LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 07/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may07.16.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
No one has
ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/12-15:"If I have told you
about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you
about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in
him may have eternal life."
I have learned to be content
with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to
have plenty.
Letter to the Philippians 04/08-14:"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever
is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you
have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be
with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your
concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to
show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be
content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what
it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of
being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can
do all things through him who strengthens me. In any case, it was kind of you to
share my distress."
Pope Francis's Tweet For Today
Open letter to Lebanon’s Arab Shiite
communities/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
Israel and Saudi Arabia present united front over Iran deal/Richard Spencer &
Robert Tait/The Telegraph/May 05/16
The Failure of the Swedish Establishment/Nima Gholam Ali Pour/Gatestone
Institute/May 06/16
Turkey: "We Need a Religious Constitution"/Burak Bekdil//Gatestone Institute/May
06/16
What next after Muqtada al-Sadr/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
Iran and Sadr directing Iraq’s protests, sectarian conflict/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al
Arabiya/May 06/16
The challenges of the Saudi national transformation plan/Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/May
06/16
Israel on alert as threat of chemical warfare spreads/Brooklyn Middleton/Al
Arabiya/May 06/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 07/16
Lebanese Army: Will Show No Leniency
with Attempts to Disrupt Municipal Elections
Lebanese Army: Will Show No Leniency with Attempts to Disrupt Municipal
Elections
Beirut Madinati' Urges Heavy Turnout, Calls on Voters to Grab 'Historic
Jumblat: Why are Security Agencies Suddenly Silent over Illegal Internet?
U.S. Accuses Prominent Lebanese-Origin Panama Family of Money Laundering
Nasrallah: No Role for Iran in Presidential Issue, Saudi Blocking Peace in
Syria, Yemen
Lebanese Cabinet Postpones State Security Issue as Bassil Accuses OGERO Chief of
'Theft'
Report: Formal Request to Prosecute Ministry Employees in Illegal Internet File
Report: Senior Politician Anticipates 'Imminent' Election of a President
Three Injured in Bourj al-Barajneh as Assailants Open Fire from Vehicle
Several Hurt' as Riot Erupts in al-Qobbeh Prison
Open letter to Lebanon’s Arab Shiite communities
Kaag denies Syrian refugees' naturalization plan
Geagea, UCC delegation take up salary scale issue
Bassil meets with his Ivorian counterpart
Kahwaji on May 6 commemorations: Martyrs' blood shall remain beacon of Lebanon's
unity
Harb, Ras Nahash municipal delegation hold talks
Machnouk convenes with EU Ambassador, UNRWA Chief
Municipal list of Jounieh announced
Ras Baalbek electoral list declared in Ras Baalbek
Mukhtar list of 'Ashrafieh families' in solidarity' announced
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 07/16
London Elects First Muslim Mayor
Britain slams Russia for blocking UN condemnation of Aleppo fighting
Syria denies targeting camps, UN condemns “murderous attacks”
Rebels reportedly seize village near Aleppo, Syrian army denies
Syrian Regime Forces Prepare to End Prison Mutiny
Russia denies its planes behind Syria airstrike
Qatar FM Pushes Putin over Syria Fighting
Saudi FM: Assad breached all international pacts
Iran: man attempts suicide for not having $100 needed to be hospitalized
Iran: Call for revoking punishment of blinding a 31-year-old
120-nation NAM: US court violating law over Iran
Canada condemns attack on Syrian displaced persons camp
Canada and Jordan strengthen cooperation on security
Saudi policeman shot dead after Makkah raid
Hamas Says Not Seeking War but Will Fight Israeli Incursions
Fresh Israeli strikes against Hamas in Gaza
Libya militia scramble to halt ISIS advance
Al-Qaeda pulls out of two southern cities in Yemen
Germany Expects Turkey to Honor EU Migrants Pact after PM Exit
Links From
Jihad Watch Site for
May 07/16
Pope: “I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime”.
UK Muslima spread Islamic State propaganda and execution videos.
Islamic State seizes gas field near Palmyra.
Congo: Muslims slit Christians’ throats, thousands flee ongoing jihad violence.
Afghan film star gets death threats for being photographed without veil.
Robert Spencer, FP: Archbishop of Cologne: “Whoever Says ‘Yes’ to Church Towers
Must Also Say ‘Yes’ to Minarets”.
Trump to Israel: Keep building settlements.
New Zealand: Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” threatens to slit man’s throat.
The children I met in Syria…they were educated to hate Jews”.
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: D.C. ‘Terror Analyst’ Still Thinks Muslim
Brotherhood ‘Firewall Against Violent Extremism’.
Video: IDF discovers CAIR-linked Hamas terror tunnel inside Israel.
SC cops “shocked” Islamic State-inspired Muslim teen gets parole.
Germany: “Sharia police” to face trial.
You have no respect of our religion, and we have come for your life today”.
Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 0616
Lebanese Army: Will Show No Leniency
with Attempts to Disrupt Municipal Elections
Naharnet/May 06/16/The Lebanese army said on Friday that it took the needed
security measures to help the smooth operation of the upcoming municipal
elections in Beirut and Bekaa-al-Hermel, the Army Command Orientation
Directorate said in a statement on Friday.“On the occasion of holding the
municipal and mayoral elections that are set to be held in Beirut and Bekaa on
May 8, army units have deployed in these two governorates to ensure the safety
of the electoral process, and enable the citizens to safely and democratically
express their views at the ballot boxes,” said the statement. The army's
leadership also called on the citizens to “fully cooperate with these measures
and urged them to report to the nearest police station of any security
incident.”The four-stage municipal elections will start in Beirut and
Bekaa-al-Hermal 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.
Hariri Meets Rahi, Talks
Highlight Need to End Presidential Vacuum
Naharnet/May 06/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri met with Maronite
Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Friday in Bkirki where talks touched on the
necessity to end the presidential vacuum. “The Patriarch did not name anyone for
the post of the presidency. He is democratic and urges all parties not to
obstruct the election process and to attend the parliament session to elect a
head of state,” said Hariri after the meeting. “There are two candidates running
for the presidential race and we have to attend the parliament session to elect
one of them,” he added.
“The lawmakers as well as the candidates for the presidential race (Marada chief
MP Suleiman Franjieh and MP Michel Aoun) must go to the parliament to elect a
president,” he stressed. The Mustaqbal chief accused Hizbullah of obstructing
the elections. Later during the day, Hariri held a meeting with Grand Mufti of
the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan at Dar al-Fatwa. Talks focused on the
municipal elections and the latest developments in the region. Several March 8
lawmakers including Aoun and Franjieh have been boycotting the sessions which
have totaled to 38 failed ones. Lebanon has been without a president since the
term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. Conflicts among the rival
March 8 and March 14 alliances have thwarted attempts aiming at electing a
successor.
Beirut Madinati' Urges Heavy
Turnout, Calls on Voters to Grab 'Historic Chance'
The Beirut Madinati list of candidates on Friday urged a heavy turnout in the
capital's municipal polls that will be held on Sunday, calling on voters to
“seize the historic chance to change the fate of our city.”“Following eight
months of work and hope, we have managed to impose ourselves as serious
contenders through a rhetoric and an approach that have elevated political
action and obliged the rival lists to run according to electoral platforms,” the
head of the list, Ibrahim Mneimneh, said at a press conference. “Beirut Madinati
has proved that it is a list of independents whose free decision stems from the
people's will and who are committed to achieving the public interest, despite
the malicious campaigns, rumors and lies that have been launched against us,”
Mneimneh added. Slamming the rival Beirutis List, which is backed by al-Mustaqbal
movement and several parties that are represented in the government, Beirut
Madinati warned that “such alliances that bring together the contradictions of
the ruling class have proved their total failure throughout the years.”“These
contradictions will explode anew should this ruling class seize control of the
municipal council,” the list cautioned. “Today, we are before a historic chance
to change the fate of our city and we call on the Lebanese Association for
Democratic Elections and the relevant Lebanese judicial authorities to confront
any attempt to tamper with the impartiality of the electoral process,” Beirut
Madinati added. Arabic for "Beirut is my city", Beirut Madinati is a civic
campaign of 24 candidates, equally split between men and women, and Muslims and
Christians. The list will face the formidable challenge of breaking through the
country's entrenched political class in a bid to win all 24 seats in the
capital's municipal council. The campaign was founded in 2015 shortly after the
closure of Lebanon's largest trash dump in Naameh, which sparked protests to
demand not only an end to the growing piles of waste, but an overhaul of
paralyzed government institutions. Beirut Madinati seized on that frustration to
put together a 10-point platform -- the campaign's magnum opus and a rallying
call for young voters.
It includes plans to improve public transport in the notoriously traffic-ridden
city, introduce more green spaces, make housing affordable and, of course,
implement a lasting waste management solution. The platform was developed by
consulting residents of Beirut through open-houses and neighborhood visits, and
"is centered around the daily life of the person, the citizen," says candidate
Rana Khoury.
Jumblat: Why are Security
Agencies Suddenly Silent over Illegal Internet?
Naharnet/May 06/16/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat wondered
on Friday where the equipment that had been planted on illegal internet stations
had disappeared to in wake of the parliamentary telecommunications committee's
revelation that they had been removed by unknown sides before investigators were
able to inspect them. He noted via Twitter the “sudden silence of the security
agencies, intelligence bureau, army intelligence, and General Security” on the
illegal internet issue. “These are the same agencies that used to compete with
each other to uncover Israeli agents, but why are they silent now?”“The case may
not be part of the General Security's jurisdiction, but what about the Internal
Security Forces Intelligence Bureau?”He also wondered: “Why is it that a certain
powerful minister has been absent from the telecommunications committee
meeting?”The PSP chief hailed the committee on its efforts, particularly those
of MP Hassan Fadlallah, in following up on the illegal internet file.
Furthermore, Jumblat asked how the army was lured into joining to the illegal
network. “Is there such a great security breach that prevents the judiciary from
uncovering the truth and who are these security and political powers” that are
capable of such a feat? he continued. He condemned the “rampant corruption” at
all institutions, noting that this time it is taking place “at the expense of
national security.”“This is a major scandal,” he tweeted. Fadlallah vowed on
Thursday that the judiciary will continue on investigating the case of the
illegal internet, stressing that this issue will not be victim of a political
cover-up. He revealed that Israel had set up some equipment on the illegal
internet stations that were discovered earlier this year, adding that this
equipment was dismantled before inspectors could reach them. Telecommunications
Minister Butros Harb revealed last month that around four illegal internet
stations have been proven to exist in the mountainous terrains of al-Dinnieh,
Ayoun al-Siman, Faqra and Zaarour. Suspects involved in the case are believed to
be associated with the state-owned OGERO were arrested over possible links to
the networks. Harb said Thursday that eight people have so far been detained
following the investigations. Early in March, the parliamentary media committee
unveiled what it described as a “mafia” that are taking advantage of internet
services by installing internet stations that are not subject to the state
control. The owners of these stations are buying international internet
bandwidth with nominal cost from Turkey and Cyprus which they are selling back
to Lebanese subscribers at reduced prices.
U.S. Accuses Prominent
Lebanese-Origin Panama Family of Money Laundering
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 06/16/The United States has named Panama's
prominent Waked family, who run a large luxury goods, duty-free shop and real
estate business, as a major drug money-laundering organization. The move placed
top members of the Lebanese-origin family and their businesses -- including the
Grupo Wisa and La Riviera luxury goods groups, the Balboa Bank and Trust, and
two top newspapers -- on the U.S. sanctions blacklist. The move locks them out
of doing business with Americans and freezes their U.S. assets. The Waked group
"uses trade-based money-laundering schemes, such as false commercial invoicing;
bulk cash smuggling; and other money laundering methods, to launder drug
proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers and their
organizations," the U.S. Treasury Department said. The Treasury named Abdul
Mohamed Waked Fares, 66, and Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum, 36, as co-leaders of the
"Waked Money Laundering Organization". Waked Fares is a national of Panama,
Colombia and Lebanon, and Waked Hatum is a national of Spain, Colombia and
Panama. Six others named for participating in the money-laundering operations
included three brothers of Waked Hatum and a son of Waked Fares. Two others were
attorneys that the Treasury said help the Waked group set up shell companies.
