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Bible Quotation for today/Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil
Isaiah 5/21-30: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out. He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly. None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver. They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress.

Bible Quotation for today/ Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
Letter to the Ephesians 05/22-32: "Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 08-09/15
Less aid and no jobs for Syrians in Lebanon/Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/September 08/15
How Dangerous is ISIS to Israel/Efraim Inbar/BESA Center Perspectives/September 08/15
Turkey: America's Really Bad "Faustian Bargain/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 08/15
Arab Press Reacts To Syrian Refugee Crisis: Condemnation Of Arab Indifference,/MEMRI/September 08/15
Seeking refuge in hypocrisy/James Snell/Now Lebanon/September 08/15
Protests continue in Syria Druze region/Now Lebanon/September 08/15
Khamenei Declares That He Will Not Honor The Agreement If Sanctions Are Merely Suspended And Not Lifted/MEMRI/September 08/15
Expanded Syria Presence Would Carry Big Risks for Russia/Michael Singh and Jeffrey White/Wall Street Journal/September 08/15
Russia in Syria (Part 1): Declining Military Capabilities Won't Hold Moscow Back/Anna Borshchevskaya/The Washington Institute./September 08/15
Gulf intervention in Yemen and the concept of deterrence/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
Why is Russia in Syria now/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
Iran cozies up to America as post-deal era begins/Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
The Syrians between a Rock and a Hard Place/Eyad Abu Shakra/ASharq Al Awsat/September 08/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 08-09/15
2 Dead, More People Hospitalized as Sandstorm Hits Lebanon
Scores Hospitalized as 'Unprecedented' Sandstorm Engulfs Several Regions
U.S. Puts Samir al-Quntar on 'Terror' Blacklist
Report: Dialogue Sessions Doomed, FPM Adamant on Aoun's Presidency
Aoun Insists on 'Proportional Representation or Electing President by Popular Vote'
Lebanese Man Wounded in North Bekaa Ambush
Warrant Issued against al-Asir over Sleeper Cells, Assassination Plots
Sami Gemayel Vows to Sue Officials behind Trash Crisis, Slams Aoun's Policies
Mustaqbal Urges Permanent Solution to Waste Crisis, Slams Hizbullah 'Unimaginable Corruption'
Reports: Shehayyeb's Waste Proposal Hit by Army Promotion Conditions
Geagea for President, Assad for Transition Period
Less aid and no jobs for Syrians in Lebanon
Unseasonal sandstorm hits Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel
Less aid and no jobs for Syrians in Lebanon

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 08-09/15
Islamic State: 11 'Dhimma' rules that Christians must obey to stay alive
Obama’s Syria achievement
Unseasonal sandstorm hits Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel
Cheney: Obama is giving Iran means to destroy U.S.
Turkish Forces Cross into N. Iraq after Massive Anti-PKK Air Raids
Fresh Clashes on Lesbos as Britain, France Pledge to Take Migrants
Egypt's Two Years Under Sisi
Brandeis to Award Endowed Chair to Anti-Israel Scholar

2 Dead, More People Hospitalized as Sandstorm Hits Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 08/15/The health ministry said Tuesday that two individuals died and almost 750 people were rushed to hospitals as an unseasonal sandstorm hit Lebanon, covering the country, including Beirut, with a blanket of yellow dust. In a statement, the ministry said two women had died at hospitals in the eastern Bekaa Valley because of the storm. It identified one of the dead as Joumana L. and the other as Hadla Aa. "The number of cases of choking and shortness of breath caused by the sandstorm has risen to 750," the ministry said. The storm reached Beirut on Tuesday, a day after it engulfed the Bekaa. The ministry also said that it has gone on alert, urging those suffering from respiratory and heart problems to stay indoors. It said children, the elderly and pregnant women should stay home. Red Cross official George Kettaneh also advised those having asthma problems not to leave their homes. Meanwhile, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab ordered the closure of private schools on Wednesday as a precaution.
The storm was felt particularly in Lebanon's dozens of informal camps where hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees live with limited shelter. The Traffic Management Center, meanwhile, advised drivers to be cautious to avoid accidents because of low visibility. The Meteorological Department at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport expected the storm to last a few days. Mouin Hamzeh, secretary general of Lebanon's governmental National Council for Scientific Research, said satellite images "clearly show that the sandstorm came from northern Iraq in the direction of central and northern Lebanon, north and east Syria, and southern Turkey.""It usually happens twice or even three times a year in Lebanon but during spring, March and April, and the unusual thing today is the density of the storm," he told AFP. Large parts of neighboring Syria, the Palestinian Territories, Israel and Cyprus were also shrouded in a thick cloud of dust from the storm. In Syria, the storm swept across much of the country, reducing visibility everywhere from coastal Latakia province to eastern Deir Ezzor. In the city of Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor, several hospitals were no longer receiving patients suffering respiratory problems after running out of oxygen tanks, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. Syria's health minister urged citizens to "avoid prolonged exposure to the outdoors" and said hundreds of people had been treated for cases of asthma and other respiratory problems. Thick haze was hanging over Jerusalem and much of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, with officials also warning the vulnerable to stay indoors. The view from the Mount of Olives -- which normally offers a sweeping panorama of Jerusalem's Old City and the al-Aqsa mosque compound with its golden Dome of the Rock -- was completely obscured by the dust. The thick cloud also enveloped parts of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where residents were told to limit their time outdoors. Health officials warned that the concentration of dust particles in the air was many times above normal levels. Several flights were diverted from the coastal airport of Larnaca as visibility dropped to 500 meters. The island was also suffering from a heatwave, with inland temperatures hitting 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit). The interior ministry said that dozens of Syrian refugees who had been rescued from a fishing boat off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday had been moved from a makeshift camp to a better-equipped facility because of the extreme weather.

Scores Hospitalized as 'Unprecedented' Sandstorm Engulfs Several Regions
Naharnet/September 08/15/A sandstorm lashed several regions in the Bekaa, North and South on Monday, landing scores of people in hospitals and bringing visibility to extremely low levels. The Meteorological Department at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport described the storm as “unprecedented” in Lebanon's modern history, OTV said. The National News Agency said the Red Cross transferred at least 35 people suffering respiratory distress to hospitals in the northern region of Akkar. In northern Bekaa, a woman identified as Jumana Ali al-Laqqis died of a severe asthma attack at the Baalbek state-run hospital, NNA said. “Dust encircled homes in the regions of al-Bireh, al-Qobaiyat, Jabal Akroum, Wadi Khaled, Khirbet Daoud all the way to Akkar's coast,” the agency said. In the Bekaa, the sandstorm hit the city of Hermel and the area adjacent to Akkar and Dinniyeh, causing low visibility and an accumulation of garbage on streets and in irrigation canals. Dozens of residents were transferred to hospitals in the region. The storm also lashed Baalbek and the neighboring areas, reducing visibility to near zero and causing a surge in temperature. “Some citizens, especially those who suffer from asthma and respiratory allergies, were forced to wear medical masks to avoid inhaling dust,” NNA said.The dust wave also reached the southern regions of Hasbaya, al-Orqoub and Jabal al-Wostani.

U.S. Puts Samir al-Quntar on 'Terror' Blacklist
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 08/15/The United States on Tuesday placed on its "terror" blacklist Lebanese national Samir al-Quntar, a militant who had been jailed for years in Israel on charges of killing three Israelis including a young girl. Israel released Quntar as part of a prisoner exchange in 2008, three decades after the killings, and he has since become a high-profile figure in Hizbullah. "He has also played an operational role, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, in building up Hizbullah's terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights," the U.S. State Department said. As a designated "global terrorist," Qantar is subject to the seizure of any assets he holds in areas of U.S. jurisdiction and Americans are forbidden from doing business with him.
Qantar was 17 in April 1979 when he and three other then members of the Palestine Liberation Front infiltrated the Israeli village of Nahariya by sea from Lebanon. The squad raided the home of the Haran family before fleeing to the beach with two of its members. Qantar was charged with killing the father and a daughter on the beach. Two militants were killed in a shoot-out with the Israeli forces, while Qantar -- shot and wounded five times -- was arrested along with the fourth member of the squad, Ahmad Abras. Qantar and Abras were each sentenced to five life terms plus 47 years for murder. Qantar was freed in 2013 and, although he had launched his attack as a leftist nationalist, he then joined the Shiite Islamist movement Hizbullah after receiving a hero's welcome to Beirut.

Report: Dialogue Sessions Doomed, FPM Adamant on Aoun's Presidency
Naharnet/September 08/15/As eyes gaze at Wednesday's dialogue session that is set to bring rival politicians together to discuss pressing issues, mainly the presidential deadlock, sources of the March 8 alliance have dimmed the hopes on its outcome as they say they are adamant to elect MP Michel Aoun “and no other,” or hold early parliamentary elections. Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement head to the dialogue session with a “unified stance” to either consensually elect the Change and Reform bloc chief, Aoun, as head of the state or kick off parliamentary elections that will later elect a president, well informed March 8 sources told Asharq al-Awsat daily. The sources stressed that “any other talks on a consensual candidate other than Aoun will be strictly unacceptable by Hizbullah and the FPM.”Speaker Nabih Berri, who also heads the AMAL movement, called for the session which is limited to Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the heads of parliamentary blocs. Berri has reiterated that the presidential deadlock was the first item on the agenda of the dialogue, and that he would then move to another item if the rival parties failed to agree on it. The interlocutors are expected to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces. Only the Lebanese Forces announced it would boycott the talks. On the other hand, al-Akhbar daily said that head of al-Mustaqbal bloc Fouad Saniora rejects the decision of the movement’s leader, Saad Hariri, to take part in the dialogue, preferring that conditions are set beforehand mainly on the priority to elect a president before stepping in.

Aoun Insists on 'Proportional Representation or Electing President by Popular Vote'
Naharnet/September 08/15/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun reiterated Tuesday that the country's political crisis can only be resolved through staging parliamentary polls under a proportional representation law or electing a new president by a “popular vote,” on the eve of a national dialogue meeting called for by Speaker Nabih Berri. “We want to return authority to the Lebanese people, the source of all authorities. We want to devise a proportional representation law, hold parliamentary elections and then elect a president,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh. “But if they want to elect the president first, we support such a move, but that must take place through a popular vote,” he added.
Aoun noted that “all Lebanese want a proportional representation law,” pointing out that “the election of a president by a popular vote frees him of foreign pressures.”Turning to the dialogue session that will be held on Wednesday, Aoun urged all participants to “engage in talks to build a state, not a farm.” “The Lebanese people do not trust this government and I'm afraid that they (dialogue parties) might suggest 'changing the people',” Aoun quipped, emphasizing that proportional representation “ensures fairness for all Lebanese, not only Christians.” As for the garbage crisis, Aoun said the FPM will propose “a complete plan containing new ideas,” noting that “there are certain issues that the municipalities cannot resolve.”The crisis began in July when the country's main landfill in Naameh closed and pungent garbage started piling up in Beirut and its outskirts sparking angry popular protests. Berri has noted that the presidential deadlock is the first item on the agenda of the dialogue, and that he would then move to another item if the rival parties failed to agree on it.
The interlocutors are expected to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces.

Lebanese Man Wounded in North Bekaa Ambush
Naharnet/September 08/15/A Lebanese man was injured late Monday when gunmen opened fire at a car transporting three people, including a General Security officer, in North Bekaa, the state-run National News Agency reported. Fadi Wakim was wounded when the gunmen intercepted the vehicle on the main road of Baalbek-Maqneh as they were heading to Ras Baalbek, it said. A man identified as Tony Francis and General Security officer Samir Nasrallah were in the car with Wakim when the gunmen opened fire at them, said NNA. Wakim was taken to Dar al-Hikma hospital in Baalbek. When the three companions arrived late to their destination, their relatives came to search for them. At that point, the gunmen stole their vehicle, the agency added.

Warrant Issued against al-Asir over Sleeper Cells, Assassination Plots
Naharnet/September 08/15/A military judge issued on Tuesday an arrest warrant against Ahmed al-Asir for forming sleeper cells and plotting the assassination of known figures, the state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said Judge Najat Abu Shakra issued the warrant after questioning the Salafist sheikh. The charges include forming the sleeper cells in the southern city of Sidon and its different neighborhoods, in addition to plotting the murder of religious, political and military personalities, the agency added. Last month, an arrest warrant was issued against al-Asir on charges of funding extremist cleric Sheikh Khaled Hoblos and offering his group logistical and arms support. Al-Asir was arrested in August 15 at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport while trying to flee to Nigeria via Cairo with a fake Palestinian passport. The firebrand anti-Hizbullah cleric had been on the run since June 2013 after his armed supporters clashed with the Lebanese army in Sidon's suburb of Abra. The fighting killed 18 Lebanese soldiers. Last year, a military judge recommended prosecutors seek death sentences for Asir and 53 others, including singer-turned-fundamentalist Fadel Shaker. He and his associates were accused of "having formed armed groups that attacked an institution of the state, the army, killed officers and soldiers, took explosive materials and light and heavy weapons and used them against the army."

