Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 07-08/2023
Violations targeting rights and freedom of journalist Maryam Majdouline Al-Laham are firmly condemned
Elias Bejjani/September 06/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/122028/122028/
The flagrant violations inflicted on journalist Maryam Majdouline Al-Laham's rights and profession as a journalist are strongly condemned, as well as all judicial attempts in a bid to suppress her freedom, and fabricate false charges, in order to force her giving up stances and tweets she took in the course of her investigative professional journalistic work.
Meanwhile the arbitrary, discretionary summoning for interrogation,  the unfair arrest, and the conditional release are all flagrant legal violations of her rights.
Al-Laham's oppressive judicial case shows clearly that some of the judiciary in occupied Lebanon has been politicized, and turned into tools of repression and terror in the hands of those who dominate and control the decision-making  process of state institutions, including some of the judiciary, and many judges.
We demand that the freedom and rights of journalist Maryam Magdalene Laham in particular, and those of the media in general are respected, and that all media judicial cases are exclusively dealt with in the Publications Court.

Two scheduled Cabinet sessions on Monday to discuss the illegal entry of Syrian refugees and the 2024 Budget
LBCI/September 7, 2023
The Cabinet is convening a special session at the Grand Serail to discuss the latest developments regarding the Syrian displacement issue, especially the illegal entry of refugees. The session will take place at 11 AM on Monday, September 11.
Another Monday session is scheduled for 3:30 PM to continue discussions on the 2024 General Budget.

Lebanese Army says blocked entry of 1,200 Syrian migrants
Agence France Presse/September 7, 2023
The Lebanese Army said Thursday it had prevented the entry of around 1,200 Syrians this week, at a time both countries are beset by painful economic woes. Millions of Syrians have fled abroad since their country's civil war broke out in 2011 following the government's repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests. Many have crossed the border into Lebanon, which the United Nations says hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. The Lebanese Army said in a statement that it had "prevented around 1,200 Syrians from crossing the Lebanese-Syrian border in the past week."
It had announced on August 23 that it turned back 700 Syrians attempting to enter the country irregularly. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday expressed concern about a "new wave" of refugees crossing the border "via illegal paths."
"The army and the police are working to prevent" this, he added. Lebanon, which has been mired in a crippling economic crisis for more than three years, says it hosts nearly two million Syrians. The United Nation has registered almost 830,000 of them. Anti-Syrian sentiment has soared in recent months as some officials have sought to blame refugees for the country's woes. A security official told AFP that "the Syrian-Lebanese border is porous and the number of soldiers mobilized is not enough.""Most Syrians come to Lebanon in the hope of finding work, given the unprecedented deterioration in living conditions in their country," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. Last month, the Damascus government scrapped fuel subsidies, dealing a further blow to Syrians reeling from 12 years of war and a crippling economic crisis. The conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry. Most of the population has been pushed into poverty, according to the United Nations. After welcoming hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the early years of the conflict, Lebanon banned them from entry in 2015. Since then, many Syrians have used smugglers to cross the border and seek other opportunities in Lebanon or beyond. Lebanon's own economic collapse has also turned it into a launchpad for would-be migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamoring to leave via dangerous sea routes across the Mediterranean.

Misinterpretation or distortion: Did al-Rahi call on MPs to attend Berri's dialogue?
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
Ninety-one MPs will attend a seven-day dialogue proposed by Speaker Nabih Berri, following which open presidential election sessions would be held, al-Akhbar newspaper said Thursday.
- Who's attending -
MPs from Hezbollah, Amal, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party, al-Marada, the National Moderation bloc, the National Accord bloc, the Tashnag party and some independent MPs are attending Berri's dialogue, while twenty nine MPs -- including some change and independent MPs and the MPs of the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb party and the Tajaddod bloc -- have rejected it. Four out of 12 change MPs are boycotting the dialogue -- Waddah al Sadek, Michel Douaihi, Marc Daou and Yassin Yassin, while change MP Elias Jradeh considered dialogue "essential to build bridges between parties."
- Is al-Rahi with or against dialogue -
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi had said that if dialogue happens in spite of the bickering, it would require going to it without prejudgments nor the will to impose ideas, projects and viewpoints. "Each political party is trying to win the Patriarch's support, but Bkirki remains a religious and national authority that is not affiliated with any political or partisan side," Patriarchal vicar Samir Mazloum told Asharq al-Awsat, in remarks published Thursday. "Al-Rahi's statement was misinterpreted. What he wants first and foremost is the election of a president, ending the stalemate, and building the state," Mazloum said. Opposition sources have also accused some parties of trying to take advantage of al-Rahi's statement and of intentionally distorting his words, in remarks published in Nidaa al-Watan newspaper. LF Sources assured that there is mutual trust and accord between the LF and the patriarch. "We agree on Lebanon's identity, on the state's project, and on committing to the constitution," the sources said. "Al-Rahi supports dialogue as an absolute humanitarian value and we are also not against dialogue as a general principle." LF chief Samir Geagea had called al-Rahi on Tuesday and the two leaders might reportedly meet soon.

Optimistic' Macron to discuss Lebanese file with Bin Salman
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to achieve a breakthrough in the Lebanese presidential file and will discuss this matter with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he meets him soon, al-Liwaa newspaper said. “Macron is optimistic that a breakthrough can be achieved during the expected visit to Beirut by his personal envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian,” the daily quoted French Presidency sources as saying. “Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will discuss the need to support Jean-Yves Le Drian’s mission in Lebanon, while stressing that France and Saudi Arabia will continue to work together in this regard,” the sources added. MTV meanwhile quoted a French diplomatic source as saying that Le Drian is expected to arrive in Beirut on Monday. “Macron is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with the Saudi crown prince during the G20 summit in India and Lebanon will be discussed during the meeting,” MTV added.

Reports: Raad met with army chief over presidential file
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
Hezbollah’s top lawmaker Mohammed Raad has recently met with Army Commander General Joseph Aoun away from the spotlight, media reports said.
“The visit came at the request of Hezbollah in order to tackle the presidential file,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. “The meeting between Raad and the army chief was the first exploratory meeting between the two sides, seeing as General Aoun represents Plan B for the party,” the daily added. “This meeting was closely followed up by (Marada Movement chief Suleiman) Franjieh and by Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, who are seeking to know what was said in the meeting. The meeting also received foreign attention, especially from France. However, the meeting’s two sides strictly agreed to prevent any leaks, as reports said that Raad asked General Aoun specific questions,” Nidaa al-Watan said. Al-Jadeed television also reported that the meeting took place “days ago” and that the two sides agreed to keep it confidential. “If any party leaks that it happened or its details, the other party will have the right to deny the leaks,” al-Jadeed quoted the two sides as saying. “The meeting was presidential but aimed at consultation,” the TV network added.

Mikati says Syrian refugees pose danger to Lebanon's demographic balance
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
Over a thousand Syrian refugees each week fleeing to Lebanon from their country's worsening economic and financial conditions "could create harsh imbalances" in the small Mediterranean nation, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Thursday.
Over the past months, thousands of Syrian citizens made it to Lebanon through illegal crossing points seeking a better life. But Lebanon is going through its own four-year meltdown, with a drowning economy pinning its hopes on tourism and crumbling infrastructure where electricity and water cuts are widespread. In the early years after conflict broke out in Syria in March 2011, Lebanon received hundreds of thousands of refugees. That changed in later years, especially after Lebanon's economic crisis broke out in October 2019. The Syrian conflict has killed half a million people and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million, including more than 5 million Syrians who fled the country, mostly to neighboring countries. Refugees usually pay smugglers to bring them to Lebanon through the long, shared border. The Lebanese Army said in a statement Thursday that it prevented 1,200 Syrians from crossing into Lebanon this week alone. It said another 1,100 Syrians were prevented from reaching Lebanon the previous week. Speaking at the start of a caretaker Cabinet meeting Thursday in Beirut, Mikati said what is worrying about the influx in refugees is that most of them are young men and women.
"That threatens our entity's independence and could create harsh imbalances that could affect Lebanon's demographic balance," Mikati said. The demographic in question may be religious affiliation, as the vast majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims. Lebanon, known for its religious diversity in the region, has struggled to keep peace between its 18 religious sects. Today, Christians make up nearly a third of the population, while the other two-thirds are almost equally split between Shiites and Sunnis. Mikati said another Cabinet session will be held next week with the commander of the army and heads of security agencies to discuss refugees. Lebanon hosts some 805,000 United Nations-registered Syrian refugees, but officials estimate the actual number is far higher: between 1.5 million and 2 million. Issam Sharafeddine, Lebanon's caretaker minister of the displaced, told a local radio station that 8,000 Syrian refugees entered Lebanon through illegal crossing points since the beginning of August. He said 20,000 refugees have crossed since the beginning of the year. Living conditions are worsening in Syria, where inflation surged after President Bashar Assad's decision in August to double public sector wages and pensions. The crisis led to protests mostly in Sweida, the southern province that borders Jordan. Syria's economy has been struggling after years of conflict, corruption and mismanagement, and Western-led sanctions over accusations of government involvement in war crimes and the illicit narcotics trade. The U.N. estimates that about 90% of the population lives in poverty. The Syrian pound's value against the U.S. dollar declined to an all-time low of 15,000 pounds to the dollar in August. At the start of the conflict in 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds.

Berri awaits MPs feedback, says Geagea stance on dialogue 'regrettable'
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri seems to be very relieved, a week after he called for a seven-day dialogue, following which open presidential election sessions would be held, al-Liwaa newspaper reported Wednesday. The daily said that Berri is patiently waiting for the positions of the political forces to crystallize regarding the dialogue. "And if they don't want it, too bad for them," the daily quoted Berri as saying. While many MPs lauded berri's initiative, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel both rejected his 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 charged. He said that vacuum for years is better than a president supported by the "Axis of Defiance." "We will only accept a president who would embody our beliefs and aspirations." Berri expressed regret over Geagea's words. "All I can say is that I regret his stances," he said.

Mikati supports Berri's dialogue as cabinet convenes in 2 consecutive sessions
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
The caretaker cabinet convened Thursday morning at the Grand Serail to discuss, in two consecutive extraordinary sessions, "urgent" articles including the refugee crisis and the state budget. "We are carrying out our responsibilities and we're not confiscating power," caretaker Prime Minister Bajib Mikati said at the beginning of the session. The remarks are apparently a response to the Free Patriotic Movement's accusations that cabinet meetings are "unconstitutional". The FPM has long accused Mikati of violating the national pact and the constitution by holding cabinet sessions and issuing "non-urgent" decrees, amid a presidential void. Its ministers boycotted Thursday's sessions and have boycotted all the previous ones since the term of former president Michel Aoun ended last October, accusing Mikati of usurping the president’s powers. "We do not want to replace anyone," Mikati said, as he called for a swift election of a president, and called on parliamentary blocs to engage in dialogue.

Lebanon's cash economy: Challenges and efforts to reform
LBCI/September 7, 2023
When was the last time you could move around Lebanon and make purchases with just a debit card? Or seamlessly transfer funds from one bank to another or even pay with checks instead of carrying a stack of money? It has been about four years. Before the 2019 crisis, most financial transactions in Lebanon were conducted through banks. However, due to the loss of trust in the banking sector and the local currency, cash has taken over, leading to the dominance of the cash economy. In numbers, according to the World Bank, the size of the dollar-based cash economy reached approximately $9.9 billion in 2022, nearly half the size of Lebanon's economy. This represents a significant increase from 14 percent of the economy in 2020 and 27 percent in 2021. This upward trend poses tremendous risks to citizens, the country, and its economy. 1. Tax evasion becomes easier: With the prevalence of the cash economy, tax evasion becomes more convenient. For example, when companies and merchants conduct transactions in cash, they can underreport their income to the government. Therefore, the state treasury loses its tax revenues. Furthermore, since cash transactions occur outside the banking sector and lack documented records, auditing becomes challenging, increasing border smuggling and customs invoice fraud. 2. Facilitating money laundering: The cash economy facilitates the laundering of corrupt funds. For instance, it is difficult to trace the source of funds for illicit activities when transactions are conducted in cash. In contrast, banks must provide transparent records of the origins of funds for every transaction, complying with international anti-money laundering laws. This issue was one of the reasons Lebanon came close to being placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list before being granted a one-year extension to address its shortcomings. 3. Hindering economic growth: An economy heavily reliant on cash cannot quickly recover, grow, or create job opportunities. For example, obtaining loans for expanding businesses becomes much more challenging without a functioning banking sector.
4. Loss of Central Bank control: The central banks often intervene in markets through banks to regulate interest rates and stabilize exchange rates. However, the BDL has lost much influence due to the weakened banking sector. Worse still, its attempt to control the cash economy through the Sayrafa platform resulted in market chaos, increased speculation, and favored a select few who profited from the price difference between the platform and the parallel market. As a result, we are witnessing chaos, a lack of transparency, control, and the ability to track dollars. The international community has raised alarm bells about Lebanon's cash economy, leading to reluctance among foreign investors and financial institutions to engage with the country.
Can the state successfully combat the cash economy through laws and measures subject to international monitoring?

New trading platform: Lebanon introduces Bloomberg platform to regulate dollar transactions
LBCI/September 7, 2023
Importers have long sourced their dollars from the market in Lebanon. However, with the launch of the Bloomberg trading platform for foreign currencies, specifically the US dollar and the Lebanese lira, through banks, the purchase of dollars for imports will gradually be restricted to this new platform.
According to Banque du Liban (BDL) sources, banks will find it more reassuring to handle funds that enter their systems through Bloomberg. They will likely avoid dealing with funds not coming through this platform. According to these sources, working on the Bloomberg platform will also expose some speculators in the Lebanese lira's exchange rate. For instance, if someone wants to buy dollars, they must display the desired buying rate compared to the market rate. The Bloomberg platform will display the three lowest rates for buying dollars, while the highest rate will not be visible to all but those who manage the platform. This measure could potentially allow monetary and judicial authorities to investigate why someone is offering to buy dollars at an unusually high rate. Moreover, BDL sources emphasized that the effort to reduce the cash economy did not begin with the introduction of the Bloomberg platform. They clarified that it is not solely due to American requests in this regard but because BDL recognizes the risks posed by a cash-based economy to the country's overall economy and the Lebanese currency. Demand for reducing and regulating this cash economy is a global requirement, with requests coming not only from the United States but also from European, Arab, and Asian nations.

Govt. agrees to replacing Sayrafa platform with Bloomberg-based one
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
The caretaker Cabinet on Thursday approved a decision by the country’s financial authorities to replace the Sayrafa currency exchange platform with one based on the international Bloomberg platform. Asked whether the new platform “has been requested by the international community,” caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari told reporters that no such move has been requested from Lebanon. “It will replace the Sayrafa platform and it had to go through Cabinet,” he clarified. Asked when the new platform will become operational, Makari said: “When the resolution is issued” in the official gazette. Acting central bank governor Wassim Mansouri has said that “the platform will be through Bloomberg’s own trading platform.”The central bank currently has its own exchange platform, known as Sayrafa, which it said it would be phasing out after concerns about transparency and unsustainability.

