscow between Russia
and occupied Crimea. Ukrainian military reports of gains around Bakhmut were the
first since senior officials earlier this week denied the start of the next
phase of the conflict. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s
ground forces, also said Kyiv’s forces continued to advance along the flanks in
Bakhmut as its Russian occupiers reportedly lost ground. “Our defence forces
continue to advance along the flanks, while the enemy is losing positions in
Bakhmut,” he said. The offensive push was largely carried out by members of
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, which is part of the now-renowned Azov
Brigade of fighters. Footage of their exploits shared on social media appeared
to show close-quarters fighting as Ukrainian forces swooped on foxholes left
abandoned by the Russians.
Secure the high grounds
Kyiv’s men have been seeking to secure the high grounds to the north and south
of Bakhmut, which Moscow claimed to have completely captured in May after almost
a year of bloody combat, in what could become a double envelopment of the city.
Military analysts highlighted a Ukrainian push around the northern edge of
Bakhmut and the nearby town of Soledar, as well as south-west of the salt-mining
city. In a television broadcast, Ms Maliar on Wednesday said Russia lacked
forces in Bakhmut and was bringing in troops from other positions. She said
mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group had been moved to rear positions
around the city, with more professional airborne assault units brought into the
fight. “They don’t have enough strength. We destroy a lot of enemy manpower now,
and we see that they redeploy their reserves from the depths in order to hold
the strong defence,” the deputy defence minister added. But Moscow’s defence
ministry insisted it had repelled the attacks mounted by Ukraine. “The adversary
did not achieve the goal of the offensive, wedging into our defence positions
has not been permitted,” it said. On Tuesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of
Russia’s Wagner mercenaries who led the efforts to capture Bakhmut, said Moscow
would need at least 200,000 troops to stall the offensive aimed at the city. In
the same broadcast, the warlord said Ukraine had already “broken through”
Russia’s line of defence in several areas. Earlier this week, Ukraine launched
simultaneous offensives along the front lines but denied it was the start of its
offensive, with officials claiming the reports were Russian disinformation to
distract from its failings around Bakhmut.
Residents forced to flee floods
An uptick in Russian artillery fire was reported as residents of the southern
Kherson region were forced to flee the floods triggered by the Kakhovka dam’s
collapse. Another potential environmental disaster emerged after an ammonia
pipeline in the Kharkiv region started to spew gas into the atmosphere. Russian
sources published video of what was claimed to be a puncture in the pipeline,
which stretches more than 2,000 miles between Tolyatti in western Russia and
Odesa in the south of Ukraine. The poisonous gas spewed from the pipeline could
have devastating consequences for the nearby population living on the front
lines that separate Ukrainian forces and the Russian occupiers. Earlier this
week, Ukraine said the line was damaged after repeated Russian shelling in the
area of the infrastructure. In response, Russian forces claimed the strike had
been carried out by a sabotage group belonging to Kyiv’s military. The pipeline
is crucial for Russia’s global exports of fertiliser and could play a huge role
in the deal for continuation of Ukrainian grain exports from its Black Sea
ports. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The
Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive
offer.
Ukrainians‘abandoned to die’ by Russia on banks of Dnipro
Roland Oliphant/The Telegraph/Wed, June 7, 2023
Vladimir Putin’s regime has been accused of leaving civilians to die on the
occupied east bank of the Dnipro river, as surging floodwater caused by the
destruction of a dam left thousands pleading for help on rooftops. Denys Shmyhal,
Ukraine’s prime minister, called on the Red Cross to step in to save tens of
thousands of people who had been abandoned by local Russian authorities. “The
Russian occupiers don’t even make an effort to help these people, they have left
them to perish,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. While Ukraine reels from
its worst man-made disaster since Chernobyl, it is the Russian-controlled east
bank that has borne the brunt of the damage, according to satellite images and
video footage. Residents of the occupied town of Oleshky, around 30 miles from
the burst Nova Kakhovka dam, were filmed rowing to safety or waving from windows
as they told relatives nobody had come to rescue them. In the neighbouring
Kherson region, Russian occupying authorities said they had evacuated 1,500
people and set up temporary housing for twice that number. Ukraine has said
42,000 people need evacuation, with around half that number on the Russian side
of the river. State-controlled television inside Russia praised the rescue
effort as a reporter broadcast while rowing a boat through flooded streets.
Putin blamed Ukraine for the “barbaric act” of destroying the dam in a call with
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, saying it had triggered a “massive
environmental and humanitarian disaster”. He said that Kyiv had organised the
explosion at the behest of its Western allies. The Russian president’s remarks,
more than 24 hours after floodwater tore through southern Ukraine, came amid
reports that Russian units had been swept away in the deluge. Capt Andrei
Pidlisnyi, a Ukrainian officer, told CNN that “no one on the Russian side was
able to get away” when the dam burst on Tuesday morning. His troops were able to
observe the carnage from the other side of the river and through the use of
drones, he said. The loss of the Russian units suggested Moscow had not warned
its soldiers ahead of the flood, Capt Pidlisnyi added, blaming Russia for
blowing up the dam. Social media footage from Russian-occupied territory showed
submerged neighbourhoods and people waving to drones through windows in their
roofs. “Russians are saying they’re organising an evacuation but where are the
boats? Why did no one send in the boats for them?” said Nataliya, a native of
Oleshky, who fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory earlier this year. She said
her husband’s parents, who still live there, had escaped in a dinghy. Others
weren’t as lucky, she added. “A friend’s godfather has an elderly grandma – they
wanted to take her but she was already dead.” Videos emerging on Wednesday
showed civilians rowing boats out of Oleshky as water lapped at corrugated
roofs. “Well, here is the left bank”, said a man in one video. “These guys are
our rescuers. Please God get us out of here.”
Ukraine’s general staff on Wednesday said Russian troops had blocked evacuation
efforts and shelled citizens fleeing Kherson. The Red Cross, which had not
responded to the request for aid from Ukraine’s prime minister on Wednesday
night, warned that landmines were floating in the floodwater.
