Sections Of The LCCC English News Bulletin Bible Quotations For today Latest LCCC English Lebanese & Lebanese Related News Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports And News Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials For April 20/2020 Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
Bible Quotations For today
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.
First Letter of Peter 03/13-22:”Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 19-20/2021 Saad Al Hariri is like a captured Bird In The Hezbollah Cage/Elias Bejjani/April 19/2021
Health Ministry: 995 new Coronavirus cases, 34 deaths
Aoun meets Ohanian, Archbishops Boulos Sayyah and Antoine Abou Najem.
Israeli Warplanes Stage Intensive Overflights over Lebanon
High Judicial Council Convenes on Judge Ghada Aoun’s ‘Raids’
Oueidat Asks Ali Ibrahim to Probe Mecattaf Money Exchange Firm
Higher Judicial Council Agrees to Summon Judge Aoun on Tuesday
Top Christian cleric in Lebanon slams Hezbollah’s arms, demands international help
Report: EU Meeting in Brussels to Address Lebanon File
Diab Discusses ‘Developments’ with Qatari Officials
Diab Urges Qatar to Rescue Nation Facing ‘Total Collapse’
Jreissati Hits Back after Ferzli Suggests Handing Power to Army
Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker calls on army to take over country
Lebanon’s forensic audit is crucial for proving Hezbollah, Aoun corrupt dealings/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/April 19/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 19-20/2021 Syrian Opposition’s Michel Kilo Dies in Exile
Confusion around the death of Hejazi: Iran’s general in Yemen, Lebanon, Venezuela
Iran appoints new deputy commander for IRGC’s Quds Force
Progress in US-Iran nuclear talks but resolution still ‘far away’
Russia Says Iran Nuclear Talks Enter ‘Drafting Stage’
Israeli cabinet ‘concerned the US wants an Iran deal at all costs’
Israel’s Netanyahu backs bill for direct election for PM to break political deadlock
Russia says it killed 200 militants in airstrike on ‘terrorist base’ in Syria
Heavy rain causes flooding across Saudi Arabia as snow envelops Ha’il, ‘Asir
US under Biden will no longer call migrants ‘illegal aliens’
Leaders of US extremist group ordered jailed on Capitol riot charges
Leaders of US extremist group ordered jailed on Capitol riot charges
Majority of East Jerusalem Palestinian residents can vote in polls: commission
Egypt Says Killed Three Suspects in Jihadist Murder of Copt
WHO Says against Proof of Vaccination for Travel
Rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran Hold Talks in Baghdad
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 19-20/2021 The Biden Administration’s Time for Choosing On Iran | Opinion/Jacob Nagel/Mark Dubowitz/FDD/April 19/2021
Diplomatic Arson in the Middle East/Jonathan Schanzer/FDD/April 19/2021
Washington Must Confront Iran Over Sensitive Nuclear Work/Andrea Stricker and Jacob Nagel/FDD/April 19/2021
How secure is the Iranian regime?/Neville Teller/Jerusalem Post/April 19/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 19-20/2021 Saad Al Hariri is like a captured Bird In The Hezbollah Cage
Elias Bejjani/April 17, 2021
Sadly Lebanon’s designated PM, Mr. Saad Al Hariri has been a notorious failed politician from his day one in politics following the assassination of his late father, PM, Rafik Hariri, in 2005 by the terrorist Hezbollah and the criminal Syrian Assad regime.
Hariri, in reality is just like a captured bird held in the Hezbollah cage no more no less. He follows Hezbollah’s orders and does not have any margin of a free decision making will or power.
His priorities are not Lebanon or the Lebanese people interests but his own private business affairs.
Meanwhile the governments that he chaired since the assassination of his father are the ones that legitimized the Terrorist Hezbollah’s occupation and handed over to its local leadership and to the Iranian Mullahs’ the country’s decision making process and gave them full control on all public institutions.
Al-Hariri, with his two Trojan and Satanic partners Samir Geagea and Walid Jumblat, handed Lebanon over to Hezbollah and sold its sovereignty and independence for thirty pieces of silver.
On top of all his failures, Hariri is a corrupted politician that is surrounded by thugs, gangs and money sharks.
In short, Hariri is the Sunni facade behind which hides Iran’s scheme in Lebanon.
There is not even one patriotic and free Lebanese citizen in Lebanon or in Diaspora who is not fully aware that Hariri and the two evil Trojans Walid Jumblat and Samir Geagea have maliciously handed over the country and its fate to the terrorist Hezbollah in exchange for personal and selfish governing power gains and agendas.
To conclude, Saad Al Hariri is a discredited and out of date politician, and if Iran allowed him to form the new Lebanese government, it will only be a tool in its hand and a cover for its criminal, terrorist and occupational schemes.
In summary, The Following politicians, Saad Al Hariri, Walid Jumblat, Nabih Berri, Samir Geagea, Slieman Frangea, Gobran Bassiel, Hassan Nasrallah, Amin Gemayel and all those of the second or third class Lebanese politicians who are affiliated to them by any means are cut from the same corrupted, rotten and Narcissistic garment.
Accordingly any change in Lebanon must start with the change of these sharks and their puppets.
Health Ministry: 995 new Coronavirus cases, 34 deaths NNA/19 April ,2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Monday, the registration of 995 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 511398.It also indicated that 34 deaths have been recorded during the past 24 hours.
Aoun meets Ohanian, Archbishops Boulos Sayyah and Antoine Abou Najem.
NNA/19 April ,2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met Youth and Sports Minister, Vartinee Ohanian, today at the Presidential Palace, and discussed with her current ministerial affairs. Relations between Lebanon and Armenia, were also addressed in the meeting, where Minister Ohanian will be representing the President at the ceremony held by the Armenian government, in Yerevan, on the memorial of the Armenian genocide. President Aoun had entrusted the Youth and Sports Minister to convey his greetings to his Armenian counterpart, President Armen Sarkissian and Armenian Premier, Nikol Pashinyan.
Bishops Sayyah & Abou Najem:
The President received the new Patron of the Maronite Archdiocese of Antelias, Antoine Abou Najem and Bishop Paul Sayyah. The Bishops thanked President Aoun for sending the Director General of the Presidency, Dr. Antoine Choucair, to represent him at the ordination ceremony of Bishop Abou Najem, as a Pastor of the Archdiocese of Antelias.– Presidency Press Office
Israeli Warplanes Stage Intensive Overflights over Lebanon Naharnet/19 April ,2021
Israeli fighter jets staged intensive overflights Monday evening over several Lebanese regions. The National News Agency said the warplanes were continuously flying at a low altitude over the Aley and Upper Metn regions. It earlier reported intensive overflights over Keserwan’s heights. Israeli fighter jets also overflew the central sector of the Bint Jbeil district, the Jezzine area towards Chouf and Bekaa, and Nabatiyeh, Iqlim al-Tuffah, Hasbaya, al-Orqoub, Mount Hermon and the occupied Golan Heights. Similar activity had in the past preceded Israeli raids on neighboring Syria.
High Judicial Council Convenes on Judge Ghada Aoun’s ‘Raids’ Naharnet/19 April ,2021
The High Judicial Council convened on Monday to discuss its position on the latest actions of Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun, with insistence on taking disciplinary measures against her, media reports said. This coincided with a sit-in staged by a number demonstrators outside the Justice Palace in support of Lebanon’s State Prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat, while another group of demonstrators stood in support of the controversial judge Aoun. Oweidat had earlier dismissed Aoun from an investigation into possible currency export violations which drew the ire of FPM supporters. But Aoun defied Oweidat and carried out two raids on Michel Mecattaf money exchange houses in northern Lebanon over the weekend accompanied by security forces. Aoun was also accompanied by supporters and activists of the Free Patriotic Movement during the first raid on offices of Michel Mecattaf, a top foreign currency exporter on Friday. According to Mecattaf, they tried to enter the office by force. In response, caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm held an emergency meeting on Saturday in the presence of Oweidat, head of the High Judicial Council Judge Suhail Abboud and Judicial Inspection Authority head Judge Borkan Saad. Najem voiced anger at the incident, saying what happened indicates the “failure of the state’s institutions.”Judge Aoun has overstepped her position’s limits previously. There are several complaints against her before the Judicial Inspection Authority.
Oueidat Asks Ali Ibrahim to Probe Mecattaf Money Exchange Firm Naharnet/19 April ,2021
State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Monday asked Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim to launch investigations over suspected violations by the Mecattaf money exchange firm, amid controversy over Mt. Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun’s raids on the company’s offices. The National News Agency said Oueidat asked Ibrahim to determine whether the firm has “breached the regulations that govern the work of money shipping companies, especially Decree 10726, which is related to amending the main decree no. 8024 (11/1/2002).”Aoun has defied a decision by Oueidat to remove her from the case, carrying out two raids along with State Security agents on the firm’s offices in Awkar. The developments have sparked a major political and judicial controversy in Lebanon.
Higher Judicial Council Agrees to Summon Judge Aoun on Tuesday Naharnet/19 April ,2021
The Higher Judicial Council on Monday held an emergency meeting to discuss the latest judicial developments in the country pertaining to the actions of controversial Mount Lebanon Attorney General Judge Ghada Aoun. In a statement, the conferees said they re-confirmed the decision to summon Aoun for interrogation at 10:00 am Tuesday. The Council also decided to keep its sessions open. State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat had recently removed Aoun from an investigation into possible currency export violations. But Aoun defied Oueidat’s decision and carried out two raids on the Mecattaf money exchange houses in Awkar over the weekend, accompanied by security forces. The judge was also accompanied by supporters and activists of the Free Patriotic Movement and others from the October 17 uprising. According to the company, they tried to enter the offices by force. In response, caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm held an emergency meeting on Saturday in the presence of Oueidat, head of the High Judicial Council Judge Suhail Abboud and Judicial Inspection Authority head Judge Borkan Saad. Najem voiced anger at the incident, saying what happened indicates the “failure of the state’s institutions.”Judge Aoun had been previously accused of overstepping her position’s limits. There are several complaints against her before the Judicial Inspection Authority.
Top Christian cleric in Lebanon slams Hezbollah’s arms, demands international help
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/19 April ,2021
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric criticized Hezbollah in an interview aired Monday, hitting out at the “Iranian military force in Lebanon” for deciding wars in Israel, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai said he wanted to discuss the issue of Hezbollah’s arms with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but noted that the problem was “way bigger than Lebanon.”Rai, who has repeatedly slammed the Iran-backed Hezbollah in recent months, said it was on Lebanese leaders to form a national defense strategy that would bring Hezbollah’s arms under the state’s control.
