LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

September 17/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble

I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/21-30./:"Again he said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’Then the Jews said, ‘Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, "Where I am going, you cannot come"?’He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.’ They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.’ They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.’As he was saying these things, many believed in him."

No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Second Letter of Peter 01/12-21/:"Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 16-17/16

Hezbollah's Money Worries: Israeli intel and tightening US sanctions/Yossi Melman/Gerusalem Post/September 16/16
No constituent assembly on the horizon in Lebanon/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
Assad backers and the logic of the playground in Syria/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
More disclosures: Exemptions for Iran and the Obama ‘legacy’/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
The Last Supper: The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands/Raymond Ibrahim/September 16/16
$1.3 Billion of the Cash to Iran was Taxpayer Money/Annie Fixler/Foundation for Defense of Democracies/September 16/16
Kamandar Bakhtiar, Defector From ISIS-Khorasan: I Witnessed Beheadings And The Raping Of Homosexuals/MEMRI/September 16/16
Palestinians: Jibril Rajoub and the "Merry Christmas Group"/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 16/16
The Connection between Al-Qaeda and Black Lives Matter/Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/September 16,/ 16
The new Abu Muslim al-Khurasani/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/September 16/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 16-17/16
Israel Readies for 1,500 Rockets a Day from Hizbullah, Hamas
Hizbullah's Yazbek: It's About Time Country Left 'Intensive Care'
Jumblat: I Prefer Suicide over a Reconciliation with Assad
Statement Attributed to IS Surfaces Hours before Sidon Festival
Syrian-Lebanese Tensions Renew in Sarba after Threats Found on Poster
Lebanese Couple Abducted in Bekaa, Taken into Syria
Moqbel Discusses Means of Military Cooperation with French Arms Company
Palestinians Hand Over Wanted Men to Army as Beddawi Camp Road Reopened
Aoun Meets EU Delegation, British Ambassador
Police Arrest Four Drug Dealers in Dahiyeh and Dawhet Aramoun
Man Found Dead in East Lebanon Home
Bomb Blast Leaves Four Wounded in Refugee Encampment in Arsal
Hariri: Calling for Jumblat’s Safety an Arab and National Responsibility
Report: Suspect Involved in Assassination Plot against Jumblat Indicted
Report: Appeasing Fears over Naturalizing Refugees on Eve of U.N. Summit
Zeaiter: We seek strong just state
Mikati: We should unify positions at times of mixing papers
Gunmen kidnap citizen, wife in Hamam town
Aridi: Nobody can exclude others in Lebanon
Christians play influential role in Middle East, says EU parliamentarian
Hezbollah's Money Worries: Israeli intel and tightening US sanctions
No constituent assembly on the horizon in Lebanon

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 16-17/16

Egyptian Researcher Ahmad Abdou Maher Criticizes Ancient Islamic Jurisprudence: 'Idiocy And Insanity'
UAE, Vatican City sign agreement on visa-free travel for officials
Lavrov, Kerry say Syria ceasefire holding in general
UN probe finds Syria military behind chlorine bomb attacks: source
Syria Aid Stuck at Border as Diplomatic Tensions Grow
Fragile Syria Truce Tested by Violence, U.S.-Russia Tensions
U.N. Security Council to Hear about U.S.-Russia Syria Deal
Fierce Shelling, Clashes in East of Syria Capital
Coalition Strike Kills IS 'Minister of Information'
Pentagon Says U.S. Special Forces Deployed to Syria to Back Turkey
U.S. Flags Flown by Kurdish Group in Northern Syria
Iraqi Cleric's Supporters Demonstrate for Reform
U.S. Designates Senior Hamas Figure 'Global Terrorist'
Report: Third of Saudi-Led Strikes on Yemen Hit Civilian Sites
Best Chapter' in Cyprus-Israel Ties, Says Lieberman
3 Palestinian Attackers Killed in West Bank, Jerusalem
Paris Police Dismantle Camp Housing 1,500 Migrants
Social protests in Iran
Iran: clash of the rival regime’s factions

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on September 16-17/16
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Obama’s Fantasy Eid al-Adha

Links From Christian Today Site for on September 16-17/16
City Harvest's Kong Hee appeals guilty verdict but may face extra jail time
Syria ceasefire deal in balance as Aleppo aid plan stalls
Church of England sets up new body on sexuality
Donald Trump admits Obama was born in the US
Nigel Farage calls on the Archbishop of Canterbury to step down
Our confidence is in God,' says minister father of Brit facing extradition to US
Teen Christian boy 'murdered' and hung from a tree in Pakistan
Churches burned and members threatened with violence: The reality of being a Christian in Cuba
Australia: Anglican bishop backs same-sex marriage ahead of possible referendum
Trump and Clinton the most 'deeply flawed' candidates in 50 years, says US Archbishop
Christian groups slam Israel over Gaza 'prison', call on US to cut military aid
Cardinal denies attacking Muslims after warning of 'Islamic conquest of Europe'
Evangelicals in Egypt head to US in support of President Sisi's UN visit

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 16-17/16

Israel Readies for 1,500 Rockets a Day from Hizbullah, Hamas
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Israel's army estimates that thousands of rockets could slam into Israel in any future conflagration, military sources said Friday ahead of a nationwide civil defense drill. "Total war on several fronts, destruction of essential equipment and infrastructure and heavy rocket bombardment" all form part of the scenario for the exercise, which runs from Sunday until September 21, the army said. The drill is based on projections of the army's Home Front Command, which estimates 1,500 rockets crashing into the country each day, military sources said in a briefing to Israeli reporters, local media reported. The projectiles could be launched simultaneously by Lebanon's Hizbullah across Israel's northern border and to a far lesser extent from Hamas-ruled Gaza in the south. Hamas is said to have been left seriously weakened after a 2014 Gaza war against Israel, but it still holds thousands of rockets, according to a military official. Hizbullah has at least 100,000 and probably more, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Only around one in 100 rockets is likely to hit a building, military sources say, with the rest falling on open ground or being intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. They say 95 percent of rockets fired will likely carry a light payload and have a range of less than 40 kilometers (25 miles), but Hizbullah can hit densely-populated central Israel with dozens of rockets each day. The Home Front Command, tasked with leading and coordinating civil defense, regularly publishes maps showing the maximum time, by location, that Israelis have to take shelter after air raid sirens sound. In Tel Aviv, Israel's seaside commercial and leisure capital, the time to scramble to safety has been reassessed from 90 seconds at present to 60 in the next conflict. After a 2006 war with Hizbullah, an official inquiry criticized authorities for lack of preparedness and organization in civil defense procedures. During that conflict, the Lebanese, Iran-backed group rained about 4,000 rockets on Israel and sent a million civilians into shelters, many of them dilapidated and cramped. The 34 days of fighting took the lives of more than 1,200 on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, almost all soldiers.

Hizbullah's Yazbek: It's About Time Country Left 'Intensive Care'
Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek called Friday for “a strong state” that can provide “security” and “real partnership.”“The situations in the country are very sad and regrettable and failure to shoulder responsibility would give a chance to those who want to tamper with security, attack people's freedoms and plant explosives, in addition to encouraging corruption and obstruction in state institutions,” Yazbek, who is the head of Hizbullah's Juristic Council, said. “Will politicians meet on September 28 after reaching an agreement on electing a president or will they venture further into the unknown as citizens pay the price?” the Hizbullah official asked. “It's about time the country left intensive care into a strong state that can provide security, preserve sovereignty and enhance coexistence and real partnership,” Yazbek urged. Hizbullah has recently showed solidarity with its main Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement by boycotting a cabinet session that was held in the absence of FPM's ministers. The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact. The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Jumblat: I Prefer Suicide over a Reconciliation with Assad
Naharnet/September 16/16/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed that he “will never reconcile with Syrian President Bashar Assad,” and that a reconciliation will mean his political end. “I prefer to commit suicide on my own terms instead of going to Syria and shake hands with Assad,” said the MP in an interview to Carnegie Middle East Center on Thursday. “A reconciliation will mean my political end,” he added. Jumblat pointed out that his major concern today is “survival”, he said: “My only purpose is survival, and hopefully I have delivered this message to my son. Survival means having good relations with the different political components in the country, mainly Hizbullah. That is the safest way for the Druze community to survive and preserve what they still have politically and demographically.”He expressed sorrow that his ally al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri is facing difficulties, he said: “My strongest ally is getting weaker everyday and I don't know why. It is very sad.”On the presidential impasse, Jumblat ruled out the possibility that a solution will be reached in the near future, he stated: “The two major regional powers who can deliver a president are of course Iran and Syria. We must not underestimate the power of Bashar and his ability to spoil things. They plan to dominate the rebel-controlled regions in Syria, so when they succeed in achieving that, then they can impose a new tutelage on Lebanon and under new conditions maybe.”He pointed out that some officials in the Maronite community are unaware that the constitution can be amended to their disadvantage, he said: “The other side does not care, they have total control inside their communities. Don’t tell me that they don’t profit from divisions among the Christians. And even among the Sunnis they have their own militias and influence, and among the Druze as well.”

Statement Attributed to IS Surfaces Hours before Sidon Festival
Naharnet/September 16/16/Hours before the start of the landmark Sidon International Festival on Friday evening, a threatening statement carrying the flag of the jihadist Islamic State group was circulating on social networking websites. Sidon municipal chief Mohammed al-Saudi has however dismissed the statement as fabricated. The statement comes after several Sidon Islamic figures voiced dismay over the festival, the first in the largely conservative city since the sixties of the last century. “The city of Sidon has always been a city of an Islamic identity and good martyrs and honest men have fallen on this land,” the statement says. “A handful of people have announced that they will organize a dance party in which alcohol will be consumed and scantily-dressed women will be present... and this, God willing, will not happen,” the statement adds. “Do not test our patience... Our options are open, on land, in the sea and in the air. Water will turn into fire and the sky will turn into dust and all the singers, dancers and attendants of this party shall scream,” the statement says. “Prepare your hospitals for the wounded and your graves which will not be able to accommodate your corpses,” the alleged IS statement adds. The festival will open with a concert for renowned pop superstar Nancy Ajram on Friday and Lebanese Armenian musician, composer and pianist Guy Manoukian will be the star of Saturday's evening.

Syrian-Lebanese Tensions Renew in Sarba after Threats Found on Poster
Naharnet/September 16/16/Tensions have renewed in the densely populated Sarba neighborhood of Ain Bzeil after Monday's clash between Lebanese and Syrian young men that involved the use of knives, rocks and batons, a media report said on Friday. “Tensions are engulfing Sarba despite the efforts of security forces and Jounieh's municipal police to pacify the situation through staging patrols in the neighborhood,” LBCI television said. “Insults against the neighborhood's residents and pro-Islamic State slogans were found yesterday on a poster for the young man Elio Baaini, who was killed in late August in an ATV accident,” the TV network said. “The poster is hoisted on a building near the site of the clash, the thing that has sparked fears among residents about renewed violence on the ground,” LBCI added.

Lebanese Couple Abducted in Bekaa, Taken into Syria
Naharnet/September 16/16/A man and his wife were kidnapped Friday in the Baalbek district town of Ham, state-run National News Agency reported. “Gunmen kidnapped Lebanese national Hassan Mohammed Mrad and his wife Karma Jamil Mahdi from an apple grove in the outskirts of the town of Ham, taking them into Syria,” NNA said. The agency noted that the man is “the father of Abdullah Mrad, who was killed by gunmen two years ago in the town's outskirts.”LBCI television said the gunmen belong to Fateh al-Sham Front, which was formerly known as al-Nusra Front before renouncing its ties with al-Qaida.

Moqbel Discusses Means of Military Cooperation with French Arms Company
Naharnet/September 16/16/Defense Minister Samir Moqbel met Friday with a delegation from the French arms company ODAS, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. ODAS was set up at the request of the French government to promote international sales of defense, security and other advanced technology products and services, according to its website. “The delegation was led by former French chief of the defense staff Édouard Guillaud and talks tackled means of military cooperation between the company and the Lebanese army,” NNA said. Guillaud expressed “his country's support for the efforts of the Ministry of National Defense and the Army Command to provide advanced French arms and equipment to the Lebanese army, especially that it is performing its role effectively and competently in preserving Lebanon's stability,” the agency added. Moqbel for his part thanked the visiting delegation for its “concern and efforts,” expressing his appreciation of “the French authorities' keenness on boosting the Lebanese army's capabilities to that it can confront the threats of the current period.”

Palestinians Hand Over Wanted Men to Army as Beddawi Camp Road Reopened
Naharnet/September 16/16/The Palestinian factions at the al-Beddawi refugee camp on Friday handed over to the Lebanese army a number of camp residents who were wanted over Thursday's clash in the Jabal al-Beddawi area, state-run National News Agency reported. “The army had been imposing a security cordon around the camp since yesterday's evening,” NNA said. The factions for their part had “placed barbed wire at the camp's entrance, blocking movement from and into the camp, after the Lebanese army erected a checkpoint near the camp's entrance,” the agency added. Meanwhile, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said the road to the camp was reopened after the Army Command “promised to ease the measures that have been taken at the camp's entrance.” NNA had reported Thursday that the army arrested thirty Palestinians in connection with the clash that erupted a day earlier in the area. Several people were wounded Wednesday when a personal dispute erupted into an armed clash between Lebanese and Palestinian young men in al-Beddawi. According to NNA, the dispute between the young men started “inside a sports complex and an amusement park.” “It then escalated into gunfire and a hand grenade was also hurled,” NNA said. LBCI television said the clash erupted in the vicinity of the al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp, pitting young men from the Zeid and Shabban families. “When the army intervened, one of the young men hurled a hand grenade at the troops, which prompted them to fire in the air and towards the man who threw the grenade,” LBCI added.

