LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 11/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.april11.16.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006
Bible Quotations For Today
‘Thus it is written, that the
Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Luke 24/44-49: "Then he said to them, ‘These are my words
that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me
in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’Then he
opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it
is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.And
see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city
until you have been clothed with power from on high.’"
It is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering
unjustly.
First Letter of Peter
02,/18-25:"Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not
only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is to
your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If
you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But
if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For
to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you
an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no
deceit was found in his mouth.’ When he was abused, he did not return abuse;
when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who
judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free
from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd
and guardian of your souls."
Pope
Francis's Tweets For Sunday
Love opens our
eyes and enables us to see the great worth of a human being.
It is important for a child to feel wanted. He or she is not an accessory or a
solution to some personal need.
Each new life allows us to appreciate the utterly gratuitous dimension of love.
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on April 11/16
The reliable Ali al-Amine/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
Dialogue paving the way for conflict resolution in Yemen/Hassan Al Mustafa/Al
Arabiya/April 10/16
The race to Syria's Raqqa/Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
A bridge made of love not of stone/Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
Mideast start-ups booming, but for how long/Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
Iran’s IRGC Doctrine/Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
The Erdogan Visit to Washington: Tough Love/Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
Washington Pays for Earlier Mistakes in Syria: The Bubbles of US-Russia Deal
Surface/Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
Middle East to Russia and China: C’mon in. We are Open for Business/Middle East
Briefing/April 10/16
Turkish Justice: ISIS Walks Free; Peace Activists Jailed/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone
Institute/April 10/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 11/16
Beirut airport employees detained in
connection to terror groups
Report: Salam to Meet Saudi King Next Week
Foreign Ministry Says Number of Deported Lebanese from Gulf Overstated
Open and caring families find a place for the poor. Two Airport Employees Held
for Contacting 'Terrorist Groups'
Arslan to Salam: Choueifat Residents Opposed to Costa Brava Landfill
Berri Sees 'Light at End of Tunnel' for Presidency, Urges Saudi-Iranian
'Reconciliation'
Syrians Struggle to Find Place to Bury Their Kin in Lebanon
Report: Salam Adamant to End Dispute over State Security File
Exchange of Fire in Brital Overnight
Frangieh before LebaneseFrench Parliamentary Group: We are passing through a
critical phase in Lebanon, yet conditions are still better than the surrounding
region
Machnouk: State is pillar for Lebanese
Jumblatt, Huth convene
Rahi from Daraya: Keserwan embraces the Patriarchal Seat
Rahi: we call on all parties to divorce municipal elections from political,
familial polarization
Tashnag delegation visits Jones
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
April 11/16
Former Iraqi diplomat in Israel
Iran says missile program is not negotiable
King Salman talks ‘unity’ at Egypt’s parliament
Saudi king lays foundation stone for Al-Azhar Islamic research city
Clashes in Syria, ISIS captures two villages
Yemen ceasefire to take into effect Sunday midnight
Iraqi government approves aid to Fallujah ‘in principle’
ISIS driven out, thousands return to Iraq’s Ramadi
Istanbul bus stop bomb blast leaves three wounded
Turkish airstrikes empty dozens of villages in northern Iraq
German spy chief warns ISIS wants to attack
Brussels militant cell wanted new France attack
Swedish police hunt arsonist suspected of torching school
Macedonian police use tear gas on migrants
Swede arrested in Brussels ‘brainwashed’ by militants
Libya govt meeting soon to back power-sharing plan: speaker
Pakistan kills 34 militants
Strong earthquake shakes buildings across South Asia
Nations seek rapid ratification of Paris climate deal, 4-year lock
Cameron releases tax records after ‘Panama Papers’ storm
Italian envoy quits Egypt over student murder probe
23 killed as Philippine troops clash with Abu Sayyaf militants
Links From
Jihad Watch Site for
April 11/16
Austria: Muslim “refugee,” Mumbai jihad suspect, arrested for
plot in Europe.
Dr. Omar Ahmad and The Agony of the “Decent Muslim”.
UK “Equalities” chief admits: Muslims won’t assimilate.
Canada: Muslim migrant children choking, brutalizing non-Muslim students.
Florida Catholic School That Invited Pro-Jihad Speaker Doubles Down.
Saudis act against anti-Islamic soccer player haircuts.
Australia: Islamic State jihadi attacks ex-soldier in prison.
Australia: Muslim whose daughter was killed waging jihad demands her life
insurance.
Minneapolis: Muslim airport worker who preached non-violence tries to join
Islamic State.
Islamic State expanding in Africa as Somali Muslims pledge allegiance to caliph.
Reza Aslan: Trump is popular because of “Islamophobia”.
CBS: “Islamophobia” triggers jihad terror attacks.
U.S. general: Number of Islamic State fighters in Libya doubles.
Beirut airport employees detained in
connection to terror groups
Reuters 10 April/16/Lebanese authorities have detained two Lebanese employees of
a Beirut airport service company over contacts with "terrorist parties,"
security sources said on Sunday. The sources gave no further details as the
suspects were still being questioned. Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi
Zeaiter said last month that Beirut airport needed at least $24 million to
address pressing gaps in security, including a new perimeter wall and baggage
inspection equipment. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk has said safety
procedures at the airport are inadequate, comparing it to Egypt's Sharm
el-Sheikh airport, where a bomb planted on a Russian plane killed 224 people in
October. The Islamic State militant group and the al Qaida-linked Nusra Front
have both mounted suicide bomb attacks in Lebanon since the eruption of the
Syrian conflict in 2011. The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah is fighting
alongside President Bashar Assad in the Syrian war.
Report: Salam
to Meet Saudi King Next Week
Naharnet/April 10/16/A meeting
between Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz has
been set to take place in Istanbul next week, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily
reported on Sunday. Salam was informed by the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali
Awadh Asiri that a meeting has been arranged with the Saudi King in Istanbul,
the daily added. The Prime Minister will leave for Turkey next Wednesday to take
part in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit. Relations between
Riyadh and Lebanon deteriorated in February, when Saudi Arabia halted a grant to
the army in protest against Hizbullah's virulent criticism of the kingdom and
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil's abstention from voting in favor of Arab League
resolutions condemning attacks against the Saudi embassy in Iran in January. The
kingdom urged its citizens against traveling to Lebanon. Gulf countries also
issued similar advisories.
Foreign Ministry Says Number
of Deported Lebanese from Gulf Overstated
Naharnet/April 10/16/The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said
on Sunday that the numbers circulated in media outlets of Lebanese emigrants
deported from the Gulf countries are exaggerated. “The numbers of Lebanese
emigrants spread in media outlets do not reflect the reality and are
overstated,” said the Ministry in a statement. “The figures alleged that
thousands of Lebanese have been deported and these numbers are overstated and
would hence trigger concern among members of the Lebanese community and the
Lebanese public opinion,” added the statement. “In the framework of our keenness
on the Lebanese diaspora, the ministry is always pursing the issue of Lebanese
deported from Gulf countries.” According to the Ministry, there are 74 cases of
deportation that include expelling, deportation and non-renewal of residency
permits for various reasons including Lebanese groups working or residing in
these countries. “For example, reports circulated about the intention of Kuwait
to exclude thousands of Lebanese for nonlegal reasons turned out to be untrue
after a meeting between the Charge d'Affaires at the Lebanese embassy in Kuwait
and the deputy foreign minister,” added the statement. The Charge d'affairs
affirmed that there are no deportation cases linked to the affiliation or
political belonging of Lebanese. In March, reports have said that around 1,100
Lebanese and Syrian nationals were to be banned from renewing their residence
permits in Kuwait for having direct links to Hizbullah. The Gulf Arab states
blacklisted Hizbullah as a "terrorist" group earlier that month. Around 50,000
Lebanese live and work in the oil-rich Arab countries, providing remittances
that are vital to the domestic economy. The terror blacklisting was the latest
step taken by Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, against Hizbullah, the leading
force in Lebanon's governing bloc which is backed by Riyadh's rival Tehran.
Saudi Arabia had also halted a $3 billion program of military aid to Lebanon to
protest what it said was "the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state". It also
urged its citizens to leave Lebanon and avoid traveling there. Qatar and Kuwait
followed with similar travel advisories, while the United Arab Emirates banned
its nationals from travel to Lebanon.
Open and caring families find
a place for the poor. Two Airport Employees Held for Contacting 'Terrorist
Groups'
Naharnet/April 10/16/The Airport Security Apparatus has arrested two Lebanese
airport employees on charges of “communicating with terrorist groups,” state-run
National News Agency said on Sunday. The two employees were apprehended “two
days ago,” NNA said. “They were employed at a company that provides services at
the airport,” the agency added. “Investigations are underway to unveil more
information and the probe is being conducted in utmost confidentiality,” NNA
said. LBCI television identified the two employees as A. al-Ahmed and Kh. Samay,
saying they worked for the Middle East Airports Services SAL company (MEAS), a
subsidiary of Lebanon's national carrier Middle East Airlines. MEAS is in charge
of operating and maintaining the facilities of the Rafik Hariri International
Airport. The two employees' tasks involved “delivering luggage to planes in a
direct manner,” LBCI said.
“The two detainees are currently being held at the army's Intelligence
Directorate and one of them had worked at the airport for more than six years
while the other has occupied his post for the past year and a half,” the TV
network added. “Al-Ahmed raised suspicions after a weapon was seized from his
drawer at the airport,” LBCI said. The TV network said the weapon was smuggled
to the airport despite the fact that “workers and airliner cabin crews undergo
security checks” prior to their entry to the airport's restricted areas.
“Al-Ahmed is a relative of the suspect M. al-Ahmed, the main suspect in the case
of the Naameh booby-trapped car and the Bir al-Abed and Rweiss bombings,” LBCI
said. “M. al-Ahmed is a member of the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades and
one of the associates of detained terror mastermind Naim Abbas,” the TV network
added, noting that the man has been sentenced to hard labor for life in absentia
and that he has sought refuge at the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has recently vowed that he will exert
efforts to address “security gaps” at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International
Airport, hours after suicide bombers killed 35 people and wounded over 200 at
Brussels airport and a metro train. He warned that the said gaps “might be
equivalent to those that were present at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport and led to
the bombing of the Russian plane, according to Western reports.”Mashnouq also
noted that he had instructed Airport Security Chief Brig. Gen. George Doumit to
“step up security readiness at Beirut's airport,” while calling on all security
agencies to “maintain the highest levels of alert and vigilance and boost
preventative measures.”“The only choice will be to ask the Ministry of Finance
to earmark the necessary funds in order to sign the needed contracts, in
coordination with the Public Works and Transport Ministry,” the minister added.
He said “administrative obstacles that have been running for around 20 months”
have prevented the government from “inking necessary contracts that have to do
with repairing the airport's fence and buying advanced equipment and devices for
baggage scanning.”
Arslan to Salam: Choueifat
Residents Opposed to Costa Brava Landfill
Naharnet/April 10/16/Lebanese Democratic Party chief MP Talal Arslan visited
Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Sunday along with a delegation from Choueifat and
told the premier that the town's residents are opposed to the establishment of a
garbage landfill in the Costa Brava area. The delegation comprised Choueifat
municipal chief Melhem al-Souqi, municipality members, the town's mayors and
representatives of political parties and civil society groups. “We came here
with the town's dignitaries to express with total frankness the opposition of
Choueifat's residents to the Costa Brava landfill,” said Arslan after the
meeting with Salam in Msaytbeh. “We have heard a lot of promises and we don't
have any doubts regarding PM Tammam Salam's integrity, keenness, modesty or
ethics, but we openly declare that we have no confidence in the state and its
institutions,” the MP added. “We cannot accept or stay silent over what's
happening at Costa Brava, especially in light of our experience in Mount Lebanon
and specifically regarding the Naameh landfill, which continued to operate for
more than 17 years despite initial claims that it would only operate for two
years,” Arslan explained. Environmental activists have recently warned of the
“environmental damage” that could be caused by the seaside garbage facility,
noting that it violates the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the
Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean. Residents have
also decried that the landfill will have an alleged negative impact on their
health.
Preparation works kicked off last month at the site and it has recently started
receiving quantities of trash that had accumulated in random sites across
Lebanon. The landfill is part of a controversial government plan to resolve the
country's long-running waste management crisis. “We do not want to repeat the
Naameh landfill experience in the town of Choueifat … and the solution is not in
our hand. We have nothing to do with finding solutions, seeing as this is the
responsibility of the State and the specialized institutions,” Arslan said on
Sunday.
“We are ready to contribute under a decentralized solution for the garbage
crisis,” the lawmaker added, noting that the town is sorting and recycling its
waste. “We do not want to exclusively treat Choueifat's trash and leave the
Costa Brava landfill open to all choices and possibilities,” Arslan said,
expressing his concern that authorities intend to dump untreated bulk waste at
the site. Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015
after the closure of the Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut
and Mount Lebanon. The crisis, which sparked unprecedented protests against the
entire political class, has seen streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing
with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. On
March 12, the cabinet decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and
Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a
four-year plan to resolve the country’s waste problem despite the rejection of
many residents and civil society activists. A landfill’s location in the Shouf
and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local
municipalities and the Sidon waste management plant will also receive some of
Beirut's trash, the cabinet said.
Berri Sees 'Light at End of
Tunnel' for Presidency, Urges Saudi-Iranian 'Reconciliation'
Naharnet/April 10/16/Speaker Nabih Berri expressed hope Sunday that Lebanon's
long-running presidential vacuum will see an end soon, as he called for a
“Saudi-Iranian” reconciliation aimed at pacifying the situation in the region.
“We in Lebanon have started to see a light at the end of the tunnel on the
possibility that the Lebanese parties will be able to elect a president soon,”
Berri told the 23rd conference of the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union at the Arab
League headquarters in Cairo. Lebanon has been without a president since the
term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and the Free Patriotic Movement,
Hizbullah and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions.
Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal
to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but
his suggestion was rejected by the country's main Christian parties as well as
Hizbullah. Hizbullah and the FPM, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, have
argued that FPM founder MP Michel Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become
president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in
the Christian community. Separately, Berri said Sunday that “a major conspiracy
is gripping the Arab world under the slogan of democracy.”“In reality, this is
the 'creative chaos' that we have been promised and it is materializing although
a lot of parties are trying to deny this fact,” Berri added. “I believe that
sedition is underway in the Islamic world and the Arab societies,” the speaker
warned, calling for “a rapprochement and a reconciliation between the Arab Gulf
and the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
and Iran.”He said such a reconciliation would have a “major impact” on the
situation in the conflict-torn region.
