LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

July 11/16

 Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 04/14-21/:"Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you
Second Letter to the Corinthians 05/20-21//06/01-10: "We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything."
 

Pope Francis's Tweet For today
Vacations offer a time to rest and to restore the spirit, especially through a more quiet reading of the Gospels.
Les vacances sont un moment pour se reposer, mais aussi pour se régénérer l’esprit, notamment en lisant plus calmement l’Évangile.
إن العطلة هي وقت للراحة، وإنما أيضًا للتجدّد بالروح لاسيما من خلال قراءة أكثر هدوءًا للإنجيل

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 10-11/16

The Future of Iraq: Iran Attacks the Kurds, Maliki Ready to Lead, and the IRGC Taking Sunni Land/Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
Obama and the Ultimate Betrayal of Syrians’ Dream of Freedom/Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
It's not Personal, It's Islam/Mark Durie/The Spectator/July 10/16
The Arabs' Historic Mistakes in Their Interactions with Israel/Fred Maroun/Gatestone Institute/July 10/16
UK: Labour Pains/Douglas MurrayGatestone Institute/July 10/16
China Takes a Cautious Approach to Iran/Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
Erdoğan Changes Directions: Time for a Regional Plan to Truly Fight ISIL/Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
On reports of a solution to the Syrian conflict/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
Who will apologize to the Iraqi people/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
It’s confirmed: The Iraq invasion was a war of aggression/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
Specters of Ahmad Rubei, the godfather of a generation/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
In football and economy, this has been the ‘small is beautiful’ season/Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/July 10/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on July 10-11/16

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault Beirut
Well Known Writer and Mediaman Elie Saliby Passes away
Notorious oil deal between Berri and Aoun
Deadly Crash Leaves 3 Dead on Jounieh Highway
Melbourne Court Refuses Release of Lebanese Man Charged with Murdering his wife, Injuring his 3 Children
Fatah Leader Escapes Assassination Attempt at Miyeh Wou Miyeh Refugee Camp
Hizbullah Urges Saudi to 'Review Terror Classifications' after Kingdom Blasts
Zaiter representing Berri: To overcome municipal scars
Saleh: We welcome any consensual agreement over oil investment
Victims of Jounieh's deadly crash identified, taken to hospital
Hardan receives wellwishes on his reelection

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 10-11/16
Over 60 Civilians Killed in North Syria
Up to 300,000 Syrians Could Get Turkish Citizenship
NATO to use surveillance planes against ISIS
Coalition air strikes kill ISIS militants in Syria
Six killed in two PKK attacks in Turkey
UN airlifts food to cut off families in northeast Syria
France urges military action against al-Nusra Front
AFP, Warsaw Sunday, 10 July 2016/French President Francois Hollande called Sa
Egypt FM calls for 2-state solution on Israel visit
Saudi security forces closing in on ISIS networks
UAE, Bahrain caution citizens on US travel amid protests
Gunmen in western Iran kill 2, injure lawmaker
Dallas gunman learned tactics at Texas self-defense school
Obama makes symbolic but overshadowed Spain visit
Iraq War was illegal, says Blair’s former deputy
Police officer who shot Philando Castile ‘reacted to gun, not race’
Several killed in India’s Jammu and Kashmir protests
Fresh firefight in South Sudan capital

Links From Jihad Watch Site for July 10-11/16
Euro 2016: If France wins, there will be no parade for fear of jihad attacks
Muslim cleric: US responsible for terror in Muslim world
India: Legislator grilled for nine hours over alleged Qur’an desecration
Theresa May’s Sharia courts review branded a whitewash
Hugh Fitzgerald: “Shaking Hands is an Important Part of Our Culture”
Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne: Muhammad “instrument of God’s mercy”
Bin Laden’s son vows “revenge by the Islamic nation for Sheikh Osama”
India: Muslim mother kills daughter over relationship with Hindu
Kashmir: Muslim mobs attack police after killing of jihad terrorist, 10 dead

Latest Lebanese Related News published on July 10-11/16

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault Beirut
LCCC& Asharq Al Awsat/July 10/16: French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is scheduled to visit Beirut tomorrow (Monday July 11/16) to compel Lebanese officials into ending the country’s political crisis by electing a new president. The minister, who is set to make a two-day official visit to Beirut, “does not carry new ideas,” foreign ministry sources said. However, he has the ability “to talk to everyone” inside Lebanon and abroad. Paris believes that “complications” in Lebanon should not be a reason for an end to French diplomatic action towards the presidential crisis. On the contrary, French authorities believe there is an urgent need to “mobilize their efforts” to end Lebanon’s deadlock. Yet, they have admitted that France “does not have the magic wand” to resolve Lebanon’s political crisis. French diplomatic sources said that Ayrault, who has lately discussed the Lebanese file with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif and Saudi Deputy Crown Mohammed bin Salman, in separate meetings held in Paris, has come out with the impression that the two sides do not object to a political settlement in Lebanon. Ayrault is scheduled to meet in Beirut with his Lebanese counterpart, the speaker, the prime minister and other top officials, including the presidential contenders MPs Michel Aoun and Suleiman Franjieh. The French sources said that Zarif has pointed out to a possible political solution in Lebanon. They quoted Ayrault as telling his Iranian counterpart that the country’s crisis should not await the end of the war in Syria.
Political parties in Lebanon should draw a separation line between the region’s crises and their country, the French Foreign Minister allegedly said. Ayrault will stress during his meeting with the Lebanese officials that Paris “does not have a plan.” But it “is willing to meet with all sides in Lebanon and abroad to facilitate a solution.” The minister will tell the officials that they are chiefly responsible for reaching an understanding aimed at ending their country’s more than two-year crisis.
So far, all attempts and mediation aimed at pushing the Lebanese into electing a president have failed.
 

Well Known Writer and Mediaman Elie Saliby Passes away

LCCC: July 10/16: It was announced earlier today that the well known and distinguished writer, poet, and mediaman, Elie Saliby has passed away in his family "Achrafia" home while sleeping. The deceased was 75 years old and was born in Souk Al Qarieb Mount Lebanon town. The burial will take place on Tuesday July 12/16 after the holy prayer in Beirut. May His soul rest in peace

Notorious oil deal between Berri and Aoun

LCCC, July 10/16/Numerous politicians and media men are highly critical about the oil notorious and scandalous secret deal between Lebanon's House Speaker, Nabih Berri, (Iranian Trojan), and the derailed MP. Micheal Aoun through his hated and corrupted son-in-law. The deal is as a treacherous act and accordingly should not be allowed to pass in the Cabinet or in the Parliament. Both Berri and Aoun are Iranian puppets and are massively involved in every thing that is corruption in Lebanon.

Deadly Crash Leaves 3 Dead on Jounieh Highway
Naharnet/July 10/16/A car crash between three vehicles on the eastern route of Jounieh highway left three people killed and two injured, NNA field correspondent reported on Sunday. A Civil Defense team is attempting to remove the victims from the cars. The accident caused a stifling traffic on both sides of the highway.

Melbourne Court Refuses Release of Lebanese Man Charged with Murdering his wife, Injuring his 3 Children
Naharnet/July 10/16/A Melbourne court denied bail to Bassam Raad, a man of Lebanese origin, after being charged of butchering his wife, 27 year old Zeniab Taleb, and inflicting injuries onto his three little children. The body of the victim, who hails from Aakar, was found wrapped in a quilt at a tennis center car park in Dallas, 18km north of Melbourne, on 17 June. The injury charges relate to the alleged assault of his three children, a six-year-old boy, four-year-old boy and two-year-old girl. The children had some of their bones broken when they were hospitalized on Monday with non life-threatening injuries. Police had been investigating the discovery of a woman's body, found less than 3 kilometers from Raad's house, when they were called to his property on Monday night after reports of "yelling and screaming."Raad's name was linked to 12 others charged with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Melbourne in 2008.

Fatah Leader Escapes Assassination Attempt at Miyeh Wou Miyeh Refugee Camp
Naharnet/July 10/16/Abed Al Sultan, a Palestinian leader of Fatah movement, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at his life at dawn on Sunday, NNA field correspondent reported. Sultan, who is stationed in Ayn el Helwe Palestinian refugee camp, was on a visit to a relative of his at Miyeh Wou Miyeh Camp in Sidon when an anonymous culprit opened fire, hitting Sultan's brother-in-law in the hand and thigh. The injured man was rushed to hospital for treatment. It is to be noted that Abed Al Sultan was injured during recent clashes in said camp.

Hizbullah Urges Saudi to 'Review Terror Classifications' after Kingdom Blasts
Naharnet/July 10/16/Hizbullah has urged Saudi Arabia to reevaluate its blacklist of terrorist organizations in the wake of the multiple suicide bombings that rocked the kingdom last week. “The Saudi regime committed a strategic mistake when it sought to mislead the nation and present Hizbullah as a terrorist danger that is threatening Arabs and Muslims,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council, said on Saturday. “The suicide attacks in Jeddah, Qatif and Medina prove the incorrectness of the Saudi regime's terror classifications,” Qaouq added. “Was Hizbullah the threat to Saudi national security or the takfiri terrorism?” he asked. Riyadh blacklisted Hizbullah as a terrorist group and pressed the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to follow suit after accusing the party of forming militant cells in some Gulf countries and interfering in the Yemeni conflict. The moves also came amid unprecedented regional tensions between Hizbullah's backer Iran and the Gulf states. The Syria-based jihadist groups Islamic State and al-Nusra Front are also on Saudi Arabia's terror blacklist. “The Saudi regime is required, after the bombings that targeted it, to review its anti-resistance policies, classifications and alignments so that the confrontation remains focused on the terrorist, takfiri threat that is offering a strategic favor to Israel,” Qaouq added. He also accused Saudi Arabia of arming the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front. “The takfiris who staged bombings in Beirut, Hermel and the Bekaa, and who abducted and slaughtered the (Lebanese) servicemen are al-Qaida's branch in Lebanon and Syria (Abdullah Azzam Brigades) and al-Nusra Front, and al-Nusra Front is today fighting with Saudi weapons,” Qaouq charged. “Until when will the Saudi regime support and arm al-Nusra Front in Syria, although it has murdered us, executed our servicemen and continued to occupy our land in the Bekaa?” the Hizbullah official added. He also warned that “the Saudi regime's continued support for al-Nusra Front poses a real threat to Lebanese national security.”

Zaiter representing Berri: To overcome municipal scars
Sun 10 Jul 2016/NNA - Public Works and Transportation Minister, Ghazi Zaiter, stressed on Sunday the need to overcome the "scars" of municipal elections and to approve an electoral law, according to proportional representation elections. Zaiter who was representing Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, during a funeral ceremony in southern Lebanon, said that Lebanon needs to translate the results of discussions and dialogue into actions in order to nip in the bud the discord and to consolidate unity between Islam and Christianity. The Minister confirmed the commitment of his political party in the constitutional rules and the national pact in order to preserve the institutions and their roles, in a period marked by the fall of values, states, and laws.

Saleh: We welcome any consensual agreement over oil investment
Sun 10 Jul 2016/NNA - "We welcome any consensual agreement over oil investment in the sea and on the mainland, especially that the Israelis don't hide any of their intentions and ambitions to steal our oil and water resources," Member of Development and Liberation bloc, MP Abdul Majid Saleh, said on Sunday during a funeral ceremony in Haret Saida. "It is important to reactivate the work of the constitutional, legislative and executive institutions, because chaos is the alternative," he noted, calling for an "agreement over an electoral law that takes into account equitable representation based on proportional law." Saleh condemned terrorist attacks in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, stating that terrorism has no religion and its objectives intersected with the Zionist project.

Victims of Jounieh's deadly crash identified, taken to hospital
Sun 10 Jul 2016/NNA - A gruesome car crash that took place between a Mazda and a Renault on Jounieh highway early Sunday morning left three General Security members dead. The bodies of the three men, identified as Fadi Shandab, Rawad Bitar and Nader Assaad, were taken to Lady of Lebanon hospital. The three, riding in the Mazda, were all members of the General Security. Their car was completely destroyed, while the two people in the Renault were injured.