Aoun Meets EU Delegation, British Ambassador
Naharnet/September 16/16/Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun held separate talks on Friday with a European Union delegation and British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter, state-run National News Agency reported. The EU delegation was led by Lars Ottosson, a member of the Sweden Democrats party. "The meeting was special and rich with General Aoun and its focused on the Christian situation in the Middle East and the relations between the Christian and Muslim religions," the EU official said.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Police Arrest Four Drug Dealers in Dahiyeh and Dawhet Aramoun
Naharnet/September 16/16/The Internal Security Forces arrested three people involved in smuggling narcotics in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Dahiyeh), an ISF statement said on Friday. “The Anti-Drug Bureau in Beirut and Mount Lebanon obtained information about a drug dealer in the neighborhoods of al-Sfeir and Ghobeiri,” said the statement. “The Anti-Drug Bureau raided the location south of Beirut, arresting Lebanese M.M, N.M. and M.Q.” it added. “The police seized 1.5 kilo grams of hashish, 300 grams of Salvia divinorum, a balance scale and small plastic bags for packaging the drugs. They also seized a military Astra caliber of 7.5 mm with 9 unusable bullets and an illegal motorcycle. It said M.M. already had one arrest warrant against him. In a separate operation, the ISF arrested another drug dealer in the area of Dawhet Aramoun after raiding his home. “The house of the suspect, M.S., was searched and the police found a number of transparent plastic boxes that contained 276 grams of cocaine, plastic bags for the purpose of packaging, 5 mobile handsets, a balance scale, 5 colanders, a 9 mm pistol and 4 bullets in addition to sums of money,” an ISF statement had said Friday. The suspect already had an arrest warrant on charges of stealing and cheque fraud, embezzlement and drug offenses. Investigation is underway under the supervision of the related authorities.

Man Found Dead in East Lebanon Home
Naharnet/September 16/16/The dead body of a man was found inside his house in the Baalbek town of Douris in east Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported on Friday. The man was identified as J.Aa and was found dead. NNA later said that the man had died as a result of a heart attack.

Bomb Blast Leaves Four Wounded in Refugee Encampment in Arsal
Naharnet/September 16/16/A bomb blast in a Syrian refugee encampment in the northeastern border town of Arsal wounded four people, the state-run National News Agency reported on Friday. A hand grenade exploded in the al-Nour camp for Syrian refugees in Wadi Hmeid in Arsal, NNA said. Four people were left with minor wounds and were taken to the hospital for treatment. NNA added that the blast went off against the backdrop of a personal dispute between the refugees.

Hariri: Calling for Jumblat’s Safety an Arab and National Responsibility
Naharnet/September 16/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri hailed the judiciary's efforts that unveiled an assassination plot against Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat. “The disclosure of a plot to assassinate the head of the Democratic Gathering bloc Walid Jumblat is a security and judicial achievement that deserves to pay a tribute to all those who contributed to uncovering it,” said Hariri. “Walid Jumblat’s safety is inherent to Lebanon’s safety. Expressing solidarity with him and calling to protect him is an Arab and national responsibility in the face of the tools of discord and evil.”First Military Investigative Judge Riad Abou Ghaida issued a death penalty indictment that was reduced to life imprisonment against former PSP member Youssef Fakher, nicknamed the Cowboy, on charges of an assassination attempt against Jumblat, media reports said. Fakher was arrested by the General Security in August on suspicion of dealing with the Israeli enemy and for involvement in buying arms and forming armed groups.

Report: Suspect Involved in Assassination Plot against Jumblat Indicted
Naharnet/September 16/16/First Military Investigative Judge Riad Abou Ghaida issued a death penalty indictment that was reduced to life imprisonment against former Progressive Socialist Party member Youssef Fakher, nicknamed the Cowboy, on charges of an assassination attempt against PSP leader MP Walid Jumblat, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. Fakher was arrested in August by the General Security on charges of involvement in preparations to assassinate Jumblat, having links with Israel and for forming armed groups. In his confessions, Fakher said that he had “a friendship relation with Syrian intelligence member, Mouhannad Moussa, when the Syrian army was still in Lebanon,” and that the latter was close to Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon Ghazi Kanaan. “Five months ago we held a contact through Facebook and discussed the developments in Syria. Mouhannad told me that Walid Jumblat will not stay alive and that he will be assassinated before October 2016,” said Fakher according to the daily. Although Fakher denied having links to the assassination plot, but when he was confronted by the judge in a question that read: “You said in the messages that you will someday take revenge on those who were the reason for your ouster from Lebanon for 30 years, whom did you mean?”Fakher replied that he meant Jumblat and his subordinates. According to the indictment, Fakher was a PSP military official in the area of Rawche during the Lebanese war before he traveled in 1987 to the United States where he married an American woman to obtain the US citizenship. In 1998, he married a Lebanese woman and had three children. He did not visit his homeland for 24 years because he was wanted by the Syrian intelligence at that time period. In 2011 Fakher traveled to Lebanon and the visit was followed by other trips in 2012, 2013 and the latest was in July 2016 before he was summoned for interrogations in August 1, 2016. He was called in after the Lebanese General Security obtained information that the suspect held contacts with an Israeli resident close to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and that he held contacts for the purpose of supporting terror groups in Syria and recruiting spy agents in favor of Israel.

Report: Appeasing Fears over Naturalizing Refugees on Eve of U.N. Summit
Naharnet/September 16/16/International authorities have stressed the importance that Lebanon engages in the international summit for migrants and refugees that will convene in New York on September 20 and, in the UN General Assembly on refugees scheduled on September 19 in NY as well, An Nahar daily reported on Friday. Diplomatic sources said that at the conferences Lebanon will receive significant financial and moral support, and that it will be an opportunity to convey a message to the world to assume responsibilities in helping Lebanon carry the burden of refugees, added the daily.
The UN General Assembly will host a high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam will attend the UN summit for refugees and migrants on Monday and other sessions of the UN General Assembly. The sources added that the misconception with regard to the term “refugee resettlement”, that Lebanon had expressed reservation about, must be rectified.
They stated that the international community meant to resettle the refugees in a third country other than Lebanon if the war in Syria did not end, which means that the number of refugees in the host countries will decrease. A high-level UN summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants could potentially be a “game changer” that will enhance protection for those forcibly displaced and otherwise on the move, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency had said. The UN Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants will be held at the General Assembly in New York on September 19, and is to be attended by heads of state and government, ministers and leaders from the U.N. System and representatives of civil society, among others. In May, the Lebanese council of ministers announced that it unanimously rejects any attempt to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon, after remarks attributed to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon stirred a storm of criticism in the country. Ban Ki-moon had said in a report he submitted to the Vienna conference on Syria that refugees have the right to obtain the nationalities of the countries they live in.
Ban Ki-moon's reported remarks had prompted an urgent meeting for the Lebanese government's Syrian refugee cell which comprises Salam, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas and Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi. In a statement before the cabinet session, Qazzi had said: "Ever since 1948, no international official has dared to raise the issue of naturalizing the Palestinians, so how could Ban Ki-moon mention the naturalization of Syrians seven times in a 26-page report?" Five years into the Syria conflict, Lebanon hosts more than one million refugees from the war-torn country, according to the United Nations. More than a third live in the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border.

Zeaiter: We seek strong just state
Fri 16 Sep 2016/NNA - Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Ghazi Zeaiter, maintained on Friday that a strong just state--where all the Lebanese from different sects and affiliations would be fairly represented--was vehemently needed. "We do not want a state that is confiscated by one sect or one political party. We seek a strong just state, where nobody is excluded," he said. "The sole way for the salvation of Lebanon is national dialogue, which constitutes a safety network," he added. Zeaiter's remarks during a lunch banquet, hosted in his honor by Head of Beshwat municipality, Hamid Keyruz. "We meet today under the blessing of Our Lady of Beshwat, only to confirm the thought of Imam Moussa Sadr, who considered that Islamic-Christian coexistence is a wealth onto which we ought to hold," he said. Zeaiter also called to thwart terrorist takfiri schemes, reiterating unwavering support for the army and the Resistance.

Mikati: We should unify positions at times of mixing papers
Fri 16 Sep 2016/NNA - Former Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, regretted the existing tense speech on the local arena, underlining the necessity of unifying positions because Lebanon was going at times of what he termed as "mixing papers."Mikati's words came on Friday during his meeting at his residence in Tripoli with delegations and figures who came to greet him on Adha feast. "We derived lessons from recent history and we realized that everyone shall sit at the same table," he remarked. "If some chose to resort to a speech that leads to tension and chaos, we have chosen the speech of reason, which unites rather than desintegrates," he concluded.

Gunmen kidnap citizen, wife in Hamam town
Fri 16 Sep 2016/NNA - Unknown gunmen kidnapped on Friday the Lebanese citizen, Hassan Mohammad Mrad, and his wife, Karma Jamil Mehdi, from an apple orchard in the outskirts of Ham Village in Baalbek, National News Agency field reporter said. Gunmen took the kidnapped persons inside the Syrian territories. It is worth mentioning that Hassan Mrad is the father of Abdullah Mrad who was killed in the town's outskirts at the hands of gunmen two years ago.

Aridi: Nobody can exclude others in Lebanon
Sat 17 Sep 2016/NNA - MP Ghazi Aridi avowed on Friday that nobody could exclude others in Lebanon, upping calls for an "effective" and "serious" agreement among the political components in the country, in order to preserve "the dignity of political work.""Lebanon is now through a bad stage, amid rumors related to corruption," Aridi told a ceremony at Jall-al-Bahr bridge in Beirut, where he represented Progressive Socialist Party leader, MP Walid Jumblatt. Moreover, the lawmaker paid tribute to the Lebanese Resistance, as well as to "those who resisted Israeli occupation," hailing Beirut martyrs. On a different note, Aridi thanked the political forces and security apparatuses, who acted responsibly regarding threats leveled against Jumblatt. "We are waiting for the results of the investigations. Walid Jumblatt is a fundamental pillar in Lebanon; tampering with his personal safety is tampering with the country's stability," he concluded.

Christians play influential role in Middle East, says EU parliamentarian
Fri 16 Sep 2016/NNA - Swedish Deputy at the European Parliament, Lars Adaktusson, currently on a visit to Lebanon, underlined on Friday that Christians played a salient and influential role in the Middle East. "Christians in the East constitute an assortment which we must preserve," the visiting official told a press conference held at the headquarters of the Syriac League. Pertaining to the situation in Syria and Iraq, Adaktusson highlighted the importance of elaborating a plan that would secure the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, after managing to eradicate Daesh (ISIS). He also stressed on the necessity of wielding political pressure on all Mideastern states, not just Iraq and Syria. He finally hoped that negotiations would be resumed between the Syrian government and opposition, in an attempt to benefit from the current entente between the U.S. and Russia. It is to note that Adakutsson shall head to Damascus next, to meet the invitation of the Syriac Pope.

