LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
December 28/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible
Quotations For Today
They knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening
their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 02/01-12./:"In the
time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from
the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king
of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and
all Jerusalem
with him; and calling together all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be
born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the
prophet: "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least
among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd
my people Israel." ’Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and
learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them
to Bethlehem,
saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him,
bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard
the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had
seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When
they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering
the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and
paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return
to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only
those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."
Book of Revelation 21/09/10/21/27/:"Then one of the seven
angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to
me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’And
in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the
holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. And the twelve gates
are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the
city is pure gold, transparent as glass. I saw no temple in the city, for its
temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of
sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is
the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will
bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day and there will
be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the
nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone
who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the
Lamb’s book of life."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 27-28/16
The UN Declares War on Judeo-Christian Civilization/Giulio
Meotti/Gatestone Institute/December 27/2016
Iran's Monstrous Record in 2016/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone
Institute/December 27/2016
Refute false claims to fight the appeal of ISIS/Samar Fatany/Al
Arabiya/December 27/16
Ethiopian dam between Egypt and Saudi Arabia/By Abdulrahman
al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/December
27/16
The United States just made Middle East peace harder/By Elliott Abrams and
Michael Singh/Washington Post/December 27/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on on December 27-28/16
Parliament Convenes for Hariri's Govt. Confidence Vote, Daher
Votes Against
Army Stages Raids in Hermel, Searches for Corporal
al-Qaq Killers
Parliament Convenes for Hariri's Govt. Confidence Vote, Daher
Votes Against
Geagea: They Can't Kill the Cause and Cedar
Revolution Shall Continue
Nasrallah: Axis of Resistance to Emerge Victorious
from Global War on It in All Countries
Hajj Hassan: Devising New Electoral Law a Cabinet Priority
Kataeb Withholds Confidence from Govt., Gemayel Says Party is Voice of Displeased Lebanese
Riachy in Radio Lebanon interview: Information
Ministry shall be transformed into communication, dialogue
Fadlallah during confidence vote session: Our hand is
stretched to all to build genuine state
Aridi grants vote of confidence for Hariri led
Cabinet: We should counter terrorism
Hasbani opens investigation into case of little Lea Moukarzel
Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, inaugurating Mosque in Downtown: We ask government
to halt suspicious channels offending Quran
Kabbara: No indulgence in Shatah's
assassination case
Titles
For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December
27-28/16
Syrian opposition denies knowledge of Russia talks
Syrian army seeks to retake capital's water supply
Syrian Observatory: Senior ISIS commander likely killed
Iran opposition leader, Karroubi, quits party after
six years of house arrest
Romania’s president says he won’t name Muslim woman to be PM
Council of Senior Scholars call to support campaign for Syrians
Yemeni army chief defects from coup plotters
Yemeni government approves on an adjusted road map
Seven women elected to Oman municipal councils
Netanyahu seeks allies in anger at Obama
Israel Says 'Reducing' Ties with Nations over UN Vote
Israeli Arab MP under House Arrest in Jail Phones Case
Main Black Box of Crashed Russian Plane Found in Black Sea
Trump: UN is club for people to ‘have good time’
Australia Delists Iranian Resistance, Adds Khamenei's
IRGC Commanders to the Terrorist List
Ministers Feuding Exposes Plundering of Workers Money by Iran Regime Officials
Iran: Another Party in Tehran Ended up With Arrest of All Participants
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on December 27-28/16
Lebanese Parliament
Convenes for Hariri's Govt. Confidence Vote, Daher
Votes Against
Naharnet/December 27/16/The first round of three
parliament sessions dedicated to discuss the cabinet's policy statement, kicked
off on Tuesday in Nejmeh Square in the absence
of al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad
Saniora and PSP leader MP Walid
Jumblat.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri was first to make a
statement, he said: “The higher the confidence level of the communities the
higher is prosperity. This is where the process of restoring confidence begins.
“The Lebanese State gains the trust of its nationals
when it provides them with services in a fair and transparent way,” added
Hariri. He went on to say: “Approving the 2017 state budget is a priority for
the new government. The government is committed to start addressing chronic
problems starting with the electricity, water, traffic, waste management and
pollution. It is also committed to end the file of the displaced in preparation
to cancel the ministry of the displaced.”“We will
work on approving a new electoral law that respects proper representation, and
will spare no effort to liberate, with legal means, what is left of our
occupied land based on the state's responsibility,” said the Premier.
Turning to the issue of refugees in Lebanon, he said: “The solution for
the refugees crisis is their safe return to their
homeland and the rejection of all forms of integration in host societies.”
“Our government vows to deepen partnership with the civil society and to
involve women in public life and leadership positions,” concluded the PM.
Former PM, Tammam Salam took to the podium and gave
his vote of confidence for Hariri's cabinet. Speaking on behalf of the Lebanese
Forces, MP Antoine Zahra granted the cabinet his vote of confidence but
expressed reservation against a clause in the policy statement on the right of
the Lebanese people for Resistance. “How will the people have trust in the
constitutional institutions, now that they have relinquished the authority
given to them as an executive authority to defend Lebanon?” asked Zahra. Turning to
the issue of an electoral law, Zahra said: “The cabinet has two missions to do.
Approving a state budget and agreeing on a new electoral law that ensures
proper representation.”
For his part MP Khaled al-Daher
did not give his vote of confidence for Hariri's cabinet, and criticized the
same clause that the LF has, he said: “The policy statement has many
contradictions. It relinquishes sovereignty many times.”Change
and Reform parliamentary bloc head MP Ibrahim Kanaan
highlighted the need to devise a new electoral law, and said: “We are open to
any electoral law that ensures partnership, equality and reforms,” and voted in
favor of the government.
“Lebanon
is facing many threats,” said Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Ammar, “we need to be united to confront these challenges.”
“We hope that the current government shows commitment to its policy statement,
no more no less. We give our vote of confidence,” he
added.
MP Hassan Fadlallah, another member of Hizbullah's bloc, said his party believes that “the
electoral law cannot be imposed on the sects and political forces” and that
“there should be dialogue.”Hizbullah had repeatedly
called for an electoral law fully based on proportional representation, but
some parties, especially al-Mustaqbal Movement and
the Progressive Socialist Party, have voiced concerns and fears over such an
electoral system in a country like Lebanon.
Referring to illegal internet case, Fadlallah said
“let there be accountability in order to restore citizens' confidence in the
State.”
He also noted that countries suffering economic crises would usually resort to
“austerity,” giving the latest economic measures in Saudi Arabia as an example and
lamenting the squandering of public funds at ministries and state institutions.
MP Ghazi Aridi of MP Walid Jumblat's Democratic Gathering focused in his speech on the
issue of the electoral law.
“Protecting diversity in Lebanon
is our responsibility and the issue of the electoral law must be addressed in a
scientific manner,” Aridi said.
He reminded that slain Progressive Socialist Party founder Kamal
Jumblat had led calls for proportional representation
in Lebanon.
“But the alliances and parties in Lebanon were not sectarian like
they are today,” Aridi noted.
And lamenting that “there is no state of law in Lebanon,”
the MP said the electoral law must protect Lebanon's special structure and the
status of minorities.
Aridi then granted the government confidence in the
name of the Democratic Gathering.
MPs who also granted the government their confidence vote are Simon Abi Ramia, Joseph Maalouf, Neematallah Abi Nasr, Marwan Fares, Farid al-Khazen and Marwan Fares.
The government line-up was announced on Sunday 18, 45 days after the
designation of Hariri.
A policy statement was approved by the cabinet on Saturday 24, amid
reservations expressed by the Lebanese Forces over a clause related to the
“right of the people for resistance.”
The said clause is the same one agreed in the statement of ex-PM Tammam Salam's government that no longer accords Hizbullah a specific "resistance" role, yet
affirms that all citizens have the "right to resist the Israeli
occupation, repel its attacks and take back the occupied territory." The
parliament sessions will continue on Wednesday and Thursday as called for by
Speaker Nabih
Army Stages Raids in Hermel,
Searches for Corporal al-Qaq Killers
Naharnet/December 27/16/After the killing incident of
army corporal Ali al-Qaq on Monday, the Lebanese Army
Airborne Regiment staged raids at dawn on Tuesday on several houses in the
border town of al-Qasr in northeast of the Hermel district in search for the culprits, the National
News Agency reported. Two individuals suspected of being involved in the
incident were arrested. The army confiscated military weapons and ammunition,
NNA said. At night, army troops patrolled the area and intensified security
measures as they set temporary checkpoints. A military source who spoke on
condition of anonymity, told LBCI the army will take the needed measures and
will track down the perpetrators to hand them over to justice. Media reports
said al-Qaq was killed by the relatives of slain Hani
Jaafar whose killing was reportedly blamed on al-Qaq three months ago. They claimed that Jaafar
was killed at an army checkpoint in Hermel.
Parliament Convenes for Hariri's Govt.
Confidence Vote, Daher Votes Against
Naharnet/December 27/16/A request raised by State
Minister for Parliament Affairs and Syrian Social Nationalist Party leader Ali Qanso to include a clause on Syria in the new drafted policy
statement was not taken into consideration by the cabinet, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily reported Tuesday. In that regard, when the
cabinet was drafting its policy statement last week, Qanso
said the statement should include a clause about “coordination with Damascus with whom we
have agreements,” a ministerial source told the daily on condition of anonymity.
