English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 03/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The loaves and two fish Miracle: Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.
John 06/01-15: “After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 02-03/2023
US calls on Lebanese parliament to elect president
US calls on Lebanon to quickly elect president 'free of corruption'
Bou Saab meets al-rahi in presidential 'exploratory tour'
Elias Bou Saab affirms Lebanon's crisis is bigger than the name of a president
Report: Hezbollah eases presidential stance at Franjieh's request
Justice committee convenes over Syrian refugees law
PSP MP says no foreign, domestic will to elect president
Protesting taxi drivers block key roads across Lebanon
Searching for answers to the enigma of vanished bank money
TotalEnergies selects Block 9 drilling rig
Abou Faour to LBCI: We have not been informed of any new position from KSA on presidential election
Lebanon launches national survey campaign to count and register Syrian refugees
The Situation in Lebanon/Press Statement/Maththew Miller, Department Spokesperson
A fair number of outside interests are trying to devise ways of extricating
Berri meets US Ambassador in Ain al-Tineh, broaches security situation with GS’s Baissari, receives further congratulatory cables on occasion of..
Oil prices edge lower in Lebanon
How Palestinians Are Trying to Destroy Lebanon/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/May 02/2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 02-03/2023
Audio Panel From FDD: The Hashemite King's Gambit
Explosion hits Revolutionary Guard base in Iran, report says
Iran Denies Schoolgirls Were Poisoned Despite Overwhelming Evidence
Report: Israel got intel on Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program from executed spy
Israeli attack puts Syria's Aleppo airport out of service, one soldier killed -state media
Gaza cross-border fire after Palestinian hunger striker dies
Netanyahu: Preventing Iran's Nuclear Armament Remains Israel's Top Priority
Tehran: Our Missions in Saudi Arabia Have Taken First Steps to Resume Operations
Iran, Syria to Sign Agreements During Raisi's Visit to Damascus
Iranian Official Executed for Espionage Leaked Information About Fordo Plant
Iran Resorts to Security Cameras, Ostracism to Deter Unveiled Women
Israel deploys facial recognition cameras to ‘supercharge segregation’
20,000 Russians killed, 80,000 wounded in 'failed' 5-month winter offensive in Ukraine, U.S. says
Ukrainian farmer comes up with novel way to demine his fields
A muddy mess in Ukraine is making trouble for new howitzers so sensitive to dirt they come with their own vacuum cleaners
Discreetly, Berlin Confronts Russian Spies Hiding in Plain Sight
US, Turkey cooperate on terrorism-related sanctions -Treasury
Arabian Travel Market 2023: Net-zero emissions and the future of Gulf tourism

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 02-03/2023
Washington Must Focus on Asia When Targeting Tehran’s Drone Technology Procurement/Behnam Ben Taleblu/The National Interest/May 02/2023
An Early Look at Biden’s 2024 Prospects/Nate Cohn/The New York Times/May 02/2023
Fox News’ Mistake, Not Tucker Carlson’s/Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsay/May 02/2023
Harvard's 'Council on Academic Freedom'/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute./May 2, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 02-03/2023
US calls on Lebanese parliament to elect president
AFP, Washington/02 May ,2023
The United States on Monday called on Lebanon’s parliament to elect a new president, as the country marks six months without a leader at the helm amid grinding political and economic turmoil. “The United States calls on Lebanon’s political leadership to move expeditiously to elect a president to unite the country and swiftly enact the reforms needed to rescue its economy from crisis,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “Lebanon’s leaders must not put their personal interests and ambitions above the interests of their country and people.” A caretaker cabinet with limited powers has been at the helm since May last year after legislative polls gave no side a clear majority. Former president Michel Aoun’s term then expired in October, with no successor lined up. Numerous parliamentary votes have been held since, but no candidate has garnered enough support to succeed Aoun.
The Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement, which holds huge sway over political life in Lebanon, has endorsed pro-Syrian Sleiman Frangieh for the presidency. In November, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group wanted whoever is selected as Lebanon’s next president to “reassure” the group and stand up to the United States, as Hezbollah’s members in government cast blank ballots during voting. Iran’s foreign minister last week also called for the country to overcome its political deadlock and elect a president. Countries including France, the United States and Saudi Arabia hold regular consultations on Lebanon. Their representatives met in February in Paris to discuss the crisis, without achieving any tangible progress. “The United States believes Lebanon needs a president free of corruption who can unite the country... and implement critical economic reforms, chief among them those required to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program,” Miller said. “The answers to Lebanon’s political and economic crises can only come from within Lebanon, and not the international community.”The country has been mired in economic crisis since a 2019 financial meltdown, punctuated by political deadlock.

US calls on Lebanon to quickly elect president 'free of corruption'
Jamie Prentis/The National/May 02/2023
The US believes Lebanon needs to elect a president “free of corruption”, who can unite a deeply divided country entrenched in one of the worst economic crises in modern history. Six months after Michel Aoun departed the presidential palace in Baabda, the State Department said the solution to Lebanon’s problems could only come internally and not from the international community. “Now is the time for action to select appropriate leadership and save the country from further disaster,” it said. Parliament has failed to elect a president during 12 sessions, with no candidate coming close to the threshold required to become head of state. Speaker Nabih Berri has not called MPs back to vote on the issue for months, such is the impasse. The US urged Lebanon’s political leadership to “move expeditiously to elect a president to unite the country and swiftly enact the reforms needed to rescue its economy from crisis”. “Lebanon’s leaders must not put their personal interests and ambitions above the interests of their country and people,” it said. While Lebanon is used to long delays in electing its president — it took two-and-a-half years for former army chief Mr Aoun to secure enough support — the vacuum is unprecedented. Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s cabinet is in a caretaker status and severely stripped of its power. The state is also nowhere near to meeting the required conditions for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund after reaching a preliminary agreement last spring. “While it is for Lebanon’s elected leaders to form their own government, the United States believes Lebanon needs a president free of corruption who can unite the country, advocate for transparency and accountability, put the interests of Lebanon’s people first, move towards national unity, and implement critical economic reforms, chief among them those required to secure an IMF programme,” the State Department said. MP Michel Moawad has at times been able to count on about a third of the 128-seat legislature for support in the presidential race. But that is well short of the threshold needed and his campaign appears to have stuttered to a halt.
He has been able to count on a faction of MPs largely opposed to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group and political party that holds significant sway in the country. Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement, led by Mr Berri, have announced their support for Suleiman Frangieh, whose grandfather served as president from 1970-76.

Bou Saab meets al-rahi in presidential 'exploratory tour'
Naharnet/May 02/2023
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab met Tuesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkerki, as he starts an "exploratory tour" to discuss the presidential crisis with Lebanese leaders. "Our real problem is not the name of the president but that parties are not willing to communicate," Bou Saab answered a reporter in a press conference after the meeting, after he had said that he did not discuss with al-Rahi any names. Bou Saab said that al-Rahi has hailed his initiative and hoped it would break the presidential impasse. The Deputy Speaker later met with Tajaddod MPs Michel Mouawad and Fouad Makhzoumi. He had met last week with Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad and will meet today with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Meanwhile Bkerki sources told media outlets that Bkerki has no vetoes against anyone, including Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh and that a candidate, once elected, must forget the party he belongs to and become a president for all Lebanese. The crisis is national and not Christian, the sources said, adding that parties must communicate inside Parliament during open-ended sessions to elect a president.

Elias Bou Saab affirms Lebanon's crisis is bigger than the name of a president
LBCI/May 02/2023
The Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, received the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Elias Bou Saab, who confirmed after the meeting that his visit is "exploratory." He expressed his regret "because the officials who deal with the presidential file are not interested in the time factor."
He said, "We have not yet reached the stage of names because the parties, based on the Patriarch's initiative, did not reach a common name to propose for the presidency," stressing that "things must begin with dialogue." He pointed out that "our crisis is greater and deeper than the name of a president, but rather the unwillingness of any of the parties to dialogue with the other."

Report: Hezbollah eases presidential stance at Franjieh's request
Naharnet/May 02/2023
Hezbollah has backed down on fiery presidential stances at the request of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, a parliamentary source from the Hezbollah-led camp said. “Through the open communication channels between them, Franjieh relayed to Hezbollah’s leadership that there was no need to escalate in the presidential file in a way that embarrassed him and that the party could have done without it because it would obstruct his communication with the hesitant lawmakers,” the source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Tuesday. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has also “expressed understanding of his ally Franjieh’s concerns over the threats of (Hezbollah deputy head Sheikh Naim) Qassem and (Hezbollah executive council chief Sayyed Hashem) Safieddine, which prompted Hezbollah’s leadership to intervene to withdraw their threats from circulation,” the source added. The source also ruled out that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s latest visit to Lebanon had any impact on Hezbollah’s pacification of its stance. Hezbollah “had to intervene because the threats of Qassem and Safieddine did not serve Franjieh and represented an embarrassment to Paris, which is still defending its presidential choice in backing his nomination,” the source went on to say. “There is no way to finalize the presidential election except through everyone’s agreement, and we have backed a presidential candidate but we have not closed the doors,” Hezbollah’s top lawmaker Mohammed Raad said on Saturday. “We have said let’s engage in discussions, which means that the doors to understanding and dialogue are still open,” Raad added. His remarks contradicted with an earlier statement by Hezbollah’s Qassem, who said that “the country is before two candidates: one of them is serious (Franjieh) and the other is vacuum.” Safieddine for his part had said that Franjieh’s opponents would “miss the train (of being part of a settlement) if they continue to reject what is being proposed to them.”

Justice committee convenes over Syrian refugees law
Naharnet/May 02/2023
The Administration and Justice Committee studied Tuesday a law aiming at regulating the status of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and decided to adjourn the discussion until next week. The Committee's head, Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan, said that he will not accept the integration of the refugees and urged Arab states not to return Syria to the Arab fold before the repatriation of the refugees. A Ministerial panel had decided to take stricter measures against irregular refugees, as the Lebanese Army raided homes in various parts of the country, arresting hundreds and deporting dozens who had entered the country irregularly or held expired residency cards. Arab foreign ministers meeting Monday in Amman to discuss Syria's long-running conflict had agreed the return of Syrian refugees was a "top priority", according to a communique released after the talks. The talks in Jordan's capital brought together foreign ministers from Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt, in the latest regional engagement with the long isolated government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "The voluntary and safe return of refugees to their country is a top priority, and the necessary steps must be taken immediately to implement it," the closing statement said. According to the United Nations, about 5.5 million Syrian refugees who fled since the conflict began in 2011 are registered in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The communique called for increased cooperation between Damascus, host countries and the United Nations to organize repatriation operations in a "clear time frame".