Second wave of displacement: The Cabinet addresses growing concerns over refugee crisis
LBCI/September 7, 2023
In response to the increasing severity of the second wave of displacement, the Cabinet has decided to convene a special session to address this crisis. This decision comes after some proposed referring the matter to the ministerial committee responsible for displaced individuals. Notably, the Social Affairs Minister, Hector Hajjar, who boycotted all Cabinet sessions, has expressed his readiness to attend a session with a single agenda item - the displacement file. Ministers have voiced their unanimous concerns over the security risks associated with the influx of displaced individuals, with the recent events in Nahr al-Bared and Ain al-Hilweh never far from their minds. The concern is the entry of significant numbers of young people, which raises fears of their potential involvement in terrorist groups. Reports suggest their sheltering in camps, further intensifying these apprehensions. Therefore, these security concerns and others will be thoroughly examined and discussed with the leaders of the security agencies in the upcoming session. The Displaced Minister elaborated upon the significant number of individuals entering the country illegally, in the thousands, and the need to increase the number of security personnel along the Lebanese-Syrian border from 8,000 to 40,000. He emphasized the necessity of forming a committee to visit Syria, not only to repatriate the displaced but also to secure the borders, as this requires security cooperation between Lebanon and Syria. What is noteworthy is the warning the Health Minister, Firas Abiad, issued regarding the arrival of individuals who entered the country illegally and are injured due to smuggling or other reasons. These individuals are treated in government hospitals, especially in the north, where they receive medical care for humanitarian reasons while their hospital bills remain unsettled. Abiad called for the ministerial committee to discuss this matter with the UNHCR to find a solution, as government hospitals are already incapable of treating Lebanese citizens, let alone bearing these additional costs.

Nassar honors Rodge: Amr Diab concert returned Lebanon to tourism map
Naharnet/September 7, 2023
Caretaker Tourism Minister Walid Nassar has honored prominent Lebanese music producer and DJ Rodge over his achievements in the field of music and concerts in Lebanon and the world, offering him a memorial shield. Nassar said that he wanted to honor Rodge “at the building of the Ministry of Tourism, not anywhere else,” noting that the Lebanese producer “has become famous internationally as well as locally and an icon of entertainment and musical culture as part of the entertainment tourism that Lebanon is known for.”Nassar also lauded Amr Diab’s latest concert in Lebanon which featured Rodge as a DJ, announcing that “it put Lebanon back on the Arab and international tourism map.” “The impact of this huge concert is still resonating across the entire Arab world in light of the large numbers of attendees, and this is due to the success of this concert’s organizers,” the minister added, noting that DJ Rodge played a key role in the concert’s success. Nassar also noted that Rodge had taken part in Shakira’s 2011 concert in Lebanon. “Although we are going through bad economic circumstances and a political crisis, we pride ourselves in such young talents in Lebanon, and it is our mission to support individuals such as Rodge,” the minister added. Rodge for his part said he is proud to be Lebanese, noting that “the culture of Lebanese music and life has no equal in the world.” He also said that Nassar’s honoring of him gives him motivation to achieve further success, thanking the minister and any person who might help him in what he is doing.

Berri tackles developments with Ain Al-Tineh visitors
NNA/September 7, 2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Thursday welcomed at his Ain al-Tineh residence United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, who briefed the House Speaker on a number of humanitarian projects supported by the United Nations in Lebanon. Speaker Berri also discussed the country’s political developments and general situation, especially the presidential election, with former Deputy House Speaker, Elie Ferzli. Berri then welcomed a delegation from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which included the party's leader, former Minister Asaad Hardan, with whom he discussed the general situation and the latest political developments.

Journalist Maryam Majdoline Al-Laham’s dossier referred to Narcotics Control Bureau
NNA/September 7, 2023
Court of Cassation Advocate-General, Judge Ghassan Khoury, on Thursday referred journalist Maryam Majdoline Al-Laham’s dossier to the Narcotics Control Bureau after a marijuana cigarette was found in her house. It is to note that Judge Knoury had issued earlier on Thursday a decision to release journalist Maryam Majdoline Al-Laham, after her arrested over an investigative publication that reveals corruption within spiritual courts.

Lebanese Official: UNIFIL's Presence In Lebanon Is Pointless If It Does Not Perform Its Duty But Rather Serves Hizbullah
MEMRI/September 07/2023
Lebanon | Special Dispatch No. 10785
On August 31, 2023, as it does every year in late August, the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 2695 extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). In the weeks leading up to the vote, hectic discussions took place, involving the UNSC members, Lebanon and Israel, in attempt to agree on the language of the clause that defines the scope of UNIFIL's authority and freedom of movement. The Lebanese side sought to curtail the freedom of this force, which is tasked with overseeing the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1701 (2006), namely with ensuring that the area south of the Litani river is free of personnel and weapons of Hizbullah and other militias.
In last year's resolution extending UNIFIL's mandate (Resolution 2650), the U.S. managed to introduce a new clause stating that UNIFIL "does not require prior authorization or permission to undertake its mandated tasks and that UNIFIL is authorized to conduct its operation independently."[1] The introduction of this clause enraged Lebanese elements, chief of them Hizbullah. They called it a "dangerous" change and a form of "aggression" or "playing with fire" that transforms UNIFIL into an "occupying force" and legitimizes action against it.[2]
This year, the Lebanese demanded to omit this clause, whereas Israel demanded to keep it. The U.S., the UAE and several other UNSC members sided with Israel and firmly rejected the Lebanese demand to remove the clause.[3] Eventually, the language quoted above was left in place, but with an additional sentence, stating that UNIFIL is authorized to conduct its operation independently " while continuing to coordinate with the Government of Lebanon, as per the SOFA."[4]
After the resolution was passed, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib said that, although Lebanon "did not get everything it wanted," it is nevertheless committed to international resolutions, including this one. He added that, in the last 12 months, nothing in UNIFIL's conduct indicated that there had been any change in the scope of its authority, which is "a point in its favor."[5]
These remarks echo statements made by Lebanon's foreign ministry after the passing of last years' resolution extending UNIFIL's mandate. Back then, the ministry announced that it had agreed with UNIFIL's commander that there would be no change in UNIFIL's activity, and that the force would continue to operate "in coordination and cooperation" with the Lebanese security forces.[6] The upshot is that, despite the new clause that the U.S. and its allies in the UNSC managed to add to the resolution in an attempt to strengthen UNIFIL's authority, in practice the force continues to operate as though no change has been made, and coordinates its activity with the Lebanese army and with other Lebanese authorities. The reason is presumably UNIFIL's concern that, if it acts with complete independence, its troops will be exposed to deadly attacks by Hizbullah and its local supporters, as has occurred several times in the past. The most recent incident was less than a year ago and resulted in the death of an Irish UNIFIL soldier. [7]
Indeed, elements in Hizbullah and in the pro-Hizbullah media warned UNIFIL after the passing of the resolution that, if it did not continue to coordinate with the army and maintain good relations with the locals in South Lebanon, it could face anger from the locals.[8]
The issue of UNIFIL's authority and freedom of action has also been very prominent in the Lebanese public discourse. Ahead of this year's vote to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, Hizbullah elements, chief of them the head of the organization, Hassan Nasrallah, demanded to correct "last year's mistake" by removing the new clause strengthening UNIFIL’s authority, calling it a flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty. Nasrallah claimed that the U.S. "wants the UNIFIL forces to serve as spies for Israel," and clarified that, if the clause was left in place, it would be treated as "mere ink on paper." He added that the people of South Lebanon would not allow to implement a UN resolution that the Lebanese government opposed.[9] Elements close to Hizbullah reiterated this message. Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor of the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar, for example, wrote that "the representatives of the UNSC member states have been clearly informed that neither official Lebanon nor the Lebanese people will agree to a resolution that gives UNIFIL freedom of movement without needing to coordinate with the Armed Forces. If the West continues to threaten to remove UNIFIL from South Lebanon, the answer will be simple and direct: It should go and not return!"[10]
Conversely, Lebanese elements opposed to Hizbullah called to leave the clause in place, in order to enable UNIFIL to perform its duties effectively. Articles in the anti-Hizbullah press wondered what good UNIFIL can do if it lacks authority and if the people of South Lebanon prevent it from performing its duties, and when Hizbullah, on the other hand, is given free reign by the Lebanese government to do as it pleases south of the Litani river.
One of these articles, published in the daily Al-Jumhouriyya three days before the passing of the resolution, was by Charles Jabbour, head of the media and communications department of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces party, known for its opposition to Hizbullah. Titled "What's the Point of Extending UNIFIL's Mandate?", the article slams the international community and the UNSC for ignoring the non-implementation of UN resolutions, especially Resolution 1701, which bans the presence of any weapons and armed personnel south of the Litani excerpt for those of the Lebanese Armed Forces. In this situation, he wrote, the UNSC and UNIFIL have become a fig leaf for Hizbullah's illegal activity and in fact serve this organization instead of restraining it. UNIFIL's presence is thus pointless and even harmful, and it would be better if it left, he said.
The following are translated excerpts from Jabbour's article:[11]
"…On August 31, the Security Council will debate extending UNIFIL's [mandate] at the behest of the Lebanese government. This is a farce [that is repeated] every year...
"What is the practical and essential difference between reaffirming the clause that [grants] 'freedom of movement to UNIFIL's troops and their vehicles [even] without the accompaniment or permission of the [Lebanese] Armed Forces,' as in [the resolution] passed last year [in 2022],[12] and removing this clause and going back to the earlier version? What is the practical import of this clause in terms of UNIFIL's tasks? In practice, it changes nothing. [UNIFIL's] task stayed the same, both before and after it was granted this freedom of movement…
"What is the point of being firm about the language [of the resolution] and at the same time being tolerant of [violations] on the ground – or, more accurately, lacking commitment to this language, especially to what is said in Resolution 1701, which explicitly demands '[the establishment] between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL deployed in this area'[?]
“The international community, which is debating the extension of UNIFIL's mandate, knows better than anyone that this clause of Resolution 1701 is not implemented and that Hizbullah is present in this area, both above and below the ground, by means of the people of the region and in other ways. [This] policy of deception harms the [international] community, which is cementing this reality and turning a blind eye to the facts and to the real situation.
"Clause 3 of Resolution 1701 speaks of 'the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 and resolution 1680, and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon.' Is this clause implemented?
"I will not elaborate on the evidence that the UN resolutions are not being implemented… But if the international community is unable to implement its resolutions, it must not [do the opposite] instead, and serve the element that prevents their implementation [i.e., Hizbullah]. The scenarios [described in the media] – involving [various] drafts, secrets behind the scenes, and firm positions [taken by the West in negotiations over the language of the resolution] – give the Lebanese the impression that the countries responsible for taking the resolution want to support them and to support their country – which is completely untrue.
"What happened after the death of the Irish [UNIFIL] soldier in December 2022 was a huge scandal, and UNIFIL covered it up even begore the Lebanese state did so. The action taken against [UNIFIL's] Irish unit conveyed the clear message that these forces must stick to their areas [of deployment] or else face the same fate. The message was understood, and the international forces acted accordingly…
"It would be more useful and dignified if the UNSC withdraws the international forces from South Lebanon, which have become like a referee without a whistle, whose task is limited to spewing rhetoric [in an attempt] to curb [the sides] and to counting their violations. What good is a referee who cannot show a red card to a player or manage the game between the two teams?
"The side that derives benefit from UNIFIL is neither Lebanon nor the Lebanese people, but rather Hizbullah, for whom UNIFIL serves as an international fig leaf…
"As for the $600 million paid every year to continue UNFIL's [operations], the Lebanese people is a more deserving recipient for them, in light of the unprecedented collapse caused by the array of weapons and corruption in Lebanon, and especially if this money goes to [UNIFIL] forces that do not perform their task according to Resolution 1701…
"The ongoing discussions in the corridors of the UN on [various] amendments and versions [of the resolution] do not interest the Lebanese people or help it in any way. They are just a charade, just like the charade of the [purported] confrontation between Hizbullah and Israel.
"It's sad that the international community is becoming a fig leaf for Hizbullah – just like France, which is interested only in appeasing the 'resistance' [in all matters], starting with the issue of [UNIFIL], out of a desire to keep its [UNIFIL] soldiers safe, and culminating in its endorsement of the [presidential] candidate favored by the resistance axis out of concern for [France’s] own interests.[13]
"If the international community cares about the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese people, the best decision the Security Council can take is to oppose extending UNIFIL's [mandate]. Otherwise it will continue to serve the 'resistance' and its plans. [The Security Council] is wrong to suppose that, by taking a firm stance [regarding the language of the resolution]… it will be able to convince the Lebanese people that it is looking out for their interests and implementing Resolution 1701. The Security Council must either follow this resolution to the letter, or else declare that it is withdrawing the international forces [from Lebanon] because it is unable to implement the resolution. But maintaining the present situation serves the resistance in a deep and essential way, and is tantamount to deceiving the Lebanese people.
"It is time to end… the so-called annual extension of UNIFIL's [mandate]. There is no point in extending it. On the contrary, the interest of the Lebanese people will be better served by ending the mission of these forces."
[1] Securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s-res-2650.pdf, August 31, 2022.
[2] See MEMRI JTTM Report, Hizbullah Escalates Its Threats To UNIFIL Following UN Resolution To Extend Its Mandate For Another Year And Expand Its Authority, September 13, 2022.
[3] Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), September 1, 2023.
[4] SOFA is the agreement between the Lebanese government and the UN on UNIFIL's status in Lebanon. It should be noted that this resolution, like last year's, also "condemns in the strongest terms all attempts to deny access or restrict the freedom of movement of UNIFIL’s personnel and all attacks on UNIFIL personnel and equipment," and "calls on the Government of Lebanon to facilitate UNIFIL’s prompt and full access to sites requested by UNIFIL for the purpose of swift investigation, including all locations of interest [and] all relevant locations north of the Blue Line related to the discovery of tunnels crossing the Blue Line which UNIFIL reported as a violation of resolution 1701." Unifil.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/res_2695_2023_e.pdf, August 31, 2023.
[5] Al-Liwa' (Lebanon), September 1, 2023.
[6] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), September 11, 2022.
[7] On December 14, 2022, two UNFIL armored vehicles entered the South Lebanon village of Al-Aqbieh. In clashes that developed with the villagers, fire was opened on the forces, killing an Irish UNIFIL soldier and wounding three others. Many in Lebanon held Hizbullah responsible for the incident, if only indirectly. The organization itself denied the allegations and conveyed its condolences to UNIFIL. See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10390 - Lebanese Journalists: Hizbullah Responsible For Death Of Irish UNIFIL Soldier – December 22, 2022. Several days later Hizbullah arrested a number of locals on suspicion of involvement in the incident, and even handed one of them over to the Lebanese Armed Forces (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 24, 2022).
In early June, a Lebanese court charged five people with the deliberate murder of the Irish soldier and the wounding of his three comrades. Several media reports claimed that the five were affiliated with Hizbullah (apnews.com, June 1, 2023). The organization, however, was quick to deny this, and, according to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, UNIFIL's commander also expressed doubt about it (Apnews.com, June 1, 2023; alaraby.co.uk, June 2, 2023; Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), June 10, 2023).
[8] Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), September 4, 2023,
[9] Alahednews.com.lb, August 29, 2023.
[10] Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), August 29, 2023.
[11] Al-Jumhouriyya (Lebanon), August 28, 2023.
[12] This is not an accurate quote of the relevant clause of Resolution 2650.
[13] In the recent months France has been involved in attempts to reach an agreement between the various sides in Lebanon on the identity of the country's next president. As part of this, it endorsed the candidate proposed by Hizbullah, namely Suleiman Frangieh, head of the Marada Movement – a move that drew criticism from the Lebanese camp opposed to Hizbullah.
https://www.memri.org/reports/lebanese-official-unifils-presence-lebanon-pointless-if-it-does-not-perform-its-duty-rather

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 07-08/2023
New fighting in eastern Syria ‘risks re-emergence of Daesh’
Arab News/September 07, 2023
JEDDAH: Fighting between rival militias that has killed at least 90 people in eastern Syria risks the re-emergence of Daesh in the region, analysts warned on Thursday. The violence began a week ago when Arab tribal fighters rebelled against the Kurdish-led in Syrian Democratic Forces Deir Ezzor last week, the first such uprising since Daesh were driven out more than four years ago. The terrorists lost their last sliver of land in eastern Syria in 2019, but fugitive cells hiding in the region have continued low-level attacks, killing dozens over the years. The latest clashes in Deir Ezzor “present an opportunity for Daesh cells that nest in the Euphrates River valley to emerge,” said Myles Caggins, senior fellow at the New Lines Institute, a think tank in Washington. Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG and including Arab fighters, the SDF led the fight against Daesh. It governs about a quarter of Syria, including valuable oil fields. But Arab residents have complained that the Kurdish-led provincial administration in Deir Ezzor discriminates against them and denies them their share of oil wealth. In an effort to reduce tension, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces offered on Thursday to meet Arab tribal demands in eastern Syria and fix “mistakes” he said had been made in administering the region. Commander Mazloum Abdi said he had met tribal leaders and would honor their request to release dozens of local fighters who had been detained as the SDF quelled the unrest. “We have a decision to issue a general amnesty for those involved,” he said. “We already released half who were arrested, and we will release the rest.”Abdi promised to host a meeting with Arab tribal notables and other representatives from Deir Ezzor to address longstanding grievances from education and the economy to security. “There are gaps, and there were mistakes on the ground,” he said. Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG and including Arab fighters, the SDF led the fight against Daesh. It governs about a quarter of Syria, including valuable oil fields. Abdi pledged to restructure both the civilian council governing the province and the Deir Ezzor Military Council to make them more “representative of all the tribes and components in Deir Ezzor.”He said: “We are open to all criticisms, we will study them all and we will overcome them ... and the result will be the return of SDF with all its components in an even stronger way.”