Sami Gemayel Vows to Sue Officials behind Trash Crisis, Slams Aoun's Policies
Naharnet/September 08/15/Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel vowed Tuesday to file a lawsuit against “all officials” responsible for the eruption of the country's unprecedented garbage crisis as he slammed the policies of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.“The (waste management) plan that has been proposed by (Agriculture) Minister (Akram) Shehayyeb is based on Kataeb's suggestions,” Gemayel noted during a press conference. “We will file a lawsuit tomorrow against all officials responsible for the eruption of the garbage crisis,” he pledged. Hinting that Kataeb's ministers might resign from cabinet if the crisis persists, Gemayel added: “Our presence in the cabinet will become of no use if the government does not implement the plan it has devised for waste management or if it refrains from releasing funds to municipalities and removing garbage from the streets immediately.”“We call on PM (Tammam) Salam to start implementing the waste management plan,” he went on to say. Shehayyeb's plan includes a short-term solution to remove accumulating garbage from Beirut and Mount Lebanon and a proposed long-term solution. The core of the crisis, which erupted after the July 17 closure of the landfill serving Beirut and its surroundings, remains unaddressed. When the Naameh landfill closed, the government failed to identify sites for new landfills or alternative arrangements. Trash began piling up until local municipalities found temporary solutions -- dumping in empty lots, river beds and even forests. Turning to the street protests that erupted in the wake of the garbage crisis and evolved into a broad-based mobilization against government impotence and corruption, Gemayel stressed that “change can only happen through state institutions.”“Kataeb is willing to sacrifice its popularity for the sake of Lebanon and its institutions,” he said. “We want to struggle to improve the lives of the Lebanese, whether at the dialogue table or in the cabinet, and we won't shy away from any battle or front to improve the lives of citizens,” he added. “In tomorrow's dialogue session, we will fight the battle of preserving the Constitution and electing a new president,” Gemayel noted. He also said that Kataeb will propose “the election of a new president, the formation of a new government and organizing parliamentary elections within a month.” Speaker Nabih Berri has invited Salam and the heads of parliamentary blocs to a national dialogue conference on Wednesday, noting that the presidential deadlock is the first item on the agenda. The interlocutors are expected to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces. In an apparent jab at MP Michel Aoun, Gemayel said “it is unacceptable to suspend governments and elections for months for the sake of one person.”“What's worse is that they are blackmailing us by threatening that they will block solutions for the garbage crisis if we don't approve raising the retirement age of top military officers. This selfishness is being practiced under the excuse of Christian rights,” he added. “Will the rights of Christians be restored through electing a president by a popular vote? If Aoun was elected president through Hizbullah's votes, who would guarantee the scenario of the next election?” Gemayel wondered. He lamented that “in the name of Christian rights, Christians are now living without a president or a state and among the piles of garbage.”Earlier in the day, Aoun reiterated that the country's political crisis can only be resolved through staging parliamentary polls under a proportional representation law or electing a new president by a “popular vote.”“We want to return authority to the Lebanese people, the source of all authorities. We want to devise a proportional representation law, hold parliamentary elections and then elect a president,” said Aoun. He noted that “all Lebanese want a proportional representation law,” pointing out that “the election of a president by a popular vote frees him of foreign pressures.”

Mustaqbal Urges Permanent Solution to Waste Crisis, Slams Hizbullah 'Unimaginable Corruption'
Naharnet/September 08/15/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday urged the government to find a “permanent solution” to the unprecedented garbage crisis as it slammed Hizbullah over what it described as “unimaginable corruption.”The bloc “salutes the youth and civil protest movement that has revolted against the state's paralysis and the aggravated insult of the spread of garbage and the absence of power supply and other essential services,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “In this regard, the bloc calls on the government to hold an immediate, open-ended session dedicated to finding a permanent solution to the garbage crisis,” Mustaqbal added, urging the government to “name the political parties who are obstructing the solutions.”The crisis erupted after the July 17 closure of the main landfill serving Beirut and its surroundings. When the Naameh landfill closed, the government failed to identify sites for new landfills or alternative arrangements. Trash began piling up on the streets until local municipalities found temporary solutions -- dumping in empty lots, river beds and even forests. The unprecedented crisis sparked angry street protests that eventually evolved into a broad-based mobilization against government impotence and corruption. Addressing the corruption accusations, Mustaqbal said it “endorses, without any reservations, the demands urging the eradication of corruption from its roots,” calling on political forces to “re-read the draft law that was proposed by the Saniora government in 2006 to subject the accounts of public administrations and state institutions to inspection and evaluation according to the international standards of inspection.” And as it described the demands of the protest movement as “legitimate,” the bloc noted that the “only feasible immediate demand is the election of a president, which would automatically lead to a new government and a new electoral law.” Accordingly, it called on the national dialogue meeting that will be held Wednesday to “address the core issue, which would be an agreement on the election of a president.” Responding to corruption accusations from “some Hizbullah media outlets, MPs, officials and mouthpieces,” Mustaqbal said “Hizbullah's corruption level is unimaginable.”“Creating sectarian spheres of influence at the state's expense is corruption, dodging legal obligations is corruption, militarizing communities and creating autonomous security zones is corruption, smuggling through public ports is corruption, refraining from paying fees and taxes is corruption, encouraging black markets is corruption, and the illegal trade and manufacture of medicines, drugs and Captagon is corruption,” the bloc charged.

Reports: Shehayyeb's Waste Proposal Hit by Army Promotion Conditions
Naharnet/September 08/15/The approval of a proposal made by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb to resolve the country's waste crisis is facing a condition set by several parties on the promotion of army officers, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper said that Shehayyeb's proposal requires a cabinet session. But the Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah and the Tashnag Party have conditioned the activation of the government's work to the approval of the promotion of around 12 officers from brigadier-general to the rank of major-general. Such a move leaves Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz in the military for another year. Roukoz is the son-in-law of Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun, who wants him to become military commander. Informed sources told al-Joumhouria daily, however, that the promotion of the officers would harm the organizational structure of the military and deprive more than 440 officers from being promoted. “Those trying to reach compromises at the expense of the army … are inflicting serious harm on the military institution,” warned the sources. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has been procrastinating on calling for a cabinet session over lack of consensus among the rival parties on several controversial issues, including the waste management plan. He is awaiting the first national dialogue session that Speaker Nabih Berri will chair on Wednesday to decide on his next move.The all-party talks are scheduled to discuss the presidential crisis and other issues of contention.

Geagea for President, Assad for Transition Period
Camal Richa Blog/September 08/15/Informed Arab sources stated that a regional settlement is being worked on in order to resolve the Syrian crisis, but the Russians are stubbornly holding on to the current Syrian regime and its president Bachar Assad more than the Iranians. Russia sent military experts and war planes to Syria and are currently taking part in combat operations, sources pointed out. Sources added that Russia will not agree on any settlement for the Syrian crisis unless Assad stays at the head of the regime, but Moscow might agree on a transition period in Syria headed by Assad, noting that Iran does not show the same stubbornness towards Assad remaining in power. Since Russia is working on building the biggest military base outside its territory, it considers that Syria has become a part of the Russian national Security System after the base is built on Syrian soil. This is why it is imperative for Assad to stay at the head of the Regime in the transition period in order to guarantee Russia’s interest in Damascus, sources said. Sources added that sending Arab troops to maintain security during the transition stage by being deployed all over the Syrian territory is among the solutions proposed for settlement in Syria. In addition to working to impose security, these troops will work on restoring the Syrian army cohesion during Assad’s transition period. On the other hand, sources said the Arab position still rejects Assad in power for a transition period or any other period since they consider Assad as a murderer and a butcher of civilians with explosive barrels. This is why they might agree to having Assad’s team in the settlement which would guarantee all Syrians their rights and duties in the new Syria. But, for the Arabs to agree on having Assad’s team in the settlement, they want Samir Geagea as the Lebanese President, and the Russians should secure Iran’s approval for this matter with the help of Qatar, which markets the policies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and which pledged to market the trade-off between Assad and Geagea’s Presidency to Iran, sources add. Arab sources linked to the ongoing negotiations said the trade-off between Geagea’s Presidency and the head of Assad aims to achieve two things: either the removal of Assad from any future settlement in exchange for ceding the nomination Geagea, or achieving a balance between the Lebanese and Syrian authorities in the transitional phase through the election of Geagea who is considered a strong president for the Lebanese Republic if the Russians insist on keeping Assad in the Syrian settlement.

Less aid and no jobs for Syrians in Lebanon
Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/September 08/15
There is a line at the mayor’s office in Bar Elias, a small and overcrowded town in western Bekaa Valley. “Pff. Everybody is asking the same questions over and over again. Every day the same thing,” the secretary says as two women doing a survey on NGOs and aid for Syrian refugees enter her boss’s office.
Saadeddine Maita, president of the municipality, has all his answers ready after two years of the same questions. “The number of refugees is increasing. We have a heavy burden to carry, especially the infrastructure. Unemployment has risen,” he says immediately. Bar Elias hosts 49 large refugee camps — large being over 50 tents. Smaller camps are not even counted, but municipality employees say they are everywhere.
Over the past four years, more than 70,000 refugees have set up camps in Bar Elias — a town that used to have 40,000 inhabitants who for the most part subsisted on agriculture and a little tourism and trade. “Only Arsal has more people than us, but they have a larger area to settle there. Here, there is much less land. That’s why we are more overwhelmed here,” Maita says.
Some Lebanese landowners have benefited from the refugee presence. “Most landowners stopped cultivating because they rent their land to the refugees to set up their camps,” the mayor said. Landlords charge refugees $70 per month per tent. Some camps have over 50 tents, some over 100. This amounts to substantial and stable incomes for farmers in the Bekaa.
Many other Lebanese farmers, however, are suffering, Maita says. “The farmers whose lands border the camps can’t cultivate anything because they are afraid the crops might be damaged. They used to cultivate wheat in this region, but now they can’t do that around the camps because it’s a sensitive crop — it catches fire quickly. A lot of fires occurred this way.”
Strict immigration regulations
The problem is not just refugees living on farmland, but that agriculture labor is in short supply according to agricultural trade unions in the Bekaa Valley. The unions urged the Lebanese government to facilitate access for Syrian farm workers into the country in the absence of a Lebanese workforce at the start of the year, but the regulations haven’t been changed.
Requirements introduced in early 2015 ask Syrians who enter Lebanon to provide proof that they are coming to Lebanon for tourism, business, study transit, a short stay or medical treatment, and they must also much find a sponsor who can vouch for their stay. Employers must also apply for a residency permit that costs $200 per year and a work permit from the Ministry of Labor which costs $70. “Farmers simply can’t afford to pay all this money for their seasonal workers,” Maita says.
Dependent on aid
For 100 Syrians from Aleppo who live in one of the numerous camps in Bar Elias, work is out of the question says the camp manager Abdallah, a man in his 50s. “We can’t work. It’s impossible for us to find a sponsor in order to get the paperwork done,” he says. Abdallah is eager to change the subject. “Our biggest problem right now is that many people in the camp can’t get the UN identity papers and can’t leave the camp. They are technically illegals.”
Of all the men in the camp, only one is out of town, trying to find work to support his family because the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office denied the renewal of his refugee status. He has been gone for a few months now. His wife, seven months pregnant, stays in the camp with their seven children and waits for her husband to return. She lives off the charity of the other camp residents who get aid from the United Nations — $13 per month per person. A family with more five or six members often receives about $70 per month, says Abdallah.
Amoun, a woman in her 50s, asks for help for her 17-year-old-son, who has a ligament problem in one of his feet and cannot run. She says he would get an operation at a hospital in Majdal Anjar if there was money to pay for it. Would he be able to go to school like his 10-year-old sister and then work to support his widowed mother afterwards? “No,” she says. “He has nose bleeds.”
Constant international aid crisis
The UN World Food Programme reduced the amount of monthly aid for Syrian refugees at the beginning of August from $30 per month per person to $13 per month per person. The money would last through the month of October said Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the programme, in a press conference in Beirut recently. She also said that the main aim of her visit to Lebanon was to convince the cabinet that there is a need to open up job opportunities for Syrians in Lebanon in areas of the economy where the Lebanese workforce isn’t strong. “From what we’ve seen in Lebanon and in Jordan, there are jobs that are performed by migrant workers today, whether it’s construction or restaurant jobs or agriculture, that could be performed by Syrians and are not performed by Lebanese. These are the jobs we are talking about that should open up,” she said. When asked by NOW what the government’s reaction was, she said that her message was well received but that the Lebanese side had made no commitments.
To date, the Lebanese government has remained committed to only one solution — to help Syrians go back to Syria. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said recently that “if the Syrian government has any inclination to accept the return of those willing to do so, then we shall play the part of helper and facilitator.”
Everybody wants assistance
The mayor of Bar Elias says that the town is currently hosting a huge number of people dependent on aid. “There are people who do want to work — of course there are,” he says. “But if they get used to getting aid all the time, they are encouraged to stay in these camps and they won’t work anymore.”In the current situation, he says, the whole town, not just the refugees, needs aid. “The salaries in this region are not very high, but I was obliged to increase taxes on the Lebanese residents in order to make up for the services we have to channel towards the refugee camps. Just think about the trash alone, since the country is in a crisis right now. The cost of disposing of it increased. The cost of sewage treatment increased; water and electricity demand increased. Electricity theft has increased. The roads are in decay. I can only see one solution: the international organizations should help the municipality, too. If they only provide aid to the refugees, they will dwell in this land and the burden will be shouldered by the host community.”

Unseasonal sandstorm hits Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel
The Associated Press | Beirut/Tuesday, 8 September 2015/An unseasonal sandstorm hit Lebanon and Syria, covering Beirut and Damascus with a blanket of yellow dust on Tuesday, sending hundreds of people to hospitals with breathing difficulties and causing the deaths of two women, officials said. Reduced visibility prompted the Syrian government to call off airstrikes against rebel fighters in a central province, local media reported, and threatened a planned protest by Lebanese activists over the government's inability to deal with the country's rampant trash crisis. The storm also hit Jordan and Israel. In Jordan, schools around the country shut down or cut their days short “Today because of the dust and bad weather, the Ministry of Education decided to release us early,” said Izz-Eddin al-Khatib, a student in Amman. The sandstorm reached Beirut on Tuesday, a day after it engulfed eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. People, especially those with health issues, were advised to stay indoors while many of those who ventured onto the streets donned surgical masks.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said 750 people suffered breathing problems across the country, and that two women died because of the sandstorm, without providing details. Two boats set adrift were rescued by coast guard, the National News Agency said. Airport officials reported some flight delays. Lebanese authorities warned residents against burning trash that has piled up on Beirut streets this summer, sparking a political crisis and daily protests. Lucien Bourjeili, one of the protest organizers, said the bad weather may prevent some people from taking to the streets in a major protest planned Wednesday, though “this movement doesn't depend on the weather ... or one day.” In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the head of a major hospital, Adeeb Mahmoud, said over 1,200 people, including 100 children, had been treated for breathing problems since the night before. “It is unbelievable. This must be some test,” said Mansour, a Damascus resident, who gave only his first name. “It's hot. Temperatures are high and above that we have this dusty weather! It is something beyond reasonable. Enough please!”The Syrian pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said the weather forced a halt in government airstrikes against rebel fighters north of the central province of Hama. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, said hospitals in the town of al-Mayadeen in the northern province of Deir el-Zour ran out of oxygen cylinders and were unable to take in more patients.

