LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

May 05/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may05.16.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006

Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

Bible Quotations For Today

Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11/32-44:"When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’"

The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Letter to the Philippians 04/01-07:"Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Pope Francis's Tweet For Today
May the challenges in the ecumenical journey encourage us to know each other better, pray together and unite in works of charity.
عسى التحديات في الرحلة الكونية تشجعنا على معرفة بعضنا البعض أفضل حتى نصلي ونتوحد في الأعمال الخيرية

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 05/16

Hizbollah's hand keeps the status quo in Lebanon/Michael Young/The National/May 04/16
ISIS on the move in Lebanon/Nicholas Blanford/Now Lebanon/May 04/16
The Great Western Retreat/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/May 04/16
Erdogan suggests name change for Arab League/Semih Idiz/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
Will European pressure push Netanyahu on right track/Akiva Eldar/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
Syrian students struggle in Egypt's schools/Nahla ElNemr/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
Cairo marks World Press Freedom Day with raid on journalists' syndicate/Ayah Aman/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
The regional dimensions of destroying Aleppo/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
The bitter memories of war/Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Why the Syria ceasefire will not hold/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Is this Iraq’s last and best chance to reform itself/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Tiran, Sanafir, Syria, Yemen and Vision 2030/Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Special Envoys and Crises/Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Al Awsat/May 04/16
Suddenly Russia consents to consider Assad’s ouster/DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 04/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 05/16

Hizbollah's hand keeps the status quo in Lebanon

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William D. Beydler arrives in Beirut
Rahi: Nation in dire need of saviours who function away from personal interests
IAEA official briefs Salam on comprehensive plan to boost nuclear security in Lebanon
UN envoy: problem in Lebanon is the delay in electing president
Mashnouq Deems Municipal Polls 'Most Important in Decades'
Mayoral and Municipal Lists in Zahle Win Elections Uncontested
Report: FPM Might not Withdraw from Beirut Municipal List
Maronite Bishops Urge Election of President who Will 'Protect Lebanon's Identity'
Report: Patriarch Rahi Pays Nasrallah a Visit
Report: No Controversial Files on Wednesday’s Cabinet Agenda
German Bank in Spotlight over Panama Papers with Links to Hizbullah
Mokbel after visiting Audi: Army doing critical duties nowadays
Wanted shot while attempting to flee army patrol
Zaiter, Saheli, and other families announce 'Development and Loyalty' list in Al Qasr
Al Kwakh Municipality wins uncontested
Efforts underway to reach agreement in Jounieh municipal polls
One killed in Adloun as car hits his motorcycle
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 05/16

Ted Cruz Exits 2016 Race, Leaves Himself a Path Onward
Iranian Commander Warns to Close Strait of Hormuz to U.S.
Iran regime hangs another 5 prisoners
U.S. Congressmen: Boeing deal with Iran regime would turn airplanes into ‘warplanes’
ISIS militants kill US Navy SEAL in northern Iraq
UN Security Council to meet on Aleppo crisis
Kerry Warns Assad as Truce Talks Shift to Berlin
EU Backs Turkey Visa-Free Travel, Fines for Refusing Refugees
Strikes near Syria capital as ‘fighting freeze’ ends
Turbulent Etihad Airways flight injures 31
EU executive to propose reforming asylum system
Belgian court jails extremist recruiters for Syria
Albania jails nine men for recruiting extremists
Merkel lends backing to halt rise of France’s far-right
UN needs $80 million for schools for Palestinian refugees
Yemen warring foes resume face-to-face talks
UN to start inspecting shipments to Yemen
Memos from Egypt’s Interior Ministry leaked

Links From Jihad Watch Site for May 05/16
Bosch Fawstin’s winning Muhammad cartoon removed by eBay on ‘technicality’.
California Muslimas sue cafe for discrimination; cafe countersues.
Death threats for “teaching my kid about football and not teaching him about the Quran”
Video: The United West: Texas Jihad — ‘Snap Out of It, America’.
Egypt: Christian official takes child to Muslim grandfather, orders her to “remove the cross”.
This project of shielding Muslims from criticism is misguided in the extreme.
Raymond Ibrahim: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February 2016.
Tunisian Imam: Homosexuals should be stoned to death.
Video: Robert Spencer on the Qur’an’s violent verses.
Hugh Fitzgerald: John Shattuck and America’s “Duty” to Solve Europe’s Refugee Crisis.

Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 05/16

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William D. Beydler arrives in Beirut
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William D. Beydler has arrived in Beirut within the frame of an official visit to Lebanon, NNA field reporter said on Wednesday evening.

Rahi: Nation in dire need of saviours who function away from personal interests
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi, said on Wednesday that Lebanon was in a pressing need of saviours who are willing to jettison their petty personal interests and to demonstrate full devotion in the service of the nation's welfare. The Patriarch's words came during a graduation ceremony at Wardieh - Montazah High school in Beit Merry. "History has taught us that nations are built by the efforts and sacrifices of its sons and daughters, not by means of negligence and dependence on others," Rahi said. The Maronite Patriarch also regretted the growing phenomena of animosity, envy, grudge, and gossip among people. He deplored seeing people taking advantage of their jobs and giving in to greed, bribery, and negligence, namely those "working in politics and neglecting public interests, and those of the state and constitutional institutions."

IAEA official briefs Salam on comprehensive plan to boost nuclear security in Lebanon
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, received on Wednesday International Atomic Energy Agency Administrative Director, Khammar Mrabit, who briefed the premiere on a comprehensive plan to bolster nuclear security in Lebanon. In the wake of the meeting, Mrabit said that his gathering with Salam had been an opportunity to brief the latter on the IAEA's accomplishments in cooperation with the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission. "I have discussed with the Prime Minister a comprehensive plan to boost nuclear security in Lebanon. This plan was crafted in cooperation with Lebanese security apparatuses and concerned ministries back in 2008," the IAEA official said. He also commended Lebanon's active role within the IAEA, and relayed the IAEA atomic security's support for all the joint efforts being exerted within this framework.

UN envoy: problem in Lebanon is the delay in electing president
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag, indicated on Wednesday that the current problem in the country was the delay in electing a president of the republic. "We support the efforts and dialogues currently undertaken to reach an immediate solution to the presidential issue," the UN envoy said during a meeting with Head of Tripoli Commerce Chamber, Toufic Dabbousi. Kaag also highlighted the UN wish "to see a wide action to activate the vital utilities in Tripoli, in order to provide job opportunities to youth."

Mashnouq Deems Municipal Polls 'Most Important in Decades'
Naharnet/May 04/16/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq vowed on Wednesday that the municipal elections will be held as scheduled, saying that those who had been skeptical of them will be proven wrong. He said during a press conference: “The municipal polls are probably the most important elections to take place in Lebanon in decades given the trend of extending the terms of state institutions.” The elections will help restore order at the Lebanese system and its democracy, he noted. “These polls will bring hope that democracy is still alive and will reignite the people's eagerness to exercise their rights,” the minister remarked. In addition, the municipal polls will demonstrate that the Interior Ministry stands at an equal distance from all sides “even though I have known political affiliations.”Over 20,000 security forces and military members will oversee the safety of the electoral process throughout Lebanon. He stressed the importance of municipalities, saying that they have proven to be the “most effective” in dealing with the problems of the people. “We hope that these polls will pave the way for the presidential ones,” added Mashnouq. The four-stage municipal elections will start in Beirut and Bekaa-al-Hermel districts on May 8, while the elections in Mount Lebanon will be held on May 15.Elections in south Lebanon and Nabatieh are set for May 22 and north Lebanon and Akkar for May 29.

Mayoral and Municipal Lists in Zahle Win Elections Uncontested
Naharnet/May 04/16/As the municipal and mayoral elections loom with the first round to kick off in the capital Beirut and the Bekaa-al-Hermel districts, 20 towns in the eastern town of Zahle witnessed uncontested victory of several municipal and mayoral lists, the state-run National News Agency said on Wednesday. The towns that won the mayoral seats by acclamation are listed as follows: Hosh al-Ghanam, Chtaura, Wadi al-Arayish, al-Rasieh al-Fawqa, Raite, Deir al-Ghazal, Hay el-Sellom, Tal al-Akhdar, al-Ferzol al-Fawqa, Masa, Hay al-Sayydeh, al-Tawaiti, Wadi al-Delm and Anjar (Hay al-Waqf, Yoghon Olouk, Haji Jbeili, Betyas, Khodr Beik and Kabusieh). The towns that won the municipal race by acclamation are Masa and Raite. On Monday, the brother of Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush, Musa, announced his candidate list “Zahle Deserves” for the municipal elections that are set to be held on Sunday. Other groups have already announced their candidate lists including, Popular Bloc leader Myriam Skaff, the widow of late Zahle politician Elie Skaff. Her list was named “Zahle the Integrity.”Former Zahle Mayor Asaad Zogheib has also formed an alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party. The four-stage municipal elections will start in Beirut and Bekaa-al-Hermel districts on May 8, while the elections in Mount Lebanon will be held on May 15. Elections in south Lebanon and Nabatieh are set for May 22 and north Lebanon and Akkar for May 29.

Report: FPM Might not Withdraw from Beirut Municipal List
Naharnet/May 04/16/Efforts are ongoing to “deal” with the conditions set by the Free Patriotic Movement to get twelve mayoral posts instead of eight for its candidates in the municipal elections that are set to take place in Beirut on Sunday, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday. “Things will not reach a dead end and the FPM will not withdraw from the 'Beirutis List',” unnamed sources told the daily on condition of anonymity. Al-Mustaqbal Movement launched its candidates list named the "Beirutis List," which includes candidates from the March 14 alliance and the rival camp of March 8. The list enclosed the FPM, Lebanese Forces, Kataeb Party, Progressive Socialist Party and the Amal Movement. The FPM has threatened to withdraw from the electoral list following a dispute over the number of mayors. But reports have said that the announcement has been delayed until Wednesday when the FPM president and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil is expected to make a statement about the municipal polls during a press conference. The four-stage municipal elections will start in Beirut and Bekaa-al-Hermel districts on May 8, while the elections in Mount Lebanon will be held on May 15. Elections in south Lebanon and Nabatieh are set for May 22 and north Lebanon and Akkar for May 29. Two lists have emerged in Beirut to contend that of MP Saad Hariri, the Mustaqbal chief. A new secular group named "Members of Citizens" of which former Labor Minister Charbel Nahas is a member and the "Beirut Madinati" coalition.

Maronite Bishops Urge Election of President who Will 'Protect Lebanon's Identity'
Naharnet/May 04/16/The Maronite Bishops Council reiterated on Wednesday its call for the election of a president in Lebanon, while highlighting the recent visits of international figures to the country. It said after its monthly meeting: “We urge the election of a president, who will protect Lebanon's constitutional and state identity.” It hailed the visit last month of French President Francois Hollande to Lebanon, saying it “demonstrates the world's keenness on Lebanon and need to protect it against regional conflicts, starting with the election of a president.”On regional conflicts, the bishops underscored the importance of dialogue, “not force or weapons,” in resolving these disputes. International powers should end these conflicts and allow the displaced to return to their homeland, they demanded.
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the polls.

Report: Patriarch Rahi Pays Nasrallah a Visit
Naharnet/May 04/16/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has allegedly visited Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah a couple of weeks ago following a meeting he held with the French President Francois Hollande during his trip to Lebanon, al-Akhbar daily reported on Wednesday. The daily quoted March 14 sources as saying that the two officials discussed the vacuum at the presidential post in light of a recent proposal to shorten the presidential term from six to two years as a temporary solution.Media reports have spoken lately of proposals calling for shortening the term of a potential “transitional president.”They also said that Bkirki had proposed the idea which was refuted by Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar who said that attempts to drag the name of the Maronite patriarchate in this debate “are not innocent.”Sources at Bkirki did not make any comment about al-Rahi's visit, but sources from the March 8 alliance said that communications between Bkirki and the leadership of Hizbullah are based on what the Patriarch heard from French sides who emphasized that the key to the presidential election is in the hands of Nasrallah. Hizbullah sources said the reports are mainly rumors. In April, Hollande visited Lebanon where he met with senior officials and visited a Syrian refugee camp in the eastern Bekaa region. He held talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and other officials. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of president Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.

Report: No Controversial Files on Wednesday’s Cabinet Agenda
Naharnet/May 04/16/The cabinet is set to convene Wednesday afternoon to tackle several pending issues on its agenda but it does not include the controversial file of the State Security agency, An Nahar daily reported. The cabinet's agenda includes 65 items and 116 draft-laws. It will not discuss the file of the State Security agency until Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who was tasked with finding a solution to the leadership rift between the agency’s chief and his deputy, concludes his mission. Ministers will discuss the means to supply the encampments of the Syrian refugees with power after it was reported that it is costing Lebanon some $400 million dollars in electricity expenses, ministerial sources told the daily on condition of anonymity. Last week, the cabinet discussed a suggestion that was brought up by the Energy Ministry to install electricity meters in the Syrian encampments in a bid to trim down illegal connections on power cables, which is burdening the Lebanese treasury with significant costs. However the suggestion was not approved by Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi.

