LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 05/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.november05.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
The stone that the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 21/33-46/:"‘Listen
to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence
around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it
to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent
his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his
slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other
slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he
sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son."But
when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, "This is the heir;
come, let us kill him and get his inheritance."So
they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner
of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He
will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other
tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’Jesus
said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: "The stone that the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it
is amazing in our eyes"? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God
will be taken away from you and given to a people that
produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to
pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’ When the chief priests and
the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about
them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they
regarded him as a prophet."
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue
should pray for the power to interpret.
First Letter to the Corinthians 14/01-05/13/14/20/26/:"Pursue love and
strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. For those
who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody
understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. On the other
hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their building up and
encouragement and consolation. Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves,
but those who prophesy build up the church. Now I would like all of you to
speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than
one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be
built up. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to
interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is
unproductive. Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking;
rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults. What should be done
then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a
revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building
up."
Titles For
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on November 04-05/16
Sayyed Nasrallah: Berri is the Major Guarantee in Difficult Times, We Trust Aoun/Al-Manar Website/November 04/16
Hariri Is Filling his father’s big shoes/Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf
News/November 04/16
Lebanon's new PM a vocal critic of Hezbollah, Syria/ AFP/November 03/16
Tensions flare between Hezbollah, Gulf states/Mona Alami/Al
Monitor/November 04/16
Casting a blank ballot and wishing Aoun good luck/Nayla Tueni/November 04/16
Christian minority in Iraq seeks autonomy in post-Mosul Iraq/Cengiz Çandar/November 04/16
Europe's New Blasphemy Courts/Douglas Murray/Gatestone
Institute/November 04/16
Will Hillary make it/Trisha de Borchgrave/Al Arabiya/November 04/16
Saad Lamjarred: Art and
politics/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al
Arabiya/November 04/16
Iran ratcheting up anti-Saudi rhetoric/By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November 04/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on November 04-05/16
U.S.: Lebanese Deserve Inclusive
Govt. that Promotes Peace, Confronts Challenges
Paris in 'Close Dialogue' with Beirut, Riyadh on Suspended Saudi-Funded Arms
Deal
Hariri: New Government Will be Formed Soon
Hariri Launches Consultations: Berri's Bloc Urges
'Fair' Line-Up, LF Demands 'Sovereign Portfolio'
Aoun Vows to Unite Lebanese over 'Unified Foreign
Policy'
Rifi Urges 'Popular, Political Action', Vows to
Confront 'Iranian Hegemony'
Report: Berri Rebuffs Energy Portfolio but Cares for
Finance
Chamoun Turns over New Leaf of Relations with
President Aoun
1 Dead, 9 Hurt as Major Blaze Guts Fanar Wood Factory
Report: Hizbullah Keen for AMAL Alliance and Shiites
Unity
Ahed Footballer Killed Fighting in Syria
Saqr: President Not Purely 'Made in Lebanon', Strong
President Means Strong State
Aoun prioritizes Lebanon's electoral law at start of
term
Sayyed Nasrallah: Berri is the Major Guarantee in Difficult Times, We Trust Aoun
Hariri Is Filling his father’s big shoes
Forming new Lebanese government will draw foreign aid, central bank says
Lebanon's new PM a vocal critic of Hezbollah, Syria
Tensions flare between Hezbollah, Gulf states
Casting a blank ballot and wishing Aoun good luck
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on November
04-05/16
Reporters Without Borders: Iran's
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Is a Predator of Press
Freedom
Iranian Resistance Identifies More Than 110 Officials Involved in Massacre of
Political Prisoners in 1988
Elite Iraq Forces Punch into Mosul, Face Tough Resistance
Pentagon claims Baghdadi losing control of troops
Turkey Detains Kurdish Leaders as Deadly Blast Hits Southeast
Syria Rebels Fire on Aleppo Evacuation Route
Russian helicopter hit in Syria, crew unhurt
Russia Says Two Soldiers 'Lightly Wounded' in Aleppo Rebel Shelling
ISIS kills hundreds, seeks child recruits around Mosul: UN
Russian-Declared Ceasefire Goes into Effect in Aleppo
Iran Sentences Saudi Embassy Attackers to Jail
Palestinians Say Will Protest Interpol Membership Delay
Egypt prime minister defends painful economic measures
US service members killed in Jordan shooting
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on November 04-05/16
German
police accused of discouraging teen from reporting sexual assault by Muslim
migrant
Pope Francis and Lutheran leader: “We urge Lutherans and Catholics…to
defend the rights of refugees”
France shuts down four more ‘extremist’ mosques
France: Muslim migrants in refugee camp threaten to kill convert from
Islam to Christianity
Jordan: Muslims murder one American military trainer, injure two others
Islamic State leader: “Jews, Christians, Shiite heretics” are giving
everything to fight against jihad
Raymond Ibrahim: The Psycho and Pseudo Jihad
U.S. intelligence warns that al Qaeda could be planning jihad massacres
in three states for Monday
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: European Media Jihad Against Geert Wilders
Hillary and the Muslim Brotherhood — on The Glazov
Gang
Karen Armstrong, Vali Nasr hit West on
Atlantic Council “Islamophobia” panel
Latest Lebanese Related News published on November 04-05/16
U.S.: Lebanese Deserve Inclusive Govt. that Promotes
Peace, Confronts Challenges
Naharnet
/November 04/16/The United States
on Friday congratulated Saad Hariri on being named
Prime Minister-designate of Lebanon,
describing it as “another important step to help build a better future for all citizens.”“The Lebanese people deserve an inclusive
government that promotes peace and stability, restores basic services, and
confronts the range of economic, political... and security challenges currently
facing the country,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.
“The United States stands
with the people of Lebanon
in support of a secure, stable, and sovereign state,” he added. Asked about
media reports suggesting that Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will be among the
first foreign officials to visit Beirut next week to meet with President Michel
Aoun and Hariri, Toner said the U.S. will “judge the
new government by its actions.”“We’re aware of its
affiliation or at least its backing or support of, rather, of Hizbullah. But as we’ve made clear, we’re going to look to
see what kind of new government they form and whether it’s in accordance with
the constitution,” he added. “This isn’t the first time that we’ve confronted a
very complex political environment in Lebanon,” Toner went on to say. Aoun was elected Lebanon's 13th president on Monday
after around two and a half years of presidential vacuum. Key support from
Hariri, Hizbullah and the Lebanese Forces contributed
to his election. Analysts have warned that Aoun's
election will not be a "magic wand" for Lebanon,
which has seen longstanding political divisions exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria
and has struggled to deal with an influx of more than a million Syrian
refugees. In addition to pledges of economic growth and security, Aoun said in his oath of office that Lebanon must
work to ensure Syrian refugees "can return quickly" to their country.
Aoun also pledged to endorse an "independent
foreign policy" and to protect Lebanon from "the fires
burning across the region."
Paris in 'Close Dialogue' with Beirut,
Riyadh on
Suspended Saudi-Funded Arms Deal
Naharnet
/November 04/16/France announced Friday that it is holding “close dialogue”
with Beirut and Riyadh to press for the resumption of a Saudi-funded program
for equipping the Lebanese army in the wake of the election of a new president
in Lebanon. “The Donas deal caters to the current
needs of the Lebanese Armed Forces... and we hope it will be implemented for
the sake of security in Lebanon,” French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said at a press
conference. “We are holding close dialogue with Lebanon
and Saudi Arabia in this
regard,” Nadal added, reminding of “the threats that Lebanon is
facing in an unstable region.”Saudi
Arabia said in February that it had halted a $3 billion
program for military supplies to Lebanon in protest against Hizbullah's policies and “hostile” diplomatic stances by
the Lebanese foreign ministry “resulting from the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the State." The Lebanese army received
the first tranche of weapons designed to bolster it against jihadist threats,
including anti-tank guided missiles, in April 2015 but the program then
reportedly ran into obstacles. The Donas program was
to ship armored vehicles, helicopters, drones,
cannons and other equipment to Lebanon.
Hariri:
New Government Will be Formed Soon
Naharnet
/November 04/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri
assured the Lebanese that the government will be formed before the end of the
year, as he slammed reports alleging that its formation will be lengthy, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. “God willing the
government will be formed soon,” he told the daily, and stressed that the
process will not consume a lot of time. To a question that some say that the
government may be delayed until the beginning of the new year,
he rushed to say: “No, no, it will not be delayed.” Hariri's comments met with
the assurances of a senior source who told the daily: “If things continue to go
well as they are now, the atmospheres surrounding the consultations expect the
government to be formed within a two week period at most and before
Independence Day (on November 22).” On Thursday, Hariri was formally tasked
with forming a new government after he received a sweeping majority of 116
votes in the binding parliamentary consultations. Hariri's key support had
contributed to the election of Aoun as Lebanon's 13th
president on Monday, which ended around two and a half years of presidential
and political vacuum. Aoun also received crucial
support from Hizbullah and the Lebanese Forces.Hariri's nomination and Aoun's
election have raised hopes that Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a
sign that Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his
nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with his government's
policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
Hariri
Launches Consultations: Berri's Bloc Urges 'Fair'
Line-Up, LF Demands 'Sovereign Portfolio'
Naharnet
/November 04/16/Minister-designate Saad Hariri began
on Friday consultations with the parliamentarians, which will continue over a
two-day period, to form the new cabinet after being nominated to the post by
112 out of 126 members of parliament. Hariri kicked off the consultations with
a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri
at the parliament. He later held talks with caretaker Premier Tammam Salam, who said following the meeting that the
“atmosphere in the country is positive and things are going in the right
direction. We will have a government soon.”Mustaqbal
bloc head MP Fouad Saniora
told reporters that Lebanon
needs a speedy government formation and that everyone must cooperate to
facilitate the mission instead of hampering it. The PM-designate then held
talks with Deputy Speaker Farid Makari,
who said that he called on Hariri to form a coherent government to restore the
people's confidence in their State while stressing that “it must not include an
'obstructing third'.”MP Anwar al-Khalil
of the Development and Liberation bloc of Berri
meanwhile said that the bloc did not request any specific government portfolios
but asked for a “fair” government formation. Later on Friday, MP Ibrahim Kanaan called on all political forces on behalf of the
Change and Reform bloc to “benefit from the positive moment at the local and
foreign levels to facilitate formation so that we can have a government as soon
as possible.”
“This is not the time to talk
about ministerial portfolios, but we demanded the representation of minorities
in the government and we raised the issue of portfolio rotation,” Kanaan added. As for the ministerial policy statement, Kanaan noted that Aoun's oath of
office “enjoyed the support of all parliamentary blocs with the points it
carried.” Lebanese Forces bloc MP George Adwan
meanwhile said the LF bloc demanded “a sovereign ministerial portfolio, a
services-related portfolio and a mid-caliber portfolio.”“We want a government in which all parties would
abide by its decisions without boycotting or obstruction. Those who want to
practice obstruction or opposition are free to stay outside Cabinet,” Adwan added. “The government must be harmonious and
united,” the MP went on to say, noting that the new government must submit a
new electoral law to the parliament and must also approve a state budget.Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel
said Hariri asked the Kataeb bloc to take part in the
government and that it promised to study this matter.“We
will deal positively with PM-designate Hariri and we will maintain
communication,” he added. Lebanese Democratic Party chief MP Talal Arslan meanwhile said he
called for an inclusive cabinet that contains all parties and requested that
his party be represented. Independent MP Mohammed Safadi
of Tripoli
meanwhile called on all blocs to “facilitate the mission of forming the new
government” in order to cater to people's needs and “contribute to securing the
success of the new tenure as soon as possible.” Marada
Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh said the Marada bloc demanded “a key ministerial portfolio.”“If
we are not offered a portfolio that befits us we will not take part in the
cabinet,” he noted. “We will keep coordinating with Speaker Berri
and PM-designate Hariri,” Franjieh added. Speaking on
behalf ex-PM Najib Miqati's
bloc, MP Ahmed Karami of Tripoli
urged a speedy cabinet formation, saying the issue of those detained in
connection with Tripoli's
clashes was raised with the PM-designate. MP Assem Qansou of the Baath Party meanwhile said the Baath bloc
called for a national unity government.
“Should we have a place in this
government, we demand the social affairs ministerial portfolio, because of what
it can offer to the Syrian refugees,” added Qansou.
Head of the Democratic Gathering
bloc MP Walid Jumblat
meanwhile said his bloc requested “the minimum of demands.”“We
must seize this historic moment that is represented in the election of General
Michel Aoun as president and the nomination of Saad Hariri as Prime Minister-designate, because it is a
positive chance for Lebanon,”
Jumblat said. “We hope there will be a speedy
government formation,” he added. The consultations will continue on Saturday.