Cheney: Obama is giving Iran means to destroy U.S.
By Staff Writer | Al Arabiya News/Tuesday, 8 September 2015/Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will say on Tuesday that President Barack Obama is responsible for directly equipping Iran with the capability to destroy the United States, dubbing the negotiated nuclear deal with Islamic republic as “madness,” U.S. media reported excerpts of his expected speech. “This agreement will give Iran the means to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland,” CNN quoted an excerpt of Cheney’s speech. The former vice president will deliver his remarks to the American Enterprise Institute on the Iran nuclear deal. He added: “I know of no nation in history that has agreed to guarantee that the means of its own destruction will be in the hands of another nation, particularly one that is hostile.”Prior to the expected speech, the White House posted Tuesday morning, a compilation of Cheney interviews on the Iraq War. In an op-ed recently published in the Wall Street Journal, an excerpt from Cheney’s upcoming book “Exceptional: Why the world needs a powerful America,” the former vice president compares the Iran nuclear deal to the 1938 Munich pact that led to World War II. “The Obama agreement will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East and, more than likely, the first use of a nuclear weapon since Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he wrote. U.S. Senate Democratic leader defends deal . Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, said on Tuesday the nuclear agreement with Iran will survive review by Congress. “This agreement will stand,” he said in prepared remarks set for delivery to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Shortly before Reid spoke, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin said he would be the fourth Senate Democrat to object to the deal. However, 38 senators have already expressed their support, enough to sustain Obama’s veto of any congressional resolution disapproving of the agreement. (With Reuters)

Turkish Forces Cross into N. Iraq after Massive Anti-PKK Air Raids
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 08/15/Turkish special forces crossed into northern Iraq to pursue Kurdish militants on Tuesday, a senior official told AFP, after the deadliest attacks by the rebels on the security forces in years left dozens dead. Fourteen Turkish police were killed Tuesday in a new attack by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants as violence in the east of the country threatened to spiral out of control. That attack came two days after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in a twin roadside bomb attack in Daglica in the southeastern region of Hakkari, according to the army, the deadliest strike in the current phase of the conflict. In response, the Turkish air force pounded targets of the PKK in northern Iraq and special ground forces crossed the border in a rare land incursion. "Turkish security forces crossed the Iraqi border as part of the hot pursuit of PKK terrorists who were involved in the most recent attacks," a Turkish government source told AFP. "This is a short-term measure intended to prevent the terrorists' escape," added the official, without specifying the timing of the incursion. The Dogan news agency said two units of the Turkish special forces, supported by warplanes, were chasing two 20-strong groups of PKK militants. Earlier the official Anatolia news agency reported more than 50 Turkish jets were involved in the six hours of raids, killing "35 to 40 terrorists according to preliminary findings", it added. The attacks had prompted Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to vow to "wipe out" PKK militants from the mountains of eastern Turkey.
'Plague of terror'
From late July, Turkey has staged air strikes and ground operations against the PKK in its strongholds of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in a bid to inflict a mortal blow on its capacities. But the PKK has hit back, killing dozens of Turkish police and soldiers in almost daily attacks, with the bloodier attacks marking a new intensification of the conflict. The 14 police were killed in the eastern region of Igdir in a bomb attack by militants on a minibus taking them to the Dilucu border post with neighboring Azerbaijan, Anatolia reported.
A PKK spokesman in northern Iraq confirmed to AFP that the PKK had carried out the attack. Meanwhile, one policeman was killed in the Tunceli region of eastern Turkey in an attack blamed on the PKK, Turkish television said. The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at allowing a final peace deal to end the PKK's three-decade insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The PKK initially took up arms in 1984 with the aim of establishing an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority, although lately the demands focused on greater autonomy and rights. Commentators have expressed alarm that the current situation increasingly resembles the worst days of the PKKs insurgency in the 1990s when attacks on this scale were commonplace. "We did not and will not abandon the nation's future to three or five terrorists," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in defiant speech in Ankara. But he promised that "with God's permission, Turkey, which has overcome plenty of crises, will get over the plague of terror."
'Stand with Turkey' In a scene that has become familiar over the last weeks, Davutoglu attended a funeral ceremony for the soldiers killed in the Daglica attack in the eastern city of Van. "For the unity of this nation, this homeland, anyone responsible for each and every act of bloodshed will be brought to account," he said, weeping openly. The U.S. embassy in Ankara condemned the Daglica attack, saying: "We stand with Turkey in the fight against terror and repeat our call to the PKK -– renounce violence and return to the peace process." The unrest comes at an explosive time in Turkey as the country prepares to hold snap elections on November 1 following June polls where Erdogan's ruling party lost its overall majority as a pro-Kurdish party made a major breakthrough. Meanwhile, the PKK released 20 Turkish citizens, including customs officials, kidnapped in August by the militants in the east of Turkey and then moved to Iraq. The PKK handed the 20 over to a delegation consisting of human rights activists, Iraqi Kurdistan officials and members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) who traveled to Iraq, security sources in eastern Turkey told AFP. The group, who had been held in northern Iraq, are expected to arrive at Turkey's Habur border crossing with Iraq later Tuesday.

Fresh Clashes on Lesbos as Britain, France Pledge to Take Migrants
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 08/15/Fresh clashes erupted between police and migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos Monday night, which authorities said was "on the verge of explosion," as Britain and France pledged to accept tens of thousands more refugees from the record influx. A dozen or so coastguards and riot police armed with batons struggled to control some 2,500 migrants on Lesbos, screaming "Keep back" at the crowds as they surged towards a government-chartered ship bound for Athens.
Europe's borders are near breaking point as authorities struggle to cope with influx of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, with thousands making their way across the Balkans and the Mediterranean every day. Lesbos, home to some 85,000 people which has seen more than 15,000 mainly Syrian migrants wash up on its shores, is one of several Greek islands struggling to cope with a wave of voyagers setting sail from the nearby Turkish coast for Western Europe. "I stayed here eight, nine days -- oh my God, I can't even remember," said Aleddin, an engineering student who is hoping to join his brother in Germany. "Some people have been here for 14 or 15 days. The government doesn't care." Hours after a Greek passenger ferry sent lifeboats to rescue 61 migrants off Lesbos, junior interior minister Yiannis Mouzalas told To Vima radio the port of "Mytilene currently has 15,000-17,000 refugees... The situation is on the verge of explosion."Evangelos Meimarakis, leader of Greece's hard-right New Democracy party which could return to power this month, said the country should strengthen its borders so as not to "the message that 'it's good over here, come over'". In Hungary, scores of migrants broke through a police line near a refugee centre and marched towards Budapest on Monday, while police in Denmark closed down a motorway in the south as crowds made for the Swedish border. As European Union leaders stepped up efforts to tackle the region's largest migrant crisis since World War II, France said it would take 24,000 more asylum-seekers under a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from hard-hit frontline countries. British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would also do more, taking in 20,000 Syrian refugees from overflowing camps near the war-torn country's borders over the next five years.
'Breathtaking'
Germany, Europe's top migrant destination, said it expected 10,000 more people to arrive on Monday after about 20,000 came at the weekend, most of them arriving on trains from Hungary via Austria to the southern city of Munich to cheering crowds.Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is Europe's top refugee destination, hailed as "breathtaking" the warm welcome given to the migrants and pledged billions more euros to house them, describing the crisis as a milestone for Germany. "What we are experiencing now is something that will ... change our country in coming years," she said. "We want the change to be positive, and we believe we can accomplish that." Europe's top economy predicts the crisis will cost 10 billion euros ($11 billion) this year and next. Merkel said the federal government would contribute six billion euros for new shelters, extra police and language training in 2016. Meanwhile, on the bloc's borders, the poor and desperate kept coming, both along the land corridor through Turkey and the Balkans and on overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on journeys that have left 2,800 dead or missing this year. Libyan coastguards said they had rescued more than 120 migrants aboard a rubber dinghy en route to Europe, adding to the 366,402 people the United Nations estimates have crossed the Mediterranean this year -- around half of them Syrians. In Hungary, 200 migrants tramping along a motorway towards Budapest were persuaded to return to a registration camp for asylum-seekers after a crowd burst through a police line at a refugee collection point at Roszke near the Serbian border. Turkey detained a fifth trafficking suspect over two boat sinkings last week, including one which claimed the life of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, pictures of whose lifeless body washed up on a beach last month shocked Europe. On Greece's border with Macedonia, tensions were running high as at least 8,000 people waited to enter the former Yugoslav republic after 2,000 made the crossing on Monday.
Schengen 'collapse'
EU President Donald Tusk warned the "exodus" from war-torn hotspots could last years, making it "so important to learn how to live with it without blaming each other". The 28-member EU has been riven by divisions on how to cope with the crisis, which has split the bloc between countries like Germany urging more solidarity and mainly eastern nations such as Hungary that take a hardline approach. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is expected Wednesday to unveil a proposal that would see Germany take more than 31,000 migrants, France 24,000, and Spain almost 15,000, a European source told AFP. French President Francois Hollande warned Monday the core European ideal of open borders was at stake. "If there is not a united policy, this mechanism will not work, it will collapse, and it will ... undoubtedly be the end of Schengen," he said, referring to the passport-free zone across much of the continent. EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called on "all European leaders ... to take decisions that are coherent with the emotions they express". But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is building a fence to keep out migrants and whose parliament passed tough immigration laws last week, said quotas would be futile "as long as we can't defend Europe's outer borders". Other countries overseas have also stepped up their efforts to help the migrants, with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledging to welcome Syrians with "open arms" and Canada's Quebec province saying it will take 3,650 this year.

Egypt's Two Years Under Sisi
Raymond Stock/Middle East Forum/September 8, 2015
Raymond Stock, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a Middle East political analyst and scholar. A resident of Cairo for two decades, he has written extensively about Egypt and the Middle East in the Middle East Quarterly, The Financial Times, and International Herald Tribune, among many other venues. Dr. Stock briefed the Middle East Forum in a conference call August 27, 2015. The Islamists have enabled Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Sisi to consolidate his domestic standing and gain widespread international legitimacy. Though no more tolerant of political dissent than his predecessors, Sisi is a liberal in the sense that he wants a more open, tolerant, and religiously equal Egypt as evidenced by his uncompromising fight against Muslim Brotherhood violence. The only Egyptian president to demand that Al-Azhar clerics end their militant interpretation of Islam and societal discrimination of non-Muslims, Sisi made overtures to the Coptic Christians and toned down religious extremism in the education curriculum.
Pro-Sisi demonstrators celebrate the third anniversary of Mubarak's overthrow, January 2014. The president's success in restoring order has been eroded by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the resurgence of Muslim Brotherhood violence, and spreading lawlessness in Sinai. The recent opening of the new Suez Canal and encouragement of foreign investment are attempts to revive Egypt's economy and boost its international standing. Yet American involvement with the regime has been minimal due to President Obama's affinity with the deposed Muslim Brotherhood government; and while Washington has lifted the freeze on aid to Egypt, it no longer extends credit for military aid and strategic assistance, which in turn forced Sisi to turn to Russia and France for armaments and warships.It was a strategic and moral mistake for the Obama administration to abandon Mubarak without attempting to arrange an adequate successor who would arrest Egypt's slide to anarchy, from which it has only partially recovered; and just as it supported the Islamist Morsi after Mubarak, it should have endorsed the more moderate and pragmatic Sisi after the latter's downfall. At a time when ISIS spreads its tentacles across the region, the Egyptian president presents an opportunity to influence the debate by promoting a more traditional Islam, albeit at great risk to himself.
**Summary account by Marilyn Stern, Middle East Forum Board of Governors

Brandeis to Award Endowed Chair to Anti-Israel Scholar
Winfield Myers • September 08/15 /Cross-posted from Campus Watch
Pascal Menoret, the new Renee and Lester Crown Chair in Modern Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, has a history of anti-Israel activism. Pascal Menoret, who has a history of anti-Israel activism, will be officially named the Renee and Lester Crown Chair in Modern Middle East Studies in a September 8 ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, the nation's only non-sectarian Jewish-sponsored college. While teaching at NYU's Abu Dhabi campus, Menoret was among the faculty signatories to an "NYU Out of Occupied Palestine" petition urging the university to "divest from all companies in its portfolio that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation," which the petition defines as including "the West Bank and East Jerusalem." It goes on to decry Israel's alleged "denial of the most basic human and civil rights to the 4.5 million Palestinians who live in these occupied Palestinian territories." His Facebook page cover photo extends this theme, as it shows a portion of Israel's security fence at the Aida refugee camp in Beit Jala in the West Bank on which is painted Palestinian agitators hurling stones at Israelis, thereby romanticizing violent "resistance."Menoret's appointment is inimical to Brandeis's history and mission. In 2014 Menoret, who specializes in Saudi cultural history, signed a petition defending the NYU chapter of the virulently anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from "disciplinary action" for the mock eviction notices it slipped under dormitory doors—many of them belonging to Jewish students—allegedly to mimic the notices given to Palestinians prior to home demolition. Menoret's appointment to the prestigious Crown Chair confers the university's imprimatur on an individual whose politicized, anti-Israel actions are inimical to Brandeis's history and mission while ensuring that students are taught that Israel—the region's sole democracy—is an unjust, oppressive nation unworthy of their support. When Brandeis opened the Crown Center in 2005, then-president Jehuda Reinharz justified it by observing: "Too many of the centers [of Middle East studies] that currently exist are so infused with ideology, so obsessed by the Israeli-Arab conflict, they have become less interested in scholarship and more interested in scoring political points." What was true of others then is today true of the Crown Center as well.
**Winfield Myers is director of academic affairs at the Middle East Forum and director of Campus Watch.

