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The Parable Of The Lost Son
Jesus Outcasts the Spirit & Cures the boy from convulsions
"Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 09/37-45: "On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.’Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.’While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God. While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying."

The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully
Second Letter to the Corinthians 09/1a.5-15:"Now it is not necessary for me to write to you about the ministry to the saints, So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion. The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.’He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 29/16
Gulf states are not charity organizations/Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Lessons from Putin: Engineering the historical narrative/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Saudi women should not remain submissive/Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Obama’s problem with the Middle East Tango/Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Turkey's "Fall and Fall"/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/February 28/16
France: Criticize Islam and Live under Police Protection/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/February 28/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on February 29/16
Al Dowssary: "Dr Geagea and March 14 surrendered Lebanon to Hezbollah and Iran"
Hizbullah Supporters Block Roads Protest Nasrallah Comedy Sketch
Jumblat to Nasrallah: Stop the Slide into Chaos
Jumblat to Saudi: Halting Aid Weakens State, Economic Siege on Lebanon Not Useful
Qaouq: Saudi Jeopardizing Stability, National Unity, March 14 Most Harmed by Its Policy
Report: Opening Costa Brava Landfill 'Applicable' for Hizbullah
Fugitive Lebanese singer turned-militant receives five-year jail term
Bassil: PM's Remarks on Us Committing Foreign Policy Mistake Do Not Represent Lebanon, Govt. Policy

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 29/16
Gulf states are not charity organizations
Canada/Joint statement by Minister Dion and Minister Bibeau on cessation of hostilities in Syria
Lavrov, Kerry 'Hail' Syrian Ceasefire
Syria Opposition Says Truce Breached 15 Times Saturday, Twice by Hizbullah
Thunder of the North' Military Exercise Begins in Saudi
Saudi: Russia, Assad regime violated truce
Rowhani allies win all Tehran parliament seats
Israel hails Syria truce, warns against Iran ‘aggression’
20-nation military drill launched in Saudi Arabia
Iraq repels ISIS attack on Abu Ghraib suburb
Baghdad blasts’ death toll rises to 24: sources
Revealed: How ISIS supporters in Saudi murdered their own relative
Baghdadi appoints ISIS female fighter to Syria battalion
Egypt migrant departures stir new concern in Europe

Al Dowssary: "Dr Geagea and March 14 surrendered Lebanon to Hezbollah and Iran"
The Editor in Chief of al Sharq al Awsat Salman al Dowssary told al Arabiya that "Dr Samir Geagea and in general March 14 politicians have surrendered Lebanon to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime." Al Dowssary said this is a "strategic defeat to Lebanon and we will be working with new leaders to defend that country."

Hizbullah Supporters Block Roads Protest Nasrallah Comedy Sketch
Naharnet/February 28/16/A group of Hizbullah supporters took to the streets late on Saturday burning tires and blocking roads around Beirut and east Lebanon to protest a short comedy TV program impersonating the party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Saturday evening, a group of young men had gathered in Msharrafieh in Beirut's southern suburbs and moves escalated afterward to burning tires and blocking roads in several areas including al-Saadiyat, Choueifat , Airport road, Spears, Bekaa, Baalbek, Britel and Douris. They protested a short comedy sketch that was broadcast on a Saudi-owned TV station MBC that impersonated their leader.The army issued a statement later and said that the situation was controlled and that it had set up checkpoints and deployed troops to several areas around Beirut to contain the protests.

Jumblat to Nasrallah: Stop the Slide into Chaos
Naharnet/February 28/16/Democratic Gathering bloc MP Walid Jumblat urged Hizbullah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah to exert the efforts needed to stop Lebanon from sliding into the regional chaos, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Sunday. Sources following up closely on the latest developments between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia said that Progressive Socialist Party leader Jumblat held a telephone conversation with Nasrallah and “urged him to exert efforts in order to prevent Lebanon from sliding into the chaos prevailing in the region.”The conversation comes following a deterioration in the Saudi-Lebanese relations when Riyadh urged Saudis to leave Lebanon and to not travel there "for their safety", after the kingdom halted $4 billion programs funding French military supplies to the Lebanese army and military institutions. Riyadh cut the aid in response to "hostile" positions linked to Hizbullah.
In that regard, Prime Minister Tammam Salam held a series of interviews with Saudi newspapers where he affirmed that relations with the Kingdom are doing well, the source told the daily on condition of anonymity. But they pointed out that Salam's stances are not enough to improve the said relations. Meanwhile some serious developments are expected to emerge at the governmental level following Wednesday's parliamentary meeting. Unnamed sources told the newspaper that al-Mustaqbal bloc might boycott the cabinet sessions instead of resigning from the cabinet in protest to the government’s inability to take the appropriate stance and join the Arab consensus regrading the assaults that targeted the Saudi embassy and consulate in Tehran. Lebanon's foreign ministry declined to vote in favor of Saudi-backed resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers that denounced assaults against the Saudi embassy and consulate in Tehran late last year.

Jumblat to Saudi: Halting Aid Weakens State, Economic Siege on Lebanon Not Useful
Naharnet/February 28/16/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia that its halt of military aid to Lebanon would only “weaken the Lebanese state” and that any “economic siege” on Lebanon would “impoverish all Lebanese.”“The response against Lebanese institutions will weaken the institutions and the State. Suspending the military aid will weaken the State and they (Hizbullah) will benefit from this,” Jumblat cautioned during an interview with Orient News TV, which supports the Syrian opposition. “An economic siege on Lebanon would impoverish all Lebanese and will not be useful, unless there are plans to undermine Lebanese stability and the Lebanese entity,” Jumblat added. His remarks come amid an unprecedented rift in the ties with Riyadh that has seen the kingdom halt around $4 billion in aid to Lebanon's army and security forces and advise its citizens against visiting the country. Saudi Arabia has linked its move to "hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state" and alleged Hizbullah "terrorist acts against Arab and Muslim nations."Asked about the Lebanese government's stance on the row with Riyadh and the statement it issued after an emergency session, Jumblat described the statement as “sufficient.”“I believe that Prime Minister Tammam Salam has done what is necessary and I hope the kingdom, the UAE and other Gulf states will accept the official Lebanese apology, for the sake of Lebanon and the historic ties between Lebanon and the Gulf states,” the PSP leader added. Asked about justice minister Ashraf Rifi's recent resignation from the government, Jumblat accused the minister of “attention seeking,” noting that he should have “showed solidarity with (al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM) Saad Hariri.”
“Saad Hariri remains the first guarantee for Lebanese moderation,” Jumblat stressed. He also described Hizbullah as “a part of an Iranian system” in Lebanon and the region, when asked whether the party cares about the interests of its supporters and the interests of the Lebanese in general.

