LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 29/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.july29.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Blessed is that slave whom his
master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one
in charge of all his possessions.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/42-48/:"The Lord said,
‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge
of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed
is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell
you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave
says to himself, "My master is delayed in coming", and if he begins to beat the
other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of
that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he
does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That
slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what
was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But one who did not know and did what
deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has
been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted,
even more will be demanded."
Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I
would like to hear the man myself.’ ‘Tomorrow’, he said, ‘you will hear him
Acts of the Apostles 25/13-14/22-27/"After several days had passed, King Agrippa
and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus. Since they were staying there
for several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, ‘There is a
man here who was left in prison by Felix. Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I would like
to hear the man myself.’ ‘Tomorrow’, he said, ‘you will hear him.’So on the next
day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall
with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave
the order and Paul was brought in. And Festus said, ‘King Agrippa and all here
present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community
petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live
any longer. But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he
appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him. But I have nothing
definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him
before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we
have examined him, I may have something to write for it seems to me unreasonable
to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published on July 28-29/16
Islamist Terrorism, European
Denial/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/July 28, 2016
Turkey: Good News, Bad News/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 28/16
Erdoğan, a Levant Sunni fantasy/Nadim Koteich/Now Lebanon/July 28/16
Iranian and Brotherhood propaganda tactics/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/July
28/16
The death sentence against Othman’s murderers/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July
28/16
Does Assad’s regime have a policy of killing journalists and civilians/Mohamed
Chebarro/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
Never the diplomat? Britain’s new foreign policy chief Boris Johnson/Chris
Doyle/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
The hijab does not impede Muslim women from doing their job/Yara al-Wazir/Al
Arabiya/July 28/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on July 28-29/16
March 14 General Secretariat
Coordinator Fares Soaid to Launch Petition Against Reshaping Political System
Brazil Arrests Man of Lebanese Descent over Terror Allegations
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq: New President before 2017, No Security
Appointments before Election
Army Receives New Military Support from UK
Litani River Panel Demands Closure of Sand Mines, Halt of Sewage Flow
Army Stages Raids in Britel
Khalil on Syrian Refugees: International Community Failed Lebanon
Loyalty to Resistance: We hope dialogue upcoming August will yield positive
consensus
Azzi: To raise minimum wage to L.L. 2,200,000 million
MENAHRA raises awareness on Hepatitis B, C
Mokbel calls for not interfering in resolutions related to Litani River
pollution
Rifi chairs preparatory meeting of Arab Network for Promoting Integrity 5th
conference in Tunisia
Harb receives Richard, Nadime Gemayel
Kahwaji, interlocutors take up current developments
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
July 28-29/16
Syrian-Russian Provocations Could
Spark Golan Clash
Michael Mukasey: If Iranian regime falls, there would be virtually no problems
in the Middle East
Tehran’s paranoia over opposition Free Iran rally in Paris
Wife of Iran political prisoner arrested for filming Iran protest
Struan Stevenson: Is the Iran Nuclear Deal Going to Collapse?
Iran regime's crackdown on PMOI shows its vulnerability and fear
Assad offers amnesty to rebels who surrender
Second France church killer formally identified
France, UK Call for End to 'Disastrous' Aleppo Siege
German police arrest Algerian suspect who yelled ‘I’ll blow you up’
Two Turkish soldiers killed in bomb attack in Kurdish southeast
Germany calls on mosques to prevent extremism
Danish nationalists urge ban on Muslims
Al-Qaeda tells Syrian branch Nusra Front it can drop links
Coalition to formally investigate recent civilian deaths in Syria
German police raid job agency for armed woman
Egypt is hosting Libya talks to ease deadlock
Houthis, Saleh aim to run country via new deal
Turkey has intelligence cleric Gulen could flee United States
UK lawyer for Bangladesh cafe survivor demands his release
Bangladesh authorities blame extremist group for 2005, 2016 blasts in Dhaka
Links From Jihad Watch Site for
July 28-29/16
Islamic State says London is next, UK churches put on terror
alert
Hungary PM blisters EU elites, says Muslim migration “increases terrorism and
crime” and “destroys national culture”
Robert Spencer in the Detroit News: Another casualty in the war against jihadism
Ex-Muslim: Muhammad enticed his men to fight jihad by promising them blonde
female sex slaves
After spate of Muslim migrant jihad massacres, Merkel refuses to reverse Muslim
migrant policy
Mom says of Islamic State jihadist son who murdered priest: he’s a good
Frenchman, I didn’t produce a devil
Hugh Fitzgerald: Pope Francis and Jihad: Credo Quia Absurdum, And How
WaPo thought police: Anti-Islam extremists just as bad as Islamic jihadists
Pope declares “the world is at war” but denies Islam has any role
Nonie Darwish Moment: Facebook Punishes Me For Violating Sharia
Erdogan tightens iron grip on power: Turkey shuts down over 130 media outlets,
dismisses 2,400 military personnel
Homeland Security chief promoting past wrongs over jihadism and homeland
security
Violent explosion’ outside German office for migration — ‘Arab men’ fled scene
Islamophobia” horror! Episode of UK’s “Fireman Sam” withdrawn,
apology issued after character steps on Qur’an page
July 28-29/16
March 14 General Secretariat
Coordinator Fares Soaid to Launch Petition Against Reshaping Political System
Naharnet/July 28/March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid revealed
on Thursday that he will soon launch a petition that will reject any amendments
to Lebanon's political system, the Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said. Soaid
stated that he will “launch the petition that will be signed by Lebanese
citizens rejecting amendments to Lebanon’s political system which is based on
the 1989 Taef accord.” He added that the petition will be published in local and
international newspapers on August 1“The petition is a kind of warning to all
parties participating in the national dialogue sessions so that none of them
demands introducing a change to the political system,” he told VDL. A new round
of national dialogue sessions is set for next month to address the presidential
election, a new voting system and the shape of a new government.The Speaker
concluded and slammed reports claiming that head of al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad
Saniora is behind this step. There are fears in the country that the ongoing
political and presidential vacuum might eventually lead to introducing
constitutional amendments or holding a constituent assembly that would radically
change the current political system that is based on a delicate distribution of
power among the country's sects. Speaker Nabi Berri and Hizbullah have been
recently accused of seeking a constituent assembly aimed at altering the
political system in their favor.
Brazil Arrests Man of Lebanese
Descent over Terror Allegations
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 28/16/A Brazilian man has been arrested on
terrorism charges just over a week from the Olympics after he posted comments
online about the Islamic State group, his lawyer said Thursday. Chaer Kalaoun,
28, a Brazilian of Lebanese descent, was "taken overnight to Ary Franco prison
in Rio and arrested for having posted comments on Islamic State," lawyer Edson
Ferreira told Agence France-Presse. Officials gave little detail about the
arrest, which comes a week after 12 men were arrested on accusations of forming
a cell to discuss potential attacks at the time of the Rio Olympics and swearing
loyalty to Islamic State. "Kalaoun was arrested yesterday evening at his home in
Nova Iguacu," in Rio de Janeiro state, a spokesman for the federal police in Rio
said. The justice department would only say that the arrest was made under
anti-terrorism laws and that the indictment remains sealed. Earlier, Ferreira
said the allegations lacked substance. "There is no basic accusation," he told
Globo television. "There's nothing more than suspicions that he put posts on
Facebook, that he posted links related to Islamic State, but which have nothing
concretely to do with him. He has no link with Islamic State," the lawyer said.
"He did not pledge allegiance, he was not recruiting, or bringing people or
collaborating or encouraging any projects of the Islamic State," he said.
Ferreira said his client is a Muslim and lived in Lebanon when he was an
adolescent. He works for the family business which has shops in Rio de Janeiro's
Saara neighborhood, a historic center for Jewish and Arab immigrants. However,
unconfirmed Brazilian media reports said police suspect Kalaoun of recruiting
for terrorist organizations in Brazil. He was also arrested during the 2014
World Cup on charges of illegal firearms possession. Brazilian officials have
downplayed the seriousness of the group arrested last week, calling them
"amateur" and "disorganized." Members of the group, all Brazilian citizens, are
accused of discussing potential attacks, attempting to buy a rifle online, and
declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group via the internet.
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq:
New President before 2017, No Security Appointments before Election
Naharnet/July 28/16/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed Thursday that
Lebanon will have a new president before the end of 2016, while noting that
there will be no new security appointments before the election of the new
president. “Until now we are committed to the (presidential) nomination of
(ex-)minister (Suleiman) Franjieh,” Mashnouq said in an interview with LBCI
television, referring to al-Mustaqbal Movement of ex-PM Saad Hariri. Mashnouq
noted, however, that “no one waits forever for unknown developments in which
they have no say under the slogan of committing to something that cannot be
achieved.”Asked whether he is optimistic that a president can be elected soon,
the minister said “there will be a president before the end of the year.”“I
still insist – there will be a presidential election before the end of the year
in Lebanon,” he reiterated. Lebanon has been without a president since the term
of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and
Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's
electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to
Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the
presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main
Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential
bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the
size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian
community.
Army Receives New Military
Support from UK
Naharnet/July 28/The United Kingdom has gifted the Lebanese army with 1000 sets
of body armor which brings the UK's total contribution of body armor to 3,300
individual sets under the 'Train and Equip' program, a British embassy press
release said. In response to the security threats facing the Baalbek region,
British Ambassador Hugo Shorter gifted on Wednesday 4th Land Border Regiment
(4LBR) with 1000 sets of body armor and welcomed the ongoing mobilization of
4LBR. General Salloum, commander of 4LBR welcomed the contribution, which will
bring the UK’s total gift of body armor to 3,300 individual sets under the
‘Train and Equip’ program. In a demonstration of the UK’s commitment to
Lebanon’s stability, Shorter visited the eastern border town of al-Qaa to
express the UK’s solidarity with the municipality and its people and to see
first-hand how the UK is supporting vulnerable border communities by
strengthening the Lebanese Army and funding development projects which will
improve their daily lives, added the press release. Ambassador Shorter visited
the municipality of Qaa and St Elias Church to convey his heartfelt condolences
to the Mayor Bachir Mattar represented by the municipality members, Father Elian
Nasrallah and residents, following the shocking terrorist attack that hit the
village last month. In Qaa, Shorter heard about the needs of the community and
stressed that the UK would continue its support, which already includes a
municipal project to create a safe, educational play area and park for the
village’s children. Ambassador Shorter also met the Governor of Baalbek-Hermel
Bashir Khodor and MP Emile Rahme, to hear about their hopes for Baalbek and the
region, and discussed the many projects the UK funds in the region through the
United Nations Development Program and the Ministry of Social Affairs. These
include sustainable solar street lighting keeping residents safe in Talia;
agricultural equipment helping to support families in Haouch Barada, as well as
vital road improvements and in Baalbeck, an improved sewage network for better
health and sanitation, as well as renovation of the old souq. At the end of the
visit Shorter said: “I would like to thank Qaa residents for their warm
hospitality and reception at such a difficult time. It’s deeply moving to see
the unity you have demonstrated in the face of division. This was an attack
against all Lebanese, and we remain determined to support Lebanon’s stability
and its fight against terrorism on all its territory. “As Patriarch Rai said
last week, the Lebanese State has a primary responsibility to protect the
Lebanese and their security. That’s why, at this time of great challenges and
threats, the UK continues to assist the Lebanese Armed Forces with training and
equipment to match their courage. On the occasion of the upcoming anniversary of
Army Day, I would like to reiterate that the LAF are on the frontline in the
fight against Daesh, and strengthening their capacity across the Lebanese
border, in addition to helping local communities thrive and prosper, remains a
UK priority. Lebanon is a beautiful country – I was lucky enough to witness
today its great cultural inheritance –it must be protected.” The UK’s support to
the Lebanese Army enables them to build their capabilities, strengthen the
country’s borders and protect the Lebanese people. By 2019, the UK aims to have
trained over 11,000 Lebanese soldiers in the specialist techniques of urban
counterterrorism. Since 2012 the UK’s overall support to the Lebanese Armed
Forces has reached over £60m.
Litani River Panel Demands
Closure of Sand Mines, Halt of Sewage Flow
Naharnet/July 28/A ministerial panel tasked with addressing the pollution of the
Litani River demanded Thursday the closure of all licensed and unlicensed sand
extraction mines near the river and the halt of sewage flow into the river. The
panel's meeting was held at the Yarze office of Defense Minister Samir Moqbel,
who presided over the meeting. Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan briefed
the committee on the measures that his ministry has and will conduct in order to
put an end to the latest pollution and the panel asked him to continue his
efforts in coordination with the relevant ministries, state-run National News
Agency said. As for the issue of waste water, the committee was briefed on the
projects of the Energy and Water Ministry and the Council for Development and
Reconstruction in this regard. “$750 million are needed to finalize the projects
while only $200 million are earmarked at the moment,” the panel was told.
Army Stages Raids in Britel
Naharnet/July 28/The Lebanese army carried out raids in the border town of
Britel in the Bekaa region in search for suspects involved in several crimes,
the National News Agency reported on Thursday. The army staged the raids at dawn
and searched the houses of fugitives against the backdrop of abductions, selling
stolen goods, and selling banned products. In a statement, the army said “an
81mm mortar, seven 81mm mortar shells, a 60mm mortar, two anti-tank shells, and
a quantity of medium- and light-caliber ammunition were found at the house of
one of the fugitives in Britel.” The army has upped its security measures in
several Lebanese regions after fears spiked that terrorists might carry out
bombings. It carried out raids in Britel, the Baalbek neighborhood of al-Sharawneh
and several other areas where it arrested suspects for potential involvement in
lawless acts.
