Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 14-15/2024
Hezbollah official allegedly killed in strike that wounds at least 14 in southern Lebanon - report
Hezbollah intensifies attacks against Israel after women die in Jannata raid
Gallant Rules Out Macron’s Initiative
Report: US urges Hezbollah restraint after Abdallah's assassination
Biden’s envoy Hochstein to visit Israel amid rising tensions with Hezbollah: Axios
Gallant says Israel won't join Lebanon solution committee if Paris in it
Southern Lebanon: Fire Exchange Resumes Between Hezbollah and Israel
Two women killed in Israeli strike on Janata
Hezbollah shells Kiryat Shmona, Kfar Szold in response to Janata strike
Northern front heats up: Potential war looms as Israeli Cabinet weighs Lebanon strategy
Lebanon: Geagea Warns of Legal Measures against UNHCR over its Refugee Policy
Israeli Channel 12: Army recommends ending Rafah operation to move forward with the attack on Lebanon
NNA: Tallouseh in South Lebanon shelled with white phosphorous; two cases of suffocation due to fire in Kfarkela
Ihab Matar to LBCI: Hezbollah-Israel conflict is a show of power; no interest in electing a president
Bassil calls for 12 electoral rounds over three days
Report: Hezbollah still clinging to Franjieh after Bassil's tour
Mikati urges world to stop Israel's 'terrorist aggression'
Presidential Election: Frangieh Wary of the Dialogue
Vatican Secretary of State to visit Lebanon next week
Port Soldier Killer Arrested
Iran’s FM warns Israel against attack on Lebanon amid Hezbollah's attacks
Pay-to-slay: Lebanese Christians question gov't's decision to pay Hezbollah fighters' families
Israeli "High-Tech" Incompetence: Zionists Resort to Medieval Weapons on Lebanon Border

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 14-15/2024
Video Link for an interview with president trump from Dr. Phil site
Biden says no Gaza cease-fire deal soon, as mediators work to bridge gaps
G7 says UNRWA, UN agencies must work unhindered in Gaza
Hamas official says ‘no one has any idea’ how many Israeli hostages are still alive
US-built pier in Gaza is facing its latest challenge - whether the UN will keep delivering the aid
In northern Gaza, starved families survive on bread alone
UN official: Food supplies in southern Gaza at risk
Hamas’ armed wing says Israeli airstrike killed two hostages in Rafah
Human rights groups join legal review of UK arms sales to Israel
Water crisis in Gaza: Desperation and disease threaten lives
US forces foil Houthi drone, missile, boat strikes on cargo ships
US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels
Iran installing and starting cascades of advanced centrifuges as tensions high over nuclear program
US and Turkiye target Daesh-linked smuggling network
US to provide over $315 million in additional aid for Sudan
State Dept.: U.S. 'will respond accordingly' if Iran continues to expand its nuclear program
Putin says Ukraine must withdraw troops, end NATO bid for peace talks
Putin vows truce if Ukraine exits Moscow-occupied areas and drops NATO bid -- a nonstarter for Kyiv

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 14-15/2024
Is Israeli-Saudi normalization end or means?/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Asia Times/June 14/2024
The fanatical Hamas leader who calls the shots/ Peter Bergen/CNN/June 14, 2024
Question: “What does the Bible say about fathers?”/GotQuestions.org/June 14, 2024
US to impose sanctions on Israeli group that attacked Gaza aid/Simon Lewis/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/June 14, 2024
Palestinians' Heroes: Murderers, Rapists and Kidnappers of Babies/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/June 14, 2024
Israel-Iran alliance: Jerusalem's arm sales to the Islamic Republic during Iran-Iraq War/Alex Winston/Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
Why has China turned against Israel?/Michael Freund/Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
Far right first to shine in Europe’s summer of elections/Luke Coffey/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Will Russia’s ‘window to Europe’ be closed for good?/Dr. Diana Galeeva/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Turkish-Syrian reconciliation may be too big a task for Iraq/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Even Mother Earth’s fury has failed to awaken us/Hassan bin Youssef Yassin/Arab News/June 14, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 14-15/2024
Hezbollah official allegedly killed in strike that wounds at least 14 in southern Lebanon - report
Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
Arab sources reported that a senior Hezbollah official was eliminated in the strike, a claim which was denied by Israeli security officials, according to Israeli media on Friday morning. At least 14 people were wounded in a strike attributed to Israel on Thursday night in the village of Jennata in southern Lebanon's Tyre District, Arab media sources reported. Saudi news sources Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath, along with Lebanese sources, reported that a senior Hezbollah official was eliminated in the strike, a claim which was denied by Israeli security officials, according to Israeli media on Friday morning. Al-Hadath reported that those wounded were evacuated to nearby hospitals and that the injured were in buildings adjacent to the building that was targeted. The official was killed in a southern command base of the terrorist organization, Maariv reported, citing Lebanese sources. The two-story building collapsed and was completely destroyed. Missile was reportedly launched from the sea. It was also reported in Lebanon that the attack was carried out using a missile that was launched from the sea and targeted the building, which caused its complete collapse. Residents of the village said that there was "enormous destruction" at the scene, according to Maariv. The town is about 20 kilometers from the Israeli border.

Hezbollah intensifies attacks against Israel after women die in Jannata raid
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/June 14, 2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah intensified its attacks on Friday after a Lebanese village was shaken by Thursday night’s Israeli strike that killed two civilian women in a house in Jannata, in Tyre. Over 10 people, most of whom were children and women, were injured in the Jannata assault. A security source in Lebanon described Hezbollah’s escalation in the past 48 hours as “a message to Israel stating that any assassination will be faced with a fiery salvo with no geographic limits.”Hezbollah announced on Friday morning that “in response to the attack on Jannata in southern Lebanon, which killed and injured civilians, it bombed the Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Szold settlements with dozens of Katyusha and Falaq missiles.”Hezbollah said it “targeted buildings used by soldiers in Metula with appropriate weapons, causing direct hits.”In a series of statements, Hezbollah announced “targeting Al-Ramtha and Al-Semmaqah in the occupied Kfarshouba hills with missile weapons, as well as the Metula site with appropriate weapons.”It also targeted in the afternoon “the spy systems in Misgav Am with appropriate weapons, which led to their destruction.”Hezbollah’s attacks also reached and destroyed “the spy equipment in the Jal Al-Deir site.”Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that two soldiers were slightly injured after an anti-armor missile landed in an area in northern Israel. They were transported to the hospital for medical treatment. Meanwhile, Khiam, on the outskirts of Deir Mimas, Kfarkila, and Odaisseh, was subject to artillery shelling.
An Israeli shell landed in the square of the Taybeh village.
Israeli artillery shelling containing internationally prohibited white phosphorus caused a fire in a neighborhood in Mays Al-Jabal. The Tallouseh village was also shelled using phosphorus bombs. Two cases of suffocation were reported in Kfarkila due to the eruption of fire. The outskirts of Aita Al-Shaab in Bint Jbeil were also subject to sporadic artillery shelling, while the outskirts of Houla over the Al-Slouqi valley were subject to phosphorus shelling. The targeted area is the closest to the Litani Line and is included in the UN Resolution 1701, which called for Israeli forces to withdraw behind the line in the context of the 2006 Lebanon War. Israeli reconnaissance planes were seen flying over the villages and towns of Tyre. Israeli Army Radio reported severe damage to property and infrastructure as a result of seven rockets falling in Kiryat Shmona. Diplomatic efforts are underway to contain the accelerating developments on the Lebanese southern front. Israeli media said Israel had shown interest in a French-American initiative to reduce tension on the northern front with Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, however, ruled out joining an initiative promoted by French President Emmanuel Macron. France, the US, and Israel were set to form a contact group to work on defusing tensions on the border with Lebanon under the Macron initiative. During the G7 summit, Macron said: “France, the US, and Israel will work within a trilateral framework on a French roadmap aimed at containing tension on the border between Israel and Lebanon.” Gallant, however, accused France of “adopting anti-Israeli policies.” He said: “Israel will not be a party in the trilateral framework suggested by France.” Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi stressed: “The army is preparing to deal with Hezbollah.”Former Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz — a member who resigned from the war cabinet — said that “the best solution to end the war with Hezbollah on the northern front is a political solution.”Gantz added: “If we can prevent a war with Lebanon through political pressure, we will do it, and if not, we will move forward.” In his Friday sermon in Baalbak, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, the head of Hezbollah’s Shariah Council, said: “The resistance is bogging down the Israelis in Gaza’s mud, troubling it in the West Bank, and hitting it at its core by support fronts that have vowed to continue the path until the war on Gaza is stopped.”

Gallant Rules Out Macron’s Initiative
This Is Beirut/June 14/2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant rejected on Friday the initiative presented by French President Emmanuel Macron in which France, along with the US and Israel, formed a contact group to work on defusing tensions on the southern Lebanese border. “While we are fighting a just war in defense of our people, France adopts anti-Israeli policies,” Gallant said in a statement, emphasizing that “Israel will not be part of a French-proposed tripartite framework.” Macron had announced, during the G7 summit, that “France, the United States and Israel will work within a ‘trilateral’ framework on a French roadmap aimed at containing tensions on the border between Israel and Lebanon.” At the end of a first day of meetings in southern Italy, he told reporters, “We have all expressed our concern about the situation on the border with Lebanon, especially with the United States.” Macron proposed “adopting a trilateral principle (bringing together) Israel, the United States and France to move towards the roadmap we proposed,” revealing that he “will do the same with the Lebanese authorities.”

Report: US urges Hezbollah restraint after Abdallah's assassination
Naharnet/June 14/2024
Washington communicated with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri in the wake of Israel’s assassination of senior Hezbollah military commander Taleb Abdallah, a Western diplomatic source said. The U.S. “stressed the need for restraint, advising that Hezbollah should not be dragged into a miscalculation in its response to the assassination,” the source added, in remarks to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. The report comes after Hezbollah launched massive rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel for two consecutive days -- the fiercest since the eruption of skirmishes between the two sides on October 8.

Biden’s envoy Hochstein to visit Israel amid rising tensions with Hezbollah: Axios
LBCI/June 14/2024
President Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, will arrive in Israel on Monday in an effort to prevent the latest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah from turning into an all-out war, senior Israeli officials told Axios.

Gallant says Israel won't join Lebanon solution committee if Paris in it
Agence France Presse/June 14/2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said Israel will not join a trilateral framework proposed by France to defuse tensions with Lebanon, accusing Paris of “hostile policies against Israel.”“While the State of Israel is fighting the most just war in its history, France has shown hostility and enmity against us, while blatantly ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas’ terrorists against children and women -- just because they are Jews,” Gallant said in a post on the X platform. “We will not be partners in the committee to regulate the security situation on the northern border if France takes part in it,” he added. Gallant published another post on the X platform, this time in English, in which he openly said that Israel “will not be a party to the trilateral framework proposed by France.”An Israeli official, quoted by Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath channel, later said that the idea to create a U.S-French-Israeli framework had been initiatlly proposed by Israel. “After it (France) banned us from taking part in an arms exhibition, we will not discuss Lebanon’s file with it,” the official said. “We will discuss Lebanon’s file with Washington and not with France,” the official added. French President Emmanuel Macron had overnight said that his country, the United States and Israel would work together to ease tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border. France has been making diplomatic efforts to contain the volatile situation since January, as Hezbollah traded daily fire with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. In recent weeks, cross-border exchanges have escalated, raising fears of a regional conflagration. Speaking at a G7 summit Thursday in Italy, Macron said the three countries would "move forward on the road map that we have proposed. We will do the same with the Lebanese authorities."
The French proposal involves halting attacks on both sides and militants withdrawing 10 kilometers from the border, according to Lebanese officials. Informed diplomatic sources meanwhile told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that a tripartite American-French-Israeli summit will be held soon, in an effort to stop the war in Gaza and South Lebanon.

Southern Lebanon: Fire Exchange Resumes Between Hezbollah and Israel
RABIH DAHER / AFP/This Is Beirut /14 June 2024
Fire exchange resumed on Friday afternoon as Hezbollah stated “shelling buildings used by Israeli troops in Metula, with appropriate weaponry.”In another statement, Hezb claimed “launching rockets at an Israeli-troop gathering in Khallat Warde and achieving accurate targets.”Moreover, Hezbollah announced “targeting a deployment of Israeli soldiers in Barraam woods with rocket weaponry, and destroying a technical system at the Mtolle site with a swooping drone.”Earlier, the pro-Iranian group affirmed that an Israeli drone shelled Aitaroun with 3 guided missiles, while in the meantime, sirens sounded in Metula. On the other hand, the Israeli Army radio announced that “a house in Shtula, on the northern borders, was damaged after being hit by a rocket fired directly from Lebanon.”Meanwhile, Israeli artillery shelled Wadi al-Asafir and Aita al-Shaab. Moreover, Talousa and Kfarkila were targets for intense phosphorous bombing, where two cases of suffocation were reported. Two women were killed and 14 were injured overnight Thursday to Friday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a three-story building between the municipalities of Janata and Deir Qanoun Al-Nahr in the Tyre district in southern Lebanon. The Israeli Army confirmed the raid, indicating that it was not aimed at assassinating a Hezbollah official who was present in the building at the time of the raid, but it rather targeted a Hezbollah headquarters.

Two women killed in Israeli strike on Janata
Agence France Presse/June 14/2024
Two civilians were killed and at least seven others injured in an Israeli nighttime strike on southern Lebanon, the country's national news agency reported on Friday. Enemy warplanes launched a raid targeting a three-story house in the town of Janata in the Tyre district, killing a woman, Sally Skaiki, and injuring seven other civilians, the agency said.Sally Skaiki was a medical auxiliary in the Amal-affiliated al-Risala scout association.Another woman, Dalal Ezzeddine later died of her wounds, local media said. Israel vowed Thursday to respond forcefully to all Hezbollah attacks after the Iran-backed group launched rockets and explosive drones across the border for the second successive day in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander. "Israel will respond with force to all aggressions by Hezbollah," government spokesman David Mencer said during a press briefing, adding that "whether through diplomatic efforts or otherwise, Israel will restore security on our northern border." The escalation comes as some Israeli leaders have threatened all-out war to silence Hezbollah’s rocket fire, and as the militant group seeks to pressure Israel during the cease-fire negotiations in support of its ally Hamas.

Hezbollah shells Kiryat Shmona, Kfar Szold in response to Janata strike
Naharnet/June 14/2024
Hezbollah attacked Friday Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Szold with dozens of rockets, in response to an overnight strike that killed 2 women and injured several civilians in south Lebanon. Sirens sounded on Friday morning in northern Israel, and police said munitions had fallen in the Kiryat Shmona area, with no immediate sign of victims. Hezbollah said in a statement it has targeted the two Israeli settlements with Katyusha and Falaq rockets, in response to the strike on Janata that killed and injured civilians. The group later targeted buildings used by Israeli soldiers in Metula in north Israel, also in retaliation to the Janata strike. Hezbollah also targeted "in support of Gaza" Metula, three Israeli posts in the occupied Kfarshouba Heights, a group of soldiers in Khellet Wardeh and surveillance systems and equipment in Misgav Am and Jal al-Deir. Israeli artillery meanwhile shelled al-Khiam, Kfarkila, and the outskirts of Deir Mimas and Aita al-Shaab, while the southern border towns of Mays al-Jabal, Houla and al-Odaisseh were shelled with White Phosphorus bombs.Kfarkila and al-Odaisseh were also raided by Israeli warplanes. Two women were killed and at least seven civilians including children were injured overnight in the Israeli strike on the southern town of Janata in the Tyre district. In recent weeks, cross-border exchanges have escalated, with Hezbollah stepping up its use of drones to attack Israeli army positions and Israel hitting back with targeted strikes against the militants. Hezbollah vowed to "increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality" of its attacks, after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders. Israel vowed to respond forcefully. The cross-border violence has killed at least 468 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 89 civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed.

