LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

July 09/16

 Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place,
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/24-26:"‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, "I will return to my house from which I came."When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first."’

The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,
Acts of the Apostles 17/16-20./22-24.30-34/:"While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, "To an unknown god." What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

Question: "What does the Bible say about racism, prejudice, and discrimination?"
ماذا يقول الإنجيل عن العنصرية والتحيز والتمييز؟
GotQuestions.org
Answer: The first thing to understand in this discussion is that there is only one race—the human race. Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Indians, Arabs, and Jews are not different races. Rather, they are different ethnicities of the human race. All human beings have the same physical characteristics (with minor variations, of course). More importantly, all human beings are equally created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). God loved the world so much that He sent Jesus to lay down His life for us (John 3:16). The “world” obviously includes all ethnic groups.
God does not show partiality or favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9), and neither should we. James 2:4 describes those who discriminate as “judges with evil thoughts.” Instead, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves (James 2:8). In the Old Testament, God divided humanity into two “racial” groups: Jews and Gentiles. God’s intent was for the Jews to be a kingdom of priests, ministering to the Gentile nations. Instead, for the most part, the Jews became proud of their status and despised the Gentiles. Jesus Christ put an end to this, destroying the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14). All forms of racism, prejudice, and discrimination are affronts to the work of Christ on the cross.
Jesus commands us to love one another as He loves us (John 13:34). If God is impartial and loves us with impartiality, then we need to love others with that same high standard. Jesus teaches in Matthew 25 that whatever we do to the least of His brothers, we do to Him. If we treat a person with contempt, we are mistreating a person created in God’s image; we are hurting somebody whom God loves and for whom Jesus died.
Racism, in varying forms and to various degrees, has been a plague on humanity for thousands of years. Brothers and sisters of all ethnicities, this should not be. Victims of racism, prejudice, and discrimination need to forgive. Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Racists may not deserve your forgiveness, but we deserved God’s forgiveness far less. Those who practice racism, prejudice, and discrimination need to repent. “Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). May Galatians 3:28 be completely realized, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 08-09/16

Iran and “Unity” in the Face of Terrorism/Ahmad El Assaad/July 08 2016
The chaos of deadly weapons/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
Dancing with the Wolves/Walid Joumblatt/July 08/16
Talking to EU Ambassador Christina Lassen To Lebanon/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/08 July/16

Why didn’t Khamenei condemn bombings in Saudi Arabia/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
To those celebrating the Chilcot report/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
Between Tony Blair’s misjudgment and deception/Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
Germany's New "No Means No" Rape Law/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/July 08/16
Why Bibi’s Visits to Moscow Mean Bad News for Israel/Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/08 July/16
Iran Stirs Up More Trouble in the Gulf/Saeed Ghasseminejad, Amir Toumaj/Foundation For Defence Of Democracy/July 08/16
The Implications of U.S. Aircraft Sales to Iran/Testimony for House Financial Services Committee/Foundation For Defence Of Democracy/July 08/16
Will Shiite power struggle turn into armed conflict in Iraq/Mustafa Saadoun/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
Can Islamic finance help close Egypt’s budget shortfall/Rami Galal/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
Congress weighs restrictions on Boeing sales to Iran/Julian Pecquet/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
Khamenei shakes up Iran's armed forces/Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
Are Iran, West on collision course over missiles/Abbas Qaidaari/Al-Monitor/July 08/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on  July 08-09/16

Nusra says captured Hezbollah fighter in Qalamoun
Jumblat to Geagea on Aoun's Nomination: 'Talk to Berri First'
Army Raids al-Sharawneh, Arrests Four Fugitives
Paris Says FM Visit Aims to Express 'Full Support' for Lebanon
Army Scours Zgharta Areas after Report of 'Two Gunmen'
Dangerous' Terror Suspect Arrested at Sidon Palestinian Camp
Iran and “Unity” in the Face of Terrorism
The chaos of deadly weapons
Dancing with the Wolves
Talking to EU Ambassador Christina Lassen To Lebanon
Brital locals protest celebratory gunfire
Army raid Syrian refugee camp in Akkar, arrest many
One injured in personal brawl in Sidon's Dahr Mir
Fire breaks out in Barbara's grass lands
Army detonates two old landmines in Abbasieh
Tachnag expresses concern over Azerbaijan Embassy transfer from Syria to Lebanon
Bassil congratulates political, religious dignitaries on Fitr Eid

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on  July 08-09/16
Maryam Rajavi: Women of Iran can end mullahs’ repression
Sen. John McCain strongly condemns attack on Camp Liberty
Ban on entry of food, medicine and utility vehicles into Camp Liberty continues after July 4th missile attack
Washington Times: Largest ever “Free Iran” rally to be held on Saturday
Sen. Carl Levin sends message of support to “Free Iran” rally in Paris
Snipers kill five officers in Dallas shooting protest
Iranians & Walid suicide units on Golan border
UN report: Iran missile tests ‘not consistent’ with nuclear deal spirit
Israel army says infiltrator from Jordan shot
Similar explosive material’ used in recent Saudi attacks, hints to ISIS
Iran rejects UN ‘unrealistic’ report on its missile tests
Suicide bomber kills six in mosque in northeast Nigeria: army
France says Russia a partner, not a ‘threat’
Arab coalition targets Yemeni militias, 17 killed
15 civilians dead in strikes on Syria Qaeda-held town: monitor
Erdogan calls on NATO to do more on fighting terror
Saudi ministry names Prophet Mosque bomber

Links From Jihad Watch Site for  July 08-09/16
Dallas massacre of police: FBI investigating anti-police group that attended Dallas mosque
Flashback: Hillary says “police violence” as big a threat as the Islamic State
France: Fearing jihad massacres, Catholic Church sells off statues of monks beheaded by Muslims
Germans attitudes no longer welcoming of Muslim refugees
Germany changes definition of rape to makes deportations easier
Virginia: Muslim tried to join Islamic State, prayed Allah “give strength to mujahideen to slaughter every US military officer”
Muslim targeted Pamela Geller for jihad murder, FBI didn’t bother to tell her
Nigeria: Jihad-martyrdom suicide bomber murders at least nine people at mosque
UK: Muslim judge spares jail for imam convicted of sexual assault because of his long service to Muslim community
Bangladesh: Former reality TV star quits singing to join the Islamic State
2015: Black Lives Matter visits “Palestine,” links jihad against Israel to race war in US
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Imam Invited To Open Presbyterian Assembly Promptly Denigrates Christians
Renowned Islamic apologist Zakir Naik investigated for possibly inspiring Bangladesh jihad terrorists
Algeria cancels soccer match with Ghana because coach is Israeli

Latest Lebanese Related News published on  July 08-09/16

Nusra says captured Hezbollah fighter in Qalamoun
Now Lebanon/08 July/16/BEIRUT – Al-Nusra Front has touted the purported success of its attack against a pro-regime checkpoint in the Qalamoun Mountains along Syria's border with Lebanon, claiming that it captured a Hezbollah fighter.
The Al-Qaeada affiliate issued a statement Thursday on Twitter saying that it launched a surprise attack earlier in the week against "the largest checkpoint in western Qalamoun," a reference to the Al-Safa compound outside Rankous.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Islamist factions and Nusra attacked pro-regime forces, including Hezbollah troops, at the Al-Safa checkpoint, seizing the position as well as armored vehicles and ammunition at the site. The monitoring NGO tracking developments in the war-torn country added that three Nusra fighters were killed in the battle, while pro-regime forces also suffered casualties, but did not go into further details.
Pro-rebel activists, for their part, claimed that dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the fighting, although there was no noticeable uptick in the number of public notices of funerals for the party's fighters in the past two days. Hezbollah flatly denied it suffered any losses, with the party's Al-Manar television insisting there was "no truth to reports circulating on media outlets regarding the martyrdom and capture of [Hezbollah fighters] in the Qalamoun region." The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television cited an unnamed Hezbollah commander as saying that the rumors were "an attempt to cover up for the militants' setbacks."Despite Hezbollah's denials, Nusra announced that it captured 14 "Nusayris"—a pejorative Islamist term for Alawites—as well as one "Lebanese Rafidi," another pejorative Islamist term, this time in reference to a Shiite member of Hezbollah. The Al-Qaeda affiliate also released pictures purporting to show a number of the captured men as well a tank seized at the Al-Safa checkpoint. However, the group did not publicize any pictures of the alleged Hezbollah fighter's ID card, as is common practice among rebel factions after they capture or kill foreign militia members. Hezbollah routed militants holed up in the mountains of Syria's Qalamoun region in a blistering mid-2015 offensive that left rebels in two small pockets of territory outside the Lebanese border town of Arsal and the Syrian town of Qara.  NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material.

Jumblat to Geagea on Aoun's Nomination: 'Talk to Berri First'
Naharnet/July 08/16/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat told Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea during their latest meeting that he has to “talk” to Speaker Nabih Berri before anyone else if he is seeking to secure the election of his new ally MP Michel Aoun as president, a media report said on Friday. “The solution is not in my hand and you have to talk to Hizbullah, (ex-PM Saad) Hariri and Speaker (Nabih) Berri,” al-Hayat newspaper quoted Berri as saying. “Jumblat then stressed to Geagea that he has to talk to Speaker Berri first,” the speaker added, according to al-Hayat. There has been speculation in the country that the latest rapprochement between Aoun and Berri could lead to an agreement over the stalled presidential election or the parliamentary polls. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions at parliament, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Army Raids al-Sharawneh, Arrests Four Fugitives
Naharnet/July 08/16/The army encircled the largely lawless Baalbek neighborhood of al-Sharawneh on Thursday morning and managed to arrest four fugitives from the powerful Jaafar clan, state-run National News Agency reported. The army regularly carries out raids in the region in search for fugitives. Surveillance cameras, equipment for manufacturing drugs and quantities of arms and ammunition were seized in the raids.

Paris Says FM Visit Aims to Express 'Full Support' for Lebanon
Naharnet/July 08/16/French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's upcoming visit to Lebanon on July 11 and 12 is aimed at “expressing France's full support for this friendly country,” the French foreign ministry announced Friday. “During his meetings with political leaders, Minister Ayrault will voice France's support for Lebanon, which is facing the challenges of the continued institutional paralysis and the repercussions of the war in Syria,” deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini said. The minister will also remind of France's “commitments regarding the issue of refugees” and will pay an inspection visit to the 750-strong French contingent operating within the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Ayrault's trip comes three months after an official visit to Lebanon by French President Francois Hollande. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 due to sharp political differences among the rival parties and electoral rivalry among the candidates.

Army Scours Zgharta Areas after Report of 'Two Gunmen'
Naharnet/July 08/16/The army conducted a major search operation overnight Thursday in the northern district of Zgharta, scouring vast areas stretching from al-Mirshadiyeh to the orange groves and the town of Ardeh, after a report of the presence of “two gunmen” in the region. State-run National News Agency said the army acted after “a resident of the region called the army's intelligence department in Zgharta to report that he saw two gunmen walking down this route.” “The two gunmen are not residents of the region,” the man told the army according to NNA. The army did not find the two alleged suspects but a Syrian national was arrested for riding a motorbike without carrying identification papers, the agency added. The country has been on high alert since the unprecedented suicide bombings that killed five people and wounded 28 others in the Christian border town of al-Qaa in late June. Scores of people have been arrested in a major crackdown on Syrian refugee encampments and gatherings that followed the attacks. Al-Qaa's blasts occurred after the arrest of several Islamic State-linked cells plotting bombings in the country and amid a flurry of media reports about possible attacks during the holy month of Ramadan.

Dangerous' Terror Suspect Arrested at Sidon Palestinian Camp
A “dangerous fugitive” was arrested Thursday at the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon, media reports said. “In collaboration with the Joint Palestinian Security Force and after a surveillance operation, army intelligence agents arrested the fugitive Ahmed A. at the Mieh Mieh camp,” MTV reported. “The detainee is a Palestinian who was born in Syria and is accused of belonging to a terrorist organization,” it said. “He and another suspect were injured around two weeks ago when a bomb they were preparing accidentally exploded in the Hitteen neighborhood of the Ain el-Hilweh camp,” the TV network added. The suspect then went into hiding and managed to flee Ain el-Hilweh to Mieh Mieh, it said. “The army intelligence directorate is now interrogating him to know his affiliations, who he wanted to target with the bomb, and whether the target was inside or outside the camp,” MTV added. The second suspect, who reportedly lost a leg in the explosion, is still being pursued, the TV network noted. The country has been on high alert since the unprecedented suicide bombings that hit the Christian border town of al-Qaa in late June. Scores of people have been arrested in a major crackdown on Syrian refugee encampments and gatherings that followed the attacks. Al-Qaa's blasts occurred after the arrest of several Islamic State-linked cells plotting bombings in the country and amid a flurry of media reports about possible attacks during the holy month of Ramadan.
 

Iran and “Unity” in the Face of Terrorism
Ahmad El Assaad/July 08, 2016
The three terrorist attacks that took place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia two days after Eidal-Fitr, one of them by Al-Masjid an-Nabawī mosque in Medina, carried the fingerprints of Daesh, and proved the undoubtable: this organization, that targeted such an important location to all Muslims, just two days before their most important religious holiday, is as far as can be from Islam and its values. It is an organization that only uses religion as a pretext for criminality, and it belongs to the “Islamized” category that has nothing to do with Islam.
As usual, the Iranian regime tried to use this triple crime under the title of cohesion, and international and regional solidarity against the phenomenon of terrorism. Some suspicious calls to a Saudi-Iranian coordination to fight Daesh’s terrorism have surfaced.
This far-from-innocent call to the necessity of not only coordination, but also solidarity, to eradicate terrorism will be “returned to sender”, since one of the main reasons for this terrorism is the Iranian regime itself.
This regime is the origin of terrorism that hides behind religion, which was first used by it as a medium in politics. This regime interferes in internal Arab affairs both directly and indirectly, like in Iraq for example, not missing a chance to threaten with woes to betide Gulf countries at every sovereign decision their competent judicial and administrative authorities make. Furthermore, this regime creates unrest and fuels strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, which is no different than Daesh and its heinous crimes.
Whoever calls for “unity” in the face of terrorism must first respect the sovereignty of other countries, and not destabilize them in order to greedily take control of their islands and water, or even consider them strongholds to achieve ambitions to transform into a regional superpower feared by everyone.
The Iranian regime, whichwants to face terrorism and to achieve “unity”, must first stop its own terrorism. Period.

The chaos of deadly weapons
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
The photos of women and men in al-Qaa as they carried light weapons to defend themselves against terrorists who invaded their town and carried out suicide bombings there have stirred public uproar. This unjustified reaction angers me. It is as if such scenes are strange in Lebanon, or as if al-Qaa residents specifically are prohibited from carrying weapons. On Sunday, two people were killed by celebratory gunfire following the announcement of the baccalaureate exam results. Last week, two others were also killed by celebratory gunfire. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has prohibited shooting during his TV appearances, and has threatened party members with suspension if they open fire when he delivers speeches. Convoys of officials and envoys are full of weapons that are used to threaten passers-by if they do not make way for the high-ranking official they are transporting. Last week, gunmen attacked an Internal Security Forces patrol that was transferring a prisoner, and freed him. In Beirut’s southern suburb, members of a Lebanese tribe attacked a Hezbollah checkpoint after they refused to obey the orders of the men in charge of the checkpoint, who were also armed (security forces are well aware of that). Lebanon is full of arms that are not controlled by the state’s legitimate forces
Hypocrisy
Meanwhile, some MPs claim there is no “self-security” in the capital’s southern suburb. What about the Beqaa tribes that, when addressing disagreements or fighting over how to divide shares, resort to shooting and launching missiles? Lebanon is full of arms that are not controlled by the state’s legitimate forces. No one has been able to control them yet, and we all know they are being smuggled between Lebanon and Syria. Knowing all this, is it acceptable to accuse al-Qaa residents of arming, and of seeking “self-security,” when they have not reached the extent of possessing missiles and explosive belts - as is the case with others - and only possess old rifles that may be useless when confronting terrorism? Instead of making cheap statements, bullying them and overlooking what others are doing, there should be respect for and solidarity with the town’s residents.
**This article was first published in an-Nahar on July 04, 2016.
 