Israel, Germany Blast Palestinian Leader’s Latest Antisemitic Rant
FDD/September 07/2023
Latest Developments
The September 6 surfacing of an antisemitic speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas drew swift condemnation from Israel and Germany. Addressing the Fatah Revolutionary Council on August 24, Abbas asserted that Hitler persecuted the Jews not because of their ethnicity or religion but because of their “social role,” which he described as including “usury.” He further repeated the antisemitic theory that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazari converts and are therefore neither Semites nor subject to antisemitism. The televised remarks were republished by the media monitoring service MEMRI.
“Just as Abbas blames the Jews for the Holocaust, he also blames the Jews for all the Middle East’s issues,” said Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Such incitement, Erdan argued, encourages Palestinian terrorism, such as a September 6 attack by a teenager wielding a cleaver outside Jerusalem’s Old City that resulted in three wounded.
In a separate statement of condemnation, German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert called Abbas’ rant “an insult to the memory of millions of murdered men, women and children. The Palestinians deserve to hear the historical truth from their leader, not such distortions.”
Expert Analysis
“This is horrible déjà vu from a Palestinian leader who, in a PhD dissertation, trivialized the Holocaust. In recent years, he also reworked an antisemitic blood libel by alleging, during a speech to the European parliament, that Israeli rabbis had proposed poisoning Palestinian water. Many questions have been asked about Abbas’ statutory fitness to rule, 18 years after he was elected to the presidency. No less pressing should be the questions of his moral and mental fitness.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO
“In an environment closely watched and chronicled by journalists from around the world, overt Palestinian antisemitism is somehow poorly documented. News gathering remains lopsided in this crowded space.” — Jonathan Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President for Research
“Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian politics in the West Bank, has a sizeable corps of international journalists and diplomats. Yet it seems no foreign media deigned to record or report Abbas’ appalling canards when they were first made in full view of an audience and TV cameras. The press and international community consistently turn a blind eye to the antisemitism that is rife in Palestinian society, media, and textbooks and then wonder why Palestinian children murder Jews. This episode is an example of the soft bigotry of low expectations that contribute to Palestinian intransigence.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network

Israel's shekel falls as judicial showdown looms
Maayan Lubell/JERUSALEM, (Reuters)/September 7, 2023
Israel's shekel dropped to its lowest level in more than three years on Thursday amid concerns that a judicial crisis besetting the country was deepening, with compromise efforts stalled and a key Supreme Court hearing days away. Reaching 3.84 against a strengthening dollar, the shekel was at its lowest since March 2020, when it slumped relatively briefly at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel. At the Sept. 12 Supreme Court hearing, the entire 15-judge bench will hear an appeal for the first time in Israeli history, against a judicial amendment that curbs some of its own powers, passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition in July. There had been hope this week that President Isaac Herzog may forge a compromise between Netanyahu and his political rivals over the premier's contested plan, but his efforts appear to have failed. "With a lack of agreements and the court hearing approaching during a month of legal proceedings, the markets are concerned about a constitutional crisis," said Chief Markets Economist at United Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Ronen Menachem. Netanyahu, who says the changes are meant to balance a Supreme Court that has become too interventionist, has been hazy when asked whether he would abide by a ruling that would quash the new law. His nationalist-religious coalition in January launched its campaign to overhaul the justice system, sparking unprecedented protests and sending the shekel down around 10% as Western allies voiced concern for the health of Israel's democracy. "Over the past year the shekel was one of the weakest currencies among the comparison currencies, while only the Russian rouble and the Turkish lira demonstrated weaker performances," Bank Leumi said in its weekly report. Affected by the political developments, the shekel's short-term performance will be difficult to predict, Leumi said. Should a judicial compromise be reached it could go up, said Menachem. The Bank of Israel has cautioned that further weakening could push up inflation and warrant more rate hikes. A source in Netanyahu's coalition said that if compromises are not reached, the government "within days or weeks" might still present a scaled back version of the original plan. (Additional reporting by Steve Scheer in Tel Aviv; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch and John Stonestreet)

Palestinian wounds 2 people in stabbing attack outside Jerusalem's Old City
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
A Palestinian youth has stabbed two people, moderately wounding one of them, in an attack outside a main entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem, authorities said. Israeli police said the teen carried out the attack near Jaffa Gate after getting off a bus. The suspect, a 17-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem, was caught and arrested after a short chase. His name was not immediately released. Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center said a 56-year-old man was being treated for stab wounds to his face, neck and hand. Dr. Shaden Salameh-Youssef, head of the emergency department at the hospital's Mount Scopus branch, said the man was moderately wounded but awake and in stable condition. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said a 17-year-old boy was lightly injured with a stabbing wound in the stomach. He was hospitalized. Jaffa Gate is one of the main entrances to the Old City, flanking the Armenian, Christian and Muslim quarters, and is typically crowded with tourists. The Old City, the emotional epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a frequent flashpoint of violence, Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with its holy sites to the three monotheistic faiths, in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by most of the international community. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas also captured in 1967. Israel considers the whole city to be its capital. The attack occurred during one of the worst bouts of violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem over the past 20 years. Over 180 Palestinians have been killed this year, with nearly half of them affiliated with militant groups. Israel says most of those killed were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli military incursions as well as people not involved in the confrontations have also died. More than 30 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Palestinian fishermen decry Israel's ban on Gaza exports as collective punishment
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)/September 7, 2023
Israel closed the main commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip, effectively banning exports from the coastal territory after saying it had uncovered explosives in a shipment of clothes to the occupied West Bank. Gaza’s fishermen, with their perishable exports, were among the first to feel the pain. The new restrictions choke off the territory’s already ailing economy. They come on top of the punishing 16-year blockade that Israel and Egypt have maintained since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the enclave in 2007. The blockade, which Israel says is needed to prevent Hamas from arming, severely limits the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. Israel closed the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing late on Monday after saying it had discovered explosives hidden in a shipment of Zara jeans and other clothing bound for the West Bank — one of the main markets for Gaza's tiny export sector. Israeli officials fear the explosives were bound for Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israel has not said when the crossing will reopen. Palestinian fishermen, businessmen and rights advocates condemned Israel’s latest measure as a form of collective punishment against Gaza’s 2 million people, including tens of thousands of laborers who heavily depend on exports to Israel and the West Bank to stay afloat. Nearly all the goods that enter and exit Gaza pass through Kerem Shalom. Gaza's 4,000 fishermen, with their perishable exports, condemned the ban. “Now I can’t make a living,” said Khalid al-Laham, 35, from his bare home in the southern town of Khan Younis as his five children scurried around him. “I have to borrow food from the shops.”
The struggle also has reached Gaza’s wealthiest traders.
“Fish are completely different from any product, it’s sensitive,” said Mohammed Abu Hasira, a 38-year-old owner of a popular Gazan fish restaurant near the Mediterranean. “They should punish those who are at fault. Why are we being punished with them?”Abu Hasira’s plans to export truckloads of seafood on Thursday were thwarted by the Israeli decision, he said. Within moments, his profits evaporated and costs skyrocketed. Overall, the measure has caused 26 tons of fish to rot and resulted in $300,000 in weekly losses, Gaza’s main fishermen’s union said. The restrictions represented a reversal of recent Israeli military moves to ease the blockade to relieve economic pressure on Gaza to prevent tensions from boiling over into another bloody conflict. Israel now allows some 21,000 Gazan laborers to enter Israel for work, and in July, Israel issued hundreds more permits. Over 90% more people left the strip than during the same time last year, according to the United Nations humanitarian office. But now Gaza’s 4,000 fishermen and others affected by the Israeli measure said they’ve again been subsumed into a larger political struggle that has nothing to do with them.
Israel says the closure was intended to deter militants from sneaking explosives through the crossing and to press the strip’s Hamas rules to crack down on the smuggling.
“The defense establishment will not allow terror organizations to take advantage of civilian and humanitarian facilities,” Israel’s defense ministry said. But the move, rights groups said, also laid bare Israel’s inability to provide an effective answer to the security incidents and to address Gaza’s underlying problems.
“Instead of finding proportionate and reasonable measures, it just imposes sweeping measures and punitive closings,” said Miriam Marmur, a spokeswoman for Gisha, an Israeli human rights group. Under the blockade, Gaza’s businessmen have grappled with what they describe as exasperating bureaucratic controls and routine indignities. Fishermen say their struggle reflects how the blockade has damaged a vital part of Gaza’s economy. In July, fish accounted for 6% of all exports, according to the U.N. The restrictions have prevented them from importing engines, fiberglass, and other materials needed to repair their dilapidated boats. The naval blockade limits how far out into the Mediterranean Sea the fishermen can go – and how much and what type of fish they can catch. If they drift too close to the boundaries, they risk being shot at or having their boats seized by the Israeli navy. In an upscale tower just blocks away from the seaport, Muhammad al-Ghussein, an engineer and spokesperson for the Palestinian Businessmen Association, said all merchants in Gaza shared the fishermen's concerns. “Halting exports is like dealing a fatal blow to a sector that’s already dying,” he said.

War-torn Sudan's army chief meets Qatar ruler in diplomatic push
AFP/September 7, 2023
Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met Qatar's emir on Thursday during his third trip abroad since war broke out in April, after also visiting Egypt and South Sudan in recent days. Burhan, whose troops are fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), had spent months under seige inside the military headquarters in Khartoum and stayed in conflict-hit Sudan until late August. In Doha, he received a red carpet welcome and discussed "the latest developments in the situation and challenges facing Sudan" with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said a Qatari royal court statement.
Burhan left Doha on Thursday afternoon, the official Qatar News Agency said. The war between Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed at least 5,000 people, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project. Late on Wednesday, Burhan issued a decree dissolving the RSF, while the United States slapped sanctions on senior commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo, the brother of the paramilitary leader. Sudan's ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said in a statement the decree was "based on the repercussions of these forces' rebellion against the state, the grave violations they committed against citizens, and the deliberate sabotage of the country's infrastructure". Rights campaigners have blamed the RSF and allied Arab militias for reported atrocities including rape, looting and the mass killings of ethnic minorities, primarily in the restive western region of Darfur. The army has also been accused of abuses, including reports of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas with RSF presence. Burhan made his first foray outside the military headquarters last month and has visited regional allies in recent weeks.
Since leaving the capital Khartoum, he has been based in Port Sudan, an eastern city that has been spared the fighting. Government officials and the United Nations have similarly relocated to the coastal city which hosts Sudan's only functioning airport.--

Iran fears Israel will soon normalize ties with more Muslim countries - analysis
Seth J. Frentzman/Jerusalem Post/September 07/2023
Iran thinks that by ingratiating itself with countries like Saudi Arabia, it might set back the trend of normalization with Israel. Iran’s Foreign Ministry is concerned it is unable to prevent more countries from normalizing ties with Israel. This sentiment appeared to be the main thrust of the comments by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson and reports in Iranian pro-regime media on Tuesday. The reports said Iran slammed Israel’s foreign minister for his trip to Bahrain this week. The ministry said the “failed fate of numerous plans for reconciliation and normalization of the relations of some countries in the region with the Zionist regime can be a lesson for others.”In a second report in Iran’s Fars News, considered pro-regime and close to the IRGC, the Iranians also expressed concern over reports that Israel has contacts with other Muslim countries around the world. The report mentioned Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and others. This comes in the wake of the controversy over the meeting between Israel’s and Libya’s foreign ministers. It also comes as Iran and Saudi Arabia have recently reconciled and sent new ambassadors back and forth. Iran seeks to set back the Abraham Accords trendز This means that Iran thinks that by ingratiating itself with countries like Saudi Arabia it might set back the trend of normalization that began with the Abraham Accords. The comments by the Iranian media and foreign ministry express concern that Iran’s diplomatic offensive in the region isn’t enough to reduce Israel’s influence in the region and globally. As such Iran knows that it cannot create a zero-sum game, and that countries will not have to choose between Iran and Israel. Iran is paying attention to what is happening in the days leading up to the third anniversary of the Abraham Accords.

Kremlin Loses the Plot as U.S. Sends Oligarchs’ Cash to Ukraine
Allison Quinn/The Daily Beast./September 7, 2023
The Kremlin is apparently seeing red after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that Washington will be sending $5.4 million seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs to Ukrainian veterans.
Just a day after Moscow’s forces killed 16 civilians at a crowded Ukrainian market in the Donetsk region, Vladimir Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was suddenly deeply offended by the “lawlessness” of Kremlin-connected businessmen losing their money.
“We consider all cases tied to the blocking, seizure, or other retention of any funds related to state, private, or mixed property of the Russian Federation abroad to be illegal acts. Of course, any claims that they managed to find justification for the continuation of this lawlessness are absolute legal nonsense, and in any case, they will lead one way or another to litigation in the future,” Peskov told reporters Thursday, according to TASS. “Not a single such case of illegal retention will go unanswered,” he said, complaining of the “egregious fact” that Russian businessmen and the Russian government, according to him, have their “rights infringed” in courts overseas. While the U.S. State Department has not disclosed exactly whose confiscated assets are being handed over to Ukrainian vets, the figure cited matches the amount ordered seized from oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev earlier this year. Malofeyev, the founder of the rabidly pro-Kremlin “Tsargrad” news outlet, was indicted by U.S. prosecutors for evading sanctions and “using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe.”Blinken, in announcing the move in Kyiv on Wednesday, noted that it’s the first time funds confiscated from Kremlin allies are being redirected to Ukraine. “Those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it,” he said.