Although Qanso has raised the request of including
“coordination with Damascus”
in the statement, but none of the minsters took his comment into consideration,
added the source. However, Minster of the Displaced Talal
Arslan remarked and only spoke about the importance
of the relations with Syria,
but considered the policy statement sufficient with the content included. On
the other hand, parliamentary sources told the daily that the legislative
sessions that will kick start Tuesday, lawmakers will tackle in addition to the
cabinet's policy statement, several pressing economic, social and livelihood
matters and possibly the regional developments mainly in neighboring
Syria. The sources which spoke on condition of anonymity, said the MPs will
raise many issues in their statements, and they could even touch on the
regional developments, particularly in Syria
and the relations with the Syrian regime after it controlled the city of Aleppo, added the daily.
The parliament will convene Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the
ministerial statement, that was approved over the
weekend, based on which it will give its vote of confidence for the newly
formed cabinet under Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Geagea: They Can't Kill the Cause and Cedar Revolution Shall
Continue
Naharnet/December 27/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed Tuesday
that the 2005 Cedar Revolution of the March 14 forces “will continue.”“You
killed Mohammed Shatah, but we will not let you kill
the cause,” said Geagea in a televised speech marking
the third anniversary of the assassination of Shatah,
a Mustaqbal Movement figure who served as finance
minister between 2008 and 2009. He was killed along with seven other people
when a powerful car bomb struck his convoy in downtown Beirut on December 27, 2013. Seventy other
people were injured in the attack. “Evil can win a round but it cannot win the
war. They have not and will not defeat the cause. The Cedar Revolution kicked
off and shall continue and we are its witnesses,” Geagea
added. The Cedar Revolution, or Independence Intifada, was a wave of massive
demonstrations in Lebanon
triggered by the assassination of former prime minister
Rafik Hariri and other March 14 figures. Following
the demonstrations, Syrian troops completely withdrew from Lebanon on
April 27, 2005 after a 29-year presence that heavily influenced Lebanese
politics.
Nasrallah: Axis of Resistance to Emerge Victorious from Global
War on It in All Countries
Naharnet/December 27/16/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced
Tuesday that the so-called “axis of resistance” will emerge victorious from the
conflicts in the region. “The axis of resistance will emerge victorious and
stronger from this global war against it in all countries,” said Nasrallah in a televised speech commemorating late scholar
Sheikh Abdul Nasser Jabri. “The resistance is being
targeted today and one of the most dangerous objectives of the war that has
been raging in the region since several years is the war on the resistance and
the war on the axis of resistance, and this fact is manifesting itself day
after day,” Nasrallah added. He warned that some
forces are seeking to “destroy the Arab armies for the sake of Israel and to topple the resisting Arab regimes
for the sake of Israel.”
“After the resistance humiliated the Israeli army in Lebanon
and Palestine,
there are efforts to destroy the region's armies for the sake of the Israeli
army,” Nasrallah went on to say. In a televised
speech on Friday, Nasrallah had said that the Syrian
army's win in the city of Aleppo
had put an end to any hopes Bashar Assad's regime
would collapse. "After Aleppo,
one can comfortably say that the goal of regime downfall has failed," said
Nasrallah, whose armed party has fought alongside
Assad's forces since 2013.
"What happened in Aleppo over these past long months... was a real war,
one of the toughest battles that Syria has seen, and one of the toughest
battles that the region has seen in years," Nasrallah
said. He described the Syrian government's win there as "a big victory for
the side confronting terrorism." In addition to help from Hizbullah, the Damascus
regime has been bolstered by its allies Iran
and Russia, while rebels
have been backed by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and some western
powers.
Hajj Hassan: Devising New Electoral Law a
Cabinet Priority
Naharnet/December 27/16/Industry Minister Hussein
Hajj Hassan stated on Monday that the priority of the newly elected government
is to issue a new electoral law for the upcoming parliamentary elections that
ensures political stability in Lebanon, stressing that his (Hizbullah)
party adheres to proportional representation, the National News Agency
reported. Hajj Hassan's comments came during a funeral ceremony in South of
Lebanon, where he considered that “devising a new electoral law requires a
political decision.” The Minister remarked that “security in Lebanon has
provided the basis for political stability which resulted in the election of a
new president, the formation of a national unity government that succeeded at
drafting its policy statement” which will be discussed by the parliament for
the vote of confidence starting Tuesday. Hajj Hassan also pointed out that the
cabinet of PM Hariri would also take charge of socio-economic problems and implement a new development plan.
Kataeb Withholds Confidence from Govt., Gemayel Says Party is Voice of Displeased Lebanese
Naharnet/December 27/16/The Kataeb
Party bloc will withhold confidence from Saad
Hariri's government because its political vision “contradicts” with the party's
vision, Kataeb chief MP Sami Gemayel
announced in parliament on Tuesday. “For us sovereignty is not a minor issue
and it is about citizens' right to determine their fate and future without the
presence of someone deciding for them,” Gemayel said
at a parliamentary session dedicated to discussing the government's policy
statement ahead of a vote of confidence that will be held on Wednesday. “A lot
of people were martyred, including two MPs from our bloc, Pierre Gemayel and Antoine Ghanem...
Weapons were used inside the country and obstruction was practiced. (The March
14 forces) resisted, struggled and confronted before starting to cope and
surrender,” Gemayel lamented. He decried that “the
presence of two arsenal of arms in the country has
become a minor thing” and that “corruption has become a minor thing.”
“Who is under the law nowadays other than a few weak citizens who do not
enjoy political support?” Gemayel added. And calling
for a “third republic” based on a “reconciliation and frankness conference,” Kataeb's chief urged an end to “lying.”
“Our political choice is based on accountability and saying the truth and
on the fact that principles are not a minor detail,” Gemayel
said. Commenting on the new government's line-up, Gemayel
slammed what he called a “one-sided Cabinet.” “There is no balance in this
Cabinet and there are at least 17 ministers whose vision for sovereignty contradicts
with our vision,” he noted. “A lot of people advised us to 'lower our head' but
there should be free voices in Lebanon and an opposition that exposes the
mistakes and speaks on behalf of large segments of Lebanese citizens who reject
the situation,” Gemayel added. “It would have been
easy for us to take part in the deal that occurred in the country prior to the
presidential vote and the formation of the Cabinet,” he pointed out. “It is our
right represent the Lebanese people and to reject that Lebanon be dragged into
battles that it has nothing to do with. We reject that our citizens face harm
wherever they may be,” Gemayel added.
Riachy in Radio Lebanon interview: Information Ministry
shall be transformed into communication, dialogue
Tue 27 Dec 2016/NNA - Information Minister, Melhem Riachy, said on Tuesday that his mission at the helm of the
Ministry is short and specific, majorly to turn the concept of the Information
Ministry into communication and dialogue heeding special attention to people's
affairs. "The Ministry shall be transformed into Ministry of dialogue and
communication, with all its affiliated administrative and media departments
working within this framework... so that Lebanon would be turned into a
permanent conference for inter-religious and civilizations dialogue in the East
and the world." Minister Riachy said in an
interview to state-run Radio Lebanon
(Radio Liban). Riachy
supported the concept of an official media which heeds special attention to
people's affairs rather than solely confined to the dissemination of
politicians' news and functions. "I do not want the official media to be
limited to conveying the news of politicians' itinerary and functions... but
rather an official media relaying citizen's voice to the officials and the
voice of opposition within the framework of authority and the state," Riachy said. Riachy underlined
that this cause shall be the main identity and strategy of the Ministry,
underscoring the importance of respect of the values of freedom and profession's
code of ethics.The Minister stressed that all Radio
Lebanon studios shall be open to conveying the voice of people and to all the
youth and civilization.
Fadlallah during confidence vote session: Our hand is stretched
to all to build genuine state
Tue 27 Dec 2016/NNA - "Loyalty to Resistance" bloc member, MP Hassan Fadlallah, stressed Hezbollah's determination to build a
state based on justice, saying the Party's hand is stretched to cooperate with
all for the building of a genuine state. MP Fadlallah's
words came at the vote of confidence session for Hariri led Cabinet, whereby he
noted the absence of accountability in the Lebanese state whether at the level
of ministries or institutions. The MP also noted that "In spite of the
raging security fires, we managed to provide a safe umbrella for Lebanon thanks
to the awareness of the majority of the internal political forces."
Aridi grants vote of confidence for Hariri led Cabinet: We
should counter terrorism
Tue 27 Dec 2016/NNA - Former Minister Ghazi Aridi
granted his vote of confidence for the Hariri-led Cabinet, stressing the dire
need for countering all assaults and terrorism. "We have to face all
attacks in order to preserve Lebanon,
as well as terrorism in the East that touches the essence of the existence of
peoples," Aridi said. Aridi
also noted that the main headline of the "Democratic Gathering" is
confidence which they want to see reflected in practice.
Hasbani opens investigation into case of little Lea Moukarzel
Tue 27 Dec 2016/NNA - Health Minister, Ghassan Hasbani, has instructed his ministry to open an
investigation into the death of little Lea Moukarzel
on Monday. Hasbani asked to carry out investigations
with the persons responsible for the deterioration of the health of the girl
and the hospital that refused to receive her. Hasbani
said that the mission of his ministry and all those who work in the medical
field in Lebanon
is to preserve the lives of individuals, refusing any negligence in this
regard.
Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheikh
Abdul Latif Derian,
inaugurating Mosque in Downtown: We ask government to halt suspicious channels
offending Quran
Tue 27 Dec 2016/NNA - Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, categorically
underlined that mosques shall remain over time the defenders of the tolerant
message of Islam, a message of compassion, love and moderation, calling on the
government to halt suspicious channels offending the holy Quran. Mufti Derian's fresh stance came on Tuesday at the inaugural of
Imam Ouzai Mosque in downtown Beirut, whose interior
equipment were funded by several philanthropists and the family and friends of
martyr Mohammed Shaar in tribute of his soul. Derian stressed the paramount role of monitoring
institutions t control the work of such channels, voicing rejection of any
offense leveled against Islam or Quran verses.