Hardan receives wellwishes on his reelection
Sun 10 Jul 2016/NNA - Syrian Social Nationalist Party disclosed in a statement, on Sunday, that MP Asaad Hardan received congratulatory cables from a number of Jordanian deputies and political figures on the success of the Party's general conference and his re-election as Party Head. "We proudly and carefully followed the works of your conference, in light of its objective necessities in reading the historical period in which we are living, in wake of the Zionist aggression on our nation and the attempt to dismantle its various constituents," the cables indicated. "Syria's steadfastness is proof of a real awareness that our nation can never be defeated, and its victory is inevitable and certain," the cables underscored.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 10-11/16

Over 60 Civilians Killed in North Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/16/More than 60 civilians were killed by shelling and air strikes in the northwest of Syria on Friday, a monitoring group said, hours before the end of a shaky ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Fighting has continued since the truce was announced on Wednesday, particularly in and around Syria's second city of Aleppo, with deaths on both sides of the divided city. Thirty-four civilians, including four children, were killed and 200 others wounded by rebel shelling in regime-held areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. State news agency SANA gave a lower toll of 23 dead and 140 wounded, accusing the rebels of violating the ceasefire. Aleppo -- Syria's pre-war commercial capital -- has been divided between the pro-regime west and the rebel-held east since mid-2012. An AFP correspondent in the city's east said that regime air strikes and rocket fire had also targeted opposition neighborhoods on Friday. Six civilians including three children died in regime air raids on a rebel-held area on the route to Castello. The army has been pressing its advance to retake the rebels' sole supply route to the city in heavy fighting. "The rebels' violent shelling comes as a response to the advance of regime forces towards the Castello road", Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. The Syrian army on Thursday advanced within firing range of the supply route, effectively cutting off the last supply routes to rebel-controlled areas. The road wraps around Aleppo's eastern and northern edges then leads into rebel-controlled territory north of the battered city. Meanwhile in the al-Qaida-held town of Darkush, near the Turkish border, at least 22 civilians were killed and dozens wounded by air strikes, the Observatory said. "The toll of the attack is now 22 people, including a child and seven women," said Rahman, updating an earlier toll. The Observatory had no immediate word on who carried out the strikes but said it was likely either the Syrian government or its ally Russia, rather than the US-led coalition. Darkush is held by al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front and allied rebel groups, which control the northwestern province of Idlib. More than 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's civil war erupted with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. A 72-hour nationwide ceasefire -- announced by the army to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan -- ended at midnight (2100 GMT Friday).

Up to 300,000 Syrians Could Get Turkish Citizenship
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/16/Up to 300,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey could be given citizenship under a plan to keep wealthy and educated Syrians in the country, a Turkish newspaper reported on Saturday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on July 2 that Syrian refugees in the country would be offered nationality "if they want it", the first time such an idea had been proposed at the highest level. Nationality would be given step-by-step, with initial plans for 30,000 to 40,000 Syrians gaining citizenship, the Haberturk daily said. In total, Turkey is targeting giving Turkish citizenship to up to up to 300,000 Syrians, it added. Turkey is hoping such a move would allow skilled Syrian refugees to become citizens, the paper said. Educated refugees from other countries could choose to become nationals as well. Family members of those chosen to become Turkish citizens could also get the right to become nationals, it added. The usual obligation of living in Turkey for at least five years before gaining citizenship could be waived for Syrians, Haberturk said. Syrian refugees who become Turkish nationals would then be able to vote in elections one year after being awarded nationality. The report appeared to generate anger among many social media users, with #suriyelilerehayir ("No to Syrians") the top trending topic in Turkey on Twitter on Saturday. Erdogan has championed an "open door" policy for Syrians fleeing the over five-year civil war in their country. More than 2.7 million Syrian refugees now live in Turkey where they have guest status, according to the Turkish government. The proposal to grant Syrians citizenship comes after a widely-praised move by Turkey in January this year to allow Syrian refugees to be given work permits. Turkish media this week quoted labor ministry statistics as saying 5,502 Syrians had been granted work permits since the scheme was adopted. Activists have accused Turkey of effectively shutting its borders to any more Syrians this year but Ankara insists it will always take in those wounded and fleeing danger. In March this year, Turkey signed a deal with the European Union to stop refugees making the dangerous route from its western border to Europe via Greece which has led to a reduction in the number of boats leaving Turkey.

NATO to use surveillance planes against ISIS
AFP, Brussels Saturday, 9 July 2016/NATO leaders on Saturday agreed to deploy sophisticated surveillance aircraft to support the US-led fight against ISIS in Syria, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.Stoltenberg said a summit of the 28 NATO leaders in Warsaw had formally approved a plan for the alliance’s AWACS planes to fly over international airspace and help the US-led coalition. “We will provide AWACS support and the plan is to have them to flying over international airspace and Turkey and that will allow us to look into airspace in Iraq and Syria,” Stoltenberg told a news conference. The planes are one of the few concrete assets that NATO has, with most of its military hardware belonging to individual member states. AWACS are aircraft with powerful radars that allow them to monitor airspace for hundreds of kilometers around. They can also be converted into command posts to coordinate bombing raids and other air operations. The Warsaw summit closing statement said that “NATO AWACS aircraft will be made available to support the Counter-ISIL Coalition,” using another acronym for the militant group. In May, NATO said the planes would not be directly involved in monitoring militants, but would instead fill in for US and allied aircraft that would be re-tasked to gather intelligence over ISIS hotspots. Several European NATO members have been wary of becoming too involved in the bloody fight against ISIS but pressure has grown after deadly terror attacks in Paris and Brussels. In Warsaw, NATO also agreed to take further steps to boost counter-terrorism efforts in countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Stoltenberg said. It would deploy a team to Baghdad to start a new training scheme in Iraq, which is battling ISIS militants. “To the south we see failed and failing states. And millions left homeless and hopeless by terrorist groups like ISIL,” Stoltenberg said. The alliance will also start providing support for Tunisian special forces and set up an intelligence ‘Fusion Centre’ in Tunisia. NATO will further launch a maritime security operation in the Mediterranean to help deal with the migration crisis and the chaos in the waters off Libya.

Coalition air strikes kill ISIS militants in Syria
Agencies Sunday, 10 July 2016/Air strikes by US-led coalition warplanes and artillery fire from Turkey killed eight ISIS militants in northern Syria, state-run Anadolu Agency cited the Turkish military as saying on Sunday. Ten ISIS targets were hit in the strikes, which also destroyed one building used by the militants as a base, the agency said. It said Turkish army howitzers fired on the militants as they were preparing to open fire on Turkey on Saturday from the areas of Baragitah, Tel Ahmar and Shabaniye in northern Syria. Turkey and the coalition have carried out regular strikes against ISIS in the area in recent months after rocket attacks by the militants on the Turkish border town of Kilis. Kilis, just across the frontier from an ISIS-controlled region of Syria, has been hit by rockets more than 70 times this year. More than 20 people have been killed. Twenty-nine Syria rebels dead in fighting for key Aleppo road. Meanwhile, at least 29 Syrian rebels were killed in clashes with regime troops overnight during a failed bid to reopen the opposition’s key supply route into Aleppo city, a monitor said Sunday. The fighters from the Faylaq al-Sham Islamist faction and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front were killed trying to reopen the Castello Road, which regime forces effectively severed on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. The road was the only remaining supply route into the opposition-held east of Aleppo city, which has been divided between government and rebel control since mid-2012.
Government forces effectively severed the route on Thursday when they seized a hilltop within firing range of the Castello Road. The Observatory said there were deaths among government forces in the overnight fighting, but had no immediate toll. “The attack has ended and the road remains completely closed,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. Kurdish militant bomb attack on Turkish army outpost kills two Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost in southeastern Turkey overnight, killing one soldier and a member of the state-sponsored village guard militia, security sources said on Sunday. It was the second such attack within 12 hours in the mainly Kurdish region, sshowing no let-up in a conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and the state which flared up a year ago when a two-year-old ceasefire collapsed. Ten soldiers and five village guards were also wounded in the attack by PKK guerrillas which took place in the Ercis district of Van province at 00:20 am (2120 GMT), the sources said. The army launched an operation to catch the perpetrators. Around midday on Saturday a bomb attack on a similar military installation in the province of Mardin bordering Syria killed two soldiers and a civilian and wounded dozens. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, and began its insurgency in 1984. Just in the last year, thousands of militants, security force members and civilians have died. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday that senior PKK commander Fehman Huseyin had been killed in a bomb attack on a car in which he was travelling in northeast Syria. The report has not been confirmed. Huseyin, a Syrian Kurd also known by the code name Bahoz Erdal, was killed on Friday evening as he travelled to the northern Syrian city of Qamishli, Anadolu said, citing a spokesman of a Syrian rebel group it named as the Tel Khamis Brigades.

Six killed in two PKK attacks in Turkey
By AFP Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, 10 July 2016/Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed five Turkish soldiers and a member of a village guard in two separate attacks on Sunday, the army and local media said. One Turkish soldier was killed along with the guard in the car bombing on a military outpost in the eastern province of Van early on Sunday, the army said. Village guards are local people who work in cooperation with the Turkish security forces throughout eastern Turkey to protect their settlements from the PKK.At least 15 people were injured including 10 soldiers and five village guards. Among those wounded, one was seriously injured in the mainly Kurdish province, the army said in a statement. Later on Sunday afternoon, four soldiers were killed and another soldier was injured in a roadside bomb attack against an army vehicle in Hakkari province in Turkey’s troubled southeast, Dogan news agency reported, quoting the military. The Turkish security forces had been engaged in Hakkari in a large-scale military operation to eliminate Kurdish militants from the province, which is close to the border with northern Iraq, Dogan added. The attacks come a day after the PKK carried out another car bombing on Saturday in the country’s restive southeast, killing two Turkish soldiers and a civilian outside the city of Mardin close to the Syrian border. Attacks against Turkish military have intensified with almost daily attacks since the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire last July, killing hundreds of security forces. The government has in recent months conducted military operations against the group in the region’s towns and cities in an attempt to rid the urban areas of fighters. Activists claim such actions have also killed innocent civilians caught up in the renewed conflict, which has also seen long curfews supporting the operations. Since the PKK insurgency began in 1984, nearly 40,000 people have been killed. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as by the European Union and the United States.

UN airlifts food to cut off families in northeast Syria
By AP Beirut Sunday, 10 July 2016/The UN began airlifting humanitarian aid to families cut off from supplies in northeastern Syria, bringing 40 tons of food on a flight that landed in Qamishli, an area controlled by the Syrian government, the World Food Program said Sunday. The WFP said the flight landed the night before in Qamishli airport in Syria’s Hassakeh province. The agency estimates that 275,000 people living in many areas of the province have been cut off from food and other supplies for more than six months. It added that it will fly at least 25 rotations between the capital Damascus and Qamishli over the course of a month. The UN classifies Hassakeh as a “hard-to-reach area” although it is accessible by the Syrian government through Qamishli airport. Commercial flights land in Qamishli from Damascus several times a week. Road access into Hassakeh from inside the country has been blocked by ISIS, which controls the neighboring provinces of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, for more than two years, while the border crossings from neighboring countries have been closed since early 2016. “These airlifts are a big step forward in the humanitarian response in Syria this year and bring a glimmer of hope to the people of Hassakeh Governorate who have survived without a lifeline for far too long,” said Jakob Kern, WFP Syria Country Director, adding that WFP food stocks in Qamishli were exhausted a few weeks ago.

France urges military action against al-Nusra Front
AFP, Warsaw Sunday, 10 July 2016/French President Francois Hollande called Saturday for international action against an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, warning that the recent losses sustained by ISIS could embolden other extremist groups. “Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIS) is in retreat, that is beyond dispute,” Hollande said after a meeting with the leaders of the United States, Germany, Britain, Italy and Ukraine on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Warsaw. But, Hollande added, “We must also avoid a situation whereby as Daesh becomes weaker, other groups become stronger.”Hollande singled out al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front as particularly standing to benefit from the US-led military campaign against its arch-rival ISIS. Faced with a barrage of airstrikes and ground offensives by local forces, ISIS has lost territory in both Syria and Iraq in recent months. “We must coordinate among ourselves to continue actions against Daesh but also... take effective action against al-Nusra,” Hollande said, directing his appeal at Russia and the US. On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone call to “intensify” military coordination between their two countries in Syria. Russia had in May proposed joint air strikes with the US against jihadist targets in Syria - a suggestion that was rebuffed by Washington. The White House reported that the two leaders, in their call this week, “confirmed their commitment to defeating ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front.” The two groups are excluded from a broader truce brokered by Moscow and Washington in February.