Former prime minister Hariri was nominated Thursday to
form Lebanon's
next government. Hariri's key support had contributed to the election of Free
Patriotic Movement founder and ex-army chief Michel Aoun
as Lebanon's 13th president on Monday, which ended around two and a half years
of presidential and political vacuum. Hariri's nomination and Aoun's election have raised hopes that Lebanon can
begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political
class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a sign that
Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his
nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with his
government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
Aoun Vows to Unite Lebanese over 'Unified Foreign Policy'
Naharnet
/November 04/16/President Michel Aoun pledged Friday
that he will seek to “unite the Lebanese over a unified foreign policy.”“Uniting the Lebanese over a national domestic
policy will be followed by uniting them over a unified foreign policy, after
resolving all the complications that have prevented this until the moment,” Aoun told a delegation from the International Support Group
for Lebanon (ISG). The delegation comprised U.N. Special Coordinator for
Lebanon Sigrid Kaag and the ambassadors of the Arab
League, China, France, Germany,
Italy, Russia, the United
Kingdom and the United States. “All components of
the Lebanese people have agreed on endorsing the oath of office, which the
president will commit himself to its implementation during his presidential
tenure,” Aoun added. He stressed that “the
implementation of the laws is the only criterion that will govern the State's
course,” noting that “the priority during the coming period will be the
approval of a new electoral law in order to hold the May parliamentary polls on
time.”“Lebanon will enter a new phase during which
political stability will be boosted through respecting the National Pact, the
constitution, the laws and national partnership,” Aoun
told the delegation. Aoun was elected president on
Monday after he received key support for his presidential bid from al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad
Hariri, which ended two and a half years of presidential vacuum. Analysts have
warned that Aoun's election will not be a "magic
wand" for Lebanon,
which has seen longstanding political divisions exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria
and has struggled to deal with an influx of more than a million Syrian
refugees. In addition to pledges of economic growth and security, Aoun said in his oath of office that Lebanon must
work to ensure Syrian refugees "can return quickly" to their country.
Aoun also pledged to endorse an "independent
foreign policy" and to protect Lebanon from "the fires
burning across the region."
Rifi Urges 'Popular, Political Action', Vows to Confront
'Iranian Hegemony'
Naharnet
/November 04/16/Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi announced Friday that the confrontation against what
he called “the Iranian hegemony over Lebanon will continue,” even after the
election of a new president and the designation of a new premier. “Nothing will
deter us from engaging in this confrontation, because Lebanon's fate
is now at risk,” Rifi said via Twitter, posting
excerpts of an interview with As Safir newspaper. He
called for “popular and political action to protect the violated constitution
and the Taef Accord,” lamenting that “the
constitution is being paralyzed, presidents are being appointed, and the
parliament's role is being usurped.”“On March 14,
(2005) the Lebanese voiced their stance and authorized their leaders to fight
the battle of the state in the face of the statelet,
and we cannot renounce this historic authorization,” Rifi
added. “Surrender and despair are not present in our dictionary and we will
continue the path with our people,” he vowed. “Now more than ever, we will
adhere to the State, the exclusive presence of arms in the hands of the
security forces, the international resolutions, and the Special Tribunal for
Lebanon, and anyone who gives up on these issues will be held responsible,” Rifi went on to say. “Together we will defend Lebanon and its Arab identity and we will not accept
that it be turned into a subordinate to (Iran's)
Vilayat-e Faqih or that the
representative of (Iran's
supreme guide) be able to control the State, decide the identity of its
president, or form its government,” the resigned minister vowed. He added: “We
will not allow the destruction of our ties with the Arab world for the sake of
the Iranian expansionist scheme. This is the Lebanese republic and we won't
accept that it be turned into the republic of the supreme guide.” Rifi has fiercely opposed the election of Aoun or Marada Movement chief MP
Suleiman Franjieh as president, citing their close
ties with Iran-backed Hizbullah and the Syrian
regime. Aoun was elected president on Monday after
receiving key support for his nomination from al-Mustaqbal
Movement leader Saad Hariri, who has been named Prime
Minister-designate. Rifi, who was once part of
Hariri's Mustaqbal Movement, launched a major
challenge to Hariri's position as the leader of Lebanon's
Sunni community in June 2016, running a rival list that won the municipal
elections in the northern city of Tripoli.
Hariri's nomination and Aoun's election have raised
hopes that Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a
sign that Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his
nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with his
government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
Report:
Berri Rebuffs Energy Portfolio but Cares for Finance
Naharnet
/November 04/16/With the formation of Lebanon's new government arises the
differences between political parties over the distribution of governmental
portfolios. Speaker Nabih Berri
said that he has ambitions to be granted the finance ministry portfolio, as he
assured that he does not want the ministry of energy even it it was given to him on a silver plate, al-Akhbar daily reported on Friday. “No one asked me if I want
the ministry of energy. But even if it was suggested to me, I don’t want it. As
for the ministry of finance it is another matter,” he told the daily.
“The energy issue and the oil
wealth file are not a question of the minister. I will not accept any act with
regard to the energy and oil file without a national body to preserve this
wealth and form a national sovereign fund at the Central Bank to benefit from
the oil revenues and pay off the public debt,” stressed Berri.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was formally
tasked with forming the new government after he received a sweeping majority of
116 votes in the binding parliamentary consultations.
Hariri will begin consultations on
Friday and Saturday with the parliamentary bloc to arrive at a decision on how
to distribute the government portfolios. Hariri's key support had contributed
to the election of Aoun as Lebanon's 13th president on Monday,
which ended around two and a half years of presidential and political vacuum.
Chamoun Turns over New Leaf of Relations with President Aoun
Naharnet
/November 04/16/Leader of the National Liberals Party Dory Chamoun
said that his disagreements with President Michel Aoun
are over now that the latter has become president of Lebanon, al-Joumhouria
daily reported on Friday. “Since I arrived at the entrance of the Baabda
Palace, it means that the
page has been turned on the disagreement with Aoun
and I am dealing with him as president of the republic. We have thrown away all
previous controversies,” said Chamoun as he stressed
that a “believer puts away all the differences the moment he enters the church
or mosque to pray, and the Baabda
Palace represents a symbol for Lebanon and
head of the republic.”The MP went on to say: “I am
the son of (late) President Camille Chamoun who put
himself at the disposal of the president the moment he was elected in spite of
the political differences. The school
of Camille Chamoun
has taught us to support the Maronite president, and
to stand by his side so he can rule and draw power. I have visited Baabda
Palace and I have put
myself at the disposal of president Aoun.”On his
previous statement and verbal attacks against Aoun
when he was still a candidate, Chamoun said: “That
was before he was elected. Now we support the president.”In
September, Chamoun had lashed out at Aoun, who was running for the presidential post, and asked
him to release health records to prove that he is eligible to become president
at the physical and mental levels. On Monday, Aoun
was elected as Lebanon's
13th president which ended around two and a half years of presidential and
political vacuum. On Thursday, Hariri was formally tasked with forming a new
government after he received a sweeping majority of 116 votes in the binding
parliamentary consultations. Hariri's key support had contributed to the
election of Aoun who also received crucial support
from Hizbullah and the Lebanese Forces. Hariri's
nomination and Aoun's election have raised hopes that
Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a
sign that Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his
nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with his
government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
1
Dead, 9 Hurt as Major Blaze Guts Fanar Wood Factory
Naharnet
/November 04/16/An Egyptian worker was killed and nine people were injured
Friday as a major blaze ripped through a five-story wood factor in the Northern Metn area of Fanar, state-run National News Agency reported. The strong
blaze had trapped several people inside the building for several hours before
firefighters managed to bring it under control. LBCI television said more than
ten Civil Defense vehicles took part in the
firefighting operations. Several panicked residents who live near the factory
evacuated their homes as a precaution, the TV network added. Officials said
firefighting operations were hindered by the fact that access to the area was
difficult due to narrow streets and the presence of a lot of parked vehicles.A witness told LBCI that the factory contained
wood, paint, paint thinner, sponge, cotton and other combustible material.
Report:
Hizbullah Keen for AMAL Alliance and Shiites Unity
Naharnet
/November 04/16/Hizbullah believes that an alliance with the AMAL Movement and
the unity of the Shiites ranks is more valuable than anything else, even power,
As Safir daily reported on Friday. A source close to Hizbullah told the daily that a “coalition with AMAL and
the unity of the Shiites is more important than anything else, even more
important than power and its gains.” The source stressed on condition of
anonymity that “Speaker Nabih Berri
is a key partner in the government, and those concerned must deal seriously
with his demands if they want the new government to be formed in a sound manner
based on the National Pact.”According to As Safir, the comments of the Hizbullah
source came in a bid to show respect for Berri's
stance after he had rejected the nomination of President Michel Aoun for the post. The party believes that there is an
“existential alliance between the two parties gaining top priority at this stage.”Aoun was elected on Monday as Lebanon's 13th
president, which ended around two and a half years of presidential and
political vacuum. Berri was against nominating Aoun for the post, but he received crucial support from Hizbullah and the Lebanese Forces. Newly designated PM Saad Hariri was the key support that contributed to the
election of Aoun. Hariri's nomination and Aoun's election have raised hopes that Lebanon can
begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political
class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a sign that
Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his
nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with his
government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
Ahed Footballer
Killed Fighting in Syria
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/A young
footballer who played in Lebanon's
Premier League has been killed fighting alongside Hizbullah
in the battle for Syria's Aleppo, a source close to
the party said Friday. Qassem Shamkha
was killed "while fighting off a rebel attack Thursday on western Aleppo," the source
told AFP, referring to the government-held side of the city. The 19-year-old
midfielder was from Burj al-Barajneh,
a southern suburb of Beirut
where support for Hizbullah is widespread. Since
2009, Shamkha had played for Hizbullah's
Al-Ahed football club which has won Lebanon's
national championships four times, most recently in 2015. In Lebanon, most
football teams are financed by political parties. "He will go down in
history in the club's records, because he was a hero on the football field just
like on the battlefield in defense of the
homeland," Al-Ahed secretary general Mohammad Assi told AFP. "He was a talented player with huge
potential for the club and for Lebanon,
but he chose the route of jihad," he added. Several thousand Hizbullah fighters are fighting on behalf of President Bashar Assad across war-torn Syria. Hizbullah
has never provided an official death toll for its fighters, but monitors
estimate that several hundred have been killed in Syria, including top commanders.Photo source: skynewsarabia.com
Saqr: President Not Purely 'Made in Lebanon', Strong President
Means Strong
State
Naharnet
/November 04/16MP Oqab Saqr,
who is close to Premier-designate Saad Hariri,
announced Thursday that Lebanon's new president was not purely “made in Lebanon.”“Claims that we received a green light from
foreign forces to elect a president or that the president was purely 'made in Lebanon' are both incorrect,” Saqr, who returned Sunday to Lebanon after years of self-imposed
exile, said in an interview on LBCI television.
Hariri's presidential initiative
was first "made in Lebanon"
and then “promoted abroad,” Saqr added, referring to
Hariri's talks with foreign leaders that preceded his nomination of Michel Aoun for the presidency. Aoun was
elected president on Monday in the wake of Hariri's key support for his
nomination, which ended around two and a half years of presidential vacuum. “Saad Hariri sought to prevent the collapse of the Taef Accord, which is the real heritage of Rafik Hariri,” Saqr told LBCI.
“Strong President Aoun is carrying the aspirations of
Christians,” he noted.
“A strong president is strong
through a strong State and such a state cannot withstand the presence of a statelet,” Saqr added, referring
to Hizbullah's presence as an armed non-state actor.
“That's why today General Aoun is our guarantee,” he went
on to say.
Saqr
also hailed Speaker Nabih Berri
for his bloc's nomination of Hariri for the premiership earlier in the day. He
“proved that he is a real statesman today,” the lawmaker added. As for the
security concerns that prompted him to reside in Europe for several years, Saqr revealed that before leaving Lebanon, he was
informed by “the army Intelligence Directorate and the Internal Security Forces
Intelligence Branch” that an operation to assassinate him was being plotted. He
also said that he was not told about the identity of the party that was
plotting to murder him. Hariri's nomination and Aoun's
election have raised hopes that Lebanon
can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund
political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees. In a
sign that Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's
MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post on Thursday, even
though his nomination was all-but-assured. Hariri is likely to struggle with
his government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both
potential flashpoints with Hizbullah. The process of
forming a government could take months, with horsetrading
likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.