Northern front heats up: Potential war looms as Israeli Cabinet weighs Lebanon strategy
LBCI/June 14/2024
Amid rising tensions marked by fires and sirens in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, along with targeted strikes on specific military sites, the Israeli War Cabinet continued its deliberations on Friday morning regarding the escalating situation with Lebanon. The military has indicated that the situation is nearing the threshold of war. This follows the Cabinet's decision on Thursday evening to shift combat operations from Gaza to Lebanon, anticipated to occur after the Rafah operation concludes at the end of this month, accompanied by the mobilization of 300,000 reservist soldiers. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant rejected a French initiative proposing a trilateral committee including France, the United States, and Israel to seek a peaceful resolution with Lebanon, citing the mere involvement of France as a reason for dismissal. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv is maintaining consultations with Washington, with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council Chief Tzachi Hanegbi heading to the US to discuss Lebanon and Gaza. These talks come amid warnings from security and political officials that a war with Lebanon would be a reckless move. In the northern region, over 200,000 Israelis are reportedly under fire from Hezbollah rockets and drones, according to local officials. Sensitive strategic and military areas have been hit, though censorship has prevented the release of details. Disclosed information has also been shared about settlements, such as the occupied Golan, that have come under rocket fire. On the Gaza front, the Israeli military has intensified its operations in preparation for a potential northern shift. However, reservist soldiers and their families have threatened to rebel and abandon their positions in Gaza as a means to expedite a prisoner exchange deal and end the war, a stance that has not swayed military leadership. These developments further complicate progress on the prisoner exchange deal, with Israel refusing to make additional concessions and urging mediators to pressure Hamas into accepting the proposal put forth by President Joe Biden. Among the options being considered by Israeli leadership to pressure Hamas is the cessation of humanitarian aid.

Lebanon: Geagea Warns of Legal Measures against UNHCR over its Refugee Policy
Asharq Al Awsat/14 June 2024
Lebanese Party leader Samir Geagea said on Friday that he sent a message to the UN Secretary-General warning of legal measures to close the UNHCR’s regional office in Lebanon because of the latter’s “non-cooperation” on the issue of Syrian refugees. Geagea said he handed the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres. “Lebanon is suffering from massive crises and problems, most of which is the random and chaotic presence of illegal Syrian refugees”, said Geagea in a statement on Facebook. Criticizing the UNHCR’s handling of the years-long presence of refugees, he said: “what makes things worse is the UNHCR’s handling of the issue and how it embarks on incorporating the Syrians in the Lebanese fabric instead of finding a third country to naturalize them, or even return them back to their homeland”.Geagea accused the UNHCR of withholding information about documented Syrians and abstaining from forwarding them to official authorities in Lebanon”, according to the Arab Press Agency. He accused the agency of “infringing on Lebanon’s sovereignty” by providing Syrian refugees with residency permits and “refugee” IDs. In his message, Geagea asked Guterres to make the UNHCR stop these practices and to share its data, related to illegal Syrians, with the authorities in Lebanon on a regular basis. He said the UNHCR must respect the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Lebanese General Security and the UNHCR in 2003, stipulating that Lebanon is not a country of asylum, but merely a country of transit. The LF chief concluded by saying that legal measures would be taken if the agency does not abide. UNHCR offices in Beirut could be closed down and its activities suspended, he noted. Lebanon, which has been mired in a crushing economic crisis since late 2019, says it hosts around two million Syrians, the world's highest number of refugees per capita, with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.

Israeli Channel 12: Army recommends ending Rafah operation to move forward with the attack on Lebanon
LBCI/June 14/2024
The Israeli army recommended on Friday that the political leadership end the Rafah operation as soon as possible and move forward with the attack on Lebanon, according to the Israeli Channel 12.

NNA: Tallouseh in South Lebanon shelled with white phosphorous; two cases of suffocation due to fire in Kfarkela
LBCI/June 14/2024
On Friday, the National News Agency(NNA) revealed that Tallouseh in South Lebanon was shelled with white phosphorous. In addition, two cases of suffocation were reported due to the outbreak of fire in Kfarkela.

Ihab Matar to LBCI: Hezbollah-Israel conflict is a show of power; no interest in electing a president
LBCI/June 14/2024
MP Ihab Matar described the current tensions between Hezbollah and Israel as a "show of power," with both sides displaying their military capabilities. Matar predicted that the situation would remain unchanged. On LBCI's "Nharkom Said" TV show, he noted that Israel has failed to eliminate the presence of Hamas in Palestine, suggesting that a solution requires some form of partnership with the Palestinian Authority. Matar highlighted that Israel does not want southern Lebanon to fall entirely under Hezbollah's control. He indicated that both parties might accept certain conditions, with US mediator Amos Hochstein potentially facilitating an agreement. "As a Lebanese MP and citizen, I support Palestinians' right to defend themselves on their land, but within Palestine," Matar said. "We, the Lebanese people, sympathize with them politically, diplomatically, and humanely. However, it is not our duty to engage in a battle on land that is not ours," he continued. Furthermore, Matar stated there is no decision to escalate the conflict now. He hoped those handling the issue would exercise wisdom, de-escalate the situation, and work towards a ceasefire to prevent the war from expanding. "Official Lebanon, its residents, our struggling economy, and even expatriate Lebanese cannot bear it," he said. On the presidency file, Matar remarked that no one in Lebanon currently wants a president. "If there was a desire to elect a president, Baabda Palace would have been open for over a year now," he said. Matar also commented that Sleiman Frangieh, a presidential candidate, is not being asked to withdraw from the race, emphasizing his opposition to any form of external directives.

Bassil calls for 12 electoral rounds over three days
Naharnet/June 14/2024
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that he is “not carrying out an initiative, but rather an effort to finalize the presidential juncture.”“We agree with Speaker Nabih Berri that the priority is for consensus over a president prior to the election, which would give a success chance to the new presidential tenure, contrary to the approach of confrontation,” Bassil said at a press conference that he held to announce the outcome of his meetings. “The guarantee would be that those who attend the dialogue would commit not to boycott the electoral sessions, and the consultations period would be limited. We would then hold successive sessions with successive rounds in order to reach a result,” Bassil added. As for the controversy over Berri’s chairmanship of the consultation sessions, the FPM chief said “it would be normal for Berri to preside over the consultation sessions,” noting that “the proposed consultations will not become a norm.”“Speaker Berri and everyone are willing to declare that it will not become a norm and that there is an extraordinary situation that necessitates the election of a president,” Bassil went on to say. “Any talk of eliminating anyone is meaningless and the sessions will be successive for three days and each session will involve four rounds (of voting),” Bassil explained, noting that “nomination would be limited to two candidates should no result be reached after 12 electoral rounds.”

Report: Hezbollah still clinging to Franjieh after Bassil's tour
Naharnet/June 14/2024
The latest presidential initiative of Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has failed to achieve any positive result, al-Akhbar newspaper quoted several sources as saying, while noting that Hezbollah is still backing Suleiman Franjieh’s nomination.
“The stance of the (Shiite) Duo has not change and he (Bassil) knows that what he is doing is an ill-timed maneuver,” the sources said. “The public stance that he has adopted regarding the issue of dialogue is a good and needed step, but the intended objective blows up all formalities and it has become clear,” the sources added. As for the opposition front, most its parties believe that Bassil is “seeking to replace Walid Jumblat in the centrist and kingmaker position and to establish himself as a side that is independent from both camps so that he later become acceptable as a consensual candidate should the circumstances allow him to nominate himself,” al-Akhbar said. Quoting opposition sources, the daily added that the opposition “will not grant him this.”“He once uses the opposition card to press Hezbollah into giving up its support for Suleiman Franjieh and another time he uses the same card to boost his future chances,” al-Akhbar said.

Mikati urges world to stop Israel's 'terrorist aggression'
Naharnet/June 14/2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday condemned “the continuation of the Israeli attacks on the south and the deliberate killing of its people.”During a Cabinet session, Mikati also decried “the destruction of towns and the burning of crops,” calling on the international community to “put an end to the destructive and terrorist aggression.”“In turn, we will resort to the competent international authorities and we reiterate our commitment to the full implementation of Resolution 1701,” which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Mikati added. His remarks come hours after an Israeli airstrike on the southern town of Jannata killed two women and wounded around 12 people.

Presidential Election: Frangieh Wary of the Dialogue
Bassam Abou Zeid /This Ia Beirut/June 14/2024
Many political forces, particularly the opposition led by the Lebanese Forces (LF), are aiming to replicate the presidential election scenario of June 14, 2023. In that election session, Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the Marada Movement who is backed by the Hezbollah-Amal duo, received 51 votes, while Dr. Jihad Azour, the candidate supported by the opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), received 59 votes. In public statements, the opposition and the FPM still maintain their support for Azour’s candidacy, with no plans to abandon him unless the Shiite duo drops Frangieh who seems concerned that the dialogue and earnest efforts towards consensus might lead to his replacement as a candidate. Hezbollah had informed French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian about its openness to discussing alternative names on the dialogue table without officially withdrawing their support to Frangieh. Given this reality, Frangieh does not appear enthusiastic about dialogue. On the anniversary of the assassination of his family members in Ehden in 1978, he underscored his initiative, which aims to compete with the other Christian leaders—Samir Geagea, Gebran Bassil, and Samy Gemayel—in the presidential race. He quickly refined this initiative to frame the competition primarily between himself and the LF leader, creating a political contest between two distinct choices: one aligned with Hezbollah and the other opposed to it. Frangieh perceives this confrontation as a nearly certain path to the presidency. He believes that maintaining the quorum and garnering support from centrist political forces over Geagea would increase his chances to become the future president. This approach allows him to potentially ascend to the presidency without publicly opposing dialogue, thereby avoiding personal embarrassment. It also prevents any discomfort for the Shiite duo should they opt to support a third candidate. Furthermore, the process would appear highly democratic, ensuring it does not provoke anger from Arab and international quarters. Observers of the political Lebanese situation suggest that according to available information, there will be no presidential election, regardless of whether dialogue takes place or not. Hezbollah privately wishes this outcome, despite saying otherwise publicly. However, openly declaring this stance would provide its opponents with more evidence of its obstructive role. Therefore, Hezbollah appears to welcome both local and international initiatives and encourages them. Concurrently, it strategically divides roles between itself and Berri, with each side signaling either positive or negative indicators until the time is right for regional reconciliation.

Vatican Secretary of State to visit Lebanon next week
Naharnet/June 14/2024
Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin is visiting Lebanon next week, after he met at the Vatican last week with French Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian. Parolin and Le Drian discussed the situation in Lebanon, the presidential crisis, and the results of the Quintet's efforts, media reports said. "I was at the Vatican yesterday as a personal envoy of the President of the French Republic to discuss Lebanon with Cardinal Parolin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Holy See," Le Drian wrote on the X platform after meeting Parolin last week. Parolin will meet with Lebanese leaders and officials, including Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker PM Najib Mikati, and Christian spiritual leaders, al-Joumhouria newspaper said Friday.

Port Soldier Killer Arrested
This Is Beirut/June 14/2024
The Lebanese Army Intelligence arrested, on Friday, the killer of the soldier who was assigned to guard the Beirut Port, after spotting and tracking him through surveillance cameras. A Lebanese soldier, on guard duty in the vicinity of the Port of Beirut, had been found shot dead on Thursday night. According to a statement by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), “The soldier was found dead with two gunshot wounds from a handgun, and his weapon was missing.”

Iran’s FM warns Israel against attack on Lebanon amid Hezbollah's attacks
Seth J. Frantzman/June 14/2024
Meanwhile Iran continued to support attacks on Israel in the region. The pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen media noted that Palestinian terrorists in Jenin had fought with the IDF. Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani is already making his mark in the region. On his first important foreign trip, he is in Iraq this week where he warned Israel against attacking Lebanon. This comes after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah commander responsible for the “Nasser” sector of southern Lebanon. The sector is south of the Litani river and covers the border region with Israel between Bint Jbeil and Mount Hermon. Bagheri Kani warned Israel against an attack on Lebanon, as Hezbollah has fired more than 315 rockets in two days between June 12 and 13 at Israel. He warned Israel that the “ramifications could backfire against Zionists as a result of that conflict.” He is currently spending two days in Iraq. On Thursday, he met with Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji. “Elsewhere in his remarks, the top diplomat said that Zionists made a mistake by attacking the Iranian embassy compound and received a crushing response,” Iran’s IRNA media said. Lebanese media focusing on chances of escalation with Israel
Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen media has focused on the chances of escalation with Israel and reported that a US official has also sought to reduce tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border. Lebanon’s military chief Gen. Joseph Aoun was recently in Washington for discussions about this.The Iranian diplomat then met with Iraqi Prime Minster Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, in order to discuss the region. “The two diplomats discussed the brutal atrocities committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza and referred to the severe repercussions of the Zionists’ crimes in the enclave,” Iranian IRNA state media said. The men also discussed security, education, energy, and transportation. According to several reports Hamas has opened a new office in Iraq. According to a report a delegation from the Iraqi Shiite militia Kataib al Imam Ali was present. The opening of the office was posted on Telegram by a group linked to the Popular Mobilization Units of Shi’ite militias. Iran backs Hamas and Shi’ite militias in Iraq have supported attacks on Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran and Qatar signed a judicial agreement. “The document was inked between Iran’s Minister of Justice Amin-Hossein Rahimi and Qatari Attorney General Issa bin Saad Al Nuaimi on Wednesday during a visit by Iran’s Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei and a high-ranking judicial delegation to Qatar,” IRNA noted. Bagheri Kani also spoke to EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell this week. This is part of a play by Bagheri Kani to show he is up to the work of his predecessor who helped Iran navigate the region over the last years and brought Iran much closer to Russia and China. Iran spoke about Gaza with Borrell, who has often been very critical of Israel.
Meanwhile Iran continued to support attacks on Israel in the region. The pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen media noted that Palestinian terrorists in Jenin had fought with the IDF. The Houthis also attacked ships in the Red Sea on June 13. “Today the Iranian-backed Houthis launched two anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) into the Gulf of Aden. Both missiles struck M/V Verbena, a Palauan-flagged, Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated bulk cargo carrier. M/V Verbena most recently docked in Malaysia and was enroute to Italy carrying wood construction material. M/V Verbena reported damage and subsequent fires on board. The crew continues to fight the fire. One civilian mariner was severely injured during the attack,” US Central Command said. Iranian state media also highlighted the fires set off by Hezbollah attacks on Israel on June 13. Some of them have come close to the city of Safed. Iranian proxies have appeared to cheer the fires in Israel. Iran is also working on a normalization deal with Egypt. Iran’s foreign minister will be called upon to likely push for closer Iran-Egypt ties. Iran will also be concerned about reports about the rest of the Gulf. It may seek outreach to Bahrain according to reports. In addition he will have to shore up ties with Turkey and with Russia and China. China is pushing for potential talks with Palestinian factions.

Pay-to-slay: Lebanese Christians question gov't's decision to pay Hezbollah fighters' families
Maarive, Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
According to the Saudi news channel Al-Hadath, the Lebanese government decided to grant financial aid of $20,000 for each heir of a Hezbollah casualty. A news broadcaster on the Saudi news channel Al-Hadath revealed that the government in Lebanon has decided to provide compensation to the relatives of Hezbollah terrorists who have fallen during the terror group's recent escalation with Israel.The Lebanese government decided to grant financial aid of $20,000 for each heir of a Hezbollah casualty. According to the Al-Hadath broadcaster, "the decision was unanimously by the government." The Al-Hadath news broadcaster continued to explain that Lebanon's government's decision created a divide among Lebanese citizens regarding eligibility for these compensations. "Hezbollah has decided to go to war without consulting the government even though the state is sometimes unable to pay employees' salaries regularly," the news broadcaster explained.
A bribe for Hezbollah
Lebanese Forces (LF) party member Dr. Ghada Ayoub submitted a request to the Lebanese government for clarification on the legality of the aid payments. Another source told Al-Hadath that the Lebanese cabinet had unanimously approved the aid payments at the request of southern local councils associated with Hezbollah. Additionally, the Lebanese parliament is examining a bill to exempt residents of southern Lebanon from paying taxes and fines due to the current situation on the border. Ayoub called the move a bribe to Hezbollah, which would cost the Lebanese taxpayer significantly. Ayoub has been a persistent anti-Hezbollah campaigner, condemning Hezbollah for occupying Christian land in Lebanon last April.

