LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
November 26/16
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For Today
Blessed are the eyes
that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to
see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not
hear it
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10/21-24/:"At
that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for
such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my
Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is
except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then turning
to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see
what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what
you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear
it.’"
It is good to be made much of for a
good purpose at all times
Letter to the Galatians 04/13-20/:"You know that it was because of a
physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you; though my
condition put you to the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me
as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your
eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you
the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude
you, so that you may make much of them. It is good to be made much of for a
good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you. My little children,
for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I
wish I were present with you now and could change my
tone, for I am perplexed about you."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 25-26/16
Iran May Be Using Iraq and Syria as a Bridge to LebanonظHanin Ghaddar/The
Washington Institute/November 25/16
Iranian women's struggle to eliminate violence against women is intertwined
with the struggle for regime change in Iran/NCRI Statements/November 25/16
Iran’s good cop, bad cop strategy/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November
25/16
Driving isn’t a right, it’s a privilege; so slow down and show some
respect/Peter Harrison/Al Arabiya/November 25/16
Why this surge of US interest in Yemen/Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi/Al Arabiya/November 25/16
Europe: Let's Self-destruct/Judith Bergman/November 25/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese
Related News published on on November 25-26/16
Judicial Council Begins in Absentia Trial in Bashir Gemayel Case, Asks Chartouni to
Turn Himself in
Aoun Praises Army Strike in Arsal,
Says 'Boosts Stability'
Claims of Attempts to 'Weaken' Presidential Term 'Unfounded'
Geagea Hopes Berri Will be
'4th Pillar' of 'Mustaqbal-FPM-LF Equation'
Lebanese Army Arrests Prominent IS Fugitive in Arsal
Kaag Visits ABAAD Safe House on Int'l Day for
Eliminating Violence against Women
Hizbullah: Army Operation Highlights Its Essential
Role in Protecting Border
Hariri Calls for Reforming Laws to Protect Women in Lebanon
Lebanese Army Explains: Wall Near Refugee Camp to Prevent Infiltration of
Terrorists
Planned Resort in Ramlet al-Baida
Could Wall off the Sea in Beirut
Lebanon within a UK Funded Program for Elimination of Violence Against Women
Iran May Be Using Iraq and Syria as a Bridge to Lebanon
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on November
25-26/16
Syria regime set “red line”around Al-Bab: pro-Assad daily
Civilians Despair as Syria Army Advances in Rebel Aleppo
Another OBGYN hospital destroyed in Syria’s Aleppo
Turkey threatens EU with refugee surge
Turkish soldier killed in Syria clashes as rebels push to al-Bab
Palestinian child dead as Israel wildfires reach West Bank
At least 36 dead in Iran train crash
NGO Says Iraq Forces Must Open Safe Routes for Mosul Residents
British government defends its role in Libya campaign
Yemen: Coalition raids kill seven Houthi militias
As 'Caliphate' Shrinks, IS Struggles in Egypt
France's Fillon, Buoyed by Debate, Heads for Finish
Line
British Government Defends its Role in Libya Campaign
Mogherini: Violence against women is violence against
society
Arslan: We are subjected to huge conspiracy
LF: We won 4 of 7 seats at NDU Barsa polls
Gunfire in backlash at loud wedding in Ain el Hilwe
Marada, SSNP win 3 seats at NDU Barsa
student polls
The fourth day of a dry hunger strike by a political prisoner
Iranian women's struggle to eliminate violence against women is intertwined
with the struggle for regime change in Iran
Links From Christian Today
Site for on November 25-26/16
Barbaric'
Forced Organ Harvesting Targets Christians In China, Investigators Claim
Woman
Stabbed To Death In Attack On Home For Retired Missionaries
Senior
Anglican Bishop To Preside At LGBT Eucharist
Despairing
At The State Of The World? The Local Church Is The Answer
This
British Cathedral Wants To Get People Of Different Faiths Talking
Christians
Believe In Truth – How Should We Respond To Post-Truth Politics?
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on November 25-26/16
Judicial Council Begins in
Absentia Trial in Bashir Gemayel
Case, Asks Chartouni to Turn Himself in
Naharnet/November 25/16/The Judicial Council, the
Lebanese court that handles cases related to national security, launched Friday
an in absentia trial in the case of the 1982 assassination of president-elect Bashir Gemayel, calling on Habib Chartouni -- who confessed
to planting the bomb before escaping prison -- to turn himself in. “The Council
has decided to issue an ultimatum asking the accused Habib
Chartouni to turn himself in within 24 hours at the
latest from the March 3, 2017 trial session,” the Council said in a statement.
It also decided to launch an “in absentia trial” and to ask the Directorate
General of Personal Status to verify whether a death certificate has been
issued for Nabil al-Alam,
the other main suspect in the case who reportedly died in 2014. The Council
also ordered the General Directorate of General Security to probe Alam's alleged death. Gemayel was
a senior member of the Kataeb Party and the supreme
commander of the Lebanese Forces militia during the early years of the civil
war. He was elected president on August 23, 1982 while the country was torn by
civil war and occupied by both Israel
and Syria.
Gemayel was assassinated on September 14, 1982, along
with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in Kataeb's
headquarters in Ashrafieh. Chartouni,
a member of the Syrian Social National Party, was later arrested in connection
with the assassination. His sister was a resident of the apartment above the
room Bachir was in. He had visited her the previous
day and planted the bomb in her apartment. The next day, he called her and told
her to get out of the building. Once she was out, he detonated the bomb from a
few kilometers away from the building. Two days later
Chartouni was arrested by the Lebanese Forces. At a
press conference before being handed over to the Lebanese judiciary by the LF,
he called Gemayel a traitor and accused him of
“selling the country to Israel.”
He said he was given the explosives and the fancy long-range electronic
detonator in West Beirut’s Ras
Beirut district by Nabil al-Alam,
who was reportedly SSNP's intelligence chief at the
time. Alam reportedly had close ties to the Syrian
intelligence services and he swiftly fled to Syria
after the assassination.Chartouni spent eight years
in Roumieh Prison without an official trial until he
escaped on October 13, 1990 during the Syrian offensive to oust Michel Aoun from the Baabda Palace.
Aoun Praises Army Strike in Arsal,
Says 'Boosts Stability'
Naharnet/November 25/16/President Michel Aoun praised the Lebanese army's efforts on Friday after
clamping down on an Islamic State terror group in Arsal
and detaining several militants including an IS commander, the National News
Agency reported. The President hailed the “pre-emptive security operation”
carried out by the army early on Friday in Arsal near
the Lebanese-Syrian border, NNA said. “Such kind of operations boost stability, put an end for terror schemes and reveal the
parties responsible for it,” said Aoun. President of
the Republic gave instructions “to continue the investigation with the
detainees to learn more about terrorist networks.”At
dawn on Friday, the army carried out raids on IS terror cells near the Syrian
refugee encampments in Wadi al-Araneb
in Arsal and arrested 11 militants including an IS
commander suspected of his involvement in the June al-Qaa
bombings.
Claims of Attempts to 'Weaken'
Presidential Term 'Unfounded'
Naharnet/November 25/16/Claims about some attempts
planning to “weaken” the term of President Michel Aoun
by obstructing the formation of the cabinet are not accurate, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. Free Patriotic
Movement sources told the daily that reports circulating about attempts to
obstruct the term of Aoun are unfounded. The sources
did not rule out the possibility for the cabinet to be formed in the few coming
days, citing positive signals between Baabda and al-Rabieh. Aoun's election and Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri's designation 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. However,
Hariri is still facing obstacles bringing together a line-up that balances Lebanon's
delicate sectarian-based political system. A struggle between
Hariri and Aoun on one side and Speaker Nabih Berri over the government
line-up. At stake is the distribution of the most powerful portfolios,
including the Defense Ministry. The political parties
are also bickering over amending the current election law which divides seats
among the different religious sects. The current parliament has failed to amend
the law, and has extended its mandate twice amid criticism. New elections are
scheduled for May 2017.
Geagea Hopes Berri Will be '4th
Pillar' of 'Mustaqbal-FPM-LF Equation'
Naharnet/November 25/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted Friday that “a
new equation comprising al-Mustaqbal Movement, the
Free Patriotic Movement and the LF has started to emerge in the country,”
hoping Speaker Nabih Berri
will be “the fourth pillar of this equation.”“Ties
between me and Speaker Berri are friendly. They have
always been friendly and will remain so,” Geagea told
a delegation from the Press Syndicate when asked if there are any tensions
between him and the speaker. “Despite the conflicting viewpoints on the cabinet
formation process, there is no political rivalry,” he added. Geagea noted that the LF “has done everything possible to
facilitate the formation of the cabinet,” including giving up its demand for a
so-called “sovereign ministerial portfolio.”“But it
seems that some parties were seeking to address quick messages to the new
presidential tenure. We are not guests in this country and, like others, we
have the right to get any ministerial portfolio,” the LF leader went on to say.
He pointed out that “some parties tried to send indirect messages to President
Michel Aoun that the president and the premier are
not alone in charge of forming the cabinet.”“But
together with General Aoun, we will not tolerate the
continuation of the hegemony era practices, seeing as we have a Constitution
that stipulates that the president and the premier are the ones who form the
government,” Geagea added. After resolving the
obstacle of the LF's demand for a sovereign
portfolio, horsetrading is currently revolving around
the services-related ministries, mainly the public works, telecommunications
and energy portfolios. While Marada Movement, backed by
Berri, is insisting on getting one of the three
portfolios, the LF and the FPM are reportedly rejecting such a distribution,
citing Marada's opposition to Aoun's
election as president.
Lebanese Army Arrests Prominent IS
Fugitive in Arsal
The Lebanese army clashed overnight with Islamic State jihadists near a Syrian
refugee encampment in Wadi al-Araneb
in Arsal and arrested an IS commander together with
10 other militants, the state-run National News Agency reported Friday.
The army said special forces and other troops carried
out the dawn attack on an IS headquarters in the mountainous eastern area of Arsal. The army managed to arrest senior IS militant, Ahmed
Youssef Ammoun, suspected
for his involvement in providing logistic cover for the suicide attackers who
were behind the al-Qaa bombings in June. Ammoun, also known as al-Sheikh, was seriously wounded in
the operation, and had been transferred aboard a military helicopter to a
hospital in Beirut
for emergency treatment. The army confiscated massive amounts of weapons and
explosive belts. The army said Ammoun was involved in
preparing car bombs used in attacks in various parts of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut. LBCI later said
that some militants were spotted fleeing after the army's operation. They
headed towards the outskirts of Arsal. Successive
suicide attacks rocked the border town of al-Qaa in
June, killing and wounding several.