Qaouq: Saudi Jeopardizing Stability, National Unity, March 14 Most Harmed by Its Policy
Naharnet/February 28/16/A senior Hizbullah official warned Sunday that Saudi Arabia is “jeopardizing Lebanese stability and national unity,” noting that the rival March 14 forces are suffering the “most harm” from Riyadh's policies in Lebanon. “The mask has fallen off the Saudi regime's real face in Lebanon, after this regime was caught red-handed inciting strife among the Lebanese,” said Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council. “Some March 14 leaders have always praised Saudi Arabia as the 'kingdom of goodness' and claimed that it only wants what's good for Lebanon, but Saudi Arabia is today accused of jeopardizing Lebanese stability and national unity,” Qaouq added. He also accused Riyadh of “arming Syria's takfiri gangs that threaten Lebanon and seeking to humiliate the Lebanese and blackmail their State's official stance.” “It has become evident that it is the one funding all the campaigns of incitement, insults and defamation against the resistance in Lebanon,” Qaouq added. “It's about time we announced that the Saudi regime encouraged Israel to prolong the July 2006 war and to destroy the town of Bint Jbeil and Beirut's southern suburbs,” he charged. “Nowadays, the Saudi regime does not want welfare for the Lebanese, including the March 14 forces, who are the ones most harmed by the rabid Saudi policy, after they bowed and humiliated themselves in the face of the Saudi dictates and political and financial pressures,” Qaouq went on to say. “These dictates and pressures are crumbling at the gates of Dahieh,” he added. Qaouq's remarks come amid sharp tensions between Hizbullah, Saudi Arabia and its allies in Lebanon and a day after Hizbullah supporters took to the streets across Lebanon to protest a TV show that mocked party leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the Saudi-owned MBC channel. “Saudi Arabia has entangled itself in an uncalculated adventure and it will only reap disappointment and failure, seeing as we are reassured in the face of the local, regional and international pressures,” Qaouq said. “We are not worried and they are the worried and frightened ones,” he added.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia extended sanctions on Hizbullah, freezing the assets of three Lebanese nationals and four companies over alleged ties to the party. Riyadh has taken a series of measures against Lebanon in recent days in response to verbal attacks from Hizbullah over the wars in Syria and Yemen as well as recent diplomatic stances by Lebanon's foreign ministry. The measures started on February 19 when the Saudi foreign ministry announced that the kingdom was halting around $4 billion in military aid to the Lebanese army and security forces. The kingdom later advised its citizens against travel to Lebanon and urged those already in the country to leave it, citing “safety” concerns. Around 90 Lebanese citizens have also been fired from their jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports. Announcing the Saudi aid halt earlier in the month, an official said the kingdom had noticed "hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state," while also accusing the party of "terrorist acts against Arab and Muslim nations."

Report: Opening Costa Brava Landfill 'Applicable' for Hizbullah
Naharnet/February 28/16/Member of the parliamentary committee tasked with resolving the trash management crisis Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan said on Sunday that Hizbullah has no problem with creating a landfill in the coastal area of Costa Brava, al-Mustaqbal daily reported on Sunday.
“When suggestions emerged that the Costa Brava landfill should be created, committee member Hassan assured that Hizbullah has no problem with that, nor with any other landfill,” an unnamed source told the daily. However, Hassan pointed out to big criticism against Sukleen and highlighted the fact that preparing a new book of conditions for tenders will require an additional four months which will delay the process even more, according to the source. The ministerial committee has been tasked with resolving the months long trash management crisis that emerged in July 2015 when the Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed. It is seeking to find alternatives to the cabinet's trash exportation plan, which failed after the British firm Chinook Urban Mining failed to submit the legal permits to transfer the country's waste to Russia. The option of reopening the country's landfills emerged after all other plans failed. The sources also said that some progress has been noted in reopening the Bourj Hammoud landfill after committee member Minister Arthur Nazarian said that the issue is “open for discussion.” On Thursday, Prime Minister Tammam Salam revealed that progress has been made in resolving the country's ongoing trash disposal crisis. He credited this progress to “facilitations made by some sides over certain issues,” adding that “positive results” will emerge in the upcoming days.

Fugitive Lebanese singer turned-militant receives five-year jail term
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 28 February 2016/A Lebanese court has handed out former pop star Fadel Shaker five years in prison in absentia for inciting sectarianism, the state-run news agency NNA reported Friday. In 2011, Shaker declared allegiance to the Lebanese Salafist sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, bringing his successful music career to a complete halt. NNA also said the fugitive militant Shaker, 46, was charged with “harming Lebanon’s ties with a fraternal Arab country” during one of his interviews several years ago but did not disclose of the name of the country. The agency also did not make any mention of any other charges. In 2013, Shaker claimed to have killed two Lebanese soldiers. During the same period, Assir’s loyalists clashed with the Lebanese Army, killing 18 soldiers and wounding 40. The former pop star was also ordered to pay a fine of $310, and was stripped of his civil rights. He is reportedly hiding in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

Bassil: PM's Remarks on Us Committing Foreign Policy Mistake Do Not Represent Lebanon, Govt. Policy
Naharnet/February 28/16/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil hit back Sunday at Prime Minister Tammam Salam over remarks that the minister had committed a “foreign policy mistake” through his stances at the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “The prime minister's remarks that we committed a foreign policy mistake do not represent Lebanon or the government's policy,” said Bassil during an interview on al-Jadeed TV, when asked about Salam's remarks to Sky News television. He noted that “some ministers escalate their rhetoric outside the cabinet and in their remarks to the media as they show softer stances during the cabinet meetings.”Bassil's remarks come after the rival March 14 camp accused Hizbullah and the minister of sabotaging Lebanon's ties with Saudi Arabia, following a series of Saudi measures against Lebanon. The measures started on February 19 when the Saudi foreign ministry announced that the kingdom was halting around $4 billion in military aid to the Lebanese army and security forces. The kingdom later advised its citizens against travel to Lebanon and urged those already in the country to leave it, citing “safety” concerns. The rest of the Arab Gulf countries except for Oman followed suit, issuing similar travel warnings. Around 90 Lebanese citizens have also been fired from their jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports. Saudi Arabia has linked its move to "hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state" and alleged Hizbullah "terrorist acts against Arab and Muslim nations." It also attributed the move to Lebanon's refusal to join the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran last month. Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after demonstrators burned its embassy and a consulate following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr. Addressing the Saudi leadership on Sunday, Bassil said: “Lebanon is a free country and it suffers from certain weakness, so help it become strong.” “I'm willing to do anything to serve my country … but others must understand Lebanon's stances,” he added. He also said he does not mind “communicating with the Saudi foreign minister if the other party is ready for such a move,” noting that the government has “decided to form a ministerial panel headed by the PM in order to visit Riyadh.”

Canada/Joint statement by Minister Dion and Minister Bibeau on cessation of hostilities in Syria
February 27, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, today issued the following statement welcoming the cessation of hostilities in Syria:
“We welcome and support the cessation of hostilities in Syria, brokered by the United States and Russia, accepted by the regime and its backers, signed on to by opposition groups under the High Negotiations Committee, and endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council.
“While tenuous, the cessation of hostilities is an important step toward achieving the lasting political solution required to bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria.
“There were reports of some violations in the first hours of the ceasefire. Nonetheless, this agreement is an opportunity for the Syrian regime and its backers to demonstrate their willingness to work toward peace.‎
“Canada calls upon all sides to fully comply with the cessation of hostilities and to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people. The humanitarian needs inside the country are immense. Aid agencies—such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, UN agencies and local partners—must be able to operate freely in order to bring much-needed assistance to desperate populations. ‎“If successful, this cessation of hostilities will save lives and create the space necessary for meaningful dialogue to resume in Geneva under the auspices of the UN.”

Lavrov, Kerry 'Hail' Syrian Ceasefire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 28/16/Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "hailed" the ceasefire in Syria and discussed ways of supporting it through cooperation between their militaries, Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday. In a phone call, they welcomed "the implementation of the ceasefire in Syria," the ministry said in a statement. "They also discussed the outlook for resuming the peace negotiation process in the framework of the International Syria Support Group," it said. The two pointed to the "particular importance" of working together as co-presidents as the support group, the foreign ministry communique said. Lavrov and Kerry also discussed "ways for ensuring it (the ceasefire) is fully upheld, including enhancing military cooperation between Russia and the United States," the statement said. The Russian military earlier said its warplanes had suspended all sorties over Syria on Saturday to avoid any "bombing mistakes" and the U.S. and Russia militaries also exchanged maps of Syria. The ceasefire, brokered by Washington and midnight, took effect at midnight local time (2200 GMT Friday). It is the first major truce in a five-year war that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half of Syria's population. The agreement called for the cessation of hostilities from 2200 GMT Friday between Russian-backed Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition groups. The deal does not however include the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front jihadists. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura has said peace talks -- suspended since February 3 amid a regime offensive in the Damascus region backed by Russian air power -- will resume on March 7 if the ceasefire prevails and more aid is delivered.