“We knew where the hazards were [before the dam burst],” said Erik Tollefsen,
head of the weapon contamination unit at the International Committee of the Red
Cross. “Now we don’t know.” Emmanuel Macron, the French president, on Wednesday
promised he would send aid “in the next few hours” to meet “immediate
needs”.Relatives of Oleshky residents have posted pleas for help on an online
map, highlighting positions of family members. “Two people in the cellar,
knee-deep in water”, reads one update, “Solontsy, 54 Zarechnaya, an old man with
three dogs” goes another.
Yuliana, a mother of two from Kherson who fled to Germany last year, said she
had lost contact with her two sisters in the village of Solontsy, just south of
Oleshky. The last thing she heard from the two women, aged 53 and 47, they were
in the cellar of their two-storey home with water already knee deep.
Yuliana said she was called by a friend’s neighbour on Wednesday, saying they
saw her sisters being evacuated by locals in a dinghy. “No help was coming (from
Russia) at all,” she said. “It’s just ordinary people who have found rubber
boats somewhere and have been helping others.” Yuliana said her sisters had
tried to escape Solontsy on Tuesday as soon as the dam broke but were turned
back by Russian troops. “The sisters said the [military] simply told the car to
turn back and go,” she said. The Telegraph has not been able to verify the
reports, which were echoed by reports in the opposition-aligned Russian media.
‘Likely many deaths’
Washington warned there would be “likely many deaths” but on Wednesday there was
no update from Ukrainian or Russian authorities. Vladimir Leontyev, the
Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, said 100 people were trapped in the
town and thousands of wild animals had been killed, in comments carried by the
RIA state news agency. He said 30,000 cubic metres of water was pouring into the
town every second and it was at risk of contamination from the floods. Volodymyr
Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said hundreds of thousands of people had been
left without drinking water across the disaster zone, with tens of thousands
stranded. One artillery unit released footage of one of its drones, normally
used for targeting Russian troops, delivering bottles of water to a trapped
local. “The biggest problem is the occupied area. It is apocalyptic,” said Olia
Hercules, a chef and author who grew up in Nova Kakhovka. Ms Hercules, who has
been unable to contact relatives on the left bank for over a month said: “They
are saying it is particularly bad in Oleshky and the nearby villages. They are
saying there are bodies floating in the water.”Yuliana, who often visited
Solontsy, sobbed: “It was a beautiful, prosperous village. It just doesn’t exist
anymore.”Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The
Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive
offer.
Ukraine rejects calls to 'freeze' conflict,
foreign minister says
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters)/Wed, June 7, 2023
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday that talks about
resolving the conflict with Russia could not start with a mere cessation of
hostilities. “If anyone thinks they should freeze the conflict and then see how
to solve it, they don’t understand it,” he said in an online briefing aimed at
African journalists, following a tour of African countries. More than 100 rounds
of consultation and attempts at a ceasefire since Russia's annexation of Crimea
from Ukraine in 2014 only led to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February
2022, he said. A delegation of African heads of state is expected to visit
Ukraine and Russia in the next few days hoping to persuade them to cease
hostilities, a spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told
Reuters last month. He said on Wednesday no date had been set for the mission as
yet. Such a proposal means that Russian troops would remain on Ukrainian soil
even as peace talks start. Ukraine previously said Russian forces should
withdraw before such negotiations could start, while Moscow wants Kyiv to
recognise Russian sovereignty over Crimea as precondition for negotiations.
President Macky Sall of Senegal, last year’s African Union chairman, whose
country was not present at the latest U.N. vote condemning Russia in February
this year, leads the initiative. The current African Union chairman, Comoros
Islands President Othman Ghazali, was recently added to the delegation. It also
includes presidents Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Hakainde Hichilema of
Zambia - which both voted for the resolution - and Congo Republic's Denis Sassou
Nguesso, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, which both abstained, as did South
Africa. Kuleba has been on a charm offensive in Africa to win support in a
continent where 30 of the 54 African U.N. member states voted in favour of the
U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s invasion. “What we see in our relations with
the continent right now is fair to call a Ukrainian-African Renaissance,” Kuleba
said. He had no details on what the African peace mission entailed, but he
welcomed it. “We are looking forward to hosting these presidents in Kyiv,” he
said.
Ukrainians Face Homelessness, Disease Risk as Floods Crest from Destroyed Dam
Agencis/07 June 2023
Ukrainians abandoned inundated homes as floodwaters crested across a swathe of
the south on Wednesday after the destruction of a vast hydro-electric dam on the
front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces that each blamed on the other.
Residents waded through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders,
dogs in their arms and belongings in plastic bags while rescuers used rubber
boats to search areas where the waters reached above head height. Ukraine said
the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking
water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and leave more
barren. "If the water rises for another meter, we will lose our house," said
Oleksandr Reva, in a village on the bank, who was moving family belongings into
the abandoned home of a neighbor on higher ground. A roof of a house could be
seen being swept down the swollen Dnipro River.
The Nova Kakhovka dam disaster coincides with a looming, long-vaunted
counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces against Russia's invasion, seen as the next
major phase of the war. The sides traded blame for continued shelling across the
flood zone and warned of drifting landmines unearthed by the flooding.
Kyiv said on Wednesday its troops in the east had advanced by more than a
kilometer around the ruined city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, its most
explicit claim of progress since Russia reported the start of the Ukrainian
offensive this week. Russia said it had fought off the attack. Oleksiy Danilov,
secretary of Ukraine's national security council, said assaults under way were
still localized, and the full-scale offensive had yet to begin. "When we start
(it), everyone will know about it, they will see it," he told Reuters. Kyiv said
several months ago the dam had been mined by Russian forces that have controlled
it since early in the 15-month-old invasion, and has suggested Moscow blew it up
to try to stop Ukrainian forces crossing the Dnipro in their counteroffensive.