PSP MP says no foreign, domestic will to elect president
Naharnet/May 02/2023
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jubmlat has stopped nominating presidential candidates, as it became obvious that there is no political will to elect a president, PSP MP Wael Bou Faour said Tuesday. "There is obviously no foreign and domestic will to elect a president, and naming a candidate would destroy his chances," Bou Faour told LBCI. "It is useless to float names," he added. Bou faour said that there is a regular communication between his bloc and Saudi Arabia and that the latter did not discuss any names but has presidential qualifications. He said he hasn't been informed of any new developments regarding the Saudi stance on the presidential file. "The French are the ones who said that there is a Saudi repositioning and that the Saudis are open to discussion," Bou Faour said.

Protesting taxi drivers block key roads across Lebanon
Naharnet/May 02/2023
Protesting taxi drivers on Tuesday blocked several vital roads and highways across the country to voice a host of demands. The drivers blocked the Saifi road, the Beirut-Karantina highway, the Jounieh highway and the main Hamra street following a sit-in at the Riad al-Solh Square. The protesters decried “the continued chaos in the sector and the deterioration of living conditions,” calling on authorities to crack down on “violators, drivers with fake license plates and bikers who transport passengers on their motorcycles.” They also called for banning Syrian drivers, tuk-tuks and those who operate through “WhatsApp groups” and “illegal applications.” In a statement issued Monday, the drivers had apologized to “the citizens who will be stranded in their cars,” explaining that they no longer have “any other choice.”

Searching for answers to the enigma of vanished bank money
LBCI/May 02/2023
Where did the depositors' money go? Is there any hope that we will recover it? It is enough to look at two numbers presented in the latest version of the government plan to know the depth of our crisis. The first number is our total bank deposits today, which amount to $93.5 billion. The second number is what money these banks own in return, which is $21 billion and maybe less because banks can not dispose of this entire amount immediately. How is this 21 billion divided? $4 billion are located abroad with correspondent banks. However, this money is "free," as banks use it to complete import operations and pay international institutions loans. $6 billion is the value of loans granted by banks to the private sector, which is being repaid, since the completion of repayment takes time. Approximately $1 billion is the value of Eurobonds that the banks owed to the state. As for the most important number, it is around $10 billion in obligatory reserves for banks at Banque du Liban, and they are “at the heart of the problem.” Therefore, $10 billion is all that remains of hard currency cash, out of about $85 billion that banks have placed in Banque du Liban over the years, and all the rest of the money has been spent... How?

TotalEnergies selects Block 9 drilling rig
LBCI/May 02/2023
TotalEnergies has selected the Block 9 drilling rig according to the announced schedule. TotalEnergies, in conjunction with its partners Eni and QatarEnergy, has signed a firm contract with Transocean to use the rig that will drill an exploration well on Block 9 off the coast of Lebanon as soon as possible in 2023. With the arrival of the teams, this is a major new step in preparing for operations. The "Transocean Barents" drilling rig will sail towards Lebanon upon the end of its current operations in the British North Sea.

Abou Faour to LBCI: We have not been informed of any new position from KSA on presidential election
LBCI/May 02/2023
MP Wael Abou Faour affirmed that the "Democratic Gathering" is in constant contact with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, saying, "We are honored by our relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has the characteristics of the president, and which did not speak of names, and we were not informed of any new position on the issue of the presidential election." He added, in an interview with LBCI's Nharkom Said TV show, that "the French are the ones who said that there is a new rethinking and a review of the Saudi position on the Lebanese presidential file, and we are in contact with the French side, which it is reticent to describe the Saudi position and says that the Saudis are open to discussion." He announced that "former MP Walid Jumblatt has stopped putting forward any names because it is clear that there is no internal and non-internal political will to reach a president, and the names that are put forward are "burned," and there is no point in putting forward these names." He believed that the beginning of "treatment" is to elect a president, but not any president.

Lebanon launches national survey campaign to count and register Syrian refugees
LBCI/May 02/2023
Last week, especially after the meeting at the Grand Serail regarding the refugee crisis and its repercussions on Lebanon, the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities continued its efforts today at the level of the provinces. According to a statement issued by the ministry, it instructed governors and, through them, mayors and mukhtars to launch a national survey campaign to count and register Syrian refugees. The Ministry of Interior requested from municipalities and mukhtars not to process any formality or provide any documentation to any refugee unless their registration has been confirmed. The citizens were also asked not to give any property for rent before verifying the registration of the refugee with the local authority. While the ministry reiterated its request to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide the General Security with detailed data on registered Syrian refugees, sources told LBCI that the General Security received a letter on Tuesday afternoon from UNHCR, confirming the formation of a joint technical coordination committee comprising representatives from both parties to exchange information and detailed data about Syrian refugees within the framework that safeguards the confidentiality of this information.

The Situation in Lebanon/Press Statement/Maththew Miller, Department Spokesperson
May 01/2023
Today marks six months since the departure of President Michel Aoun and the subsequent failure to select a new president. The United States calls on Lebanon’s political leadership to move expeditiously to elect a president to unite the country and swiftly enact the reforms needed to rescue its economy from crisis. Lebanon’s leaders must not put their personal interests and ambitions above the interests of their country and people. While it is for Lebanon’s elected leaders to form their own government, the United States believes Lebanon needs a president free of corruption who can unite the country, advocate for transparency and accountability, put the interests of Lebanon’s people first, move towards national unity, and implement critical economic reforms, chief among them those required to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program. The answers to Lebanon’s political and economic crises can only come from within Lebanon, and not the international community. Now is the time for action to select appropriate leadership and save the country from further disaster.

A fair number of outside interests are trying to devise ways of extricating
The Jerusalem Post/May 02/2023
Lebanon from its most pressing difficulties, but the impetus must come from
Lebanon is in the midst of a long-standing political impasse. It has a caretaker government and no head of state. In addition, its economy is close to collapse, while a corrupt political class is clinging to the power and influence it has exercised for generations. On top of all that, a financial scandal that had been simmering away for months has suddenly boiled over. A judicial delegation from France, Germany and Luxembourg is investigating accusations against the Governor of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh, who is accused of embezzling bank assets, money laundering and mismanaging public funds. On April 25, on the delegation’s third visit to the country, Lebanese judicial authorities agreed to cooperate with them. It was in July 2020 that a group of Lebanese lawyers launched a formal accusation against Riad Salameh and his brother Raja, of allegedly defrauding the central bank of more than $300 million (over NIS 1,000,000,000). The 72-year-old governor is accused of charging bond buyers a commission, described as a fee, and transferring the funds to a company owned by Raja, which then laundered them across at least five European countries. Both Salameh brothers deny wrongdoing.

Berri meets US Ambassador in Ain al-Tineh, broaches security situation with GS’s Baissari, receives further congratulatory cables on occasion of...
NNA/May 02/2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday received at the Second Presidency in Ain al-Tineh, US Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, with whom he discussed the current general situation, the latest political developments and the bilateral relations. Speaker Berri also received a delegation representing the "Fifty Fifty" organization and the Civil Coalition for Women's Quota. The delegation presented the Speaker with a proposed law aimed at achieving gender parity in municipal councils by amending some articles of Law No. 665 of December 29, 1997.
This afternoon, Berri met with Acting Director General of General Security, Brigadier General Elias Baissari, with whom he discussed the general situation, especially the security one. On the other hand, Berri received further congratulatory cables on the occasion of the holy Eid Al-Fitr, notably from the President of the Republic of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammad Shia' al-Sudani, Speaker of the Iranian Shura Council, Muhammad Baqir Qalibaf, and Speaker of the National People's Assembly of Algeria, Ibrahim Boughali.

Oil prices edge lower in Lebanon
NNA/May 02/2023
Oil prices in Lebanon have dropped on Tuesday. Consequently, the new prices are as follows:
95 octanes: LBP 1,743,000
98 octanes: LBP 1,784,000
Diesel: LBP 1,506,000
Gas: LBP 1,003,000