Egypt FM calls for 2-state solution on Israel visit
By Staff writer Al Arabiya English Sunday, 10 July 2016/Egypt remains a “steadfast and unwavering” supporter of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian foreign minister said on Sunday. Sameh Shoukry made the remarks as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rare visit to Israel, aimed at reviving the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In a press conference with Shoukry, Netanyahu called on the Palestinians “to follow the courageous example of Egypt and Jordan and join us for direct negotiations.”Shoukry’s trip to Israel is the first such visit since 2007. It comes after he visited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 29. It also follows Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s comments in May that there was a “real opportunity” for an Israeli-Palestinian deal that could lead to warmer ties between his country and Israel. Sisi urged Israelis and Palestinians to seize what he said was a “real opportunity” and hailed his own country’s peace deal with Israel. In 1979, Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel after years of conflict, and it remains an influential player in the region. In June, representatives from 28 Arab and Western countries, the Arab League, European Union and the United Nations met in Paris to discuss ways in which the international community could help advance the Palestinian-Israel peace process.(with AFP and the Associated Press)

Saudi security forces closing in on ISIS networks
Saudi Gazette, Riyadh Sunday, 10 July 2016/Saudi security authorities are tightening the noose around ISIS terrorists by pursuing those involved in the recent terrorist blasts and uncovering the coordination between them after the security men’s vigilance thwarted the destructive impact that the terrorists wanted to achieve. Security Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said he does not rule out the existence of contacts between the perpetrators of the recent terrorist bombings in Jeddah, Qatif and Madinah, as the substance used in making the explosive vests is the same in the three blasts. Furthermore, there is evidence on the existence of coordination between them, especially between the Qatif and Madinah incidents, as both attacks took place at Maghreb prayer time. Maj. Al-Turki further said that there are suspicions that the 12 Pakistanis, who it was announced were detained on Thursday, have connections with the Jeddah blast. Al-Turki said one of the perpetrators of the Qatif blast, Abdulrahman Saleh Muhammad Al-Imir, had been detained twice earlier for taking part in riots demanding the release of detainees involved in terror cases. On announcing the detention of 12 Pakistanis, the number of those involved in terror crimes in Saudi Arabia, and are holding Pakistani nationality has reached 41. Imams of mosques in the majority of the region’s countries have dedicated their Friday sermons to denouncing terrorism and violating the sanctity of the Prophet’s Mosque. They warned terrorists that they would not achieve their goals in Saudi Arabia and the other regional countries. This article was first published by the Saudi Gazette on July 10, 2016.

UAE, Bahrain caution citizens on US travel amid protests
The Associated Press, Dubai Sunday, 10 July 2016/Two Mideast countries are warning citizens traveling in the United States to be careful around protests over police shootings. A "special alert" issued by the United Arab Emirates Embassy to Washington on Saturday urged citizens to stay away from demonstrations in US cities. State news agency WAM said the warning followed a protest by supporters of the "Black Lives Matter" movement in Washington on Friday. The island kingdom of Bahrain issued its own advisory on Twitter, telling nationals to be "cautious of protests or crowded areas." The US State Department routinely issues travel advisories for Americans abroad. On Friday, the Bahamas put out its own advisory about US travel, saying young men especially should "exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police."

Gunmen in western Iran kill 2, injure lawmaker
By AP Tehran, Iran Sunday, 10 July 2016/Unknown gunmen killed two people and injured a lawmaker and a local governor in western Iran after opening fire on their car, an Iranian semi-official news agency reported. The Tasnim agency reported Sunday that four gunmen blocked the car and opened fire. The driver and a local veterinary official were killed. Pro-reform lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh sustained minor injuries, and the local governor of the Dalahoo district and a fishery official were also injured. The gunmen fled toward the Iraqi border, according to the Tasnim report. In recent weeks, Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists have clashed in western Iran. Iran said its forces have killed dozens of insurgents in the country’s western provinces near Iraq, which have a large Kurdish minority.

Dallas gunman learned tactics at Texas self-defense school
By AP Dallas Sunday, 10 July 2016/The gunman who killed five police officers at a protest march had practiced military-style drills in his yard and trained at a private self-defense school that teaches special tactics, including “shooting on the move,” a maneuver in which an attacker fires and changes position before firing again. Micah Johnson, an Army veteran, received instruction at the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts in the Dallas suburb of Richardson about two years ago, said the school’s founder and chief instructor, Justin J. Everman. Everman’s statement was corroborated by a police report from May 8, 2015, when someone at a business a short distance away called in a report of several suspicious people in a parked SUV. The investigating officer closed the case just minutes after arriving at a strip mall. While there, the officer spoke to Johnson, who said he “had just gotten out of a class at a nearby self-defense school.”Johnson told the officer he was “waiting for his dad to arrive” and pick up his brother. No one else was apparently questioned. On Friday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings described Johnson as “a mobile shooter” who had written manifestos on how to “shoot and move.”Authorities have said the 25-year-old gunman kept a journal of combat tactics and had amassed a personal arsenal at his home, including bomb-making materials, rifles and ammunition. The academy website refers to one of its courses as a “tactical applications program,” or TAP. “Reality is highly dynamic, you will be drawing your firearm, moving, shooting on the move, fixing malfunctions, etc. all under high levels of stress,” the website says. “Most people never get to train these skills as they are not typically allowed on the static gun range.”The TAP training includes “shooting from different positions,” “drawing under stress” and “drawing from concealment.” Everman declined to specify which classes Johnson took. “I don’t know anything about Micah. I’m sorry. He’s gone. He’s old to us. I have thousands of people,” Everman told The Associated Press on Saturday. The two men, however, were friendly and talked in Facebook conversations in August 2014. Everman knew Johnson had been out of the country. Army officials said he had been deployed in Afghanistan around that time. Everman suggested that Johnson “let me know when you make it down this way.” “Will be great to get you back in the academy,” Everman said, according to a comment thread saved by the AP before Johnson’s Facebook profile was taken down. “I concur!” Johnson replied. More recently, a neighbor reported to investigators that Johnson had been seen practicing some sort of military drill in his backyard in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, said Clay Jenkins, the Dallas County judge, the county’s most senior elected official. Tensions were still high Saturday in Dallas, where 20 square blocks of downtown remained cordoned off as a crime scene. The police department tightened security Saturday evening after receiving an anonymous threat. Earlier in the day, President Barack Obama called Johnson a “demented individual” who does not represent black Americans any more than a white man accused of killing blacks at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, represents whites. “So we cannot let the actions of a few define all of us,” Obama said from Warsaw, Poland, where he attended a NATO summit. The president planned to visit Dallas in a few days and to convene a White House meeting next week with police officers and community and civil rights activists. It was the third time in as many days that Obama has spoken about the fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota that were immediately followed by the sniper attack in Dallas. Johnson, who donned a protective vest and used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, was killed by a robot-delivered bomb Thursday after the shootings, which marked the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In all, 12 officers were shot just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963.
Johnson was a private first class with a specialty in carpentry and masonry. He served in the Army Reserve for six years starting in 2009 and did one tour in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, the military said. The attack began Thursday evening while hundreds of people were gathered to protest the police killings of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot near St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling, who was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. Video showed protesters marching along a downtown street about half a mile from City Hall when shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover. Marcus Carter, 33, was in the area when people started running toward him, yelling about gunshots. Carter said the first shot sounded like a firecracker. But then they proceeded in quick succession, with brief pauses between spurts of gunfire. “It was breaks in the fire,” he said. “It was a single shot and then after that single shot, it was a brief pause,” followed by many shots in quick succession. After shooting at the Dallas officers, Johnson tried to take refuge in a parking garage and exchanged gunfire with police, authorities said.During negotiations, he said he wanted to exterminate whites, “especially white officers,” the police chief said.

Obama makes symbolic but overshadowed Spain visit
AFP, Madrid Sunday, 10 July 2016/Barack Obama began a shortened but symbolic first presidential trip to Spain Saturday, squeezing in a visit to a key ally before dashing home to deal with the aftermath of a wrenching shooting in Dallas. Obama has cut a two-day visit to the Iberian Peninsula down to one and cancelled a trip to Seville with city native King Felipe altogether, after a black army veteran in Dallas killed five white police officers. Obama, who prides himself on his measured approach, is usually loath to alter carefully laid plans. But the shooting -- just blocks from the place where John F. Kennedy was assassinated -- has pushed a country crackling with political tension to the edge. Speaking in Warsaw just before Air Force One departed for Spain, Obama insisted the country’s divisions were overplayed. This was not, he insisted, the crisis-ridden days of the 1960s, when US cities burned, the Vietnam War raged and the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King were slain. But his decision to shorten the trip is a tacit acknowledgement that the United States faces a combustible mix of deteriorating race relations, hyper-charged election politics and seemingly never-ending gun violence.
In recent months, the emergence of videos of deadly mass shootings, or of white police officers killing black civilians have become routine. Yet the refusal of America’s first black president to scratch the trip to Spain entirely also reflects a determination to fulfil geopolitical goals. “President Obama has long thought it important, given the close cooperation between our countries, for him to travel to Spain, which he has not had an opportunity to do during his time in office,” said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. “Spain is a vital ally, partner, and friend to the United States,” he added, citing the EU and NATO ally’s role in the fight against ISIS as well as historical ties. Obama, who was greeted on arrival at Torrejon Air Base by King Felipe, will visit a US Naval Station at Rota, in southern Spain, addressing US personnel who have been stationed at the mouth of the Mediterranean since a deal with Spain’s former dictator Francisco Franco. Since the time of the Greeks, Romans, Moors, Phoenicians and Visigoths, the Bay of Cadiz has been as a prime piece of geopolitical real-estate. Today, it has taken on renewed importance with the deployment of four US Aegis destroyers. They form an integral part of a European missile defense system much despised by Russia. The transfer of the system to NATO control was a key part of an alliance summit in Warsaw which stressed deterring Moscow from destabilizing Eastern Europe.
A country divided
Obama’s visit comes as Spain remains mired in a months-old political crisis, with two general elections resulting in no clear victor. The two center-left and center-right parties that have dominated Spanish politics since the advent of democracy in the late 1970s have, in the face of insurgent leftists, so far been unable to form a government. Obama will meet acting premier Mariano Rajoy as well as opposition leaders. He will also hold talks with King Felipe at the presidential palace, before heading back to the United States, a country that now seems as divided in its politics as Spain.
 

Iraq War was illegal, says Blair’s former deputy
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 10 July 2016/Former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has revealed his believe that the 2003 Iraq War was “illegal,” days after an inquiry into the war savaged Tony Blair, who was prime minister at the time. Prescott, now a member of the House of Lords, said he would live with the "catastrophic decision" of Britain going to war, alongside the United States, for the rest of his life. "A day doesn't go by when I don't think of the decision we made to go to war. Of the British troops who gave their lives or suffered injuries for their country. Of the 175,000 civilians who died from the Pandora's Box we opened by removing Saddam Hussein," he wrote in the Sunday Mirror. On Wednesday, the Chilcot report returned a damning verdict on Britain's role in the US-led war, finding it joined the conflict before all peaceful options had been exhausted and that judgements about Iraq's capacities were "presented with a certainty that was not justified". It also said the invasion was not the "last resort" action presented to parliament and the public, and there was no "imminent threat" from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Prescott said Blair's statement that "I am with you, whatever" in a message to then US President George W. Bush before the invasion in March 2003, as revealed in the Chilcot report, was "devastating". Prescott said he now agreed "with great sadness and anger" with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan that the war was illegal. He also praised Labour part leader Jeremy Corbyn for apologizing on the party's behalf. Prescott expressed his own "fullest apology," particularly to the families of British forces who died. Blair has previously apologized for any mistakes made but not the decision to go to war. He insisted the war was right and the world was safer without toppled Saddam. Some 150,000 Iraqi people were killed in the six years after British and American troops invaded, plunging the country into chaos and creating fertile ground for militant groups like ISIS. A total of 179 British troops also died.(With AFP)

Police officer who shot Philando Castile ‘reacted to gun, not race’
By AFP, Washington Sunday, 10 July 2016/The Minnesota police officer whose fatal shooting of a black driver this week helped prompt nationwide protests against racial prejudice reacted to the man's gun, not his race, his lawyer said Saturday. Jeronimo Yanez, a police officer in St. Anthony, a Minneapolis suburb, "was reacting to the presence of a gun" when he shot Philando Castile, Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly told The New York Times. Castile, 32, was shot Wednesday after he was pulled over in Falcon Heights, near Minneapolis, for a broken tail light. Amplifying the horror was the video live-streamed in the shooting's aftermath by the slain man's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, as she sat in the passenger seat. Her four-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat. Castile was shot after informing the officer that he had a gun and a permit to carry, and then reaching for his wallet, according to Reynolds. He was the second black man in two days fatally shot by US police. They are the latest in a string of similar cases that have fueled outrage across the United States, from city streets to the White House. Although Kelly provided the fullest account so far of Yanez's version of the shooting on Wednesday, many details remain unclear. Yanez, who is Latino, is on leave while the state authorities are investigating the shooting. "The shooting had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the presence of that gun," Kelly told the Times. Castile "was not following the directions of the police officer," he added, declining to provide more details, the paper said. There was "more than the reason for the equipment violation" to stop Castile's car, Kelly said, without specifying other reasons, the Times said. Governor Mark Dayton, who met with protesters and black leaders, has expressed sympathy for the Castile family and concerns about the role of race in the shooting, infuriating some in law enforcement. "Would this have happened if those passengers - the driver and the passengers - were white?" he said Thursday. "I don't think it would've." The fatal shooting of Castile and another black man, Alton Sterling, in Louisiana the previous day, prompted protests against police brutality toward African Americans under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement. During a protest in Dallas on Thursday, a lone gunman bent on revenge opened fire on police, killing five officers and wounding seven others, deepening divisions in a shocked country. The authorities identified the Dallas shooter, who was black, as an Army veteran who

