LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

May 11/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may11.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12/26-30:"Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine."

They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity
Letter to the Ephesians 04/17-24:"Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

Pope Francis's Tweet For Today

May today's challenges become forces for unity to overcome our fears and build together a better future for Europe and the world.
Que les difficultés deviennent des promotrices d'unité, pour vaincre les peurs et construire ensemble l'avenir de l’Europe et du monde.

لتكن الصعوبات حافزًا للوحدة لنتغلّب على الخوف ونبني معًا مستقبل أوروبا والعالم

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

A tale of two cities: Beirut elections revisited/Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/May 10/16
British man “murdered” in Lebanon’s Deir al-Ahmar, says father/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/May 10/16/
Canadian Imam Sharif Mady: Jerusalem Will Only Be Regained Through Blood, Peace Accords Are Garbage/MEMRI/May 10/16
The EU's Kiss of Death/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/May 10/16
Ben Rhodes's Fiction Behind the "Iran Deal"/A.J. Caschetta/Gatestone Institute/May 10/16
Saudi King's Son Drastically Reshapes Government/Simon Henderson/Washington Institute/May 09/16
Turkey's King: Erdogan After Davutoglu/Soner Cagaptay/Foreign Affairs/May 10/16
London Daily 'Rai Al-Youm': A Muslim Was Elected To Serve As London's New Mayor Thanks To Equality, The Rule of Law, And Human Rights – Which Are Absent In Arab Countries/MEMRI/May 10/16/
Why has Tehran chosen the Houthis as allies/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
Mistakes committed in Yemen/Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
London mayor elections: A good week for Muslims in the West/Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
Iran’s worst week in Syria: Heavy losses, no exit/Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
What are Iranians doing in Syria/Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/May 10/16

Titles Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 11/16

Reports: Israel Bombs Hizbullah Arms Convoy on Syria-Lebanon Border
Hizbullah, Mustaqbal 'Relieved' by Municipal Vote, Urge Consensus on Electoral Law
Presidential Elections Postponed to June 2
Al-Rahi: Lebanon Rejects Voluntary Return of Syrian Refugees to Homeland.
Mustaqbal Says Beirut Vote Proved It's 'the Only Political Movement that Transcends Sects'
Change and Reform Says Zahle, Beirut Polls Show Importance of Christian 'Unity'
Beirut Madinati Says Got 40% of Vote, Denies Receiving Votes from Political Parties
Report: FPM Mulling Expulsion of 20 Members for 'Rebelling against Movement Decisions'
Change and Reform Says Zahle, Beirut Polls Show Importance of Christian 'Unity'
Hollande Stresses France's Commitment to Ending Presidential Impasse in Message to Berri
Security Forces Arrest Ziad Qasouf's Killer
Cabinet Seeking to Avoid Contentious Issues in Next Session
No Injuries as Hand Grenade Tossed in Ain el-Hilweh
Hariri Says Parties Represented in Beirutis List Voted for Other Lists
Minister of Information, Ramzi Jreij felicitates Mashnouk on successfully achieving Municipal elections
Civil Justice Gathering" Mousbah Al-Ahdab announces candidacy to municipal elections
A tale of two cities: Beirut elections revisited
British man “murdered” in Lebanon’s Deir al-Ahmar, says father

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 11/16

Canadian Imam Sharif Mady: Jerusalem Will Only Be Regained Through Blood, Peace Accords Are Garbage
3 Dead, 42 Hurt in Bomb Attack Targeting Police in Turkey's Diyarbakir
Aleppo Truce Extended by 48 Hours
Global Powers to Discuss Syria in Vienna on May 17
Putin Says 'a Lot Left to Do' for Assad's Forces in Syria
Millions in U.S. Aid to Syrians Suspended over Graft Probe
Two Israeli Women Stabbed in Jerusalem
Iran Says Syria Jihadists Holding Bodies of 12 Iranian Advisers
German Knife Man Kills One, Wounds Three in Possible Islamist Attack
Syria Leans on Exchange Bureaus to Save Plummeting Pound
Yemen Foes Agree to Major Prisoner Swap
Israel Court Convicts Palestinian Boy of Attempted Murder
Iran to Sue U.S. over Court Seizure of $2 bn in Frozen Funds
Iran regime chops off man’s hand as punishment
Police chief: Iran’s prisons are full, harsher measures now needed
U.S. House Speaker calls for toughness as Iran deal starts to ‘unravel’
Foreign publications and Sunnis’ books banned in Tehran Book Fair
Iran regime official: 60 percent of construction industry in Lorestan are sub-standard
Former U.S. Marine is suing Iran regime for his torture in captivity
EU lawmakers speak out in support of Iran’s imprisoned teachers and union leaders
IRAN: Rouhani heaps praise on Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani
Trump Says London Mayor Would Be Exception to U.S. Muslim Ban

Links From Jihad Watch Site for May 11/16
Canadian Imam Sharif Mady: Jerusalem Will Only Be Regained Through Blood, Peace Accords Are Garbage/MEMRI/May 10/16

Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Is the U.S. Government Now TRACKING ‘Right-Wing Extremists’?
Italy: Two Muslims arrested for plotting Islamic State mass murder attacks in Rome and London
Germany: Muslim who stabbed four screamed “Infidel, you must die” as well as “Allahu akbar”
MIT talk: “Is Islamophobia Accelerating Global Warming?”
Germany: Muslim who stabbed four at train station was saying, “I love God. I love Allah.”
UK police chief apologizes for featuring Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” in counterterror training exercise
Reuters: “No evidence of Islamist motive” as Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” goes on stabbing spree in Germany
German investigators: “No indication” Muslim who screamed “Allahu akbar” while killing man had “Islamic extremist motive”
Germany: Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” kills one, wounds 3 at train station, BBC says motive unclear
Islamic Blasphemy Laws Upheld by U.S. Campuses — on The Glazov Gang
“Islamophobia” shock horror: Muslim girl mistakenly identified as “Isis” in high school yearbook
German refugee centers: Muslims threaten Christian refugees for not taking part in Islamic prayers
Whistleblower fired from CENTCOM after speaking out against how data was cooked to downplay ISIS threat
Iran threatens to block U.S. passage in Persian Gulf: “We have no other enemy in the region except for America”
slamic Social Justice Warriors: A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma
Video: Robert Spencer on the peaceful verses of the Qur’an
Iranian ayatollah decries peaceful Islam as “American Islam”
Six jihadis with ties to bin Laden and al-Qaeda win court battle, can stay in UK

Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 11/16

Reports: Israel Bombs Hizbullah Arms Convoy on Syria-Lebanon Border
Naharnet/May 10/16/Israeli warplanes struck a Hizbullah weapons convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border on Tuesday afternoon, Israeli media reports said. Citing Arab media sources, Israel's Channel 2 said the Israeli Air Force bombed the arms convoy near a Syrian rebel "safe haven" where Hizbullah fighters were allegedly stationed.Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that Israel had carried out strikes inside Syria to prevent Hizbullah from acquiring what he described as “game-changing” weapons. “We are proud that in the stormy and volatile Middle East, we were able to maintain relative calm and relative safety in Israel. We act when we should act, including here, across the border, in dozens of attacks, to prevent Hizbullah from getting game-changing weaponry,” said Netanyahu during a visit to Syria's occupied Golan Heights where he observed a military drill. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had warned Israel in early 2015 that his party was in possession of all types of weapons. “We have all sorts of arms that come to your mind. The resistance in Lebanon has everything the enemy can imagine and not imagine,” Nasrallah said. Prior to Netanyahu's remarks, Israel had never formally acknowledged the anti-Hizbullah airstrikes in Syria, although unnamed Israeli officials had said Israel would keep striking any shipments of advanced weapons meant for Hizbullah.

Hizbullah, Mustaqbal 'Relieved' by Municipal Vote, Urge Consensus on Electoral Law
Naharnet/May 10/16/Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement on Tuesday announced that they were “relieved” by the completion of the first round of municipal and mayoral polls that was held on Sunday and called for an agreement on a law for the parliamentary elections “as soon as possible.”“The conferees expressed their relief over the completion of the first round of municipal elections,” the two parties announced in a joint statement after their 28th dialogue session in Ain al-Tineh. They also stressed the need to “continue these elections in the same positive atmosphere.”
Separately, the two parties said they held “a thorough discussion over the upcoming period and the work of the parliamentary committees that are seeking to draft a new electoral law” for the parliamentary elections. “They stressed the need to reach a new electoral law as soon as possible,” the statement said. The meeting was attended by Hizbullah secretary-general's political aide Hussein Khalil, Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, MP Hassan Fadlallah, ex-PM Saad Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and MP Samir al-Jisr. The session was also attended by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is close to Speaker Nabih Berri. Sunday's polls were the first elections of any kind in Lebanon since the last municipal vote in 2010, in a country with a deeply divided political scene that has not had a president for the past two years nor voted for a parliament since 2009.

Presidential Elections Postponed to June 2
Naharnet/May 10/16/Parliament failed once again to elect a president following a lack of quorum at its session on Tuesday. Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the polls to June 2. MTV reported that the 39th electoral session was marked by a low number of lawmakers, which reached 41. Sixty-four MPs are need for quorum to be met. It added that discussions on the margins of the failed meeting focused on the weekend's municipal polls, rather than the presidential one.Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps have thwarted the polls.

Al-Rahi: Lebanon Rejects Voluntary Return of Syrian Refugees to Homeland.

Naharnet/May 10/16/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi highlighted on Tuesday the impact the Syrian refugee crisis is having on Lebanon on the economic, security, political, and social levels. He said during his ongoing trip to Paris: “Lebanon rejects the voluntary return of the Syrian refugees to their homeland.”“It will not waver in its demand that Palestinian refugees return to their home,” he stated during the second day of his pastoral visit to France. He stressed the need to end wars and resolve conflicts peacefully and politically. “Lebanon distinguishes itself from its surroundings through the coexistence between Christians and Muslims, making it an oasis of dialogue between cultures and religions.”“The international community should therefore exert efforts to keep Lebanon neutral from conflicts and preserve its message in the Middle East,” declared al-Rahi. The patriarch had held talks on Monday with French President Francois Hollande, with discussions focusing on the presidential deadlock and refugee crisis.

Mustaqbal Says Beirut Vote Proved It's 'the Only Political Movement that Transcends Sects'
Naharnet/May 10/16/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc boasted Tuesday that Mustaqbal succeeded in protecting “Christian-Muslim parity” in Beirut's municipal polls, a day after Mustaqbal leader ex-PM Saad Hariri accused electoral allies of voting for the rival Beirut Madinati list.“The victory of the Beirutis List, which gathered Lebanese from all groups and communities, represented a major national step on the path of confirming commitment to the Taef Accord through consolidating Christian-Muslim parity and strengthening Christian-Muslim coexistence with deeds, not words,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “Al-Mustaqbal movement has strongly succeeded to shoulder this national responsibility and this proves the rightness of its choices, seeing as it is the only political movement that transcends sects and regions at the parliamentary and organizational levels ... and the main defender of the coexistence formula,” it added. The bloc also thanked “some allies who took part in the Beirutis List and committed themselves to vote for it” and voiced regret that “some other parties did not honor their pledges in this regard.”“Holding the polls in Beirut and the Bekaa represented a victory for Lebanon and its democratic system and for the principle of peaceful power rotation, which allowed this system to regain some of its vitality and to prove its distinguished nature in the region,” Mustaqbal added.On Monday, Hariri accused some parties who nominated some candidates on the Mustaqbal-led Beirutis List of “voting for other lists.”“This could have undermined equal Christian-Muslim representation and it is something that is not honorable in political action or electoral coalitions,” the former premier said. But the Beirut Madinati list of independents announced Tuesday that it received 40% of the vote in the capital's municipal polls, denying claims that it received votes from certain political parties. “Do not believe the ruling class. Our list did not garner these votes from a single sect or electoral district. The votes that Beirut Madinati received came from all districts and sects, seeing as we are advocates of civil, democratic and non-sectarian action that was embraced by voters from all religious communities in Beirut,” Beirut Madinati said. “The rejection of this ruling class' practices and corruption is what pushed some people to bravely liberate themselves from the directions of political leaders and to vote for the civil choice,” it explained. Spearheaded by al-Mustaqbal movement, the Beirutis List comprised candidates nominated by several political parties that are represented in the government and parliament, such as the AMAL Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and the Tashnag Party.
Beirut Madinati meanwhile was comprised of experts, civil society figures, teachers, and artists such as famed actress and filmmaker Nadine Labaki.

Change and Reform Says Zahle, Beirut Polls Show Importance of Christian 'Unity'
Naharnet/May 10/16/Sunday's municipal and mayoral elections in Beirut and Zahle highlighted the importance of “rapprochement” between the Christian political parties, and equal Christian-Muslim power-sharing, the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc said on Tuesday. “In Beirut, we highlighted the importance of being present in the capital. The lesson we draw from Beirut's elections is that some parties must not remain excluded from decision-making and that we must come together in order to achieve change,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan announced after the bloc's weekly meeting. The Beirutis List -- which comprised candidates fielded by Change and Reform, al-Mustaqbal movement and other parties that are represented in government and parliament – achieved a difficult win against the Beirut Madinati civic campaign in the capital's municipal polls on Sunday, amid a low voter turnout. Turning to Zahle, the bloc said “the agreement that occurred between the Christian political parties proves that unity is strength and that representation in state institutions requires the unification of all wills and a joint vision.” “We must embark on work in Zahle and to focus on development in the city,” the bloc added. “These elections prove that Zahle's national influence will reflect itself across Lebanon and there is unity reflected in the political vision and projects,” it said. “We congratulate Zahle and its residents on the democratic scene, which proved that Zahle's will is bigger than any wall trying to separate between its families and parties,” Change and Reform added. A coalition of candidates fielded by the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party has emerged victorious against lists backed by Popular Bloc chief Myriam Skaff and MP Nicolas Fattoush in Zahle's municipal polls on Sunday.
The municipal polls are the first electoral test for the FPM and the LF since they signed their political rapprochement agreement in June last year.

