LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 06/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

Bible Quotations For Today
Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat!
Isaiah 55/1-13: “Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.” Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to Yahweh for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” God is Sovereign: Life often feels confusing. If we’re experiencing a tragedy or great turmoil, we might begin to doubt that God is in control. But these words remind us that the Lord is sovereign … even in our pain, even in our troubles. Through it all, his love is transforming us, perfecting us, completing us. James MacDonald in Gripped by the Greatness of God, explains it this way: “God’s sovereignty is first painful, then slowly powerful, and over much time seen to be profitable. It is to be studied with great sensitivity for the experiences of others and deep reverence for the One who controls the outcomes of every matter in the universe"

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 06/16
Iran’s new best friends/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/February 05/16
Palestinian refugees in Syria: Aya must not be left behind/Pierre Krähenbühl/Al Arabiya/February 05/16
Facebook's War on Freedom of Speech/by Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/February 05/16
Rafsanjani Protests Against Iranian Regime's Oppression Of Its Citizens, Warns Decision-Makers – i.e. Ideological Camp, Led By Supreme Leader Khamenei/MEMRI/February 5, 2016
Writers In Gulf Press: Removal Of Sanctions Will Make It Easier For Iran To Keep Funding Terror, And Will Facilitate Its Plans To Harm Other Countries/MEMRI/February 5, 2016

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on February 06/16
Nasrallah, Aoun is your sole president, so elect him
Security Forces Free Kuwaiti after Weeks of Abduction
Consultative Gathering Refuses Stipulations in Return for International Assistance on Refugees
EU Ambassador Says Refugees Won’t Return Soon even if there were Peace
Reports: Hizbullah Commander Killed in Aleppo Shiite Town
Official: Spy Was in Lebanon to Help Kidnapped Czech
Salam: No One at London Conference Approached us on Naturalizing Syrian Refugees
Syria Regime, Hizbullah Make Fresh Gains in South
Qahwaji Says he Asked for more Military Aid from U.S.
Berri Says National Pact Untouched at Electoral Session

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 06/16
Canada amends its sanctions against Iran
Pope Francis, Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill, to meet in historic step
Syrians Mass on Turkish Border as Regime Advances
Saudi: Ready to join ground operation in Syria
Iranians ‘failed by reformists’ ahead of vote
Syrian Army, allies make advances in Deraa, Aleppo
Erdogan: Russian claim on Syria ‘laughable’
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric suspends weekly sermons
UK slams ‘ridiculous’ U.N. report on Assange
New U.S. intelligence report says ISIS weaker
Greek police turn to teargas as tempers flare over pensions
U.S. eyes ways to toughen fight against domestic extremists
EU leaders not happy with ‘Brexit’ offer

Links From Jihad Watch Site for February 06/16
Austria: Muslim migrant brutally rapes 10-year-old boy in Vienna pool
Obama: Islamic State says they’re “holy warriors who speak for Islam. I refuse to give them legitimacy.”
Obama: “We can’t suggest that Islam itself is at the root of the problem. That betrays our values.”
Obama to Muslims: “Your entire community so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few”
The Same God Question – Part 3: ‘By their fruits you shall know them…’
Video: John Kerry attacked in Rome; attacker cried “You created ISIS!”
Rush Limbaugh on Obama: “Why did he choose to become a Christian?”
Obama to Christians: “If we’re serious about freedom of religion…an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths”
Pakistan: Muslims waving pistols storm Hindu temple, desecrate idol of Hindu deity
Germany: Children’s carnival in Herne canceled after Muslims send threatening letter to “infidels”
But ISIS Kills Muslims Too!” – on The Glazov Gang
UN voices alarm at growing number of child marriages in Iran
Obama: “Islam prohibits terrorism, for the Qur’an says whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind”
Paris jihad mass murderer entered France with 90 “refugees” without documents

Nasrallah, Aoun is your sole president, so elect him
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/February 05/16/Last week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his party was not obstructing Lebanon’s presidential or municipal elections, and called on those concerned to attend parliamentary sessions to elect his presidential candidate, Christian MP Michel Aoun.How democratic and respectful of parliament and democracy! Nasrallah told MPs to either elect Aoun or continue to have no president - in other words, an ultimatum to parliament and the Lebanese people. He said Hezbollah would emerge victorious over its rivals regarding regional developments, but then contradicted himself by saying: “Don’t count on outside [powers] and let’s [work together] to find an internal solution.”
Shirking responsibilities
Hezbollah and the Future Movement, led by Saad Hariri, have been holding meetings, so if the intent to hold dialogue and meet half way is still there, why do they not agree on an internal solution regarding the presidency instead of defying one another via media outlets? Why do Hezbollah MPs not go to parliament to elect their candidate while respecting democratic foundations? Whoever gets the majority of votes will win. Even if MPs are affiliated with political parties, it is their duty to elect a president. Boycotting elections of a president seriously harms the constitution and the political system. Obstructing constitutional deadlines is a violation of regulations. Attempts to impose a certain candidate resemble foreign interference - we in Lebanon have a bitter history of this. Today, there is foreign tutelage hiding behind a Lebanese mask, and it is trying to seize control of the state and turn it into an Iranian proxy.

Security Forces Free Kuwaiti after Weeks of Abduction
Naharnet/February 05/16/The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau released on Friday a Kuwaiti national, who was abducted in the eastern Bekaa region in January, announced the bureau in a statement. It said that the security forces carried out a security operation in the town of Taanayel in the Bekaa to free Mohsen Barrak al-Majed, who was abducted from his Qab Elias farm on January 17. The Intelligence Bureau revealed that the kidnappers had sent a video to the victim's family in Kuwait, demanding a ransom of 1.1 million dollars for his release. Following investigations, security forces succeeded on Friday in determining the identity and location of the assailants in Taanayel. It carried out an operation in the area, where it freed the captive and arrested the perpetrators, who have been identified as three Lebanese brothers and a Palestinian. Another accomplice, a Syrian, was arrested in the South. They detainees confessed to kidnapping Majed for ransom. They added that they had held him captive in a room on the roof of the three brothers' Taanayel residence. ISF chief Ibrahim Basbous and Intelligence Bureau head Imad Othman later paid a visit to Majed after his release, congratulating him on his safety.
Kuwait News Agency said that he was released without ransom and that he will return to his country where further investigations in the case will be carried out.

Consultative Gathering Refuses Stipulations in Return for International Assistance on Refugees
Naharnet/February 05/16/The Consultative Gathering bloc urged Lebanon's lawmakers to attend the parliament's session next week aimed at ending the vacuum at presidential post, and reiterated rejection to conditions set during the donors conference on Syria that Lebanon opens its labor market for the refugees in return for assistance. “The Consultative Gathering calls on all MPs to take part in the February 8 session,which is going to be different from all its predecessors after the disclosure of the vast majority of MPs about their electoral inclinations which should facilitate the presidential election process,” said the statement recited by information Minister Ramzi Jreij. “The Gathering warns against the consecration of obstruction which jeopardizes the first state post, destroys the constitution and turns the parliament into a mail box for counting votes,” it added, referring to the vacuum at the presidential post that has been lingering for almost 20 months today. The meeting was held at the residence of the head's Gathering former president Michel Suleiman in the presence of Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon, Minister of Displaced Alice Shabtini, Sports and Youth Minister Abdel Motleb Hennawi, Economy Minister Alain Hakim, Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel and former Minister Khalil al-Hrawi. On the donors conference on Syria held in London a day earlier, the statement read: “The bloc hails the donors' conference and is interested to confirm that it rejects conditions being set for providing Lebanon with assistance in return for opening the labor market for the Syrian refugees. “It would pose a competition the Lebanese working force at a time when unemployment is rising and the economic crisis is aggravating in the country,” it stressed.
The conference raised over 10 billion dollars in aid to the Syrian refugees. The Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011, has forced 4.6 million Syrians to seek refuge in nearby countries -- Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt -- while hundreds of thousands have journeyed to Europe in the region's biggest migration crisis since World War II. Lebanon alone supports around 1.5 million refugees. The Consultative Gathering interlocutors however added that the “Syrian labor force is welcome, but within Lebanon's labor market needs and under the Lebanese labor law and applicable regulations.”
They urged the international community to develop a program that allows the return of the displaced to Syria in parallel with the assistance programs. The statement of the Gathering came after a statement issued by head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen that highlighted some programs proposed by the Lebanese government to help the Syrian refugees work in certain sectors, such as agriculture and construction. The issue has left some people jittery over fears that the displaced Syrians will remain in Lebanon similar to the Palestinian refugees. “Even if there were peace (in Syria) tomorrow, they won’t be going immediately,” she said.

EU Ambassador Says Refugees Won’t Return Soon even if there were Peace
Naharnet/February 05/16/The head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen, has said that Syrian refugees will not return to their country quickly even if there were peace. “What we eventually want is a solution to the crisis. They have to return home,” Lassen told As Safir daily published on Friday. “But even if there were peace (in Syria) tomorrow, they won’t be going immediately,” she said. “The international community had to make sure that they are living in good conditions and are not left in bad conditions,” the diplomat added. An international donor conference in London has received pledges totaling of around $10 billion by 2020 to help fund schools, shelter and jobs for refugees from Syria's civil war, money that British Prime Minister David Cameron said "will save lives, will give hope, will give people the chance of a future."The one-day meeting, held under tight security at a conference center near Parliament, aspired to bring new urgency to the effort to help the 4.6 million Syrians who have sought refuge in neighboring countries including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Another 6 million people or more are displaced within Syria, and a quarter of a million have been killed. The Lebanese government has proposed some programs that would help the Syrian refugees work in certain sectors, such as agriculture and construction. But the issue has left some people jittery over fears that the displaced Syrians will remain in Lebanon similar to the Palestinian refugees. “I understand the feeling of the Lebanese people given their long experience with displacement. Unfortunately, the situation of the Palestinians is very difficult because it’s not clear where they can go,” said Lassen. “But the Syrians have their homeland,” she added.

