LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

March 20/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.march20.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

Question: "What is Palm Sunday?"

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/03/19/what-is-palm-sunday-2/

GotQuestions.org
Answer: Palm Sunday is the day we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, one week before His resurrection (Matthew 21:1–11). As Jesus entered the holy city, He neared the culmination of a long journey toward Golgotha. He had come to save the lost (Luke 19:10), and now was the time—this was the place—to secure that salvation. Palm Sunday marked the start of what is often called “Passion Week,” the final seven days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Palm Sunday was the “beginning of the end” of Jesus’ work on earth.
Palm Sunday began with Jesus and His disciples traveling over the Mount of Olives. The Lord sent two disciples ahead into the village of Bethphage to find an animal to ride. They found the unbroken colt of a donkey, just as Jesus had said they would (Luke 19:29–30). When they untied the colt, the owners began to question them. The disciples responded with the answer Jesus had provided: “The Lord needs it” (Luke 19:31–34). Amazingly, the owners were satisfied with that answer and let the disciples go. “They brought [the donkey] to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it” (Luke 19:35).
As Jesus ascended toward Jerusalem, a large multitude gathered around Him. This crowd understood that Jesus was the Messiah; what they did not understand was that it wasn’t time to set up the kingdom yet—although Jesus had tried to tell them so (Luke 19:11–12). The crowd’s actions along the road give rise to the name “Palm Sunday”: “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Matthew 21:8). In strewing their cloaks on the road, the people were giving Jesus the royal treatment—King Jehu was given similar honor at his coronation (2 Kings 9:13). John records the detail that the branches they cut were from palm trees (John 12:13).
On that first Palm Sunday, the people also honored Jesus verbally: “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ / ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ / ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” (Matthew 21:9). In their praise of Jesus, the Jewish crowds were quoting Psalm 118:25–26, an acknowledged prophecy of the Christ. The allusion to a Messianic psalm drew resentment from the religious leaders present: “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’” (Luke 19:39). However, Jesus saw no need to rebuke those who told the truth. He replied, “I tell you . . . if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40).
Some 450 to 500 years prior to Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, the prophet Zechariah had prophesied the event we now call Palm Sunday: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! / Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! / See, your king comes to you, / righteous and victorious, / lowly and riding on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The prophecy was fulfilled in every particular, and it was indeed a time of rejoicing, as Jerusalem welcomed their King. Unfortunately, the celebration was not to last. The crowds looked for a Messiah who would rescue them politically and free them nationally, but Jesus had come to save them spiritually. First things first, and mankind’s primary need is spiritual, not political, cultural, or national salvation.
Even as the coatless multitudes waved the palm branches and shouted for joy, they missed the true reason for Jesus’ presence. They could neither see nor understand the cross. That’s why, “as [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies . . . will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:41–47). It is a tragic thing to see the Savior but not recognize Him for who He is. The crowds who were crying out “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday were crying out “Crucify Him!” later that week (Matthew 27:22–23).
There is coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). The worship will be real then. Also, John records a scene in heaven that features the eternal celebration of the risen Lord: “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9, emphasis added). These palm-bearing saints will shout, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (verse 10), and who can measure sum of their joy?
Question: "What is Passion Week / Holy Week?"
Answer: Passion Week (also known as Holy Week) is the time from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday). Also included within Passion Week are Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Passion Week is so named because of the passion with which Jesus willingly went to the cross in order to pay for the sins of His people. Passion Week is described in Matthew chapters 21-27; Mark chapters 11-15; Luke chapters 19-23; and John chapters 12-19. Passion Week begins with the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday on the back of a colt as prophesied in Zechariah 9:9.
Passion Week contained several memorable events. Jesus cleansed the Temple for the second time (Luke 19:45-46), then disputed with the Pharisees regarding His authority. Then He gave His Olivet Discourse on the end times and taught many things, including the signs of His second coming. Jesus ate His Last Supper with His disciples in the upper room (Luke 22:7-38), then went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray as He waited for His hour to come. It was here that Jesus, having been betrayed by Judas, was arrested and taken to several sham trials before the chief priests, Pontius Pilate, and Herod (Luke 22:54-23:25).
Following the trials, Jesus was scourged at the hands of the Roman soldiers, then was forced to carry His own instrument of execution (the Cross) through the streets of Jerusalem along what is known as the Via Dolorosa (way of sorrows). Jesus was then crucified at Golgotha on the day before the Sabbath, was buried and remained in the tomb until Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, and then gloriously resurrected.
It is referred to as Passion Week because in that time, Jesus Christ truly revealed His passion for us in the suffering He willingly went through on our behalf. What should our attitude be during Passion Week? We should be passionate in our worship of Jesus and in our proclamation of His Gospel! As He suffered for us, so should we be willing to suffer for the cause of following Him and proclaiming the message of His death and resurrection.
Recommended Resources: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas and Logos Bible Software.

Palm Sunday/Jesus Enters Jerusalm
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12/12-22:"The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord the King of Israel!’ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him! ’Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.'

You hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.
Letter to the Philippians 01/01-13:"Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ;

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 20/16
Jesus' Victorious Entry into Jerusalem -Palm Sunday/Elias Bejjani/March 20/16

Why is Hariri back in Lebanon/Esperance Ghanem/Al-Monitor/March 19/16

Obama, ISIS and the Batman/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Syria, between ashes and roses/Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Four hard conclusions if the Syrian war is to end/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Why it is time for the Arab world to invest in happiness/Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Labor of love in the villages of Laos/Ehtesham Shahid/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Iran/Maryam Rajavi: Nowrouz celebrates the certainty of the coming of spring, liberty and joy/NCRI /Saturday, 19 March 2016
Iran/Holding Fire Festival throughout Iran symbolizes rejection of Iranian regime in its entirety/NCRI /Saturday, 19 March 2016

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on March 20/16
Why is Hariri back in Lebanon?
Lorries begin moving Beirut’s mountains of trash to landfill
Salam Expresses Fear over Fate of Cabinet
Trash Plan Kicks Off, First Dump Trucks Start Entering Naameh
Report: Berri Urges Hizbullah to Elect Franjieh as President
U.S. Embassy Kicks Off Annual Spelling Bee Competition
New Maronite League Head: We are committed to Maronite authenticity, seeking to restore pioneering Christian role
Mukhtara marks Kamal Jumblatt's 39th assassination commemoration
Khreiss representing Berri at Hayek's funeral in Abidjan: Martyr of the Nation and Expatriates
Raad warns against Israeli eavesdropping
Ibrahim: For according special attention to social security, being a main pillar of security in general
Qazzi: Mismanagement of Displaced file leads to implantation

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 20/16

Syria Sees 'No Progress' at Peace Talks, Blasts U.N. Mediator
Paris Attacks Suspect Abdeslam to 'Oppose' Extradition to France
Deadly explosion rocks central Istanbul
Russia pulls most strike aircraft from Syria
Russian-backed Syrian troops push toward Palmyra
Syrian rebels condemn Kurdish-led moves towards regional autonomy
EU-Turkey migrant deal hailed as big step
Dozens killed in air strikes on Syria's Raqqa: monitor
Iraq begins ‘broad operation’ against ISIS in Anbar
19 pilgrims die in Saudi Arabia bus accident
EU studying civilian security mission to Libya
Heavy gunfire in Libya capital as rivals clash
Shelling from Yemen hits Saudi border village
Al-Qaeda claims attack on Algerian gas plant
US concern over Egypt’s NGO investigation

Links From Jihad Watch Site for March 20/16
Video: Fugitive Paris jihad mass murderer captured alive
Hungarian PM: “Europe is not free. Because freedom begins with speaking the truth.”
Sweden: Town cancels Earth Hour over fear of Muslim migrant sex attacks
Belgium: Muslims riot, attack police after arrest of Paris jihad mass murderer
Islamic State rocket attack kills US soldier in northern Iraq
Brown U: Trans rights activist cancels Hillel speech after anti-Israel protests
Robert Spencer, PJM: Does Any Candidate Understand the Freedom of Speech?
Women try on hijabs at Boston College to show Islam doesn’t oppress women
Live video: World’s “most wanted ISIS terrorist wounded in Brussels shootout” UPDATE: CAPTURED
NC prosecutors want death penalty for accused Islamic State sympathizer
Ohio Muslim pleads guilty to recruiting for the Islamic State
Bosch Fawstin: Let Me Draw Muhammad For You For “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day”

Jesus' Victorious Entry into Jerusalem -Palm Sunday
Elias Bejjani/March 20/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/03/19/elias-bejjani-jesus-victorious-entry-into-jerusalem-palm-sunday/