Beirut Madinati Says Got 40% of Vote, Denies Receiving Votes from Political Parties
Naharnet/May 10/16/The Beirut Madinati list of independents announced Tuesday that it received 40% of the vote in the capital's municipal polls, denying claims that it received votes from certain political parties. “Our list confronted the ruling class and all its parties and managed to garner 40 percent of the vote – votes that would have allowed ten its members to join the municipal council had the electoral law been fair and proportional,” the head of the list, Ibrahim Mneimneh, announced at a press conference. The announcement was made shortly after the official results were released after significant delay. “The low voter turnout reflected the popular anger against the list of political clientelism which gathered all the forces of paralysis,” Mneimneh added. “These forces that submerged Beirut in garbage were trying to convince us that confrontation is futile, but we proved that change is possible,” he said. Decrying what it called “major violations, delay in the counting of votes and the attempt to annul some ballots,” Beirut Madinati said the efforts of its representatives, lawyers and the registration committees' judges had managed to “regain some of the uncounted votes.”“The Beirut Madinati campaign has restored the meaning of elections and gave hope to the youths who struggled against the stench of trash that had trumpeted the bankruptcy of the ruling class,” the list added. “Do not believe the ruling class. Our list did not garner these votes from a single sect or electoral district. The votes that Beirut Madinati received came from all districts and sects, seeing as we are advocates of civil, democratic and non-sectarian action that was embraced by voters from all religious communities in Beirut,” Beirut Madinati added. Hitting back at remarks by al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who backed the rival Beirutis List, Beirut Madinati called on the public opinion not to believe “allegations that our list was supported by parties that are represented in the government.”
“The rejection of this ruling class' practices and corruption is what pushed some people to bravely liberate themselves from the directions of political leaders and to vote for the civil choice,” it explained. “In light of the results of the polls, we warn the new municipal council against continuing the practices of distributing shares, deforming the city's landmarks, displacing its residents, selling its beaches, and neglecting its roads, sidewalks, parks and squares,” Beirut Madinati added. It also pledged that it will remain vigilant in order to “protect the public interest and monitor the municipal council's performance.” On Monday, Hariri accused some parties who nominated some candidates on the Mustaqbal-led Beirutis List of “voting for other lists.”“This could have undermined equal Christian-Muslim representation and it is something that is not honorable in political action or electoral coalitions,” the former premier said. Spearheaded by al-Mustaqbal movement, the Beirutis List comprised candidates nominated by several political parties that are represented in the government and parliament, such as the AMAL Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and the Tashnag Party. Beirut Madinati meanwhile was comprised of experts, civil society figures, teachers, and artists such as famed actress and filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Hopes had been high that the new list of independents could win over an established political class accused of incompetence and corruption.
A candidate from the list said Monday that even if the list does not win any seats, it has at least shaken up the political establishment. "We're not taking part in the polls to make any political gain but to give serious competition" to traditional parties, Rana Khoury said. "The mere fact that we made those in power... feel that they had been given a cold shower means that we achieved something positive," she said. "We made them feel they don't represent or serve citizens as they should."
Beirut Madinati's program to attract frustrated voters had included plans to improve public transport in the traffic-clogged capital, introduce more green spaces, make housing affordable and implement a lasting waste management solution. Turnout was low in the capital on Sunday with only 20 percent of registered voters casting votes, according to the Interior Ministry. Sunday's polls were the first elections of any kind in Lebanon since the last municipal vote in 2010, in a country with a deeply divided political scene that has not had a president for the past two years nor voted for a parliament since 2009.

Report: FPM Mulling Expulsion of 20 Members for 'Rebelling against Movement Decisions'
Naharnet/May 10/16/A dispute erupted during the weekend's municipal elections between leading members of the Free Patriotic Movement, which was formerly led by MP Michel Aoun, reported the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat daily on Tuesday. Informed sources told the daily that the FPM leadership is studying the possibility of expelling some 20 members, including leading official Ziad Abs, for “rebelling against movement decisions.”Abs is a leading FPM figure in Beirut. The dispute erupted over his opposition to the FPM's alliance in the elections with Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri. The dispute pitted him against former FPM minister Nicolas Sehnaoui, explained al-Joumhouria newspaper. Abs as was allegedly not consulted over the alliance, said Asharaq al-Awsat. Aoun meanwhile vowed to “hold accountable” those responsible for the “intifada” within the FPM, a source close to movement leader Jebran Bassil told al-Liwaa newspaper. It predicted that Abs may be expelled from the FPM in wake of his failure to adhere to movement decisions and for backing municipal candidates outside of the FPM's choices. Investigations are currently underway in the matter.

Change and Reform Says Zahle, Beirut Polls Show Importance of Christian 'Unity'
Naharnet/May 10/16/Sunday's municipal and mayoral elections in Beirut and Zahle highlighted the importance of “rapprochement” between the Christian political parties, and equal Christian-Muslim power-sharing, the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc said on Tuesday. “In Beirut, we highlighted the importance of being present in the capital. The lesson we draw from Beirut's elections is that some parties must not remain excluded from decision-making and that we must come together in order to achieve change,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan announced after the bloc's weekly meeting. The Beirutis List -- which comprised candidates fielded by Change and Reform, al-Mustaqbal movement and other parties that are represented in government and parliament – achieved a difficult win against the Beirut Madinati civic campaign in the capital's municipal polls on Sunday, amid a low voter turnout.
Turning to Zahle, the bloc said “the agreement that occurred between the Christian political parties proves that unity is strength and that representation in state institutions requires the unification of all wills and a joint vision.”“We must embark on work in Zahle and to focus on development in the city,” the bloc added. “These elections prove that Zahle's national influence will reflect itself across Lebanon and there is unity reflected in the political vision and projects,” it said. “We congratulate Zahle and its residents on the democratic scene, which proved that Zahle's will is bigger than any wall trying to separate between its families and parties,” Change and Reform added. A coalition of candidates fielded by the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party has emerged victorious against lists backed by Popular Bloc chief Myriam Skaff and MP Nicolas Fattoush in Zahle's municipal polls on Sunday. The municipal polls are the first electoral test for the FPM and the LF since they signed their political rapprochement agreement in June last year.

Hollande Stresses France's Commitment to Ending Presidential Impasse in Message to Berri
Naharnet/May 10/16/Speaker Nabih Berri received on Tuesday a message from French President Francois Hollande, who expressed his country's keenness on resolving Lebanon's presidential deadlock. He said: “We are working on ending the impasse.” “We support Lebanon in the political, economic, financial, and military fields, and in confronting the burden of Syrian refugees.”The French president had paid a visit to Lebanon in April where he held talks with senior officials, including Berri. The speaker had also received a telephone call from each of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Kuwaiti Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim, reported the National News Agency. He also received Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali at his Ain el-Tineh residence.

Security Forces Arrest Ziad Qasouf's Killer
Naharnet/May 10/16/Security forces arrested the murderer of Ziad Qasouf, who was killed in the eastern city of Zahle last month. The Internal Security Forces identified the murderer as Y.M., a Lebanese national born in 1979. He confessed to killing Qasouf on April 26 by opening fire at him from two guns, said an ISF statement on Tuesday. Qasouf was the accountant at the nearby Tel Chiha Hospital. The murderer confessed to killing the victim for work-related reasons.Qasouf, 40, was found shot dead in the parking of the Ramia building where he resides in upper Zahle.

Cabinet Seeking to Avoid Contentious Issues in Next Session
Naharnet/May 10/16/The government is scheduled to hold a meeting later this week as it attempts to avoid tackling issues of dispute, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Tuesday. Minister of the Displaced Alice Shabtini told the daily that the “cabinet is avoiding including contentious issues on its agenda.” This therefore rules out the possibility of cabinet tackling the case of the state security general directorate. The cabinet is set to convene on Thursday. It is however expected to address the appointments at Tele Liban's board of directors. Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said that he will propose this issue during Thursday's meeting.He hoped that an agreement will be reached, revealing that he is compiling a “complete” file over this matter, which will include briefings on the potential candidates for the position of chairman of the board.

No Injuries as Hand Grenade Tossed in Ain el-Hilweh
Naharnet/May 10/16/Unknown assailants tossed overnight a hand grenade in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in the southern city of Sidon, reported the National News Agency on Tuesday. It said that no one was injured in the attack. The assailants threw the grenade in the al-Fawqani street in the camp. The joint Palestinian security forces unit retaliated to the incident by firing gunshots in the air. Ain el-Hilweh frequently witnesses clashes between its various armed factions. By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the Palestinian camps in the country, leaving the Palestinian factions themselves to handle security. That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain el-Hilweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

Hariri Says Parties Represented in Beirutis List Voted for Other Lists
Naharnet/May 10/16/Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Monday accused some parties who nominated some candidates on the Mustaqbal-led Beirutis List of “voting for other lists” in the capital's municipal elections that were held Sunday. “I congratulate Beirut's people. Beirut said its word in politics and the Beirutis chose their political orientation and project,” said Hariri at a press conference at the Center House that was attended by the members of the victorious Beirutis List. “I thank Beirut and the Beirutis and I congratulate the Lebanese on the success of the honorable democratic test. I congratulate all the lists that won the elections and also the lists that participated in the polls in Beirut and the Bekaa,” the ex-PM added. “I salute Beirut's people and anyone who took part in the elections. I salute every young man and woman who were part of the electoral campaign and I especially salute the army, the security forces, the interior minister and the ministry's departments who oversaw clean elections,” Hariri said. Addressing the rival Beirut Madinati list, which was formed by a grassroots civic campaign, Hariri added: “You are part of Beirut's social, civil, cultural and youth fabric and you performed a thanked democratic action and preserved the nature of our political system.”“I believe that you share our dreams and ambitions. You might have addressed harsh words against us during the campaigning, but this is the nature of electoral campaigns and this is your right,” the ex-PM said. “You are similar to us and you are not at all similar to those who relied on your votes to break equal Christian-Muslim representation” in the 24-member municipal council, Hariri went on to say. He stressed that “yesterday, Beirut underlined that equal representation is an irreversible choice and that no one can shake it or tamper with it.”Hariri also revealed that “some parties nominated candidates on the Beirutis List and voted for another list.”“This could have undermined equal Christian-Muslim representation and it is something that is not honorable in political action or electoral coalitions,” the former premier said. Hariri also pledged that he will cooperate with Beirut's MPs and the new municipal council in order to ensure fairness for all of Beirut's neighborhoods, to improve sanitation and services, and to create public and green spaces and playgrounds for Beirut's residents. Spearheaded by al-Mustaqbal movement, the Beirutis List comprised candidates nominated by several political parties that are represented in the government and parliament, such as the AMAL Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and the Tashnag Party. Earlier in the day, the head of the Beirutis List, Jamal Itani announced that, according to initial results from its electoral apparatus, the list won all the seats of the municipal council. Later on Monday, media reports said the rival Beirut Madinati list was leading in the vote count in the capital's majority Christian areas. Authorities are expected to announce later today the official results for the elections held on Sunday in the capital and in two provinces in the Bekaa region. They were the first elections of any kind in Lebanon since the last municipal polls in 2010, in a country with a deeply divided political scene that has not had a president for the past two years nor voted for a parliament since 2009. In Beirut, hopes had been high that a new list of independents -- Beirut Madinati, Arabic for "Beirut is my city" -- could take on an established political class accused of incompetence and corruption. A candidate from civil society initiative Beirut Madinati said that even if the list did not win any seats, it had at least shaken up the political establishment. "We're not taking part in the polls to make any political gain but to give serious competition" to traditional parties, Rana Khoury told AFP. "The mere fact that we made those in power... feel that they had been given a cold shower means that we achieved something positive," she said. "We made them feel they don't represent or serve citizens as they should." Beirut Madinati's program to attract frustrated voters had included plans to improve public transport in the traffic-clogged capital, introduce more green spaces, make housing affordable and implement a lasting waste management solution. Turnout was low in the capital on Sunday with only 20 percent of registered voters casting votes, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said.

Minister of Information, Ramzi Jreij felicitates Mashnouk on successfully achieving Municipal elections
Tue 10 May 2016/NNA - Minister of Information, Ramzi Jreij, said on Tuesday that the Lebanese state has definitely succeeded the test of municipal elections at the security and political levels. "Mashnouk has accomplished his duties to the fullest at the time that citizens kept doubting the fact that municipal elections would be held to start with," the Minister said in an interview accorded to the Voice of Lebanon radio station, adding that elections happened against all odds. "It was a democratic day par excellence. The Interior Minister and the security forces should be felicitated for succeeding in this very first test," Jreij added. Moreover, the Minister said that some pressing circumstances had urged him to abstain from yesterday's joint parliamentary committees' session. As for the security forces' dossier, the Minister said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam had set a deadline and was holding contacts with concerned sides to resolve the matter.

Civil Justice Gathering" Mousbah Al-Ahdab announces candidacy to municipal elections
Tue 10 May 2016/NNA - Head of the "Civil Justice Gathering" Mousbah Al-Ahdab, on Tuesday announced his candidacy for Tripoli City's municipal elections under the motto of "Tripoli the Capital", along with a working team comprising of 17 young men and women. Ahdab said that his candidacy aimed at thwarting attempts to confiscate the decisions and rights of the people of Tripoli. "I have previously brought up the pressing need to make use of municipal elections to resolve Tripoli's problems at the economic, social and developmental levels," he said in a press conference he had held at his Tripoli residence. Ahdab went on to express keenness on working hand-in-hand with the Northern capital's people and politicians in an attempt to draft a rescue plan for the city. "Today, we are in dire need to protect and fortify Tripoli amid the tough circumstances it endures. We need to thwart attempt to 'slaughter' our city again," he said. "We are all aware of the fact that Tripoli has been struck with paralysis after their (officials') failure to provide the citizens with the least of their human rights," he added.