Reports: Hizbullah Commander Killed in Aleppo Shiite Town
Naharnet/February 05/16/A Hizbullah field commander has been killed in clashes in a flashpoint Shiite town in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, media reports said on Friday. “The commander Haidar Fariz Merhi and the fighter Hussein Hassan Jawad, who both hail from the western Bekaa town of Mashghara, were killed fighting in the Nubol and Zahraa area north of Aleppo,” Al-Arabiya television reported. The pro-Hizbullah South Lebanon news portal confirmed Merhi's death, also describing him as a Hizbullah commander. According to Al-Arabiya, a third Hizbullah fighter was killed in Syria in recent days. It identified him as Ali Moussa Nassour, saying he hailed from the southern Beirut suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh. Hizbullah, the Syrian army and allied militiamen on Wednesday broke a long running rebel siege of on the Shiite villages of Nubol and Zahraa. The two villages, located in the middle of opposition territory, had been blockaded by rebel groups for around three years. The development marked a major victory for the regime forces and their allies, which have made significant advances in the province in the past few days – backed by massive Russian airstrikes. Regime troops, Hizbullah fighters and allied militiamen arrived in the two towns on Thursday morning to cheering crowds who threw rice and ululated, according to footage shown on state television. Hundreds of Hizbullah fighters have been killed in Syria since the party's decision to intervene militarily in the conflict.

Official: Spy Was in Lebanon to Help Kidnapped Czech
Associated Press/Naharnet/February 05/16/The Czech defense minister said Friday that a military spy who was among five Czechs returned from Lebanon was seeking information about a fellow countryman kidnapped in Libya last year. The minister, Martin Stropnicky, was quoted in the Hospodarske Noviny daily as saying the military agent, Martin Psik, went to Lebanon in an effort "to help our cook in Libya." It was the first official comment on Psik's role in the group which also included a lawyer, an interpreter and two journalists. They all returned home Thursday, the same day the Czech government refused to extradite a Lebanese man, Ali Taan Fayad, to the U.S. to face weapons charges. Stropnicky had said the refusal to extradite was a condition for releasing the Czechs, but later said that was simplification of complex case. The U.S. embassy in Prague on Thursday blasted the decision by the Czech Republic's justice minister not to extradite Fayad to the U.S. Prague's Municipal Court allowed the extradition of Fayad, also known as Ali Amin, and two citizens of Ivory Coast last year but Justice Minister Robert Pelikan has the final say and on Thursday refused to extradite them. The three were arrested in Prague 2014 while allegedly trying to sell weapons to undercover U.S. law enforcement agents who pretended to be from a Colombian terrorist group. "We are dismayed by the Czech government decision to release Ali Fayad and Khaled El Merebi," the embassy said in a statement. Court spokeswoman Marketa Puci said Fayad and Ivoirian El Merebi were released from detention following the minister's decision. The minister still has to decide on the other Ivoirian. "These men were indicted in the United States federal court for conspiring to kill officers and employees of the United States," the embassy said, adding the move harms the relations of the two allies. "There's no justification for the release of these dangerous individuals, which deals a blow to the cooperative relationship of our two countries' law enforcement agencies," the statement said.

Salam: No One at London Conference Approached us on Naturalizing Syrian Refugees
Naharnet/February 05/16/Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed on Friday his “satisfaction” with the results of the donors conference on Syria, revealing however that he has not yet been informed of Lebanon's share of the donations for Syrian refugees, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5). He said: “No one spoke to us of naturalizing the refugees.” “We are satisfied with the manner in which we were addressed at the conference” that was held in London on Thursday. “We will not abandon our demand that the refugees be allowed to return to their homeland,” stressed the premier, reiterating his speech at the conference in which he rejected the permanent residence of the refugees in Lebanon. Tackling the Syrian crisis will take years even if a political solution is found tomorrow, Salam went on to say. The prime minister held talks on the margins of the London conference with his British counterpart David Cameron, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The conference raised over 10 billion dollars in aid to the Syrian refugees. The Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011, has forced 4.6 million Syrians to seek refuge in nearby countries -- Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt -- while hundreds of thousands have journeyed to Europe in the region's biggest migration crisis since World War II. Lebanon alone supports around 1.5 million refugees.

Syria Regime, Hizbullah Make Fresh Gains in South
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 05/16/Pro-government troops backed by Hizbullah fighters and Russian warplanes on Friday retook a rebel bastion used as a launch pad for attacks in southern Syria, a monitor said, in their latest territorial gain. Syrian soldiers, fighters from Hizbullah, and local and foreign militiamen seized Ataman, just two kilometers (1.3 miles) from Daraa, capital of the province of the same name, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "Rebels had used Ataman to launch attacks against Daraa, hence its importance for the regime," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse. He said around 80 Russian air raids over the past two days had helped regime fighters chase Islamist rebels from the village, killing at least 10 of them. The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad is attempting to retake all of Daraa province, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, from rebel fighters. Last month pro-regime forces took the strategic town of Sheikh Miskeen, which lies on a vital crossroads between Damascus to the north and the government-controlled city of Sweida to the east. "The army is consolidating its positions north of Daraa city," said Abdel Rahman, whose British-based monitor relies on a network of sources on the ground. Most of Daraa province is controlled by opposition forces, though the government holds parts of the provincial capital and a few villages in the northwest. Syria's army has been on the offensive since staunch government ally Russia began an aerial campaign in support of regime forces on September 30. Since then, the regime has recaptured several key rebel towns in coastal Latakia province and has advanced in the northern province of Aleppo and in Daraa.

Qahwaji Says he Asked for more Military Aid from U.S.
Naharnet/February 05/16/Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji has said that U.S. officials have shown “deep sympathy” with Lebanon’s military needs over the challenges it is facing on its eastern border. “I felt there is a big understanding and deep sympathy with our military and logistic needs,” Qahwaji told An Nahar daily on Friday after he concluded a visit to Washington. U.S. officials have shown “an understanding to the tremendous challenges to Lebanon’s national security,” he said. They have also appreciated the Lebanese army’s efforts to protect the country’s eastern border and preserve calm on the southern border, Qahwaji stated. He revealed that he asked the officials to speed up the delivery of equipment that the army had bought from the U.S., mainly six A-20 Super Tucano planes and Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. “There are continuous contacts between the two sides for Lebanon to receive more helicopters,” he said. The last time Lebanon received military aid from the U.S. was in October 2015. The shipment provided the army with 50 Hellfire missiles and 560 artillery rounds, including some precision munitions. This represents $8.6 million worth of U.S. security assistance to Lebanon and boosts the army's ability to secure Lebanon’s borders against violent extremists. Since 2004, America has provided over $1.3 billion dollars in security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, including both training and equipment.

Berri Says National Pact Untouched at Electoral Session
Naharnet/February 05/16/Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the latest dispute on the alleged exclusion of Christians from state institutions does not apply to the parliament. “The issue of the National Pact does not apply to the session on the election of a president because the more than two-thirds of quorum (86 MPs) is constitutional,” said Berri in remarks published in al-Joumhouria daily on Friday. “It will include lawmakers from all confessions and parties,” he added. A session aimed at electing a new president is scheduled to be held next Monday. But it will likely have the same fate of its predecessors for lack of quorum. Two ministers who represent Berri’s Amal movement in the cabinet have been accused of marginalizing Christians in their ministries. Public Works Minister Ghazi Zoaiter denied on Thursday claims that his ministry has been carrying out more development projects in areas with a Muslim population than in Christian regions. A similar denial was made a day earlier by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil who defended a decision to allocate a senior post at the ministry's taxpayers department that was held by a Christian to a Shiite employee. Lebanon’s National Pact, devised in 1943, is an unwritten agreement that set the basis for the political system in the country, which is based on sectarian distribution of power. The ideas of the National Pact provided the basis of the Taif accord that stipulated, among other matters, that the president of Lebanon would be a Maronite, the speaker of parliament a Shiite, and the prime minister a Sunni. Berri also said that Lebanon received aid in education less than Jordan at the Syria Donor Conference for not having a “sound mind.”Berri told his visitors that “Lebanon suffers from a lot of problems to the extent that it can’t think anymore.”“A sound mind is in a sound body but Lebanon does not have a sound body and suffers from pain all over,” said Berri. “Then how can it think with a sound mind to resolve its problems?” he asked. World leaders pledged over $10 billion Thursday to help conflict-hit Syrians at the conference held in London. The European Union, Germany, Britain and the United States were among the biggest donors to provide food, education and job opportunities for Syrians in their homeland and neighboring countries, including Lebanon and Jordan, where they have fled .

Canada amends its sanctions against Iran
February 5, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, announced today changes to Canada’s economic sanctions against Iran under the Special Economic Measures Act and the United Nations Act and signalled Canada’s willingness to resume dialogue with Iran.
Canada welcomed the January 16, 2016, confirmation by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran had fulfilled all necessary commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Canada has therefore amended its broad-reaching autonomous sanctions against Iran to allow for a controlled economic re-engagement, including lifting the broad ban on financial services, imports and exports. Canada has also updated its regulations under the United Nations Act in order to conform with the changes to the United Nations sanctions regime mandated by the UN Security Council.
Canadian companies will now be better positioned to compete with other companies globally.
Canada continues to have serious concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions and will continue to maintain tight restrictions on exports to Iran of goods, services and technologies considered sensitive from a security perspective (including nuclear goods and technologies, as well as those that could assist in the development of Iran’s ballistic-missile program). A Notice to Exporters has been issued indicating that while all applications for export permits will be considered on a case-by-case basis, permit applications to export the most sensitive items on the Export Control List will normally be denied. Canada will also maintain a revised list of individuals and entities of most concern in relation to the risk of proliferation and to Iran’s ballistic missile activities and with whom any transactions would continue to be prohibited. Canada has added six individuals and one entity in response to Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Canada has had no real engagement with Iran since September 2012, when the embassy of Canada in Tehran was closed and Iranian diplomats were expelled from Canada. While Iran remains a country of concern, Canada prefers dialogue over withdrawal.
Canada is willing to have discussions with Iranian officials, including talks on the possibility of restoring diplomatic contacts. We will maintain our firm commitment to the human rights of Iranians. Canada will steadfastly continue to oppose Iran’s support for terrorist organizations, its threats toward Israel, and its ballistic missile program, while also monitoring Iran’s compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA.
Quotes
“Canada’s approach to re-engagement with Iran, as with any country of concern, will be based on efforts to foster dialogue, rather than on withdrawal and isolation.
“Canada will not lower the standard to which we hold Iran accountable, particularly on its human rights record and its aggressiveness toward the state of Israel. We will any renewed engagement with Iran as a tool to support efforts to advance human rights and regional security.
“Broad sanctions brought Iran to the negotiation table, resulting in an agreement which has rolled back Iran’s nuclear program—an agreement with which Iran is complying. We need to recognize this progress and continue to encourage Iran to fully comply with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
- Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“With these amendments to Canadian sanctions against Iran, Canadian companies will now be able to position themselves for new trade opportunities, but we will also maintain rigorous controls on any exports that raise serious proliferation concerns.”
- Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade
Quick facts
Canada has maintained an embassy in Tehran since 1961, with the exception of 1980-88 (after the U.S. hostage rescue) and the period since September 7, 2012.
All G-20 countries, apart from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Canada, currently operate embassies in Tehran. The United Kingdom reopened its embassy in 2015 after a four-year closure.
Canada’s exports to Iran peaked at $772 million in 1997. With the imposition of sanctions, this number declined to $67 million in 2014 (comprising mostly food products exempt from sanctions).
The amendments to Canada’s sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act will remove impediments on financial transactions, including transfers of personal funds.
Canada’s measures under the State Immunity Act and the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, and the listing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code, have not changed.
Since 2003, Canada has led the annual United Nations resolution on the situation of human rights in Iran. In 2015, the resolution was successfully adopted and received the support of a cross-regional group of countries, underscoring the fact that the international community remains deeply concerned by human rights violations in Iran.
Related products
Backgrounder - Sanctions against Iran
Associated links
Canada welcomes announcement of ‘Implementation Day’ of Iran nuclear deal
Canadian sanctions related to Iran
Special Economic Measures Act
Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations
United Nations Act
Regulations Implementing the United Nations Resolutions on Iran
Export Control List and Notice to Exporters
Canada and the international community call on Iran to improve its human rights record