Dancing with the Wolves
Walid Joumblatt/July 08/16
Dear Robert,
So many Chilcot reports should be added to this one.
Actually this report is mild and vague about the lies of Tony Blair and almost indifferent about the destruction of Iraq and the mass murders committed by British and American troops on Iraqi peoples, with the other contingents during the infamous invasion of this country.
But mind you we should not end up defending Saddam Hussein on whom many Chilcot reports should be written, about his crimes against Iraqi people and later his eight year war against Iran.
At that time the war was a fantastic market for weapons, including chemical weapons from Britain and tremendous quantities of all kind of lethal material came from the so called “benevolent” Arab and Western countries, whom I will describe as Hooligans and Pirates.
Tony Blair and Saddam Hussein are just two faces of one dirty coin.
But speaking about Syria Robert may I remind you that from the first day of the peaceful upheaval of the Syrian people Bashar did not at any time stop shooting at the demonstrators, considering them in all his speeches as terrorists.
And the upheaval went on for more than six months when started the inevitable armed confrontation.
Today it is the Sixth Year.
Even at that time came the Arab League
Mediation and the UN one with Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Ibrahimi to try to establish a political solution, but Bashar avoided any political approach making all mediations fail.
As for the actual Dimistura mission allow me to say Robert it is quite a bloody joke.
It is like dancing with the wolves with the various melodies of Katyushas and Sukhois amidst the rubbles of destroyed cities and charred corps.
Then came the so called “Moderates” as you call them from all over the world!
It sounds strange how they freely travelled from Tunisia, Morocco, the Gulf, Chechnya, France even Ouighours came
From everywhere they came and managed to cross the borders of Syria.
syria
Of course there are no borders to heaven.
From the time of the Flood we are going in these Holy lands from one heaven to another.
Lucky we are.
Back to serious, I think we might need additional Chilcot reports.
But they might turn like this one boring and useless.

We need, my friend, Robert one answer to one question, yes one single answer to one single question?
Why all kinds of efforts or initiatives or actions or whatever you call them were done just to keep Bashar in power and nothing was done to avoid the Syrian people this terrible plight and Syria this terrible fate
Why?
Your long time friend.
Walid Joumblatt

Talking to EU Ambassador Christina Lassen To Lebanon
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/08 July/16
NOW talks bombs, refugees, elections, Brexit and more with the European Union’s new ambassador to Lebanon
NOW interviews EU Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen in her Beirut office on Friday, 8 July, 2016
More than four years after Lebanon first felt the knock-on effects of the neighboring Syrian war – in refugees, in economic strains, in deadly suicide bombings and other jihadist atrocities, and in political polarization – the same fallout has made its way slowly but steadily northwest across the European continent. Today, perhaps more than at any other time in their modern histories, Lebanon and the member states of the European Union appear bound by interconnecting threads of fate.
Largely for that reason, the EU is looking to work closer than ever in the coming months with Lebanon, already the largest recipient of EU humanitarian aid worldwide after South Sudan and Syria itself, according to its Ambassador to Beirut, Christina Lassen. Yet the EU also now faces internal disarray following Britain’s vote two weeks ago to leave it, triggering fears that other members may follow suit, potentially precipitating the breakup of the Union altogether.
On Friday, NOW met Ambassador Lassen – who was also previously the Danish ambassador to Syria from 2009 to June 2012, among other posts in the region – to ask about these and related issues in her office on Beirut’s Charles Helou Avenue, overlooking the same Mediterranean so perilously traversed by so many of the very refugee families under discussion.
NOW: Obviously, Lebanon is going through something of a rough time, security-wise, with the Al-Qaa bombings, and reports almost every day of new attack plots. What can you say about the current threat level, how bad do you assess it?
Ambassador Christina Lassen: I was just seeing the head of General Security, Maj. Gen. [Abbas] Ibrahim, this morning, and one of the things we discussed was exactly this, that the terrorist threat level all over the world is high right now. It’s something that we’re all facing. Just these last ten days of Ramadan, we saw the attacks in Al-Qaa, of course, but we also saw in the same week explosions or attacks in Bangladesh; the huge, tragic one in Baghdad; in Istanbul airport of course […] Recently we had America, even, we’ve had several attacks in Europe. So it’s all over the place, we’re all facing the same kind of danger […] we really have to fight this generational challenge together.
And unfortunately for Lebanon, of course, they’re even more on the frontline of all of this, having Syria just next door. So that’s a specific concern for us and I think all of us, all EU member states but in general the international community try to do everything we can to assist this country, to tackle that challenge. I think we’re quite impressed already with what we see here from the Lebanese security forces and the army, how well they’ve been able to foil attacks, and how quickly, for example, after the Beirut attacks in November they were able to find the whole cell and arrest probably everyone implicated.
But the actual threat levels here, I’m not privy to any other information on that. That’s the Lebanese authorities who are better to ask about that. We, of course, seek to assist as much as we can, both as the European Union as such and several of our member states are working also directly with the security forces and the army. What we can do from our side, and what we’ve done for a number of years already is work directly with the different security forces, with the police, with the army – which is quite unusual, actually, because traditionally the European Union hasn’t been working directly with a national army in any other country in the world before. [We offer] capacity-building, and equipment, training of course, we have currently about €45m ($50m) of programs going on. And in addition to this, because we see security in a broader sense, we also of course provide large support to the justice sector, on human rights, on countering violent extremism, so we see all of this as sort of working together in a more comprehensive approach to security […]
NOW: One of the consequences of these heightened security fears has been Syrian refugees coming back into the spotlight. We’ve seen renewed calls from politicians to sort of ‘get tough’ on refugees, crack down on their camps, some even saying deport them back to Syria. And hundreds have been arrested by the authorities in the past few weeks. Where does the EU stand on this, do you believe refugees are a security threat to Lebanon?
Lassen: We’re not privy to what kind of intelligence there is. We of course always think that we should be very careful in blaming specific groups in the country. And I think everybody’s very much aware of that. I think we also had a lot of very pragmatic and reasonable rhetoric from leading politicians, basically […] urging calm, and so far we haven’t seen any sort of very negative retaliations or anything after what happened. I think it’s still very unclear as far as I can understand who exactly were behind these attacks, but of course, like we saw in the fall of 2014 also, it’s normal when people get scared and these kinds of attacks happen that people are worried, and there will be these kinds of suspicions. But I think most people know that these are poor people who came here to seek refuge, and have been in general very well received by the Lebanese, and I think in that sense, looking back at the last five years we’ve been quite impressed, having such a large number of Syrian nationals on Lebanese territory, that we haven’t seen more of that kind of rhetoric and more clashes.
So we hope that that will continue and everybody will keep calm, but it is of course a period with a lot of tension, where we hope that this will not hurt innocent people who are here and living either in refugee settlements or as refugees in this country.
NOW: The EU was critical back in 2014 of the decision to postpone parliamentary elections for the second time. Your predecessor Angelina Eichhorst called it “a sad day in Lebanon’s constitutional history.” What’s your impression regarding next year’s supposed elections? Based on your conversations with officials, and so on, do you believe they will go ahead?
Lassen: At least, that’s what we hear. Recently the minister of interior himself assured all the EU ambassadors that elections were indeed going to take place on time, as planned, next year. And I think again it’s something that not just the European Union but the international community in general have been urging Lebanon, ever since the postponement of parliamentary elections, but also of course [in light of the] presidential vacuum now for more than two years, to really put responsible political leaders together, put personal and partisan interests aside, and elect a president and carry out the parliamentary elections according to schedule.
And, I think, probably the view on this has changed a little bit over the last couple of months because we saw that it was actually possible to successfully carry out municipal elections all over the country in a good atmosphere and without any major incidents.
So my feeling is that, in general, in the political establishment, the feeling is now that there’s no reason to postpone these elections once again. And also that people are working seriously towards actually making sure that that takes place. That’s still our line, and we certainly hope it takes place.
NOW: Is it something that you encourage or urge when you meet with officials, or do you not intervene?
Lassen: No, this is something we continuously encourage and urge. Even more so maybe in the last few weeks because, again, after the municipal elections that whole debate came up again. It became clearer that the security argument, at least for now, doesn’t seem to be a real reason to postpone once again. It also, we think, showed that the Lebanese population is very eager to carry out its democratic obligation and rights. And, again, what we hear from politicians is that this is also their general view, so we hope that’s happening.
NOW: You mentioned the presidency; there’ve been a few reports in the last two weeks of politicians flying to supposedly significant capitals, meeting with regional leaders, and there’s a lot of speculation that perhaps, once again, there could be a president on the doorstep. Do you get that impression?
Lassen: Inshallah [smiles]. I’ve been here a year now, and we’ve had those kinds of hopes and speculations several times since I arrived. I think maybe, again, pushed a little bit by the municipal elections it seems that now a lot of people speculate that there might be some kind of deal on its way. At the same time you also hear a lot of people, including politicians, saying exactly the opposite, so it’s hard to know exactly. Again, this is something for Lebanese political leaders to decide on. We tend to hear a lot in this country that [the question of the presidency is] something that’s being decided in foreign capitals. But frankly we in general think that it’s first and foremost up to the responsible Lebanese political leaders and then once they agree, then of course maybe there might be some consultations also with regional powers, but in the end it’s a Lebanese issue that should be solved here.
NOW: Moving from Lebanon to the European Union itself, of course everyone knows the EU does a great deal for refugees in the region, here in Lebanon and elsewhere. I don’t think anybody disputes that. But there is one new policy the EU has come up with that’s come under some criticism: the agreement with Turkey to transport asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey in exchange for the EU receiving refugees from Turkey. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the criticism – Human Rights Watch said it “showed a disturbing disregard for international law.” Amnesty International called it “reckless and illegal.” What’s your response?
Lassen: Well, I’m glad you say nobody’s disputing our big assistance to the region, because I think it has been really quite impressive, and something that has constantly been intensified here. In the last four years the EU and its member states have spent more than €2bn ($2.2bn) in Lebanon alone, trying to assist this country with the huge challenges of hosting more than one million Syrian refugees […] Lebanon last year was actually our third most important country in terms of humanitarian assistance, [after] South Sudan and Syria. So that’s really important […] But our assistance goes much further than humanitarian assistance to cover the most vulnerable refugees’ basic needs. In fact, more than half our assistance today is aimed at the Lebanese host communities and the local infrastructure that bears the pressure of the large inflow of refugees. So we do all we can to ensure that the water infrastructure, the schools and the health systems in the areas most affected are supported and strengthened, just to give a few examples.
On what we’re doing in Europe, obviously there’s been a lot of criticism about the deal with Turkey, but probably also some misunderstandings. We have to acknowledge that we are in a situation that is completely unprecedented. There’s a refugee and migration crisis that exceeds anything anybody has seen since maybe the Second World War, at least in our part of the world. I think clearly none of us were really ready for something like this […]
We have had more than one million Syrian asylum seekers come to Europe in the past few years, but in 2015 alone more than one million people made their way to the EU. What people don’t know so much in this region is that it is not just Syrian refugees arriving to Europe. We have just as many refugees, asylum seekers or migrants coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and many of the West African countries. So there’s just been huge pressure on the European Union’s borders in the last couple of years, and we saw last year how it went a little bit beyond what people were prepared to handle.
So the logic behind the EU-Turkey deal was to try to break the business model of the human smugglers. We had all these tragic incidents with smugglers trying to sail refugees into Europe. We’re trying to break that business model, basically making it impossible for them to continue. And making some kind of arrangement so that the people in the refugee camps get an opportunity to come, instead of the people who chose to pay smugglers and these dangerous routes. And, in a sense, you can tell that it works, because the numbers have really fallen dramatically since that deal was made. And now the idea of course is that the people who entered illegally can be sent back to Turkey after a very thorough examination of everyone’s case, and then we’ll take the equivalent number of refugees from Turkey […]
NOW: Finally, as a British national, I can’t not ask you about the development that’s probably been distracting both of us from our day jobs in the past few weeks – Brexit. Firstly, do you think it will actually happen? Because this is looking increasingly unclear. The other day the Austrian finance minister, for example, said that he didn’t think Britain would in fact leave.
Lassen: There’s no way I can speculate on this. All we know is there’s been a clear, just, transparent, democratic process in Britain. The British people voted to leave the European Union. We respect that, but we also regret that. And right now, I think we’re all waiting to see what will happen next, because as you know, the British government has not yet activated this Article 50 that’s really the basis for negotiating an exit. And obviously none of us have tried this before. So it’s all new to everyone. But right now I’d say the ball is in the court of Britain. And we’re waiting to see what happens.
NOW: Is the EU pushing Britain to activate Article 50, or is it neutral on the matter?
Lassen: I think you can find statements […] from the week just after the referendum […] both by the commission and by member states, saying basically if this is going to happen, it’s probably better to initiate this process quickly, so we can get some clarity here. Because obviously we’re all in a big vacuum on clarity right now. But I don’t know if that’s being pushy or not.
NOW: Will it affect Lebanon?
Lassen: I think it’s a bit too early to speculate. Seen from our point of view, we don’t expect it will. As us, the European Union working with Lebanon, we don’t see why it should have any kind of consequence. We’ll still continue our strong cooperation. […] in fact before all this happened we were in a process where we wanted to strengthen our relationship with Lebanon, again because of all these joint challenges that we have, so we’re right now working with the government to define a whole new set of partnership priorities, and we’ve been working since the London conference in February on a new compact of things that we mutually want to do to strengthen our cooperation. So this, as far as I can tell, is not going to affect anything in our relations with Lebanon.
For space reasons, the above interview has been abridged.
Ambassador Lassen took over from predecessor Angelina Eichhorst in September 2015 (NOW/Alex Rowell)The British people voted to leave the European Union. We respect that, but we also regret that.
EDITOR'S PICK
NOW interviews EU Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen in her Beirut office on Friday, 8 July, 2016
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Brital locals protest celebratory gunfire
Fri 08 Jul 2016/NNA - Locals from Brital staged a sit-in today in their Bekaa town, in protest at the rampant occurrence of random celebratory gunfire, National News Agency correspondent reported on Friday. The mobilization comes in the wake of the death of young man Youssef al-Aswad, who was accidently hit in the head with a stray bullet two months ago yet passed away just recently at Dar-al-Amal Hospital. Protesters urged authorities to go after culprits, confirming that the [influential]l sides in the town shall no provide cover to any shooter.

Army raid Syrian refugee camp in Akkar, arrest many
Fri 08 July 2016/NNA - A Lebanese army unit raided today refugee camps in the outskirts of Bakarzala in Akkar and arrested 6 Syrians not holding their identification papers, National News Agency correspondent reported on Friday. The army also confiscated 3 motorcycles.

One injured in personal brawl in Sidon's Dahr Mir
Fri 08 Jul 2016/NNA - One person got wounded in a brawl between the families of Rifai and Hankir in the old Sidon's Dahr Mir, which triggered gunfire, NNA reporter said on Friday. Instantly, security forces intervened and cordoned off the area and contained said incident. Security forces are prosecuting fire shooters.

Fire breaks out in Barbara's grass lands
Fri 08 Jul 2016 /NNA - A fire broke out a while ago in a large area of grass and gorse lands in Jbeil's Barbara neighbourhood, NNA reporter said on Friday. Civil defense Firefighters rushed to said place and worked on dousing fire.

Army detonates two old landmines in Abbasieh
Fri 08 Jul 2016/NNA - The Lebanese army detonated two old anti-vehicles landmines which were discovered today in the town of Abbasieh, NNA reporter said on Friday.
The blasts echoed in Marjayoun area.