A tale of two cities: Beirut elections revisited
Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/May 10/16
Beirut Madinati, who underestimated the populist power of political parties, must learn from their mistakes if the movement is to survive
Once a famous big game hunter was out looking for prey. Having spotted a lion drinking water, he aimed his rifle towards the beast and fired. However, the rifle jammed and the lion, who had just finished eating, refrained from eating the man and merely slaps him around. Having been insulted, the hunter comes back on a number of occasions with a bigger rifle with a much bigger caliber, but the same situation repeats itself. The beast, having felt the man’s frustration, looks at the hunter and asks him “are you here to hunt or do you just enjoy being slapped around?”
This joke might just be appropriate to describe the recent municipal elections that took place in Beirut, or more accurately, how some of the people running for office approached the matter.
Sunday night at 7 pm marked the closing of the polling stations in the city of Beirut. A much awaited municipal elections, which many even doubted would even take place, went through with no major glitches. While four list were competing for the Beirut municipality seats, two main lists where the center of attention, a pro-government coalition list that included everyone but the kitchen sink, “the Beiruti List”, and a list which housed a hodgepodge of young professionals and activists sporting a progressive and seemingly modern platform, “Beirut Madinati” (Beirut my City).
The euphoria that the latter list generated over the past few weeks made many of the Lebanese hopeful that grassroots change was within reach. It is not difficult to explain the support that these people received from potential voters, who were frustrated with the traditional political parties that had failed them time and again. However, as the votes were tallied, this ecstasy quickly died down as the vote showed an overwhelming victory for their rivals, a slap to the face to many so-called ‘dreamers’.
These dreamers did not shy away from expressing their frustration over social media platforms, going so far as labeling the people that voted for their opponents, or merely refrained from voting, as ignorant or herd like. This unsportsmanlike behavior is understandable and rather expected, but how can one learn from this electoral and political debacle to perhaps prevent this movement for change from merely petering out?
Not by “Likes” alone
Social media, especially as an election tool, is a two edged sword. In street terms, Beirut Madinati (BM) “got high on their own supply”, as much of their messaging appealed to people that resemble them. The movement ended up preaching to the choir instead of reaching out to the real voting blocs.
Moreover, many of the supporters of BM believed that a like or a tweet on social media was enough indication that this person will cast his/her vote for their list. People throughout the day like, share and comment on many posts ranging from pictures of people they would like to date to cute babies to more serious political articles.
Nevertheless, when translated into votes in the ballot boxes this social media presence amounted to nothing. People who are on Facebook do not all vote in Beirut, and if they did, they would not do it over social media. The Colombian-Lebanese singer diva Shakira has over 102,806,134 likes on Facebook but she doesn’t hold office.
Elections are a science, not art
Perhaps the most striking failure of the BM list is their lack of what people refer to as an electoral machine, which is pivotal in any contest before, during or after the election process. It was obvious that BM could not muster enough volunteers to cover the numerous polling stations around Beirut, or if they did, these young men and women had no prior interaction with the traditional voting blocs and thus did not sway the vote. Running without a coalition of selectmen (مخاتير) to cover their flanks electorally amounted to virtual suicide. These selectmen, despite their outmoded function, are a source of block votes which no list can win without, especially in Beirut.
Publishing and circulating ones electoral lists, like BM did, four days ahead of the elections is certainly not a prudent move, especially if one wants to avoid what people refer to as sapping the lists (تلغيم). In practical terms, while the process is certainly flawed and requires a total overall, these outdated rules are the ones that dictate the game and BM, or any other movement, cannot expect to change anything if they continue to embrace this reality.
Political parties are not the enemy
Beirut Madinati went out of their way to stress that they are running as representatives of civil society and thus had no political affiliation whatsoever. Nadine Labaki, the renowned director running on the BM ticket, even went as far as declaring that she, or whatever she represents, would ultimately work towards abolishing political parties all together, a juvenile statement to say the least. Anyone who aspires to win office is certainly no civil society activist, but a political activist, and thus one cannot treat the existing parties, regardless of their role and standing, as pariahs. Like it or not, political parties play an instrumental role in capacity building, and thus people who are members of these groups are versed in elections and campaigning more than people realize.
Perhaps it is important that the YouStink movement, which emerged last year during the garbage crisis, committed the same cardinal sin of ostracizing the political parties and eventually found that they themselves were the real outcasts. Calling people who vote for the other parties “sheep” is neither a wise nor a civilized way of carrying oneself.
Beware of strangers baring votes
The final tally revealed that BM had done well in the Christian sector of the city and that the people of East Beirut, who hail from various ideological backgrounds, opted to vote for change. This might be one way of looking at the matter. However, sectarian realities reveal otherwise.
The Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces alliance, and even the Kataeb party, did not hide the fact that they did not approve of Hariri’s way of handling the municipal elections, nor his choice for the presidency of the republic, Sleiman Franjieh. The ballot box, for the aforementioned parties at least, was not a vote for change but rather a peasant-like way of settling feuds. Also important is the fact that Hezbollah used BM to further weaken Hariri’s position by simply following the age old adage “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
Oligarchs are smarter than they appear
The people who rallied behind BM assumed that the ruling junta was weaker than it appeared and that this grassroots movement would be the final straw that would end their reign over Lebanese politics. Lebanese oligarchs have been around for a few centuries now, and they know when to play their cards and when to walk away.
Every time a movement such as BM, or any other movement for that matter, try to take them on and fails, these oligarch are further empowered. Contrary to what some might believe, the ruling class has the ability to soldier through these challenges and even use these actions as proof that the system cannot cope with such radical adventurous movements. Ultimately, this junta has the luxury of time, resources and experience. Something BM certainly lacks.
The elitist predisposition of BM also proved to be a liability rather than an asset, for unfortunately, not all people relate to the Ras Beiruti cosmopolitan outlook that most of the BM candidates represent. Traditional leaders are masters of playing the populist card, whether one likes it or not.
BM and whoever inherits this movement after them need to be aware of these aforementioned pitfalls. Life does not reward people for coming in 10th place and while certainly the 29,000 votes that BM garnered is an impressive feat, the reality remains that winning silver is losing gold.

British man “murdered” in Lebanon’s Deir al-Ahmar, says father
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/May 10/16/
Lee Harrison told his father he feared his Lebanese friends would kill him days before he was found hanged
A picture uploaded by Harrison to his Facebook page on 22 November, 2015, shows him visiting Baalbek’s Temple of Bacchus (Source: Facebook page of Lee Harrison) A 50-year-old British father-of-three who was found hanged in the Beqaa Valley town of Deir al-Ahmar on April 19 in what the Lebanese authorities maintain was a suicide was in fact “murdered” by the local family he was staying with, claims his father, who showed NOW screenshots of text messages sent from his distressed son in the days leading up to his death.
“[An acquaintance] has had me done in over here,” wrote Lee Harrison to a friend of his in England on April 15.
“You need to get out asap!” the friend replied the same day. “All ready [sic] stuck,” responded Harrison.
Since arriving in the country on December 21, 2015, Harrison had been staying near the city of Baalbek with members of the Al-Masri family, relatives of a Lebanese friend he had made in Portsmouth, England, where he worked, according to his father, Tom Harrison, as well as a member of the Al-Masri family who spoke to NOW on condition of anonymity. The Lebanese Annahar newspaper, citing an official from Deir al-Ahmar, reported Harrison was specifically “the guest of the Al-Masris in Majdaloun,” a village 7 km southwest of Baalbek and 20 km south of Deir al-Ahmar.
Initially planning to stay for just two weeks, Harrison was persuaded by his hosts to extend his stay, according to his father.
“He seemed all right,” said Tom of the friend with whom Lee was staying, telling NOW they had spoken face-to-face on the ‘FaceTime’ phone application and that Lee’s hosts had invited Tom himself over for a visit, telling him, “we can go round the [Beqaa] Valley, and you can see all the rivers and streams, it’s beautiful.”
Soon afterwards, however, Lee’s trip took the first of several strange turns in the first week of January, when his father says he told him he was pulled out of a car at gunpoint after dining at a local restaurant and taken away for eight hours of questioning by unidentified people whom Lee believed to be CIA operatives due to their speaking “fluent American English.” At the end, they left him at a military “camp […] with a base,” Tom told NOW. When NOW put it to Tom that there is no known American military base in the Beqaa Valley – generally ruled by a combination of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah, and armed tribesmen – he said it may have been another group that conducted the interrogation, though naturally he was unable to confirm their identity either way.
Whoever it was that abducted Lee, they then followed him around everywhere he went thereafter, according to Tom.
“They were on him ever since […] never let him out of their sight. I got that from my own information,” he told NOW. Tom believes this surveillance could have attracted the attention of local residents, raising question marks about Lee.
“You’re on INTERPOL”
The second bizarre turn in Lee’s stay would then come in mid-February, when he went to General Security to renew his tourist visa, set to expire on the 21st. What would ordinarily be a relatively quick procedure turned into a six-week ordeal when his passport was confiscated on the grounds that he was wanted – so he was told – by INTERPOL as a Libyan criminal.
“They had [his passport] for six weeks, and the excuse was, ‘You’re on INTERPOL’,” Lee told NOW. “Then they said there’s another Lee Harrison; a Libyan national” – his voice incredulous – “called Lee Harrison; who’s wanted.” Eventually, he was told there had been a mistake, and his passport was returned.
No Lee Harrison of any nationality exists on INTERPOL’s public wanted list. The closest Libyan name to sounding anything conceivably similar on the list is John Lowry, though he is 56 years old, not 35, as the Libyan ‘Lee Harrison’ was said to be. Contacted by NOW for clarification, INTERPOL said it’s possible for nations to circulate a non-public ‘Red Notice,’ though this has to be based on an arrest warrant. No warrant was ever issued by the Lebanese authorities against Harrison. With his passport finally returned but his tourist visa now long expired, Lee went to a local immigration office on April 2 to make the necessary arrangements. Yet here again his passport was confiscated, allegedly on the same INTERPOL pretext of which General Security had, at length, just cleared him.
“He went, ‘Are you crazy? I’ve just got it back!’” Tom told NOW. “And they wouldn’t give it back […] he never got [his passport] back.”
The below photo, sent by Tom to NOW, shows a General Security document signed, stamped and dated April 2. “His identity papers have been kept with [the General Directorate] temporarily for the completion of the procedure,” reads the typed text. A handwritten word that looks like the Arabic safar then follows, possibly a reference to “passport” (jawaz al-safar). Asked by NOW Monday for details regarding Harrison’s dealings with General Security, the agency’s press spokesperson Brig. Gen. Nabil Hannoun said, “I don’t have any kind of information at all,” and suggested NOW “send a fax” with questions, which “if possible” would be answered “in two or three days.”
From the date, April 2, that his passport was taken for the second time, Lee told Tom his friends began viewing him with evident suspicion. “He told me there’s something not right, they’re talking and looking at me,” said Tom, recounting a phone conversation with Lee shortly before his death. “’The way they’re looking at me, the last couple of weeks, and whispering,’ he said, ‘I’m sure they think I’m undercover. They must think I’m an undercover cop or something.’”During one of Tom’s FaceTime video calls with Lee, his son had shown him heavy weaponry in the family’s house, including RPGs and AK-47s, Tom told NOW. “So had they thought, ‘We’ve shown him things we shouldn’t have shown him?’”
Whatever the case, according to Tom, Lee’s hosts proceeded to take two of his phones off him (not knowing he still had a third), and effectively kept him imprisoned in the house. The last fortnight of his life would see one final, dramatic and fateful twist. “Chinned the gardener and stuck a knife in him”Trapped in the house by his friends-turned-jailors, Lee became convinced he was going to be killed, said Tom, who was by then in daily contact with him. “He rung me up on Monday [April 18] and said, ‘Dad, if anything happens to me, you make sure my blood’s checked, and there’s not a mark on me’,” Tom told NOW. “He told me [they] were going to do it. The people who were supposed to be his friends.”Lee also, according to Tom, called his daughters, as though aware it might be his last chance to speak to them. His daughter Danielle told the English Gazette Live newspaper it was “as if he knew something was going to happen.”
Still, Lee Harrison wasn’t the sort to go down meekly. This was, after all, the man formerly known to thousands in his north English homeland as ‘Hooligan X,’ a “clubbing legend” in the 1990s who reportedly rubbed shoulders with Mike Tyson, Desmond Tutu and Tupac Shakur. He was jailed for nine years in 2004 for manslaughter; charges Tom said were trumped-up (“somebody done something, he was sat in the car, a fight in a house, but they put it down as joint venture”). He had also done time in Jamaica’s notorious Horizon Prison. In recent years, Lee had taken to boxing, and fought “like a terrier,” according to Tom. Believing his days numbered, Lee lay in waiting for the chance to make his escape.
That came on April 16, when, taking advantage of his minders’ temporary absence, Lee upped and, in Tom’s words, “chinned the gardener and stuck a knife in him.” His freedom, however, was cut short when he was struck by a car shortly afterward, and taken to hospital. Released with only minor injuries, Lee then moved – whether voluntarily or not is unclear – to the town of Deir al-Ahmar, where he stayed at the house of an acquaintance of both his and the Al-Masris, Shehade Habshi. It was at this house that he would be found hanged on the 19th. A photo of the scene showed a cut on the bridge of his nose and swelling around his right eye.
“The police have done nothing”
The official story given to NOW by both the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) and the then-Mayor of Deir al-Ahmar, Milad al-Aqouri, is that Harrison committed suicide. “The body was examined by two forensic doctors, and the results of their reports say it was likely a suicide,” ISF spokesperson Capt. Rabia Fakhri told NOW Monday. “The way his body is hanged on the door of the house, I don’t think if anyone was going to kill him they would hang the body in such a way.” However, the ISF’s investigation is still underway, Fakhri added.
“Until now, there is nothing new in the investigation. The last thing [I heard] was that the man committed suicide, and no one was arrested,” Mayor al-Aqouri told NOW. As for Habshi, the owner of the house where Harrison was found, he was questioned, but quickly cleared of suspicion, said both Capt. Fakhri and Mayor al-Aqouri. “Habshi is not accused [of any wrongdoing],” said Capt. Fakhri. “We don’t have any detainees linked to this case.”Lee’s father vehemently rejects the suicide claims, telling NOW, “He’s got a massive following in the UK as a DJ […] why would he want to kill himself?” Regarding Habshi, Tom accuses him of “work[ing] with” the Al-Masris.
“[Lee] said to me, ‘They’re all in on it, Dad. They’re all in on it.’”
In summary, Tom told NOW, the Lebanese authorities “have done nothing” meaningful on the investigation front. For one thing, a fingerprint search of Habshi’s property found no prints besides those of the two people who ordinarily lived there, he said. For another, “the two people that are helping the police inquiries,” he alleged, “are from the Masri family.”
Moreover, the police investigation asserts that Harrison was found dead on the 16th, rather than the 19th, according to an email to the family from a British Foreign & Commonwealth Office employee seen by NOW. This is despite Lee having made phone calls after the 16th, such as a missed call on the 18th documented in a screenshot sent by Tom to NOW. Why the police recorded that he was killed on the 16th remains unclear.
“It just stinks.”
Nor does Harrison speak highly of his experience with the British embassy throughout the episode.
“The British embassy’s being negative,” he told NOW. “They’ll tell you nothing.” Indeed, NOW has asked the embassy for comment several times, starting one day after the news first broke in the Lebanese press, and received only brief, generic statements about following up with the Lebanese authorities and providing consular assistance to the family. For comparison’s sake, when the Italian student Giulio Regeni was found dead in Cairo in February, the Italian government reacted with outrage, recalling its ambassador, sending its chief prosecutor to the Egyptian capital to follow up on the investigation and threatening “immediate and proportionate” punitive measures if the Egyptian authorities did not handle the case seriously. Tom’s hopes were raised slightly Friday when Lee’s body was finally returned to the UK for an independent autopsy. Speaking to NOW Tuesday, he said the British police have told him unofficially that they’re treating it as a likely murder case. “They know, from what I’ve sent you, and other things, that he didn’t kill himself. They know, they’re not stupid.”
Yet as long as Lee’s case continues to be viewed officially as a suicide in Lebanon, Tom and the rest of his family and friends will be left grieving with unanswered questions.
“Why have they done it? Why have they taken my son’s life?” Tom asked NOW. “My son’s not a terrorist, he’s not into arms, he’s not into drugs. He went to work every day since he came out of prison. He’s worked for five, six years, solid.”
“So, why?”
**Amin Nasr contributed reporting.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 11/16