Syria Opposition Says Truce Breached 15 Times Saturday, Twice by Hizbullah
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 28/16/Syria's main opposition grouping recorded 15 violations by government troops and allied forces on the first day of a landmark truce, a spokesman told reporters on Sunday. "There were 15 violations by the regime forces on day one of the ceasefire, including two attacks by (Lebanese group) Hizbullah in Zabadani" west of Damascus, said Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee. Speaking by telephone from Riyadh, Meslet said the HNC would be lodging a formal letter of complaint with U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of the International Syria Support Group. The U.N.-backed deal came into effect on Saturday, with battle zones across the country going largely quiet despite some accusations of breaches. The HNC announced earlier that 97 opposition factions had agreed to respect the truce, for two weeks initially. Meslet said none of those groups had responded to the violations on Saturday. "For the opposition forces there, nobody reacted because the decision is to remain quiet and I believe they will stick to the truce."Meslet said the deal was "the first step in the right direction" to bring an end to the bloody conflict in Syria. "The thing is, it is positive for us to see people relieved... We have violations here and there, but in general it is a lot better than before and people are comfortable," Meslet said. "That is our main objective -- for our people there to be safe from this fear that has been there for five years.

'Thunder of the North' Military Exercise Begins in Saudi
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 28/16/Armed forces from 20 countries have begun manoeuvres in northeastern Saudi Arabia that the official Saudi Press Agency described as one of the world's biggest military exercises. Troops from Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan are among those participating in the "Thunder of the North" exercise, which began on Saturday and involves ground, air and naval forces, SPA reported. Forces from the other five Gulf Arab states are also taking part in "one of the world's most important military exercises based on the number of forces participating and the area of territory used," the news agency added. It said a major goal of the exercise was to improve training in responding to the threat posed by "terrorist groups."Saudi Arabia has carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria as part of a US-led coalition fighting the jihadists. Last December, it also formed a new 35-member alliance to fight "terrorism" in Islamic countries. Since last March, it has been leading a military campaign against Iran-backed rebels in its southern neighbor Yemen.

Saudi: Russia, Assad regime violated truce
Reuters, Beirut Sunday, 28 February 2016/Saudi Arabia on Sunday accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its ally Russia of “ceasefire violations” in Syria. “There are violations to the ceasefire from Russian and (Syrian) regime aircraft,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh. “We are discussing this with (the 17-nation) Syria Support Group,” co-chaired by Russia and the United States, said Jubeir. The truce in Syria, meanwhile, is mostly holding despite of violations including war planes attacking six towns in the northern Aleppo province early on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, a day after a cessation of hostilities agreement took effect. The Syrian opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its allies of breaching the truce 15 times Saturday but said on Sunday that it will stick to the cessation of hostilities. A spokesman for the High National Committee (HNC) said: “Yesterday was the first day people can really go out and walk in the streets.”But he said HNC will send letters to UN and foreign ministers to complain about the Russian airstrikes around Aleppo and attacks by Hezbollah in Zabadani. The spokesman also said HNC has asked the US for information about how monitoring of truce works but has yet to receive any answer. Meanwhile, the Russian military also said on Sunday that the fragile ceasefire had been breached nine times over the past 24 hours but the truce was mostly holding. “Over the past 24 hours, nine instances of violations of cessation of hostilities have been uncovered,” Lieutenant General Sergei Kuralenko, head of the country’s coordination center in Syria, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. “On the whole, the ceasefire regime in Syria is being implemented.”He said the violations included shelling in the province of Latakia.
Earlier, the Observatory which monitors the conflict said the identity of the jets was not clear. "We do not know which planes carried out the strikes and also we are not sure if this is considered a breach to the truce because it is not clear if these towns are included in the truce," the Observatory's director Rami Abdulrahman said. Syria's state media did not mention the strikes. Russia's defence ministry declined to comment.
The cessation of hostilities, agreed as part of a U.S. and Russian plan, does not cover assaults on militants from ISIS or the Nusra Front - an al-Qaeda affiliate that has called for an escalation of attacks on Friday. Abdulrahman said some of the towns which were attacked, including Daret Azza, were controlled by Nusra Front and other Islamist groups. Other attacks hit the villages and towns of Qabtan al-Jabal, Andan, Hreitan, Kfar Hamra and Ma'aret al-Arteek, the Observatory said, all in the west of the province where insurgents from the Free Syrian Army, who are covered by the truce, have operated.
Two videos sent by a rebel commander to Reuters shows a strike in another town, Harbnafseh, at 6.30 a.m. (0430 GMT) and another at 07:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) according to the voice in the video. The footage shows plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Russia said on Saturday that it would suspend all flights over Syria for one day to ensure no targets covered by the truce were hit by mistake. Guns had mostly fell silent in Syria and Russian air raids stopped on Saturday, the first day of a cessation of hostilities that the United Nations has described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war.
Under the U.S.-Russian accord accepted by President Bashar al-Assad's government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless. Russia, which says it intends to continue strikes against areas held by Islamist fighters that are not covered by the truce, said it would suspend all flights over Syria for the first day to ensure no wrong targets were hit by mistake. The truce seemed largely to be holding, though rebels reported what they described as occasional government violations, and one commander warned that unchecked, the breaches could lead to the agreement's collapse.
Jaish al-Nasr, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which has backed the truce, said government forces had fired mortars, rockets and machine guns in Hama province and that warplanes had been constantly present in the sky. "Compared to the previous days it is nothing, but we consider that they broke the truce," Mohamed Rasheed, head of the group's media office, told Reuters. Another FSA-affiliated group, Alwiyat Seif al Sham, said two of its fighters had been killed and four more wounded when government tanks shelled them in rural areas west of Damascus.A Syrian military source denied the army was violating the truce agreement. State media described rocket attacks near Damascus and several deadly attacks by ISIS. But overall the level of violence was far reduced. "Let's pray that this works because frankly this is the best opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last five years in order to see something better and hopefully something related to peace," U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a midnight news conference in Geneva."I think that the feeling that we have today is that the situation is very different but of course every day has to be monitored," he said. The agreement is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years and, if it holds, would be the most successful truce of the war so far.De Mistura said he intends to restart peace talks on March 7, provided the halt in fighting largely holds. But there are weak spots in a fragile deal which has not been directly signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a formal ceasefire. Importantly, it does not cover powerful jihadist groups such as ISIS and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria. ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in Hama province. Nusra has called for redoubled attacks. Moscow and Damascus say they will continue to fight them, and other rebels say they fear this stance may be used to justify attacks against them too.The truce is the culmination of new diplomatic efforts that reflect a battlefield dramatically changed since Russia joined the war in September with air strikes to prop up Assad. Moscow's intervention effectively destroyed the hope his enemies have maintained for five years -- encouraged by Arab and Western states -- to topple him by force. Israel on Sunday also hailed the truce but warned against Iran ‘aggression.’
Reports of violence
Like several other rebel figures contacted by Reuters, Fares Bayoush, head of the Fursan al-Haqq rebel group which fights under the FSA banner, said front lines were far quieter. But he added that violations were taking place and if continued could lead to the "collapse of the agreement".
In early reports of violence, a Syrian rebel group in the northwest said three of its fighters had been killed while repelling an attack from government ground forces a few hours after the plan came into effect. Syria's state media said at least six people were killed and several wounded in two suicide bomb attacks east of Hama city, including the car bomb claimed by ISIS. Three children were killed and 12 wounded in an unspecified ISIS attack in Joura neighborhood in Deir al-Zor province. Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the FSA First Coastal Division in Latakia province said government helicopters had dropped eight "barrel bombs" on the area in the early afternoon. Assad's opponents have long accused the government of using such bombs -- oil drums packed with explosives -- to cause indiscriminate damage in rebel-held areas, which Damascus denies. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said government forces dropped five barrel bombs on the village on Najiya in Idlib province. The village is controlled by several groups including Nusra Front. Nusra Front fighters pulled out of residential areas in several towns they run in Idlib province on Saturday to avoid being blamed by local people for civilian casualties if the areas are bombed by Russia, residents and rebel sources said. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said ISIS fighters had attacked Tel Abyad, a town near the Turkish border, prompting air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition to try to drive them back. Russia's Defence Ministry said it would suspend air strikes in a "green zone" -- defined as those parts of Syria held by groups that have accepted the cessation of hostilities -- and make no flights at all on Saturday. "Given the entry into force of the U.N. Security Council resolution that supports the Russian-American agreements on a ceasefire, and to avoid any possible mistakes when carrying out strikes, Russian military planes, including long-range aviation, are not carrying out any flights over Syrian territory on Feb. 27," the ministry said. Sergei Rudskoi, a lieutenant-general in the Russian air force, told a news briefing that Moscow had sent the United States a list of 6,111 fighters who had agreed to the ceasefire deal and 74 populated areas which should not be bombed. (With Reuters)

