LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

May 14/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may14.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12/28-34:"One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."The second is this, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these.’Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that "he is one, and besides him there is no other"; and "to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength", and "to love one’s neighbour as oneself", this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question."

Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’
Letter to the Ephesians 05/08-21:"For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise,
making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Pope Francis's Tweet For Today

If our hearts and actions are inspired by charity, by divine love, then our communication will be touched by God’s own power.
Si notre cœur et nos gestes sont animés par l’amour divin, notre communication sera porteuse de la force de Dieu.
إذا كانت المحبّة الإلهيّة هي التي تُحرّك قلوبنا وتصرّفاتنا فسيكون تواصلنا مع الغير حاملاً لقوّة الله
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 14/16

Mystery surrounds death of Hezbollah commander/Nicholas Blanford/Now Lebanon/May 13/16
What happens to Badreddine’s trial now/Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/May 13/16
Baby steps: Lebanon's municipal elections inspire hope/Esperance Ghanem/Al-Monitor/May 13/16
Palestinian Leaders and Child Sacrifice/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/May 13/16
Iran breaches nuclear deal and UN resolution for the third time/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
Obama’s false dichotomy and undermining of the moderates/Khairallah Khairallah/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
'Religion and the recent reforms in Saudi Arabia'/bdullah Hamidaddin/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
Russian messages via Palmyra concert, Victory Parade/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
Iranian hard-liners claim main pressure on Rouhani comes from public/A correspondent in Tehran/Al-Monitor/May 13/16

Titles Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 14/16

Lebanon Fetes Michel Temer's his Success
Italian President Meets Lebanese Leaders, Inspects Italian UNIFIL Force
Italian President concludes his short visit to Beirut
Salam, Mattaretta tackle current developments
Kataeb, NLP announce joint list in Deir al Qamar
Report: Hezbollah's top military commander,.Mustafa Amine Badreddine, killed in IAF operation near Damascus
Hezbollah preparing imminent announcement on Badreddine killing
Mystery surrounds death of Hezbollah commander
What happens to Badreddine’s trial now?
Fneish: We Will Give Salam Time before Taking Stand on Suspension of Hizbullah MPs' Bank Accounts
Hizbullah Commander, STL Suspect Mustafa Badreddine Assassinated in Syria
Qassem Says Hizbullah to Announce How Badreddine was Killed 'within Hours'
A Look at Past Assassinations of Hizbullah Figures
U.S. Says Coalition Jets Did Not Overfly Area where Badreddine was Killed
Badreddine: A Hizbullah Chief Mysterious in Life and Death
STL Says Won't Comment on Badreddine's Death before 'Judicial Determination'
Salam Hosts Hariri, Miqati for Dinner ahead of Tripoli Municipal Polls
Geagea Slams those 'Attempting to Destabilize Economy because it Abides by Int'l Policies'
One Wounded in Local Dispute in Arsal
Baby steps: Lebanon's municipal elections inspire hope
Lebanon’s municipal elections and presidential vacuum
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 14/16

Tehran not happy with Brazil ' s "Lebanese" new President.
Druze protesters clash with Syria regime loyalists
New Era for Brazil as Rousseff Cedes Power to Temer
Nusra, Islamist Allies Kill 19 Civilians from Assad's Alawite Sect
Belgium to Begin Air Strikes against IS in Syria
U.S. Says IS Snipers Targeting Civilians Leaving Fallujah
Kerry Heads to Saudi ahead of Syria, Libya Talks
Yemeni Forces 'Captured 250 Qaida' after City Retaken
Rights Group Calls for Release of Omani Journalist
Clock Ticking for Cyprus Deportation of Egyptian Hijacker
Israel and France in murky waters on peace plan
Turkey's EU minister says not hopeful over visa deal

Links From Jihad Watch Site for May 14/16
Raymond Ibrahim: Yazidi Girl Exposes ISIS Rape Hellhole
Canada imam: Jerusalem will only be regained through blood
Pakistan: Muslim mob chases Christians from homes, demanding they convert to Islam
Qatar: Children’s software touts Islamic conquests in Europe “to spread light of Islam”
Seattle: Death of Muslim teen touted as hate crime was really an accident
Robert Spencer in Front Page: The Global Outbreak of Mental Illness
Surprise! After secret talks, tiny Vermont town gets 100 Muslim migrants
Bill making Sharia illegal defense in SC courts defeated
Virginia: “Mentally ill” Muslim accused to trying to join al-Qaeda

Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 14/16

Lebanon Fetes Michel Temer's his Success
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/In his ancestral village in Lebanon, Michel Temer's rise to power in Brazil is a source of both pride and amusement in a country with no president of its own due to political deadlock. Near the entrance to Btaaboura in northern Lebanon, a street sign carries Temer's name with his former rank of Brazilian vice president. But now that Dilma Rousseff has ceded power to Temer after the Brazilian Senate voted overwhelmingly to suspend her for six months to face impeachment, Btaaboura is preparing to change the sign. "It will be replaced on Friday. It will read 'President Michel Temer Street'," beamed municipality chief Bassam Barbar. "We celebrate his promotion with all our heart and we are very proud of him," he told AFP. In a small garden, someone has hoisted a flag of Lebanon and one of Brazil in honor of the son of Lebanese migrants, who has visited Btaaboura twice, in 1997 and again in 2011. In the village his sudden promotion from vice president to acting president of Brazil is on everyone's lips. And across Lebanon people are joking: "A Lebanese man is leading Brazil, and yet we've had no president for two years".Deep political divisions have left Lebanon without a president since May 2014 when the mandate of Michel Suleiman expired, and parliament has extended its own mandate twice since 2009. "I hope that now they (Lebanese political leaders) will be ashamed," said Barbar.
'We liked him'
The country's Christian, Sunni, Shiite and Druze cannot agree on a candidate and parliament has met time and again but failed to break the impasse. The Temer ancestral family home lies in the midst of a thick olive grove. His father lived here but the house is now abandoned and in ruins. Lebanon and Brazil have strong bonds. The Lebanese began emigrating to Brazil and other South American countries in the 19th century with more departures during the 1979-1990 civil war. Many are now settled in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao Paolo. According to a source at the Lebanese Foreign Ministry there are six to seven million Brazilians of Lebanese origin. Temer's cousin Nizar remembers the first time they met. "It was in 1997 when he was speaker of parliament. We didn't know him then," said Nizar Temer, an engineer now in his 60s. "He came a second time in 2011 to mark Lebanese independence day. We liked him and he liked us," he said. But Nizar is perplexed. What if president-elect Temer were to return to Lebanon. "Who would greet him?" he said. "We don't have a president. They have one but Lebanon doesn't." During one of his two visits to Btaaboura, Temer insisted on visiting the ruins of the family home, where only a few stone walls still stand."He was very emotional when he saw a portrait of his father in the living room," said Nizar. "He went down on his knees and took a fistful of earth that he then put on his head," he said. Nizar said he had a message for his now famous cousin.
"I am proud of you cousin. I hope you will visit again."

Italian President concludes his short visit to Beirut
News Agencies: The Italian President Sergio Mattarella concluded on Friday night his short visit to Beirut. He met with senior officials and tackled the current situation in Lebanon and the region, in addition to bilateral ties between both states. Mattarella inspected the Italian contingent working in 'UNIFIL' in the south. Mattarella held also a session of talks with the Marinate Patriarch, Al Raei at the Beirut Maronite Archdiocese.

Italian President Meets Lebanese Leaders, Inspects Italian UNIFIL Force
Naharnet/May 13/16/Italian President Sergio Mattarella began Friday a one-day visit to Lebanon by inspecting Italian peacekeepers in the South and holding talks with several top officials. Mattarella's talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh tackled “the current developments in Lebanon and the region, bilateral cooperation between the two countries, the role of UNIFIL's forces in the South, and the Syrian refugee crisis,” state-run National News Agency said. The meeting was attended by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel and a high-ranking Italian delegation comprising Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti, Italian army chief General Claudio Graziano, a number of officials, and Italy's ambassador to Lebanon Massimo Maruti. The Italian president later held talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail, in the presence of Moqbel, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, and the accompanying Italian delegation. "Talks addressed all the issues and developments in the region," NNA said. attarella also met with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at the Maronite Archbishopric of Beirut. Upon his arrival at Beirut's airport, the Italian president had voiced confidence that "the Lebanese are capable of finding a solution for the election of a new president." "I hope to return soon to Beirut to salute the elected president," he added. His tour had started at noon with a visit to the headquarters of the Italian UNIFIL peacekeepers in the southern town of Shamaa. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major-General Luciano Portolano briefed Mattarella about the situation in UNIFIL’s area of operations and issues related to the implementation of UNIFIL’s mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), a UNIFIL statement said. Portolano emphasized “the importance of the visit as a testament to the strong support of the Italian Government for the Mission and the commitment to peace and stability in the region.”Italy accounts for about 1,200 of UNIFIL’s 10,500 peacekeeping troops who hail from 40 countries.

Salam, Mattaretta tackle current developments
Fri 13 May 2016/NNA - Prime Minister Tammam Salam met on Friday afternoon at the Grand Serail with Italian President Sergio Mattaretta, in the presence of National Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Army Commander Jean Kahwaji and the Italian accompanied delegation. Talks reportedly dwelt on most recent developments and the overall situation.

Kataeb, NLP announce joint list in Deir al Qamar
Fri 13 May 2016/NNA - The municipal list formed jointly by Kataeb, the National Liberal Party, and former minister Naji Boustani, was announced in Deir-al-Qamar today, National News Agency correspondent reported on Friday.
 

Report: Hezbollah's top military commander,.Mustafa Amine Badreddine, killed in IAF operation near Damascus
The top clandestine operative for Lebanese-based terror organization Hezbollah was killed in an IDF military operation in Syria overnight Friday, according to Arab media reports.Mustafa Amine Badreddine was reportedly killed near the Damascus airport in an Israeli Air Force strike. Badreddine is said to be the highest ranking official in the Shi'ite paramilitary group behind the organization's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. "He took part in most of the operations of the Islamic resistance since 1982," Hezbollah said in a statement announcing his death. Badreddine's reputation as a ruthless killer and tactician in the Arab world is legendary. In 1984, the Kuwaiti government sentenced him to death after implicating him in a number of deadly bombings, which targeted the American and French embassies and the airport, according to Internet publication The Daily Beast. He later escaped execution after Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait in 1990, releasing scores of inmates from numerous prisons, fleeing to Beirut shortly after. Prosecutors for the International Criminal Court have also accused Badreddine of committing numerous war crimes, alleging in a 2011 report that he, along with a small contingent of collaborators, was behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.  In 2012, The US Treasury Department placed Badreddine, also known as Mustafa Badr Al Din, Mustafa Youssef Badreddine, Sami Issa and Elias Fouad Saab, on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
For years, Badreddine, 55 remained elusive, avoiding capture by Arab governments or international bodies by taking refuge deep inside Syria and Iran. “There are few official records in Lebanon relating to Mustafa Badreddine […] He has never been issued a passport. He has never been issued a driver’s license. He is not the registered owner of any property in Lebanon," a prosecutor for the ICC wrote in a 2011 indictment.  "The authorities have no records of him entering or leaving Lebanon. No records are held by the Ministry of Finance which would reflect that he pays any taxes. There are no bank accounts in any of the banks or any of the financial institutions in the country in his name.”“Badreddine passes as an unrecognizable and virtually untraceable ghost throughout Lebanon, leaving no footprint,” he added.
 