Residents in the flood zone in the country's south, which stretches to the
Dnipro estuary on the Black Sea, blamed the bursting of the dam on Russian
troops who controlled it from their positions on the opposite bank. "They hate
us," Reva said. "They want to destroy a Ukrainian nation and Ukraine itself. And
they don't care by what means because nothing is sacred for them." Russia
imposed a state of emergency in the parts of Kherson province it controls, where
many towns and villages lie in lowlands below the dam. In the town of Nova
Kakhovka right next to the dam, brown water submerged main streets largely empty
of residents. Valery Melnik, 53, said he had hoped for help from local
authorities to pump out the water from his swamped home, but so far "they are
not doing anything". Over 30,000 cubic meters of water were gushing out of the
dam's reservoir every second and the town was at risk of contamination from the
torrent, Russia's TASS news agency quoted the Russian-installed mayor, Vladimir
Leontyev, as saying. Ukraine expects the floodwaters will stop rising by the end
of Wednesday after reaching around five meters (16.5 feet) overnight,
presidential deputy chief Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two thousand people have been
evacuated from the Ukrainian-controlled part of the flood zone and waters had
reached their highest level in 17 settlements with a combined population of
16,000 people. TASS said water levels could remain elevated in places for up to
10 days.
Counterattack
The mighty Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine forms the front line across the
south. The huge reservoir behind the dam was one of Ukraine's main geographic
features, and its waters irrigated large areas of one of the world's biggest
grain-exporting nations, including Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014.
"The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully realized in the
coming days," United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths told the UN Security
Council. Targeting dams in war is explicitly banned by the Geneva Conventions.
Neither side has presented public evidence demonstrating who was responsible.
"The whole world will know about this Russian war crime," Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address, calling it "an environmental
bomb of mass destruction". Earlier he said Russia blew up the hydro-electric
power plant from within. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday Ukraine
had sabotaged the dam to distract attention from a new counteroffensive he said
was "faltering". The United States said it was still gathering evidence about
who was to blame, but that Ukraine would have had no reason to inflict such
devastation on itself. Even with the evacuation under way, Russia shelled
Ukrainian-held territory across the river. Crumps of incoming artillery sent
people trying to flee running for cover in Kherson. Reuters reporters heard four
incoming artillery blasts near a residential neighborhood that civilians were
vacating on Tuesday evening. The governor said one person was killed. For its
part, Russia said a Ukrainian drone had struck a town on the opposite bank
during evacuations there and accused the Ukrainian side of continuing shelling
despite the flooding. The emptying reservoir supplies water that cools Europe's
biggest nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia upstream. The UN nuclear watchdog
said the plant should have enough water from a separate pond to cool its
reactors for "some months".
Russia and Ukraine Say Ammonia Pipeline Was Damaged, in
Potential Blow to Grain Deal
AFP/07 June 2023
A pipeline used to transport ammonia fertilizer from Russia via Ukraine which
may be central to the future of the Black Sea grain deal has been damaged,
according to both Kyiv and Moscow, potentially complicating talks around the
accord. Russia's defense ministry said a "Ukrainian sabotage group" had blown up
a section of the pipeline on Monday night near the village of Masyutivka in
Kharkiv region. The village is on the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian
troops. "As a result of this terrorist act, there were civilian casualties. They
have been provided with necessary medical assistance," the Russian ministry said
in a statement. "At present ammonia residues are being blown out of the damaged
sections of the pipeline from Ukrainian territory. There are no casualties among
Russian servicemen."Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of Ukraine's Kharkiv region
gave a different version of events. He said in a statement posted on Telegram
that Russian troops had shelled the pipeline. Six Russian shells had landed near
a pumping station near Masyutivka at around 5.45 pm (1445 GMT) on Tuesday,
nearly 24 hours after Moscow alleged Ukraine had blown up the same pipeline, he
said. Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian
assertions. Resumption of supplies via the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline, the world's
longest ammonia pipeline, may be key to the renewal of the Black Sea grain
export deal. The pipeline has been closed since Russia invaded Ukraine in
February 2022 in what it called a "special military operation".
Russia has repeatedly cast doubt on whether it will continue to renew the grain
deal, brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye, which facilitates agricultural
exports from Ukraine via the Black Sea. Among the conditions for renewal that
Moscow has put forward is resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline.
Moscow has said it will limit the number of ships allowed to travel to Ukraine's
Pivdennyi port near Odesa under the deal until the pipeline is restarted. In a
briefing on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
it would take between one and three months to repair the damaged section of the
pipeline. "The ammonia pipeline was one of the linchpins of the implementation
of the agreements made in Istanbul on July 22. The (pipeline) was key to global
food security," Zakharova said.
Would Europeans Back Washington in a
U.S.-China War? A New Survey Might Surprise You
Yasmeen Serhan/Time/Wed, June 7, 2023
In recent months, the U.S. and the E.U. have sought to portray a mostly united
front when it comes to China. Both Washington and Brussels have called out
Beijing over its support for Russia amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and
both have firmly opposed any attempts to alter the status quo around Taiwan, the
self-governed democracy to which Beijing lays claim. But as much as American and
European leaders may appear to be in lockstep on China, the same cannot be said
for their respective populations. According to new findings published by the
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on Wednesday, a majority of
Europeans see China as a “necessary partner” rather than as a rival or
adversary, unlike most Americans. What’s more, in the event of a potential
conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, most Europeans would prefer to
stay out of it. The findings, which stem from a poll of more than 16,000 people
across 11 E.U. member states, offer a stark contrast to the conventional view
that there is a certain symmetry between what is happening in Ukraine and what
could yet happen in Taiwan. Both have had their sovereignty denied by more
powerful, authoritarian neighbors in Russia and China, respectively. But this
isn’t necessarily all that surprising. Whereas U.S. President Joe Biden has put
forward a hawkish stance against China—dubbing Beijing the most serious
competitor to America and pledging to defend Taiwan against Chinese incursion
—European leaders have held more mixed views, ranging from E.U. Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen’s calls to “de-risk” the bloc’s relationship with
Beijing to French President Emmanuel Macron’s more conciliatory approach of
treating China as a strategic partner. This discrepancy bears out in public
opinion. Whereas more Americans are likely to regard China as a competitor (52%)
or enemy (38%), according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, European
attitudes toward China are more mixed. On average, 43% of Europeans view China
as “a necessary partner” as opposed to 24% who see the country as a rival or 11%
who see it as an adversary. This is despite the fact that a majority of
Europeans recognize China as being a close partner to Russia, which a majority
of Europeans regard as a rival or adversary to Europe.