Several killed in India’s Jammu and Kashmir protests
By Reuters Srinagar Sunday, 10 July 2016/Four protesters and a police officer were killed in India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir state on Sunday, police said, raising the death toll in violence sparked by the death of a separatist militant to 20 since Friday. Protests erupted after security services on Friday evening shot dead 22-year-old militant leader Burhan Wani. His death came amid a rise in violence and separatist sentiment across the state, which has been at the centre of a tussle between India and Pakistan for decades. The director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police, K. Rajendra Kumar, told reporters that 100 members of the security forces had been wounded and that three were missing. In addition, “miscreants threw a police vehicle into River Jhelum”, south of the state’s summer capital of Srinagar, killing the officer inside, he said. On Saturday, police had said that angry crowds set fire to three police stations and two government buildings south of Srinagar, and blocked roads. Kumar put the protestor death toll at 15, but a second officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said four more died on Sunday in clashes with security forces, raising the total number of deaths to 20.Confrontations continued on Sunday despite the authorities imposing round-the-clock curfew conditions on most of the Kashmir valley, the officer said. Wani was the leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, a group fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region. His social media videos show him wearing military fatigues and calling for jihad. Activists and separatist leaders have criticized the security forces’ response to the protests, accusing them of using excessive force. “It is shocking and painful that Indian armed forces have yet again unleashed terror on the mourners and protesters, resulting in massive civilian casualties,” Khurram Parvez, an activist with rights group the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society, said in a statement. The local government has appealed to the public and separatist political leaders to help calm the situation.

Fresh firefight in South Sudan capital
AFP, Juba Sunday, 10 July 2016/Gunfire was once again heard in South Sudan’s capital on Sunday as former rebels and government soldiers exchanged fire on the outskirts of the city.“Gunshots, heavily armed exchange UN House area once again; going on now since approx. 08:25 (05:25 GMT),” the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said on Twitter. The UN runs a camp for people uprooted by the war close to where both former rebels and government soldiers are camped. Residents fled the area as the UN reported the use of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and “heavy ground assault weaponry.”A spokesman for former rebel leader turned vice president Riek Machar blamed government troops. “Our forces have been attacked at Jebel base,” said James Gatdet Dak, who claimed the attack had been repulsed. “We hope it will not escalate,” he said. The outbreak of fighting on Sunday morning was the first since Friday when brief but heavy exchanges of fire left an estimated 150 soldiers dead on both sides, on the eve of the country’s fifth anniversary of independence. There were no details of casualties from Sunday’s shooting. The recent violence in the world’s youngest country represents yet another blow to a shaky peace deal that has so far failed to end the civil war that broke out in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July10-11/16

The Future of Iraq: Iran Attacks the Kurds, Maliki Ready to Lead, and the IRGC Taking Sunni Land
Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
Fallujah has finally been liberated from ISIL. And in a country where good news is scarce, this is clung to as a beginning of something rosy and different. Well, what may be in store is in fact more problems and shocks.
We will provide some snapshots here to point to the likely course of events in the immediate future in Iraq. But we wish first to illustrate some of these events.
In Iraq, like anywhere else, each situation has multiple and sometimes countervailing elements. These elements do not necessarily manifest, as they take place, the overall sum of the outcomes of their processes. And more often than not, they are unable to parse the situation as an integral whole.
While we see elements of the disintegration of Iraq being activated now under many pretexts, we also see the ingredients of the united future scattered here and there before our eyes, and we only need an encompassing concept to fit them into a roadmap for the next few years, as well as a conscious effort to implement it, of course.
On the stage of events in Iraq, we see both forces of disintegration and union fermenting within a whole that is conducive of rapid change.
Just a week ago, Muqtada al-Sadr, bluntly called the Shia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF – al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) a sectarian body. “These forces do not represent Iraq or me personally,” he said, adding that the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tore Iraq apart and lost Mosul, Fallujah, Camp Speicher, and al-Saqlawiya. Camp Speicher is where ISIL committed a horrendous massacre in 2014 by killing over 1500 cadets, mostly Shia, while al-Saqlawiya is where the PMF killed hundreds of Sunni civilians a few weeks ago, near Fallujah.
Sadr also promised to help “the compatriot Iraqis” of Fallujah in their current tragedy: Being liberated from the sectarian jihadist ISIL only to fall under the control of the openly sectarian jihadist PMF, at least around the ghost city, which is all but destroyed.
Sadr’s piercing criticism came at the moment Maliki was hosting the Iranian Quds force’s Qassem Soleimani, who is effectively the ultimate commander of Iraq’s PMF, in a Ramadan Iftar at the heavily guarded house of the former prime minister in Baghdad.
Following the meeting, Maliki had this to say to the BBC on July 3: “I am ready to get back the post of the Prime Minister if the majority political bloc in Parliament agrees to that.” Maliki waged an intense verbal attack on Sadr, considering him one of the main culprits of the recent chaos in Baghdad.
On the other hand, Ayatollah al-Sayyid Ali Sistani is a major proponent in the current desperate effort to preserve the unity of Iraq and repair relations between Shias and Sunnis. It is certain that Sistani stands squarely behind maintaining a national identity under which all Iraqis are equal. But the influential Ayatollah interferes sparingly in political life.
Iraqi Sunnis should not be embittered to the point of not hearing these voices of unity, or of putting all Shias in the same basket. No one can paint the outlook of all Shias or all Sunnis as sectarian-driven.
Except for in ISIL and similar groups where the sectarian identity comes as the antithesis of national identity, being a Shia or a Sunni does not negate the national identity of both groups as Iraqis, bonded to each other by the common place they call home and by centuries of living together in peace. ISIL sees people through the prism of an extremely narrow sectarian classification that is hostile to all Shias and most Sunnis who do not adhere in a literal fashion to the terrorist groups’ line of thinking.
In other words, here we see sectarian elements, encouraged by conflicting external strategies and interests, standing opposed to a unifying national identity. If Maliki makes a comeback as prime minister, assisted by the IRGC and its stooges in Baghdad, that will certainly be a setback in the effort to save Iraq as a unified country. ISIL is pushing this forward as hard as it can through its recent series of suicide attacks on civilians in predominantly Shia areas of Baghdad. The PMF is completing the circle through its massacres of Sunni civilians around Fallujah. Both groups have one joint objective: to widen the sectarian cracks of their country.
Our own evaluation of the situation in Iraq reaches the conclusion that Iran is moving ahead with its last phase in the campaign to swallow the country whole. Soleimani sees in current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a weak leader who is divided between the pragmatic necessities of governance, preserving the unity of Iraq at least in form, and balancing his ties with different actors.
To move in for the kill requires a decisive strong man like Maliki who is capable of assisting Soleimani in achieving the necessary full control of central Iraq. We expect more vigorous moves to weaken al-Abadi even more, until the moment his departure will take only a gentle nudge.
While Soleimani was busy setting the groundwork for the decisive Iranian move into central Iraq, his IRGC bosses were providing the necessary assistance through an intense attack on the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in the north of Iraq.
Major General Hossein Salami, second-in-command of the IRGC, said at a Friday July 1 prayer speech in Tehran University, “I warn the officials of northern Iraq to adhere to their commitments, as the Islamic Republic will crush threats regardless of geographical considerations,” according to the Tehran Times.
The situation on the border between Iran and the KRG territories is close to open conflict. Tehran says that Kurdish-Iranian separatist groups are waging their operations from KRG territories. The Kurdish fighters responded with a series of spectacular attacks on IRGC forces inside Iran in villages not far from the border, even while this border was monitored vigorously by its units. IRGC artillery shells fall on Iraqi Kurdish territories on a daily basis and with increasing intensity. Baghdad has remained silent.
The real objective of the IRGC seems to be putting the KRG under pressure to force it to reduce any role it may play in the battle for Mosul. Tehran does not seem worried about the US role in fighting ISIL. US military involvement in similar situations has never been consistent, nor does it last long, as politicians in Washington love to change directions even if there is success, as with the drawback that followed General David Petraeus’s team in forming the Anbar tribal Sahwa units.
Placing the KRG under continuous pressure will leave planners of the anti-ISIL fight with the PMF and the Iraqi army to work with. The army is under the control of the central government. By propelling Maliki forward, expanding the role of pro-Tehran political forces in Baghdad, and ultimately regaining full control of the man who occupies the seat of the prime minister, Iran would have free access to control central Iraq.
Here again we see the pattern of conflicting forces clearly surfacing. On the one hand, the Anbar Tribal Hashd, a tribal force contributing actively to fighting ISIL, is building its momentum in ISIL. Civil society in Iraq is still showing resistance to sectarianism, corruption, foreign meddling in Iraqi affairs, and attempts to impose sectarian control over any group of Iraqis.
There are many other details in the picture of the situation in Iraq: the end of al-Abadi’s attempt to introduce reforms for the government, the attempt to slow the return of Iraqi Sunnis to their villages after their liberation from ISIL, the continuation of all possible tricks to block the reconvening of the Parliament, the effort to isolate the Saudi Ambassador in Baghdad and prevent him from even offering ideas to mitigate the suffering of civilians in central Iraq, and so on.
But the ultimate significance of reading this picture as a whole is that we find out that the defeat of ISIL will not mean, by any stretch of imagination, the end of the Iraqi crisis, that the IRGC is setting the theater for its “final solution” in central Iraq, and that there are still forces that are heroically resisting the attempt to slaughter Iraq either by its neighbors or by their agents within.