Aoun prioritizes Lebanon's electoral law at start of
term
The Daily Star/November 04, 2016/BEIRUT: Lebanese
President Michel Aoun Friday announced that electoral
reform would be a priority for the country’s new government. The president also
said that the upcoming parliamentary elections would be held on time in May
2017, without any delays. Despite recent breakthroughs, political powers remain
at odds over drafting an electoral law to govern parliamentary elections, set
for 2017. The current 1960 winner-take-all law, which was used in the last
elections in 2009, divides Lebanon's
constituencies based on administrative districts. Most Christian parties argue
that the 1960 law devalues Christian votes in some parts of the country, where
they constitute a minority. Lebanese parties are divided between adopting a
proportional vote law, or a hybrid electoral law that
includes aspects of the proportional and winner-take-all systems.Aoun's
remarks came during a meeting with ambassadors from the International Support
Group for Lebanon,
in presence of Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Arab League Ambassador Abdul Rahman
al-Solh and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon
Sigrid Kaag. Kaag said
after the meeting that Aoun's election was a
"crucial step in Lebanon's
future," according to a statement issued by the president's press office.
She said that the International Support Group for Lebanon
was committed to supporting the Lebanese state and help
it maintain its stability.Aoun was elected as Lebanon’s
president Monday, ending almost three years into vacuum.
Sayyed Nasrallah: Berri is the Major Guarantee in Difficult Times, We Trust Aoun
Al-Manar
Website/November 04/16
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah
confirmed Friday that Hezbollah was honest since the very beginning adding that
the party had spared no effort towards the facilitation of the election of
Michel Aoun as Lebanon’s president after two years
and a half of presidential void.
During a memorial ceremony honoring Martyr Leader Mustafa Shehade
held on Friday, Sayyed Nasrallah
said that after the accomplishment of the presidential election there is a
chance to say that “we in Hezbollah faced a lot of injustice and false
accusations during the past two and a half years, and I hope those who lied to reevaluate their stances.” “We were honest since the first
beginning in our endorsement to Michel Aoun as
President and we spared no effort for the achievement of this election and we
never changed our stance in this regard.”
For those who claimed that
Hezbollah didn’t want Aoun as a President and that we
were lying and we wanted the persistence of void in the country, Sayyed Nasrallah said Hezbollah
does not deceive or lie. “Those also didn’t spare any regional or international
pretext to accuse us of it, starting from the nuclear program to the Syrian
crisis, but all developments proved they were the liars.”
“October 31 had come to light and
rebuffed all their claims and what we wanted happened. It was clear that
there’s no relation between the nuclear or the Syrian issues with the
presidential elections. Even Iran and Syria had always wanted for this election
to be a Lebanese issue only and who wanted it to be on a foreign agenda were
those who accused us of so.” Sayyed Nasrallah addressed those who claimed that they embarrassed
Hezbollah by endorsing Aoun as president took credits
of their last-minute stance, “Why hadn’t you embarrassed us two and a half
years ago?” thus proving Hezbollah’s choice was the rightful one since the
beginning of the presidential paralysis.
Honoring
ceremony for Martyr Mostafa Shehade
Hezbollah’s S.G. assured that
what’s between Hezbollah and President Aoun was
nothing but trust, “we don’t have any bargains or deals with him over
presidency.” “We trust this man and we have confidence in him as an independent
and patriot man who doesn’t follow any foreign agenda,” Sayyed
Nasrallah pointed.
Concerning the Parliament session
the was held on October 31 to elect a new president, Sayyed
Nasrallah said that Speaker Nabih
Berri shall be credited for the way he administered
the session with his wisdom and conscience despite his political position. His
eminence hailed Berri as a “statesman who safeguards Lebanon” and
the “major guarantee in difficult times.”
Sayyed Nasrallah also thanked Marada
Leader Suleiman Franjieh for being a faithful ally.
“He was highly committed to us and our choice and he could have been elected as
President if he wanted so but he preferred to be honest with us as an ally.”
His eminence then called on all
parties to cooperate with the new President for the welfare and benefit of the
country in the midst of conflicts and dilemmas surrounding us.Concerning
the formation of a new government, Sayyed Nasrallah said Hezbollah didn’t name Saad
Hariri for premiership to form the new government but rather offered all
possible facilities for his nomination. However, he said that Hezbollah’s bloc
would take a clear stance on the formation of the new Cabinet Saturday, after
its meeting with PM-designate Hariri.
Hezbollah leader said the party
won’t take part in any Cabinet that Speaker Nabih Berri decides to boycott. “During past years while new
governments were being formed, we were always keen that the FPM party, whom we
are dedicated to alliance with it, that it takes its share in a just way, so we
had stalled the formation of governments for their sake,” Sayyed
Nasrallah pointed out, adding that “if Speaker Berri decides not to participate in the upcoming government
we will boycott it too. And even the FPM should do so.”
His eminence also said that
Speaker Berri was the official negotiator on behalf
of both Hezbollah and his own Development and Liberation bloc regarding the
designation of the new Cabinet’s portfolios. He said the Lebanese are before a
new phase thanks to the Lebanese army, people and several other factors, adding
that Hezbollah is keen that the Cabinet be formed and wants it to be
productive.
Sayyed Nasrallah rebuffed the Saudi fake propaganda claiming that
the Yemenis had fired a Ballistic rocket at Mecca as a big sarcastic lie, wondering “Who
would believe that those Yemenis who are being killed every day could do so?”
Hezbollah’s Secretary General
offered his condolences to Martyr Shehade’s family,
wife, daughter and sons over his martyrdom. His eminence hailed the martyr for
living a life that was full of Jihad and sacrifices in addition to his strength
and stiffness throughout carrying his Jihadi job as a
leader in Hezbollah ranks. “In times when some sides bet on a conflict between
Hezbollah and the Syrian army (Fethullah massacre),
Martyr Shehade managed to refute this conspiracy with
his wisdom and conscience,” Sayyed Nasrallah assured.
Hariri
Is Filling his father’s big shoes
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf
News/November 04/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/04/joseph-a-kechichiangulf-news-filling-his-fathers-big-shoes/
While his more recent
Machiavellian steps to back former rival Michel Aoun
for presidency illustrate a new acumen for strategising, the Lebanese prime
minister’s task is cut out.
As Deputy Oqab
Saqr claimed on Thursday evening during his LBC
television interview, “Sa’ad Hariri sought to prevent
the collapse of the Ta’if Accords, which is the real
heritage of Rafiq Hariri,” he for sure went about it
the wrong way — backing a leader who actually had a visceral dislike for the
agreement that ended the 1975-1990 Civil War and which defines his political
legacy.
On Thursday, the newly-elected
President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, nominated Hariri
as the Prime Minister to head a new Cabinet, after the Future Movement official
secured 112 parliamentary votes. Sa’ad “accepted this
commission with gratitude ... and the trust of the parliamentary colleagues who
honoured” him through this nomination. He chose to ignore the octogenarian’s
August 11, 2011 boast to give him a “one-way ticket” out of the country after
the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Hezbollah ministers withdrew from the
Cabinet in January 2011, which prompted a collapse of the government.
In helping elect a former
political enemy to the largely symbolic office of the presidency, Sa’ad is, by his own admission, making a huge sacrifice “to
save the state from total collapse”. He now faces the gargantuan task of
forming a “national unity Cabinet” before November 22, nominally Lebanon’s
Independence Day, to benefit from the renewal zeal that most Lebanese expect
after what was a two-and-a-half years of political vacuum. Whether he will be
able to do so is the heart of the matter, given that the government is not even
able to clear out garbage overflowing on streets of Beirut.
That Sa’ad
worked in earnest to return to power certainly confirms his innate ability to
cope with Lebanon’s
shifting political environment, although he surely knows that neither he nor Aoun controls his fate. That honour lies with Hezbollah,
the leading group that still refuses to back him, ostensibly because party
leaders cannot tolerate the return of the prodigal son. Sa’ad
repeated that Hezbollah was behind the suspected assassins of his father and
that the party was wrong to be in Syria, fighting on behalf of the
Baath regime, which he loathed.
His clear
anti-Iranian declarations, which reflected Sa’ad’s
strong ties with Saudi
Arabia, and which Aoun
was dismissive of, highlighted impenetrable contradictions. Moreover,
and unlike his assassinated father who knew how to balance conflicting interests
on a thin rope, Sa’ad was bound to be at odds with
Hezbollah over the latter’s insistence that the ministerial declaration — a proforma utterance that is supposed to act as a guide —
include the wooden triptych of the “army-people-resistance” formula to defend
the country. Aoun hinted that he could live with the
resistance in his lacklustre inaugural speech.
At 46, Sa’ad,
who has already served as prime minister once before, will now have to ignore
Hezbollah’s claims that it is innocent of the February 14, 2005, assassination
of Rafiq.
Unlike the father, who was a leading proponent of the departure of Syrian
forces from Lebanon, and
which occurred in 2005 after the Cedar Revolution broke Damascus’
will-to-power over Lebanon, the young Hariri accepted an official visit to Syria
in December 2009, when he met with President Bashar
Al Assad.
Ironically, Sa’ad
swallowed his pride in a September 6, 2010, interview with the Saudi-owned Al Sharq Al Awsat daily, when he
apologised to Syria
for having charged it with murdering his father. “Accusing Damascus
of the assassination was a mistake,” he said at the time, adding: “The false
witnesses misled the investigation and they have caused harm to Syria and Lebanon. [They] ... ruined the
relationship between the two countries and politicised the assassination.”
Much has changed since then,
however, and Sa’ad’s concessions, painful as they
were, did not seem to satisfy Al Assad, who secured a full capitulation in
January 2011. There was no reason to believe that circumstances have changed
ever since, especially in the light of Sa’ad’s more
recent pronouncements that backed Syrian opposition figures. In this respect, Sa’ad reflected Gulf Cooperation Council positions — which
is crucial, now that he is the Prime Minister.
It remains to be determined
whether Sa’ad will learn how to manage some of the
most vicious political opponents roaming the planet. Lest he forget, most of
those who back him today were lobbing insults just a few weeks ago, even if
chameleon-like behaviour meant that everyone was ready to cut lucrative deals
with the premier.
Indeed, Sa’ad
may have accepted unprincipled conditions as a way to salvage his dwindling
reputation among Lebanon’s
Sunni community — in the light of Ashraf Rifi’s significant challenge after the June 2016 municipal
elections that placed the Minister of Justice in much better light among Lebanon’s
Sunnis.
It is also worth noting that while
Sa’ad was running the family’s Oger
construction firm in Saudi
Arabia when his father was murdered, severe
financial crises followed, with many employees complaining that they were not
paid for months at a time. In June 2016, Sa’ad
announced his permanent return to Lebanon, though he continues to spend time in
Saudi Arabia — both to look after the shrinking business empire and also to
visit his wife, Lama Bashir-Azm (who is of Syrian
origin), and their three children.
A business graduate from
Georgetown University in Washington DC, Sa’ad will
now have to fill his father’s large political shoes, and while his more recent
Machiavellian steps to back a former rival for the presidency illustrate a new
acumen for strategising, his work is cut out. Of course, there are many in Lebanon
who conclude that his intentions to embark on this
initiative are honourable and genuine, though most interpret his reconciliation
with Aoun as little more than expediency. His
greatest challenges ahead are to preserve the political and industrial empires
that his father bequeathed upon him and, equally important, the ability to rule
alongside his Hezbollah nemesis.
**Dr Joseph A. Kechichian
is the author of Iffat Al Thunayan:
An Arabian Queen, London:
Sussex Academic Press, 2015.
Forming
new Lebanese government will draw foreign aid, central bank says
Reuters/ Gulf News/November 04/2016/
Beirut: Lebanon’s election of a new
president and the coming formation of a government will increase confidence in
the economy and attract foreign aid, the head of the country’s central bank
said on Thursday. The Lebanese parliament elected former army commander Michel Aoun as president on Monday, ending a 29-month presidential
vacuum. Sa’ad Al Hariri is expected to be named as
prime minister later on Thursday, but it is unclear how quickly he will be able
to form a government. “The election of President Aoun
should lead to a normal activity of the constitutional institutions ... thus
increasing confidence in the economy,” Riad Salameh said at an international conference organised by
the central bank in Beirut.
“The formation of a new government would help by attracting foreign aid and
mitigating the cost of the Syrian presence in Lebanon that we estimate at 5 per
cent of the GDP,” he added, referring to the large Syrian refugee population.
