English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 30/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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15 آذار/2023
Bible Quotations For today
God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth
Saint John 04/21-24:”Jesus said to her, ‘Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we
know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the
Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship
him must worship in spirit and truth.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on May 29-30/2023
Riyadh asks
diplomatic staff in Beirut to stay home after man kidnapped
Rahi meets Vatican’s Secretary of State
Saudi Ambassador visits Army Commander in Yarzeh
Israel bombs 'Hezbollah sites' near Damascus, 5 hurt
Report: Bukhari may ask Sunni MPs to vote for Franjieh
Shiite Duo believes Azour can't get 'more than 50 votes'
Raad launches scathing attack on Azour and his supporters
Report: Centrist candidates considered as Azour advised to withdraw
Report: Opposition, FPM to announce Azour nomination within 48 hours
Will Azour be able to surpass votes counted for Frangieh?'
Sami Gemayel to Qassem: Hezbollah logic 'laughable yet lamentable'
Lebanese cabinet's dismissal of lawyers in Salameh case 'scandalous and
pathetic'
Clergy slammed for visit to Hezbollah ‘museum’ in Lebanon - analysis/Seth
Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/May 29/2023
Sidon municipality's swimwear restriction on women challenged by 'Beach for All'
campaign
Finance Minister says World Bank intends to extend Lebanon with a loan of about
$200 million
Byblos Citadel to open for the public on July 8 to encourage the Lebanese to
visit Jbeil
MoE extends membership applications to the electricity sector regulatory
authority until August 31, 2023
Lebanese Interior Minister, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, Addresses Kidnapping of Saudi
Citizen in Beirut
Sami Gemayel Directs Written Question to Government Regarding Sidon Beach
Incident
Mikati calls for cabinet session on Wednesday to discuss consensual agreement
with French lawyers
Berri discusses WB’s programs with Belhaj, meets “Caritas Lebanon” President,
Writer Roni Aplha
UNIFIL marks International Peacekeepers’ Day and 75 years of UN peacekeeping
Makary: The number of Syrian refugees is unacceptable and affects the country's
economy, and their deportation will not be random
El-Khalil meets Belhaj over World Bank-funded projects
Army chief meets KSA Ambassador, broaches cooperation relations with Egyptian
Ambassador, receives ICRC delegation
Efforts to increase women-inclusive HR practices in the MENA: New phase of the
Support and Accelerate Women’s Inclusion (SAWI) Project launched
Hezbollah finds itself near another verge today, that of remaining relevant in
the evolving Lebanese state./Michael Young/Carnegie Middle East Centre/May
29/2023
The Charges Against Salameh, Hezbollah’s Drills, And the State’s Performance/Sam
Menassa/Asharq Al Awsat/May 29/2023
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on May 29-30/2023
Syrian state
media: Suspected Israeli airstrikes target Damascus
Europe breathes sigh of relief as Erdogan remains in power in Turkey
Iranian female journalist goes on trial on charges linked to Amini protests
Sultan Haitham's white turban in Iran: A message of peace and mediation
Iran-Afghanistan tensions over Helmand River spark new conflict
Iran supreme leader says he'd 'welcome' full diplomatic ties with Egypt;
presidency websites hacked
Russia Hits Ukraine Air Base, Kyiv Downs Ballistic Missiles
Russia issues arrest warrant for Lindsey Graham over Ukraine comments
Belarus official: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms
Ukraine peace plan is only way to end Russia's war, says Zelenskiy aide
Ukraine forces shell settlements in Russia's Belgorod border region - governor
Ukraine aide proposes post-war demilitarised zone in Russia
Kremlin says 'vacuum' emerging in arms control
Israeli forces kill Palestinian officer in clashes, WAFA says
Nvidia to build Israeli supercomputer as AI demand soars
Saudi Net Reserves Fall to $410 Billion, Lowest Since 2010
Heavy clashes in Sudan's capital as truce set to expire
The EU empire is crumbling
Vatican chastises bishops who stoke division on social media
Erdogan confronts polarized Turkey after historic win
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on May 29-30/2023
Peace with Israel is in the best interests of all the Arabs/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Face
Book/May 29/2023
Could "Journalists" Sink Any Lower: Beware of Alex Novell/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone
Institute./May 29, 2023
Today in History: Muslim Turks Sack Christian Constantinople/Raymond Ibrahim/PJ
Media/May 29/2023
Henry Kissinger’s Bloody Legacy on his 100th Birthday/Fred Kaplan/The New York
Times/May 29/2023
Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on May 29-30/2023
Riyadh asks diplomatic staff in Beirut to stay home after man kidnapped
DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
Saudi Arabia asked its diplomatic staff in Lebanon to stay home after a Saudi
national was abducted in Beirut on Sunday, Saudi media reported on Monday. The
man, who works for Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), was kidnapped in the
commercial district of the Lebanese capital, Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya
television said. Lebanese security forces are following the case and have
informed the Saudi ambassador in Beirut, Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam
Mawlawi said on Twitter. "So far, the reason for the kidnapping or disappearance
has not been revealed," a Lebanese security source told Reuters, adding that
reports about a ransom are being investigated. Al Ekhbariya said kidnappers
asked for a $400,000 ransom. Mawlawi said "what happened affects Lebanon's
relationship with its brotherly (countries); the perpetrators will be punished
harshly." Saudi and Lebanese ties have suffered in recent years because of the
dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah over the Lebanese establishment. Lebanon
has witnessed a rise in crime since 2019 when the country's economic system
crashed under the weight of state corruption and mismanagement by the ruling
elites. Lebanon's currency has also collapsed crippling the banking system.
Rahi meets Vatican’s
Secretary of State
NNA/May 29/2023
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rahi, is currently meeting with
the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Saudi Ambassador visits Army Commander in Yarzeh
NNA/May 29/2023
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, on Monday visited Lebanese Army
Commander-in-Chief, General Joseph Aoun, in Yarzeh.
Israel bombs 'Hezbollah
sites' near Damascus, 5 hurt
Agence France Presse/Mon, May 29, 2023
Israeli air strikes hit the Damascus region overnight Sunday, the Syrian defense
ministry said, with a war monitor reporting five wounded in attacks on air
defense sites that host Hezbollah fighters. "At around 11:45 pm (2045 GMT), the
Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack," the defense ministry said.
It targeted "certain positions in the vicinity of Damascus," but anti-aircraft
defenses came into action and brought down several missiles, according to the
ministry. It reported material damage but no casualties. An AFP reporter in the
Syrian capital heard explosions shortly before midnight local time (2100 GMT).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government air defense sites near
Damascus where fighters from Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah are present were
targeted. One site north of the capital was around 10 kilometers from the
Lebanese border, it said, reporting five wounded. Another site between the
airport and the Sayyida Zeinab area southeast of the capital where Iran-backed
forces are present was also targeted, added the Britain-based war-monitor, which
has a vast network of sources on the ground in Syria. In late March, Israel
carried out two rounds of air strikes near Damascus in less than 24 hours.
In early April, further strikes targeted points in the country's south and in
the vicinity of Damascus, state media and the Observatory reported. Israeli air
strikes on Syria's Aleppo airport area in the country's north early this month
left nine dead, the Observatory said, citing a revised toll for that incident
which put the facility out of service. Since the start of the war in Syria in
2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against regime positions as
well as Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces, allies of Damascus and arch-foes
of Israel. Israel rarely comments on the strikes on a case-by-case basis, but
says it seeks to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold on its doorstep.
Report: Bukhari may ask Sunni MPs to vote for Franjieh
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
discussed the Lebanese file “in depth and in details” during their meeting in
Jeddah on May 19, sources informed on the meeting said. “This was reflected in
Riyadh’s reversal of its previous veto on Marada Movement chief Suleiman
Franjieh’s election as president, before it lifted the veto and moved to
negative neutrality,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. “The eye is on
what Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari is carrying, after he returned to Beirut two
days ago, amid reports that he might tell hesitant MPs, specifically the Sunni
MPs, to support Franjieh,” the daily added.
Shiite Duo believes Azour can't get 'more than 50 votes'
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
It has “become clear” that the Free Patriotic Movement and the opposition forces
will not go to parliament to vote for Jihad Azour, because “they know that he is
incapable of garnering more than 50 votes,” Shiite Duo sources said. “They are
using his nomination to exclusively burn Suleiman Franjieh’s card, because they
believe that through that they would be paving the way for the endorsement of a
third candidate,” the sources added, in remarks to ad-Diyar newspaper published
Monday. “We will not give up our candidate easily and we are willing to take
part in any presidential election session and let the candidate who receives the
necessary votes win,” the sources added.
Raad launches scathing attack on Azour and his supporters
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
Hezbollah’s top lawmaker Mohammed Raad has launched a vehement verbal attack on
the presidential candidate Jihad Azour and his supporters, in Hezbollah’s first
public comments on the nomination of the ex-minister and current International
Monetary Fund official. “The candidate whose name is being circulated is a
maneuver candidate whose mission is to confront the nomination of the candidate
supported by us,” Raad said, calling on the rival camp to “stop wasting time.”
Lamenting “the presence of voices nominating such people for the Baabda Palace,”
Raad added: “We want a national understanding and real partnership that would
preserve the country on which we are keen, not ‘lost replacement’ candidates.”
“Those who don’t want a representative of (the Axis of) Defiance are saying ‘we
have our republic and you have your republic’ and are seeking to partition the
country,” Raad charged. “We are proud of our belonging to a resistant, national
choice that preserves the people and the country and we will not change it. We
want our country to stabilize and it won’t stabilize unless a president who
meets its aspirations is elected,” the Hezbollah legislator added. In an
apparent jab at Azour and his role as a former finance minister, Raad added: “As
for the economic crisis that has pressured the Lebanese, some of these people
were employed in it and were of its promoters, and accordingly how do they want
the people today to count on their services.”
“Their entire work is to conspire against the resistance, and the slogan they
have voiced is toppling the resistance’s arms and inciting against it. The
meetings that they are holding are within this context, whereas the resistance
is dealing with the matter calmly, because it knows that these people want an
illusion,” Raad said. “They are delusional and do not know the facts, seeing as
the resistance is bigger and stronger than them and all those who support them,
and they cannot eliminate the resistance choice,” the MP added.
Report: Centrist candidates
considered as Azour advised to withdraw
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
Negotiations between the opposition parties have become limited to one
presidential candidate, after ex-minister Jihaz Azour was advised by Ain el-Tineh
to withdraw from the presidential battle, sources informed on the overnight
negotiations said. In light of the aforementioned advice, it seems that Azour
“has taken the decision of making a safe and guaranteed exit,” the sources told
ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Monday. The Free Patriotic Movement has
meanwhile limited its choices to two centrist candidates, while the Lebanese
Forces is rejecting the candidate on whom the FPM and the opposition have
agreed, the sources added. The LF is “insisting on a confrontation candidate,”
the sources said.
Report: Opposition, FPM to
announce Azour nomination within 48 hours
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
The Free Patriotic Movement, the Kataeb party, and the Lebanese Forces will
likely announce their support for ex-minister Jihad Azour within 48 hours, al-Akhbar
newspaper said. The daily reported Monday that Maronite Patriarch has lauded the
agreement and urged the three parties to announce their presidential candidate
as soon as possible, so that he can discuss it this week in Paris with French
President Emmanuel Macron. FPM chief Jebran Bassil, who had announced to the
opposition his final decision to support Azour, expects all his bloc to do the
same, al-Akhbar said. But MP Simon Abi Ramia said Sunday that he supports the
nomination of FPM MP Ibrahim Kanaan. "Patriarch al-Rahi has suggested the name
of Kanaan, who has higher chances than Bassil, and I support this proposal," Abi
Ramia said. Other FPM MPs also reportedly support the nomination of Kanaan.
"More than ten FPM lawmakers refuse voting for Azour and support Kanaan's
nomination," a local media report said. The FPM-allied
Tashnag MPs still haven't decided, while the Progressive Socialist Party would
only endorse Azour if there is consensus on him, as it refuses any
confrontational candidate. If there is no consensus, the PSP MPs would cast a
blank ballot. Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad criticized Azour on Sunday, accusing
him of being part of the economic crisis and dubbing his nomination as a
conspiracy against the resistance. Azour had reportedly met with Lebanese
leaders, including Bassil, Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel, LF chief Samir
Geagea, ex-PM Fouad Saniora and Speaker Nabih Berri, amid ongoing communication
with the Change forces and the Democratic Gathering. According to al-Akhbar he
has so far won the support of at least six Change MPs and other independent
lawmakers like MPs Ghassan Skaf and Bilal Hocheimi, in addition to the support
of the FPM, the LF, and the Tajaddod bloc.
Will Azour be able to surpass votes counted for
Frangieh?
LBCI/May 29/2023
Jihad Azour's success in the Lebanese presidential election requires public
endorsements from influential parties such as the Lebanese Forces, the Free
Patriotic Movement, Kataeb Party, Tajadod MPs, and Independent and Change MPs.
Simultaneously, the Democratic Gathering should also express its stance on this
endorsement, particularly since Azour was part of a list announced by Walid
Jumblatt, along with Independent and Change deputies who are still wavering.
However, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have not waited for these developments
and have rejected the anticipated consensus among Christian blocs to nominate a
candidate who could challenge their candidate, Sleiman Frangieh.