How Palestinians Are Trying to Destroy Lebanon
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/May 02/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/117887/117887/
According to these reports, Hamas could not have carried out the rocket attack without the blessing of Hezbollah, Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon.
"[T]here are those who seek to turn Lebanon into a military base. What [Hamas] did [by firing missiles at Israel] will be an incentive for other organizations to carry out similar military actions that could drag Lebanon into disaster." — Elie Mahfoud, a lawyer for Sovereign Front for Lebanon, Asharq Al-Awsat, April 24, 2023.
Hezbollah has proven that it is the only authority in Lebanon and that the Islamic Republic of Iran controls all aspects of the country." — Kheirallah Kheirallah, veteran Lebanese journalist, Al Arabiya, April 9, 2023.
Kheirallah also took the Lebanese foreign ministry to task for protesting against Israel when it fired back "instead of asking itself what Hamas and its rockets are doing in Lebanon."
The bad news... is that Lebanon will continue to be used by Iran's ruling mullahs and their proxies as a launching pad to attack Israel as long as the Lebanese people do not rise up against them.
More bad news: this is exactly what will happen if and when a Palestinian state is established next to Israel. This new state will be used by Iran and its terrorist militias as a base for attacking Israel and killing as many Jews as they can.
Last month, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. Several reports suggest that Hamas was behind the attack, and that Hamas could not have carried it out without the blessing of Hezbollah, Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon. Pictured: Lebanese soldiers stand next to a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher after confiscating it from Hezbollah terrorists, in Shouayya, Lebanon, on August 6, 2021. (Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images)
Many people in Lebanon are worried that the Iranian-backed Islamist group Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions might drag Lebanon into another war with Israel.
The concern was expressed after several rockets were fired in early April from south Lebanon into Israel. Several reports have suggested that Hamas was behind the rocket attack. According to these reports, Hamas could not have carried out the rocket attack without the blessing of Hezbollah, Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon.
The voices condemning Hamas for using Lebanon as a launching pad to attack Israel reflect the widespread fear in Lebanon of engaging in another war with Israel, especially as the country faces an unprecedented economic crisis. According to a March 2023 report in Axios:
"Unsustainable borrowing and financial mismanagement by Lebanon's sectarian elite coupled with virtually nonproductive economic growth has fueled one of the worst economic crises the world has seen in centuries, economists say."
Another report published late last year revealed that amid a deepening economic crisis and alarming levels of poverty and food insecurity, the majority of the people in Lebanon are unable to secure their social and economic rights.
So, the last thing the people of Lebanon need now is for a Palestinian terror group to drag their country into another war with Israel – a war that would wreak havoc on Lebanon and further exacerbate the economic crisis there. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups have already brought death and destruction on the two million residents of the Gaza Strip by using it as a launching pad for firing rockets at Israel. Since 2008, Israel has been forced to launch several military operations in the Gaza Strip in response to recurring rocket and missile attacks by Palestinian terrorists.
That is doubtless why many Lebanese, when they heard about the rockets that were fired at Israel from their country, were quick to denounce the Palestinian terror groups, specifically Hamas, for putting their lives and properties at risk by increasing the chances of sparking another military confrontation with Israel.
During the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, large parts of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure were destroyed, including 400 miles of roads, 73 bridges and 31 other targets such as Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, 25 fuel stations, 900 commercial structures, and 15,000 homes. Some 130,000 more homes were damaged.
The fear of another war with Israel has prompted some Lebanese to go as far as taking legal action against Hamas, which they hold responsible for the recent barrage of rockets fired into Israel from south Lebanon.
A Lebanese group named Sovereign Front for Lebanon filed a complaint to a military court in Beirut against the Hamas for endangering Lebanon's security. The group demanded that the Lebanese authorities launch an investigation against any foreign organization that "assaults" Lebanese sovereignty.
The group revealed that Hamas and other Palestinian groups have established military bases in various parts of Lebanon. "The most dangerous of these military bases is the Al-Na'ameh base that overlooks Beirut International Airport," it noted.
"These bases contain hundreds of militants. On April 6, southern Lebanon witnessed security tension as a result of the firing of 34 rockets from Lebanese territory towards Israeli settlements. Although that attack did not result in deaths, it did necessitate an Israeli response that targeted Hamas positions in the Rashidieh camp, south of Tyre."
Elie Mahfoud, a lawyer for the group Sovereign Front for Lebanon, said of the decision to lodge a complaint against Hamas:
"What we have done is a formality, but it serves as a legal cry that there are those who seek to turn Lebanon into a military base. What [Hamas] did [by firing missiles at Israel] will be an incentive for other organizations to carry out similar military actions that could drag Lebanon into disaster."
Lebanese lawyer Ayman Jezzini held both Hamas and Hezbollah responsible for firing the rockets from Lebanon into Israel. Jezzini said there was "no justification for the rocket attack.
Jezzini scoffed at claims by Hezbollah and Hamas that Israel's defeat is just around the corner.
"Ignoring that Tel Aviv has become known as Tel-Tech [technology] and that it has expanded its science and industry to reach the ranks of the developed world. There are 2.4 million poor Lebanese today, of whom 1.1 million are below the poverty line, and these make up about 275,000 families, according to the World Bank."
Veteran Lebanese journalist Kheirallah Kheirallah also held Hezbollah and Hamas responsible. Hezbollah, he said, "is under the illusion that the world does not know that Hamas cannot fire a rocket without receiving the blessing of the Iranian-backed militia (Hezbollah)." The world, Kheirallah remarked, "is not as stupid as Hezbollah imagines."
"It is also no coincidence that the rockets were launched from southern Lebanon at a time when Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, was in Beirut to hold talks with the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and to meet with the leaders of the Palestinian factions based in Syria and Lebanon. Hezbollah has proven that it is the only authority in Lebanon and that the Islamic Republic of Iran controls all aspects of the country."
Kheirallah also took the Lebanese foreign ministry to task for protesting against Israel when it fired back "instead of asking itself what Hamas and its rockets are doing in Lebanon."
Several Lebanese politicians have also come out against Hamas, accusing it of endangering the lives of Lebanese citizens.
Samy Gemayel, a politician, lawyer and member of the Lebanese Parliament who serves as the leader of the Kataeb Party, criticized the speaker of the parliament for not speaking out against the rocket attack:
"It seems that the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament is satisfied with the use of south Lebanon as a platform for launching more than 60 rockets by Hamas, endangering its people. We didn't hear anything from him."
Fares Souaid, a Lebanese politician, former member of parliament and secretary-general of the March 14 Alliance, the movement behind the ending of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 2005, said the Lebanese people refuse to let their country turn into a pawn in the hands of Iran and its proxies.
"The refrigerators of the [Lebanese people's] houses are empty without war," Souaid complained. "What if the war enters the house of each of us? What if Israel bombed our facilities? We want life."
In another comment on Twitter, Souaid accused Hezbollah of establishing "Hamas Land" in southern Lebanon under the eyes of the Lebanese army. He said the Lebanese government bears the responsibility "for not considering Lebanon under Iranian occupation and contenting themselves with talking about illegal weapons."
Another Lebanese politician, Nadim Gemayel, wrote:
"Iran's [Hezbollah] militia and its ally Hamas and the axis of terrorism insist that Lebanon be a launching pad for missiles...
They insist on dragging Lebanon into wars that have nothing to do with it...
They insist on destroying what is left of Lebanon...
If they want to liberate Palestine, they and [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh should go and do so from inside the Palestinian territories, not from Lebanon."
The growing opposition to attempts by Iran and its terror militias to use Lebanon as a launching pad to attack Israel suggests that many Lebanese are not interested in another war with Israel.
This is good news, especially in light of the dire economic conditions in Lebanon. The bad news, however, is that Lebanon will continue to be used by Iran's ruling mullahs and their proxies as a launching pad to attack Israel as long as the Lebanese people do not rise up against them.
More bad news: this is exactly what will happen if and when a Palestinian state is established next to Israel. This new state will be used by Iran and its terrorist militias as a base for attacking Israel and killing as many Jews as they can.
It is refreshing to hear the voices denouncing Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah for targeting Israel, but as long as the terrorists continue their war on Israel, the refrigerators of many Lebanese families will remain bare.
*Bssam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 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.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19614/palestinians-hamas-destroy-lebanon

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 02-03/2023
Audio Panel From FDD: The Hashemite King's Gambit
May 02/2023
https://www.fdd.org/podcasts/2023/05/01/the-hashemite-kings-gambit/
Richard Goldberg/Senior Advisor
Jonathan Schanzer/Senior Vice President for Research
Joe Truzman/Research Analyst at FDD's Long War Journal
About
For decades, American policymakers have come to view the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as an indispensable ally in the Middle East, committing billions of taxpayer dollars to support Jordan’s budget, economy, and military. Indeed, Jordan’s Peace Treaty with Israel; its strategic position between Israel, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia; and its pro-American military and intelligence services remain critical to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
And yet, challenges inside this relationship are reaching alarming levels. From harboring one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and inciting violence against Israel, to a member of its parliament facing charges for trafficking guns and gold into Israel, Jordan’s recent behavior has U.S. policymakers considering their options. Filling in for host Cliff May is Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at FDD. To discuss U.S.-Jordan relations, he’s joined by FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman, research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal.

Explosion hits Revolutionary Guard base in Iran, report says
AP/May 02, 2023
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: An explosion on Tuesday evening struck a base in Iran belonging to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, according to reports on state media. No casualties or damages were reported. The state-run IRNA news agency said the blast occurred during a “movement of ammunition” at the Guard base on the outskirts of the city of Damghan, in northern Semnan province. The report offered no other details about the source of the explosion. IRNA added that he incident was under investigation. The Guard, whose expeditionary forces operate across the wider Middle East and aid Iranian-allied militant groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas group, and Iran’s military have been targeted before, raising tensions in the region. In February, satellite photos showed damage to what Iran at the time describes as a military workshop targeted by Israeli drones, the latest such assault amid a shadow war between the two countries. Iran offered no explanation of what the workshop manufactured. International concerns have mounted over Tehran enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, with experts warning the Islamic Republic has enough fuel to build “several” atomic bombs if it chooses.

Iran Denies Schoolgirls Were Poisoned Despite Overwhelming Evidence
FDD/May 02/2023
Latest Developments
Following an investigation, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence announced on April 28 that no poisoning of schoolgirls has occurred in the country. Instead, the statement blamed unidentified foreign “enemies” for engineering allegations of poisoning in an effort to discredit the Islamic Republic. The statement denies overwhelming evidence that gas poisonings have taken place, effectively dismissing the experiences of thousands of student victims in some 460 attacks in approximately 140 cities since November. Over the weekend, a gas poisoning of a girls’ school in the Iranian city of Andimeshk sent some 50 students to the hospital.
Expert Analysis
“As these attacks continue, the regime has gone back to its favorite method of denial and blaming everyone besides itself. The regime’s claim that schoolgirls are faking the symptoms is particularly outrageous. The least that Western governments can do is to impose sanctions on regime officials and initiate an investigation into what is going on in Iran.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor
“As expected, the Islamic Republic is once again pointing a finger of blame abroad for crises created by itself at home. The Islamist regime and its security apparatus are the only ones with the both the intention and capability to carry out such far-reaching chemical attacks on their own youth, and, in particular, schoolgirls. The dismissal of evidence and the reliance on a tried-and-true playbook of denial and deflection rub salt in the wounds of the almost 500 cases of poisonings against young students in Iran.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, FDD Senior Fellow
The Attacks
The first poisonings reportedly occurred in late November 2022 among 18 schoolgirls and staff at the Nour Technical School in the religious center of Qom, approximately 80 miles southwest of Tehran. The girls went to the hospital with symptoms that included headaches, heart palpitations, respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness, lethargy, and inability to move, according to media reports. The same school experienced another round of poisonings on December 13. Still, it was only in March 2023 that the poisonings came to dominate Iranian political debates as the number of attacks increased and their geographical distribution spread.
Regime Deflects Blame
The Islamic Republic likely perpetrated the attacks in response to the revolutionary protests that have consumed the country since September 2022, when government agents killed 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. In a country like Iran, where the government has tight control over society, it is unlikely that anti-regime groups could have engaged in such operations. In addition, dissident groups have no incentive to target schoolgirls in the middle of a revolution promoting women’s rights.
Iran’s denial that the poisonings took place marks its most glaring attempt to deflect responsibility for the attacks. In the past, the regime had at least recognized there had been poisonings. When 104 chemical attacks occurred on March 6 alone, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, acknowledged the problem, saying the “poisonings are a grave and unforgivable crime” that warrant “the most severe of punishments.”