Israeli "High-Tech" Incompetence: Zionists Resort to Medieval Weapons on Lebanon Border
Lebanon Iznogood/Friday, June 14, 2024
Having scored its invincibility reputation by fighting off incompetent conventional Arab armies back in the 1940s and 1970s, the Zionist colonial settler army finds itself helpless in fighting guerilla warfare in both Palestine and South Lebanon. Given their desperation at ever winning such a war by conventional means, despite their breast-feeding mother America supplying them with the latest high-tech weaponry, the Jewish colonial settler troops were recently caught resorting to medieval "trebuchet" weapons, catapults and slingshots in their fighting at the Lebanese border. Some sightings have also been reported of Israeli soldiers hurling rocks across the border, inspired it seems by the main Palestinian resistance weapon: rocks and stones. A trebuchet is a medieval siege weapon made of wood with a long arm that, when released, catapults a projectile — in this case, a fireball — at its target.
The news of this regression of the "invincible" Israeli army sparked consternation and confusion, as it shows how helpless the Jewish colony in Palestine has become at defending itself, let alone win any war since 1973. The trebuchet largely disappeared from the battlefield in the 15th century. It slings a flaming projectile over a fortified wall. One soldier was seen holding a fire extinguisher in case the trebushet malfunctions and throws the projectile at him or his fellow soldiers. A Zionist military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the embarassment, said the weapon was authorized by the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) because of the difficulty it is facing at controlling the situation in northern Israel where 100,000 Jewish settlers were evacuated further south for the past 8 months and have not been able to return to their settlements (which are built atop ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages). In an attempt to hide the embarassment, the Zionist military official said that these medieval weapons were sanctioned by the leadership only in an attempt at burning away thick shrubbery along the border where Hezbollah terrorists are stationed. The Israel Death Forces did not respond to a request for a formal comment. The low-tech siege weapon appeared to be made of wood and rope in contrast to the high-tech weaponry that has become standard in modern warfare. Unfortunately for the Jewish settler troops, the trebuchet is not a precision weapon, which confirms the level of desperation in the Jewish colony in Palestine.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 14-15/2024
Video Link for an interview with president trump from Dr. Phil site/رابط فيديو مقابلة مع الرئيس ترامب من موقع د. فيل
June 14, 20241
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/130719/video-link-for-an-interview-with-president-trump-from-dr-phil-site-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%b7-%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%88-%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a6/
One-on-One with Donald Trump: Dr. Phil sits down with President Trump for a one-on-one interview where nothing is off limits. Following this interview, Dr. Phil holds a town hall meeting to speak with viewers about their reaction to his interview with Donald Trump.

Biden says no Gaza cease-fire deal soon, as mediators work to bridge gaps
Associated Press/June 14, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden said he doesn’t expect to seal a Gaza cease-fire deal in the near future, as an American-backed proposal with global support has not been fully embraced by Israel or Hamas. Biden said Thursday that international leaders had discussed the cease-fire at the Group of Seven summit in Italy, but when asked by reporters if a truce deal wound be reached soon, Biden replied simply, “No,” adding, “I haven’t lost hope.” The Palestinian militant group responded to the proposal this week by offering changes, which it said aim to guarantee a permanent cease-fire and complete Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. The proposal announced by Biden includes those provisions, but Hamas has expressed wariness whether Israel will implement the terms. Earlier Thursday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan pushed back against assertions that Israel isn’t fully committed to the cease-fire plan. Sullivan said the goal is “to figure out how we work to bridge the remaining gaps and get to a deal.”And on the Israel-Lebanon border, Hezbollah militants launched rockets and explosive drones against Israeli military posts for a second day in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander. The escalation comes as some Israeli leaders have threatened all-out war to silence Hezbollah’s rocket fire, and as the militant group seeks to pressure Israel during the cease-fire negotiations in support of its ally Hamas.Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July. Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

G7 says UNRWA, UN agencies must work unhindered in Gaza
AFP/June 14, 2024
BARI, Italy: G7 leaders said Friday the UN Palestinian refugee agency must be allowed to work unhindered in war-torn Gaza, in a statement at the end of their talks in Italy. “We agree it is critical that UNRWA and other UN organizations and agencies’ distribution networks be fully able to deliver aid to those who need it most, fulfilling their mandate effectively,” the Group of Seven nations said. They called for all parties to facilitate “rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need” in Gaza, particularly women and children. “Securing full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access in all its forms — consistent with international humanitarian law, and through all relevant land crossing points, including the Rafah crossing, through maritime delivery routes, including through Ashdod Port — and throughout all of Gaza remains an absolute priority,” they said. UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. That prompted many governments, including top donor the United States, to suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza, although several have since resumed payments. An independent review of UNRWA, led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” but said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its main allegations. In a draft statement, the G7 leaders repeated concern at the “unacceptable number of civilian casualties” in the Hamas-Israel war, now into its ninth month. They again endorsed a truce and hostage release deal. The Gaza war began after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,266 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.

Hamas official says ‘no one has any idea’ how many Israeli hostages are still alive
Ben Wedeman, Muhammad Darwish and Ivana Kottasová, CNN/Fri, June 14, 2024
The fate of the 120 remaining hostages in Gaza is crucial to any deal to end the protracted and bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas. But a senior Hamas official has told CNN that “no one has an idea” how many of them are alive, and that any deal to release them must include guarantees of a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. In an interview with CNN, Hamas spokesperson and political bureau member Osama Hamdan offered an insight into the militant group’s position on the stalled ceasefire talks, a view on whether Hamas regrets its decision to attack Israel given the mounting Palestinian death toll, and a commentary on the leak earlier this week of messages from its chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the man believed to be the ultimate decision-maker on any peace deal. The US believes that Hamas holds the key to the talks. “The haggling has to stop,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC on Thursday, urging Sinwar to end the war. “He’s relatively safe underground; the people that he purports to represent, they’re suffering every day.” Speaking to CNN in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Hamdan said the latest proposal on the table – an Israeli plan that was first publicly announced by US President Joe Biden late last month – did not meet the group’s demands for an end to the war.Hamdan, who has been part of the Hamas negotiations team on the ground, told CNN that the group needed “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange.”Negotiations over the US-backed proposal have intensified in recent days but appeared to grind to a halt on Wednesday after Hamas presented its response to the document, 12 days after first receiving it.
Blinken expressed frustration over what he said was Hamas’s decision to submit “numerous changes,” describing some of them as going “beyond positions (Hamas) had previously taken.”“Some of the changes are workable. Some are not,” Blinken said at a news conference in Doha on Wednesday.
The US-backed ceasefire plan that was approved by the United Nations Security Council on Monday lays out a phased approach. In the first phase, there would be a six-week ceasefire in which some hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and the Israeli military would pull out of populated areas in Gaza. The second phase – a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza – would only be implemented after further negotiations between the two sides. But Hamdan told CNN the duration of the ceasefire was a key issue for Hamas, which is concerned that Israel has no intention of following through with the second phase of the deal. The end of hostilities must be permanent, he said, and Israel must withdraw from Gaza completely. “The Israelis want the ceasefire only for six weeks and then they want to go back to the fight, which I think the Americans, till now, they did not convince the Israelis to accept (a permanent ceasefire),” he said, adding that he believes the US needs to convince Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire as part of the deal. Israel has not yet publicly committed to the deal, even though the White House has repeatedly stressed that it was an Israeli plan that the government had accepted. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been under pressure to announce his support for the current plan, has repeatedly said that the war will not end until Israel eliminates Hamas. Blinken told NBC that Netanyahu “reconfirmed” to him “that Israel supported this proposal and was ready to say yes” when he saw him couple of days ago, and placed the blame for stalled negotiations squarely on Hamas. “Hamas has to demonstrate that it too wants this to end. If it does, we can bring it to an end. If it doesn’t, then it means that it wants the war to continue,” Blinken said.
Question of responsibility
Speaking to CNN inside a modest office decorated with a large map of Gaza and panoramic photo of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Hamdan repeatedly deflected any questions about Hamas’ role in the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. He called the October 7 terror attacks, which sparked the current war in Gaza, “a reaction against the occupation.” The October 7 attack was the deadliest assault in Israel’s history. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and also took some 250 people hostage into Gaza. Israel was quick to retaliate, immediately declaring war on Hamas and launching an intense campaign of bombardment followed by a ground invasion several weeks later. That operation has had a devastating impact on the Palestinians of Gaza. More than 37,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the strip. Some 90% of people living in the territory are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting.
While the Gazan authorities do not distinguish between casualties among civilians and Hamas fighters, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has previously admitted the majority of those killed in the operation were civilians. Asked repeatedly by CNN whether Hamas regretted its decision to attack Israel, Hamdan responded by blaming the situation on Israel and saying the attack was “a reaction against the occupation.”“The one who is in charge or responsible for that is (the Israeli) occupation. If you resist the occupation, (they) will kill you, if you did not resist the occupation, (they) also will kill you and deport you out of your country. So what we are supposed to do, just to wait?,” he said. Hamdan also dismissed as fake reports that Sinwar suggested the deaths of thousands of Palestinians were “necessary sacrifices.” Sinwar has not been seen in public since the October 7 attacks. He is believed to be hiding in Gaza, somewhere inside the tunnel network that runs underneath the strip. He has been designated as a terrorist by the US, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields and earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published what it said were leaked messages from Sinwar to other Hamas leaders in which he allegedly expressed an uncompromising determination to continue fighting, regardless of the human cost.
Hamdan told CNN the messages “were fake.”
“It was fake messages done by someone who is not Palestinian and (it) was sent (to the) Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against Hamas and provoking the people against the leader,” he said without providing evidence. “No one can accept the killing of the Palestinians, of his own people.”
Destroying Hamas?
When Israel launched its war on Hamas, Netanyahu said the objectives were to “destroy Hamas and bring back hostages held in Gaza.” But more than eight months on, the goal of eliminating the group completely appears unachievable. While the IDF has killed some Hamas commanders, the top leadership in Gaza, including Sinwar, continues to evade them. And despite the damage caused to its infrastructure, Hamas also continues to fire rockets towards Israel, albeit much more sporadically than at the outset of the conflict.
American intelligence officials believe that Sinwar likely believes Hamas can survive Israel’s attempt to destroy it. At the same time, Netanyahu is under increasing pressure to reach a deal that would secure the return of the remaining hostages still in Gaza. Israel believes that more than 70 hostages of the more than 100 who are still held in Gaza to be alive. Speaking to CNN, Hamdan said he didn’t know how many were still alive. “I don’t have any idea about that. No one has an idea about this,” he said, alleging – without providing any evidence – that the Israeli operation to free four of the hostages on Saturday resulted in the deaths of three others, including an American citizen. There are fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known. In April, Hamas told international mediators that it was not able to fulfill Israel’s demand to free 40 of the remaining hostages in the first phase of a deal, including all the women as well as sick and elderly men, because it did not hold 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release. Opposition leader Benny Gantz, who quit the Israeli war cabinet last weekend, was asked by an Israeli TV channel on Thursday whether Israel knew how many hostages are alive. He responded by saying: “We know (a) very close number,” he responded. Asked about the testimony of a doctor who treated the released hostages and said they suffered mental and physical abuse and were beaten every hour, Hamdan again blamed Israel for their suffering. “I believe if they have mental problem, this is because of what Israel have done in Gaza. Because (no one can) handle what Israel is doing, bombing each day, killing civilians, killing women and children … they saw that (with) their own eyes,” he said, adding that comparing images of the hostages taken before and after the eight-months long captivity shows “they were better than before” – a claim that is demonstrably false.

US-built pier in Gaza is facing its latest challenge - whether the UN will keep delivering the aid
Ellen Knickmeyer And Edith M. Lederer/WASHINGTON (AP)/June 14, 2024
The U.S.-built pier to bring food to Gaza is facing one of its most serious challenges yet — its humanitarian partner is deciding if it can safely and ethically keep delivering supplies arriving by the U.S. sea route to starving Palestinians. The United Nations, the player with the widest reach delivering aid within Gaza, has paused its work with the pier after a June 8 operation by Israeli security forces that rescued four Israeli hostages and killed more than 270 Palestinians. Rushing out a mortally wounded Israeli commando after the raid, Israeli rescuers opted against returning the way they came, across a land border, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters. Instead, they sped toward the beach and the site of the U.S. aid hub on Gaza’s coast, he said. An Israeli helicopter touched down near the U.S.-built pier and helped whisk away hostages and the commando, according to the U.S. and Israeli militaries. For the U.N. and independent humanitarian groups, the event made real one of their main doubts about the U.S. sea route: Whether aid workers could cooperate with the U.S. military-backed, Israeli military-secured project without violating core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence and without risking aid workers becoming seen as U.S. and Israeli allies — and in turn, targets in their own right. Israel and the U.S. deny that any aspect of the month-old U.S. pier was used in the Israeli raid. They say an area near it was used to fly home the hostages after. The U.N. World Food Program, which works with the U.S. to transfer aid from the $230 million pier to warehouses and local aid teams for distribution within Gaza, suspended cooperation as it conducts a security review. Aid has been piling up on the beach since. “You can be damn sure we are going to be very careful about what we assess and what we conclude,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. Griffiths told reporters at an aid conference in Jordan this week that determining whether the Israeli raid improperly used either the beach or roads around the pier “would put at risk any future humanitarian engagement in that operation.”
The U.N. has to look at the facts as well as what the Palestinian public and militants believe about any U.S., pier or aid worker involvement in the raid, spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
“Humanitarian aid must not be used and must not be perceived as taking any side in a conflict,” Haq said. “The safety of our humanitarian workers depends on all sides and the communities on the ground trusting their impartiality.” Rumors have swirled on social media, deepening the danger to aid workers, humanitarian groups say. “Whether or not we've seen the pier used for military purposes is almost irrelevant. Because the perception of people in Gaza, civilians and armed groups, is that humanitarian aid has been instrumentalized" by parties in the conflict, said Suze van Meegen, head of operations in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council. Oxfam International and some other aid organizations said they are waiting for answers from the U.S. government because it's responsible for the agreements with the U.N. and other humanitarian groups on how the pier and aid deliveries would function. Questions include whether the Israeli helicopters and security forces used what the U.S. had promised aid groups would be a no-go area for the Israeli military around the pier, said Scott Paul, an associate director at Oxfam. The suspension of deliveries is only one of the problems that have hindered the pier, which President Joe Biden announced in March as an additional way to get aid to Palestinians. The U.S. has said the project was never a solution and have urged Israel to lift restrictions on aid shipments through land crossings as famine looms.
The first aid from the sea route rolled onto shore May 17, and work has been up and down since:
— May 18: Crowds overwhelmed aid trucks coming from the pier, stripping some of the trucks of their cargo. The WFP suspended deliveries from the pier for at least two days while it worked out alternate routes with the U.S. and Israel.
— May 24: A bit more than 1,000 metric tons of aid had been delivered to Gaza from the pier, and the U.S. Agency for International Development later said all of it was distributed within Gaza. — May 25: High winds and heavy seas damaged the pier and four U.S. Army vessels ran aground, injuring three service members, one critically. Crews towed away part of the floating dock in what became a two-week pause in operations.
— June 8: The U.S. military announced that deliveries resumed off the repaired and reinstalled project. The Israeli military operation unfolded the same day.
— Sunday: World Food Program chief Cindy McCain announced a “pause” in cooperation with the U.S. pier, citing the previous day's “incident” and the rocketing of two WFP warehouses that injured a staffer.
“The WFP, of course, is taking the security measures that they need to do, and the reviews that they need to do, in order to feel safe and secure and to operate within Gaza,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said this week.
The pier has brought to Gaza more than 2,500 metric tons (about 5.6 million pounds) of aid, Singh said. About 1,000 metric tons of that was brought by ship Tuesday and Wednesday — after the WFP pause — and is being stored on the beach awaiting distribution. Now, the question is whether the U.N. will rejoin the effort. For aid workers who generally work without weapons or armed guards, and for those they serve, “the best guarantee of our security is the acceptance of communities” that aid workers are neutral, said Paul, the Oxfam official. Palestinians already harbored deep doubts about the pier given the lead role of the U.S., which sends weapons and other support to its ally Israel, said Yousef Munayyer, a senior fellow at Washington's Arab Center, an independent organization researching Israeli-Arab issues.
Distrustful Palestinians suffering in the Israel-Hamas war are being asked to take America at its word, and that’s a hard sell, said Munayyer, an American of Palestinian heritage. “So you know, perception matters a lot,” he said. “And for the people who are literally putting their lives on the line to get humanitarian aid moving around a war zone, perception gets you in danger.”