Kaag Visits ABAAD Safe House on Int'l Day for Eliminating
Violence against Women
Naharnet/November 25/16/As the world marks the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, U.N. Special
Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag and Norwegian
Ambassador Lene Natasha Lind visited Friday “Al Dar,”
one of ABAAD’s safe houses for women and girl survivors
or at high risk of violence. Al Dar provides shelter to Lebanese, Syrian, and
women from other origins, in addition to a wide range of medical, legal and
psycho-social services to facilitate healing and recovery. The Special
Coordinator and Ambassador Lind met and discussed with the staff, beneficiaries
and survivors “ways to fight and prevent violence and protect women and girls,”
Kaag's office said in a statement. During the visit,
the Special Coordinator stressed the importance of protection programs, stating
that the safe houses have saved the lives of many women and girls facing
violence. Kaag also underscored “the urgency to stop
all violence against women and girls,” and also to “put in place the necessary
institutional and legal mechanisms to provide protection and ensure legal
recourse.”
Lebanon
Hizbullah: Army Operation Highlights Its Essential Role in
Protecting Border
Naharnet/November 25/16/Hizbullah on Friday hailed
the Lebanese army's special operation against Islamic State militants in the
outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal, noting that it has “highlighted its essential role
in defending the border and ridding it of terrorists.”“This
heroic operation is a true reflection of the Lebanese armed forces' commitment
to dealing preemptive blows to the terrorists, where
needed, to prevent them from plotting criminal operations against the
Lebanese,” the party said in a statement.
It also noted that the Lebanese “cannot forget the soldiers who are enduring
captivity at the hands of these terrorist groups,” hoping the operation “will
contribute to bringing them back safe to their families.”Earlier
on Friday, the army said it had detained a leading local IS commander and 10
other members in a raid near the border with Syria. The army said special forces and other troops carried out the dawn attack
on an IS headquarters in the mountainous outskirts of Arsal.
The army said the detained IS commander, Ahmed Youssef
Ammoun, had been involved in preparing car bombs used
in attacks in various parts of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of
Beirut. It also accused him of involvement in attacks on army posts during
fighting in the region in August 2014 when IS and al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate
briefly overran the town of Arsal. As the jihadists withdrew,
they abducted 30 soldiers and policemen, five of whom were subsequently
executed. The 16 hostages held by al-Qaida's affiliate, known then as al-Nusra Front, were released in December 2015 after lengthy
negotiations, but there has been no progress on the release of the nine held by
IS. Lebanon
has been rocked by periodic bomb attacks, often targeting strongholds of Hizbullah, which have killed scores of civilians. Hizbullah has sent fighters to Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad's government against rebel forces, among them
jihadists.
Hariri Calls for Reforming Laws to Protect Women in Lebanon
Naharnet/November 25/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stressed Friday “the need to accelerate the
trials of the perpetrators of violence and crimes against women in Lebanon” and
to “toughen the verdicts.”He said on Twitter on the
occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against
Women: “We must enforce and reform laws to protect women from this blatant
violation of human rights.”“Together, men and women,
we must improve the condition of women in our country,” he added. Drug-Making
Material from Turkey Seized at Tripoli Port Customs authorities at Tripoli Port on Friday seized 96 barrels filled
with drug-manufacturing substances, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The shipment was hidden in two secret compartments in two trucks that arrived
from Turkey,
the statement added. “It turned out that the owners of the two trucks are
Lebanese citizens,” it said. “They were arrested and referred to the relevant
judicial authorities as the material was confiscated,” the statement added.
Lebanese Army Explains: Wall Near Refugee Camp to Prevent
Infiltration of Terrorists
Naharnet/November 25/16/After denunciations following
a decision to build a wall near the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp
of Ain el-Hilweh, the Lebanese army assured that it
is aimed at preventing jihadists from infiltrating the country. “In explanation
of what has recently been circulating about the establishment of a separation
wall in the vicinity of Ain el-Hilweh, the Army
Command assured that there is no decision to establish this wall between the
camp and its surrounding,” the Army Command Orientation Directorate said in a
statement on Friday. “What is currently being built is a wall that protects
some of the sectors that do not overlook the residential areas and houses
inside. It aims to maintain the security of the camp and prevent terrorists
from infiltrating to and from it. It also aims to close the tunnels leading to
the orchards of the citizens,” added the statement. It went on to say that “the
issue had already been agreed upon during meetings held between officials of
the Palestinian factions and the Intelligence Directorate. “The entire entrances
to the camp are open for the passage of people and vehicles, efforts to make
them easier are underway,” concluded the statement. Pictures were posted online
showing cranes lifting huge concrete blocks on the western side of Ain al-Hilweh then setting them side by side, as well as a
watchtower. Social media users compared the wall to a controversial separation
barrier which Israel has
been building in the occupied West Bank since
2002. The overcrowded and impoverished Ain al-Hilweh
camp near the southern coastal city of Sidon
has gained notoriety in recent years as a refuge for Muslim extremists and
fugitives. It also saw deadly fighting last year between the Jund al-Sham Islamist group and members of Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement. And in
September the army said security forces had arrested a Palestinian refugee
suspected of links to the Islamic State group who was in the camp.
Planned Resort in Ramlet
al-Baida Could Wall off the Sea in Beirut
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 25/16/The last
public beach on Beirut's
heavily developed seaside could soon be squeezed out by yet another luxury
resort, raising fears that residents could find themselves living in a coastal
city without much of a coast. The fight for Ramlet
al-Baida beach has emerged as a new flashpoint
between civil society activists and the entrenched political establishment over
land management and public services in Lebanon's capital. It follows last
year's trash crisis, in which mountains of garbage piled up for months, and a
conflict over a local park that until recently was only open one day a week.
Activists say the Eden Rock Resort development, greenlighted
by the city's governor in September, is the first step to transforming the
city's last public beach into yet another exclusive resort. "If this is
how Beirut is
going to be, then tomorrow, we're going to be sitting in a cage," said Nazih al-Raess, the custodian of
the beach's public swimming zone. "The people who have money will be able
to go out to smell the breeze and the people who don't ... will be buried at home."The project has rekindled debate in this
intensely stratified city over who has the right to its shrinking green spaces
and shores. Many of Beirut's
well-to-do have turned up their noses at Ramlet al-Baida — or pinched them, as the case may be — as municipal
authorities have allowed sewage to pollute its once azure waters and white
sands. The new project would feature chalets on a terraced, green slope that
opens onto a narrowed strip of the remaining beach, according to illustrations
by the developer. A crescent-shaped marina would be anchored off the coast.
Older residents recall a time when they could slip into the sea from Karantina, Normandy, and Rouche,
before the onset of the 1975 Civil War. Those outlets have long since been
devoured by an expanded port, a marina, resorts and pricey restaurants.
"Where are we supposed to unwind?" said Samer
Ballout, a stocky 35-year-old civil servant who was
meditating on the beach. "I've been swimming and running here since I was young."Most beach clubs now charge at least $20 for
day access. Some have been caught on camera turning away African or Asian
visitors, while others openly bar low-income Lebanese patrons. In May, a
grassroots movement that campaigned on a platform of protecting the city's
public amenities surprised the political establishment by capturing 40 percent
of the vote at the municipal polls. Beirut Madinati —
which translates to Beirut,
My City — did not win any seats on the municipal council owing to the
election's winner-take-all formula, but they carried their momentum into
meetings with officials. Shortly after the election, it and affiliated groups
convinced Beirut Gov. Ziad Chebib
to open the city's only park, a pine tree reserve, on a daily basis. It was
previously only open on Saturdays. A similar public campaign compelled Chebib to order the Eden Rock Resort project be put on hold
in June. He demanded an explanation for how restrictions on the property deeds
prohibiting construction on some of the plots had been scrubbed. But in
September, he allowed the project to go ahead.
Earlier this month, a local resident posted a video on Facebook
of heavy equipment pouring concrete into a basin dug into the Ramlet al-Baida shore. Civic
groups mobilized a small crowd to march to the site, where the demonstrators
twice scuffled with hired help working for the developer, Achour
Development. The demonstrators included many of the standouts from last year's
You Stink campaign, which brought thousands of Lebanese into the streets to
protest endemic corruption and the trash crisis. The crisis remains unresolved,
with untreated garbage filling landfills on the edge of the city, occasionally
sending a suffocating stench into some neighborhoods.
Achour Development declined to comment on the
protests, saying only that it has the required permits. Chebib
maintains that the plots marked for Eden Rock are privately owned and the
developer has the right to build on them. He also declined a request for
comment. Lawyers are meanwhile building a case against the permit, citing a
host of irregularities they say the governor overlooked. "We have aerial
photos showing this area used to be below the shore line, so it's not possible
for it to be private property," said Wasef Harakeh, a lawyer and activist who helped organize the
protests, citing a French Mandate-era law that protects the coast. Ballout, the civil servant who has been enjoying the beach
as long as he can remember, said he couldn't support the project. "I'm not
opposing this for my own good, I'm opposing this for
the good of my children. And the people without money, where are they going to
go?" he said.
Lebanon within a UK Funded Program for
Elimination of Violence Against Women
Naharnet/November 25/16/As the world marks the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25,
Lebanon is one of ten countries participating in an initiative led by the Arab
Coalition of Women MPs to build a future free from violence and the fear of violence.
On December 1 the Coalition in partnership with the Arab League and its Women
and Family and Child Department, will present the first draft of an Arab
Convention to combat violence against women, at a conference hosted by the Arab
League in Cairo.
The Coalition aspires for the Convention to send a strong political signal of
the importance of improved domestic legislation to protect women and girls from
violence, hold perpetrators to account, and effectively care for victims.The Convention will sit alongside other
international and regional agreements including the Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Council of Europe Convention, the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the
Sustainable Development Goals. Lebanon
will be represented at the conference by MP Michel Moussa,
Chair of the Human Rights Parliamentary Committee, and MP Gilbert Zouein, Chair of the Women and Child Committee.
