Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 05-06/2023
Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s Annual Remembrance Day
Saint of the day site
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded in 1950, as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers, and an order of priests. Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death. During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people. In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community, and undertake her new work, Sister Teresa took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals–the ordinary dress of an Indian woman–she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits. The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, and the use of buildings. In 1952, the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging, and street people. For the next four decades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Blessed Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

Tenenti says Hezbollah tents violate 1701, UNIFIL seeking to remove them
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti has noted that nothing will change in the work of the U.N. peacekeeping force with the latest renewal of its mandate, adding that partnership with the Lebanese Army will continue. In an interview with al-Hurra television, Tenenti pointed out that the U.N. resolution that extended the Force’s mandate contains the same wording that was used in 2006. Acknowledging that UNIFIL is not working in a 100% safe area of operations, Tenenti said the Force will continue its mission despite the recent “crimes” that have been committed against its members, in reference to the December incident in the town of al-Aqbiyeh that left a UNIFIL peacekeeper dead. As for the two tents that Hezbollah has erected in the occupied Shebaa Farms and the containers belonging to an environmental group accused of being an arm of Hezbollah, Tenenti said the tents are a violation of Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war, noting that UNIFIL is working on removing them.

Riyadh calls for electing Lebanese president as soon as possible
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
Saudi Arabia has stressed the need to “finalize the Lebanese presidential juncture as soon as possible so that it contributes to rescuing Lebanon.”The kingdom’s stance came in a statement issued by the Saudi embassy after talks in Diman between Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. Bukhari said “the visit comes as part of the constant communication with the patriarch.” The embassy meanwhile said that “the meeting was an occasion to demonstrate the bilateral ties between the two countries and means to develop them.”“There was a discussion over the latest developments in the Lebanese arena, especially the presidential juncture, and the need to finalize it as soon as possible so that it contributes to rescuing Lebanon,” it added. It also said that the presidential election should be “unifying for all Lebanese” and should “strengthen the ties to the Arab neighborhood.”Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad for his part said that the meeting tackled “the efforts that the kingdom is carrying out domestically and internationally, especially with the French, to push for the election of a president as soon as possible.”“On behalf of the kingdom, Ambassador Bukhari expressed keenness on stability in Lebanon and on protecting the constitution and the Taif Accord, as well as the need that no one impose conditions on the Lebanese, emphasizing that the kingdom respects the will of the Lebanese and that it will cooperate with any decision that they may take,” Ghayyad added.

5 nations 'inclined to end Lebanon vacuum', Doha to help financially
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
There is an Arab and international inclination to end the presidential vacuum in Lebanon, especially after Central Bank acting governor Wassim Mansouri said the bank will stop lending the government, highly informed sources said. “Qatar might be willing to help Lebanon financially and to encourage investment in it if all political forces show leniency and concessions that would contribute to ending the presidential void,” the sources told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal in remarks published Tuesday. Citing information obtained from the five nations that are working on stopping Lebanon’s crisis, the sources said the foreign ministers of these countries will soon hold a meeting to follow up on the developments in Lebanon. The five-nation committee for Lebanon comprises representatives of the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt. “This was the reason behind the meeting that was held in Diman between Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari,” the sources added. “The Qatari drive towards the political forces is focused on three names: Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, MP Neemat Frem and ex-minister Ziad Baroud,” the sources said. Baroud “took part in Maarab’s mass on Sunday and he is known for his relation with MP Jebran Bassil, that’s why this participation might have presidential indications,” the sources added.

Report: Bukhari voices surprise over al-Rahi's support for dialogue
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari has expressed to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi the kingdom’s “surprise” over his support for Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for dialogue, a media report said on Tuesday. “This has pushed diplomatic sources to say that the procrastination is expected to continue despite the Qatari attempts to inherit the French role in early October,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported. Quoting informed sources, the daily said Bukhari “tried to explore the motives behind this new stance by the patriarch, who clarified that the country can no longer bear further vacuum and that it is a must to cling to any idea that might lead to a breakthrough in the crisis.” “There is no harm in cornering those who floated the idea and unveiling their true intentions, instead of settling for rejection and keeping things as they are,” the sources quoted al-Rahi as telling Bukhari. The ambassador for his part told al-Rahi that his country “does not see seriousness in the proposal but rather a maneuver aimed at breaking the stance of the opposition and fragmenting it” and that “it is necessary to further scrutinize dialogue’s circumstances and details,” the sources added. Bukhari also noted that “the Taif Accord and its constitutional texts do not stipulate dialogue prior to going to the election session” and that “the kingdom cannot encourage norms that would become a prelude to amending the Taif Accord,” the sources said.

Geagea, al-Rahi hold talks after conflicting stances on dialogue
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Tuesday called Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and discussed with him the latest developments in Lebanon, especially the presidential election file, Geagea’s press office said. The phone talks come a day after al-Rahi met in Diman with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari. They also come two days after al-Rahi and Geagea voiced apparently conflicting stances on the proposed dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has called for. “The invite you to dialogue to strangle you and kill you or to stifle your principles, beliefs and freedom and force you to do what they want,” Geagea said in an annual speech commemorating the “martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance”, noting that “years of vacuum” are better than the election of a Hezbollah-backed president. Al-Rahi for his part called for a dialogue "without prejudgments." "The dialogue that the MPs of the nation are invited to -- if it happens in spite of the bickering and the acceptance and rejection -- requires going to it without prejudgments nor the will to impose their ideas, projects and viewpoint without any consideration for others," al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri Persists in Dialogue Call Amid Opposition
LBCI/September 05, 2023
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri has not given up yet. Despite all the voices rejecting his initiative, he calls for dialogue. Berri, aware of the division in the Parliament, has developed his dialogue initiative by meeting the demands of the two opposing factions within the Parliament: one group favors dialogue. At the same time, the other sees the solution in successive sessions for electing a president. This is why he extended the invitation for dialogue. Berri, who was not surprised by the rejection from Christian blocs, is still conducting behind-the-scenes communications to pave the way for his initiative. However, he will not engage in any dialogue with those who have not attended, as sources told LBCI. After meeting with Berri, the National Moderation Bloc (كتلة الاعتدال الوطني ) announced its support for the Speaker's movement and his call for dialogue. Likewise, the National Accord Bloc (كتلة التوافق الوطني) also expressed its openness to Berri's invitation.

Berri's dialogue divides parties between supporters and opposers
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
Will political blocs engage in dialogue to elect a president before the end of September? While Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is reportedly cautious yet optimistic, some parties have lauded his initiative and others have rejected it. The Speaker had called for a seven-day dialogue, following which open presidential election sessions would be held. Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil praised the initiative. So did Democratic Gathering bloc leader Taymour Jumblat. "It is better to stop wasting time and to engage in a serious dialogue," Jumblat said Monday on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. The largely-Sunni National Moderation bloc also said it would engage in September's dialogue as the bloc MPs met Berri Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh. Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported Tuesday that Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari supported Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's stance regarding the dialogue as they met Monday and discussed it. Al-Rahi had said that dialogue should be held "without prejudgments" and without imposing ideas, projects and viewpoints. Meanwhile, al-Kataeb and the Lebanese Forces parties are preparing a unified response that might embarrass al-Rahi, the FPM and French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian who had called for a dialogue in September, the daily said. The LF called for the implementation of the constitution and said, in a statement, that according to the constitution, a president is elected through voting and not through dialogue. The statement came after LF leader Samir Geagea and Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel both rejected Berri’s call for dialogue. Gemayel said the opposition will confront what he called “Hezbollah’s coup” and Geagea accused Berri and Hezbollah of trying to strangle the opposition through dialogue. "They invite you to dialogue to strangle you and kill you or to stifle your principles, beliefs and freedom and force you to do what they want," Geagea said.

Mansouri holds 'promising' talks in Riyadh
Naharnet/September 05, 2023
Interim Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri has held "promising talks" with Arab and Saudi central banks governors on the sidelines of the Arab Banking Conference in Riyadh, media reports said. Al-Liwaa newspaper reported Tuesday that Mansouri has asked for Saudi support and for enhancing joint financial investments and that in the coming weeks, financial meetings will take place in Lebanon in order to support the central bank. Mansouri told al-Liwaa that although Saudi Arabia always plays a positive role in helping Lebanon to overcome its financial crisis, the solution must start from Lebanon through reforms and bank restructuring. The central bank is also planning to introduce a new currency exchange platform, instead of Sayrafa, through Bloomberg, Mansouri said. The launching of the new platform will be discussed in the upcoming Cabinet session this Thursday.

A change in Lebanese bureaucracy: The Ministry of Labor's digital transformation
LBCI/September 05, 2023
Via an SMS sent to his phone, Rami was informed that his company's formality with the Ministry of Labor had been approved by the minister and would be ready for pickup after 72 hours. Yes, we're talking about the Lebanese Ministry of Labor. This is just a part of a series of services the Ministry of Labor has implemented and continues to implement to ease the lives of citizens on one hand and its employees on the other. The second of these services is related to domestic labor recruitment offices. After the approval of the formality, office owners no longer need to visit the ministry to collect the approval.
By logging into their accounts on the ministry's website, they will find a QR code for their formality that they can print and take to the General Security to complete the procedures. The automation of the Ministry of Labor doesn't stop here. In its third phase, the search scene in the ministry's files will gradually disappear with the help of computer science students at the Lebanese University. Thus, without incurring any financial burdens on the Lebanese state, the Ministry of Labor is facilitating the lives of those in need of its services and its employees. It also puts an end to bribes and favoritism. It would be great if these steps were taken by ministries still far from the technology era.

Empowering Lebanon's hotels: USAID-funded project to train 100 businesses
LBCI/September 05, 2023
The President of the Lebanese Hotel Association, Pierre Achkar, considered the hotel sector essential for our hotel institutions, mainly medium-sized, small, and family-owned ones. This is for marketing and increasing their sales in Lebanon and abroad, based on the significant role that social media plays in our world today, especially in terms of promotion, marketing, and remote reservations. Achkar's statement came during a comprehensive meeting organized by the Syndicate of Hotels Owners in Lebanon on Tuesday for hotels participating in the project implemented by the Trade and Investment Facilitation (TIF) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  The project aims to train 100 medium-sized, small, and family-owned hotels in all Lebanese regions to improve their marketing through social media to increase their sales without the need to resort to specialized agencies in this field. In this regard, Achkar referred to several projects undertaken by the union to support hotels, including another project being carried out with USAID in energy conservation and transitioning to alternative energy sources. Achkar emphasized that reducing electricity subscriptions and tariffs is one of the sector's fundamental issues, saying: "We have sent a letter in this regard to MP [Farid] Boustany, and there will be a meeting with the 'National Economy Committee' to follow up on the matter." He also noted that the cost of electricity and water reaches 25 percent of the operational cost for some hotel institutions, which is a very high figure.

Tuition fees in fresh dollars: A puzzle for Lebanon's Catholic schools
LBCI/September 05, 2023
From the experience of the past academic year, private schools, especially Catholic ones, attempted to learn lessons for the launch of the academic year 2023 - 2024 with stability. They devised an action plan to organize the relationship between school administrations, teachers, and students' families. This was achieved by establishing a "governance council" while also activating "social offices" to assist families unable to pay tuition fees in "fresh dollars" and to prevent their children from dropping out of school.Based on this plan, the cost of the academic year and the "size" of salaries and wages for teachers were calculated, which will be paid in "fresh dollars" from the families' pockets.These topics were discussed during the 29th Conference of Catholic Schools sessions, attended by the Maronite Patriarch and representatives of Lebanese and European educational institutions supporting Lebanese schools. This is a good start, but the educational community approaches it cautiously. The option of suspending classes and going on strike remains possible. 320 Catholic educational institutions are part of a union of educational institutions comprising hundreds of schools, educating over 70 percent of Lebanon's students. They rely on the understanding of teachers and students' parents to shoulder the financial burdens placed on them to ensure a stable academic year.However, despite the activation of social offices and French assistance in paying the tuition fees of some struggling students in certain schools, it cannot be assumed that everyone will understand. This is particularly true since some salary increases for teachers, ranging from $300 to $700, do not align with the rise in tuition fees on the one hand and do not meet the basic needs of teachers to secure a minimum standard of living if their basic wages are not corrected, most of which range between one and a half million Lebanese lira and 3 million Lebanese lira to date.

The Border Control Challenge: Struggling to Curb Syrian Smuggling Waves
LBCI/September 05, 2023
With the military and security resources currently available, it is impossible to control the borders. Thus, it is impossible to prevent the massive wave of Syrian smuggling, which peaked in August. This is the conclusion that can be drawn by those attending the parliamentary committee session on foreign affairs. According to the numbers presented by the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, about five brigades, or approximately 8,000 soldiers, are stationed along the Lebanese-Syrian border, which stretches about 380 kilometers. However, border control and smuggling prevention would require around 40,000 soldiers.The borders have 108 surveillance centers, including 38 towers with advanced devices to monitor smugglers and illegal crossings. However, effective control requires more manpower, which is currently unavailable. In the numbers presented to the committee, approximately 22,000 people have been recorded crossing the border illegally since the beginning of the year, with the army apprehending around 8,000 of them in August alone, and they were subsequently returned to Syria. However, these returns areinsufficient, as manyr of them attempt to cross again through smugglers and succeed. So, based on the figures and data presented, the new and illegal wave of displacement continues through known crossings and criminal networks that the relevant authorities have not yet managed to apprehend. The foreign affairs committee, which extensively discussed this issue, recommended activating the central ministerial committee authorized to coordinate with the military, international parties, and the Syrian side.The government will meet on Thursday in two sessions, and the recent influx of Syrians into Lebanon, especially in recent times, will be on the discussion table. This issue requires political, military, and security mobilization to halt illegal smuggling and the criminal networks behind it.