Canadian Imam Sharif Mady: Jerusalem Will Only Be Regained Through Blood, Peace Accords Are Garbage
MEMRI/May 10/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/05/10/memricanadian-imam-sharif-mady-jerusalem-will-only-be-regained-through-blood-peace-accords-are-garbage/
Link for the MEMRI Site to watch the Clip http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/5462.htm
During a Friday sermon delivered in Edmonton, Alberta, Imam Shaban Sherif Mady said that "peace accords, Sykes-Picot, and all these sort of things are useless garbage." "How can you make peace while the other side uses weapons?" he asked. Imam Mady further said that Jerusalem would "only be regained through blood." The sermon was posted on the Internet on May 7. For another sermon by Imam Mady, in which he said that Rome would be conquered like Constantinople was, see MEMRI TV clip 5342. http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/5342.htm

Following are excerpts:
Shaban Sherif Mady: "The Prophet Muhammad said that there would be a peace agreement between the Muslims and the Byzantines, which would be respected, and that the [Muslims] would fight another enemy. Who is this other enemy? It is Iran and its filthy lackeys and dogs, like Russia, China, and those who support them, as well as the secular dogs in the Arab world, like the children of [UAE ruler] Zayed, and that Jewish Zionist Al-Sisi, as well as that secular traitor [Libyan leader Khalifa] Haftar, together with all these traitors. They will all come to an end. Thanks to this peace agreement, they will all vanish from the face of the Earth. When? Hopefully, this will happen soon.
"Our Jerusalem, the place of our Prophet's nocturnal journey, will only be regained through blood. Peace accords, Sykes-Picot, and all these sort of things are useless garbage. How can you make peace while the other side uses weapons? You are talking about peace, while he is killing?! You are talking about peace, while he has F-16s, tanks, and rockets. So what kind of peace is this? It is 'peace be upon you,' my dear. Send my 'peace' and greetings... What peace? Why hasn't there been even a single [UN] resolution condemning Israel, ever since its establishment? There has never been an international resolution against it."

3 Dead, 42 Hurt in Bomb Attack Targeting Police in Turkey's Diyarbakir
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Three people were killed Tuesday and 42 others wounded when a car bomb attack blamed on Kurdish militants struck a police vehicle in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, officials said. The armored minibus was carrying detainees accused of "terror" crimes when the car bomb exploded in the center of Diyarbakir, the office of the regional governor said in a statement. The state-run Anatolia news agency blamed militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the attack. The seven detainees were being taken for a routine health check after being detained earlier on suspicion of membership of the PKK. Forty-five people, 12 police and 33 civilians, including people who had been sitting in a tea garden by the roadside, were wounded in the initial blast, the statement said. Three people later died of their wounds in hospital, it added, without specifying if police or detainees were among the fatalities. Pictures from the scene showed the blast had left a trail of devastation with the bus reduced to a burned out wreck and its debris strewn around the area. Bystanders led bloodied survivors to safety. Diyarbakir and its region have in recent months been hit by repeated attacks by the PKK as the military presses a relentless offensive against the Kurdish militants. Earlier, two police had been killed in a bomb attack blamed on the PKK in a district of the southeastern city of Van to the east which had so far been spared the worst of the fighting. Seven Turkish police officers were killed and at least 27 people wounded in late March in a bomb attack on their vehicle in Diyarbakir. The PKK first took up arms in 1984 demanding a homeland for Turkey's biggest minority, later paring back its demands to focus on cultural rights and a measure of autonomy. Over 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency. The new upsurge of violence between the security forces and Kurdish militants erupted in July 2015, shattering a two-and-a-half year truce.
 

Aleppo Truce Extended by 48 Hours
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/A truce in Aleppo in northern Syria between regime forces and rebels that was due to expire late Monday has been extended by 48 hours, the Syrian army command said. "The 'regime of silence' in Aleppo and its province has been extended by 48 hours from Tuesday 01:00 am (local time) to midnight on Wednesday," a statement said. The temporary truce, initially for two days and then prolonged until Tuesday at 00:01 am (21:01 GMT Monday), was decided after fighting killed nearly 300 people since April 22 in Aleppo, where some areas are held by rebels and some by government forces.
 

Global Powers to Discuss Syria in Vienna on May 17
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Russia's foreign ministry on Tuesday said global powers would gather in Vienna on May 17 to discuss the crisis in Syria, where a recent surge in fighting has threatened peace efforts. Speaking to AFP, a spokeswoman said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "is planning" to take part in the next week's meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG). Moscow -- a key backer of Syria's President Bashar Assad -- is currently spearheading a diplomatic push to resolve the conflict as co-chair of ISSG alongside the United States. Washington and Moscow on Monday vowed to "redouble" efforts to end the five-year war in Syria, as regime forces and rebels in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo agreed to extend a truce for a second time. Russia pledged to pressure Syria to "minimize" air operations over civilian areas while the U.S. promised to support its "regional allies to help them prevent the flow of fighters, weapons, or financial support to terrorist organizations across their borders."The statement also opened the door to greater joint cooperation in combating the Islamic State group, saying both sides were "committed to undertaking efforts to develop a shared understanding of the threat posed, and territory controlled, by ISIL and the Nusra Front."The two nations said they decided to issue a joint statement following violence that threatened to undermine peace efforts. The ceasefire had come under strain in "several areas of the country" in recent days, it said. Lavrov also discussed the next meeting of the ISSG with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, a foreign ministry statement said. A surge in fighting in Aleppo has threatened to kill off a broader February 27 ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington which had raised hopes of a political solution to end violence that has killed more than 270,000 people. A temporary truce between government forces and rebel groups introduced last week was extended to Wednesday at 2100 GMT, the Syrian army said Monday. The ISSG -- made up of 17 countries and organizations including the United Nations, but excluding parties from inside Syria -- began gathering last year and has held a number of meetings as part of the most concerted international peace drive yet on Syria.

Putin Says 'a Lot Left to Do' for Assad's Forces in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said there remained "a lot left to do" for the forces of Syrian leader Bashar Assad despite Russian firepower hitting over 30,000 targets in the war-torn country. The Kremlin strongman also admitted that the Russian operation in Syria has exposed unspecified "problems" for Moscow's military that need to be probed. "Since the start of the operation the Russian airforce has carried out over 10,000 sorties against international terrorist infrastructure in Syria and conducted a large number of strikes, with over 30,000 targets hit," Putin told a meeting of military chiefs and weapons manufacturers. Putin insisted that Moscow's strikes against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front had been "precise, powerful and effective" but also said "the situation there is complicated and there is still a lot left to do for the Syrian army."He conceded that the "operation in Syria has exhibited certain problems, insufficiencies" for Moscow's military without giving any further details. "The most thorough investigation must be carried out into every problematic issue," Putin said. Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria in support of Assad's forces since September but has been accused by the West of targeting moderate regime opponents and hitting civilians. Moscow is currently spearheading a diplomatic push alongside the United States to resolve the conflict and Putin once again highlighted that Moscow is interested in a political solution to the war. Government forces and rebels in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo agreed Monday to extend their truce for a second time, the army said, as the U.S. and Russia vowed to "redouble" efforts to end the five-year conflict.
The two powers also agreed to try to extend a February 27 ceasefire across the whole of the country. The ceasefire, which was brokered by Washington and Moscow and excludes jihadist rebel groups fighting President Bashar Assad's forces, has been greatly strained by the upsurge in violence in Aleppo.

Millions in U.S. Aid to Syrians Suspended over Graft Probe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/The U.S. government has suspended millions of dollars in funding to several organizations providing aid for Syria after discovering they were systematically overpaying Turkish companies for basic goods with the collusion of some of their staff. The U.S. Agency for International Development's independent government auditor said it had "established grounds resulting in the suspension of 14 entities and individuals involved with aid programs from Turkey." Among the revelations, it said in a statement on Friday, was "a network of commercial vendors, NGO employees, and others who have colluded to engage in bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes related to contracts to deliver humanitarian aid in Syria." USAID did not identify any of the charities, but among those affected are the International Medical Corps (IMC), the Irish charity Goal and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), headed by former British foreign minister David Miliband, humanitarian sources told AFP. All the allegations relate to buying goods in Turkey, with NGOs systematically overpaying. A senior USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said among the largest problems was product substitution -- with Turkish private companies selling goods to NGOs at inflated prices and then providing vastly cheaper quality goods and pocketing the difference. Examples included blankets and other basic materials for Syrians, humanitarian sources said. The NGOs are accused of failing to monitor their procurement, while some NGO staff are accused of direct involvement in the overcharging. The IMC confirmed to AFP it had fired a number of staff after the allegations emerged. "What became clear in the course of this investigation was this was a pretty sophisticated operation," the USAID official said. In 2015, the U.S. donated $397 million to aid groups working in Syria, according to the U.N.'s Financial Tracking Service. USAID did not say how much the suspended aid was worth, but a source within one of the NGOs put the figure at tens of millions of dollars.
Syrians hurt 
War-torn Syria is among the hardest places in the world for aid organizations to work, with a plethora of armed groups including the Islamic State organization and its jihadist rival Al-Qaida constant threats. The Syrian government has also been accused of bombing hospitals in rebel-held areas. However the USAID allegations concern only the way goods were purchased inside Turkey, before being delivered to Syrian refugees or to those still inside Syria. USAID's Office of the Inspector General confirmed 14 "entities and individuals" had been suspended. "As a result of the suspensions, these parties are no longer able to receive U.S. government awards." International Medical Corps is among the largest providers of medical aid to Syrians, both inside the country and to refugees in neighboring countries, with the NGO saying more than six million patients have been treated in the past five years in the 430 health facilities it supports. IMC confirmed it was among those suspended and that it had fired a number of staff over alleged malpractice. "International Medical Corps has been actively cooperating with the USAID Inspector General, and we have also mounted our own internal investigation," IMC's Chief Compliance Officer Ambassador William Garvelink said in a statement. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud and corruption and have fired staff members who were suspected of involvement." The suspension has left the organization with a huge funding shortage, with around a third of its more than 2,000 personnel working on aid for Syria being made redundant. A number of programs run by the International Rescue Committee, have also been suspended. The IRC did not respond to requests for comment. The Irish charity Goal confirmed to the Irish newspaper The Journal last month parts of its program had been suspended. The knock-on effect for some of the world's neediest people has been significant. A major Syrian charity, which provides medical care to thousands of Syrians, received huge proportions of its funding from the IMC and the IRC, though there has been no allegation against the NGO. Speaking on condition the charity not be identified, a spokesman said it had been unable to buy medicines and other vital goods with U.S. funding since January. The suspensions are temporary and provided USAID is given assurances of new safeguards funding will resume. The United Nations has asked for more than $7 billion to fund its Syria aid programs for 2016.

Two Israeli Women Stabbed in Jerusalem
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Two elderly Israeli women out walking in Jerusalem were stabbed and wounded on Tuesday by "terrorists" who fled the scene, Israeli police said. The two women in their 80s were part of a group of five on a walk in woods between west and east Jerusalem when they were attacked. Medics treated them at the scene before taking them to hospital where they were in moderate and stable condition with stab wounds to their upper bodies, the Shaare Zedek hospital said. Police said the assailants fled to the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber. Two Palestinian suspects arrested shortly after the incident were released after questioning when they were found to be uninvolved, police said. "Police are continuing intensive operational and intelligence activity to find and arrest the terrorists," a statement said. There has been a wave of Palestinian attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security forces, primarily in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Since October last year, 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis have been killed, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.

Iran Says Syria Jihadists Holding Bodies of 12 Iranian Advisers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Jihadists are withholding the bodies of 12 Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed last week in Syria, an Iranian military official said Tuesday, quoted by ISNA news agency. According to Iranian media, 13 Revolutionary Guards military advisers died last week in fighting in Khan Tuman, southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, and 21 others were wounded. It was Iran's biggest loss of forces within a very short period, based on official figures. All were from Iran's northern province of Mazandaran."The Takfiris (extremists) are holding 12 bodies of the Mazandaran martyrs," said Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region. "As fighting is still ongoing in this region, the repatriation will be possible only after the liberation of those areas." Rezayi said that all other members of the forces from Mazandaran, as well as nine of the injured, had now returned to Iran. Pro-regime troops had driven jihadists out of Khan Tuman in December, but on Friday al-Qaida-affiliated jihadists of the al-Nusra Front and their allies retook the area, with dozens killed from both sides. Five or six members of the Iranian forces were captured in the battle, Iranian conservative lawmaker Esmail Kossari told the judiciary's official news service Mizan Online on Tuesday. No senior military official or politician has confirmed the capture. Fars news agency on Tuesday reported the deaths of four other Iranians, including a general, Shafi Shafiei. The commander was killed on Friday in Khan Tuman, Mizan said. Three Afghan volunteers killed in Syria were buried Monday in the northeast Iranian city of Mashhad, papers reported. Iran, Syria's main ally in the region, is involved militarily and financially in Syria's war, trying to prop President Bashar Assad's regime. President Hassan Rouhani heaped praise on the Revolutionary Guards in a speech Tuesday in southeast Iran. "Today the Revolutionary Guards not only have a responsibility to ensure the safety of the country alongside the army, police and basijis (militias linked to the Guards), but also bear the burden of safety in other countries that ask our help," Rouhani said. They are present there "to defend our sacred mausoleums in Iraq, Syria, the oppressed (people) in Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere where they have requested help," he added. Rouhani also paid tribute to General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the Guards' foreign operations arm. "Today, when we look at Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine, we see the traces of the bravery and courage of General Suleimani everywhere," he said.