German Bank in Spotlight over Panama Papers with Links to Hizbullah
Naharnet/May 04/16/Berenberg Bank, one of the oldest and most venerable institutions in private banking in Germany, is finding its squeaky clean reputation coming under scrutiny in the wake of the Panama Papers global tax evasion scandal. Berenberg may not be a household name like some of its bigger peers, but the upscale Hamburg-based bank has cultivated an impeccable image, the epitome of courtesy and discretion for both customers and employees alike. And it had remained unscathed by the multiple scandals that have tarnished Germany's major lenders such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in recent years. But its pristine reputation has come under wider public scrutiny after finding itself explicitly named several times in the Panama Papers. "Germany's oldest bank is under pressure: dubious customers from all over the world and formerly good relations with Mossack Fonseca are tarnishing the image of the upscale Hanseatic bank," wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Panama Papers are a trove of about 11.5 million leaked documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that reveal the large-scale use by firms and wealthy individuals of offshore shell companies that enables the concealing of assets from tax authorities. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which coordinated the release of the tax evasion data, Berenberg's Luxembourg and Swiss subsidiaries were behind around a dozen shell companies and 76 offshore accounts domiciled in Panama. The ICIJ also accused Berenberg of doing business with dubious customers reportedly linked to Hizbullah in Libya or even Colombian drug traffickers. Berenberg has admitted "like many others" to managing offshore accounts for clients -- which in itself is not illegal -- and insisted it had done so "in line with the law". Shell companies are also not illegal in themselves, and the number was just a tiny fraction of the some 1,200 in all attributed to 28 German banks. Nevertheless, the suggestion that Berenberg might be involved in potentially dodgy dealings has raised eyebrows in the German press. Part of the bank's excellent reputation was that it always appeared to be different from other institutions, noted the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. But that was now being questioned. "One of the banks that stands out particularly is -- to my great surprise -- Berenberg," Georg Mascolo, one of the team of international journalists behind the revelations.
- Long and proud tradition -Berenberg was set up in 1590 by brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg, Dutch protestants who found exile in the northern port city of Hamburg.
Originally, they traded in cloth and only moved into banking later. And for much of its history, the bank remained a small regional financier for shippers and merchants.
Today the group employs 1,300 people in 19 branches in Hamburg, Frankfurt, London, Zurich and New York and manages around 40 billion euros ($46 billion) in assets. And it remains fiercely proud of its old name and tradition. "We're a small house and must rely on the high quality of our service," says Hans-Walter Peters, one of Berenberg's two personally liable partners. "In certain sectors, we compete directly with the major international banks," Peters told Agence France Presse. Peters was recently appointed head of the mighty BdB federation of private banks, a major distinction for a small player such as Berenberg. Hence, its possible involvement in the Panama Papers scandal "marks the worst possible start to his tenure," wrote the business daily Handelsblatt. While so many financial institutions were dealt body blows in the financial and banking crises, Berenberg appeared to go from strength to strength. It more than trebled its revenues in ten years and doubled its profits. - 'Old school' culture -But with the rapid expansion also came challenges."The workforce is growing massively and the corporate culture is changing. Holding on to its ethical values will be one of the main challenges facing the bank," said a financial sector expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. Last year when Berenberg celebrated its 425th anniversary in grand style, it helped both the Berlin-based start-up incubator Rocket Internet and the container shipping giant Hapag Lloyd go public. As well as being Germany's oldest bank, it also pays its staff the highest salaries in the sector. In 2015, the gross remuneration for an average employee was 140,000 euros, compared with 131,000 euros at the country's biggest lender Deutsche Bank. A former employee told AFP the bank was fiercely proud of its "old school" culture, its traditions and its hierarchy. And employees enjoyed the "prestige" of working for such a "noble institution".

Mokbel after visiting Audi: Army doing critical duties nowadays
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - National Defense Minister, Samir Mokbel, said that politicians should not criticize the Lebanese Army that is carrying out critical duties these days, with the national sacrifices the army is making in favor of the nation and people. Mokbel's stance came Wednesday from Greek Orthodox Bishopric in Ashrafieh as he visited Beirut Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Elias Audi to congratulate him on holy Easter occasion.

Wanted shot while attempting to flee army patrol
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Wanted A.A. got shot in Hermel today during a fire trade with an army Intelligence patrol as he attempted to escape, National News Agency correspondent reported on Wednesday.

Zaiter, Saheli, and other families announce 'Development and Loyalty' list in Al Qasr
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Public Works and Transportation Minister, Ghazi Zaiter, Loyalty to the Resistance Parliamentary bloc MP, Nawwar Saheli, Arab Baath Socialist Party Secretary General, Amine Shaaba, as well as the family members of Al-Qasr, Hermel sub-district, announced on Wednesday the "Development and Loyalty" list, in presence of candidates and locals. Saheli stepped up calls for voting in the interest of the above mentioned list because "it embodies the course of the resistance which defended the bordering village of Al-Qasr when it was under missile attack." Saheli also confirmed that voting for the "Development and Loyalty" list would help the formation of an active municipal council "which will be at the service of the people."In turn, Zaiter confirmed that his ministry and Baalbek-Hermel MPs would spare no effort to support municipal councils, especially that of Al-Qasr.

Al Kwakh Municipality wins uncontested
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Hermel Qaem Maqam, Talal Kataya, issued an official statement on Wednesday declaring Al-Kwakh Municipality's uncontested victory. This declaration came after the withdrawal of all the candidates with the exception of 12 candidates who comprise the required number for the municipal seat.

Efforts underway to reach agreement in Jounieh municipal polls
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Efforts to reach agreement over candidates to Jounieh municipal polls are still underway between Nehmat Efram's list and that backed by Mansour al-bone and Farid Haykal Khazen, National News Agency correspondent reported on Wednesday. If efforts fail, Efram will announce an independent list headed by his sibling Maritta Efram. On the other hand, Joan Hbeish's list backed by the Free Patriotic Movement is working away from the limelight.

One killed in Adloun as car hits his motorcycle
Wed 04 May 2016/NNA - Citizen Abbas Ali Hourani was killed today as a Range Rover hit him while riding his motorcycle at the bifurcation of Adloun village in the South, National News Agency correspondent reported on Wednesday.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 05/16

Ted Cruz Exits 2016 Race, Leaves Himself a Path Onward
Asharq Al-Awsat English/May 04/16
U.S. Republican Ted Cruz ended his bid for presidential campaign Tuesday, paving the way to a smoother march to the Republican nomination for Donald Trump.Cruz, who still holds his U.S. Senate seat from Texas for another two years before facing re-election in 2018, told supporters in Indiana that his campaign was put off but that his role in the future of the party was not over.“I am not suspending our fight for liberty,” Cruz said. Cruz was joined on stage with his parents, as well as by Fiorina and his wife, Heidi. The conservative tea party firebrand who cast himself as the only viable alternative to Trump announced his exit after a stinging defeat in Indiana’s Republican primary. “It appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz told supporters in Indianapolis. “Together, we left it all on the field of Indiana. We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path, and so with a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.” Cruz had already been mathematically eliminated from closing the delegate majority in the state-by-state primary process, but hoped to force a challenged national convention in July. That possibility ends Tuesday with the Texas senator’s announcement. Had he succeeded in his quest, Cruz would have been the first U.S. president of Hispanic descent, being the son of a Cuban immigrant. Nonetheless, he often talked down his heritage on the campaign trail, instead, pushing for the need for tougher immigration laws, for a border wall along the border with Mexico, protecting gun rights, repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law and instituting a flat tax. Cruz gained prominence in conservative circles as the Texas solicitor general, arguing cases on religious liberty and states’ rights. After he was elected to the Senate in 2012, he alienated colleagues but drew national attention for his role in the 2013 government shutdown. Cruz argued he was the only true conservative in the race, building on his reputation in the Senate where he clashed both with Democrats and members of his own party over his ideological stubbornness. Cruz railed against what he called the “Washington cartel,” trying to appeal to an electorate that is craving political outsiders. But he ultimately couldn’t overcome the anti-establishment appeal of Trump among white, working class voters who were drawn to the billionaire’s outlandish approach to politics. Cruz’s campaign placed its hopes on a data-driven effort to turn out conservative evangelical Christians who had opted out of recent presidential elections. Increasingly, he would modify his travel schedule to go where data showed there might be pockets of untapped supporters. With the scale tipping increasingly in Trump’s favor, he announced an extraordinary pact in April with his other rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in which the two would divide their time and resources based on states where they were each poised to do better.
Days later, he prematurely named former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate, hoping it would persuade some of the female voters turned off by Trump’s brash rhetoric. Trump’s appeal to evangelicals, though, and the New York billionaire’s popularity with the broader Republican electorate, proved too much. Cruz, 45, worked on George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign and went on to serve five years as the top attorney for the state of Texas, arguing nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He parleyed that experience into an underdog run for the U.S. Senate, defeating the state’s lieutenant governor in the primary before winning election in 2012. He first burst on the national political landscape in 2013 when he led a 21-hour quasi-filibuster against President Barack Obama’s health care law, reading his children Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” as a bedtime story via CSPAN during the marathon effort. Cruz later teamed with the most-conservative members of the House to trigger a government shutdown. It ultimately didn’t accomplish any major Republican goals, but raised Cruz’s national profile even more. Cruz built a coalition of like-minded Republicans in Congress, as well as former presidential rivals — Fiorina, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, ex-Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Lindsey Graham among them — but won only minimal support from his Senate colleagues. Cruz’s campaign slogan of “Trusted” was tarnished after he was forced to apologize to Ben Carson for falsely suggesting the night of the Iowa caucuses that the retired neurosurgeon was dropping out of the race. Cruz also abruptly fired his communications director a day before the Nevada caucuses for spreading a false story about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio disparaging the Bible. Trump nicknamed Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” and ridiculed him as “unstable,” ”crazy,” ”a maniac” and “sick.” Trump also questioned whether Cruz’s birth in Canada disqualified him to run for president, frequently threatening to sue him over the issue. He never followed through, but several suits were filed, including in Cruz’s home state of Texas. At first, Cruz avoided attacking Trump, hoping that the former reality TV star’s supporters would flow to him if Trump flamed out. As Trump’s momentum grew with early primary victories, Cruz fought back and said Trump can’t be trusted because of his past support for Democrats, abortion rights and same-sex marriage. But it was too late.

Iranian Commander Warns to Close Strait of Hormuz to U.S.
Asharq Al-Awsat English/May 04/16/The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they “threaten” Tehran. “Americans should learn from recent historical truths,” Gen. Hossein Salami said likely referring to the January capture of 10 U.S. sailors who entered Iranian waters. The sailors were released less than a day later, though state TV aired footage of the sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads. “If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,” Salami said in comments carried on state television. But he did not elaborate on what he and other leaders would consider a threat. He added: “Americans cannot make safe any part of the world.” His comments follow a long history of both rhetoric and confrontation between the Islamic Republic and Washington over the narrow strait, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes. His remarks also follow those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Monday criticized U.S. activities in the Persian Gulf.

Iran regime hangs another 5 prisoners
Wednesday, 04 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI/The mullahs’ regime in Iran on Tuesday hanged five prisoners, including a man in public. Four death-row prisoners were hanged in Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran. They were identified as Ahmad al-Tafi, Abdolhamid Baqeri, Majid Imani, and Reza Hosseini. Another prisoner, identified only by his first name Avaz, was hanged in a public square in the port city of Nour, northern Iran, on Tuesday. The hangings bring to at least 62 the number of people executed in Iran since April 10. Three of those executed were women and one is believed to have been a juvenile offender. Commenting last week on the recent spike in the rate of executions in Iran, Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: “In the month of April, during and after visits to Iran by the Prime Minister of Italy and the EU foreign policy chief dozens of people have been executed in Iran.”“The increasing trend of executions indicates that the visits of senior European officials to Iran not only have failed to improve the human rights situation; rather, they have given a message of silence and inaction to the mullahs. This has emboldened the clerical regime in stepping up executions and suppressing the Iranian people. This is the regime that has been the record holder of executions per capita globally in 2015. This bitter reality is not an issue of pride for any of the guests of the religious fascism,” he added.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 13 that the increasing trend of executions “aimed at intensifying the climate of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval regime.”Ms. Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, was in Tehran on April 16 along with seven EU commissioners for discussions with the regime’s officials on trade and other areas of cooperation. Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.""Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said. There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people.”

U.S. Congressmen: Boeing deal with Iran regime would turn airplanes into ‘warplanes’
Wednesday, 04 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI - Any deal between Boeing and Iran's regime “would effectively subsidize the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism” and would turn American airplanes into Iranian “warplanes,” according to three members of the U.S. Congress in a strongly-worded letter sent to the aircraft giant Monday.The letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg implores the company to refrain from a reported deal with Tehran to supply planes and other services, according to FoxNews.com. Under the terms of the Iran nuclear deal, commercial aircraft can be sold to Iran's regime, a concession made “at the behest of Tehran,” the letter said. The mullahs' regime holds a majority ownership stake in the country’s national airline, Iran Air. “This is not about doing what is legal – it is about doing what is right,” the letter said. The authors, Illinois Republican members of Congress Peter Roskam, Bob Dold and Randy Hultgren, repeatedly cite the Iranian regime’s well-documented links to terror financing and allege that passenger air flights have played a particular role in Iran being able to supply deadly weapons – such as rockets or missiles – to notorious groups.
“We urge you not to be complicit in the likely conversion of Boeing aircraft to IRGC warplanes,” the letter said, using an acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Roskam, the Ways and Means Oversight Committee chairman in the House of Representatives, has been particularly vocal in his opposition to American companies conducting business with Iran's regime. Seeking to pressure Airbus into scuttling a $25 billion deal to sell 118 planes to Tehran, Roskam spoke with leading European media outlets last week to express why he believed the decision was unwise. Roskam on Friday introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense from awarding contracts to any entity that does business with the Iranian regime. While any future agreement would certainly be lucrative to Boeing – Roskam, Dold and Hultgren warn Boeing’s board, which meets this week in Chicago, that an Iranian deal is akin to supporting tyranny and terror. “The greatest beneficiaries of any potential aircraft sale to Iran would be the Islamic Republic’s despotic leaders,” the letter said.
 