Kabbara: No indulgence in Shatah's
assassination case
Tue 27 Dec 2016 /NNA - Minister of Labor, Mohammad Kabbara, on Tuesday said during the 3rd anniversary of the
assassination of former Minister, Mohammad Shatah,
that "there will be no leniency in this cause". "We will pursue
this cause in order to identify the criminals and grant them adequate
punishment," he stressed.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 27-28/16
Syrian opposition denies
knowledge of Russia talks
George Sabra, member of the main Syrian opposition
body, the High Negotiations Committee Reuters, Moscow Tuesday, 27 December
2016/Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on
Tuesday that the Syrian government was holding talks with the opposition ahead
of possible peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Interfax news agency
reported. Lavrov did not say where the current talks
were being held and it was unclear which opposition groups were taking part.
The High Negotiations Committee, a body grouping armed and political opponents
of President Bashar al-Assad, said it had no
knowledge of the negotiations. The HNC includes armed groups fighting Assad
under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, and took part in a failed bid to
launch peace talks earlier this year. Russia,
Iran and Turkey said last week they were ready to help
broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow where they adopted a declaration
setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to. President Vladimir
Putin has said that all three countries and Assad had agreed that the Kazakh
capital should be the venue for new talks.
Syria Ceasefire
Lavrov spoke to his Turkish counterpart by
telephone on Tuesday and they agreed to push for a ceasefire and to prepare for
the Astana talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The RIA news agency cited an unnamed diplomatic source as saying that
representatives from the Russian and Turkish militaries were holding consultations
with the Syrian opposition in Ankara
about how a possible nationwide ceasefire might work.
Syrian army seeks to retake
capital's water supply
Reuters, Amman Tuesday, 27 December
2016/The Syrian army escalated aerial bombing of a rebel-held valley northwest
of Damascus in
an offensive begun last week to recapture the strategic area where a major
spring provides most of the capital's water supplies, rebels and residents said
on Tuesday. They said the army shelled and bombarded several towns in Wadi Barada valley about 18 km
(11 miles) northwest of the capital in a major offensive launched since Friday.
The roads leading to the towns in the valley and the mountain cliffs
surrounding the area are under the control of elite Republic Guards and the
Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group, they said.
Residents said fighting on Monday focused on Baseimeh
village at the edge of the valley where the army and its allies are pushing to
advance deeper in an enclave where 10 villages are inhabited by an estimated
100,000 people. The rebels said the army was emboldened by gaining full control
of Aleppo city and was seeking to force them to either leave or face all out
war. "They are seeking to push us into a surrender deal to and we will not
hand over our land," said Abu al Baraa, a
commander in Ahrar al Sham, a rebel group present in
the area. Through a series of so-called settlement agreements and army
offensives, the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power and Iran-backed
militias, has been steadily suppressing armed opposition around the capital.
Alongside the main spring in Wadi Barada,
the area lies on the road from Damascus to the Lebanese border that is used as
a supply line for the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah group which is heavily
involved in fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar
al Assad's army. A resident and rebels said the aerial bombing has put out of
commission the main Ein al Fija
spring's water pumping station where a underground
pipeline normally provides around 65 percent of the water to the capital's neighborhoods. A picture taken by a rebel and seen by
Reuters showed the pumping station's ceiling has collapsed. Several videos
uploaded on social media show damage and fires with plumes of smoke near the
pumping station. Others show damage to houses.Rebels
and residents said the bombing has also killed 14 civilians and hit a medical
clinic and civil defense unit in the area that has
been besieged with limited access for food and fuel. The army said it was
targeting "terrorists."The Syrian army has
blamed rebels for polluting the springs with diesel fuel in a move the water
authorities said had forced them to cut supplies coming into the capital and
resort to reserves to temporarily cover the shortfall. The rebels have allowed
the government's water authority engineers to maintain and operate the station
and supply the capital since they took control of the area in 2012. The rebels
draw from both Islamist and Free Syrian Army factions. Fighters from the area
have cut water supplies several times in the past as a pressure card to prevent
the army from overrunning the area. But they deny poisoning the water as they
say it would harm them before anyone else.
Syrian Observatory: Senior ISIS commander
likely killed
Reuters, Beirut Tuesday, 27 December
2016/One of ISIS’s top commanders in Syria was probably killed in combat as the
extremists sought to stave off an advance by US-backed Syrian forces towards a
strategic dam in northern Syria,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. The commander known as
Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti was likely killed as ISIS
fighters tried to drive the Syrian Democratic Forces from the village of Jabar captured from the group
on Monday, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said. The ISIS
counter attack, launched overnight, failed. The US-backed Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), including the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, have
advanced to within 5 km (3 miles) of the dam, Abdulrahman
said.
Iran opposition leader, Karroubi, quits party after six years of house arrest
AFP, Tehran Tuesday, 27 December 2016/Mehdi Karroubi,
a leading member of the Iranian opposition who has been under house arrest for
almost six years, announced he is quitting his party, Iranian media reported on
Tuesday. Karroubi and Mir Hossein
Mousavi were reformist candidates during the 2009
presidential election, and questioned the shock victory of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which led to
mass protests. Two years later, both leaders ended up under house arrest for
their part in the protests, which regime leaders still call “the sedition”.
“Considering my situation since (2011) and given that I do not know how long
this will last, I ask my friends to accept my resignation,” Karroubi,
79, wrote in a letter to his party, according to reformist newspaper Shargh. There have been repeated calls for Karroubi and Mousavi to be tried
in court to no avail. Hardliners claim house arrest was actually an “act of
clemency” for the two leaders, since otherwise they would be put to death for
sedition, in the words of ultra-conservative lawmaker Mojtaba
Zolnour last week.
Also read: Iranian reformist diplomat: Iran will reap what it sows
Sadegh Larijani, the head
of the judiciary, which is considered close to hardliners, said Monday that the
“sedition dossier is still open and will be examined,” without giving further
details. Karroubi said his resignation was aimed at
preserving the unity of his party, National Trust, ahead of the presidential
election in May – despite it being banned since his arrest. “While keeping its
independence, the party must cooperate with the other reformist groups and
movements,” he wrote. President Hassan Rouhani, a
moderate who allied with the reformists to win power in 2013, has failed to
secure the release of Karroubi and Mousavi as he promised during his campaign. Reformists and
moderates have said they will maintain their alliance ahead of May’s election,
when Rowhani is expected to run for a second term.
The conservative camp has also sought to unite their disparate factions. A new
group called the Popular Front of the Forces of the Islamic Revolution was
announced on Sunday with a view to choosing a single candidate to run against Rowhani.
Romania’s president says he won’t name
Muslim woman to be PM
The Associated Press, Bucharest, Romania Tuesday, 27 December 2016/Romania’s
president on Tuesday declined to nominate as prime minister an economist who
could have become the country’s first female Muslim premier. President Klaus Iohannis said he had “carefully weighed the arguments for
and against” and decided not to nominate Sevil Shhaideh, 52, a relative political novice, to the post of
prime minister. He called on the Social Democratic Party, which won the Dec. 11
elections to name another candidate. Iohannis’
refusal prompted an angry response from the Social Democrats, which put her
name forward last week. Social Democrat chairman Liviu
Dragnea said the party would consider impeaching Iohannis “if ... we reach the conclusion it is good for the
country.” He said the party could not find a “constitutional reason or other
reason ... connected to possible risks” for refusing the party’s nomination. He
said Iohannis “wants to start a political crisis.”Dragnea is unable to become prime minister himself
because he was convicted this year of election fraud. Iohannis
did not say why he would not name Shhaideh,
criticized by some observers for lacking sufficient political experience. She
briefly served as regional development minister in 2015
Council of Senior Scholars call to support
campaign for Syrians
SPA Tuesday, 27 December 2016/The Saudi General Secretariat of Council of
Senior Scholars has called for urgently contributing to the popular campaign
ordered by King Salman for the relief of Syrian
people. The General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said in a
statement today that Syrian brothers have been divided by unjust policies,
displaced and became refugees by oppressive powers, and living difficult days,
praying to Allah Almighty to grant the best rewards to King Salman.
Relief aid distributed to 2225 Syrian families in Lebanon. Saudi national campaign to
support brothers in Syria
has distributed relief assistance such as winter clothes, house wares and
personal hygiene bags within its multi humanitarian programs to 2225 Syrian
families in Lebanon
in the framework of its 28th station.
The Campaign's Regional Director Dr. Badr bin Abdulrahman Al-Samhan stressed
that the continuation of such relief aid comes as a primary priority to meet
the needs of Syrian brothers in the refugee environment, especially Syrian
refugees with special needs, the missing, orphans, the wounded, elderly and
widows. Dr. Al-Samhan said that whatever is provided
of humanitarian assistance for the brotherly Syrian refugees is in implementation
of the directives of King Salman; the Crown Prince
and the Deputy Crown Prince.
Yemeni army chief defects from coup
plotters
Staff writer, Al Arabiya Tuesday, 27 December
2016/Commander of the Republican Guards at the Nahm
front, east of Sanaa, Colonel Ali Abdullah Muqaiteb and a number of soldiers have defected from
militias and joined the armed forces of the legitimate government of Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi, media sources said according to Al-Arabiya news channel. Also read: Yemen’s President Hadi makes appearance in Mukalla.