Tachnag expresses concern over Azerbaijan Embassy transfer from Syria to Lebanon
Fri 08 Jul 2016/NNA - The Defense Committee for the Armenian cause in Tashnag Party deemed on Friday in a statement the decision of Azerbaijan to transfer its Embassy from Syria to Lebanon "as a worrying step," especially that Azerbaijan and Israel have strong ties politically and economically. The statement added that the gravity of this step lies in its timing.

Bassil congratulates political, religious dignitaries on Fitr Eid
Fri 08 Jul 2016/NNA - Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Gebran Bassil, held a series of phone calls with officials, religious leaders and local and international politicians to congratulate them on Eid al-Fitr, notably Grand Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, House Speaker, Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Hezbollah leadership. Minister Bassil held similar congratulatory phone calls with foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council and Arab and Islamic countries. Bassil congratulated the Lebanese, in general, and Muslims, in particular, on the Fitr Eid, hoping that the Eid would bring about better days for Lebanon and the region with more fortified national unity in the face of terrorism and threats surrounding the nation.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on  July 08-09/16

Maryam Rajavi: Women of Iran can end mullahs’ repression
National Council of Resistance of Iran/Friday, 08 July 2016
The for the Audio/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFIHiSpCE7g
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi says that Muslim women have an important role in ending repression against ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, Circa News reported on Thursday. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – which has for decades been trying to oust the mullahs' regime in Iran– says that engaging women in the political process in countries that repress dissent and foment extremism can help push the international community to take action. “They must speak out. This is what the mothers can do. I believe it is time that women enter into the political arena,” said Mrs. Rajavi, speaking in an exclusive interview with Circa in Paris. “This silence and this appeasement also paved the way for its fundamentalism, terrorism and extremism.” Tens of thousands of people, including Iranian activists, dissidents and dignitaries, are expected in Paris this weekend for the NCRI’s annual conference, which is expected to have top security in light of recent global terrorist attacks, Circa reported. "The event is aimed at promoting human rights and democracy in Iran and condemning Tehran’s role in supporting the Assad government, which has caused the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Syrians," the report said. The Circa report added: Rajavi knows first hand the brutality of hardline regimes. She said that six members of her family have been tortured and executed by Tehran’s pro-government forces. “My little sister was arrested. She was tortured extensively, torn limb from limb under torture, until she was finally executed,” she said. And she said more than 120,000 members of her group have been killed. Some of these include members of the NCRI’s militant arm of the group, called People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, known as MEK, who for decades have been living in exile in Iraq. During Saddam Hussein’s rule, they were united by a common foe in Iran, and the group was known for providing intelligence about Tehran’s secret nuclear activities it had hidden from the international community. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Hussein, the MEK members were disarmed by agreement and confined to Camp Ashraf in Diyala province. But in 2009, after the U.S. handed responsibility for them to the government of Iraq, they were later moved from Ashraf to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport.
Over the years, there have been several attacks on MEK in both camps as the the new government has strengthened ties with Iran. On July 4, shortly after our interview with Rajavi, dozens of people were wounded at Camp Liberty when about 50 rockets struck the camp, setting fire to buildings.
Rajavi said the U.S. has an obligation to protect the refugees at Camp Liberty. “Fortunately, the elected representatives of the people of America in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as many political dignitaries have been supportive of the rights of the MEK in Ashraf and Liberty,” she said. “I hope that in circumstances where many of them remain in Liberty, the U.S. government should stand by its commitment to protect them until they are resettled in third countries.” In her compound’s garden, bordered by white and purple pansies, she said that she hopes that people inside Iran and in the region will stand up to the regime’s destructive behavior.“The reality is that the fundamentalist regime ruling Tehran, which has been in power for more than three decades, is the source of export of fundamentalism and terrorism throughout the region and world,” she said. “So if we want to fight against this phenomenon, we must dry up this swamp so the mosquitoes die.”

Sen. John McCain strongly condemns attack on Camp Liberty
Friday, 08 July 2016/NCRI - United States Senator John McCain has strongly condemned the terrorist rocket attack earlier this week on members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) in Camp Liberty, Iraq. Senator McCain also called on the U.S. State Department to ensure that the Camp Liberty residents have “continued and reliable access to food, clean water, medical assistance, electricity, and other supplies necessary to sustain” them.
The following is the full text of his statement issued on Thursday:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, July 7, 2016
STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON JULY 4TH ATTACK AT CAMP LIBERTY
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on the July 4th attack at Camp Liberty:
“I strongly condemn the July 4th rocket attack that injured dozens of residents at Camp Liberty. The Government of Iraq should provide immediate medical and emergency assistance to the victims, launch a full and impartial investigation of the attack, and bring those responsible to justice.
“Sadly, this is not the first time the residents of Camp Liberty have been the victims of horrific attacks. And I remain deeply concerned about their safety. While I am pleased by the State Department’s effort to expedite the residents’ resettlement to a safe location, this latest attack demonstrates the need for the United States and Iraq to do more to ensure the security of Camp Liberty during this process.  “I strongly urge the State Department to work together with the Government of Iraq to provide additional security to Camp Liberty and ensure continued and reliable access to food, clean water, medical assistance, electricity, and other supplies necessary to sustain the residents during the resettlement process. The State Department and Government of Iraq should also work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to prevent Iran from disrupting the resettlement process and attacking residents. Such attacks must not be tolerated, and those responsible must be held accountable.”

Ban on entry of food, medicine and utility vehicles into Camp Liberty continues after July 4th missile attack
Friday, 08 July 2016 19:11
Camp Liberty Missile Attack – Number 8
Four days after July 4th missile attack against Camp Liberty in Iraq, leaving large portions of the residents’ facilities and supplies destroyed, for the 11th consecutive day Iraqi agents continue to prevent the delivery of food and medicine, and the entrance of utility vehicles into the camp. As seen in previous days, on Thursday, July 7th the Iraqi forces – under orders issued by the camp crackdown committee – prevented the entry of food and medicine, and utility trucks into the camp, forcing them to return. Currently the residents are facing a shortage in food and medicine, and a major hygiene crisis, whereas 50 of the residents were injured and wounded in the July 4th missile barrage and a significant portion of their facilities and supplies were destroyed. Currently this has left the camp in further need of medical supplies, logistics and food stuffs.The continuing criminal siege imposed on Camp Liberty, aimed at imposing pressure and psychological/physical pressure on the residents and paving the path for further attacks against Camp Liberty, is a clear example of a crime against humanity. The individuals behind this blockade must be placed before justice.
Reiterating the numerous and written commitments pledged by the United Nations and U.S. government vis-à-vis the residents’ safety and security, the Iranian Resistance calls for speedy intervention to have the 11-day inhumane siege lifted and the resumption of deliveries into the camp providing the residents’ needs, setting aside all obstacles preventing the delivery of food and medicine, and the commuting of utility vehicles needed to deplete the camp’s sewage tanks.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/July 7, 2016

Washington Times: Largest ever “Free Iran” rally to be held on Saturday
Friday, 08 July 2016/NCRI - In the biggest gathering of its kind, thousands of Iranian dissidents — and no shortage of former high-level American officials from both sides of the aisle — will converge in Paris on Saturday for a giant rally calling for the downfall of Iran’s theocratic government, The Washington Times reported on Friday. The Washington Times interviewed Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The Washington Times wrote: This year’s rally participants “represent the voice of millions of Iranians who are being oppressed in their country and who seek regime change and the establishment of a democratic, pluralist and non-nuclear government based on the separation of religion and state,” Mrs. Rajavi said in an email interview with The Washington Times this week. “Their expectation of the next U.S. president, as with other Western leaders, is to abandon the policy of appeasement, which emboldens the Tehran regime to intensify the suppression of the Iranian people while continuing the policy of exporting terrorism to the region,” she said. Mrs. Rajavi has explicitly called for “regime change” in Tehran, and this year she’ll do it to cheers from thousands of NCRI members and supporters. Last June, hundreds of buses ferried in activists from across France and beyond to fill a fairground and convention center in the town of Villepinte, just north of Paris.
The article added: Mrs. Rajavi insisted the broad “resistance” movement was growing inside Iran in recent years even as the government has cracked down on the group. “Despite the intensification of the suppression over the past couple of years, we have witnessed a growing interest among the Iranian people, especially women and youth, towards the Iranian Resistance,” she said. “The opposition to the regime is expanding.”
The article continued: The NCRI leader slammed last year’s nuclear deal with Iran, arguing that the state political freedom and human rights have only worsened since the inking of the deal last July. “The pace of executions has intensified. Arrests have multiplied,” Mrs. Rajavi said, arguing that “economic stagnation has [also] worsened” in the nation, as has Iran’s relationship with its neighbors.

Sen. Carl Levin sends message of support to “Free Iran” rally in Paris
Friday, 08 July 2016/NCRI - The former Democratic Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin, has made a statement expressing his support for the “Free Iran” rally this weekend. The gathering, due to be held in Paris on Saturday, July 9, will expose the ‘moderate’ Iranian regime for what it really is; a horrific, brutal dictatorship, which tortures its own people, destabilises the Middle East and continues to test nuclear weapons in spite on a UN resolution and last year’s nuclear deal. Levin said: “Each year Iranian expatriates and supporters of democratic Iran gather together to keep the flame of hope alive. Hope for a different Iran, an Iran that respects human rights and religious freedom. Each year we gather together calling for the end of discrimination and all of its ugly forms in Iran.”The suppression of free speech has become more severe, recently, with a wave of arrests of human rights activists, opposition supporters, and journalists. The execution rate in Iran has also increased rapidly during the course of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency. An estimated 2,500 people (including women and minors) have been executed by the state in just three years; in 2015 alone, the UN estimates that there were almost 1,000 people put to death by the state.
The former three-time Chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said: “We call for equal justice at long last for all Iran’s people…So the opposition will continue, stronger and stronger until a new Iran emerges, a more secular Iran, a democratic Iran, an Iran that doesn’t support terror, an Iran that respects charter of the United Nations. That is the Iran peace loving people hope for and call for and rally for.”

Snipers kill five officers in Dallas shooting protest
By Agencies Friday, 8 July 2016/The suspect in the Dallas police sniper attacks told negotiators that he wanted to kill white people, especially white cops, after a recent spate of US officer-involved shootings of black men, the city’s police chief said Friday. Chief David Brown appealed for unity in the wake of the attacks, which left five police dead and nine wounded -- seven of them cops -- saying, “This must stop -- this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”The suspect was killed by an explosive device detonated by police during a tense standoff after Thursday night’s shooting rampage during a protest over the fatal police shootings of two black men this week in Louisiana and Minnesota, Brown said. At least two snipers opened fire on police officers during protests in Dallas on Thursday night, killing four officers and injuring seven others, police and media reports said, later adding that a suspect had been killed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Brown told reporters earlier that the snipers fired “ambush style” upon the officers. He said police had the suspect cornered and were negotiating with him. Brown said 11 officers were shot, three of them fatally. Police later tweeted that a fourth officer had died, then a union for the Dallas police said a fifth had been killed. The suspect had warned negotiators there were "bombs all over the place" in downtown Texas, officials said. "The suspect that we are negotiating with that has exchanged gunfire with us over the last 45 minutes has told our negotiators that the end is coming, and he is going to hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcement. And that there are bombs all over the place in this garage and in downtown," Brown had told reporters. The US Federal Aviation Administration restricted airspace over Dallas after the shootings. "No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM," the FAA Notice to Airmen read. "Only relief aircraft operations under direction of Dallas Police Department are authorized in the airspace." The restrictions, which are due to last from 0335 to 1130 GMT cover a radius of 2.5 nautical miles. According to an AFP report, the police officers were killed as protests were being held in the downtown area over the fatal police shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana this week, the police chief said. The gunfire broke out around 8:45 pm Thursday while hundreds of people were gathered to protest fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. The protesters had gathered after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a car with a woman and a child in a St. Paul suburb. The aftermath of the shooting was purportedly livestreamed in a widely shared Facebook video. A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone video. Video footage from the scene showed that protesters were marching along a street in downtown, about half a mile from City Hall, when the shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement saying he has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety director to offer “whatever assistance the City of Dallas needs at this time.”“In times like this we must remember – and emphasize – the importance of uniting as Americans,” Abbott said. The search for the gunman stretched throughout downtown, an area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments. The scene was chaotic, with helicopters hovering overhead and officers with automatic rifles on the street corners. “Everyone just started running,” Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News. “We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there.”Carlos Harris, who lives downtown told the newspaper that the shooters “were strategic. It was tap tap pause. Tap tap pause.” The gunshots in Dallas came amid protests nationwide over the recent police shootings. In midtown Manhattan, protesters first gathered in Union Square Park where they chanted “The people united, never be divided!” and “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”A group of protesters then left the park and began marching up Fifth Avenue blocking traffic during the height of rush hour as police scrambled to keep up. Another group headed through Herald Square and Times Square where several arrests were reported. (With AP and AFP)

Iranians & Walid suicide units on Golan border
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 8, 2016
A flurry of false Hizballah claims amid rising military tension this week was designed to cover up a direct Israeli hit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards HQ in South Syria, DEBKAfile military and intelligence sources disclose. Whereas Hizballah reported on July 5 that Israeli helicopters had attacked Syrian army positions near the Golan town of Quneitra, in fact, one of the two Israeli "Tamuz" IDF rockets fired on July 4, in response to stray cross-border Syrian army mortar shells, struck the Syrian Ministry of Finance building near Quneitra, which housed Iranian Guards and Hizballah regional headquarters. An unknown number of Iranian officers were killed as a result. On July 6, Hizballah sources reported a high level of tension at its east Lebanese outposts in Hasbaya, al-Qarqoub and Mount Hermon, indicating possible preparations to retaliate for the Iranian casualties. The mortar shells that occasionally stray into Israel are aimed by the Syrian forces in Quneitra at Syrian rebel engineering units, which are digging an anti-tank trench on the town’s southern edge to prevent Syrian tanks from mounting an all-out assault against them (See attached map). These skirmishes are put in the shade by the dangerous gains by Islamist terrorists in southern Syria.  Both ISIS and al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front have overrun the entire Syrian strip bordering on Israel and Jordan - a distance of 106km from Daraa up to the Druze villages of Mount Hermon. The Islamists have seized control of this strategic borderland by taking advantage of the fighting between Syrian army and Syrian rebel forces in southern Syria. Israel and Jordan were also remiss. The IDF and the Jordanian Army were so busy trying to prevent the Syrian army, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah from encroaching on their northern defense lines in northern Jordan and the Golan that they failed to notice the Islamic terrorists creeping up on their borders. The terrorist presence which Israel finds most alarming is that of the “Khaled Bin Al-Walid Army” – a militia linked to both ISIS and al-Qaeda, which now controls a 36km band bordering on central and southern Golan from south Quneitra to the Jordan-Israel-Syria tri-border area - opposite Hamat Gader and Shaar HaGolan (See map). The Khaled Bin Al-Walid Army was spawned by a union between the Islamist Liwa Shouada Yarmouk and Mouthana Islamic Movement militias. Its commander is Abu Abdullah al-Madani, a Palestinian from Damascus, who is one of al-Qaeda's veteran fighters. Close to Osama Bin-Laden, he fought with hhimagainst the Americans when they invaded Afghanistan 15 years ago. Ten years ago, he moved to Iraq, still fighting Americans, now alongside the al-Qaeda commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
When al-Qaeda was defeated in Iraq, al-Madani moved to Syria. DEBKAfile counter terror sources report that this veteran of Islamist terrorism, who is believed to be in touch wit Bin Laden’s successor Ayman al Zawahri, is active in three areas:

1. He is purchasing and stockpiling chemical weapons - a high priced commodity frequently traded among various Syrian rebel organizations.