“Parliaments can play a crucial role in establishing a legal environment which
protects women. With improved laws more rigorously enforced, perpetrators will
be discouraged from committing violence and victims will have access to
necessary treatment and social services,” the British Embassy in Lebanon said in
a statement. “The two-year project is funded by the UK Government’s Magna Carta Fund, and implemented by Westminster Foundation for
Democracy, the UK’s leading democracy-strengthening organization which supports
inclusive governance through strengthened policy-making, accountability,
representation and citizen participation,” it added. Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls is “a key priority for the UK,”
the statement said.
Iran May Be Using Iraq and Syria as a
Bridge to Lebanon
Hanin Ghaddar/The
Washington Institute/November 25/16
While liberating territory from the Islamic State is vital, the consequences of
ceding portions of Iraq and Syria to de facto Iranian control could be just as
dire as leaving them in jihadist hands.
In recent days, two developments took place near Syria's
borders that suggest the intentions Tehran
and its proxies hold for that country and the surrounding region. To the west,
the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah held a high-profile military parade in
al-Qusayr, Syria,
while to the east, the Shiite militias known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) captured Tal Afar airport in Iraq. Both
incidents align with Iran's
repeated message to the international community: that it will do whatever it
takes to be a decisionmaker in the corridor
stretching from Iraq to Lebanon via Syria.
After taking the airport last week, Hadi al-Ameri, a former Iraqi minister who heads the Iranian-linked
Badr Organization, made a telling declaration cited
by Reuters: "Tal Afar will be the starting block for the liberation of all
the area...to the Syrian border and beyond." Although the PMUs have not announced any specific plans for moving
onward, the town just north of the airport could be their next target. Iran does not have a border crossing with Syria, but Tal Afar -- located some forty miles
west of Mosul on the main road to Syria -- could
provide one. If its proxies do in fact capture the town, Iran would likely be able to establish a
corridor from the Iraqi border province
of Diyala,
up through the Hamrin Mountains
northeast of Tikrit, and all the way up to Tal Afar
en route to Sinjar on the Syrian border. On the other
side of Syria,
Iranian-backed forces already have multiple routes to Lebanon via al-Qusayr and other towns in the Qalamoun
region.
Although a land bridge might not be of major significance to Tehran
in terms of transferring weapons, it would provide a larger platform for
projecting power and establishing an uninterrupted Iranian presence in Iraq, Syria,
and Lebanon.
In that scenario, would these countries be able to survive as independent and
sovereign nations? Another question is whether a strengthened Iranian presence
along this corridor would add fire to the radical anti-Shiite narrative
espoused by the Islamic State (IS), exacerbating the area's existing sectarian
conflicts.
MARKING TERRITORY
On November 11, Hezbollah held its first-ever military
parade on foreign soil, according to a report from NOW Lebanon. The display was
conducted in al-Qusayr, which fell to the group in
2013. Typically, this annual "Martyr Day" celebration is held in the
southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's headquarters, but this year the group
staged the commemoration in Syria, presumably for two reasons: to highlight its
robust presence in the country, and to signal the international community that
it is an organized army ready and willing to join the international campaign
against IS.
When Hezbollah took over al-Qusayr and other towns in
the suburbs of Homs and Damascus, local Sunnis were evacuated. Bashar al-Assad's "starve or surrender" tactics
around the capital have forced many rebels to give up in exchange for basic
humanitarian needs such as food and medicine. As Sunni families were sent to
northern Syria, Tehran brought in Shiite families from Iraq and Lebanon
to take their place, seeking to cement its influence over the Assad-controlled
zone that Iranian leaders regard as "useful Syria."
A SHIFT IN HIERARCHY
The acceleration of Iran's
apparent bridge strategy was also preceded by shakeups in the hierarchy of Shiite
militias in Syria.
When Hezbollah entered the war in 2012, it was Tehran's
most trusted and capable force on the ground, and the conquest of al-Qusayr confirmed its status as the right hand of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria. Working directly under the
IRGC, Hezbollah was trusted to head all ground operations and manage other
Shiite militias. Although Iraqi Shiites fought for the group Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas (LAFA), they were essentially under Hezbollah's
leadership, as were the numerous Shiite foreign fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But the battle for Aleppo
changed everything. When Hezbollah began to show weakness on that front and
suffered more losses than expected, Iran called in Iraqi militias to
assist the group. Today, the main Iraqi Shiite militia fighting in the Aleppo area is the Badr Organization, a political party with a massive
military wing and one of the main components of the PMUs.
According to a number of Hezbollah members who fought there, when Badr personnel arrived in Aleppo, they were not comfortable taking
orders from Hezbollah. Given Badr's string of
successes in Iraq and Syria, Iran
decided to change the operational leadership in Syria:
Hezbollah still controls Qusayr and the Damascus suburbs, but Badr was placed
in charge of military operations in Aleppo
and reports directly to the IRGC.
Despite the Badr Organization's recent rebranding and
its role in Iraqi politics, it retains very strong ties with Iran. The group
was originally formed in 1983 to bring Iran's
Islamic Revolution to Iraq.
Later, it launched a brutal sectarian war against the Sunni population from
2004 to 2006. And following the Islamic State's successful campaigns in Anbar and other areas in 2013-2014, Badr
mobilized forces for a series of victories against the group, including last
year's "liberation" of Diyala province. Yet
many violations against Diyala's Sunni community were
reported, and Badr became notorious for its sectarian
rhetoric and abuses.
IMPLICATIONS
With the Badr Organization on one border and
Hezbollah on the other, Tehran could be planning
to expand the land bridge to southern Lebanon soon. Sectarian violence
and rhetoric -- along with steady salaries -- have enabled Iran to
successfully recruit numerous Shiite fighters over the past four years, so
these factors will likely be the main mobilizers once
again. Tehran's
considerable investment in recruiting, training, logistics, and weaponry for
such proxies is a strong signal that it intends to stay abroad and win.
If Iran
succeeds, the three countries caught in the midst of this strategy could lose
whatever is left of their sovereignty. Yet an even more pressing problem is
that intensifying Shiite rhetoric and power will only bolster the Islamic
State's sectarian narrative and help mobilize local Sunnis around it and other
radical groups that feed on such sentiment. Winning the war against IS requires
seeing all brands of extremism and terrorism in the Middle East for what they
are and understanding how they feed on one another. The Shiite axis under Iran's aegis has been enforcing sectarian
narratives and empowering two notoriously violent Shiite militant groups in Lebanon and Iraq for some time. Thus, even if
completing a land bridge takes years to accomplish or proves to be an impossible
or fleeting goal in the end, the various processes that have been set in motion
toward that end require continual sectarian violence and ever-widening efforts
to turn Arab Shiites into armed adherents of Iran's revolutionary ideology.
Meanwhile, IS and whatever radical groups follow in its wake will take
advantage of this situation to mobilize Sunnis for similarly violent ends.
For now, it remains unclear whether Iran's Shiite militia proxies will
actually take Tal Afar, and how long it would take them to do so. One thing is
clear, however: eastern Syria
is significant to both the United States
and Iran,
but for completely different reasons. The U.S.
priority is to fight IS, while Iran
sees that campaign as an opportunity to expand its regional presence and power.
While liberating Iraqi and Syrian territory from IS forces is vital, Washington
and other actors need to carefully consider the consequences of handing these
lands over to Iran.
**Hanin Ghaddar, a veteran
Lebanese journalist and researcher, is the inaugural Friedmann
Visiting Fellow at The Washington Institute.
Latest LCCC
Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
November 25-26/16
Syria regime set “red line”around
Al-Bab: pro-Assad daily
Now Lebanon/November 25/16/Al-Akhbar published a bellicose article
touting that a Syrian airstrike against Turkish soldiers served as a message to
Ankara.
BEIRUT - A deadly Syrian airstrike against
Turkish soldiers served as a message by Damascus
to Ankara that it will not allow rebels taking
part in the Ankara-led Operation Euphrates Shield to take the key town of Al-Bab,
according to a pro-regime daily. “The timing of the airstrike targeting Turkish
soldiers came to set Syria’s
redlines in the strategic region; storming Al-Bab is
forbidden,” an article published Friday by Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said. The report comes less than a day after a
Syrian airstrike outside the ISIS stronghold of Al-Bab
killed three Turkish soldiers, prompting Ankara
to threaten retaliation. Syria’s
government, for its part, has made no official statement on the potentially
escalatory incident, while pro-regime outlets based in the war-torn did not
broach the subject. Al-Akhbar, however, struck a
bellicose tone in its coverage of the incident, calling the ongoing fighting
northeast of Aleppo, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, regime
forces as well as Turkish-backed rebels are all racing toward Al-Bab, a “war of wills.”“The raid
that targeted Turkish soldiers leaves Ankara
no room for miscalculation or misunderstanding the message that the entry into
Al-Bab is forbidden,” the article declared. Al-Akhbar went on to declare that Syria’s armed forces are
showing Turkey that it can set “red lines” around Al-Bab,
a town that Ankara has long said it wants to include in a buffer zone it is
creating in northern Syria that aims to push back ISIS as well as Kurdish
forces from the Turkish border. Despite the Syrian airstrike, Turkish-backed
forces continued their operations around Al-Bab on
Friday, with one Turkish soldier dying in clashes with ISIS.
Syrian rebels taking part in Operation Euphrates Shield, which began in late
August 2016, have repeatedly vowed to seize the strategic town that lies
approximately 30 kilometers northeast of Aleppo. The Kurdish-led
SDF meanwhile has advanced toward Al-Bab from both
the east and the west, hoping to capture the town and connect
Kurdish-controlled cantons in northern Syria,
a move Turkey
aims to prevent. NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin
Nasr translated Arabic-language source material.
Civilians Despair as Syria Army Advances in Rebel Aleppo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
25/16/The Syrian army advanced in Aleppo
on Friday, pounding the rebel-held east with strikes that killed dozens and
added to the despair for more than 250,000 civilians under siege. The US military meanwhile announced its first combat
loss in Syria,
saying a service member had been killed by a bomb during an offensive against
the Islamic State group. Ten days into the Syrian government's renewed bid to
recapture all of battered second city Aleppo,
regime bombardment has killed nearly 190 civilians and left residents desperate
for respite. The regime is hoping to score its most important victory yet of
the five-year civil war, dealing a potentially decisive blow to the rebels by
recapturing eastern neighbourhoods they overran in 2012. Civilians in the east
have been under siege by the army since July, with food and fuel supplies
dwindling and international aid completely exhausted. On Thursday alone, 32
civilians were killed in air strikes and artillery fire on eastern
neighbourhoods, among them five children, the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said."I'm terrified by the army's advance
and the increasing bombardment," said Abu Raed,
a father-of-four living in Fardos neighbourhood.