Islamic State: 11 'Dhimma' rules that Christians must obey to stay alive
Saturday, September08/15 /Zee Media Bureau
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2015/09/08/islamic-state-11-dhimma-rules-that-christians-must-obey-to-stay-alive/
Istanbul: After massacring hundreds and thousands of Christians, the Islamic State rulers have now decided to allow them the right to live, provided they sign 'Dhimma' contract, follow its 11 strict rules, and pay Jizyah tax.
Dhimma of Dhimmi s a historical term referring to non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic state. The word literally means "protected person". A person has to sign a Dhimma contract and pay Jizyah (levied by a Muslim State from its non-Muslim residents) to become eligible to be protected under Islamic Law.
Also Read: ISIS releases 15 Christians in Syria: Monitoring groups
As per a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute, dozens of Christians from Al-Qaryaten city signed a Dhimma contract to safeguard their lives and interests.
11 rules for Dhimmis:
1. Christians may not build churches, monasteries, or hermitages in the city or in the surrounding areas.
2. They may not show the cross or any of their books in the Muslims' streets or markets, and may not use amplifiers when worshiping or during prayer.
3. They may not make Muslims hear the reciting of their books or the sounds of church bells, which must be rung only inside their churches.
4. They may not carry out any act of aggression against ISIS, such as giving refuge to spies and wanted men. If they come to know of any plot against Muslims, they must report it.
5. They must not perform religious rituals in public.
6. They must respect Muslims and not criticize their religion.
7. Wealthy Christians must pay an annual jizya of four gold dinars; middle-class Christians must pay two gold dinars, and the poor must pay one. Christians must disclose their income, and may split the jizya into two payments.
8. They may not own guns.
9. They may not engage in commercial activity involving pigs or alcohol with Muslims or in Muslim markets, and may not drink alcohol in public.
10. They may maintain their own cemeteries.
11. They must abide by ISIS dress code and commerce guidelines.
First Published: Saturday, September 5, 2015 - 16:52

Obama’s Syria achievement
The Washington Post/September 08/15
Fred Hiatt Editorial page editor September 6
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-syria-achievement/2015/09/06/961b416a-50de-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203
This may be the most surprising of President Obama’s foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people into feeling no responsibility for the tragedy.
Starvation in Biafra a generation ago sparked a movement. Synagogues and churches a decade ago mobilized to relieve misery in Darfur. When the Taliban in 2001 destroyed ancient statues of Buddha at Bamiyan, the world was appalled at the lost heritage.
Fred Hiatt is the editorial page editor of The Post. He writes editorials for the newspaper and a biweekly column that appears on Mondays. He also contributes to the PostPartisan blog. View Archive
Today the Islamic State is blowing up precious cultural monuments in Palmyra, and half of all Syrians have been displaced — as if, on a proportional basis, 160 million Americans had been made homeless. More than a quarter-million have been killed. Yet the “Save Darfur” signs have not given way to “Save Syria.”
One reason is that Obama — who ran for president on the promise of restoring the United States’ moral stature — has constantly reassured Americans that doing nothing is the smart and moral policy. He has argued, at times, that there was nothing the United States could do, belittling the Syrian opposition as “former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth.”
He has argued that we would only make things worse — “I am more mindful probably than most,” he told the New Republic in 2013, “of not only our incredible strengths and capabilities, but also our limitations.”
He has implied that because we can’t solve every problem, maybe we shouldn’t solve any. “How do I weigh tens of thousands who’ve been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?” he asked (though at the time thousands were not being killed in Congo).
On those rare occasions when political pressure or the horrors of Syrian suffering threatened to overwhelm any excuse for inaction, he promised action, in statements or White House leaks: training for the opposition, a safe zone on the Turkish border. Once public attention moved on, the plans were abandoned or scaled back to meaningless proportions (training 50 soldiers per year, no action on the Turkish border).
Perversely, the worse Syria became, the more justified the president seemed for staying aloof; steps that might have helped in 2012 seemed ineffectual by 2013, and actions that could have saved lives in 2013 would not have been up to the challenge presented by 2014. The fact that the woman who wrote the book on genocide, Samantha Power, and the woman who campaigned to bomb Sudan to save the people of Darfur, Susan Rice, could apparently in good conscience stay on as U.N. ambassador and national security adviser, respectively, lent further moral credibility to U.S. abdication.
Most critically, inaction was sold not as a necessary evil but as a notable achievement: The United States at last was leading with the head, not the heart, and with modesty, not arrogance. “Realists” pointed out that the United States gets into trouble when it lets ideals or emotions rule — when it sends soldiers to feed the hungry in Somalia, for example, only to lose them, as told in “ Black Hawk Down,” and turn tail.
The realists were right that the United States has to consider interests as well as values, must pace itself and can’t save everyone. But a values-free argument ought at least to be able to show that the ends have justified the means, whereas the strategic results of Obama’s disengagement have been nearly as disastrous as the human consequences.
When Obama pulled all U.S. troops out of Iraq, critics worried there would be instability; none envisioned the emergence of a full-blown terrorist state. When he announced in August 2011 that “the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” critics worried the words might prove empty — but few imagined the extent of the catastrophe: not just the savagery of chemical weapons and “barrel bombs,” but also the Islamic State’s recruitment of thousands of foreign fighters, its spread from Libya to Afghanistan, the danger to the U.S. homeland that has alarmed U.S. intelligence officials, the refugees destabilizing Europe.
Even had Obama’s policy succeeded in purely realist terms, though, something would have been lost in the anesthetization of U.S. opinion. Yes, the nation’s outrage over the decades has been uneven, at times hypocritical, at times self-serving.
But there also has been something to be admired in America’s determination to help — to ask, even if we cannot save everyone in Congo, can we not save some people in Syria? Obama’s successful turning of that question on its head is nothing to be proud of.

How Dangerous is ISIS to Israel?
Efraim Inbar/BESA Center Perspectives/September 08/15
Many Arabs are concerned less by the nature of ISIS atrocities than by the fact that they aren't committed primarily against Israelis. ISIS, a radical Islamist group, has killed thousands of people since it declared an Islamic caliphate in June 2014, with the city of Raqqa as its de facto capital. It captured tremendous international attention by swiftly conquering large swaths of land and by releasing gruesome pictures of beheadings and other means of executions. In Israel, concern is increasing as ISIS nears Israeli borders. Yet, several analyses of the threat ISIS poses to Israel seem to be unnecessarily alarmist. ISIS is primarily successful where there is a political void. Although the offensives in Syria and Iraq showed the Islamic State's tactical capabilities, they were directed against failed states with weakened militaries. When and where ISIS has met well organized opposition by non-state entities, such as that posed by Kurdish militias, the group's performance has been less convincing. The attack on an Egyptian town in the Sinai Peninsula conducted by the local ISIS branch with several hundred fighters – an item well covered in the Israeli media – is not an exception to this assessment. ISIS has shown tactical ability in employing large numbers of militiamen in an area where, for several years, the Egyptian army has encountered problems in enforcing state sovereignty.
ISIS does not yet pose a serious strategic challenge to Israel.
Nevertheless, the Egyptian army eventually succeeded in repelling the attack and in killing hundreds of attackers. A determined Egyptian regime put up a good fight against the terrorists in Sinai. Despite the fact that the Egyptian army is not well-trained in scenarios posed by groups like ISIS, and despite the army's preoccupation with the delta region (the threat in Sinai is considered peripheral), the Egyptian army is still likely to be successful in containing the ISIS challenge. The difference between a real army and the forces in Syria and Iraq that ISIS has encountered should be recognized. Generally, non-state actors are less dangerous than states. Only states can develop nuclear weapons. Non-state actors usually do not possess airplanes, heavy artillery and tanks that can cause great damage. Since they are Iranian proxies, Hizballah and Hamas are not an exception to this rule because they have been endowed with destructive capabilities, such as missiles, by a state. Moreover, they have secured almost exclusive control over a piece of territory. Similarly, the success of ISIS is partly the result of the role played by Turkey. Ankara allows overseas volunteers to flock to ISIS training camps in Iraq. The same Turkish route is used by foreign experts that operate the oil infrastructure captured by ISIS. It is Turkish territory that is used to resupply ISIS and to treat its wounded. It is money from Gulf States that subsidizes ISIS activities. Even the recent Turkish formal agreement to join the coalition against ISIS does not change much. Ankara's primary targets are the Kurds and evidence shows that ISIS still receives Turkish limited support. This means that it is misplaced to view ISIS as posing an independent serious strategic challenge. It is true that ISIS has ignited immense passion among many young and frustrated Muslims all over the world and the Caliphate idea has a great appeal among the believers, but the relevant question is: What can ISIS do without outside support? ISIS on its own is capable of only limited damage. The magnitude of the threat has been greatly exaggerated, while the states that help it need to be treated adequately.
The Obama administration is using the grand threat of ISIS to legitimize Iran as a 'responsible' actor. The American administration has good reasons to inflate the threat from ISIS. It is using the grand threat of ISIS to legitimize Iran as a "responsible" actor (that will, supposedly, fight ISIS) in Middle East affairs. This has been part of the Obama administration's rationale for its nuclear deal with Iran. ISIS might eventually carve an area of control along Israel's borders, particularly on the Golan where the Syrian state is disintegrating. In a worst case analysis, Syria could yet become another "Hamastan." But it is important to note that Israel has been successful in containing Hamas in Gaza. In fact, Israel has refrained from a more muscular response to Hamas only because it has an interest in perpetuating the divide between the Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank. Such restraint would not apply to a future ISIS entity. Indeed, due to less global support for ISIS than for Gazans, Israel's freedom of action against ISIS is obviously much greater. Jordan, an important buffer state and strategic partner of Israel, also has the military capability to withstand an ISIS onslaught. Its security services probably can also manage for the time being the radical Islamist threat from within. Suggestions that ISIS may constitute a bigger threat to Israel than Iran are ridiculous. The Israeli army and the ISIS militia are in different leagues. As long as ISIS behaves in a most unconventional bestial way, many in the world will be happy to see Israel doing the dirty work on their behalf, dealing ISIS blow after blow, if the opportunity and necessity arises.
**Efraim Inbar, a professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, is the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Does It Really Matter Who the Next Palestinian President Is?
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 08/15
September 8, 2015 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6444/next-palestinian-president
It is hard to understand why some Westerners believe that Abbas's departure could boost the prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. To many Palestinians, it is clear that the PLO or Fatah official who replaces Abbas will not be able to make any concessions to Israel. Any Palestinian leader who dares to make the slightest concession to Israel will be denounced as a traitor and will be lucky if he stays in power or stays alive.
The West needs to understand that no Palestinian leader is authorized to make concessions to Israel for the sake of peace. Neither the PLO nor the Fatah leaderships would ever approve of such concessions. And, of course, Hamas also will never accept any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, except one that leads to the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic empire in the region.
Saeb Erekat has been negotiating with Israel for the past two decades and his position has never changed. Like Arafat and Abbas, he too will never sign a peace agreement with Israel that does not include 100% of the territories captured by Israel in 1967. Erekat is not authorized to make any concessions on Jerusalem or the "right of return" for Palestinians to their former homes inside Israel.
Abbas's successor will undoubtedly declare that he intends to follow in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas may go, but his legacy, like that of Arafat, will not.
The recent talk about Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's intention to quit political life has left many wondering whether his departure would bring about real changes for the Palestinians and the "peace process" with Israel.
During the past few weeks, the 80-year-old Abbas has been telling his aides and friends that he is tired and wants to spend more time with his family.
It is not clear at this stage whether Abbas is serious about his intention to step down. His critics argue that he is just bluffing, while some of his Fatah and PLO colleagues maintain that this time his threat to resign is real.
The real question, however, is not whether Abbas is serious or not about retiring. Rather, it is what impact, if at all, his departure from the scene would have on Palestinians and future relations with Israel.
Several senior PLO and Fatah officials already see themselves as potential successors to Abbas. As the chances of holding presidential elections are zero to none (mainly due to the ongoing dispute between the PA and Hamas), the PLO and Fatah will elect the new president.
This means that the next Palestinian Authority president will be a senior PLO or Fatah official. Recently, the names of several potential candidates have been floated. They include Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian chief negotiator who was recently elected as PLO Secretary-General -- a move that has boosted his chances of succeeding Abbas.
But neither Erekat nor any other PLO or Fatah officials would be able to bring about real changes in the post-Abbas era -- certainly not in the "peace process" with Israel.
When Yasser Arafat died in 2004, there was hope that whoever succeeded him would adopt a new policy – one that would lead to a final peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.
However, it was obvious from day one that Mahmoud Abbas would not be different from his predecessor. In fact, Abbas has, during the past decade, repeatedly vowed to walk in Arafat's footsteps. Abbas has since kept his promise by rejecting a number of Israeli offers, simply because they do not comply with 100% of his demands. To this day, Abbas continues to insist that Israel withdraw from all the land it captured in 1967, including east Jerusalem.
Yasser Arafat (L) and Mahmoud Abbas, pictured in a Fatah propaganda poster. The Arabic text reads "Bearer of the trust" on top, and on the bottom: "I call on you to hold onto national unity. It is more precious than all of us."
Abbas is not the only one who is demanding from Israel 100% of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. This has been -- and continues to be -- the official policy of the PLO and Fatah.
That is why it is hard to understand why some Westerners believe that Abbas's departure could boost the prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. To many Palestinians, it is perfectly clear that the PLO or Fatah official who replaces Abbas will not be able to make any concessions to Israel. Any Palestinian leader who dares to make the slightest concession to Israel will be denounced as a traitor and will be lucky if he or she stays in power or stays alive.
What the West needs to understand is that no Palestinian leader is authorized to make concessions to Israel for the sake of peace. Neither the PLO nor the Fatah leaderships would ever approve of such concessions. And then, of course, there is Hamas, which also will never accept any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The only peace agreement that Hamas will ever accept is one that leads to the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic empire in the region.
Erekat has been negotiating with Israel for the past two decades and his position has never changed. Like Arafat and Abbas, he too will never sign a peace agreement with Israel that does not include 100% of the land captured by Israel in 1967. And, like Arafat and Abbas, Erekat is not authorized to make any concessions on Jerusalem or the "right of return" for Palestinians to their former homes inside Israel.
Abbas's successor will head the same Palestinian Authority, the same PLO and the same Fatah. These three institutions have a fixed and consistent policy that envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital on one hundred percent of the 1967 territories. They also share the same policy regarding the issue of Palestinian refugees, namely that they should be allowed to return to their former homes inside Israel.
Under a new leader, the PA, the PLO and Fatah will continue to stick to their current policies. None of them is going to change even one position because of the identity of the leader. Those who think that a change is possible under a new leader are living in an illusion. Israel and the international community will continue to face the same demands the Palestinians have been making for the past two decades.
Palestinians should also not expect any changes on their internal front. It would take a miracle for Abbas's successor to end the sharp dispute between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which has been in control of the Gaza Strip since the summer of 2007. The gap between the two sides remains as wide as ever, and the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip is likely to continue for many more years.
In his inauguration speech, Abbas's successor will undoubtedly declare that he or she intends to follow in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. This means that the current stalemate in the peace process will continue. It also means that Palestinians will have to live with the reality that they already have two separate governments – a PLO-led entity in the West Bank and a Hamas-controlled mini-state in the Gaza Strip.
Those who talk about reviving the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" need to take these facts into consideration. Otherwise, they will continue to delude themselves and others into thinking that the post-Abbas era would bring about real changes in the region. Arafat is gone, but his spirit lives on over the region. Abbas may go, but his legacy, like that of Arafat, will not.