In northern Gaza, starved families survive on bread alone
Nidal al-Mughrabi/CAIRO (Reuters)/June 14, 2024
In the north of the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been hit hardest by hunger, residents say acute shortages of vegetables, fruit and meat means they are surviving on bread alone. Food that can be found in the market is being sold at exorbitant prices, they said: a kilo of green peppers, which cost about a dollar before the war, was priced at 320 shekels or nearly $90. Traders demanded $70 for just a kilo of onions. "We are being starved, the world has forgotten about us," said Um Mohammed, a mother of six in Gaza City. She has remained there throughout more than eight months of Israeli bombardments. But she and her family have left their home for designated shelters in U.N. schools several times. "Except for the flour, bread, we have nothing else, we don't have anything to eat it with, so we eat bread only," she said. In late May, the Israeli military lifted a ban on the sale of fresh food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and international aid workers said. But in social media posts, Gazans accused unscrupulous merchants of exploiting needs by buying goods at regular prices in Israel and the West Bank and selling them at a huge mark-up. They said traders are taking advantage of a breakdown of policing in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. "There's no meat or vegetables and if something is available, it is being sold at unbelievable, fictional prices," Um Mohammed told Reuters via a chat app. The flow of U.N. aid in the devastated Palestinian territory has been heavily squeezed since the start of Israeli military operations in Rafah in south Gaza, the key gateway into the enclave from Egypt. Israel is coming under mounting global pressure to ease the crisis as humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine. Israel says it puts no limit on humanitarian supplies for civilians in Gaza and has blamed the United Nations for slow deliveries, saying its operations are inefficient. On Friday, witnesses said planes dropped aid boxes on areas in Al-Karara and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. "A significant proportion of Gaza's population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. Tedros said more than 8,000 children under five in Gaza had been diagnosed with and treated for acute malnutrition, including 1,600 children with severe acute malnutrition. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Friday that 27 children had died of malnutrition in the enclave since the start of the war last October. "A humanitarian tragedy is hitting northern Gaza and the ghost of famine is looming in the air," the ministry said. Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killing more than 37,000 people, according to its health authorities, and left much of the population homeless and destitute. On Friday, Gaza's Chamber of Commerce issued an urgent appeal to the international community to put pressure on Israel to allow the entry of urgently needed aid. "In addition to the shortage of food, water and medicine, the northern Gaza Strip suffers from a severe shortage of many basic necessities of life, including public and personal hygiene materials," it said in a statement. "With the lack of fuel and electricity, and the lack of health care services, hospitals have gone out of service, and a complete destruction of all public and private facilities has occurred."

UN official: Food supplies in southern Gaza at risk
Reuters/June 14, 2024
Supplies of food to southern Gaza are at risk after Israel extended its military operations and those displaced by the offensive there face a public health crisis, a senior United Nations official said on Friday. While hunger and the risk of famine has been most acute in northern Gaza in recent months, the situation is now deteriorating in the south, said Carl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Program. "We had stocked up before the operation in Rafah so that we had put food into the hands of people, but that's beginning to run out and we don't have the same access that we need, that we used to have," Skau said after a two-day trip to Gaza."It's a displacement crisis that brings a protection catastrophe really, that a million or so people who have been pushed out of Rafah are now really crammed into a small space along the beach," said Skau."It's hot, the sanitation situation is just terrible. We were driving through rivers of sewage. And it's a public health crisis in the making."Distribution of aid has been hampered by military operations, delayed Israeli authorizations and increasing lawlessness within Gaza. Skau said that although more food was reaching northern Gaza, basic healthcare, water and sanitation was needed to "turn the curve in the north on famine completely." Israel needed to let more healthcare goods into Gaza, he said.

Hamas’ armed wing says Israeli airstrike killed two hostages in Rafah
REUTERS/June 14, 2024
CAIRO: Hamas’ armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Friday that two Israeli hostages held in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah a few days ago. The group, in a video posted on its Telegram channel, did not release the names of those said to have been killed or provide any evidence. The Israeli government “does not want your hostages to return, except in coffins,” the Al-Qassam Brigades statement said. Israel rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a hostage-freeing operation in central Gaza’s Al-Nuseirat on June 8. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 250 Palestinians were killed in the raid. The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has responded with a military assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel says its campaign is intended to eliminate Hamas as a threat and free the remaining hostages.

Human rights groups join legal review of UK arms sales to Israel
ARAB NEWS/June 14, 2024
LONDON: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam will be able to provide evidence to a High Court judicial review of UK arms sales to Israel. The decision, made by a judge on Thursday, will see the three prominent groups submit testimony to the review launched by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network. The case is expected to be heard in October, with UK government lawyers having previously sought to block HRW and Amnesty from submitting evidence. It comes after it was revealed that the UK government has issued over 100 new arms export licenses for Israel since Oct. 7. UK Department for Business and Trade data also showed that no licenses have been revoked in that period, during which more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. The UK government is legally obligated to suspend licenses if it is found that exported weapons could be used to break international law, which numerous organizations, including GLAN and Al-Haq, say has already happened. HRW and Amnesty had requested that they be allowed to participate in the review as they are “better placed in terms of capacity and resources” than GLAN and Al-Haq to contribute evidence due to “several decades” of experience in the field. Amnesty International UK’s CEO Sacha Deshmukh said in a statement: “This is a very welcome decision and we look forward to presenting our evidence to the court. We’ve always believed it was vital that the court has the fullest opportunity to review expert human rights evidence from ourselves and Human Rights Watch. “Our evidence demonstrates the gap between the Israeli military and political leadership’s policies and practices and their legal obligations, and shows how this gap has resulted in Israeli forces repeatedly committing grave breaches of international humanitarian law. “The UK’s continued sale of components for equipment such as US-made F-35 jets despite the clear risk that these could be used by Israel in the commission of serious violations of international law is making a mockery of the UK’s own arms export rules and needs to be stopped as a matter of urgency.”HRW’s UK director, Yasmine Ahmed, said in a statement: “We welcome the court’s decision to allow Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to intervene with key evidence in this critical case. “In the face of Israel’s ongoing crimes in Gaza, the UK government presents the nonsensical argument that it is lawful to continue sending arms to Israel on the basis that Israel is committed to complying with international law. Our evidence shows the exact opposite. “Time and again, Israel’s official statements, policies and practice are in direct contradiction with international law and the results are clear to see: children in Gaza are dying of starvation and starvation-related illnesses. “It is critical that the Government’s justification for arming Israel is properly scrutinized by the UK courts.“The law is very clear: licenses should be suspended when there is a clear risk that arms and military equipment might be used to facilitate or commit serious violations of international law. “As Israel continues to carry out widespread serious violations, including war crimes, the UK should immediately suspend arms licenses to avoid breaching its own laws and being complicit in these grave abuses.
“While this decision is of course welcome, it is a sorry state of affairs that the case even needed to be brought. We shouldn’t have to drag ministers in front of judges to have them comply with their own laws.”Oxfam CEO Halima Begum said in a statement: “Oxfam has been systematically prevented from getting life-saving aid into the enclave, and our staff and partners face a constant threat to their lives while trying to sustain basic humanitarian operations.”The UK government has said its licenses are kept under “careful and continual review.”

Water crisis in Gaza: Desperation and disease threaten lives
LBCI/June 14, 2024
Water, a basic daily necessity, has become scarce in many parts of Gaza, particularly in Jabalia refugee camp. Israeli forces have bombed all the water wells, forcing families to embark on long walks that can take up to 90 minutes in the hope of finding water distribution points for refugees in the northern sector. The daily lives of these individuals, who rely on uncertain and likely contaminated water sources for drinking, bathing, and washing clothes, are beyond description. UNICEF's executive director has warned that contaminated water could lead to the death of many children in the upcoming days due to deprivation and disease. The Israeli occupation uses water resources as a means of pressure on those remaining in this devastated city. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, residents' water share decreased by 97% during the war, with 40% of water networks destroyed and the occupation controlling 85% of water sources.

US forces foil Houthi drone, missile, boat strikes on cargo ships
SAEED AL-BATATI/Arab News/June 14, 2024
AL-MUKALLA: The US military said on Friday it had foiled a wave of drone, missile and boat strikes by Houthi militia in international trade channels off Yemen in the previous 24 hours. The US Central Command said its forces destroyed an air defense sensor in a Houthi-held area of Yemen, a remotely operated vessel and two patrol boats in the Red Sea, all of which were regarded as dangers to international maritime commerce. The Houthis also fired a drone and two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea, it said. The drone was destroyed and the missiles failed to hit their targets. “The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of third-country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” the command said. On Thursday, it said the Iran-backed militia targeted the Ukrainian-owned and Polish-operated bulk cargo tanker M/V Verbena as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden under the flag of Palau. A member of the crew was seriously injured in the strike but was evacuated by a US Navy ship. The command said the vessel had nothing to do with Israel and was sailing from Malaysia to Italy carrying construction materials.On Thursday night, the Houthis in Sanaa claimed responsibility for three strikes on ships in the previous 24 hours. Military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement that missiles and drones were fired at the Verbena, Seaguardian and Athina in the Red Sea after they violated their ban on visiting Israeli ports. One of the strikes scored a direct hit on the Verbena, he said. Since November, the Houthis have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and remotely operated boats against naval and commercial vessels, mostly in the Red Sea. One ship was sunk and another seized. The militia have said repeatedly that they attack only vessels with links to or bound for Israel in a bid to get the country to end its war in Gaza. The US labels the Houthis as a terrorist organization and leads a task force coalition to safeguard ships and conduct strikes on sites held by the group within Yemen. On Thursday, a report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency said the attacks had led to a 90 percent decrease in shipping traffic in the Red Sea, affected 65 countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, the UAE, Qatar, Sudan and Oman, forced 29 energy and shipping companies to change their routes, and caused insurance and shipping costs to soar. “As of mid-February, insurance premiums for Red Sea transits have risen to 0.7-1 percent of a ship’s total value, compared to less than 0.1 percent before December,” it said. There had also been significant delays in the delivery of humanitarian supplies to aid-dependent nations like Yemen and Sudan, it said.

US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels
Jon Gambrell/ABOARD THE USS LABOON IN THE RED SEA (AP)/June 14, 2024
The U.S. Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world's waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen.
The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press.
The combat pits the Navy's mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry. Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen. All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting U.S. sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk.
“I don't think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we're doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea.
“We only have to get it wrong once," he said. "The Houthis just have to get one through.”
Seconds to act
The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound. “It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that," said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers.
One round of fire on Jan. 9 saw the Laboon, other vessels and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis. Nearly every day — aside from a slowdown during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — the Houthis launch missiles, drones or some other type of attack in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the waterways and separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. The Navy saw periods of combat during the “Tanker Wars” of the 1980s in the Persian Gulf, but that largely involved ships hitting mines. The Houthi assaults involve direct attacks on commercial vessels and warships.
“This is the most sustained combat that the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II — easily, no question,” said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the U.S. can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage. … If you let it fester, the Houthis are going to get to be a much more capable, competent, experienced force.”
Dangers at sea and in the air
While the Eisenhower appears to largely stay at a distance, destroyers like the Laboon spend six out of seven days near or off Yemen — the “weapons engagement zone,” in Navy speak. Sea combat in the Mideast remains risky, something the Navy knows well. In 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet fired missiles that struck the USS Stark, a frigate on patrol in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, killing 37 sailors and nearly sinking the vessel.
There's also the USS Cole, targeted in 2000 by boat-borne al-Qaida suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen's port city of Aden, which killed 17 on board. AP journalists saw the Cole patrolling the Red Sea with the Laboon on Wednesday, the same day the Houthis launched a drone-boat attack against a commercial ship there that disabled the vessel. Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, the Navy’s commander for its Carrier Strike Group Two, which includes the Eisenhower and supporting ships, said the Navy had taken out one underwater bomb-carrying drone launched by the Houthis as well during the campaign. “We currently have pretty high confidence that not only is Iran providing financial support, but they’re providing intelligence support,” Miguez said. “We know for a fact the Houthis have also gotten training to target maritime shipping and target U.S. warships.”Asked if the Navy believed Iran picks targets for the Houthis, Miguez would only say there was “collaboration” between Tehran and the rebels. He also noted Iran continues to arm the Houthis, despite U.N. sanctions blocking weapons transfers to them. Iran's mission to the United Nations told the AP that Tehran "is adept at thwarting the U.S. strategy in a way that not only strengthens (the Houthis) but also ensures compliance with the pertinent resolutions.”The risk isn't just on the water. The U.S.-led campaign has carried out numerous airstrikes targeting Houthi positions inside Yemen, including what the U.S. military describes as radar stations, launch sites, arsenals and other locations. One round of U.S. and British strikes on May 30 killed at least 16 people, the deadliest attack acknowledged by the rebels. The Eisenhower's air crews have dropped over 350 bombs and fired 50 missiles at targets in the campaign, said Capt. Marvin Scott, who oversees all the air group's aircraft. Meanwhile, the Houthis apparently have shot down multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones with surface-to-air missile systems. “The Houthis also have surface-to-air capabilities that we have significantly degraded, but they are still present and still there,” Scott said. “We're always prepared to be shot at by the Houthis.”
A stalemated war
Officers acknowledge some grumbling among their crew, wondering why the Navy doesn't strike harder against the Houthis. The White House hasn't discussed the Houthi campaign at the same level as negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war. There are several likely reasons. The U.S. has been indirectly trying to lower tensions with Iran, particularly after Tehran launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Meanwhile, there's the Houthis themselves. The rebel group has battled a Saudi-led coalition into a stalemate in a wider war that's killed more than 150,000 people, including civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The U.S. directly fighting the Houthis is something the leaders of the Zaydi Shiite group likely want. Their motto long has been “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.” Combating the U.S. and siding publicly with the Palestinians has some in the Mideast praising the rebels.While the U.S. and European partners patrol the waterways, Saudi Arabia largely has remained quiet, seeking a peace deal with the Houthis. Reports suggest some Mideast nations have asked the U.S. not to launch attacks on the Houthis from their soil, making the Eisenhower's presence even more critical. The carrier has had its deployment extended, while its crew has had only one port call since its deployment a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Meanwhile, the Houthi attacks continue to depress shipping through the region. Revenue for Egypt from the Suez Canal — a key source of hard currency for its struggling economy — has halved since the attacks began. AP journalists saw a single commercial ship moving through the once-busy waterway.
“It's almost a ghost town,” Blomberg acknowledged.