Hezbollah's Money Worries: Israeli intel and tightening US sanctions
المخابرات الإسرائيلية والعقوبات الأميركية وراء الضائقة المالية التي يواجهها حزب الله
Yossi Melman/Gerusalem Post/September 16/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/16/yossi-melmanjerusalem-post-hezbollahs-money-worries-israeli-intel-and-tightening-us-sanctions-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6/
The financial siege against the Lebanese Shi’ite movement creates secondary shock waves far beyond the US.
RIAD SALAMEH, the governor of the Banque du Liban, is probably the bravest person in Lebanon. His religion is Maronite, but in his determination to repel Hezbollah, he has demonstrated a death wish more appropriate to a Shi’ite suicide bomber. American and European bankers who have met him in his capacity as the governor of Lebanon’s central bank admit that were they in his place, they wouldn’t sleep at night.
The Lebanese banking sector has been at the center of an escalating crisis since the United States passed a law requiring banks to take steps to target the finances of the armed Shi’ite political group Hezbollah.
Two months ago, a bomb exploded outside the headquarters of the BLOM Bank in central Beirut, causing damage but no injuries.
Led by Salameh, Lebanon’s central bank has pushed its commercial lenders to heed the US law, and BLOM Bank has closed accounts belonging to those suspected of links to Hezbollah. Though no one claimed responsibility for the attack, it is widely believed by Lebanese security officials and bankers that Hezbollah planted the bomb as a signal to Salameh and the country’s banking system.
In April 2016, the US administration of President Barack Obama deepened its financial grip on Hezbollah’s financial dealings by further implementing “The Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015.” The results are evident.
“After many years of sanctions targeting Hezbollah, today the group is in its worst financial shape in decades,” Adam Szubin, the US Treasury Department’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a Congressional hearing last May on the Iran nuclear deal and its ramifications.
Szubin was appointed by the Obama administration to be its “czar” in the efforts to impose and implement financial and other sanctions on states such as Russia, after its invasion and annexation of Crimea, Iran because of its nuclear program, and terrorist groups all over the world, Hezbollah included.
In his testimony, Szubin promised the US lawmakers, “I can assure you that alongside our international partners, we are working hard to put them out of business.”
Most Lebanese banks are owned or run by Christians – Maronite or Orthodox – who are not particularly fans of Hezbollah, to put it mildly.
The banks are one of Lebanon’s major economic sectors and certainly a precious source of revenue, serving not only Lebanese citizens but practically the entire Middle East, including the wealthiest nations of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates. Indeed, a few decades ago, Lebanon was known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East.”
According to US law, Washington will target those “knowingly facilitating a significant transaction or transactions for” Hezbollah or any individual, business or institution linked to the group.
Those being sanctioned include Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his top commander Mustafa Badreddine ‒ who was mysteriously killed in mid-May in an explosion in Syria ‒ as well as some Lebanese businessmen. The list also includes the group’s Al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio.
Nasrallah and his deputy, Naim Qassem, claim the sanctions don’t affect Hezbollah because its business and operations are “case based,” outside the banking system. But the Israeli and American intelligence communities know the truth.
The sanctions do hurt Hezbollah, damage its terrorist and other capabilities and make it harder to operate.
The intelligence communities of the two nations work very closely to monitor, follow and intercept Hezbollah’s financial trails.
Surprisingly, however, Israel, which has suffered from terrorism for decades and pioneered operations, doctrines, technologies and innovations to combat it, showed negligence in understanding the old saying of “follow the money.”
It was the late Meir Dagan who in his different capacities – first as adviser to prime ministers on counterterrorism and later as Mossad chief ‒ raised the importance of monitoring terrorism finance and established a special department consisting of a team of experts from the Shin Bet (the domestic Israel Security Agency), military intelligence, the Bank of Israel and the commercial banks to do so.
In the early years of the 21st century, the focus was on money transfers and laundering by the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
At a certain point, the special Mossad department tried to trace and collect data on the money smuggling and secret bank accounts opened abroad by PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and his wife Suha.
Israeli and foreign journalists were fed information, disinformation and rumors. At least one Israeli journalist volunteered to help the Mossad by befriending Suha, by all available means, but his offer was flatly rejected.
In the last decade, the focus has been mainly on Hamas and Hezbollah, and their financial ties to Iran.
On the American side, the number of agencies involved in the financial efforts is bigger and includes the CIA, FBI, NSA (the US equivalent of Israeli unit 8200, which is part of military intelligence), the Secret Service and others.
All of them work closely and report to Szubin, who is respected by his Israeli counterparts. Szubin has visited Israel several times, especially before the Iran Nuclear Deal was signed in order to calm Israeli fears that the sanctions against the Islamic Republic would be lifted prematurely.
It is worth noting that unlike the prevailing belief in the Israeli public and media, not all US sanctions against Iran were lifted as a result of the implementation of the Iran deal.
Sanctions against individuals and companies involved in Iran’s missile program remain in place and so are those directed against al-Quds Forces and its commanders and entities for their involvement in sponsoring and assisting terrorist operations and terrorists around the globe including, of course, Hezbollah.
Noting that Iran “supplies funding and weapons to Hezbollah,” Szubin affirmed in the hearing that the Iran deal “has no impact on our efforts on this front.”
The Hezbollah sanctions prohibit banks in Lebanon and elsewhere to open accounts for individuals who are members of the Shi’ite movement or associated with it and for companies that are owned by or run by the group or associated with it.
Szubin added in the May hearing that in January 2016, the US “sanctioned a major Hezbollah financial support network that was laundering criminal proceeds to support Hezbollah’s terrorism and destabilizing activities.”
A few weeks ago, a delegation of Lebanese bankers led by Salameh visited Washington and met with senior officials of the US Treasury Department, including Szubin, in an attempt to modify the anti-Hezbollah law. But Szubin and his team were determined and explained that the situation was “take it or leave it.”
Salameh and his colleagues understood that if they don’t adhere to the law, Lebanon’s banks could face unprecedented dire times. They well remembered how, in 2011, US sanctions brought about the collapse of a Lebanese bank that was laundering money for Hezbollah.
Salameh is one of the most appreciated and respected civil servants in the country.
Until recently, he was considered as a suitable candidate for the nation’s presidency, which has been vacant for a few years because of the political deadlock between Hezbollah’s bloc and its opponents. However, because of his principled standing, his chances diminished completely. Moreover, many commentators fear that Salameh lives on “borrowed time.”
“I don’t think insurance companies would agree to sell him life insurance,” I was told by a former Israeli intelligence operative familiar with the Lebanese arena. “No doubt in my mind that Hezbollah would not have second thoughts if they decide to get rid of him.”
So far, Salameh hasn’t caved.
LEBANESE BANKS refuse to open accounts even to Hezbollah’s members of parliament and ministers or their families.
Realizing that the standard and known financial channels are closed to them, Hezbollah has resorted to its old ways of moving monies in cash and by trusted intermediaries.
For years, Hezbollah was involved in reaping proceeds from smuggling drugs and electric appliances, and from the diamond trade and counterfeit cigarettes.
In recent months, these activities aimed at purchasing weapons, encoded satellite phones and other essential military equipment have increased.
This is a cat and mouse game. Hezbollah tries to operate under the international financial radar to circumvent the sanctions regime. On the other hand, Israeli, American and other Western security services are keeping a very close eye.
For example, based on precise intelligence, an international sting operation broke down a European Hezbollah cell accused of using millions of dollars from cocaine sales in South America to launder money and buy weapons for its fighters in Syria.
The financial siege against the Lebanese Shi’ite movement creates secondary shock waves far beyond the US. Almost every bank and financial institution in the world, including China, understands that if it harbors Hezbollah money it will be punished and blacklisted by the US.
In addition to its difficulties with the banking system, Hezbollah faces other troubles, as well. It is bogged down in the five-and- half-year-long civil war in Syria where it is paying a heavy price. Some 1,600 of its warriors have died and 6,000 others have been wounded in the Syrian battlefields, while hundreds have been taken as prisoners of war. And this from a relatively small militia of 45,000 conscripts and reservists.
Hezbollah is in constant need of money.
Its budget is estimated at 1 billion dollars, of which 70 percent comes from Iran and the rest from taxes and smuggling and other illegal activities.
But Iran, too, is without unlimited resources and has its own budgetary problems.
As a result, Iran has held back money transfers to Hezbollah, setting off a chain reaction ‒ the Lebanese group is late in its payments of salaries to its members and to families of its dead and wounded warriors.
Also, its traditional operations in the fields of education, health and welfare have been heavily damaged, downgrading its support among the country’s general Shi’ite population.
It seems that, in its 36 years of existence, Hezbollah’s situation has never been weaker so it is no coincidence that Nasrallah and its senior officials declare time and again that they have no interest in a new war with Israel.
**Yossi Melman is an Israeli security commentator and co-author of ‘Spies Against Armageddon.’ He blogs at www.israelspy.com and tweets at yossi_melman

No constituent assembly on the horizon in Lebanon
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
It is unfortunate how politicians are easily dragged into useless controversies that only expose the depth of the crisis facing Lebanon. This is not due to the system or constitution, as some claim, but to the corruption of those who violate the constitution while in government, and who exploit laws to serve their own interests and those of the foreign parties they are affiliated with. Recent statements about the constituent assembly are a waste of time. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who proposed the idea of establishing the assembly, does not have the power to implement it. The proposal may have been a mere thought, so all these tense responses are uncalled for. Nasrallah abandoned the idea when it garnered negative reactions and led to a new crisis. Hezbollah, with all its might and increasing power, is not stronger or more organized than the Lebanese Forces was in its heyday during the civil war. The Lebanese Forces could not open Halat airport because a major party opposed the idea. History is repeating itself. Hezbollah cannot establish a constituent assembly amid opposition from most Lebanese powers. Dividing shares in a constituent assembly would not be easy due to the loss of balance in Lebanon and the region
Civil war?
Establishing this assembly now would lead to a civil war. Hezbollah realizes the threat of this more than anyone else. It knows that a civil war is worse than the traditional war it is used to fighting, and that in this case it would be based on a Sunni-Shiite conflict, as Sunni tensions are currently worse than Christian ones. Dividing shares in a constituent assembly would not be easy due to the loss of balance in Lebanon and the region. It requires a consensus that is currently not available and cannot be imposed by any party, no matter how bad circumstances get. Sunni leader Saad Hariri guarantees moderation. However, a small spark could ignite strife by mobilizing around 2 million Syrian and Palestinian Sunni refugees, who would be joined by Lebanese Sunnis to confront and besiege Hezbollah. Military force and security apparatuses’ intervention in gang wars are usually in vain. Therefore, present circumstances are unsuitable for a constituent assembly. If decisions could be imposed, Hezbollah would have succeeded in assigning its presidential candidate and resolving other issues. Lebanon is at a stalemate, and resolving its affairs is being obstructed as we await consensuses.
**This article was first published in an-Nahar on Sept. 12, 2016.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 16-17/16

Egyptian Researcher Ahmad Abdou Maher Criticizes Ancient Islamic Jurisprudence: 'Idiocy And Insanity'
MEMRI/September 16/16/Speaking on a Mayadeen TV show, Egyptian researcher of Islamic studies Ahmad Abdou Maher said that the Islamic nation is a "static" nation and that "innovation is accursed and damned in the land of stagnation." Referring to jurisprudence relating to the Islamic conquests and to the capture and sale of women and children, he said: "What is this if not insanity and idiocy?" Maher further said that "enlightenment requires courage" and that "days, years, generations, and centuries pass us by, without any change and without any examination of the Arab mentality." The show aired on August 26.
Following are excerpts: Ahmad Abdou Maher: "The jurisprudence of enlightenment is not prevalent for several reasons. The first is that the Arabs have become accustomed to servile obedience, and they do not encourage innovation in any field - political or sociological. As a nation, we are 'static' - to use a term from mechanics or engineering. That's why our kings, our princes, and our presidents remain on their thrones until their death. Nobody is replaced. This has led to stagnation of the mind, and to a lack of freedom in thought.""As a result of our resistance to innovation, we stone the innovators and accuse them a heresy. We even throw them into prison. Take, for example, Islam Behery, who is currently in prison. His only 'crime' was that he wanted to innovate, but innovation is accursed and damned in the land of stagnation. This is the land of stagnation in mentality, in ideology, and in awareness. That is why you don't find any books, because publishers are concerned for their financial and economic future. You don't find any [free] thinkers because they suffer from political cowardice. Enlightenment requires courage.""We have jurisprudents who say one thing and its opposite in a single breath, without being aware of it. Our petrodollars and all the money of the Gulf are dedicated to the printing of millions of books of ancient heritage, with all their idiocy and insanity. It is as if there are no people with any sense in the entire Arab world."
 

UAE, Vatican City sign agreement on visa-free travel for officials
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 16 September 2016/The UAE has signed an agreement with the Vatican City during the official visit of Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, allowing officials from both sides to enter without visas, UAE’s official news agency WAM reported. During the visit, Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi , held discussions with Pope Francis on ways to strengthen bilateral relations in the service of humanitarian causes to promote peace and coexistence between people and regions of the world. The UAE official also expressed his appreciation for the Vatican’s role in enhancing dialogue between civilizations. He made a particular mention of the Vatican’s dialogue with Sunni Islam’s leading institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar, which culminated in an announcement to hold a global peace conference and a commitment to working together to combat poverty, extremism and terrorism. Meanwhile, Pope Francis congratulated Sheikh Mohammed and the accompanying delegation on the occasion of the Islamic Eid Al-Adha holiday, which took place between Sept. 11 to Sept. 13.

Lavrov, Kerry say Syria ceasefire holding in general
Agencies Friday, 16 September 2016/Both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry described on Friday the ceasefire in Syria as holding in general after reports highlighted fierce fighting and clashes between regime forces and rebels east of the capital Damascus.
Lavrov also urged Kerry to deliver on his promise to separate moderate Syrian opposition from the Nusra Front and other “terrorist groups,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. Lavrov, in a telephone conversation with Kerry, also reiterated the need to publish “the entire package” of the Syria ceasefire agreement, the ministry said. The Nusra Front, associated with the al-Qaeda network, has been renamed Jabhat Fatah al Sham. Russia’s defense ministry also said Friday that only Moscow and the Syrian regime were fulfilling a truce deal hammered out with the United states. “Although the ceasefire agreement is bilateral, only one side is truly implementing it,” defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
US, Russia exchange accusations
The United States said Friday it will not set up a planned joint US-Russian military coordination cell in Syria until regime forces there allow aid into besieged cities. Kerry called Lavrov and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid,” a spokesman said. A ceasefire was declared in Syria’s five-year-old civil war on Monday, two days after Kerry and Lavrov signed a deal in Geneva to pressure both sides to hold their fire. Under the pact, Russia was to restrain Bashar al-Assad’s regime while Washington leans on the rebel groups opposing him, and both sides agree violence has reduced. If the truce lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russia and the United States are to work together to target the extremist ISIS and Al-Nusra front. But some clashes have continued, and the United Nations has been unable to send supplies to starving civilians in areas like the besieged northern city of Aleppo. Russia on Friday complained that only its ally, the Assad regime, is respecting the ceasefire, but nevertheless suggested that it be prolonged by a further 72 hours. Washington, however, seems to be running short of patience. Kerry told Lavrov that Washington “expects Russia to use its influence on the Assad regime to allow UN humanitarian convoys to reach Aleppo and other areas in need. “The Secretary made clear that the United States will not establish the Joint Implementation Center with Russia unless and until the agreed terms for humanitarian access are met,” he added, according to spokesman John Kirby.
Clashes
Despite a fragile truce across Syria, fierce fighting and clashes between regime forces and rebels rocked the eastern edge of Syria’s capital on Friday, an AFP correspondent and military source said. “The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital’s east via Jobar... leading to intense clashes and rocket fire,” a military source told AFP. A barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the Jobar district, a rebel-held eastern suburb of Damascus. The district has been a battleground for more than two years and nearly all of its pre-war population has fled. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the clashes and said more than 21 shells and rockets hit parts of Jobar. Two shells also hit the Bab al-Sharqi neighbourhood of Damascus but did not result in any casualties, the Observatory said. Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitor, said both Islamist faction Faylaq al-Sham and the Fateh al-Sham Front -- formerly Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate -- were present in Jobar. He did not have immediate information on casualties. Under the truce deal negotiated by Moscow and Washington, which came into force on Monday evening, fighting is to halt across the country except in areas where extremists are present. Observers have noted that the deal will be particularly difficult to implement in areas where Fateh al-Sham has formed strong alliances with local rebels.
US forces head to Syria
Meanwhile, dozens of US Special Operations Forces are being deployed to Syria to fight ISIS there, in support of the Turkish military and “vetted” Syrian rebels, the Pentagon said Friday. “Pursuant to a Turkish request, US special operations forces have been approved to accompany Turkish and vetted Syrian opposition forces as they continue to clear territory from ISIL,” said Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman.
UN meeting
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting on Friday to hear details of a US-Russian deal on Syria as it weighs whether to endorse the agreement, diplomats said. Council members will meet at 5:30 pm (2130 GMT) for the closed-door consultations called as a UN aid convoy was blocked at the Syrian border. Under the deal, all sides were due to allow deliveries of food and other basic supplies to the battleground city of Aleppo after a ceasefire went into effect on Monday. (With AFP, Reuters)