Hezbollah preparing imminent announcement on Badreddine killing
Now Lebanon/May 13/16
The party said Mustafa Badreddine was killed in a "large explosion" outside Damascus International Airport, but did not immediately blame Israel.
Mustafa Badreddine.
BEIRUT – Hezbollah is set to reveal the results of its investigation into Mustafa Badreddine's assassination, hours after announcing that its top commander in Syria was killed in a "large explosion" outside Damascus. "We will announce within hours, and in details, who is responsible for the blast," the party's deputy chief, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said during the funeral held for Badreddine late Friday afternoon in the southern Beirut suburb of Ghobeiry. He stressed that the announcement would come no later than Saturday morning, adding that Hezbollah already had "clear indications" who perpetrated the killing, and its method of attack Qassem, who was leading prayers at the cermony, reiterated that Israel was Hezbollah's top enemy, however he was careful to say that his party had "several theories" regarding the assasinaton. "We did not want to announce the killers before we finished our investigation," the Hezbollah figure explained.
Badreddine, who was indicted by an international court for the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, will be buried alongside Imad Mughniyeh—his predecessor in Hezbollah—in the Rawda Martyrs Cemetery. Friday’s funeral comes only hours after Hezbollah made the shock announcement that a “large explosion targeted one of [its] centers near Damascus International Airport, leading to the martyrdom of Badreddine and the injury of several others.”The Shiite party—which is fighting in Syria on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime—did not immediately blame its arch-foe Israel for the killing, saying instead it will investigate the blast to determine its cause. “We will soon announce more results of the investigation,” Hezbollah said, adding that it was looking into whether the deadly explosion was caused by an air strike, missile or artillery fire. Shortly before Hezbollah's statement, the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television, which has an editorial line supportive of the party, reported that Badreddine had been killed in an Israeli strike against his residence near the Damascus International Airport. Hezbollah heaped praise on its slain commander, saying that he came back to Lebanon “a martyr wrapped in the banner of victory… in the face of the bitter struggle against takfiri groups in Syria, which form the spearhead of the US-Zionist project in the region.” “After a life of jihad, imprisonment, wounds and major achievements, [Badreddine] has concluded his life in martyrdom.”
Badreddine is the latest Hezbollah official killed in Syria. On December 19, 2015, Samir Kuntar—a Lebanese Druze figure involved with the party’s operations in the Syrian Golan—was killed in a purported Israeli airstrike, prompting Hezbollah to target an Israeli patrol along the border with a roadside bomb two weeks later. In response, Israel shelled targets in southern Lebanon; however the cross-border hostilities did not escalate. Israel and Hezbollah previously clashed along the southern Lebanese border on January 28, 2015, when the Shiite party launched a deadly rocket attack on an IDF patrol ten days after an Israeli airstrike killed a number of top Hezbollah and Iranian officers in Quneitra.
Wanted by the STL, fighting in Syria
Last year, a Lebanese daily close to Hezbollah admitted that Badreddine was playing a key role in the party’s fight in Syria. In a column published July 27, Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amine lauded Mustafa Badreddine, who was indicted in 2011 by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the killing of Hariri and labeled by the prosecution as the organizer of the bombing, which killed 22 people in Beirut. The column, which comes a week after Washington slapped new sanctions against Badreddine, accused Hezbollah’s enemies of attempting to “tarnish the image” of top party members, including Badreddine.
“With the outbreak of the crisis in Syria, a new page in the confrontation [with Hezbollah's enemies] was opened,” Amine argued. The Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief wrote that Badreddine was “leading the resistance groups that fight alongside the Syrian army in more than one part of the country.” “He has also led security and military activity which aims, not only to thwart the plans of the traditional enemies of Syria and the resistance, but to deliver direct blows to Takfiri as well.” The column added that Badreddine’s colleagues quote the Hezbollah official as vowing: “It is my duty to confront all the projects of those people, and the only way I will leave my work in Lebanon or Syria or any other theater is carried [home] as a martyr or carrying the banner of victory.”

Mystery surrounds death of Hezbollah commander
Nicholas Blanford/Now Lebanon/May 13/16
If Israel is judged responsible for the death of Mustafa Badreddine, Hezbollah’s retaliation will likely follow a similar pattern to operations following recent killings of its military commanders in Syria. It will take several days, perhaps longer, for the murk surrounding Mustafa Badreddine’s demise to clear, key to which will be the results of Hezbollah’s investigation into the death of the veteran cadre. Hezbollah’s official line at the time of writing is an acknowledgement that a “large explosion” occurred at one of its positions near Damascus International Airport and that Badreddine was killed and a number of other people wounded. There are perhaps two possible culprits behind the assassination, if that is what it was, and one alternative, more fanciful, theory. The main suspect is Israel—and with good reason. Since the 2006 war, Israel has abandoned its hesitancy of the previous decade about dispatching senior Hezbollah leaders—military and political—when the opportunity arises. In 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships destroyed a vehicle carrying then Hezbollah leader Sheikh Abbas Mussawi, killing him, his wife and child. What appeared to be a tactical victory for Israel quickly backfired. In retaliation, Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel for the first time, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was blown up a month later, killing 29 people, and Mussawi was replaced the next day by the even more capable Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. From then until after the 2006 war, Israel left the senior leadership alone and concentrated—with limited success—on finding and killing Hezbollah field commanders.
The 2006 war changed Israel’s calculus. Israel believes it can get away with killing senior Hezbollah figures because it is gambling that the organization will refrain from a major retaliation which could trigger an escalation that leads to a war. Israel apparently put that analysis to the test in February 2008 when it reportedly played a role in the car bomb assassination of then Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh. There followed a number of minor, bungled or thwarted attempts to attack Israeli targets around the world which were attributed to Hezbollah, but nothing on the scale of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. Since Mughniyeh’s assassination, Israel appears to have been busy killing other senior commanders: Hassan Laqqis, a top Hezbollah military technician, was gunned down outside his home in southern Beirut in December 2013; in January 2015, Jihad Mughniyeh, Imad’s son, was killed along with an Iranian general in the Golan Heights in an Israeli drone strike; five months ago, Israeli jets bombed a building outside Damascus, killing Samir Kuntar, who had been organizing anti-Israel militias in Syria. If Israel is responsible for killing Badreddine, it would fit in with the pattern of assassinations in recent years.
If Hezbollah announces that Israel is responsible, we can expect to see some form of retaliation, probably similar to the operations it carried out in the wake of the killings of Jihad Mughniyeh and Kuntar. Mughniyeh was avenged with a skillfully conducted anti-tank missile ambush of an Israeli military convoy in the Shebaa Farms which left two soldiers dead. The less successful Kuntar retaliation saw a pair of road side bombs explode in the Shebaa Farms but without causing casualties. A retaliation for Badreddine would have to draw Israeli blood, the Hezbollah cadres would accept no less. But, as with similar past reprisals, Hezbollah will have to craft an operation that stings Israel but without goading it into a counter-retaliation, the first step of an unwanted escalation. The fact that Hezbollah did not immediately accuse Israel of Badreddine’s death should not be interpreted as hesitancy among the party’s leadership to have another entanglement with the Jewish state. When Israeli jets bombed a Hezbollah weapons storage facility near Janta in the eastern Bekaa in 2014, Hezbollah radio initially claimed the attack occurred just across the border in Syria, and therefore had nothing to do with the party. But some 36 hours later, Hezbollah released a statement confirming that one of its bases inside Lebanon had been hit and that retaliation was imminent. There followed a string of small scale attacks against Israeli troops over the next three weeks in the Shebaa Farms and northern Golan. If Hezbollah had been unwilling to mount an attack against Israel at the time, it did not have to release that second statement. No one in Lebanon could disprove Hezbollah’s initial declaration that the missile strike had been in Syrian territory.
The second potential culprit behind Badreddine’s death is a Sunni jihadist group, perhaps the Islamic State or Jabhat al-Nusra. It must be said that the odds that militants from either group were able to track down Badreddine and kill him with a car bomb or missile are very remote, but it is one possibility that is being considered. Some sources close to Hezbollah’s thinking are mulling whether Saudi Arabia may have had a role in Badreddine’s demise, given the open hostility between the party and the kingdom. On the other hand, if the facility near Damascus airport was widely known to be in use by Hezbollah, it could have been targeted by a Sunni jihadist group that was unaware Badreddine was inside. A third option—and here we stray into conspiracy theories—is that Badreddine did not die in Damascus but was killed outside Aleppo in the ongoing fighting in the area. Several Twitter feeds from Syrian rebel groups, including Jaysh al-Sunna, are claiming that Badreddine was killed in a battle in Khan Touman in southern Aleppo. Such claims can probably be discounted. Hezbollah has not covered up the deaths of senior field commanders in Syria’s various battlefields, and there is no reason why the party would attempt to obfuscate the location of Badreddine’s demise. Hezbollah considers Badreddine a martyr regardless of who killed him and where.
**Nicholas Blanford is Beirut correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Middle East Peace and Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security
 

What happens to Badreddine’s trial now?
Alex Rowell/Now Lebanon/May 13/16
Mustafa Amine Badreddine, whose death was announced Friday by Hezbollah in an official statement, was not merely a senior militant believed to be leading the Party of God’s operations in the Syrian warzone, among other prominent roles. He was also the foremost of five suspects indicted by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. His death raises questions about the fate of the Tribunal and the possibility of attaining justice for the victims of the February 14, 2005, bombing that killed Hariri along with twenty-one bystanders.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, the Tribunal declined to say what would happen to the case, known as Ayyash et al. “The Special Tribunal for Lebanon takes note of the reports today in the media announcing the death of Mustafa Amine Badreddine,” read the statement. “Pending a judicial determination, the STL is not in a position to make any comment on this announcement in the media.” Asked by NOW which judiciary in particular was required to make this determination, STL spokesperson Wajed Ramadan said, “That will be a matter to be discussed. I really cannot provide any comment on that.”
The Tribunal’s rules state that any amendments to or withdrawals of indictments must be made in open court. The next Ayyash et al. court session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 17. One of the matters that will have to be determined, according to independent legal sources, is whether or not Badreddine truly is dead—despite Hezbollah’s own confirmation published through its official news channels. “The prosecution will stop the proceedings with respect to Mustafa Badreddine once the Tribunal has enough evidence that he passed away,” said Marwan Saqr, a Lebanese lawyer.
“[The defense] counsel should bring evidence that the person who is going to be buried today is the same person who is indicted for the Tribunal. So how would this happen? Probably it can be DNA samples, whatever, but they need to know with certainty that he is the one who died today.”
Asked by NOW whether the trial of the remaining four Ayyash et al. indictees was likely to continue, Saqr said, “Yes, of course, because these are separate.” Dismissing a case against a deceased defendant has precedent in international tribunals. For example, the trial of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), dubbed the “trial of the century,” was brought to a close after Milošević’s death in March 2006. The news of Milošević’s passing and the subsequent termination of the trial were met with dismay by victims of his alleged crimes against humanity, who felt they were denied justice. “His punishment could not bring back my son, but it would be a drop of satisfaction in a sea of pain,” said Kasim Cerkezi, six of whose family members were killed in a 1999 Serb attack.  A similarly abrupt end to the trial of Badreddine, if it happens, would likely produce similar resentment among many Lebanese. The prospect has revived criticisms of the Tribunal’s handling of the case from some legal experts. “The STL would not be stuck with a deceased indictee if it had shown the necessary courage to indict the real commanders: namely the Syrian president and his close aides, without whose orders a child knows that Mustafa Badreddine or any other apparatchik would have never dared consider the assassination of our former PM,” said Dr. Chibli Mallat, an international lawyer noted for bringing indictments against figures including Ariel Sharon, Moammar Qadhafi and Saddam Hussein, in an email to NOW. “[Moreover], Mr. Badreddine would still be alive if he had accepted the jurisdiction of the STL and fought his case in open court.”

Fneish: We Will Give Salam Time before Taking Stand on Suspension of Hizbullah MPs' Bank Accounts
Naharnet/May 13/16/State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammed Fneish stated that the party's stance is “clear” regarding U.S. sanctions against the group in wake of the suspension on Thursday of the bank accounts of two party MPs, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday. The Hizbullah minister told the daily: “We will grant Prime Minister Tammam Salam time to consider this issue and we will make a stand when the time comes.” Information Minister Ramzi Jreij told al-Joumhouria that the cabinet on Thursday tackled the matter and ministers presented their views. Salam, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh have been tasked with following up on the case. The premier had held talks prior to the cabinet session with Salameh, who offered him assurances on the development. Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan of Hizbullah warned at cabinet on Thursday that “a red line has been crossed” when two Lebanese banks suspended three Hizbullah-linked accounts in conformity with a U.S. sanctions law. Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc said that U.S. sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with the group could threaten Lebanon's financial sector, hinting that supporters may withdraw their money from local banks. The bloc said the central bank and private banks would be participating in "a war of exclusion" against the group by upholding the law. Salameh had said the bank will abide by the restrictions in the Hizbullah International Financing Prevention Act, which was signed into law in December. Observers questioned to al-Joumhouria the Hizbullah bloc's “surprising” stance, saying it knows that the “Central Bank's caving in to its demands means its collapse and refusal to heed its demands means that it will stand in confrontation with it.”“The party is trying to halt the U.S. momentum aimed at isolating it from its environment and it hopes to the turn the Lebanese state and its banking sector as a barricade.”“It is forcing them to work with the Americans to find a sort of settlement that will ease the financial restrictions against it,” explained the observers.