Iran installing and starting cascades of advanced centrifuges as tensions high over nuclear program
Jon Gambrell/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/June 14, 2024
Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges and plans to install others in the coming weeks after facing criticism over its nuclear program, the United Nations' atomic watchdog said Friday. The U.S. called the moves “nuclear escalations.”Spinning up new centrifuges further advances Iran's nuclear program, which already enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels and boasts a stockpile enough for several nuclear bombs if it chose to pursue them. However, the acknowledgement from the International Atomic Energy Agency did not include any suggestion Iran planned to go to higher enrichment levels amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.The IAEA said its inspectors verified Monday that Iran had begun feeding uranium into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility. Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. So far, Iran has been enriching uranium in those cascades up to 2% purity. Iran already enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran also plans to install 18 cascades of IR-2m centrifuges at Natanz and eight cascades of IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordo nuclear site. Each of these classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran's baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which remain the workhorse of the country's atomic program. Tehran did not immediately acknowledge the decision. However, it comes after Iran threatened to take action following a vote earlier this month at the IAEA's Board of Governors that censured Iran for failing to cooperate fully with the agency. The decision immediately drew criticism from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “Iran aims to continue expanding its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose,” Miller said in a statement. “These planned actions further undermine Iran’s claims to the contrary. If Iran implements these plans, we will respond accordingly.”Miller did not elaborate on what steps the U.S. and its allies might take. However, Iran already faces grinding economic sanctions from Washington and others that have deeply cut into its economy and sent its rial currency tumbling over recent years. Ali Shamkhani, a former top security official within Iran's theocracy who still advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on the social platform X that Tehran remains committed to nuclear safeguards though it “won't bow to pressure.”
“The U.S. and some Western countries would dismantle Iran's nuclear industry if they could,” Shamkhani wrote. Since the collapse of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the U.S.' unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, it has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. U.S. intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program. Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has pledged to allow the IAEA to visit its atomic sites to ensure its program is peaceful. Tehran also agreed to additional oversight from the IAEA as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. However, for years it has curtailed inspectors' access to sites while also not fully answering questions about other sites where nuclear material has been found in the past. The IAEA's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, visited Iran in May in an effort to boost inspections, but there hasn't been any major public change in Iran's stance. All this comes as the Islamic Republic also appears to be trying to contain the risk it faces from the U.S. after launching an unprecedented attack on Israel. The assault — a response to a suspected Israeli strike on April 1 which killed two Guard generals and others in Damascus, Syria — has pushed a yearslong shadow war between Israel and Iran out into the open.

US and Turkiye target Daesh-linked smuggling network
AFP/June 14, 2024
WASHINGTON: The United States slapped sanctions Friday on four individuals with ties to the Daesh group following an investigation with Turkiye, the Treasury Department said. The sanctions target three supporters of a human smuggling gang linked to the group, and one individual involved in establishing an Daesh militant training camp, the US Treasury said a statement. The men were based in countries including Uzbekistan and Georgia, and least one individual supported Daesh members in Turkiye, according to the Treasury. The coordinated action with Turkiye “demonstrates our continued commitment to the defense of the homeland against all terrorist threats, including Daesh,” US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brin Nelson said in a statement. Turkiye, which is a close US military partner and a NATO ally, is taking its own action against the Daesh-linked network, the Treasury Department said.

US to provide over $315 million in additional aid for Sudan
Reuters/June 14, 2024
The US will provide more than $315 million in additional humanitarian assistance to support the people of Sudan, who are facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said on Friday. Power called on Sudan's warring army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to stop blocking aid and support a surge of humanitarian assistance to prevent the deaths of millions of people. "It is obstruction, not insufficient stocks of food that is the driving force behind the historic and deadly levels of starvation in Sudan. That has to change immediately," she said. The United Nations has said nearly 25 million people, half Sudan's population, need aid and some 8 million have fled their homes. War erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF, triggering the world's largest displacement crisis.

State Dept.: U.S. 'will respond accordingly' if Iran continues to expand its nuclear program
Darryl Coote/United Press International/June 14, 2024
The United States "will respond accordingly" if Iran goes through with plans to expand its nuclear program, the State Department warned Thursday after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said the Middle Eastern country was increasing its uranium enrichment capacity. "The report issued today by the IAEA makes clear that Iran aims to continue expanding its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose. These planned actions further undermine Iran's claims to the contrary," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. "If Iran implements these plans, we will respond accordingly." The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was sent to member states Thursday, a week after it passed a resolution calling on Iran to increase cooperation with the U.N. agency while censoring it for barring inspectors from some of its nuclear sites. "Iran must cooperate with the IAEA without further delay to fully implement its legally binding safeguards obligations. Until Iran does so, the IAEA Board of Governors will continue to hold Iran to account," Miller said. Iran has been publicly advancing its nuclear program since 2018 when then-American President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on Tehran and wholly pulled the United States from an Obama-era, multi-nation accord aimed at preventing the Middle Eastern country from acquiring a nuclear weapon, arguing it did not go far enough.The IAEA said Iran is now enriching uranium up to 60% purity while increasing its stockpile. Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to 90%. Following the IAEA's censure of Iran, the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank had warned that such a move "is a risky leap of faith" as Iran has retaliated against previous moves from the U.N. watchdog. "How Tehran responds to the new IAEA censure is guesswork, but a response of some sort is almost certain," the think tank's Simon Henderson wrote on Monday.

Putin says Ukraine must withdraw troops, end NATO bid for peace talks
Agence France Presse/June 14, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Moscow would cease fire and begin peace talks "immediately" if Ukraine pulled back troops from four regions and gave up its NATO membership bid. "As soon as Kyiv says it is ready to do this and begins really withdrawing troops and officially renounces plans to join NATO, we will immediately, literally that very minute, cease fire and begin talks," Putin said at a meeting with Russian diplomats in Moscow.

Putin vows truce if Ukraine exits Moscow-occupied areas and drops NATO bid -- a nonstarter for Kyiv
Dasha Litvinova/The Associated Press/June 14, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to “immediately” order a cease-fire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kyiv started withdrawing troops from the four regions annexed by Moscow in 2022 and renounced plans to join NATO. Such a deal appears a nonstarter for Kyiv, which wants to join the military alliance and has demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from all of its territory. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Putin's proposal.“We will do it immediately,” Putin said in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. His remarks came as leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations met in Italy and as Switzerland prepared to host scores of world leaders -- but not from Moscow -- this weekend to try to map out first steps toward peace in Ukraine. The U.S. and Ukraine this week also signed a 10-year security agreement that they hailed as a milestone in relations. Russia launched its a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian drive to the capital, much of the fighting has focused in the south and east - and Russia illegally annexed regions in the east and the south, although it doesn’t fully control any of them. Putin said his proposal is aimed at a “final resolution” of the conflict in Ukraine rather than “freezing it," and stressed that the Kremlin is “ready to start negotiations without delay.” Broader demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included Ukraine's non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the country. All of these should become part of “fundamental international agreements,” and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said. “We're urging to turn this tragic page of history and to begin restoring, step-by-step, restore the unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe in general,” he said. Putin’s remarks represented a rare occasion in which he clearly laid out his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, but it didn’t include any new demands. The Kremlin has said before that Kyiv should recognize its territorial gains and drop its bid to join NATO. Russia doesn't fully control any of the four regions it illegally annexed in 2022, but Putin insisted Friday that Kyiv should withdraw from them entirely and essentially cede them to Moscow within their administrative borders. In Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Russia still doesn't control the region's namesake administrative capital with a pre-war population of about 700,000, and in the neighboring Kherson region, Moscow withdrew from Kherson's biggest city and capital of the same name in November 2022. Putin said that if “Kyiv and Western capitals” reject his offer, “it is their business, their political and moral responsibility for continuing the bloodshed.”

Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 14-15/2024
Is Israeli-Saudi normalization end or means?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Asia Times/June 14/2024
Biden is delaying Saudi normalization with Israel until the region is fixed, mistakenly making peace the end game
The path to a peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia is fraught with prerequisites unrelated to Israel or peace.
Quoting Biden officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel must first help rally US Senate support for an American-Saudi defense treaty that ensures Saudi security and American interests — including distancing Riyadh from Beijing.
Next, Israel must concede territory for Palestinian self-determination even before Hamas, which pledges to annihilate the Jewish state, is eradicated. Only then will Saudi Arabia normalize ties with Israel – and, even then, solely on its own behalf, not representing the Arab League or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. In January 2023, when Saudi Arabia first floated the idea of bilateral peace with Israel regardless of the Palestinian track, Riyadh did so in line with a shift in Riyadh’s foreign policy that had started with the accession of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) in 2016. Riyadh started prioritizing “Saudi First” over leadership in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Along similar lines, the kingdom minimized its intervention in Lebanon and Syria, among other places, deeming these countries strategically insignificant. Riyadh’s approach aligned with the Trump administration’s outside-in peace model, which pursued bilateral peace treaties between Israel and individual Arab governments as a prelude to Israel peace with Palestinians. But the Biden administration reverted to the older inside-out formula of “Palestinians first,” Israeli peace with the Arabs later. Biden’s view of Arab peace with Israel thus clashed with Riyadh’s priorities.
The gap between Washington and Riyadh was on display in January. While the Saudis said they would normalize ties with Israel in return for an irreversible course toward a Palestinian state, Washington went a step farther by considering the option of unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state.
To avoid appearing less supportive of Palestinian demands than Washington the Saudis hardened their stance, making the establishment of a Palestinian state a prerequisite for normalization with Israel. Since then, both Washington and Riyadh seem to have settled on the “pathway to a Palestinian state” as a prerequisite for Saudi normalization with Israel.
No one seems to know, or has even tried to outline, what a pathway to a Palestinian state looks like or means. Who runs the Palestinian state? What happens to Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and promises eternal war? And who speaks on behalf of Palestinians while America, Saudi Arabia, and Israel try to iron out these problems.
Blinken thus pinned his hopes on the corrupt, powerless and irrelevant Palestinian Authority (PA) and pressed Gulf capitals to partner with the PA to wind down the Gaza War and pursue peace.
Gulf capitals reluctantly obliged but, beneath the surface, Gulf leaders were unhappy with Washington dictating a post-war lineup. The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah Bin Zayed, reportedly engaged in a “shouting match” with the PA’s second-in-command, Hussein al-Sheikh, and demanded that the PA enlist more competent Palestinians such as former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The Biden administration seems oblivious of Middle East reality and more focused on its domestic constituency, especially in a presidential election year. Washington has doubled down on an Israeli ceasefire with Hamas and coupled it with a two-state peace deal with the PA – even though the two schemes clash, given that Hamas vehemently opposes recognition of and peace with Israel.
With its plan going around in circles, Washington declared that its bilateral defense treaty with Saudi Arabia was ready – perhaps reasoning that such news would incentivize Israel to accept both a ceasefire and a two-state.
But why would an American-Saudi defense treaty motivate Israel? And why should Israel expend political capital in Washington to help pass a treaty that does not solve its problem with the Palestinians – especially considering that 74 percent of Israelis oppose a Palestinian state in the absence of a reliable Palestinian peace partner. Biden’s diplomacy looks counterintuitive. A more effective approach would have been for Saudi Arabia to sign a peace treaty with Israel unconditionally and build a strong alliance. Once they are allies, the Israelis and the Saudis can work together on solving the various issues, including the stabilization of Gaza, post-Hamas, countering regional troublemaker Iran, and on strengthening Saudi ties with the US in ways that distance Riyadh from Beijing. Through this alliance, the Saudis can help groom a reliable Palestinian partner than can talk peace with Israel.Biden’s diplomacy is delaying Saudi normalization with Israel until after the region is fixed, making peace the end game. Instead, Washington should treat Israeli-Saudi peace as a means that can help counter the Iran-led warring camp in the region and help defuse a century old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow Hussain on X @hahussain

The fanatical Hamas leader who calls the shots
 Peter Bergen/CNN/June 14, 2024
In February, the Israeli Defense Forces released a grainy video showing the back of a man they identified as Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza. A dark figure seen only from behind was hurriedly making his way through one of the labyrinths of Hamas tunnels that wend their way deep underground in Gaza.
Since the video didn’t show Sinwar’s face, there was no independent confirmation that the shadowy figure was indeed the Hamas leader.
It’s an apt image for Sinwar, who seems to have vanished like a ghost following Hamas’ attack October 7 attack on Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted. The Israeli military quickly asserted that Sinwar was a “dead man walking.” Yet eight months later, Sinwar remains stubbornly alive.
Sinwar has lived much of his life mainly in the shadows, and relatively little is known about him even though he is arguably the most critical player in the Middle East today. Israel accuses Sinwar of being the “mastermind” of Hamas’ attack on October 7.
He is now also calling the shots for Hamas, including whether or not to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for a release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and a release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in a potential deal that was announced by President Joe Biden at the end of last month.
Meanwhile, Sinwar’s attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza has brought attention to the Palestinian issue in a way that hasn’t been the case for many years.
‘Necessary sacrifices’
Sinwar characterizes the many Palestinians who have lost their lives in the war in Gaza as “necessary sacrifices,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which obtained leaked messages from Sinwar to fellow Hamas officials. “We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar reportedly said to members of his terrorist group involved in negotiating with the US and Israel.
So, who is Sinwar, aged 61, and what drives him? An answer to that question can be found in an illuminating profile in The New York Times of an Israeli prison official, Dr. Yuval Bitton, who got to know Sinwar during the more than two decades that the Hamas leader spent in Israeli prisons. Bitton, a dentist, once helped save Sinwar’s life when he ensured that Sinwar was rushed to a hospital after he became ill with what turned out to be a malignant brain tumor that was successfully operated on.
Following Sinwar’s recovery, Bitton and Sinwar spent many hours talking to each other; Bitton to better understand the mindset of Hamas and Sinwar to understand better the mindset of the Israelis, of whom he made a careful study, including becoming fluent in Hebrew while he was imprisoned.
Like Osama bin Laden before him, Sinwar is a zealot whose opposition to the state of Israel is not so much political as it is religious. Sinwar told Bitton that the land of Israel was, in fact, Muslim land and that Muslims had a religious right to take it back, and as a result, any kind of two-state solution was impossible.
Sinwar also knows the Quran by heart, a prodigious feat of memory since the holy book contains more than 6,000 verses.
Sinwar was in prison for abducting and killing two Israeli soldiers, for which he received four life sentences, according to the US State Department’s 2015 designation of Sinwar as a terrorist.
While he was in prison, Sinwar admitted that he had killed several Palestinians who he believed were collaborating with the Israelis. According to a 1989 interrogation of Sinwar published by the Israel Hayom newspaper, Sinwar told Israeli interrogators that he strangled one of those collaborators with his bare hands and used a keffiyeh head scarf to suffocate another.
While he was in prison, Sinwar became the leader of his fellow Hamas inmates, according to The Washington Post.
Sinwar and the stalled ceasefire negotiations
The proposed ceasefire agreement that Biden publicly laid out at the end of last month has stalled, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blaming Hamas for the impasse on Tuesday, saying, “I don’t think anyone other than the Hamas leadership in Gaza actually is the ones who can make decisions.”
It is Sinwar who is central to those decisions, and Blinken even obliquely referred to Sinwar on Tuesday when he said, “We await the answer from Hamas, and that will speak volumes about what they want, what they’re looking for, who they’re looking after. Are they looking after one guy who may be pronounced safe, buried — I don’t know — ten stories underground somewhere in Gaza….”
While the details of the ceasefire negotiations are tightly held, there are any number of issues that Hamas and Israel might differ on, including the length of the first phase of the ceasefire, which Biden had said would last six weeks; the precise role of Israeli troops during that first phase of the ceasefire who Biden said would be withdrawn from Gaza’s population centers, and the exact numbers of Hamas-held hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
It must surely weigh heavily on the minds of Israeli negotiators that Sinwar himself was an Israeli prisoner and was released with more than 1,000 other prisoners in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was being held in Gaza.
Sinwar’s release from prison has since come with both a high cost for Israel and for the Gazans he purports to represent, some 37,000 of whom have died in the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
All of that is to say that Sinwar is a brutal, calculating military leader driven by religious zeal that the Palestinian cause is a righteous one. Negotiating with such a leader will never be easy.

