Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 16-17/2024
Healing miracle of the blind beggar/Elias Bejjani/March 17/2024
Israeli raids continue, targeting villages and supposed party centers
Israeli war raids, Hezbollah attacks... Aitaroun challenges and expels tobacco “obedient” people!
Israel accused of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in southern Lebanon
'Harmony' and 'confusion': Dynamics within the Quintet Committee
Lebanon sees French proposal to end hostilities with Israel as a possible 'step' towards peace
European sources 'downplay' escalation risks in southern region: Israel and Hezbollah show restraint
Hezbollah's role in focus: French initiative on South Lebanon stability met with government oversight
Border diplomacy: Lebanon's stance on French proposal and Syrian concerns
MP Mohammad Khawaja, to LBCI: The resistance deterred Israel; LF, FPM bear responsibility for not electing a president
Bassil says it was Hezbollah that abandoned MoU, not FPM
Geagea: Berri's positions obstruct the elections with unconstitutional proposals
Al-Rahi patronizes "Maronite National Conference" in Jbeil: It came at its right time to be a means of re-knowing our Lebanese self & responsibility

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 16-17/2024
Netanyahu okays military operation in Rafah as aid ships reaches Gaza
Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas expected to resume in Qatar
Stalled Negotiations: Internal and External Pressures on Israel and Hamas
Mossad chief expected to resume Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha on Sunday
All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza
First aid boat unloads in Gaza as Hamas proposes new truce
UN agency in Gaza reveals one in three children under 2 is 'acutely malnourished'
Hamas lashes out at Abbas’s ‘unilateral’ PM designation
Hamas, Houthis hold rare meeting: Palestinian sources
Iran at the crossroads: have the mullahs lost their grip?
Iran and U.S. Held Secret Talks on Proxy Attacks and Cease-Fire
13 years on, Syrians in Idlib uphold revolution through street art, sky monitoring and rallies
Macron switches from dove to hawk on Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Attack on Pakistan army post near Afghan border kills 7, military says
Biden backs Schumer after senator calls for new elections in Israel
Houthis Expand Operations Against Israeli Ship Passage, Raise International Concerns
Taliban Welcomes Extension of UN Mission Mandate in Afghanistan

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 16-17/2024
There Goes Latin America: Iran's Regime in America's Backyard/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./March 16, 2024
The West needs to rethink its strategy in the Sahel/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 16, 2024
Iraq seeks to avoid entanglement in regional conflict/Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/March 16, 2024
US floating port in Gaza might serve important purpose/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/March 16, 2024
EU’s complex competitiveness challenge is growing in urgency/Andrew Hammond/Arab news/March 16, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 16-17/2024
Healing miracle of the blind beggar
Elias Bejjani/March 17/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/73575/elias-bejjani-faith-and-persistence-do-miracles/
John 09:39: “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”
On the sixth Lenten Sunday, our Maronite Catholic Church cites and recalls with great piety Jesus’ healing miracle of the blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus. This amazing miracle that took place in Jericho near the Pool of Siloam is documented in three gospels:Mark 10/46-52. John 9/1-41 Matthew 20/:29-34.
Maronites in Lebanon and all over the world strongly believe that Jesus is the holy and blessed light through which believers can see God’s paths of righteousness. There is no doubt that without Jesus’ light, evil darkness will prevail in peoples’ hearts, souls and minds. Without Jesus’ presence in our lives we definitely will become preys to all kinds of evil temptations.
John 09:5: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world”.
In every community, there are individuals from all walks of life who are spiritually blind, lacking faith, have no hope, and live in dim darkness because they have distanced themselves from Almighty God and from His Gospel, although their eyes are physically perfectly functional and healthy. Meanwhile the actual blindness is not in the eyes that can not see because of physical ailments, but in the hearts that are hardened, in the consciences that are numbed and in the spirits that are defiled with sin.
John’s Gospel gives important details about what has happened with Bartimaeus after the healing miracle of his blindness. As we read in the below enclosed Biblical verses that after his healing Bartimaeus and his parents were exposed to intimidation, fear, threats, and terror. But he refused to succumb or to lie.
He held verbatim to all the course details of the miracle, bravely witnessed for the truth and loudly proclaimed his strong belief that Jesus who cured him was The Son Of God. His faith made him strong, fearless and courageous. The Holy Spirit came to his rescue and spoke through him.
Romans 8:26: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans”
Sadly our contemporary world hails atheism, brags about secularism and persecutes those who have faith in God and believe in Him. Where ever we live, there are opportunists and hypocrites like some of the conceited crowd members that initially rebuked Bartimaeus, and tried with humiliation to keep him away from Jesus, but the moment Jesus called on him they changed their attitude and let him go through.
Meanwhile, at the present time, Christian believers do suffer dire persecution in many countries on the hands of ruthless oppressors, Jihadists and rulers who refuse to witness for the truth. But despite of all the dim spiritual darkness, thanks God, there are still too many meek believers like Bartimaeus who hold to their faith no matters what the obstacles or hurdles are. Lord, enlighten our minds and hearts with your light and open our eyes to realize that You are a loving and merciful father. Lord Help us to take Bartimaeus as a faith role model in our life. Lord help us to defeat all kinds of sins that take us away from Your light, and deliver us all from evil temptations.
NB: The Above Piece was first published in 2014, republished with minor changes

Israeli raids continue, targeting villages and supposed party centers
Al-Modon/March 16, 2024
Confrontations continue between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation army in the south. Today, Israeli aircraft carried out a raid targeting Jabal Balat in the direction of Marwahin, and another raid on the town of Mays al-Jabal, but the missile did not explode. The planes also fired a missile again towards the western outskirts of the town of Mays al-Jabal without it exploding. The Marjayoun plain was targeted with an artillery shell, and it was raided twice on the town of Markaba. Artillery shelling was also recorded on the town of Wazzani. A shell fell on a Lebanese army center south of the town of Rmeish, and Israeli aircraft also raided the outskirts of the town of Naqoura, Jabal al-Labouneh, and Alma al-Shaab. It is noteworthy that the Israeli army has been relying for days on the rule of destroying entire villages, destroying homes and cutting off the secondary and public roads that lead to them. On Saturday morning, the Israeli occupation army announced that it had targeted a military building in Tayr Harfa and military infrastructure in Labbouneh belonging to Hezbollah with military aircraft in southern Lebanon, during the past night. On the other hand, Hezbollah announced today that it had “targeted Al-Baghdadi’s site with missile weapons and hit him directly.” It targeted “the Ramim barracks with two Burkan missiles and hit it directly.” The party also announced the targeting of the Ramtha, Al-Sammaqa and Al-Malikiyah sites, and a gathering of enemy soldiers on Karantina Hill.
Israeli media reported that a drone was found south of the Sea of Galilee and investigations are underway into its source. Media outlets reported that the plane was a suicide plane that fell in the northern Jordan Valley near Beit Shean, and the Israeli army is investigating whether it entered from Lebanon or Iraq. In this context, an Israeli channel reported that the wreckage of a drone was found in the Jordan Valley that may belong to Hezbollah. On Saturday evening, Israeli raids targeted a house in the town of Aitaroun, causing it to catch fire. Another house was also targeted with a missile that did not explode. The raids also targeted the town of Kafr Kila, near a UNIFIL center. Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee wrote in a post on his account on the “X” platform: “Earlier today, warplanes raided two military buildings belonging to Hezbollah in the Mays al-Jabal area and in the Marwahin area.” He added: "Also, earlier today, a reconnaissance site belonging to the organization was attacked in the Marwahin area." He continued: “During the day, firing operations were monitored from Lebanese territory towards Israeli territory in the areas of Jabal al-Rus (Har Dov), Malkiyah, and Misgav Am, where the IDF attacked the sources of fire with artillery fire.” The Israeli army had fired heavy machine guns towards the Labouneh and Al-Allam mountains in the western sector. Reconnaissance aircraft flew throughout last night and until this morning over the Tire district and the sea coast, and flare bombs filled the skies of the region over the villages of the western and central sectors, all the way to the outskirts of the towns of Al-Mansouri, Majdal Zoun, and Al-Sha’iyatiya. In light of the continuing confrontations, Israeli military analyst Alon Ben David told the Israeli newspaper “Maariv” that by making a little effort and at an acceptable cost, Hezbollah succeeds in keeping northern “Israel” devoid of residents, and every day that passes without a decision will only lead to... perpetuates his achievement, and increases the likelihood that many of the people already living in the North will never live there again.

Israeli war raids, Hezbollah attacks... Aitaroun challenges and expels tobacco “obedient” people!
Hussein Saad/Janoubia/March 16, 2024
The Mahdi family, one of the families of the border town of Aitaroun, did not wait for any truce or permission from the Israeli occupation to begin planting the tobacco season, so they plowed the land within sight of the occupation soldiers in Al-Malikiyah, the cameras of the reconnaissance planes, “drones,” and even the warplanes, which raided one of the town’s houses. At night, it was set on fire, coinciding with raids on Kafr Kila and Tayr Harfa, in light of artillery shelling on many southern axes, while Hezbollah carried out 6 attacks on enemy positions and concentrations, in Al-Baghdadi, Karantina, Ramim, Al-Malikiyah, Al-Sammaqa, and Ramta. Members of this family (Mahdi), a farmer, carried the tobacco and bitter green seedlings, equipped with irrigation water hoses, to a wide field, the soil was red, matching the blood of the 11 martyrs of Abbatroun, who fell since the beginning of the aggression, on the eighth of Tashrebin the First. Among them are the three children of the Mahmoud Shor family, who were martyred with their grandmother, Samira Ayoub, on the Aitaroun-Ainatha road, by a drone missile that targeted their car. In a clear challenge, reinforced by the will to persevere, survive, plant, and the seasons, this family painted the first unique picture, to launch resistance agriculture, so that the planting season would not be delayed and the nurseries would not be destroyed, which were being narrated at the height of the Israeli madness, which was attacking Aitaroun with raids and shells of all kinds. Displacing its people and emptying the farms of their cows, the livestock from their pens, and the bees from their hives. The town of Aitaroun, in the Bint Jbeil district, is the largest town and village in the district, with a population of nearly twenty thousand, and it is the first town in Lebanon in growing and producing tobacco, so the number of farmers there, during peak seasons, before the year 2019, reached nearly a thousand farmers. In addition to its 11 male and female martyrs, more material and economic losses were recorded in Aitaroun, which is located in a direct line of fire with the Israeli enemy, the complete destruction of dozens of homes, hundreds of them being damaged to varying degrees, and the burning of its olive vines.