Hizbullah Commander, STL Suspect Mustafa Badreddine Assassinated in Syria
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Hizbullah announced on Friday the death of its prominent commander Mustafa Badreddine in an attack in the Syrian capital Damascus. The party did not disclose the nature of the blast that killed Badreddine, speculating that it could have been on the ground or that it may have been an airstrike. The party said in a statement: "Information received during a preliminary investigation shows that a large explosion targeting one of our posts near Damascus international airport killed Mustafa Badreddine and injured others.”“After a life rife with jihad, wounds, and major achievements, Zou al-Fiqar's life ended in martyrdom,” it added. Hizbullah said that Badreddine was in Syria where he was “waging jihad against takfiri groups.”The party's statement quoted Badreddine as saying in Syria a few months ago: "I will only return from Syria as a martyr or carrying the banner of victory."Hizbullah said it will reveal more details on his death at a later stage. His funeral was held on Friday afternoon. A huge crowd thronged the streets as Badreddine's coffin draped in Hizbullah's yellow flag was carried by uniformed young men. Mourners carried portraits of Badreddine, or threw handfuls of rice and flowers to celebrate his death as a "martyr."The party didn't say when the explosion happened, and Hizbullah's media office said they also had no information about the timing of the attack. On Tuesday night, Hizbullah denied reports that Israel's air force targeted a Hizbullah arms convoy on the Lebanon-Syria border. The Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to Hizbullah, earlier said Badreddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike but later removed the report. Israel made no comment, but Israeli media underlined Hizbullah's failure to point the finger. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent condolences to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying Badreddine's death "will further strengthen the determination of the forces of resistance against the Zionist regime and terrorism." Prominent Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh -- Badreddine's cousin and brother-in-law -- was also killed in a bombing in Damascus in 2008 in an attack that the party blamed on Israel. "The message is that a martyred commander has joined the convoy of martyred leaders," Hizbullah cabinet minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan told The Associated Press on Friday. "He boosts us with his martyrdom with strength, glory, will and intention to continue the fight against the Zionist enemy and the takfiris until victory is achieved, God willing."
The slain commander is also one of five Hizbullah suspects wanted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Badreddine had been living Syria. Known as “Zou al-Fiqar,” he was a member of Hizbullah's Shura council and an aide to party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The STL indicted Hizbullah members Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra with Hariri's murder. A fifth suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was later charged. Lebanese authorities had failed to arrest any of them and they were all being tried in absentia. Hizbullah had vowed not to cooperate with the international court, deeming it an American-Israeli product aimed at destroying the group. In 2012 the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Badreddine along with a number of others in Hizbullah's leadership, for the movement's "active support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as its role in terrorist activities." Badreddine, 55, had been the mastermind of the group's involvement in Syria's civil war since Hizbullah fighters joined the battle on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces against those trying to remove him from power, according to pro-Hizbullah media. Hizbullah, along with Iran, has been one of Assad's strongest backers. One of the group's most shadowy figures, Badreddine was also known by aliases Elias Saab and Sami Issa. He was only known to the public by a decades-old black-and-white photograph of a smiling young man wearing a suit until Hizbullah released a new image of him in military uniform. Badreddine was also known for his expertise in explosives, apparently developing what would become his trademark explosive technique by adding gas to increase the power of sophisticated explosives. Top Hizbullah officials, including the group's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, attended a mourning ceremony at a hall in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, where Badreddine's family members were receiving condolences. In an emotional gesture of grief, Badreddine's brother Adnan raised his hand to touch a giant poster of the killed Hizbullah operative. Badreddine's only son, Ali, wept, as top Hizbullah official Hashim Safieddine hugged to comfort him. Badreddine was suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people. He was detained in Kuwait where he was sentenced to death and imprisoned for years until he fled jail in 1990 after Iraq's Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.

Qassem Says Hizbullah to Announce How Badreddine was Killed 'within Hours'
Naharnet/May 13/16/Hizbullah will announce the results of its investigation into the assassination of the party's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine “within hours,” Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Friday afternoon. “Israel and the takfiris received painful blows in the past few years,” said Qassem at Badreddine's funeral in Beirut's southern suburbs, hinting that any of them could be involved in the operation that occurred in Syria near Damascus' airport. “Our brothers are probing the nature of this blast and who might be behind it, and due to the presence of several hypotheses, we do not want to get ahead of the investigation or to announce anything based on a political analysis,” Qassem noted. “But within hours, by tomorrow morning at the latest, we will in detail announce the cause of the blast and the identity of the perpetrators and we will act accordingly,” Hizbullah number two went on to say. He however pointed out that Hizbullah is already in possession of “clear indications about the identity of the perpetrators and the modus operandi.”“But we need some time to become 100% sure about the conclusion and we will then announce it to the public opinion,” Qassem added.“We only have one enemy – Israel and its allies... They might be in several locations, but they are all part of the Israeli scheme,” the senior Hizbullah official said. "By killing you, they gave a new push to our drive that produces a martyr after another, as well as a commander after another," Qassem said, addressing the slain commander. Hizbullah's al-Manar TV meanwhile said that party leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will deliver a speech next Friday during a ceremony commemorating Badreddine. Earlier in the day, Hizbullah issued a statement saying it was still investigating the cause of the blast near Damascus airport but it did not immediately point the finger at Israel as it did when the commander's predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in the Syrian capital in 2008.Badreddine, who was in his mid-50s, was a key player in Hizbullah's military wing.
He was on a U.S. terror sanctions blacklist and a key suspect in the 2005 assassination in Beirut of ex-premier Rafik Hariri in addition to being one of Israel's most wanted men. "According to preliminary reports, a large explosion targeted one of our positions near Damascus international airport killing brother commander Mustafa Badreddine and wounding other people," Hizbullah said in a statement. "We are going to pursue an inquiry to determine the nature and causes of the explosion and ascertain whether it was the result of an air strike, a missile or artillery fire," it added. Badreddine's predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, his cousin and brother-in-law, was killed in Damascus in 2008 in an attack that drew immediate threats by Hizbullah of heavy retaliation against Israel. It made no such threats after Badreddine's death. Israel made no comment, as was also the case in 2008, but Israeli media underlined Hizbullah's failure to apportion blame. Hizbullah lawmaker Nawwar al-Sahili told Hizbullah's al-Manar TV that it was too soon to prejudge the results of the investigation into Badreddine's death, but noted that the group faces "an open war" and "will retaliate at an opportune moment."In its 2012 terror blacklisting of Badreddine, Washington charged that he was the key pointman for Hizbullah's operations in Syria alongside major foreign backer Iran in support of President Bashar Assad's regime. Damascus airport is east of the capital in an area where various rebel groups have a strong presence, although pro-government forces have secured the highway to it for the past two years or more. Badreddine's death comes months after another Hizbullah figure, Samir Quntar, was killed in an December 2015 air strike near Damascus which the group blamed on Israel.

A Look at Past Assassinations of Hizbullah Figures
Associated Press/Naharnet/May 13/16/Top military commander Mustafa Badreddine, who died in a mysterious blast in Damascus, is the latest of a number of senior figures from Hizbullah to be killed in past years. In the past, Israel was the prime suspect in any assassinations, but since Hizbullah joined Syria's civil war in 2012 to support President Bashar Assad, it has lost several prominent members in combat and has gained a broader range of enemies. More than 1,000 of its foot soldiers have been killed in the Syria war, which began in 2011, compared to the 1,276 fighters killed during its 18-year guerrilla war with Israeli forces that occupied southern Lebanon until 2000. Here's a look at possible culprits in Badreddine's killing as well as a glance of previous senior members killed.
SUSPECTS:
— ISRAEL: Enmity runs deep between Israel and Hizbullah. The militant group touts itself as Lebanon's defender against Israel after the long fight against the Israeli occupation, and Israel as well as the United States considers the group a terrorist group bent on its destruction. Since the Israeli withdrawal, the two sides have come to blows several times, most disastrously in 2006, when weeks of fighting and Israeli bombardment devastated much of the south.
Experts say Israel may seize the opportunity while Hizbullah is deeply involved in Syria to take out senior group members. Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanese TV station close to Hizbullah, initially reported an Israeli airstrike killed Badreddine but it withdrew the report. Israel has not commented.
— EXTREMIST GROUPS: Sunni extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group dominate the Syrian battlefield and are staunch opponents of Hizbullah. Though rivals on the ground, IS and al-Qaida's Syria branch, called the Nusra Front, consider Shiites to be apostates whose blood may be shed. Both have claimed responsibility for most of the suicide bombings in the war and attacks in Lebanon, including one against a Hizbullah stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs in 2015 that killed nearly 50 people. They have killed Hizbullah officers during combat in Syria, but neither group is known to have carried out targeted assassinations against Hizbullah.
— SYRIAN REBELS: Syrian rebels have been threatening Hizbullah since the group sent fighters to Syria. They have hit its positions in Syria with rockets and car bombings and battled Hizbullah forces directly on the ground.
— SAUDI ARABIA: The kingdom does not have a known history of sponsoring assassinations or of targeting Hizbullah directly, but tensions between it and the Lebanese Shiite group are at an all-time high. Saudi Arabia backs Syria's rebels and is a bitter opponent of Iran, Hizbullah's patron. Saudi Arabia suspended a $3 billion program funding Lebanon's army and security forces because of Hizbullah's influence in the country and it backed an Arab League decision to label the group a “terrorist” organization. Saudi Arabia has also taken a more aggressive stance around the region, fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen that it says are a proxy for Iran and calling for the creation of a Muslim military force.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah regularly lashes out at Saudi Arabia in his public speeches, recently likening it to Israel, saying both are fueling Sunni-Shiite hatreds in the region. "There is a history, there is a tension," says Matthew Levitt, a Washington Institute expert of Hizbullah, though he underlined that any talk of a culprit in Badreddine's death is speculation at the point.
PAST SENIOR HEZBOLLAH FIGURES KILLED
2016:
— Mustafa Badreddine, Hizbullah's top military commander, was killed on May 13 in a blast in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Hizbullah says it is investigating whether Badreddine was killed in an airstrike, missile, or artillery shelling.
— Ali Fayyad, better known as Abu Alaa Bosna, who led some of Hizbullah's military operations in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Bosnia was killed in February during battles with the Islamic State group near the town of Khanaser in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.
2015
— Samir Quntar -- who spent 30 years in an Israeli prison on charges of killing of an Israeli man, his daughter and a policeman in 1979 -- was killed in December along with eight others in a suspected Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Jaramana, a Damascus suburb.
— Hassan Hussein al-Haj, a top Hizbullah commander, was killed in October while fighting al-Qaida-linked fighters in the northwestern province of Idlib. A week later, his replacement, Mahdi Hassan Obeid, was killed during fighting in the same province.
— An Israeli airstrike in southern Syria killed Jihad Mughniyeh and five other Hizbullah fighters in January. Mughniyeh, the son of slain Hizbullah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, was apparently in charge of operations in the Golan Heights.
2014
— A senior military officer, Fawzi Ayoub, a dual Lebanese-Canadian citizen who was wanted by the FBI on charges of trying to use a forged U.S. passport to enter Israel, was killed in May in Syria's northern province of Aleppo, reportedly in an ambush by Western-backed rebels.
2013
— Senior Hizbullah commander Hassan al-Laqis was assassinated by gunmen in southern Beirut in December. Hizbullah blamed Israel for the killing.
2008
— Imad Mughniyeh, Hizbullah's military chief, was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded in Damascus. Mughniyeh was one of the world's most elusive militants, accused of engineering suicide bombings during Lebanon's civil war and of planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He had vanished from public view for 15 years before his death but had become one of the most powerful figures within Hizbullah during that time. Hizbullah blamed his killing on Israel. Mughniyeh was the brother-in-law and mentor of Badreddine, who replaced him after his death.
1992
— Sheikh Abbas al-Moussawi, Hizbullah's secretary-general at the time and one of its founders, was killed along with his 5-year-old son and four others in an airstrike by Israeli helicopters on his motorcade in southern Lebanon.