Khalil on Syrian Refugees:
International Community Failed Lebanon
Naharnet/July 28/Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil on Thursday expressed
disappointment in the international community's dealing with the issue of Syrian
refugees in Lebanon. “Having more than 1.5 million displaced Syrians obligates
the international community to adhere to its commitments towards Lebanon,” said
Khalil in a speech he made during the Guidance Committee's first meeting over a
new funding initiative. “We are not contended with the international community’s
role in helping Lebanon cope with the Syrian refugees,” added the Minister.
“Lebanon has been able to host brethren Syrians and provide education for many,
but today we are shocked and disappointed that the international support for
Lebanon did not meet the required standards,” he emphasized. He pointed to the
political and economic crises that Lebanon is suffering and related these to the
influx of Syrians that has been burdening Lebanon at all levels, he said:
“Lebanon will be stronger when the displaced Syrians go back to their homeland.”
Lebanon hosts more than one million Syrian refugees -- roughly a quarter of its
population -- and has regularly been praised for opening its borders to those
fleeing the brutal conflict in its neighbor.
But the refugee influx has strained resources and tempers, with some Lebanese
viewing the years-long presence of Syrians as a burden, even an imposition.
Loyalty to Resistance: We
hope dialogue upcoming August will yield positive consensus
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - Loyalty to Resistance bloc hoped that the forthcoming
dialogue in August would yield in positive consensus that would restore regular
life to the entire constitutional institutions. "Such a dialogue poses a
national opportunity which should be grasped by all those who are keen on
Lebanon's welfare," the bloc said in the wake of its periodic meeting on
Thursday at its headquarters in Haret Hreik, presided over by bloc head MP
Mohammed Raad. Conferees dwelt on an array of standing issues. The bloc stressed
the dire need for swiftly activating the role of government and re-structuring
authority in a manner that would end the vertical political alignment and
restore regular political life in the country, in accordance with the national
accord and constitution in all their clauses and stipulations- in a bid to exit
current deadlock. On the other hand, the bloc renewed condemnation of all
"persistent terrorist crimes committed by the Takfiri gangs in various countries
in the region, Europe and the world," stressing the necessity of an
orchestrated, serious international action in the fight against terrorism in
preservation of peoples and nations' security and stability.
Azzi: To raise minimum wage
to L.L. 2,200,000 million
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - Labour Minister Sejaan Azzi said on Thursday that it was
about time to increase the minimum monthly wage in Lebanon to L.L. 2,200,000
million LBP, noting that the need is behind the spread of chaos, terrorism, and
drugs.
The Minister's stance came during opening the Central Council for the
International Union for Arab Workers Syndicates. The ceremony was held in Ramada
Plaza in Beirut in the presence of figures from Lebanon and the Arab world.
"The decisions of the leaders of the Arab world who met recently during the Arab
summit are the same since 1940s. They do nothing but give words at the time that
wars ravage our world, crises shake our systems, poverty takes over our
societies, and terrorism threatens our nation," he pointed out. Azzi noted that
no war, no regime, no revolution, and no ideology could save the Arab peoples,
so "why not think of the Arab workers to build democratic systems consistent
with their environments to put the Arab world on the path of innovation,
civilization, and social security." He called for the rejection of the situation
in the Arab world and of "saboteurs who destroyed Lebanon, Palestine, Syria,
Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen."The Minister shed light on the problem
of unemployment which affected Lebanon and attained 11% in 2010-2011.
"Unemployment rate today is close to 25%," said Azzi. He reiterated in this
regard the importance of the return of Syrian refugees to Syria to minimize the
socio-economic burden of Lebanon which affected several sectors, notably the
labor one.
MENAHRA raises awareness on
Hepatitis B, C
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - On World Hepatitis Day - July 28, 2016, the Middle East
and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) continues its mission to
support and collaborate with partners, public health workers, and the community
to raise awareness on Hepatitis B and C.MENAHRA also supports the first-ever
Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016 - 2021 which was adopted
by the World Health Assembly in in May 2016. The new strategy includes a 30%
reduction in new cases of Hepatitis B and C, and a 10% reduction in mortality by
2020. Viral Hepatitis causes severe and chronic infections that may lead to
cirrhosis in the liver and the emergence of malignant tumors. The World Health
Organization estimates that 240 million people are chronically infected with
Hepatitis B, while 130-150 million people globally have chronic Hepatitis C
infection. Only 5% of people with chronic Hepatitis know of their infection, and
less that 1% has access to treatment. People Who Inject Drugs are at a higher
risk of contracting Viral Hepatitis, estimations indicated that around 1.2
million injecting drug users have Hepatitis B and 10 million people who inject
drugs have Hepatitis C.
On this day, MENAHRA urges the need to raise awareness regarding the
transmission of Hepatitis B and C by sharing contaminated injecting equipment.
MENAHRA also calls the decision makers, health workers and the public, to commit
to "Know Hepatitis - Act Now," and increase awareness in order to prevent the
spread of the disease.MENAHRA also urges governments to list the harm reduction
programs and strategies, such as Needle-Syringe Programs and Opioid Substitution
Therapy, within their country's health policies and to ensure the availability
of Hepatitis vaccinations for People Who Use Drugs.
Mokbel calls for not interfering in resolutions related to Litani River
pollution
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - National Defense Minister, Samir Mokbel, on Thursday
called upon politicians and leaders not to interfere in the execution of
resolutions related to treating the pollution of Litani River, adding that the
ministerial meetings regarding this issue will stay open. Mokbel's words came in
the wake of his meeting at his ministerial office with Interior and
Municipalities Minister Nouhad Machnouk, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan,
Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb, Public Health Minister Wael Abu Faour,
Energy and Water Minister Arthur Nazarian, Environment Minister Mohammad
Machnouk, State Minister for Parliament's Affairs Mohammad Fneish,
Reconstruction and Development Council head Nabil Jisr and other figures. He
noted that the municipalities along with Interior Ministry would follow up on
the issue of the pollution resulting from sewage in the river."We decided to
stop licensed and unlicensed sand quarries on the banks of the river temporarily
and asked to stop the flow of waste water," Mokbel pointed out. On a different
note, Mokbel said, "There is no possibility at all to extend the mandate of
chief of staff, yet there is possibility to extend for one year the mandate of
army chief."
Rifi chairs preparatory
meeting of Arab Network for Promoting Integrity 5th conference in Tunisia
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi chaired a meeting of the Arab
Network For Promoting Integrity and Anti-Corruption, in preparation for its 5th
conference to be taking place in Tunisia between 5 and 7 September, 2016. The
Conference takes place under the patronage of Tunisian Prime Minister, in
collaboration with the United Nations, and in the presence of ministers,
officials and activists from more than 30 nations and regional and international
organizations. The preparatory meeting was attended by ministries and Lebanese
syndical committees affiliated to the network. Minister Rifi chaired said
meeting in his capacity as head of the Arab Network. Conferees took up the
program of the Conference which will be convening under the headline of
"Promoting accountability to Achieve Development in Arab Countries."It is worth
mentioning that the Arab Network is the most prominent Arab mechanism for the
promotion of integrity and anti-corruption, working to support the Arab
countries for the implementation of UN agreements and relevant regional and
national capacity-building in this domain. The network includes 47 ministries
and organizations from 18 Arab countries and two observers, namely Brazil and
Malaysia, in addition to non-governmental group composed of 23 independent
organizations from civil society, the private sector and academia.
Harb receives Richard, Nadime
Gemayel
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - Telecom Minister, Boutros Harb, on Thursday received at
his office US Ambassador, Richard Elizabeth, and discussed with her overall
developments at the local and regional scenes. Richard, upon leaving after the
visit, described the meeting as good with the minister. Harb also received MP
Nadime Gemayel and discussed with him local political developments. Harb advised
the ministers concerned for telecom file to read the report submitted to
cabinet.
Kahwaji, interlocutors take
up current developments
Thu 28 Jul 2016/NNA - Army Commander, General Jean Khawaji, met on Thursday at
his office in Yarzeh with former Minister Weam Wahhab, with talks reportedly
touching on most recent developments. General Kahwaji also met with Norwegian
Ambassador to Lebanon. Lynn Land, whereby they discussed the overall situation
in Lebanon and the broad region. The General then met with US Defense Attaché
Calve V Ulises, whereby they reportedly dwelt on bilateral relations between the
armies of both countries. Among Kahwaji's itinerant visitors for today has been
a delegation of Majdel Anjar Municipality Council, led by Municipality head
Saiid Yassine. The delegation hailed the army's efforts in preserving the
security of said town and its neighborhoods.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 28-29/16
Syrian-Russian Provocations Could Spark Golan Clash
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
July 28, 2016
For four days since July 25, the Syrian army has been continuously firing
artillery batteries - moved close to Israel’s defense lines on the Golan border
- in a manner that comes dangerously close to provoking an Israeli response.
This carefully orchestrated Syrian campaign goes on around the clock.
It is the first time in the six years of the Syrian war that Bashar Assad has
ventured to come near to provoking Israel. But now he appears to be emboldened
by his Russian ally.
The IDF is holding its fire for the moment. But Israeli military and government
leaders know that the time is near for the IDF to be forced to hit back,
especially since it is becoming evident that the Syrian army’s steps ae backed
by Russia.
debkafile’s military sources provide details of the Syrian steps:
The Syrian army’s 90th and 121nd battalions have been firing their artillery
batteries non-stop across a 10km band along the Golan border from Hamadia, north
of Quneitra, up to a point facing the Israeli village of Eyn Zivan. (See
attacked map).
This means that the Syrian army has seized the center of buffer zone between
Israel and Syria and made it a firing zone.
This artillery fire fans out across a radius that comes a few meters short of
the Israeli border and the IDF troops stationed there. It then recedes to a
distance of 500 to 600 meters and sweeps across the outposts and bases of the
Syrian rebel forces believed to be in touch with Israel or in receipt of Israeli
medical aid.
The new Syrian attack appears to hold a message for Jerusalem: For six years,
you supported the rebels against the Assad regime in southern Syria. That’s now
over. If you continue, you will come face to face with Syrian fire.
Damascus is also cautioning those rebels: For years, you fought us with Israel
at your backs. But no longer. Watch us bring you under direct artillery fire,
while the IDF sits on its hands.
On July 26, Russian media published an article revealing that Russia had
delivered to the Syrian Air Force, advanced SU-24M2 front-line bombers, which is
designed for attack on frontlines of battle. Israeli officials were unpleasantly
taken aback by the news. Up until now, the Russians and Syrians refrained from
deploying air strength in South Syria near the Israeli border. Now the Syrian
air force has the means to do so.
debkafile military sources report that the SU-24M2, following recent upgrades
and modifications in Russian factories, is now capable of dropping smart bombs –
ballistic bombs with a guidance system on their tails that enable them to hit
targets with precision.This guidance system does not rely on US GPS satellites
but rather the equivalent Russian GLONASS system which is linked to a network of
21 Russian satellites and partially encrypted for military usages.
In addition, the SU-24M2 is equipped with a system that projects the information
the pilot needs (flight details and battle details) on the plane’s windshield
(head-up display) and on the pilot’s visor.
The Russians delivered to the Syrians two of these sophisticated airplanes this
week, out of 10 that they will supply soon.
The IDF has concluded that it is only a matter of time before these planes
appear in Southern Syria and so generate a new and highly combustible situation
on Israel’s northern and northeastern borders.
The Russians are colluding with Damascus to inform Israel that it will no longer
be allowed by either to continue backing the rebel forces in southern Syria or
sustain the buffer zone which they man.
Israel may pay dear if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister
Avigdor Lieberman, and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot decide to continue
to abstain from hitting back at the Syrian fire which is aimed every few hours
at the vicinity of IDF posts or the impending arrival of Russian bombers. The
price in store would be the weakening of the IDF’s hold on the Golan border.
Michael Mukasey: If Iranian regime
falls, there would be virtually no problems in the Middle East
Thursday, 28 July 2016/NCRI - A former United States Attorney General has
explained why he supports a free and democratic Iran and why he believes that
the Middle East crisis can be solved by a change in the Iranian regime. Michael
Mukasey, the former U.S. Attorney General, gave an interview to the ‘Alliance
for Public Awareness - Iranian Communities in Europe’ at the Free Iran rally in
Paris earlier this month. In the interview, he said that the U.S.’s policy
towards Iran needed a “top to bottom reassessment” and that appeasing the
dictatorship had done no good. He said: “Iran’s role [in the Middle East] is
principally destructive.” He asserts that the Iranian regime is trying “to
strengthen its own hand”, while it contributes to the genocide of the Syrian
people and funds terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. He expressed
thanks for the role of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in exposing the
Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear weapons projects and he congratulated the
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) for its ten-point plan for a
future free and democratic Iran. He criticized the mullahs’ regime for
attempting to smear the Iranian Resistance as violent terrorists.
He said: “The [nuclear] treaty itself was a huge mistake and if its worst
effects can be undone, they should be undone.”He said: “If you deal with an
absolute tyranny, you strengthen it. If you tighten the screws, which may be
harmful to the Iranian population, but in the long run it will do more to
benefit them.”