Lebanese hospital hires private security to protect staff after spate of gun attacks
Najia Houssari/Arab News/September 05, 2023
BEIRUT: Officials at a Lebanese hospital have drafted in a private security firm to protect staff in the wake of several gun attacks.
Nurses, doctors, and administration workers at the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut medical facility have been subjected to a series of armed assaults. The attackers included a relative trying to force hospital staff to admit a patient, another angry over a patient’s death in the emergency department, and one person attempting to leave without paying a bill. In one recent incident, gunmen known to staff threatened emergency room nurses, and forced two doctors to disconnect medical equipment from a patient before removing them from the hospital.
In mid-July, the owner and director of the Doctors’ Hospital in Bekaa, Dr. Khaled Al-Khatib, suffered head injuries and a broken arm after being set upon. The Syndicate of Hospital Owners said at the time that, “the denunciations and condemnations are no longer sufficient to prevent the recurrence of these incidents in hospitals in all Lebanese regions without control or accountability. This has led to the vulnerability of hospitals and their staff.”The syndicate called on authorities to provide protection for hospital workers who continued to work despite “difficult living pressures,” and urged stiff penalties on aggressors.
The head of Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut, Faisal Sinno, told Arab News: “We decided to contract with a private security company and stipulated that its members do not use weapons on the hospital campus. “We sought help from army intelligence, and they pursued the gunmen. We have no choice but to seek the help of the state because we cannot rely on self-security. “What happens here happens all the time, but we hope now that we don’t face new attacks,” he said.
Sinno added: “One of the gunmen went so far as to enter the hospital and stand infront of the cashier’s office to tell patients’ families that he could get them a discount on the amount due, on the condition that he shared some of what they saved. The gunman forced the cashier to make a discount on the bill.
“The hospital receives about 50 patients a month who need partial or full assistance. We cover the cost of hospitalization for those in actual need through donations made by Lebanese people inside and outside Lebanon. “The medical and nursing staff are affected by this type of intimidation, and some want to leave the hospital. However, the majority are used to these types of aggressors. “We have gone through wars and crises, and we have survived. The society in which we live needs our services. We have Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian patients. We are trying to adjust.”
Head of the private hospitals syndicate, Suleiman Haroun, noted that there were 130 hospitals in Lebanon, and some had merged in a bid to reduce costs. He said: “The primary cause of the attacks on hospitals, according to our analysis, is that these gunmen want priority to be given to particular patients. They start screaming and the situation may escalate into beatings and even shooting. “We cannot do anything with these people. The Internal Security Forces cannot provide security for all hospitals, so we resort to private security. However, we refuse to have armed private security personnel, otherwise, hospitals will turn into battle fronts. “Most hospitals have begun to rely on male nurses and doctors in emergency rooms at night.”Lebanon’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abdellatif Derian, visited Makassed hospital after the attacks. He said: “Attacking the dignity of any doctor, nurse, or administrative employee on the hospital campus is an attack on every one of us. Let us ensure the sanctity of our Islamic and national institutions.”

Hezbollah’s catch-22 situation as UNIFIL mandate renewed
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/September 05, 2023
The renewal of the mandate for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon — a peacekeeping force deployed along the Israel-Lebanon border — was agreed last Thursday by the UN Security Council. The initial vote was delayed as permanent UNSC members the US and the UK objected to the resolution drafted by France, as it was perceived as restricting UNIFIL’s movement. Of course, Hezbollah does not want the UN force to move freely and uncover its hideouts and arms depots. However, the more Hezbollah is perceived as being in control of southern Lebanon, the more it is prone to a strike by Israel.
Last year’s mandate renewal included a provision that allowed UNIFIL troops to carry out patrols without prior coordination with the Lebanese army, in addition to those previously announced. However, Lebanon wanted to change that provision this time around. Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib also refused a provision that would have transferred the UNIFIL’s mandate from Chapter VI of the UN Charter to Chapter VII. While Chapter VI calls for resolving conflict using peaceful means, Chapter VII is used when the situation is disastrous and the use of force is required. In this case, when a state represents a danger to its citizens and its neighbors, the UNSC can use forceful means to establish order.
While the Lebanese government, which is under Hezbollah’s influence, used sovereignty as a pretext to reject this provision, the issue is actually far more complicated than that. Do we remember the tragic death of a young Irish UNIFIL soldier in the south of Lebanon last year? While the story that Hezbollah tried to spread was that a clash occurred between a patrol and residents of Al-Aqbiya, the talk that circulated in the town was that the luckless soldier went where he was not supposed to go. Perhaps he uncovered a Hezbollah arms depot.
The group certainly does not trust the UN with its facilities, but it also does not want to incite a confrontation with Israel
The soldier’s death created embarrassment for everyone, but particularly for Hezbollah. Lebanon’s military court has charged five members of the group with killing the Irish peacekeeper. Ten days after the incident, Hezbollah surrendered a man suspected of being the main assailant. Does it want to see similar incidents occur in the future? Of course not. That is why restrictions on the movement of UNIFIL troops are required: to maintain the security of the group’s infrastructure for its own survival. While Culture Minister Mohammed Al-Murtada made a statement dismissing the likelihood of Chapter VII being introduced, it has turned out to be quite possible and the vote was actually passed. Though the text includes a clause about “coordination with the army,” it uses strong language regarding permitting UNIFIL to have free movement in the south.
The UK issued an especially harsh statement on the mandate. After the vote, the Foreign Ministry stated: “It is unacceptable that UNIFIL is still unable to access some locations along the Blue Line border, including Green Without Borders sites. Particularly given Hezbollah’s self-acknowledged stockpiling of weapons in violation of Resolution 1701.” While Green Without Borders is supposed to be an environmental initiative, it is rumored to be an undercover intelligence-gathering operation for Hezbollah. The project was last month sanctioned by the US as it was judged to be providing support for the group.
Hezbollah is in a delicate position. It trusts no one. Its closest ally, the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, in June turned its back and allied itself with the Lebanese Forces by backing Jihad Azour, the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East director, to be Lebanon’s next president. Even though the whole drama was staged so that Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil could extort more concessions from Hezbollah, the group now knows that even its closest allies can blackmail it. The group has three centers of gravity: the south, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Will it allow any of these centers to be exposed? Of course not. Hence, with increased insecurity comes an increased need for control, particularly the control of its facilities. This control now seems elusive, threatened as it is by UNIFIL’s freedom of movement. Hezbollah needs to maintain the prestige it has among the Shiite community as a resistance force — hence all the muscle-flexing
The group certainly does not trust the UN with its facilities, but it also does not want to incite a confrontation with Israel. UNIFIL’s restricted movement worked well for Hezbollah. It prevented a strike by Israel while allowing the group to operate quietly. This is now changing. Israel is no longer content with a restricted UNIFIL. It wants either greater enforcement of the UN force’s mandate or it wants to solve the problem by its own hand.
A confrontation with Israel is not in Hezbollah’s interest, especially not now. Today, there is rising anti-Hezbollah sentiment in Lebanon. The group feels it is being pushed into a corner. There is a strong Christian-led movement against it. The Christian street is talking about partitioning the country and federalism.
Is it the time for a fight with Israel? Not really. A fight would reinforce Christians’ demands for federalism, as they would not want to be constantly under threat of a strike by a belligerent neighbor. Israel has no interest in a confrontation with Lebanon. It has enough internal problems already. It does not need another Gaza on its northern frontier. It also does not want chaos in Lebanon, as this would have a spillover effect. However, if there was any perceived danger, security comes first, meaning it would strike.
Hezbollah needs to maintain the prestige it has among the Shiite community as a resistance force — hence all the muscle-flexing in the south. But it needs to avoid crossing the threshold that will cause a reaction from the Israeli side. So, in a way, the UN vote decreases the threat of a potential Israeli strike. The more that Israel feels that Hezbollah is contained, the less insecure it is and the less it contemplates a strike. UNIFIL’s presence is needed to prevent another strike. Nevertheless, the vote put Hezbollah in a catch-22 situation: It cannot afford to get exposed by UNIFIL, but it also cannot afford a confrontation like the one with the Irish soldier. Though Hezbollah reportedly belittled the decision and said it would remain “ink on paper,” the group is in a difficult situation. However, this is a test to show how much it can push the limits.
**Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

The American Deal of the Century in a Race Between Democratic Hochstein and Republican Kushner Today’s Focus: Ending the Lebanese-Israeli Conflict
Raghida Dergham/The National/September 03/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/121992/121992/
The Biden administration wants to secure a major strategic victory to bolster its presidential campaign. To this end, Amos Hochstein, the Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security, has emerged as the Democratic counterpart to Jared Kushner, the former Republican presidential envoy. Recall Kushner's achievements in closing the "Deal of the Century," or the Abraham Accords between Arab nations and Israel during Donald Trump's presidency. Trump's election campaign is likely rooting for Hochstein's failure: While it does not oppose the delineation of land borders between Lebanon and Israel after Hochstein successfully brokered a historic agreement to demarcate the maritime borders between them, the campaign recognizes the exceptional significance of this regional breakthrough and its potential impact on the U.S. elections. Indeed, we are not merely discussing the resolution of a few square meters of disputed territory and carrying out land swaps. What we are talking about here is the potential end of the Lebanon-Israel conflict, achieved by securing Lebanon's independence from the path of negotiations that involved Syria. It's worth noting that Damascus had imposed what it termed the "twin-track" negotiations on Lebanon for decades, with the aim of preventing Lebanon from concluding its complex conflict with Israel before Syria resolved its own issues with Israel. This was intended to ensure that Lebanon remained a bargaining chip for Syria. However, today's circumstances have shifted towards a "first come, first served" approach. This shift is due to the Syrian government's diminished regional influence, its struggles to maintain control over its own territories, and the fact that the primary Arab player in regional and international affairs is not Syria but Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration is now actively engaging with Saudi Arabia, marking a sudden shift in strategy as Washington views Riyadh as the most viable path to engaging with Tehran.
Both Jared and Amos are intelligent men, and they are friends, according to what a spokesperson said about Hochstein. In truth, neither of the two men is an ordinary presidential envoy, being at one time senior members of the National Security Council and of the inner circle of their presidents. Hochstein and Kushner are competing, in one way or another, to prove their competence, influence, and ability to deliver in front of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as they both realize that the "bonanza," or the grand prize, lies in achieving peace and normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But they also understand that the conditions set by Saudi Arabia are not easy to meet due to Israeli intransigence vis-à-vis the Palestinians and their national rights.
For the first time, Republicans and Democrats may not compete during the presidential campaign to appease Israel and shower it with gifts like a spoiled child. This does not mean that the organic relationship between the United States and Israel has ended, but it means that what rational policies require in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war and in the midst of Israeli divisions has forced Democrats and Republicans to think outside the box. The Middle East today is not as subject to Israeli priorities in Washington as it used to be. Washington has different economic and political calculations from its previous strategic calculations. It is a new era of geopolitics in the Middle East in the minds of decision-makers in the two ruling parties in America.
Amos Hochstein's visit to Lebanon may seem insignificant in the context of America’s standoff with Russia, NATO's globalization, China, and the emerging alliances. But in reality, his investment in land border demarcation following his success in maritime border demarcation holds important strategic returns for the United States, that go beyond the extraction of oil and gas necessary for Europe in times of scarcity imposed by the Ukrainian war.
The primary message that Hochstein conveyed to those he met with in Lebanon, including officials and non-governmental figures, is that the Biden administration is concerned about long-term stability and peace and is prepared to work on rectifying the irregularities in the Blue Line that separates the Lebanese-Israeli borders. However, the Blue Line is considered a withdrawal line, not a border line. Hochstein brought with him an American approach emphasizing conflict resolution in partnership with regional countries, rather than imposition of any agenda, as was the approach in the past.
The main message was that the Biden administration wants to leave a mark in conflict resolution and achieve things that seemed impossible in the recent past. According to an advisor to one key Lebanese leader, the Americans came with a different approach, indicating measures towards a qualitative leap, suggesting that the Israeli side is prepared to withdraw from all occupied Lebanese territories.
At this stage, the parties’ dossiers will be prepared before officially being presented. Yet negotiations on land borders will not be more challenging than negotiations on maritime borders, and they will not take 12 years to resolve. Unlike the issue of maritime borders that involved oil and gas interests, the issue of land borders has significant economic or geopolitical implications. There are 6 disputed points along the Blue Line, bearing in mind that UN-supervised negotiations between Lebanon and Israel resulted in the agreement of both parties on resolving 7 disputed points within one year. With the exception of the disagreement on point B1 in the Naqoura sector with an area of 500 square meters, and the Shebaa Farms, which fall under mandate of UNDOF between Syria and Israel, the other disputed areas are considered "minor," according to a Lebanese official directly involved in the negotiations, and they can be resolved through "land swaps."
Hochstein has gained a reputation for being a negotiator who excels in bargaining and engineering deals. He made a name for himself by achieving the demarcation of the Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders, and he wants to expand his legacy to include the demarcation of the land borders between Lebanon and Israel, and possibly later the borders between Syria and Israel. But his ambition is not limited to the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli tripartite framework but extends to resolving a fundamental dispute that would greatly facilitate Saudi Arabia's normalization with Israel. This is where the "Democratic Deal of the Century" lies. The demarcation of maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel practically eliminated the logic of resistance and thus managed to restrain Hezbollah after it agreed to the deal with Iranian approval. Some argue that this is the most important achievement of the Biden administration in the Middle East, and replicating this success on the land border could become an electoral asset, with the selling point being peace between Israel and its Lebanese neighbor, and the neutralization of Hezbollah and the logic of resistance, all with Iran's consent.
The Islamic Republic of Iran wishes to contribute to the Democratic electoral campaign because it fears the return of former President Donald Trump to the White House, carrying the sword of sanctions and sternness with Tehran's men. Distrust between the two sides is mutual. The Trump administration did not trust the promises of the Iranian regime and will not show it lenience if it returns. It may resume its policy of maximum pressure to force the regime to abandon its ideology, which is incompatible with the recent signs of flexibility and adaptation shown by the Iranian government.
The common factor between the Republican and Democratic camps is the major importance they both assign to Saudi Arabia's regional and international role as framed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The difference lies in how this role is interpreted concerning Iran, not from the perspective of the Saudi-Iranian agreement brokered by China, as both parties acknowledge it and do not interfere in it, but in terms of Saudi Arabia's role in bridging US-Iranian relations.
The Trump camp intends to continue its crackdown against the Islamic Republic of Iran as long as the Revolutionary Guard remains responsible for formulating and implementing its foreign policies, both regionally and internationally, through direct intervention and militias and non-regular forces under its command operating inside countries like Lebanon, in violation of their sovereignty. The Trump camp does not seek nor want to normalize US relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It does not want to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran and does not accept its domestic behavior of suppressing uprisings, or its external behavior of exporting its revolutionary and authoritarian model.
The Biden camp sees the new Saudi-Iranian relationship as an avenue for reopening discussions on reviving the nuclear agreement, with Saudi efforts. This is ironic because during the Obama-Biden administration, the Democrats had made the decision to exclude Saudi Arabia and all Arab states from nuclear negotiations with Iran and had acquiesced to Iran's condition of excluding its regional behavior from the negotiations. Today, this camp wants to inform both Saudi Arabia and Iran that the Biden administration has pivoted from the Obama administration's approach by making a fundamental correction regarding the strategic partnership with the Arab Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, which Obama had ended in favor of rapprochement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Reforming these relations is not limited to resetting the strategic relationship with the Arab Gulf states to its alliance status but also includes the Biden camp's need for Saudi Arabia, in addition to Qatar, Oman, and the UAE, to reset the relationship with Iran, which had been suspended during the nuclear negotiations. Iran understands this and is determined to assist the Biden administration in every way possible because its interests are best served by keeping this administration in power and preventing Trump's return to the White House.
Therefore, recent statements by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah regarding the "sovereignty" of the Lebanese state and not interfering in the decisions of the people of the village of Ghajar could reflect an Iranian direction that aligns with the diplomacy of flexibility, openness, and assistance in finding solutions to regional problems. This new soft diplomacy is represented by the Iranian president and his foreign minister, with the silent consent of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard.
Hezbollah has shown a measure of goodwill regarding the demarcation of the land borders between Lebanon and Israel, and the Iranian message to the Biden administration is that Tehran is ready to facilitate the resolution of border disputes. Regardless of whether this is a gift to the Democratic Party for its election efforts, within the framework of Iran's positive diplomacy in Yemen and Bahrain, the Republican Party cannot object to its outcomes if it truly leads to resolving the conflict between Lebanon and Israel.
The United Arab Emirates' presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month contributed to securing the resolution to extend the mandate of UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon. But its role went beyond facilitating the adoption of the resolution, to affirming the authority of the Lebanese state in working to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories. If Israel agrees, this could lead to a new chapter in Arab-Israeli conflict resolution and further expansion of normalization with Israel.
The UAE has spearheaded efforts for reintegrating Syria into the Arab fold, alongside its pioneering steps towards normalization with Israel with the successful Abraham Accords, crafted during the Trump administration by Jared Kushner. Syria in turn could be placed on a path to resolving its conflict with Israel, if innovative approaches are followed regarding the issue of the Golan Heights, which was annexed by Israel despite international resolutions.
In the era of drones and new military technology, spaces like the Golan Heights or the Shebaa Farms no longer hold the strategic significance they once did. Syria was on the verge of signing a peace treaty with Israel two decades ago, but it was stalled due to the issue of Lake Tiberias. But the importance of that lake has since diminished due to climate change, and perhaps peace could have been achieved if decision-makers had considered the implications of climate change, drone technology, and modern warfare.
There is an opportunity for a fresh perspective on the matter. Regardless of whether it's the Democratic Party or the Republican Party leading efforts to resolve conflicts in the Middle East, the Iranian question remains at the forefront. Here, the historically conciliatory relationship between Iran and Israel raises many questions: What if this covert conciliation were to become part of an openly negotiated deal, in line with the aspirations of both Democrats and Republicans, under the banner of the "Deal of the Century"?
Just a question. Just an inquiry. Just an idea.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 05-06/2023
Jordan downs drone carrying drugs from Syria in 9th incident this year
Beatrice Farhat/Al-Monitor/September 5, 2023
BEIRUT — The Jordanian army said in a statement on Monday that it downed a drone carrying crystal meth from Syria in the latest incident of narcotics smuggling along the country’s northern border. A military source quoted in the statement said Jordanian border guards and the government's narcotics department intercepted the drone after it entered Jordanian territory illegally. “The Jordanian armed forces continue to deal with force and commitment with any threat on the border and any attempts to destabilize the country and terrorize its citizens,” the source said. Monday’s incident brings the total number of drones downed over Jordanian territory to nine, according to media reports. Jordanian authorities intercepted three drones last month, according to the military. Jordan has seen hundreds of attempts to smuggle narcotics across its 375-kilometer (233-mile) desert border with Syria, where a multi-million-dollar drug business has flourished in light of the civil war and ensuing security chaos. The kingdom became a main transit route to the Gulf countries. Jordanian authorities have accused members of the Syrian regime and its allied Iranian militias of involvement in smuggling operations across the border. Last Thursday, Jordanian airstrikes reportedly hit a drug manufacturing factory in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh told the Associated Press that the factory in the village of Um Rumman near the Jordanian border was also used as a warehouse where smugglers would store and package illegal drugs to be smuggled across the border to Jordan. In May, a prominent Syrian regional drug lord was killed in a suspected Jordanian airstrike that targeted his house in the eastern countryside of Suwayda.