Rowhani allies win all Tehran parliament seats
AFP and Reuters, Tehran/Dubai Sunday, 28 February 2016/Iranian President Hassan Rowhani's allies have won all of the capital's 30 seats in parliament, with 90 percent of votes counted from last week's election, state television reported on Sunday. The pro-Rowhani List of Hope, led by reformist Mohammad Reza Aref, a former vice president, knocked the number one conservative candidate, Gholam-Ali Hadad Adel, into 31st place, sealing a whitewash, according to the preliminary results. The tally showed Hadad Adel more than 6,000 votes behind the candidate in 30th place with the remaining 10 percent of ballots to be counted. The results were based on around 2.6 million votes from a total of 2,900,000 in the capital, a key battleground. Should the results be confirmed, it would also mean that all eight women on the List of Hope would be elected. A total of 290 seats were up for grabs in Friday's election. In the 260 seats in the provinces, the president's allies fared less well. Out of the 56 constituencies outside the capital, 19 went to the main list of conservatives, nine to the pro-Rouhani list and 14 to independent candidates. Of the independents, six had ties to conservatives, five to reformists and three were undeclared. None of the remaining 14 seats had a clear winner, meaning a second round of voting will be needed, which is not expected until April or May. ‘No one can resist popular will’. In reaction, top Iranian pro-reform politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Twitter on Sunday that no one could resist the will of the people. “No one is able to resist against the will of the majority of the people and whoever the people don’t want has to step aside,” his message said. Former president Rafsanjani, an ally of pragmatist Rowhani, is leading the race for membership of the influential Assembly of Experts, a body that chooses Iran’s most powerful figure, the supreme leader.

Rafsanjani leads Iran assembly vote
Reuters, Tehran Saturday, 27 February 2016/Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday urged all factions to work together after initial election results showed the veteran powerbroker leading polls to become one of Tehran's delegates to the influential Assembly of Experts.
"The competition is over and the phase of unity and cooperation has arrived," state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying. "The time after elections is the time for hard work to build the country". Rafsanjani's allies, including President Hassan Rouhani, also performed well in the Assembly of Experts vote in Tehran. The assembly is responsible for choosing the Islamic Republic's highest authority, the supreme leader.

Israel hails Syria truce, warns against Iran ‘aggression’
AFP, Jerusalem Sunday, 28 February 2016/Israel on Sunday welcomed the fragile ceasefire in neighboring Syria but warned it would not accept Iranian “aggression” or the supply of advanced weapons to Hezbollah. “We welcome the efforts to reach a stable, long-term and feasible ceasefire in Syria,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting. “Anything that can stop the terrible slaughter there is important, first and foremost from a humanitarian point of view.”The premier added however that “it’s important it remains clear any agreement in Syria must include an end to Iranian aggression aimed at Israel from Syria’s territory.” “We won’t accept the supply of advanced arms to Hezbollah from Syria and Lebanon. We won't accept the creation of a second terror front on the Golan. These were, and remain, Israel's red lines.”The ceasefire, brokered by Washington and Moscow, appeared to be largely holding on Sunday, its second day. Israel is reported to have carried out a series of raids in Syria targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah and the delivery of weapons to the Lebanese Shiite militia, which is supporting Syrian regime forces. Israel has coordinated its actions with Russia since Moscow launched an air campaign against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s armed opponents in late September to avoid unintentional clashes. Iran has remained a staunch ally of Assad, providing military advisers on the ground and “volunteers” to fight alongside regime forces.

20-nation military drill launched in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Gazette, Riyadh Sunday, 28 February 2016/A military drill named “North Thunder” was launched in northern Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Countries participating in the drill included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Senegal, Sudan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Turkey, Tunisia, Comoros, Djibouti, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, Egypt and Mauritania, in addition to the Peninsula Shield Forces, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. According to SPA, the drill is the largest military drill in the world in terms of the number of participating forces as well as the breadth of the maneuver area. It focuses on training troops on how to deal with terror groups and how to transfer from traditional to low-intensity combat operations. The drill comes in light of the growing terrorist threats as well as the political instability in the region. It also reflects the desire of the participating countries in maintaining the region’s security and stability. This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on Feb. 28, 2016.

Arab League Chief Says Will Not Seek Second Term
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 28/16Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said Sunday he would not seek a second term as secretary general of the pan-Arab body after his present term ends in July. Arabi, 80, took over as League chief from fellow Egyptian diplomat Amr Moussa in 2011. He had served as foreign minister in the Egyptian government that came to power after the ouster of longtime president Hosni Mubarak earlier that year. "I have asked the Egyptian government not to think about renewing my mandate," Arabi told reporters at the League's headquarters in Cairo, adding that his present tenure would end in early July. Traditionally, the secretary general of Arab League has held the post for two terms, and Cairo has always insisted that it be held by an Egyptian diplomat. Since becoming secretary general, Arabi has had to manage a number of sensitive issues, including the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as the rise of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Iraq repels ISIS attack on Abu Ghraib suburb
The Associated Press, Baghdad Sunday, 28 February 2016/Iraqi security forces repelled an attack by ISIS militants on the capital's western suburb of Abu Ghraib on Sunday, officials said. Three suicide car bombers struck a security force barracks as gunmen opened fire, according to two police officers. At least eight government and paramilitary forces were killed and 22 wounded, they added. The clashes left a silo on fire, they said. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information. The commander of military operations in western Baghdad, Maj. Gen Saad Harbiya, said the situation is "under control" and a local curfew has been imposed. Abu Ghraib, about 18 miles from downtown Baghdad, is the location of a prison of the same name where U.S. troops committed notorious abuses against Iraqi detainees following the 2003 invasion. It is halfway between Baghdad and Fallujah, which is controlled by ISIS . Security forces prevented ISIS from seizing Abu Ghraib when the extremists swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.