Pope Francis, Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill, to meet in historic step
The Associated Press, Vatican City Friday, 5 February 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/02/05/pope-francis-russian-orthodox-patriarch-kirill-to-meet-in-historic-step/
Pope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet in Cuba next week in a historic step to heal the 1,000-year-old schism that divided Christianity between East and West, both churches announced Friday. The Feb. 12 meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill will be the first ever between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Churches, which is the largest in Orthodoxy. Francis is due to travel to Mexico Feb. 12-18. He will stop in Cuba on the way and meet with Kirill on Feb. 12 at the Havana airport, where they will speak privately for about two hours and then sign a joint declaration, the Vatican said. “This event has extraordinary importance in the path of ecumenical relations and dialogue among Christian confessions,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. The two churches split during the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church is poaching converts in former Soviet lands. Those tensions have prevented previous popes from ever meeting with the Russian patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities in largely Orthodox lands. The persecution of Christians - Catholic and Orthodox - in the Middle East and Africa, however, has had the effect of bringing the two churches closer together. Both the Vatican and the Orthodox Church have been outspoken in denouncing attacks on Christians and the destruction of Christian monuments, particularly in Syria.
In November 2014, Francis had said he had told Kirill: “I’ll go wherever you want. You call me and I’ll go.” Kirill will be in Cuba on an official visit, his first to Latin America as patriarch. The meeting, which was announced jointly at the Vatican and in Moscow, marks a major development in the Vatican’s long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity. In the joint statement, the two churches said the meeting “will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches. The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope that it will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will. They invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits.”Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters on Friday that there are still core disagreements between the Holy See and the Russian Church, in particular on various Orthodox churches in western Ukraine.
The conflict centers on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the country’s second-largest church, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there.
“Despite the existing ecclesiastical obstacles, a decision has been taken to hold a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis,” he said. “The situation in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions where extremists are perpetrating a genocide of Christians requires immediate action and an even closer cooperation between Christian churches,” Illarion said. “In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution.”
The Vatican has long nurtured ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, who is considered “first among equals” within the Orthodox Church. Starting with Pope Paul VI, various popes have called upon the Ecumenical Patriarch in hopes of bridging closer ties with the Orthodox faithful.
But the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest church in Orthodoxy and the most powerful, has always kept its distance from Rome. Joint theological commissions have met over the years and the Russian church’s foreign minister has made periodic visits to Rome, but a pope-patriarch meeting has never been possible until now. The location of the meeting is significant. It has long been assumed that a “neutral” third country would be selected for any pope-patriarch encounter, but it had always been assumed that it would be somewhere in Europe.
Francis, however, played a crucial role in ending the half-century Cold War estrangement between the United States and Cuba.
That the onetime Soviet outpost in the Caribbean will now play a role in helping heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches is a remarkable feat of geopolitical and ecumenical choreography that may have the dual effect of thrusting President Raoul Castro into the spotlight, given that he will greet the pope upon his arrival and preside over the signing of the joint declaration. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, noted that Cuba is both well-known to the Russian Church as well as the Catholic Church, given that three different popes have traveled to the island in the span of 20 years.
“It’s a place that positioned itself well for the circumstances,” Lombardi said.
About two-thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, or about 200 million, Lombardi said. The Catholic Church claims about 1.2 billion faithful. About 75 percent of Russia’s 144 million people call themselves Russian Orthodox, according to the latest polls, although only a fraction of them say they are observant. Under Francis, the Vatican has encouraged continuing ecumenical ties with the Orthodox as well as other Christian denominations. And it has gone out of its way to be solicitous to Russia, especially in shying away from directly criticizing Moscow over its role in the Ukraine conflict. Ever since Kirill took the helm of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009, the church has enjoyed increasingly close ties with the Kremlin that critics have dismissed as the de-facto merging of the state and the church.

Syrians Mass on Turkish Border as Regime Advances
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 05/16/
Up to 20,000 Syrians were stranded on the Turkish border Friday after fleeing a major Russian-backed regime offensive near Aleppo where a new humanitarian disaster appeared to be unfolding. Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city. On Friday, clashes between the two sides in and around Ratyan, a town near Aleppo, cost 120 lives, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it estimated "up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city" nearby. Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks that collapsed this week with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its campaign in support of President Bashar Assad. The U.N. Security Council was due to meet later Friday to discuss the faltering peace process, as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russian air strikes were "undermining the efforts to find a political solution". The Syrian Observatory, a British-based monitor that relies on a network of sources on the ground, estimates that 40,000 people have fled the regime offensive near Aleppo. "Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. OCHA spokeswoman Linda Tom said that in addition to the thousands at the border, another 10,000 people were estimated to have been displaced to the Kurdish town of Afrin, elsewhere in northern Aleppo."The fighting has also disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border," she said. Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the country's brutal conflict began in 2011. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"The rebels are on the retreat everywhere."Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, which already hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Early Friday, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees. But footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs. "We were driven from our homes because of Russia, Iran, Bashar and (Lebanese Shiite militia) Hezbollah," a child said in the video. "We ask (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to let us into his territory." More than 260,000 people have died in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. Aleppo city, Syria's former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and regime control in the west since mid-2012. Syria's army has been on the offensive since staunch government ally Russia began an aerial campaign in support of regime forces on September 30. Since then, the regime has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province -- Assad's coastal heartland -- and advanced in Aleppo province and in Daraa in the south.
On Friday, the army seized the town of Ratyan and village of Mayer, north of Aleppo, with support from dozens of Russian air strikes. But a rebel counteroffensive saw opposition fighters regain half of Ratyan in heavy fighting that killed some 60 rebels and the same number of regime forces, according to the Observatory. Pro-government troops backed by Russian warplanes also retook a rebel bastion in Daraa used as to launch attacks on the provincial capital, the monitor said. The losses have angered and demoralized Syria's opposition. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib, head of the Shabha press agency in Aleppo. "Meanwhile (regime allies) Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory."
Top diplomats from countries trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again on February 11 after U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva collapsed this week. But tensions between them remain, with Moscow on Thursday accusing key opposition backer Ankara of actively preparing to invade Syria, a claim Erdogan dismissed Friday as "laughable". Davutoglu had earlier accused Assad's supporters of "committing the same war crimes" as the regime. The Security Council was scheduled to meet on Friday for consultations with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura who suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations on Wednesday until February 25.

Saudi: Ready to join ground operation in Syria
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Thursday, 4 February 2016/The spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s military said on Thursday the kingdom was ready to join any ground operation in Syria if required by the U.S.-led coalition. "The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIS) may agree to carry out in Syria," said military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri during an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel. Asiri: Saudi Arabia ready for ground operations in Syria. "If there was a consensus from the leadership of the coalition, the kingdom is willing to participate in these efforts because we believe that aerial operations are not the ideal solution and there must be a twin mix of aerial and ground operations," Asiri said. Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has been part of a U.S.-led coalition which officially has 65 members and has been bombing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group which seized large parts of Syria and Iraq. Asiri is spokesman for a separate Saudi-led Arab coalition which, since March, has conducted air strikes and ground operations in Yemen. That coalition supports the government there in its fight against Houthi rebels who seized much of the country and are backed by Iran. Iran is also one of the main allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has been fighting an insurgency for about five years. Saudi Arabia supports more moderate rebels against Assad's forces.
U.S. welcomes Saudi news. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter welcomed on Thursday a Saudi offer to participate in any ground operations in Syria launched by the U.S.-led coalition. Carter said increased activity by other countries would make it easier for the United States to accelerate its fight against ISIS. "That kind of news is very welcome," he told reporters while on a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Carter said he looked forward to discussing the offer of ground troops with the Saudi defense minister in Brussels next week. Click here to watch Al Arabiya’s full interview with Saudi military spokesman Ahmed al-Asiri. (with AFP and Reuters)

