Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 20-21/2024
Elias Bejjani/Video: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Elias Bejjani/Video and Text: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Elias Bejjani/ Video: Hezbollah is as an Iranian army, did not liberate the south; rather, it occupies Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: Hezbollah is as an Iranian army, did not liberate the south; rather, it occupies Lebanon
The necessity of defeating Hamas, the mullahs, and all branches and groups of the Muslim Brotherhood/Elias Bejjani
Elias Bajani/Video/Dangers and Disasters of the Victory of the Jihadist and Terrorist Iranian Governance Model
Elias Bajani/Video and Text/Dangers and Disasters of the Victory of the Jihadist and Terrorist Iranian Governance Model
Israeli strike on southern Lebanon kills liaison officer between Hezbollah, Quds Force, Hamas
Israel bombs car killing 2 Hezbollah members as clashes continue
Report: Efforts to avert war on Lebanon nearing success
Hezbollah's Qassem warns Israel against continued aggression
Senior officer among 4 Iranians killed in Israeli strike in Damascus
Israel to US ambassador: Hezbollah threat must be ended diplomatically or militarily

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 20-21/2024
Israeli strike on Damascus kills four Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Senior Iran Revolutionary Guard officials killed in strike blamed on Israel
US troops injured in major missile attack in Iraq
US strikes another Houthi anti-ship missile
Biden and Netanyahu have finally talked, but their visions still clash for ending Israel-Hamas war
EU's Borrell accuses Israel of 'creating' and 'financing' Hamas
Denial of Palestinian statehood ‘unacceptable’, says UN chief
An Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital killed at least 4 Iranian advisers, state media say
Israel Hamas war: UN say women and children main victims of conflict as IDF hit Damascus
Hostage families protest outside Netanyahu's home, ramping up pressure for a truce-for-hostages deal
What is happening between Iran and Pakistan?
Russia's elite paratroopers and marines are refusing orders to launch 'human wave attacks,' Ukraine official says
North Korea says it tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone in response to rivals' naval drills
At Davos, leaders talked big on rebuilding trust. Can the World Economic Forum make a difference?

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 20-21/2024
On Confronting the Iranian Regime/Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute./January 20, 2024
Who Will Blink First In The Gaza War?/Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/ MEMRI Daily Brief No. 564/January 20/2024
Britain must proscribe Iran’s IRGC and their Houthi friends as terrorist groups/Robert Jenrick/The Telegraph/January 20, 2024
Humanitarians must do more, and better, in Sudan/Mukesh Kapila/Arab News/January 20, 2024
India-Europe ties at tipping point/Andrew Hammond/Andrew Hammond/January 20, 2024
American bases create stability in Mideast, says US-Lebanese Trump advocate/Dastan Muwaffaq/(Kurdistan24/January 20/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 20-21/2024
Elias Bejjani/Video: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKGYNVyj_Os&t=31s
Elias Bejjani/January 21, 2024

Elias Bejjani/Video and Text: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Elias Bejjani/January 21, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126326/elias-bejjani-video-and-text-commemorating-the-annual-brutal-damour-massacre/
The memory of the Damour Massacre, perpetrated by the Syrian Assad regime, Palestinian terrorism, leftist and Arab nationalist groups, and jihadists on January 20, 1976, remains etched in the Lebanese, Christian, moral, national, and faith-based consciousness. It serves as a painful reminder of a brutal chapter in Lebanon's history and the resilient struggle of its free Christian community.
This anniversary reflects a dark period where internal traitors and mercenaries aligned with Palestinian, Arab, leftist, and jihadist terrorism executed brutal and barbaric massacres against the peaceful inhabitants of the Damour Town, and the Christian residents along the Shouf region coast. This period culminated in the siege of President Camille Chamoun in the town of Saadiyat.
The Damour Massacre anniversary symbolizes a bloody chapter in the ongoing evil attempts to uproot Christians from Lebanon, dismantle Lebanon's entity, disrupt coexistence, undermine its role, erode identity, and attack its civilization. Enemies of Lebanon, civilization, and humanity destroyed homes and churches in Damour and its neighboring coastal towns, burning fields and displacing the Christian population.
The innocent victims of the Damour Massacre, estimated at 684 individuals, including children, women, elders, and fighters, will not be forgotten.
planners and executors of this atrocity, along with their demonic objectives to uproot and displace Christians from Lebanon, remain ingrained in our collective memory.
These sinister schemes persist today, targeting not only Christians, but various Lebanese sovereign and independent groups through local, regional, and international entities, each with its distinct identity, yet united under hostile, sectarian, and terrorist concepts.
In the present time, the Iranian Mullahs' regime, through its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, the criminal Assad regime, and numerous local mercenaries from leftists, jihadists, and resistance traders, continue the chapters of the Damour Massacre.
The occupation faced by Lebanon goes beyond Damour to encompass the entire country and its social community fabrics. The Mullahs' regime seeks, through force and terrorism, not only to uproot Christians from Lebanon, but also to destroy its entity, overthrow its coexistence and civilized system, aiming to replace it with an Islamic Republic annexed to Tehran's rulers. This serves as a base to overthrow all Arab regimes and establish the Persian Empire.
On this painful anniversary, all Lebanese sovereign, independent, and peaceful social and denominational groups, led by the Christians, will not forget the heroism of our noble, honorable, and brave people who stood against invaders and mercenaries, sacrificing themselves for their sacred homeland.
No, we will not forget our Lebanese righteous Damour martyrs, and we will not forget their sacrifices. On this somber day, we raise prayers, humbly asking for their souls to rest in peace in God's eternal heavenly mansions.

Elias Bejjani/ Video: Hezbollah is as an Iranian army, did not liberate the south; rather, it occupies Lebanon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2pEpzd-H0A
 January 18, 2024

Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: Hezbollah is as an Iranian army, did not liberate the south; rather, it occupies Lebanon
 January 18, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126285/126285/
The Shiite sect in Lebanon has been held hostage by the terrorist Iranian armed proxy, Hezbollah, since 1982. Hezbollah was not a voluntary choice for the Lebanese Shiites; instead, it was forcibly imposed upon them and on all the Lebanese in the 1980s during the Syrian occupation era, in an agreement between the Iranian Mullahs and the Baathist Assad regime.
Hezbollah gained complete control over the Shiites in Lebanon in favor of the Mullahs' regime in 1988, following armed battles in the Iqlem Al Tefah Region with the Shiite Amal movement. After defeating Amal, Hezbollah forcefully subjugated its armed presence, rendering it a subservient entity.
Since then, Amal has become a symbolic facade executing Hezbollah's agenda without independent decision-making power.
Since 1982, Hezbollah has isolated the Shiites from other Lebanese, the Lebanese state, Arabs, and has forcefully dominated their decisions, representation, educational, religious, economic, and social institutions. Hezbollah imposed 27 parliamentary deputies on the Shiites by force, recruited Shiites men to fight on various battlefields for the Mullahs' regime in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gulf countries, and in many Western and American countries.
Hezbollah proudly asserts that it is a military force under the command of the Iranian Supreme Leader, with all its possessions, weapons, and capabilities in all fields originating from Iran and in service to Iran.
Contrary to its false claims of being a resistance devoted to the liberation of Palestine since its creation in 1982, Hezbollah is, in fact, an Iranian army under full Iranian command.
In 2000, Hezbollah claimed to liberate South Lebanon, but it actually occupies the entire country.
In conclusion, Hezbollah's status is Iranian, rooted in Iranian ideology, completely subservient to Iran and its regime, and serves as one of its prime Jihadist terrorist military proxies.

The necessity of defeating Hamas, the mullahs, and all branches and groups of the Muslim Brotherhood
Elias Bejjani/January 16/2024
Can anyone imagine what the situation of Lebanon and the rest of the countries would be like if jihadist Hamas won the war, and behind it were the mullahs, ISIS, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood? They will certainly take us back to the law of the jungle and to pre-lithic eras

Elias Bajani/Video/Dangers and Disasters of the Victory of the Jihadist and Terrorist Iranian Governance Model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyIYzVche54&t=32s
Elias Bejjani/January 17, 2024 The Video is in Arabic)

Elias Bajani/Video and Text/Dangers and Disasters of the Victory of the Jihadist and Terrorist Iranian Governance Model, Represented by its  proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)/  & Baku Haram
Elias Bejjani/January 17, 2024 The Video is in Arabic)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126298/126298/
There is a significant and vast difference between the culture of life, peace, and human rights represented by most Arab countries, led by Lebanon and the Gulf states, and the culture, schemes, delusions illusions, and hallucinations of the so-called political Islam embodied by ISIS, Al-Nusra, Baku Haram, and the Muslim Brotherhood in all its jihadist branches. In the same diabolical and jihadist category, we can freely list the terrorist, jihadist, and expansionist regime of the Iranian mullahs, along with all its terrorist proxies like the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, PMF, and others.
The model of political Islam, with all its sectarian variations, knows nothing but invasions, wars, destruction, expansion, bigotry, hatred, eternal enmity. This evil model practices its destructive, oppressive, revengeful, arbitrary, dictatorial, suppressive, and impoverishing culture and satanic education and governance in Iran, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. The unprecedented destruction caused by Hamas in Gaza is a bold example.
As for the Western and civilized model, it strives for peace, stability, decent living, securing and maintaining the rule of human rights, respecting humanity, democracy and freedom.
Therefore, the victory of the Hamas's model and its sponsor Iran will only bring disasters of all kinds and forms not only to the region. (Middle East), but definitely to the whole world.
It is imperative to defeat Hamas, the mullahs, and all branches and groups of the Muslim Brotherhood, or otherwise the whole world will know no peace or stability at any level.
Can anyone imagine what the situation in Lebanon and other countries will be like if the jihadist war led by the Iranian mullahs are victorious? Surely, they will  drag humankind to the law of the jungle and for stone age and prehistoric eras

