English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 12/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The Parable Of The Lost Son
Luke15/11-31/:"He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.  Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.  He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.  He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.  But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!  I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.  I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;  for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on.  He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’  But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.  But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’  “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 11-12/2023
What Does The Lost Son Parable Teach Us/Elias Bejjani/March 12/2023
Saudi FM: Lebanon needs Lebanese and not Iranian-Saudi rapprochement
Berri reportedly preparing to visit Saudi Arabia
Makary honoring Klaib: Represents calm & constructive word, free & responsible opinion
Mikati's Press Office issues response statement to Bassil's words
Bou Habib: Saudi Arabia & Iran's agreement to resume diplomatic relations will positively impact overall regional relations in the next stage
Berri hails Saudi-Iranian agreement: The will of convergence is triumphant
Makary during a panel discussion held by 'May Chidiac Foundation': Image of media freedom in Lebanon is not dark, we work according to what the...
Cardinal MacRoy tours Qadisha's Holy Valley
Lebanon wins two awards from "Arab Tourism Media Union" for 2023: Best Arab Tourism Site, Best Arab Promotional Campaign
Bassil: The Prime Minister does not sign Decree 565 pertaining to nationality restoration because the majority are Christians
Culture Minister inaugurates activities of "Russian Culture Festival in Beirut": Our world is in dire need of adopting the language of art,
Makhzoumi: Resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia & Iran confirms the Kingdom's wisdom, wise leadership
Lebanon Seeks to Address Dispute between Security Officers, Iraqi Students
Controversy as maritime border document suggests Lebanon recognized Israel
The Lebanon contagion: Record debt levels are intensifying the region’s challenges/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 11/2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 11-12/2023
Iran, KSA to restore ties in major step for Middle East
Israel opposition sees Saudi-Iran deal as Netanyahu failure
Saudi-Iran breakthrough adds new twist to Israel's Arab outreach
Iran says deal reached to buy Russian fighter jets
Iran joins four-way Moscow talks with Turkiye, Syria
Gunmen kill two police in Iran’s southeast: state media
Tunisia's Saied to restore diplomatic ties with Syria
West Bank Palestinian village on edge after Israeli settler attacks
Russian shelling kills Kherson residents, Zelenskiy denounces 'terrorist attacks'
Wagner boss says the Kremlin won't talk to him anymore after he complained that Russia isn't giving his troops enough ammo
Egypt, Norway Discuss Energy
Algeria is Main Supplier of Energy to Spain Despite Western Sahara Tensions
Iraq to Enforce Law in Diyala
Iraq seizes three million captagon pills on Syria border

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 11-12/2023
There’s a Menace Hanging Over Brazil/Vanessa Barbara/The New York Times/March, 11/2023
Biden Administration Allowing Iran's Mullahs to Join the "Nuclear Club"/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute/March 11, 2023
Support for a two-state solution is declining, but what is the alternative?/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/March 11/2023
Is this the end of Saudi-Iranian tensions?/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/March 11/2023
Seven years of estrangement and bitter rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran come to an abrupt end/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/March 11/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 11-12/2023
What Does The Lost Son Parable Teach Us
Elias Bejjani/March 12/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73276/elias-bejjani-values-that-we-can-we-learn-from-the-lost-son-parable/
In our Maronite Catholic Church’s rite, on the Fourth Lent Sunday we recall and cite the biblical Lost Son’s parable that is known also as The Prodigal Son. (Lost Son) This impulsive, selfish and thoughtless son, as the parable tells us, fell prey to evil’s temptation and decided to take his share of his father’s inheritance and leave the parental dwelling.
He travelled to a far-away city where he indulged badly in all evil conducts of pleasure and corruption until he lost all his money and became penniless. He experienced severe poverty, starvation, humiliation and loneliness. In the midst of his dire hardships he felt nostalgic, came back to his senses and decided with great self confidence to return back to his father’s house, kneel on his feet and ask him for forgiveness. On his return his loving and kind father received him with rejoice, open arms, accepted his repentance, and happily forgave him all his misdeeds. Because of his sincere repentance his Father gave him back all his privileges as a son. This parable is a road map for repentance and forgiveness. It shows us how much Almighty God our Father loves us, we His children and how He is always ready with open arms and willing to forgive our sins and trespasses when we come back to our senses, recognize right from wrong, admit our weaknesses and wrongdoings, eagerly and freely return to Him and with faith and repentance ask for His forgiveness. Asking Almighty God for what ever we need is exactly what the Holy Bible instructs us to do when encountering all kinds of doubt, weaknesses, stumbling, hard times, sickness, loneliness, persecution, injustice etc.Matthew 07/07&08: “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened” All what we have to do is to pray and to ask Him with faith, self confidence and humility and He will respond. Matthew 21/22: “All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
We are not left alone at any time, especially when in trouble, no matter how far we distance ourselves from God and disobey His Holy bible. He is a Father, a loving, caring and forgiving Father. What is definite is that in spite of our foolishness, stupidity, ignorance, defiance and ingratitude He never ever abandons us or gives up on our salvation. He loves us because we His are children. He happily sent His only begotten son to be tortured, humiliated and crucified in a bid to absolve our original sin.’ God carries our burdens and helps us to fight all kinds of Evil temptations.
Matthew11/28-30: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
God is waiting for our repentance, let us run to Him and ask for forgiveness before it is too late

Saudi FM: Lebanon needs Lebanese and not Iranian-Saudi rapprochement
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Friday that “Lebanon needs Lebanese rapprochement, not Iranian-Saudi rapprochement,” a few hours after Tehran and Riyadh announced a reconciliation agreement. “Lebanon must seek its interest and politicians must put the Lebanese interest before any other interest,” Bin Farhan told Al-Arabiya TV. “When this happens and when a decision is taken in Lebanon to put the Lebanese interest first and work on building the Lebanese state, Lebanon will certainly prosper and the kingdom will be by its side,” the Saudi FM added. Iran and Saudi Arabia had agreed earlier on Friday to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions. The major diplomatic breakthrough negotiated with China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals -- both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region. "Removing misunderstandings and the future-oriented views in relations between Tehran and Riyadh will definitely lead to improving regional stability and security,” Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said. Iran long has backed the powerful Lebanese Shiite armed group and political party Hezbollah, while Saudi Arabia has backed the country's Sunni politicians as well as the Christian Lebanese Forces and the Druze Progressive Socialist Party. Easing tensions between Riyadh and Tehran could see the two push for a political reconciliation in Lebanon, which is facing a presidential vacuum and an unprecedented financial meltdown. --- Naharnet

Berri reportedly preparing to visit Saudi Arabia
Naharnet/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is preparing to visit Riyadh in the coming period, should circumstances allow him to carry out such a visit, highly informed sources have said. “He will try to play a certain role that would allow for reconciling viewpoints between his Hezbollah-led political camp and Saudi officials,” the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Saturday. The Speaker “will discuss means to resolve the Lebanese crisis, starting by the presidential juncture,” the sources added.The report comes a few hours after Saudi Arabia and Iran announced that they have decided to restore diplomatic ties following years of tensions.

Makary honoring Klaib: Represents calm & constructive word, free & responsible opinion
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Caretaker Information Minister Ziad Al-Makary wrote today on Twitter: "I was pleased to honor along with the Beirut Lions Progress Club, the esteemed journalist Sami Klaib, who represents the calm and constructive speech and the liberal and responsible opinion....At a time of excessive freedom, even chaos, the need for ethics in media and sophistication in expression grows, no matter how great the difference in opinion."

Mikati's Press Office issues response statement to Bassil's words
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
In an issued statement by Prime Minister Najib Mikati's press office this evening, it indicated that "the words of Free Patriotic Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, did not surprise the Prime Minister, who considers that Mr. Bassil only favors this kind of discourse that is far from national, political and moral behaviour, and that he only advocates hateful sectarian language and the distortion of facts....""In any case, the Prime Minister stresses that what MP Bassil stated is not worth the intellectual regression towards the content, and thus clarification was required," the statement concluded.

Bou Habib: Saudi Arabia & Iran's agreement to resume diplomatic relations will positively impact overall regional relations in the next stage
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, welcomed the “Chinese-Saudi-Iranian tripartite statement,” and said: “The agreement of Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations between them and to reopen their embassies and representations within a maximum period of two months, will leave a positive impact on all regional relations in the next stage."Bou Habib pointed out that "Lebanon has always paid, in its history and present, the price of regional disputes, and therefore, it is hoped that this step will contribute to strengthening the pillars of security and stability in the region, and the consolidation of positive and constructive cooperation that will inevitably benefit the countries of the region, their peoples and the world." Lebanon's Foreign Minister, thus, called for "taking advantage of this opportunity in order to engage in an Arab-Iranian dialogue on the basis of respect for the sovereignty of states, non-interference in their internal affairs, and the best good neighborly relations, which are the points agreed upon by the participants in the tripartite Beijing meetings."He also appreciated the "efforts and good offices made by several countries to heal the rift and ease tension, led by the Republic of Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman, far-reaching the recent mediation role played by the People's Republic of China, which were crowned by this important agreement."

Berri hails Saudi-Iranian agreement: The will of convergence is triumphant
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
House Speaker Nabih Berri, on Saturday, praised the agreement that was concluded between Saudi Arabia and Iran, under the auspices of the People's Republic of China, and the efforts that were made to achieve this agreement, especially on part of Iraq and Oman, which all led to the desired outcome with the gradual return of relations to their natural context. In an issued statement, Berri said: "It is a glimmer of hope that we have never lost and will never lose, because we are certain that the goodwill, wisdom and the language of reason in this nation, which enjoys uniting common denominators, are way more than what separates it, in terms of rights, common history, linked geography, its true religion and its one and only God..."He added: "Yes, we were certain that the will to converge and agree would inevitably prevail over the will to diverge."The Speaker continued to commend this historic agreement, while counting on the wisdom of the two leaderships in the Saudi Kingdom and the Iranian Republic, to puruse their sincere efforts to open a new page that will usher in exemplary, solid and optimal relations between Iran and all its Arab neighbors on the basis of respect, mutual support for the sovereignty and independence of all countries, as well as strengthening the bonds of friendship, brotherhood and common interests of the peoples of the region and their security and peace. "The destiny of the nation in its progress, stability, and prosperity lies in constantly meeting and holding dialogue, presenting the common, and rejecting everything that divides and distances," Berri asserted. "Congratulations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the two leaderships in both countries for achieving this historic and strategic agreement that the region needs to preserve its present and formulate its prosperous and stable future," the Speaker reiterated. In light of the need for a positive reading of the scene of the Arab-Iranian rapprochement and its return to normal, Berri renewed his "sincere call to all political and partisan forces and figures in Lebanon to take the initiative quickly to converge on a common word in which we approach all controversial issues and fulfill our constitutional entitlements, foremost of which being the election of a president for the republic through consensus and dialogue."