Iranians ‘failed by reformists’ ahead of vote
Parisa Hafezi, Reuters Friday, 5 February 2016/Many Iranian women and young people are disillusioned about the upcoming elections, desperate for reform but losing hope in their pragmatic president and his promise of a freer society. The Feb. 26 parliamentary poll will see pro-reform candidates, who broadly back President Hassan Rowhani, attempt to overturn the majority held by conservative hardliners in the 290-seat assembly. It will be a test of public support for Rowhani himself ahead of presidential elections next year. While the vote might not have an influence on foreign policy, which is determined by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the election of a reformist parliament could strengthen Rowhani’s hand to push through economic reforms to open up the country to foreign trade and investment. Rowhani won the presidency in 2013, bolstered by the support of many women and young people who were encouraged by his comments that Iranians deserved to live in free country and have the rights enjoyed by other people around the world. “I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I have decided not to vote,” said Setareh, a university graduate in the northern city of Rasht. “I voted for Rowhani - was he able to improve my situation? No.”Rowhani’s supporters hoped that his election victory would lead to social change in country where women have lesser rights than men in areas including inheritance, divorce and child custody and are subject to travel and dress restrictions, and strict Islamic law is enforced by a “morality police”. But rights campaigners say there has been little, if any, moves to bring about greater political and cultural freedoms as the president has focused on striking the nuclear accord with world powers to end the international sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Iran rejects any allegations it is discriminating against women, saying it follows Sharia law. Now Rowhani and his moderate allies are struggling to mobilize two of their main support bases - women and young people. The president’s promises to loosen Internet restrictions have not been met. Access to social media remains officially blocked, though Rowhani and Khamenei have their own Twitter accounts. This has been a particular grievance among those under 30, who represent more than two-thirds of the 78 million population and were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. “I am not going to vote. What is the use of voting? My hopes are shattered,” said a 27-year-old engineer in Tehran, who refused to give his name.
Highly educated . The president’s constitutional powers are limited, with ultimate authority in the hands of Khamenei, who has lambasted the West for using women as a tool to advertise products and satisfy “disorderly and unlawful sexual needs”. The Feb. 26 elections will also see the public vote for members of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that could play a pivotal part in determining Iran’s future path in both domestic and foreign policies - as at some point it will have the job of selecting a successor to 76-year-old Khamenei. Iranian women, who make up more than half of the population, are among the most highly educated in the Middle East; they have a literacy rate of over 80 percent and account for over 50 percent of university entrees. But under Iranian law, men can divorce their spouses far more easily than women, while custody of children over seven automatically goes to the father.
Women have to get permission from their husbands to travel abroad. They are obliged to cover their hair and the shape of their bodies, their testimony as a legal witness is worth half that of a man, and daughters inherit half of what sons do. While they cannot run for president, they are however able to hold most jobs including other government positions, and can vote and drive. “What will change if I vote?” said Miriam, 26, who could not win custody of her eight-year-old son after getting divorced in the central city of Isfahan. “Can reformist candidates give me equal rights?”A report by the U.N. special rapporteur on Iran last year said human rights in the country “remained dire” under Rowhani, while separately a U.N. child rights watchdog said this month that girls faced discriminatory treatment “in family relations, criminal justice system, property rights”. Iran denies any infringement of human rights. Retired government employee Fariba Khamesi, from Tehran, said that even if there had been little evidence of social change, she would not give up her hopes for a freer Iran. “Of course I will vote in the elections. There are many problems like the economic pressure, discriminatory laws against women, but if we don’t cast our vote, conservatives will gain more power,” the 58-year-old said.

Syrian Army, allies make advances in Deraa, Aleppo
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Friday, 5 February 2016/The Syrian Army and allied militias on Friday made advances when they retook a town at the doorstep of Deraa and completely encircled the northern countryside of Aleppo province. Deraa is a contested city that lies between Damascus and the Jordan border. The conquest opens several supply routes to Deraa, which is divided between government and opposition fighters, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Deraa was the scene of some of the first protests against President Bashar Assad in 2011 and holds symbolic value in the narrative of the uprising that has since collapsed into a vicious civil war. Syria’s official news agency says the offensive on Atman, north of Deraa, scattered rebel forces - which it labels terrorists.Troops advanced under the cover of heavy artillery bombardment and air power, the Observatory reports.
Aleppo
Meanwhile, the commander of a U.S.-supported Syrian rebel group said on Friday the northern countryside of Aleppo province was completely encircled by Syrian government forces and its allies, and heavy Russian bombardment continued. Syrian government troops and their allies broke through rebel defences to reach two Shiite villages in northern Aleppo province on Wednesday, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to Aleppo city. The assault in northern Aleppo province, backed by hundreds of Russian air strikes there, has also prompted tens of thousands of people to flee towards the Turkish border and helped derail peace talks in Geneva. Hassan Haj Ali, the head of a prominent Free Syrian Army group called Liwa Suqour al-Jabal that has received U.S. military training in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, said the aerial bombardment continued. “The Russian cover continues night and day, there were more than 250 air strikes on this area in one day,” he told Reuters.
“The regime is now trying to expand the area it has taken control of,” he said. “Now the northern countryside (of Aleppo province) is totally encircled, and the humanitarian situation is very difficult.”Hezbollah’s Al Manar television said government forces and allied fighters had taken over the town of Ratyan, which lies close to areas they captured on Wednesday. The Observatory confirmed the “symbolic” capture of Ratyan, but Haj Ali said it had not yet fallen. “There are very heavy battles in Ratyan, and an attempt by the regime to storm it. But until now they haven't been able to enter,” he said. Haj Ali reiterated calls for countries backing Syrian rebels to send more military aid, including anti-aircraft missiles, but said he held out little hope for the latter. “We demand daily more support, but the issue of anti-aircraft (weapons) has become a dream ... the dream that will not come true,” he said. U.S.-made TOW missiles, or guided anti-tank missiles, are the most potent weapon in the rebel arsenal and have been supplied to vetted rebel groups as part of a program of military support overseen by the Central Intelligence Agency. But while they have helped rebels to slow advances on the ground, they are of little use against fighter bombers.
Tens of thousands flee Aleppo
The Syrian government’s military offensive around the city of Aleppo has prompted at least 15,000 people to flee and involved a reported 13 airstrikes on medical facilities in January, the United Nations said on Friday. “The U.N. has verified that at least 15,000 people (are) fleeing from north of Aleppo city and tens of thousands have reportedly gathered at the border crossing with Turkey,” a U.N. spokeswoman said in an emailed comment. “Local sources say that while the Turkish border remains closed to civilian movement, those requiring urgent medical care have been receiving treatment from local hospitals in Turkey.”
Turkey’s warning
Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday that the humanitarian corridor between Turkey and Aleppo has been cut off as Syrian forces seek to inflict a siege of starvation on the city. “This humanitarian logistic corridor is now under the invasion of these foreign fighters and regime forces (with) the support of Russian war planes,” the local Today’s Zaman quoted him as saying after a Syrian donor conference in London. He said the forces were seeking to do the same to Aleppo as they did to the besieged town of Madaya, where dozens have starved to death. The prime minister also warned of a new influx of Syrian refugees as many as 80,000 after increased airstrikes in Syria’s northwest. Donor nations also have pledged to give more than $10 billion by 2020 to meet Syrian needs. The pledges came during a conference in London on Thursday, described by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as the single biggest humanitarian fundraising event ever. (With AP and Reuters)

Erdogan: Russian claim on Syria ‘laughable’
By AFP and Reuters, Beirut/Ankara Thursday, 4 February 2016/President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday blasted as “laughable” Russia’s accusation that Turkey was actively preparing to invade Syria. “I find this Russian statement laughable... rather it is Russia that is currently engaged in an invasion of Syria,” Erdogan said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency. Previously, a senior Turkish government official said on Friday that Turkey is not planning a military incursion into Syria and Russian talk of such action is propaganda,. “Turkey does not have any plans or thoughts of staging a military campaign or ground incursion in Syria,” the official told Reuters, adding Russia was stepping up its own military campaign in Syria every day instead of working for a solution. “Turkey is part of a coalition, is working with its allies, and will continue to do so. As we have repeatedly said, Turkey will not act unilaterally,” the official said. Russia said on Thursday it suspected Turkey was preparing a military incursion into Syria, as a Syrian army source said Aleppo would soon be encircled by government forces with Russian air support. Turkey in turn accused Moscow of trying to divert attention from its own “crimes” in Syria, and said Aleppo was threatened with a “siege of starvation”. It said Turkey had the right to take any measures to protect its security. In another sign of the spreading international ramifications of the five-year-old Syrian war, Saudi Arabia said it was ready to participate in ground operations against ISIS in if the U.S.-led alliance decided to launch them. The United Nations on Wednesday suspended the first peace talks in two years, halting an effort that seemed doomed from the start as the war raged unabated. Washington said on Thursday however it was hopeful they would resume by the end of the month, and Russia said it expected that no later than Feb. 25. Donors convened in London to tackle the refugee crisis created by the conflict. British Prime Minister David Cameron said they raised $11 billion for Syrian humanitarian needs over the next four years. Turkey said at the conference up to 70,000 refugees from Aleppo were moving toward the border to escape air strikes.
Border march
Footage online showed hundreds of people, mostly women, children and the elderly, marching towards Turkey’s Onucpinar border gate, carrying carpets, blankets and food on their backs. Four months of Russian air strikes have tipped the momentum of the war Assad’s way. With Moscow’s help and allies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, the Syrian army is regaining areas on key fronts in the west. Russia’s defense ministry said it had registered “a growing number of signs of hidden preparation of the Turkish Armed Forces for active actions on the territory of Syria”. Any Turkish incursion would risk direct confrontation between Russia and a NATO member.“The Russians are trying to hide their crimes in Syria,” said a senior official in Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office. “They are simply diverting attention from their attacks on civilians as a country already invading Syria. Turkey has all the rights to take any measures to protect its own security.” In London, Davutoglu said the “humanitarian logistic corridor” between Turkey and Aleppo was “under the invasion of these foreign fighters and regime forces (with) the support of Russian warplanes”. “What they want to do in Aleppo today is exactly what they did in Madaya before, a siege of starvation,” he added. Davutoglu pledged that whatever the cost Turkey’s door would remain open to all Syrians. It has already taken in more than 2.5 million. Relations between Russia and Turkey have deteriorated badly since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Turkish military operations on the Syrian border, saying only: “They are working to secure that stretch of border, but I’m not going to comment on specific military activities of another nation inside their borders.”

