LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
December 14/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.december14.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
He said to
Simon & Andrew; ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 04/18-25/:"As he
walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter,
and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen.
And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his
brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he
called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every
disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they
brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and
pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great
crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem,
Judea, and from beyond the Jordan."
For as in one body we have many
members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many,
are one body in Christ,
Letter to the Romans 12/01-08/:"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and
sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so
that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and
perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think
of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober
judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as
in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same
function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are
members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given
to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher,
in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the
leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 13-14/16
Lebanese activists succeed in first step to repealing controversial
'rape law'/Florence Massena/Al Monitor/December 13/16
Having Tea with Hezbollah’s No. 2 (Naim Qassem)/By Robin Wright/The New Yorker/December 13/16
Palmyra and Aleppo, bloody new chapters in the Syrian war/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/December
13/16
From Cairo to Istanbul, the devil is the same/Mshari
Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/December
13/16
Which Muslims are against Trump/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/December 13/16
Theresa May brings back Thatcher era to the Gulf/Turki
Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/December
13/16
The Palestinian Jihads against Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 13/16
What Was Behind the Trial of Geert Wilders/George Igler/Gatestone Institute/December 13/16
Who was behind Cairo church bombing/Ayah Aman/Al
Monitor/December 13/2016
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on December
13-14/16
U.S. Diplomat Relays Message from Kerry as Aoun
Urges U.S. to Maintain Support for Army
Change and Reform, Kataeb Talks Focus on Electoral
Law
Lebanese Forces MP Says Party Adheres to Public Works Portfolio
Protesters Block Akkar Highway 'in Solidarity with
Aleppo'
Change and Reform Says Govt. Line-Up Not Final before Approval of Aoun, Hariri
Aoun Sees 'Progress' in Govt. Formation Process, Says
All Can Contribute to Lebanon's Rise
Media Institutions, Schools in Lebanon Stand Up for Human Rights
Newborn Found in Waste Management Plant in Sidon
Kanaan after Change and Reform bloc's meeting:
Cabinet consultations persist
Hariri meets Patterson
Aoun to Patterson: Army carries out preemptive operations against terrorism
Aoun: International confidence in Lebanon bolstered
every day
Young people block Abdeh road in solidarity with
Aleppo families
Bank Audi launches next generation payment solution for taxi drivers and users
Shehayeb, FAO director sign agreement to set up
bureau for FAO in Beirut
Lebanon: Birth of Cabinet this Week Depends on Public Works Portfolio
US firm in support for Lebanon: Patterson
World Bank Middle East director meets with Aoun
Lebanese political pipe dream: Yoda for Education Minister?
Lebanese activists succeed in first step to repealing controversial 'rape law'
Having Tea with Hezbollah’s No. 2 (Naim Qassem)
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on on December 13-14/16
U.S. Diplomat Relays
Message from Kerry as Aoun Urges U.S. to Maintain
Support for Army
Naharnet/December 13/16/U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson on Tuesday relayed a message to
President Michel Aoun from U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry, in which she expressed Washington's readiness to maintain its
support for Lebanon to enable it to face the expected challenges, Lebanon's
National News Agency reported. Patterson also told Aoun
that her country appreciates Lebanon's
efforts in hosting the Syrian refugees, stressing that it is necessary to
continue assisting Lebanon
as it struggles to cope with the refugee crisis. Moreover, the U.S. official renewed Washington's readiness to meet the needs of
the Lebanese army while hailing its role in combating terrorism and preserving
the country's stability. Aoun for his part urged the U.S. to
maintain its assistance for the army and the security forces to enable them to
fully perform their missions, “especially that the army has achieved great
success in the preemptive security operations that it
is staging as part of its war on terror.” He also pointed out that “the real
solution for the plight of Syrian refugees should be through finding a
political solution to the Syrian crisis.” A statement issued by the U.S.
Embassy said Patterson is scheduled to meet with several Lebanese officials to
discuss security, humanitarian, political, and economic issues and underscore U.S. support
for the Lebanese people and institutions.
Change and Reform, Kataeb
Talks Focus on Electoral Law
Naharnet/December 13/16/As part of an initiative
launched by the Change and Reform bloc to separate the cabinet formation process
from an agreement on a new electoral law, a delegation of the bloc visited the Kataeb party on Tuesday and talks focused on devising a law
for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the National News Agency reported.
The Change and Reform bloc, comprising MPs Neemtallah
Abi Nasr and Ibrahim Kanaan
met with Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel, in presence of lawmakers Nadim
Gemayel and Samer Saade. “We are working on clinching an agreement over the
coming stage and we will reach a formula in the nearest time possible. We
refuse to return to the 1960 law after all the efforts we have made,” Kanaan told reporters following the meeting. For his part, Gemayel maintained that there was a serious intention to
endorse a new election law, he said: “This is a big test for the new tenure,
the President, and the Prime Minister (designate). The election law is the true
guarantee of correct representation.”“We are ready to
cooperate with the Free Patriotic Movement. Each political party must work with
us to approve an election law before the polls. We will be positive till the
end,” said Gemayel. On Monday, the bloc held separate
meetings with Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Hizbullah's Loyalty to
Resistance bloc as part of a tour with various political parties. Kanaan had stressed that the tour will include “Mustaqbal, the Progressive Socialist Party, the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party and others in order to create a political momentum
that can be employed to push for the approval of a law that ensures partnership,
democracy and correct representation.”Lebanon's
political parties are bickering over amending the current election law which
divides seats among the different religious sects. Hizbullah
has repeatedly called for an electoral law based on proportional representation
but other political parties, especially al-Mustaqbal
Movement, have rejected the proposal and argued that the party's controversial
arsenal of arms would prevent serious competition in regions where the
Iran-backed party is influential. Mustaqbal, the
Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party have meanwhile proposed a
hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the
winner-takes-all systems. Speaker Nabih Berri has also proposed a hybrid law. The country has not
voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending
its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960
electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Lebanese Forces MP Says Party Adheres to
Public Works Portfolio
Naharnet/December 13/16/Despite the promising
atmospheres that prevailed on Monday indicating easing of differences
obstructing the formation of a cabinet, Lebanese Forces MP Fadi
Karam stated on Tuesday that the party still insists
to be given the controversial portfolio of public works, fading hopes of a soon
cabinet line-up. In an interview to VDL (93.3) Karam
unveiled an initiative to facilitate the government formation that was launched
following the recent speech of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah between
the LF, Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal
Movement without disclosing the details. He said that “the response to the
initiative will be positive,” while stressing that “the LF adheres to its
position and to the public works portfolio because it must be represented with
a significant share in the cabinet.”He also noted
that Prime Minister-designate and Mustaqbal Movement
chief Saad Hariri will not form a cabinet without the
LF chief Samir Geagea's approval.
On Monday Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced after talks in Ain el-Tineh that Speaker Nabih Berri has officially offered him the public works
ministerial portfolio, which the Lebanese Forces also insist to be given to
them. LF sources commented on Franjieh's meeting with
Berri and said “we are not concerned” with what Franjieh announced about Berri
offering him the public works ministerial portfolio “we consider that the old
distribution of portfolios has not changed until the moment.”Horsetrading
is still revolving around the so-called services-related ministerial
portfolios, mainly public works and telecommunications. Berri,
who is negotiating on behalf of the Hizbullah-led
March 8 camp, is clinging to the finance and public works portfolios while also
insisting that the Marada Movement must get a key
portfolio.
Protesters Block Akkar Highway
'in Solidarity with Aleppo'
Naharnet/December 13/16/A number of young men blocked
the main highway Tuesday in the al-Abdeh area at Akkar's southern entrance “in solidarity with Aleppo's people” and to
“condemn the world's silence,” state-run National News Agency reported.
Protesters used burning tires to block the vital highway that links Lebanon to Syria. Civilians and opposition
fighters will start evacuating east Aleppo "within hours" under a
deal with Syria's regime, a rebel official said Tuesday, as global outrage
mounted over reports of atrocities including summary executions. The United
Nations and aid agencies have been pleading for a ceasefire to allow for the
evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the last pocket of
rebel territory in Aleppo.
After weeks of heavy fighting, forces loyal to President Bashar
Assad are in the last hours of a push to take full control of the city, dealing
the biggest blow to Syria's
rebellion in more than five years of civil war. Aleppo,
a cultural and economic hub in northern Syria
second only to Damascus
in importance, had been split between a rebel-controlled east and
government-held west since 2012. Recapturing all of Aleppo
will be a huge victory for Assad and leave his regime in control of all five of
Syria's
main cities.
Change and Reform Says Govt. Line-Up Not
Final before Approval of Aoun, Hariri
Naharnet/December 13/16/The Change and Reform
parliamentary bloc announced Tuesday that Speaker Nabih
Berri “has the right” to give up his demand to get
the public works ministerial portfolio in favor of
his ally MP Suleiman Franjieh while noting that
“there cannot be a final line-up” before the approval of President Michel Aoun and Premier-designate Saad
Hariri. “From the very beginning, we said that any party has the right to give
up a certain portfolio in favor of another party
without imposing anything on the other parties,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan
announced after the bloc's weekly meeting in Rabieh.
“A certain party's demand to get the public works portfolio has been met but
for this to become a constitutional fact, it still needs the approval of the
president and the PM-designate,” Kanaan added,
describing Berri's move as “important.”“The
consultations are ongoing and the line-up will become final upon its issuance
in decrees signed by the president and the PM-designate in line with the
constitution,” the MP went on to say, calling for “capitalizing on the
positivity” that has surfaced in the past few hours. Franjieh
announced Monday after talks in Ain el-Tineh that Berri had officially offered him the public works
ministerial portfolio and that “an agreement is still needed over other portfolios.”“Our candidate for this ministry is Youssef Finianos and we're
awaiting the stances of the other parties, and we hope others, topped by
President Michel Aoun, will show openness,” he added.
The Lebanese Forces was however quick to hit back at Franjieh,
saying it is “not concerned” with what was announced from Ain el-Tineh. LF bloc MP Fadi Karam also announced on Tuesday morning that his party is
still clinging to the public works portfolio.
Aoun Sees 'Progress' in Govt. Formation Process, Says All
Can Contribute to Lebanon's Rise
Naharnet/December 13/16/President Michel Aoun announced Tuesday that “progress” has been made in the
cabinet formation process while noting that all political parties can have a
role during his presidential tenure except for those who exclude themselves.
“International confidence in Lebanon
is increasing day after day,” Aoun told his visitors,
noting that the international support that Lebanon
has received since he was elected president indicates that Lebanon will
have “a better future at the political, security and economic levels.”“Contacts are still ongoing to form a new
government and have made progress,” Aoun added.
“Everyone can contribute to the rise of Lebanon except for those who do not
want to take part,” the president said. Aoun also
announced that he will “cooperate with the new government and all supervisory
authorities” to wage a “war against corruption.”
Media Institutions, Schools in Lebanon Stand Up for Human Rights
Naharnet/December 13/16/part of an initiative by the
UN Information Centre in Beirut (UNIC Beirut),
Lebanese TV stations marked Human Rights Day on 10 December by highlighting
several rights that, according to them, are still missing in Lebanon. The
initiative, which was under the Human Rights Day slogan for this year, “Stand
Up for Someone’s Rights Today”, also entailed a symbolic action by school
students who stood up in solidarity with a number of human rights mentioned in
the Declaration. TV stations marked this day by standing up during their evening
news bulletins for specific rights they chose. LBCI began the news by asserting
the indispensability of human rights and highlighting the rights for freedom
and education, as well as the rights of women and disabled people. OTV, for its
part, detailed in a reportage the rights of
minorities, while state-run TV station, Tele Liban,
focused on the Declaration of Human Rights with all its articles that are
relevant to Lebanon.
Tele Lumiere-Noursat also took part in this
initiative by adopting six articles of the Declaration on its various channels.
The rights are: Freedom of movement and residence, education, prohibition of
slavery, access to decent work, health and well-being and social protection.
Among the schools that participated were Montana International College and Al-Ahliah School both of which stood for children’s rights and
called for ensuring shelter to all those who are homeless.
Newborn Found in Waste Management Plant in
Sidon
Naharnet/December 13/16/new born baby was found on
Tuesday in a garbage sorting plant in the southern city of Sidon, the National News Agency reported.
“Workers at a waste management plant in Sayniq in
south Sidon found the body of a new born baby as they were sorting the garbage,
NNA said. “Security forces arrived at the scene and investigations were run
into the incident,” it added.
Kanaan after Change and Reform bloc's meeting: Cabinet
consultations persist
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - "Change and Reform" bloc secretary, Deputy
Ibrahim Kanaan said after his bloc's weekly meeting "Contacts
over the cabinet are still ongoing and there can't be a final line-up before
the president and the PM-designate agree on it".
"Respect for the National Pact which was demanded has started
materializing," the Deputy added. The lawmaker refused to exclude any side
from the cabinet. "We are with the formation of a national unity cabinet
that includes all the factions and rescues the nation from the impasse,"
he asserted. Regarding the electoral law, the MP said "There is a positive
development and the new law will be a priority to all parliamentary blocs. I
did not see any objection from any side on the approval of a new law". He
stressed the need to hold parliamentary elections on schedule in accordance
with a new electoral law, "without extending the parliament's term or
returning to 1960 law".
Hariri meets Patterson
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - Prime Minister-designate, Saad
Hariri, met on Tuesday noon at the "Center House" with US Assistant
Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, Anne Patterson with talks featuring
high on the latest political developments in Lebanon, as well as the situation
in the region.