UN probe finds Syria military behind chlorine bomb attacks: source
By Anthony Deutsch, John Irish and Michelle Nichols Reuters, The Hague/United Nations Friday, 16 September 2016/An international inquiry has identified two Syrian Air Force helicopter squadrons and two other military units it holds responsible for chlorine gas attacks on civilians, a Western diplomat told Reuters. The finding by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog, is based on Western and regional intelligence, the diplomat said. “It was the 22nd Division, the 63rd Brigade and the 255 and 253 squadrons of the Syrian government,” the envoy said. The identification of specific military institutions responsible for attacks could strengthen a push by some Western members of the UN Security Council for a robust response, focused on sanctions and accountability. President Bashar al-Assad’s government has denied using toxic gas on the battlefield, and said it will cooperate with the OPCW over accusations it has used poison gas against insurgent-held areas during Syria’s civil war. Responding to the new finding, a Syrian military source told Reuters: “The Syrian state ... and we, the Syrian Arab army, have said more than once that the army has not and will not use any banned weapon, especially chemical or poison weapons.” “This issue is completely void of truth. We consider the United Nations to be a tool in the hands of some countries which support terrorists,” the source said, adding that the U.N. had not responded to Syrian requests to investigate alleged use of chemical weapons by insurgents. The year-long joint UN and OPCW inquiry, which is investigating reports of attacks between April 11 2014 and Aug. 21 2015, is due to submit its fourth report to the UN Security Council next week. The third report, in August, blamed Syrian government troops for two chlorine gas attacks and ISIS militants for using sulfur mustard gas. It is unclear whether the fourth report will assign blame to individuals. The inquiry has focused on nine attacks in seven areas of Syria, where a separate OPCW fact-finding investigation concluded that it is likely chemical weapons have been used. Eight of the attacks investigated involved the suspected use of chlorine. The inquiry said it had not yet been able to reach a conclusion in six cases, though it said three of those cases warranted further investigation. “At least two others were chlorine and were carried out at the hands of the Syrian Air Force,” the diplomat said. “There is no indication that any opposition groups used chlorine.” Syria agreed to destroy 1,300 tons of declared chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Moscow, Damascus’s main international backer, and Washington, which supports the Syrian opposition. In a separate confidential report seen by Reuters, OPCW inspectors concluded in July after 16 visits to Damascus since April 2014 that Syria had failed to explain “scientifically or technically” the discovery of banned agents by its inspectors, including sarin and VX nerve agents.
The latest suspected use of chlorine gas was last week, when rescue workers and a monitoring group said there were dozens of cases of suffocation in an opposition neighborhood in the city of Aleppo.
Possible showdown
Chlorine’s use as a weapon is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning the lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids. The new finding, blaming specific military units, could set the stage for a showdown at the Security Council pitting the United States, Britain and France against Russia and China. Beijing and Moscow have veto powers as permanent Council members and have protected Syria’s government from action by blocking several resolutions, including an attempt to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Syria is not a member of the ICC, so any war crimes cases against suspects has to be referred by the UN Security Council to the court in The Hague. Some Western diplomats worry that the Security Council could respond weakly to the reported chemical weapons attacks or that the issue could be sidelined because of the fragility of a Syria ceasefire deal agreed by Moscow and Washington. “We don’t want the (UN/OPCW) report to be taken hostage by the political process in Syria,” said a senior Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. A second senior Security Council diplomat said: “Normally on Syria policy, when we go down this US-Russia track, either nothing happens because they can’t agree ... or if something does come out it tends to be Russian-flavored.”“Neither of those outcomes is good,” the envoy said.
Some diplomats said UN/OPCW investigators may ask for more time to finish their fourth report, in which case the Security Council may renew the mandate for the inquiry for a short time.
Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday it was important those compiling the inquiry “go as far as they can” to identify individuals and entities involved in the attacks. The United States planned “to push to extract from the council as much as we can" on a response, she said.
“We’re in very close contact with other council members about what that might look like,” Power said. “We also retain the ability to take what’s in the report and act nationally and multilaterally in order to ensure real consequences for those actors who are named.”US President Barack Obama initially said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a “red line,” but he did not follow through with threatened air strikes after a sarin gas attack in August 2013 killed as many as 1,400 in the Ghouta neighborhood of Damascus. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday he would fight vigorously for sanctions on those responsible for the gas attacks being investigated. A French diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Paris had been working on “the contours of what a satisfying resolution would look like for us.” “The American position is not as firm on this issue as ours,” the French diplomat said. “What’s at stake goes well beyond the Syrian conflict. It’s about not making the use of chemical weapons a banality.”
 

Syria Aid Stuck at Border as Diplomatic Tensions Grow
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/UN aid trucks carrying food for besieged civilians in Aleppo remained stuck at the Syrian border Friday, as diplomatic tensions mounted between Washington and Moscow over a fragile ceasefire deal. The truce was billed as the "last chance" to end the five-year war but it has been marred by a lack of aid deliveries, sporadic violence and friction between Russia and the United States, which brokered the deal. On Friday a barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the rebel-held east Damascus district of Jobar, an AFP correspondent said. "The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital's east via Jobar... leading to intense clashes and rocket fire," a military source told AFP. Both the Islamist faction Faylaq al-Sham and the Fateh al-Sham Front -- formerly Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate -- are thought to be present in Jobar. Syrian state television described the incident as a violation of the ceasefire. Under the truce deal negotiated by Moscow and Washington, which took effect Monday, fighting is to halt across the country except in areas where jihadists are present. Experts say the deal will be particularly difficult to implement in areas where Fateh al-Sham has formed strong alliances with local rebels. The United Nations has described the ceasefire as a "critical window of opportunity" to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, where around 250,000 civilians are besieged by government forces. The UN had hoped that 40 trucks of food -- enough to feed 80,000 people for one month -- could be delivered to east Aleppo as soon as possible. But on Friday morning, the trucks were still waiting at the border with Turkey, said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "The challenge we continue to face -- and this is the very sad reality -- is ensuring all parties to the conflict, and those with influence over them, are in agreement," he told AFP.  - 'World is watching' -Under the truce deal, the main route for humanitarian assistance into divided Aleppo, the Castello Road, would be demilitarised and aid convoys would enter from Turkey. A military source told AFP on Friday that Syria's army "has carried out its pledge and handed over a number of points to the Russian monitoring teams" but that rebel groups had not pulled back from their positions. Russia on Thursday said government forces had begun to pull out from the area and accused rebel fighters of failing to withdraw as agreed. "As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating. We're here, we're on the ground and we're ready to move... The world is watching," Swanson said. An AFP correspondent said Friday that no movement could be seen on the rubble-strewn Castello Road. Russian and Syrian government flags were visible in the distance on the route. The US-Russian deal calls for the truce to be renewed every 48 hours, and for Washington and Moscow to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadists if it lasts a week.
Russia, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused the United States Thursday of failing to meet its obligations under the truce deal. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow wanted a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the deal. "We are working on it," he told reporters in New York, adding that he thought it should be adopted when the Security Council meets on Syria next Wednesday. The United States accused Syria of blocking aid to besieged cities and warned it will not boost military cooperation with Russia unless Damascus honours the truce agreement. "Right now, the trucks that could bring them life-saving assistance are idling on the wrong side of the border," President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said. "And that's the direct responsibility of the Assad regime and their benefactors in Moscow." Obama was due to gather top national security aids on Friday -- including his secretaries of state and defense -- with the shaky ceasefire set to dominate a meeting ostensibly about countering the Islamic State group

Fragile Syria Truce Tested by Violence, U.S.-Russia Tensions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Air strikes and clashes tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria on Friday as civilians waited for aid and tensions mounted between the United States and Russia which brokered the deal. The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, was to meet later to discuss whether to endorse the truce, billed as the "last chance" to end the five-year war. The ceasefire has been marred by a lack of aid deliveries, sporadic violence including three civilians killed Friday and increasing friction between Moscow and Washington. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and condemned "repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid," spokesman John Kirby said. Kerry told Lavrov Washington "expects Russia to use its influence on the (President Bashar) Assad regime to allow U.N. humanitarian convoys to reach Aleppo and other areas in need. "The Secretary made clear that the United States will not establish the Joint Implementation Center with Russia unless and until the agreed terms for humanitarian access are met," Kirby said. If the truce, which began on Monday, lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russia and the U.S. are to work together to target jihadists including the extremist Islamic State group (IS)and former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front. Under the deal, Moscow must put pressure on Assad and Washington must work with Syrian rebels to silence their guns. Earlier Friday, Russia said that only Moscow and the Syrian regime were fulfilling the truce deal. "Although the ceasefire agreement is bilateral, only one side is truly implementing it," defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
U.N. resolution
However, key Assad backer Russia said it was still ready to extend the truce set to expire later Friday by 72 hours. U.N. Security Council members were to meet at 2130 GMT for closed-door consultations, diplomats said, after Russia's envoy to the U.N. said Moscow wanted a U.N. resolution to endorse the deal. The Pentagon said Friday dozens of U.S. Special Operations Forces have been deployed to Syria's border with Turkey to fight IS, at Ankara's request, in support of the Turkish military and "vetted" Syrian rebels. On Friday, two children were among three civilians killed in air strikes on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in the northwest province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Khan Sheikhun, like most of the surrounding province, is controlled by an alliance of rebels, hardline Islamists and jihadists such as the Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate. Under the truce, fighting is to halt across the country except where jihadists are present.Experts say the deal will be particularly difficult to implement in areas where Fateh al-Sham has formed strong alliances with local rebels. Earlier Friday, a barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the rebel-held east Damascus district of Jobar, an AFP correspondent said.Both the Islamist faction Faylaq al-Sham and Fateh al-Sham are thought to be present there. "The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital's east via Jobar... leading to intense clashes and rocket fire," a military source told AFP.
'Critical window'
State television spoke of a violation of the ceasefire. The U.N. has described the truce as a "critical window of opportunity" to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, where around 250,000 civilians are under siege. The U.N. had hoped that 40 trucks of food -- enough to feed 80,000 people for one month -- could be delivered there as soon as possible. But early Friday, the trucks were still waiting at the border with Turkey, said David Swanson, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "The challenge we continue to face -- and this is the very sad reality -- is ensuring all parties to the conflict, and those with influence over them, are in agreement," he told AFP. Under the truce deal, the main route for humanitarian assistance into divided Aleppo, the Castello Road, would be demilitarized and aid convoys would enter from Turkey. A military source said Syria's army "has carried out its pledge and handed over a number of points to the Russian monitoring teams", but that rebel groups had not withdrawn from their positions. "As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating. We're here, we're on the ground and we're ready to move... The world is watching," Swanson said. Washington accused Damascus of blocking aid. "Right now, the trucks that could bring them life-saving assistance are idling on the wrong side of the border," President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said. "And that's the direct responsibility of the Assad regime and their benefactors in Moscow." Obama was due to gather top national security aides later Friday with the ceasefire set to dominate a meeting ostensibly about countering IS.

U.N. Security Council to Hear about U.S.-Russia Syria Deal
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/The U.N. Security Council will hold an urgent meeting on Friday to hear details of a U.S.-Russian deal on Syria as it weighs whether to endorse the agreement, diplomats said. Council members will meet at 5:30 pm (2130 GMT) for the closed-door consultations called as a UN aid convoy was blocked at the Syrian border.Under the deal, all sides were due to allow deliveries of food and other basic supplies to the battleground city of Aleppo after a ceasefire went into effect on Monday. Once aid is delivered and the ceasefire holds, the United States and Russia were to begin cooperating in jointly targeting Islamist rebel fighters in Syria. Russia, Syria's key ally, is pushing for the Security Council to endorse the agreement, but France and other council members have said they first need to learn more details about the deal. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council could adopt a resolution backing the agreement during a high-level meeting on Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to attend the council talks, held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting. U.S. President Barack Obama was due Friday to gather top national security aides in Washington to discuss the shaky ceasefire and assess prospects for the latest effort to end the five-year war.