Israel accused of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in southern Lebanon
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/March 16, 2024
BEIRUT: Residents and traders in southern Lebanon have accused Israel of adopting a “scorched earth policy” amid continuing hostilities in the region. A security source said on Saturday that Israel was setting out to destroy residential houses and neighborhoods, as well as industrial and commercial facilities, while public and secondary roads were also being blocked to hinder the arrival of supplies. Mohammed Saleh, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture in southern Lebanon, said that Israeli forces “no longer spare industrial and commercial institutions,” adding: “This is certain, and we are confident of it.” Saleh told Arab News that the army was resorting to burning trees and crops with phosphorous shells, a policy that was avoided in previous wars. Almost 100,000 people displaced from the border area did not know the fate of their properties and homes, he said.
“They rely on what is reported by some people who dare to reach their isolated villages, or those who insist on participating in the funeral processions of the dead in the towns for a few hours before returning to their displacement areas.” Saleh said: “It is difficult to determine the full extent of the losses in the southern region, as the repercussions have extended beyond the border area, including areas north of the Litani River, when the Israeli enemy bombed the industrial zone in the coastal town of Ghaziyeh weeks ago.”Israeli fighter jets flying at low altitudes also spread fear among people and affected productivity, he added. “The percentage of losses exceeds 45 percent. The south’s agriculture, industry, and commerce have declined by more than 50 percent. The decline in exports ranges from agricultural products to the food industry and other goods. “Factories in the border region are entirely shut down. Machines have stopped working, and so have power generators.” He said that in areas close to the border, work has decreased by 60 percent due to the security situation. Saleh’s remarks came as an Israeli missile landed near a Lebanese army site south of the border town of Rmaych. No casualties were reported. Israeli artillery also targeted the Marjayoun-Khiam Valley. Israeli raids and shelling resumed in the villages of Markaba, Al-Wazzani, Marwahin, Tayr Harfa and Dhahira, reaching Naqoura, Alma Al-Shaab, Aita Al-Shaab, Mays Al-Jabal, the entrance of Odaisseh, Houla and Kfarkila.
A Merkava tank in the Metula settlement launched missiles at an area between Deir Mimas and Kfarkila on Saturday afternoon. A resident in one of the villages said that Israeli shelling had become sporadic, targeting civilians working on their land. Israeli “aggression is no longer limited to Hezbollah members as it has been the past five months,” he said. Hezbollah said that it had struck the Israeli military outpost of Al-Baghdadi with missiles, and also hit the Ramim outpost with two Burkan missiles.

'Harmony' and 'confusion': Dynamics within the Quintet Committee
LBCI/March 17/2024
Informed sources revealed to Al-Akhbar newspaper a "Qatari-American 'harmony' within the Quintet Committee, in contrast to French confusion, Saudi firmness, and Egyptian neutrality." This article is originally published in, translated from Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar. They outlined a roadmap aligned with the National Moderation Bloc's initiative, which calls for consultations among parliamentary blocs followed by open sessions. If consensus is not reached, each team proposes its candidate, and the election process then takes place in a session convened by the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri. The sources also disclosed that "there was an intention to give ambassadorial movements a more serious tone through visits by some foreign ministers of certain committee countries to Beirut."However, they added that "the atmosphere conveyed by the US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit gave the impression that the path is blocked and it is difficult to make any breakthrough." What was understood from this is that "the United States does not want to invest heavily in the presidential file and prioritizes the security situation in the south," so it was agreed to settle for ambassadorial movements, decisively stating that: "What is happening is nothing but 'spinning' in a vicious circle."

Lebanon sees French proposal to end hostilities with Israel as a possible 'step' towards peace
Reuters/March 17/2024
Lebanon sees a French proposal meant to end hostilities with Israel and settle a border dispute as a possible "significant step" towards peace, according to a letter by Lebanon's foreign ministry dated Friday and seen by Reuters. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern frontier since October in parallel with the Gaza war. Diplomatic efforts have sought to halt hostilities to prevent a wider conflict breaking out. The French plan was submitted to Lebanon last month and the details were first reported by Reuters. It outlines three phases in which military operations would cease, Lebanese armed groups would withdraw combat forces and Lebanese regular army troops would be deployed in the south. In its letter addressed to the French embassy, the Lebanese foreign ministry said Beirut "believes that the French initiative could be a significant step" towards peace and security in Lebanon and the broader region. It did not address the specific steps outlined in France's proposal, but said UN Security Council Resolution 1701 - which ended the last big war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 - was the "cornerstone to realising enduring stability".
That resolution calls for non-state armed actors to quit south Lebanon and Lebanese army troops to deploy there. Friday's letter said that "Lebanon does not seek war" but wanted a halt to what it called Israeli violations of Lebanon's territorial sovereignty by land, air and sea. Once violations stop, it said, Lebanon would commit to resuming tripartite meetings with UN peacekeepers and Israel "to discuss all disputes and reach an agreement on a full and comprehensive implementation of UNSC 1701". US envoy Amos Hochstein is also in talks with Lebanon on reaching a diplomatic resolution to the border fighting.

European sources 'downplay' escalation risks in southern region: Israel and Hezbollah show restraint
LBCI/March 17/2024
European diplomatic sources "downplayed" the possibilities of escalation in the southern region. This article is originally published in, translated from Lebanese newspaper Al-Joumhouria. They informed Al-Joumhouria: "What we are witnessing in terms of daily developments and military operations has not yet deviated from a certain pace that the involved parties seem to be constrained by since the start of the confrontations."This, according to the sources: "Clearly reflects that Israel and Hezbollah are not pushing towards a wide confrontation due to the clear understanding of the high cost of such a war."However, the same sources do not believe in the stability of the situation as it currently stands, due to "fluctuations" in the controlled escalation. They fear, as they said, "that the logic of escalation may prevail here or there." They added: "Within Israel, as well as within Hezbollah, there are voices pushing for a widespread war, and 'surrendering' to it means igniting fire on a wide scale."Furthermore, sources indicate efforts towards a political resolution, noting ongoing preparations for a lasting truce in Gaza despite heightened tensions and the increasing demands from both Israel and Hamas. Both sides are aware that the conditions will ultimately be lowered, and there is no "escape" from reaching a truce upon which further truces can be built. Parallel to that, efforts for a political solution on the Lebanese front are underway to formulate arrangements that stabilize the region based on agreements that consolidate security and stability on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah's role in focus: French initiative on South Lebanon stability met with government oversight
LBCI/March 17/2024
On Friday, the political movement that the Quintet Committee's initiative will lead was not active, as it is anticipated to commence at the beginning of next week. Regarding this matter, Alaa Moussa, the Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon and a member of the committee, explained that "the activities of the Quintet Committee will involve everyone to confirm their dedication to electing a president." He said, "The desired truce in Gaza is an opportunity to produce ideas, and the details will not be considered as obstacles if the signs are positive."In parallel, attention was drawn to the response delivered Friday by the Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, to the French Ambassador Hervé Magro regarding the French initiative related to outlining a vision for stability in southern Lebanon. Sources informed Nidaa Al-Watan that it seems the government entirely overlooked the core of the initiative, especially regarding the execution of Resolution 1701, mainly to empty the southern area of the Litani River of Hezbollah's armed presence. According to this information, the response is contained in one page. The government avoided answering anything related to the clauses concerning Hezbollah's withdrawal to the north of the Litani. It also avoided responding to matters related to technical issues concerning the deployment of the Lebanese army with the support of UNIFIL forces. As a result, the answers to what the French initiative requires are within the general framework, echoing the "hollow phrases" repeated by the government regarding "the full implementation of Resolution 1701 and the cessation of Israeli aggressions."  The official response to the Tripartite Security Committee, a key point in the French initiative that includes representatives from Lebanon, Israel, and UNIFIL, was limited to stating that the resumption of the committee's meetings at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura is linked to "the cessation of Israeli aggressions" without providing additional details. It is worth noting that the French initiative reached Beirut in the middle of last month, initially titled "Security Arrangements between Lebanon and Israel."
The first part refers to the "April 1996 understanding." It proposes "the formation of a monitoring group composed of the United States, France, Lebanon, and Israel to monitor the implementation of security arrangements to be agreed upon and to address complaints that the parties may submit."
The security arrangements are set to be implemented in three stages, one of which relates to "the dismantling of Hezbollah sites and the withdrawal of fighters and missile and combat systems within a range of 10 kilometers north of the Blue Line." In return, Israel intends to "halt all types of aerial activities over Lebanon."According to observers, the government, which remained silent for over a month waiting to respond to the French initiative, only "mumbled" and nothing more. Meanwhile, the scene on the southern borders, which witnessed a new round of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket attacks on Friday, has not changed.  Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Quds chief Esmail Qaani visited Beirut last February. He met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for at least the third time since the Gaza war started on October 7th. During the meeting, Nasrallah reassured Qaani that Iran does not want to be dragged into a war with Israel or the United States and that Hezbollah will fight alone. Nasrallah told Qaani, "This is our fight," according to Reuters, citing an "Iranian source with knowledge of the discussions."

Border diplomacy: Lebanon's stance on French proposal and Syrian concerns
LBCI/March 17/2024
France has forwarded a diplomatic note, commonly referred to as a "non-paper," to Lebanese authorities outlining a series of ideas aimed at de-escalating tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border. The document, sent through the French embassy, presents a detailed ten-day timeline starting with the cessation of hostile activities, a ceasefire, a Hezbollah retreat, and ultimately the stabilization of calm. Lebanon's official response, conveyed by Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to French Ambassador Hervé Magro, focused on the immediate implementation of UN Resolution 1701. This resolution, dating back to 2006, has been repeatedly violated by Israel, while Lebanon stands ready to enforce it comprehensively. Lebanese sources indicate that the essence of the French proposal was to secure tranquility to facilitate the return of residents of northern Israel to their towns. However, Lebanon rejects separating this issue from the situation in the south. Minister Bou Habib briefed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on the response to the French proposal. In addition to addressing the French memorandum, Lebanon responded to a Syrian memorandum protesting the British-assisted establishment of surveillance towers along the borders in the Bekaa and the north. Syria argues that these towers pose a threat to its national security and could potentially transmit information to Israel through the British. Lebanon's reply, crafted by the Lebanese Army leadership and transmitted through diplomatic channels to Damascus, reaffirmed that these towers operate solely under Lebanese Army management. It emphasized the absence of British officers within them and their lack of connection to any foreign embassy, dismissing any espionage implications. Furthermore, Lebanon underscored the significant role these surveillance centers have played since 2013 in monitoring borders, combating terrorist groups, and curbing human and goods trafficking.

MP Mohammad Khawaja, to LBCI: The resistance deterred Israel; LF, FPM bear responsibility for not electing a president
LBCI/March 17/2024
Member of the Development and Liberation Bloc, MP Mohammad Khawaja, considered that "the current situation does not hold partial solutions, and the delegations that came to Lebanon brought partial solutions based on 'Israel's security,' starting with the French initiative and ending with Hochstein's initiative, which carried clauses we do not agree with."On LBCI's "Nharkom Said" TV show, he asked, "Why didn't Hochstein tell the Israeli army to move just one kilometer away from our borders? Why is only the Lebanese side asked to withdraw?"He said, "Lebanon has never been, even once, the source of war; rather, it is always Israel that is the source of war in the entire region." Khawaja added, "Israel can wage war, but it cannot guarantee its outcome; rather, it shifts its stance from time to time, and Hamas has resilience." He affirmed that they "adhere to Resolution 1701 and its implementation, [...] and it is the enemy's responsibility to comply with its literal implementation." He pointed out that "there is a military war, even with a low intensity, on our front, and a political war and political resistance under the management of Speaker Berri during his meetings with foreign envoys, who only carry Israeli concerns." He emphasized that "we are against Palestinian division, and without unity, the Palestinian people cannot prevail. Israel hates any resistance movement and hates the Fatah movement as it hates Hamas."He said that the October 7th attacks are regarded as a response to the occupation and are "calculated."He stressed that "what the Islamic Resistance did is a deterrent to the Israeli war, not a lure for it."Regarding the presidential file, he said, "The presidential issue is completely separate from the war, and if they proceed with Speaker Berri's practical and real initiative, there would have been a president within ten days." He added, "I hold responsible for not electing a president those who refused dialogue from the beginning, namely the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces."He affirmed that "if we return to parliamentary sessions today to elect a president, we will witness the same situation as in previous sessions, and there will be no presidential election session without consensus." He added that "Geagea and Gemayel said in previous TV interviews, "If the opposition candidate wins, we will not secure the quorum," adding that this is their right. "We do not blame them, and they should not blame us either." Khawaja wished that "the Quintet Committee would be 'carrying something,'" affirming that the President must be "made in Lebanon."