At the same time, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized on multiple
occasions that the problem causing the presidential vacancy lies in the lack of
agreement among Maronites. These positions have reached the ears of Christian
blocs and Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai, the bearer of the presidential election, who
has conveyed these concerns to the Vatican and France. Furthermore, this has
caused discontent due to the disregard for what the Christian blocs agree upon,
and there is a fear that the Speaker may not call for a new session to elect a
president. Thus, the presidential election remains stuck in the void amid
concerns of a Shiite-Christian sectarian conflict arising from these elections.
Sami Gemayel to Qassem: Hezbollah logic
'laughable yet lamentable'
Naharnet/Mon, May 29, 2023
Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel accused Hezbollah Monday of having only destructive
options for the presidential file. In response to Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh
Naim Qassem, Gemayel said that Hezbollah is confused and that its logic is
"laughable yet lamentable." "Do we have to either agree on your confrontational
candidate or permanently submit to your orders," Gemayel asked. "Don't you have
any other options but these destructive ones?"Qassem had said that those opposed
to the election of Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh can barely agree on a
candidate from a list of sixteen.
"A patriotic and unifying Christian president is better for Lebanon than a
confrontational president with sectarian motives," Qassem said.
Lebanese cabinet's dismissal of lawyers in
Salameh case 'scandalous and pathetic'
Nada Maucourant Atallah/The National/May 29/2023
The decision of Lebanon’s cabinet on Friday to dismiss two French lawyers
appointed to defend the country's interests in central bank governor Riad
Salameh’s corruption case has been labelled “scandalous and pathetic”.
Emmanuel Daoud and Pascal Beauvais were chosen in March by Helene Iskandar, the
president of the Cases Authority at the Ministry of Justice.
The cabinet accused Mr Daoud of defending “Zionist ideas”.
“The cabinet's decision regarding the French lawyers, especially Emmanuel Daoud,
is a scandalous and pathetic attempt to obstruct justice,” former justice
minister Marie Claude Najm told The National. The two lawyers offered pro bono
services and signed contracts with Minister of Justice Henri Khoury in early
April. They were submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval.
The Lebanese cabinet refused citing Mr Daoud's membership of the International
League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, or Licra.
Licra “is suspected of advocating Zionist ideas”, it said.
The cabinet's decision, seen by The National, also said French lawyer Antoine
Ory was in “close contact” with William Bourdon, the lawyer representing the
civil party in the case in France. This “raised suspicions about the
impartiality of the proposed choices”, it said.
Mr Ory was on the list of potential lawyers but was not appointed by Ms
Iskandar. The reason why his name was mentioned is unclear.
Mr Daoud is a renowned defence attorney in Paris known for his expertise in
international criminal law and human rights. He has defended several
high-profile cases both in France and internationally
His dismissal sparked immediate controversy.
Mr Khoury, absent from the cabinet session amid a boycott by some political
parties who view them as unconstitutional, said he will hold a press conference
on Tuesday. He said he will “expose the truth, supported by documents …
regarding the appointment of French lawyers to recover Lebanese state funds”,
and as to why the lawyers were dismissed. Caretaker Prime Minister Mr Najib
Mikati said on Monday he intends to hold an “urgent meeting with a single agenda
item” on the appointment of new French lawyers. He invited Mr Khoury to attend
the session, scheduled for Wednesday. Karim Daher, lawyer and founder of the
Lebanese Association for Taxpayers' Rights and Interests (Aldic) said the
allegations of Zionism were being used as a pretext. Global consulting firm
Kroll, which was entrusted with a forensic audit of Lebanon's central bank in
2020, was dismissed under similar allegations, Mr Daher said. The real motive
behind the decision was to obstruct the Lebanese state from defending its
interests, he said. “If Lebanon becomes a civil party in the case, it would have
access to the files in France, which could potentially uncover more evidence for
new investigations in Lebanon or implicate additional individuals in the
existing case,” he said. “The ruling class wants to avoid the leak of
information that could compromise them and lead to further legal proceedings.
“They also don't want to set an example of accountability by seizing
misappropriated assets. If they were to do it for Mr Salameh, it would imply
that they should do the same for the entire ruling class.”
Mr Daher said that it was not the first time a procedure to recover ill-gotten
assets has been blocked. In 2021, Aldic provided legal advice from a Swiss law
firm on how Lebanon could recover illicitly acquired assets invested in
Switzerland, in case of trial. The document was received by Ms Najem and
forwarded to former prime minister Hassan Diab. It was never included on the
agenda of the Council of Ministers. European countries including France,
Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Lichtenstein suspect Mr Salameh of
having embezzled more than $330 million from the central bank through his
brother's company, Forry Associates. Both France and Germany have issued an
arrest warrant for Mr Salameh. They allege that Forry, which received a 0.38 per
cent commission from Lebanese lenders on each transaction with the central bank
for more than a decade, is a shell company which did not perform any services in
return. Mr Salameh is suspected of buying luxury properties in Europe with the
Forry commissions. In the event of a conviction, these properties would be
confiscated and sold, as the state of Lebanon would be considered an injured
party. But Lebanon cannot automatically reclaim the funds – it would need to
first establish its right. The appointment of lawyers in the French probe was an
initial step towards achieving that goal.
Clergy slammed for visit to Hezbollah ‘museum’
in Lebanon - analysis
Seth Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/May
29/2023
The decision for some clergy to go to the Hezbollah site appears to be in
contrast to the official position of the Maronite patriarch, whose seat is in
Bkerke in Lebanon. A controversy in Lebanon broke out
over the weekend after some Christian clergy were seen visiting a site that is
known as a Lebanese Hezbollah tourist attraction called the “Tourist Landmark of
the Resistance,” which is located near the village of Mleeta in Lebanon. The
attraction was opened in 2010 and is used by Hezbollah to spread propaganda
about its “resistance” against Israel. Photos and videos posted online appeared
to show clergy walking to the “museum” surrounded by men with Hezbollah flags.
Critics posted online that the visit was “shameful” and that it was perplexing
why church officials would visit the site. Another critic said the clergy should
have removed their crosses if they wanted to go to Mleeta. According to one
account, the clerics came from various areas in Lebanon, including the Bekaa
Valley, Zahle, Jezzine, and Sidon, and were accompanied by Hezbollah religious
figure Sheikh Mohammed Yazbak. The visit comes in the
wake of Hezbollah celebrating Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which took place
on May 24, 2000. Last week was the anniversary.
Nadim Gemayel condemned the visit of the clergy to the Mleeta museum according
to Lebanon’s MTV. He tweeted in Arabic that “The visit of some bishops to the
Iranian Militia Museum is the antithesis of the Church's concepts and evidence
of the slander of those who have nothing to do with the Church's historical
struggle.”
He went on to note “The church taught us to bear witness to the truth and to
speak nothing but the truth. The Church taught us not to live as dhimmis and not
to compromise, especially with regard to our security, our freedom, the
sovereignty of our country, our existence and our dignity.”
Gemayel is the son of Bashir Gemayel, the Lebanese president who was
assassinated in 1982. He is the grandson of Pierre Gemayel and a member of
parliament for the Kataeb party.
Why did Christian clergy visit a Hezbollah tourist site?
The decision for some clergy to go to the site appears to be in contrast to the
official position of the Maronite patriarch, whose seat is in Bkerke in Lebanon.
Lebanon is in the midst of a crisis over the election of a new president. By
rule, the president of Lebanon must be a Christian. However, the divided
politics of Lebanon means that Hezbollah supports certain Christian candidates
and others who are opposed to Hezbollah support various candidates.
In April, Suleiman Franjieh, who was seen as Hezbollah’s potential choice for
the presidency, visited Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi at his office
in Bkerke. The patriarch met a delegation of Hezbollah in January. The patriarch
is traveling to meet France’s President Emmanuel Macron, according to a report
on Sunday.
According to LBC in Lebanon, the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah,
Hashem Safieddine, said on Sunday that there must be a consensus on the new
president of Lebanon. The Maronite patriarch has also called for the election of
a president as soon as possible to end the chaos in the country.
Sidon municipality's swimwear restriction on
women challenged by 'Beach for All' campaign
LBCI/May 29/2023
In a fight for equality and accessibility, the "Beach for All" campaign is
taking a stand against discriminatory beachwear regulations, as they lobby Sidon
Municipality in Lebanon. The campaign aims to ensure that all citizens can
freely access public beaches without imposed conditions or discriminations, such
as the contentious swimwear restrictions currently placed on women.
On May 29th, a delegation from the "Beach for All" campaign met with
Sidon Municipality's Mayor, Mr. Mohammed Al-Saudi. They presented an official
letter, urging him to overturn the municipality's ban on women wearing swimsuits
at the city's public beach. This limitation is viewed as a significant
infringement on the personal liberties of Lebanese women. The delegation
stressed that every beach in Lebanon, regardless of its location, should be
freely accessible to all citizens, reflecting the diversity and inclusiveness
that epitomizes the Lebanese identity. Mayor Al-Saudi countered the delegation's
request, asserting that the current regulations align with long-standing
customs. He argued against changing these traditions, which he believes are
under attack in a systematic campaign aimed at tarnishing Sidon's reputation.
The delegation clarified their objective, stating that their critique is not
directed at Sidon as a city, but rather at the decisions that infringe upon
constitutional and legal freedoms in Lebanon. Women's
associations and civil society organizations allied with the "Beach for All"
campaign are steadfast in their mission. They are determined to continue working
tirelessly, leveraging every available resource, and employing suitable
strategies to realize their vision of unrestricted beach access for all Lebanese
citizens. The battle for beachwear equality represents a larger endeavor to
protect public liberties and sustain Lebanon's diverse identity.
Finance Minister says World Bank intends to extend Lebanon
with a loan of about $200 million
LBCI/May 29/2023
Caretaker Minister of Finance Youssef El Khalil revealed the World Banks'
intention to extend Lebanon with a loan of approximately $200 million to support
the development sectors, especially the agricultural sector, represented by the
"Green Agri-food transformation for economic recovery project."
El Khalil received on Monday, in his office at the Ministry of Finance, World
Bank Vice President for Middle East and North Africa, Ferid Belhaj, with a
delegation in the presence of the Director General of the Ministry of Finance,
George Maarawi, and the Premier Mikati's advisors Samir Al-Daher where the
projects funded by the World Bank were reviewed, mainly aid loans for the
poorest families program and wheat support. Belhaj has expressed his
satisfaction with the path taken by the stage in terms of helping to overcome
severe crises. At the level of the Ministry of Finance, emphasis was placed on
financial assistance intended to enhance capacities in the field of electronic
development.
Byblos Citadel to open for the public on July 8 to
encourage the Lebanese to visit Jbeil
LBCI/May 29/2023
Lebanon's Caretaker Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada decided to open the gates
of the Byblos Citadel for free to the Lebanese on Saturday, July 8. This
decision was taken to urge the Lebanese to visit the city of Byblos and learn
about its exceptional archaeological and heritage cultural heritage, especially
since this event will coincide with a festival, which is being held by the
Ministry of Tourism in Jbeil on the 7th, 8th and 9th of July, according to what
his media office announced.
MoE extends membership applications to the electricity
sector regulatory authority until August 31, 2023
LBCI/May 29/2023
The Ministry of Energy and Water announced an extension for the submission of
membership applications to the Electricity Sector Regulatory Authority. The
deadline now extends until August 31, 2023. This
significant development comes after a series of meetings held between the
Ministry of Energy and Water and the Mediterranean Energy Regulators (MEDREG),
an organization representing regulatory authorities across various Mediterranean
countries. During these meetings, an initial evaluation of the membership
applications, which were received by both the Ministry and MEDREG over the
previous period, was undertaken. Based on MEDREG's recommendation, the Ministry
decided to extend the deadline for accepting membership applications to the
Electricity Sector Regulatory Authority. This step is aimed at ensuring
comprehensive representation of all required specialties by securing a
substantial pool of candidates. The recommendation stems from a realization that
the existing volume of applications does not adequately cover the breadth of
expertise required. In response, the Ministry of Energy and Water has agreed to
extend the deadline for membership applications until August 31, 2023. The
application process will continue under the same terms and conditions previously
declared on the Ministry's official website.
Lebanese Interior Minister, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, Addresses Kidnapping of Saudi
Citizen in Beirut
LBCI/May 29/2023
In a recent Twitter statement, Lebanon’s Interior and Municipalities Minister,
Judge Bassam Mawlawi, addressed an ongoing investigation regarding the abduction
of a Saudi citizen in Beirut. The matter has been under the scrutiny of the
Information Branch of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces since yesterday. “We
are following the case of a Saudi citizen’s abduction in Beirut with the
Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, and we are in detailed
contact with His Excellency Ambassador Walid Al-Bukhari,” Minister Mawlawi
tweeted. The minister expressed his firm commitment to the safety of all
citizens in Lebanon, asserting that the government would work tirelessly and
firmly to free anyone subjected to harm on Lebanese soil. The incident, he
emphasized, touches the relationship between Lebanon and its fraternal nations,
expressing a sentiment of solidarity. He ended his message with a stern warning
for those involved in the kidnapping, stating: “There will be a harsh punishment
for the perpetrators.”
Sami Gemayel Directs Written Question to
Government Regarding Sidon Beach Incident
NNA/May 29/2023
Kataeb Leader Samy Gemayel has directed a written question to the government
concerning the Sidon Beach incident, based on constitutional provisions that
protect personal freedoms. Gemayel sought a clarification on the government's
position regarding the assault on Mayssa Hanouni and the concerning calls to
prohibit women from accessing the beach. He also raised concerns about the
inaction of the security forces in apprehending the attackers and inquires about
the planned measures to prevent similar unlawful assaults and ensure the
protection of personal freedoms.