Aoun to Patterson: Army carries out preemptive
operations against terrorism
Tue 13 Dec 2016 /NNA - President Michel Aoun met on
Tuesday afternoon at Baabda
Palace with US Assistant Secretary of
State for Middle East Affairs, Anne Patterson, in the presence of US Ambassador
to Lebanon,
Elizabeth Richard and members of the accompanying delegation. Aoun thanked Patterson for her visit and sent his greetings
to Kerry. The President expressed the desire of Lebanon in the continuation of
American aid to the military and security institutions to enable them to
complete their duties, "especially that the army has achieved great
success in the pre-emptive security operations carried out as part of his war
against terrorism."On the other hand, Aoun asserted that "the Syrian refugees' tragedy will
end through a political solution to the Syrian crisis". For her part,
Patterson conveyed Aoun a verbal message from US Secretary of State, John Kerry in which he
congratulated Aoun on his election as President, and
the willingness of the United States
to continue to support Lebanon
politically, militarily and financially to enable it to cope with the
anticipated deadlines. Patterson stressed her country's appreciation for the
care provided by Lebanon to
the displaced Syrians and the need to provide the necessary assistance to
enable it (Lebanon)
to continue to do that. On the other hand, Patterson praised the army's role in
combating terrorism and enhancing stability in the country, renewing her
country's support for the army.
Aoun: International confidence in Lebanon bolstered every
day
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, stressed that the international confidence in Lebanon
is reinforced everyday, adding that the support received by Lebanon since the
presidential election ushers in a better future in the political, security and
economic fields.President Aoun
informed his interlocutors on Tuesday that "contacts are continuing to
form the new government" with progress being achieved in this regard. He
also stressed that the workshop for the advancement of Lebanon
accommodates all. He highlighted the importance of the decision taken by the
World Bank to support the Lebanese economy through securing funds to productive
projects, hoping that the coming festive period would witness an active
movement whose positive indicators have begun to emerge through the high number
of arrivals to Lebanon
to spend Christmas and New Year in its folds. Aoun
stressed that the fight against corruption shall be amongst his top priorities
in cooperation with the new government and the supervisory bodies of all their
kinds, whereby heads of these bodies have received firm directives in showing
no leniency in prosecuting perpetrators and applying laws in effect. Baabda palace witnessed a series of political,
administrative and social meetings. Aoun met
respectively with MP Fadi Awar,
a delegation of Ramgafar Party, "Tanzeem" Command Council, a delegation of the
Congregation of the Basilian Choueiri,
and Head of the Lebanese Basketball Federation. The President also met with the
board members of the Central Displaced Fund, led by its Head Retired Brigadier
Nicola Haber, who briefed him on the Fund's work and its already accomplished
projects and those under implementation. Aoun
underlined the dire need for the accomplishment of the displaced dossier and
folding the painful chapter in this regard. He called for setting priorities in
the implementation of development projects that support the return of the
displaced to their villages and towns and reinforce their steadfastness there.
Young people block Abdeh
road in solidarity with Aleppo families
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - A number of young people blocked the main road of Abdeh region at the southern entrance to Akkar district with burning tires, in solidarity with Aleppo families, NNA
field reporter said on Tuesday.
Bank Audi launches next generation payment
solution for taxi drivers and users
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - In line with its strategy to build and implement a
cashless society in Lebanon,
Bank Audi has launched the first of its kind next generation payment solution
for taxi drivers in Lebanon.
This new payment solution enables taxis to accept payments with MasterCard,
Visa, PayPass and Paywave,
thus providing consumers with payment ease and avoiding the risk of carrying
cash. "We live in an era where technology is leading more and more
businesses to improve their services, and we are excited to be part of this
innovation with the launch of our next generation Wireless Taxi
Terminals," said Randa Bdeir,
Group Head of e-Payment Solutions and Card Services at Bank Audi.
"Introducing innovative technology is an additional testimony of Bank
Audi's numerous endeavours to deliver safe and convenient payment
solutions", she added, especially since "Lebanese citizens expect
flexibility and security when settling their taxi fares digitally."With
the newly implemented Wireless Taxi Terminals, transactions are processed and
cards authorised in real-time, money is processed and settled to companies
swiftly so that drivers can get back out to the next fare and that taxi users
are satisfied. "Bank Audi is committed to providing solutions that make
life easier, because we understand that there is an increasing need to save
time and money, and this is yet another service we are proud to be the first to
deliver in Lebanon" she underlined. The Wireless Taxi Terminals payment
service was developed to meet the needs of both travelling public and taxi
drivers. It includes two control units: " The
drivers' control unit which is mounted in the front of the cab and allows
drivers to enter each transaction, print receipts and login to their own secure
portal. " The passengers' PIN pad and card reader unit
which is securely mounted in the passenger compartment. At the end of
each trip, the PIN pad screen provides instructions to passengers who wish to
pay by credit or debit card, as well as an encouragement to add a tip to the
fare. Wireless Taxi Terminals can accept swipe, Chip & PIN, and contactless
transactions. The money from each transaction is credited directly to drivers'
or companies' bank accounts. Bank Audi is launching this service with Allo Taxi, Taxi Première, Charlie Taxi and Geryes Taxi, and will be rolling out The Wireless Taxi
Terminals to other reputable taxi service providers in the coming months.
Shehayeb, FAO director sign agreement to set up bureau for FAO
in Beirut
Tue 13 Dec 2016/NNA - Caretaker Agriculture Minister, Akram
Shehayeb and the Director General of Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jose Graziano da Silva, signed on Tuesday before noon at the Grand Serail an agreement relevant to setting up in Lebanon a
regional bureau for FAO for countries of the Levant. The signing ceremony was
attended by Caretaker Minister of Environment, Mohamad
Mashnouk, other figures as well as international
organizations. "It is not the first cooperation between Lebanon and the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and it won't be the last," the
minister said. Shehayeb thanked all the efforts that
have been made by the organization and the constant cooperation with the
Ministry of Agriculture. "Today we sign the agreement of establishing the
regional office for the Levant and we also
sign two projects on this occasion," he concluded.
Lebanon: Birth of Cabinet this Week Depends on Public Works
Portfolio
Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/December
13/16/Beirut – A pour of meetings and talks intensified in Lebanon this
week with an attempt to solve the remaining obstacles ahead of announcing the
birth of a new cabinet before the festive seasons. Meetings held on Monday and
the comments delivered by some officials echoed that the lineup
operation was in its last phases. Informed sources told Asharq
Al-Awsat the government decrees could be issued on
Wednesday or Thursday. “The scenario of the proposed solution stipulates that
the Marada Movement gets the Public Works portfolio
while Speaker Nabih Berri’s
party would receive the Education portfolio and the Lebanese Forces the Health
portfolio,” the sources said. Berri and head of the Marada Movement Suleiman Franjieh
had agreed on this formula during their meeting on Monday. The sources said all
parties now await the response of the Lebanese Forces concerning this new
proposal, after the party insisted to take the Ministry of Public Works instead
of a leading portfolio, which they did not obtain.
The sources added that head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Jumblatt was the most
compliant leader in the lineup operation. “It seems (Jumblatt) will take the Justice and the Environment ministries.”The sources also said that the option of having
a 30-member cabinet increased in the last few hours, because it remains the
only solution to secure the representation of all parties, including the
Phalange party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Marada
Movement and to offer the March 8 alliance a Sunni minister.
Until late on Monday, the Lebanese Forces was still silent on the proposed
formula. High-ranking officials at the party told Asharq
Al-Awsat they have not yet decided on the matter. On
Monday, Franjieh held a series of meetings that he
kicked off with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai before visiting Berri. Rai is working to fix the
deteriorating relation between the two previous allies, President Michel Aoun and Franjieh. Informed
sources said a meeting between Aoun and Franjieh seems a done deal, but could not confirm whether
the two men will sit together before or after the cabinet formation. Following
his meeting with Berri on Monday, Franjieh
said: “
”We
got our right back when Speaker Berri presented the
ministry of works to us, and we hope that President Michel Aoun
would be open to it. And we as Marada consider that
our rights were restored by Berri and Hariri.”
US firm in support for Lebanon: Patterson
The Daily Star/December 13, 2016/BEIRUT:
The U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs Tuesday affirmed
her country's unwavering support for Lebanon
during a short visit to Beirut
for talks with senior Lebanese officials. Anne Patterson conveyed a verbal
message to President Michel Aoun from the U.S.
Secretary of State, John Kerry, stressing Washington's
support for Lebanon
in all sectors, in particular aid to the military. She expressed relief over
the Lebanese Army’s preemptive strikes against
extremists, the National News Agency reported. Further cooperation and
coordination between the U.S.
and the Lebanon
will be needed going forward, Patterson said. Aoun
said Lebanon was keen to
continue receiving U.S.
aid for the military and security agencies to enable them to carry out their
tasks thoroughly. He hailed the regional and international easiness that was
achieved after Lebanon
ended the presidential vacuum and the near formation of the Cabinet. Anne
Patterson began her meetings with a visit to Baabda Palace to congratulate Aoun for his election. She met later Tuesday with Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri. She later met with
Lebanese Army commander General Jean Kahwagi. The
meeting tackled the recent regional and local developments and the military
bilateral ties between of the two countries. The U.S. official was welcomed at the
airport by her country's Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard and the
mission's staff. Patterson is expected to meet with other high-ranking Lebanese
officials during her visit. Lebanon
has witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity since Aoun's
election in October, which ended more than two years of a crippling
presidential vacuum.
World Bank Middle East director meets with Aoun
The Daily Star/December 13/16/BEIRUT: The World Bank Director for the
Middle East Ferid Belhaj
met with President Michel Aoun for the first time
Monday, according to a press release from the presidential media office. He was
accompanied by the head of the parliamentary committee for budget and finance
Ibrahim Kanaan. Belhaj
conveyed World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s congratulations on Aoun’s recent election. The three reportedly discussed
future projects in Lebanon
that could receive World Bank funding.
Lebanese political pipe dream: Yoda for
Education Minister?
12 December, 2016/https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2016/12/12/lebanese-political-pipe-dream-yoda-for-education-minister
Tired with an ongoing atmosphere of stasis in Lebanese politics, graffiti crew Ashekman have created a poll shortlisting
fictional pop cultural icons to fill Lebanon's vacant cabinet
. The Lebanese public have become accustomed to political stasis with a
lack of effective executive power in the country’s parliament becoming the norm
these days. After a period of over two years without a president, a position
constitutionally ascribed to a Maronite Christian,
Freedom and Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, a
political ally of Hizballah, was finally nominated to
the position at the beginning of November.
However, to date, Aoun’s appointment has
proven largely ceremonial. Over a month after his appointment the 83 year old,
former civil war-era warlord is yet to establish a cabinet due in part to
political wrangling between the country's rival political parties.
While Aoun's son-in-law and political heir apparent,
current acting Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, has said that all of Lebanon’s diverse political parties
will be represented in a future cabinet, members of the Lebanese public have
grown tired of waiting.
This is certainly the case for Mohamed and Omar Kabbani,
identical twins, who together form renowned Lebanese graffiti crew Ashekman [you can see one of their works below]. Rather
than embrace apathy, Ashekman have come up with their own tongue in cheek critique of the current status quo
of political stasis. They have offered a critique of current realities in the
form of a poll calling on fellow Lebanese citizens to nominate their choices
for various cabinet positions from a shortlist of fictional characters chosen
by the pair.
Examples include Batman for Justice Minister, Optimus
Prime for Transport Minister, Daenerys Targaryen as Interior Minister, and even Yoda, of Star Wars
fame, as Education Minister. In a statement posted on their Facebook
page the duo state: “Ashekman strongly believes that
we should be allowed to form our own government, even if it's filled with
fictional characters … Because let's face it, fictional characters have never
let us down”
Lebanese activists succeed in first
step to repealing controversial 'rape law'
Florence Massena/Al Monitor/December 13/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/13/florence-massenaal-monitor-lebanese-activists-succeed-in-first-step-to-repealing-controversial-rape-law/
The Lebanese parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee agreed Dec. 7 to
abolish Article 522 of the penal code, which allows rapists to avoid
prosecution if they marry their victims. The committee is currently discussing
a draft law that will be presented later on to parliament, and it is
considering amending articles 503-522 about misdemeanors
and honor violations, by adding penalties and forcing
stricter punishments.
Women's rights activists say that abolishing Article 522 of the Lebanese penal
code is only one step toward protecting women from sexual abuse and violence,
as more laws need to be amended.
Civil society and feminist organizations have been asking for the abolition of
Article 522 of the penal code, nicknamed the “rape law,” for years. The first
step taken by Lebanese lawmakers not only invalidates it but also improves the
law for women and against rape in general. This was made possible by a very
strong advocacy campaign led by the nongovernmental organization ABAAD, which
gathered data and statistics on public opinion in Lebanon about that law and talked
with lawmakers.
For example, only 1% of the Lebanese knew about this law, according to a 2016
survey by ABAAD. “Article 522 is from the French mandate,” Soulayma
Mardam-Bey, the communications officer for ABAAD,
told Al-Monitor.
“It provides that in the event of a regular marriage between the perpetrator of
a rape and his victim, all proceedings against him shall be suspended and, if
conviction is pronounced, the execution of the sentence shall also be
suspended. We consider that this article is a violation of human rights and
questions women's and girls' rights to dignity. Through this campaign, we want
the repeal of Article 522, to emphasize that rape is a crime and as such must be
punished, and to insist on the fact that it is the right of every woman to
refuse to marry her rapist and that it is necessary to put an end to the
stigmatization. Some women are actually forced by their family to marry their
rapist for a question of honor,” Mardam-Bey
explained. Although no statistics can be found on how many women are affected
in the country, around three women per week reported sexual abuse in 2016,
according to the Internal Security Forces.