Bassil says it was Hezbollah that abandoned MoU, not FPM
Naharnet/March 17/2024 
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that the the FPM’s 2006 memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah “has not collapsed” although it needs “improvement.”“Its ideas remain valid but it needs improvement, something that has not happaned,” Bassil said during the FPM’s annual dinner. “The FPM did not abandon the MoU. It was Hezbollah that abandoned it when it first gave up state building and afterwards partnership, and most recently when it exceeded the extent of protecting Lebanon,” Bassil added. Noting that “the FPM has not changed its stance and it still supports resistance against Israel and terrorism, as long as the army alone is not capable of performing this mission,” the FPM chief stressed that “Palestine’s liberation is not the responsibility of Lebanon alone.” “It is first and foremost the responibility of the Palestinians,” he said. “Lebanon cannot be neutral in the conflict with Israel, but it can distance itself from conflicts that harm it,” Bassil went on to say.

Geagea: Berri's positions obstruct the elections with unconstitutional proposals
NNA/March 16, 2024
The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, considered that President Nabih Berri's positions are nothing but a continuation of the decision to obstruct the holding of elections through unconstitutional proposals aimed at putting the opposition's back against the wall. In comments made to L'Orient Le Jour daily, Geagea reiterated his position that he would not abandon the option of electing former minister Jihad Azour unless the resistance group withdraws its candidate, which it clings to more than ever before, saying: “When the opposing party abandons its candidate, we can discuss the third option. But everyone, including Nabih Berri himself, knows that the time has not yet come to take a serious position due to the opposition’s refusal to hold the open session in successive sessions, and at the same time its refusal to agree on the third option."Commenting on the situation in the south, LF leader considered that what is happening in southern Lebanon is moving in a dangerous direction, stressing that “no one should tamper with the existing balances in southern Lebanon since the adoption of Resolution 1701 in August 2006, especially since the confrontations in the south did not really help Gaza.”
He continued: "The most dangerous thing in all of this is that everything suggests that Lebanon does not have a government responsible for its people, because at a time when Hezbollah is making decisions that are in harmony with Iranian strategic interests in the region, which are leading the Lebanese to disasters, Lebanese government is absent, even though it is responsible for the damage affecting the country. ""Since the beginning of the war, more than 300 people have been killed in Lebanon. Why ? For who? I don't know," Geagea concluded.

Al-Rahi patronizes "Maronite National Conference" in Jbeil: It came at its right time to be a means of re-knowing our Lebanese self & responsibility
NNA/March 16, 2024 
Under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, the “Inmaa Maad - Maadi Family University” Association launched the "Maronite National Conference" in cooperation with the Maronite League, the Maronite Gathering for Lebanon, and the Permanent Christian Conference, during a ceremony held at Majestic Byblos Grand Hotel in Jbeil, in the presence of prominent politicians, members of government and parliament, and senior partisans and officials. Addressing the attendees, Patriarch al-Rahi praised the joint efforts to hold the conference and ensure its success, considering that it comes at the right time to help us re-learn our Lebanese identity, and describing it as "a march to preserve Lebanon in its distinctive entity, its characteristics, its mission in this East, and its impact on the global level.”Al-Rahi recalled Saint Pope John Paul II's beckoning words of “A New Hope for Lebanon,” which he signed in Beirut on May 10, 1997, considering Lebanon as a "cradle of an ancient culture and one of the beacons of the Mediterranean". He also paid tribute to the significant role that Byblos played in ancient history in being the city of the first alphabet, adding that "in the spirit of this pontifical testimony, the Maronite National Conference begins."The Patriarch continued to highlight the distinguished stature of Lebanon in being "a state with no religion of its own," but rather "a state that respects all religions and sects, guarantees the freedom to perform religious rituals under its protection, and guarantees to people of all faiths respect for the personal status system and religious interests.”"In Lebanon, a basic rule is coexistence between Christians and Muslims, with equality in rights and duties. This rule is not based on numbers, but rather on equal partnership in governance and administration between Christians, in all their sects, and Muslims, in all their sects," al-Rahi emphasized. He added: "In an Arab and Levantine environment where there is unilateralism in religion, party, and opinion, Lebanon is distinguished by cultural and religious pluralism within the framework of national unity based on three components: equality in governance and administration, the republican-democratic parliamentary political system, and public freedoms, foremost of which is freedom of opinion and belief."
However, al-Rahi regretted that these features which rendered Lebanon a “precious cultural value", a "cultural, economic, and social bridge between East and West", and a "place for dialogue and convergence of religions," have unfortunately been distorted over the past thirty years.
The Patriarch referred to a blatant violation of the Constitution, particularly apparent in failing to elect a President of the Republic, without any justification, except for the open goals of eliminating the only Maronite Christian president in this East, as he explained. "This Maronite National Conference came at its right time, as a means of re-knowing our Lebanese self and our responsibility," al-Rahi went on, stressing that Lebanon and its cultural values are a responsibility we shoulder, adding that we must be committed to recovering its essence of positive neutrality and being a peace mediator, a pioneer of dialogue and convergence, and a defender of the rights of peoples, most prominently the Palestinians. "Lebanon cannot fulfill this role and mission if it enters into regional or international wars and conflicts," the Patriarch underscored.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 16-17/2024
Netanyahu okays military operation in Rafah as aid ships reaches Gaza
Euronews/March 16, 2024
Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas are expected to restart in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials. The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders joined the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week, but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected. In recent days, however, both sides have made moves aimed at getting the talks, which never fully broke off, back on track. Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the contents of the sensitive discussions.The first stage would be a six-week cease-fire that would include the release of 35 hostages — women, those who are ill and older people — being held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel. Hamas would also release at least five female soldiers in exchange for 50 prisoners, including some serving long sentences on terror charges, for each soldier. Israeli forces would withdraw from two main roads in Gaza, let displaced Palestinians return to north Gaza, which has been devastated by the fighting, and allow the free flow of aid to the area, the officials said. Nearly one in three children under two years old in the isolated north are suffering acute malnutrition, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF reported Friday. In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent cease-fire and Hamas would free the remaining Israeli soldiers held hostage in exchange for more prisoners, the officials said. In the third phase, Hamas would hand over the bodies it’s holding in exchange for Israel lifting the blockade of Gaza and allowing reconstruction to start, the officials said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal “unrealistic.” However, he agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar for more talks.
Those talks were expected to resume Sunday afternoon, though they could get pushed to Monday, the Egyptian officials said. Netanyahu’s government has rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire, insisting it must first fulfill its stated goal of “annihilating Hamas.” Netanyahu’s office also said Friday he approved military plans to attack Rafah, the southernmost town in Gaza where some 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The United States and other countries have warned such an operation could be disastrous, but Israel says it plans to push ahead to destroy Hamas battalions stationed there. Many Palestinians fled to Rafah when Israel began attacking Gaza following the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and left another 250 hostage in Gaza. Netanyahu's office said the Rafah operation would involve the evacuation of the civilian population, but did not give details or a timetable. The military said Wednesday it planned to direct civilians to “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday: “We have to see a clear and implementable plan” to safeguard innocent people in Rafah from an Israeli incursion. “We have not seen such a plan,” he said. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the United Nations.

Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas expected to resume in Qatar
SAMY MAGDY/USA TODAY/March 16, 2024
CAIRO — Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials. The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders join the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week, but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.
In recent days, however, both sides have made moves aimed at getting the talks, which never fully broke off, back on track. Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the contents of the sensitive discussions.
'A good speech': Biden praises Schumer's blistering criticism of Netanayhu
The first stage would be a six-week cease-fire that would see the release of 35 hostages — women, those who are ill and older people — held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas would also release at least five female soldiers in exchange for 50 prisoners, including some serving long sentences on terror charges, for each soldier. Israeli forces would withdraw from two main roads in Gaza, let displaced Palestinians return to northern Gaza, which has been devastated by the fighting, and allow the free flow of aid to the area, the officials said. Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the village of Alma al-Shaab near the border with Israel on March 15, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the village of Alma al-Shaab near the border with Israel on March 15, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Nearly one in three children under 2 years old in the isolated north have acute malnutrition, the United Nations children's agency said Friday.
In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent cease-fire and Hamas would free the remaining Israeli soldiers held hostage in exchange for more prisoners, the officials said. In the third phase, Hamas would hand over the bodies it’s holding in exchange for Israel lifting the blockade of Gaza and allowing reconstruction to start, the officials said. A Palestinian woman holds a child as they mourn their relatives killed in Israeli bombardment in front of the morgue of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on March 15, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. A Palestinian woman holds a child as they mourn their relatives killed in Israeli bombardment in front of the morgue of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on March 15, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal “unrealistic.” However, he agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar for more talks.
Those talks were expected to resume Sunday afternoon, though they could get pushed to Monday, the Egyptian officials said.
Northern Gaza: Israel denies Palestinian claim its forces killed 20 near Gaza aid distribution center. Netanyahu’s government has rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire, insisting it must first fulfill its stated goal of “annihilating Hamas.”
Netanyahu’s office also said Friday he approved military plans to attack Rafah, the southernmost town in Gaza where some 1.4 million displaced Palestinians — more than half the enclave's population — are sheltering. Many Palestinians fled to Rafah when Israel attacked Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and left another 250 hostage. The United States and other countries have warned that a military operation in Rafah could be disastrous, but Israel says it plans to push ahead to destroy Hamas battalions stationed there.
Netanyahu's office did not give details or a timetable for the Rafah operation but said it would involve the evacuation of the civilian population. The military has said it planned to direct civilians to “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the U.S. has yet to see "a clear and implementable plan” to safeguard innocent people in Rafah from an Israeli incursion. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that at least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. An Israeli strike early Saturday flattened a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 19 people including nine children, according to records at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. An Associated Press journalist there saw the bodies. Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N.
As part of efforts to get desperately needed aid into Gaza, a ship inaugurated a sea route from Cyprus on Friday and offloaded 200 tons of humanitarian supplies sent by the aid group World Central Kitchen destined for people in northern Gaza. The group said Saturday it was preparing another vessel in Cyprus with hundreds of tons of Gaza-bound aid. Also on Saturday, Germany joined a group of countries, including the U.S. and Jordan, in conducting airdrops of aid over Gaza. The U.S. also has announced separate plans to construct a pier to get aid in.
Displaced Palestinians living in tents along the Mediterranean coast remained hungry and bleak. “The situation is so bad that no one can imagine it, and the ship, even if it helps, will be a drop in the ocean,” said Zahr Saqr in Muwasi. “We run like dogs behind air drops.” Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Stalled Negotiations: Internal and External Pressures on Israel and Hamas
LBCI/March 16, 2024
Eyes are fixed on Qatar, awaiting the resumption of negotiations early next week, with concern mounting over the success of external and internal pressures on Israel and Hamas to advance towards a prisoner exchange deal, ending the hundred and sixty-day-long "Al-Aqsa Flood" war. Prime Minister Netanyahu's attempt to escalate the situation regarding negotiations fell flat as soon as he agreed to send a delegation to Qatar to continue discussions, under US pressure.  His announcement of approval for the war plan in Rafah also did not pass smoothly, as he was attacked by several ministers during an expanded cabinet meeting on Friday night. They emphasized Israel's inability to execute the operation, evacuate civilians, and protect them.