Turkey: America's Really Bad "Faustian Bargain"
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 08/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6454/turkey-america-faustian-bargain
Turkey cannot fight the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurds, who are the essential ground force of any coalition campaign against IS, at the same time forever.
"...America's deal with Turkey will prove to be a Faustian bargain. Short-term operational convenience is not worth the long-term danger of destabilizing Turkey and demoralizing the Kurdish forces that have carried the bulk of the burden in fighting militants." -- Eric Edelman, former U.S. ambassador to Ankara and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
Many people believed that the Turks and their Kurdish compatriots were close to a historic handshake when, in 2013, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish separatist movement, Abdullah Ocalan, declared a farewell to arms after a three-decade-long violent campaign that had left nearly 40,000 dead -- Turks and Kurds. The Turkish government would grant broader political rights to its restive Kurds, who demand regional autonomy. In return, the Kurds would conduct politics peacefully instead of seeking their rights with rifles in their hands.
Slightly more than two years later, Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast is seeing the same bloodshed it saw before the 2013 truce. On July 20, a suicide bomber belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Islamic State, or IS) murdered more than 30 pro-Kurdish activists in a small Turkish town bordering Syria. Before that, another IS operative detonated a bomb at a Kurdish political rally in Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkey's Kurds, killing four people and injuring over 200.
The scene of the suicide bombing in Suruc, Turkey. An ISIS suicide bomber murdered 32 people and wounded more than 100 others in a July 20 attack on Kurdish humanitarian activists. (Image source: VOA video screenshot)
The jihadist attacks on Kurds ignited a new spiral of violence from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the notorious armed wing of the Kurdish political movement. An autonomous PKK cell killed two Turkish police officers at their home during their sleep. In retaliation, Turkey has since been pounding PKK strongholds in northern Iraq.
Between June 1 and August 29 of this year, a total of 129 people (over 50 civilians) were killed in clashes, and 526 were injured. Those numbers must be higher by now, as every new day adds to the death toll of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The number of casualties does not include the nearly 1,000 PKK militants the Turkish military claims it has killed in ongoing air strikes since late July. The combined Turkish-Kurdish death toll should now be close to 1,500.
This is a very Middle Eastern war; not so easy to read for the Western eye:
Turkey is fighting the Kurds at home and in Iraq; but it also has friendly economic ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, which has been trying to perform a balancing act between Turkey and their more radical brethren, the PKK.
Turkey recently joined the allied campaign against IS. So, Turkey is fighting IS and, at the same time, its regional nemesis, the Syrian Kurds.
The Kurds are fighting both Turkey and IS, Turkey's declared enemy.
Turkey is a NATO ally and a partner of the U.S.-led war on IS, but is also fighting the Kurds.
The Kurds are the only "[proxy] U.S. boots on the ground in the fight against IS."
Too complicated? Just Middle Eastern. And note that the "friend-and-foe" tableaux here are only a microcosm of the much more complex and broader affairs in this part of the world.
One thing, however, looks like a near certainty. Turkey cannot fight IS and Kurds, the essential ground force of any coalition campaign against IS, at the same time forever.
The Turkish campaign against the PKK sounds as if it is an air force bombing allied ground troops.
Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (2005-2009), put it realistically in a recent article in the New York Times:
"...America's deal with Turkey will prove to be a Faustian bargain. Short-term operational convenience is not worth the long-term danger of destabilizing Turkey and demoralizing the Kurdish forces that have carried the bulk of the burden in fighting militants.
"An ally racked by violence and insurgency simply can't play the role that the United States needs a secular, democratic Turkey to play in the turbulent Middle East.
"Fortunately, America does have leverage. Turkish officials desperately crave the approval of their counterparts in Washington; the United States must not grant it.
"Instead, the Obama administration should restrict Turkey's access to senior-level meetings, reduce intelligence cooperation and withhold American support for Turkey in international financial institutions in the likely event that Mr. Erdogan's policies precipitate an economic crisis.
"Getting Turkish leaders to change course will be extremely difficult, but it is imperative to pressure them if Turkey is to avoid being sucked into the vortex created by a failed Syria policy and Mr. Erdogan's dogged quest for absolute political power."
Edelman is right. Turkish President Erdogan's dogged quest for absolute political power is not just poisoning Turkey but also its allies and their fight against Islamist extremism.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Arab Press Reacts To Syrian Refugee Crisis: Condemnation Of Arab Indifference, Calls For Internal Reform, Alongside Criticism Of West, U.S.
MEMRI/September 08/15
The crisis of the Syrian refugees currently streaming into Europe, which has been seared into the global consciousness by the image of the toddler Aylan Kurdi who drowned as his family attempted to cross the Mediterranean, has evoked many responses in the Arab press. Many of the articles addressing this matter criticized the Arab states, claiming that they were partly responsible for the crisis by failing to provide Syrian refugees in their territory with adequate conditions, and called upon them to take in more refugees and to direct more resources towards caring for them and integrating them. Criticism was also leveled at the wealthy Gulf states for not forming a strategy to address the crisis, despite possessing the financial resources to do so. Most of these articles contrasted the hospitality and tolerance encountered by the refugees in Europe with the apathy of the Arab countries towards their plight. They scathingly accused the Arab nation of callousness and lack of human sentiment, pointing at education as the main cause for this attitude. One article called for extensive reforms and for a domestic "velvet revolution" to change the norms and outlook of Arab society.
Conversely, other Articles blamed the West, chiefly the U.S., for creating the refugee crisis through its "failed", "wretched" and "dangerous" policy towards the Middle East. They held the West responsible for "abandoning" Arab countries, such as Syria and Libya, and remaining silent in the face of the daily massacre of their peoples. They argued that the only solution for the conflicts and crises in the Middle East is to remove "murderous regimes", such as the Assad regime and its Iranian patrons, yet the U.S., the E.U. and Russia not only object to this but actually support and strengthen these regimes.
The following are excerpts from some of the articles, as well as some cartoons published in the Arab press regarding the refugee crisis.
Self-Criticism: Why Can't The Arabs And Muslims Be As Humane As The West?; Internal Reform Is Needed
Article In Qatari Daily: Arab, Islamic States Partly Responsible For Crisis, Should Take In Refugees
'Ali Al-Rashid, a columnist for the Qatari Al-Sharq, wrote: "The Arab and Islamic states, their governments and peoples, bear no small share of the responsibility for the situation of the Syrians and for their ongoing exodus to Europe… because this ongoing and growing stream of refugees that is flowing into Europe, especially in recent months, has several underlying causes. Perhaps the most important of these [causes] is the restrictions that have been placed on Syrian refugees in most of the countries bordering Syria where they have been compelled to stay, whether [restrictions] on [finding] employment with reasonable pay that would meet the basic needs of sustenance, or in providing education for their children and health services for their families. In these countries they are also subjected to constraints on their freedom of movement…
"Arab activity" on behalf of the refugees (Al-Sharq, Saudi Arabia, September 3, 2015)
"The Arab countries – governments, peoples, NGOs and charities – have a duty towards their Syrian brethren that arises from ties of brotherhood and from moral [obligations], [namely] to view the Syrian tragedy in a different light... [Both] official and popular elements must provide material and moral support, on a scale befitting the magnitude of the disaster. For example, refugees who have specialized [skills] and scientific and professional qualifications must be permitted to find employment in the Arab states that require workers in the fields of medicine, engineering, education, commerce, etc., and should even be given first priority [in employment]... [The countries must also] increase governmental and nongovernmental budgets for the Syrian refugees... find sources of income for the refugee families… train and develop human resources, provide schools and scholarships to universities and vocational schools, improve conditions in the camps, remove the restrictions to which the refugees are [currently] subjected, for instance in Lebanon, and provide financial assistance to the international and regional humanitarian organizations and the Arab charitable associations.[1]
Qatari Daily: The Silence Of The Wealthy Gulf States In The Face Of The Refugee Crisis Is Deafening
The English-language Qatari Daily Gulf Times criticized the wealthy Gulf states : "Thousands of Austrians held welcome placards outside a Vienna railway station a couple of days ago saying they would be happy to see the refugees settled among them. In a small German town, people have opened their houses to the Syrians... Europe’s biggest economy this year expects a record 800,000 asylum applications, more than any other EU country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has emerged as the go-to person for virtually any calamity hitting Europe, has been named 'Mama Merkel' by the migrants… Tragically, the cash-rich Gulf countries have not yet issued a collective statement on the crisis – much less come up with a strategy to help the migrants who are overwhelmingly Muslim. Turkey has taken in more than 2.5mn Syrian refugees, while not-so-well-off Lebanon is also hosting hundreds of thousands. In this part of the world [i.e., the Gulf], however, the silence is deafening."[2]
The Arab, barricaded behind a closed door, asks Europe: Why don't you open the door to them, you ungenerous people?" (Makkah, Saudi Arabia,September 1, 2015)
Saudi Journalist: We Are A Nauseating Nation Whose Sense of Humanity Has Become Dull
Saudi journalist 'Ali Sa'd Al-Moussa in his column for the government Saudi daily Al-Watan leveled scathing criticism at the Arab and Muslim nation: "Let us analyze things as clearly and transparently as possible. After the criminal terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, on the train [system] in Madrid, and on the London Underground, it took a long time for some [Muslim] religious institutions to issue confused and sheepish condemnations of these crimes. [And] let me state clearly and honestly: were it not for the pressure exerted by the political [echelon], the religious [establishment] would not have issued [even] these condemnations. Conversely, [only] hours after the tragic incident in Hungary in which 70 immigrants were killed in a truck, the Pope appeared and said: 'This is a crime against morality that contravenes the human values of compassion, tolerance and coexistence, and Europe must apologize and feel shame over this disaster...'
"Without a moment of hesitation, let me say... that we are a primitive nation that has lost its sense of humanity. Consider the following image: Syrian immigrants flee their land in order to save the lives of their children from the mass killings perpetrated by ISIS, [Jabhat] Al-Nusra, Liwa Al-Tawhid, Jabhat Al-Sham, and Hizbullah. We are a nauseating nation that kills people for their opinions or affiliation. Compare [this] to the parallel image: in the central train station in Munich, dozens of German citizens gather to welcome the first train arriving from Budapest carrying hundreds of immigrants...
"We should feel some sense of shame for being victims of an education [based on] curses, which has been adopted by all the circles, schools, speeches and platforms – from the pan-Arabists and the Nasserites to the Ba'thists and the Islamic extremists. After all these curses and inculcation of hatred, we discover that the [norms of] tolerance and acceptance [that characterize] European society have become a goal worth risking our lives for Europe is now home to 11 million Arab immigrants... who have attained rights and have a prospect of receiving citizenship, equality and justice under the law – all the things whose absence drove them to flee their Arab countries of origin..."
"Stop talking about the hypocrisy of [Western] morals and values, because reality exposes nothing but our own ugly countenance."[3]
"Popular anger over the [drowning of] the Syrian child" (Al-Ahram, Egypt, September 4, 2015)
Editor Of Iraqi Daily: We Need A Domestic Revolution To Become Humane And Moral Like The West
Similarly, 'Adnan Hussein, acting editor of the Iraqi daily Al-Mada, also praised the moral and humane approach of the West, and severely criticized the Arab and Muslim states' apathy to the refugees' plight. He claimed that the Arabs and Muslims need an internal "velvet revolution" that would be expressed by far-reaching political, social, educational, religious and media reforms. He wrote: "The peoples and several governments in Europe, especially Germany and Austria, cordially welcomed the flood of refugees into their countries, and in our countries their humanitarian approach evoked a storm of bewilderment over the European morality, along with fury over the moral [standards] of our own Arab and Islamic societies and governments that showed no interest in the disaster of the Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and other refugees.
"Those who have lived in Europe know that there is nothing strange about this, and it would [actually] have been strange if the European peoples and governments had taken the opposite approach. A society where people care for cats, dogs and birds the way a mother cares for her child could feel nothing but shock and anger and its conscience had to be troubled by the sight of the refugees arriving in Europe...
"The lofty [value of] human sentiment is rooted in cultured societies from Japan to the US… In Europe and other civilized countries a sharp sense of humanity is inculcated from early childhood. There a child does not live in a home with ongoing and ever-intensifying domestic violence, like our children do. [There] the child does not witness on the street and in the neighborhood the scenes that commonly exist on our streets and in our neighborhoods, of people fighting and exchanging curses and slurs, and of cruelty to animals. At school the student doesn't learn what we, our parents and our grandparents were accustomed to learning in history and religion classes, [namely] encouragement of cruelty and incitement to violence. People attending church do not hear sermons accusing [others] of apostasy and inciting to kill and take [people] captive. On the contrary, they hear sermons that call for forgiveness and tolerance. In the media, the masses are not shown sights of people being beheaded and roasted while hung up like hunted animals, or people drowned or burned while imprisoned in cages...
"We too could be like them and our countries could be like their countries, which do not persecute the citizens and do open their arms to the victims of natural and political disasters. Yes, we could be like them if we thoroughly examined our barbaric political regime, our backwards social order, our obsolete curricula, our media that operates without professional norms, and our religious establishment that interprets the texts in a barbaric fashion, inciting to hatred and to abuse of the other, even members of the Islamic faith! This situation clearly mandates a velvet revolution that the educated [sector] must launch."[4]
The Arab says to the drowning Syrian refugee, "Honestly, we feel your pain!" (Al-Madina, Saudi Arabia, September 3, 2015)
The boy's death is also the death of the Arab League and the U.N. (Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, London, September 5, 2015)
Egyptian Columnist: The Image Of The Child Aylan Kurdi Symbolizes The Death of the Arab Nation
Muhammad Hussein, a columnist for the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, wrote that the picture of the toddler Aylan Kurdi proves that the Arab nation has died: "How difficult, sad, shameful and painful is the picture of the Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, who drowned in the sea, and [it is amazing] how this picture, with its infinite sharpness, can encapsulate all the disasters that afflict the [Arab] nation, jeopardizing its existence and cohesion and threatening to take it back to the days of tribalism and sectarianism… I think, and not every thought is sinful, that there is no time like the present to answer the question that the great Arab poet Nizar Qabbani posed in a poem [written] a few years before his death: 'When will they announce the death of the Arabs?'...What would he have said if he had lived through the disaster that his nation is experiencing today?… Have the Arabs indeed died, or are they in their death throes? Does the picture of the boy who drowned represent the death certificate of this nation, which died recently and is [now only] awaiting a burial permit?...
"In the face of the boy who drowned I saw the face of an entire nation cast out [on the beach] like a small dead fish that exudes a stench of death, but also additional foul smells of oil, shame, impotence, treachery, conspiracy and collusion…"[5]
Blaming The West And The U.S.: They Ignore The Root Of The Problem – Iran And Assad – And Even Exacerbate ItSaudi Journalist: The West Is To Blame For The Current Crisis
Mshari Al-Zaydi, a regular columnist for the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote: "The picture of the boy in the red shirt lying face down on the salty beach, the deadly foam engulfing his downy cheeks, is enough to shock any human being and leave him speechless. Suddenly, the picture of the Syrian boy Aylan has come to symbolize the entire Syrian catastrophe, but there are millions of [other] Syrians like Aylan, fleeing through the deserts and seas... Who knows? Perhaps the shock over the image of Aylan will awaken the conscience and the reason of the world and lead to [finding] a real solution for the Syrian crisis – if not out of moral or human considerations then out of [awareness] of the consequences of neglecting the Syrian disaster. Among the consequences of this global [neglect] is the emergence of the black ISIS [forces], [who are] the savages of the current century, as well as the waves of Syrian migrants that are storming Europe...
"A recent UN investigation of the [Syrian] disaster criticized what it called 'a global failure' to protect the Syrian refugees. [But] the main cause of this tragedy is the indecisiveness of the U.S. administration from the very beginning [of the crisis], and its failure to listen and to genuinely cooperate with the countries that wanted to solve the problem at an early stage and which explicitly warned of these consequences.
"Yet now there is talk of 'a global failure!' This is the failure of the West, aided by the savagery of the Syrian regime's allies in Moscow and Tehran. That is the [real] state of things!"[6]
Iraqi journalist 'Aziz Al-Hajj wrote in a similar vein in his column on the Elaph website: "Obama commended [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel for Germany's willingness to take in over 750,000 refugees. But why doesn't he himself offer to take in a few thousands[?]...The West is responsible [for the crisis], not because it is unable to absorb millions of refugees that might transform Europe's social and cultural fabric... but because of the wretched and dangerous Western policy, in particular Obama's policy, which has helped spark crises of conflict in our region, especially in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq. If those who preach humanitarianism – in fact, if the international community at large – had cared for the lives and security of our [Arab] peoples, they would not have abandoned Libya mid way, and would not have shrugged off the decisions of the [June 2012] Geneva I [Conference on Syria] when it was still possible to find a balanced, gradual and peaceful solution [to the Syrian crisis] that did not include Assad. Back then ISIS did not exist and there were no deadly barrel bombs... Another opportunity came when it was proved that Assad had used gas [i.e., chemical weapons]... [But] Obama withdrew his threats [to act in Syria]… and, backed by the EU, he allowed Putin and Iran to do as they pleased, yet now he is shedding crocodile tears over the tragedy of the [Syrian] refugees... The West, and the entire international community, must invest serious efforts in seeking some partial solution that will stop the daily mass killing in Syria..."[7]
An editorial in the Saudi daily Al-Sharq likewise criticized the U.S., Europe and Russia for failing to address the root of the problem, namely the "murderous regimes" and Iran. It stated: "The leaders of Europe are still putting the cart before the horses in seeking a solution for the crisis of the incoming refugees... Syria was never a country that drove out its own citizens. [This began] only in the wake of the systematic destruction and massacres that are being perpetrated on a daily basis by Assad, by ISIS and by the [Shi'ite Iraqi] Hashd Al-Sha'bi militias while Europe and the West remain silent. Resolving the crisis of the Syrian, Iraqi and Libyan refugees does not involve finding legal ways for them to reach Europe, granting them entry permits, or even punishing the smugglers who drown innocent people in the sea. The European leaders surely know full well that this crisis, which stems from [regional] conflicts, cannot be resolved as long as Iran – with whom they are racing to form diplomatic and economic ties – continues to support the Iraqi militias, the Assad regime, the Houthis and the Lebanese Hizbullah, as well as the terror of ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
The influx of refugees has become a European crisis of the first order... The U.S. and Russia – who are mostly to blame for the conflicts in the Middle East – have managed to saddle Europe with the repercussions of these conflicts that they are manipulating. [Russia and the U.S.], each in its own way, continue to foil any feasible solution for these conflicts. The leaders of Europe know what is the best way to stem the flow of migrants into their countries, yet until now they have made do with seeking lame solutions for the crisis. The Security Council is inactive, but [the European leaders] are able to renew its activity, not only in order to resolve the refugee crisis but in order to resolve the conflicts and address their real causes, behind which are murderous regimes whose leaders must be brought before the international court..."[8]
'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat' Columnist: Assad Must be Removed They Way Nazism Had To Be Removed
'Eyad Abu Shakra, a veteran columnist for the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, compared the plight of the Syrian people to the Jewish Holocaust, and argued that hosting the refugees is not enough; rather, Europe must help remove the Assad regime, just as the Nazi regime was removed: "...The disaster of the Jews during the Nazi era ended only after Nazism was overthrown. [Likewise,] the disaster of the Syrian people, which[also] derives from the regime that rules them, will not find a through solution, and the waves of immigration will not cease… until the Syrian regime is toppled, and this is the unvarnished truth…
"Receiving the Syrian refugees in the countries they have managed to reach alive is a necessity and a human obligation, but the crisis also has a political dimension. This means that it is necessary to address it on the political level, instead of transforming it into a simple humanitarian crisis… It is necessary to remove the source of the crisis, or whoever caused it… [If European countries] make do with taking in the refugees, while the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, with its fighters of various nationalities, [continues to] perform sectarian cleansing… this is tantamount to helping the Assad regime and 'its nanny', the Tehran authorities, to carry out the scheme of partitioning Syria…[9]
Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, London, September 3, 2015
Endnotes:
[1]Al-Sharq (Qatar), September 3, 2015.
[2]Gulf Times (Qatar) September 2, 2015.
[3]Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), September 5, 2015.
[4]Al-Mada(Iraq), September 4, 2015
[5]Al-Ahram (Egypt), September 6, 2015.
[6]Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), September 4, 2015.
[7] Elaph.com, September 3, 2015.
[8]Al-Sharq (Saudi Arabia), August 31, 2015.
[9]Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), September 6, 2015.

