English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 14/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2024/english.December14.24.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Click On
The Below Link To Join Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط
على الرابط في
أعلى للإنضمام
لكروب
Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
Elias Bejjani/Click
on the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس
بجاني/اضغط
على الرابط في
أسفل للإشتراك في
موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw
Bible Quotations For today
For as in one body we have many members, and
not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in
Christ,
Letter to the Romans 12/01-08/:”I appeal to you therefore,
brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so
that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and
perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think
of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober
judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as
in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same
function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are
members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given
to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher,
in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader,
in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on December
13-14/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The Rise of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the
Shadows of Daesh-like Islamic Governance in Syria
The Need for Exceptional Leadership in a Defining Moment/Etienne Sakr-Abu Arz/December
13, 2024
Israel Strikes Khiam after Lebanese Army Deployment
Israel says targeted Hezbollah operatives in Khiam strike
Israeli drones bomb areas near two Sidon district towns
Who are Lebanon's current presidential candidates?
Mikati discusses presidential juncture with Pope at Vatican
PM Mikati meets Cardinal Parolin: Vatican committed to supporting Lebanon and
urges presidential election
Lebanese Army works to clear roads leading to Khiam in South Lebanon following
Israeli aggression
Israeli army claims Brigade 769 continues operations in South Lebanon, discovers
and destroys weapons cache
Future of Lebanon's presidency hangs in the balance: Can Lebanon bridge
divisions before January 9?
Will a president be elected on Jan. 9?
MP Neemat Frem discusses Lebanon's reconstruction and presidential
responsibilities with LF's Geagea
Syrian Prisons: Programmed Dehumanization/David Sahyoun/This is Beirut/December
23/2024
New York Times questions whether Trump's Mideast adviser Boulos is truly a
billionaire
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on December
13-14/2024
Israeli Defense Minister Orders Troops to Prepare to Spend Winter on
Mount Hermon
Qatar delegation to visit Syria Sunday: Qatari diplomat
Israel's four active fronts: Instability in Syria, ceasefire in Lebanon,
prisoner deal in Gaza, and nuclear threat in Iran
A decade after Ghouta massacre: Israel's strikes redefine the fight against
Syrian weapons
UK's Starmer says Syria needs 'non-sectarian' governance
US flies freed American Travis Timmerman out of Syria
'Friday of Victory': Mass Rallies Across Syria Celebrate End of Assad
Blinken Pledges to Work with Iraq against ISIS on Syria Crisis Tour
UN Syria Envoy Sees 'Many Challenges' for Syria Stabilization
Discovery of Vast Syrian Drug Lab Reveals Secrets of Illicit Captagon Trade
Who Was in Ousted Syrian President Assad’s Inner Circle and Where Are They Now?
Red Cross Opens Hotlines to Try to Reunite Syrian Families
Kyiv Ready to Supply Food to Syria as Russia Supplies Suspended
Austria Offers Syrian Refugees 1,000 Euros to Return Home
IAEA Says Iran Agrees to More Monitoring at Fordo Enrichment Plant
Revolutionary Guard Chief: We Haven’t Lost Our Regional Arms
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on December
13-14/2024
Iran
Threatens Jordan, Smuggles Arms to Palestinian Terrorists in Israel/Lawrence A.
Franklin/Gatestone Institute/December 13, 2024
Question: “What does it mean that the government will be on His shoulders
(Isaiah 9:6)?”/GotQuestions.org//December 13, 2024
Bashar al-Assad’s Self-destructive Policies/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al
Awsat/December 23/2024
Zarif Weaves an Oriental Helsinki Carpet/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/December
23/2024
Tel Aviv-Damascus: The Collapse of Guarantees/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/December
23/2024
The First Visit to Damascus/Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
on December
13-14/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text
& Video: The Rise of
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the Shadows of Daesh-like Islamic Governance in Syria
Elias Bejjani/December 11/ 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/137865/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntqvXDKBGoA
The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorial regime in Syria brought joy to many
Syrians who had endured 54 years of brutal, inhumane, and oppressive rule.
However, the rise of jihadist and extremist groups, primarily Hay’at Tahrir
al-Sham (HTS), to fill the power vacuum left by Assad raises pressing questions
about Syria’s future. HTS, an extremist Islamist group deeply connected to
al-Qaeda and the global terrorist Muslim Brotherhood network, has a history of
jihadist violence in Iraq and Syria. Designated a terrorist organization by the
United States, the rise of HTS could plunge Syria into a new era of repression
and instability, akin to the darkness seen in Gaza, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, and
Afghanistan under Islamist rule.
HTS, under the leadership of Abu Muhammad al-Julani (Ahmed al-Sharaa), is known
for its violent tactics, oppressive governance, and exploitation of religious
doctrines to justify its actions. While the fall of Assad represents a pivotal
moment for the Syrian people, replacing one form of tyranny with another rooted
in extremist Islamist ideology poses an existential threat to Syria’s
ethnically, sectarianly, and culturally diverse fabric. Moreover, such a regime
could pose a serious threat to neighboring Lebanon and Jordan.
Under jihadist rule, countries often regress into authoritarian theocracies that
impose draconian laws, curtail freedoms, and suppress dissent. For instance, the
iron-fisted rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan has resulted in public
executions, restrictions on women’s rights, and suppression of opposition.
Similarly, Iran’s theocratic regime rules through fear, employing executions,
arbitrary arrests, and systemic oppression of minorities and women. Yemen’s
collapse under the control of extremist Islamist factions demonstrates how
radical governance exacerbates humanitarian suffering and stifles development.
HTS often projects a façade of moderation, particularly to gain local and
international support. This deceptive approach aligns with the concept of
taqiyya, an Islamic principle permitting deceit under certain circumstances to
safeguard religion. From this perspective, HTS’s promises of governance aligned
with the aspirations of the Syrian people must be scrutinized critically.
History has shown that such groups often make conciliatory statements to pacify
local populations and international observers while implementing oppressive
practices in reality.
HTS’s track record inspires little confidence. In areas under its control, the
group has enforced strict Sharia laws, silenced dissent, and marginalized
women’s rights. These actions contradict its claims of prioritizing justice and
the welfare of the Syrian people. Instead, HTS governance threatens to
institutionalize dhimmitude, relegating non-Muslims to second-class citizenship,
thereby undermining Syria’s pluralistic and diverse societal fabric.
One of the most dangerous aspects of HTS’s rule, should it come to fruition, is
its use of deception. Its application of taqiyya allows it to present a moderate
and acceptable face publicly while concealing extremist intentions. This
ideological duplicity makes it challenging to assess their true motives,
presenting a significant obstacle to international efforts to counter their
influence.
The rise of HTS under al-Julani’s leadership represents a grim and disheartening
scenario for Syria. The group’s extremist ideology and authoritarian practices
could plunge the country into an era of fear and regression. Syrians who fought
for freedom and dignity under Assad now face the prospect of losing those
hard-won rights under a new, ideologically driven oppressor.
Should HTS consolidate its power, the consequences could be dire. The group’s
strict interpretation of Sharia law might lead to harsh punishments, such as
public executions and amputations. Women would likely face severe restrictions
on their rights, including limitations on education and employment. Furthermore,
HTS’s ties to al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood organization could integrate
Syria into a global jihadist network, destabilizing the region and threatening
international security.
To prevent Syria from following the paths of Gaza, Yemen, Iran, or
Afghanistan, the international community and moderate Syrian forces must
collaborate to counter the influence of jihadist groups like HTS. This effort
should include advocating for inclusive, secular governance, promoting education
and human rights, and ensuring that Syrians do not exchange one form of tyranny
for another.
While the fall of Assad’s regime is a cause for celebration, it should also be a
moment for caution. Syrians must remain vigilant against the rise of extremist
groups like HTS, which threaten to impose a regressive and oppressive regime.
The lessons from other nations under Islamist rule are clear: the struggle for
freedom and justice does not end with the removal of a dictator but requires
constant vigilance to prevent the emergence of new forms of tyranny.
The Need for Exceptional Leadership in a Defining Moment
Etienne Sakr-Abu Arz/December 13, 2024
(Translation, Quotation & Summary by Elias Bejjani, Editor & Publisher of the
LCCC website)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/137968/
In light of the rapid transformations unfolding in Lebanon and the
region—changes that have toppled regimes and disrupted longstanding balances of
power—the Lebanese presidential election has emerged as a decisive opportunity
to shape the country’s future during this critical juncture.
What is deeply concerning, however, is the complacency exhibited by the majority
of presidential candidates. They act as though Lebanon is thriving under normal
conditions, ignoring the unprecedented crises and turbulence the nation is
enduring. These dire challenges demand exceptional leadership, marked by
courage, boldness, and a clear vision for the future.
Even the most uninformed observer can see that these crises cannot be resolved
with traditional political tools or through leaders who perpetuate failed
policies. While the world around us is transforming at breakneck speed, Lebanon
remains shackled to outdated methods and stagnant approaches that fail to
address the gravity of the nation’s challenges.
For decades, the Lebanese people have borne the weight of corrupt political
systems and foreign occupations that have eroded the country’s sovereignty.
Today, they find themselves confronting a political mafia that relentlessly
reproduces itself, clinging to the same failed practices, utterly indifferent to
the people’s suffering and the transformative changes happening within and
beyond Lebanon’s borders.
What Lebanon needs today is a revolution against itself—a revolution that
precedes any meaningful change. This revolution must challenge the traditional
political system and dismantle the antiquated concepts that have governed the
nation’s response to its mounting crises. Lebanon requires a visionary project
to build a modern state—one that reflects the aspirations of its people, aligns
with the spirit of the times, and restores the dignity of the state and its
institutions.
Lebanon stands at a crossroads, faced with two stark choices: pursue radical
change in leadership and policy, or remain trapped in a vicious cycle of
escalating crises. The time has come for a bold step toward a new beginning—one
in which the national interest takes precedence over petty calculations,
personal ambitions, and sectarian divisions.
In summary: Lebanon’s ruling political mafia must be held accountable, and the
nation’s true elites must rise to lead. Only through exceptional leadership and
a commitment to sweeping change can Lebanon escape its current plight and
reclaim its rightful place among modern states.
Israel Strikes Khiam after Lebanese Army Deployment
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Less than a day after the Lebanese Army deployed in Khiam near the southern
border with UN peacekeepers, an Israeli drone strike hit the town. Caretaker
Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack as "blatant
treachery."Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported one person killed
and two injured in the strike.The attack followed the Lebanese Army’s initial
deployment in Khiam on Wednesday, where residents were advised to stay away
until further notice. Mikati condemned the Israeli airstrike, calling it
“blatant treachery” that violated the ceasefire brokered by the US and France.
He urged both nations to take a clear stance and demanded the monitoring
committee act decisively to prevent further violations.The Lebanese Army began
its gradual deployment in Khiam on Wednesday, establishing positions at five
locations before an engineering unit moved into the town on Thursday. The
Lebanese Army’s engineering unit entered Khiam on Thursday afternoon, inspected
the area for explosives, and began clearing debris and opening roads. The
operation, coordinated with UN peacekeepers, focused on five key points.Military
sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel has no clear plan for a full withdrawal
from border villages, with the pullout happening gradually under UN supervision.