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric suspends weekly sermons
Reuters, Baghdad Friday, 5 February 2016/Iraq’s top Shiite cleric said on Friday he would no longer deliver regular weekly sermons about political affairs, which for years have been a source of guidance for Iraqi politicians and his millions of followers.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani did not give a reason for suspending the sermons, which have lately focused on the government’s battle against ISIS militants and anti-corruption efforts. “It has been decided not to continue this on a weekly basis at the present time, but only as demanded by events,” Sistani’s aide Ahmed al-Safi, who delivered the message, said in a televised speech from the southern shrine city of Kerbala before reciting a prayer. Sistani, a reclusive octogenarian, enjoys almost mythical status among millions of Shiite followers and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge. His political sermons have ranged over issues such as security, elections and the economy. He called in June 2014 for Iraqis to take up arms against the Sunni ultra-hardline insurgents of ISIS after they seized nearly a third of the country’s north and west. Tens of thousands of Shiites heeded the call. Sistani then endorsed the sidelining of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Last summer, he called for an overhaul of Iraq’s corrupt political system, emboldening Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to launch a reform campaign which Sistani later criticized as slow and ineffective. A spokesman for Sistani’s office was not immediately available to comment on the decision. A sermon two weeks ago expressed frustration at inaction in solving Iraq’s myriad security, political and economic challenges. “All these issues have been repeated endlessly until our voices became sore,” Sistani said at the time. A Friday sermon was also broadcast live on state television from the main mosque in Ramadi, the western capital retaken from ISIS insurgents about a month ago following a six-month siege. Abdul Lateef al-Himayim, head of Iraq’s government body overseeing Sunni religious sites, thanked the security services and urged displaced people to return to their homes. More than 3.3 million Iraqis have been displaced by the fighting, most of them Sunnis. Government forces are still dismantling bombs left by ISIS in Ramadi, the capital of the predominately Sunni province of Anbar, and much of the city’s buildings and infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. A few soldiers stood guard as security and local officials listened to the sermon inside the mosque, which was largely untouched by the fighting. Counter-terrorism forces, which spearheaded the recapture of the city, are still pursuing insurgents in a few northeastern districts.

UK slams ‘ridiculous’ U.N. report on Assange
The Associated Press, Geneva Friday, 5 February 2016/A U.N. human rights panel says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” by Britain and Sweden since December 2010, although the UK government slammed the report as “ridiculous.”The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said his detention should end and he should be entitled to compensation. Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange over allegations of rape stemming from a working visit he made to the country in 2010 when WikiLeaks was attracting international attention for its secret-spilling ways. Assange has consistently denied the allegations but declined to return to Sweden to meet with prosecutors and eventually sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived since June 2012. However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond poured scorn on the U.N. report, calling it ridiculous, and said the Wikileaks founder was a fugitive from justice. The panel ruled Assange is being “arbitrarily detained” in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he fled in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. “I reject the decision of this working group,” Hammond told ITV news on Friday. “It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy. “He can come out any time he chooses... But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it.” The case has also been complicated by uncertainty surrounding Assange’s legal status in the United States. The U.S. government has not revealed whether he has been indicted - grand jury proceedings are secret there - but has indicated that sensitive investigations into Assange and WikiLeaks have been made. The working group said Assange could face “refoulement” to the United States - being handed over to a country where he could face violence or prison. The U.N. upholds the principle of non-refoulement prohibiting that practice.

New U.S. intelligence report says ISIS weaker
Jonathan Landay, Reuters Friday, 5 February 2016/The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has as many as 25,000 fighters in both country, down from a previous estimate of up to 31,000, according to a U.S. intelligence report revealed by the White House on Thursday. U.S. officials cited factors such as battlefield casualties and desertions to explain the roughly 20 percent decrease in fighters, and said the report showed a U.S.-led campaign to crush Islamic State was making progress. The new intelligence estimate “means they continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “ISIS has sustained significant casualties,” Earnst said. Ground fighting efforts by coalition partners of the United States are having an effect in the conflict against ISIS, he said. U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and tribal militias and moderate opposition groups in Syria have contributed. So too has a U.S.-led air campaign that has launched more than 10,000 strikes against the Islamist extremists, Earnest said. Finally, international efforts are beginning to stem the flow of foreigners seeking to join the movement. “ISIL is having more difficulty than they’ve had before in replenishing their ranks, and we have long been aware of the need of the international community to cooperate to stop the flow of foreign fighters to the region,” said Earnest. The new intelligence report of 19,000-25,000 ISIS compares to 2014 estimates of 20,000-31,000 fighters. “The decrease reflects the combined effects of battlefield deaths, desertions, internal disciplinary actions, recruiting shortfalls, and difficulties that foreign fighters face traveling to Syria,” said Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Some North African extremists who might otherwise have traveled to Syria to join ISIS may instead have heeded calls by the movement’s leadership to head to Libya, where the Islamists are fighting to expand their grip on territory on the Mediterranean coast. The intelligence report did not account for the Islamic State’s affiliates in South Asia, other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, where its Libyan branch is expanding. There appear to be conflicting U.S. estimates of the strength of the movement’s Libyan affiliate. Defense officials put the number at some 3,000, while other U.S. officials put it at 5,000-6,000.

Greek police turn to teargas as tempers flare over pensions
Reuters, Athens Friday, 5 February 2016/Scuffles broke out and police used teargas during a mass rally in Athens on Thursday as Greeks railed against government pension reforms needed to meet demands of international creditors. Demanding an end to austerity, about 50,000 Greeks marched peacefully on parliament in central Athens chanting for the government to ditch the proposals, which many see as a betrayal of the leftist values of the main governing party, Syriza. Public health workers carried black balloons, and a large banner depicting a hunched-over nurse with a walking stick. “This is retirement at 67,” it said, a reference to the later pension age that will come from the reforms. Breaking away from the main march, black clad youths hurled stones and petrol bombs at police, who responded with rounds of teargas and stun grenades. Some of them smashed bus stops and set a car alight after the march, during a cat-and-mouse game between police and protesters in the back streets of central Athens. The angry backlash is piling pressure on leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, first elected just over a year ago. With just a three-seat majority in parliament, he is stuck between either pushing the reforms through to appease international creditors, or attracting the wrath of thousands of Greeks. “They should be strung up here, in Syntagma Square,” said pensioner Nikos Ghinis as he walked along with thousands of others in central Athens. “I’m getting 740 euros ($826.21) a month for 40 years of work ... I’m (demonstrating) here for my children and grandchildren,” he told Reuters. It was the second nationwide walkout since Tsipras took power in January 2015 on a pledge to end years of austerity, only to cave in under the threat of expulsion from the euro zone and sign up to new belt-tightening reforms under an EU-IMF bailout package worth up to 86 billion euros. “They are raiding our souls not just our pockets,” said 70-year old George Stathopoulos. “They betrayed us.”
Bailout talks
The 24-hour strike coincides with a major review of Greece’s performance on terms of its bailout. The heads of the European Union and International Monetary Fund mission assessing Greece’s progress arrived in Athens earlier this week to discuss the pension plan, tax reforms and bad loans weighing on Greek banks. In Washington, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters that Greece’s pension system was not sustainable and needed to be reformed but the Fund wanted to see Greece succeed. “I really don’t like it when we are portrayed as the draconian, rigorous, terrible IMF,” she said. “We have said that fiscal consolidation should not be excessive, so that the economy could work and eventually expand. But it needs to add up.”Greek ministers were in talks with the mission chiefs in a hotel near Syntagma square in Athens, when the clashes erupted. The government wants to conclude the review swiftly to start talks on debt relief and convince Greeks that their sacrifices are paying off after six years of austerity and a deep recession that have brought the jobless rate to 25 percent.Greece’s economy will be the only one in the European Union to shrink this year, the EU Commission said on Thursday, but the fall is much smaller than previously estimated. Greece has promised to cut pension spending by 1 percent of GDP, or 1.8 billion euros, this year. To protect retired people whose pensions have been slashed 11 times already since 2010, the government plans to increase social security contributions by employees and employers. But unions say the new plan will increase unemployment as the costs for hard-pressed businesses will go up, and will force workers, mainly the self-employed, into tax evasion as it links social security contributions to declared income. Under the terms of pension reform, social security contributions will increase almost threefold in coming years.

U.S. eyes ways to toughen fight against domestic extremists
Reuters, Washington Friday, 5 February 2016/The U.S. Justice Department is considering legal changes to combat what it sees as a rising threat from domestic anti-government extremists, senior officials told Reuters, even as it steps up efforts to stop ISIS-inspired attacks at home. Extremist groups motivated by a range of U.S.-born philosophies present a “clear and present danger,” John Carlin, the Justice Department's chief of national security, told Reuters in an interview. “Based on recent reports and the cases we are seeing, it seems like we’re in a heightened environment.” Over the past year, the Justice Department has brought charges against domestic extremist suspects accused of attempting to bomb U.S. military bases, kill police officers and fire bomb a school and other buildings in a predominantly Muslim town in New York state.But federal prosecutors tackling domestic extremists still lack an important legal tool they have used extensively in dozens of prosecutions against ISIS-inspired suspects: a law that prohibits supporting designated terrorist groups. Carlin and other Justice Department officials declined to say if they would ask Congress for a comparable domestic extremist statute, or comment on what other changes they might pursue to toughen the fight against anti-government extremists. The U.S. State Department designates international terrorist organizations to which it is illegal to provide “material support.” No domestic groups have that designation, helping to create a disparity in charges faced by international extremist suspects compared to domestic ones.

EU leaders not happy with ‘Brexit’ offer
AFP, Brussels Friday, 5 February 2016/No European leaders are satisfied so far with proposals for a deal to keep Britain in the EU, which Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to secure at a summit this month, sources close to the negotiations told AFP. Initial reactions from European capitals show that “nobody’s happy” with the draft agreement that European Union president Donald Tusk unveiled on Monday, one European source said on condition of anonymity. The lack of satisfaction so far is a sign that Tusk’s proposal is fair and balanced, but also an indication that it could be hard to reach a deal at the February 18-19 meeting of the 28 EU leaders, the source added. Cameron, who is aiming to hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership in June, met Tusk on the margins of a Syria donor conference in London on Thursday. The British prime minister is now set to fly to Poland and Denmark on Friday at the start of a whirlwind fortnight of diplomacy in a bid to win over his skeptical EU counterparts and secure an accord. European diplomats in Brussels are set to hold their first full talks on the new proposals on Friday, and will meet again next Thursday in a bid to iron out their differences and reach an agreement at the summit. Cameron has meanwhile been in frequent contact with French President Francois Hollande, who warned on Wednesday that there should be no more changes to the deal at the summit itself, and has expressed concern over Tusk’s proposals for protections for non-Eurozone countries.
A British government source said however that “the mood is improving on that.”