Makary during a panel discussion held by 'May Chidiac Foundation': Image of media freedom in Lebanon is not dark, we work according to what the...
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Caretaker Information Minister Ziad Al-Makary considered that "Lebanon's image in terms of media freedom is not dark."
Partaking in the panel discussion organized by the May Chidiac Foundation, Makary indicated that even though the global ranking of some Arab countries or others may be higher than Lebanon's in terms of daily-living, economy and development; however, speech in these countries is forbidden..."Can we say that these countries have freedom? Is it possible for anyone in such countries to criticize the ruler?" he questioned, noting that the classification in this case becomes inaccurate due to the lack of freedom. In this connection, he denied all rumors that "the regime in Lebanon is approaching dictatorship," saying: "It is a failed theory, and the evidence is that ministers and officials are subjected to daily attack and criticism on social media."On the other hand, he indicated that "the situation in Lebanon is linked to the political, security, economic and unstable conditions, as the state's finances are broken, with no available means or capabilities." "We are trying to work according to what the constitution allows us to do in terms of freedom and protection of journalists," Makary said. He added: "Journalists always demand that the Publications Court be the side to look into their issues and cases, and to that end, I met with the Public Prosecutor of Cassation and asked him to organize this matter, but I did not receive an answer except from UNESCO expert with whom we work with today, Toby Mendel, as he informed me that there are only five Publications Courts in the world, namely in Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and perhaps Sudan, so how can we demand something that almost all countries in the world have eliminated?..."Makary regretted that whenever any clash occurs between security men and people, unfortunately, it is the journalists who are injured most of the time. The Minister pointed out that "many European countries, such as Luxembourg, teach their children from an early age to use social media with the aim of sending out positive messages and goals." He believed that "technology has evolved to such an extent that no one can control it."Makary revealed that he would submit the new media law, noting that he has taken into account some of the points previously made by his fellow Ministers Melhem Riachy and Manal Abdel Samad, adding that he had also placed said law on the Information Ministry's website for a month, allowing all those interested to make their observations, many of which were received and taken into account as well.

Cardinal MacRoy tours Qadisha's Holy Valley
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Latin American Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, Cardinal Robert McRoy, toured today the Holy Valley in Lebanon, accompanied by the Latin American Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, John Dolan, the Pastor of the Maronite Diocese of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, Abdallah Zaidan, the Patriarchal Vicar Peter Karam and Father General Elie Madi. The tour kicked-off in the morning from Al-Diman, where the delegation visited the Patriarchal See, and was received by the Patriarchal Vicar General for the regions of Jubbeh and Zgharta, Bishop Joseph Naffa, with whom they toured the Church of the Sanctuary and the Library of the Holy Valley in the cellars of the Patriarchal Chair. Priest Khalil Arab explained to the Cardinal and his accompanying delegation about the history of the church and its murals, which were painted by artist Saliba Al-Doueihy in the mid-thirties of the last century during the era of Patriarch Antoun Arida (1932-1955), and about the contents of the library, including the papers of the Qannoubine patriarchs, religious and historical books, documents and publications of the Qannoubine League for Mission and Heritage related to the Holy Valley’s heritage. He also briefed them on prominent stations in the history of the Valley, the life of the Maronite patriarchs between the years 1440 and 1819, the most prominent figures who visited it, and the events it witnessed. Priest Arab also presented to the Cardinal and the other members of the delegation the book "The Paths of the Saints to Qannoubine", which was published in six languages on the geography of the Holy Valley, its features and its visitors. Following their Diman visit, the delegation moved to Bekaa Kafra, where they visited the Monastery of St. Charbel and his home, after which they headed to the "Cedars of God" Forest, and then to the Monastery of St. Anthony Qozhaya where they toured its museum and all its parts. At the end of the tour, Cardinal MacRoy expressed his strong admiration for "the uniqueness of the geography of the Holy Valley, and the uniqueness of the Eastern spirituality that was formed in it, and which still distinguishes it by the uniqueness of the continuous ascetic life in this valley." He also commended "the various efforts exerted to take care of the spiritual and cultural heritage that the valley embraces, under the auspices and care of the Maronite Patriarchate, the Monastic orders, the Qannoubine League for Mission and Heritage, and others."

Lebanon wins two awards from "Arab Tourism Media Union" for 2023: Best Arab Tourism Site, Best Arab Promotional Campaign
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Berlin - The Arab Union for Tourism Media announced from the German capital, Berlin, the winners of the Arab Tourism Media Awards for the year 2023, on the sidelines of the activities of the most important global tourism event, which is the Berlin Tourism Exchange (ITB) held in Germany between March 7 & 9, with more than 150 countries participating. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan pavilion hosted the celebration activities, and the Jordanian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities announced the names of the winners in the presence of officials of the World Tourism Organization, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Union for Tourism Media, Dr. Sultan Al Yehyai, and a number of tourism ministers and ambassadors, as well as a large number of those interested in the tourism sector. The "Arab Tourism Media Awards" are the largest Arab awards for honoring distinguished personalities and governmental and private institutions in the sectors of tourism promotion, hotels and tourist destinations in the Arab region. Jordan's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities announced the names of the award-winning creators during a ceremony held at the World Tourism Exchange exhibition in Berlin, as a prelude to honoring the winners in a ceremony to be hosted by an Arab city, the details of which will be announced later.  The Sultanate of Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE topped the winning countries in various categories for the year 2023, while Lebanon's Ministry of Tourism won the "Best Arab Tourism Site" and the "Best Arab Promotional Campaign Award" for its summer campaign "Ahla Bhal Talli". Touching on the awards, Al Yehyai explained that the announcement of these awards during the Berlin Tourism Exchange - the largest tourism event in the world - reflects the great prestige enjoyed by said awards in the world, which has become an example of honoring creators in the field of tourism and heritage media. He also emphasized that crowning the winners of the Tourism Media Awards came after an evaluation by a specialized jury.

Bassil: The Prime Minister does not sign Decree 565 pertaining to nationality restoration because the majority are Christians
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Free Patriotic Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, said today on Twitter: “Before the Prime Minister heads to the Vatican to reveal an open-mindedness, if he could sign the 565 Decree on restoring the nationality to those who are entitled to it by law...The PM is not signing because the majority are Christians, and this is according to his confession! He ought to sign all decrees at once, not one by one to blackmail us politically with every signature, as he says.”Bassil added, "The decrees are only declarative. This is their right by the Nationality Restoration Law; we do not know any of them and their number does not change the demography of the country. He ought to sign without sectarianism! Also, before leaving power, and most likely without going back this time, as he well-knows, if he would only reduce the violations of the constitution and laws, so as to leave behind a good memory other than his famous title in the Republic!"

Culture Minister inaugurates activities of "Russian Culture Festival in Beirut": Our world is in dire need of adopting the language of art,
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Muhammad Wissam Al-Murtada, and Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Rudakov, inaugurated today the activities of the “Russian Culture Festival in Beirut” held at the National Library, organized by the “Russian House” in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Culture. Governor of Beirut, Judge Marwan Abboud, Chargé d'Affaires at the Embassy of Qatar, Ahmed Al-Obaidly, Actors Syndicate Dean Nehme Badawi, President of the National Conservatory, Dr. Heba Al-Qawas, and a number of prominent figures attended the inauguration.
In his delivered speech on the occasion, Al-Murtada expressed his pride to partake in honoring "this great cultural heritage that marked our capital, Beirut, with Russian creativity in music, theater, cinema and thought, which began in the middle of the last century, and turned into a civilized and cultural harmony between the Lebanese and Russian peoples.""The Russian Cultural Center played a pioneering role in its consolidation and strengthening, and our patronage of this event is only to confirm the continuity and activation of this role between our two countries," he asserted.
Addressing the Russian Ambassador, Al-Murtada continued: "From your country, Your Excellency, emerged the most beautiful novels in literature and philosophy, and the sweetest classical music and sciences of all kinds, which soon turned into a world heritage that attracted people of science and culture, especially in medicine, where thousands of Lebanese doctors graduated...and that comes as no surprise in a country that worked on sciences of all kinds, nurtured its scholars and thinkers, and exported its knowledge not only in Eurasia, but in all countries of the globe, until the Russian language became one of the six languages in the world approved by the United Nations.""The Ministry of Culture in Lebanon is looking forward to close relations with your esteemed embassy in Beirut at a time when we are in dire need to convey the civilized image of a country steeped in history, with which we have close bonds of brotherhood and cultural exchange that we look forward to consolidating, because Russia, in our view, is the bosom that has highlighted for more than a hundred years the artistic and creative side of the Middle East, and sought to introduce it to the world through the Museum of Art of the Peoples of the East, whose holdings include unique pieces and works of art, including artifacts, paintings, statues and manuscripts from the Middle East and the Far East," Al-Murtada went on. He concluded by welcoming the Russian Ambassador and the honorable guests to Lebanon's National Library, hoping to "transform this event into a permanent program of activity that reflects the depth of what brings us together in a world that is in dire need of adopting the language of art, creativity, culture and the arts."In turn, Ambassador Rudakov thanked the Culture Minister for his efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries, and thanked the attendees for showing interest in Russian culture. "We are working to develop cultural and humanitarian cooperation between our two countries, despite the complex situations we are going through, whether at the international or Lebanese level," Rudakov said. "Today, we look at Russia on the world stage, as it is an honest country that can be trusted and a defender of traditional values," he added, affirming that "Russian policy aims to enhance the spirit of partnership and mutual trust in international relations."Rudakov also pointed out that "Russian artists greatly contribute to enhancing Russia's image as a democratic country that calls for a multipolar world, while preserving its cultural and civilizational diversity," adding that they are effectively creative in confronting the "Rusaphobia" that the West is spreading with attempts to culturally abolish Russia. It is to note that the cultural festival opening included a concert by Opera Leonora and the Russian Song Theater "Lyubava", in addition to popular and modern songs about Russia, and an exhibition of paintings by Lebanese and Russian artists.

Makhzoumi: Resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia & Iran confirms the Kingdom's wisdom, wise leadership
NNA/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
MP Fouad Makhzoumi tweeted today: "The resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran confirms the skill of the Kingdom and its wise leadership in giving priority to the interests of the Saudi people and the interests of the peoples of the region and their security and stability, and it has proven once again that it is the primary sponsor of dialogue...Its leadership has succeeded through this historic agreement in giving priority to diplomacy and political solutions."