The US said it is monitoring the Israeli withdrawal from Khiam.US Central
Command reported that Gen. Michael Kurilla visited Beirut on Wednesday to
oversee the first phase of the withdrawal under last month’s ceasefire
agreement. He also met with Lebanese Army chief General Joseph Aoun at a
ceasefire monitoring site. Kurilla visited Beirut to monitor the first phase of
the Israeli withdrawal and the Lebanese Army’s deployment in Khiam as part of
the ceasefire agreement. Kurilla called it “an important first step” toward a
lasting halt to hostilities and progress in the region. He also met Lebanese
Army chief General Joseph Aoun to discuss the security situation in Syria, its
impact on stability, and ways to strengthen military cooperation between the
Lebanese Army and US Central Command.
Israel says targeted Hezbollah operatives in Khiam strike
Naharnet/December 23/2024
The Israeli army has claimed that Hezbollah militants were the target of a drone
strike that killed a person in Khiam on Thursday and was swiftly condemned by
caretaker PM Najib Mikati. “An air force aircraft attacked a number of Hezbollah
terrorists operating in the southern Lebanon area and posing a threat to Israeli
citizens in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the
Israeli army said.“The defense army remains committed to the understandings
reached regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon, continuing its deployment in the
southern Lebanon area and moving to remove any threat to the State of Israel and
its citizens,” it added. An Israeli strike killed at least one person Thursday
in the Lebanese border town of Khiam, the Health Ministry said, less than a day
after Israeli troops handed the hilltop village back to the Lebanese army in
coordination with U.N. peacekeepers,
Khiam is the first Lebanese town Israel has pulled out of since a ceasefire
between Israel and Hezbollah began two weeks ago, and marks an important test of
the fragile truce. Lebanon's Health Ministry and state news agency did not
provide details on who was killed, and did not report airstrikes elsewhere on
Thursday. Lebanese troops deployed in the northern section of the town on
Thursday morning and were coordinating with U.N. peacekeepers to finalize
Israel’s withdrawal before fully entering into other neighborhoods. Mikati
sharply criticized Israel for striking the town less than 24 hours after the
Lebanese army returned, saying it was “a violation of the pledges made by the
parties that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, who must act to curb Israeli
aggression.” The truce was brokered by the U.S. and France.
Israel has previously said the ceasefire deal allows it to use military force
against perceived violations. Near-daily attacks by Israel during the ceasefire,
mostly in southern Lebanon, have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27
others.
Khiam, which sits on a ridge less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border
with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war. The Lebanese
army was clearing debris and reopening roads in the northern section of the
town. Civilian access to other areas remained challenging as the army clears
roads and works alongside the U.N. peacekeepers to ensure the area is free of
unexploded ordnance.
Israeli drones bomb areas near two Sidon district towns
Naharnet/December 23/2024
An Israeli drone on Friday bombed the Tebna area near the Sidon district town of
Bayssarieh, the state-run National News Agency said.
The same area had been targeted twice since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took
effect on November 27. Israel had claimed that the targets were Hezbollah
“activities” and “a Hezbollah facility containing medium-range rockets.”
Later on Friday, an Israeli drone bombed an open area on the outskirts of the
Sidon district town of al-Zrariyeh, causing no casualties, media reports said.
Israel is yet to comment on both strikes.
Who are Lebanon's current presidential candidates?
Naharnet/December 23/2024
Speaker Nabih Berri has two presidential candidates: ex-ambassador to the
Vatican and former army intelligence chief Brig. Gen. George Khoury and MP Farid
Haykal al-Khazen, Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Friday. “Berri has not
also dropped the nomination of Marada Movement chief ex-minister Suleiman
Franjieh, based on reserving everyone’s right to nominate themselves according
to democratic norms,” the daily said. Berri meanwhile agrees with Free Patriotic
Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Brig. Gen. Khoury, General Security chief Maj.
Gen. Elias Bayssari and ex-minister Ziad Baroud, the newspaper added. Bassil is
strongly supporting Bayssari and Baroud, al-Anbaa said, adding that ex-minister
Jean-Louis Cardahi has also emerged as a potential candidate backed by the
Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient and prominent Vatican officials.
“The opposition camp is meanwhile rooting for a serious candidate, Army chief
General Joseph Aoun, who enjoys international support, especially from the U.S.,
in addition to other names including ex-minister Jihad Azour, ex-MP Salah Honein,
MP Neemat Frem and ex-minister Nassif Hitti, while the French have added the
name of the banker Samir Assaf to the list,” the daily added. The newspaper,
however, noted that Aoun and Khoury are the two leading candidates, while each
of them is opposed by one of the political camps. Baroud and Cardahi meanwhile
have good chances in light of their technocratic characteristics, the daily
said.
Mikati discusses presidential juncture with Pope at Vatican
Naharnet/December 23/2024
The Vatican urged Lebanon on Friday to elect a president, after two years of
vacuum amid deadlock between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs in parliament.
Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who met Friday with caretaker Prime
Minister Najib Mikati, said the Vatican has been calling for the election of a
president for two years. Parolin hoped for a president to be elected on January
9 when Lebanon's parliament will convene to elect a president in a session with
consecutive rounds of voting. "We hope that a president will be elected and that
he would be capable of bringing the Lebanese together under the constitution,"
Parolin said. Earlier on Friday, Mikati had met with Pope Francis as he visited
the Vatican. Mikati said in a statement that he discussed with the Pope the
presidential vacuum and the role of the Christian leaders. "The presidency does
not only concern (Lebanon's) Christians, but is a national juncture," the PM
said. Mikati also urged Francis to pressure Israel to release Lebanese prisoners
held in Israeli jails and to accelerate the withdrawal of Israeli troops from
south Lebanon.
PM Mikati meets Cardinal Parolin: Vatican committed to
supporting Lebanon and urges presidential election
LBCI/December 23/2024
Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal
Pietro Parolin, who emphasized that "Lebanon has always been an example to the
world of how societies can coexist."He noted, "Lebanon holds a special place in
the Holy See's attention."Parolin stated, "For two years, we have been calling
for the election of a president and hope that this will occur within the set
timeframe, with a president capable of uniting the Lebanese under the
constitution."He also stressed that the Vatican will support Lebanon in
international forums.
Lebanese Army works to clear roads leading to Khiam in
South Lebanon following Israeli aggression
LBCI/December 23/2024
The Lebanese Army announced in a statement that they are actively clearing the
main road leading to the town of Khiam in the Marjaayoun district, extending
from its northern to southern outskirts. The operation involves removing rubble
and unexploded ordnance left behind by the recent Israeli aggression.
In coordination with the committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of
the ceasefire agreement, the army has also begun deploying its units within the
town as part of a broader regional deployment plan. The army leadership has
reiterated the danger posed by unexploded ordnance and urged citizens to avoid
approaching the area. They emphasized the importance of adhering to instructions
from military units until the deployment and clearing operations are fully
completed.
Israeli army claims Brigade 769 continues operations in
South Lebanon, discovers and destroys weapons cache
LBCI/December 23/2024
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army's spokesperson, claimed on X that Brigade 769
forces are conducting field operations in southern Lebanon to "neutralize
threats." According to Adraee, the operations target what he described as
"objectives linked to Hezbollah near the border."He stated: "During
threat-neutralization operations, forces discovered numerous combat tools,
including rocket launchers and Kornet missiles camouflaged in rugged and
mountainous areas, alongside Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition magazines, and other
military equipment."Adraee said that "an anti-tank missile launcher used by
Hezbollah operatives to fire towards towns in the Galilee Finger over the past
year was also found and confiscated."In another operation, the forces uncovered
"a weapons depot containing RPG rockets and mortar shells," Adraee continued,
adding that all seized materials were confiscated. The spokesperson added that
Brigade 769 "continues its deployment in southern Lebanon and along the border
as part of its field operations to remove threats to Israeli citizens." He
concluded by reiterating ''the brigade's commitment to the understandings
between Israel and Lebanon."
Future of Lebanon's presidency hangs in the balance: Can Lebanon bridge
divisions before January 9?
LBCI/December 23/2024
Report by Toni Mrad, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi
Lebanon's political scene is deeply divided as factions prepare for the
presidential election session scheduled for January 9. The Amal-Hezbollah duo is
actively pushing to secure a president in this session. Publicly, they continue
to advocate for the candidacy of former MP Sleiman Frangieh. Still, alternative
names like Georges Khoury, Elias Al-Baysari, Nassif Hitti, and Farid Haykal
Khazen have also emerged. However, these candidates face skepticism from certain
members of the Quintet Committee, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United
States, which insist on a consensus candidate who is unifying, reformist, and
aligned with sovereign principles. On the other hand, the opposition bloc
prefers postponing the election until after Donald Trump assumes the U.S.
presidency on January 20, believing that the changing regional dynamics favor
their position. They aim to capitalize on this momentum to push for a candidate
like Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces Party, despite reservations
from some factions within the opposition that view him as a polarizing figure.
Meanwhile, a third faction seeks a middle ground between the Amal-Hezbollah duo
and the opposition. This team includes the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the
Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and the Moderation Bloc. The FPM's primary
goal is to block Frangieh's candidacy, with Army Commander Joseph Aoun also off
the table. They remain open to discussing alternative names and have previously
proposed a list of candidates. The PSP reiterates its preference for a consensus
candidate who has the backing of at least one prominent Christian political
group. The Moderation Bloc, expanding to include centrist MPs, is focused on
floating potential names and gauging the political landscape to identify a
compromise candidate acceptable to the major parties.
Will a president be elected on Jan. 9?
Naharnet/December 23/2024
A meeting Wednesday between the Quint's ambassadors and Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri was "one of the best", Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said in
a televised interview. Moussa said that Berri is committed to electing a
consensual president who supports the implementation of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1701.
What is UNSC Resolution 1701? -
In 2006, after a bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah, the United
Nations Security Council unanimously voted for a resolution to end the conflict
and pave the way for lasting security along the border. Israeli forces would
fully withdraw from Lebanese territories while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL —
Hezbollah excluded — would be the exclusive armed presence south of Lebanon's
Litani River. The Lebanese state would have full sovereignty over its south.
Resolution 1701's terms were never fully enforced.
Why has it resurfaced? -
In late November, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end Israel's war on Lebanon went
into effect after 14 months of clashes started by Hezbollah in support of
Gaza.During the 60-day first phase of the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah and Israeli
forces are to withdraw from south Lebanon, and the Lebanese military is to step
in. Thus, the ceasefire calls for the implementation of Resolution 1701. The
U.S. and France will be involved in a monitoring mechanism to make sure
Resolution 1701 is implemented. Their ambassadors, along with the ambassadors of
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, have also been working for months to facilitate
the election of a president in Lebanon.
- Will a president be elected on Jan. 9? -
Berri has repeatedly vowed that a parliament session scheduled on January 9 to
elect a president will not be postponed and expected the session to be
productive, but crisis-hit Lebanon has been without a head of state for more
than two years amid deadlock between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs.Berri said he
scheduled the session on January 9 to give the blocs the needed time to agree on
a president. According to Egypt's ambassador, the consensual president would
have a wide support among parliamentary blocs and would support Resolution 1701.
No candidates currently enjoy the support of the two opposed pro- and
anti-Hezbollah blocs. But Moussa had said that the Jan. session would be open
with consecutive rounds until a president is elected.