Report: Israel got intel on Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program from executed spy
Times Of Israel & Agencies/May 02/2023
NY Times says UK told Israel about nuclear activity at Fordo based on info from Ali Reza Akbari, who was hanged in January; Russia assisted Tehran in identifying source of leak. Russian intelligence reportedly helped Iran discover that a dual Iranian-British national who once served as its deputy minister of defense was leaking information about its top-secret nuclear weapons program. In January, Tehran hanged Ali Reza Akbari over accusations of espionage, an execution that was harshly denounced by the UK and other Western nations. According to an in-depth New York Times report released on Monday, Akbari was indeed a spy and began leaking Iranian nuclear secrets to the British in 2004 — keeping his activities hidden for 15 years. The report said that in 2008, a senior British intelligence officer told Israeli security officials during a meeting in Tel Aviv that the UK was working with an Iranian spy who had significant information about Tehran’s nuclear activities. Citing “three Western intelligence and national security officials,” the newspaper reported that the UK passed on information from Akbari to Israel about Iran’s nuclear activities at the Fordo site and their ties to the country’s efforts to produce nuclear weapons — information not previously known to Western intelligence officials.
Iran has long denied pursuing a nuclear weapon and says its program is for civilian research purposes, but Western officials believe the country was actively pursuing weapons production until at least the early 2000s. In 2019, the NY Times report claims, Iran was aided by “Russian intelligence officials” in pinpointing Akbari as the source of the leak about activities at Fordo. The newspaper wrote that it was not clear how Russia had been able to discover this. This December 11, 2020, satellite photo by Maxar Technologies shows construction at Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
Akbari also reportedly turned over the names of around 100 senior Iranian officials to British authorities, including that of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed in November 2020 in an attack that Tehran blames on Israel. Akbari, who ran a private think tank, had not been seen in public since 2019, when he was apparently arrested. He was executed in January after being sentenced to death for “corruption on earth and harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence,” the website of Iran’s judiciary reported. Iranian state media reported that the 61-year-old Akbari had held high positions in the country’s defense establishment. His posts included deputy minister of defense for foreign affairs and a position in the secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council. Akbari had also been an adviser to the commander of the navy, as well as heading a division at the defense ministry’s research center. Ali Reza Akbari speaks at a meeting to unveil the book ‘National Nuclear Movement,’ in Tehran, Iran, on October 14, 2008. (Davoud Hosseini, Islamic Republic News Agency via AP) In videos released by state media following his execution — which Iran touted as a confession and his family said was forced — Akbari said he was recruited by British intelligence in 2004 with the promise of visas for him and his family. Authorities did not release any details about his trial. Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are usually tried behind closed doors where rights groups say they do not choose their own lawyers and are not allowed to see evidence against them. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the time that he was “appalled” by the execution.“This was a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people,” Sunak said in a statement.

Israeli attack puts Syria's Aleppo airport out of service, one soldier killed -state media
CAIRO (Reuters)/May 2/2023
An Israeli attack late on Monday killed one soldier, wounded 7 others including two civilians and put Aleppo International Airport out of service, Syrian state media reported early on Tuesday citing a military source. Syrian air defenses intercepted the Israeli missiles on the vicinity of Aleppo and shot down a number of them, Syrian state media said earlier on Monday. Israel carried out the missile attack at 23:35 p.m. southeast of Aleppo, targeting the airport and some sites in the vicinity of the Syrian city and causing some material damage, the source was quoted as saying. Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.

Gaza cross-border fire after Palestinian hunger striker dies
Agence France Presse/May 2/2023
The Israeli military traded fire with Gaza militants Tuesday in a flare-up of violence following the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike. The army said it hit Gaza with "tank fire" in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave, sparking a renewed volley from Gaza that was witnessed by AFP journalists. The exchange of fire came hours after 45-year-old prisoner Khader Adnan died, nearly three months after being detained in the occupied West Bank over his ties to the Islamic Jihad militant group. Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described his death as a "deliberate assassination", charging Israel had killed him "by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically and keeping him in his cell, despite the seriousness of his health condition". News of his death was initially followed by three rockets fired by militants from Gaza, which "fell in open areas", the Israeli army said. The army reported sirens blaring near the Gaza border following their retaliatory tank fire and warned Israeli residents to stay near bomb shelters. A joint statement by militant factions in Gaza, including the territory’s rulers Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said the rocket fire was an "initial response" to Adnan's death.
'Deliberate medical negligence'
Israel's prison service had announced the death of a detainee who was affiliated to Islamic Jihad, saying in a statement that he was "found early this morning in his cell unconscious". Adnan was the first Palestinian to die as a direct result of a hunger strike, according to advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners' Club. Other Palestinian detainees have died "as a result of attempts to force feed them", said the group's director Qaddura Faris. Palestinians launched a general strike in West Bank cities in response to Adnan's death. The Arab League charged that Adnan's death was "the result of a policy of deliberate medical negligence, which is systematically practiced by the Israeli occupation authorities". Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said prison officials decided to close cells to "prevent riots".
"The directive to the prisoner service is zero tolerance towards hunger strikes and disturbances in security prisons," he said in a statement.
'Pay the price'
A senior Israeli official described Adnan as "a hunger striker who refused medical attention, risking his life". "In recent days, the military appeal court decided against releasing him from detention solely on the merit of his medical condition," said the official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the media. Adnan was described by the official as an "operative" of Islamic Jihad, who was facing charges related to his activities within the militant group. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967 and its forces regularly detain Palestinians, who are subject to Israeli military courts. Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, warned Israel will "pay the price for this crime". Israel's prison service said Adnan was in jail for the 10th time and his wife, Randa Mousa, previously told AFP her husband had carried out multiple hunger strikes in detention.
Family against Gaza rockets
Speaking on Tuesday, Mousa said: "We will only receive well-wishers, because this martyrdom is (like) a wedding, a (moment of) pride for us and a crown on our heads."But she cautioned militants against launching a violent response. "We don't want a drop of blood to be shed," she told journalists in the family's hometown of Arraba in the northern West Bank. "We don't want anyone to respond to the martyrdom. We don't want someone to launch rockets and then (Israel) strikes Gaza."A few dozen Palestinians gathered in Gaza Wednesday in support of Adnan, with banners and placards featuring his portrait. In his final message, Adnan said he was "sending you these words as my flesh and fat has melted". "I pray that God accepts me as a faithful martyr," he wrote, in a message published Monday by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said its medic visited Adnan and raised his "life-threatening condition and the need for immediate hospital transfer". Israeli rights group BTselem described his hunger strike as "a form of non-violent protest against his arrest and the injustices of the occupation". "The fact that a person whose life was in danger remained in prison despite repeated requests to transfer him to a hospital reflects the absolute disregard Israel held for his life," the organization said.

Netanyahu: Preventing Iran's Nuclear Armament Remains Israel's Top Priority
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 2 May, 2023
The need to block Iran's nuclear armament will continue to be Israel's top priority, announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset plenum attended by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He noted that the first and most urgent challenge was the joint effort of Israel and the US to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. "We properly see the threat posed by the fanatical regime in Iran, which threatens not only Israel but also the United States and the entire free world," the PM noted. He asserted that Israel would not allow Iran to establish itself militarily along its borders and would do everything to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, met the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Brussels. Cohen aimed to ensure that the EU would take a tougher stance on Iran's repeated violations of its nuclear commitments before June's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors. Cohen is expected to ask Borrell to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization, according to the Israeli "i24 News" channel. Last Thursday, Cohen urged his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, to form a broad and firm front against Iran, including economic and political sanctions. Cohen told Albares, "We must form a broad and determined front against Iran, which includes economic and political sanctions at the same time as a credible military threat.""Today Europe has a better understanding of the danger of the Iranian rule of terror," the Israeli minister tweeted. He indicated that he discussed strengthening relations between Israel and the European Union- with Spain in particular- in the fields of cyber and fin-tech.

Tehran: Our Missions in Saudi Arabia Have Taken First Steps to Resume Operations
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 2 May, 2023
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani announced that Iranian missions in Saudi Arabia have taken their first steps to resume diplomatic activity in the Kingdom. Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran, Kanaani expressed Iran’s desire to reopen both the Saudi and Iranian embassies in their respective capitals by the agreed-upon date of May 10, as outlined in the diplomatic relations resumption agreement between the two nations. Kanaani underscored that the Iranian embassy in Riyadh, as well as its consulate and mission office to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) both in Jeddah, have initiated the necessary process to restart their operations. This information was relayed by Iranian government agencies. Kanaani also lauded Saudi Arabia for its role in easing and assisting the movement of many Iranian residents from Sudan to Iran. This appreciation follows Iran’s recent announcement that 65 of its citizens had left Port Sudan for Iran via Jeddah. In a mediated agreement brokered by China, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced on March 10 their decision to restore diplomatic ties and reopen their respective embassies and consulates within two months at most. This development was broadly welcomed from both regional and international communities. In April, representatives from both nations visited their respective embassies in Riyadh and Tehran to commence the process of reopening them. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian announced on Friday that the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Iran would be reopened “in the coming days.”Speaking at a press conference in Beirut, he stated that during a recent phone call between the foreign ministers of their countries on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, they agreed to work towards reopening the embassies in Tehran and Riyadh in the near future. Last week, Kanaani expressed hope that Iran’s diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia would be reopened by May 9.

Iran, Syria to Sign Agreements During Raisi's Visit to Damascus
Damascus – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 2 May, 2023 - 07:45
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Damascus Wednesday at the head of a sizeable ministerial delegation, the first by an Iranian president to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since war broke out in Syria in 2011. A local newspaper revealed an Iranian plan to invest in the electricity sector in Syria, which will be discussed during the President's visit. Al-Watan quoted informed sources saying that the Syrian government is arranging to sign new agreements with Iran in energy and electricity and that negotiations will occur during the Iranian President's visit. The talks will also address a new Iranian line of credit to be invested in electricity, aiming to help Syria improve the sector, which has been suffering for over a decade. According to the newspaper's sources, the Iranian delegation will discuss assisting Syria in repairing and establishing new electric power plants. The Iranian President's agenda includes talks with his Syrian counterpart, meetings with Syrian politicians and clerics, and a tour of several areas in Damascus and its countryside.Meanwhile, the joint Syrian-Iraqi committee began meeting in Damascus less than a week after the joint Syrian-Iranian economic committee sessions in Damascus. The meetings discussed establishing the railway line through Iran, Iraq, and Syria and constructing the Basra-Shalamcheh line, announced Iranian minister for roads and construction Mehrdad Bazerbash. Bazerbash chaired the Iranian delegation in the meetings that focused on the electricity and priorities in the Iranian credit line. They also addressed the railway corridor, increasing the number of trips between the two countries, assisting the Syrian fleet, and inaugurating the al-Hamidiyah Port in Tartus. The Iranian side renewed its request for 5,000 hectares of Syrian agricultural land for agricultural experiments and transferred Iranian expertise to the Syrian side. Iraqi Trade Minister, Atheer al-Ghurairy, headed the Iraqi delegation, and the Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Mohammad Samer al-Khalil, chaired the team to the meetings of the Syrian-Iraqi joint committee. According to local media in Damascus, a number of joint memorandums of understanding are expected to be signed. Meanwhile, Syrian authorities are removing the checkpoints in Damascus near the security square, including a barrier at the entrance to the al-Maliki neighborhood close to the presidential palace. Earlier, Damascus governorate removed illegal stalls and kiosks on sidewalks and roads to facilitate traffic. The services department warned all stalls and kiosks' owners and then began removing the illegal businesses, issuing tickets for their owners. Notably, Damascus preceded the visit of the Saudi Foreign Minister to Damascus last April by removing three roadblocks leading to the Abu Rummaneh neighborhood, where most Arab embassies are located. It is close to the presidential palace and the Four Seasons Hotel, the residence of international delegations. The streets surrounding religious shrines, such as Sitt Ruqayyah in Old Damascus and the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in southern Damascus, are witnessing a cleaning campaign amid a security alert.
The Iranian President is expected to visit the areas and the shrines.