2. Abu Abdullah al-Madani is recruiting from his militia suicide units for which he is personally training for operations inside Israel. DEBKAfile sources say that his plan is being taken very seriously by Israel security chiefs.
3. He is maintaining operational ties with Al Nusra commanders in the border region, possibly seeking access to the Israeli border through their turf for his chemical weapons and suicide units.

UN report: Iran missile tests ‘not consistent’ with nuclear deal spirit
By Michelle Nichols Reuters, United NationsFriday, 8 July 2016/Iran's ballistic missile launches "are not consistent with the constructive spirit" of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, but it is up to the United Nations Security Council to decide if they violated a resolution, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Thursday. Ban's reluctance to state whether the March missile launches flouted the council resolution, which was adopted a year ago as part of the deal to curb Iran's nuclear work, further weakens the case for new sanctions that hinged on the interpretation of ambiguous language in the resolution. Most UN sanctions on Iran were lifted in January when the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran fulfilled commitments under its nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States. But Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions. Under the UN resolution, Iran is "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years. Critics of the deal have said the language does not make it obligatory. "I call upon Iran to refrain from conducting such ballistic missile launches since they have the potential to increase tensions in the region," Ban wrote in his first bi-annual report to the 15-member Security Council on the implementation of remaining sanctions and restrictions. "While it is for the Security Council to interpret its own resolutions, I am concerned that those ballistic missile launches are not consistent with the constructive spirit demonstrated by the signing of the (Iran nuclear deal)," he said. The council is due to discuss Ban's report on July 18. The United States, Britain, France and Germany wrote to Ban in March about the missile tests, which they said were "inconsistent with" and "in defiance of" the council resolution. The letter said the missiles used in the launches were "inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons" and also asked that the Security Council discuss "appropriate responses" to Tehran's failure to comply with its obligations. Ban's report simply references the letter and does not state if the missiles were capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Ban said Iran had stressed that it had not undertaken "any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons."Ban also said he was concerned by the seizure of weapons by the United States in the Gulf of Oman in March. "The United States concluded that the arms had originated in Iran and were likely bound for Yemen. Iran has informed the (UN) Secretariat that it never engaged in such delivery," he said. Ban said in the report the United Nations was still reviewing information provided by the United States and Iran and would provide an update on the arms seizure to the Security Council in due course.

Israel army says infiltrator from Jordan shot
AFP, JerusalemFriday, 8 July 2016/Israeli security forces shot and wounded a man who infiltrated the country from Jordan on Friday, the military said. The man, whose nationality and identity were not released, threw stones at passing cars near Afikim kibbutz in northern Israel, an army spokeswoman said. He then tried to stop and steal a vehicle before being spotted by members of the security forces, who opened fire at him. The wounded man was evacuated to an Israeli hospital, the spokeswoman said, without giving further details. Infiltrations into Israel from Jordanian territory are rare. The two countries signed a peace agreement in 1994.

Similar explosive material’ used in recent Saudi attacks, hints to ISIS
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News ChannelFriday, 8 July 2016/Spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry said late Thursday that a similar explosive material was used in the recent three attacks in the Kingdom’s Madinah, Jeddah and Qatif cities. In an interview with al-Hadath, the sister channel of Al Arabiya News, Major General Mansour Al-Turki said Nitroglycerin, which is a heavy, colorless, oily, explosive liquid was used in the attacks. “The three crimes committed in Madinah, Jeddah, Qatif, Nitroglycerin was used. Also, we see a connection between Madinah and Qatif in terms of the timing [of the attacks]. It was during [breaking fast] iftar,” he said. He added: “All this could be of an important indication to us at this stage of our investigation.” Turki also said all the identified suspects had connection to the “radical organization” ISIS.Investigation was still undergoing, he added, expecting more information to be released in the upcoming days.

Qaddafi’s son Saif ‘still in prison’ in west Libya
ReutersFriday, 8 July 2016/Saif al-Islam, a son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, remains in the prison in western Libya where he has been held since the 2011 uprising that toppled his father, a military source said on Thursday, contradicting media reports that Saif had been released. Since his father's downfall, Saif has been held in Zintan, a mountainous western region, by one of the factions that began contending for power after Qaddafi was killed in 2011 and have now split the country into warring fiefdoms. "We deny that Saif Islam has been released," the Zintan military source told Reuters.Last July, a Libyan court sentenced Saif to death in absentia for war crimes, including killing protesters during the 2011 revolt. Zintani forces refused to hand Saif over to any other authorities, saying they did not trust Tripoli to guarantee he does not escape. But they agreed to let him be tried there, though he appeared mainly by video link. Libya's new UN-backed unity government, set up in Tripoli three months ago, is trying to bring together the various factions struggling for control of Libya and its oil resources. Brigades of former rebels backing rival political factions remain the main power brokers in Libya, where the unity government has struggled to exert its influence. ISIS has also gained ground in the chaos.

Iran rejects UN ‘unrealistic’ report on its missile tests
Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, Ankara Friday, 8 July 2016/Iran has rejected as “unrealistic” a report by the UN leader that criticized its ballistic missile launches as inconsistent with its nuclear deal with world powers, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Friday. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) conducted ballistic missile tests in early March and called them a demonstration of its non-nuclear deterrent power. The United States and its European allies said that by testing nuclear-capable missiles, Tehran had defied a UN Security Council resolution and urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to tackle the matter. Reuters reported on Thursday that a confidential report by Ban had found Iran’s missile tests to be inconsistent “with the constructive spirit” of the 2015 deal under which Iran curbed sensitive nuclear activity and won sanctions relief in return. “We suggest that Mr. Ban and his colleagues... produce a realistic report...They should not yield to political pressures from some members of the (Security) Council,” Tasnim quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying. Ban’s report stopped short of calling the missile launches a “violation” of Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear agreement that defused Iranian-Western tensions which had raised fears of a wider Middle East war. His report said it was up to the Security Council to decide if Iran violated Resolution 2231 which “calls upon” Iran to refrain for up to eight years from activity related to ballistic missiles with cones that could accommodate a nuclear warhead. Iran has consistently denied its missiles are designed to carry an atomic device. Ban’s report said Iran had stressed that it had not undertaken “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” The Council is due to discuss Ban's report on July 18. Tehran has accused the United States of failing to meet its commitments under the nuclear deal, saying Washington should do more to lift its own sanctions affecting banks so businesses feel confident of being able to invest in Iran without penalty. “I hope the Reuters report is not true ... I suggest that Mr Ban give a fair report ... in which he also mentions America is not fulfilling its commitments under the deal,” the official said told the Tasnim agency. The German government, responding to reports by its spy service that Iran has been trying to acquire nuclear technology in Germany, said on Friday certain forces in Iran may be trying to undermine the nuclear deal. International sanctions on Tehran were lifted in January under the nuclear deal, but current US policy bars foreign banks from clearing dollar-based transactions with Iran through US banks.

Suicide bomber kills six in mosque in northeast Nigeria: army
Reuters, Maiduguri, NigeriaFriday, 8 July 2016/A suicide bomber killed six people inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state at dawn on Friday, an army spokesman said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the town of Damboa but it bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, who have waged an insurgency since 2009 to carve out a state based on sharia (Islamic law) in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country. Army spokesman Sani Usman said there were two suicide bombers involved, one of whom failed to gain entry to the Damboa Central Mosque and detonated his load in the street outside, killing himself but causing no other casualties. He said the second militant managed to get into a smaller mosque nearby and blew himself up there, killing six worshippers and wounding one other person. Earlier, a military source who did not want to be named said nine people were killed and 13 others injured in the 5:15 a.m. attack. Damboa, 87 km south of the Borno capital Maiduguri, was the first town captured by Boko Haram, in July 2014. Security forces ousted the militants two months later. Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from adjacent countries, has retaken over the past year most of the territory lost to Boko Haram. But the militant group, which last year pledged loyalty to ISIS, still regularly stages suicide bombings. The insurgency has killed more than 15,000 people and displaced two million others.

France says Russia a partner, not a ‘threat’
Agencies Friday, 8 July 2016/French President Francois Hollande said Friday Russia should not be considered a threat but rather a partner, as NATO leaders met to endorse a revamp to counter a more aggressive Moscow. “NATO has no role at all to be saying what Europe’s relations with Russia should be. For France, Russia is not an adversary, not a threat,” Hollande said as he arrived for a landmark alliance summit in Warsaw. “Russia is a partner which, it is true, may sometimes, and we have seen that in Ukraine, use force which we have condemned when it annexed Crimea,” he added. Leaders of the NATO military alliance gathered Friday to order ambitious actions against a daunting array of dangers to the security of their nations and citizenry, including a rearmed and increasingly unfriendly Russia to Europe’s east and violent Islamic extremism to the south. “The decisions we’re going to take together will once again confirm that Europe and North America stand together, act together to support all allies against any threats,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, predicting a “landmark summit” meeting of US President Barack Obama and other heads of state and government. US to send troops to Poland. After arriving in Warsaw, Obama announced the US will send an additional 1,000 US troops to Poland as part of a NATO effort to reinforce its presence on the alliance’s frontiers near Russia. He met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, and hailed Poland as “a lynchpin in the defense of NATO's eastern flank.”In an op-ed published in the Financial Times, Obama called on NATO to stand firm against Russia, terrorism and other challenges, and to “summon the political will, and make concrete commitments” to strengthen European cooperation after the British people’s vote in June to leave the European Union. Stoltenberg said for NATO’s 28 member nations to be safe, they don’t only need to reinforce their own armed forces, but to come to the aid of partner nations in the Middle East and North Africa menaced by extremist violence. “For our nations to be safe, it’s not enough to keep our defenses strong, we must help to make our partners stronger,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. “Training local forces is often our best weapon against violent extremism,” Stoltenberg told a pre-summit forum of defense and security experts. Among the items on the NATO meeting’s ambitious agenda is increased assistance for Iraq’s military, extension of the West’s financial commitment to the Afghan military and police, aid for Tunisia, and getting NATO more involved in the campaign against ISIS by authorizing use of AWACS surveillance planes to assist the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group. High security Helicopters hovered Friday above the National Stadium, the meeting’s venue, while 6,000 police officers, backed up by soldiers, gendarmes, firefighters and other security officials, were out on Warsaw's streets. Security efforts are most heavily concentrated at the stadium, which has been encircled by a metal barrier, and high around hotels hosting the many VIPs. Many streets in the city of 1.7 million have been blocked and some mass transit routes altered, inconveniencing many residents. The airspace over Warsaw is also being monitored closely, with a ban on flights in a 100-kilometer (60-mile) radius from the stadium. Violators run the risk of being shot down. (With AFP, AP)

Arab coalition targets Yemeni militias, 17 killed
Staff writer, Al Arabiya EnglishFriday, 8 July 2016/Saudi-led Arab Coalition has targeted on Friday a congregation of Iran-backed Houthi militias and their allied forces belonging to toppled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Mokha port city west of Taiz province, killing 17 and wounding dozens others. Heavy clashes were also taking placed between Houthis and Saleh allied forces, and the Yemeni Army-backed Popular Resistance committees in the eastern, northern and western fronts in Taiz. The clashes followed after a Houthi attack against the Popular Resistance committees and Yemeni Army sites in Tha’abat, Juhaimilya and Bazir’a neighborhoods east of Taiz. On Tuesday, Houthis fired a rocket in a residential neighborhood of Marib city, east of the capital, killing seven children. The fresh clashes and the Marib attack followed after Hadi government and Houthi negotiators took a break from peace talks after two months of UN-backed negotiations that have made little progress. The talks are due to resume on July 15 in Kuwait. The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 6,400 people dead and wounded 30,000 since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015. Saudi Arabia aims to restore exiled Hadi to power and assert government control over large parts of the country that had been taken over by the Houthis in 2014.

15 civilians dead in strikes on Syria Qaeda-held town: monitor
AFP, BeirutFriday, 8 July 2016/A child was among at least 15 civilians killed in air strikes on an Al-Qaeda-held town in northwestern Syria on Friday, a monitoring group said. Around 40 people were also wounded in the strikes on the town of Darkush, near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “At least 15 people were killed, including a child and six women,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. Darkush is held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and allied rebel groups, which control the northwestern province of Idlib.The Britain-based Observatory had no immediate word on who carried out the strikes but said it was likely to have been either the Syrian government or its ally Russia, rather than the US-led coalition. The Syrian army announced on Wednesday it would observe a 72-hour nationwide ceasefire for Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It was unclear if Al-Nusra was included, but the Al-Qaeda affiliate and its militants rival ISIS have been excluded from a broader truce brokered by Moscow and Washington in February. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama had agreed to “intensify” military coordination in Syria. The White House said the two leaders had “confirmed their commitment to defeating ISIL (ISIS) and the Al-Nusra Front.” More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011. It began with peaceful protests but swiftly escalated into an armed rebellion that has become increasingly dominated by militants groups.

Erdogan calls on NATO to do more on fighting terror
AFP, WarsawFriday, 8 July 2016/Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on NATO to do more to fight the threat of global terrorism, saying the 28-nation alliance needed to “update” itself to better adapt to new security threats. NATO leaders are meeting at a summit in Warsaw on Friday where they are expected to display their resolve towards a resurgent Russia – despite what some see as a weakening of the West due to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Speaking to reporters before his departure to Warsaw late on Thursday, Erdogan said he would press the leaders of fellow NATO countries to do more to fight militant attacks like the triple suicide bombing last week that killed 45 people at Istanbul’s main airport. “As we have seen from the terrorist attacks first in Istanbul and then in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, international security is becoming more fragile,” he said. “The concept of a security threat is undergoing a serious change. In this process, NATO needs to be more active and has to update itself against the new security threats,” he said. The Istanbul bombing, the deadliest in a string of similar attacks in Turkey this year, is believed to be the work of ISIS militants from the former Soviet Union, Erdogan has said. It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, all apparently timed for the run-up to Eid al-Fitr. NATO member Turkey faces multiple security threats. It is a member of the US-led coalition against ISIS in Syria and is fighting a violent insurgency in its mainly Kurdish southeast. It also faces attacks from leftist militants. Turkey has taken in nearly three million refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria, at a cost of $11.5 billion, Erdogan said. “As a NATO country, we want fellow members not to forget about Turkey,” he said.