MP Neemat Frem discusses Lebanon's reconstruction and
presidential responsibilities with LF's Geagea
LBCI/December 23/2024
MP Neemat Frem met with the leader of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea,
in Maarab to discuss strategies for Lebanon's reconstruction and the
responsibilities of the country's next president. Frem emphasized that his
vision prioritizes rebuilding state institutions with political backing to halt
aggression and restore stability. He stated, "We can consider this a new era,
and we hope Lebanon will seize this opportunity." Announcing his official
candidacy for the presidency, Frem highlighted shifting priorities, focusing on
fulfilling commitments and ensuring Lebanon's positions align with global
communities. He stressed the need for Lebanon's new leadership to be built on
strong foundations and avoid alignment with axes that could harm the country.
Frem also noted his ongoing consultations with parliamentary blocs and pledged
to keep Geagea informed about developments to maximize opportunities for
Lebanon's benefit. He reiterated his commitment to placing Lebanon first,
avoiding divisive alliances, and upholding agreements to maintain peace.
He cautioned that any violation of ceasefire agreements could escalate into a
full-scale war involving Lebanon and Israel—not just Hezbollah and Israel.
"This is a new understanding; there is no room for miscalculations," he warned.
Syrian Prisons: Programmed Dehumanization
David Sahyoun/This is Beirut/December 23/2024
Tortured and broken in the prisons of the Syrian regime, detainees are stripped
of their humanity. Devastating traumas and challenges in reintegration:
psychoanalysis and the humanities shed light on the mechanisms of inevitable
dehumanization and outline the difficult paths of reconstruction, at the
crossroads of the personal and the political. Under the reign of the Damascus
Butchers’ Dynasty, the atrociously orchestrated detention conditions inflicted
upon prisoners have caused devastating physical and psychological consequences.
Tortured, humiliated and deprived of their most basic rights, these men and
women have had their integrity profoundly shattered. The bodies and psyches of
prisoners are coldly exploited for purposes of intelligence gathering,
retribution or elimination. The raw images circulating on social networks are
horrifying, forcing viewers to confront a human being reduced to a mere scrap,
plunged into an archaic regression of utter despair. These images compel the
voyeur we become to imagine the unnameable: the grinding down of dehumanized
bodies by the pathological invention of infernal machines, steamrollers that
crush annihilated beings.
Sigmund Freud revolutionized the understanding of psychological trauma. He
demonstrated how an event of extreme violence could overwhelm the ego’s defense
mechanisms, leaving indelible traces in the unconscious. For tortured prisoners,
the relentless repetition of abuse shatters the protective mechanisms that
typically shield the psyche. Unable to flee, fight or integrate an experience
beyond their resources, the individual is left in a state of helpless indigence.
This traumatic intrusion, a true “breach in the psyche” as Freud termed it,
overwhelms the individual with an influx of uncontrollable excitations. The
usual defense mechanisms are overrun, leading to profound upheaval. The
traumatized person is haunted by the perpetual return of the traumatic scene,
imposed through flashbacks, recurring nightmares and intrusive recollections.
This recurrence of the unspeakable marks the failure of psychic integration
processes and keeps the individual trapped in a past that remains ever-present.
Once released, reintegration into society and family circles proves extremely
difficult, as the traumas endured have severely destabilized their mental
balance.
Freud also emphasized how trauma undermines the narcissistic foundations of the
individual, deeply shaking their self-confidence. In the face of the extreme
powerlessness experienced during torture, the sense of identity continuity
wavers. The ego, the reference point for adapting to reality, is gravely
weakened at its core. Jacques Lacan extends and complicates this understanding
of trauma. He emphasizes the brutal encounter with a reality “impossible to
articulate, impossible to represent.” Trauma signifies a rupture in the symbolic
order, a void in the fabric of meaning where the subject is plunged without
recourse. This confrontation with the unnameable propels the individual into
abyssal anxiety, leaving them “destitute,” stripped of their position as a
desiring and speaking subject.
Torture specifically targets this subjective destitution, annihilating the
symbolic foundations of being. By reducing the prisoner to a suffering body, a
bare life exposed without limits to sovereign power, the torturer attacks the
roots of their humanity. Their existence as a subject is denied in a radical
dehumanization campaign.In Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection,
psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva introduces the concept of abjection to describe the
destruction of boundaries between self and other, human and inhuman. The
experience of torture confronts this intolerable abjectness. The abuse shatters
the boundaries of intimacy, exposing a vulnerability without recourse. The
torturer penetrates the victim’s innermost self, defiling their body and mind in
a dangerous and repugnant proximity. Reduced to waste, to a dehumanized remnant,
the victim loses all bearings and self-esteem.
With the well-known concept of the “banality of evil,” philosopher Hannah Arendt
explains how this dehumanization process is facilitated by systems that
transform ordinary individuals into obedient cogs and active accomplices in a
machinery of terror. The torturers in Syrian prisons, like those elsewhere,
blindly follow orders, disrupting their moral conscience to the point of
adopting their masters’ blind hatred toward prisoners. This normalization of
cruelty, meticulously organized, amplifies the unimaginable nature of the
endured abuse.
In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault analyzes how
the prison system aims to control and discipline bodies, producing docile and
malleable subjects. This domination and normalization enterprise reaches its
peak in Syrian detention centers. Through a calculated balance of arbitrary
punishments and false promises, jailers seek to reduce prisoners to degraded and
humiliated objects. Everything is designed to break their identity, even
stripping them of control over their bodily functions.
But we must not believe that these torturers are extraordinary beings, unlike us
who are incapable of committing such acts. The unconscious of every human being
is a reservoir of diverse and conflicting drives, including destructive, cruel
and violent impulses. Under certain conditions, we may find ourselves unable to
control our inner savagery, despite initial resistance.
Experiments in social psychology have extensively proven this.
• In 1963, Stanley Milgram’s experiment (depicted in Henri Verneuil’s film I…
For Icarus) invited volunteers to act as “teachers” under the authority of a
university figure, encouraging them to administer electric shocks of maximum
intensity (450 volts) to “students” when they answered questions incorrectly.
The results shocked both experimenters and consulted psychiatrists, who never
anticipated such findings: 62% of participants administered the maximum shock,
despite clear signs of the learner’s suffering.
The conclusion is clear: ordinary individuals can commit cruel acts when
submitting to authority, even against their personal morals. Subsequent
repetitions of this experiment worldwide yielded the following troubling
results:
Minimum submission rate: 50%
Maximum submission rate: 87.5%
Average submission rate: 71%
• Another, even more astonishing experiment in the United States, was Philip
Zimbardo’s prison simulation. Ordinary college students quickly adopted
sadistic, abusive behavior as “guards,” reveling in the suffering inflicted on
their peers playing “prisoners.” Like in Milgram’s experiment, both victims and
perpetrators were dehumanized, forcing the experiment to end prematurely due to
its unbearable outcomes (depicted in Tim Talbott’s film The Experiment). In The
Island of the Doomed, Swedish activist writer Stig Dagerman expresses the same
observation: “Two things fill me with horror: the executioner within me and the
axe above me.” In other words, the executioner is not only external but coexists
with an internal other – the unconscious perverse child within every individual,
ready to resurface under certain conditions. For Sibel Agrali, director of the
Primo Levi Center for the care and support of torture and political violence
survivors, one cannot heal or erase the horrors endured. However, patient,
multidisciplinary therapeutic work can help victims gradually regain their
footing and internal security. Medical and therapeutic support, social and legal
assistance, and mediation by interpreters are integral facets of holistic care.
For these broken individuals, therapy is long and arduous. The initial challenge
is often to articulate the unspeakable, to attempt to symbolize an experience
beyond representation. When speech emerges, it marks a first step toward
reclaiming the self. Extracting traumatic events from the mute paralysis in
which they imprison the subject is essential. Through a “co-construction”
between therapist and patient, the individual regains agency and gradually
rebuilds confidence in their resources. By reclaiming their role as a subject in
symbolic exchange and renewing the bond of mutual recognition, the victim can
rediscover a position of desire. Ultimately, the political, social and
collective dimensions are crucial for restoring a sense of shared belonging and
humanity. It is up to society to acknowledge the scale of these atrocities and
mobilize to ensure torturers, their masters and accomplices are held
accountable. Only firm and just condemnation of these crimes can restore victims
as full subjects.
New York Times questions whether Trump's Mideast adviser
Boulos is truly a billionaire
Naharnet/December 23/2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East adviser, the
Lebanese-American Massad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul
at the helm of a business that bears his family name. Boulos has been profiled
as a tycoon by the world’s media, telling a reporter in October that his company
is worth billions. Trump called him a “highly respected leader in the business
world, with extensive experience on the international scene.”The president-elect
even lavished what may be his highest praise: a “dealmaker.”But the New York
Times said records show that Boulos has spent the past two decades selling
trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company his father-in-law controls.
He is chief executive of the company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, which made a profit of
less than $66,000 last year, corporate filings show. “There is no indication in
corporate documents that Mr. Boulos, a Lebanese-American whose son is married to
Mr. Trump’s daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his
businesses. The truck dealership is valued at about $865,000 at its current
share price. Mr. Boulos’s stake, according to securities filings, is worth
$1.53,” the NYT said. As for Boulos Enterprises, the company that has been
called his family business in The Financial Times and elsewhere, a company
officer there told the newspaper that it is owned by an unrelated Boulos family.
The New York Times notes that Boulos will advise on one of the world’s most
complicated and conflict-wracked regions — a region that Boulos said this week
that he has not visited in years. The advisory position does not require U.S.
Senate approval. Boulos, a Christian from northern Lebanon who emigrated to
Texas as a teenager, has risen in prominence since 2018, when his son Michael
began dating Tiffany Trump. This year, Boulos helped Trump woo Arab-American
voters, and in the fall served as a go-between for Trump and the Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. In October, the NYT asked him about his wealth
and business dealings.“Your company is described as a multibillion-dollar
enterprise,” a reporter said. “Are you yourself a billionaire?”Boulos said he
did not like to describe himself that way, but that journalists had picked up on
the label. “It’s accurate to describe the company as a multibillion-dollar?” the
reporter followed up. “Yeah,” Boulos replied. “It’s a big company. Long
history.”
In another call, on Wednesday, he said he was referring to his father-in-law’s
companies, which he said were collectively worth more than $1 billion, though
the company he runs is not.“I’ve never really gone into any details like that
about the value,” he said. He confirmed that he has no relationship with Boulos
Enterprises. Asked why he had never corrected the record, he said that he made a
practice of not commenting on his business. Boulos has a history of small
business ventures. Corporate records in Nigeria tie him to a restaurant, some
inactive construction companies and to Tantra Beverages, a now-defunct company
that was set up to sell an “erotic drink” that “gives men and women the ultimate
stimulating push,” according to its manufacturer. Boulos said an associate runs
the restaurant, and that he did not recall the drink venture. After this article
was published, Boulos said he did recall Tantra, and that it was part of an
attempt to sell energy drinks that never got off the ground. Any significant
wealth, he said on Tuesday, comes from the family of his wife, Sarah Fadoul
Boulos. She is the daughter of Michel Zouhair Fadoul, a citizen of France and
Burkina Faso who spent decades assembling a patchwork of logging, construction
and automobile distribution companies throughout West and Central Africa.
The NYT could find no indication, either in company documents or records from
the corporate data provider Sayari, that Boulos has a direct stake in these
businesses -- other than the truck dealership. Boulos met Sarah Fadoul through
family in Lebanon and married young, she has said. Both studied in Texas, she
has said in interviews on podcasts targeting the elite in Lagos, the commercial
capital of Nigeria.