Syrians Struggle to Find
Place to Bury Their Kin in Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/April 10/16/When Saada Khalaf, a Syrian refugee in
Lebanon, lost her husband to a long illness earlier this year, she could not
find a place to bury him in the eastern Lebanese town where the couple had lived
since they fled the civil war back home. The nearest cemetery where she and her
relatives were allowed to bury him was in the village of Dalhamiyeh, about 16
kilometers from the town of Bar Elias. Some 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled
their country's conflict are believed to be living in Lebanon, equal to about a
third of the country's population of 4.5 million people. With many cemeteries
almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury
their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for
burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads — just some of the
results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million
people and displaced half the country's pre-war population. "Syrians have become
a burden whether they are alive or dead," said Riad Rashid, a refugee from the
Syrian city of Homs. Khalaf, who fled from Homs after Syria's crisis began in
2011, only remembers that her husband, Ali Jomaa, died on a Monday morning a few
months ago. She says she is illiterate and does not know exact dates.She and
their neighbors had brought him to a clinic that morning, suffering from
asthma-related breathing problems, and he died shortly afterward. During the
funeral in Dalhamiyeh, she did not attend the funeral — as a woman and in
accordance with Muslim tradition — while male members of the family took the
body for prayers and burial. Later, when she first went back to the cemetery,
she could not find his grave. Two weeks ago, she went again with her brother and
an Associated Press crew and the brother pointed out the burial place, at the
edge of the cemetery. Khalaf burst into tears. The grave, which she said cost
her $100, had no marker on it like those of Lebanese who were buried at the
cemetery. She walked toward the grave and started touching the red sand on it.
"My heart is burning. He went and left me alone," said the 45-year-old woman,
who has no children, as she wiped her tears with her brown headscarf. "May God
give him mercy. He was good to me. He never upset me."Many Syrians say they
increasingly face prejudice from the Lebanese, who claim the refugees have
drained Lebanon's resources and put so much pressure on the country's
infrastructure that even burying their loved ones is becoming a problem. Back in
Bar Elias, the town's Mayor Mohammed al-Jammal said his people have nothing
against the Syrians, adding that the main cemetery is full and cannot take any
more people from outside the town. He said each family in the town has its own
block of land reserved at the cemetery. Al-Jammal said more than 35,000 Lebanese
live in the town, as well as about 60,000 Syrians who are spread among 51
unofficial camp settlements in Bar Elias. "We are not against Syrians being
buried here," al-Jammal said, speaking at his office in the busy town center. As
for Ali Jomaa, he added: "I am not against burying him here but I don't have a
place to bury him."Rashid, who lives with his family in two tents in one of Bar
Elias' unofficial refugee camps, said there is almost a death in the camp every
day, people just die of natural causes. "We suffer every time a Syrian dies,"
said the 45-year-old father of six girls and seven boys whose ages range between
four months and 24 years. "What we wish most of all is to go back to our country
and die in our country," Rashid added.
Report: Salam Adamant to End
Dispute over State Security File
Naharnet/April 10/16/The calls of Prime Minister Tammam Salam for the cabinet
session on Tuesday have cleared the air of doubts following the latest heated
session over the appointments of the members of the general-directorate of state
security, An Nahar daily reported on Sunday. The cabinet had convened on
Thursday, but it was marred by the ongoing dispute over the state security
agency. The possibility of holding another session was questionable. A dispute
erupted at Thursday's meeting and was focused on the budget of the agency and
differences between its director Major General George Qaraa and his deputy
Brigadier General Mohammed al-Tufaili. The disagreements between the two
officials has started to take on a sectarian turn, reports have said. Tourism
Minister Michel Pharaon supports Qaraa, who represents Christians, and Finance
Minister Ali Hassan Khalil supports Tufaili, who enjoys the backing of several
ministers, including Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Akram Shehayyeb, and Wael Abou Faour,
reports say. In March, the Kataeb Party’s three representatives in the cabinet
in addition to Pharaon warned that they would take action if the government
fails to resolve the “marginalization” of the general-directorate of state
security. Economy Minister Alain Hakim, of the Kataeb Party, had said at the
time that all Christians reject the neglect of the department. The
general-directorate of state security had sent a bill to the cabinet on March
20, 2014 asking for the creation of a six-member leadership authority under
which Qaraa, a Catholic, would have the casting vote. But the former secretary
general of the cabinet, Suhail Bouji, paralyzed the plan by saying that the
approval of the bill requires a draft-law to be adopted by the parliament unlike
a decision made by the Shura Council, the report said. Media reports quoted a
ministerial source as saying that Bouji’s move likely came as a result of his
friendship with Tufaili.
Exchange of Fire in Brital
Overnight
Naharnet/April 10/16/An exchange of gun fire erupted overnight on Sunday between
a fugitive and anti-police theft in the northern Bekaa town of Brital, the
National News Agency reported. The fire occurred when anti-theft police raided
the town and tried to ambush fugitive Ali Mohammed M., added NNA.
The armed fugitive managed to escape. No casualties were reported in the
incident.
Frangieh before
LebaneseFrench Parliamentary Group: We are passing through a critical phase in
Lebanon, yet conditions are still better than the surrounding region
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - "We are witnessing difficult circumstances in Lebanon, yet
our situation still remains better than the surrounding countries," said Marada
Movement Head, MP Sleiman Frangieh, during his meeting with members of the
Lebanese-French friendship parliamentary group, who visited him in Bnachi on
Sunday, as part of their tour among Lebanese officials. "Despite the current
critical period in Lebanon and the prevailing presidential vacuum, the positive
thing is that we are not in conflict," added Frangieh. He thanked his guests for
their visit, stressing that "France has always been a supportive friend to
Lebanon." "You are here to help Lebanon and try to do something, but we,
Lebanese, have to work for the sake of our country," Frangieh pointed out.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, MP Henry Gabriel expressed delight for
being in Lebanon, while highlighting the need for Parliament to convene to elect
a new President. "We are here today as observers to help Lebanon restore its
stability, without interfering in its interior affairs because vacuum leads to
the disruption of institutions," he underscored. "I know you are a candidate to
the Presidency, and we wish you the best of luck," Gabriel told Frangieh.
Machnouk: State is pillar for
Lebanese
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - Interior and Municipalities Minister, Nouhad el-Machnouk,
stressed on Sunday that "the State is a pillar for the Lebanese, regardless of
their religion or sect," adding that "what happened yesterday in the criminal
case of Michel Samaha, who has returned to his natural place, is an actual
confirmation." Machnouk's words came during the opening of Jeita Municipal
Palace, in presence of Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi. He
reiterated that the campaigns waged against the Interior Ministry and official
State institutions through defamation, false allegations, and insults are
criminal acts punished by law. He also pointed out that "our political system is
based on the fact that Lebanon is a pluralistic country and this should be
reflected in all State authorities.""The verdict against Samaha clearly shows
that the national balance in Lebanon was not broken," said Machnouk.
Jumblatt, Huth convene
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid Jumblatt, met at his
Mokhtara Palace on Sunday German Ambassador to Beirut, Martin Huth, with talks
centering on latest political developments in Lebanon and the region.
Rahi from Daraya: Keserwan
embraces the Patriarchal Seat
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarc,h Cardinal Bshara Butros al-Rahi,
arrived at "Our Lady of Salvation" Church in the town of Daraya on Sunday, as
part of his parish tour in Keserwan, where he was warmly welcomed by a crowd of
citizens and believers. "Keserwan is home to the Patriarchal Seat, and always
keen on preserving its strength," said al-Rahi, praising the steadfastness,
struggle and patriotism of its people. "Together, we shoulder the responsibility
and message of Lebanon," he added, calling for "renewed faith in Lebanon, our
nation, and respect for our State and its institutions."
Rahi: we call on all parties
to divorce municipal elections from political, familial polarization
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rahi, has urged all
political groups to divorce municipal elections from political and family
loyalty and polarizations by regarding any municipal electoral outcome as
strictly bearing on local development. The patriarch's utterance has come during
a mass service ceremony he'd officiated on during his pastoral tour of the
parish of Sarba today. Patriarch Rahi also emphasized the significance of any
democratic regime's regard for the principle of power rotation and freedom of
vote casting far from what he termed "seduction, coercion or fraud."Rahi wrapped
up on an aspiration at witnessing municipal elections taking place right on time
and, by playing a role model for any forthcoming presidential election.
Tashnag delegation visits
Jones
Sun 10 Apr 2016/NNA - A delegation representing the Central Committee of Tashnag
Party and the Defense Committee for the Armenian cause visited on Sunday the
U.S. Embassy, where they met with U.S. Chargé d'Affaires, Richard Jones, with
talks centering on most recent developments in Karabakh, a statement by the
Party indicated. It added that Jones expressed concern vis-a-vis the situation
in Karabakh and his understanding for the Party's fear, adding that he would
report this meeting to his country's Foreign Ministry.
Former Iraqi diplomat in
Israel
Roi Kais/Ynetnews /Published: 04.10.16/Israel News
Hamad Al-Sharifi, who served as an Iraqi diplomat in Kuwait and Jordan, arrives
in Israel on Sunday for a visit; he will be an official guest of the Foreign
Ministry and one day hopes to be the Iraqi ambassador to Israel. Hamad Al-Sharifi,
who previously served as an Iraqi diplomat in Kuwait and Jordan, will arrive in
Israel on Sunday, even though the two countries do not have diplomatic
relations. For much of his career, Al-Sharifi has worked as a diplomat on behalf
of Iraq's Baghdad government and will arrive in Israel as a guest of the Foreign
Ministry. During his visit, he will break many barriers between Israel and Arab
states. Al-Sharifi will meet with Israelis of Iraqi descent, members of Knesset,
and religious leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths. He will also tour the
Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Knesset, the Supreme Court, Yad VaShem, and
many other places. "I would like to thank Hassan Kaabiah, deputy spokesperson of
the Foreign Ministry, who convinced me to visit to see the true Israel, which we
have not seen on anti-Israeli television. One day, I hope that I will be the
Iraqi ambassador to Israel and that Hassan will be the Israeli ambassador to
Iraq," said Al-Sharifi before his visit. He added, "I consider myself a friend
of Israel. At this time, Arabs need to understand that there is no conflict
between Israel and Arab states, rather there is an Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I hope that it will end and peace will reign." Al-Sharifi, 55, is originally
from Baghdad and was born to Shitte parents. In the past decade, he served as an
Iraqi diplomat in many different posts including a role as the official
representative of the Iraqi embassy in Kuwait from 2005-2006. He also served as
a political advisor and deputy chief of mission for the Iraqi embassy in Jordan
in 2006. Additionally, Al-Sharifi has served an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of
Defense. Even before the Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein assumed power in 1979, Al-Sharifi
was in exile. During Hussein's rule, he succeeded in evading the long reach of
the Iraqi intelligence and according to reports, survived a few assassination
attempts. Today he works as a researcher in London. Al-Sharifi also chairs an
organization called "The Liberal Muslims" and writes modern exegesis of the
Quran. His research focuses on developing and reforming Islamic jurisprudence.
He also publishes articles on different topics including political and religious
reform and other issues related to Israel. Yonatan Gonen, the head of the Arabic
language digital diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone
conversation with Ynet, "The arrival of the former Iraqi diplomat demonstrates
that there are no limits in today's world. We receive many messages from Iraqis,
expressing their support for Israel and their longing for the Jewish community.
We are holding a dialogue with many Iraqis through social media and the general
feeling is of affection, understanding, and even rapprochement between the two
peoples. (Though) it is clear that that not everything is rosy and many curse
Israel and call on Jews to return from the 'Satanic Israel to the land of the
Tigris and Euphrates."
Iran says missile program is
not negotiable
AFP, Tehran Sunday, 10 April 2016/Iran’s foreign minister is saying the
country’s missile program is not up for negotiation with the United States. The
missile program and “defense capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran” are
not negotiable, said Mohammad Javad Zarif Sunday, after meeting with his
Estonian counterpart, Marina Kaljurand. He added that if Washington was “serious
about defensive issues” in the Middle East, it would stop supplying arms to
Saudi Arabia and Israel.US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the
US and its regional allies were “prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a
peaceful solution” to the dispute over recent Iranian missile tests.
King Salman talks ‘unity’ at Egypt’s parliament
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 10 April 2016/Saudi King Salman urged
for “unity” and “joint alliance” during his historic speech at Egypt’s
parliament on Sunday where he became the first Arab leader to give such address
in Cairo. “To remedy issues of our nations, with the Palestinian cause at the
forefront, we are required to be united in one stance, one word,” he said,
adding: “the Saudi-Egyptian cooperation we are witnessing today is a blessed
beginning for our Arab and Muslim world to achieve balance after years of
destabilization.” King Salman’s address was received with deafening applause and
a standing ovation. Some lawmakers waved the kingdom’s green flag, while others
chanted “all of Egypt greets you.”Joint work with Egypt and Saudi will “fasten
the elimination of terrorism,” he said. “Experiences have showed that work amid
joint alliance makes us much stronger.”In his six-minute address Sunday, King
Salman said Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed to build a bridge linking the
nations across the Red Sea and to work together to create a pan-Arab defense
force, an Egyptian idea first floated last year. “We are working together to
launch an Arab joint force,” he said, adding that “terrorism” and “radicalism”
must be fought financially, militarily and ideologically. The king also
reiterated and hailed the recent deals inked between Riyadh and Cairo after the
two agreed to set up a $16 billion investment fund Saturday and settled a
long-standing maritime dispute. He said the planned bridge over the Red Sea will
not only “connect Asia and Africa” but it will be a “gate to Africa,” boosting
exports of the two countries and creating job opportunities for people in the
region. He also said the planned free trade zone in northern Sinai Peninsula
will also boost the region economically. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the
Republic of Egypt have a historic opportunity to achieve huge economic leaps by
cooperating with each other,” he said. Saudi Arabia has been a traditional
source of economic and political support to Egypt, but the kingdom significantly
stepped up its backing after the military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist
President. Before his address, Egypt’s Parliament Speaker Ali Abdulal said “this
is the first time a Saudi king talks with Egypt’s people from this [parliament]
dome.” Abdulal hailed Saudi efforts especially when exerting its diplomatic
leverage in attempting to end issues in the region such as hosting Syrian
opposition groups, describing Riyadh as the “center” to resolve crisis. He also
said “history won’t forget how you [King Salman] led the Decisive Storm to end
Yemen’s crisis” and formed the Islamic Alliance against terrorism. Saudi Arabia
last year formed and led a military alliance to stop the Iran-backed Houthi
militia from toppling the internationally recognized government of Yemeni
President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. He said both Cairo and Riyadh are facing
battling against what he described “black terrorism,” and both share similar
“visions and realizations” on different issues. On Saturday, Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Salman agreed to set up a $16 billion investment
fund. The announcement came as the king continued his visit to the country, in
which he had also announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt.