It’s perhaps for this reason that, when asked how their country should respond
to a potential conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, a majority of
Europeans (62%) said that they should remain neutral. Pawel Zerka, a Paris-based
senior policy fellow at ECFR and a co-author of the report, tells TIME that this
position isn’t a reflection of Europeans’ feelings toward the U.S. (which most
Europeans recognize as a close ally and partner) or Taiwan’s territorial
integrity. “The Taiwan or China question is still very abstract to European
citizens,” Zerka says. “For Europeans, these are incomparable things: the war in
Ukraine, which is actually happening next to our borders and that we are closely
following, versus a very distant Taiwan, where there is not yet any war and
which is not very much discussed.”
This position has been most prominently articulated by Macron, who following a
visit to China in April warned that Europeans should avoid becoming “America’s
followers” when it comes to Taiwan, noting that Europe should avoid the “trap”
of getting involved in crises “that are not ours.” It’s a position that earned
Macron flak among his allies, including fellow E.U. member states such as
Lithuania, which has deep ties with Taiwan and has even opened a de facto
embassy for the island nation. Europe’s position vis à vis China could yet
change—particularly if Beijing wades into the war in Ukraine. While China
remains an important trading partner for Russia, it has yet to support Russia
militarily. If Beijing were to supply Moscow with weapons and ammunition, as the
U.S. claims it is considering, as much as 41% of Europeans would support
imposing sanctions, even if it resulted in damage to Western economies.
Just as Europeans’ views of Russia hardened following its invasion of Ukraine,
Zerka says the same could yet happen if Beijing were to do the same with Taiwan.
But so long as it remains a distant hypothetical, the scope of that movement
will be difficult to gauge. “Before the war in Ukraine, most Europeans were
seeing Russia as partners, not as rivals or adversaries,” says Zerka. “But the
war radically changed their perception. … It’s only when such events happen when
we would really be able to see whether European perceptions and attitudes have
changed or not.”
Fate of Israel’s Judicial Plan May Hang on June Parliament
Vote
AP /07 June 2023
Israel's Knesset will hold a vote next week that could tip the scales against a
drive by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right coalition to curb the
Supreme Court, a move that set off one of the country's worst political crises
in years. Parliament on June 14 is set to elect two lawmakers to join a panel
that will select judges, including to the Supreme Court, one of the few checks
and balances in Israel's political system. The make up of the nine-member panel
of lawmakers, senior judges, ministers and lawyers has been at the heart of a
battle over the nature of Israel's democracy, which began in January when the
government announced a plan to overhaul the judiciary. This touched off protests
and Western powers voiced concern about what it meant for Israel's democratic
health. If one of the two lawmakers chosen is from the opposition - keeping the
status quo - it would be a sign of compromise by Netanyahu after weeks of talks
with his opponents and a setback for hardliners in his religious-nationalist
government who want more control over judicial appointments. It could affect the
Supreme Court, which must replace the chief justice and another judge, in coming
months. "There are no guarantees with someone you don't trust," opposition head
Yair Lapid told Army Radio, although he and other lawmakers have indicated over
the past week that agreements on candidates for the panel have been reached. But
Netanyahu's Likud party has kept the opposition guessing, saying on Monday a
decision would be made next week. The possibility that an opposition lawmaker
would be named to the panel has pushed the shekel up some 3% this week, with a
1.1% gain to a two-week high of 3.644 per dollar. Critics denounce the judicial
plan pushed by Netanyahu, who is on trial on graft charges that he denies. They
say the move to let parliament override many Supreme Court decisions threatens
the independence of the courts and endangers democracy. The court acts as a
check in Israel's political system which has few other balances, given it has
just one chamber of parliament.
Washington wants consensus
Until now, Netanyahu's talks with the opposition to defuse the crisis have
yielded little. He has also sent mixed messages about the overhaul's fate,
compounding uncertainty that has hit the economy and the shekel. The vote on the
panel makeup could provide clarity for Israelis and Western allies, including
Washington which has urged Netanyahu to reach a consensus over legal reforms. If
parliament adheres to a custom in the confidential vote by electing an
opposition member, it would signal to opponents that Netanyahu was serious about
a compromise and was ready to adjust his judicial plan. Facing dissension from
within his party, Netanyahu told Likud on May 29: "The reform is not dead, but
we are making every effort in talks in order to reach broad agreements." Likud
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a driving force behind the overhaul plan, says he
and his allies want to give elected politicians more sway over what they see as
a left-leaning and over-reaching Supreme Court. Critics say it will politicize
the judiciary. Lawmaker Keti Shitrit, who is on the Likud team that is in
negotiations with the opposition, said: "The reform will happen, just not in its
original form."The Prime Minister's Office Director-General Yossi Shelly played
down questions about the judicial discussion. "I think that ultimately it will
end positively," he told Kan radio.
No Change Expected in Türkiye’s Approach to Syria as New
Govt Takes Office
Ankara: Saeed Abdelrazek/Asharq Al Awsat/June 07/2023
As soon as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the formation of his
new government, which held its first meeting on Tuesday, questions were raised
over Türkiye’s approach to the Syria. In fact, the new government lineup
includes three ministers who have extensive experience in handling the Syrian
file, and knowledge of the minutes and details of the Russian-sponsored talks
aimed at normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus. The new foreign
minister, Hakan Fidan, is the former intelligence chief, who initiated the first
contacts with Syria and laid the basis for launching the talks through his
meetings with head of the Syrian National Security Bureau Ali Mamlouk. Moreover,
Turkish intelligence, under the leadership of Fidan, carried out sophisticated
operations targeting leaders of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the
largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the killing of the
supposed leader of ISIS, Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi in Jandris, northern Syria.