(Psalm118/26): "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh! We have blessed You out of the house of Yahweh".
On the seventh Lantern Sunday, known as the "Palm Sunday", our Maronite Catholic Church celebrates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The joyful and faithful people of this Holy City and their children welcomed Jesus with innocent spontaneity and declared Him a King. Through His glorious and modest entry the essence of His Godly royalty that we share with Him in baptism and anointing of Chrism was revealed. Jesus' Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, the "Palm Sunday", marks the Seventh Lantern Sunday, the last one before Easter Day, (The Resurrection).
During the past six Lantern weeks, we the believers are ought to have renewed and rekindled our faith and reverence through genuine fasting, contemplation, penance, prayers, repentance and acts of charity. By now we are expected to have fully understood the core of love, freedom, and justice that enables us to enter into a renewed world of worship that encompasses the family, the congregation, the community and the nation.
Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time to participate in the Jewish Passover Holiday. He was fully aware that the day of His suffering and death was approaching and unlike all times, He did not stop the people from declaring Him a king and accepted to enter the city while they were happily chanting : "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”.(John 12/13). Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19/39-40). Jesus entered Jerusalem to willingly sacrifice Himself, die on the cross, redeem us and absolve our original sin.
On the Palm Sunday we take our children and grandchildren to celebrate the mass and the special procession while happily they are carrying candles decorated with lilies and roses. Men and women hold palm fronds with olive branches, and actively participate in the Palm Procession with modesty, love and joy crying out loudly: "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21/09).
On the Palm Sunday through the procession, prayers, and mass we renew our confidence and trust in Jesus. We beg Him for peace and commit ourselves to always tame all kinds of evil hostilities, forgive others and act as peace and love advocates and defend man's dignity and his basic human rights. "Ephesians 2:14": "For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us"
The Triumphal Entry of Jesus' story into Jerusalem appears in all four Gospel accounts (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-19). The four accounts shows clearly that the Triumphal Entry was a significant event, not only to the people of Jesus’ day, but to Christians throughout history.
The Triumphal Entry as it appeared in Saint John's Gospel, (12/12-19), as follows : "On the next day a great multitude had come to the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet him, and cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, “Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt. ”His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him. The multitude therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, was testifying about it. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him.” Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast. These, therefore, came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew came with Philip, and they told Jesus."
The multitude welcomed Jesus, His disciples and followers while chanting: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”.(John 12/13). His entry was so humble, meek simple and spontaneous. He did not ride in a chariot pulled by horses as earthly kings and conquerors do, He did not have armed guards, nor officials escorting him. He did not come to Jerusalem to fight, rule, judge or settle scores with any one, but to offer Himself a sacrifice for our salvation.
Before entering Jerusalem, He stopped in the city of Bethany, where Lazarus (whom he raised from the tomb) with his two sisters Mary and Martha lived. In Hebrew Bethany means "The House of the Poor". His stop in Bethany before reaching Jerusalem was a sign of both His acceptance of poverty and His readiness to offer Himself as a sacrifice. He is the One who accepted poverty for our own benefit and came to live in poverty with the poor and escort them to heaven, the Kingdom of His Father.
After His short Stop in Bethany, Jesus entered Jerusalem to fulfill all the prophecies, purposes and the work of the Lord since the dawn of history. All the scripture accounts were fulfilled and completed with his suffering, torture, crucifixion, death and resurrection. On the Cross, He cried with a loud voice: “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.(John19/30)
The multitude welcomed Jesus when He entered Jerusalem so one of the Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled. (Zechariah 9:9-10): "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth".
The crowd welcomed Jesus for different reasons and numerous expectations. There were those who came to listen to His message and believed in Him, while others sought a miraculous cure for their ailments and they got what they came for, but many others envisaged in Him a mortal King that could liberate their country, Israel, and free them from the yoke of the Roman occupation. Those were disappointed when Jesus told them: "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom" (John 18/36)
Christ came to Jerusalem to die on its soil and fulfill the scriptures. It was His choice where to die in Jerusalem as He has said previously: "should not be a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem" (Luke 13/33): "Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem".
He has also warned Jerusalem because in it all the prophets were killed: (Luke 13:34-35): "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! "behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord".
Explanation of the Palm Sunday Procession Symbols
The crowd chanted, "Hosanna to the Son of David" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21/09), because Jesus was is a descendant of David. Hosanna in the highest is originated in the Psalm 118/25: "Please, LORD, please save us. Please, LORD, please give us success". It is a call for help and salvation as also meant by the Psalm 26/11: "But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me". Hosanna also means: God enlightened us and will never abandon us, Jesus' is a salvation for the world"
Spreading cloth and trees' branches in front of Jesus to walk on them was an Old Testament tradition that refers to love, obedience, submission, triumph and loyalty. (2 Kings 09/13): "They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!". In the old days Spreading garments before a dignitary was a symbol of submission.
Zion is a hill in Jerusalem, and the "Daughter of Zion" is Jerusalem. The term is synonymous with "paradise" and the sky in its religious dimensions.
Carrying palm and olive branches and waving with them expresses joy, peace, longing for eternity and triumph. Palm branches are a sign of victory and praise, while Olive branches are a token of joy, peace and durability. The Lord was coming to Jerusalem to conquer death by death and secure eternity for the faithful. It is worth mentioning that the olive tree is a symbol for peace and its oil a means of holiness immortality with which Kings, Saints, children and the sick were anointed.
The name "King of Israel," symbolizes the kingship of the Jews who were waiting for Jehovah to liberate them from the Roman occupation.
O, Lord Jesus, strengthen our faith to feel closer to You and to Your mercy when in trouble;
O, Lord Jesus, empower us with the grace of patience and meekness to endure persecution, humiliation and rejection and always be Your followers.
O, Lord Let Your eternal peace and gracious love prevail all over the world.
A joyous Palm Sunday to all
 

Why is Hariri back in Lebanon?
Esperance Ghanem/Al-Monitor/March 19/16
BEIRUT — After a five-year absence that he spent in France and Saudi Arabia, former Future Movement head and Prime Minister Saad Hariri returned to Lebanon in February for a ceremony commemorating the 11th anniversary of Rafik Hariri’s assassination on Feb. 14. He then announced that he will stay in Beirut.In January 2011, 11 ministers — a third of Hariri’s Cabinet — resigned, leaving a caretaker government under Article 69 of the Lebanese Constitution. The article stipulates that the government shall be considered resigned if it loses more than a third of its members specified in the decree of its formation.
The resignation included 10 opposition ministers, including the ministers of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and the Change and Reform Movement, in addition to Adnan Sayyed Hussein, a minister aligned with then-President Michel Suleiman. The resignation came as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was preparing to issue an indictment implicating Hezbollah in Hariri’s assassination. situation worse, Hariri rejected a call for an emergency Cabinet session to discuss the expected indictment while awaiting the outcome of Saudi-Syrian monitoring of the dispute between the March 8 Coalition, which demanded that the government stop cooperating with the tribunal, and the March 14 Coalition, which supports the investigation.
After Hariri left Lebanon, the Future Movement reported he had received threats. Since then, Hariri has visited Lebanon only twice: the recent trip to commemorate his father’s assassination, and one in August 2014.
Several Lebanese media reports linked Hariri’s visit to different issues, including the extensive financial crisis he is facing. The French Le Point reported the 56,000 employees of his construction firm, Saudi Oger, haven't been paid for months.
Other reports speculated that Saudi Arabia abandoned him because, occupied with its own financial crisis, the kingdom couldn't afford to bankroll his business as well. Still other reports implied his return reflects a Saudi decision to confront Hezbollah via Hariri, as the key Sunni leader. Yet no one seems to rule out that problems within the Future Movement might have necessitated his return, in an attempt to restore Sunni leadership.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Future Movement parliament member Ammar Houri said, “The security risks that prompted Hariri to leave Lebanon still exist. Yet the constitutional, political, security and economic risks have, altogether, formed the key motive for his return.”
Houri refused to link Hariri's return to the rumored Saudi financial crisis. He said, “Raising this issue from this perspective is not objective. Some crises were resolved and others are approaching a solution. Besides, the talk about a Saudi financial crisis is no more than [a rumor], because Saudi Arabia has enough [financial] reserves to last for decades.”
Houri did not deny that the March 14 Coalition must be reunited. "The coalition’s parties have differences, but the coalition’s situation remains better than that of the March 8 Coalition,” he said, adding that he doesn't even remember the last time the opponents met.
He added, “Hariri is still No. 1 in command of the Sunni street, and there is almost an absence of a No. 2 in command.” Houri did not dwell on the differences within the Future Movement, particularly with resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi. He limited the cause of the disagreement with Rifi to the decision to resign.
Moreover, Houri said he doesn't believe the speculation that Hariri returned to spearhead a confrontation with Hezbollah for Saudi Arabia. He said, “Hezbollah alone bears the responsibility for the Gulf and Arab campaign labeling it as a terrorist organization. It is the one that started the attack on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states two years ago.”Based on that position, Houri rejected the idea that the Saudi decision to cancel the grant was designed to sanction Lebanon and its military. He said that Hezbollah alone is to blame. However, Change and Reform bloc parliament member Hikmat Dib told Al-Monitor, “There are no prospects for Hariri in Saudi Arabia, which is clearly going through a severe economic crisis. The Saudi decision to halt the grant to the Lebanese army is only a way to secure liquidity, particularly since Hariri is harmed the most by the halt of the Saudi grant.” Hariri is so closely linked with Saudi Arabia in the minds of the Lebanese that the loss of the grant is seen as a failure on his part. Dib concluded, "The objectives of Hariri’s return are the presidential elections and formation of a new Cabinet that he will be heading, which will save him politically and economically.” He noted that Hariri’s access to the post of prime minister is linked to Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh gaining the presidential post — which explains Hariri’s nomination of Franjieh for the presidency.
He added, “The Future Movement is going through a crisis due to lack of funding and liquidity, which became clear when Hariri toured a number of Lebanese areas and attended meetings that he collaborated on with his political opponents,” such as former Minister Abdel Rahim Murad. Dib added that in his view, “Hariri’s return was inevitable."Dib and Houri rejected the idea that​ Saudi Arabia placed the Future Movement in a direct confrontation with Hezbollah through Hariri’s return. Dib said, “Saudi Arabia is not on good terms with Hezbollah, but had it been really interested in confronting it, it would not have canceled its grant to the army, particularly since it was based on the idea of strengthening and providing weapons to the army in the face of Hezbollah.” According to Dib, the Lebanese-Saudi crisis is due to “the change brought about by the Saudi leadership, which is not close to Hariri. It moved in new directions concerning its ties with Lebanese Sunni figures by hosting some of their opponents.” He added, “Hariri means nothing to the Saudis on the political level. Besides, they are not interested in Lebanon’s card to the extent that some may think.” Lebanon does not seem to be approaching a radical change anytime soon, particularly since the latest session that tried to elect a president, on March 2, was just as unsuccessful as the dozens of previous attempts.Will Hariri's return lead to a breakthrough at the presidential level, through Franjieh, in the face of the Christian understanding between the largest two parties, the Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea and the Free Patriotic Movement led by Michel Aoun? Or is filling the presidential vacuum dependent on a wider regional solution?

Lorries begin moving Beirut’s mountains of trash to landfill
Reuters, Beirut Saturday, 19 March 2016/Lorries began taking mountains of rubbish that have piled up in Beirut to a landfill site on Saturday under a plan the government approved to solve the seven-month garbage crisis, the body helping oversee disposal said. The crisis, which began last July when the same Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed with no plan in place for an alternative, has caused widespread protests against the dysfunctional state and raised concerns for public health. Under the plan agreed on March 12, two landfills will be established near Beirut, and the Naameh landfill is being reopened for two months to receive garbage. The Council for Reconstruction and Development said in a statement carried by the National News Agency that trucks had begun to enter Naameh. Preparations were still underway to open the new landfills, it said.
The government had been working on a plan to export the garbage. But this was scrapped last month because the firm chosen failed to obtain documents showing that Russia, the intended destination, had agreed to accept it. The Lebanese cabinet has struggled to take even basic decisions due to political conflict among the rival parties represented in it.Political deadlock has also left the country without a president for nearly two years.

Salam Expresses Fear over Fate of Cabinet
Naharnet/March 19/16/Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed dismay on Saturday at the cabinet performance stressing that discussions during its meetings have become no longer possible to manage, al-Akhbar daily reported. “The situation is completely out of control,” said Salam weighing Thursday's cabinet session that was marred by a heated dispute over the appointments in security positions. Salam told the daily that he and the cabinet do not know what to expect, voicing fears of the “disintegration” of the council of ministers, he said: “What is the difference between a caretaker cabinet and a paralyzed one? It is the same.” He added saying that as the soon as the cabinet finds a solution for a certain problem, several other difficulties arise, stressing that some are fabricated. Salam added that some ministers do not want to work and are just wasting time. He reiterated that the presidential vacuum is reflecting on the general situation in the country and that everyone must strive to achieve the goal of electing a president. Thursday's cabinet session witnessed a heated debate over the appointments at the general-directorate of state security, that almost led to the suspension of the cabinet session. Several times, the PM has threatened to resign over difficulties and conflicts between ministers to agree on several issues. Lebanon has been in a presidential vacuum since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.

Trash Plan Kicks Off, First Dump Trucks Start Entering Naameh
Naharnet/March 19/16/A waste management plan that was approved last week was put into implementation on Saturday with the first garbage dump trucks entering the Naameh landfill that has been closed for over eight months. Seven dump trucks entered Naameh that will receive only the trash that has accumulated on the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, according to the cabinet's plan.Last week, the cabinet decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s waste problem despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists. Preparation works kicked off Friday at the Costa Brava seaside site in Khalde where the government has decided to set up a garbage landfill as part of a plan to resolve the country's long-running waste management crisis. Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the Naameh which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The crisis, which sparked unprecedented protests against the entire political class, has seen streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said.