Russian generals can just 'withdraw their tanks' if they're worried about Ukraine's new depleted-uranium ammo, US official says
Sinéad Baker/Business Insider/September 7, 2023
The US announced on Wednesday that it is sending depleted-uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine. Russia responded angrily, saying the move was an "indicator of inhumanity."A US official said: "If Russia has an issue with that, they can withdraw their tanks from Ukraine."Russia can pull its tanks from Ukraine if it's unhappy with the US sending depleted-uranium rounds to Ukraine, a US official told Politico. The official was responding to Russia's complaints over the US announcement that it would send Ukraine tank rounds with depleted uranium. "What really is happening is that Russia simply doesn't want to see Ukraine with tanks and more effective tank rounds that could be lethal against Russian tanks," the official, who was granted anonymity because the topic is sensitive, said. "If Russia has an issue with that, they can withdraw their tanks from Ukraine," they added. The official also said that Russia is preparing to spread propaganda that the rounds aren't safe, despite Russia also having them in its stockpile. The Biden administration announced plans on Wednesday to give Ukraine 120 mm ammunition made from depleted uranium, alongside other weaponry.
The ammunition, for American-made M1 Abrams tanks, which are yet to arrive in Ukraine, can penetrate armor and also ignite the insides of vehicles, Insider's Jake Epstein reported. Russia reacted angrily to the news, with the Russian embassy in Washington posting on Telegram that "the administration's decision to supply weapons with depleted uranium is an indicator of inhumanity," according to Al Jazeera's translation. It said that firing the weapons results in the "formation of a moving radioactive cloud" that can cause cancer. But US officials say there is no radioactive threat, citing the UN nuclear watchdog, which says that depleted-uranium residues dispersed in the environment "does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions," Politico reported. The US military has been making weapons from depleted uranium for decades, but the US debated for months about sending the ammunition to Ukraine, worried about some environmental and health impacts, The Wall Street Journal reported. The UK has already sent Ukraine some of the ammunition for use in UK-supplied Challenger tanks, angering Russia. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby pushed back on Russia's anger at the time, telling reporters in March that "this kind of ammunition is fairly commonplace." "I think what's really going on here is Russia just doesn't want Ukraine to continue to take out its tanks and — and render them inoperative," he said.

Ukraine 'in deep trouble': Some experts say $1B more from US won't matter. Live updates
John Bacon/USA TODAY/ September 07/2023
A new defense minister, an encouraging visit from the U.S. secretary of state and another $1 billion in aid have fueled optimism in Ukraine this week. But will they have an impact on the war? Ukraine and U.S. officials says yes. Some experts are not convinced.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a briefing Wednesday in Kyiv where Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled a $1 billion aid package, said anyone who believes Ukraine and the U.S. won't stand together "till the end of the victory, today they ... received a new signal that they are wrong."
Blinken was equally positive, saying that progress with Ukraine's counteroffensive has accelerated in the past few weeks and that the new aid package "will help sustain it and build further momentum."
Steven Myers, a former Air Force veteran, State Department advisory panel member and Russia expert, says the Biden administration "party line" is that Ukraine is winning and that Russia must yield to the West or become a "vassal of China." Myers says new Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, a Blinken pat on the back and the latest aid package won't dramatically alter Ukraine's struggle against its far-bigger neighbor. "There is no effective counterstrategy available to the Ukrainians," Myers said. "The Ukrainians are in deep trouble."
Myers told USA TODAY the Ukrainians use "pin pricks" and news about taking back land to demonstrate progress to the West − but are less transparent about the cost in Ukrainian lives. "They don’t talk about the counterstrikes by the Russians, who don’t care about gaining or holding ground in the kill zone and are experts at laying traps," he said. Ukrainian forays into Russian territory usually result in drones smashing high-rise windows in Moscow. A Russian rocket attack Wednesday the eastern Ukraine city of Kostiantynivka struck a downtown market, killing 17 civilians hours after Blinken arrived in Kyiv. Ukraine and the West badly need an exit strategy, Myers said.
"Europe is in more economic trouble than we are. Germany’s in deep recession," Myers said. "The Europeans are not going to shoulder more economic burden. They need an off-ramp." Sean McFate, a professor at Syracuse University and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council think tank, aligns with Myers. He supports the change in defense ministers, saying corruption claims forced the issue. But that won't change the course of the war, he said. McFate says the U.S. relied on conventional warfare tactics in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan − and lost. Yet the U.S. has not changed tactics in Ukraine, he says. Russia made the same mistakes early in Ukraine with its ill-fated blitz toward Kyiv, McFate told USA TODAY. Now the Kremlin is relying on more modern tools of war, he said, such as controlling information and mercenary troops.
"Things are going nowhere for Ukraine," McFate said. "Wars are no longer won like World War II by taking the enemy’s land, killing their troops and flying your flag over their capital." When will Ukraine join NATO? Russian military fortifications may hold the answer.
Developments:
∎ About 90% of Ukrainian prisoners of war have been tortured, raped, threatened with sexual violence or otherwise abused, Ukraine's prosecutor general said in a statement. Andriy Kostin said he discussed intensifying efforts to halt the unlawful practices with UN Alice Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture.
∎An armed Ukrainian drone crashed in the Volgograd region of Russia near the defense ministry's southern district logistics center, local media reported. No damage or injuries were reported.
∎The Ukrainian Air Force posted video on Telegram of what it said was a German-supplied Gepard anti-aircraft artillery system shooting down Russia's armed, Iranian-built drones.
∎ The U.S. and Britain sanctioned 11 people involved in the Trickbot Russian cybercrime network that has targeted the U.S. government and U.S. companies, including hospitals, the State Department said.
∎ Two truck drivers were injured and a grain elevator and administrative building were destroyed in a Russian drone attack in the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa, the local prosecutor office said on Telegram. Several private homes also were damaged..
Deadly missiles slam Ukraine market; Blinken pledges $1B in aid on Kyiv visit: Live updates
Blinken visits mine-clearing teams, border guards
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent much of his second day in Ukraine visiting with men and women working to make the country safe amid war. Blinken visited border guards, noting that the latest U.S. aid package includes $300 million for Ukrainian law enforcement. Blinken also tweeted about visits with "courageous" Ukrainians working to clear roads, parks and playgrounds from mines and unexploded ordinances − a process Blinken said could take years. The aid package includes $90.5 million in additional demining assistance. "Ukrainians are coming together to get rid of the ordnance, to get rid of the mines, and to rebuild," Blinken said. "To literally recover the land that was taken from them."
How private ammo sales are arming the war in Ukraine
A "shadowy system" of gun brokers and exporters is playing a vital role in the push to get weapons and ammunition in the hands of Ukrainians fighting off Russia's invasion. Most of America’s $44 billion in documented support to Ukraine came from U.S. military stocks, but other weapons come from private sales. More than 14,000 U.S. entities are registered to conduct defense trade activities, monitored by federal agencies. The war has increased demand for private deals. The State Department approved $154 billion in commercial arms deals directly to foreign countries in 2022, a 48% increase from the previous year.
Jim Bartlett, an attorney who specializes in the international arms transactions, said private U.S. businesses are playing a small but vital role in arming Ukraine. “There’s an effort at the State Department to quickly clear the ones headed for Ukraine," Bartlett said. "You get head-of-the-line privileges.”

Ukraine is gaining ground in its counter offensive - NATO's Stoltenberg
BRUSSELS (Reuters)/September 7, 2023
Ukraine is making progress with a counter offensive started in June to reclaim territory seized by Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, even though it was slow going due to Russian fortifications and minefields. "The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground...They have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward," Stoltenberg told lawmakers in remarks at the European Parliament. Since launching its offensive, Kyiv has struggled to break through entrenched Russian lines and has faced growing criticism in Western media of concentrating forces in the wrong places. With Moscow's stretched military resources and dissent in the ranks, however, both sides have measured recent successes by taking control of tiny villages or small pockets of land. Stoltenberg said it had to be expected that the offensive would be advancing only slowly. "No one ever said that this was going to be easy," he noted. "Hardly any time in history we have seen more mines on the battlefield than we are seeing in Ukraine today. So it was obvious that this was going to be extremely difficult." Ukrainian officials have said in the past week that their forces have managed to push past Russia's first line of defences but now confronted further lines in areas where Moscow has had time to build up fortifications and minefields. "They are making progress. Not perhaps as much as we hoped for but they are gaining ground gradually," said the NATO chief. "Some hundred meters per day, meaning that when the Ukrainians are gaining ground, the Russians are losing ground."Praising the Ukrainian forces for their achievements on the battlefield, he added: "The starting point is that the Russian army used to be the second strongest in the world. And now the Russian army is the second strongest in Ukraine. That's quite impressive by Ukrainians."

The war in Ukraine is pushing Russia away from its WWII-style artillery strategy, and experts say it's 'a concerning trend'
Michael Peck/Business Insider/September 7, 2023
Russia and Ukraine have relied heavily on artillery to batter each other's forces.
Both sides have had to scramble to find more ammunition to keep those guns firing.
The dynamic has prompted Russia to reevaluate how it fires its big guns.
As the war in Ukraine has become an artillery battle, both sides are scrambling to compensate for a shortage of howitzer shells.
Both have had to ration artillery ammunition. Ukraine has also adopted Western-made howitzers so it can use Western-supplied shells. Russia has more cannons, but its limited ammunition supply has accelerated its shift from saturation bombardment to more precise strikes using fewer rounds.On one hand, that's a reassuring sign that Russia can't produce enough rounds to continue launching mass artillery barrages. However, it also means that Ukrainian troops will have to face more accurate — and more effective — Russian fire. Russian forces are still using an array of howitzers, mortars, and rockets, and Moscow is looking for more ammo to keep them firing, but "the trend appears to be towards maximizing accuracy and reducing the number of rounds necessary to achieve the desired outcome rather than resorting to saturation fire," according to a new report by Britain's Royal United Services Institute think tank."This is a concerning trend, as over time it will likely significantly improve Russian artillery," write the report's authors, Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds. Using artillery as a rapier rather than a sledgehammer is a change for an army that has traditionally relied on massive numbers of cannon to compensate for deficiencies in training and tactics — as Stalin is said to have quipped, "quantity has a quality all its own." For example, the June 1944 Soviet offensive that destroyed an entire German army group, Operation Bagration, was preceded by a two-hour barrage by 7,000 howitzers, mortars, and rocket launchers that pulverized German defenses. The Battle of the Seelowe Heights, which opened the Red Army's path to Berlin, began with Soviet artillery firing 500,000 shells in 30 minutes. Russian artillery doctrine is still largely based on extensive analysis of World War II data to determine how many shells were needed to achieve a specific effect. "For example, 720 rounds were assessed to be necessary to achieve the suppression of a platoon fighting position," the report noted. "This is the basis on which Russian fires operated in the opening phases of their invasion of Ukraine."
But even with a large defense industrial base to churn out munitions, Russian gunners in Ukraine can't maintain a rate of fire that has reached 30,000 shells a day. Such intensity wears out the guns, requires extensive support, and is less viable as Russia loses the radars it needs to find and suppress Ukrainian artillery.
Russia 2S12 mortar artillery
"First, Russian forces lack the ammunition to sustain this volume of fire," the RUSI report said. "Second, the logistics enabling such a volume of fire is too vulnerable to detection and long-range precision strike. Third, the loss of counterbattery radar and barrel wear have meant that this mass approach to fire suppression is of diminishing effectiveness." Instead, Russia is switching to the "reconnaissance fires complex," a concept that uses real-time sensor information — mostly from drones — to quickly call in precision artillery fire on designated targets. It's a system long used by Western armies and increasingly by Ukraine as it receives Western artillery and smart shells such as the Excalibur, a US-made GPS-guided 155-mm round. Russia is now prioritizing production of Krasnopol 152-mm laser-guided munitions, "with newly manufactured shells being widely available across the front," the RUSI report said. Small drones — many of them commercial models from companies such as China's DJI — fly constantly to locate Ukrainian positions and troop movements. Ukrainian forces have suffered from numerous attacks by "kamikaze" drones, including military-grade Lancet loitering munitions, Iranian-made Shahed-136s, and hobby quadcopters carrying explosives. Russia is also constantly upgrading its drones, such as making the Shahed-136 less noisy, and improving their resistance to jamming.
Russian troops use Orlan-10 drone
"The growth in the complexity, diversity and density of Russian UAVs is concerning," the RUSI report noted, using the acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles. This doesn't mean that Russia is giving up on saturation bombardment. Much of its Cold War-era artillery is designed for area fire rather than for targeting a single target with a single shell. According to the RUSI report, Russia continues "to rely heavily" on multiple-launch rockets, 120-mm mortars, and "other imprecise systems," and "corner-cutting in the production of its munitions is becoming apparent."
As German survivors of Katyusha salvoes can attest, saturation fire can be quite devastating, but its effectiveness varies. At the Seelowe Heights in 1945, the Germans withdrew from forward trenches just before the Soviet bombardment, rendering much of that preplanned barrage ineffective. It's a wasteful way of war that Russia can no longer afford. Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Russia attacks port area of Izmail for 4th time in a week as Blinken visits Ukraine
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
Russia attacked the Ukrainian port city of Izmail for the fourth time in five days, Ukrainian officials said Thursday, in what has become a sustained campaign to target Ukraine's ability to export grain. The Danube River port area was attacked with Shahed drones aiming at civilian and port infrastructure, the governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper said. A truck driver was wounded and grain silos were damaged, he said. Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors inspected the wreckage at the scene close to port infrastructure on Thursday, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office. The Ukrainian military said it shot down 25 out of 33 drones launched by Russia overnight, most of them at the Odesa region, Ukraine's agriculture export hub, as well as the northern Sumy region, the military said. Russia has escalated attacks on Ukraine's grain export infrastructure since mid-July, when it exited a U.N.-backed deal that had allowed for the safe shipping of Ukrainian grain during the war. In Russia, five drones were shot down from over three regions overnight, including one attempting to strike Moscow, officials said. There were reports of no casualties. The attack in Izmail came one day after a Russian missile struck a busy market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, killing 17 and wounding at least 32. The attack overshadowed a two-day visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, aimed at assessing Ukraine's 3-month-old counteroffensive and signaling continued U.S. support for the fight. While touring northern Ukraine on Thursday, Blinken said the death and destruction in Kostiantynivka was "what Ukrainians are living with everyday." Blinken visited a school in the village of Yahidne where hundreds of residents were imprisoned when Russian forces occupied the village at the start of the full-scale invasion.Blinken said Russian atrocities continue. "Just yesterday, we saw the bombing of a market, 17 people or more killed," he said. "For what?" Earlier, Blinken visited a Kyiv region facility of the State Border Guards of Ukraine and went to see a demining team working to clear unexploded ordnance from a 45,000 square meter site that included a farm. Blinken announced $90.5 million in demining assistance as part of a package of U.S military and humanitarian aid totaling over $1 billion on Wednesday. While Ukraine's ports have come under attack, drone attacks on Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2013, and in Russia itself also have become increasingly common in recent months. In recent weeks, drones have repeatedly targeted Moscow, with some hitting buildings in the city center, while others being shot down on the outskirts of the city. Russia's Defense Ministry blamed the overnight attacks in Russia on Ukraine, which does not take credit for strikes inside Russia. One drone targeted Moscow, but was shot down southeast of the city without causing any damage or injuries, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Two more drones were shot down over the southern region of Rostov, which borders Ukraine, said regional Governor Vasily Golubev. The debris fell in the center of Rostov-on-Don, the region's capital, damaging several cars and shattering windows in three buildings, Golubev said. One person sought medical assistance.Two other drones were shot down over the Bryansk region, which also borders Ukraine, Governor Alexander Bogomaz reported. Drone debris damaged a railway station and several cars, he said.