Question: “What does the Bible say about fathers?”
GotQuestions.org/June 14, 2024
Answer: The greatest commandment in Scripture is this: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Going back to verse 2, we read, “So that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.” Following Deuteronomy 6:5, we read, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (vv. 6-7).
Israelite history reveals that the father was to be diligent in instructing his children in the ways and words of the Lord for their own spiritual development and well-being. The father who was obedient to the commands of Scripture did just that. This brings us to Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” To “train” indicates the first instruction that a father and mother give to a child, i.e., his early education. The training is designed to make clear to children the manner of life they are intended for. To commence a child’s early education in this way is of great importance.
Ephesians 6:4 is a summary of instructions to the father, stated in both a negative and positive way. “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” The negative part of this verse indicates that a father is not to foster negativity in his children by severity, injustice, partiality, or unreasonable exercise of authority. Harsh, unreasonable conduct toward a child will only serve to nurture evil in the heart. The word provoke means “to irritate, exasperate, rub the wrong way, or incite.” This is done by a wrong spirit and wrong methods—severity, unreasonableness, sternness, harshness, cruel demands, needless restrictions, and selfish insistence upon dictatorial authority. Such provocation will produce adverse reactions, deadening children’s affection, reducing their desire for holiness, and making them feel that they cannot possibly please their parents. A wise parent seeks to make obedience desirable and attainable by love and gentleness.
The positive part of Ephesians 6:4 is expressed in a comprehensive direction—educate them, bring them up, develop their conduct in all of life by the instruction and admonition of the Lord. This is the whole process of educating and discipline. The word admonition carries the idea of reminding the child of faults (constructively) and duties (responsibilities).
The Christian father is really an instrument in God’s hand. The whole process of instruction and discipline must be that which God commands and which He administers, so that His authority should be brought into constant and immediate contact with the mind, heart, and conscience of children. The human father should never present himself as the ultimate authority to determine truth and duty. It is only by making God the teacher and ruler on whose authority everything is done that the goals of education can best be attained.
Martin Luther said, “Keep an apple beside the rod to give the child when he does well.” Discipline must be exercised with watchful care and constant training with much prayer. Chastening, discipline, and counsel by the Word of God, giving both reproof and encouragement, are at the core of “admonition.” The instruction proceeds from the Lord, is learned in the school of Christian experience, and is administered by the parents—primarily the father, but also, under his direction, the mother. Christian discipline is needed to enable children to grow up with reverence for God, respect for parental authority, knowledge of Christian standards, and habits of self-control.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). A father’s first responsibility is to acquaint his children with Scripture. The means and methods that fathers may use to teach God’s truth will vary. As the father is faithful in role modeling, what children learn about God will put them in good standing throughout their earthly lives, no matter what they do or where they go.
Should Christians celebrate Father’s Day?

Exclusive-US to impose sanctions on Israeli group that attacked Gaza aid
Simon Lewis/WASHINGTON (Reuters)/June 14, 2024
Washington will impose sanctions on an Israeli group on Friday for attacking humanitarian aid convoys bound for starving civilians in Gaza, U.S. officials told Reuters, in the latest move targeting actors Washington believes threaten the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The sanctions will target Tsav 9, a group with ties to Israeli army reservists and Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, over activities including blocking, harassing and damaging aid shipments. Palestinians have been desperately in need of aid as Israel continues its eight-month invasion and bombardment, which has killed at least 37,000 people, according to the territory's health ministry. Israel has also faced accusations of blocking aid, which it denies doing. Right-wing elements in Israel's government, with links to the settler movement, have opposed U.S. President Joe Biden's effort to forge a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war that began with Hamas' attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. The financial sanctions will be imposed under an executive order on West Bank violence Biden signed in February, which was previously used to impose financial restrictions on Jewish settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians as well as a Palestinian militant group. "We're using the authority to sanction an ever-broadening selection of actors, targeting individuals and entities that threaten the peace, security and stability of the West Bank regardless of religion, ethnicity or location," Aaron Forsberg, director of the State Department's office of sanctions policy and implementation, told Reuters. On May 13, members of Tsav 9 looted and then set fire to two aid trucks near the West Bank city of Hebron.
Tsav 9 - Hebrew for Order 9, a reference to call-up orders for Israeli military reservists - said after the May 13 incident it acted to stop supplies from reaching Hamas and accused the Israeli government of giving "gifts" to the Islamist group.
"For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blocking roads, sometimes violently, along their route from Jordan to Gaza, including transiting the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement seen by Reuters.
"They also have damaged aid trucks and dumped life-saving humanitarian aid onto the road." The move freezes any assets the group holds under U.S. jurisdiction and bars Americans from dealing with it. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a U.S.-based human rights group, this week called for U.S. sanctions on Tsav 9 and said the group raises funds from Israeli companies and Israeli and U.S. non-profit organizations. DAWN said in a statement that such vigilante groups have enjoyed impunity from Israeli authorities. Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military and police of deliberately failing to intervene when settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel arrested four of those involved in the May 13 attack, including a minor, according to lawyers. "We'll continue to use all tools at our disposal to promote accountability for those who attempt to undertake or perpetrate such heinous acts," Forsberg said. "We have raised this at all levels of the government of Israel and we expect that Israeli authorities will do the same."

Palestinians' Heroes: Murderers, Rapists and Kidnappers of Babies
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/June 14, 2024
Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration's and some European nations' ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. This move would not only open the door for more atrocities against Israelis, but would also put Israel in grave danger because the Palestinian state, even under the supposedly watchful eye of a chaperone, would essentially be ruled by the same murderers and rapists who took part in the October 7 carnage.
These European nations — Ireland, Norway, and Spain — have sent a message to the Palestinians that the only way they can get international recognition for their state is by murdering Jews.
In a similar vein, the Biden administration has communicated to the Palestinians that the October 7 atrocities have heightened their likelihood of creating a terror state ruled by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies, which would be used as a launchpad to murder more Jews and destroy Israel. This is evident in the administration's continued support for a "two-state solution."
Most Palestinians know what the Biden administration does not want to know: that the PA leadership cannot be trusted to implement any reforms or combat financial and administrative corruption.
In addition, 54% of Palestinians polled support an "armed struggle" against Israel, an 8-point rise from the previous poll three months ago.
The results of the poll also confirm what a Palestinian state would look like: it will be a terror state funded and armed by Qatar and Iran.
This tenacity is exactly why there is no substitute to destroying Hamas.
[Hamas official Ghazi] Hamad also said that Egypt and Qatar have exerted no pressure on Hamas whatsoever to accept Biden's proposed ceasefire, and that media reports about threats to expel Hamas leaders from Qatar are false.
Or is it possible that this is why they want Hamas to win? To see the Jews finally get their comeuppance for having had the gall not to accept their role as crushed victims after World War II, but instead to work hard and transform a land of malaria-infested swamps, sand dunes and deserts into a successful modern state?
"Israel should swiftly and decisively eliminate Muslim Brotherhood terrorist forces in Gaza." — Amjad Taha, political strategist and analyst from the United Arab Emirates, X, June 12, 2024.
More than eight months after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, most Palestinians continue to voice support for the atrocities committed by the Iran-backed terrorist group, including the murder, rape, beheading and burning of hundreds of Israelis. Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration's and some European nations' ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. Pictured: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists share a moment of friendship for the crowds in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on November 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
More than eight months after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, most Palestinians continue to voice support for the atrocities committed by the Iran-backed terrorist group, including the murder, rape, beheading and burning of hundreds of Israelis.
This ongoing support for Hamas comes amid US-led efforts to end the current war in the Gaza Strip, a move that would effectively keep Hamas in power to prepare for its next massacre of Israelis.
Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration's and some European nations' ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. This move would not only open the door for more atrocities against Israelis, but would also put Israel in grave danger because the Palestinian state, even under the supposedly watchful eye of a chaperone, would essentially be ruled by the same murderers and rapists who took part in the October 7 carnage.
Three public opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) after the October 7 Hamas-led attack have shown that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the crimes committed on that day, and which claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis.
The first poll, conducted in December 2023, found that Palestinian support for the massacre stood at 72%. The second poll, conducted in March 2024, showed that 71% of Palestinians support the massacre. The third poll, published on June 12, found that two-thirds of the Palestinians believe the atrocities were "correct." According to the latest PSR poll, only 17% of Palestinians believe that the October 7 massacre was "incorrect."
One of the reasons why most Palestinians continue to support the October 7 massacre is because they believe that the murder, rape and beheading of Israelis has "revived international attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that it could lead to increased recognition of Palestinian statehood," PSR noted in its analysis of the June 12 poll.
This indicates that the majority of Palestinians see the recent recognition of a Palestinian state by some European countries, together with the Biden administration's demand for "a concrete, time-bound and irreversible path to a Palestinian state," as a reward for the horrors of October 7.
These European nations — Ireland, Norway, and Spain — have sent a message to the Palestinians that the only way they can get international recognition for their state is by murdering Jews.
In a similar vein, the Biden administration has communicated to the Palestinians that the October 7 atrocities have heightened their likelihood of creating a terror state ruled by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies, which would be used as a launchpad to murder more Jews and destroy Israel. This is evident in the administration's continued support for a "two-state solution."
The poll showed that most Palestinians (61%) would prefer to see Hamas control the Gaza Strip after the war, as opposed to only 16% who favored a "new Palestinian Authority with an elected president, parliament and government." Only 6% chose the current Palestinian Authority (PA) without Mahmoud Abbas, and another 6% chose the return of the PA to the Gaza Strip but under his control.
Unsurprisingly, the poll also showed that if a Palestinian presidential election were held today, most Palestinians would vote for a candidate who has Jewish blood on his hands: arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for his role in the murder of five Israelis, would win 42% of the vote, followed by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (27%) and Mahmoud Abbas (5%). Nearly 90% want Abbas to resign, as the level of dissatisfaction with his performance stands at 86%.
When asked which political party they support, the largest percentage selected Hamas (40%) followed by Abbas's ruling Fatah faction (20%), while 8% choose other or third-party groups, and 33% said none of them or did not know. The previous PSR poll, conducted three months ago, showed that 34% of Palestinians supported Hamas and 17% selected Fatah. This means that support for Hamas during the past three months has witnessed a 6-point rise.
In another sign of Hamas's rising popularity among the Palestinians, 32% said they would vote for Hamas in a new parliamentary election, while Fatah would get only 17%. The percentage of Palestinians who believe that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinians has also risen from 49% three months ago to 51% today.
In a blow to the Biden administration's effort to "revitalize" the PA, an overwhelming majority (72%) of Palestinians believe that the new government appointed by Mahmoud Abbas and headed by Mohammad Mustafa will not succeed in carrying out reforms. Another 77% of Palestinians believe that the new government will not succeed in combating corruption.
Most Palestinians know what the Biden administration does not want to know: that the PA leadership cannot be trusted to implement any reforms or combat financial and administrative corruption.
In yet another blow to the Biden administration, the latest poll found that 65% of Palestinians oppose the idea of a "two-state solution."
In addition, 54% of Palestinians polled support an "armed struggle" against Israel, an 8-point rise from the previous poll three months ago.
The results of the PSR poll again reaffirm that a majority of Palestinians continue to support a terrorist group whose goal is to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamist state. They also show that the Palestinians' favorite leaders are murderers, rapists, and kidnappers of Jewish babies.
The results of the poll also confirm what a Palestinian state would look like: it will be a terror state funded and armed by Qatar and Iran.
Hamas has already pledged to carry out more October 7-style atrocities against Israelis. Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad said that he would repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated, and that everything Hamas did was justified. This tenacity is exactly why there is no substitute to destroying Hamas.
Hamad also said that Egypt and Qatar have exerted no pressure on Hamas whatsoever to accept Biden's proposed ceasefire, and that media reports about threats to expel Hamas leaders from Qatar are false.
The PSR poll results show that most Palestinians have become so radicalized that they look up to murderers and rapists as heroes and role models. It is an outcome should be noted by the Biden administration and those Europeans who are desperate to see a Palestinian state and are pushing for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Or is it possible that this is why they want Hamas to win? To see the Jews finally get their comeuppance for having had the gall not to accept their role as crushed victims after World War II, but instead to work hard and transform a land of malaria-infested swamps, sand dunes and deserts into a successful modern state?
Amjad Taha, a political strategist and analyst from the United Arab Emirates, commented:
"If a ceasefire means Hamas terrorists, rapists, and kidnappers of babies remain in Gaza, then no one in Israel, Gaza, or the Middle East wants that. Keeping Nazis in power and giving them a moment to breathe is unacceptable. Israel should swiftly and decisively eliminate Muslim Brotherhood terrorist forces in Gaza."
**Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
© 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.