Iranian Official Executed for Espionage Leaked Information About Fordo Plant
Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 2 May, 2023
Five months after Tehran’s execution of Alireza Akbari on charges of espionage for Britain, the New York Times quoted Israeli and Iranian sources as saying that the former official was an unexpected spy because of his loyalty to the regime. Akbari, the former deputy defense minister of Iran, played an instrumental role in revealing intelligence on the Fordo nuclear site. The plant included Iran's secret activities before Tehran admitted the existence of an underground uranium enrichment site in 2009. Akbari, 62, who holds British citizenship, was executed at dawn on January 14, three days after his arrest case was leaked to the media. According to the New York Times, the execution of Akbari, who has close ties to the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, brought to light something hidden for 15 years: Akbari was the British mole. In April 2008, a senior British intelligence official flew to Tel Aviv to deliver an explosive revelation to his Israeli counterparts: Britain had a mole in Iran with high-level access to the country's nuclear and defense secrets. According to the newspaper, the spy provided valuable intelligence that would prove critical in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and in persuading the world to impose sweeping sanctions against Tehran. Akbari, who lived a double life, began leaking nuclear secrets to British intelligence in 2004. He was a senior military commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and a deputy defense minister who later moved to London and went into the private sector but never lost the trust of Iran's leaders. He was known as a religious zealot and political hawk and continued to serve as an adviser to Shakhmani and other officials even after he retired from his posts in 2008. The daily reported that Akbari did not face a problem until 2019 when he was arrested in Tehran where he was on a visit at the invitation of Shamkhani. Iran discovered with the assistance of Russian intelligence officials that he had revealed the existence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program deep in the mountains near Tehran, according to two Iranian sources with links to IRGC. The New York Times reported in September 2019 that the intelligence source on Fordo was a British spy.
Akbari's intelligence was one of the revelations the British intelligence official passed on to Israeli counterparts and other friendly agencies in 2008. In April 2008, Britain received and shared intelligence about Fordo with Israel and Western agencies.
Iranian authorities did not specify the exact timing of Akbari's arrest between 2019 and 2020. Two days after Akbari's execution, Iranian state media broadcast his televised confessions, confirming his role in relaying information about the identity and activities of over 100 officials, most significantly the chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated in November 2020.
In his confessions, Akbari said he was recruited by British intelligence, providing information on top officials and influential figures to foreign countries. A few days before his execution, BBC Persian revealed an audio message from Akbari, speaking from inside the prison, saying he was tortured for more than ten months and that his confessions were coerced. He said there is no evidence against him, noting that he left Iran legally and launched his economic activities in several European countries, but he was accused of "escaping" and owning "shell companies." Iran said he disclosed the identity and activities of over 100 officials, namely Fakhrizadeh. he New York Times quoted a senior Iranian diplomat and an adviser to the government as saying that Akbari argued that Iran should acquire a nuclear weapon. On January 15, the day after Akbari's execution, the reformist Etemad newspaper published excerpts from Akbari's statements, including statements he made in August 2003 to the state-owned news agency ISNA about the need for Iran to obtain a "deterrent" nuclear weapon. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to halt uranium enrichment at Fordo, turning it instead into a center of nuclear energy, physic, and technology. ast year, Iran announced a return to enriching uranium to 20 percent at the Fordo facility. Last November, it began enrichment at 60 percent. ran has been enriching to 60 percent at the Natanz facility since April 2021, close to the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade uranium. Last February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticized Iran for concealing fundamental modifications, like the work of centrifuges at the Fordo facility. he IAEA did not say how the interconnection between the two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges had been changed except that "they were interconnected in a way that was substantially different from the mode of operation declared by Iran (to the IAEA)." ater that same month, leaked reports from the Agency revealed that its inspectors had found uranium particles enriched to 83.7 percent purity, the highest level Iran has ever reached. owever, Tehran said it did not intend to enrich uranium to more than 60 percent and agreed with the IAEA to investigate the origin of 83.7 percent of uranium.

Iran Resorts to Security Cameras, Ostracism to Deter Unveiled Women
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 2 May, 2023
Wary of re-igniting Iran's worst political turmoil in years, the country's rulers are resorting to new, less obtrusive tactics to punish women who refuse to wear the obligatory hijab. he methods, introduced following nationwide anti-government protests last year, combine use of security cameras with denial of state services to violators, replacing the morality police whose actions were the flashpoint for the months of unrest. he measures have yet to make much headway against opposition to the hijab, and could worsen economic pressures if they result in the closure of businesses, Iranian activists say.
"Walking unveiled in the streets is now my way of keeping our revolution alive," said Roya, 31, a private tutor in the northern city of Rasht, who was arrested during protests in November and detained for three months. "We are not scared of the regime's threats. We want freedom ... This path will continue until we regain our country from the clerics," Maryam, a high school girl in Iran's western Kermanshah city, told Reuters. "What is the worst case scenario if I walk in the street without hijab? Arrest? I don't care." or decades women who refused to wear the hijab were accosted by morality police operating from vans that patrolled busy public spaces. The vehicles' mixed male and female crew would watch for "unIslamic dress and behavior". ut those vans have mostly vanished from streets of cities they used to patrol, residents told Reuters, after the protests confronted Iran's clerical rulers with their worst legitimacy crisis since the 1979 revolution. Iranian officials have also said morality police patrols would no longer spearhead the campaign against those flouting the dress codes.
Novel tactics
In place of the vans, authorities are installing cameras on streets to identify unveiled women, providing a more discreet method of detecting breaches of Iran's conservative dress code. nother novel tactic is a government order to both private and public sectors not to provide services to "violators". Warnings of heavy fines and even imprisonment have been issued. Yet growing numbers of women have defied authorities by discarding their veils in the wake of the protests, which erupted after the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly violating hijab rules. ecurity forces violently put down the revolt, and the street demonstrations largely fizzled in February. Her death in September in the custody of morality police unleashed years of pent up anger in society over issues from economic misery to tightening political controls. ow women show up frequently unveiled in malls, airports, restaurants and streets in a display of civil disobedience. Several lawmakers and politicians have warned that the protests could resume if authorities continue to focus on penalizing women who discard the hijab. Parliament speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf drew criticism from economists and politicians when he said on April 14 that pursuing the issue of the hijab did not conflict with developing the economy. Saeid Golkar, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said enforcing the hijab law was aimed at satisfying "the authoritarian regime's small social base of conservative and religious people". ince being freed on bail, Roya has been banned from leaving the country and called in several times for questioning. I might be jailed again, but it is worth it. I want my country to be free and I am ready to pay the price," Roya said. Like the dozen other women interviewed for this story, Roya asked not to be identified due to security concerns and for fear of the consequences of speaking to foreign media. I go out unveiled everyday to show that the opposition to the rulers is still alive, " said Minou, a 33-year-old woman in the city of Mashhad who said she was beaten and her brother was detained by security agents during the protests.
Economic woes
The new anti-hijab tactics may worsen Iran's economic woes, according to an Iranian insider close to top decision-makers. housands of businesses have been closed for days, including a shopping mall in Tehran with 450 shops, according to state media, because its employees failed to observe the mandatory hijab law and had been serving unveiled women. ith an economy hit by US sanctions and mismanagement, Iran has faced nearly continuous protests by workers and pensioners for months over an inflation rate of more than 50%, high unemployment and unpaid wages.
Iranian state media have aired footage of women without hijab being barred from using public transportation, while the ministries of health and education have stated that services would not be offered to those flouting the dress code. My grocery shop was closed down for a few days by authorities for serving unveiled women," said Asghar, 45, in the central city of Isfahan. "I must work to take care of my family. I barely make ends meet. I don't care whether my customers are veiled or unveiled." or 20-year-old Shadi, attending her classes at a northern Iran university has become "a daily fight for freedom".
"I have been threatened by the university authorities with being sacked from school ... But I will not retreat until we are free," she said.

Israel deploys facial recognition cameras to ‘supercharge segregation’
Abbie Cheeseman/The Telegraph/May 2, 2023
Israel is using cameras equipped with facial recognition technology in occupied Hebron to secretly scan the faces of Palestinians and “supercharge segregation”, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The city, which has been a flashpoint for violence, is now bristling with CCTV, with at least one or two cameras every five metres, said the group. The AI technology dubbed “Red Wolf” was previously unknown, said the rights organisation in a new report, and adds to Israel’s growing arsenal of surveillance measures against Palestinians. Deployed at checkpoints throughout Hebron, Red Wolf scans the faces of approaching Palestinians without their knowledge or consent. The software then compares the data with information thought to be used in two other pieces of military-run software: Blue Wolf and Wolf Pack, which have been used in Hebron since 2019. The software then decides whether or not the person can pass through the checkpoint and automatically adds any new faces to its databases. If there is no match in the database, the person will be automatically denied entry. Palestinians have told the rights group that it has been used to prevent people from accessing their homes.
Since 1997, Hebron has been divided into two zones – one controlled by the Palestinian authority called H1, where some 200,000 Palestinians live, and the other controlled by Israel called H2, where more than 30,000 Palestinians live. Israel has security control over its half of the territory, home to several hundred hardline Jewish settlers and where there are now hundreds of permanent checkpoints operated by Israeli forces. The Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine are considered illegal under international law. “The Israeli authorities are using sophisticated surveillance tools to supercharge segregation and automate apartheid against Palestinians,” said Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International. “In the H2 area of Hebron, we documented how a new facial recognition system called Red Wolf is reinforcing draconian restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement, using illegitimately-acquired biometric data to monitor and control Palestinians’ movements around the city,” she added. The report also found that in occupied East Jerusalem a network of thousands of CCTV cameras operate across the Old City with facial recognition capabilities. In an area of just 10 square kilometres, the organisation mapped out at least one or two CCTV cameras every five metres. “In addition to the constant threat of excessive physical force and arbitrary arrest, Palestinians must now contend with the risk of being tracked by an algorithm, or barred from entering their own neighbourhoods based on information stored in discriminatory surveillance databases,” Ms Callamard said. Israel has repeatedly hit out at Amnesty and the growing movement of other international, Palestinian and Israeli rights groups that charge the state with the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.