Fierce Shelling, Clashes in East of Syria Capital
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Fierce fighting and clashes rocked an eastern district of Syria's capital on Friday, an Agence France Presse correspondent and military source said, despite a fragile truce across the country. "The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital's east via Jobar... leading to intense clashes and rocket fire," a military source told AFP. A barrage of rocket fire and shelling could be heard coming from the Jobar district, a rebel-held eastern suburb of Damascus.

Coalition Strike Kills IS 'Minister of Information'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/A coalition air strike in Syria has killed a senior Islamic State operative considered the group's information minister, a week after another raid eliminated a top IS strategist, the Pentagon said Friday. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that Wa'il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, also known as "Dr. Wa'il", was killed in a precision strike on September 7 near Raqa, the Syrian city that is the de facto capital of the Islamic State jihadist group. "Wa'il oversaw ISIL's production of terrorist propaganda videos showing torture and executions," Cook said, describing him as "one of ISIL's most senior leaders" and a close associate of Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, the IS group spokesman killed on August 30. U.S. officials "will continue to work with our coalition partners to build momentum" in the campaign to deal the IS group "a lasting defeat," he added. The IS group is also referred to as ISIL and Daesh. The announcement comes as airstrikes and clashes are testing a fragile ceasefire in Syria.  Under the deal, Moscow must pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad and Washington must work with Syrian rebels to silence their guns. If the truce, which began on Monday, lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russia and the United States are to work together to target jihadists, including the IS group and former al-Qaida affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front. Russia said that although only Moscow and the Syrian regime were fulfilling the truce deal, it was ready to extend the agreement by 72 hours. The Pentagon also said that it had deployed dozens of U.S. Special Operations Forces to Syria's border with Turkey to fight the IS group at Ankara's request in support of the Turkish military and "vetted" Syrian rebels.

Pentagon Says U.S. Special Forces Deployed to Syria to Back Turkey
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Dozens of U.S. Special Operations Forces have been deployed to Syria's border with Turkey to fight the Islamic State group there, in support of the Turkish military and "vetted" Syrian rebels, the Pentagon said Friday. Last month, Ankara launched an ambitious military offensive in northern Syria dubbed "Euphrates Shield", sending in tanks and special forces to support opposition fighters in a bid to remove IS fighters and Kurdish militia forces from its frontier. "At the request of the government of Turkey, U.S. special operations forces are accompanying Turkish and vetted Syrian opposition forces as they continue to clear territory from ISIL in and around the area of the Syrian border near Jarabulus and Ar Rai," said Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis. That area is near the flashpoint city of Aleppo. A U.S. defense official said there were several dozen troops in the new special forces contingent. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, discussed the fight against IS earlier with his Turkish counterpart General Hulusi Akar on the sidelines of a NATO chiefs of staff meeting in Croatia. "General Dunford met with General Akar to advance discussions on the way forward in the fight against ISIL, and recommitted to the close military-to-military and strategic relationship the US has with Turkey," said Captain Gregory Hicks, a special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A fragile truce in Syria announced early this month appears to be holding, despite growing frustration over aid deliveries being held up at the Turkish border.The special forces deployment comes as Washington accused Damascus of blocking aid to besieged cities and warned it will not boost military cooperation with Russia unless Moscow is able to convince President Bashar Assad both to halt attacks on rebel groups and allow humanitarian access.

U.S. Flags Flown by Kurdish Group in Northern Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/The American flag was flown at a Syrian Kurdish base in northern Syria close to the Turkish border on Friday, a photographer working for AFP said, a day after the U.S. urged against doing so. In Tal Abyad, the stars and stripes -- flown by the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia -- could be seen from the Turkish border town of Akcakale in the southeastern Sanliurfa province. Tal Abyad in Raqa province was captured from IS by the YPG in June 2015. Ankara regards the militia and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a 32-year insurgency inside Turkey. But the YPG has become a key partner of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) extremists as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, much to the chagrin of Washington's NATO ally Ankara. Turkish media said that U.S. flags had been flown by the Kurdish fighters on Thursday but Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said he was not aware of the reports. He repeated the U.S.' opposition during a press briefing on Thursday, quoted on the U.S. defense department's website. "We would call on our partner forces not to fly the American flag on their own. I would imagine that that would be communicated if indeed that's taken place in this instance." The flags' presence comes two weeks after Kurdish fighters displayed the U.S. flag north of the city of Manbij liberated from IS in August, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said. Anadolu claimed that local sources said on Thursday the flags were being used as a deterrent against any possible attack.

Iraqi Cleric's Supporters Demonstrate for Reform
Several thousand supporters of populist Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in central Baghdad on Friday, calling for reforms that politicians have been quick to promise but slow to carry out. Iraq's government is mired in corruption, struggles to provide basic services, and positions have for years been shared out based on political and sectarian quotas that protesters have demanded be scrapped. Friday's demonstration had a festive atmosphere, with protesters at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad waving flags, dancing to pro-reform songs and chanting slogans calling for change. "The government is not serious," Kadhim Hussein, a 41-year-old laborer, told AFP. "They made some changes but the most corrupt are still here. They must all go," he said. Sadr's movement this week called for a mass demonstration on Friday following a lull in what were weekly protests earlier this year. The demonstration was peaceful, with security checks performed by members of the Sadrist movement and police forces deployed in smaller numbers than on previous occasions. Protests in central and southern Iraq broke out in the summer of 2015 calling for improvements to abysmal services, a platform that later expanded to include curbing corruption and implementing reforms. The initial protests fell off, but the movement was revitalized earlier this year by Sadr, who drew on his wide support base to stage mass demonstrations. Protesters broke into the fortified Green Zone several times, storming parliament and the prime minister's office. Security forces later took a harder line, causing several deaths and injuries as they dispersed protesters.

U.S. Designates Senior Hamas Figure 'Global Terrorist'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/The United States on Friday added a senior Hamas official, the Islamist group's former interior minister Fathi Hammad, to its "global terrorist" list. Hamas, the Palestinian party controlling the Gaza Strip, has already itself been proscribed by the United States as a "foreign terrorist organization."Under the new designation, U.S. citizens and companies will be banned from doing business with Hammad and any property he holds in areas under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen. According to the U.S. State Department, which issued the designation, as interior minister Hammad used his position to "coordinate terrorist cells." The statement also said Hammad founded al-Aqsa TV, "with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood."

Report: Third of Saudi-Led Strikes on Yemen Hit Civilian Sites
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/More than a third of Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen have struck civilian sites including schools, hospitals and mosques, according to a survey of the conflict published in the Guardian on Friday. The findings came from the Yemen Data Project, a group of security and human rights experts, who examined more than 8,600 air raids in the campaign between March 2015 and the end of August this year. Out of these it found 3,577 were listed as hitting military sites and 3,158 non-military, while 1,882 strikes were classified as unknown, the Guardian said. Over the course of the campaign led by Saudi Arabia, the survey listed 942 air raids on residential areas, 114 on markets, 34 on mosques, 147 on school buildings, 26 on universities and 378 on transport. The study, which the report said was based on open-source data including research on the ground, showed that one particular school building was hit nine times, while one market was hit 24 times. The project said the coalition hit more non-military sites than military in five of the last 18 months. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was quoted by the Guardian as dismissing the report as "vastly exaggerated" and challenging its methodology. He said rebel rebel fighters had "turned schools and hospitals and mosques into command and control centers. They have turned them into weapons depots in a way that they are no longer civilian targets. "They are military targets. They might have been a school a year ago. But they were not a school when they were bombed," he said. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to prop up the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Shiite Huthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa. Since then the conflict has left more than 6,600 people dead, most of them civilians, and displaced at least three million others, according to the United Nations. A U.N. report in June found the coalition responsible for 60 percent of the 785 deaths of children in Yemen last year. Fighting has intensified since the collapse of U.N.-backed peace talks in Kuwait on August 6.

Best Chapter' in Cyprus-Israel Ties, Says Lieberman
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Israel and Cyprus, neighbor in an unstable region, are going through the "best chapter" in the history of their relations, visiting Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday. Lieberman held talks with Cypriot officials in Nicosia on regional security, energy, tourism and bilateral relations. The focus was on military cooperation, including joint exercises, training, information sharing, cyber defense and search and rescue, Cyprus Defense Minister Christoforos Fokaides said after their meeting. "Despite all political problems and security problems in our region, we are two small democracies and very, very reliable friends… Today is most probably the best chapter in our history," Lieberman told reporters. "We have very close cooperation at all levels such as security, politics and the economy," he said. Fokaides said Cyprus and Israel were determined to jointly combat the threat of terrorism and work to boost stability in the eastern Mediterranean. "This is not only important for us living in the region but also Europe which suffers from the violence of terrorism," the Cypriot minister said. On the economic front, Israeli firms are involved in exploration for gas off Cyprus that Nicosia aims to commercially export to Egypt by 2020. And in what is proving to be a boom year for Cyprus tourism, Lieberman said 140,000 Israelis are expected to visit the holiday island in 2016, a 40-percent increase on past years, on the back of a jump in Larnaca-Tel Aviv air links.

3 Palestinian Attackers Killed in West Bank, Jerusalem
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Three alleged assailants were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis on Friday, security forces said, shattering weeks of relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The attacks were a reminder of persistent tensions that continue to alarm the international community and came a day after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned the two-state solution was "further than ever" from becoming reality. In the first incident, a man tried to stab police officers in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and was killed on the spot. "The terrorist was shot dead by a police officer after he had tried to stab her," a police statement said. Police said the attacker, Saeed Amro, was 28 and held a Jordanian passport, having crossed the border between the two countries on Thursday afternoon. Many Palestinians hold Jordanian passports, and Israeli police said they were checking if Amro also had Palestinian papers. The incident occurred at the Damascus Gate entrance to east Jerusalem's Old City, the main entrance for Palestinians. Shortly afterwards, two Palestinians rammed a car into a bus stop used by Israelis in the occupied West Bank, causing injuries before troops killed one of the assailants, the army said. "Two assailants rammed a vehicle into a civilian bus stop at the Elias junction near the community of Kiryat Arba," an Israeli military statement said. "Forces at the scene fired at the vehicle resulting in the death of one of the assailants while the other was wounded." Three young civilians were lightly injured, Israeli medics said. The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead suspect as Firas Khadour. Local sources named the wounded attacker, a woman, as Raghad Khadour. She was taken to hospital in serious condition after being shot in the stomach. Kiryat Arba is an Israeli settlement in the southern West Bank close to the flashpoint Palestinian city of Hebron. In the third attack, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier in Hebron and was killed, the army said.
Peres' dream of peace
"An assailant arrived at a junction near Hebron armed with a knife and stabbed a soldier," a statement said, adding that he had been shot dead. Following the attack the main roads into and out of Hebron were closed off. A fourth man was killed overnight Thursday, also in Hebron, after allegedly trying to evade arrest by the Israeli military. Friday's incidents came shortly after midday Muslim prayers on the first Friday after the weeklong Eid al-Adha holiday, and shattered a relative lull in violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Previously there had not been an attack in three weeks. Since October, 227 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in ongoing violence, according to an AFP count. Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests and clashes. Earlier this week Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo peace accords, suffered a major stroke. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday hailed Peres but said his dream of Palestinian and Israeli states living side by side in peace was "further than ever" from becoming reality. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.International powers have criticized its continued settlement expansion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with more than 500,000 Israelis now living in communities the international community considers illegal, as well as incitement to violence by Palestinian leaders. "Despite warnings by the international community and the region, leaders on both sides have failed to take the difficult steps needed for peace," Ban said. "Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end," he added. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered ministry employees and military officials to boycott U.N. envoy Nickolay Mladenov over his criticism of Israel's settlement policies, Israeli media reported this week.

Paris Police Dismantle Camp Housing 1,500 Migrants
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 16/16/Police in Paris on Friday began evacuating a tent camp where some 1,500 migrants were living in unsanitary conditions, the latest operation to dismantle such camps sprouting up around the French capital. Police moved in at dawn to remove the migrants, mainly from Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan, who were sleeping in tents and on mattresses in the camp in northern Paris. France has received only a tiny proportion of the million-plus migrants who have crossed into Europe in the last 18 months, with many refugees seeing it mainly as a transit country to other destinations. But it has struggled to accommodate them. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced last week that the city will open its first refugee camp in mid-October in a bid to take thousands of people off the streets. Friday's operation was the latest of more than 20 such evacuations over the past year. Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse, who was at the scene, said around 1,500 people were at the camp, which was earlier evacuated on August 17, when 700 people were removed. "There are a lot of families with children, more than usual. They will obviously be looked after," Cosse told AFP. About 50 buses were readied to take the migrants away to reception centres in the Paris region, local authorities said. On July 22, around 2,500 migrants were evacuated from another camp in northern Paris in the largest operation of its kind in the city. Many of those who land in Paris are bound for the port of Calais on the Channel coast, where they hope to stow away on a truck crossing to Britain. The squalid camp of tents and makeshift shelters in Calais, known as The Jungle, is home to some 7,000 migrants but charities say the number might be as high as 10,000 after an influx this summer. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has vowed to close the camp "as quickly as possible" but said it would be done in stages.