Lebanese Forces parliament member Elie Keyrouz presented the new draft law. “I have asked for the
law to be taken away because I consider that it aims directly [at] the Lebanese
woman, as in her human value, pride and the safety of her physical, mental and
emotional state,” Keyrouz told Al-Monitor.
Keyrouz said the article in question is unsuitable
for Lebanon,
noting that other Arab countries had repealed similar statutes. "Article
522 has been part of the Lebanese laws for 70 years; the time has come to get
rid of it and empower women to be able to defend themselves,” Keyrouz added. Egypt
repealed Article 291 in 1999, while Morocco repealed Article 475 in 2014, two years after a 16-year-old girl killed herself
after being forced to marry her rapist.
In 2016, 1,976 young women benefited from the Women and Girls Safe Spaces set
up by ABAAD in 2015, which provides psychosocial activities, follow-up and
psychological support, legal advice and representation in court, and emergency
shelter for women fleeing violence or high-risk situations. Of these 1,976,
ABAAD cannot provide information on how many married their rapists. “The
subject is extremely sensitive,” Mardam-Bey insisted.
“Between the pain of rape, forced marriage and taboos
related to sexuality, few women dare to express themselves clearly on this
subject. Women victims of violence, whether under Article 522 or not, suffer
from feelings of inferiority and rejection. They lose self-confidence, feel
abandoned and isolated, and suffer a sense of exclusion and stigmatization. If
there are certain psychological predispositions, this can lead to psychological
decompensation such as depression, suicidal behavior, etc.,” she added.
For these reasons, Al-Monitor could not meet any woman who had been forced to
marry her rapist, as not to affect her healing process.
For Mardam-Bey, this legal step is part of
“cumulative victories, which will enable us one day to achieve legal equality
between the male and female citizens in Lebanon.” This step comes after the
adoption of the domestic violence law in April 2014 that guarantees more
protection for women and children from violence in a household. But
organizations still ask for this law to be changed to improve protection for
women, as well as a regulation against early marriage and the right of women to
pass their nationality on to their children.
The parliament has now to confirm the Administration and Justice Committee's
decision for Article 522 to be legally repealed. “It's a process that could
lead for this decision to be mitigated,” Maya Ammar,
media officer for the nongovernmental organization Kafa,
stressed to Al-Monitor. “We have to wait and see carefully what is going to
happen at the parliament.”
Having Tea with Hezbollah’s No. 2 (Naim Qassem)
By Robin Wright/The New Yorker/December 13/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/13/robin-wrightthe-new-yorker-having-tea-with-hezbollahs-no-2/
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/having-tea-with-hezbollahs-no-2
Naim Qassem is the
second-in-command of Hezbollah, the Shiite organization based in Lebanon and
backed by Iran, which has supported Bashar al-Assad
in Syria’s civil war.
Across Lebanon,
Hezbollah runs special cemeteries—some with their own Facebook
pages—for its fighters. I recently visited several of them, including the new Garden of Zeinab, named
after the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter, where I counted a hundred and
fifteen recent graves. Each was covered with a long white marble slab that
detailed the fighter’s life; the headstone showed a large color photograph. Khodor Safa, nineteen, was in the
front row. He died in September, “performing his jihadi
duties,” the grave said. His slab was decorated with three votive candles,
artificial white flowers, and a small Koran. Nearby, a large balloon offering
“Congratulations”—for martyrdom—was attached to the grave of Ali Hussein Wehbi. Several families tended to other gravestones,
dusting them off, laying flowers, or sitting alongside them in plastic chairs
made available to visitors.
Some two thousand Hezbollah fighters have died and at least six thousand have
been wounded since 2012, when the Shiite movement intervened in Syria’s civil
war, on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad. That’s a
staggering proportion, given the size of its deployment: Hezbollah keeps about
five thousand fighters in Syria,
with another three thousand deployed as needed, according to Lebanese officials
and sources close to Hezbollah. Losses have been especially heavy since last
summer, when the battle for Aleppo, once Syria’s
commercial hub and largest city, escalated. Hezbollah had to recruit hard to
replenish its ranks. The scuttlebutt in Beirut
is that standards have been lowered, training expedited, and religious
indoctrination made less rigorous.
Naim Qassem, a cleric who
wears a white turban and has a trim beard to match, is Hezbollah’s
second-in-command. From Hezbollah’s public-relations office, two fighters drove
me, in a black Chevrolet S.U.V. with draperies on the windows, to meet Qassem in Beirut’s
poor southern suburbs, the movement’s stronghold. The flags of Hezbollah and Lebanon were in
a corner of the meeting room; a plate of dates and almonds was on a table.
Attendants brought in rotating trays of tea, juice, and water as we talked. I
asked Qassem if the intervention was worth the
increasing costs, human and political.
“Since in the West you like to use metaphors and examples, I will give you
one,” he said. “You have a house, and in this house there is a fighter, his
wife, and children, and there is an enemy attacking this house. You have a
garden and a wall, and a hundred metres away you have an olive grove. Is it
better to protect the olive trees or the house? Near the olive grove the
fighter will die. But if they get to the house, the house will be destroyed and
everyone will die. We went to Syria,
near the olive trees.” Qassem added, “We believe that
as important as the losses or the sacrifices in Syria
are, they are much less than if Syria
had disintegrated.”
Founded, trained, and armed by Iran
after Israel’s 1982 invasion
of Lebanon,
Hezbollah has been transformed by three tactical decisions. Each has been a
progressively bolder gamble; with each, Hezbollah’s impact has grown, even as
the costs have soared and its popularity has fluctuated.
In 1993, the then clandestine movement—linked to a decade of terrorist attacks
and hostage seizures—emerged from the underground to declare itself
a political party and run for parliament. It is now the most determined
political actor among the many parties who represent Lebanon’s eighteen recognized
sects. For more than two years, Lebanon
had no President—a position reserved for Maronite
Christians—because of political paralysis in parliament. In October,
Hezbollah’s candidate, Michel Aoun, a former general
who has been allied with Hezbollah for a decade, finally won.
Hezbollah has developed parallel public institutions, too. It is second only to
the national government in providing social services, including health care, in
Lebanon.
One of its largest hospitals, a cardiac-care center, is on Beirut’s main boulevard to the airport. It
runs schools, welfare programs, and a sophisticated broadcast and media
operation.
The second shift was in 2006, when Hezbollah’s raid across the Israeli
border—to kidnap Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips to win freedom for allies
in Israeli jails—provoked the longest modern Arab-Israeli war. It was massively
destructive, particularly in Shiite areas. But it resulted in a strategic draw,
a first in modern Middle East conflicts.
“This put us in hearts around the Arab world,” Qassem
told me. “There was a conviction that Hezbollah was capable of other victories.”
By 2008, Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was
rated the most popular leader in the Arab world, even among Sunni Muslims,
according to a poll by the University
of Maryland’s Sadat Center
for Peace and Development.
Today, Hezbollah is the largest “resistance” force in the Arab world, even
though it is not a state and much of the Arab world has branded it a terrorist
group. Its army has steadily increased; it has some twenty thousand regular forces, and more than twice that number if it calls up reserves.
It has at least as many troops deployed in south Lebanon,
on the Israeli front, as in Syria.
The Hezbollah arsenal of rockets and missiles is seven times larger than it was
during the war with Israel
a decade ago, the Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told
the U.N. Security Council last summer. Hezbollah has “more missiles below
ground in Lebanon
than the European NATO allies have above ground,” he said. The most powerful
have a range that could hit Tel Aviv and Eilat, Israel’s
southernmost city, and a port and resort town. Last month, the Washington Post
reported that Hezbollah has obtained American war materiel, including M113
classic armored personnel carriers. Hezbollah no
longer trains totally in secret. Its training camps and urban-warfare centers
in the eastern Bekaa Valley
are visible by satellite. It even has its own fleet of surveillance drones,
hundreds strong, some armed with explosives.
The third tactical decision, in 2012, was to join Syria’s
civil war, partly to protect the transit route for weapons from Iran, through Syria,
into Lebanon.
“Syria
plays a big role in supporting the resistance politically and militarily,” Qassem told me. “So we had two choices: either Syria remains a supporter of the resistance, or
we would have on the eastern border a country that is against Lebanon and the resistance, and to the south Israel.
Therefore, by Syria
not falling apart, we insure an open road for the continuation of the
resistance.”
Assad almost certainly would not have held onto power without Hezbollah troops
on the ground, Russian airpower, and military aid from Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards (who have also suffered hundreds of dead). Assad’s own
military is battered and diminished after six years of war. Hezbollah has
fought on some of the toughest fronts, including the current battle for Aleppo. It may have made
the strategic difference. “There are great events taking place now in our
region,” Nasrallah said in a speech on Friday,
broadcast on Hezbollah’s television station Al Manar.
He referred to “what is happening in Aleppo, and
the ramifications of the promised and coming victory for the whole battle in Syria and the
region.”
Hezbollah’s deployment in Syria
now makes it one of the most combat-hardened militaries in the Middle East. “In the eyes of the people, the political
powers, the countries—whether friends or foes—we are an actual regional power,”
Qassem said, “because our
positions have regional consequences.”
Hezbollah’s growing profile has deepened the region’s sectarian divide. Within
a year of dispatching troops to Syria,
its standing plummeted, especially among Sunnis. Hezbollah means “Party of God”
in Arabic. Among Sunnis, it’s been dubbed Hizbu Shaitan, or “Party of the Devil.” It also remains a tool of
Iran, more than three
decades after it was created, and is still heavily dependent on Tehran’s financial
largesse. “We are open about the fact that Hezbollah’s budget, its income, its
expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, come from the
Islamic Republic of Iran,” Nasrallah said, with
unusual candor, in a speech in June. “As long as Iran has money,
we have money.”
The United States estimates
that the Islamic Republic has provided Hezbollah up to two hundred million
dollars a year, although international sanctions forced Tehran to cut back aid in 2014 and 2015. “The
group is in its worst financial shape in decades,” Adam Szubin,
the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial
intelligence, told the Senate Banking Committee in May. “And I can assure you
that, alongside our international partners, we are working hard to put them out
of business.” Hezbollah reportedly has been forced to scale back staff and
social services.
Despite the death toll, Hezbollah’s ambitions continue to grow. It is “ready”
to help others in the region “who wish to be liberation movements,” Qassem told me. The militia has generated an affiliate in Syria. “If we
have five Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon,
they are running twenty-five others in Syria
who have not necessarily come from Lebanon,” he claimed. Hezbollah is
also aiding Shiites in Iraq
and Houthis in Yemen. It is prepared, the
sixty-three-year-old cleric told me, to assist “anyplace where there is a cause
we believe in and are needed.”
**Robin Wright is a contributing writer for newyorker.com, and has written for
the magazine since 1988.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
on December 13-14/16
Canada demands that Assad
regime and backers stop violence now and respect human rights in Syria
December 13, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau,
Minister of International Development and La Francophonie,
today issued the following statement amid reports of merciless attacks
perpetrated by the Assad regime and its backers in eastern Aleppo and reported
civilian killings and disappearances:
“Canada is appalled by the continued targeting of civilians, many of whom are
now missing or reportedly shot and killed in the last 24 hours as they flee the
carnage and the continued violent attacks perpetrated by the Syrian government
forces. Hundreds of thousands of people remain in besieged areas across the
country without humanitarian access. They are trapped, terrified and running
out of time.
“We are witnessing atrocities in real time in Syria with total disregard for the
lives of civilians by the Assad regime and its backers. The international
community is watching closely. We must hold those responsible for this horrific
massacre accountable for war crimes and for crimes against humanity. We call on
the Assad regime and its backers—Russia and Iran—to immediately stop the
violence and uphold international humanitarian law, protecting all civilians in
Syria, including rescue workers such as the White Helmets.
“Canada is seized with the plight of the Syrian people, and we are addressing
the situation by rallying the international community on Syria at the UN, by
providing life-saving humanitarian aid through UN institutions and NGOs in
Syria, by supporting critical work of the White Helmets in Syria, by bringing
accountability for the use of chemical weapons, by helping with the gathering
of evidence to help victims to seek justice for war crimes and crimes against
humanity and by welcoming tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to Canada.
“On December 9, 122 countries stood up to the Syrian regime and its backers by
adopting a Canada-led resolution at the United Nations General Assembly,
sending a very strong and unified message to stop the violence now and to
provide for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and for the
resumption of a peace process.
“Canada
and the international community will continue to demand that the Assad regime
and its backers stop all attacks on civilians, stop targeting hospitals, allow
food and medicine to reach the needy and provide safe passage for those trying
to alleviate the suffering.”
Quick facts
On October 20, 2016, Canada,
along with 73 other UN member states, successfully called for an informal
session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the situation in Syria to
pressure all parties involved to cease the strikes on the civilian population
and to allow unhindered humanitarian access.
As one of the 26 members of the International Syria Support Group, Canada has worked to reinvigorate peace efforts
and to find solutions to address the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Canada is supporting
partners, such as the Commission for International Justice and Accountability,
to seek justice for the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed in Syria and Iraq. Canada is also a major contributor to the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Joint Investigative
Mechanism on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
On December 6, 2016, the Government of Canada announced a $4.5-million
contribution to Mayday Rescue to support the White Helmets’ life-saving work in
Syria.
This contribution will allow the White Helmets to recruit and train female
volunteers and establish new centres that will strengthen the organization’s
reach and capacity to provide critical services to all Syrians in need,
particularly women and girls.
On February 8, 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it will be
contributing $1.6 billion over the next three years in a comprehensive and
integrated regional response to the crises in Syria
and Iraq,
with a focus on security, stabilization, humanitarian and development
assistance, and enhanced diplomatic engagement.