Israel-Iran alliance: Jerusalem's arm sales to the Islamic Republic during Iran-Iraq War
Alex Winston/Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-806039
Clandestine Israeli sales of military equipment helped turn the tide of the war and prevent Iran from falling to Saddam’s forces.
More than three decades after his death, the shadow of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is still cast into the deepest corners of Iran. The man who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran after the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979 led the country for its first decade, transforming a 1,300-year-old monarchy into a country ruled by Sharia law, the ayatollahs, and a formidable military – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
After the Shah fled into exile, the fledgling republic turned its back on the Western-leaning outlook of its former monarch, and Khomeini oversaw the descent into a fiercely religious society, and the evolution of a personality cult that exists to this day.
“Israel viewed its security in the region as being one in which you needed to build alliances with a non-Arab state, in the periphery of the Middle East, in order to balance the immediate neighborhood of Arab states,” said Trita Parsi, founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council and author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States.
“Iran was the most important peripheral state, not just because of its military might but also because it had access to oil, which Israel of course was in dire need of, since the Arab states wouldn’t sell it” to them, he told the Magazine. “From the Shah’s perspective, it was always very strategic, but it wasn’t as permanent as the Israelis thought it would be. The Israelis had this perception that the enmity with the Arabs would essentially be eternal – and the thought that Arab-Persian tensions were of the same nature and, as a result, Iran would more or less be a permanent ally.”
Most of Khomeini’s decade in power was spent beating the anti-imperialist drum, possibly being the first one who referred to the United States as the “Great Satan” and Israel as the “Little Satan.” It was also spent battling the forces of Saddam Hussein after Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980, a mere 18 months after the revolution.
The Iran-Iraq War began due to a mix of historical, political, and territorial disputes. Central to these disputes was the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a crucial economic and strategic boundary between the two nations. After the Iranian revolution, Hussein saw an opportunity to capitalize on Iran’s internal socio-political turmoil. He aimed to weaken his larger eastern neighbor and settle the territorial disputes to Iraq’s advantage. Additionally, the ideological clash between Iran’s new Shi’ite Islamic theocracy and Iraq’s secular Ba’athist regime further intensified the animosity between the two countries.
The Iran-Iraq War
HUSSEIN’S AMBITIONS to establish Iraq as the dominant regional power and prevent the spread of Iran’s revolutionary ideology, which threatened to inspire Shi’ite uprisings in Iraq, also played a crucial role. Historical Arab-Persian rivalries added to the tensions. The involvement of external powers, with both superpowers and regional allies providing varying degrees of support, further fueled the conflict.
These factors culminated in Iraq’s invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980, starting a protracted and devastating war that lasted eight years, resulting in a significant loss of life and economic damage for both nations.
Despite the fierce anti-Western feeling that permeated Iran at this time, as the revolutionary fervor grew and grew, military help was on hand for the fledgling Islamic Republic from an unlikely source – Israel.
Clandestine Israeli sales of military equipment helped turn the tide of the war and prevent Iran from falling to Saddam’s forces, which was of huge concern to Israel at the time.
Despite the apparent ideological chasm between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Jewish state, Israel became one of its primary suppliers of military equipment. This relationship extended beyond mere arms sales: Jerusalem also sent military instructors to Iran and, in return, received vital intelligence that proved instrumental in its own military operations. One notable instance was the Iranian intelligence that aided Israel in executing Operation Opera, the 1981 airstrike that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor – a cornerstone of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions.
In 1979, “The [Iranian] revolutionaries come in, and they have a very, very hostile view of Israel, seeing it as an imperialist outpost to American imperialism, as well as [seeing] an ideological religious dimension to it,” Parsi told the Magazine. “But the actual geopolitical circumstances that had given birth to the relationship, which was the common threat from the Arab states and the Soviet Union, had not changed. In fact, from the Iranians’ perspective, it had [become] amplified because Iran was now at odds with the US – even though its military was entirely dependent on US spare parts.
“Israel quickly found out that it had this trump card with Iran because it was one of the few states to have access to American spare parts and was willing to sell them to Iran, in violation of US sanctions. The revolutionaries viewed Israel as the lesser of [two] evils in the context of the war with Saddam.”
THE MOTIVATIONS behind Israel’s support for Iran were multifaceted. Strategically, Israel sought to counterbalance Iraq, which was considered a significant regional threat. By strengthening Tehran, Jerusalem aimed to create a bulwark against Iraqi power and influence. Furthermore, Israel hoped to re-establish a foothold in Iran, a connection that had been severed with the 1979 overthrow of the Shah, one of its key allies.
One important byproduct of this clandestine relationship was the facilitation of Jewish emigration from Iran and the protection of the Jews who remained there. The covert support helped ensure the safe passage of Persian Jews to Israel and the United States, securing their freedom from potential persecution.“What happened back then was that the Israelis played the military card, reaching out to high-ranking people in the Iranian military who they, of course, had contact with during the Shah’s reign,” Parsi explained. “They tried to find ways to sell weapons and show strategic utility with the new regime, [but] it wasn’t particularly successful. The point was, though, that the Israelis were trying, even before the Iraq war started.
“Israel was trying to show that in a world in which the Iranians were turning against the United States – which meant they had bad relations with both superpowers [the US and the Soviet Union] – Israel could still help Iran,” he said. “It was trying to signal that message to the Iranians. I don’t think it was particularly successful at the time, and I don’t think the Iranians were really focusing on arms that much at that moment. But it is what later brought about the Iran Contra scandal.”
The sales
Despite the secrecy, the logistics of these operations were extensive and complex. The first major arms deal occurred in early 1980, when Israel sold a large number of F-4 Phantom fighter jet tires to Iran. This initial transaction was negotiated through back channels, as the Iranian government sought military equipment it could no longer obtain from the US due to sanctions imposed after the 1979 hostage crisis, when Iranian students seized the American embassy and detained more than 50 Americans. The net profit from these sales contributed to a significant slush fund within the Israeli intelligence community, which grew over the years.
The onset of the war saw Iraq launching a full-scale invasion of Iran. Under immense pressure, Tehran desperately needed military supplies, particularly American and British-made equipment, which formed the backbone of its arsenal from the Shah’s era. In response, Israel increased its support. Following the first mission in early 1980, a second one took place in October, resulting in additional arms deals. On October 24, 1980, shipments of Scorpion tank parts and 250 F-4 jet tires were dispatched to Iran. Concurrently, other military supplies stored in Europe were clandestinely shipped to Iranian ports like Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Bushehr. These shipments included spare parts for F-4 jets, helicopters, and missile systems.
AND HOW did Iran’s new leader – the ayatollah who lived a simple life on a simple diet on garlic, yogurt, and onions – view his dealings with the “Little Satan”?
“I interviewed one of Khomeini’s close advisers in regard to the arms sales that Israel provided,” Parsi recounted. “One of the generals had approached Khomeini – because of the arms embargo, it was very difficult to get hold of weapons – and he declared to Khomeini that they had actually managed to secure a significant arms shipment. But there was just one problem – the sellers were Israeli. Khomeini was quiet for a couple of seconds, and then he said, ‘If you find these weapons, do you have to ask who the seller is?’ and the general said no. And Khomeini said, ‘Well, problem solved.’”
Jimmy Carter was the American president at the time. A New York Times article from August 1981 discussing the October transactions stated: “Carter officials and diplomatic sources familiar with the Israeli-American discussions the previous year [1980] said that the Israelis yielded to American pressure to not continue their military relationship with Iran until the hostages were freed.
“Diplomatic sources, in discussing Israel’s motivations, said that prime minister Menachem Begin was willing to provide spare parts to Iran because of an overwhelming Israeli desire not to see Iraq win the war that began last September,” the Times article said.
“The other reason for Mr. Begin’s actions, despite Iran’s fierce anti-Israeli policy, is his concern about the 60,000 Jews living in Iran,” it said. “The Israelis fear that they could be subject to repression at any time and that contact between Israel and Iran helps the Jews in Iran.”
Nachman Shai, the spokesman for the Israeli embassy in the US at the time, told the Times: “Our position is that Israel does not provide information on purchases of sales of weapons.”
THE US position during the early years of the Khomeini regime was largely influenced by the 1979 hostage crisis and Carter’s presidency. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy and detained more than 50 Americans as hostages, many of them diplomats. They were held for 14 and a half months (444 days) until January 20, 1981. The Iran hostage crisis undermined Carter’s ability to conduct foreign policy and was one of the factors contributing to his election defeat to Ronald Reagan in November 1980.
Upon discovering the Israel-Iranian transactions, the Carter administration exerted pressure on Israel to halt future sales while the United States was negotiating for the release of the hostages. However, with Reagan’s ascendancy to the presidency in 1981, the dynamic shifted. Israel sought and received covert consent to continue supplying Iran with American-made military equipment despite the Reagan administration’s public opposition to such sales.
The Carter administration “opposed the sales very strongly: “I think at one point, Carter publicly warned Israel about it,” Parsi stated. “Carter imposed an arms embargo, including on spare parts. What happened was that Reagan came in and kind of turned a blind eye to what the Israelis were doing.
“In 1982, [then-Israeli defense minister] Ariel Sharon on NBC News openly stated that Israel was providing weapons or selling weapons to Iran because it was important to try to bring Iran back into the West[ern sphere of influence], so openly admitting it on American TV kind of indicated the Israeli leaders’ knowing that they were violating the embargo while knowing that there wouldn’t be much of the consequences from the Reagan administration,” the National Iranian American Council founder said.
“What the Americans were driven by was anger because of the hostage crisis. Iran had humiliated the United States and had turned it into an enemy.”
IN THE first year of large-scale arms sales in 1981, Israel sold $75 million worth of arms under Operation Seashell, including anti-tank guns and shells. This operation involved using Cyprus as a transit point, with Argentine airline Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense initially transporting the arms by air – and later, following a mid-air collision incident, by ship. Additionally, Yaakov Nimrodi, Israel’s military attaché in Tehran from 1955 to 1979, signed a $136 million arms deal with Iran’s Ministry of National Defense that year, which included advanced weaponry such as Lance and Hawk missiles.
Maj.-Gen. Avraham Tamir, who worked in the Israeli Defense Ministry, told The New York Times in 1991 that “Every month, we gave a list of American weapons and American spare parts we’d like to sell to Iran.
“In the years 1981 and 1982, weapons with US components were sold to Iran based on an understanding with [then-US secretary of state Alexander] Haig,” he said: “Then it was stopped.”
Israeli intelligence established a covert operation in New York to facilitate these transactions. However, when it became apparent that Israel was also selling sophisticated American military equipment without explicit consent, the operation had to be relocated to London by 1983.
A New York Times article from March 1982 stated that “According to documents – telex messages, contracts and bills of lading – $100 million to $200 million in arms, spare parts, and ammunition were delivered to Iran from Western Europe in the last 18 months. The intelligence sources said the documents indicated that about half of this was being supplied or arranged by Israel, and the rest by freelance arms merchants, some of whom may also have connections with Israeli intelligence.”
The article further mentioned that “Non-American sources supplied the initial information about the flow of arms from Israel to Iran. It appears that their principal motive was to discredit the government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by showing that his war effort against Iraq was being helped by Israel. Along with the United States, Israel is a prime target of Iranian antagonism.”
BY 1982, Israel’s sales to Iran included sophisticated weapons systems, prompting complaints from international observers. West German chancellor Helmut Kohl raised concerns about Israeli arms sales worth $500 million to Iran. Despite the official stance of the Reagan administration, which rescinded its consent for arms sales following evidence of violations, Jerusalem continued to sell arms to Tehran. These sales were facilitated through a global network managed from London, involving private arms dealers and shell companies.
Arms were also supplied to Iran by Libya, Syria, and North Korea, and were of Soviet origin. The US hoped to counter the Russian influence in the region as the Cold War played out in the early years of the Reagan administration.
Throughout the early 1980s, Israel’s arms sales to Iran were substantial. Estimates from the Jaffe Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University suggested that Israel sold around $500 million worth of arms annually, including aircraft spare parts, artillery, and ammunition. These sales were predominantly financed by Iranian oil. Arms dealer Ahmad Haidari claimed that a significant portion of Iran’s weaponry early in the war came from Israel, which enabled the Iranian air force to conduct sorties and strategic strikes against Iraq.
Despite the newspaper articles, media coverage, and TV appearances by Israeli officials, the dealings between the Jewish state and Iran were seemingly kept largely under wraps in the Islamic Republic.
“It was really largely hushed up,” Parsi told the Magazine. “One of the people who apparently had leaked it was executed. And, you know, the pragmatism of having to do whatever they needed to do to be able to win the war was there in the background, but it wasn’t really acknowledged that this actually had happened. There wasn’t much of a conversation publicly, and they controlled the media and ways in which they could just essentially shut them down.”
The Iran Contra Affair
From 1985 to 1986, Israel’s role in the Iran-Contra Affair highlighted the complexity of its involvement with Iran. High-level discussions between Israeli and Iranian representatives sought to open an arms channel with the United States.
The affair was a significant political scandal during the Reagan administration. It involved the secret sale of arms to Iran, despite the arms embargo, with the aim of securing the release of American hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Proceeds from these sales were then illegally diverted to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who were fighting the Left-wing socialist Sandinista government (which also came to power in 1979, some six months after the Iranian Revolution). This was in direct violation of the Boland Amendment, which prohibited US aid to the Contras.
The scandal came to light in November 1986, leading to extensive media coverage and congressional hearings. The hearings revealed the depth of the administration’s involvement in the covert operations and resulted in several indictments and convictions, although many were later overturned or those guilty were pardoned.
Just as the Iran hostage crisis hurt the Carter administration, the Iran-Contra Affair had significant political repercussions for the Reagan administration, damaging its reputation and raising questions about presidential oversight and the conduct of foreign policy.
Even as the Iran-Contra scandal unfolded, Israeli arms shipments to Tehran continued, including a high-profile case in 1986 where individuals with ties to Israel were arrested for attempting to sell $2.6 billion worth of arms to the Islamic Republic. Despite these controversies, Israel’s support for Iran during the Iran-Iraq War remained a critical and complex aspect of its foreign policy, driven by strategic, economic, and humanitarian considerations.
“There was a very fierce fear [on the Israeli side] that as soon as US-Iran relations would be patched up, the Iranians would cut them out and deal directly with the US,” Parsi explained. “It became clear to them that their only utility was to be able to bring relations to the United States. This, of course, was the beginning of Israeli opposition to any US-Iranian relations.”
The Iran-Contra Affair led to changes in how covert operations were conducted and increased oversight mechanisms. The scandal remains a critical example of the complexities and potential abuses in US foreign policy.
The end of the war
The Iran-Iraq War dominated much of Khomeini’s decade in power. It was a bloody conflict, marked by the use of chemical weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, the use of child soldiers, and war crimes. About half a million people are thought to have died in the conflict, and relations between Iran and Iraq did not really warm until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, although the US presence in the region was not welcomed by the Islamic Republic.
Khomeini died in 1989, but his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continued his policy of subverting the Jewish state in support of the Palestinians. Rhetoric from Iran regularly states how Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
“In 1989, when Khomeini died, there were comments in Israel that this may be an opportunity for the Israelis and the Iranians to re-establish a relationship,” Parsi said. “In the Israeli mindset, the belief was that Iran was a critical state, and if we could just have relations, it would be much better for Israel’s geopolitical situation – which made sense at the time, as Saddam Hussein was still very powerful. That was a different geopolitical reality than today.
“The Israeli position changed dramatically in 1991-1992 when Saddam was defeated [in the Gulf War], the Soviet Union collapsed, and the geopolitical factors that had pushed Israel and Iran together throughout all those years had suddenly evaporated,” Parsi said. “Now the effort has become to make peace with the surrounding Arab states and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue.”
AS THE dust settled on the Iran-Iraq War, the arms sales between Israel and Iran highlighted a pragmatic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at diplomacy. Today, the legacy of these secret dealings lingers, with the two nations on the brink of open conflict. The missed opportunity for a more stable relationship continues to cast a shadow over the region’s future.
Instead, Iran found itself going down the path of Islamism that it continues to spread and fund to this day – coming to a head just a few weeks ago on April 13, when Tehran launched a direct attack on the Jewish state. It launched around 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles toward Israel in response to the alleged Israeli assassination of an Iranian general in Damascus.
The Israeli sales of weapons to the Islamic Republic during the Iran-Iraq War could be viewed in hindsight as Iran doing whatever it must do to secure victory and Israeli attempts to broker diplomatic relations with a newfound enemy. It should also be viewed, perhaps, as a missed opportunity because now, some 30 years later, the two countries are closer to war than they have ever been.