Also signed was an arrangement by Cairo to demarcate its maritime borders with
Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran – named
Tiran and Sanafir - in Saudi territory. Historically, Tiran had been a Saudi
island “leased” to Egypt in 1950.
A live Egyptian state television broadcast on Saturday showed an official
announcing the latest agreements in Cairo’s historic Abdeen Palace, signed by a
representative of each country. The two nations agreed "to set up a
Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals ($16
billion)," the announcer said, giving no further details. The high-profile
announcement is just one of a string of agreements during King Salman’s visit,
which began on Saturday. Egypt hopes the investment deals will help boost its
battered economy. More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of
understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia's King An Egyptian
government official had said the deals agreed with Saudi Arabia, excluding the
investment fund, would amount to $1.7 billion, according to Agence France-Presse.
Earlier on Saturday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque. He
is due to address parliament on Sunday and receive an honorary doctorate from
Cairo University on Monday. "This visit comes as a confirmation of the pledges
of brotherhood and solidarity before the two brotherly countries," Sisi said in
a televised speech.(With AFP)
Saudi king lays foundation
stone for Al-Azhar Islamic research city
Saudi Gazette, Cairo Sunday, 10 April 2016/Saudi King Salman and Sheikh of Al-Azhar
Ahmed Al-Tayib laid the foundation stone for the Islamic missions city in Al-Azhar
on Saturday. King Salman also inspected the Al-Azhar Grand Mosque restoration
work in progress at Saudi’s expense. The restoration work started in March and
includes the consolidation of the mosque’s foundations, the injection of the
soil beneath it to make it stronger, the conservation of the minaret, and some
decorative elements at the mosque’s main building. A new set of toilets with
similar architectural style is to be provided within the mosque’s walls. The
budget required for the restoration project is a grant offered by the Kingdom.
Al-Azhar Grand Mosque has been receiving support from Saudi Arabia and its
leaders throughout the ages due the Saudi leadership’s realization of the role
of Al-Azhar in spreading correct Islam. In September 2014, the late King
Abdullah offered to bear the expenses for the restoration work. But the breakout
of the “30th June revolution” stopped work at the grand mosque. The mosque took
its name from the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatemah Al-Zahraa. During the span
of time the mosque developed into what is today the second oldest continuously
run university in the world after Al-Qarawiyyin in Fes, Morocco.
Clashes in Syria, ISIS
captures two villages
Agencies Sunday, 10 April 2016/Clashes around Syria’s second city Aleppo have
killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of al-Qaeda’s affiliate
and allied rebel groups within a 24-hour period, a monitor said Sunday. “Fierce
fighting raged past midnight (Sunday) on several fronts in the south of Aleppo
province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Lebanese Shiite
Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside regime troops and other loyalist
militia against militants and rebels, the monitoring group said. “Shelling and
fighting in the past 24 hours has left 19 Syrian and non-Syrian members of al-Nusra
dead... while 16 pro-regime fighters were also killed,” the Observatory said,
adding that one of the militants had blown himself up. A truce brokered by the
United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria’s war, does not
apply to the fight against militants. Across much of Syria, the February 27
truce has largely held. In areas where Nusra Front fights alongside allied rebel
groups, violence has been frequent in spite of the ceasefire. Around Aleppo in
particular, “the ceasefire has all but collapsed on the main front lines,”
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. “Al-Nusra, (militant group) Ahrar
al-Sham and their allies are pushing an offensive to take back turf seized
around Aleppo by the regime before the truce came into force,” he told AFP. The
civilian death toll has dropped as air raids and barrel bomb strikes by the
regime on residential areas have all but ceased, Abdel Rahman said.
“The violence around front lines has by no means stopped,” he added.
Furthermore, rebels have frequently shelled Sheikh Maqsud, a mainly Kurdish area
of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians dead since the truce began, he said.
Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has
since evolved into a multi-front war drawing in regional powers.
ISIS Syria offensive
Syrian activists say the ISIS group has launched a major offensive along the
Turkish border, seizing two villages near a border town captured by
Western-backed rebels two days ago. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, which relies on activists inside the country, says IS militants
seized Sheikh Reeh and al-Bal on Sunday. The activist-run Azaz Media Center,
based in a northern town of the same name, says the extremists exploded seven
bombs around Marea and other villages and towns, calling it the fiercest IS
offensive in a year. The IS-linked Aamaq News Agency claims the capture of the
two villages and says a suicide operation targeted rebel fighters in
opposition-held Kafr Shousha. The Western-backed Free Syrian Army captured the
border town of al-Rai from IS on Friday.
Aleppo attack
The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to
take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday,
and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse. With a
UN envoy due in Damascus in a bid to advance struggling diplomatic efforts, the
“cessation of hostilities agreement” brokered by Russia and the United States
came under new strain as government and rebel forces fought near Aleppo. The
ceasefire came into effect in February with the aim of paving the way for a
resumption of talks to end the five-year-long war. But it has been widely
violated, with each side blaming the other for breaches. The fighting south of
Aleppo marks the most significant challenge yet to the deal. Diplomacy has
meanwhile made little progress with no compromise over the future of President
Bashar al-Assad, his position strengthened by Iranian and Russian military
support. A top Iranian official, in comments to Iran TV, rejected what he
described as a US request for Tehran’s help to make Assad leave power, saying he
should serve out his term and be allowed to run in a presidential election “as
any Syrian”. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting
Russian lawmakers of preparations to “liberate” Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city and
commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into
areas controlled separately by the government and opposition. “We, together with
our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to
block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the
ceasefire deal,” he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Dmitry Sablin, a
member of Russia’s upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation,
told RIA news agency “Russian aviation will help the Syrian army’s ground
offensive operation”. The deployment of the Russian air force to Syria last year
helped tip the war Assad’s way as it bombed rebels supported by his enemies
including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. President Vladimir Putin
last month withdrew some of the Russian forces, but maintained an air base in
Latakia, and kept up strikes on the Islamic State group. Neither the
al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front or ISIS are included in the partial ceasefire.
Rebels have reported the resumption of Russian air strikes south of Aleppo, an
important theatre where Iranian forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are fighting in
support of the army and the Nusra Front is deployed in close proximity to
rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 35 combatants
had been killed on both sides in a 24 hour period in the area, where fighting
has been raging for some 10 days.
‘About to collapse’
A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had “witnessed a
serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse”.
Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche
that a U.S.-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was “powerless”.
The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee
crisis, and allowed for the rise of Islamic State. Rami Abdulrahman, director of
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said “in Aleppo there is a real
collapse of the truce”. The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of
hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions
south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on
government violations. “The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were,”
said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel
group. A Syrian military source said: “The battles are raging because ... armed
groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack.” The
Observatory also reported fighting on Sunday between government and rebel forces
near the opposition-held town of Douma outside Damascus, and said government
helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas north of Homs. Barrel
bombs are oil drums filled with explosives. While the government denies dropping
them, their use has been widely recorded, including by a UN Commission of
Inquiry on Syria.
Iran rejects US ‘precondition’
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday evening, and
is expected to meet Syrian officials on Monday. He said last week he would go to
Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition before
beginning a new round of peace talks on Wednesday. De Mistura has said the next
round of talks needs to “be quite concrete in the direction of a political
process leading to a real beginning of a political transition”. Ali Akbar
Velayati, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser on
international affairs, said US Secretary of State John Kerry had asked “Iran to
help so that Bashar Assad leaves. “We should ask them: “What does this have to
do with you? Shouldn’t the Syrian people decide?’” “From Iran’s point of view
Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal
president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part
in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that
Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us.”In a sign of Assad’s confidence,
the Syrian government plans to hold parliamentary elections on Wednesday. Salim
al-Muslat, opposition spokesman, said the vote was illegitimate.“I don’t know
how they can really announce an election in Syria. In Idlib or in Aleppo or in
Deir al-Zor or in Homs, can people gothere and vote?” he said. (With AFP, AP and
Reuters)
Yemen ceasefire to take into
effect Sunday midnight
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 10 April 2016/Yemen’s ceasefire will
enter into effect at midnight (2100 GMT) Sunday amid hopes that the upcoming
negotiations in Kuwait will help put an end to the deadly crisis, Al Arabiya
News Channel reported. The ceasefire was announced by the UN special envoy for
Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as a measure to calm the situation ahead of the
UN-sponsored talks on April 18. It is hoped that the new ceasefire will serve as
the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal which will be negotiated between
Yemeni warring parties in Kuwait.
The ceasefire is set to first go into effect in Taiz and Hajjah governorates.
Saudi military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri said the Arab
Coalition has the right to defend itself in case Houthis violate the ceasefire.
However, he said Yemen’s legitimate government and the coalition are committed
to the ceasefire. “The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen
starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President (Abedrabbo Mansour)
Hadi but reserves the right to respond” to any rebel attacks, it said in a
statement. However, sporadic fighting gripped parts of Yemen on Sunday, hours
before the expected ceasefire. Chaos has ruled Yemen since Iran-backed Houthi
militia overran the capital in September 2014 and advanced to other regions in
an attempted coup, prompting a Saudi-led military campaign in support of the
internationally recognized President Hadi in March last year.
Fighting raged Sunday in regions surrounding Sanaa, while the Houthi-held
capital itself, which has been regularly bombed by coalition warplanes, was
quiet. Houthi rebels and their allies exchanged mortar and artillery fire with
pro-Hadi forces in the Sarwah region of Marib province, east of Sanaa, an AFP
correspondent said. Coalition warplanes carried out fresh air strikes to stop
rebels seeking to take back a military base that pro-government forces had
recaptured in late 2015, military sources said. Although battles raged in the
past few days as each party attempts to enhance its negotiating position, the
Yemeni people are looking forward that Sunday midnight will be calm in their
areas where shelling and fighting dominated for months. Informed sources told Al
Arabiya News Channel that different Yemeni parties received the ceasefire draft,
adding that the Houthis and forces loyal to deposed Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh voiced reservations over its articles. However, the upcoming
hours will clarify the situation on ground especially that different Yemeni
parties have dispatched delegations to Kuwait to supervise halting military
operations.Meanwhile, some analysts said the calm situation on the border
between Saudi Arabia and Yemeni areas where Houthis are situated is a positive
sign. But other analysts said the Houthis and Saleh’s forces not voicing a clear
and frank stance regarding the talks, means that they will continue to be
ambiguous.(With AFP)
Iraqi government approves aid
to Fallujah ‘in principle’
By Jawad Al-Hattab | Al Arabiya News Channel Sunday, 10 April 2016/Iraq has
approved aid to be delivered to people in the ISIS-held city of Fallujah, west
of Anbar province after months-long siege from its forces, head of a relief
delegation said. Fallujah, seized by ISIS in early 2014 with an estimated 90,000
population, is the militant group’s stronghold in Anbar. Currently, people of
the city are trapped and suffer a serious risk of starvation as they are caught
in the crossfire between ISIS militants and Iraqi forces who want to recapture
the city after recently liberating Hit, another city in Anbar. Human Rights
Watch (HRW) said since government forces recaptured nearby Ramadi city in late
2015 and the Al-Jazira desert area north of Fallujah in March 2016, they have
cut off supply routes to the city. Now with reports of starving civilians
surfacing, Kamal Raja al-Issawi, head of the Fallujah relief delegation, said:
“the central government agreed in principle to deliver aid to Fallujah but
through neutral parties inside the city.” He added: “These parties will be in
charge of receiving the aid and distributing it to people.”The aid will be
funneled to the people “in the upcoming days.”Issawi’s statement comes after the
United Nations demanded establishing a safe passage to deliver aid to the city –
70 kilometers from the capital Baghdad – as they suffer from deteriorating
humanitarian conditions due to lack of food and medicine.
ISIS driven out, thousands
return to Iraq’s Ramadi
The Associated Press, Baghdad Sunday, 10 April 2016/Thousands of Iraqis have
returned to the western city of Ramadi three months after Iraqi troops backed by
US-led airstrikes drove ISIS out of the provincial capital, the city's mayor
said Sunday.The returning families must go through security checks and are only
allowed to return to areas cleared of mines and booby traps left behind by the
ISIS, Mayor Ibrahim al-Osaj said. ISIS militants seized Ramadi last May and held
the town until they were driven out in December. As in other cities and towns in
Syria and Iraq, the fight to retake Ramadi demolished large parts of the city.
Al-Osaj said seven neighborhoods are still off-limits to residents, not only
because of the presence of explosives, but because the areas are "totally
ruined."He said authorities have restored drinking water for almost 80 percent
of the city, refurbished ten schools and provided up to 600 caravans for those
who can't use their houses. He said around 12,000 families have returned since
late last month. Iraqi state TV aired a video showing the Head of Sunni
Religious Endowments, Sheik Abdul-Latif al-Himaim, leading a convoy of dozens of
cars into the city. In late February, the UN mission in Iraq said that bombs
were hindering the return of displaced families to Ramadi, killing some
residents who were surveying their homes or attempting to disable devices inside
the city. More than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes in
Iraq since January 2014, according to the United Nations. It estimates that an
additional 3 million people are living in areas controlled by ISIS, which still
holds much of northern and western Iraq, including the country's second-largest
city, Mosul.
Istanbul bus stop bomb blast
leaves three wounded
AFP, Istanbul Sunday, 10 April 2016/Three people were wounded on Saturday when a
percussion bomb exploded near a bus stop in Istanbul, the Dogan news agency
reported. The blast went off in the busy district of Mecidiyekoy in the European
side of the city. The three wounded were hospitalized but were only lightly
injured, the report said. Police threw a security cordon around the area and a
helicopter hovered above the scene, it said. There was no indication over who
could be behind the blast. The incident comes with Turkey's largest city on edge
after a spate of deadly attacks in the country this year blamed on Kurdish
militants. Earlier the US embassy had warned there was a credible threat of
attacks to tourist areas in Istanbul and the resort of Antalya. Suicide bombers
who the authorities have said were linked to ISIS militants have twice staged
deadly attacks in Istanbul this year targeting foreigners. There also a
stepped-up security presence in the city as it prepares to host Muslim leaders
from around the world for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit
next week. Percussion bombs make a loud noise, causing fear and panic but rarely
serious damage or injury.