ISIS militants kill US Navy SEAL in northern Iraq
Reuters Wednesday, 4 May 2016/ISIS militants killed a US Navy SEAL in northern Iraq on Tuesday after blasting through Kurdish defenses and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said. The elite serviceman was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a US-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to “degrade and destroy” ISIS and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict. “It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss,” US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters during a trip to Germany. A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the dead serviceman was a Navy SEAL. The SEALs are considered to be among the most able US special operations forces and capable of taking on dangerous missions. The serviceman’s identity and rank were not disclosed by the Pentagon. In this Nov. 6, 2002, photo, Charlie Keating IV, 16, poses for a photo in Phoenix for an upcoming series on the Discovery channel that he took part in. The governor of the US state of Arizona, Doug Ducey, identified the slain serviceman as Charlie Keating IV, and said Keating had attended high school in Phoenix. The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, in southern California, cited unnamed SEALs and their family members in reporting that Keating was the grandson of Charles Keating Jr., a banker who played a leading role in the US savings and loan scandal of the 1980s that embroiled five US senators.A senior official within the Kurdish peshmerga forces facing ISIS in northern Iraq said the man had been killed near the town of Tel Asqof, around 28 kilometers from the militant stronghold of Mosul. ISIS insurgents occupied the town at dawn on Tuesday but were driven out later in the day by the peshmerga. A US military official said the coalition had helped the peshmerga by conducting more than 20 air strikes with F-15 jets and drones.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Navy SEAL was killed “by direct fire” while on a mission to advise and assist local forces in Iraq.

UN Security Council to meet on Aleppo crisis
AFP, United Nations Wednesday, 4 May 2016/The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Syria’s frontline city of Aleppo, where fighting threatens to unravel international peace efforts. France and Britain called for the meeting as Russia said a new ceasefire in Aleppo could be announced within hours. French Ambassador Francois Delattre described Aleppo as the “martyred center of the resistance” to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and compared the city to besieged Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. “Aleppo is burning and it is crucial that we focus on this top priority issue,” said British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft. The 15-member council will hear a report from the UN’s top political affairs official Jeffrey Feltman on the situation in Aleppo, where fresh fighting including a rocket attack on a maternity hospital left 19 dead on Tuesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow that efforts were under way to agree on a freeze in fighting in Aleppo. “I am hoping that in the near future, maybe even in the next few hours, such a decision will be announced,” Lavrov said after meeting UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Moscow. A surge of violence that erupted on April 22 has left more than 270 people dead in the divided northern city and undermined efforts to revive peace negotiations. After a relative lull in clashes on Monday and early Tuesday, rebels in eastern Aleppo fired a barrage of at least 65 rockets into government-controlled neighborhoods, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. At least three women were killed when the rockets crashed into a maternity hospital, the agency and state television said, and another 11 killed in fire on other government-held neighborhoods.

Kerry Warns Assad as Truce Talks Shift to Berlin
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/May 04/16/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria's Bashar Assad of "repercussions" if his regime flouts a new truce under negotiation, as talks to halt the violence shifted to Berlin Wednesday. Russia has said a new ceasefire to halt fighting in Aleppo could be imminent, with Syria's divided northern city hit by a wave of violence that has killed more than 270 people since April 22. With the U.N. Security Council to meet on the crisis later Wednesday, diplomatic efforts to stem the violence shifted to Berlin, where German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to hold talks with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, Syria's main opposition leader Riad Hijab and France's top diplomat Jean-Marc Ayrault. And in the western German city of Stuttgart, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter was meeting representatives from 10 countries in the coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to discuss "accelerating" the campaign. Renewed fighting between regime and rebel forces has centered on Syria's second city Aleppo. Fierce clashes raged overnight on its outskirts after a major rebel offensive, after Kerry issued a stark warning to Assad if his government failed to abide by the new deal. "If Assad does not adhere to (the new ceasefire), there will clearly be repercussions and one of them may be the total destruction of the ceasefire and they go back to war," Kerry told reporters after returning from an earlier round of talks in Geneva. "I don't think that Russia wants that. I don't think Assad is going to benefit from that," he added. The Security Council meeting to discuss the bloodshed, which is threatening to derail international peace efforts to end the five-year war in Syria, was called for by France and Britain. "(Aleppo) is to Syria what Sarajevo was to Bosnia," said France's U.N. ambassador Francois Delattre.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late Tuesday he hoped to agree a freeze of fighting in Aleppo "in the near future, maybe even in the next few hours" after meeting de Mistura in Moscow. A February 27 truce between Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels had raised hopes for efforts to resolve the conflict, but it has come close to collapse due to the recent surge in violence. After a relative lull Monday and early Tuesday, rebels in eastern Aleppo fired at least 65 rockets into government-controlled neighborhoods, Syrian state news agency SANA said. The rockets killed 16 people and wounded 68, including at least three women at Al-Dabbeet maternity hospital, it reported. It was the sixth time a medical facility has been hit in 11 days in Aleppo, the International Committee for the Red Cross said, calling it "unacceptable."Rebel fighters initially advanced from the western suburbs of the city into government-held districts but were pushed back by Wednesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the fighting was "the most violent in Aleppo in over a year". The Britain-based monitor did not have an immediate count for combatants killed. The intense clashes lasted through the night, with heavy artillery shelling and air strikes heard throughout the battered metropolis, an AFP correspondent in the city said.
Washington and Moscow are working together to include Aleppo in a so-called "regime of silence" -- a freeze in fighting -- aimed at bolstering the broader truce. The city was initially excluded from a deal announced last week to "freeze" fighting along two major fronts in the northwest and in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. The pair have agreed to boost the number of Geneva-based truce monitors to track violations "24 hours a day, seven days a week," Kerry said on Monday. In a nod to Moscow's demands, Kerry said Washington would press moderate rebels to separate themselves from Al-Nusra Front jihadists in Aleppo. Russia and Assad's regime have cited the presence of Al-Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaida that was not party to the ceasefire, as justifying their offensive. "The problem is that not everyone has the same idea of a ceasefire," said a European diplomat ahead of the Berlin talks. "The regime and the Russians say that as soon as there is a bit of Al-Nusra, even if it's just two percent (of the fighters), everyone else becomes Al-Nusra too. That is not at all how we see it."

EU Backs Turkey Visa-Free Travel, Fines for Refusing Refugees
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/May 04/16/The EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks and unveiled an overhaul of its asylum system under which member states that refuse to take a quota of refugees will be fined. In its latest bid to tackle the biggest migration crisis since World War II, the European Commission proposed making countries pay a "solidarity contribution" of 250,000 ($290,000) euros per refugee they decline to take. Turkey has threatened to tear up a March agreement to take back migrants from Europe if the EU fails to keep its promise to allow Turkish citizens to travel without visas to the passport-free Schengen area by the end of June. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said visa-free travel could herald a "new page" in Ankara's relations with the bloc. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the EU's executive arm would recommend that, if Ankara meets the remaining criteria, the 28 member states and the European Parliament should approve the Turkish visa plan. "There is no free ride here, and we are clear about what remains to be done," Timmermans told reporters, in response to criticism from several EU states that the deal is too soft on Turkey's rights record. Turkey must complete five more benchmarks by the end of next month to complete the EU's list of 72 -- which include biometric passports and human rights issues -- despite making "impressive progress" in recent weeks, Timmermans added. Under the plan, Turkish citizens would be allowed to make 90-day visits to Europe's 26-country Schengen passport-free area for business or tourism without needing a visa. Britain and Ireland are not part of Schengen.
"The EU must stick to its promise," Cavusoglu said in televised comments on Wednesday ahead of the announcement in Brussels."Our citizens deserve visa-free travel."Also on Wednesday the Commission unveiled its long-awaited proposal for replacing its outdated asylum system with a mechanism for relocating refugees in a crisis. The so-called Dublin rules currently in force have been criticized as obsolete and unfair to countries like Greece, where most of the migrants entered the bloc last year. Under the Dublin rules, migrants seeking asylum must lodge their application in the country where they first arrived, and should be returned there if they try to move elsewhere in the bloc. Timmermans said Dublin was "simply was not designed for situations such as these" when the EU has been overwhelmed by more than 1.25 million refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since the start of 2015. He said countries that show they temporarily cannot take any asylum seekers under the mechanism should show "financial solidarity" with states that do take in refugees. The Commission set the figure at 250,000 euros. Since the EU-Turkey deal came into force on March 20, numbers of arrivals in Greece have dropped dramatically. Ankara has agreed to take back all migrants arriving in the Greek islands, on the condition that the EU resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey for every Syrian refugee that Turkey accepts from Greece.
The EU also agreed to speed up Turkey's long-stalled membership bid in addition to promising visa liberalisation. But many EU states still have concerns about the legality of the deal and the human rights situation in Turkey, where an increasing number of journalists and critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been prosecuted. The Commission further announced a six-month extension of border controls in the Schengen zone, which have been reintroduced in some places as a result of the migrant crisis and recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels. Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Sweden requested the extension, saying the border situation remains "extremely volatile". Since 2015 several countries in the Schengen zone have reintroduced border controls due to the migrant crisis -- effectively suspending its principle of border-free travel.EU rules say countries can reintroduce border controls for up to two years, in periods of up to six months at a time, in exceptional circumstances. The EU earlier this year published a "roadmap" for the restoration of the normal functioning of Schengen "by the end of the year".

Strikes near Syria capital as ‘fighting freeze’ ends
AFP Wednesday, 4 May 2016/At least 22 air strikes pounded a key rebel bastion east of the Syrian capital on Wednesday after a local freeze on fighting expired overnight, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the suspected regime raids hit Eastern Ghouta as clashes with rebels erupted. The fighting was centred on the town of Deir al-Assafir, where March air strikes by the regime killed 33 civilians, 12 of them children. There was no immediate word on any casualties from the renewed fighting Wednesday, the Observatory said. The municipal council in the flashpoint town of Douma confirmed that clashes and air strikes were rocking Eastern Ghouta, a belt of countryside and small towns east of the capital. Moscow and Washington reached a deal last week on a temporary “freeze” in fighting in Eastern Ghouta and in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia. The so-called “regime of silence” is meant to reinforce a broader truce brokered by the two world powers in February. The halt in fighting was initially set for 24 hours in Eastern Ghouta but was extended twice, according to Syria’s armed forces, and finally expired on Tuesday night. A military source in Damascus confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that it was not renewed a third time. The fresh fighting does not bode well for efforts to agree a “regime of silence” in the battleground second city of Aleppo, ravaged by nearly two weeks of surging violence. More than 270,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011.

Turbulent Etihad Airways flight injures 31
The Associated Press, Dubai Wednesday, 4 May 2016/The United Arab Emirates’ national airline says several passengers were injured when one of its flights encountered sudden turbulence as it prepared to land in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Etihad Airways said on Wednesday that flight EY474 from its hub in Abu Dhabi was hit by “severe and unexpected turbulence” about 45 minutes before landing at Soekarno Hatta International Airport. It says the plane landed safely but 31 passengers were injured, including nine who were taken to hospital for treatment. The airline did not provide details on the severity of the injuries.It says the turbulence was severe enough that it damaged cabin storage bins.

EU executive to propose reforming asylum system
Reuters Wednesday, 4 May 2016/The European Union’s executive will propose a reform of the bloc’s asylum rules on Wednesday, EU sources said, that reflects caution in the face of deep divisions among governments about how to handle the migration crisis.
The European Commission last month floated scrapping a rule in the so-called Dublin system that gives responsibility for handling asylum claims to the first EU state a person enters -- a rule that has placed heavy burdens on Greece and Italy. However, two sources said, it would now issue a legislative proposal retaining the “first country” principle while including a central scheme to spread claimants around Europe to give the frontline states the chance to relocate asylum seekers to other EU countries if arrivals on their borders are too high. An emergency relocation system set up last year after record numbers of refugees and migrants reached Greece was agreed in the face of fierce opposition from east Europeans. Slovakia and Hungary have challenged the legality of the measure and Hungary plans a referendum on any more quotas this autumn. Any proposal will need to win the backing of a majority of the 28 EU states as well as the European Parliament for it to be enacted and EU officials and diplomats do not expect agreement swiftly. An EU source said separately that the Commission would also propose a “financial sanction mechanism” for countries that refuse to take in claimants. “It should therefore go beyond symbolism but be understood as prohibitive pricing,” the source said. “If a member state does not show solidarity in taking in refugees, it has to compensate with financial solidarity.”Last year, a Commission suggestion that would have given countries an option to pay 0.002 percent of national income to help migrants instead of taking in asylum seekers was not endorsed by leaders. One east European diplomat in Brussels said a new proposal for financial penalties would also be unpopular. Germany - the EU’s biggest economy and the final destination for most of the more than a million migrants who arrived in the bloc last year - is keen to see a permanent mechanism to share out the load. Ex-communist states in central and eastern Europe say their homogeneous societies are ill equipped to take in large numbers of migrants, especially from the Middle East or Africa. Diplomats speculate that the division over migration between Eastern states and richer Western members which pay for the EU grants and subsidies they receive could affect negotiations on the bloc’s budget.Officials hope, however, that an EU agreement with Turkey last month that has seen a sharp drop in refugees arriving in Greece could ease internal tensions over the migration issue, which has fueled a rise in nationalist parties across Europe. Also on Wednesday, the Commission is set to propose easing visa requirements for Turks as part of the deal, though that also faces difficulties with governments and EU lawmakers who argue that Ankara has not met all the conditions, notably on improving its human rights record.