Lebanon Seeks to Address Dispute between Security Officers, Iraqi Students
Beirut, Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Lebanon and Iraq tried to contain a dispute between Lebanese security forces and Iraqi students at the Lebanese Ministry of Education building on Thursday. The two sides, under the auspices of the Lebanese government, reached a mechanism to end all problems and facilitate the process of equalizing the certificates of Iraqi students studying in Lebanon. Videos on social media showed an argument between the Lebanese security forces and a number of Iraqi students, who came to the Ministry of Education to complete some paperwork. In one of the videos, a member of security appeared to hold a metal pole and ask a student to step back. Despite the Ministry of Education’s explanations, the videos sparked widespread outrage and calls on the Lebanese government to take action. On Friday, a delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research met with caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Iraqi Academic Dr. Alaa Al-Zoghbi said the delegation presented the premier a set of proposals, noting that an agreement was reached to adopt an official mechanism signed by the two countries’ relevant authorities. Hundreds of Iraqi students pursue their studies at Lebanese universities. The Pre-University Equivalency Department at the Lebanese Ministry of Education says that it has received, over the course of a year, about 6,000 Iraqi equivalency applications. The Lebanese Ministry of Education denied that an assault had taken place against the Iraqi students on Thursday morning. Caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Al-Halabi announced that the ministry guards were surprised by some 100 Iraqi students who had showed up at the ministry at 5:30 am on Thursday. They clashed over the right to enter the building before the official opening hours. He added that the guards tried to calm them down after the noise disturbed locals in the area.

Controversy as maritime border document suggests Lebanon recognized Israel
Najia Houssari/Arab News/March 11/2023
BEIRUT: There was controversy in Lebanon on Friday after a document on the demarcation of maritime borders appeared to suggest the country had recognized the neighboring state of Israel. Talks have been ongoing between the two nations for some time amidst a backdrop of broader political tensions, with a state of war technically existing between them. Possibilities of a thaw in relations have also been hindered by the influence of strongly anti-Israel factions in Lebanese politics, especially the Iran-affiliated Hezbollah. The document in question, recorded as No. 71836 and published on the UN’s official website, said that “the secretary–general of the United Nations hereby certifies that the following international agreement has been registered with the secretariat in accordance with article 102 of the charter of the United Nations … constituting a maritime agreement between the state of Israel and the Lebanese Republic (with the letters, Oct. 18, 2020) Jerusalem, Oct. 27, 2020 and Baabda Oct. 27, 2022.” Several Lebanese social media users criticized former Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Hezbollah after the document was published, claiming that it proves the maritime agreement is tantamount to a treaty of recognition of the Israeli state. One activist told Arab News on condition of anonymity: “The UN document is undeniably clear; Lebanon recognized the state of Israel, and Hezbollah’s role has become limited to protecting the common borders.”The maritime border between the two states has been described as “historic” in some quarters, requiring long negotiations mediated by the US. Its signing was hastened by the political and economic crisis that has engulfed Lebanon in recent years heightening Beirut’s need to expedite oil and gas exploration in its territorial waters, just as Israel began to extract oil and gas from the disputed Karish field that lies between the two countries. Aoun and former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed two separate letters approving the text of the agreement. At the UN headquarters in Naqoura on the Lebanon-Israel border, the letters were delivered to the US mediator, Amos Hochstein, without handshakes between the representatives of the two parties.
The agreement granted Lebanon the Qana field, which is shared in part with Israel, provided that French energy company TotalEnergie, given the rights to drill, paid part of its resulting revenues to Israel. Israel was granted the Karish field in its entirety.
At the time, Lapid said the border demarcation agreement was a diplomatic and economic achievement, specifically mentioning Lebanon’s recognition of Israel. “It is a political achievement because it is not every day that an enemy country recognizes the state of Israel, through a written agreement, and in front of the entire international community,” he said. Any recognition of Israel was denied at the time by Lebanon, but that claim has now been thrown into doubt. “Lebanon, through the maritime border demarcation agreement, recognized the existence of the state of Israel,” Muhannad Haj Ali, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Arab News. “Lebanon traded off the recognition card for stability on the southern border, and the possibility of benefiting from the gas wealth. That particular card was previously crucial in the Arab-Israeli negotiations,” he added. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah declared the agreement a great victory for Lebanon, the state, the people, and the resistance. “The circumstances under which the agreement was signed are proof that no talk of normalization is possible,” he said. During the negotiations with Israel, Nasrallah had threatened to use force against Israeli exploration of the Karish field. After signing the agreement, he said: “With regard to the resistance, the mission is over. All the exceptional measures that the resistance had taken are now over.”

The Lebanon contagion: Record debt levels are intensifying the region’s challenges
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 11/2023
In the past decade alone, there have been repeated warnings about the cascading risks of massive borrowing across the Arab region, which have resulted in the swift accumulation of high levels of foreign debt. For a number of countries, that debt is now close to becoming unsustainable even as their economies remain overwhelmed by the quick succession of unprecedented crises and their debilitating impacts.Combined with additional shocks in the past few years, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, volatile oil prices and the war in Ukraine, leading indicators suggest that record debt levels are further intensifying the region’s challenges, sparking fears of a “Lebanon contagion” in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and — to a lesser extent — Morocco and Jordan.
COVID-19, in particular, left an indelible mark that saw the region’s combined GDP shrink by close to $400 billion — a consequence of reduced economic activity worsened by a sharp decline in remittances. As a result, a few of the region’s net oil importers saw public revenues and foreign reserves fall sharply, impacting exchange rates and widening budget gaps. With little fiscal space left, that necessitated turning to borrowing excessively to sustain the costs of expanding critical safety nets as well as fix balance-of-payments deficits, without resorting to austerity measures at such an inopportune time.
By the end of last year, the Arab region’s cumulative debt stood at a whopping $1.5 trillion, and given the adverse impact of the war in Ukraine as well as the shaky global economy, that figure could grow even larger still.
The sustainability of debt is one of the key anchors of credible fiscal policy given its impact on any one country’s long-term development and ability to maintain its overall competitiveness. Looking outwards for sources of finance to fuel economic growth and sustainably develop societies allows countries to invest in the prosperity of current and future generations, provided any debt is kept at sustainable levels.
However, when countries that are already fragile become unable to repay their obligations and default, as happened with Lebanon in 2020, it not only sets back development, it also ushers in additional risks that can potentially destabilize a sub-region due to spillovers from governance failures, persistent inability and even violent conflict.
Currently, countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia all owe more than 90 percent of GDP at a time when their respective governments must maintain or increase spending to, for instance, deal with rising food inflation given the Ukraine war’s impact on grain imports. Without serious interventions or commitments, Egypt and Tunisia in particular could end up like Lebanon, which not only defaulted but is yet to tackle the restructuring of a debt pile so massive it dwarfs the size of its shrinking economy.
In Egypt, food and beverage inflation reportedly stands at a staggering 62 percent as the currency devaluations mandated by the International Monetary Fund continue to wreak havoc on import costs, endangering as many as 40 million Egyptians who now require targeted cash transfers just to get by. Even that, however, may not be enough as speculation is rife about a looming devaluation in the world’s largest grain importer. Should that happen, the price of food staples will keep soaring.
The mix of massive debt combined with fiscal and current account deficits will likely unleash a flood of fiscal fatigue.
In Tunisia, on the other hand, even though headlines fixate on the disturbing crackdowns on sub-Saharan Africans, the North African country is still struggling to import basic staples. Despite securing a deal with the IMF, Tunisia’s embattled government will find it near impossible to implement wage and subsidy cuts that will likely worsen poverty rates. Furthermore, even if reforms are designed to curb public expenditures, they are fiercely opposed by the country’s most powerful trade union, the Union Generale Tunisienne du Travail. It is expected that widespread unrest will intensify in the coming months as an enraged public resists being coerced into compliance by a desperate hyper-presidency quickly running out of scapegoats.
Debt risks and the inability to solve them are not issues unique to fragile, low-income Arab states alone. The UN estimates that there are at least 52 countries around the world that are either debt-stressed or close to it, thus at risk of default. This is despite a record $185 billion in official development assistance from the developed world last year.
However, making grants and cheap loans available that often entail poorer countries slashing spending in mid-crisis to access financing that comes with predatory interest rates only worsens debt vulnerability. Worse yet, wealthier countries are still not meeting the agreed-on target of 0.7 percent of gross national income for official development assistance, despite the confluence of shocks ranging from climate change, a pandemic, a sluggish global economy and the war in Ukraine.
It is also impossible to dismiss the impact of an especially strong US dollar, which is approaching heights not seen in close to four decades as the Federal Reserve continues raising interest rates to combat inflation. Unfortunately, “the rest of the world” ends up saddled with soaring costs to service dollar-denominated debts, in addition to combatting the inflationary pressures from rising import costs, which are unavoidable among import-dependent Arab countries.
The mix of massive debt combined with fiscal and current account deficits will likely unleash a flood of fiscal fatigue — i.e., when governments approach the limits beyond which the trajectory of debt becomes unsustainable and careful adjustments become increasingly difficult to make. That recipe also creates a few more developing countries following Lebanon and Sri Lanka, defaulting on foreign debt and then muddling through in hopes of securing bailouts from the international community.
That debt will be a dominant issue this year across the region and the rest of the world is no mere hyperbole. Several countries will have to look to the IMF for relief even though that external support will not extricate debt-addicted countries from a self-imposed trap — a by-product of economic mismanagement and the fear of what some Arab countries need most — reform. This year and the next few to come will also be about unavoidable austerity to “rationalize” budgets, even amid shortages of basic commodities and intensifying hardships for tens of millions of Arabs.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the Ibn Khaldun Strategic Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, and the former adviser to the dean of the board of executive directors of the World Bank Group.
Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 11-12/2023
Iran, KSA to restore ties in major step for Middle East
Agence France Presse/Fri, March 11/2023
Regional powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to restore ties and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise, Chinese-brokered announcement that could have wide-ranging implications across the Middle East.In a trilateral statement, Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia said they would reopen embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago. Riyadh cut ties after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of revered Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr -- just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding rivals. Friday's announcement, which follows five days of previously unannounced talks in Beijing and several rounds of dialogue in Iraq and Oman, caps a broader realignment and efforts to ease tensions in the region. "Following talks, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months," said the joint statement, which was published by both countries' official media. The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and Iran, a pariah for Western governments over its nuclear activities, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades. Iran and Saudi Arabia support rival sides in several conflict zones including Yemen, where the Huthi rebels are backed by Tehran and Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting the government. The two sides also vie for influence in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
'Hash out their differences'
"It kind of sets the scene for the region's two superpowers to start to hash out their differences," said Dina Esfandiary of the International Crisis Group. "The potential downside of that, of course, is that if they are the ones who are divvying up the region and sorting things out amongst themselves, you start to lose sight of regional contexts and grievances, which could potentially be problematic."Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian welcomed the rapprochement and said Tehran will "actively prepare other regional initiatives". "The return to normal relations between Tehran and Riyadh offers great opportunities to the two countries, the region and the Muslim world," he tweeted. Saudi Arabia's top diplomat Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the agreement stems from the kingdom's preference for "political solutions and dialogue" -- an approach it wants to see become the norm in the region. The White House welcomed the deal, but said it remains to be seen whether the Iranians will "meet their obligations". France also saluted the move, saying it was in favour of dialogue, but urged Iran to "renounce its destabilising actions". UN chief Antonio Guterres welcomed the announcement and said he remains ready to "use his good offices to further advance regional dialogue"."Good neighbourly relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are essential for the stability of the Gulf region," he said through his spokesman. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, had travelled to Beijing on Monday for "intensive negotiations with his Saudi counterpart in China in order to finally resolve the problems between Tehran and Riyadh," Iran's official IRNA news agency said. Sandwiched between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iraq had hosted several rounds of talks since April 2021. Those encounters were held at a relatively low level, involving security and intelligence officials. Amir-Abdollahian had said in July that the two countries were ready to move talks to a higher level, in the political and public spheres. But no talks had been publicly announced since April last year.
Abraham Accords
The pledge to resume ties comes two-and-a-half years after the UAE, which also lies between Saudi Arabia and Iran, signed the Abraham Accords opening ties with Israel -- a similarly unexpected move. It follows a broad pattern of attempts to settle regional disputes, including the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar, which lasted from June 2017 to January 2021. Gulf Arab allies of Saudi Arabia already beat a path back to Tehran. In September, Iran welcomed an Emirati ambassador back after a six-year absence. A month earlier, Iran said Kuwait had sent its first ambassador to Tehran since 2016. On Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian was in Damascus where he welcomed Arab outreach to Syria's internationally isolated government after an earthquake struck the war-torn country and neighbouring Turkey last month. He also said Tehran, which has backed Damascus during its 12 years of conflict, would join efforts to reconcile Syria and Turkey, which has long supported rebel groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. There has also been a rapprochement between Riyadh and Ankara since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed hard to revive ties, a move analysts describe as largely driven by economic considerations.