Tehran’s paranoia over
opposition Free Iran rally in Paris
Thursday, 28 July 2016/NCRI - For years, the Iranian regime has been peddling
the notion that no viable opposition exists in Iran. In its relations with
foreign governments, Tehran downplays the existence of a viable opposition, in
particular suggesting that the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (MEK),
has no major standing among Iranians and poses no serious threat. As such, for a
long time Tehran opted the line of trying to ignore the PMOI and the National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). This argument intended to convince its
interlocutors that the only realistic policy options are either appeasing Tehran
or waging a full-fledged external war. And given the tragic experiences of
recent history in the Middle East, Iran’s mullahs remain confident that
appeasement looks like the more attractive option. The Free Iran gathering in
Paris on July 9 punctured Tehran’s long held narrative. According to scores of
media outlets, some 100,000 Iranians and their international supporters
participated in the event. Prior to the rally, dozens of political prisoners in
Iran, in courageous acts of defiance, took the risk of sending messages of
support urging the participants to be their voice for change. In addition,
resistance activists from across Iran in a symbolic video expressed their
support for the democratic opposition. Furthermore, hundreds of youth who had
fled the country over the past year were present at the rally. Their presence
spoke on behalf of the new generation and families of political prisoners. This
prevented the mullahs from once again denying the deep roots of the resistance
in Iran.
In addition hundreds of dignitaries of different political persuasions from the
US, Europe, and the Middle East took part in the event. Among them were such
internationally-acclaimed figures as former U.S. House of Representatives
Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Governor and Democratic Party chairman Howard
Dean, former President of the European Commission Jose Manual Barroso, former
Foreign Minister of Canada John Baird, and Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi
Arabia.
This made the regime hysterical since nothing makes the mullahs more afraid than
witnessing the countries in the region and their opposition to be on the same
side. The event manifested that the conflict is not between the regional
countries and Iran, it is not between Iranians and Arabs, and it is not between
Shiites and Sunnis. Rather, it showed that the real conflict is between the
Iranian regime and the peoples of Iran and the region. Given that the event was
also broadcast live by several satellite TVs including Simay-e Azadi, a media
blackout and ignoring the event became untenable.
Just hours after the event concluded, Tehran lashed out, bashing the event and
its message of regime change.
Who in Tehran Reacted?
Many of the Iranian regime’s top officials and figures responded publicly,
attacking the National Council of Resistance of Iran, its principal constituent
group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), and the
President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Maryam Rajavi. They represented both
factions of the regime - the recognized hardliners associated with Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei and the allies of so-called moderate President Hassan
Rouhani. They included:
President Hassan Rouhani
First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri
Speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
Ali Akbar Velayati, former Foreign Minister and Khamenei’s senior foreign policy
advisor
udiciary chief Sadeq Larijani
Ramazan Sharif, the spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
Mohsen Rezai, the former IRGC Commander in Chief and Secretary of the Expediency
Council
Ali Younesi, special advisor to the regime’s President Rouhani, and the former
Minister of Intelligence
Amir Abdollahain, Deputy Foreign Minister for the Middle East until recently,
when he was appointed as a special advisor to Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the
Parliament
Scores of Friday prayers leaders around the country including in major cities
such as Tehran and Qom
Who was the focus of Tehran’s ire?
Tehran lashed out against the Saudis, summoned the French Ambassador in Tehran
to register an official protest and summoned the diplomat in charge of Egypt’s
interest section in Tehran to protest the presence of an official delegation
from the Egyptian Parliament, headed by the Vice-President of the Parliament, at
the Free Iran gathering.
The regime’s officials in their remarks and assessments warned that a new era
had begun in the region, with the opposition gaining influence and prominence on
the international stage. They also indicated that the appeal of offering
concessions to the regime was wearing off among Western policymakers as the
notion of regime change by the Iranian people and their own resistance continued
to gain momentum.
Over 4000 outbursts in the Iranian state media
Tehran’s reaction has been both unprecedented and hysterical, continuing
unabated for 10 days. Iranian state controlled media was riddled with comments,
stories, talk-shows, and interviews on the gathering and its call for regime
change. As of July 24, there had been over 4000 stories in the news outfits and
web sites affiliated with the Iranian regime regarding the July 9 gathering.
Regime's reaction
Hassan Rouhani, President, the official IRNA news agency, July 17, 2016: “There
are both children-killer regimes (i.e. Israel in the mullahs’ lexicon) and
childlike regimes (i.e. Saudi Arabia in the mullahs’ lexicon) in the region.
There are childlike regimes that are seeking the support of rotten terrorist
organizations.”
Ali Larijani, Speaker of Majlis (Parliament), Fars news agency (affiliated with
the IRGC): “Another example is allowing the terrorist-killer Monafeghin (MEK) in
Paris and the nonsense that was uttered by the moron Saudi official. The
gathering and what was raised was so worthless and so impolite that it does not
merit a response."
Eshag Jahangiri, First Vice President, IRNA, July 13, 2016: “These countries
think they are doing something big against Iran. They are trying to tell the
Iranian people that they are aligning themselves with the Monafeghin (Tehran’s
derogatory term for the PMOI). They should know that PMOI are unpopular in Iran,
people hate them… Some upstart countries in the region think they can oppose the
Iranian regime by aligning themselves with the PMOI.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, former Foreign Minister, current foreign policy advisor to
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Mashregh News, (affiliated with the Revolutionary
Guards), July 13, 2016: “This (PMOI) is a politically bankrupt organization and
they have betrayed their own people since the inception of the group… This group
does not possess the courage to come to Iran and talk to the Iranian people
directly; their claims are for beyond Iran’s borders.”
Mohsen Rezai, Secretary of the Expediency Council, former commander of the IRGC,
Mehr News Agency (Affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence), July 17, 2016:
“Turki al-Faisal said in this gathering that with the help of you (PMOI), the
Islamic Republic of Iran will be overthrown in the near future. This is nothing
but madness and lunacy.”
Javad Zarif Foreign Minister, Mehr News Agency, July 13, 2016: “The presence of
individuals such as Turki-al Faisal in this gathering is indicative of the
incompetency and naiveté of these individuals… Individuals such as John Bolton
and Newt Gingrich have been attending these gatherings in the past few years.
This is nothing new. This has always been their policy.”
Sadeq Larijani, head of the Judiciary, Mehr News Agency, July 11, 2016,
referring to the (PMOI’s) support in the US and some European countries: “…The
French allow them to hold such a meeting and the Americans also take part in
these gatherings.”
IRGC Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, head of public relations of the IRGC,
Tasnim News Agency (affiliated with the IRGC Quds Force), July 10, 2016: “The
presence of the former head of intelligence of the Saudi Royal family in the
gathering of the PMOI in Paris and his expression of sympathy and empathy with
them indicated a long-time bond between terrorist PMOI and the Saudi regime
against the Islamic Republic.”
Mehr News Agency, July 12, 2016: “Following the gathering of the Monafeghin (PMOI)
group in Paris, Abolghsem Delfi, Director of the Western European Affairs of the
Foreign Ministry, summoned the French Ambassador in Tehran to the foreign
ministry and registered the strong protest of the Islamic Republic against the
gathering.”
Javad Jamali, member of the National Security Committee of the Majlis
(Parliament), Mehr News Agency, July 13, 2016: “In today’s session, the
statement of the National Security Committee against the gathering of the
Monafeghin (PMOI), which was attended by one of the senior officials of Saudi
Arabia, was prepared. In this statement the Committee condemned the PMOI
gathering in Paris and urged the Foreign Ministry to take a firm and strong
position and actions.”
Amir Abdollahian, special advisor to Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the
Parliament, July 10, 2016: “Saudi Arabia is trying to keep us occupied with our
internal issues so we have less influence and less presence in Syria. Saudi
Arabia is very much scared of the Revolutionary Guards and their presence in
Syria. Because the Revolutionary Guards have been able to guard Syria against
other terrorist groups of the region. I predict that Saudi Arabia will increase
its military support to the Mojahedin. They want to use the Mojahedin’s
international network to pressure Iran on its role in Yemen and Syria.”
Foreign Ministry summoned the head of Egypt's Interest Section: “The head of the
Egyptian interest section in Tehran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on July
14, 2016 to receive the Islamic Republic’s strong protest against the
participation of Egypt's parliamentarians at a meeting of the PMOI.”
Khordad Website, affiliated with the “moderates”, in a July 13, 2016 article
entitled “Obama’s letters to Iran were burnt in Paris”: “Just 6 months prior to
Obama’s leaving office, and on the verge of the Mojahedin’s Paris meeting that
was attended by U.S. and Arab past and present authorities, the policy of regime
change in Iran is gaining popularity. This is a fake hope and illusion.”
Tabnak News agency, affiliated with Mohsen Rezai, the Secretary of the Exigency
Council, July 13, 2016: “Although France’s ambassador was called in to Iran’s
Foreign Ministry and many Iranian officials reacted to Saudi Arabia’s support
for the PMOI, and despite the fact that this meeting has been looked at from
Iran’s relations with both France and Saudi Arabia, all speeches and the
language of the speeches are indicative of the fact that this meeting and its
content was planned not in Riyadh or Europe, but in Washington.”
Dowlat Bahar Newspaper (affiliated with former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad),
July 10, 2016: “This year’s MEK meeting had major differences from the previous
ones. The presence of Arab delegates affiliated with Saudi Arabia was a
highlight. Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence and Soleiman
Wahdan, Deputy Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament and head of a delegation of
Egyptian officials participated in the meeting. Representatives from Algeria
(former Prime Minister Ahmed Ghazali) and Jordan (former Culture Minister Saleh
al-qallab), Morocco, Bahrain (parliamentary committee), Kuwait, Lebanon, Yemen,
Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates attended the meeting. In addition, Adrianus
Melkert of the Dutch Labor Party and the former head of the UN special envoy for
Iraq, former Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi of Italy were also present in the
meeting.”
Tasnim news agency (affiliated with the IRGC Quds Force), July 16, 2016: “The
most significant difference of this year compared to the previous years was the
identity of the guests and the participants. For the first time this year,
almost all of the regime’s opponents and adversaries had gathered under one roof
to review effective ways to confront Tehran.”
Vatan-e Emrouz newspaper, wrote on July 11, 2016 that this year's meeting
“possessed one significant difference with the previous meetings of this group.
This group that has been removed from the terrorist groups of both Europe and
U.S. had managed to have a significant presence from Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries in its meeting. Aside from the special representation of Saudi Arabia,
the presence of delegations from the US, EU and some Arab countries was
noticeable. There were also politicians from India and Africa in the meeting…
Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is very
close to Donald Trump was also present in this meeting.”
**Velayat Bahar (News and analysis web site), July 11, 2016: “This meeting took
place in Paris with the presence of a wide range of Iranian
counter-revolutionaries.”
Wife of Iran political
prisoner arrested for filming Iran protest
Thursday, 28 July 2016/NCRI – In the course of major anti-regime protests by
thousands of ethnic Iranian Azeris in north-west Iran this week, a number of
protesters were attacked and arrested by the regime’s anti-riot units. Roqieh
Alizadeh, wife of political prisoner Abbas Lesani, was arrested on Tuesday while
she was filming a protest in Tabriz, the provincial capital of Iran’s Eastern
Azerbaijan Province. The suppressive forces also confiscated her mobile phone.
Abbas Lesani is serving a prison sentence on the trumped up charge of
"propaganda against the system (regime)" for taking part in an anti-regime
protest over the drying up of Iran's largest salt lake, Lake Orumieh, in
north-west Iran. Also on Tuesday, a number of people were arrested in a large
protest in Orumieh (Urmia), the provincial capital of Iran’s Western Azerbaijan
Province. No information is available about their fate. The names of three of
those arrested are: Ali Azizi, Houshang Naqizadeh and Ouldouz Qassemi. The
rallies on Tuesday were triggered by the publication of derogatory statements in
the state-run media against Iran’s largest ethnic minority group. The July 20
edition of the state-run daily Tarhe-No (issue no 868) had published an
insulting reference to ethnic Iranian Azeris. The first rally began at around
7pm (local time) in the city of Tabriz. Thousands of people gathered in Darayi
Street and chanted slogans in defense of the rights of the Azeri community and
in protest to recent disrespect to Iranian Azeris by the mullahs’ regime in
Iran.
The regime sent hordes of special anti-riot troops and water cannons to disperse
the protesters. The anti-riot forces fired rubber bullets at the demonstrators,
according to eye-witnesses. A number of protesters were arrested in the
skirmishes.
In the city of Orumieh, hundreds of protesters gathered in the early evening and
began a rally from Atai Street towards Imam Khomeini Street. Anti-riot troops
were sent in and a number of protesters were arrested. Students at the
University of Orumieh began a protest on campus against the regime’s slander.
Commenting on Tuesday’s rallies Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: “This is another sign
of growing discontent in Iran which manifests itself in different forms and
different places. The Iranian people use every possible opportunity to manifest
their loath and hatred towards this regime which doubly suppresses ethnic and
religious minorities.”
Struan Stevenson: Is the Iran
Nuclear Deal Going to Collapse?
Thursday, 28 July 2016/The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly
known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed in Vienna on July 14, 2015. It was
widely promoted by U.S. and EU officials as a foreign policy breakthrough,
although much of the detail was kept under wraps. Only now is the true picture
beginning to emerge and it makes for disturbing reading, writes former European
lawmaker Struan Stevenson. Last week the Associated Press published a leaked
document which showed that the deal will allow Tehran to enrich uranium 11 years
after the agreement was implemented and not 15 years as previously announced.
The Iranian regime reacted furiously to this revelation, claiming that the West
was now guilty of violating the agreement by leaking this secret information to
the media. The speaker of the Iranian regime's Parliament – Ali Larijani – has
gone even further, claiming that: “The hostile measures against the nuclear deal
have reached a point where Iran was left with no choice but to confront.” The
head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi has said
the nuclear deal stipulates that if any party violates it, then Tehran can go
back to enriching uranium at an even higher capacity than before the agreement
was signed, Mr. Stevenson pointed out in an article for The Diplomat on
Thursday.