Social protests in Iran
Friday, 16 September 2016/NCRI - Tehran – A group of people who have lost their properties through investing in “Padideh” credit institute, gathered on Wednesday September 14 in front of Ministry of Economy in Tehran to protest against lack of investigation into their stolen property.
The demonstrators sent a letter, indicating their critical financial situation and demanding an urgent investigation into their stolen properties. Kerman (Southeastern Iran) – In protest against non-payment of their overdue salaries, More than 300 “Golnaz Food Industry” workers in Kerman shut down the factory by leaving t their cars in front of the factory gate on Wednesday September 14. The protest had started a day earlier. A member of the factory labor council pointed out that the workers received their last salaries in May and continued: “80 percent of the workers got fired without being paid.” He stated that the workers were told that the factory was running out of raw material while the factory warehouse was full. He added: “We gathered several times during the past three months, but received no response from anyone.”Iranian State media reported the news under the title:”Golnaz Vegetable Oil Factory in Kerman was shut down.”Bandar Abbas (Southern Iran) – According to reports, gold dealers in Bandar Abbas continue their strike. The strikers say that until the oppressive taxation is not cancelled, they will refuse to reopen their shops. It should be pointed out that Bandar Abbas gold dealers went on strike from August 29 to protest against tax extortion. Yasuj (Southwestern Iran) – A group of farmers in Yasuj held a protest gathering in front of the Veterinary Organization in the city. To show their dissatisfaction, the farmers poured a large amount of milk on the ground demanding that their economic problems be dealt with. Ilam (Western Iran) – According to reports, a group of people who lost their properties through investing in “Arman” credit institute in Ilam, held a protest gathering in front of the institute, demanding the return of their stolen properties.

Iran: clash of the rival regime’s factions
Friday, 16 September 2016 /NCRI - Following the confessions of “Saeid Mortezavi” former Tehran Attorney General to his crimes in Kahrizak, “Ali Motahhari” the Vice President of Iranian regime’s parliament has in a clear clash of the factions accused Mortezavi’s supporters including former President Ahmadinejad and asked Mortazavito make clear what his role was in the case related to the murder of Zahra Kazemi. In an interview with state news agency “ISNA” on Wednesday September 14, Motahhari said: ”Mortezavi’s letter was overall a positive act. He has admitted his faults and it would be a good idea if he also writes a letter regarding Zahra Kazemi’s case to make it quite clear.”Motahhari added: “I believe that guiltier than Mortazaviare those who shaped his character and those who supported him. When you give so much authority to an inexperienced youth allowing him to shut down any publication and have any kind of conduct with the accused, then he will automatically grow disobedient as this is human nature.”Motahhari stated that wherever there’s a concentration of power without oversight while the critics are being oppressed, corruption will start to grow. He added:”Some people made use of Mortazavi as a means while trying to hide behind his back. I think they too should be investigated.”He continued:” The problem I still can’t figure out is why Ahmadinejad as a President was supporting Mortazavi in such a strange way. Ahmadinejad supported Mortazavi so much that he let his Minister of Labor be sacked because of Ahmadinejad’s support from Mortezavi. I mean, the main reason for impeachment of the Labor Minister in the tenth government was his failure to remove Mortazavi from the Presidency of the Social Security while the Minister should have legally dismissed Mortezavi, especially according to a verdict by the administrative court.”Motaharri said in the end: ”In any case, this is a lesson to be learned so that in the future we prevent so much authority to be given to one person only to bring misery to himself and other people and lead to social harm.”
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on September 16-17/16

Assad backers and the logic of the playground in Syria
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
Last week, we received news that President Assad’s regime in Syria had used chemical weapons on its people. Volunteer emergency workers working in the Sukari district of Aleppo reported that Syrian forces had flown helicopters over the suburb and dropped barrel bombs of chlorine on the men, women and children going about their business below. This is just the latest in the Assad regime’s catalogue of brutality. Last February, Assad’s air force launched a series of missiles at a field hospital. Medics rushed to find any signs of life from the rubble and pull them into an ambulance. Assad’s jets waited, returned, and then flew over the ambulance as they drove towards the hospital. They then dropped another bomb on the ambulance in which 25 civilians were killed, among them eight medical workers. But the jets were not done yet. They flew over another field hospital and dropped another bomb. The Economist reported that Ahmed Tarakji, the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, said “there’s no way that … they didn’t know what they were doing.”This is barbarism worthy of the worst monsters of global history. It is a marked regression in the application of the norms of war. And yet for reasons which I will come to, there is next to no prospect that Assad - the man in whose name those bombs fell - will appear at the International Criminal Court. The first part of the blame must be laid at the door of the United States. At the very least the US could have enforced a no-fly zone. That, at least, would have prevented Assad’s planes dropping chlorine on his people. But instead, President Obama refused. The US could have enforced a safe area for refugees. That, at least, would have allowed the many innocent victims of Assad’s conflict to flee in safety. Instead, he dithered.
By describing all opposition to Assad as ‘al-Qaeda’ and painting Assad as the real victim of US aggression they seem to have muddied the waters
Consequences of inaction
US inaction in the face of Assad’s brutality has consequences. Last week, an umbrella group of Syrian opposition parties met in London to put together a proposal for a future for Syria without Assad. If Assad were to fall, it would be this grouping who would fill the vacuum. The less the US and its allies do to remove Assad, the less brighter the future prospects. One former member of Assad’s government put it succinctly: “there was no pressure on the regime to accept this proposal.” he said. “Why,” he asked, “would [Assad] accept now when he did not in 2012; when the [navy] fleets of the US were in the Mediterranean and poised to strike him? [The Syrian opposition] have no pressure to bring against him because there have not been any developments in their favor.” But the geopolitical cover Assad receives is only half of the story. Assad is able to continue to commit his crimes in part because of the rhetorical cover provided by some journalists, political leaders and religious leaders. They have all stepped up to the plate to sow confusion. By describing all opposition to Assad as “al-Qaeda” and painting Assad as the real victim of US aggression they seem to have muddied the waters. Arguments for action against Assad receive less public hearing thanks to the work of their pens. John Pilger, for example, has argued that Assad’s survival is necessary to oppose ISIS, writing “the only effective opponents of ISIS are accredited demons of the west – Syria, Iran, Hezbollah.” Patrick Cockburn has written that “there has to be some relationship between those who are attacking ISIS and the real forces on the ground.”As if the only forces capable of attacking ISIS were those of Assad, an assertion which would be received bitterly by the Kurdish fighters who have done the most to repel the group and who are fully aware that there has intentionally been little engagement between Assad’s forces and ISIS. The leader of the UK Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, also reportedly weighed in to support Putin’s and Iran’s entry into the war on Assad’s side. He even went as far as claiming Iran was fully justified in assisting Assad as “they presumably feel under threat that they may be next on the western countries hit list”.The Rev’d Nazir-Ali, not to be outdone, flew all the way to Syria with an unsanctioned British delegation for a face-to-face with Assad himself subsequently claiming on Channel 4 News that Assad was being “unfairly demonized in the West”. In all these cases, these people seems to have been blinded. They see the world through the lens only of a fight between two Manichaean forces - those of the “imperialist” United States and those who resist its advance. Any grouping allied with the former must be bad and any grouping allied with the latter must, in consequence, be beyond criticism. It is the logic of the playground. By muddying the case for action against President Assad, these analysts, journalists, and politicians become the accomplices to real suffering in Syria today.

More disclosures: Exemptions for Iran and the Obama ‘legacy’
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
According to recent revelations, Iran was not, and has not been, in compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal (aka, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA). In fact, when the Obama administration told the public and the Congress that Iran “has fully implemented its required commitments”, Iran was in violation of the deal. President Obama exempted Iran from meeting the terms so that IAEA would not scrutinize Iran based on the JCPOA terms and would give Obama administration the green light to proceed, and then he would be able to sign the paper and order the lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. In return, President Obama would enjoy what he believes to be his crowning foreign policy achievement and “legacy”- the nuclear agreement. In other words, on the surface, it seemed that there were supposedly conditions, people were told that these were the terms and restrictions of the nuclear deal, but in reality and secretly, Iran was given exemptions (for its nuclear stock and facilities) from meeting those terms and conditions, and to, in fact, evade them. If these exemptions were revealed at the time of nuclear negotiations, the deal would have not been possible because Iran was in violations of the terms. Iran got paid, got everything it wanted, and President Obama got the “nuclear deal” listed on his resume. The unprecedented level of exemptions that President Obama gave to the Islamic Republic sent several signals to Iran and explains Tehran’s increasingly interventionist and aggressive regional behavior
Political manipulations
President Obama is reportedly attempting to make these exemption permanent so that there would be no commitments for Iran to comply with, at any time. The US secret exemptions for Iran continue to be revealed. In the most recent disclosures, it became clear that:
• Iran was allowed to keep more low-enriched uranium (LEU) than what the public was told. This revelation was first reported by The New York Times that Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium was too high, but Obama administration denied it.
• The Islamic Republic was allowed to violate the deal cap by maintaining more than 300 kg of about 3.5 percent low enriched uranium hexafluoride or equivalent mass. (This amount can be purified and turned it into weapons-grade uranium)
• Ignoring the 20 percent LEU in “lab contaminant” that was judged as unrecoverable
• Iran was given exemptions for “hot cells”
• Another loophole allowed Iran to store a large amount of heavy water under its control in Oman
• Some enriched uranium in Iran nuclear plants have not been evaluated as promised.
One of the reasons behind such secrecy is to make it impossible for people and governments to hold Iran accountable for not complying with terms; because there are no terms to comply with due to the exemptions and ambiguities. What makes it more complicated is that, after January 2016, the IAEA is also not releasing its usual detailed reports about Iran’s nuclear program anymore – because Iranian leaders demanded it.
President Obama is most likely aware that cuddling with Iran and appeasing it will not change the regime. It seems he is not offering Iran carrots to change its behavior but just to keep the nuclear agreement intact, until he is out of office. Once that happens, it is not important for him what actually happens to the deal because from his perspective, a fictional version of history, he would be remembered for being the first president who struck a global nuclear agreement with Iran.
The repercussions
The repercussions of the aforementioned exemptions are crucial. First of all, the process through which the nuclear deal was reached lacked total transparency and was shrouded in secrecy and lies. President Obama made a deal with a country which views the US as its enemy number one and now he hides information from the Congress and the public. Is this how democracy and transparency work? Secondly, not only does the nuclear accord lacks transparency, the main key players (President Obama, Secretary of the State John Kerry and his team) reportedly manipulated the details of the nuclear terms to mislead the public, the press, as well as the Congress. As The Institute for Science and International Security pointed out: “future violations of a long term deal will be downplayed for the sake of generating or maintaining support for the deal.”
Third, the unprecedented level of exemptions that President Obama gave to the Islamic Republic sent several signals to Iran, which explains Tehran’s increasingly interventionist and aggressive regional behavior.
For Iranian leaders, concessions mean weakness. Obama’s exemptions throughout the negotiations of the nuclear agreement sent the Iranian leaders a message that he is more desperate than the Islamic Republic to get his signature on the deal. As a result, it became clear that since Obama is so willing to bend the rules, he will do anything Iran desires afterward to prevent the Islamic Republic from abandoning the deal.
Iran realized that after the nuclear deal, if it expanded its military throughout the region and exerted its regional hegemonic ambitions more forcefully, and suppressed opposition voices inside the country, the US and the UN Security Council would remain silent.Hence, Iranian leaders are now freely test-firing ballistic missiles, harassing US navy ships, arresting more Iranian-American citizens, and deploying the advanced Russia-made S-300 missile-defense system at its Fordo uranium-enrichment site. The exemptions set the stage and the environment for Iran to behave more aggressively and militarily after the nuclear deal. In the last few months in office, Obama will do anything he can to keep the flimsy deal, which would probably include more permanent exemptions for Iran. On the surface there are “terms” in the nuclear deal but in reality the deal appears to be shrouded with secrecies, lies, and fraud. It entails no conditions for the ruling clerics of Iran to meet.

The Last Supper: The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands
Raymond Ibrahim/September 16/16
Note: The following is a book review of The Last Supper: The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands, by Klaus Wivel. A shorter version of the review first appeared in the Middle East Quarterly (Fall, 2016, vol. 23, no. 4).
Danish journalist Klaus Wivel is to be commended for shedding light on an important but ignored topic, the plight of present-day, Arabic-speaking Christians. His firsthand discussions with an assortment of Christians offer helpful insights. Among these are the cultural differences between Copts, Greek Orthodox Palestinians, and Maronites, who are often conflated as “Mideast Christians.” His discussions with an Egyptian teacher and Iraqi politician are especially useful: Public schools in their countries have removed Christianity from history texts so that indigenous Christians are now seen as foreigners.
The book, however, ultimately fails to deliver. Its ambitious subtitle—“The plight of Christians in Arab Lands”—is misleading. Of the twenty-two Arab states, the book covers only Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and the West Bank-Gaza. It does not mention the chronic persecution of Christians in Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Sudan, Arab nations where, according to a 2016 study, Christians fare far worse than the places the author visited. Lebanon—which takes up one quarter of Klaus’ account—doesn’t even receive a ranking.
In addition, the work is outdated; originally published in Danish in 2013, the genocide against Christians under ISIS receives no mention.
Finally, Wivel’s ubiquitous use of first person makes the book read more like a travel memoir. While detailed descriptions of atmospheric meetings in restaurants are well and good in some books, they come off as superfluous at best for a book on this pressing topic. The following, overly dramatic account of Wivel’s experiences following a meeting is standard: We say our goodbyes and walk outside; the rain in Beirut is even heavier now. As he strolls off, he uses his umbrella as a cane again. I walk down Sidani Street, past a hyperrealistic painting on the gable of a building; it depicts a bald person with full lips and an intense, friendly expression. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s a man or woman, black or white.
Such space could’ve been better utilized. Those looking for useful and current information about “The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands” need look elsewhere.