Israel opposition sees Saudi-Iran deal as Netanyahu failure
Agence France Presse/Fri, March 11/2023
Restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran represents a failure of foreign policy by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his opponents said. They said he has neglected the country's external relations to focus on domestic judicial reform, a project which has split the country and brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets against what they see as a threat to democracy. It is "a total and dangerous foreign policy failure of the Israeli government," opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Twitter, echoing the sentiments of other key opponents. Three years ago, however, foreign policy was Netanyahu's triumph. He hailed "a new era" in relations between Israel and the Arab world -- most of which views Israel as a pariah -- when his country and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize ties. Under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, a similar deal was reached with Bahrain, and later Morocco. Since the start of that process Netanyahu never hid his ultimate aim: to bring the world's major Sunni Muslim power, Saudi Arabia, into the accords as part of a regional alliance against Israel's enemy Iran.
That has not happened.
Instead, Riyadh and its regional rival, Shiite-majority Iran, on Friday said they had agreed to restore ties and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise, Chinese-brokered announcement. Contacted by AFP, Israel's foreign ministry had no immediate comment. But several Israeli opposition figures viewed the Riyadh-Tehran rapprochement as a failure for Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister. He returned to power in December in a coalition with ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right allies. "It's a collapse of the regional defense wall that we began to build against Iran," Lapid continued. "This is what happens when you are occupied all day by an insane legal project instead of handling Iran." Israel's entire political elite sees an existential threat in Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Tehran denies seeking to acquire an atomic weapon. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, named to Netanyahu's new cabinet in December, announced measures which would give more weight to the government in the committee that selects judges, and would deny the Supreme Court the right to strike down any amendments to Israel's quasi-constitution. Netanyahu staged his comeback to head the government 18 months after his ouster following 12 continuous years in office. During his record term as premier, Netanyahu was a strong opponent of easing pressure on Iran. Former defence minister Benny Gantz accused Netanyahu and his cabinet of a "coup d'etat" while "the enormous security challenges confronted by the State of Israel increase." Rightist ex-prime minister Naftali Bennett meanwhile called the Iran-Saudi agreement "a political victory for Iran", a fatal blow to efforts at building a regional coalition against it, and an "astounding failure of the Netanyahu government."

Saudi-Iran breakthrough adds new twist to Israel's Arab outreach
Agence France Presse/March 11/2023
Saudi Arabia's surprise move to restore ties with Iran adds a new, complicated layer to its delicate diplomatic dance with Israel, which craves a breakthrough normalization deal of its own, analysts said. Riyadh and Tehran announced on Friday that after seven years of severed ties they would reopen embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation agreements signed more than 20 years ago. The China-brokered deal provoked sharp criticism within Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made clear his focus on bringing Saudi Arabia on board as part of a regional alliance against Iran. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said it represented "a total and dangerous foreign policy failure of the Israeli government."Yet regional observers cautioned that the actual implications of the deal are far from clear –- both in terms of future Saudi-Iran cooperation and Israel's relationship with Riyadh. The notion that Saudi Arabia was exclusively interested in Israel as part of a potential front against Iran was always "superficial", said Saudi analyst Aziz Alghashian. "This idea of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' -– Saudi has seldom operated in that way, especially not strategically," he said. With Friday's news, "you clearly see that Saudi Arabia has prioritised a rapprochement with Iran over an overt rapprochement with Israel", he added. But "this doesn't mean very quiet relations with Israel are going to cease... Now the relationship with Iran is a variable that is part of the calculation."
A widening gap?
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, has long said its recognition of Israel hinges on a two-state solution with the Palestinians. It did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords that saw the Jewish state establish ties with two of the kingdom's neighbours, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Yet there have been subtler signs of potential cooperation. Several Israeli journalists who hold foreign passports were able to visit Saudi Arabia both before and during U.S. President Joe Biden's tour of the Middle East last year. The Saudi civil aviation authority announced during that trip that it was lifting overflight restrictions on "all carriers", paving the way for Israeli planes to use Saudi airspace. And in October the Arab-Israeli head of an Israeli bank appeared at a Saudi investor forum, hailing the "amazing" opportunities in the kingdom. This week, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that Riyadh has been privately lobbying for security guarantees from the United States and assistance with a civilian nuclear programme in exchange for a deal with Israel. But surging Israeli-Palestinian violence this year has made public progress unlikely in the short term, said Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham. "The Saudis have no incentive right now to quickly normalise with Israel," he said. And the new Saudi-Iran deal "could lead to a wider gap between Israel and Saudi Arabia if this yields a wider diplomatic opening between the kingdom and Iran", said Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute in Washington. "Israel is sceptical of any diplomacy with the regime in Tehran."
Mixed signals
That makes the Saudi-Iran deal "a clear diplomatic victory for Iran" and "a blow" to Netanyahu, said Nicholas Heras of the New Lines Institute of Strategy and Policy."Saudi Arabia, which is being heavily courted by Israel, just sent a big signal to the current Israeli government that the Israelis cannot count on Riyadh to support Israeli military action against Iran, anywhere in the region," he said. Not everyone thinks the ramifications are so obvious, however. "The Iran/Saudi deal is a relatively narrow one, focusing on specific issues such as the reopening of embassies and the resumption of trade relations as well as security from attacks," said Fatima Abo Alasrar, non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. "While these steps are essential for improving economic ties and reducing tensions between the two countries, they do not address the broader ideological and political differences that have driven their long-standing rivalry."Saudi Arabia's openness to re-engaging with Iran can also be seen as part of a bigger diplomatic push that has involved mending rifts with Qatar and Turkey. The trend could ultimately benefit Israel, even if the current policies of Netanyahu's hard-right government work against that, said Saudi researcher Eyad Alrefai. "It creates a momentum that can assist the region in moving towards a future of mutual understanding, respect and cooperation between nations," Alrefai said. "In such an environment, regional players, mainly Israel in this case, can capitalize."

Iran says deal reached to buy Russian fighter jets
AFP/March 11, 2023
Iran has an aging fleet of aircraft due to sanctions and has struggled to acquire spare parts to keep its warplanes in the air
Tehran has forged strong ties with Moscow in various sectors including the military in the past year
Tehran has finalized a deal to buy Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, state media reported, as defense cooperation between the two countries deepens.
The air force of sanctions-hit Iran has an aging fleet of aircraft and has struggled to acquire spare parts to keep its warplanes in the air.
In a statement to the United Nations, Tehran said it began approaching “countries to buy fighter jets” to replenish its fleet in the wake of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
“Russia announced it was ready to sell them” after the expiry in October 2020 of restrictions on Iran purchasing conventional weapons under UN Resolution 2231, said the statement carried late Friday by the official IRNA news agency.
“The Sukhoi 35 fighter jets were technically acceptable for Iran,” it added. Tehran has forged strong ties with Moscow in various sectors including the military in the past year.
Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying Moscow with Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones used in attacks on civilian targets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year — an allegation the Islamic republic denies. The United States has expressed alarm over the growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warning in December that Russia looked likely to sell Iran its fighter jets. Kirby maintained that Iranian pilots had reportedly been learning to fly the Sukhoi warplanes in Russia, and that Tehran may receive the aircraft within the next year, which would “significantly strengthen Iran’s air force relative to its regional neighbors.” Iran currently has mostly Russian MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets that date back to the Soviet era, as well as some Chinese aircraft, including the F-7. Some American F-4 and F-5 fighter jets dating back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution are also part of its fleet. The United States began reimposing sanctions on Iran in 2019, a year after its unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal under then-president Donald Trump. The 2015 deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, gave Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its suspect nuclear program.