“This is first an internal step, but the cause of Hezbollah’s arms is much bigger than Lebanon,” Rai told CNBC in an interview from his office. Calling for an international conference to discuss Hezbollah’s weapons, Rai said: “Hezbollah shouldn’t remain free to use arms whenever it wants and wherever it wants. It shouldn’t be capable of deciding wars in Israel, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, with a disregard to the government, the president and the parliament.”Hezbollah, formed in 1982 by Iran to fight back Israeli troops in Lebanon, has come under increased criticism for its disregard for Lebanese domestic affairs and its allegiance to Tehran. The group has been designated a terror organization by the United States, Gulf nations and several European and South American countries. And its continued possession of arms and increasing influence over Lebanon’s state institutions have been a critical factor in the slashing of international aid to Beirut. Noting that Hezbollah becomes agitated when referred to as a militia, Rai called the group an “Iranian military force in Lebanon to combat Israel.”“If you want to fight Israel, why do you Lebanese territory?” he questioned. “Hezbollah, like the army or any other army in the world, is not entitled to make a decision or to decide to go into war or peace. The state is the one that decides.”Turning to the recent talks between Washington and Tehran over a new nuclear deal, Rai said he asked the US “not to make Lebanon a negotiating card between the US and Iran.”“And as I said before, the issue of arms should be addressed with Iran because Iran is the source.”Asked what the solution was to Hezbollah’s arms, Rai said an international conference and the UN Security Council. “If we really want peace and stability in the Middle East, Lebanon is the point of entry for this. That’s why the issue of Lebanon should be addressed,” the patriarch said.
Report: EU Meeting in Brussels to Address Lebanon File Naharnet/19 April ,2021
Attention turns today to the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, to see if the Union will resort to implementing its threat and announce sanctions on Lebanese officials it blames for obstructing the formation of a government, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday. Interlocutors reportedly will discuss the Lebanes file and the obstacles that prevented the formation of a government according to the French initiative, said the daily. France had urged Lebanese officials to form an independent, non-partisan government to resume crucial talks with the International Monetary Fund, paving way for the crisis-wracked country to restore international confidence and unlock billions of dollars in aid. The Italian AKI news agency quoted an informed European source earlier as saying that the Department of External Relations in the European Union is preparing a paper that includes options and opinions on how to help Lebanon. The source said that the aim of the paper is to see how cooperation between the various parties can help Lebanon out of the current crisis, as the situation is politically, economically and socially difficult. He said Europe continues to urge Lebanon to expedite the formation of a fully-fledged government capable of facing challenges and preventing further collapse in the country.
Diab Discusses ‘Developments’ with Qatari Officials Naharnet/19 April ,2021
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab discussed the latest developments with Qatari officials during a meeting at his residence in Doha, media reports said on Monday. Diab received successively Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. The meetings were held in the presence of ambassador Farah Berri, charge d’affaires at the Lebanese embassy in Doha, and Diab’s adviser Khodr Taleb.
Diab flew to Doha Sunday, in his first travel abroad since taking office.
Diab Urges Qatar to Rescue Nation Facing ‘Total Collapse’ Agence France Presse/19 April ,2021
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab called for Qatar’s help during a visit to the Gulf country on Monday as Lebanon sinks deeper into economic ruin. Diab met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in the evening. He also attended an iftar banquet thrown by Qatari PM Sheikh Khaled bin Abdul Aziz Al-Thani. Diab earlier with several prominent Qatari ministers and officials during the trip which Lebanese media has suggested has been mired in “secrecy.””Lebanon has reached the brink of total collapse, as a result of decades of corruption and policies that have encouraged a rentier economy at the expense of a productive economy,” Diab told local media. “We knock on (Qatar’s) door just as we will knock on the doors of other sister Arab countries and wait for it to open its doors for us, as did sister Qatar.” Despite public outrage and international pressure to form a government so as to enact reforms needed to unlock aid pledges, wrangling over cabinet posts persists eight months after Diab’s government resigned. It followed a devastating explosion at the Beirut port in August, widely blamed on official negligence. The massive portside explosion killed more than 200 people, levelling the waterfront and damaging countless buildings. A steep depreciation of the Lebanese pound along with an explosion of poverty and unemployment have eroded purchasing power and fueled anger among the population. Diab did not give any details of what aid had been requested or what would be forthcoming from Doha. “These details are owned by (Qatar’s) Emir and prime minister, but I think that there are positives that will be announced,” he said. It is not clear if Qatar would provide assistance before Lebanon announces a permanent government. Qatar indicated in February that it was ready to help kick-start Lebanon’s flailing economy, but only if its deeply divided political class agreed on a new government. This week’s three-day trip is Diab’s first official visit since taking office, having canceled trips to Cairo and Baghdad. “Lebanon is in grave danger and it can no longer wait without a safety rope,” Diab added in the Qatari capital. “We expect you to be on the side of this country — Lebanon hopes that you will be a safety net to protect your Lebanese brothers.”Lebanese daily An-Nahar said in an editorial ahead of the trip that “the caretaker PM surrounds the visit with secrecy.”
Jreissati Hits Back after Ferzli Suggests Handing Power to Army Naharnet/19 April ,2021
President Michel Aoun’s adviser ex-minister Salim Jreissati on Monday snapped back at Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli after the latter suggested handing power in Lebanon to the army for a transitional period. “Reduce your exaggeration and do not entangle the army in what it has no relation,” Jreissati said in a statement. “Our army is not the army of the regime but rather the army of constitutional legitimacy, and our constitution cannot be suspended at every difficult juncture of our public life. The President meanwhile remains the head of the state and the symbol of the country’s unity throughout his tenure,” Jreissati added. Noting that he understands Ferzli’s “great anger and concern,” the ex-minister emphasized that “preserving and immunizing our constitutional authorities can prevent any chaos or confusion.”Earlier in the day, Ferzli announced that the Lebanese unanimously support the military institution. “Can any of the Lebanese stand and say that this institution is corrupt? Perhaps you can find a corrupt officer or warrant officer, but we can resort to this institution in every major or minor issue,” Ferzli said in a press conference at parliament, clarifying remarks he had voiced in an interview on NBN television. “It would take charge of power and eliminate this situation that we are living – this chaos, smallness, vulgarity and slurs,” the Deputy Speaker added. He accordingly suggested that the army become in power for a “transitional period” in order to “pave the way for holding elections and recreating authorities on new foundations.”
Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker calls on army to take over country Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/19 April ,2021
The number two official in Lebanon’s parliament Monday called on the Lebanese army to take over all state institutions and to dissolve the country’s constitution. “All Lebanese agree on the [transparency] of the Lebanese army … and I call on it to take the place of the president, parliament speaker and prime minister and the entire political class,” Elie Ferzli said in an interview with a Lebanese website. Ferzli said the army should then dissolve the constitution and run the country “for a number of years.” After this unspecified period, the politician said Lebanon would have drafted a new political order. Lebanon is currently experiencing an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. Nationwide anti-government protests rocked the nation in late 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic, and the Aug. 4 Beirut blast further exacerbated the problems at home. Violence broke out on several occasions, especially when supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies in the Amal Movement attacked protesters. The Lebanese pound has reached an all-time low, and the World Bank estimates that close to 50 percent of the population will reach a level of poverty this year. On Monday, Ferzli warned that the situation could further worsen. “I am scared of the civil war, which I previously lived in,” he said, referring to the 1975-90 war that left over 100,000 people dead. “If it weren’t for the coronavirus and grants from [foreign] embassies, half of the Lebanese population would have emigrated,” he said.
Lebanon’s forensic audit is crucial for proving Hezbollah, Aoun corrupt dealings Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/April 19/2021
As Lebanon’s plunge into further economic and political turmoil resumes, its so-called political elite have yet to stop bickering and cooperate towards addressing Lebanon’s staggering $95.9bn public debt. Yet what Lebanon’s archaic warlords turned politicians have equally failed to explain is both where these billions of dollars have vanished to, and where the billions appropriated from the lifesavings of citizens by Lebanese banks have gone. President Michael Aoun addressed the Lebanese last week, summoning them for their support in seeing through the forensic audit which the cabinet of Prime Minister Hassan Diab approved in April 2020 and has yet to reach any tangible results. Aoun, unleashed a frontal assault against his political opponents who he branded as “thieves” – mainly Prime Minister designee Saad al-Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabeh Berri and the governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL), and the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, who failed to present the auditors with vital information and documents they requested citing the banking secrecy.
Contracted by the Lebanese government, Alvarez & Marsal, a New York-based company that is a pioneer in this field of auditing, threatened to withdraw last November, as it had not yet received all the information it requested to conduct a proper audit of the BDL’s accounts. Alvarez & Marsal backtracked after a commitment from the government to secure this information, which still has yet to be honored. The forensic audit requirement is one of the vital demands of the international donor institutions, in particular the International Monetary Fund, which require the audit before handing over a proposed $10 billion loan, or even any other donations or relief. These international organizations are crucial for Lebanon to pull itself out from its economic abyss. Yet to many, Aoun’s call for the forensic audit is merely a populist maneuver the president utilizes to redirect blame and to exert pressure on Saad Hariri, especially since Hariri succeeded recently in holding Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil responsible for disrupting the formation of the cabinet in front of the eyes of the world.
The current forensic audit’s main flaw according to many skeptics is that it does not include all sectors of the Lebanese state, but rather focuses exclusively on the central bank, and flagrantly excludes the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Energy – both individual blackholes within the Lebanese state and the main culprits behind waste and theft caused by crony contracts in recent years. The electricity sector alone, which has been under the supervision of Bassil and other members of his party, has incurred Lebanon over $47 billion in debt, mostly caused by money spent on shady deals and contracts which have yet to provide Lebanese with decent, or any, electricity. The forensic audit has polarized Lebanon’s political factions, with Aoun considering the process as an opportunity to settle scores. Both Aoun and Hezbollah falsely do not consider themselves part of the country’s establishment, and thus do not claim responsibility that for the current economic collapse, a delusional presumption to say the least. The most dangerous implication about Aoun’s proposal is his continued promotion of the narrative that Hezbollah is not responsible for the ongoing collapse, and that the blame exclusively rests on the successive governments and economic plunders of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and later his son Saad, both infamous for an excessive liberal economic approach.
To follow Aoun’s logic, or lack of, both him and Hezbollah are elements of reform who failed to carry out their plan simply because of the resistance of the corrupt political class, a claim that Hezbollah naturally supports. Aoun’s presumption that he is free from blame is discredited by numbers. Lebanon’s public debt in 2005, when he returned from exile, was $38.5 billion, meaning that since then he has been partner in expanding this debt an additional $57.4 billion. Regardless of Aoun’s intent, or if he is only bluffing, a forensic audit that goes beyond examining if the numbers simply add up and goes into tracing transactions and understanding if there was criminal or fraudulent intent, is of vital importance, regardless of who calls for it. This information is crucial for the Lebanese to understand what happened, assign blame accordingly, and make sure that any future public funds do not meet the same fate.
Expanding the forensic audit, contrary to what some Lebanese are demanding,is not really needed at this stage, because as is auditing the central bank will allow access to other entities, and will expose the Aoun’s bankers and his son-in-law’s shady deals at the ministry of energy and the ministry of communication.