Mikati calls for cabinet session on Wednesday to discuss
consensual agreement with French lawyers
NNA/May 29/2023
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday called for a cabinet session
at 9:00 am on Wednesday 31/5/2023 at the Grand Serail to discuss a consensual
agreement with French lawyers to assist head of the Ministry of Justice’s Cases
Authority.
Berri discusses WB’s programs with Belhaj, meets “Caritas
Lebanon” President, Writer Roni Aplha
NNA/May 29/2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Monday received at his Ain El-Tineh residence,
the World Bank's Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Ferid
Belhaj, and discussed with him the general situation, especially the financial
and economic situations, as well as the World Bank's work programs in Lebanon.
Speaker Berri later received President of Caritas Lebanon Association, Father
Michel Abboud, along with Caritas board members. The
delegation handed Speaker Berri an invitation to participate in the mass that
the Association will hold on June 25th at Our Lady of Maghdouché, on the
occasion of the conclusion of the 50th jubilee of the founding of the
Association. Among Speaker Berri's itinerant visitors
for today had been Writer and Media Professional, Roni Alpha, who presented him
with his new publication.
UNIFIL marks International Peacekeepers’ Day and 75 years
of UN peacekeeping
NNA/May 29/2023
UNIFIL marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers and the 75th
anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping today, alongside members of the
Lebanese Armed Forces, security services, political and religious authorities,
ambassadors, and UN officials.
Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Lázaro emphasized the
important role of all of those represented at the event.
“We rely on our partners in government, civil society, religious orders,
and communities to support us,” he told he assembled crowd. “And we rely on our
strong relationship with the Lebanese Armed Forces and security agencies, with
whom we work each and every day, the maintain the calm and stability necessary
for the success of our mandate.”Turning to the theme of this year’s
International Day of UN Peacekeeping, “Peace Begins with Me,” Major General
Lázaro noted that peace is not something that can be imposed from outside.
“As peacekeepers, our role is to create the space for a political
solution between the parties to emerge,” Head of Mission and Force Commander
Major General Lázaro told the assembled crowd. “Our role is to reduce tensions
and prevent the kind of physical conflict that would interfere with resolving
the very real political disputes.”During the ceremony, Major General Lázaro and
Brigadier General Rodolph Haykal of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) laid wreaths
in tribute to fallen peacekeepers. Over 4,000 UN peacekeepers have lost their
lives on missions around the world since 1948, including more than 320 since
UNIFIL was established in 1978. The UNIIFL head mourned the loss of Private Seán
Rooney of Ireland, who was killed in an attack in December, as well as Corporal
Pedro Serrano Arjona of Spain and Second Warrant Officer John Nartey Angmor of
Ghana, who also passed away in service. “Today, we
remember their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of those we lost before,” said the
UNIFIL head. “Every one of them matters Every one of them made a difference. We
mourn them, but we celebrate their contributions, and we will never forget
them.”During the ceremony, guests also enjoyed a musical performance by children
of the Foundation of Martyr Lieutenant Colonel Sobhi al-Akouri and the Italian
military band Folgore. In 2002, 29 May was designated as the International Day
of UN Peacekeepers to pay tribute to the professionalism, dedication, and
courage of the military and civilian peacekeepers serving in UN peacekeeping
operations, and to remember those who lost their lives for the cause of peace.
The date was chosen to commemorate the establishment of the first peacekeeping
mission, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), whose more than 50
observers currently work with UNIFIL for peace and stability in south Lebanon.
Makary: The number of Syrian refugees is unacceptable and
affects the country's economy, and their deportation will not be random
NNA/May 29/2023
Caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makary, said, in an interview within a
report prepared by the German Press Agency (DPA) about the Syrian refugees in
Lebanon: “Concerning the (Syrian refugees) deportations, we are just applying
the Lebanese laws that all the countries are applying. As you know we have more
than 2 million refugees in Lebanon which is a huge number and is
unacceptable...".Caretaker Minister Makary added that the problem of the Syrian
refugees should be solved as soon as possible because it is affecting the
country's already ailing economy, its society as well as the environment.
"We will not deport Syrian refugees randomly..," the Minister stressed.
As for the Syrian refugees who cannot go back to Syria for political
reasons, the minister said: "We are not committed to send them back because of
their safety."
El-Khalil meets Belhaj over World Bank-funded projects
NNA/May 29/2023
Caretaker Minister of Finance, Dr. Youssef El-Khalil, on Monday disclosed the
intention of the World Bank to "provide Lebanon with a loan of approximately
$200 million to support the developmental sectors, especially the agricultural
sector, represented by the Green Agri-food transformation for economic recovery
project."Caretaker Minister El-Khalil received in his office at the Ministry,
the World Bank's Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Ferid
Belhaj, with an accompanying delegation, in the presence of the Ministry’s
Director General George Maarawi Georges Maarawi, and the Prime Minister’s
Advisor Samir Daher. Discussions touched on the projects funded by the World
Bank, especially the aid loans for the underprivileged families program and
wheat support.
Army chief meets KSA Ambassador, broaches cooperation relations with Egyptian
Ambassador, receives ICRC delegation
NNA/May 29/2023
Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, on Monday welcomed in Yarzeh,
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari. Discussions reportedly touched on
the means to support the military institution in light of the current
circumstances. Maj. Gen. Aoun also received Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr.
Yasser Alawi, accompanied by the Embassy’s Military Attaché, Brigadier General
Ahmed Abdel Maqsoud. They discussed cooperation relations between the armies of
both countries. The army commander then received a delegation from the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and discussed the general
situation in Lebanon and the region.
Efforts to increase women-inclusive HR practices in the
MENA: New phase of the Support and Accelerate Women’s Inclusion (SAWI) Project
launched
NNA/May 29/2023
The American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Telfer School of Management at
the University of Ottawa are proud to begin a new phase of the Support and
Accelerate Women's Inclusion (SAWI) project. The project is a multi-country and
multi-sector initiative that aims to promote women's economic inclusion in the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.SAWI is supported by generous funding
from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at the U.S. Department of
State and is the first-of-its-kind to work directly with decision-makers and
human resource managers to implement inclusive policies for the recruitment,
retention, and promotion of women across the target countries. The project began
as a pilot at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) at AUB working to
tackle structural barriers to women’s equitable workplace inclusion. SAWI has
now transitioned to become a multi-national project with country partners from
across the MENA region. SAWI is an impact-focused and
evidence-based project, breaking disciplinary silos, building transnational
multi-stakeholder collaborations, to co-create and implement localized
strategies for more inclusive workplaces. Through SAWI, over 3310 local
employers and 981 women have provided data to help close the data deficit on
policies and practices relating to women’s recruitment, retention, and promotion
in the region. SAWI has also provided a forum for training on women-inclusive
human resource systems and gender-lens investing, and for working with regional
employers to co-create more than 100 actionable inclusive HR policies. Over the
next two years, SAWI will continue this work and engage a wider network of
researchers, practitioners, activists, policy makers, and economic stakeholders
interested in accelerating women inclusion across the STEM, healthcare, banking,
and education sectors, and throughout our eight target countries, Algeria,
Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. "The turmoil and
crises we face across the MENA have only strengthened our resolve to continue to
work collaboratively through SAWI across sectors, disciplines, and geographical
borders. All hands-on deck to advance a dignified and inclusive agenda for
women's inclusion in the region," said Professor Charlotte Karam, SAWI primary
investigator, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. SAWI's impact
could not have been possible without our country partners and a dedicated team
of managers, experts, researchers, activists, and professors who share a
commitment to women's economic inclusion in the MENA. The team also includes
co-principal investigators from AUB Dr. Fida Afiouni, Dr. Wassim Dbouk, and Dr.
Yasmeen Makarem; as well as Dr. Lina Daouk-Öyry from Bi Norwegian Business
School, Norway and from AUB; and Dr. Carmen Geha from Soltara Consulting and
Pompeu Fabra University, Spain. The SAWI team consists of Dr. Lina Choueiri,
managing director, Line Reda, Olfat Khattar, Abir El Danaf, Axelle Meouchy,
Elissar Gebrael, Ghadi El Ayash, Mireille El Haber, and Samira El Hazzouri, all
from AUB; and Mariam Omar from the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Hezbollah finds itself near another verge today, that of
remaining relevant in the evolving Lebanese state.
Michael Young/Carnegie Middle East Centre/May 29/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/118622/118622/
Hezbollah’s military show of force on May 21 in the southern town of Aramta sent
several messages, not least to Israel. In the shadow of regional
reconciliations—between Saudi Arabia and Iran first, followed by Riyadh’s
rapprochement with Syria—Hezbollah has apparently reoriented its focus on its
enemy to the south. There was already an indication of this in early April, when
an unidentified group (doubtless with Hezbollah’s approval) fired 34 rockets at
northern Israel from Lebanon, leading to speculation that the party was seeking
to unify the Lebanese, Gaza, and Syrian fronts.
Hezbollah’s weaponry notwithstanding, does the party really have the wherewithal
to enter into a conflict with Israel today? The ensuing devastation would be so
terrible that it could lead to a potentially destabilizing backlash inside
Lebanon by a population that has little left to lose. In light of this, we are
entitled to ask a longer-term question about Hezbollah. What is its ultimate
purpose? In the same way as the party’s decision to participate in parliamentary
elections in 1992 showed that it had sought to transform itself into a component
of the Lebanese state, Hezbollah today finds itself near another verge. From a
major actor—the major actor—in Lebanon, the party now has to decide what it
wants to do with the state, and in the state, so as to remain relevant.
The answer remains elusive. All the potential options Hezbollah might consider
pose risks for the party. If Hezbollah’s sole aim is to continue to serve as
Iran’s proxy, then its priority will be to retain its weapons and impose a
stalemate in Lebanon that ensures the party’s power is not threatened. However,
this will have negative repercussions. It will build up resentment domestically,
reinforced by sectarian impulses, as Hezbollah tries to preserve its supremacy
while propping up a largely broken system that resists reform. The party cannot
indefinitely keep the rest of the country under its thumb.
Take Hezbollah’s formal endorsement of Suleiman Franjieh as president. The party
has moved into uncharted waters in trying to force a Maronite Christian
president on a Maronite community, all of whose major political parties strongly
oppose Franjieh. Reports in the past 24 hours suggest that the three main
parties—the Lebanese Forces, the Free Patriotic Movement, and the Kataeb
Party—have endorsed a rival to Franjieh, namely the former minister Jihad Azour,
who is currently the director for the Middle East and Central Asia at the
International Monetary Fund.
We’ll see what comes of that move, but what was more revealing was the response
to this endorsement by Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary
bloc. Raad declared on May 28, with visible anger, that Azour was the candidate
of “some in Lebanon who had the necessary impertinence to publicly declare their
rejection of the candidate of the resistance axis (mumanaa),” in favor of a
candidate of “submission.” Raad’s message was clear: Hezbollah is willing to
engage in a dialogue over the presidency, on condition that the president
defends its priorities. The party’s efforts to impose its candidates in posts
not slated for the Shia community are greatly resented in non-Shia circles, and
this mood is bound to grow in the future.
A second option that Hezbollah has is to reinvent itself in order to remain
dominant in an evolving Lebanese social and political order. This means the
party would have to begin compromising seriously with its sectarian and
political interlocutors, but less to change the Hezbollah-dominated political
system than to preserve it. It would involve making real steps toward addressing
vital issues for the party—such as its weapons and involvement in regional
conflicts—but in such a way that the compromises that emerge anchor Hezbollah’s
objectives in the Lebanese system.
It’s highly improbable that Hezbollah would choose such a path. This was roughly
the logic behind Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of Perestroika in the 1980s, and for
Iran’s paramount personality, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the result
was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hezbollah, too, must realize that once it
begins a process of selectively conceding on certain issues, it may lose control
of the dynamics and be forced to give up much more than it intended. If
anything, the party’s behavior has gone in the opposite direction—trying to
widen the spaces in which it can foist its strategic concerns on Lebanon,
regardless of what this means for internal sectarian politics.
Hezbollah’s third option is even riskier. It is one where Hezbollah goes all the
way in trying to refashion and stabilize a new Lebanese social contact around
its interests, with the goal of consolidating its power indefinitely in the
state. Here, we are speaking about a restructuring of the constitutional and
sectarian order, taking over institutions through a new national pact that gives
the Shia community more power. This would then allow Hezbollah to set up
permanent guardrails to defend its primacy in the country.
However, such a scheme could well break Lebanon apart, since the biggest losers
from a revised national pact would be the broader Christian community. At a time
when Christians are openly talking about federalism, or even partition, a new
social contract built mainly around the Shia and Sunni communities—the two
largest in the country—would almost certainly alienate many Christians. The
consequences of this would be greater Christian mobilization against change,
followed by larger communal emigration from the country, forcing Hezbollah and
the Shia to face off primarily against a Sunni community that has no intention
of formally turning Lebanon into a proxy of Iran.
For Hezbollah to try to overhaul Lebanon’s National Pact to its advantage would
require major concessions to the other communities, including granting the
Christians broad administrative and financial decentralization. It would also
require a new strategy toward the Sunnis, who very probably now constitute a
majority in the country and who will also want to see their power enhanced in
national institutions. Such a process would be complex and treacherous for
Hezbollah to navigate, and it seems impossible to imagine that the Sunnis
wouldn’t ask for Hezbollah’s disarmament as a prerequisite for approving any
greater Shia role in the state. No new pact can emerge from a situation in which
one community is seen by the others as having hegemonic powers nationally.