Iran joins four-way Moscow talks with Turkiye, Syria
Arab News/March 11/2023
“Iran is strictly opposed to the military presence of the US and Turkiye in Syria and calls for the withdrawal of these forces to ensure that the Assad regime establishes control in every inch of the country,” she told Arab News ANKARA: The deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Turkiye, Syria and Iran will meet in Moscow next week for low-level talks ahead of a long-planned meeting between the countries’ four foreign ministers. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian asked if Tehran could join the three-way talks as a fourth party, and Ankara agreed.“Astana is the only surviving format (to address) Syria anyway,” Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with Amir-Abdollahian. “A meeting at the level of foreign ministers could be held at a later stage, at a time that we all see fit,” he said.
FASTFACT
Iran and Turkiye have taken opposing stances on Syria since the outbreak of the conflict.
In a joint statement after the April 25-26, 2019 meeting in Astana, Iran, Russia and Turkiye reaffirmed their “strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of Syria, and to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
Abdollahian said Tehran was willing to help resolve the disagreements between Ankara and Damascus under the four-way format, especially regarding the withdrawal of the Turkish military from northern Syria.
Iran and Turkiye have taken opposing stances on Syria since the outbreak of the conflict.
This comes a week after the Russian Ambassador to Iraq, Elbrus Kutrashev, said during Irbil Forum 2023 that it was “high time” for a reconciliation between Syria and Turkiye.
Russia sponsored a normalization path between Syrian and Turkish defense ministers and intelligence chiefs in Moscow in December in a bid to facilitate the rapprochement process between the two countries, marking the first high-level meeting since the war in Syria began in 2011.
But Tehran announced its uneasiness about being sidelined from this meeting and emphasized the importance of a political solution in Syria.
During the meeting, the defense ministers discussed counterterrorism efforts in Syria and agreed to continue their three-way meetings to encourage stability in the region.
After devastating earthquakes struck southern Turkiye and northwestern Syria in February, Ankara enabled the delivery of international aid to quake victims in Syria. About 475 aid trucks have passed through border gates, while Turkiye also opened its airspace to planes carrying aid to the quake zone.
Iran also set up a field hospital and established a tent city in quake-hit Adiyaman, and also sent a search and rescue team of 150 people.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is also expected to visit Turkiye to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Gulriz Sen, an expert on Turkiye-Iran relations from the TOBB University of Economics and Technology in Ankara, said Tehran’s red lines in the Syrian civil war remain unchanged, with an emphasis on ensuring the survival of the Assad regime and the territorial integrity of Syria.
“Iran is strictly opposed to the military presence of the US and Turkiye in Syria and calls for the withdrawal of these forces to ensure that the Assad regime establishes control in every inch of the country,” she told Arab News.
Sen said that Iran wants permanent influence in Syria, its only Arab ally, through close strategic and economic links.
“To this aim, it seeks to be a power broker in this newly emerging diplomatic talk that will coordinate the rapprochement between Turkiye and Syria. Tehran’s first-ever direct involvement will help her closely monitor and shape the process without feeling left out and waiting to be informed by other parties through follow-up meetings,” she added. According to Sen, Iran’s inclusion in the talks will not change Russia’s decisive role, but will likely strengthen Syria’s position on the swift withdrawal of Turkish armed forces from the northwestern parts of Syria, the return of Idlib to Assad’s control, and the elimination of jihadi groups regarded by Iran as “takfiri terrorists,” with a more concerted approach from Tehran and Damascus. “In any case, the talks will not reach a conclusion until the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkiye in May, yet the Astana format now will incorporate Syria in this final push for a diplomatic settlement,” she said. Francesco Siccardi, senior program manager and senior research analyst at Carnegie Europe, agrees.
“We should temper expectations from this meeting, which was supposed to take place earlier in the year but was delayed by hesitations on the Turkish end — and then, of course, by the Feb. 6 earthquakes,” he told Arab News.
Siccardi expects to see moderate progress after the meeting, a continuation of the progressive rapprochement that has been underway since 2022.
“But the pace and depth of Turkiye’s involvement will be dictated by President Erdogan’s electoral interests,” he added. According to Siccardi, the earthquake has partially altered Erdogan’s calculations regarding Syria, making it imperative that Syria’s borders remain sealed to refugees trying to cross into Turkiye from Idlib; as well as making incendiary rhetoric on the Kurdish question less appealing to an electorate still shattered by the destruction of the earthquake. “The issue of the return of Syrian refugees remains important, as upticks of anti-Syrian rhetoric are visible in areas of Turkiye most affected by the earthquake,” he said. It is unclear whether Ankara will change its Syria policy completely before the results of the elections are known. But the refugee question is still a central issue ahead of the elections considering the rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the country and deteriorating living conditions because of the high inflation rates and unemployment. The main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who will challenge Erdogan in the May 14 poll, is expected to accelerate the normalization process with the Assad regime, and to seek ways for the voluntary return of almost 4 million Syrian refugees to their homeland. However, many Syrians in Turkiye are still unwilling to return for fear of persecution while Assad remains in power.

Gunmen kill two police in Iran’s southeast: state media
AFP/March 11, 2023
TEHRAN: Gunmen ambushed and killed two Iranian policemen on patrol in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, state media reported Saturday. The officers had been “on a mission to provide security” during Friday prayers in the town of Golshan when they came under attack, said the official news agency IRNA. Clashes ensued and led to the “martyrdom” of Lt. Col. Mohsen Pudinehi and Lt. Ehsan Shahraki at the hands of “criminals,” it said, without elaborating. Sistan-Baluchistan province, on Iran’s border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been the scene of weekly protests that flared in September over the alleged rape of a teenage girl by a police officer. The protests began two weeks after nationwide demonstrations erupted over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s dress code for women. The region is one of Iran’s poorest and is home to the Baluchi minority, who adhere to Sunni Islam rather than the Shiite branch predominant in Iran. The area has previously seen clashes with drug smuggling gangs as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

Tunisia's Saied to restore diplomatic ties with Syria
Reuters/March 11, 2023
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Friday he wants to see Tunisia and Syria appoint ambassadors to their countries, the latest sign that full restoration of diplomatic relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government could be imminent.
“A decision must be taken on this issue.,” Saied told foreign minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting, according to a video posted on Facebook by the president’s office. Tunisia cut off diplomatic relations with Syria nearly a decade ago to protest Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011 that developed into civil war in which hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed and millions sent fleeing. Since Saied took control of almost all powers in July 2021 in what his political opponents have described as a coup, Tunisia has sent signals it was open to changing its diplomatic stance with Syria. Tunisia reinstituted a limited diplomatic mission to Syria in 2017, in part to help track more than 3,000 Tunisian militants fighting in Syria. Tunisia reinforced last month its diplomatic mission in Damascus with a diplomat, but with the president announcing that a decision must be taken, it is widely expected that the foreign ministry will name an ambassador in Damascus soon. Assad is seeking political advantage from the earthquakes last month that struck Syria and Turkiye, pressing for foreign aid to be delivered through his territory as he aims to chip away at his international isolation, political analysts said. Tunisia sent aid planes to Syria, including rescue and civil protection teams, which arrived at Aleppo airport under the control of Assad’s government.

West Bank Palestinian village on edge after Israeli settler attacks
Henriette Chacar/HUWARA, West Bank (Reuters)/March 11/2023
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara say a rise in settler attacks has made them fear walking to school, going to work and shopping at the local supermarket. A settler rampage through the town last month, amid rising tensions in the West Bank, drew worldwide condemnation, with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin saying on a visit to Israel on Thursday that the United States was "especially disturbed" by settler violence. Huwara, near a checkpoint on a highway between the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus that links four nearby Israeli settlements, has become a fault line of violence over the years.
Residents of the town and its neighbouring villages told Reuters they felt defenceless in the face of the increased attacks, with no protection from either the Israeli army or Palestinian Authority security forces. "I've lived in Huwara my entire life," said Ghazi Shehadeh, a 58-year-old glazier, as he fitted a glass window into a frame from one of dozens of houses that were recently vandalised. "These attacks are not new, but they have become more intense," he said. "I want to walk without fear. I want to enjoy a trip out of town. I can't anymore. They (the settlers) will hurl rocks or shoot at us. We don't dare leave anymore because the settlers are in the streets." The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 849 settler attacks last year that resulted in casualties or property damage across the West Bank - the highest since it began monitoring cases in 2005.
But the issue has attracted global attention since hundreds of settlers went on a rampage in Huwara on Feb. 26 after a Hamas gunman shot dead two Israeli brothers from the nearby settlement of Har Bracha as they sat in their car. During the riot, a Palestinian man was killed and dozens of Palestinian houses and cars were torched. Fifteen settlers were arrested, most of whom were released for lack of evidence, but two were in administrative detention and investigations were continuing, a police source said. Some parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government criticised the violence and called for people not to take the law into their own hands. One senior army commander described it as a "pogrom", a word normally associated with massacres of Jews in Russia during the 19th and early 20th century. But days after the rampage, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for aspects of Israel's West Bank administration, said Huwara should be "erased", before he partially retracted the remark. For their part, the settlers see Huwara as a "terror village". Nati Rom, a lawyer representing suspects arrested following the attack, said settlers faced constant violence from Palestinians who threw stones at their cars and incited to violence on social media and through calls at the mosque. Hours after the shooting of the brothers, some Palestinians expressed support for the incident on Facebook and in one post mockingly offered the car the brothers were in for sale. "Our children have to ride in bulletproof buses, our cars are rock proof, and the other sides never needs to worry because they don't have that," Rom said.
PALESTINIAN STATE
More than half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank. Settlers living around Nablus are among the most ideological and many see themselves as exercising a biblical birthright to the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future state. Huwara is surrounded by settlements that cut off Palestinian communities from each other and from their land. It veers between periods of relative calm, when Israelis visit Palestinian businesses in the town to buy goods or get their tyres changed cheaply, and outbursts of violence. The main road, dotted with signs in Arabic and Hebrew, was now scarred by scorched walls and piles of shattered glass. Soldiers behind barricades aimed their weapons at passing cars, carrying Israeli and Palestinian licence plates. "We're living on edge," said Kayed Awad, a member of the Huwara municipality and the owner of a bathroom appliances store, as he took quick glances at the screen mounted above his desk showing CCTV footage. Awad said he survived a settler attack last year, when young men shattered the shop's glass door, broke sinks and beat him with sticks and pipes. Palestinians say such experiences are part of their everyday lives, made worse because they say soldiers either stand by and allow attacks to take place or actively participate themselves. The Israeli military, which has overall authority in the West Bank, said soldiers were instructed and authorised to stop violence against Palestinians. But it acknowledged that the Huwara rampage should have been prevented and said "lessons had been learned" on sending reinforcements more quickly and improving coordination with police. However, international concerns over how effectively settler attacks are policed long predate the current escalation. An OCHA report from January said "some settler attacks occur in the presence of or through active support by Israeli forces". Israeli rights group Yesh Din found that 93% of investigations into settler violence in the West Bank from 2005 to 2022 were closed without indictment. "There is nothing to do when you are facing armed settlers who are backed by the military," said Usama Abuzayn, 25, who was working in a supermarket on Monday when a gang of blackclad youths attacked a Palestinian family in a car outside. "We are left to defend ourselves."