Turkish intelligence has established an effective presence in northern Syria
under his leadership. Ibrahim Kalin, former official spokesman for the
presidency, was named as Fidan’s replacement as head of intelligence. Kalin is
also strongly involved in the Syrian file, as he was a security advisor to
Erdogan, and used to handle contacts with Russian and American representatives,
as well as European officials and various circles engaged in Syria. New minister
of Defense Yasar Guler is a former army chief of staff. He participated and
supervised the four Turkish military operations in northern Syria from 2016 to
2020. He was commander of the ground forces during the Euphrates Shield in 2016
and the Olive Branch in 2018, then chief of staff as of 2018. He also supervised
the Peace Spring operation in northeastern Syria, and the Spring Shield in Idlib
in 2020. In a statement after being appointed to his new post, Fidan stressed
that he will continue to maintain an independent national vision for Türkiye.
The new defense minister also confirmed that Turkish forces will maintain their
tasks in preserving the country’s security and combating terrorism.
Both statements point that there would be no change in Türkiye’s current policy
towards Syria, politically or on the ground. The normalization talks will
continue, while a military withdrawal from northern Syria will not be imminent.
A meeting of the Quartet Mechanism to develop a roadmap for normalization
between Türkiye and Syria is scheduled to be held later this month. It will
include the deputy foreign and defense ministers, and officials from the
intelligence services of the two countries, along with Russia and Iran, within
the framework of the Astana track.
Egypt's Sisi Begins African Tour Targeting Political,
Economic Cooperation
Cairo/Asharq Al Awsat/07 June 2023
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi kicked off on Tuesday an African tour
that includes Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique. Sisi will participate in the 22nd
summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), during
which the rotating chairmanship will be handed over from Egypt to Zambia.
Presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said Sisi's tour comes within Egypt's
keenness to intensify communication and coordination with African nations. Fahmy
indicated that the visits aim to boost Egyptian relations with the countries in
various fields, especially by strengthening cooperation at economic, trade, and
investment levels. The tour addresses the advanced priority accorded to African
issues in Egyptian foreign policy. Observers told Asharq Al-Awsat that the tour
is geopolitically important to Cairo and opens a new horizon for Egyptian
diplomacy in southern Africa. They added that it focuses on boosting bilateral
cooperation, dealing with the continent's concerns, and discussing regional
developments. Egypt has intensified its diplomatic activity in Africa in the
last ten years. According to an official report by the Egyptian State
Information Service, African countries accounted for more than 30 percent of all
presidential visits in recent years. During the past year, Sisi participated in
several summits concerned with Africa, including the US-Africa Leaders' Summit
in Washington and the 6th session of the AU-EU Summit between the African Union
(AU) and the European Union (EU) in Brussels. Ambassador Ali al-Hefny described
Sisi's current tour as "extremely important," explaining that it targets several
countries in southern Africa that were given less priority in Egyptian foreign
policy than other regions. The former official stressed the importance of
presidential visits to African countries, pointing out that they represent
Egypt's keenness to communicate with them at the highest levels. Zambia and
Angola boast promising opportunities to work with Egypt at the official level
and with the business community, he went on to say. In 2019, Egypt chaired the
AU, launching several cooperation initiatives, including the "Silencing the
Guns" initiative to reduce armed conflicts in Africa. It also launched the Aswan
Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development to act as an African platform to
discuss various threats and challenges facing the continent. Egypt participates
in a group of major continental projects, especially in transportation linking
the continent's northern and southern ends through the river navigation corridor
between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea. Expert in African affairs Rami
Zuhdi said Sisi's visit has promising economic potential, especially in mining
and oil production. Zuhdi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the tour has "geopolitical"
importance, which "opens new horizons for Egyptian diplomacy." He indicated that
revitalizing Egypt's role in COMESA is essential for boosting its presence in
the continent. Egypt is seeking to consolidate its African presence by adopting
a set of cooperation, trade, and cultural exchange programs. Last month, it
hosted the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group with the
participation of central bank governors, finance ministers, and officials
representing the 81 member countries. Egypt is the third largest economy in
Africa in terms of GDP after Nigeria and South Africa. Cairo and Ethiopia
account for about 63 percent of the total foreign direct investment within the
COMESA group in the petroleum, services,nd manufacturing sectors.
EU, US tell Kosovo to back down in Serb
standoff or face 'consequences'
PRISTINA/BRUSSELS (Reuters)
The United States and the European Union told Kosovo on Wednesday to back down
in a tense standoff with Serbs in the north of the country or face
"consequences" from its longtime Western allies. The warnings came as U.S. and
EU envoys concluded visits to Kosovo and Serbia to calm tensions that flared
into violence last week, wounding dozens of NATO peace-keeping soldiers and Serb
protesters in northern Kosovo. The violence erupted after Kosovo authorities
installed ethnic Albanian mayors in municipal offices. The mayors were elected
on a turnout of just 3.5% after Serbs who form a majority in the region
boycotted local polls. U.S. envoy to the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar said
that Kosovo must give greater autonomy to the Serb-majority municipalities if it
wants to move closer to joining NATO and the EU. "The actions taken or not taken
could have some consequences that will affect parts of the relationship (between
Kosovo and the United States), I don't want to get there," Escobar told Kosovo
media on Tuesday before going to Belgrade. He and the EU's Miroslav Lajcak did
not elaborate on what other consequences Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's
ethnic Albanian-dominated government might face if it did not accede to their
demands. "I don't think that these things are resolved with pressure and by
mentioning consequences and even sanctions," Kurti told reporters on Wednesday.
"We have challenges with EU and U.S. envoys but our bilateral relations with the
EU and U.S. are excellent." Lajcak said on Monday that the envoys presented
proposals to Kurti to de-escalate the situation in northern Kosovo, adding they
had a "long, honest, difficult discussion".
FRESH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
The United States and the EU have called on Kurti to withdraw the mayors from
their offices and to pull out the special police units that helped install them
form the northern municipalities. They have also called for fresh local
elections to be held in the north, with Serb participation, and for Kosovo to
implement a 2013 agreement to set up an association of Serb municipalities to
give that community more autonomy. Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani told Reuters
that the country could hold fresh elections in those municipalities if 20% of
voters sign a petition asking for them. A senior official in Kosovo told Reuters
that Western nations - which have been staunch backers of the country's
independence since it formally broke with Serbia in 2008 - had warned Kurti that
Kosovo could face multiple punitive measures. Last week, Washington cancelled
the country's participation in a U.S.-led military exercise, Defender Europe. EU
foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said Lajacak would report back to foreign
policy chief Josep Borrell, who would then consult with EU member countries. He
said that "only then they will discuss potential next steps or measures
depending on whether the parties undertake sincere and immediate steps to
de-escalate or no”. NATO has around 4,000 troops in Kosovo and ordered in an
extra 700 as a response to the flare-up in violence.