Turkish airstrikes empty
dozens of villages in northern Iraq
AP | Merga (Iraq) Sunday,
10 April 2016/Dozens of villages have been abandoned and hundreds of families
displaced close to Iraq’s northern border with Turkey as a result of Turkish
airstrikes targeting militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known
as the PKK. Of the 76 villages of the Barwari sub-district of Dohuk governorate,
which lies along the Turkish border, between half and a third are empty, save
for a few people occasionally returning to check on their property or work on
their farms, according to Kurdish government officials. On a recent trip into
the mountains of northern Iraq, long a refuge for the PKK that has fought a
three-decade war against Turkey for Kurdish rights, Associated Press reporters
visited the village of Merga, only a few kilometers from the Turkish border. The
village, a small hamlet of perhaps a dozen houses surrounded by oak, apple and
almond trees and set in a green valley among the snow-peaked mountains of the
Zagros mountain range, had no inhabitants left except for four old men who said
they came there only occasionally to look after their gardens. “The aircraft
keep coming here continuously. They bomb the mountain, they bomb the edge of the
villages,” said Fawzi Ali, a local farmer, who had just driven up from Dohuk,
where he had moved with his family last year, to check on his property. “People
cannot live here.”He said none of the four villages nearby — Hassa, Yekmal,
Kharaba, and Shilaza — had any people in them. “There is nothing here. Nothing
except the mountains,” he said. Another man, Isho Iohanna, said of one airstrike
that, “We had never seen such missiles before. These missiles shook the houses
and the fruits were falling from the trees.”It is not clear exactly how many
villages have been affected. According to Ismail Mustafa Rashid, governor of the
Amedi district, which includes Barwari, 35 villages have been abandoned.
According to Aziz Mohammed Taher, head of the agricultural department in Barwari,
25 villages have been evacuated. They had no exact information on how many
people have left the area as most seem to have moved in with relatives or rented
houses in nearby villages and towns. Both officials estimated that hundreds of
families have been affected. The airstrikes, which target PKK bases in the area,
seem to have largely spared the villages themselves. No civilian casualties have
been reported since last August when eight people were killed in the village of
Zergele.
Ali said the guerrillas of the PKK were moving through the mountain valleys and
it was clear that it was them that the aircraft were targeting. “They are in the
area but nobody knows where they are exactly. They are in the mountains. They
are everywhere,” he said.
Going up to the village and back, a team of AP reporters passed by PKK patrols
three times, driving on the mountain roads in their trucks. In the village of
Asey, the last populated settlement on the road toward the border, Mayor Serbes
Hussein said people had started abandoning their villages in the summer of last
year when the airstrikes first began.He said the conflict was having a big
impact on the area. “It is an area very rich in agriculture, mostly famous for
its apples, and people were producing huge amounts to sell them in the fruit
market of Dohuk,” he said, adding that seasonal labor in his village was also
suffering from lack of work caused by the evacuations. According to Aziz
Mohammed Taher, an entire harvest of apples has been lost last year. Many of
Barwari’s villages, including Merga, are populated by Assyrian Christians. Since
the early 1980s, the war between the PKK and Turkey has killed up to 40,000
people. A two-year cease-fire was abandoned last summer, leading to fighting in
Turkey’s southeast and regular Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq. The PKK has
used the mountains of northern Iraq as a refuge since the late 1990s.
German spy chief warns ISIS
wants to attack
Reuters, Berlin Sunday, 10 April 2016/ISIS wants to carry out attacks in Germany
and the security situation is “very serious,” the head of the country’s domestic
intelligence agency (BfV) told a Sunday newspaper, adding that he knew of no
concrete plot to strike. The militant group released a video on Tuesday
suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West after the Brussels
bombings and Paris attacks, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets.
Hans-Georg Maassen told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag the group wanted to
carry out attacks against Germany and German interests, but added: “At the
moment we don’t have any knowledge of any concrete terrorist attack plans in
Germany.”He said ISIS propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to take the
initiative to stage attacks in Germany. Maassen said there were several cases
linking Germans returning from Syria to attack plans and warned that the danger
posed by extremists from Germany remained “virulent.”He said the country had
avoided a big attack so far thanks to the successful work of security
authorities and luck such as a bomb detonator not working properly on one or two
occasions.
Brussels militant cell wanted
new France attack
AFP, Brussels Sunday, 10 April 2016/A Brussels-based terror cell intended to
launch a fresh strike in France, but attacked in the Belgian capital instead
after being “surprised” by a quick-moving investigation, Belgian prosecutors
said Sunday. The cell, which was directly involved in the November attacks on
Paris which killed 130 people, had initially planned to stage a second deadly
strike in France, but they changed their plans as investigators closed in.
Instead, they staged coordinated attacks on Belgium’s airport and the metro
system, killing 32 last month. “Numerous elements in the investigation have
shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France
again,” a statement from the federal prosecutor’s office said. “Surprised by the
speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the
decision to strike in Brussels.” The prosecutor also said that Mohamed Abrini,
the so-called “man in a hat” seen in CCTV footage from Brussels airport, who
fled but was arrested on Friday, had been charged with “terrorist murders” over
the Belgian bloodshed. “The investigating judge specialized in terrorism cases
has put Mohamed Abrini in detention in connection with the investigation into
the Brussels and Zaventem (airport) attacks,” a statement said. “He is charged
with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and
attempts to commit terrorist murders.”
Swedish police hunt arsonist
suspected of torching school
AP | Stockholm Sunday, 10 April 2016/Swedish police say they are searching for a
suspected arsonist believed to have torched a Muslim school before making off in
a car that almost ran over a police officer. Malmo police spokesman Clas
Svensson says the fire late Saturday in the southwestern city was under control
and no one was hurt. Mia Sandgren, a regional police spokeswoman told the
Swedish news agency TT that a patrol car tried to stop the suspected getaway
vehicle but it failed to stop and officers fired at the vehicle. Police were
still searching for the suspected arsonist on Sunday. There have been several
attacks against schools and refugee centers in the Scandinavian country which
has one of the highest per capita migrant intakes in Europe.
Macedonian police use tear
gas on migrants
Reuters, Athens Sunday, 10 April 2016/Macedonian police used tear gas to push
back hundreds of migrants from a border fence on Sunday at a sprawling refugee
camp on the Greek side of the frontier, a Reuters witness said. Tear gas was
fired on a crowd of more than 500 people who had gathered at the fence at the
makeshift camp of Idomeni. A Greek police source said there was tension in the
area but declined to comment further. A Macedonian official who asked to remain
anonymous said that a large group of migrants left Idomeni camp in the morning
and stormed towards the fence. “They threw rocks at the Macedonian police. The
police fired tear gas in response,” the official said. A teargas canister thrown
by Macedonian police lands among protesting migrants during clashes next to a
border fence at a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the “The
migrants were pushing against the fence but standing on the Greek side of the
border. The fence is still there, they have not broken through.”More than 10,000
migrants and refugees have been living at the sprawling tent camp in Greece
since February, stranded there after a cascade of border shutdowns throughout
the Balkans. Migrants at Idomeni are demanding that the border with Macedonia be
opened, but no migrants have been allowed through for weeks. Greek authorities
have been trying to convince the population to move to reception camps, with
little success. More than a million people fleeing conflict poured into Europe
mainly through Greece in the past year. The European Union is implementing an
accord under which all new arrivals to Greece will be sent back to Turkey if
they don’t meet asylum criteria.
Swede arrested in Brussels
‘brainwashed’ by militants
The Associated Press, Sweden Sunday, 10 April 2016/Osama Krayem lived a
delinquent lifestyle in Rosengard, an immigrant neighborhood in the Swedish city
of Malmo, before he was “brainwashed” and joined militants in Syria, community
activists and his aunt say. The 23-year-old is now under arrest in Belgium where
prosecutors accuse him of involvement in the Brussels attacks. Krayem grew up in
Rosengard, a district notorious in Sweden for high crime and unemployment rates
where more than 80 percent of the residents are first- or second-generation
immigrants. Muhammad Khorshid, who runs a program in Rosengard to help
immigrants integrate into Swedish society, told The Associated Press that Krayem
comes from a Palestinian family. “He was well-known to the local police for
multiple criminal activities like thefts, for instance,” said the 46-year-old
Khorshid, who is from Iraq. He said Krayem “was the perfect target for
radicalization - no job, no future, no money.”Malmo police didn’t return calls
seeking comment. Sweden’s security service, SAPO, declined to comment, referring
to Belgian authorities. Krayem’s aunt, Akhlass Daabas, told Sweden’s TV4 that
the family was stunned by his turn toward extremism. “Suddenly he had
disappeared. Nobody in the family knew about it. Then he calls from abroad and
says ‘I am with them and I’m not coming back,’“ Daabas said. She said “many
other guys” from the area had become foreign fighters. Krayem posted photos on
social media from Syria, including one where he posed with an assault rifle in
front of the black flag of the Islamic State group. Magnus Ranstorp, a
counterterrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College, said Krayem
“had also tried to recruit people from Malmo.” In 2009, Ranstorp co-authored a
report warning of the spread of extremism in Rosengard. Belgian prosecutors say
Krayem was the second person present at the attack on the Maelbeek subway
station in Brussels. They also say he was at a shopping mall where the luggage
used in the airport attack was purchased. “He was brainwashed but we do not know
by whom, when or where,” said Nabil Chibib, a 46-year-old Palestinian from
Lebanon who has lived in Sweden since 1990 and said he knows Krayem’s father.
Chibib said Krayem’s father used to be a medical doctor and an imam in one of
the area’s many mosques - “not a radical one.” No one answered the door Saturday
at the family’s second-floor apartment. On the staircase a young man politely
told the AP to leave the premises. Chibib lamented that Rosengard, with its drab
apartment blocks, often gets negative headlines in Swedish and international
media. The area has long had problems with crime by Swedish standards, though
it’s better off than neglected and crime-ridden areas of major US cities. Its
most famous son is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden’s most successful soccer player.
“There are two ways to get out of here - football or radicalism,” Chibib said..
“Zlatan was a tough and rough kid, but he turned to football, he chose one path.
He will always be one of us. Krayem not.”
Libya govt meeting soon to
back power-sharing plan: speaker
AFP | Cairo Sunday, 10 April 2016/Libya’s internationally recognized parliament
will meet “in the coming weeks” to give its backing to a UN-backed unity
government aimed at ending chaos in the country, its speaker said Sunday.
An agreement for a power-sharing unity government was inked in December by
lawmakers from Libya’s rival parliaments but neither administration has so far
formally backed the UN-brokered accord. “The parliament will meet in the coming
weeks to consider an amendment to its constitutional declaration to give a vote
of confidence to the national unity government,” Aguila Saleh said during a
visit to Cairo. Libya has had two rival administrations since mid-2014 when a
militia alliance overran Tripoli, setting up its own authority and forcing the
internationally recognized parliament to flee to the country’s east. The head of
a UN-backed administration, prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, arrived
earlier this month in Tripoli after weeks of delay to begin garnering support
for his government. He struggled however to assert his authority as the
unofficial authority in control of Tripoli said it wouldn’t support Sarraj’s
government after initially indicating its backing. The unity government needs
the internationally recognized parliament’s approval before its mandate begins.
Libya’s warring rivals have come under intense international pressure to rally
behind the unity government at a time when the country is grappling with a
growing militant threat.
Pakistan kills 34 militants
AFP Sunday, 10 April 2016/Pakistani paramilitary forces killed at least 34
separatist militants after three days of gun battles in restive southwestern
Balochistan province, officials said Saturday. The clashes took place in Kalat
district after authorities were given an intelligence tip off about the presence
of militants in the area. “Security forces have killed 34 terrorists after three
days of fighting in the Johan area of Kalat,” Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz
Bugti told a press conference in Quetta, the provincial capital. One
paramilitary soldier “embraced martyrdom” during the fighting, the minister
said, adding that authorities seized weapons, ammunition, Pakistani currency,
gold bars and communication devices in the skirmish’s wake. Bugti said that a
leading militant commander Abdul Nabi Bungalzai, who was wanted for the 2011
murder of high court judge Mir Mohammad Nawaz Marri, was also among the dead.
The militants belonged to United Baloch Army rebel group, which has been tied to
incidents of ethnic violence, kidnappings for ransom and attacks on security
forces and government installations, Bugti said. Local security officials
confirmed the operation and casualties. In a separate incident, gunmen killed
six members of a family after they stormed into their house in Panjgoor district
on Saturday, local administration official Mujibur Qambrani told AFP. Qambrani
said that it was not immediately clear why the family was targeted and added
that an investigation had been launched. And in Quetta, a policeman was killed
on Saturday after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on his patrol vehicle,
Bugti told AFP. Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed and most
sparsely populated province, has been wrecked for decades by a separatist
insurgency that was revived in 2004. The separatists believe that locals do not
receive a fair share of the province’s energy and mineral wealth, while rights
groups accuse the government of extra judicial detentions and the killing of
activists. The province is also blighted by religious extremists, banditry and
sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Strong earthquake shakes
buildings across South Asia
Reuters | Kabul Sunday, 10 April 2016/An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6
struck South Asia on Sunday, shaking buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and
India, witnesses and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and injuring
several people in at least one Pakistani city. The USGS said the quake was
centred about 40 km (25 miles) west of Ashkasham in remote northeastern
Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan and just across a narrow finger
of land from Pakistan’s northwestern Chitral province. It was measured at a
depth of 210 km (130 miles). Residents left their homes in Kabul and Islamabad
when the quake struck, with buildings swaying for more than a minute in both
capitals. Similar reports were received from across northern and central
Pakistan. In Pakistan’s northwestern frontier city of Peshawar, Khalid Khan,
emergency director at the city’s main Lady Reading Hospital, said three people
were treated for “multiple injuries”. Media pictures showed two children who
appeared to have been injured in the quake. People in Lahore in Pakistan’s east,
630 km (390 miles) from the epicentre, also reported they had felt the tremors.