Iran’s new best friends
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/February 05/16
Iranian President Hassan Rowhani has been on a shopping spree in Europe to reap benefits from business deals worth billions of dollars. The red carpet was rolled out for him, and he was invited to some of the most esteemed locations on the continent to meet with business and political leaders. Despite human rights protests against Rowhani’s visit, more than 30 business deals were signed covering petrochemicals, construction, transportation, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and healthcare. He is seeking to diversify Iran’s economy, reducing its reliance on the oil and gas industries. As Europeans protested Rowhani’s visit due to Iran’s human rights record, EU politicians’ and business leaders’ eager welcome sends a strong message that they are ready to look the other way. Car manufacturer Peugeot Citroën signed a deal worth nearly a half billion dollars with Iran Khodro, and Total signed a contract to buy 150,000 - 200,000 barrels of oil per day from Tehran. Rowhani’s message to the world is that Iran is ready to do business, and it can sign economic deals with any nation regardless of their differences. The West has long placed more importance on money than human rights, and Iran is being welcomed because Europe’s economy is suffering as the Chinese and Russian stock markets and oil prices are falling. European countries are desperately in search of new markets to sell their products. Rowhani is also signaling to the West that his government has a say in Iran’s socio-political and socio-economic fabrics, he is separating revolutionary principles from business, and he can modernize Iran’s economy despite hard-liners’ criticisms. Hard-liners believe Rowhani is opening Iran to the infiltration of Western culture and endangering their economic monopoly, while he believes he is reinforcing Iran’s regional and global roles.
Moderation?
One should not fall into the trap of the moderate image that Rowhani is projecting to the world. To survive, Iran has become moderate only in doing business with the world, but its domestic and regional policies do not show any signs of moderation. Iran executed more than 800 people in 2015, a world record per capita. Journalists, human rights defenders and bloggers are frequently imprisoned for expressing their opinions. Iran’s foreign policy has shown no signs of moderation. The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Quds force are operating in Syria and Iraq, and assisting Shiite militias across the region financially, militarily, and in an advisory role. As Europeans protested Rowhani’s visit due to Iran’s human rights record, EU politicians’ and business leaders’ eager welcome sends a strong message that they are ready to look the other way.

Palestinian refugees in Syria: Aya must not be left behind
Pierre Krähenbühl/Al Arabiya/February 05/16
The international conference on Syria on Wednesday in London is an opportune moment to remember that all wars, in particular this most catastrophic conflagration, are measured by their human cost. Aya Kassem is a seven year old Palestine refugee from Damascus. A mortar attack mutilated her leg which had to be amputated. Courageously, and after a series of operations, Aya has learned to walk again. Her fortitude and sheer enthusiasm at the prospect of continuing her education are humbling. With determination beyond her years she told us: “It made me happy to go to school to meet friends and learn things that I never knew". Aya illustrates the very real and individual consequences of the Syrian conflict. Like so many, hers is a destiny that must be nurtured and respected. Nearly 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes; some 6.5 million are internally displaced; meanwhile 4.2 million have fled to neighboring countries. Inside Syria, 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Less attention is given to 560,000 Palestine refugees in Syria that have found themselves caught up in the conflict. They are survivors and children of survivors of the catastrophe or Nakba that befell the Palestinian people, when the 1948 Arab-Israeli war saw 750,000 Palestinians become refugees; they fled or were forced to flee their homes into neighboring countries including Syria. Today the tragedy of their continuing displacement and exile, as part of a group of over five million Palestine refugees across the region, is as yet unresolved.
An estimated 450,000 of the 560,000 Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA in Syria remain inside the country; over 60 percent -- 280,000 people -- are internally displaced. This includes tens of thousands who are trapped in areas of active conflict, such as the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. Though Yarmouk has sometimes made headlines, all 12 Palestine refugee camps in Syria have been impacted by the fighting. We are dealing with yet another generation of Palestinians facing dispossession, displacement, destitution and loss of life.
Forced into exile
Of the Palestine refugees from Syria who have been forced again into exile, around 42,000 have fled to Lebanon and more than 17,000 to Jordan, living a precarious, marginalized existence -- dependent on UNRWA for basic subsistence needs. While their number there has been static for some time, others are taking the more desperate voyage to Europe by boat. UNRWA has a demonstrated capacity to meet Palestine refugee needs in Syria and beyond, when adequately funded. The Agency has one of the largest presences of personnel in the country; our 4,000 staff have a deep and longstanding experience of the context. We are uniquely placed to help Palestine refugees deal with the multiplicity of traumas and needs they face and we have a demonstrable ability to resume service provisions in Syria’s rare “post conflict” pockets. Last year, 43,000 students attended our schools in Syria. We implemented a comprehensive “Education in Emergencies” scheme, which included self-learning materials complemented by online interactive learning programs and support classes. 15 UNRWA health centers and 11 health points -- temporary makeshift clinics in conflict affected areas -- conducted several hundred thousand consultations. Against considerable odds, our work daily demonstrates the value of preserving education and health services to ensure that no one is left behind; that there should be no lost generation. UNRWA combines an ability to respond to immediate emergency needs, while at the same time providing longer term development. We do so under one roof as part of one seamless, sustained intervention. So in addition to the human development work described above, in 2016, with the support of our donors and partners, we are planning a broad range of emergency programs; food and cash for 430,000 people inside Syria and education and health care for the 60,000 Palestinians who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan.
Life and death
95 per cent of Palestinians in Syria are reliant on URNWA aid. Our support is often the difference between life and death. The significance of this cannot be underestimated, particularly among a population which increasingly seeks protection and services outside the Middle East. With the conflict soon entering its sixth year, nothing today is more important than progress at the Geneva-talks. Robust political action is needed to resolve the conflict and bring about accountability for violations of international law. In the meantime, we intend to energetically uphold the rights of Palestine refugees, in Syria and throughout the Middle East. Their plight and the uncertainty they face has gone on for far too long. Their tragedy is one that the world cannot overlook. In a region where hope and prospects are elusive at best, I return to Aya. Much remains to be done beyond saving her life and helping her to recover from the immediate trauma of losing her leg. Propelled by her ambition to achieve a full education, UNRWA will seek to sustain her through her youth and to adulthood, hoping that opportunities and achievement will lie ahead.
Aya is a Palestine refugee, with her aspirations, pride and dignity. She is a citizen of the world and as such she should not be left behind.

Facebook's War on Freedom of Speech
by Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/February 05/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7371/facebook-freedom-of-speech
Facebook is now removing speech that presumably almost everybody might decide is racist -- along with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is "racist."
The sinister reality of a society in which the expression of majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been seen across Europe. Just last week came reports of Dutch citizens being visited by the police and warned about posting anti-mass-immigration sentiments on social media.
In lieu of violence, speech is one of the best ways for people to vent their feelings and frustrations. Remove the right to speak about your frustrations and only violence is left.
The lid is being put on the pressure cooker at precisely the moment that the heat is being turned up. A true "initiative for civil courage" would explain to both Merkel and Zuckerberg that their policy can have only one possible result.
It was only a few weeks ago that Facebook was forced to back down when caught permitting anti-Israel postings, but censoring equivalent anti-Palestinian postings.
Now one of the most sinister stories of the past year was hardly even reported. In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook at a UN development summit in New York. As they sat down, Chancellor Merkel's microphone, still on, recorded Merkel asking Zuckerberg what could be done to stop anti-immigration postings being written on Facebook. She asked if it was something he was working on, and he assured her it was.
At the time, perhaps the most revealing aspect of this exchange was that the German Chancellor -- at the very moment that her country was going through one of the most significant events in its post-war history -- should have been spending any time worrying about how to stop public dislike of her policies being vented on social media. But now it appears that the discussion yielded consequential results.
Last month, Facebook launched what it called an "Initiative for civil courage online," the aim of which, it claims, is to remove "hate speech" from Facebook -- specifically by removing comments that "promote xenophobia." Facebook is working with a unit of the publisher Bertelsmann, which aims to identify and then erase "racist" posts from the site. The work is intended particularly to focus on Facebook users in Germany. At the launch of the new initiative, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, explained that, "Hate speech has no place in our society -- not even on the internet." She went to say that, "Facebook is not a place for the dissemination of hate speech or incitement to violence." Of course, Facebook can do what it likes on its own website. What is troubling is what this organization of effort and muddled thinking reveals about what is going on in Europe.
The mass movement of millions of people -- from across Africa, the Middle East and further afield -- into Europe has happened in record time and is a huge event in its history. As events in Paris, Cologne and Sweden have shown, it is also by no means a series of events only with positive connotations.
As well as being fearful of the security implications of allowing in millions of people whose identities, beliefs and intentions are unknown and -- in such large numbers -- unknowable, many Europeans are deeply concerned that this movement heralds an irreversible alteration in the fabric of their society. Many Europeans do not want to become a melting pot for the Middle East and Africa, but want to retain something of their own identities and traditions. Apparently, it is not just a minority who feel concern about this. Poll after poll shows a significant majority of the public in each and every European country opposed to immigration at anything like the current rate.
The sinister thing about what Facebook is doing is that it is now removing speech that presumably almost everybody might consider racist -- along with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is "racist."
And it just so happens to turn out that, lo and behold, this idea of "racist" speech appears to include anything critical of the EU's current catastrophic immigration policy.
By deciding that "xenophobic" comment in reaction to the crisis is also "racist," Facebook has made the view of the majority of the European people (who, it must be stressed, are opposed to Chancellor Merkel's policies) into "racist" views, and so is condemning the majority of Europeans as "racist." This is a policy that will do its part in pushing Europe into a disastrous future.
Because even if some of the speech Facebook is so scared of is in some way "xenophobic," there are deep questions as to why such speech should be banned. In lieu of violence, speech is one of the best ways for people to vent their feelings and frustrations. Remove the right to speak about your frustrations, and only violence is left. Weimar Germany -- to give just one example -- was replete with hate-speech laws intended to limit speech the state did not like. These laws did nothing whatsoever to limit the rise of extremism; it only made martyrs out of those it pursued, and persuaded an even larger number of people that the time for talking was over. The sinister reality of a society in which the expression of majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been seen across Europe. Just last week, reports from the Netherlands told of Dutch citizens being visited by the police and warned about posting anti-mass-immigration sentiments on Twitter and other social media. In this toxic mix, Facebook has now -- knowingly or unknowingly -- played its part. The lid is being put on the pressure cooker at precisely the moment that the heat is being turned up. A true "initiative for civil courage" would explain to both Merkel and Zuckerberg that their policy can have only one possible result.
**Douglas Murray, a British writer, journalist and commentator, is based in London, England.