Why has China turned against Israel? - opinion
Michael Freund/Jerusalem Post/June 14/2024
There was not a word of condemnation for Hamas nor its murderous rampage, nor even an affirmation of Israel’s right to defend itself. In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, there was an outpouring of support around the world for Israel. Even countries that did not have particularly close relations with the Jewish state nonetheless saw fit to denounce the savagery of the massacre perpetrated by Palestinians. But there was one glaring exception to the chorus that stood out with surprising diffidence, which quickly descended into hostility: the People’s Republic of China. The day after Hamas invaded southern Israel, burned alive entire families, and kidnapped children and Holocaust survivors, the government in Beijing issued a bland statement that called on all parties to “remain calm and exercise restraint.” There was not a word of condemnation for Hamas nor its murderous rampage, nor even an affirmation of Israel’s right to defend itself. Instead, Chinese officials began almost daily calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state. And as the IDF began its military operations in Gaza, China’s criticism quickly took on a harsher tone, accusing Israel of “collective punishment” and demanding an immediate ceasefire. Beijing also referred to the Israelis held hostage in Gaza as “detained civilians,” and frequently lumped them together with Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons, as though there was a moral equivalence between the two.
On February 22, Ma Xinmin, director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of Treaty and Law, went a step further. In remarks delivered at the International Court of Justice, he asserted that the Palestinians had every right to engage in “armed struggle” against Israel, calling such violence “just actions.” “In pursuit of the right to self-determination,” he insisted, “the Palestinian people’s use of force to resist foreign oppression and to complete the establishment of an independent state is an inalienable right well founded in international law.”China has also hosted a delegation from Hamas and attempted to broker an agreement between them and the Palestinian Authority.
And in mid-April, when Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, Beijing described the attack as “self-defense.”
Chinese antisemitism
NO LESS troubling are reports that antisemitism has surged on Chinese social media which, of course, is largely government-controlled and censored. According to a January report by the Brookings Institution, there is even a conspiracy theory known as “Project Pufferfish” that “alleges a Jewish plot in conjunction with Imperial Japan to settle northeastern China” that has “gained traction” among the Chinese.
On January 22, Aaron Keyak, the Biden administration’s Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, delivered a speech to the American Bar Association in which he highlighted the worrisome growth of online antisemitic rhetoric in China. “I have particular concern,” he stated, “that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, there’s been an increase in the People’s Republic of China’s state media and online discourse of antisemitic tropes that Jews control the United States through deep US-Israel ties, as well as control over banks, the media, and that they have influence over government leaders.”
CHINA’S STANCE since Oct. 7 seems to be in sharp contrast to the steady warming of bilateral relations that had been taking place prior to the Hamas attacks. Just last year, on June 27, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed to a visiting delegation of US congressmen that he had received an official invitation to Beijing. Economic ties had been flourishing, with trade between the two countries soaring from $50 million in 1992 to $17.6 billion in 2022. China had been taking what many described as a more balanced approach to the Middle East than in the past.
But that balance has clearly given way to Chinese antagonism toward Israel.
Theories abound as to what lies behind this shift, which has been anything but subtle or measured. China appears to be positioning itself as a geopolitical competitor with the US and is seeking to undermine American influence in various parts of the globe, with the Middle East being no exception.
In March 2023, Beijing stunned the world when it succeeded in brokering a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The move underlined China’s efforts to insert itself into the region as a major player, with Beijing having an important economic role in the area. Chinese trade with Arab countries soared to $330 billion in 2021, and China gets most of its oil from the Middle East. Having strengthened its relations with Russia and Iran, China has staked out a position in direct opposition to US interests, effectively linking itself to the “axis of resistance” that has been formed. With Israel seen as an ally of America, the Chinese regime has made an unambiguous choice to bolster its ties with Arab and Muslim states at the expense of its relations with Jerusalem. This was on display most recently at a summit of Arab leaders hosted in Beijing to strengthen cooperation. On May 30, according to CNN, China and delegates from 22 Arab countries “adopted a strident joint statement condemning Israel’s ‘aggression against the Palestinian people,’” using “some of China’s most pointed language to date on the conflict.” How Israel chooses to respond to this marked change in Chinese policy remains to be seen. But it cannot be allowed to pass without a response, which could include taking steps to strengthen ties with Taiwan, as well as restricting Chinese investment in key Israeli infrastructure projects.
If China has chosen sides and is determined to stand with Israel’s foes, then it may very well leave the Jewish state with little choice but to do the same with China’s foes.
*The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Far right first to shine in Europe’s summer of elections
Luke Coffey/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Tens of millions of Europeans went to the polls last week to vote in the European Parliament elections. In all, 720 seats divided between the 27 EU members were up for grabs. Although the European Parliament is the only directly elected EU institution, it also happens to be the one with the least amount of power when compared to the European Commission and the European Council. Even so, European Parliament elections matter because they often set the political tone for the bloc. Last week’s elections were no different. While the mainstream center-right political grouping in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, continues to hold the most seats, there was a significant increase in seats for far-right political parties, mostly at the expense of left-wing parties. The outcome of these elections sent political shock waves across some countries in the EU. Meanwhile, the UK, while no longer in the EU, is also experiencing a period of political turmoil. Perhaps the biggest shock wave resulting from the European elections was the one that hit France. The far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen won the largest number of seats. This rattled French President Emmanuel Macron, who has led a center-left minority government for the last two years. When Macron subsequently called snap elections, which will take place on June 30 and July 7, many were shocked.
The thinking behind Macron’s decision is not clear. He wants to force the French public to make a binary choice between the far right and more mainstream political parties, and he believes an immediate election is the best way to do this. It is one thing to vote for a far-right party in European elections, but voters tend to moderate their preferences in national elections.
Perhaps the biggest shock wave resulting from the European Parliament elections was the one that hit France
Macron is hoping that National Rally’s recent success was a result of protest voting by the French public and not a fundamental realignment of French politics. It is likely that the president believes that a swift defeat of National Rally so soon after its victorious European election results would prevent Le Pen from becoming a serious contender in the 2027 presidential election. However, this strategy could backfire. The National Rally now has incredible momentum across France at a time when Macron’s popularity remains at an all-time low. Furthermore, the leader of France’s mainstream center-right party, The Republicans, announced that he would join forces with the National Rally if it meant taking power away from Macron. He has since been removed by party officials. If Macron’s plan does backfire, it could have major implications for France’s role in Europe and NATO, especially as it pertains to important issues like Ukraine. The second place to watch this summer is Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party came third in the country’s European elections, behind the mainstream center-right Christian Democratic Union and the far-right Alternative for Germany. This was the worst showing for the Social Democrats in a national election in decades. Unlike Macron, Scholz has said that an early election is not on the table. Ultimately, however, the final decision on this matter may not be his to make. As with France, the European elections were seen as a vote of no-confidence for national governments across Europe, and Germany was no exception. With a coalition government that faced problems even before the vote, the political pressure may build from all sides of German politics to force Scholz into calling an early election.
Whether inside or outside the EU, the politics across Europe will remain contentious this summer
In the coming weeks, the ruling coalition will try working together to formulate a common budget. This will no doubt place considerable political strain on the coalition and could make snap elections more likely. Germany is Europe’s largest economy and is the primary motor behind EU politics. When Germany goes to the polls, it matters for the whole continent. There is one more important election that will take place this summer in Europe, but not in the EU: the UK. Even though British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an early election well before the European elections took place, many of the same factors that impact politics on the continent also impact the UK. After 14 years in power, it is likely that the Conservative Party will be on its way out when voters go to the polls next month. How big the Labour Party’s majority will be is really the main question at this point. One important factor to watch will be the emergence of the populist Reform UK party in British politics and what role it will play in the election outcome. Due to the country’s electoral system, it will be very difficult for any Reform candidate to win a seat in the House of Commons. However, Conservative Party voters who are disillusioned with the recent direction of the party could be tempted to vote for it as a form of protest. This will likely lead to an even larger Labour Party majority than would have otherwise been the case. Whether inside or outside the EU, the politics across Europe will remain contentious this summer. With Europe’s three biggest economies either holding elections or possibly doing so, the next few months could set the future direction of the continent for years to come. The uncertainty of the US presidential election this November complicates matters even further. Europe is facing ongoing economic challenges and energy security issues. At the same time, the largest war on the continent since the 1940s is taking place in Ukraine. As Europeans head to the polls this summer, the stakes will be high. Not just for Europe, but the rest of the world too.
• Luke Coffey is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. X: @LukeDCoffey

Will Russia’s ‘window to Europe’ be closed for good?
Dr. Diana Galeeva/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Amid wonderful sunshine, the “Russian Davos” — the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which hosted guests from 130 countries — opened last Wednesday. While walking from the Winter Palace toward the monument to Peter I, the so-called Bronze Horseman, in the Senate Square — a monument to a ruler who opened a “window to Europe” — I thought about the irony that, despite having been influenced by a kaleidoscope of Western architectural styles and having become the “Venice of the North,” St. Petersburg now hosts a platform for new ideas on developing the “foundations of a multipolar world,” in which the discussions were on how to open windows to everywhere except Europe.
This was reflected in the main thematic blocks of the forum, including sovereignty in all spheres, deglobalization and the transformation of the global economy, international cooperation, and social priorities in domestic policy and health.
This year’s four-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was unique for several reasons, reflecting Russia’s current foreign policy, in which the economy clearly plays a key role due to the ongoing sanctions. The window to Europe is closed (at least for now).
First of all, by observing the program, the utilization of smart power — a combination of hard and soft power strategies — can be seen in Russia’s strategic policy. Among more than 200 events, there were sections on economic hard power that were dedicated to the key drivers of economic growth and sustainable development of the country’s internal resources, such as high-quality subsoil use and the development of tourism and the creative industries. The business reputation index and data from the National Rating of the Investment Climate in the regions of Russia were also presented.
Furthermore, Russia aims to bring the processes of soft power closer to those of economic hard power by discussing and working on subjects such as “Combining cultures and traditions in contemporary cross-cultural projects,” “The image of the hero: How modern cinema and media respond to the demands of the state and society,” and “Development of infrastructure of cultural facilities as a driver of development of the state’s cultural economy.” Therefore, the first lesson on Russia’s strategic direction is its aim to integrate soft power into hard power in its policies toward so-called friendly states.
The utilization of smart power — a combination of hard and soft power strategies — can be seen in Russia’s strategic policy
Secondly, a great deal of attention was paid to discussing the BRICS economies. Events included: “BRICS goals in the context of the new world order,” “Transition finance: Opening up opportunities for the energy transition in BRICS,” “Development of BRICS cooperation in the diamond industry,” “The role of the BRICS countries in ensuring global food security,” and “Great cultures: New opportunities for the development of creative interaction among the BRICS countries.”
The rationale is clear, as the BRICS countries play a key role in ensuring global food security. They account for more than a third of the world’s food production and produce more than 40 percent of all fertilizers, thanks to which more than 4 billion people are provided with food.
This special focus is not a coincidence, as Russia chairs BRICS this year and hosts both the upcoming forum in October and the affiliated BRICS Games multisport event this month. Therefore, Russia’s multilateral diplomacy must be stressed as, in addition to BRICS, it seeks strategic economic development through the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Greater Eurasian Partnership in the fields of financial technologies and culture, global food security, intercultural projects and ecology.
Russia has also sought to further boost relations through a “pointed approach” of developing ties with strategic regions and countries, including in the Middle East and North Africa. During last week’s forum, discussions on bilateral relations took place with the UAE, China, Oman and Africa.
An interesting dynamic was that of the active participation of the delegates from Oman. In 2023, the volume of mutual trade between Oman and Russia increased by 60 percent. An agreement was signed last week to prevent double taxation, opening up new opportunities for expanding the trade and investment exchanges between the two countries.
Russia has also sought to boost relations through a “pointed approach” of developing ties with strategic regions and countries
The discussions explored which areas of economic and investment cooperation between Russia and Oman are promising, considering the possibility of Russian input into the realization of Oman Vision 2040. The Omani delegates seemed to use soft power techniques in return, bringing to the forum a translated book of Omani proverbs to show its cultural heritage and focusing on similarities between the two countries. In addition to discussions on further boosting ties in trade, the energy sector, the localization of products, bilateral investments and geological exploration within the context of Oman’s Renaissance 2.0, Muscat also aims to win hearts and minds in Russia with the “Omani Empire: Asia and Africa” exhibition in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious museums.
Such discussions on aspects of the global economy lead to broader debates on the current multipolar world and the economic interests manifested there. For example, in discussions on “Philosophy and geopolitics of a multipolar world” and “Architecture of the world order: A view from Russia,” Russia’s views on the concept of the “world majority” were presented and stressed.
However, as one of the high-level speakers noted, a theoretical alternative world order would need to be accepted by all sides, including the so-called collective West. Another speaker emphasized the length of time required for such processes and also that, for one side, the process will end badly. Either Russia and its strategic partners will successfully develop alternative payment and economic systems, logistics and transportation corridors or the existing instruments based on Western interests will continue to be attractive for the “world majority” countries.
This would also be reflected in the balance of power in a multipolar world structure. How the world will look with a multipolar structure remains in the distant future — and how far Russia will reach with its “Russian Davos” remains a mystery.
To continue the metaphor, whether Russia and its inner circle of allies in this confrontation with the collective West will reopen the window to Europe in order to be integrated into Western-based economic instruments or completely shut it remains unclear. What is crystal clear is that the forum’s guests enjoyed the atmosphere of the host city, showing that St. Petersburg, where the annual White Nights Festival has now begun, has a magnetism for investors and businesses alike.
• Dr. Diana Galeeva is an academic visitor to Oxford University. X: @Dr_GaleevaDiana

Turkish-Syrian reconciliation may be too big a task for Iraq
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Once again, Turkish-Syrian reconciliation is on the agenda, this time with Iraq stepping forward to offer mediation.
Iraq’s emergence in this role may come as a surprise to some, given its complicated history of turmoil, internal strife, and foreign intervention. But despite these challenges, Iraq is actively seeking to adopt a nuanced approach to regional conflicts, drawing upon its experience and positioning to enable dialogue between conflicting parties. It has already proved itself in the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, which was eventually brokered by China but after mediation efforts by Baghdad, which hosted a series of talks between the two regional powers. Additionally, an Iranian official recently confirmed that talks between Iran and Egypt were taking place in Baghdad.Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has expressed his government’s commitment to brokering reconciliation between Ankara and Damascus, recalling his country’s role in the normalization deal between Tehran and Riyadh. “We are trying to create such a foundation for reconciliation and dialogue between Syria and Turkiye. God willing, we will see some steps in this regard soon,” Sudani said, and he was in contact with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Highlighting the shared security threats from Syria faced by Iraq and Turkiye, Sudani referred to regions not controlled by the Assad regime as a threat. Turkiye shares that perception. Ankara is frustrated by plans by the YPG, which it views as the Syrian branch of the outlawed PKK, to hold elections in northern Syria from Deir Ezzor and Raqqa to Manbij and Afrin. This is an attempt to trigger tensions in the area that are likely to affect Iraq as well. Ankara is frustrated by plans by the YPG, which it views as the Syrian branch of the outlawed PKK, to hold elections in northern Syria
The main goal of talks between high-level Turkish, Syrian and Russian officials in 2022 was to eradicate the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northern Syria. The talks failed after Damascus pressed for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria, which is not an option for Ankara unless the Kurdish threat is eliminated. Its conditions have not changed. Turkiye’s readiness for military withdrawal from Syria is under specific and already known frameworks that include a constitutional amendment, fair elections in Syria, an honorable and safe return of Syrian refugees, and cooperation in the issue of “combating terrorism” linked to the PKK and YPG.
Besides the withdrawal of the Turkish presence in northern Syria, Damascus also consistently requires each meeting to involve Iran, Turkiye, the Assad regime and Russia, aiming for a political solution in Syria based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254 from 2015, which called for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria, established a roadmap for the country’s political transition, and required free and fair elections within 18 months. Damascus restated this condition to reveal a role for Iraq in achieving reconciliation. However, for both Iran and Russia, Turkish-Syrian reconciliation is not a priority now. For instance, Russia attributed the latest collapse of the normalization steps to the war in Gaza. Since then, the conditions in Gaza have not changed; rather the situation has deteriorated, with increased casualties and destruction. In light of the failure in Russian and Iranian attempts at Turkish-Syrian talks, Iraq has stepped in. Iraq has an advantage over other regional countries when it comes to Turkish-Syrian reconciliation. Its historical ties with both Turkiye and Syria give it a unique position as a mediator. It is a neighbor to both, and is not isolated from the devastating effects of the Syrian crisis.
Despite Iraq’s proven competence in mediating regional conflicts, finding common ground between Ankara and Damascus will be challenging
Sudani’s mediation offer may have three motivations: First, as a response to Ankara’s recent overtures following Erdogan's visit to Iraq. Second, Sudani’s desire to illustrate Baghdad’s regional stature and a new foreign policy that seeks to build regional relationships and bridge gaps between conflicting parties. Third, as part of a broader strategy to address security challenges along its borders, related to counterterrorism and refugee management, and fostering a conducive environment for economic cooperation.
Despite Iraq’s proven competence in mediating regional conflicts, achieving significant results in Turkish-Syrian reconciliation and finding common ground between Ankara and Damascus will be challenging. There are divergent interests between Turkiye and Syria, entrenched hostilities, and the involvement of other regional and international actors. Iraq’s mediation attempt may also face skepticism from the US, Russia, Iran, and the Gulf states, which have their own interests and agendas in the region. The outcome remains uncertain. If a global power is required to play the role taken by China in the Saudi-Iranian deal, Russia would be the only option. Iraq’s mediation attempt is promising, but the road to reconciliation remains fraught with complexities, and the task may be beyond Baghdad’s capacity to resolve independently.
• Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz

Even Mother Earth’s fury has failed to awaken us
Hassan bin Youssef Yassin/Arab News/June 14, 2024
Mother Earth has been the archetype of generosity and graciousness for as long as our planet has existed. Like every mother, though, there is a point where we push her too far and she loses her patience. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Mother Earth had already been giving us polite warnings that we were pushing her and our planet too far. Since then, she has started to show her frustration more frequently.
And yet we have continued to ignore the rapidly deteriorating state of our environment to the point where it is starting to threaten our very existence.
The weapons used in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere to destroy families and territories are not unlike the tools we humans have turned on Mother Earth, cutting down and torching her forests, parching her of freshwater, poisoning her soil, and overexploiting her resources. We are right to be concerned about the harm humans are inflicting upon other humans, but we should be far more concerned by the existential threat posed to humanity by our wretched destruction of the environment that sustains us.
As we look around us, we see lakes and arable land disappear, pollinating insects dwindle, fish vanish from our oceans, and weather phenomena become ever more extreme. We have continued to ignore the rapidly deteriorating state of our environment to the point where it is starting to threaten our very existence.
The year 2023 was not only the hottest on record; it was an outlier in the trend of global warming, a slowly rising line suddenly turning exponential.
Livelihoods around the world are being decimated by the greed of our fishing fleets, intensive agriculture, and our collective inability to acknowledge the harm, waste, and pollution that our daily lives inflict on the planet. Despite our highly advanced information and communication technologies, empathy and understanding are losing ground, creating division at the very moment that we most need cooperation to stave off this common threat. The hurt and delusion, the staggering self-interest of the media, corporations, and politicians, and the tragic blindness and complacency of humanity are all leading us toward the precipice. Even the rage of Mother Earth has failed to awaken us. Must it take an even greater natural disaster to jolt us into action before it is too late?
• Hassan bin Youssef Yassin worked closely with Saudi Arabia’s petroleum ministers Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani from 1959-67. He led the Saudi Information Office in Washington from 1972-81 and served with the Arab League’s observer delegation to the UN from 1981-83.