Panama Attorney General Kenia Porcell Diaz said Thursday that the government was
cooperating with U.S. authorities in the action. "We will ensure justice is
served by the people of Panama. This investigation further strengthens our
efforts and resolve to vigorously attack criminal activity in Panama so that the
rule of law prevails," he said in a statement. The country's chief banking
superintendent said that his office had seized control of Balboa Bank "in our
overriding interest in protecting the best interest of depositors."The Waked
family is well-known for its La Riviera chain of duty free shops and retail
makeup and perfume stores stretching from Mexico to Uruguay. It also operates
boutiques for top European brands like Mango, Burberry and YSL, and has
developed a new $350 million luxury shopping, residential and hotel complex,
Soho Panama, in downtown Panama City, which was to include a Ritz Carlton
Hotel.The group also controls the newspapers El Siglo and La Estrella. According
to an interview with Waked Fares in Travel Markets Insider magazine last year,
the group employs more than 5,500 people in the region . All the main businesses
associated with the family were placed on the sanctions blacklist, which
effectively aims to shut them out of the global financial system. But the
Treasury also announced "special licenses" or exceptions to the sanctions rules
that will allow some, including the newspapers, to continue operating with
restrictions. Some, such as for the businesses in the Soho Mall, give them time
to wind down operations and clear contracts outstanding.
Nasrallah: No Role for Iran
in Presidential Issue, Saudi Blocking Peace in Syria, Yemen
Naharnet/May 06/16/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Friday that
Iran will not play any role in Lebanon's presidential elections as he accused
Saudi Arabia of seeking to torpedo the Syrian and Yemeni peace talks. “There is
nothing new regarding the presidential issue and the accusations that Hizbullah
is obstructing the elections have not stopped,” said Nasrallah in a televised
address during a ceremony organized by the Hizbullah-affiliated Islamic
Resistance Support Organization. “We do not want to engage in an exchange of
tirades with anyone. Those who want the elections to happen must know that part
of the solution is in Saudi Arabia and the other part is here in Lebanon,”
Nasrallah added. “Do not count on Iran's stances and you better negotiate with
the relevant parties,” he went on to say, referring to Free Patriotic Movement
founder MP Michel Aoun, his main Christian ally. Lebanon has been without a
president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, the
FPM and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions,
demanding a prior agreement on the president's identity. Al-Mustaqbal movement
leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Riyadh, launched late in 2015 an
initiative to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the
presidency but his move was met with reservations from the country's main
Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Separately, Nasrallah underlined “the
importance of the municipal polls” that will kick off on Sunday, describing
municipalities as “mini-governments.”“Effective participation is needed in the
municipal elections and there should not be any approach of despair,” he said.
Turning to the situation in the region, Hizbullah's leader accused Saudi Arabia
of “intensifying its contacts with “A key prince from the ruling family met
today with Zionist figures. These contacts have started to surface and in Saudi
Arabia they are preparing the atmosphere for boosting the contacts with Israel,”
he alleged. Nasrallah also accused Riyadh of seeking to undermine the Geneva and
Kuwait peace talks that are aimed at resolving the Syrian and Yemeni crises.
“Saudi Arabia is exerting efforts to escalate the situation on the ground in
Yemen rather than to preserve the ceasefire. As for Syria, Saudi Arabia is
strongly pushing for undermining all kinds of ceasefires, especially in Aleppo,”
he charged.“Saudi Arabia is trying to torpedo the negotiations in order to
achieve its goals. In Kuwait, it is trying to impose surrender terms but the
Yemeni answer was clear: 'We came here to negotiate, not to surrender,'”
Nasrallah added. “In Geneva, the Syrian opposition delegation that is
subordinate to Riyadh procrastinates then goes to the negotiations and says,
'Cede power to us.' If these mercenaries rise to power, will they be able to
prevent the fall of Syria into the hands of (al-Qaida-linked) al-Nusra (Front)
and Daesh (Islamic State group)?,” Nasrallah went on to say. Referring to the
Syrian regime, Yemen's Huthi rebels and their allies, Hizbullah's chief stressed
that “those who have been fighting in Yemen for a year now and those who fought
for five years in Syria are not willing to surrender or to put their lives at
the mercy of al-Qaida and al-Nusra.”
Lebanese Cabinet Postpones State Security Issue as Bassil Accuses OGERO Chief of
'Theft'
Naharnet/May 06/16/The cabinet on Thursday postponed discussing the thorny issue
of the State Security agency as Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil reportedly
accused OGERO chief Abdul Menhem Youssef of “theft.”“There is theft in the
internet issue and Abdul Menhem Youssef is the culprit,” MTV quoted Bassil as
saying during the session. The minister alleged the presence of “a suspicious
contract worth over 100 billion Lebanese pounds between OGERO and the
Telecommunications Ministry,” MTV said. Telecom Minister Boutros Harb meanwhile
called on the cabinet to “postpone the debate over the OGERO and internet files
until after the municipal polls,” the TV network added. “Bassil, (Health
Minister Wael) Abou Faour and the ministers of Hizbullah have been calling for
putting the OGERO file on the cabinet's agenda for a month now to no avail,” MTV
said. Earlier in the day, MP Hassan Fadlallah, the head of the parliamentary
media and telecommunications committee, vowed that the judiciary will continue
investigating the case of illegal internet providers, stressing that the case
will not witness a political cover-up. “All low- and high-ranking officials
linked to the case will be held accountable,” he said. Harb had revealed last
month that around four illegal internet stations were operating in the
mountainous terrains of Dinniyeh, Oyoun al-Siman, Faqra and Zaarour. Suspects
involved in the case and accused of being associated with state-owned OGERO
Telecom have been arrested over possible links to the networks. Early in March,
the parliamentary media and telecommunications committee unveiled what it
described as a “mafia” that is taking advantage of internet services by
installing Internet stations that are not subject to state control. The owners
of these stations were reportedly buying international internet bandwidth with
nominal cost from Turkey and Cyprus which they sold back to Lebanese subscribers
at reduced prices. Ministerial sources had predicted that disputes among
officials would renew over the contentious issue of the general-directorate of
State Security. The dispute centers on the budget of the agency and differences
between its director Major General George Qaraa and his deputy Brigadier General
Mohammed al-Tufaili. The disagreements between the two officials have started to
take on a sectarian turn amid differences between Tourism Minister Michel
Pharaon and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil. Pharaon supports Qaraa, a Greek
Catholic, and Khalil supports Tufaili, who enjoys the backing of several
ministers, including Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Akram Shehayyeb, and Wael Abou Faour.
In March, the Kataeb Party’s three representatives in the cabinet, in addition
to Pharaon, warned that they would take action if the government fails to
resolve the “marginalization” of the general-directorate of State Security. "The
siege laid on this agency is unjustified," said Pharaon.Economy Minister Alain
Hakim of the Kataeb Party had said at the time that all Christians reject the
neglect of the department. The general-directorate of State Security had sent a
bill to the cabinet on March 20, 2014 asking for the creation of a six-member
leadership authority under which Qaraa would have the casting vote. But the
former secretary general of the cabinet, Suhail Bouji, paralyzed the plan by
saying that the approval of the bill requires a draft-law to be adopted by the
parliament unlike a decision made by the Shura Council, the report said. Media
reports quoted a ministerial source as saying that Bouji’s move likely came as a
result of his friendship with Tufaili.
Report: Formal Request to Prosecute
Ministry Employees in Illegal Internet File
Naharnet/May 06/16/The Financial General Prosecutor sent Thursday afternoon a
request related to the illegal internet file to Telecommunications Minister
Butros Harb asking for permission to pursuit some of the employees at his
ministry, particularly OGERO employees, after the minister objected to the form
addressed earlier, al-Joumhouria daily quoted prominent judicial sources on
Friday. During a parliamentary media committee meeting on Thursday, Harb noted
that the request to prosecute some of the staff at his ministry did not respect
the norms nor did it include the necessary investigations on which he can build
his decision upon.Nevertheless, he expressed willingness to help in the
prosecution of any employee found to be involved. The judicial sources, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The investigations in the case are based
on clear and identical confessions. There are many facts which called for the
prosecution of employees, including managers in order to build the
investigations.” The Financial General Prosecution had requested that the
Telecommunications Ministry prosecute OGERO telecommunication company chief
Abdul Moneim Youssef as a suspect in the case. Youssef however is in Paris where
he underwent heart surgery and has been ordered by his doctor to rest, said the
minister. Harb revealed last month that around four illegal internet stations
have been proven to exist in the mountainous terrains of al-Dinnieh, Ayoun al-Siman,
Faqra and Zaarour. Suspects involved in the case and believed to be associated
with the state-owned OGERO were arrested over possible links to the networks.
Early in March, the parliamentary media committee unveiled what it described as
a “mafia” that are taking advantage of internet services by installing internet
stations that are not subject to the state control. The owners of these stations
are buying international internet bandwidth with nominal cost from Turkey and
Cyprus which they are selling back to Lebanese subscribers at reduced prices.
Report: Senior Politician Anticipates
'Imminent' Election of a President
Naharnet/May 06/16/A prominent Lebanese
official said that it is likely for the Lebanese to “sleep one day to wake up
and find that a president has been elected,” As Safir daily reported on Friday.
“I am certain that we are now slowly approaching the end of the vacuum at the
top state post. The coming summer could be a stage of setting the foundation for
the election of a president next autumn,” said the senior politician on
condition of anonymity. “Trust me...we might sleep one day and wake up to find
that we have a president,” he stated. The unnamed official justified his
optimism based on information affirming that the stalemate in the presidential
elections has become the focal point of discussions at the local and
international levels. “It has become a topic of discussion in internal and
external meetings. It is being approached in multinational languages: American,
Russian, French, Papal and German… through the two mandatory languages of Saudi
Arabia and Persian,” he stated. Lebanon has been without a president since the
term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014. Conflicts among the rival
March 8 and March 14 alliances have thwarted attempts aiming at electing a
successor.
Three Injured in Bourj al-Barajneh
as Assailants Open Fire from Vehicle
Naharnet/May 06/16/Three people from the same family were injured in Beirut's
southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh when gunmen in a moving vehicle opened fire
at them, the National News Agency said on Friday. Unknown assailants in a
vehicle opened fire from a pump-action rifle, which led to the injury of three
people from the al-Annan family, NNA said. Jamal al-Annan and his two children
Mohammed and Hassan were injured in Bourj al-Barajneh's neighborhood of Ain al-Sikkeh.
They were taken to the hospital and their health condition was reported as
stable. Police opened an investigation into the case and took the necessary
measures to remove the armed presence that emerged in the area after the
incident.
Several Hurt' as Riot Erupts in al-Qobbeh
Prison
Naharnet/May 06/16/Several inmates were injured Friday evening as a riot broke
out in the al-Qobbeh Prison in the northern city of Tripoli, media reports said.
“A riot has erupted inside al-Qobbeh Prison in Tripoli and a cell has went up in
flames on the prison's upper ward,” state-run National News Agency reported.
“Medics and firefighters headed to the site immediately and the Internal
Security Forces are trying to contain the situation,” NNA said. LBCI television
meanwhile reported that the blaze broke out in the wake of “a brawl between
inmates.” “Security forces are evacuating the wounded,” the TV network added.
Open letter to Lebanon’s Arab Shiite
communities
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
People often question why the Arab world, in particular, is in such a mess. The
fact is that so many of our problems have been triggered by the interference of
foreign powers eager to dominate this strategically-located and resource-rich
area. The Ottomans, the British and the French carved-up the region separating
tribes and families with borders. The international community rubber-stamped the
theft of Palestinian land, igniting a series of Arab-Israeli wars. As for
Lebanon, it inherited a “confessional” system of governance which in itself is
separating rather than unifying encouraging sectarianism. More recently, US
military interventions in Iraq and Libya have fomented sectarian tensions while
opening the door to terrorists of all ugly stripes. Worse, the Obama
administration has enriched, empowered and emboldened Iran, that has boasted of
its control of Arab capitals, with a stroke of a pen, thus making our region a
more dangerous place than ever.
Arabs have been used as pawns of foreign powers which have only one goal which
is self interest. If we Arabs had stood tall and together instead of submitting
or, in some cases, shaking hands with foreign states, our neighbourhood would
look very different today. Admittedly, in the past we lacked the financial and
military wherewithal to resist outside interference. But that is changing fast
thanks to the leadership of Saudi Arabia that is consolidating its allies into a
powerful military, economic and diplomatic bloc. The question is this. Where do
the Lebanese stand; with Persians vying to become a regional hegemonic power or
with their fellow Arabs? Are you with us or against us? The choice should be no
contest when Iran’s Arab populations are severely oppressed and excluded from
the mainstream; denied being taught Arabic in schools, excluded from top jobs
and even forbidden from giving their newborns Arabic names.