Rafsanjani Protests Against Iranian Regime's Oppression Of Its Citizens, Warns Decision-Makers – i.e. Ideological Camp, Led By Supreme Leader Khamenei
MEMRI/February 5, 2016 Special Dispatch No.6293
In light of the Iranian regime's increasing political repression in advance of the elections for the Majlis and Assembly of Experts that are set for February 26, 2016, and in light of the mass disqualification of thousands of candidates from the pragmatic and reformist streams,[1] Expediency Council head and pragmatic camp leader Hashemi Rafsanjani harshly criticized the regime, saying that it is trying to force its own candidates on the people instead of allowing truly free, democratic elections.
In an address by Rafsanjani to activists from parties banned by the regime, filmed sometime in November or December 2015 and posted in late January 2016 on his website (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 5298, Rafsanjani Protests against the Regime's Oppression of Its Citizens), included a warning about the regime's ideological circles' intention to force their candidates on the public. He protested against the suppression of freedom of expression among university students and against the outlawing of political parties, and warned the ruling establishment that its actions were distancing the people from their loyalty to the Islamic Revolution.
Rafsanjani further warned that all this could generate indifference among the public, leading to a boycott of the elections, and hinting that such a situation would lead to civil unrest. He praised the people's democratic vote in the 2013 elections that brought President Hassan Rohani to power, praised also Iran's nuclear achievements vis-à-vis the U.S., and called for the regime to allow the people to freely elect its representatives this time as well.
In recent days, due to his criticism of the disqualification of thousands of candidates from the pragmatic and reformist streams,[2] rage at Rafsanjani in the ideological camp is growing. On February 1, 2016, Majlis member Hamid Resaei said that he was "deviating from the path" of the Islamic Revolution, "corrupt," and "spreading rumors and lies."[3] The next day, Abdallah Haji Sadeghi, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's deputy representative in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that Rafsanjani's "behavior is like that of the enemies."[4] On February 4, Assembly of Experts member Hassan Mamdouhi said that he hoped that Rafsanjani's statements would not create "a new fitna," i.e. civil unrest, and warned him that the people would stand fast against any fitna;[5] Mojtaba Zolnour, advisor to Khamenei's representative in the IRGC, said that not even the enemies of the founder of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ever made statements like Rafsanjani's and noted that it was time for him to join his son in prison.[6]
The following are highlights of Rafsanjani's statements, from the video released on his website on January 23, 2016:
"We expect a significant presence of our university [students] in politics, in the elections, in [state] administration, and in social progress. However, [the students] are oppressed [by the regime], and this is very bad. Young Muslims are studying, and most of them acquire an education at their own expense. At the very least, they should be allowed the freedom to express their opinions. Are they inferior to those in the religious movements who express their opinion? These people too are good – I am not condemning them. [The students] also mourn the death of Hussein, and adhere to Ahl Al-Bayt...[7] But why aren't the students [entitled to freedom of expression as well]? They are educated young people, and they actually know more [than the students of religion]. This is an inexcusable move.
"The security of our Iran emanates from the people. The people are still loyal to the Revolution, but we must understand – that is, the decision-makers who are making the wrong decisions must understand – that if the people, especially the young and the educated, become apathetic and indifferent, the security [of our society] will not remain as it is today... The indifference of the people is a grave danger.
"How do people become apathetic? One [reason] is the elections. If they realize that a choice is being imposed on them in the elections, then they obviously will not [turn out to vote]. Ever since our first elections, all our referenda over the years have been free, and the vast majority of the people participated in them, with a turnout of 99%, [declining] to 60%-70%. We always had [a high turnout], but [political parties] that were recently formed in the country have been denied permission to be active in the elections. They can only vote. Over time this can generate indifference in the country. Who gave us the authority to interfere with the destiny of the people? We were all born free, and nobody can tell us what to think. They can only guide us. Did the Prophet [Muhammad] force anyone [to do anything]? The Koran explicitly states, 'Let there be no compulsion in religion [2:256]'...
"We have come this far because of our unity – how will we go on if we are divided?! The ugliest deeds that I see are the fashion [among] 'the concerned' [referring to the ideological stream] who stand against the tremendous work carried out humbly and modestly by the [Rohani] government [referring to the JCPOA], under pressure and denigration. This was no small feat – facing down the world's great superpowers. Six powerful countries that enjoy extensive intelligence and diplomatic support sat [at the negotiating table] across from our foreign minister [Zarif] and his team. [But] we managed to advance our path. [All the while,] they [the ideological camp] said, constantly and every day, that it would not succeed. The next day they said [again] that it would not succeed. You see for yourselves what the newspapers of the 'concerned' are doing – [they] are still writing that it will not succeed. In any case, this was not a task that could possibly be carried out by a government under pressure. Indeed, this government entered the arena intensively, showed patience, and toiled devotedly. [This government] gave its all, despite [its critics'] mockery and ridicule – and it finished the job.
"Where did this government come from? From the people's votes and elections. Had [the people] followed the usual path [of the ideological conservatives] in the 2013 elections, things would not have happened like this. But ultimately, the people arrived [on the scene, that is, they turned out to vote].
"[In the 2013 presidential elections,] all I did was register [as a presidential candidate]; I didn't campaign or anything. When I went to register, they asked me, What is your platform? I responded: I will publish my platform later... If I am [a candidate] – I will publish it. I have always said: Let this path go forward, so that I can publish [my platform]. I said nothing, and did not campaign at all.
"But then came a tsunami [from the public], and everyone realized that the people wanted something different. This [pragmatic] stream was unacceptable to [the ideological conservatives]; they thought that they resolved this matter [by disqualifying me], but things did not work out [for them]. The people stood fast, and elected Dr. Rohani... All this belongs to the people [that said]: Most of us are coming [to vote]; we are saying, We are here. It is the people that decides.
"Look, for example, I am talking about the media. In that [2013] election [campaign], the leader [Khamenei] said that the votes of the people are a right that cannot be taken from them. [But] how many [television] programs on this right of the people did the [state] broadcasting authority [air] – and how many did you see? What about televised [candidate] debates and interviews?
"On the other hand, when the leader [Khamenei] uttered a single word – 'infiltration' [of U.S. influence into Iran] – they [the ideological media outlets] filled the entire world with articles and talk, and even threats, intimidation, and accusations. That does not fool the people – they [i.e. the ideological stream] fool only themselves... But the people understand.
"The people are educated. They analyze [the situation]... I think that the Islamic regime should give the people freedom – not force them, threaten them, or restrict them. I will read to you some of the dictates of the Imam [Khomeini], so that you can see his explanation about how the people should be allowed to handle their own affairs. [He said] that there should be no eavesdropping and no false slander. [He said:] Do not humiliate the people, do not take their honor lightly, and respect the rights of the people. The Imam [Khomeini] always said these things, extensively. So I think that the elections that we are facing are very important."[8]
Endnotes:
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6282, Iranian Pragmatic Camp Leaders Protest Against Regime's Mass Disqualification Of Thousands Of Pragmatic Camp Candidates For February 2016 Majlis Elections, January 28, 2016.
[2] The Kayhan daily, the mouthpiece of the ideological camp, said that Rafsanjani was responsible for the disqualification of Hassan Khomeini, the reformist grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had run for the Assembly of Experts at Rafsanjani's urging; the accusation was in response to Rafsanjani's harsh criticism of the Guardian Council which disqualified Khomeini. Kayhan, Iran, February 2, 2016.
[3] Ilna.ir (Iran), February 1, 2016.
[4] Digarban.com, February 2, 2016.
[5] Tasnim (Iran), February 4, 2016.
[6] Sahamnews.org, February 3, 2016.
[7] A term referring to the descendants of 'Ali and the successors of Shi'a Islam.
[8] Hashemirafsanjani.ir, January 23, 2016.