"There's no safe place for me and my family." - Rescuers pull boy
from rubble -The Observatory said the army now controlled more than 60 percent
of the strategic Masaken Hanano
district and was pushing on. Masaken Hanano is east Aleppo's
largest district and its capture would cut the rebel-held sector in two. The
advances have been accompanied by relentless air and artillery bombardment,
with medical staff in the east accusing the army of dropping barrel bombs
filled with chlorine gas. Damascus and its ally Moscow have repeatedly
denied any illegal, military use of the chemical. Retaliatory rocket fire by
the rebels has killed at least 18 civilians in the government-held west, 10 of
them children, according to the Observatory. On Thursday night, rescue workers
in several parts of the east battled to extricate civilians trapped under the
rubble of bombed buildings. In Bab al-Nayrab, an AFP cameraman saw rescuers battle for more than
an hour to pull out a seriously wounded boy. The lower part of his body was
trapped and the back of his head badly gashed. He cried out "father,
father," as the rescuers used pickaxes to break up the concrete
surrounding him. The desperate conditions have prompted some civilians to flee.
In recent days, five families have crossed to Sheikh Maqsud,
a Kurdish-controlled enclave between the government-held west and rebel-held
east, the Observatory said.
Damascus
says residents and surrendering fighters are free to leave, and accuses the
rebels of preventing civilians from doing so and using them as "human
shields."
- 'Unbearable circumstances' -On the ground, residents expressed despair.
"Living under these circumstances is unbearable," said
43-year-old Mohammed Haj Hussein, in Tariq al-Bab district. "There's no work, there's no food, and
the bombing is incessant... I want to get out of here by any means
possible." In Bab al-Nayrab
district, Abu Hussein said: "I don't know what the UN is waiting for. Why
don't they at least evacuate the children and women?"The
UN says it has a plan to deliver aid to Aleppo
and evacuate the sick and wounded, which rebel factions have approved. But Damascus has yet to agree, and additional guarantees are
needed from Moscow,
UN officials say. On Thursday, the head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce
for Syria, Jan Egeland, warned there was no plan B to help civilians in
east Aleppo.
"In many ways plan B is that people starve, and can we allow that to happen?
No we cannot," he said. Further east, in Raqa
province, where a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters is battling
IS, Washington suffered its first combat loss
in Syria,
the US-led coalition announced. It said the service member died on Thursday
from wounds caused by an improvised bomb near the town of Ayn Issa.
US special
forces are on the ground in the area supporting an offensive to retake
the city of Raqa,
the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital. The death came as Americans celebrated
the Thanksgiving holiday.
Another OBGYN hospital destroyed in Syria’s Aleppo
By Leila Alwan/Al Arabiya/Friday,
25 November 2016/A hospital specialized in Obstetrics
and Gynecology (OBGYN) in the Syrian city of Termanin
was targeted by air raids on Friday, leaving two reported dead and several
injured. Al-Zahraa hospital, located in the border
region between Aleppo
and Idlib, was reported to be one of the few
remaining OBGYN hospitals in the area. Doctors who were working at the hosptial sent pictures Al Arabiya
English showing the destruction caused by at least one reported airstrike.
About 250,000 people in eastern Aleppo have been under siege since President Bashar al-Assad’s army, aided by Iranian-backed militias
and Russian jets, cut off the last road in early July. The last operating
hospital in the rebel-held district was destroyed by Russian fighter jets last
week, leaving the besieged people without access to medical care. Aleppo's Al-Zahraa hospital destoyed by
airstrike
Turkey threatens EU with refugee
surge
AFP, Berlin Friday, 25 November 2016/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
threatened on Friday to open Turkey’s borders again after the European
Parliament voted to back a freeze in EU membership talks with Ankara. Erdogan warned he could drop border controls, allowing a
flood of migrants into the bloc. Germany said “threats” were “not
helpful” on the EU-Turkey migrant deal. “We see the EU-Turkey agreement... as a
success for both sides. And the continuation of this agreement is in the
interest of all parties,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokeswoman, Ulrike Demmer, said. “The EU stands by its commitments under the
agreement and is meeting its commitments. Threats on either side are not
helpful now,” she added. “Where there are difficulties, we need to resolve
them.” On March 18, Ankara and Brussels
forged a deal for Turkey to
halt the flow of migrants to Europe, an accord that has reduced numbers
crossing the Aegean Sea between Turkey
and Greece.
Merkel was a driving force behind the deal, which helped slow the influx of
refugees and migrants into the EU and its biggest economy, Germany. The
German chancellor saw a bruising backlash amid the mass influx, which saw
almost 900,000 asylum seekers arrive in Germany in 2015, sparking a rise in
racist hate crimes and boosting a rightwing populist party. But Merkel’s
approval ratings have since recovered as arrivals have slowed, boosting the
chancellor as she heads into an election campaign seeking a fourth term in the
September or October 2017 vote.
Turkish soldier killed in Syria
clashes as rebels push to al-Bab
Reuters, Ankara/Istanbul Friday, 25 November 2016/A Turkish
soldier was killed and five wounded in clashes with ISIS in northern Syria, the
military said on Friday, as Turkish-backed rebels pressed an offensive to take
the city of al-Bab from the radical militantsgroup. The latest casualties bring the number of
Turkish soldiers killed in Syria
to 17 since Ankara
launched a cross-border incursion on Aug. 24 to try to push ISIS and Kurdish
fighters from the border, according to Turkish media. The Turkish military said
four Syrian rebels had been killed and 25 wounded in clashes in the 24 hours to
Friday morning. Turkish fighter jets were continuing to strike ISIS targets near al-Bab, it
said. The casualties came a day after three Turkish soldiers were killed in a
suspected Syrian air strike, the first such Turkish deaths at the hands of
Syrian government forces. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara
would retaliate. The advance by the largely Turkmen and Arab rebels towards al-Bab, the last urban stronghold of ISIS in the northern Aleppo countryside,
potentially pits them against Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces.
Al-Bab is of particular strategic importance to Turkey because
Kurdish-dominated militias have also been pursuing a drive to seize it. Ankara is determined to
prevent Kurdish forces from joining up cantons they control along the Turkish
border, for fear it will stoke Kurdish separatism at home. Turkey is backing the Syrian rebels with troops,
tanks and artillery fired from within Turkey, as well as reconnaissance
flights along the border, the military statement said. Washington has said the US-led coalition is
not providing support for the operation. President Tayyip
Erdogan said last week that the Turkish-backed rebels
were close to taking al-Bab despite some resistance
and that they would then move to secure Manbij, a
town to the east which was taken by Kurdish-dominated militia fighters from ISIS in August. Forces allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Turkey
last month against making any advance towards their positions to the north and
east of Aleppo,
saying any such move would be met “decisively and with force”.
Palestinian child dead as Israel wildfires
reach West Bank
Al Arabiya English and agencies
Friday, 25 November 2016/A two-year-old Palestinian
boy has died after his house caught on fire in the town of Beitin in Ramallah
as authorities investigate the cause. The boy’s death comes as Israeli
firefighters kept battling the flames in wooded hills around Jerusalem
and in northern areas on Friday, with support from Palestinian firemen and
emergency teams from Greece,
Cyprus, Croatia, Italy,
Russia and Turkey. Israeli
police have arrested 13 people on suspicion of arson as Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said he has accepted additional help from Egypt
and Jordan.
At least 36 dead in Iran train crash
Reuters, Ankara Friday, 25 November 2016/At
least 36 people were killed and 95 injured when two Iranian passenger trains
collided near the city of Shahroud,
about 400 km (250 miles) east of Tehran,
state television reported. It said the death toll was likely to rise. Video
footage showed four derailed carriages, two of them on fire. A spokesman for Iran’s Red Crescent, Mostafa
Mortazavi, told the semi-official Fars
news agency that firefighters were trying to control the blaze. Fars quoted provincial governor Mohammad Reza Khabbaz as saying the death toll was expected to rise. It
was not clear how many passengers had been on the trains but Fars
said 100 had been rescued. It said a train entering the Haft-Khan station on
the outskirts of Shahroud appeared to have hit one
that was waiting there. Khabbaz said the stationary
train had been standing on a main line outside the station. A local official
told state TV that the remote location of the crash had slowed rescue efforts.
“So far only one helicopter has reached the scene because of access
difficulties,” said local Red Crescent chief Hasan Shokrollahi. Iran’s
railway network has aged badly under international economic sanctions that were
imposed over Tehran’s
disputed nuclear program. Sanctions were lifted in January under a deal between
Tehran and six
world powers that curbed the nuclear program.
NGO Says Iraq
Forces Must Open Safe Routes for Mosul Residents
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
25/16/Iraqi forces should create safe exits for Mosul residents because they cannot protect
civilians and wage fierce battles with jihadists at the same time, an aid group
said on Friday. The International Rescue Committee also predicted that the
fighting to retake the Islamic State group's northern stronghold would last
until the spring of 2017 and worried that the trapped population would run out
of supplies or take huge risks to flee. "Even with the best efforts of the
Iraqi forces to keep residents out of harm's way, the fighting is just too
intense," IRC's Iraq
director Alex Milutinovic said. Around 70,000 people
have fled their homes in the region since the start on October 17 of a huge
offensive against Mosul,
only about 30,000 of them from inside the city itself. The number of displaced
is significantly lower than what the United Nations and other aid organizations
had forecast before the operation began. IRC said that was due at least in part
to the intensity of the fighting making it too dangerous for civilians to flee
and reach the safety of the camps being set up around Mosul. "Which is why Iraqi forces need
to do everything they can to ensure there are safe routes of escape," Milutinovic said. "The fighting in Mosul also makes it very difficult to deliver
aid and with supplies already running low there are also fears that families
will soon be without any food or medicine," he said. Iraqi forces have
been advancing slowly across eastern Mosul neighborhoods
in recent weeks, encouraging residents to hunker down in their homes.No official tally has been divulged by the Iraqi
authorities but civilians attempting to cross the battle lines to flee Mosul
have paid a heavy price. Those who have decided to stay at home also get
routinely caught in the crossfire.
British government defends its role in Libya
campaign
AFP, London Friday, 25 November 2016/The British
government on Friday rejected criticism of its intervention in Libya, arguing its involvement saved civilian
lives and claiming ISIS has been weakened in
the country. The government’s comments follow a September report in which the
parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee published a damning assessment of the
2011 intervention alongside France.