Objecting to the forensic scrutiny and defending Riad Salameh, governor of the BDL, merely because Aoun and Hezbollah are endorsing it is both farcical and foolish. Salameh, just like Aoun and the entire political class, are primarily responsible for Lebanon’s debacle and a forensic audit will not only prove this, but will also confirm that Aoun is not simply part of this corrupt clientelist system but rather its Corrupter-in-Chief.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 19-20/2021 Syrian Opposition’s Michel Kilo Dies in Exile Agence France Presse/19 April ,2021
Prominent exiled opposition figure Michel Kilo died of Covid-19 on Monday in Paris after a lifetime of peaceful struggle against Baath party rule in Syria, colleagues said. Kilo, who turned 80 last year, was a key player in efforts to form a credible non-violent alternative to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime during the early stages of the conflict that erupted a decade ago. “A great loss. Professor Michel Kilo departed us today after he was infected with Covid-19,” senior opposition figure Nasr Hariri wrote in a statement.”Michel was an intellectual and patriotic powerhouse and his dream was to see a free and democratic Syria. God willing, the Syrian people will carry on this dream and see it through,” he said. Kilo, who was also a writer, was born in 1940 to a Christian family in Syria’s Mediterranean town of Latakia, a bastion of the Assad family’s Alawite minority. He spent several in prison under the rule of Hafez al-Assad and of his son Bashar. In exile, Kilo had been living in France.
Confusion around the death of Hejazi: Iran’s general in Yemen, Lebanon, Venezuela Al Arabiya English/19 April ,2021
Top Iranian commander Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi was a key figure for the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen and oversaw projects targeting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a former Iranian government official said. Hejazi, who served as the deputy commander of Iran’s Quds Force – the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – died of heart disease, the IRGC announced in a statement on Sunday. Amir Moghadam, a former Iranian government official, said that Hejazi was a senior commander to the Houthi militia in Yemen, frequently traveled to Yemen and Venezuela, and was a key figure to Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional operations. “He specifically led projects that targeted Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” Moghadam wrote on Twitter. Between 2013-2018 Moghadam was the head of public relations and parliamentary affairs envoy in the office of the vice president of Iran for executive affairs. There is a “direct link” between Hejazi’s death and recent events, such as the targeting of the Iranian ship named Saviz in the Red Sea, and an explosion at Iran’s key Natanz nuclear facility, he added. There is also a link between Hejazi’s death, developments in Yemen, and talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Moghadam said. Some users on social media claimed that Hejazi was killed in Yemen’s Marib governorate. Clashes between the internationally-recognized Yemeni government forces and the Houthis have intensified in Marib since early March. Iran has backed the Houthis in their war against the Yemeni government, supplying the group with weapons, such as drones and missiles which are often used to target civilians. In this file photo taken on November 26, 2006, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) and Mohammad Hejazi attend a parade held by the
Who was he?
Hejazi was appointed as the deputy commander of the Quds Force in January 2020 following the US killing of former Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani. Born in the 1950s in the city of Isfahan, Hejazi joined the IRGC soon after it was established in 1979. Over the years he occupied several key positions within the force, including commander of the IRGC’s Basij militia, and deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC. Hejazi also commanded the IRGC’s Tharallah base in Tehran in 2009, which oversaw the suppression of protests in the city following Iran’s controversial presidential elections that year. The Council of the European Union added Hejazi to its sanctions list in October 2011 for playing a “central role in the post-election crackdown.” Hejazi also commanded IRGC forces in Lebanon for some time, according to the IRGC. In recent years, Hejazi assisted Iranian and Iran-backed forces in Syria using his “valuable experience,” the IRGC said. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf described him on Sunday as the “shining star of the Resistance Axis.” The “Resistance Axis” refers to an Iranian-led alliance of state and non-state actors in the region.
In 2019, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hejazi was in charge of an Iranian-led project to manufacture precision-guided missiles for Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hejazi “directly commands Iranian personnel stationed in Lebanon,” the IDF said at the time.
Doubts over cause of death
Inconsistencies in official statements on Hejazi’s death have raised doubts about the cause of his death. The IRGC statement on Sunday described Hejazi’s death from heart disease as “martyrdom.”Speaking to state TV on the same day, IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif also referred to Hejazi as a “martyr.” On Sunday, however, Sharif made no mention of any heart conditions, and said that Hejazi died from health complications caused by his exposure to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He has been labeled a “martyr” for this reason, Sharif said. Those who die due to injuries sustained during war are considered “martyrs” in Iran. Contrary to the IRGC and several officials, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Defense Minister Amir Hatami used the word “passing,” rather than “martyrdom,” in their statements. Such inconsistencies have raised doubts on social media about Hejazi’s cause of death. Shortly after Iranian media reported Hejazi’s death, the son of a prominent Iranian commander killed during the Iran-Iraq war tweeted that Hejazi did not die of heart disease as announced by the IRGC. Hejazi’s “cause of death was not a heart condition,” Mohammad-Mehdi Hemmat, a supporter of the Islamic Republic said in a tweet which included a photo of himself with Hejazi. Hemmat’s tweet, which also included the hashtag “martyr,” was widely interpreted as insinuating that Hejazi did not die of natural causes. The tweet has since been deleted.
Iran appoints new deputy commander for IRGC’s Quds Force Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/19 April ,2021
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) appointed Mohammad-Reza Fallahzadeh on Monday as the new deputy commander for its external Quds Force unit. Fallahzadeh replaces Mohammad Hejazi, one of Iran’s top commanders, whose death the IRGC announced in a statement on Sunday.
The IRGC statement said Hejazi died of heart disease, but IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif said on Monday he died from health complications caused by his exposure to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.Fallahzadeh, one of the lesser known senior IRGC commanders, previously served as deputy coordinator in the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the IRGC. He was a close aide to the late head of the Quds Force Qassem Soleimani and one of the main Iranian commanders in Syria.Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful figure after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in January 2020. He was replaced by Esmail Ghaani. Prior to his involvement in Syria, Fallahzadeh served as governor of Yazd province from 2007 to 2013. In 2019, Fallahzadeh was promoted to the rank of brigadier general for his role in Syria and appointed as deputy coordinator in the Quds Force.
Progress in US-Iran nuclear talks but resolution still ‘far away’ The Associated Press/19 April ,2021
High-level talks in Vienna aimed at bringing the United States back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are moving ahead with experts working on drafting proposals this week, but a solution remains “far away,” Russia’s delegate said Monday. The US unilaterally left the agreement, which promises Iran economic incentives in return for curbs on its nuclear program, in 2018 under then President Donald Trump, who said it needed to be renegotiated and imposed crippling sanctions. In response, Iran has steadily been violating the restrictions set by the deal, by enriching uranium far past the purity allowed and stockpiling vastly larger quantities, in a thus-far unsuccessful effort to force the other countries involved to provide economic relief that would offset the American sanctions. US President Joe Biden wants to return Washington to the deal, and Iran has been negotiating with the five remaining powers — Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia — for the past two weeks on how that might take place. Diplomats from the world powers have been shuttling between the Iranian delegation and an American one, which is also in Vienna but not talking directly with the Iranian side. Two expert groups have been brainstorming solutions to the two major issues: The rollback of American sanctions on one hand, and Iran’s return to compliance on the other. Now, said Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov, “we can note with satisfaction that the negotiations (are) entering the drafting stage.”“Practical solutions are still far away, but we have moved from general words to agreeing on specific steps towards the goal,” he wrote on Twitter. From the perception of the E3, the three western European countries involved in the talks, there is “progress and the will to move forward” in Vienna, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said. “Overall, we may be, and hopefully are on a path of rapprochement,” she told reporters in Berlin. “But there are still many, many open questions.”Already on Saturday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Tehran had proposed draft agreements that could be a basis for negotiations. “We think that the talks have reached a stage where parties are able to begin to work on a joint draft,” Araghchi told Iranian state television. “It seems that a new understanding is taking shape, and now there is agreement over final goals.”“The path is better known, but it will not be easy path,” Araghchi added. “It does not mean that differences of views have come to the end.” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told Fox News Sunday that the Vienna talks had been “constructive,” but he wouldn’t give specific details on the proposals. “What I will say is that the United States is not going to lift sanctions unless we have clarity and confidence that Iran will fully return to compliance with its obligations under the deal,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by the country’s official IRNA news agency Monday as saying that there was “some progress in the talks, but it doesn’t mean the resolution of differences.” “We think the US administration knows better than anyone that Iran’s actions are within the framework of the nuclear deal and they will be halted when the US lifts sanctions and we can verify that,” he said. The ultimate goal of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something it insists it doesn’t want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed. Challenges also remain outside of the negotiations. An attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage. Tehran retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60 percent purity, its highest level ever. Inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency also could be disrupted without an agreement. The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, has also been trying for months to get what it considers a credible explanation from Iran about the discovery of uranium particles at three former undeclared sites in the country. In March, Iran had agreed to host IAEA technical experts for talks on the issue, but instead those discussions started Monday in Vienna, since the Iranian experts were already on hand for the ongoing JCPOA negotiations, the IAEA said. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has been pushing Iran for answers on the three sites where inspections had revealed traces of uranium of human-made origin, suggesting they were once connected to Iran’s nuclear program.
After Iran agreed to have its technical experts talk with those at the IAEA, Grossi said he hoped to “come to some satisfactory outcome” by the next IAEA board meeting in June.
Russia Says Iran Nuclear Talks Enter ‘Drafting Stage’ Agence France Presse/April 19/2021
A Russian diplomat taking part in talks to save the landmark Iran nuclear deal said Monday that the negotiations had entered “the drafting stage” though solutions to some of the issues were “still far away”. The 2015 agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief has been left hanging by a thread since the US withdrew from the pact in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, prompting Tehran to in turn step up its nuclear activities. Diplomats from the parties to the deal — Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and China — have been meeting in Vienna since early this month to find a way to get the pact back on track with US participation under the new Joe Biden administration. “Summing up the results of two weeks of deliberations on JCPOA restoration we can note with satisfaction that the negotiations entered the drafting stage,” Russian ambassador to Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov wrote on Twitter, referring to the acronym of the deal’s formal name. “Practical solutions are still far away, but we have moved from general words to agreeing on specific steps towards the goal,” he added. The EU, Russia and Iran all hailed progress at the talks Saturday following an attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, which Iran blamed on arch-foe Israel. On Friday, Tehran also announced that it was producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, taking the country closer to the 90-percent level required for use in a nuclear weapon and far above the threshold allowed by the deal. Iran has said it will reverse steps taken so far if the US lifts sanctions imposed under the administration of former president Donald Trump. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Fox News on Sunday that the US wanted to be sure of Iran’s compliance. “The United States is not going to lift sanctions, unless we have clarity and confidence that Iran will fully return to compliance with its obligations under the deal that it will put a lid on its nuclear programme,” he said. Iran delegation head Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that “a new agreement is taking shape” but warned that it won’t be easy. “We think that negotiations have reached a stage that the parties can start working on a joint text. The writing of the text can start, at least in the fields with a consensus,” he said. “There are still serious disagreements that must be reduced during future negotiations,” he added.