U.S. Says Coalition Jets Did Not Overfly Area where Badreddine was Killed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/The United States announced Friday that U.S.-led aircraft did not overly the Syrian area where Hizbullah's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine was killed in a mysterious blast."There were no U.S. or coalition aircraft in the area where he was reported to be killed," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press conference, noting that Washington could not confirm Badreddine's reported death. Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren meanwhile said it was unclear who carried out the strike, but the United States was not involved. He also said "it's simply too soon to tell" who was behind the attack and what its effect would be. adreddine was in a warehouse near Damascus airport when it was rocked by a blast on Thursday night, Agence France-Presse quoted a Syrian security source as saying. No aircraft was heard before the explosion and no one knew he was there, the source said. The airport and its surroundings adjoin an area of fighting around the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, which is revered by Shiites around the world. The Syrian army controls the area, and Iranian and Hizbullah fighters are also present in force. The closest rebel positions are seven kilometers away in the Eastern Ghouta area. Badreddine, in his mid-50s, was a key player in Hizbullah's military wing. He was on a U.S. terror sanctions blacklist, was a key suspect in the 2005 assassination in Beirut of ex-PM Rafik Hariri and was one of the "most wanted" by Israel. The Iran-backed Hizbullah did not say which of Badreddine's many enemies it held responsible for his death. But the group's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem told mourners at the funeral he was killed in a "huge blast" at a Hizbullah position near Damascus airport. He said a probe was underway, but "because there are many possibilities, we don't want to anticipate the investigation." "I assure you however that within hours, no later than Saturday morning, we will give a detailed account about what caused the blast and who was behind it," Qassem said. Hizbullah has "clear indication" on who was responsible and how it happened, "but we need some more time to be one hundred percent sure," he added. "According to preliminary reports, a large explosion targeted one of our positions near Damascus international airport killing brother commander Mustafa Badreddine and wounding other people," Hizbullah said in a statement earlier in the day. "We are going to pursue an inquiry to determine the nature and causes of the explosion and ascertain whether it was the result of an air strike, a missile or artillery fire," it added. Israel made no comment, but Israeli media underlined Hizbullah's failure to apportion blame.
In its 2012 terror blacklisting of Badreddine, Washington charged that he was the key pointman for Hizbullah's operations in Syria alongside major foreign backer Iran in support of President Bashar Assad's regime.

Badreddine: A Hizbullah Chief Mysterious in Life and Death
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/The killing of the enigmatic military chief of Hizbullah remained shrouded in mystery Friday, with his powerful party giving out no information.
What we know so far
Mustafa Badreddine was in a warehouse near Damascus airport when it was rocked by a blast on Thursday night, a Syrian security source said.
No aircraft was heard before the explosion and no one knew he was there, the source said. The airport and its surroundings adjoin an area of fighting around the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, which is revered by Shiites around the world.
The Syrian army controls the area, and Iranian and Hizbullah fighters are also present in force. The closest rebel positions are seven kilometers away in the Eastern Ghouta area.
Who is Mustafa Badreddine?
The military commander was aged around 50 and hailed from South Lebanon.
His military career started in the ranks of the PLO's Fatah Movement. Following Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he joined the Hizbullah movement newly created by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. He was jailed in Kuwait for attacks on the French and U.S. embassies in 1983. Shiite activists highjacked a plane in Kuwait in 1984 and a TWA aircraft to Beirut the following year to demand his release, before he finally escaped from jail during Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. He has been on trial in absentia before The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lenanon on charges of masterminding the 2005 bombing that killed Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Badreddine replaced his mentor and brother-in-law Imad Mughniyeh as Hizbullah's security chief after the latter was killed in a February 2008 attack in Damascus. And when the Lebanese group intervened in support of its ally President Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war, he became head of military operations.
Will Hizbullah be affected?
Most experts agree that his death will have only a limited impact on Hizbullah.
"Despite the importance of Badreddine, Hizbullah's highest ranking secret operative and the man considered responsible for battlefield strategy, I doubt this will impact their operations in Syria," said Maha Yahya, acting director of the Carnegie Center for the Middle East. "Hizbullah is not a one-man operation, and it is part of a larger entity that is also connected to the Iranian command," she said. Nicolas Pouillard, a researcher at the French Near East Institute, said the impact of his death would have "symbolic and psychological" consequences.
"He was a Hizbullah veteran -- one of its main military leaders," he said.
Who did it?
Hizbullah has not immediately accused its sworn enemy Israel of carrying out the attack, unlike in previous instances. Pouillard said: "For the moment, Hizbullah is not accusing any party." But "Israel and factions of the (Syrian) opposition could ... be involved in this assassination," he said. It "occurred on the outskirts of Damascus, near the airport area, which is held by the regime", he said. "There was therefore some intelligence gathering beforehand, which could implicate several Syrian and regional parties."Lebanese academic Waddah Charara, who has written a book on Hizbullah, said the Shiite group finds itself in a difficult position. "To accuse Israel of having carried out an aerial campaign is throwing into doubt Russia's efficiency in protecting Syria's air space," he said. Assad's longterm ally Russia has since September carried out air strikes in Syria in support of regime troops. "One should not rule out that this assassination could be the result of tensions between the regime, Russia and Iran -- or even rebel shelling," he said. Hizbullah's number two Sheikh Naim Qassem has said the results of an investigation into the killing would be announced at the latest on Saturday morning.
Syria conflict
Badreddine's death is unlikely to affect Hizbullah's involvement on the side of the regime in Syria's brutal five-year conflict. Hizbullah has sent thousands of combatants -- between 5,000 and 6,000, according to Charara -- since 2013 to help fight both rebels and jihadists. They send 2,000 fighters at a time in rotation, he said. Experts say Hizbullah has lost 1,000 to 2,000 fighters. "It remains to be seen if and when Hizbullah will reach a tipping point where the losses in Syria begin to outweigh the benefits of direct military involvement," said the Carnegie Center's Yahya.

STL Says Won't Comment on Badreddine's Death before 'Judicial Determination'
Naharnet/May 13/16/The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Friday that it “took note” of media reports announcing the death of Hizbullah's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine, whom the STL has charged with involvement in ex-PM Rafik Hariri's assassination along with four other Hizbullah operatives. “Pending a judicial determination, the STL is not in a position to make any comment on this announcement in the media,” the court said in a terse statement emailed to media outlets. “The Special Tribunal for Lebanon remains committed to fulfill its mandate with the highest standards of international Justice,” it stressed. The STL has indicted Hizbullah members Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra with Hariri's murder. A fifth suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was later charged. Lebanese authorities have failed to arrest any of them and they are all being tried in absentia. Hizbullah had announced Friday morning that Badreddine was killed in an attack in Syria where the group has deployed thousands of fighters backing the Damascus regime. The party said it was still investigating the cause of the blast near Damascus airport but it did not immediately point the finger at Israel as it did when the commander's predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in the Syrian capital in 2008. Badreddine, who was in his mid-50s, was a key player in Hizbullah's military wing. Israel made no comment, as was also the case in 2008, but Israeli media underlined Hizbullah's failure to apportion blame. Damascus airport is east of the capital in an area where various rebel groups have a strong presence, although pro-government forces have secured the highway to it for the past two years or more.One of Hizbullah's most shadowy figures, Badreddine was also known by aliases Elias Saab and Sami Issa. He was only known to the public by a decades-old black-and-white photograph of a smiling young man wearing a suit until Hizbullah released a new image of him in military uniform. Badreddine was also known for his expertise in explosives, apparently developing what would become his trademark explosive technique by adding gas to increase the power of sophisticated explosives. He was also suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people. He was detained in Kuwait where he was sentenced to death and imprisoned for years until he fled jail in 1990 after Iraq's Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.

Salam Hosts Hariri, Miqati for Dinner ahead of Tripoli Municipal Polls
Naharnet/May 13/16/Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri and former Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a rare meeting on Thursday weeks before the municipal elections in the northern city of Tripoli and Akkar. Prime Minister Tammam Salam hosted the two officials over dinner at his Msaytbeh residence in Beirut and a statement at the end of the meeting said that they stressed the need to “bolster unity among Lebanese factions without exception because Lebanon needs to fortify its internal front given the explosive regional situation.”Hariri and Miqati underlined Salam's initiative to hold the municipal and mayoral polls. They hoped that this initiative would lead to staging other elections, namely the presidential and parliamentary ones, continued the statement. Northern sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday meanwhile that Hariri is seeking the election of Omar al-Hallab as Tripoli municipal chief, while Miqati is insisting on Azzam Oweida. Failure to acquiesce to his demand will force Miqati to wage an electoral battle with Hariri in the northern city, predicted the sources. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas told al-Joumhouria that there is a “50 percent chance that the two officials will reach an agreement because Tripoli is not looking forward to an electoral battle.”The municipal polls kicked off on May 8 in Beirut and the Bekaa region. The next stage will be held in the Mount Lebanon region on Sunday. They will be followed by polls in the South and Nabatieh on May 22 and the North and Akkar on May 29.

Geagea Slams those 'Attempting to Destabilize Economy because it Abides by Int'l Policies'
Naharnet/May 13/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea defended on Friday Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh in wake of the decisions of two Lebanese banks to suspend the accounts of two Hizbullah MPs. He said in a statement: “Lebanon should be spared from those attempting to destabilize the economy simply because it is committed to international policies.” “Lebanon's banking sector cannot survive without these policies,” he remarked. “Some sides cannot simply do what they want with disregard to legitimacy and then ask all the Lebanese people to suffer the responsibilities of their actions,” Geagea continued.He stressed the need for “wisdom” and for avoiding targeting “the last pillar of our economic fortresses, which is the banking sector, because its destruction will ruin us all.”The LF chief stated that “everyone can acknowledge that the banking sector in Lebanon has persevered despite all the political upheaval in the past ten years and the credit should mainly be given to the Central Bank governor.”Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan of Hizbullah warned at cabinet on Thursday that “a red line has been crossed” when two Lebanese banks suspended three Hizbullah-linked accounts in conformity with a U.S. sanctions law. Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc said that U.S. sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with the group could threaten Lebanon's financial sector, hinting that supporters may withdraw their money from local banks. The bloc said the central bank and private banks would be participating in "a war of exclusion" against the group by upholding the law. Salameh had said the bank will abide by the restrictions in the Hizbullah International Financing Prevention Act, which was signed into law in December.

One Wounded in Local Dispute in Arsal
Naharnet/May 13/16/One person was wounded on Friday in a dispute that erupted in the northeastern border town of Arsal, reported the National News Agency. It said that Ayman Mohammed al-Smaily was wounded in the clash that erupted over a construction dispute.He was shot in the shoulder and has since been transferred to hospital for treatment.