The report said London’s
strategy was based on “erroneous assumptions and an incomplete understanding of
the evidence,” accusing the government of selectively taking the threats of dictator Muammar Qaddafi at face value. Also read: Qaddafi’s
surviving cousin: France,
US killed late Libyan leader. But in its response the government argued its
actions “undoubtedly” saved civilian lives in Libya. “Qaddafi was unpredictable
and had the means and motivation to carry out his threats. His actions could
not be ignored, and required decisive and collective international action,” the
government said in its written response. Qaddafi was ousted and killed during
the uprising and Britain
was criticized by the Foreign Affairs Committee for expanding its mission to
protect civilians to a policy of regime change, a charge rejected by the
government. “Our objective remained clear at all times: to protect civilians
and to promote stability in Libya,”
the government said, adding that it was “entirely appropriate” to target
military sites after the Qaddafi regime failed to implement a ceasefire. Also
read: Is Cameron really to blame for the mess in Libya? The 2011 bombing campaign
came after Qaddafi loyalists pounded the eastern city of Benghazi, raising fears of an imminent
massacre in the rebel stronghold. Britain’s
then prime minister, David Cameron, was blamed in the
report as “ultimately responsible for the failure to develop a coherent Libya
strategy”. He declined to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which
heard from key players including former defense
minister Liam Fox and former prime minister Tony
Blair. The government confirmed Blair had spoken to Qaddafi and said such
efforts for a political solution “were unable to make progress”, dismissing the
Committee’s claim that the government should have made better use of this
direct line of communication.
Yemen: Coalition raids kill seven Houthi
militias
Staff writer, Al Arabiya Friday, 25 November 2016/A raid launched by the coalition forces targeting the
rebels’ military bases in the Serwah region in the
west of the Marib province region has killed seven Houthi militias and those belonging to Ali Abdullah Saleh. Witnesses confirmed that the raid targeted a
military force of seven rebels in the north, burning down their vehicle and
killing them all. Earlier, as many as 23 others were killed in Taiz by the raids conducted by the coalition and the
clashes that erupted on the fronts there. According to al-Hadath
sources, the rebels are asking the citizens of Rawd
region in west Taiz to evacuate their houses. Also
read: Yemeni army thwarts attack by militias near Taiz
As 'Caliphate' Shrinks, IS Struggles in
Egypt
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
25/16/As the Islamic State group loses territory in Iraq and Syria, one of its
deadliest branches is struggling against Egypt's powerful army to maintain a
foothold in the Sinai Peninsula. The affiliate, known as Sinai
Province, has waged a murky war in the
north of the peninsula bordering Israel that has killed hundreds of
soldiers and policemen. It also claimed the bombing of a Russian airliner
carrying holidaymakers from a south Sinai resort in October 2015 that killed
all 224 people on board. Egypt's
tourism has yet to recover. But Sinai
Province has been unable
to seize population centers, with one attempt to occupy a town in 2015 ending
with the military unleashing F-16 jets against the jihadists. Instead the group
has tried to keep up a steady war of attrition involving roadside bombings,
sniper fire and checkpoint attacks such as the one on Thursday that killed
eight soldiers. The jihadists are increasingly encircled in the peninsula, with
the military razing sections of a town bordering the Palestinian Gaza Strip to
create a buffer zone and destroying tunnels there, while setting up checkpoints
on routes out. "The military's biggest success is that they have been able
to contain the insurgency, by and large, to North Sinai,"
said Jantzen Garnett, an expert on the jihadists with
the Navanti Group analytics company. The army had
been struggling to quash the insurgency that took off in 2013 after the
military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi,
unleashing a bloody crackdown on his followers.
Short term progress
Three years into the insurgency, however, a decisive victory against the
jihadists appears distant, as Thursday's attack suggests. "The Egyptian
army has made some short-term progress against (Sinai Province)
over the past year but the militant group continues to adapt and this progress
should not be construed as long-term success," Garnett said. "The
military upped up its presence in the Sinai following the July 1 attempt at
taking over Sheikh Zuweid," analyst Mokhtar Awad said of the group's
attempt to seize the north Sinai town in 2015. The jihadists instead have
"doubled down on types of operations focusing on trying to commit
terrorist attacks... and focus on planting IEDs
(improvised explosive devices) and more sniper attacks," said Awad, a research fellow with George Washington University's
Program on Extremism.They have also increased
assassinations of officers and kidnappings and executions of suspected
informants, in two cases publicly shooting them in the streets of North Sinai's
capital El-Arish. The military toll is difficult to verify. The military
occasionally announces casualties, such as the
eight soldiers killed on Thursday. Other reported casualties are not always
disclosed. In November alone, Egyptian media reported on the funerals -- held
within a day of the deaths -- of at least 10 military soldiers and officers,
not counting the eight killed on Thursday. It is impossible to ascertain the
toll among jihadists, who do not disclose their deaths. The military says it
has killed hundreds of militants, occasionally publishing pictures of their
corpses.
Leader killed
"It's always murky when it comes to assessing the picture in Sinai
due to limits in verification," Awad said. The
organization’s hierarchy also remains a mystery. In August, the military
announced it had killed the group's top leader in Sinai, identified as Abu Duaa, without providing further details. The moniker "Ansari"-- used by jihadists in Sinai for locals of the
peninsula -- suggests he was a Sinai Bedouin. A captured jihadi
has said in interrogations that the identity of the group's overall leader in
Sinai was unknown and he passed on instructions through a subordinate. Under
the leader -- known as a wali, or governor --
responsibilities are divided among militants who command "security,"
"military affairs," bomb-making and media sections. The media
commander is Shadi el-Menei,
a well known Bedouin militant, according to the interrogations quoted in
sections of a prosecution report seen by AFP. Others are identified by aliases.
Menei was a prominent leader of the group's
forerunner, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, before it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
in November 2014, the same year the group proclaimed a "caliphate"
straddling Iraq and Syria. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis
had evolved from a loose militant group named the Mujahidin Shura
Council, which conducted attacks on Israel in the chaotic year
following strongman Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February 2011. The Shura Council had brought together jihadist Palestinian
militants from the neighboring Gaza Strip and local
Bedouin veterans of groups that had conducted bombings against tourist resorts
between 2004 and 2006.
France's Fillon,
Buoyed by Debate, Heads for Finish Line
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
25/16/Conservative French presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon
holds a final rally in Paris
Friday as he seeks to clinch the nomination for the centre-right Republicans in
a primary vote this weekend. Fillon, whose surge has
taken commentators and pollsters by surprise, gave an assured performance in a
televised debate on Thursday night against his centrist rival, long-time
favourite Alain Juppe. Fifty-seven percent of viewers judged Fillon to have been the most convincing, according to an
independent poll for the BFMTV television channel of 908 people who followed
the nearly two-hour exchange. A total of 8.5 million people tuned in to hear
the two ex-prime ministers stress their differences on public sectors cuts,
relations between France and
Russia,
and their views on multiculturalism. Fillon will hold
a rally in Paris on Friday evening where he
hopes to draw up to 10,000 people, while Juppe is campaigning in the city of Nancy in eastern France. Both men are already
looking ahead to their rivals in next year's election that will feature
resurgent far-right leader Marine Le Pen, as well as a Socialist party
candidate and independents. "I think I am best placed with my programme to
beat Marine Le Pen," Juppe said on Friday, referring to the nationalist
and anti-immigration boss of the National Front. Clear differences -Thursday
night's debate cast into stark relief the differences between the candidates,
with Fillon often portraying 71-year-old Juppe as not
ambitious enough and Juppe accusing his rival of being unrealistic. "It is
true that my project is more radical and perhaps more difficult," said Fillon, whose economic ideas have been compared to those of
late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
The 62-year-old devout Catholic wants to slash an eye-popping 500,000 public
sector jobs over five years and scrap the 35-hour working week in a bid to
kick-start the sluggish French economy. He is also more socially conservative,
believes France is "on
the verge of revolt", and takes a harder line on Islam in France. Juppe
has stressed how many on the far-right are in favour of his rival's proposals.
"No, France
is not a multi-cultural country. France has a history, a language and a culture
which have naturally been enriched from outside," Fillon
said on Thursday during the debate.Seeking fresh
momentum after a difficult week, Juppe appeared to struggle to dominate his
opponent but hit home with a jibe at Fillon's
closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This must be the first
presidential election in which the Russian president chooses his candidate,"
Juppe said, referring to praise by Putin for Fillon
on Wednesday. Fillon believes the European Union and
the United States
"provoked" Russia
by expanding in eastern Europe and he has criticised
sanctions imposed on Moscow after Putin's
invasion of Ukraine
in 2014. He again targeted what he called the "absurd" policy of
Socialist President Francois Hollande, who has
confronted Putin over Russia's
annexation of Ukraine and
alleged war crimes by Russian forces in Syria. - Battle with far-right -Le Pen is currently
forecast to come first or second in the first round of the election on April 23
with around 30 percent of the vote, but then fail in the run-off on May 7. But
following the wave of populism that led British voters to choose to leave the
European Union and swept Donald Trump to victory in the United States,
no-one is writing off the National Front leader's chances. Fillon
dismissed suggestions his conservative approach made it hard for voters to
distinguish between him and Le Pen. "I have always fought the National
Front," he said, adding: "We have to prevent Madame Le Pen from
reaching the second round." If she did, it would be the sign of an
"ailing democracy". Le Pen says she wants to ditch the euro and
organise a referendum on France's
EU membership -- a move that would put the future of European integration at
stake. A re-election bid by Hollande, who is deeply
unpopular, seemingly moved closer on Thursday after figures showed a slight
fall in the number of unemployed in October. Hollande
has said he would only stand again if he could make a "credible"
reduction in unemployment by the end of his mandate. He said the figures were
proof his approach was "bearing fruit".