Saudi ambassador to Iran arrives in Tehran
Arab News/September 05, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s new ambassador to Iran Abdullah bin Saud Al-Anazi arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to start his mission, Saudi Press Agency reported. Upon his arrival in the Iranian capital, Al-Anazi said the directives of the Saudi leadership emphasize the importance of strengthening relations and intensifying communication and meetings between the Kingdom and Iran. He added that the Kingdom seeks to move relations between the two neighboring countries to broader horizons considering they possess economic components, natural resources, and advantages that contribute to enhancing aspects of development, prosperity, stability and security in the region and for the common benefit of the two countries and their peoples. The ambassador stressed that the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 represents a road map that reflects all aspects of cooperation that can be built upon to enhance it according to a strategic perspective that establishes the principles of good neighborliness, understanding, purposeful dialogue, and respect to enhance mutual trust between the two countries. Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed in March to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies following years of tensions between the two countries.

Borrell says EU working 'relentlessly' to free Swedish citizen detained in Iran
Clyde Hughes/Sept. 5 (UPI) /Tue, September 5, 2023
Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, on Tuesday confirmed that a Swedish citizen has been detained for more than a year. Borrell told reporters that John Floderus, who had worked for the European External Action Service had been "detained illegally in Iran for the last 500 days." "I want to stress that I personally, all my team, at all levels, European institutions in close coordination with the Swedish authorities -- which have the first responsibility of consular protection -- and with his family, have been pushing the Iranian authorities to release him," Borrell said. "Every time we had diplomatic meetings, at all levels, we have put the issue on the table. Relentlessly."Floderus, 33, was detained on April 17, 2022, as he prepared to leave Tehran after visiting Iran last spring on a private tourist trip with several Swedish friends, The New York Times reported. The Times described the incident as a case of "hostage diplomacy," under which Iran has been detaining dual Iranian nationals and foreigners in their borders and holding them on questionable charges. Some of those same detainees at times become part of leverage in negotiations in exchange for Iranians held abroad, cash or other concessions. Sweden's Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billstrom told Politico Monday that the government is working "very intensively on this case" without identifying Floderus or providing specific details. "The person in question has been arbitrarily deprived of his freedom and should therefore be released immediately. This message has been conveyed, including by me personally. Beyond that, I cannot go into any more detail" Billstrom said. In August, Iran freed five U.S. residents held hostage in exchange for $6 billion frozen by the United States in oil revenue and with some Iranian prisoners.

Iran shuts down reformist outlet as press crackdown intensifies
Al-Monitor/September 5, 2023
Iranian authorities closed down the pro-reform news agency Entekhab late Monday after it published a video clip criticizing the foreign policy agenda of hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi. The decision was announced by the state regulatory body, known as the Press Supervisory Board, after it found the news agency to be "acting against Iran's national interests and the Islamic Republic's fundamental foreign policies," according to a report by the government-funded Tasnim news agency. The ban was specifically prompted by a five-minute clip posted on Entekhab's various digital platforms. The report dug into Raisi's foreign policy, describing it as a failure. Titled "The Iranian brand put up for sale," it argued that the overall trajectory of Raisi's foreign policy is placing Iran in a "weaker" position, particularly with its "look to the East" approach, and that the reliance on Russia and China "will leave such damage upon Iran that cannot be repaired for years to come." The Raisi administration has been pressing a new foreign policy agenda in which Iran seeks new alliances with states that share its anti-Western approach. Yet the tendency toward China and Russia, from the viewpoint of domestic critics, has gone too far, turning the country into a client state. In another section, Entekhab's report focused on the Iran-Saudi Arabia thaw that has led to the resumption of ties between the two regional rivals after seven years. Unlike what the state media have reported with "overexcitement," Entekhab maintained that Riyadh is merely seeking to curb Tehran so as to curtail the threats it poses to the kingdom through arming Shiite Houthis in Yemen. Entekhab suggested that despite the Raisi administration's claims, regional Arab states are refusing to recognize Iran's rights in controversial matters, including disputed shares from the Dorra gas field. The Islamic Republic's unease with the slightest criticism from the media has grown over the decades, leaving journalists in a stifling environment characterized by censorship, intimidation and incarceration. Iran remains one of the world's leading prosecutors of journalists, according to the 2023 Press Freedom Index released by Reporters without Borders, in which the Islamic Republic is ranked 177th among 180 countries. Yet the boundaries have been pushed further under Raisi, particularly since last September when the country was rocked by unprecedented protests triggered by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini. Among many journalists detained at the height of the unrest were Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi. The two women had closely chased the Amini case after she slipped into a coma; they also covered her funeral in her Kurdish hometown of Saqqez.
The Iranian intelligence community has pressed such charges as "collaboration with hostile states" against the pair, claiming they were trained by the US spy agency, the CIA. Both Hamedi and Mohammadi have vehemently denied the charge as they await verdicts following trials that were held behind closed doors, the Islamic Republic's typical proceedings against journalists that "fall grossly short of international standards," according to Human Rights Watch.

South Korea says it's making efforts to transfer Iran's frozen funds
SEOUL (Reuters) /Mon, September 4, 2023
Efforts are under way to transfer Iran's funds that had been frozen in South Korea, foreign minister Park Jin said, after Teheran reached a deal with the United States to release American citizens in return for freeing Iranian assets. Park told his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a phone conversation on Monday that involved countries were in close communications to resolve the issue, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Park and the Iranian foreign minister agreed to expand cooperation between the two countries, it said. The United States and Iran reached an agreement last month for the release of five U.S. citizens detained in Iran while $6 billion of Iranian assets in South Korea would be unfrozen. The assets that had been frozen in South Korea were transferred to Switzerland's central bank in August for exchange and transfer to Iran, South Korean media has reported.

Papua New Guinea opens embassy in Jerusalem
Dan Williams/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/ September 5, 2023
Papua New Guinea opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday, becoming only the fifth country with a full diplomatic mission in a city whose status is one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East. The Pacific nation's mission joins embassies from the United States, Kosovo, Guatemala and Honduras in Jerusalem, while most countries maintain their diplomatic representation in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel's main economic hub. While Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there, most of the world does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entire city, believing its status should be resolved in negotiations. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of theirs to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. Israel will pay for the embassy, located in a high-rise opposite Jerusalem's biggest mall, for the first two years, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape was quoted in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier newspaper. Marape also pledged support at the United Nations for Israel, whose leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attended the embassy ceremony in a reprieve from stalled regional peacemaking and clouded ties with Washington. "Many nations choose not to open their embassies in Jerusalem, but we have made a conscious choice," Marape said at the embassy's inauguration ceremony.
"For us to call ourselves Christian, paying respect to God will not be complete without recognizing that Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and the nation of Israel," Marape said. Wassel Abu Youssef, an official with the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, said Israel was "looking for any country - even if that country can only be seen under a microscope - so it can claim there are countries opening embassies in Jerusalem". Papua New Guinea, which occupies the eastern half of the West Pacific Island of New Guinea, has an economy based on agriculture and mining. Its bilateral trade with Israel is worth just $1 million a year, according to Israeli authorities.Netanyahu said the new embassy would make it easier to develop agriculture, health, water and technology projects. "This will not only enable us to cherish the past but also seize the future," he said at the ceremony.

Biden nominates former Treasury Secretary Lew as ambassador to Israel -statement
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/September 5, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, the White House said in a statement. Lew, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, will face a complicated political situation, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes through a judicial overhaul opposed by many Israelis and the Biden administration. He would succeed Ambassador Tom Nides in the post. In addition to Treasury secretary, Lew served under former President Barack Obama as White House chief of staff and deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Lew was director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position in President Bill Clinton's Cabinet, from 1998 to 2001. In both the Democratic Clinton and Obama administrations, Lew served on the National Security Council.
Earlier, as special assistant to Clinton, he was an architect of the national service program, Americorps.

Israel president urges leaders to seize moment to end judicial crisis
Maayan Lubell/JERUSALEM (Reuters) /September 5, 2023
Israel's President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rivals to reach a compromise that would end the judicial crisis just a week ahead of a crunch court hearing. Herzog said on Monday he has been speaking with coalition and opposition leaders over the past few weeks in a renewed push to reach broad agreements that would stave off a constitutional crisis and safeguard democracy after months of protests. "There are moments in such a crisis when leadership must seize the rare opportunity in order to reach out and come to an agreement. This is such a moment," Herzog said in a speech. "Enough already. I call on the leaders to show responsibility." His call comes before the Supreme Court, for the first time in Israeli history, convenes its entire 15-judge bench on Sept. 12 to hear an appeal against an amendment that curbs its own powers, passed in July by Netanyahu's coalition. Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition launched a campaign in January to overhaul the country's justice system, sparking unprecedented protests, bruising the economy and stirring concern for Israel's democratic health. Netanyahu has since said some of the measures in the original plan have been scrapped and that he would seek a broad consensus on any new judicial reforms, which he says are aimed at restoring balance between the branches of government. In a video released by his Likud party, Netanyahu called on one of the opposition leaders, former defence minister Benny Gantz, to negotiate directly, saying agreements were possible. On Monday Likud denied reports in Israeli media that Netanyahu had agreed to soften the July 24 law that limited some Supreme Court power to rule against the executive, freeze any further judicial legislation for 18 months and scrap changes to the makeup of the committee that selects judges. Gantz in a speech to his party on Tuesday, confirmed some of the leaked details of the proposals and put the onus on Netanyahu to overcome hardliners in his coalition who are pushing to plough ahead with the overhaul. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the driving force behind the judicial overhaul, dismissed the reports as "trial balloons", in an interview to Army Radio and said it would be wrong for the Supreme Court to intervene in the judicial legislation. The Supreme Court is set to hear a series of appeals this month by lawmakers and watchdogs that challenge some of the government's judicial measures.