Report: Berri Urges Hizbullah to Elect Franjieh as President
Naharnet/March 19/16/Speaker Nabih Berri has urged Hizbullah to settle for the election of Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh as president in light of the unlikelihood of their candidate MP Michel Aoun to reach the post, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday. “Berri held contacts with Hizbullah a few days ago and has explained his point view on the need to expedite the election of Franjieh before the Saudi-Iranian dialogue kicks off in order to help a candidate of the March 8 camp to win the post” sources close to the Speaker said on condition of anonymity.
“Berri has urged Hizbullah not to waste the opportunity at the time being since it is impossible for the Change and Reform bloc chief Aoun to win the seat,” they added. But the sources confirmed that Hizbullah is adamant to continue supporting Aoun as their sole candidate. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of president Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. Conflicts among the rival March 8 and March 14 camps thwarted all attempts aiming at electing a successor. In addition to Aoun and Franjieh, MP Henri Helou is a nominee of the Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat. Franjieh was nominated by the al-Mustaqbal movement chief Saad Hariri late last year.

U.S. Embassy Kicks Off Annual Spelling Bee Competition
Naharnet/March 19/16/One hundred students from public and private schools in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley have participated in the first regional round of the U.S.-Embassy funded Spelling Bee competition at the Baakline and Zahleh American Corners, the U.S. Embassy announced on Saturday. Organized in partnership with USPEaK, the second annual Spelling Bee brings together young students to compete in spelling words in English that promote tolerance, coexistence, citizenship, and environmental stewardship, the U.S. mission said in a statement. Through the Spelling Bee competition, the Embassy aims to rekindle students’ interest in correct English usage and contribute to improving their spelling abilities by providing strategies to increase vocabulary, memorize words, and learn new concepts. Two hundred students from 20 public and private schools in the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon (Aley-Shouf) will participate in regional competitions in 2016, while more than 1,100 students participated in preliminary competitions within their schools. The second round of regional competitions and the final national round will be held in April 2016. The American Corners are partnerships between the Public Diplomacy section of U.S. Embassy Beirut and local institutions. In addition to books and resources about the U.S., American Corners host a wide array of programs including speaking events, book readings, movie screenings, workshops and activities for the local community.

New Maronite League Head: We are committed to Maronite authenticity, seeking to restore pioneering Christian role
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - Dean Antoine Qlimous has won in the Maronite League elections on Saturday by acclamation, after candidates Maroun Younes, Antoine Akl and Adib Tohme withdrew their candidacies. "We are committed to the Maronite authenticity and the efforts exerted to revive the Christian status and restore its pioneering role," said Qlimous, upon announcement of his victory.

Mukhtara marks Kamal Jumblatt's 39th assassination commemoration
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - Crowds of political officials, prominent dignitaries and popular delegations from various Lebanese regions flooded al-Mukhtara Palace and the roads leading to it on Saturday, on the occasion of the 39th commemoration of National Leader, Martyr Kamal Jumblatt's assassination.
Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid Jumblatt, accompanied by the crowds who came to show respect to the Martyr Leader's memory carrying Lebanese flags and banners quoting his teachings, marched towards his late father's tomb where he laid a red rose and a Palestinian flag as a tribute to Jumblatt's life-time struggle and martyrdom for the Palestinian cause. Russian and Palestinian Ambassadors to Lebanon, who were amongst the visiting officials, also laid 2 wreaths on the late Jumblatt's tomb. Another one was laid by MP Bahiya Hariri on behalf of former PM Saad Hariri.

Khreiss representing Berri at Hayek's funeral in Abidjan: Martyr of the Nation and Expatriates
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - Development and Liberation Bloc Member, MP Ali Khreiss, eulogized on Saturday the late Lebanese citizen, Toufic Hayek, who died during the terrorist attack on the "Grand Bassam Hotel Resort" area in Abidjan, considering him a "martyr of the nation and expatriates."Representing House Speaker, Nabih Berri, Khreiss attended Hayek's funeral, in presence of members of the Lebanese expatriate community in the Ivorian capital, amidst a crowd of social, economic and expatriate dignitaries."We came from Lebanon to stand by your side in wake of this huge loss," said Khreiss, condemning the terrorist attack which targeted Ivory Coast's security.

Raad warns against Israeli eavesdropping
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - Israel engages in Internet and ordinary phone eavesdropping where they monitor each and every incoming or outgoing call, head of Hezbollah's parliamentarian Bloc MP Muhammad Raad warned during his eulogizing of a slain party operative at his home village of Dweir today.
Gigantic Internet services free of charge rendered to government and security agencies have been noted around for the last 5 years and, far from deluding ourselves, we need to scrutinize all of that since Israel continues to tap into phone and Internet services round the clock, Raad stressed. Sounding the alarm at proliferating drug abuse in high schools, the deputy added that after university campuses became drug infested, intermediate school pupils are now becoming addicted too. So, timely community, police and court of law intervention and cracking down on this phenomenon is achievable by drying up its resources, Raad concluded.

Berri convenes with Salam, receives letters of congratulations
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - House Speaker Nabih Berri met at his Ayn Teeneh residence on Saturday with PM Tammam Salam; the over hour long meeting focused on current developments. Berri, recently elected the head of the Arab Parliamentary Union, received a letter of felicitation from his Iraqi counterpart Salim Abdullah al-Jabouri, who confirmed the "active role played by Berri in this field." The Speaker also received a similar letter from Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean Sergio Piazzi, felicitating him and asserting the intent to bolster relations between the Assembly and Union.

Ibrahim: For according special attention to social security, being a main pillar of security in general
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - General Security Director General, Abbas Ibrahim, called Saturday for "according special care to social security in the country, being one of the main pillars of security in its general understanding."Ibrahim was speaking during a reception held in his honor by "Madrar Association" at Madrar Medical Center in the area of Shoukeen in Nabatieh, in presence of senior officials & dignitaries. "Security is not limited to military and security dimensions alone, but rather starts with the structure of an integrated family - the first cell of society, and begins to upgrade until reaching its final complementary stages," added Ibrahim. "Social service in its various facets helps in eliminating the margins of struggle and bridges the distances between classes, thus rendering the community a safer and more stable environment," Ibrahim went on. "Accordingly, social security ought to be given the needed attention and importance," he underscored.Ibrahim hoped that joint efforts will be exerted for the sake of boosting the humanitarian end of social service, which connects the citizen with networks that strengthen his security and cooperation with the State.

Qazzi: Mismanagement of Displaced file leads to implantation
Sat 19 Mar 2016/NNA - Mismanagement of the file of the Displaced, eventually leads to implantation, minister of Labour Sijaan Qazzi, told Voice of Lebanon morning talkshow today. Geneva VI works for a gradual implantation of Syrians and Palestinian refugees and a quick solution to this problem craves addressing, he warned. Expressing dismay at press coverage of events, the minister added that Lebanese press had been for long on the payroll of foreign powers; he duly urged press pundits and Information minister Ramzi Jreij to assume full responsibility by reconsidering the actual standing and attitude of financially hard-pressed newspapers. Both private and public sectors need to bail out newspapers by allocating special funds, the minister added. Disclosing a deep sense of resentment on part of Prime Minister Salam, Qazzi went on to exonerate cabinet ministers from any responsibility for the actual worsening state of affairs. He however had qualms against taking to the street in protest albeit, ministers would still be taking up the issue of the reportedly carcinogenesis wheat imported from Russia during their upcoming week's meeting. Sukleen would proceed with garbage collecting up till new contractors are found, he disclosed. Minister Qazzi likened Kataeb party uphill struggle within the cabinet to that played by his party at the height of the 1975 civil strife. Berri is working closely with Abbas Ibrahim to find a quick solution to the Internal Security crisis whereas municipal election must remain unpoliticized, he said.
Accusing the Russians of carving up Syria during their recent war on that country, he prophesied a federated system for Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. Qazzi also charged Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah of doing the same by indefinitely withholding Lebanon's presidential elections. Lebanon and March 15 need restructuring and farewell to centralized Lebanon, minister Qazzi concluded.

Syria Sees 'No Progress' at Peace Talks, Blasts U.N. Mediator
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 19/16/A week of Geneva peace talks on Syria has proved fruitless, a source close to the Damascus government said Saturday, blaming U.N. pressure to end the five-year war. "We have seen no progress these past five days," the source told Agence France Presse, criticizing U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura for urging Damascus to unveil a detailed transition strategy. "Mr. De Mistura does not have the right to put pressure on anybody. He is the mediator in the discussions and should not take anybody's side," he added. Earlier pro-governmental Syrian daily Al-Watan said the talks -- held indirectly between the two sides via the U.N. mediator -- had failed to produce "any significant result."De Mistura conceded Friday he was "still detecting large distances" between the government and main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) at the talks, which are due to resume Monday. The opposition meanwhile were sanguine in their assessment, while criticising the "manoeuvres" of the Damascus government delegation. "For the opposition, it was an opportunity to show its unity and willingness to participate effectively in a peace process," said HNC representative Bassma Kodmani. "In contrast we do not see any readiness on the other side to do the same. We see many maneuvers on their part. From that standpoint I am not very optimistic," Kodmani said. The regime's lead negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, spoke only briefly Friday after meeting de Mistura and refused to take questions, saying Damascus had laid out "fundamental principles for a political solution to the crisis". But De Mistura, who noted the peace drive had helped essentially maintain a fragile ceasefire since being declared on February 27, urged the regime to go much further and said he hoped for detailed submissions within the week.
The HNC has made the departure of President Bashar al-Assad a non-negotiable demand, but Damascus has termed any talk of the president's removal "a red line."The talks are designed to oversee the formation of a transitional administration as the country seeks to move beyond a civil war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Paris Attacks Suspect Abdeslam to 'Oppose' Extradition to France
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 19/16/Key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam will fight his extradition to France from Belgium where he was formally charged Saturday with "terrorist murder" after his dramatic capture in central Brussels. French President Francois Hollande said shortly after Abdeslam's arrest Friday that he wanted to see him transferred to France as quickly as possible to face prosecution for the deadly attacks claimed by the Islamic State group. "I can already tell you that we will oppose his extradition," Abdeslam's lawyer Sven Mary told reporters at federal police headquarters in Brussels. Legal experts said this could delay but not prevent his handover to the French authorities on a European Arrest Warrant which the European Union introduced specifically to speed up extradition cases. An investigating judge formally charged Abdeslam with "participation in terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation," a prosecutors statement said. Abdeslam's arrest in the gritty Molenbeek neighborhood was hailed by European and US leaders, while French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it dealt a "major blow" to IS jihadists operating in Europe. The 26-year-old Abdeslam, who had been on the run for four months, and an alleged accomplice who was captured with him were initially taken to a Brussels hospital for treatment for gunshot injuries sustained in the police raid. In Paris, Hollande met Saturday with key cabinet ministers and security officials to discuss the next steps in the probe into the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more. "The operations of the past week have enabled us to incapacitate several individuals who are clearly extremely dangerous and totally determined," Cazeneuve said after the meeting.
The aim was now "to review operations that are under way and the fight against terrorist groups in France and Europe," a member of Hollande's entourage said. Hollande, who was in Brussels for an EU summit when the raid took place, described Abdeslam as "directly linked to the preparation, the organisation and, unfortunately, the perpetration of these attacks". Abdeslam's capture was hailed by the Belgian press as restoring the country's honour, tarnished by perceived intelligence and police blunders before and after the attacks, which appear increasingly to have been planned and coordinated in Brussels.
Last surviving attacker
Former small-time criminal Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that carried out the attacks on the Bataclan concert venue, restaurants, bars and the Stade de France stadium. He apparently fled by car to Brussels the day after the rampage, and is believed to have spent much if not all of the subsequent four months in and around the city. Prosecutors said special forces raided a house in Molenbeek on Friday because of evidence found in an operation elsewhere in Brussels on Tuesday, in which another Paris-linked suspect died in a gun battle. Two other suspects escaped amid intense speculation that one of them might have been Abdeslam.One of Abdeslam's fingerprints was found at the scene of Tuesday's raid, which resulted in the second operation which led to his capture.
'Sense of relief'
Investigators believe Abdeslam rented rooms in the Paris area to be used by the attackers and also hired one of the cars in which he drove the suicide bombers to the Stade de France. He was then supposed to blow himself up but apparently backed out and an explosives-filled suicide vest was later found in Paris in an area where mobile phone signals indicated he had been. Police believe he fled across the border the next morning. Several people have been arrested on suspicion of helping him and his fingerprints were found in December at different Brussels apartments. The ringleader of the attacks, IS member Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and attacker Bilal Hadfi, both dead, also had links to Molenbeek, which has been seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism for decades. Abdeslam and his brother Brahim, who blew himself up during the Paris assault, had run a bar in the area until it was shut down by the authorities a few weeks before the attacks. Brahim Abdeslam was buried discreetly in a Brussels cemetery on Thursday. Abdeslam's family feels a "sense of relief" over his arrest because he was captured alive and pressure to help find him is lifted, a family lawyer said. Interpol on Saturday urged "extra vigilance at border controls" to ensure that any Abdeslam accomplice does not try to flee Europe.