War next door/Lebanon is
sheltering more than 1 million Syrians who have fled the civil war next door. Political deadlock, including the presidential vacuum, paralysed
state institutions and prevented the government from taking even basic
decisions. Lebanese
are desperate for better government to deal with problems in the economy,
infrastructure and basic services. The stalemate came to a head last year when
garbage piled up in the streets, creating a public health crisis.
Lebanon's new PM a vocal critic of Hezbollah, Syria
AFP/November 03/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/04/afplebanons-new-pm-a-vocal-critic-of-hezbollah-syria/
Lebanon's new prime
minister Saad Hariri, the son of former
billionaire premier Rafik Hariri, is a vociferous
critic of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime which he blames for his father's
assassination. The 46-year-old was nominated Thursday to form a cabinet by his
one-time political adversary, President Michel Aoun,
who took office this week after receiving the surprise support of...
The 46-year-old was nominated
Thursday to form a cabinet by his one-time political adversary, President
Michel Aoun, who took office this week after
receiving the surprise support of his old foe.
Hariri, who has already served as
prime minister once before, has a political career marked by his opposition to
the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is allied with Aoun.
The movement is a key backer of
the government in neighbouring Syria,
which Hariri accuses of having planned his father's murder.
He was a leading proponent of the
departure of Syrian forces from Lebanon
in 2005, after mass demonstrations following the assassination.
Hariri, who now sports a beard
along with his trademark slicked-back locks, returns to the office in a bid to
restore the standing of Lebanon's
Sunni community and counterbalance Hezbollah's influence.
Born in Saudi Arabia, where his father made
his fortune, he was running the family's Oger
construction firm when Rafik Hariri was assassinated
in February 2005.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun (left) meets with his new Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on November 3, 2016 (photo by: Dalati and Nohra/AFP)
At his family's urging, he
returned to Lebanon
to enter politics, heading an anti-Syrian bloc to victory in the 2005
legislative elections.
Confrontations with Hezbollah
In August 2007, he formed the
Future Movement party, a majority-Sunni bloc, which came out ahead in the 2009
legislative elections, winning 33 of the parliament's 128 seats.
In November that year, he bec ame prime minister for the
first time, forming a unity government with Hezbollah and its allies after
marathon negotiations.
But the government only lasted
until January 2011, when Hezbollah and its allies pulled their ministers from
the cabinet, forcing its collapse.
Tensions had already nearly boiled
over in May 2008, when Hezbollah fighters seized parts of Beirut after pitched battles with Future
Movement supporters.
The crisis raised fears of a new
conflict in the country, still scarred by its 1975-1990 civil
war.
Hariri was also locked in a
standoff with Hezbollah over funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which
is prosecuting his father's murder.
The tribunal has implicated
Hezbollah members in the assassination, but the group dismisses the body as a
US-Israeli conspiracy.
Hariri's differences with
Hezbollah have only deepened with the war in neighbouring Syria, where
the powerful Shiite group has dispatched fighters to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Hariri by contrast has backed the
uprising against Assad, and led the calls for Syria
to withdraw its forces from Lebanon
-- 30 years after their arrival -- in 2005.
Hezbollah is backed by Iran while Hariri enjoys the support of Tehran's regional rival Saudi Arabia.
Dwindling fortune, influence?
Hariri has Saudi citizenship and
has tirelessly praised the kingdom, to which he returned after the collapse of
his government, citing security concerns.
His wife Lama Bashir-Azm,
who is of Syrian origin, and their three children have stayed in Saudi Arabia, even as Hariri began spending time
in Lebanon
again from 2014.
In June 2016, he announced his
permanent return to Lebanon,
though he continues to spend periods in Saudi Arabia, where the Hariri
business empire has struggled of late.
Hariri's influence with the Saudi
royal family also appears to have dwindled since the death of King Abdullah,
and in Lebanon
he has faced criticism within his Sunni constituency for his lengthy absence
and failure to bolster the community.
Former justice minister Ashraf Rifi launched a major
challenge to his position as presumptive leader of Lebanon's
Sunnis in June 2016, running a rival list in municipal elections in the Sunni
stronghold of Tripoli.
A business graduate from Georgetown University
in Washington DC, Hariri was virtually unknown before his
arrival on the political scene after his father's death.
A polyglot, he was nonetheless
mocked for his poor public speaking skills, and initially derided as a
political naif.
But his decision to back former
rival Aoun for the presidency, ending a vacuum of
more than two years, illustrated his comfort with the shifting sands of Lebanon's
treacherous political landscape.
Tensions
flare between Hezbollah, Gulf states
Mona Alami/Al
Monitor/November 04/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/04/mona-alamial-monitor-tensions-flare-between-hezbollah-gulf-states/
The undeclared war between some Arab Gulf
countries and Lebanon's
Hezbollah is on again, as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Oct. 31 sentenced
seven people to prison terms up to 15 years for links to the Shiite political
party's armed wing, and Saudi
Arabia reiterated Oct. 25 its determination
to fight the group.
Analysts say Hezbollah has made a
sharp pivot toward confrontation with Gulf states, in part as a result of its alliance
with Iran.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah lashed out
at Saudi Arabia
in an Oct. 12 sermon, his most recent. He labeled the
country's battles in Yemen
an expression of “hatred,” adding, “The Saud family will be defeated in Yemen.”
Gulf nations consider threats from
Hezbollah a priority. The enmity between Hezbollah and the Gulf countries has
been escalating over the past decade. The first trigger was the assassination
of Lebanon's
Saudi-friendly prime minister, Rafik
Hariri, in February 2005. Hezbollah operatives are currently being prosecuted
in that case by the international Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hariri, a Sunni, was Saudi
Arabia’s man in the Land of the Cedars.
The war in Syria — which began
five years ago between mostly Sunni rebels and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Hezbollah — only added
fuel to the fire already burning between the organization and Gulf countries.
In March, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) declared Hezbollah a terror
organization.
Hezbollah has also been upping its
activity in Gulf countries.
“There is a huge awareness now
that Hezbollah is a threat in the Gulf,” Saudi Gulf
expert Abdulkhaleq Abdulla told Al-Monitor. Abdulla
is chairman of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and a retired political
science professor.
In recent years, several Hezbollah
cells have been dismantled in the Arab region. On Oct. 31, the UAE sentenced
seven people for their links with Hezbollah, including three Lebanese, two
Emiratis, one Iraqi and one Egyptian. In September 2015, Kuwait charged 26 people suspected of links to Iran's
government and Hezbollah with plotting attacks against the Gulf state,
according to Al Jazeera.
In April, the UAE prosecuted
several Hezbollah members accused of gathering intelligence on the Emirates’
political, military and economic activity. In June, Riyadh’s Special Criminal Court revealed
links between Hezbollah and a cell assigned to launch attacks against security
officials in Awamiyah, a Saudi Shiite village
“There is a fear in Gulf countries
of Hezbollah organizing terror attacks on behalf of Iran,”
Mustapha Alani of the Gulf Research
Center told Al-Monitor.
Gulf countries have not forgotten the devastation of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which was the work of
Ahmed al-Mughassil, the military chief of the Saudi
branch of Hezbollah. Mughassil was apprehended in Beirut in 2015 and deported to Saudi Arabia. He had allegedly
lived in Lebanon
for years under the protection of Hezbollah. Gulf countries also haven't
forgotten the involvement of Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine
in the Kuwait
bombings of 1983. Badreddine was killed in an
explosion in Damascus
in May.
Abdulla also said Gulf countries
worry about efforts by Hezbollah to encourage Gulf Shiites to favor Iran.
Gulf countries are home to large Shiite minorities. According to Alani, Kuwait's population is 30% Shiite.
About 10% to 15% percent of Saudi
Arabia’s population of 30 million is Shiite.
The percentage goes down to 5% in countries such as the UAE, according to Alani. Bahrain
is the only Gulf exception; it is home to a Shiite majority but is led by a
Sunni royal family.
Shiite minorities took to the
streets in the wake of the Arab Spring, which began in late 2010. In 2011, a
wave of protests shook Saudi
Arabia’s eastern provinces, with dozens
dying at the hands of government forces. The eastern oil-rich provinces are
plagued by stark poverty, and the population there has demanded greater
political and economic rights, the release of political prisoners, a new
constitution and greater power for elected bodies and equal treatment.
Tensions escalated this year again
when Saudi Arabia
executed Nimr al-Nimr, a
charismatic Saudi Shiite cleric. Nimr, who had
strongly criticized the Saudi royal family, was charged with taking up arms against
security forces.
In August, Bahraini courts
condemned Shiite activists and clerics. Bahrain had also been shaken in
2011 by Shiite protests seeking constitutional amendments and equal rights.
Alani
said he believes the threat of infiltration by terrorist groups can be
contained. He said discrimination against Shiites in countries such as Saudi Arabia is
not intentional. “Poverty and poor infrastructure are not only found in the
Shiite eastern provinces, but also in the southern Sunni Najran
areas,” he said.
But ultimately, it is Hezbollah’s
involvement in Yemen — a
country considered a strategic priority for Saudi Arabia — that exacerbates
tensions between the Shiite group and Gulf countries.
According to Foreign Affairs,
quoting Saudi Arabia-owned Al-Arabiya news network, a
video was posted in February of Hezbollah commander Abu Saleh
meeting the previous summer with Houthi forces in Yemen.
According to the Foreign Affairs story, "The Houthi
Hezbollah," the video showed a man in military fatigues addressing a group
in Lebanese-accented Arabic about training for assassination operations inside Saudi Arabia,
including a specific attack against an undisclosed Saudi commander of border
forces.
Sources close to Hezbollah told
Al-Monitor that a small number of Hezbollah operatives have been training Houthi rebels for some time. Hezbollah and Iran are backing Houthi
rebels in Yemen
as well as the forces of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has launched a
coalition supporting the transition government of Prime Minister Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The US Treasury has also sanctioned Hezbollah figures for the group's
operations in Yemen.
“We have gathered evidence as well
that Hezbollah has been training Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Yemenis in Lebanon and Syria,” Abdulla said.
Both for internal reasons and as a
result of its close alliance with Iran,
Hezbollah has pivoted sharply toward confrontation with the Gulf states,
according to Mathew Levitt, director of the counterterrorism program at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“For Hezbollah, this pivot is not
exclusive of its open-ended battle with Israel,
but rather an extension of it and of its fight against Sunni rebels in Syria,” Levitt said in the August issue of the
CTC Sentinel, a publication of the Combating
Terrorism Center
at the United States
Military Academy.
As Hezbollah comes to play a
larger role in Syria,
it is naturally expanding its area of operation to other countries. The ongoing
sectarian war in the Levant and the
Saudi-Iranian rivalry will certainly bolster the organization’s regional
involvement.
Casting
a blank ballot and wishing Aoun good luck
Nayla Tueni/November 04/16
It was the moment of truth on
Monday. It was a day of decision-making that would transform Lebanon to
another phase after a long presidential vacuum, political paralysis,
constitutional destruction and massive institutional collapse.
The Lebanese people in the country
and elsewhere waited for this moment and experienced mixed emotions from worry
to joy, certainty and doubt and fear and hope. On the election
day exaggerating positions, burying heads in the sand or making unclear
statements were not tolerated.
After two-and-a-half years of
crisis that almost destroyed all the country’s pillars of society, the economy,
the services and infrastructure, voting for this or that candidate only
required clear cut statements.
This is why, among many other
reasons, I cannot do anything but respect the Lebanese people and An-Nahar readers, and tell them whoever I vote for must
represent Lebanon’s pride and the power granted by citizens to members of
Parliament.
An-Nahar
has always been loyal to the basic principles and has paid the highest prices
for them. Its martyrs Gebran Tueni
and Samir Kassir walked a
long path of dignity and freedom, and they remained loyal to their vows while
performing their duties. Veteran journalist and role model Ghassan
Tueni taught us that it delivers a message.
Dangerous influence
Based on this truth, I feel I am
obliged to be completely frank about my convictions which make it necessary for
me to remain up to the level of Gebran Tueni’s martyrdom and impose it on An-Nahar
to remain loyal to the promise it made to Gebran and Ghassan Tueni as to remain a
voice of freedom and representative of principles which marked its deep-rooted
history.
Based on all this, I must be frank
and say our opinion at An-Nahar newspaper regarding
the views that presented the option to elect Michel Aoun
for president which does not run with our fixed principles which the daily has
acted upon when dealing with the presidential crisis. We cannot accept electing
Aoun as a reward to those who obstructed electing a
president and paralyzed the country and state.