Obama and the Ultimate Betrayal of Syrians’ Dream of Freedom
Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
The world knows now about the partnership proposed by the Obama administration to President Vladimir Putin’s government to “deepen military cooperation between the two countries against some terrorists in exchange for Russia getting the Assad regime to stop bombing U.S.-supported rebels” as the Washington Post phrased it on June 30.
The crux of the deal is to lift US-Russian cooperation “to unprecedented level”. “In exchange, the Russians would agree to pressure the Assad regime to stop bombing certain Syrian rebel groups the United States does not consider terrorists. The United States would not give Russia the exact locations of these groups, under the proposal, but would specify geographic zones that would be safe from the Assad regime’s aerial assaults,” the Post said.
Let us see first how the advocates of the deal saw and promoted its impact.
A typical advocate of the deal would say the following:
The US wants Assad to respect the ceasefire deal. It wants to eliminate the threat of al-Qaeda. Solving the Syrian crisis will take time. So, for the time being let us focus on reducing violence and confronting Jihadist terrorism in coordination with all who share these objectives with us. Furthermore, for a political solution to move forward, we have to secure Russia’s cooperation.
In all these assertions, we find very clear signs of an administration moving from one failure to the next, and even willing to bind the next administration to this utter failure.
The nature of any deal reflects the relative weight of its signatories. Looking through the appearance and wording of an agreement tells us what kind of leverage each of its parties has. In previous deals, namely the ceasefire arrangement, and according to US officials in the White House and State Department, the Russians and Assad violated their own commitment not to bomb US supported groups and non-terrorist opposition fighters repeatedly and systematically.
Should we ask now what has changed that may compel Moscow and Assad to respect any new deal? How could President Obama and his aides be sure that presidents Putin and Assad will not use any new agreement, as they did with previous ones, in service of their own agendas, and not that shared with the US? Let us, moreover, suppose that the Russians and the Syrian regime will violate the new agreement. What would the US administration do? Well, President Obama did nothing when they both violated the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) agreement. Should we presume then that the real objective of the deal goes beyond any naïve expectation that they both will respect it this time?
President Obama is compelling his successor to remain within the circle of strategic failure that he has imposed on Washington policies in the Middle East since the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring.
Not only that, the president is helping Assad continue his bloody and oppressive policies, giving up on promoting American values under the pretext of defending them, and rendering a helping hand to Putin’s global game-plan. And this is how:
– Assad always wanted to turn the conflict into a black and white picture in which his forces fight the bad guys (the terrorists of ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra – JAN). JAN fought ISIL fiercely. Over a year and half ago, some Arab countries pressured the group to commit to not waging any terrorist act outside of Syria, and it has not. The group is working closely with other non-terrorist groups against the regime and against ISIL simultaneously. And using the air force to bomb it without hitting non-terrorist organizations as well is just about impossible.
Let us imagine a typical Syrian opposition fighter who hates religious extremism, yet he is an avowed Muslim, and dreaming of a country free of oppression and fear. He finds JAN fighters helping him in his battle against Assad. He sees US planes bombing him, his group, and JAN. What does anyone expect that fighter, who is a very common type in Syria now, to do? Fight JAN? Or fight the Americans?
President Obama turned the US, in one single stroke, to an enemy of the Syrian people and its dream of freedom.
Furthermore, the reward for this shameful retreat will be more failure. The reason for that is that no air force can settle such conflicts alone. ISIL could not have been forced to retreat without the long resistance of the rest of Syria’s opposition groups to its expansion in the last three years. ISIL has killed more opposition fighters than it has Assad soldiers. In addition to the long fight by the opposition to limit ISIL’s expansion, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) has fought heroically against the terrorist group. In both cases, air raids were only a secondary, yet important, factor in stopping ISIL.
The “new” agreement, which is not as new as the Washington Post made it seem, will certainly lead to an additional blurring of the lines separating JAN and the rest of the Syrian opposition. It is the best service ever rendered to JAN. And for free!
And how could that minimize civilian casualties? How could planes tell the difference, say in Idlib or Aleppo, between civilians, JAN, Free Syrian Army or any other non-terrorist group? And did Washington “strategists” think of the way civilians and other opposition groups will look now at those who cooperate with the Kremlin, the White House, and Assad? By repositioning the US as a member in the Putin-led alliance in Syria, president Obama crossed all lines of self-inflicted humiliation and is redrawing the map in Syria and the role of the US. All this under the pretext of fighting al-Qaeda? This acceptable pretext hides the total chaos in the policy-making circles in Washington. Are not all these fiascos enough? Fighting JAN requires a sophisticated approach through which the US widens the space between the group and its environment, rather than eliminating it.
Furthermore, it is Putin now who should be named the “Decider-in-Chief”. He forced the US to effectively say that they follow his game-plan: All opposition groups are terrorists and Assad should remain. For the moment the US planes target JAN, which means others will be hit as well, we will be faced with the opposition transforming into one big ball of anger against all four allies: Russia, the US, Assad, and Iran.
The right approach may have been a little too complicated for the likes of Ben Rhodes to grasp. The US must create and expand a “Middle Zone” – the zone in which neither ISIL-JAN nor Assad exist. Such an approach requires patience, strategic vision, and measured steps. Instead, we have seen a chain of mistakes culminating in a move that will definitely expand the scope of extremism. We cannot now be sure that the divisions in the overall body of the opposition will remain readable or clear any longer. Obama has made the final move to force all parts of the opposition to stand together regardless of their differences on terrorism or extremism.
Obama wasted this opportunity back in 2012-2013. Now, it is the Syrian people who have to pay the price of a president trying to limit his mistakes by making more mistakes and to reduce his losses by laying the ground for more losses. Only politicians and armature strategists fix their errors not by admitting them, for they have no ethics or deep intellect, but by doubling down to protect their ego and popular image.
The US has officially moved to the camp of the Decider-in-Chief and one of the worst dictators of modern times: Bashar al-Assad.
The quadruple alliance, US, Russia, Assad, and Iran, will ultimately lose in Syria. We have no doubt about this. We also have no doubt that the Obama years will be shown as the ultimate betrayal of the cause of freedom in Syria, where the people are punished because they revolted against a dictator peacefully, and have ended up killed by their own regime, the Russians, the Iranians, and now the president of the United States.

It's not Personal, It's Islam
Mark Durie/The Spectator/July 10/16
Editor's note: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal–National Coalition won the most seats in July 2 legislative elections, a result expected to return him to office.
Originally published under the title "Guess Who's Coming to Iftar?"
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thinks that his Iftar dinner guest, Shady Alsuleiman, should "reflect on what he has said" about homosexuals and adulterers.
A widely-publicised Iftar dinner, intended to show that Malcolm Turnbull gets what it means to be inclusive, ended badly after he was advised that one of his guests, Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman, had taught that Islam prescribes death for adulterers, and homosexuals spread diseases. No rogue maverick, Australian-born Alsuleiman is the elected national president of the Australian National Imams Council.
Although insisting that "mutual respect is absolutely critical," Turnbull subjected this prominent Muslim leader to public humiliation. He regretted inviting him to dinner and counselled the sheikh "to reflect on what he has said and recant." In the middle of an election, wanting to limit fallout from the dinner-gone-wrong, held only days after the Orlando massacre, Turnbull stated that his no-longer-welcome guest's views are "wrong, unacceptable, and I condemn them."
Well, Mr. Turnbull may deplore Alsuleiman's teachings, but the real challenge is that these were not merely his personal views. The sheikh's teachings on homosexuality and adultery reflect the mainstream position of Islam, preached by many a Muslim scholar around the world today. Telling a sheikh to reject the sharia is like telling a pope to get over the virgin birth. Western leaders pretend that the objectionable teachings of Muslim faith leaders are personal faults.
Many Australian Muslims will be disappointed at the treatment meted out to Sheikh Alsuleiman. An event designed to honour the Muslim community ended up providing a platform to denigrate one of their most respected leaders for promoting Islamic doctrines. Several Australian Muslim leaders have since dug in their heels to affirm support for the sharia position on homosexuals. So much for recanting.
While Turnbull refused to pass judgement on Islam itself, saying "there are different views of different issues, as there are in all religions," he also sent a message that he is prepared to disparage Australian Muslims' religious beliefs. It was a bitter pill for Muslims to swallow that this came in the form of a humiliating invite-to-disavow game of bait-and-switch, conducted during a pre-election media storm.
The cognitive dissonance is startling.
On the one hand, Mr. Turnbull has stated, "I reject and condemn any comments which disparage any group of Australians, whether on the basis of their race, their religion, their sexuality, their gender." On the other, he is willing to disparage one of Australia's most prominent Muslim religious leaders on the basis of his religious teachings.
Turnbull has also said "It is vital in our multicultural society that every part feels included and that each of us gives to the other the mutual respect that each of them gives us." A video response posted on Sheikh Alsuleiman's Facebook page, and viewed more than 40,000 times, asks, "But that statement also includes respect for people's religious beliefs, doesn't it?"
Turnbull and others subscribe to the idea that the same basic values are channeled by all religions.
Turnbull appears to subscribe to the really bad idea that the same basic values are channeled by all religions. In 2011 on Q&A he praised Islam's moderation in embodying "universal values." This vacuous universalism has blinded him to the possibility that a religion might actually teach things that he would be duty-bound to disparage. No doubt the PM is also influenced by advice from ASIO not to alienate Muslims by criticising their religion. This policy is ultimately driven by fear of offending adherents of the one religion from which most terrorists are drawn; and why millions of dollars are directed to Muslim organisations, and not to Sikhs or Copts. Turnbull attempted to use a "shoot the messenger" strategy to minimise the cognitive dissonance of his conflicted statements, directing attention away from the religion onto an individual.
The fact remains that, whatever the sheikh's personal attitudes to gays, his teachings on adultery and homosexuality are not personal. Given his extensive training in sharia law, Alsuleiman's views could only be called personal if they had diverged from mainstream Islamic positions. But they did not.
Turnbull's staff might have googled the sheikh before they invited him to dinner. And as Alsuleiman's Facebook post put it, "the prime minister might have the same issue in future when inviting just about any other Muslim imam to any other function." Rather than calling out the sheikh as a hater, what is needed is to challenge the religious doctrines which have determined his preaching.
As long as our political leaders pretend that objectionable Islamic teachings are merely personal faults, while insisting that the religion of Islam is above reproach, we will stay stuck in this unhelpful place; where we tell a highly trained Muslim imam that we respect his religion, but denigrate his religious beliefs as bigotry. The conversation needs to be about Islamic sharia, not those who preach it.
**Mark Durie is the pastor of an Anglican church, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness.