Israeli cabinet ‘concerned the US wants an Iran deal at all costs’ Lahav Harkov, Omri Nahmias/Jerusalem Post/April 19/2021
The Biden administration is open to hearing Israeli concerns, but doesn’t seem to be taking them into consideration, the source added.
Israeli ministers expressed concern about the nuclear talks between the US and Iran, following a diplomatic-security cabinet meeting on Sunday. “The Americans want a deal at all costs and the Iranians know it,” said a source in the meeting.
The Biden administration is open to hearing Israeli concerns, the source added, but doesn’t seem to be taking them into consideration. The diplomatic-security cabinet meeting – the first in two months – focused on the Iranian threat a week after a major attack on the nuclear site at Natanz, as well as an attack on an Iranian ship serving as a military base on the Red Sea, both by Israel according to security sources, and as the US and Iran hold indirect negotiations. Cabinet ministers heard security briefings from the head of security branches, including National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, who plan to travel to Washington next week and meet with Biden administration officials. The ministers discussed how to respond to the US position, and will continue meeting on the topic next week. Indirect talks between the US and Iran with European mediation have been ongoing in Vienna for the past two weeks, and the stated goal is for both sides to return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is known. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told FOX News Sunday that the US will not make any concessions until it has confidence Iran will return to compliance with the 2015 Iran deal. Sullivan said the talks “have been constructive in the sense that there is real effort under way there with the permanent five members of the [UN] Security Council plus Germany on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand, to get on the table all of the issues related to both sanctions and nuclear issues so that we could end up back in the deal on a compliance-for-compliance basis.”However, he would not detail what “compliance-for-compliance” would mean.“What I will say,” Sullivan added, “is that the United States is not going to lift sanctions unless we have clarity and confidence that Iran will fully return to compliance with its obligations under the deal.” Those obligations include stopping advancements in its nuclear program, expanding its breakout time and reducing its enrichment, he said. Last week, Iran increased its uranium enrichment from 20% to 60%, more than ever before; the maximum purity of uranium allowed in the JCPOA is 5%. Israeli officials have said that the Biden administration’s current goal to return to the JCPOA is not enough, and will allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon with an international imprimatur after the deal expires in 2030. Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan pointed out that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Iran deal needs to be “longer and stronger.” “This is the same criticism the prime minister brought up years ago,” Erdan told Channel 12 on Saturday night, “that the agreement will expire in a number of years and if we return to this agreement, Iran will have the legal permission to have thousands of centrifuges, bringing it closer to the ability to have a nuclear weapon.” Erdan denied a report that the Biden administration asked Israelis to be more discreet in their comments on the attack on Natanz and other actions against Iran. Officials in Jerusalem have not publicly acknowledged an Israeli role in the attack, but it was leaked to local and not foreign media, and has not been censored by the military censor, an unusual move for an operation of that kind. In response to those reports, Erdan said that when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden, he said that “Israel is a sovereign and independent country, and we reserve for ourselves all the options to behave as we see fit. Israel isn’t in the same situation as the US; it’s an existential threat. Iran threatens to destroy Israel directly.” Meretz MK Yair Golan, former IDF deputy chief of staff, said on Sunday that he supports a return to the Iran deal. Golan said that the IDF analyzed the JCPOA in 2015 and found that “no step, open or secret, by any of the nations of the world against the Iranian project, rolled back the nuclear program like the agreement did. In effect, the agreement brought about a situation in which, instead of dealing with an immediate problem of when Iran will break out to a bomb, Israel could for the first time in a decade deal with the Iranian nuclear threat without feeling like a sword is at its neck.” The Meretz MK argued that delaying the nuclear program and the creation of a united international front against an Iranian nuclear program were effective and positive for Israel. To those who oppose the deal, Golan said: “There is no better alternative that can be achieved. [Netanyahu] must understand that… all Israel can do is cooperate with the Biden administration and ensure that Israel’s interests are expressed as best as possible in the future agreement.”
Israel’s Netanyahu backs bill for direct election for PM to break political deadlock The Associated Press, Jerusalem/19 April ,2021
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a new law to allow the direct election of the nation’s leader as a way to break the country’s two-year political deadlock. The proposal could guarantee Netanyahu another term as prime minister after he and his religious and nationalist allies failed to win a clear majority in March 23 elections. It also would allow him to stay in power while facing a lengthy corruption trial. Netanyahu has a May 4 deadline to build a governing coalition. After that, a group of small parties that oppose him hope to be able to cobble together an alternative government. “There is a solution to the political stalemate, and the vast majority of the public supports it,” Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party. He said a direct vote for prime minister would avoid “assembling absurd governments” and would allow Israeli citizens to choose a leader in “snap elections, without dissolving parliament.”
His opponents immediately decried the move, saying Israel does not need another election. Last month’s election was Israel’s fourth in just two years. Netanyahu was subsequently tasked by the country’s president earlier this month to build a governing coalition. He has been courting a small Islamist faction that has emerged as kingmaker, and a pair of former allies who now head small rival parties. But so far he does not have a clear path to a new government. Monday’s proposal was floated by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a close ally of Netanyahu’s. The proposal calls for a one-time snap election for prime minister, and a candidate who receives more than 40 percent of the vote would win. Netanyahu and his allies received almost half the seats in parliament, with his divided opponents taking the remainder. The bill would require a majority of 61 members of Knesset, or parliament, to pass. Shas leader Aryeh Deri said the bill “provides a solution to a dead end that the state of Israel is stuck in.”It remained unclear whether the bill will garner sufficient support to pass. Israel previously held three direct elections for prime minister, in 1996, 1999 and 2001. But the system was scrapped due to widespread dissatisfaction and the country reverted to its current system of elections for party lists of candidates. Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter that Israel “does not need another election. There were elections. They ended in the fact that for the fourth time Netanyahu doesn’t have a government.” Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu ally-turned-rival, also opposed the bill, saying now was not the time to change the electoral system. No party has ever won an outright majority of the Knesset’s 120 seats, requiring larger factions to build sometimes unwieldy governing coalitions. Netanyahu twice failed to build a governing coalition in Israel’s two 2019 elections. After the 2020 election, the longtime leader formed a unity government with his main rival in what they said was an emergency coalition to manage the coronavirus crisis. The partnership collapsed in December after months of infighting. He now seeks to hold onto power while standing trial for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three cases. As prime minister, Netanyahu is not legally obligated to step down from office while under indictment. He also has used the office to lead a campaign against the country’s media, law enforcement and judicial systems, claiming he is the victim of a witch hunt.
Russia says it killed 200 militants in airstrike on ‘terrorist base’ in Syria AFP/19 April ,2021
Russia’s defense ministry said Monday it had killed “up to 200 fighters” in Syria during air strikes on a “terrorist” base northeast of Palmyra, where fighters were planning attacks ahead of presidential polls next month. “After confirming data through multiple channels on the location of terrorist facilities, Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft carried out air strikes,” the ministry said in a statement. “Two hideouts were destroyed, up to 200 militants, 24 pickup trucks with large-caliber machine guns, as well as about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of ammunition and components for creating improvised explosive devices,” it added. The statement neither specified the date of the strikes nor the group that was targeted. It said that the target was a “camouflaged base” where “terrorist groups” organized attacks in Syria and manufactured explosives. They were specifically planning “terrorist attacks and attacks on government agencies in large cities in order to destabilize the situation in the country ahead of the presidential elections in Syria.” The vote, set to be held on May 26, is the second since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests that has left more than 388,000 dead. It is expected to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power in the war-torn country. Russia has been a key ally of Assad’s regime throughout the war and Moscow’s military intervention in 2015 helped turn the tide of the fighting. On Monday, the Russian defense ministry said that “terrorists” were being trained in several camps in areas not controlled by the Syrian regime, “including in the area of Al-Tanf, which is controlled by the US military.”Moscow in February condemned US strikes on Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria, demanding that Washington respect the country’s territorial integrity. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the time said Russia wanted to know Washington’s plans in Syria and suggested the United States had no plans to ever leave the country.
Heavy rain causes flooding across Saudi Arabia as snow envelops Ha’il, ‘Asir Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/19 April ,2021
Heavy rain across Saudi Arabia has caused flooding in several regions, while thick snow blanketed some areas of Ha’il city and the ‘Asir region. Dozens of people shared pictures and videos of floods after heavy rainfall in Mecca, al-Aqiq, and several other parts of the Kingdom.
Others shared pictures of snow enveloping the north-western province of Ha’il and the southwest region of ‘Asir. Videos showed the mountains of Harrat Bani Rashid in Ha’il – Saudi Arabia’s largest volcanic field – covered in thick snow. Several governorates and cities in ‘Asir witnessed intense rainfall, accompanied by snowfall, including Abha, Khamis Mushait, Tanuma, and al-Namas. The National Center of Meteorology said it expects heavy thunderstorms and hailstorms in several areas, including Jizan, Asir, al-Baha, and Mecca.
US under Biden will no longer call migrants ‘illegal aliens’ The Associated Press/19 April ,2021
Employees of the two main US immigration enforcement agencies were directed Monday to stop referring to migrants as “aliens,” a dated term that many people consider offensive. Memos issued by Customs and Border Protection, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recommend that agents instead use the words “non-citizen” or “migrant.” The change reflect guidelines set by the Biden administration, which is reversing many of the anti-immigrant policies of former President Donald Trump. Instead of “illegal aliens,” which was still being used by some government officials in press releases and elsewhere, the employees of CBP and ICE should instead use “undocumented noncitizen” or “undocumented individual,” according to the memos. Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said the directives were necessary to “set a tone and example” at an agency that includes the Border Patrol.
“We enforce our nation’s laws while also maintaining the dignity of every individual with whom we interact,” Miller said. “The words we use matter and will serve to further confer that dignity to those in our custody.”Administration critics dismissed the new language guidelines. “We use the term ‘illegal alien’ because they’re here illegally,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas. “This kind of weakness and obsession with political correctness is why we’re having a crisis on the border in the first place.” The change in language comes as the Biden administration deals with a record number of children and teens, mostly from Central America, seeking to enter the US at the southwest border. Under the new guidelines, “unaccompanied alien children” would be referred to as “unaccompanied noncitizen children,” according to the memos. Employees are also directed to describe the “assimilation” of refugees and immigrants as “civic integration.” CBP is turning away most adult migrants attempting to enter the US under a public health order issued at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Biden administration is allowing unaccompanied minors and some families to remain, at least temporarily, while authorities determine whether they can stay through the asylum process or under other legal category. Biden administration officials blame the rising number of migrants at the southwest border on a number of factors, including two recent hurricanes that struck Central America and the economic ravages of COVID-19 in the region. Critics blame the administration, which has begun to reverse some of the hundreds of measures taken under President Donald Trump to curb both legal and illegal immigration and which has backed legislation that would enable some already in the country to remain.