Baby steps: Lebanon's municipal elections inspire hope
Esperance Ghanem/Al-Monitor/May 13/16
BEIRUT — Despite all the doubts shrouding the municipal elections in Lebanon following a second extension of the parliament term and in light of the Lebanese political crisis, elections began May 8 and are set to be held over four consecutive Sundays ending May 29 and covering all Lebanese provinces.
These elections are bringing democratic life back to Lebanon, which has endured a presidential vacancy since May 2014 and the obstruction of official institutions in light of the political crisis and sharp divide in the country since former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005.
Also, the Council of Ministers is experiencing major disagreements over several issues, including national security, and has almost been disbanded on several occasions. The parliament hasn't held legislative sessions since November, as the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Lebanese Forces Party have refused to attend any legislative session whose agenda does not include a new electoral law. Lebanon’s Muslims and Christians are both calling for a new electoral law that would give them fair and equal representation. Parliament voted to extend its term twice: the first time in May 2013 for 17 months, and the second in November 2014 for 31 months, until June 2017. These two extensions were supported by all parliamentary groups except for FPM members, who submitted appeals to the Constitutional Council each time asking that use of the extension law be limited to exceptional circumstances. Such situations were indeed encountered during periods of unrest, in particular the clashes in Tripoli between Alawites and Sunnis in mid-May of 2013, and a series of explosions, most notably the one in Haret Hreik in the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs in January 2014. Attempts to agree on an electoral law are ongoing. Parliament formed joint committees to address finance, budget, administration and justice, foreign affairs and migrants, national defense, interior and municipalities, and media and telecommunications. The joint committees started a series of meetings called by parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the proposed electoral law.
The first meeting of the joint committees was May 3; discussion was limited to five electoral proposals and draft laws. There are 17 proposals to be discussed. The first five proposals include the majority single-member district system submitted by the Phalange Party; the mixed system including 64 parliament members according to the majority system and 64 members according to the proportional system as proposed by Berri; the mixed system proposed by the Lebanese Force, the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party based on the election of 68 parliament members according to the majority system and 60 according to the proportional system; the proportional system submitted by Najib Mikati's government to the parliament in 2013 based on dividing Lebanon into 13 districts; and the Hezbollah-supported proposal of a proportional system based on a nationwide vote. Will the municipal elections now underway and the parliament meetings to agree on a new law revive hope of successfully holding legislative elections in June 2017? If the parliamentary committees fail to reach an agreement, will Lebanon face a third extension of the parliament's term or will elections be held according to the old electoral law?
Ibrahim Kanaan, a parliament member representing the Change and Reform bloc, told Al-Monitor, “The fact that municipal elections were held confirms that there is no excuse for not holding the legislative elections, and that the extension of the parliament stems from political reasons.”
He added that imposing yet another extension would inevitably stir an angry public reaction. "Holding legislative elections requires a decision, and promulgating a new electoral law requires a [genuine] will," Kanaan said. "Will the meetings of the joint committees lead to an agreement on this law? Although the experiences of the FPM with the political parties on the subject of electoral law are not encouraging, everyone must now assume their responsibilities in light of the institutional paralysis. No party can afford to fail approving this law.” Kanaan seemed optimistic that the legislative elections will be held next year. He even said he expects the elections to be held earlier than scheduled, since the current government bottleneck makes them imperative. “Those who support the extension option cannot keep opposing the legislative elections, and the Christian understanding between the FPM and Lebanese Forces pushes the democratic process forward,” he said. According to Berri, the parliament will never be extended again, and agreeing on a new electoral law will pave the way for conducting elections at any given moment. During the last session, on May 11, the deputies conveyed the possibility of ending the parliament’s term early, before June 2017. Parliament member Ahmad Fatfat of the Future Movement told Al-Monitor, "The municipal elections confirm the Lebanese ... will to promote the democratic life. The municipal elections are an important electoral movement, even if they do not have the same political dimension as the legislative elections.” Fatfat said he doesn't believe the successful municipal elections demonstrate that parliament term extensions weren't needed. “When the extensions were decided upon, the security situation was more difficult than it is today, in light of the lack of an electoral law agreed upon by all parties and the parliament's inability to pass a new law,” he said. He confirmed that the Future Movement does not want an extension but prefers elections based on a new law. Fatfat also confirmed that there is a collective will to prevent a third extension of the parliament, stressing that the Future Movement and Berri are exerting their utmost efforts to pass a new law. He also accused other parties of derailing discussions about the law by refusing to make compromises; he specifically blamed Hezbollah and the FPM for the failure to elect a president. While optimism seems to prevail, an agreement doesn't appear imminent — and reaching an agreement is just the first step needed. Lebanon has to deal with internal constitutional and political challenges ranging from actually implementing the law and holding the elections all the way to dealing with the mother of all crises: the ongoing presidential vacuum.

Lebanon’s municipal elections and presidential vacuum
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/May 13/16/Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s municipal elections in Beqaa and Beirut, people in Lebanon were thrilled to practice democracy. It was beautiful to witness, especially after the consecutive political crises that suffocated the country’s democratic pulse.
Optimism
The elections contained many flaws, mainly due to the dominance of political affiliations and money, but we cannot ignore their significance at a time when Lebanon is depicted as a failed state. Citizens were able to vent suppressed frustration. Political parties have deprived people of their right to make independent choices within their local authority. However, holding the elections was a lot better than not doing so or delaying them, particularly as in two weeks Lebanon will mark two years of a presidential vacuum. The Lebanese people are casting their votes instead of submitting to captivity.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 14/16

Tehran not happy with Brazil ' s "Lebanese" new President..

Walid Phares DC/May 13/16/Reports are circulating about Iranian regime frustration with the new President of Brazil after the removal of its past President for illegal activities. Michel Temer spelled Tamer as well, is from Lebanese descent. There are close to seven million Brazilians from Lebanese descent. The Iranian regime has lost an ally with the departure of the past President and is concerned about the new president. The latter is signaling that he is moving the country from the far left to the center. He is also signaling that he will distance Brazil from Iran's excessive influence in Latin America. In reaction Iran and it's allies are accusing Temer of being "an American agent." Obviously...

Druze protesters clash with Syria regime loyalists
Albin Szakola/Now Lebanon/May 13/16
BEIRUT – Protesters in Suweida have clashed with regime loyalists during a rally held by the activist “You Broke Us” group railing against mismanagement of the Druze-populated province. Dozens of demonstrators gathered Thursday in the center of the provincial capital, holding up banners against “corruption” while chanting for “freedom and dignity,” according to the local Swaida Khabar outlet. A video of the protest shows the young activists chanting “We won’t bow… but to our God,” while also launching a broadside against Wafiq Nasser , the regime’s Political Security Branch chief in the province.
“O’ you Wafiq [Nasser] the deceiver [or traitor]… the people of Suweida can’t be humiliated,” the crowd yelled. "You Broke Us" protesters rally Thursday in Suweida. (YouTube/Swaida Khabar). The peaceful protest quickly degenerated into chaos, however, with Swaida Khabar reporting that regime loyalists massed around the rally. “The ‘Shabiha’ members tried to attack the protesters, leading to a fistfight between the two sides,” Swaida Khabar’s correspondent said. The reporter added that a regime loyalist proceeded to open fire into the air “to intimidate protesters,” however the demonstration continued until it ended without any further problems. A video uploaded by the “You Broke Us” campaign shows part of the scuffle, with a gunshot ringing out near the end of the clip. The activist group has not issued any formal statement on the incident, claiming only that “Hezbollah members opened fire in the air to disperse the protesters.” The scuffle at Thursday's "You Broke Us" protest. Thursday’s protest was the latest organized by “You Broke Us” since early March. Although the demonstrations started off by criticizing the arbitrary firing of teachers called up for military service, they have since taken an increasingly broader anti-regime tone. In its rally cry for the latest protest, “You Broke Us” defiantly announced that “we won’t be silent” while daring Suweida Governor Atef Nadaf to “say whatever you want about us.” “History is recording that there are youths in this country still steadfast and continue speaking and their voices are growing much more [stronger] than before.”“You Broke Us” listed four main demands for the protest, including: a “united Syria” and “one people with one fate,” the end of corrupt policies that have collapsed the value of the Syrian pound, and preventing “mafiosos” from carrying arms in an arbitrary fashion in the province. The student-led movement also indirectly slammed the Syrian regime’s military and security policies, but instead of pointing the finger at Damascus, it called on the “UN and the international community” to take a “decisive stance… concerning the siege of cities, destruction and violence, and arbitrary arrests.”The campaign also sounded a dire warning over the situation in Hama Central Prison, which inmates took over last week in a bid to negotiate the release of political prisoners with Damascus. According to “You Broke Us,” the jail “stands at the gates of a humanitarian disaster.”
**Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material.

New Era for Brazil as Rousseff Cedes Power to Temer
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Brazil entered a new era Thursday as interim president Michel Temer took power from suspended leader Dilma Rousseff, installing a business-friendly government that ends 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America's biggest nation. The center-right former vice president wasted no time in putting his stamp on Brazil, naming a new government he said would restore "credibility" after months of economic and political turmoil. One key nomination was a respected former central bank chief, Henrique Meirelles, for finance minister, with the task of helping the huge economy claw out of the deepest recession in decades. "We must significantly improve the business environment for the private sector," Temer said in the presidential palace just hours after Rousseff left, amid emotional scenes, to start her six-month suspension pending an impeachment trial on charges that she broke government accounting rules. "It is urgent to restore peace and unite Brazil," said Temer, 75, who at one point lost his voice while addressing allies and a crush of journalists. Temer offered an olive branch to Brazil's left, which accuses him of having engineered the impeachment process to mount a coup. He vowed "dialogue" and promised to maintain the generous social programs run by Rousseff's Workers' Party, lifting tens of millions of people from shocking poverty. However there was immediate criticism of the fact that the new cabinet consists entirely of white males -- a dramatic shift from the more diverse cabinet presided over by Brazil's first female president. "It's a government of white men and quite frightening," said analyst Ivar Hartmann, a public law expert at the FGV think tank in Rio de Janeiro. "It's the first time since the (1964-1985) dictatorship that there has not been a single woman. This is worrying." A small but noisy group of female protesters chanted "putschist!" as Temer and his new ministers entered the executive building.
Defiant to the end, Rousseff used her final minutes in the presidency to denounce the "coup" and urge supporters to mobilize as she braces for an impeachment trial set to drag on for months -- including through the Olympics, opening in August in Rio de Janeiro.
"What is at stake is respect for the ballot box, the sovereign will of the Brazilian people and the constitution," Rousseff said in what could be her final address from the presidential palace, dressed in a white jacket and flanked by her soon-to-be-sacked ministers. "I may have made mistakes, but I committed no crimes."Several of her staff were in tears.She then exited the building to shake hands, hug and wave to some 500 supporters in a cheering, red-clad crowd gathered outside the modernist capital's seat of power. There, she gave another fiery speech, while her predecessor and mentor, the once wildly popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, stood by her side, repeatedly wiping the sweat from his brow in the tropical heat. She was then whisked away in a convoy of black vehicles. Hours earlier, a nearly 22-hour debate in the Senate closed with an overwhelming 55-22 vote against Rousseff, as pro-impeachment senators burst into applause and posed for selfies and congratulatory group photos. The 81-member Senate now has up to six months to hold an impeachment trial. A two-thirds majority vote at the end would remove Rousseff, 68, from office for good. A onetime Marxist guerrilla tortured under the country's military dictatorship in the 1970s, Rousseff was expected to hole up in her official residence, where she will continue to live with her mother during the trial. She will retain her salary and bodyguards. The international community responded cautiously to the change in leadership. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he trusted "Brazil's democratic processes," and White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States would "respect the government institutions, traditions and procedures."In Latin America, where the Workers' Party is an emblem of a decade of left-wing dominance that lately appears to be waning, some reactions were more barbed. Venezuela "categorically rejected" what it called a coup, Cuba expressed its "total solidarity" with Rousseff, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega condemned what he called a "legal and political monstrosity." Some economists meanwhile cautioned it would take time for Temer to turn around the dire economy, even if the markets are betting heavily on him to do just that. "People who expect everything to get better in the short term will be disappointed. It's better to look to the medium and long term, because there are reforms and measures that can't be pushed through immediately," said Ignacio Crespo, an analyst at Sao Paulo-based consultancy Guide Investimentos.

Nusra, Islamist Allies Kill 19 Civilians from Assad's Alawite Sect
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Fighters from the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and their allies shot dead 19 civilians from President Bashar Assad's Alawite minority in their own homes after seizing their village in central Syria, a monitor said Friday. Other villagers were kidnapped following the assault in which eight pro-regime militiamen were killed trying to defend al-Zara in Hama province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "During the attack, they entered houses and opened fire on families, killing at least 19 civilians, including six women," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. State news agency SANA condemned the "massacre" of villagers in Hama, which like neighboring Homs province is mainly Sunni but has a significant Alawite minority. "Terrorist groups infiltrated al-Zara and carried out a massacre as well as destruction and pillage," it reported. The five-year civil war in Syria has inflamed sectarian resentment between the country's Sunni majority and the Alawite minority that is the main prop of the Assad regime. The Alawites -- followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam who are mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus -- are despised as heretics by al-Qaida and other jihadist groups.

Belgium to Begin Air Strikes against IS in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Belgium will extend its F-16 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq into Syria, the government said Friday, as it grapples with the aftermath of deadly IS-claimed bomb attacks in Brussels in March. "In accordance with U.N. Resolution 2249, the engagement will be limited to those areas of Syria under the control of IS and other terrorist groups," a spokesman for Prime Minister Charles Michel told AFP after a cabinet meeting. "The objective will be to destroy these groups' refuges," the spokesman said, adding that the strikes would begin on July 1. Belgium launched its first attacks against IS in Iraq in late 2014 as part of the U.S.-led coalition, but decided against strikes in Syria amid public fears over getting dragged into a wider conflict. However, the November 13 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead brought home the IS threat to the heart of Europe and changed sentiment sharply. In early March, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said the government was reconsidering its position, as it did not make sense to attack IS in Iraq but not in Syria. Along with the Netherlands and Denmark, Britain has also changed tack and launched its first sorties against IS targets in Syria in December. Michel's spokesman did not spell out the reason for the change in policy but it comes as Belgium is still reeling from the IS suicide bomber attacks at Brussels airport and on the metro on March 22 which killed 32 people. The Paris and Brussels attacks have both been linked to the same jihadist cell with links to IS in Syria.