Death Toll in Syria War Rises to 312,000
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
13/16/Syria's war has killed just more than 312,000 people since it began in
March 2011, over 90,000 of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights monitor said Tuesday. The Britain-based group said it had recorded the
deaths of 312,001 people since the war began with anti-government protests,
including nearly 16,000 children.The toll includes
more than 53,000 rebels and nearly 110,000 pro-regime fighters, among them over
60,000 Syrian soldiers, 1,387 Hizbullah fighters and
tens of thousands of Syrian militiamen and other foreign fighters. The group
said nearly 55,000 jihadists had also been killed in the fighting, most of them
from the Islamic State group or former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh
al-Sham Front, but also from smaller groups. The Observatory said it had also
recorded the deaths of 3,683 people it had not been able to identify. Syria's
conflict began with anti-government protests but spiraled
into a brutal civil war after a government crackdown on dissent. It has drawn
in proxy powers and attracted foreign jihadists, but successive attempts to
negotiate a political end to the conflict have failed. On Tuesday Syrian
pro-government forces were on the verge of retaking all of the city of Aleppo from rebel
fighters, in what would be the biggest victory yet for President Bashar Assad in the conflict.
Street Execution of Civilians in Aleppo
by Iran Regime Militants and Assad Forces
Tuesday, 13 December 2016 19:23
Street Execution of Civilians in Aleppo
NCRI - Human rights activists and informed sources have reported that Bashar Assad’s forces and their allies (Iranian regime’s
affiliated militants) have executed at least 200 people in four districts of
East Aleppo. According to Al-Hadath TV Network, based
on these reports, medical staff of Al-Hayat Hospital
in Classeh neighborhood in Aleppo are among
those executed. These people were executed by firing bullets. In addition, the
Assad regime’s allied militants have brutally burned 9 children and 4 women
alive in Al- Ferdows neighborhood
in Aleppo. This
is despite the fact that the manager of Aleppo’s
emergency (department) says there is no hospital left in the East of the city
to help the wounded. The activists say that most executions were carried out by
Lebanon’s
Hezbollah militants in street and summary like executions. The Iranian
Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Hezbollah of Lebanon as well as Iraqi, Pakistani,
and Afghan Shiite militants form allied forces of Syrian regime.
These allies enjoy Russia’s
air support.
These events coincide with the advance of Syrian regime forces and their
allies in regions of East Aleppo on Monday,
December 12. Syrian Human Rights Watch has reported that dozens were killed in
Al-Ferdows, Bostan Al-Qasr, and Al-Zobediyeh neighborhoods in Aleppo
as the result of firing or shelling. Syrian regime’s forces and their allies on
Monday advanced in Aleppo’s
Sheikh Saied neighborhood and surrounded the
opponents in a small area of about four square kilometers.
In this small area, about 100 thousand civilians are also present.
Syria’s emergency
organization says the bodies have covered the besieged neighborhood
of East Aleppo. In addition, dozens of
civilians are caught under the rubbles and their scream and call for help can
be heard while there is no possibility (equipment) to save them. Earlier, Maj.
Gen. Zein Saleh, head of
the Assad regime’s security committee in Aleppo
said: “The fighting in Aleppo
must quickly come to an end. There is little time for them. They have to either
surrender or die.”Prior to that, Russian Defense Ministry announced in a statement that Syrian
regime forces have gained control of more than 95 percent of Aleppo.
Stop the bloodbath in Aleppo
Tuesday, 13 December 2016/NCRI - Jawad al-Khatib, Syrian activist from the besieged neighborhood of East Aleppo
asked said in a message that the only demand is not the exit of the citizens
from the besieged areas, but to stop the cascade of blood.
According to Al-Jazeera, he said, "Just stop the bloodbath, which is
currently underway in the Bostan region behind me ...
there is no place to bury the dead. The situation is crazy and people can no
longer tolerate. This is the last video message that I am sending because we
got tired of talks and speeches and no one does nothing."
Iranian Revolutionary Guards and its hired mercenaries reportedly executed
dozens of people in East Aleppo. Aleppo
Emergency Organization has declared the South East region of Aleppo is covered with bodies. According to
this statement, as a result of aerial bombardments about 90 bodies are under
the rubble.
Press Groups Urge Safe Passage for Aleppo Media Workers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
13/16/Press freedom groups called Tuesday for safe passage for media workers
trapped inside a small remaining pocket of rebel territory in Syria's east Aleppo as the army advances.
Lebanon's SKeyes Center, the London-based Rory Peck Trust and 18 other
press NGOs urged all parties to ensure "steps are taken to safeguard the
lives of media workers living and working in Aleppo and those media workers choosing to
leave the city."
They called for the "safe passage of media workers" and "respect
for the work and the physical integrity of media personnel", noting they
are protected under international law.
Syria's army has taken more
than 90 percent of east Aleppo
from rebels since launching a military operation nearly one month ago. Tens of
thousands of people have fled rebel neighborhoods as
the government has advanced, but many civilians, including medics and media
activists, fear arrest if they cross to regime territory. "Names and
identities of Aleppo's
media workers are known to international media assistance and press freedom
organizations and any harm to their personal safety will be considered a breach
of international conventions put in place to ensure the safety of journalists
and must be independently investigated," the NGOs wrote. Media watchdog
Reporters Without Borders says Syria is the world's deadliest
country for journalists. In June, it said at least 51 professional and 144
non-professional journalists had been killed in the country since the start of
the conflict in 2011. A further 50 are either detained in government jails,
held hostage by the Islamic State group or other extremist armed groups, or
have simply disappeared.
Presence of Qassem
Soleimani in Aleppo, Proof of Killings of Syrian
Citizens (by Iran Regime)
Tuesday, 13 December 2016 19:42 /NCRI - One of the documents exposing Iranian
regime’s criminal meddling in Syria is the presence of Qassem
Soleimani, commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards
(IRGC’s) terrorist Quds
Force, in Aleppo, a city that is now facing brutal massacre of its citizens by
IRGC and Assad regime. A
report by Al Arabiya Television: Iran regime’s affiliated Iraqi militants who are
mainly form a group known as “Asaeb” have distributed
videos that show Qassem Soleimani,
commander of Quds Force, is present in the war fronts
in Syria.
A video shows that Soleimani is visiting Iranian
regime’s affiliated military units that are engaged in the battles in Aleppo. The video is
published two weeks after start of extensive military operations by Assad
forces and their allies to gain complete control of Aleppo and the combatants’ resistance against
them. The exact date of this video is not clear but Iraqi militants only
explained that the commander of terrorist Quds Force
is in Aleppo.
Earlier, the (Iraqi) militants acknowledged that the regime in Iran has dispatched a large number of militants
from Iraq to Syria.
According to Iranian regime’s state media, Qassem Soleimani has also participated in the war in Iraq against
Sunni areas such as Fallujah. The Iranian regime says presence of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq was at the
official request of Iraqi government.
Iraqi militants say that after the fighting in Mosul
(ends) they get ready to go to Syria
to fight in defense of the Assad regime.
Iran Regime's Officials Congratulate
Each Other for Committing Crimes Against Humanity in Aleppo
Tuesday, 13 December 2016 /NCRI - While the world is disgusted and perplexed of
crimes against humanity and atrocities committed against the defenseless people of Aleppo, the highest authorities of
the Iranian regime admit to undertaking these crimes and brazenly congratulate
each other. Mullah Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's
representative in IRGC Qods Force, in a message to Qasem Soleimani, the criminal
commander of the terrorist Qods Force, described the
horrible crime in Aleppo as a "proud" and "unmatched
triumph" in Aleppo and "the biggest festival on the eve of the
Prophet’s birth anniversary” and congratulated him. He asked the mercenaries
deployed to Aleppo calling them "defenders of the shrine" to hold
prayer of gratitude.The clerical regime, in order to
cover up its criminal aggression in Syria, calls its Revolutionary Guards and
agents deployed to Aleppo and other fronts of the war in Syria defenders of the
shrine, while the city of the Shrine is 300 kilometers
(hundreds of kilometers) away. The spirit of Islam
and all Muslims of the world are appalled by the unprecedented and horrifying
atrocities and renounce it. Reportedly militants linked to the Iranian regime
and Assad's regime military have street executed hundreds of defenseless civilians and burn corpses of children and women.
All medical staff of Al-Hayat hospital in Kolasse neighborhood of Aleppo are
among those executed. According to the Syrian emergency organization, besieged neighborhoods of Eastern Aleppo is covered by bodies. Dozens of
civilians are buried under rubbles and their cries are being heard while there
is no possibility to save them. Syrian opposition leaders say 1800 people have
been executed, 600 women arrested and many missing during the past few days.
This catastrophe is the result of giving an unjustified and illegitimate open
hand to the clerical regime in taking IRGC troops to Syria and setting the
Middle East in fire and blood, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrian defenseless people especially women and children.
Last Message of Syrian Girl Lina Shami From
Aleppo
Tuesday, 13 December 2016/NCRI - In a message from Aleppo, young Syrian girl Lina
Shami asked for help from people around the world to
do something to save them. This message is in English and published widely on
social networks.Lina Shami:
“To all those who hear my voice: We are facing genocide here in East Aleppo. This might be my last video message. More
than 50 thousand civilians who have risen up and resisted against Assad’s
dictatorship are facing the threat of execution or being killed in the bombing.”According to activists, more than 180 people, who
(left Aleppo
and) went to the areas under the control of Assad regime, were executed by
Assad forces or their allied militants.The civilians
are taken to an area of less than 2 square kilometer.
They have no protection and are exposed to bombing. Every bomb means a
slaughter. Save Aleppo.
Save humanity.
Rebels Say Deal Reached to Evacuate Aleppo
'within Hours'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
13/16/Civilians and opposition fighters will start evacuating east Aleppo
"within hours" under a deal with Syria's regime, a rebel official
said Tuesday, as global outrage mounted over reports of atrocities including
summary executions. Yasser al-Youssef from the
political office of the key Nurredin al-Zinki group told AFP the deal with President Bashar Assad's regime was being "sponsored" by Russia and Turkey. "An agreement has been
reached," Youssef said. "The first stage
will be the evacuation of civilians and wounded, within hours, and afterwards
fighters will leave with their light weapons." Those leaving will be
allowed to travel to other rebel-held territory in the west of Aleppo province or neighboring
Idlib province, he said.
A source in the powerful Ahrar al-Sham rebel group
confirmed the deal and its details.
There was no immediate confirmation from the regime, Ankara
or Moscow.
The United Nations and aid agencies have been pleading for a ceasefire to allow
for the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the last pocket
of rebel territory in Aleppo.
After weeks of heavy fighting, forces loyal to Assad were in the last hours of
a push to take full control of the city, dealing the biggest blow to Syria's
rebellion in more than five years of civil war. But as the long battle reached
its final stages, the United Nations said it had received reports of at least
82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, being executed by
pro-government forces. Following a request from Britain and France, the U.N.
Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting at 1700 GMT to address what
the French envoy called "the worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st
century unfolding before our eyes."
'Last hellish corner'
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, U.N. rights office spokesman Rupert Colville
said it had received credible reports of the civilian executions in recent
days. Pro-government fighters had in some cases entered homes and killed those
inside, and in others "caught and killed on the spot" fleeing
civilians, he said. The U.N. was "filled with the deepest foreboding for
those who remain in this last hellish corner of opposition-held eastern Aleppo", Colville
said. Residents in remaining rebel-held territory told AFP they had no hope
left. "Our fate is sealed. Why would we
hide, it won't do us any good. We will either die or be captured," said
Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, a spokesman for the White Helmets rescue service. Other witnesses
described scenes of carnage in rebel areas, with bodies lying amid the rubble
of city streets, as desperate residents sat on pavements with nowhere to
shelter. French
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there were
worrying reports of "cold-blooded killings of entire families",
"summary executions, including of women and children" and
"people burned alive in their homes". "Such atrocities are
unconscionable. Supporters of the regime, starting with Russia, cannot
let this happen." Britain
repeated its call for Assad to step aside, citing his "barbaric
cruelty", and French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
said "massacres" in Aleppo
could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.U.N.
chief Ban Ki-moon had late
Monday also expressed alarm "over reports of atrocities against a large
number of civilians, including women and children."
'Last chance to save lives'
Syria's army has taken more than 90 percent of the territory once held by
rebels in east Aleppo, after launching an all-out offensive last month to seize
control of the entire city.
Aleppo, a cultural and economic hub in
northern Syria second only
to Damascus in
importance, had been split between a rebel-controlled east and government-held
west since 2012. Recapturing all of Aleppo will
be a huge victory for Assad and leave his regime in control of all five of Syria's main
cities. As of early Tuesday, rebels were reported to be confined to just a
handful of neighborhoods, including Mashhad
and part of Sukkari. It was unclear how many civilians remained
in rebel territory, after an estimated 130,000 fled to other parts of Aleppo during the
government advance. Jan Egeland, head of the
U.N.-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, told AFP that thousands of
civilians were in need of evacuation and safe passage, including hundreds of
wounded. "We need a pause in the fighting but we also need to get the
people inside to help organize an evacuation," he said. The International
Committee of the Red Cross said there was only a "last chance to save
lives" in Aleppo.
"As the battle reaches new peaks and the area is plunged into chaos,
thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to
run," it said.
Trapped children
The U.N.'s children agency UNICEF said it had "alarming reports" from
a doctor in Aleppo of more than 100 children, unaccompanied or separated from
their families, trapped in a building under heavy attack. UNICEF regional
director Geert Cappelaere
said in a statement the agency was also "deeply concerned by unverified
reports of extra judicial killings of civilians including children." The
government assault has been backed by heavy artillery fire and air strikes,
with at least 463 civilians, including 62 children, killed in east Aleppo since
mid-November, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another 130 people
including 40 children have been killed in western districts by rebel rocket
fire, the Britain-based monitoring group says. More than 310,000 people have
been killed since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, and over half the
population has been displaced, with millions becoming refugees.