That is what Hezbollah doesn’t quite realize. Sectarian politics will always be
more potent in Lebanon than any ideological commitment to “resistance” or other
such principles. By displaying overconfidence in trying to assert its
preferences, Hezbollah is provoking existential fears among Lebanon’s other
minorities. If there is no functioning institutional structure to channel and
address these, the outcome may be violence. For Hezbollah, this is the worst
option, since it could bog the party down in an open-ended civil war, which its
many regional and international enemies would seek to exploit.
Hezbollah seems unconcerned by such matters, so self-assured it feels because of
its weapons. But war is not an option, for the party could not build anything
durable on the ruins. The sectarian system, despite its flaws, remains the
strongest barrier against Hezbollah, which is why it tries to constantly keep
its sectarian adversaries off balance and divided. That explains why the
possibility of Christian unity against Franjieh was so disturbing to Mohammed
Raad. Hezbollah may soon find itself outmaneuvered by sectarian realities, and
the party just doesn’t like it.
*Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the
views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
The Charges Against Salameh, Hezbollah’s
Drills, And the State’s Performance
Sam Menassa/Asharq Al Awsat/May 29/2023
The Jeddah Declaration issued after the 32nd Arab League Summit last week
coincided with the 23rd anniversary of Lebanon’s liberation from Israeli
occupation on May 25th. In Articles Five and Six of its statement, the
Declaration stressed the Arab League’s solidarity with Lebanon, urging all
Lebanese parties to elect a new president through dialogue and implement the
reforms needed to allow Lebanon to overcome its crisis.
Article Six reiterated the demand that foreign actors stop interfering in the
domestic affairs of Arab countries, and its unequivocal repudiation of foreign
support for armed groups and militias that are not accountable to state
institutions.
In parallel, Hezbollah conducted training exercises, in which live ammunition
was used, in the Jezzine region of southern Lebanon. Local and foreign media
were invited to report on the ceremony of intimidation, demonstrating to
everyone, be they close by or far away, that the party does not feel that the
repudiation of armed groups and militias applies to it.
This position was not adopted recently. Indeed, it is part and parcel of the
party’s modus operandi. Nonetheless, the timing and manner of these drills
render them a crude response to the decisions of the Summit. It also ties into
Iran’s policy of maintaining plausible deniability vis-a-vis the actions of its
foreign proxies. In fact, the Iranian ambassador to Beirut affirmed this when he
said that “the principle of respecting the sovereignty of states applies to only
Iran and Saudi Arabia,” as if to say that Iran and Hezbollah have no links!
Moreover, last week’s celebrations seemed to announce, 23 years later, that the
country had, in fact, been liberated from any manifestation of state
sovereignty. It announced that the state cannot assume its responsibilities.
There is an abundance of evidence of this effect. The most recent manifestation
of this state failure was the joint position taken by Lebanon’s government,
officials, politicians, and judiciary regarding the French and German arrest
warrants issued against the Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who has been
accused of money laundering, embezzlement, and tax evasion.
This response means that Lebanon has been turned into a hub for outlaws and
fugitives. The “madness” of the government’s evasion of its responsibilities and
its internal quarrels over who is responsible perpetuates a cycle that has
revolved around itself hundreds of times in recent years. Lebanon is now less a
state than a geographical space dominated by conflicting communities and
factions.
The problem does not end with Riad Salameh and Carlos Ghosn, who is wanted in
France and Japan. Rather, it stretches to encompass those sentenced by the
International Tribunal for their role in assassinating Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and his companions, as well as the failure to properly investigate the
crimes committed against politicians and media figures (most recently Luqman
Slim) between 2005 and 2022. The prolonged paralysis of the investigation into
the Beirut blast, as well as the judiciary as a whole, and many other problems,
all reflect the failures of the Lebanese state.
Nonetheless, the case of the central bank governor does more to undermine the
reputation and credibility of the country and the state than any other. Indeed,
he occupies a crucial position, especially at a time when Lebanon is struggling
to address an unprecedented financial and economic crisis. His effortless
evasion of accountability demonstrates just how implicated low officials and
politicians are in corruption cases of all kinds. Indeed, regardless of the spin
being put on the matter, we do not know why Salameh has not resigned or been
dismissed, or arrested.
The root of Lebanon’s ills is its capacity to coexist with and adapt to any
circumstances, regardless of how scandalous or bizarre they may be - in
politics, the economy, or in terms of security. This is true for every level,
from officials and politicians to ordinary citizens. Hezbollah openly undermined
the decisions of the Arab Summit and defied everyone. The government, which
becomes entrusted with the responsibilities of the president until one is
elected, lacks the capacity to undertake the bare minimum of these tasks.
The government is rippled by its composition on the one hand, and the
impediments imposed by Christian factions that cannot bear to see the
presidential seat vacant while the country is run by the Sunni prime minister
and his ministers on the other. Indeed, throughout his six-year term, President
Michel Aoun and his team sought to undermine the prime minister’s authority. The
presidential vacancy and the opposition’s (if the term applies) failure to agree
on a candidate to pit against Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh,
perpetuate this vicious circle.
As old and newly emerging crises synergize, the Lebanese remain preoccupied and
invested in the upcoming tourist season and the number of visitors coming to
these parts. Indeed, it is as though this small, crumbling nation has turned
into a cafe, a nightclub, and a hotel inside Hezbollah’s state, “despite
everything” and through a “love for life.”
The response to the arrest warrant issued against Riad Salameh and Hezbollah’s
drills, as well as everything the state and the country’s political factions
have done since the Arab Summit in Jeddah and the tide of reconciliation began
rising in the region, demonstrates that these positive changes do not apply to
Lebanon. Lebanon is not left out because foreign actors have neglected it or are
indifferent to its fate. It is due to a lack of awareness among Lebanese, both
officials and citizens, of the implications of this state of affairs. They will
become apparent over the next few days; the most prominent of them are:
- The fortification of Hezbollah’s position as an unaccountable military force
that parallels the Lebanese army. The stipulations regarding militias would not
encompass the party, whose position as a Lebanese resistance movement would be
reinforced.
- Entrenching the need for Hezbollah’s approval for the election of a president
of the republic. In fact, the party has obnoxiously affirmed, through Amal chief
and Parliamentary Speaker Berri, that there is no Plan B for Franjieh, the
Shiite duo’s candidate for this Maronite position.
- It has become clear that foreign actions, be they Arab, European, or American,
will impose neither a president nor reforms. Instead, they are allowing the
local balance of power to determine the course of the political process and its
outcomes. The foreign actors are only concerned with ensuring stability and
avoiding further decline and fragmentation, while also seeking to address
problems to the greatest extent possible by patching things up. This starts with
the election of a president, which enhances the chances Shiite duo’s candidate.
The only ticking time bomb that remains is the threat of military confrontation
between Hezbollah and Israel. It could be triggered by Israeli domestic affairs,
Iran’s nuclear program or mere provocations slipping into a military campaign
that turns the aggressive rhetorical back and forths between Iran and Israel
into actions.
Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And
News published
on May 29-30/2023
Syrian state media: Suspected Israeli airstrikes target Damascus
BEIRUT (AP)/Sun, May 28, 2023
Airstrikes attributed to Israel targeted Syria's capital city late Sunday, the
first such strikes in nearly a month, Syrian state media reported.
Syrian air defenses responded to the strikes in the vicinity of Damascus and
shot down some of them, state news agency SANA reported. The attack caused only
“material damage,” it said. The last suspected Israeli airstrike on Syria was on
May 2, targeting the international airport in the northern Syrian city of
Aleppo. The attack killed one Syrian soldier and put the airport out of
commission, state media said at the time. There was no immediate statement from
Israeli authorities regarding Sunday's strikes on Damascus. Britain-based
opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli
missiles had targeted sites used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which
is allied with the Syrian government, and that ambulances had transported people
wounded in the strikes. The observatory said the attack was the 17th by Israel
on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year. Israel, which has vowed to
stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on
targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but
rarely acknowledges them. However, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said
earlier this month in an address at a security conference that the new Israeli
government has greatly increased the number of strikes on Iranian targets since
taking office late last year. Last week, an Israeli army spokesperson said in a
statement that an Israeli drone conducting a surveillance mission in Syrian
airspace “came under fire by small arms” and Israeli forces responded with
machine gun fire.
Europe breathes sigh of relief as Erdogan remains in power in
Turkey
James Crisp/The Telegraph/May 28, 2023
leaders will be breathing a sigh of relief now that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
been re-elected. The defeated candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu promised to turn
Turkey back towards the West, if he ousted the old autocrat.
But there are few prime ministers or presidents who would be ecstatic at the
prospect of welcoming Ankara back into the fold after two decades of Erdogan.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban did not even wait for the official result
before congratulating Mr Erdogan on an "unquestionable election victory". Only
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was quicker off the mark. But Mr
Orban, who has plenty of enemies of his own in Brussels, sees Mr Erdogan as an
ally and role model.
Other European leaders were conspicuously slower, and are considerably less
admiring of the Turkish president. The ambivalence is mutual. There’s no
question that Mr Erdogan has made himself a nuisance in Nato. He infuriated
Alliance members by blocking Sweden from joining the Alliance over Stockholm's
supposed support for dissident Kurds. Patience with Mr Erdogan was already
strained after Turkey invaded Syria, which hurt relations with Washington and
European capitals. Joe Biden has wanted Mr Erdogan gone for quite some time. In
2019, the then-presidential candidate said the US should support the Turkish
opposition “to take on and defeat Erdogan”. During this hard fought campaign, Mr
Erdogan accused Washington of meddling in the elections.Unlike most Nato members, Turkey has refused to hit Russia with Western-style
sanctions for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. But it was the distasteful Mr
Erdogan who struck a deal with Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to allow Ukraine to
ship grain from its Black Sea ports.
No one else on the world stage can claim such a success, which makes Mr Erdogan
a valuable mediator if and when the time comes to talk peace.
Mr Kilicdaroglu, who pledged to turn away from Russia if elected, could never
match the president’s pull with Putin. Mr Erdogan dramatically increased the
powers of the presidency after a failed coup against him in 2016.
Mr Kilicdaroglu pledged to reverse those reforms and return to a parliamentary
democracy and rule of law far closer to Western European norms. But his plans to
revive Turkey’s long-stalled accession process to the EU, would have been
greeted with barely disguised horror in Fortress Europe”.Even simple visa liberalisation has proved elusive in a bloc where even
mainstream politicians wade into the culture war over the “islamisation” of
Europe’s “Judeo-Christian” culture. EU diplomats suggested that Mr Kilicdaroglu
would have soon found out Ankara was likely to get a very cool welcome. Mr
Erdogan has long since given up on Turkey joining the EU, having had his fingers
burnt in the past when trying to revitalise an application first made in 1987.
That suits Brussels and its member states just fine. The European Union talks a
good game about democratic values and human rights. But it had no problem paying
Mr Erdogan huge sums to host Syrian refugees during the 2015 migrant crisis.
Turkey also agreed to take back migrants making illegal crossings of the
Mediterranean in exchange for more cash.Mr Erdogan may be impossible to like.
But has made himself very useful.
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Iranian female journalist goes on trial on
charges linked to Amini protests
DUBAI (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
An Iranian journalist went of trial behind closed doors on Monday on charges
linked to her coverage of the funeral of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in
custody last year triggered months of unrest, her lawyer told ILNA news agency.
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody of the morality police for
allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed a wave of mass protests
across Iran for months, marking the biggest challenge to Iran's clerical leaders
in decades. Elaheh Mohammadi covered Amini's funeral
in her Kurdish hometown Saqez, where the protests began. The Islamic Republic
accused its foreign foes of igniting the protests to destabilise the country.
"The trial of Elaheh Mohammadi went well. The date of the next session
will be announced by the court," her lawyer, Shahabeddin Mirlohi, told ILNA. He
was not immediately available for comment. Mohammadi, a reporter for the
pro-reform Hammihan newspaper who is on trial in Tehran, and another journalist,
Niloofar Hamedi, of the Sharq newspaper, have been accused of "colluding with
hostile powers" for their coverage of Amini's death. The charge potentially
carries the death penalty under Islamic law. A joint statement released by
Iran’s intelligence ministry in October accused Mohammadi and Hamedi of being
CIA foreign agents. Hamedi took a photo of Amini's parents hugging each other in
a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma. The image, which
Hamedi posted on Twitter, was the first signal to the world that all was not
well with Amini, who had been detained three days earlier by Iran's morality
police. The two journalists, who have been held in
Iran's notorious Evin prison since last September, will be tried separately.
Hamedi's trial will begin on Tuesday, according to the judiciary. The Islamic
Republic has ignored repeated calls by rights groups for a public trial for the
two journalists.
Sultan Haitham's white turban in Iran: A
message of peace and mediation
LBCI/May 29/2023
In what some sources interpreted as a sign of peace and mediation, Sultan
Haitham bin Tariq of Oman donned a white turban during his visit to Iran.
Sultan Haitham carried with him a role of mediation in various files that
he addressed during his meetings with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi, the most prominent of which are:
First, the revival of indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and
Washington, especially since Muscat serves as a messenger between both
countries. According to some sources, the US administration is discussing the
possibility of a temporary agreement with Iran, meaning that the United States
would lift some of the sanctions on Tehran while Iran would freeze its nuclear
program. However, Iran has rejected the idea of a phased agreement several
times. Second, the release of American detainees in Iranian prisons. Moreover,
Muscat has played the mediator between the West and Iran, having mediated the
release of several foreigners, the latest being with Belgium.