Leaders of US extremist group ordered jailed on Capitol riot charges The Associated Press/19 April ,2021
A federal judge on Monday ordered two leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group to be arrested and jailed while awaiting trial on charges they planned and coordinated an attack on the US Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean had been free since their March 10 indictment, but US District Judge Timothy Kelly concluded that the two men are dangerous and no conditions for their release could be adequate. The judge said Biggs and Nordean “facilitated political violence” even if they weren’t armed and didn’t assault anybody at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Kelly overruled another federal judge in Washington, D.C., who had ordered pretrial home confinement for Nordean. Biggs was freed after his initial Jan. 20 arrest in his home state of Florida. Justice Department prosecutors initially didn’t seek to keep Biggs jailed but last month asked for his pretrial release to be revoked, saying new evidence shows he poses a “grave danger” to the community. Attorneys for Biggs and Nordean asked Kelly to suspend Monday’s ruling pending a possible appeal, but the judge denied their request.
Biggs and Nordean are among more than two dozen Capitol riot defendants who have been described by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates. Last month’s indictment charged Biggs, Nordean and two other men described as Proud Boys leaders with conspiring to impede Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote. Other charges in the indictment include obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and disorderly conduct. Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe are charged in the same indictment as Biggs and Nordean and have been jailed since their arrests in March. Police arrested the Proud Boys’ top leader, Enrique Tarrio, in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December. Tarrio, who was ordered to stay out of the District of Columbia, hasn’t been charged in connection with the Capitol siege. Nordean, 30, of Auburn, Washington, has been a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl, 35, of Philadelphia, and Donohoe, 33, of Kernersville, North Carolina, serve as presidents of their local Proud Boys chapters, according to the indictment. Proud Boys members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Its members frequently have engaged in street fights with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. On the morning of the riot, Biggs and Nordean met other Proud Boys members at the Washington Monument and led them on a march to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House, the indictment says.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, Proud Boys members followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors. During a March 3 hearing, US District Judge Beryl Howell accused prosecutors of backtracking on their claims that Nordean had instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a “strategic plan” to breach the Capitol. However, Howell concluded that Nordean was extensively involved in “pre-planning” for the events of Jan. 6 and that he and other Proud Boys “were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation” that day
Majority of East Jerusalem Palestinian residents can vote in polls: commission AFP, Jerusalem/19 April ,2021
The majority of Palestinian residents of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem can vote in the first Palestinian legislative elections in 15 years set for next month, the electoral commission announced on Monday. However, several thousand may yet still be excluded, amid ongoing concerns that the landmark vote might not get off the ground at all. Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem are set to vote in the legislative polls on May 22, ahead of a planned presidential vote in July. In a statement, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission said 150,000 voters in east Jerusalem will be able to cast ballots at polling stations on the outskirts of the holy city, in a process that does not require a green light from Israel. Separately, a symbolic total of 6,300 voters are allowed to cast their ballots in east Jerusalem itself, in post offices under Israeli supervision, according to protocols that Israel and the Palestinians signed as part of the Oslo peace accords. Palestinians say it is critical to allow even limited voting inside the bounds of east Jerusalem, which they hope will be the capital of their future state. While Israel granted approval for voting in post offices in the 2006 legislative elections, they have not signaled that they will do so this time around, according to elections commission spokesperson Fareed Taamallah. “They didn’t respond to the request from the Palestinian Authority to implement the protocol,” he said. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment on the demand that all Palestinians be allowed to vote in line with established “protocol.” Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, 86, has said elections would not be able to proceed if Palestinians in east Jerusalem are not able to vote. Attorney Diana Buttu, a former legal advisor to Palestinian negotiators, said on Monday the east Jerusalem vote could still prove a stumbling block to elections, not only due to potential voting restrictions. “There’s a lot of technical things you can do to get around these hurdles — but that’s not the point,” she said. The point is that candidates expect to “be able to go to Jerusalem, campaign in Jerusalem, vote in Jerusalem. Without those guarantees I can see that being a reason for them to want to cancel [elections],” she said. About 60 candidates in the Palestinian elections are from east Jerusalem. Israel generally bars Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem, and over the weekend it briefly arrested three candidates who were planning to meet in the city. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 and views the whole city as its capital. Palestinian voters say they hope the elections can bring about an internal reconciliation between their two main political factions — Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules Gaza. Voters are set to choose from among 36 lists, including one from Hamas and several from Fatah.
Egypt Says Killed Three Suspects in Jihadist Murder of Copt Agence France Presse/19 April ,2021
Egypt’s interior ministry said Monday it killed three “terrorist elements” in the Sinai Peninsula suspected of involvement in the execution of a Coptic Christian claimed by an Islamic State-affiliated group.”National security received intelligence about a group of terrorist elements involved in the killing of Nabil Habashi… in North Sinai… with the aim of carrying out hostile operations targeting the homes and houses of worship of Coptic citizens,” the ministry said in a statement. Three suspected militants were killed in an “intense firefight” with security forces, the ministry added. The ministry said its troops found one suicide belt and a hand grenade in the militants’ possession. It said a manhunt was continuing for other suspected members of the cell. In a 13-minute video released by IS affiliate Sinai Province, the 62-year-old Copt from Bir al-Abd in North Sinai is shot dead at point blank range by a militant flanked by two others carrying rifles. “As for you Christians of Egypt, this is the price you are paying for supporting the Egyptian army,” the militant who executes the man says in the video shared widely on messaging app Telegram. The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is followed by most members of Egypt’s Christian minority, who make up between 10 and 15 percent of its 100-million population, paid tribute to Habashi. “He kept the faith till the moment he was killed… The church affirms its steadfast support of the Egyptian state’s efforts in quelling hateful terror acts,” the church’s spokesperson said. Two young Sinai tribesmen were also seen being executed in the video, with the militants accusing them of fighting alongside the Egyptian military. The long-running, jihadist insurgency in North Sinai escalated in 2013 when the army overthrew Egypt’s elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Most attacks have been carried out in the Sinai Peninsula but they have also used the territory as a launchpad to strike elsewhere in Egypt, such as the bombing of a chapel next to the Coptic cathedral in Cairo in 2016. In February 2018, the government launched a nationwide operation against militants focused on North Sinai. The army says some 975 suspected militants have been killed in the ongoing campaign. But the region has remained largely cut off to journalists, making the compilation of independent casualty figures almost impossible.
WHO Says against Proof of Vaccination for Travel Agence France Presse/19 April ,2021
The World Health Organization’s emergency committee said Monday it was against international travelers being required to have proof of vaccination, partly on grounds such a measure would deepen inequities. “Do not require proof of vaccination as a condition of entry, given the limited (although growing) evidence about the performance of vaccines in reducing transmission and the persistent inequity in the global vaccine distribution,” the committee said in a statement summarizing its April 15 meeting, the results of which were only published on Monday. “States Parties are strongly encouraged to acknowledge the potential for requirements of proof of vaccination to deepen inequities and promote differential freedom of movement,” the committee added. The group’s recommendation comes as numerous countries are mulling launching vaccine passports for travelers but also for other activities including sports. The idea, however, has met with criticism, with many saying it would lead to discrimination between young and old as well as rich and poor. Some have also raised privacy concerns. European Union member states have already agreed on vaccine certificates, China has launched a health certificate program for travelers and airline companies are also considering requiring vaccination proof. The United States for its part said earlier this month that it would not require vaccination passports but added that the private sector was free to explore the idea. The WHO’s emergency committee also discussed other issues during its meeting last week including increasing access to COVID-19 vaccines and reducing national and global inequities as far as access to vaccines. The committee also urged the WHO to accelerate research on the origins of the vaccine and called for better regulations on animal markets. In addition, it said “the sale or import of wild animals that pose a high risk of transmission of novel pathogens from animals to humans or vice versa” should be discouraged. The WHO for now has only approved three vaccines for the coronavirus — the one manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine made in India and South Korea, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The novel coronavirus, which is thought to have made the species jump from the animal world, has now killed more than three million people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
Rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran Hold Talks in Baghdad Agence France Presse/April 19/2021
Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran have been holding talks in Baghdad in recent weeks, an Iraqi government official and a Western diplomat told AFP.
The official-level meetings aim to restore relations severed five years ago between the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Islamic republic of Iran.
The initiative comes at a time of shifting power dynamics, as U.S. President Joe Biden is seeking to revive the tattered 2015 nuclear deal that was abandoned by Donald Trump. Riyadh has officially denied the talks in its state media while Tehran has stayed mum, asserting only that it has “always welcomed” dialogue with Saudi Arabia. The two countries cut ties in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following the kingdom’s execution of a revered Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The Baghdad talks, facilitated by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, remained secret until the Financial Times reported Sunday that a first meeting had been held on April 9. An Iraqi government official confirmed the talks to AFP, while a Western diplomat said he had been “briefed in advance” about the effort to “broker a better relationship … and decrease tensions”. The Saudi delegation is led by intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali al-Humaidan and the Iranian side by representatives of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said Adel Bakawan of the iReMMO institute for Mideast studies.
Iran nuclear talks
Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposite sides of several regional conflicts, from Syria to Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Huthi rebels. Iran supports the Huthis, who have launched several rocket and drone attacks against Saudi targets. The Baghdad talks come during negotiations in Vienna that aim to return the United States to the 2015 nuclear accord and persuade Iran to implement nuclear commitments it suspended in response to US sanctions. The effort also comes as Washington-Riyadh relations have cooled from the very close ties of the Trump era, as Biden seeks to press the oil-rich kingdom over human rights concerns. Iraq, wedged between Iran to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, is meanwhile trying to serve as a mediator, to avoid becoming a battleground for regional powers. The war-battered country hosts about 2,500 US troops, and Kadhemi’s government has come under intense pressure from Iran-backed paramilitary groups to send them home. Pro-Iranian groups label the prime minister a US lackey and have launched multiple rocket attacks against Western troops and diplomats based in the country.
Tricky issues –
It was in Iraq that the Trump administration ramped up tensions with Iran when a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad early last year killed revered Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. While Iraq then was led by prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, who had brought pro-Iranian factions into the heart of the state, Kadhemi is seen as closer to the U.S. and to Saudi Arabia. He is a personal friend of the Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, under whom the kingdom has pledged some $3 billion in investment in Iraq, which lacks adequate roads, power and water plants, schools and hospitals. Before Saudi Arabia and Iran can put aside their differences, they will have to resolve a series of tricky issues, said analyst Bakawan. For Saudi Arabia, he said, the top priorities are the Iran nuclear issue and “the ‘militia-ization’ of the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon and Syria” where Iran has supported armed groups. For Tehran, added Bakawan, major issues include the fate of Shiites living inside Saudi Arabia and accusations of “financing by Riyadh of radical violence in countries where there is an Iranian presence”. The sensitivity of the issues means both sides are likely to maintain silence on the Baghdad talks for now. But, behind the scenes in Iraq, Iranians and Saudis are still there, said the analyst. “At this very moment, small groups from both delegations are negotiating the technical details of all the issues, under the sponsorship of Mr Kadhemi,” said Bakawan.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 19-20/2021 The Biden Administration’s Time for Choosing On Iran | Opinion Jacob Nagel/Mark Dubowitz/FDD/April 19/2021
Vienna is bustling with another round of diplomacy on the Iran nuclear file. Unlike the direct talks that resulted in the flawed 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), this time the American and Iranian sides are not engaging directly.