20,000 Russians killed, 80,000 wounded in 'failed' 5-month winter offensive in Ukraine, U.S. says
Peter Weber, Senior editor/The Week/May 02/2023
Ukraine's armed forces are gearing up for a long-anticipated counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine, and Russian forces are digging in to try and defend the remaining territory they seized since invading in February 2022. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said said on Ukrainian TV Monday night that the military is "reaching the finish line" in counteroffensive preparations, and commanders will decide "how, where, and when."Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that, according to declassified U.S. estimates, "Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action," since December. About half the casualties were Wagner Group mercenaries "thrown into combat and without sufficient combat or combat training, combat leadership, or any sense of organizational command and control," especially in the ruined city of Bakhmut, he added. Russia's average daily casualty rate fell in April, following "exceptionally heavy Russian casualties over January-March 2023," Britain's Ministry of Defense assessed last week. "Figures released by the Ukrainian General Staff suggest a reduction from a daily average of 776 Russian casualties in March, to an average of 568 so far in April," as Russia's "attempted winter offensive has failed to achieve its objectives." "Russia's attempt at an offensive in the Donbas largely through Bakhmut has failed" and even "backfired," Kirby told reporters Monday. "Russia has been unable to seize any real strategic and significant territory," and after months of "extraordinary losses, Russia continues to be focused on a single Ukrainian city with limited strategic value."Logistics problems "remain at the heart of Russia's struggling campaign in Ukraine," Britain's Ministry of Defense said Monday night. "Russia does not have enough munitions to achieve success on the offensive." Russia and its Wagner paramilitary forces have made incremental gains in Bakhmut over nearly a year of attritional battle, and they now control most of the city. But the battle is fluid, and Ukraine has been able to push Russian forces back in some parts of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi said Monday. Russia still does not "completely" control Bakhmut, so "we are conducting a successful defense operation and are achieving our main goal: destroying the enemy's military potential, personnel, and equipment to the maximum extent possible," he added. "In particular, Wagner is close to being completely destroyed."

Ukrainian farmer comes up with novel way to demine his fields
HRAKOVE, Ukraine (Reuters)/May 2, 2023
A Ukrainian farmer has come up with a novel way to remove mines left in his fields after Russia's invasion -- he's kitted out his tractor with protective panels stripped from Russian tanks and operates it by remote control. After Russian forces were driven back from parts of eastern Ukraine by a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, mines remained in many fields, making it perilous for farmers to sow grain for the next harvest. Fields around the village of Hrakove are no exception. Oleksandr Kryvtsov, a general manager at his agricultural company, decided he couldn't wait for help from overworked official deminers to clear his field. Instead, he designed a remote-controlled tractor that could withstand blasts. Using armour from damaged Russian military vehicles to protect the body of his tractor, he bought a system that would enable one of his team to operate the tractor remotely from a digger's bucket suspended in the air nearby. "We started doing this just because the crop-sowing time has come and we can’t do anything because the rescue services are very busy," Kryvtsov told Reuters. "We ran over an anti-tank mine. The protection got blown out (but) the tractor is safe," he said." Everyone's alive and safe. The equipment was restored and repaired." Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said last week about 30% of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russians and that the government was focused on de-mining agricultural land as quickly as possible. "We have no time to demine the fields. The amount of work is enormous," said Serhii Dudak, head of the demining unit now overseeing the tractor's work. "It would take years to demine this particular field by hand and to guarantee that there are no mines here."

A muddy mess in Ukraine is making trouble for new howitzers so sensitive to dirt they come with their own vacuum cleaners
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/May 02/2023
Spring conditions have limited mobility for both Ukrainian and Russian troops.
Ukraine's recently obtained German-made self-propelled howitzers are particularly vulnerable to mud. Soldiers have to be very clean and careful when entering the vehicles, The New York Times reported. Springtime mud is plaguing the war-torn battlefields of eastern Ukraine, creating mobility issues for Russian and Ukrainian forces, slowing down their respective operations. It's also affecting some weapons. The state of the terrain is proving to be a hurdle for Kyiv's troops assigned to a specific piece of military hardware acquired from Germany during winter — German-made 155mm howitzers that are extremely sensitive to the dirty and grimy conditions. Germany has sent 14 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, according to an inventory of its military support to Kyiv. These weapons contain electronics that are so vulnerable to dirt and moisture that soldiers have to wear slippers or booties when they enter the vehicles so they don't track in any mud, the New York Times reported on Monday. Each howitzer even comes with a vacuum cleaner, and the barrels sometimes have to be cleaned with a long brush. "The Panzer really loves cleanliness," an artillery commander named Mykola told the Times, referring to a nickname for the Panzerhaubitze. "If you fire off two full loads of ammunition, you need to spend a day servicing it." Serhii, a lieutenant with the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade, even decided to recall the howitzers from the field out of fear that should the machines come under Russian fire, mud will prevent them from escaping the bombardment, the Times reported. In Germany, these vehicles were kept in climate-controlled garages. That said, the Ukrainian forces operating the German-made howitzers have reportedly seen some successes against Russian tank and infantry units despite the current conditions on the ground. It's not the first time that Ukraine's forces have dealt with the challenge of weaponry getting stuck in the mud. Units have reported that their Soviet-era T-64 tanks were getting trapped in the sludgy terrain — one of several issues troops found with the decades-old tanks. Britain's defense ministry shared in a recent intelligence update that mud was likely impacting operations on both the Russian and Ukrainian side in the wake of the cold winter months, although the surface conditions were expected to improve within a few weeks as the weather gets better. "With soft ground conditions across most of Ukraine, severe mud is highly likely slowing operations for both sides in the conflict," the April 21 update read. Ukrainian forces have been gearing up to launch a much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russia after receiving a massive influx of heavy armor and advanced military hardware from the US and its Western partners. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last week that nearly all the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have been delivered, and Ukraine's defense minister said his country was nearly ready to hit with an "iron fist." "That means over 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition," Stoltenberg said of the deliveries. "In total we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades, this will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory."

Discreetly, Berlin Confronts Russian Spies Hiding in Plain Sight
Erika Solomon/ The New York Times Company/May 2, 2023
BERLIN — Every day as he settles into his desk, Erhard Grundl, a German lawmaker, looks outside his office window into the embassy he knows may be spying on him. “I come into the office, and on a windy day, I see the Russian flag waving. It feels a bit like Psalm 23: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,’” he said, chuckling. “I’m not religious, but I always think of that.” In the shadow of Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstag, beyond the sandstone columns of Brandenburg Gate, German parliamentary buildings sit cheek by jowl with Russia’s sprawling, Stalinist-style diplomatic mission. For years, a silent espionage struggle played out here along the city’s iconic Unter den Linden avenue. Members of parliament like Grundl were warned by intelligence offices to protect themselves — to turn computer screens away from the window, stop using wireless devices that were easier to tap, and close the window blinds for meetings. It seems an almost comical situation for officials in one of Europe’s most powerful nations, where tensions over Russian espionage were something Germany’s government long seemed willing to ignore. That has become increasingly difficult since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as a Cold War-era style chill settles across the continent and recasts relations with Russia. Late last month, Russia exposed what it described as a “mass expulsion” of its diplomats in Germany when it announced a tit-for-tat expulsion of more than 20 German diplomats from Moscow. It was a rare sign, security analysts say, of a subdued but growing counterintelligence effort that Berlin is now belatedly undertaking, after years of increasingly brazen Russian intelligence operations on German soil.
At least twice, Russian groups suspected of Kremlin links have hacked German politicians and parliament — the last time just months before the 2021 elections that ended Angela Merkel’s 16 years at the helm and brought in Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
A few years earlier, a gunman accused of ties to Russian intelligence shot dead a Georgian dissident in broad daylight at the leafy Kleiner Tiergarten park, less than a mile away from Berlin’s government district. In 2021, police arrested a security guard at the nearby British Embassy who had been spying for Russia.
And late last year, in perhaps in the most disturbing case of all, a German intelligence officer was unmasked as a mole passing surveillance of the war in Ukraine to Moscow. Germany’s Foreign Ministry has been tight-lipped about the latest expulsions — even refusing to call them expulsions. But it acknowledged the diplomats’ departure was linked to “reducing the Russian intelligence presence in Germany.”Expulsions were long a common German response to Russian operations — including the first parliamentary hack, in 2015, and the invasion of Ukraine, when 40 diplomats were sent back to Moscow. But security experts see the current move as part of a broader effort to bolster counterintelligence and chip away discreetly at what they long warned was an extremely high spy count at the embassy.
Still, analysts like Stefan Meister, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said years of neglecting counterintelligence would take a long time to repair. When he worked with German spy agencies in 2000, he recalled, they did not have a single Russian speaker on staff. In contrast, he said, President Vladimir Putin of Russia had long made Germany, Europe’s largest economy, a top target for espionage. “We are not where we should be, or should have been,” he said. “The Russians are learning also. They have no limits, they have a lot of resources they put into this hybrid war, the information war. And we are always a few steps behind.”“Finally, they expel these guys,” he added. “But why did it take so long?”
At the heart of the debate over Germany’s handling of Russian espionage is the Russian Embassy, a palatial complex of soaring stone towers engraved with Soviet hammers and sickles. It has long been a site of fascination, consternation and intrigue. Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even for years after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the embassy was famous for lavish parties that attracted top German car industry executives, politicians, soccer stars and actors. But it had a darker side: Two of its inhabitants have mysteriously fallen to their deaths from embassy windows. In 2021, a diplomat was found outside on the pavement by German police, who believed he was an undercover agent of the FSB, the Russian secret service branch that Western officials linked to the Tiergarten murder.
It is an open secret that most diplomatic missions host spies among their ranks, and for years, a former senior aide to Merkel told The New York Times, she and her staffers who visited the embassy would trade guesses as to how many worked at the embassy there — sometimes suggesting up to 600.
In a recent documentary for ARD, the country’s state broadcaster, the estimate of embassy staff before the war was said to be more than 500. German officials generally assumed that at least a third of those were spies, the former Merkel aide said. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency told ARD it found potential espionage equipment on the embassy roof — perhaps to spy on lawmakers across the street, like Grundl, or Frank Schwabe, from Scholz’s Social Democrats. “We are not well enough prepared,” said Schwabe, who works in the building across from the embassy, and focuses on human rights. “I would actually like to see a targeted security strategy in Germany that really enables members of parliament, to help them really arm themselves against these kinds of wiretapping attempts.”
For now, he offers visitors like Russian dissidents or civil society actors the option to move to another room — or to position themselves so their lips cannot be read. Security experts say such tips are not nearly enough to help politicians who appear to be a top target — not just near the embassy, but anywhere, using vans with smaller devices that can tap into phones and hear conversations. Meister said lawmakers with sensitive portfolios could be moved farther from the Russian Embassy. “Then again, what isn’t sensitive now? A domestic policy or other issues, like migration, could be used by the Russian side — there is almost nothing that isn’t sensitive at the moment.”
Indeed, Nico Lange, a former German Defense Ministry official, who is now a senior fellow at the Munich Security Conference, said issues like migration were a key topic used by Russia in identifying and recruiting frustrated, far-right sympathizing members of German security and defense forces — like the mole arrested last year, or the security guard stealing information from the British Embassy. Complicating Germany’s efforts to effectively combat Russian intelligence is the country’s federalized system: Each German state has a different intelligence service.
Lange acknowledged cooperation and data sharing among the services was improving but said the setup inevitably has gaps. He also urged legislators to reverse laws granting espionage targets, even abroad, the same constitutional rights as German citizens. “Intelligence agencies are a tit-for-tat business,” he said. “If you’re not able to gather information, then your partners will not trade with you.” Lange’s current worry is that Russian spies are seeking information on weapons or training for Ukrainian soldiers. Already, suspected Russian operatives have been found near military training sites in Germany. Last month, Poland said it uncovered a Russian spy ring that had hidden cameras on rail lines in the southeast of the country, a major transit route for arms shipments to Ukraine. But some lawmakers in Germany wonder whether concerns over Russia’s spies have strayed too far from a problem within their own walls: Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, whose leaders were frequent guests at the Russian Embassy, hold seats in some of the most important parliamentary committees, from foreign affairs to defense. Grundl fretted over the fact that just last week, those far-right colleagues sat on a parliamentary committee while a secret topic was discussed. “They are sitting in there, and they have the best connections to Moscow,” he grumbled. “That’s the bigger headache to me: the enemy within.”