We cannot accept electing Aoun as a reward to those who obstructed electing a
president and paralyzed the country and state
Regardless of all the excuses
justifying electing Aoun, such an option strengthens
the logic of giving in to obstruction. We cannot ignore the dangerous influence
of the internal defect which will result from an option that lacks essential
democratic bases and that imposed two presidential candidates from the March 8
coalition, deprived others of their right to nominate, prevented a real
competitive battle and ended with the famous formula of either electing Aoun for the presidency or suffering an endless
presidential vacuum.
If the battle had been democratic,
free and void of conditions and obstructions, we would’ve been the first to
cheer the election of the leader of the biggest Christian bloc. If the
democratic principles, which the Lebanese people had aspired to see as part of
taking purely Lebanese decisions, had been adopted, we wouldn’t have been
divided among supporters of March 8 or March 14 or others.
If decision making is purely
Lebanese, the option to elect Aoun as president would
not have come as a result of a balance of power that suffers from massive
imbalance due to obstructions in favor of a
well-known regional axis.
Even if it’s said that the Saudi
delegation’s visit to Beirut provided Saudi Arabia’s
support for a presidential settlement, this does not change the reality of the
imbalance which led to imposing Aoun as a
presidential option.
Legitimate right
As for Aoun
himself, we respect the values he represents and we acknowledge his legitimate
right to the ambition of becoming president. However, this is one thing and
electing him is another. There’s a deep-rooted dispute that distances us from Aoun’s path and policies and this has been on for years.
There’s no point in getting bogged
down by the details of the dispute now. We appreciate the openness which we
witnessed during the Free Patriotic Movement’s activity in recent days;
however, major and fateful affairs such as neutralizing Lebanon from the Syrian
war, the issues of war and peace, the issue of illegitimate arms, foreign
policy, the state’s identity and exclusive right to possessing weapons,
people’s affairs and crises have not been properly tackled and taken into
consideration as transparency has been completely absent during the past
months.
According to all this, and since
we do not deceive, do not lie and respect the right to be different because it
is the bases of opposition and democracy, I will cast a blank ballot paper. I
wish the elected president the best of luck in his tenure as his success will
be the best response to all those who opposed electing him or voiced
reservations or fears or doubts about his election.
**This article was first published
in Annahar on Oct. 31, 2016.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on on November 04-05/16
Reporters
Without Borders: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Is a Predator of Press Freedom
NCRI
Iran /Friday, 04 November 2016/Iran was ranked 169th out of 195 countries in
the Reporters Without Borders’ 2016 World Press
Freedom Index.
Reporters
Without Borders (RWB), the international charity
dedicated to fighting for the rights of journalists, said that despite some
changes in international relations, Iran was still one of the most
oppressive countries in the world. Iran has strict censorship of the
media, an almost complete lack of government transparency and frequent
imprisonment of journalists and citizen journalists. In 2015 alone, 40
journalists were questioned by the Regime and 15 were sentenced to prison.
There are currently 24 journalists imprisoned in the country. The media law of
1986 (expanded in 2000 and 2009 to include online publications) allows the
Regime to interfere with or put a stop to information that could be deemed
harmful to the Iranian Regime or could offend the Supreme Leader. Since 1989,
over 400 journalists have been convicted of breaking that law and 500 have fled
abroad. The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is named on
the RWB website as a Predator of Press Freedom. In a speech to Tarbiat
Modares University in 1998, he said that press
freedom meant nothing to him.
Their
ranking in the RWB is still in the bottom 15% of all countries.
Iranian
Resistance Identifies More Than 110 Officials Involved in Massacre of Political
Prisoners in 1988
NCRI Iran News Friday, 04 November
2016/More than 110 senior Iranian officials involved in the 1988 massacre of
political prisoners in Iran have now been identified. These individuals were
members of the "Death Commissions" in Tehran and 16 other Iranian provinces. The
identities of the overwhelming majority of these officials and their role in
the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners had remained secret for nearly three
decades. The new information was revealed at a press conference in Oslo this morning,
organized by the Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran. In the press conference, the Iranian Resistance also provided, for the
first time, details of 213 regime officials who carried out the massacre and
were involved in carrying out the death orders in 35 cities throughout Iran.
The information regarding the
officials involved in the massacre was compiled by the Iranian Resistance over
the past three months, relying on sources from inside the regime and its vast
social network inside Iran.
That information reveals that scores of the officials who were responsible for
the 1988 massacre currently hold some of the most senior positions in Iran.
For example, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi,
the Justice Minister in Hassan Rouhani's cabinet, was
the primary Intelligence Ministry official who was involved in the 1988
massacre. On August 28, 2016, he publicly boasted about his role in the
massacre and called it carrying out God’s commandment. Mr. Perviz
Khazai, the representative of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran in Nordic countries, Ingvald Godal, former member of the Foreign and Defense
Committee of the Norwegian parliament, and Julie E. Kroepelien,
a Norwegian lawyer, took part in the press conference. The victims of the 1988
massacre were buried in mass graves all over the country. While the total
number of mass graves was not known, the existence of dozens of them is without
doubt. The Iranian Resistance has managed to confirm the existence of these mass
graves in at least 12 Iranian provinces including Tehran and has recently established details
of eight mass graves which have never before been revealed. The participants
reiterated that a UN inquiry is long overdue and made urgent calls to the
Norwegian government for such an inquiry.
They pointed out that Norway,
renowned for its championship of human rights and its principles, should play a
leading role in demanding a UN commission of inquiry into this crime against
humanity and putting an end to impunity by the Iranian regime’s officials. The
participants in the press conference stressed that the current session of the
UN General Assembly is deliberating over a resolution on the human rights
situation in Iran.
It is very appropriate for Norway
to demand that the 1988 massacre and the need for an independent investigation
be stipulated in the resolution.
In late July 1988, the Islamic
Republic's founder Ruhollah Khomeini handed down a
fatwa ordering the massacre of political prisoners. According to the fatwa, any
political prisoner who remained loyal to the PMOI had to be executed. 'Death
Commissions' were formed in more than 70 cities. They included a religious
judge, prosecutor and representative of the Intelligence Ministry. In the space
of a few months, some 30,000 political prisoners, mainly activists of the PMOI
(or MeK), who were serving their prison sentences,
including persons as young as 14 and pregnant women, were massacred. In early
August 2016, an audio recording emerged of Khomeini's former heir, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, protesting
to members of the Death Commission. The recording brought to light new
dimensions of this massacre and shocked Iranian society. For nearly three
decades, Tehran
had tried to keep the massacre a secret, but this situation has changed in
recent weeks and the issue has turned into a serious political and social
crisis affecting the most senior officials of the regime. Representative Office of the National Council
of Resistance of Iran
in Nordic Countries/November 4- 2016
Elite
Iraq Forces Punch into Mosul, Face Tough
Resistance
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/Elite Iraqi
forces in tanks and bulldozers thrust into Mosul Friday but faced intense
gunfire and bombs from jihadists defending the city where their
"caliphate" was born. Soldiers of the Counter-Terrorism Service
pushed into the eastern neighborhood of Al-Karamah, the first significant incursion into the city
since a broad offensive to retake it began on October 17. The CTS's "Mosul
regiment", which was the last to leave the city when the jihadists overran
it in June 2014, faced "tough resistance", commander Muntadhar Salem told an AFP reporter on the edge of the
city. The gunfire was almost uninterrupted and reports from the front crackling
into CTS radios said IS had set up barriers and laid bombs along the streets to
slow the advance. Air strikes by the US-led coalition have intensified over the
past two days to prepare for the advance, despite the smoke from burning tyres
set on fire by IS in a bid to provide cover. The resistance in Al-Karamah came despite widespread reports in recent weeks
that top IS commanders had left the eastern side of the city and crossed the Tigris river to regroup on its west bank. An estimated
3,000 to 5,000 IS fighters are scattered across the sprawling city, Iraq's
second largest, where a million-plus civilians are believed to be trapped.
There has been an exodus of civilians from outlying villages this week but few
managed to find a safe way out of the city itself. - Back from the dead -Umm
Ali couldn't hold back her tears when she spoke of her constant fear the
jihadists would take her young sons.
"They kept coming to our
home. Sometimes they'd knock on the door at 10:00 pm," she said.
"They took our car, saying: 'This is the land of the caliphate, it belongs
to us'."Civilians seeking refuge in
Kurdish-controlled areas east of the city recounted tales of IS brutality.
"We're coming from the world of the dead back to the world of the
living," said Raed Ali, 40, who fled his home in
the nearby village
of Bazwaya.
In a rare audio message released on Thursday, IS leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi urged his fighters to defend the city where he proclaimed the
"caliphate" in June 2014.
The public announcement he made
from the pulpit of Mosul's Great Mosque of al-Nuri
heralded the most ambitious and brutal experiment in modern jihad, a period
marked by mass murder, attempted genocide and slavery. But his
"caliphate" has been shrinking steadily since mid-2015 and the loss
of Mosul would leave Raqa,
in Syria,
as the group's only major urban stronghold. IS has been increasingly pragmatic
in its tactics this year, falling back in the face of superior force even in
some of its emblematic bastions such as Fallujah in Iraq and Dabiq in Syria. - Caliphate 'on defensive' -However
Baghdadi, in his first message of 2016, called on IS fighters still in Mosul to make a stand for Iraq's second city. "Holding
your ground with honor is a thousand times easier
than retreating in shame," he said. Aymenn al-Tamimi, a jihadism expert at the
Middle East Forum said the tone of the half-hour speech was "very much of
a caliphate on the defensive." Iraqi forces and their Iranian and US-led
coalition allies see the battle for Mosul as capping a two-year recovery from
the rout that saw IS sweep through the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of
Baghdad. As they regained ground and the caliphate declined, defections from IS
ranks increased, providing intelligence that enabled coalition aircraft to take
out key field commanders. IS has continued to post propaganda video from Mosul, the latest of
which showed a busy market area and cars stopping at traffic lights. With
colder weather setting in, concern has grown for the the
city's civilian population. Aid groups say up to a million people could seek to
flee as soon as they can but shelter is available for only a fraction of that
number. The United Nations says it has received credible reports of IS forcing
tens of thousands of civilians into Mosul
from outlying areas for use as "human shields".
Pentagon
claims Baghdadi losing control of troops
AFP, Washington Friday, 4 November
2016/ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is losing the
ability to control his troops as the battle for Mosul rages on, a US military
official said Thursday. The group earlier released an audio message purportedly
of Baghdadi urging his followers not to retreat as Iraqi security forces
continue their push toward the northern Iraqi city. Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led coalition attacking the
ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said although the military had not officially verified
the recording’s authenticity, it was “clearly” an effort for ISIS leaders to
communicate with fighters. “One of the interesting things that we have seen in
the English translation of this is that Baghdadi is saying, ‘Don’t fight
amongst yourselves,’” he told reporters. “This is the type of thing that a
leader who is losing command and control and ability to keep everybody on the
same page says. We don’t believe it is going to work.”Rumors
have abounded about the ISIS leader’s health
and movements but his whereabouts are unclear. The coalition still doesn’t know
where Baghdadi is, Dorrian said. “If we knew where he
was, he would be killed at once. So we don’t know where he is.” The coalition
has also seen a shrinking of ISIS propaganda, the colonel added, with the
group’s publications dwindling from 700 in August 2015 to 200 this year.Mosque targeted south of Mosul. ISIS militants took over a mosque and
several houses in an Iraqi town south of Mosul
on Friday, a local police officer said, killing seven soldiers and fighters
from the Popular Mobilization force. The attack on the town of Shirqat appeared to be another diversionary
strike by the ultra-hardline militants as they face a
coordinated assault on their Mosul
stronghold, 100 km to the north, by an array of US-backed Iraqi forces. ISIS
militants have attacked several targets since the start of the Mosul campaign on Oct. 17. Similar attacks
took place in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk,
southeast of Mosul, and in the desert town of Rutba close to the borders with Syria and Jordan, and were repelled after
several days of fighting.