Baghdad blasts’ death toll rises to 24: sources
Reuters, Baghdad Sunday, 28 February 2016/The death toll from two suicide blasts in Baghdad’s mainly Shiite district of Sadr City rose to 24 with more than 60 others wounded, police and medical sources said on Sunday. Two police sources said the assailants were suicide bombers riding motorcycles through a crowded mobile phone market. They said police had sealed off the area to prevent further attacks.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, but Islamic State militants regularly claim attacks on Shiite targets in the capital and said they had attacked Iraqi security forces in the western outskirts overnight.

Revealed: How ISIS supporters in Saudi murdered their own relative
Mohammed Harbi, Al Arabiya Sunday, 28 February 2016/After a video showing ISIS supporters kill a relative of theirs in Saudi Arabia went viral on social media on Saturday, Al Arabiya has acquired information that reveals the circumstances behind the deadly attack. The victim was identified by the Saudi interior ministry as Badr Hamdi al-Rashidi. According to a statement issued by the ministry, Rashidi was a member of the kingdom’s anti-terror forces in the central Qassim region. It added that six of Rashidi’s relatives took advantage of family links to draw him to a remote area and kill him. Rashidi’s maternal cousin Wael had contacted him saying that he had some items to deliver to his mother. He left his house to meet Wael. Rashidi’s wife, however, got worried as he did not return home and did not pick up her calls. She then informed his brothers. Rashidi was then shot dead at a remote area near a petrol station between the city of Buraidah and the neighboring Unaizah governorate. His body was found by the police after residents reported hearing gunshots. Bandar, Rashidi’s brother, called the murder a betrayal. According to Bandar, Badr was in his 30s, and the father of two children, and was expecting a third. He added that Rashidi had taken care of his mother and his disabled brother who lives with him. Bandar identified the six men as Wael al-Rashidi, Moataz al-Rashidi, Nail al-Rashidi, Zaher al-Rashidi, Sami al-Rashidi and Ibrahim Khalaf. Their ages range from 18 to 32, according to the interior ministry.
He also said that the assailants were planning to kill more than one person and tried to contact other relatives. However, Badr was the only one they managed to contact and lure out of his house. According to Bandar, Wael is a doctor in a Riyadh hospital while Moataz is an engineer. Bandar also said that he and his deceased brother do not have close relations with the aforementioned relatives and they only see them during Eid and other events.

Baghdadi appoints ISIS female fighter to Syria battalion
Huda al-Salih, Al Arabiya, Riyadh Sunday, 28 February 2016/ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdad has reportedly appointed a female Saudi fighter to head up a new battalion in northeastern Syria, according to an activist. Nada al-Qahtani, who joined the group in 2013, used to lead the Khansa battalion in the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa, located in Syria. She will now lead a new branch of the all-female fighting unit in Hasakeh, the activist told the Arabic website of Al Arabiya News Channel.Baghdadi – who has not been seen in public or photographed since 2014 – met with Qahtani twice in a meeting with other ISIS leaders. She is seen as having a strong character, the activist said. The female fighter “is now present in Hasakah… and she plays a prominent role on the level of communicating with foreign fighters,” he also said. Qahtani left to Syria in Dec. 2013 and pledged the oath of allegiance to Baghdadi. In one of her tweets, she revealed her intentions to become a suicide bomber, and called on women to encourage their husbands and sons to join ISIS.

Egypt migrant departures stir new concern in Europe
Reuters | Brussels Sunday, 28 February 2016/The European Union fears Mediterranean migrant smuggling gangs are reviving a route from Egypt, officials told Reuters, putting thousands of people to sea in recent months as they face problems in Libya and Turkey. “It’s an increasing issue,” an EU official said of increased activity after a quiet year among smugglers around Alexandria that has raised particular concerns in Europe about Islamist militants from Sinai using the route to reach Greece or Italy. Departures from Egypt were a tiny part of the million people who arrived in Europe by sea last year; more than 80 percent came from Turkey to Greece and most others from Libya to Italy. Detailed figures on Egypt are not available.But as security in anarchic Libya has worsened, EU officials say, more smugglers are choosing to bring African and Middle East refugees and migrants to the Egyptian coast. Voyages from Egypt are long, but smugglers mainly count on people being rescued once in international shipping lanes. Brussels, engaged in delicate bargaining with Turkey to try and stem the flow of migrants from there, is concerned that the Egyptian authorities are not stopping smugglers. But it is reluctant to use aid and trade ties to pressure Cairo to do more when Egypt remains an ally in an increasingly troubled region. “Our major concern is that among smugglers and migrants there may also be militants from the Sinai, affiliated to al Qaeda or Islamic State,” a second EU official said. “Controls in Egypt are strict, which limit the activities of smugglers ... But sometimes we suspect that they turn a blind eye to let migrants go somewhere else.”

Gulf states are not charity organizations!
Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
All measures Saudi Arabia has taken to protect the kingdom were legal. Restoring legitimacy in Yemen came against the backdrop of a decision by the U.N. Security Council. The kingdom supports states and not militias, and it sets the basis for developing Arab countries and not destroying them!
Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk is known for his competency at managing his ministry and even his rivals acknowledge this, such as Christian leaders Michel Aoun and Suleiman Franjieh. Machnouk has recently spoken out about Hezbollah's interference in at least eight countries. There is evidence of Hezbollah's practices of supporting and training the Houthis and of the party's involvement in the Al-Abdali cell in Kuwait. This is in addition to the party's continuous crimes for four years now in Bahrain. Gulf countries' security apparatuses have exposed these practices and the Lebanese interior minister has admitted even more. The ball is now in the court of Lebanese politicians. It will not be easy for them to resolve the issue of Hezbollah's terrorism. Recent video footage has proved Hezbollah's involvement in Yemen by supporting Houthi militias and fighting along their side. Saudi defense ministry adviser Brigadier General Ahmad al-Asiri has said some Iranians and Hezbollah members fighting alongside the Houthis in Yemen have been killed. Fortunately, the Lebanese people have understood the recent Saudi and Gulf measures taken against Lebanon, including the withdrawal of a planned military aid injection. There's a domestic crisis in Lebanon and Lebanese society must decide whether Hezbollah is a domestic political party or a militia carrying out terrorist activities against "brotherly" countries! Postponing the problem of Hezbollah's activity has increased the group’s harmful reach. The ball is now in the court of Lebanese politicians. It will not be easy for them to resolve the issue of Hezbollah's terrorism. However, other countries are not charity organizations that will silently and patiently observe developments as Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that is represented in the Lebanese cabinet, continues to inflict harm across the Gulf.
It's a bitter decision: Lebanon can either recourse to civil political work or transform from a state into an arena full of fatal militias with weak political facades.