Russian shelling kills Kherson residents, Zelenskiy denounces 'terrorist attacks'
KYIV (Reuters)/Sat, March 11, 2023
Russian shelling killed three civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, denouncing what he called "brutal terrorist attacks" by pro-Moscow units.Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November after nearly eight months of occupation by Russian forces who seized it soon after the start of the large-scale invasion. The area is now under almost constant bombardment from Russian forces on the opposite side of the Dnipro River. One more person died in the eastern Donetsk region, regional officials said. Zelenskiy said the three people killed in Kherson had gone to a store to buy groceries. "I would like to support all our cities and communities that are subjected to brutal terrorist attacks," he said in a regular evening video address. "The evil state uses a variety of weapons ... to destroy life and leave nothing human behind. Ruins, debris, shell holes in the ground are a self-portrait of Russia."Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said three people, including an elderly woman, were also wounded during the artillery shelling of the city. Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk regional governor, said one person was killed and at least three civilians were injured in the city of Kostyantynivka following several rounds of Russian shelling during the day. Donetsk region has seen some of the heaviest fighting since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year.

Wagner boss says the Kremlin won't talk to him anymore after he complained that Russia isn't giving his troops enough ammo
Matthew Loh/Business Insider/March 11/2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, said the Kremlin has completely stopped talking to him. Prigozhin claims he was cut off after revealing that his troops in Ukraine are running out of ammunition. The Wagner boss said he's been desperately trying to get more supplies but has been ignored. The head of Russia's infamous Wagner Group mercenary organization claims that the Kremlin has cut off contact with him. Yevgeny Prigozhin, known for years to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a Thursday message on his Telegram channel that all of his direct lines to the Kremlin have stopped responding. This was after he complained on Sunday that the Russian government isn't giving his fighters in Ukraine enough ammunition. "To get me to stop asking for ammunition, all the hotlines to office, to departments, etc., have been cut off from me," Prigozhin said, per a translation from CNN. "But the real humdinger is that they've also blocked agencies from making decisions," Prigozhin added, per CNN. Prigozhin has over the last week pleaded for the Kremlin to give his troops more ammunition, complaining about a "shell hunger.""I'm knocking on all doors and sounding the alarm about ammunition and reinforcements, as well as the need to cover our flanks," he said in a statement on Monday, per Reuters. "If everyone is coordinated, without ambition, screw-ups and tantrums, and carries out this work, then we will block the armed forces of Ukraine. If not, then everyone will be screwed," he added, according to Reuters. The Russian press service Concord on Sunday also published a letter from Prigozhin, where he claimed that the ammunition promised to his troops never arrived. He blamed this logistical failure, without naming anyone, on "bureaucracy or betrayal." Prigozhin's Wagner Group known for sending Russian convicts to the frontlines in exchange for a chance to be exonerated, and has been heavily involved in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The paramilitary organization has been engaged in a drawn-out assault to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. This has been one of the deadliest battles in the Ukraine war. The press office for Russia's Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Egypt, Norway Discuss Energy
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
The first round of political consultations between Egypt and Norway on Friday discussed reinforcing cooperation and bilateral ties. The session was held at the level of assistant foreign ministers at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s headquarters. Egypt’s delegation was chaired by Ambassador Ehab Nasr, Assistant Foreign Minister for European affairs, while the Norwegian delegation was headed by the director general of the regional affairs department at Norway’s Foreign Ministry’s May-Elin Stener. The consultations reviewed means to boost political coordination and cement bilateral ties ahead of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s visit to Oslo, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. Both sides lauded efforts to promote Norwegian investments in Egypt, particularly in clean energy. They also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest, including human rights and the results of the United Nations climate change conference (COP27), held in Sharm Sheikh in November. Discussions also covered the peace process and the situation in the Arab and African regions. The ministry added that the Egyptian efforts to achieve stability in the region and address the situation in Libya, Syria, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa were also part of the discussions. The Norwegian side presented its vision of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and expressed its awareness of its negative impact on the world and Egypt.

Algeria is Main Supplier of Energy to Spain Despite Western Sahara Tensions
Algiers - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Algerian gas topped the list of Spain’s energy imports in January, despite a political dispute with Madrid over the Western Sahara issue. The specialized Arab news platform (Attaqa) has affirmed that Algerian gas exports represented more than a quarter of Spain’s imports in January. Algeria regained its place at the top of the list of gas exporters to Spain during the first month of 2023, according to the platform. It was the main supplier of natural gas to Spain in January, accounting for 25.7 percent of the total, followed by the United States (21.3 percent). Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Spain has been receiving most of its gas in the form of seaborne liquefied natural gas. These shipments represented 67.3 percent of the total imports, while purchases through pipelines made up 32.7 percent, the Spanish government said. “Algeria tops the list in terms of countries of high credibility in supplying clients with gas,” the platform added. Despite the halt of pumping through the trans-Mediterranean pipeline that links Algeria to Spain through Morocco since November 2021, the Algerian liquefied natural gas continued to flow to the neighboring Mediterranean country. Algeria exported 56 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas last year, up from 54 bcm in 2021. This increase was affected by Russia halting its gas supplies to the European continent. Algeria decided to freeze trade with Spain in June. Since then, trade losses have reached one billion euros. Late last month, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said he regrets the deteriorating relations between Algeria and Madrid, affirming that no progress has been made to normalize relations between both countries. Tebboune stressed that Madrid took a bad step when it changed its historic and balanced stance toward the Sahara issue.

Iraq to Enforce Law in Diyala
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 11 March, 2023
Iraqi special forces coming from the capital Baghdad have started enforcing the law in the province of Diyala (60 km northeast of Baghdad), in implementation of orders by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The forces deployed in various regions of the province in search of wanted individuals who carried out recent assassinations of citizens, and medical and scientific figures. Meanwhile, the Sheikh of Bani Tamim tribes Mustafa al-Tamimi granted the government 10 days to arrest the perpetrators. A security source in the province stated that the special forces would carry out security missions in other administrative units in line with plans set by Sudani during a visit to Diyala on Wednesday. Sudani has given security commanders two weeks to stabilize the area. The source added that the operations would continue until all arrest warrants issued against individuals involved in various crimes and charges are executed. The forces deployed in around nine regions in Diyala to assure the locals, track suspects and fugitives and deter criminal and terrorist networks and groups, the source added. Minister of Interior Abdul Amir Al-Shammari ordered security forces in Diyala to intensify security and intelligence efforts and to end the violations. Major General Khaled Al-Mahna, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, stressed that the security agencies are keen on arresting whoever attempts to destabilize the province.

Iraq seizes three million captagon pills on Syria border
Arab News/March 12, 2023
LONDON: Iraqi authorities on Saturday said they seized three million pills of captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant that has been sweeping the Middle East for years, near the Syrian border. The pills had been hidden in apple crates “loaded onto a refrigerator truck” and discovered at the Al-Qaim crossing between Syria’s Deir Ezzor province and western Iraq’s Anbar desert region, the Iraqi border authority said. The authority said: “The seizure process was carried out through information received from our private sources and in cooperation with the intelligence of the 45th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces.” The truck driver had been arrested, it added in a statement, noting that a joint committee had also been formed and a seizure report had been submitted.A border authority official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the shipment from Syria into Iraq contained captagon pills produced by several manufacturers. Iraqi security forces have intensified narcotics operations in recent months, with several high-profile drug seizures reported. The sale and use of drugs in Iraq has soared in recent years. In June, Iraqi security forces said they had forced down a microlight aircraft near the Kuwaiti border headed to the emirate from Iran with one million captagon pills. Weeks earlier, Iraqi police announced they had seized more than six million pills of the stimulant in a major drug bust. Areas in central and southern Iraq bordering Iran have become major narcotic trafficking routes for drugs, including crystal methamphetamine.The interior ministry’s anti-drug unit in December 2021 named the neighboring provinces of Basra and Maysan as the “leading southern provinces in terms of trafficking and consumption.”ith AFP)