German Knife Man Kills One, Wounds Three in Possible Islamist Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/A German man stabbed to death one person and slashed three more Tuesday in what authorities said may have been an Islamist attack, without ruling out that the assailant suffered mental problems. Police said they had arrested a 27-year-old German national who knifed four people around 5:00am (0300 GMT) at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich. One of the victims, a 50-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded. The "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive," said Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor's office. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were."Local media reported witnesses as saying the man had yelled "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and "you unbelievers" during the attack. If a jihadist motive is confirmed, it would be the country's third Islamist-linked knife attack since September, but police were also investigating whether the assailant had previous psychological or drug problems. Bavaria state's interior minister Joachim Hermann said the attacker, named locally as Paul H., was a German national, as authorities said he hailed from central Hesse state and did not have a migrant background.
"As to what extent there were other background factors, or whether this is more about questions of mental instability or drug addiction, still needs to be investigated," Hermann said on BR24 television. In the dawn attack, the assailant stabbed one man aboard a train, another on the platform, then left the station and slashed two more men on bicycles outside, said Bavarian police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer on NTV news channel. "In the meantime local police received an emergency call, and the officers quickly arrived at the scene and were able to detain the man," said Segerer. Bloody footsteps and police forensic officers in white plastic suits could be seen at the cordoned-off railway station in video footage from Grafing, 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of the Bavarian capital. "There is no longer any threat to the population," said another police spokeswoman, Michaela Gross. Town mayor Angelika Obermayr expressed shock at the bloody crime in the sleepy town of 13,000 people. "We are an absolutely peaceful Bavarian small town in the greater Munich region," she said on NTV. "Something like this is absolutely new and has deeply shocked the people here who only know things like that from television. "That something like that happened here is absolutely unbelievable." Last August, two jihadists claiming to belong to the Islamic State group threatened Germany with attacks in an online execution video. In the rare German-language video they urged their "brothers and sisters" in Germany and Austria to commit attacks against "unbelievers" at home. Since then Germany had seen at least two bloody knife assaults blamed on Islamists, before Tuesday's attack. In February a 15-year-old girl identified as Safia S. stabbed a policeman in the neck with a kitchen knife in what prosecutors later said was an IS-inspired attack. She attacked the officer during a routine check at Hanover train station in the country's north before being overpowered by another police officer. Federal prosecutors later said the teenager had "embraced the radical jihadist ideology of the foreign terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" and was in contact with an IS fighter in Syria. Last September, a 41-year-old Iraqi man identified as Rafik Y. stabbed and seriously wounded a policewoman in Berlin before another officer shot him dead. The man had previously spent time in jail for membership of a banned Islamist group and had been convicted in 2008 of planning an attack in Berlin against former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi. According to the German domestic intelligence agency, some 740 people have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq. About 120 of them have been killed, while about one third have returned to Germany.

Syria Leans on Exchange Bureaus to Save Plummeting Pound
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Syria's central bank on Tuesday ordered exchange bureaus to buy millions of dollars from it, state media said, to boost a currency at its lowest value in the five-year war. "The central bank ordered large exchange bureaus to buy $1 million and smaller bureaus to buy $100,000," the SANA official news agency reported. "Those that do not comply will be closed."The official exchange rate jumped by more than 20 percent to 620 pounds against the dollar from Monday to Tuesday, following the rate on the black market. "The central bank obliges exchange bureaus to sell dollars for 620 Syrian dollars without commission," SANA added. Jihad Yazigi, head of The Syria Report, said the measure could in part be explained by "the rumor that it would no longer do so because of a lack or reserves."Last month the World Bank said Syria's foreign currency reserves had dropped to $700 million at the end of last year from $20 billion at the start of the war in 2011. "The measure will temporarily calm down the situation but the exchange rate will increase if the central bank doesn't regularly water the market with green bills," Yazigi said. "It's an injection of only several millions of dollars because there are only five big exchange bureaus in Damascus." As well as devastating the economy, Syria's conflict has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Yemen Foes Agree to Major Prisoner Swap
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Yemeni government officials and rebels agreed on Tuesday to free half of the prisoners and detainees held by both sides within 20 days, officials from the two delegations said. The deal, seen as the first breakthrough in peace talks which began in Kuwait on April 21, came during a meeting of the joint working group on prisoners and detainees formed by U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year. "It was agreed during the meeting to release 50 percent of the prisoners and detainees within the next 20 days," Mane al-Matari, media adviser to Yemen's foreign minister who heads the government delegation, told AFP. A source close to the rebel delegation confirmed the agreement to release of half of those held by both sides and said "it will be an exchange of prisoners." The two sides will meet again on Wednesday to finalize the mechanism on how and when the exchange will take place, Matari said. "The Yemeni government is committed to release all the prisoners as per the agreement," he said. Matari estimated that their number is in the "thousands", but the rebel source said there may be only hundreds of prisoners involved. Following a two-day interruption, the two delegations resumed face-to-face talks on Monday after mediation efforts and an appeal by the U.N. envoy. The Yemen conflict pits Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh against forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who are supported by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Israel Court Convicts Palestinian Boy of Attempted Murder
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/A Jerusalem court convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian on Tuesday of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October that was one of the most high-profile of a recent wave of violence. The Jerusalem District Court also found Ahmed Manasra guilty of inflicting severe injury in the attack he carried out at the age of 13 along with a 15-year-old cousin, officials said. The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem. Hassan, the cousin, was shot dead by security forces, while Ahmed was hit by a car as they fled. The trial was held behind closed doors because of Manasra's age. The Jerusalem district prosecutor stressed "the fact the defendant is a minor does not change in the least the risk and danger his actions caused," the justice ministry said. Manasra, an east Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civil court in the wave of violence that erupted last October. A 12-year-old Palestinian girl from the West Bank, convicted of attempted murder by a military court as part of a plea bargain and sentenced to four months, was released from prison in April. Manasra's attorney Lea Tsemel told AFP that "the evidence shows he did not want to kill at all and didn't murder anyone. He said he just wanted to scare Jews so they'd stop killing Palestinians."Tsemel contrasted the attempted murder charges Manasra was convicted of with the manslaughter charge leveled against Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who is accused of shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground. She accused the legal system of being "dragged into discriminating between Jews and Arabs."Manasra's attack took place at the beginning of the a wave of Palestinian violence targeting Israeli civilians and security personnel, primarily in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Footage released by Israeli authorities in the wake of the attack purported to show the cousins -- knives in hand -- following the Israeli victims. It also showed Ahmed in the aftermath of the attack lying bleeding on the ground while Israeli onlookers shout abuse. It sparked a propaganda skirmish, with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas claiming he had been "executed" while Israel scrambled to release video of him sitting up and eating in a Jerusalem hospital bed. Since last October, 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Manasra's sentencing will begin on July 11, a justice ministry spokeswoman said. The district prosecutor said he would "seek a severe sentence, within the law."

Iran to Sue U.S. over Court Seizure of $2 bn in Frozen Funds
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Iran is preparing international legal action to recover nearly $2 billion that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered be paid as compensation to American victims of terror attacks, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday. "We will soon take the case of the $2 billion to the international court," Rouhani said in a televised speech. "We will not allow the United States to swallow this money so easily," the president said to a crowd of thousands in the southeastern city of Kerman. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 20 that Iran must hand nearly $2 billion in frozen central bank assets to the survivors and relatives of those killed in attacks it has been accused of organizing. The attacks include the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. The Supreme Court ruling affects some 1,000 Americans. It came despite hopes for better relations between Tehran and Washington, after a landmark nuclear deal last July between Iran and major powers led by the United States.U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he is ready to help settle the dispute over the assets, but only if both governments make that request.

Iran regime chops off man’s hand as punishment
Tuesday, 10 May/16/NCRI - Iran's fundamentalist regime has amputated the fingers of a man in his thirties in the city of Mashhad, north-east Iran, the latest in a line of draconian punishments handed down and carried out in recent weeks. The inhumane sentence was carried out on Monday in the Central Prison of Mashhad. The state-run Khorasan newspaper identified the victim by his initials M. T., adding that he was 39 years old. The prisoner was accused of theft and is also serving a 3-year jail sentence. The sentence was upheld by the regime's Court of Appeal. The regime's prosecutor in Mashhad, Gholamali Sadeqi, said: "One of the most important policies in the current year is confronting criminals and carrying out sentences precisely and decisively.”Commenting on the amputation, Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and a human rights activist, on Tuesday said: “In the past two weeks the regime has carried out numerous medieval punishments including flogging a woman in public on April 27 in Golpayegan, approving a sentence to blind a man with acid, yesterday’s hand amputation, and two public executions in Kermanshah and Nour on May 2. All of these point to the barbarity of the mullahs’ regime which has unfortunately become more worrisome due to the international community’s inaction.” “It is now incumbent upon [the UN Special Rapporteur of the human rights situation in Iran] Mr. Ahmed Shaheed to urgently take necessary and effective action to halt the wave of executions and medieval tortures,” she added.

Police chief: Iran’s prisons are full, harsher measures now needed
Tuesday, 10 May/16/NCRI - The Iranian regime's chief of police has stated that Iran's prisons have surpassed their capacity, adding that new harsher measures are needed to deter people from breaking the regime's laws. Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari, who heads the suppressive State Security Forces, said: "According to the judiciary, [Iran's] prisons are now full, and crimes can no longer be prevented with this method. So we must do something whereby the consequences of committing a crime is increased so that no one contemplates doing so.” Ashtari made the remarks on Sunday speaking before members of the regime’s new Majlis, or Parliament. The mullahs’ regime continues to hand down brutal sentences such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging and stoning to death. Iran’s fundamentalist regime has hanged at least 66 people since April 10. Three of those executed were women and one is believed to have been a juvenile offender. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 13 that the increasing trend of executions “aimed at intensifying the climate of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval regime.”Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before." "Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said. There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people.”

U.S. House Speaker calls for toughness as Iran deal starts to ‘unravel’
Tuesday, 10 May 2016/The Obama administration’s nuclear deal with the Iranian regime is "starting to unravel" and needs to be quickly supplemented with tough U.S. action, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said on Monday. In an op-ed for the Independent Journal Review, Ryan wrote: “When you get down to it, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Obama administration essentially misled the American people on the Iran deal—or at least misled itself.”“Everything the administration told us about the deal is starting to unravel.” Months after sanctions were lifted on the Iranian regime as part of the nuclear deal, Tehran has refused to fall in line with broader tenets of the international order, The Hill wrote on Monday. Among other points, the Iranian regime has conducted multiple ballistic missile tests, briefly held captive U.S. Navy sailors and continued tough rhetoric against Saudi Arabia and Israel — two American allies, the report said. And the U.S. is only encouraging the Iranian regime’s behavior, critics say, by spending $8.6 million to buy Iranian heavy water — which is used in nuclear reactors — and suggesting that it might have some access to the U.S. financial system. “The administration can spin it anyway it likes, but this was a bad deal,” Ryan wrote. “Before this president leaves office, we must do everything possible to prevent his administration from making further concessions to Iran. This includes blocking any attempt to make it easier for the mullahs in Tehran to conduct their trade in dollars. We are also committed to renewing the Iran Sanctions Act by the end of this year,” he added.

Foreign publications and Sunnis’ books banned in Tehran Book Fair
Tuesday, 10 May 2016/NCRI - Ali Fereydooni, an organizer of the Tehran Book Fair and an agent of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, has admitted that censorship exists in the books presented at the book fair. In an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency on May 6, Fereydooni stressed: "So far, a number of books have been banned from being sold in the Book Fair because they were not compatible with the content terms and criteria. These books in the Arabic section of the Book Fair promote extremism and ethnic and religious divisions and the other books in the English section contained inappropriate pictures."He added: "The process of monitoring books and their contents - especially those in the international section of the Book Fair - has been launched in three stages beginning before the opening day of the Book Fair. To this day, observers admonished the content of books presented in Arabic and foreign sections."Ali Jannati, the Minister of Culture in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet, acknowledged the regime’s censorship in books presented at the Book Fair. "The imported books have been checked. Indeed, some of the foreign books have been banned from the Tehran Book Fair because they promoted extremism," Jannati said.Informed sources say that some of the banned Arabic books are among the most significant writings of Sunni Islam.

Iran regime official: 60 percent of construction industry in Lorestan are sub-standard
Tuesday, 10 May 2016/NCRI - The Director General of the Institute of Standard and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) in Lorestan Province, western Iran, has admitted that 60 percent of the construction industries in the province do not meet regulatory standards. In a May 7 interview with the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, Marzieh Ghanbarian said: "Our main problem to standardize the industrial units arise from construction industry units. Only 40 percent of these units are standardized, and in fact 60 percent of construction industry units lack construction standards in Lorestan Province.""So far, a number of follow-ups have been made to standardize the construction industry units but yet they failed to bring considerable success,” Ghanbarian added.

Former U.S. Marine is suing Iran regime for his torture in captivity
Tuesday, 10 May 2016/A former United States Marine who was held prisoner in Iran for more than four years is suing the regime, seeking damages for torture he endured while in custody, his lawyers announced Monday. Amir Hekmati, an Iranian-American from Michigan, was convicted by the mullahs’ courts on vague espionage charges after being taken into custody while on a visit to Iran. He and three other Americans of Iranian descent were released earlier this year as part of a prisoner swap negotiated between the Iranian regime's officials and the Obama administration. The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and it seeks economic, compensatory, and punitive damages from a regime that does not have diplomatic ties with the United States and is unlikely to recognize any court ruling against it, according to POLITICO. According to a news release, the complaint maintains that "Iran’s despicable behavior was outside the scope of immunity provided by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and therefore subjects Iran to suit in the United States." It says that Hekmati was subject to beatings, sleep deprivation, forced drugging and psychological abuse. “Iran’s treatment of Amir Hekmati was utterly contemptible,” his attorney, Scott Gilbert, said in a statement. “Amir can never be adequately compensated for his suffering. ... Our intention, with the filing of this lawsuit, is to attempt to provide at least some measure of justice for Amir and his family.”Hekmati was in the Marines from 2001 to 2005 as an infantry rifleman and translator, serving in Iraq, according to the news release. He went to Iran to visit his grandmother in the summer of 2011, and was taken into custody just a few days before he was scheduled to return to the United States.Iran's regime doesn't recognize dual nationality and it treated Hekmati as an Iranian citizen. Because of the lack of formal diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime, U.S. officials had no real access to him. But at the same time that American leaders were urging the Iranian regime to free Hekmati and other Americans, they were negotiating a nuclear deal with Tehran. The release of Hekmati and the other imprisoned Iranian-Americans came the same day the nuclear deal was declared to have been formally implemented, although U.S. officials insisted the matters were kept on separate tracks. Filing lawsuits against foreign governments is a tricky issue in the United States, but there are some exceptions when it comes to terrorism. Last month, in a move that angered Tehran, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that allowed victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism to collect some $2 billion worth of seized Iranian assets.