Trump has referred to Boulos as a lawyer and ABC News has reported that he
graduated with a law degree from the University of Houston. But the school said
it has no record of that. Instead, he graduated from a separate school, the
University of Houston-Downtown, in 1993 with a bachelor of business
administration degree.The couple had planned a move to New York, where she said
he had been offered a job at a law firm. But her father intervened, she said,
and invited the young couple to work for his business holdings in Africa. In
1996 the couple moved to Lagos, where Fadoul Boulos said they became known as
trust fund kids. “We were called the golden children,” she told the “Listed
Lagosian” podcast. Mr. Fadoul put the couple in charge of a truck and machinery
dealership in Nigeria, Ms. Fadoul Boulos said. Corporate filings show the
company has not grown much over the years. Business was slow when a reporter
visited its Lagos headquarters this month. A few dozen heavy machines and trucks
sat in a lot by a highway, and a handful of staff sat behind desks inside the
office. Boulos used to come in regularly, staff members said, but since July he
had been in the United States campaigning for Trump.
SCOA’s branch in the Nigerian city of Kano closed four years ago because of lack
of customers, a former employee, Kamal Ishaq, said Wednesday. Ms. Fadoul Boulos
has said that she worked alongside her husband for a time. But then, after an
evangelical awakening, she said, God called her to dance. She set up the Society
for the Performing Arts in Nigeria, where she calls herself the “visioneer.” The
society teaches dance to young Nigerians, runs summer camps and puts on
performances. Fadoul Boulos frequently posts videos of herself on social media
doing pirouettes and waving flags to worship music — including at her favorite
Pentecostal church in Lagos, the House On The Rock, whose lead pastor gave a
blessing at Tiffany Trump’s wedding in 2022. Michael Boulos, the couple’s
younger son, reportedly met Tiffany Trump at the actress Lindsay Lohan’s club in
Greece in 2018, when he was about 22 and she 25.
Soon after their engagement, reports began to circulate describing Boulos as the
son and heir of a billionaire. Massad Boulos said in an interview this week that
Michael was an heir to the family business, but independently confirming its
value was impossible. The diamond ring that Michael Boulos gave Tiffany Trump,
with its reported $1 million price tag, seemed to confirm great wealth. Michael
Boulos was associate director of the truck dealership when they married, and has
worked for a U.S. private equity firm and a yacht rental company, according to
PitchBook.
In Nigeria, the most famous member of the Boulos family is Michael’s brother
Fares, who used to perform reggae music on YouTube under the name Farastafari.
Now he posts TikTok skits under the name Oyibo Rebel — oyibo means white person.
His recurring characters include a caricature of a Black woman, Mama Thank God.
He wears a large false bosom and a brightly colored cloth tied around his head,
and mocks Nigerian women.
His LinkedIn page says he is also a director at the truck dealership.
In the October interview, Massad Boulos said that he first met Trump at a White
House Christmas party in 2019.
“He was very, very warm, very welcoming,” Boulos said.Boulos appeared on Trump’s
behalf in Arabic-language media before the 2020 election. He played a more
significant role in 2024 as an unofficial emissary to Arab American voters. In
Michigan, home to the largest-percentage Arab American population in the
country, Boulos pitched Trump as the candidate best positioned to bring peace to
the Middle East. “He was a superstar,” said Yahya Basha, a Syrian-American
doctor and political donor in Royal Oak, Michigan. “People loved him.”
Trump carried the state, helped by heavily Arab-American precincts in the
Detroit area. Trump will take office at a time when the Middle East is as
unstable as it’s been in decades. Israel remains at war with Hamas and Lebanon
is devastated by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Syrian rebels toppled
Bashar al-Assad, the longtime dictator. What role Trump intends for Boulos is
unclear. In an interview, Boulos said that his White House responsibilities
would involve “advising on the Middle East and Arab countries,” but declined to
elaborate.
“The position is private,” he said. “It’s an adviser position.”
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on December
13-14/2024
Israeli
Defense Minister Orders Troops to Prepare to Spend Winter on Mount Hermon
Asharq Al Awsat/December 13,
2024
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to
stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus,
adding to signs that Israel's presence in Syria is set to continue for a
prolonged period. "Due to what is happening in Syria - there is enormous
security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon," a statement
from Katz's office said on Friday. The order suggests that Israeli troops who
moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a "few additional
points" following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government are
likely to remain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday
that the troops would remain until there was an effective force in place to
enforce the Separation of Forces Agreement signed following the 1973
Arab-Israeli war. Israel has called the move a limited and temporary measure to
ensure the security of its borders but it is unclear when it will judge the
situation in Syria stable enough to pull its forces back. Katz said the severe
winter weather on Mount Hermon, a peak of 2,800 meters (9,186 feet) that
straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, made special preparations for a
prolonged stay by Israeli troops a necessity. A number of countries have
condemned Israel's incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed
the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the
move was necessary for Israel's self-defense. As well as moving troops into the
buffer zone, Israel has also destroyed the bulk of the Syrian military's arsenal
of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, a move
it said was aimed at preventing the equipment falling into the hand of hostile
forces.
Qatar delegation
to visit Syria Sunday: Qatari diplomat
LBCI/AFP/December 23/2024
A delegation from Qatar is due to visit Syria on Sunday and hold meetings with
officials in its transitional government following the ouster of President
Bashar al-Assad, a Qatari diplomat told AFP Friday. "The first Qatari delegation
visit to Syria is expected to happen Sunday where they will take the necessary
steps to reopen the embassy and discuss enhancing aid delivery," the diplomat
said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the trip.
Israel's four active fronts: Instability in Syria, ceasefire in Lebanon,
prisoner deal in Gaza, and nuclear threat in Iran
LBCI/December 23/2024
Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi
Following the announcement of destroying 85% of the Syrian Air Force, Israel
redirected its attention to a primary concern since the start of the Al-Aqsa
Flood operation: Iran and its nuclear ambitions. In a strategic assessment
meeting with security leaders and ministers, Israeli officials discussed
leveraging perceived military advantages in Syria and Lebanon to address threats
on the Iranian front. On the Syrian battlefield, despite international
objections to its expanded control in the Golan Heights and warnings against
advancing toward Damascus, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Herzi
Halevi reaffirmed Israel's plans to maintain control over Mount Hermon for
several months. Additionally, Israeli forces have continued operations in Syrian
towns to establish a defensive buffer zone, citing national security
imperatives. Israeli troops have strengthened their presence in Syrian towns,
while public opinion in Israel remains divided on the implications of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's fall. Polls show that 42% view his ousting as
beneficial for Israel, 50% are undecided, and only 8% believe it to be
detrimental. Israel now faces four active fronts—Syria, Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon.
It maintains close coordination with the United States on all these fronts.
Israeli officials recently informed U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
of their commitment to sustaining the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon while
reserving the right to launch strong retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah or
other militant groups if they attempt to rebuild their capabilities. In Syria,
Israel has assured Washington that its extended presence beyond the buffer zone
is temporary. Regarding Gaza, Israel is advancing negotiations for a prisoner
exchange deal. On the Iranian front, Israel remains steadfast in its resolve to
prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, confident in the support of U.S. President-elect
Donald Trump for its position.
A decade after Ghouta massacre: Israel's strikes redefine the fight against
Syrian weapons
LBCI/December 23/2024
Report by Wissam Nasrallah, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi
On the morning of August 21, 2013, Eastern Ghouta in Syria awoke to a scene of
devastation: hundreds of lifeless bodies, including children, victims of sarin
gas unleashed by the Assad regime in one of the most horrific crimes in modern
history.
To fully understand this tragedy, here is a closer look back to August 20, 2012,
when then-President Barack Obama declared that the use or transfer of chemical
weapons in Syria would cross a "red line." However, despite the Ghouta massacre,
Washington's red line was quickly blurred. The Obama administration, expected to
launch a military response to change the course of the Syrian war, instead
deferred to Congress and pursued a diplomatic solution. The outcome was a deal
brokered with Russia, leading Syria to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and
dismantle parts of its chemical arsenal. The diplomatic move came at a cost: a
blow to U.S. credibility on the global stage. While the Ghouta victims became a
grim symbol of inaction, the Assad regime eventually fell over a decade later.
So, what the Obama administration failed to do, Netanyahu's administration took
action. Israel has conducted over 350 airstrikes targeting key military sites
across Syria, marking the most extensive air operation in its history. These
strikes targeted air defense systems, military airports, missile storage
facilities, and weapons production sites in cities such as Damascus, Homs,
Tartus, Latakia, and Palmyra. The Israeli navy also joined the offensive,
hitting Syrian maritime facilities, including ports in Bayda and Latakia. Among
the most critical targets was the Scientific Studies and Research Center in
Masyaf, long linked to the development of chemical weapons and missiles.
Facilities suspected of storing or producing hazardous chemical materials in
Damascus and Homs were also destroyed. Now, more than a decade after the
Ghouta massacre, the U.S. continues to advocate for the removal of Syria's
chemical weapons. Nonetheless, Israel's campaign aims much further, seeking to
eliminate any weapon deemed a threat to its national security.
UK's Starmer says Syria needs 'non-sectarian' governance
LBCI/Reuters/December 23/2024
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday caution was needed regarding
Syria's prospects after the end of Bashar al-Assad's rule and that the country
required "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance on behalf of all
Syrians.""Discussing the unfolding situation in Syria, the Prime Minister said
that the fall of Assad's brutal regime should be welcomed, but we must be
cautious about what comes next," a spokesperson for Starmer said after the prime
minister took part in a call with other Group of Seven leaders. "All leaders
agreed that Syria's territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty must be
respected throughout the transition process and in future," the spokesperson
added. The language was similar to that in a G7 statement about Syria issued on
Thursday.
US flies freed American Travis Timmerman out of Syria
LBCI/Reuters/December 23/2024
The U.S. military has flown American citizen Travis Timmerman out of Syria,
where he was imprisoned before being released by rebels this week, a U.S.
official said Friday.
Timmerman went missing in June, according to his parents. He was freed from
prison earlier in the week after Syrian rebel groups ousted the country's
longtime President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend.
'Friday of Victory': Mass Rallies Across Syria
Celebrate End of Assad
Asharq Al Awsat/December 13, 2024
Thousands of jubilant people rallied in cities across Syria, including at a
landmark mosque in the capital Damascus, to celebrate during the first Friday
prayers since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad. More than half a century
of brutal rule by the Assad clan came to a sudden end on Sunday, after a
lightning opposition offensive swept across the country and took the capital.
Assad fled Syria, closing an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or
killed, and capping nearly 14 years of war that killed more than 500,000 people
and displaced millions. Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of the group Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded the offensive, called on Syrians "to go to the
streets to express their joy" on Friday to mark "the victory of the blessed
revolution". During the early days of Syria's uprising in 2011, pro-democracy
protesters used to give their Friday gatherings a different name every week. The
latest rally was called the "Friday of victory". Interim prime minister Mohammed
al-Bashir addressed a large congregation at Damascus's landmark Umayyad Mosque.
Thousands flocked to the mosque, some raising the three-star Syrian independence
flag which none dared wave in the capital during Assad's iron-fisted rule.
Exhilarated crowds chanted "the Syrian people is one!" "I still feel like I'm
dreaming," said 52-year-old Khalil Rimo. "I still can't believe that I'm
standing next to the Umayyad Mosque... and there are no government thugs" asking
for ID, Rimo said."We are gathering because we're happy Syria has been freed,
we're happy to have been liberated from the prison in which we lived," said Nour
Thi al-Ghina, 38.