Russia's infamous 'dragon's teeth' defenses are a joke and were easily overcome, says Ukrainian ex-commander
Tom Porter/Business Insider/September 7, 2023
A Ukrainian military official said Russia's defensive lines had weak points.
Russia constructed defensive lines known as "dragon's teeth" to protect its positions.
In recent days, Ukraine has made some progress in its bid to breach them.
Russia's infamous "dragon's teeth" defenses were mocked by a Ukrainian former commander, who said they were easily breached by Ukraine's tanks.
The concrete pyramids, which stand about four feet tall, are meant to block and damage Ukrainian tanks and other armored vehicles. Yevhen Dykyi, a former company commander of the Aidar Battalion, told Voice of Ukraine how Ukrainian forces had managed to breach Russia's first line of defense as part of a recent advance near Tomak, in the Zaporizhzhya oblast, south Ukraine. He said the "dragon's teeth" defenses, in particular, had been easy to overcome. "We have now reached the second line. And it includes the following," he said, according to a translation by Voice of Ukraine.
"To begin with the amusing, it includes the so-called dragon's teeth. I think everyone has already seen photos or videos [of those]. These are white concrete pyramids that, in the Russian imagination, were supposed to stop our tanks, somehow."Ukraine's Security Service shared photos of the Russian fortifications exclusively with CNN this month, offering an insight into the network of defenses that had curtailed Ukraine's ambitions. "Why these pyramids were built, to be honest, is a mystery to me," said Dykyi. "The only rational explanation is that someone simply gobbled up the budget. Because there is absolutely no use from them as they don't stop tanks," he said. "If you remember, maybe several years ago it was fashionable to put so-called energy pyramids on the tables, which were supposed to protect against negative energies. The use of these concrete pyramids is exactly the same."
A satellite view of a beach lined with defenses. Maxar satellite imagery shows Russian "dragon's teeth" defenses and trenches along the beach just west of Yevpatoria, Crimea in March.Maxar Technologies. In the interview, Dykyi also described the challenge faced by Ukrainian forces in breaking through Russia's three defensive lines. "It was very powerful," he said of Russia's first line of defense. "First of all, it included the largest minefield in general, perhaps in European history," he said, describing the densely packed minefields in front of Russia's defensive lines. He described how Ukrainian forces then found "a dotted line of so-called strongholds was further behind this minefield." He said Russia's second defensive lines of trenches and concrete bunkers were protected by "dozens of separate minefields with passages between them" to enable Russian troops to move, which could be exploited by Ukrainian forces. The third line, however, did not present a formidable obstacle as it was mainly designed for resupplying the first two lines. "They [Russians] won't be able to hold it," he said. This week, Russian forces broke through the first line of Russia's defenses, liberating the village of Robotyne near Zaporizhzhya. They are seeking to break through Russia's second defensive line and retake Tomak as part of their drive toward the occupied city of Melitopol. Dyki said Russia realized that holding Tomak was vital if it was to stop Ukrainian forces from pushing on to the Sea of Azov and isolating the occupied Crimean Peninsula. "There are some grounds for cautious optimism," he said.

A look at the uranium-based ammo the US is sending to Ukraine
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
The U.S. has announced it was sending depleted uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine, following Britain's lead in sending the controversial munitions to help Kyiv push through Russian lines in its grueling counteroffensive. The 120 mm rounds will be used to arm the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks the U.S. plans to deliver to Ukraine in the fall. Such armor-piercing rounds were developed by the U.S. during the Cold War to destroy Soviet tanks, including the same T-72 tanks that Ukraine now faces in its counteroffensive. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process needed to create nuclear weapons. The rounds retain some radioactive properties, but they can't generate a nuclear reaction like a nuclear weapon would, RAND nuclear expert and policy researcher Edward Geist said. When Britain announced in March it was sending Ukraine the depleted uranium rounds, Russia falsely claimed they have nuclear components and warned that their use would open the door to further escalation. In the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested the war could escalate to nuclear weapons use.
A look at depleted uranium ammunition:
WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the process to create the rarer, enriched uranium used in nuclear fuel and weapons. Although far less powerful than enriched uranium and incapable of generating a nuclear reaction, depleted uranium is extremely dense — more dense than lead — a quality that makes it highly attractive as a projectile. "It's so dense and it's got so much momentum that it just keeps going through the armor — and it heats it up so much that it catches on fire," Geist said. When fired, a depleted uranium munition becomes "essentially an exotic metal dart fired at an extraordinarily high speed," RAND senior defense analyst Scott Boston said. In the 1970s, the U.S. Army began making armor-piercing rounds with depleted uranium and has since added it to composite tank armor to strengthen it. It also has added depleted uranium to the munitions fired by the Air Force's A-10 close air support attack plane, known as the tank killer. The U.S. military is still developing depleted uranium munitions, notably the M829A4 armor-piercing round for the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank, Boston said.
WHAT HAS RUSSIA SAID?
In March, Putin warned that Moscow would "respond accordingly, given that the collective West is starting to use weapons with a 'nuclear component.'" And Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the munitions were "a step toward accelerating escalation." Putin followed up several days later by saying Russia would respond to Britain's move by stationing tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. Putin and the Belarusian president said in July that Russia had already shipped some of the weapons. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to the U.S. announcement, which came late Wednesday during a visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Pentagon has defended the use of the munitions. The U.S. military "has procured, stored, and used depleted uranium rounds for several decades, since these are a longstanding element of some conventional munitions," Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Lt. Col. Garron Garn said in a statement in March in response to a query from The Associated Press. The rounds have "saved the lives of many service members in combat," Garn said, adding that "other countries have long possessed depleted uranium rounds as well, including Russia." Garn would not discuss whether the M1A1 tanks being readied for Ukraine would contain depleted uranium armor modifications, citing operational security.
NOT A BOMB, BUT STILL A RISK
While depleted uranium munitions are not considered nuclear weapons, their emission of low levels of radiation has led the U.N. nuclear watchdog to urge caution when handling and warn of the possible dangers of exposure. The handling of such ammunition "should be kept to a minimum and protective apparel (gloves) should be worn," the International Atomic Energy Agency cautions, adding that "a public information campaign may, therefore, be required to ensure that people avoid handling the projectiles. "This should form part of any risk assessment and such precautions should depend on the scope and number of ammunitions used in an area."The IAEA notes that depleted uranium is mainly a toxic chemical, as opposed to a radiation hazard. Particles in aerosols can be inhaled or ingested, and while most would be excreted again, some can enter the blood stream and cause kidney damage.
"High concentrations in the kidney can cause damage and, in extreme cases, renal failure," the IAEA says. The low-level radioactivity of a depleted uranium round "is a bug, not a feature" of the munition, Geist said, and if the U.S. military could find another material with the same density but without the radioactivity it would likely use that instead. Depleted uranium munitions, as well as depleted uranium-enhanced armor, were used by U.S. tanks in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq's T-72 tanks and again in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as well as in Serbia and in Kosovo. U.S. troops have questioned whether some of the ailments they now face were caused by inhaling or being exposed to fragments after a munition was fired or their tanks were struck, damaging uranium-enhanced armor. In a social media post on Telegram, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the U.S. decision to give Ukraine the munitions, writing, "What is this: a lie or stupidity?" She said an increase in cancer has been noted in places where ammunition with depleted uranium was used.

Turkey asks EU to advance its membership bid, EU urges reforms
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
Turkey's top diplomat has affirmed his country's resolve to join the European Union and urged the 27-member bloc to take courageous steps to advance its bid. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the comments in a news conference with the EU's top official for enlargement. Their meeting in Ankara came as Turkey tries to put its strained relations with the EU back on track. "The European Union cannot be a truly global actor without Turkey," Fidan said. "It is vital that the path to Turkey's EU membership is cleared and the perspective for membership is revitalized." "Our expectation is that they display the determination needed to advance our relations and that they are able to act more courageously," he added. The country, which straddles Europe and Asia, became a candidate to join the EU in 1999 and started membership negotiations in 2005. The negotiations, however, came to a standstill in 2018 over Turkey's democratic backsliding and erosion of the rule of law under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as its disputes with EU member Cyprus. Many within the EU also balk at the prospect of admitting the populous, predominantly Muslim country into the group. Turkey's efforts to reengage with the European Union come as its economy is in deep trouble. The Turkish lira has fallen against the dollar and other currencies and high inflation has left households struggling to afford basic goods. Oliver Varhelyi, the EU commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement, called on Turkey to undertake democratic reforms. "The negotiations for accession are at a standstill. And for this to be remobilized, there are very clear criteria set out by the European Council that need to be addressed. These criteria are related to democracy and the rule of law," he said. "A credible roadmap moving forward these reforms ... could certainly trigger a new discussion among (EU) leaders who are the ones to change the current status quo," he said. In a sign of some movement in relations, Fidan said Turkish and EU officials would start talks on a possible upgrade of a customs union between Turkey and EU that came into effect in 1995. The sides also agreed on the need to start talks on easing visa restrictions imposed on Turkish businesspeople and students traveling to EU countries.

Gabon's junta says deposed president 'freed' and can travel on medical trip
Associated Press/September 7, 2023
Gabon's ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who has been under house arrest since he was deposed last week, is free Thursday and can embark on a medical trip, the country's new military leaders said. Ondimba is "free to move given his state of health," Col. Ulrich Manfoumbi, spokesman for the transition committee, said on state television a day earlier. "He can, if he wishes, go abroad to carry out his medical checks." The ousted president's health was not immediately clear. He had suffered a stroke in late 2018 that kept him from his duties for months. Local television Gabon24 broadcast a meeting late Wednesday between Ondimba and Abdou Barry, head of the UN Office for Central Africa. "I found him in good health," Barry said on his meeting with the ousted president. The 64-year-old was on Aug. 30 toppled from power amid a resurgence of coups in parts of Africa and shortly after he was declared the winner of a disputed election that would have extended his family's 55-year reign. He succeeded his father in 2009. Meanwhile, the newly sworn-in military leader in Gabon, Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, met with regional and local authorities this week, promising better infrastructure and a peaceful transition to citizens in the oil-rich Central African nation. In the capital, Libreville, he met with the Central African Republic's President Faustin Archange Touadera, who was appointed an envoy of the regional Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and with Barry, head of the UN Office for Central Africa. "Our discussions focused on the current situation of our nation as well as the promising prospects of the transition," Gen. Nguema wrote of his meeting with Barry on X, formerly known as Twitter. Concerns remained about the military takeovers and the delayed return of democracies in parts of Africa where soldiers have promised a lengthy transition process. The new military leader in Gabon has also promised to return power to the people by organizing free, transparent and credible elections but gave no date for a transition. At Nguema's meeting this week with senior Gabonese government officials, he pledged to deliver "real development" to people whose oil wealth has been widely seen to be concentrated in the hands of a few. Nearly 40% of Gabonese ages 15 to 24 were out of work in 2020, according to the World Bank. "We want simple things for the Gabonese people," he said in a broadcast on the Gabon24 television, promising national health care and improved education and environmental policy. "But to achieve this, you must first have an effective administration."

North Korea hackers going after Russian targets, Microsoft says
Raphael Satter/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/September 7, 2023
North Korean hackers targeted Russian diplomats and successfully breached a Russian aerospace research institute earlier this year, Microsoft Corp said in a blog post published Thursday. Microsoft did not identify any of the victims by name and provided little by way of details or evidence, but said the hacking took place in March. "North Korean threat actors may be capitalizing on the opportunity to conduct intelligence collection on Russian entities due to the country's focus on its war in Ukraine," the report said. North Korea's mission to the United Nations did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment. The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email. Spying on rivals' military and diplomatic organizations is standard operating procedure for the hacking squads employed by the world's intelligence agencies. North Korea has repeatedly been accused of deploying hackers against defense and diplomacy-related targets in South Korea, the United States and elsewhere. But allegations that Pyongyang is spying on its Russian allies are potentially more awkward as the countries draw closer amid the war in Ukraine. Last month, Reuters and researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne Inc revealed how North Korean spies had broken into a major Russian missile developer for at least five months last year - putting them into position to gather intelligence about Russia's hypersonic missiles and rocket propellant technology. Microsoft's allegations were made in a report about cyberespionage in East Asia, which also covered previous reporting by the American tech giant about Chinese hackers targeting U.S. critical infrastructure as well as new allegations about China's propaganda operations, which it said Beijing had "continued to scale up" using artificial intelligence and influencers. The Chinese embassy did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Beijing routinely denies allegations of cyber subterfuge.

Greek shipper pleads guilty to smuggling Iranian crude oil and will pay $2.4 million fine
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/September 7, 2023
A Greek shipping company has pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine, newly unsealed U.S. court documents seen Thursday by The Associated Press show.
The now-public case against Empire Navigation, which faces three years of probation under the plea agreement, marks the first public acknowledgement by U.S. prosecutors that America seized some 1 million barrels of oil from the tanker Suez Rajan.
The saga surrounding the ship further escalated tensions between Washington and Iran, even as they work toward a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea for the release of five Iranian Americans held in Tehran. The court filings also shed light on the covert world of Iranian crude oil smuggling in the face of Western sanctions since the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal — an operation that has only grown in scale over this year. The U.S. and its allies have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since 2019. That's led to a series of attacks in the Mideast attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship seizures by Iranian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world's oil passes. Attention began focusing on the Suez Rajan in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos and shipping data analyzed at the time by the AP supported the allegation.
The newly unsealed court documents rely on satellite images, as well as documents, to show that the Suez Rajan sought to mask its loading of Iranian crude oil from one tanker by trying to instead claim the oil came from another.
For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Texas coast without explanation. The vessel discharged its cargo to another tanker, which released its oil in Houston in recent days. The court documents seen Thursday confirm the U.S. government seized the oil. A lawyer for Empire Navigation, Apostolos Tourkantonis, pleaded guilty in April to a single charge of violating the sanctions on Iran. Empire, based in Athens, Greece, did not respond to a request for comment early Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury has said Iran’s oil smuggling revenue supports the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Revolutionary Guard that operates across the Mideast. The court documents link the Guard to the trade, involving hundreds of vessels that try to mask their movements and can hide their ownership through foreign shell companies.
But the Suez Rajan case was unique at the time of the transfer because it was owned by the Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management. That likely gave American prosecutors an edge in pursuing this case. Oaktree, which has repeatedly declined to discuss the case, sold the vessel fully to Empire in late May. Mark Wallace, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush who heads United Against Nuclear Iran, praised Empire Navigation for agreeing to the plea. He described Iran's oil smuggling as a “mob-like” operation and urged others to abandon the trade. “They faced down Iranian assassination threats in Greece,” Wallace told the AP. “They took the off ramp to leave the mob.”Wallace declined to elaborate, and the U.S. court documents offered no detail on the alleged assassination threat — though prosecutors did cite “security risks to the defendants, the government, as well as the vessel and its crew members” in their application to seal the case from public view in March.
The delay in offloading the Suez Rajan’s cargo had become a political issue as well for the Biden administration as the ship had sat for months in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly due to companies being worried about the threat from Iran. Since the Suez Rajan headed for America, Iran has seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one with cargo for major U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. In July, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval arm threatened further action against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan, with state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate. Iran has continued to make threats over the seizure and summoned a Swiss diplomat in Tehran to express its anger. Switzerland has looked after U.S. interests in Iran since the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Navy has increased its presence steadily in recent weeks in the Mideast, sending the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan through the Strait of Hormuz and considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the strait to stop Iran from seizing additional ships. Late Wednesday, the U.S. updated its warning to shippers traveling through the Mideast, saying: “Commercial vessels transiting through the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman continue to be illegally boarded and detained or seized by Iranian forces.” This year, Iranian oil exports have mostly been above 1 million barrels a day despite American sanctions, according to the commodity data firm Kpler. In May and June, it went above 1.5 million barrels a day, with figures in August sitting at 1.4 million barrels daily, Kpler's data showed. China is believed to be a major buyer of Iranian oil, likely at a significant discount. “Justice was served,” Wallace said. “At the same time, there needs to be a serious policy review on why it took so long and why there are 300 vessels out there doing the same thing.”