Turkiye’s Erdogan to discuss grain deal with UN’s Guterres this month
Reuters/September 05, 2023
ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye is in close contact with the United Nations on reviving the Black Sea grain initiative and he will discuss it with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at its general assembly this month, Turkish media reported. Speaking to reporters after talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin, Erdogan was quoted as saying the latest UN proposal sought to address some Russian demands, and he repeated he believed a solution could be found soon. Russian demands include a return of its Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payments system and insuring the ships involved in the grain initiative, he was quoted as saying by TRT, Haberturk, and other Turkish broadcasters. “On August 28, UN Secretary General Guterres, in the letter he sent, proposed an intermediary mechanism that would result from the SWIFT transaction, not directly SWIFT as the Russians wanted,” Erdogan said. “They said work was underway on the insurance issue too.” He added that Moscow was putting these two demands forth as “musts” to revive the initiative, and that Putin had told him he would not take steps on this until “Europe keeps the promises they made me,” according to Turkish media. NATO member Turkiye is seeking to convince Russia to return to the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by Ankara and the United Nations. Moscow withdrew in July, ending a year of protected exports from Ukrainian ports amid the war. On Monday, Putin repeated that Russia could return to the initiative, but only if the West stopped restricting Russian agricultural exports from reaching global markets. Erdogan will participate in the G20 summit in India on Sept. 9-10 before attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 18-26. “We will have meetings with Guterres there to discuss these issues,” Erdogan was cited as saying.

North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Peter Weber, Senior editor/The Week/September 5, 2023
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin, probably this month, to discuss selling Russia artillery shells and antitank weapons to use in Ukraine, The New York Times reported Monday, citing U.S. and allied officials. Kim and Putin will likely meet in Vladivostok, just north of Russia's narrow land border with North Korea on Russia's Pacific Coast, when Russia hosts the Eastern Economic Forum Sept. 10 to 14. Whether or not she meeting happens, asking North Korea for weapons "has to be horrifically embarrassing for Russian leadership, for the Kremlin," said CNN national security analyst Steve Hall, a former CIA chief of Russia operations. "It would be like the United States turning to Uruguay and saying, 'Hey, can you help us out on this war?'"Arms negotiations have been "actively advancing" since Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting Pyongyang in July and a North Korean delegation visited Russia in August, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Monday evening. Kim "expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia." The U.S. has warned for months that North Korea is preparing to sell munitions to Russia and did so so late last year, providing infantry rockets and missiles used by Wagner mercenary forces in Ukraine, While House national security spokesperson John Kirby said last week. The U.S. intelligence pointing to an upcoming meeting between Putin and Kim has not been declassified, but several major news organizations published similar reports from U.S. officials. That publicity is a "strong reason why the visit is now unlikely to take place," John Everard, a former British ambassador to Pyongyang, told BBC News. "Kim Jong Un is completely paranoid about his personal security. He goes to great lengths to keep his movements secret and if it's known that he's planning to go to Vladivostok to meet President Putin, he's likely just to cancel the whole thing."

Vladimir Putin is getting so desperate, he's 'scrambling for help' from Kim Jong Un, retired US general says
Business Insider/September 5, 2023
A retired US general said resorting to asking Kim Jong Un for weapons showed Putin's desperation. "It's showing that Mr. Putin is scrambling for help," retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told CNN. Russia has incurred big losses in personnel and resources since it invaded Ukraine last year. Plans for arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea show just how desperate for help Russian President Vladimir Putin is, retired US Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said. The New York Times reported on Monday that Kim was planning to travel to Russia later this month to discuss supplying weapons to Russia. The Times report, which cited several unnamed officials from the US and its allies, added that Kim was seeking food supplies for North Korea. Hertling was speaking with CNN's Jim Acosta on Monday and said the Kim-Putin meeting was a union between "two desperate leaders of the world's most noted pariah states." "This will generate a lot of attention. It's showing that Mr. Putin is scrambling for help," Hertling, who previously served as the commanding general of US Army Europe, said. Russia has incurred significant losses in military personnel and resources since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. US officials estimated last month that Russia's military casualties were approaching 300,000, of which as many as 120,000 were deaths and up to 180,000 were injuries. In May, the open-source intelligence website Oryx said the Russian military had lost at least two-thirds of its tanks since the war began. Retired Maj. Gen. James "Spider" Marks, who was speaking with CNN alongside Hertling, said North Korea's weapons were unlikely to turn the tide of the war for Russia. "Additional weapons from North Korea to Russia? Not surprising at all. They share the same type of caliber weapon systems. So it's an immediate plus-up," Marks told CNN. "But again, this is not going to strategically alter the outcome of the fight in Ukraine." A representative for Russia's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Putin is developing a sinister new plan for victory
Colonel Richard Kemp/The Telegraph/September 5, 2023
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s planned meeting with Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, as revealed by US intelligence, gives us a new insight into Russia’s strategy in Ukraine as well as a warning of wider dangers for the world. As Kyiv’s offensive wears on into its fourth month, with only limited success and a few Russian counter attacks, it is becoming clear that Moscow’s plan may be to allow Ukraine to exhaust its men, tanks, shells and missiles against the Surovikin Line’s hardest edge. The thinking could be that, once Ukraine’s Western equipped and trained manoeuvre forces have been ground down, Russia will then be able to launch its own major offensive, perhaps as early as January. After almost two years of fighting that has been compared more to the First World War than the Second, this plan is reminiscent of the Germans’ Kaiserschlacht, the spring offensive which began in March 1918 and drove the allies back, seizing more territory than had been taken by either side in the preceding four years of war. This was achieved by the Germans bleeding the enemy dry while building massive reserves of men and munitions behind the lines, ready to unleash a devastating assault not unlike what the British aimed for, but failed to achieve, during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The problem for Putin is that, as he seeks to grind down Ukrainian forces, he is expending vast quantities of ammunition, especially artillery shells and ballistic missiles, and very large numbers of tanks. While Russia has a greater volume of military industrial production than much of the West, and continues to mobilise tens of thousands of men each quarter on a rolling basis, its core supplies remain inadequate for the level of expenditure required for a major new offensive. That is where Pyongyang could come in. North Korea has been sending large quantities of shells, rockets and missiles to Russia for at least a year, with many of the shipments organised by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group. In July, Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu was in Pyongyang, presumably negotiating further supplies. There he will have found an Aladdin’s Cave of hardware – North Korea maintains immense stocks of heavy weaponry and artillery munitions. Many are old and unreliable, but that won’t matter if Russia resorts to its old tactic for victory: utilising its sheer force of numbers, steamrollering the enemy as the Germans sought to do in 1918. The new Moscow-Pyongyang axis is a reversal of roles from the Cold War era, when the Soviet Union and China were the top arms supplier to North Korea from its inception. Supply continued even after the Soviet collapse, only ending with the advent of UN sanctions. Supporting Russia today benefits Kim as a means of hitting back against the US, with the undoubted approval of Beijing.
But North Korea’s backing will not come without a hefty price tag. Crippled by Western sanctions, Pyongyang is in dire need of the oil, food, fertiliser and raw materials that Russia has in abundance. A more concerning aspect of Russia’s burgeoning relationship is the potential to supply both hard currency and technology for North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, especially the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. As with its ability to provide other commodities, Russia has enormous capabilities in this field, including its own nuclear weapons know-how. This could be a game-changer in Pyongyang’s pursuit of an effective nuclear delivery programme. Some analysts have suggested that the US exposure of Kim’s planned visit might be enough for him to cancel it. That will make no difference. The deeply embedded links between the two countries are sufficient for this deadly cooperation to continue and develop without a meeting between the two leaders. The question that must therefore be asked is: why was there a need to plan for such a meeting in the first place? For Kim, virtually confined to the borders of his own country, it would be an opportunity to posture as a world statesman before his fellow anti-Western regimes. Putin, too, has a need to show his people that he is not isolated. But there may be something else behind it. Putin might well have in mind a bargaining chip to encourage an already wobbling US administration to pressure Kyiv into a ceasefire. Whatever the diplomatic double-dealing, the West should now be helping Ukraine prepare in case their current offensive fails, allowing Putin to unleash his Kaiserschlacht. The German offensive in 1918 petered out from exhaustion and lack of supplies. We cannot count on a similar fate overcoming Putin’s next move: it is questionable whether Ukraine will have the resources to hold the Russians back, let alone launch their own version of the Hundred Days Offensive which allowed the Allies, with newly arrived American forces, to drive the Germans back into their homeland. If this apocalyptic 1918 scenario becomes reality, a monumental effort will be required from the West as well as from Ukraine – greater than has already been delivered. It will be extremely costly for everyone, with the potential consequences too terrifying to contemplate.
*Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army officer

Zelenskyy's wife opened up about how Russia's war on Ukraine is stressing their marriage: 'This may be a bit selfish, but I need my husband'
Natalie Musumeci/Business Insider/September 5, 2023
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska has opened about the stress Russia's war has put on her family and marriage. "This may be a bit selfish, but I need my husband, not a historical figure, by my side," Zelenska told the BBC. Zelenska said the war has forced her family to live apart from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska has opened up in a new interview about how Russia's war on Ukraine has put stress on her marriage with the Eastern European country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and forced their family to live apart. "This may be a bit selfish, but I need my husband, not a historical figure, by my side," Zelenska told the BBC in a report published on Tuesday. Zelenska explained how she and the couple's two children, a boy and a girl, spent months hiding in covert locations after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Even as the war continues to grind on, Zelenska told the BBC that her family lives away from Zelenskyy as he leads Ukraine's fight against Russian forces. "We don't live together with my husband, the family is separated," Zelenska told the news outlet. "We have the opportunity to see each other, but not as often as we would like. My son misses his father."Still, Zelenska said, she believes in her comedian-turned-president of Ukraine husband and supports him. "I know that he has enough strength. For any other person I know, I think, it would be much harder this situation," Zelenska said. "He really is a very strong and resilient person. And this resilience is what we all need right now." Zelenska — who worked as a scriptwriter for a comedy series that starred Zelenskyy — married Zelenskyy in 2003, 16 years before Zelenskyy, a former actor, was elected as Ukraine's sixth president.

Western diplomats visit UAE to discuss Russia ties, Ukraine sanctions
Jack Dutton/Al-Monitor/September 5, 2023
Senior officials from the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States are visiting the United Arab Emirates this week to discuss “effective implementation” of Ukraine sanctions on Russia, the British Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday. “Senior officials from the EU, UK and US are visiting the UAE this week to discuss the effective implementation of our sanctions," a spokesperson at the British Foreign Office told Al-Monitor. "This forms part of our routine diplomatic engagement with a range of third-country partners to discuss this matter." Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, also confirmed the visit on Tuesday when speaking to reporters, saying officials will "discuss how collectively we can continue to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its war of aggression in Ukraine."The confirmation comes hours after The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US and European officials, reported on Monday that senior US, British and EU officials planned to jointly press UAE counterparts to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine. Western nations have sanctioned Russia in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it launched in February 2022. A UAE official told Reuters that the country "strictly abides by UN sanctions and has clear and robust processes in place to deal with sanctioned entities." The person added that the UAE "is continuously monitoring the export of dual-use products," which can be used in both civil and military contexts, under its export control laws. The UAE and other Gulf countries have maintained strong relations with Russia despite pressure from the West to isolate the country over its invasion of its neighbor. The UAE also joined the BRICS bloc earlier this month, the influential group of major emerging economies including Russia and China. The Emirati official said that his country regularly discussed the conflict in Ukraine with Western allies. The Wall Street Journal reported that Western officials were visiting the UAE in a bid to keep computer chips, electronic parts and dual-use products that can be used in military and security contexts away from Russia.

Cluster munition deaths in Ukraine surpass Syria as activists seek to ban weapon
Associated Press/September 05/2023
More than 300 people were killed and over 600 wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, surpassing Syria as the country with the highest number of casualties from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade.
Russia's widespread use of the bombs, which open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets or submunitions as they are called, in its invasion of Ukraine — and, to a lesser extent, their use by Ukrainian forces — helped make 2022 the deadliest year on record globally, according to the annual report released Tuesday by the Cluster Munition Coalition, a network of non-governmental organizations advocating for a ban of the weapons.The deadliest attack in Ukraine, according to the the country's prosecutor general's office, was a bombing on a railway station in the town of Kramatorsk that killed 53 people and wounded 135. Meanwhile, in Syria and other war-battered countries in the Middle East, although active fighting has cooled down, the explosive remnants continue to kill and maim dozens of people every year. The long-term danger posed to civilians by explosive ordnance peppered across the landscape for years — or even decades after fighting has ceased — has come under a renewed spotlight since the United States announced in July that it would provide them to Ukraine to use against Russia.
In Syria, 15 people were killed and 75 wounded by cluster munition attacks or their remnants in 2022, according to the coalition's data. Iraq, where there were no new cluster bomb attacks reported last year, saw 15 people killed and 25 wounded. In Yemen, which also had no new reported attacks, five people were killed and 90 were wounded by the leftover explosives. The majority of victims globally are children. Because some types of these bomblets resemble metal balls, children often pick them up and play with them without knowing what they are.
Among the casualties are 12-year old Rawaa al-Hassan and her 10-year-old sister, Doaa, whose family has lived at a camp near the village of Ain Sheeb in northern Syria's opposition-held Idlib province since being displaced from their hometown in Hama province six years earlier. The area where they live in Idlib had frequently come under airstrikes, but the family had escaped from those unharmed. During the holy Islamic month of Ramadan last year, as the girls were coming home from school, their mother Wafaa said, they picked up an unexploded bomblet, thinking it was a piece of scrap metal they could sell. Rawaa lost an eye, Doaa, a hand. In a cruel irony, the girls' father had died eight months earlier after he stepped on a cluster munition remnant while gathering firewood. The girls "are in a bad state, psychologically" since the two tragic accidents, said their uncle Hatem al-Hassan, who now looks after them and their mother. They have difficulty concentrating, and Rawaa often flies off the handle, hitting other children at school. "Of course, we're afraid, and now we don't let them play outside at all anymore," he said. Near the village of Ram Hamdan, also in Idlib, Ali al-Mansour, 43, was tending his sheep one day in 2019 with his 5-year-old son in tow when the child handed him a metal object that looked like a toy and and asked him to take it apart.
"I tried to take it apart and it wasn't working, so I hit it with a rock, and it exploded on me," al-Mansour said. He lost his eyes and his hands. Without a breadwinner, his family now lives on handouts from relatives. Scattered submunitions often strike shepherds and scrap metal collectors, a common post-conflict source of livelihood, said Loren Persi, one of the editors of the Cluster Munition Coalition's annual report. They also lurk in the fields where truffle hunters forage for the lucrative delicacy, he said. Efforts to clear the explosives have been hampered by lack of funding and by the logistics of dealing with the patchwork of actors controlling different parts of Syria, Persi said. Some 124 countries have joined a United Nations convention banning cluster munitions. The U.S., Russia, Ukraine and Syria are among the hold-outs. Deaths and injuries from cluster munition remnants have continued for decades after wars ended in some cases — including in Laos, where people still die yearly from Vietnam war-era U.S. bombing that left millions of unexploded cluster bomblets. Alex Hiniker, an independent expert with the Forum on the Arms Trade, said casualties had been dropping worldwide before the 2011 uprising turned civil war in Syria. "Contamination was being cleared, stockpiles were being destroyed," she said, but the progress "started reversing drastically" in 2012, when the Syrian government and allied Russian forces began using cluster bombs against the opposition in Syria. The numbers had dropped off as the war in Syria turned into a stalemate, although at least one new cluster bomb attack was reported in Syria in November 2022. But they quickly spiked again with the conflict in Ukraine. U.S. officials have defended the decision to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine as necessary to level the playing field in the face of a stronger opponent and have insisted that they will take measures to mitigate harm to civilians. This would include sending a version of the munition with a reduced "dud rate," meaning fewer unexploded rounds left behind after the conflict. State Department officials did not respond to a request for additional comment. Hiniker said she and others who track the impacts of cluster munitions are "baffled by the fact that the U.S. is sending totally outdated weapons that the majority of the world has banned because they disproportionately kill civilians."The "most difficult and costly part" of dealing with the weapons, she said, "is cleaning up the mess afterwards."