'Constructive' signals -
Thousands of people also gathered in the squares and streets in other Syrian
cities, including Homs, Hama and Idlib. There was a festive and relaxed
atmosphere as hundreds rallied in the main square of Syria's second city Aleppo,
a scene of fierce fighting during the country's civil war, AFP correspondents
reported. A huge billboard depicting Assad and his father Hafez was set on fire.
"The Assad father and son oppressed us, but we have liberated our country from
injustice," a white-bearded policeman at the scene said. In the southern city of
Sweida, the heartland of Syria's Druze minority where anti-government
demonstrations have been held for more than a year, hundreds took to the
streets, singing and clapping in jubilation. "Our joy is indescribable," said
Haitham Hudeifa, 54. "Every province is celebrating this great victory."HTS is
rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organization by
many Western governments, who now face the challenge of how to approach the
country's new leadership. The group has sought to moderate its rhetoric, and the
interim government insists the rights of all Syrians will be protected -- as
will the rule of law. The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that the
new government had sent "constructive" initial signals, including asking the
organization to stay in the country. Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7)
countries, who were due to meet virtually on Friday, said they were ready to
support the transition to an "inclusive and non-sectarian" government in Syria.
They called for the protection of human rights, including those of women and
minorities, while emphasizing "the importance of holding the Assad regime
accountable for its crimes".
Disappeared
Mourners in Damascus attend the funeral of Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada,
whose body was found after the opposition took control of the capital. Inside
much of Syria, the focus is turning towards unraveling the secrets of Assad's
rule, and particularly the network of detention centers and suspected torture
sites scattered across areas previously under government control. Syrians have
flooded to prisons, hospitals and morgues in search of long-disappeared loved
ones, hoping for a miracle, or at least closure. "I turned the world upside down
looking," Abu Mohammed told AFP as he searched for news of three missing
relatives at the Mazzeh airbase in Damascus. "But I didn't find anything at all.
We just want a hint of where they were, one percent."The International Committee
of the Red Cross said it has documented over 35,000 cases of disappearances
during Assad's rule, adding the true number was likely far higher.Assad was
propped up by Russia -- where a senior Russian official told US media he has
fled -- as well as Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group. The opposition
launched their offensive on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took effect in
the Israel-Hezbollah war, which saw Israel inflict staggering losses on Assad's
Lebanese ally. Both Israel and Türkiye, which backs some of the opposition who
ousted Assad, have since carried out strikes inside Syria.
Blinken Pledges to Work with Iraq against ISIS
on Syria Crisis Tour
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised Friday to work with Iraq to ensure
no resurgence of the ISIS group after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow in neighboring
Syria. On a regional tour on the Syria crisis, the top US diplomat flew to
Baghdad from the Turkish capital Ankara and headed into talks with Iraqi Prime
Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Blinken said he told Sudani of "our commitment
to working with Iraq on security and always working for Iraq's sovereignty, to
make sure that that is strengthened and preserved", AFP reported. "I think this
is a moment as well for Iraq to reinforce its own sovereignty as well as its
stability, security and success going forward," Blinken said. He added that "no
one knows the importance" more than Iraq of stability in Syria and avoiding the
resurgence of ISIS militants. "We are determined to make sure that ISIS cannot
re-emerge," Blinken said. "The United States (and) Iraq, together had tremendous
success in taking away the territorial caliphate that Daesh had created years
ago." Iraq is keen to prevent any spread of chaos from Syria, where on Sunday
extremists-led opposition toppled the five-decade rule of the Assad dynasty
following a lightning offensive. Both Iraq and Syria are still reeling from the
insurgency by the ultra-violent ISIS group, which set up a self-proclaimed
caliphate a decade ago over vast swathes stretching across their border. After
taking a helicopter into central Baghdad, Blinken also complimented Iraq on a
construction boom, saying it showed growing success.
US troops -
Iraq's government has urged respect for the "free will" of all Syrians and the
country's territorial integrity after Assad's fall. The deposed Syrian leader
hailed from a rival faction of the Baath party of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein,
ousted in a 2003 US-led invasion. The United States maintains some 2,500 troops
in Iraq and 900 more in Syria as part of a campaign to prevent ISIS resurgence.
President Joe Biden's administration has agreed with Iraq to end the coalition's
military presence by September 2025 but stopped short of a complete withdrawal
of the US forces, whose presence has been opposed by Iran-aligned armed groups
in Iraq. President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month and has long been
sceptical of US troop deployments, although it remains unclear whether he would
backtrack from Biden's agreement or change tactics in light of developments in
Syria.
Blinken has pushed for an "inclusive" political process to bring an accountable
government to Syria and avoid sectarian bloodletting of the sort seen in Iraq
after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Speaking in Jordan on Thursday, Blinken said
that all regional players he had spoken to "agreed on the need to have a unified
approach to advance many of our shared interests" in Syria. He also said that he
was seeking to ensure "that Syria is not used as a base for terrorism" and that
it does not pose "a threat to its neighbors, or ally with groups like ISIS".
Israel in turn has been pounding Syria, decimating military sites across its
historic adversary on the heels of a deadly campaign against the Iranian-backed
Hezbollah group in Lebanon, aiming in part to curb the regional influence of
Tehran which had allied itself with Assad.
UN Syria Envoy Sees 'Many Challenges' for Syria
Stabilization
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
The UN special envoy for Syria sees many challenges ahead for stabilising Syria,
he said via a spokesperson on Friday, as opposition leaders seek to stamp their
authority after seizing the country. "While there have been developments towards
interim stabilization in some aspects, there continue to be many challenges," a
spokesperson for Geir Pedersen told a Geneva briefing. "The situation remains
very fluid."
At the weekend, Pedersen plans to travel to Jordan and meet Arab foreign
ministers, added Pedersen's spokesperson Jenifer Fenton. He will also meet with
the Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken.
Discovery of Vast Syrian Drug Lab Reveals Secrets of Illicit Captagon Trade
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
The industrial-scale drug lab sat just up a hill from a main road on the western
edge of Damascus, the city that was the seat of power for the Assad family which
long denied any links to the narcotics trade. President Bashar al-Assad's
government in Syria was accused by Washington and others of profiteering from
the production and sale of the addictive amphetamine-like stimulant commonly
known as captagon which became entrenched across the Middle East, from front
lines of wars to construction sites and high-end parties. The annual trade in
captagon is worth billions of dollars a year, experts say, and Western
governments have linked the illicit trade in Syria to Assad's brother, Maher al-Assad,
and the Fourth Division of the Syrian army he commanded. Maher Assad's
whereabouts are not known and Reuters could not reach him for comment on the
allegations. Bashar Assad's fall after a lightning opposition offensive has
allowed journalists for the first time to start searching in Syria for evidence
of the captagon empire. In the dark, cavernous warehouses at the abandoned site
in the city of Douma, fighters who ousted Assad said they found thousands of
pills hidden in furniture, fruit, decorative pebbles and voltage stabilizers
that Reuters reporters saw stacked on pallets, with a trailer waiting
outside.Many of the pills were stamped with the double crescent logo or the word
"Lexus" that identifies captagon pills. "These are ready for export," said one
of the fighters loyal to Syria's new rulers who took Reuters reporters inside
and then cracked open one of the export-ready devices, revealing the pills
hidden inside. Caroline Rose, director of the New York-based New Lines Institute
Captagon Trade Project, said the global trade in captagon has an estimated value
of $10 billion and put the ousted Syrian leadership's annual profit from it at
around $2.4 billion. Rose, whose organization tracks all publicly recorded
captagon seizures and lab raids, said the site seen by Reuters appeared to be
one of the biggest captagon labs that has been found. "It’s very possible that
it's the biggest one that existed in regime-held Syria," she said.
BARRELS, BOXES AND BOTTLES
Inside was a pill-press and, in the warehouse above, dozens of barrels, boxes
and bottles of different chemicals. They included Chloroform, Potassium Iodide,
Formaldehyde Solution, Ammonia solution sg 0.91, Acetic Acid, Hydrochloric acid,
Cyclohexanone and Petroleum ether 40-60 degrees C. Captagon was the brand name
of a stimulant first produced in Germany in the 1960s to help treat attention
conditions including deficit disorders and narcolepsy. It was discontinued but
an illicit version of the drug known as "poor man's cocaine" continued to be
produced in eastern Europe and later in the Arab world, becoming prominent in
the conflict that erupted in Syria following anti-government protests in 2011.
It generates focus and staves off sleep and hunger. It has been banned in many
countries including the US and can have harmful side effects.
FROM CAPTAIN KORN TO CAPTAGON
Syrian businessman Fares Al-Tout said his family had owned the factory before
Syria's civil war, when it was built to produce potato chips branded Captain
Korn. He said it was seized in 2018 by a businessman close to Maher, Amer al-Khiti.
"They flipped it from the production of food to the production of captagon that
killed Syria's children in support of the Fourth Division," Tout told Reuters.
The USimposed sanctions on Khiti in 2020 over his ties to the Assad authorities.
Britain imposed sanctions on him in 2023, saying he "operates and controls
multiple businesses in Syria which facilitate the production and smuggling of
drugs, including captagon." Khiti could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Reuters reporter on the scene found electoral pamphlets for Syria's peoples
assembly, its legislature, lying on the floor with Khiti listed as one of the
candidates, as well as separate electoral cards with just his name on them. In
the days since Assad's fall, opposition fighters say they have found several
sites across the country where the drug was produced and prepared for export.
They have sometimes set fire to the pills or poured them down drains, according
to videos shared online by accounts affiliated with them.Rose noted that her
organization tracked all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids. "Up
until the regime fell, there was not a single incident of a laboratory seizure
on the database in regime-held territories," Rose said.
Who Was in Ousted Syrian President Assad’s Inner Circle and Where Are They Now?
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
After opposition fighters toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this month,
many senior officials and members of his dreaded intelligence and security
services appear to have melted away. Activists say some of them have managed to
flee the country while others went to hide in their hometowns.
For more than five decades, the Assad family has ruled Syria with an iron grip,
locking up those who dared question their power in the country's notorious
prisons, where rights groups say inmates were regularly tortured or killed.The
leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham opposition group — which led anti-government
fighters who forced Assad from power — has vowed to bring those who carried out
such abuses to justice. “We will go after them in our country,” said HTS leader
Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani. He added
that the group will also ask foreign countries to hand over any suspects. But
finding those responsible for abuses could prove difficult. Some 8,000 Syrian
citizens have entered Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing in recent days,
according to two Lebanese security officials and a judicial official, and about
5,000 have left the neighboring country through Beirut’s international airport.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
to release the information. Most of those are presumed to be regular people, and
Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said earlier this week that
no Syrian official entered Lebanon through a legal border crossing. In an
apparent effort to prevent members of Assad's government from escaping, the
security officials said a Lebanese officer who was in charge of Masnaa was
ordered to go on vacation because of his links to Assad's brother.
But Rami Abdurrhaman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, says several senior officers have nonetheless made it to neighboring
Lebanon using travel documents with fake names.
Here's a look at Assad and some of the officials in his inner circle.
Bashar Assad
The Western-educated ophthalmologist initially raised hopes that he would be
unlike his strongman father, Hafez, when he took power in 2000, including
freeing political prisoners and allowing for a more open discourse.
But when protests of his rule erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to brutal
tactics to crush dissent. As the uprising became an outright civil war, he
unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies
Iran and Russia.
He has fled to Moscow, according to Russian state media.