Prominent military leader’s defection from the Republican
Guards’ units affiliated with ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh
have come at a time when the legitimate government’s forces made
advances in the Nahm front. According to the report,
legitimate government troops, aided by the coalition’s air force, shelled
militias’ posts and reinforcements and seized control of a number of posts,
including those in Jabal Qurn
and Daa, after militias escaped.
*This article also appears in Arabic on AlArabiya.net.
Yemeni government approves on an adjusted
road map
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 27
December 2016/Sources from the Yemeni government revealed that the legitimate
government agreed in principle to a new version of the revised roadmap
presented by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed and will announce an official endorsement upon receiving the document.
The sources explained that the amendments were the results of extensive meeting
between the ministers of the international Quartet in Riyadh, which includes
Saudi Arabia, Britain, the United States and the UAE, and in accordance with
the three references for a political solution to end the political military
coup, which shall be initiated by the withdrawal of the militia and
surrendering arms in order to reach a political solution. The Yemeni president
attacked the proposals promoted by US Secretary of State John Kerry to resolve
the Yemeni crisis. Hadi described the proposals as “A redemption for the Houthis and
ex-president Salah.”The
Yemeni President also stressed that bypassing and detouring the three
references of the Gulf initiative epitomized in the executive mechanisms, the
output of the national dialogue and the Security Council, will only lead to
civic and sectarian tragic wars.
Seven women elected to Oman
municipal councils
AFP, Muscat Sunday, 25 December 2016/Seven women
were elected to Oman
municipal councils, according to vote results released Monday by the interior
ministry, a day after the Gulf sultanate held its second ever local election.
Voters across the country went to the polls on Sunday to choose 202 councilors from among 731 candidates for 11 municipalities,
including the capital Muscat.
There were 23 women candidates, and seven won seats on local councils -- three
more than in the previous election. Councilors, who
serve for four years, have limited powers as authorities designate the chairmen
and deputy chairmen for the municipalities, and not from those elected. The
interior ministry said that 39.85 percent of the 623,224 registered voters cast
their ballots in the election. Oman
has a population of 4.5 million, 46 percent of whom are foreigners. At the
national level, Oman
has a consultative council with limited powers, the 85-member Majlis al-Shura. Also read: Oman
plans spending cuts, tax rises, petroleum price
changes. It was earlier reported on Sunday that voters in Oman headed to
the polls to choose municipal councilors in only the
second local election held in the Gulf sultanate. In 1994 it became the first
Gulf monarchy to give the vote to women and in 2011 Qaboos
decreed that elections be held for municipal councils. More than 620,000 voters
were registered to take part in Sunday’s polls, which will choose councilors for 11 municipalities including the capital Muscat. “I voted for the
person who will best represent me,” Jawhara al-Zadjali said as she left a polling station in Muscat. Voters across the
country are choosing 202 councilors from among 731
candidates, including 23 women, for the four-year posts. At the national level,
Oman
has a consultative council with limited powers, the 85-member Majlis al-Shura.
Netanyahu seeks allies in anger at Obama
Reuters Tuesday, 27 December 2016/Benjamin Netanyahu has been unrelenting in
his criticism of the Obama administration over what he condemned as its
"shameful" decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution
calling for a halt to Israeli settlement-building.
But with the clock ticking down on Barack Obama's presidency, a possibly more
amenable Republican Donald Trump due to succeed him on Jan. 20 and a $38
billion U.S. military aid package to Israel a done deal, it's all a calculated
risk for the four-term, right-wing Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu, after
what critics are calling a stinging defeat on the international stage, is
already maneuvering to mine deep-seated feelings
among many Israelis that their country and its policies toward the Palestinians
are overly criticized in a world where deadlier conflicts rage. He has tried to
rally Israelis around him by portraying the anti-settlement resolution as a
challenge to Israel's
claimed sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
That was hammered home with an unscheduled Hanukkah holiday visit to the
Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites, which is located in Jerusalem's Old City in the eastern sector captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war. That all of Jerusalem
is their country's capital is a consensus view among Israelis, including those
who otherwise have doubts about the wisdom of Netanyahu's support for
settlements on the West Bank. Palestinians
claim eastern Jerusalem as their capital, and Washington has in the
past accepted an international view that the city's status must be determined
at future peace talks. Trump has promised to reverse decades of U.S. policy by moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. "I did not plan
to be here this evening but in light of the U.N. resolution I thought that
there was no better place to light the second Hanukkah candle than the Western
Wall," Netanyahu said during the event. "I ask those same countries
that wish us a Happy Hanukkah how they could vote for a U.N. resolution which
says that this place, in which we are now celebrating Hanukkah, is occupied
territory?"
Some 570,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as part of a future state. At
the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu brushed aside a White House
denial and again accused the Obama administration of colluding with the Palestinians
in the U.N. move against the settlements, which are considered illegal by most
countries and described as illegitimate by Washington. Disputing this, Israel cites biblical, historical and political
links to the West Bank and Jerusalem,
as well as security concerns. Also on Sunday, an Israeli official said
Netanyahu had ordered that until Trump takes office, cabinet ministers refrain
from traveling to or meeting officials of countries that voted in favor of the U.N. resolution. Speaking on MSNBC on Monday, Israel's ambassador to Washington,
Ron Dermer,
accused the Obama administration of orchestrating Friday's U.N. vote behind the
scenes, despite U.S.
denials. The diplomatic drama unfolded over the Christmas holiday, with twists
and turns unusual even for the serpentine path followed by Netanyahu's
relationship with a Democratic president who opposes settlement building. On
Thursday, Netanyahu successfully lobbied Egypt,
which proposed the draft resolution, to withdraw it - enlisting the help of
President-elect Trump to persuade Cairo
to drop the bid. But the Israeli leader was ultimately outmaneuvered at the United Nations, where New Zealand, Venezuela,
Senegal and Malaysia,
resubmitted the proposal a day later. It passed 14-0, with an abstention from
the United States,
withholding Washington's traditional use of
its veto to protect Israel
at the world body in what was widely seen as a parting shot by Obama against
Netanyahu and his settlement policy.
Israel Says 'Reducing' Ties with
Nations over UN Vote
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
27/16/Israel's foreign ministry said Tuesday the country was
"reducing" ties with nations that voted for last week's UN Security
Council resolution demanding a halt to settlement building in Palestinian
territory. Refuting reports that ties had been suspended, foreign ministry
spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said that Israel was
"temporarily reducing" visits and work with embassies. "Until
further notice, we’ll limit our contacts with the embassies here in Israel and refrain
from visits of Israeli officials to those states, and of visits of officials
from those states here," he told AFP. Israel
has already called back its ambassadors to New
Zealand and Senegal for consultations, and
cancelled aid programmes with the African state. On Tuesday, Israel informed Angola it would be freezing its aid
programme there, Nahshon said. Israeli media have
reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign
minister, has asked officials to visit the countries that voted for the
resolution as little as possible for now. At least two trips have been
cancelled or postponed, including this week's visit to Israel by
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and an upcoming visit by the Senegalese foreign
minister. There have also been reports that Netanyahu was calling off a meeting
with British Prime Minister Theresa May at next month's World Economic Forum in
Davos, but there has been no official confirmation.
Deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely
said Tuesday she was concerned that Israel
would miss opportunities to explain its position by cancelling visits, but that
she supported making clear "you can't take Israel for granted." Countries
should not be able to "make pilgrimages to Israel to learn about fighting terror,
cyber-defence and agricultural technologies, and in the UN do whatever you
want," she told army radio. Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have
responded with especially harsh language to Friday's Security Council
resolution which passed after the United States abstained from
voting. Netanyahu has alleged that US President Barack Obama
"colluded" to see the "shameful" resolution through in the
waning days of his administration.
By deciding not to veto the move, the United
States enabled the adoption of the first UN resolution
since 1979 to condemn Israel
over its settlement policy. - 'Not turn other cheek' -The text was passed with
support from all remaining members of the 15-member council. Israel summoned ambassadors of countries that
voted for the resolution on Sunday -- Christmas Day -- while Netanyahu also met
with US
ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. Security Council members such as Russia, China
and Britain
are key to Israeli diplomacy or trade and some
analysts suggested the measures being taken were more symbolic than
substantive. The United States
is Israel's
most important ally and provides it with more than $3 billion per year in
defence aid. On Monday, Netanyahu defended his response to the UN vote in the
face of criticism that he was overreacting, saying "we do not turn the
other cheek". "Not only will our relations with the nations of the
world not be harmed, over time they will only improve because the nations of
the world respect strong countries that stand up for themselves and do not
respect weak ingratiating countries that bow their heads," he told a
conference.
Israeli Arab MP under House Arrest in
Jail Phones Case
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
27/16/An Arab Israeli lawmaker was placed under house arrest Tuesday over accusations
he smuggled mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners, a case that has drawn
outrage from the country's right-wing politicians. Basel Ghattas
of the Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties, appeared before a court
in Rishon Lezion near Tel
Aviv and was ordered to remain under house arrest for 10 days as the
investigation continues, police said. He has been barred from leaving Israel and
cannot visit security detainees in prison for the next 180 days, according to
police. The 60-year-old was arrested on Thursday after being questioned about
the accusations, which he denies. He has waived his parliamentary immunity,
allowing the investigation to proceed. Israeli media have reported that 12
mobile phones were found on two separate prisoners in searches after Ghattas visited. One of the prisoners is serving time for
the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984, news site Ynet reported. Arab lawmakers from the Joint List, the
third largest force in parliament with 13 seats, frequently clash with Israel's
leaders. Arab Israelis make up some 17.5 percent of the country's population,
and are descended from Palestinians who remained on their land after the
creation of Israel
in 1948. They hold Israeli citizenship, but largely see themselves as Palestinians.