Sudan's army chief travels to Qatar for talks with emir as conflict rages
Associated Press/September 7/2023
Sudan's army chief traveled to Qatar on Thursday for talks with the country's emir, making his third international trip since fighting broke out between the military and a rival paramilitary force in April, Sudanese state media said. Sudan plunged into chaos almost five months ago when long-simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, escalated into open warfare on April 15. Burhan planned to hold talks with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in the Qatari capital, Doha, according to the state-run SUNA news agency. In a video posted by the Sudanese army, Burhan was filmed leaving a plane in Doha and numerous Qatari officials greeting him on an airport tarmac. The army chief's arrival was also confirmed by the state-run Qatar News Agency.
During their meeting, Burhan and Al Thani discussed the challenges facing conflict-stricken Sudan, The Emiri Diwan said in statement. Al Thani reiterated his call for broad peace negotiations between all of Sudan's political forces and a lasting stop to the fighting, the statement said. Acting Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq and Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim Mufadel, head of the General Intelligence Authority, accompanied Burhan on the trip, SUNA said. The visit comes amid a flurry of similar diplomatic meetings convened in Egypt and South Sudan. Burhan held talks about the conflict with South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, on Monday in Juba. Last week, the general met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt in the Egyptian coastal city of el-Alamein, Burhan's first trip abroad since the conflict broke out. Few details were made public about either trip. The conflict in the northeast African country is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 people, according to the U.N. human rights office. Activists and doctors on the ground say the toll is likely far higher. The fighting has displaced more than 5 million people, according to the most recent figures produced by the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration. Despite international efforts, the conflict has shown few signs of easing. Formal peace negations mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the kingdom's coastal town of Jeddah were adjourned in late June with both mediators publicly calling out the Rapid Support Forces and the army for continually violating agreed-to truces. There have been at least nine cease-fires between the army and the RSF since the fighting broke out. All were violated.

Moroccan senate president delays 'historic trip' to Israel due to illness
Associated Press/September 7/2023
Morocco's senate president has postponed a historic visit to Israel due to a medical emergency, the Israeli parliament announced. The announcement came just a day before Enaam Mayara was scheduled to visit Israel's Knesset, or parliament, on a trip aimed at cementing the fledgling ties between the two countries. Mayara was to be the first Moroccan official and one of the few Muslim leaders ever to set foot in the Knesset. The parliament had planned to greet him with a red carpet and a ceremonial guard of honor. Israel and Morocco fully normalized relations as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and four Arab countries brokered by then-President Donald Trump. The Knesset issued a statement late Wednesday saying that Mayara had been hospitalized during a stop in neighboring Jordan. He was forced to reschedule his Israel trip and call off a visit earlier in the day to the Palestinian government in the West Bank, the statement said. "I am sorry that because of a medical emergency, I am unable to come to the Knesset," the statement quoted Mayara as saying. It gave no details on the nature of his illness but said he would return to Morocco. "The connection between the kingdom of Morocco and the state of Israel is a shared interest of the two countries, and together we will deepen it," he added. Israel's Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, who visited Morocco earlier this year, said Mayara's visit was supposed to be a highlight of the new relations. He said Israel wished Mayara "a speedy and full recovery." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed interest in expanding the Abraham Accords to bring in additional Arab and Muslim countries, most notably Saudi Arabia. But relations with Israel's Arab partners have cooled due to the treatment of Palestinians by Netanyahu's far-right government. The government is dominated by ultranationalist politicians who oppose Palestinian independence and have promoted settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Morocco delayed a summit of Israel and its Abraham Accord partners earlier this year due to the political climate.Still, Israel's relations with Morocco appear strong. Israel is home to a large community of Jews of Moroccan descent. Morocco and Israel have agreed to military cooperation and boosted trade. Earlier this year, Israel recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, joining the United States as the only two countries to acknowledge the kingdom's annexation of the disputed north African territory.

Rainstorms death toll in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria rises to 14
Associated Press/September 7/2023
The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria has increased to 14 after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered seven more bodies. A flash flood at a campsite in northwestern Turkey near the border with Bulgaria killed at least five people — with three found dead on Wednesday — and carried away bungalow homes. Rescuers were still searching for one person reported missing at the campsite. Another two people died in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, where Tuesday's storms inundated hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods.
The victims in Istanbul included a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped inside his basement apartment in the low-income Kucukcekmece district, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The other was a 57-year-old woman who died after being swept away by the floods in another neighborhood, the private DHA news agency reported. The surging floodwaters affected more than 1,750 homes and businesses in the city, according to the Istanbul governor's office. They included a line of shops in the Ikitelli district, where the deluge dragged parked vehicles and mud into furniture stores, destroying the merchandise, DHA reported. The floods also engulfed a parking area for containers and trucks on the city's outskirts where people found safety by climbing on top of the roof of a restaurant, Turkish media reports said. In Greece, record rainfall caused at least three deaths near the central city of Volos and in Karditsa, further to the west, according to the fire service. Three people were reported missing. Authorities banned traffic in Volos, the nearby mountain region of Pilion and the resort island of Skiathos, where many households remained without electricity and running water on Wednesday. Traffic was also banned in another two regions of central Greece near Volos, while the storms were forecast to continue until at least Thursday afternoon. In Bulgaria, a storm caused floods on the country's southern Black Sea coast. The bodies of two missing people were recovered from the sea on Wednesday, raising the overall death toll to four. Video showed cars and camper vans being swept out to sea in the southern resort town of Tsarevo, where authorities declared a state of emergency. Most of the rivers in the region burst their banks and several bridges were destroyed, causing serious traffic problems. Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova said that about 4,000 people were affected by the disaster along the entire southern stretch of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. "There is a problem transporting tourists because it is dangerous to go by coach on the roads affected by the floods," she added.

Daughter of long-imprisoned activist in Bahrain to push for father release
Associated Press/September 7/2023
A daughter of a long-detained human rights activist in Bahrain said Thursday she would return to the island nation to press for his release while he and hundreds of other inmates are on a major hunger strike and even though she could be imprisoned as well.
The trip by Maryam al-Khawaja draws renewed attention to the plight of her 62-year-old ailing father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a dual Danish-Bahraini national convicted of internationally criticized terrorism charges and held in what a United Nations panel calls an "arbitrary" imprisonment ever since.
It also raises the stakes of the monthlong hunger strike in Bahrain just ahead of a planned visit to the United States by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. It has become one of the longest-sustained demonstrations of dissent in the decade since Bahrain, aided by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, violently suppressed its 2011 Arab Spring protests. "I am afraid, I am terrified of what it potentially means for me to travel back to Bahrain," al-Khawaja told The Associated Press in an interview before her announcement. "But if it means potentially saving my father's life or for me to get to see him, if it means helping any number of political prisoners in Bahrain and bringing attention to their plight, then I'm willing to put my fear aside and do what is necessary to try and achieve that." Bahrain's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Maryam al-Khawaja's planned trip. It earlier sought to minimize the impact of the hunger strike in statements sent to the AP. "The situation is being handled professionally and constructively to ensure the health and well-being of the detainees in question, whilst safeguarding the rule of law and order," the government said on Aug. 29. It also insisted that "mistreatment of any kind is not accepted in Bahrain," though a U.S. State Department report it referred to in its statement described "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government." The hunger strike began Aug. 7 at the Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center, a facility holding many of the prisoners identified by human rights activists as dissidents who oppose the rule of the Al Khalifa family.
It quickly accelerated into a protest now involving over 800 prisoners, according a list compiled by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, an advocacy group. Bahrain's government insisted Thursday only 112 were taking part. The AP could not independently confirm the figures, though activists have released audio messages and other details that support hundreds taking part. Small-scale street protests also have occurred in recent weeks. The prisoners' demands include their right to worship, ending 23-hour lockdowns daily and arbitrary isolation by guards, securing family visits and being provided adequate health care. Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has been refusing to eat since Aug. 9, his daughter said. He undertook a 110-day hunger strike a decade earlier to protest his detention that saw him ultimately force-fed by authorities. He's faced "severe physical, psychological and sexual torture" over his years of imprisonment and his health issues put him at increased risk, his daughter said. "He's currently on hunger strike because he's been denied adequate medical treatment for months, including access to a cardiologist due to his heart problems," Maryam al-Khawaja said. Maryam al-Khawaja said she planned to travel to Bahrain next week around the same time of the crown prince's visit to Washington. Plans include her being accompanied by other human rights activists to ensure her safety. However, she faces a variety of charges still on the island, including what she described as unclear terrorism charges that could carry a life sentence.
"I know that it carries very high consequences and high risks, my going back," al-Khawaja said. "I've reached a point where I can no longer sit around and wait for that phone call where I find out that my father has died in prison. ... I have reached the point where I am willing to put myself and my physical safety at risk if that means that there's any chance that I can save my father's life." She said her father was aware of her plans, as were other diplomats. Al-Khawaja, like her father, also has citizenship in Denmark.
The Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center is toward the southern end of Bahrain, an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf that's about the size of New York City with a population of around 1.5 million people. Concerns over medical care at the prison have been raised before by activists. The State Department's recent human rights report on Bahrain noted prisoners' families reported a tuberculosis outbreak at the prison in June 2022. The government denied an outbreak took place, but inaugurated a 24-hour clinic at the prison months afterward, the State Department said. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet, is in the midst of a decadelong crackdown on all dissent following the Arab Spring protests, which saw the island's Shiite majority and others demanding more political freedom. It has imprisoned Shiite activists, deported others, stripped hundreds of their citizenship and closed its leading independent newspaper. Meanwhile, Bahrain has recognized Israel diplomatically and hosted Pope Francis last November. Western nations in the past have tried pressing human rights matters in closed-door meetings in the Mideast, particularly in Bahrain.
Western governments "prioritize their security and economic relations with the Bahraini government ... generally above the prioritizing of human rights and democratic values," al-Khawaja said, calling the move short-sighted. "I think history teaches us that governments that are ruled by erratic dictators are not dependable allies, even when it comes to economic and security alliances."

'Invasive examinations' part of reason Qatar Airways was refused flights to Australia
Associated Press/September 7/2023
Australian Transport Minister Catherine King said on Thursday that invasive gynecological examinations conducted on passengers at Doha's international airport in 2020 were part of the reason she refused to allow Qatar Airways to double its services to Australia.
King has faced intense questioning over why she decided on June 10 not to allow the airline to double its current 28 flights per week to Australia. She said the decision was made in the "context" of women being examined in 2020 by authorities at Hamad International Airport in Doha who were trying to find the mother of a newborn baby found dumped in a trash can. Women on a number of flights leaving Doha were invasively examined, including 13 on a flight to Sydney. "There is no one factor that I would point to that swayed my decision one way or the other," King told reporters. "Certainly, for context, this is the only airline that has had something like that where that has happened," she said. "I was not not aware of it, so obviously it was in the context of the decision that I made. But there was no one factor that influenced this decision." she added. Qatar Airways and the Qatari government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

French administrative judiciary supports government's decision to ban abaya in public schools
AFP/September 7/2023
The highest administrative court in France has upheld the government's decision to ban the wearing of the full-body veil, known as the "abaya," in public schools. The Council of State, France's highest court for reviewing complaints against government authorities, announced on Thursday that it had rejected a request from an association to issue a judicial order against the government's ban, which was imposed last month. In a statement, the Council argued that the government's decision does not constitute discrimination against Muslims. The association "Action for the Rights of Muslims" (A.D.M) had filed an urgent review before the Council, seeking to suspend the government's decision on the grounds that it amounted to discrimination and violated rights. However, the Council of State deemed that the government's decision "does not clearly infringe on the right to respect for private life, freedom of worship, the right to education, respect for the best interests of the child, or the principle of non-discrimination."The Council further noted in its ruling that wearing the abaya in public schools, or any similar clothing (such as the male abaya for males), falls within the scope of a "logic of religious affiliation," as evidenced, especially, by comments made during dialogues with students. It also added that "the law prohibits students, within the public school environment, from wearing signs or clothing that clearly manifest an affiliation to a religion."