Maher Assad
The younger brother of the ousted president was the commander of the 4th Armored
Division, which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture,
extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention
centers. He is under US and European sanctions. He disappeared over the weekend,
and Abdurrhaman said he made it to Russia.
Last year, French authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Maher
Assad, along with his brother and two army generals, for alleged complicity in
war crimes and crimes against humanity, including in a 2013 chemical attack on
opposition-held Damascus suburbs.
Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk
Mamlouk was a security adviser to Assad and former head of the intelligence
services. He is wanted in Lebanon for two explosions in the northern city of
Tripoli in 2012 that killed and wounded dozens.
Mamlouk is also wanted in France after a court convicted him and others in
absentia of complicity in war crimes and sentenced them to life in prison. The
trial focused on the officials’ role in the 2013 arrest in Damascus of a
Franco-Syrian man and his son and their subsequent torture and killing.
Abdurrahman said Mamlouk fled to Lebanon, and it is not clear if he is still in
the country under the protection of Hezbollah.
Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassan
Al-Hassan was the commander of the 25th Special Missions Forces Division and
later became the head of the Syrian Special Forces, which were key to many of
the government's battlefield victories in the long-running civil war, including
in Aleppo and the eastern suburbs of Damascus that long held off Assad's troops.
Al-Hassan is known to have close ties to Russia and was praised by Russian
President Vladimir Putin during one of his visits to Syria. Al-Hassan's
whereabouts are not known.
Maj. Gen. Hussam Luka
Luka, head of the General Security Directorate intelligence service, is not well
known among the wider public but has played a major role in the crackdown
against the opposition, mainly in the central city of Homs that was dubbed the
“capital of the Syrian revolt.”
Luka has been sanctioned by the US and Britain for his role in the crackdown.
It's not clear where he is.
Maj. Gen. Qahtan Khalil
Khalil, whose whereabouts are also unknown, was head of the Air Force
Intelligence service and is widely known as the “Butcher of Daraya” for
allegedly leading a 2012 attack on a Damascus suburb of the same name that
killed hundreds of people.
Other officials
Retired Maj. Gen. Jamil Hassan, former head of the Air Force Intelligence
service, is also suspected of bearing responsibility for the attack in Daraya.
Hassan was among those convicted in France this year along with Mamlouk.
Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Ali Abbas and Maj. Gen. Bassam Merhej al-Hassan, head
of Bashar Assad’s office and the man in charge of his security, are accused of
human rights violations.
Red Cross Opens Hotlines to Try to Reunite Syrian Families
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
The Red Cross said on Friday it had opened two new telephone hotlines to try to
reunite Syrians who have been missing for years with their families, but warned
that many cases will take months or years to resolve. Since the start of Syria's
civil war over 13 years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
has received over 35,000 cases of missing people and is stepping up its efforts
to help trace them. Stephan Sakalian, head of delegation for ICRC in Syria, told
reporters that it had opened two hotlines this week: one for prisoners and one
for families to try to connect them. "We can provide them with mental health and
psychosocial support ... we can even help them financially if they need to be
reunited," he told a Geneva press briefing via video link from Damascus. Legal
aid and healthcare are also available, an ICRC statement said. The opening of
President Bashar al-Assad's detention system has raised hopes for reunions, with
some prisoners re-emerging who were thought by their families to have been
executed years ago. But Sakalian sought to temper expectations. "Let's make no
mistake: giving answers to people will take weeks, months and maybe years, given
the amount of information to process," he said. "The work is tremendous," he
added. The ICRC is also looking for three of its colleagues who were abducted in
2013. "Like everyone we want to have hope and seek any signal or any news that
may bring some closure to their families, but for the moment, we do not have any
news," he added.
Kyiv Ready to Supply Food to Syria as Russia Supplies
Suspended
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, is ready to
supply food to Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Ukrainian
Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval told Reuters on Friday. Russian and Syrian
sources said earlier that Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended
over uncertainty about the new government and payment delays. Syria imported
food from Russia during the Assad era and it is unclear how relations between
Damascus and Moscow will take shape under the new government. "Where it is
difficult, we have to be there with our food. We are open to supplying our food
and if Syria needs food - then we are there," Koval told Reuters. Ukraine's
exports were buffeted by Russia's February 2022 invasion, which severely reduced
shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade
and revived exports from its southern ports of Odesa.
Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not
to Syria. Traders say that only about 6,000 metric tons of Ukrainian corn
reached the Syrian market in the 2023/24 season, out of a total corn export
volume of 29.4 million tons. However, small parcels of Ukrainian-origin grain
may have reached Syria from neighboring countries, but not been captured by
those statistics, analysts said. Since the fall of Assad, a close Russian ally,
Kyiv has voiced a desire to restore relations with Syria. Foreign Minister
Andriy Sybiha said Kyiv was ready "to pave the way for the restoration of
relations in the future and reaffirm our support for the Syrian people."
Austria Offers Syrian Refugees 1,000 Euros to Return Home
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Austria's conservative-led government said on Friday it is offering Syrian
refugees a "return bonus" of 1,000 euros ($1,050) to move back to their home
country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer
reacted quickly to Assad's overthrow on Sunday, saying the same day that the
security situation in Syria should be reassessed so as to allow deportations of
Syrian refugees. Deporting people against their will is not possible until it
becomes clearer what direction Syria is taking. For now, Austria's government
has said it will focus on voluntary deportations. It has also stopped processing
Syrians' asylum applications, as have more than a dozen European countries. Like
many conservatives in Europe, Nehammer is under pressure from the far right,
with the two groups often seeming to try to outbid each other on tough-sounding
immigration policies. Syrians are the biggest group of asylum-seekers in
Austria, a European Union member state, Reuters reported. "Austria will support
Syrians who wish to return to their home country with a return bonus of 1,000
euros. The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt," Nehammer said
in an English-language post on X.
How many Syrians will take up the offer remains to be seen. With national
flag-carrier Austrian Airlines having suspended flights to the Middle East
because of the security situation, the Austrian bonus may not even fully cover
travel.
An economy class one-way ticket in a month's time to Beirut, a common starting
point for those heading overland to Damascus, currently costs at least 1,066.10
euros ($1,120.58) on Turkish Airlines, according to the company's website.
Austria's far-right Freedom Party came first in September's parliamentary
election with around 29% of the vote but, as no potential coalition partner was
forthcoming, Nehammer is leading coalition talks with the Social Democrats and
liberal Neos.
IAEA Says Iran Agrees to More Monitoring at Fordo Enrichment Plant
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Iran has agreed to increased monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog at its Fordo
enrichment plant, following its plans to ramp up production of highly enriched
uranium at the site, the agency said in a report seen by AFP on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that Iran had
revamped its Fordo enrichment plant (FFEP), south of Tehran. The changes would
"significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60
percent", the agency said -- close to the 90 percent needed to make a nuclear
weapon. The rate of production will jump to more than 34 kilogrammes of highly
enriched uranium per month, compared to 4.7 kilogrammes previously, it added.
The IAEA called on Iran to implement inspections urgently, while European powers
pressed Tehran to "immediately halt its nuclear escalation".
"Iran agreed to the agency's request to increase the frequency and intensity of
the implementation of safeguards measures at FFEP," the IAEA said in a
confidential report seen by AFP. Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes and has denied it is seeking a weapons capability. But
according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium
to 60 percent purity. Last month, Iran announced that it would launch "new and
advanced" centrifuges in response to an IAEA board resolution that censured
Tehran for its lack of cooperation with the agency. Iran's expansion of
enrichment was "a clear message that they are responding to what they feel is
pressure", IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told AFP last week. Britain, France and
Germany on Tuesday "condemned" Iran's latest steps to expand its nuclear
program, "strongly urging" Tehran to reverse them.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, the three European powers raised the
possibility of restoring sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing its
nuclear programme. Anouar El Anouni, the European Union foreign policy
spokesman, on Friday said Iran's latest move regarding uranium production close
to military enrichment levels was "extremely concerning". Nuclear tensions
between Iran and the West have simmered since Donald Trump withdrew from a
landmark 2015 deal with Tehran during his first term as US president. The deal
had exchanged sanctions relief for limits on Iran's nuclear program.
Revolutionary Guard Chief: We Haven’t Lost Our Regional Arms
Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, has defended the
withdrawal of his forces from Syria, saying “strategies must adapt to changing
circumstances” after the removal of Tehran’s key ally, President Bashar al-Assad.
Salami stated, “I proudly say the last to leave the resistance lines in Syria
were our forces, and the final person to leave was one of our members.” He
added, “We cannot tackle global and regional issues with rigid, unchanging
strategies.” Salami discussed recent events in Syria and their consequences
before a group of Revolutionary Guard leaders, according to the Tasnim News
Agency. This is Salami’s second comment on Assad’s fall. Two days earlier,
lawmakers quoted him saying in a closed session that Iran "has not been
weakened" after Assad's removal. On Thursday, Salami stated that Iran “worked
day and night to offer support” and must “adapt to the situation in Syria,
observe it, and act accordingly,” as reported by IRNA. He added, “Some expect us
to fight instead of the Syrian army,” questioning, “Is it logical for us to send
all our forces to fight in another country while that country's army does
nothing?”Salami explained, “All routes to Syria were blocked. The regime worked
tirelessly to help, but we had to deal with the realities on the ground. We
observe and act based on those facts.”He also reaffirmed Iran’s stance that it
knew about the opposition's plans months before Assad's fall. “We were aware of
the militants' movements. Our intelligence helped identify their attack routes
and inform both the political and military leadership in Syria. Unfortunately,
due to a lack of real will to change and fight, the result was as you
saw.”Iran’s relationship with Syria deepened during the civil war that began in
2011, when the Revolutionary Guard sent “military advisors” to assist Assad, led
by the Quds Force, the Guard’s external arm. Salami also denied claims that Iran
had lost its regional influence, stating, “Some suggest the Iranian regime has
lost its arms, but this is not true. The regime still has its arms.”He added,
“Support for the resistance front remains open, and the situation in Syria may
evolve.”
Salami emphasized that Iran’s decisions are based on its internal strengths. “We
have the will to fight, legitimacy to defend, a united nation, and strong armed
forces. If we were weak, we couldn't carry out operations like ‘True Promise.’”
He explained that Iran’s presence in Syria was to prevent ISIS dominance. “We
had no choice but to be in Iraq and Syria,” he said. The fall of Assad has led
to criticism of Iran’s military role in Syria. Salami said, “Iran’s military
presence and support in Iraq and Syria were necessary to stop the spread of
danger.”
He added, “Without Qassem Soleimani, our resources would have been
ineffective.”Salami continued, “After defeating ISIS, we withdrew unnecessary
forces from Syria. The situation had stabilized, and the Syrian army took over
defense. They also wanted to reduce Iranian presence to avoid giving opposition
groups a chance to attack.”He concluded, “We reduced our presence to the minimum
necessary and joined the Astana process to monitor the ceasefire and ensure
security in Syria.”
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on December
13-14/2024
Iran Threatens Jordan, Smuggles Arms to Palestinian
Terrorists in Israel
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/December 13, 2024
Iran appears determined to destabilize Jordan, and is thus trying to drag the
kingdom into its regional maelstrom by manipulating Jordanian national and
terrorist substate entities to do its bidding.
The Islamist threat to the stability of the Kingdom has greatly increased with
the fall of its neighbor Syria into the hands of the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a
Sunni Islamist group committed to radicalizing the Levant, which includes
Jordan.