Turkey Detains Kurdish Leaders as Deadly Blast Hits
Southeast
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/Turkish police
on Friday detained almost a dozen MPs from the country's main pro-Kurdish
party, including its two co-leaders, as eight people were killed in a deadly
car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)
co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas
and Figen Yuksekdag
appeared before judges in the city of Diyarbakir
who would decide whether to remand them in custody, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. As the hearings got underway, a
blast by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) struck outside a police
station nearby in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, Turkey's main
majority Kurdish city. Eight people were killed, including two police, and over
100 wounded, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced, updating an earlier toll, saying that
the PKK had again showed its "ugly face". The arrest of the HDP
co-leaders along with nine other MPs, is a major
escalation of a crackdown on leading pro-Kurdish politicians in the wake of the
failed military coup in July. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Twitter she was "extremely
worried" over the detentions and would call a meeting of EU ambassadors in
Ankara. Demirtas was detained at his home in Diyarbakir
in the early hours while Yuksekdag was detained in Ankara. Yuksekdag was then brought to Diyarbakir where the investigation is
centred. - Top MPs held -The detention of the 11 MPs appears to be part of a
large-scale operation against the HDP, which is the third largest party in the
Turkish parliament with 59 seats and the main political representative of the
Kurdish minority. Demirtas and Yuksekdag
had been targeted by several separate probes over the last months but this is
the first time that either has been detained. The security operations took place
after midnight, with Demirtas tweeting at 0130 local
time (2230 GMT) that police had arrived at his home and he was about to be
detained. NTV television said the pair were accused of
spreading propaganda for the PKK while Anadolu said Demirtas was accused of provoking violence in deadly
protests in October 2014. The suspects had also failed to respond to demands to
give statements to prosecutors, Anadolu said. Those
detained including the prominent lawmaker Sirri Surreya Onder, who in the past
has been a pointman for contacts with jailed PKK
leader Abdullah Ocalan. The head of the HDP's faction in the Turkish parliament, Idris Baluken, was also held.
Turkish television said one of the detained MPs, Ziya
Pir, had been released on bail.
Rising tensions -The raids come as
Turkey remains under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the July 15
failed coup, which critics say has gone well beyond targeting the actual coup plotters.Thirteen staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, including the editor-in-chief, were
detained on Monday, further heightening strains in Turkish society. Tensions
have surged in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey since a fragile ceasefire
declared by the PKK collapsed in 2015. It has since stepped up its insurgency
against the Turkish security forces, staging regular attacks that have claimed
hundreds of lives among the military and the police. After Friday's blast, the
local governor's office said in a statement that the cause of the blast
"seems to be a car bomb used by members of the separatist terrorist
organisation", a reference to the PKK. The HDP seeks to promote the cause
of Turkey's
Kurdish minority and defend the rights of Kurds as well as those of women, gays
and workers. The charisma in particular of Demirtas
-- dubbed the "Kurdish Obama" by some admirers after the US president --
earned it success at the ballot box. It also divides all its top jobs between a
man and a woman, as with the party chairmanship, which is shared between Demirtas and Yuksekdag. But the
authorities accuse the party of being a front for the PKK and failing to
distance itself from terror, claims it has always vehemently denied. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has launched repeated personal attacks on Demirtas,
who analysts have seen as the sole politician in Turkey who comes anywhere near to
rivalling his charisma. Demirtas has made it a
personal crusade to oppose Erdogan's plan for a
presidential system in Turkey,
which the HDP says would lead to dictatorship.
Syria Rebels Fire on Aleppo Evacuation Route
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/Syrian rebels
fired rockets at one of the eight evacuation corridors opened from
opposition-held east Aleppo during a unilateral Russian-declared ceasefire on
Friday, Syrian state television reported. In a breaking news alert, the
television said rockets had been fired at the Castello
road leading north from the divided city, where Moscow said it was observing a 10-hour
ceasefire on Friday. It said a reporter with another Syrian television channel
had been wounded by shrapnel from the rocket fire. The so-called
"humanitarian pause" declared by Moscow began on Friday morning, but
half-way through the brief ceasefire there was no sign that either civilians or
rebels were heeding calls to leave. State television said rebels were
preventing residents from leaving the opposition-held east of the city, where
more than 250,000 people have been under siege by the army since July.
Russian
helicopter hit in Syria, crew unhurt
The Associated Press, Beirut Friday, 4 November 2016/The Russian military says
one of its helicopters in Syria
has come under rebel fire and made an emergency landing, but no crew members
were hurt. The military's Reconciliation
Center in Syria
says the helicopter came under fire Thursday in the province
of Hama while on a mission to deliver
humanitarian aid and made an emergency landing about 40 kilometers
northwest of the city of Palmyra.
It says the landing site came under rebel fire, but the crew was unhurt. A
rescue helicopter quickly arrived to evacuate the crew to the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's
coastal province
of Latakia
used by the Russian military. Russia
has lost four helicopters in Syria,
where it has waged an air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
Russia Says Two Soldiers 'Lightly Wounded' in Aleppo Rebel Shelling
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/Two Russian
servicemen were lightly wounded Friday by rebel shelling of a corridor intended
to evacuate fighters from the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, the defense ministry in Moscow said.
The ministry said shelling from
home-made gas canister bombs and mortars hit the western part of the key Castello road route at around 1145 GMT. "As a result
of the firing two servicemen were lightly wounded," the ministry said in a
statement, adding that the two soldiers monitoring a ceasefire were evacuated
and there was "no threat to their lives".The
statement said that "around 50 representatives of Russian, Western and
Arab media" were evacuated from the area and that the Russian military had
temporarily cut a live video of the area. A Russian-declared ceasefire for
opposition-held areas of Syria's
second city Aleppo
took effect Friday, but there was little sign that civilians or rebels were
heeding calls to leave. Moscow
says its forces and Syrian troops on the ground are holding fire from 0700 GMT
to 1700 GMT and have opened up two corridors for fighters to quit and six
corridors for civilians. Syrian state media reported earlier that rebels fired
rockets at one of the eight evacuation passages open for civilians and rebels,
and accused opposition fighters of preventing residents from fleeing.
ISIS
kills hundreds, seeks child recruits around Mosul: UN
Reuters, Geneva
Friday, 4 November 2016/ISIS militants have killed hundreds of people,
including 50 deserters and 180 former Iraqi government employees, around their
stronghold of Mosul,
UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday. The 50 were executed for
desertion on Monday at the Ghazlani military base in
Mosul, and the 180 died on Wednesday as ISIS was retreating from Kokjali town, she told a regular UN briefing in Geneva,
citing “credible reports” from multiple sources, including from ISIS-occupied
areas. The militants transported 1,600 abducted civilians from the town of Hammam al-Alil
to Tal Afar on Tuesday, possibly for use as human shields against air strikes,
and told some they may be taken to Syria. They also took 150 families
from Hammam al-Alil to Mosul on Wednesday. “Also
on Wednesday, ISIS reportedly used
loudspeakers to order the residents of Lazaghah and Arij villages, about 5 km from Hammam
al-Alil city centre, to leave their villages or be
severely punished,” Shamdasani said. Militants told
residents of Hammam al-Alil
that they must hand over their children, especially boys above the age of nine,
in an apparent recruitment drive for child soldiers. “They’ve been knocking on
people’s doors and asking for their boys,” she said, adding that families that
did not comply were threatened with severe punishment. ISIS militants were
holding nearly 400 Kurdish, Yazidi and Shia women in Tal Afar, and had possibly killed up to 200
people in Mosul
city, she said. Iraqi special forces recaptured six
districts of eastern Mosul on Friday, a military
statement said, expanding the army’s foothold in the ISIS
stronghold a day after its leader told his militant followers there could be no
retreat. Shamdasani said the UN had reports of air
strikes causing civilian deaths during the battle, including one on Wednesday
evening that reportedly killed four women and injured 17 other civilians in the
al Qudus neighborhood in
eastern Mosul.She said she was not aware of any of
civilians dying in air strikes while they were being held as human shields.
Russian-Declared
Ceasefire Goes into Effect in Aleppo
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/A 10-hour
Russian-declared ceasefire for opposition-held areas of Syria's second city
Aleppo began on Friday morning with the goal of encouraging civilians and
surrendering rebels to leave. The so-called "humanitarian pause" is
the second time Russia and its regime ally have declared passages open for evacuations.But expectations were low that either civilians
or rebels would leave through the eight passages Moscow said were open, with
two reserved for fighters. A similar three-day unilateral ceasefire last month
ended with only a handful of people leaving. Civilians inside besieged east Aleppo expressed fear of crossing into government-held
territory, though Moscow and Damascus accused rebels of preventing people
who wanted to leave from evacuating. The UN also failed during the last
ceasefire to evacuate injured people, saying it could not obtain security
guarantees in time. Rebel forces have rejected the Russian initiative,
describing it as an attempt to alleviate international pressure. "This
announcement is worthless... We don't trust the Russians or any of their cheap
initiatives," said Yasser al-Youssef, from the
politburo of the Nureddin al-Zinki
rebel brigade in Aleppo.
More than 250,000 people remain in east Aleppo,
which has been besieged by government forces since July. In September, Syria's army,
backed by Russian forces, launched an operation to recapture the east, killing
hundreds of people and destroying infrastructure, including hospitals. And last
week, rebel forces began a bid to break the siege on eastern Aleppo. After several days of quiet,
opposition fighters launched what they described as the "second
phase" of that operation on Thursday, sparking heavy clashes with
government forces on several fronts on the western outskirts of the city. But
an AFP correspondent in eastern Aleppo
said it was quiet on Friday morning, with no sounds of fighting heard and no
air strikes.
Iran Sentences Saudi Embassy Attackers to Jail
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/Iran has
sentenced protesters accused of attacking Saudi Arabia's embassy in response
to the execution of a prominent cleric to up to six months in prison, their
lawyer said Friday. Some of the defendants received three or six months in jail
for disturbing public order while others were acquitted over the January
attack, Mostafa Shabani
said, quoted by the ISNA news agency. The suspects were cleared of the charge
of destruction of the embassy, he said, without specifying how many people were
convicted. In July, 21 suspects in the attack on the embassy in Tehran had appeared in
court. Another 27 people were said to be facing trial but their fate is
unclear. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia
and some of its Sunni Muslim Gulf
allies severed diplomatic relations with Shiite-ruled Iran after the
incident. The embassy attack was condemned by Iran's top authorities, including
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Palestinians
Say Will Protest Interpol Membership Delay
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/The
Palestinian government will protest against a delay in its application to join
the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) at the body's annual
conference next week, an official said Friday. "Palestine applied for
membership of Interpol more than a year ago, but the executive committee of
Interpol rejected the Palestinian request for a vote and referred it to a
committee of experts for examination," foreign ministry official Ammar Hijazi told AFP. He added
that "executive measures" had prevented the issue being on the agenda
for Interpol's next annual meeting, to be held on the Indonesian island of Bali from November 7-10. Hijazi said Palestinian officials would nevertheless attend
the meeting to register their protest. "There is no plan to vote on the
Palestinian request at the next meeting, but the diplomatic battle ahead is to
expose what the Executive Committee did to postpone a decision," he said,
adding that the Palestinian Authority was seeking to enlist support for its
bid. Interpol confirmed it had received "several" requests from
member countries to discuss Palestine's
membership at the annual conference. "However, under Interpol's rules it
is the Executive Committee which sets the agenda," a statement said. The
committee will meet on Saturday to finalize the agenda, it added. The
Lyon-based Interpol currently has 190 member countries, enabling police across
the globe to share information. The State of Palestine gained observer status
at the United Nations in 2012 and since then has joined 54 international
organizations and agreements, according to Hijazi. Among
them are the International Criminal Court and the United Nations heritage body
UNESCO. Israel
has opposed such moves, delaying payments of taxes to the Palestinians after
their 2015 ICC application. The Israeli foreign ministry declined formal
comment, but an official confirmed it was opposing the bid. "We think this
is not the right move," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Egypt prime minister defends painful economic measures
The Associated Press, Cairo
Friday, 4 November 2016/Egypt’s prime minister is trying to reassure anxious
Egyptians after the Central Bank’s unprecedented decision the previous day to
devalue by 48 percent before allowing it to float. Sherif
Ismail said on Friday that steps will also be taken for “improving the
citizens’ living conditions.”His government devalued
the pound to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for a
much-needed $12 billion bailout and announced cuts in fuel subsidies, along
with a in gasoline prices between 30 percent and 46.8 percent. Ismail says the
measures are necessary and that “it’s our destiny to take action in the face of
the current economic situation.”Amid fears of social
unrest, Islamists supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have called for
protests to demand removal of the country’s general-turned-president
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Egypt Morsi Trial Judge Escapes
Car Bombing
Agence
France Presse/Naharnet /November 04/16/An Egyptian
judge in one of the trials of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi escaped unharmed when a car bomb exploded in Cairo on
Friday, police officials said. The officials said the bomb in the eastern Nasr
City district had targeted judge Ahmed Abul Fotouh as he was driving by, adding that the blast injured
no one. The attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy
in Cairo killed
a passerby. In September, militants set off a car bomb as the country's deputy
state prosecutor was passing by. He was unharmed. Islamist militants have waged
an insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the
military ouster of Morsi in 2013. His overthrow
unleashed a crackdown on Islamists that killed hundreds of protesters.