The Arabs' Historic Mistakes in Their Interactions with Israel
Fred Maroun/Gatestone Institute/July 10/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8388/arabs-israel-historic-mistakes
We Arabs managed our relationship with Israel atrociously, but the worst of all is the ongoing situation of the Palestinians. Our worst mistake was in not accepting the United Nations partition plan of 1947.
Perhaps one should not launch wars if one is not prepared for the results of possibly losing them.
The Jews are not keeping the Arabs in camps, we are.
Jordan integrated some refugees, but not all. We could have proven that we Arabs are a great and noble people, but instead we showed the world, as we continue to do, that our hatred towards each other and towards Jews is far greater than any concept of purported Arab solidarity.
This is part one of a two-part series. The second part will examine what we Arabs can do differently today.
In the current state of the relationship between the Arab world and Israel, we see a patchwork of hostility, tense peace, limited cooperation, calm, and violence. We Arabs managed our relationship with Israel atrociously, but the worst of all is the ongoing situation of the Palestinians.
The Original Mistake
Our first mistake lasted centuries, and occurred well before Israel's declaration of independence in May 1948. It consisted of not recognizing Jews as equals.
As documented by a leading American scholar of Jewish history in the Muslim world, Mark R. Cohen, during that era, "Jews shared with other non-Muslims the status of dhimmis [non-Muslims who have to pay protection money and follow separate debasing laws to be tolerated in Muslim-controlled areas] ... New houses of worship were not to be built and old ones could not be repaired. They were to act humbly in the presence of Muslims. In their liturgical practice they had to honor the preeminence of Islam. They were further required to differentiate themselves from Muslims by their clothing and by eschewing symbols of honor. Other restrictions excluded them from positions of authority in Muslim government".
On March 1, 1944, while the Nazis were massacring six million Jews, and well before Israel declared independence, Haj Amin al-Husseini, then Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, declared on Radio Berlin, "Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you."
If we had not made this mistake, we might have benefited in two ways.
Jews would likely have remained in the Muslim Middle East in greater numbers, and they would have advanced the Middle Eastern civilization rather than the civilizations of the places to which they fled, most notably Europe and later the United States.
Secondly, if Jews felt secure and accepted in the Middle East among Arabs, they may not have felt the need to create an independent state, which would have saved us from our subsequent mistakes.
The Worst Mistake
Our second and worst mistake was in not accepting the United Nations partition plan of 1947. UN resolution 181 provided the legal basis for a Jewish state and an Arab state sharing what used to be British-controlled Mandatory Palestine.
As reported by the BBC, that resolution provided for:
"A Jewish State covering 56.47% of Mandatory Palestine (excluding Jerusalem) with a population of 498,000 Jews and 325,000 Arabs; An Arab State covering 43.53% of Mandatory Palestine (excluding Jerusalem), with 807,000 Arab inhabitants and 10,000 Jewish inhabitants; An international trusteeship regime in Jerusalem, where the population was 100,000 Jews and 105,000 Arabs."
Although the land allocated to the Jewish state was slightly larger than the land allocated to the Arab state, much of the Jewish part was total desert, the Negev and Arava, with the fertile land allocated to the Arabs. The plan was also to the Arabs' advantage for two other reasons:
The Jewish state had only a bare majority of Jews, which would have given the Arabs almost as much influence as the Jews in running the Jewish state, but the Arab state was almost purely Arab, providing no political advantage to Jews within it.
Each proposed state consisted of three more-or-less disconnected pieces, resulting in strong geographic interdependence between the two states. If the two states were on friendly terms, they would likely have worked in many ways as a single federation. In that federation, Arabs would have had a strong majority.
Instead of accepting that gift of a plan when we still could, we Arabs decided that we could not accept a Jewish state, period. In May 1948, Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League, announced, regarding the proposed new Jewish part of the partition: that, "This will be a war of extermination, a momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." We initiated a war intended to eradicate the new state in its infancy, but we lost, and the result of our mistake was a much stronger Jewish state:
The Jewish majority of the Jewish state grew dramatically due to the exchange of populations that occurred, with many Arabs fleeing the war in Israel and many Jews fleeing a hostile Arab world to join the new state.
The Jews acquired additional land during the war we launched, resulting in armistice lines (today called the green lines or pre-1967 lines), which gave Israel a portion of the land previously allocated to the Arab state. The Jewish state also acquired much better contiguity, while the Arab portions became divided into two parts (Gaza and the West Bank) separated by almost 50 kilometers.
Perhaps one should not launch wars if one is not prepared for the results of possibly losing them.
In May 1948, Azzam Pasha (right), the General Secretary of the Arab League, announced, regarding the proposed new Jewish part of the partition: that, "This will be a war of extermination, a momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
More Wars and More Mistakes
After the War of Independence (the name that the Jews give to the war of 1947/1948), Israel was for all practical purposes confined to the land within the green lines. Israel had no authority or claim over Gaza and the West Bank. We Arabs had two options if we had chosen to make peace with Israel at that time:
We could have incorporated Gaza into Egypt, and the West Bank into Jordan, providing the Palestinians with citizenship in one of two relatively strong Arab countries, both numerically and geographically stronger than Israel.
We could have created a new state in Gaza and the West Bank.
Instead, we chose to continue the hostilities with Israel. In the spring of 1967, we formed a coalition to attack Israel. On May 20, 1967, Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad stated, "The time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation." On May 27, 1967, Egypt's President Abdul Nasser declared, "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel". In June, it took Israel only six days to defeat us and humiliate us in front of the world. In that war, we lost much more land, including Gaza and the West Bank.
After the war of 1967 (which Jews call the Six-Day War), Israel offered us land for peace, thereby offering us a chance to recover from the mistake of the Six-Day War. We responded with the Khartoum Resolutions, stating, "No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel".
Not having learned from 1967, we formed yet another coalition in October 1973 and tried again to destroy Israel. We achieved some gains, but then the tide turned and we lost again. After this third humiliating defeat, our coalition against Israel broke up, and Egypt and Jordan even decided to make peace with Israel.
The rest of us remained stubbornly opposed to Israel's very existence, even Syria which, like Egypt and Jordan, had lost land to Israel during the Six-Day War. Today Israel still holds that territory, and there is no real prospect for that land ever going back to Syria; Israel's Prime Minister recently declared that, "Israel will never leave the Golan Heights".
The Tragedy of the Palestinians
The most reprehensible and the most tragic of our mistakes is the way that we Arabs have treated Palestinians since Israel's declaration of independence.
The Jews of Israel welcomed Jewish refugees from Arab and other Muslim lands into the Israeli fold, regardless of the cost or the difficulty in integrating people with very different backgrounds. Israel eagerly integrated refugees from far-away lands, including Ethiopia, India, Morocco, Brazil, Iran, Ukraine, and Russia. By doing so, they demonstrated the powerful bond that binds Jews to each other. At the same time, we had the opportunity similarly to show the bond that binds Arabs together, but instead of welcoming Arab refugees from the 1947/48 war, we confined them to camps with severe restrictions on their daily lives.
In Lebanon, as reported by Amnesty International, "Palestinians continue to suffer discrimination and marginalization in the labor market which contribute to high levels of unemployment, low wages and poor working conditions. While the Lebanese authorities recently lifted a ban on 50 of the 70 jobs restricted to them, Palestinians continue to face obstacles in actually finding employment in them. The lack of adequate employment prospects leads a high drop-out rate for Palestinian schoolchildren who also have limited access to public secondary education. The resultant poverty is exacerbated by restrictions placed on their access to social services".
Yet, Lebanon and Syria could not integrate refugees that previously lived a few kilometers away from the country's borders and who shared with the country's people almost identical cultures, languages, and religions. Jordan integrated some refugees but not all. We could have proven that we Arabs are a great and noble people, but instead we showed the world, as we continue to do, that our hatred towards each other and towards Jews is far greater than any concept of purported Arab solidarity. Shamefully to us, seven decades after the Palestinian refugees fled Israel, their descendants are still considered refugees.
The worst part of the way we have treated Palestinian refugees is that even within the West Bank and Gaza, there remains to this day a distinction between Palestinian refugees and native Palestinians. In those lands, according to the year 2010 numbers provided by Palestinian Refugee ResearchNet at McGill University, 37% of Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza live in camps! Gaza has eight Palestinian refugee camps, and the West bank has nineteen. The Jews are not keeping the Arabs in camps, we are. Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas claims a state on those lands, but we can hardly expect him to be taken seriously when he leaves the Palestinian refugees under his authority in camps and cannot even integrate them with other Palestinians. The ridiculousness of the situation is rivaled only by its callousness.
Where We Are Now
Because of our own mistakes, our relationship with Israel today is a failure. The only strength in our economies is oil, a perishable resource and, with fracking, diminishing in value. We have not done nearly enough to prepare for the future when we will need inventiveness and productivity. According to Foreign Policy Magazine, "Although Arab governments have long recognized the need to shift away from an excessive dependence on hydrocarbons, they have had little success in doing so. ... Even the United Arab Emirates' economy, one of the most diversified in the Gulf, is highly dependent on oil exports".
Business Insider rated Israel in 2015 as the world's third most innovative country. Countries from all over the world take advantage of Israel's creativity, including countries as remote and as advanced as Japan. Yet we snub Israel, an innovation powerhouse that happens to be at our borders.
We also fail to take advantage of Israel's military genius to help us fight new and devastating enemies such as ISIS.
Worst of all, one of our own people, the Palestinians, are dispersed -- divided, disillusioned, and utterly incapable of reviving the national project that we kidnapped from under their feet in 1948 and that we have since disfigured beyond recognition.
To say that we must change our approach towards Israel is an understatement. There are fundamental changes that we ourselves must make, and we must find the courage and moral fortitude to make them.
The Jews are not keeping the Arabs in camps, we are.
**Fred Maroun, a left-leaning Arab based in Canada, has authored op-eds for New Canadian Media, among other outlets. From 1961-1984, he lived in Lebanon.
© 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.

UK: Labour Pains
Douglas MurrayGatestone Institute/July 10/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8440/uk-labour-pains
It is hard to expel junior members for crimes no worse than those committed by the leader of their party.
That two anti-Semitic incidents had occurred at the launch of this whitewash -- one from Corbyn himself in which he seemed to compare Israel with ISIS, and another in which a Jewish Labour MP felt bullied into leaving -- apparently was just the tip of the problem.
It is finished. The last attempt to instil a portion of decency into the party of the British left is over. The party of the UK left -- the Labour party -- has now returned to precisely the position it was in before its recent racism row. It has investigated itself, found itself innocent and now reappointed the figure who kicked the whole row off.
Gatestone readers have been able to follow this from the start. After Jeremy Corbyn's shock election as Labour party leader last year, in November we covered the "new racism" that came -- and would increasingly come -- from a party that had just elected a man who has called Hamas and Hezbollah 'friends' and who has spent a lifetime palling up with the worst anti-Semites and anti-Western bigots on the planet. The election of such a man, we predicted, would have consequences.
Then in February of this year, when the Labour Club at Oxford University turned out to be overrun by barely disguised and largely open anti-Semitism, we suggested that the rot of this party had surely started "from the top." It is hard to expel junior members for crimes no worse than those committed by the leader of their party.
In March we covered the growing tolerance within the party for the spread of anti-Semitic tropes and the dominance of anti-Semitic types. Parliamentary candidate Vicky Kirby had previously been suspended from the Labour party for tweeting about Jews having "big noses" and about Adolf Hitler being the "Zionist god" and similar less-than-attractive outpourings. Under Mr Corbyn's leadership, Ms Kirby was reinstated and became the vice-chair of her party's local chapter.
Then in May came the beginning of the big scandal -- the one that looked finally, perhaps, even likely to move Jeremy Corbyn from his position. At the end of April, a string of scandals had occurred all in precisely the same area. Naz Shah -- an MP for Bradford -- was found to have spread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages on Facebook and other social media. These included a suggestion that the Jews of Israel all be forcibly deported and sent to America. At the same time, Labour MP Rupa Huq appeared to try to justify, and then swiftly step back, from endorsing such sentiments and a set of Muslim Labour councillors were suspended for anti-Semitic outbursts.
Once former London Mayor and member of the party's executive committee Ken Livingstone had started claiming that the Jews had been in alliance with Hitler before the Holocaust, even Jeremy Corbyn realised that he had to act. He promptly set up a review into anti-Semitism run by new party member, Shami Chakrabarti. We immediately predicted that this review would consist of an attempt to "deny, divert and cover-up" the problem. The warning-signs were already there, not just in that the person appointed to run the review (who among other things had no expertise, knowledge or experience in the issue of anti-Semitism) but because it was swiftly announced that the inquiry would not only look into anti-Semitism but also into the presence of "other forms of racism," including "Islamophobia."
So it was no surprise to anyone when in July we revealed that the Labour party had indeed, as mentioned, "found itself innocent." The Chakrabarti report had found no evidence of anti-Semitism "or other forms of racism," although it did concede that there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere" and some evidence of "ignorant attitudes."
That two anti-Semitic incidents had occurred at the launch of this whitewash -- one from Corbyn himself in which he seemed to compare Israel with ISIS, and another in which a Jewish Labour MP felt bullied into leaving -- apparently was just the tip of the problem.
Since the launch of the report, Jeremy Corbyn has appeared in front of a House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, which is itself looking into the issue of anti-Semitism, and in which Corbyn was questioned on his party's report. Slightly belying the claim that it was fully independent, Ms Chakrabarti sat behind Corbyn while he gave evidence, nodded along to his statements, scowling at criticisms and slipping notes to him to assist him until she was berated by the Chair for doing that. At that hearing, the full intellectual vacuity of her barely 30-page report became evident.
Jeremy Corbyn (center) is questioned by a House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on the Labour party's anti-Semitism inquiry, while the inquiry's author, Shami Chakrabarti (left) scribbles a note to him, July 4, 2016. (Image source: UK Parliament)
At one point Corbyn was asked about one Jackie Walker, an activist who had been suspended and then re-admitted to the party after describing Jews as being the "chief financiers of the slave trade." According to Corbyn, Jackie Walker still had a "positive contribution" to make to the Labour party.
The Chakrabarti report had said, in its section on "guidance on language and behaviour," that "racial or religious tropes and stereotypes about any group of people should have no place in our modern Labour Party." Yet with the report's author sitting behind him, nodding and urging him along, Corbyn then insisted that a figure like Walker not only had a place but had a "positive contribution" to make.
Asked before the House of Commons committee what would henceforth happen to Labour members who used inappropriate terms about Jews, Corbyn replied, "What will happen is that they will be told they should not use them." A bold piece of leadership to be sure.
In any event, readers will not be surprised that after all this, on July 5, it was announced that Naz Shah -- the Labour MP whose suspension had started most of this -- had formally been readmitted into the Labour party. The Labour party for Bradford West is back and all is well. Britain's Labour party has been successfully recaptured. It was all so easily predictable. As will be the next steps in the moral degeneration and demise of the British left.
**Douglas Murray, a British author and commentator, is based in London.
© 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.