U.S. Says IS Snipers Targeting Civilians Leaving Fallujah
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Islamic State snipers are targeting humanitarian corridors established by Iraqi security forces to relieve suffering in the IS-held city of Fallujah, a Pentagon official said Friday. Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the shooters were preventing residents from escaping Fallujah, which is only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is facing major shortages of basic supplies including medicine. "We know that the Iraqis have attempted on several occasions to open up humanitarian corridors to allow some of those civilians to come out," Warren told Pentagon reporters in a video call. "Those have met with generally not much success. ISIL has done things like set up snipers to cover down on those corridors, to kill people as they're trying to get out. So that has really discouraged their use," he added, using an acronym for the IS group. Warren later said Iraqi forces had tried to set up three corridors, but these have been all but abandoned because of the snipers. "Word must have spread because no civilians have tried to use the corridors in the last few weeks," he said. Anti-government fighters took control of Fallujah in early 2014 during unrest that broke out after security forces demolished a protest camp farther west, and it later became an IS stronghold. Warren said Iraqi security forces now "generally" surround Fallujah and have begun to slowly "chip away" at it. "This is the very first city that ISIL gained control of," he said. "ISIL's been there for more than two years, so they are dug in and dug in deep. This is a tough nut for us to crack here. This is a tough nut for the Iraqis to crack." U.S. forces are training and advising Iraqi partners as they try to repel IS jihadists from the country. The Pentagon says the IS group is losing ground, and the jihadists have suffered major defeats in Iraq, including the loss of the cities of Heet and Ramadi. But they remain in control of Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and it is not clear when Iraqi troops will mount an assault to retake it. Warren said there was no "no military reason" for Iraqi forces to liberate Fallujah before they could tackle Mosul. About half of Iraq's security forces are focused on protecting Baghdad, where IS fighters claimed responsibility for a string of suicide attacks this week.At least 94 people were killed in three blasts in Baghdad on Wednesday, the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital this year.

Kerry Heads to Saudi ahead of Syria, Libya Talks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was to leave for Saudi Arabia on Friday to launch a week of efforts to try to end the crises in Libya and Syria. From Jeddah, where he will meet senior Saudi leaders, Kerry will fly on Monday to Vienna where he will co-host international meetings on the two conflicts. Then on Wednesday, he will fly on to Brussels for the NATO foreign ministers' meeting and talks on the full range of challenges facing the Western allies. Kerry's spokesman John Kirby said the secretary of state and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni would jointly host the Libya crisis meeting. Attendees will "discuss international support for the new Government of National Accord, with a focus on security," Kirby said.Libya's new U.N.-backed government has been set up to unite the fractured country and fight the Islamic State group, but it is still a work in progress.
Officials say the fledgling regime is drawing up a list of requests for Western partners to assist its forces with arms, training and intelligence. After the Libya meeting, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will lead a meeting of the 17-nation International Syria Support Group. Kirby said the goal was to "ensure humanitarian access throughout the country, and to expedite a negotiated political transition in Syria."The ISSG, under the odd couple of Kerry and Lavrov, is pushing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and a coalition of opposition groups to respect a shaky truce. Officials hope next week's meeting will inject new life into the peace process and -- if the ceasefire holds -- secure talks on forming a unity government. And, with Russia and France, Kerry will also co-host a meeting on the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict with the rival Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.

Yemeni Forces 'Captured 250 Qaida' after City Retaken
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Yemeni government forces have captured around 250 "al-Qaida members" since they retook Mukalla, the largest city in the country's southeast, last month, a top officer said on Friday. "We have arrested around 250 members of al-Qaida, including some leaders, since our operations began," General Faraj Salmin told AFP. Salmin commands the second military zone which includes Mukalla, capital of the vast desert province of Hadramawt. The port city was retaken from the jihadists on April 24. "One of these chiefs, Mohammed Saleh al-Orabi who calls himself the emir of Shar, was detained on Thursday" in the area of the same name some 60 kilometers (35 miles) east of Mukalla, he added. All of the arrests were made in Mukalla and its surroundings, the general said. Al-Qaida occupied the city for a year, and imposed strict Islamic law on residents. Special forces from the UAE, a member of a Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite Huthi rebels across Yemen, played a major role in retaking Mukalla. Last week, the United States said that "a very small number" of American soldiers were also involved in the operation.

Rights Group Calls for Release of Omani Journalist
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday urged Omani authorities to release a journalist held in solitary confinement since his arrest more than two week ago on unknown charges. RSF "is very concerned about the arbitrary detention of Omani journalist and writer Sulaiman al-Moamari, who has been held in solitary confinement ever since his arrest by intelligence officials on 28 April without any official reason being given", a statement said. It quoted local media as saying the 42-year-old heads the cultural department at Omani state radio and is popular due to "his writings and pro-democracy views".On the evening of April 28, Moamari was summoned for questioning by the intelligence service. "The authorities must give their reasons for arresting Sulaiman al-Moamari and must say where they are holding him," said RSF's Alexandra El-Khazen. "We urge the Omani authorities to either bring charges against him, so that he has the right to a fair trial, or free him at once," she added. According to RSF, several Omani and other Arab journalists and writers "have voiced outrage at his detention, which is seen as tantamount to enforced disappearance."It said that a petition demanding his release has been posted online. "Censorship and obstruction of freedom of information are common in the Sultanate of Oman, which is ranked 125th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index," the watchdog added.

Clock Ticking for Cyprus Deportation of Egyptian Hijacker
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 13/16/Time is running out for Cyprus to extradite an Egyptian man accused of hijacking an airliner and diverting it to the Mediterranean island as documentation from Cairo is still pending. A Nicosia court on Friday adjourned the extradition hearing until May 20 in order to give more time for Cypriot authorities to receive the required clarification on extradition documents from Egypt. Seif al-Din Mohamed Mostafa, 58, is accused of using a fake suicide belt to seize the Alexandria-to-Cairo EgyptAir flight on March 29 and force it to land in Larnaca where a six-hour standoff ensued. He can only be kept in temporary custody for 60 days following the official request for extradition on April 7. Cyprus has requested the additional information to be sent as soon as possible and Cairo said the requested documentation will arrive next week through diplomatic channels. Mostafa was escorted to court Friday in handcuffs wearing a white polo-neck top with "RELEASE THE 63 EGYPTIAN GIRLS YOU LIARS" written on his shirt. A written letter he gave during the hijacking demanded the release of female prisoners in Egypt. The standoff ended peacefully with Mostafa's arrest. The suspect, described by authorities as psychologically unstable, has said he acted out of desperation to see his Cypriot ex-wife and children. His ex-wife has been quoted by Cypriot media as describing their five years of marriage as a "hell." Mostafa's defense lawyer Robertos Vrahimi told the court on Friday that Egypt was "unjustifiably" delaying the extradition process as a "vindictive and punitive measure" against his client. But Justice Ministry official Yioulika Hadjiprodromou said the extradition was a "top priority for both Cyprus and Egypt." "There is no intention on either side to deliberately delay this case," Hadjiprodromou told the court. "Cyprus is not in a position to pressure another country to speed up the process in such matters," she added. Mostafa will fight his extradition on the grounds he will not receive a fair trial in Egypt or even worse. "He will get an unfair trial in Egypt and could be tortured or killed if sent back, so he shouldn't be extradited," Vrahimi told AFP. Cypriot authorities have said they have written assurances from Cairo that Mostafa will not face the death penalty when he stands trial in Egypt. His request for asylum has been refused.
Mostafa's lawyer said Cypriot authorities declined to study the application due to the Egyptian being a "perpetrator of serious crimes."

Israel and France in murky waters on peace plan
AFP, Jerusalem Friday, 13 May 2016/A top Israeli official on Friday reiterated the country’s opposition to a French attempt to resurrect the peace process with the Palestinians, ahead of a visit by France’s foreign minister. Israeli foreign ministry director general Dore Gold told The Jerusalem Post newspaper Friday that the French proposal had “many problems.”Gold cited the support last month by France for a UNESCO resolution that, he said, “rejects the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.”The April 16 resolution by the UN’s cultural body condemned Israel for restricting access of Muslim worshippers to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is also sacred to Jews who call it the Temple Mount.In the resolution, the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, appears only twice in parentheses.
‘Distorting history’
Israel accused UNESCO of “distorting history” and Gold said because of the vote “it should not come as a surprise that Israel rejects the French initiative and the political horizon it aspires to ultimately expose.” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has described the wording of the resolution as “unfortunate” but insisted it did not change French policy. Gold also stressed that if the French initiative included Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, it “would be a very important factor.”But on the substance, he said the initiative would not get “us any closer to a negotiated solution, and in fact makes a negotiated solution more
The Israeli government supports a resumption of direct bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, rather than a multilateral approach.
Revive peace talks
Paris is expected to hold an international ministerial meeting on May 30 to try to revive peace talks that have been frozen since a US-brokered initiative collapsed in April 2014. The Israelis and Palestinians will not be invited to the meeting, which is aimed at discussing ways in which international players can encourage peace. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday in Jerusalem before travelling to Ramallah to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Turkey's EU minister says not hopeful over visa deal
AFP | Ankara Friday, 13 May 2016/Turkey’s EU minister on Friday said he was not hopeful about the prospect of realising a deal with the European Union on granting Turks visa-free access to most of the bloc. “At this stage I would not say we are very hopeful,” EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir told Turkish reporters in televised comments in Brussels following talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn. The promise of visa-free travel is a key pillar of the landmark March accord for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants to the EU, but the whole deal appears now at risk of unravelling. Ankara is obliged to meet the remaining five out of 72 conditions for its citizens to enjoy visa-free travel to Europe, including key sticking points on anti-corruption, data protection and counter-terror laws. But with the military battling rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdish-majority southeast, Turkey says it cannot change its counter-terror laws. The EU wants Ankara to sharply narrow its definition of “terror” to prevent recent cases like the prosecution of academics and journalists for publishing “terror propaganda”. “Every country has things on which it can give ground and things on which it can’t. The European Commission should help Turkey,” said Bozkir. “We think the European Commission should understand quite how critical the current situation is,” he added.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 13/16

Palestinian Leaders and Child Sacrifice
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/May 13/16

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8030/palestinians-child-sacrifice