Saudi ministry names Prophet Mosque bomber
By Staff writer Al Arabiya EnglishFriday, 8 July 2016
The Saudi Interior Ministry on Thursday named the suicide attacker behind the infamous attack near the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah which left four security force members dead. The ministry said 26-year-old Naer Musllam Hammad Al-Nijaidi carried out Monday’s attack, adding that he had a history of drug abuse, read an interior ministry statement on the Saudi Press Agency. The ministry also named three attackers behind the blast in the eastern city of Qatif, including Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed Al-Amer, 23, who was formerly detained two years ago “for having been involved in a mob calling for the release of terror-related detainees.”The other two attackers were Ibrhaim Saleh Mohammed Al-Amer, 20, and Abdulkareem Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Hasini, 20. It said none of them had obtained Saudi IDs.The ministry said investigations have led to the arrest of 19 suspects, including 12 Pakistani nationals and 7 Saudis, involved in the attacks in Madinah, Qatif and Jeddah. The statement added that examinations of the remains from the two terror attacks in Madinah and Qatif “revealed the presence of the explosive Nitroglycerin”, which it said was similar to the substance found in the scene of the bombing at Sulaiman Faqih hospital parking lot in Jeddah, the spokesman said, adding that the authorities were still conducting tests. Monday's bombings came days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. Militant attacks on Madinah are unprecedented. The city is home to the second-holiest site in Islam, a mosque built by the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, which also houses his tomb. 26-year-old Saudi citizen Naer Musllam Hammad Al-Nijaidi (SPA) 23-year-old Saudi citizen Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed Al-Amer (SPA)
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on  July 08-09/16

Why didn’t Khamenei condemn bombings in Saudi Arabia?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been quick at denouncing terrorist attacks targeting Paris, the Boston Marathon, or 9/11.Nevertheless, Khamenei – who, as per his website, considers himself as the “Leader of Muslims” (both the Shiite and Sunni communities), did not issue any condemnation for the recent terror attacks carried out at a critical time and place; during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, near Prophet Mohammed’s mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday. The terror attacks killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four other people. In his latest speech following Eid al-Fitr prayers in Tehran, Khamenei pointed to the terrorist attacks in Turkey and Bangladesh, but not the ones in Saudi Arabia. The Iranian President, Hassan Rowhani, also appears to be following in the footsteps of Khamenei in this respect. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did post a tweet condemning this kind of terrorism but because his words seem to contradict Iran’s actual foreign policies, he was accused of hypocrisy. In addition, the other crucial issue is that, Zarif, who attempts to appeal to the West by projecting Iran as a diplomatic country for geopolitical and commercial reasons, does not hold the final say in Iran’s affairs and IRGC decisions.
Fueling sectarianism?
The major Iranian state-owned media outlets, which seem to advocate Khamenei’s and IRGC positions on different issues, appear to be exploiting the terror attacks in a new pattern of sectarian rhetoric in order to buttress the government’s arguments that the Shiite are being targeted by the Sunnis and that Iran and IRGC are needed to keep Muslims safe. For example, Press TV framed the attacks as Shiite being victims of Sunnis and used the word “Shiite” repeatedly in its news articles “since late 2014, Saudi Arabia has been witnessing a series of bombings and shootings claimed by ISIS militants and mostly targeting the country’s Shiite Muslims in the eastern part of the kingdom.
In January 2016, a bomber targeted a mosque in al-Ahsa, killing four people. Last October, armed terrorists opened fire on Shiite Muslims commemorating Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of the third Shiite Imam, Imam Hussein, in the eastern Qatif region, killing five before he was shot dead by the police.”It seems any statement from the Iranian ‘moderates’ is more likely aimed at a Western audience and falls into its larger political calculations of enhancing its global legitimacy and economic gains through the moderate camp. Press TV adds: “Last June, four Shiite Muslims were killed while trying to prevent a bomber from entering al-Anoud mosque in Dammam city in eastern Saudi Arabia and close to Qatif.”In addition, while the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia were on the front page of many nations’ newspapers, some of Iranian major newspapers and news outlets ignored them, some underreported while some attempted to exploit the attacks with the goal of fueling sectarianism in order to advance Iran’s ideological and regional hegemonic ambitions. In addition, Iran’s state media outlets seem to project Iran as a safe nation in the region thanks to the IRGC, while they depict Saudi Arabia as being a country plagued with insecurity.
Terror to gain interests?
The IRGC’s role in supporting Shiite militias across the region (which further fuels sectarianism), and the IRGC’s backing of Bashar al-Assad, as well as Khamenei’s rhetoric against Saudi Arabia, seem to contradict Zarif’s latest nice collection of words.
It seems that any statement from the Iranian “moderates” is more likely aimed at a Western audience and falls into Iran’s larger political calculations of enhancing its global legitimacy and economic gains through the moderate camp, which projects the Islamic Republic as diplomatic, peacemaker, savior, rational and constructive state actor in the face of extremism in the region.
Khamenei previously delivered anti-Saudi statements in his speeches, warned Saudi Arabia of a “divine vengeance”, while some governmental media outlets blamed Saudi Arabia and called for reprisals and violent reactions from the Shiites against the Saudis. From Khamenei’s perspective, Saudi Arabia is a hurdle for the advancement of his ideological, geopolitical, and regional hegemonic ambitions.
Ideologically speaking, Khamenei views himself to be the divinely-mandated custodian and leader of all Muslims. Khamenei’s Shiite Philosophy, similar to that of Ayatollah Khomeini, dictates that Iran’s Supreme Leader is not only the paramount religious leader, but also the political leader of all Muslims regardless of whether they agree with this or not. The Islamic Republic has been attempting to export this Shiite philosophy to many nations including Saudi Arabia.
Militarily and geopolitically speaking, Khamenei and the senior cadre of IRGC believe that Saudi Arabia is the major barrier in face of Iran’s military expansion in the region and Iran’s expanding influence in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.
Iranian leaders’ strategy of exploiting “terrorism” to advance their geopolitical and ideological interests will lead to contradictions and excesses. On the one hand, Iranian leaders continue to project themselves as the champions in fighting terror, that Iran is the only country in the region battling terrorism, that Shiites are the only victims, and that IRGC is needed more than before.
On the other hand, this strategy will inevitably come into contradiction with the reality that the Islamic Republic continues to feed terrorism through its policies (in Syria, Iraq, Yemen), and that Iran’s political and media establishments capitalize on events to meticulously exploit sectarian sentiments in the region, and finally, that Khamenei simultaneously continues to project himself as the divinely-mandated custodian and leader of all Muslims (not just Shiite).
These contradictions would inevitably lead to excesses.

To those celebrating the Chilcot report
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
The 1.5-million-word Chilcot report, which was in the making for seven years, did not include one accusation of criminality against Britain’s then-Prime Minister Tony Blair with regard to the Iraq war. It did not even view his decision to wage the war as illegal. It did not ask to hold him accountable or investigate him. Blair was cleared of having lied to parliament. He did not apologize for the war, only for errors related to it.
Unfortunately, what is translated and published in Arabic is a mixture of hypocrisy and ignorance. With all due respect to my newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, which is usually known for its thoroughness and professionalism, it relied on a statement by the trivial Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and made it a headline: “Blair should be held accountable.”I was expecting the report to be harsh because the war was a total failure. It blamed Blair for not using all peaceful means before resorting to war, meaning it did not disapprove of his decision, but just said he was not patient enough.
Regarding the support he provided to then-US President George W Bush, we have to understand the special relationship between their two countries. Any British prime minister, whatever party he is affiliated to, cannot abandon that relationship, especially during crises, because it represents the greatest value to Britain internationally.
The war was a political act before being a military one. Bad wars are just the ones you lose. The objections to the war on Iraq to liberate Kuwait in 1990 were greater than those in 2003. If the United States had lost the first war, everyone would have said it was a wrong decision, but it is described today as political and military success. Wars are not correct or wrong; they are triumphs or defeats.
Arabs celebrating the Chilcot report do not understand the Western accountability system, and want to use it to blame others for their failures
Fallout
The Americans won the war in 2003 so easily that everybody was surprised. They were misled by this easy victory, to the point that they underestimated the difficulty of post-war crisis management. Washington failed to achieve its primary objective, which was the establishment of a stable ally system representing a political model for the Middle East.
The countries of the region dealt differently with the crisis. Most considered Washington’s intervention a threat. The Syrian regime was afraid of being next on the list, so it took over management of the Iraqi resistance and made it easy for al-Qaeda to operate in Iraq via Syria. The Arab media started cheering for al-Qaeda and the armed opposition, thus helping Iran and the Syrian regime.
Tehran took advantage of Saudi Arabia’s failure to cooperate with the Americans by cooperating with US intelligence. This altered the regional situation. The failure of Gulf states and Egypt to intervene and cooperate caused governmental disorder in Baghdad and the political rise of Shiite extremism, about which I have written in the past.
All attempts to establish a centralized system via popular votes have failed. Instead of engaging in elections, ignorant people fought against them, wasting their constitutional rights and their voice in parliament. They are still suffering from the consequences of this.
Arabs celebrating the Chilcot report do not understand the Western accountability system, and want to use it to blame others for their failures. Instead of having an objective interpretation, they resort to blame and revenge – these have been the two rooted qualities in Arab culture for the last 14 centuries!
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on July 8, 2016.

Between Tony Blair’s misjudgment and deception
Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/July 08/16
In a matter of less than two weeks the British Isles have experienced two political earthquakes that somewhat shook the image of it as an island of stability and reason. First came Brexit that sent trembles well beyond the English Channel and left the political system in Britain in a complete disarray and current politicians’ reputations in tatters.
This was followed on Wednesday by the publication of the long awaited Chilcot Report, which was investigating the Blair government’s decision to enter the 2003 war in Iraq. In their report the members of the committee shred to pieces, in a very British understated style, what was left of the then prime minister’s judgement and integrity.
In both cases of the Iraq war and Brexit, the average citizen had no independent means to examine the truthfulness of the information they were presented and the interpretation that was provided by politicians. Hence the horror and sense of betrayal when it was revealed in both cases, that the confidence and the reassuring manner in which politicians advocated their case was no more than a veneer covering ignorance and deception.
But here is where the comparison with Brexit stops. Leaving the EU is reversible and given common sense unlikely to cause fatalities. The Iraq war on the other hand has claimed the lives of 251,000 civilians and combatants since its outbreak in March 2003 to the present day. It wrecked a country beyond recognition and unleashed unprecedented murderous sectarian violence in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, which thirteen years on is still raging.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair expressed his “sorrow, regret and apology” in response to the findings of this report. However, his defiant stance that it was still the right thing to remove Saddam Hussein from power, renders his apology insincere. His partner in this mega fiasco, former US President George W. Bush, echoed this sentiment in a typical meaningless platitude, releasing a statement that the whole world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
There are very few people in Iraq or elsewhere, who have mourned the demise of Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime. Almost anyone could come up with a list of nasty dictators that one would wish to remove from power. Nevertheless, this is far from an explanation, let alone an excuse, to send troops into war while ignoring almost any sound advice, and the message of more than one million people who marched in the streets in London, pleading with the government to avert a needless war.
No one should be deceived by the understated manner of the Chilcot report, it carries with it the most scathing criticism of every aspect of the British decision making that led to the war
Scathing criticism
No one should be deceived by the understated manner of the Chilcot report, it carries with it the most scathing criticism of every aspect of the British decision making that led to the war. It points out that the objective of advancing democratic values through war, resulting in an invasion and regime change, was based on flawed intelligence and was devoid of reality. It accuses the government of being ill prepared both military and politically, and not being truthful about the real motivations for going to war.
Six days into the start of the military campaign, Mr. Blair wrote to President Bush providing incriminating evidence that the war in Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction, not even about regime change, but about setting a new post-Cold War order for the next generation: “Our ambition is big: to construct a global agenda around which we can unite the world; rather than dividing it into rival centres of power.” At the heart of this memo, named The Fundamental Goal, Blair reveals his grand design to spread the values, “… of freedom, democracy, tolerance and the rule of law….”
Ousting Saddam Hussein was a means for the two powerful leaders, though unfeasible and on the verge of delusional, to change world order. To add insult to injury their decision to go to war was supported by very dubious legal advice, that there was no need for a United Nations resolution. By ignoring the UN, Bush and Blair caused also immense damage to the rule of international law in world affairs.
For the British families who lost their loved ones in combat in Iraq, learning from the inquest that their sons and daughters were sent to war despite a shortage of vital equipment that compromised troop safety, there must be a sense of betrayal; though also vindication of their long held claims. The combination of deception regarding the reasons for going to war, exposure to unnecessary danger, and no plan for the day after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, adds to these families’ agony.
The seeds of ISIS
Needless to say, the lack of a plan to stabilize Iraq and an exit plan, casts further doubt on the decision making process in Washington and London at the time. Most staggering was the much maligned de-Baathification that led to a complete breakdown in law and order, resulted in the loss of many innocent Iraqi people, and additionally sowed the seed of ISIS.
The unbearable lightness of the way in which regime change in Iraq came into being, should serve to all of us as a warning sign to us as citizens, to carefully consider our support of any government that leads us into war.
Blair and Bush are not the first, nor I am afraid probably the last, to take their countries to war over false pretences and flawed patriotism. Blair’s sorrow over the pain caused in Iraq never stopped him from spending much of his time since he left government on touring the world on very lucrative public speaking engagements.
Many in the Middle East that paid, and are still paying, the price for his folly might find it in their hearts to forgive him, but they will find it very hard to forget.

Germany's New "No Means No" Rape Law
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/July 08/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8427/germany-rape-law
The reforms are unlikely to end Germany's migrant rape epidemic.
When it comes to immigration, political correctness often overrides the rule of law in Germany, where many migrants who commit sexual crimes are never brought to justice, and those who do stand trial receive lenient sentences from sympathetic judges.
"Every police officer knows he has to meet a particular political expectation. It is better to keep quiet [about migrant crime] to avoid problems." — Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union.
"It is unacceptable that asylum seekers are trampling on our society at the same time that they are here seeking our protection." — Prosecutor Bastian Blaut.
The German parliament has approved changes to the criminal code that expand the definition of rape and make it easier to deport migrants who commit sex crimes.
Under the bill, also known as the "No Means No" ("Nein heißt Nein") law, any form of non-consensual sex will now be punishable as a crime. Previously, only cases in which victims could show that they physically resisted their attackers were punishable under German law.
The changes, which were prompted by the sex attacks in Cologne, where hundreds of women were assaulted by mobs of mostly Muslim migrants on New Year's Eve, is being hailed as a "paradigm shift" in German jurisprudence.
But the reforms, which are designed to make it easier for victims of sexual assault to file criminal complaints, are unlikely to end Germany's migrant rape epidemic. This is because Germany's politically correct justice system is notoriously lenient when it comes to prosecuting, sentencing and deporting foreign offenders.
The bill was unanimously approved on July 7 by the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The measure must still be approved by the Bundesrat, the upper house, which will vote on the reforms after the summer recess.
According to the original law, as stipulated in Paragraph 177 of the Criminal Code, victims were required to prove that they had physically defended themselves for an act to constitute rape. Verbal communication — simply saying "No" — was insufficient to bring charges against an assailant. The original law was written that way to deter false accusations of rape and avoid frivolous lawsuits, according to German legal experts.
The reforms will allow prosecutors and courts to take into account physical, verbal and non-verbal signals from the victim when determining whether or not a rape occurred. Anyone convicted of sexual activity that goes against the "discernable will" (erkennbaren Willen) of the victim faces up to five years in prison. The law also broadens the definition of sexual assault to include groping, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Moreover, the new law introduces Paragraph 184j, which will make it crime just to be in a group that carries out sexual assaults. The measure is aimed to deter attacks such as those which occurred in Cologne, although some lawmakers say this provision is unconstitutional because a person could be convicted of a crime that he or she did not personally commit. Finally, the reforms make it easier to deport migrants who are convicted of sex crimes in Germany.
The German Minister for Women, Manuela Schwesig, hailed the measure as a milestone:
"In the past there were cases where women were raped but the perpetrators could not be punished. The change in the law will help increase the number of victims who choose to press charges, reduce the number of criminal prosecutions that are shelved and ensure sexual assaults are properly punished."
According to Minister of Justice Heiko Maas, only one in 10 rapes in Germany is reported and just 8% of rape trials result in convictions.
Even if the new law results in an increase in the number of rape convictions, it is unlikely to be a meaningful deterrent for the migrants who are sexually assaulting German women and children.
When it comes to immigration, political correctness often overrides the rule of law in Germany, where many migrants who commit sexual crimes are never brought to justice, and those who do stand trial receive lenient sentences from sympathetic judges.
On June 30, for example, a court in the northern German town of Ahrensburg found a 17-year-old migrant from Eritrea guilty of attempting to rape an 18-year-old woman in the stairwell of a parking garage at the train station in Bad Oldesloe. The woman was seriously injured in the attack, in which the migrant tried to subdue her by repeatedly biting her in the face and neck. After police arrived, the migrant resisted arrest and head-butted a police officer, who was also sent to the hospital.
Despite finding the Eritrean guilty of sexually assaulting the woman and physically assaulting the police officer, the court gave him a seven-month suspended sentence and ordered him to do 30 hours of community service. He has been released from custody and will not be deported.
In addition to judicial leniency, migrant criminals have benefited from German authorities, who have repeatedly been accused of underreporting the true scale of the migrant crime problem in the country, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
In January, the newspaper Die Welt reported that the suppression of data about migrant criminality is a "Germany-wide phenomenon." According to Rainer Wendt, the head of the German police union (Deutschen Polizeigewerkschaft, DPolG), "Every police officer knows he has to meet a particular political expectation. It is better to keep quiet [about migrant crime] to avoid problems."
Also in January, a document leaked to the newspaper Bild revealed that politicians in the northern city of Kiel had ordered local police to overlook many of the crimes perpetrated by migrants. According to Bild, police in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony have also been instructed to be lenient to criminal migrants.
In February, Die Welt reported that authorities in the German state of Hesse were suppressing information about migrant-related crimes, ostensibly due to a "lack of public interest."
In May, a chief superintendent from the Cologne police department revealed that an official at the interior ministry in North-Rhine Westphalia ordered him to remove the term "rape" from an internal police report about the assaults in Cologne.
Police in Cologne now say they have received more than 1,000 complaints from women, including 454 reports of sexual assaults, related to New Year's Eve. Police in Hamburg say they have received complaints from 351 women, including 218 reports of sexual assault that took place on the same evening.
On July 7, more than six months after the Cologne attacks (and the same day that the Bundestag approved the new "No Means No" rape law), a German court issued the first two convictions: The District Court of Cologne gave a 20-year-old Iraqi and a 26-year-old Algerian a one-year suspended sentence and then released the two men.
The court found the Iraqi, identified only as Hussain A., guilty of kissing one of the victims and licking her face. The Algerian, named as Hassan T., prevented the boyfriend of the other victim from intervening to stop the attack and offered him money to have sex with her: "Give the girls or you die," he said. He was found guilty of being an accessory to sexual assault.
The Iraqi man, who was 20 at the time, was sentenced under juvenile law and was ordered to attend an integration course and do 80 hours of community service. The newspaper Bild published photographs of a jubilant Hassan T. smiling as he left the courtroom.
One observer said the light sentence was a mockery of justice and would serve as an invitation for criminal migrants to do as they please with German women.
Prosecutor Bastian Blaut said:
"It is unacceptable when basic values ​​such as the equality of woman and man are violated. It is unacceptable that migrants are bargaining over women as in a bazaar. It is unacceptable that asylum seekers are trampling on our society at the same time that they are here seeking our protection."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter. His first book, Global Fire, will be out in 2016.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute

Why Bibi’s Visits to Moscow Mean Bad News for Israel
Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/08 July/16
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Russia for yet another meeting with president Vladimir Putin—his third such trip (and fourth meeting) since Russia began its bombing campaign in Syria last September. While Israel is clearly concerned about the possibility of entertaining Iranian proxies, advisers, and weapons in the Golan Heights, in addition to the existing concentrations of Hezbollah troops and rockets in Southern Lebanon, Russia’s leanings are presented as something of a mystery. Is Russia using Syria as a forward base to fight Chechen jihadists? Are there important gaps between the Russian and Iranian positions? Have Israel and Russia reached important operational understandings that define who can act where inside Syria?
The lavish speculation on these and other such points is compounded by the demands of information warfare campaigns being run by all sides, which often seek to convince particular audiences of things that are wildly untrue. This form of gamesmanship reached a fevered pitch following the mysterious killing in Damascus of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, in May. At the farthest end of the spectrum is the rather elaborate suggestion that it was the Russians who may have dispatched Badreddine—a move that should supposedly be read against the backdrop of Russia’s competition with Iran for primacy in Syria. If this sounds far-fetched, then another reading, only one step removed from the suggestion of direct Russian involvement, has found some mainstream appeal. Briefly put, this reading maintains that since Russia dominates Syrian airspace and has stationed the anti-access/area denial S-400 missile system in Latakia, then any Israeli operation in Syria must have had at least an implicit Russian green light. Some will go even further and contend that such strikes are indeed coordinated with Russia as part of an alleged “coordination mechanism” that the Israeli government has been busy negotiating with the Kremlin. In truth, while there’s much talk about the Israeli-Russian “coordination” mechanism, there’s no real information about the details of any such arrangement, which appears to live in a conceptual realm that is at least somewhat removed from physical reality. How Russia views this quasi-theoretical “coordination” that has been defined largely by public statements from Israeli officials is completely unknown.
What is clear is that the Russian intervention has only added to the new opportunities and new threats arising from Syria’s implosion. The strategic benefits of the conflict for Israel are quite real: Hezbollah is embroiled in a costly and consuming war of attrition with the Sunni rebels, who have killed well over 1,000 of its fighters, including many veteran field commanders. The war in Syria has also undercut the group’s strategic depth. Prior to 2011, Israel had mostly avoided striking arms convoys to Hezbollah on the Syrian side of the border, resorting instead to sabotage operations in Lebanon. Since the outbreak of the war, the IAF has been targeting Hezbollah assets and commanders in Syria at will.
On the other hand, despite Israeli efforts, Hezbollah had managed to increase its arsenal and had acquired some advanced weapons systems. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly last October, Netanyahu specified that Hezbollah had smuggled a Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile system (in early 2014, it was said that Hezbollah had acquired components of it), and SA-22 anti-air missiles into Lebanon. It’s not known for sure if it has also managed to smuggle the SA-17 system, which it had tried to in the past and failed, thanks to IAF strikes. Iran has also upgraded the group’s Fateh 110 missiles, which are capable of hitting deep in Israel with added precision. As a result, IDF officers now regularly acknowledge that a future conflict will see hundreds of missiles raining down on Israeli cities every day. Still, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon recently downplayed these threats: “If there is something that I lose sleep at night about, it’s not the truckloads of weapons in Syria and Lebanon or Iran’s attempts to wage terror—Israel has the capabilities to deal with these forcefully and with sophistication.”
Left out of Ya’alon’s assessment of the dangers posed by various new weapons systems, however, is the fact that Washington has been lending cover to Iran’s ambition to make its presence in Syria a permanent one. As Ya’alon said in a different context, “Iran determines the future of Syria, and if it leads to perpetuation, Iranian hegemony in Syria will be huge a challenge for Israel.” The Syrian crisis has crystallized the fact that Israel and the United States are on opposing sides when it comes to the Iranian role in the region, including directly on Israel’s borders. President Barack Obama has recognized Syria and Lebanon as Iranian zones of influence and Tehran as a legitimate “stakeholder” in Syria.
The strategic significance for Israel of Iran’s new status as an American-backed regional power isn’t hard to fathom. It’s also why Netanyahu began traveling to Moscow. Since Russia was partnered in Syria with Iran and Hezbollah and the other Shiite militias operating under the command of the IRGC, there was no telling how the Russians would behave and what restrictions would be imposed on Israel’s freedom to operate in Syria.
When Netanyahu paid his first call on Putin in Moscow, he publicly laid out Israel’s position and red lines. “Iran and Syria have been arming … Hezbollah with advanced weapons, which are aimed at us,” Netanyahu said. He added, “Iran, as the benefactor of the Syrian army, is trying to build a second terror front against us from the Golan. Our policy is to thwart the flow of these weapons and to prevent the establishment of a new terror front and attacks against us from the Golan.” The mechanism that was discussed with the Russians, Netanyahu disclosed, was simply “to prevent misunderstandings between IDF forces and Russian forces.”
Israel quickly made good on its word and struck again inside Syria in October. Reported strikes continued apace throughout November as well. It was important for Israel to establish its determination to continue operations and not allow the perception that Russia’s entry had afforded Hezbollah and Iran a protective umbrella—which is how initially Hezbollah propaganda portrayed the new reality following the Russian intervention. Israeli official statements about finding Russian “understanding” for Israel’s position or comments playing up the “coordination mechanism” were intended to put a damper on such propaganda. Continued Israel operations gave such Israeli public statements credibility, even as the Russians remained silent.
The Russian intervention did introduce some important restrictions on Israeli activity. For instance, whereas Israel struck a shipment of Yakhont missiles in the port of Latakia in 2013, all reported Israeli strikes since September 2015 have been south of the city of Homs, near Lebanon’s eastern border, and in and around Damascus. Unlike in 2013, Latakia now houses Russia’s military base and its formidable S-400 anti-air missile system. So, as things stand, there is an effective delineation of territory where Israel still executes missions against Iranian weapons shipments and Hezbollah and Assad regime targets. This area covers the length of Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. The adjacent areas on the Syrian side, south of Homs and in the Qalamoun region, as well as on the road to Damascus, now mostly under Hezbollah control, house weapons storage depots for the group, as does the Damascus Airport. The Golan area, which Israel regards as a red line, is part of this area of continued Israeli operations.
Israeli operations went beyond intercepting weapons shipment to assassinations of Hezbollah cadres. In December 2015, Israel reportedly took out Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese Druze terrorist, in a strike in a Damascus neighborhood. Kuntar was said to have been working on behalf of Hezbollah with the Druze of southern Syria, recruiting them for Hezbollah’s Syrian franchise. Golan Druze were used to plant IED’s for Hezbollah, as well as for other missions. Iran’s drive to establish an operational infrastructure on the Golan is repeatedly cited by Netanyahu as a red line. A few weeks before the Kuntar assassination, Netanyahu went so far as to acknowledge Israeli action to prevent it: “We are working against the opening of an additional terror front that Iran is trying to open on the Golan, and in order to mitigate the transfer of deadly weapons from Syria to Lebanon. This is something which we will continue to do.”
Interestingly, the pro-Hezbollah TV station al-Mayadeen claimed at the time that the Kuntar strike was actually executed from within Israeli air space. It is possible that the Badreddine strike followed the same modus operandi. Indeed, one Arabic language report, quoting Syrian military sources, claimed that Badreddine was killed with a precision-guided SPICE glide bomb and that the method was identical to the Kuntar operation. If true, this adds another Israeli adjustment to the Russian presence in Syria. Hardly implying the kind of deep understanding and coordination between Moscow and Jerusalem, it rather suggests that Israel has proceeded with caution, if also with resolve, firing from outside Russian-protected Syrian airspace. It’s not likely that Russia would target Israeli jets flying inside Israel’s own airspace, or even over the Mediterranean.
There is a wider context for Israel’s prudence—beyond the presence of the S-400—which suggests that it hasn’t been all smooth sailing with the Russians in Syria, despite all the talk of “coordination” and top-level visits to Moscow. In a January meeting with members of Congress, Jordan’s King Abdullah supposedly revealed how testy things had been with the Russians in southern Syria. In a leaked account of the meeting, Abdullah reportedly disclosed that at one point, Russian jets in southern Syria were met with Jordanian and Israeli F-16s. “The Russians were shocked and understood they cannot mess with us,” Abdullah allegedly said.
Abdullah’s comments came during an Iranian-led Hezbollah and regime offensive in the Deraa province in southern Syria, under Russian air cover. Abdullah was particularly alarmed and reportedly felt betrayed by Putin, with whom he thought he had an understanding that Russia wouldn’t operate near the Jordanian border. Just as the Israelis had sought to keep the Iranians away from the Golan, the Jordanians, too, had pushed out the IRGC and Hezbollah from near their border. The prospect of the Iranians and their Shiite militias returning under Russian cover, to say nothing of a potential massive flow of refugees, was alarming for Amman and also for Jerusalem. It made sense for both Israel and Jordan to draw a firm line.
This was not a singular incident. Last April, ahead of Netanyahu’s second trip to Russia, Israeli media reported that one or more Russian jets were scrambled to meet an Israeli squadron flying along the Syrian coast. The already scant details of the incident varied from one outlet to the next, which makes drawing conclusions difficult. If the Israeli jets were near the Syrian coast (and not, as one outlet reported, operating near the northern border), was this a Russian delineation of territory for Israeli operations? Or did it carry no such significance at all?
Although nothing serious resulted from the encounter, it nevertheless served as another reminder of the rudimentary and vague nature of the “understanding” between Israel and Russia, several months into the Russian intervention. Indeed, Netanyahu admitted that his second trip to Russia aimed to achieve more clarity between the two sides. “I set the goal of the meeting as strengthening coordination between Russia and Israel to prevent mishaps,” Netanyahu said. “I think we clarified some matters, and that is very important.” Israel, in other words, was still feeling its way around, while trying to avoid a serious incident.
Operational issues aside, Israel had to contend with the broader matter of Syria itself. What’s more, it had to do so on its own, as its traditional American ally was seemingly more concerned with protecting the Syrian “equities” of Israel’s foremost enemy, Iran. As Russia and the United States were discussing Syria’s fate, Israel was left out by the United States, which did not consider Israel to also be a “stakeholder” in Syria, a country with which it shares a border and has fought two large-scale wars. Therefore, Netanyahu used his second trip to Russia to raise the issue of permanent Israeli sovereignty over the Golan—a conversation that the Israeli prime minister continued with Putin during his June trip. “The countries that surround (Israel), especially Syria, some of them have fallen apart and need a new arrangement,” Netanyahu said. “I spoke about this at length with President Putin, and the important thing is that what will take their place … won’t threaten (Israel).”
That Netanyahu was now forced to petition Russia about the Golan highlighted that the United States under Obama was gone. America’s absence means that Israel must now find an accommodation with Russia to ensure its interests.
The dilemma, however, is that the Russian enterprise in Syria is a partnership with Iran; its success is also Iran’s success. While Russia has firepower, and a seat at the Security Council, the Iranians own the ground in Syria. It is their forces and their IRGC-run Shiite militias that hold regime territory, and fight to expand it. Without these fighters, Assad, who has a massive manpower problem, would not be able to survive. And without those forces on the ground, there would be no one to guard the areas around Russia’s bases, or to take advantage of Russia’s air and artillery assaults, which is why Hezbollah and Iranian officers have worked together with Russian officers in recent months planning operations.
There is no other possible partner for Russia in Syria besides Iran. And for all the talk about the divergence between Iranian and Russian objectives, the fact is that they agree on a fundamental point: the survival of the Assad regime. That’s the pivot around which both their strategies revolve. Put differently, the Russian endgame is geared to ensure the victory of the Assad regime. In turn, that victory ensures the preservation of Iran’s position and strategic objectives in Syria. And that spells long-term trouble for Israel.
Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @AcrossTheBay.
https://outlook.live.com/owa/?id=64855&path=/mail/inbox/rp