Iran appears determined to destabilize Jordan, and is thus trying to drag the
kingdom into its regional maelstrom by manipulating Jordanian national and
terrorist substate entities to do its bidding. Pictured: A shipment of weapons
smuggled into Israel from Jordan by a Bedouin Arab in December 2023, which was
seized by the Israel Police. (Image source: Israel Police Spokesperson)
The Israeli Air Force (IAF), in a recent airstrike, destroyed three cross-border
smuggling routes from Syria to Lebanon, which were being used by Iran to bring
ship weapons to still-functioning Hezbollah terrorist cells. The Israeli strike
took place just hours before a ceasefire took effect on November 26 between
Israel and Hezbollah.
Iran's special forces units, however, will no doubt continue their past efforts
to smuggle arms through Jordan to Palestinian terrorist cells in Judea and
Samaria ("the West Bank"). These smuggling operations will still enable
terrorists there to kill Israelis and further entrench an atmosphere of fear
among the hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens who live in Judea and
Samaria.
In one publicized incident, Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet,
seized caches of Iranian weapons being smuggled transported across Jordan's
unguarded borders. The arms included anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled
grenades, as well as Semtex and C-4 plastic explosives. The Shin Bet reported
that the Special Operation Unit 4000 of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) had been tasked with that mission. The latest shipment of weapons bound
for Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria, intercepted and seized by Israel on
November 27, 2004, was initiated from an IRGC camp in Syria.
Iran and its allies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have also been attempting to recruit
Jordanians as agents. The project appears an attempt to destabilize the rule of
the Hashemite dynasty of King Abdullah II by engaging in acts of sabotage.
Jordan has also been under political pressure and military threats from Iran and
Iranian proxy militias in Iraq.
If Jordan succumbs to Iran's designs, it would create yet another front against
Israel. Kata'ib Hezbollah, the leading Iran-backed terrorist group in Iraq, has
pledged to arm 12,000 Jordanian volunteers if they would embrace the
anti-Israeli "resistance." Hamas official Khaled Mashaal also has been
broadcasting to Jordan messages urging Jordanian citizens to join the
"resistance."
Iran's increased interference in Jordan comes at a problematic time for the
Jordanian government. Recent parliamentary elections reflect gains by the
opposition. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic Action
Front, for instance, tripled its representation in Jordan's parliament, giving
it one-fifth of the seats.
The uptick in the electoral popularity of the Islamic Action Front in Jordan is
not yet a threat to the regime's stability: the number of its seats in
parliament do not yet represent a greater power in Jordan than the king.
Jordan's capital, Amman, is home to about two million of the country's
Palestinian refugees, who are inclined to support Islamist opposition parties,
such as the Islamic Action Front.
The regime's gerrymandering allocates fewer parliamentary seats to pockets of
Palestinian populations while favoring pro-regime tribal candidates.
Traditionally, Jordan's monarchy has relied on the once fierce loyalty of
Bedouin Arab tribes in rural areas to retain power.
Recently, however, protests are indicating that tribal allegiance to the
Hashemite monarchy may be fraying due to economic recession and vast
unemployment.
Perhaps the greatest threat to the stability of the monarchy is the Hamas-Israel
War, coupled with a fear of mass migration into Jordan of more Palestinians.
King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi have both declared their
opposition to accepting any people from Gaza. Demographic studies indicate that
Palestinians already make up about half of Jordan's population.
King Abdullah's efforts to protect Jordan's sovereignty and maintain its
non-belligerent status during regional conflicts are reflected in his statements
and actions. He has emphatically declared that "Jordan will not be a battlefield
for any party." When pro-Hamas protests in March and April pressured his
government to join the Hamas in its war on Israel, the king dispatched security
forces to crack down on the demonstrators.
When Iran, in April, launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, Jordan
protected its airspace, cooperating with air defense efforts to destroy some of
Iran's missiles and drones weapons in flight.
Pro-Iran social media accounts in Jordan have therefore personally targeted King
Abdullah by calling him an "American puppet" and "traitor," while caricaturing
him wrapped in an Israeli flag. Iran appears determined to destabilize Jordan,
and is thus trying to drag the kingdom into its regional maelstrom by
manipulating Jordanian national and terrorist substate entities to do its
bidding.
Iran is also directly challenging the American military presence in Jordan, as
evidenced by a January 28 drone attack launched by a Syria-based Iranian proxy
militia, which killed three U.S. troops in Jordan.
Iran also wants to reverse the Jordanian monarchy's moderate policy toward
Jerusalem, initiated by Abdullah's father, King Hussein, who signed a peace
treaty with Israel in 1994 and was a long-term US ally.
The Hashemite dynasty's favorable legacy in the Arab world, and the extensive US
financial aid it receives, may no longer be enough to prevent Jordan from losing
its balance on its diplomatic tightrope. The Islamist threat to the stability of
the Kingdom has greatly increased with the fall of its neighbor Syria into the
hands of the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a Sunni Islamist group committed to
radicalizing the Levant, which includes Jordan.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in
the Air Force Reserve.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21209/iran-threatens-jordan
Question: “What does it mean that the
government will be on His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6)?”
GotQuestions.org//December 13, 2024
Answer: In prophesying an extremely dark period of punishment in Israel’s
history, Isaiah sees even further forward to a future time of hope and
deliverance. The prophet announces that the Lord will send a Redeemer, the
promised Messiah, to usher in a new day: “For to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah
9:6).
The prophecy reveals that the Messiah will be a human-born male child upon whose
shoulders the government will rest. The Hebrew word translated as “government”
in Isaiah 9:6 means “dominion, power, or sovereignty through legal authority.”
Israel’s Savior was to be a sovereign King who would rule on David’s throne (see
Psalm 132:10–18). The prophecy continues to disclose that the Messiah’s
“government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice
from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity” (NLT). Seven centuries
later, the angel Gabriel announces Messiah’s birth to His mother, Mary: “He will
be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give
to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32–33, ESV).
This language of placing dominion or “the government” on someone’s shoulders
symbolizes royal authority. In Isaiah 22:22, Eliakim is to be given Shebna’s
position of power and influence as King Hezekiah’s administrator: “I will place
on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut,
and what he shuts no one can open.” Revelation 3:7 links this passage to the
sovereign rule granted to the Messiah, King Jesus.
As Jesus prepared to send out His disciples, He told them, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). As the supreme ruler
of God’s heavenly kingdom, Jesus Christ “must reign until he has put all his
enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25).
As we consider these words—the government will be on His shoulders—we can’t help
but think of the cross our Lord carried on His shoulders while a crown of thorns
was resting on His brow. Justin Martyr, the second-century
philosopher-turned-Christian teacher, recognized this imagery as signifying “the
power of the cross, which, at his crucifixion, he placed on his shoulders” (McKinion,
S. A., ed., Isaiah 1—39, InterVarsity Press, 2004, p. 71).
Jesus Christ had the divine government—the dominion, power, and authority of the
kingdom of heaven—on His shoulders when He bore the cross for our sins (1
Corinthians 1:18; Colossians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:24). For it was by this act that He
conquered sin, death, hell, and the devil (John 16:33; Acts 2:24; Romans 6:9–10;
1 Corinthians 15:24–25, 54–57; 1 John 3:8; 2 Timothy 1:10). The apostle Paul
acknowledges that Jesus is “the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians
2:10, NLT). His sacrifice on the cross “canceled the record of the charges
against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed
the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory
over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:14–15, NLT).
Jesus Christ ushered in a glorious new day for all humanity when the King
“humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name
above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:8–11, NLT).
One day, during the millennial kingdom, Christ will rule from Zion, and the
world will see the government placed on His shoulders. The kingdom of the world
will become “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for
ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). When Jesus sits on the throne of David, “in
the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the
highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations
will stream to it” (Isaiah 2:2).
Hope, deliverance, and peace for God’s people were established when Jesus Christ
endured the cross. Now He “is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”
(Hebrews 12:2, ESV). The highest government in all creation with power to
exercise absolute dominion over every being in heaven and on earth will be on
His shoulders for all eternity (Psalm 146:10). He is the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords (Revelation 17:14; 19:16).
What does it mean that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)?
What does it mean that Jesus is “Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6)?
What is the meaning of “Everlasting Father” in Isaiah 9:6?
What does it mean that Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)?
Bashar al-Assad’s Self-destructive Policies
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Syria has witnessed two major events, not just one: the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s
regime and the rise of the Islamist group “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” to power.
The fall of al-Assad is part of a series of collapses of the fascist regimes of
the 1960s, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi.
Similarly, the rise of “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” represents the third wave of
fundamentalist movements. The first wave was led by Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran
in the late 1970s. The second wave emerged during the revolutions of 2011, with
the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Ennahda under Ghannouchi in Tunisia, and the
Houthis in Yemen. Now, it is Syria’s turn, although it is still too early to
judge the outcome.
Al-Assad’s fall was expected. But it was delayed from its anticipated timeline
in 2014 due to an emergency intervention that granted him an additional ten
years, supported by Iran and Russia.
We saw al-Assad’s regime’s downfall as inevitable due to its transformation into
a one-man, minority-led, socialist, Ba’athist, and Iran-aligned system.
Additionally, the state itself had aged, and the capabilities of its
institutions had deteriorated. Since taking power, Bashar al-Assad failed to
create a unifying identity for his regime beyond being “a necessity for Iran,”
which in itself brought about calamities and led to his downfall. Even his core
supporters—Ba’athists and Alawites—abandoned him. His intelligence agencies were
ineffective, and he ignored the threats he created for himself by making Syria
the primary corridor between Tehran and its areas of influence at a time when
the confrontation between Iran and Israel was intensifying. He failed to
understand the profound implications of the events of October 7, 2023, prior to
which Israel’s opposition to any change in Damascus was well established. In
Idlib and Ankara, both Türkiye and the Syrian opposition recognized that change
had become permissible, prompting them to advance on Damascus.
Al-Assad’s policies reflected his ignorance, allowing crises to pile up on three
open fronts against him: with Türkiye, the Syrian armed opposition, and an
indirect confrontation with Israel. These were challenges far beyond Syria’s
capacity to manage, making it unsurprising that they ultimately blew up in his
face.
How did al-Assad manage these crises? For example, in dealing with the refugee
issue, he viewed the three million Syrians who fled to Türkiye as a problem for
Erdogan to handle, a cost of the Turkish president’s positions and war against
him. He rejected Erdogan’s request for reconciliation or even a visit to
Damascus to negotiate and ignored demands to facilitate their return. While
refugees were indeed a problem for the Ankara government, they also posed a
threat to al-Assad’s regime. The three million refugees became a reservoir for
the opposition, which easily recruited thousands from among them. It is
difficult to understand how al-Assad overlooked the danger that these armed
groups occupying vast areas of Syria posed, especially when a moment of weakness
could prompt them to march on the capital.
The political relationship between Türkiye and Syria has historically been a
drama of love and hate. Over the past century, Damascus has remained wary of
Ankara’s intentions, though this has not precluded smooth relations along the
border. Under Bashar al-Assad, managing relations with Türkiye differed from his
father’s approach. During one of the crises between the two countries in 1989,
Türkiye grew frustrated with Hafez al-Assad’s support for Abdullah Öcalan, the
founder of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Türkiye demanded that
Syria stop Öcalan’s activities and hand him over. When Hafez al-Assad refused,
Türkiye amassed troops at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. Al-Assad filed a
complaint with the administration of US President Bill Clinton, which responded
by supporting Türkiye’s demands. Realizing the balance of power favored Türkiye,
backed by Israel and the US, al-Assad capitulated and expelled Öcalan, leading
to his arrest in Nairobi. Hafez understood that the balance of power was not in
Syria’s favor.