US, Turkey cooperate on terrorism-related sanctions -Treasury
Reuters/May 2, 2023
The United States worked together to impose terrorism-related sanctions on two individuals linked to funding two Syria-based groups already sanctioned by the United States and United Nations, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The actions target Omar Alsheak, a leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group, and Kubilay Sari, who has received funds in Turkey from donors for Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, the department said in a statement. "As terrorist groups continue to seek access to the international financial system, collaboration with our partners increases our ability to more effectively disrupt these facilitation networks," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. The new designations follow joint U.S.-Turkish actions on Jan. 5 that target a key financial network of Islamic State, Treasury said.

Arabian Travel Market 2023: Net-zero emissions and the future of Gulf tourism
LBCI/May 02/2023
Dubai has once again become a hub for tourism, this time by hosting the 30th edition of the Arabian Travel Market. The exhibition, inaugurated by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, brings together the most important travel, tourism, and aviation companies from around the world and hosts pavilions dedicated for each country to showcase its top tourist attractions. The event's 30th edition will focus on the theme of achieving net-zero emissions as a main topic of discussion among participants this year, reflecting Dubai's awareness of the importance of this issue, especially as the United Arab Emirates hosts the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 28) in November. With 150 countries participating in this exhibition, attention is drawn to the contributions of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially since the Gulf Cooperation Council countries cooperate and integrate on various tourism levels, as confirmed by the Bahraini Minister of Tourism, the UAE Ministry of Economy Undersecretary, and the CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority in a panel discussion titled "The Future of Travel in the Arab Gulf."At the end of their talk, the interlocutors wished for the return of Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon to the tourist map to join the path of prosperity.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 02-03/2023
Washington Must Focus on Asia When Targeting Tehran’s Drone Technology Procurement
Behnam Ben Taleblu/The National Interest/May 02/2023
The U.S. Treasury Department recently sanctioned a multi-jurisdiction procurement ring supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s drone and military programs. Concurrent with Iran’s continued proliferation of drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, both the Biden administration and Congress have sought to stem the flow of American components found in downed Iranian unmanned aerial systems.
Yet while preventing transfers of such Western equipment to Iran is both necessary and understandable, Asia has long served as a critical hub for military and missile technology to the Islamic Republic. An increase in the pace and scope of penalties targeting Tehran’s networks and fronts in Asia will be essential to disrupting Iran’s drone program.
The latest U.S. penalties center around an Iranian electronics firm known by an English transliteration of its acronym, PASNA. First sanctioned in 2018 for seeking technology with military applications from China and for reportedly providing material support to the sanctioned Iran’s Electronics Components Industries—a subsidiary of the sanctioned Iran Electronics Industries, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Iran’s sanctioned Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL)—PASNA continued its activities after exposure in 2018 through fronts, aliases, and affiliates, both in Iran and Malaysia.
Beyond exposing these fronts, the Treasury Department also sanctioned the managing director of PASNA, Mehdi Khoshghadam, as well as four suppliers of electronic goods and microelectromechanical systems to PASNA operating in both Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China. These penalties build on recent efforts by the Treasury Department to disrupt other Iranian drone technology procurement rings in Asia. Last month, the department targeted five firms operating in China and Hong Kong that sold aerospace components and light-aircraft engines to Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries, which is a subsidiary of the Iran Aviation Industries Organization, itself another MODAFL subsidiary.
Iran’s ability to erect, sustain, and even recreate front companies across jurisdictions despite Washington’s increased willingness to crack down on drone procurement, production, and proliferation networks should come as a surprise to no one. Oil shippers and shadowy fronts across Asia have long helped the Islamic Republic generate illicit revenues through the sale or storage of crude oil and petrochemicals, including at the height of U.S. sanctions.
For Tehran, which has a robust domestic defense industrial base, continued illicit procurement of drone components is a sign of the growing importance these low-flying unmanned aerial systems play in bolstering the revolutionary regime’s status and security.
Iran’s transfer of drones to Russia marked a historic first in Tehran’s relationship with Moscow, and one that the Islamic Republic is reportedly already cashing in on. Over the past three decades, it was Iran who served as a junior partner to Russia, purchasing Russian weapons like surface-to-air missile systems, fighter jets, and even diesel-electric submarines. Now it is Iranian weapons that are helping preserve Russian long-range strike platforms like cruise and ballistic missiles and helping sustain Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Regionally, variants of Iranian drones have become a regular feature of low-intensity conflict in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen where they bolster the capabilities of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” and strike U.S. persons, interests, and partners. On the home front, while drones were once seen the purview of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, these weapons are being increasingly diffused through Iran’s Armed Forces and branches of Iran’s Artesh, or national military.
Additionally, over the past few years, Iran has taken to directly launching drones from its own territory, striking at adversaries while operating beneath their threshold for the overt use of force. Of particular importance here have been loitering munitions or suicide drones. Such weapons have been launched by Iran in a combined arms operation with land-attack cruise missiles against Saudi Arabian oil facilities in 2019, as well as against moving targets like an Israeli-owned oil tanker in 2021.
All of this is to suggest that sporadic or graduated sanctions against Iranian procurement or proliferation networks will not handicap Iran’s drone program overnight nor will it deter future drone use by Iran. For example, there is no reason why Washington waited half a decade to sanction the head of an entity that was already subject to sanctions and still engaging in sanctionable activity, as was the case with PASNA and its managing director.
Conversely, sustained pressure against managers, boards, companies, and networks alike—especially when levied in large tranches rather than meted out over time—does stand a chance at both exposing and impeding the supply chains that feed Iran’s drone program. This is especially the case when focused on jurisdictions across Asia where illicit Iranian activity continues. Washington must therefore allocate more time, resources, and political capital to keep pace with this threat.
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow focusing on Iranian political and security issues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to its Iran Program, Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), and Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

An Early Look at Biden’s 2024 Prospects
Nate Cohn/The New York Times/May 02/2023
With Donald J. Trump indicted, Ron DeSantis faltering in the polls and Democrats still basking in their strong midterm showing, some might feel that President Biden’s re-election is all but a done deal.
But as Biden announced his re-election bid Tuesday, it’s worth noting something about the early 2024 polling: The race looks close.
Almost every recent survey shows a highly competitive presidential race. On average, Biden leads Trump by 1.4 percentage points so far this year. DeSantis even leads Biden, by less than a point.
Now, to be clear: I don’t think you should put a lot of stock in general election polls quite yet. But no one should be terribly confident about the outcome of a general election at this early stage either. If there were any case for early confidence, it ought to be reflected in the early polls. If Trump is doomed, why isn’t he getting trounced in the polls?
At the very least, Biden seems to have his work cut out for him. His job approval and favorability ratings remain stuck in the low 40s. This makes him quite a bit weaker than in 2020, when polls showed that voters generally had a favorable view of him. Or put differently: While the 2020 election was decided by voters who liked Biden and didn’t like Trump, today it seems the 2024 election could be decided by voters who dislike both candidates.
Why is Biden faring so poorly? The causes of his weak ratings have been up for debate since they tanked in August 2021. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, a stalled legislative agenda and the beginnings of inflation were all seen as possible theories. Today, all of those explanations seem to be in retreat — the story line of support for Ukraine against Russia has supplanted Afghanistan; the trend line on inflation shows some promise; Covid deaths are at their lowest point in three years — but Biden remains unpopular.
At this stage, three basic possibilities remain. One is that the overall political environment remains unfavorable, presumably because of persistent inflation and partisan polarization. If so, any president in these straits would have low approval ratings and struggle until voters felt their economic fortunes were improving. Another possibility is that Biden’s early stumbles did unusual and lasting damage to perceptions of his leadership competence, probably related to his age (80). If this is true, he may not find it easy to restore the nation’s confidence as long as he doesn’t look the part.
The final possibility is that the conditions may be in place for Biden’s ratings to rebound. It would not be the first time: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and even Trump (before coronavirus) saw their approval ratings increase from the low 40s in the two years before re-election. In this scenario, Biden’s ratings would increase as a crucial segment of voters judged him against the alternatives, rather than in isolation. His re-election campaign would offer a more forceful and energetic defense of his performance, perhaps against the backdrop of low unemployment and fading inflation.
Historically, the third possibility seems more likely. Biden’s age shouldn’t be understated as a legitimate factor, but he won despite his age last time, and incumbent presidents usually win re-election. The large number of voters who dislike Trump and once liked Biden create upside. The direction of the economy will be a crucial variable, of course, but at least for now the combination of low unemployment and slowly fading inflation would seem to provide enough ammunition for Biden to make his case. Still, his ratings are low enough today that they could improve markedly without securing his re-election.
Three kinds of voters appear to loom large as Biden tries to reassemble the coalition that brought him to the White House in 2020: young voters, nonwhite voters and perhaps low-income voters as well. In the most recent surveys, Biden is badly underperforming among these groups, appearing to be at least a net 10 points behind his 2020 numbers with them overall, helping to explain why the early general election polls show a close race.
Biden has shown weakness among these groups at various times before, so it is not necessarily surprising that he’s struggling among them again with his approval rating in the low 40s. Still, they crystallize the various challenges ahead of his campaign: his age, the economy, and voters who won’t be won over on issues like abortion or democratic principles. In his announcement video on Tuesday, Biden devoted almost all of his attention to rights, freedom, democracy and abortion. He’ll probably need a way to speak to people who are animated by more material, economic concerns than abstract liberal values.
A final wild card is the Electoral College. Even if Biden does win the national vote by a modest margin, Trump could assemble a winning coalition in the battleground states that decide the presidency, as he did in 2016.
In 2020, Biden won the national vote by 4.4 percentage points, but barely squeaked out wins by less than one percentage point in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. To win, he needed one of the three.
At the moment, there’s a case the Electoral College will be less favorable to Trump, relative to the national vote, than it was in 2020. In the midterm elections, the gap between the popular vote for US House and a hypothetical Electoral College result based on the House vote essentially evaporated, down from nearly four points in 2020. It’s possible this was simply a product of unusually poor Republican nominees at the top of the ticket in many of the most competitive states, but there are plausible reasons it might also reflect underlying electoral trends.
The renewed importance of abortion, for instance, might help Democrats most in relatively white, secular areas, which would tend to help them more in the Northern battlegrounds than elsewhere. “Democracy” may also play well as an issue in the battlegrounds, as these are the very states where the stop-the-steal movement threatened to overturn the results of the last election. Meanwhile, Biden’s relative weakness among nonwhite voters, who are disproportionately concentrated in noncompetitive states, might do more to hurt his tallies in states like California or Illinois than Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.
Given the idiosyncratic and localized nature of last year’s midterm results, it would be a mistake to be confident that the Republican Electoral College advantage is coming to an end. If that edge persists, the modest Biden lead in national polls today wouldn’t be enough for him to secure re-election.