British Government Defends its Role in
Libya Campaign
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November
25/16/The British government on Friday rejected criticism of its intervention
in Libya, arguing its involvement saved civilian lives and claiming the Islamic
State group has been weakened in the country. The government's comments follow
a September report in which the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee
published a damning assessment of the 2011 intervention alongside France. The
report said London's
strategy was based on "erroneous assumptions and an incomplete
understanding of the evidence," accusing the government of selectively
taking the threats of dictator Moamer
Kadhafi at face value. But in its response the
government argued its actions "undoubtedly" saved civilian lives in Libya. "Qadhafi (Kadhafi) was
unpredictable and had the means and motivation to carry out his threats. His
actions could not be ignored, and required decisive and collective
international action," the government said in its written response. Kadhafi was ousted and killed during the uprising and Britain was
criticised by the Foreign Affairs Committee for expanding its mission to
protect civilians to a policy of regime change, a charge rejected by the
government. "Our objective remained clear at all times: to protect
civilians and to promote stability in Libya," the government said,
adding that it was "entirely appropriate" to target military sites
after the Kadhafi regime failed to implement a
ceasefire. The 2011 bombing campaign came after Kadhafi
loyalists pounded the eastern city of Benghazi,
raising fears of an imminent massacre in the rebel stronghold. Britain's then prime minister,
David Cameron, was blamed in the report as "ultimately responsible for the
failure to develop a coherent Libya
strategy". He declined to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which
heard from key players including former defence minister Liam Fox and former prime minister Tony Blair. The government confirmed Blair
had spoken to Kadhafi and said such efforts for a
political solution "were unable to make progress", dismissing the
Committee's claim that the government should have made better use of this
direct line of communication. Five years after the intervention, Libya is run by
two rival administrations and remains embroiled in violence including the
presence of extremists such as the Islamic State group. The British government
should have been aware that militant extremist groups would attempt to benefit
from the rebellion, the Committee report said. Defending its decision-making,
the government said the vast majority of people opposed to Kadhafi
were not linked to extremism and claimed the Islamic State was losing ground.
"Daesh are now on the back foot in Libya,"
the government said.
Mogherini: Violence against women is violence against
society
Fri 25 Nov 2016/NNA - Higher Representative of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, delivered a message on Friday upon the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. "Each
time we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, we recognize a failure by our societies. Women and girls are
targeted--at home, in their communities or work place--worldwide. The European
Union is no exception: on the contrary, we are witnesses to a troublesome
tendency which challenges success that we have taken for granted. Women endure
tremendous suffering, and must more often carry this load alone. But violence
against women is violence against the entire society: the entire society must
react, starting with men," Mogherini said in a
statement. "As decision-makers, we bear the hugest responsibility of
protecting women and spreading awareness," she added, recalling EU's
several projects in that respect. "We are helping spread a clear message:
violence against women indicates the weakness of men and not their
strength," she indicated."We shall not
accept leniency. While tackling violence against women, each word must be
selected very carefully," she concluded, stressing that the term
"criminal" must be used to describe those who commit violence against
women.
Arslan: We are subjected to huge conspiracy
Fri 25 Nov 2016/NNA - Head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, MP Talal Arslan, said, in a tweet on
Friday, that he senses he is being the subject of a huge conspiracy, vowing to
unearth the truth. "We feel that we are subjected to a huge conspiracy.
The coming days will uncover the truth and we will call things by name when the
picture is clear," he tweeted.
LF: We won 4 of 7 seats at NDU Barsa polls
Fri 25 Nov 2016/NNA - The Lebanese Forces said on Friday that the party and its
allies won four out of seven seats at the student council's election at NDU in Barsa. The LF allied with Future Movement, Independence
Movement, Kataeb, and the Free Patriotic Movement,
against a coalition of Marada Movement, the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party, Azm
Movement on one hand, and independent candidates on the other.
Gunfire in backlash at loud wedding in Ain el Hilwe
Fri 25 Nov 2016 at 21:58/NNA - A local of Ain-el-Hilwe
fired stray bullets and tossed a grenade in a backlash at loud music coming
from a neighboring wedding inside the Palestinian
refugee camp, but made no casualties, National News Agency correspondent
reported on Friday.
Marada, SSNP win 3 seats at NDU Barsa
student polls
Fri 25 Nov 2016/NNA - Students backed by Marada
Movement and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party won three seats at the student
polls at NDU-Barsa, National News Agency
correspondent in Zghorta reported on Friday.
Winning students headed to Bnachei to meet with Toni Sleiman Frangieh.
The fourth day of a dry hunger strike by
a political prisoner
Friday, 25 November 2016 NCRI - The political prisoner, Amir Amirgholi has gone on hunger strike since 16th of November
to protest against the lack of security and the prevention of medical treatment
after being beaten. He also demanded that the crimes of prisoners shall be
split and their issues have to be addressed. This political prisoner has begun
his dry hunger strike on 21st November 2016. Amir Amirgholi
in a message wrote:"I will start my dry hunger
strike on 21st November 2016 in order to support the other political prisoners
who are on hunger strike as well and to meet my legitimate demands. We have
nothing to lose in the struggle for freedom and equality. Either
death or freedom"The political prisoner, Amir Amirgholi was previously sentenced to 21 years of
imprisonment in the preliminary trials. He was acquitted on charges of
"gathering and colluding to act against the national security" and
"disturbing the public order by participating in gatherings" by the
Court of Appeals and he was charged with "blasphemy", "insulting
to Khamenei" and "propaganda against the
regime" and then sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment.
Iranian women's struggle to eliminate
violence against women is intertwined with the struggle for regime change in
Iran
NCRI Statements/November 25/16
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the
Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran salutes the
freedom-loving women who have defied the state-sponsored violence against women
and carry on with their struggle for regime change in Iran. The Women's
Committee also commemorates those women who gave their lives in this
confrontation with utmost courage.
The clerical regime's violent policies and conducts against Iranian women and
girls have been steadily on the rise over the 38 years of the mullahs' rule
because this misogynous regime has been founded on suppression of women and
discrimination against them. The clerical regime's Constitution and laws
institutionalize violence and discrimination against women and sanction the
cruel punishment of stoning.
Iran
is the only country in the world where women have been executed or tortured to
death by the thousands for their opposition. Tens of thousands of PMOI women
were massacred by the regime in the 1980s for exercising their freedom of
speech and thought. They included teenage girls, pregnant women and elderly
mothers. In 1988, thousands of women were among the 30,000 political prisoners
massacred and buried in unmarked mass graves across the country. The audio clip
and letters of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khomeini's ousted heir, reveal some of the most
vicious instances of torture, rape, and execution of girls and women in the
Iranian jails.
17 women were killed and six others kidnapped and taken hostage by the Iranian
regime's mercenaries in bloody attacks on the Iranian opposition PMOI in camps Ashraf and Liberty
between April 2011 and November 2015.
Female political prisoners in Iran
continue to suffer tremendously. After spending long periods in solitary
confinement under torture and interrogation, these women are sentenced to
lengthy prison sentences where they contract various illnesses. Prison
authorities, however, deliberately deprive them from having access to medical
treatment to increase the pressure on them, while leaving them to die
gradually. Maryam Akbari Monfared, Zahra Zehtabchi, Reyhaneh Haj Ibrahim, Fatemeh Mosanna, Nargess Mohammadi, Zeinab Jalalian, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, and Maryam Moghaddassi in Tehran's Evin
Prison, Fatemeh Rahnama in
the Sepidar Prison of Ahwaz, Fahimeh
Ismaeli Badavi in the Yassouj Prison, Afsaneh Bayazidi and Hajar Piri in the Prison of Kerman, Setareh
Arkwazi, in the Diezelabad
Prison of Kermanshah, and Safieh Sadeghi
in the Prison of Sanandaj, are in such conditions.
pressing their protest is another manifestation of the
state-sponsored violence against women in Iran. In a recent incident in Tehran, on November 21,
2016, security forces and plainclothes agents raided the gathering of a group
of women in front of the parliament, viciously beating up and pushing them
around. Some 30 women were arrested.
At least 71 women have been executed during Rouhani's
tenure.
The so-called Virtue and Veiling plans are the mechanism by which the regime
steps up social repression. The Iranian regime calls the so-called
"mal-veiled" young women and girls "enemy agents" and
mobilizes IRGC-backed gangs of thugs and hoodlums to harass and attack women
under the pretext of mal-veiling. This is a policy endorsed by the regime's
leader. Ali Khamenei personally reiterated the need
to be harsh on the issue of women's compulsory veiling. "(We) must not
suffice to a mere verbal prohibition," he said. (The state-run media, May
9, 2016) Khamenei thus sanctioned physical encounters
with women who flout the mandatory veil and dress code.
The outrageous series of acid attacks on women in various cities were the
product of such provocations. Given the regime's reluctance to arrest the
culprits and grant support to the victims, using acid to attack women for
vengeance has turned into a common practice.
This year, the regime deployed a special moral police, 7000 plainclothes agents
in Tehran, and
a new front called the "National, Popular Front for Virtue and
Veiling" which is made up of 301 active institutes to monitor women's hijab in the streets and behind the wheels across the
country and deal with offenders accordingly. These are in addition to the 26
government agencies and ministries which were already in charge of suppression
of women.
In an unprecedented measure this year, flogging was added to the official list
of punishments for women.
Young women and even girl children were flogged in Tehran,
Qazvin, Golpayegan (Isfahan), Mashhad and Kerman.
School authorities in the southern Iranian village of Mokhtarabad
in Kerman struck eight lashes of the whip, each, to at least ten girl students
because their parents did not afford to pay 30,000 toumans
(approx. $8.5) demanded by the school's principal. On other instances, young
women were flogged as many as 99 lashes for participating in protest
demonstrations, or in birthday and graduation parties.
At the same time, on November 17, 2016, a municipality agent in the northern
Iranian town of Fouman
slapped a destitute woman who was peddling in the street, sparking tremendous
outrage among the public.
As for domestic violence, the news of torture and murder of women by their
husbands hit a record high between March and June 2016. At least in ten cases,
the victims ranging from a six-year-old girl to a 50-year-old woman did not
survive the violence.
Violence against women and domestic violence are not considered crimes in Iran. Victims
of violence do not enjoy any government support. The Civil Code considers men
as heads of the household and the house as their private property. Fathers and
brothers are allowed to kill their daughters and sisters since they own the
latter's blood under the law. At the same time, in society, in schools and in
the streets, the government endorses and promotes violence against women.
So long as the mullahs' misogynous regime is in power, human rights and women's
rights are not going to be upheld in Iran. As the Iranian regime suffers
from instability in every respect and is beset by social protests and
discontent, it is historically essential that Iranian women actively engage in
the movement for regime change in Iran.
Since the clerical regime is the epicenter of export
of fundamentalism and its misogynous ideology to the region, every step towards
regime change in Iran is a
step towards elimination of violence against women in the Middle
East and the world.