Belgian court jails extremist recruiters for Syria
AFP, Brussels Wednesday, 4 May 2016/A Brussels court on Tuesday handed jail terms of up to seven years to 26 members of a group that recruited fighters for Syria and had included one of the suicide bombers responsible for the March 22 attacks in the Belgian capital. The trial, which was held in February, concerned suspected extremists who left Belgium for Syria between 2012 and 2014. The accused were seen as participating in the activities of a terrorist group to varying degrees. They received prison sentences from eight months to seven years, some which were suspended, the Belga news agency reported. The prosecution had sought jail sentences up to 15 years for some of the accused. Convicted posthumously was Najim Laachraoui, one of the two suicide bombers who killed 16 people at Brussels airport on March 22, while another 16 perished in an attack the same day on the city’s metro. Laachraoui who had left for Syria in early 2013 to fight with the ISIS group was also suspected of being the bomb maker for the Paris attacks in November last year that left 130 dead.Four of the total 30 accused were released, including Mohamed Ben Ajiba, an imam in Brussels. At the opening of the trial on February 15, the defendant considered by prosecutors as the main recruiter of extremists in Belgium, Khalid Zerkani, had his case separated from the others. He is currently in custody and expected to appear in court on May 18.

Albania jails nine men for recruiting extremists
Reuters, Tirana, Albania Wednesday, 4 May 2016/An Albanian court sentenced nine defendants, including three Muslim clerics, to jail sentences of up to 18 years on Tuesday for recruiting people to fight in Syria’s civil war. The sentencing marked the end of a two-year trial that has underlined concerns about radicalization among Muslims in Albania and other Balkan countries and has been closely followed by Tirana’s NATO ally the United States. A small number of Albanians in the majority-Muslim ex-communist state have in recent years come under the influence of radical preachers, usually foreigners or Albanians who received their training abroad. The nine defendants refused to stand when Judge Liljana Baku read out their sentence, just as they have done throughout their trial, saying they recognized only the will of Allah. The three clerics, Bujar Hysa, Genci Balla and Gert Pashja, were found guilty of recruiting people for terrorist purposes, inciting hatred and making public calls for terrorist acts, and were sentenced respectively to 18, 17 and 17 years in a high-security jail. They had preached in mosques not controlled by the official Muslim Committee and are believed to have recruited most of the 100 or so Albanians estimated to have traveled to Syria, some with their families, to fight alongside militant groups. The other six defendants were found guilty of the same charges but sentenced to shorter terms in jail. Cries of “Allahu Akbar” rang out in the chamber when the judge read out the first sentence but quickly fell silent when she threatened to expel them from the courtroom. “You are prisoners, not them,” one man with a long red beard shouted at police and journalists in the courtroom. “These American dogs did it,” said defendant Bujar Hysa as he left the iron cage in the courtroom, looking towards a US Embassy official who has been attending the court hearings. About 60 percent of Albanians are Muslims and traditionally follow a tolerant version of the faith, co-existing peacefully with their Christian neighbors. The US Embassy in Tirana told its citizens that radical groups had threatened violence if the imams were found guilty. At some court sessions, Fadil Muslimani, a cook at the mosque who was among the defendants, said the group was loyal to ISIS and that they hoped extremists would triumph in Syria and around the world. “This (trial) is a crusade against Islam. Communism died, democracy will be gone and Islam will triumph,” Muslimani said at a December hearing. On Tuesday he was handed a 12-year jail sentence.

Merkel lends backing to halt rise of France’s far-right
AFP, Berlin Wednesday, 4 May 2016/German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she would do what she can to help curb the rise of France’s National Front (FN), as support surges for far-right parties across Europe. “I will make my contribution towards ensuring that other political forces are stronger than the National Front,” she told students attending the French high school in Berlin. Merkel, who rarely comments on neighboring France’s political scene, said that in Germany too, the rise of the far-right was a phenomenon that “we have to deal with.”“We see that there are political forces with very negative rhetoric on Europe,” she said, referring to the German Populist Party Alternative for Germany (AfD). “We have to ensure that Europe is a project that people understand,” she said, adding that a key message that has to hit home is that “it’s better with Europe than without Europe.” National Front leader Marine Le Pen swiftly released an outraged statement on Merkel’s “very serious” comments. She slammed the German leader’s intervention as “an outrageous and humiliating interference in our internal affairs.”Merkel’s promise to influence events also displayed “the submission of our country to Germany,” she added, referring mockingly to French President Francois Hollande as a “vice chancellor.”The French National front and the German AfD have differing economic views but are joined in their opposition to the European Union. Formed only three years ago on a eurosceptic platform, AfD is now Germany’s third strongest party, according to a recent opinion poll. The populist upstart outfit has shifted its rhetoric to one that rails against the influx of 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015, and last weekend adopted an anti-Islam platform. Like AfD, France’s National Front is anti-EU. Le Pen has overseen an unprecedented rise in her party’s fortunes and many pollsters predict the FN will make it to the second round of the French presidential election next year.

UN needs $80 million for schools for Palestinian refugees
The Associated Press, United Nations Wednesday, 4 May 2016/The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees expressed hope Tuesday that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will come up with $80 million to ensure that 500,000 boys and girls who are refugees can start the next school year on time in August. Last year, a $101 million shortfall in the budget of the agency, known as UNRWA, almost led to a delay in starting school. Pierre Krahenbuhl told a news conference Tuesday that the three Gulf countries came to the rescue last year and he hopes they will “renew the generosity this year.”“If we could have that, then we will be able to avoid another crisis this summer,” he said.

Yemen warring foes resume face-to-face talks
AFP, Kuwait Wednesday, 4 May 2016/UN-backed peace talks to end Yemen's civil war resumed on Wednesday after they were suspended by the Yemeni government for three days in protest at a Houthi assault on a military base near the capital Sanaa. UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed tweeted a picture of delegates representing the main warring sides sitting around a U-shaped table and said talks on Wednesday would focus on cementing the shakey ceasefire. The negotiations, which began on April 21, broke off on Sunday after the government delegation quit in protest at the apparent surrender of one of the few loyalist bases in the northern mountains to Iran-backed Shiite rebels. “Participants will meet... on Wednesday in a plenary session to follow up with the agreed agenda,” UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said. It will be only the second day of face-to-face talks in the hard-won negotiations to end a devastating conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year. The UN envoy said the two sides agreed that a monitoring committee supervising an April 11 ceasefire will launch a fact-finding mission into the rebels’ takeover of the al-Amaliqa base in Amran province, one of their strongholds. The committee will submit a report within 72 hours with practical recommendations that all sides pledge to carry out, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said. Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi, who heads the government delegation, has demanded a rebel pullout. The United Nations stressed the need to strengthen ceasefire monitoring committees on the ground, particularly in and around battleground third city Taez, where loyalist troops have been under siege for months, trapping tens of thousands of civilians. Despite a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the government launched in March last year, the militias and their allies still control the capital, as well as much of the northern and central mountains and Red Sea coast.

UN to start inspecting shipments to Yemen
Reuters, United Nations Wednesday, 4 May 2016/The United Nations will start inspecting shipments to militia-held ports in Yemen in a bid to boost commercial imports and enforce an arms embargo, the world body said on Tuesday, some eight months after announcing it would establish such a procedure. Yemen relies almost solely on imports, but a 14-month long conflict between Houthi militia and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition has slowed to a trickle commercial shipments to the impoverished country where 80 percent of people need humanitarian aid. The United Nations announced in September it would set up a verification and inspection mechanism. Then in October UN aid Chief Stephen O’Brien said the United Nations was still trying to raise some $8 million to fund the Djibouti-based operation. It began operations on Monday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the European Union, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States had provided financing. “It should provide fast and impartial clearance services for shipping companies transporting commercial imports and bilateral assistance to Yemeni ports outside of the authority of the Government of Yemen,” Dujarric said. The United Nations will ensure commercial shipments to milita-held ports are not carrying weapons in violation of a UN arms embargo. A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi militia and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country. A month later the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo targeting the Houthi militia and Saleh’s troops. More than 6,200 people have been killed in the conflict, half of them civilians. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in March that nearly half of Yemen’s 22 provinces are on the verge of famine. The Yemeni government suspended direct UN-brokered peace talks to end the conflict on Sunday after the Houthi movement and its armed allies seized a military base north of the capital Sanaa.Watch: Yemen’s UN envoy: Houthis continue the policy of starvation

Memos from Egypt’s Interior Ministry leaked
The Associated Press, Cairo Wednesday, 4 May 2016/Memos from Egypt’s Interior Ministry that were leaked to the media on Tuesday outline strategies for deflecting public outrage over recent arrests and suggest a gag order on the case of an Italian student abducted and killed in Cairo. Documents headlined as a normal news roundup were sent to reporters from the ministry’s official email account, but inside were memos apparently written for internal consumption. The memos recommend that the ministry not back down in its conflict with the journalist union over the recent arrest of two reporters from inside ts headquarters, and underline ways to improve the ministry’s image. One note suggested the prosecutor general impose a gag order on the investigation into the killing of Giulio Regeni, who was abducted in January and severely tortured before his body was found several days later on the outskirts of Cairo. The ministry has said security forces were not involved in the killing, which has strained ties between Egypt and Italy. Egypt’s journalist union has called for the dismissal of the interior minister and launched an open-ended sit-in at its headquarters in downtown Cairo over the two journalists’ arrests, describing them as “illegal” and “unprecedented.” Some 200 people gathered outside the Journalists’ Syndicate building on Tuesday, chanting slogans such as “journalists are not terrorists” - a reference to terrorism charges some media workers now face in Egypt. Around the same time, the prosecutor general’s office issued a gag order on the investigation of the two journalists, state news agency MENA reported. The order covers television, print, online and foreign media, saying that the charges were criminal in nature. Many newspapers splashed the sit-in, which began Monday, on their front page. State-run daily Al-Ahram, which is close to the presidency and normally a fervent government supporter, ran an editorial calling for Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar’s resignation and saying it was inevitable. One leaked memo described the situation as a “deliberate escalation” by certain union leaders who intended to exploit the move for internal political gain, adding that “a ferocious media campaign should be expected by all the press in solidarity with the union.” It also said that the ministry cannot back down from its position and should instead focus on communicating publicly that the journalist union was in the wrong because it had harbored men sought under an arrest warrant. “(The ministry) cannot retreat from this position now; a retreat would mean a mistake was made, and if there was a mistake who is responsible and who is to be held to account?” it added.
Leaks of documents and recorded phone calls are not uncommon in Egypt. In February last year, audio was leaked of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi allegedly poking fun at the immense oil wealth of Gulf countries that have aided Egypt, saying “money there is like rice.” But leaks from the Interior Ministry are rare. Syndicate members have been calling for the release of 29 journalists they say were detained in recent weeks. Hundreds of activists, journalists and others were arrested ahead of and during demonstrations protesting el-Sissi’s decision to hand two Red Sea islands over to Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s main foreign backer. The secretary-general of the union, Gamal Abdel Rahim, said police were trying “to disguise their crime by driving a wedge between journalists and the public, but the public knows very well that the union is their sanctuary and won’t be deceived.” The memos also proposed measures to boost the ministry’s image and media monitoring capabilities, such as using retired police generals to communicate its message in the media, and assigning more staff to monitor news websites on a 24-hour basis. In a final email after the documents were sent out repeatedly, the ministry said it had suffered a “technical malfunction” and would switch to a Gmail address. A ministry official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, would neither confirm nor deny whether the account had been hacked. The official declined to verify or deny the accuracy of the memos, or say if they were sent intentionally or by accident. “It is under investigation,” the official said.
Outside the syndicate, police blocked off the surrounding streets later in the day, preventing anyone who wasn’t a union member from entering the area. To commemorate World Press Freedom Day, several journalists covered their mouths with gags and bound their hands to protest Egypt’s media restrictions, while others hung a black banner from the building’s facade. The two journalists, who were arrested and later accused of having weapons at their homes, are being held for an initial investigation period of 15 days. They work for a website that highlights youth movements and reports on the arrest of activists and journalists. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - once the country’s most organized political movement - denounced the crackdown on journalists. Press freedoms have always been restricted in Egypt, including during the turbulent yearlong reign of President Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, who hailed from the Brotherhood. But reporters have faced much greater pressure under el-Sissi, who led the military overthrow of Morsi in 2013. Since then, Egypt’s public and private media have been dominated by el-Sissi supporters who often cast his critics as traitors.
“This is the state of the military repression, that muzzles mouths and restricts freedoms,” Brotherhood spokesman Mohammed Muntasir said on his Facebook page.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 05/16

Hizbollah's hand keeps the status quo in Lebanon
Michael Young/The National/May 04/16
At the end of this month, Lebanon will have spent two years without a president. The situation is likely to continue because the vacuum is primarily the work of Hizbollah, as it pursues both local and regional political objectives. The official reasons for the void are simple: parliament has been unable to secure a quorum of two-thirds to elect a president. That is because the large Aounist bloc with Hizbollah and its allies, above all the bloc of the parliament speaker Nabih Berri, has refused to attend electoral sessions in parliament unless there is prior agreement on Michel Aoun for president.
Political intentions
More important, Mr Berri has interpreted constitutional provisions on electing a president in a way to give Mr Aoun and Hizbollah the latitude to manipulate the quorum provision. Lebanon has no higher court to challenge Mr Berri’s highly contested reading. Senior constitutionalists have rejected the speaker’s interpretation, but to no avail. However, technicalities aside, the real issue is political. Mr Berri knows that Hizbollah does not want a president in office today. Rather, the party would like to maintain a debilitating void, in that way making it easier to bring in a candidate of its choice at a moment when it has the political leverage to impose on him (or her) conditions enhancing its power, and Iran’s. That is why many believe that only when the situation in Syria clarifies and Hizbollah sees Bashar Al Assad winning decisively, will a new president be elected. At the same time, the party would like to take advantage of the western nuclear deal with its sponsor Iran and use Tehran’s growing power in the region to consolidate itself in Lebanon.
Speculation
That may well be true, but what is it specifically that Hizbollah wants, observers are wondering? There has been much speculation that the party may seek to enhance the powers of the Shia community in Lebanon, and anchor this in an amended constitution. That would mean, in addition to other things, an expansion of Shia representation in state institutions. Perhaps in the long term that is what Hizbollah would like to do. However, the party knows that changing the constitution requires a broad national consensus allowing all major parliamentary blocs to approve amendments. Under current circumstances that seems virtually impossible, even if Hizbollah were to try to engage in intimidation. In that case Hizbollah may settle for lesser measures that widen its margin of manoeuvre. It could well seek some kind of official sanction for its independent weapons arsenal, which allows the party to maintain its superiority over its Lebanese rivals. It has defended its retention of weapons as necessary to fight Israel, but today these serve mainly to impose its domestic dominance. Hizbollah would probably also aim to secure a parliamentary election law that permits it to retain its influence in Shia-majority areas, but that also weakens its main rivals, above all the former prime minister Saad Hariri. Another Hizbollah objective is to neutralise the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has held the balance of power in parliament and government.
Hizbollah's concerns
Mr Hariri is Hizbollah’s main worry. In Lebanon’s sectarian game, the party does not want a strong Sunni rival. It recalls that in 2005, Mr Hariri’s father Rafiq was preparing to challenge Syria’s candidates in legislative elections, and would probably have won a majority with his allies. Many regard this as the motive for his assassination, for which Hizbollah members have been indicted by an international tribunal.

ISIS on the move in Lebanon
Nicholas Blanford/Now Lebanon/May 04/16
As the Islamic State’s “caliphate” gradually shrinks and its western periphery slowly retreats to the east, away from Lebanon, concerns are mounting in Beirut that the group is preparing the ground to launch attacks in Lebanon. In recent weeks, numerous security reports indicate that ISIS is recruiting in Tripoli and north Lebanon to establish sleeper cells and that dozens of Lebanese members of the group currently in Syria are preparing to return home. One security source described the apparent ISIS planning in Lebanon as moving from “unstructured” to “structured”.
The conventional military threat posed by ISIS has diminished given recent developments in Syria. Six months ago, ISIS was in possession of the Syrian town of Mheen in the northern Qalamoun region and threatened to take over Sadad, 14 kilometers to the west. If Sadad had fallen, ISIS would have only been 14 kilometers from the Damascus-Homs highway and potentially in a position to help reinforce and resupply their brothers holed up in the rugged mountains along the border in northeast Lebanon. However, the Syrian army, backed by its numerous allies and Russian airpower, was able to regain Mheen, then Palmyra and Quryatayn, pushing the extremist group back toward Deir ez-Zor. The result has left the ISIS militants in northeast Lebanon more isolated than ever and, along with Jabhat al-Nusra which is also in the area, prone to an increased tempo of attacks by the Lebanese army and Hezbollah. The chances of ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra breaking through the army’s lines between Qaa and Arsal into populated areas of the Bekaa Valley are remote. But the potential remains for ISIS to cause mischief through non-conventional means.
Of the 14 suicide bomb attacks that struck mainly Shia-populated areas of the country between November 2013 and June 2014, only one was claimed by ISIS. However, ISIS claimed responsibility for the Bourj al-Barajneh double-suicide bombing last November which killed 46 people and wounded more than 200, the deadliest such attack since the end of the civil war in 1990. The Bourj al-Barajneh attack and a twin suicide attack in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood of Tripoli in January last year were the only two bombings carried out by jihadist militants since June 2014, which marked the end of a seven month campaign. The sudden cessation of bomb attacks in June 2014 was attributable to several factors. Most of the car bombs detonated in Shia areas were manufactured in the Qalamoun area of Syria and driven into Lebanon via Arsal.
That logistical channel was severed by April 2014 as a result of the success of the Hezbollah-led offensive to drive rebel forces out of Qalamoun. Furthermore, Lebanon’s security agencies have proved effective in uncovering potential bomb plots and arresting militants. That and the lack of operational space in which militants can plan their attacks undetected have helped maintain the calm. Still, it is surprising that Lebanon has not suffered even an unsophisticated “lone wolf” attack. A single person armed with a rifle and few hand grenades who is willing to die could cause havoc in a busy, densely-populated neighborhood, but so far, no such incidents have emerged. But there are fears that that could change in the coming weeks and months.
Security sources report that 200 Lebanese members of ISIS currently in the Raqqa area are being mobilized to return to Lebanon where they are expected to establish sleeper cells in Tripoli, Akkar, Wadi Khaled and Masharei al-Qaa in the northern Bekaa Valley. This information was confirmed by sources close to Hezbollah who said that the names of the Lebanese ISIS militants were known. Other security sources say that ISIS is paying new recruits in north Lebanon about $50 a week to establish cells and await instructions.
The same sources added that a security alert was issued recently over information that militants from the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli were planning to carry out an attack on Casino du Liban. Hezbollah has visibly tightened security in Beirut’s southern suburbs, walling off some alleyways leading into the district. The Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp also has come under closer scrutiny than usual lately, following the assassination of Fathi Zeydan, the Fatah security chief for Mieh Mieh camp, on April 12 in a car bomb explosion in Sidon. Although no claim of responsibility was made, the finger of suspicion is pointing toward one of the jihadist groups operating in Ain al-Hilweh.
The jihadist presence in the camp has gone through several iteration over the past two decades. In the late 1990s, the dominant faction was Esbat al-Ansar which was responsible for a 1999 shooting attack in a Sidon courtroom in which four judges were killed. The group also carried out at that time a string of bombings of shops selling alcohol in the Sidon area. Around 2002, the new jihadist group on the scene was Jund ash-Sham, followed in 2007 by Fatah al-Islam. Today, it is ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra that are seen as the most potent jihadist players in the long-turbulent camp.
According to well-placed sources in Ain al-Hilweh, there are currently two groups affiliated to Jabhat al-Nusra, one headed by Bilal Badr and the other by Osama Shehabi, both seasoned militants. There are also two factions loyal to ISIS. Together, the four groups total more than 200 militants, many of them having slipped into the camp in the past four months. The sources said that there is an unspoken consensus among all the factions not to allow the situation in the camp to deteriorate – the lesson of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp nine years ago continues to resonate. Nahr al-Bared was destroyed in three months of fighting between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army. The danger, however, lies in the possibility of the ISIS factions staging attacks outside the camp. The Lebanese army has tightened security around Ain al-Hilweh, thoroughly checking each vehicle entering and leaving the camp.
UNIFIL is also scrutinizing developments in Ain al-Hilweh. The camp sits on the main logistical artery connecting Beirut to the south which is used by UNIFIL traffic. The Ain al-Hilweh chokepoint has long been a source of concern for the peacekeepers. UNIFIL vehicles have twice been attacked by roadside bombs in Sidon in recent years.
Hezbollah also has an interest in Ain al-Hilweh, partly for the same reasons as UNIFIL but also because of the proximity of Shia-populated areas to the camp. Last week, Hezbollah held a rare meeting with officials from Esbat al-Ansar and Harakat Islamiya Muhajida to discuss the potential threat posed by the new generation of jihadists in Ain al-Hilweh. The fact that Hezbollah can sit at the same table as representatives of two radical (but these days pragmatic) Salafist groups underlines their mutual concerns over the presence of extremists in Ain al-Hilweh.
**Nicholas Blanford is the Beirut correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Middle East Peace and Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security

The Great Western Retreat
Giulio Meotti/ Gatestone Institute/May 04/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7938/western-retreat

Of all French soldiers currently engaged in military operations, half of them are deployed inside France. And half of those are assigned to protect 717 Jewish schools.
This massive deployment of armed forces in our own cities is a departure from history. It is a moral disarmament, before a military one.
Why does anyone choose to fight in a war? Civilized nations go to war so that members of today's generation may sacrifice themselves to protect future generations. But if there are no future generations, there is no reason whatever for today's young men to die in war. It is "demography, stupid."
On March 11, 2004, 192 people were killed and 1,400 wounded in a series of terrorist attacks in Madrid. Three days later, Spain's Socialist leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was elected prime minister. Just 24 hours after being sworn in, Zapatero ordered Spanish troops to leave Iraq "as soon as possible."
The directive was a monumental political victory for extremist Islam. Since then, Europe's boots on the ground have not been dispatched outside Europe to fight jihadism; instead, they have been deployed inside the European countries to protect monuments and civilians.
"Opération Sentinelle" is the first new large-scale military operation within France. The army is now protecting synagogues, art galleries, schools, newspapers, public offices and underground stations. Of all French soldiers currently engaged in military operations, half of them are deployed inside France. And half of those are assigned to protect 717 Jewish schools. Meanwhile, French paralysis before ISIS is immortalized by the image of police running away from the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during the massacre there.
You can find the same figure in Italy: 11,000 Italian soldiers are currently engaged in military operations and more than half of them are used in operation "Safe Streets," which, as its name reveals, keeps Italy's cities safe. Italy's army is also busy providing aid to migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
In 2003, Italy was one of the very few countries, along with Spain and Britain, which stood with the United States in its noble war in Iraq -- a war that was successful until the infamous US pull-out on December 18, 2011.
Today, Italy, like Spain, runs away from its responsibility in the war against the Islamic State. Italy's Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti ruled out the idea of Italy taking part in action against ISIS, after EU defense ministers unanimously backed a French request for help.
Italy's soldiers, stationed in front of my newspaper's office in Rome, provide a semblance of security, but the fact that half of Italy's soldiers are engaged in domestic security, and not in offensive military strikes, should give us pause. These numbers shed a light not only on Europe's internal terror frontlines, from the French banlieues to "Londonistan." These numbers also shed light on the great Western retreat.
US President Barack Obama has boasted that as part of his legacy, he has withdrawn American military forces from the Middle East. His shameful departure from Iraq has been the main reason that the Islamic State rose to power -- and the reason Obama postponed a military withdrawal from Afghanistan. This US retreat can only be compared to the fall of Saigon, with the picture of a helicopter evacuating the U.S. embassy.
In Europe, armies are no longer even ready for war. The German army is now useless, and Germany spends only 1.2% of GDP on defense. The German army today has the lowest number of staff at any time in its history.
In 2012, Germany's highest court, breaking a 67-year-old taboo against using the military within Germany's borders, allowed the military to be deployed in domestic operations. The post-Hitler nation's fear that the army could develop again into a state-within-a-state that might impede democracy has paralyzed Europe's largest and wealthiest country. Last January, it was revealed that German air force reconnaissance jets cannot even fly at night.
Many European states slumber in the same condition as Belgium, with its failed security apparatus. A senior U.S. intelligence officer even recently likened the Belgian security forces to "children." And Sweden's commander-in-chief, Sverker Göranson, said his country could only fend off an invasion for a maximum of one week.
During the past ten years, the United Kingdom has also increasingly been seen by its allies -- both in the US and in Europe -- as a power in retreat, focusing only on its domestic agenda. The British have become increasingly insular - a littler England.
The UK's armed forces have been downsized; the army alone is expected to shrink from 102,000 soldiers in 2010 to 82,000 by 2020 - its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars. The former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Nigel Essenigh, has spoken of "uncomfortable similarities" between the UK's defenses now and those in the early 1930s, during the rise of Nazi Germany.
In Canada, military bases are now being used to host migrants from Middle East. Justin Trudeau, the new Canadian prime minister, first halted military strikes against ISIS, then refused to join the coalition against it. Terrorism has apparently never been a priority for Trudeau -- not like "gender equality," global warming, euthanasia and injustices committed against Canada's natives.
The bigger question is: Why does anyone choose to fight in a war? Civilized nations go to war so that members of today's generation may sacrifice themselves to protect future generations. But if there are no future generations, there is no reason whatever for today's young men to die in war. It is "demography, stupid."
Spain's fertility has fallen the most -- the lowest in Western Europe over twenty years and the most extreme demographic spiral observed anywhere. Similarly, fewer babies were born in Italy in 2015 than in any year since the state was founded 154 years ago. For the first time in three decades, Italy's population shrank. Germany, likewise, is experiencing a demographic suicide.
This massive deployment of armed forces in our own cities is a departure from history. It is a moral disarmament, before a military one. It is Europe's new Weimar moment, from the name of the first German Republic that was dramatically dismantled by the rise of Nazism. The Weimar Republic still represents a cultural muddle, a masterpiece of unarmed democracy devoted to a mutilated pacifism, a mixture of naïve cultural, political reformism and the first highly developed welfare state.
According to the historian Walter Laqueur, Weimar was the first case of the "life and death of a permissive society." Will Europe's new Weimar also be brought down, this time by Islamists?
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved.
 

Erdogan suggests name change for Arab League
Semih Idiz/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
The remarks of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the recent summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, where he urged unity among Islamic nations against what he considers to be a perfidious West, and the threat of terrorism from radical Islamic groups, left many with the impression that he was vying for the leadership of the Islamic world. There are few indications to suggest, however, that the Islamic world wants Turkey to play such a role. The Islamic world also appears to be as far as ever from the unity that Erdogan has been calling for. Much to Erdogan's disappointment, relations between Islamic countries have proved to be more complex than he imagined.
Turkey's relations with Arab countries have also been problematic due to its historic baggage that harks back the time of Ottoman rule in the Middle East. Remarks out of Turkey about Arabs and the Arab world have usually been evaluated against this backdrop by Arab politicians, academics and analysts. Not surprisingly, accusations of "neo-imperial designs" have been leveled against Turkey as a result. During his address to the Turkish-Arab Congress on Higher Education in Istanbul last week, Erdogan, in a rare outburst of this kind, blasted at the Arab League, accusing it in effect of being an exclusive and divisive organization preventing Islamic unity. Lamenting the growing Sunni-Shiite divide, Erdogan said, "No one has the right to harm Islam in this way," adding that Turkey would never contribute to sectarian divisions. His remarks come at a time when Ankara continues to be accused by non-Sunni regimes and groups in the region of fanning sectarian divisions by backing Sunni groups in Syria and Iraq.
"We always talk about Turks and Arabs. I am saddened by this. They talk about the Arab League. So does this mean we should put a Turkish League in front of this?" Erdogan said. "You talk about Islamic cooperation on the one hand and about an Arab League on the other. What kind of business is this? Why don't we just call it the 'Islamic League' instead of the Arab League?" "The Arab is not superior to the non-Arab, and the non-Arab is not superior to the Arab," Erdogan went on to declare in what appeared to be a criticism of the Arab sense of exclusivity. "I look and see that my Arab brother looks on me differently. If the Turk looks on the Arab differently too then we are in trouble," Erdogan said, exhorting the Islamic world to return to its origins. While criticizing the Arab League in this manner, Erdogan appears to be forgetting that the Arab League, while comprising Islamic countries only, is essentially a political organization whose members share a common language and culture.
He also appears to have forgotten that Turkey is a founding member of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, also known as the Turkic Council, which was established in 2009. The aim of that council — like that of the Arab League — is to enhance cooperation on all levels between its member states Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, all of which are predominantly Muslim countries. Turkey's political relations with the Arab League, on the other hand, were enhanced when the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum was established in November 2007 in Istanbul. What we appear to have here, therefore, is another example of Erdogan speaking right off the bat without considering the background to as well as the potential pitfalls in his remarks.
Murat Yetkin, the editor-in-chief of Hurriyet Daily News and a well-known commentator on domestic and international affairs, noted that Erdogan's remarks about the Arab League "were almost as strong as the criticism he levels against terrorist organizations."Yetkin wrote in his column, "Erdogan may be envisioning a political ideal where the world's 1.5 billion Muslims can act in unity under proper leadership, but he is suffering the disappointment of understanding better — with each passing day — the impossibility of this expectation." Yetkin also noted that the bulk of the problems faced by the Islamic world today originate from Arab countries, suggesting that what lies underneath Erdogan's frustration is the Arab world's inability to overcome its shortcomings and act in the name of Islam. Although Erdogan may be yearning for Islamic unity where Turkey plays a key leadership role, Yetkin also underlined the fact that many Arabs hanker after the modern lifestyles that they see in Turkish soap operas, which are highly popular in the Arab world, and which Erdogan has indicated he does not approve of.
A source close to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, who is critical of the government's Middle East policy and therefore spoke on condition of anonymity, believes that Erdogan has consistently underestimated factors such as Arab nationalism in his approach to the Arab world. "His view is simplistic and Islamist. He believes that since we are all Muslims there should be no problem in establishing a unified Islamic world that has overcome national considerations, and which acts to secure the collective Islamic interests," the source told Al-Monitor. Pointing to the recent outrage in Egypt over Cairo's transfer of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, the source said, "National pride and rivalries along this line remain a potent force in many Arab countries. They are no different than Turkey in this respect." There are also those who suggest that Erdogan's annoyance with the Arab League may stem from the fact that it has always criticized Turkey's military incursions into Iraq, as happened a few months ago when Ankara deployed added forces to its military presence in Bashiqa near Mosul. The fact that the Arab League's Secretariat is in Cairo may also be another reason that contributes to Erdogan’s annoyance, given his declared distaste for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the traditional regional rivalry between Turkey and Egypt.Whatever the case may be, Erdogan is not known to come out so strongly against a key organization of the Arab world, and the fact that he chose to do so this time could be an indication of just how angry he is that his dream of leading the Islamic world is so unrealistic, especially when it comes to the Arab world.

Will European pressure push Netanyahu on right track?
Akiva Eldar/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban used to say that Israeli politicians make the right decisions only after making every mistake possible. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes the right decision only after using up all his tricks. This is how he has managed for years to deepen the occupation but talk about a two-state solution; expand the settlement enterprise but be welcomed with open arms by states that view the settlements as a violation of international law; be reprimanded by the Germans but get a submarine from them at a deep discount and lease them drones for a fortune. Will the May 1 report in the German magazine Der Spiegel about the German government's re-evaluation of its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict push Netanyahu closer to the bottom of his bag of tricks? Might he soon be making the right decisions regarding the conflict with the Palestinians?
On Feb. 16, Israel Hayom celebrated Netanyahu’s seeming victory over the enemies of the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians: “Merkel: Now is not the time for 2-state solution,” read the headline in the daily that reflects the winds blowing from the office of the prime minister. At the end of a meeting with Netanyahu, Shlomo Cesana, the paper’s correspondent who covered the prime minister's visit to Berlin, quoted him as saying that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had “admitted that this is not the time for the two-state solution.”​ Netanyahu did not conceal his satisfaction with what he perceived as the chancellor’s updated insight. “We have here a more realistic approach to the situation in our region and to the situation between us and the Palestinians,” the prime minister told reporters. “I said this a year ago and everyone ranted and raved against me,” Netanyahu bragged.
In February 2014 during a visit to Jerusalem, Merkel had said, “Part and parcel of the secure future of Israel is obviously the two-state solution: a Jewish State of Israel and alongside it, a Palestinian state.” Sadly for Netanyahu, however, the alternative to the “ranting” at him about the burial of the two-state solution is not a funereal silence. France is promoting an international conference that would seek ways to revive the 2003 two-state road map. Paris does not appear to be overly bothered by Israel's opposition to the initiative, and the Obama administration is not pulling Netanyahu’s irons out of the European fire as it usually does.
Merkel’s reported comment about the two-state solution should have therefore been interpreted by Netanyahu as a warning signal, not an all-clear. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's Feb. 16 statement — “The situation in the West Bank is not sustainable” — should have been taken more seriously. It makes clear that, as far as Germany is concerned, the status quo and perpetuation of the occupation are not acceptable. To disabuse Israelis who are gambling on the “special relationship with Germany,” Merkel said last month that she understands why Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas keeps appealing to the United Nations, requesting that it recognize a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
Merkel's interesting comment was made April 19 during a visit by Abbas to Berlin. Following the visit, the Palestinian leader announced that he had accepted the European request to postpone the planned presentation of a resolution to the UN April 21. A senior Palestinian source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that Abbas had never really planned to present the request before the conference being promoted by France. His advisers explained to him that in any case, until Nov. 8, the date of the US presidential elections, there is no chance of pushing through a UN resolution that could be interpreted as even remotely critical of Israel. So while Jerusalem is giving the French initiative the cold shoulder, the Palestinians are not only welcoming it warmly, they are also removing the supposed barrier of a unilateral move at the United Nations.
Abbas has managed to maneuver successfully among his rivals at home and does not need elections or a coalition to rule or to decide whether and when to turn to the UN. Netanyahu, on the other hand, is hemmed in on all sides. Even if he were interested in promoting the two-state solution, which is doubtful, he would be risking his domestic bliss. After his February meeting with Merkel, Netanyahu said that top world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, “understand that the practical things are those that can be done right now.” Given the current coalition and the composition of the Likud Knesset faction, however, he is unable to advance even a small practical thing, like a temporary freeze on construction in the settlements.
Netanyahu has never excelled at withstanding pressure. The question now is who is pressuring him harder: the international community, which is trying to push forward a serious diplomatic process, or his political community, which rejects any process that mentions the expression “Palestinian state.” When Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu's Likud predecessor, found himself faced with the same dilemma, he opted for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Sharon also replaced Likud hawks with Shimon Peres and his buddies from the Labor Party. If Netanyahu decides to withdraw to the line of the West Bank separation fence and to give up the far-flung Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, he could replace the Likud hawks and his partners from HaBayit HaYehudi with Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Camp, and his buddies. One of the better-known aphorisms of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was that Israel doesn’t have a foreign policy, only a domestic one. Israel might fast be approaching the juncture at which the two converge. At this critical junction, there are two options: to crash or to merge together onto a new road.

Syrian students struggle in Egypt's schools
Nahla ElNemr/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — In 2012, Egypt's president issued an extraordinary decision giving Syrians access to public schooling in Egypt and facilitating registration. Under the new conditions, students were able to enroll using only their passports and a copy of their transcripts from Syria. The process, however, has presented numerous challenges. Sami al-Ahmad is the founder of Khatwa, a group that helps displaced Syrian students finish their education in Egypt. He told Al-Monitor that although the decision to provide free education to Syrians in Egypt was renewed for 2013-15, some changes were made. “In 2014, post-graduate education was excluded from the decision, while some institutes and so-called open education were excluded in 2015,” said Ahmad, himself a Syrian refugee. "Open education" in Egypt refers to a program that grants students flexible schedules to take courses in the evening or on weekends.
In 2016, however, the Ministry of Education failed to issue an updated decision, so some colleges assumed free education for Syrians had been canceled. Now, Syrian students at those institutes or applying there are treated the same as other foreign students, Ahmad said. According to the pricing schedules available on Egyptian university websites, fees for foreign students start at about $1,400 per year and must be paid in foreign currencies. The registration process for public primary and secondary schools is handled by various governmental agencies. Before foreign students can apply, they must receive one-year residency approvals for themselves and their parents from immigration officials. Ahmed al-Homsi, an 11th-grade student, told Al-Monitor that he submitted a residence application, "but the slow procedures prevented me from obtaining this permit" before the school registration deadline.
Numerous Syrian parents complained to Al-Monitor about the slow pace of administrative procedures inside the Passports, Immigration and Nationality Administration and the small number of schools accepting the enrollment of their children. According to these parents, school principals often refuse to enroll new students, citing overcrowded classrooms. Some parents believe that is just a ploy by the state to avoid issuing permits. Omar, a Syrian father residing in Damietta, told Al-Monitor, “I went several times to one of the schools to enroll my son. During the last meeting with the school principal, he asked all parents of Syrian students to submit their applications on a specific date and when we did, he told us that no more applications were being accepted since classes were full.” Hesham Elsangary, services division director at the Ministry of Education, claimed no Syrian students had been rejected from public schools. Any Arab student with a residency permit in Egypt is allowed to enroll "in accordance with the law,” he told Al-Monitor.
Fatima Khadr, head of the Directorate of Education in Cairo, told Al-Monitor, “We have instructions to facilitate the Syrian students’ school enrollment procedures. If students have lost their transcripts, they can take placement exams to determine their level so they can be enrolled in the appropriate classes.”
But placement exams don't always work well, said Suheib Aswad, services director at the Tadamon Center for Refugees and a teacher at a Sudanese high school in Cairo. “The placement exam covers all subjects and must be completed in only two hours," Aswad told Al-Monitor. "This means that students [often] receive low scores and are placed in classes below their actual level.”Aswad added that according to surveys conducted by the center, these exams are a major problem for many students. He also noted that many students face violence in schools when they do get in.
Marwa Hamdi, the mother of two children from Alexandria, told Al-Monitor her 8-year-old son has been suffering from urinary incontinence as a result of being repeatedly beaten by teachers. Ikhlas, another mother who lives in the same city and requested that only her first name be used, told Al-Monitor that when she was dropping off her 11-year-old son at school on his first day, she witnessed a fist-fight between a number of students. She said, “One student hit his peer with a piece of brick on the head, causing him a severe injury." Her son "was terrified," she said, "and I decided not to take him back again to this school.” A Ministry of Education official denied that children face physical abuse from teachers. “We can’t say that there is a violence problem in schools based on one or two accounts," Rida Hegazy, head of the ministry's Public Education Department, told Al-Monitor. "I’ve received complaints in the past, but these are individual cases. Moreover, there are counselors in the schools that address these types of issues. Also, the ministry provides oversight in the form of inspection committees that take action if complaints are received. They also provide periodic monitoring and assess the performance of each school."
Rasim al-Atassi, a leader in the Syrian community in Egypt, told Al-Monitor 8,000-9,000 Syrian children have dropped out of school due to insufficient financial resources. Marwa Hashem, an assistant public information officer at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, told Al-Monitor that “25,000 education grants in public schools were dispersed to Syrian students.” She added, “The UNHCR is cooperating with the Egyptian government. In the academic year of 2014-2015, a grant of 10 million Egyptian pounds [$1.13 million] was made to improve and establish new classrooms in schools hosting the highest numbers of Syrian students.” The UNHCR said that in August, about 85% of the 41,500 registered school-age Syrian children in Egypt were enrolled in school. Affluent Syrian refugees prefer enrolling their children in Libyan and Sudanese schools in Egypt. Al-Monitor talked to a group of 10 Syrian high school students in the Sudanese school in Alexandria. They reported that the classrooms in their school are not overcrowded and they are well treated by their instructors. They also recalled being verbally harassed by their previous public school instructors and accused of invading the country or depleting its resources.
The female students in the group said they had been bullied by their peers because one of the instructors showed them special interest, given their difficult conditions as foreign students. Both male and female students in this group said they had been offered marijuana at least once.
Hegazy rebutted these claims, telling Al-Monitor, “If I received a specific complaint with the name of the school or students [doing or selling drugs], I would immediately file a report to have those involved charged." The Syrian students Al-Monitor spoke with worry that their graduation certificates will not be accepted at Egyptian universities. Aswad told Al-Monitor, “The university admission of Syrian students, in particular those graduating from Sudanese schools, varies from one year to another.” The Education Ministry's Elsangary told Al-Monitor that public “diaspora schools” — such as those serving Sudanese and Libyans in Cairo — are meant to serve those of a specific nationality, and other nationalities are not permitted to enroll.
Ahmed from the Khatwa group said Syrians with high school diplomas from private Sudanese and Libyan schools were accepted into Egyptian universities until last year, when a decision was issued that prevented them from doing so. Yet the 2015 graduates were exempted from this decision and allowed to enroll. Mohamed Khir al-Halabi, director of public relations for the Syrian Agency in Egypt, a group that helps refugees, told Al-Monitor, “The agency got in contact with the concerned authorities and these students’ request to be exempted was approved, so they were able to enroll. About 500 such students enrolled last year.” However, when contacted by Al-Monitor, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education would not clarify the legal status of such students. Many Syrians living in Egypt believe the optimal solution to the education crisis is to establish a Syrian school that provides accredited certificates, unlike the current Syrian educational institutions in Egypt that are merely "learning centers." Binaat Al-Hidara School on the outskirts of Cairo is one such facility. Hani Bakhsas, the center's public relations officer, told Al-Monitor that the Syrian students who attend classes there are also enrolled in Egyptian schools. “We have classes for all educational stages, where we explain the Egyptian curriculum, but the center does not give certificates and is not an official authority to administer exams,” he said. These learning centers address the difficulties Syrian children face in understanding instructions given in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. The centers appoint Syrian instructors to teach elementary classes. This practice gives Syrian teachers job opportunities, as they are not legally allowed to teach at public schools and the salaries in private schools are comparably low.

Cairo marks World Press Freedom Day with raid on journalists' syndicate
Ayah Aman/Al-Monitor/May 04/16
CAIRO — On May 1, just two days before World Press Freedom day, Egyptian police raided the Press Syndicate in Cairo and randomly detained a number of journalists as they were working. This measure against media workers represents a dangerous escalation in the security services’ campaign targeting journalists in a country that the Committee to Protect Journalists describes as “among the world’s worst jailers of journalists.”The crisis between journalists and the security services escalated against the backdrop of April 25 demonstrations protesting the maritime border demarcation agreement that included handing over control of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia. The security forces had prevented journalists and photographers from covering the protest, and 46 journalists were arrested that day. Members of the Press Syndicate board were also intimidated by groups of pro-government thugs who attacked and surrounded the syndicate’s headquarters and prevented journalists from entering the building April 25.
In response to the random arrests and intimidation faced by journalists, the Press Syndicate and journalists filed a total of 17 motions with the public prosecutor against the interior minister and head of the Cairo Security Directorate. In addition, on April 28, protesters organized marches in which they carried pens and cameras and headed toward the office of the public prosecutor with signs that read “Journalism isn’t a crime,” condemning the police’s recent actions against journalists. Yet despite the journalists’ "uprising" against these detentions and random arrests, police campaigns targeting them continued. During the May 1 raid on the Press Syndicate, security forces arrested Amr Badr, editor-in-chief of the privately owned online news site Yanair Gate, as well as Mahmoud al-Saqa, a journalist for the same outlet. At the time of their detention, they were participating in a sit-in at the syndicate to protest against the storming of their homes by security forces last month and accusations they face of inciting protests against the state. Just hours after the raid and arrests, hundreds of journalists headed toward the Press Syndicate headquarters to protest the measures. The syndicate’s board held an emergency meeting at 2 a.m. May 2, which ended with a demand for the resignation of the interior minister, a call for an open-ended sit-in and an emergency meeting of the syndicate’s general assembly on the afternoon of May 4 to consider the decisions they should take to maintain the dignity of the journalism profession.
In a statement issued following the emergency meeting, the board noted, “The calamity of the aggression against the syndicate's headquarters — in violation of the law, the constitution and all political, national and international norms — can't be erased without the dismissal of the interior minister."
Yehia Qalash, head of the Press Syndicate, told Al-Monitor, “There are several legal tracks and measures the syndicate’s board will take to respond to the security services’ deliberate escalation against the journalistic community. This incident was not a measure against two journalists alone, rather it was intended to be a threat to all journalists through the raid of the syndicate headquarters.”He said, “This issue must be dealt with at the political level, not through security [measures]." Qalash added, “We will start meetings with various editors-in-chief to discuss the possibility of withholding the issuance of newspapers or other means to express objection to what happened. … We will not negotiate directly with the Ministry of Interior or its representative, since they won’t even acknowledge what happened.”
The morning after the raid, Egypt’s major daily newspapers carried headlines condemning the raid. Al-Shorouk described what happened as “Black Sunday,” while daily Al-Masry Al-Youm had a front-page article titled “Press under siege.” Even state-owned Al-Ahram published an editorial condemning the raid. Under the headline “Raid among journalists,” it said, “[The Interior Ministry] will not succeed in its malicious goal of gagging mouths and stifling the freedoms of opinion and expression, which are outlined in the constitution that has yet to be read by security leaders, who try to portray to the political leadership that they are protecting the state and its security. They don’t realize, however, that if the people rise to take their freedom, no one can stop them — not even the mightiest security barricades and weapons.”
Amid the absence of an official response from the government concerning the raid, the press office of the Ministry of Interior accidentally sent out on May 2 an internal memo to public newsletter subscribers on how the ministry plans to deal with this crisis. Most notably, the memo proposed accusing journalists of wanting to manufacture their own state and not implement provisions of the law in an attempt to vilify journalists among the public. As angry reactions escalated, the attorney general issued on the evening of May 3 a decision banning the publication of any news reports about the facts of the syndicate raid or the detention of the two journalists until the conclusion of the investigation. The statement announcing the decision stressed that the procedures taken to arrest the journalists were under the order of the attorney general, and that arrest orders can be carried out at the Press Syndicate headquarters. The statement accused the head of the syndicate of committing a crime punishable by law by agreeing to let the two journalists participate in a sit-in within the headquarters, even though orders had been issued for their arrest.
The Press Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee issued its annual report in February in which it documented many cases of violations of press freedom by the Egyptian authorities. The report noted 782 documented violations against journalists in 2015, including imprisonment, pre-trial detention, arrests, raids of homes, fabricated charges, draconian rulings, prohibition from practicing the profession, destroying equipment and cameras, writing bans, legal prosecution, raids of newspaper or news website headquarters, disabling publication of print newspapers and confiscation of already printed copies. The report also noted that 14 gag orders had been issued in 2015 — 12 by the public prosecutor and two by courts — violating the public’s right to knowledge and free circulation of information.
Sherif Mansour, the coordinator of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al-Monitor that the raid against the syndicate was an unprecedented escalation against the press in Egypt. “Since 2013, journalists in Egypt have been subject to escalating attacks that contributed to the country being classified as one of the most dangerous states for journalists. A large number of independent and opposition media organizations have been eliminated,” he said. Mansour stressed the importance that “press laws are activated and the political administration changes its escalating rhetoric against journalists.” He said the state should provide “safeguards and legislation that ensure journalists can carry out their work, in accordance with the constitution.” As the crisis escalates, other professional syndicates, political parties and opposition currents have joined the journalists’ sit-in protesting the security forces’ practices. The Egyptian administration is now in a bind — it must find a way to contain the anger of the press, following condemnations from foreign organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union, while at the same time face other economic and political crises.

The regional dimensions of destroying Aleppo
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
The humanitarian tragedy in Aleppo has gotten so bad it is indescribable, and represents the peak of Syria’s ordeal. Not defying the aggressors will give them carte blanche to do whatever they want in the region, and to destroy whatever is left of Syria and commit more crimes. Aleppo will increase the hostile appetite of Iran and its allies.
However, they will not achieve their aim of restoring the authority of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo or other cities. The Assad regime has spoken of “liberating” Aleppo since last year, when Russian forces entered Syria and participated in the war alongside Iran and the regime. The situation is still the same despite Moscow’s claim that it withdrew most of its forces, which turned out to be untrue.
Iran joined the fighting in Syria two years before Russia, and like the latter it has not succeeded. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) expanded its capabilities by forming an alliance of extremist religious militias, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iraqi League of the Righteous, Afghans and others. That also failed, as did the Assad regime in achieving its aims ever since confrontations began with Syrian citizens in 2011.
Russian and Syrian regime warplanes have complete air supremacy because the Syrian opposition has been deprived of surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft weapons. The Russian and Syrian air forces have only succeeded in destroying cities in an unprecedented manner since World War II. However, this has not achieved any significant results except for capturing some of Aleppo’s neighborhoods.
The silence of the region’s governments over this annihilation will make them pay a higher price later when Iran repeats its crimes
Assad does not dare leave his castle in Damascus, as part of the capital’s countryside is still held by the opposition after the IRGC and Hezbollah failed to seize it. The results of the Russian-Iranian intervention are insignificant.
This is the case even if we take into consideration efforts to cut Turkish funding and decrease foreign support to the opposition, UN silence over these armies’ crimes against civilians, and the U.S.-led alliance coordinating with the Syrian regime against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and allowing Assad’s forces to take over liberated areas.
Action needed
Cities have been destroyed, people displaced and more than 300,000 murdered, but the Syrian regime’s authority has not been restored. The forces of Iran, Russia and the regime will continue their annihilation, murder and displacement if regional powers do not act and support the Syrian opposition by supplying it with anti-aircraft weapons.
We do not expect direct military intervention by any country in the region. The United Nations will not do anything, and US President Barack Obama will not alter his negligent stance. The silence of the region’s governments over this annihilation will make them pay a higher price later when Iran repeats its crimes.
I fear we will see this soon in Iraq, as Iran feels that no one is defying it in Syria. Tehran is destroying the political system in Baghdad for the purpose of fully controlling it, and will most probably push its forces or militias to take control. The crisis will expand if a front that resists the Iranian camp is not established.

The bitter memories of war
Diana Moukalled/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Is forgetting better at resolving conflicts than an active collective memory? American author David Rieff raises this question in his book In Praise of Forgetting. He says the modern world has developed a pathological obsession with memories, and it is time to give forgetting a chance. Rieff discusses conflicts that the West has overcome, such as World War II, the Bosnian war and the Irish civil war. I recall this as the debate over the 101st anniversary of the Armenian genocide surfaced in Lebanon this week. This debate has been accompanied by media and political controversy for a century now. Some are keen to attack efforts to commemorate this anniversary, and have launched social-media campaigns to consider the genocide a matter of historical controversy. Before we discuss remembering and forgetting, we need to address the issue of moral double-standards. We cannot but ask why this genocide is still a source of international, ethnic and sectarian tensions. The mass murder committed by the Ottomans during World War I is a matter of historical fact, yet to this day it is still questioned by Turks, and by Arabs and Muslims who are enthusiastic about the Ottoman Empire. Reviving the memory of war does not prevent it from happening again. Syria teaches us this lesson every day
History repeating
Armenians insist on remembering the genocide - as is their right - to ensure it never happens again. However, has this not happened to other peoples since? What lessons can we draw when massacres continue to be committed? If we have not been fair to the Armenians after 100 years, do we really expect the world to be fair to the victims of current massacres? The Syrian regime’s shelling of Aleppo, which has become routine, continues to massacre civilians, and no one has acted to help them. Remembering is a moral duty toward victims and truth. We believe that reviving a painful tragedy may contribute to not repeating it. This is legitimate and sometimes necessary, especially when denial dominates. However, reviving the memory of war does not prevent it from happening again. Syria teaches us this lesson every day. Keeping the memory alive can turn the past into a source of hatred, especially when facts are painful. This further complicates our current reality.

Why the Syria ceasefire will not hold
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
The last couple of months have seen a significant amount of reduction of fighting in Syria, on the back of the Russian-sponsored “ceasefire”. And with it, a significant decrease in the influx of Syrian migrants into Europe. But the “ceasefire” has not meant a complete cessation of hostilities, as per the usual definition. And this week, despite US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts and intense shuttle diplomacy, the peace deal is teetering on the verge of collapse. There are four main reasons for this. Firstly, Russia reserves the right to attack any “terrorist group”. But what Russia is defining as “terrorist group” is not nearly the same as what the US and the West would. It is not just ISIS, al-Nusra and other officially designated groups. Russia designates as “terrorist group” anyone who it wants to designate as a terrorist group, basically, anyone who is not sworn to the regime of President Assad, or possibly the Kurds.
Russia can therefore attack anyone under the pretext of attacking ISIS. And as we speak they continue to bomb Aleppo to bits. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has only just gotten around to “hoping” that the ceasefire can be extended to the city, which, let us not forget, is not in fact an ISIS target.
Secondly, there are now thousands of small militias and groupings who are no longer immediately concerned with overthrowing Assad or defeating ISIS, but which, out of the chaos of the conflict, have established lucrative rackets for their members from smuggling, extortion and other similar activities. To them, any ceasefire poses a double threat.
The fragmented nature of the “opposition” means that there is a diffusion of responsibility and accountability, which makes meaningful dialogue very difficult
On the one hand, they will no longer be able to cover their activities behind a pretence of legitimate political fighting, and their activities will be targeted both by other fighting actors and by their local populations as the organized crime they really are. And on the other, after all they would have been involved in during the fighting, it is hardly likely that the gang members will be safe. They will have many enemies with many scores to settle. Ironically, for most of the people caught up in this situation, they will only be safe so long as the fighting continues. So we can expect them to continue fighting and do their best to undermine any attempts at ceasefire by the larger, political actors. Thirdly, the fragmented nature of the “opposition” means that there is a diffusion of responsibility and accountability, which makes meaningful dialogue between the Assad side and the “opposition” very difficult, as we have already seen during the current attempt at a ceasefire.
Rebel cooperation
Most rebel groups cooperate with each other to such an extent that it is very difficult to know where one groups ends (e.g. al-Nusra) and another begins. For the Russians and Assad’s troops, lines are all blurred as to who can be attacked and who cannot. But on the “opposition” side also, lines are blurred on who is bound by the ceasefire, and “safe” from Russian bombardment, and who is going to be targeted anyway and not bound by the “ceasefire”. In between these gaps in demarcation, individuals and groups will continue to settle scores, run rackets, carry out attacks without ever being sure what this means for the ceasefire and what the consequences of their actions will be for themselves as well. Lastly, Russia and Assad have much less reason to compromise with the “opposition” and the West. The dynamics on the ground are changing rapidly and they have the momentum to impose their political vision on ending the conflict on other parties. Aleppo is still resisting. But only just. It has almost been bombed completely into submission, and there is hardly anything left standing in the city. Elsewhere, the situation is similar. Russia and Assad feel they are now in the position to bomb every opposition group outside of ISIS into submission. So unless the ‘opposition’ concedes on Assad’s terms, which they will not, Russia and Assad will continue to bludgeon them until they are completely broken. After all this, the fears that the “opposition” had about the original ceasefire plan have been borne out: the plan was put forward simply to give Russia the cover it needed to consolidate its position. And that is exactly what Russia has done. The rebels now are in a position where they have little option but to concede. But they will not. And so, the tragedy will continue for a while yet.

Is this Iraq’s last and best chance to reform itself?
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
While the US obsesses about the evil that is ISIS, a greater long-term problem, festering for years, has come to a boil in front of the world’s eyes: the obvious collapse of the Iraqi state. This is of far greater strategic consequence than whether and when ISIS can be dislodged from Mosul. For without a functioning Iraq, radicalism is bound to re-emerge, just as ISIS is merely the latest iteration of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), having risen from the ashes, nurtured by Iraqi political dysfunction. Furious with the Iraqi parliament for having three times rejected the political reforms of the well-meaning but weak government of Haider al-Abadi, 5,000 followers of Moqtada al-Sadr stormed the Green Zone in Baghdad, housing the government quarter of the city. Chanting “the cowards run away,” they were unhindered by both the Iraqi army and security services ostensibly guarding the city. The reason for their immediate ire was that the parliament had failed to commence voting on ministerial changes designed to finally make the Iraqi government fit for purpose, providing basic public services, creating jobs, and, most importantly, rooting out the political corruption amongst the rotten-to-the-core political class. Transparency International lists Iraq as presently the 8th most corrupt government, in a world full of them.
The political quota system introduced by Washington following the 2003 invasion is the root of all evil here. Well-meaningly designed to make sure that all of Iraq’s major ethno-religious communities were represented in the central government, for over a decade the leading Iraqi political parties and their militias have divided ministries between themselves, treating them as their personal fiefs. They have used the ministries as a form of patronage, inflating the government payroll from a fat 1 million public employees under Saddam Hussein, to an absolutely unsustainable 7 million today. The Iraqi state, artificially created by the British in the 1920s, has never been able to command the legitimacy of its various far-flung constituencies. This has spawned truly Olympian levels of corruption, as large unfinished projects and ghost workers have destroyed the state’s finances, and together with the marked global decline in energy prices, have landed Baghdad with a whopping budget deficit of fully 25 percent of the GDP. The global oil price decline on its own has slashed the Iraqi government’s revenues by up to a crippling 70 percent. Though Iraqi oil is now being pumped in record amounts, the shortfall cannot be easily made up, as the Iraqi state is economically grinding to a halt.
Reform program
To combat this cancer growing on the Iraqi body politic, Prime Minister Abadi has proposed a reform programme whereby neutral technocrats will take over for the corrupt, party-affiliated ministers. As this is obviously a measure that would severely weaken their power base, it is unsurprising that the political parties in the parliament have proven so reluctant to endorse the popular measures. Of course the underlying problem in Iraq – the political lack of legitimacy of the Iraqi state itself – cannot be so easily legislated away. It is certainly true that the quota system is as the root of the present political crisis, but it was instituted only because the state itself lacked core supporters; as people in the country think of themselves as Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds first (and not Iraqis), it made some political sense to see that their basic loyalties were provided for in Iraqi national politics. This is the snake in the garden, as the Iraqi state, artificially created by the British in the 1920s, has never been able to command the legitimacy of its various far-flung constituencies. The Shiite firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr, politically morphing into a champion of good governance and a key ally of Abadi, finally could bear the shenanigans of the Iraqi parliament no longer. Last month he threatened that his supporters would storm the Green zone. While it is unlikely he ordered them into the capital over the past few days, certainly the dramatic increase in the rhetorical temperature over the reforms has brought the crisis to a boil.
Abadi has found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to deal toughly with what amounts to his central political ally. A state of emergency was briefly declared in Baghdad, while the Prime Minister ordered the authorities to arrest and prosecute the Sadrist protestors who had invaded the Green Zone.
While no arrests seem to have been actually made, Sadr got the hint. The demonstrators began leaving at his behest, still demanding all the while the formation of a new cabinet composed of technocrats and fundamental governmental reform. Nobody thinks this is anything but an interlude, the calm before the storm as to whether Abadi’s reform agenda succeeds or his premiership is doomed to failure. What has changed is that with the Sadrist protests, domestic violence in the pursuit of politics is now part of the Iraqi political discourse. The creaking, unloved, Iraqi state seems incapable of renewing itself, and tempers across the political spectrum are becoming ever more frayed. If the Iraqi state fails in this last, best chance to reform itself, its collapse will signal that in Syria and Iraq, the heart of the Arab world, a political black hole will take the place of sane governance into the medium term. And that would amount to a geopolitical tragedy, indeed.

Tiran, Sanafir, Syria, Yemen and Vision 2030
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/May 04/16
Everyone is asking about the secret behind the recent enthusiasm and vitality of Saudi foreign policy. The kingdom launched its first airstrike from Khamis Mushait airport over a year ago against Houthi positions in Yemen, declaring Operation Decisive Storm, which is still gaining momentum. Why does Saudi Arabia insist on expelling Iran from Syria at any cost, and possibly from Iraq and Lebanon? Why was Riyadh keen to regain the islands of Tiran and Sanafir now, after they were placed under Egypt’s custody for decades? Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, announced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, answers both questions. “We have three areas of strength with no competitors,” he told Al Arabiya TV, citing Islam, the kingdom’s enormous investment capacity, and its geographic location. In a closed meeting with a small group of Saudi writers and religious scholars, the prince explained how the kingdom was the promoter of real moderate Islam, and it was unacceptable that the religion be represented by Iran, Al-Qaeda, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The intellectual war on the latter two will take a larger dimension with support from official and prestigious Islamic institutions in Saudi Arabia. There is no “Saudi Islam,” as alleged by US President Barack Obama, just Islam. This reminds me of a Saudi radio program in the 1960s and 1970s called “Muslims and Enough,” which carried a message of Islamic solidarity formulated and managed by the late King Faisal at a time when the country occupied a privileged position among Muslims as caretaker of moderate Islam. The concept of moderate Islam is mentioned many times in Vision 2030.
Iran
Saudi investment capacity is considered a substitute to its oil-dependence. Prince Salman wants to invest for the benefit of the kingdom and the region. However, this vision will clash with a parallel Iranian project that does not aspire to good neighborliness, mutual benefit, or regional peace and stability.
Saudi Arabia is blessed with this stability, which will enable the success of Vision 2030. This will benefit the whole region. This Iranian vision is executed via militias, weapons-smuggling, conspiracies and coups. It will not be based on participation, but on the suppression of others and subordination to Tehran. We do not do this in Saudi Arabia; instead, we sign contracts and strategic alliances in the light of day with governments, not with secret parties or militias. If the kingdom succeeds in being the main crossing point for trade between Asia, Africa and Europe, it will need neighbors that share the same vision, not Yemen’s Houthis or an Iran-dominated Syria. To that end, agreements have been signed with Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti, and potentially Pakistan, which will revive an old bilateral alliance.
Stability
The most important issue in the prince’s announcements is the need for stability for long-term development, citing the examples of South Korea and Japan, which have been ruled by one party for decades. Saudi Arabia is blessed with this stability, which will enable the success of Vision 2030. This will benefit the whole region, as Saudi prosperity will positively impact that of its neighbors. Similar examples in the region are Dubai, Duqm port in Oman, Lucille economic city in Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. All these examples will be linked in Vision 2030. This will be complemented by King Salman Bridge, which will pass over Tiran island and will be the most important land crossing in the world, as described by the prince. All these sites and future projects will offer hundreds of thousands of jobs for Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Africans and Asians, but not Syrians, who are controlled by Iran. Tehran has opted for confrontation rather than being an integral partner such as Turkey. Riyadh is preoccupied with using its army and diplomacy to prevent the collapse of regional security. People aspire to a decent quality of life - all regimes incapable of providing that must leave and not return.

Special Envoys and Crises
Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Al Awsat/May 04/16
The sight of special envoys flocking to the region to resolve its crises is not a reason for optimism. Their presence in itself is an indication that local parties are unable to solve their own problems and have resorted to the international community for help and therefore the crisis becomes internationalised.
Currently there are four UN envoys in the region and three are dealing with post-Arab Spring crises and wars. They are the UN envoys to Syria, Libya and Yemen. We do not hear a lot about the fourth envoy, his crisis is an old one that dates back to the colonial period – the Sahara issue. The number of envoys to the region shows the scale of the crisis, turmoil and recent chaos. Syria is the largest crisis in the region, and it seems that even the great powers which have become party to it are unable to arrive at a solution. The US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement that the civil war there has become out of control in a number of ways indicates surrender to what is happening on the ground and the state of despair that has led to the brutal and horrific situation. The least internationalised crisis is in Yemen due to the fact that regional parties led by Saudi Arabia are preventing the situation from spiralling out of control. The UN envoy to Yemen Ould Cheikh succeeded in gathering the warring parties in Kuwait, and despite Houthi violations and manoeuvres, there is reason to believe that a solution can be found in the future.
Libya is a different issue; there is no fighting or an internal war in the literal sense, but there is an attempt to restore militias and insurgents to government and remove ISIS supporters from oil fields. The goal of the international community is to stop boats of migrants crossing the sea and fight ISIS terrorism.
Crises feed each other and terrorism has become transnational. ISIS came out of the womb of the remnants of the Iraqi Ba’ath regime and then moved to Syria. It is now trying to expand in Libya in an effort to procure financial resources from oil smuggling. Internal crises create chaos, as happened in the Iraqi parliament recently and that pushed an MP to ask “Do you want us to be like Libya’s parliament which meets in Tobruk, hundreds of miles from the capital which the international community – backed government is trying to impose its control over?”All parties are worried. If the Libyan government came from Tunisia, then most politicians in Iraq came via planes from the neighbourhoods of west London. We do not know where the rest of the governments came from, and this is why we appeal to the international parties to resolve their conflicts in the region. It has been proven that the most complex and serious crises can be resolved through direct negotiations and sitting face to face, as Sadat did with Israel after four wars. The two countries made a peace agreement that still stands today and is considered one of the elements of the current regional system. Had Sadat relied on international envoys, Sinai would have remained in the hands of Israel to this day, just like the Golan Heights.
Syria is the centre of the crisis now, and reaching a solution there will result in the same happening in other inflammatory pits like Libya. Some fear that something worse than ISIS that will benefit from the remains and remnants of the Baathist regime will be born in Libya.
The two main parties, Washington and Moscow, need political will in order to resolve the crisis. However, to say that the situation is uncontrollable is unconvincing. The two main parties must detangle a complex web of strings, like Iranian interference and Hezbollah, that make the crisis difficult. Then they must address the Kurdish topic wisely to break up the scuffle with Turkey in the crisis. Washington and Moscow possess the tools and the ability to solve the situation.

Suddenly Russia consents to consider Assad’s ouster
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 04/16
Washington and Moscow have made dramatic progress over the last few days in marathon telephone talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on ending the war in Syria. Russia agreed for the first time to discuss the possibility that Syrian President Bashar Assad will step down, and the conditions under which such a process will take place, according to debkafile’s intelligence sources. The sources add that the Russians also agreed to begin to negotiate the future of senior Syrian military commanders who are carrying out the war against the rebels. The contacts that include the Saudis and the Jordanians have reached such an advanced stage that participants have started to prepare lists of Syrian commanders who will be removed or remain in their posts. One of the clearest signs of the progress was the arrival of nearly all of the heads and commanders of the Syrian rebel organizations on Monday and Tuesday (May 2-3) for intensive talks at the US Central Command Forward-Jordan, a war room outside Amman staffed by officers from the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The gathering was arranged via a series of meetings held in Geneva over the last few days between the top diplomats of the US, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Our sources report that US officials and senior officers in charge of the Obama administration’s strategy for the war in Syria presented the rebel leaders and commanders with a series of agreements already reached by Washington and Moscow on ways of ending the war. The main part of the agreement focused on the resignation of Assad and the departure of him and his family from the country-the Syrian opposition’s key demand for continuing the talks. The rebel leaders were asked by the US officials and officers, who were accompanied by Saudi and Jordanian officials, to help facilitate implementation of the agreed measures and not to try to interfere with them, or in other words, to stop the fighting. According to the information from our sources, the discussions in Jordan are continuing. Washington’s current goal is achieve a ceasefire in all of Syria that will prevent an imminent attack by Russian, Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah forces on Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city. Our military sources report that on Monday and Tuesday, by order of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian air force suddenly halted its airstrikes in the Aleppo area. Thus, the Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah armies are preparing to launch their assault without the air support needed to capture the city. Even though the Syrian air force can operate in an uninhibited manner in the Aleppo area, it is not up to a large-scale and decisive attack. No specific information is forthcoming for the Russian U-turn on Assad ousters in mid offensive for the recovery of Aleppo.
However Putin is prone to sudden zigzag in policies.