Cluster munition deaths in Ukraine pass Syria, fueling rise in a weapon the world has tried to ban
AIN SHEEB, Syria (AP)/September 5, 2023
More than 300 people were killed and over 600 wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, surpassing Syria as the country with the highest number of casualties from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade.
Russia’s widespread use of the bombs, which open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets or submunitions as they are called, in its invasion of Ukraine — and, to a lesser extent, their use by Ukrainian forces — helped make 2022 the deadliest year on record globally, according to the annual report released Tuesday by the Cluster Munition Coalition, a network of non-governmental organizations advocating for a ban of the weapons. The deadliest attack in Ukraine, according to the the country's prosecutor general’s office, was a bombing on a railway station in the town of Kramatorsk that killed 53 people and wounded 135. Meanwhile, in Syria and other war-battered countries in the Middle East, although active fighting has cooled down, the explosive remnants continue to kill and maim dozens of people every year. The long-term danger posed to civilians by explosive ordnance peppered across the landscape for years — or even decades after fighting has ceased — has come under a renewed spotlight since the United States announced in July that it would provide them to Ukraine to use against Russia. In Syria, 15 people were killed and 75 wounded by cluster munition attacks or their remnants in 2022, according to the coalition's data. Iraq, where there were no new cluster bomb attacks reported last year, saw 15 people killed and 25 wounded. In Yemen, which also had no new reported attacks, five people were killed and 90 were wounded by the leftover explosives. The majority of victims globally are children. Because some types of these bomblets resemble metal balls, children often pick them up and play with them without knowing what they are. Among the casualties are 12-year old Rawaa al-Hassan and her 10-year-old sister, Doaa, whose family has lived at a camp near the village of Ain Sheeb in northern Syria’s opposition-held Idlib province since being displaced from their hometown in Hama province six years earlier. The area where they live in Idlib had frequently come under airstrikes, but the family had escaped from those unharmed. During the holy Islamic month of Ramadan last year, as the girls were coming home from school, their mother Wafaa said, they picked up an unexploded bomblet, thinking it was a piece of scrap metal they could sell. Rawaa lost an eye, Doaa, a hand. In a cruel irony, the girls’ father had died eight months earlier after he stepped on a cluster munition remnant while gathering firewood. The girls “are in a bad state, psychologically” since the two tragic accidents, said their uncle Hatem al-Hassan, who now looks after them and their mother. They have difficulty concentrating, and Rawaa often flies off the handle, hitting other children at school.
“Of course, we’re afraid, and now we don’t let them play outside at all anymore,” he said.
Near the village of Ram Hamdan, also in Idlib, Ali al-Mansour, 43, was tending his sheep one day in 2019 with his 5-year-old son in tow when the child handed him a metal object that looked like a toy and and asked him to take it apart. “I tried to take it apart and it wasn't working, so I hit it with a rock, and it exploded on me,” al-Mansour said. He lost his eyes and his hands. Without a breadwinner, his family now lives on handouts from relatives. Scattered submunitions often strike shepherds and scrap metal collectors, a common post-conflict source of livelihood, said Loren Persi, one of the editors of the Cluster Munition Coalition’s annual report. They also lurk in the fields where truffle hunters forage for the lucrative delicacy, he said. Efforts to clear the explosives have been hampered by lack of funding and by the logistics of dealing with the patchwork of actors controlling different parts of Syria, Persi said. Some 124 countries have joined a United Nations convention banning cluster munitions. The U.S., Russia, Ukraine and Syria are among the hold-outs. Deaths and injuries from cluster munition remnants have continued for decades after wars ended in some cases — including in Laos, where people still die yearly from Vietnam war-era U.S. bombing that left millions of unexploded cluster bomblets. Alex Hiniker, an independent expert with the Forum on the Arms Trade, said casualties had been dropping worldwide before the 2011 uprising turned civil war in Syria. “Contamination was being cleared, stockpiles were being destroyed," she said, but the progress "started reversing drastically” in 2012, when the Syrian government and allied Russian forces began using cluster bombs against the opposition in Syria. The numbers had dropped off as the war in Syria turned into a stalemate, although at least one new cluster bomb attack was reported in Syria in November 2022. But they quickly spiked again with the conflict in Ukraine. U.S. officials have defended the decision to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine as necessary to level the playing field in the face of a stronger opponent and have insisted that they will take measures to mitigate harm to civilians. This would include sending a version of the munition with a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer unexploded rounds left behind after the conflict. State Department officials did not respond to a request for additional comment. Hiniker said she and others who track the impacts of cluster munitions are “baffled by the fact that the U.S. is sending totally outdated weapons that the majority of the world has banned because they disproportionately kill civilians.” The “most difficult and costly part” of dealing with the weapons, she said, “is cleaning up the mess afterwards.”

Oil prices spike as Saudi Arabia, Russia extend 1.3 million barrel a day oil cut through December
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) /September 5, 2023
Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed Tuesday to extend their voluntary oil production cuts through the end of this year, trimming 1.3 million barrels of crude out of the global market and boosting energy prices. The dual announcements from Riyadh and Moscow pushed benchmark Brent crude above $90 a barrel in trading Tuesday afternoon, a price unseen in the market since November. The countries' moves could increase inflation and the cost for motorists at gasoline pumps. It also puts new pressure on Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States, as President Joe Biden last year warned the kingdom there would be unspecified “consequences” for partnering with Russia on cuts as Moscow wages war on Ukraine. Saudi Arabia's announcement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, said the country still would monitor the market and could take further action if necessary. “This additional voluntary cut comes to reinforce the precautionary efforts made by OPEC+ countries with the aim of supporting the stability and balance of oil markets,” the Saudi Press Agency report said, citing an unnamed Energy Ministry official. State-run Russian news agency Tass quoted Alexander Novak, Russia's deputy prime minister and former energy minister, as saying Moscow would continue its 300,000 barrel a day cut. The decision “is aimed at strengthening the precautionary measures taken by OPEC+ countries in order to maintain stability and balance of oil markets,” Novak said. Benchmark Brent crude traded Tuesday above $90 a barrel after the announcement. Brent had largely hovered between $75 and $85 a barrel since last October. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate, a benchmark for America, traded over $87 a barrel. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Biden and U.S. lawmakers have criticized Saudi Arabia and Russia over their past production decisions. Bob McNally, the founder and president of the Washington-based Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House energy adviser, said Saudi Arabia and Russia had “demonstrated their unity and resolve to proactively manage" the risk of oil prices potentially dropping in tougher economic conditions with their announcement Tuesday.
“Barring a sharp economic downturn, these supply cuts will drive deep deficits into global oil balances and should propel crude oil prices well above $90 per barrel,” McNally said.
The average gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the U.S. stands at $3.81, according to AAA, just under the all-time high for Labor Day of $3.83 in 2012. However, gasoline demand typically drops for U.S. motorists after the holiday so it remains unclear what immediate effect this could have on the American market, AAA spokesman Andrew Gross said. “I’m more concerned about what the rest of hurricane season may hold,” Gross told The Associated Press. “A big storm along the Gulf coast could move prices dramatically here.”Hurricane Idalia just plowed through Florida and U.S. forecasters said Tuesday that a new tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean could become a “major hurricane.”Meanwhile, higher gasoline prices can increase transportation costs and ultimately push the prices of goods even higher at a time when the U.S. and much of the world is already raising interest rates to combat inflation.
“The impact these cuts will have on inflation and economic policy in the West is hard to predict, but higher oil prices will only increase the likelihood of more fiscal tightening, especially in the U.S., to curtail inflation,” said Jorge Leon, a senior vice president at Rystad Energy. “Western leaders, wary of an oil price spike, could explore import adjustments or open diplomatic discussions to help mitigate the impact and tame inflation.”The Saudi reduction, which began in July, comes as the other OPEC+ producers have agreed to extend earlier production cuts through next year. A series of production cuts over the past year has failed to substantially boost prices amid weakened demand from China and tighter monetary policy aimed at combating inflation. But with international travel back up to nearly pre-pandemic levels, the demand for oil likely will continue to rise. The Saudis are particularly keen to boost oil prices in order to fund Vision 2030, an ambitious plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy, reduce its dependence on oil and to create jobs for a young population. The plan includes several massive infrastructure projects, including the construction of a futuristic $500 billion city called Neom. But Saudi Arabia also has to manage its relationship with Washington. Biden campaigned on a promise of making the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. In recent months, tensions eased slightly as Biden's administration sought a deal with Riyadh for it to diplomatically recognize Israel. But those talks include Saudi Arabia pushing for a nuclear cooperation deal that includes America allowing it to enrich uranium in the kingdom — something that worries nonproliferation experts, as spinning centrifuges open the door to a possible weapons program. Prince Mohammed already has said the kingdom would pursue an atomic bomb if Iran had one, potentially creating a nuclear arms race in the region as Tehran’s program continues to advance closer to weapons-grade levels. Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a détente in recent months, though the region remains tense amid the wider tensions between Iran and the U.S. Higher oil prices would also help Russian President Vladimir Putin fund his war on Ukraine. Western countries have used a price cap to try to cut into Moscow’s revenues. But those sanctions have seen Moscow be forced to sell its oil at a discount to countries like China and India.

Trial starts in Sweden of 2 oil executives accused of complicity in war crimes in Sudan
STOCKHOLM (AP) /September 5, 2023
Two executives of a Swedish oil exploration and production company went on trial Tuesday in Stockholm for securing the company's operations in Sudan through their alleged complicity in war crimes in 20 years ago. Swedish prosecutors claim that former Lundin Oil chairman Ian Lundin and the company's former CEO, Alex Schneiter supported the Sudanese government of former dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in an April 2019 popular uprising. The two executives are accused of involvement in the Sudanese government's military campaign to clear an area in southern Sudan for oil production. The campaign "entailed the Sudanese military and regime-allied militia systematically attacking civilians or at least carrying out systematic attacks in violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality," the prosecutors said. Lundin told reporters at the Stockholm District Court that the accusations were “completely false.”“We look forward to defending ourselves in court,” he said. The trial is expected to run until early 2026. A 1983-2005 civil war between the Muslim-dominated north and Christian south tore Sudan apart. A separate conflict in Darfur, the war-scarred region of western Sudan, began in 2003. Thousands of people were killed and nearly 200,000 displaced. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 to become the world’s youngest nation. Swedish prosecutors said the Sudanese government conducted offensive military operations in the Block 5A oil field and its vicinity in southern Sudan between May 1999 and March 2003 to gain control of areas for oil prospecting and to create the necessary conditions for oil extraction, the prosecution said. During the military operations, severe violations of international humanitarian law were committed, it said. In a statement, the prosecution said Lundin and Schneiter “participated in the conclusion" of an agreement involving a right to search for and extract oil in a larger area in southern Sudan "in exchange for the payment of fees and a share in future profits." Lundin was the operator of a consortium of companies exploring Block 5A, including Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali Overseas, OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH of Austria, and the Sudanese state-owned oil company Sudapet Ltd. The prosecution wants the executives barred from conducting business activities for 10 years and the Swedish company fined 3 million kronor ($272,250). They also want 1.4 billion kronor ($127 million) confiscated from Lundin Oil because of economic benefits that were achieved from the alleged crimes. In Sweden, the maximum penalty for complicity in war crimes is a life prison sentence, which generally means a minimum of 20 to 25 years. Prosecutors typically request the punishment they want for a conviction at the end of trials.