Writers In Gulf Press: Removal Of Sanctions Will Make It Easier For Iran To Keep Funding Terror, And Will Facilitate Its Plans To Harm Other Countries
MEMRI/February 5, 2016 Special Dispatch No.6292
Following the January 16, 2016 publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency report verifying that Iran has met its commitments under the JCPOA, nuclear-related sanctions on Iran have been lifted, and $100 billion in Iranian assets has been unfrozen. In response, many writers have published articles in the Gulf press stating that the West is deluding itself by thinking that Iran's behavior will now change for the better. These writers warned that Iran will continue to fund terror organizations across the world and to seek to destabilize its neighbors in order to bring down their regimes, and that the infusion of billions of dollars will only help it do so. They also said that the Iranian regime and its affiliates, first and foremost members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are the only ones who will profit and benefit from these funds, while the Iranian people will continue to live in poverty and oppression. One writer even called the U.S. "a cheating, lying ally undeserving of a minimum of trust," and stated that its insistence on bringing Iran back into the international fold is aimed at igniting the Middle East in order to justify a permanent U.S. presence there.
Conversely, a Kuwaiti writer expressed hope that the lifting of the sanctions will lead to strengthening of the moderates in Iran, and called on the Gulf states to immediately launch an open dialogue with them, for the good of all the peoples in the region. This, he said, is preferable to squandering huge sums on weaponry and on a war that no one will win.
The following are translated excerpts from the articles.
Qatari Writer: Those Who Believes Iran Has Changed With The Lifting Of Sanctions Are Deluding Themselves
Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, a Qatari writer and intellectual and former dean of the Shari'a and Islamic Studies faculty at the University of Qatar, wrote in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida that the lifting of the sanctions on Iran will not make Iran a more decent and honest state, but a more violent one: "All those who are betting that this [Iranian] regime will become more decent and will return to the fold of the international community as a normal state... are deluding themselves. The Western countries and the U.S., that are betting on the removal of the sanctions and the ending of the embargo strengthening the reformist forces and bringing about the longed-for change, are completely ignoring the nature of this regime... [This regime] cannot exist without interfering [in other countries], because if it did not do so, it would lose its religious and doctrinal legitimacy.
"Evidence that the [Iranian] regime cannot change or become decent or normal is the fact that its appetite for ballistic weapons only increased after the sanctions were lifted, and that its interference in the region has become more violent, after the [show of] smiles by [Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad] Zarif and the optimism of [Iranian President Hassan] Rohani."[1]
Saudi Writer: Kerry's Illusions That The Region Will Now Be Safer Will Not Change Reality
Mashari Al-Zaydi, columnist for the Saudi London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote that U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and the entire West are deluded if they thought that the situation in the region would improve following the lifting of the sanctions: "Will our region become safer and more stable after Europe and the U.S. lift the sanctions on Iran? This is the essential question in the story. As far as President Obama's staff is concerned, first and foremost Secretary of State John Kerry, this will indeed happen with Iran, after the signing of the decision to lift the sanctions...
"John Kerry, the godfather of the JCPOA, said at a meeting with his Iranian bridegroom Foreign Minister Zarif that [the agreement] was the result of steps taken since last July, and that as a result of it 'the U.S. and its friends and allies in the Middle East and worldwide are now safer.' [Also,] EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that [this agreement] will strengthen stability and peace in the region...
"[But] the agreement, as has already been said again and again, is flawed in structure, since it restricts the problem of Iran to the nuclear issue, and [disregards] its destructive political conduct in the region, which is the main problem. Proof of this is that Iran has remained loyal to this destructive path, both before and after the announcement of [the JCPOA's Implementation Day]. Moreover, the U.S. Treasury Department has [even] placed new sanctions on Iran because of its test-launches of ballistic missiles...
"In truth, there is no need for panic, because Obama and all those beside him have built this agreement on castles in the sand, and the wave of reality that will come will wash them away. This is because Khomeinist Iran can be only what it is , and Kerry's and Mogherini's delusions will not succeed in changing the geographic, demographic, and historic facts in the Middle East."[2]
Bahraini Commentator: With The Billions It Receives, Iran Will Again Fund Terror Organizations
Sa'ied Al-Hamad, a Bahraini media figure, writer and political commentator, warned in the Bahraini daily Al-Ayyam that the Iranian regime would use the unfrozen billions to continue funding terror. The Iranian regime, he said, has never hidden the fact that it funds terror organizations operating in neighboring countries, and neither is it hiding it now; furthermore, even Secretary of State Kerry acknowledged this.
Al-Hamad wrote: "About the funds that Iran will regain following the lifting of the sanctions, Kerry said, 'I believe that some of these funds will reach the IRGC or other bodies, some of which are classified as terror organizations'... A senior Iranian official told the Times ... that the IRGC, especially [its] Al-Qods [Force], will profit from the new fortune that will come with the lifting of the sanctions, and that the IRGC and the Qods Force represent the main ammunition of Iran in the region. He used the military term 'ammunition' explicitly, [the meaning of which] is not obscure to any reasonable person. Another Iranian official [said]: 'When you are rich, you can better help your friends.' He did not clarify who these friends were, and left it for observers and those concerned to figure out – but [understanding] this demands little effort or brains.
"The Iranian regime does not hide the massive funding that it has allocated in the past to militias, groups, and organizations that it planted in neighboring countries, which have carried out sabotage and terror operations in order to bring down those regimes and to pave the way for the turban-wearers in [the Iranian holy city of] Qom, to fulfill their dream, and to reestablish their Safavid empire. This is the ideological [Iranian] dream, which cannot be denied.
"The Iranian people is perhaps the only one that knows and understands that the lifting of the sanctions and the return of the billions will not help it, because these [funds] have been divvied up and allocated to elements that will benefit from them even before they reach Tehran... [The Iranian people] will emerge emptyhanded, and its rejoicing at the lifting of the sanctions and at the return of the billions was disproportionate to the magnitude of the event, because it knows the path of the 'one and only leader' [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and knows to whom these funds will be directed..."[3]
The terror organizations including Hizbullah, Assad, the IRGC, Al-Qaeda and Shi'ite militias, that will benefit from the unfreezing of Iranian assets (Source: Al-'Arab, London, January 24, 2016)
Kuwaiti Writer: Billions Will Flow To The IRGC; The Iranian People Will Continue To Be Oppressed And Impoverished
Similar statements were made by Kuwaiti writer 'Abdallah Al-Hadlaq, who, in an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan, accused the Iranian regime, particularly the IRGC, of plundering Iran's economic resources while the Iranian people "is bowed under the yoke of oppression and poverty." He argued that this will not change even after the sanctions are lifted and billions of dollars are unfrozen: "The fascist Persian Iranian turbaned regime that rules Tehran... interferes in every single matter, and deposits the country's resources in the hands of those with whom it is pleased, or those who guarantee its continued existence, primarily the Persian Revolutionary Guards. When the sanctions on Iran are lifted, and the billions return to it, the people, who is bowed under the yoke of oppression and poverty, knows that it will receive a mere pittance from it, and that the situation will remain the same or even grow worse.
"In terms of economic resources, Iran is considered wealthy, even very wealthy... But this wealth is not reflected in the lives of its residents; only the tiniest fraction of it reaches their pockets... The men of the Persian regime and the IRGC are the unrivalled leaders of the [economic] battle – while the sanctions have hurt all Iranians, they have greatly benefited the IRGC, because after foreign firms left Iran, much of what they had been doing was taken over by the Persian IRGC, allowing it to increase its influence in the country and to take over the billions belonging to the Iranian people...
"The issue of lifting economic sanctions on Iran once again brings up the main question: Will things change? The answer of all those who follow [this issue] indicates that things will indeed change – in greater profit for these same [already wealthy] elements and for the Persian IRGC, which hold the [most important] economic junctions, and will partner the foreign investors on most new projects. The profits of those who already stand to gain will increase, and as for the poor – they will become even more impoverished and miserable in the face of an accursed revolution that consumed its own sons, and then their resources. The unfrozen billions will help strengthen the fascist Iranian Persian regime's ability to support, fund, and sponsor global terrorism and the satanic and evil plans of the land of the Persians – Iran."[4]
Kuwaiti Commentator: "The U.S. Is Nothing But A Cheating, Lying Ally Undeserving Of A Minimum Of Trust"
In a scathing article in the Kuwaiti Al-Rai daily titled "John Kerry, Your Loyalty Is Less Than Zero," Mubarak Muhammad Al-Hajri accused the U.S. of insisting on bringing Iran back into the global arena in order to ignite the Middle East; this, he said, serves American interests: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has come to the Gulf region many times to warn of the increasing Iranian power [there], and to clarify [to the Gulf states] that the U.S. will not be able to protect them, using various baseless pretexts and excuses [to demonstrate this]. Naturally, the Gulf states are not as naïve as the Americans think, and have tired of the games played by the American diplomats and of the psychological warfare that they are constantly waging [against them] – to the point that even a simpleton far from the air and filth of politics can clearly see that the U.S. is nothing but a cheating, lying ally undeserving of a minimum of trust.
"[The U.S.'s] policy and statements that contradict each other leave us no choice but to expect an Iranian return to the international community, sponsored by the U.S. – despite its black record of supporting terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Argentina, and other regions that have not escaped the Iranian regime, and despite its human rights violations and its oppression of domestic minorities and the opposition, and other shameful things of this kind. But the U.S. insisted on bringing Iran back into the global arena, as it disregards international peace and security...
"Once, the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] states were considered to be not independent and the weakest link in the Middle East – but they have managed, admirably, to reverse this equation... and now they are in charge and enforce their [own] decisions despite U.S. ire.
"The White House diplomats do not want to hear this harsh truth, in light of Iran-U.S. harmony. The unfrozen $100 billion will not go to the Iranian people, but rather to the militias and gangs loyal to the Iranian mullahs, to spark more sectarian wars and conflicts [in the Middle East] and to spread chaos and instability [there]. It is this that the U.S. wants, since this is absolutely in line with its agenda, which has transformed the Middle East into a collection of tension[-filled] hives so as to justify its permanent presence there."[5]
Arabs squeezed by U.S.-Iran handshake (Source: Al-'Arabi Al-Jadid, London, January 17, 2016)
Kuwaiti Writer: Needed Immediately: Political-Economic Reconciliation With Iran
Taking a different tack than the others, Kuwaiti writer Hassan Al-'Issa, in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida, expressed hope that the lifting of sanctions would strengthen Iran's moderate forces and deescalate tensions in the region. He called on the Gulf states to immediately launch a dialogue with Iran, with the aim of gaining political-economic reconciliation that would benefit all the peoples of the region: "The lifting of the international sanctions on Iran, and its entry in force into the oil export market, rub salt on the wounds of the [Gulf] Cooperation Council states, which are drowning in the mighty torrent of their increased [oil] production and the lack of a demand, at a fair price, for their orphaned goods. However, as an Omani official said, beyond this pessimism lies some optimism, in that the lifting of sanctions could bring about a kind of peaceful atmosphere in our burning region, and because the status of the moderates in the [Islamic] Republic of Iran... will grow stronger vis-à-vis the extremist forces... having proven the seriousness of their policy in dealing with the extremists, and successfully extricating Iran from the sanctions.
"Should there be open talks between our countries and Iran in order to emerge from the war that is being conducted in Syria and Yemen by means of proxies, we would stand to gain much, since the excuse for the massive expenditure for armament would become invalid, and we could be saving that money and spending it in the right places to serve our peoples instead of channeling it to the pockets of the arms-dealer cliques. Those who stand the most to gain [from such talks], even more than us, are the two peoples, Syrian and Yemeni. The tragedy of Syria has gone on for a long time and could go on even longer, so long as both sides in the struggle [i.e. Saudi Arabia and Iran] believe that they can achieve a decisive victory – while reality proves that such civil wars always end with no winner and no loser, as happened in Lebanon.
"In Yemen, Iran could agree to [adopt the policy of] its moderate wing... according to which there is no point in inciting the Houthis, and no solution except in agreement among all the Yemenis, from all sects and tribes. We must acknowledge that what is happening now is first and foremost a war of attrition waged against Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states that are subordinate to it...
"Let us look inward to our Gulf, and open the window of dialogue and reconciliation – because political-economic reconciliation [with Iran] is not a luxury but rather an urgent necessity that cannot be postponed or delayed."[6]
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Jarida (Kuwait), January 25, 2016.
[2] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 18, 2016.
[3] Al-Ayyam (Bahrain), January 25, 2016.
[4] Al-Watan (Kuwait), January 24, 2016.
[5] Al-Rai (Kuwait), January 27, 2016.
[6] Al-Jarida (Kuwait), January 19, 2016.