Mossad chief expected to resume Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha on Sunday
DOHA (Reuters)/Sat, March 16, 2024
The head of Israeli intelligence is expected to lead ceasefire talks with mediators which resume in Qatar on Sunday in direct response to a new proposal from Hamas, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Saturday. The talks between Mossad head David Barnea, Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials will focus on remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas including over prisoner releases and humanitarian aid, the source said. Israel had said on Friday it would be sending a delegation to Doha, but did not spell out when it would do so or who would take part. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene the security cabinet before the talks. Israeli officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Barnea was involved in previous significant pushes for a deal. A short-lived truce in November was agreed and came into effect after his participation in talks in Doha. His last meeting with Qatar's prime minister in January led to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire that Hamas ultimately rejected. Hamas this week presented a new ceasefire proposal to mediators and Israel's ally the United States that includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners. Repeated efforts to agree a ceasefire and exchange hostages for prisoners have fallen apart this year, despite mounting international pressure over the human cost of Israel's ground and air assault in Gaza. The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 31,500 Palestinians, about 70% of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

All cargo offloaded from first aid ship to reach Gaza
Agence France Presse/March 16, 2024
A U.S. charity said Saturday its team in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip had finished unloading the first maritime aid shipment to reach the besieged territory. "All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," World Central Kitchen said in a statement, noting that the aid was "almost 200 tons of food." The group is preparing a second boat of 240 tonnes of food to set sail from Cyprus, the starting point of a new maritime aid route across the eastern Mediterranean. The humanitarian effort is intended to mitigate food shortages that have prompted U.N. famine warnings in Gaza from the United Nations and aid workers. "That shipment includes pallets of canned goods and bulk product including beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil and salt," World Central Kitchen said. The second shipment would also include a forklift and a crane to assist with deliveries, it added. The humanitarian group said it had "no information to release on when our second boat and the crew ship will be able to embark." The Israeli military on Friday confirmed the first vessel, operated by the Spanish charity Open Arms, had arrived and said soldiers had been deployed to secure the area and conduct a security inspection. The military also said the delivery of humanitarian aid by sea did not constitute a breach of its years-long maritime blockade of Gaza, which has been ruled since 2007 by Hamas. World Central Kitchen had to build a jetty southwest of Gaza City to deliver the aid.The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. As cumbersome Israeli security checks and logistical hurdles slow overland aid delivery to Gaza, countries have pursued alternatives including airdrops and the new maritime corridor. Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, said on social media platform X on Friday that the first shipment was "a test" and that "we could bring thousands of tonnes each week."

First aid boat unloads in Gaza as Hamas proposes new truce
Agence France Presse/March 16, 2024
A first aid ship plying a new maritime corridor from Cyprus began unloading its cargo of desperately needed food in Gaza on Friday as Hamas proposed a new six-week truce in the war.
AFP footage showed the Open Arms, which set sail from Cyprus on Tuesday, towing a barge that the Spanish charity of the same name says is loaded with 200 tonnes of food for Gazans threatened with famine after more than five months of war. World Central Kitchen, the US charity working with Open Arms, said it was readying another boat with supplies of beans, canned meat, flour, rice and dates in the Cypriot port of Larnaca but stressed the need for more road access to bring aid into Gaza. "Our ambition is having a highway of aid going into Gaza," the group's Juan Camilo Jimenez said in a video posted on social media platform X. The Israeli military said it had deployed troops to "secure the area" around the jetty while the cargo of aid was unloaded. The "vessel underwent a comprehensive security inspection," it said. A spokesman for the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry said early on Saturday that 123 people had been killed across Gaza in the past 24 hours, including 36 people in a strike on a house sheltering displaced people in central Nuseirat. Witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip's main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north where humanitarian conditions have been particularly dire. As Muslim worshippers marked the first Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, thousands attended prayers in the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, amid a heavy security presence and restrictions on entry. "It's the first year I see so many forces (police), and their eyes... Two years ago, I could argue with them, but now... they're giving us no chance," said Amjad Ghalib, a 44-year-old carpenter. In southern Gaza's Rafah, the last major population centre yet to be subjected to a ground assault, AFPTV footage showed worshippers praying by the rubble of a destroyed mosque. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday he had approved the military's plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of the Gaza Strip's population has sought refuge, without providing details or a timeline. The White House, which has said an assault on Rafah would be a "red line" without credible civilian protection plans, said it had not seen the plan approved by Netanyahu. "We certainly would welcome the opportunity to see it," National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said, adding that the United States could not support any plan without "credible" proposals to shelter more than one million Gazans.
'Obstacle' to peace -
In negotiations aimed at securing a new truce and hostage deal, Hamas has put forward a new proposal for a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of several dozen Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official from the militant group told AFP. Hamas would want this to lead to "a complete (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a permanent ceasefire", the official said. The proposal would involve the release of some 42 hostages, who would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners at a ratio of between 20 and 50 prisoners per hostage, the official said, down from a previous proposal of roughly 100 to one. Palestinian militants seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages during the Hamas attack of October 7, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 32 presumed dead. Israel said it was sending a delegation to Qatar for a new round of negotiations. The White House said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the chances for a ceasefire but stressed that talks were far from over. "We're cautiously optimistic that things are moving in the right direction," Kirby said, adding that the Hamas proposal was "within the bounds" of what negotiators had been discussing in recent months. The United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has grown increasingly critical of Netanyahu over his handling of the war. U.S. Senate leader Chuck Schumer called for a snap Israeli election, describing Netanyahu as one of several "major obstacles" to peace in a speech praised by U.S. President Joe Biden. "I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans," Biden said. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party retorted that Israel was "not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy."
Dying 'to keep families alive'
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, with only a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain Gaza's 2.4 million people being let in. With fewer aid trucks entering by road, efforts have multiplied to get relief in by air and sea. Cyprus, the nearest European Union member country to Gaza, has also said a second, bigger aid vessel is being prepared. "God willing, they will bring food for the children, that's all we ask for", displaced Gazan Abu Issa Ibrahim Filfil told AFPTV. Hamas's October 7 attack allegedly resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry. The ministry on Thursday accused Israeli troops of opening fire from "tanks and helicopters" as Palestinians waited for aid at a roundabout in Gaza City, killing 20 people and wounding dozens. The Israeli military denied firing on the crowd. "Armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy," and then "continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks", a military statement said.

UN agency in Gaza reveals one in three children under 2 is 'acutely malnourished'
Reuters/March 16, 2024
One in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main UN agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday. "Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza," the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post. More than five months into Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, much of the enclave is in ruins with most of its 2.3 million population displaced and facing a major humanitarian crisis. Hospitals in Gaza have reported some children dying of malnutrition and dehydration. The international food insecurity watchdog, the IPC, is expected to report soon on the extent of the hunger crisis in Gaza after saying in December there was a risk of famine in the projection period through May. For the IPC to declare famine, at least 20 percent of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease. Western countries have called on Israel to do more to allow in aid, with the UN saying it faced "overwhelming obstacles" including crossing closures, onerous vetting, restrictions on movement and unrest inside Gaza. Israel says it puts no limit on humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and blames slow aid delivery on incapacity or inefficiency among UN agencies. Air and sea relief deliveries into Gaza have started, but aid agencies say these are no substitute for bringing in supplies by land. A first delivery into Gaza by the World Central Kitchen, pioneering a new sea route via Cyprus, arrived on Thursday and was off-loaded, the charity said. Israel has accused UNRWA of complicity with Hamas, saying some staff members took part in the Oct. 7 attack and calling for the agency to be dismantled. Several major donors have paused funding over the allegations. UNRWA denies complicity with Hamas and said in February that it had dismissed 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza shortly after Israel accused them of involvement. The UN oversight body and UNRWA itself have launched investigations that have yet to report. European Union humanitarian chief Janez Lenarcic said on Thursday he had seen no evidence from Israel yet to back up its accusations.

Hamas lashes out at Abbas’s ‘unilateral’ PM designation
REUTERS/March 16, 2024
CAIRO: The Islamist group Hamas on Friday criticized the “unilateral” designation by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of an ally and leading business figure as prime minister with a mandate to help reform the Palestinian Authority (PA) and rebuild Gaza. Mohammad Mustafa’s appointment comes after mounting pressure to overhaul the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories and improve governance in the occupied West Bank where it is based. Hamas said the decision was taken without consulting it despite recently taking part in a meeting in Moscow also attended by Abbas’ Fatah movement to end long-time divisions weakening Palestinian political aspirations. “We express our rejection of continuing this approach that has inflicted and continues to inflict harm on our people and our national cause,” Hamas said in a statement. “Making individual decisions and engaging in superficial and empty steps such as forming a new government without national consensus only reinforces a policy of unilateralism and deepens division.”At a time of war with Israel, Palestinians needed a unified leadership preparing for free democratic elections involving all components of their society, it added. In the West Bank, Fatah fired back at Hamas’ criticism of Abbas, blaming it for what had befallen Gaza since it unilaterally carried out “the Oct. 7 adventure.”“Has Hamas consulted the Palestinian leadership as it is negotiating with Israel now and offering the concessions, in a bid to secure guarantees of its leaders’ personal safety in return?” said the Fatah statement.
FOREIGN DEMANDS
As president, Abbas remains by far the most powerful figure in the Palestinian Authority, but the appointment of a new government showed willingness to meet international demands for change in the administration. Mustafa, who helped organize the reconstruction of Gaza following a previous conflict, was assigned to lead the relief and rebuilding of the area, which has been shattered by more than five months of war, and reform Palestinian Authority institutions, according to the designation letter. He replaces former Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh who, along with his government, resigned in February.
Arab and international efforts have so far failed to reconcile Hamas and Fatah, which makes up the backbone of the PA, since the Hamas 2007 take over of Gaza, a move that reduced Abbas’s authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinians want both territories as the core of a future independent state.
Hamas said any attempt to exclude it from the political scene after the war was “delusional.” In a recent warning, a security official told a Hamas-linked news website that attempts by clans or community leaders to cooperate with Israel’s plans to administer Gaza would be seen as “treason” and met with an “iron fist.”But the group denied media reports it killed some local clan leaders in recent days for meddling with aid distribution.