UNESCO recommends minimum age for AI users in schools
AFP/September 7/2023
UNESCO has called on governments to take "swift" action to "regulate" the use of artificial intelligence tools like the conversation robot "ChatGPT" in classrooms, including limiting their use to older children. In guidelines issued on Thursday, the UN agency stated that public authorities are not ready to handle the ethical issues associated with the adoption of artificial intelligence programs in the educational environment. The organization, headquartered in Paris, warned that replacing teachers with such programs could affect the emotional well-being of children and make them susceptible to manipulation. A statement quoted UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay as saying, "Generative artificial intelligence can be a great opportunity for human development, but it can also be a source of harm and damage." She emphasized that it is "unacceptable" to introduce it into education without public participation and robust government guarantees and legislation. Since the end of 2022, there has been an increase in generative artificial intelligence programs available to the general public, following the launch of the American startup "OpenAI's" program "ChatGPT," which is capable of writing articles, poems, and coherent conversations based on short prompts. However, the proliferation of these programs has also raised concerns about new forms of intellectual property theft or cheating in schools and universities. UNESCO's recommendation states that artificial intelligence tools should have the ability to assist children with special learning needs, such as providing on-screen translations, as long as teachers, users, and researchers are involved in designing these tools, and governments regulate their use. Although the guidelines do not specify a minimum age for schoolchildren allowed to use these tools, they point out that the terms of use for "ChatGPT" itself prohibit use by those under the age of thirteen. The UNESCO report also noted that some commentators prefer raising the minimum age to sixteen.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 07-08/2023
The new colonialists are Chinese, Russian, and Islamist
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/September 7/2023
It was called the “scramble for Africa.” In the 19th century, European empires carved the continent into colonies they could exploit. A 21st century scramble for Africa is now underway – and it’s no less exploitative. The neo-imperialists are Chinese Communists, Russian nationalists, and Islamists.
Increasing instability in too many African countries is making it easy for them. Since 2017, there have been 17 military coups in the sub-Saharan region.
The most recent occurred last week in Gabon, a country that had been ruled – or, more precisely, misruled – by one family since 1967.
A month earlier in Niger, which possesses 7.5 percent of the world’s uranium, President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by the head of his presidential guard.
Mr. Bazoum had been democratically elected and was partnering with the U.S. and France to combat groups affiliated with al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Islamic Republic of Iran – rivals with the same goal: establishing a new Islamic empire.
About 1,000 elite U.S. troops are in Niger. They operate a $110 million drone base. The future of that deployment is now in doubt.
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Tehran’s supporters and proxies are “celebrating” Africa’s coups, interpreting them as evidence of waning Western influence in favor of Moscow and Beijing, allies of the Iranian regime.
A Telegram channel representing Shia militias in Iraq claimed that the “blessed military coup by the people and army of Gabon” demonstrates that the West is “exhausted” and being “expelled” from Africa, even as “Russia is crushing the NATO alliance” in Ukraine.
French troops were indeed expelled from Mali after a 2021 coup. They were soon replaced by paramilitaries of the Wagner Group, designated this past January by the U.S. government as a “significant transnational criminal organization.”
Battling jihadis is apparently not Wagner’s strong suit. Fighters linked to the Islamic State have doubled the size of the territory they control in central Mali, according to a U.N. Report.
Wagner troops have been a major force in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2018. Among their alleged crimes: raping and trafficking women and children and killing three Russian journalists who were attempting to report on the group’s exploitation of “blood diamonds.”
In more than a dozen African countries, Wagner’s deal is straightforward: They provide the dictator with security (no need to worry about your palace guards) and, in exchange, they help themselves to the country’s natural resources.
Regimes hosting Wagner also are obliged to side with Russia at the U.N. and other international forums.
In Sudan, where a grueling civil war has been underway since April, Wagnerians are reportedly assisting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo against Sudan’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Gold is one of the resources Wagner takes from Sudan.
The most successful imperialist in Africa would appear to be Xi Jinping, the powerful ruler of the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Xi is less interested in exporting Communism to Africa than in importing mineral wealth from Africa.
Consider the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt is produced. Roughly 90 percent of that valuable metal (extracted from mines either by bare hands or machinery fueled by hydrocarbons) is sent by trucks and then ships (both powered by hydrocarbons) to China where it’s processed and refined (largely utilizing coal as an energy source). The cobalt ends up in the batteries that propel electric vehicles solid in China, Europe, and the U.S.
Research by Siddharth Kara of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, reveals that cobalt mining in the Congo involves “slavery, child labor, forced labor, debt bondage, human trafficking, hazardous and toxic working conditions, pathetic wages, injury and death, and incalculable environmental harm.”
How did Beijing manage to achieve its commanding position in the Congo and a long list of other African countries? Largely by rewarding the host countries’ elites in ways Americans are not permitted under American law.
Beijing’s apologists point out that roads, bridges, ports, government buildings, and other infrastructure are being built in Africa under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. True, but these projects are overseen by Chinese managers using Chinese engineers and even Chinese labor. Rarely are skills transferred to the locals. Financing often involves large loans that can be difficult for host countries to repay. Beijing may then make demands to settle the account. Control of far-flung ports is particularly useful given that China now has the world’s largest navy (as a new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies details). These and other manifestations of contemporary colonialism have not received the attention they deserve from international organizations, the major media, or university departments of “postcolonial studies.”
As recently as 2019, the Economist saw the “new scramble for Africa” as a positive development. “This time, the winner could be Africans themselves,” the British weekly newspaper enthused.
How so? Because “the new scramblers want more than just a share of what Africa has; they want a stake in what it is now trying to build – in the economies and growing global stature of the world’s second-most-populous continent, poised between two of its three great oceans.”
The Economist added: “This year Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is set to host the first Russia-Africa summit, a tribute act to the triennial Forum on Africa-China Co-operation in Beijing. Hosted by President Xi Jinping, last year’s attracted more African leaders than the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.” Many Europeans and Americans still fail to see the “scramblers” for what they are: rapacious neo-colonialists. Western policy makers should now assign themselves the task of developing new strategies to help Africans become free and independent of these evil empires.
*Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. Follow him on X @CliffordDMay. FD

When Men Were Men: Today in History, Europeans Pulverize Jihadists
Raymond Ibrahim/September 07/2023
Today in history witnessed another epic encounter between Christians and Muslims. The sheer ferocity and valor displayed at the battle of Arsuf makes most otherwise “breathtaking” battle scenes emanating from Hollywood seem like child’s play.
Context: in late August, 1191, Richard the Lionhearted, at the head of a large force of Crusaders, set out from Acre to Jaffa. Along with the fierce Syrian sun, the Christians were harried by a nonstop deluge of arrows from the hordes of Saladin, he who a few years earlier had all but annihilated the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin.
Despite the casualties from arrows, sunstroke, snake-bites, starvation and disease, the Christian warriors remained undaunted and pressed on. Saladin’s own biographer, Baha’ al-Din, expressed dismay:
I saw various individuals amongst the Franks with ten arrows fixed in their backs, pressing on in this fashion quite unconcerned…. Consider the endurance of these people, bearing exhausting tasks without any pay or material gain.
Finally, on September 6, as the Crusaders emerged from a dense wood, there on the vast plains of Arsuf, they saw “all the forces” of Islam marshalled before them, “from Damascus and Persia, from the Mediterranean Sea to the East,” writes a chronicler. There was not a single warlike Muslim peoples “whom Saladin had not summoned to aid him in crushing the Christian people,” for he “hoped to wipe the Christians completely off the face of the earth.”
Battle commenced on the morning of September 7, 1191. A wild din erupted from the Muslim camp. Drums, horns, and cymbals banged and brayed, to reverberant cries of “Allahu Akbar” and other “horrible yells.” As the Crusaders knelt in prayer and went into battle formation, the “land all around resounded with the echo of their [Muslims’] harsh cries and roaring noise.” Suddenly, in the midst of this “terrifying racket,” thousands of Turks “rushed down on our people” on horses “driven like lightning.” The dust storm caused by this stampede “filled the sky like a dark cloud.” Behind the galloping Turks “ran a devilish race, very black in color.”
In this manner, the Muslims “fell on our army from all sides… There was not a space for two miles around, not even a fistful, which was not covered with the hostile Turkish race…. As they kept up their persistent assaults they inflicted very grave losses on our people.”
Unlike the better rested and provisioned Muslims, the already exhausted Crusaders fought back as best they could. Unhorsed knights were seen “walking on foot” and “returning blow for blow as far as means and strength allowed,” even as the Turks galloped about and continued to rain down darts on them.
For long, Richard commanded his men not to break rank but stay in a defensive posture. Only when the entire Muslim army had gotten close enough, and their horses had tired, would he give the signal for a counteroffensive.
Inevitably, however, “two knights who could not bear to wait” any longer “burst out of the line,” whereupon “everything was thrown into confusion.” They charged at and began slaughtering their enemies. “The rest of the Christians heard these two calling with loud voices for St George’s aid as they charged boldly on the Turks,” and so immediately followed suit—“charging as one into the relentlessly attacking enemy.”
On seeing this, Richard signaled for the general assault, and sped to where the fighting was thickest. He broke through his own men and crashed with thunderous violence into the enemy. “Stunned by the strength of the blows he and his force inflicted on them,” the Muslims “fell back to the right and the left.” Many were butchered on the spot, while a “great number were but headless corpses trodden underfoot by friend and foe regardless.” Driven into a battle frenzy, and in the words of the chronicler:
King Richard pursued the Turks with singular ferocity, fell upon them and scattered them across the ground. No one escaped when his sword made contact with them; wherever he went his brandished sword cleared a wide path on all sides. Continuing his advance with untiring sword strokes, he cut down that unspeakable race as if he was reaping the harvest with a sickle, so that the corpses of Turks he had killed covered the ground everywhere for the space of half a mile. The rest panicked at the sight of the dying and gave him a wider berth…. Constantly slaying and hammering away with their swords, the Christians wore down the terrified Turks, but for a long time the battle was in the balance. Each struck each other, each struggled to overcome; one drew back stained with blood, the other fell slain. How many banners and multiform flags, pennons and innumerable standards you would have seen fall to the ground!
In the end, the Christians prevailed, and the “rout of the enemy was so complete that for two miles there was nothing to see except for people running away, although they had previously been so persistent, swollen with pride and very fierce.” Arabic sources confirm the magnitude of this defeat.
Saladin’s lofty and invincible stature collapsed overnight. He, however, tried to blame his men. As the Crusaders under Richard continued making progress by taking Jaffa and consolidating their hold on the coast, Saladin berated his crestfallen captains:
The Christians travel through the land of Syria just as they like without meeting any opposition or resistance. Where are my soldiers’ great boasts and brilliant exploits now?… How the people of today have degenerated from our noble ancestors who gained so many brilliant and justly memorable victories against the Christians, victories which are retold to us daily and whose memory will endure forever!
One of Saladin’s emirs dared offer reply: “Most sacred sultan, saving your majesty’s grace, you have blamed us unjustly, for we attacked the Franks with all our effort [to no avail].” He continued by lamenting Western armor, which “is not like ours” but rather “incalculable, impenetrable.”
But that was not all:
[T]here is something especially amazing about one of them. He threw our people into disorder and destroyed them. We have never seen his like nor known anyone similar. He was always at the head of the others; in every engagement he was first and foremost… It is he who mutilates our people. No one can stand against him, and when he seizes anyone, no one can rescue them from his hands. They call him in their language Melech [King] Richard.
It took Saladin all his powers of self-control not to pull his beard and howl in rage.
Note: This article was excerpted from the Raymond Ibrahim’s recent book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, which features a chapter on Richard.

Torrid Times in Eastern Syria
Armenak Tokmajyan/Carnegie/September 07, 2023
A U.S.-Iran understanding may have calmed tensions, but this was followed by Kurdish-Arab fighting that did precisely the opposite.
The summer was hot in northeastern Syria, as has been the transition to autumn. The season began with increased tensions between U.S. forces, which maintain a presence in the northeast, on the one hand, and Russia, Iran, and the Syrian regime on the other. According to U.S. officials and leaked documents from the Pentagon, since late 2022 Moscow, Tehran, and Damascus have been cooperating to increase pressure on U.S. forces and drive them out of the northeast. Russia has harassed U.S. and allied aircraft, and has also damaged U.S. drones. Iran-linked groups, in turn, have attacked American forces and carried out escalatory moves such as transporting anti-aircraft missiles into Deir al-Zor Governorate.
However, the United States has shown no signs of leaving the region. On the contrary, in June it reinforced its fleet of aircraft there, including deploying advanced F-22s and F-35s. On August 9, reports surfaced that representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, and other Iranian proxies had gathered near the Lebanese-Syrian border to discuss how to deter possible attacks on their positions in Deir al-Zor. At around the same time, Washington reportedly moved more forces into northeastern Syria through Iraq and was thought to be discussing with Turkey the transfer of Syrian opposition fighters from the northwest to the U.S. military base in Tanf, near Jordan’s border. This suggested that the Americans were preparing to block the Syrian-Iraqi border and prevent pro-Iran forces from crossing freely.
For a time, the northeast seemed to be on the brink of a major military confrontation. However, the opposite happened as the situation quickly deescalated. There were multiple reasons for this, not least a U.S.-Iranian agreement in early August on prisoners and on the release of Iranian assets by Washington. It wouldn’t be surprising, therefore, if the deescalation was a part of this quid pro quo. This followed reports in June that the United States and Iran were about to agree to a “political ceasefire,” one of whose clauses was that Tehran would “halt lethal attacks on American contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxies in the region.”
One could argue that the ratcheting down of U.S.-Iranian tensions was a case of Tehran outmaneuvering Russia and the Syrian regime (who relied on Iran to do the heavy lifting with Washington), helping to secure Iran’s continued dominance in the area. Indeed, Tehran appears to be satisfied with the status quo in Eastern Syria, and any change in its position could be tied to its relations with Washington, rather than with Moscow or the regime in Damascus.
However, in late August Eastern Syria again heated up, this time because of local tensions between the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Arab tribes in eastern Deir al-Zor Governorate. The spark was the arrest of Ahmed al-Bakhil and several of his comrades. Bakhil headed the Der al-Zor Military Council that is subordinate to SDF. Reports suggested that initially it was Bakhil’s supporters who rebelled against the SDF, but a chain of events, including the SDF’s killing of civilians, broadened the circle of rebellion to include clans outside Bakhil’s stronghold. Ten days later, the SDF, reestablished control over areas that tribal forces had taken, without any major opposition from the U.S.
A number of factors are worth mentioning in the context of the conflict in the northeast, or beyond that the broader Syrian conflict. First, arguably, the core catalyst of the tribal rebellion was not really Bakhil’s arrest, but the tribes’ pursuit of a greater autonomy from the SDF and the Kurds in Deir al-Zor, as well as other longstanding grievances. The Arab tribes are already more autonomous in Deir al-Zor than they are in Raqqa, nevertheless it is Kurdish leaders in the region who pull the strings. A second likely reason for the rebellion was to secure greater access to the area’s economic resources, including oil. The local population in Deir al-Zor has complained that after the defeat of the Islamic State, they benefited little from their governorate’s wealth. Greater autonomy could mean that they have a much wider latitude to exploit these resources.
Another factor worth mentioning is that the SDF faced a critical challenge to its power, but appears to have overcome it smoothly, at least for now. The SDF showed it was strong enough to crush a revolt by local armed clans that could threaten the project of Kurdish autonomy in eastern and northeastern Syria. The revolt also illustrated the limited appetite (or ability) of tribes to wage a real war against SDF.
A third factor is that this local conflict quickly took on a regional dimension. Turkey criticized the SDF and the United States, and tribal forces mobilized in Turkish-controlled areas began putting pressure on the SDF along the front lines near Tal Tamer and Manbij. The SDF, in turn, blamed the Syrian regime and Iran for the uprising. While the regime voiced support for the tribes, and may have extended assistance, Iran’s role remained ambiguous. It made no clear statement backing the tribes, let alone supplied them with weapons. Iran is always a good scapegoat for the SDF, however, as this attracts attention away from the historically good relationship between Tehran and the Kurdistan Workers Party, whose Syrian component represents a major portion of the SDF. It also begs the question: Had Iran really supported the tribes, could the SDF have defeated the revolt within days?
The whole of northern Syria, from east to west, is part of one broad security ecosystem. After Iran appeared to outmaneuver Russia and the Syrian regime by deescalating with the United States, it was questionable to what extent Damascus could rely on Tehran to destabilize the U.S. presence in the northeast. Russia’s dangerous maneuvers in the air and the regime’s timid attempts to trigger a “popular resistance” against U.S. forces will have little impact on Washington and the SDF without the active involvement of Iran, who, with its proxies, is the only party that can escalate against the Americans. If Iran is not interested in doing so, Damascus and Moscow will have to look for another partner.
The only other partner available is Turkey. Ankara has a genuine interest in seeing an end to U.S. support for the Kurds, an attitude shared by Russia and the Syrian regime. Therefore, if the United States and Iran adhere to rules of the game in Eastern Syria that limit bilateral tensions, this could reinforce the SDF. This, in turn, could become a catalyst for closer cooperation involving Moscow, Damascus, and Ankara, which would provide an incentive for a rapprochement between Syria and Turkey, whose dispute has hindered the containment of the Kurds.
If Iran’s calculations in the northeast are increasingly tied to its relations with the United States, then Russia and the Syrian regime might not want to remain hostages to such considerations. This presents an additional reason for Russia to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be more amenable to negotiations with Turkey, and for Assad himself to embrace such contacts. Syria and Turkey may be enemies, but their interests in the northeast may be more aligned than they are with Iran’s.
**Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