Mr. Stevenson wrote:
It has now become clear that the deal was quite one-sided, containing page after
page of clauses relating to the lifting of sanctions, in return for which we got
very little, apart from a few scant paragraphs detailing Iranian cooperation in
slowing down its nuclear enrichment process for a period of up to 15 years,
which we now know in fact to be much less. As far as scrutiny of the nuclear
program is concerned, regular inspections by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) are limited to the Natanz site in Isfahan Province, the country’s
main underground nuclear facility with over 19,000 operational centrifuges.
Natanz itself was first revealed by the PMOI opposition group in 2002; until
that point it had been a closely guarded secret site.
The agreement states that: “Iran will permit the IAEA regular access, including
daily access as requested by the IAEA, to relevant buildings at Natanz.” The
fact that only ”relevant” buildings will be accessed and only at Natanz is
perhaps indicative of how Iran intends to restrict inspections to the bare
minimum. The West was reassured by a clause that stated: “For 15 years, the
Natanz enrichment site will be the sole location for all of Iran’s uranium
enrichment related activities including safeguarded R&D.” So that’s all right
then, we can trust the Iranian regime who previously hid all their nuclear
facilities, to centralize their nuclear enrichment processes at one site which
will be open for regular inspection! The agreement goes on to say that access is
prohibited to all military sites, which of course is where most of the on-going
nuclear activity is now concentrated.
It should be remembered that Iran entered into nuclear negotiations because,
following the whistleblowing of the Iranian resistance, sanctions had crippled
the Iranian economy. Nevertheless to capitulate to almost every Iranian demand
exposed a level of weakness that has been eagerly exploited by the mullahs ever
since. The lifting of sanctions released an estimated $150 billion in frozen
assets, providing a windfall for a regime whose biggest export is terror; a
regime which funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi
rebels in Yemen, and the brutal Shi’ite militias in Iraq.
Mr. Stevenson pointed out that last week the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in
a report criticized the Iranian regime’s regional and missile activities. The
report stated that the ballistic missile launched by the Iranian regime in March
was at odds with the U.N. deal and “not consistent with the constructive spirit”
of the nuclear agreement.
Mr. Stevenson added: "Tension is mounting internationally as the flaws of the
nuclear deal are repeatedly uncovered and Iran’s aggressive expansionist policy
in the Middle East, to cover its internal fragility and weakness, is exposed.
Tehran’s knee-jerk reaction to criticism is to accuse the West of violating the
agreement and to call for retaliation, as was witnessed in last week’s UN
Security Council when France openly criticized the Iranian regime, causing a
furious reaction."
"The U.S. Congress should continue closely to monitor and adopt tough measures
to make sure that Iran cannot create further regional instability, disrupting
peace and threatening international security. The West must not be passive when
dealing with Iran’s continuous violations of the nuclear agreement and its
aggressive regional interventions, terrorism, and human rights violations. It
was hard-hitting sanctions that forced the mullahs to sit down to negotiate and
thus we should take a tough line by imposing new sanctions for any further
violations," he added.
Struan Stevenson was a Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland
(1999-2014). He was President of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with
Iraq (2009-2014) and Chair of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup from 2005-2014.
He is now President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA).
Iran regime's crackdown on
PMOI shows its vulnerability and fear
Wednesday, 27 July 2016 20:17
NCRI Iran News/Patrick J. Kennedy, a former member of the U.S. House of
Representatives (D-RI), highlighted the role of the organized Iranian Resistance
in weakening the mullahs' regime. In an opinion article for the Independent
Journal Review on Wednesday, July 27, Mr. Kennedy wrote:
On July 9, the Free Iran rally near Paris attracted tens of thousands of
Iranians from five continents and gained support from political leaders from
many countries, including the US, several EU member nations, and the Gulf
States. It also provoked the predictable ire of the Iranian regime, which has
persecuted the constituent groups of the main opposition, the National Council
of Resistance of Iran, since the beginnings of the Islamic Republic.
Approximately 120,000 political dissidents have been killed since 1981, most of
them from the NCRI’s main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization
of Iran (PMOI or MEK). Tens of thousands were put to death in the summer of 1988
alone. UN special rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed has said that this year the rate of
executions reached levels not seen for more than 25 years.
Meanwhile, foreign policy analysts and critics of the Iranian regime have
observed that the repression of dissent is surging to levels not seen since the
end of the Iran/Iraq War, when the long-term survival of the Tehran regime was
very much in doubt. Participants in the rally underscored that Iran’s
deteriorating domestic situation signals the increased vulnerability of Tehran’s
leadership. Just as MEK dissidents were executed in great numbers to compensate
for the weakness shown in accepting the end of the war with Iraq, the current
crackdown seems aimed at making the regime look strong, despite last summer’s
compromise over nuclear negotiations and the lingering social effects of the
2009 popular uprisings. The clerical regime fears for its survival, and as with
any insecure bully, that fear manifests as bluster. This was evident in a series
of provocations made toward the West, including the January seizure of 10
American sailors who had strayed into Iranian territorial waters, the five
illicit ballistic missile tests that have taken place since the conclusion of
last summer’s negotiations, and gestures of force in the Persian Gulf.
Reacting to the rally, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps even went so far as
to dispatch several patrol boats to follow an American warship through the Gulf.
No doubt the incident was used as a source of propaganda in Iranian state media,
much like the images and video of the 10 sailors – who were released within 24
hours – were aired for weeks on end. But such questionable propaganda victories
will not do the regime much good – not as long as that propaganda is countered
by an organized resistance abroad and the regime fails to win more serious
victories against the resistance and its international network of supporters.
The expressions of international support for the NCRI included a speech by
Prince Turki al-Faisal, an influential member of the Saudi royal family and
former Saudi intelligence chief. With his declaration that Muslims around the
world support the Iranian resistance “heart and soul,” he turned the annual
event into a celebration of unprecedented Middle Eastern unity. In the words of
Howard Dean, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he “redrew
the map of the Middle East.”The extraordinary foreign support removes any doubt
that the Iranian resistance is an existential threat to the clerical regime.
Moreover, the Saudi capacity to unify Arab nations behind the resistance
explains why Iranian officials, including Brig. Gen. Ramazan Sharif, the
Revolutionary Guards Spokesman, accused Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other powerful
Arab states of “flagrantly interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.”
Such comments can only be seen as the desperate protests of a vulnerable regime.
Iran has engaged in its own “flagrant interference” in the region for years.
Examples include its all-out defense of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,
fomenting of a Shiite rebellion in Yemen, threats to instigate one in Bahrain,
and empowering the crusade by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to
drive minorities out of Iraq’s government. All have stoked deep resentment, both
at home and abroad. Iran now stands to suffer the consequences of its actions,
as powerful forces offer their justified support to a legitimate Iranian
opposition movement. The regime’s ongoing reaction to the Free Iran rally will
continue to demonstrate that it recognizes the threat to its power. As long as
the world community stands firm against Iran’s violent response, we will see
that it is inadequate to suppress, dissent or preserve the regime.
Assad offers amnesty to rebels who
surrender
The Associated Press Thursday, 28 July 2016/Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad
has offered an amnesty to rebels who lay down their arms and surrender to
authorities over the next three months. The amnesty offer was issued through a
decree on Thursday and urged that all detainees be freed. It says that those who
might set free their captives will be exempted from punishment if they turn
themselves in within a month. It was reported by state-run news agency SANA.The
offer coincides with a government offensive that has succeeded in completely
encircling rebels in the eastern part of the city of Aleppo.
Meanwhile, Russia and the Syrian government said they will open humanitarian
corridors in Syria’s embattled city of Aleppo on Thursday and offer a way out
for opposition fighters wanting to lay down their arms, even as Syrian forces
took another district from rebels in the city. The Russian announcement by
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu came as Assad offered a general amnesty for
rebels who give up their weapons and surrender to authorities over the next
three months. Rebels and residents of Aleppo said they were deeply skeptical of
the offer, and there was no immediate sign of people massing to leave the
besieged parts of the city. For days now, Syrian government forces and allied
troops have encircled the main rebel enclave in Aleppo, urging fighters there to
surrender. The encirclement set the stage for a prolonged siege that the
government hopes will eventually stare out and force the rebels to surrender, a
tactic Assad’s forces have used elsewhere, including in the central city of
Homs.
But humanitarian groups have warned of a major catastrophe if the siege on the
rebel-held parts of Aleppo continues. Some 300,000 residents are trapped in the
eastern part of the city that is controlled by rebels, according to the United
Nations.
Shoigu said in televised comments that President Vladimir Putin has ordered a
“large-scale humanitarian operation” that will be launched outside Aleppo to
help civilians as well as allow fighters who wanted to lay down the arms to
surrender. He said three corridors will be open for civilians and fighters who
lay down their arms and a fourth corridor providing fighters a “safe exit with
weapons.” “Given the fact that our American counterparts have not provided
intelligence about the Nusra Front and Syrian Free Army squads (we) will create
a fourth corridor for a safe exist with weapons in the north of Aleppo in the
direction of the Castello highway,” he said. The Nusra Front is al-Qaeda’s
branch in Syria while the Syrian Free Army is the name of the main
Western-backed rebels. Both have fighters in Aleppo.
Meanwhile, the governor of Aleppo province, Mohammed Olbi, said three crossings
have been opened for residents, adding that those who leave would be given
temporary accommodation. Syrian TV said fliers have already been dropped on
rebel-held areas of Aleppo urging people to take the government’s offer of
humanitarian corridors. The TV also aired a call from Aleppo clerics, calling on
armed groups to drop their weapons.
There were no immediate signs of people converging on the crossings.Bahaa Halabi,
an opposition media activist inside Aleppo, said there are no corridors out of
east Aleppo and even if there were, he would not take them. “Definitely not. We
will not surrender ourselves to the criminals. They are killing us every day.
Slaughtering us, starving us, and besieging civilians,” he said, speaking from
the city via Skype. Fliers dropped on eastern Aleppo show corridors to
government areas, according to Ibrahim Haj, who directs the media office. He
said some families may send their women and children through the corridors but
not men. Also, he said there is clearly little confidence in the government’s
amnesty offer. “Most of the men - everyone here - is wanted by the regime,” said
Haj. “It’s impossible for people here to go to regime areas.”
Capitalizing on their push in battles over the past days, Assad’s forces on
Thursday took the Bani Zeid neighborhood on the northern edge of the Aleppo from
the rebels as part of a steady advance meant to tighten the siege.
State-run news agency SANA said the military has begun clearing land mines there
and claimed dozens of gunmen laid down their weapons and surrendered in the
neighborhood.
Assad’s amnesty offer, which came in a presidential decree, included armed
opposition fighters who surrender within three months and also urged all
detainees to be freed. The decree, which was published by the state-run news
agency SANA, said that those who might set free their captives will be exempted
from punishment if they turn themselves in within a month. Assad has issued
amnesty offers several times during Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
The latest offer - like those before it - is largely seen by opposition fighters
as a publicity stunt and psychological warfare against the rebels. More than a
quarter of a million people have died and millions have been displaced since
March 2011, when Syria's conflict erupted. Separately, Shoigu also said that
Moscow is sending a top general and experts to Geneva at the request of U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the Aleppo crisis. Shoigu said Putin,
in response to a request by Kerry, ordered Gen. Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov and a
group of experts to the Swiss city, which has hosted several rounds of Syrian
talks and international negotiators trying to resolve the crisis.
Second France church killer
formally identified
AFP Thursday, 28 July 2016/The second attacker involved in the murder of a
French priest in northwest of France was formally identified as Nabil Abdel
Malik Petitjean, 19, on Thursday. According to a source close to the
investigation, he was on a list of extremists being monitored by French
intelligence services since June 29. The attack took place during morning mass
at the Saint-Etienne parish church, south of Rouen in Normandy. Five people were
initially taken hostage. The first attacker was named as 19-year-old Adel
Kermiche, who was under close surveillance after two failed attempts to reach
Syria last year, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said. Kermiche and the
second attacker, who remains unidentified, were killed by police as they came
out of the church in Kermiche’s hometown in Normandy after taking hostages and
fatally slitting the throat of an elderly priest. Meanwhile the ISIS militant
group released video footage Wednesday it said showed two men who killed the
priest pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The video,
posted on the ISIS news agency Amaq, shows two young men with an ISIS banner, as
one of them recites in Arabic in a strong non-native accent a traditional pledge
of allegiance to the group’s head. The two bearded men, calling themselves noms
de guerre Abu Omar and Abu Jalil al-Hanfai, hold hands as they swear “obedience”
to Baghdadi. ISIS claimed the attack saying it had been carried out by two of
its “soldiers”. According to Amaq, the two were “soldiers of the Islamic State
who carried out the attack in response to calls to target countries of the
Crusader coalition”. ISIS posts video of men it says were French church
attackers. In a video posted by a site affiliated to ISIS, two men who identify
themselves as ‘Abu Jaleel al-Hanafi’(L) and ‘Ibn Omar’ (R) are seen sitting next
to the logo of ISIS while pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
France, UK Call for End to
'Disastrous' Aleppo Siege
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 28/French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault
and his British counterpart Boris Johnson called Thursday for the Syrian regime
and its allies to end their "disastrous" siege on the city of Aleppo. "The
ministers solemnly called upon the Syrian regime's allies to bring an immediate
end to these operations which violate the truce agreed in Munich, and
international law," they said in a joint statement after a meeting in Paris.The
consequences of the siege, "including the bombardment of civilians and medical
facilities, are already disastrous and could generate further refugees," the
statement said.