Balad, Ghattas' party, is
especially critical of Israeli policies. Its three
parliamentarians triggered outrage among Jewish Israelis earlier this year when
they met relatives of Palestinians who authorities say were killed while
carrying out attacks. In response, parliament passed a controversial law in
July allowing the expulsion of lawmakers deemed guilty of racial incitement or
supporting armed struggle against Israel.
Main Black Box of Crashed Russian Plane
Found in Black Sea
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December
27/16/Russian rescuers working round the clock have found the main black box
from the Syria-bound military plane that crashed into the Black Sea with 92
people on board, authorities said Tuesday. The defense
ministry said the box, which could provide vital clues as to why the Tu-154 jet
crashed, was discovered early Tuesday only 1,600 meters from the shore and 17
meters under the surface. The equipment was in "satisfactory
condition" and experts in Moscow
are now examining its data, the ministry said in a later statement. The Tu-154
jet, whose passengers included more than 60 members of the internationally
renowned Red Army Choir, was heading to Russia's
military airbase in Syria on
Sunday when it went down off the coast of Sochi
shortly after take-off. Investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the
crash, but officials have said that an act of terror was not being considered
as a possible explanation. The discovery of the black box comes as searchers
scramble to recover bodies and remaining debris from the aircraft in an
operation involving divers, deepwater machines, helicopters and drones. The defense ministry said that five plane fragments, including
part of the fuselage and engine, were found overnight 30 meters (98 feet) underwater
at around 1,700 meters from the shore. Searchers later found an additional
three fragments, including landing gear and a portion of the engine, the
ministry said.
- Four scenarios -
Russia's
federal security service has said it is looking into four suspected causes of
the crash, namely pilot error, technical failure, faulty fuel and an object in
the engine. The defense ministry said a total of 12
bodies and 156 body fragments had been recovered from the sea since the crash,
all of which are being sent to Moscow
for DNA identification. The Kommersant daily
newspaper reported that investigators are relying on a witness statement by a
coastguard member who saw the plane in its final moments descending towards the
sea with its nose tilted sharply upward. Authorities have not said how long it
would take to decipher the black box.
- Choir to be restored -
The Tu-154 jet went down on Sunday morning minutes after taking off at 5:25 am
(0225 GMT) from Sochi's airport, where it had
stopped to refuel after flying out from the Chkalovsky
military aerodrome in the Moscow
region. The FSB said all passengers remained on the plane when it stopped in Sochi, with one customs
officer and one border guard coming on board as it was being fueled. Onboard were 64 members of the Alexandrov
Ensemble -- the army's official musical group, also known as the Red Army Choir
-- and their conductor Valery Khalilov.
The choir was set to perform for Russian troops at the Hmeimim
airbase in Syria, which has
been used to launch air strikes in support of Moscow's ally President Bashar
Assad.
Defense minister Sergei Shoigu
has pledged to restore the choir "in the nearest future." Other
passengers included military officers, journalists and popular charity worker Yelizaveta Glinka, affectionately known as "Doctor
Liza", who was bringing medical supplies to a hospital in the coastal
Syrian city of Latakia.
Russia
observed a day of mourning Monday, canceling
entertainment programs. People brought flowers to improvised memorials at the
port in central Sochi and the city's airport, as
well as to the Moscow headquarters of the Red
Army Choir and the office of Fair Aid, the NGO that Glinka headed, which
primarily worked with Moscow's
homeless. Tu-154 aircraft have been involved in a number of accidents in the
past, including the April 2010 crash killing then-Polish president Lech
Kaczynski and his delegation. They are no longer used by commercial airlines in
Russia.
Asked whether all Tu-154 planes would be grounded, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred journalists to the transportation ministry,
while Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov
called the model "rather reliable."
Trump: UN is club for people to ‘have good
time’
The Associated Press Tuesday, 27 December 2016/Days after the United
Nations voted to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east
Jerusalem, Donald Trump questioned its effectiveness Monday, saying it's just a
club for people to "have a good time."
The president-elect wrote on Twitter that the UN has "such great
potential," but it has become "just a club for people to get
together, talk and have a good time. So sad!" On
Friday, Trump warned, "As to the UN, things will be different after Jan.
20th," referring to the day he takes office. The decision by the Obama
administration to abstain from Friday's UN vote brushed aside Trump's demands
that the US exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations
with Israel's leadership. Trump told The Associated Press last December that he
wanted to be "very neutral" on Israel-Palestinian issues. But his
tone became decidedly more pro-Israel as the presidential campaign progressed.
He has spoken disparagingly of Palestinians, saying they have been "taken
over" by or are condoning militant groups. Trump's tweet Monday about the
UN ignores much of the work that goes on in the 193-member global organization.
This year the UN Security Council has approved over 70 legally binding
resolutions, including new sanctions on North Korea and measures tackling
conflicts and authorizing the UN's far-flung
peacekeeping operations around the world. The General Assembly has also
approved dozens of resolutions on issues, like the role of diamonds in fueling conflicts; condemned human rights abuses in Iran and North
Korea; and authorized an investigation of alleged war
crimes in Syria.
Trump's criticism of the UN is by no means unique. While the organization does
engage in large-scale humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts, its massive
bureaucracy has long been a source of controversy. The organization has been
accused by some Western governments of being inefficient and frivolous, while
developing nations have said it is overly influenced by wealthier nations.
Trump tweeted later Monday, "The world was gloomy before I won -
there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10 percent and Christmas
spending is over a trillion dollars!"
Markets are up since Trump won the general election, although not quite
by that much. The Standard & Poor's 500 is up
about 6 percent since Election Day, while the Dow has risen more than 8
percent. As for holiday spending, auditing and accounting firm Deloitte
projected in September that total 2016 holiday sales were expected to exceed $1
trillion, representing a 3.6 percent to 4.0 percent increase in holiday sales from
November through January. Finally, Trump took to Twitter again late Monday to
complain about media coverage of his charitable foundation. He wrote that of
the "millions of dollars" he has contributed to or raised
for the Donald J. Trump Foundation, all of it "is given to charity, and
media won't report."Trump said Saturday he will
dissolve his charitable foundation before taking office to avoid conflicts of
interest. The New York
attorney general's office has been investigating the foundation following media
reports that foundation spending went to benefit Trump's campaign.
The president-elect is spending the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He had no public schedule Monday.
Australia Delists Iranian Resistance, Adds Khamenei's
IRGC Commanders to the Terrorist List
NCRI/December 27/16/ - Australia has finally removed the names of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA)
from its Foreign Ministry’s terrorist organizations list.This
is the last government and country in the world in which the unjust and
disgraceful (terrorist) labelling against Iranian Resistance breaks apart.
Australia
every three years reviews its Foreign Ministry’s list on international
terrorism. This year, at the end of the review during the months of November
and December 2016, the Australian government, despite Iranian regime’s demands
and greed and the dealings, has finally delisted the Iranian Resistance and completely
removed the names of the PMOI (MEK), the NCRI and the NLA from its Foreign
Ministry’s black list of terrorist organizations.
In addition, Australia’s Foreign Ministry in its final list of terrorist
organizations and entities, published in the ministry’s official site on 14
December 2016, has added the names of the Iranian regime’s most important
military elements and government organizations associated with the regime’s
nuclear and missile programs, and therefore, each of them are subject to specified
penalties and sanctions by the Australian government as well as international
sanctions.
Among the Iranian regime’s elements and organizations included in Australia’s
black list, the following names can be seen:
• Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander in
Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC);
• Major General Rahim Safavi,
Senior Military Advisor to Khamenei and former
Commander in Chief of the IRGC
• Major General Qassem Soleimani,
Commander of the IRGC’s Terrorist Quds
Force
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,
President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, congratulated all supporters and
friends of the Resistance especially Iranian refugees and asylum seekers in
Australia for this victory obtained with the efforts of the supporters of
Iranian Resistance and friends of Ashraf in
Australia.
Ministers Feuding Exposes Plundering of
Workers Money by Iran Regime Officials
NCRI/December 27/16/Feuding among Rouhani’s ministers
exposes Iran regime officials plundering workers’ money During a dispute and
feuding between Hassan Rouhani’s Cabinet Ministers,
some facts about the Iranian regime officials plundering workers’ health
insurance money were disclosed. On Sunday December 25, the state-run Javan news agency, affiliated to Khamenei’s
faction, published some details of the feud and Rouhani’s
Minister of Health attacking Ali Rabiei, Minister of
Welfare. The report reveals some facts and details on how the regime officials
are plundering workers (partly) by taking their money and refusing to pay for
the workers’ health insurance and medical treatment. Javan
news agency first wrote: “Although the officials fighting each other ultimately
has no benefit for the people, but in practice it reveals some behind-scenes
issues and makes public the hidden realities of their (the officials)
inefficiencies. The story of health development plan has created serious
conflict between Ministry of Health and Ministry of Welfare as the financial
resources to continue the project run out and hit the bottom of the pot…”“In
the third meeting of the seminar of medical sciences university professors, the
minister of health strongly criticized the minister of welfare,” the news
agency added.Javan news agency then, quoting Rouhani’s minister of health, wrote, “We handed in the
people's health to a business enterprise 12 years ago and people’ health fell
into the hands of the ministry of welfare. They named it welfare and I believe
it is a pity for that name (to be used by that ministry).”
“…I announce from this podium, although some officials express support,
compassion and advocacy for workers, the workers’ share of health fund (health
insurance payment) has not been spent for their medical treatment and needs.