Third, expediting the talks between Iran and Egypt through Omani
mediation. This could lead to a restoration of bilateral ties after a hiatus.
Khamenei hinted at this during his meeting with Sultan Haitham when he said, "We
welcome Cairo's position regarding expanding relations with Tehran, and we have
no problem with that."This visit did not only focus on regional and
international issues but also covered a wide range of discussions related to
trade and financial relations. Additionally, an
agreement was signed to establish a joint investment committee between Tehran
and Muscat, along with documents in the economic, investment, free trade zones,
energy sectors, oil information exchange, and joint study of the shared gas
field on the border between both countries, "Hengam-Bakha." So can this Omani
visit to Iran be considered a pivotal moment in resolving more than one file?
And did the Omani guest receive clear Iranian answers to the regional and
international proposals?
Iran-Afghanistan tensions over Helmand River
spark new conflict
LBCI/May 29/2023
Afghanistan and Iran are embroiled in a new clash, marked by the exchange of
gunfire and military tensions. The underlying cause of this conflict is an
age-old issue that has resurfaced – competition over the waters of the Helmand
River. As one of Afghanistan's largest rivers, it
provides Iran with 22 cubic meters of water per second under a 1973 agreement
dividing the river's waters between the neighboring countries. However, Iran
claims to receive only 4 percent of its rightful share and blames Afghanistan's
dam constructions for exacerbating drought conditions. In particular, Iran
points to the dam built on the Helmand River, which originates in Afghanistan
and stretches over 1,150 kilometers, alleging that it has altered the river's
course and prevented water from reaching Iran, even during floods.
Furthermore, Afghan experts argue that climate change is a key driver of
the conflict, as the region has been grappling with drought for the past three
years. While the issue appears technical, it conceals
a political struggle that strains both nations' relationships. Tehran does not
recognize the government of the Islamic Emirate, the name that Taliban uses for
Afghanistan, further adding to the strained ties.This conflict spilled onto the
ground when Iranian border guards clashed with Afghan forces over the weekend,
resulting in the deaths of two individuals, including an Iranian, as reported by
the Iranian news agency "Mehr."However, this recent development prompted Iran to
issue a warning, asserting its right to take necessary measures in the face of
escalating tensions with Afghanistan regarding the dam on the Helmand River.
The incident served as a wake-up call for both governments, swiftly
prompting them to respond. On the same day as the clashes, the Afghan Foreign
Minister met with the Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan to discuss "coordinated
border management" and ensure "Iran's rights to the Helmand River waters."
This conflict over natural resources echoes similar disputes in other
countries, such as the Ethiopian-Egyptian conflict over the Renaissance Dam and
the Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi dispute over the Euphrates River. The question remains
whether this conflict will escalate into a military confrontation.
Iran supreme leader says he'd 'welcome' full
diplomatic ties with Egypt; presidency websites hacked
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/Mon, May 29, 2023
Iran's supreme leader said Monday he'd “welcome” the restoration of full
diplomatic ties between Egypt and the Islamic Republic, raising the prospect of
Cairo and Tehran normalizing relations after decades of strain. The comments by
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came as a series of websites linked to Iran's presidency
bore the images of two leaders of an exiled opposition group Monday, with others
showing the pictures of Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi crossed out.
Iranian state television quoted Khamenei's comments as coming from a meeting he
held with the visiting sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq. Sultan Haitham's trip
to Tehran, his first since assuming power in 2020, comes as Muscat long has
served as an interlocutor between Tehran and the West. There have been growing
signs of Egypt and Iran potentially restoring ties, particularly as Saudi Arabia
and Iran reached a détente in March with Chinese mediation after years of
tensions. Cairo relies on Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Gulf Arab states for
economic support. “We welcome this issue and have no problem in this regard,”
Khamenei reportedly said. There was no immediate reaction from Egypt to
Khamenei's comments. Officials in Cairo did not respond to a request for
comment. Egypt under Anwar Sadat cut ties to Iran after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution. Sadat had been a close friend to the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, welcomed him to Egypt just before his death and hosted his state
funeral in 1980. The shah's remains are entombed at Cairo's Al-Rifai Mosque.
Egypt's peace deal with Israel also angered Iran's theocratic government, which
views Israel as its top regional enemy.
After the 2011 Arab Spring and the election of President Mohammed Morsi, an
Islamist who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, relations warmed with Iran.
However, a 2013 military overthrow ousted Morsi and Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah el-Sissi took power, immediately cooling the outreach to Tehran.
Meanwhile Monday, an internet account describing itself as a group of hackers
claimed responsibility for defacing websites associated with Iran's presidency.
The account GhyamSarnegouni, whose name in Farsi means “Rise to Overthrow,”
previously claimed hacking websites associated with Iran's Foreign Ministry
earlier this month. Iranian state media and officials did not immediately
acknowledge the apparent hack. However, Associated Press journalists accessing
the sites found them defaced with images of Massoud Rajavi, the long-missing
leader of the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and his wife Maryam, who
is now the public face of the group. One site bore the slogan: “Death to
Khamenei Raisi- Hail to Rajavi.” Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
and Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi both were targeted similarly in the
previously claimed hacked in May.
Iran has been targeted by a series of embarrassing hacks amid the rising
tensions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. That's included the signal
of Iranian state television being targeted, gasoline pumps that provide
subsidized fuel being targeted in a cyberattack and government surveillance
camera imagery being released, including from a notorious prison. The
Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, known by the acronym MEK, called the hack “very extensive"
when reached, but did not claim credit for it. The MEK had angrily condemned a
prisoner swap Belgium conducted with Iran on Friday to free an aid worker that
saw an Iranian diplomat convicted of being behind a bomb plot targeting the
group released. The MEK began as a Marxist group opposing the shah's rule. It
claimed and was suspected in a series of attacks against U.S. officials in Iran
in the 1970s, something the group now denies. It supported the 1979 Islamic
Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and
turned against the cleric. It carried out a series of assassinations and
bombings targeting the young Islamic Republic. The MEK later fled into Iraq and
backed dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war against Iran in
the 1980s. That saw many oppose the group in Iran. Although largely based in
Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.
Russia Hits Ukraine Air Base, Kyiv Downs
Ballistic Missiles
Bloomberg/Mon, May 29, 2023
Russia hit an airbase in western Ukraine, damaging five aircraft and the runway,
and targeted the nation’s capital with ballistic missiles in the second massive
rocket and drone attack in as many days. Rescue teams
worked to extinguish a fire at the air base in the Khmelnytskyi region, where a
fuel dump and military storage were hit along with the aircraft and runway, the
regional governor’s office said on Telegram. Air
defense forces in Kyiv shot down 11 Iskander ballistic missiles on Monday
morning, spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on television, an exhibit of Ukraine’s
improved capabilities to fend off airstrikes. It was the 16th attack on the
capital since May 1. Russia has ramped up air strikes on military facilities and
infrastructure across the country this month, as Ukraine prepares a
counteroffensive to try to take back territory occupied by the invading forces.
Russia is “trying to exhaust our air defenses,” Serhiy Popko, head of the
Kyiv city military administration, said on Telegram.
As air sirens blared in Kyiv and local television showed screaming
schoolchildren running for bomb shelters, Ukrainian authorities said more
Russian rockets were raining down elsewhere across the country.
Debris from intercepted missiles fell on five locations in Kyiv without
causing major damage, authorities said. One person was hospitalized.
The ballistic attack on Kyiv followed an overnight barrage in which
Ukrainian forces shot down more than 37 cruise missiles and 30 drones, according
to Kyiv’s General Staff of the Armed Forces. Russia said it had struck
airfields, aircraft, radio surveillance and command posts, according to a report
from the RIA Novosti news service that couldn’t immediately be verified.
The interception of the Iskanders illustrates the bolstering of Ukrainian
air defenses, with newly donated weapons from international partners, including
long-range Patriot anti-aircraft batteries. As recently as a month ago, Ukraine
struggled to shoot down the missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear
warheads and killed dozens of civilians and devastated entire apartment blocks
carrying conventional explosive payloads earlier in the war. When asked whether
Patriots had down the Iskanders, Ihnat, the air-defense spokesman said “if we
are shooting them down, we have something that is able to do it.”The morning
drone and missile strikes targeted regions from Mykolayiv in central Ukraine to
Lviv in the west. A strike in the Kharkiv region wounded four women and two
children, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram
Russia issues arrest warrant for Lindsey Graham over
Ukraine comments
MOSCOW (AP)/Mon, May 29, 2023
Russia's Interior Ministry on Monday issued an arrest warrant for U.S. Sen.
Lindsey Graham following his comments related to the fighting in Ukraine. In an
edited video of his meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy that was released by Zelenskyy's office, Graham, a Republican from
South Carolina, noted that “the Russians are dying” and described the U.S.
military assistance to the country as “the best money we’ve ever spent.” While
Graham appeared to have made the remarks in different parts of the conversation,
the short video by Ukraine's presidential office put them next to each other,
causing outrage in Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented Sunday by
saying that “it's hard to imagine a greater shame for the country than having
such senators.”The Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal
investigation agency, has moved to open a criminal inquiry against Graham, and
the Interior Ministry followed up by issuing a warrant for his arrest as
indicated Monday by its official record of wanted criminal suspects.
Belarus official: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms
(Reuters)/Sun, May 28, 2023
Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear
weapons and had better take heed not to "cross red lines" on key strategic
issues, a senior Belarusian official was quoted as saying on Sunday. Alexander
Volfovich, state secretary of Belarus' Security Council, said it was logical
that the weapons were withdrawn after the 1991 Soviet collapse as the United
States had provided security guarantees and imposed no sanctions. "Today,
everything has been torn down. All the promises made are gone forever," the
Belta news agency quoted Volfovich as telling an interviewer on state
television. Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is
Russia's staunchest ally among ex-Soviet states and allowed its territory to be
used to launch the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia moved
ahead last week with a decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian
territory aimed at achieving specific gains on the battlefield. Russia says its
"special military operation" in Ukraine was aimed at countering what it says is
a drive by the "collective west" to wage a proxy war and inflict a defeat on
Moscow. "The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus
is therefore one of the steps of strategic deterrence. If there remains any
reason in the heads of Western politicians, of course, they will not cross this
red line," Volfovich said. He said any resort to using "even tactical nuclear
weapons will lead to irreversible consequences."Lukashenko last week said the
weapons were already on the move, but it is not yet clear when they will be in
place. The United States has denounced the prospective deployment of nuclear
weapons in Belarus but says its stance on the use of such weapons has not been
altered. Western sanctions were imposed on Belarus long before the invasion in
connection with Lukashenko's clampdown on human rights, particularly the
repression of mass protests against what his opponents said was his rigged
re-election in 2020. After independence from Soviet rule, Belarus, Ukraine and
Kazakhstan agreed to their weapons being removed and returned to Russia as part
of international efforts to contain proliferation.
Ukraine peace plan is only way to end Russia's
war, says Zelenskiy aide
KYIV (Reuters)/May 29, 2023
Kyiv's peace plan is the only way to end Russia's war in Ukraine and the time
for mediation efforts has passed, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
said. Chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters that Ukraine had no
interest in a ceasefire that locks in Russian territorial gains, and wanted the
implementation of its peace plan, which envisages the full withdrawal of Russian
troops. He pushed back on a flurry of peace initiatives from China, Brazil, the
Vatican and South Africa in recent months. "There cannot be a Brazilian peace
plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking
about the war in Ukraine," Zhovkva said in an interview late on Friday.
Zelenskiy made a major push to court the Global South this month in response to
peace moves from some of its members. He attended the Arab League summit in
Saudi Arabia on May 19, holding talks with host Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, Iraq and other delegations. He then flew to
Japan where he met the leaders of India and Indonesia - important voices in the
Global South - on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit of major economic
powers in Hiroshima.
While Kyiv has staunch backing from the West in its struggle against the
Kremlin, it has not won the same support from the Global South - a term denoting
Latin America, Africa and much of Asia - where Russia has invested diplomatic
energy for years. Moscow has bolstered ties with Global South powers during the
war in Ukraine, including by selling more of its energy to India and China. In
response to a Western embargo on seaborne Russian oil imports, Russia has been
working to reroute supplies away from its traditional European markets to Asia,
Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in Nairobi on Monday hoping to
nail down a trade pact with Kenya, has repeatedly travelled to Africa during the
war and St Petersburg is due to host a Russia-Africa summit this summer. In a
sign of how Ukraine is trying to challenge Russia's diplomatic sway, Ukraine's
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba embarked on his second wartime tour of Africa
last week. Ukraine's Zhovkva said winning backing in the Global South was a top
priority. While Ukraine focused on ties with Western partners at the invasion's
start, securing peace was a matter of concern for all countries, he said. He
played down the prospects of calls for dialogue with Russia made by Pope Francis
who described Ukraine's occupied territories as a "political problem". "In this
period of open war, we don't need any mediators. It's too late for mediation,"
he said.
'PEACE SUMMIT'
Zhovkva said the reaction to Ukraine's 10-point peace plan had been extremely
positive at the G7 summit. "Not a single formula (point) had any concerns from
the (G7) countries," Zhovkva said. Kyiv wanted G7 leaders to help bring as many
Global South leaders as possible to a "Peace Summit" proposed by Kyiv this
summer, he said, adding that the location was still being discussed.