EU lawmakers speak out in support of Iran’s imprisoned teachers and union leaders
Tuesday, 10 May 2016/NCRI - The Friends of a Free Iran group in the European Parliament has announced its solidarity with Iran's imprisoned teachers and union leaders, including several who are on a hunger strike in protest to the regime's “crackdown on civil activities and gatherings."
The following is the full text of a statement issued on Tuesday by Gérard Deprez MEP, the chairman of Friends of a Free Iran:
Press release - Friends of a Free Iran - European Parliament
Urgent call for the release of teachers and union leaders held imprisoned in Iran
Strasbourg, 10 May 2016 - We are extremely concerned regarding the disturbing reports of arrests and imprisonment of several teachers and union leaders in Iran.
Mr Esmail Abdi, General Secretary of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA) was arrested on 27 June 2015 following his attempt to obtain a visa to attend the 7th Educational International World Congress in Ottawa in July 2015. Mr Abdi, a maths teacher, is married with three children. He has been sentenced to six years in prison. He was prevented to choose his own lawyer.
Mr Jafar Azimzadeh, the President of the Free Union of Workers of Iran, and one of the coordinators of the 40,000-signature minim-pay rise campaign, has been sentenced to six years in prison. His union was demanding a minimum wage for the workers to be at least 750 euros instead of the current 250 euros.
Mr Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, 55, former secretary general and current speaker of Iran’s Teachers’ Union is married with one son. Mr. Langaroudi was detained on 6 September 2015 following a raid on his home. His trial lasted a few minutes and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He had been arrested and tortured, physically and psychologically, on several occasions over the past few years. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement on 8 September 2015, saying: “On 6 September 2015, the Iranian regime’s intelligence elements arrested teacher activist Mr. Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi and confiscated some of his personal belongings at his home. A day prior to his arrest (on September 5), he had raised teachers’ issues and demands with Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, spokesman of Hassan Rouhani’s government."
We are very worried about their health and well-being as they did not find any other option but to go on hunger strike: Jafar Azimzadeh and Ismail Abdi began an indefinite hunger strike on 29th April. They said that they are protesting against the “crackdown on civil activities and gatherings and strikes by workers and teachers, wages below the poverty line, a ban on independent and free gatherings to mark International Workers’ Day and Teachers Day in Iran and violations of basic rights of Iran’s workers and teachers”.
Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi is presently imprisoned in Evin Prison. He started a hunger strike on the 20th April in protest to the 14-year sentence he had been handed. Since the 2nd May he has been on a “dry” hunger strike.
Mr Rasool Badaghi, a teacher and union activist who was recently released after 7 years in prison, tried to visit Mr Langaroudi in hospital on Sunday 8 May but was severely beaten by seven intelligence officers and arrested again. He was sent to Evin prison.
Iran’s Teachers’ Union has issued statements condemning the arrests of its members and called the government of Rouhani as “same as its predecessors”. Iranian teachers held a protest on Friday in Hamedan, western Iran, demanding their basic rights and the release of imprisoned teachers, according to reports from Iran. The teachers held up banners which pointed out that their colleagues were being arrested in Iran simply for demanding their basic rights, such as fair wages. Numerous teachers from banned teaching unions have been arrested for their peaceful activities in Iran. Friends of a Free Iran which enjoys the support of over 200 member of the European Parliament from different political groups, expresses solidarity with the imprisoned teachers and union leaders and calls for their immediate release. We urge the EU High Representative and President of the European Parliament to directly intervene to prevent further repression of teachers and workers in Iran.
Gérard Deprez MEP
Chair, Friends of a Free Iran
European Parliament
Friends of a Free Iran (FoFI) is an informal group in the European Parliament which was formed in 2003 and enjoys the active support of many MEPs from various political groups

IRAN: Rouhani heaps praise on Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani
Tuesday, 10 May/16/NCRI - The Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday heaped praise on Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
Rouhani, speaking at a rally to mark IRGC Day in Soleimani’s hometown Kerman, south-eastern Iran, said the Quds Force commander is among the “honours” of Kerman Province and Iran. Rouhani said his friendship with Soleimani dates back to the 1980s’ Iran-Iraq war, adding: “Today if we look at eastern Iran, throughout Iran and throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine we witness the hallmarks of General Soleimani’s courage and fearlessness.” According to the Fars news agency, affiliated to the IRGC, while praising the regime’s terrorist Quds Force, Rouhani said: “In addition to upholding the security in the east of the country over the years, [the Quds Force] has been present wherever its sacrifices and courage have been needed.”The Quds Force is the extra-territorial wing of the IRGC and the Iranian regime’s main arm for exporting terrorism and Islamic extremism. In addition to its widespread meddling in the region, including in Syria and Iraq, the Quds Force has had a primary role in many of the regime’s terrorist operations. These include the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and the bombing of the Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994. Rouhani also reiterated the IRGC’s role in preserving the mullahs’ regime and in meddling in countries of the region. “The IRGC has always been a pioneer for solving the crises of the country. Today the IRGC is not only responsible for the country’s security, but also for the security of the countries’ that need Iran’s help, and it is courageously present in all those scenes,” Rouhani said. He added: “The IRGC is a pioneer for sacrificing and in defending the holy shrines in Iraq and Syria and the oppressed people in Palestine, Lebanon and other countries seeking support from Iran. We hope that the IRGC and the victorious Bassij will succeed in all the scenes of defense and struggle.”
Commenting on Rouhani’s praises for Soleimani and the Quds Force, Ali Safavi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on Tuesday said:
“Hassan Rouhani's heaping praise on a terror master like the Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani is not at all surprising; he has been among leading regime officials in charge of exporting terrorism and extremism beyond Iran’s borders since the onset of theocratic rule in 1979. If anything, Rouhani’s remarks undercut the misleading narrative pushed by some in the West about the moderate faction gaining the upper hand following his election in 2013. The clerics, as the saying goes, are cut from the same cloth.”

Trump Says London Mayor Would Be Exception to U.S. Muslim Ban
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 10/16/Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said he would make an exception for London's new Muslim mayor after he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States, the New York Times reported. The presumed Republican presidential candidate proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country in December, days after terrorists killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Sadiq Khan, elected London mayor on Saturday, had expressed worries that he would not be able to visit the United States were Trump elected in November. "There will always be exceptions," Trump told the Times in an interview published Monday.The brash real estate billionaire -- who has alienated many Americans with insults against immigrants, Muslims and women -- welcomed Khan's election. "I was happy to see that," he said. "I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good." "If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," he added. Khan, whose parents are Pakistani immigrants, is London's first Muslim mayor. "I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors," he told Time magazine. "If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith," he said, adding he was confident "Donald Trump's approach to politics" would not win. Khan doubled down on his criticism of Trump, even after learning that the presumed Republican presidential candidate would probably exempt him from it. "This isn't just about me -- it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," Khan said. He added: "Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe -- it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists," said the mayor-elect. "Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam. London has proved him wrong."
 

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

The EU's Kiss of Death
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/May 10/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8013/europe-migrant-quotas
The European Union may yet come to realize that this latest ill-concealed jab at the Central- and Eastern European members of the European Union may signal the beginning of the unraveling of the European Union, an event which, considering the authoritarian structure of the organization, might be a good thing. The EU's authority comes, undemocratically, from the top down, rather than from the bottom up; it is non-transparent, unaccountable and there is no mechanism for removing European Commission representatives.
"We especially do not like it when people who have never lived in Hungary try to give us lectures on how we should cope with our own problems. Calling us racists or xenophobes is the cheapest argument. It's used just to dodge the issues." -- Zoltán Kovács, spokesman for Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
By persisting in pushing their agendas on European Union member states that still consider themselves sovereign and not merely provinces of the EU, Timmermans and his European Commission bureaucrats may just have given the European Union its kiss of death.
The European Union is hell-bent on forcing member states to take "their share" of migrants. To this end, the European Commission has proposed reforms to EU asylum rules that would see enormous financial penalties imposed on members refusing to take in what it deems a sufficient number of asylum seekers, apparently even if this means placing those states at a severe financial disadvantage.
The European Commission is planning sanctions of an incredible $290,000 for every migrant that recalcitrant EU member states refuse to receive. Given that EU countries such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria have closed their borders to migrants or are in the process of doing so, it is not difficult to discern at whom the EU is aiming its planned penalties.
The EU may yet come to realize, however, that this latest ill-concealed jab at the Central- and Eastern European members of the European Union -- if it passes muster by most member states and members of the European parliament -- may just signal the beginning of the unraveling of the European Union, an event which, considering the authoritarian structure of the organization, might be a good thing. The EU's authority comes, undemocratically, from the top down, rather than from the bottom up; it is non-transparent, unaccountable and there is no mechanism for removing European Commission representatives.
The migrant crisis has revealed a deep and seemingly irreconcilable rift between those countries that roughly two decades ago still found themselves on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and have not forgotten it, and Western European countries spared from a merciless Soviet totalitarianism. The soft Western Europeans, instead, developed politically correct credos of "diversity" and "multiculturalism," which they intractably push down the throats of those recently released from captivity, refusing to show the tolerance of which they themselves purport to be high priests.
In September, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said,
"We should know more about Central European history. Knowing that they were isolated for generations, that they were under oppression by Moscow for so long, that they have no experience with diversity in their society, and it creates fear in the society.
"Any society, anywhere in the world, will be diverse in the future — that's the future of the world. So [Central European countries] will have to get used to that. They need political leaders who have the courage to explain that to their population instead of playing into the fears as I've seen Mr Orbán doing in the last couple of months."
Exactly because central Europeans were subjected to a totalitarian ideology for half a century, they are rather unenthusiastic about submitting to a new, increasingly totalitarian ideology, especially one which seeks to impose itself as the "only truth," and in its intolerance is averse to any nonconformity -- as Timmermans' comments make condescendingly clear.
The European Union's vision of an ideal "multicultural" and "diverse" society seems to be viewed by the central Europeans as humbug, perhaps because they have correctly observed that the "multiculturalism" on display in Western Europe is largely a monoculture of the Islamic variety.
If there is anything at which the Central Europeans became experts during their Soviet internment, it was deciphering the doublespeak of communist apparatchiks, which may account for their adeptness at deciphering the doublespeak coming from Eurocrats such as Timmermans. As the Hungarian Prime Minister's spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, said in September, "... multi-culturalism in Western Europe has not been a success in our view. We want to avoid making the same mistakes ourselves."
The magic that the European Union once held for Central European countries, which rushed to join the organization after the demise of communism -- believing it to be the very antithesis of what they had just experienced under communist rule -- is fast evaporating.
In February, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that, "If Britain leaves the EU, we can expect debates about leaving the EU in a few years too." Three-fifths of Czechs say that they are unhappy with EU membership, and according to an October 2015 poll by the STEM agency, 62% said they would vote against it in a referendum.
In March, after the Brussels terrorist attacks, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło said, "I see no possibility at this time of immigrants coming to Poland."
"Until procedures to verify the refugees are put in action, we cannot accept them," Rafał Bochenek, a government spokesman, told reporters.
"The priority of the government is the safety of Poles ... We understand the previous government ... signed commitments which bind our country. We cannot allow a situation in which events taking place in the countries of Western Europe are carried over to the territory of Poland."
In Poland, 64 percent of Poles want the country's borders closed to migrants.
The European Commission, led by Jean-Claude Juncker and Frans Timmermans (left), is hell-bent on forcing member states to take "their share" of migrants. In March, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło (right) bluntly stated: "I see no possibility at this time of immigrants coming to Poland."
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, stated:
"Mr. Timmermans is right that we have not had the same experience as Western Europe, where countries such as Holland, Britain and France have had mass immigration as a result of their colonial legacies. But we would like to deal with our problems in a way that suits us. And we especially do not like it when people who have never lived in Hungary try to give us lectures on how we should cope with our own problems. Calling us racists or xenophobes is the cheapest argument. It's used just to dodge the issues."
Even among those Eastern European countries still waiting to be admitted to the EU, the enthusiasm for the EU seems to have dwindled. "The EU that all of us are aspiring to, it has lost its magic power," Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksander Vucic said in February, "Yes we all want to join, but it is no longer the big dream it was in the past."
The reactions of countries such as Poland and Hungary are the normal, healthy reactions of nations who wish to remain prosperous, sovereign and safe for the sake of their own citizens. In addition, entertaining no illusions about "multiculturalism," they appear to have a justifiable apprehension about the detrimental effects of the current migration crisis on national security and finances.
It is not only the newest members of the EU that have begun to realize that is a bad idea to defer decisions about borders and national security to an unelected supranational entity, which appears completely oblivious to the concerns of its member states.
In Norway, the government announced that it will not accommodate any more migrants beyond the 1500 that the country has already agreed to take during the next two years, as part of the EU's refugee relocation scheme. "We have set a quota for refugees from the EU. Increasing it is not of current interest," Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said in April. Norway, in fact, has begun paying asylum seekers to return to their own countries.
In Austria, the government is imposing border controls at the Brenner Pass, the main Alpine crossing into Italy, and erecting a barrier between the two countries.
In the face of such resistance from member states, the European Commission's plan to penalize them for not accepting "their share" of migrants could not possibly be more ill-timed and out of touch. It comes across as a desperate attempt by the EU's executive body to force its way of handling the migrant crisis onto disobedient EU member states, like an authoritarian parent disciplining its unruly children. There is, however, such a thing as bending something until it snaps. By persisting in pushing their agendas on EU member states that still consider themselves sovereign and not merely provinces of the European Union, Timmermans and his European Commission bureaucrats may just have given the European Union its kiss of death.
**Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Ben Rhodes's Fiction Behind the "Iran Deal"
A.J. Caschetta/Gatestone Institute/May 10/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8017/ben-rhodes-iran-deal
Rhodes even acknowledges that there is nothing "moderate" about Rouhani, Zarif or Khamenei.
The dates and facts conflicted with the narrative, so they were finessed, rewritten and sold to the public with different plot-lines and different themes. Outside Washington, D.C. this behavior is sometimes called lying.
At best Ben Rhodes is the author of a Pyrrhic victory, ensuring that the next president will face the same choice Obama faced but against an Iran armed with nuclear bombs.
This is what happens to foreign policy when it is entrusted to the unqualified and undereducated.
That the Obama administration's Iran deal is a work of fiction has been known all along, but now Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, is taking credit as its author. In a long interview with New York Times reporter David Samuels on Sunday, the world learned that Rhodes is "the master shaper and retailer of Obama's foreign policy narratives" who "strategized and ran the successful Iran-deal messaging campaign." Samuels lauds Rhodes as "a storyteller who uses a writer's tools to advance an agenda packaged as politics."
Welcome to the post-modern techno-presidency where everything is a text, easily manipulated by skilled writers and disseminated in 140 or fewer characters. Don't like the facts? Change the narrative. What really counts is "the optics."
In the midst of his fawning profile, Samuels exposes a number of lies behind the Iran narrative, or rather quotes Rhodes himself doing so. For instance, the first outreach to Iran came 2012, not in 2013. I'd bet it came even earlier. Rhodes even acknowledges that there is nothing "moderate" about Iranian leaders Rouhani, Zarif or Khamenei. But these dates and facts conflicted with the narrative, so they were finessed, rewritten and sold to the public with different plot-lines and different themes. Outside Washington, D.C. this behavior is sometimes called lying.
The Rhodes narrative, at its core, is a simple tale in which a hero, armed with special skills and weapons, goes on a quest that requires a fight against the forces of evil. It incorporates elements of the ancient epic, the medieval romance and the eighteenth-century novel, with elements of drama splashed in here and there.
The hero, of course, is Rhodes's real-life hero, Barack Obama (with whom he "mind melds," as he apparently tells anyone who will listen). The hero's special weapon is diplomacy -- in the case of Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a.k.a., "Iran Deal." But Rhodes himself is also the hero of his tale. As he tells Samuels in one particularly dewy-eyed moment: "I don't know anymore where I begin and Obama ends."
Barack Obama works on a speech with Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. (Image source: Pete Souza/White House)
In his tale, Iran is recast into a moderate regime through the magic of fiction, while the new villains are all who oppose the JCPOA, recast into warmongers: Benjamin Netanyahu, Ted Cruz, the majority of Americans. As Samuels puts it: "Framing the deal as a choice between peace and war was Rhodes's go-to move -- and proved to be a winning argument."
But it was not really a winning argument. Neither the American public nor Congress was persuaded, which is why Obama did not submit it as a treaty for Senate ratification. At best, Ben Rhodes is the author of a Pyrrhic victory ensuring that the 45th or 46th president will face the same choice Obama faced, but against an Iran armed with nuclear bombs. At worst, Rhodes is the author of a tragedy he does not understand.
Rhodes's narrative is not even particularly good fiction. Mistaken identities, fudged timelines, villains in disguise, and a two-dimensional hero are clichés. But the quality of fiction does not matter as long as consumers line up to buy it. And this is where Rhodes truly excels, as a relatively shallow thinker, adroit mostly at influencing even shallower thinkers and hoodwinking people too busy to bother learning.
Rhodes is proud of the way he manipulates a gullible and hungry media comprised mostly of repeaters pretending to be reporters. From his White House "war room," he and his assistant, Ned Price, reach out to their media "compadres" who are waiting by their iPhones, ready to transform the daily storytelling sessions into facts for the uninformed. Boasting that he "created an echo chamber," and unable to conceal his contempt for the minions who amplify his fiction, Rhodes calls them "27 year olds who literally know nothing." Enter the storyteller who provides them with lines. Samuels shows us he is in on the joke too, by pointing out that "Rhodes has become adept at ventriloquizing many people at once."
In his daily conversation, Samuels tells us, Rhodes lumps together nearly everyone who came before Obama (Kissinger, Clinton, Bush, Gates, Panetta) as "the Blob" -- the establishment that damaged the world so badly that only a magical hero can repair it. Rhodes tells Samuels that the "complete lack of governance in huge swaths of the Middle East, that is the project of the American establishment." This is what happens to foreign policy when it is entrusted to the unqualified and undereducated.
In eight months, Ben Rhodes can get back to his former life -- as he puts it, "drinking and smoking pot and hanging out in Central Park." And presumably writing more fiction -- this time perhaps the honest kind that does not pretend to be non-fiction. The entire world, except perhaps the world of fiction, will be better for it.
**A.J. Caschetta is a senior lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Saudi King's Son Drastically Reshapes Government
Simon Henderson/Washington Institute/May 09/16
Sweeping bureaucratic changes, including the appointment of a new oil minister, may help the deputy crown prince impose his economic plan but could also prompt a royal family crisis. On May 7, Saudi Arabia announced a raft of changes encapsulated in no less than fifty-one "royal orders." Notionally emanating from King Salman himself, the plans were almost certainly presented to the ailing monarch for mere sign-off by his thirty-year-old son Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (known as MbS), who has emerged as the most powerful man in the kingdom.
So far, observers worldwide have focused on the abrupt though not unexpected sacking of eighty-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, who has been given a meaningless sinecure as an advisor to the royal court. He has been replaced by another oil veteran, Khalid al-Falih, who spent the past year trying to bring order to the chaotic Ministry of Health.
Financial markets will now be looking out for any change in Saudi oil policy, which has been under strain the past two years as prices collapsed and the kingdom clung to its market share in order to undercut U.S. shale producers. Despite being commercially wounded, however, these producers have not been wiped out, and prices have recovered somewhat from a low in the $20-30 per barrel range. By appointing Falih, MbS may now be shifting his sights to target Iran, minimizing its ability to benefit from extra post-sanctions revenue. At an oil producers meeting last month in Qatar, MbS humiliated Naimi with a last-minute veto of a deal on freezing production because Iran was not included.
Other changes will affect a number of different sectors. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources was renamed the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources. A new governor was appointed for the central bank. And the Ministry of Trade and Industry now becomes the Ministry of Trade and Investment, which has a new minister, as do the portfolios for transport, pilgrimages, social affairs, and health. A new entertainment authority has been created as well -- a tantalizing prospect given the kingdom's lack of public cinemas and theaters and its generally austere atmosphere.
The changes are clearly intended to provide a structure for MbS's "Vision 2030," an economic plan unveiled last month amid great fanfare and heralding a post-oil future for the kingdom. Reports suggest that younger Saudis have welcomed the plan, though skeptics emphasize the challenge of changing a very conservative society and moving away from a dominant role for oil, of which the kingdom has more than sixty years in reserves at current production rates.
In any case, Prince Muhammad's sway in Saudi decisionmaking is now so great that it begs the question of whether King Salman will appoint him prime minister, a portfolio the monarch currently holds himself. Such a promotion would make it almost inevitable that MbS will be the next king, as it would further sideline the current crown prince, Muhammad bin Nayef (aka MbN), a favorite of Washington who is twenty-six years older than MbS and vastly more experienced in government. Going forward, MbS may soon target Prince Mitab, the minister of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) who is also a son of the late King Abdullah and a close ally of the beleaguered MbN. In his dual role as defense minister, MbS apparently wants to absorb SANG into his ministry, even though SANG's traditional role has been to protect the House of Saud from a military coup. Any move against SANG could prompt a crisis in the wider royal family, which though respectful of the monarch has long emphasized consensus building -- a quality that MbS seems to lack. Given Saudi Arabia's leading roles in the Islamic, Arab, and energy worlds, such fractious palace politics would have significant international consequences, as well as further diminish U.S. influence in Riyadh.
**Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute.