$1.3 Billion of the Cash to Iran was Taxpayer Money
Annie Fixler/Foundation for Defense of Democracies/September 16/16
A rancorous partisan debate is raging in Washington over the transfer of $1.7 billion in cash to Iran. The settlement was the balance of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) trust fund, where Iran deposited $400 million to purchase U.S. military goods before the 1979 revolution. Three decades of interest amounted to roughly $1.3 billion, according to the terms of the settlement. Numerous U.S. officials have defended the total payment of $1.7 billion to Iran, claiming that it was “their money.” This is not entirely true. It is certainly fair to argue that the United States owed Iran $400 million. The pre-revolutionary government deposited billions of dollars in an American FMS account in anticipation of purchasing U.S. military goods, and those goods were never delivered. The $400 million was the balance on the account after Iran and the U.S. settled other contract claims and Washington used funds to pay cancelation charges and other fees owed to American companies. Obama administration officials have gone to great lengths to explain that the $1.3 billion (remitted to Iran in two separate cash payments) was the settlement of a pending case before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. These officials have explained that Iran was demanding a much higher amount in interest, and that if a settlement was not paid out, the Tribunal may have ruled in terms more favorable to Iran. State Assistant Legal Advisor Lisa Grosh argued as much before the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Thursday. The Tribunal usually awards interest, although we do not know how the Tribunal would have calculated that interest. What the Obama administration has neglected to note, however, is that FMS accounts are non-interest bearing. In other words, agreeing to pay $1.3 billion in interest may have been the right move to ensure that the United States did not owe Iran more money, but the $1.3 billion was not Iranian money. It was American. The $1.3-billion payment was made from the Treasury-administered Judgment Fund, according to administration statements to the press back in January. This was reiterated in a Treasury official’s testimony on Thursday. The Judgment Fund is used to pay claims against the United States that are not otherwise covered by a specific appropriation. But these are still U.S. taxpayer funds. The debate over these funds is not likely to subside soon. It does not help that the Iranian parliament announced that these funds will be allocated to the defense budget. An argument can certainly be made that the $400 million originally came from Iran’s military, and therefore Tehran is reimbursing itself. But American taxpayers have a right to know that while their government may have been legally obligated to pay Iran, it is their money that was converted to cash and sent to Iran to support its expansionist and often violent agenda in the Middle East.
**Annie Fixler is a policy analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance. Find her on Twitter: @afixler

Kamandar Bakhtiar, Defector From ISIS-Khorasan: I Witnessed Beheadings And The Raping Of Homosexuals
MEMRI/September 16/16
Kamandar Bakhtiar, an Afghan police officer who joined ISIS-Khorasan and defected from its ranks three months later, recounted his experiences. In a segment aired on Alaan TV on September 7, Bakhtiar said: "I saw the worst things one can expect on the face of the Earth," including beheadings and the raping of homosexuals. He recounted that he was forced to flee his home following threats by ISIS-Khorasan. "The foreign fighters, especially the Pakistanis, are perpetrating horrific terrorist deeds," he said.
Following are excerpts
Kamandar Bakhtiar: "First of all, I have to say that I am very happy that I have left ISIS completely and joined the [forces of] the Afghan government six months ago. This was part of the campaign launched by Afghan MP Haji Zahir [Qadir], which led to anger and popular uprising against ISIS. I was angry and upset about the inhumane and un-Islamic actions that were ordered by our commanders [in ISIS]. These included the killing of innocent people, and so on. Therefore, I took advantage of the opportunity provided by the parliament for the fighters to return to their normal lives.
"I was with ISIS-Khorasan for three months in the Bandar region, under the command of Abdullah Makhati. Before joining ISIS, I had served as an Afghan police officer in Khost. When I came to my village for my usual vacation, I met Makhati, who asked me, after a while, to quit the police and join ISIS-Khorasan. I gave in to his request. My family had a religious background, and Abdullah served as the gate through which I joined ISIS. After a long conversation, he convinced me that the government is under the control of what he called 'the infidels.' To be honest, I was led astray by his eloquence, and so I left my job and joined ISIS."During the three months I spent in the ranks of ISIS, I saw the worst things one can imagine on the face of the Earth. They kill and behead innocent people, plunder the property of regular people, and they do the worst possible things, such as raping homosexuals. All these things run counter to Islam. I was very upset by their criminal deeds, but there was nothing I could do, until I heard of the campaign launched by MP Haji Zahir in my town. "When I returned to my town and defected from ISIS, I received a warm welcome from my family and friends, who fired fireworks into the air to celebrate my return. At the same time, the members of ISIS-Khorasan kept threatening me, forcing me to flee the region with my family. A few days after I left, they stormed my village and burned down my home. Despite all the suffering, I am very glad that I left the terrorists, and joined the peace process led by the Afghan state. "I call upon my colleagues who remain in the ranks of ISIS to leave these criminal groups and return to their normal lives. To people who sympathize with ISIS and wish to join it, I say: ISIS and Taliban have nothing to do with Islam, and they are uglier on the inside than they appear on the outside. "The foreign fighters, especially the Pakistanis, are perpetrating horrific terrorist deeds, which are unacceptable in Islam, as well as in humanity in general. They crucify people in public squares, they plunder their property, and they kidnap people for a ransom of between $100,000 to $200,000. People who cannot pay such a large sum are slaughtered with a knife."

Palestinians: Jibril Rajoub and the "Merry Christmas Group"
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 16/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8945/palestinian-christians
Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and a top official of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, made the offensive remarks during a recent interview with an Egyptian television station.
Many Palestinian Christians said that Rajoub's derogatory remarks would further heighten tensions between them and Muslims. They pointed out that the top PA official was excluding them from being an integral part of the Palestinian people.
Christians see Rajoub's derogatory remarks as part of the widespread persecution of Christians in Arab and Islamic countries, which has claimed the lives of thousands of Christians over the past few years and prompted many of them to flee to the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
In an open letter to Rajoub, who previously commanded the PA's notorious Preventive Security Force, and served 17 years in Israeli prison for terror-related charges, Bethlehem Pastor Danny Awad wrote: "We have been here for more than 2000 years... We are not strangers or guests or aliens who speak a foreign tongue."
Rajoub's disparagement of Palestinian Christians is indeed likely to encourage Christians to leave the Western-funded PA areas. Such comments are particularly unwelcome at a time when Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt face a campaign of terrorism and intimidation by Muslim extremists.
A senior Palestinian official has enraged Palestinian Christians by referring to them as the "Merry Christmas Group" and accusing them of supporting the Islamist movement, Hamas. Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and a top Fatah official who previously served as commander of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) notorious Preventive Security Force in the West Bank, made the offensive remarks during a recent interview with an Egyptian television station.
Referring to the Palestinian local elections, which were supposed to be held on October 8 but were suspended due to the continued power struggle between Fatah and Hamas, Rajoub said in the interview:
"Even some of our brothers, the 'Merry Christmas Group,' voted for Hamas [in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election]. Today, no one will vote for Hamas. What has Hamas given them? Hamas has brought nothing but destruction."
The interview was later broadcast on the PA's official Palestine TV -- a move that has been interpreted as an endorsement of the attack on Palestinian Christians. Critics argued that Palestine TV should have at least removed the parts where Rajoub hurls insults and accusations against the Christians.
Top Fatah official Jibril Rajoub during his interview with Egyptian television, when he insulted Palestinian Christians by saying: "Even some of our brothers, the 'Merry Christmas Group,' voted for Hamas."
Although Rajoub has since half-heartedly apologized for insulting the Palestinian Christian minority, his remarks continue to draw strong condemnations from many Christians and even some Muslims.
This was the first time that a senior representative of the PA leadership had come out against the Christian community. Many Christians said that Rajoub's derogatory remarks would further heighten tensions between them and the Muslims in the Palestinian territories. They pointed out that by referring to Christians as a "group," the top PA official was in fact excluding them from being an integral part of the Palestinian people.
Rajoub's remarks reflect the arrogant and disrespectful attitude of many in the PA leadership towards Palestinian Christians. This stands in sharp contrast to the PA leadership's public policy, which demonstrates utmost respect for Palestinian Christians and considers them equal citizens and partners in the Palestinian "national project." Judging from the angry reactions of Palestinian Christians, this is not a case where they are prepared to turn the other cheek.
In an open letter to Rajoub, who previously served 17 years in Israeli prison for terror-related charges, Pastor Danny Awad of Baraka Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem wrote:
"We are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people and some of us have died defending the Palestinian cause. We are not a group that came from Mars. We have been here for more than 2000 years. We are not a group to be devalued by you. We are not strangers or guests or aliens who speak a foreign tongue."
Habib Efram, Syriac League President, condemned Rajoub's anti-Christian remarks as "harmful, strange and provocative." Referring to the situation of Christians of the Middle East, he said:
"We longer know from where to receive the blows. We reject and denounce the remarks of the member of the Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, and demand a public apology. We also call upon the Palestinian leadership to intervene to correct the situation."
In an earlier comment, Efram stated:
"Christians are the weakest link in the region -- to a point where Christian presence in cities and villages in Iraq and Syria is nearing extinction. If ISIS is finished, what assurances do we have that a new ISIS will not emerge to threaten Christians? We must resist with all available means. Christians must remain in the Middle East. We need to change our methods and we need to have a political program."
Efram's comments signal that Christians in general and those living in the Palestinian territories in particular see Rajoub's derogatory remarks as part of the widespread persecution of Christians in Arab and Islamic countries. It is a campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Christians over the past few years, prompting many of them to flee to the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Archbishop Theodosius (Hanna Atallah) of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said that Rajoub's statements were harmful not only to Christians, but to all Palestinians. "These remarks are alien to our national culture," he added.
"Palestinian Christians are not a group. Rather, we belong to the first Church in Palestine and we are proud to be Christians. We are not imposed merchandise from the West. The Christian presence in Palestine has a glorious and ancient history. Both Christians and Muslims are proud of this history. These offensive remarks will only make us more determined to stick to our national presence, message, identity and link to this holy land. The remarks do not represent our people or national heritage."
Rajoub's inflammatory remarks came at the peak of the local election campaign and were destined to wreak real damage to Fatah at the ballot boxes. The claim that some Christians had voted for Hamas in the 2006 election has never been verified. But had the Palestinian High Court not suspended the local elections, disgruntled Christians from Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities and villages likely would have voted for anyone but Fatah. Such aspersions cast by a senior PA official very close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are taken extremely seriously. Interestingly, Abbas himself has not repudiated Rajoub's remarks -- a fact that has added to the outrage among the Palestinian Christian community.
But while Abbas has remained silent on the controversy prompted by his top official, some Fatah officials have joined the calls for Rajoub to apologize.
Acutely aware of the damage that such remarks could cause Fatah, the faction's leaders in Bethlehem, where Christians have over the years become a minority, have taken matters into their hands and offered their own apology. "The Christians are entitled to an apology," said Mohamed al-Masri, Secretary-General of Fatah in Bethlehem. "In Bethlehem, we are one family and there was never a 'group' of people among us. The Christians were always owners of the land and partners in blood, unity and decision-making."
In a move that can only be described as ironic, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have come out against Rajoub's anti-Christian remarks. These groups never miss an opportunity to lash out at Fatah and its leaders, by depicting them as traitors acting against the interests of the Palestinians. Yet for these two Islamist groups to talk about the rights of Christians is laughable. Under their rule in the Gaza Strip, the number of Christians has declined over the two decades from 3500 to 1300.
Earlier this year, Palestinian Christians suffered another blow when Hamas destroyed the ruins of an ancient Byzantine church that was recently discovered in the Gaza Strip. The ruins of the 1800-year-old church were discovered in Palestine Square in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, where Hamas is planning to build a large shopping mall. Palestinian Christians expressed disappointment over the lack of interest that the international community, including the Vatican and Christian communities around the world, had shown in this case, which they regarded as an assault on their heritage and holy sites.
Similarly, the attack on the Palestinian Christians by a top representative of the Palestinian Authority leadership has also failed to draw the attention of the international community. It must be acceptable, from their point of view, for a Palestinian official to ridicule Palestinian Christians and accuse them of supporting Hamas. Had the comments come from an Israeli official, the coverage might have been a bit different.
Rajoub's incendiary words coincided with a warning about the waning Christian presence in the Middle East, issued by Dr. Hanna Issa, Secretary-General of the Islamic-Christian Commission for Supporting Jerusalem and Holy Sites.
"What is happening in the region, namely the decrease in the number of Christians, is a catastrophe not only for Christians, but also for Muslims," he cautioned. "This will lead to the disintegration of society and make it lack diversity and scientific, economic and cultural competencies because of the Christians who are leaving." After noting that while Christians make up nearly 20% of the Palestinian population around the world, they are less than 1% of the Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Issa concluded:
"It is in the interest of Muslims in the world in general and the Middle East in particular to preserve the Christian presence in the Arab world and to protect it with all their force. Christian emigration from the Middle East will impoverish the Arab culture and identity."
Rajoub's disparagement of Palestinian Christians is indeed likely to encourage Christians to leave the Western-funded Palestinian Authority areas. Such comments are particularly unwelcome at a time when Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt are facing a campaign of terrorism and intimidation by Muslim extremists. Unless the Westerners who are funding the PA raise their voices against such abuse of Palestinian Christians, Christians in Bethlehem may, irrespective of local elections, decide to vote with their feet.
**Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute
Rajoub's disparagement of Palestinian Christians is indeed likely to encourage Christians to leave the Western-funded PA areas. Such comments are particularly unwelcome at a time when Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt face a campaign of terrorism and intimidation by Muslim extremists.
A senior Palestinian official has enraged Palestinian Christians by referring to them as the "Merry Christmas Group" and accusing them of supporting the Islamist movement, Hamas. Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and a top Fatah official who previously served as commander of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) notorious Preventive Security Force in the West Bank, made the offensive remarks during a recent interview with an Egyptian television station.
Referring to the Palestinian local elections, which were supposed to be held on October 8 but were suspended due to the continued power struggle between Fatah and Hamas, Rajoub said in the interview:
"Even some of our brothers, the 'Merry Christmas Group,' voted for Hamas [in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election]. Today, no one will vote for Hamas. What has Hamas given them? Hamas has brought nothing but destruction."
The interview was later broadcast on the PA's official Palestine TV -- a move that has been interpreted as an endorsement of the attack on Palestinian Christians. Critics argued that Palestine TV should have at least removed the parts where Rajoub hurls insults and accusations against the Christians.
Top Fatah official Jibril Rajoub during his interview with Egyptian television, when he insulted Palestinian Christians by saying: "Even some of our brothers, the 'Merry Christmas Group,' voted for Hamas."
Although Rajoub has since half-heartedly apologized for insulting the Palestinian Christian minority, his remarks continue to draw strong condemnations from many Christians and even some Muslims.
This was the first time that a senior representative of the PA leadership had come out against the Christian community. Many Christians said that Rajoub's derogatory remarks would further heighten tensions between them and the Muslims in the Palestinian territories. They pointed out that by referring to Christians as a "group," the top PA official was in fact excluding them from being an integral part of the Palestinian people.
Rajoub's remarks reflect the arrogant and disrespectful attitude of many in the PA leadership towards Palestinian Christians. This stands in sharp contrast to the PA leadership's public policy, which demonstrates utmost respect for Palestinian Christians and considers them equal citizens and partners in the Palestinian "national project." Judging from the angry reactions of Palestinian Christians, this is not a case where they are prepared to turn the other cheek.
In an open letter to Rajoub, who previously served 17 years in Israeli prison for terror-related charges, Pastor Danny Awad of Baraka Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem wrote:
"We are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people and some of us have died defending the Palestinian cause. We are not a group that came from Mars. We have been here for more than 2000 years. We are not a group to be devalued by you. We are not strangers or guests or aliens who speak a foreign tongue."
Habib Efram, Syriac League President, condemned Rajoub's anti-Christian remarks as "harmful, strange and provocative." Referring to the situation of Christians of the Middle East, he said:
"We longer know from where to receive the blows. We reject and denounce the remarks of the member of the Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, and demand a public apology. We also call upon the Palestinian leadership to intervene to correct the situation."
In an earlier comment, Efram stated: "Christians are the weakest link in the region -- to a point where Christian presence in cities and villages in Iraq and Syria is nearing extinction. If ISIS is finished, what assurances do we have that a new ISIS will not emerge to threaten Christians? We must resist with all available means. Christians must remain in the Middle East. We need to change our methods and we need to have a political program."
Efram's comments signal that Christians in general and those living in the Palestinian territories in particular see Rajoub's derogatory remarks as part of the widespread persecution of Christians in Arab and Islamic countries. It is a campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Christians over the past few years, prompting many of them to flee to the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Archbishop Theodosius (Hanna Atallah) of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said that Rajoub's statements were harmful not only to Christians, but to all Palestinians. "These remarks are alien to our national culture," he added.
"Palestinian Christians are not a group. Rather, we belong to the first Church in Palestine and we are proud to be Christians. We are not imposed merchandise from the West. The Christian presence in Palestine has a glorious and ancient history. Both Christians and Muslims are proud of this history. These offensive remarks will only make us more determined to stick to our national presence, message, identity and link to this holy land. The remarks do not represent our people or national heritage."
Rajoub's inflammatory remarks came at the peak of the local election campaign and were destined to wreak real damage to Fatah at the ballot boxes. The claim that some Christians had voted for Hamas in the 2006 election has never been verified. But had the Palestinian High Court not suspended the local elections, disgruntled Christians from Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities and villages likely would have voted for anyone but Fatah. Such aspersions cast by a senior PA official very close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are taken extremely seriously. Interestingly, Abbas himself has not repudiated Rajoub's remarks -- a fact that has added to the outrage among the Palestinian Christian community.
But while Abbas has remained silent on the controversy prompted by his top official, some Fatah officials have joined the calls for Rajoub to apologize.
Acutely aware of the damage that such remarks could cause Fatah, the faction's leaders in Bethlehem, where Christians have over the years become a minority, have taken matters into their hands and offered their own apology. "The Christians are entitled to an apology," said Mohamed al-Masri, Secretary-General of Fatah in Bethlehem. "In Bethlehem, we are one family and there was never a 'group' of people among us. The Christians were always owners of the land and partners in blood, unity and decision-making."
In a move that can only be described as ironic, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have come out against Rajoub's anti-Christian remarks. These groups never miss an opportunity to lash out at Fatah and its leaders, by depicting them as traitors acting against the interests of the Palestinians. Yet for these two Islamist groups to talk about the rights of Christians is laughable. Under their rule in the Gaza Strip, the number of Christians has declined over the two decades from 3500 to 1300.
Earlier this year, Palestinian Christians suffered another blow when Hamas destroyed the ruins of an ancient Byzantine church that was recently discovered in the Gaza Strip. The ruins of the 1800-year-old church were discovered in Palestine Square in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, where Hamas is planning to build a large shopping mall. Palestinian Christians expressed disappointment over the lack of interest that the international community, including the Vatican and Christian communities around the world, had shown in this case, which they regarded as an assault on their heritage and holy sites.
Similarly, the attack on the Palestinian Christians by a top representative of the Palestinian Authority leadership has also failed to draw the attention of the international community. It must be acceptable, from their point of view, for a Palestinian official to ridicule Palestinian Christians and accuse them of supporting Hamas. Had the comments come from an Israeli official, the coverage might have been a bit different.
Rajoub's incendiary words coincided with a warning about the waning Christian presence in the Middle East, issued by Dr. Hanna Issa, Secretary-General of the Islamic-Christian Commission for Supporting Jerusalem and Holy Sites.
"What is happening in the region, namely the decrease in the number of Christians, is a catastrophe not only for Christians, but also for Muslims," he cautioned. "This will lead to the disintegration of society and make it lack diversity and scientific, economic and cultural competencies because of the Christians who are leaving." After noting that while Christians make up nearly 20% of the Palestinian population around the world, they are less than 1% of the Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Issa concluded:
"It is in the interest of Muslims in the world in general and the Middle East in particular to preserve the Christian presence in the Arab world and to protect it with all their force. Christian emigration from the Middle East will impoverish the Arab culture and identity."
Rajoub's disparagement of Palestinian Christians is indeed likely to encourage Christians to leave the Western-funded Palestinian Authority areas. Such comments are particularly unwelcome at a time when Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt are facing a campaign of terrorism and intimidation by Muslim extremists. Unless the Westerners who are funding the PA raise their voices against such abuse of Palestinian Christians, Christians in Bethlehem may, irrespective of local elections, decide to vote with their feet.
**Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
 