Russia has said it is open to peace talks with Kyiv, which stalled a few
months into the invasion. But it insists that any talks be based on "new
realities", meaning its declared annexation of five Ukrainian provinces it fully
or partly controls - a condition Kyiv will not accept. China, the world's
second-largest economy and Ukraine's top trade partner before the war, has
touted a 12-point vision for peace which calls for a ceasefire but does not
condemn the invasion or oblige Russia to withdraw from occupied territories.
Beijing, which has close ties with Russia's leadership, sent top envoy Li Hui to
Kyiv and Moscow this month to encourage peace talks. Zhovkva said the envoy was
briefed in detail on the situation on the battlefield, at the Zaporizhzhia
nuclear plant, the power grid and the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia,
which Kyiv says is a Russian war crime. "He listened very attentively. There was
no immediate response … we will see. China is a wise country which understands
its role in international affairs."
Ukraine forces shell settlements in Russia's
Belgorod border region - governor
MOSCOW (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Monday
that several frontier settlements were being shelled simultaneously by Ukrainian
forces. In a statement published on the Telegram messaging app, Vyacheslav
Gladkov said two industrial facilities in the border town of Shebekino had been
shelled and four employees had been wounded. Several settlements were left
without electricity, he added. Belgorod, which borders Ukraine's Kharkiv region,
has repeatedly come under attack from Kyiv's forces since the beginning of the
full-scale conflict in Ukraine in Feb. 2022. Last week, Ukrainian forces
undertook a major cross-border raid on a series of border villages, briefly
seizing several settlements before withdrawing over the frontier. Kyiv almost
never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on
Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, but has said that destroying
infrastructure is preparation for a planned ground assault. Russian President
Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered stronger border security to ensure "fast"
Russian military and civilian movement into the Ukrainian regions now under
Moscow's control.
Ukraine aide proposes post-war demilitarised zone in Russia
KYIV (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
A Ukrainian presidential aide said on Monday a demilitarised zone of 100-120 km
(62-75 miles) should be established inside Russia along the border with Ukraine
as part of a post-war settlement. The zone would be necessary to protect
Ukrainian regions from Russian attacks, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak
wrote on Twitter. "The key theme of the post-war settlement should be the
establishment of safeguards to avoid the recurrence of aggression in the
future," he wrote. He made his remarks after the governor of Russia's Belgorod
region, which borders Ukraine, called in televised comments for the annexation
of Ukraine's Kharkiv region to stop Ukrainian cross-border shelling. Moscow says
Ukraine has stepped up drone and sabotage attacks against targets inside Russia
as it prepares for the offensive. Kyiv has denied firing at targets inside
Russia, saying it is fighting a defensive war on its own territory. To ensure
the safety of residents in several frontline Ukrainian regions, he wrote, "it
will be necessary to introduce a demilitarization zone of 100-120 km on the
territory of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, and Rostov republics."The reference to
the Russian regions as republics appeared to be a nod towards Moscow backing
separatist entities calling themselves "people's republics" in Ukraine's Donetsk
and Luhansk regions which border Russia. Podolyak said the demilitarised zone
could initially have an international presence to control it. "Probably, at the
initial stage with a mandatory international control contingent," he wrote.
Kremlin says 'vacuum' emerging in arms control
MOSCOW (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
The Kremlin said on Monday that a "vacuum" was emerging in the area of arms
control as a result of poor relations between a number of states and said Russia
was not to blame for the situation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was
responding to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to
formally "denounce" an arms control treaty dating back to the end of the Cold
War. "... in this area of arms control, of strategic stability, a big vacuum is
now developing, of course, which ideally would be filled urgently by new acts of
international law to regulate this situation," Peskov told a regular news
briefing.
"This is in the interests of the whole world. But for this to happen we need
working bilateral relations with a whole array of states which at the current
time are lacking," he said, adding that this was "not our fault". The 1990
Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) placed limits on the deployment of
military equipment in Europe. Russia suspended its participation in the treaty
in 2007 and "completely halted" participation in 2015. Putin signed a decree
this month symbolically denouncing the treaty following a debate and vote in the
Russian parliament on the matter. Russia has recently suspended a number of arms
control agreements with Western states, including the New START treaty, which
regulates nuclear proliferation, and has begun moving tactical nuclear weapons
into neighbouring Belarus. Relations between Moscow and Western countries have
plunged to their lowest level since the Cold War after Putin sent tens of
thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, in what he says is a
"special military operation" to protect Russia's own security against
pro-Western authorities in Kyiv. Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia's
actions constitute an unprovoked war of aggression aimed at seizing territory.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian officer in clashes, WAFA
says
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian security officer during clashes in the
occupied West Bank flashpoint city of Jenin on Monday, the official Palestinian
news agency Wafa said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Earlier it said in a statement that its forces came under heavy Palestinian fire
while seeking the arrest of security suspects in Jenin and returned fire at the
gunmen. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party identified the officer
as Ashraf Sheikh Ibrahim, saying he had died "as he confronted the aggression
and the occupation's storming of the city of Jenin."In another part of the West
Bank on Monday, Jewish settlers inaugurated a seminary in an area that has been
a focus of U.S. scrutiny, drawing Palestinian condemnation. In a video posted on
social media, settler leader Yossi Dagan recited a Jewish benediction at the
entrance to the Homesh seminary school, a large white prefabricated shack at the
top of a West Bank hill. "With God's help ... there will be many more new
settlements in northern Samaria," he said, referring to the West Bank by its
biblical name. U.S.-led peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in
the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza broke down in 2014 and show little sign
of revival, and Israeli-Palestinian violence has escalated over the past year.
Most countries deem Israel's settlements illegal - a view Israel disputes.
Palestinians say they eat away at the land they want for a future state and cite
growing violence by settlers. Abbas said Homesh must be removed. "Statements of
condemnation are no longer enough in the face of the (Israeli) extremist
right-wing government," said his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh. In a bid to quell
international concern, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel
has no intention of building any new settlements as his nationalist-religious
government has vowed to bolster existing ones. Spokespeople for Netanyahu,
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not
immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on whether any of them had
authorized the establishment of the new Homesh seminary. Last week, Smotrich,
who heads the pro-settler Jewish Zionism party and holds some West Bank powers,
said Homesh had been officially added to settlement council land in order to
work out a new building plan for the seminary school.
Nvidia to build Israeli supercomputer as AI demand soars
JERUSALEM (Reuters/Mon, May 29, 2023
Nvidia Corp said on Monday it was building Israel's most powerful artificial
intelligence (AI) supercomputer to meet soaring customer demand for AI
applications. Nvidia, the world's most valuable listed chip company, said the
cloud-based system would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and be partly
operational by the end of 2023. Gilad Shainer, a senior vice president at Nvidia,
said Nvidia worked with 800 startups in Israel and tens of thousands of software
engineers. The system, called Israel-1, is expected to deliver performance of up
to eight exaflops of AI computing to make it one of the world's fastest AI
supercomputers. One exaflop has the ability to perform 1 quintillion - or
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 - calculations per second. Shainer said AI was the
"most important technology in our lifetime" and that to develop AI and
generative AI applications large graphics processing units (GPUs) were needed.
"Generative AI is going everywhere nowadays. You need to be able to run training
on large datasets," he told Reuters, noting companies in Israel will have access
to a supercomputer they don't have today. "This system is a large scale system
that actually will enable them to do training much quicker, to build frameworks
and build solutions that can tackle more complex problems."OpenAI's ChatGPT, for
example, was created with thousands of Nvidia GPUs. The system was developed by
the former Mellanox team. Nvidia bought Israeli chip designer Mellanox
Technologies in 2019 for nearly $7 billion, outbidding Intel Corp. Shainer said
Nvidia's first priority for the supercomputer was its Israeli partners. "We may
use this system to work with partners outside of Israel down the road," he said.
Last week, Nvidia said it had worked with Britain's University of Bristol to
build a new supercomputer using a new Nvidia chip that would compete with Intel
and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Saudi Net Reserves Fall to $410 Billion, Lowest Since 2010
(Bloomberg)/May 29, 2023
Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserves fell in April to the lowest in more than 13
years, in an apparent sign the kingdom hasn’t yet used last year’s $326 billion
oil windfall to top up the central bank’s holdings. Net foreign assets fell to
1.538 trillion riyals ($410 billion) last month, according to the central bank’s
monthly report published on Sunday, declining for a fifth month in the longest
falling streak since early 2019. Reserves are down more than 44% since peaking
in August 2014. The drawdown, which reached almost $42 billion since November,
follows a shift in how the world’s biggest crude exporter manages its oil
wealth. While higher oil prices and output used to quickly translate into rising
foreign reserves, officials announced a year ago the kingdom planned to hold on
to the money and only later decide how to distribute it. The budget had a
surplus of 103.9 billion riyals last year, according to the Finance Ministry.
The government has set the lower and higher bands for the level of reserves it
wants to maintain as a share of economic output, according to Finance Minister
Mohammed Al-Jadaan, with the goal of protecting public finances from possible
shocks. The stockpile is vital to maintaining confidence in Saudi Arabia’s
3.75-per dollar peg. The riyal’s 12-month forward outright rate was little
changed at 3.7505 on Friday, suggesting traders see the peg as solid. Though
Saudi Arabia ran its first budget surplus in nearly a decade last year, it still
isn’t clear how it’s allocating the money. Last December, Al-Jadaan said most of
it was likely to go to the central bank.Other potential recipients of transfers
include the National Development Fund, which has been tasked with investing in
developing the kingdom’s infrastructure, and the Public Investment Fund — the
sovereign wealth fund.
Looking ahead, the fiscal outlook is turning less favorable for Saudi Arabia.The
International Monetary Fund forecasts Saudi Arabia will run a budget deficit of
1.1% of gross domestic product this year, a view that’s at odds with the
government’s expectation for a second straight surplus it last estimated at 16
billion riyals. The Washington-based lender hiked its estimate of the oil price
Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget this year to over $80 a barrel — above
Brent’s current level of around $77. The kingdom doesn’t reveal an oil price
assumption in its budget.Saudi Arabia returned to the debt market earlier this
month by selling $6 billion of Islamic bonds. The kingdom already reported a
deficit of 2.91 billion riyals in the first quarter of the year.
Heavy clashes in Sudan's capital as truce set to expire
DUBAI (Reuters)/May 29, 2023
Heavy and sustained clashes could be heard on Monday in parts of Sudan's
capital, residents said, hours before the expiry of a shaky ceasefire deal that
had brought some respite from a six-week-old conflict but little humanitarian
access. Fighting continued from Sunday into Monday in the south and west of
Omdurman, one of three adjoining cities that make up Sudan's greater capital.
Across the River Nile in southern Khartoum residents also reported clashes late
on Sunday. Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have
been locked in a power struggle that erupted into conflict on April 15, killing
hundreds and driving nearly 1.4 million people from their homes. Both sides have
said they are considering extending a deal for a week-long ceasefire brokered by
Saudi Arabia and the United States that was designed to allow for the
distribution of aid and is due to expire at 9.45 p.m. (19:45 GMT) local time on
Monday. Saudi Arabia and the United States, which are also remotely monitoring
the ceasefire deal and have appealed for its renewal, said on Sunday that both
the army and the RSF had repeatedly violated the truce and had impeded the
delivery of humanitarian access and restoration of essential services. "Since
yesterday evening there has been bombardment with all types of weapons between
the army and the Rapid Support. We're in a state of great fear. Where's the
truce?" Hassan Othman, a 55-year-old resident of Omdurman told Reuters by phone.
Across the country, the health ministry has said more than 700 people have died
as a result of the fighting, though the true figure is likely much higher. It
has separately recorded up to 510 deaths in El Geneina, one of the main cities
in Darfur, a western region already scarred by conflict and displacement.
ORPHANAGE DEATHS
In Khartoum, factories, offices, homes and banks have been looted or destroyed.
Power, water and telecommunications are often cut, there are acute shortages of
medicines and medical equipment, and food supplies have been running low. At one
orphanage in the capital, Reuters reported how dozens of babies have died since
the start of the conflict, which one official attributed mainly to staff
shortages and recurrent power outages caused by the fighting. The truce deal has
brought some respite from heavy fighting but sporadic clashes and air strikes
have continued. The United Nations and aid groups say that despite the truce,
they have struggled to get bureaucratic approvals and security guarantees to
transport aid and staff to Khartoum and other places of need. A statement from
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. late on Sunday cited breaches of the truce including
air strikes and commandeering of medical supplies by the army, and the
occupation of civilian buildings and looting by the RSF. "Both parties have told
facilitators their goal is de-escalation to facilitate humanitarian assistance
and essential repairs, yet both parties are posturing for further escalation,"
it said.
The EU empire is crumbling
Con Coughlin/The Telegraph/Mon, May 29, 2023
Any pretensions the European Union may entertain of being a major power in world
affairs have been utterly exposed by the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as
president of Turkey. It was not so long ago, after all, that Brussels was trying
to cajole Turkey into becoming a member of the EU. Indeed, the country is still
formally regarded as a candidate for accession, even though Ankara has hardly
made any progress on implementing the necessary institutional reforms since
2004. According to Erdogan, Turkey still covets EU membership, with the Turkish
leader informing a meeting of EU ambassadors in the Turkish capital last year
that EU membership “remains our strategic priority”. The reality, of course, is
that while Erdogan is in power, Turkey has about as much chance of joining the
bloc as Russia does under Vladimir Putin. It is not just Erdogan’s increasingly
autocratic approach during his 20 years in power, with drastic curbs imposed on
parliament, the judiciary and the press, that makes him a pariah. It is his
support for the Islamist creed, one that utterly rejects the liberal freedoms
espoused by the West, that makes his outlook anathema. This, after all, is a
politician who began his campaign for re-election by evoking the 1453 Ottoman
conquest of the Byzantine Empire. In such circumstances, Erdogan’s narrow
election victory, in which he secured just over 52 per cent of the vote against
his secularist opponent, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, means that Turkey’s EU ambitions
will be unachievable for the immediate future, leaving Brussels to rue the day
it ever conceived Turkish membership of the bloc could be a viable proposition.