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is now hoping that the tragedy of the Abu Hindi family will push Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to revolt against Hamas.
Hamas is hoping that the tragedy will further undermine the credibility of the Palestinian Authority among Palestinians, shown as being complicit in the blockade on the Gaza Strip to prevent it from receiving weapons.
These charges and counter-charges constitute yet more proof that the PA and Hamas are determined to pursue their fight to the last Palestinian child.
What happened in the Abu Hindi home is an unspeakable family tragedy. What is happening to the Palestinian people, who have forever been led by leaders who care nothing for their well-being, is a tragedy of national proportions.
The tragic death of three Palestinian siblings, killed in a fire that destroyed their house in the Gaza Strip on May 6, demonstrates yet again the depth to which Palestinian leaders will go to exploit their children for political purposes and narrow interests.
The three children from the Abu Hindi family -- Mohamed, 3 years old, his brother Nasser, 2 years old and their two-month infant sister Rahaf, died in a fire caused by candles that were being used due to the recurring power outages in the Gaza Strip.
The electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip is the direct result of the continued power struggle between the two Palestinian rival forces, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
In recent months, the crisis has deepened, leaving large parts of the Gaza Strip without electricity for most of the day. Hamas blames the Palestinian Authority for the crisis because of its failure to cover the costs of the fuel needed to operate the power plants in the Gaza Strip. The PA has retorted by blaming Hamas's "corruption" and "incompetence."
The Abu Hindi family resides in the Shati refugee camp, where Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and other leaders of the Islamist movement live. But unlike the senior Hamas leaders, the Abu Hindi family could not afford to purchase their own power generator to supply them with electricity during the power outages. Instead, the tragedy-stricken family, like most families in the Gaza Strip, resorted to the cheapest alternative lighting method -- candles.
On that horrific evening, the Abu Hindi's three children went to sleep while the candles were burning. Hours later, the charred bodies of the three siblings were taken from the house while it was still on fire and engulfed with smoke.
In any other country, this incident would have been reported as a routine tragedy -- one of the kind that could happen in any city such as New York, London or Paris.
Here, however, the death of the three children is not just another personal tragedy. This was a case, rather, of child sacrifice: the Abu-Hindu children were sacrificed on the altar of the decade-long war being waged between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. And these children are far from the first or last such victims.
In equal measure, the PA and Hamas are exploiting the tragedy of the Abu Hindi family to wage a smear campaign against each other. It is not as though these rivals have lived in harmony until now. But the political mud-slinging at the expense of the three dead children has reached repulsive levels.
The children were not even buried before Hamas leaders pointed their fingers at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, who it claimed were held personally responsible for the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri claimed that the electricity crisis was part of the PA leadership's effort to keep the entire Gaza Strip under blockade. The PA's ultimate goal, he explained, is to see Hamas undermined and removed from power in the Gaza Strip.
Other Hamas officials said the crisis was the direct result of the Palestinian Authority's instance on imposing a tax on the fuel it supplies to the power plants in the Gaza Strip -- a financial burden that Hamas could not afford to pay because of the already high cost of the fuel. They said that the tax was unjustified because the PA, through an arrangement with Israel (from which it purchases the fuel), gets the tax refunded. In addition, they pointed out, the PA has refused to file a request with Israel to increase its supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip.
Translation: Hamas takes no responsibility for the fact that two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip spend nearly 12 hours a day without electricity. Instead, in their view, it is the sole responsibility of Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, whose only interest is to strip Hamas of its power.
But where did the millions of internationally donated dollars go? How much do the tunnels cost, the ones Hamas uses to launch terrorist attacks against Israel? Funding terrorists and their families? Might not that money have been better invested in keeping children from burning to death from candle fire?
Hamas leaders staged the smear well. In an unprecedented move, masked members of Hamas's military wing, Ezaddin Al-Qassam, were dispatched to attend the funeral of the three children. Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh were also present, offering condolences to the family. The cameras caught all this, demonstrating the family's affiliation with Hamas and implying that Abbas and his Palestinian Authority were responsible for the tragedy.
Masked Hamas gunmen pose for the media at the funeral of the Abu Hindi children in Gaza, May 7, 2016.
The Palestinian Authority is also seeking to cash in on the tragedy by waging a war of defamation against Hamas. Yusuf Al-Mahmoud, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority government, dismissed the Hamas charges. "Those who continue to hijack the people of the Gaza Strip are responsible for this tragedy," he said, referring to Gaza's Hamas rulers. "The tragedy of the children in the Gaza Strip is the tragedy of all Palestinians. Hamas is responsible for the ongoing split (between the West Bank and Gaza Strip)." Abbas's ruling Fatah faction has even gone as far as presenting the dead children's grieving father as one of its own.
The Palestinian Authority is now hoping that the tragedy of the Abu Hindi family will push Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to revolt against Hamas.
Hamas is hoping that the tragedy will further undermine the credibility of the Palestinian Authority among Palestinians, shown as being complicit in the blockade on the Gaza Strip to prevent it from receiving weapons.
These charges and counter-charges constitute yet more proof that the PA and Hamas are determined to pursue their fight to the last Palestinian child.
Yet Abbas is trying to persuade the world to back his plan for establishing a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is hard to imagine how he will even be able to step foot in Gaza after this funeral.
What happened in the Abu Hindi home is an unspeakable family tragedy. What is happening to the Palestinian people, who have forever been led by leaders who care nothing for their well-being, is a tragedy of national proportions.
***Khaled Abut Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute.

Iran breaches nuclear deal and UN resolution for the third time
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
Iranian leaders have breached both the resolutions and the nuclear agreement for the third time since the nuclear deal went into effect in January 2016. Iran has repeatedly test-fired, long-range ballistic missiles and laser-guided surface-to-surface missiles.In October and November, just after the nuclear deal was reached, Iran tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads. In March, Iran again test-fired two ballistic missiles. More recently and for the third time, the Iranian government fired a test missile two weeks ago which was accurate to 25 feet, which is characterized as zero error, according to the Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, the Iranian military’s deputy chief of staff, and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. The range of existing Iranian ballistic missiles has grown from 500 miles to over 2,000 kilometers (roughly 1,250 miles), which can easily reach Eastern Europe as well as countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Yemen. Iranian leaders dismiss the notion that the Revolutionary Guard Corps military activities are breaching the nuclear agreement as well as several of the UN Security Council resolutions. World powers appear to acquiesce to Iran’s stance as well. But, the United Nations Security Council resolution (Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231, 2015) is clear. The resolution “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”President Obama is concerned that holding Iran accountable for these violations might force the Iranian leaders to abandon the nuclear deal, thus causing its failure. The second UN Security Council resolution 1929 indicates “Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities”.In addition, the Joint Plan of Action Agreement (JCPOA) of the nuclear agreement between P5+1 and Iran is crystal clear in stating that Iran should not undertake any ballistic missiles activity “until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier.”
Global reluctance
The five members of the UN Security Council have not reacted forcefully or taken appropriate measures to hold the Iranian government accountable for the violations. Generally speaking, China and Russia, which enjoy their strategic, geopolitical and economic alliance with Tehran and favor Iran’s counterbalance stance against the US and its allies, have used Iran’s line of argument for launching the ballistic missiles. France, Britain and Germany, which are much to the left of the US, or sometimes follow in the footsteps of Washington’s policy towards Iran, have not taken these military maneuvers seriously.
Although according to a report obtained by AP, the launches are “destabilizing and provocative” and that the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile fired by Iran are “inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons”. The US has been trivializing the issue, failing to hold Iran accountable, and only playing with rhetoric. For example, even though Iranian generals have admitted launching ballistic missiles, the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said this week “We’re still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly transpired.” This is an approach designed to dodge dealing with the real issue. The US has stopped short of calling Iran’s actions as violations of UN Security Council resolutions. President Obama will continue to overlook Iran’s belligerent actions, including ballistic missile launches and the detention of US sailors by the Iranian forces, until he leaves office. He desires what he sees as his crowning foreign policy “achievement”, the nuclear agreement, to remain intact.
President Obama is concerned that holding Iran accountable for these violations might force the Iranian leaders to abandon the nuclear deal, thus causing its failure. Furthermore, France, Britain and other European countries have less incentive to publicly hold Iran responsible, because of the increasing economic and trade ties with Tehran particularly in the energy sector (oil and gas). For the Iranian government, advancing its ballistic missile program is a core pillar of its foreign policy after the nuclear program. Iran possesses the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the region. By launching ballistic missiles, Iran also seeks the opportunity to project its power in the region and reassert its hegemonic power. Since Iran is certain that launching ballistic is not going to elicit robust reaction from the US and other members of the UN Security Council, the IRGC is more likely to continue its advancement and launching of ballistic missile activities more publicly.

Obama’s false dichotomy and undermining of the moderates
Khairallah Khairallah/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
By all appearances, the Arab world today looks awash in extremism. However, the prominence of those violent and regressive elements appears, in part, a direct result of the strategy put forth by the White House. The submergence of rational voices also seems to be its outcome. In pursuing a single-minded policy of rapprochement with Iran, President Obama has sought to undermine the moderate – Sunni and Shiite – elements from the Middle Eastern political landscape. In his Cairo speech of June 2009, the then newly-elected President Barak Obama set out to redefine US-Muslim relations, claiming in follow-up remarks that “the source of the problem in this situation has to do with the United States and countries in the Middle East not communicating effectively.” Seven years hence, the sole beneficiary of that outreach has been the brutal theocratic dictatorship of the Ayatollahs in Tehran.
They have been the focus of a strategy based on the president’s unfailing belief in himself and in the transformative power of engagement. But for that strategy to be proven to be the right and only path, the Iran deal had to work and, just as importantly, the moderate Sunni and Shiite elements opposing Iran had to be disregarded, even discredited. Earlier this year during a visit to Washington, a moderate centrist Lebanese parliamentarian was reportedly told by more than one US government official that while America’s allies in the region have problems with the short beards (Hezbollah and Iran) the problem for the United States lies with the long beards (ISIS). The gentleman was advised to adjust to this new reality. The US policy was engagement with Iran and a distancing from the Sunnis. In executing this strategic shift, the American president seems to have become a master of the straw man and the false dichotomy. As he surveys the Middle East, Barak Obama tells us that the United States faces a simple choice between Shiite Islamism (represented by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah) and Sunni Islamism. Going by the way he argues the Iranian regime and its allies are clearly preferable to ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their offshoots. He appears to be playing a game, which is familiar in the region, much like the secular dictators he admonished in his Cairo speech. For decades they kept order by raising the specter of fundamentalism as the only alternative to their autocracy.
Obliterated middle ground
However, the political middle ground was obliterated. Obama, too, speaks past the moderate Arab voices and effectively silences them. But silence is key. His audience must not hear from the majority of the Shiite in the Middle East who are not Islamists and the large number of Iranians who oppose the regime in Tehran. By his reckoning, there are no other viable partners save the Ayatolllahs and, by extension, Hezbollah. The Green Movement of 2009 is nothing more than an inconvenient memory. Likewise, going by this argument, the Sunnis of the Gulf can be painted with the same Islamo-fascist brush as ISIS. There is no meaningful distinction made between that terror group and the Saudi monarchy. A moderate Shiite alternative to both the Ayatollahs and Hezbollah exists in Iran and Lebanon. In Iraq, there is no desire for Iranian hegemony. And the rulers in the Gulf, as well as Saudi Arabia represent a bulwark against ISIS and the obscurantist elements in their own societies. It can be understood that, for the president to acknowledge all this is to undermine the dichotomy he has set up. Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are more moderate, pliable, and benign forces in the region than the likes of the Saudis and the Emirates. To reject this assertion is to consign the whole of his strategic shift and the sacrifices he made to get there to the realm of folly.
Obama’s engagement with Iran was not just a rhetorical gambit to convince the world of the merits of rapprochement. Obama’s engagement with Iran was not just a rhetorical gambit to convince the world of the merits of rapprochement. The pursuit of a deal impacted every element of Obama’s Middle East policy and, I believe, he sacrificed all other regional priorities to appease and reconcile with Iran. The Obama Administration’s diplomats aggressively engaged in negotiations almost from day one. In a 2010 testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, William Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, admitted how far back the talks went, saying, “Nearly two years ago, President Obama began an unprecedented effort at engagement with Iran.” Unprecedented, indeed: no president before him probably had sacrificed so much to appease this enemy state. The first challenge to Obama’s policy of engagement with Iran came early in his first term, with Iran’s Green movement of 2009. This was when Iranians protested the rigged election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For years, the United States had been supporting democracy and human rights in Iran through State Department funding for pro-democracy journalism and liberal reformers and activists. Just when the pro-democracy forces in Iran needed support the most, the Obama administration seems to have cut off this funding. Scott Carpenter, a Bush administration State Department official, explained the funding cuts to the Wall Street Journal: “There has been a view within the Obama administration at a senior policy level that this Iran democracy program is a chit, and a chit that can be traded away to the Iranian regime.” American support for Iran’s democrats was the first casualty of Obama’s Middle East strategy.
The next year, Obama relinquished the gains made in Iraq at the price of so much blood and treasure. In Iraq’s 2010 election, the hard-line Iran-backed Nouri al-Maliki’s bloc won few seats than a non-sectarian rival, and only 14 percent of Iraqis supported Maliki’s re-election. Iraq was ready to reject Iranian influence and choose the secular Iyad Allawi as its leader. Instead, the Obama administration reportedly decided to do Iran’s bidding.
'A blind eye'
The president turned a blind eye to the situation and tasked his Ambassador Chris Hill and Vice President Joe Biden to throw their support behind Maliki. As a result, Iran’s candidate won – Maliki got a second term as prime minister. The next year were entirely predictable. The Sunni Awakening – said to be the achievement of General Petraeus – was reversed. The Maliki government brutally targeted the Sunnis of Iraq and created fertile ground for the emergence of ISIS as a force in the country and beyond. The Americans, I believe, had been the honest brokers and protectors of the Sunnis. Left to the tender mercies of Shiite death squads, they turned to ISIS as a last resort. What happened next in Syria was horror not seen in decades. In 2011, the president decided to intervene to help topple the regime of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, but not that of Bashar Assad in Syria. The Syrian regime was killing far more of their own people, the strategic implications of the conflict were far greater, and Syria, not Libya was continuing to fund and encourage terrorism. In a 2012 Bloomberg article about President Obama’s lack of intervention in Syria, the journalist Jeff Goldberg wrote, “Nothing would isolate Iran – and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah – more than the removal of the Assad regime and its replacement by a government drawn from Syria’s Sunni majority.” Obama, however, had cast his lot with engagement, not isolation. He would not directly confront Iranian interests in Syria. Now that the nuclear deal is signed, its success is hostage to the caprice of the Ayatollahs. And the president has indicated his willingness to bow to their demands at all costs to ensure that the deal is fully implemented and his policy of engagement vindicated. In the latest round, this country’s banking system will be opened to use by the regime.
Another recent Wall Street Journal article, Dollarizing the Ayatollahs, describes the Treasury Department leaving open the possibility of the Iranian regime directly or indirectly using the US Dollar. Iran has a long history of financing organized crime and terror groups, particularly Hezbollah and Hamas. As a result, they have been closed out of the US banking system and the greenback for years for a wide range of criminal activities from proliferation financing to drug trafficking to money laundering, to name only a few. In a reversal of policy, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, speaking in 2016, didn’t rule out removing this prohibition, saying that they want to look at ways “to make sure Iran gets relief.” The administration is willing to go above and beyond the obligations of the nuclear deal to keep Iran happy – even if it means more money flowing to Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
Recently, David Ignatius of the Washington Post wrote an article about the risk of the over-use of sanctions, framed around more recent comments by Secretary Lew. The Treasury Secretary paints a dire picture of what could happen if restrictions on Iran are not rolled back aggressively, saying that further sanctions would undermine the overall effectiveness of that mechanism as a policy tool. Lew, and the Obama administration, are willing to use these scare tactics to block Congress and law enforcement agencies from doing anything that might anger their new ally and give them the excuse to exit the nuclear deal.
Obama came into office preaching the transformational value of engagement, in particular with Iran. And for the last seven years, he has ruthlessly prioritized this engagement over all else. Obama has, indeed, signed a nuclear deal with Iran, but one where the central premise is questionable at best and one that puts the Ayatollahs fully in control. The onus of good faith is on the United States in prematurely easing the sanctions and not on Iran for breaking international laws. The slightest hint of reproach on the part of Washington bring threats that the regime in Teheran will abandon the deal entirely. On the other side of the ledger, all the forces of moderation have been sidelined or annulled. The Green movement in Iran, I believe, was orphaned, Iraq is now the domain of the Quds Force, Syria has been destroyed and the moderate opposition there left to the onslaught of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. ISIS has emerged as a force in the region and the face of Sunni extremism. A religious sectarian war has taken hold in the Middle East where the traditional allies of the United States in the Gulf are dismissed and maligned and have responded with a new suspicion of American motives. This single-minded obsession with engagement has enriched and empowered Iran and led to an ever-worsening fanaticism, the victims of which will be moderates and minorities.