A Reuters witness in Chitral said the tremor was strong but there was no major
damage visible. A 7.5-magnitude quake struck the area on Oct. 26 last year,
killing more than 300 people and destroying thousands of homes. In Kabul, Omar
Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management
Authority, said officials were collecting information but no reports of
casualties or damage had been received so far.
Nations seek rapid
ratification of Paris climate deal, 4-year lock
Reuters | Oslo Sunday, 10 April 2016/Many nations are pushing for swift
ratification of a Paris agreement to slow climate change and lock it in place
for four years before a change in the White House next year that might bring a
weakening of Washington’s long-term commitment. More than 130 nations with 60
leaders including French President Francois Hollande are due to sign December’s
pact at a U.N. ceremony in New York on April 22, the most ever for a U.N.
agreement on an opening day, the United Nations said. Both China and the United
States, the world’s top emitters accounting together for 38 percent of
emissions, have promised to sign then. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is
expected to attend. But signing is only a step in a tortuous U.N. process for
the deal to enter into force, which requires formal approval by at least 55
nations representing 55 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. In many
countries, that needs a parliamentary vote. Some experts predict the 55 percent
thresholds can be reached this year, before President Barack Obama leaves office
in January 2017. But many developing nations want the Paris agreement to move
forward as rapidly as possible on ratification, partly to lock in the United
States if Republican candidates Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, who do not think that
climate change is man-made, win the U.S. presidency. Once the Paris accord
enters into force, a little-noted Article 28 says any nation wanting to withdraw
will first have to wait four years - the length of a U.S. presidential term. “I
would expect non-compliance, but not necessarily a formal withdrawal,” under a
Republican president, said Oliver Geden, of the German Institute for
International and Security Affairs.
Cameron releases tax records
after ‘Panama Papers’ storm
Paul Sandle, Reuters London Sunday, 10 April 2016/British Prime Minister David
Cameron published his tax records on Sunday in an attempt to draw a line under
questions about his personal finances raised by the mention of his late father
in the Panama Papers for setting up an offshore fund. The revelations have led
to demands for Cameron's resignation and handed ammunition to opposition
lawmakers who questioned why he was reluctant to detail his financial
connections with his father. Cameron took the unorthodox step of releasing the
normally confidential details after saying he should have handled the scrutiny
of his family's tax affairs better. The documents from RNS Chartered Accountants
- which cover six years - show Cameron paid tax of 75,898 pounds ($107,198) on
income of 200,307 pounds in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one
included. His income comprised his 140,522 pound salary, taxable expenses of
9,834 pounds, 46,899 pounds from half of the share of rent from his family home
in London and 3,052 pounds in interest on savings, according to the record.
Scores of politicians and business figures have been implicated in the Panama
Papers, including the prime minister of Iceland who has since stepped down. The
11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca
detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens. While
Cameron is not accused of doing anything illegal, he made four different
statements over four days about his late father's inclusion in the documents. He
said on Thursday he once had a stake in his father's offshore trust and had
profited from it. He said the unit investment trust was not set up to avoid tax
but to invest in dollar-denominated shares and that he had paid all taxes due on
his own investment, which was worth "something like 30,000 pounds" when he sold
out in January 2010, before he became prime minister.
Tax taskforce
Cameron's admission of fault comes after a torrid period for his Conservative
government. It is divided over a June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the
European Union, has been forced to backtrack on welfare cuts and has been
accused of not protecting Britain's steel industry. Seeking to further take back
the initiative, Cameron also announced on Sunday a new taskforce, jointly led by
Britain's tax authority and National Crime Agency, to build on the work Britain
has done to tackle money laundering and tax evasion. When Britain hosted a G8
summit in 2013, Cameron put tackling tax avoidance at the heart of the agenda.
Some of Britain's former colonies increasingly rely on revenues from shell
companies and trusts that often hide wealth. "The UK has been at the forefront
of international action to tackle the global scourge of aggressive tax avoidance
and evasion, and international corruption more broadly," Cameron said in a
statement. "There is clearly further to go and this taskforce will bring the
best of British expertise to deal with any wrongdoing relating to the Panama
Papers."The government said it had tracked down 2 billion pounds ($2.82 billion)
from offshore tax dodgers since 2010, and authorities were already investigating
700 current leads with links to Panama. The taskforce will receive 10 million
pounds of funding to start work, the government said.
Italian envoy quits Egypt
over student murder probe
AFP | Cairo Sunday, 10 April 2016/Italy’s ambassador to Egypt left Cairo on
Sunday after Rome recalled him over a lack of progress in the probe into the
murder of an Italian student, an airport official and a diplomatic source said.
Italy, a key ally of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime, recalled
Maurizio Massari after last week’s inconclusive meetings between Italian
investigators and an Egyptian team that visited Rome to present their findings
into Giulio Regeni’s murder. Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University PhD
student, had been researching labour unions when he disappeared on January 25
from central Cairo. His badly mutilated body was found more than a week later by
the side of a road on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital. During the meetings
in Rome, Italy had demanded thousands of phone records to investigate the
murder, which Egypt’s assistant state prosecutor Mostafa Suleiman said was a
demand that “violates the Egyptian constitution”.Suleiman, who headed the
Egyptian team that visited Rome, said the Italian investigators “conditioned
further judicial cooperation on this demand” which his team flatly refused.
Suleiman said the Italian investigators also demanded CCTV footage of the area
from where Regeni had disappeared. He said the footage had been automatically
deleted by then. On Sunday, Massari left for Rome after Italy recalled him for
consultations, an Italian diplomatic source told AFP. An airport official also
confirmed he had departed Cairo. Italian officials have greeted Egypt’s
explanations concerning Regeni’s murder with outright scepticism. They suspect
he was killed by elements in the Egyptian security services, an accusation which
Cairo has steadfastly denied. Regeni’s murder has troubled Cairo-Rome diplomatic
ties given that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shares a close relationship with
Sisi, helping in turn to generate hugely valuable business contracts for Italian
companies in Egypt. In terms of action, Italy’s options are limited. Moves under
consideration include a warning to its citizens against travel to Egypt, but the
Regeni case has already caused a slump in visitor numbers from Italy. Rome is
also considering asking for support from its European Union partners to try to
put pressure on the Egyptian government over the case. Media coverage of the
Regeni case has served as a focus for other disappearances and rights abuses in
Egypt. Since ousting his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Sisi has
overseen a blistering crackdown targeting all forms of dissent. Hundreds of
Morsi supporters have been killed, tens of thousands jailed and hundreds more
including Morsi sentenced to death or lengthy jail terms.
23 killed as Philippine
troops clash with Abu Sayyaf militants
Reuters, Manila Sunday, 10 April 2016/Philippine soldiers battled a group of
about 120 rebels linked to ISIS in a ten-hour assault on a southern island that
killed 23 people, an army spokesman said on Sunday. Major Filemon Tan said the
military attacked a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Basilan led
by Isnilon Hapilon, an insurgent for whom the U.S. State Department has offered
a bounty of up to $5 million. "I can confirm 18 soldiers were killed and 53 were
wounded," Tan said, adding that five militants, including a Moroccan, Mohammad
Khattab, and Ubaida, a son of Hapilon, were killed in Saturday's incident, which
wounded 20 rebels. There was no immediate statement from the small but violent
Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and
bombings, and is one of the brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the
largely Christian Philippines. The group has posted videos on social media sites
pledging allegiance to ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, which have attracted
foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the
troubled Philippine south. The army has stepped up its offensive against the
rebels since November, Tan said, when President Benigno Aquino ordered it to
hunt down Abu Sayyaf over the kidnapping and execution of foreign nationals. On
the nearby island of Jolo, the rebels on Friday released an Italian man from six
months of captivity. Troops were also on alert as another Abu Sayyaf faction
threatened to execute two Canadians and a Norwegian tourists after a ransom
deadline expired. In March 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the
largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, promising to
grant autonomy in the south and ending a 45-year conflict that killed 120,000
people and displaced 2 million.
The reliable Ali al-Amine
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
Let us spare a thought for this piece of information and the story that goes
with it. Tens of thousands have been killed, wounded or disabled due to the
Hezbollah intervention in Syria, Lebanese liberal writer Ali al-Amine said.
Al-Amine is the torchbearer of the Al-Amine family, one of the most prominent
Shiite families in Lebanon. In his article, published in Al-Arab newspaper,
Al-Amine establishes the link between the large number of victims and the defeat
of Hezbollah, advisors of the Iranian regime, and of course militants belonging
to the Syrian regime in south Aleppo. Al-Assad followers lost control over
Aleppo and a large number of fighters. The province is now under the control of
the al-Nusra front. The author of this article believes that Russia did not
provide the necessary air support in the last battle for Aleppo and that the
Syrian regime did not fully abide by Moscow’s political plan for Syria. In his
latest remarks, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohammed Ali
al-Jafari, promised to escalate the situation, since the events in Yemen turned
out to be in favour of the Arab coalition and in compliance with the UN
resolution. The priority for people in Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen is to defend their
nation while others want to engage in sectarianism. While addressing the leaders
of the Revolutionary Guards, al-Jafari threatened the Arab coalition, took on
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and praised Hezbollah, describing it as “the best
phenomenon in the Middle East”. Let the General dream the way he wants to, what
al-Amine said in the article is more significant.
Sectarian groups
“The sectarian ideological groups, which constitute the arms of Iran in the Arab
region, are realizing today that they are leading the Iranian battle in the
region, with sectarian mobilization. There is nothing more powerful and
influential in this on-going war than the ideological mobilization. Resisting or
fighting American slogans are just an attempt to cover up the moral scandals
that justify the crimes committed by the Assad regime,” he wrote. The priority
for people in Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen is to defend their nation while others want
to engage in sectarianism by supporting Soleimani, al-Jafari, Nasrallah,
al-Baghdadi, al-Joulani, and their followers. This is what this is all about.
Dialogue paving the way for
conflict resolution in Yemen
Hassan Al Mustafa/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
The crisis in Yemen cannot be settled without genuine dialogue between the
warring parties. If the conflict persists, it will only lead to further
destruction and thousands of deaths. It will widen the social and sectarian
divide, giving al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist groups the opportunity to
expand, control, and attract new followers. In his interview with Bloomberg,
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman talked of “a huge negotiation
process and good communication channels,” adding: “We believe we’re closer than
ever to a political solution in Yemen.”If such a solution is reached, a
transitional process will then begin to preserve what remains of the state and
get Yemenis back to normal life.
State
The interview might disappoint those who see regional instability as their only
chance to undermine the structure and concept of the state.
Yemenis should seek to be governed by a legitimate civil state, and implement
the political process in accordance with its rules and the constitution. There
should not be any entity outside this state, threatening it or having greater
powers.
In the words of Italian sociologist Antonini, “the charm of violence and
aggression controls many of the cultures and people. “This charm is a source of
conflicting and violent emotions.”In his book dealing with the subject of human
violence and collective aggressiveness, Antonini indicates that the real problem
is never stopping wars but rather pushing people towards not wanting to wage
wars. Hence, getting rid of weapons is not the only important issue. Knowing
what will happen with the accumulated aggressiveness, when it will no longer be
used for wars is as important.
The race to Syria's Raqqa
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
Both, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have lost more than one opportunity in Syria. They
wouldn’t have been paying a heavy price hadn’t it been for intervening so late.
This time, they must not spare any opportunity to seize al-Raqqa in its struggle
against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Meanwhile, Iran must be discussing two main possibilities with its Russian
allies, the Iraqi militias and the Syrian regime. The first would be controlling
and liberating al-Raqqa and making the headlines as happened with the recapture
of Palmyra; the second is letting ISIS presence in the region justify the
intervention of Russia, the Iranian Special Forces and the religious militias.
This will perpetuate the international community’s fear of ISIS threat and
speculation over who is to be the main priority, ISIS or the Syrian president.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies should first move towards al-Raqqa before
ISIS. Instead of making excuses, they must commit to eliminating the terrorist
group that threatens security and makes them the victim of a major conspiracy.
They must eliminate members of the ISIS who pretend to be torchbearers of Islam
while all they do is killing their brethren in Dawadmi, Ankara and Istanbul.
But, according to me, the problem for Saudi Arabia and Turkey is the ambiguity
of the United States. Human Rights violations and war crimes no longer prompt
the American president to intervene or at least make others intervene under the
UN umbrella. The US is occupied with the Iranian nuclear deal that could return
Iran to the international community fold. United States would probably declare
that the world has become safer thanks to this deal; that Iran will no longer
interfere in others’ internal affairs, perpetrate killings or spread violence in
the name of the awaited Mahdi. The US would rather present to us the new Iran as
the peaceful and moderate state. Fighting in Daraa has proved that ISIS, the
group that kills innocents in Dawadmi, Istanbul and Brussels, might be strong
but not invincible. Why would Saudi Arabia wait for the US decision to meddle in
Syria while it didn’t in Yemen? Syrians made a mistake when they were indecisive
about whom to overthrow first, ISIS or the regime. They decided not to fight
ISIS until they fight the regime. Even the author of this article made the same
mistake. I justified the revolutionaries’ refusal to fight ISIS before getting
the US support against the regime. We didn’t realize that the US has been
dragged into Syria to make it fight the regime under the pretext of fighting
ISIS. Saudis realized this when the US approved the dispatch of Saudi ground
forces to Syria to fight the regime but didn’t receive its support. All the US
did was to halt its fight and Russians and Saudi Arabia hailed the decision.
The situation in Syria, especially between the revolutionaries and the regime,
has stabilized. The latter, gained ground in Palmyra and took the city back,
suspiciously, from ISIS control. They’re still discussing whether they should
control al-Raqqa.
Political vs military
Here, the decision must be political and not military. Revolutionaries including
al-Nusra Front are launching military operations against ISIS in Daraa. They are
said to be supported by special Jordanian forces and Oman. Fighting in Daraa has
proved that ISIS, the group that kills innocents in Dawadmi, Istanbul and
Brussels, might be strong but not invincible. Daraa operations might lead to the
liberation of more territories in the south of al-Raqqa alongside Jordanian
borders with Iraq. But the main operation must be launched from the North. This
is where political momentum becomes significant. In fact, the Syrian opposition
refused to cooperate with the Americans in fighting ISIS; they cooperated with
the Kurdish groups which support the regime in Damascus and with the Kurdistan
Worker’s Party (PKK), which Ankara labels as terrorist group. The PKK recently
launched suicide attacks inside Turkey. They have been provided arms by the US
to fight ISIS. The US urged Arab tribes to ally with the PKK with the support of
regional states close to Riyadh. They created the democratic Syrian forces that
are also fighting the national Syrian forces’ allies of Riyadh, Ankara and Doha.