Seeking refuge in hypocrisy
James Snell/Now Lebanon/September 08/15
Syria and its neighbors have borne witness to many horrors over the years. These have intensified of late, and the country has seen its citizens brutalised, its economy and infrastructure deliberately and cynically degraded, and its population trapped between the twin horrors of Bashar al-Assad and ISIS. None of this is new; none of it is novel. The roots of this current tragedy are the brutal repression by the Assad regime and the emergence of a civil war, the first acts of which took place in early 2011. The current refugee crisis – which stems inexorably from this first act of repression – is the obvious end result of a civil conflict in which over 9 million have been made refugees and over 200,000 have been killed.
The default reaction to this from the wider world – especially European nations – has been one of indifference tinged with sporadic bouts of interest. But the current situation – one in which thousands of refugees take to dangerous waters in a bid to reach safety in another continent, and one in which a terrible number perish in the attempt – appears to have elicited a different reaction from the peoples of Europe and other nations in general. Now, many ordinary citizens of these countries, in addition to their politicians, are expressing their heartbreak and concern publicly, and increasingly those same politicians are facing pressure to admit more refugees from Syria and the region.
While on the face of it this attitude is commendable, it comes after years of indifference, at best, and active animosity, at worst, toward the Syrian people and their struggle for freedom. There is a great deal of European (and specifically British) hypocrisy on the issue of refugees from the Middle East.
The refugee crisis in Syria has been an ongoing humanitarian disaster for many years, one which has practically overwhelmed neighboring nations and depleted many already scarce resources. According to United Nations statistics, Lebanon alone has had to accommodate more than 1 million Syrians; the real figure is much higher. States neighboring Syria have been left to shoulder this heavy burden by themselves for several years, effectively unaided by the wider international community. But now European publics have started to take an interest in these matters, though they do so for singularly transient reasons and in spite of their previous opposition to actions that might have prevented the terror in the first instance.
Europe has for many years exhibited a deeply unsatisfactory attitude towards those born in foreign climes, and many European nations — Britain included — have witnessed a rise of nativism and reactionary attitudes towards migrants of every stripe. In light of this pronounced aspect of the European character, the apparent transformation of this perspective into one more approaching tolerance and solidarity ought to be treated with some scepticism. Until very recently, after all, British politicians like Nigel Farage of Ukip, a hard-Right political party, saw fit to issue statements and take positions very similar to those of the current Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who apparently sees Muslim refugees as a threat to 'European Christianity'. Just last year, Farage said that Britain should only accept Christian refugees from areas threatened or controlled by ISIS, and the worst of it is that this reprehensible suggestion was the result of a backlash from his party, which vehemently rejected his previous position seen to be too soft on those seeking asylum. During the recent general election campaign, Farage said that migrant boats should be turned back rather than rescued.
It seems that these comments have a wide constituency: Farage and his party secured nearly 4 million votes in the ensuing May election. Such an attitude cannot be taken lightly – and it cannot be simply shrugged off by the wider world in the face of some transient evidence of new-found compassion. In any case, the very newness of the compassion expressed deserves scrutiny. The crisis is not a new one, and it’s been covered by plenty of journalists for years.
And it is often those who most bitterly opposed the suggestion of action against Assad, which might have minimized the scale of the immense human tragedy in Syria and the region, who now criticize governments and peoples for not doing enough to help the victims of this inaction. Farage was in the front rank of those who opposed David Cameron’s desire to intervene in Syria in August 2013, in a move spurred by the chemical weapons attack on East Ghouta carried out by the Assad regime. Ed Milliband, leader of the Labour Party, and many other apparently Left-wing voices agreed. (Not coincidentally, many of the same ilk are also ardent supporters of any deal and accommodation with Iran. Presumably they are either ignorant or selectively deaf to the knowledge that Iran, in addition to unstinting support of Assad, sponsors its own sectarian proxy war in both Iraq and Syria, as well as being a strong destabilising influence further afield.)
Organizations like the Stop the War Coalition — an outfit which represents a cynical coming together of the far-Left and theocratic Right — advocated against the proposed no-fly zone in Syria in August 2013; in fact, part of its output even suggested that, pace Seymour Hersh, “the Syrian opposition, as well as the government, potentially had access to [chemical] weapons.” Furthermore, according to the same thinking, the desire to punish the Assad regime and institute a humanitarian no-fly zone was “clearly [intended] to help precipitate regime change by launching a bombing war against Syria.” Not only did it oppose removing Assad — the root cause of Syria’s suffering — it labelled those who did ‘neocons’ and ‘Washington hawks,’ all the while insinuating that the Syrians had somehow gassed themselves. Now Stop the War and its ideological allies cry crocodile tears about refugees, and seek to blame this tragedy on the usual culprit: the West in general, and its current leaders in particular.
By all means, Europe must take its fair share of migrants. But it should do so while at the same time acknowledging the errors in its own recent history and attempting to make amends for its sins.
**James Snell is a British journalist who has written for numerous international publications, including The American Spectator, New Humanist, and Free Inquiry magazine. He tweets @James_P_Snell