Erdogan’s re-election to serve another five-year term, one in which he is likely
to expand his autocratic tendencies at the expense of the country’s democratic
institutions, certainly provides the EU with a significant challenge, one that
seriously calls into question its ambitions to position itself as a soft-power
superpower equal in stature to the US and China. The EU’s credibility has
already come under intense scrutiny over its unconvincing response to the
Ukraine crisis. Deep divisions have emerged between some major powers, such as
Germany, France and Italy – which are seeking to adopt a less confrontational
stance towards Moscow – and the emerging east European powers like Poland –
which argue that the Continent’s long-term security requires Russia to suffer a
comprehensive and unambiguous defeat on the Ukrainian battlefield. The EU can no
longer afford to maintain its ambiguous approach towards Ankara. One moment it
is offering massive bribes to stem the tide of illegal migrants flooding into
Europe. The next it is denouncing Turkey for its close ties with Russia, an
alliance that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently conceded was “a
cause for concern”. For Erdogan, of course, the cosy relationship he enjoys with
the Kremlin has been a lifesaver insofar as the Turkish economy is concerned.
The economic crisis afflicting Turkey, with inflation currently running above 40
per cent, would be considerably worse were it not for the hordes of Russian
tourists flocking to the country to avoid EU sanctions. Given the EU’s previous
hapless record of dealing with Erdogan, few Europeans will have much confidence
that the bloc can persuade Ankara to ditch its support for Russia to forge
closer ties with Brussels.
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Vatican chastises bishops
who stoke division on social media
VATICAN CITY (Reuters)/Mon, May 29, 2023
The Vatican urged bishops and high-profile lay Catholic leaders on Monday to
tone down their comments on social media, saying some were causing division and
stoking polemics that harmed the entire Church. The appeal was part of a 20-page
document by the Vatican's communications department titled, "Towards Full
Presence. A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media."The document,
addressed to all Catholics, warned of the dangers of fake news on social media
and other forms of abuse that had turned people into commodities whose data is
sold, often without their knowledge or consent.
It condemned polarisation and extremism that had led to "digital tribalism" on
social media, saying individuals were often locking themselves in silos of
opinion that hindered dialogue and often led to violence, abuse and
misinformation. "The Christian style should be reflective, not reactive, on
social media. Therefore, we should all be careful not to fall into the digital
traps hidden in content that is intentionally designed to sow conflict among
users by causing outrage or emotional reactions," the document said. "The
problem of polemical and superficial, and thus divisive, communication is
particularly worrying when it comes from Church leadership: bishops, pastors,
and prominent lay leaders," it said. A number of conservative Catholic bishops
and high-profile commentators, particularly in the United States, have
criticised Pope Francis on Twitter, with some having endorsed fierce, far-right
video attacks on the pontiff.
"Unfortunately, broken relationships, conflicts, and divisions are not foreign
to the Church. For example, when groups that present themselves as 'Catholic'
use their social media presence to foster division, they are not behaving like a
Christian community should," the document said. It said particular attention
would have to be paid to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in coming
years, urging Catholics to beware machines "that make our decisions for us". In
2020, the Vatican joined forces with tech giants Microsoft and IBM to promote
the ethical development of AI and call for regulation of intrusive technologies
such as facial recognition.
Erdogan confronts polarized
Turkey after historic win
Agence France Presse/Mon, May 29, 2023
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday confronted the tough task of
uniting his deeply divided country after winning a historic run-off election to
extend his two-decade rule to 2028. Turkey's longest-serving leader brushed
aside a powerful opposition coalition, a biting economic crisis and widespread
anger following a devastating February earthquake to beat secular challenger
Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday's vote. But the four-point victory margin was
Erdogan's narrowest of any past election, highlighting the sharp polarisation
the Islamic-rooted conservative will contend with during his third and final
term as president. Erdogan attempted to sound conciliatory in a victory speech
to thousands of jubilant supporters gathered outside Ankara's presidential
palace, calling on Turks to "come together in unity and solidarity."Kilicdaroglu
remained defiant by vowing to "continue the struggle" against Erdogan and his
AKP party, which has dominated Turkish politics since 2002. "Our elders taught
us to struggle... we will not lose or give up on this country with one
election," Bugra Iyimaya, a 28-year-old academic, told AFP in Istanbul.
"We will resist and fight until the end."
Erdogan's elated supporters hailed the man they call "Reis" (chief) after he won
the first run-off in Turkey's history. "The person who is beneficial to our
country won. I'm very happy because of his beliefs, the rest has no importance.
The country comes first," street vendor Gursel Ozkok, 65, told AFP in Ankara.
"The man of the people won," blared the front page of Monday's pro-government
daily Sabah.
- 'It could get ugly' -
Having harnessed a coalition of nationalist, conservative and religious voters,
Erdogan "will double down on his brand of populist policies... political
polarisation is here to stay", said Emre Peker of the Eurasia Group consultancy.
Relieving Turks of the country's worst economic crisis since the 1990s is one of
Erdogan's urgent priorities. Years of development fuelled by infrastructure
projects and a construction sector boom earned him huge popularity and a loyal
voter base that has never abandoned him. But inflation is now running at more
than 40 percent, partly exacerbated by Erdogan's unorthodox policy of cutting
interest rates to try and cool spiralling prices. Analysts say Erdogan's lavish
campaign spending pledges and unwavering attachment to lower interest rates will
further strain banks' currency reserves and the lira, which edged down against
the dollar on Monday.
"The current set-up is just not sustainable," noted Timothy Ash of BlueBay Asset
Management, pointing to the tens of billions of dollars the central bank has
blown to prop up the lira. If Erdogan refuses to perform a U-turn on interest
rates and abandon the lira, "it could get ugly", he warned.
A colossal reconstruction effort in Turkey's southeast is still at an early
stage after February's earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people and
destroyed entire cities. The disaster compounded the economic difficulties as
hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods overnight and forecasters cut
Turkey's 2023 growth outlook, with the damage estimated at more than $100
billion.
'Balancing act'
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin were among the world
leaders lining up to congratulate Erdogan, but major diplomatic conundrums lie
in the 69-year-old's in-tray. NATO partners are anxiously waiting for Ankara to
approve Sweden's bid to join the U.S.-led defence alliance.
Erdogan has blocked the bid, accusing Stockholm of sheltering Turkish opposition
figures with alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants. Observers expect
Erdogan to continue playing a bridging role between Russia and its Western
partners for Turkey's benefit. "Another five years of Erdogan means more of the
geopolitical balancing act between Russia and the West," said Galip Dalay, an
associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank. "Turkey and the West will
engage in transactional cooperation wherever its interests dictate it," not
joining Western sanctions on Moscow for the war in Ukraine and seeking
economically profitable relationships, he added. Ties with neighbouring Syria
remain at a low ebb after Turkey backed rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad
in the civil war. Recent Russian-mediated talks failed to achieve a breakthrough
towards a normalisation of relations. Monday also coincides with the anniversary
of the 1453 conquest of Constantinople -- Istanbul's old name -- by the
Ottomans, a symbolic commemoration following Erdogan's victory and his far-right
nationalist allies' parliamentary majority.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on May 29-30/2023
Peace with
Israel is in the best interests of all the Arabs
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Face Book/May 29/2023
Allow me today, as a proud Arab, to argue why immediate and unconditional Arab
peace with Israel is in the best interests of all the Arabs:
1- The perpetual conflict with Israel has sucked up unlimited Arab resources
with no end in sight, has allowed populist dictators and militias to rule, flout
rule of law, tyrannize populations. This conflict has to end, NOW, win or lose.
2- Israel has been used as a bogeyman, erroneously blamed for all Arab ills.
Arab society is backward and desperately needs change and reform, not at
government level, but at social and popular levels. Liberty should spread,
social engineering should be stopped, women’s rights should be protected
(including shunning honor killings), diversity (Muslims treating non-Muslims as
equals) should be encouraged, celebrated.
3- Unlike previous centuries, land and natural resources are not instruments of
economic growth. Advanced economies are based on knowledge, and this is what UAE
and KSA have been pursuing. Other than pride, the land that Palestinians are
trying to wrestle from Israeli hands is useless, especially given the vast land
that Arab-speaking populations are sovereign over from the Gulf to the Ocean.
4- Israel is a net asset in the region. Here’s an eye-opener: Israelis have won
10 (non-peace) Nobel prizes. Together, Turkey, Egypt and Iran (population 25
times that of Israel) have won only 3 non-peace Nobels! And while you might
think that Israel’s power relies on unfair Western support, understand that out
of $110 billion Israeli government spends a year, less than $5 billion is aid
from US.
5- Arab conflict with Israel is one of pride, not interests. It belongs to a
past era. Sticking with it means the Arabs are not advancing or progressing, but
are stuck in old vendettas that require more investments without returns.
Fellow Arabs should sign immediate peace with Israel, watch their economies grow
and lives prosper, and understand that pride is one that comes from success, not
from revenge. I Tweeted this call in Arabic too.
Could "Journalists" Sink Any Lower: Beware of
Alex Novell
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute./May 29, 2023
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[He wrote] me: "I'm a graduate student at NYU working on a documentary film."
Not "I'm a former graduate student with no current connection to NYU." He was
deliberately deceptive and did make false statements.
He apparently believes that because I defend Israel, he is justified in
defrauding me.
This, then, is a warning to other people who support Israel to be aware that
this fraudulent and pretend "journalist" is out there ready to employ sleazy
tactics unworthy of real journalists. No one should ever agree to be interviewed
by Novell. And NYU should be aware that its good name is being misused and
tarnished by Novell's unethical misrepresentations.
Novell has now tried to shift blame to me, saying that I should have checked him
out on Google before agreeing to be interviewed. So I did, and I found nothing
that would have alerted me to his fraudulent intentions and action. This is why
I am writing this op-ed: so that anyone Novell seeks to interview in the future,
will be able to learn about his sordid history.
Journalists are supposed to be governed by rules of ethics, but too many of them
will do anything, violate any rule, break any trust, lie to any source, in order
to get a career-building story. Most journalists comply with their ethical
obligations, but the ones who do not cause understandable distrust among the
general public.
Recently, a young man named Alex Novell emailed me saying: "I'm a graduate
student at NYU working on a documentary film about the history of the
Taglit-Birthright program." He asked me for "an interview with you as it would
provide expert commentary for the film." I agreed first, because I like to
encourage students who are doing interesting projects; second, I assumed, as he
indeed led me to assume, that he was a current student New York University and
that his project was part of his studies under the supervision of the school;
and third, I care deeply about Birthright and its impact on American students
and, having worked with the program, deeply respect it.
Novell began the interview by asking several relevant questions about
Birthright. Then suddenly, as the interview was about to come to an end, he
threw out the following accusatory question: How much did you pay the woman who
accused you to change her story? I told him that I paid her nothing, but he
persisted on the subject. I answered all of his questions, and asked him why he
used Birthright as a pretext to ask me about the false accusation. We then had
an exchange of emails in which he denied that he ever represented that he was a
current student, claiming – falsely – that he said that he had "graduated from
NYU." He admitted that if he had represented himself as a current student
working on a NYU-sponsored project, that "would have been false." But that is
exactly what he did write me: "I'm a graduate student at NYU working on a
documentary film." Not "I'm a former graduate student with no current connection
to NYU." He was deliberately deceptive and did make false statements.
I then told him that, since he obtained the interview by fraud, he no longer had
permission to use my recorded answers, and did not sign any release.
To be clear: I stand by all my answers. I told the truth about the false
accusation. I did nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. In fact, the woman who
I have long said falsely accused me recently admitted that she may have
misidentified me, confusing me with someone else. Indeed, I might well have
agreed to be interviewed about the false accusation if he had been honest in
asking instead of deceptive.
I later learned that he was in fact making a "documentary" in which he tries to
justify the use of fraudulent pretexts by journalists to "get" people with whose
views they disagree. The only thing worse than using deception to create a
story, is to try to justify such reprehensible tactics.
This is not Sacha Baron Cohen, a comic actor who uses pretext for humorous
purposes. This is a person who claims to be a journalist, who is employing fraud
to interview people he does not like. Apparently he plans to call other people
as well, presumably those like me who support Israel. He apparently believes
that because I defend Israel, he is justified in defrauding me.
This, then, is a warning to other people who support Israel to be aware that
this fraudulent and pretend "journalist" is out there ready to employ sleazy
tactics unworthy of real journalists. No one should ever agree to be interviewed
by Novell. And NYU should be aware that its good name is being misused and
tarnished by Novell's unethical misrepresentations.
Novell has now tried to shift blame to me, saying that I should have checked him
out on Google before agreeing to be interviewed. So I did, and I found nothing
that would have alerted me to his fraudulent intentions and action. This is why
I am writing this op-ed: so that anyone Novell seeks to interview in the future,
will be able to learn about his sordid history.