Lessons from Putin: Engineering the historical narrative
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Does anyone really understand what the war in Syria is truly about? Many analysts working for the various governments who have a stake in the conflict seem to think they have a pretty good idea – as do many independent academics. Trouble is, there is does not seem to be very much agreement amongst them.
That various “insider” sources for the Russian or the American government should disagree profoundly is not that surprising. But when we have a reasonably coherent narrative in the Western mainstream media which is nonetheless opposed by prominent commentators and academics such as Stephen Kinzer, Jeffrey Sachs, John Pilger, or Patrick Cockburn, it is no wonder that the public is confused – or often quite polarized behind twisted, partisan narratives.
Quite what the reasons why people who are otherwise perfectly sensible should disagree so deeply about what are, in principle, matters of fact, is not always immediately clear. And the lazy and convenient thing to do here would be to cast doubt on their motivations or character. There has definitely been a lot of that going on as well between commentators on either side of the debate. But I think this is something that should be resisted. Yet we can still give a critical account of where they are coming from.
Largely, I think, people’s analyses will be hugely informed by the broader world-view that they hold. For example, in the case of Cockburn, we can surmise that his highest priority is ending the war as quickly as possible, irrespective of what the outcome may be, so that we can turn our attention to ISIS. Since this is the priority, he wants the West to get over its squeamishness, back the brutal dictator and “do what needs to be done”. It is an understandable point of view, but I also believe it is a tragically short-sighted one. A minority Shiite Alawite government in charge of a population that is 80% Sunni maintained in power by brutal repression and large-scale murder of political dissidents is just not going to be sustainable in the long term. It has not been sustainable up to now. That is how the Syrian civil war started in the first place. And nothing is going to fan the flames of Sunni militancy like the impression that such a brutal dictatorship is being acquiesced, even supported, by Western “imperial” powers. Western leaders coming out for Assad would do ISIS all its recruitment work for decades to come.
The thing about 250,000+ dead people is that they do not get to offer their point of view. But perhaps the millions of displaced survivors will. Who knows?
Pilger and other commentators similar to him are somewhat blindsided, in my opinion, by a world-view in which every geo-political event or occurrence is somehow the outcome of malign Western imperialist ideas. Now Pilger is an award-winning investigative journalist for a very good reason. Some of his analyses of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity perpetrated by or enabled by Western governments have been hugely important contributions to our democratic discourse. But unfortunately, if you get yourself into the mind-set that no foreign policy initiative by a Western government can possibly have a benign intention, then every conflict anywhere in the world becomes an American or a British conspiracy. And Sachs too seems to be in the same mould, though for him the malign “enemy” is always a cabal of right-wing hardliners in the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus who always seem to hold sway over what the country ultimately does.
The problem is that if you always assume from the onset that you know who the bad guy is, in this case, ISIS, or America, or some sub-set of the US establishment, then it is entirely too easy to overlook certain facts that should be inescapable:
• Assad has killed more of his own people, mostly civilians, than any other combatant in this war by a factor of many multiples, and has done so through many means specifically prohibited by international law such as chemical warfare and mass starvation of civilian populations.
• Since going in, the Russians are committing reported war crimes with a gleeful frequency that makes even Assad blush.
The driving force of the conflict
From these two facts, I would conclude that these two actors are the driving force of the conflict. When Assad and the Russians are coming at you that way, the people on the other side would ally with whomever and would do or say whatever they thought they would need to in order to survive. Anyone would.
The fact that we have prominent Western journalists and academics blaming Hilary Clinton or the CIA or whoever else is surely a remarkable coup for the Russian propaganda machine. But this is not necessarily all that surprising. In all wars, propaganda and counter-propaganda have muddled up the facts for the otherwise distant global public opinion. What does matter in this conflict, however, is that the Russians are putting their backs into this conflict, and it seems that they are going to win it. When they do, it is them who will be writing the final appraisal of the conflict. Whatever the facts might have been, even our politicians will find it more convenient to just acquiesce the Russian tropes. Nothing else will enable them to hide the shame of our inaction and lack of strategy for the country.
Thus Assad will become the saviour of civilization and of the minorities in Syria, the only reliable ally of the whole world against terrorism in the Levant, and all-round misunderstood good guy. And the thing about 250,000+ dead people is that they do not get to offer their point of view. But perhaps the millions of displaced survivors will. Who knows?

Saudi women should not remain submissive
Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
At a global women’s forum in Dubai last week, many participants spoke about the role of women in an ever-changing Gulf society.
The UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed noted that “empowerment” of women is not about window dressing. He faulted those who refuse to allow women to play a role in society.
Another speaker, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Christine Lagarde, called on women to stand up for themselves and not be submissive. Queen Rania of Jordan made an important point when she said, “changing laws on women’s rights takes time but it takes generations to change perceptions. We have to fight the people who are trying to throw us back in time. There is an urgency in time.”
Empowerment of women is not the role of men. Society needs to push forward and make use of all available methods. And here is where women have to play their role. They should not be tied down and restricted by the edicts of half-educated scholars and obstructionists.
Women should be inspired by role models who help to change stereotypes and carve a niche in society.
They should not be tied down and restricted by the edicts of half-educated scholars and obstructionists
Education and financial independence are important, and they are interconnected. Here the partnership between the public and private becomes vital. This can result in breaking down the barriers and self-created social taboos imposed by a shrieking minority.
These regressive-thinking individuals have created a fear psychosis in certain states. They use a misinterpreted version of Islam to push back women in society. Furthermore, they deliberately overlook, as Queen Rania said, the fact that “centuries ago Muslim women were seen trading and farming and they were warriors.”
A society that refuses to allow half of its population to participate is bound to fail. We should not allow this to happen.
The challenges to women in Saudi Arabia are immense and compounded by the fact that false theories are being used to push women back.
The government has paved the way for women’s participation. It is up to women now to utilize every forum and every available means to go ahead, to form alliances and to break barriers.
Women should go beyond the stage of empowering themselves in the community; they should instead be involved in the process of empowering communities through women.
As Shamma Al-Mazrui, the UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs, said, nothing is impossible. And we all subscribe to her view.