Last year, they took workers money but refused to pay for their health
insurance and medical treatment. That is why they now owe 11,000 billion Tomans ($3.4 billion dollars) because they spent the
workers’ share elsewhere. Every month, the Social Security Organization takes
about 4,000 billion Tomans ($1.24 billion dollars)
insurance money from their subscribers (the insured workers), a third of which
must be spent on workers’ health and medical treatment. However, it is not
clear where the money goes.”
Iran: Another Party in Tehran Ended up
With Arrest of All Participants
NCRI/December 27/16/- According to a report by the state-run Fars news agency
affiliated to the Iran regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), 25 people
including an actor and an author of satirical programs were arrested in Tehran
after the police and security forces raided a party in the capital city. The
IRGC news agency wrote in its twitter account: “An actor and a writer of
satirical programs identified as ‘A. J.’ were also among the arrestees after
the police and law enforcement officers with ‘judicial warrant’ raided the
ceremony in Tehran
and arrested the participants. Iranian regime's (suppressive) institutions have
recently become more sensitive and more attentive to the private lives of
actors and athletes following their presence in the social networks and
increase in their activities, and the scope of dealing with them has also
increased. For many years, particularly in recent years, numerous instances of
the arrest and detention of actors and athletes in Iran for their presence and
participation in private parties and ceremonies have been reported. On
Wednesday May 4, 2016, state-run Mizan news agency
affiliated to the regime’s Judiciary had reported the arrest of seven renowned
actors in a “night party.”On the same month (May
2016), Abbas Jafari Dowlatâbâdi, Tehran's
so-called Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor had warned athletes and artists
against their participation in what he called "vulgar meetings that are
contrary to the law.”In addition, Gholam
Hossein Esmaili, Judiciary
Chief of Tehran Province, said that “Cultural
Surveillance” of athletes and artists should be increased and suggested that
the deputy of Judiciary’s crime prevention department should enter this field.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 27-28/16
The UN Declares War on
Judeo-Christian Civilization
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone
Institute/December 27/2016
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9655/un-israel-war
How is it that Western jurisprudence, created after the Second World War to
prevent more crimes against humanity, is now being used to perpetuate more
crimes and against democracies?
It is a dreadful manipulation to try erase all Jewish and Christian history, to
make believe that all the world was originally and
forever only Islamic. That is what a jihad looks like. It is not just orange
jumpsuits, beheadings and slavery. If one can erase and rewrite history, one
can redirect the future.
If Palestinian men beat their wives, it's Israel's fault, argued UN expert Dubravka Simonovic with a
straight face.
Last month, the President of the UN General Assembly sported the famous keffiyah scarf, a symbol of the "Palestinian
resistance" (read terrorism). This is simply the continuation of the
cultural obliteration of Israel,
which is supposed to justify next its physical obliteration.
The UN's war on the Israel's Jews is, at heart, a war
against the West. The UN and its backers are briskly paving the way for the
European Caliphate.
2016 has been a sumptuous year for the anti-Semites at the United Nations. The
UN Security Council just targeted the only democracy in the Middle
East: the State of Israel. The outgoing Obama Administration
reportedly orchestrated what even Haaretz called a
"hit and run" campaign in UN to denigrate the Jewish State and leave
it to a fate where only conflict and hate loom. This is a cultural genocide
that is no less dangerous than terror attacks. It is based on anti-Semitic lies
and creates the atmosphere not for achieving "peace", as
disingenuously claimed, but for perpetuating war.
UNSC Resolution 2334 is the culmination of a dizzyingly fruitful year for
anti-Semites. Last November, committees of the UN General Assembly in a single
day adopted 10 resolutions against Israel,
the only open society in the Middle East. How
many resolutions have been approved against Syria? One.
How many against the rogue state of North Korea? One.
How many against Russia when
it annexed Crimea? One.
Hillel Neuer, of UN Watch, observed:
"Even as Syrian president Bashar Assad is
preparing for the final massacre of his own people in Aleppo,
the U.N. adopted a resolution -- drafted and co-sponsored by Syria -- which falsely condemns Israel for "repressive measures"
against Syrian citizens on the Golan Heights.
It's obscene."
Not a single resolution was approved for those states which really abuse human
rights, such as Saudi Arabia,
Turkey, Venezuela, China
or Cuba, not to mention many
virtual tyrannies throughout Africa. Only one
resolution was approved for the "Palestinian refugee properties", but
not even a single mention for the property of the Iraqi Christians in Mosul.
Another resolution in this racist banquet of the United Nations concerned the
"application of the Geneva Convention in the occupied territories".
There are hundreds of territorial disputes in the world, from Tibet to Cyprus,
but only Israel
deserves to be called out?
According to the liars at the United Nations, the most evil country in the
world is Israel.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad, and Jordan's Prince Zeid
al Hussein are sponsoring even now a "blacklist" of international
companies that have ties with Israeli companies in Judea, Samaria, East
Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, to facilitate boycotting Israel in the evident
hope of economically exterminating the only democracy and pluralistic nation in
the region: the Jewish State.
The UN Envoy for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui
of Algeria, suggested also including the Israeli army in the blacklist of
countries and groups that regularly cause harm to children, along with Al
Qaeda, Boko Haram, the
Islamic State, the Taliban, and countries such as the Congo and the Central
African Republic, infamous for their child-soldiers -- but of course not the
Palestinians, who continue to promote using children as combatants and children
as "martyrs". How is it that Western jurisprudence, created after the
Second World War to prevent more crimes against humanity, is now being used to
perpetuate more crimes and against democracies?
The UN women's rights commission condemned Israel as the world's only violator
of women's rights. Not Syria,
where Assad's forces use rape as a tactic of war, or the Islamic State, which
enslaves women from religious minorities. Not Saudi Arabia, where women are
punished if they do not wear the Islamic full-covering clothing in scorching
temperatures, or drive a car or even leave the house. Not Iran, where
"adultery" (which can include being raped) is punishable by being
stoned to death. And if Palestinian men beat their wives, it's Israel's fault,
argued UN expert Dubravka Simonovic
with a straight face.
The UN's World Health Organization also singled out
Israel as the only violator in the world of "mental, physical and environmental
health", despite Israel being the only state in the world actually to give
medical care to its enemies (ask Hamas leaders' children).
Canadian law professor Michael Lynk was then
appointed as the UN's "impartial"
investigator of alleged Israeli human rights violations despite his long record
of anti-Israel lobbying, including his board membership on many pro-Palestinian
organizations, including Friends of Sabeel and the
National Council on Canada-Arab Relations.
Last October, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO -- by magically declaring ancient
Biblical Jewish sites "Islamic", even though Islam did not
historically exist until the seventh century, hundreds of years later --
pretended, with the villainous complicity of the West, to erase the Jewish-Christian
roots of Jerusalem.
It is a dreadful manipulation to try erase all Jewish and Christian history, to
make believe that all the world was originally and
forever only Islamic. It is a jihad. That is what a jihad looks like. It is not
just orange jumpsuits, beheadings and slavery. If one can erase and rewrite
history, one can redirect the future. If you do not know where you are coming
from, what values will you defend or fight for?
Names matter. If it is Jewish, then it is called "Judea and Samaria"; if it is "Palestine",
you can say the "Jews stole it" and that Israel is a "colonialist
construct" based on "injustice". Why then is no one is pointing
to the entire continent of South America,
conquered from the native Indians by Cortés, Pizarro and Europeans with guns?
The latest UN Security Council resolution against Israel is not only about
"settlements", but the Old City of Jerusalem. Its members want to
reset history not at 1967, but at 1948, the year Israel was born.
When Marcel Breuer and Bernard Zerfuss designed
UNESCO's building in concrete and glass at the Place Fontenoy
in Paris, and
Pablo Picasso donated frescoes to it, they most likely imagined the rebirth of
Western culture after the tragedies of war, the Holocaust and the Nazi
nightmare. Never in any other spot on earth were words such as
"education", "science", "culture",
"freedom", "peace" and "brotherhood" repeated so
many times. There was hope and commitment that the future would be better --
not worse. But the dream lasted no longer than the few minutes of the
announcement.
The Soviet Union had in fact already stained UNESCO's cultural programs with
the red of Communism, such as when UNESCO promoted a "new world
information order", the goal of which goal was to end the dominance of the
Western press -- presented as a "threat" to the "cultural
identity" of "Third-World" nations. Under the Eiffel Tower,
the authoritarian and anti-Western Third World
then took control of the UN cultural center, which became, according with the
Washington Post, "overly bureaucratic, costly, wasteful and imbued with an
anti-Western, anti-capitalist bias".
Since then, Israel continues
to be treated as a pariah by these ideological and corporeal criminals on the Seine. Even after that, in 1975 the UN body
"tipped its hand" by propagating the anti-Semitic blood libel of
"Zionism is racism".
Last month, the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, sported
the famous checkered scarf, the keffiyah,
a symbol of the "Palestinian resistance" (read terrorism). This is
simply the continuation of the cultural obliteration of Israel, which
is supposed to justify next its physical obliteration.
Last month, the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, sported
the famous checkered scarf, the keffiyah,
a symbol of the "Palestinian resistance" (read terrorism). This is
simply the continuation of the cultural obliteration of Israel, which
is supposed to justify next its physical obliteration. (Image source: UN/Manuel
Elias)
The fate of Judeo-Christian civilization -- Christianity as well as Judaism --
on which all our values are based, is tied to the fate of the State of Israel.