Make no mistake, Hezbollah owes its creation and pays it allegiance to the
ayatollahs. Its 1985 Manifesto clearly states the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini –
the former Supreme Leader of Iran – is the leader whose “orders we obey”, calls
on Christians to “embrace Islam” and supports Lebanon becoming an Shiite State.
The manifesto may have been revised and softened by Hassan Nasrallah in 2009 to
have a broader appeal but who is he kidding? His organisation is bought,
paid-for and armed by Tehran.
Hezbollah is Lebanese in name only. It is nothing short of a tool wielded by a
foreign state clothed as a Lebanese resistance. It is a resistance alright; it
resists the rights of the Lebanese people whether Sunni, Shiite, Christian or
Druze, to live in an open, free, secure and prosperous society. It alienates
Lebanon’s natural Arab allies, has infiltrated the country’s army and insists on
its pick for president. Moreover, it dragged Lebanon into war with Israel in
2006 and into supporting the Assad regime responsible for the death of over
400,000 Syrian people.
The bottom line is that no amount of aid pumped into Lebanon will make a
difference. Lebanon’s economy would boom without the insecurity and instability
Hezbollah delivers
I understand the reaction of some of my Lebanese friends to Saudi Arabia’s
freeze on $4bn aid to the military and security serves. They complain they have
been abandoned to Iran whereas, in truth, as long as Hezbollah keeps its grip
instilling fear in the hearts of political and military leaders, Lebanon will
remain a toy in the Iranian pocket. The Kingdom could no longer buy into the
pretence that Lebanese decision makers do not have tied hands, or that the
patriotic Lebanese are the ones in charge. If they were, the country would have
a president, a budget and there would be no rivers of garbage threatening the
health of citizens. Anyone who believes anything different has been duped by a
prettied-up façade.
The bottomline is that no amount of aid pumped into Lebanon will make a
difference. Lebanon’s economy would boom without the insecurity and instability
Hezbollah delivers. This entity must be defeated by all means. Without another
civil war, which no Lebanese citizen wants to even contemplate, saving Lebanon
and bringing it back to the Arab fold lies in the hands of our Lebanese Shiite
brothers and sisters, who I know from personal experience are generous,
hospitable and proud to call themselves Lebanese.
Proud Lebanese
You, my friends, are your country’s salvation. Without support from sections of
your community, Hezbollah would wither and fade away. I have known you since the
late 1960s when I visited Lebanon with no penny in my pocket. I was welcomed by
the Wazni family and other kind Lebanese Shiites. The Shiites I have known were
passionate in their love of country and they count as some of my closest
friends. They are proud Lebanese and proud Arabs. I do not want to see the day
my grandchildren are forced to speak Farsi and neither do they. There is no
escaping from our blood lines, our DNA or our history. We are a different race
from the Persians. We do not share the same traditions or culture. I wish all
Lebanese Shiites thought the same way and hope with all my heart that those
connected to or are in support of Nasrallah or his second-in-command Naim Qassem
will see the light before Lebanon is viewed as an Iranian satellite, a foe of
the Arab world. I have so many wonderful memories bound up with my stays in
Lebanon and I have always felt a strong emotional tie to this land of amazing
natural beauty and its beautifully-hearted people. I know that I am not alone.
Many Arab nationals of GCC States feel exactly the same. Believe me, were
Hezbollah to collapse, the country would be flooded with new investment,
businesses, banks and, of course, tourists! Lebanon would open its petals to
flower again just as it did in the 50s, 60s and early 70s.
Reject Hezbollah’s propaganda and lies. Its Iranian roots will never change. Its
leaders may have been born in Lebanon but they have forfeited the right to call
themselves Arabs. And as known drug dealers, money launderers, diamond smugglers
and terrorists, both within Lebanon and without, they have forfeited their
honour and are undeserving of any respect.
I am asking Lebanese Shiites to do what is right. Lebanon is badly injured and
is bleeding politically, geopolitically and economically. Our arms are open to
you. Come back to us and reclaim your Arab identity; not behind closed doors or
in whispers. Have the courage to shout your rejection of what the Iranian
Hezbollah stands for from the hilltops, in the squares and in the streets – and,
rest assured, that in no time, we will be by your side to lift you out of this
down spiral before Lebanon, like several of its neighbours, are in need of
intensive care.
Kaag denies Syrian refugees'
naturalization plan
Fri 06 May 2016/NNA - The Special Coordinator of the Secretary General of the
United Nations in Lebanon Sigrid Kaag denied on Friday "any Syrian refugees'
naturalization plan in Lebanon". Kaag said that the Syrian refugees' aspire to
return to their country. "A political solution to the crisis in Syria is
required". On the other hand, Kaag stressed that "the Security Council is
exerting efforts to keep Lebanon on the agenda of the UN in order to achieve
swiftly the presidential deadline". "We see that the decision to elect a
president is a pure Lebanese choice," she told the 'Voice of Lebanon' radio. She
held the Lebanese officials responsible for the delay, adding "it is a need to
elect a president and Lebanon is a democratic country and democracy is important
to the UN and Security Council", Kaag emphasized. Kaag stressed the need to rely
on the Constitution. Asked whether the coming president would be Deputy Michel
Aoun, Deputy Sleiman Franjieh or a consensual president, she said "I am not a
fortuneteller and this is not the role of the United Nations". Kaag pointed that
"peace and stability are priority to prevent the collapse of the institutions in
Lebanon". On another note, Kaag hoped that the coming municipal elections would
succeed, asserting "it is an opportunity to think of a future political map".
She hoped that the municipal elections would pave the way to hold the
parliamentary polls.
Geagea, UCC delegation take
up salary scale issue
Fri 06 May 2016/NNA - Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met on Friday with a
delegation of the Union Coordination Committee (UCC), where they discussed the
issue of salary and ranks' scale. On emerging, Geagea saluted the tireless
efforts by the UCC and their scientific and tranquil manner in which the Union
is addressing the salary scale issue. Geagea called for including the salary
scale on the agenda of the first parliamentary legislative session even if it
was meant to be for the legislation of necessity. He stressed the pressing need
to address this issue seriously once and for all and find the requisite solution
to it.
Bassil meets with his Ivorian
counterpart
Fri 06 May 2016 at 17:40/NNA - Foreign and Expatriates Minister Jibran Bassil
held on Friday at the sidelines of Expatriate Energy Conference a number of
bilateral meetings, notably with Ivorian Foreign Minister Abdullah Toacos Mabry,
and Liberian Trade and Industry Minister Axel Addy.
Kahwaji on May 6
commemorations: Martyrs' blood shall remain beacon of Lebanon's unity
Fri 06 May 2016 at 20:33/NNA - Army Commander General Jean Kahwaji saluted on
Martyrs' Day on May 6 the souls of fallen martyrs of the Lebanese army and
press, who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Lebanon's sovereignty,
independence and stability. "The blood of our fallen martyrs shall remain the
first beacon of Lebanon and the Lebanese people's unity and their adherence to
their heroic army," General Kahwaji said. The General also paid tribute to the
press martyrs, reiterating demand to render May 6 a national holiday in light of
its noble national dimensions which has to be marked by all the Lebanese.
Kahwaji, Karaa tackle
security situation
Fri 06 May 2016 at 17:15/NNA
- Army Commander, General Jean Kahwaji, received on Friday in his office head of
State Security apparatus, Brigadier George Karaa, with talks reportedly touching
on the security situation and cooperation between the two institutions.
Harb, Ras Nahash municipal
delegation hold talks
Fri 06 May 2016/NNA - Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb received on
Friday at his ministerial office a municipal delegation from Ras Nahash and al-Heri.
The delegation tackled with Harb the issue of Ogero General Director Abdel
Moneim Youssef and the campaign against him. "We are with the honest judiciary.
We refuse to politicize this case because Youssef is a scientific and technical
person and a source of pride for Lebanon," Kamil Mrad chairing the delegation
confirmed. On the other hand, Harb opened an investigation into the return of
one of the employees who worked at the Telecommunications Ministry and was
accused of communicating with Israel, in 2009, through the Barouk Mountain and
about his involvement in 2009 of embezzling and stealing some equipment. It is
worth to note that the convicted employee has returned to work in 2010 without
taking the necessary legal and administrative measures. Harb assigned both the
Directorate General of Investment and Maintenance and Ogero to file a report on
this matter to take appropriate measures. Harb has received a copy of the
investigations conducted by the Financial Public Prosecution coupled with a
request for permission to prosecute some of the staff at the Ministry of
Telecommunications, namely Abdel Moneim Youssef, Tawfiq Shabaro and Gaby Samira.
Machnouk convenes with EU
Ambassador, UNRWA Chief
Fri 06 May 2016 at 17:02/NNA - Interior Minister, Nohad Machnouk, met on Friday
with EU Ambassador to Lebanon, Christina Lassen, with talks focusing on means of
bolstering cooperation between Lebanon and the EU in combating terrorism. Lassen
told the press afterwards that she appreciated the professional level adopted in
preparing for municipal elections. "We believe this is a step towards preserving
the work of institutions."The Ambassador also congratulated Machnouk on the work
of his ministry in fighting terrorism. Machnouk also convened with UNRWA Chief,
Matthias Schmale. The men discussed the repercussions of the financial crisis
UNRWA was facing and its effects on Palestinian refugees.
Municipal list of Jounieh
announced
Fri 06 May 2016/NNA - Municipal "Renewal" list of Jounieh was announced on
Friday afternoon chaired by Fouad Boueri and the following members: Toufiq Matar,
Fawzi Baroud, Silvio Chiha, Ziad Shayeb, Joseph Bashir, Charbel Bou Lahdo, Rabih
Buweiz, Rodrigue Finianos, George Aoudi, George Baayno, Francois Abi Nakhoul,
Fadi Fayyad, Nathalie Bou Karam, Isam Risha, George Abi Khalil, Tarek Ashkar and
Eddy Njeim. The Vice president, Fadi Fayyed listed the Municipal program of the
list.
Ras Baalbek electoral list declared in Ras Baalbek
Fri 06 May 2016 at 19:46/NNA - The complete "Ras Baalbek" electoral list was
declared in the town of Ras Baalbek on Friday at the St Elian Church hall,
supported by former deputy Saoud Roufayel, Lebanese Forces, Free Patriotic
Movement, Communist Party and families, NNA reporter
Mukhtar list of 'Ashrafieh
families' in solidarity' announced
Fri 06 May 2016 at 18:49/NNA - The candidate running for the mukhtar elections
in Ashrafieh, Fouad Habib Haddad, announced the list of "Ashrafieh families' in
solidarity" during a popular rally held in Syoufi garden. The list included:
Elie Sabaa Flouti, Elias Robert Maamari, George Barjes Maalouf and Ibrahim Selim
Jabour.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 05/16
London Elects First Muslim Mayor
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 06/16/London became the first major Western
capital to elect a Muslim mayor on Friday as Labor claimed victory for its
candidate Sadiq Khan despite setbacks elsewhere in Britain for the main national
opposition party. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn hailed Khan's win over Conservative
Zac Goldsmith, after a bitter campaign in which Prime Minister David Cameron
sought to link Khan to Islamic extremists. "Congratulations Sadiq Khan. Can't
wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all!" Corbyn wrote on
Twitter ahead of the publication of final results. The race to replace the
charismatic Conservative Boris Johnson pitched Khan, the son of a bus driver and
a seamstress who emigrated from Pakistan in the 1960s, against Goldsmith, whose
father was a wealthy tycoon. Khan's victory offered some cheer for Corbyn after
Labor's performance in elections across Britain in the wake of a row over
anti-Semitism in the party failed to dispel questions over the veteran
socialist's leadership. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was among the first to
tweet his congratulations to "fellow affordable housing advocate, @SadiqKhan.
Look forward to working together!"Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo added on Twitter that
Khan's "humanity, progressivism will benefit Londoners."There was no immediate
reaction from Goldsmith, although his sister Jemima, the ex-wife of Pakistani
cricketer and politician Imran Khan, said Khan's victory was a "great example to
young Muslims."In reference to the negative tone of the race, she said her
brother's campaign "did not reflect who I know him to be -- an eco friendly,
independent-minded politician with integrity."The victory was also hailed in
Tooting, a multi-ethnic area of south London where Khan lives. "Sadiq Khan will
have a unifying factor because he is Muslim, an immigrant, he is from working
class, so he understands the working class people and he can associate with
them," said Shahzad Saddiqui, a local businessman.