Israeli strike on southern Lebanon kills liaison officer between Hezbollah, Quds Force, Hamas
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/January 20, 2024
BEIRUT: Two people were killed on Saturday in southern Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike that hit their vehicle on the Burj Al-Chamali road in the village of Al-Bazourieh. The attack follows the death of several Iranian leaders in an Israeli raid that targeted a civilian building in a neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday morning.Several passersby were also injured and transported to the village’s hospitals. Security reports state that one of the victims was Ali Mohammed Hodroj from Al-Bazourieh.
BACKGROUND
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on southern Lebanon against militant groups based there as well as Hezbollah, which have fired rockets across the border at Israel. According to media reports, he was a leader in the Palestine branch operating under the Quds Force in the east of Tyre in Lebanon.
He reportedly played the role of a liaison officer between the Quds Force and Hezbollah in the cooperation between Hamas and the Iranian axis in the areas of cyberwarfare and air defense. Russian TV channel RT Arabic announced that its press staff survived the airstrike.
A security source in the south told Arab News that the incident is “an unprecedented escalatory strike in 105 days of ongoing hostilities on the southern front.” He added: “Al-Bazourieh is 4 km from Tyre and is the hometown of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The road where the car was targeted links Tyre to the border village of Bint Jbeil.”Israeli drones had previously hit several targets in the Qlaileh valley, which is 7 km from Tyre. However, Saturday’s airstrike is considered a deep incursion into inhabited areas, as it hit a well-trafficked road.The source said that “Israel has a list of targets and doesn’t miss a chance to strike whenever possible.”Confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in the south have been violent since Saturday morning. Israeli shelling targeted southern villages and houses. A drone carried out a strike in Marwahin, hitting a house that had been targeted many times before.
Artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the towns of Yarine, Chihine, Jebbayn, Tayr Harfa, Aita Al-Shaab and Al-Dhayra.
Israeli warplanes also raided the town of Odaisseh.
According to Israeli media, Israel has raised the alert level on the northern front.
Hezbollah meanwhile announced in its statements that it had targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Hunin Castle with missile weapons, achieving a direct hit. It also targeted “a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Dhayra site, causing confirmed casualties.”
The party added that it “targeted Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Zar’it barracks and achieved a direct hit.”The Israeli army continued to comb Lebanese villages and forests adjacent to them with its heavy machine guns. Its heavy artillery fired dozens of shells on the outskirts of Ramyah, Naqoura, the Labouneh Mountains, Al-Alam, and Al-Dhayra. At the same time, its planes raided the outskirts of the village of Aita Al-Shaab. From Friday night until Saturday morning, reconnaissance aircraft stayed in the airspace above the Litani River, the villages of the western and central sectors, and the outskirts of the Tyre region and the seacoast. Light bombs were dropped over the villages of the Tyre district, the seacoast, and above the Blue Line. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar channel published the contents of a message from Nasrallah at an international forum on Gaza held in Tehran.
He said: “What Israel has lost to date in Gaza in terms of officers and soldiers at the hands of Palestinian resistance groups exceeds by far its losses in the 1967 war.” Nasrallah believes that the Israeli army “is being defeated today in part of the Gaza Strip and is unable to achieve a goal, declare an occupation, or come close to victory. Rather, it is retreating and withdrawing under the pretext of moving to a new stage.”The Hezbollah chief claims that betting on international institutions and the so-called international community has been unsuccessful, producing nothing but frustration. “These international institutions are dependent on the will of the US administration,” Nasrallah said. On Saturday, Hezbollah mourned the death of Hodroj, the liaison officer from the town of Al-Bazourieh in southern Lebanon, “who rose as a martyr on the road to Jerusalem.”
The border town of Al-Tibiya mourned Mohammed Baqir Diab, who was also killed in the raid.

Israel bombs car killing 2 Hezbollah members as clashes continue
Naharnet/January 20, 2024 
Two Hezbollah members were killed Saturday in an Israeli drone strike on their car in the southern town of al-Bazouriyeh near Tyre, some 20 kilometers from the nearest point of the border with Israel. An Israeli drone also targeted a house in Marwahin, which has been repeatedly bombed since the eruption of the fighting, as Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes on Adaisseh. Israeli artillery shelling meanwhile targeted the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab and al-Dhayra as well as the Marjeyoun plain and the al-Hamames hill. Hezbollah for its part announced fresh attacks on Israeli forces at the Hounine, al-Dhayra and Zar'it Israeli posts. The violence has killed around 197 people in Lebanon, including at least 144 Hezbollah fighters. On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed, of whom nine were soldiers and six civilians, according to the Israeli army.

Report: Efforts to avert war on Lebanon nearing success
Naharnet/January 20, 2024
Efforts to avert an Israeli war on Lebanon are nearing success, Kuwait's al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Saturday. "Behind-the-scenes contacts outside Lebanon have almost managed to prevent the spread of the war to Lebanon, after it was confirmed that no one wants it," the daily said. "A senior figure played an effective role in light of his broad ties with U.S. President Joe Biden," the newspaper added."U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will certainly return to Beirut to expand the negotiations in order to reach an agreement over the land border between the two countries," al-Anbaa said. It added: "The effort now will be to obtain a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to commit to what might be agreed on, because that would facilitate the return of the settlers in the north to their homes as well as the return of the displaced Lebanese to the border areas."

Hezbollah's Qassem warns Israel against continued aggression
Agence France Presse/January 20, 2024
Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has warned that Israel would "receive a real slap in the face" if it expanded the conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border. Since the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, there have been near daily exchanges of cross-border fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militants. Israel has repeatedly bombarded border villages, with the violence killing more than 195 people in Lebanon, including at least 142 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed, of whom nine were soldiers and six civilians, according to the Israeli army. "If Israel decides to expand its aggression, it will receive a real slap in the face in response," Qassem said in a statement. Any restoration of stability on the border is contingent on "the end of the aggression in Gaza," he added. "The enemy must know the party is ready, that we are preparing based on the principle that an endless aggression can happen, just like our will to push back the aggression is infinite." His remarks came after Israeli air strikes "completely destroyed" at least three houses in southern Lebanon on Friday, the official Lebanese news agency NNA and the mayor of the affected border community said. The agency reported four houses were targeted "since this morning by the Israeli air force in Kfar Kila," a village near the Israel-Lebanon border, while three were "completely destroyed." A fifth home was also targeted by artillery fire, NNA said. The Israeli army said on Friday it had "conducted air strikes and carried out artillery and tank fire against Hezbollah observation posts and terrorist infrastructure" in the Kfar Kila sector. "There are around 100 residents left in Kfar Kila, but by chance, when the bombings took place, the destroyed homes were empty," the mayor of the village, Hassan Sheet, told AFP. On Friday afternoon, Hezbollah claimed three attacks, including two against "deployments of soldiers of the Israeli enemy" on the border, including using Burkan missiles, which can carry a large explosive payload.
War would be 'complete disaster' -
Israel "is not prepared for a war against what the Islamic resistance in Lebanon has in store for it," Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, said on Friday, according to the NNA. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers on Friday that Israel was ready to "achieve security by force" on its northern border with Lebanon. "As long as the war continues in the south, there will be war in the north. But we will not accept this situation for prolonged periods," he said. "There will be a moment if we do not reach an agreement in which Hezbollah respects the right of the residents to live here in security -- we will have to achieve security by force." On Wednesday, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the probability of a war between Israel and Hezbollah "in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past." The same day, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a "total confrontation" between the two would be a "complete disaster."

Senior officer among 4 Iranians killed in Israeli strike in Damascus
Agence France Presse/January 20, 2024
An Israeli airstrike Saturday on Damascus' Mazzeh neighborhood killed four Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers, including the head of the Quds Force's intelligence unit in Syria, media reports said. The strike also killed Hezbollah official "Hajj Youness," who was in charge of transferring weapons from Iran by land, the reports said, noting that the targeted meeting was discussing transfering arms by land rather than by air. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike killed five people in a building where "Iran-aligned leaders" were meeting. "An Israeli missile strike targeted a four-story building, killing five people... and destroying the whole building where Iran-aligned leaders were meeting," said the Observatory. The British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria said the targeted neighborhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and pro-Iran Palestinian factions. "They were for sure targeting senior members" of those groups, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. The mid-morning strike, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media. "An attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression," the official SANA news agency reported. It did not say if there were any casualties. An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site. Civil defense were busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he said. The Mazzeh area is also home to the United Nations' headquarters, embassies including the Lebanese embassy and restaurants. "I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke," a resident told AFP. "The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added.
Hundreds of Israeli strikes -
During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas, which like Lebanon's Hezbollah movement is an ally of Iran, began on October 7. In December, an Israeli air strike killed a senior general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the military force said. Razi Moussavi was the most senior commander of the Guards' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, to be killed outside Iran since a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020 killed the Force's commander, Qasem Soleimani. In the same month, air strikes in eastern Syria, "likely" carried out by Israel, killed at least 23 pro-Iran fighters, the Observatory said at the time, reporting four more dead in the country's north. Recent months have also seen regular cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad's government, to expand its presence there. Since 2011, Syria has endured a bloody conflict that has claimed over half a million lives and displaced several million people.

Israel to US ambassador: Hezbollah threat must be ended diplomatically or militarily
Naharnet/January 20, 2024 
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said that Israel is “committed to returning the residents of the north to their homes,” after tens of thousands were evacuated amid daily clashes with Hezbollah.“We are nearing this decision,” Gallant added. "We prefer returning the residents to the north through a settlement and we're also ready to do so through military force," he said. The commander of Israel’s northern command, Ori Gordin, meanwhile briefed the U.S. ambassador to Israel on “Hezbollah’s threats.”“The Lebanon threat must be eliminated diplomatically or militarily,” Gordin added. “There can be no return to the pre-October 7 situation,” he stressed. Over 190 people have been killed in Lebanon during more than three months of cross-border clashes, including over 140 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians, among them three journalists. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents on both sides of the border and Israel says it is keen on returning its residents to their homes even if that required a military campaign.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 20-21/2024
Israeli strike on Damascus kills four Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Reuters/January 20, 2024
BEIRUT/DAMASCUS: An Israeli missile strike on Syria’s capital Damascus on Saturday killed four members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the force’s information unit in Syria, a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told Reuters.
In a statement carried on Iranian state television, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed that four of its military advisers were killed in the Israeli strike and said further details would be announced later. State TV said the targeted building was the residence of Iranian advisers in Damascus.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has long pursued a bombing campaign against Iran-linked targets in Syria. It has shifted to deadlier strikes in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militants of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza.
Syrian state media said a building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus was targeted in a likely Israeli attack, without giving further details. Other local media in Syria said explosions were heard across the Syrian capital.
The security source, part of a network of groups close to Syria’s government and its major ally Iran, said the multi-story building was used by Iranian advisers supporting President Bashar Assad’s government, and that it was entirely flattened by “precision-targeted Israeli missiles.”
The source said a fifth person was also killed but could not immediately identify the nationality.
Essam Al-Amin, head of the Al-Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told Reuters that his hospital had received one corpse and three wounded people, including a woman, following Saturday’s attack.
A Reuters witness in Mazzeh saw ambulances and fire trucks gathered around the site of the strike, which had been cordoned off. Rescue operations for people stuck under the rubble were ongoing throughout the late morning.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad told Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in the strike, following reports that some were at the bombed-out building.
Israel responded to the shock Hamas assault on Oct. 7 by launching a devastating air and ground war in Gaza with the aim of eradicating its ruling Islamist group. The conflict has reverberated across the Middle East with violence surging in Syria, Lebanon, northern Iraq and in the Red Sea.
In December, an Israeli air strike killed two Guards members, and another near Damascus on Dec. 25 killed a senior adviser to the Guards who was overseeing military coordination between Syria and Iran.
Iran and its military allies in Syria have entrenched themselves in wide areas of eastern, southern and northern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.

Senior Iran Revolutionary Guard officials killed in strike blamed on Israel
Oliver Slow - BBC News/January 20, 2024
Four senior members of Iran's security forces have been killed in a suspected air strike on the Syrian capital. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard blamed Israel for the attack, which it said killed four military advisers as well as a number of Syrian forces. Israel has not commented. For years it has carried out strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria. Such strikes have intensified since the Israel-Gaza war began following Hamas's 7 October attacks on Israel. Senior figures among the Revolutionary Guard - a major military, political and economic force in Iran - have been present in Syria since the civil war began there in 2011, helping to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against widespread rebellion to his rule. Saturday's attack is understood to have taken place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, south-west Damascus, an area home to a military airport, as well as the UN headquarters in Damascus, embassies and restaurants.
A resident told AFP news agency that they saw "explosions" in the western Mazzeh area and "a large cloud of smoke". "The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances," he added. Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said the attacks killed the IRGC's Syria intelligence chief, his deputy, as well as two other Guard members. Videos, which the BBC has not verified, showed a large cloud of smoke and buildings destroyed. Last month a suspected Israeli air strike just outside Damascus killed a senior IRGC commander. The Middle East has been on heightened alert since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,300 people, mainly civilians, and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza. More than 132 hostages are thought to still be held in the territory. Iran's sudden strikes show just how perilous region has become. More than 24,900 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel says its ground and air operation in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas. The conflict has raised concerns about a wider war spreading around the region, particularly between fierce rivals Israel and Iran, and amid a series of overlapping crises. Israel is targeting the Palestinian group Hamas, which is supported by Tehran. It is also exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria are also targeting US forces in the region, and the US and UK have struck the Houthis - another Iran-backed group - in Yemen, who have been attacking ships in the Red Sea. Fears about an even wider conflict were further heightened this week, when Iran exchanged strikes with its neighbour Pakistan. On Tuesday, Iran admitted carrying out a missile and drone attack in south-western Pakistan, killing two children, saying it was targeting an "Iranian terrorist group" in Pakistan. Days later, Islamabad hit back, launching strikes it said were targeting "terrorist hideouts" in south-eastern Iran, killing nine people. Although both sides insisted they were targeting militant bases in each other's countries, Iran and Pakistan withdrew their ambassadors from the respective capitals. But following talks, diplomatic ties were restored.

US troops injured in major missile attack in Iraq
Michael Murphy/The Telegraph/January 20, 2024
Several US troops were injured in a major missile attack targeted an airbase in Iraq, officials have said. US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was seriously wounded in the attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base, a US official said. At least a dozen rockets were fired at the base in western Iraq, which is used by US-led coalition forces, a US defence source and an Iraqi police official told AFP. The attack came after a suspected Israeli strike killed Iran’s intelligence chief in Syria as well as three other military officials, according to Iranian media reports. “The Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel,” Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

US strikes another Houthi anti-ship missile
WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters)/Sat, January 20, 2024
U.S. Central Command forces on Saturday struck a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and prepared to launch, the U.S. military said, with the latest round of strikes coming hours after the United States struck three other Houthi anti-ship missiles.
"U.S. forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X. The incident, the latest amid growing tensions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that have disrupted global trade and raised fears of supply bottlenecks, took place around 0400 Yemen time (0100 GMT), the U.S. Central Command added. Hours earlier on late Friday, U.S. Central Command forces conducted strikes against three Houthi anti-ship missiles that they said were aimed into the Southern Red Sea. Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia on ships in and around the Red Sea for the past several weeks have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers in an escalation of the war in Gaza. The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza. Since last week, the United States has been launching strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, and this week returned the militia to a list of "terrorist" groups. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that air strikes would continue even as he acknowledged they may not be halting the Houthi attacks. The confrontation risks an expansion of the conflict beyond Hamas-governed Gaza, where the local health ministry says over 24,000 people - or more than 1% of Gaza's 2.3 million population - have been killed in Israel's assault. Israel launched its offensive following Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people. Saturday's strikes were the fifth in the past week by the U.S. against Houthi missile launchers that were prepared to launch attacks.The Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a U.S.-owned tanker ship late on Thursday that hit the water near the vessel but caused no injuries or damage, according to the U.S. military.

Biden and Netanyahu have finally talked, but their visions still clash for ending Israel-Hamas war
Associated Press/January 20, 2024 20:59
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke Friday after a glaring, nearly four-week gap in direct communication during which fundamental differences have come into focus over a possible pathway to Palestinian statehood once the fighting in Gaza ends.
Biden and his top aides have all but smothered Netanyahu with robust support, even in the face of global condemnation over the mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian suffering in Gaza as the Israelis have carried out military operations in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
But the leaders' relationship has increasingly shown signs of strain as Netanyahu has repeatedly rebuffed Biden's calls for Palestinian sovereignty, gumming up what the U.S. president believes is the key to unlocking a durable peace in the Middle East — the oft-cited, elusive two-state solution.
Neither side shows signs of budging. Friday's phone call came one day after Netanyahu said that he has told U.S. officials in plain terms that he will not support a Palestinian state as part of any postwar plan. Biden, for his part, in Friday's call reaffirmed his commitment to work toward helping the Palestinians move toward statehood. "As we're talking about post-conflict Gaza ... you can't do that without also talking about the aspirations of the Palestinian people and what that needs to look like for them," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
The leaders spoke frequently in the first weeks of the war. But the regular cadence of calls between Biden and Netanyahu, who have had a hot-and-cold relationship for over three decades, has slowed considerably. Their 30- to 40-minute call Friday was their first conversation since Dec. 23.
Both sides are hemmed in by domestic political considerations.
The chasm between Biden, a center-left Democrat, and Netanyahu, who leads the most conservative government in Israel's history, has expanded as pressure mounts on the United States to use its considerable leverage to press Israel to wind down a war that has already killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians.
There is also growing impatience with Netanyahu in Israel over the lack of progress in freeing dozens of hostages still held by Islamic militants in Gaza.
"There is certainly a reason to be concerned," says Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, "The more and more we see political considerations dominating the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu, which is likely to continue because of the upcoming presidential election and the weakness of both leaders, the more we will see them pulling apart."In their most recent calls, Biden's frustration with Netanyahu has grown more evident, even though the U.S. leader has been careful to reaffirm his support for Israel at each step, according to U.S. officials who requested anonymity to discuss the leaders' private interactions. Yet, Biden, at least publicly, has not given up on the idea of winning over Netanyahu. Asked by a reporter on Friday if a two-state solution is impossible while Netanyahu is in office, Biden replied, "No, it's not."
Aides insist Biden understands the political box Netanyahu finds himself in with his hard-right coalition and as he deals with ongoing corruption charges that have left the prime minister fighting for his freedom, not just his political future.
Biden, meanwhile, faces American voters in November, in a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump. Netanyahu and Trump forged a close relationship during the Republican's term in office. Biden faces criticism from some on his left who believe he hasn't pushed the Israelis hard enough to demonstrate restraint as it carries out military operations.
Key Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, this week warned that Netanyahu's position on statehood could complicate negotiations in the Senate on a spending package that includes military aid for Israel.
Expect Netanyahu to "use every trick that he has to keep his coalition together and avoid elections and play out the clock," said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum. "And I'm sure that part of it is a conviction that if he waits until November, he may end up with Donald Trump back in the Oval Office." In recent weeks, some of the more difficult conversations have been left to Ron Dermer, a top aide to Netanyahu and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., and Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. The two top aides talk almost daily — sometimes multiple times during a day, according to a U.S. official and an Israeli official, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Other senior Biden administration officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as well as senior advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, have been at the forefront of the administration's push to engage the Israelis and other Middle East allies as the Biden-Netanyahu dialogue has become less constructive.
Netanyahu, who has opposed calls for a two-state solution throughout his political career, told reporters this week that he flatly told U.S. officials he remains opposed to any postwar plan that includes establishment of a Palestinian state.
The prime minister's latest rejection of Biden's push in that direction came after Blinken this week said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Israel and its Middle East neighbors had "a profound opportunity" to solve the generational Israel-Palestinian conflict. Asked if he thought Netanyahu was up to making the most of the moment, Blinken demurred.
"Look, these are decisions for Israelis to make," Blinken said. "This is a profound decision for the country as a whole to make: What direction does it want to take? Does it see — can it seize — the opportunity that we believe is there?"
The Biden-Netanyahu relationship has seen no shortage of peaks and valleys over the years. As vice president, Biden privately criticized Netanyahu after the the Israeli leader embarrassed President Barack Obama by approving the construction of 1,600 new apartments in disputed East Jerusalem in the middle of Biden's 2010 visit to Israel. Netanyahu publicly resisted, before eventually relenting to, Biden's calls on the Israelis to wind down a May 2021 military operation in Gaza. And in late 2019, during a question and answer session with voters on the campaign trail, Biden called Netanyahu an "extreme right" leader.
The path to a two-state solution — one in which Israel would co-exist with an independent Palestinian state — has eluded U.S. presidents and Middle East diplomats for decades.
But as the war grinds on, Biden and his team have pressed the notion that there is a new dynamic in the Middle East in which Israel's Arab and Muslim neighbors stand ready to integrate Israel into the region once the war ends, but only if Israel commits to a pathway to a Palestinian state.
Biden has proposed that a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, could run Gaza once combat ends. Netanyahu has roundly rejected the idea of putting the Palestinian Authority, which is beset by corruption, in charge of the territory.
Netanyahu argues that a Palestinian state would become a launchpad for attacks on Israel. So Israel "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River," Netanyahu said. "That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?"White House officials have sought to play down Netanyahu's public rejection of Biden's call for a two-state solution, noting that the prime minister's rhetoric is not new. They hold out hope Israel could eventually come around to accepting a Palestinian state that comes with strong security guarantees for Israel. "I don't think Biden has any illusions about Netanyahu," said Daniel Kurtzer, who served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Bill Clinton administration and to Israel under George W. Bush. "But I don't think he's ready to slam the door on him. And that's because he gets the intersection between the policy and the politics."

EU's Borrell accuses Israel of 'creating' and 'financing' Hamas
Agence France Presse/January 20, 2024
The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell has accused Israel of having "created" and "financed" the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent days reaffirmed his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, drawing criticism from his U.S. ally, which is still advocating a "two-state solution". "We believe that a two-state solution must be imposed from outside to bring peace. Although, I insist, Israel is reaffirming its refusal (of this solution), and to prevent it they have gone so far as to create Hamas themselves," Borrell said. "Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government to try to weaken the Palestinian Authority of Fatah. "But if we do not intervene strongly, the spiral of hate and violence will continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral, as the seeds of hatred that are being sown in Gaza today flourish," he added during a speech in Spanish at the University of Valladolid in central Spain, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. Hamas was created in December 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories by a group of Islamist militants claiming to be from the Muslim Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Hamas, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, was notably founded to counter the Islamic Jihad militant group and compete with the mainly secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) then led by Yasser Arafat. Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip following a quasi-civil war against the Fatah movement of Arafat's successor Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the occupied West Bank. In recent years, the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas and under Israeli blockade, has received millions of dollars in aid from Qatar, provoking criticism of Netanyahu, who is accused of having favoured financing of the movement. The prime minister denies the accusation.

Denial of Palestinian statehood ‘unacceptable’, says UN chief
AFP/January 20, 2024
KAMPALA: The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state “must be recognized by all,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday. “The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” the UN leader insisted in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Such a stance “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; exacerbate polarization; and embolden extremists everywhere,” Guterres warned.
FASTFACT
The World Health Organization has deplored the ‘inhuman living conditions’ in the small coastal territory of 2.4 million inhabitants.
“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”The ongoing bloodshed in the Palestinian Gaza territory was prompted by the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas fighters. That attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, most of them Israeli civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive since then have killed at least 24,927 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry. In its final summit communique, the Non-Aligned Movement on Saturday “strongly condemned the illegal Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip,” and called for “a lasting humanitarian ceasefire.”The assembled leaders in Kampala also called for “the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in order to achieve a two-state solution.”The Non-Aligned Movement is a forum of 120 countries that aren’t formally aligned to any major power bloc. Its members include India, Iran, Iraq and South Africa.The World Health Organization (WHO) has deplored the “inhuman living conditions” in the small coastal territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, many of whom have been displaced by the Israeli action. On Monday, Guterres appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The United States, Israel’s main ally and key supporter in its war against Hamas, has also recently reiterated its support for the creation of a Palestinian state.
In recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his opposition to the creation of a viable Palestinian state, drawing criticism from his American ally.

An Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital killed at least 4 Iranian advisers, state media say
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)/Sat, January 20, 2024
An Israeli strike on the Syrian capital on Saturday destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing at least four Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. Iranian state television said four advisers from the Revolutionary Guard had been killed in the strike in Damascus, without identifying them, adding that Israel was behind the strike. Nour News, which is believed to be close to the country’s intelligence apparatus, identified two of the dead as Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, the intelligence deputy of the guard's expeditionary Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy, who goes by the nom de guerre Hajj Gholam. An opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least six people — five Iranians and a Syrian — were killed in the missile attack that struck while officials from Iran-backed groups were holding a meeting. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said three of the Iranians were commanders, adding that four other people are still missing under the rubble. Syrian state TV reported that the “Israeli aggression” targeted a residential building in the tightly guarded western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh, home to several diplomatic missions. Saturday's strike was close to the embassies of Venezuela and South Africa. An official with knowledge of the situation said that the building was used by Revolutionary Guard officials, adding that the “Israeli missiles” destroyed the whole building and that 10 people were either killed or wounded in the attack. The official is from an Iran-backed group, but asked that his name and affiliation not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly about security affairs.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.
Security forces deployed around the destroyed four-story building as ambulances and fire engines were seen in the area. A search for people trapped under the rubble was underway. Windows were also shattered in nearby buildings. A grocer near the scene of the strike said he heard five consecutive explosions at about 9:15 a.m., adding that he later witnessed the bodies of a man and a woman being taken away as well as three wounded people. “The shop shook. I stayed inside for few seconds then went out and saw the smoke billowing from behind the mosque,” the man, who asked that his name not be used for security reasons, told The Associated Press. “What happened was terrifying. I collapsed,” said Khaled Mawed, who lives nearby. The strike came amid widening tensions in the region as Israel pushes ahead with its offensive in Gaza. Israel’s assault there, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, caused widespread destruction and uprooted over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes. Israel launched the offensive after an unprecedented cross-border attack into Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage. Roughly 130 hostages are believed by Israel to remain in Hamas captivity. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts. Last month, an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of Damascus killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria. Israel has also targeted Palestinian and Lebanese operatives in Syria over the past years. Iranian and Syrian officials have long acknowledged Iran has advisers and military experts in Syria, but denied there were any ground troops. Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed groups took part in Syria's conflict that started in March 2011, helping tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years.
Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Earlier this month, a strike said to be carried out by Israel killed top Hamas commander Saleh Arouri in Beirut. Over the past weeks, rockets have been fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, adding to tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border and attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Israel Hamas war: UN say women and children main victims of conflict as IDF hit Damascus
Euronews/Sat, January 20, 2024
UN: Women and children main victims of Israel-Hamas war with 16,000 killed
Women and children are the main victims in the Israel-Hamas war, with some 16,000 killed and an estimated two mothers losing their lives every hour since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, the United Nations agency promoting gender equality has said. As a result of the more than 100-day conflict, UN Women added, at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of households and at least 10,000 children may have lost their fathers. The agency pointed to gender inequality and the burden on women fleeing the fighting with children and being displaced again and again. Of the territory’s 2.3 million population, it said, 1.9 million are displaced and “close to one million are women and girls” seeking shelter and safety.
UN Women’s executive director, Sima Bahous, said this is “a cruel inversion” of fighting during the 15 years before the Hamas attack on 7 October. Previously, she said, 67% of all civilians killed in Gaza and the West Bank were men and less than 14% were women.
She echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ calls for a humanitarian cease-fire and the immediate release of all hostages taken captive by Hamas. “However much we mourn the situation of the women and girls of Gaza today, we will mourn further tomorrow without unrestricted humanitarian assistance and an end to the destruction and killing,” Bahous said in a statement accompanying the UN’s report. “These women and girls are deprived of safety, medicine, health care, and shelter. They face imminent starvation and famine. Most of all they are deprived of hope and justice,” she said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, 70% of them women and children. The United Nations says more than a half million people in Gaza - a quarter of the population - are starving.
An Israeli strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus, destroyed on Saturday a building used by Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard killing and wounding 10 people, state media outlets and an official with an Iran-backed group said.
An opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least five people were killed in the missile attack that struck when officials from Iran-backed groups were holding a meeting.
State-TV reported that the “Israeli aggression” targeted a residential building in the tightly guarded western Damascus neighbourhood of Mazzeh, home to several diplomatic missions, including the Lebanese and Iranian embassies.
An official with an Iran-backed group in the Middle East told The Associated Press that the building was used by Revolutionary Guard officials, adding that the “Israeli missiles” destroyed the whole building and that 10 were either killed or wounded in the attack.The strike came amid widening tensions in the region and the Israeli offensive on Gaza that has killed thousands. Last month, an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of Damascus killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria. Israel has also targeted Palestinian and Lebanese operatives in Syria over the past years. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years. Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Biden and Netanyahu speak at last - but their visions for ending conflict still clash. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke late on Friday after a glaring, nearly four-week gap in direct communication during which fundamental differences have come into focus over a possible pathway to Palestinian statehood once the fighting in Gaza ends.
Biden and his top aides have all but smothered Netanyahu with robust support, even in the face of global condemnation over the mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian suffering in Gaza as the Israelis have carried out military operations. However, the leaders' relationship has increasingly shown signs of strain as Netanyahu has repeatedly rebuffed Biden's calls for Palestinian sovereignty, gumming up what the US president believes is the key to unlocking a durable peace in the Middle East — the oft-cited, elusive two-state solution.
Neither side shows signs of budging. Friday's phone call came one day after Netanyahu said that he has told US officials in plain terms that he will not support a Palestinian state as part of any postwar plan. Biden, for his part, in Friday's call reaffirmed his commitment to work toward helping the Palestinians move toward statehood. “As we’re talking about post-conflict Gaza... you can’t do that without also talking about the aspirations of the Palestinian people and what that needs to look like for them,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. The leaders spoke frequently in the first weeks of the war, but the regular cadence of calls between Biden and Netanyahu, who have had a hot-and-cold relationship for over three decades, has slowed considerably. Their 30-to 40-minute call on Friday was their first conversation since 23 December.

Hostage families protest outside Netanyahu's home, ramping up pressure for a truce-for-hostages deal
JERUSALEM (AP/Sat, January 20, 2024
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza protested Saturday outside the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing frustration over his government’s seeming lack of progress in getting the more than 100 captives released as the war in Gaza drags on.
A group representing families of the hostages said they had "begged for 105 days" and now demanded that the government show leadership and take bold steps to free the hostages. A member of Israel’s War Cabinet has called a cease-fire the only way to secure their release, a comment that implied criticism of Israel's current strategy. The protest outside the prime minister's home and the remark by former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot were among signs of growing strife in Israel over the direction of the war in its fourth month. Netanyahu has said he will push for “complete victory” against Hamas but has not outlined how he would achieve it. Critics have accused him of preventing a Cabinet-level debate about a post-war scenario for Gaza, alleging Netanyahu was stalling in hopes of avoiding conflict that could potentially break up his right-wing ruling coalition. Israel launched its war against Hamas following the militant group's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel and saw about 250 others taken hostage from the country's south. Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza say Israel's offensive has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The offensive, one of the most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has pulverized much of territory and displaced more than 80% of its population of 2.3 million people. An Israeli blockade that allows only a trickle of aid into Gaza has led to widespread hunger and outbreaks of disease, United Nations officials have said. Netanyahu has insisted that the only way to secure the hostages’ return is by crushing Hamas through military means. But relatives of the remaining captives have been escalating their campaign seeking a deal for the release of their loved ones. More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released during a brief November ceasefire in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and minors imprisoned by Israel. Israel has said that more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but only about 100 are believed to be alive. On Friday, the father of a 28-year-old man who has been held by Hamas since Oct. 7 began what he called a hunger strike outside Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea. Eli Shtivi, who son Idan was among the people kidnapped from a music festival in southern Israel, pledged to eat only a quarter of a pita a day — to show how little food some hostages were reportedly given on some days— until the prime minister agreed to meet with him. Dozens of people joined Shtivi late Friday and were still there Saturday morning. Eisenkot, the former army chief who is one of the five members of Israel’s War Cabinet, has called into question Netanyahu’s insistence that only Israel's blistering air and ground offensive would bring the hostages home.
Eisenkot, whose son was killed in December while fighting in Gaza, said during a television interview late Thursday that claiming the captives could be freed without a deal and a cease-fire “is to spread illusions.” The hostages “will only return alive if there is a deal, linked to a significant pause in fighting,” he said. Dramatic rescue operations are unlikely because the hostages are apparently spread out, many of them in underground tunnels, he said. As part of its search for the hostages, Israel's military dropped leaflets on the territory's southernmost town of Rafah that asked people to provide information about the captives. The leaflets, with photos of dozens of hostages, carried a message suggesting benefits for anyone providing information. “You want to return home? Please report if you identified one of them,” read the message, which also listed a phone number and a link to a website containing images and names of the hostages in Arabic. In Gaza, residents reached by phone following the end of a seven-day communications blackout reported heavy bombardment and fighting between militants and Israeli troops Saturday morning in and around the southern city of Khan Younis and the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in the north.
Israeli warplanes and shelling hammered areas in and east of Khan Younis, with gun battles raging overnight into the early morning in Bani Suheila, a town on the city's outskirts, residents said. The town is one of the hotspots in Israel’s military operations in the Khan Younis area.
Halima Abdel-Rahman, a woman displaced from northern Gaza who has sheltered in Bani Suheila since November, said Israeli airstrikes hit several buildings in the town over the last couple of days and that bombing was intense overnight into Saturday.
The fighting has forced many families to leave their homes, many of which were reduced to rubble, and Bani Suheila is largely empty, she said. In Jabaliya, “the heavy bombing returned,” with Israeli warplanes striking buildings and open areas, local fisherman Assad Abu Radwan said. Israel withdrew a significant number of troops from the northern half of Gaza earlier this week after the military said it had broken up Hamas command structures there. However, Hamas gunmen continued putting up resistance in parts of northern Gaza, prompting renewed questions in Israel about the feasibility of the government's stated goal of crushing Hamas. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, meanwhile, mourners gathered Saturday for the funeral of a 17-year-old American Palestinian who was shot and killed a day earlier near the city of Ramallah.The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear Saturday. In a statement, Israeli police said they received a report Friday regarding a “firearm discharge, ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian.” Police did not identify who fired the shot but described the shooting as taking place over people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities" along a main highway. Police said the incident was being investigated, including by its internal affairs department. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Friends of the teenager identified him as Tawfiq Ajaq, and said the family had returned to its home village in the West Bank from Harvey, Louisiana, about a year ago. Asked about the shooting, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said officials at the White House were “seriously concerned about these reports.”“We don’t have perfect context about exactly what happened here,” Kirby said. “Seriously concerned about it. And we’re going to be in constant touch with counterparts in the region to — to get more information.”In recent months, the Biden administration has repeatedly expressed concern about growing volatility in the West Bank, including violence by settlers against Palestinians.

What is happening between Iran and Pakistan?
ABC/January 20, 2024
An unprecedented turn of events took place between Iran and Pakistan this week when the neighboring nations exchanged cross-border airstrikes on what they claim were militant hideouts and safe havens being used against one another.
First, Iranian airstrikes targeted what Tehran described as bases for the Sunni separatist group Jaish al-Adl in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday. At least two children were killed and three others were injured, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called the attack an "unprovoked violation of its airspace."Then, Pakistani airstrikes targeted what Islamabad described as training camps belonging to Baluch insurgents in southeastern Iran on Thursday in retaliation for Tuesday's attack. At least nine people -- four children, three women and two men -- who were non-Iranian citizens were killed, according to Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who condemned the strikes. Tehran has accused Jaish al-Adl of carrying out attacks across the border inside Iran, alleging that Pakistan provides hideouts for the group and other militants known for high-profile attacks against the Iranian military -- claims which Islamabad denies. Meanwhile, Baluch separatist groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Baluch Liberation Front have attacked law enforcement, government personnel and buildings in southwestern Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Islamabad has accused Tehran of giving them a safe haven across the border in Iran where they receive funding and training -- charges which Tehran denies.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday and the two "agreed to de-escalate the situation," noting that their countries have to maintain "mutual trust and cooperation," according to a statement from Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Relations between Pakistan, a Sunni majority country, and Iran, a Shia majority nation, have never been favorable with both blaming the other for using their minorities as proxies for their own benefits. Nevertheless, the neighbors have historically managed to maintain routine diplomatic, trade and military activities between them. There were even bilateral events taking place this week when Iran launched its airstrikes in Pakistan on Tuesday, forcing the meetings to be canceled. Ijaz Khan, an Islamabad-based researcher and the former head of the University of Peshawar's Department of International Relations, said this week's cross-border airstrikes are the first high-profile attacks to take place between the two countries and that bilateral ties "cannot go back" to how they were. "Iran and Pakistan had differences in the past over a range of issues, but still they were able to keep their differences at a certain level and downplay them," Khan told ABC News in an interview Thursday. "It was never public expression of disagreement between them." "For a long time, they were always suspicious of each other. Those suspicions will increase," he added. "The chances of reacting negatively against each other would be much more than before."
Pakistani-Iranian relations have taken a turn for the worse at a time when the wider region is already roiled by Israel's ongoing war with Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip. Since the war began last October, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly used drones and missiles to target commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, supposedly in support of Hamas and the scores of suffering Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The United States has since led large-scale retaliatory airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
"Iran restrained itself from jumping into it, but there was always fear that this may happen and this may escalate," Khan told ABC News. "A lot of realignment may take place in the region."
Now, Iran has simultaneously opened three fronts by striking Syria, Iraq and Pakistan within a week. Tehran conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria late Monday in response to a suicide bombing that killed more than 90 people earlier this month, for which the Sunni militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility. Regardless of whether this week's chain of events are connected to what's already happening in the Middle East, Khan warned that there will be "implications." Khan said he and other regional analysts are "baffled" by Iran's recent decision-making and worry that further escalation on any of the fronts will trigger warfare. "Before this, thinking of an open conflict between Iran and Pakistan was not a serious topic for discussion," Khan told ABC News. "But now, it cannot be ruled out. It can never be ruled out, even if they are able to contain the current thing from escalating.""Even if it doesn't escalate physically," he added, "politically, it will."

Russia's elite paratroopers and marines are refusing orders to launch 'human wave attacks,' Ukraine official says
Business Insider/January 20, 2024
Elite Russian troops are refusing to launch "human wave attacks," a Ukrainian official said. Nataliya Humenyuk said the marines and paratroopers were concerned over huge losses in the assaults. Former prisoners and poorly-trained reservists typically carry out costly frontal assaults, she said. Russian marines and paratroopers are refusing to launch certain types of assaults due to concerns over the huge losses other troops are suffering, a Ukrainian official said, per the Kyiv Post. Nataliya Humenyuk, press secretary for the AFU's Joint Command South, said that the soldiers considered "themselves 'elite troops'" and did not "want to go into frontal assaults" typically carried out by former felons and reservists, the outlet reported. Over the course of the Russian invasion, it has become increasingly reliant on high-risk frontal assaults. It involves waves of attacks that probe Ukrainian positions and seize small portions of territory but cost a huge loss of life. The Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a mysterious plane explosion after leading a failed mutiny in June, described the tactic as a "meat grinder."Humenyuk cited Russian attacks on Krynky in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine, as an example, saying that Russian troops assaulting Ukrainian marine positions there were being hit with more than 50% losses. The number of 'Storm-Z' units (low-grade Russian formations made up older reservists and former convicts) committed to carry out human wave attacks against the Ukraine bridgehead on the eastern side of the Dnipro were now falling, and more naval infantry and paratroopers were being deployed, said Humenyuk "But they consider themselves 'elite troops,' and they don't want to go into frontal assaults like that," Humenyuk said.
One of Russia's newly formed Russian paratrooper units, the 104th Guards Airborne Division, appeared to be hit particularly hard in its combat debut in the Kherson region late last year, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an update on the conflict in December. It said the unit "highly likely suffered exceptionally heavy losses and failed to achieve its objectives" during its operations in the area, aimed at dislodging Ukrainian positions near Krynky. Krynky has been the scene of heavy fighting over the past few months as Ukrainian forces have been attempting to recapture ground from Russia across the Dnipro River. Conditions in the region have made the conflict difficult for both sides, with marshes, water-filled bomb craters, and mud making it almost impossible for troops to dig in, The New York Times reported.
Despite Ukrainian officials' claims that the country's marines had gained ground on the eastern side of the river, soldiers and marines told The Times that this was an exaggeration. "There are no positions. There is no such thing as an observation post or position," Oleksiy, a soldier who fought in Krynky and who only gave his first name, said. "It is impossible to gain a foothold there. It's impossible to move equipment there." "It's not even a fight for survival," he added. "It's a suicide mission."However, its success in the skies above the Dnipro bolstered Ukraine's difficult position on the ground. Russia appears to be unable to counter Ukraine's drone attacks because of a shortage of electronic warfare capability in the area, the UK's Ministry of Defence said. Ukraine's forces have been using first-person view drones to strike Russian armor and artillery, the UK department said in an intelligence update on Sunday. A Russian military blogger estimated that 90% of Russian military equipment in the Krynky sector, a village on the east bank of the river, has been destroyed, the department said.

North Korea says it tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone in response to rivals' naval drills
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)/January 20/2024
North Korea said Friday it has tested a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise by South Korea, the United States and Japan this week, as it continues to blame its rivals for raising tensions in the region. The test of the drone, purportedly designed to destroy naval vessels and ports, came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared he is scrapping his country’s long-standing goal of a peaceful reunification with South Korea and that his country will rewrite its constitution to define South Korea as its most hostile foreign adversary. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen to their highest point in years, with Kim accelerating his weapons testing and threatening nuclear conflict. The United States and its Asian allies have responded by strengthening their combined military exercises, which Kim calls rehearsals for an invasion.
The underwater drone, which North Korea said it first tested last year, is among a broad range of weapon systems demonstrated in recent years as Kim expands his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons. South Korea’s military says North Korea has exaggerated the capabilities of the drone. North Korea’s military said it conducted the test in the country’s eastern waters in response to a naval drill by the U.S., South Korea and Japan which ended Wednesday in waters south of Jeju island. It did not say when the test occurred. “Our army’s underwater nuke-based countering posture is being further rounded off and its various maritime and underwater responsive actions will continue to deter the hostile military maneuvers of the navies of the U.S. and its allies,” North Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“We strongly denounce the U.S. and its followers for their reckless acts of seriously threatening the security of (North Korea) from the outset of the year and sternly warn them of the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by them,” it said.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry denounced North Korea’s recent tests as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a threat to “peace in the Korean Peninsula and the world.” It said in a statement that the U.S. and South Korean militaries were maintaining a firm defense posture against possible North Korean provocations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is very concerned about the current situation on the Korean peninsula, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres reiterated his call “for de-escalation, the full implementation of Security Council resolutions and for the creation of an environment that's conducive to dialogue and the resumption of diplomatic talks which are frankly the only possible path forward,” Dujarric said. North Korea in recent months has tested various missile systems designed to target the United States and its Asian allies, and announced an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the military to conduct preemptive nuclear strikes if North Korea's leadership is under threat. North Korea conducted its first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. State media described it as a new solid-fuel, intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead, likely intended to target U.S. military bases in Guam and Japan. At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, South Korea urged the council “to break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats. Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council, have blocked U.S.-led efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea over its recent weapons tests, underscoring a divide deepened over Russia’s war on Ukraine. South Korea is serving a two-year term on the council.

At Davos, leaders talked big on rebuilding trust. Can the World Economic Forum make a difference?
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP)/January 20/2024
Business and political elites descended on the Swiss Alpine snows of Davos to suss out “rebuilding trust” in a splintering world. If there’s any takeaway from the World Economic Forum's annual meeting — boldly touting that theme — it’s that we still have a long way to go. From full-blown wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to suspicions that corporate chiefs and tech whizzes are out to make a buck off of displacing workers with artificial intelligence, trust is clearly in short supply. The Davos gathering wrapped up Friday after a yearly pulse-taking of leading decision-makers. The idea is getting people together, and big announcements are often just a byproduct — not the aim. That's if they come at all. “It’s unrealistic to think that Davos — or any meeting, anywhere in the world — in one meeting can rebuild trust when it’s fragmented on so many dimensions," said Rich Lesser, chairman of Boston Consulting Group. But thousands of conversations between the social, private and public sectors help create "a starting point for rebuilding trust,” he said. A big artistic wall headlined “Rebuilding Trust” that greeted bigwigs from Bill Gates to the Iranian foreign minister was full of phrases like “Growth and Jobs,” “Climate Nature Energy” and “Cooperation and Security” — buzzwords that, to some, smack of empty talk. Critics say the annual meeting, which started more than half a century ago, are a preserve of business chieftains who covet greater wealth and politicians who want to stay in power. The event is hard-wired to foster can-do optimism, but geopolitical gloom weighs heavy. “What is striking, if not shocking, for me at Davos is this weird commitment on the part of the participants to adopt an optimistic mindset,” said Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International. “But optimism for the purpose of maintaining the status quo and keeping my privilege. That’s not optimism.” “That’s craziness, frankly, and it’s battering our poor world,” she added. The general conclusion, attendees said, was that the global economic picture is a bit brighter than might have been thought — interest rates and inflation seem to have peaked in the richest markets — but it’s still anybody’s guess where intractable wars and looming elections in places like the U.S., India, the European Union and South Africa will redirect the world. Here are some takeaways from Davos and the work that still lies ahead:
UKRAINE NEEDS MORE MONEY
Long before Russia's war, Ukraine staked out prime real estate on the Davos Promenade main drag to promote its development and efforts to turn westward. Over the last two years, authorities in Kyiv have used the event to call for more support for their fight. In 2022, months after Russia's invasion, that was an easier ask. This year, Ukraine war fatigue in Europe and the U.S. have set in. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy headlined Tuesday's action, pleading for more support from Western allies as billions in new funding from the United States and European Union remain locked up by homegrown political squabbles.
“Please, strengthen our economy, and we will strengthen your security,” Zelenskyy urged. Britain, for its part, played up its recent 2.5-billion pound ($3.2 billion) contribution to Kyiv and urged allies to follow suit.
AI: THE FUTURE AND THE RISK
Concerns about the economy that dominated last year have given way to hope — at least from business execs — that generative AI could boost productivity and cut down on rote tasks. But naysayers fear explosive growth of the technology is going too fast for regulators, threatens to push people out of their jobs and could foment greater misinformation than is already found on social media. Some say humans have to maintain control, not allow technology to make crucial decisions on its own. “No matter how much AI can do, humans are still the deciding factor. So we have to focus on the training of human resources, especially the highly skilled workers,” Pham Minh Chinh, Vietnam's prime minister, said on a Davos panel.
THE CLIMATE OF FEAR ...
The plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and fears about Israel’s long-term security were on people's lips, as was what some critics of Israel call genocide in Gaza — an accusation that Israeli leaders, whose people were massacred in the Holocaust, vociferously deny. Renewed talk of the creation of a Palestinian state — an idea rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again this week — animated discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others, as did hopes for a normalization of Israel’s ties with the Arab world, especially Saudi Arabia. Both seem unlikely in the near future. Fears raged about how many more Palestinians will die or be injured, whether Israeli hostages will survive captivity and whether the conflict will spill over to even more of the Middle East.
Iran and its proxies, for instance, have stepped up military action in several parts of the region, and it's triggered retaliatory strikes from the likes of Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain.
... AND FEAR ABOUT THE CLIMATE
An unusually rainy Thursday — snow is far more often the norm in Davos this time of year — sent tongues wagging about another possible, if temporary, sign of climate change that future-minded CEOs and political leaders want to address. The gabfest at the Swiss ski resort, just a month after the latest U.N. climate conference, wasn't likely to push forward the effort to battle global warming. But corporate leaders shared ideas about how they're trying to help. The U.N. chief, citing the hottest year on record in 2023 and fears that it could be hotter still in coming years, said countries are not doing enough.
“In the face of the serious — even existential threats — posed by runaway climate chaos and the runaway development of artificial intelligence without guardrails, we seem powerless to act together,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Davos. "As climate breakdown begins, countries remain hellbent on raising emissions.” But “the phaseout of fossil fuels is essential and inevitable" he added. “No amount of spin or scare tactics will change that.”

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 20-21/2024
On Confronting the Iranian Regime
Majid Rafizadeh/ Gatestone Institute./January 20, 2024
Any evaluation of the Biden administration's policy towards the Iranian regime (and towards the Palestinians) reveals a failure: the deadly Western miscalculation that "being nice" will be reciprocated. In the culture of the Middle East, that simply does not work. Instead, one is looked on as a gullible sucker or juicy "mark," like a jolly drunk at a strip club.
As Osama bin Laden pointed out, especially for his region, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse."
Former U.S. Army General Jack Keane recently noted that many possible targets are already on "the list" and suggested taking out the military installations that have been launching such attacks. Other possible responses floated include sinking Iran's spy ship currently in the Red Sea and taking out Iran's military communications systems.
If Iran itself is not made to pay a price, it will simply continue using its proxies to escalate aggression and take the hits. After all, that is why Iran has proxies in the first place.
The Biden administration's reluctance to robustly respond to the rogue Islamist regime of Iran apparently only reinforces the inclination of Iran's political and military leadership to inflict more harm. In 1988, President Reagan launched Operation Praying Mantis, which retaliated against Iran for its attack on a U.S. Navy ship, sent a strong message to Iran, and reduced the threat posed by Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf.
The Biden administration's reluctance to robustly respond to the rogue Islamist regime of Iran apparently only reinforces the inclination of Iran's political and military leadership to inflict more harm.
When US responses lack decisiveness, the Islamic Republic interprets this "restraint" as a failure of nerve on the part of the US and the international community. Such leniency, it seems, simply invigorates the regime to persist in disrupting regional and global stability, and escalate its assertive military maneuvers and support for terrorist activities.
As Osama bin Laden pointed out, especially for his region, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse."
The Iranian regime's militaristic involvement has currently been unfolding its tentacles across multiple conflicts: Iran's support for the Houthis; attacks on ships in the region, blocking international commerce along the Suez Canal's vital international trade route; encouraging, supplying and funding its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah in their attacks on Israel, and supplying Russia with drones to attack the West's ally Ukraine. At the center of all these malign activities is Iran.
Its participation in attacks on American bases and soldiers in both Syria and Iraq simply showcases it intent to drive the US out of the region, the sooner to entrench its Shiite hegemony in the oil-rich region.
So far, just since mid-October, Iran has orchestrated more than 137 attacks using drones, mortars, and short-range missiles on US soldiers in Syria and Iraq, wounding many of them severely. Iran's military assistance to Russia underscores its key destabilizing role on the global stage as well.
Any evaluation of the Biden administration's policy towards the Iranian regime (and towards the Palestinians) reveals a failure: the deadly Western miscalculation that "being nice" will be reciprocated. In the culture of the Middle East, that simply does not work. Instead, one is looked on as a gullible sucker or juicy "mark," like a jolly drunk at a strip club. Alternative approaches, conversely, as exemplified in the Reagan administration's masterful execution of Operation Praying Mantis, stand as a testament to their success.
Operation Praying Mantis was a military action conducted by the US on April 18, 1988, in the Persian Gulf, in response to the mining of the U.S. Navy frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. The mining had taken place on April 14, 1988, causing damage to the frigate.
President Ronald Reagan authorized Operation Praying Mantis to retaliate against Iran for the mining and to neutralize Iran's naval capabilities in the region. The operation, carried out by the U.S. Navy, marked the largest U.S. naval engagement since World War II. The primary targets were Iranian naval units, including warships and small boats, which were considered a threat to U.S. and international shipping in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. Navy deployed surface ships and aircraft to engage Iranian forces. The USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, along with other vessels, played a crucial role in the operation. During the engagement, U.S. forces sank or severely damaged several Iranian naval vessels, including frigates, gunboats, and speedboats. Operation Praying Mantis aimed to demonstrate U.S. resolve in protecting its and its allies interests and maintaining freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. suffered no casualties during the operation, while Iran suffered the loss of multiple naval vessels and personnel.
After the operation, there was a notable cessation in Iran's harassment of ships and tankers for as long as Reagan was in office. Operation Praying Mantis achieved its immediate objectives of retaliating against Iran for the mining incident, sending a strong message to Iran, and reducing the threat posed by Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf.
Clear and unwavering actions against rogue actors are imperative to deter disruptive behavior and send a firm message about America's commitment to ensuring stability. Why does the Biden administration persist in adhering to a strategy that has clearly proven to be unsuccessful?
The Biden administration appears terrified of delivering a strong response to the Iranian regime – a failure of nerve that will surely not be lost on America's adversaries. Biden might fear that a strong response would escalate tensions and have adverse implications for his chances of re-election on November 5, 2024. It is important to bear in mind, however, historical lessons, such as the reluctance of European countries to provide a robust response to Hitler's actions -- a move that ultimately strengthened him and contributed to the outbreak of World War II.
An approach of "escalate to de-escalate" is probably the most prudent policy; it allows the US firmly to assert its stance. The strategy means that a nation, through a show of force or a strong response, temporarily escalates a situation with the goal of prompting the opposing party to de-escalate. Former U.S. Army General Jack Keane recently noted that many possible targets are already on "the list" and suggested taking out the military installations that have been launching such attacks. Other possible responses floated include sinking Iran's spy ship currently in the Red Sea and taking out Iran's military communications systems.
If Iran itself is not made to pay a price, it will simply continue using its proxies to escalate aggression and take the hits. After all, that is why Iran has proxies in the first place.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20319/confronting-iranian-regime