Deadly explosion rocks central Istanbul
By Agencies, Istanbul Saturday, 19 March 2016/Five people including a suicide bomber were killed and 36 wounded in a suspected attack by Kurdish militants on a major shopping and tourist district in central Istanbul on Saturday. The fourth suicide bombing in Turkey this year hit part of Istiklal Street, a long pedestrian zone lined with global brand name shops and foreign consulates, just a few hundred meters from an area where police buses are usually parked. Preliminary findings indicate that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or an affiliate carried out the attack, a senior Turkish official told Reuters. “The attacker detonated the bomb before reaching the targeted point because they were scared of the police,” the official said, adding the bomber had planned to hit a more crowded spot. Armed police sealed off the shopping street where half a dozen ambulances had gathered. Forensic teams in white suits scoured the area for evidence. Police helicopters buzzed overhead and panicked shoppers fled the area, ducking down narrow side streets. “My local shopkeeper told me someone had blown himself up and I walked towards the end of the street,” one neighborhood resident told Reuters. “I saw a body on the street. No one was treating him but then I saw someone who appeared to be a regular citizen trying to do something to the body. That was enough for me and I turned and went back.”Istiklal Street, usually thronged with shoppers on weekends, was quieter than normal before the blast as more people are staying home after a series of deadly bombings. Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu confirmed that 36 people had been wounded and seven of those were in serious condition. Twelve of the wounded were foreigners, he said. Two Israeli citizens were killed in the blast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said a third Israeli citizen may have been killed in the blast. One Iranian were among those killed, Turkish media reported. Several Israelis were among those hurt in the sixth major bombing in Turkey since July, the deputy health minister Ahmet Baha Otuken had said. Israel had chartered two aircraft to repatriate the injured to their homeland, a spokesman for the emergency services said in Jerusalem. “We as a nation are unfortunately now face to face with a situation of unlimited, immeasurable acts that are inhumane, defy human values and are treacherous,” Muezzinoglu said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denounced the suicide bombing as “inhumane” and said Turkey would continue its struggle against “centers of terrorism”.“No center of terrorism will reach its aim with such monstrous attacks,” he said in a written statement. “Our struggle will continue with the same resolution and determination until terrorism ends completely.”
Deadly bombings
A suicide car bombing in the capital Ankara killed 37 people this month. A similar bombing in Ankara last month killed 29 people. A Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for both of those bombings.In January, a suicide bomber killed around 10 people, most of them German tourists, in Istanbul’s historic heart, an attack the government blamed on ISIS. NATO member Turkey faces multiple security threats. As part of a US-led coalition, it is fighting ISIS in neighboring Syria and Iraq. It is also battling PKK militants in its southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s. In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces and says that it does not target civilians. However, the recent bombings suggest it could be moving toward a tactical shift. A claim of direct responsibility for Saturday’s attack could underscore that. The PKK is looking to carry out attacks aggressively during the coming Newroz spring holiday, the official said. Newroz, which falls on March 21, is Kurdish New Year.

Russia pulls most strike aircraft from Syria
Reuters, Washington Saturday, 19 March 2016/Russia has withdrawn most of its strike aircraft from Syria, the US military said on Friday, adding that it was now entirely carrying out strikes in support of Syrian government forces using artillery instead of aircraft. “They still have helicopters and some transport aircraft. But what we’ve seen is that the majority of Russian strike aircraft have left Syria,” Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman at the US military’s Central Command, told Pentagon reporters. Ryder said the United States had not seen Russia carrying out any air strikes in recent days, including around the Syrian city of Palmyra and was instead using artillery. “In the last week, we have not seen any Russian aircraft conducting any strikes in Syria. And that any counter-ISIL strikes that may have been done, would have been - from a Russian standpoint - would have been via artillery systems,” Ryder said, using an acronym for ISIS.

Russian-backed Syrian troops push toward Palmyra
Agencies Friday, 18 March 2016/Russian warplanes on Friday flew in support of Syrian government troops in an offensive to recapture the historic town of Palmyra from the hands of ISIS, which has damaged many of the town’s world-famous archaeological sites. Activists who monitor the Syrian conflict reported intense airstrikes in Palmyra and its suburbs. In Moscow, a Russian Defense Ministry official confirmed his country’s warplanes in Syria were flying in support of the Syrian offensive to try to retake Palmyra. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Russian aircraft based in Syria were conducting 20-25 sorties a day in support of the Palmyra offensive, even though Russia this week drew down its military presence in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial pullout of Russian aircraft and forces this week, in support of the Geneva peace talks that are currently underway in Switzerland between representatives of the Syrian government and the Western-backed opposition. Those U.N.-brokered talks, aimed at finding a way to resolve the five-year civil war, entered their fifth day on Friday. If the Syrian army and its allies capture the historic town in the central province of Homs, it will be a major victory against IS militants in Syria. Warplanes conducted more than a dozen airstrikes since Friday morning, according to two activist groups, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. The Observatory said troops were slowly advancing toward Palmyra, adding that both sides are bringing in reinforcements. It said there were casualties on both sides but did not give any figures.Syrian troops and their allies have been on the offensive in the area since last week and on Tuesday captured "Hill 900," which is the highest point near Palmyra and overlooks the town. Palmyra, home to famed Roman ruins, has been under the firm control of IS since the extremists captured it in May last year.
In October, The Associated Press obtained a video that showed the main structure of 2,000- year-old iconic Arch of Triumph in Palmyra has been destroyed. Activists have said that IS extremists blew up the arch. ISIS also destroyed the Temple of Bel and the smaller Baalshamin temple last August. The Islamic State group considers such relics promote idolatry. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recalled some of Russia’s warplanes from Syria earlier this week, said Moscow will keep enough forces there to continue the fight against ISIS, the Nusra Front and other extremist organizations. Russia will also continue to boost the Syrian military with weapons, training and operational guidance, Putin said. The Russian campaign has helped turn the tide of war and allowed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces to make significant advances ahead of peace talks, and established Russia as a major player in the diplomatic effort to determine Syria's future. Four Russian servicemen were killed in action in Syria since Sept. 30, when Moscow began its aerial campaign. They dead include a pilot of a Russian plane downed by Turkey, a marine killed on a mission to rescue the pilot's crewmate, a military adviser killed by shelling and a fourth man the circumstances of whose death haven't been revealed yet. In addition, officials said one soldier at the Russian base killed himself. The Aamaq news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group, claimed that the extremists killed a Russian military adviser near Palmyra this week showing a video of a bloodied man in military uniform as well as an automatic rifle, telecommunication devices, a helmet and first aid kit with writings in Russian.Meanwhile in Geneva, the spokesman for the main Syrian opposition delegation at the indirect peace talks accused the Damascus government of "procrastinating" and not engaging fully in the negotiations. Salem Al Meslet of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee said Assad's negotiators were not serious about the indirect talks and refused to negotiate with the opposition. He said Syrian refugees would eventually return home, once the government stops bombing and killing civilians. Al Meslet also added that the opposition hopes Putin would stop supporting Assad and stand with the Syrian people.
‘We are in a hurry’
The U.N. special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, was hosting separate talks with the HNC and the Syrian government team on Friday in Geneva. De Mistura said Syria’s government must do more to present its ideas about a political transition and not merely talk about principles of the peace process.
“We are in a hurry,” de Mistura told reporters after an “intense” day and meetings with Syria’s government delegation and the main opposition, the High Negotiations Committee. De Mistura said he had given both sides homework to do so that the negotiations could go faster on Monday, and during the second week of talks he would try to build a “minimum common platform” for a better understanding on the political transition.
Russia: 5 ceasefire violations
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday it had registered five ceasefire violations in Syria over the previous 24 hours, Russian news agency reported. According to RIA news agency, three violations were registered in the province of Damask, one in Aleppo and one in Latakia.
Russia, Iran discuss ceasefire
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed in a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the implementation of ceasefire in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.“The need for a stable political process with the participation of representatives of the Syrian government and a wide range of opposition groups .... was stressed,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its website. (With AP and Reuters)

Syrian rebels condemn Kurdish-led moves towards regional autonomy
Reuters, Beirut Friday, 18 March 2016/Syrian rebel factions on Friday condemned a declaration of federalism in Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Syria and vowed to resist it by force, a day after those areas voted to seek autonomy. A statement from a number of Syrian insurgent groups, some of whom are represented in the main opposition body that is participating in peace talks, said the federalism announcement was a “project to divide” Syria. Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northern regions voted on Thursday to seek autonomy under a federal system, drawing rebukes from the main opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, the Damascus government, Turkey and Washington. The rebel statement said this was “exploitation” of the Syrian uprising that began five years ago and descended into civil war, and condemned what it said were attempts by “groups... which took control of parts of Syrian land to establish their racial, nationalist and sectarian entities”.It compared Kurdish groups to ISIS, and said the YPG militia and its political arm the PYD were terrorists. The YPG, which has been backed by Washington in its fight against ISIS, has beaten back the militants to control swathes of northern Syria, but the PYD has so far been excluded from peace talks that began this week in Geneva. The vote to unite three Kurdish-controlled provinces in a federal system appears aimed at creating a self-run entity within Syria, a status that Kurds have enjoyed in neighboring Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.The three Kurdish-controlled regions agreed at a conference in Rmeilan in northeast Syria to establish the self-administered “federal democratic system of Rojava - Northern Syria”, officials announced. Rojava is the Kurdish name for north Syria.