UN warns Israel that expelling Eritreans en masse unlawful
Agence France Presse/September 05/2023
The UN urged Israel Tuesday to refrain from mass deportations of Eritreans following weekend clashes involving asylum seekers, warning it would "contravene international law" and could have dire human consequences. The United Nations refugee agency said it was "deeply concerned" by the clashes that erupted on Saturday when a demonstration against an Eritrean government event turned violent, injuring over 200 people. The clashes began when hundreds of anti-government Eritreans came to prevent the event from taking place in Tel Aviv, the commercial centre of Israel. "UNHCR calls for calm and restraint, and on all parties to refrain from taking any steps that could aggravate the situation further," William Spindler told reporters in Geneva. While stressing that it was "important to establish accountability" for the events, he warned Israel against taking broad measures against Eritreans in the country. "Any decision impacting all Eritrean asylum-seekers, or instances of refoulement would contravene international law," he said. Collective punishment is banned under international law, as is refoulment, or returning someone to a country where they could face torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was considering deporting 1,000 Eritreans who took part in the clashes. Stressing that the situation in Eritrea, considered one of the world's most authoritarian states, "remains unchanged", Spindler warned that sending people back there "could result in dramatic human consequences".He insisted that "the vast majority of asylum-seekers living in Israel are peaceful and law-abiding". "The incidents on September 2 are deeply regrettable, and do not reflect the behaviour of the broader Eritrean community in Israel." According to June statistics, there are 17,850 Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel. UNHCR said more than 170 asylum-seekers and dozens of police officers were injured in Saturday's clashes. The UN rights office meanwhile decried the use of force by law enforcement. "We understand that hospitals are reporting that there are people who suffered gunshot wounds, ... so live ammunition was used," rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters."We are alarmed at the high number of injuries and we insist that it is crucial that investigations take place, and that hate speech is avoided, including by the authorities," she said, also demanding that "the principle of non refundable is respected fully".

Egypt resumes commercial flights to Sudan for first time since war
Associated Press/September 05/2023
Egypt on Tuesday resumed direct commercial flights to Sudan for the first time since a devastating war broke out between Sudan's rival general earlier this year. A flight operated by Egypt's national carrier EgyptAir was received in the Sudanese coastal city of Port Sudan by Sameh Farouq, Egypt's consul general. He said EgyptAir would operate a weekly round trip to Port Sudan, according the state-run MENA news agency. Flight MS865 departed from Cairo and landed in Port Sudan at 6.30 a.m., according to tracking service Flightradar24. A return flight landed in Cairo on Tuesday afternoon.
They were the first commercial flights to and from Sudan since the African nation descended into war in mid-April. The conflict pits Sudan's military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, against the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
The resumption of flights came a week after Burhan met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in the Egyptian city of el-Alamein on the Mediterranean. It was the first trip for the Sudanese leader abroad since the fighting. Sudan reopened the airspace in the east of the country in mid-August, according to the country's civil aviation authority. Port Sudan, which is controlled by the military, has largely been spared the fighting and became Sudan's main entry point for humanitarian flights and aid shipments. The conflict has turned Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlegrounds. More than 4.8 million people fled their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting.

Protesters in southern Syria smash Hafez Assad statue
Associated Press/September 05/2023
Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Syria have smashed the statue of Syria's late president as they they marked the 2015 assassination of a prominent anti-government Druze leader. The protests in the province of Sweida, where the Druze community represents the majority of the population, have entered their third week. The demonstrations were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of President Bashar Assad's government. Monday's protest took place in the provincial capital, also called Sweida, where angry men and woman called for the downfall of Assad's government. Some smashed the statue of Assad's late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad. Several demonstrators marched up to the building of the local branch of the social security and tore down a giant poster of Bashar Assad, according to videos circulated on social media and opposition activists. Monday marked the eighth anniversary of the assassination of cleric Sheik Wahid Balous, a prominent critic of Assad. He had called on the youth in Sweida to refuse to serve in the military. Balous, a strong supporter of rebels trying to topple Assad, died in one of two bomb explosions on Sept. 4, 2015, that also also killed 25 others. Some have blamed the government for the killing. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the protesters initially went into the Swedia municipality building and removed Hafez Assad's statue from the yard, carried it to a nearby street and smashed it there. Some demonstrators angrily kicked chunks of the statue as it lay on the ground.Sweida province has largely stayed out of the fighting in Syria's 12-year civil war that has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left parts of the country destroyed. The conflict has displaced half the country's prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside the country. A 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Druze make up about 5% of Syria's prewar population, and are split between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad.In late August, angry protesters raided the local offices of the ruling Baath party in Sweida while others blocked a highway that links the province with the capital of Damascus.

Syria's US-backed Kurdish forces hope to end weeklong clashes with militia in the 'next 24 hours'
Associated Press/September 05/2023
Syria's U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces on Tuesday pushed deeper into the last stronghold of Arab tribesmen who have taken up arms against them in eastern Syria. A spokesperson said they hoped to end the dayslong clashes there in the "next 24 hours."
The fighting, which broke out eight days ago in the oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour along the Euphrates River, has so far killed at least 50 people, including several civilians, and wounded dozens. Hundreds of U.S. troops have been based in eastern Syria since 2015 to help battle the Islamic State group.
The violence has pitted the Syrian Democratic Forces against the tribesmen and former allies of the the Arab-led militia known as the Deir el-Zour Military Council. It was sparked by the arrest last month of the militia's leader, Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla, accused by SDF of "multiple crimes and violations," including drug trafficking. SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami told The Associated Press that the Kurdish-led forces have cleared three towns in the province previously seized by the militia. "What's left is (the town of) Ziban," he said. "We are hoping to end tensions there in the next 24 hours."
Shami said some 100 armed men are estimated to be in Ziban, along with suspected cells of the Islamic State group. Now rivals, the SDF and the militia were allies in the war against IS. A Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the leader of a pro-Iran Arab tribe fighting against the SDF had called on his tribesmen and others to "free Deir el-Zour from the despicable Kurds". The Syrian government in Damascus has criticized the Kurdish-led SDF for its close alliance with the United States in the war against Islamic State militants and for forming what authorities describe as an autonomous enclave in eastern Syria. Meanwhile, Turkey and Turkish-backed oppositions groups in Syria's northwest routinely clash with the SDF. Ankara claims the SDF is allied with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has led an insurgency within Turkey since 1984 that has killed tens of thousands of people. Ankara has declared the PKK a terrorist group.

France discussing withdrawal of 'certain military elements' from Niger
Agence France Presse/September 05/2023
The French army is holding talks with Niger's military over withdrawing "elements" of its presence there following a coup, a defense ministry source said on Tuesday. There has been speculation that France will be forced into a full military pullout from Niger after the July 26 putsch, which ousted French ally President Mohamed Bazoum. Some 1,500 troops are deployed in Niger as part of France's wider fight against jihadists in the Sahel. The country became a crucial hub for France after coups forced the withdrawal of French troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso.
"Discussions on the withdrawal of certain military elements have begun," the defense ministry source told AFP, asking not to be named. The source did not give details.Earlier, a source close to Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu told AFP that talks were in progress about "easing movements of French military resources" in Niger. That source noted that French forces had been "immobilized since anti-terrorist cooperation was suspended" following the military takeover. Relations between Niger and France, the country's former colonial power and traditional ally, went swiftly downhill after Paris stood by the elected Bazoum and declared the post-coup regime toas illegitimate. On August 3, the coup leaders renounced several military cooperation agreements with France, including one with a month-long notice period that expired on Sunday. Niger's military-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine said Monday that "contacts" were under way about a "very swift" departure for Paris' troops. Zeine nevertheless said he hoped to "maintain cooperation if possible with a country with which we have shared many things." The French forces are mostly based at an airfield near the capital Niamey, which in recent days has been targeted by thousands of protesters calling on them to leave. The coup has been seen as a new major blow to French influence in the region following military takeovers in Mali in 2020 and Burkina Faso in 2022. Late last month, a coup also overthrew Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose father Omar held power for more than four decades. But France has reacted with more restraint over the end of the 55-year pro-French dynasty in Gabon than it did over the fall of its ally Bazoum.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 05-06/2023
How Terrorist Leaders, Backed by Iran, Exploit Palestinians
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/September 05/2023
"Iran stands by the Palestinian people and their resistance." — Ali Akbar Velayati, senior Iranian official, to leaders of the Palestinian terror groups, almayadeen.net. August 22, 2023.
"The victories that have been achieved are the result of the support of friendly peoples, especially Iran." — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, thanking senior Iranian official Velayati for Iran's support for the terror attacks against Israel, almayadeen.net, August 22, 2023.
When Iran, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad talk about the "resistance," they are referring to a series of terrorist attacks, including stabbings, shootings and car-rammings that have claimed the lives of five Israelis in August alone.
Recently, the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been encouraging Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to launch protests near the border with Israel. The request came days after thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza Strip to protest economic hardship under the rule of Hamas.
"We are a generation that grew up under difficult circumstances, and we did not have a single good day. I am 24 years old and have never traveled in my life. We want to live in dignity, this is our goal. We may not achieve that through these protests, but at least we raised our voice." — Shadi, a protestor against Hamas, dw.com, August 7, 2023.
Instead of heeding the calls of young Palestinians to solve the economic crisis, the Palestinian terror groups, with the help of Iran's mullahs, are sending them to attack Israeli soldiers with explosive devices and deadly stones.
Evidently, the leaders of Iran, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad do not care about the high rate of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip. Why should these leaders care when they and their families are living in comfort in Qatar, Lebanon and Turkey?
"[Iran] adheres to the strategy of supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance and the cause of liberating the land. Iran will continue to support the resistance strongly." — Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, assuring the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that Tehran's mullahs will continue to support their terrorist activities against Israel, i24news.tv, September 1, 2023.
According to Al-Mayadeen, a Hezbollah-affiliated news website, the high-level Iranian-Palestinian discussions are not protocol meetings. Instead, it said, the meeting aims to foil efforts to achieve normalization between Israel and some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Libya.
So, Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies are now openly stating that their goal is not only to "liberate the land" (a euphemism for the elimination of Israel), but also to thwart efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Arab countries. To achieve their goal, the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are ready – from their five-star hotels and villas in Qatar, Turkey and Lebanon – to sacrifice other Palestinians.
"At least $16 billion has now been made available to Iran without any congressional input—and more might be on the way. Another $6.7 billion is reportedly moving to Iran via the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights... and reportedly ... another $3 billion of regime assets frozen in Tokyo. India and China...." — Richard Goldberg, former White House security official, thedispatch.com, August 15, 2023.
There is no doubt that the funds will be used to escalate the "resistance" against Israel, fund the lavish lifestyle of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders, and intimidate Arabs who seek to make peace with Israel. By doing so, the Biden Administration is giving the mullahs a green light to pursue their destabilizing schemes not only against Israel, but also against Arab states, Europe and the United States.
Lavishing billions in bribes to Iran's mullahs might successfully dissuade them from "rocking the boat" before the US presidential election in November 2024, but after that, if and when Iran celebrates its nuclear weapons breakout, no one will be safe, least of all the United States.
Instead of heeding the calls of young Palestinians to solve the economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian terror groups, with the help of Iran's mullahs, are sending them to attack Israeli soldiers with explosive devices and deadly stones. Pictured: Gunmen from Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, take part in a military parade in the Gaza Strip, near the border with Israel, on July 19, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
The leaders of Iran's Palestinian terror proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), say they are "not afraid" of Israeli threats to assassinate them for their responsibility in the ongoing wave of terror attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
If the Hamas and PIJ leaders are not afraid of the threats, why are they taking extreme precautionary measures to avoid being killed by Israel? If they are not afraid of the threats, why have many of them evacuated their offices and gone into hiding? Why do the terror leaders seem so nervous about the possibility that they may be killed that they are threatening to retaliate against Israel if any one of them is targeted?
The answer is: The Hamas and PIJ leaders, who encourage and dispatch Palestinians to launch terrors attacks against Israel, do not themselves want to become "martyrs." They want to sit in their offices in the Gaza Strip, Qatar, Lebanon and Turkey, and issue instructions to other Palestinians to murder Jews. These leaders do not want to send their own sons to join the Jihad (holy war) against Israel. In recent years, many Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders have left the Gaza Strip together with their families for a better and more safe life in Turkey, Qatar, and Lebanon.
"The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip live in extreme poverty, while their leaders enjoy a luxurious life [abroad]," observed Palestinian political analyst Luqman Al-Sheikh observed.
"Some media reports estimated the wealth of [Hamas leader] Khaled Mashaal at millions of dollars and noted that the bulk of it was invested in banks in Egypt and the Gulf states, while the rest was invested in real estate projects. He also reportedly owns a private real estate company in Doha. Most of the children of Hamas leaders do not live inside the Gaza Strip for several reasons, perhaps the most prominent of which is security concerns."
The continued wave of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror attacks against Israel are backed by Iran's mullahs. "Iran stands by the Palestinian people and their resistance," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior Iranian official, told the leaders of the Palestinian terror groups on August 22. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh thanked Velayati for his country's support for the terror attacks against Israel.
"The victories that have been achieved are the result of the support of friendly peoples, especially Iran," Haniyeh said.
When Iran, Hamas and PIJ talk about the "resistance," they are referring to a series of terrorist attacks, including stabbings, shootings, and car-rammings that have claimed the lives of five Israelis in August alone. Most of the attacks took place inside Israel and in the West Bank.
Recently, the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been encouraging Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to launch protests near the border with Israel. The request came days after thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza Strip to protest economic hardship under the rule of Hamas.
The demonstrations turned into protests against Hamas, which used its security forces and militiamen to brutally suppress the protesters. One of them, identified as Shadi, said:
"We are a generation that grew up under difficult circumstances, and we did not have a single good day. I am 24 years old and have never traveled in my life. We want to live in dignity, this is our goal. We may not achieve that through these protests, but at least we raised our voice."
By sending Palestinians to attack Israeli troops along Gaza's border with Israel, the leaders of Hamas and PIJ are seeking to divert attention from their failure to improve the living conditions of the two million residents of the Gaza Strip. Instead of heeding the calls of young Palestinians to solve the economic crisis, the Palestinian terror groups, with the help of Iran's mullahs, are sending them to attack Israeli soldiers with explosive devices and deadly stones.
Evidently, the leaders of Iran, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad do not care about the high rate of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip. Why should these leaders care when they and their families are living in comfort in Qatar, Lebanon and Turkey?
They also apparently do not care about the many Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who are fleeing to Greece, Turkey and Europe. On August 31, a new batch of Palestinians from Gaza arrived at the migrant camp on the Greek island of Leros. Some of these men revealed that they had paid thousands of dollars to people-smugglers.
According to some reports, more than 340,000 Palestinians have emigrated from the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007. In one video, a resident of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip is seen walking around his neighborhood, filming the different houses while naming all his neighbors who have already emigrated and those waiting for a visa to Turkey. In another video, Ibrahim, also a resident of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, documented his journey emigrating to Greece through Egypt and Turkey.
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Lebanon, where he met with the leaders of Hamas and PIJ and assured them that Tehran's mullahs will continue to support their terrorist activities against Israel. In a statement after the meeting, the Iranian minister said that Tehran "adheres to the strategy of supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance and the cause of liberating the land. Iran will continue to support the resistance strongly."
According to Al-Mayadeen, a Hezbollah-affiliated news website, the high-level Iranian-Palestinian discussions are not protocol meetings. Instead, it said, the meeting aims to foil efforts to achieve normalization between Israel and some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Libya.
So, Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies are now openly stating that their goal is not only to "liberate the land" (a euphemism for the elimination of Israel), but also to thwart efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Arab countries. To achieve their goal, the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are ready – from their five-star hotels and villas in Qatar, Turkey and Lebanon – to sacrifice other Palestinians. Sadly, many Palestinians are likely to heed the calls of the terror leaders to murder more Jews.
In light of the Iranian-led Jihad against Israel and Arabs who seek normalization with Israel, one cannot only wonder why the Biden Administration is determined to embolden the mullahs by showering them with money. According to former White House security official Richard Goldberg, on August 15:
"At least $16 billion has now been made available to Iran without any congressional input—and more might be on the way. Another $6.7 billion is reportedly moving to Iran via the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights... and reportedly... another $3 billion of regime assets frozen in Tokyo. India and China...."
There is no doubt that the funds will be used to escalate the "resistance" against Israel, fund the lavish lifestyle of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders, and intimidate Arabs who seek to make peace with Israel. By doing so, the Biden Administration is giving the mullahs a green light to pursue their destabilizing schemes not only against Israel, but also against Arab states, Europe (here, here and here) and the United States (here, here, and here).
Lavishing billions in bribes to Iran's mullahs might successfully dissuade them from "rocking the boat" before the US presidential election in November 2024, but after that, if and when Iran celebrates its nuclear weapons breakout, no one will be safe, least of all the United States.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19947/terrorists-iran-palestinians