Drone strike kills ISIS figures in
Syria, some with Paris attack ties
AFP, Washington Tuesday, 13 December 2016/A coalition drone strike in
Syria killed three ISIS leaders involved in plotting foreign attacks, including
two men who helped facilitate last year’s attacks in Paris, the Pentagon said
Tuesday. “The three were working together to plot and facilitate attacks
against Western targets at the time of the strike,” Pentagon press secretary
Peter Cook said in a statement. They were killed in a December 4 air strike in Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold in Syria. Cook said two of those
killed -- Salah-Eddine Gourmat
and Sammy Djedou -- were involved in facilitating the
November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people died. Gourmat
was a French national, and Djedou was Belgian. Both
of them were “close associates” of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani,
an ISIS spokesman and an external operations
leader who was killed in a coalition air strike in August. The third person
killed was Walid Hamman, a Frenchman who Cook
said was a suicide-attack planner who was convicted in absentia in Belgium
for a terror plot disrupted in 2015. They were riding together in a vehicle at
the time of the drone strike, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said.
All three belonged to a network led by Boubaker
Al-Hakim, a Tunisian killed in an air strike last month, officials said. Last
year’s ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris saw suicide bombers and gunmen launch a
coordinated assault across the French capital, including at the Bataclan, a concert hall where 90 people were killed by
three attackers during a rock gig in the culmination of the carnage. Gourmat had worked on external attacks in Europe, the
Middle East and north Africa and was involved in the
“financial facilitation” of the Paris attacks, Davis said. Djedou was involved in plotting Europe attacks, Davis added without giving details about his role in the Paris attacks. Hamman was a “longtime French
terrorist” who helped ISIS seize Mosul and other
operations, Davis
said. In March 2014, a French court sentenced an absent Gourmat,
then 24, to four years in prison for charges including trying to conduct
extremist in Syria.
He had been arrested with two other men in May 2012 at an airport near Saint-Etienne in central France carrying a revolver,
night-vision goggles, camouflage clothing and tactical vests. They had been
trying to fly to Gaziantep in southeast Turkey. Gourmat and another of the men arrested claimed they were
going on a humanitarian trip. Gourmat, who had not
been kept in custody ahead of his trial, fled France. The US-led coalition has
since 2014 been striking ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria, pushing the extremist
group out of vast areas and forcing it try to cling to two remaining power
centers, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
Cairo cathedral blast suspects reveal
new surprises
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 13 December
2016/Adviser Nabil Sadeq,
the Egyptian Attorney General is pursuing the investigations with the accused
in the bombing of the Petrine ministry of the Church
in Abbassiya, which killed 24 people and injured 49
others. The prosecutor accused the defendants of the murder of Copts, shedding
their blood, possession of weapons, explosives, harboring
terrorists, execution of hostile operations against the state and joining a
terrorist group. Prosecutors asked the security forces to bring the two
fugitives, Mohab Mostafa
El-Sayed Kassem, and Karam Ahmed Abdel Aal Ibrahim.
Investigations initiated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution revealed
that the suicide bomber, Mahmoud Shafik,
walked at a fast pace into the church before the prayers, one of the security
personnel suspected him and chased him at the back door dedicated to women,
minutes later he blew himself up. Prosecutors revealed the lack of surveillance
cameras in the prayer hall, concentrated only on the outside. They asked the
crime lab, bomb squad and forensics to quickly provide technical reports on the
incident. On the other hand, one of the servants of the church called Marcus Mokhtar revealed new details about the incident. In a press
statement given Tuesday, he said that he had met the terrorist bomber, one day
before the accident, where the terrorist came to the church on Saturday evening
and asked for some religious books about the history of Christianity, claiming
that he is preparing a study on the Christian religion, and wanting to
interview one of the priests. He had a big blue bag and wanted to enter. The
Server added that he told the terrorist that the church is closed now and there
is no one, but he can come back tomorrow morning, adding that upon seeing the
terrorist's body and his image, he recognized him immediately. Marcus said that
he will go Tuesday morning to deposit his testimony.
Remand Hearing for Cairo
Church Bombing Suspects
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
13/16/Four suspects in a Cairo
church bombing which killed 25 people have been referred to state security
prosecutors for a remand hearing, officials said on Tuesday.
Police arrested three men and one woman on suspicion of assisting the suicide
bomber who carried out Sunday's attack during a service at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Monday. They will ask prosecutors to
remand the four in custody for up to 15 days while the investigation continues.
One of the four, identified by the interior ministry as Rami
Mohamed Abdel Hameed Abdel Ghani,
is suspected of hiding the explosives and the bomber, and of preparing him for
the attack.
The president named the bomber as Mahmoud Shafik Mohamed Mostafa, 22. The
interior ministry said he was identified by DNA tests. Egypt's Coptic
Christian minority accounts for up to 10 percent of the population and has long
complained of persecution and discrimination. The church targeted in Sunday's
bombing lies next to Saint Mark's Cathedral, the seat of Coptic Pope Tawadros II. Police are searching for several other
suspects. The interior ministry named the suspected ringleader as Mohab Mostafa el-Sayed Qassem, also known as
"The Doctor". It charged he had traveled to Qatar in 2015 to meet fugitive
leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the party of president
Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted by Sisi
in 2013. The Brotherhood has condemned the bombing and denied any involvement.
Egypt, Iran
officials meet in latest sign of rapprochement
he New Arab/13 December, 2016/An Egyptian official has
met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the latest sign of rapprochement between the two
countries. An Egyptian official has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the latest sign
of rapprochement between the Middle Eastern powers. Yasser Othman, the head of Egypt's Interests Section office in Tehran met with Zarif on Monday to discuss "regional issues", the
state-backed Tehran Times reported. The news has sparked renewed speculation
over the future of Egyptian-Iranian relations only days after Egypt's foreign minister denied there were
ongoing efforts to overcome strained diplomatic ties with Tehran. Iran
and Egypt
have had an awkward relationship in recent decades. They have had no diplomatic
relations since 1980, when Egypt
offered Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi refuge following a revolution in Iran. Egypt was tied to a Western embargo of Iran when Tehran
was slapped with sanctions due to its nuclear activities until recently. On
Saturday, Egypt's Foreign
Minister Sameh Shoukry
denied his government was building its relations with Saudi arch rival Iran. "Egypt maintains
a severance of diplomatic relations in the past 25 years and has taken no position
to change that situation.""Egypt has always taken the opportunity of such
discussions to re-emphasise the positions of the Arab nation, the interest of
the Arab nation, vis-a-vis what might be expansionary policies of Iran,"
he added. Leaked emails revealed last month that Iran
had requested Egypt's
attendance at key Syria
talks held in the Swiss city of Lausanne
aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict. Iran's lobbying for
Egypt's inclusion in the talks began a matter of days before Egypt stunned its
financial backer Saudi Arabia by voting alongside Russia to block a draft UN
Security Council resolution proposed by France which demanded an end to
airstrikes in Aleppo. As a result, Riyadh
suspended oil aid to Egypt,
estimated at some 700,000 tonnes of petroleum products monthly. Shoukry also denied on Saturday that there was a rift
between Egypt and Saudi Arabia,
adding that they enjoyed a "special relationship". Last week, sources
told The New Arab that Saudi Arabia
would not mend ties with Egypt
until Shoukry was sacked and two contested Red Sea islands were transferred to Saudi sovereignty.
Trump picks ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson as top
diplomat
The New Arab & agencies/13 December, 2016/President-elect Donald Trump on
Tuesday officially selected Rex Tillerson, the chief
executive of Exxon Mobil, to be his secretary of state. Tillerson's
nomination comes just days after the CIA accused Russia of interfering with the
US election in favour of Trump, in a development which could complicate the CEO's "Rex knows how to manage a global
enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his
relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none," Trump
said in a statement. As ExxonMobil's president and chief executive, the
64-year-old Texan oversees the company's business activities in more than 50
countries. He has opposed sanctions on Russia and in 2013 was awarded Russia's
Order of Friendship by President Vladimir Putin following several years of
Exxon projects in the "I can think
of no one more prepared, and no one more dedicated, to serve as Secretary of
State at this critical time in our history," Trump said. US media have reported for days on secret CIA
findings that Moscow
sought to bolster Trump's election bid against Democratic former secretary of
state Hillary Clinton by releasing hacked Democratic Party documents. Tillerson - who has no formal foreign policy background -
is sure to face sharp questions in Senate confirmation hearings. Leading
senators on Monday threw their backing behind a congressional investigation
into US intelligence assessments on Russia election interference,
putting top Republicans on a collision course with the incoming president.
Turkey detains pro-Kurdish party MPs
The New Arab & agencies/13 December, 2016/Turkish police detained two more
pro-Kurdish lawmakers hours after arresting over 200 people accused of links to
Kurdish militants, their party said early Tuesday. The two women, Caglar Demirel and Besime Konca, who represent the southeastern Kurdish-majority cities of Diyarbakir and Siirt
respectively, were held as part of a sweeping anti-terror probe, state news
agency Anadolu said. "Head of the party's
parliamentary group Caglar Demirel
and Siirt MP Besime Konca were unlawfully detained in front of our (Ankara)
headquarters," the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party [HDP]
said on Twitter. Konca was taken to court in the southeastern province
of Batman, Dogan news agency reported, where she was released under
"judicial control", the equivalent of being freed under supervision.
An investigation had been launched into the MP after she allegedly spoke at the
funeral of a man killed during security operations against Kurdish rebels in Diyarbakir, the agency
said. The detentions came after twin blasts hit Istanbul on Saturday killing 37 police
officers and seven civilians. The attacks were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom
Falcons [TAK], which is seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party [PKK]. Police launched a nationwide operation on Monday,
detaining individuals accused of PKK links or of producing propaganda for the
group, which is proscribed as a terror organisation by Ankara,
the European Union and the United
States. The interior ministry said 235
people were detained. The HDP said late Monday that at least 291 of its members
had been taken into custody in less than 24 hours.
Last month, 10 of the party's MPs - including co-leaders Selahattin
Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag - were arrested, sparking international
condemnation. They are currently in pre-trial detention over alleged links to
the PKK. In May this year, the Turkish parliament adopted a bill that lifted
immunity for dozens of MPs, which government critics feared would see HDP MPs face
criminal prosecution and lose parliamentary seats. The government accuses the
HDP of having links to the PKK, a charge that the HDP denies. The PKK has waged
an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 during which over 40,000
people have been Violence surged last year after the collapse of a
two-and-a-half-year ceasefire, sparking almost daily clashes between the PKK
and Turkish security forces, mainly in the southeast.
Iranians sneak into Britain with forged
passports
Staff writer, Al Arabiya.net Tuesday, 13 December 2016/Organized gangs were
able to smuggle hundreds of Iranians to the British territory recently using
fake passports, Greek investigators revealed. It is feared that they may be
infiltrators coming to carry out acts of terrorism, or that they are coming to
spy on Syrian refugees fleeing concentrations of Bashar
al-Assad's regime. The Times reported that the organized smuggling gang charged
Iranian who wanted to illegally pass the borders 12 thousand and 500 pounds (16
thousand US dollars), in exchange for issuing a fake passport and helping them
enter the United Kingdom. The paper says that the Greek and British authorities
were able to arrest 33 people suspected of being part of the smuggling circle.
Investigations revealed that the Iranians were brought from Iran to Turkey,
and then transported to Europe. They initially
arrive from Turkey to Greece; than are smuggled across the European
territory into Britain.
Europeans Investigators discovered that the smuggling gang manufactured high-quality
fake passports which make it difficult for the security officer to monitor.
Some of these passports are stolen, or lost and found meaning the original
passport is being used by someone else. The British newspaper published that 24
people of the suspects were arrested in the Greek capital Athens,
while the rest were arrested in Britain,
specifically in the cities of Manchester, Glasgow and Northampton.
The paper emphasizes that a large number of high-quality fake European
passports were found in the possession of the arrested persons, in addition to
hundreds of forged documents, and cash which seems to match the services they
provide to the Iranians. This is the first time that information surfaced about
Iranians being smuggled into Britain and Europe, while British police have not
officially announced anything, it remains unclear whether these Iranians are
associated with their government or not, and whether they are coming to Europe
for certain purposes. European security service worry about
possible terrorist attacks, especially after the incidents that hit France, Germany
and Belgium over the past
months, where ISIS attacks claimed the lives
of many civilians.
**This article is also published on Al Arabiya.net
ISIS halt Iraqi forces progress by blowing up bridges
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 13 December
2016/ISIS blew up the Khosr river bride east of Mosul
in an attempt to halt the progress of Iraqi forces coming in from the recently
liberated Al-Falah neighborhood
as they head towards ISIS-held Hay AlSukkar.
Iraqi forces, however, reported the stopping of battles in Eastern
Mosul – announcing the completing of the first phase of taking
back the city. Saturday, Iraq’s
joint operations command that counter-terrorism forces regained control of 31 neighborhoods on the left coast of the city of Mosul. They continue to
advance in three other neighborhoods after inflicting
heavy losses on ISIS during recent battles.
The joint operations’ command also said that their forces are less than two kilometers away from Mosul’s
bridges, adding that the coalition’s air force continues to destroy ISIS
gatherings in east Mosul.