If Israel
ceases to exist, so does Christianity. The world has been witnessing how the
few Christians and other non-Muslims still remaining in the rest of the Middle East -- once the glorious Christian Byzantium --
are being slaughtered, now that the Jews and Greeks are gone.
The United Nations' war on the Israel's
Jews is, at heart, a war against the West. The UN and its backers are briskly
paving the way for the European Caliphate.
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural
Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 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./
Iran's Monstrous Record in 2016
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone
Institute/December 27/2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/12/27/majid-rafizadehgatestone-institute-irans-monstrous-record-in-2016/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9621/iran-monstrous-record
Tehran has not become a rational and moderate state. Iran has instead become more
empowered and emboldened to pursue its revolutionary ideals of anti-Americanism
and anti-Semitism.
When it comes to the JCPOA nuclear deal -- which Iran never
signed -- Iranian leaders violated the deal three times in the past year.
UN Security Council resolution 2231 is clear. The resolution "calls upon Iran
not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be
capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic
missile technology."
Iran also increased
strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to undermine US interests,
strengthening the Russia-China-Iran axis.
Iran
ranks top in the world for executions per capita. Iran also became the world's
leading executioner of juveniles.
In 2016, Iran
reached an unprecedented level when it comes to breaking international laws. It
expanded interventionist policies in the region; pursued revolutionary
principles of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism; ignored several UN
resolutions and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the P5+1
and Tehran, which Iran never signed; continued
regional hegemonic ambitions, and abused human rights.
With billions of dollars of revenue pouring into the pockets of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran did not become a
rational and moderate state. Iran
instead became more empowered and emboldened to pursue its revolutionary ideals
of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
Iran
was listed as the top state sponsor of terrorism -- "providing a range of
support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the
world."
When it comes to the JCPOA nuclear deal -- which Iran never signed -- Iranian
leaders violated the deal three times.
The first violation was reported by Germany's domestic intelligence agency,
the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in July 2016. The
agency stated that the Iranian government was pursuing a
"clandestine" path to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment
from German companies "at what is, even by international standards, a
quantitatively high level." German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Iran, but no
action was taken.
According to the nuclear deal, Iran
should request permission from a UN Security Council panel for "purchases
of nuclear direct-use goods", but Tehran
did not. Another report by the Institute for Science and International Security
drew attention to Iran's
violation as well:
"The Institute for Science and International Security has learned that Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization (AEOI) recently made an attempt to purchase tons of
controlled carbon fiber from a country. This attempt
occurred after Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA). The attempt to acquire carbon fiber was
denied by the supplier and its government. Nonetheless, the AEOI had enough
carbon fiber to replace existing advanced centrifuge
rotors and had no need for additional quantities over the next several years,
let alone for tons of carbon fiber. This attempt thus
raises concerns over whether Iran
intends to abide by its JCPOA commitments. In particular, Iran may seek
to stockpile the carbon fiber so as to be able to
build advanced centrifuge rotors far beyond its current needs under the JCPOA,
providing an advantage that would allow it to quickly build an advanced
centrifuge enrichment plant if it chose to leave or disregard the JCPOA during
the next few years. The carbon fiber procurement
attempt is also another example of efforts by the P5+1 to keep secret
problematic Iranian actions."
The next violation came in February 2016 as Iran exceeded its threshold for
heavy water, used to produce nuclear weapons. In addition, in November 2016,
according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran again
violated the deal by holding more heavy water than permitted. Iran was let go
free both times with no consequences.
Third, when it comes violating several UN resolutions, in 2016, Iran
significantly ratcheted up its production of ballistic missiles.
Iran test-fired at least eight ballistic missiles, capable of carrying
multiple nuclear heads, an act in violation of the nuclear deal, as well as
United Nations resolutions 1929 and 2231.
The JCPOA states that Iran
should not undertake any ballistic missile activity "until the date eight
years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits
a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier."
The UN Security Council resolution (Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution
2231 of 2015) is clear. The resolution "calls upon Iran not to
undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of
delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile
technology."
Another UN Security Council resolution, 1929, also states:
"Iran shall not
undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering
nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and
that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of
technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such
activities."
It is accurate to argue that if not for the Obama Administration's
appeasement policies towards Iran,
Tehran would
not have received tremendous financial relief. Nevertheless, Iran's Supreme leader Khamenei
who enjoys the final say in Iran's
domestic and foreign policy, instigated more
anti-American sentiments and continued lashing out at the "Great
Satan". Iran
publicly harassed the US Navy, detained US sailors, and imprisoned several
American citizens. Khamenei also repeatedly
threatened Israel and made
incendiary remarks about wiping Israel
from the face of earth in less than 8 minutes. In December 2016, Khamenei stated that Israel would not exist in 25 years.
He also published a book laying out a plan on how to destroy Israel.
Regionally speaking, as Tehran became more heavily armed with additional
revenues and weaponry, it has increased its military interventions in Syria,
Iraq, Yemen, and intensified its advisory, financial, weapons and intelligence
assistance to its Shiite proxies and Bashar al Assad,
bolstering the "Shia axis". Iran also increased strategic and tactical
cooperation with Russia
to undermine US interests, strengthening the Russia-China-Iran axis.
Finally, and more fundamentally, when it comes to human rights, Iran set some
of the worst records since its establishment in 1979. According to the Human
Rights Watch, 2016 saw Iran
escalating the mass executions of minorities, and the imprisonment of human
rights and political activists. Now, Iran ranks top in the world for
executions per capita. Iran
also became the world's leading executioner of juveniles, according to Amnesty
International.
These are only some examples of Iran's disregard for international
laws and its human rights abuses.
There is definitely a positive correlation between, on the one hand, Iran
gaining more dollars and, on the other hand, breaching international laws,
committing egregious human rights violations, spreading its revolutionary
values of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, destabilizing the region,
intensifying regional conflicts and humanitarian tragedies, and pursing its
regional ambitions.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh,
political scientists and Harvard University scholar is president of the International
American Council on the Middle East. He can be
reached at Dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu.
© 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.
Refute false claims to fight the appeal
of ISIS
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/December
27/16
The Council of Senior Scholars has condemned the killing of the Russian
ambassador in Ankara.
The scholars said that from a jurisprudence — fiqh and Shariah — point of view,
the guarantee of the safety of ambassadors is underlined by the Holy Qur’an and
Sunnah and agreed upon by the Ummah.
Meanwhile, a terrorist attack in Jordan left 19 dead, including five
terrorists. In Berlin
a terror attack killed 12 and injured 48. Sadly, terrorists continue to
radicalize Muslim youth and are spreading fear and horror everywhere.
In order to effectively fight ISIS and the
terrorist threat, scholars in the Muslim world should expose its falsehood in
order to reduce its appeal and expose its distorted ideology.
The goal of ISIS, Boko Haram,
al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sham and other terrorist organizations
is the formation of an “caliphate” or government. They
consider “caliphate” an essential condition for a society to be Islamic and
seek the return of the Islamic world to the medieval age.
They base their claims on a distorted interpretation of the Holy Qur’an and the
teachings of the Prophet (peace be upon him). There
have been many initiatives to expose the falsehood of ISIS;
however, they have not been effective and lack scholarly arguments.
Open letter to Baghdadi
In 2014, over 100 Muslim scholars and clergymen from all over the world
released an open letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr
Al-Baghdadi, accusing him and his army of war crimes, violation of fundamental
principles of Islam and perversion of the rules of morality and Shari’ah law.
“Who gave you authority over the Ummah? Was it your
group? If this is the case, then a group of no more than several thousand has
appointed itself the ruler of over a billion-and-a-half Muslims,” the document
stated.
It also included details of acts of ISIS that are prohibited in Islam such as
the killing of the innocent, prisoners and emissaries (journalists included),
denying women and children their rights, the reintroduction of slavery,
torture, disfiguring the dead and destroying graves, harming or mistreating believers
of other religions of the Scripture, starting armed insurrection, attempting to
establish a caliphate “without consensus from all Muslims,” as well as issuing fatwas without proper religious education.
A more scholarly debate among scholars in the Muslim world could reduce the
appeal of ISIS and end the spread of the radicalization of Muslim youth
This letter is one of many condemnations of ISIS by Islamic leaders and ordinary Muslims. However,
global experts assert that the most effective ideological critics of the
terrorists should come from within the Muslim community.
Meanwhile, according to historians and political theorists, the idea of
establishing an Islamic state based on the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah is incorrect, as neither presents a model for such a
state. Islam has firm positions regarding justice and oppression; however, it
does not have any model for an “Islamic State.” Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) asked
his followers to run their societies based on their collective wisdom and
consultation.
During the era of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) what existed was the Ummah, a community of Muslim masses. German sociologist and
philosopher Ferdinand Tönnies explains that medieval
“societies” must be considered as communities to be distinguished from modern
societies. Society is the invention of the modern era.
The medieval times
Some political theorists support the argument that in
medieval times governments did not have borders but civilian centers. Andrew
Vincent argues that the town of Madinah
in the Arabian Peninsula in which Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) lived in the 7th century CE with a small population did not
have a government. “Societies of the 7th century were tribal, sparsely
populated and simple, the existence of a government, as we understand it today,
did not exist.”
Muslim scholar and philosopher Imam Fakhruddin Razi explains that although the Prophet (PBUH) was wiser
than all the people, he believed that in many cases the people know better. He
quotes the Prophet (PBUH) as saying, “You know your life’s affairs and I know
your religious affairs.”
Al-Zamakhshari also quotes the Prophet (PBUH) saying,
“Those who consult with and seek advice from others find the best path.” And,
the Holy Qur’an says, “They [the believers] employ consultations among themselves”
(ash-Shura 38). The Holy Qur’an also says, “There is
no compulsion in religion.”