Targeted for Conversion: How Organized Muslim Networks Prey on Christian Women in Egypt
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/September 05/2023
The rate of Coptic Christian women and girls “disappearing” off the streets of Egypt—only to be reported as having “willingly embraced Islam”—has grown dramatically over the last few weeks. [Note: Two more cases appeared a day after the publication of this article.]
In response, a recent post by Sameh ‘Asker, a secular author and political activist, offers some background on the methodologies employed against these hapless women.
Sameh began by referencing the notorious 2010 case of Kamelia Shehata, a Christian woman whom Muslims insisted had willingly converted to Islam only to be kidnapped, held captive, and even tortured by the Coptic Church in an effort to force her to recant Islam and return to Christianity.
Then, virtually every Muslim organization in Egypt, particularly those financed by Qatar, and “with the blessing of the [Egyptian] state,” did everything to incite Muslims against the Copts. They even fabricated and disseminated images of Kamelia dressed in a hijab with the caption “My captive sister,” and said that she was sending secret messages to Muslims to “save me from the Crusaders holding me captive!”
The incitement worked; masses of Muslims rioted against Egypt’s Christians, attacking them and their churches: “The attacks resulted in the burning of 3 Coptic Orthodox churches, and the destruction of many Christian-owned houses and businesses. In addition, 15 people were killed in the attacks, and about 232 injured.”In the end, it was all a lie. Kamelia Shehata, who had been in hiding for fear of the Muslims, eventually appeared on television saying that she was living with her husband and son, had never converted to Islam, had never been held captive by the church, and all photos of her wearing a hijab were fabricated.
Not that Egypt’s more fervent Muslims believed her. Indeed, not willing to let a good pretext go to waste, the Islamic State even went on to cite “revenge” for what the Coptic church supposedly did to Kamelia as the reason for slaughtering 21 Coptic Christians in Libya (a whole five years later), as well as the massacre of nearly 60 Christians inside a Baghdad church in 2010.
After asking, “So how are things now after 10 years of revolutions?” Sameh ‘Asker concludes:
More sectarian incidents in Upper Egypt, and organizations dedicated to Islamizing Coptic women and igniting sectarian strife—without the arrest of a single sheikh or leader in this realm of savagery…. I repeat my warning of sectarian strife [overwhelming] Egypt soon, behind which stand Salafist organizations and preachers on the Internet claiming that they convert Copts to Islam. They specifically target girls and women for social reasons, as they are the weakest link through which the Salafis control the church and impose their conditions on the Copts.
It should, of course, be no surprise that the same Muslim outfits that project their methodologies on Christians—in this case, the kidnapping and forcible conversion of women—are themselves experts in the art of preying on “infidel” women. Sameh’s references to organized networks that target Coptic girls are especially important and reminiscent of the revelations a former Egyptian trafficker made back in 2017:
Salafist networks began in the seventies and it’s reached its highest levels now, in the era of President Sisi… A group of kidnappers meets in a mosque to discuss potential victims. They keep a close eye on Christians’ houses and monitor everything that’s going on. On that basis, they weave a spider’s web around [the girls]…. The kidnappers receive large amounts of money. Police can help them in different ways, and when they do, they might also receive a part of the financial reward the kidnappers are paid by the Islamisation organisations. In some cases, police provide the kidnappers with drugs they seize. The drugs are then given to the girls to weaken their resistance as they put them under pressure. I even know of cases in which police offered help to beat up the girls to make them recite the Islamic creed. And the value of the reward increases whenever the girl has a position. For example, when she is the daughter of a priest or comes from a well-known family…. The Salafist group I knew rented apartments in different areas of Egypt to hide kidnapped Coptic. There, they put them under pressure and threaten them to convert to Islam. And once they reach the legal age, a specially arranged Islamic representative comes in to make the conversion official, issue a certificate and accordingly they change their ID…. If all goes to plan, the girls are also forced into marriage with a strict Muslim. Their husbands don’t love them, they just marry her to make her a Muslim. She will be hit and humiliated. And if she tries to escape, or convert back to her original religion, she will be killed.
The former trafficker confessed to one example:
I remember a Coptic Christian girl from a rich, well-known family in Minya. She was kidnapped by five Muslim men. They held her in a house, stripped her and filmed her naked. In the video, one of them also undressed. They threatened to make the video public if the girl wouldn’t marry him.
Other tactics, as documented in a Coptic Solidarity report, “include utilizing or planting Muslim female neighbors, colleagues, coworkers or friends to invite Coptic women to their home or travel across town during which time they are kidnapped by the groups who organized with the known female.”
These kidnapping “networks are often supported by like-minded members (including high-ranking officials) of the police, national security and local administrations,” adds the report. “Their roles include refusal to lodge official complaints by the victims’ families, falsifying police investigations, organizing the formal sessions of conversion to Islam at Al-Azhar, or harassing families into silence and acceptance of the de facto trafficking of their loved ones.”
From here one understands why virtually every week one or more stories of Coptic Christian women “disappearing” in Egypt surface, often under strange and confusing circumstances. Sometimes they are never heard from again; other times, especially when the Coptic community makes enough noise, the police “find” and return them home. Sometimes they disappear but reappear in videos dressed in hijabs saying that they willingly became Muslim and ran away from home; other times they eventually return home and confess that they were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to make such videos (here and here).
Such is the plight of—and highly involved plot against—Egypt’s Christian women and girls.

How to stop Yemen’s vicious cycle of violence and misery
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg//Arab News/September 05/2023
Visiting Yemen last week provided a stark reminder of the combustive volatility of the truce between the government of Yemen and the Houthi rebels. While the truce has been informally maintained since April 2022, it is on shaky ground, as the Houthi side has so far failed to deliver on the commitments it made to the UN last year. Violence is escalating with no perceptible move toward a formal ceasefire or a political solution, while the economy is crumbling and the humanitarian crisis is deepening.
The informal armistice has not translated into a formal ceasefire, let alone a peace agreement, with no sign that the Houthis will sit at the negotiating table any time soon. The government of Yemen has delivered on the promises it made at the start of the truce to open Sanaa’s airport for direct international flights and increase the flow of goods, including fuel, through the port of Hodeidah. However, the Houthis have failed to live up to their commitments. The Houthi siege of Taiz is now in its ninth year with no end in sight, while the rebels continue to increase military pressure on other provinces.
Earlier hopes that the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic breakthrough would lead to positive movement in Yemen have been dashed so far, according to the Yemenis I met during this visit, as the Houthis have escalated their attacks on several fronts in recent weeks. In his July briefing to the UN Security Council, Special Envoy Hans Grundberg said that although the overall fighting had decreased since the start of the truce, the front lines are not silent. Armed clashes have taken place in Dhale, Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib and Shabwa provinces. He expressed his fear that “these continued sparks of violence, alongside public threats to return to large-scale fighting, increase fears and tensions.”
Since Grundberg’s July briefing, there have been further attacks by the Houthis against several areas under government control. In the last few weeks, the Houthis have again attacked Marib, Lahij, Dhale and Taiz provinces, targeting civilians, homes and camps for the internally displaced, including three simultaneous missile attacks on such camps in Marib on Aug. 30. Houthi snipers have also resumed their attacks along disengagement lines.
The large-scale siege strangling Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, is one of the most pressing humanitarian concerns for the Yemeni government and relief agencies. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor recently reported that 3 million residents there are suffering from a lack of basic necessities, including food and medication, while being in constant danger of being killed or injured by shelling and sniper fire. It described the siege as a “form of collective punishment against civilians that may amount to a war crime” under international law.
Instead of implementing their side of the truce bargain, the Houthis have upped their demands and used force to put pressure on the government to pay public employee salaries in Houthi-controlled areas. They have also asked for a share of the oil revenues collected by the government, without sharing the revenues they collect in the areas under their control.
The Houthis do not provide information on the different levies they collect, including personal and corporate taxes, customs, port fees and surcharges on public utilities and telecom companies. The government has offered to pool revenues and remit them to the central bank, which the Houthis have so far rejected.
To force the government’s hand, the Houthis last October shelled ports under government control, including oil-exporting terminals, thus shutting down oil export capabilities. Without oil revenue, the government has been unable to balance its books. If it were not for Saudi Arabia’s emergency funding of $1.2 billion announced last month, the government would not have been able to meet its basic commitments. This is of course temporary and cannot be sustained for the long run, making it imperative to resume oil exports.
There have also been severe fuel shortages as a result of Houthi shelling, prompting Saudi Arabia to send emergency fuel supplies to power stations to keep homes lit and hospitals and schools running.
The government’s reduced capacity has limited its ability to provide Yemenis with basic necessities. Millions of Yemenis are facing a growing humanitarian crisis, especially vulnerable communities such as the internally displaced, who are estimated to be at least 2 million in Marib alone. The humanitarian crisis has been made worse by international aid cuts, including by the World Food Programme.
Economic development has almost come to a standstill. The government’s ability to fund development projects has been critically curtailed and the lack of progress toward a political solution has discouraged many donors, who have decided to wait out the conflict instead of continuing development assistance in the face of political and security uncertainties. Most traditional donors to Yemen have either frozen their development aid or drastically scaled it down, focusing instead on immediate relief or diverting aid to other parts of the world, something many Yemenis are bitter about.
The Houthis appear to be cynically using military pressure on government-controlled areas and the worsening humanitarian crisis to force the government and the international community to cave in.
During last week’s visit, very few expressed hope that the situation would improve any time soon without pressure to compel the Houthis to deescalate, live up to their commitments and move toward a negotiated settlement.
Hopes that the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic breakthrough would lead to positive movement in Yemen have been dashed so far.
Yemenis are counting on the UN to move faster on the political track, but count on donors, including those in the Gulf Cooperation Council, to help them weather this crisis. Reduced international aid is coming at exactly the wrong time.
Movement toward peace in Yemen will need a concerted effort on at least four fronts. First, the UN needs to deliver quickly on the political track and not get bogged down in the Houthis’ growing demands. Second, Yemen and its partners need to find a way to resume oil exports to help fill the government’s funding gap. Third, international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, need to up their efforts to help reform and augment government finances. Fourth, aid agencies need to scale up aid to Yemen to meet the needs of the rapidly growing numbers of people in need. But to achieve these goals, Yemen needs unity within government factions and closer coordination among donors and friends. Without that unity and coordination, the Houthi rebels will continue to block any movement toward an effective solution to Yemen’s agony.
**Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views. Twitter: @abuhamad1