The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
November 25, 2016
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 25-26/16
Iran’s good cop, bad cop
strategy
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November 25/16
Iran
has considerable stake in Donald Trump’s presidency. To achieve its
geopolitical, strategic and economic objectives, the Islamic Republic is
tactically shifting to play the good cop bad cop strategy with President-elect
Donald Trump.
The tactic is implemented by the alliance of the so-called hardline
and moderate political leaders.
Hardliners, the bad cops
The hardliners – mainly the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei and the senior cadre of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps who enjoy the
final say in Iran’s
politics – have begun their campaign of political posturing, flexing and
boasting about their military power, as well as pressuring and criticizing
Trump. In his latest public speech to thousands of people, broadcast on state
television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made it clear that
Trump’s presidency causes "no difference" to Iran-US relationships. Khamenei pointed out "We have no judgment on this
election because America is
the same America”.
Khamenei is sending a message that the US will remain Iran’s “Great Satan” as it has been
since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Khamenei
stated: “In the past 37 years, neither of the two parties who were in charge
did us any good and their evil has always been directed toward us….We neither
mourn nor celebrate, because it makes no difference to us…We have no concerns.
Thank God, we are prepared to confront any possible incident.”Khamenei
also attempts to depict Tehran as the victim and
Washington as
the aggressor. He pointed to several incidences, including the 1988 shooting
down of an Iran Air passenger jet by the US. Other hardliners propagated the
same agenda. The deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, told Iran’s Fars news agency: “When the
Republicans were in power, they threatened us and showed their hostility… and
when the Democrats were in power, the policies of the United States were the same,”.Hardliners are sending a message to majority of the
Iranian young population, who prefer rapprochement with the US, that Iran will
not have full diplomatic ties with the US no matter who is the President. Gen. Mohammad
Hossein Bagheri, the
Iranian Armed Forces’ chief of staff, threatened Trump against “confronting”
Iranian military in the Gulf and he called Trump presidency a “joke”. He told Iran’s
state media “The person who has recently achieved
power, has talked off the top of his head”. Hardliners are sending a message to
majority of the Iranian young population, who prefer rapprochement with the US, that Iran
will not have full diplomatic ties with the US no matter who is the President.
In other words, Iran will
maintain its core foreign policy of antagonism and animosity towards the US. Hardliners
are also attempting to play hardball tactics so that the next US administration would not take a robust stance
against Iran.
Moderates, the good cops
On the other hand, while the hardliners hold the final say in Iran’s domestic
and foreign policy, the moderates have been extremely successful at setting the
international tone and paving the way for hardliners to achieve their
geopolitical, strategic and economic objectives, as well as receive billions of
dollars in revenues. The moderates are continuing to apply the diplomatic soft
tone. Iran’s President
Hassan Rowhani’s recent remarks suggest that he
believes Trump will maintain the nuclear deal and will continue Obama’s
appeasement policy with Iran.
He stated: “Iran’s policy for constructive engagement with the world and the
lifting of nuclear-related sanctions have made our economic relations with all
countries expanding and irreversible,”Iran’s Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif,
who helped seal the nuclear deal, mentioned diplomatically “Every US President
has to understand the realities of today’s world…The most important thing is
that the future US. President sticks to agreements, to engagements undertaken.”
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the
head of the Iranian parliament's foreign-affairs committee, told the Islamic
Student News Agency that “The Trump of the campaign is different to Trump the President.”The moderates also offered tactical and
strategic cooperation to Trump as the leader of the moderate political party, Neday-e Azadi declared to the
Financial Times recently: “If Mr Trump co-operates with us and shows us
goodwill, we will do the same to allay our mutual concerns in the region, such
as Isis, the Taliban and the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Yemen”.After 30 yeas since its establishment, the Islamic
Republic realized that the most effective strategy towards the US is employing
the moderates versus hardliners tactics, or the bad cop versus the good cop strategy.
This has paid off well as billions of dollars has poured into the Islamic
Republic’s budget. Iran’s
“moderates” and hardliners will more likely continue to utilize the bad
cop-good cop strategy with the next US administration.
Driving isn’t a right, it’s a privilege;
so slow down and show some respect
Peter Harrison/Al Arabiya/November 25/16
Earlier this week there was a 25-car pile-up on the Al
Ain-Abu Dhabi highway in the UAE. The police say drivers were not taking the
necessary precautions for the foggy conditions. Thankfully on this occasion no
one was killed. But the first half of the year saw an increase in road deaths
in the UAE, largely because people were speeding, swerving between lanes,
tailgating, using mobile phones, or behaving in some other absurd fashion. till find it quite shocking how aggressive so many motorists
are in this part of the world. It’s not just the UAE – I’ve been in several
countries in the region and found conditions are also not the greatest. It’s
not as if the authorities aren’t acting. In the UAE the government and police
are taking numerous steps to try and combat the menace of dangerous driving.
The technology being introduced onto the roads should definitely go some way to
help control this serious problem. But there seems to be little impact with
fines. There are motorists here who drive badly, who don’t seem to care when
they’re fined – it’s almost like they wear the ticket as a badge of honor.
Driving is not a ‘right’
Driving is seen by many as a “right”, it is not. You earn the privilege to
drive by passing a test. You are granted a license on a number of conditions
and if you breach those conditions you are penalized. In some countries people
who repeatedly drive dangerously eventually lose their license for several
years, and in some cases their cars are impounded and even crushed. May be if a
few of these people’s top end sports cars, SUVs or monster trucks were crushed
– then others might think twice before jeopardizing the lives of others around
them. Driving is seen by many as a “right”, it is not. You earn the privilege
to drive by passing a test. You are granted a license on a number of conditions
and if you breach those conditions you are penalized. In a recent survey
conducted in the UAE motorists were asked if they signaled
when turning or changing lanes, and if not why. The response was staggering –
apparently many drivers said they believed using their indicators was a sign of
weakness. It seems to me that motorists here – the bad ones at least, the one’s
that drive just a few feet behind the car in front, or swerve abruptly – those
types – drive the way they do because they think it’s macho – may be even
somehow turns them into “real men”. real men don’t put
other people’s lives in danger. Real men are decent, honorable
people who are gracious and don’t like to intimidate others. Real men are the
people who don’t need to prove themselves by driving like fools, without any
consideration for anyone around them.
Risking your child’s life
And it’s not just aggressive driving that makes my
blood boil. What are parents thinking who buckle themselves in with the
seatbelt, but then leave their children to roam freely inside their moving
vehicles? I find it extraordinary when I see an adult sitting in the front passenger
seat, with a child either on their lap, or standing in the front foot well. The
other day I even saw a small girl leaning out of the rear passenger seat window
of an SUV - clearly not buckled in. Do these people not understand the danger
they place their child in? Do they not understand that when a vehicle traveling
at 100 kmph stops suddenly, everything inside that
vehicle that’s not held down will keep moving forward at 100 kmph? Have they not seen the bloody mess left behind by a
human body when it hits something at that speed? I understand the thrill of
driving quickly – I really do. I understand that when you’re in a car that
growls when you put your foot on the throttle there’s a buzz. But I’m not
convinced that this thrill is worth the heartbreak and devastation caused by
taking such terrible risks.And if you think that
traveling at 140 kmph will get you somewhere much
quicker than 120 – then you’re wrong. You end up saving seconds, maybe a minute
or two at the most – but you risk a fine, losing your license. But worst of all
you risk harming others who had no say in the matter - what you do with your
own life is up to you. Let me leave you with this thought. According to the
World Health Organization in 2013 there were 1.25 million road deaths around
the world. Sure many of these were genuine accidents,
some were terribly sad unavoidable incidents.
But if we all just slowed down a bit, put down our mobile phones, used our
mirrors and indicated when moving, made sure everyone was buckled in and just
were a bit more courteous, then maybe we could all help reduce this statistic
by at least just a little bit.
Why this surge of US interest in Yemen?
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi/Al Arabiya/November 25/16
The sudden surge of American interest in the Yemen
conflict raises serious questions. I have taken part in many discussions last
week about Kerry’s surprise visit to Oman to meet with a Houthi delegation. Here are some of these questions and my
answers:
Why all the secrecy? Why in Oman?
Whenever America needs to
speak to Iran and its Arab
proxies, US officials meet in Oman,
with total radio silence! They negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran for years
in a similar fashion. Who knows what else?
If it was only the Houthis were engaged in last
week’s meeting, why all the secrecy? My bet is Iran was there. This is
explainable, since it is the troublemaker in Yemen,
as well as in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. To resolve the Yemeni
problem, you need to talk to them, not to the Houthis
and Saleh. If the Iranian masters are not in
agreement, the Arab agents will keep breaking their promises and failing their
commitments. The Houthis are allied with ex-President
Ali Abdullah Saleh. How come Kerry has met only with
them?
It was a crude recognition of reality. The Houthis
are the ones in the driver’s seat. Saleh was going
out of his scripted line calling on Saudi Arabia to talk directly to
him. Kerry could have saved his breath by meeting with the Iranians alone. Or
maybe that was exactly what he did. The Houthis may
have been there just for the photo-op, and to get directions from their
masters. The Yemeni government was not invited, notified or consulted. Why
Kerry chose to ignore them? Since the Yemeni government has resisted the US-UN
proposal, Kerry may have decided to enforce it on them. This is the American
way. It backfired on him, because President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi refused to sign on,
and the Arab Alliance supported him. It was rude and humiliating, to say the
least, to ignore a legitimate president and travel across the world for a
meeting with a low-level delegation of a rebellious militia that kidnapped
Americans and fired missiles on the US fleet. American pride and prestige, not
just Yemeni, were compromised. Later on, he had to apologize in person to
President Hadi for a move that was hasty and badly
conceived. The Obama Administration has never been a partner in any alliance
against Iran — Not in Iraq, not in Syria,
not in Lebanon and not in Yemen. They
were initially against the operation but had to play catch-up after is started
Not a partner in alliance
America
is an ally and partner in the Decisive Storm. Why the change of heart?