China Takes a Cautious Approach to Iran
Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
When the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Tashkent in late June, Russia attempted to win full membership for Iran, but the effort was put off by China, provoking widespread speculation about why Beijing was hesitant to grant the Islamic Republic a clear pathway to full participation in the SCO by 2017. Russia’s top representative to the SCO, Bakhtiyor Khakimov, told Reuters that the delay was based on “technical nuances” and that “work continues” on paving the way for Iran’s eventual membership.
On a limited level, China’s temporary blocking of Iran’s accession was due to geopolitical considerations. China, unlike Russia, is not anxious to alienate key trading partners in the West, including the United States. Also, Iran is viewed by Chinese leaders as a source of instability in the region, primarily because of Iran’s continued involvement in both Iraq and Syria, supporting sectarian Shia and Alawite allies. And for China, instability is a serious obstacle to investment.
But the more significant issues behind China’s hesitation to fully bring Iran into the China-sponsored Shanghai Cooperation Organization are not geopolitical. They are structural.
China views the SCO, with new members India and Pakistan, first and foremost as a free trade bloc. Iran, in spite of the P5+1 deal, remains subject to some sanctions from the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations. And those sanctions, while no longer based on Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, are based on other Iranian activities and on the unique role that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plays in the Iranian economy.
That role is exemplified by the vast Iranian holding company Khatam-al Anbiya, which is run by the IRGC and is a dominant force in the Iranian economy. Khatam-al Anbiya owns over 800 subsidiary companies, predominantly in the construction and engineering sector. They were formed as part of the reconstruction of Iran, following the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988. Khatam-al Anbiya has been on the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated National Sanctions list since October 25, 2007.
Since Xi Jinping took over as President of China and Chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he has launched an ambitious “Rectification Campaign,” aimed at rooting out corruption within the Chinese bureaucracy, the Chinese State Owned Enterprises, the CPC, and the Peoples Liberation Army. Xi sees no such effort underway in Iran, and China has a birds-eye view of the power struggle between the IRGC and hardline clerics on the one side and the Rouhani government on the other.
China’s caution towards giving Iran fast-track membership in the SCO, however, should not be interpreted as a Chinese pullback from engagement with Iran. China formally established diplomatic relations with Iran in 1971, but China has been economically engaged with Iran since 1950, and there is a substantial overseas Chinese community in Iran. In 1985, China and Iran established the Joint Committee on Cooperation of Economy, Trade, Science and Technology. In the early 1990s, Iran became one of China’s top three suppliers of oil and gas, and that remains true to the present time. By 2013, trade between Iran and China had reached $53 billion annually, despite US and UN sanctions. That trade is projected to quadruple to over $200 billion per year by the early 2020s.
For that trade to flourish beyond current levels, Iran will have to successfully integrate its banking system in global financial structures. That means a major overhaul of Iranian banks, which have been substantially looted and saddled with massive debts, due to the corrupt policies of the former Ahmadinejad government, which allowed the IRGC companies to “borrow” massively from state sector banks, with no intention of ever paying back the loans.
Until these structural problems are overcome, China will cherrypick its investments in Iran. China is prepared to invest in the modernization of Iran’s oil and gas sector, particularly the coastal and offshore sites which are less dependent on transportation infrastructure.
During the period of the Rafsanjani presidency in Iran (1989-1997), China was able to negotiate major economic deals. To this day, China owns 65-70 percent of Iran’s steel industry. China is interested in exploiting Iran’s vast reserves of raw materials, particularly precious metals; however, this area of the Iranian economy is virtually under the complete control of IRGC companies.
China’s cautious approach to economic investment in Iran is offset by the fact that Iran is a crucial part of the New Silk Road, which China is building under the banner of its One Belt, One Road policy.
On June 17, it was reported that China and Iran have inked an agreement to jointly develop a major oil terminal on Qeshm Island. That terminal, when complete, will store 30 million barrels of oil, principally from Iran’s West Karoun field. The terminal will accommodate large tanker ships.
On June 25, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh announced another oil deal with China’s Sinopec, which gives the Chinese firm a prominent role in developing the Yadavaran oil field. Earlier this year, China was also given the contract to develop Phase II of the North Azadegan field.
All of these announcements followed the visit in January 2016 to Tehran by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Iran is China’s third largest oil supplier, behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. As of mid-June, Iran was exporting an estimated 620,000 barrels per day, a 19.5 percent increase.
On June 12, Ali Akbar Velayati, the head of the Strategic Research Center of Iran’s Expediency Council, met with Professor Wang Weiguang, the President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the principal think tank of the Chinese State Council and the Standing Committee of the CPC. They agreed that Iran can play a vital role in the New Silk Road transportation project. In February, the first freight train from Yiwu in China’s eastern Zhejiang province arrived in Tehran, inaugurating monthly freight shipments. The route runs through Central Asia, bypassing both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
China is prepared to invest heavily in Iran’s internal development, but will remain insistent that Iran demonstrates an ability to overcome the structural obstacles. In short, China is waiting to see whether Iran’s leadership is capable and/or willing to launch its own “Rectification Campaign” with “Iranian characteristics.” The benefits to Iran can be enormous, but the political challenges are equally serious to overcome.

Erdoğan Changes Directions: Time for a Regional Plan to Truly Fight ISIL
Middle East Briefing/July 10/16
ISIL will not spare any country in the Middle East from getting some of its deadly mix. Saudi Arabia, which has been accused by some of its enemies of having supported the organization, has been hit by a chain of audacious suicide attacks in the space of a day. ISIL did not even avoid holy places where violence is prohibited by the teachings of Islam. Even in Kuwait, known as a peaceful and stable country, ISIL moved to attack its national unity through targeting Shia mosques. Kuwaiti security was able to abort a chain of terrorist attacks planned by three ISIL sleeper cells. One of the targets was the Shia Zain al-Abedin Mosque, to sow the seeds of sectarian cracks in a country that has a distinctive national identity.
Shortly before the start of Kuwait’s security crackdown on ISIL supporters and cells, the terrorist organization hit Baghdad with a chain of attacks targeting Shia heavily populated areas, the worst attack to hit Baghdad in recent years. And before that, it carried out coordinated suicide bombings at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. But the case of Turkey deserves a short pause and a little more reflection. For while the attacks on Iraq and the planned attacks on Kuwait targeted the Shia, in Turkey, where there is a very small Shia minority, the objective was straightforwardly political.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a U-turn in his position on ISIL a few months ago. Now he is cracking down on the routes the group used to smuggle everything to Syria, and from Syria to Europe. This was an indication that Erdoğan has already started changing directions.
It has become abundantly clear that, as far as Syria is concerned, the Turkish president has made serious errors while calculating his own capabilities and influence, and that of the rest of the actors in this chain of crises in which he tried to play a role. But now, he is trying to wrap up this roller coaster of tactics and strategies that he started in 2011, since it has become crystal clear that he ended up with a net loss.
He sent a letter of apology to President Vladimir Putin for shooting down a Russian jet last year, after long months of refusing to do so, and he gave up his demand that Israel apologize for attacking a Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza in 2010 and signed a deal with Israel to normalize relations. And now, there are speculations that he will make a move to improve his ties with Tehran. These steps betrays the fact that was obvious to many and which seems to have finally dawned on Ankara: Turkey is at an impasse! And the real risk of this impasse was that it was blocking the road to a continuation of steady economic growth, hence threatening the political power of Erdoğan and his ruling party.
But where will Turkey go from here?
In the case of Russia, the Turkish Stream has been central to regaining Turkey’s relevance on the energy map of that part of the world. Gazprom spokesperson, Sergey Kupriyanov, has stated: “Gazprom is open to dialogue on the Turkish Stream and always has been.”
Erdoğan’s quick moves to open up to Russia and Israel has also resulted in a scarcely noticed competition between the two countries, for who can move faster in developing its gas routes to Turkey to satisfy its needs, and from there to Europe.
It may be that Gazprom will move faster. However, the director general of Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy, and Water Resources, Shaul Meridor, held a series of meetings in New York with potential investors in the pipeline connecting Israel’s gas fields to Turkey, during the first week of July. He said that Turkey’s relative proximity to Israel means that the pipeline could be swiftly laid.
Israel seems to have decided to bypass Cyprus and connect directly to the Turkish port of Ceyhan (360 miles). The other alternative, which is to export the gas first to Cyprus, where the island’s own gas would be added, then pumped to Turkey, would certainly go through many political disputes related to North and South Cyprus and Turkish-Greek ties.
In other words, it has become a race between Russian and Israeli exporters of gas to start their journey to Ankara.
The political fruits of Erdoğan’s move are also important for Turkey. Russia is active in Syria. It has opened a channel with the PKK and other Kurdish groups active on Turkey’s southern borders and in its southeast region.
Erdoğan has suffered in Syria one of his worst strategic set-backs if not the worst of all. For the Turkish president to regain some relevancy in the course of the crisis in his southern neighbor, he had to knock on the Kremlin’s door.
In the case of Iran, Erdoğan does not give the impression now that he is in the mood for escalation and confrontation with any regional power. The rising armed activities of Kurdish groups in northwest Iran, the Iranian Kurdistan, may add a motive for the Turkish president to coordinate with Tehran rather than provoke it. Turkey is expected now to behave like a normal country. It is getting back to the category of predictability, so to speak. From that position, it may have the opportunity to play a constructive role in the Middle East in order to help end the general crisis of that region.
The general picture encourages the potential rise of an anti-terrorism pact in that most vulnerable area of the world. This seems to be a proper moment for the international community to propose actionable steps that may align the region’s countries in a collective effort to fight terrorism.
The new Erdoğan shows that at the end of the day “la raison finira par avoir raison” – reason ends up being reasonable. It is in the national interest of regional countries to find common ground in mutual economic cooperation and an effective strategy to fight terror. All of them are hit by this cancer and the cure is in their hands.

On reports of a solution to the Syrian conflict
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
The narrative that Turkey is now inclined to agree to a solution that accepts Bashar al-Assad as Syrian president but without jurisdictions for six months does not seem credible. This is because most countries in support of the Syrian opposition agreed to the same proposal more than a year and a half ago. I believe Turkey was one of these countries. At the time, Iran and Russia welcomed the proposal as a means to gain time to ease pressure on the regime. They said they would meet with opposition delegations to discuss suitable options. However, in later months several countries increased arms supplies to the regime, and drowned Syria with armed militias from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah had already been fighting alongside the regime. At the same time, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) distorted the revolution’s reputation through its murderous operations and propaganda. It targeted Kurds and foreigners, and attacked areas seized by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) from the regime. In addition, Russia targeted Turkey in an attempt to neutralize it.
Due to all that, a political solution was no longer necessary for the Tehran axis because it believed it was succeeding militarily. Meanwhile, the West feared supporting change due to ISIS’s horrific crimes, and particularly after immigrants flooded Europe - the biggest number to do so since the end of World War II.
Regime on life support
However, the world saw that despite all the support the Assad regime received, it was unable to keep areas it had seized. It is eroding on the military, administrative and security fronts, and above all is rejected by most Syrians. For example, Russia’s air force, Iranian troops, Hezbollah militias, and Iraqi and Afghan forces have failed to seize Aleppo, despite the destruction inflicted on it. I do not think that Turkey or Gulf countries will bow to Iran and Russia in Syria, because the repercussions would not be limited to Syria. Those supporting Assad with men and money are well aware that they are far from victory. They know that the crisis will last longer, and that the cost of defending him will deplete their capabilities. However, I do not think this enough to convince them to give up on him by accepting face-saving solutions that maintain most of their gains. Approval of the proposal to keep Assad as interim president without jurisdictions, while holding elections to prepare for a transitional phase and establish a unity government, was viewed as a concession made by the opposition and countries in support of it. The proposal is still suitable given that neither party is able to win the war. However, if the opposition accepts less than that, it will be an implicit defeat. There is a lot of pressure on the opposition’s allies. The two main players are Russia and ISIS. It is because of the latter that the war partially spilled into Turkey, where frequent explosions threaten the country’s tourism, trade and stability. I do not think that Turkey or Gulf countries will bow to Iran and Russia in Syria, because the repercussions would not be limited to Syria. Strengthening the opposition is their only solution. This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on July 10, 2016.

Who will apologize to the Iraqi people?
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
When terror struck Paris in November last year, claiming 129 lives, people worldwide expressed solidarity with France. Popular sights and historical monuments changed their colors to the French flag. Social media was abuzz with hashtags marking the tragedy. Terror attacks carried out in Brussels claimed 35 lives. The world was shocked. Terrorists had targeted the very heart of Europe. A huge media wave followed. People changed their profile pictures in solidarity. Several monuments worldwide displayed the colors of the Belgian flag. People mourned the victims, and social media devoted hashtags and sincere posts. The Orlando attack, by a single gunman at an LGBT nightclub, claimed 50 lives. The world was shocked. Media boiled again, people expressed support to the victims and their families. Historical places worldwide displayed the colors of the LGBT movement. The attack in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport killed 36. Reaction was more muted, but still media boiled and monuments were illuminated with the colors of Turkey’s flag. The terrorist attack in Baghdad killed more than 200 people. Silence. The question asked mostly by Arabic media is why the media and people worldwide are mostly indifferent about the tragedy in Iraq. The question has become rhetorical. Until now, no one is ready to beg forgiveness from the Iraqi people for what was done, or officially announce who bares responsibility. It seems not all lives matters. We saw it after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai. We saw it over the terrorist attack in Lebanon, and in other tragedies outside the West. We have gotten used to explosions hitting Iraq practically every week, but it was not always like this. Violence following the U.S. invasion has claimed about 1 million lives. The U.S. “war on terror” made terror flourish. The death toll since the start of the “war on terror” has reached 2 million, from invasions, airstrikes and terrorist attacks. A map of the sites of terrorist attacks in Baghdad since 2003 is the strongest evidence of the consequences of an invasion that was carried out under false pretexts. It is no secret that ISIS itself originates from that time.
Britain
The possibility of putting Britain’s then-Prime Minister Tony Blair on ‘trial’ in parliament for drawing his country into the U.S.-led campaign can be considered the first attempt to recognize the catastrophic, international crime against humanity committed at the start of the 21st century. Putting him on trial could push the international community to rethink the invasion, U.S. policy and interventionism as an instrument of managing the world. However, a White House occupied by either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump promises nothing good for the world, as most likely interventionism will get a new start.
In the report that mauled Blair’s already bad reputation, Sir John Chilcot recognized that at the time of the invasion, Iraq’s then-President Saddam Hussein “posed no imminent threat.” Russia reacted immediately with its traditional “we told you so.” Moscow strictly opposed the intervention, and warned the countries involved about the dramatic consequences that would follow. The fabrication of evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction outraged the world, but those culpable have not been prosecuted. Prosecution will not return the lives lost in Iraq over the last 13 years, but it could bring some justice. Nevertheless, idealism over the Chilcot report should not prevail. It was mostly dictated not by guilt over Iraqi suffering, but by worries that British soldiers died in vain and taxpayer money was wasted. Until now, no one is ready to beg forgiveness from the Iraqi people for what was done, or officially announce who bares responsibility.