The Connection between Al-Qaeda and Black Lives Matter
Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/September 16,/ 16
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri made a new video that appeared on September 9. It offers little that is new: 9/11 is again praised and portrayed as a product of Muslim grievances and payback for Western crimes; he vows a “thousand more” 9/11s and warns against apostates being more dangerous than original infidels.
Only one angle stands out—again, not because it is new, but because it sheds light on a growing phenomenon: black violence against police in general, in the context of Black Lives Matter in particular. In last week’s video, Zawahiri called on American blacks to convert to Islam, asserting that they will never receive justice and will always live in “humiliation” until they convert to Islam and rebel against the “white majority.” He even showed footage of the Nation of Islam’s Malcolm X preaching.
While the talking heads interpreted Zawahiri’s new video as opportunistically trying to exploit groups like BLM, the reality is that BLM has long been influenced by al-Qaeda type rhetoric and propaganda (which, as usual, is quietly disseminated on the ground, not by al-Qaeda, but by its many Muslim sympathizers in America). Zawahiri has been calling on American blacks to turn against whites and quoting Malcolm X for years.
Nearly a decade ago, Zawahiri issued a similar message:
That’s why I want blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world, to know that when we wage jihad in Allah’s path, we aren’t waging jihad to lift oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift oppression from all mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression, whatever it may be…This is why I want every oppressed one on the face of the earth to know that our victory over America and the Crusading West — with Allah’s permission — is a victory for them, because they shall be freed from the most powerful tyrannical force in the history of mankind.
American blacks, however, were Zawahiri’s primary targets. He again praised and quoted from Malcolm X: “Anytime you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something you have to do for yourself. The price of freedom is death.”
Surely it’s not a coincidence that, a decade after this theme started to be hammered out by al-Qaeda and America’s Nation of Islam—who are ever telling blacks that Christianity is the “white man’s religion,” made to keep blacks passive, whereas Islam is the religion of equality, strength and dignity—that blacks, many associated or even converted to Islam, have begun to engage in violence and murder, including in the context of Black Lives Matter, that is, in the so-called name of “social justice”?
Sounding just like Malcolm X, last year Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke words laden with the same “jihadi/martyr” rhetoric that Zawahiri and others are constantly invoking:
I’m looking for 10,000 in the midst of a million. Ten thousand fearless men who say death is sweeter than continued life under tyranny. Death is sweeter than continuing to live and bury our children while the white folks give our killers hamburgers. Death is sweeter than watching us slaughter each other to the joy of a 400-year-old enemy. Death is sweeter. The Quran teaches persecution is worse than slaughter. Then it says retaliation is prescribed in matters of the slain. Retaliation is a prescription from God to calm the breasts of those whose children have been slain. So if the federal government won’t intercede in our affairs, then we must rise up and kill those who kill us; stalk them and kill them and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling!
Surely police are meant by “those who kill us”? Unsurprisingly, then, Muslims and the Nation of Islam—even ISIS apparently—were “on the Ground [in Ferguson] and Active Since Day One.” Likewise, Gavin Eugene Long, a self-styled “social justice warrior,” who murdered three Baton Rouge police officers last July, was a member of the Nation of Islam. Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, the original Black Lives Matter cop killer, who gunned down two NYPD officers as they ate lunch in their patrol car in December 2014 posted on his Facebook an image of Koran verse 8:60, where Allah calls on Muslims to “strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah.” Edward Archer, another black convert to Islam, shot a Philadelphia police officer and later cited “following Allah” as his motive. There are many other relevant examples.
The aftereffects of al-Qaeda’s propaganda—which was regularly disseminated by Western media far and wide soon after September 11, 2001—are still with us. Such propaganda always had several faces: if it was meant to make liberal Americans feel guilty and try to appease “aggrieved” Muslims, it was simultaneously also meant to incite American blacks to violence against American whites. And it worked, even if its rationale is often hidden beneath the surface.

The new Abu Muslim al-Khurasani
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/September 16/16
All ideas discussing religion have a political aspect that is as important as the religious one, if not more so. Abu Muslim al-Khurasani is a controversial character. He is the real founder of the Abbasid caliphate, and he killed more than 600,000 people to found his state, according to prominent historian Al-Tabari.
Some say he is the grandchild of Persian nobleman Bozorgmehr, and others say he descends from the family of the last Sasanian ruler Yazdegerd III. Ironically, the actual founder of the Abbasid caliphate, Abu Ja’far al-Mansur, killed Khurasani in the year 137 Hijri in Madain. The Kurds also say he is one of them, his name is Bahzad, and he is from southern Kurdistan. He once claimed Abbasid ancestry, but history shows he was presented to Ibrahim al-Imam, head of the Abbasids and resident of Al-Hamima.
Murder
When Mansur went to kill him in his council after seeing guards behind the corridor, he told them to attack him with their swords upon his signal. Khurasani shouted: “Keep me for your enemies.” Mansur replied: “You are my worst enemy!” Ibn Khallikan said Khurasani “spoke the Arabic and Persian languages fluently; he had a well-balanced mind, wrote poetry and was knowledgeable.” Khurasani is considered an Iranian national hero, just like Rustam during the Sasanian period and Qasem Soleimani during the modern era. Expressing his discontent over the deviation of the Abbasid revolution, historian Al-Dhahabi said in his book “Siyar A’lam al-Nubala”: “Here comes the foreign and strong state, founded by Khurasani; history is repeating itself.” The last comment is suggestive, as Dhahabi was a scholar during the Mamluk era. The irony is that the character of Khurasani has a positive impact on Iranian culture, and it was a subject taught at school. There is also a football team, which is one of the best in Iran, in Mashhad in his name.However, this man supported the rule of the Abbasids, who killed the Alawites, which means he is considered an Iranian national hero, just like Rustam during the Sasanian period and Qasem Soleimani during the modern era. Will we witness new destruction similar to that carried out by Khurasani?**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 16, 2016.