Kuwait MPs urge GCC to expel Russian envoys
New Arab & agencies/13 December, 2016/Opposition MPs in Kuwait urged Gulf Cooperation Council nations on
Tuesday to expel Russian ambassadors over what they called Moscow's
role in "genocide" against civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The lawmakers
also signed a motion calling on the newly elected parliament to hold an
emergency meeting next week in support of the city. "There is a genocide
being committed against civilians in Aleppo
amid total international negligence," Islamist MP Jamaan
al-Harbash told a small rally in the parliament
building. "We call on the Gulf
States to expel Russian ambassadors... and to open
fund-raising campaigns at mosques," he said. The GCC groups energy-rich Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and United Arab
Emirates, all of which have diplomatic ties with Russia, a key
ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Abdullah Fahhad, another Islamist MP, demanded the expulsion of the
envoys of both Russia and Iran, another
Assad ally. MP Waleed al-Tabtabai
said that a protest will be staged on Wednesday outside the Russian embassy in Kuwait City
over its military backing for Assad. The Islamist-dominated opposition in Kuwait won
nearly half of the 50 seats in a snap general election last month. The United
Nations said on Tuesday it had credible reports of pro-government forces in Aleppo executing dozens
of civilians including women and children as the crucial battle for the city
neared its end. The UN human rights office said at least 82 civilians,
including 11 women and 13 children, were reported to have been killed in recent
days.
Al-Azhar head:
Western modernity 'not best' for Muslim women
The New Arab & agencies/12 December, 2016/The head of al-Azhar, Egypt's top Islamic authority, said on Monday that
the Western concept of modernity is not the "best example" for Muslim
women to follow. "Islam has done justice to the Muslim woman and freed her
from shackles and restrictions," said Al-Azhar's
grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. Muslim women were
"influenced more by tradition and customs than by the precepts of
Islam," he told the Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliaments in Abu Dhabi. The sheikh
said that in some ways the situation of women had deteriorated to a pre-Islam
state, in an apparent reference to the influence of radical Islamists. However
he insisted that emulating life in the West was not the solution. "The
Western concept of modernity is not the best example to be followed by the rest
of the world," he said, acknowledging, however, the "positive
aspects" of scientific and humanitarian progress. The two-day summit brings
together 50 women parliamentary leaders from around the globe.
Latest LCCC Bulletin
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on December 13-14/16
Palmyra and Aleppo,
bloody new chapters in the Syrian war
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/December 13/16
Freed from ISIS in a PR assault in March 2016 by Russia and Bashar
al-Assad’s forces, Palmyra has fallen back into the hands of ISIS. In what felt
like one day, ISIS orchestrated a significant redeployment of forces from Deir Azzor and Raqqa, crossing about 300km of Syria unnoticed, not stopped by
anyone during their quick march. Four thousand ISIS fighters recaptured Palmyra in violent
clashes within a few hours. According to the reports, all civilians were
evacuated as well as archeologists working on Palmyra’s heritage
restoration. The Syria Army had to retreat, leaving arsenals and military
material that now has fallen into the hands of ISIS.
Brutal fighting continues as the army, with the help of Russia’s air
force, continue attempts to retake the city. By irony of fate, having lost Palmyra to ISIS as well as ground in Homs,
the Syrian army has liberated Aleppo (while
others say Aleppo
has fallen). The forces and Syrians loyal to Bashar
al-Assad praise the victory and the beginning of the end of war, apparently not
taking into consideration that their true enemy occupies over a third of their
country and is not going to surrender. The current situation raises questions
about the future development of the conflict, but also gives many answers,
confirms apprehensions and reveals a lot of particular traits of the situation
that were not so visible before.
One thing that the situation in Palmyra
has illustrated is the major problem of Syrian media coverage. There is no
independent journalism in Syria.
All that is at disposal of the people is state media which spreads more
propaganda than truth, some independent sources, with hardly reliable sources
as they cannot be checked, ISIS propaganda channels and social media accounts
of the rebels, fighters or people who are reportedly tweeting being on the
ground but too often appear to be somewhere else. In all cases, you cannot
trust the information you receive - at best it can be biased, at worst it can
be fake. The Syrian conflict has killed not only 500,000 people, but also
independent journalism, as long as the journalists are violently targeted by
al-Qaeda affiliated fighters, extremists and ISIS. And in these five years of
war, those who stayed and survived have lost their unbiased approach.
The dramatic story of the Syrian conflict does not end with the fall of Aleppo, despite the hopes of Syrians loyal to Damascus
Another issue is that just reporting anything that can
be perceived as pro-Assad or anti-Assad leads to them immediately being labeled pro or anti-Assad. In such conditions, the media
has been boiling over with extremely controversial information about Palmyra with the Russian media has been continuously
repeating that “Palmyra
is ours” when even the Syrians themselves have admitted that it is not.
However, this panicked media paralysis is understandable and this reveals the
extreme sensitivity Moscow feels regarding what
is happening in Syria.
Russian goals
To understand what the loss of Palmyra
means for Russia we should
look at its interests in Syria
in general. Russia pursues
many goals in Syria - image
building, declaring its full return to the world stage as a great power and
other geopolitical interests based on claiming back its lost position in the Middle East. For Russia,
Syria is a matter of
defending principles and the basis of multipolar
world, which is important to limit the spreading influence of the US and its
monopoly on managing global affairs. For Russia,
the liberation of Palmyra was both a declaration
of the intention to fight extremists in Syria
as well as a strong PR maneuver that was crowned by
the worldwide broadcast of a breathtaking concert of internationally recognized
maestro Valéry Gergiev in the amphitheater
of Palmyra that once served as a place of public
executions by ISIS. Since then Russia’s main target was mostly Aleppo, on which the eyes of the global
community were focused. And the loss of Palmyra
is an extreme blow to its far-reaching ambitions. There is no doubt that after
the “liberation” of Aleppo, Russia will concentrate the might of its air
force on Palmyra.
And forces loyal to Damascus will probably
re-capture the city from ISIS. But do they
have any strategy for continued fighting and the power to keep all that is
“liberated” in their hands?
The Syrian army is in such a vulnerable condition that it can hardly conduct
actions in several directions at the same time, and being concentrated in one
battle zone, it can hardly retain the attack in the
other one and guarantee safety in liberated zones. ISIS
is not weakened despite all hopes and they counter the lack of weaponry with
high military proficiency and experience. The liberation of Aleppo does not make the situation any
easier. The opportunity for equal and balanced negotiations has been lost. The
idea that Assad must step down does not seem so sound, especially for those
Syrians loyal to him, for whom he is a president-liberator. This idea does not
seem reasonable for Assad, as long he has his own truth and the current bloody
victory will also make him deaf to all Russia’s exhortations to step down and
start a transition process. There is a high risk that the rebels will probably
radicalize and join ISIS as many moderates have been exterminated in Aleppo and Syria.
Furthermore, after the loss of Aleppo the
Western powers will have a strong temptation to fight ISIS less thoroughly and
push it to concentrate its forces in Syria. Possibly they would have a
temptation to finish what the rebels have failed to do – destroy the Syrian
army and overthrow Assad. The West has a long experience of using evil against
evil. It is just one of the possible scenarios for the future but it does not
seem so improbable. If the Syrians could redirect all their hatred and aim it
exclusively at the core evil of all humanity, they would have succeeded in
defeating it a long time ago. The defeat of ISIS
lies in the unity of the Syrian people. Being influenced by global players, for
whom they are just pawns in the global geopolitical game, they are losing their
lives, future and possibly their Motherland. The dramatic story of the Syrian
conflict does not end with the fall of Aleppo,
despite the hopes of Syrians loyal to Damascus,
but it just starts a new chapter, and God knows, it
could be much bloodier.
From Cairo
to Istanbul, the devil is the same
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/December 13/16
At around the same time, terrorism has once again
revealed its hideous face in Egypt
and Turkey.
A monstrous strike targeted women, children and worshippers at the famous Saint
Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya, Cairo. At least 25 were
killed and 31 others injured.The terror that struck Istanbul was another evil
act of terrorism. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed the twin attacks –
a car bomb followed by a suicide attack less than a minute later – that killed
38 people outside a sports stadium. This madness will unfortunately continue as
there is a link between all that is happening and even if it does not appear to
be the case. The terror targeting Turkey
is being nurtured through Syria
and perhaps through Iraq as
ISIS has categorized Turkey
an enemy after it engaged in the war against it. There is also the war against
the Kurdish militias in support of Russia
and Iran and which aim to
establish a Kurdish state that separates between Turkey,
Syria and Iraq. ISIS is
the final form of armed fundamentalist outburst, which uses
the concept of the “caliphate” and “jihad”, and are fighting the
“enemies of Islam” as a means to recruit and mobilize especially after the West
let down the Syrian people and the Russian and the Iranian regimes conspired
against Syria and Iraq.
Letting Iran and Russia commit crimes in Syria and Iraq clearly means more of
ISIS and non-ISIS terrorism and more of international terrorism
Egypt has a different kind of terrorism even though there is a link to ISIS in
all these places and to Syria and Iraq and to al-Qaeda. Ahmad Salama Mabruk, aka Abu al-Faraj al-Masri, sat next to Abu
Mohammed al-Julani when the new alliance of Fateh al-Sham was announced. In other words, the source of
chaos, destruction and incitement to terrorism, as these groups put it, is what
is happening in Syria.
Syria’s volcano, and now Iraq’s, is
spewing out its lava on everyone. Torrents of fire are spilling into neighboring countries or rather across the entire world.
The US, the world’s major superpower, probably thinks that its “isolation” from
the Middle East is the solution and that it can settle down to just fighting
ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Major illusion
This is a major illusion because letting Iran and Russia
commit crimes in Syria and Iraq clearly means more of ISIS and non-ISIS
terrorism and more of international terrorism in the West and the US
itself. It’s all crystal clear. In his The National Interest article last week,
Amitai Etzioni, Professor
of International Relations at The George Washington University, wrote: “Such a
Shiite-dominated Middle East is going to be – and, in effect, already is – a
major breeding ground for transnational terrorism that is spreading into Europe
and is threatening the US homeland.”The roads to
terrorism lead to one another and the solution is to block all of their supply
chains. Is Donald Trump, the new leader of America, aware of that?
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on December 12, 2016.
Which Muslims are against Trump?
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/December 13/16
Extremist powers in our region have declared war against President-elect Donald
Trump under the excuse that he has a project to fight Islam and Muslims. They
are trying to incite around one billion Muslims against the new US administration and against the US. Those
performing this task are doing so through religious and media platforms
affiliated with extremist Islamic parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood and
the Iranian regime. Is Trump really hostile to Muslims in general? Do his
secretaries of state really have hostile stances against Islam as a religion?
Ever since Trump announced the appointments of major secretaries of state, many
in our region spoke out against them, claiming Washington was willing to launch war on one
billion Muslims. General James Mattis, who Trump
chose as secretary of defense, has in fact clearly
and frankly voiced hostility - but against terrorist organizations like
Al-Qaeda. He also has frank stances against what Iran
is doing in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. General Michael Flynn,
Trump’s new national security advisor, has also made outspoken speeches against
extremist Islamic groups. Many have used these speeches to indicate that he is
hostile against Islam and Muslims. Truth be told, what General Flynn said is
what we ourselves say, that there is a dangerous virus inside Islamic society
called extremism that has killed Muslims and threatened them everywhere and
harmed them more than it even harmed the West and followers of other religions.
The ‘dangerous disease’
Doesn’t this dangerous disease exist in Muslims’ societies across the world?
It certainly exists. Look at what happened in Turkey
and Egypt during the past
few days and what had happened in Saudi Arabia,
Morocco and Jordan. Hideous
crimes were committed by extremist groups - the same ones which Flynn and Mattis call for confronting. Mike Pompeo,
who Trump chose to manage the most important foreign security institution, the
CIA, has the same opinions about the necessity of confronting extremism and
he’s aware of Iran’s sabotaging role in the region and the world. We, as
Muslims, have for a decade and half now been engaged in a war against extremism
and extremists, as an ideology and groups, and want the world to differentiate
between Muslims and not put them all in one category and to stand with the
majority of peaceful Muslims against this evil minority. If we realize that
those who are angered by these three appointments are Iran, Al-Qaeda
and Islamic groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood, we can understand that the
problem is not in Trump’s choices, but in these men’s project to confront
terrorism which the former parties sponsor or at least benefit from. The
majority of Islamic countries agree with these state secretaries’ proposals and
vision of the crisis that threatens the entire world. We, as Muslims, have for
a decade and half now been engaged in a war against extremism and extremists,
as an ideology and groups, and want the world to differentiate between Muslims
and not put them all in one category and to stand with the majority of peaceful
Muslims against this evil minority. It’s in our interest to deter regimes like Iran that
supports terrorist groups, be it Sunni or Shiite, and allies with them and
engages in regional wars under dishonest slogans such as defending Islam or
standing against the West.
We understand that Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the elections angered the Muslim
Brotherhood. What fueled the latter’s anger was how
Trump received Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi
in New York
earlier this year. It’s on this basis that they try to picture Trump’s
administration as racist and as an enemy of Islam and Muslims. They want to
establish a popular bloc that exerts pressure to confront the new American
government in order to intimidate it and force it to alter its stances and they
are doing so by entrenching themselves behind Islam and Muslims.
Iran’s
leadership of extremists
However, the Muslim Brotherhood must realize that we don’t agree with them and
don’t care about their aspirations for power and don’t want to stand with them.
At the same time, we support any government in the world that’s willing to ally
with us against extremism and terrorism as this has always been our desire, even
before Trump entered the political arena. These groups must realize the threat
of media, political and religious incitation against Trump and the West and how
it will cause new waves of violence under false justifications.