Turkey's King: Erdogan After Davutoglu
Soner Cagaptay/Foreign Affairs/May 10/16
If the president continues down his path of personalizing power and hollowing out political and civil institutions, he will endanger the country's longstanding democratic makeup. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's May 5 resignation at the request of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a further consolidation of power in the hands of a man who is already the most powerful politician in Turkey since the country became a multiparty democracy in 1950. Erdogan has ruled since 2003, first as prime minister and head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and then as president, a constitutionally non-partisan office in Turkey's parliamentary system. When Erdogan became president in 2014, Davutoglu took over as AKP chair and became the country's new prime minister. Davutoglu had risen in politics as Erdogan's chief adviser, finally becoming Erdogan's foreign minister in 2009. The two men were colleagues in conceiving and executing Turkey's foreign policy pivot to the Middle East. Accordingly, when Erdogan offered Davutoglu the prime minister position that was sure to be somewhat neutered, Davutoglu happily obliged.
To the extent that Davutoglu was a compliant partner of Erdogan, for instance, working closely with him on Syria, where the two have tried for years to oust the Bashar al-Assad regime, Davutoglu never completely satisfied Erdogan. This is because Davutoglu is a household name both in Turkey and overseas, which irked Erdogan, who seeks to consolidate and personalize political power. Erdogan was reportedly upset, for instance, when Davutoglu wanted to visit Washington to meet with President Barack Obama only weeks after the Turkish president himself had visited Washington in March 2016 to do the same.
Having now fallen from grace, Davutoglu is likely to become a quiet observer of Turkish politics, following the path of previous cast-off AKP officials, including former President Abdullah Gul, who have chosen not to confront Erdogan after he ejected them from the AKP leadership. For his part, Erdogan is set to pick a new, more compliant politician as AKP chair at the party's May 22 convention. This person will then take office as the country's new prime minister, and after some months, few will even recall the name of the new leader, much like in Jordan or Morocco, where all-powerful kings overshadow little-known prime ministers...
Read Dr. Cagaptay's related Wall Street Journal article covering the foreign-policy implications of Davutoglu's resignation.

London Daily 'Rai Al-Youm': A Muslim Was Elected To Serve As London's New Mayor Thanks To Equality, The Rule of Law, And Human Rights – Which Are Absent In Arab Countries
MEMRI/May 10/16/ Special Dispatch No.6425

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/05/10/memrilondon-daily-rai-al-youm-a-muslim-was-elected-to-serve-as-londons-new-mayor-thanks-to-equality-the-rule-of-law-and-human-rights-which-are-absent-in-arab-countries/
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/9184.htm
On May 5, 2016, Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London. This event sparked a wave of mostly enthusiastic responses worldwide, particularly in the Arab world. The London-based online newspaper Rai Al-Youm dampened the enthusiasm and even hinted at the Arab states' hypocrisy in rejoicing over Khan's election when they themselves deny the very values, such as equality, human rights and the rule of law, that enabled him, as the son of immigrants, to attain this status. The editorial also argued that the Arab states were guilty of racism and of persecuting and repressing minority citizens, and that they denied immigrants like Khan's father many rights – meaning that Khan could never have attained what he did these countries. It should be noted that the Arab press published additional articles in this vein.[1]
Following are excerpts from the editorial:[2]
"The celebrations in the Arab countries of Dr. Sadiq Khan's win in the London mayoral elections, which began Friday night, haven't stopped. Khan is a Muslim, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, and he grew up for the most part in the public housing that the government provides to the needy.
"Many have not grasped the significance of the win of this young man, who climbed from the bottom to the very top, in a journey rife with suffering and with diligent efforts in a capitalist society and a non-Islamic multicultural environment.
"In our view, the secret [of his success] lies in equality, the rule of law, and the absence of racism – and even more so in the fight against it, and its uprooting – and in full respect for human rights, the most prominent of which is social justice. [Also contributing to his success] is the respect for all manner of liberties, chiefly freedom of expression...
"All of these values and fundamental principles are nonexistent in the vast majority of our Arab and Islamic countries. That is why their sons await the first opportunity to emigrate, searching for a good life far from persecution, oppression, and racism, where they can find a welcoming environment that offers them opportunities for success and creativity.
"Let us imagine – had Sadiq Khan's father 'gotten lucky' and immigrated to an Arab country, or, specifically a Gulf state, because these [states] are home to millions of Indian and Pakistani immigrants – what would this Pakistani immigrant's situation have been, and what future would he have?
"First, he would have been subject to the authority of a guardian; this guardian would, immediately upon his arrival [in a Gulf state], have confiscated his passport and locked it away in a safe. He would have had to find a private Indian or Pakistani school for his children, because they are not allowed to attend government schools. Had one of his children fallen ill, he would have had to seek private medical care, because they are also banned from most government hospitals. And if they did go to these hospitals, they would have been insulted and humiliated, and given second-rate medicine – not the top-quality medicine that is reserved solely for the state's children.
"It would have been only natural for Sadiq Khan's father to reside in a Gulf state for 40 years and more without obtaining permanent residency for either himself or his children, let alone citizenship, not to mention political rights and the right to vote in elections. Mr. Khan's [fate] would have been like that of millions of other Arabs, Muslim or Christian, Shi'ite or Sunni, as well as of millions of other immigrants from around the world.
"The Western societies have developed, and have attained the economic, political, and military might that they have attained, because they fought racism in all its forms, and because they gave [all] their citizens equality in the eyes of the law, and equal employment opportunities regardless of religion, origin, or color.
"Those celebrating Mr. Khan's victory – which he earned through his struggle, and through his own achievements, and because he got into [key] political and social institutions thanks to his scholastic excellence – especially [those celebrating it] in the Arab media, should not focus on meaningless [issues]. By reveling in the fact that he is a Muslim – and not in the fact that he came from a poor and humble family, and that he was given this opportunity by equality and by [genuine] communal life, they are expressing racism.
"Sadiq Khan will enter history through the same door as U.S. President Barack Obama... and we must always remember that this is all thanks to equality and the rule of law. We, as Arabs currently undergoing the worst forms of racial and ethnic incitement among members of our same Islamic faith, have a long way to go before we attain the values and fundamental principles that are specifically demanded by our religion.
A cartoon shows Sadiq Khan's probable future had his father immigrated to an Arab country. The Arabic reads: Policeman: "Not a word – [hand over] your driver's license, your passport and your residency permit." (Image: Al-Ghad, Jordan, May 8, 2016)
Endnotes:
[1] See for example: Al-Shurouq (Egypt), May 7, 2016, Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), May 8, 2016, Al-Wasat (Bahrain), May 8, 2016.
[2] Raialyoum.com, May 7, 2016.