*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.
© 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.
Today in History: Muslim Turks Sack Christian
Constantinople
Raymond Ibrahim/PJ Media/May 29/2023
While the West continues self-flagellating itself about its history, today,
Turkey is celebrating a day when its ancestors slaughtered and raped thousands
of people solely for the “sin” of being Christian.
Precisely 570 years ago today, on May 29, 1453, the Turks sacked and transformed
the ancient Christian kingdom of Constantinople, into Muslim Istanbul. And, as
they do every year, Turks—beginning with their president—are saber rattling in
commemoration of that “glorious” event.
No doubt, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—who, “coincidentally” enough, timed his latest
presidential victory to coincide with this date—is again saying the same sorts
of things he says every year. Last May 29, for example, he said, “As our
ancestors buried Byzantium, let us hope that today, by building our vision for
2053 [the 600th anniversary of the sack of Constantinople], we also manage to
put in the time warp of history the current Byzantines who are plotting against
us.”
In order to understand the significance of this otherwise cryptic remark—most
Westerners are today totally unaware of the history between Muslim Turkey and
Christian Byzantium—some background is necessary.
Towards the end of the first millennium, the Turks, whose origins lay in the
eastern steppes of Asia, had become Muslim and began to raid and conquer
portions of Asia Minor, which was then and had been for a millennium Christian.
By the end of the fourteenth century they had conquered it entirely and began
eying Constantinople, just across the Bosporus. Although generations of Turks
repeatedly besieged it, it would fall to Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II (pronounced
“Mehmet”), Erdoğan’s hero.
But why did Muhammad II and his predecessors attack Constantinople in the first
place? What made it an enemy to the Turks? The same thing that made every
non-Muslim nation an enemy: it was “infidel”—in this case, Christian—and
therefore in need of subjugating. That was the sole justification and
pretext—the sole “grievance”—that propelled the Turks to besiege it (as their
Arab counterparts did in the seventh and eighth centuries).
From the start, deceit was part of Muhammad’s arsenal. When he first became
sultan and was too busy consolidating his authority, Muhammad “swore by the god
of their false prophet, by the prophet whose name he bore,” a bitter Christian
contemporary retrospectively wrote, that “he was their [the Christians’] friend,
and would remain for the whole of his life a friend and ally of Constantinople.”
Although they believed him, Muhammad was taking advantage of “the basest arts of
dissimulation and deceit,” wrote Edward Gibbon. “Peace was on his lips while war
was in his heart.”
Muhammad also exhorted his Muslim army with jihadist ideology once the siege
commenced, including by unleashing throngs of preachers who cried throughout the
Muslim camp surrounding Constantinople,
Children of Muhammad, be of good heart, for tomorrow we shall have so many
Christians in our hands that we will sell them, two slaves for a ducat, and will
have such riches that we will all be of gold, and from the beards of the Greeks
we will make leads for our dogs, and their families will be our slaves. So be of
good heart and be ready to die cheerfully for the love of our [past and present]
Muhammad.
“Recall the promises of our Prophet concerning fallen warriors in the Koran,”
Sultan Muhammad himself exhorted: “the man who dies in combat shall be
transported bodily to paradise and shall dine with [prophet] Muhammad in the
presence of women, handsome boys, and virgins.”
The mention of “handsome boys” was not just an accurate reference to the Koran’s
promise (e.g., 52:24, 56:17, and 76:19); Muhammad II was a notorious pedophile.
His enslavement and rape of Jacob Notaras—a handsome 14-year-old nobleman’s son
in Constantinople, whom Muhammad forced into becoming his personal catamite
until he escaped—was only one of the most infamous. Vlad III Dracula’s younger
brother, “Radu the Handsome,” was also turned into Muhammad’s “boy toy.”
Or consider the lecherous behavior of Muhammad’s army one they had penetrated
inside Constantinople (the following quotes are all from contemporary sources
and eyewitnesses):
When they had massacred and there was no longer any resistance, they were intent
on pillage and roamed through the town stealing, disrobing, pillaging, killing,
raping, taking captive men, women, children, old men, young men, monks, priests,
people of all sorts and conditions.… There were virgins who awoke from troubled
sleep to find those brigands standing over them with bloody hands and faces full
of abject fury.… [The Turks] dragged them, tore them, forced them, dishonored
them, raped them at the cross-roads and made them submit to the most terrible
outrages.… Tender children were brutally snatched from their mothers’ breasts
and girls were pitilessly given up to strange and horrible unions, and a
thousand other terrible things happened.
Because thousands of citizens had fled to and were holed up in Hagia Sophia—then
one of the Christian world’s grandest basilicas—it offered an excellent harvest
of slaves once its doors were axed down:
One Turk would look for the captive who seemed the wealthiest, a second would
prefer a pretty face among the nuns. … Each rapacious Turk was eager to lead his
captive to a safe place, and then return to secure a second and a third prize. …
Then long chains of captives could be seen leaving the church and its shrines,
being herded along like cattle or flocks of sheep.
The slavers sometimes fought each other to the death over “any well-formed
girl,” even as many of the latter “preferred to cast themselves into the wells
and drown rather than fall into the hands of the Turks.”
Having taken possession of the Hagia Sophia—which at the time of its capture had
served as a cathedral for a thousand years—the invaders “engaged in every kind
of vileness within it, making of it a public brothel.” On “its holy altars” they
enacted “perversions with our women, virgins, and children,” including “the
Grand Duke’s daughter who was quite beautiful.” She was forced to “lie on the
great altar of Hagia Sophia with a crucifix under her head and then raped.”
Next “they paraded the [Hagia Sophia’s main] Crucifix in mocking procession
through their camp, beating drums before it, crucifying the Christ again with
spitting and blasphemies and curses. They placed a Turkish cap … upon His head,
and jeeringly cried, ‘Behold the god of the Christians!’”
Practically all other churches in the ancient city suffered the same fate. “The
crosses which had been placed on the roofs or the walls of churches were torn
down and trampled.” The Eucharist was “thrown to the ground and kicked.” Bibles
were stripped of their gold or silver illuminations before being burned. “Icons
were without exception given to the flames.” Patriarchal vestments were placed
on the haunches of dogs; priestly garments were placed on horses.
“Everywhere there was misfortune, everyone was touched by pain” when Sultan
Muhammad finally made his grand entry into the city. “There were lamentations
and weeping in every house, screaming in the crossroads, and sorrow in all
churches; the groaning of grown men and the shrieking of women accompanied
looting, enslavement, separation, and rape.”
Finally, Muhammad had the “wretched citizens of Constantinople” dragged before
his men during evening festivities and “ordered many of them to be hacked to
pieces, for the sake of entertainment.” The rest of the city’s population—as
many as 45,000—was hauled off in chains to be sold as slaves.
This is the man whom Turkey and its president honor—including by rededicating
the Hagia Sophia, which had been a museum for nearly a century, back into a
victory mosque. Then, Erdoğan had proclaimed in a speech:
The conquest of Istanbul [Constantinople] and the conversion of the Hagia Sophia
into a mosque are among the most glorious chapters of Turkish history.….The
resurrection of the Hagia Sophia represents our memory full of heydays in our
history.
From here one can better understand Erdoğan’s assertion, “As our ancestors
buried Byzantium, let us hope that today, by building our vision for 2053, we
also manage to put in the time warp of history the current Byzantines who are
plotting against us.”
Of course, the Byzantines never “plotted” against the Turks’ ancestors; quite
the opposite—the invading Turks deceived and then attacked them for no other
reason than that they were “infidels” who rejected Islam and, as such, deserved
to be slaughtered, raped, and enslaved.
The message is clear; jihadist ideology dominates the highest echelons of
Turkey. Hating, invading, and conquering neighboring peoples—not due to any
grievances but because they are non-Muslim—with all the attending atrocities,
rapes, destruction, and mass slavery is apparently the ideal, to resume once the
sunset of Western power is complete, which, according to Erdoğan’s own daughter,
Esra, is any day now. Just recently she tweeted “There is little left for the
Islamic crescent to break the Western cross”—an assertion more fitting of ISIS
than the daughter of a president who works as a “sociologist.”
Meanwhile, because Americans are used to seeing statues of their own nation’s
heroes toppled—for no other reason than they were white and/or Christian, and
therefore inherently evil—the significance of Erdoğan’s words and praise of
Muhammad II—who as a nonwhite Muslim is further immune from Western criticism,
as that would be “racist”—remains lost to them.
All historic quotes in this article were sourced from and are documented in
chapter 7 of the author’s Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between
Islam and the West.
Henry Kissinger’s Bloody Legacy on his 100th
Birthday
Fred Kaplan/The New York Times/May 29/2023
In the fall of 2010, when the columnist Christopher Hitchens was dying of cancer
and publicly chronicling the process, he said he wished that he could stick
around long enough to write Henry Kissinger’s obituary, telling NPR, “It does
gash me to think that people like that would outlive me, I have to say.”
Hitchens died a mere one year later at the age of 62. A dozen years hence,
Kissinger—whom he had denounced as a war criminal - still breathes, turned 100
on May 27, to the encomia and well wishes of many in the foreign policy
establishment.
To mark the occasion, the National Security Archive—an invaluable private
organization devoted to getting secret documents declassified, often through
onerous and expensive lawsuits—has reissued 38 documents, and links to dozens
more, from Kissinger’s time as national security adviser and secretary of state
to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. They clearly display the traits and
actions that Hitchens found so odious.
Kissinger had his moments of triumph in his years of power, from 1969–76:
US–Soviet détente, the opening of China, and his shuttle diplomacy in the Middle
East (though it was President Jimmy Carter who, a few years later, forged an
enduring peace between Israel and Egypt).
Still, the dark side of Kissinger’s tradecraft left a deeper stain on vast
quarters of the globe - and on America’s own reputation.
Chile is the darkest blotch on Kissinger’s legacy. He was the chief architect of
the US policy to destabilize the regime of Chile’s democratically elected
socialist president, Salvador Allende. And he gave full support to Augusto
Pinochet, the Chilean general who mounted the coup overthrowing Allende in
September 1973 - even turning a blind eye to Pinochet’s murderous repression of
Allende supporters, including the car-bombing of a prominent critic-in-exile,
Orlando Letelier, which also killed a young American colleague, Ronni Moffitt,
on the streets of Washington, DC.
This was not a case of Kissinger merely doing Nixon’s dirty work. In fact, Nixon
was considering a proposal by a senior State Department official - one of
Kissinger’s aides - to reach a modus vivendi with Allende. Kissinger postponed a
White House meeting with the aide and convinced Nixon to crush the new
government instead.
Kissinger was then put in charge of a secret committee to “make the economy
scream,” as Nixon put it, ordering the CIA to subsidize striking truck workers
and provide support to the coup-plotters in the military. Once the coup
succeeded and the suppression and torture began, State Department officials
urged their boss to call out Pinochet for his human rights abuses. Kissinger
brushed aside these pleas. He even told Pinochet in a private meeting, “We want
to help, not undermine you.” The State Department’s top deputy on Latin America
complained that Kissinger’s permissiveness was “patently a violation of our
principles and policy tenets.” Kissinger ignored the warning.
He did the same thing three years later, after the Argentine coup, whose
military leaders were even more brutal and murderous. In fact, he berated an
aide who suggested issuing a démarche to the Buenos Aires government. Instead,
Kissinger turned a blind eye to Operation Condor, an assassination operation
against left-wingers throughout much of Latin America. In that context, he told
Argentina’s foreign minister, “Look, our basic attitude is that we would like
you to succeed.” And he urged him to succeed - that is, to put down dissidents
and critics - as quickly as possible. State Department officials and ambassadors
started issuing protests to the dictators in charge of Condor. Kissinger put the
kibosh on their efforts, demanding that “no further actions be taken on the
matter.”
This was all of a piece with Kissinger’s actions, back in the spring of 1971,
after the East Pakistan coup led by Gen. Agha Muhammad Yahya, which led to the
deaths of millions of civilians. “To all hands,” Kissinger supported the coup,
writing in a cable to diplomatic personnel, “don’t squeeze Yahya at this time.”
And, of course, dominating Kissinger’s entire time in power, there were the
massive bombings of North Vietnam, which did nothing to turn or stop the war,
and the secret bombings of Cambodia. The latter - a ferocious stream of aerial
attacks that began in March 1969 and roared on for more than a year under the
code names “Breakfast Plan” and “Operation Menu” - killed as many as 150,000
civilians. It also so destabilized the entire country of Cambodia that the Khmer
Rouge moved into the vacuum and murdered at least 2 million more, roughly a
quarter of the country’s population.
To the extent Kissinger acknowledged these acts (some, he tried to hide or deny
for as long as possible), he justified them on the basis of national security
interests. Even in his academic days, as a Harvard grad student and professor,
he presented himself as a master of “Realpolitik,” which sometimes requires
doing unpleasant things with unpleasant people.
Yet Kissinger’s spin on this school of thought, as a practitioner, seriously
damaged US interests. It so brusquely violated American values; it hoisted such
a dreadful image of America in the world, an image that our Cold War rivals and
critics could exploit so easily.
American diplomats have always grappled with the tension between the country’s
interests and values, but the better, more thoughtful diplomats have recognized
that the two poles are not so far apart and certainly not mutually exclusive.
They have seen that the pursuit of interests has to be in some way grounded in
values.Kissinger’s Realpolitik had no moral center. For years afterward, the
United States was twisted and damaged by this vacuum. So was, to this day, the
whole philosophy of Realpolitik.