Labor losses elsewhere -
Khan's party fared less well in other local and regional elections on Britain's
"Super Thursday", in which 45 million Britons were eligible to vote. For first
time in decades, Labor came third in elections for the devolved government in
Scotland, behind the Conservatives, in a vote won by the incumbent
pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP). The party retained its grip on
power in the Welsh assembly, although it lost one seat. But it failed to impress
in local elections in England. With results in from 115 out of 124 councils,
Labor had control of 57, down one, and 1,265 seats, down 19. Cameron's
Conservatives had control of an unchanged 31 councils and 708 seats, down 18.
Corbyn, who has faced opposition from centrists in his party since being elected
last year, insisted his party had "hung on" and surpassed expectations. But
critics point to the long tradition of opposition parties benefiting from
mid-term elections, and noted Labor had bucked that trend. Matthew Goodwin,
politics professor at Kent University, said the party was in "serious trouble."
"The Labor party is now third in Scotland for the first time since 1910 and it
has failed to make a serious impression in southern England," he said.
'Persuade not divide'
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will lead the separatist
party into its third successive government in Edinburgh, although the party lost
its outright majority. She announced she would lead a minority administration,
and played down talk of a fresh independence referendum to follow the
unsuccessful one in 2014. "The SNP will always make our case with passion, with
patience and with respect but our aim is to persuade not to divide," Sturgeon
said.
The other big story in Scotland was the success of the Scottish Conservatives,
who came second with 31 seats. The party has been deeply unpopular in Scotland
since the 1980s premiership of Margaret Thatcher but its fortunes have turned
around under current Scottish leader Ruth Davidson. Davidson is a charismatic
and openly gay 37-year-old whose cheery, no-nonsense style and proficient use of
social media has fueled her party's success. Cameron, who is grappling with deep
splits within his party ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership
of the European Union, said the party's showing across the elections was
"remarkable."
Britain slams Russia for blocking UN
condemnation of Aleppo fighting
AFP, United Nations Friday, 6 May 2016/Britain on Thursday slammed Russia for
blocking a UN Security Council statement condemning the Syrian military
offensive in the battleground city of Aleppo. The statement was circulated to
the 15-member council on Wednesday during an emergency meeting on Aleppo but was
dismissed by Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin as a “propaganda coup”. British
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Russia’s refusal to back the statement “speaks
volumes about their support for and protection of the Assad regime.”President
Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched an offensive in Aleppo on April 22 that they
said was aimed at flushing out jihadists. But the West has accused Damascus of
targeting civilians, hitting hospitals and markets. After air strikes hit a camp
of displaced Syrians near the Turkish border on Thursday, the British ambassador
called for more pressure to be exerted to rein in the Damascus regime. “It is
really high time for every member of the Security Council to use every last drop
of influence on the Assad regime to get them to respect the cessation of
hostilities and every other obligation under international humanitarian law,”
said Rycroft. At least 28 civilians, including women and children, were killed
Thursday in the bombing of the camp in Sarmada in Idlib province, which is
controlled by Syria’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front. The proposed statement
would have condemned the upsurge in Aleppo and attribute the violence to the
Syrian military offensive. Addressing the council on Wednesday, Syria’s Deputy
UN Ambassador Mounzer Mounzer insisted that regime forces were taking on terror
groups in Aleppo.“What the Syrian government has been doing in the city of
Aleppo is merely the fulfilment of its obligations to protect its citizens from
terrorism,” he said.
Syria denies targeting camps,
UN condemns “murderous attacks”
By Reuters Beirut/Geneva Friday, 6 May 2016/The Syrian military denied it had
conducted air strikes on camps near the Turkish border on Thursday which killed
at least 28 people, but the UN human rights chief said initial reports suggested
a government plane was responsible. The death toll from attack on the camp for
internally displaced people near the town of Sarmada included women and
children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and could rise further
because many people were seriously wounded. “There is no truth to reports...
about the Syrian air force targeting a camp for the displaced in the Idlib
countryside”, the Syrian military said in a statement on Friday carried by state
media. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein said the
attacks were almost certainly a deliberate war crime. “Given these tent
settlements have been in these locations for several weeks, and can be clearly
viewed from the air, it is extremely unlikely that these murderous attacks were
an accident,” Zeid said in a statement. “My staff, along with other
organizations, will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to research and
record evidence of what appears to be a particularly despicable and calculated
crime against an extremely vulnerable group of people,” he said. “Initial
reports suggest the attacks were carried out by Syrian Government aircraft, but
this remains to be verified.”Footage shared on social media showed rescue
workers putting out fires which still burned among charred tent frames, pitched
in a muddy field. White smoke billowed from smoldering ashes, and a burned and
bloodied torso could be seen. Sarmada lies about 30 km (20 miles) west of
Aleppo, where a cessation of hostilities brokered by Russia and the United
States had brought a measure of relief on Thursday. Zeid said most of the people
in the camps had been forced to flee their homes in Aleppo in February because
of sustained aerial attacks there. He said he was also alarmed about the
situation in Syria’s Hama central prison, where detainees had taken control of a
section of the prison and were holding some guards hostage. “Heavily armed
security forces are surrounding the prison and we fear that a possibly lethal
assault is imminent. Hundreds of lives are at stake, and I call on the
authorities to resort to mediation, or other alternatives to force,” Zeid said.
He urged governments on the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the
International Criminal Court so that there is “a clear path to punishment for
those who commit crimes like these”.
Rebels reportedly
seize village near Aleppo, Syrian army denies
Reuters, Beirut Friday, 6 May 2016/Rebels seized a village from government
forces near Aleppo overnight, a monitoring group and rebel sources said on
Friday, gaining important ground near the Syrian city where the United States
and Russia are trying to de-escalate the war. The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said 73 people had been killed in the battle for Khan Touman, some 15 km
(9 miles) southwest of Aleppo in a location near the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
While multiple rebel sources said it had been captured, a Syrian army source
denied Khan Touman had fallen. The attack was launched by an alliance of
insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front,
which has rejected diplomatic efforts to halt the war and promote peace talks.
The United States and Russia this week brokered a ceasefire in the city of
Aleppo itself, where some 300 people have been killed in the last two weeks in
government - and rebel-held areas as a result of air strikes and shelling.
“Throughout the night the battles were very intense,” said Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi,
a fighter from the Ajnad al-Sham group, one of the factions taking part in the
attack. “Areas south of Khan Touman have been liberated,” he told Reuters. The
Observatory said 43 of the dead were rebels and 30 were government forces.
Groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, which have mostly
supported diplomatic efforts in Syria, were not taking part in the attack, a
fighter from one Aleppo-based FSA group told Reuters.
Syrian Regime Forces Prepare to End
Prison Mutiny
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 06/16/Syria's regime deployed extra security
forces on Friday outside a prison in the central city of Hama in apparent
preparations to storm it and end a mutiny, a monitor said. "Security forces have
sent reinforcements to the prison with a view to storming it in case
negotiations fail" between the authorities and protesting detainees, the head of
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said. Syria's main
opposition group early Friday in a statement called on international
organizations "to intervene to prevent an imminent massacre" of prisoners. The
High Negotiations Committee urged the international community to "shoulder its
responsibilities" and stop the regime from carrying out "reprisals against the
detainees". The mutiny began on Monday, with some guards taken hostage after an
attempt to transfer detainees to the Saydnaya prison near Damascus. Syrian
activist group the Local Coordination Committees said security forces had been
surrounding the Hama prison for several days, and that 800 prisoners were
involved. It said they were protesting against dozens of prisoners being
sentenced to death and also against conditions inside the jail. Abdel Rahman
said the inmates were demanding trials and that they not be transferred to the
military-run Saydnaya prison, Abdel Rahman said. Authorities have released 46
prisoners since the protest began, the Observatory said. However, on Friday
water and power supplies to the prison remained cut off.
France on Friday warned of "deadly reprisals from the regime" to end the mutiny
and called on Damascus's allies to exert pressure "to avoid another massacre in
Syria". More than 200,000 people have spent time in regime prisons since 2011,
according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of
sources inside Syria for its information. Tens of thousands of political
detainees are reported to have died of torture, of which the Observatory says it
has verified 14,000 cases. More than 270,000 people have died in the Syrian
conflict since in started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests
in 2011.
Russia denies its planes behind
Syria airstrike
Fri 06 May 2016/NNA - Russia's military says no Russian or any other aircraft
made flights over the camp for displaced people in northern Syria where air
strikes left at least 28 people dead. Defense Ministry spokesman Igor
Konashenkov said on Friday in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that the
Russian military had closely studied data from an air space monitoring system
and determined that no aircraft had flown over the Sarmada camp on Wednesday or
Thursday. Konashenkov says the destruction seen on photographs and videos
suggested that the camp could have been shelled, whether intentionally or by
mistake, from multiple rocket launchers that the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syria
affiliate, has been using in the area. The camp in a rebel-held area near the
Turkish border was hit on Thursday. The attack killed at least 28 civilians,
including women and children.--AP
Qatar FM Pushes Putin over
Syria Fighting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 06/16/Qatar's Foreign Minister on Friday met
Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to pressure
Moscow after fighting in Syria's Aleppo threatened to sink peace efforts. "We
came here today to discuss possible ways to save the political process, to save
the civilian population," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told
journalists after the meeting, adding that he had brought a message from the
Emirate's leader "on the escalation in Aleppo.""We all need to unite efforts to
bring an end to the crisis and punish the guilty," he said in comments
translated into Russian. Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria to
back up the forces of its ally Syrian President Bashar Assad and is seen as one
of the key power brokers that can pressure Damascus to accept a negotiated
settlement.
Qatar supports Syrian rebels fighting Assad's regime in a conflict which has
killed more than 270,000 people since it began in March 2011.Fighting over the
past two weeks in the Syrian city of Aleppo has killed more than 280 civilians
after a truce deal between regime and moderate rebel forces unraveled. A fresh
48-hour ceasefire in the battleground city entered its second day on Friday,
allowing residents some respite.Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
that despite the differences between Russia and Qatar over the conflict they
both wanted to find a peaceful solution. "Despite all the nuances in our
approaches the main thing that unites us is striving to political resolution, a
resolution that will preserve Syria's territorial unity and sovereignty," Lavrov
told journalists.
Saudi FM: Assad breached all
international pacts
Saudi Gazette, Riyadh Friday, 6 May 2016/Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel
al-Jubeir said on Thursday that the practices being pursued by Syrian President
Bashar Al-Assad against his people, especially the deliberate strikes on
hospitals and civilians, have breached all international norms and treaties.
Addressing a joint press conference with the Foreign Minister of Norway Borg
Prendh at the ministry headquarters in Riyadh, Jubeir said Assad has not
committed himself to ceasefire or halting of hostile acts in line with the
directive of the UN Security Council. “Apart from this, he is continuing to
violate the UN agreement in order to provoke the opposition,” he said noting
that Saudi Arabia and the international community consider this as a criminal
act. Jubeir emphasized that complying with ceasefire is a commitment that should
be fulfilled so as to allow humanitarian relief to be delivered to Aleppo and
thus paving the way for the political process which enables the establishment of
a transitional government without any role for Assad. “This is a step that
guarantees the development of a democratic Syria,” Jubeir said adding that Saudi
Arabia favors Assad’s departure, which might come through political process or
through a military action. On his part, the Norwegian foreign minister said ISIS
has lost vast terrain in Syria and Iraq thanks to the recent victories of the
international coalition forces.
Iran: man attempts suicide for not
having $100 needed to be hospitalized
Thursday, 05 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI – Numerous
Iranian state-media outlets have reported a heartbreaking story on April 30 of a
45-year-old man committing suicide in a Tehran hospital. He had suffered extreme
stomach pains yet was not accepted into the hospital as his insurance booklet
had expired and he didn’t have the less than $100 cash needed to be
hospitalized. As he continued to suffer from his excruciating pains he threw
himself off the third floor and is currently in a coma. This man is married and
has two children under the age of 10. The state-run Hamshahri daily wrote on
April 30 that this incident took place last Friday in Tehran’s Milad Hospital.
Ali Shafie entered the hospital asking for medical care while suffering from
extreme pain, eyewitnesses reported. “My brother, Ali Shafie, began suffering
extreme pains in the stomach around Friday at noon, and he was on the ground
with the agonizing pain. He was transferred to Tehran with a vehicle and brought
to Milad Hospital. My showed his [insurance] booklet at the hospital, yet
officials said it is expired and he has to provide three million rials (around
$95). My brother said he is insured and the booklet was expired only a few days
ago, and they can run a check through their system,” said Shafie’s brother.
“However, the hospital officials simply would not back down. They were demanding
the three million rials. Neither my brother, nor those accompanying him, had the
money. He was suffering from such pains that he finally decided to throw himself
off the third floor.” Shafie suffered serious wounds after this incident and is
currently in a coma in intensive care. “For three million rials they forced my
brother into making such a decision. He is married, with two children under the
age of 10. Now they say he is in a coma. One person says he is brain dead, while
another says there is no hope for him,” his brother says with tears in his eyes.
Meanwhile the Iranian regime’s officials continue to embezzle the nation’s
wealth. In just one example, Nasser Saraj, President of the Iran Observation
Organization said in an interview with the state IRNA news agency on November
25, 2015, “An individual was receiving oil from the Iran Oil Ministry and
arrangements were made for him to pay the government in return. However, he
stole around 1.6 trillion rials of this money (around $30 million) and fled to
Canada.” Based on a report wired by the state Fars news agency on April 14,
2016, former Iranian oil minister Mohammad Gharazi said, “The smuggling
statistics in Iran is above $25 billion… yet there is no strong determination
seen in officials and authorities to confront this phenomenon.”
Iran: Call for revoking
punishment of blinding a 31-year-old
Friday, 06 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/Execution of 10
prisoners, including two young men and a public hanging, in three days
The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, especially the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on torture, and
the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, to condemn the
cruel punishments in Iran and urges immediate and effective measures to prevent
blinding the second eye of Mojtaba Saheli, 31, a prisoner in Ward 2 of
Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in the city of Karaj. In an unparalleled
atrocity the regime’s henchmen blinded one of the eyes of this prisoner with
acid on March 3, 2015 and now after 14 months that he has been unable to pay the
diyeh (blood money) specified by the mullahs’ Sharia, he is about to lose his
second eye as well. Carrying out this brutal punishment is but a diminutive show
of the catastrophic situation of human rights in Iran that as the noose of
domestic and international crises tightens around the neck of this repugnant
regime, its human rights abuses intensify in both breadth and depth. These
crimes that are taking place concurrent with visits by western officials to Iran
indicate that these relations have not only failed to improve human rights in
Iran, but have emboldened the religious fascism ruling Iran in its barbaric and
systematic human rights abuses such that the number of execution of prisoners in
April reached 55 and included four women. This criminal trend is speedily
continuing. Just in the first three days of May, 10 prisoners, including two men
aged 25 and 28, have been hanged. These executions have been carried out in
Ghezel-Hessar, Fashafouyeh, central Ardebil, Mashhad and Nahavand prisons while
one prisoner was hanged in public in Nour County. The Iranian Resistance calls
on the Iranian people, particularly the youth, to protest these atrocities by
the velayat-e faqih regime. Instead of expanding relations with the torturers
ruling Iran, the international community should bring them to justice for the
crimes against humanity they have committed in four decades of their rule.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/May 6, 2016
120-nation NAM: US court
violating law over Iran
AP, United Nations Friday, 6 May 2016/The 120-nation Nonaligned Movement (NAM),
headed by Iran, accused the United States Supreme Court on Thursday of violating
international law by ruling that nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets can
be paid to victims of attacks linked to the country. A communique issued by the
NAM’s Coordinating Bureau follows an Iranian appeal to the United Nations last
week to intervene with the US government to prevent the loss of their funds.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the ruling an “outrageous
robbery, disguised under a court order.” The NAM, comprising mainly developing
countries, called the US waiver of “the sovereign immunity of states and their
institutions” a violation of US international and treaty obligations. It called
on the US government “to respect the principle of state immunity” and warned
that failing to do so will have “adverse implications, including uncertainty and
chaos in international relations.” It also warned that a failure would also
undermine the international rule of law “and would constitute an international
wrongful act, which entails international responsibility.” The US Supreme Court
ruled on April 23 that the families of victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and
other attacks linked to Iran can collect nearly $2 billion in frozen funds from
Iran as compensation. The court’s ruling directly affects more than 1,300
relatives of victims, some who have been seeking compensation for more than 30
years. They include families of the 241 US service members who died in the
bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. Iran denies any links to the attacks.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo asked that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
circulate the NAM statement to the UN General Assembly and Security Council. The
NAM called for “dialogue and accommodation over coercion and confrontation” to
peacefully settle disputes. In last week’s letter, Iran’s Zarif appealed to
secretary-general Ban to use his good offices “to induce the US government to
adhere to its international obligations, put an end to the violation of the
fundamental principle of state immunity.”State Department spokesman Mark Toner
said in response that “US laws and the application of those laws by the courts
of the United States comport with international law.” UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said Thursday that the letter is being studied. Iran has also
complained to the United States that it is locked out of the international
financial system. It accused the US of failing to fulfill its obligations under
last year’s nuclear deal which was supposed to give the Iranians relief from
crippling economic sanctions in exchange for curbing their nuclear program. US
Secretary of State John Kerry, who met Zarif on April 22, said the United States
would not stand in the way of foreign banks or firms doing business with Iranian
companies that are no longer subject to US sanctions. He said the administration
was willing to further clarify what transactions are now permitted with Iran,
and he urged foreign financial institutions to seek answers from US officials if
they have questions.
Canada condemns attack on Syrian
displaced persons camp
May 5, 2016 - Ottawa,
Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable
Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie,
today issued the following statement on the airstrike on the Kamouna camp for
internally displaced people (IDP) in Syria:
“Canada strongly condemns the bombing of the Kamouna IDP camp in the Syrian
province of Idlib. The death and destruction is heartbreaking. On behalf of all
Canadians, we are deeply saddened by the loss of life and hope for a speedy
recovery for those injured.
“If this was a deliberate attack targeting civilians, then it was a war crime
and the perpetrators must be held accountable. This incident follows the recent
escalation of violence, particularly against hospitals and clinics in Aleppo,
and further undermines the efforts of the international community to resolve the
conflict peacefully.“Canada calls on all parties to immediately adhere to the Terms for Cessation of
Hostilities in Syria agreement and to return to the negotiating table in good
faith. The people of Syria deserve a future that has hope and is free from
violence. It is up to the parties to work toward that.”
Contacts
Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
Canada and Jordan strengthen cooperation on security
May 5, 2016 - Amman, Jordan
- Global Affairs Canada
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, on behalf of the Government of Canada, today signed a memorandum of
understanding with Jordan to increase cooperation between the two countries on
security and stabilization in the region.
Jordan is essential to stability in the Middle East. This memorandum is part of
Canada’s whole-of-government strategy, announced in February 2016, to support
the Global Coalition’s efforts against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant (ISIL) and to respond to the crisis in Syria and Iraq. The strategy
includes a commitment of $1.6 billion over the next three years to provide
security, stabilization, humanitarian and development assistance. The funding
will address the impact of this crisis on Jordan and Lebanon and will increase
Canada’s diplomatic engagement in the region. The memorandum also increases
accountability for all current and future Canadian assistance projects in
Jordan.
Quotes
“The memorandum of understanding lays out a framework for cooperation in which
the two countries agree to collaborate in addressing the security and
stabilization challenges faced by Jordan as a result of the ongoing civil war in
Syria and the threat posed by ISIL and other terrorist entities in the region.”
- Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“The Jordanian government appreciates the cooperation and partnership between
the two countries at all levels. Jordan and Canada have been working closely for
years to combat terrorism and to deal with various regional and global
challenges. Our historical relations have been strong for more than 50 years
now.”
- Mohammad Taisir Bani Yassin, Secretary General of Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Expatriates
Quick facts
The memorandum of understanding will be overseen by Global Affairs Canada and
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. All projects falling under
this instrument will be administered by the Stabilization and Reconstruction
Task Force (START) and the Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program.
START is the Government of Canada’s centre of expertise on fragile and
conflict-affected states. It provides rapid, responsive and effective
stabilization and reconstruction programming and deployments in crises or
fragile situations throughout the world and manages whole-of-government
coordination in complex crises, including responses to natural disasters.
The Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program was created in 2005 with a
mandate to provide assistance to foreign states to enable them to prevent and
respond to terrorist activity through the provision of training, funding,
equipment, and technical and legal assistance.
Associated links
Canada’s response to Middle East crises and violent extremism
Prime Minister sets new course to address crises in Iraq and Syria and impacts
on the region
Contacts
Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
Saudi policeman shot dead after Makkah raid
AFP, Riyadh Friday, 6 May
2016/A Saudi police officer has been shot dead in the Makkah region, the
interior ministry said on Friday, after four suspected extremists died during a
raid in the same area. Corporal Khalaf al-Harithi was on duty at a station in
the western region on Thursday evening when he was hit by gunfire from an
unknown source, the ministry said in a statement. An investigation is under way
into the incident. It occurred several hours after officers shot dead two
“terrorists” during an exchange of fire at their hideout between the holy city
of Makkah and the mountain resort of Taif, about 80 kilometres to the east,
according to the ministry. Two other suspects killed themselves by detonating
suicide belts, it said. A simultaneous raid occurred on a hideout in the Red Sea
city of Jeddah, where two people were arrested.
Hamas Says Not Seeking War but Will
Fight Israeli Incursions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 06/16/Hamas's leader in Gaza said Friday his
Islamist movement did not seek war with Israel but would resist incursions into
the Palestinian enclave, following the worst cross-border violence since 2014.
hree days of mortar and tank fire between Israel and Palestinian militants, as
well as Israeli air strikes, have raised concerns of a new war in the Hamas-run
territory. Ismail Haniya accused Israeli forces of intruding nearly 200 meters
(yards) into Gazan territory. "We are not calling for a new war, but we will not
under any circumstances accept these incursions," he said in a Friday prayer
sermon in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, Israeli aircraft carried out their fourth air
raid on the enclave since Wednesday, attacking sites at Beit Lahiya in northern
Gaza and near Khan Yunis in the south, witnesses said. There were no reports of
any casualties. The Israeli army confirmed just one strike, saying aircraft
targeted "a Hamas terror infrastructure" in response to cross-border mortar
fire. Since Wednesday, Hamas and other militant groups have fired at least 12
mortar rounds across the frontier, and Israeli tanks have fired repeatedly at
what the army said were Hamas targets. The Palestinian fire targeted Israeli
forces searching along the border, and short distances inside Gaza, for
infiltration tunnels leading into southern Israel -- among the most feared
weapons of Hamas fighters during the 2014 summer war. On Thursday, Zeina
Al-Amour, a 54-year-old Palestinian woman, became the first fatality of the
flare-up after Israeli tank fire hit her home, medics said. The violence has
raised concerns for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist rulers of
Gaza, that has held since the 50-day war in 2014 left 2,251 Palestinians and 73
Israelis dead. On both sides of the border, residents said they were living in
fear of a wider conflict. "In the night there is the sound of mortars, bombs,
planes," said Jehan Berman, a resident of kibbutz Kerem Shalom which is just 40
meters from the border. "We're tired. We're still recovering from the last war
and the next one is already at our door," he told AFP. Kerem Shalom is close to
where the army has uncovered two Hamas tunnels, reportedly stretching into
Israeli territory, in recent weeks, with the most recent discovery on
Destruction of such tunnels became one of Israel's primary goals during the 2014
war, with more than 30 eliminated, according to the army. Since the conflict,
Hamas has continued to build what it calls "resistance tunnels". Citing Hamas
activities, Israel maintains a tight blockade on Gaza in what human rights
groups say is collective punishment against its more than 1.8 million residents.
Ali al-Moghrabi, 40, a tailor from Gaza City's Al-Hanan Zeitun neighborhood
which was bombed on Thursday, said he still had not recovered from the last
conflict. "We do not want war, but the occupier (Israel) never stops," he said.
Hamas has accused Israeli soldiers of incursions into Gazan territory in recent
days, saying that this constitutes a violation of the 2014 truce. The Israeli
army admits it has operated inside Palestinian territory but said it was within
100 meters of the border, where it says it has operated since the 2014 war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on
Friday to discuss the latest developments, with his spokesman saying ministers
were updated by security officials on the "activities of the past few days and
the exposure of the tunnel". Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam
Brigades, said on Friday that Israeli forces withdrew from positions inside the
border east of Khan Yunis. A senior Israeli official told AFP he was not aware
of any understandings with Hamas regarding ending the exchanges of fire.
Fresh Israeli strikes against Hamas in Gaza
AFP, Jerusalem Friday, 6
May 2016/Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas facility in the southern Gaza Strip on
Friday morning in response to cross-border mortar fire, the army said. “In
response to the ongoing attacks against Israeli forces, Israel Air Force
aircraft targeted a Hamas terror infrastructure,” an army statement said. It was
the fourth air raid on Gaza since Wednesday, when direct clashes between Hamas
and Israeli forces broke out for the first time since 2014.
Libya militia scramble to halt ISIS advance
AFP Friday, 6 May
2016/Commanders in Libya's third city Misrata rushed militiamen to a key
crossroads on Friday after it was overrun by ISIS in an assault in which a
suicide bomber killed two police. The Abu Grein crossroads lies 120 kilometres
south of Misrata where the highway along Libya's Mediterranean coast meets the
main road south into the desert interior. It was captured by ISIS on Thursday in
an advance from their stronghold in the city of Sirte 140 kilometres to the
east. The head of the Misrata military council, Colonel Ibrahim Bel-Rajab, said
he had ordered all brigades under his command to head to Abu Grein without
delay, Libya's LANA news agency reported."Numerous armed vehicles of IS have
been spotted in this area," he said. Libya's Sirte has becomes 'fully closed'
amid ISIS advance. Misrata's two main television channels broadcast appeals to
militiamen on leave to return to their barracks. In a statement, ISIS said a
Tunisian fighter had blown up a vehicle at the crossroads allowing other
fighters to advance and take control of it and five other villages in the area,
the SITE Intelligence Group reported. ISIS captured Sirte in June last year and
has since transformed it into a training camp for Libyan and foreign militants.
With its port and airport, there are fears the militants could use the city as a
staging post for attacks on European soil. Western powers including the United
States, Britain and France have openly considered international military
intervention in Libya against ISIS. Experts have said that any future foreign
strikes could target Sirte as well as the region around it.The militants group
is estimated to have around 5,000 fighters in Libya, and is trying to attract
hundreds more.
Al-Qaeda pulls out of two southern cities in Yemen
Reuters Friday, 6 May
2016/Al-Qaeda militants began to pull out of two southern Yemeni town on
Thursday, residents said, following weeks of mediation by tribesmen for them to
exit peacefully rather than resist a Gulf-backed offensive.
Dozens of fighters in Zinjibar and Jaar, the two largest towns in southwestern
Abyan province, were seen leaving with their weapons to the surrounding
countryside. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, widely considered the most
dangerous branch of the global militant group, took advantage of over a year of
war in Yemen to seize towns along a 600-km (370-mile) stretch of Arabian Sea
coastline. But Yemeni troops backed by a Saudi-led military coalition pushed the
group out of its main base in the port city of Mukalla late last month,
depriving them of the estimated $2 million a day in revenue from port taxes and
fuel smuggling. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in the civil
war in Yemen on March 26 last year in support of Yemen's government after it was
pushed into exile by the Iran-allied Houthi militias. The war has killed more
than 6,200 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian
catastrophe in one of the world's poorest countries. Coalition bombing had
mostly ignored the steady rise of AQAP until forces funded and trained by the
United Arab Emirates launched a surprise attack to win Mukalla last month. But
an armed push toward Qaeda-held towns in Abyan and neighboring Lahj province
proved more difficult, and militants launched repeated suicide attacks against
Yemeni forces.
Germany Expects Turkey to Honor EU Migrants Pact after PM Exit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May
06/16/Germany insisted Friday it expects Turkey to stick to a deal Berlin helped
broker to limit refugee flows to the EU even after the announced resignation of
its prime minister. "The chancellor (Angela Merkel) has worked very well until
now with Turkish Prime Minister (Ahmet) Davutoglu and all Turkish
representatives and we assume that this good and constructive cooperation will
continue with the new Turkish prime minister," German government spokesman Georg
Streiter told reporters. "The EU and Germany will continue to fulfill all their
obligations under the agreement and we expect this from the Turkish side as
well." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier later told news website
Spiegel Online that the EU pact "must be decisively implemented regardless of
the people in office -- by Turkey as well as in Europe".Davutoglu on Thursday
announced he would step down in two weeks as ruling party chief and premier, in
a shock departure expected to further tighten President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
grip on power. The premier championed a March deal with the EU to stem the flow
of refugees across the Aegean Sea -- an accord in which the president has shown
little interest despite Turkey being on the verge of winning visa-free travel to
Europe for its citizens. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said it was
too soon to tell what "implications" the switch would have. "We will obviously
discuss this, first of all, with the Turkish authorities and define together how
to move forward," she said Thursday on a visit to Kosovo. European Parliament
President Martin Schulz said the EU was counting on continuity despite the
shake-up in Ankara. "I hope that a future Turkish government, whoever will be
the next prime minister, will continue on the line, that constructive line of
cooperation for which Ahmet Davutoglu was very representative," he told
reporters in Rome. However Davutoglu's impending departure sparked fears for the
pact in Germany, which saw the biggest influx of asylum seekers in the EU in
2015 with more than one million people seeking refuge from war, persecution and
poverty. A senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party, Norbert
Roettgen, called the reshuffle "bad news for Europe and Turkey". "Davutoglu
wanted to move Turkey toward Europe on all issues that are important for
Europe," he told German public radio. "Erdogan is dead-set against that."German
refugee rights group Pro Asyl said it feared for asylum seekers in Turkey after
Erdogan consolidated his power. "The forced resignation of Davutoglu shows that
Turkey is still miles away from being a country under the rule of law," its
managing director Guenter Burkhardt told AFP.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 05/16
Israel and Saudi Arabia present united front over
Iran deal
Richard Spencer/The Telegraph/May 05/16
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor and Robert Tait, Jerusalem
The nuclear deal with Iran caused fury in Israel and consternation around the
region at the likely increase in influence and resources of a newly enriched
Iran.
Most telling was the loudest expression of support. "I am happy that the Islamic
Republic of Iran has achieved a great victory by reaching an agreement,"
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said in a message to his Iranian opposite
number, Hassan Rouhani.
"In the name of the Syrian people, I congratulate you and the people of Iran on
this historic achievement."
Israel and the Sunni Arab world have set aside old grievances to stand together
against the West’s engagement with Iran.
The more strident denunciations came from Israel, which regards Iran as a direct
threat. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said the country would not be
bound by what he called a "stunning historic mistake".
"Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran," he said in a televised address
hours after the conclusion of the accord. "Iran continues to seek our
destruction and we will defend ourselves."
Mr Netanyahu, who had condemned the deal even before it had been announced, said
its terms failed to achieve the goal of denying Iran the capacity to build a
nuclear bomb while, by lifting sanctions, enabled its theocratic rulers to
increase their support for groups Israel considers terrorists.
• What will the nuclear deal mean for Iran's tourism industry?
"The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly as Iran's President Rouhani
said today - the international community is removing the sanctions and Iran is
keeping its nuclear programme," he said.
Saudi Arabia regards Shia Iran as a competitor for leadership in the Muslim
world, and sees its hand behind many of the region’s conflicts. The two are
supporting opposite sides in wars in Syria and Yemen, while Saudi Arabia and its
Gulf allies fear Iran’s influence among their own Shia populations.
Saudi officials have previously voiced fears that increasing rapprochement
between Washington and Tehran could eventually lead to Iran supplanting Saudi
Arabia as America's main ally in the Persian Gulf.
Some Western supporters of the deal hope that having been brought “into the
circle of nations” Iran will become what they call a “constructive player” in
Middle East regional negotiations.
That means, in Syria’s case, agreeing to a deal whereby Mr Assad is forced out
in favour of a transitional government representing all non-jihadist factions in
the civil war.
Estimates of the cost to Iran of propping up Mr Assad with cash, military
advisers and Shia fighters hired from across the region range from $6-35 billion
annually.
"Iran must show that it is ready to help us on Syria to end this conflict,"
Francois Hollande of France said.
However, there is nothing in the deal that would force Iran to change its stance
on Syria or any of the other conflicts, such as in Yemen, where it is backing
the Houthi rebels against the recognised, Saudi-backed government.
Last month Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, was quoted as saying: "The
Iranian nation and government will remain at the side of the Syrian nation and
government until the end of the road."
Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst with the Maplecroft risk advisory group, said Iran
had an ambition to establish itself as the dominant power in the Gulf and
beyond.
“Iran will remain in conflict with Saudi Arabia in Syria and Yemen in
particular,” he said.
The Failure of
the Swedish Establishment
Nima Gholam Ali Pour/Gatestone Institute/May 06/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7860/sweden-establishment
In Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, the children of illegal migrants receive
income support payments from the government, and the unemployment rate among
foreign-born men aged 18-24 years is at 41%. In Sweden, those who do not have
jobs receive generous welfare payments from the local authorities, and families
in the country illegally have their rent paid by the taxpayers. It is an open
invitation to more migrants to come to Sweden.
The Swedish establishment tells Swedes that the more immigrants come to Sweden,
the richer Sweden will become -- no matter which country these immigrants come
from.
The Swedish establishment is characterized by incompetence combined with an
extreme left-wing ideology and a hillbilly-like mentality that refuses to see
the rest of the world and the risks involved in it. The Swedish establishment
has not dealt with Sweden as if it were a country, but as if it were a village.
By gross miscalculations, the Swedish establishment has eroded its own
legitimacy. Today, fewer than one in four Swedes have confidence in their
government. Meanwhile, the Swedish media is a major threat to Sweden's security
today: it downplays the migration crisis with ridiculous arguments.
A major threat to Sweden's security today is the Swedish journalistic
establishment: it downplays the migration crisis with ridiculous arguments.
As migrants flooded into Sweden in December 2015, Fredrik Virtanen, a writer for
Sweden's largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, wrote an article entitled, "Have
refugees forced you to buy worse red wine?" It is not really dangerous, Virtanen
argues, that that Sweden was accepting 160,000 migrants; such migratory
movements, he wrote, do not really impact anyone's life.
Today, however, we know that many people's lives have been affected by the
influx of migrants and that the problems are about more than wine. They are, for
example, about sexual assault, the murder of staff in asylum accommodations and
chaos in the Swedish school system. But Virtanen was right: red wine is still
here.
Another of Aftonbladet's editorial writers, Linnea Swedenmark, writes about a
village in the Swedish province of Jämtland. The village she writes, is an
example of how migrants are ensuring that the consumption of goods is increasing
in the rural areas of Sweden.
What she did not write is that in Jämtland's largest city, Östersund, many women
have been assaulted by men who speak "Swedish with an accent." The police have
warned women not to go out alone. Swedenmark is right when she writes that "the
grocery store sells three times as many eggs" -- but the women of Jämtland feel
less secure in the public domain.
In the magazine, Café, the journalist Andrev Walden wrote in December 2015, that
"no nation has perished from too much goodness." The pictures for his article
compared Sweden's new restrictive immigration laws with the Holocaust.
When the migration crisis started last year in Sweden, the Swedish comedian
Henrik Schyffert calculated and wrote on Facebook that it costs each Swede "two
Quattro Stagionis (a popular local pizza), a large Fanta soda and a Netflix
subscription to save the lives of 80,000 people this year."
His Facebook post was praised by all major media outlets in Sweden. They were
apparently looking to a comedian who counted the counted the cost of immigration
in pizza and soda currencies for the solution to Sweden's migration crisis.
Since Schyffert made his statement, those amazing pizzas that would finance the
mass influx of migrants are nowhere to be found, and Sweden has to borrow more
money for the migration crisis on its hands.
These quotes are from the mainstream media in Sweden, and it is how large parts
of the Swedish establishment sound every day. This is the level at which the
debate on immigration in Sweden is being conducted.
While 800,000 migrants in Libya are waiting to invade Europe, Sweden has a
refugee policy whereby only by obtaining livelihoods will those migrants with a
refugee status and a temporary residence permit get permanent residence permits.
So if you get a job, you get to stay in Sweden permanently. It is a strange
refugee policy, because those who actually are refugees and not economic
migrants are often traumatized and have difficulties finding a job. So Sweden's
refugee policy is tailored to economic migrants.
In Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, the children of illegal migrants receive
income support payments from the government, and families that are in Sweden
illegally have their rent paid by the taxpayers. For some reason, the Swedish
authorities want to pay people who should not even be in Sweden. It is an open
invitation to more migrants to come to Sweden.
Tens of thousands of migrants have passed through Denmark to enter Sweden during
2015 and 2016, attracted by Sweden's generous welfare payments and free housing.
What the established Swedish media does not tell people about are the threats
and risks that come with increased migration. When the European Union's border
agency, Frontex, recognized that it could not control the migrants coming to
Europe, and that many Europeans who had joined terrorist organizations outside
Europe were coming back to Europe among the migrants, this was not major news in
the Swedish media. This is strange, since Sweden is one of the countries in
Europe from where many citizens have traveled from to the Middle East to fight
in jihadi terrorist organizations.
Such news does not fit in the narrative that the Swedish media is trying to tell
the Swedish people. The narrative that the Swedish establishment wants to tell
the Swedes is that the more immigrants come to Sweden, the richer Sweden will
become. It does not matter which country these immigrants come from. If they
just come to Sweden, then Sweden will become a richer country.
A month before the migration crisis started making waves in the media, the think
tank Arena Idé -- which has close ties to the Social Democrats, the governing
party -- published a report that was mentioned in all the major Swedish media
outlets.
According to the report, Sweden, between 1950 and 2014, had made a "profit" of
$110 billion on immigration. The report also said that without immigration, an
$8 billion tax increase would be needed to sustain Sweden's defense,
infrastructure and research. That there could be a conflict between a welfare
state and immigration was called a "myth." As expected, the established Swedish
media rejoiced over these "facts."
When the report went public in June 2015, the Swedish media celebrated it.
Today, when the Swedish welfare state is under severe pressure because of
immigration, the authors refuse to answer any questions about it. Last June, it
was treated as a confirmation of the pro-immigration ideology of the Swedish
establishment. With 9.5 million people in Sweden and its many universities, only
a few economists protested the report. The loudest criticism came from the
economist Tino Sanandaji. Needless to say, Sanandaji, despite being an immigrant
from Iran with a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Chicago, was
depicted by some in the established Swedish media as a right-wing extremist.
No, Sweden is not the Soviet Union, but the way large parts of the Swedish
establishment turn ideology into "facts" through "reports," and smear those who
have different opinions, undermines debates that are of such critical importance
in a democracy.
Not only the media and think tanks connected to the government advocate a
liberal immigration policy. There is also loud support for it in academic
circles. "Immigrants are a profit for Sweden," Dick Harrison, professor of
history at Lund University, wrote in a December 2014 article for the Swedish
newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. In the article, he states:
"Sweden is not in any way unique. The same logic -- that immigration strengthens
the country politically, economically and culturally - can be said of all
peacetime immigrations through the ages, whether it has been about refugees or
labor immigration. The more immigrants, the stronger [the] state. The prime
example is the United States. There is not a single historical example of
immigration in the long term being negative for the host country. At this point,
our historical experience is crystal clear -- the only form of immigration that
has been, and is, directly harmful is comprised of warlike invasions."
While Harrison gives the United States as an example, he forgets to mention that
while immigrants to the U.S. often come from countries such as Mexico, China and
India, the three countries from which Sweden received the highest number of
asylum seekers in 2015 were Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. They have also
delivered most asylum seekers to Sweden during the first four months of 2016. As
most people know, these three countries house large numbers of jihadi
terrorists.
In Sweden, moreover, it is difficult for people without a high level of
education to get a job. In Malmö, the unemployment rate among foreign-born men
aged 18-24 years is at 41%. In Sweden, those who do not have jobs receive
generous welfare payments from the local authorities.
Sweden also has a welfare system in which municipalities are obligated to ensure
that everyone has housing. Sweden's homeless people live in hostels or hotels
paid for by taxpayers. These immigration policies have therefore have therefore
saddled Swedish taxpayers with huge expenses.
Without the establishment's campaign to convince the Swedish people that
immigration will make Sweden rich, Sweden would not have the liberal immigration
policies they do, eroding the country's safety and welfare. Even though the
Swedish establishment campaigns in every way possible for a liberal immigration
policy, and despite the fact that a few months ago anyone advocating for a
restrictive immigration policy was called a "racist," resistance among Swedes
against immigration has increased.
The Swedish people have defied their establishment and recently forced liberal
politicians to support a more restrictive immigration policy. The Swedish
people, despite having an ideologically blind establishment, have been smart
enough to use their common sense.
As for the Swedish establishment, there is no word to describe them other than
dangerous.
The Swedish establishment is characterized by incompetence combined with an
extreme left-wing ideology and a hillbilly-like mentality that refuses to see
the rest of the world and the risks involved in it. The Swedish establishment
has not dealt with Sweden as if it were a country, but as if it were a village.
What is happening in Sweden right now is a cultural and political revolution.
The Swedes have trusted their establishment for a long time. This trust has been
a part of the political culture in Sweden. But now that culture is changing --
to be anti-establishment in Sweden today is not marginalized anymore. Sweden is
developing a powerful anti-establishment movement, dominating the political
debate.
By gross miscalculations, the Swedish establishment has eroded its own
legitimacy. Today, fewer than one in four Swedes have confidence in their
government. The damage that the Swedish establishment's liberal immigration
policies inflicted on Sweden during the migration crisis of 2015 -- and is about
to inflict during the coming migration crisis of 2016 -- is likely to cause a
tectonic political shift in Sweden.
The Swedish media has failed in its journalistic obligation to report
objectively about the problem, and Swedish politicians have not acted in the
best interest of Sweden. While Sweden faces its biggest crisis since World War
II, the Swedish establishment has clearly failed to lead.
The average Swede needs to be tougher to cope with the challenges facing Sweden
today and in the years to come. The problems that will face Sweden after it has
received 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015 and the 150,000 asylum seekers expected
in 2016 will create a political, cultural and social environment in which there
is no place for political naivety and ideological blindness. To survive as a
stable and civilized country where the rule of law and democracy will prevail,
Sweden will be forced to recognize the threats and risks that come with massive
immigration -- and to respond.
**Nima Gholam Ali Pour is a member of the board of education in the Swedish city
of Malmö and is engaged in several Swedish think tanks concerned with the Middle
East. He is also editor for the social conservative website Situation Malmö.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved.
Turkey: "We Need a Religious
Constitution"
Burak Bekdil//Gatestone
Institute/May 06/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7988/turkey-religious-constitution
The new constitution "will emphasize Islam and faith in Allah." — Abdulkadir
Selvi, pro-government columnist.
"We are a Muslim country. That is why we need a religious constitution," said
Ismail Kahraman, Speaker of Turkey's Parliament. He lamented that, unlike in
other Middle Eastern countries, the word Allah did not appear in the current
version of the Turkish Constitution even once.
"The chaos in the Middle East is the result of politics instrumentalizing
religion." — Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's
Party.
"One cannot be secular and Muslim at the same time." — Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
The Speaker of the Parliament is no ordinary office in Turkey. The speaker comes
second in the state protocol only after the president (and even before the prime
minister). Such is the seat occupied since November by Ismail Kahraman, an MP
from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.
Along with Erdogan, former president Abdullah Gul and eight AKP heavyweights
(mostly cabinet ministers) Kahraman comes from the ranks of the National Turkish
Student Union (MTTB in its Turkish acronym). Another MTTB bigwig, Huseyin
Velioglu, later formed what became the militant Islamist group, "Turkish
Hizbullah." Especially between 1965 and 1980 when a military coup administration
dissolved it, the MTTB operated as the youth organization of Turkish political
Islam. Kahraman, in late 1960s and early 1970s, was MTTB's president.
In 1969 Kahraman publicly campaigned against funeral services to be held for
Imran Oktem, then president of the Court of Appeals and a well-known
anti-Islamist judge. When, finally, a mufti agreed to have the service, MTTB
militants attacked the funeral.
Also in 1969, MTTB members attacked a left-wing protest rally and stabbed two
students to death.
When, in the late 1990s, Necmettin Erbakan, the founder of political Islam in
Turkey, became the country's first Islamist prime minister (in a coalition
government with a center-right party), Kahraman was appointed as Minister of
Culture. He immediately curbed the budget appropriations for the state opera and
ballet house and rechanneled the funding toward a mosque, and banned alcohol
consumption at his ministry's recreational premises.
His oath as parliamentary speaker requires his full loyalty to the "supremacy of
law and to the democratic and secular republic..." But his public speech on Apr.
26 was totally against both his own oath of office and the constitution of the
country where he serves -- presumably -- as an unbiased parliamentary speaker.
"We are a Muslim country," he said. "That is why we need a religious
constitution." And not just that. Kahraman lamented that, unlike in other Middle
Eastern countries, the word Allah did not appear in the current version of the
Turkey's constitution even once. So, he asked: "Why should we, as a Muslim
country, distance ourselves from religion?"
His words caused a small political explosion in Ankara, with politicians from
the opposition rushing to condemn him and secular Turks to protest him -- and to
get tear gas and water cannons from the police. The main opposition leader,
Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People's Party, put it plainly: "The chaos
in the Middle East is the result of politics instrumentalizing religion."
Ismail Kahraman, Speaker of Turkey's Parliament, last week stated: "We are a
Muslim country. That is why we need a religious constitution."
Although both President Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denied any
AKP plan to remove secularism from the new constitution that their specialists
are now drafting, Kahraman's abrupt call for a religious constitution once again
revealed Turkey's old political fault-line, now giving signs of shaking. This is
a decades-old political war between the Turks who see the future of their
country in the Western civilization, including a secular constitution, and those
who insist that Muslim Turkey belongs to the Middle East -- including, as
Kahraman pointed out, a religious charter that contains the name Allah.
According to Abdulkadir Selvi, a prominent pro-government columnist, the new
constitution "will emphasize Islam and faith in Allah."
In reality, Erdogan and Davutoglu are right to be cautious. Turkey does not need
to remove the principle of secularism from its constitution. In Turkey's poor
democratic culture, a constitution is one thing and adherence to constitutional
principles is another. Despite its articles strongly defending secularism and
banning religion in political life, Turkey, under the AKP's 14-year-long rule,
has largely deviated from secular administration toward an authoritarian,
pro-Islamist system with the ruling elite visibly breaching the constitution,
including the parliamentary speaker himself.
Erdogan often defines his understanding of secularism as the state standing at
an equal distance to all or no faith. In principle, he is right. He expressed
that view after Kahraman's controversial lines. But just saying this does not
make him a secular politician. A recent ruling from the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) was the best proof that Erdogan's Turkey failed in fulfilling
even his own definition of secularism (that the state is at an equal distance to
all religious faith).
The ECtHR condemned Turkey for discriminating against members of the Alevi
(Muslim) religious minority, by failing to grant their places of worship the
same status and advantages as those of other faiths (Sunni Muslim). Alevis, who
draw from Shiite, Sufi and Anatolian folk traditions, account for about 15-20%
of Turkey's 79 million people. Most Sunni Muslims view Alevis as heretics.
A panel of seven judges at the Strasbourg-based court ruled against Turkish
courts, which had said that the Alevi prayer places (cemevis) were not religious
sites. The Turkish ruling was based on an opinion from the Turkish religious
authority stating that the Alevi faith was not a religion. A summary of the
ECtHR's ruling read: "The court rules that the plaintiff foundation was
subjected to differing treatment, without objective or reasonable cause, and the
method of exemption from payment of electricity bills for religious sites in
Turkish law was enacting discrimination on the basis of religion."
In a speech some years before he came to power Erdogan said: "One cannot be
secular and Muslim at the same time." Back then, at least he was talking more
honestly.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily
and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute.
What next after Muqtada al-Sadr?
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
What is happening in Iraq is interesting and dangerous. Some are optimistic that
the Sadrist movement’s revolution will bring an end to the rule of
fundamentalist parties in Iraq. Others, however, think this is a delusion and
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is just like everyone else. Significantly, the
parties that have most strongly condemned the Sadrist rebellion, Shiite
protestors’ raid of Baghdad’s Green Zone and the popular ‘occupation’ of
parliament were Iran and the United States.
The US and Iran
To Washington, the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is
legitimate and important. The United States supports it as much as it is active
in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and as much as it is
willing to engage in the battle for Mosul, the capital of the group’s caliphate.
Abadi received Washington’s support via a rare visit by Vice President Joe Biden
to Iraq, and also through the visit of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The
latter said Abadi “is in a strong position despite the political unrest in the
country, and this is due to his successes on the ground. We strongly support
him.” What is happening is a wave of anger against political, financial and
ideological corruption of Iraqi Shiite fundamentalist parties. This worries
Tehran, but it also worries Washington. Meanwhile, Ali Akbar Velayati, former
Iranian foreign minister and a consultant to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
condemned Sadr supporters who raided the Green Zone, revolted against the Iraqi
ruling elite regardless of sect, and even chanted against Iran. This is why the
Sadrist parliamentary bloc condemned its supporters’ chants against Iran. Some
doubt the fate of a popular revolution led by an Iraqi fundamentalist cleric,
and they have the right to. However, this development may go beyond Sadr. Fakhri
Karim, owner of the Iraqi Al-Mada Foundation for Media, Culture and Arts, which
publishes Al-Mada newspaper, said: “We’re certainly [witnessing] positive
manifestations that confirm the failure of the governance of political Islamist
parties and the projects they’ve announced.” These developments “have solidified
the idea of the [people’s] ability to confront political authority and its
suppressive apparatus.”What is happening is a wave of anger against political,
financial and ideological corruption of Iraqi Shiite fundamentalist parties.
This worries Tehran, but what is strange is that it also worries Washington!
Iran and Sadr directing
Iraq’s protests, sectarian conflict?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
Hundreds of followers of the Iraqi Shia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, stormed into
the Iraqi parliament building, demanding its speaker to halt the session. On the
other hand, the country’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned that these
protests can lead to the failure of the state. After the protests, Moqtada al-Sadr
- who spent several years studying in the city of Qom – reportedly travelled to
Iran. Although the protesters retreated, the underlying challenge to Iraq’s
leadership and stability isn’t over yet. In addition, these protests highlight
several messages that Iran is attempting to send. After Iran’s preferred
candidate for Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, was replaced by Haidar al-Abadi,
Tehran managed to increase and retain its influence in Iraq through Shiite
militias, through the Iraqi government, and other means. Nevertheless, Iran’s
concerns have been raised recently as a result of the United States’ increasing
role in Iraq and its improving ties with the al-Abadi government. It is less
likely that Sadr has invoked such a demonstrations without enjoying the blessing
of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, and Qasem Soleimani, commander of Quds
Force. Through its leverage, Tehran could easily use its militia proxies to send
a strong message to the Iraqi government that Tehran is not happy with the
government’s relationship with the US. In addition, through these protests,
Tehran can project the significant influence that it wields in Iraq, to the US
and other governments in the region.
Iran’s narrative: Savior of Iraq
Currently, some of the powerful Iraqi Shiite groups that Iran has close
connections with, and is investing its resources in, are Sadr’s Promised Day
Brigade – the successor to the Mahdi Army – Badr Organization, Asa’ib Ahl al
Haqq (League of the Righteous) and Kata’ib Hezbollah (Battalions of Hezbollah).
Iranian leaders have spread the narratives, throughout their media and
diplomatic means, that Iran is savior of Iraq, that Iraq is following in the
footsteps of the Islamic Republic’s revolution and that Iran has the obligation
to support the Iraqi people for humanitarian reasons. Political instability will
continue to persist in Iraq, mainly due to Iran’s sectarian agenda, IRGC support
for Shiite militias, and Tehran’s policy of divide and rule. When it comes to
Iran’s role in Iraq, Iranian leaders – across the political spectrum including
reformists, moderates, hardliners and “principalists” – follow the directions of
the key decision makers: the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). For example, even the pragmatist Ayatollah
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Expediency Council and supporter
of President Rowhani, pointed out this week that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s
support of the Iraqi government and Iraqi people is anchored in humanitarian and
Islamic principles. He stated during a meeting with Jan Kubis, the UN special
envoy for Iraq, that “Iran is ready to cooperate in various areas if the
international community and the UN are honest and determined to solve Iraq’s
problem.”
Any opposition from Iran’s political figures towards Iran’s current role in
Iraq, would mean opposition to Mr. Khamenei and the IRGC. Their opposition will
most likely lead to the death of their political career and being approved by
the Guardian Council to run again for government positions.
Propaganda and sectarian agenda
Iran’s propaganda regarding Iraq contradicts the reality. Iran has utilized its
soft and hard power skillfully to exert influence in Iraq. On the one hand,
Iran’s social, religious and cultural affinities with the Shiite population in
Iraq have provided the Islamic Republic with a powerful platform to exert
influence in Iraq. In addition, economically speaking, Tehran has used trade to
ratchet up it leverage in Baghdad. The ISIS has also provided Iranian leaders
with the venues not only to project Iran as a defender of the Iraqi people but
also as a robust excuse to increase Tehran’s military presence in Iraq and
further dominate Iraqi’s security, intelligence and political establishments. On
the other hand, by establishing ties, training, financing, by unifying and
arming Iraqi Shiite militias, Iran seeks to accomplish several objectives-
assisting the Shiite militias to achieve political successes in Iraq, and to
enter the parliament and have a say in the internal affairs of Baghdad, which
are in alignment with Iran’s interests. This can ensure Iran’s influence in Iraq
for the long-term. Reportedly, Iran has repeatedly attempted to encourage the
followers of Dawa and Sadr to unite in order to win more seats in the elections,
and Tehran funded its preferred candidates in the parliamentary elections. If
the Iraqi government becomes reluctant in preserving Tehran’s political and
economic interests in Baghdad, IRGC leaders can threaten the government by
showing their influence through invoking the Shiite Iraqi leaders to protest
against the government and threaten their hold on power. In addition, for Iran,
the Iraqi Shiite militias allow Iran to exert more influence in Iraq, thus
tipping the regional balance of power in favor of Iran vis-à-vis other Sunni
countries and the United States. The political instability will continue to
persist in Iraq, mainly due to Iran’s sectarian agenda, IRGC support for Shiite
militias, and Iran’s policy of divide and rule.
The challenges of the Saudi
national transformation plan
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
The national transformation plan outlined by Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin
Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, is an ambitious and
daring move that can finally put an end to the strong hold of extremists in
Saudi Arabia. The Vision 2030 includes major changes not only to diversify the
economy but more importantly to change the hardline mindset that rejected many
past initiatives to introduce socioeconomic changes and transform the country
into a modern state. The plan seems very promising on paper; however, when it
comes to implementation, there are many obstacles that could obstruct the
transformation path. The plan needs people with leadership qualities, who are
bold, progressive, charismatic, wise and competent and above all have the moral
integrity to confront challenges and provide innovative solutions. The process
will fail if we do not put the right man or woman in the right place. Saudi
political analysts stress the need for qualified and more experienced lawmakers,
expert strategists and officials who are innovative and can come up with
constructive policies to execute the transformation plan. We can catch up with
global progress by activating a vibrant civil society that complements
government policies, pushes the implementation of laws and promotes the skills
of citizenship . The leadership needs to curb the dominance of
ultra-conservatives who could obstruct the transformation plan with their
intolerant sectarian, extremist and racist attitudes. The plan should include
grassroots changes to empower moderate intellectuals, academics and
professionals with a progressive vision for change. Opinion leaders must now
rise to the occasion and lead a constructive debate to influence change and
unite the nation. Citizens should show their strong support for government moves
against hardliners who will naturally reject any attempt to undermine their
radical and rigid control that has stood against many earlier initiatives for
meaningful reforms.
Reforming the judiciary
Reforming the judiciary remains critical for the success of the national
transformation plan. Social justice calls for effective, codified Shari’ah to
make both men and women aware of their legal rights and make them law-abiding
and contributing citizens. The guardianship rule and not allowing women to drive
are examples of the discrimination that is holding our country back. To move our
country forward, we need to spread the culture of human rights so that every
citizen has a right to a good life based on true Islamic values of tolerance,
justice and respect for all mankind. We can catch up with global progress by
activating a vibrant civil society that complements government policies, pushes
the implementation of laws and promotes the skills of citizenship and ethical
behavior essential for a more productive society. Prince Muhammad Bin Salman
stated that one of the key goals is to increase art, culture and entertainment
facilities for citizens. He promised to invest in museums, theaters and cultural
activities. He said there are plans to open the largest Islamic museum in the
world and to register Saudi archaeological sites with UNESCO. Prince Muhammad
highlighted the history of very important civilizations that existed in Saudi
Arabia dating back thousands of years. He said European civilizations have many
historical sites in Saudi Arabia, and they are an important component of the
Arab civilization found in our country. He stated that we need to use these
sites to open the door for tourists of all nationalities.
Greater engagement
These are daring ideas that do not sit well with extremists who have destroyed
many archaeological sites and historical monuments deeming them un-Islamic. To
implement such a worthy plan we need to engage moderate imams who can respect
diversity and embrace modernity. We need the support of Islamic scholars who
live in the present and do not insist on arbitrarily imposing the lifestyles of
the past – especially with no clear Qur’anic ruling to support their hardline
views. It is time we change the negative mindset and support a universal
attitude that is moderate and progressive. Saudi scholars of different sects and
different schools of thought have a responsibility to promote the genuine
message of Islamic tolerance. They need to come up with a stronger narrative
that negates the extremist ideology. Only then can we implement the
transformation plan to help Saudi Arabia assume its role as the leader of the
Arab and Muslim world.
Israel on alert as threat of
chemical warfare spreads
Brooklyn Middleton/Al Arabiya/May 06/16
Israeli media recently reported that the country is continuing to track chemical
weapons in Syria, including in the Golan Heights, and will act to prevent them
from being used by terrorists. As the conflict continues to rage in the war-town
country, an Israeli strike on any terrorist group in possession of chemical
weapons – especially those based close to Israel’s own territory - becomes
increasingly likely with each passing day. According to the Times of Israel, the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have assessed that the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade – an
ISIS-affiliated faction based in southern Syria on Israel’s northern front – has
possibly seized chemical weapons and could attempt to test them in the
near-term. The report also indicated Israel does not assess that militants would
attempt to carry out a chemical weapons attack on Israeli soil as fighters are
“not currently concerned with Israel.”
Any faction in possession of chemical weapons is highly unlikely to target
Israel in an attack in the near-term given that such an operation would trigger
immediate and sustained retaliation, which they likely cannot withstand.
Nonetheless, a chemical weapons attack taking place close to Israel’s border,
regardless of which party is targeted, is a precedent Israel is unlikely to
allow to be set. In a second report, published by the same newspaper, an unnamed
Israeli official confirmed that the Israeli military would indeed target any
terrorist group conducting chemical weapons experiments, vowing that “Israel
will not stand by — we will act to thwart such capabilities.”Any faction in
possession of chemical weapons is highly unlikely to target Israel given that
such an operation would trigger immediate and sustained retaliation
These reports out of Israel are only the latest to confirm that the entirety of
Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal was not destroyed – despite the US and Russia
backed deal that was struck in September 2013 and was supposed to achieve
precisely that. The Assad regime has continued to carry out chemical weapons
attacks since the implementation of the deal, with chlorine attacks continuing
to terrorize and harm; in February, the Syrian American Medical Society
published a report noting that of 161 total chemical weapon attacks, “77 percent
have occurred after the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution
2118 in September 2013, which created a framework for the destruction of Syria’s
declared chemical weapons stockpiles.”
Stockpiles
Israel has also warned earlier that the Assad regime has kept stockpiles of
chemical weapons, including Sarin. Meanwhile, ISIS has also begun carrying out
chemical weapons attacks, using mustard gas in both Syria and Iraq. As chemical
weapons attacks continue in Syria and more actors begin using such weapons, it
can be assessed that Israel is increasingly motivated to act. Further, an
Israeli attack on chemical weapons in Syria in the near-term would serve a
two-fold purpose in addition to thwarting what could be the latest massacre in
Syria.The first would be to signal to the international community, including
Russia and Iran, that Israel will continue to protect its interests no matter
how the conflict changes or what party involves itself. The second would signal
to the Assad regime that Israel remains fully capable and committed to
protecting its northern front – both from the Syrian regime and from terrorists.
Just weeks ago, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad made a
particularly bellicose statement about the Golan Heights stating, “We are
prepared to do anything in order to return the Golan to the Syrian motherland,
including using military force.” “While there is no chance Syria will seek a
broader conflict with Israel in the near future, Israel may still be inclined to
demonstrate exactly how serious it is when it vows to protect its northern front
from both current and future threats.”
Going by the spiraling cycle of violence being witnessed in the region, it is
anybody’s guess what dimension this chemical warfare will take.