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 11-12/2023
There’s a Menace Hanging Over Brazil
Vanessa Barbara/The New York Times/March, 11/2023
It reads like science fiction. In 93 pages, the text sketches out a strange future. In 2027, there’s a new pandemic, caused by the “Xvirus.” A year later, war breaks out between the United States and both China and Russia over bauxite deposits in Guyana. By the year 2035, Brazilians openly admit their innate conservatism and embrace a future where the word “Indigenous” barely exists.
Yet these predictions are not from some work of fiction. Instead, they come from a strange policy document published last year by a group of institutes run by retired Brazilian military personnel. Titled “Nation Project: Brazil in 2035,” the report proposes a grand national strategy on issues like geopolitics, science, technology, education and health. Alongside its more outlandish predictions, it foresees the end of Brazil’s universal health care system and public universities, and calls for the scrapping of environmental protections.
It’s tempting to laugh, but this was no fringe affair. The presentation of the plan last year was attended by Brazil’s vice president and the secretary general of the Defense Ministry. After all, this is Brazil, where the military has long meddled with the government — and ruled over the country in a dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
In the decades since, the military returned to the barracks, but its withdrawal was always conditional. The tenure of Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain, brought the military back to the heart of government. He might have grudgingly left office, but Brazil’s military — privileged, preponderant and unaccountable — remains a constant threat to the country’s democracy.
At the root of the military’s power is amnesia. During the dictatorship, the regime killed hundreds and tortured 20,000 people. Yet in 1979, it passed an amnesty law for those who had committed politically motivated crimes in the previous two decades, covering not only exiled activists but also military and public officials accused of murder, torture and sexual abuse. The law was upheld in 2010 by the Supreme Court. Four years later, a National Truth Commission identified 377 public officials responsible for human rights abuses during the dictatorship, but little was done. No military officers have ever been punished for their crimes.
That’s why Brazilians cannot watch the movie “Argentina, 1985” without crying out in shame. Winner of the Golden Globe for best non-English-language film and nominated for a 2023 Academy Award, it depicts the effort to haul into court members of the military juntas that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The trial, which occurred in 1985, helped shape the public debate about what happened in those brutal years — and sent a few generals to prison. So far, more than a thousand people have been convicted of crimes against humanity in our neighboring country.
Nothing of the sort ever occurred in Brazil. Here, in 2023, there are still many people who praise the country’s military past. As one Bolsonaro-supporting woman told me recently, the regime “hadn’t butchered ordinary people.” I wouldn’t dare to say that to the family of Maurina Borges da Silveira, a Catholic nun who was tortured in 1969, or to Gino Ghilardini, an 8-year-old who was tortured in 1973, or to the family of Esmeraldina Carvalho Cunha, a homemaker who was killed in 1972 after she accurately blamed the military for the death of her daughter.
In Brazil, supporters of the dictatorship hint at the crimes of “the other side” — the leftist guerrilla groups that opposed the regime — as if their acts were in the same league as the atrocities committed by forces of the state. But it’s impossible to defend the officials who tortured pregnant women and arrested young children, calling them terrorists and threats to national security.
The Brazilian military never apologized for its crimes. On the contrary, it still celebrates what it calls the 1964 revolution. During the government of Mr. Bolsonaro, it celebrated March 31 — the date of the coup that brought the military to power — every year. The regime change, according to a former defense minister, was a “historical landmark of Brazilian political evolution.”
But the problem goes much farther back, to the very founding of the country. The republic, after all, was established by a military coup in 1889. “Military officers,” as the eminent Brazilian lawyer Heráclito Sobral Pinto once said, “never accepted not being the owners of the republic.” In the 130 years since, the military has hovered over Brazil — as the political scientist Adam Przeworski wrote, referring to democracies afflicted by overweening militaries — “like menacing shadows, ready to fall upon anyone who goes too far in undermining their values and their interests.”
And those interests are considerable. With no war in sight, Brazil has the 15th-largest standing army in the world, with 351,000 active personnel, 167,000 inactive officers and 233,400 pensioners, according to the Transparency Portal. In terms of payroll, the federal government spends more on defense than it does on education — and almost five times more than it spends on health. (By the way, the country has a huge public health care system.) The expected budget of the Defense Ministry for this year is $23 billion, 77 percent of which is earmarked to pay personnel.
Military officials enjoy many privileges, with their own systems of education, housing, health care and even criminal justice. They were, tellingly, exempt from Brazil’s recent pension reform. Lucky for them: In 2019, the average remuneration for a retired member of the military was more than six times that of a retired civilian.
It’s not just military officials who benefit from such largess, but their families too. For instance, 137,900 unmarried daughters of military members will receive their father’s pensions for the rest of their lives — a list that includes the two daughters of Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, who was accused of torturing hundreds of people and retired with the rank of marshal.
After Mr. Bolsonaro became president in 2019, the military flooded into the civilian administration. In 2020, 6,157 military officers — half of them on active duty — worked for the federal government, more than twice the number in 2018. At one point, 11 of the 26 ministers in Mr. Bolsonaro’s administration were current or former officers, including the health minister during most of the pandemic, Gen. Eduardo Pazuello, who has yet to be held accountable for his misdeeds.
The new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been trying to slowly remove military personnel from the government — especially after the insurrection of Jan. 8, in which the military played a murky role. If the military did not participate in the riots, it certainly didn’t do much to prevent them. In January, Mr. Lula fired the head of the army, who allegedly protected pro-Bolsonaro rioters at an encampment in Brasília on the night of the attacks. Encouragingly, a Supreme Court justice has ruled that military officers involved in the riots will be tried by a civilian court.
It’s a start, but there’s much further to go before we’re free from the shadow of the military. Then, at last, we can relegate its plans to the realms of fantasy, where they belong.

د. ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: إدارة الرئيس بايدن تسمح لملالي إيران بالانضمام إلى النادي النووي
Biden Administration Allowing Iran's Mullahs to Join the "Nuclear Club"
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute/March 11, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/116485/116485/
Ever since the Biden Administration shifted Washington's Iran policy from maximum pressure to total appeasement, the ruling mullahs' nuclear advances have been remarkable.
In the meantime, the Biden administration does not appear even slightly concerned that a regime which has frequently threatened to wipe two entire countries, America and Israel, off the map, is closer than ever to possessing nuclear weapons.
General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has made the Iranian regime's plans vehemently clear. "Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map," he announced on Iran's state-controlled Channel 2 TV in 2019. Khamenei has also published a 416-page book, "Palestine," about destroying Israel.
Thanks to the Biden Administration's weakness, Iran's anti-American, genocidal mullah regime, which is still calling for "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!", is about to join the "nuclear club."
This -- along with the surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan and the many green lights offered to the Chinese Communist Party -- will be the disastrous legacy of the Biden Administration.
Ever since the Biden Administration shifted Washington's Iran policy from maximum pressure to total appeasement, the ruling mullahs' nuclear advances have been remarkable. (Image source: iStock)
Ever since the Biden Administration shifted Washington's Iran policy from maximum pressure to total appeasement, the ruling mullahs' nuclear advances have been remarkable.
The Iranian regime is rapidly forging ahead with uranium enrichment. Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recently found uranium particles in Iran that were enriched up to 83.7%, just shy of the 90% needed for nuclear weapons. The enrichment has been taking place in Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site. Before the Biden Administration, the regime was enriching uranium at 3.5%. This is a remarkable nuclear escalation in just two years.
At this level of uranium enrichment, and based on the speed that Iran is advancing its nuclear program, the regime is reportedly just days away from possessing enough material for a single nuclear weapon.
Colin Kahl, a top Department of Defense official, told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks if it chose to do so:
"Iran's nuclear progress since we left the (deal) has been remarkable. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the (deal), it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days."
In the meantime, the Biden administration does not appear even slightly concerned that a regime which has frequently threatened to wipe two entire countries, America and Israel, off the map, is closer than ever to possessing nuclear weapons.
One of the core pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been to destroy the Jewish state:
"YOU WILL NOT SEE NEXT 25 YEARS," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has tweeted to the "Zionist regime." "GOD WILLING, THERE WILL BE NOTHING AS ZIONIST REGIME BY NEXT 25 YEARS."
It is also one of the religious prophecies of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as his successor, Khamenei, that Israel will eventually be wiped from the face of the earth.
Israel a "cancerous tumor" that 'must be "removed and eradicated," Khamenei tweeted.
General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has made the Iranian regime's plans vehemently clear. "Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map," he announced on Iran's state-controlled Channel 2 TV in 2019. Khamenei has also published a 416-page book, "Palestine," about destroying Israel.
This is a regime whose core principle is exporting its Sharia law and Islamist Revolution to other countries. As Ayatollah Khomeini famously stated:
"We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry, 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle."
The foundation of the Islamic Republic is, in fact, anchored in prioritizing the pursuit of its revolutionary ideals, which include exporting its Islamist system of governance across the world. The regime's key mission is also incorporated in Iran's constitution, which states:
"The constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community."
Finally, this is also a regime that, since 1984, been designated as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" by the US Department of State. The ruling mullahs have been setting up weapons factories abroad and manufacturing advanced ballistic missiles and weapons in foreign countries, including Syria. The weapons include precision-guided missiles with advanced technology to strike specific targets.
Since 1979, Iran's ruling clerics -- by deploying the IRGC and its elite branch, the Quds Force -- have managed to expand their influence throughout the Middle East from Yemen to Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip. The regime has been achieving this through its proxy militias, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a conglomerate of more than 40 militia groups. As a result, why would the regime not provide nuclear technology to its many terror allies and militia groups?
Thanks to the Biden Administration's weakness, Iran's anti-American, genocidal mullah regime, which is still calling for "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!", is about to join the "nuclear club."
This -- along with the surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan and the many green lights offered to the Chinese Communist Party (such as here, here and here) -- will be the disastrous legacy of the Biden Administration.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

 Support for a two-state solution is declining, but what is the alternative?
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/March 11/2023
In the present circumstances it might seem peculiar, maybe even laughable, to be discussing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and even more so to talk about peace based on a two-state solution. But is it? The opposite should be argued. This is because by any objective indicator, relations between the two peoples are edging ever closer to an all-out confrontation, and while both societies are in internal disarray it is paramount to look for a peaceful solution that serves both peoples and is also sustainable.
Focusing only on the present situation, as worrying as it is, without looking constructively and realistically for a future solution might well perpetuate the current state of affairs and lead to something even worse.Later this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which brought with them a hope of reaching a breakthrough in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would lead to a peace agreement based on a two-state solution. It could never have been a perfect agreement that was fair to all and satisfied everyone, but under very complex circumstances it aimed to meet the minimum requirements of most in both communities.
Thirty years later this dream appears to be lying in tatters, with no one in sight to revive it. But has pronouncing the two-state solution dead been premature?
Those who believe that the demise of the two-state solution is permanent have failed to offer a better, convincing alternative, and those who make the case for its revival haven’t produced a blueprint for it to happen. In the meantime, a recent survey by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, reveals a sharp decline in support for the two-state solution among both Palestinians and Israeli Jews, from 43 percent in September 2020 to a current 33 percent among the Palestinians and 34 percent among Israeli Jews.
This represents a low point in support for what not that long ago seemed to be the most sensible route to peace. The alternative to recognizing the right of both nations to self-determination is either to maintain the current situation and let it take its course in the more or less predictable direction of allowing the occupation to continue, the settlements to expand and with Israel’s creeping annexation of the West Bank and the incremental deprivation of Palestinians’ human and political rights.
There are also two other alternatives, which are: A single state in which equal rights are granted and guaranteed to everyone, or a single unequal state. Both of these have support in both communities, and most worryingly, among Israeli Jews for the first time there is more support, albeit by a small margin, for a single, unequal, non-democratic state rather than a two-state solution.
Yet, the aggregate figure of two states and one democratic state with equality for all is still considerably bigger, at 54 percent against the undemocratic trend, which is supported by 37 percent. Figures among Palestinians are not that different, although a two-state solution remains the favorite at 33 percent and an aggregate figure of 56 percent with those who support one democratic state, compared to 30 percent support for a single non-democratic state. This suggests that there is majority support for equal rights and self-determination for all, which could materialize in a two-state solution, prevailing in a one-state reality. Those who believe that the demise of the two-state solution is permanent have failed to offer a better, convincing alternative.
As much as the two-state solution looks like yesterday’s news, particularly in the way it was envisaged by the architects of the Oslo Accords, a more sophisticated variant is not out of the question, and on the balance of probability, more achievable than the alternatives. Most worrying, if unsurprising, of the figures coming out of this survey are the levels of distrust between the two sides, which are almost equal with 86 percent of Palestinians and 85 percent of Israeli Jews who “believe the other side is not trustworthy.”
Regardless of which side has better reason to distrust the other, no peace agreement, especially one which requires concessions that are perceived as painful and risky, can be reached with this level of distrust. Worse, we can only expect that the new Israeli government’s behavior will only deepen the Palestinians’ distrust of Israel, and as President Mahmoud Abbas of the failing PA is in his twilight days, the confidence of either side in Palestinian politics will remain low. Tragically, the legacy of the years that have elapsed since 1993 has seen more mutual suspicion than ever, and without addressing the variety of reasons for this with sensitivity and attentiveness, especially in light of recent events, such mutual distrust will only be exacerbated.
It takes only a quick glance at a map of the West Bank to reveal the most tangible reason for Palestinians, but also for some Israelis, to give up on a two-state solution. The nearly 250 Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which house about 680,000 Jewish settlers, compromise a future viable Palestinian state. There is no easy solution to that, but since neither of the one-state options is realistic, and neither is desired, for completely different reasons, by the majority, and while the current status quo is a recipe for continuing bloodshed and violations of Palestinians’ rights, adapting the two-state solution to the one-state reality with minimum movement of population remains the most viable option. It is just a question of whether both sides will return to this option before or after another major round of violence.
It would need a painstaking and creative effort with much active external persuasion to create a fresh, revised two-state model, that recognizes both people’s right to self-determination, that has Jerusalem as the capital of both, that can guarantee that everyone between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea lives in security, and that ensures that the refugee issue is resolved in a fair and just manner so that no one remains stateless or uncompensated for their loss.
As well as these more tangible issues, it will require dealing with what many will regard as “boring” ones, but which are crucial to building support for such an agreement: Developing trust between both peoples, and investing in programs that advance joint educational, cultural and economic programs, in a spirit of equality and inclusiveness among all those involved. Right now, this might look like a mere fantasy, but making peace between peoples needs plenty of creative thinking, goodwill and the sense not to discard credible options because of bad experiences in the past, but instead to learn from them.
• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg

Is this the end of Saudi-Iranian tensions?
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/March 11/2023
The Saudi-Iranian agreement achieved with Chinese mediation is a significant development in regional geopolitics, containing an unprecedented commitment from the Iranian side of respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs and restoring security cooperation.
If Tehran keeps its end of the bargain this could be a true game-changer, heralding an era of regional peace and prosperity not seen in decades.Of course, these are early days; there needs to be a trust-building period, and actions on the ground to cement the agreement. Some may be skeptical of Saudi intentions, or indeed call this a U-turn; they are clearly not up to date with the Kingdom’s declared policy. Friday’s agreement is in line with what Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told The Atlantic magazine a year ago — that we see Iran as a neighbor. It was in both parties’ interests to resolve matters, the crown prince said, but the Kingdom’s security concerns must be addressed first.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told The Atlantic magazine a year ago — that we see Iran as a neighbor and that it was in both parties’ interests to resolve matters
I genuinely hope this is an opportunity for the Iranian regime to focus on building its economy and looking after its people, just as our leadership does with us here in the Kingdom. If both countries are thriving and we achieve peace and prosperity, that would be good not just for Saudi Arabia but for the whole region, and indeed the world.
Saudi officials will continue to be on high alert, absolutely clear-eyed that what is agreed with Iranian foreign policy officials may not be in alignment with the Revolutionary Guards. In the Kingdom we know that throughout this conflict we have been always reasonable and offered an olive branch. Previous attempts have failed; let us hope for everyone’s sake that this one succeeds.
Saudi officials will continue to be on high alert, absolutely clear-eyed that what is agreed with Iranian foreign policy officials may not be in alignment with the Revolutionary Guards
Inevitably, armchair experts in the US and Europe will miss the bigger picture, focus on China’s role, and question why the US was excluded. I don’t believe that exclusion was indicative of a lack of trust; America remains the most important and steadfast of Saudi strategic allies. Rather it is in the nature of these negotiations that to succeed they must be shrouded in secrecy and conducted through mediators accepted by both parties as fair, without bias or conflict of interest. China fits that bill perfectly; it has good relations with both countries, and unlike the US and most of Europe has no history of regional aggression or colonialism. Indeed, as Saudi Arabia’s leading oil customer (1.75 million barrels a day), China has an interest in ensuring the safe flow of energy by seeing this agreement through.
While Saudi-Iranian tensions are far from over, this agreement could be the beginning of the end of a decades-long and bloody chapter.
• Faisal J. Abbas is the editor in chief of Arab News
Twitter: @FaisalJAbbas

Seven years of estrangement and bitter rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran come to an abrupt end
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/March 11/2023
Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to resume diplomatic ties and reopen embassies, according to a joint statement released following talks in Beijing. The statement released on Friday reiterated that the two sides agreed to respect mutual sovereignty and noninterference in each other’s affairs. According to the statement, both countries agreed to reopen embassies within two months, while Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers also will hold meetings to implement the agreement, exchange ambassadors and discuss ways to strengthen relations. The agreement is significant since it was signed by the two major powers in the Middle East after endless disputes and seven years of diplomatic freeze. The Kingdom and Iran have been locked in a bitter rivalry, with the former defending the Arab world against Iranian interference carried out via its proxy actors, which have significant clout in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has always sought peace, and it was only when the Iran-backed Houthis toppled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in Yemen that Riyadh took a firm stand, deciding to intervene to protect the legitimate government. There are no Saudi proxy actors in the region. Over the past two years, there have been five rounds of talks between the Kingdom and Iran.
Talks that began under former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi touched on ways to ease tensions between the two countries, resume diplomatic relations, and settle disputes arising from Iran’s role in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. Thus, all the previous rounds of discussions were primarily of a security nature. So, the recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the joint statement the two countries issued along with China, marks a shift from a security to a diplomatic dialogue. This is another step forward.
Saudi Arabia has always sought peace, and it was only when the Iran-backed Houthis toppled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in Yemen that Riyadh took a firm stand, deciding to intervene to protect the legitimate government.
The reasons behind such a breakthrough are diverse, but the primary factor is that Saudi Arabia is pursuing a foreign policy approach based mainly on easing tensions, ending disputes and restoring stability. This foreign policy approach is part of the broader vision for the country and the region. The Kingdom favors peace over war and dialogue over severing relations, as well as channeling the region’s massive resources to achieve prosperity and development, rather than financing militias and the production of weapons.
This is a theme that Saudi officials have repeated in recent years. Immediately after the joint statement was released, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan wrote on Twitter: “The resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is based on the Kingdom’s vision favoring political resolution and dialogue and keenness to foster this orientation in the region. All the region’s countries have a shared destiny and common denominations, which make it necessary for us to share the model of prosperity and stability for our peoples to enjoy it.”
This tweet epitomizes Saudi foreign policy and vision for the region. It is not the first of its kind. The Saudi foreign minister has reiterated the Kingdom’s readiness for dialogue on several occasions. On Jan. 17, 2023, he told a Davos forum session that dialogue is the best way to resolve differences in the region. “We are trying to create dialogue with all parties. And our main focus is on development.”
By emphasizing development, rather than geopolitical issues, he alluded to Iran and others, signaling that there are other trajectories through which countries can achieve shared prosperity.
It is worth noting that this agreement is a litmus test — for Iran. The two countries agreed to reopen embassies within two months. This time frame is important. Both countries are shifting from focusing on security to political issues. The problem with Iran is not dialogue, but goodwill. Saudi Arabia has never rejected dialogue with Iran. However, the Kingdom has also asserted that its neighbor must show goodwill in order for this dialogue to move forward.
There is a deep divide and total distrust between Riyadh and Tehran. Repairing damaged ties requires a transitional period and the restoring of confidence. The remarks, as well as the agreement signed between the two sides, must yield material results. If Iran has sincere intentions to ease tensions and end disputes in the region, perhaps these will become evident in Yemen. Saudi Arabia does not want war in Yemen. It is keen to reach a peaceful resolution, while at the same time ending the subversive Iranian role via the Houthis at the expense of the legitimate government.
The question that arises is, why China? Beijing is a close friend of both Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is the main trading partner for each, but the most important customer of Iranian products, despite the US and global economic sanctions against Tehran. Therefore, China will be the guarantor of Iran fulfilling the agreement — and if Iran cheats, it will lose out.
International reactions to the Saudi Arabia-Iran thaw will vary, depending on each country’s own interests. China has welcomed the agreement and described it as a victory for peace. However, Israel may not be pleased. It has deep concerns about Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and wants an end to the nuclear dispute, even via military means. Iran’s proxy actors in Syria — once deployed at the closest point to its borders — are a headache that Israel also wants to tackle. To achieve this, Israel wants regional and global mobilization against Tehran. It may view the agreement between Riyadh and Tehran as a threat to its interests.
China will be the guarantor of Iran fulfilling the agreement — and if Iran cheats, it will lose out.
Additionally, Europe is moving further away from Iran. The European troika — the UK, France and Germany — issued a joint statement announcing that INSTEX, a financial vehicle designed to facilitate trade between Iran and Europe in 2019 and mitigate the impact of the US sanctions, will be liquidated. All the mechanism’s 10 stakeholders decided to terminate the arrangement, citing Iran’s continued obstruction as the reason.
Hence, the Saudi-Iran thaw will be tested in the next two months, depending on regional and global developments. Israeli pressure on the US, the course of Iranian-European relations, and Iran’s seriousness and goodwill will determine whether the agreement holds or collapses.
The Saudi-Iran rapprochement has an important message to deliver, at least on part of the Saudis. The Kingdom has engaged in this dialogue from a position of strength. It has a stronger economy and far better internal conditions than Iran. It is not mired in costly regional or global standoffs. Thus, the Saudi call for dialogue and the conclusion of the latest agreement with Tehran are signs of victory, rather than defeat; an indication of having the upper hand, rather than being forced to make concessions.
By contrast, Iran is beset by deteriorating economic conditions, an unstable domestic scene and declining regional clout. This call for dialogue, a clear break from the longstanding Iranian bellicose foreign policy chiefly engineered by IRGC generals, could be construed as the regime stepping back in order to save itself, and prevent further domestic deterioration and international isolation.
To conclude, Saudi Arabia has been showing goodwill, and working for peace, dialogue and prosperity. It has never rejected dialogue, but at the same time has refused to engage in talks that lead nowhere. Still, the diplomatic thaw is a huge step forward for a region torn by wars, disputes and rivalries.
Saudi Arabia is the most powerful and important Arab nation. Its foreign policy shapes regional and even global policies. If the Kingdom believes that easing tensions and restoring diplomatic ties with Iran can pay off, this orientation will be the hallmark of the region’s policies. However, it all depends on Iran’s long-lost goodwill. The ball is in Iran’s court. Let’s wait and see.
• Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is president of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami