Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 27-28.2024
Text and video/Open letter from Elias Bejjani to the LF Party MP, Melhem Riachi: Hezbollah is an Iranian, jihadist, and terrorist organization, not Lebanese, and its members are mercenaries according to international military standards./Elias Bejjani/January 26, 2024
Ambassadors of Quintet to Meet Lebanese Officials to Discuss Proposal to End Presidential Impasse
Hezbollah Strikes Israeli Posts after Night of Violence
Arab Intelligence warns Hezbollah of potential Israeli operation in Lebanon: LBCI’s sources
Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts after violent night
MP Michel Daher: I did not partake in the madness at the parliamentary session, nor did I vote for this ludicrous budget
In the skies of South Lebanon: The psychological warfare of Hezbollah and Israel
Israel's technological violations: A persistent threat in South Lebanon
Lebanon's 2024 Budget: Proposed extraordinary tax targets beneficiaries of BDL's support
Lebanon's winter tourism: A competitive alternative to European destinations
Lebanese Foreign welcomes interim measures by International Court of Justice

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 27-28.2024
Security Council to meet after UN top court’s Gaza ruling
Palestinians see World Court ruling on Gaza war as both win and setback
Displaced Gazan masses call for downfall of Hamas
Ceasefire consideration: Quadripartite summit aims to break deadlock in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange deal
Palestinian Foreign Ministry considers Israeli enemy’s incitement against UNRWA as a pretext, preconceived ruling to liquidate the refugees' cause...
Germany calls on Israel to allow immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza
Demonstrations continue in international cities & capitals denouncing the aggression on the Gaza Strip
Israeli enemy army announces a new toll of its soldier casualties in the Gaza Strip
Iraqi Resistance targets Conoco, Green Village US bases with drones
Fighting rages in battleground Gaza city
Gaza battles rage as Israel vows to shut out UN agency after war
Britain, Italy and Finland pause funding for UN refugee agency in Gaza
UNRWA Hamas attack claims: UK becomes latest country to pause funding for agency
UK pauses funding for UNRWA over claims staff involved in Hamas attack
Houthis accuse US, UK of targeting Ras Isa oil terminal in Hodeidah
Crew extinguish fire on tanker hit by Houthi missile off Yemen
Iraq and US begin formal talks to end coalition mission formed to fight Daesh
Ukraine takes out one of Russia's most feared drone aces, say reports
Ukrainian forces are using 'flocks' of FPV drones led by 'queen' drone to attack Russian positions, soldier says
Russia attacks Ukraine with kamikaze drones and ballistic missiles: all drones destroyed

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 27-28.2024
The Biden Administration and the Iranian Regime's Nuclear Weapons/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./January 27, 2024
In this era of disorder, clinging to bipolarity helps no one/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/January 27, 2024
Netanyahu represents the bottleneck that is choking Israeli politics/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/January 27, 2024
One needs to be realistic to unravel the Rohingya crisis/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/January 27, 2024
EU faces challenges as it doubles down on its economic security agenda/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/January 27, 2024
Why Iran Doesn’t Want a War/Reul Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh/The New York Times/January 27/2024
The Russian Legion and African Chessboard/Emile Ameen/Asharq Al Awsat/January 27/2024
The Actual War in the Middle East and the Iranian Head of the Snake/Colonel Charbel Barakat/January 28, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 27-28.2024
Text and video/Open letter from Elias Bejjani to the LF Party MP, Melhem Riachi: Hezbollah is an Iranian, jihadist, and terrorist organization, not Lebanese, and its members are mercenaries according to international military standards.
Elias Bejjani/January 26, 2024
(Both Videos are in Arabic)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126404/126404/
In an interview with the LF Party MP, Melhem Riachi on Al Jadeed TV, broadcasted yesterday (the link to the video clip of the interview in Arabic is posted below, forming the basis of our commentary), Riachi asserted that Hezbollah is Lebanese political party, and an ally of Iran.
This rhetoric is totally contradicted by the practical, public, and doctrinal stances of Hezbollah itself.
All its leaders, including Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, proudly declare allegiance to the Supreme Iranian Leader, “Al Waley Al Fakeh”, emphasizing that they are soldiers in its army and that all their resources—money, weapons, training, creed, and funding—are exclusively Iranian.
Hezbollah, is unlicensed in Lebanon, and adopts the name “Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.
In a context entirely detached from Lebanon, Hezbollah eulogizes those killed in its ranks on various battlefronts (Iranian fronts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries) using religious and jihadist terminology, without acknowledging Lebanon, viewing them as having “ascended while performing jihadist missions.
It is crucial to note that Lebanon is not an Islamic jihadist state; it is a secular state with no official religion.
The problem, and perhaps the dilemma, with Mr. Riachi and all others who claim, both in words and theory, to defend sovereignty, independence, identity, freedoms, and coexistence, is their (Dhimmitudeذمية ) reluctance to describe Hezbollah’s status as openly and proudly asserted by Hezbollah leadership and its documented list of aims, creed, affiliation and missions.
A piece of advice to MP, Riachi, and those who claim to defend sovereignty, including leaders, politicians, and citizens: if you lack the courage to testify to the truth and call things by their names, it is more honorable for you to remain silent. “No one is asking you for compromising Dhimmitude stances and rhetoric. Hezbollah does not care about your cajoling rhetoric, and it won’t believe or respect you, no matter how eloquent your words may be.
In conclusion, Hezbollah is an Iranian, jihadist, and terrorist organization, not Lebanese, and its leaders and members can be deemed mercenaries according to all international military standards.

Ambassadors of Quintet to Meet Lebanese Officials to Discuss Proposal to End Presidential Impasse
Asharq Al Awsat/January 27/2024
The ambassadors of the Quintet on Lebanon are continuing their efforts to reach a breakthrough in the presidential impasse in the country. The envoys met at Saudi Ambassador to Beirut Waleed al-Bukhari's residence on Thursday and are expected to hold talks with several Lebanese officials next week to discuss their proposal on ending the deadlock. The quintet is formed of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, France and the United States. The envoys are scheduled to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri next week. Sources from his parliamentary bloc said he was open to cooperating with the Quintet. The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that he was awaiting what they have prepared over the presidency. The envoys will not name candidates, but “standards and the outline for the election of the next president, who enjoys the support of the people.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun ended in October 2022. Bickering between political blocs has thwarted an agreement on his successor. On Friday, Bukhari met with Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch All the East Youssef Al-Absi for talks on national and regional affairs. Bukhari described the visit as a protocol one, adding that he briefed Absi on the Quintet’s latest efforts to help end the presidential impasse. For his part, Absi hailed the bilateral relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and their peoples. He also praised the Kingdom’s efforts in Lebanon on all levels, reported the National News Agency. Meanwhile, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said the Quintet wants to facilitate issues in Lebanon and “help as much as it can”. “The election of a president is not just a goal, but a step that would be followed up with others,” he said during a dinner banquet thrown in his honor by MP Neemat Frem. He stressed that Egypt has a “clear and sustainable commitment towards the Lebanese people.”“We have a joint interest for both Lebanon and Egypt to be strong. This ensures the success of both countries,” he added. The meetings held by the Quintet ambassadors are a precursor to the arrival of French presidential envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, who will also discuss the presidential vacuum with political powers. As it stands, Hezbollah and its allies are still committed to the election of Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh as president. The opposition still supports the run of former minister Jihad Azour. It is hoping that the Quintet would eventually pave the way for an agreement on a third candidate.

Hezbollah Strikes Israeli Posts after Night of Violence
Daily Stas/January 27/2024
On Saturday, Hezbollah intensified its assaults on Israeli military positions along the border, coinciding with Israeli forces targeting areas in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s statement revealed they launched Burkan rockets, characterized as short-range and heavy-caliber, targeting a congregation of Israeli soldiers near the Jal al-Alam Israeli post, reportedly causing casualties. Further attacks by Hezbollah were directed at Israeli troops stationed near the al-Abbad post and the Dovev barracks. Concurrently, Israeli military actions included the launch of two missiles by warplanes at Blat mountain near Marwahin, as well as artillery fire aimed at Houla’s eastern border area. Subsequent Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of Tayr Harfa, with additional artillery fire impacting the outskirts of Yarin and al-Dhayra in south Lebanon’s western sector. Overnight, airstrikes attributed to Israel resulted in the deaths of four Hezbollah members in Beit Leef, where two houses were targeted. In retaliation, Hezbollah fired Burkan rockets at the Zar’it barracks and Cobra hill, and also attacked the Birkat Risha post. Israeli sources report that a Burkan rocket struck a room housing soldiers in Zar’it, injuring four. These developments were described as “the night of fire in the north” by a correspondent from Israel’s Channel 13, highlighting the intensity of the confrontations. The conflict between Hamas and Israel, which began on October 7, has seen frequent exchanges of fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border. The confrontations have resulted in at least 206 deaths in south Lebanon, with 151 of those being Hezbollah members. The ongoing conflict has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border. Israel has issued warnings that it is prepared to use military force to facilitate the return of its settlers to their homes.

Arab Intelligence warns Hezbollah of potential Israeli operation in Lebanon: LBCI’s sources
LBCI/January 27/2024
Recent intelligence gathered by major global powers indicates that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the Israeli army, is prepared to initiate a war against Lebanon. This action hinges on their inability to compel Hezbollah to comply with United Nations Resolution 1701. LBCI has obtained sources revealing that an unnamed Arab nation has provided intelligence to Hezbollah. This information points towards Tel Aviv's plans to launch a significant military operation within Lebanon, potentially escalating tensions in the region. With these developments unfolding, February is expected to be a pivotal month, particularly with the anticipated return of US envoy Amos Hochstein and French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian to Beirut. Their presence underscores the critical balance between diplomatic efforts and the looming possibility of war. The international community is closely monitoring the situation, awaiting the outcomes of these diplomatic engagements.

Hezbollah attacks Israeli posts after violent night
Naharnet/January 27/2024
Hezbollah on Saturday announced a fresh wave of attacks on Israeli military posts across the border as Israeli attacks targeted some southern areas. In a statement, the group said it fired short-range, heavy-caliber Burkan rockets at a gathering of Israeli troops near the Jal al-Alam Israeli post causing casualties.
In other statements, Hezbollah said it also attacked Israeli troops near the al-Abbad post and the Dovev barracks. Israeli warplanes meanwhile fired two missiles at the Blat mountain on Marwahin’s outskirts as Israeli artillery targeted the eastern part of the border town of Houla. An Israeli airstrike later targeted the outskirts of Tayr Harfa as artillery shelling struck the outskirts of Yarin and al-Dhayra in the western sector of south Lebanon. Four Hezbollah members were killed overnight in airstrikes on two houses in the town of Beit Leef. The group retaliated by firing Burkan rockets at the Zar’it barracks and the Cobra hill while also attacking the Birkat Risha post. According to Israeli reports, a Burkan rocket hit a room containing troops in Zar’it, wounding four of them. “Hezbollah has gone mad and is firing in every direction,” the reports said, at Israel’s Channel 13 correspondent labeled the confrontations as “the night of fire in the north.”Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a near-daily exchange of fire between Israel's army and Hezbollah. At least 206 people have been killed in south Lebanon, 151 of them belonging to Hezbollah. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border and Israel has warned that it is ready to use military force to return its settlers to their homes.

MP Michel Daher: I did not partake in the madness at the parliamentary session, nor did I vote for this ludicrous budget
LBCI/January 27/2024
MP Michel Daher has voiced strong criticism against the recently proposed budget, characterizing it as a blow to the private sector, detrimental to investors, populist in many items, and a reinforcement of the informal economy, citing arbitrary taxes. In a post on "X," Daher said, "How can we impose extra taxes on companies in a country with no electricity, no banks, and no security stability, facing numerous crises?"He suggested a straightforward message to these companies: "Pay your employees and close your doors."Emphasizing his transparency, Daher stated, "I provided my observations with utmost clarity and did not partake in the madness at the parliamentary session, nor did I vote for this ludicrous budget."

In the skies of South Lebanon: The psychological warfare of Hezbollah and Israel
LBCI/Report by Lara El Hashem, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi/January 27/2024
Following the significant strike by Hezbollah near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Blum, targeting an air defense system and Iron Dome platforms with two drones, Israel responded by showcasing its capability to hit Hezbollah's air force. This led to an announcement of an airstrike on a military airstrip and infrastructure allegedly linked to Hezbollah. The targeted location, near Birket Jabbour in the Jezzine district at an altitude between 1100 meters and 1250 meters, was hit by two Israeli airstrikes on Thursday. It had been previously singled out by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in September, who labeled it an "Iranian airport" associated with Hezbollah. However, the significance of the strike is questioned, considering that Hezbollah has neither confirmed nor denied possessing airports. Informed sources suggest that Israel may be attempting to mask its losses by exaggerating the scale of the operations. The targeted area is described as a training runway, at most 100 meters long, and closed at the moment. Firstly, it is exposed to enemy reconnaissance aircraft frequently patrolling the southern skies, ensuring that Hezbollah's activities and forces remain undisclosed. Secondly, the airstrip is designed for launching aircraft larger than those currently used by Hezbollah. The sources indicated that Hezbollah's locations are not fixed or exposed, and the party operates with a level of secrecy. Therefore, the war between Hezbollah and Israel is unfolding on multiple fronts, encompassing both military and psychological aspects, with security messages exchanged through actions rather than words.

Israel's technological violations: A persistent threat in South Lebanon
LBCI/*Report by Edmond Sassine, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi/January 27/2024
In a dramatic Hollywood-like incident between Souk El Khan and Kawkaba, an Israeli drone targeted a car without succeeding in injuring the individual. Initially bombarded in Souk El Khan without success, the pursuit continued to an inner neighborhood in Kawkaba, where the car was fired upon after parking, again without success. Just two hundred meters away, the person being pursued threw his phone, prompting the march to launch two missiles, yet the individual managed to escape. The pursuit revealed the significance of personal phones as a primary adversary, considering the occupation's ability to track phones and electronic devices, as demonstrated in the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri and his comrades. Does disposing of one's phone prevent Israeli tracking? Every person has a unique fingerprint, face, and eye; each individual has a unique voice print. This technology has been exploited by the occupation for tracking and executing assassinations. In the ongoing technological and security breach by the Israeli occupation in the south, its ability to penetrate online-connected surveillance cameras stands out. This allows monitoring movements and identifying faces. Additionally, the occupation has demonstrated prowess in espionage and eavesdropping through devices or reconnaissance aircraft in specific areas where resistance members carry phones. These security and technological breaches are originally linked to the occupation's earlier ability to infiltrate the Lebanese communication network, obtaining data that had significant repercussions, leading to the loss of several martyrs in previous periods.

Lebanon's 2024 Budget: Proposed extraordinary tax targets beneficiaries of BDL's support
LBCI/Report by Remy Derbass, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi/January 27/2024
In the 2024 budget, limited proposals address holding those responsible for embezzling state funds accountable in one way or another. One of the approved proposals involves imposing an exceptional tax on all traders, institutions, and oil companies that benefited from the support provided by the Banque du Liban (BDL) during the tenure of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government for the purchase of goods in 2019. The approved tax rate for these entities is set at 10% of the total funds they benefited from. The Democratic Gathering led the initiative, as it was initially withdrawn from the budget during the financial committee's deliberations. However, the deputies of the bloc reinstated it during a session for further discussion on Friday. The proposal was reintroduced into the budget, with its legal formulation adjusted within the public chamber. It was then presented for voting, receiving approval from most parliamentary blocs and MPs. According to sources from the Democratic Gathering, as forwarded to the Finance and Budget Committee, the proposal suggested placing the tax within the Deposits Recovery Fund. This decision was based on the argument that the funds disbursed by the decision of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government belonged to the depositors, according to the bloc's sources. Nevertheless, this attempt failed. The second and more critical aspect of this battle is for the BDL to provide the government with numbers and amounts of the support disbursed. This includes disclosing the names of companies, individuals, and institutions that benefited from this support to facilitate the collection of the proposed tax. The crucial factor lies in the implementation of these measures.

Lebanon's winter tourism: A competitive alternative to European destinations
LBCI/Report by Mario Doueiry, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi/January 27/2024
The majestic mountains of Lebanon, home to six renowned ski resorts – Mzaar, Laqlouq, The Cedars, Faqra, Bakish, and Zaarour – have long been a winter haven for locals.This could make the winter tourism season compete with the summer tourism season. Can Lebanon's winter tourism not only attract locals but to neighboring Arab countries? Can it also compete with Europe's famed winter destinations in terms of services and prices? For those in Arab countries eager for a winter vacation, the first step is booking a flight. For instance, a journey from the UAE to the Alps takes approximately seven hours, costing between $700 and $900. Once you arrive, transportation from the airport to the hotel, round trip, takes about three and a half hours and costs around $284. Now, if you are considering Lebanon, the flight from the UAE is around four hours, with prices ranging from $300 to $350. The taxi ride from the airport to the ski resorts costs approximately $120 for a round trip. As for accommodation, a five-star hotel in Europe costs around $1,200 per night for two people. In Lebanon, the same category of hotels charges between $250 and $400 per night. Regarding dining and drinks, including alcohol, Europe can cost around $550 per day. In Lebanon, $350 is sufficient for two people for food and beverages, including alcohol. Regarding ski equipment rental, Lebanon is recognized as more expensive by about $20 compared to Europe. In conclusion, Lebanon offers a more budget-friendly winter tourism option, approximately 65% cheaper than the European Alps. So, welcome to Lebanon, this time for snowy adventures!

Lebanese Foreign Ministry welcomes interim measures by International Court of Justice
NNA/January 27/2024
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants welcomed, in a statement on Saturday, the temporary measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the case submitted by the Republic of South Africa against Israel, for committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and failing to adhere to its obligations stipulated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. The Ministry called on the United Nations and the international community to "take immediate measures to ensure the implementation of these temporary measures to prevent the killing of Palestinians and subjecting them to inhumane living conditions, by depriving them of food, water and medicine, with the aim of pushing them into forced migration outside the Gaza Strip."It also praised the efforts of the South African Republic and hoped that “the measures would include obligating Israel to an immediate ceasefire as a first step along the path to finding a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, based solely on establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."The statement underlined that this solution alone is capable of ensuring security, peace and prosperity in the Middle East region.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 27-28.2024
Security Council to meet after UN top court’s Gaza ruling
AFP/January 27, 2024
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Security Council will meet next week over the decision by the global body’s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, the council’s presidency announced Friday. The Wednesday meeting was called for by Algeria, whose ministry of foreign affairs said it would give “binding effect to the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation.”The ICJ on Friday said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in its war with Hamas and allow aid into Gaza, but stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting. The decision “gives the clear message that in order to do all the things that they are asking for, you need a ceasefire for it to happen,” Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said. “So fasten your seat belts,” he said, hinting that the Arab Group, represented on the council by Algeria, would push for one.
The Security Council, long divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has only agreed to two resolutions since the October 7 Hamas attacks sparked the latest round of fighting. In December, it demanded aid deliveries “at scale” to Gaza’s besieged population, while Israel’s ally the United States has kept out calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure. The current fighting started with the unprecedented attack by Hamas that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that the health ministry in Gaza says has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children. The ICJ, based in The Hague, while refraining from ordering an immediate halt to the almost four-month-old war, said Israel must do everything to “prevent the commission of all acts within the scope” of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Palestinians see World Court ruling on Gaza war as both win and setback
The Arab Weekly/January 27/2024
Palestinians said the World Court let them down by failing to order a halt to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
The ruling represented a legal setback for Israel, which had hoped to throw out a case brought under the genocide convention established after the Holocaust.
Palestinians said the World Court let them down by failing to order a halt to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, but they also described the proceedings as a victory which had inspired hope of accountability. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to prevent any acts of genocide against the Palestinians and do more to help suffering civilians. However, it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by South Africa, which brought the case. Friday’s proceedings were broadcast live across the Arab world and in Israel, which rejects South Africa’s claims that it has committed genocide. At a shelter for people displaced by Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza, people gathered around a radio to follow the news. “We, the displaced, the bereaved families and those who lost their homes, had an ambition the court would call for an immediate ceasefire,” said Mustafa Ibrahim, a human rights activist.
“Despite that, what happened was a victory,” added Ibrahim, a resident of Gaza City who now lives in a shelter with his family of seven in Rafah in the south of the enclave. South Africa asked the ICJ to grant emergency measures to halt the fighting. More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to authorities in Hamas-run Gaza. Israel mounted the offensive in response to cross-border attacks by Hamas on October 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 abducted, according to Israeli figures. The assault has laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip and uprooted most of its 2.3 million residents. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the ICJ’s decision not to order a ceasefire but rejected the claim of genocide as “outrageous” and said Israel would continue to defend itself. Israel says it makes the utmost efforts to avoid civilian casualties.
Reflecting criticism of Israel voiced in the court’s ruling, a headline in Israel’s Jerusalem Post read: “ICJ badmouths Israel for 35 minutes, then Israel wins”. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son is being held hostage in Gaza, said he was encouraged by the ICJ’s call for the release of the captives. “This point reflects the fact, greatly ignored by the ICJ’s ruling, that the current war occurred because of Hamas’ mass murder and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians on October 7,” he said. While the ruling dashed Palestinian hopes of a binding order to halt the war, it also represented a legal setback for Israel, which had hoped to throw out a case brought under the genocide convention established after the Holocaust. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority said Palestinians had hoped the ruling would include an immediate ceasefire. But the decision “confirms the end of Israel’s time with impunity and puts it in the dock as a war criminal”, he said. The court did not rule at this stage on the core of the case brought by South Africa – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinians watched on a big screen at government offices in Ramallah. One held a banner saying “Thank You South Africa”. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the ruling was an important development that contributed to isolating Israel and exposing what it described as its crimes in Gaza. The court found that Palestinians were protected under the convention and there was a case to be heard about whether their rights were being denied in a war that it said was causing grievous humanitarian harm. Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti said the ICJ’s acceptance of the case “means putting Israel on trial for its crimes for the first time”. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel did not need to be lectured on morality. Israeli Josh Mover said his country was being subjected to “double standards”.“Countries that are notorious for human rights violations seem to get by without the same scrutiny,” he said.
Written By/Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose

Displaced Gazan masses call for downfall of Hamas
Yoav Zitun, Einav Halabi|/Ynetnews/January 27/2024
As IDF intensifies operations in Khan Younis, tens of thousands evacuate via humanitarian corridors; new footage shows them chanting ‘The people want to bring down Hamas,’ part of growing protests against terror group in Strip. The IDF liaison to the Palestinians shared on Saturday footage showing masses of displaced Gazans calling to bring down Hamas as they flee western Khan Younis where IDF forces are operating.  According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Major General Ghassan Alian, the footage was shot from the recently opened secure humanitarian corridor from western Khan Younis, allowing movement of Gaza Strip residents westward to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone. In the post shared to the COGAT’s Arabic-language Facebook page, Maj. Gen. Alian wrote, "In recent days, we are witnessing more and more public criticism by Gaza residents against the terrorist organization Hamas. The people of the Strip rightly prefer their welfare and the security of their children over the continued military buildup of Hamas and its terrorist activities that harm them and their future." In recent days, the IDF has released footage of additional protests against Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip, including a video from Deir al-Balah, showing residents holding signs calling for the release of Israeli hostages. According to IDF Arabic Spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the residents were heard voicing their desire to return to their homes as soon as possible, seemingly believing that a prisoner exchange deal would facilitate this. Lt. Col. Adraee addressed the leaders of the terror organization, writing, "Leaders of Hamas-ISIS, led by Sinwar, listen to the cries of your people, your children and your wives expressing their anger about the situation you have caused in Gaza."
Earlier on Saturday, the IDF reported that tens of thousands have already evacuated from Khan Younis southward, via humanitarian corridors opened by the military. "The safe corridor is opened daily for the evacuation of residents, as the IDF avoids harming civilians in the area during its conflict with Hamas," wrote Adraee. He added, "In recent days, several Gaza citizens have contacted IDF soldiers, claiming that Hamas is preventing them from leaving the area using threats and violence. Our soldiers assisted the civilians on site, including the elderly and sick." The IDF noted that the humanitarian corridor in Khan Younis was open until 4pm for residents' passage from the Khan Younis neighborhoods to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, west of the city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ceasefire consideration: Quadripartite summit aims to break deadlock in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange deal
LBCI/January 27, 2024
In a significant move towards the negotiation of a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, mediators are set to convene a quadripartite summit involving the United States, Qatar, Egypt, and Israel in Paris in the upcoming days.
The summit will include key mediators such as CIA Director William Burns, head of Egyptian intelligence Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, alongside Israeli counterparts including Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and reserve General Nitzan Alon, responsible in the army for intelligence efforts in the prisoner file Nitzan Alon. The summit aims to advance discussions on a potential deal. According to Israeli sources, the likelihood of progress in the deal is higher than ever, especially considering a new proposal that addresses previous obstacles.
Following an earlier meeting with Israeli negotiators, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pointed out the broad outlines of the deal, including a proposed 60-day ceasefire instead of the previously suggested 90 days. Israel views this as a concession, as Hamas had insisted on a 90-day truce coupled with a withdrawal from Gaza. The renewed talks about finalizing a prisoner exchange deal, including a limited ceasefire, coincide with the Israeli military's acknowledgment of The Hague Court's decision, which prohibits actions that could be considered genocide, restricting its activities in Gaza and hindering the implementation of the planned third stage. Simultaneously, military leaders claimed that Hamas has regrouped and spread in areas where the army withdrew, attempting to revive its capabilities and resilience. Meanwhile, Israel remains committed to its plan to control the Philadelphi Axis to assert dominance in the Strip, despite potential tensions with Egypt. As Hamas releases a video featuring three Israeli female prisoners, urging Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials to stop the war for their release, families of the hostages call for widespread participation in demonstrations, signaling an escalation to ensure the primary objective of the Gaza war: the release of hostages.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry considers Israeli enemy’s incitement against UNRWA as a pretext, preconceived ruling to liquidate the refugees' cause...
NNA/January 27, 2024
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned in the strongest terms the systematic campaign of incitement practiced by the enemy government through more than one Israeli official against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), considering it to be prejudices and latent hostility that has been exposed over the past years, according to the Palestinian News Agency "Wafa". The Ministry explained in a statement issued today, Saturday, that the Israeli enemy’s incitement clearly emerged during the genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip, whether through public statements or by targeting UNRWA, its officials, headquarters, institutions, capabilities and cadres, and this time the occupying state intensifies its incitement against UNRWA, preempting any investigations into its allegations.The Ministry noted that Israel, the occupying power, is seeking by all means to stop the work of UNRWA to erase the refugees issue and their inherent right to return, in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

Germany calls on Israel to allow immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza
NNA/January 27, 2024
Germany called on Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice ruling on Gaza and allow the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed in an issued statement the need for Israel to comply with its international obligations. Baerbock added: “We will support the decision with all our might, and the court obliges Israel to urgently allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.” The International Court of Justice called on Israel to prevent committing any act that could amount to "genocide" in Gaza, and the court said that Israel must take immediate steps to enable the provision of humanitarian aid that the Palestinians urgently need.

Demonstrations continue in international cities & capitals denouncing the aggression on the Gaza Strip
NNA/January 27, 2024
Today, Saturday, many cities and world capitals witnessed massive demonstrations denouncing the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian News Agency "Wafa", thousands participated in demonstrations organized in the German capital, Berlin, the Austrian capital, Vienna, and the Danish cities of Odense and Rotterdam, in support of the Palestinian people and to demand a ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Demonstrators raised Palestinian flags and banners denouncing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our people. The participants called for an end to double standards and the need to prosecute the occupation for its massacres against the Palestinian people, especially children, and condemned the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli enemy army announces a new toll of its soldier casualties in the Gaza Strip
NNA/January 27, 2024
The Israeli army announced today, Saturday, that the number of wounded among its soldiers has risen to 2,757 since October 7, 2023. "Russia Today" quoted a website affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Defense as saying that among the injured were 1,616 minor injuries, 723 moderate injuries, and 418 critical injuries.The number of injured among the occupation army soldiers since the start of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip on the 27th of last October reached 1,269, including 584 minor cases, 427 moderate cases, and 258 critical cases.
This is at a time when information from the Israeli enemy and international military estimates indicate that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers is greater than the officially announced numbers. In the latest statistics published on its official website, the Israeli enemy army confirmed the killing of 557 of its officers and soldiers since October 7, 2023. On the Palestinian side, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll from the occupation bombing of the Strip had risen to 26,257 martyrs and 64,797 wounded since the 7th of last October.

Iraqi Resistance targets Conoco, Green Village US bases with drones
NNA /January 27, 2024
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq announced in a statement that its fighters targeted the two US bases, Conoco and the Green Village, in Syrian territory, using drones. The Resistance affirmed its commitment to continue "resisting the American occupation of Iraq," and targeting its bases in the region, adding that its operations come in response to the massacres of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip. Earlier on Friday, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that the US Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq was targeted with drones. Recently, the Iraqi Resistance expanded its scope of operations amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, with the Secretary-General of the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Abu Alaa al-Walai, announcing that the Resistance has transited to the second phase of its operations in which it will work on enforcing blockading Mediterranean maritime routes to the Israeli-occupied ports in occupied Palestine. Al-Walai explained that the second phase of operations would include the enforcement of a blockade on "Zionist maritime navigation in the Mediterranean" and "putting [Israeli] ports out of service." The Iraqi Resistance has proved that it has the capabilities to target Israeli occupation ports located on the Mediterranean coast. The largest of which, the Haifa port and the "Ashdod" port have come under attack at least twice in 2024. It is worth noting that the Iraqi Resistance has also launched multiple attacks on the Israeli sites in the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied port town of Um al-Rashrash or "Eilat", as referred to by Israelis. --- AL-Mayadeen English News

Fighting rages in battleground Gaza city
AFP/January 27, 2024
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Intense fighting raged Saturday in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the main theater of conflict where the Israeli army is targeting the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas. The unabated hostilities came a day after the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. Tensions rose between Israel and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel charged that several UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attacks of October 7, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that Israel wants to ensure the UN agency, with tens of thousands of staff in Gaza, “will not be a part of the day after” the bloodiest ever Gaza war. Alarm has grown over the plight of civilians in Khan Yunis, the southern hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks. Witnesses reported more fierce fighting Saturday in the city, where the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory said “135 martyrs arrived at hospitals due to massacres throughout the night.”The Hamas government’s press office reported “massive tank bombardment since the morning” targeting a refugee camp and the Nasser hospital. Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said tens of thousands, including children, endured a night of incessant and cold rain. The harsh weather threatened to cause the “spread of contagious diseases” and made the “humanitarian crisis worse for the two million displaced across the strip,” he said. Suhaila Asfur, a displaced woman, said her family was unable to sleep because of the heavy rain and said: “I don’t know what we will do tonight and where we will sleep.” Issuing a highly anticipated ruling on Friday, the UN’s top court said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the narrow strip of land, which has been under relentless bombardment and siege for almost four months. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the case as “outrageous” while Gaza’s Hamas rulers hailed the ruling, saying it “contributes to isolating Israel and exposing its crimes in Gaza.”The decision was based on an urgent application brought by South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, but a broader judgment on whether genocide has been committed could take years. “This is the first time the world has told Israel that it is out of line,” said Maha Yasin, a 42-year-old displaced Gaza woman.
“What Israel did to us in Gaza for four months has never happened in history.”
Israel’s military campaign began soon after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 26,257 people, about 70 percent of them women and children. The army says at least 220 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its Gaza ground operations. With a humanitarian crisis growing, the UN says most of the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded into Rafah on the southern border with Egypt. At Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital, the largest in the besieged city, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said surgical capacity was “virtually non-existent.” The charity said medical services at the hospital had “collapsed” and the few staff who remained “must contend with very low supplies that are insufficient to handle mass casualty events.”World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people remained at the hospital as fighting continued nearby.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli tanks targeted the Al-Amal hospital, another of the few remaining medical facilities in Khan Yunis, and that it was “under siege with heavy gunfire.”“There is no longer a health care system in Gaza,” MSF said. There were 300 to 500 patients trapped at the Nasser hospital with “war-related injuries such as open wounds, lacerations from explosions, fractures and burns.”The Israeli military accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using the medical facilities as command centers. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, accused the WHO this week of collusion with Hamas by ignoring Israeli evidence of Hamas’s “military use” of Gaza hospitals. Tedros rejected the accusation, saying it could “endanger our staff who are risking their lives to serve the vulnerable.” Relations between Israel and UNRWA soured further after the UN body said tanks had shelled one of its shelters in Khan Yunis on Wednesday, killing 13 people. UNRWA said on Friday it had sacked several employees accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attack. The allegations have prompted the United States, Canada, Australia and Italy to suspend funding to the agency. Israel said Saturday it would seek to stop UNRWA from operating in Gaza after the war. Hamas urged the UN and international organizations “not to cave in to the threats” from Israel. Diplomatic efforts have sought scaled-up aid deliveries for Gaza and a truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November saw Hamas release dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. CIA chief William Burns is to meet with his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as Qatar’s prime minister, in the coming days in Paris to seek a ceasefire, a security source said.
The UN Security Council will meet to discuss the ICJ’s ruling on Wednesday.

Gaza battles rage as Israel vows to shut out UN agency after war
AGENCIES/January 27, 2024
GAZA: Intense fighting raged Saturday in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the main theater of conflict where the Israeli army is targeting the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas. The unabated hostilities came a day after the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. Tensions rose between Israel and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attack of October 7, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that Israel wants to ensure the UN agency, with tens of thousands of staff in the territory, “will not be a part of the day after” the bloodiest ever Gaza war. The US, Australia and Canada had already paused funding to the aid agency after the allegations. The agency has opened an investigation into several employees severed ties with them. Britain, Italy and Finland on Saturday became the latest countries to pause funding for the agency. Alarm has grown over the plight of civilians in Khan Yunis, the southern hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the suspected mastermind of the October 7 attack. AFPTV images showed thousands of civilians, among them women and children, fleeing the city on foot as an Israeli tank loomed behind them. “They besieged us, so we fled,” said Tahani Al-Najjar, who left Khan Yunis with her daughter. “We call on the UN to intervene, to stop the war. Enough of fear and terror!“ Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the displaced endured incessant cold rain and warned of the “spread of contagious diseases.”
The Israeli army said its “troops continued to kill numerous armed terrorists from close range” and raided a weapons storage facility in Khan Yunis. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 135 people were killed in Khan Yunis overnight. The Hamas government said “massive tank bombardment” targeted a refugee camp in the city and its Nasser hospital. Issuing a highly anticipated ruling on Friday, the UN’s top court said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the narrow strip of land which has been under relentless bombardment and siege for almost four months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the case as “outrageous” while Gaza’s Hamas rulers hailed the ruling, saying it “contributes to isolating Israel and exposing its crimes in Gaza.” The decision was based on an urgent application brought by South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, but a broader judgment on whether genocide has been committed could take years.
“This is the first time the world has told Israel that it is out of line,” said Maha Yasin, a 42-year-old displaced Gaza woman. “What Israel did to us in Gaza for four months has never happened in history.”Israel’s military campaign began soon after Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas, and Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 26,257 people, about 70 percent of them women and children. The army says at least 220 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its Gaza ground operations. With Gaza’s humanitarian crisis growing, the UN says most of the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded into Rafah on the southern border with Egypt. At Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital, the largest in the besieged city, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said surgical capacity was “virtually non-existent.” The charity said the hospital’s services had “collapsed” and the few staff who remained “must contend with very low supplies that are insufficient to handle mass casualty events.”World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people remained at the hospital as fighting continued nearby. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli tanks targeted the Al-Amal hospital, another of the city’s few remaining medical facilities, and that it was “under siege with heavy gunfire.”“There is no longer a health care system in Gaza,” MSF said. There were 300 to 500 patients trapped at the Nasser hospital with “war-related injuries such as open wounds, lacerations from explosions, fractures and burns.”
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under Gaza hospitals and of using the medical facilities as command centers. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, accused the WHO this week of collusion with Hamas by ignoring Israeli evidence of Hamas’s “military use” of Gaza hospitals. Tedros rejected the accusation, saying it could “endanger our staff who are risking their lives to serve the vulnerable.”Relations between Israel and UNRWA soured further after the UN body said tanks had shelled one of its shelters in Khan Yunis on Wednesday, killing 13 people.
UNRWA said on Friday it had sacked several employees accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attack. The allegations have prompted the United States, Canada, Australia and Italy to suspend funding to the agency. Israel said it would seek to stop UNRWA from operating in Gaza after the war. Hamas urged the international community to ignore Israel’s “threats,” while the Palestinian Authority said the agency needed “maximum support” from donors. Diplomatic efforts have sought scaled-up aid deliveries for Gaza and a truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November saw Hamas release dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. CIA chief William Burns is to meet with his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as Qatar’s prime minister, in the coming days in Paris to seek a ceasefire, a security source told AFP. The UN Security Council will meet to discuss the ICJ’s ruling on Wednesday.
* With AFP and Reuters

Britain, Italy and Finland pause funding for UN refugee agency in Gaza
LONDON (Reuters)/January 27, 2024
Britain, Italy and Finland on Saturday became the latest countries to pause funding for the United Nations' refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), following allegations its staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Set up to help refugees of the 1948 war at Israel's founding, UNRWA provides education, health and aid services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It helps about two thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million population and has played a pivotal aid role during the current war. The United States, Australia and Canada had already paused funding to the aid agency after Israel said 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the cross-border attack. The agency has opened an investigation into several employees severed ties with them. The Palestinian foreign ministry criticised what it described as an Israeli campaign against UNRWA, and the Hamas militant group condemned the termination of employee contracts "based on information derived from the Zionist enemy."The UK Foreign Office said it was temporarily pausing funding for UNRWA while the accusations were reviewed and noted London had condemned the Oct. 7 attacks as "heinous" terrorism. "The Italian government has suspended financing of the UNRWA after the atrocious attack on Israel on October 7," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on social media platform X. Finland also said it suspended funding. Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinians' umbrella political body the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said cutting support brought major political and relief risks. "We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision," he said on X.

UNRWA Hamas attack claims: UK becomes latest country to pause funding for agency
Sarah Fowler & Lipika Pelham - BBC News/January 27, 2024
UNRWA has been struggling to get humanitarian aid to many Gazans
The UK has become the latest country to pause funding for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA. It comes after the agency announced the sacking of several of its staff over allegations of involvement in the 7 October Hamas attacks. The UK government said it was "appalled" by the allegations made by Israel. The US, Australia, Italy and Canada have already suspended additional funding to the UN agency. Created in 1949, UNRWA provides health care, education and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Since Israel began its ground offensive in October, UNRWA has used its facilities across Gaza to shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians. It says it has ordered an investigation into information supplied by Israel. On Friday, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that the 7 October Hamas attacks had involved "people who are on their [UNRWA] salaries". Mark Regev said there was information showing teachers working in UNRWA schools had "openly celebrated" the 7 October attacks. He also referred to an Israeli hostage who, on her release, said she had been "held in the house of someone who worked for UNRWA". "They have a union which is controlled by Hamas and I think it's high time that the UN investigated these links between UNRWA and Hamas," he added. The allegations prompted reaction from major donors. "The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. "The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations," it added. Huge push for Gaza aid - but little hope for those suffering
Israeli protesters hold up aid trucks to Gaza
Earlier, the US State Department announced that it was suspending additional funding to the UN agency, saying it was "extremely troubled" by the allegations of UN staff involvement in the attacks. The EU also said that it would assess further steps "based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation". UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "horrified by this news". The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said a full investigation into the allegations was being carried out "to establish the truth without delay." Mr Lazzarini added: "To protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members." He said any staff found to have been involved in "acts of terror" would be held accountable. Israel's Foreign Minister, Israel Katz said he aimed to stop UNRWA operating in Gaza after the war. But the Palestinian Authority's minister for civilian affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said the decision by some countries to pause support for the vital UN agency "entails great political and humanitarian relief risks".Mr al-Sheikh urged Western donors to immediately reverse their decision, adding: "We need the maximum support for this international organisation."In a post on Telegram, Hamas's press office said the group urged the UN and the international organisations "to not cave in to the threats and blackmail" from Israel. Hamas killed 1,300 people, mostly civilians, in the unprecedented attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October last year.Another 250 people were taken hostage. The events triggered Israel's retaliatory attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. The US, Germany and the EU are among some of UNRWA's biggest donors.
The agency says it is struggling to get humanitarian aid to many of the estimated 1.7 million people - nearly three-quarters of the population - displaced by 12 weeks of fighting. A number of UN facilities where Gazans had taken shelter have been hit in Israeli air strikes. On Thursday, 12 people were killed when a UN shelter was struck in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

UK pauses funding for UNRWA over claims staff involved in Hamas attack
Nina Lloyd, PA Political Correspondent/January 27, 2024
The UK will suspend funding for the UN’s relief agency in Gaza over claims made by Israel that a number of its employees were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attack. The Foreign Office said Britain is “appalled” by allegations about staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and will temporarily pause support while a review takes place. It comes after the UNRWA said it had sacked several of its employees in Gaza suspected of taking part in last year’s assault by Hamas and other militants on southern Israel. The Foreign Office said in a statement: “The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned. “The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNRWA whilst we review these concerning allegations. “We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza who desperately need it.”The relief agency has played a key role in providing aid for the enclave’s population amid the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s offensive in the wake of the October 7 attack. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said it terminated contracts with “several” employees and ordered an investigation after Israel provided information alleging they played a role in the assault. The UK follows the US – the agency’s biggest donor – Australia, Italy and Canada in temporarily pausing funding. The US state department said allegations had been made against 12 employees. UNRWA has 13,000 staff in Gaza, almost all of them Palestinians, ranging from teachers in schools that the agency runs, to doctors, medical staff and aid workers. In its October 7 attack, Hamas broke through the security fence surrounding Gaza and stormed nearby Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping some 250. Israel’s offensive – one of the deadliest and most destructive in recent history – has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left more than 64,400 wounded, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Houthis accuse US, UK of targeting Ras Isa oil terminal in Hodeidah
SAEED AL-BATATI/January 27, 2024
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia said on Saturday that the US and UK militaries carried out two airstrikes on the Red Sea Ras Isa port in Yemen’s western province of Hodeidah. This comes as Trafigura, an international trading corporation, said that it had extinguished a fire on one of its ships in the Red Sea caused by a Houthi missile hit. Houthi-run Al-Masira TV reported that the US and UK struck Ras Isa port on Saturday morning, which has an oil export facility and is close to the decaying floating oil ship Safer that has captured the world’s attention over the past several years. Without naming the target site, the US Central Command said that its forces conducted an airstrike at about 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time) on Saturday against an anti-ship missile that the Houthis were about to fire. Yemen’s oil exports from the central province of Marib pass through Ras Isa in Hodeidah, while oil from the southern provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa pass through Arabian Sea oil terminals. The 48-year-old FSO Safer tanker and its replacement are both berthed at the new Ras Isa oil facility. The airstrikes in Hodeidah happened after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at a Marshall Islands-flagged and UK-linked tanker controlled by Trafigura, causing a fire. Trafigura stated on Saturday that the tanker’s crew was able to extinguish the fire and that all of the crew members were safe, and thanked the Indian, US and French navy warships for their support. “We are pleased to confirm that all crew on board the Marlin Luanda are safe and the fire in the cargo tank has been fully extinguished. The vessel is now sailing toward a safe harbor,” the company said in a statement. In a statement by their military spokesperson Yahya Sarea on Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching “a number of naval missiles” at the British oil ship, claiming that the action was both in support of the Palestinian people and in retribution for UK and US bombings on regions under their control in Yemen.
The Houthis also launched on Friday an anti-ship ballistic missile from regions under their control toward the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, but it was intercepted by the US Navy, according to US Central Command.
In Houthi-controlled Ibb, residents of the Al-Sabrah district reported that the Houthis fired a missile from the Al-Hamza military base in the district on Friday evening but the missile failed to reach its target and exploded shortly after in an area not far from the military base, the latest in a string of botched missile launches by the Houthis. Experts believe that the Houthis will continue to attack US and UK ships, particularly oil tankers, to remain in the spotlight and build popular support, playing on public outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza, despite the danger of causing a catastrophic environmental disaster off Yemen’s coast.
“They don’t care about the implications for Yemen or the potential of an environmental disaster. The Houthis are trying to project themselves as a power that can defeat the US-led coalition. They are masters of war of attrition and propaganda,” Yemen conflict expert Nadwa Al-Dawsari told Arab News.
He added that the Houthis were infamous for concealing weaponry within civilian infrastructures such as ports to force their enemies to bomb them and then exploit the footage for propaganda. “Houthis have a history of putting their missile launchers and weapons in civilian facilities. If they are bombed, that is good propaganda material showing that the US is targeting vital civilian infrastructure.”Meanwhile, Yemen’s internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council repeated demands on Saturday for foreign relief groups working in Yemen to transfer their headquarters from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to the southern city of Aden, Yemen’s temporary capital. During a meeting with Sonali Korde, USAID assistant to the administrator for the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance in Riyadh, PLC chairman Rashad Al-Amili said that his government would facilitate international relief organizations that wish to operate in Aden, attacking the Houthis for forcing US and UK citizens working with UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations to leave Yemen within a month.

Crew extinguish fire on tanker hit by Houthi missile off Yemen
AP/January 27, 2024
JERUSALEM: The crew aboard a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker hit by a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels extinguished an hours-long fire onboard the stricken vessel Saturday sparked by the strike, authorities said. The attack on the Marlin Luanda further complicated the Red Sea crisis caused by the Iranian-backed rebels’ attacks over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The tanker carried Russian-produced naphtha, a flammable oil, drawing Moscow further into a conflict that so far it had blamed on the US. Early Saturday, US forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed at the Red Sea and prepared to launch, the US military’s Central Command said. That attack came after the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, had to shoot down a Houthi missile targeting it. The Marlin Luanda burned for hours in the Gulf of Aden until being extinguished Saturday, said Trafigura, a Singapore-based trading firm. Its crew of 25 Indian nationals and two Sri Lankans were still trying to battle the blaze sparked by the missile strike, it said. No one was injured by the blast, it added. “We are pleased to confirm that all crew on board the Marlin Luanda are safe and the fire in the cargo tank has been fully extinguished,” Trafigura said. “The vessel is now sailing toward a safe harbor.”The Indian navy said its guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam was assisting the Marlin Luanda’s crew in fighting the fire. It posted images showing the blaze still raging Saturday, likely fueled by the naphtha on board. The ship, managed by a British firm, is carrying the Russian naphtha bound for Singapore, the company said. It described the flammable oil as being purchased below the price caps set by G7 sanctions placed on Russia over its ongoing war on Ukraine. It wasn’t clear what environmental impact the attack had caused. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack on the Marlin Luanda in a prerecorded statement late Friday, describing it as a “British oil ship.” He insisted such attacks would continue. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe. Since the airstrike campaign began, the rebels now say they’ll target American and British ships as well. On Wednesday, two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the US Defense and State departments came under attack by the Houthis, forcing an escorting US Navy warship to shoot some of the projectiles down. China, which relies on the seaborne trade through the area, has called for calm. The US had sought to get China to apply pressure on Iran, as Beijing remains a major buyer of Western-sanctioned Iranian oil.

Iraq and US begin formal talks to end coalition mission formed to fight Daesh
AP/January 27, 2024
BEIRUT: The United States and Iraq held a first session of formal talks Saturday in Baghdad aimed at winding down the mission of a US-led military coalition formed to fight Daesh group in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said in a statement that he had sponsored “the commencement of the first round of bilateral dialogue between Iraq and the United States of America to end the mission of the Coalition in Iraq.”The beginning of talks, announced by both countries on Thursday, comes as US forces in Iraq and Syria have been regularly targeted by drone attacks launched by Iran-backed militias against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The US says plans to set up a committee to negotiate the terms of the mission’s end were first discussed last year, and the timing isn’t related to the attacks. Washington has had a continuous presence in Iraq since its 2003 invasion. Although all US combat forces left in 2011, thousands of troops returned in 2014 to help the government of Iraq defeat Daesh. Since the extremist group lost its hold on the territory it once seized, Iraqi officials have periodically called for a withdrawal of coalition forces, particularly in the wake of a US airstrike in January 2020 that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis outside the Baghdad airport. The issue has surfaced again since Israel launched its major counteroffensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in southern Israel. Since mid-October, a group of Iran-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have launched regular attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, which the group said are in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Those estimated 2,500 US troops and the bases they serve on have drawn more than 150 missile and drone attacks fired by the militias. Scores of US personnel have been wounded, including some with traumatic brain injuries, during the attacks. The US has struck militia targets in return, including some linked to the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-backed paramilitary groups that is officially under the control of the Iraqi military. But it largely operates on its own in practice. Iraqi officials have complained that the US strikes are a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. US officials have said that talks about setting up a committee to decide on the framework for ending the coalition’s mission were already underway before Oct. 7 and the decision is unrelated to the attacks. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq nevertheless took credit for the decision in a statement, saying that it “proves that the Americans only understand the language of force.” It vowed to continue its attacks.

Ukraine takes out one of Russia's most feared drone aces, say reports
Rebecca Rommen/Business Insider/January 27, 2024
Ukraine has successfully taken out a feared Russian FPV drone operator, say reports. Operator "Moisey" and his team have been blamed for inflicting heavy casualties on Ukrainian forces. A Ukrainian team led by drone ace "Balu" called their fatal strike "a little present to Moisey." Ukrainian defense forces have eliminated one of the most formidable Russian First-Person-View (FPV) drone operators, known by the call sign "Moisey" or "Moses," in the bitter fighting around the Dnipro River, Forbes reports. Reports from various sources, including messages posted by Moisey's wife, confirm the successful operation against the feared drone ace. Moisey, widely regarded as one of Russia's top FPV operators, is credited with causing a large number of casualties in addition to sinking numerous Ukrainian boats in the Dnipro. His last communication, shared a few days ago, ominously stated, "It's hell in Krynky."The Ukrainian defense forces, faced with persistent attacks on small boats supplying the Krynky bridgehead, carried out an elaborate plan to take out Moisey and his drone team. A Ukrainian drone team, led by drone ace "Balu," successfully hunted down Moisey's team. The strike, described as a "little present to Moisey," involved sending an explosive FPV through the building where Moisey operated, causing an explosion and subsequent fire. "The enemy has been rejoicing since the morning that one of our most effective FPV operators, who accounted for more than 50 boats and almost 400 enemy soldiers and officers, was allegedly killed in Krynky," Roman Saponkov, a Russian military journalist, posted on Telegram in Russian, sharing screenshots of Balu's quips. With Moisey eliminated, the pressure on the resupply efforts has been alleviated, providing a reprieve for the Ukrainian forces. Indeed, Russia appears to be unable to counter Ukraine's drone attacks on the Dnipro River because of a shortage of electronic warfare capability in the area, the UK's Ministry of Defence said on January 12. However, analysts warn that Moisey and his team are replaceable, and a new drone team could come to terrorize the supply route. As drone warfare has become one of the key components of the Ukraine-Russia war, the operators have become some of the most valued soldiers and highly-prized targets of the opposing force. This week, there were unconfirmed reports that Ukraine used US-supplied HIMARS to strike a group of Russian drone pilots who had assembled for training in the occupied part of the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces are using 'flocks' of FPV drones led by 'queen' drone to attack Russian positions, soldier says
Rebecca Rommen/Business Insider/January 27, 2024
Ukrainian forces are using "flocks" of FPV drones led by "queen" drones, a Russian soldier said. It may allow smaller drones to land and conserve battery power. FPV drones have been particularly crucial to Ukraine's war effort. Ukrainian forces are using "flocks" of FPV (first-person-view) drones led by "queen" drones to attack Russian positions, a Russian serviceman said in an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia. In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by a military blogger, the soldier described an encounter with a swarm of drones led by a "repeater drone queen."He said Ukrainian forces sent a "large wing with a repeater" that broadcasted a signal to a group of smaller FPV drones flying underneath it. These then dropped onto Russian positions, he added. "A flock of around 10—the Queen is somewhere above at a high altitude in a small detection range. It brings the flock of drones, which then descend onto positions and start working," he said. Izvestia correspondent Dmitry Zimenkin, who interviewed the soldier, said the tactic allowed Ukrainian drone operators to "land and wait" with their smaller drones, "saving batteries," Newsweek reported. "When a large mother drone spots targets, the kamikazes take off, sometimes several meters from the target, and attack. If the Queen is eliminated, then her entire flock can be neutralized," Zimenkin said, per Newsweek. FPV drones have been used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and they have proved to be an effective and low-cost weapon. They have been particularly crucial to Ukraine's war effort, enabling Ukrainian drone squads to attack deep into Russian territory while helping to limit losses to their ground forces. But drone warfare has meant both sides are struggling to make any advances, Gleb Molchanov, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The Guardian. "It's a war of armor against projectiles. At the moment, projectiles are winning," he added.

Russia attacks Ukraine with kamikaze drones and ballistic missiles: all drones destroyed
The New Voice of Ukraine/January 27, 2024
Russia attacked Ukraine with four Iranian Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs, all of which were destroyed, the Ukrainian Air Force stated on Telegram on Jan. 27. According to the Air Force, Russia launched the drones from Krasnodar Krai in the Russian Federation. All four drones were destroyed in Kirovohrad Oblast. Citing the head of the Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration, Andriy Raykovych, the fence of an abandoned private house in Kropyvnytskyi district was damaged. However, there were no casualties as a result of the attack. The Russian occupiers also fired an Iskander-M ballistic missile into Donetsk Oblast from Rostov Oblast. There were no reported casualties. On Jan. 27 night, an air alert was declared in a number of regions of Ukraine due to the threat of ballistic missiles. Press officer for Operational Command South Natalia Humeniuk said that Russia was launching suicide drones from the sea to muffle the sound of their approach and avoid detection by air defense systems. Humeniuk also noted that port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast remains a top priority for Russian strikes. We’re bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Gunmen in Iran kill nine Pakistanis days after tit-for-tat strikes
REUTERS/January 27, 2024
DUBAI: Unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani workers in a restive southeastern border area of Iran on Saturday, Pakistan’s ambassador and a rights group said, amid efforts by the two countries to mend ties after tit-for-tat attacks.
“Deeply shocked by horrifying killing of 9 Pakistanis in Saravan. Embassy will extend full support to bereaved families,” the Pakistani ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipi, said on the X platform. “We called upon Iran to extend full cooperation in the matter.”The Baluch rights group Haalvash said on its website that the victims were Pakistani laborers who lived at an auto repair shop where they worked. Three others were wounded, it said. Iran’s state media identified the dead only as foreign nationals and said no individuals or groups had claimed responsibility for the shootings in Saravan, near Pakistan’s border in restless Sistan-Baluchestan province. The shootings occurred as Iranian state media said the Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors were returning to their postings after being recalled when the neighboring countries exchanged missile strikes last week aimed at what each said were militant targets. “The Iran-Pakistan border creates an opportunity for economic exchanges... and must be protected against any insecurity,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Mudassir Tipi as he received the ambassador’s credentials on Saturday, state media reported. The impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan region has long been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and separatist militants and smugglers carrying opium from Afghanistan, the world’s top producer of the drug. Iran has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world and this has also led to increasing fuel-smuggling to Pakistan and Afghanistan despite a crackdown by Iranian border guards.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 27-28.2024
The Biden Administration and the Iranian Regime's Nuclear Weapons
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./January 27, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126456/126456/
In a noteworthy development, for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a warning, signaling that Iran now holds a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium capable of producing multiple nuclear warheads.
The regime has been actively supporting Hamas against Israel, providing assistance to Yemen's Houthi terror group to attack ships in the Red Sea, escalating tensions with Pakistan, and providing weaponry to Russia for use against Ukraine. These multifaceted engagements in regional and global conflicts indicate the regime's likely view of nuclear weapons as a means to further its strategic objectives.
In the midst of these ongoing conflicts, the last thing we need is an aggressive regime, with terrorist inclinations -- and clearly no intention, despite every opportunity the West has given it, of "coming in from the cold" -- possessing nuclear weapons.
For the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a warning, signaling that Iran now holds a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium capable of producing multiple nuclear warheads. This development prompted IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to denounce Iran's actions. Pictured: Grossi speaks during the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria on November 22, 2023. (Photo by Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration's nuclear policy concerning Iran's nuclear program and its ability to acquire nuclear weapons is a complete disaster. Under the Biden administration's leadership, Iran has made significant advances in its nuclear program that surpass the progress achieved under any previous administrations.
In a noteworthy development, for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a warning, signaling that Iran now holds a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium capable of producing multiple nuclear warheads. This development, reported by Bloomberg on January 18, prompted IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to denounce Iran's actions. Grossi also told The National newspaper, "Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state which is enriching uranium at this very, very high level".
The remarks made by Grossi come in the wake of a concerning development in which Iran launched missile attacks into Pakistan. The missile strikes, viewed as a violation of both international norms and Pakistan's sovereignty, have added a new layer of insecurity to the already tense regional dynamics. The attacks on Pakistan also underscore the predatory character of the Iranian regime and its efforts to destabilize the region.
The Iranian regime's lack of cooperation with the IAEA has been alarming for years, suggesting a trajectory toward the imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons, and raises serious reservations about the transparency of Iran's nuclear activities. Grossi expressed concern that Iran is continuing actively to impede international efforts to scrutinize its nuclear program while accelerating its production of highly enriched uranium, bringing it dangerously close to weapons-grade levels.
What motivates the regime's rush to obtaining nuclear weapons? Several factors: first, there is a lack of consequences from the Biden administration. Iran's regime feels free to expedite its nuclear ambitions without facing any repercussions. The regime is undoubtedly also aware that in ten months or so -- on US election day, November 5 -- this opportunity might close.
As Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote:
"Iran sprinting for nuclear weapons this year would be the capstone of the Biden-Sullivan foreign policy doctrine of letting our adversaries run the globe and pushing back only when it's too late or the situation becomes untenable."
Congressman Mike Waltz accurately said in an interview with Fox News:
"This administration is so wedded to its appeasement/de-escalation strategy that it's actually inviting escalation... Deterrence has completely fallen apart... and we see every one of our adversaries on the march because of it, and my fear between now and November is they're only going to accelerate because they see this as a moment of opportunity..."
Another contributing factor appears to lie in Iran's involvement in multiple conflicts. The regime has been actively supporting Hamas against Israel, providing assistance to Yemen's Houthi terror group to attack ships in the Red Sea, escalating tensions with Pakistan, and providing weaponry to Russia for use against Ukraine. These multifaceted engagements in regional and global conflicts indicate the regime's likely view of nuclear weapons as a means to further its strategic objectives.
In the midst of these ongoing conflicts, the last thing we need is an aggressive regime, with terrorist inclinations -- and clearly no intention, despite every opportunity the West has given it, of "coming in from the cold" -- possessing nuclear weapons.
**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
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20341/iran-nuclear-weapons

In this era of disorder, clinging to bipolarity helps no one
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/January 27, 2024
In the muddled mess that is contemporary geopolitics, the once-dominant paradigm of a world neatly divided between a collective “West” and some indeterminate “Rest” is slowly unraveling. The West, long seen as the crucible of global order, is now scrambling to keep pace with a new reality which manifested itself a little more than two decades ago, when the first “coalition” missiles rained down on Baghdad. Much to the shock and awe of incredulous millions across the Arab world since 2003, the West is itself now slowly waking up to an untreated consequence of its self-inflicted wound.
For the first time in nearly eight decades, the “voice” of the West, once commanding and singular, is resonating less around a world in which diverse players — new and old, state and nonstate — are increasingly asserting their agency. This phenomenon can no longer be dismissed as a restive world merely capitalizing on a disengaged West that is far too preoccupied with navigating divisive politics at home rather than policing every conflagration abroad. Instead, it is a growing testament of the dwindling relevance of the West, evinced in part by its traditional thinkers and writers no longer holding sway over the captive audiences as they once did. More worryingly, the custodians of our global “order” have failed to produce a succession of distinguished elder statesperson — at least in the past few decades — capable of cleverly utilizing the West’s enduring monopoly on convening power to advance an equitable, collaborative and consensus-driven global agenda. In the past few years, developments on the world stage, and the bumbled responses to them, have been the final signs of an irreversible transition that is likely to accelerate in the coming months. The Global South, a collective previously often relegated to the periphery of global affairs, has emerged with a newfound assertiveness in trying to reshape the international order through pragmatic realism, by prioritizing national interests over stubborn alignment with distinct ideological poles.
The stark dichotomy of the West versus the Rest is giving way to a more nuanced, multipolar world in which each state seeks partners based on specific interests, rather than wholesale allegiance to a single bloc.
In a way, it is “geopolitics a la carte,” underscored by the reluctance of many countries in the Global South, for instance, to join the regime of sanctions against Russia. They are exhibiting a strategic autonomy that challenges the once-unquestioned influence of the West. More recently, the war in Gaza and the escalations in the Red Sea have further illustrated the limitations of a Western-centric worldview, which demands status quo absolutism, even though the rules of diplomatic engagement have changed dramatically.
Such a confounding stance is incongruous with the appetite of the Rest for malleable approaches to managing the planet’s crises. Untethered from the nebulous idealism of Western designs for the global order, the Rest can make serious headway in addressing complex issues that always expose the West’s hypocrisy by subverting the very values we profess we want to uphold.
The response of the Rest to the situation in Gaza reveals a perception of those double standards at play, wherein the inaction of the West in response to the actions of Israel contrasts sharply with its vehement stance in opposition to Russian aggression. This hypocrisy erodes the West’s moral high ground and undermines its claims to be upholding the principles of international law while also seeking to transform inalienable rights and liberties into universal principles. The stark dichotomy of the West versus the Rest is giving way to a more nuanced, multipolar world. It is hardly surprising to see muted, non-committal responses around the globe to the escalations in the Red Sea by Houthi militants, even if they represent a serious challenge to the international order that could escalate into a broader conflict with significant global economic repercussions.
The calculus has shifted away from blindly taking cues from the West, toward individual countries among the Rest only expending enough diplomatic capital and effort to mitigate the threats such situations pose to their own national interests, if there are any. This shift also applies to reactions to other critical hot spots across the Arab region, from the horrors in Gaza and the civil war in Sudan to even the absurd tolerance for Libya’s corrosive political stalemate. Gone are the days of top-down approaches dictated in the polished corridors of far-off Western capitals; efforts to resolve some of the world’s most pressing crises now demand coordinated international responses that transcend traditional alliances and underscore the need for a more inclusive approach to global governance.
Changing realities shine a glaring spotlight on the uncomfortable truth that the West’s seemingly profound proclamations about universal values, along with the burden of defending them, were never really an impassioned dialogue between equals but tedious soliloquies, uninterrupted yet also unheeded, their orators consistently mistaking the echoes in empty rooms for grand endorsements, even as the world busied itself with finding a “new normal.”
This absence of engagement from the Rest was not acquiescence but quiet disregard.
The West need not view the growing assertiveness of other nations as a zero-sum game but rather as an opportunity to forge new partnerships based on mutual interests and shared responsibilities. The multiplicity of voices in the international community does not diminish the contributions of the West but enriches the global dialogue. A consensus-driven order is not about uniformity but about the harmonization of diverse perspectives, where the burden of leadership and the responsibilities of maintaining global stability are shared among a wider array of actors.
As we navigate this ever-shifting global landscape, the West must reckon with the fact that its influence is contingent on its ability to adapt to a world that favors flexibility over rigid polarization. This new era of a la carte diplomacy is not an aberration but a natural progression toward a global order that better reflects the multiplicity of voices and interests that make up the international community. The inevitable changes are not inherently a threat to the West but rather an opportunity for evolution and adaptation. After all, the West’s influence has always been dynamic, and in this era of flexibility and inclusivity, its ability to adapt will determine its continuing relevance within an emergent global order that is better suited to the complexities of our changing world.
As we become increasingly interconnected, yet more geopolitically fluid, the West must come to terms with a new reality. The future of international relations will not be shaped by a singular cultural entity but by a chorus of diverse perspectives, each asserting their sovereignty and playing a role in shaping the global narrative. The success of the West in this new era will depend on its willingness to listen, engage and co-create with the rest of the world, rather than impose a monolithic worldview that is increasingly at odds with the varied and dynamic nature of global geopolitics.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
X: @HafedAlGhwell

Netanyahu represents the bottleneck that is choking Israeli politics
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/January 27, 2024
Most of the time, I am perplexed not only when I try to understand what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes in anymore or what he stands for, but also whether he himself can figure out this conundrum.
It is no secret that his first priority is to cling to power for as long as possible, or at least until he can derail his corruption trial. His second priority is that Netanyahu mainly believes in … well, Netanyahu.
But is there anything else that still motivates him? Probably not much, which means that each additional day he spends in the prime minister’s office threatens Israel’s ability to assess its strategic interests rationally and logically, and to resolve the country’s deepening social divisions, and as a result he has also become detrimental to regional security. Let us be absolutely clear about two things. Firstly, Netanyahu’s career is nearing an end — and at a rapid pace.
This longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, nearly 17 years in total, who has survived many failures and scandals along the way and can claim very few notable successes, cannot and should not remain in office following the attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, which was the most catastrophic single day in the country’s history. The manner in which he is handling the war against Hamas has exposed his lack of strategic thinking, and demonstrated that he is guided only by narrow political calculations.
Secondly, his removal from office — and it should be clearly emphasized that this must only be through democratic means — will not be a magic wand that resolves all of the challenges Israel currently faces at home and abroad. But it will be a very good place to start. To begin with, Netanyahu has a … “special” relationship with the truth. To put it bluntly, during his long political career facts have been used — or rather, mostly misused — to serve whatever his political and personal interests happened to be at the time, to the extent that this has even landed him with indictments in three corruption cases. Had he only heeded the observation of US President Abraham Lincoln, who said, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But you can never fool all of the people all of the time,” he would have saved himself, and more importantly his country, from the current turbulent times both are currently enduring.
One recent example of his trait of being evasive and economical with the truth is his approach to the two-state solution. Most recently, in a tweet, he rejected the idea of an independent and viable Palestinian state existing side-by-side with Israel along the lines of the pre-1967 borders, declaring: “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan … and this is contrary to a Palestinian state.”However, it was reported that only a day earlier, during a telephone call with US President Joe Biden, he had refused to entirely rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state.
This is not a one-off example of Netanyahu’s convenient indecisiveness but a typical piece of flip-flopping by someone who has been spinning like a weather vane throughout his political career, and never more so than on the most important issue for Israel’s future: its relations with the Palestinians. His first priority is to cling to power for as long as possible, or at least until he can derail his corruption trial.
He was propelled to his first term as a prime minister in 1996 on the wave of his venomous attacks on the Oslo Accords. But when he returned to power in 2009 he expressed his support for a Palestinian state, mainly to please Washington during the Obama years, in what has become known as his Bar-Illan speech, named after the university at which it was delivered, only to spend most of his time in office since then derailing this proposal and even toying with annexing parts of the West Bank.
During such a long political career, adjustments to and adaptations of policies to reflect changing circumstances are to be expected; in Netanyahu’s case, however, the only changes that have ever mattered to him have been those in his political and personal fortunes. Any adjustments he made were usually to placate his coalition partners, who always knew his greed for power would result in his governing with no consistent guiding principles or strategic objectives.
It might have been naive to expect that the catastrophe that befell Israel on Oct. 7 might reveal a more thoughtful, reflective and strategically forward-looking Netanyahu. Certainly, nothing changed. Nada, absolutely zilch.
After the initial shock, he reverted to his default position of refusing to take any responsibility, leaving others in the security establishment to do that, while presiding over a war in which the Israeli army is stuck in the Gazan quagmire, losing soldiers every day and already accused of war crimes.
Furthermore, the country is losing the near-universal support it received in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks; much of that sympathy has switched to the innocent Palestinian victims of this conflict, who in their many thousands represent the vast majority of those paying the price of this war.
At the same time, Netanyahu’s promise to destroy Hamas has not only proved to be costly but also illusory. This leaves the war with Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants open-ended, and without an immediate ceasefire there is a real danger that Israel will remain in Gaza for a very long time, repeating the same mistakes it made more than 40 years ago in Lebanon. This time, though, the Israelis are dealing with a much more radicalized population, while also risking confrontations on other fronts, including in the occupied West Bank and with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Not to mention the fact they are being blamed by the international community for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the growing regional instability as a result.
Netanyahu is the one who got Israel into this mess, as he was instrumental in strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to prevent a peace agreement based on a two-state solution. He then weakened Israel by forming an ultra-right-wing government and attacking his own nation’s democratic system while viciously inciting against those who supported it. To repair the social divisions Netanyahu and his sycophants have created at home, and to rebuild relations with the Palestinians and ease the frictions with the international community caused by the war in Gaza, will require new leadership and fresh discourse, beginning with a national reconciliation that includes the country’s minority groups and an agenda for peace with the Palestinians.
This cannot happen as long as Netanyahu leads the country. Without bringing down the curtain on his political career, Israel will remain under the spell of his toxic, directionless and dangerous leadership — and it cannot afford that any longer.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Program at international affairs think tank Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

One needs to be realistic to unravel the Rohingya crisis
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/January 27, 2024
Political realism, the roots of which stretch as far back as ancient Greece, through to the likes of Machiavelli and Hobbes, provides a lens through which to examine international relations, with an emphasis on power and self-interest.
Some political realists acknowledge the role of ethical norms in global affairs and this perspective becomes particularly relevant when assessing the complex Rohingya crisis. In the Western context, legal frameworks, a free press, and democratic electoral systems often ensure politics and politicians operate within the rules of international law. In Myanmar, however, a dysfunctional domestic legal system challenges the efficacy of the nation’s commitments to international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a recent report by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit think tank points out, despite the endorsement of human rights treaties by authorities in Myanmar, real humanitarian protections are lacking in practice. This is illustrated by the regime blocking medical care, and the perpetration of mass killings.The traditional legal framework has proven insufficient in its ability to prevent powerful figures from disregarding the rules, thereby hindering international accountability. The challenge lies in ensuring dialogue and compliance with international obligations are more attractive options than violating the rules. The Arab News report explores some of the feasible solutions, not solely from a bleak political realist perspective, but also drawing on liberal political goals such as cooperation, justice, and moral discourse.It notes that 1.6 million people displaced since the 1970s live in dire conditions in refugee camps. The statelessness of the Rohingya, a situation deliberately orchestrated by Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law, denies them the full privileges citizens enjoy, leading to ethnic and religious discrimination. The crisis culminated in a campaign of mass murders and forced deportations in 2017 that has been recognized as genocide by the International Human Rights Clinic.
The internal politics and power struggles within refugee camps exacerbate the plight of the Rohingya, with dominant gangs hindering proper political organization. ARSA, a Rohingya insurgent group, organizes military counterattacks, complicating efforts to address the crisis. Prominent Rohingya figures, such as the late peace activist Mohib Ullah, faced threats and have even been killed in response to their calls for international justice, which exposes the challenges that exist within the camps.
The role of Bangladesh adds complexity to the crisis, through the nation’s focus on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, which is driven by questionable motives. As evictions, crime and strained resources create tensions between Bangladesh nationals and Rohingya, Bangladesh’s policies, including attacks on refugees and the withholding of basic supplies, raise ethical concerns.
In the West, despite the initial charitable concern about the plight of the Rohingya, support for aid has declined. Increased political attention and scrutiny can help to redirect resources and leverage Western influence to address the crisis. Historical precedents, such as the international pressure that motivated authorities in Myanmar to engage with the Kofi Annan Foundation illustrate the potentially powerful effect of active Western involvement.
An improved role for Bangladesh will require policy adjustments to improve conditions for the Rohingya and put an emphasis on their human rights, security and economic opportunities. Western nations must exert diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh, while promoting cooperative solutions and helping to ease domestic political pressures. The statelessness of the Rohingya, a situation deliberately orchestrated by Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law, denies them the full privileges citizens enjoy, leading to ethnic and religious discrimination.
The influence of China complicates the diplomatic landscape, through its use of its veto power on the UN Security Council to protect authorities in Myanmar and oppose Western intervention. But a reinvigorated Western political will could provide the motivation for a more realistic approach to refugee repatriation, through the provision of funding and the application of soft power to alleviate concerns on both sides.
The Rohingya, considered one of the most marginalized groups in the world, have endured a prolonged period of persecution. Despite attempts to provide them with humanitarian assistance, the response from aid agencies falls short of what is needed. Systematically deprived of basic human rights by governmental and societal authorities, the Rohingya face a world in which security is paramount, yet they grapple with a lack of safety and any prospect of this situation improving. They remain exposed to considerable risks posed by violence, criminal recruitment and militancy.
The limited intervention by the international community has transformed the issue of Rohingya refugees into a significant concern for Bangladesh. While the country makes considerable efforts to assist the refugees, there is a hesitancy to offer any form of support that might imply a more permanent presence is welcome, which results in avoidable suffering. The obstructions put in the path of aid organizations and the denial of economic rights further compound the challenges faced by Rohingya refugees. Myanmar, too, must respond to the global call to action to resolve this crisis. Sustained international pressure is an essential element in efforts to persuade authorities to address the root causes of the issue, recognize the Rohingya as citizens, and establish safeguards to guarantee their safety in their homeland. Overcoming racial and religious hostility will require a considerable display of leadership in Myanmar but there are precedents for success through ambitious international efforts. Politics holds the potential in each faction to deescalate racial tensions. In the case of the Rohingya, political representation offers a platform for self-expression, organization and mobilization behind preferred solutions.
While bad politics plunged the Rohingya into crisis, effective politics at both the community and international levels will ultimately provide the solution to their plight. The Rohingya need encouragement to raise their voices, which in turn requires serious attention to be paid to conditions in refugee camps, including security and the actions of disruptive groups such as ARSA.
Active funding and support for community organizations within the camps are crucial. International actors can take steps, including media advocacy and public support, to redirect humanitarian resources and shine the sterilizing light of international scrutiny on the crisis to raise its profile.
As Madeleine Albright, a former US secretary of state, famously said: “A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it is not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It is more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.”Politics is the key process through which we can soften stances, advocate for better conditions and seek justice for victims.
• Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the director of special initiatives at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, DC.
X: @AzeemIbrahim

EU faces challenges as it doubles down on its economic security agenda
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/January 27, 2024
While economic security has long been a key narrative for the US government, its central role in European politics is of a much more recent vintage. The latest signal of this new political emphasis in the EU came last Wednesday with the unveiling of five new initiatives designed to deepen the bloc’s policy of “de-risking” from China. This package, which aligns with the June 2023 European Economic Security Strategy, doubles down on a potentially significant shift in the EU’s political economy in recent years. The continent has long had a reputation for its open approach to trade, investment and research, and a key question moving forward is to what degree that might now be eroded in a new geopolitical landscape. The five initiatives are: a legislative proposal to strengthen foreign investment screening; more-effective EU control over exports of dual-use goods; options to support research and development in technologies with dual-use potential; enhanced research security across the EU; and better monitoring and assessment of outbound investment risks. The fifth initiative, for outbound investment, is currently subject to consultation during a three-month review period. While no countries are cited as specific targets of these new economic security measures, China is the main source of concern in Europe, especially after Beijing’s economic blockade of Lithuania over the EU member country’s deepening ties with Taiwan. The Baltic nation was subjected to a Chinese ban on exports after Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in the capital, Vilnius, in 2021. Therefore, the wider context to Wednesday’s announcement includes a broader chill in relations with China that dates back at least to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, plus Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Against this backdrop, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made significant moves to develop and implement this new economic security and de-risking policy paradigm.
The unveiling of the five new initiatives is significant because one of the key criticisms of the European policy shift is that it lacks the de-risking tools required to make it a reality. Prior to this week’s announcement, the biggest single measure revealed by Brussels was an anti-coercion measure announced late last year. That tool is intended to act as a deterrent but will also enable the EU to impose countermeasures on any country that attempts to exercise economic coercion over one or more member states. Such countermeasures include increased customs duties, intellectual property restrictions and export controls, all under a time-bound procedure lasting no more than a year.
The European Council will have significant involvement in the decision-making process used to determine whether economic coercion is taking place. Meanwhile, the European Commission will be given implementation powers in decisions about the EU’s response measures, while also ensuring the increased involvement of member states in these decisions. The unveiling of the five new initiatives is significant because one of the key criticisms of the European policy shift is that it lacks the de-risking tools required to make it a reality.
This instrument can be triggered by a wide range of coercive economic practices through which a country applies, or threatens to apply, measures that affect trade or investment in an attempt to prevent, or achieve the cessation, modification or adoption of a particular action by the EU or one of its member states. Input from external stakeholders will be taken into account when considering the activation of this tool, and businesses will be encouraged to come forward with any relevant information.
This new EU regulation, which came into force in December, is potentially a major milestone in the bloc’s shift toward economic security. It proposes to carry out a thorough assessment of the risks in four areas: risks to the resilience of supply chains, including energy security; risks to the physical and cyber security of critical infrastructure; risks related to technology security and leakage; and the risk of weaponization of economic dependencies or economic coercion.
Building on this, the package of measures revealed on Wednesday aims to further strengthen the protection of the EU’s economic security through proposals that include: improved screening of foreign investment coming into the EU; enhanced European coordination of export controls, in alignment with existing multilateral regimes; identification of potential risks arising from outbound investments in a narrow set of technologies; the promotion of better support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential; and the enhancement of research security at national and sector levels.
The new measures are likely to be welcomed by many of the 27 EU member states, especially those in Eastern Europe which tend, with the exception of Hungary, to have more hawkish attitudes toward China. However, a key question remains about whether, even with the new measures, this emerging toolkit can truly deliver on the de-risking goal set out by von der Leyen.
For instance, a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations proposed that the EU also develop a comprehensive resilience architecture that includes a strong agenda for improving economic strength and trade links, establishes a Resilience Office, and implements a reformed blocking statute that can counter secondary sanctions. It is proposed that a Resilience Office could provide strategic coordination of the EU’s response to, and evaluate the costs of, economic coercion, while a blocking statute could facilitate targeted countermeasures against companies based in third-party countries.
The significant challenges that exist in implementing these types of economic security frameworks are underlined by the experience of the UK in the past two years.
Late last year, UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden announced plans to make British powers to screen foreign direct investment more business friendly. He has launched a review with the aim of “narrowing and refining” the National Security and Investment Act, which allows the government to potentially veto any takeovers it has concerns about. The legislation was introduced in an attempt to address security concerns related to the acquisition of UK companies by foreign counterparts, including those in China. Taking all of this together, as much as the political momentum is growing behind the EU’s de-risking agenda, the actual implementation might turn out to be rather challenging, as highlighted by the recent UK experience with its own economic security initiative.
• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Why Iran Doesn’t Want a War
Reul Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh/The New York Times/January 27/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126467/126467/
The war in Gaza has now gone where many feared it would, expanding into conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea. With America’s repeated strikes against the Houthis in Yemen this month, fears of a larger regional conflagration are steadily growing.
Present in each of those arenas is Iran — and the question of whether Tehran and its powerful military will enter a wider war.
For years, Iran has provided funding, arms or training to Hamas and Hezbollah, which are fighting Israel, and to the Houthis, who have been attacking ships in the Red Sea. Iran has also launched its own strikes in recent days in retaliation for a deadly bombing earlier this month, claiming to target Israeli spy headquarters in Iraq and ISIS in Syria. It has also exchanged strikes with Pakistan across their shared border.
While Iran is clearly asserting its military strength amid the widening regional turmoil, that doesn’t mean its leaders want to be drawn into a wider war. They have said as much publicly, and perhaps more important, they have meticulously avoided taking direct military action against either Israel or the United States. The regime appears to be content for now to lean into its longtime strategy of proxy warfare: The groups they back are fighting Iran’s foes and so far, neither Israel nor the United States has signaled any interest in retaliating directly.
At the heart of Iran’s aversion to a major conflict are the domestic issues that have been preoccupying the regime. The elderly supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is seeking to secure his legacy — by overcoming political headwinds to install a like-minded successor, pursuing a nuclear weapon and ensuring the survival of the regime as an Islamist paladin dominating the Middle East — and that means not getting dragged into a wider war.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s government has been trying to keep his political opposition in check since 2022, when the Islamic Republic faced perhaps its most serious uprising since the revolution. The death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police tapped into widespread frustration with the country’s leaders and triggered a national movement explicitly intent on toppling the theocracy. Using brutal methods, the mullahs’ security forces regained the streets and schools, well aware that even unorganized protests can become a threat to the regime. Iran is also facing an economic crisis because of corruption, chronic fiscal mismanagement and sanctions imposed because of its nuclear infractions.
Even under less fraught circumstances, succession would be a delicate task in Iran. The only other time the Islamic Republic has had to choose a new supreme leader since its founding in 1979 was in 1989, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the revolution, died. At the time, Ayatollah Khamenei worried that unless the regime got the process right, its Western and domestic enemies would use the vacuum at the top to overthrow the young theocracy.
Today, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 elderly clerics, is constitutionally empowered to select the next supreme leader. Much about that process is veiled in secrecy, but recent reports in Iranian media indicate that a three-man commission that includes President Ebrahim Raisi and the Assembly members Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami and Ayatollah Rahim Tavakol is vetting candidates under Ayatollah Khamenei’s supervision. While the process may be intended to look like an open search in the fractured political environment, it is almost certainly just staging for the installation of another revolutionary conservative into the job.
To Ayatollah Khamenei, a fellow religious hard-liner would be the only candidate fit to continue Iran’s quest for regional dominance, or to lock in another key part of his legacy: the pursuit of a nuclear weapon. As the world has been focused on wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Tehran has been inching closer to the bomb — enriching uranium at higher levels, constructing more advanced centrifuges and improving the range and payload of ballistic missiles. At a time when the bomb seems tantalizingly close, Ayatollah Khamenei is unlikely to jeopardize that progress by conduct that might invite a strike on those facilities.
As he oversees the succession search and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Ayatollah Khamenei appears to be content, for now, to let the Arab militias across the Middle East do what Tehran has been paying and training them to do. Iran’s so-called axis of resistance, which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, is at the core of the Islamic Republic’s grand strategy against Israel, the United States and the region, allowing the regime to strike out at its adversaries without using its own forces or endangering its territory. The various militias and terrorist groups that Tehran nurtures have allowed it to indirectly evict America from Iraq, sustain the regime in Syria and, on Oct. 7, help inflict a deeply traumatizing attack on the Jewish state.
As its proxy fighters inflame Israel’s northern front through sporadic Hezbollah missile strikes, instigate attacks on US bases in Iraq and impede maritime shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, Iran is likely hoping to pressure the international community to restrain Israel. And the imperative of not expanding the Israel-Gaza war, which has thus far guided American and Israeli policy, means that neither is likely to retaliate against Iran — only against its proxies.
Of course, Hamas, which Israel has vowed to eliminate, is valuable to Iran. The regime has invested time and money into the group, and unlike most Islamic Republic proxies and allies, Hamas is Sunni, which helps the Shiite theocracy transcend sectarianism in the region. Liberating Palestinians, whom Iranian revolutionaries have been fond of since the Palestine Liberation Organization aided them against the Shah in 1979, is also at the core of the clerical regime’s “anti-imperialist, Islamist” mission.
But for Ayatollah Khamenei, the home front will always prevail over problems in the neighborhood. In the end, in the event Israel succeeds in its goal of eliminating Hamas, the clerical state would most likely concede to the group’s demise, however grudgingly.
Of course, the more conflict Iran engages in — directly or indirectly — also increases the chance that a rogue or poorly judged strike could send the violence spinning out of control — in a direction Iran does not favor. History is riddled with miscalculations, and there is a real possibility that Iran could find itself pulled into the larger conflict that it has sought to avoid.
In other words, Ayatollah Khamenei knows his limits — and he knows the legacy he needs to secure for the revolution to survive his passing.