Erdoğan: Willing Hostage to Putin's Anti-West Doctrine
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 07, 2023
Since Turkey's economy is undergoing an unprecedented dive, Erdoğan needs European loans and investors.
Erdoğan seems to have a lot of wants.... [And] he wants the US Congress to endorse the sale of F-16 Block 70 aircraft to Turkey.
What to do? Erdoğan has resorted to his old trick of launching a hoax charm offensive hoping to deceive, once again, a few naïve Western minds. Too little, too late. He has been dancing within the Russian orbit to Putin's tunes for several years so that, like a junior mafioso, he is being reminded by the capo that "once you're in, you cannot get out."
"We take Russian missile attacks as a Russian warning that reflects Russia's discontent over a few Turkish initiatives... A Putin way to say 'Hey, behave or else...'" — Senior Turkish diplomat to Gatestone, on condition of anonymity.
Once again, Western optimists are misreading Erdoğan, that he is "rekindling fraught relations with the West." He just needs Western money, a few pats on the shoulder and legitimacy for his sultanship.
The Turkish company Beks Ship Management... help[s] Russia ship out its oil despite the Western sanctions, according to The Wall Street Journal.
An elephant painted in stripes does not make it a zebra. Erdoğan has never hidden his anti-Western ideology, or its depths.
Erdoğan comes from the ranks of Turkey's militant political Islamism that emerged in late 1960s under the leadership of the ideologue, Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister and Erdoğan's mentor. In Erbakan's rhetoric universal politics is simply about a struggle between the righteous (Islam) and a coalition of Zionists and racist imperialists -- all else is just details. In his thinking, the Zionists support Turkey's membership in the EU in order to "get Turkish Muslims to melt in a pot of Christianity."
In a 2016 speech, Erdoğan talked of European countries: "These are not just our enemies... Behind them are plans and plots and other powers." Also in 2016, he said that jihad is never terrorism. "It is resurrection.... It is to give life, to build... It is to fight the enemies of Islam."
Also in 2020, Erdoğan wished that "God grant this nation many more happy conquests" at a celebration where he recited from the Quran, a salute to the Ottoman invasion of Christian lands. To European leaders, he said: "You are fascists in the true meaning of the world. You are veritably the link in the Nazi chain."
Erdoğan's anti-Western ideology has not changed. What changes from time to time is how much Western money and favors he needs.
What brought the presidents of Turkey and Russia into an alliance with no name? Their geo-political opportunism was part of it, but mainly it was the inherent ideological hatred of Western civilization that eventually made the Turkish president a useful instrument in the Russian president's reckless campaign to harm the interests of the West.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spent $2.5 billion of Turkish taxpayers' money to buy the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles, only to keep them unpacked at some unknown military warehouse, for fear, if he activated the system, of furthering U.S. sanctions in addition to Washington's move to kick Turkey out of the multinational F-35 fighter jet program. Since Turkey's economy is undergoing an unprecedented dive, Erdoğan needs European loans and investors.
Erdoğan seems to have a lot of wants. He wants to renegotiate Turkey's customs union accord with the European Union (EU). He wants the EU to remove visa requirements on Turkish nationals, a painful process including businessmen, academics and professionals intending to travel to Europe. And now that Turkey has been deprived of the F-35s and its air force is losing much of its firepower, he wants the US Congress to endorse the sale of F-16 Block 70 aircraft to Turkey.
What to do? Erdoğan has resorted to his old trick of launching a hoax charm offensive hoping to deceive, once again, a few naïve Western minds. Too little, too late. He has been dancing within the Russian orbit to Putin's tunes for several years so that, like a junior mafioso, he is being reminded by the capo that "once you're in, you cannot get out."
Erdoğan recently hosted Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Istanbul, and told Zelensky that Ukraine's place was in NATO. Meanwhile, at the same time, Erdoğan blackmailed NATO to prevent Sweden's accession.
Erdoğan appointed a new team to run his troubled economy, and pledged a return to market-friendly policies. He invited Western bankers and investors. Putin watched. And watched.
Until one day in August Russian missiles struck the facilities of the Ukrainian aircraft and engine manufacturer Motor Sich, a company of strategic importance to Turkey as well as Ukraine. Moscow was sending a message not only to Kyiv but also to Ankara. Motor Sich has strategic ties with the Turkish aerospace industry and has been providing Turkey with engines for its helicopters, fighter jets, and armed combat drones.
Three days after the strike, at least six Turkish soldiers were killed, most likely by Russian missiles, in clashes with Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.
"We take Russian missile attacks as a Russian warning that reflects Russia's discontent over a few Turkish initiatives," a senior Turkish diplomat told Gatestone on condition of anonymity. "We suspect Russian tolerance to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) may have inspired this attack... A Putin way to say, 'Hey, behave or else...'"
Not enough? Less than a week after the attack on Turkish troops, in the Black Sea, a Russian warship fired warning shots and boarded a Turkish cargo ship that Russia claimed was headed to Ukraine. "In order to inspect the bulk cargo ship, a Ka-29 helicopter with a group of Russian servicemen was hoisted from the patrol ship Vasily Bykov," according to Russia's defense ministry.
"This type of aggression being exercised so close to Istanbul went unchecked and doesn't respect Turkey's overall rights," Yörük Işık, an Istanbul-based geopolitical analyst at the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, told Reuters.
This much, for now, should suffice to keep Erdoğan's ship anchored at the Russian bay. Once again, Western optimists are misreading Erdoğan in thinking that he is "rekindling fraught relations with the West."
He just needs Western money, a few pats on the shoulder and legitimacy for his sultanship.
As some Westerners tend to believe that Erdoğan is "rekindling fraught relations with the West," the U.S. remains concerned that Turkey has become a hub for Russian sanctions evasion, including a "ghost fleet" for Russian oil and port calls for Russian vessels carrying weapons and sanctioned goods, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 18.
The Turkish company Beks Ship Management, operating dozens of aging oil tankers, participates in a "ghost fleet" of hundreds of vessels that help Russia ship out its oil despite the Western sanctions, the WSJ said.
An elephant painted in stripes does not make it a zebra. Erdoğan has never hidden his anti-Western ideology, or its depths.
Erdoğan comes from the ranks of Turkey's militant political Islamism that emerged in late 1960s under the leadership of the ideologue, Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister and Erdoğan's mentor. In Erbakan's rhetoric universal politics is simply about a struggle between the righteous (Islam) and a coalition of Zionists and racist imperialists -- all else is just details. In his thinking, the Zionists support Turkey's membership in the EU in order to "get Turkish Muslims to melt in a pot of Christianity."
In a 2016 speech, Erdoğan talked of European countries: "These are not just our enemies... Behind them are plans and plots and other powers." Also in 2016, he said that jihad is never terrorism. "It is resurrection.... It is to give life, to build... It is to fight the enemies of Islam."
In 2020, Erdoğan said that then French President Emmanuel Macron "needs some sort of mental treatment" because Macron vowed to crack down on radical Islamism in France, after the country was shaken by the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty.
Also in 2020, Erdoğan wished that "God grant this nation many more happy conquests" at a celebration where he recited from the Quran, a salute to the Ottoman invasion of Christian lands. To European leaders, he said: "You are fascists in the true meaning of the world. You are veritably the link in the Nazi chain." To the Netherlands, in 2020, he revived his rant of three years ago: "You are Nazi remnants and fascists."
It is this man that some Westerners believe is "rekindling fraught relations with the West." Erdoğan's anti-Western ideology has not changed. What changes from time to time is how much Western money and favors he needs.
**Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Always Approaching, Never Arriving: 'War' Between Algeria And Morocco
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/North Africa | MEMRI Daily Brief No. 520/September 07/ 2023
Earlier this year, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune remarked that deteriorating relations between his country and neighboring Morocco had reached "the point of no return."[1] Algeria had broken off diplomatic relations with Morocco in August 2021 and ties had not improved even though Morocco did send its Foreign Minister to an Arab League Summit held in Algiers in November 2022.
Arab media outlets since 2021 have continued to regularly speculate about the possibility of outright war between the two countries.[2] The land borders between the two states have been closed for decades but there is a long history of tension, rhetoric and even outright conflict between Algiers and Rabat.[3]
We are almost at the 60th anniversary of the "Sand War" fought from September 25-October 30, 1963, essentially a series of border clashes between the two countries about where exactly the border should be drawn. At the time, the smaller, but better equipped and better funded Moroccans had the upper hand and a desperate Algeria actually invited in military support from both Nasser's Egypt and Castro's Cuba. Incredibly, in 1963, a Cuban armored column under General Efigenio Ameijeiras and armed with 22 Soviet T-34 tanks and 36 artillery pieces was poised to invade Morocco before the operation was cancelled by Algeria's then President Ahmed Ben Bella only hours before launch time.[4] The Cuban plan had the taking of Casablanca as its military objective.
The basic struggle between the two states is one for regional hegemony and dominance. Historically, specific points of contention between Royalist Morocco and leftist Algeria have been many but much of the tension has focused on the fate of the former Spanish territory known as Western Sahara. The region had been absorbed by Morocco in 1975 after the enormous "Green March" which led to the region's decolonization under the Madrid Accords.
Algeria became and remains the great patron of the Polisario rebels (along with, at the time, Qaddafi and Fidel Castro) fighting for independence against Morocco. From 1975 to 1991, this was a hot war – the Western Sahara War – a guerrilla conflict waged by the Polisario, armed and funded by Algeria against Morocco. A ceasefire agreement in September 1991 ended that war and initiated a decades-long international political process that went nowhere.
Tension has increased because in recent years Morocco has grown stronger and more successful while oil-rich Algeria seemed to grow weaker. While Algeria was wracked by popular, ultimately unresolved, mass demonstrations against government corruption and tyranny from 2019 to 2021, Morocco was able to secure American recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020 as part of the price of the Trump Administration's Abraham Accords. Making peace with Israel also strengthened Morocco, as did Spain's abandoning, in 2022, its former position on Western Sahara and drawing closer to Rabat.[5] A diplomatic offensive that garnered American, Israeli, and Spanish support fortified Morocco while enraging the Algerians, who are not only the patrons of the Polisario but also strongly pro-Palestinian.[6] The Biden Administration has distanced itself from but not reversed the Trump recognition.[7]
Algeria has lashed out rhetorically against Morocco and punished Spain but it has few real options. The Russia-Ukraine War has been an economic windfall for Algeria so it has money – a lot of it, and much more than Morocco – to spend on shoring up its military. Algeria already had the best funded military on the continent and the latest budget proposal takes defense spending from $10 billion to $18 billion, or 10 percent of GDP.[8] Algeria's long dependence on Russian weapons – it is the third largest purchaser of Russian equipment worldwide – may be diversified with new purchases from China and Iran. There is a lot of boasting by Algeria's partisans about its military, and a lot of mocking by Moroccans of these claims.[9]
The Global Firepower Index of modern military strength ranked Algeria 26th out of 145 countries ranked. Morocco was ranked 61st in the same estimate.[10] Another survey ranked the countries as near equals in their Global Power Index, Algeria ranked 70th and Morocco 77th.[11] Morocco's military and population are slightly smaller than those of Algeria. Rabat's military budget – almost $11 billion – is also smaller than Algeria's projected $18 billion.[12] And it is also looking to diversify, just like Algeria but with different partners, adding Israel and India to Rabat's overwhelmingly American military equipment.[13] The arms race between Morocco and Algeria is very real and the rhetoric is toxic.[14]
With so much money, energy policy, and purchased firepower Algeria cannot be discounted, but it is in the intangibles that Morocco seems to excel. Morocco seems to be more politically stable than Algeria, its economy is more diversified. Oil and gas still represent more than 90 percent of Algeria's total exports. It has profited tremendously since the war in Ukraine but a global recession will deflate energy prices.
What is missing thus far in a potential conflict is a spark and an endgame. Moroccans in late August 2023 protested the killing of two men on water scooters by the Algerian Coast Guard, decrying the use of live ammunition on unarmed civilians who may have strayed across a sea border.[15] Earlier this year Algeria’s Army Chief of Staff and various Algerian organizations accused Morocco (and “the Zionist Entity” – Israel) of aiding Kabyle Berber factions considered by Algeria to be terrorists.[16] But neither of these incidents seems primed to lead to outright war. And the endgame is unclear.
If there was a side more interested in conflict, it would be Algeria, but a border war is not going to overthrow the government in Morocco, reverse relations with Israel, nor bring the Polisario to power. It does bring the possibility of unforeseen circumstances if, for example, the performance of the Algerian military would turn out to be less than stellar after so many billions spent and so many years of corrupt FLN rule.[17] That outcome could have dire, domestic ramifications among an already restless population. For that reason, the likely outcome of the arms race and saber rattling by both nations will be continued tension without actual explosion, spikes in incendiary rhetoric and symbolism, but war that is constantly approaching but never actually arriving.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Aljazeera.net/news/2023/3/22/%d8%b9%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a6%d9%8a%d8
%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%84%d9%84%d8%ac%d8%b2%d9%8a
%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d9%86%d8%a3%d8%b3%d9%81, March 22, 2023
[2] Independentarabia.com/node/405366/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7
%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/%D9%87%D9%84-%D9%8A%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A6-2023-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8
%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8
%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%
D8%B4%D9%85%D9%84%D8%9F, December 30, 2022.
[3] France24.com/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%
D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9/20220415-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%
A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B0%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%A8%
D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%84%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%87%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%
A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%86%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%A8-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D9%8A%
D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D8%
A7%D8%A6%D8%B1, April 15, 2022.
[4] Granma.cu/file/pdf/2015/10/23/G_2015102309.pdf, October 2015
[5] Elnacional.cat/en/world/spain-morroco-abandons-independence-western-sahara_728439_102.html
[6] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 9151, Algerian FM Ramtane Lamamra: We Respect The Sovereign Decision Of Some Arab Countries To Establish Relations With Israel, October 24, 2021.
[7] Newarab.com/news/un-envoy-de-mistura-visits-disputed-w-sahara-first-time, September 5, 2023.
[8] Mei.edu/publications/algerias-2023-budget-president-tebbounes-make-or-break-first-term-project, March 8, 2023.
[9] Youtube.com/watch?v=vJ9KDAMeLrU, November 24, 2020.
[10] Globalfirepower.com, accessed September 7, 2023.
[11] Pareto-economics.com/global-power-index, accessed September 7, 2023.
[12] Moroccoworldnews.com/2022/10/351973/morocco-sets-up-budget-of-nearly-11-billion-for-defense-in-2023, October 21, 2022.
[13] Mei.edu/publications/morocco-and-israel-economic-opportunities-military-incentives-and-moral-hazards, December 1, 2022,
[14] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 9822, Former Algerian Intelligence Officer Mokhtar Said Mediouni: Morocco Is Ruled By The King's Jewish Advisor, André Azoulay; Moroccans Live In "Total Misery," All They Export Is Drugs And Barbarism, July 17, 2022.
[15] Apnews.com/article/algeria-morocco-border-jetski-killed-c5b0efadefae8258d7624907e45c1e7b, September 4, 2023.
[16] Echoroukonline.com/%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B0%D8%
B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%A4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%83-%D9
%88%D8%B1%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7, April 10, 2023.
[17] Youtube.com/watch?v=j0AEnUZ6qYU, March 7, 2022.