The Obama Administration has never been a partner in any alliance against Iran — Not in Iraq,
not in Syria, not in Lebanon and not in Yemen. They were initially against
the Storm, but had to play catch-up after its start. Most of their help
consists of expensive services, paid in cash. Like any war merchants, they made
a fortune of sold equipment, spare parts and other logistics. US heart has
always been with the Houthis. Under their watch (and
their agent in the UN, Jamal bin Omar) the rebels swept the country with
ruthless force, from their base in Sa’da, north of Yemen, to Sanaa, and
down to Ta’az and Aden. They had overthrown a legitimate,
elected government, imprisoned its Cabinet, and chased its president with
“wanted dead or alive” bounty on his head. The UN-US legitimized all the above
by dealing with the rebels as de-facto rulers. And if it wasn’t for the Arab
Alliance’s support of Hadi,
Yemen would have been
delivered to Iran, the same
way Iraq
had been. And Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf states
would have been surrounded with the Farsi Empire north, south and east. The
nuclear deal with Iran,
then, would have been completed. What is so wrong with the UN and Kerry’s peace
plan that the Yemeni government so adamantly refused? What was leaked is
disturbing. The president would have to transfer his authority to a new
government divided between three groups. One third would go to the Houthis, another to Saleh, and a
third to the current government. So the rebels, who controlled 20 percent of
the country would be rewarded with two thirds of the
new government — an overwhelming control.
The Houthis would turn over their heavy guns to unspecified
third party. They should get their forces out of major cities. That is too
vague. They could easily say that most of their arms were destroyed and turn
only what cannot be hidden. Their militants could pretend to be civilians and
stay in Sanaa. Later, they may incorporate them in
the national army. Since they would be ruling the government and parliament
they could pass any changes and roles they may wish. We are back to worse than
square one. Iran wins, Yemen and Arabs
lose. This means either everyone accepts, or another war erupts. Either way,
US, Britain, Israel and Iran rule our world. And they get
richer selling arms to all sides. Forget about it!
**This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on Nov. 22, 2016.
Europe: Let's Self-destruct!
Judith Bergman/November 25, 2016/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9373/europe-self-destruction
A reasonable question that many Europeans might
ask would be whether it is not perhaps time to review priorities?
Perhaps the time has come to look at whether it remains worth it, in
terms of the potential loss of human life, to remain party to the 1961
Convention, which would prohibit a country from stripping a returning ISIS fighter of his citizenship in order to prevent him
from entering the country?
The terrorist as poor, traumatized victim who needs help seems to be a
recurring theme among European politicians. But what about
the rights of the poor, traumatized citizens who elected these politicians?
Roughly 30,000 foreign and European Islamic State fighters from around
100 different countries, who have gone to Syria, Iraq and Libya, could spread
across the continent once the terror group is crushed in its Iraqi stronghold,
warned Karin von Hippel, director-general of the UK
military think tank, Royal United Services Institute, speaking to the Express
on October 26:
"I think once they lose territory in Iraq and Syria and probably
Libya... they will likely go back to a more insurgent style operation versus a
terrorist group that wants to try and hold onto territory... There has been about 30,000 foreign fighters that have gone in
from about 100 countries to join. Not all of them have joined ISIS, some have
joined al-Qaeda, Kurds, and other groups, but the vast majority have gone to
join ISIS. These people will disperse. Some of
them have already been captured or killed but many will disperse and they'll go
to European countries...They may not go back to where they came from and that
is definitely keeping security forces up at night in many, many
countries".
Perhaps these scenarios are really keeping security forces up at night in
many countries. Judging by the continued influx of predominantly young, male
migrants of fighting age into Europe, however,
one might be excused for thinking that European politicians themselves are not
losing any sleep over potential new terrorist attacks.
According to a report by Radio Sweden, for example:
"Around 140 Swedes have so far returned after having joined the
violent groups in Syria and Iraq.
Now several municipalities are preparing to work with those who want to defect.
This could include offering practical support to defectors."
The municipality
of Lund has dealt with
this issue, and Malmö, Borlänge
and Örebro have similar views. As
Radio Sweden reports:
"Lund's
conclusion is that defectors from violent extremist groups should be handled
like defectors from other environments, such as organized crime. After
an investigation of the person's needs, the municipality can help with housing,
employment or livelihood."
According to Sweden's
"national coordinator against violent extremism," Christoffer
Carlsson:
You need to be able to reintegrate into the job market, you may need a
driver's license, debt settlement and shelter. When people leave, they want to
leave for something else, but they do not have the resources for it, so it is
difficult for them to realize their plan. If they do not receive support, the
risk is great that they will be unable to leave the extremist environment, but
instead fall back into it."
Anna Sjöstrand, Lund's municipal coordinator against violent
extremism, says that people who have served their penalty should all have
support. Last year, the Municipality
of Örebro
received criticism for offering an internship to a young man who returned after
having been in Syria.
"There may be such criticism, but for me it is difficult to think
along those lines. They get the same help as others who seek help from us. We
cannot say that because you made a wrong choice, you have no right to come back
and live in our society," says Anna Sjöstrand.
According to Sweden Radio, several of the municipalities stress that
people who commit crimes should be sentenced and serve their penalties before
they can receive support. According to Amir Rostami,
who works with the national coordinator against violent extremism:
"If you are suspected of a crime, the investigation of the crime
always comes first. But as long as there is no
suspicion of a crime, then it is in our own interest to help those that come
out of this extremist environment. The consequences for society are quite large
if you do not."
So, in Sjöstrand's words, travelling to Syria and Iraq
to join ISIS, a bestial Islamic terrorist
organization with its sexual enslavement of women and children, rapes, brutal
murders of Christians, Yazidis, and other Muslims is
just "a wrong choice." You know, similar to embezzling money or
getting into a drunken brawl at a bar, just ordinary garden-variety crime,
which should not intervene with your "right to come back and live in our
society". In other words, it seems to support the standard European idea
that the terrorist is the victim, not the innocent people he is out to maim, rape,
and kill.
According to the Swedish view, burning Christians and Yazidis
alive, gang-raping and murdering women and children, and other such "wrong
choices" should not get into the way of one's "rights." It also
seems to ignore the rights of members of the peaceful society who are
vulnerable to being attacked. It would be logical to posit that traveling for
the express purpose of joining a terrorist organization such as ISIS, which has
as its explicit goal the destruction of Western nations such as Sweden, should
actually lead to the forfeiture of the "right to come back and live in our
society" -- especially as those former ISIS fighters evidently do not
consider Swedish society "their society."
Another word that comes to mind is treason. But not for
Sweden,
such logical moral and political choices. Better to have another go at
politically correct policies, doomed to failure, at the expense of the security
(and taxpayer money) of law-abiding Swedish citizens, whose rights to live
without fear of violent assault, rape and terrorism clearly ceased to matter to
Swedish authorities a long time ago.
This hapless attitude towards ISIS
increasingly resembles criminal negligence on the part of Swedish authorities.
It was recently reported that Swedish police received a complaint of incitement
to racial hatred, after an unnamed Syrian-born 23-year-old used a picture of
the ISIS flag as a profile picture on social
media. Prosecutor Gisela Sjövall decided not to
pursue legal action against the man. The reason, according to
Sjövall?
"IS expresses every kind of disrespect; it is against everyone
except those who belong to IS itself. There is the dilemma,
it [offends] too big a group... You could say that merely waving a flag of IS
in the current situation cannot be considered hate speech. It is not an
expression of disrespect towards any [particular] ethnic group. It has been
said there could possibly be some form of incitement, that IS urges others to
commit criminal acts such as murder, but that is not the case."
Since ISIS hates absolutely everybody,
according to Swedish law they can apparently engage in as much hate speech as
their hearts desire. The terrorists, who are vying for a world-dominating
caliphate, must be laughing their heads off.
Sjövall added that because the Nazi swastika is
intrinsically linked to inciting anti-Semitism, this contravenes Swedish laws,
and that maybe the ISIS flag would be
considered as contravening Swedish law in 10 years.
At the rate that Swedish society is self-destructing, there may not even
be much of Sweden
to speak of 10 years from now.
On June 7, 2016, it was reported that British citizen Grace "Khadija" Dare had brought her 4-year-old son, Isa
Dare, to live in Sweden,
in order to benefit from free health care. In February, the boy was featured in
an ISIS video, blowing up four prisoners in a
car (pictured above). The boy's father, a jihadist with Swedish citizenship,
was killed fighting for ISIS.
In neighboring Denmark,
in March 2015, a Danish MP for the Social Democrats, Trine Bramsen,
said about returning ISIS fighters:
"Some constitute a danger or can become dangerous. Others need help.
We have actually seen that many of those who come home have experienced such
horrors that they need psychological help".
The terrorist as poor, traumatized victim who needs help seems to be a
recurring theme among European politicians. But what about
the rights of the poor, traumatized citizens who elected these politicians?
Denmark happens to be
the European country with the most ISIS fighters returning from Syria, according to a report released in April
by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague. The report shows that 50% of the
people who left Denmark to
fight with ISIS in Syria
have returned to Denmark.
The UK is second, with 48%,
and then come Germany (33%),
Sweden (29%), France (27%), and Austria (26%). In Denmark, four Syrian ISIS fighters were arrested
in April when they returned from Syria.
The head of the Strategic Institute of the Defense
Academy in Denmark, Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen,
told a Danish newspaper in April that there are not enough resources to monitor
all returning ISIS fighters and thereby ensure their arrest, adding:
"But then again, not all [ISIS fighters] are identical. Some will
come home and be a threat to society, whereas others will return disillusioned.
If we treat everyone in the same manner, we risk pushing some of those who are
in doubt even further in. If someone returns and it cannot be proven that he
has committed crimes and if he, besides that, is disillusioned, then he should
get help to get out."
How do you determine with certainty that someone is
"disillusioned," when he could in fact be a ticking bomb waiting to
commit terror?
In Denmark, the
authorities decided on a prohibition to travel to Syria
to join ISIS. That, however, does not solve
the problem of what to do with the returning ISIS
fighters. It also does not do much to prevent those potential ISIS fighters who
have been frustrated in their efforts to join ISIS, from unleashing their
terror on European soil instead -- as ISIS has
in fact commanded them to do.
Several countries, including the United
Kingdom and Australia,
have considered revoking the citizenship of returning ISIS
fighters, thereby preventing them from returning. This is certainly feasible in
those cases where the person in question has dual citizenship. Political
obstacles aside, however, one of the main legal obstacles to countries taking
this path is the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which prohibits
governments from revoking a person's nationality if it leaves them stateless.
A reasonable question that many Europeans might ask would be whether it
is not perhaps time to review priorities? Perhaps the time has come to look at
whether it remains worth it, in terms of the potential loss of human life, to
remain party to the 1961 Convention, which would prohibit a country from
stripping a returning ISIS fighter of his
citizenship in order to prevent him from entering the country?
Presumably, the European people care more about staying alive than the
intricacies of international law. When will European leaders mobilize the
political will to act?
*Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
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