Morsi
faced several trials after his ouster, receiving a death sentence in one of them.
US
service members killed in Jordan
shooting
AFP, Amman/Washington Friday, 4
November 2016/Three US troops were killed in a shooting attack outside a
Jordanian training facility on Friday, a US
official said, following earlier reports that one or two US personnel
were dead. “A total of three US
service members died today in the incident in Jordan,” the official said.
“Initial reports were that one was killed, two injured. The two injured service
members were transported to a hospital in Amman,
where they died.”“The service members were in
vehicles approaching the gate of a Jordanian military training facility, where
they came under small arms fire,” the official added. “We are working with the
Jordanian government to gather additional details about what happened.” Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East, is a
member of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. US
forces have trained a small group of vetted Syrian rebels in Jordan, and American instructors have trained
Iraqi and Palestinian security forces in Jordan as well over the past few
years. Friday’s incident comes almost a year after a Jordanian policeman shot
dead two US instructors, a South African and two Jordanians at a police
training centre east of Amman, before being gunned down. Washington said at the time that the two
Americans killed in the November 9, 2015 shooting were employees of the private
firm DynCorp contracted by the State Department to train Palestinian forces.
Two other Americans were wounded in that incident which sparked concern in Washington and was condemned by the US embassy.
Last year, the United States
announced its intention to increase overall US
assistance to Jordan
from $660 million to $1 billion annually for the 2015-2017 period.
A government source said that military training is provided at Al-Jafr air base by instructors of various nationalities,
including Americans, to participants from different countries.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis& editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on November 04-05/16
Christian
minority in Iraq seeks
autonomy in post-Mosul Iraq
Cengiz Çandar/November 04/16
One of them was Syriac, the other was Chaldean. The Syriac
speaks Arabic but understood my conversation with his comrade in English. The
Chaldean is a member of the Kurdistan
parliament who speaks in perfect, fluent English. Among the three denominations
that constitute one of the oldest Christian communities in Mesopotamia,
only a representative of the Assyrian community was not present.
What do Iraqi Christians expect
from the post-Islamic State era?
Syriacs,
Assyrians and Chaldeans are ethnically and linguistically the same people. They
take pride in speaking Aramaic, the language Jesus Christ spoke. Generally,
they do not like to be asked whether they are Syriac,
Assyrian or Chaldean. They insist that they are all the same and that such a
question is of a divisive nature.
Nevertheless, I asked and found
that one of them is Syriac, belonging to the Orthodox
church, and the other one Chaldean, connected to the Vatican.
It was the Syriac
who asked me what I consider to be the fate of the Christians in Iraq — whether
I think that one of the oldest Christian communities on this earth might perish
and be uprooted from their homeland.
On the 12th day of the operation
to liberate Mosul,
many districts and villages of Ninevah province were
freed by the Iraqi army and the Kurdish peshmerga
forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), who are acting in
coordination under the American military baton. Many see US involvement — perhaps a bit
over-optimistically — as a hopeful development for unity in Iraq in the
post-Islamic State (IS) era.
For the Christian minority
residing in its historical homeland — constituting a majority in some parts of
it — the future is uncertain. That is why I am asked whether Christians will be
able to survive in their homeland.
I responded bluntly: “Look at the
situation in Jerusalem and more importantly in Bethlehem, in the
birthplace of Jesus Christ. Bethlehem
was an overwhelmingly Christian-populated town; now there is hardly a
Palestinian Christian living there. Do not forget the fate of the Christians of
the Asia Minor, what kind of catastrophe has
befallen on them. …”
He interrupted me and spoke about
what is happening in Syria
and the gradually changing demographics of the Christians in Lebanon. Yet
the emphasis, naturally, is on the fate of Iraqi Christians. It is their
homeland, and they are not only the indigenous people of the land but one of
the oldest — one of those rare communities in the world who have been in living
in perpetuity on their land.
Dr. Soory
Maqdassy took over the conversation from his
compatriot and set forth an Iraqi Christian demand for the
post-IS era. He said, “We cannot live as we used to live until IS is eliminated and Mosul
is declared liberated. We must have an autonomous region in the Ninevah Plain, in the north and south of it. Now, the north
of it with the district center of Bashiqa and
settlements such as Bartella, Karakush,
etc., are liberated. They were all Christian centers. Only in Bashiqa, half the population were Yazidis,
while the other half were Syriacs. The Ninevah Plain, south and north, has been an extraordinary
region for all the minority faiths only to be found on the territory of Iraq,
from Christians to Sabians, from Shabeks
to Yazidis. They lived in coexistence throughout
history. However, unfortunately, after 2003 — the so-called liberation of Iraq — both the Baghdad
central government and the Kurdish government in Erbil
overlooked and undermined us and did not respect minority rights. Iraq is
constructed on Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish components, and the product of it has
become the cleansing of our population from the Ninevah
Plain with the arrival of Daesh [IS] and the declaration
of the Islamic state. We cannot trust Baghdad or
Erbil anymore. We need to have an autonomous
region in the Ninevah Plain, after the liberation of Mosul.”
His Syriac
companion, Sami Supania, was nodding to every word Maqdassy uttered as if to emphasize once again the common
position of the Christian minority of Iraq.
While some former Christian
localities of the Ninevah Plain were liberated by the
Iraqi army — such as Bartella — and some by Kurdish peshmerga — such as Bashiqa — the
Christian interlocutors are insisting with pride that in the Iraqi army and the
peshmerga there are armed Christian units who
spearheaded the attack against IS to liberate their towns and villages.
For them, this is an encouraging
sign that they can take care of their affairs in terms of the administration
and defense of the Ninevah
Plain, once IS is removed. They speak of figures:
Since the arrival of IS in 2014, the number of displaced people from the Ninevah Plain grew to around 250,000. Almost 40% of this
number has moved to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and
beyond. The Christians said that nearly 120,000 are ready to return to the
towns and villages they evacuated. I reminded my Christian interlocutors that
the operation to liberate Mosul
may take weeks and even months and could be very messy and bloody. For them,
repopulating the region does not need to wait for the liberation of the western
bank of the Tigris River, where the Arab heart and the city center of Mosul is. They said that
if allied forces liberate the eastern bank — which is mainly populated by the
Kurds and has a Christian hinterland, the Ninevah
Plain — then the Christians will start to return and Christian survival in Iraq will be
possible. With their understandable lack of trust in Muslim Arabs and Kurds
alike, they want to rely on what they term “the international system” or “the
outside world,” meaning the combination of the United States and the countries
of the European Union. In Iraqi Christian eyes, after all, these countries are
Christian nations who should be protecting the Iraqi Christians.
There was mention of Article 140
of the Iraqi Constitution, which has not been implemented. Article 140 involves
resolving the conflicts pertaining to “the disputed territories” between Baghdad and the Kurds and territories from Sinjar on the Syrian border to Kirkuk
and to Khanaqin, relatively close to Baghdad at the Iranian border. The last
advances of the Iraqi army and the Kurdish forces with their Christian units in
the opening battles of the liberation of Mosul
involve “the disputed territories.”
I listened to KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil, who,
when the Brookings Institution's Kenneth Pollack asked whether the Kurds would
wait for 11 more years to resolve the issue of “the disputed territories” after
the liberation of Mosul,
responded with an outright “No!”
Barzani
implied that Kurds would go on their way if Article 140 is not implemented in the post-IS period. But now the Iraqi Christians want to
enter the field when it comes to the implementation of Article 140 with a
demand for Christian autonomy. They say the first step involves normalization —
the return of the displaced Christians back to their homes — and then a census,
to be followed by an autonomous region to be established for Christians in the Ninevah Plain.
It is a dream they want to make
possible. If they cannot succeed, then another tragedy in the Middle
East might lie in wait.
Europe's New Blasphemy Courts
Douglas Murray/Gatestone
Institute/November 04/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9253/europe-blasphemy-courts
Europe
is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front
and back doors, initiated in a country which once prided itself on being among
the first in the world to throw off clerical intrusion into politics. By
prosecuting Wilders, the courts in Holland
are effectively ruling that there is only one correct answer to the question
Wilders asked. They are saying that if someone asks you whether you would like
more Moroccans or fewer, people must always answer "more," or he will
be committing a crime. At no point would it occur to me that anyone saying he
did not want an endless flow of, say, British people coming into the Netherlands
should be prosecuted. Nor would he be. The long-term implications for Dutch
democracy of criminalising a majority opinion are catastrophic. But the trial
of Wilders is also a nakedly political move.
The Dutch courts are behaving like
a religious court. They are trying to regulate public expression and opinion
when it comes to the followers of one religion. In so doing they
obviously aspire to keep the peace in the short term, but they cannot possibly
realise what trouble they are storing up for our future. Europe
is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front
and back doors. In Britain,
the gymnast Louis Smith has just been suspended for two months by British
Gymnastics. This 27-year old sportsman's career has been put on hold, and
potentially ruined, not because of anything to do with athletics but because of
something to do with Islam.
Last month a video emerged online
of the four-time Olympic medal-winner and a friend getting up to drunken antics
after a wedding. The video -- taken on Smith's phone in the early hours of the
morning -- showed a friend taking a rug off a wall and doing an imitation of
Islamic prayer rituals. When the video from Smith's phone ended up in the hands
of a newspaper, there was an immediate investigation, press castigation and
public humiliation for the young athlete. Smith -- who is himself of mixed race
-- was forced to parade on daytime television in Britain and deny
that he is a racist, bigot or xenophobe. Notoriously liberal figures from the UK media queued
up to berate him for getting drunk or for even thinking of taking part in any
mockery of religion. This in a country in which Monty Python's Life of Brian is
regularly voted the nation's favourite comic movie. After an "investigation,"
the British sports authority has now deemed Smith's behaviour to warrant a
removal of funding and a two-month ban from sport. This is the re-entry of
blasphemy laws through the back door, where newspapers, daytime chat-shows and
sports authorities decide between them that one religion is worthy of
particular protection. They do so because they take the religion of Islam
uniquely on its own estimation and believe, as well as fear, the warnings of
the Islamic blasphemy-police worldwide.
The front-door reintroduction of
blasphemy laws, meantime, is being initiated in a country which once prided
itself on being among the first in the world to throw off clerical intrusion
into politics. The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has
been put on trial before. In 2010 he was tried in the courts for the contents
of his film "Fitna" as well as a number of
articles. The trial collapsed after one of the expert witnesses -- the late,
great Dutch scholar of Islam, Hans Jansen -- revealed that a judge in the case
had tried in private to influence him to change his testimony. The trial was
transparently rigged and made Dutch justice look like that of a tin-pot
dictatorship rather than one of the world's most developed democracies. The
trial was rescheduled and, after considerable legal wrangling, Wilders was
eventually found "not guilty" of a non-crime in 2011.
But it seems that the Dutch legal
system, like the Mounties, is intent on always
getting its man. On Monday of this week the latest trial of Geert
Wilders got underway in Holland.
This time Wilders is being tried because of a statement at a rally in front of
his supporters in March 2014. Ahead of municipal elections, and following
reports of a disproportionate amount of crimes being committed in Holland by Muslims of Moroccan origin, Wilders asked a
crowd, "Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?"
The audience responded, "Fewer, fewer." To which Wilders responded,
"Well, we'll arrange that, then."Geert Wilders during his March 2014
speech, where he asked "Do you want more or fewer Moroccans?"
(Image source: nos.nl video screenshot) Opinion polls suggest that around half
the Dutch public want fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands and many opinion polls
going back decades suggest that the Dutch people want less immigration in
general. So at the very least Wilders is being put on trial for voicing an
opinion which is far from fringe. The long-term implications for Dutch
democracy of criminalizing a majority opinion are catastrophic. But the trial of
Wilders is also a nakedly political move.
Whether or not one feels any
support for Wilders's sentiments is not in fact the
point in this case. The point is that by prosecuting someone for saying what he
said, the courts in Holland
are effectively ruling that there is only one correct answer to the question
Wilders asked. They are saying that if someone asks you whether you would like
more Moroccans or fewer, people must always answer "more," or they
will be committing a crime. What kind of way is that to order a public debate
on immigration or anything else? People may say, "He wouldn't be allowed
to say that about any other group of people." And Wilders himself may not say that about any group of people, because he has
his own political views and his own interpretation of the problems facing his
country.