But what is the real intention of Washington? Why would the situation be even
more complicated if we knew that Pentagon is supporting parties to the conflict
in Syria other than the ones we know? Why would we see the situation as more
complicated if we look at the 50 plans to overthrow Bashar al-Assad that
President Obama has rejected?
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are unable to understand what’s really happening between
Washington, Moscow and Cairo including al-Hasakah and al-Qamishli. After all,
they should only care about their security and prevent any plan aimed at
dismantling Syria because this does not serve their interests or the interests
of the Syrian population. However, they will not be able to reap benefits for
the time being especially in the light of the ceasefire and Geneva negotiations
unless they gain the support of the Syrian national opposition. The latter will
eliminate ISIS from Syrian territories and will provide political support for
the opposition in the negotiations. Most importantly, it will allow them to
undermine the Kurds’ objectives. They will also not be able to realize their
interests if the head of the regime’s delegation Bachar el-Jafari insists on
making the Geneva negotiations as historic rather than focusing on overthrowing
the Syrian president.
A bridge made of love not of
stone!
Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
As soon as Saudi Arabia and Egypt announced that a bridge linking the two
countries will be built, everyone recalled the history of the relations between
the two societies. Egypt, whose people learn music, cinema, journalism,
philosophy and education, cannot but be in the heart of all Arabs and not just
the Saudis.
The bridge will be a commercial, social and cultural passage between two
continents for the first time in our history. This link between the two
continents and the two countries has economic, political, social and strategic
dimensions. The bridge of King Salman is a combination of the bridges of harmony
and historical synergy. Such economic deals strengthen ties, enhance relations,
produce goods and exports and pave the way for large-scale projects and
investments. This link between the two continents and the two countries has
economic, political, social and strategic dimensions. Since its establishment,
Saudi Arabia has believed that mere statements and eloquent speeches do not
yield results and that working on the economic level and serving the people’s
interests are more important. They enrich strategies, improve plans and ideas
and solidify alliances.
Building bridges
This is what Saudi Arabia is doing. It is building bridges and does not believe
in destroying them. It brings into its fold societies and is keen to develop
their economies and improve living conditions. The message the recent agreements
between Egypt and Saudi Arabia have major significance for other countries who
have spoiled relations due to old slogans, which have no value worth mentioning.
In 1986, when the bridge between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia was built, Saudi poet
Ghazi al-Gosaibi said: “It’s a path made of love not of stone.”
Mideast start-ups booming,
but for how long?
Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/April 10/16
The Middle East is beginning to see a boom in start-ups. This week, e-commerce
website Wadi.com secured $67 million in series-A funding for expansion in the
region. This follows news in February of Souq.com securing AED 1 billion ($264
million). The start-ups that are securing the largest amounts of funding in the
region seem to be the ones that cater to a society driven by consumerism. Both
these e-commerce websites offer products at a lower price than a regular
in-store retailer. Although each website has something that sets it apart -
Souq.com has a long and well-established history, while Wadi.com has a
reputation for excellent customer service - it seems entrepreneurs are
pinpointing what consumers want most: high-quality products at a discounted
price.It will not be long before even the e-commerce market is saturated. What
will happen then is a revival of the technology industry in the region.
Investor traditions
Traditionally, investors have focused on tangible investments such as property.
However, after the property boom of the 2000s, realtors began to feel the pinch
and agents began to shut down. The online industry is fast-paced and adaptable
to changes in demand, allowing for greater flexibility and arguably greater
sustainable growth. The Middle East technology industry is finally catching up
with its Western counterparts, with the number of funding sources increasing 140
percent from just 20 in 2008 to 50 in 2013, according to Wamda Research.
E-commerce and online services account for 28 percent of total funding,
according to Wamda. The Middle East technology industry is finally catching up
with its Western counterparts, with the number of funding sources increasing 140
percent from 2008 to 2013
E-commerce is not the only sector of start-ups that is growing. At greater
accessibility and everyday usage, mobile and telecom start-ups have seen
4-percent growth in the number of investors. This is substantial given how
quickly the region is gaining access to the internet. In Saudi Arabia alone,
internet penetration grew by 22 percent to reach 82 percent between 2012 and
2013, according to market research company IPSOS. The technology industry also
provides opportunities for the unemployed. According to the regional general
manager for Uber, 40 percent of its drivers in Egypt were unemployed before the
app came along.
Challenges
However, there are many region-specific obstacles to the growth in the tech
industry, such as funding, government regulations and a volatile market.
Funding for tech companies mainly comes from Gulf-based firms and investors such
as Sawari Ventures, twofour54, and the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. Yet the
Gulf’s kafala sponsorship system requires that a company sponsor the residency
of expatriates who wish to live in the Gulf. The alternative is to find a local
business partner. Market volatility is not related to demand, but to how
regional governments react to growth in technology, specifically mobile apps. In
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, apps such as Skype, Viber and
Facetime are blocked because they are unlicensed by the Telecommunications and
Regulations Authority (TRA). Worldwide, growing tech companies do not
necessarily have actual products, but connect consumers with providers.
Alibaba.com sells everything from baby formula to steel, but has no warehouses.
Uber does not directly employ drivers or hold them to strict schedules.
Food-ordering website Talabat.com does not make any food - it simply connects
users with restaurants. What kind of licenses are these companies expected to
obtain in order to operate, and can regional governments shut them down on a
whim? The answer depends on what these tech companies can do for the country,
not what the country can do for them. If they prove that they can provide
sustainable long-term employment and convenient services for citizens,
governments are more likely to allow them to operate freely. One of the greatest
challenges entrepreneurs face is that funders do not provide enough support
beyond cash. It is not all about the money when it comes to maintaining the tech
boom in the region. Donating office space, providing mentorship, and offering
meaningful coaching and help that goes with funding is key to maintain this
boom, and to maintain the success of the companies.
Iran’s IRGC Doctrine
Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
The most elaborate expose of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
strategy came in Tuesday April 5 in the annual meeting of the IRGC Commanders
Supreme Council in Tehran through a long speech given by General Mohamed Ali
Jafari the IRGC Commander. Here the main points of General Jafari’s speech as
published in the Iranian media:
* The nuclear deal:
Jafari said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is by no means an
honorable document for the Iranian people. “Although the nuclear resistance of
the Iranian nation, which forced our enemies to change strategy, was an honor,
this resistance is different from its outcome, part of which was the JCPOA”, the
commander noted (That implies of course that Jafari does not consider, to say
the least, the JCPOA to be an honorable conclusion of what he believes to be an
honorable resistance).
Jafari called for alertness against any infiltration by the sixth column of “the
enemies and their mercenaries”. He asked rhetorically whether JCPOA would
provide a solution for the country’s problems. “To see JCPOA a panacea and a
successful solution would be naïve and imprudent; those advertising now
different versions of JCPOA, primarily at home, inadvertently deviated from the
true path of the revolution and tilted towards the anti-Revolutionary front”, he
emphasized. “The JCPOA provides only the least part of the nation’s rights and
should not and won’t be lionized as a golden chapter and a cause for
exhilaration”, Jafari added.
* The ballistic missiles:
Jafari blasted US officials for their “interfering remarks against Iran’s
missile program”, and stressed that Tehran will continue its past policies
irrespective of Washington’s “excessive demands”. “For years now we have been
increasing our power with the assumption of a massive war against the US and its
allies in our minds. We have expanded all our capacities and capabilities to
attain firm victory against such enemies”, Jafari said. He underscored Iran’s
firm decision to continue the path of developing Iran’s missiles capacity. “Our
missiles, which have become more precise and destructive, will multiply more
than ever”, he added.
“Launching ballistic missiles from different locations is a crushing response to
the allegations of the enemies. This has shown parts of the capabilities of IRGC
missiles and the fact that they are stationed nationwide”, said the commander.
“The war game will teach the enemies that Iran’s defensive might and the
country’s security is regarded as our red line and under no circumstances will
be negotiable. Thanks God, the economic sanctions did not leave any impacts on
the Iranian missiles as we are totally independent”, he said.
* The regional strategy:
Jafari blasted also neighboring Arab states for what he called their “stupid
behavior in opting to align with the United States against Iran”.
“Regimes like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and their peers are symbols of modern
political underdevelopment, and the IRGC has made preparations for response to
their rudeness and stupid behavior, which stems from their reliance on the U.S.
power. We are ready to teach them a lesson but waiting for orders from our
leader” he stated.
Jafari expressed confidence that Arabs would defy their governments to “seek
revenge” against them for their offenses against Houthis in Yemen.
“Arab states of the Persian Gulf are vassal states of the US and the west and
they are examples of the most reactionary regimes ever to rule any territory;
their brazenness are fed by their reliance on the US”, Jafari emphasized.
“On Syria, we will continue our support for the Syrian government and its
territorial integrity and national sovereignty; disintegration, we believe, is a
US-UK-Zionist plot against which we will fight and resist; similarly, in
Palestine and Yemen, we will continue support for the resistance to hold their
positions”, he added.
“Protecting the regime and the revolution inside Iran is directly dependent on
the regional circumstances which our men have been working hard to develop and
get it to be riper. The third phase of our great revolution is progressing. And
our forces are accomplishing this mission without fear or reservations. The
theory of our great revolution has turned into a powerful and great force which
is spreading beyond our borders to become effective regionally”, he said.
However, Jafari did not explain what he meant by “the third phase of the
revolution”. From the context, it appears to be a more active plan to export the
Iranian revolution to other Middle Eastern countries.
* The internal political power in Iran:
Jafari expressed in clear terms the opposition of the IRGC to Rouhani and the
reformers in general. “We should not neglect the fact that the US infiltration
in other countries takes always the form of westernized opposition and that the
US is doing that in our case as well”, he said.
Jafari tried hard to find a proper justification for the IRGC political and
economic role within the regime. “Our regime is based on institutions and laws
and has a Judiciary, an elected Parliament, a government and other institutions.
But all this is not enough to guarantee success. We need in the heart of our
legal system a true internal structure which profoundly represents the
principles and values of our revolution” Jafari added.
“IRGC commanders do not feel depressed or pessimist when they hear or see some
characters claiming to be related to the revolution but attacking it.
Unfortunately, in the course of our revolution, there are prominent figures who
have deviated and parted away from the revolutionary line. This happened either
because of misunderstandings, misconceptions or due to their weak confidence in
the force of the revolution. They have been influenced by foreigners and used
their positions to raise doubts about the future”. (Mostly, he had Rafsanjani in
mind).
He, furthermore, addressed Rouhani by saying that his plans “wouldn’t work”.
“Projects and theories that go contrary to the course of the Iranian revolution
will collapse even if the government and the Parliament are established on their
illusions. The Iranian people will reject them out of Iranian political map”.
“Those who consider the nuclear agreement a model to solve domestic and economic
crisis are very wrong. They do not have a proper reading of this deal and its
dangerous dimensions because they are shortsighted. Unfortunately, those who
defend the agreement want to humiliate the Iranian people through promoting this
agreement”.
This is the IRGC doctrine.
Many of those who follow Iran closely may find that Jafari’s concept about the
role of the IRGC within the political system in Iran the most significant in the
speech. The General was struggling to position the IRGC, as convincingly as
possible, within the political structure of Iran. But he could not find any
argument other than the usual revolutionary fever. It is not clear if the
General was responding to others who may have the role of the IRGC contested on
constitutional and legal bases. These issues are debated behind closed doors in
Tehran.
Another point that sounds particularly important is the clear defiant challenge
of Jafari to the reformers expressed publicly and bluntly. Jafari is raising the
prospects of another crackdown on reformers before next year presidential
elections in a replay of what was done to former President Khatami and his
liberal supporters in the media and the universities (the “westernized”
opposition” as he coined it).
Then, there are Jafari’s abundant open threats to the Arabs, who are blasted for
following the US, at the same moment when they are targeted by President Obama
as well in his “doctrine”. Obviously, Jafari squeezes the Arabs from one side
while the US blames them from the other. They are blamed by the IRGC commander
for being US allies and blamed by the US for refusing to give up to Jafari’s
threats of “the third phase” of the revolution or accept Obama’s call on them to
share the region with Jafari and his men. But nothing coming from Washington or
the Middle East should surprise us anymore.
The Erdogan Visit to
Washington: Tough Love
Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan spent three days in Washington from March
30-April 1, attending the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by President
Barack Obama. The visit offered the Turkish leader an opportunity to meet, on
the sidelines, with senior Obama Administration officials, at a moment when
US-Turkish relations are not exactly in fine shape.
The biggest issue in dispute between Ankara and Washington is the status of
Syrian Kurds from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s
Protection Units (YPG). The Pentagon has allied with the YPG in the fight
against the Islamic State (ISIL) in northern Syria, providing weapons, air
support and even embedding US Special Forces in the YPG fighting units. In the
battle for Kobani last year, US combat advisers, US air support and weapons all
played a valuable role in the hard-fought battle that was an early turning point
in the fight to contain ISIL’s expansion.
For President Erdogan and the Turkish government, the PYD and YPG are synonymous
with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which both Turkey and the United States
list as a terrorist organization. After several years of truce talks between the
Erdogan government and the PKK, those talks collapsed and active fighting
resumed. The Obama Administration has made clear that they reject the Turkish
linking of the YPG with the PKK.
The issue is not academic. For months, as part of the growing warfare with the
PKK, the Turkish military has been bombing Kurdish enclaves on both sides of the
Turkey-Syria border, making clear that when they link the YPG with the PKK, they
mean it. The Pentagon has been fearful that sooner or later, a US soldier will
be killed by Turkish artillery fire, directed against YPG fighters.
The Obama Administration has also been alarmed at the Erdogan government’s
crackdown on opposition media. Two leading figures from a prominent newspaper,
editor Can Dundar and Istanbul bureau chief Erdem Gul, are both facing life
sentences on charges of support for terrorism. In January, during a visit to
Turkey, Vice President Joe Biden met with Dundar’s family, in a high-visibility
show of distaste for what the Obama Administration saw as the Erdogan
government’s crackdown on the media. A month later, Brett McGurk, President
Obama’s special envoy for the Iraq and Syria fight against the Islamic State,
visited with PYD officials, including one former PKK member, in Kobani, Syria.
The US-Turkey relationship, however, is deep and vital to all regional matters.