Blinken to meet Gulf officials in Saudi as
alliances shift
Agence France Presse/June 07/2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to meet Gulf Arab officials in Saudi
Arabia Wednesday at a time of rapidly shifting alliances following the oil-rich
kingdom's rapprochement with Iran. Blinken will attend a Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) ministerial meeting in the capital Riyadh, a day after he flew
into Jeddah and held talks with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Mohammed bin
Salman, in which he raised human rights issues. Relations between Washington and
Riyadh, decades-old allies, have been strained in recent times mainly over human
rights and oil, after U.S. pleas for help in bringing down skyrocketing prices
last year were dismissed. The three-day visit is Blinken's first since the
kingdom restored diplomatic ties with Iran, which the West considers a pariah
over its contested nuclear activities and involvement in regional conflicts. On
Tuesday, the day Blinken arrived, Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh after a
seven-year closure, with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Bigdeli hailing
a "new era" in ties. On the same day, Prince Mohammed hosted Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro, the head of a fellow oil power who has long sparred
with Washington.
Last month, in a major shift, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad attended an Arab
League summit in Jeddah, his first since Syria's membership was suspended at the
start of a 12-year civil war. Washington criticized the decision to invite Assad.
- 'Open, candid discussion' -
Wednesday's meeting at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh was expected to be
attended by Qatar's prime minister among other top Gulf officials.
On the agenda were key regional issues, including conflicts in Yemen,
Sudan, Syria and the Palestinian territories, Qatar's foreign ministry
spokesperson Majid al-Ansari said on Tuesday. "The meeting undoubtedly
constitutes an opportunity to draw a common position here in the region in
relation to the United States of America and to define the form of the American
positive influence in the region through partnership with the GCC," he said.
Later, Blinken will hold separate talks with Saudi Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Blinken's visit is aimed at boosting ties with
longtime ally Saudi Arabia, which has begun forging closer relations with
Washington's rivals. The visit will also focus on
efforts to end conflicts in Sudan and Yemen, the joint battle against the
Islamic State group (IS) and the Arab world's relations with Israel. Blinken had
"an open, candid discussion" with the 37-year-old Prince Mohammed in Jeddah, a
U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. "The
secretary raised human rights both generally and with regards to specific
issues," the official said. The meeting, which lasted about 100 minutes, touched
on topics including Saudi Arabia's support for U.S. evacuations from Sudan, the
need for political dialogue in Yemen and the potential for the normalization of
relations with Israel. The two men discussed "our shared priorities, including
countering terrorism through the D-ISIS Coalition, achieving peace in Yemen, and
deepening economic and scientific cooperation," Blinken said on social media.
Since announcing resumed relations with Iran in March, Saudi Arabia has restored
ties with Tehran ally Syria and ramped up a push for peace in Yemen, where it
has for years led a military coalition against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
Regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads for years,
backing opposing sides in a number of conflicts around the volatile region.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on June 07-08/2023
Demographic Jihad: Baby Muhammads Overrun the West
Raymond Ibrahim/June 08/2023
Newborn baby Muhammads are taking Western Europe by storm—with Berlin being the
latest target. According to a May 8, 2023 report,
The first name Mohammed has gained popularity in Germany in the past year…. In
Berlin, Mohammed was the most popular first name for boys in 2022. Last year he
had ranked third…. In Bremen, the first name Mohammed has moved up from third
place to second place…. In Hesse, too, the name of the Muslim prophet is on the
rise. There he fought his way from eighth to third place.
This trend is occurring all throughout Western Europe. Muhammad is the most
popular name in the United Kingdom; in major Belgian cities—including Brussels,
the EU capital; in Oslo, the capital of Norway; and in the Netherlands’ largest
cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.
This is to say nothing of other Arabic/Muslim names, which are also topping the
charts of newborn baby names. According to a 2015 report, in the UK,
There is a surge in Arabic names generally, with Nur a new entry in the girls’
top 100, jumping straight to number 29, and Maryam rising 59 places to number
35. Omar, Ali, and Ibrahim are new to the boys’ top 100.
Even in the United States, in 2019, Muhammad made the list of top 10 baby names.
“Arabic names are on the rise this year,” the BabyCenter said, “with Muhammad
and Aaliyah entering the top 10 and nudging Mason and Layla off.”
All this may seem innocuous enough. After all, what’s in a name?
On the other hand, because more numbers equate more power and influence, many
Muslims see their progeny as their contribution to the jihad — the ancient
“struggle” to make Islam supreme.
A video from last year of Muslims and Danes quarreling in Denmark makes this
clear. In the video, one Muslim man can be heard yelling the following words to
a Dane:
We have five children, you only have one or two. In 10 to 15 years there will be
more Pakistanis than Danes in this country!… The Danes are five million, soon
you’ll be exterminated. Look at the Swedes, look at the Norwegians, look at the
Finns, man! We are multiples [of] millions, man!
The clamorous Muslim goes on to accuse Europeans of preferring bestiality to
marriage—hence their dearth of children. Soon other Muslims chime in. One says,
“I just got married and will also have five children.” Others start yelling
about how the Danes’ “mothers will be pregnant again,” because their mothers and
sisters are “whores” (who presumably sleep around with the Muslims). Others
chant, “This isn’t Denmark anymore, this is Paki-land,” repeated several times:
“We are taking over your country.”
This kind of thinking has a long pedigree. “We have 50 million Muslims in
Europe,” Muammar Gaddafi said back in 2006, before more realistically adding,
“There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords,
without guns, without conquest — will turn it into a Muslim continent within a
few decades.”