Iranian drones over Kyiv are an omen of new global threats
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/September 05/2023
The world is scrambling to respond to manifestations of increasingly symbiotic Russian-Iranian coordination that flout the full spectrum of international norms and fundamentally undermine global security.
Iran rushed to support Russia in its Ukrainian hour of need after years of Moscow proffering lifelines to its southern ally: Russia repeatedly used its Security Council veto to shield Iran, it provided Tehran with defense and sanctions-evasion assistance, and crucially came to its rescue in Syria.
Tehran has reciprocally reinvigorated Russia’s floundering war efforts with the provision of hundreds of cut-price kamikaze drones and other munitions. This multibillion-dollar deal includes Iran assisting Moscow in establishing its own domestic war drone industry, aspiring to manufacture 6,000 drones by mid-2025. Moscow has sought to manufacture a variant of Iran’s Shahed 136 attack drone with a range of over 1,600 kilometers. Because of its noisy, primitive lawnmower-like engine, Ukrainians nicknamed the Shahed 136 “the flying moped," but the weapon nevertheless had a devastating impact on Kyiv’s civilian infrastructure and grain silos holding thousands of tons of essential food supplies for the developing world.
Russian technicians aspire to overcome Iran’s outdated manufacturing techniques and poor quality control. Around 25 percent of drones shipped from Iran were inoperable. The Washington Post reported that Russia wanted to advance from current limited Shahed launches to mass strikes using hundreds of kamikaze drones, with technology enabling drones to swarm and autonomously coordinate targeted strikes. The likes of Hezbollah, North Korea and Daesh will be watching such innovations closely and learning lessons of their own.
Agreements are in place for sharing such innovations back with Tehran, in an unvirtuous cycle of mutual cooperation that would elevate the military capabilities of both these aggressors to entirely new levels. Iran furthermore hopes to secure future access to Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense systems and Su-35 fighter aircraft.
Moscow and Tehran achieved all this despite heavy international sanctions. This is particularly remarkable, given that 90 percent of these drone systems’ electronic components were manufactured by Western companies.
Major efforts are meanwhile afoot to harmonize the Russian and Iranian banking systems with the goal of sanctions evasion. Hundreds of banks are thought to be involved, with the possibility of further link-ups with Chinese and Asian banking systems. The two nations are building a 3,200-kilometer sanctions-defying transcontinental trade route from eastern Europe to the Indian Ocean. This includes upgrades on Caspian Sea ports, a rail link via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and a Russian-built 164km railway through Iran down to the Bandar Abbas port.
Drone strikes against Kyiv power stations are merely the tip of the iceberg of this emerging transcontinental system ... putting Europe, the GCC and Southeast Asia under threat of military aggression.
Plans are also in place for the Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam Al-Anbiya conglomerate to build a rail route linking Iran to Iraq’s Faw port, with connections through into Syria and the Mediterranean, thereby seamlessly connecting up Tehran’s “Axis of Evil” allies. When China’s Belt and Road initiative is factored in, it is easy to see how trans-Asian transport and banking connections render Western sanctions an irrelevance.
American negotiations with Tehran aim to halt further nuclear enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief. With commendable optimism, Washington seeks commitments for halting drone shipments and Iran-Russia military cooperation. Given their geographic proximity, any such understandings would be near impossible to police, particularly as Iran and Russia routinely deny such cooperation exists in the first place.
Alongside drones, Iran possesses by far the region’s largest ballistic missiles program — although not necessarily the most effective. Iran, Russia, China and North Korea are meanwhile among the foremost proponents of cyberwarfare, another means of waging war on the cheap. The critical infrastructure of Arab Gulf states and European nations has already endured thousands of cyberattacks. Iran generously shares its drone, missile and cyber expertise with proxy militias in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, and has staged repeated strikes throughout the GCC, including the 2019 attack on Saudi oil processing facilities.
However, it is perfectly possible that these rogue regimes will be the death of each other. This mutual shielding, locally and on the international stage, lulls leaderships into a false sense of security that they can massacre their civilians and menace their neighbors with impunity. Yet last year’s mass uprising by Iranian schoolgirls and defiant women, and the botched coup by one of Vladimir Putin’s closest warlord allies, highlighted how fragile and unpopular these tinpot juntas really are. Some day soon these brawling regimes will lurch into a fight they can’t win.
Iran’s recent incorporation into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICs grouping also gives rise to two bodies through which Russia, Iran and China can project their anti-democratic agendas. The agreement with China to invest up to $400 billion in Iran’s economy over the next 25 years has meanwhile seen a major upgrade in this bilateral relationship, with a similar agenda for undermining Western global supremacy.
Drone strikes against Kyiv power stations are merely the tip of the iceberg of this emerging transcontinental system, specifically established to subvert international norms and facilitate the proliferation of dirty money, nuclear technology and heavy weaponry — putting Europe, the GCC and Southeast Asia under threat of military aggression.
Dirt-cheap production costs of armed drones and cyberwarfare have profound implications for the manner in which future conflicts are waged, raising the prospect that Tehran-backed paramilitary and terrorist groups could stage asymmetric attacks against cities using swarms of UAVs and missiles.
While primitive drones and rockets are no match for the missile defense systems of Israel and America, this threat of military “overmatch” keeps the generals awake at night worrying about Iran, North Korea, or Hezbollah simultaneously launching such large numbers of munitions that they overwhelm the ability of defense systems to neutralize the onslaught.
With Ukraine now also staging indiscriminate drone attacks across Russia and stepping up its own production of such munitions, this is a reminder to Putin that the ability to wage war on the cheap cuts both ways. It is meanwhile simply a matter of time before a whole spectrum of other minor players join this arms race. We should not be simply trying to appease or ignore major producers of bargain basement munitions, such as Iran. This threat of mass carnage weapons so cheap they can be purchased by someone on an average income should be confronted head on, with rigorously enforced international conventions restricting their manufacture, sale, and use, and the export of key components if we are to avoid a scenario in which wildcat strikes on critical infrastructure or terrorists menacing entire cities become the norm.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Azerbaijan-Armenia reconciliation possible if apology offered for past atrocities, Azerbaijan presidential adviser tells Arab News
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/September 05, 2023
NEW YORK CITY: Tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia have escalated sharply in recent months, as both sides accuse the other of cross-border attacks in their long-running dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two ex-Soviet republics have fought two wars, in the early 1990s and again in 2020, for control of the region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but largely populated by ethnic Armenians.
Despite mediation efforts by the EU, US and Russia and a unanimous call by the UN Security Council in August to resolve their dispute, Baku and Yerevan have been unable to reach a lasting peace settlement.
Now Yerevan has accused Baku of deliberately blocking food and aid supplies to Armenian-populated towns in Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Armenia to the region.
Armenian authorities and international aid groups have warned that the humanitarian situation for the roughly 120,000 Armenians living there is deteriorating, with shortages of food and medicine.
In a wide-ranging interview with Arab News, Hikmet Hajiyev, adviser to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and the head of the foreign policy affairs department of the presidential administration responded to the allegations.
Hajiyev also described what it would take to secure peace and move on from the atrocities of the past. A good way to start, he said, would be for Armenia to apologize.
Q: The UN Security Council recently discussed the situation in the Lachin corridor, where council members heard that Azerbaijan is blocking the only road that connects Armenia to the 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, cutting off food, medicine and other essentials, causing a deteriorating humanitarian situation.
A: These are unsubstantiated and ungrounded allegations against Azerbaijan. There is no strangulation or blockade of the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
What Azerbaijan is suggesting is to have multiple roads. And one of the important roads is the Aghdam-Khankendi road. It is much more efficient and has more logistical capabilities to reach out to the Karabakh region because Azerbaijan has completely rebuilt it.
Currently, the Lachin-Khankendi road is operational and functional. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is conducting convoys along this road.
But what we are saying is, let’s open the Aghdam-Khankendi road. It will ensure integration, so Azerbaijan will have direct access to Khankendi and direct contact with Karabakh Armenians who in turn will also have a chance to use Azerbaijan’s major road system to reach other parts of Azerbaijan.
But, unfortunately, the warlords at the helm of the current subordinated Armenian puppet regime in those territories of Azerbaijan are using the humanitarian situation for their own benefit, to prolong their survival as a separatist entity that will not accept Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, and for the benefit of propaganda, disinformation and misinformation of the international community. This has always been their raison d’etre.
We invited them to have a dialogue. But they say no to dialogue. (This is a) destructive attitude. They also say no to food staples or whatever comes from Azerbaijan. This is racism. Because of the origin of the food product, they said they won’t accept it.
Q: The ICRC says it has not been able to bring assistance to the population for several weeks and has called on your administration to allow it to resume operations. It has said that under international humanitarian law, all sides must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for citizens in need. What is your response to ICRC’s call?
A: We have very close cooperation and engagement with the ICRC. They are operating in Azerbaijan.
(The) ICRC also knows this very well, because we are in regular contact, that on Aug. 5 there was a gentleman’s agreement whereby the ICRC would be welcome to use the Aghdam-Khankendi road for its humanitarian convoys.
And in the next 24 hours (from Aug. 31, the day of the interview) we will also ensure the full opening of the Lachin-Khankendi road, but Azerbaijan’s customs and border security and border control regime must be respected.
Unfortunately, since the signing of the Trilateral Statement (of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia) in 2021, the Armenian side was misusing the Lachin road for shipment of military ammunition, personnel and landmines into Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region.
So Azerbaijan was forced to establish the Lachin checkpoint on its border with Armenia. Azerbaijan cannot afford to have yet another grey zone on its sovereign territory.
But my question is: Why is the illegal Armenian regime resisting the opening of this second road? By all means they are still manipulating the international community’s view.
The road is civilization. The road is culture. Saying no to a road has an element of racism to it. It’s a destructive policy. But the time of occupation is past.
Armenian lorries carrying humanitarian aid for the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region stranded not far away from an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up at the entry of the Lachin corridor, Karabakh's only land link with Armenia, on July 30, 2023. Karabakh has been at the center of a decades-long dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory. (AFP)
Q: In August, the former International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, published a report describing the blockade of the Lachin corridor as genocide.
“There are no crematories, there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible genocide weapon,” Ocampo said, warning that “without dramatic change, the group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.” What is your reaction to that report?
A: First of all, the personality, the honesty of this individual who claims to speak on behalf of justice, is questionable. There are a lot of facts in the international media about him engaging in wrongdoings. But that is not my business.
Second, I do regret that a person who claims to be a lawyer could misuse and abuse the concept of genocide as if he didn’t know what it means.
Third, he’s biased. Why does he not talk about the genocide and war crimes on a state level committed by the Republic of Armenia against Azerbaijan?
Eight cities of Azerbaijan have been completely destroyed, along with the civilian population. Where is that fact in the Ocampo report?
Where was Ocampo when in 1992, before Srebrenica, the whole population of Khojaly, Azerbaijan, was massacred by Armenians?
Who has conducted a genocide against whom? That’s the big question. It is a question that should be answered with regard to one million Azerbaijanis, who have been ethnically cleansed from their land, and who have been living as IDPs and refugees for 30 years.
Why is Ocampo silent with regard to the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, including Azerbaijan’s mosques that have been completely destroyed by Armenia?
Margarita Khanaghyan, 81 walks past an APC of the Russian peacekeeping force in the town of Lachin on November 26, 2020, after six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. (AFP/File Photo)
Q: But it is not just Ocampo. There are also other specialized institutions that have already claimed that a genocide is underway in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Again, the ICJ has ordered Azerbaijan to “take all necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination, including by its officials and public institutions targeted at persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin.”
A: Under the International Convention on the Complete Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Azerbaijan has also put a very serious plan against the Republic of Armenia at the ICJ. In Armenia, the word Azerbaijani or Turk is used as an insult.
That says a lot about the mainstream thinking in Armenian society. I can provide you with many other examples of ethnic hatred and Azerbaijan-phobia. But the facts on the ground speak for themselves. Armenia has destroyed all elements of Azerbaijan’s cultural, religious and even human heritage in the territories under its occupation.
Therefore, I do regret that some international media outlets are falling into the trap of Armenia’s political propaganda.
Why are Armenians resistant to taking wheat flour from Azerbaijan? You are asking me a question about ethnic hatred. What is that then? Wheat flour doesn’t have an ethnicity. It’s a food staple that everyone can use. But why are they refusing it?
Q: Moving to peace talks. UN Security Council members remain united in their support for a negotiated solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The war has ended. A statement was signed. Armenians have said Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan. What remains to be done to achieve peace?
A: Azerbaijan really wants to sign a peace treaty and turn the page on the chapter of confrontation and atrocities in this region. We would like to live in peace. But the ball is in the court of the Republic of Armenia. The sooner they understand this reality, the better it will be for everyone.
Armenia’s dirty propaganda against Azerbaijan has derailed us from the path of peace treaty negotiations, on a platform provided by Washington DC, which we very much appreciate. We had achieved very important progress. Almost 70 percent of the document had been cleared. In a sense, we agreed.
Signing the peace treaty will completely change the landscape of the region of the South Caucasus. But you have the prime minister of Armenia on one hand recognizing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity while on the other hand he still keeps Armenian armed forces in our territory. He still finances the illegal subordinate regime on our territory.
Q: Do you think the current confrontation between Russia and some Western countries over Ukraine is impacting the peace prospects between Azerbaijan and Armenia?
A: Unfortunately, we do see elements of the geopolitical rivalry play out in the region of the South Caucasus, and our message also to big powers is: Don’t export your internal political agenda to our region.
What we are also seeing is Armenia becoming, unfortunately, another Syria in our region, as it’s divided among big powers according to their own geopolitical interests.
One mission over there is the EU mission. We have been told it is a civilian, short-term mission. But it has become a long-term one. It has military personnel.
Everybody who wants to contribute to peace and security in the region instead of diplomatic adventurism and propaganda, should engage seriously in supporting Armenian-Azerbaijan peace treaty talks.
Q: Is there a reliable international partner, or a mechanism that would be more efficient than others?
A: There are various platforms. We have no preference for one over the other. Our approach is that anybody who is willing to contribute to real peace on the ground, they are most welcome.
On one side, we have a Brussels process facilitated by (European Council) President Charles Michel. This is very much appreciated. Important elements of the peace treaty talks on a normalization council between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been generated from that platform.
And then we appreciate the US government, and particularly Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s personal engagement on peace treaty discussions. They have done a lot.
We also cannot deny the role of Russia. They are also contributing because they are part of the region and have historical relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani forces retook during the 2020 conflict the town of Shusha from the ethnic Armenians who had seized it in 1992 for the Armenian-backed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. (AN Photo/Ephrem Kossaify)
Q: Do you honestly believe there is still room for a reconciliation process to take place? People in Baku have told Arab News that in the past, Armenians and Azerbaijanis used to be brothers and sisters, living side by side. Will this happen again?
A: It could happen again, but really, it’s always difficult to make a prediction about this in the future. Reconciliation really is one of the most difficult parts of every post-conflict situation. In Azerbaijan, hundreds of thousands of families have lost their loved ones and are refugees and IDPs.
Imagine people are returning to their homes to see them in complete ruins. That’s not easy. And they are searching for answers. There is no answer because no one from the Armenian side has had enough courage to dare say: “(Please) excuse us. Our apologies for all our wrongdoings.”
There was not a single case in Armenia brought against the individuals who have conducted notorious actions against Azerbaijan. Bringing justice to people could also send a positive signal.
Yes, I do think that reconciliation is possible, but of course it will take time. A lot depends on the Armenian side.
I have also carefully studied all schoolbooks and textbooks in the Republic of Armenia. Everything is a hate, hate and hate against their neighbors, and the exclusive superiority of Armenians.
This racist sort of thinking is still dominant in the mindset of Armenian literature, Armenian media and so on.
Q: The Armenian prime minister has said the same thing. That peace is a call that has to come from Azerbaijani people who should demand it from their government.
A: I will ask the prime minister of Armenia, is he ready to say, on behalf of the Armenian people and Armenian government, “(Please) excuse me?” I think that this could change a lot.
Why is Armenia refusing to provide information about the mass graves of 4,000 Azerbaijanis? Who will compensate for the 30 years that have been taken from the lives of a million Azerbaijanis who grew up in refugee tents?