It’s confirmed: The Iraq invasion was a war of aggression
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
“A broken” and “haunted” man was the Telegraph’s description of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair following the release of the Iraq War report. What I saw was a good “poor little me” act performed to perfection in an attempt to salvage remnants of his reputation. “I didn’t lie or deceive,” he emphasized over and over with teary eyes while still insisting that “the world is better off without Saddam”. He quotes from an Iraq Survey Report to the effect that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was poised to reconstitute his Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs as soon as sanctions were lifted – yet another twisting of the truth from the master manipulator. Firstly, how would inspectors know the secretive Iraqi leader’s future intentions? Secondly, Charles Duelfer, who headed the Bush administration’s investigations of Iraq’s weapons status, told Congressional committees that Saddam’s ability had “progressively decayed” and inspectors found no evidence of any efforts to restart the nuclear program. Blair maintains that the 11 September attacks changed the culture. He says he was afraid that Iraq’s WMD would fall into the hands of terrorist groups, notwithstanding that there were no terrorists in Iraq pre-2003. The Chilcot report was no establishment whitewash like its predecessors. This time, the blame for Iraq’s ruin was laid squarely at the former prime minister’s feet although the intelligence services and the gung-ho Ministry of Defense, which left soldiers without appropriate vehicles and body armor, did not escape censure. But it did stop short of tarring Blair as a liar in spite of his dodgy dossiers; one listed from a student’s 12-year-old thesis published on the internet. There was another crucial omission. It failed to pronounce the war as “illegal” even though former United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan did not hesitate to do so in September, 2004 when he said the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council or the UN’s charter. There are armies of lawyers scrutinizing the report’s 6,000 pages so as to build a case against him, but it will be a mammoth challenge. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has announced it will not investigate Blair’s decision, which it maintains is outside its remit. Blair’s lucky he is not African, or “even worse” an Arab. If he were, that remit would undoubtedly be stretched to accommodate. A UN supported special tribunal is also out; it would, in my view, be vetoed by the US and Britain in the Security Council.
The to-do list
I believe Blair deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars, together with his American buddies former President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Minister of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the war's architects. Invading Iraq was on their to-do list from the get-go, along with several other Arab countries. Blair admits that Bush’s aim was regime change in Iraq and that he was on board. In one of his now declassified notes to the US President he says the war’s goal is to bring about “the true post-cold war world order”, a statement smacking of neoconservative doctrine. If the truth be told they knew full well that Iraq had destroyed its chemical and biological weapons in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. The former head of Saddam’s Republican Guard and his son-in-law Hussein Kamel Al-Majid confirmed exactly that to Western intelligence agencies when he defected to Jordan in August 1995. Dr. David Kelly, a weapons expert, died in mysterious circumstances shortly after exposing holes in Number Ten’s case for war. Blair deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars, together with his American buddies. Blair’s admission that regime change was the underlying goal is a hot potato. Forcible regime change is illegal under international law and violates the UN Charter. This is why they cherry-picked intelligence to suit and launched a propaganda war against “evil” Saddam, who they armed with chemical weapons during the eight-year-long Iraq-Iran war and gave him a wink and a nod to invade Kuwait via the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie. They destroyed a functioning country on false pretext. Blair’s missives to Bush indicate the pair was waiting anxiously for Saddam to slip up so they could pounce. A massive troop contingent was waiting in the wings. Bush was itching to deploy it in theatre.
UN weapons inspectors asked for more time but, with or without a new UN Resolution, rightly blocked by France and Russia, Bush was champing at the bit. He was, I believe, getting tired of his British poodle’s continual yapping at his heels demanding UN resolutions and an Israel-Palestine roadmap that ultimately led nowhere. He was ready to go it alone and gave his sycophant across the pond an opportunity to opt out with no hard feelings. But Blair had pledged in a 2002 memo to stand with Bush whatever. This neo-imperial gang terrorized Iraqis with “Shock and Awe”, hanged Iraq’s president, dismantled its army and purged its civil service of Baathists. They are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the displacement of over two million and for the eruption of sectarian divide. They compounded their crimes with their failure to plan for the day after, leaving vacuums of governance that were speedily filled by Shiite militias, al-Qaeda and its ISIS offshoot, which wrapped its tentacles around Syria and many other Arab countries. And they were warned that weakening Iraq would unleash its Iranian neighbor and make the way clear for the implementation of its geopolitical regional ambitions. They threw the first stones in the pond against the advice of Middle East specialists who correctly predicted the ripples inherent in the removal of an iron fist from Iraq. Europe is paying the price in terms of terrorist attacks and hordes of Iraqi and Syrian refugees knocking on its doors. Several commentators are even pointing fingers at Blair for triggering the British public’s hostility towards the political class and mistrust of officialdom. In short, there is an argument that Bush, Blair and their cohorts should be treated as criminals who should be an example of to deter others, especially the Trumps of this world who shoot first and ask questions later. But do not hold your breath!
The question that bugs me is why Iraq when the country did not have sufficient food and medical supplies and presented no threat? On the other hand, Tehran was believed to be developing nuclear weapons, was building up its military capacity and its mullahs never stopped spewing messages of hate directed at the United States as well as threats to Israel. Not only has Iran not been targeted by the United States, it has been rewarded for its years of clandestine nuclear development with the cessation of economic sanctions while its president is courted by European capitals. Together and separately, Bush, Blair and US President Barack Obama have upset the fragile regional balance of power leaving Sunni states more vulnerable than they were when Saddam’s Iraq was a powerful bulwark protecting Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states from Iran’s territorial ambitions. Was this intentional all along?
Is the bolstering of Iran to the detriment of Saudi Arabia and Gulf states America’s set in stone foreign policy objective? Obama has been critical of Saudi Arabia suggesting the Kingdom must learn to share the neighborhood with Iran. We must never forget what was done to Iraq still bleeding from the fallout to this day. It is imperative that we know exactly who is with us and who is against us. GCC leaderships should demand honest and transparent answers from our western friends not confined to mere words. I have been warning about the potential of US-Iranian détente or some sort of Grand Bargain in my columns for many years. For many the idea was alien, even laughable. They are not laughing now. Our allies must prove which side of the fence they sit; they can begin with an official recognition of “the Arabian Gulf” based on the fact that the coastlines of Gulf states around this body of water are 85 percent longer than Iran’s. If they refuse to comply with this comparatively minor request, we will know where we stand. As Aesop wrote, “A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other and we then know how to meet him.”

Specters of Ahmad Rubei, the godfather of a generation
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
Abu Qutaiba, or Ahmed al-Rubei, is the godfather of many young men and women in the Gulf. He taught an entire generation. He was distinguished with a foresight that rarely failed him. His study of philosophy made him a harsh critic, and distinguished his approach when analyzing matters. When listening to interviews of intellectuals in Kuwait and other Gulf countries, it is normal when they address the role of Rubei in their development. The prominent liberal Kuwaiti politician, journalist, and professor's short articles in Arab dailies granted him an influential role. He bravely criticized fundamentalists when they were in power - he did not wait until they were weak to do so. His intellectual development did not prevent him from changing, and although he participated in resistance by taking part in war, he later resisted with his pen and intellect.
Remembrance
Rubei spoke in rare eloquence and awareness when addressing the fate of the region if it did not confront extremist rhetoric. His words still echo. His ghost and shadow are present among us. Karl Marx passed away in 1883, and around a century later French Philosopher Jacques Derrida wrote “Specters of Marx.” We can do the same about Rubei. Great men do not die. The prominent liberal Kuwaiti politician, journalist, and professor's short articles in Arab dailies granted him an influential role. He greatly contributed to enlightenment, either through his university work or in the media. Before his death, he was preparing to present a program for Al Arabiya News Channel. His flame is still burning. It is true that he gave Al-Arabiya channel its name, as his friend Sheikh Walid al-Ibrahim narrates. However he named many things, primarily extremism, before he passed away. God’s mercy be upon you, Abu Qutaiba.
This article was first published in Okaz on July 10, 2016.

In football and economy, this has been the ‘small is beautiful’ season
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/July 10/16
It is always inspiring to watch big sporting events such as Euro 2016. Tournaments like these, with all their ups and downs, also reflect the moods and dilemmas of participating nations. In this summer’s European championship, we have witnessed teams representing small nations beat the bigger teams. Iceland sending Great Britain out, Wales playing with zeal and belief and Ireland and the republic of Northern Ireland showing their colors proudly are some of the examples. Small looked big and beautiful compared to bigger nations. This should be seen in the backdrop of the UK referendum, or Brexit, and Europe’s siege-like mindset due to continued terror threats, economic hardship, and an influx of migrants. The circumstances make one wonder whether it is time to halt decisions on a grand scale and seek small concise made-to-measure solutions as a way to preserve efforts, hard work, assets, culture, stability, cohesion, and identity to compete in a volatile world and its precarious economies. Europe is indeed at a crossroads. The referendum in the UK has sounded an alarm bell that is echoing in many European capitals with voices calling for closure, disentanglement bordering on isolation, all born from fear. Since the economic crisis of 2008, it seems that there are forces working against the “Europeanized” or globalized economy and the largess of a great union that made sense several decades ago.
Beyond Europe
This is not happening in Europe alone. In the US, the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is ridiculing the federal large state and calling for a smaller less infringing mega state, though that is in keeping with the traditional Republican mantra.
But, his words are echoing like never before with middle America and his rants against migration and immigrants, and against Mexicans or Muslims are not causing the outcry this might have caused in yesteryears. Trump’s comments, which are far from politically correct for a would-be leader, are tolerated by many due to a lingering feeling of fear that replaces the faith that drove the capitalist American laissez-faire machine forward. Most small nations in the Euro competition have returned home, but they have created a belief that smaller teams can compete and provide alternatives to many questions faced today by smaller and larger nations alike. The economic fallouts of Brexit are starting to reveal themselves in the tumbling of the currency and asset devaluation. The UK is stepping slowly toward an exit from the EU. The political fallouts of such an exit are not yet felt by the masses. This has been delayed by party elections and leadership contests that will determine who could captain the ship out of the European troubled waters and their many currents that could drown the ship. The economic fallouts of Brexit are starting to reveal themselves in the tumbling of the currency and asset devaluation. One hopes that when the free fall stops the economy will show itself more competitively with the flexible labor market the UK has always maintained hoping for a better rebound. Such a rebound didn’t happen for the English team in Euro 2016, but in government and economic performance terms, this could prove to be a different story.
Tolerance and diversity
What has made Britain great throughout its many centuries of history is its ability to bounce back and re-invent itself armed with tolerance, diversity, and a readiness to embrace the unknown and turn it into yet another opportunity for growth and prosperity. To do that, in keeping with the small and compact mentality mentioned previously, Britain needs to be armed with faith not fear, with openness not isolation. All of this could allow an opportunity to venture, invest, and maybe prosper. Therefore Britain needs to be prepared to open borders and broaden spirits within fair and just laws that reward efforts rather than penalize them. Talks of curbing migration, sealing borders, and slowly doing away with a work force that (love it or loathe it) made Britain affordable for a myriad of businesses in the past decades would be akin to shooting oneself in the foot.Smaller could be good, compact teams could win competitions and make a show in today’s world, but to grow and prosper and spread, Britain needs to connect more with its ethos as a tolerant multi-cultural nation state that has welcomed, from an ethical stand point, those persecuted from as far back as the time of the Huguenot of 1870’s France, and Russian Jews from the 1880’s and later mainly East European Jews in post-World War 2. Today’s backlash against Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian European migrants led to Brexit, forgetting that if streamlined properly into today’s economy their contributions represent an opportunity. One must not forget that what made Britain Great was its ability to adapt its political and economic priority and employ and later settle migrant workers who came from as far as India to work in the merchant navy in the 1800’s or in British factories in the 1900s.