The ministers called for the cessation of hostilities agreement "to be fully and
immediately restored, and for progress towards the establishment of a
transitional authority with full executive powers."The ministers said the siege
of the city where some 300,000 people are trapped "makes it impossible for peace
negotiations to resume.""The ministers stressed that Russia in particular has a
unique ability to persuade the Assad regime to end the war and return to the
negotiating table," the statement added. Aleppo residents have reported food
shortages and spiraling prices in rebel-held districts since regime forces cut
off the opposition's main supply route into the city earlier this month. The
call by Paris and London came as Russia announced a "large-scale" aid operation
for the trapped civilians and opposition fighters fleeing Aleppo, while Syrian
President Bashar Assad offered an amnesty to rebels who surrender. Syria's U.N.
envoy Staffan de Mistura said this week he hopes peace talks aimed at ending the
war could resume at the end of August. More than 280,000 people have been killed
in Syria since the war began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that
were met with a brutal regime crackdown.
German police arrest Algerian
suspect who yelled ‘I’ll blow you up’
Reuters Thursday, 28 July 2016/German police on Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old
Algerian refugee who had fled a psychiatric facility earlier in the day yelling,
“I’ll blow you up,” ending the latest in a string of incidents that have set the
country’s nerves on edge. German federal police arrested the asylum-seeker at
the Bremen main train station after an hours-long manhunt that prompted the
evacuation of a Bremen shopping center, according to police in the neighboring
state of Lower Saxony. They said an investigation was continuing. Police said
that when the man was in custody this past weekend for several thefts, he had
sympathized with ISIS and a gunman who killed nine people at a shopping center
in Munich last Friday. But they said there was no further evidence of any ties.
Germany remains on edge after a spate of attacks that have claimed 15 lives
since July 18, including those of four attackers. German officials have linked
two of the incidents to ISIS. US President Barack Obama spoke by phone with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday to offer his condolences over the
recent attacks in southern Germany, according to US and German officials. Obama
offered Germany the US government’s full support as investigations into the
attacks proceed, the White House said in a statement. Authorities had evacuated
a shopping center in Bremen, about 40 km (25 miles) from the medical facility,
after people identified a man who had been acting suspiciously as the missing
patient. A spokesman in Diepholz, where the man had been held by police over the
weekend, said authorities took the incident seriously given the current
situation in Germany, but emphasized that there was no evidence of an imminent
attack. “We only have these statements. We have no evidence of any concrete
plans or even any ties to ISIS,” he said. The man was moved into psychiatric
care after he tried to hurt himself multiple times and authorities determined he
had consumed drugs and posed a possible danger to himself and others. He escaped
from the facility early on Wednesday. Police in Bremen said they were continuing
to scour the shopping center for the man, who may have been carrying a backpack,
and any objects he might have left behind. There were no reports that he was
carrying a weapon, they said. Earlier, a suitcase exploded near a reception
center for migrants in southern Germany, but authorities said the blast may have
been caused by an aerosol can, and there was no sign of any explosives involved.
Two Turkish soldiers killed
in bomb attack in Kurdish southeast
Reuters Thursday, 28 July 2016/Two soldiers were killed and one wounded when a
roadside bomb detonated by Kurdish militants hit a passing military vehicle in
Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast on Wednesday, security sources said. The bomb
was detonated by remote control as the vehicle passed through a highway near
Siirt, in southeast Turkey, the sources said. Members of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the
Turkish state, frequently target military and security force cars and trucks
with roadside bombs. Air-backed operations had been called in to target
militants in the region, the sources said. Troop reinforcements and helicopters
had been dispatched, they said. The mainly Kurdish southeast has been scorched
by some of the worst fighting since the height of the insurgency in the 1990s,
after a ceasefire between the state and the PKK fell apart in July last year.
Germany calls on mosques to
prevent extremism
The Associated Press, Berlin Thursday, 28 July 2016/Germany’s commissioner for
immigration, refugees and integration is calling on mosques across the country
to be more pro-active when it comes to preventing extremism among Muslim youths.
Aydan Ozoguz said in an interview Thursday with the daily Heilbronner Stimme:
“We need to hold mosques more responsible when it comes to prevention among
teenagers.”Ozoguz’ call against Muslim extremism came after four violent attacks
that shook the country recently. Two of them were the first in Germany claimed
by ISIS. The attackers were asylum-seekers who hadn’t grown up in Germany. On
Wednesday night, police raided a mosque believed to be a “hot spot” for Islamic
extremists in the city of Hildesheim. The raid didn’t appear to be connected to
the recent attacks.
Danish nationalists urge ban
on Muslims
The Associated Press, Copenhagen Thursday, 28 July 2016/The Danish People’s
Party, an anti-immigration and nationalist group that supports the center-right
government, says Denmark should halt immigration from Muslim countries, citing
the threat of violence from Islamic extremists. In an interview published
Thursday, deputy party leader Soeren Espersen told the Berlingske newspaper that
Muslim migrants should be barred from entering Denmark for four to six years
because “we need a respite after recent terrorist attacks in Europe.” Martin
Henriksen, another senior party member, confirmed to Denmark’s TV2 that it was
the group’s stance. Critics including the opposition Social Democrats lashed out
at the proposal, saying it wrongly conflates mainstream Muslims with Islamic
extremists and compared it to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s
plan to ban Muslims from entering the US. Government officials didn’t
immediately comment on the proposal.
Al-Qaeda tells Syrian branch
Nusra Front it can drop links
Reuters, Beirut Thursday,
28 July 2016/Al-Qaeda told its Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, that it could
break organizational ties with global militant organization to preserve its
unity and continue its battle in Syria, in an audio statement released on
Thursday. A break with al-Qaeda could pave the way for greater support from Gulf
states such as Qatar for Nusra Front, the most powerful faction in Syria’s
five-year conflict opposing both President Bashar al-Assad and the ISIS militant
group. It could also lead to closer ties between Nusra and other fighting
factions in Syria. “You can sacrifice without hesitation these organizational
and party ties if they conflict with your unity and working as one body,”
al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio statement directed to the
Nusra Front. “The brotherhood of Islam among us is stronger than any
organizational affiliation ... Your unity and unification is more important to
us than any organizational link.”Listed as a terrorist organization by the
United States, Nusra Front was excluded from Syria’s February cessation of
hostilities truce and Russia and the United States are also discussing closer
coordination to target the group. Speaking before Thursday’s announcement,
Charles Lister, an expert with the Middle East Institute, said that while
Syria’s opposition has always demanded Nusra leave al Qaeda, Western powers are
unlikely to change their assessment of the group. US Secretary of State John
Kerry has proposed closer cooperation with Russia against Nusra Front, including
sharing intelligence to coordinate air strikes against its forces. Aymenn Jawad
Al-Tamimi, a research fellow at US think tank Middle East Forum, said a formal
break with al-Qaeda and the possible formation of a new coalition of fighters
with al-Qaeda’s blessing “arguably represents the worst outcome from the US
perspective”. He said it would make “targeting of terrorist figures much more
difficult as they will be ever more deeply embedded in the wider insurgency”. A
larger coalition between the Nusra Front and other groups “would then quickly
and easily dismantle many of the US-backed groups among the Syrian rebels in the
north”, he wrote. Nusra Front was set up shortly after the uprising against
Assad broke out in 2011. Originally supported by ISIS, which controls swathes of
territory in Syria and Iraq, it split from the hardline group in 2013. It has
been sanctioned by the UN Security Council, although in many parts of Syria it
frequently fights on the same side as mainstream groups favored by Washington
and its Arab allies. Rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army
have denied direct coordination with Nusra, which has also fought and crushed
several Western-backed rebel groups. After lying low in the early days of the
February truce, Nusra has re-emerged on the battlefield as diplomacy has
unraveled, spearheading recent attacks on pro-government Iranian militias near
Aleppo, Nusra commanders and other rebels say. Proposals to distance Nusra from
al-Qaeda have been floated before. Last year, sources told Reuters that the
group’s leaders considered cutting ties with al Qaeda to form a new entity
backed by some Gulf Arab states seeking to topple Assad but which are also
hostile to ISIS.
Coalition to formally
investigate recent civilian deaths in Syria
AFP, Washington Thursday, 28 July 2016/The international coalition fighting ISIS
has opened a formal investigation to determine whether its air strikes last week
near the Syrian city of Manbij claimed civilian lives, a spokesman said
Wednesday. The main Syrian opposition group had urged the US-led coalition to
suspend its bombardments following the July 19 strikes, which a
rights-monitoring group and local residents said had killed dozens of civilians.
After examining “internal and external information,” the coalition determined
that there was sufficient credible evidence of civilian victims to open a formal
inquiry, said spokesman Colonel Chris Garver. The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 civilians, including 11 children,
died as they fled from a village near Manbij, a strategic waypoint between
Turkey and the extremist stronghold of Raqqa. A death toll of that magnitude
would appear to be the worst in nearly two years of coalition air strikes
against ISIS targets. Garver said Wednesday that death estimates from residents
near Manbij ranged from a low of “10 to 15” to a high of 73. Garver had earlier
accused ISIS of using civilians as “human shields.”Coalition officials often say
theirs is the most precise air campaign in history. Nearly all coalition air
strikes use guided munitions, involving laser or GPS systems, or else missiles.
Targets are often viewed at length using surveillance drones before the order to
attack is issued. After the Manbij bombardment, Amnesty International urged the
coalition to redouble its efforts to prevent civilian deaths and to investigate
possible violations of international humanitarian law. The London-based
nongovernmental organization Airwars has estimated that the roughly 14,000
coalition bombing attacks since August 2014 have claimed at least 1,513 civilian
lives. The coalition has officially acknowledged only a few dozen civilian
victims. After the air strikes of July 19, the main Syrian opposition group, the
Istanbul-based National Coalition, called on the US-led forces to suspend
bombardments. The group’s president, Anas al-Abdeh, said civilian casualties
could heighten a sense of desperation among Syrians and provide a recruiting
tool for extremist groups like ISIS. Garver said last week that the extremists
had been mounting exceptionally fierce resistance in Manbij.“It’s a fight like
we haven’t seen before,” he said.
German police raid job agency
for armed woman
Reuters, Berlin Thursday, 28 July 2016/Police special forces in Germany’s fourth
largest city were searching an employment agency building on Thursday after
witnesses told police they saw an armed woman, a police spokesman said. The
spokesman said that they had just detained a suspect on another matter at the
employment agency when witnesses said they had seen an armed woman walking
around in the building. Bild newspaper had reported the special forces operation
while the local Express newspaper had reported that an apparently armed man had
been seen in the building.
Egypt is hosting Libya talks
to ease deadlock
AP, Cairo Thursday, 28 July 2016/Egypt is hosting high-profile talks among
Libya’s top political and military figures aimed at resolving the war-ravaged
country’s political deadlock, officials said Thursday. The head of Libya’s
UN-brokered unity government, Fayez Serraj, has met over the past two days with
Aqila Saleh, the head of the Libyan parliament. Saleh is also to meet the head
of the Cairo-based Arab League later Thursday. The Saleh-Serraj meeting - the
first in months - sought to “open direct channels of communications after a
period of separation,” said Abdullah Behlek, the spokesman for Saleh’s
parliament, which is based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libya’s
powerful Gen. Khalifa Hifter, backed by Saleh’s parliament, is holding separate
meetings with both Saleh’s and Serraj’s deputies. Egypt has backed Hifter in the
war against Islamic militias in eastern Libya over the past two years, including
with training and weapons and logistics supplies. Libya is bitterly divided
among rival factions. Since 2014, it has been split between two governments and
two parliaments, based in western and eastern Libya, respectively. In December,
the UN brokered a deal to heal the rift, creating a unity government led by
Serraj that is now based in Tripoli. Saleh’s parliament - based in eastern Libya
- remained the only internationally-recognized assembly in the country. However,
it has not endorsed the unity government, leading to the stalemate. Among one of
the main objections by the parliament is an article in the UN-brokered deal that
effectively deprives lawmakers from having authority over the army. Abdel-Basit
bin Hamel, a well-known Libyan journalist with close ties to officials meeting
in Cairo, said the Egypt talks are trying to resolve who will command the Libyan
army and whet the portfolio of the defense minister will entail.
Houthis, Saleh aim to run
country via new deal
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Thursday, 28 July 2016/Iran-backed Houthi
militia and its allies in former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s
Congress party have signed an agreement to set up a council to run the country,
Al Arabiya News Channel reported. In a statement carried by the Houthi-run state
news agency sabanews.net, the two groups said that the council would include a
rotating leadership that included a president and a deputy from both sides. In
response, the foreign minister of Yemen’s internationally recognized government
dubbed the development as yet another coup by the Houthis. The minister also
urged the international community to act against this move. The move comes as
UN-sponsored peace talks now underway in Kuwait show no sign of producing an
agreement to end Yemen’s civil war. A ceasefire accord between the Houthis and
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s loyalists has repeatedly been violated since
it took effect in April. Peace talks in Kuwait since then have done little to
end fighting that has killed more than 6,200 people and displaced more than 2.5
million in the Arabian Peninsula state. A Saudi-led alliance intervened in
Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to try to restore Hadi to power after the Houthis
seized Sanaa and advanced on his temporary headquarters in Aden, forcing him to
flee to Saudi Arabia. Houthis are still in control of the capital Sanaa.