Obama’s problem with the Middle East Tango
Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/February 28/16
Last week I enjoyed reading an article by the American writer Thomas Friedman entitled ‘The Many Mideast Solutions’ about what Middle East the next U.S. president should expect to see. Before that, a friend of mine who is a senior researcher in International Affairs at a leading American university, commented on an article I had written about Henry Kissinger’s Middle East legacy; expressing his fear that the Obama Administration may be about to leave the Middle East lock, stock and barrel, concentrating instead on other areas, such as China.
Whether one accepts everything Friedman says or not, there were a host of irrefutable truths he mentioned in his article. One of the most noteworthy relates to the Palestinian question, second to the Sunni – Shiite conflagration now – unfortunately – dominating the Syrian uprising that began as a peaceful uprising by a population oppressed by the evils of corruption, nepotism and the security apparatus of a police state for more than four decades.
With regards to the Palestinian question, I think Friedman was right to conclude that the ‘two-state solution’ is ‘dead’, although one may not blame all those he blamed equally. True, the next occupant of the White House come next January will face a virtual state of ‘full occupation’ from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley. The culprits, according to Friedman, are:
1. “… the fanatical Jewish settlers determined to keep expanding their footprint in the West Bank and able to sabotage any Israeli politician or army officer who opposed them…”.
2. “… right-wing Jewish billionaires, like Sheldon Adelson, who used their influence to blunt any U.S. congressional criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu …”.
3. “Netanyahu, whose lust to hold onto his seat of power is only surpassed by his lack of imagination to find a secure way to separate from the Palestinians …”.
4. “… Hamas (which) devoted all its resources to digging tunnels to attack Israelis from Gaza rather than turning Gaza into Singapore, making a laughingstock of Israeli peace advocates …”.
5. “… The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, sacked the only effective Palestinian prime minister ever, Salam Fayyad, who was dedicated to fighting corruption and proving that Palestinians deserved a state by focusing on building institutions, not U.N. resolutions …”.
As for the Sunni – Shiite issue, Friedman rightly claimed that Washington under a new president is going to deal with “a no-state solution in Syria, Yemen and Libya, a non-state solution offered by the Islamic caliphate (ISIS) and a rogue-state solution offered by Iran”. He was also right to say that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was “deliberately bombing anti-regime Syrians to drive them into Europe in hopes of creating a rift in the European Union, strain its resources and make it a weaker rival to Russia and a weaker ally for America”.
Continuing from the above, I would say that the ‘no-state solution’ pertaining to Syria is now a fait accompli regardless of what happens on the ground. Political and military decisions about Syria are now taken in Moscow and Tehran, not Damascus. Bashar al-Assad has become nothing but a ‘receiver’ appointed by a bankruptcy court and a tinderbox of sectarian blackmail and agitation. Meanwhile, the false claim by Moscow and Tehran that they are engaged in a ‘war against ISIS’ is finding an Obama administration eager to believe and a U.S. Secretary of State willing to endorse and promote.
Iran and ISIS
What the White House does not seem to accept – as Friedman seems to note – is the existence of vital mutual interests between Iran and ISIS whereby each is capitalizing on the extremism of the other, using it as an excuse, and convincing its followers that its brand of extremist line is the obvious and right answer.
In the meantime, in the minds of Sunnis – especially Arab Sunnis – any serious campaign against ISIS is impossible to justify while Iran’s IRGC continues to flex its sectarian campaign across the Arab world and reportedly boast that their agents control four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa.
Well, let’s be more specific and take two clear cut examples; the way Bashar Al-Assad and IRGC’s Qassem Suleimani relinquished control of Raqqah, and how the Da’wa Party – led Iraqi government almost ‘handed over’ Mosul!
Why should a sectarian regime like Assad’s, which has founded – under the reign of the current president’s father – the infrastructure of an Alawi sectarian ‘mini state’ in the coastal region of Syria and has become an ‘incubator’ of Iran’s Hezbollah, bother about keeping the remote Sunni-majority provinces of Raqqah and Hasakah?
Why would this regime care about what befalls Tayy’, Al-Jubour, Al-‘Uqaidat, Al-Shu’itat and other tribes of the mid-Euphrates and Al-Jazirah, and try to solve their intermittent problems with the Kurds whom it badly treated and discriminated against?
Wasn’t it always more worthwhile for Al-Assad to co-operate with Iran on created sectarian militias whose task was to support the regime’s Special Forces’ ‘Defense Companies’ and other trusted elitist tools, past and present, when the moment of truth comes and the big lies of secularism, ‘progressive politics’, Arab unity and socialism are uncovered?
With regards to Iraq, the intense hatred, vengefulness and keenness to uproot the Ba’th regime under American occupation of the pro-Iran Shiites was common knowledge. These factors were very much behind the ‘political’ sham trials of Saddam Hussein and his subordinates; which were basically nothing more than sectarian and ethnic acts of revenge against a painful past rather than a new beginning for an open and tolerant ‘Iraq of the future’.
Then, even when Al-Qaeda exploited Sunni bitterness at being marginalized, it was the Al-Anbar Sunni tribes which rose in arms against the extremist terrorists, overlooked the injuries inflicted on them by premier Nuri Al-Maliki sectarian policies, and fought the “Sahwat’ (i.e. awakenings) uprising. However, instead of being rewarded and compensated for this act of patriotism, the Sunnis continued to be not only marginalized but also persecuted.
Such an environment of sectarian bitterness as well as machinations of regional and international intelligence agencies provided the perfect incubator for ISIS. Indeed, many ISIS extremists ‘managed to escape’ from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and headed for Syria, then Mosul fell to ISIS (almost without a fight), and now the whole of western Iraq is threatened with a catastrophe to millions of Iraqi Sunnis if the Mosul Dam collapses.
Obama’s Washington claims it wants nothing to do the Middle East quagmire. It may have even convinced itself that it can afford doing nothing.
But it seems to have forgotten the term ‘It takes two to tango’; given what we now know that Vladimir Putin isn’t a good dancer or doesn’t want to dance, and the same applies to the decision makers in Tehran!