Hamas, Houthis hold rare meeting: Palestinian sources
AFP/March 16, 2024
BANDE DE GAZA, Palestinian Territories: Senior figures from Hamas and Yemen’s Houthi rebels held a rare meeting to discuss coordinating their actions against Israel, Palestinian factional sources told AFP on Friday. Hamas and the Houthis belong to the “axis of resistance,” a collection of Iran-backed movements hostile to Israel and the United States that also includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi militias. The Houthis have attacked Red Sea shipping for months since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, saying they are targeting Israeli-linked vessels in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. According to sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, leaders from the two Palestinian Islamist groups, as well as the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, held an “important meeting” with Houthi representatives last week. The groups discussed “mechanisms to coordinate their actions of resistance” for the “next stage” of the war in Gaza, the sources said without identifying where the meeting took place. The Palestinian groups and the Houthis also talked about a possible Israeli ground assault into southern Gaza’s Rafah, said the sources, who requested anonymity. According to the United Nations, around 1.5 million people are crowded into and around Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza, most of whom are displaced and crammed against the Egyptian border in dire living conditions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday he had approved the military’s plan for an operation in Rafah. The Houthis confirmed they would continue their attacks on Red Sea shipping to “support the Palestinian resistance,” according to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources. The rebels’ leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said on Thursday their attacks would expand to target ships avoiding the Red Sea by navigating past South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Palestinian militants also seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 32 presumed dead. Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Iran at the crossroads: have the mullahs lost their grip?
The Week UK/March 16, 2024
Nobody was holding their breath over the outcome of this month's elections to the Majlis – Iran's parliament, said Maryam Aslany and Rana Dasgupta in The Sunday Times. These were the first elections to be held after the wave of protests that convulsed the nation in 2022-23. That unrest, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old student arrested for not wearing a hijab properly, had threatened the authority of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, which is why he was so determined to frame last week's election as a public endorsement of the Islamic regime. To that end, every candidate was vetted by the Guardian Council, an assembly of 12 clerics controlled by Khamenei, which made it its business to disqualify almost all reformists and moderate conservatives from standing. Thus the result was always a foregone conclusion.
Yet even in this pitiful excuse for an election, Iranians managed to deliver a "stinging rebuke" to the regime, said Farnaz Fassihi in The New York Times. Deprived of their preferred candidates, many didn't bother to vote: turnout was just 41% – the lowest in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history. In Tehran, it was 24%. Khamenei tried to spin the outcome as an "epic" victory; it was anything but. Some 15,000 candidates ended up competing for 290 seats, said Sina Toossi in Foreign Policy (Washington), and the winners were mainly members of a new generation of fundamentalists, many clerics, who espouse a rigid version of Islamic law and oppose any engagement with the West. Having bested their pragmatic rivals, they now seem intent on out-hawking each other on both domestic and foreign issues.
But far more important than the outcome of elections to the Majlis has been that of elections to the powerful Assembly of Experts, held on the same day, said Guido Steinberg in Cicero (Berlin). This is the body responsible for choosing Khamenei's successor: and as the supreme leader is frail and about to turn 85, it's more than likely the assembly will have to carry out that duty sooner rather than later. So once again, as with the Majlis, every effort was made to ensure the ascendancy of candidates supportive of Khamenei and to bar reformists from running: even former president Hassan Rouhani was excluded from running on the grounds he was too moderate. So skewed to the conservative Right is the assembly that a hardliner is certain to prevail in the race to succeed Khamenei. Yet by excluding conservative moderates, Khamenei may have ended up weakening his position, said Iran International (London). Radicals are far less easy to keep under control. Take a man like Hamid Rasaei, a hardliner "with a questionable reputation", who wasn't even allowed to run in the 2020 election, but who last week was elected to a Tehran seat by a huge majority. Rasaei has already disregarded Khamenei's plea for the new intake "to avoid conflicts and controversies". Quite the contrary, he has branded the speaker of the Majlis, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, "a hypocrite" and demanded his resignation. And Ghalibaf happens to be a relative of Khamenei's.
As one of its former commanders, Ghalibaf has the backing of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), an important player in Iranian politics, so he is probably secure for now. But whichever faction prevails, the real question to ponder is how long the mullahs can retain their grip over such a disaffected populace, said The Economist. Inflation is soaring; meat and even rice are unaffordable to most people; the regime's backing of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of Yemen's Houthis is proving hugely costly; US sanctions continue to bite. And "everyone in Iran knows what the regime is truly afraid of", said Maryam Aslany and Rana Dasgupta. It's written in the graffiti sprayed on walls and bridges across the country. "Long live the king." What most Iranians long for is the return of a constitutional monarchy, and of a man now living in Great Falls, Virginia – the son of the shah and scion of the dynasty that ruled before the mullahs seized power in 1979: crown prince Reza Pahlavi.

Iran and U.S. Held Secret Talks on Proxy Attacks and Cease-Fire
Farnaz Fassihi and Eric Schmitt/The New York Times /March 16, 2024
Iran and the United States held secret, indirect talks in Oman in January, addressing the escalating threat posed to Red Sea shipping by the Houthis in Yemen, as well as the attacks on U.S. bases by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, according to Iranian and U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. The secret talks were held Jan. 10 in Muscat, the capital of Oman, with Omani officials shuffling messages back and forth between delegations of Iranians and Americans sitting in separate rooms. The delegations were led by Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, and Brett McGurk, President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the Middle East.
The meeting, first reported by The Financial Times this week, was the first time Iranian and U.S. officials had held in-person negotiations — albeit indirectly — in nearly eight months. U.S. officials said Iran requested the meeting in January, and the Omanis strongly recommended that the United States accept.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the United States and Iran have reassured each other that neither was seeking a direct confrontation, a stance conveyed in messages they passed through intermediaries. But in Oman, each side had a clear request of the other, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. Washington wanted Iran to rein in its proxies to stop the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the targeting of U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. Tehran, in turn, wanted the Biden administration to deliver a cease-fire in Gaza. No agreement was reached, however, and within hours after McGurk left the meeting with the Iranians, the United States led military strikes Jan. 11 on multiple Houthi targets in Yemen. In early February, the United States launched strikes on Iranian-linked military bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the killing of three U.S. service members in an attack by Iraqi militia close to Iran. Attacks on U.S. bases have since ended in Iraq, and there have been reports of only a few such attacks in Syria. A senior U.S. official said the United States had engaged in the talks to show that even as tensions spiked, Washington was still open to pursuing diplomacy with Iran — but that if the dialogue did not produce results, the United States would use force. Two Iranian officials, one with the foreign ministry, said Iran had maintained in the talks that it did not control the activity of the militia, particularly the Houthis, but that it could use its influence on them to ensure that all attacks would come to a halt if a cease-fire were reached in Gaza — but not before.
Iran and the United States have continued trading messages regularly about the proxy militias and a cease-fire since they met in January, with the Omanis as intermediaries, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
“Having channels of communication, even if indirect, can certainly be useful to mitigating the possibility of miscalculation and misunderstanding,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for International Crisis Group. “But, as we’ve seen since then, especially but certainly not exclusively over Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, tensions between the two sides remain significant.”
The United States and Iran both made decisions to avert a direct war in February. U.S. forces avoided direct hits on Iran in their military response, and Iran persuaded the militia in Iraq to stop attacks on U.S. bases and the militias in Syria to decrease the intensity of attacks to prevent American deaths.
But the Houthis have carried on with 102 attacks against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, according to the Pentagon. As of March 14, the United States had conducted 44 strikes on Houthi targets, but these attacks have not deterred the Houthis, who have threatened to use more advanced weaponry. A senior U.S. official said the Houthis had conducted a test launch of a new medium-range missile. The official said the reports in the Russian news media this week about the Houthis’ gaining access to hypersonic missiles were most likely not accurate. Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said Thursday that the group would be expanding its targeting range to stop Israeli-linked ships from passing through the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope, along Africa’s far southern coast. Analysts said the Houthis had turned out to be a winning card for Iran in the current conflict because they had inflicted damage to international shipping and increased the stakes of the war in Gaza beyond the region. It is leverage that Iran will not give up easily, analysts said. Last spring, Iran and U.S. delegations in Oman negotiated a deal to release American detainees held in Iran in exchange for the release of about $6 billion of Iran’s frozen oil-revenue funds in South Korea. They also reached an unofficial agreement to defuse tensions in the region and lower the severity of attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. “The goal of the recent negotiations in Oman was for both sides to return to that unofficial agreement and keep tensions at a low level,” said Sasan Karimi, a political analyst in Tehran. “We shouldn’t expect any breakthroughs between Iran and the U.S.; it’s all narrowly focused on the region for now. They want Iran to use its convincing power with the militia, and Iran is saying, Not so fast, not until you give us a cease-fire.”

13 years on, Syrians in Idlib uphold revolution through street art, sky monitoring and rallies
FRANCE 24/Sat, March 16, 2024
Thirteen years after the start of the Syrian civil war, citizens in the northwestern city of Idlib are continuing their protests through street art and monitoring the sky. And on the streets of Idlib, hundreds of people take to the streets every year to demand the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule. For them, March 15 does not mark the anniversary of the start of the 2011 civil war, but the start of their revolution for a free Syria. Aziz, an artist, paints bombed-out buildings with drawings and messages to denounce the Syrian regime's crimes and to call for continued resistance.
“Drawing is a universal language that all people understand, so I employ my art to serve my people and to spread messages through it,” Aziz explains. Abu Amin, a former fighter for the Free Syrian Army, has taken it upon himself to survey the skies to warn civilians of upcoming air strikes. “It motivates me because I help save lives. I find there’s a loophole in protecting civilians,” he says.

Macron switches from dove to hawk on Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Hugh Schofield - BBC News, París/March 16, 2024
What came over Emmanuel Macron to turn him from appeaser to warmonger in the matter of Russia and Ukraine? That - crudely put - is the question being asked in chancelleries across Europe, as the French president warms to his new role as the continent's resister-in-chief to Vladimir Putin. Certain countries - the Baltics, Poland - welcome President Macron's apparent conversion to their "realistic" assessment of the Moscow threat. Others - notably Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Germany - are aghast at this new-found va-t-en-guerre (gung-ho) French spirit. All are confused and uncertain. How genuine is the new Macron line? Is his recent refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine just another of his surprises - testimony to his insatiable need to cut a diplomatic dash? And how much of his new positioning is purely politics? European elections are approaching, and the hard-right of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella looks set to trounce the Macronites. So is Emmanuel Macron using Ukraine to create a fault line between his side and the opposition, setting a contrast between his own lucid belligerence and Ms Le Pen's turbid complicity with Moscow in the past?
Ukrainian troops training in France
France has sent weaponry and trained Ukrainian troops - but Mr Macron insists more must be done. In a live interview on French television on Thursday evening, the president implicitly acknowledged that these critical questions were being asked. But in true Macron fashion, he set out not to mollify but to assert. Far from muting his new-found alarmism, he explained it. Not remotely embarrassed about his "conversion" from dove to hawk, the president's view was that the one inevitably had to precede the other. Only after all efforts to reach out to an adversary have been exhausted, he argued, is it possible to say conclusively that that adversary is beyond the pale. Furthermore - the second part of his self-justification - he argued that the Russians have now pushed their aggression to a whole new level. The Kremlin, he said, had in recent months "got noticeably harder-line" - placing the Russian economy on a permanent war-footing; stepping up repression of internal opposition; escalating cyber-attacks on France and other countries. With Ukraine looking increasingly beleaguered, and the United States no longer dependable as an ally, Europe was entering a new world, he said: "A world where what we thought was unthinkable actually happens." This is why, according to the new Macron doctrine, France and Europe needed to be preparing a sursaut - a mental leap out of the cosy certainties of the dying era and into the harsh realities of the new one. In deliberately Churchillian tones, he believes that in order to keep the peace, Europe needs to be ready for war. Emmanuel Macron has even suggested France may need to put boots on the ground in Ukraine As always with Emmanuel Macron, the logic is impeccable; the arguments unbreakable. But as always with Emmanuel Macron there is also the question: he may convince, but can he persuade? Because the French head of state's abiding difficulty is not, obviously, lack of brainpower - but the ability to convert that brilliance into a different talent: leadership. A capacity for getting others to follow.
And on this issue, it is far from clear that the others will fall in line.
The most glaring sign is the rift that separates the French leader from the man who is supposed to be his closest ally in Europe, Germany's Olaf Scholz. In traditional Franco-German style, both sides are now publicly patching up and putting on the mandatory common front. Hence the Macron visit to Berlin on Friday. But no amount of man-hugs can conceal the fundamental discord: France accusing Germany of foot-dragging on help for Ukraine, and wilful blindness in clinging to the permanence of the US security umbrella; Germany accusing France of reckless belligerence, hypocrisy (its arms deliveries are in fact way behind Germany's), and Macronic grandstanding. Emmanuel Macron travelled to Berlin on Friday for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz about Russia's invasion of Ukraine But domestically too, support for Emmanuel Macron on Ukraine is softer than he likes to think. Polls show that a big majority - around 68% - oppose his line on sending Western troops. More generally, while most people are clearly opposed to Russia, the Ifop polling company reports a "progressive erosion of support for the Ukrainian cause". And if there is indeed an electoral subtext to his new hard line on Moscow - intended to expose the far right's ambiguities - then it does not seem to be working. Opinion surveys show support for Le Pen's National Rally (RN) only strengthening. In transforming into Europe's leading anti-appeaser, President Macron is once again staking out new ground. He is taking the lead, and pushing Europeans to think hard about their security, and about the sacrifices that may soon become necessary. All this is no doubt welcome. His difficulty is that too many people react badly to him. They resent his self-belief, and feel he too readily confuses what is right for Europe and the world with what is actually just right for France - or himself.