Both countries are NATO members, and Turkey holds down NATO’s vital eastern
flank into the Persian Gulf and Asia. The US and Turkey have in-depth channels
of official communication, so all of the disputed issues between Washington and
Ankara had been thoroughly discussed, albeit not solved, prior to Erdogan’s
arrival in Washington.
Washington understands that Erdogan as a vital player in the effort to end the
Syria war and to even maintain the cease-fire. Erdogan’s actions have been seen
as “obstructive,” but the Administration knows it must engage in a give-and-take
with the Turkish leader. Furthermore, the Obama Administration believes that
President Erdogan’s position has eroded in the past year, as he has flip-flopped
in his positions towards Arab regional allies, the United States, Russia and
Iran. Washington believes that Erdogan is no longer decisive. That may prove to
be an arrogant mis-evaluation.
Furthermore, the Pentagon is aware that Turkey is facing simultaneous attacks
from two powerful insurgent forces: The Islamic State and the PKK. In recent
months, there have been major suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks in
Istanbul, Ankara and in the Kurdish region of southeast Turkey. And it is not in
US interest for Turkey to become another major point of instability in the
region.
It was against this backdrop that the Erdogan visit to Washington occurred.
After months of behind the scenes negotiations, the Obama Administration
rejected President Erdogan’s request for a formal one-on-one meeting with
President Obama (they did, however, meet informally in the course of the Nuclear
Security Summit sessions). On Wednesday, President Erdogan and Turkish Foreign
Minister Melvut Cavusoglu met for 45 minutes with Secretary of State John Kerry
at the State Department.
The next morning, before the start of the summit, Vice President Biden,
accompanied by Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Assistant Secretary of
State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, and Special Envoy
McGurk met with President Erdogan, with Turkish Intelligence MIT head Hakan
Fidan and other Turkish officials at the St. Regis Hotel. The meeting lasted for
one hour and was followed by a one-on-one talk for an added 30 minutes between
Erdogan and Biden.
At the end of the session, Vice President Biden reiterated that the US and
Turkey share a common enemy in the PKK, and furthermore, that the US and Turkey
agree that there can be no break-up of Syria, meaning no separate Kurdish state
in what is now Syria’s northeast. Biden, however, did raise the issues of press
freedom and human rights in their one-on-one talk.
Before his departure, President Erdogan hosted a private, closed-door,
off-the-record dinner with a group of longtime American friends of Turkey,
including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Francis
Ricciardone, James Jones, James Jeffrey, Zalmay Khalilzad and Wendy Sherman.
Coming out of the meeting, Ricciardone made clear that the US-Turkish
relationship is so key to regional security that bumps along the road will never
lead to a breach. He added that all of the candidates for president in the 2016
elections will maintain the special US-Turkish collaboration.
Before leaving town, President Erdogan delivered a list of 2,400 Arab and
Turkmen fighters who are part of the moderate opposition to the Assad government
in Syria. He released the list to Administration officials to underscore his
argument that there is no need for the US to work with the YPG in the fight
against ISIL.
President Obama told reporters, after his talk with President Erdogan, that he
had warned the Turkish leader that the crackdown on the media was moving the
country “down a troubling path.” As he was departing, President Erdogan accused
the US President of talking “behind his back,” asserting that President Obama
never raised the issue with him in their talk.
Nothing dramatic moved forward or backward on the US-Turkey front during the
visit, but positions were put clearly on the table.
Washington Pays for Earlier
Mistakes in Syria: The Bubbles of US-Russia Deal Surface
Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
We tried, in several previous occasions, to explain our skepticism on Syria’s
ceasefire. We were told then that the ceasefire would hold nicely, and were told
later that it is already holding nicely. In other words, we were told that we
were wrong, and things are not as bad as we thought they would be.
Few would be happier than us if we were wrong on that account. But those who
rush to evaluate the chances not only of the ceasefire, but also of its general
frame which is the Obama-Putin deal on Syria, should examine developments on the
ground, including the recent chain of assassinations of opposition figures, on
bases of their future significance. Based on that, we are still unfortunately
not confident that the current course would hold steady until it reaches its
objectives. Here, we will try to explain, as clearly as we can, why we do not
believe that things are going on the right direction.
The initial plan was to either get as much as possible of the armed Syrian
groups to fight ISIL or sit on the side lines while others (US, Russia, Iran,
Hezbollah, etc.) fight it. To get the armed groups to remain neutral was
impossible without a “promise” of a political solution, ceasefire and some noise
on the diplomatic track. Regional allies were lined to pressure the opposition
to step out of the way “until ISIL is defeated” (the ceasefire).
We previously wrote that this concept is erroneous and may be doomed to failure.
It is true that it might have been the only possible route, under the
circumstances, which promises quick results, but that does not necessarily make
it successful. We elaborated in previous occasions the reasons why we believe it
wouldn’t work. Here we summarize these reasons in few condensed points:
* ISIL, according to this over-simplified concept, is reduced to a particular
group of people. It was not looked at as an idea that took hold of an increasing
number of Syrians due to the pressures of the crisis. But since the terrorist
group flourished due to this crisis, it should be predictable that its current
physical existence will never end through only military means, but will require
a solution to the crisis.
What makes this argument compelling is that we already have many groups which
exist in the gray ideological zone between ISIL and the “nationalist” line of
thinking of some opposition groups. Those “gray” organizations are ideologically
“half ISIL” so to speak. They present a readily available component to carry the
ISIL line, if the organization is eradicated, in a form or another. In
actuality, another ISIL would re-emerge if the “persons” of the currently
existing ISIL leadership are killed. The members of ISIL will join other gray
groups and shift them to a more radical position-that is to say to the black
zone. While those groups do not at the present moment threaten the external
world, their theological outlook is by its nature developable to reach this
stage of aggressing foreign countries in the future.
Unless sidelining the opposition leads to a political solution, the crisis, and
the presence of an ISIL-like groupings would continue. The political solution
should not be equated to defeating this ISIL. If it is, a replay of the tragedy
is waiting for us.
* Any promises or commitments from regional parties or local Syrian groups
should not be considered a guarantee to prevent the re-emergence of ISIL-like
groups from happening. Objective trends impose themselves at the end of the day
anyway. As foreign powers would be involved in the overall situation in the
Middle East in a way or another, the shift inside those groups to being a threat
to other foreign countries would be triggered anyway.
* By “neutralizing” the opposition while focusing on the fight with ISIL, the
question of who will fill the vacuum in every area that ISIL loses must have
been raised in relevant capitals as in their bilateral talks. From what happens
on the ground, it is evident that Assad forces are filling this vacuum. But this
very fact should have led those capitals to raise the following question: If
Assad expands his control on the ground, wouldn’t that lead to hardening the
Syrian dictator’s position on the political and diplomatic front?
In other words, while the target of this phase of the Syrian crisis is to reach
a reasonable political solution, the whole “logic” designed for the same phase
makes it more difficult to reach such a solution. We did not have to wait long
to see how Assad’s positions are becoming more intransigent due to the fact that
his forces are filling the vacuum created by ISIL retreat.
It does not take rocket science to see that the Kerry-Lavrov deal is based on
preserving the regime, potentially without Assad at one point down the road-that
is when the features of the new political system appears and when it assumes
power effectively and becomes self-sustainable. The problem, which currently
faces this deal, is that preserving Assad on the head of the regime would hinder
chances of reaching the very objective of reforming this regime or reaching a
political solution to start with.
This egg and chicken puzzle could be handled in creative ways. Certain
benchmarks would have to be reached between the US, Russia, the Arabs and Iran
to provide a roadmap leading to the point of Assad’s departure. From what
appears on the surface, this may have been done albeit in general terms (it is
not certain that the Iranians, for example, committed to anything close to
that). If a deal was reached on that point, then the question which emerges is:
Why Assad is not getting along? On what elements does he base his intransigence
if all around him agreed that he would leave power at one point in the future?
The problem here is that on the one hand this deal cannot be made public because
this would cause an early undesired collapse of the Syrian State structure, but
on the other hand it cannot be kept in secret because the opposition would not
have in hand any tangible commitment to convince it to line up behind the
political deal for a long time.
This ambiguity, imposed by necessity, allowed all kinds of double games. Assad
in particular is rewarded by this state of affairs with a larger maneuverability
margin to try to modify the arrangement between the relevant powers gradually,
and while those powers are busy trying to implement their initial agreement.
Assad knows that he maybe “sacrificed” to save Syria. No one should expect him
to sit idle without trying to avoid this fate even if his clinching to power
comes at the expense of jeopardizing the global arrangement to end the crisis.
The Iranians are not so warm to the deal neither. One way to avoid this hurdle
was to make it abundantly clear to everyone that all parties involved has to
commit publicly to the departure of Assad at a certain point in time when
specific conditions and benchmarks are fulfilled. The public message would be:
Assad will go if the situation goes in a specific way and crosses the clearly
stated benchmarks. Both Russia and the US would have to place tremendous
pressures on Assad and Tehran to get him to commit to that. He cannot resist if
both Iran and Russia made it clear to him that Syria is more important than his
self-centered persona. No one is asking Assad to leave immediately. But the plan
of his future departure is left in a degree of ambiguity that diminishes any
chances of preserving the state and the territorial integrity of Syria and gives
the Syrian dictator ample space to try to torpedo the deal.
* Since Assad’s future is left undecided, at least publicly, and as the dynamics
of the conflict gives his forces the ability to fill the vacuum created by a
retreating ISIL while restraining the opposition under the ceasefire deal, it is
only natural that the Syrian dictator becomes more tempted to put as many sticks
as he can in the wheels of the any political solutions that seems heading to
unseat him.
One example of this came after Kerry’s last visit to Moscow March 24. Assad
announced that he would be holding elections and writing a new Constitution. It
was clear that the Syrian dictator is trying to shortcut the Kerry-Lavrov
arrangement which calls for elections and a new Constitution as well, but in a
different context. Russia and the US are outlining now the new Syrian
constitution. But what if Assad announces his own draft beforehand and puts it
into referendum?
Then, after promising to announce his own constitution and elections, the Syrian
President intensified his barrel bombing of civilians around Damascus and
elsewhere to an extent that pushed President Obama to warn him (yet again).
Obviously, he was trying to push the opposition to end the ceasefire. These
games will not stop. The leash is too long to restrain Assad’s tricks.
Assad’s attempts to torpedo any reasonable deal that ends with his departure
will never stop so long as he senses that there is no clear international
consensuses on his departure. His message is “Je suis Syria”. But it is a
farcical replay of General De Gaulle. Assad has to remember that the great
General said later, while reading the names on the graveyards in a visit to Père
Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, “Oh God, There are many indispensable people laying
here”.
The relative weight of making Assad go has been increasing steadily to the point
that it is indeed becoming the equivalent of reaching a political solution. He
should be told that he is not Syria, as he is in truth the negation of Syria.
Under his presidency, the country is almost destroyed. If he remains, what is
left of it would also be destroyed.
* A deal with regional powers to put pressure on the opposition armed groups
will gradually lose its ground under the pressure of two dynamics: 1- The
inability of those powers (the Arabs in this case) to deliver anything tangible
to the ranks and files of the opposition group. 2- The absence of a clear
regional “understanding” on the limits of the strategic regional conflict.
* Syria’s opposition leaders would be unable to convince their followers to hang
on to their ceasefire positions forever without any realistic prospects for a
political solution in the foreseeable future
* There is a race now between Russia and its allies (Assad, Iran and Hezbollah)
and the US and its allies (Syria Democratic Forces and the YPG) to reach Dair Al
Zour and Raqqa. The race is amateurish and self-damaging. The way Raqqa will be
taken is no less important than actually taking it. As previous points tried to
raise the concern that larger parts of the opposition could be pushed into
positions as hard as ISIL, this race would leave open many wounds between
Syria’s Arabs and Kurds for a long time to come.
* The Kerry-Lavrov deal lifted the “whole” Syrian crisis to a global level. In
appearance, this seems positive at the first sight. But its weakness is that the
other determinants of the crisis were given a less than adequate place in the
general concept of the solution.
As we mentioned above, the Syrian dimension, as much as the regional one, were
given a position of a mere “reflections” of the Washington-Moscow deal. One
example of this is clear in handling the dynamics inside the different “color
zones” of the opposition which we mentioned above. The other is the pressures
exerted on Arabs to restrain the opposition.
But the central negative prospect in the Kerry-Lavrov deal is that it turned the
Syrian crisis into a mere “piece” in a wider global deal. This is not negative
at all times and in all places. But it is particularly negative when the US does
not have enough leverages related to one particular “piece” on the chess board.
President Obama has whatever reasons which convinced him not to develop enough
leverages in Syria during the evolution of the crisis. This is not our issue
here. Our point is that as a consequence of that, the ropes of the deal are
getting entangled now. Russia seems to be asking for unrealistic concessions
elsewhere in the world (Ukraine, East Europe, etc.). The US is fortunately
unwilling to give up its positions on these issues just to solve the Syrian
crisis. But this leaves the Syrian crisis to drag on.
That makes it clear that lifting the crisis “completely, as a whole” to the
level of this global chessboard should have waited a bit until the US leverages
in Syria improve. By trying to make up for President Obama’s policy of “Do
Nothing”, Secretary Kerry is faced with a price to pay to President Putin’s
plans globally. This weaken chances of both the US global strategic posture and
the political solution in Syria.
Middle East to Russia and
China: C’mon in. We are Open for Business
Middle East Briefing/April 10/16
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin seems to be progressing in the unlikely path
of establishing stronger ties between Russia and the nations of the Middle East.
President Obama, on the other hand, seems to be progressing in the unlikely path
of weakening US ties with those nations. The Russian path was unlikely because
Putin is helping Assad, Iran (both are not considered friendly by most Arab
countries) and is starting from very little diplomatic capital in his previous
ties to the region. The US path was unlikely as well because President Obama is
opposed to Assad and Iran’s expansion and he started from a very strong
historical surplus in trust and a solid alliance with most of the region’s
countries. While one is building his capital actively, the other is squandering
his in earnest.
But to be fair to the President, squandering US capital in the Middle East
started before his terms. It was the Iraq war coupled with absurd strategies
about changing regional political regimes which initially opened the road to a
steady loss of US influence in the Middle East. President Obama did not do
anything to stop the cascade, other than providing master pieces in the art of
wordsmithing in his speech in Cairo and through avoiding certain terms like war
on terror or Jihadist terrorist or whatever. In fact, he exacerbated the process
of US loss of influence through a chain of unbelievable mistakes that the
President does not even want to admit, not even one of them.