Turkey has intelligence
cleric Gulen could flee United States
Reuters, Istanbul Thursday, 28 July 2016/Turkey is receiving intelligence that
the Muslim cleric it blames for orchestrating a coup attempt this month could
flee his residence in the United States, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on
Thursday. Bozdag told broadcaster Haberturk TV that the cleric, Fethullah Gulen,
could flee to Australia, Mexico, Canada, South Africa or Egypt. Turkey says
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for years, is
the mastermind behind the failed July 15-16 putsch that attempted to overthrow
the government. Gulen denies the charge.
UK lawyer for Bangladesh cafe
survivor demands his release
AFP, Dhaka Thursday, 28 July 2016/A British lawyer for an engineer detained for
nearly a month after surviving a deadly siege at a Dhaka cafe has slammed
Bangladesh authorities for refusing his client access to legal representation.
Police seized Hasnat Karim for questioning after the July 1 attack on the
Western-style cafe by Islamist militants that left 20 hostages and two police
officers dead. Relatives said Karim, who holds dual Bangladesh and British
nationality, was used as a human shield by the Islamists during the attack after
going to the cafe with his wife to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. His lawyer
Rodney Dixon, speaking from London, said the 47-year-old was being held at a
secret location in Bangladesh and was being interrogated without a lawyer
present. “He cannot be kept incommunicado in detention.” “He must have access to
his lawyers while he is being questioned,” Dixon told AFP late on
Wednesday.“They should release him immediately since there is no evidence of his
involvement in any crime.”“There is absolutely no evidence that he was the ring
leader or involved in any way in the attack,” he said. Bangladesh Home Minister
Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed to AFP this week that Karim was still being held,
without saying whether he would face charges or when he would be released.
Accused of interacting with attackers . Investigators detained Karim after video
footage showed him walking with the attackers on the cafe’s roof during the
siege. A British High Commission official told AFP that they have so far been
denied access to Karim despite ongoing requests. Another survivor of the attack,
Tahmid Khan, 22, a student at the University of Toronto, was also still being
interrogated, as police try to piece together what happened during the siege.
Militants killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, when they raided the upscale
Holey Artisan restaurant on the night of July 1, as Bangladesh reels from a
series of gruesome killings by Islamists. Army commandoes stormed the cafe the
next morning, killing all five attackers and rescuing 13 people, including Karim,
his wife and their two children, as well as Khan.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but police blame homegrown extremist
group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Karim’s father said his son,
director of a civil engineering firm who grew up in England and went to
university there, was “not religious”.
“He goes to gym for exercise and occasionally to clubs for drinking beer.” He is
a simple man who does not like to socialise with people,” Rezaul Karim told AFP,
rejecting local media reports that Hasnat knew one of the attackers through a
Bangladesh university. Karim’s lawyers have filed a petition to the UN, urging a
team from the international body to travel to Bangladesh to visit him in
detention.
Bangladesh authorities blame
extremist group for 2005, 2016 blasts in Dhaka
Staff Writer, Al Arabiya English Thursday, 28 July 2016/A Bangladesh court
Thursday upheld the death sentence for six Islamist militants convicted over a
suicide bombing in 2005 of a lawyer’s office that killed eight people, a top
prosecutor said. Bangladesh’s judiciary is under pressure to fast track cases
involving militants as the government faces mounting criticism to crackdown on
Islamists over a series of recent deadly killings. A bench of two high court
judges rejected appeals from the six convicted over the 2005 bombing, claimed by
local extremist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). “The court upheld
the death orders against the six JMB extremists as the charges against them were
proved beyond any doubt,” deputy attorney general Sheikh A.K.M. Moniruzzaman
told AFP. Authorities have blamed the banned domestic group,
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, for the
cafe attack
ISIS or not?
JMB has also been blamed for a siege this month by five gunmen on an upscale
cafe in Dhaka that killed 20 mostly foreign hostages and two police officers. In
the past year, ISIS have made claims over the killings of liberals and religious
minorities in the mostly Muslim nation of 160 million. And ISIS claimed
responsibility for the cafe attack but the government has dismissed suggestions
the group has a presence in Bangladesh.
The group posted gruesome images of the carnage before the military stormed the
cafe.
Moniruzzaman said the six convicted militants had conspired and assisted in the
bombing of the lawyer’s office just north of Dhaka, part of JMB’s then deadly
campaign against the secular judiciary. “Of the ten JMB extremists originally
sentenced to death by the trial court in 2013, two were acquitted by the high
court and two others were sentenced to life in prison,” he added. The attack was
one of a series of blasts the JMB carried out in 2005, then raising fears that
the Muslim-majority nation would descend into Afghanistan-style Islamic
militancy. Four lawyers and four litigants died in the attack. The suicide
bomber was also killed. Authorities launched a crackdown on the JMB at the time,
but it has regrouped in recent years under new leaders. According to experts, it
has been actively recruiting young and highly educated young men to its ranks.
Police have blamed the banned group for scores of gruesome murders of religious
minorities, as well as of foreigners, since 2013. One of nine suspected
militants killed in a police raid in Bangladesh this week was a
Bangladeshi-American who was a friend of one of the gunmen that attacked a cafe
on July 1 killing 22 people, police said on Thursday. The attack on the Holey
Artisan Bakery, a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter, was one of the most brazen
militant assaults in the country’s history.
Foreign victims
Most of the 22 people killed were foreigners and police have been scouring the
country for accomplices of the five gunmen who were all killed when police ended
the siege. On Tuesday, police raided a building in a Dhaka suburb and killed
nine militants, who police said were from the same domestic group as the cafe
attackers, and who had been plotting their own similar attack. Eight of the nine
were identified from their fingerprints, which are taken when national identity
cards are issued, and one turned out to be a wanted Bangladeshi-American, said
Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman. “Shazad Rouf, 24, was an American
passport holder and had been missing for six months,” Rahman told Reuters.
Rouf’s father had filed a missing person report for him on Feb. 6, the spokesman
said, adding that Rouf had been wanted by police on suspicion of plotting a
subversive act. Also wanted in the same case was Nibras Islam, one of Rouf’s
friends, who had been among the cafe attackers, Rahman said. Rouf was from a
well-off family in Dhaka, Rahman said, but added that he had no information on
his US connection. A U.S. embassy spokesman declined to comment. Police said
another of the nine militants killed on Tuesday had been identified as the
trainer of the cafe attackers. The man had been a religious student who had gone
missing a year ago, counter-terrorism police chief Monirul Islam told a news
conference. While authorities blame the violence on domestic militants, security
experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a
trans-national network. ISIS has warned that violence would continue worldwide.
(With AFP and Reuters)
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on
July 28-29/16
Islamist Terrorism, European Denial
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/July 28, 2016
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8568/europe-islamist-terrorism-denial
Europeans
have delegated to the State the exclusive right to use violence against
criminals. But Europeans, especially in France and Germany, are discovering that
some kind of "misunderstanding" seems actually to be at work. Their State, the
one that has the monopoly on violence, does not want to be at war with its
Islamist citizens and residents. Worse, the State gives off the feeling that it
is afraid of its Muslim citizens.
"The concept of the rule of law means that the citizen is protected from the
arbitrariness of the State. ... Currently, the rule of law protects the
attackers above all". — Yves Michaud, French author and philosopher.
If a group of Jewish or Christian terrorists in Algeria, Egypt or Saudi Arabia
had committed the same kind of stabbings, car-rammings, throat-slittings and
shootings that France and Germany are suffering now, they would have provoked an
immediate reaction. Tens of thousands -- maybe hundreds of thousands -- of
enraged Muslims would have rushed into the streets to kill, stab or eviscerate
the first group of Jews or Christians they met. Within 24 hours, no church or
synagogue would be able to open its doors: all of them would have been burned to
cinders.
These words are not to stigmatize anyone; they are meant to explain what
terrorists want. According to Gilles Kepel, professor at the Paris Institute of
Political Studies and a specialist of Islam, "ISIS calls for stabbing dirty and
evil French people... because they want to trigger a civil war." Muslim
terrorists behind the wave of terrorist attacks apparently assume that thousands
of French, Germans or Belgians will rush out into the streets, as they would do
themselves, to kill, stab or eviscerate Muslims. Muslim sponsors of terrorism
may not even be able to imagine that Europeans may not wish to participate in
the pleasure of bloodthirsty riots.
The fact is that even if millions of Arabs and Muslims live in Europe today,
Europeans are not Arabs and do not act as Arabs do. Westerners in Europe have
delegated the "legitimate use of physical force" -- commonly, if
controversially, known as the "monopoly on violence" -- to the State.
Max Weber, in his 1919 essay, "Politics as a Vocation", claims that the State is
any "human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical
force within a given territory." In other words, Weber describes the State as
any organization that succeeds in having the exclusive right to use, threaten,
or authorize physical force against residents of its territory ("Gewaltmonopol
des Staates").
For French and Germans citizens, the mission of the State is to fight Islamist
terrorists -- harshly if necessary. But today, instead of the "legitimate
violence" of the State, German and French citizens are encountering only denial.
The State keeps denying that Islamist crimes are being openly committed in its
territory. This denial comes in different forms:
1. The Real Victim is the Terrorist.
From Britain's BBC: "Syrian Migrant Dies in German Blast."
From Le Monde: "Germany: A Syrian Refugee Dies While Causing an Explosion in
Front of a Restaurant in Bavaria" (Allemagne : un réfugié syrien meurt en
provoquant une explosion devant un restaurant en Bavière). The headline (which
has since been changed) is not about the diners in the restaurant who were
targeted by the suicide bomber. The headline is about a victim, who is "the
author of the explosion". This "victim" -- apparently only incidentally an
Islamist criminal, according to this narrative -- may have had a good reason to
seek revenge! He was, after all, "a Syrian refugee whose entry into Germany was
denied by the administration." He was not deported for humanitarian reasons. The
journalist barely mentions the 15 victims wounded, some severely, in the
explosion. There is only one victim, the author of the suicide attack, which
some journalists implied was not really a suicide attack, but maybe only a
suicide. The man had history of psychiatric problems, after all.
According to the Wall Street Journal: "He was known to police and had been
treated twice after trying to take his own life, Mr. Herrmann [the Bavarian
Interior Minister] said. He was also known because of a previous drug
misdemeanor, a police spokeswoman said."
In short, the killer is not a killer but a poor, sick, young man.
After a Muslim suicide bomber injured 15 people on July 24 in Germany, many
media outlets rushed to portray the terrorist as the victim.
2. He Was Not an Islamist, Just a Lunatic. Ali Sonboly, the 18-year-old
German-Iranian gunman who murdered nine people at a Munich shopping mall on July
25 may be an Islamist killer, but he was more surely psychotic. According to
Reuters:
"Materials found at the gunman's home also showed he had been hospitalized for
psychiatric care for three months around the same time, and was an avid player
of violent video games, the officials told a news conference".
Immediately after the attack, officials said the murderer was not an Arab but an
Iranian -- but that would simply make him a Shi'ite Muslim. According to Walid
Shoebat, a Palestinian-American who converted to Christianity from Islam, "Sonboly
is no Iranian. He is Syrian. His Facebook page showed that he is pro-Turkey's
Islamists". However, even more bizarrely, some officials and media outlets said
that Sonboly was inspired by the far-right Norwegian terrorist, Anders Breivik.
3. The Problem Is Not Islam or Islamism, but Too Many Guns on the Black Market.
"German politicians have signaled that they will review the country's gun laws,
after a troubled 18-year-old was able to use a 9mm handgun and amass 300 rounds
of ammunition in a shooting that left nine dead in Munich," according to The
Guardian.
4. The Victims Are Responsible for Their Own Murders. In Nice, France, after
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel murdered more than 80 people by driving a 19-ton truck
into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, Julien Dray, a Socialist MP, said,
"The fireworks... It is a popular festival, there are families, children; it is
often the only party that these children have, and so people are eager to go,
and often checkpoints are removed to help the flow, because people do not want
to wait, they want to leave, and that is unfortunately, is the time there may be
a problem. "
5. The Attacker "Self-Radicalized" Rapidly. Even if the State is at fault, it
found a good excuse to explain incompetence and lack of foresight: the terrorist
"self-radicalized" so quickly that he was undetectable. The daily Le Figaro
reported:
It seems that the perpetrator of the Nice attack "radicalized very quickly."
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called it "a new type of attack" that
"demonstrates the extreme difficulty of combating terrorism."
Cazeneuve added that Bouhlel, the Tunisian attacker, "was not known to the
intelligence services."
6. ISIS Is Not Islamist; It Is a Right-Wing Organization. We can sleep soundly,
we are advised. The terrorists, we are told, are not Islamists but Fascists. "In
claiming to be part of Daesh [ISIS], the two assassins show once again the
bloody nature of this right-wing sect with policies that are racist,
anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic," wrote SOS Racisme, an NGO financed by
France's Socialist government in a bid to seduce Muslim voters.
No doubt the next attacks will produce new and interesting explanations of this
type whose aim is to reassure people.
Europeans have delegated to the State the exclusive right to use violence
against criminals. But Europeans, especially in France and Germany, are
discovering that some kind of "misunderstanding" seems actually to be at work.
Their State, the one that has the monopoly on violence, does not want to be at
war with its Islamist citizens or residents. Worse, the State gives off the
feeling that it is afraid of its Muslim citizens.
The question now is: if the State does not want to fight Islamists murderers; if
the State does not want to shut down Salafist mosques, deport hate preachers,
and break the alliance between Islamists and organized criminals in the no-go
zones of France and Germany; if the only solution proposed by President François
Hollande is to "remain united", unfortunately it will not work. "They attacked
democracy," Hollande said, "democracy will be our shield."
But "national unity has no meaning when no serious measure is taken," wrote Yves
Michaud, the French author and philosopher, on his Facebook page:
"The concept of the rule of law means that the citizen is protected from the
arbitrariness of the State. The same legal barriers cannot be used to protect
those who want to kill citizens and destroy the res publica [republic]. ...