EU-Turkey migrant deal hailed as big step
Reuters, Washington Saturday, 19 March 2016/The United States on Friday called an agreement reached between the European Union and Turkey aimed at halting illegal migration an important step, and Washington said it was ready to increase support to countries affected by the flow of refugees. “We commend language in the agreement affirming that all refugees deserve access to protection and which makes clear the agreement will be implemented in full accordance with EU and international law,” the State Department said in a statement. The EU-Turkey accord reached on Friday aims to close the main route by which a million migrants and refugees, many of them from war-torn Syria, poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the last year before marching north to Europe. European Union leaders approved on Friday a migration deal with Turkey, Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila said on Twitter. "The Turkey deal was approved," Sipila said. European leaders agreed a common position to put to Turkey’s prime minister in a bid to clinch a vital deal to tackle an unprecedented wave of migrants and refugees that have fled to the continent. The 28 states spent the day haggling over the proposal, under which Turkey would take all migrants from Greece to help curb Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II. The deal would exact a heavy price including an acceleration of Turkey’s long-stalled bid for EU membership, billions of euros in extra aid and visa-free travel for Turkish nationals. Critics have raised concerns that the “one-for-one” deal could also violate international law and pointed to Ankara’s human rights record. “Agreement on EU position, @eucopresident will present it to Turkish Prime Minister before our EU Council tomorrow,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel tweeted, referring to European Council President Donald Tusk. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a “good opportunity to stop the business of human traffickers” involved in an unprecedented influx of 1.2 million people from Syria and elsewhere since 2015. Merkel however insisted on “preconditions” and clear plans to deal with the logistics of processing thousands of asylum seekers on the Greek islands and sending them back to Turkey. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said as he boarded a plane in Ankara that the proposed deal was “clear and honest” but added: “Turkey will never become an open prison for migrants.” He is due to meet Tusk, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at 0730 GMT before EU leaders meet again for final consultations expected at 1200 GMT, EU officials said. A senior EU official said Tusk had a “common position” to put the Turkish premier, adding that he had “understood everyone’s red lines” for the negotiations. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said it would be an “intense” day. Following the migration deal, Turkey announced a total of 1,734 migrants and 16 people smugglers were detained by Turkish coastguard and gendarmerie in an operation on Friday, security forces said in a statement, part of a massive sweep to stop refugees reaching the Greek island of Lesbos. The operation was launched near the town of Dikili, in Izmir province on Turkey's Aegean coast, and involved the coastguard, navy and gendarmerie and was backed by air support, the military said in a statement. Authorities were still working to ascertain the nationalities of those arrested, it said.(With AFP)

Dozens killed in air strikes on Syria's Raqqa: monitor
Reuters | Beirut Saturday, 19 March 2016/Dozens of people were killed in a series of air strikes on the city of Raqqa in northern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group and activists said, as Damascus and Moscow waged attacks on areas controlled by ISIS. A cessation of hostilities in Syria took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva. The deal does not include al Qaeda or ISIS militants, whose de facto capital in Syria is Raqqa. Russia has been pulling out its attack aircraft after announcing a partial withdrawal from Syria, where its air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad has turned fighting in his favor. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 39 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the raids on Raqqa. An activist group with sources in Raqqa, called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said more than 40 had been killed, and that separate strikes hit areas in the north of Raqqa province. The Observatory said the dead included seven women and five children. It said it was not clear whether Syrian or Russian warplanes had conducted the air strikes. Separately, Russian warplanes hit the ISIS-held historic city of Palmyra and its immediate vicinity with some 70 air strikes, the Observatory said, with no immediate reports of casualties. Government forces and their allies are aiming to capture Palmyra, some 200 km southwest of Raqqa and also held by ISIS since May.

Iraq begins ‘broad operation’ against ISIS in Anbar
AFP, Baghdad Saturday, 19 March 2016/Iraqi forces have launched a broad offensive to retake the city of Hit from ISIS in the western province of Anbar, a top commander said Saturday. Led by the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, forces from the police, army and local tribal fighters were making a final push to retake Hit, 145 kilometers (90 miles) west of Baghdad. “They have begun a broad operation to liberate Hit and Kubaysa,” Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun, the head of the Al-Jazeera Operations Command, told AFP. Kubaysa is a smaller town a few miles west of Hit, a key hub along the Euphrates that the jihadists have controlled since October 2014. Daboun said Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters had retaken a cement plant west of Kubaysa and raised the Iraqi flag there. “Members of the terrorist Daesh (ISIS) gangs have fled back into the town center,” the head of the local council for Al-Baghdadi district, Malallah al-Obeidi, told AFP. Daboun said Iraqi aircraft and jets from the US-led international coalition were providing air support. Al-Asad military air base, which houses a large contingent of US and other foreign military advisers, lies around 35 kilometers northwest of Hit. Iraq’s security forces launched a final push against ISIS in Anbar’s provincial capital Ramadi late last year and established full control over the city last month. Aid agencies have voiced concern over the fate of an estimated 35,000 civilians who have fled Hit and its surroundings in the run-up to the latest military offensive. The International Committee of the Red Cross said late Friday that thousands of freshly displaced people were stranded in areas where very little assistance is available. The organization said it was able to deliver aid for the first time on Friday to around 12,000 people west of Ramadi. “We don’t know how they managed to survive. Repeated access is crucial in order to help the remaining thousands of people who urgently need humanitarian aid,” said Katharina Ritz, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq. ISIS still controls vast areas of Anbar province near the borders with Jordan and Syria, as well as the city of Fallujah, which is only 50 kilometers from Baghdad.

19 pilgrims die in Saudi Arabia bus accident
AFP, Riyadh Saturday, 19 March 2016/At least 19 pilgrims died, all of them Egyptian, and 22 were injured early on Saturday when their bus overturned in western Saudi Arabia, authorities in both countries said. The tourism ministry in Cairo said 19 Egyptian pilgrims and a child were killed and 15 were injured in the accident. "Nineteen people were killed when the bus carrying them turned over on the Hijra road" between the coastal city of Jeddah and the holy city of Medina, Saudi Red Crescent spokesman Khaled Ben Messaed al-Sihli said. "All the bus passengers have the same nationality of an Arab country except the driver who is Asian," he said. Another 22 people were injured including some who were badly hurt, Sihli added. Millions of Muslims visit Saudi Arabia each year for the year-round umra minor pilgrimage and the annual hajj pilgrimage.

EU studying civilian security mission to Libya
Reuters, Brussels/Benghazi Friday, 18 March 2016/The EU’s foreign policy chief has warned the bloc’s foreign ministers that nearly half a million people displaced in Libya could migrate to Europe, saying that Brussels is also studying a civilian security mission to Libya. “There are more than 450,000 internally displaced persons and refugees in Libya who could be potential candidates for migration to Europe,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini wrote in a March 12 letter seen by Reuters. Mogherini said planning was underway for a mission to rebuild Libya’s police, counter-terrorism and border management operations to work with the United Nations. “The possibility of setting up a team of ‘deployable experts’ on migration and security issues ... could be explored,” Mogherini said. ‘Deepening the nation’s crisis’ The interim temporary government in Libya said on Friday moves to impose a new UN-backed unity cabinet on the country without a vote of approval by the eastern parliament risked deepening the nation’s crisis. The unity government-in-waiting has called for an immediate transfer of power, and its prime minister said in an interview broadcast on Thursday it would move to Tripoli from Tunis in the “next few days”.Since 2014 Libya has had rival parliaments and governments, one set based in Tripoli and the other in the east. Both are backed by loose alliances of former rebels and armed brigades which emerged amid the chaos that followed the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago. Western governments have been pushing for the unity government to start work, saying it holds the best hope for ending Libya’s turmoil and tackling the growing threat posed by ISIS militants. The interim temporary government said in a statement on Friday that while it supported the unity cabinet, any attempt to impose it represented an “abuse of Libyan sovereignty and a lack of respect for the democratic process”. “It will deepen the Libyan crisis and the economic situation, increase division, and shatter the political accord built on consensus,” it said. It also warned local and international parties to work with the new government only after parliament gave its approval. The internationally-recognized eastern parliament has repeatedly failed to vote to approve the unity government, but a majority of its members signed a statement of support last month. The United States and European powers cited that statement when they declared on Sunday that the unity cabinet was the “only legitimate government in Libya”.The unity government and the Tunis-based presidential council that appointed it have faced stiff opposition from hardliners on both sides of Libya’s political divide. On Tuesday, the prime minister of the government based in Tripoli warned the unity cabinet not to move there, and it remains unclear whether some of the many factions in the capital would oppose it with armed force

Heavy gunfire in Libya capital as rivals clash
Reuters, Tripoli Saturday, 19 March 2016/Heavy gunfire broke out in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday after two rival armed groups clashed in the city, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what triggered the fighting between the Zawiyat Addahmani area and Bab Azizziya or which groups were involved. Several quasi-official groups operate as law enforcement and armed forces in Tripoli controlling different districts and clashes sometimes occur over territory or personal disputes. Tripoli has been under control of an armed alliance called Libya Dawn since 2014 when its forces drove rivals out of the city, set up their own government and reinstated the former parliament as part of power struggle for control.

Shelling from Yemen hits Saudi border village
Khamis al-Zahrani, Al Arabiya News Channel Saturday, 19 March 2016/Shells continued to fall from the Yemeni side into a southwestern neighboring Saudi areas on Friday, causing no injuries but material damages to a mosque and homes, violating an agreed respite. Last week, Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi militia group agreed to a border “calm” and prisoner swap. Shelling hit Al-Rouha and Al-Rokouba neighborhoods in Samtah, a town in the southwestern province of Jazan, including one of its mosques during Friday prayers but no casualties were reported. However, houses close to the mosque incurred material losses.On Thursday, the White House welcomed a pledge from a Saudi-led coalition to wind down the air war in Yemen. White House spokesman Josh Earnest welcomed a coalition statement that the year-old campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militias was nearing the “end of the major combat phase.”