Iran Stirs Up More Trouble in the Gulf
Saeed Ghasseminejad, Amir Toumaj/Foundation For Defence Of Democracy/July 08/16
4th July 2016 - The National Interest
Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ external operations wing the Quds Force, issued a scathing condemnation June 20 against Bahrain’s revocation of the citizenship of a top Shia cleric. Soleimani proclaimed Sheikh Isa Qassim to be Tehran’s “red line,” and warned that any harm coming to him would spark an “armed intifada,” and “a fire in Bahrain and across the region.”
Bahrain, a small island monarchy in the Persian Gulf, is a strategic nation to Washington, hosting the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet—responsible for the Gulf and surrounding areas. It is also, however, strategic to Tehran. The population is 70 percent Shia, but ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa clan. Bahrain has a decades-long history of discriminating against the Shia majority, and the ruling elite tends to treat Shiites’ demands for greater freedoms as evidence that they are Iranian fifth columns. Iranian officials and commanders have not helped that perception, as they often describe the country as the Islamic Republic’s rightful “fourteenth province.”
The Arab Spring reached the kingdom in early 2011, and the Gulf Cooperation Council—led by Saudi Arabia—promptly intervened to safeguard their fellow Sunni monarchy. Reconciliation talks since then between the government and opposition havebroken down several times, and intermittent clashes have persisted.
The surge in alleged IRGC-linked plots in Bahrain and the Arabian Peninsula has alarmed the island nation’s authorities. Since 2011, Bahraini security forces have intercepted large quantities of advanced weapons shipments, including armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, bound for radical revolutionary groups like the February 14 Youth Coalition and Saraya al-Mukhtar.
Bahraini authorities have made several such discoveries since last summer’s Iran nuclear accord, including a bomb factory and a cache of 1.5 tons of high-powered C4 explosives in October 2015. The episode led Bahrain to recall its ambassador from Tehran and expel the Iranian ambassador from its soil. Manama has announced that it arrested at least sixty Bahrainis linked to the IRGC and Hezbollah since July of last year, and, last week, charged eighteen and revoked the citizenship of five others belonging to Saraya al-Mukhtar. Similar plots and shipments have been interdicted in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Iran has redoubled its arm shipments to Bahrain and the Arabian Peninsula in quantity and quality since the outbreak of civil war in Syria. This is no coincidence: Soleimani wants to open a front there to pressure the Saudis against supporting antigovernment rebels in Syria. The letter issued by Soleimani, who is in charge of the Syria portfolio, reflects this strategy.
Prior to revoking Qassim’s citizenship, Bahraini authorities had been reputedly investigating a bank account in his name holding nearly $10 million. In announcing the revocation, they said he has played a key role in creating an “extremist” sectarian atmosphere and dividing society. Bahraini officials have on a number of occasions revoked the citizenship of individuals prior to expelling them. The latest decision, however, comes amid a wider crackdown on all Shia opposition.
The main Shia opposition group, Al Wefaq, is an Islamist party that has historically preferred political struggle to the revolution advocated by Qassim. Last year its leader Sheikh Ali Salman was sentenced to four years in prison, and an appeals court in May increased the sentence to nine years. In mid-June, Bahraini authorities suspended all Wefaq party activities to “safeguard the security of the kingdom.”
Western governments for their part have looked the other way: U.S. officials have voiced criticism in press conference and statements, but bilateral relations appear to remain unchanged. Where the United States at least took rhetorical stands against Bahraini policies, it has been mute on Soleimani’s letter.
The possibility of such an escalation was echoed by Qassim’s representative in Iran, Sheikh Abdullah al-Daqaq, who held a press conference shortly after the sheikh’s arrest last month at the headquarters of the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency in Tehran. He praised Soleimani’s statement as a “clear message for the Bahraini government,” and slammed Saudi Arabia for pushing Al Khalifa to “take revenge from the Shiites” for the liberation of Fallujah from Islamic State in Iraq. Should Bahraini authorities attack Qassim at his home, it could lead to a “bloodbath,” he added. The February 14 Youth Coalition, which was supposed to receive a shipment of advanced IRGC weapons in 2013, has threatened protests nationwide if security forces continue surrounding Qassim’s home.
The Shiite clergy in the scholarly centers of Qom, Iran and Najaf, Iraq have unanimously condemned Qassim’s citizenship revocation, though the clerics in the former—who have close ties to the Islamic Republic—have struck a more aggressive cord. The respected Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, where Qassim spent many years, told him, “Your place is in our hearts, and what has happened will not bring you harm.” Qom-based Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi called the Bahraini government’s move “satanic,” warning its end is “close.” Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri, the marja (“source of emulation”) for many Iraqi Shia militants, compared the Al Khalifa to the ancient pharaohs, warning their decision on Qassim could lead to their overthrow.
The IRGC and top officials close to the supreme leader have echoed the same sentiments. The day after Soleimani’s statement, the guard issued its own statement, also warning of an “intifada.” Moreover, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the supreme leader, warned Bahraini authorities that if Bahrain makes a mistake, the “peaceful option will be taken off of the agenda.” Such messages suggest Soleimani’s statement has been approved by the supreme leader, who has the final say on all matters of foreign and military policy.
Officials close to President Hassan Rouhani, on the other hand, have struck a less aggressive tone. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif scrambled to reassure foreign audiences on June 22 that although there are “different voices” in Iran, Tehran “values relations with neighboring countries.” But the following day in the Netherlands, he denied differences with Soleimani, saying, “I talk with the commander and we both believe the Syrian crisis has a political solution.”
Rouhani has thus far been silent on Soleimani’s letter and the Bahrain issue generally, though he indirectly criticized Khamenei on June 21 in a separate talk. Addressing university professors, the president said that Iran cannot make scientific and technological progress if it shuts its door to the outside world. It is no secret that Rouhani seeks to improve Iran’s image, especially with Arab neighbors wary of Iran’s destabilizing role in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars, and the cash influx it is starting to reap from the nuclear deal. The mob attacks on Saudi missions in Iran by IRGC-affiliated forces earlier this year have further isolated the country from its neighbors.
Soleimani’s blatant meddling in Bahrain demonstrates the degree to which he, the IRGC and the supreme leader feel emboldened to project power across the region. As the Islamic Republic is asserting itself on the world stage after a decade of isolation, it will be they—and other hardliners close to the supreme leader—who set the tone.
**Saeed Ghasseminejad is an associate fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Amir Toumaj is a research analyst. Follow them on Twitter @SGhasseminejad and @AmirToumaj.

The Implications of U.S. Aircraft Sales to Iran/Testimony for House Financial Services Committee
Foundation For Defence Of Democracy/July 08/16
Executive Summary
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), many of the concerns of those who opposed the deal have indeed come to pass: an increase in Iran’s malign activities, an Obama administration reluctant to use non-nuclear sanctions to punish and deter these activities, and an Iranian regime for whom the JCPOA was not the end of negotiations but merely the beginning.
The JCPOA was objectively a very good deal for Tehran: It preserved essential elements of the country’s nuclear infrastructure and placed only temporary, limited restrictions on its nuclear ambitions, which start expiring in 2023. In exchange, Iran got the complete dismantlement of many of the most impactful U.S. and international economic sanctions, which already has helped trigger an economic recovery.
In January, the accord proceeded as scheduled. Iran mothballed some of its nuclear infrastructure and got the coveted stamp of approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Following that, Washington and the Europeans terminated or suspended a slew of punishing economic sanctions and even agreed to hand over access to $100 billion in blocked Iranian assets.
Even this was not enough for the Islamic Republic. “On paper the United States allows foreign banks to deal with Iran, but in practice they create Iranophobia so no one does business with Iran,” thundered Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran demanded greater sanctions relief or it would walk away from the nuclear deal.
The administration acquiesced to these demands. Secretary of State John Kerry rushed overseas on an international invest-in-Tehran “road show.” Banks simply need to “do their normal due diligence and know who they’re dealing with,” Kerry told reporters. But the banks know that there is no “normal due diligence” in a country as corrupt as the Islamic Republic.
In an attempt to assuage their concerns further, Kerry’s staff briefed State Department reporters on a plan to issue a license to permit foreign banks to use dollars when processing transactions with their Iranian counterparts – a concession never explicitly negotiated as part of the nuclear deal. This prompted a backlash in Congress that had Treasury Department officials scrambling to issue guidance that Washington is not permitting Iranian access to the U.S. financial system, even as they left open the possibility of offshore dollar clearing.
More recently, Boeing and Iran Air announced a deal worth an estimated $25 billion to sell and lease aircraft. This represents a multi-billion dollar bet by President Barack Obama that the economic benefits from the JCPOA will moderate Iran’s behavior before the nuclear restrictions start expiring.
Yet Boeing is signing a deal with an Iranian aviation company and an industry complicit in the regime’s weapons proliferation and destabilizing adventurism. Boeing and those banking this deal face a due diligence nightmare. They cannot prevent their planes from being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for example, for deadly airlifts to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Hezbollah.
This deal is unnecessary: Iranian citizens and foreign travelers to Iran have alternatives.
Over the past five years, Gulf and Turkish airlines were primarily responsible for the growth in the Iranian aviation market, with an increase in their routes by nearly 60 percent over the past three years. European airlines also announced a resumption of flights to Tehran following the lifting of sanctions.
Iranian citizens need not rely on Iran Air or Mahan Air – companies racked with corruption and implicated in a range of illegal activities – but can look to more reliable foreign companies to meet their travel needs. Indeed, corruption plagues Iran’s aviation industry; safety challenges reportedly have been the result of corruption and mismanagement, not U.S. sanctions. The Boeing deal may end up benefitting the still U.S.-sanctioned and IRGC-controlled Mahan Air, which has become the largest international carrier to and from Iran, as well as other sanctioned airlines supporting the IRGC and the Assad regime.
In addition to implicating U.S. companies in Iran’s malign activities, the Boeing deal also undermines the Obama administration’s much-touted economic “snapback” mechanism for enforcing the JCPOA. Iran targeted the Europeans to block any transatlantic re-imposition of sanctions by signing a similar deal with Boeing’s competitor Airbus and with ATR, a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Finmeccanica. French and Italian financial institutions and export credit agencies will finance these purchases, with a combined value of close to 30 billion dollars.
From Iran’s perspective, this is a smart strategy: Snapping back sanctions would cause American and European aviation companies and banks to lose billions of dollars in unpaid contracts. The aircraft companies and banks would surely lobby the White House and European capitals against restoring sanctions against Tehran, or at least seek reassurances that the aviation and financial sectors would be spared. In other words, with these deals, Iran can further exploit the tension between national security and Western commercial interests.
The Boeing deal comes at a time when the Obama administration has failed to push back against Iran’s malign activities, including support for terrorism, human rights abuses, and other destabilizing activities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and other countries across the Middle East. It underscores the deterrence power of Iran’s “nuclear snapback,” wherein Tehran will threaten nuclear escalation if the world powers try to force it back into compliance with the agreement or impose sanctions against its non-nuclear malign activities.
The Boeing deal only serves to increase the Iranian regime’s leverage over the nuclear deal while diminishing the American appetite for rigorous enforcement. Before the aviation deal is permitted to move ahead, Congress should maintain pressure on the Iranian regime to change its behavior by linking the sale to demonstrable changes in the behavior that prompted sanctions in the first place.
Specifically, I recommend that Congress consider taking the following steps:
Require presidential certification that commercial planes are only being used for civil aviation end-use.
Prohibit any U.S. financial institution, including the Export-Import Bank, from financing any trade with Tehran while Iran remains a state sponsor of terrorism.
Protect the integrity of the U.S. dollar from Iranian illicit finance by codifying existing restrictions, reporting on financial institutions involved in dollarization, and linking the termination of these measures to the end of Iranian support for terrorism and missile development as well as compensation for victims of Iranian terrorism.
Reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act, an important foundation of the sanctions architecture and legislation based on both Iran’s nuclear program and its support for international terrorism.
If the deal is permitted to proceed without these requirements, the Obama administration will in effect make one of America’s most respected companies and the banks that finance this deal accomplices to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/testimony/dubowitz-the-implications-of-u.s.-aircraft-sales-to-iran

Will Shiite power struggle turn into armed conflict in Iraq?
Mustafa Saadoun/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
BAGHDAD — Most Shiite political parties in Iraq have their own armed groups, enjoying influence on the Iraqi street and engaging in the war against the Islamic State. Yet these groups all have different religious authorities and funding sources, and their stances towards domestic and foreign issues also differ.
Concern is widespread in Iraq over potential fighting among armed Shiite groups, and the potential for the political crisis within the Shiite alliance to exacerbate. Such conflicts could lead to a major crisis with great human and material losses that could further aggravate the deteriorating situation.
Recently, a dispute over the management of religious shrines flared up. On June 25, Al-Khaleej quoted Muhammad al-Rubeii, a leader of the Muqtada al-Sadr Peace Brigades, as saying that the Badr Organization, led by Hadi al-Ameri, is implementing foreign agendas (a reference to Iran) to exert military and administrative control over the city of Samarra, home to the shrine of Al-Askari.
The dispute over the management of the shrine between the Shiite and Sunni endowments continues. Because Samarra is a Sunni-majority city, the dispute is worsening the recent row among Shiite groups and the city at large over the shrine’s management.
Management of the holy shrine has a lot of advantages and benefits, including symbolic prestige and financial interests, as it is visited frequently by Shiites from Iraq and elsewhere. The Sunni endowment used to manage the place in the time of Saddam Hussein. But after terrorists bombed Al-Askari Mosque in 2006, Shiites took over. Since then, different Shiite groups have competed for control.
As Moqtada al-Sadr and his supporters in the Sadrist movement took part in protests against the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and stormed the Green Zone twice, some Shiites condemned this move as unjustified. On June 7, protesters believed to be supporters of Sadr shut down the headquarters of the Shiite parties in southern Iraq, tearing up photos of Iraqi and Iranian Shiite clerics.
On June 12, State of Law Coalition parliamentarian Rasoul Rady expressed trepidation that an armed conflict could break out among Shiite parties if the attacks against political parties' headquarters in southern Iraq continue.
In response to the shutdown, a group of Shiite parties that have their own armed factions issued a warning June 10. The statement read, "We are calling on those claiming that they are leading the peaceful protests to [have the courage] to identify themselves and be dealt with in accordance with the protest law, to avert dire consequences and the combatant's anger."
Most Shiite factions in Iraq are backed by Iran, which is not on good terms with Sadr. His supporters are known for chanting slogans against Iran and Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who leads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' operations in Iraq. Their actions have angered Iranians and Iran's supporters in Iraq and could spark an armed conflict between the Sadrists and armed pro-Iranian groups.
When Sadrists stormed the Green Zone, where government and diplomatic headquarters are located, for the second time on May 20, gunmen affiliated with Khorasani Brigades were deployed in the streets of the Iraqi capital. This force, a faction of the Popular Mobilization Units, was led by Ali Yassiri, who was seen giving instructions to his men to shut down the entry points and protect the Green Zone.
Since then, other signs have emerged that the conflict could turn violent between the Sadrist Movement and its armed wing, the Peace Brigades, and other armed Shiite factions close to Iran.
Shiite National Alliance parliamentarian Hamed Khodor told Al-Monitor, "I do not expect fighting to take place between armed Shiite factions. It is a mere political dispute that may not reach the point of armed conflict."
Yet National Alliance member Saad al-Matlabi disagreed with this optimism. He told Al-Monitor, "There is a political bloc [of Sadr and his followers] trying to impose its will upon other political blocs by force, which will not happen." Matlabi went on, "The threat of chaos and protests and imposition of wills are no longer useful. Iraqi political blocs agree that there is a flaw in the Sadrist policy, which no longer has any allies, and all blocs are allied against it."
Political analyst Wathek al-Hashemi, president of the Iraqi Group for Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor, "There is more than one scenario for the post-IS stage. … If the [political] conflict evolves into an armed conflict, the Iraqi state would be unable to control the situation, due to its weakness."
He added, "There is a struggle within the Shiite alliance and tension between its parties. If the Sadrist movement returns to the streets, things may evolve and the political and security situation may further worsen."
The multiplicity of armed factions and leaders portends great danger, especially in the post-IS era. Everyone is fighting terrorism now, but later on, political disputes may turn into armed conflicts over either political gains or a specific geographic area.
This potential violence is seen as likely considering that 12 years ago, two armed Shiite groups fought in this manner. Jaish al-Mahdi, which was affiliated with Sadr, and the Badr Organization, which was under the umbrella of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and headed by Ameri (a commander of the Popular Mobilization Units in addition to leading the Badr Organziation), had fought each other. The fighting resulted in the burning of the two groups' offices and the deaths of dozens of people.