No matter the format, the end result is hard to escape: another bad deal. A diplomatic collapse is coming, based on a familiar but wrongheaded negotiating approach by American diplomats.
This coming collapse is not hard to understand. The Biden administration is imploring the Islamic Republic of Iran to return to compliance with the JCPOA—and the regime’s talented negotiating team is playing hard to get. The talks revolve primarily around what the West should pay the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism for the privilege of re-entering a faulty nuclear agreement that in 2015 granted Iran everything it wanted—namely, a patient pathway to atomic weapons and massive economic relief.
Nuclear diplomacy is fine, but it must be shaped by American leverage. That leverage is strong right now, with Iran’s accessible foreign exchange reserves down from over $120 billion in 2018 to just $4 billion. The Iranian government is running on fumes and facing an economic crisis. To make matters worse for the clerical regime, the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz was reportedly set back by around nine months because of an explosion earlier this month. Its nuclear weaponization ambitions were also delayed significantly by the assassination last November of the longtime head of its military-nuclear program, Mohsen Fahkrizadeh. Finally, the regime is still struggling to regain its footing regionally after the Trump administration in January 2020 took out the Islamic Republic’s most talented battlefield commander, Qassem Suleimani.
All of this is leverage for Washington. And that leverage can be further enhanced by building a credible military threat to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities if the mullahs move to a bomb.
The Biden team says it seeks a “longer, stronger, broader” deal. But this is not possible unless the White House sets forth a new Iran policy that is not held hostage by the JCPOA. A rapid return to the old agreement—or even worse, an incremental return—cedes crucial leverage to Tehran. Such an approach gives the regime zero incentive to negotiate another deal.
The Iranian strategy is clear: wield the threat of nuclear escalation to extort massive economic concessions in the form of American sanction relief and a return to the JCPOA. This will give the regime tens of billions of dollars and allow it to forge ahead on nuclear R&D (sadly, the regime’s advances are based on knowledge and production capabilities they gained by violating the 2015 agreement). By returning to the JCPOA, the regime can legally install advanced centrifuges, build up their enrichment capabilities and wait for key restrictions to sunset over the next two to nine years. After 2030, there will be no prohibitions on the Islamic Republic’s ability to enrich massive uranium quantities to weapon-grade.
The regime is currently enriching uranium at 60 percent and threatening to go up to 90 percent and quickly moving toward industrial-scale production capabilities—including second- and third-generation centrifuges that are more efficient in uranium enrichment. Some of these machines were already installed underground at Natanz.
The explosion at Natanz and the July 2020 destruction of an advanced centrifuge assembly facility did significant damage. But these actions will only temporarily set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The Islamic Republic can now produce advanced centrifuges in large quantities. Overall, the regime can enrich uranium three to ten times faster, to all levels, and in clandestine facilities.
It’s game, set, match unless the Biden administration pushes for a new deal that requires Tehran to fully account for its military-nuclear activities—now known to the world because of the Iran Nuclear Archive that Israel’s Mossad spirited out of Iran in 2018. The Iranian violations are even worse in light of the recent and detailed findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the clerical regime has been hiding undisclosed nuclear materials.
In short, the IAEA’s 2015 decision—pushed by then-Secretary of State John Kerry—to close its investigation into the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program was a serious mistake. The Archive findings and the IAEA’s discoveries from its visits of Iranian nuclear sites demonstrated that the Islamic Republic was much closer to weaponization than was previously believed. The IAEA’s failure to submit the reports outlining those findings represented one of the JCPOA’s biggest flaws. What is the point of “unprecedented” monitoring of these sites if the IAEA never established a baseline of Iran’s weaponization efforts?
“Fixing” the old deal by addressing sunsets, monitoring and missiles doesn’t address today’s problems: Nuclear weaponization, including Tehran’s past activities and current violations, Iranian enrichment in underground facilities and its advanced centrifuge R&D. Even with the recent setbacks, the Islamic Republic is still hard at work on the weaponization of its nuclear program as it develops advanced centrifuges that give Tehran an easier clandestine “sneak out.” These most powerful centrifuges—with fewer machines required to weaponize uranium—are easier to hide and more difficult to detect.
Gone are the days of keeping Iran at “one year” from producing a sufficient quantity of weapon-grade uranium for a first bomb. Returning to the JCPOA allows Iran to build on its advances and to continue installing advanced enrichment and infrastructure in undisclosed new facilities. The JCPOA all but gives a green light to the regime to clandestinely accumulate the enriched uranium it needs for a bomb, or several bombs. There are new concerns, too. The regime’s advances in critical weaponization activities, like metal uranium processing, hot cells and irradiation of 20 percent-enriched materials, also must be addressed. All of this can help the regime build a nuclear weapon.
A “longer, stronger” deal must prevent Iran from being a “nuclear threshold country.” The clerical regime cannot maintain a “civilian nuclear program” in underground facilities, and it must come clean about the past. A new deal must address all three elements of Tehran’s illicit nuclear program: fissile materials, weaponization and the means of delivery. There may be time for a broader agreement that covers the regime’s support for terrorism, as well as other regional concerns. But the nuclear problem must be solved first, or we run the risk of American diplomats giving concrete nuclear concessions for unenforceable Iranian commitments to limit their other nefarious regional activities.
The U.S. can permanently cut off Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons or collapse at the negotiating table. It’s now time for the Biden administration to choose.
*Jacob Nagel is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a visiting professor at the Technion Aerospace faculty. He previously served as acting national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as head of the National Security Council. Mark Dubowitz is FDD’s chief executive. An expert on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions, he was sanctioned by Iran in 2019.
*The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
Diplomatic Arson in the Middle East Jonathan Schanzer/FDD/April 19/2021
The Biden administration’s torching of U.S.-Saudi relations
The Biden administration says it intends to engage less in the Middle East. Several senior officials and surrogates repeated this point during the new presidency’s first 100 days. Yet the administration went out of its way in its first few weeks to make three consequential moves in the Middle East that may backfire on America for years to come.
On February 4, the White House announced that the Pentagon would cease its support for Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi militia that has terrorized Yemenis and Saudis for the better part of a decade. Two weeks later, on February 16, the State Department rescinded the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation of the Houthis (also known as Ansar Allah). Ten days after that, the Biden administration instructed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to release a report that confirmed the Saudi government’s responsibility for the brutal 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Democrats have criticized the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen for years, pointing to air strikes that have killed large numbers of civilians, including children. They steadfastly opposed, ostensibly on humanitarian grounds, the Trump administration’s January 11 FTO designation of the Houthis only days before Biden was set to take office. And since Khashoggi’s killing, they have sought to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the horrific assassination and mutilation of a U.S. resident because it was approved by the Saudi government at the highest levels.
Nonetheless, these three moves were surprising because of their close proximity in time and just how quickly they happened. Taken together with announcements that the U.S. is removing military assets from the Kingdom and re-entering diplomacy with Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival Iran, Riyadh today must feel a frigid wind blowing from Washington.
Now, the Saudis undoubtedly have made terrible mistakes in recent years. But the long-term impact of the Biden administration’s actions could be wide-reaching and deleterious to American interests, especially given the extraordinary changes the region has seen in just the past year.
On August 13, 2020, Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates made history and peace at the same time with the signing of the Abraham Accords. The Accords marked the culmination of years of quiet cooperation and diplomacy between Israel and the Gulf States that was steadily drawn out of the shadows by the Trump administration. Shortly after the White House ceremony, Sudan and Morocco followed suit. Other Arab League states such as Oman and Mauritania could still follow.
It is no secret that these states found common cause with Israel not out of a deep commitment to Zionism but rather because they all believe in the necessity of opposing Iranian and Sunni extremism. They also want a politically stable and prosperous Middle East, with a prominent role for the region’s traditional monarchies and nondemocratic regimes that increasingly view Palestinian nationalism as less than a core national interest.
It is crucial to note that these countries would not have made peace without Saudi encouragement. In fact, they took risks for peace as part of a calculated Saudi strategy. By testing the political waters with their allies, the Saudis watched to see whether the political fallout was enough to dissuade them from peacemaking, themselves.
To be sure, a formal Saudi-Israel peace is still possible. But the Saudis are reassessing their options now that America is no longer cheering from the sidelines. It’s also fair to wonder whether the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco will remain committed to peace deals given the changes in the political winds.
The Abraham Accords may not be the only strategic gains to suffer. The Eastern Mediterranean countries also wonder what their future holds. The Saudis, with significant assistance from the UAE, have invested heavily to counter Qatar- and Turkey-backed Islamist violence in Libya, to help stabilize Egypt, and to deter Turkey from wreaking havoc with illegal drilling for gas.
Israel, Greece, and Cyprus eagerly welcomed the inclusion of the Gulf Arab states into their budding strategic alliance. Following Iran-backed attacks on Saudi oil facilities in 2019, Greece deployed Patriot missile-defense systems to the kingdom, along with 130 troops. And the Saudis were remarkably vocal in their support of Cyprus amid illegal Turkish drilling in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone. The UAE, responding to Greece’s maritime disputes with Turkey last year, dispatched four F-16s to Crete. The UAE even suggested it might sell fighter jets to Greece.
But Hellenic and Israeli diplomats are now quietly wondering whether the Saudi-led Arab states will remain committed to their Mediterranean outreach after America’s dramatic and undiplomatic rebuke of Riyadh. To their relief, Saudi jet fighters arrived in Greece in March for joint drills. Delegations from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE also attended the Philia Forum, dubbed a “bridge” between Europe and the Middle East, in Athens at the end of February.
For now, Saudi Arabia appears committed to the Eastern Mediterranean. But without American encouragement and involvement, the region could lose a prominent and unlikely advocate for a greater Eastern Mediterranean that reaches from the Persian Gulf to the Balkans. Should the Saudis walk, it will be Russia, Turkey, and perhaps China that gain.
Similarly, the Saudi role in the Red Sea region is now an open question. The importance of this region cannot be overstated. According to one estimate, the undersea fiber-optic cables beneath the Red Sea carry up to 30 percent of the world’s Internet traffic. Millions of barrels per day of crude oil and other petroleum products pass through the waterway, not to mention food and other agricultural products. While the U.S. Navy is the ultimate guarantor of this traffic, Saudi Arabia has done its part to help secure this vital area. Admittedly, this is all in the Saudi national interest. Still, its contributions can’t be ignored.
In 2018, the Saudis (with significant behind-the-scenes assistance from the UAE) hosted the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the signing of a peace agreement that ended decades of discord. Shortly thereafter, Eritrea and Djibouti inked a similar agreement, with Saudi Arabia and its partners pledging economic assistance. The Saudis also held a summit with leaders from seven Red Sea nations, including Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, and Jordan, to deal with issues such as piracy and smuggling. The region is far from stable (particularly amid the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia and water disputes between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt) but the Saudis have become unlikely stewards of a more reasonable future.