Ongoing reports and polls suggest this long cherished Muslim dream may not be so
farfetched. Thus, in the United Kingdom, “Muslim hate fanatics plan to take over
Britain by having more babies and forcing a population explosion,” a report
revealed back in 2008: “The swollen Muslim population would be enough to conquer
Britain from inside.” Two years later, “Estimates in 2010 showed that Europe had
44 million Muslims.”
One Pew report found that one out of every three people on earth is set to be a
Muslim by 2070. Another Pew report says that the Muslim population of Europe is
set to triple by 2050 — just when all those baby Muhammads are coming of age.
In Germany, about 20 percent of the population is set to be Muslim by 2050.
Considering that the average Muslim man is more zealous over his way of and
purpose in (Islamic) life than the average German male, 20 percent may well be
enough for an Islamic takeover of — or at least mass havoc in — Germany.
Incidentally, this “baby jihad” can be achieved with either Muslim or non-Muslim
(infidel) women. As an example of the latter, a Muslim imam was videotaped
saying that, because European men lack virility, their women seek fertility
among Muslim men:
We will give them fertility! We will breed children with them, because we will
conquer their countries! Whether you like it or not, you Germans, Americans,
French, and Italians and all those akin to you [Western people]—take in the
refugees. For soon we will call them [and their Western-born sons] in the name
of the coming caliphate! And we will say to you, ‘These are our sons.’
Similarly, the diary of Patrick Kabele, an African Muslim man who was living and
arrested in Britain for trying to join the Islamic State — his primary motive
being to purchase a nine-year-old sex slave — had references that only
likeminded Muslims would understand: in an effort, as the aforementioned imam
said, to use European women as incubators and “breed children with them,” Kabele
noted that he had been “seeding some women over here, UK white,” adding, “I dont
[sic] kiss anymore.” (Unlike straightforward mating, kissing is deemed an
intimate act, and Muslims, in keeping with the doctrine of “love and hate” (or
al-wala’ w’al-bara’) must always hate non-Muslims — even when copulating with or
married to them.
This same strategy is being used in the Muslim world against Christian
minorities. Unlike in the West, however, where women freely give themselves to
Muslims, Christian minorities are seized and seeded by Muslim men.
Even so, Muslim women remain the primary incubators for this demographic jihad —
and many of them see it as their obligation. A Christian Eritrean volunteer and
translator, who worked in migrant centers in Germany and was often assumed to be
Muslim by the migrants, once confessed that “Muslim migrants often confide in
her and tell her about their dislike towards Christians,” and that “a number of
the Muslim migrants she has spoken to have revealed a hatred for Christians and
are determined to destroy the religion.” How they plan on doing this is telling:
Some women told me, ‘We will multiply our numbers. We must have more children
than the Christians because it’s the only way we can destroy them here.’
Not that many Western Europeans seem to care; some are even glad to see their
own kind die off and be replaced by Muslims — such as Dr. Stefanie von Berg, who
exulted before the German parliament:
Mrs. President, ladies and gentlemen. Our society will change. Our city will
change radically. I hold that in 20, 30 years there will no longer be a [German]
majority in our city. …. And I want to make it very clear, especially towards
those right wingers: This is a good thing!
From here one understands the true root of the immediate problem — and, as
usual, it is not so much procreating Muslims as it is perverse elements
dispersed throughout the West. Having turned its back on its founding faith and
Judeo-Christian principles, a moribund culture — typified by nihilism, hedonism,
cynicism, and, accordingly, dropping birth rates — simply has little worth
living for and gives way to a more zealous one.
The Need for a Progressive Right-Wing Intellectual
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/07 June 2023
There is probably no figure quite like Edmund Burke in the Arab world today. The
18th-century Irish-British who, to a large extent, laid the foundations of
conservative political thought through his critique of the French Revolution,
developed a philosophy that advocates gradual change rather than radical
revolution. Burke stressed the need to safeguard tradition and the institutions
already in place, calling for a practical approach to development and reform
that respects the unique cultural and historical contexts of different countries
and societies.
Echoes of Burke’s philosophy, however, can be found in contemporary Arab
politics, especially during and in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring”. Indeed,
some of the conservative leaders in the Arab world have demonstrated pragmatic
leadership and strategic acumen in their struggle against the triple threat of
Muslim Brotherhood’s political Islam (in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan),
Iran’s revolutionary political Islam (in Yemen and Iraq), and “Jihadist”
terrorism.
The same is true for their struggle with the loud liberal left, which often ends
up providing a platform for Islamic movements that swiftly build on the ruins of
the political institutions that had been built by the left, as happened
following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
This school of Arab politics, which is embodied by the rulers of Saudi Arabia
and the UAE, has been leading one of the most sensitive social and economic
shifts in the history of the region. They are pursuing gradual change through
reform that does not clash with the heritage of their countries, whereby
political and social stability is prioritized. Thus, despite lacking theoretical
and philosophical underpinnings, their approach reflects Burke’s philosophy.
One of Burke’s fundamental arguments is that: “The true statesman is he who
combines in himself the propensity to preserve what exists with the capacity to
improve and develop it” without fearing the contradiction this entails. In
practice, it advocates reform founded on gradual change, the development of
governance, and cautious modernization that is mindful of the need to preserve
particular elements of tradition. This approach can clearly be seen in the
progress currently underway in the region in terms of women’s rights, the
adoption of technology, economic diversification, the development of laws that
promote gender equality, and the promotion of tolerance and social stability.
Meanwhile, after the 2011 Arab uprisings and prior to their outbreak (i.e.,
since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 that sought a “hostile democratization” of
the Middle East through the overthrow of the regime in Baghdad), the complex
mosaic that is the social fabric of the region was blown up in stages. Indeed,
its social history, collective memory, and traditional institutions were
desecrated, and these elements were wantonly unaccounted for in strategies for
engendering the development so badly needed in these countries.
In contrast to other global leaders who called for immediate democratization
during and before the Arab Spring, the conservative political leaders of the
region emphasized cautious pragmatism. Weary of the expansion of the Iranian
revolutionary project or Islamists ascending to power, their approach was built
on staving off the dangerous repercussions for the region that could be brought
about by sudden shifts. Their experiences during this period laid the political
foundations for a strategy that combines stability and flexibility in a region
fraught with turbulent change and revolutionary dynamics, which are inherently
unpredictable and always raise the specter of chaos.