Why has Tehran chosen the Houthis as allies?
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
Iran’s goals have nothing to do with Shiism, Islam, or opposition to Israel and the West. These are temporary slogans that serve a bigger aim of regional domination. Iran did not choose the Houthis in Yemen as their allies because they hail from the Zaidi sect, or because they claim to be descendants of the prophet. It did so for geopolitical reasons, particularly because they reside in Saada province bordering Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, there are Zaidi tribes that are larger and far more significant than the Houthis. There are more prominent families that also claim to be descendants of the prophet, such as the Hamid ad-Din family, which ruled the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and whose governance lasted until the 1960s. However, Iran found in the Houthis a means to threaten Saudi Arabia. Tehran has been actively cultivating and organizing the Houthis since the late 1990s, and convinced their leader Hussein al-Houthi that the imamate lies with his family and that their governance of Yemen must be religiously imposed on the people by divine right. By adopting these beliefs, this small marginal group upset traditional Yemeni society, angered Zaidi scholars who accused the group of infidelity, and clashed with Sunni Shaafa’is in Saada.
Iran continued to welcome Houthi youths and enrol them in religious classes to teach them an ideology based on absolute obedience to Iran’s supreme leader. It also generously funded the Houthis for a decade and a half. First they clashed with the regime of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, then they attacked Saudi Arabia in 2009 under the same Iranian slogans. At the time, Riyadh spoke of their suspicious ties with Tehran, but many refused to believe it.
Iran found in the Houthis a means to threaten Saudi Arabia
There are many similarities between two models invented by Iran: Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Tehran got involved with the Shiite sect in Lebanon and marginalized almost all its traditional and regional leaders, replacing them with anonymous figures such as Hassan Nasrallah, who announced his full obedience to Iran. Tehran rewarded him with the tools required to control Lebanon. It funded and trained his militia, funded a social category in support of him, and eliminated all those who disagree with Hezbollah’s orientations. Houthi, like Nasrallah, became a leader by supporting Tehran. Like Nasrallah, he exploits his claim to be a descendent of the prophet to justify an imamate and launch religious wars.
Exploitation
It may seem like my statements contradict what I wrote at the start of this article, that politics must not be read from a sectarian or ethnic perspective. However, Iran uses each party according to what they have in common. (he doesn’t say what the commonalities are in the following examples, which is important because he says they prove that he isn’t contradicting himself). It has used the Sunni Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, as well as some Sunni powers in north Lebanon. It is common to see Sunnis, Arab Christians, nationalists and communists as guests at occasions that serve Iranian propaganda, such as Jerusalem Day in Tehran or events in southern Beirut while Nasrallah delivers speeches. Some of them have recently admitted that they were late in realizing Iran’s intentions. Within this realistic analysis of Iran’s policy, we can note how it is involved in the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Tehran supports the Christian Armenians against the Shiite Azeris. Domestically, it suppresses the Ahwazi Arabs who are mostly Shiite. However, in Iraq it is exploiting the sectarian card by supporting Shiite political parties because it hopes they will help it achieve one of its most important political projects: dominate decision-making in Baghdad and indirectly seize Iraq, which is rich in resources and regionally and internationally significant. Iran is behind marginalizing Iraq’s army as it has encouraged and supported the establishment of militias such as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Tehran does not trust Iraq’s army because it consists of various sects and ethnicities. Iran also supports the current chaos that aims to weaken the rule of Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi. It is doing so with the help of Iraqi figures such as former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It had been difficult to convince a large segment of Arabs of Iran’s crimes until the genocide began in Syria. Tehran’s involvement in the war ruined its plans and its image among most Arabs and Muslims. It has embarrassed its Sunni allies such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Arab leftists and others. Iran’s support for the Houthis has also put it in confrontation with most Yemenis.

Mistakes committed in Yemen
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
Let us imagine that the Houthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh are defeated and leave Sanaa. Let us imagine that a new agreement is reached between Yemeni belligerent parties, and President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his ministers return to Sanaa. By then we would be back to the starting point, when Yemen was already in the midst of turmoil caused by Saleh. However, we would not be at war. Let us go back to May 2012 when the late Abed al-Karim al-Aryani, the Yemeni politician who headed the national dialogue committee, announced that the Houthis were accepted to participate in the committee tasked with setting up the famous roadmap that aimed to elect a new president, constitute a new parliament, pass a new constitution and build a civil state. That was the first mistake committed by Yemen and Gulf states sponsoring the initiative. Houthis were not, and are still not, considered a political party. They did not even participate in the popular revolution that toppled Saleh because they did not believe in its goals. They wanted their own project based on a fundamentalist Zaidi legacy that Yemen had eliminated in the aftermath of the 1962 revolution. One can say every political regime has its own way of ruling, and that the Houthis cannot be rejected even if they still carry the same project. How, then, can the new roadmap help Yemen build its civil society while they are still present? How can Yemen carry this out while Houthis still have weapons and cells inside the state, and are increasingly tightening their grip over the country, its civil institutions and its army in coalition with Saleh? The Houthis are hoping we will repeat these mistakes, leading to the failure of the political transition process, and enabling them to lead another ‘divine’ coup
Rejection
Four more mistakes led to the current situation in Yemen, including the rejection of the Arab Spring in Yemen, and dealing with it as conspiracy and a chaotic plan. It reflected the aspirations of the Yemeni people, especially the youth, to equitable governance that was pursued by the country since the launch of the 1948 revolution that rejected tyranny claiming legitimacy by divine right. This divine right is a pillar of Zaidism, which kept power in the hands of Hashemite families for 1,000 years. Their reign was associated with injustice, poverty and ignorance, especially in the era of Hamid al-Dine. This injustice triggered the bloody revolutions of 1948 and 1962. The one of 1962 turned into a civil war that lasted eight years. Subsequent military rule under Saleh did not bring fair governance, yet his example was repeated by Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and other Arab republics.
It is impossible to expect a breakthrough in the negotiations in Kuwait, as they are taking place between Yemenis who want a fair state based on partnership, and Saleh, who represents the old regime. Any party against the Arab Spring and its demands in Yemen after the war must be rejected, including the Houthis.
Taking advantage
Another mistake was that the Gulf states and Yemen were hesitant about the political transition process, which caused stagnation that enabled the Houthis and Saleh to carry out a military coup. This has led to Western powers seeking non-democratic solutions in Yemen. Yemenis have been circulating a project, said to be American, which would lead to the “Iraqization” of the country, dividing it into quotas between the Houthis, reformists, the southern separatist movement, and forces affiliated with Saleh. It is enough to look at Iraq to reject this bad idea. Another mistake was the immunity granted to Saleh as part of the deal that saw him step down. This enabled the coup against the legitimate government. We must help Yemen build state institutions with new leadership that has nothing to do with the former regime. One more mistake was the marginalization of the reform movement, without which a modern Yemeni state cannot be built because it is one of the main engines for fair governance. The Houthis are hoping we will repeat these mistakes, leading to the failure of the political transition process, and enabling them to lead another ‘divine’ coup.

London mayor elections: A good week for Muslims in the West
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
By his own admission, Sadiq Khan, the new Mayor of London, never dreamt of becoming a mayor. However, it has now become a reality for this self-made hard working moderate British Muslim of Pakistani origin. The media has used all the above terms to describe him, putting Mayor Khan in the spotlight for the year to come. However, the real story is that his election could not have been timed better in Europe and the wider Western world. Stories of Muslim success are scarce in the West. A section of the media routinely drums up fear directly or indirectly. Fiery statements issued by Da’esh are inflated and their criminal violent acts go viral especially in a teetering Europe, which has its own set of challenges. Then there is increased migration, economic hardships, and the rise of the extreme right from many corners of European society. The last week though was different for tolerance, interfaith coexistence, multi-ethnic harmony, and peace in the world for all hopefuls. Khan’s election as mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world is one important democratic step to be applauded even though this is not strange for the UK. The second even was the reopening of a 100-year-old mosque, which was destroyed in Banja Luka in northern Bosnia during the conflict of the early 1990s, which eventually led to the break-up of Yugoslavia. Londoners will judge Sadiq Khan on his actions and not his faith, social ranking or political affiliation. Khan’s success goes beyond his victory at the mayoral polls. He has been a successful human rights lawyer and a local councilor in Tooting in south London. Later he was elected Member of Parliament in Britain for the Labour Party under Tony Blair’s leadership. He served as a minister in the Gordon Brown government. The son of a Pakistani immigrant, and a London bus driver, Khan went on to become the first Muslim Mayor of the city. However, Londoners will judge him on his actions and not his faith, social ranking or political affiliation.
The mosque in Bosnia
When Khan was handed over the Mayorship in a ceremony at the Multi Faiths Cathedral of Southwark on the River Thames in London, leaders from all Bosniac faiths came together to inaugurate the Ferhadiya grand mosque in Banja Luka the Serb governed enclave in Bosnia. The mosque, built in the 16th century by the then Ottoman governor, was raised to the ground by ultra nationalist Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian war that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia 23 years ago. On the 7th May 1993, thousands were driven away in the worst ethnic cleansing campaign witnessed in modern Europe. This is the time that all Europeans wish to forget today despite continued fringe communal and religious tension. This is not the story of the day, nor will it determine Khan’s success or failure. Instead, it is the message of tolerance and unity that his election sends across all European cities. His election is also an answer to ISIS that tried to terrorize Paris and Brussels recently after a wave of attacks planned and executed by native brainwashed and trained Muslim Europeans. Election of Sadiq Khan and reopening of the mosque in Banja Luka defy all stereotypes and islamophobia as both events reverberate the microcosm of our world. This is the world, I reckon, of entente, coexistence and peace. I dare not be one to blow the trumpet of London, but I am of a view that electing to high office personalities with first Muslim, first black, first women burden the mission of an executive trying to execute and process colossal tasks in people’s interests. But if labor’s controversial leader Jeremy Corbyn could do Mayor Sadiq Khan one simple favor, it will be to leave him alone and spare him hashtags like #YesweKhan! Sadiq Khan’s own words are enough to reassure the city. He said he wants to be “Mayor for all Londoners”, also he said that he is proud that Londoners chose hope over fear, in keeping with London and the British Isles characteristic which over centuries barred the politics of fear, and presented opportunities and new hopes for all who arrived at its shores.

Iran’s worst week in Syria: Heavy losses, no exit
Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
For a country that does not even acknowledge its troops are fighting on the ground in Syria (calling them instead “volunteers”), admitting that it lost 13 commanders in one week is a testament to its deepening involvement and the lack of an immediate exit. In the last week, the Aleppo battle has accentuated Iran’s losses in the conflict, with 13 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commanders (IRGC) dead, 21 others wounded, and several kidnapped according to the Iranian media. Iran’s total losses in Syria, estimated at 342 soldiers between January 2012 and February 2016, make the Aleppo toll even more staggering, without promising however a shift in its role or offering a glimpse of an exit.
Goals and strategy
Since its involvement in the conflict in 2012, some have projected the Syrian war to turn into Iran’s Vietnam, while others have warned of a Iraqi scenario whereby Tehran would gain the upper hand over matters in Syria as it did in post-Saddam Iraq. The reality today is neither. While Iran has gained leverage and doubled down its support for the Assad regime, a Iraqi scenario is unlikely because of a stronger anti-Iran/Assad component in Syria. Also, Iran’s intervention is not a quagmire given that the majority of Iranian military investment is rooted in foreign Iraqi, Lebanese, and Afghani militiamen fighting its battles. Iran’s goals in Syria are defined by keeping the regime afloat, securing weaponry routes to Hezbollah, and expanding a militia presence inside Syria. Despite its losses and rising costs, Tehran is meeting these goals, having built large paramilitary force allied with the regime, and having secured the routes connecting Damascus to the coast and to Hezbollah in the Bekaa valley. Despite its losses over four years in Syria, there are no signs of Iranian willingness to scale down its role in the conflict. If anything, the visit of Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to Assad on the same day that Tehran announced the IRGC casualties last week, is a statement of continuity in supporting the regime and investing in the fighting.
Iran vs. Russia
The Assad-Velyati meeting also stands in contrast with Russia’s messaging on Syria. While Velyati was issuing statements that Assad remaining in power is “Iran’s redline”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov was telling Sputnik that “Bashar Assad is not Moscow's ally like Ankara is to Washington.”
Sources close to Russia have been consistent over the last few months in relaying “frustrations” for Moscow in dealing with Assad. These include his lack of cooperation and violations to the cessation of hostilities reached last February, unwillingness to release detainees from jails, and inability to offer real compromises at the negotiating table in Geneva. While Iran has gained leverage and doubled down its support for the Assad regime, a Iraqi scenario is unlikely because of a stronger anti-Iran/Assad component in Syria. Those sources say that as far back as 2014, Russian officials have told both the United Nations and the United States that they “can counsel Assad but cannot control him.” The Kremlin emphasized that the “relation with Assad the son is different from the father” making the case that with the latter, relations were “deeper, broader and more strategic.”Indeed, Assad the son has drove his regime closer to Iran and to a level of dependency. Even before the conflict, young Assad allowed the transport of qualitative weaponry to Hezbollah, and received its leader in Damascus, both would have been taboos under the father. Today, it is Hezbollah’s intervention, and Iranian financial, military and logistical support that constitute the lifeline for the regime. Absent of Russia’s air support, they cannot score large military victories for the regime, but they can keep it going while maintaining a strong influence for Iran in key parts and power circles in Syria. For Russia, a deal with the United States that safeguards its intelligence and security presence in Syria is an acceptable outcome. Not for Iran, however. Tehran is tactically going for an outright victory and control over Syria through expanding its ground presence in Damascus, near the Golan Heights, and on the full spectrum of the borders while conceivably conceding middle of country for the rebels or the Islamic State (ISIS). That marks the significance of the Aleppo battle as a prelude to Assad’s plan to retake the border areas with Turkey. While Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry signal agreement on several benchmarks on Syria, hoping to reach a political solution before US President Barack Obama leaves office (January, 2016), the reality on the ground is being driven by Iran, Assad and the rebels. “Don’t be deceived, there are no near solutions to conflicts in the region”, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah told his supporters last Friday. His statement echoes both Iran’s and Assad’s goals in the Syrian war, whose cost will only climb up as the regime eyes an outright military solution.

What are Iranians doing in Syria?
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/May 10/16
When I was a child in 1980, Iran and Iraq were fighting each other in one of the 20th-century’s bloodiest wars, which left almost half a million dead on both sides. Images of returning coffins, funerals and emergencies are not easy to forget, and not an experience one wants to see again. Although Iran was dragged into the war, I am sure it was painful and difficult for both sides. Today, however, the presence of Iranians in the Syrian conflict for almost three years now has no justification. It is claimed that they are military advisors, but the number of casualties is clear evidence that they are fighting. On Saturday in the strategic town of Khan-Touman, 13 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed and 21 injured, according to officials. So far, more than 300 IRGC members have been killed in Syria, but Saturday’s incident marked the biggest single casualty figure. This has angered Iranians, who have been expressing disapproval of involvement in the Syrian conflict - even by volunteers - on social media. Iranians have been complaining about the cost of their country’s close ties with Syria and Lebanon. So much money has been spent to buy support and influence, including free oil to Syria, investing in Shiite holy sites, and reconstructing southern Lebanon following the 2006 war with Israel. I am not sure that this has paid off in Lebanon or Syria. Iranians have been complaining about the cost of their country’s close ties with Syria and Lebanon. Last week in Beirut airport, I saw Syrians who were picked up from a refugee camp by an Italian charity to be taken to Rome. When I told them I am Iranian, they gazed at me silently with eyes like fireballs. What they saw when they looked at me was their destroyed homes and their destitution.
Priorities
Helping Syrians must be at the core of this disaster, rather than sacrificing to keep someone in power or guard a site. Also, solving the political deadlock in Lebanon - which for the past two years has not had a president due to competing domestic and regional factions - should prioritized. If the current ceasefire between Syria’s government and opposition continues, and the world finally feels the urge to forge a sustainable peace, there is some hope for a reduction in violence. No one can afford the cost and insecurity of this war any longer, from the Middle East to Europe. It is time for diplomacy and peace, no matter how difficult that is. Despite the Iran-Iraq war, these neighbors now have good relations. Time is the best healer of wounds - Syria is no exception.