Attack on Pakistan army post near Afghan border kills 7, military says
Mushtaq Ali/Reuters/March 16, 2024
Militants attacked a military post in Pakistan near Afghanistan early on Saturday using a vehicle laden with explosives as well as suicide bombs, killing seven security force members, Pakistan's military said. The incident in northwest Pakistan was carried out by six attackers, the military's media wing said in a statement, without naming the militant group responsible for the attack. "The terrorists rammed an explosive laden vehicle into the post, followed by multiple suicide bombing attacks, which led to collapse of portion of a building, resulting into Shahadat (martyrdom) of five," the statement said, adding that another two security force members were killed in later fighting with the militants. Residents in Waziristan, an area bordering Afghanistan in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters an explosion shook doors and damaged windows during the attack. Pakistani government and security officials say attacks have risen in recent months, many of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and launched from Afghan soil. That has damaged the relationship between Pakistan and the ruling Afghan Taliban, who deny they have allowed Afghanistan to be used by militants. Pakistan's national elections in February took place under tight security. Nine people died in blasts, grenade and gun attacks on election day.

Biden backs Schumer after senator calls for new elections in Israel
Associated Press/March 16, 2024
President Joe Biden expressed support Friday for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the senator called for new elections in Israel, the latest sign that the U.S. relationship with its closest Middle East ally is careening toward fracture over the war in Gaza. Schumer, a Jewish Democrat from New York, sent tremors through both countries this week when he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "lost his way" and warned that "Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah" as the Palestinian death toll continues to grow. "He made a good speech," Biden said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland's prime minister. "I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans."The Democratic president did not repeat Schumer's appeal for Israel to hold elections, a step that would likely end Netanyahu's tenure because of mounting discontent with his leadership. But Biden's comments reflect his own frustration with an Israeli prime minister who has hindered efforts to expand humanitarian assistance in Gaza and opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The latest point of friction has been Israel's goal of pursuing Hamas into Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have fled to avoid fighting in the north. Netanyahu's office said Friday that it approved a military operation that would involve evacuating civilians, but U.S. officials are concerned about the potential for a new wave of bloodshed. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking from Vienna, said, "We have to see a clear and implementable plan" to safeguard innocent people from an Israeli incursion. "We have not seen such a plan," he said. However, Blinken said tough conversations between Israeli and American leaders do not mean the alliance is fraying. "That's actually the strength of the relationship, to be able to speak clearly, candidly and directly," he said. It's possible that an attack on Rafah could be avoided. Negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of hostages are underway in Qatar, where Netanyahu agreed to send a delegation to continue talks. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. would not have its own team at the negotiations but will remain engaged in the process. He also said it's "up to the Israeli people to decide" whether there should be elections. Asked about why Biden praised Schumer's speech, Kirby said the president appreciated the senator's "passion."Biden's rhetoric on the war has evolved since the conflict began on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in a surprise attack. The president immediately embraced Netanyahu and Israel while also warning against being "consumed" by rage.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza. And while Biden continues to back Israel's right to defend itself, he's increased his criticisms of Netanyahu. After his State of the Union speech earlier this month, Biden said that he needed to have a "come to Jesus" conversation with Netanyahu. He also accused Netanyahu of "hurting Israel more than helping Israel" with his leadership of the war.
Biden is trying to navigate between a Republican Party with an "Israel right or wrong" mindset and a deeply divided Democratic Party, said Aaron David Miller, who has advised administrations from both parties on the Middle East.
He described the U.S. approach to Israel as "passive aggressive," with escalating rhetoric but no concrete steps like withholding military assistance. "I haven't seen it," Miller said. "And we're six months into the war." Americans have increasingly soured on Israel's military operation in Gaza, according to surveys from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In January, 50% of U.S. adults said the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip had gone too far, up from 40% in November. It's a sentiment even more common among Democrats, with about 6 in 10 saying the same thing in both surveys. Reckoning with shifts in Israeli and American politics has been challenging for Biden. A self-described Zionist, Biden's political career began several decades ago when Israel was led by liberal leaders and the country enjoyed broad bipartisan support in its battle for survival against its Arab neighbors. Since then, the failure of peace talks with Palestinians and the growing power of conservative Israeli politicians has led to a growing tension. Biden's praise for Schumer could upset Netanyahu, who has already chafed at what he sees as American meddling in Israeli politics.
"One would expect Sen. Schumer to respect Israel's elected government and not undermine it," said a statement from Likud, Netanyahu's political party. "This is always true, and even more so in wartime."Netanyahu has a long history of defying U.S. presidents, particularly Democratic ones. He fought President Barack Obama's push for a nuclear deal with Iran, and he accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress to demonstrate his opposition. Before that, he clashed with President Bill Clinton over efforts to create an independent state for Palestinians, who have lived for decades under Israeli military occupation. Democratic anger over Israel's siege of Gaza has focused on Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister who leads a right-wing coalition that includes ultranationalist politicians. He also faces corruption charges in a long-delayed trial and declining popularity over his failure to prevent Hamas' attack or secure the return of all Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. Public opinion surveys suggest that, if elections were held now, Netanyahu would likely lose to Benny Gantz, a former military leader who is a centrist member of Israel's war cabinet. "Netanyahu has an interest in buying time," said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and professor of political science at Hebrew University. "That's always his interest, not to have elections, to stay in power." Rahat also said a different Israeli leader might approach the war differently, causing less strain with Washington. "Another government would pursue not only a military but also a diplomatic and foreign affairs solution, one involving the PA," a reference to the Palestinian Authority that operates in the West Bank, Rahat said. "Another government would give more aid to Gaza and would run the war with a better distinction between Hamas and the Palestinians."However, replacing Netanyahu would not necessarily end the war or stop the rightward shift that has been underway in Israel for years. Jewish Israelis believe by a slim majority that their leaders' judgment should be prioritized over coordinating with the U.S., according to a January poll from the Israel Democracy Institute. In addition, the Israeli Defense Forces receive wide support for their performance in Gaza. Gantz also criticized Schumer's remarks, although not as harshly as Likud did. He wrote on social media that the senator is "a friend of Israel" who "erred in his remarks.""Israel is a robust democracy, and only its citizens will decide its future and leadership," Gantz said. "Any external interference on the matter is counter-productive and unacceptable."

Houthis Expand Operations Against Israeli Ship Passage, Raise International Concerns
LBCI/March 16, 2024 
The Houthi group in Yemen expanded its operations against the passage of ships linked to Israel, whether Israeli or heading to Israeli ports. This comes after they had banned the passage of Israeli, US, and British ships heading to Haifa, in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. This Houthi move comes in support of the Palestinian people who have been enduring an ongoing Israeli war for over five months. The Houthi decision was swiftly implemented, as they announced on Friday the execution of three operations against three Israeli and US ships in the Indian Ocean.

Taliban Welcomes Extension of UN Mission Mandate in Afghanistan
AFP/March 16, 2024
Taliban authorities welcomed on Saturday the extension of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for one year, expressing hope that this would help revive relations with the international community.
The Security Council unanimously voted on Friday to extend this mandate until March 17, 2025, noting "the importance of the role that the United Nations will continue to play for (...) peace and stability in Afghanistan."
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told RTA radio that "the country needs to communicate with the international community and UNAMA can enhance such connections."