Al-Qaeda claims attack on Algerian gas plant
Reuters, Algiers Saturday, 19 March 2016/Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch has claimed responsibility for Friday’s rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Algerian gas plant operated by Norway’s Statoil and BP as part of its “war on the Crusader interests everywhere”. The attack caused no casualties or damage but forced the facility to be closed as a precaution, though state energy company Sonatrach said Algeria’s gas production had not been affected.“This operation has destroyed your claims to have defeated ‘terrorism’ as you like to describe it,” the militant group said in a statement directed at the Algerian government and Western oil companies. “Even if your Western masters believed you were in control previously, how will you justify your position now?”Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed several attacks across the region recently, including an assault on a resort in Ivory Coast on Sunday that killed 18 people it said was revenge for a French offensive against militants in the Sahel. Algeria, emerging from its own 1990s war with extremist fighters that killed 200,000, has become an important partner in the Western campaign against extremist militancy. The OPEC nation is also a major gas supplier to Europe. Attacks in the North African country are rarer since it ended its civil war, but al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and fighters allied with ISIS are still active, mostly in the remote south and mountains east of Algiers. Algeria’s oil and gas infrastructure is heavily protected by the army especially since the 2013 militant attack on the In Amenas gas plant, also operated by BP and Statoil, during which 40 oil workers were killed.

US concern over Egypt’s NGO investigation
Reuters, Washington Saturday, 19 March 2016/US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he was deeply concerned by the deterioration in the human rights situation in Egypt, including Egypt’s decision to reopen an investigation of non-governmental organizations.In a statement released by the State Department, Kerry said the decision by the Egyptian government this week to investigate the NGOs, which were documenting human rights abuses, comes against a wider backdrop of arrests and intimidation of the political opposition, journalists, activists and others. “I urge the Government of Egypt to work with civic groups to ease restrictions on association and expression and to take action to allow these and other human rights NGOs to operate freely,” Kerry said in the statement.

Obama, ISIS and the Batman!
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
In his write-up on the US President, Barack Obama, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg refers to the testimonies of Obama’s assistants who quote him as saying that ISIS is like the character of joker in the movie Batman. In one scene of the movie, a group of men living in the city, are shown angry at the joker villain who threatens to burn the city down; so they decide to fight him. Does the President mean that the belligerent people in Syria are the group of men defending the city or is it the whole world that has realized the danger posed by ISIS, be it Americans, Russians, Iranians and Gulf leaders? The approach is, however, correct as ISIS is the joker which has come to destroy and has no other intentions.
However, what Obama failed to notice, and is missing in the movie analogy, is that ISIS roots go back to Iraq during the days of the American occupation. It was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the first leader of the organization, and most of his men came to Iraq during the occupation through Syria, controlled by Iran’s ally, the Bashar al-Assad regime. Under the name of the Iraqi “resistance” and al-Qaeda, they were involved in the killing of more than 4,000 Americans. It was during Obama’s tenure that the US withdrew its troops without making arrangements to fill the governance void.
We can argue long about the genesis of ISIS but the organization is nothing but the natural product of the chaos and proxy wars that have swamped the region. Obama made a huge mistake in the beginning when he considered that ISIS was a problem that only concerns the region. However, when Westerners were beheaded by ISIS, and its danger expanded outside the region, Obama discovered that this is indeed a problem that threatens the world.
The world cannot fight against ISIS, whether it is led by Russia, the United States or Europe, without paying attention to the need to control the chaos in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya . This is the case now and it will continue to be so even after Obama leaves White House at the end of this year. The world cannot fight against ISIS, whether it is led by Russia, the United States or Europe, without paying attention to the need to control the chaos in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. No matter how powerful the state is, it won’t be able to achieve such a huge task alone, without the cooperation of countries in the region and the world. A state of stability in the four countries cannot be reached without acknowledging the source of trouble, which is Iran, and whose sanctions have been lifted and whose main activities so far were igniting wars in the region. The Middle East has lived and relied on the balance within regional and international arrangements, whether during the Cold War or its aftermath. When Obama told The Atlantic magazine that Saudis should learn how to share the region with Iran, he did not explain what he meant.
It is not a bad idea if participation means agreement or cooperation. Saudi Arabia and its allies, namely the other five GCC countries – with Jordan, Egypt and Morocco – don’t have a military or expansionist approach. However, Iran has always exported chaos, backing armed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. There are 16 similar militias in Iraq that are pro-Tehran regime.
Regional participation
The country that has to stop the violence is Iran. United States can encourage Iran to engage in a healthy regional competition through trade, investment and political cooperation. This is the concept of regional participation that can be achieved. However, if they meant the division of the map of influence in the region into Iranian and Saudi camps, they would be giving the recipe for a long and serious internal strife, and Syria will just be the first chapter of this terrifying play. When speaking about Libya, the president admitted how his European allies disappointed him when Muammar Gaddafi’s regime was toppled and that they are not qualified to lead any war. Whatever his vision was to them, Libya should not be a place through which the US would want to prove the failure of the Europeans. Libya was a problem for the United States in the years of Gaddafi’s rule, as it was for Europe.
Washington made a mistake when it turned its back on Libya, because it turned out later that it is not just a port for thousands of illegal immigrants to sail to southern Italy and the rest of Europe; it has also become a hub for terrorist organizations. The properties of the Libyan crisis are similar to what is happening in Syria; however it would be easier to impose a new political regime in Libya because there is no regime like al-Assad and there is no major international conflict there yet. Finally, the state of disgust expressed by Obama regarding the Middle East is not mere politics. We can see that the Russians, who have dreamt since the Tsars time to gain access to warm water, are now swimming in it. All senior leaders in the region have been forced to go to Kremlin during the past two years because of the deliberate absence of the Americans; they built multiple relations with Moscow and this is something that was not on anyone’s mind and did not happen before.

Syria, between ashes and roses
Hisham Melhem/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
“A time between ashes and roses is coming When everything shall be extinguished When everything shall begin.”Adonis (Ali Ahmad Saeed)
When I think of Syria, I often remember Adonis’ poetry. I imagine him in a state of total bliss, reciting the poems of transformations, of the journeys between the provinces of day and night, of preaching the great disruption and anticipating the new beginnings, poems that ruptured the stagnant language and with it the stagnant world of the Arabs, and made him the greatest Arab poet and visionary of modern times. Adonis was born in Syria, but his productive decades were spent in Beirut as a poet, essayist, historian of culture and editor of Mawaqif, the journal that expressed the tremendous intellectual and artistic ferment that followed the Arab defeat in the 1967 war with Israel. Adonis was obsessed with renewals after deconstructing stale orthodoxies. He exploded Arab poetics, and wrote pioneering criticism of classic and modern Arab culture.
He used language as if it was never used, abused or debased by millions of his ancestors; in his hands it became malleable, he gave it shape and form, the way a sculptor would chisel beauty out of a shapeless stone. He thought that Arab intellectuals and artists should do the same to their polities and societies.
Thinking of Syria on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of its descent to the great disruption, I thought of Adonis’ poem A Time Between Ashes and Roses, which he wrote decades before the rupture. Adonis was not sympathetic with the Syrian uprising, particularly its Islamist overtones. While I shared his jaundiced view of the Islamists, I was disappointed that he did not lend his voice to the secular opposition to the tyrannical regime in Damascus. The Adonis I invoke here, is the visionary poet and the critic of his culture, the prescient historian who believes that Syria is now going through that long time of migration from the ashes of desolation to the season of renewal, the flowering of roses. Looking back at the last five years, one could only conclude that the season of migration will be treacherously long.
No Russian goodbye
During the week we looked back, trying once again to understand what went horribly wrong, asking the same questions and getting the same unsatisfactorily answers, Russia announced that it will scale down its brutal Arial war against Syrian civilians living in the areas controlled by the anti-regime opposition groups, which find themselves at times fighting both the regime forces and the Jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra or the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS), at the same time. Already, Amnesty International has accused Russia of committing war crimes in Syria. What is clear from the Russian position is that the withdrawal is partial, and a residual force, including offensive air capabilities will remain in Syria. But regardless of the real motivations behind the surprising Russian move, the air assaults in coordination with ground attacks conducted by a combination of Iranian led Hezbollah and other Shiite fighters from Iraq and regime forces succeeded in stabilizing the Assad regime, and enlarged the area under its control in the environs of Aleppo and other areas. And while some analysts are linking the partial withdrawal to the political talks in Geneva, there is no reason to believe that Russia will “deliver” Assad and/or put pressure on him to accept a transitional period that will lead eventually to his political demise.
Genocide and justice
After the US House of representatives voted 383-0 in favor of classifying the atrocities committed by ISIS against the Yazidis and Christians as an act of Genocide, the Secretary of State John Kerry read a statement in which he asserted that ISIS, or “Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims”. Kerry added “Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions –in what it says, what it believes, and what it does”.
And yet for all of the ritualistic and brutal killings of fellow Syrians and Iraqis at the hands of ISIS, the Syrian regime remains the single most efficient perpetrators of mass killings in the country. Syrian and International human rights groups have documented the numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Syrian regime including the use of nerve gas and chlorine, mass execution, indiscriminate shelling, barrel bombing, torture, siege, starvation and sexual violence.
Obama’s next ten months would look to many people in the Middle East like a long suffocating eternity. Obama’s long goodbye is upon us
The al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups engage in killing civilians, they control their own prisons, where torture is widespread. We may never know the exact number of those who were killed in the last five years, but estimates range between 250,000 to more than 400,000. There are now five million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and in Europe. A weak and small country like Lebanon suffering from a variety of political and economic ailments where more than a million Syrian refugees have settled in the last few years could implode anytime. The number of displaced Syrians is around 7 million. This situation cries out for justice and accountability.
Syria is not a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so the ICC has no jurisdiction over the country, but there are precedents for using a mixture of local and international justice mechanisms, such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone which indicted and convicted former dictator Charles Taylor. The quest to achieve justice to the victims and their families in Syria should not wait until the war is over. Preparations for a Syrian version of “Truth and Reconciliation” committee should be underway by Syrians and their friends. The worse thing Syrians could do is to fall into the collective trap of denial. They should avoid Lebanon’s tragic failure to exorcise the demons of its own civil war.
Obama’s long goodbye
On the fifth anniversary of the war, President Obama reminded the Syrians once again that his doctrine of non-intervention even in a colossal human tragedy like theirs’s, was a wise choice. The president of the United States is proud that he did not deliver on his own threats and promises. One of the many subtexts in Obama’s Doctrine in the Atlantic Magazine is that he is done with the Middle East. The president got his nuclear deal with Iran, and he will spend the remaining months of his tenure keeping ISIS at bay and trying to prevent a terror attack against the homeland, to degrade ISIS and hopefully decapitate its leadership. But he no longer talks about destroying the Caliphate monstrosity in Syria and Iraq. Of course occasionally, drones and maybe Special Forces could be used in Libya, Yemen and Somalia, but these are tactical and safe moves designed to keep ISIS and al Qaeda off balance. The mission of destroying ISIS Obama will bequeath to his successor. The other urgent issues and crises of the region; the ongoing unraveling of Iraq and Libya, where Obama’s actions and inactions are still reverberating, and Iran’s destabilizing role in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, would have to wait for the new president. Obama’s next ten months would look to many people in the Middle East like a long suffocating eternity. Obama’s long goodbye is upon us. Watching Syria after five years of agony, I was moved by that incredible spirit and boundless hope and courage that animated the first optimistic peaceful demonstrations in Damascus, Deraa, Homs and other Syrian cities and towns. The Syrians are at it again I wondered. They are back in the streets shouting for the fall of the tyrant and calling for democracy and human rights the very subversive demands that terrifies the Assad regime and the Jihadists.
Recently, I came across WH Auden’s poem It’s No Use Raising A Shout in which he writes:
“I've come a very long way to prove No land, no water, and no love.”
Looking at the people of Syria, I would like to say (and hope) that they have come a very long way to prove that after the ashes of desolation there is land, water, love and yes Adonis, roses too.

Four hard conclusions if the Syrian war is to end
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Despite what its detractors say, there is a morality behind the realist foreign policy school of thought. From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas, through to Edmund Burke and Reinhold Niebuhr, the imperative is simple to understand, if devilishly complex to live up to: Have the bravery to see the world as it is, warts and all, and then endeavour to make it better, when and where you can. I will try to live up to that daunting edict in evaluating how the terrible carnage of the Syrian War just might be brought to an end in the relatively near term.
For there can be no doubt the Russian intervention turned the tide in what until then had been the topsy-turvy fortunes of all sides in the conflict. Flowing on from this, four stark lessons stand out as inconvenient truths that have to be grasped if the Syrian charnel house is to cease operating.
First, Russia cares far more about the strategic outcome in Syria than the United States ever will. While there is no doubt President Putin actually knows what he is doing in terms of foreign affairs (a real rarity), both his critics and detractors somehow miss the point that the Kremlin is merely playing a bad hand well. Before the Arab League suspended Syria in 2011, of its 22 members 21 were American allies; Syria amounts to the only Arab ally Russia has. The Kremlin is not about to become the dominant power in the Middle East, given this geopolitical reality. What Putin is trying to do is merely prop up the Assad regime in the strategically important eastern portion of the country, secure his one ally (with the Kremlin likely agnostic about Assad’s long-term personal survival), and make sure Russia’s only Middle Eastern bases--the air base in Latakia and the naval base in Tartus—are safeguarded.
It is precisely because Syria represents Russia’s only toe-hold in the Middle East that it is quite prepared to expend blood and treasure to prop up its sole ally. On the other hand, a preoccupied America, both wary of another Iraq and increasingly fixated on Asia, sees this as a conflict to avoid wading into much further. It is hard to see even the far more aggressive Hillary Clinton really undoing this primary US strategic calculation. So ironically, it is Russia’s relative weakness and America’s relative indifference—neither likely to change—that explains both the Kremlin’s aggressive policy in Syria, as well as America’s relative indifference.
Second, and flowing on from point one, Assad is likely to stay on, at least for the time being. President Assad himself has become a totemic symbol to both sides in the Syrian civil war, the bloodstained tyrant for the rebels and the emblem of stability for his Iranian and Russian backers. As the Russians and Iranians are ‘winning’ the war (to use the term very loosely), if there is to be a peace in the near term Assad and his regime will stay in place, at least in the eastern portion of the country. A preoccupied America, both wary of another Iraq and increasingly fixated on Asia, sees this as a conflict to avoid wading into much further. In the longer term, his political survival may well be in doubt. For what the Russians and the Iranians desire above all else is stability in the Syria. It is certain that they well remember that it was Assad himself who lost control of the country in the post-Arab Spring protests that ignited the war; he may not be such a great long-term bet to reassert control. Another, more decisive, member of the regime’s security elite would certainly suit Assad’s clients just as well. But for the moment, given his totemic importance and barring assassination, Assad is probably secure.
Third, the new Syria will under no conditions look like the old unitary Baathist state that it used to be. The only two real world political options for Syria going forward is it becoming (as it is now) a shattered polity, where de facto it is split into many factions, with Assad controlling the east, the Kurds dominating the Turkish border, and ISIS retaining its terrible sway in the eastern and central portions of the country. A peace deal that just enabled the fiction of Syria remaining a unitary, sovereign state—while the facts on the ground, as in Iraq, dictate otherwise—is the most likely outcome.
Confederal settlement?
Ironically, the only other better outcome for Syria as a whole is to consciously recognize and embrace the forces that split it asunder. Given the mindless and counterproductive centralizing instincts of the Assad regime, it will up to the Russian and the Iranians to bully through such a confederal settlement, where vast swathes of power are devolved to the various regional powers (excepting ISIS) in country, in exchange for their grudging residual (and largely nominal) loyalty to the centre in Damascus.
This outcome would actually mirror the present political facts on the ground, and would stand the best chance of producing the stability that is necessary for the rest of Syria to finally concentrate on eradiating ISIS. However, such an optimal outcome is a long-shot at best, but one that should be striven for.
Fourth, “winning” the Syrian war could well amount to a poisoned chalice. If a settlement is reached which enshrines Russian and Iranian interests, the irony is that then they will have to rebuild the failed state, almost from scratch.
This would be a daunting task for a $15 trillion economy like the United States. For a Russia whose economy contracted at almost -4 percent of GDP last year, utterly tied to the plummeting global oil price, it amounts to another onerous expense at the least opportune moment.
Likewise, an Iran just emerging from crippling sanctions understandably wishes to focus on refitting its own economy for greater involvement with the outside world. Running the world’s largest reclamation project is probably not what the Rouhani government had in mind when it came to power promising to fix Iran’s moribund economy. So as always in the Middle East, the wise adage ‘be careful what you wish for’ holds. These four unpalatable realities hold the key to what happens next in Syria. All the world can do is hope that statesmen on all sides follow the realist adage and accept them, making the world better after seeing how it is constructed, warts and all.

Why it is time for the Arab world to invest in happiness
Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can get you pretty close – at least that’s what the United Nations World Happiness Report reveals. The report has been released to mark International Day of Happiness shows that the UAE to be the happiest country in the Arab world. While the Gulf member states fall shortly behind, the rest of the Arab states rank well below 50th in the world. The lowest ranking Arab state being war-torn Syria, at number 156 or 157 countries surveyed. Despite a number of countries in the region enjoying a GPD per capita that is greater than the global average, when ranked by region, the Middle East and North African region is the least happy in the world. This goes to show that economic indicators are not strictly representative of the overall happiness of a nation. A happier population does not just impact the mental health of an individual, rather the economic and social health of entire nations. Perhaps most importantly, happier countries tend to have a lower crime rate, as discovered in a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report earlier last year. Happiness is one of the many keys to national security. For a region like the Middle East, which is battling turmoil, now is a better time than any to invest in the happiness.
Path to happiness
There is no universally applicable definition for happiness. Some may consider financial freedom to be key to happiness while others see personal freedom. While these are some of the metrics that were taken into consideration in developing the report, the impact of inequality on the overall happiness of a nation is clear. Countries where there is widespread inequality and high levels of corruption score considerably lower than their equal counterparts. Despite the clearly direct link between inequality and happiness, it is shocking that over the period of 2005-2015, the MENA region saw the sharpest rise in inequality. Of all the factors that impact happiness, including life expectancy and income, inequality is the one factor which governments and society can do the most to impact and see results almost instantly. In the region, there is undoubtedly a major divide between citizens and expatriates, even if the families of expatriates have lived in the same country for decades. The report highlights that if the research was to consider the expatriates alone in the UAE, rather than the expatriates and the citizens, the relative global happiness ranking would go down to 31st. Comparatively, if the Emirati citizens were considered independent of the expatriates, the country would rank 15th in the world. The difference these two groups of individuals face is how much support is offered by the government, and in which parts of their lives. Despite the clearly direct link between inequality and happiness, it is shocking that over the period of 2005-2015, the MENA region saw the sharpest rise in inequality . Significant changes must be taken to combat inequality; this begins with a blurring of the lines between expatriates and citizens. Much of the glamour enjoyed by local citizens is related to government subsidies. These subsidies cover everything from tertiary education at international universities through a scholarship system, to access to job opportunities through “naturalization” processes, whereby companies are required to hire a specific percentage of local citizens each year.
While it is understandable that a wealthy country would want to boost the happiness of its citizens, it must not forget the well being of the entire population. After all, both expatriates and citizens contribute to the economic mobilization and growth of countries.
If the governments in the region were to shift the spending from subsidizing individuals to subsidizing specific industries, such as education, health care, and even industries with a fast-growing job market demand, there is a chance for a happier population. In turn, this leads to a more productive workforce and therefore greater economic growth as everyone is a winner when people are happier. The UAE has appointed its first minister of state for happiness. While this is an excellent move in the right direction, one can only hope that other countries in the region realize the advantages of a happier nation and follow suit.

Labor of love in the villages of Laos
Ehtesham Shahid/Al Arabiya/March 19/16
If looks are anything to go by, David Jonsson can be easily mistaken as a business executive, a budding architect or even a tennis player with a booming serve. However, it is difficult to imagine the 29-year-old Swede as a hands-on social entrepreneur specializing in construction of eco-friendly bungalows to help villagers in faraway lands. He has been doing just that, with local and outside support, with the sole objective of generating sustained income for the poor. David routinely cobbles up a rag-tag group of college-going volunteers and travels to difficult terrains of Laos, a Southeast Asian country otherwise known for its hill tribe settlements and Buddhist monasteries. He battles through local bureaucracy to get mandatory permissions (a total of eight approvals) and then houses his volunteers among the local communities (by paying a fee for food and bed space).Despite early challenges, David is now accustomed to the entire lifecycle of the project. His labor of love, the Eco-Bungalows, are each built at an estimated cost of around $25,000. The building blocks are made of a material interestingly called adobe, which are mud-based sun-dried bricks. These are prepared by the volunteers. The thatched roof and other construction material are also sourced locally. Once ready, these unique dwellings nestled in the mountains become models of development connecting one hill tribe to another. Social entrepreneurs like David make significant difference to the lives of a few by adopting a simple approach but displaying immense resourcefulness. Anyone with the intention to help the poor must learn from him. David took to humanitarian initiatives at the tender age of 7 under the wings of his father, a specialist in forest management. Even on the family dinner table, the two would routinely discuss development projects. Contrary to his father’s big project orientation, David somehow got fixated with the idea of small initiatives that could help the poor earn regular income. After years of toiling in the field alongside his father, David eventually zeroed in on this idea. Prior to that he also traveled to the US to study social entrepreneurship as such a course wasn’t on offer in Sweden. Around this time, his organization, World Volunteer, was also taking shape albeit as a side project. David was inspired by people like Mohammad Yunus who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and made social business popular. Finally, in the year 2011, David was ready to embark on his journey. That is when Laos beckoned.
Maintaining the ecosystem
David observed that Laos’s limited economic progress wasn’t benefitting the poor, especially its ethnic minorities living in remote areas. The education levels were low and their agricultural produce didn’t generate much income. He reached a village 45 minutes away from Luang Prabang, a UNESCO heritage town. The place had very basic infrastructure, sporadic telecom coverage and very few cash crops. This proved to be the perfect setting for David’s dream to take shape. Since then, the project has gone from strength to strength. “The idea is to ensure that tourism benefits the poorest of the poor. We didn’t want to revolutionize the place, get busloads of people and destroy the ecosystem,” says David. The picturesque cottage that emerges following strenuous efforts of volunteers can fetch up to $40 per night. Apparently tourists from different parts of the world are overeager to stay in these units to enjoy the serene surroundings. The money earned by villagers in the process goes into local social welfare fund. David’s exploits are inspiring and relevant for various reasons. He thinks big but takes small steps to achieve something tangible. He goes around the world collecting funds but invests the group’s time and resources on the basic needs of people he has nothing in common with. David defies conventional wisdom by choosing something he feels is locally relevant instead of getting into areas where global NGOs already have sizeable presence. Social entrepreneurs like David make significant difference to the lives of a few by adopting a simple approach but displaying immense resourcefulness. Anyone with the intention to help the poor must learn from him.

Iran/Maryam Rajavi: Nowrouz celebrates the certainty of the coming of spring, liberty and joy
NCRI /Saturday, 19 March 2016
Maryam Rajavi's message on the occasion of the Iranian New Year
Fellow compatriots,Honorable mothers and fathers, My dear sisters and brothers, Passionate and energetic youths of Iran who want everything new, Valiant women and men in political prisons who embrace Nowrouz even in captivity, Champions of freedom in Camp Liberty who are the messengers of spring and Nowrouz for Iran, Fellow exiled Iranians all across the world, who take your beautiful homeland, Iran, into your homes and to your families with Nowrouz and by setting up the Haft-Seen arrangement, Happy New Year!
I congratulate you on the advent of spring and the great feast of Nowrouz. May the jubilance and prosperity of Nowrouz embrace all the cities and villages across our country and all the moments of your days and lives! May it overthrow the turbaned ruling beasts! As Zoroaster said: May bad manners fail, May good manners succeed, May lies fail and be conquered by truth. My dear countrymen and women, Although our new day and happiness have been stolen, but they are your rights. Freedom, well-being and security are your rights. Human rights, free elections, separation of religion and state are your rights.
Striving for a just life, a country without executions and torture, and rising up for bringing down the religious tyranny are your rights. These rights must be restituted and the usurpers and oppressors overthrown. On this path, all of us share the same spirit and are parts of the same body. As Massoud Rajavi says, "Anyone who wishes to see the religious tyranny overthrown and anyone who desires freedom and popular sovereignty in a republic and the people's vote, is with us and we are with him."Hail to your steadfastness and fortitude that ruined and closed down the sites of the mullahs' nuclear weapons project last year.
Now is the turn to destroy the bases of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, their unjust courts and their torture chambers. Khamenei wished to bring out his regime from the pit of the nuclear retreat but he ended up pushing the entire regime down the well of its sham elections.
He wanted to find a breathing space for the regime in Yemen and Syria. But the Iranian regime was defeated in Yemen and suffered the loss of its most important commanders in Syria. The regime became so weak that the mullahs appealed for Russia's interference. Russia's intervention, however, did not last long despite massive bombardments and massacres, and the Iranian regime has now lost its backing. And finally, the mullahs sought to annihilate pioneers of the Iranian nation's Resistance movement by launching rocket attacks on Camp Liberty and massacring members of the PMOI;However, the people of Iran embraced the PMOI more than ever before with great love. Let us remember Nayyereh Rabii and Hossein Abrishamchi and 22 other heroes who sacrificed their lives for Iran's spring of freedom. For the people of Iran, Nowrouz celebrates the certainty of the coming of spring, liberty and joy. Every Nowrouz, Iranians celebrate an auspicious destiny that they believe will definitely come. To realize that day, we must start our preparations today:
The mullahs' mission is killing hope. But we must revive hope by selfless sacrifice, love, and trusting our fellow countrymen. The mullahs seek to eliminate national solidarity. So, all nationals of Iran must reinforce their bonds of friendship more than ever. Our Iran is an amazingly beautiful garden with freedom and popular sovereignty. Baluchies and Kurds, Arabs and Lors, Bakhtiaries and Turkomans, Azeries and followers of various ethnic groups and faiths are the colorful, lovely flowers of Iran's garden. And the day when Iran becomes the garden of freedom and justice is definitely on the way. To workers, teachers, and nurses and to you, the freedom-loving women, mothers and fathers who have risen up to protest in front of Evin Prison, I say that it is you who will bring Nowrouz to our land. You, who resist in prisons. Prisoners who held the Feast of Fire in Gohardasht Prison with ever-louder chants of: "Set fire to and burn the principle of Velayat-e Faqih."You who help the poor and promote peace, and spread purity, trust, and friendship. Yes, you are the ones who will bring Nowrouz. The spring of freedom will be realized by your determination. Wish you a hundred years better than these years. Congratulations to all of you, on the auspicious spring, victorious Nowrouz, and beginning of the new Iranian year 1395!
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/president-elect/20028-maryam-rajavi-nowrouz-celebrates-the-certainty-of-the-coming-of-spring-liberty-and-joy

Iran/Holding Fire Festival throughout Iran symbolizes rejection of Iranian regime in its entirety
NCRI /Saturday, 19 March 2016
Slogan of “death to Khamenei, death to principle of velayat-e faqih”; setting pictures of regime’s leaders ablaze
Fire Festival held in Gohardasht prison of Karaj with slogan of “set fire to principle of velayat”
On Tuesday, March 15, Iranian people, especially the youth, widely held the national festivity of Fire Festival in various districts of Tehran and in other cities face to face with the ominous clerical regime. The Fire Festival was held despite the fact that officials from both factions of the ruling clique strongly warned people through all means of communication not to hold this ceremony and made every attempt to turn this festivity that has become a symbol of protest against the medieval rule of mullahs into an apolitical ceremony. On Tuesday morning, in an absurd fatwa regarding the Fire Festival, Khamenei stated: “Fire Festival has no basis in the Sharia and is best avoided.”Mullah Nasser Makarem Shirazi from Khamenei's faction similarly said that “ignorant people have brought superstitious rituals such as the Fire Festival into their lives, but it should be avoided. People who throw noisy firecrackers to the streets should know that they will be held answerable on the Day of Judgment”. State Security Forces (SSF) commanders in various cities also resorted to threatening people. Issa Daraei, SSF commander of Khuzestan said: “To bring security to the last Wednesday [Tuesday] of the year, the provincial security forces are on full alert.” He acknowledged that on the election day, 25000 security forces and revolutionary guards had been deployed to provide ‘security’ to the province.
Suppressive agencies not only threatened to detain ‘unruly’ people for the duration of the Persian New Year holidays, but threatened dealers of firecrackers with prison terms of 2 to 5 years. The suppressive forces had been heavily deployed in busy squares and streets in Tehran. The Iranian regime had completely shut down public transportation in Tehran and removed most of the trash bins from the streets fearing that the youth may set them on fire. However, despite the threats and fearful statements by regime’s leaders, people in various cities throughout the country held the Fire Festival, including in Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, Yazd, Fariman, Karaj, Qazvin, Zanjan, Tabriz, Ardebil, Urmia, Ahvaz, Sousangerd, Bandar Abbas, Boushehr, Gachsaran, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Sardasht, Oshnaviyeh, Javanroud, Semnan, Shahroud, Mashhad, Nayshabour, Bojnourd, Kerman, Shahr Babak, Gonbad Kavous, Sari, Noshahr, Laheijan, Rasht, Gaemshahr, Som’esara, Bandar Anzali, Golestan, Hamedan, Behbahan, Boroujerd, Khorramabad, Kashmar and Parand county. Political prisoners at Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) prison in city of Karaj who were stopped by prison henchmen from holding this ceremony outdoors, held this national ceremony with limited resources albeit the watchful eyes of suppressive elements in this prison. Along with the people throughout Iran they chanted “set fire to the ward and to handcuff”, “set fire to tyranny”, “set fire to the impious regime”, “set fire more than before”, “set fire to the principle of velayat” while jumping over a bonfire. Using loudspeakers in chanting the slogans; writing slogans on the walls or putting up flyers; tearing up or setting pictures of Khomeini, Khamenei, Rouhani and Rafsanjani on fire in various districts of Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Qaemshahr, Kerman, Sari, Bandar Anzali, Golestan and Neyshabour was another aspect of expressing the loath of the youth for the regime of velayat-e faqih in its entirety. In Tehran, the courageous youth wrote “Death to the principle of velayat-e faqih” over Khomeini’s picture at Vali Asr Square to welcome the Fire Festival and there was a clash between the people and the anti-riot forces there where the youth set one garbage bin on fire. Special Guard forces were deployed in various districts of the city, including Rezaiz (Haft-e Tir) Square, Vanak and Tajrish, and prevented the commute of the people.
A group of the youth gathered in Mellat Park and chanted anti-government slogans. As soon as they began their slogans, units of Special Forces were dispatched to the place. At Vanak Square, plainclothes agents fired shots at people who were resisting them. In Tajrish district, as well as in Nazi Abad, a group of people jumped over the bonfires while chanting “death to Khamenei”, “death to the principle of velayat-e faqih” and “death to Rouhani”.Pictures of Khomeini, the founder of the velayat-e faqih system, and Khamenei, the leader of this oppressive regime, were set ablaze at Milad Tower. Similarly, in sections of the ‘Falakeh Awal’ of Tehranpars, the courageous youth set pictures of Khamenei and Rouhani on fire to symbolize discarding the whole of the religious fascist regime ruling Iran. In Roudaki Street of Tehran, people resisted security forces that attempted to prevent them from holding the Fire Festival and forced them to retreat. At 8 pm, at Qiam Square, passionate youth clashed with the anti-riot units that had hurled tear gas at them. At Fallah Street, the youth held the ceremony while clashing with the suppressive forces. At Karoun township people jumped over the bonfires while chanting anti-regime slogans.
In city of Karaj courageous youth set a two meters long picture of Khamenei on fire. In this large picture Khamenei held a paper which read: “I am the murderer of the people” They also sent a balloon into the air written on it “Long live freedom”.The people and the youth in Tabriz put up placards which read “death to the principle of velayat-e faqih” and “Year 95 [Persian New Year of 1395] is the year of overthrow of regime” on the walls of the city to commemorate the Fire Festival. In city of Qazvin, the youth threw firecrackers at masses of regime’s mercenaries that had been deployed in the streets to terrorize them. In the city of Yazd, the youth set the picture of Khamenei, leader of the velayat-e faqih regime on fire. In Bandar Anzali, balloons with the slogans of “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to Khomeini” written on them were sent up the sky of this city. Various sections of city of Ahvaz, including Kian Pars; various districts of city of Sanandaj, including Salavat Abad; Qalatouk forest park of Ashnavia; the main street of Javanroud; Zafar and Abadani Maskan townships in Kermanshah; the city center, Kouh Namaki and Quran Gate of Shiraz; Kosar Square and 1st square of Haft Bagh Street of Kerman; Takhti Street in Boroujerd; and Parand township in Alborz province where other places where despite unprecedented restrictions and closure of streets and deployment of the suppressive security forces and plainclothes agents at intersections and squares, people held the Fire Festival. Elements of regime’s suppressive forces that were unsuccessful at stopping people from holding this national ceremony arrested a large number of the youth including at Sanat Square, Narmak, Nezamabad and Gorgan Street of Tehran, as well as in Kermanshah and Urmia.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/iran-protests/20027-holding-fire-festival-throughout-iran-symbolizes-rejection-of-iranian-regime-in-its-entirety