Protests continue in Syria Druze region
Now Lebanon/September 08/15
BEIRUT – A new demonstration has rocked Syria’s Druze-populated Suweida region following the assassination Friday of anti-regime cleric Sheikh Waheed Balaous, which came days after the start of an anti-corruption protest movement.
Thousands of Balaous’ supporters gathered Monday in Suweida’s Municipal Stadium to mourn the leader of the Sheikhs of Dignity movement, who was killed by an IED that targeted his convoy. The explosion that killed him was followed minutes later by a car bombing that left over 20 dead.
After leaving the Municipal Stadium, the mourners marched on the province’s administrative headquarters, the Suweida Serail, where the grassroots “We Are Being Choked” movement held a number of protests last week against high prices and corruption.
Conflicting reports have emerged over the events outside the Serail, which occurred amid efforts by the regime to tightly control news coming out of the province, where internet services have been cut off since last week.
Pro-Damascus Al-Akhbar admitted to the regime’s internet blackout, reporting that service had been cut “so that no place will be left for the rumors being broadcast over social media from suspicious pages operated in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and occupied Palestine.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put out a terse report on the protest, saying only that calm had “settled over the city” on Monday amid an atmosphere of tension, as demonstrators gathered outside the Serail while gunfire could be heard in the area.
Opposition version of Serail protest
A pro-rebel outlet said that the protesters had expelled officials working in the Serail, climbed onto the roof and destroyed two pictures Hafez and Bashar al-Assad hanging from the top of the building.
“During the protest, regime supporters led by Oday Zahreddine [the son of a well-known Druze general in the Syrian Army] tried to vandalize public property,” All4Syria claimed.
“Gunfire was also heard, but there were no reports of injuries.”
The outlet added that during the demonstration “one of the Sheikhs of Dignity went up the balcony of the Governorate Building and delivered a rousing speech to the protesters.”
According to the report, the man who delivered the speech “gave the regime 48 hours to hand over…, Wafed Abu Tarabeh,” who Damascus on Sunday announced was an Al-Nusra Front member, and had confessed to killing Balaous.
Although Balaous’ movement has not officially blamed anyone for his killing, the cleric warned prior to his assassination that Syrian political security chief Ali Mamlouk was seeking to “liquidate” his enemies.
Another anti-regime outlet, Al-Souria Net, said that the protest had come after a general strike in most parts of Suweida, and that opposition activists had called “on residents of the city and the surrounding villages to take part in the funeral.”
Both All4Syria and Al-Souria Net claimed that protesters had chanted slogans calling for the downfall of the regime, which would represent an unprecedented escalation of Druze opposition demands.
Suweida residents have generally maintained an autonomous attitude, protesting against enlistment into the Syrian army to fight in far-off areas of the country while at the same time expressing fears over the threat of Islamist encroachment on the southern province.
No confirmable videos of the Monday protest outside the governorate HQ were circulated online, while regime outlets did not broadcast the procession either, with opposition outlets saying that Balaous’ supporters barred state TV from filming the funeral.
Pro-regime version of Serail protest
Pro-regime news sources admitted that the Balaous funeral procession had reached the Suweida Serail, but gave a different version of the ensuing events.
The Suweida Now Facebook page said that the governorate HQ was attacked by “unidentified persons who infiltrated the funeral procession.”
“As a result most shops were closed,” the outlet added, without making any mention of a general strike in the city.
“There were no injuries at the Serail and the situation has become calm again; however, shops [have remained] closed [in case] acts of vandalism [take place].”
Meanwhile, Al-Akhbar claimed that “the funeral of Sheikh Balaous and the other martyrs passed in silence and sadness.”
Sources told the Lebanese newspaperthat during the funeral procession “the state facilitated the arrival of a number of demonstrators to the [area] in front of the Serail.”
The state then “broke up the demonstration after a short time without any problems.”
The daily also quoted a source in Balaous’ Sheikhs of Dignity as saying that the group has not yet taken a stance regarding who perpetrated its leader’s assassination.
“Our stance has not been finalized yet and the most important thing at the moment is to calm [the situation] and help the province avoid sedition.”
Internet blackout
Internet has been cut in Suweida since Tuesday when the “We Are Being Choked” movement organized a demonstration outside the government Serail that saw hundreds of protesters storm the building.
Not much is known about the activist group—which announced its public presence August 30 via Facebook—or whether it is linked to the Sheikhs of Dignity movement.
Soaring prices, rising crime and poor infrastructure have all stoked already growing levels of popular discontent in Suweida, sparking the formation of “We Are Being Strangled,” which insists it is a social, non-political, movement.
The group’s Facebook page has not been updated since September 4, several hours before Balaous’ assassination.

Khamenei Declares That He Will Not Honor The Agreement If Sanctions Are Merely Suspended And Not Lifted
MEMRI/September 08/15/ Special Dispatch No.6151
In a September 3, 2015 address before Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei referred to the JCPOA nuclear agreement. Following are excerpts from his speech and their implications:
Khamenei Backtracks From The Agreement
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that suspension of the sanctions – as agreed upon in the JCPOA and as adopted in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 – is unacceptable to him. He said that if the sanctions were not lifted, instead of merely being suspended, Iran would not honor its obligations under the JCPOA.
Thus, Khamenei is backtracking from the agreement and dictating a new demand – one that cannot be easily carried out even in the event that the U.S. administration surrenders to it. Procedurally, this would require a reconvening of the P5+1, a change in the language of the JCPOA, and a reconvening of the U.N. Security Council in order to endorse the new demand. On a substantive level, acceptance of Khamenei's demands would undermine the entire concept of the “snap back” of sanctions that the administration argued as one of the reasons justifying the JCPOA.
Khamenei Gives The Majlis Authority To Approve Or Reject The JCPOA
In his address, Khamenei gave the Majlis authority to approve or reject the agreement, a move that President Hassan Rohani had tried to prevent, being aware of the fact that many Majlis members were critical of the agreement.[1]
Implications
The fact that Khamenei decided to backtrack from the JCPOA immediately after it had become clear that President Obama had the votes to sustain a veto, indicates one of two possibilities:
Either Khamenei, aware that he was making an impossible demand, was trying to sabotage the JCPOA (a possibility supported by his transfer of authority to the Majlis), or else he was taking advantage of Obama's perceived surrender to all his demands and was trying to extract additional concessions by reopening the negotiations.
Furthermore, following Khamenei's directive to transfer the authority regarding approval of the JCPOA to the Majlis, spokesmen for the ideological camp in the Majlis have launched a public campaign against the JCPOA and against any compliance with the agreement on the part of Iran – as is incumbent upon it in the JCPOA – prior to the lifting of the sanctions.
Below are the main points of Khamenei's address:[2]
The Majlis Must Discuss And Make A Decision About The Nuclear Deal
"Jurists and experts should examine the issue regarding the legal aspects of the agreement. In general, it would be inappropriate for us to sideline the Majlis from the process of examining the agreement, as I mentioned to President [Rohani]. I am not advising the Majlis whether to accept or reject the agreement… The final decision is the responsibility of the people’s representatives in the Majlis. I do believe that the Majlis should not be kept out of [the process] and that the representatives of the people need to make a decision on it."
The Negotiations With The U.S. And The Issue Of The Sanctions
"Although we spoke with six countries, the main party that we faced in the talks was the U.S. administration. The American officials speak impertinently, and this must be dealt with… The Americans talked about maintaining the framework of the sanctions. If the framework of the sanctions is to be maintained, why did we negotiate? We negotiated [with the Americans] in order to have the sanctions lifted, and the sanctions will be lifted. Now, if we are supposed to uphold this framework … this completely contradicts the reason for Iran's participation in the talks to begin with.
“Otherwise, what was the point of our participation in the talks? We would have continued to do what we were doing [prior to the talks] …
“The fact that we sat down and held talks and made concessions on certain issues was mainly in order to have the sanctions lifted. If the sanctions are not going to be lifted, there will be no agreement…
“[Our] officials [i.e., Rohani’s government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] should make this clear. No one should say that the [Americans] are saying [that the sanctions will only be suspended] just in order to persuade their opponents at home. I do believe that there is indeed an internal debate in the U.S., which is a genuine dispute. I do not believe that this is [just] for show. Indeed, they do disagree, and we also know the reason for this. But we must respond to what is being said officially [by the Americans] – because if we do not respond, what the other side says will be enforced…
“They say that they will suspend [the sanctions] or freeze them. This was not in our interest. Obviously the sanctions must be lifted. We said “immediately” and they interpreted “immediately” [in a certain way] and I didn’t make a point of it.
“Our colleagues [i.e., the negotiating team] here interpreted “immediately” in a certain way, figured out a solution, and I did not object to it. Ultimately, however, the sanctions must be lifted. Freezing or suspention [of the sanction] is unacceptable to me.
“If they suspend [the sanctions], we too will suspend [what is incumbent upon us]. If we are to implement what [is required of us], the sanctions must be [actually] cancelled. "True, the other side says that some of the sanctions are not theirs to be lifted. We say in response that [with regard to those sanctions] we will use our [legal] rights to stop them. But regarding [the sanctions that are] in the hands of the American and European governments – those must be totally lifted.”
Iran-U.S. Relations
“Another issue is the way the [Americans] talk on matters not connected to the nuclear issue. The ladies and gentlemen in the American elite are talking the same way as the English did in the 19th century. This shows that [the Americans] are two centuries behind the world and behind history. The world has changed, and the superpowers no longer have the capabilities and the power to do what they did then.
"On the other hand, the party with which they are now dealing is Iran. It is not a backward country in some continent, to whom the Americans can allow themselves to speak whatever way they like. No. This is Iran, [a country] that has known capabilities, and others capabilities that are not [yet] known, but that will be seen [only] when they are put into action.
“It is inconceivable that you should constantly threaten [us].
"The Americans say that they expect the Iranian government to act differently. Differently from what? Differently from Iran’s past? No. Such a thing will never happen, [because] it means violating Islamic rules and relinquishing loyalty to Islamic values. This is what they mean by “differently”. That will never happen.
“No one will ever do such a thing – not the government, not the Majlis, and not the officials. And even if someone would want to do such a thing, the people and the regime of the Islamic Republic would not agree with him. What they mean by “differently” is that Iran will enter into the framework of the American policy in the region.
“America has a certain policy and certain positions in the region. One of them is that the U.S. administration should have absolute control over Syria and Iraq, and that it expects Iran to enter this framework. This too will never happen.
“They expect our senior officials, our government, and our politicians to act for the sake of this policy. This will never happen. Among the things they say that irritates us is that the nuclear agreement opened up opportunities for America, both within Iran and outside it. This is part of the American discourse. I tell our colleagues in the government and the people in charge not to allow the Americans to take advantage of such opportunities within Iran and to exert every effort to prevent America from taking such opportunities outside Iran. The closer the Americans get to such opportunities, the more humiliation, misery, and backwardness expand among the nations."
“I said the [following], and I emphasized it: No talks with the American side should be held except on the nuclear issue. I said this both to Foreign Ministry officials and to the other officials. The reason is that the American position is diametrically opposed to ours.”
Endnote:
[1] See Rohani's speech on August 30, 2015, President.ir/fa
[2] Farsi.khamenei.ir, September 3, 2015.

Expanded Syria Presence Would Carry Big Risks for Russia
Michael Singh and Jeffrey White/Wall Street Journal/September 8, 2015
Rather than recalling past glories, Russia's reportedly escalating support for Assad may prove to be a reminder of why they faded in the first place.
In July 1972, Soviet forces were ordered out of Egypt by Anwar Sadat, signaling the end of serious military involvement in the region by Moscow. Now, forty-three years later, Russian troops are returning.
According to the New York Times, "Russia has sent a military advance team to Syria and has transported prefabricated housing units for hundreds of people to an airfield near Latakia, according to American intelligence analysts." The Times adds that "Russia has also delivered a portable air traffic station to the airfield and has filed military overflight requests through September." The reports follow closely on the heels of similar allegations in recent weeks, including reports of new arms, and even combat troops. U.S. military officials said Tuesday that Russia has moved new personnel, planes and equipment into Syria in recent days.
That Moscow is heavily involved in the Syria conflict is not itself news. Russian military links with the Assad regime go back many years -- the USSR, and then Russia, long operated a naval station at the Syrian port of Tartus, and Moscow has provided Assad with what Russian President Vladimir Putin recently described as "serious" amounts of military equipment and training to prosecute its civil war.
Russia has also had a prominent diplomatic role in the Syrian conflict. It has shielded the Assad regime from pressure by vetoing a number of UN Security Council resolutions on the conflict. More recently Moscow has become the nexus of diplomatic activity aimed at ending the fighting; Russia has hosted a parade of Western and Middle Eastern officials including both Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's General Qassem Soleimani, as well as two rounds of multilateral discussions.
The proximate aim of Russian policy seems clear: to protect the Assad regime, for decades an ally of Moscow's and in more recent years one of Russia's last remaining channels of influence in the Middle East. Mr. Putin has criticized the Syrian regime and acknowledged that "a process of political change" is needed, but has steadfastly refused to withdraw his support for Assad or suggest that he should be replaced as part of any political transition. Russian weapons, ammunition, and spare parts keep Assad's war machine running.
Regime strongholds have come under increasing pressure in recent months from rebel forces, which likely contributed to Moscow's decision to step up its support. Beyond any direct military effect, the Russian moves may signal to rebels, and their foreign backers, the depth of Moscow's commitment to the regime, thus dampening their hope for a military victory and bolstering their incentive to accept a resolution on terms preferred by Russia and Mr. Assad.
Mr. Putin has asserted that Russian aid to Syria is part of an effort to fight "extremism and terrorism." While Russia's motivation to help Mr. Assad is doubtless reinforced by the presence of jihadist groups among the Syrian opposition, Russian aid to Damascus predated the rise of ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra and puts Moscow at odds not only with Islamists but with the entire Syrian opposition. Indeed, the Syrian regime, with Russia's support, has even indiscriminately targeted civilians, inflicting a tremendous humanitarian toll and likely fueling rather than stemming the rise of jihadism.
The Russian gambit, however, likely has wider aims. The involvement of Russian forces on the side of the regime would complicate any American military action against Mr. Assad, including a no-fly zone. Like the impending sale of the advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran, it has the effect not only of enhancing Russian influence but limiting US options and influence at a time where Moscow may calculate that Washington is unlikely to respond sharply.
Finally, direct Russian military involvement would be consistent with Moscow's recent, revanchist pattern of behavior globally. Mr. Putin has spoken of restoring Russia's faded glory, and has made good on his musings in Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, and via the increasingly aggressive behavior of Russian air and naval forces around the world. So too would deeper involvement in the Middle East hearken to Russia's past.
Whatever Moscow's motivation, expanded Russian military involvement in Syria, should it come to pass, seems likely to be a lose-lose proposition for the United States and Russia. For Washington, it would seriously complicate any contemplated military pressure on the Syrian regime, and lend Assad renewed confidence that would make more remote any diplomatic settlement acceptable to the U.S. and the Syrian opposition. Russia, meanwhile, will be further yoked to a vulnerable and needy ally while antagonizing regional powers such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. An increased Russian presence may itself become a target for Syrian opposition and jihadist elements, with resulting Russian casualties. Rather than recalling past glories, the move may prove a reminder of why they faded in the first place.
**Michael Singh is the Lane-Swig Senior Fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute. From 2005 to 2008, he worked on Middle East issues at the National Security Council. Jeffrey White is a defense fellow at the Institute and a former senior defense intelligence officer. This article originally appeared on the Wall Street Journal blog "Think Tank."