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 16-17/2024
There Goes Latin America: Iran's Regime in America's Backyard
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./March 16, 2024
The Iranian regime, which... has been calling for "Death to America," now has ballistic missiles which it says can reach the US, and claims to have a hypersonic missile that, according to one report, "Can Destroy US In 40 sec."
Venezuela appears to have willingly embraced Iran's overtures.
The Iranian regime, in addition to Venezuela, has evidently also been exploring avenues for military cooperation with Nicaragua and Cuba.
It is critical to recognize now the gravity of this exponentiating national security threat.
Venezuela, near the US, emerges as a key player in Iran's Latin American ambitions. As a potential launching pad for attacks on the U.S., Venezuela appears to have willingly embraced Iran's overtures. Iran's growing military capabilities, with ballistic missiles and armed drones capable of reaching Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas from Latin American soil, already pose a direct threat to the United States.
A threatening development has been brewing largely under the radar of the Biden administration and the mainstream media attention: Iran's calculated expansion into Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico.
With alarming nonchalance, the Biden administration appears to have turned a blind eye to the Iranian regime's concerted efforts to establish a military foothold right in America's backyard. The ramifications of this complacency are profound. The Iranian regime, which, since it began in 1979, has been calling for "Death to America," now has ballistic missiles which it says can reach the US, and claims to have a hypersonic missile that, according to one report, "Can Destroy US In 40 sec."
Historically, Iran's playbook in the Middle East involved the arming and sponsoring of proxies and terror groups such as Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, with the ultimate aim of annihilating Israel and has carried out more than 180 attacks just since October 7 on U.S. interests in the region.
Now, Iran now seems to be mirroring its same "ring of fire" policy to threaten the United States from Latin America. Iran, for instance, has been cozying up to like-minded socialist regimes such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Cuba, and providing them with weapons and military support, seemingly with the sinister objective of posing a threat to the United States.
Venezuela, near the US, emerges as a key player in Iran's Latin American ambitions. As a potential launching pad for attacks on the U.S., Venezuela appears to have willingly embraced Iran's overtures. Reports from sources such as ProPublica have highlighted the establishment of a joint intelligence program between Iran and Venezuela. This cooperation would encompass arms trafficking; issuing IDs, passports and bank accounts; intelligence sharing, and logistical support. The Venezuelan Armed Forces, with Iranian assistance -- indicating a dangerous escalation in their military capabilities -- have also integrated armed drones into their arsenal.
Iran's growing military capabilities, with ballistic missiles and armed drones capable of reaching states such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas from Latin American soil, already pose a direct threat to the United States.
The Iranian regime, in addition to Venezuela, has evidently also been exploring avenues for military cooperation with Nicaragua and Cuba. Both appear to have fallen under Iran's sway. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's visit last year to those nations underscored the deepening ties between Iran and its Latin American partners. Iranian warships docking in Brazil shortly after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's inauguration also signifies Iran's intent to expand militarily in the region and sets a precedent that should be a concerning for what appears increased collaboration between Iran and more Latin American countries.
Another troubling development is Bolivia's recent defense agreement with Iran, one that includes the transfer of drones. Bolivia's alignment with Iran should raise alarm bells about the potential for proliferation of Iranian military technology across the southern hemisphere. As Raisi emphasized during his recent visit, the cooperation agreements signed with Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba span various sectors, from energy to biotechnology -- highlighting the multifaceted nature of Iran's infiltration of Latin America.
Additionally, recent reports of four Iranians apprehended trying to cross the US-Mexico border, who were considered a terrorist threat, add another dimension to the urgency of addressing the Iranian threat in Latin America. This incident serves as a distasteful reminder of the potential consequences of allowing Iran to establish a foothold in America's vicinity.
Latin American countries have also been serving as fertile ground for Iranian covert intelligence operations and terror groups, with Venezuela emerging as a particularly troubling case. Revelations linking Venezuela to the issuance of passports to individuals associated with terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah raise serious questions about the extent of Iran's influence in the region and its ramifications for U.S. security.
US Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar pointed out that, instead of turning a blind eye to this new geopolitical romance, the Biden administration should actively support political forces that share its commitment to combating terrorism and promoting regional stability. She added:
"Iran has been aggressively strengthening its ties to the Western Hemisphere through like-minded socialist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. They are also looking for opportunities elsewhere, and it's no coincidence that Iranian ships are docking in Brazil just a month after a socialist retook power in the country."Iran's involvement in past terrorist attacks, such as bombing the Israeli Embassy and Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, are also examples of the dangers by Iran's expansionist agenda. Iran's vows since 1979 of "Death to America" -- coupled with its fondness for terrorism and its new chumminess with China and Russia, both hostile to America -- should also be cause for concern. The Iranian regime's efforts to expand its military strongholds and the presence of its terror groups in Latin America should be seen as forming a clear and present danger to U.S. security. Iran's activities, from arming adversarial regimes to fueling anti-American sentiments, demand urgent attention. Failure to confront Iran's encroachment so close to North America could have catastrophic consequences. It is critical to recognize now the gravity of this exponentiating national security threat.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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The West needs to rethink its strategy in the Sahel
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/March 16, 2024
West Africa and the Sahel are experiencing a disturbing trend of political instability, coups, and the rise of violent extremist groups. The region is plagued by serious challenges, including weak governance, economic decline, and insecurity.
The persistence and growing strength of harmful actors in the Sahel, the area that runs across Africa between the Sahara to the north and the savannas of Sudan to the south, threaten to exacerbate the crisis and spread mayhem across the continent.
It is raising concerns that West Africa, despite its purported commitment to democracy and stability, is settling into a familiar pattern of repeated failures and inaction, resulting in entrenched insecurity across the Sahel.
The region, stretching from Senegal in the west to Eritrea in the east, has long faced severe security challenges. A confluence of factors, from weak and illegitimate governance to the worsening effects of climate change, are contributing to the rise of violent extremism.
Left unchecked, agitators in the Sahel appear eager to expand south toward coastal West African countries, raising fears that they will eventually establish footholds there. Such expansions will likely be facilitated by a lack of foreign involvement and increased cooperation among malign actors with shared interests, such as extremist groups and transnational criminal organizations.
Far from being immune to this tumult in the Sahel, many governments in neighboring countries face a potent cocktail of civil-military frictions, escalating public discontent, and a crop of foreign partners all-too content to overlook military rule in favor of bolstering narrowly defined security interests.
The gravity of these conditions cannot be overstated; they leave an already fragile region in a precarious position, ripe for the picking by opportunistic actors. Future coup leaders will boldly calculate that the intense competition and prevailing power plays among global actors and increasingly assertive middle powers can provide a buffer, easing any international backlash they might face after a power grab.
This incessant drumbeat of coups past, present, and future underscores a regional crisis that is neither transient nor superficial but rather symptomatic of deep-rooted grievances and a sense of disillusionment with political processes that have either stalled or failed to deliver on their promises.
This pattern of instability, fueled by stagnant economies, persistent insecurity, and a crisis of legitimacy, begs an urgent examination of the West’s role in all this, and its heavily security-oriented approaches to challenges that are fundamentally political and social in nature.
Within this context, coups in West Africa and the Sahel, four of which have been successfully executed since 2020, do not emerge from a vacuum but are reflective of broader regional disenchantment.
Yet it is the specter of insecurity in particular that has served as a rallying cry for military juntas, which justify their usurpation of power on the grounds that elected governments have failed to protect and provide for their citizens. Such claims resonate not only in the barracks but on the streets, where often significant public support for coups reflects a populace more concerned with the outcomes of governance than the form it takes.
The disillusion among the public is compounded by the glaring spotlight cast on unforced failures of governance, which is intensified through the lens of social media by an increasingly educated and engaged youth demographic. Public angst in turn fuels relentless demands for accountability and transparency, given the acute scarcity of resources, high levels of poverty, lack of basic services, increased competition for natural resources, intercommunal tensions, and mass displacement.
The growing strength of harmful actors in the Sahel threatens to spread mayhem across the continent.
When this fails to address or assuage long-term grievances, what comes next is a marked tolerance for violent excesses perpetrated by opportunistic actors.
Such violent decline into permanent insecurity is also a reflection of negative sentiments toward perceived neocolonial influences, which have resulted in fraught relationships with former colonial powers, in particular France. Despite having the advantage of enduring historical ties to the region, authorities in the country have been unable to halt the rise of anti-French sentiment stemming from unmet expectations for economic prosperity and stability.
A few Sahelian and West African countries are in the process of pivoting away from former colonial hegemons, denoting an irreversible shift in alliances and partnerships at the expense of the underlying pillars of democracy: robust institutions, rule of law, and economic development.
By fueling these disconcerting developments, countries such as Russia have seized on the opportunities afforded by such strife to provide both rhetorical backing and, in some instances, substantive support to local actors contemplating regime change.
Such calculated opportunism among external forces cleverly exploits worsening vulnerabilities and stokes the fires of instability to erode the capacities of threatened countries to guard against violent takeovers and maintain the integrity of their hard-fought democratic institutions.
Even more frustratingly, several Western partners have implicitly endorsed these recurrent coups, prioritizing their own core security interests in the region. Schemes designed to stem flows of migrants, contain geopolitical adversaries, and secure counterterrorism gains, while critical, have come at the expense, alarmingly, of longer-term investments in democracy and governance.
This myopic focus sets a dangerous precedent, fueling a cycle of instability in the region and inadvertently propagating a “coup contagion” that has the potential to resonate far beyond West Africa and the Sahel, potentially sowing seeds of discord even in North Africa.
The subtext is clear: The international community is not merely a passive observer in West Africa’s current crisis and the subsequent contagion that will likely endanger North African countries as well. It remains a fractious participant that refuses to reform its approach, thereby enabling mounting crises that are beginning to cause regional institutions to fray, hampering their ability to develop effective regional security responses.
Last year, for instance, juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formed an alliance to resist the pressure they were coming under from the Economic Community of West African States, historically one of the most consistent organizations in efforts to uphold anti-coup norms in the region.
Regional organizations such as this can prove instrumental in their roles as convening, coordinating, and overseeing agents that can provide help to countries such Ivory Coast, where jihadist groups have been steadily encroaching on its borders.
Crippling ECOWAS will undoubtedly result in coastal West Africa slowly becoming the next Sahel as a result of persistent political upheaval, with the potential for crises to spill over into sub-Saharan Africa and north toward the Maghreb.
The West’s historical predilection for security-centric interventions, at the expense of support for genuine democratic governance and efforts to address the root causes of economic and political disenchantment, might not only fail to stem the tide of unrest but could, indeed, exacerbate the very conditions that cause the erosion of democratic institutions. In the face of this burgeoning crisis, a recalibration of policies and priorities is required, with an emphasis on long-term, structural support for democracy that transcends mere election observers or military engagement.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
X: @HafedAlGhwell

Iraq seeks to avoid entanglement in regional conflict
Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/March 16, 2024
The Iraq-based Kata’ib Hezbollah, a major part of the Iran-sponsored Popular Mobilization Units, in January directed a drone strike at America’s Tower 22 base in Jordan. Three American servicemen, believing that the drone was “friendly,” took no evasive action and were killed. These were the first deaths of US soldiers at the hands of Iraqi militants, who have been directing missile and drone attacks on US targets in Iraq and Syria in response to Israel’s assaults on Palestinians in Gaza since Oct. 7.
The US responded with airstrikes on Feb. 2 and a drone strike in eastern Baghdad on Feb. 7 that killed a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander, Abu Baqir Al-Saadi. This led to a chorus of condemnation in Iraq. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani described the first US attack as “an act of aggression against Iraq’s sovereignty.” Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Yehia Rasool said the second strike further motivated the Iraqi government to seek an end to the US presence in the country. Rasool ominously noted that the US attack “threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict,” referring to the likelihood of the Gaza war pulling Iraq into a regionwide conflagration.
Iraqi officials and militants have been actively supporting their brethren in Gaza since October. Al-Sudani and all previous Iraqi prime ministers have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and condemned “Israeli provocations and violations.” The various militias in the country have backed the Palestinians by directing attacks at US targets. By mid-December, there had been nearly 100 attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, as well as an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad. American retaliatory strikes have killed several militants and, occasionally, militia commanders. To prevent these attacks from getting out of hand, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Baghdad in early November to urge the Iraqi government to control the militants more effectively and to convey to Iran that the ongoing tit-for-tat strikes could escalate into a wider conflict.
Al-Sudani carried this message to Tehran the next day, when he met Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi. Observers believe he emphasized to his Iranian interlocutors that Iraq did not wish to get embroiled in a regional conflict. Later in November, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein urged the US to put pressure on Israel to stop the war, warning that the Gaza conflict could “burn all of us.”
Iraq has a long history of supporting Palestinian aspirations. Its troops participated in the 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel. In 2022, Iraq passed the anti-normalization law that penalized any contacts with Israel. This was perhaps aimed at preempting attempts from Iraqi officials to normalize ties with Israel. And in October 2023, dissident cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr mobilized about half a million of his supporters for pro-Palestine rallies in Baghdad.
Few Iraqis believe that the US will promote civil rights in their country.
The Gaza war has not only led to an increase in attacks on US targets in the region by Iraqi militants; there has also been increasing disenchantment with America among members of the country’s civil society. They have been agitating for a reformed democratic order since 2019, when their demonstrations were brutally put down by security forces. Now, witnessing the impunity with which Israel has wreaked murder and mayhem in Gaza, few Iraqis believe that the US will promote civil rights and democracy in their country.
In fact, the December provincial elections affirmed the resilience of Iraq’s sectarian and family-based political order. The ruling Coordination Framework, the coalition of pro-Iran parties that opposes Al-Sadr, won most of the Shiite-majority provinces in central and southern Iraq and made major gains in areas hitherto under Sadrist or Kurdish influence. The latter include the provinces of Kirkuk, long-coveted by the Kurds, and Nineveh, which includes 16 “disputed administrative units” claimed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Popular dissatisfaction with the US, the electoral gains of the ruling political coalition and strong pro-Palestine sentiment in the country have together encouraged fresh calls for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. In January, an agreement was made between Iraq and the US to start discussions on the future presence of American troops, reflecting, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “the deep US commitment to regional stability and Iraqi sovereignty.” Both Al-Sudani and the Iraqi Foreign Ministry have said that these discussions will lead to a timeline for an end to the US-led anti-Daesh coalition’s presence in Iraq. In February, 100 members of the Iraqi parliament signed a petition seeking an emergency session to discuss the expulsion of all US and other foreign troops.
However, this will be easier said than done. The US has just 2,500 troops in Iraq and another 900 in Syria. Their presence has less to do with stopping the revival of Daesh forces than with balancing Iranian military and political influence in the two countries. However, by early March, the number of attacks on US targets had exceeded 180, indicating that Gaza could ignite conflict in Iraq, ahead of Lebanon or Yemen.
Given the sordid record of America’s military misadventures in Iraq and the persisting dislike of US forces, both Baghdad and Washington would greatly benefit from US troops’ withdrawal from Iraq.
• Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian diplomat.