'Religion and the recent reforms in Saudi Arabia'
Abdullah Hamidaddin/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
In recent weeks, the Saudi government has been sending a clear message to its people and the world that economic development and religious extremism cannot coexist. This message is in line with the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, which depends on a social vibrancy that is antithetical to extreme religious values.
Of course, people have the right to be religious, but religious institutions - formal and informal - shouldn't be allowed to be above the law to forcefully impose or propagate their views. Many analysts consider the recent government announcement to limit the ability of the “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" which is known in many foreign media outlets as "religious police,” to arrest and interrogate a significant move. But a much more important decision was the appointment during last week’s cabinet reshuffle of Sulaiman Aba al-Khayl as president of the University of Imam Mohammad bin Saud. I personally believe this cements the government’s focus to work closely with the religious institution for the greater good.His appointment came as a pleasant surprise to moderates and reformers. The university had been considered by some that it promotes nationally and internationally hardline views.
False assumptions
Some concerns were raised about a possible backlash against some sections of Saudi society; there are those who believe the government will not stay on this course. This is based on a false assumption, long held by Saudis and non-Saudis, that some religious elements are too powerful to allow this to happen.
The fact is that the state holds the reigns when it comes to abiding to the law, and is the custodian of the religion and its biggest protector. So the most religious extremists can do is complain, but that will fall to deaf ears. We need to keep in mind that most Salafis in Saudi Arabia adhere to the more quietist versions of their views, and may lament some of the government’s decisions but take no action. They may be puritans, but not radicals, and almost always support what the government decides. Religious institutions have had almost no influence on major political and administrative aspects, and are absent when it comes to formulating Saudi economic and political policies
A brief view of the history of their relationship with the government reveals a consistent position. In the 1950s and 1960s, the mufti of the land, Sheikh Mohammad bin Ibrahim al-Alshaykh, issued many religious edicts describing government decisions as “deviances and sins.”His focus was modern institutions, especially modern legal institutions. He demanded that cars not be driven during prayer times, and that state-owned media not air music. He even prohibited playing or watching football. At the time, King Faisal went head on against extremists when he decided to open public girls’ schools. That was no easy decision, yet it went ahead. In 2005, then-King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud launched an international scholarship program, benefiting nearly 200,000 people. This program was hailed by most reformers in the country, who considered it an investment in Saudi human capital. Others castigated it as a means of corrupting Saudi youth through Westernization. Hardline Salafis warned against travelling to Western countries. This and many other examples show that religious institutions can do little when the government sets its course. Many people always assumed that the Saudi ulama council - a body of Muslim scholars recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology - were partners in governing the land. So it was not odd to hear sometimes that Saudi Arabia is a theocracy, but nothing is further from the truth. Religious institutions have had almost no influence on major political and administrative aspects, and are absent when it comes to formulating Saudi economic and political policies. Some royals, such as Prince Turki al-Faisal, were keen to remind the ulama that they were counsellors, not partners. Having said that, religious institutions did have some influence on some aspects of social life, and full authority on the form of religion Saudis learn at school and hear at sermons. The recent decisions will limit that influence.
Implications
Religion will always be important in Saudi Arabia. Article 23 of the constitution states: “The state shall protect the Islamic creed, apply sharia, encourage good and discourage evil, and undertake its duty regarding the propagation of Islam.” However, religious institutions will not have the same degree of authority, and extremists should never be allowed to be above the law or to hurt others. What does this mean to Saudis and non-Saudis? It does not mean that all needed reforms will be made, or that current progressive policies will succeed. However, I personally believe that it does mean that impediments to reform and progress will not be allowed to hinder our efforts.

Russian messages via Palmyra concert, Victory Parade
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/May 13/16
The international community incorrectly interprets everything that comes from Russia as global messages. The Victory Parade, which commemorates victory in World War II, is seen by the West as belligerent Russian saber-rattling. The parade, which includes the newest weaponry, certainly delivers messages, but most of them are domestic. World War II, which claimed some 30 million Russian lives, is a key event in Russian history. Every family in the country has a hero from that war. My great grandfather was severely wounded several times while serving in the army. My grandfather survived the blockade of Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg), which claimed over 1 million lives from starvation. The spirit of the commemoration can be described in three words: peace, memory, pride. The demonstration of weaponry is a message of protection. The government is greatly concerned about national pride. In the 1990s, Russians were not proud of their country - there were too few things to be proud of. The best way to distract them from problems, such as the economic crisis due to sanctions and low oil prices, is a vivid show of power that raises patriotic feelings and national pride, and enables the manipulation and control of the public.
The image of the nation as a liberator following World War II is being used again, but this time the morality of this approach is questionable. The indirect message to the international community is that Russia and its people will no longer be humiliated, as they have been since the fall of the Soviet Union. To them, the years of pacifism, passivity and flexibility are synonymous with failure and weakness. It is natural for a country that has gone through hell to commemorate victory and show that it can respond to aggression. It can be argued that this can lead to an arms race, but Russia is keen on balance.
Palmyra
This is illustrated by the Palmyra concert, which divided the international community. Russia tries to deliver various messages via soft power, albeit not always successfully and often clumsily. For example, the real problem of the concert was an address by Russia’s president on a big screen on the stage of the ancient theater. This inevitably led to perceptions of Russian propaganda over the blood of Syrians, and the privatization of the liberation of Palmyra. The concert would have otherwise had a much stronger impact. It could have been an international festival with Syrian orchestras and those from countries fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This would have delivered a message of unity. However, it appeared as propaganda aimed at raising Russian pride over liberating Palmyra from ISIS. The image of the nation as a liberator following World War II is being used again, but this time the morality of this approach is questionable. Russian foreign policy is used mostly for domestic politics and manipulation.
 

Iranian hard-liners claim main pressure on Rouhani comes from public
A correspondent in Tehran/Al-Monitor/May 13/16
TEHRAN, Iran — The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deeply found its way into Iran’s political vocabulary last year. It has since come to engage Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary Basij, domestic and foreign analysts, politicians and the Iranian public.
On July 14, 2015, almost 13 years after the outset of the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, the Islamic Republic of Iran succeeded in reaching a breakthrough in the negotiations with six world powers, signing the JCPOA. For Iran, what was most important was the issue of the nuclear-related sanctions. These sanctions, which Iran had been grappling with for years, were formally lifted Jan. 16, with EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini officially announcing the Implementation Day of the JCPOA. While the United States has since formally lifted nuclear-related sanctions, the Rouhani administration is still faced with serious challenges in regard to the implementation of the deal.
The current administration can be viewed as one of Iran’s most distinguished since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. It has notably taken several key steps in the international arena. These steps include measures related to the nuclear file, such as the removal of sanctions and engaging in direct negotiations with the United States — a significant move considering the decades-long absence of dialogue between the two countries. Indeed, ever since Rouhani took office in August 2013, there have been not only widely publicized hourslong encounters between the Iranian and US foreign ministers, but also numerous closed-door meetings between the two sides. These maneuvers are what changed Iran’s image, and ultimately led to, in recent years, many visits by heads of states to Iran — some for the first time — to engage in talks and sign cooperation agreements in different fields.
Given the many obstacles that are being thrown in his way, and especially in regard to the implementation of the JCPOA, Rouhani needs to come up with a serious strategy in order to realize his plans that remain outstanding. This is particularly pressing since Rouhani has only one year left in his term; he faces re-election in 2017.
Ali Tajernia, a prominent former Iranian member of parliament, told Al-Monitor, “The opposition to the Rouhani administration and the JCPOA is natural because these individuals [critics] endured heavy losses in the three [most recent] elections: namely, the 2013 presidential polls, the recent Assembly of Experts elections [Feb. 26] and the two rounds of parliamentary votes [in February and April]. This has angered the opposition [to Rouhani] more than ever, which is why they want to tarnish the government’s public image through their actions.”
Indeed, perhaps contrary to what one would think, the abject defeat of the hard-liners in the recent Assembly of Experts and parliamentary votes may in fact be a disadvantage for Rouhani. This seemingly counterintuitive point should not be easily overlooked, since it can have dire consequences for next year’s presidential elections. The question now is what the Rouhani administration should do to overcome the obstacles in its path.
Ahmad Shirzad, a Reformist political analyst, told Al-Monitor, “In my opinion, Mr. Rouhani should refrain from holding controversial speeches and instead share realities with the public — realities that have not been told, thus misleading some people into thinking that they are free to sabotage the government’s national agenda.” He added, “These individuals — or hard-liners — who were defeated in the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, are wounded and now doing everything [they can] to bring down the administration. The government should do all in its power and tell the people about all realities. This is the only option that is left.”
But this is not the end of the story. Many Rouhani critics think that those throwing obstacles in the way of the administration are the Europeans and Americans, and that the critics are not sabotaging anything at all. Hamid-Reza Taraghi, a prominent conservative figure, told Al-Monitor, “I don’t think anyone would put pressure on the government for implementing the JCPOA. The government knows well that the reason the nuclear deal hasn’t been fully realized is the Americans, who have not abided by their commitments. The problem, however, is that they [the government] have been optimistic about this [JCPOA] from the beginning and based on this optimism, made numerous promises to the public.”
Taraghi stressed, “In my opinion, none of these promises will take shape, and if there is any pressure, it’s from the public. What people are saying [to Rouhani] is, 'You promised our economic difficulties would be solved, inflation would disappear and our businesses would boom if we signed the JCPOA. So why has none of this happened?' Is this sabotaging?”
In this vein, the hard-liners who are criticizing the Rouhani administration don’t see their actions as sabotaging the JCPOA but are rather motivated by their having the public’s best interest at heart. Abdolreza Davari, who previously served as media adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Al-Monitor, “Didn’t Rouhani say that after the nuclear deal, all sanctions would immediately be removed? So what happened? Mr. [Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad] Zarif also announced that the Americans would abide by their commitments, but has this happened until this day?” Davari added, “Instead of making empty promises, the government should come up with a serious plan.”
Given the sensitivity of this year for the administration, and especially for Rouhani, the implementation of the nuclear deal as well as other measures taken over the coming 12 months will ultimately determine whether Rouhani will preside over Iran’s next government. But with the continuous actions against the government, it is not clear how successful Rouhani will be in his endeavor.