While the political foundations of this approach were laid through practical
experience, it has an acute need for theoretical and philosophical foundations
laid by a “progressive conservative,” “liberal conservative,” or “progressive
right-wing” intellectual.
I accept that all these concepts are reductionist for various reasons. First and
foremost, the right-wing/ left-wing dichotomy emerged through the Western
experience of partisan competition and on the basis of the dynamics that arose
as a result of the push and pull between social and cultural transformations, on
the one hand, and monarchical regimes, on the other. Meanwhile, political
thought in the Arab world was built on the dynamics that arose amid the
interplay between the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the dynamics of
colonialism. Thus, it primarily revolved around governance and sources of
legitimacy.
Between the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century, one could point to Arab
intellectuals and political bodies that could be loosely associated with
“progressive conservatism,” “liberal conservatism,” or “progressive right-wing
thought.” The region was home to both civic-minded figures who meet this
description, like Taha Hussein, Lotfi al-Sayed, the upper brass of the Wafd
Party, and before them all, Rifat Al-Tahtaw (1801- 1873), and religious figures
like Sheikh Mohammed Abduh, around whom secular intellectuals like Taha Hussein
and Qasim Amin gravitated.
Lebanon also had its fair share of progressive right-wing figures. Though he was
something of a secular extremist, Shibli Shumayyel was one. More reasonable
Lebanese figures include Farah Antoun, Butrus al-Bustani, and Fares Chidiac.
Once the 1950s and its nationalist revolutions arrived with Gamal Abdel Nasser,
who was followed by precursors to the rise of the “Baath” and its various evils,
the fragile foundations of progressive conservative Arab political thought were
destroyed. This process was coupled with the systematic elimination of
rationality and moderation to the benefit of radical revolutionary ambition.
While the Arab right endured politically through the conservative regimes that
chose to come to an understanding with the United States amid the Cold War, it
continues to lack philosophical, political and moral theorization to this day.
Meanwhile, left-wing and Islamic political cultures dominate political thought
and debates on contemporary issues.
More dangerously perhaps, the diplomatic and political elites of these
conservative political regimes are educated in Western universities, which are
also dominated by the left. As a result, we have either elites who are left
struggling to reconcile the knowledge they had accumulated prior to entering
university, the things they learned in left-wing academic environments, and the
character of their governments and political systems. Or we have elites who
oppose the status quo and play the over-simplistic game of “democracy versus
tyranny,” or elites who believe in their country’s political project but lack
the progressive right-wing intellectual underpinnings needed to present a
comprehensive and coherent narrative that defends the political choices of their
countries, governments, and societies.
The Arab world desperately needs to generate a right-wing intellectual and a
progressive right-wing culture that defends various paths towards stability and
progress that go beyond preconceived notions regarding a struggle between
democracy and tyranny. This would allow for putting forward and defending the
viability of the conservative-progressive approach for overcoming the Arab
world’s current plight and leading the Arabs toward stability, prosperity, and
cohesion over the next few years.
Russia is in Trouble
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/07 June 2023
The Ukrainians and the Russians exchanged blame over the attack on Nova Kakhovka
dam in an area in Kherson (southern Ukraine) controlled by Russia. The attack
reminds us of the scale of the troubling predicament Russia now finds itself in.
It is a troubling predicament because Russia’s war on Ukraine has yet to achieve
any decisive results. All it has brought about is additional sanctions and
complications. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are preparing to launch their
counteroffensive, which is believed to have actually begun unannounced,
exacerbating Russia’s quandary.
Every war has two tracks: a military track, and the that of negotiation.
Whatever the belligerents fail to achieve militarily is negotiated over. In
turn, the outcome of these negotiations is largely shaped by the results on the
battlefield.
So far, there are no signs that things will change in Russia’s favor on ground.
No serious negotiations are being held to end this war. While the destruction in
Ukraine will get worse the longer the conflict goes on, its perpetuation makes
things more difficult for the Russians as well. The odds, once we account for
internal and external factors, are not in the Russians’ favor.
As far as the Ukrainians are concerned. They have nothing to lose, and ending
the war, even if that meant losing territory, would be a victory. Meanwhile, any
other outcome would be a defeat to the Russians, who are finding it difficult to
keep the areas they claimed to have annexed under control.
The attack on the dam has been interpreted as a tactic intended to impede
Ukraine’s counter-advance through flooding. Whoever destroyed the dam, which was
built in 1956, the attack demonstrates that patience is wearing thin and that
there is no diplomatic track.
Once again, this turns our attention to Russia’s trouble. Moscow is fighting a
battle against all of Europe and the United States. It has n real options on the
horizon or a concrete plan that can help it make some progress on the ground.
Thus, they have no easy choices to make.
Anyone following the debate in Europe or the United States would notice that
many people are paying attention to this. They are awaiting the Ukrainian
counteroffensive because it will make things worse. The Russians will soon
realize this.
Russia’s fatal mistake was not its military or diplomatic strategy. It dealt
itself a fatal blow once it decided to enter this war in the first place. Since
then, Russia’s fate has been shaped by Western-American sanctions and morally
devastating military strikes rather than its leaders.
Declaring war on Ukraine was the easiest decision the Russian president has ever
taken. However, the decision to end the war will be the most difficult, not for
President Putin but for all of Russia and its future. Indeed, the war has
undermined its authority and influence, as well as complicating its ties to its
neighbors.
The assumption is that neither the West nor the United States will seek Chinese
mediation to end the war. It is Russia that should do it. It is in Russia’s
interest to see this war ended now through a mediator who has no interest in
defeating Moscow. The Chinese might only want to weaken the Russians.
This is the least Russia could do. It is the least painful way to end the war.
Though it would mean the defeat of the Russians, they put themselves in this
embarrassing situation or predicament. Thus, the interests of the Russians now
dictate soliciting Chinese mediation because Moscow’s choices are all difficult.