Currently, the rule of law protects the attackers above all".
**Yves Mamou, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le
Monde.
© 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.
Turkey: Good News, Bad News
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 28/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8569/turkey-coup-aftermath
Turkish
prosecutors are investigating people who allege on social media that the coup
attempt was in fact a hoax.
In a massive purge, the government sacked more than 60,000 civil servants from
the military, judiciary, police, schools and academia, including 1,577 faculty
deans who were suspended. More than 10,000 people have been arrested and there
are serious allegations of torture.
Witnesses told Amnesty International that captured military officers were raped
by police, hundreds of soldiers were beaten, some detainees were denied food and
water and access to lawyers for days. Turkish authorities also arrested 62
children and accused them of treason.
The good news is that the coup attempt failed and Turkey is not a third world
dictatorship run by an unpredictable military general who loves to crush
dissent. The bad news is that Turkey is run by an unpredictable, elected
president who loves to crush dissent.
In 1853, John Russell quoted Tsar Nicholas I of Russia as saying that the
Ottoman Empire was "a sick man -- a very sick man," in reference to the ailing
empire's fall into a state of decrepitude. Some 163 years after that, the modern
Turkish state follows in the Ottoman steps.
Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule, was staggering between a
hybrid democracy and bitter authoritarianism. After the failed putsch of July
15, it is being dragged into worse darkness. The silly attempt gives Erdogan
what he wanted: a pretext to go after every dissident Turk. A witch-hunt is
badly shattering the democratic foundations of the country.
Taking advantage of the putsch attempt, the Turkish government declared a state
of emergency that will run for a period of three months, with an option to
extend it for another quarter of a year. Erdogan, declaring the state of
emergency, promised to "clean out the cancer viruses like metastasis" in the
body called Turkey. With the move for a state of emergency, Turkey also
suspended the European Convention on Human Rights, citing Article 15 of the
Convention, which stipulates:
"In time of war or other public emergencies threatening the life of the nation,
any High Contracting Party may take measures derogating from its obligations
under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the
situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other
obligations under international law."
Before July 15, civil liberties in Turkey were de facto in the deep freeze. Now
they are de jure in the deep freeze.
On July 27, the Turkish military purged 1,684 officers, including 149 generals,
on suspicion that they had links with Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim
cleric who once was Erdogan's staunchest political ally but is now his biggest
nemesis and the suspected mastermind of the coup attempt. On the same day, the
government closed down three news agencies, 16 television stations, 23 radio
stations, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers on the same charges. Two
days before those actions, warrants were issued for 42 journalists, as a part of
an investigation against members of the "Fethullah [Gulen] terrorist
organization."
Turkish police escort dozens of handcuffed soldiers, who are accused of
participating in the failed July 15 coup d'état. (Image source: Reuters video
screenshot)
Under the state of emergency, it is dangerous in Turkey even to question whether
July 15 was a fake coup orchestrated or tolerated by Erdogan for longer-term
political gains. Turkish prosecutors are investigating people who allege on
social media that the coup attempt was in fact a hoax. Justice Minister Bekir
Bozdag said that: "Anyone who suggests the coup attempt was staged 'likely had a
role' in the insurrection." But there is more.
In a massive purge, the government sacked more than 60,000 civil servants from
the military, judiciary, police, schools and academia, including 1,577 faculty
deans who were suspended. More than 10,000 people have been arrested, and there
are serious allegations of torture. Witnesses told Amnesty International that
captured military officers were raped by police, hundreds of soldiers were
beaten, and some detainees were denied food, water and access to lawyers for
days. Turkish authorities also arrested 62 children and accused them of treason.
The youngsters, aged 14 to 17, were from Kuleli Military School in Istanbul. The
students have reportedly been thrown in jail and are not allowed to speak to
their parents.
The witch-hunt is not in the governmental sector only. Several Turkish companies
have fired hundreds of personnel suspected of having links with Gulen. Turkish
Airlines, Turkey's national airline, fired 211 employees, including a
vice-general manager and a number of cabin crew members.
Sadly, Turks had to choose between two unpleasant options: military dictatorship
and elected dictatorship. The good news is that the coup attempt failed and
Turkey is not a third-world dictatorship run by an unpredictable military
general who loves to crush dissent. The bad news is that Turkey is run by an
unpredictable, elected president who loves to crush dissent.
*Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily
and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.
Erdoğan, a Levant Sunni
fantasy
Nadim Koteich/Now Lebanon/July 28/16
Joy throughout the Arab world at the failure of the Turkish coup reflects the
widespread, if misguided, view of Erdoğan as Sunnis’ best hope
The failed coup attempt in Turkey awoke feelings for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan we
hardly knew existed among the Sunni Muslim communities of Lebanon and Syria.
All of a sudden, Turkey became “the Sunni rock upon which they rest, the
potential collapse of which terrifies them,” in the words of a friend who wrote
to me, watching demonstrations unfold in Sunni cities across Lebanon and reading
passionate comments by Lebanese and Syrians on various social media platforms.
Sunni inhabitants of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, the nearby areas of
Beddawi and Minieh, some villages in the Bekaa and the southern city of Sidon,
mainly from Islamic parties, filled the streets with jubilant demonstrations,
celebrating Erdoğan’s victory over coup conspirators. The urge to take it to the
streets was amplified by earlier (premature) demonstrations in
Hezbollah-controlled areas celebrating Erdoğan’s demise, firing bullets in the
air and randomly serving sweets in the streets.
The Turkish president is no stranger to both countries and their Sunni
communities indeed.
Erdoğan before the Arab Spring
His two-day visit to Lebanon in 2010 was met with warmth and excitement,
particularly among Sunnis. His stops included one at the northern village of Al-Kawashra,
some three hours driving from the capital Beirut, where he was welcomed by
thousands of Sunni Turkmens, Lebanese ethnic Turks, who have lived in regions of
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran since the 11th century.
The visit gained more Sunni enthusiasm as it coincided with high tensions
between Lebanon and Syria, as well as between Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites, as
the country awaited the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indictment in the
murder of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bomb
explosion on February 14, 2005. Rumors, which turned out to be true, were
spreading at the time that the indictment would charge a number of members of
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militia, in connection with the
assassination.
Yet both before and after his unique visit to Lebanon, Erdoğan was a regular
guest in Damascus. Between 2004 and 2011, he paid Syria ten visits that led to,
and were the translation of, a dramatic strategic realignment of relations
between the two countries.
Notwithstanding the Alawite identity of the House of Assad’s regime, Erdoğan
appealed fabulously to the Syrian Sunnis with whose bourgeois and
entrepreneurial community the Assads forged a marriage of interest that kept
Syria going till the revolution in March 2011.
Regional Sunni hero
However, in the five years since the Syrian revolution, Erdoğan has increasingly
become a hero for the pro-revolution Sunnis of Syria. With around three million
Syrians, Turkey is the home for the largest Syrian diaspora community in the
world. Earlier this month Erdoğan announced that “qualified” (read rich and
skilled) Syrian refugees living in Turkey could receive citizenship, despite the
opposition of a sweeping public majority of Turks.
In addition, Turkey, which shares its longest common borders with Syria, has
been the main entry point of weapons, fighters and food to the various
revolutionary factions, including ISIS.
It is worth noting that while Erdoğan's survival euphoria outside the Levant was
more visible among Muslim Brotherhood affiliates, it’s safe to say there is much
more to it in Syria, Lebanon and the rest of the Levant. In this part of the
Islamic world, one doesn't need to be registered as a member, or supporter of,
the Muslim Brotherhood to have affection for Erdoğan. In a region where
sectarian identity politics reign, the Sunni leadership deficit leaves Sunnis
with few options, if any, besides Turkey’s president.
In less than two years, during the first decade of the new millennium, the
Levant lost three major Sunni leaders, hailing from three different walks of
political life. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was toppled in March 2003, and he was
captured in December that year, and executed the following year. The Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat died (a large number of Palestinians and other Arabs
believe he was murdered) in November 2004. And Lebanon’s Hariri was assassinated
in February 2005.
The vacuum created by the death of these three Sunni mega-personalities was
accentuated by the growing sectarian influence of Iran in Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine, and most recently Syria, where Shiite militias backed by Iran
literally occupy Damascus, the historic capital of the Sunni Umayyad dynasty.
This sectarian framing of the nature of the conflict is not something contrived,
but rather a recognition of its reality, and a crucial backdrop against which to
understand why drowning Sunnis clutch at the straw of Erdoğan’s leadership. In
the sectarian festival that is currently the Levant, they are, quite simply, the
orphaned sect.
Two remaining Sunni regional leaders lack either the will or the desire (or
both) to project power beyond their national borders. It was King Abdullah II of
Jordan who coined the term “Shiite crescent” in a 2004 interview with the
Washington Post, referring to growing Iranian influence in the region and its
dangers. Yet he has remained out of the fray, choosing not to fight the fight
relevant to his own characterization of the problem.
Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri – Rafik’s son – is crippled by
public and private circumstances, preventing him from restoring his father’s
leadership of Sunnis in Lebanon (and, to an extent, in Syria).
If any other place has it worse, it would be Iraq. Since the war in 2003, no
Sunni persona or party has emerged to speak on behalf of Sunnis, except the
terrorists of ISIS. The horrible fact is that the central government of Iraq has
systematically destroyed the Sunni communities. Whole districts were emptied of
their inhabitants, and major Sunni cities were destroyed, in the name of
fighting terrorism.
Even when Sunni tribes of Iraq formed the “Anbar Awakening” in September 2006
and fought and defeated Al-Qaeda, they were rewarded with neglect and
marginalization by the Shiite dominant government in Baghdad. This it did
without the least nuance; a quality Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
seemed to despise. One day after the final US troop withdrawal from Iraq, an
Iraqi investigative committee of five judges, the Central Criminal Court of
Iraq, issued an arrest warrant for the then-Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi,
under Article 4 of the country's anti-terrorism law. Al-Hashimi is a Sunni
politician who served as the general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. As a result, he fled to Iraqi Kurdistan, then
to Ankara, Turkey, where he has lived since April 2012.
In fact, Turkey sheltered many other Iraqi Sunni politicians, including Osama
al-Nujaifi and Sheikh Harith al-Dari, chairman of the Association of Muslim
Scholars, and a staunch opponent to the US occupation of Iraq and the sectarian
policies of Baghdad alike. Al-Dari died in Istanbul on March 12, 2015.
On the other hand, Saudi’s increasingly active role in the region is focused on
a different set of strategic priorities, especially in Yemen and Bahrain, and
falls short of filling the leadership vacuum in the Levant.
Egypt, a classical powerhouse in the Middle East, is struggling to recover from
the aftermath of a revolution and hybrid revolution/coup, let alone a dire
economic situation, and a fierce battle against terrorism in the Sinai. When it
comes to power projection outside its national borders, Egypt, like the Saudis,
is focused on its own set of priorities, especially in Libya.
The Sultan savior
Hence the nostalgic fantasy of Turkey and its Sunni leadership in the Levant,
whereby the Iraqi Sunni imagination conjures up a new Suleiman the Magnificent
to liberate the Land of the Two Rivers from the Shiite Safavids’ occupation, and
rebuild the mosque of the Imam Abu Hanifa in Baghdad! While Syrians, similarly,
see another Sultan Selim I in the Battle of Marj Dabiq in Aleppo, vanquishing
the Mamluk allies of the Safavids.
The Lebanese, for their part, fantasize about an Erdoğan countering Hezbollah,
while the Palestinians still celebrate the moment he walked out on Shimon Peres,
live on TV, during a panel in Davos, or the Mavi Marmara ship Ankara sent to
break the siege of Gaza.
In all of the above, the fantasy of Erdoğanism is a mere substitute to the
leadership they are missing. But the fantasy is just a fantasy, and its relation
to reality is mostly unfounded.
Erdoğan’s relationship with Iran is strategic. Turkish banks gained billions of
dollars acting as the backdoor for the Iranian banking sector during the years
of international sanctions on Tehran. Erdoğan mended fences with Israel, the
arch enemy of the Palestinians, and with Russia, under whose umbrella Assad is
destroying Aleppo, the capital of the Syrian revolution. Adding insult to
injury, Turkey is contemplating the idea of some sort of reset in its relation
with the whole Syria issue.
In the meantime, the Levant is left to rot and fantasize about Erdoğan.
Nadim Koteich is a Lebanese commentator and the host of Future TV’s satirical
Daily News Analysis (DNA) show. He tweets @NadimKoteich.
Editor’s note: The above has been adapted from an article originally published
in Arabic by Asharq al-Awsat.
Iranian and Brotherhood propaganda
tactics
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
The propaganda machines of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood resort to the same
techniques and methods of persuasion. They both rely on intimidation by
presenting critics as insane or delusional. Both groups rely on intimidating
people with what is called the “phobia” effect. This is done by painting anyone
who criticises Iran or the Muslim brotherhood as an insane person, obsessed with
the existence of an imaginary enemy. The source of their illusion would either
be a mental sickness or an exaggeration of a delusional enemy all done to divert
the attention from the weaknesses of those obessesed. In this context, the
phobias of Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood become simultaneously: an “Iran
phobia” and “Brotherhood phobia.” The term “phobia” has a global affect. The
origin of the word is Greek, then adopted by the English until it subsequently
reached universal standards. Scientifically, “Phobia” is widely defined as an
extreme or irrational fear that can lead to obsession; there are different kinds
of phobias that can affect individuals, such as the fear of enclosed spaces, the
dark, the sea, or elevators. Another manifestation of the tactic can be seen in
spreading xenophobia. It is defined as the fear of that which is perceived to be
different or foreign. It is manifested by the fear of a certain race, religion,
or ethnicity. Individuals suffering from phobia can seek medical help.