The Russian Legion and African Chessboard
Emile Ameen/Asharq Al Awsat/January 27/2024
Was Tsar Putin inspired by the idea of the “Afrika Korps”, whose creation Fuhrer Hitler ordered in January 1941, and handed over its command to the “Desert Fox”, Field Marshal Rommel?
Within the circles of geopolitical conflict around the world, there is talk of the military corps that Russia is working on in full swing to find its way to the heart of Africa, which reflects Moscow’s intentions to expand deep into the Dark Continent, in an apparent conflict with American and European interests.
The visits by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus Bek-Yevkurov to Libya and a number of African countries during the second half of last year did not go unnoticed. There were several rumors about agreements being prepared, from Libya - an old ally of the Soviet Union - and its successor, Russia, to a number of African countries.
The time for speculation did not last long. Russian newspaper Vedomosti revealed the news about Moscow developing a military force consisting of about 50,000 soldiers, and under the direct supervision of the Deputy Minister of Defense. The army includes regular soldiers and militants from the former Wagner group, in addition to private security formations affiliated with Russian companies operating in Africa, all under the name of “the Russian Legion.”
The first question that crosses the mind of the reader is “What is the objective of the Russian bear?”
The “Tehranian” justification offered by Russia is similar to the ones presented by the Americans and Europeans, even if the tools may vary. The Chinese don’t turn to justifications, but rather resort to direct – sometimes blunt - pragmatism by declaring that they were seeking resources for which they would pay for.
The Russians say this corps is aimed at countering Western influence, strengthening Moscow’s position in Africa, and conducting large-scale operations on the continent to support countries seeking to finally free themselves of neo-colonial dependence and purge Western presence.
These words, which have a moral and humanitarian connotation, do not deny that Africa is once again facing a modified or developed image of the former Wagner military group, or even the nature of the operations entrusted to it. From Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and the Central African Republic, and if more successes are in store, it remains possible to expand its role beyond just five African countries.
One of the most interesting questions that confronts the researcher regarding this corps is related to the role that these forces play in terms of peace and security, or chaos and conflicts in Africa, and whether there will be a distant goal of installing new rulers who will take into account Russia’s interests and act as a force that repels Western influence. This would mean an end to European imperialism. In other words, is the objective today logistical and operational, and tomorrow political and ideological, that looks beyond the gains of temporary battles?
The Russian-African network of relations appears to be a blank slate in the eyes of many Africans. In the historical background, we find memories of financial and military support, and Russian universities that opened their doors wide since the 1950s and 1960s. Russia has never been a colonial, invading force in Africa, which falls in its favor. On the other hand, the Africans are tired of European influence in general, France’s in particular, which was evident in Paris losing its African areas of influence in recent years. Therefore, the “African Corps” can be a new foundation for Africans searching for new allies, through which they can achieve material gains, with military protection.
However, the Russian military may have designs for Africa, especially in terms of tightening control over sources of wealth and systems. This represents an imminent danger to Western interests, and threatens what remains of the influence of Washington, Brussels and others in “the brown land that I loved,” as described by former Secretary-General of the United Nations, the late Dr. Boutros Ghali.
Is it a game of musical chairs, or a clash of opposites on the African chessboard?
The certain truth is that Moscow is intending to expand the hot spots of conflict around the world, but through the idea of unequal confrontations, because it no longer has to move its armies and fleets to confront NATO, but can incite peoples and create political and military alliances. Its partnership with China, even if it is temporary, can be a dagger in the side of Western capitalist supremacy.
The talk of the Russian Legion has made waves and reinforces the questions about the possibilities of a third global confrontation. Russia, through its corps, is seeking to open wide political and military hotbeds for Washington to contend with. It is starting from Ukraine to Iran, whose agents are forcing the world's superpower to soon withdraw empty-handed from Syria and Iraq - in a setback after two decades of military intervention - and carrying out unprecedented attacks in the Red Sea.
It is most likely that Tsar Putin has read the term “Imperial Overstretch,” coined by the most famous American historian, Paul Kennedy, and learned how to deal with America, which now has to pay the cost of its overstretch.
French magazine Jeune Afrique recently wrote about US Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to four African countries, saying that the official, who was “crushed in the Middle East”, wants to restore Africa’s roads in sub-Saharan Africa, fearing the ambitions of Russia and China there.”
Rommel, the commander of the German Legion, lost to Montgomery, the commander of the Allied forces, in the Battle of El Alamein, which was a turning point in World War II... Will the Russian Legion meet the same fate, or will it achieve victories that change the shape of the international system, today from Africa, and tomorrow from South America?

الحرب الفعلية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط/الكولونيل شربل بركات/28 كانون الثاني/2024
The Actual War in the Middle East and the Iranian Head of the Snake/Colonel Charbel Barakat
January 28, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126472/126472/
The challenge of the Mullahs’ regime in Iran, initially against its Arab neighbors, and now against its southern neighbor Pakistan, accompanied by the instigation of various problems in the region, is exacerbated by the influence of the American lobby that emerged after the nuclear agreement during President Obama’s tenure.
This agreement allowed Iran to access $150 billion of its frozen funds at that time. A significant portion of this money appears to have been used to finance what can be termed the “Nuclear Agreement Lobby,” preventing the United States from posing a threat to the Mullahs’ regime. Moreover, President Obama’s swift withdrawal of the American army from Iraq without coordination facilitated Iran’s expansion throughout the country, gaining control not only in Iraq but also in Syria.
The election of President Trump dealt a significant blow to the Iranian axis, restoring U.S. prestige in its fight against ISIS, maintaining bases in Syria and Iraq, and partially dismantling the nuclear agreement, if not freezing it entirely. However, it seems that the funding from the Iranian lobby was substantial enough to tarnish the president’s domestic image and prevent his re-election, despite the positive actions taken during his term. This resulted in a return to the Obama era and the ascendancy of the “Nuclear Agreement” group in the White House administration.
As a result, the actions of the Biden administration concerning everything related to the Iranian axis and its interests appear to be fluctuating, if not biased. From the first day in office, the administration began alienating traditional American allies and aligning with Iran. This alignment became evident with the resumption of nuclear program negotiations, cessation of weapon deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, avoidance of a decisive end to the war in Yemen, removal of the Houthis from terrorism lists, and efforts to release detained civilians by Iran to bolster the rule of the Mullahs and enhance their image among allies. The abrupt withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan in a humiliating manner delivered a blow to U.S. allies in the region, sending a clear message not to rely on them. In Lebanon, Hezbollah was left to tighten its grip on the country, negotiating maritime borders and gaining permission to inspect gas and oil. The administration did not intervene when Hezbollah threatened the Lebanese and prevented the election of a president, leaving the Iranian-backed party in control.
Following that, there was the Gaza strike against the historically significant ally of the United States in the eyes of the region and the world. Undoubtedly planned by the Mullahs’ machinery itself, the administration swiftly deployed substantial forces to the Mediterranean, even establishing an air bridge to support Israel with weapons and equipment. President Biden then made a reassuring visit to address Israeli concerns, mainly, it seems, to prevent them from delivering a decisive blow to the head of the snake in the conflict, which is Iran. However, the U.S. attempted to contain the situation, limiting Israel’s response to Gaza only. They even urged Iran not to open a second front with Hezbollah against Israel, as planned in the Iranian strategy, to avoid compelling the United States to resolve the conflict and assist Israel in ending it quickly, thus sparing the world from the consequences of a protracted war that could engulf significant parts of it and the interests of major countries within.
The United States also dissuaded moderate Arabs from openly blaming Hamas and, behind it, Iran, the source of all the calamities. They confined the Israeli response to a ground attack on its strongholds, which could have minimized the damage if the focus had been on the head of the snake, with the support of Arabs and allies. This could have potentially eradicated the Iranian expansionist project once and for all, aiming for nuclear capabilities and the expulsion of any competitors from the region, especially the United States, NATO, and European countries. The West’s withdrawal from the Middle East allowed the Mullahs to gain complete control, regulating economic exchanges as they pleased, and manipulating communication and navigation lines at will. Their focus on Yemen aimed to close the Bab el Mandeb Strait, while their intensive maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz exerted pressure on and tightened the grip on Arab Gulf countries. Simultaneously, their efforts to establish a foothold in Venezuela aligned with the plan to occupy the United States in its own territory. Subsequently, they established bases in the Algerian desert through the Polisario to launch attacks towards the Strait of Gibraltar whenever the situation required.
The Arab countries’ opposition by the Biden administration was clear, prompting Gulf states to seek allies supporting their escape from Iranian control. Hence, the rapprochement with Israel, fearing the increasing Iranian influence. The China-brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, encouraged by the Biden administration, served as a reassurance to Arabs about Iranian expansion. Therefore, Iran’s plan in the surprise attack on October 7 targeted the relationship between the Arab alliance countries and Israel, seeking to hinder cooperation and isolate both sides. Israel cannot tolerate such barbaric acts against its citizens, almost considering it an existential war. It cannot control its internal situation unless it acts forcefully against the terrorist organization responsible for such atrocities. However, Arab allies remained neutral, emphasizing Iran’s portrayal of the battle as against innocent civilians. The Arab and international media, led by American media companies, focused on Israeli civilian casualties, framing it as a genocide, without exerting pressure on Hamas to cease fighting or surrender.
The timing of the operation was successful, as the U.S. administration, preoccupied with elections, would not allow an escalation of the war—an outcome desired by Iranians. The lack of resolution in Yemen, closing a crucial international trade route, received no strong response from surrounding countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, whether militarily or diplomatically. This may be influenced by the U.S. lobby’s interference in international politics, advising these countries not to take action or join an international coalition to decisively end the conflict. Some believe Iran plans to make its militias appear as if waging a war against the United States, drawing parallels to North Vietnamese forces that succeeded in such a strategy. This is not due to having the right or sufficient power, but because of the determination lacking in the United States, especially with a powerful lobby capable of influencing its internal policies.
The current situation in the region appears challenging, with no available permanent and stable solutions. The main cause of the war is Iran’s rigidity and insistence on control and dominance. If Netanyahu fails to drag them into confrontation, there may be no one on the other side opposing their schemes. Can the Iranian regime succeed in weakening Israel to a point where it accepts negotiations, even with certain conditions giving it local approval and regional protection for its commercial operations, as long as it complies with the controlling authority’s instructions? Will there be anyone in the Middle East who continues to resist or confront their control? Will everyone accept the reality, and will the spoils go to the highest bidder, this time in Riyadh instead of Istanbul? What about the new caliph Erdogan? Will he also succumb and accept the reality?
These questions remain unanswered, awaiting responses, while ordinary citizens in Gaza, the West Bank, Tel Aviv, Beirut, and other capitals patiently await signs and signals for the future of the Middle East, which we have long dreamed of being a source of wealth, stability, and peace…