The Saudis have also recently become reluctant leaders in the effort to shape the future of Iraq. After years of shunning Baghdad because of perceived Iranian influence, Saudi Arabia in 2015 reopened its embassy in Iraq after a 30-year hiatus. This was followed by the opening of a consulate in Basra in 2019—which came with $1 billion in aid.
Saudi Arabia not only serves as a bulwark against Islamic State and Iranian-regime influence in Iraq. It is stepping in more and more for Washington, where politicians on both left and right increasingly look to escape the turmoil of the Middle East. In other words, the Saudis have—perhaps against their own interests—enabled some American isolationist impulses.
The same may be said for what Saudi Arabia has been doing—admittedly poorly—in Yemen. Following Yemen’s political collapse and the eruption of internecine conflict in 2015, the Saudis led a coalition to counter the Houthi militia. A debate rages about the extent of Iranian support to the group in the early years of this conflict. Indeed, some argue that Saudi Arabia pushed the Houthis into the arms of Iran. Regardless of how it happened, Iran now enjoys significant influence in Yemen through the Houthis, and Saudi Arabia seeks to challenge that.
In private briefings, Saudi and Israeli officials independently confirm that Iranian arms are flowing to the Houthis at an astounding clip. With insufficient maritime interdictions by the international community, and given Oman’s failure to halt overland smuggling, the weapons have increased in lethality and sophistication. Drones, missiles, and other advanced weapons are deployed against the Yemeni population with horrific results, as well as on Saudi oil facilities, not to mention Saudi civilian areas.
The Saudi military headquarters for Yemen operations is an impressive-looking war room. I visited it in 2018. Multiple screens and high-tech communications gave the impression that the Saudis were operating on the cutting edge. A small U.S. intelligence annex abutted the room for a time. But none of this prevented errant Saudi air strikes. Bombs intended for Iran-backed Houthi targets instead repeatedly killed many innocent Yemenis. This officially explains the recent U.S. decision to halt its support for the war effort. And it also likely explains the new emphasis on aid provision in Yemen over counterterrorism sanctions against the Houthis.
But the recent U.S. decisions only exacerbate Saudi Arabia’s Yemen problem. Riyadh’s rationale for war in Yemen is legitimate, even if its warfighting is decidedly subpar. The mission, if executed properly, can help bring stability to the Persian Gulf region and also serve American interests, such as preventing spikes in the price of oil because of Houthi attacks. More broadly, should Yemen succumb to the Houthis, it would become a heavily armed and more lawless version of Lebanon, but with a stranglehold on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait—the narrow maritime chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
The Biden administration’s policy of relative indifference to Iran-backed terrorism in Yemen is deeply troubling to Riyadh. Equally troubling is the U.S. decision to re-engage in nuclear diplomacy with Iran. The Saudis are thus grappling with two big questions: Will Washington ignore Saudi red lines and make key non-nuclear concessions to Iran in areas such as Yemen in order to seal a deal? And in the process, will Iran out-negotiate its American counterparts again, as it did in 2015?
Should the Saudis see both outcomes as likely, they may give up trying to shape their region. Riyadh would instead intensify consideration for its own nuclear program. Indeed, the country’s leaders have vowed that if Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia will, too. A nuclear arms race would soon consume the Middle East. And if Saudi Arabia no longer sees America as a partner to counter Iranian malign activity across the region, Riyadh could revert to old security paradigms that have proved disastrous in the past—namely, the export of violent ideologies abroad.
There was a time, not long ago, when Saudi Arabia deserved to be jettisoned from the American orbit. After the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, the American public got a crash course in Wahhabism, the backward Islamist ideology that the Saudis exported worldwide, radicalizing Muslims against the United States, Israel, Christians, Jews, and Western society, writ large. That 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis didn’t help matters.
The George W. Bush administration had every reason to turn its back on the Saudis, or to even make it a target in the War on Terror. Despite its outsized importance in global energy markets, the country had every appearance of an American enemy. I was among those calling for an American shift away from Saudi Arabia at the time. And many in Washington who today are publicly spurning the Saudis were the kingdom’s defenders.
The kingdom’s detractors today embrace the idea of empowering Iran at the expense of its Sunni neighbors. The kingdom’s defenders, by contrast, see Saudi Arabia as an important bulwark against Iran. This is the simplified version of the story. But a better argument for giving Saudi Arabia an opportunity to earn its place in the American alliance system stems from its ambitious reform plan, launched in 2016, known as “Vision 2030.”
Simply put, the goal of Vision 2030 is to drag Saudi Arabia out of its antiquated oil economy and to shed its ascetic Wahhabi ideology in the process. Under the leadership of the kingdom’s impulsive crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (commonly referred to as MBS), the country set its sights on improved education, a shift away from the economic model in which the state rains money on the populace, and a raft of reforms that would better serve its own people, who are skewing younger each year and are hungry for change.
The process has been profoundly imperfect, but nonetheless astounding. Radical clerics who for years dominated public opinion in the kingdom have become marginalized. Women are driving. The country’s ubiquitous religious police, the mutawa, has been de-fanged. And the export of Wahhabi ideology is down, with madrassas and other traditional Saudi-funded hotbeds of extremist education shuttering across the Muslim world.
The effort is far from complete. Women still lack the same rights as men. Citizens are jailed for political reasons. And there is no free press to cover it. The country is still a monarchy in every meaningful sense. But the changes are nonetheless jaw-dropping to those familiar with the country’s history of backwardness. The Saudis invited me to see it for myself, and while much work remains, I can attest to the change.
My greatest skepticism related to how the Saudis view Jews. If they couldn’t cease to vilify adherents of other faiths, then their reforms would be short-lived and insignificant. The Saudis seem to understand this. The government-funded Muslim World League was for years a loathsome NGO that promoted vile anti-Semitism. But in recent years, under the leadership of cleric Mohammed al-Issa, the NGO has conducted pointed outreach to Jews, signaling major shifts in its views. The Muslim World League has even launched a campaign decrying Holocaust denial, representing a remarkable shift from its pre-9/11 platform.
Admittedly, much of this is driven by geopolitics. As the Gulf Arab states, with Saudi encouragement, drew closer to Israel, the Saudis set the stage for their own pivot. The kingdom’s leaders thus prepared their people, who for years had feasted upon a steady diet of Islamic extremism, anti-Israel venom, and vitriolic anti-Semitism, to view Israel and Jews in a different light. It’s not at all clear that the Saudi public has actually changed. After all, these beliefs were drilled into their heads for decades. But they have also not rejected this “new” perspective on monotheistic faiths, at least not that we can see.
But Vision 2030 and the accompanying Saudi reform process is not an interfaith issue. Indeed, the real impact of Saudi reform is likely to be seen in Sunni-majority countries that take their cues from the custodian of Islam’s two holiest mosques and the leader of the Sunni Islamic world. This could lead to greater respect for women’s rights in Afghanistan. It could help pave the way for more moderate Islamic policies in Pakistan. It could give greater voice to moderates in Indonesia and Malaysia. Two decades into the war on terrorism, at long last, the Saudis may be on the verge of helping America win the hearts and minds of the extremists they incubated through their Wahhabi project.
The transformation of Saudi society from a wealthy but backward Bedouin kingdom to a modern Middle East power was the brainchild of one man: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Vision 2030 is his vision. The implementation, however imperfect, has also been his. Of course, the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi is his responsibility, too. This was made abundantly clear by the declassified report released in February.
MBS is, in short, a deeply flawed reformer. Indeed, some dispute that he is one at all. But if more Saudi reforms are to be implemented, MBS is the man who will see to them. The brash and ambitious royal designed it that way. His plan was to draw closer to Washington with reforms that he oversaw. It was to be managed and incremental, but nonetheless meaningful change. And it would take place over the course of his lifetime. Remember, he is only 35.
Today, U.S. policy is to shun him. Admittedly, the Biden White House stopped short of sanctions against him or imposing a visa ban. But he is persona non grata in this White House. And it is unclear whether that will change during this administration. It’s also unclear whether MBS himself wishes to engage with the Biden White House after its resurrection of the sordid two-year-old story of murder. Yes, all fingers point to him. But this was already known in 2018 when Turkey leaked the story. The Biden administration released the report for no clear or tangible gain. The goal was to placate the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. And their goal was nothing less than humiliation.
America’s Saudi foreign policy thus sits at a peculiar crossroads. Donald Trump’s policy was transactional. He sought out the Saudis for arms deals and regional peace pacts, and seemed content to sweep the Khashoggi affair under the rug. Apart from designating the Houthis, he largely sidestepped the Saudi war in Yemen. The policy of many other presidents was similarly transactional, with the goal of maintaining a steady and affordable supply of oil. It’s easy to forget how the Saudis can still wield their oil wealth to America’s advantage or disadvantage, as they have done many times in the past.
George W. Bush understood this, but he charted a policy of reform nonetheless. He pushed the Saudis to join America in the ideological battle against Islamic extremism. Bush could easily have banished the kingdom from the U.S. alliance structure. But he didn’t. He envisioned transformation for this desert kingdom that holds such importance for the region. Oil may have been part of his calculus, but his goals were loftier than energy.
The Biden policy is neither transactional nor transformational. It is punitive. It provides no path for reform and no path to please. Only a Saudi acquiescence to an American-brokered Iran nuclear deal, which would likely include a nod to Iranian hegemonic ambitions, might reset relations under the current circumstances. This is anathema to Riyadh’s vision of its own future.
With bilateral ties at their all-time nadir, Saudi Arabia must now consider its next moves. Four or even eight years of the new status quo is too long to be out in the cold. Should the kingdom find itself repeatedly shunned in the American-led order, the Saudis may need to look elsewhere. The Saudis will not find another patron and protector that will encourage transformation. But they can rather easily find a new patron, one that is hungry for oil and who will be content with transactional ties. Indeed, amid an escalating great-power competition between Washington and Beijing, the Middle Kingdom is eyeing a huge win in the Middle East. This would be a huge loss for Washington, and an unforced one, at that.
*Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @JSchanzer. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.
Washington Must Confront Iran Over Sensitive Nuclear Work Andrea Stricker and Jacob Nagel/FDD/April 19/2021
With Israel’s alleged covert action against Iran’s Natanz enrichment plant on April 11, Tehran’s latest breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal are in danger of premature burial by the news cycle. Yet the Islamic Republic’s violations merit more attention, since they involve Tehran’s work relevant to potential nuclear weapons technologies. Instead of orchestrating an impracticable return to a flawed nuclear accord at ongoing talks in Vienna, Washington should fulfill its pledge to seek a longer and stronger agreement.
Tehran is carrying out four key activities in the areas of enrichment and weaponization – all violations of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – for the alleged peaceful purpose of producing fuel for its Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). Alas, these activities provide Iran gains in knowledge that are irreversible even should Tehran come back into compliance with the JCPOA.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly informed member states last week that Iran was carrying out a sensitive process at the Esfahan Fuel Fabrication Plant using near-20 percent highly enriched uranium. With further enrichment, this fissile material can be used to make nuclear weapons.