Can Islamic finance help close Egypt’s budget shortfall?
Rami Galal/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
CAIRO — Some members of the Egyptian parliament want to cut the general budget deficit by using Islamic finance innovatively to raise funds.
Ahmed Khalid, head of the Salafist Nour Party parliamentary bloc, said June 26 that his party will present a draft bill to establish a national council to eliminate the public debt using Islamic finance.
Khalid criticized the current thinking behind budget preparation, noting that in addition to a deficit of 350 billion Egyptian pounds ($39.4 billion), the state owes debt service payments of roughly 250 billion pounds. Revenues account for 632 billion pounds, while expenditures now exceed 1 trillion pounds.
Parliamentarian and Nour Party spokesman Ahmed Saleh told Al-Monitor the proposal is in its final draft and will be raised when parliament reconvenes after its end-of-Ramadan recess.
“It is a holistic project undertaken by the most expert economists, and would make a great contribution to providing the necessary funding for national projects, without resorting to borrowing from either internal or external sources,” he added.
Saleh noted that — in accordance with party guidelines — details will not be disclosed until after the proposed law’s final draft has been completed “so as to prevent any grumbling that might occur over an imprecise phrase in the text from bringing about unintended consequences on the level of Egyptian public opinion.”
Muhammad Izzat, a Nour Party leader, told Al-Monitor that just servicing debt accounts for 31% of all expenditures in the state budget, which for the 2016-17 fiscal year is set at 936 billion Egyptian pounds.
He stressed that continuing to use the same budgeting method for years — without innovative ideas to help close the deficit — has failed.
Organizers of the project don’t want their new ideas regarding Islamic finance to be hurt by association with Sharia-compliant bonds.
“The term 'Sharia-compliant bonds' has a sensitivity about it, due to the [Muslim] Brotherhood's period in power in 2013,” Izzat said. At that time, a proposed system of Sharia-compliant bonds was roundly rejected by most Islamic scholars due to its not adhering to Islamic law, and because it opened the door for foreign ownership of public assets such as the Suez Canal for a period of 60 years, which many thought would undermine Egyptian sovereignty.
“The Nour Party’s idea is based upon creating companies to administer the necessary funds to finance projects, instead of [using] treasury bonds and bills that weigh down the budget with the heavy burdens of fixed interest payments,” Izzat said. “These companies would bring individuals a profit in exchange for investing their money and would [grow] their savings, however small their [initial] capital was, to solve these problems instead of the state, which has proved time and again that it is incapable of administering funds properly.”
Izzat said all of the projects that would be financed, including the establishment of electricity companies and power stations, are strong endeavors that the state has recently entrusted to the private sector. “This means that they are profitable; otherwise, why would the private sector participate?”
Mohamed Badrawi, head of the National Movement Party’s parliamentary bloc, told Al-Monitor his party is discussing with Nour Party representatives a draft bill on Sharia-compliant bonds in a new form. He stressed that the bonds would be financed using resale profits in profit-seeking endeavors, and this method cannot be applied in establishing projects for sewage, electricity or roads. The bonds cannot finance service projects that are not seeking profits.
There are also many ideas on how to close the budget deficit without resorting to Sharia-compliant bonds at all, Badrawi said. Among these are adding new tax brackets in the budget that would range between 25% and 30% on income of more than 1 million Egyptian pounds. This would increase state revenue by roughly 50 billion Egyptian pounds. Additionally, he said, there is the possibility of selling unused, state-owned assets in every governorate — which some estimate would bring in 60 billion Egyptian pounds in revenues.
In addition, there are untapped hundreds of billions of Egyptian pounds in the form of religious endowments. These endowments, reserves of certain real estate and lands, are generally not well-managed, according to Badrawi. Selling these assets would require the agreement of the Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah (a body that oversees state matters dealing with religion) so that the ownership could transfer from the Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) to the Egyptian presidency.
Badrawi noted another potentially large untapped source of funds: a tax on private tutoring income. In a self-propagating problem, Egypt’s public education system is so inadequate that students need tutoring to pass state tests. But poorly paid teachers often supplement their income — a lot — via lucrative tutoring, which some people feel gives them an incentive to extort money for learning. The tutoring market has seen incredible growth for more than a decade.
“Imposing a tax of 20% on private tutoring, which has an estimated worth of 40 billion Egyptian pounds, would add roughly 8 billion Egyptian pounds to the budget,” Badrawi said.
“Likewise, imposing a 10% tax on bank profits would add an estimated 4 billion Egyptian pounds to the budget, since banks netted nearly 40 billion Egyptian pounds in profits last year. Further, reducing expenditures by rationalizing consumption — whether of water, electricity or other commodities — would lead to 22 billion Egyptian pounds in savings,” he said.
Also, the state is not taking advantage of the 10 million Egyptians working abroad by creating an expatriates bank that would allow them to participate in national projects such as one designed to expand the country’s agricultural land by 20%, Badrawi said. He stressed that the yield of these projects for the state would exceed 300 billion Egyptian pounds, which would add to the budget without resorting to Sharia-compliant bonds.
Parliament member Samir Ghattas told Al-Monitor he does not approve of the use of Sharia-compliant bonds, “because if there are Islamic bonds, then soon there will be Christian bonds, and introducing religion into politics and economics is unacceptable.”
He said, “The real problem that confronts the budget and other issues in parliament is the hijacking of the vote by closing off discussion prematurely, not giving all ideas a fair hearing. For example, there was no mention of special funds in the budget, despite the existence of several such funds [that] account for over 1 billion Egyptian pounds. We have also found in the budget an added tax on imports, despite the fact that the House of Representatives has not yet agreed to such a measure.”
Ghattas added, “The budget was imposed in such a way that it was taken out of democratic reach. The heads of the various parliamentary blocs went to a meeting with the prime minister in his office in true tribal fashion, and he simply promised them that he would take the proposals into consideration.”

Congress weighs restrictions on Boeing sales to Iran
Boeing's plan to sell aircraft to Iran is experiencing bipartisan turbulence on Capitol Hill.
Julian Pecquet/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
A number of House Democrats joined their Republican colleagues July 7 in expressing support for setting conditions before the manufacturing giant can proceed with its $17.6 billion deal to sell 80 passenger aircraft to Iran Air. The Obama administration insists it has the tools to ensure that any planes won't be diverted to unapproved purposes, but lawmakers of both parties are showing an interest in requiring Iran to meet certain criteria before the Treasury Department approves any sale.
"We're being asked to transfer planes to a company, Iran Air, that has served as an air force for terrorism. And we're being told, oh, but just trust them, or just trust that we'll be able to do something if they violate," Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said at a hearing of the Financial Services Committee's trade panel. "When Iran comes forward with a plan to guarantee that these planes are not being used for terrorism or to support [Bashar al-] Assad [in Syria], then we could consider [granting export licenses]."
While Sherman opposed the nuclear deal that paved the way for the Boeing sale, several supporters also raised concerns.
"What kind of things would you expect to see in the license to make sure that planes are not available for any kind of illicit or illegal activities under the agreement or any other sanctions legislation?" Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., asked the panel of witnesses. Perlmutter stayed on after the hearing for a lengthy, spirited discussion with several of the witnesses about the best way forward without violating the nuclear deal.
And the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, thanked the witnesses for helping inform lawmakers regarding actions "we might want to do in terms of tightening up on the licensing."
Democrats in the Senate have also raised some concerns about the sale.
"Of course I have concerns that the Iranians will misuse any assets," nuclear deal supporter Chris Coons, D-Del., told The Weekly Standard. "You can't assure that [the planes] won't be used for terrorism."
The Obama administration has argued that the sale could create goodwill in Iran by helping to modernize the country's notoriously unsafe airline sector. But Mark Dubowitz of the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies testified July 7 that Iran Air is still flying arms to Assad on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Republicans are delighted by what they describe as Democratic hand-wringing.
"The Democrats are finding themselves caught in a box," panel Chairman Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., told Al-Monitor after the hearing. "And they now want to start adding provisions."
Officially, Republicans intend to push forward with legislation from Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., that would flat-out prohibit any aircraft sale to Iran — a clear violation of the text of the nuclear deal as long as Iran officially remains in compliance.
"I would guess that a number of my colleagues — myself included — would be where we have been all along, which is this is a bad idea, why in the world would we do any kind of license?" Huizenga said. He said action on the measure could happen as early as next week, before the US Congress leaves for the long summer recess.
Nevertheless, the July 7 hearing also laid the groundwork for potential bipartisan compromise. While the nuclear deal commits the United States to "allow for the sale of commercial passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran," it also prohibits their use "for purposes other than exclusively civil aviation."
Dubowitz argued that this caveat offers Congress plenty of room to legislate a cooling off period during which Iran would have to disentangle its airlines from prohibited activities before aircraft sales can go through. Allowing such sales up front, he said, would be "theoretically possible, but practically delusional" — especially with Boeing and its financial backers breathing down policymakers' necks not to wreck relations with Iran once the planes are actually delivered.
"The history of Iran sanctions over the past decade has been one party stepping forward and offering a tough-minded bill," Dubowitz told Al-Monitor, "and then that bill being used as a platform between Democrats and Republicans to negotiate."
Reaching a bipartisan compromise that can get 60 votes in the Senate won't be easy, however. Moore, for example, argued that allowing Boeing sales to go through could give the United States more leverage than if Iran gets everything it needs from Europe's Airbus; Perlmutter said the Iran deal was a "contract" the United States would be ill-advised to violate.
Still, the evolving threat to the Boeing deal has caught the attention of nuclear deal advocates. In response to the Financial Services hearing and separate pending legislation prohibiting the Treasury Department from issuing licenses for aircraft sales, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) issued a scathing response.
"It is no secret that opponents of the Iran nuclear accord continue in their attempts to upend US obligations under the agreement," NIAC said in a statement. "By attempting to block Boeing’s pending sale of commercial passenger aircraft to Iran, opponents of the Iran nuclear accord are also seeking to undermine significant US commercial interests and to impose humanitarian suffering on the Iranian people by denying them access to safe air travel."

Khamenei shakes up Iran's armed forces
Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei surprised many observers when he appointed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri as chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces June 28, replacing Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, who had held the position for 27 years. One week later, Khamenei continued to replace the leadership of the armed forces, suggesting that Iran was looking for a shift in approach at one of the country's most important military institutions.
On July 5, Khamenei appointed Brig. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi as deputy chief of staff of the armed forces. Mousavi, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War with a background in artillery, was one of the senior commanders of the army. Firouzabadi's former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashidi, who had held his previous position for 17 years, was appointed as commander of Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, the engineering conglomerate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Khamenei also appointed Brig. Gen. Ali Abdollahi as the deputy chief of staff for coordination of the Iranian armed forces. Before his appointment, Abdollahi, who is one of the senior commanders of the IRGC, held positions as deputy interior minister for security and deputy chief of general staff of the armed forces for logistics and industrial research. His predecessor, Maj. Gen. Hossein Hassani Saadi, had held the position since 1999.
The chief of staff of the armed forces has the responsibility of coordination between all of Iran's armed services and is one of the closest positions to Khamenei, who is Iran's commander in chief. The position requires planning and coordination between the army, the IRGC and Iran's police. It was created to address differences over military operations between the army and the IRGC during the final years of the Iran-Iraq War.
The popular news website Tabnak, which is owned by conservative political figure Mohsen Rezaei but has a moderate political editorial view, speculated that given that Bagheri's appointment took place during the month of Ramadan, it hinted at a sense of urgency. The June 29 article, which was later deleted for unknown reasons, noted that Firouzabadi had been a strong supporter of the comprehensive nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers.
There has also been speculation about Firouzabadi's health being the cause of his sudden removal. Ismail Kowsari, a former member of the national security and foreign policy commission at the Iranian parliament, said that Firouzabadi, who is overweight and requires a cane to walk, is currently receiving treatment.
An article in Fararu dismissed the speculation about Firouzabadi's position on the nuclear deal or his poor health being the reason for his removal. Rather, the article argues that the changing geopolitical climate and instability in the region requires a break from the traditional strategies to confront threats and a "new operational strategy" is needed. The author argues that Bagheri, who comes from an intelligence and operational background, will be needed to implement this new strategy. The article was republished a by a number of conservative websites.

Are Iran, West on collision course over missiles?
Abbas Qaidaari/Al-Monitor/July 08/16
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, unveiled new military equipment during a June 1 event at the Defense Ministry-affiliated Malek Ashtar University of Technology. The most significant of these products was Hoda, the transmitter for a local positioning system (LPS). Dehghan said that Malek Ashtar had succeeded in building the 1 megawatt, half-cycle transmitter in the first phase of designing the system. Five ground stations equipped with the systems are expected to be built in different regions of the country. These will serve as stations for positioning guided missiles as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), warplanes and other military aircraft.
Iran is trying to develop an alternative to satellite positioning systems, in particular the Global Positioning System (GPS), to guide military hardware during battle. Within Iran, GPS systems have a margin of error of about 30 meters (98 feet), so the Islamic Republic is trying to decrease the distance to about a meter (some 3 feet) by improving its homegrown LPS system.
The current Iranian LPS has an accuracy of a few centimeters within a radius of 30 kilometers (19 miles) and an accuracy of about a meter within a radius of 150 kilometers (93 miles). A few years ago, Iran developed a similar program, the Persian Gulf Network Beacon that focuses on the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman to assist the navy with navigation of its aerial fleet and positioning.
The Iranian LPS is also designed to guide long-range drones, including combat and reconnaissance UAVs. Although this navigation system is outdated — many Western countries began developing LPS in the 1950s — it addresses the country's immediate needs in terms of positioning and thus can be considered to have been an important step forward.
At present, however, Iran's missile program suffers from three main weaknesses. It has issues of accuracy and guidance stemming from not utilizing satellites. As a result, key military targets cannot be targeted from afar. Moreover, there is the matter of destructive power. Iran’s most powerful missiles have warheads that are only slightly more destructive than laser-guided bombs. Thus, absent nuclear or chemical warheads, these missiles lack a high destructive capability.
At this stage, utilization of navigation and positioning systems is vital in Iran’s efforts to develop its missiles and UAVs. Short-range ballistic missiles — such as the Persian Gulf, Fateh A-110 and Hormuz — can be guided with a high degree of accuracy optically and via radio. Moreover, considering their payloads, these weapons have a relatively high destructive capability. Indeed, these pieces of military hardware are Iran’s most important weapons against the fleets and military bases of the United States and its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf region and the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles, with ranges of 1,300 to 2,300 kilometers (808-1,430 miles), are less accurate, however, due to exceeding radio range.
Iranian officials are well aware of this problem, and President Hassan Rouhani and his Defense Ministry have been doing their utmost to solve it. During the past three years, the Defense Ministry has designed guided warheads and unveiled optical warheads. Furthermore, there were reports in June of the initial testing of the Simorgh space-launch vehicle in the deserts of Semnan, in central Iran, in Rouhani's presence. Analysts disagree on whether Iran had tried to utilize this North Korean missile platform for military purposes during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13). It is clear, however, that the Rouhani administration is not looking to expand the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, but is planning to use the Simorgh program for space and reconnaissance purposes.
The big picture is that the Iranian missile program is becoming more complex. On the one hand, now that Iran’s nuclear program is no longer a source of international concern, Western countries and Iran’s regional rivals are increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic over its missile program. On the other hand, there is now a domestic dialogue and a deep dialectic over the missile program, including how and to what degree it should be expanded. Although Iranian political and military elites arrived at a clear consensus that the country’s missile capabilities must be maintained, disagreement remains over whether missile ranges need to be expanded or accuracy and guidance need to be improved. It appears that the Rouhani administration prefers the latter.
In addition, during the past year, there has been news of Iran using long-range combat UAVs in Syria. Images that have surfaced reveal these UAVs to be of the Shahed-129 type, guided in operations in northern Aleppo from the Konarak military base, near the Makran coast. The images, coupled with the announcement that a radio LPS station has been set up in Chabahar, strengthen speculation that the southern part of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province has become the center for guiding combat UAVs.
Iran has invested heavily in its missile and space programs and is making every effort to make them more effective and operational, including through the use of older technology, such as LPS. With international concern over Iran’s missile program growing as it expands, however, one must consider what Iran can depend on to protect itself in the world’s most heavily armed region. Its outdated aerial and naval fleets, in addition to its huge but worn out ground forces, cannot be considered the solution. Rather, it is Iran's missile program that provides it relative deterrence.
At the end of the day, one should also ask, would the Islamic Republic have sought to expand its ballistic missile program had the international community not refused to sell it conventional military equipment, including conventional warplanes? It appears that the missile program, which has become one of the main points of contention between Iran and the West, will soon — like the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program — become the most important political challenge for the two sides.