There has been much research with regard to the concept of a worldwide
caliphate. However, researchers and historians ask: How can anyone say there is
a concept of a caliphate in Islam when this system was never established? No
“caliph” was appointed by God and during the time of the Prophet (PBUH), there
was no “caliphate” ruling the world.
These are just a few facts out of many that can expose the false claims of a
“caliphate”. A more scholarly debate among scholars in the Muslim world could
reduce the appeal of ISIS and end the spread
of the radicalization of Muslim youth.
**This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on December 24, 2016.
OP-ED: Ethiopian dam between Egypt and
Saudi Arabia
By Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al
Arabiya/December 27/16
The picture of former Saudi minister Ahmad al-Khatib
visiting the Grand Ethiopian Dam was used by some to debate in media outlets.
Close relations between Riyadh and Cairo were thus subjected
to a low rhetoric.
Even if we assume that the picture and the visit imply more than tourism and
investment, raising the issue in the media still remains an old, outdated,
failed and harmful means to exert pressure.
Ethiopia
is an important country for the African economy. The US depends on it to resolve a
number of its military and political problems in the continent. For example, it
succeeded in containing Somalia
by force, unlike Afghanistan,
and disciplined Eritrea.
Egypt is bigger and more
important to the Saudis than Ethiopia,
regardless of the contradictory statements made by some Egyptian and Saudi
media figures.
Yes, there are times when relations are cold but this is not over major
regional political issue as it is being made out to be, or at least that’s not
the case yet. Skillful diplomats must isolate reasons
behind the dispute from relations in general. It is understandable that
disputes happen when there are interrelated and strong relations.
This is why our relations with Scandinavian countries are always stable.
Disputes between two friendly countries are not about what is being projected –
they are also not about Syria
as it is rumored.
The Yemen connection
As for allegations that Egypt
is supplying rebels in Yemen
with arms, I rule that out as Egypt
is aware that this is a dangerous act as Houthis have
killed Saudi civilians after they intentionally used their missiles to target
cities and towns inside Saudi
Arabia.
All these narratives about relations between Egypt
and Saudi Arabia
are being promoted by figures affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Some
Iraqi parties’ announcement that the government intends to supply Egypt with oil
products to replace suspended Saudi oil shipments is not possible. It is
difficult for Iraq
to supply this because it does not have enough for its own use and it cannot
continue to provide them for free.
Egypt’s stance toward Syria is realistic and has not been different
from Turkey’s
position in recent times. During the last two resolutions submitted to the UN
General Assembly, Egypt
voted in favor of the Syrian people and against the
Assad regime, unlike what some Arab allies did. Egypt’s
recent stance in the UN Security Council regarding Israeli settlements is
linked to Cairo’s
compelling circumstances and we do not expect it to subject its security and
major interests to danger especially when other countries did what was required
of them. Cairo
was thus spared a potential crisis and embarrassment for the sake of a symbolic
decision.
Saudi-Egyptian disputes are over bilateral issues and will end in agreement
after a month or a year or they may not be resolved. Relations must not be left
for compromise because they are strategic. It is wrong to believe that Egypt’s position is out of solidarity when it
supports Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries against Iran. Egypt’s position against Iran serves Egypt’s
larger interests by preventing Iran
from expanding and dominating in Syria,
Iraq
or the Gulf.
Iran’s influence
Iran’s influence is
expanding at the expense of Egypt,
which is a big country in the region. If Cairo
wants to retreat and give up its role, other big regional countries will be
eager to fill it. Gulf countries are the ones which strike a balance between Turkey, Pakistan,
Ethiopia and Iran. Playing
the regional role also increases countries’ political, economic and military
value.
Egypt receives the second
biggest American economic and military aid and this is not just due to the Camp
David Agreement but is also due to Egypt’s regional importance. This
is why those who oppose this aid at the Congress failed to suspend it or
decrease it.
I think the biggest defect in Egyptian-Gulf relations lies in their limited
horizon. They remain mere relations with simple context. The recent move, around
two years ago, to build economic partnerships are good because they guarantee
the sustainability of relations instead of the policy of granting and providing
aid.
Partnerships expand economic activities and can change the reality of the Gulf
and Egyptian economies. This is what the Saudi and Emirati governments have
proposed to Cairo.
What is always to blame is Egyptian bureaucracy which is more of an enemy to
the Egyptian government than all of its rivals put together.
If Egypt
does not quickly walk the path of reforms, it will lose historical
opportunities in the Gulf and it will not become a giant economic partner.
Moreover, it will just continue to look for aid, which is impossible to
sustain.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on December 27, 2016.
The United States just made Middle East
peace harder
By Elliott Abrams and Michael Singh/Washington Post/December 23/16
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations and was a deputy national security adviser in the George W.
Bush administration; Michael Singh is the Lane-Swig senior fellow and managing
director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and was senior
director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council from 2007 to
2008. Sizing up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict upon assuming office,
President Obama decided Israeli settlements were the problem, and he insisted
on a total freeze on construction. What followed were eight years of deadlock,
the deterioration of U.S.
relations with Israelis and Palestinians alike, and widespread disillusionment
with the two-state solution. Despite this track record, Obama is leaving off
where he began: I n a departure from Washington’s
typical role as Israel’s
defender at the United Nations, the United States refused to use its
veto and allowed the adoption of a Security Council resolution condemning
Israeli settlements.
For the first time in 36 years, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution
critical of Israel's
Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory. The United States abstained. (Reuters)
For his part, President-elect Donald Trump had urged that the United States
veto the resolution. Trump’s argument wasn’t merely that Obama should defer to
his successor’s views or that the resolution was anti-Israel. It was that the
measure would impede rather than advance Israeli-Palestinian peace — and he was
right. First, the resolution fails to distinguish between construction in the
so-called blocs — that is, settlements west of Israel’s security barrier in
which about 80 percent of settlers live — and construction east of the barrier.
Building in the major blocs is relatively uncontroversial in Israel and
rarely the subject of Palestinian protests. President George W. Bush sought to
move peace talks forward in 2004 by asserting what all sides had already
tacitly acknowledged — that there could be no return to the 1967 lines in light
of the blocs’ existence, and that any negotiated border would have to reflect
this reality. By refusing to confirm Bush’s position, Obama dragged the process
backward and harmfully reopened old debates.
This regression is enshrined in the resolution, which “underlines that it will
not recognize any changes” to the armistice lines, and demands the cessation of
all settlement activities everywhere. This is unnecessary and unrealistic —
Israelis will not bring life to a halt in towns that no one disputes they will
keep — and is more likely to obstruct than facilitate the revival of peace
talks.
Second, the resolution rewards those who argue for “internationalization” of
the conflict — that is, for using international forums such as the U.N.,
European Union or International Criminal Court to impose terms on Israel, rather
than resorting to negotiations.
For the resolution does indeed dictate terms to Israel, not merely condemn
settlement activity. It adopts, as noted above, the position that the 1967
lines, rather than today’s realities, should form the basis of talks — despite
the fact that many Israeli communities east of those lines are decades old and
that Jews have had a near-continuous presence in the West Bank for thousands of
years. It implicitly prejudges the disposition of East Jerusalem — one of most
contentious issues dividing the parties — by characterizing Israeli
construction as settlement activity, a stance Israelis reject. The resolution
would demand an absolute halt to construction in East Jerusalem, even in the
Jewish Quarter of the Old
City, something no
Israeli government ever would agree to do.
Yet the resolution is conspicuously silent on Israeli concerns. There is no
call for other states to recognize Israel’s existence — much less its
status as a Jewish state — and end the conflict against it. On incitement and
terrorism, it strikes a false balance by calling on “both parties” to refrain
from them, despite the fact that Israel prosecutes its citizens who
resort to terrorism while the Palestinian Authority lionizes them.
Ironically, though from an Israeli perspective this language may favor the Palestinians, reasonable Palestinians may suffer
from it. Because the resolution, untethered as it is
to any prospective diplomatic initiative or opening, will fail to yield
improvements on the ground, it will further discredit the very notion of
diplomacy and compromise as paths to peace and weaken those who champion them.
Finally, U.S support for the resolution lends legitimacy and encouragement to
the U.N.’s disproportionate and one-sided focus on Israel. The United States has historically criticized this
bias, which borders on the absurd: For example, Israel was the only country
criticized by a special U.N. commission on the status of women, despite being
the only state in its region where women enjoy equal rights.
Decades of such discrimination have not made Israel more accommodating to its
critics, and this resolution won’t either. Instead it will reinforce Israelis’
mistrust of the U.N., thus eroding the Security Council’s capacity to
contribute to the peace it professes to advance.
A U.S.
veto of the resolution would not have been an endorsement of settlements.
Rather, it would have been an affirmation that this is an issue that can only
effectively be addressed through negotiations. The best way to encourage those
negotiations is not to prejudge their outcome or set timetables, but to create
the right regional conditions for them by countering spoilers such as Iran and the
Islamic State who oppose peaceful coexistence, as well as the right local
conditions for them by reinvigorating programs aimed at building confidence
through economic and security cooperation. Peace in the Middle
East will not be accomplished through a U.N. vote. Rather, it will
require renewed U.S.
leadership in the region and the rebuilding of relationships of trust with all
of our partners there. This is where the next administration should start.
**Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle East
policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, was deputy national security
adviser to President George W. Bush.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-united-states-just-made-middle-east-peace-harder/2016/12/23/d0ecc3ea-c923-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4d19f3749462