Naivety
Before the Arab Spring, leftists, pan-Arab intellectuals and some supporters of
Iran - all under one political alliance called the “axis of resistance” -
criticized those warning of the danger posed by the Brotherhood by accusing them
of impeding its access to power. Members of this alliance pretended to believe
in democracy and civil dialogue in order to achieve its goal of controlling
others. However, they later realized they were fooling themselves. Some admitted
to being naive after the Brotherhood revealed its real intentions. The
propaganda machines of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood both rely on intimidation
by presenting critics as insane or delusional. Similarly, Iran’s propaganda
strategy aims to curb any criticism of its expansionist policies. It is a tried
and tested trick that garners a certain level of support. The Iranian propaganda
used the same manoeuvres, by intimidating those who do not follow and making
them look like fools or afflicted by phobias. The following is a title that
appeared in the Iranian newspaper “Kayhan,” which reads: “For these reasons
Saudi Arabia Lives.” Clear example here of Iran furthering its agenda by
spreading phobia. In doing so, Iran’s propaganda strategy aims at curbing any
criticism to its current policies of expansion. Mental health is a value that
should be maintained. Both Iran and the Muslim brotherhood tend to target this
value as an attempt to deter any criticism and confrontations, but is there
anyone in the world who would accept to be designated as insane or obsessed?!
It is a trick, always in use, that constantly finds its supporters, at least
until now.
**This article was first published by Asharq al-Awsat on July 28, 2016.
The death sentence against
Othman’s murderers
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
As the Saudi specialized criminal court issued its initial ruling sentencing the
murderers of Colonel Nasser al-Othman to death, a dangerous era of targeting
“the near enemy” in Saudi society comes to an end. The origin of this devilish
seed began with fundamentalism in the 1970s during the Afghan jihad against the
Soviets. There were religious edicts removing guardianship rights from parents,
and saying the latter’s permission was not necessary for jihad. Parents became
outcasts to their children, who viewed them as obstacles in their path to
fighting. In 1982, Abd al-Salam Faraj, who declared war on “the near enemy,”
laid the foundation and lectured about this vision in his book “The Neglected
Obligation.”
Saudi incidents
In April 2007, Al-Qaeda targeted Othman in cold blood in his farm. The man who
incited against him and informed the organization of his location was his
nephew! This phenomenon began to spread in Saudi Arabia when Hammoud bin Joueir
al-Farraj was killed after security forces raided Al-Salli neighborhood in
Riyadh. He was killed at the start of Jan. 2004 when security forces conducted a
raid to arrest his son Khaled. When the father cooperated with the security
forces, Al-Qaeda members opened fire on him and he was killed along with
security forces’ members. In April 2007, Al-Qaeda targeted Othman in cold blood
in his farm. The man who incited against him and informed the organization of
his location was his nephew! Othman was found decapitated. This has also become
a strategy of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
*This article was first published in Okaz on July 28, 2016.
Does Assad’s regime have a
policy of killing journalists and civilians?
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
It is not an exaggeration to say that Syrian president, who has been battling a
people’s uprising in his country since 2011, is a masterful journalist’s killer.
This is the finding of a lawsuit in the US. Assad’s record is hard to defend,
some even see his record as that of someone bent on masterful intrigue, deceit
and blackmail. Assad, who in the first six months of the rebellion against his
family’s 40-year-rule of Syria managed to militarize the otherwise peaceful
uprising. Later, his regime succeeded to militarize the opposition and later
fragment and divide it into moderate, hardline, and even extremist groupings.
Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and later ISIS were nothing other
than violent Islamists who Assad released from prison. Many believe these were
the same groups his regime nurtured with Iranian help to resist the US’s
presence in Iraq from 2003. So yes, it was not impossible for Assad or his
officers to mastermind the neutralization of a few native or international
journalists who came to tell the story of the Syrian people’s will to change.
Marie Colvin
Marie Colvin is one such journalist who was among the first victims of a
targeted assassination in the Baba-Amro neighbourhood in Homs in central Syria.
Marie was a veteran reporter that covered wars everywhere in the world for
Britain’s Sunday Times and was deliberately targeted in Homs. Colvin’s sister
filed a 32-page lawsuit alleging that Assad’s military intercepted Colvin’s
communications from a media center she was using while in Homs. The intercepts
were shared with local informants to then direct artillery fire on the flat
where she was staying in a densely populated area. Colvin, 56, and French
photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed as shells landed on the house. The
lawsuit filed in the US district of Columbia in New York asserts, based on
documents collected from various sources, that the order to kill her came from
high up in the Syrian echelons of power, and the suits name nine military
officers - among them the brother of the president himself. Assad, his regime,
and Syria’s state bodies - or what is left of them - are never going to be
conducive to a new, democratic Syria. So far, more than 100 journalists and
local activists payed with their lives while trying to cover the conflict in
Syria, and the Marie Colvin lawsuit reveals a policy by the Damascus regime to
target those intending to spread news of the conflict. This lawsuit is based on
testimony from regime defectors, informants, citizen journalists and others from
the Syrian diaspora and it was collected and cross checked over a period of
three years.
What the lawsuit reveals is what is already common knowledge in the Middle East
and less so in the Western world; the regime has attempted on several occasions
to turn the world away from the clear genocide being committed in Syria over the
past five years.
To add insult to injury, voices in the West are rising to suggest the need to
work with the Assad regime now to tame ISIS, and to block the flow of Syrian
refugees into Europe and decide the future of the regime at a later stage. The
lawsuit, if anything, should persuade many how short sighted and futile such
action would be. President Assad did not wait to receive a summons by an
American court to reply to the lawsuit. In an interview with NBC News, Assad
insisted that Colvin was responsible for her own death, a view largely repeated
by the embattled head of the Syrian regime when addressing the question as to
who killed 300,000 Syrian civilians. In his view, Marie entered the country
illegally, and she reported from rebel-held territory hence refusing government
minders. This gave him and his henchmen the right to kill her. It is this
mind-set that the West and countries around the world should acknowledge.
Assad, his regime, and Syria’s state bodies - or what is left of them - are
never going to be conducive to a new, democratic Syria or even allow a stable
region to exist. The game of blackmail is always a priority for a dictatorship
bent on deceit against its people and the countries that oppose it.
Never the diplomat? Britain’s
new foreign policy chief Boris Johnson
Chris Doyle/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
In his superb analysis of the evolution of diplomacy in his book "Naked
Diplomacy", Tom Fletcher, the former British Ambassador to Lebanon, outlines
four public stereotypes of the British diplomat: the Ferrero Rocher Ambassador,
the aristocratic amateur, Perfidious Machiaval and the hopeless chump.
Britain’s new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has been portrayed as something
of all four. Few will be surprised if Boris does not enjoy the social elements
of the diplomatic circuit, shmoozing and trying to charm all before him. Boris
is also caste as a public school buffoon acting totally independently with a
freelance approach to policy, often making it up on the hoof. During the Brexit
campaign he was accused of only supporting getting out for his own ambitions, a
‘Remainer’ in ‘Leave’s’ clothing. The result was neither camp ever quite trusted
him. As for hopeless chump, Johnson is laden with an encyclopaedic litany of
gaffes and diplomatic disasters. After all, has there ever been a Foreign
Secretary coming into office having insulted the US president (“the part-Kenyan
president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire”), as well as the two rival
nominees to replace him (Hilary Clinton was like a “sadistic nurse in a mental
hospital”, while Donald Trump was “clearly out of his mind”)? Some may not be
too upset that he compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Dobby the house
elf from Harry Potter. So when the new Prime Minister, Theresa May offered her
erstwhile rival the keys to the Foreign Office and one of the world’s most
extensive and professional diplomatic services, there was a collective gasp of
amazement. No British politician has offended so many countries with such great
effect, both allies and enemies. He has smeared entire continents as he did with
Europe and Africa, when he claimed it would be better off if the colonial powers
were invited back, and likened Africans to “piccaninnies” with “watermelon
smiles”. A crazy appointment? Perhaps, if you buy solely into this thumbnail
sketch. Despite the clownish image, Boris Johnson is a highly educated man,
brilliant at times if rash. He will rock the diplomatic boat, guilty of all
manner of political and diplomatic incorrectness but he may also evolve an
energetic brand for the UK, and cut through that other diplomatic stereotype of
the dull plodding, bureaucratic mandarin.
Johnson’s time to shine?
Johnson knows this is his opportunity, maybe the last, to prove his detractors
wrong. Being underestimated maybe an advantage. For the time being he knows that
May is untouchable so putting his leadership ambitions aside, he has to
concentrate on maximising the opportunity given him. He will no longer be
distracted by his weekly newspaper column, the scene of most of his more
colourful language. On the plus side, Johnson does possess many skills required.
In Brussels, he impressed his counterparts by speaking in French, not something
every Foreign Secretary is able to do. He is an internationalist trumpeting in
an outward-facing Britain, who, as Mayor of London, did travel to many major
British allies. He is creative and not just with words, persuasive and armed
with a capacious memory. Should Britain need to amplify certain key messages, he
is tailor-made for loudspeaker diplomacy, guaranteed an audience and plenty of
attention. The flip side is that he is no diplomatic stealth weapon.
Despite the clownish image, Boris Johnson is a highly educated man, brilliant at
times if rash. In terms of the Middle East, he is not intrinsically hostile to
any party but will need likewise to hurdle his past statements. It may surprise
some but he has a more than passing knowledge of the history of Islamic science.
He is proud of his part-Turkish ancestry even if that will count for little with
President Erdogan who may not forgive Boris’s poetic reference to his love of
goats. Palestinians will not quickly forget his dismissive abuse of those who
support Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. Syrians will be
suspicious of a man who wrote “Bravo for Assad” though he has been quick to
restate the UK’s position that Assad must go, however unlikely a scenario that
is. Like his predecessor he will prioritise trade over human rights not least
after Brexit. It will be a vertiginous learning curve for Johnson, as indeed it
is for nearly every incoming foreign minister of most states. In this first two
weeks, he has visited Brussels, the United States and hosted a conference on
Syria and Yemen as well as coping with the failed coup in Turkey and the Nice
attacks. Aside from the awkward face-palm moments in a press conference with US
Secretary of State John Kerry, he has emerged largely unscathed even if he was
too hasty in his assessment of the Munich killings as being due to terrorism
from the Middle East. For the time being, the likelihood is that it will a Boris
that is carefully restrained and reined in. The global scene is too delicate and
crisis-ridden. But for those engaging Boris for the first time – expect copious
Latin citations (with John Kerry, it was obiter dicta or incidental remarks) and
language redolent of P.G Woodhouse mixed with the latest from the urban
dictionary so he will be railing against gabbling foam-flecked malingerers and
raffish boffins and their balderdash, while celebrating the derring-do of a
multitude of young thrusting diplomats.
Nothing will be predictable with Boris, except for knowing that the road ahead
will not be dull.
The hijab does not impede
Muslim women from doing their job
Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/July 28/16
Earlier this week, Kevin MacKenzie, former editor of The Sun questioned whether
it was appropriate for a Muslim anchor that wears the hijab “to be on camera
when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim”. The woman he
was referring to is Fatima Manji, an award-winning journalist who covered the
attacks for the UK’s Channel 4. Although the Independent Press Standards
Organization (Ipso) received over 1,700 complaints about MacKenzie’s column in
The Sun, including one by Fatima Manji herself, the thoughts and sentiments he
shared in the column, including that the hijab was a “sign of slavery” could not
be farther from the truth. Conceding to MacKenzie’s desire of all women to
conform to his idea of what a female news presenter should look like, including
deconstructing her belief system, which form a basis of her personality and the
way that she presents herself, would in fact be a form of slavery. Manji’s hijab
is not what made MacKenzie, and those who share his thoughts, uncomfortable. The
image of a strong powerful female Muslim who is successful, true to herself and
her religion is what made them uneasy. Had Malala Yousafzai been presenting the
news, would he have chosen to publish his column? Unlikely.
The hijab discussion at EU courts
After a woman who wears the hijab claimed unlawful dismissal due to religious
discrimination in Brussels, the issue was taken to the EU court. In May, a top
EU court advisor backed a workplace ban on hijabs, as long as it is in line with
an outright ban on religious symbols for all employees. There is no single
definition of the relationship that someone can share with his or her religion.
The public must understand that there is no single definition of the
relationship that someone can share with his or her religion, and so it cannot
be “checked at the door”. Some see it as something they were born into and born
with, much like their gender, whereas others see it as something private. If a
court can even suggest that it should have the authority to stop its employees
from visual representations of their religion, then what is next? Will women
have to wear sports bras to hide the fact that they are women? Will people be
asked to not wear their wedding rings to work to hide their relationship status?
Will men have to speak with a softer voice to hide the fact that they are men?
The mere suggestion that whether or not a woman covers her head has the power to
stop her from doing her job is ludicrous, unless perhaps she’s a hair model.
Attempting to stop people from visual representations of their religion can be
seen as a violation of their personal freedom and an attack on free speech. The
hijab may be a piece of cloth that doesn’t make a sound, but the symbol roars so
much so that even in this day and age, when the rate of hate crimes against
Muslims in London has doubled over the past two years, women are standing up as
icons of strength and allegiance. My hope for Muslim women everywhere is that
one day the Western world will treat them with as much respect of their ideas,
ethics, and intelligence as it does with Malala.