Who Will Blink First In The Gaza War?
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/ MEMRI Daily Brief No. 564/January 20/2024
The war launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023, not only caught Israel by surprise, it caught the Americans unaware as well. The Americans have since then tried to balance a variety of priorities, supporting Israel against Hamas, preventing a wider war in the Middle East, defending its military presence in the region, and, most recently, securing vital international waterways.
Now well into its fourth month, the war has only grown in complexity (a smaller war in 2006, between Hezbollah and Israel, lasted only 32 days) as Iran has activated its broad network of proxies from the "Axis of Resistance" to fulfill various tasks. Both Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen have fired rockets at Israel while Iranian-supported militias have targeted American bases in Syria and Iraq. Israel has responded in kind, hitting high value targets in Lebanon and Syria and even Yemen. And not content to work through its proxies, Iran recently used ballistic missiles launched from bunkers in its own territory against targets in Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan while a one-way attack drone from Iran targeted a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean, only 200 miles off the Indian coast.
While the U.S. has slowly ratcheted up the pressure on the defiant Houthis in Yemen and eventually responded to provocations in Iraq and Syria, the looming American political confrontation is not with its many adversaries but with the government of Israel. Relations between Biden and Netanyahu were already poor and have gotten worse and the Americans are increasingly frustrated that Israel may not transition to lower-intensity warfare in Gaza by the end of January. And whatever happens in Gaza in the next few weeks, the possibility of a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon looms as a distinct possibility. Biden and company also know that an end to the war may signal the fall of Netanyahu's government, an outcome Washington really wants to see. The gap between Washington's intentions and those of Jerusalem seem to be growing wider the longer the war continues.
Who will blink first in this sub-rosa political confrontation over Gaza between America and Israel? The Biden Administration has provided both weapons and international political cover for Israel, both very valuable commodities, but neither is absolutely essential in the short run as a strong majority in Israel considers this to be an existential fight for its own survival. It is not so surprising that trying to dismantle 15 years' worth of a deeply rooted Hamas military-industrial terror complex in Gaza, while trying to minimize both your own and civilian losses, was going to take much more than three or four months. On January 18, Netanyahu promised "many more months" until victory is achieved, but the Biden team's patience is wearing thin.
In the unlikely eventuality that the war essentially ends in the next few weeks in Gaza (with no war in Lebanon) it will codify what can only be seen as a strategic defeat for Israel. Yes, the IDF has on the battlefield likely "won" Israel a few years of precious breathing space from terrorist threats in Gaza, that is something tangible. But the severe battering Hamas has suffered militarily contrasts with the political success it has secured both regionally and in its competition with its PLO rivals in the West Bank.
Worse yet than Hamas, its two main patrons in the war, Qatar and Iran, may emerge from the conflict completely untouched and even emboldened. This was a conscious decision taken by the Biden Administration early on to avoid pressuring Qatar or provoking Iran. Another negative development will be the emergence of Houthi Yemen as a new strategic player, an enhanced weapon in the Iranian regional arsenal. Here are all the seeds of the next war.
If Israel faces some daunting new strategic equations, the Biden Administration faces both domestic and international political challenges of its own. Bizarrely, the Biden Administration needs for war to stop in the Middle East and for it to continue in Ukraine for domestic political reasons. The Gaza conflict tears at the fabric of the Democratic Party (the home of the majority of both "Free Palestine" leftists and of American Jews) and so it needs leave the front pages sooner rather than later. Conversely, Ukraine has become Biden's signature conflict, symbolizing the much-hyped fight against "authoritarianism" both at home and abroad. If Ukraine cannot defeat Russia, it needs to at least look like it is steadfast and still gallantly fighting until Election Day 2024.
Internationally, the Biden Administration needs this war to end because it is one too many a conflict to contemplate as Washington handles the current confrontation with Russia and a coming one with China. It exacerbates an already dire supply chain challenge. Israel has taken weapons and ammunition intended for Ukraine while Ukraine has taken weapons and ammunition intended for Taiwan. The U.S. Navy has, so far, used 94 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles (costing over a million dollars per missile) against the Houthis. That is the equivalent of two to three years' worth of Tomahawk purchases from Raytheon for the Navy.
But perhaps almost as dangerous as supply and readiness is the international perception of American power. The chaos and tumult in the region make the United States look overwhelmed and confused, daunted by its allies and taunted by its adversaries. The rollout of Operation Prosperity Guardian against Yemen was a diplomatic disaster. South Africa is reportedly contemplating dragging the United States before the World Court, after doing the same with Israel. Arab states like Saudi Arabia already viewed this administration with suspicion and disdain even before the war. And while the U.S. definitely remains the strongest single player on the field, perceptions do matter even if they are mistaken.
Perceptions drawn from the debacle in Afghanistan almost certainly influenced policy-making in Moscow in 2021-2022. Perceptions of the last three years of the Biden Administration are coloring policy decisions now in Tehran, Beijing, and Pyongyang. All four of these capitals are not only weighing American policies and motives, they are also, no doubt, learning valuable lessons from American and Israeli weapons – and from those weapons and tactics used against them – for the next war, looming in the Middle East or elsewhere.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.

Britain must proscribe Iran’s IRGC and their Houthi friends as terrorist groups
Robert Jenrick/The Telegraph/January 20, 2024
We live in times of great change. Yet amidst the fog formed by the shift in power from West to East or the rise of artificial intelligence upending old industries, Britain’s global interests are remarkably clear. As a free trading island nation, open shipping lanes have always been crucial to our prosperity and security. So when, nearly seventy years after the Suez crisis, another critical artery for U.K. trade in the Middle East was threatened, we clearly had strong reasons to act.
Direct missile attacks from the Houthis on HMS Diamond then ended any strategic debate and compelled the Government to respond. To do anything less would have invited further attacks on our people and assets.
But until commercial shipping is able to pass through the Red Sea unmolested, the Houthi’s piracy will cost us in our pockets. Ships travelling on the European-Asian maritime highway will continue to be diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, taking longer and costing more. If the Houthis, or the Iranians themselves, turn their cheap and plentiful drones to disrupt the passage of energy supply, the inflationary impact to the U.K., and global economy, will be far worse.
Behind the Houthis lies the hand of Iran who have spent years training and supplying them as one of their many regional proxies. Indeed, Hamas’s October 7th massacre would not have been possible without Iran, even if Tehran’s tactical involvement is currently unclear. And in the last fortnight alone the Iranian regime itself has sent a wave of violence reverberating through the region, striking Syria, Pakistan and US assets in Iraq and Syria.
Against this backdrop, it cannot be business as usual for the UK’s posture towards Iran. It’s time we took the fanatical Iranian regime at their word and treated them as the zealots they openly profess to be. Their friends the Houthis should be proscribed as a terrorist group as the American Government has now done for the second time, as should the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp, which we have been painfully slow to do.
That the Biden administration has been forced to reverse its earlier de-listing of the Houthis shows the naïveté of its approach to Iran and its proxies - one which the UK has largely gone along with. Much like Biden’s attempts to resurrect the flawed Iran Nuclear deal, such diplomatic efforts are doomed to fail.
But the response must go well beyond clarifying the legal definitions of the actions of this pariah state and their proxies. The Houthis’s behaviour forces EU states to confront the coming geopolitical reckoning. A combination of an inability to deploy naval assets in the case of Germany and an unwillingness in the case of France and Italy has thus far left the U.K. and US tasked with restoring order at sea. But the option for Europe to free-ride on US power is disappearing. A second Trump presidency is the most likely outcome of the 2024 election and it would appear that he, like many of his predecessors, does not view the Red Sea as a critical interest. China’s unprecedented military build up in the Pacific and South China Sea clearly poses the greatest challenge to America and to contain China Trump knows he will have to disengage from less strategically important theatres.
The U.K. must ready itself too. We must ask difficult questions about the availability of our current naval fleet as part of a review of current capability. But in the meantime we must prioritise where we deploy our assets. It is clear now, as it was in 1956, that the volume of trade passing through shipping lanes in the Middle East makes them crucial to our prosperity. And it is also clear that we are well placed to be able to project force there, for instance with a base in Bahrain. As America pivots to the Pacific to confront the defining geopolitical challenge of the century, the U.K. should secure the space that Iran and her proxies will otherwise exploit. While our own naval tilt to the Pacific is alluring, our strategic interests lie above all in the defence of Europe and our near-abroad. In the end, realism must prevail over romance.
From supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression to promoting stability in the Red Sea, successive Conservative Prime Minister’s have led Europe. As Trump and Washington rightly focus their time and resources on China, our leadership will only become more important. We must start persuading and, if necessary, cajoling our European partners to follow us, or resign ourselves to permanent instability.
**Robert Jenrick is MP for Newark and a former cabinet minister