Today, with Bashar al-Assad gone, millions of refugees will return to their
homes, and Türkiye’s influence in Syria has increased, bolstered by its
long-standing support for refugees and the opposition. Türkiye aims for a Syria
allied to it, much like Iran sees Iraq as an extension of its geographical and
strategic influence.
Zarif Weaves an Oriental Helsinki Carpet
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
Though not a satirical journal, the American magazine Foreign Policy has been
publishing an essay by Muhammad-Javad Zarif every few years starting when he was
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. The latest contribution came on
December 2 with Zarif presented as “Vice President of Islamic Republic”
although, unlike the United States, no such position exists in the current
Iranian regime. What we have in Iran is a dozen or so “assistants to the
president” dealing with various issues at the president’s pleasure with no
popular mandate or parliamentary ratification.
Zarif is one of those assistants. Yet in his new essay, Zarif pretends to speak
for the entire Iranian regime on issues clearly beyond his bailiwick. He starts
by pretending that it is the President and not the “Supreme Leader” who has the
final word on all aspects of defense, security and foreign policy in Iran.
Unlike his previous essays this time Zarif mentions Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once
while his boss President Masoud Pezeshkian is mentioned nine times often with
phrases such as “Pezeshkian wants” as if his desire were the nation’s command.
Zarif writes “Pezeshkian recognizes that the world is transitioning into a
post-polar era where global actors can simultaneously cooperate and compete
across different areas. He has adopted a flexible foreign policy, prioritizing
diplomatic engagement and constructive dialogue rather than relying on outdated
paradigms.”
In other words, the new president promises a clean break with the regime’s
behavior in the past 45 years. He adds: “Pezeshkian wants stability and economic
development in the Middle East,” something that presumably the Islamic regime
didn’t want before because its priority was “exporting revolution.”He then adds
“Pezeshkian wants equal-footed negotiations”, whatever that means, with America
under President Donald J Trump. This is a bold statement taking into account
that only this week “Supreme Leader” Khamenei, repeated his “no war-and- no
negotiations” mantra while Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the official
media “There is no basis for talks with the Americans.”As for Pezeshkian himself
he keeps repeating “My task is to implement whatever the Supreme Guide (Rahbar)
wishes.”
Pezeshkian has not mentioned any of the “wants” that Zarif attributes to him
even obliquely. Switching to dramatic mode the self-styled vice-president
asserts: “This is a historic moment for stability that the world should not let
slip.”
Then, as he takes deeper puffs at his dream pipe, he suggests “mimicking the
Helsinki process, which led to the formation of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe.”The Helsinki Accords was signed in August 1975 after
two years of negotiations between Western European nations under US leadership
and the Warsaw Pact countries led by the USSR. (Canada, a member of NATO, also
signed.)
The two blocs used the accords as a basis for reducing tension in the Cold War
but did not turn it into a formal treaty with full legal ratification. Zarif,
however, suggests a formal treaty structure for the Middle Eastern version of
the Helsinki Accords.
Perhaps unconsciously Zarif uses the word “mimicking” as he sees Iran as a
successor to the USSR as challenger to the Western world and the Axis of
Resistance, that is to say Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, Syria (when the article was
written Bashar a-Assad was still in Damascus), Lebanon under Hezobllah, the
Houthis in part of Yemen, and Gaza under Hamas as a mini- Warsaw Pact while the
US leads all other nations of the region from Egypt to the GCC and NATO-member
Türkiye. In other words, the “mimicked” Middle Eastern version of Helsinki
Accords would divide the region into two zones of influence: one for Iran and
its Axis of Resistance and the other for the American “Great Satan” and its Arab
and Turkish allies. The visionary writer suddenly remembers that his scenario
ignores a rather active figure in its dramatis personae: Israel.
What to do with the “Zionist entity”?
Zarif starts by claiming that “Iran’s support for Palestinian Resistance could
kick-start cooperation with Arab states” and adds: “The Arab world, after all,
is united with Iran in its support for restoring the rights of the Palestinian
people.” Puffing deeper at his pipe, Brother Javad says “The Abraham Accords”
are “ineffective.” In other words, Tehran must take the lead on the Palestinian
issue.
But how?The solution, according to Zarif, is “a referendum in which everyone
living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—Muslims, Christians,
and Jews—and Palestinians driven to diaspora in the twentieth century (along
with all their descendants) would be able to determine a viable future system of
governance.”In other words, Israel must cease to exist and in Zarif’s words
become “a viable democratic state,” presumably like the Iran, but led by Hamas.
The Zarif version of Helsinki Accords is not limited to nation-states recognized
by the United Nations and includes “grassroots liberation movements such as
Hamas and Hezbollah”. (The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas is not
recognized by Tehran and dismissed as “a branch of Israeli occupation.”)
To reassure himself in his illusions he adds: “All countries have an interest in
stopping the Israeli occupation” but offers no evidence.
Zarif also touches on the Iranian nuclear issue by boasting about its “rapid
progress” signaled by enriching uranium up to 60 percent rather than 3.5 percent
agreed under the deal President Barack Obama concocted (JCPOA).
He says the US and European allies should help revive the deal which is a
“unique example” of cooperation” that allows Iran to pursue its nuclear program
while benefiting from economic advantages.
Brother Javad makes it clear that his pontification is primarily addressed at
the incoming US resident Donald Trump. He says that although Pezeshkian is
confident that Iran can fight to defend itself, it wants peace, and can be an
able and willing partner for the US.” Should Trump decide to take such steps
Iran is willing to have a dialogue to benefit both Tehran and Washington,” he
says.
To sum up: Pezeshkian according to the carpet that Zarif weaves wants the US and
Iran to create a condominium in the Middle East, wipe Israel off the map with a
referendum, help Iran revive its moribund economy so that it can pay its costly
proxies while speeding up its nuclear program. (The fall of Assad will reduce
the cost of such shenanigans.)
Will Trump be tempted to buy such a carpet?
Tel Aviv-Damascus: The Collapse of Guarantees
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
From the very moment Syrian opposition armed forces entered the capital,
Damascus, and overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Tel Aviv intensified its
military operations against the Syrian state by land, air, and sea, in what
looked like a full-scale war. This dramatic escalation has sparked significant
political and strategic questions about what motivated Tel Aviv to take such a
dangerous course of action, including the possibility of advancing on the ground
toward Damascus.
The rapid escalation by Israel cannot be separated from what can be termed the
collapse of guarantees that had shaped the relationship between Tel Aviv and the
Assad regime since the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, brokered by former US
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. This agreement included secret clauses and
side understandings, revealed decades later in declassified Israeli and American
documents, as well as disclosures from former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim
Khaddam after his defection from the regime.
These documents indicate that the Damascus regime had implicitly pledged to both
the US and Israel to avoid any return to combat. This pledge is evident in
sensitive military details concerning the size and type of Syrian forces
deployed—not only along the disengagement line but even beyond the buffer zone.
In return, the US and Israel guaranteed the regime’s stability and allowed it to
play a regional role, as long as it refrained from challenging the status quo in
the Golan Heights. This understanding significantly altered the nature of the
Syrian army and ensured full stability along this front until the final days of
the Assad regime.The equation of Golan stability in exchange for regime survival
became the cornerstone of strategic policy for both Hafez and Bashar al-Assad,
even at the height of Iranian influence and proxy wars in the region. This
understanding played a crucial role in preserving the regime despite a series of
major crises—from the Hama massacre to the strikes on Damascus, from the
inheritance of the presidency to the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and
ultimately the Syrian people’s revolution, during which the regime used chemical
weapons and crossed Barack Obama’s red lines.
This arrangement also underpinned the Assad regime’s role in Lebanon starting in
1976. Its intervention in Lebanon served two objectives: the first, aligned with
American interests, was to suppress the National Movement; the second, aligned
with Israeli interests, was to dismantle the Palestinian resistance. Lebanon
became a bargaining chip under the pretext of “unity of path and destiny,”
though this framework unraveled after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon
in 2000.
For Tel Aviv, which had to ease its commitment to safeguarding the Assad regime
due to shifting regional and international dynamics, the focus shifted to
securing its own guarantees—previously provided by the same regime. As a result,
Israel has systematically destroyed Syria’s military infrastructure, effectively
neutralizing the Syrian army’s capabilities. This strategy mirrors the US
decision to dissolve the Iraqi army. The outcome could leave any new authority
in Damascus unable to maintain stability, potentially leading to localized
chaos, violence, or even partition—all of which serve Tel Aviv’s interests.
Strategically, Israel’s systematic dismantling of Syria’s heavy military
capabilities, which had remained intact until October 8, 2023, marks a
significant shift. Previously, Israeli strikes primarily targeted Iranian
facilities and their affiliated militias. Now, Israel has adopted a preemptive
approach to prevent Syria from ever rebuilding a military force capable of
confronting Tel Aviv within the occupied territories. This policy is tied to a
broader Israeli plan for territorial annexation and is driven by a deep-seated
distrust of any majority-led regime in Damascus with strong ties to the
Palestinian cause.
The First Visit to Damascus
Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsat/December 23/2024
I arrived late at night for my first-ever dispatch from Damascus. It was pitch
black and quiet as could be. Early in the morning, I stepped out of the hotel
and was taken aback by the sheer number of people on the sidewalk. With this
image, which remains etched in my memory, the Syrian people left a strong
impression on me. I found vigor, a people bursting with energy, and full of
life. I have visited Syria many times since then, read its history and met many
Syrians, and that first impression holds true to this day. Their oppressive
police state could not tarnish the essence of the Syrian people’s character.
However, that was a long time ago. It was before foreign militias wreaked havoc
in this beautiful country before it was divided and overrun by Iran, Russia, and
sectarian militias. Before the horrific massacres committed against the people
of Syria, the chemical weapons that killed them in their sleep, and the barrel
bombs that rained down on them. Before millions fled the country to sleep in
cold European forests, and before a Syrian child, Alan Kurdi, was found on the
shore after having drowned- an image that brought shame to our collective human
conscience. Before the country turned into a heap of ruins, grudges, and bitter
vendettas. Until recently, almost everyone was convinced that the Syria we had
known was gone forever. But then history had its say and showed us that Syrians
had just awakened from a long nightmare.
With former President Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country and his regime now a
thing of the past, the country is closing the chapter of decades of terrible
brutality. A new page of its history has been opened. Syria now has the
opportunity to retain its place in the world. After enduring immense suffering,
persecution, and racism, the Syrian people deserve to rebuild their country. In
my view, they will learn from the experiences of neighboring countries that
descended into chaos as a result of state institutions’ demise, authoritarian
rule, cycles of vengeance, and welcoming foreign meddling- a perfect recipe for
disaster. However, a critical phase awaits its people. This phase will determine
whether they can build their country and bring it into the twenty-first century
after it had been imprisoned in the mid-twentieth century.
With its rich history and cultural diversity, Syria is a country of art,
literature, and education. It is a country whose people are known for being
savvy merchants, even in the most difficult circumstances. All of these
strengths are crucial factors for allowing Syrians to look to the future that
awaits them instead of looking back on their cruel past, and to build a robust
and prosperous economy that embraces Syrians of all backgrounds. A country that
reflects the energy, merits, and vitality of the people on my cold and joyful
visit that night.