For 40 years now, Iran has
led extremist groups, whether armed or politicized or Sunni or Shiite, in Lebanon, Palestine
and the Gulf and it continues to do so. It’s currently guilty when it comes to Iraq and the sectarian chaos across it and it’s
responsible for the rivers of blood in Syria. It’s for the first time that
we see Washington
officials who realize the facts on the ground and frankly declare that they
will not accept blackmail or keep silent over extremist and terrorist regimes’
and groups’ practices.
We must understand the motives behind the groups that launch incitement
campaigns against the new American administration. Iran knows that two of the
appointed generals know it through expertise and personal experience. ISIS knows that the phase of truce will end with
President Barack Obama’s exit. The Muslim Brotherhood, which enjoyed Obama’s
support and bet on Clinton’s
election as president, is now before a new phase that may not be in its
interest. These are the reasons behind the anger and quick judgments against
the new American administration, and they reflect the stance of all three
groups, i.e. Iran,
ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, and those who sympathize with them. Meanwhile,
the majority of Islamic countries will be very happy if he who arrives to the
White House desires to fight extremism and terrorism.
*This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on December 13, 2016.
Theresa May brings back Thatcher era to the Gulf
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/December 13/16
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, all eyes were on the international
community and how it will react to the invasion. They depended on the American
stance and there were long debates at the Arab League after seeking the help of
friendly international powers.
History is witness to the stance taken by the then British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher. She promised Saudi King Fahd to help liberate Kuwait and effectively contributed to convince
the US
to launch the war. This was the most significant positive intervention by Britain in the
Gulf since decades. During the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, held in Bahrain
recently, the British returned to a regional forum after a long time. Making
some exceptional and historic statements, Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed
that Britain and the Gulf
region face the dangers of Iranian threats adding that the Gulf’s security is Britain’s
security. Some tried to dismiss these statements and equated it due to volatile
statements made by British foreign secretary Boris Johnson. However, he quickly
adopted May’s rhetoric during the press conference he recently held alongside
Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir and said that
relations between Saudi Arabia and Britain are not limited to commerce and
security as the two countries had enjoyed a long strategic relationship
extending over 100 years.
Johnson added that Iranian threats in the region worry Britain just like they worry Saudi Arabia.
Johnson also said that Britain
is worried about Saudi Arabia
being targeting from Yemen
with ballistic missiles.
Gulf countries understand terrorism, its trends and developments more and they
are more capable of gathering information and examining and monitoring threats
Strength of relations
Gulf-British relations are distinguished for their strength, depth and
solidity. Britain
has contributed toward building and establishing the civil form of Gulf
countries. Until the early 1990’s, it helped them through the phase of making
the transition until they stood on their feet and oil began to yield revenues.
The political path thus matured and guaranteed Gulf countries’ stability and
prosperity for long years. Cooperation between Gulf states and Britain continued on all levels,
and proof to that is the military cooperation which has been on ever since
these states were established.
Britain
may have somehow been influenced by the American weakness during Barack Obama’s
term and his policy of retreat in the region. However, interests intersected in
quite a strong manner during May’s term as prime minister as Britain needs an
economic partner it trusts to compensate for the repercussions of the absence
of the European Union after voting to exit from it. Gulf countries are the most
suitable for this role. Despite Thatcher’s and May’s different approaches and
legacies, the statements on the Gulf resemble a comeback after a period of
abandonment and cold relations. There have been interesting statements such as:
“We are willing to cooperate to confront Iran
in Syria, Yemen and the Gulf, Saudi Vision 2030 is useful
to all of us and we have aspirations for strong commercial relations with the
Gulf, we are achieving great progress in the war against ISIS”.
The following statements were also made: “We will pursue all forms of terrorism
that threaten the region’s stability, the Gulf’s stability is the entire
world’s stability and we will spend more than 3 billion British pounds in the
Gulf and the world to confront challenges. Saudi
Arabia helped Britain and provided it with
intelligence information that saved thousands of people. Gulf security is our
security. We are here to communicate with new allies and I would like to open a
new chapter of strategic cooperation among our people.”
Iran’s reaction
Iran’s reaction to these statements were fiery as it has hinted at the
possibility of controlling Gulf waters, threatened to close straits and vowed
harsh reactions against Britain and Gulf countries. Whosoever following the
developments can see the mutual challenges confronting Britain and the
Gulf. Britain needs to
increase commercial trade with the Gulf after it lost its influence in India. This
explains Britain’s recent
approach toward India.
There is also the security aspect after the refugees’ influx as many violent
people infiltrate these refugees like what happened in Germany. The
Gulf’s experience with terrorism is far more than the Europeans’ due to
geographic and cultural considerations. Gulf countries understand terrorism,
its trends and developments more and they are more capable of gathering
information and examining and monitoring threats. This revival of British
interest in the region encourages building of stronger alliances to confront
Sunni extremism as represented by ISIS and Shiite extremism as represented by Iran and its
armed militias which are spread across Arab territories.
Theresa May said it: “For if we work together, it is also an unparalleled
opportunity to show that we understand the scale of the change people need.”
*This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Dec. 13, 2016.
The Palestinian
Jihads against Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/December 13/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9548/palestinian-jihads
"We will not recognize Israel
because it will inevitably go away. And we will not backtrack on the
option of armed struggle until the liberation of all Palestine." — Khalil
Al-Haya, Hamas senior official.
The abandonment of Gaza by Israel in 2005
drove the Palestinian vote for Hamas the next year. It also explains why many
Palestinians continue to support Hamas -- because they still believe that
violence is the way to defeat Israel.
Hamas believes that Israel
does not have the right to defend itself against rockets and terror attacks. It
even considers Israel's
self-defense as an "act of terror."
In yet another sign that exposes Hamas's ongoing preparations to attack Israel, the
movement last week held a drill with live ammunition in the northern Gaza
Strip.
"What has been achieved so far is a small jihad, and the big jihad is
still awaiting us." — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas. Abbas is convinced
that his "diplomatic jihad" against Israel is no less effective than
Hamas's jihad of terrorism.
Yet even if Abbas manages to achieve reconciliation
with Hamas, this move should not be seen as sign of pragmatism on the part of
the Islamist movement. Under no circumstances will Hamas relinquish its policy
of the destruction of Israel
and its replacement with an Islamist state.
From Abbas's point of view, Hamas's terrorism will
only increase the pressure on Israel
to capitulate. Here Abbas has an ally in Hamas: to
multiply jihads to force Israel
to its knees.
The Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, which is currently celebrating the
29th anniversary of its founding, misses no opportunity to broadcast its stated
reason for being: to wage jihad (holy war) in order to achieve its goal of
destroying Israel. Those who allege that Hamas is moving toward pragmatism and
moderation might take note.
Last week, tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza
Strip to participate in rallies marking the anniversary of the founding of
Hamas. As in previous years, the rallies were held under the motto of jihad and
"armed resistance" until the liberation of all Palestine,
from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Another message that emerged loud and clear from the rallies: Hamas will never
recognize Israel's
right to exist.
This year's rallies once again also served as a reminder of the enormous
popularity that Hamas continues to enjoy among Palestinians -- not only in the
Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank, where supporters of the Islamist
movement celebrated the occasion, but on a smaller scale and with a lower
profile, out of fear of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli security
forces.
Khalil Al-Haya, a senior
Hamas official, outlined in a speech before his supporters in the Gaza Strip
his movement's strategy, namely to pursue the fight until the elimination of
Israel. "We will not recognize Israel because it will inevitably
go away," he declared.
"And we will not backtrack on the option of armed struggle until the
liberation of all Palestine.
Since its establishment, Hamas has been -- and will remain -- a Palestinian
Islamic national and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront
the Israeli project. The liberation of the Gaza Strip is just the first step
toward the liberation of Palestine -- all Palestine. There is no
future for the Israeli entity on our homeland."
When Hamas leaders talk about the "liberation" of the Gaza Strip,
they are referring to the total unilateral Israeli disengagement from that area
in 2005. Hamas and many Palestinians have never viewed the full withdrawal from
the Gaza Strip as a gesture on the part of Israel. Nor have they ever
considered the disengagement as a sign that Israel is no longer interested in
controlling the lives of nearly two million Palestinians living in the Gaza
Strip.
On the contrary, Hamas and many Palestinians continue to see the Israeli disengagement
from the Gaza Strip as a sign of weakness. In fact, this disengagement is why
Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, when it took credit
for driving Israel
out of the Gaza Strip through suicide bombings and rockets. Back then, this abandonment of land by Israel drove the Palestinian vote
for Hamas. It also explains why many Palestinians continue to support Hamas --
because they still believe that violence is the way to defeat Israel.
Many Palestinians see Israeli concessions, gestures and unilateral moves as
proof of capitulation, rather than positive signs testifying to Israel's
peaceful intentions. These "concessions for peace" by Israel further increases Palestinians' appetite
for launching armed attacks against Israel. Today, many Palestinians
are convinced that they can achieve more through stabbings, vehicular rammings and shooting attacks than sitting with Israel at the
negotiating table.
The Qatar-based Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, seized the anniversary as an opportunity once
again to remind everyone of his movement's real goals. Speaking on the
Al-Jazeera TV network, which serves as a platform for the Muslim Brotherhood
organization (Hamas is an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood), Mashaal
said:
"We are moving forward with our resistance to achieve our national
project... We are looking forward to liberating Palestine and cleansing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and protecting it from division and demolition.
We also seek the return of the refugees to their homeland and the liberation of
our prisoners from Israeli jails."
When he talks about "cleansing" Al-Aqsa
Mosque, the Hamas leader is referring to Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have been exploiting these visits to incite
their people against Israel.
They claim that Jewish visitors are "desecrating" the holy site and
should not be allowed to set foot there. These words mirror those used by
President Mahmoud Abbas,
who said that Palestinians will not allow Jews to "defile with their
filthy feet" the Al-Aqsa Mosque (although no Jew
has entered the mosque itself).
Mashaal, who in the past few years has been living as
royalty in Qatar (the
country that is the main patron of Muslim Brotherhood), went on to emphasize
that Hamas has "not changed its strategy of liberating Palestine." He also said that,
"Military work remains the backbone of liberation." Hamas, he added,
"Continues to believe in the full liberation of Palestine
and that jihad and resistance are the only means to expel the occupation and
liberate Palestine
and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." According to Mashaal, Hamas continues to look toward Arab and Islamic
countries, including Iran,
for the military, financial and political support to achieve its goal of
destroying Israel.
Hamas's armed wing, Ezaddin Al-Qassam,
boasted on this occasion that 22 of its men have been killed since the
beginning of 2016, while preparing for the next war with Israel. Most of
the Hamas men were killed when the tunnels in which they were working in
collapsed. Hamas continues to build new tunnels and renovate those that were
destroyed during the last war with Israel in 2014. Hamas says it wants
to use these tunnels in the future to infiltrate Israel and kill or kidnap Israeli
civilians or soldiers.
Ironically, while Hamas pursues its round-the-clock efforts to prepare for war
against Israel,
its leaders do not hesitate to depict themselves as victims, and warn of
supposed Israeli plans to launch a "new aggression" against
Palestinians. Hamas believes that Israel does not have the right to
defend itself against rockets and terror attacks. It even considers Israel's self-defense as an "act of terror."
Take, for example, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum's recent assessment. Lashing out at U.S. aid to Israel,
Barhoum said that the American military and financial
aid to Israel
constitutes "official support for terrorism."
This is effectively Hamas's message to the new U.S.
administration: Stop supporting Israel
with weapons and money because that hinders our goal of destroying Israel. In yet
another sign that exposes Hamas's ongoing preparations to attack Israel, the
movement last week held a drill with live ammunition in the northern Gaza
Strip. The drill enacted, among other things, an incursion into a civilian
populated area. Hamas said the drill was the fruit of 380 hours of non-stop
military training of its "Special Units."
Hamas's rhetoric and actions leave no room for doubt as to its intentions.
Twenty-nine years after its establishment, a defiant Hamas continues to believe
that Israel
can, and should, be destroyed. The dream to eliminate Israel remains
alive and well among many Palestinians, as evidenced at Hamas rallies by the
massive turnouts.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, however, are kissing cousins when it comes
to Israel.
Hamas's talk of jihad against Israel
is right in line with Abbas's speech before the 7th
Congress of Fatah, which convened in Ramallah two weeks ago. "What has
been achieved so far is a small jihad, and the big jihad is still awaiting
us," Abbas declared.
According to Abbas's aides, the PA president was
referring to a different type of jihad -- one that relates to his ongoing
efforts in the international arena to isolate and delegitimize Israel, to
force it to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians. Abbas's diplomatic warfare against Israel began
several years ago, with the PA's efforts to join
international institutions and seek unilateral recognition in the UN of a
Palestinian state. His ultimate goal is to have the international community
exert pressure on Israel
to withdraw fully to the pre-1967 lines. Abbas wants
to establish a Palestinian state with the help of the international community,
and not through direct negotiations with Israel. He is convinced that his
"diplomatic jihad" against Israel is no less effective than
the Hamas jihad of terrorism.
This Abbas talk of "small" and
"big" jihad comes at a time when Abbas and
Hamas are in courting mode. Some reports have suggested that Abbas recently sent conciliatory messages to Hamas in yet
another bid to end the dispute between the two sides. He and Khaled Mashaal have had regular
phone contact, with both expressing a desire to end the conflict between them.
The reports have even suggested that the two rival parties may be preparing to
resume their "reconciliation" talks in Doha
under the auspices of Qatar.
Last October, Abbas met in Doha with Mashaal
and another Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as part of
his rapprochement with the Islamist movement. The meeting was said to be held
in a cordial atmosphere, and some Palestinian political analysts point to a
warming of relations between the two sides.