Humanitarians must do more, and better, in Sudan
Mukesh Kapila/Arab News/January 20, 2024
When did Sudan’s civil war start? This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, with the most common response being April 2023. But that was just the start of the current phase, triggered by a falling out between Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and rival militia the Rapid Support Forces respectively.
In reality, there has been little peace in the country since independence in 1956. Its first civil war raged from 1955 to 1972 and a second followed between 1983 and 2005, punctuated by the Darfur genocide in 2003-2004. South Sudan broke away in 2011 and conflicts rumbled on in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. Several factors lie behind the turmoil: ethnic, ideological, and religious differences; grievances around representation in governance; greed over possession of the nation’s immense natural wealth; and the geopolitical interests of outsiders.
Along the way, any brief experimentation with civilian democracy was extinguished by military regimes.
The question of when Sudan’s strife will finally end is easier to answer: not yet, and not for some time. The country’s power brokers and their external sponsors are not ready to make peace as no side has achieved ascendance in the existentialist struggle between the belligerents.
Also consider history’s iron rule: The past must be squared away before a better future can be built. We can learn that from the Palestine-Israel conflict, even if peacemakers in Sudan do not. Attempting to brush aside the harm and hurt of the past, especially the Darfur genocide, without ensuring accountability, justice and restitution simply means repeating Sudan’s toxic history.
Nevertheless, history also offers the consolation that all wars do eventually end. And experience teaches us that the spirit of humanity is eventually required to bridge the divide between war and peace. Preventing that precarious passage from being completely ruptured is the role of humanitarian provision.
This is important in Sudan. Not only out of pity for the desperate, suffering people of the country. Nor as a cynical calculation that assistance now will reduce the burden on the international purse of future recovery.
More importantly, humanitarianism is about reaching the place where wars begin: the minds of men. The Sudanese people are deeply traumatized, whether as victims of terrible and degrading atrocities or as the perpetrators who inflict them on others without compunction. Brutalized psyches cannot be expected to think peacefully. But could paranoid minds be opened by humanitarian solidarity?
All else having failed, this is certainly worth trying. But we are not doing very well on the humanitarian front. Among Sudan’s population of 49 million, 25 million people need assistance, 6 million are internally displaced and 1.5 million are new refugees.
This is the biggest national humanitarian caseload in the world. And other records for misery and deprivation continue to be set. Nearly 40 percent of the population are seriously food insecure, including 3.5 million children who are suffering from acute malnutrition. Ninety percent of Sudanese children get little or no schooling. Two-thirds of the population lack access to healthcare, and 80 percent of hospitals in conflict areas are non-functional. Outbreaks of disease, including malaria, measles, dengue and cholera, continue, and there is a resurgence of desert locusts.
The economy has shrunk by 12 percent since the start of the war and gross domestic product is expected to fall by 18 percent this year. In comparison, the decline in Syria over the course of its long civil crisis has averaged 5 percent annually.
A UN humanitarian appeal seeks $2.7 billion in lifesaving aid for Sudan this year, compared with $2.57 billion last year. However, only 42 percent of that 2023 UN target, which aimed to help 18.1 million people, was funded. This year the outcome is likely to be similar, though the targeted population is smaller, at 14.7 million. This suggests that this year’s appeal is designed to help fewer people but overall needs have grown.
In any case, these UN numbers are somewhat moot as the organization’s own reports reveal it managed to reach only 5.7 million people in 2023 — a third of its target. Even that number is disputed and rejected by some as an overestimation, with some independent surveys indicating that less than 16 percent of the population received aid. This means Sudan is unique in having the largest number of people in need of help and the smallest number receiving assistance.
Even accepting the UN figures at face value, the reduced numbers of accessed beneficiaries should have been well catered-for with the relatively greater proportion of the appeal funded. But we do not know the true aid impact and especially what happened to the two-thirds of the target population not reached. Did they perish? That is unlikely according to mortality statistics.
Among Sudan’s population of 49 million, 25 million people need assistance, 6 million are internally displaced and 1.5 million are new refugees.
That being the case, how did these non-recipients of UN aid manage to help themselves, or who helped them? The contribution of the Sudanese diaspora and local aid networks, including front-line “emergency response rooms” created by “resistance committees,” is critical but not quantified, and UN coordination mechanisms do not include them.
There is also the continuing question about the current shortfall between the number of people assessed as being in need and the smaller number targeted by the official UN appeal. That gap currently stands at 10 million, an increase from 6 million last year.
Who is responsible for serving the needs of these people? Probably the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and other agencies that are not part of the official UN appeal. But we do not know for sure because data is not comparable, openly shared or verifiable. This also means the comparative efficiency of agencies cannot be assessed.
The UN appeal works with 165 partner agencies but their in-country presence and reach are unclear. It would be unethical if Sudan’s agony was serving as a fundraising opportunity for organizations that are unable themselves to deliver aid on the ground but extract a proportion of donations as fees or overheads simply for acting as intermediaries for the groups that are actively providing assistance.
Such “rent-seeking” practices add to inefficiencies in the delivery process at a time when resources are severely constrained and the moral imperative is to use every available dollar to help ease suffering.
However, the difficulties of delivering aid inside Sudan cannot be underestimated. Red tape delays imports at Port Sudan. Aid convoys are harassed at checkpoints, including through the solicitation of bribes, the looting of warehouses, fraud and corruption. The fierce fighting causes unpredictable delays. International humanitarian law is violated with impunity.
The courage and commitment of the humanitarian aid workers is not in dispute. Fifty-four of them were killed, wounded or kidnapped in 2023, a five-fold increase from the year before. But the hasty exit from the country by international workers transferred the risks to local staff who do not receive the same protection and benefits.
As suggested previously, humanitarians could potentially help build a movement toward peace in Sudan but only by tackling their own dysfunctions first. The first step is to regain stakeholder trust. Perhaps we need some sort of “blue tick” system for international and local bodies that verifies and certifies credibility.
Secondly, there must be greater transparency within the humanitarian sector through the sharing of consistent and verified statistics. Aid agencies alone cannot be the judges of needs, the jury that grades their own work, and the ones responsible for executing the delivery of aid. There are obvious conflicts of interest there that could perhaps be resolved through the introduction of independent accountability mechanisms.
Thirdly, with international organizations constrained from working in Sudan, localization of aid must be vigorously promoted as a way to develop context-specific solutions, generate greater value for money and, ultimately, increased outreach.
Fourthly, if negotiators cannot help end the fighting, let them expend more of their diplomatic capital on the issues of humanitarian access and challenges in protecting aid workers. This could build confidence and perhaps provide a path toward real peace.
To be fair, the problems of providing humanitarian aid in Sudan are not unique. They reflect a global aid system that is over-burdened with many crises. Given its complexities, Sudan perhaps is not the most obvious place to try to instigate difficult reforms that challenge entrenched practices. But a crisis is also an opportunity for change, especially when the survival of the suffering millions is as existential a struggle as the war is for the belligerents.
Although it would be good to be proved wrong, 2024 is unlikely to be the year that brings peace in Sudan. But neither must we allow it to be the year the world failed, yet again, to perform better in the name of humanity.
• Mukesh Kapila is professor emeritus of global health and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester and a former senior official at the UN and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

India-Europe ties at tipping point
Andrew Hammond/Andrew Hammond/January 20, 2024
UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously described Russia during the Second World War as a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Yet, fast forward almost a century later and similar sentiments are felt today toward India by many Europeans. The relationship between Europe and the world’s most populous democracy is a tantalizing mix of complexity, ambiguity, frustration and wonder too. This was encapsulated in a report released this month by the European Parliament, which rightly asserted “the partnership has not yet reached its full potential,” despite momentum in recent years. This viewpoint is widely shared across the continent with, for instance, a report by the Jacques Delors Institute in France recently stating that “EU-India economic relations are well below their potential.”
To be sure, perceptions of New Delhi have changed dramatically across much of the bloc in recent decades. Back then, India was aligned with the Soviet Union and was a protectionist economy moving away from the colonial era. Much of Europe therefore had a remote relationship with the Asian giant.
Today, however, India is a €3 trillion ($3.3 trillion) economy with vast potential. It is also increasingly aligned with Europe and the wider West, despite disagreements over key issues including Ukraine.
The EU 27 nations (taken as a whole) and India are the world’s two largest democracies, while continental Europe is India’s largest single trade and investment partner, and that is why a bilateral trade deal is a key potential prize for both parties. There are also converging interests around shared defense mechanisms, including for maritime security in the Indian Ocean where 40 percent of bilateral trade passes.
The latest signal of the potential upside in relations comes this week when French President Emmanuel Macron will be the chief guest at the Indian Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26. This honor reflects both the respect that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Macron appear to have for each other but also the mutual regard France and India have for each other, especially in defense, security, civilian nuclear cooperation and emerging technologies.
Last year, Modi was also the guest of honor at the annual Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. The prime minister was joined by Indian troops in the military parade marking what Macron called “a new phase in the strategic partnership between France and India.”
The Indian government last year approved the purchase of 26 naval variants of the Rafale combat jet from France, building on an earlier acquisition of 36 Rafale jets for the Indian Air Force. Paris and New Delhi have also stepped up collaboration on maritime security in the Indian Ocean.
Part of France and wider Europe’s fascination with India is the belief that it is a potential future superpower that could play a huge balancing role in the 21st century vis-a-vis China. While India’s development lags behind China, one indication of future potential is that the Asian giant is believed by many demographers now to be the most populous nation in the world at almost 1.5 billion people, overtaking China — a potentially significant moment in human history. So, the nation that has long been the world’s largest democracy becomes the world’s largest country of any political stripe, a position it may hold for decades if not centuries to come.
Part of France and wider Europe’s fascination with India is the belief that it is a potential future superpower.
India’s higher fertility rate means the population is forecast to continue growing for several decades with some predictions it could peak around 1.7 billion in the second half of the century. Moreover, India’s over 250 million people aged 15-24 is the largest in the world, and more than two-thirds of all Indians are between the ages of 15 and 59, so the country’s ratio of non-working-age adults (children and retirees) to working age adults is very low.
What much of Europe now wonders is whether and how New Delhi will seek to leverage this new global population stature with some talk of an “Indian century,” for the milestone comes at a time when New Delhi is trying to promote itself as a rising international player.
The concern in Europe is that, despite the warmth of relations that it enjoys with India, there is a misalignment on key security issues like the Ukraine war. Here, New Delhi has sought to balance its relations between its remaining dependence on Russia, including for energy, and the West.
Moreover, Russia continues to be India’s largest arms supplier even though its share has dropped to about 50 percent from 70 percent due to New Delhi’s decision to diversify its portfolio and boost domestic defense manufacturing. This could leave India vulnerable to US sanctions from legislation such as the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which prohibits any country from signing defense deals with Russia, Iran and North Korea.
There is also some concern in Europe over India’s human rights record under Modi. This includes the treatment of Sikh and Christian minority groups by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which he heads. Indeed, Modi himself was once subject to US and UK travel bans over 2002 communal violence during his tenure as chief minister of the western Gujarat state that killed around 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Nonetheless, if key European leaders, including Macron, continue to prioritize ties with India, such controversies will continue to be largely deemphasized. The huge appetite for greater economic and security collaboration, as Europe seeks to offset cooling relations with Beijing and Moscow with warmer ties with New Delhi, is trumping all else.
• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

American bases create stability in Mideast, says US-Lebanese Trump advocate
Dastan Muwaffaq/(Kurdistan24/January 20/2024
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/33803-American-bases-create-stability-in-Mideast,-says-US-Lebanese-Trump-advocate
Harb is also the President of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution (WCCR), established in 2006 after Lebanon experienced turmoil at the height of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict in 2005.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Tom Harb, the Co-Chair of the American Middle East Coalition for Democracy (AMCD), on Thursday held an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24, where he gave his perspective on the recent Jan. 15 Iranian missile strikes in Erbil and, broadly, the varying geopolitical interests among Iran, the US, and Saudi Arabia in the region.
“Iran is attacking its neighbors in Pakistan, Syria, and its Houthi proxy is attacking ships in the Red Sea. Everybody here in the United States is now saying the problem we are facing is Iran,” Harb told Kurdistan24.
Born and raised in Lebanon and educated in the United States, Harb is also the Chairman of the American Maronite Union, an organization seeking to advance the interests of the Christian Lebanese diaspora in the West.
Notably, the AMCD was a proponent of former US President Donald Trump, advising Americans of Middle Eastern descent to vote for him during both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
“There are a lot of members of Congress calling on President Biden to hit Iran to try to hit the oil refinery for Iran, because it seems Iran is not getting the message that what they are doing is horrible for the region,” he continued.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the AMCD published a statement strongly condemning Hamas and holding Iran responsible for undermining the expected peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
For Harb, the power struggle between Iran and its regional rival, Saudi Arabia, led the former to encourage a preemptive strike on Israel. “There are two two branches, one branch going toward peace led by Saudi Arabia and other coalitions in the Arab world and there's Iran trying to undermine any peace movement.”
Harb is also the President of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution (WCCR), established in 2006 after Lebanon experienced turmoil at the height of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict in 2005.
With the WCCR, he became particularly influential in introducing UNSCR 1559; a resolution centering on the disarmament of militant organizations in Lebanon and earning him senior leadership roles in Lebanese-American civil institutions.
Harb later discussed the presence of the Americans in Iraq, saying that the two US bases in the country “create stability in Iraq and in the region.”
He further touched upon US foreign policy with some strong criticism for Biden. “This administration is weak. [It] is the opposite of the prior administration under President Trump, who put the heaviest sanctions on Iran and he also put sanctions on the Houthis in Yemen. Then President Biden came and lifted the sanctions on the Houthis and now he had to go back and replace those sanctions.”
“But [Biden] has also lifted some sanctions on Iran, and he flooded them with cash so up until now, this administration is very weak to deal with Iran because they want to go back to the nuclear deal, which was under President Obama,” the co-chair concluded.