Turkey's "Fall and Fall"
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/February 28/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7510/turkey-rise-fall
In reality, Turkey's "post-modern Islamist" leaders were just Islamists gift-wrapped in a nicer package.
In a span of only seven months, more than 170 people have lost their lives in bomb attacks in Turkey. This number excludes more than 300 security officials killed by Kurdish militants, and more than 1000 Kurdish militants killed by Turkish security forces.
Russia is in the process of encircling Turkey militarily -- in Syria, the Crimea, Ukraine and Armenia.
Russia's fight is not about defeating the Islamic State, but about expanding its sphere of influence in the eastern Mediterranean, including the mouth of the Suez Canal. In a way, Russia is challenging NATO through Syria -- the same way Turkey is challenging the Shiites through Syria, or Iran is challenging the Sunnis through Syria.
Less than a decade ago, many Western statesmen and pundits were racing ahead to praise Turkey's Islamist leaders as "post-modern, democratic, reformist, pro-European Union Islamists" who could play the role model for less democratic Muslim nations in the Middle East. It was "The Rise and Rise of Turkey," as Patrick Seale put it in the New York Times in 2009.
In reality, the "post-modern Islamists" were just Islamists gift-wrapped in a nicer package. Today, Turks are paying a heavy price for the neo-Ottoman, revisionist, miscalculated strategic vision of their leaders.
In July, a Turkish-Kurdish suicide bomber murdered more than 30 pro-Kurdish activists in a small town along Turkey's border with Syria. Three months later, jihadist suicide bombers murdered more than 100 pro-peace activists in the heart of Ankara, in the worst single act of terror in Turkish history. The Turkish government manipulatively put the blame on a "cocktail" group of terrorists, including Kurds. In January, jihadists murdered 10 German tourists in Istanbul in another suicide bomb attack.
On October 10, 2015, jihadist suicide bombers murdered more than 100 pro-peace activists in the heart of Ankara, in the worst single act of terror in Turkish history. Pictured above, one of the bombs explodes in the background.
Most recently, on February 17, a Kurdish militant murdered nearly 30 people, including military personnel, just a few hundred meters away from the Turkish parliament in Ankara.
In a span of only seven months, more than 170 people have lost their lives in bomb attacks. This number excludes the more than 300 security officials killed by Kurdish militants, and more than a thousand Kurdish militants killed by Turkish security forces since a Turkish-Kurdish ceasefire ended last July.
Outside its borders, Turkey is floating on a sea of chaos too. The country is in an increasingly dangerous proxy war against a bloc of Shiite and Shiite-dominated governments in Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran, plus their Russian supporters. In addition, for Turkey's neo-Ottomans, Lebanon, Libya, Israel and Egypt are all "hostile lands."
Government officials privately claim that Turkey's enemies were using terror groups to launch attacks on Turkish targets. "It's like you know well who is behind the attacks but cannot prove it ... The masterminds can be one or more of the countries we have locked horns with," a senior security official told this author recently. Not a nice feeling to be the common target of a number of thuggish-to-rogue states with the capability of manipulating terrorists.
The players in the eastern Mediterranean theater, including Turkey, are running after a bigger slice of a smaller pie. Turkey's sectarian ambitions are no secret. Nor are Iran's. Today there are nearly 50,000 Shiite militiamen fighting in Syria, where a majority of the population is Sunni (as in Turkey).
Russia, on the other hand, since September 30 has been bombing targets hostile to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian aircraft have carried out about 7,500 sorties, 89% of which have hit Assad's opponents from groups other than the Islamic State (IS). Only 11% have targeted IS, which is everyone's common enemy.
Russia has also piled up a very serious military inventory around the Caspian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. Russia is in the process of encircling Turkey militarily -- in Syria, the Crimea, Ukraine and Armenia. Most recently, Moscow announced the deployment of a new batch of fighter aircraft and attack helicopters to an air base outside the Armenian capital, Yerevan, 25 miles from the Turkish border.
Turkey looks helpless. Even its NATO allies look deeply reserved over any help they would be prepared to extend to Ankara in case of a conflict with Russia. Recently, Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, warned the Turkish government that it cannot count on NATO's support if its tensions with Russia escalated into an armed conflict.
Russia's fight is not about defeating the Islamic State, but about expanding its sphere of influence in the eastern Mediterranean, including the mouth of the Suez Canal. In a way, Russia is challenging NATO through Syria -- the same way Turkey is challenging the Shiites through Syria, or Iran is challenging the Sunnis through Syria.
There are a number of questions concerning the possibility of peace returning to this part of the world.
Will the Muslims ever stop hating and killing each other, including bombing their mosques, along sectarian lines and end their 14-century-long war?
Will there be functional governments in Damascus and Baghdad any time soon?
Will the Sunni world ever stop its own radicalization without peace being imposed upon it from the non-Muslim world?
Will the Shiite world ever control its own sectarian expansionist ambitions?
Will the Sunni and Shiite worlds ever stop hating Jews and committing themselves to annihilating the State of Israel?
Will Turkey's Islamists ever realize that their neo-Ottoman ambitions are too disproportionate to their power and regional clout?
Will the Western world be prepared to challenge Russia, the new thuggish kid on the block called the eastern Mediterranean? If yes, how?
Will the players in the eastern Mediterranean ever be happy with a bigger pie and their slices not necessarily getting smaller?
The answers of this author to those questions are negative.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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France: Criticize Islam and Live under Police Protection
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/February 28/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7497/france-islamophobia
"After a few moments of fear, I thought that if there are these threats it is because my fight foiled the plans of the Muslim Brothers by bringing them to light. I decided not to give up." — Laurence Marchand-Taillade, National Secretary of the Parti Radical de Gauche (Radical Party of the Left).
The author Éric Zemmour lives under police protection. Two policemen follow him wherever he goes -- including to court, where Muslim organizations tried to defame him and his work by accusing him of "Islamophobia," to silence him.
In France, hunting season is still open for critics of Islam.
"You are sentenced to death. It's just a matter of time." This message, in Arabic, was sent by Islamists to Laurence Marchand-Taillade, National Secretary of the Parti Radical de Gauche (Radical Party of the Left). She now lives under the protection of the French police.
Marchand-Taillade forced the Muslim Brotherhood to withdraw, under pressure from France's Interior Ministry, its invitation of three Islamic fundamentalists to a conference in Lille. The Islamists in question were the Syrian Mohamed Rateb al Nabulsi, the Moroccan Abouzaid al Mokrie and the Saudi Abdullah Salah Sana'an, who deem that the penalty for homosexuality is death, that the international coalition against the Islamic State is "infidel," that Jews "destroy the nations" and that only religious music is permitted.
Laurence Marchand-Taillade published an article in Le Figaro in which she called for the ban of these Islamists with their "anti-Semitic and pro-jihadist message."
In the magazine Marianne, Marchand-Taillade then penned, along with the French-Algerian journalist Mohamed Sifaoui, an article calling for the resignation of the leaders of the Observatory of Secularism.
"I am the president of an association that supports secularism in the Val-d'Oise" said Marchand-Taillade to me in an interview,
"and for years, I observed unreasonable sacrifices and compromises from the National Observatory of Secularism, which has encouraged radical communitarianism by participating to forums such as 'We Are United,' with the rapper Médine, who has called for the 'crucifixion of the secularists,' the 'Collective against Islamophobia' and Nabil Ennasri, a Muslim Brother from Qatar. The president of the Observatory of Secularism, Jean Louis Bianco, gave credit to these Salafist organizations at war with our values.
"Since the first months of 2014, I started also to report to the authorities of the arrival of imams such as Nader Abou Anas, who justifies marital rape, and Hatim Abu Abdillah, who promises a 'cruel punishment' for women. Then I went to Lille, on February 6 and 7, where Tariq Ramadan and others were indoctrinating our youths" Since then, her life has not been the same.
How did she react to the death sentence?
"After a few moments of fear, I thought that if there are these threats it is because my fight foiled the plans of the Muslim Brothers by bringing them to light. I decided not to give up. Islamists began a long process of infiltrating all sectors of civil society. The concept is based on the written doctrines of Hassan al-Banna, the grandfather of [Tariq] Ramadan. Their flag has two swords and the Koran; indoctrination and violence are the methods to gain power. France is a country chosen for several reasons: it has a large population from North Africa; it is a secular country in which you can use the freedoms of democracy as weapons against it, and it had weak policies. The only way to stop the threat is to reaffirm secularism and absolute freedom of conscience. We cannot allow entire portions of the French population to fall in the trap of hating the country where they are born and, above all, which considers them part of the nation. It is choice of civilization, while there is an attempt to destroy two centuries of progress for humanity."
What happened to Marchand-Taillade -- the 24-hour a day police protection she needs because she exercised her constitutional right to freedom of expression -- tells us a lot about France, where dozens of academics, intellectuals, novelists and journalists now have to live under police protection just because of their criticism of Islam.
It is not only politicians such as Marine Le Pen and Samia Ghali, the mayor of Marseille, and not only judges such as Albert Lévy, who has conducted investigations on Islamic fundamentalists.
The most famous is Michel Houellebecq, author of the novel Submission, who lives under the protection of the gendarmerie since he published his last novel. There is also haute protection ("high protection") for Éric Zemmour, the author of Le Suicide Français. Two policemen follow him wherever he goes -- including to court, where Muslim organizations tried to defame him and his work by accusing him of "Islamophobia," to silence him.
French politician Laurence Marchand-Taillade (left) lives under police protection after receiving a death threat from Islamists. French author Éric Zemmour also lives under police protection. Two policemen follow him wherever he goes -- including to court, where Muslim organizations tried to defame him and his work by accusing him of "Islamophobia," to silence him.
Charlie Hebdo's director, "Riss," and the remaining cartoonists live under police protection, and their new offices are in an undisclosed location. My friend Robert Redeker, a professor of philosophy condemned to death in 2006 by Islamists for an article he wrote in Le Figaro, still lives like a fugitive, as if he is a political prisoner in his own country. His conferences and courses have been canceled, his house sold, his father's funeral celebrated in secrecy, and his daughter's wedding organized by the police.
Mohammed Sifaoui, who lived undercover in a French cell of al Qaeda and has written a shocking book, Combattre le terrorisme islamiste ("Combat Islamist Terrorism") also lives under police protection. His photo and name appear on jihadi websites next to the word murtad ("apostate").
The French philosopher and essayist, Michel Onfray, just withdrew the planned publication of an essay critical of Islam, He claims that "no debate is possible" in the country after the November 13 attacks in Paris (his book has just been published in my country, Italy).
Frédéric Haziza, a radio journalist and author for the magazine Le Canard Enchaîné, has been the target of threats from Islamists, and is under protection, as is Philippe Val, the former director of Charlie Hebdo and France Inter, who decided to publish the Mohammed cartoons in 2006. The Franco-Algerian journalist Zineb Rhazaoui is always surrounded by six policemen, as is the brave imam Hassen Chalgoumi, who is protected as if he were a head of state.
In Britain, the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie eliminated any doubt among scholars and journalists whether it was appropriate or not to criticize Islam. In the Netherlands, it was enough to shoot dead Theo Van Gogh for having made a film, Submission, about a woman abused in a forced marriage. Dutch MP Geert Wilders had to debate wearing bulletproof vests and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote Submission's script, fled the country and found a refuge in the U.S. In Sweden, that artist Lars Vilks now lives like a shadow. In Denmark, the headquarters of the Jyllands Posten newspaper, which published the original Mohammed cartoons, has a barbed wire fence two meters high and one kilometer long. It has become like a U.S. embassy in the Middle East.
In France, hunting season is still open for critics of Islam, even after the decimation of Charlie Hebdo's brave artists. But for how long?
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
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