Fox News’ Mistake, Not Tucker Carlson’s
Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsay/May 02/2023
Why did Trump refuse to accept the results of the presidential election?
The answer is obvious: for Trump’s sake. Trump is not a gracious loser. The man had forged an image of himself as a winner, boasting about everything from his wealth to his fame, popularity with women, physical attributes and sexual prowess. Trump used his skills to avoid seeing the image that he had built for himself destroyed after his defeat to Biden, whom he had called sleepy and physically unfit for office.
Nonetheless, he lost to Biden. The other reason he refuses to accept defeat is that Trump is determined to get his supporters to buy into the narrative that he is a victim of a conspiracy plotted by his enemies… a narrative that he can invest in and propagate to mobilize them during his new campaign.
We can understand Trump’s motives if we read his personality correctly. However, why did Fox News go along with him, adopting his claims? Indeed, here it is now, paying the price as it lets go of its most prominent commentator, Tucker Carlson. It has undermined its reputation and must pay a $ 787 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems after having launched a defamation campaign against it and accused it of rigging the elections.
Fox News stepped on a mine that eventually blew its feet off. It got itself in legal trouble, explicitly calling out Dominion without having evidence, which is penalized by the law. Here, we should remember the chorus sung by Trump’s lawyers, who held many press conferences claiming that they would reveal the truth, pushing the deluded idea that their client would return to the White House after the evidence was made public.
However, nothing has come of these promises so far. It was a ploy intended to deceive Trump’s furious supporters, tranquilizing them so that they do not wake up to reality.
As for Fox News station, it was driven by fears of losing its high viewership. This fear left the broadcaster pushing the claims Trump had been repeating, despite its knowledge that they were untrue.
The fact is that his supporters do not like seeing anything he says criticized or questioned. Thus, it became his personal propaganda arm after a while, attacking even the other Republicans who disagreed with him, such as the highest-ranking Republican at the time, Mitch McConnell. Driven by this fear of infuriating his supporters and losing them as viewers, Fox News ignored the most basic journalistic standards, refusing to scrutinize or genuinely examine his assertions, and enthusiastically embracing all of his nonsensical claims.
Defending lost and doomed causes, to ensure higher ratings or that the demands of the audience are met, is like driving a car without brakes. It can go at full speed, but it could also flip over or crash into reality. CNN did the same thing. It also got carried away, pushing false allegations that Trump had colluded with the Russians to win his election. CNN devoted a lot of its airtime to the attempt to overthrow Trump, only for Mueller’s report to demonstrate that these allegations are baseless.
CNN’s credibility was greatly undermined as a result, and it is now trying to rebuild its image, returning to its moderate editorial line and focusing on the news instead of opinion after having been hijacked by a handful of enraged left-wing activists.
Some conservative media outlets knew when to stop, refusing to cross the line and rush behind Trump and his camp. They continued to defend conservative stances, on everything from family values, education, gender identity, immigration, the police, and the environment, reasonably and objectively, without becoming deranged and making things up.
Their approach contrasts with that of Fox News, which is now paying the price. The editorial team is to blame. It should have put an end to the fiasco after things got out of hand. Those who run Fox should have put the egos of its prominent broadcasters in check, as the latter put themselves and their fame before the interests of the broadcaster. In fact, Fox News did so in the past, firing Glenn Beck, a famous pundit who now mixed reality with fiction. After a few deranged rants, Fox made the right decision and fired him despite his popularity. This time, it went wrong.
Defending lost causes and turning into a propaganda machine costs media outlets dearly. Fox News now echoes the Tweets of the far-right. They repeated all the lies about the harmful side effects of the vaccine and the conspiracy theories about the companies making them. They shed doubt about the real intentions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, portraying them as peaceful protesters whom the police would open doors for.
Although Trump had taken the vaccine, before even leaving the White House as he shared doubts about it, Fox News continued to warn its viewers about the dangers of the vaccine. All of these fears proved nothing more than conspiratorial nonsense. However, Fox was trying to exploit the rage of its audience once again, telling them what they wanted to hear for fear of losing them to competitors.
Nonetheless, this audience is now hurling bricks at Fox after it fired their favorite commentator. In turn, Carlson turned on his former employers in his first tweet following his departure. He spoke about the death of large institutions and the elite, referring to the Murdoch family that owns the network. It was a bitter pill that Fox News had to swallow, and it will continue to suffer from the side effects for a long time.

Harvard's 'Council on Academic Freedom'
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute./May 2, 2023
It is good that so many professors signed on to it [the Council on Academic Freedom] so quickly. It is bad that it is even needed at a place like Harvard whose motto, Veritas, means truth. But "truth" can be a double-edged sword, especially at a university.
The "truth" can sometimes be the enemy of freedom. When people believe they, and only they, have access to THE TRUTH, they see little need for debate, dialogue, dissent and disagreement. Indeed they regard such contrary views as heresy. That has been the way of many religions over the years as well as numerous ideologies such as communism and fascism.
[T]he real headline is that so many faculty members refused or declined to participate in an organization whose goal is to promote free speech.
The shared perspective [of the Council] is in favor of freedom of speech and academic freedom for all views, no matter how unpopular. The goal is to protect the expression of all views and to protect those who are threatened or sanctioned for expressing them.
Freedom of speech, due process, the right to counsel and other fundamental liberties are in peril.... Remaining silent is often the safest course, so self-censorship has become a widespread tactic among individuals who do not support the political correctness of the day.
More than 100 Harvard University professors have now joined together in a council on academic freedom, the purpose of which is to ensure that freedom of speech and academic freedom survive at Harvard.
The fact that more than 100 Harvard University professors have now joined together in a council on academic freedom is both good news and bad news. The purpose of the group, organized by my colleague and friend Steven Pinker, is to ensure that freedom of speech and academic freedom survive at Harvard. It is good that so many professors signed on to it so quickly. It is bad that it is even needed at a place like Harvard whose motto, Veritas, means truth. But "truth" can be a double-edged sword, especially at a university.
The "truth" can sometimes be the enemy of freedom. When people believe they, and only they, have access to THE TRUTH, they see little need for debate, dialogue, dissent and disagreement. Indeed they regard such contrary views as heresy. That has been the way of many religions over the years as well as numerous ideologies such as communism and fascism. Universities should not recognize any particular truth or promote any specific narrative.
The role of universities is to teach students how to think, not what to think. The process of discovering, examining and criticizing ever-changing truths is the proper role of higher education, not inculcating currently accepted verities. That is not education; that is propaganda.
Ideological warriors, however, who at today's universities are generally on the "hard left," want their institutions to promote particular truths and narratives and to reject others. Sometimes this is done overtly, more often subtly. The reality is that at many universities, including Harvard, certain views are unacceptable. Both teachers and students know what they are and often self-censor to avoid being stigmatized. It is not getting better; it is getting worse.
Although several media highlighted the fact that 100 faculty members joined this newly created council on academic freedom, the real headline is that so many faculty members refused or declined to participate in an organization whose goal is to promote free speech. Some radical professors and students even oppose the organization, presumably because they do not support its goals of free speech and academic freedom. These include many former civil libertarians and liberals who have now joined the ranks of the guardians of political correctness.
This problem is not unique to Harvard, as evidenced by recent events at Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania and other elite institutions where speakers have been shouted down or subject to discipline for expressing politically incorrect views outside of the classroom.
When I first came to Harvard in 1964, the political correctness of the day tilted to the right. My liberal-civil libertarian views were suspect among many of the conservative faculty. Letters from alumni objected to my "unsound" views influencing students. Although no one tried to censor me. I was advised that my "unsound" views would hurt my obtaining tenure. (They did not.)
Today many of my views are also regarded as politically incorrect and unsound, but this time it is by the extreme left. The difference is that today's censors have tried to silence and cancel me, as well as others who espouse centrist, liberal and civil libertarian positions — and certainly if they express conservative or God forbid pro-Trump views! That is why this council on academic freedom is so important, and that is why it is so disappointing that so many former liberals and civil libertarians have declined to join it.
It is good that the new free speech council is politically quite diverse, including professors with a wide range of political and ideological views. The shared perspective is in favor of freedom of speech and academic freedom for all views, no matter how unpopular. The goal is to protect the expression of all views and to protect those who are threatened or sanctioned for expressing them. It is also to promote the widest diversity of views on campus.
Freedom of speech, due process, the right to counsel and other fundamental liberties are in peril in today's deeply divided society in which everyone must choose a side. Picking the wrong side, particularly in academia and the media, can endanger one's prospects. Remaining silent is often the safest course, so self-censorship has become a widespread tactic among individuals who do not support the political correctness of the day.
The new council alone will not reverse the national trend toward group-think and political correctness, but it promises to play an active role in protecting freedom from those who claim a monopoly on knowing Veritas. It is an honor to be an active member.
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of "The Dershow" podcast.
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