It is worth trying a
thought-experiment: If Wilders or any other politician got up and asked a crowd
"Do you want more or fewer British people in Holland," I may not --
as a British person -- feel terribly pleased with him for asking the question,
or terribly happy with the crowd if they chanted "Fewer." Although if British expats in Holland
were responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and disorder in the
country, some mitigating sympathy for the sentiment may be forthcoming.
But at no point would it occur to me that anyone saying he did not want an
endless flow of British people coming into the Netherlands should be prosecuted.
Nor would he be. Like the behaviour of the British Gymnastics association, the
Dutch courts are behaving like a religious court. They are trying to regulate
public expression and opinion when it comes to the followers of one religion.
In so doing, they obviously aspire to keep the peace in the short term, but
they cannot possibly realise what trouble they are storing up for our future.
**Douglas Murray, British author,
commentator and public affairs analyst, is based in London, England.
© 2016 Gatestone
Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily
reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone
Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of
its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written
consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Will
Hillary make it?
Trisha de Borchgrave/Al
Arabiya/November 04/16
Whether the latest addendum to
Hillary Clinton’s email debacle is over-eager bureaucracy by FBI director James
Comey, or a procedural necessity in terms of
accountability, it is clear that the orthopedic boot
of containment that Hillary’s team has placed on her Achilles heel of
questionable judgement has still left her hobbling for votes. Parents’ advice
to their children has always been to be careful of the company they keep.
However, this can be difficult for the person who goes on to attain worldwide
fame and influence when the modest roots of a childhood beanstalk grow to the
dizzying altitudes of sycophancy, and tear into a lifetime’s hard work and
commitment to public service. Hillary’s drive has been turbo-charged by the
childhood humiliation experienced by her mother, whose impoverished beginnings
forced her into domestic service at fourteen, and by the betrayal of the man
she was in love with.
The chronic nature of Bill
Clinton’s infidelities hurt her deeply and evolved into angry exasperation at
his potential ruination of her own chances at fulfilling her own ambitions,
which she deservedly believed herself more qualified to reach, albeit without
his orator’s skill and charisma. Not only did it feed into her obsessive need
for privacy, as sought by many a jilted spouse, but worsened her persistent
blindness to compromising professional situations. Corporate greed will only
ever be embraced by the corporate greedy which constitutes about one percent of
the voting population. Hillary’s substantial one-off remunerations from the
likes of Goldman Sachs may have helped her prove her punching weight inside a
formidable marriage of equals, when instead she should have been flagging up to
his acolytes her husband’s sloppy sourcing of funds, be it in the name of the
Clinton Foundation’s coffers or Chelsea’s inheritance.For
Hillary, rarefied living, blind ambition and public service became one and the
same thing, and led to an astonishing lack of discipline when applying insight
to handling her top aide, Huma Abedin’s,
predicament
Corroded judgment
Rarefied living corrodes judgment,
just as the rich and famous, such as John Kennedy Jr. or Princess Diana,
perceived themselves above mortality when piloting a plane in zero visibility or
speeding 70 miles an hour down a Paris
tunnel with no seat belt. For Hillary, rarefied living, blind ambition and
public service became one and the same thing, and led to an astonishing lack of
discipline when applying insight to handling her top aide, Huma
Abedin’s, predicament. It is even more difficult to
comprehend when watching the documentary “Weiner” how she could possibly have
trusted Abedin with any sense either. It is a film
about ogling two people’s embarrassing relationship, Abedin’s
with her husband, disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner. The viewer reels
between open-mouthed disbelief and embarrassed flinching at Abedin’s
efforts to win sympathy, while shaming Weiner into non-repeat offending of what
is clearly a serial disease. Faced with the double emotional whammy of being
put through the stocks of public indignity and singled out as a Muslim
non-patriot, Hillary’s loyalty towards her “surrogate daughter” blindsided her
yet again to what was an untenable position for Abedin
as Hillary’s professional confidante.
The gaping reality
As a result, the gaping reality
for Hillary is that she could still lose to the awfulness that is Donald Trump.
If she wins, nothing will have better prepared her for prioritizing the need to
find common ground among a populace united and divided by hatred. She will owe
the electorate accountability in her position as commander-in-chief of their
lives. It is still frustrating to know that men in her position have got away
with far worse, yet now is the time to lead by example, and not make stupid
decisions based on insecurity. That is the domain of the male ego.
In an election that could be
described by millions of discontented voters as, “What rat are you rooting for
in this rat race?”, both candidates will be under
investigation should they enter office. She, with the
long-on-innuendo-short-on-fact FBI disclosure, and he, on proceedings relating
to allegations of rape of an underage girl that a federal New York judge has filed for counsel.
The standards for gender gap answerability have never been so hypocritical.
With the optimistic ray of winter’s fading light, perhaps it might be easier
for Hillary to plug the hole of public trust she is teetering over, in ways
that the tsunami waves of hope that threatened to drown a planet’s expectations
of Barack Obama, has inevitably left some disappointed. She might even defy
those who have held their noses at the voting booth. Or, then again, Americans
might set fire to government buildings instead. Donna Brazile,
chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, advised voters this week:
"Keep your focus, keep your eyes on the prize". The trouble is that
the prize is simply the lesser of two evils, including for many African
Americans who turned out to vote for Obama and indeed for Bill Clinton. Jeez,
there he goes again, pipping her to a post that must
seem like it is made of mercury.
Saad Lamjarred: Art and politics
Mshari
Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/November
04/16
Moroccan singer Saad Lamjarred has made headlines
these days not due to his sensational pop songs, but rather because of his
recent problem with the French judiciary. The artist is facing sexual assault
charges against a French girl of Algerian origins. He’s accused of sexually
assaulting her in France
where he was scheduled to perform in a concert on Saturday. So far, the news is
suitable for entertainment sections. But a statement by Lamjarred’s
lawyer has said there is a “regional conspiracy” as he hinted that an Arab
country is behind what happened to Lamjarred.
We don’t know who stands behind this
conspiracy - according to the lawyer’s comment - although the fact that he did
hint is actually clear. It’s up to the judiciary to decide whether Lamjarred is innocent or guilty. However, the question is:
When do we draw a separating line between art and employing the artist’s value
and symbolism in the market of politics to promote certain ideas or
orientations? What’s the relation between art and politics?A thorough look into this question shows the
relation between artists and politics is old and renewed in the entire world
and not just in the Arab world. There’s a beautiful American movie about the
life of famous screenwriter and author Dalton Trumbo who was a Marxist and a
leftist. The question is when do we draw a line between art and employing the
artist’s value and symbolism in the market of politics to promote certain ideas
or orientations? What’s the relation between art and politics? The movie is set
during the peak
of American McCarthyism
campaigns against communism. During that time, Trumbo and a number of other
screenwriters were prohibited from performing their work after some artists and
Hollywood society, such as actor John Wayne
who’s well-known for his Western roles, conspired against them.
The Egypt example
Let’s take Egypt as an
example from the Arab world. Egypt
has been an arena for political disputes among artists following the January
revolution which brought the Muslim Brotherhood into power. Disputes escalated
when the other revolution erupted to remove the Brotherhood from power. The
details are clear and it’s well-known who is with whom in Egypt, from among Egypt’s artists. Speaking of Egypt, perhaps
we must note that the involvement artists in politics dates back to the period
of black-and-white movies. Actor Hussein Sedky, who
passed away in February 1976, sympathized with the Brotherhood and had
relations with Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb. Hamdy
Ahmed, who died in January 2016, was an active leftist and he became a member
of parliament during the presidential term of Anwar al-Sadat. In Lebanon, almost
everyone knows who’s with Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyid
Hassan Nasrallah, or with Christian leader Michel Aoun or with Christian leader Samir
Geagea or with Future Movement leader Saad Hariri. Some artists openly and frankly state whom
they support. In Syria,
artists are categorized as “revolution” or regime artists. It’s a present
phenomenon. Some artists are consciously biased because they are politicized.
Others are biased out of fear or temptation while others are naive and just
want to improve their presence in the art scene by taking a stance and think
this will help them gain publicity. Some are forced by a political or a social
authority to take a certain stance. It’s the politics of art.
**This article was first published
in Asharq al-Awsat on Nov.
02, 2016.
Iran ratcheting up anti-Saudi
rhetoric
By Dr. Majid
Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November
04/16
Iran’s
foreign policy has fundamentally shifted toward ratcheting
up anti-Saudi sentiments and mobilizing hatred toward Riyadh. Tehran
is doing so by trying to reach out to three groups of audiences: first, the
Iranian people living in Iran,
second, Iranians and Shiite communities living abroad, and third, the
Westerners. Iranian government’s concerted efforts are applied through four
critical tools.
Anti-Saudi rhetoric, 300 percent
rise
The first tool used to ratchet up
anti-Saudi sentiments or hatred toward Riyadh
is being conducted through Iranian state-owned media outlets (newspapers such
as Keyhan, Hamshahri, Jomhour Islami, Etela’at, as well as TV and radio outlets). In the research
that I conducted by analyzing one of Iran’s major newspapers, Keyhan, I quantitatively examined anti-Saudi and
anti-American rhetoric in two separate months – August 2016 and August 2009 –
i.e. before the nuclear agreement and Syrian conflict, and after those
developments. While the anti-American rhetoric has not subsided significantly,
anti-Saudi rhetoric has increased exponentially by approximately 300 percent in
the one-month period. It is crucial to point out that this finding is solely
linked to one newspaper. This amount can be multiplied by the myriad of TV and
radio outlets as well as newspapers that are owned by the Iranian government.
To reach Iranians abroad and Shiite communities, and in order to shape and
influence the public opinion in the region, Iranian outlets, broadcasting in
various languages – Arabic, English, and Persian – communicating the same
messages through various satellite TV stations.
Some of the more prominent outlets
used to spread Iranian propaganda include, Al-Alam
(The World), an around the clock news channels in Arabic, Jaam-e-Jam
international TV channels (in Persian language), the multilingual Sahar TV, the state-run Farsi-language Islamic Republic of
Iran Broadcasting channels (IRIB), the English-language Press TV channel, and
the Lebanese channel, Al-Manar, which is operated by
Hezbollah but supported by the Iranian government.
The Iranian government has also
used the radio station, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, which is
produced in 20 languages, and various newspapers, such as the Tehran Times,
which is published in English.
Other Iran
media outlets, irrespective of their affiliation toward moderates, reformists,
or the IRGC and the Supreme Leader, echo the same message when it comes to
accusing, attacking and mobilizing resentment toward Saudi Arabia. While the Iranian
government appears to have been successful in mobilizing anti-Saudi sentiments
in the West, among Iranians and Shiite communities, Iran has encountered significant
limitations in influencing public opinion of majority of Arab nations and
Middle Eastern countries. This is most likely due to the fact that majority of
the people in the region see how Iran’s
military is engaged on a daily basis in supporting the Syrian regime and they
see Iran
as complicit in the killing and displacement of millions of Syrians.
Foreign service,
western media and educated Diaspora. The second and third tools used to
mobilize hatred and anti-Saudi sentiments is conducted through Iran’s moderates
and reformists who hold high positions in the presidential office and the
foreign service- including Iran’s foreign minister, Javad
Zarif, and the President Hassan Rowhani
– as well as the manipulation of Western media.
It goes without saying that the
American-educated Zarif has been repeatedly reaching
out to the Western media and journalists in order to offer the “true” picture
of the Middle East, terrorism, and conflicts.
He argues that Saudi Arabia
is to be blamed for every issue, while he projects Iran to be the victim and the
benign force in the region. Excited to speak with Iranian leaders after decades
of stand-off and being willing to adopt the dominant framework of not holding
Iran accountable for regional issues after the nuclear agreement, Western
journalists and media outlets are more than willing to spread the Iranian
leader’s narrative.In addition, people such as Zarif and Rowhani are playing
well into Western public opinion by offering an unsophisticated and binary
story of the Middle East, terrorism and Islam to a Western audience.
More importantly, Zarif, Rowhani and hardliners
have been fortunate and successful at creating the Saudi image that they desire
because the Iranian educated diaspora in the West,
particularly in the US (who
play an important role in the media, politics and academia) have been promoting
a positive picture of Iran’s
culture, tradition and civilization. Other Middle Eastern countries lack such
powerful Diaspora in the West. Iran’s
effort to mobilize hatred toward Saudi Arabia has become one of its
main pillars of foreign policy. Due to the aforementioned reasons, Iran appears to have succeeded in shaping and
influencing Western public opinion, Shiite communities’ and Iranian public
opinion, while camouflaging Tehran’s
complicity in terrorism and regional conflicts.