The IAEA reported that Iran had “dissolved six unirradiated scrap fuel plates for the TRR.” These plates contained near-20 percent enriched uranium. Under the JCPOA (Annex 1, Section J, Paragraph 58), Iran is prohibited from recovering 20 percent enriched uranium from what are known as “scrap fuel plates” – the unused fuel components for the core of a nuclear reactor.
Under the deal, Iran must either dilute the enriched uranium in scrap fuel plates to a level of 3.67 percent or transfer them to a foreign party. Yet in 2016, the JCPOA executive committee, or Joint Commission, authorized Iran to keep the scrap fuel and labeled it “unrecoverable.” Nuclear expert David Albright warned that Iran could, in the future, recover the highly enriched uranium. The Joint Commission also exempted the near-20 percent enriched uranium from the JCPOA provision that Iran may not possess uranium enriched above 3.67 percent.
In the second breach of the JCPOA, Iran told the IAEA that it will convert the material made from the near-20 percent enriched uranium extracted from scrap fuel plates “to produce enriched uranium targets for irradiation at the TRR for the production of molybdenum.” Iran is forbidden from producing its own enriched uranium targets under the JCPOA (Annex I, Section J, Paragraph 60) and is supposed to import them only as necessary. Molybdenum, or “moly-99,” is a material with medical uses. Yet other proliferant states have used a cover story of producing moly-99 for medical applications to justify carrying out nuclear weapons-relevant processes.
In addition, Iran may use Joint Commission-exempted hot cells, equipment used to handle radioactive materials, to carry out its planned production of uranium targets. Under the JCPOA (Annex I, Section E, Paragraph 21), Iran is not permitted to operate hot cells above a certain size. However, the Institute for Science and International Security reported that Iran may be planning to use exempted oversized hot cells for this process, which are of dimensions that “can be misused for secret, mostly small-scale plutonium separation efforts, [raising] serious questions over the rigorousness of this JCPOA exemption.” In retrospect, the Joint Commission’s series of 2016 exemptions appear, to put it politely, unwise.
Iran’s third breach, which occurred in February 2021, involves production of a highly sensitive material called uranium metal in gram quantities at the Esfahan plant. Uranium metal can be used to produce nuclear reactor fuel – and this is Iran’s stated reason for developing it – but is almost always used as a primary material for making cores of atomic weapons. To make these cores, Iran would need to use a chemical process to turn uranium hexafluoride, or UF6 (the fissile material produced by centrifuges), into uranium metal and then melt and cast uranium metal components for nuclear warheads.
Analysis of materials from Iran’s nuclear archive, seized by Israel in 2018, indicate Tehran was already preparing to produce uranium metal for nuclear cores. Prior to 2003, under its crash nuclear weapons program known as the Amad Plan, Iran was constructing both pilot and large-scale uranium metallurgy facilities to make nuclear cores and was practicing the use of surrogate materials for weapons-grade uranium. The Iranians seek to continue harnessing work on these important and time-consuming processes to shorten the weaponization path to nuclear weapons. Under the JCPOA, Tehran is restricted from producing uranium metal only until 2031.
The fourth major breach of the JCPOA, which Iran announced on April 13 in response to the alleged Israeli action at Natanz, entails installing 1,000 more centrifuges and enriching uranium to a level of 60 percent. Enrichment to 60 percent marks the first time the Islamic Republic has enriched past 20 percent purity, positioning Tehran to quickly dash to 90 percent enriched uranium, or weapons-grade material.
Tehran again claimed the 60 percent enriched uranium would be used to make moly-99 for medical uses, ostensibly through irradiation in the TRR. The Islamic Republic showed its true hand, however, when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated on April 14 that higher enrichment “was in response to malicious acts” by Iran’s enemies. Shortly thereafter, he said Iran might produce 90 percent enriched uranium next. Iran’s moves are likely intended to gain leverage and increase pressure on Washington and Europe to lift sanctions.
The United States and its partners – including Russia and China – should view Iran’s activities related to enrichment and weaponization as highly provocative and worthy of UN Security Council action. Tehran’s endeavors provide it with irreversible knowledge gains. All violations to date constitute preparation for future nuclear weapons efforts.
Now, with JCPOA member states and Washington mistakenly seeking to engineer U.S. and Iranian re-entry to the JCPOA, they are not confronting Iran’s unnecessary and inflammatory nuclear activities, including the latest violations. They are also ignoring the JCPOA’s failure to address Iran’s technical progress since 2015 in many key areas. While the accord offers Tehran massive sanctions relief, it does not prevent Tehran from carrying out sensitive nuclear activities in the long run.
Iran, for its part, is exploiting the unwillingness of JCPOA members and the United States to condemn its actions at the IAEA Board of Governors and refer matters to the UN Security Council. In March, the IAEA was prepared to issue a report detailing Iran’s non-compliance with the IAEA’s ongoing investigation into undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, but the Biden administration halted its release. Washington did not want a slap on the wrist to dissuade Iran from coming to the negotiating table.
It is time for the Biden administration to recognize that the JCPOA did not deal with Iran’s ability to dial up its nuclear provocations at will, and that underpinning Iran’s nuclear program is an ongoing readiness to make nuclear weapons. Only by demanding a longer and stronger deal, backed by more intrusive IAEA investigations and inspections to ensure Iran’s nuclear weapons programs have ended, along with follow-up actions by the IAEA Board, will Washington stand a chance of preventing a future Iranian nuclear breakout.
*Andrea Stricker is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Brigadier General (Res.) Professor Jacob Nagel is a senior fellow. They both contribute to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP), and Iran Program. For more analysis from Andrea, Jacob, CMPP, CEFP, and the Iran Program, please subscribe HERE. Follow Andrea on Twitter @StrickerNonpro. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD, @FDD_CMPP, @FDD_CEFP, and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.
How secure is the Iranian regime? Neville Teller/Jerusalem Post/April 19/2021
The most public face of the campaign is Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah’s son and Iran’s last heir to the throne before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979.
A new and rapidly growing popular rebellion is affecting the Iranian regime. On March 11, a statement signed by 640 eminent Iranians, some living within and some outside Iran, was posted on-line in English and Persian with the hashtag #No2IslamicRepublic. It marked the launch of a new anti-government movement. The founding statement called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, describing it as “the biggest obstacle in the way of freedom, prosperity, democracy, progress, and human rights.” The signatories urged Iranian activists to unite, to make #No2IslamicRepublic their national solidarity objective, and “to create a massive movement that can purge Iran from this dark and corrupt regime.” Many ordinary Iranians posted images on social media of murdered and executed dissidents and political prisoners, along with other examples of social and cultural oppression by the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.Since the launch, the number of adherents has mushroomed into the tens of thousands, and the campaign has succeeded in uniting opposition elements outside the country that have previously failed to coalesce. As the number of signatories rapidly rose, it became clear that they were drawn from many sectors of Iranian society: political and civil rights activists, artists, athletes, authors and university professors, among others.
One of the best-known is filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, who has spent years in and out of prison for his outspoken criticisms of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was joined by five female advocates for democracy and women’s rights who were arrested and jailed in 2019 after signing an open letter calling for Khamenei’s resignation.
The #No2IslamicRepublic campaign is supported by many Iranians abroad who are household names in Iran – singers, a composer, an award-winning filmmaker, a historian, a feminist sociologist, women’s rights activists and even former Ontario cabinet minister Reza Moridi.
The most public face of the campaign is Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah’s son and Iran’s last heir to the throne before the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979. The 60-year-old Pahlavi heads the National Council of Iran for Free Elections, which has been acting as a government-in-exile. Just recently he announced a major change in the objective of his organization.
Setting aside his previous intention to reestablish a constitutional monarchy, Pahlavi now supports the establishment of a democratic republic to replace the revolutionary regime. This has meant that a rival body operating its own government-in-exile, an organization calling itself The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has been able to come together with Pahlavi under the umbrella of the #No2IslamicRepublic campaign.
From the regime’s point of view, the campaign could not have surfaced at a more inconvenient time. Iran is in the midst of a delicate diplomatic game of poker with the US over reopening the nuclear deal. Is Iran going to agree to observe the terms of the original deal, which the US demands as the price of returning to the table, or is Washington going to lift all the sanctions imposed during the Trump era, which is Iran’s precondition? A full-scale public rebellion inside Iran, not only against the government but against the republic itself, would severely weaken the regime’s bargaining position.
THE SITUATION is made even more unstable because new Iranian presidential elections are scheduled for June 18, and activists are seizing the opportunity to condemn the faux democracy that has been imposed on the country. Iranians know that nothing happens in the state without the approval of the supreme leader, and that Hassan Rouhani is president only because it suited Ayatollah Khamenei in 2013 and again in 2017 to have him as a “moderate” figurehead.
Moderation may be far from how the regime intends to deal with the current insurrection. Present indications are that a military hard-liner is likely to succeed Rouhani, who is serving his final term. As with all elections in Iran, potential candidates must be vetted by the Guardians Council, whose members are directly and indirectly appointed by Khamenei, and the supreme leader is reported to have said publicly that the country should be led by a relatively young and ideologically hard-line president.
The Islamic Republic is currently weaker than it has been for decades. Ex-president Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, applied for years, succeeded in reducing the regime’s power, both economically and politically. Yet President Joe Biden, determined as he is to resurrect ex-president Barack Obama’s failed policy of seeking engagement with Iran, is unlikely to offer any support, overt or covert, to this latest effort to substitute a genuine democracy for the rigid, unpopular and failing theocracy currently imposed on the Iranian people.
If Biden does turn his back on Iran’s popular uprising, it would be a case of history repeating itself.
The patently manipulated 2009 reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iranian president gave rise to an upsurge of popular anger. The public believed that the poll had been subject to vote rigging and election fraud. Ordinary Iranians took to the streets in their millions in what came to be known the “Green Movement.”
The Obama administration – eager, perhaps determined, to engage with Iran regardless of the cost – did precisely nothing to support the protest. The message the ayatollahs took was that the US would look away no matter what they did to stamp out their domestic opposition. As a result, the Green Movement was ruthlessly suppressed, and its leaders were either imprisoned or eliminated.
Widespread popular discontent with Iran’s revolutionary regime rumbles away below the surface, and there have been other opportunities – such as in the popular uprisings in 2019 and 2020 – to endorse it, but neither the US nor any Western nation has ever offered overt support. The reluctance is perhaps understandable. Past efforts at encouraging or supporting regime change, even in flagrantly anti-democratic countries, does not have a notably successful track record.
To attempt the overthrow of an established regime that has all the engines of the state and the military under its control is a formidable, perhaps foolhardy, enterprise. Yet this #No2IslamicRepublic campaign has just that objective.
Unless, or until, it seems to be succeeding, experience tells us that it can expect little by way of outside support.
*The writer is Middle East correspondent for Eurasia Review. His latest book is Trump and the Holy Land: 2016-2020. He blogs at a-mid-east-journal.blogspot.com