When the President started his first term, he gave a speech in Cairo to change
the region’s perceptions about US policy. Now, while he is at the end of his
second term, he should question himself if he indeed did what he hoped for, or
if he, in fact, made those perceptions worse. Instead, he blames the region’s
regimes for his utter failure in improving US stand in the Middle East.
It is actually kind of funny to hear that the President was more focused on East
Asia than the Middle East. First, East Asia, where the President says he is
going, is coming to the Middle East. And US strategic posture in East Asia did
not qualitatively change in substantial way compared to what it was say 10 years
ago. Even signing the nuclear deal with Iran did not make that nation any closer
to Washington. It rather made Washington farer from both the Middle East and
East Asia.
Iran is currently emerging as an energy powerhouse with Russia and China for
pipelines and future projects in Central Asia. It is coordinating with Russia in
Syria, Afghanistan and the former Soviet countries of Central Asia. It is
discussing westward gas paths with Moscow. And it is emerging as a powerful
pillar of Russian and Chinese strategies in both the Middle East and Central
Asia.
What did President Obama have to say about Russia’s military intervention in
Syria, which was closely coordinated with Tehran? He described it as a beginning
of a “quagmire”. But he surprised everyone when he decided, just few weeks
later, to coordinate with Russia in this very quagmire. Maybe he will come out
now saying that he did that on purpose to help Putin drawn himself. There is
always an excuse and the language is rich with all kinds of words.
And China is also coming out of East Asia and going to the Middle East, while
President Obama is travelling in the opposite directions. It is obvious that the
Chinese and the Russians are too dumb to see what President Obama sees.
The best defense of the President’s strategy is that it was a reflection of the
US stretching itself thin during the Bush years. The US needed few years to
regain what was wasted in economic, military and diplomatic muscles during that
period. But how about Putin? He did not have much of muscles compared to the
post-Bush US that Obama inherited, and after years of total loss of directions
in Moscow.
With limited capital, Putin embarked on his “quagmire” that multiplied his
global influence and which was tempting enough to lure President Obama as well,
and the Chinese are building their own capital from almost no diplomatic
presence in the Middle East in the past.
Beijing just appointed a special envoy to Syria. Xie Xiaoyan is a career
diplomat who served as ambassador to Iran. The decision came after President Xi
Jinping’s high profile visit to the Middle East last January. China is
positioning itself to be in the right spot once the conflict in Syria ends.
But why going to East Asia, where US enjoyed always very strong and stable
alliances, should necessitate the “do nothing” approach of the President in the
Middle East? The answer was almost expressed by the President himself who hinted
in a recent interview that he is not convinced there is something worth
defending in the region. He does not like the political structures there. He
does not feel compelled to be an ally to regimes he does not like.
Well, the Chinese and the Russians are running to replace him. The decline of
U.S. influence in the Middle East will lead to the formation of new alliances
able to address the regional security and economic challenges. This moment may
go in the history of the post Second World War as a transformational point in
the global balance of power.
The Chinese President was welcomed warmly in Egypt and Iran. Several mega
projects are being studied now between the two countries and China. This may
usher in a new phase in Chinese-Middle Eastern presence to the benefit of both
sides. Egyptians, in particular, are grateful. China offered considerable direct
investments in a moment when others were pressuring Cairo or turning a cold
shoulder to Egypt.
And Mr. Xiaoyan, the Chinese special envoy, has his objective clear. In
explaining the envoy’s mission Xiao Xian, head of Middle East studies at Yunnan
University, said China should get more involved in resolving the crisis
especially now that the situation in Syria was becoming clearer. “In my view,
China should have participated more a long time ago. If we don’t do it now, it
will be too late”, he said.
He urged Beijing to engage more in peace talks, post-war reconstruction and
discussions over the refugee crisis in keeping with its image as a “responsible
great power”. “Other countries in the Middle East, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia
and Turkey all wish China to exert more influence”.
Time to warn the Chinese: A quagmire is waiting for you guys. Be as smart as
others and go to East Asia.
Turkish Justice: ISIS Walks Free;
Peace Activists Jailed
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/April 10/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7807/turkey-justice-isis-kurds
Belonging to ISIS or trafficking in slavery evidently do not constitute serious
crimes in Turkey. But signing petitions calling for peace and non-violence, or
requesting political equality for Kurds, are unspeakable offenses.
"We are not shocked that the defendants have been acquitted. This lawsuit has
become one of the hundreds of other lawsuits in our country in which the
criminals have been protected even though the evidence against them is obvious."
— Association of Progressive Women, on the acquittal of six people charged with
having ties with ISIS and trading in Yazidi sex slaves.
"Requesting peace has become a crime in this country. The state of Turkey has
committed the gravest rights violations against those who struggle for human
rights, against the Kurds and against free thought." — Sebnem Korur Fincanci,
President of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.
Turkish politics has therefore not been able to go beyond a clash between
assorted Islamists whose worldviews are foreign to democratic values, and
non-Islamist but still extremely oppressive political parties that operate under
the shadow of a tyrannical military, whose worldview is also foreign to
democratic values.
Turkey's "fight" against the Islamic State (ISIS) continues. On March 24, Turkey
released seven suspects who had been arrested in a case involving the Turkish
branch of ISIS.
Halis Bayancuk, alleged to be the "Emir," or commander-in-chief, of ISIS, is
among the suspects. This was the fourth hearing of the trial known as the
"Istanbul ISIS trial." A total of 96 suspects are on trial. Only seven had been
jailed; the others had not. Although those seven were released on March 24 at
the end of the hearing, their trial is still ongoing; the final verdict has not
been given. All of them are now outside jail, free, and living their lives as
they wish.
The indictment prepared by the chief public prosecutor's office of Istanbul
stated that the suspects
"engaged in the activities of the terrorist organization called DAESH [Arabic
acronym of ISIS]. The suspects had sent persons to the conflict zones; they
applied pressure, force, violence and threats by using the name of the terrorist
organization, and they had provided members and logistic support for the group.
Ilyas Aydin, the leader [of the ISIS cell], gave verdicts at a so-called sharia
court about killing people."
At the end of the hearing, the seven defendants on trial being ISIS members were
released. They left the courtroom shouting "Allahu akbar!" [Allah is the
Greatest!"]
This means that all 96 defendants in the ongoing case are walking the streets
freely.
Unfortunately, this is not the first case in which the Turkish judiciary has
turned a blind eye to ISIS or al Qaeda suspects. The indictment prepared by the
prosecutors apparently contains serious accusations and ample evidence,
including videos and statements by Bayancuk, also known as Abu Hanzala. In 2014,
he was arrested for being the head of the al Qaeda network in Turkey. Some of
the accusations directed against him and other al Qaeda suspects were "beheading
a Christian priest in Syria, kidnapping a Turkish journalist in Syria and
planning an assassination of Barack Obama..."
In a video recording from a camp in Syria, Bayancuk was heard saying: "After we
conquer Syria, we will conquer Istanbul, insh'allah, [if Allah wills] and then
Turkey."
In 2014, in another video uploaded on YouTube, Bayancuk said:
"They [ISIS] are our Muslim brethren. And we accept any attack against them as
an attack against us. ... I am, insh'allah, on the side of my Muslim brothers
through my prayers and my support. Whoever attacks our brothers, I consider it
an attack against me.
"I ask Allah to reward those in Syria and many other places, who are fighting
and striving in the name of jihad, with a state ruled by sharia."
In July 2014, the affiliates of the Islamist magazine "Tawhid" ("Oneness of
Allah") -- known to be close to ISIS -- organized a public event in Istanbul
where they performed salah (Muslim prayer) together to celebrate the Islamic
Ramadan festival.
In July 2015, at a public event was held to celebrate the Ramadan festival, the
public prayers were led by Halis Bayancuk who afterwards delivered a speech
entitled, "A warning to the heads of the regime of the Republic of Turkey."
"Those who have faith fight for Allah," he said, "the kafirs [infidels],
however, fight for those who engage in taghut ["idolatry"].
Bayancuk also called on Muslims not to vote in elections because "Whoever is the
Creator has the right to rule. ... "We do not have guns, bombs or action plans
to scare you with, but there is Allah with whom we can scare you."
In December, 2015, the German public television consortium, ARD, produced a show
documenting the slave trade being conducted by ISIS through a liaison office in
the province of Gaziantep in Turkey, near the Syrian border.
Some human rights groups in the region filed a criminal complaint, calling for
the prosecutors to investigate the allegations and hold the perpetrators to
account. One of them was the Gaziantep branch of the Association of Progressive
Women (IKD).
All six people, who allegedly have ties with ISIS and have engaged in the sexual
slavery of Yazidi women in Antep, were acquitted during the first hearing.
The IKD Association issued a written statement about the ruling:
"We learned yesterday that all of defendants were acquitted at one hearing, in a
double-quick trial on January 15.
"We are not shocked that the defendants have been acquitted. This lawsuit has
become one of the hundreds of other lawsuits in our country in which the
criminals have been protected even though the evidence against them is obvious.
"The indictment of the prosecutor stated that the office in the footage has been
found, and that all of the evidence in the news reports have been seized. Six
people were caught in the process of investigation but were released after a
judicial hearing. Despite all of the evidence at hand, the court acquitted the
defendants on the grounds that there was no evidence."
One cannot know if those allegations were true or not, because no state
authority has made any effort to refute the allegations or vindicate themselves.
In December, 2015, two members of parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples'
Democratic Party (HDP) -- Feleknas Uca and Mahmut Togrul -- asked Interior
Minister Efkan Ala about the office where ISIS members engage in slavery and sex
trade.
Neither the interior minister nor any other government official has made a
single statement regarding the motions of the MPs, the footage of the German TV
channel or the allegations of the region's human rights groups.
However, when it comes to academics or activists who demand peace with the Kurds
and human rights for all in Turkey, the Turkish judiciary takes a completely
different stand.
On January 11, 2016, a group of academics and researchers from Turkey and abroad
called "Academics for Peace" signed and issued a petition entitled, "We will not
be a party to this crime." In it, they criticized the Turkish government for its
recent curfews and massacres in Kurdish districts, and demanded an end to
violence against Kurds and a return to peace talks.
Since then the 1128 signatories of the declaration have been subjected to
sustained attacks and threats from the Turkish government and nationalist
groups. Four of the academics are now under arrest.
The jailed academics are Esra Mungan, a lecturer in psychology at Istanbul
Bogazici University; Muzaffer Kaya, a lecturer at the Department of Social
Services at Istanbul Nisantasi University (who after signing the petition was
fired from his job); Kıvanc Ersoy, a mathematics lecturer at Istanbul Mimar
Sinan University; and Meral Camci, a lecturer of translation and interpreting
studies at Istanbul Yeni Yuzyıl University.
On March 24, the same day when ISIS suspects were released in Istanbul,
Academics for Peace issued an open letter about the situation of the arrested
academics:
"Yesterday, Esra Mungan was taken to another cell which is smaller, filthier,
and stuffier for no valid reason. Also, Muzaffer Kaya and Kıvanc Ersoy were
transferred to the Silivri Prison.
"One of our lawyers visited the Silivri Prison. Muzaffer Kaya and Kıvanc Ersoy
say that they are strictly segregated, they stay alone in the cells for three
people, they are not allowed to see each other or any others; all their books
were taken from them with the promise that they would be given back later, their
rooms are completely empty except for a pen and a notebook, they were searched
naked when they were first taken to Silivri and kept naked for twenty minutes
which is an utterly dishonoring situation, and that their first request is to
stay together in the same cell."
In Turkey, signatories of the "Academics for Peace" petition (pictured above)
have been subjected to sustained attacks and threats from the Turkish government
and nationalist groups. Four of the signatories were arrested. Meanwhile, 96
suspected terrorists currently standing trial on charges of belonging to an ISIS
cell in Istanbul are not under arrest, and walk the streets freely.
The academic Meral Camci was fired from her job after signing the petition. A
warrant was also issued against her -- along with the three other academics --
but she could not be interrogated because she was then outside Turkey. She
returned to Turkey on March 30 -- and was arrested the next day.
In the meantime, Kurdish lawyer Eren Keskin, who is also the vice-president of
the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the executive editor of the pro-Kurdish
newspaper Ozgur Gundem, has been investigated and banned from traveling abroad
on charges of "terrorism propaganda."
Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci, the President of the Human Rights Foundation of
Turkey (TIHV), said that Keskin has been one of the key symbols of the human
rights struggle in Turkey. "Requesting peace has become a crime in this country.
The state of Turkey has committed the gravest rights violations against those
who struggle for human rights, against the Kurds and against free thought,"
Fincanci added.
The gravest human rights violations are committed against Kurds. The Kurdish
town of Silopi was under military siege and attacks from December 14 to January
19, when the curfew was partly removed. Many people were murdered by state
security forces, and the town has largely been destroyed.
The Diyarbakir Bar Association and several human rights groups recently went to
the town to observe what is left of it. Sidar Avsar, a lawyer with the
Diyarbakir Bar Association, reported that the police threatened them: "You know
how Tahir Elci was killed, don't you?" the police had told him.
Tahir Elci, a leading Kurdish lawyer and the head of the Diyarbakir Bar
Association, was murdered in broad daylight in the city of Diyarbakir on
November 28, 2015.
So, in Europe's newest "best friend forever," Turkey, a candidate country for EU
membership, those who rape and sell Yazidi women, or have alleged ties with
al-Qaeda or ISIS, are set free to walk around with impunity. Belonging to ISIS
or trafficking in slavery evidently do not constitute serious crimes in Turkey.
But signing petitions calling for peace and non-violence, or requesting
political equality for Kurds, are unspeakable offenses. This also demonstrates
the tragic fact that Turkey still prefers the Islamic State (ISIS) to Kurds.
Turkey seems bound by traditional misconceptions of what is terrorism and what
is not, or who should enjoy free speech and who should not, or be punished for
real crimes and who should not.
Turkish politics has therefore not been able to go beyond a clash between
assorted Islamists whose worldviews are foreign to democratic values, and
non-Islamist but still extremely oppressive political parties that operate under
the shadow of a tyrannical military, whose worldview is also foreign to
democratic values.
Recent political and judicial developments are further indicators that a third
alternative -- a Turkish pro-democracy movement to transform Turkey into a
diverse, tolerant and pluralistic society -- is not on the horizon.
**Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is currently based in Washington D.C.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone
website or any of its contents