Last October, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas met in Qatar with Khaled
Mashaal and another Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as part of his rapprochement with the Islamist
movement. Pictured above: Abbas
(right) meets with Khaled Mashaal
in Qatar
on July 20, 2014, in a previous reconciliation attempt. (Image source:
Handout from the PA President's Office/Thaer Ghanem)
Yet even if Abbas manages to achieve reconciliation
with Hamas, this move should not be seen as a sign of pragmatism on the part of
the Islamist movement. Under no circumstances will Hamas relinquish its policy
of the destruction of Israel
and its replacement with an Islamist state. The movement's
own words on its anniversary provide the best proof of this intention. To their
credit, Hamas leaders are nothing if not honest about their commitment to Israel's
destruction. Abbas certainly will not attempt to
convince Hamas to abandon this fundamental goal. So, as far as Hamas is
concerned, reconciliation means that Abbas will move
closer to the Islamist movement and not vice versa.
In fact, Mahmoud Abbas
seems to believe that Hamas's and his jihads complement each other. Thus, Hamas
will continue its deadly jihad, while Abbas will
pursue his "diplomatic jihad" against Israel. From his point of view,
Hamas's terrorism will only increase the pressure on Israel to capitulate. Here Abbas has an ally in Hamas: to multiply jihads to force Israel to its
knees.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an
award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
What Was Behind the Trial of Geert Wilders?
George Igler/Gatestone Institute/December 13/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/13/george-iglergatestone-institute-what-was-behind-the-trial-of-geert-wilders/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9554/behind-wilders-trial
If Europeans are ever to stand a chance of unravelling the coils of laws
constricting their throats, preventing their ability to speak out against the
demographic redrawing of their countries or any other potential danger they may
note, it may prove helpful understanding how this slow strangulation took
shape.
Although the gross unfairness of Geert Wilders's prosecution is clear when compared with other
Dutch politicians who have articulated far worse, there is also compelling
evidence that much that is preached from the Koran in mosques daily would
clearly fall under such a definition of hate speech -- also remaining curiously
outside the attention of public prosecutors.
Are not elected Member of Parliament even more responsible to for the safety of
the public than are other citizens? If elected officials are criminalized for
speaking out, at what point do such restrictions start posing a national
security problem?
How are ordinary, decent, native Europeans ever likely socially and politically
to articulate how they never consented to being part of a "grand
experiment," without incurring the stain of bigotry accompanying this
reasonable assertion, from friends and co-workers alike?
Would it not be a remarkable irony if, instead of burying
Wilders, as the conviction seemed intended to do, it propelled him instead to
victory?
Much has been made of the 2016 populist revolt in the West, beginning with Britain's June
23 decision to leave the European Union, and culminating with the victory of
president-elect Donald Trump on November 8. The narrative of change is
understandably seductive, but has recently been dealt successive blows by the
domestic circumstances that so characterize European politics.
Despite traditions of liberty being placed at the heart of the successful Trump
campaign, the promise of a new economic approach also enabled him to cross the
line on election day.
The Brexit vote similarly took place under a
referendum that allowed Britain's
voting populace to defy the stated preference of the majority of their elected
parliamentarians.
The most disturbing recent development on the European continent, however, was
Friday's conviction of Geert Wilders on two charges,
"inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group," for asking
supporters whether they wanted "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands,
at a small public rally in a bar in The Hague, on March 19, 2014.
Geert
Wilders during his March 2014 speech, where he asked "Do you want more or
fewer Moroccans?" (Image source: nos.nl video screenshot)
This "hate speech" case against Wilders similarly pits popular alarm
over the consequences of mass migration plus a principled politician who for
years -- in the face of threats against his life, has agitated for genuine
change -- against an untrustworthy, politicized legal system which appears at
odds with both Wilders and popular alarm. Several Dutch Labour Party
politicians, who said far more damaging things about Moroccans than Wilders
did, yet were never prosecuted:
"We also have sh*t Moroccans over here." -- Rob Oudkerk, a Dutch Labour Party (PvDA) politician.
"We must humiliate Moroccans." -- Hans Spekman, PvDA politician.
"Moroccans have the ethnic monopoly on trouble-making." -- Diederik Samsom, PvDA politician.
Although Wilders's trial clearly appears an
orchestrated miscarriage of justice, it is arguably not helpful to view the
basis for his prosecution through an absolutist defense
of freedom of speech, intuitively understandable to Americans. No
constitutional equivalent of the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from
passing laws abridging the freedom of speech, exists in Europe.
This right, however, even in the U.S. is somewhat qualified, as laid out in Brandenberg vs. Ohio, but none of those exceptions would
apply to Wilders (imminent danger and individual personalization). Under the
strictures of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), freedom of
expression is a "qualified" right in much broader terms -- from which
"left-wing" members of the Dutch Labour Party issuing the far more
objectionable statements quoted above are apparently excluded: "the state
may lawfully interfere with the right to freedom of expression in certain
defined and limited circumstances."[1]
The arguments qualifying the conviction of Wilders, in the courtroom of the
military base at Schiphol Airport, according to the
presiding jurist Hendrik Steenhuis,
were that the PVV leader's comments were "unworthy" of an elected
member of parliament -- as Judge Steenhuis denied any
assertion that the trial was politically motivated. Yet, are not elected
Members of Parliament even more responsible to for the safety of the public
than are other citizens? If elected officials are criminalized for speaking
out, at what point do such restrictions start posing a national security
problem?
Submitting to the questionable tenets of the ECHR, however, is a condition of
EU membership. Dutch prosecutors expressed themselves "very
satisfied" with the verdict, a spokeswoman adding, "the standard is set."
If Europeans are ever to stand a chance of unravelling the coils of laws
constricting their throats, preventing their ability to speak out against the
demographic redrawing of their countries or any other potential danger they may
note, it may prove helpful understanding how this slow strangulation took
shape.
The most compelling defense of hate speech laws was
articulated by Prof. Jeremy Waldron, in 2012, who took issue with those
believing that, "the bigoted invective that defiles our public
environment, should be of no concern of the law."[2]
In a passage dedicated to expressions of opposition to Muslim immigration, in
The Harm in Hate Speech, the NYU School of Law professor questioned those who
maintain that:
There is nothing to be regulated here, nothing for the law to concern itself
with, nothing that a good society should use its legislative apparatus to
suppress or disown. The people who are targeted should just learn to live with
it.
He counters:
...there is a sort of public good of inclusiveness that our society
sponsors and that it is committed to. We are diverse ... And we are embarked on
a grand experiment of living and working together despite these sorts of
differences. ... And each person, each member of each group, should be able to
go about his or her business, with the assurance that there will be no need to
face hostility, violence, discrimination, or exclusion by others.
This sense of security in the space we all inhabit is a public good ... Hate
speech undermines this public good, or it makes the task of sustaining it much
more difficult than it would otherwise be.
Although the gross unfairness of Geert Wilders's prosecution is clear when compared with other Dutch
politicians who have articulated far worse, there is also compelling evidence
that much that is preached from the Koran in mosques daily would clearly fall
under such a definition of "hate speech" -- also remaining curiously
outside the attention of public prosecutors.
Given that "hate speech" damages the maintenance of dignity between
groups and public safety, can a compelling case therefore not be made that
"hate speech" laws mandated by the European Union are doing
considerably more harm than good?
Is it not high time that lawmakers grasp how mass Muslim immigration, and the
importation of the sectarianism unfortunately inherent in Islamic doctrine,
undermine even more significantly these noble principles of "public
good"?
How exactly are the terrorism, rape and crime waves that have accompanied such
migration into Europe, likely to be addressed
by the democratic process -- within the confines of such originally benign
legislation -- when across the continent fundamental notions of security are
already being so comprehensively undermined?
How are ordinary, decent, native Europeans ever likely socially and politically
to articulate how they never consented to being part of a "grand
experiment," without incurring the stain of bigotry accompanying this reasonable
assertion, from friends and co-workers alike?
Are loyal citizens being cowed into silence, as in the world's most
totalitarian nations, by prosecutions that can justifiably be seen as
"making an example" of those who fail to toe whatever is the current
political line?
More sinisterly, with three months until the polls open in the Netherlands, the
verdict against Wilders may have had little to do with either incitement or
"hate speech," and everything to do with a desire to curtail
precisely the sort of public rallies which were hallmarks of both victories led
by Nigel Farage in Great Britain and Donald Trump in
the United States.
It is precisely these kind of public gatherings that
do so much to convince those with entirely legitimate grievances that they are
not alone.
Would it not be a remarkable irony if, rather than burying
Wilders as the trial seemed intended to do, it instead propels him to victory?
George Igler, between 2010 and 2016, aided those
facing death across Europe for criticizing
Islam.
[1] p.69 – Hare, I. (2009) "Extreme Speech Under International Human
Rights Standards," in Hare, I. & Weinstein, J. eds. (2009) Extreme
Speech and Democracy, Oxford University Press.
[2] pp. 3-5 – Waldron, J. (2012) The Harm in Hate Speech, Harvard University
Press.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Who was behind Cairo church bombing?
Ayah Aman/Al Monitor/December 13/2016
CAIRO — Egyptian officials said today they have arrested four suspects and
identified a man they believe to be the suicide bomber responsible for a blast
that ripped through a Coptic church in Cairo Dec. 10, killing 25 people and
wounding dozens of others.
Authorities have arrested suspects in a weekend attack on a Coptic church in Cairo, as Copts call for
the government to deliver on promises to protect the religious minority.
On Dec. 12, the authorities said they had arrested three men and a woman and
were searching for two more people in connection with the bombing. No group as
of yet has accepted responsibility for the attack.
During a state funeral ceremony for the victims Dec. 12, President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi said a terrorist identified as Mahmoud Mostafa wore an
explosives-laden vest in the attack.
That account differs from earlier security and eyewitness reports that a woman
had carried a bomb containing 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of TNT inside her bag
and placed it under women’s chairs in the prayer hall. That would have
explained why most of the victims were women and children, according to the
Egyptian Ministry of Health.
The incident occurred despite officials’ ongoing security and political
reassurances to protect Copts, who held protests over the security situation in
this specific case. Some survivors told Reuters that police had not performed
the usual security inspections at St. Peter and St. Paul Church Dec. 10, which
is adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral — the residence of Coptic Pope Tawadros II.
The state of security alert declared by the Ministry of Interior to find the
perpetrators did not quench the thirst of Copts and the bereaved families. They
gathered all day Saturday in front of the blast location and condemned “the
terrible slackening” of the security forces in protecting the church.
The feelings of rage and tension were relayed in conflicting chants that Copts
repeated. Some condemned Interior Minister Majdi
Abdul Ghaffar and demanded his departure, calling his
agency the Ministry of Thuggery. Dozens called on Sisi to step down, while others repeated slogans of
national unity such as “Muslims and Christians stand united.” Some protesters
rejected such unity slogans. “Churches and mosques are on the same page, but
Copts do not burn down mosques,” they shouted.
Church leaders tried to calm protesters. Rev. Makary Younan, the pastor of St. Mark’s Church in Azbakeya, called on the crowds to end the protests, while
he stood among them surrounded by officials and guards. He said, “We must not
protest. We should rather show love to Muslims to protect Egypt.”
He added, “People of the church, obey the president and listen to his wisdom so
that he gives us our rights.” He condemned calls for protest, saying, “It is
our religious duty to obey our presidents and sultans.”
But all pleas for calm went downhill. Protesters grew all the more angry and
called for punishing the culprits. They blamed the state and security apparatus
completely for failing to protect Copts. Some clashed with police.
“The church asks us to forgive and love all the time. But with such loving behavior, we will only reap more pain, bloodshed and
endless crimes,” Mary Hanna, a Copt, told Al-Monitor. “We want answers about
how such an amount of explosives got through to the prayer hall. … Why has the
state allowed the proliferation of centers spreading anti-Christian thought in Egypt?”
Many analysts believe the Muslim Brotherhood and its followers target Copts to
retaliate against the stance Copts took on June 30, 2013, when they supported Sisi and backed the ouster of Mohammed Morsi
and isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood from political life. Analysts say these
reasons are behind repeated Muslim Brotherhood affiliates’ bombings of churches
after Morsi’s ouster on Aug. 14, 2013, and following
the dispersion of the Rabia al-Adawiya
sit-in, when more than a hundred churches were either burned or destroyed in
sectarian attacks.
Copt Kamal Zakher, founder
of the Coptic Secular Current, told Al-Monitor, “The incident is a political
crime … and the [Brotherhood] cannot forget that Copts were a focal element of
the state on June 30 when they supported Sisi. There
are constant endeavors to disintegrate this axis and
shake security by targeting Copts.”
Zakher said, “The feelings of anger toward security
leaders and officials are only normal and in line with the heinousness of this
[current] calamity. The state’s attempts to contain the situation will not be
accepted, no matter what the compensations and regardless of all the talk about
national unity or the traditional and old methods of appeasement.” He added,
“The only way to buffer the Copts’ anger is by handing over the real culprits.”
He did say he expects the church itself to react calmly.
Ishac Ibrahim, a researcher on freedom of religion
and belief in the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Al-Monitor,
“Repeating expressions of love will not silence anger, which is gaining
momentum among Copts.”
He added, “The clear security instability and extremism against Copts is an old
story. Yet the security apparatus has failed to end it.”
Questions remain about the state’s political stance and silence regarding the
provocative rhetoric of some Salafi leaders against
Copts. The Coptic issue has been considered a national security matter since
former President Hosni Mubarak’s days. Many observers dispute the claim that
terrorists target Egyptians without discrimination, not just Copts. They say
the issue will not be settled until the political administration steps in to
protect the rights of Copts and contain Christians’ growing rage.