US floating port in Gaza might serve important purpose
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/March 16, 2024
Desperate times call for desperate measures and I can’t think of times more desperate than the current one in Gaza where, frustratingly, urgently needed humanitarian aid is still only trickling in. For more than five months, humanitarian supplies have continued to fall far short of the very bare minimum required to sustain a population caught up in a hellish war. Therefore, US President Joe Biden’s announcement during his State of the Union Address last week that he has directed the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary floating dock on the Gaza shoreline, through which humanitarian aid can enter the Strip on a large scale, is a welcome development. Beyond the immediate needs, if the plan succeeds, it might have longterm implications for the future of Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state, and for the territory’s economic viability and connections with the world.
Israel went to war with Hamas in anger and rage, rather than with any clear strategy for peace in its aftermath. It is hard to identify where the thirst for revenge ends and political objectives begin, including among some senior Cabinet members.
The stated objective of eliminating Hamas was one that could never be met militarily. A more achievable Israeli objective should have been to make the group less politically relevant to the people of Gaza by avoiding hurting the wider population and instead offering them hope for a better future free from occupation and oppression.
To achieve this, Israel should have carried out clinical and surgical military operations against Hamas, and not treated the entire population of the territory as mere collateral damage and turned the response to Oct. 7 into a war on the Palestinians of Gaza that has so far killed more than 31,000 of them, including thousands of children.Instead, despite its actions — perhaps because of them — Israel is no closer to “destroying Hamas” or seeing the hostages held by the group returning home. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the Gazan population has been displaced and left with little or no access to food, clean water, medical treatment, or sanitation. In a message posted on social media platform X last week, the World Health Organization said that during visits to hospitals in northern Gaza, its workers witnessed “severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed.”Without the delivery of emergency aid on a much larger scale than we are currently seeing, the situation will only worsen. The possibility of a threatened Israeli incursion into Rafah, the last refuge for more than a million displaced Gazans, would only make the situation even more catastrophic.
At the beginning of March, the average number of lorries crossing the border and delivering aid to Gaza increased from 98 a day the previous month to 168. This still falls far short of the 500 trucks this crisis demands. For both logistical and political reasons, this woefully severe shortage of humanitarian aid remains a constant, devastating feature of this war. While some aid is also now being delivered using parachute drops, that is a mere drop in the ocean of need. Therefore, a floating port could play an important and significant role in addressing the crisis by facilitating a huge increase in the quantity of aid entering the disaster-stricken territory, and enabling the distribution of aid in a more orderly fashion. A floating port is an important step in the right direction. But it is only a small one.
Unfortunately, we are told it might take as long as two months to build and the people on the ground cannot afford to wait this long. Delivering aid by road is still quicker, in theory, but since it is proving difficult to overcome the “administrative” and political difficulties that are preventing enough relief supplies from getting through, the sea route could offer a solution until a ceasefire agreement is reached.
However, one wonders why it has taken so long to reach this conclusion. Biden’s announcement last week was accompanied by a stark warning to Israeli authorities that they must play their part in alleviating the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. “To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority,” he said.
An initial attempt to deliver desperately needed aid by sea in this way took place this week, when a Spanish ship, the Open Arms, towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of supplies left the Cypriot port of Larnaca en route to Gaza. Due to the current lack of a functioning port in Gaza, the US-based charity that organized the shipment, World Central Kitchen, is building a jetty where the aid can be offloaded. This goes to show that determination and creativity, and above all compassion and care for the suffering of the population in Gaza, can have at least some degree of positive effect on the situation.
There is something that seems a little ironic about the fact that it is only in these horrifying circumstances that Israel is accepting, or is being forced to accept, the opening up of maritime access to Gaza after it has blockaded the territory for so many years.
But this might prove to be a silver lining to these dark clouds of death and destruction, and encourage us all to think ahead to a future beyond the war. The symbolism and practicality of this development should not elude the international community.
If we assume that the Gaza Strip will not remain indefinitely under Israeli control, but authorities in Israel will want to decide what items enter or exit the Strip, which has been a recurring demand in all previous negotiations with the Palestinians, an important precedent for future negotiations is being set here, especially when we consider that this sea route will be the first passage in or out of Gaza in more than 75 years not controlled by either Israel or Egypt.
Moreover, this development might have the potential to evolve from being a viable mechanism for the delivery of goods to being one for the movement of people, too.
Thinking too far ahead might seem premature but it is crucial that we look to the future. So we need to consider that if the most viable route for the delivery of aid by sea is the one from Cyprus used by the Open Arms shipment to Gaza, that opens a window of opportunity for establishing links with an EU member state and, potentially, trade ties with the rest of this powerful economic and political union.
In the past few months we have seen only death and misery and very little, if any, rational or longterm strategic thinking about how to transform this unmitigated disaster into not only an end to the war in Gaza, but also an end to the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Raising the idea of establishing a port in Gaza, which one can only hope will become reality very soon, is an important step forward. It is a clear sign that the Biden administration is recognizing and internalizing the need to take a different approach to the war, one that overrides and bypasses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Otherwise this war will drag on for a very long time, prolonging the unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza while also having wider regional and international implications.
A floating port is an important step in the right direction. But it is only a small one. It needs to be followed up by a comprehensive plan for the future of Gaza and eventual peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Program at international affairs think tank Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

EU’s complex competitiveness challenge is growing in urgency
Andrew Hammond/Arab news/March 16, 2024
Judged by the amount of air time devoted to it by the media, it would be easy to conclude that the biggest challenge facing Europe at the moment is the war in Ukraine. Yet, many senior political leaders across the region perceive an even more significant, longterm problem: Europe’s economic competitiveness in relation to other key world powers, especially the US, which appears to be significantly in decline.
In 2008, the EU economy was valued at $16.2 trillion, greater than that of the US at $14.7 trillion. Yet by 2023, the US economy had grown to more than $25 trillion, whereas the combined value of the EU and UK economies had only reached about $20 trillion.
This prompted Christian Ulbrich, the CEO of JLL, a global real estate services firm, to comment that Europe’s “wealth is melting away at rapid speed.”
There are differing opinions among economists on the scale of the challenge this presents to Europe. Some, such as Isabel Schnabel, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, argue it is a “crisis” that is structural in nature. Others think the problems are less serious, even though there is no denying that a glance at lists of the top global technology companies, the world’s leading universities or semiconductor manufacturing capacity reveals Europe is falling behind.
One key problem is that there are significant disagreements about what is driving the bloc’s competitiveness challenges. That is to say, different people attach different priorities to what is a long list of problems, including flat-lining labor productivity; failure to match US levels of investment by the private and public sectors; failure to reap greater gains in efficiency from the use of digital technologies; and the fragmentation of European financial markets, and their regulation, which leaves the region more exposed to external pressures.
On the latter point, the external landscape might become even less favorable for Europe in the years to come. Geopolitically, for instance, China and Russia are increasingly flexing their muscles in the region, while a second Trump presidency might cause fragmentation of the post-1945 Western security alliance.
Further economic shocks cannot be ruled out either. The problem, as Francois Geerolf of the French Economic Observatory asserts, is that “with each new crisis, Europe seems to permanently lose a few points of economic growth to the United States.”In this context, it is unclear whether Europe will be able to recover its economic competitive advantage. However, there is unanimity on the important need for the region to urgently address the issue.
This is why European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen commissioned a report on this high-priority matter from former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi who, more recently, served as prime minister of Italy.
He is considered the leading central banker of his generation, who earned his reputation in 2012 at a time when it appeared as though the future of the single European currency was in peril. In seven simple words — “whatever it takes to save the euro” — he changed market sentiment by pledging massive intervention to defend the currency in what was perhaps the most decisive moment of the economic crisis. EU needs to take bold, decisive actions, from cutting energy prices to reducing regulatory burdens.
His call for European governments to come together and take “urgent action” to implement a substantial bailout fund to tackle the debt crisis and instability was initially met with resistance from Germany. Yet, it eventually paid off, economies began to grow, and no country left the eurozone. For his efforts, Draghi earned the nickname “Super Mario,” after the hero of the Nintendo video games.
Though Draghi might not complete his report until the second half of this year, he has indicated his thinking so far. He argues that Europe is undergoing massive changes, with three of the key pillars it has long relied on — Russian energy, Chinese exports, and the US security umbrella — all potentially transforming, albeit for differing reasons. Against this backdrop, Draghi believes the EU needs to take bold, decisive actions, from cutting energy prices to reducing regulatory burdens. He also argues that massive investments are needed in the green and digital transitions, as he calculates the funding gap between Europe and the US in terms of investment in these areas is equivalent to about half a trillion euros a year, approximately a third of which is public money.
Draghi highlights these twin transitions as being key for Europe with good reason. On the digital front, there is a risk the region might potentially fail to capitalize on the revolutionary development of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, mirroring its failures during the internet technology boom of the early 2000s. Certainly, the EU has passed the world’s first comprehensive AI-related legislation, providing it with a regulatory first-mover advantage. However, this is not the same as commercializing the technology, as we saw in the early 2000s when US firms such as Alphabet and Amazon seized the advantage and now dominate the landscape, while their main competitors are more likely to have emerged from world powers such as China, in the form of Alibaba for example, than Europe.
In terms of the green transition, the EU is placing much of the emphasis on its European Green Deal. However, such ambitions are not always matched by the provision of commensurate resources. Meanwhile, Washington's $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act is widely seen as a “game changer,” while China continues to offer significant state support to the nation’s businesses. Europe is therefore at a critical juncture and it is unclear whether it will be able to act decisively on this agenda while it is dealing with other ongoing crises, including the war in Ukraine. A key next step will be to marshal a broad political consensus around a bold package of reforms, complete with the funding needed to deliver it.
The Draghi report could create a window of opportunity for this to happen within the next European Commission when its term begins following the EU parliamentary elections in June.
• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.