Russia in Syria (Part 1): Declining Military Capabilities Won't Hold Moscow Back
Anna Borshchevskaya/The Washington Institute./September 8, 2015
Although the reported intervention in Syria may spread Russia's armed forces too thin, the Kremlin seems poised to grow even more aggressive in its near abroad.
According to photo evidence republished in a September 8 Daily Mail report, Russian troops have been on the ground in Syria since at least April. Other reports of Moscow's increased military buildup there have mentioned additional deliveries of advanced weaponry to the Assad regime, a military advance team, and prefabricated housing units sent to an airfield near Latakia. On September 4, President Vladimir Putin described the talk of Russian troops in Syria as "premature," but he confirmed that Moscow continues to provide serious assistance through training, weaponry, and equipment. Whatever its current extent, Russia's increased involvement in Syria raises questions about its overall military capabilities.
LARGE-SCALE MILITARY REFORMS
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian military entered a sharp state of decline, suffering from low morale, training/discipline problems, lack of modern equipment, and massive corruption. The 2008 invasion of Georgia highlighted what Congressional Research Service described in August 2011 as "large-scale Russian military operational failures"; indeed, Moscow's forces prevailed only with difficulty over a considerably smaller opponent.
In response, then-defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov unveiled major military reforms in October 2008, aiming to reorganize the army's structure and chain of command, reduce its size, and create a lean, modern, and competent force by 2020. Russia then began its largest military buildup since the Soviet collapse, with major annual increases in defense spending that are slated to continue until 2020. According to the Economist, the most substantial of these changes is a ten-year, $720 billion weapons modernization program launched in 2010.
As the reforms gained traction, the Kremlin also took an increasingly aggressive posture abroad, resuming bomber patrols in the Atlantic and Pacific, extending leases on military bases in Armenia and Tajikistan, launching plans for a new air base in Belarus, and increasing the size and sophistication of its annual joint military exercises with China. According to the Moscow Times, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, its troops were "unmistakably better trained and equipped" than they had been during the 2008 Georgia campaign (the troops in Crimea were also the Russian army's elite).
UNSUSTAINABLE SPENDING
Despite the increased expenditures and signs of success, a March 2014 Congressional Research Service report indicated that "mismanagement, changes in plans, corruption, manning issues, and economic constraints" continued to complicate Moscow's military reforms. Moreover, Russian experts have raised concerns that the massive spending is being conducted at the expense of economic growth and much-needed investments in infrastructure and education. In a May 2015 article, Russian economist Sergei Guriev concluded that the Kremlin cannot afford its current military expenditures, noting that budget data for the first three months of the year showed military expenditures were more than double their budgeted amount, exceeding 9 percent of the quarterly GDP. "In other words, Russia has already spent more than half of its total military budget for 2015. At this rate, its reserve fund will be emptied before the end of the year," he wrote. Similarly, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin left his position in September 2011 because he opposed the increased military spending, among other reasons.
The annexation of Crimea exacerbated these financial constraints. According to Stratfor.com, the need for consistent and strong military support for separatists in eastern Ukraine is only part of the problem -- in addition, "the increased tension with the West and NATO has compelled Moscow to increase training, military exercises, and security posturing such as combat air patrols and naval movements." Amid international isolation, falling oil prices, and a weakened ruble, inflation rose to double digits in Russia, with prices on some basic foodstuffs increasing as much as 30 percent. And as President Obama noted in August 2014, Russia experienced capital flight of somewhere between $100 and $200 billion.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to maintain a large military presence in the rest of its "near abroad," including stationed troops in Armenia (3,200), Abkhazia and South Ossetia (7,000), Transnistria (1,500), Kyrgyzstan (500), and Tajikistan (5,000), according to a December 2014 Newsweek report. To put this in context, Russia's entire armed forces comprise between 700,000 and 800,000 personnel, with an army of less than 300,000. Moreover, the military continues to rely primarily on conscripts with limited training.
DEMOGRAPHICS AND RADICAL ISLAM
Russia's population has been in sharp decline since the early 1990s. As demographer Nicholas Eberstadt wrote in 2011, "The troubles caused by Russia's population trends...represent a previously unprecedented phenomenon for an urbanized, literate society not at war." The country continues to face high mortality, low fertility, and emigration of the well-educated in the context of overall economic decline; the Kremlin's most recent demographical data (from May 2015) shows little change in these trends.
Yet as Russia's overall population continues to hover at approximately 144 million, its Muslim population has reached around 21-23 million and growing. Muslim families have better health than ethnic Russians (due in part to relatively high alcoholism rates among the latter) and tend to bear more children. According to 2014 statistics from the now-defunct Ministry of Regional Development, the North Caucasus -- a Russian region with heavy concentrations of Muslims -- has one of the highest growth rates in the country.
This expanding Muslim population is likely to have serious implications for Russia's security, armed forces, and foreign policy. For example, internal clashes between ethnic Russians and minorities may increase in various parts of the country. Moreover, some analysts believe Muslims may soon make up as many as half of Russia's military conscripts, raising questions about whether the armed forces would continue to support Moscow's policies in the North Caucasus. In September 2013, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the army would dramatically cut down on conscripts from that region, despite the military's overall recruiting shortfall and the large pool of potential soldiers in the North Caucasus. This announcement came several years after the military had reportedly already begun excluding conscripts from that area.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to lose its domestic battle with radical Islam, which has intensified and spread throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia. Most recently, tensions have grown in Tajikistan between pro-Kremlin authorities and the Islamist opposition. On September 4, a rare burst of violence hit the capital, Dushanbe, where nine policemen and thirteen militants were killed. Authorities claimed that "terrorists" who sympathize with the so-called "Islamic State"/ISIS were responsible -- in particular, they have blamed former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, a member of the recently banned Islamic Renaissance Party.
CONCLUSION
As Russia increases its military presence in Syria, it could find itself spread too thin to effectively fulfill its commitments elsewhere. Indeed, on September 5, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko stated that the latest ceasefire agreement in the east had been observed for an entire week -- something that had not happened since fighting with Russian-backed separatists first broke out. This statement coincided with reports of Russia's build-up in Syria.
Even so, Moscow shows no signs of decreasing its aggressive posture in its near abroad. In August, Georgia's Foreign Ministry noted that the Kremlin had deployed troops to Abkhazia "under the pretext of carrying out restoration works over the railway section from Ochamchire to Enguri." The statement pointed out that Russia had made similar moves prior to its 2008 invasion, when Moscow "illegally launched restoration of the Abkhazian section of the railway and deployment of railway troops to the Georgian territory, which it subsequently used effectively for the transportation of its troops and equipment during the hostilities." And according to a September 7 Russian Defense Ministry statement, Putin ordered snap military exercises in the Central Military District, a vast area that encompasses the Volga River, the Ural Mountains, and western Siberia.
These trends reveal an important irony: as Russia's military capabilities decline, the Kremlin will likely grow even more aggressive in its near abroad, including the Middle East. Despite their problems, the Russian armed forces still appear capable of carrying out limited missions, so using their broader decline as an excuse to delay tougher action would be a mistake. A more effective approach would be to strongly condemn Moscow's buildup in Syria while continuing to pressure the Kremlin on its policies toward its neighbors.
**Anna Borshchevskaya is the Ira Weiner Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Gulf intervention in Yemen and the concept of deterrence
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
The painful loss of 45 Emirati, 10 Saudi and five Bahraini soldiers in Yemen last week confirmed the seriousness of the commitment to jointly confront the region’s dangerous circumstances, which are becoming more difficult for everyone. The importance of Gulf political and military cooperation is not only in winning wars, but more so to solidify the concept of deterrence. The cost is very high for the other party against a joint force. There has been regional chaos since 2011. It will probably continue for the next few years, and result in more threats to the region's countries. This necessitates Gulf cooperation to prevent foreign interference and the spread of chaos. Regional shifts and chaos are due to regional conflicts such as Iran versus the Gulf, but also due to internal conflicts such as the Muslim Brotherhood against the Egyptian state, Houthi rebels and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against the legitimate government in Yemen, the Syrian opposition against the Assad regime, the Libyan government against armed opposition groups. Another factor is the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda destabilizing Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and their neighbors.
Defense
The sanctity of borders has practically collapsed, and the generally accepted rules of engagement are no longer respected. Regional countries no longer have the choice of dissociating themselves. Their options have become few - their most notable one is to defend themselves, as with the Gulf states vis-a-vis Yemen, Turkey in regard to Syria, and Egypt in regard to Libya. This is in addition to hedging against possible threats and wars, like Jordan is doing vis-a-vis Iraq and Syria. Another important factor is Iran's direct and major military interference - for the first time in its modern history, it is involved in two wars in Arab countries: Iraq and Syria. We must also not underestimate the importance of the humanitarian crises in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Gulf countries can establish a diverse force capable of defending themselves and their interests beyond Yemen.Regional powers are engaged in regular and multiple battles. This exhausts states, armies, people and governments’ financial resources. The status quo highlights the importance of cooperation. Saudi-Emirati military and political cooperation has reached an unprecedented level in the history of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), reaching its peak in the war in Yemen. With Qatar’s military involvement in Yemen, and Bahrain before it, Gulf countries can establish a diverse force capable of defending themselves and their interests beyond Yemen. This is the first time that there is cooperation without standing behind a superpower, such as the war to liberate Kuwait 25 years ago. Gulf countries’ power is also increasing in the diplomatic and economic realms.

Why is Russia in Syria now?
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
News that the Kremlin is beginning to move military assets to Syria is now a foregone conclusion. The reasons why Moscow is sending advisors and equipment to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad are multi-faceted. In the wake of the recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and three top Middle East leaders, and with the upcoming 70th U.N. General Assembly, the timing could not be better. Moscow is already sending a wide array of equipment and personnel by ship to the Syrian port of Tartus. Russia has sent prefabricated housing units for hundreds of people to a Syrian airfield, as well as a portable air traffic control station. The housing will enable Moscow to use the airfield as a major hub for ferrying in military supplies to the Syrian government, or possibly as a launch pad for Russian airstrikes. Moscow is also loading ships with equipment bound for Syria. The plan seems to be to deploy 2,000 - 3,000 Russian personnel, including advisors, instructors, logistics personnel, technical personnel, members of the aerial protection division, and pilots who will operate aircraft including over a dozen MiG-31s, according to a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) official. That Russian assets are setting up in Assad’s heartland in Latakia is part of Moscow guaranteeing the president and his family’s security
Moscow has been sending supplies to Syria for the past four years through other means, most notably by airlift. In 2012, Russia’s then-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Russia had “military and technical advisers” in Syria. Jordanian sources say regular flights to Damascus from Russian deliver “black items.” Moscow also provides plenty of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the Syrian government via Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU. That the GRU is on the ground and working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is undeniable.The Kremlin sees Syria as part of Russia’s sphere of influence, and is keen on maintaining its place on the world stage and in the Middle East. In addition, the Russian Orthodox Church, which is closely tied to the Kremlin, sees involvement in Syria as necessary to protect Christians from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremists.
Transition
Russia’s deployments are part of its plan for transition in Syria. For the past few months, Moscow has been the center of diplomatic activity to settle the conflict. Russia successfully negotiated the removal of chemical weapons from Syria via the 2013 “Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons,” in order to avoid U.S. and allied airstrikes on the Assad government and its military assets. Arab governments see Moscow as more proactive than the West when it comes to the Syrian question. Putin’s plan in Syria is clear. By deploying Russian assets to Syria, the Kremlin plans to be the force behind upcoming events in Damascus. A few days ago in Vladivostok, Putin said Russia was looking at various options for Syria. He said Damascus should be part of a new international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism, which should take place in tandem with a political process in which Assad should play a role. “The Syrian president... agrees with that, including holding early elections, parliamentary elections, and establishing contact with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,” said Putin. That is a pretty strong statement of events that are about to occur in Syria where the Kremlin is dictating to Assad. Russia is preparing for a transition in Syria. The equipment and personnel being deployed are not only to protect Alawites, but also to develop a humanitarian aid campaign. That Russian assets are setting up in Assad’s heartland in Latakia is part of Moscow guaranteeing the president and his family’s security.In addition, the Kremlin sees that it needs to conduct state building to reverse the destructive nature of U.S. wars in the Middle East. The key question is whether the West, and specifically the United States, will go along with Putin’s plan.

Iran cozies up to America as post-deal era begins
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/September 08/15
In a post-nuclear deal era for Iran, finding political solutions for most of the region’s crises appears to be what Tehran is willing to do, while opening up to its Arab neighbors. After the deal was struck in July, Iran's foreign minister urged Gulf Arab countries to join forces with Tehran to fight against extremism and militancy in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister FM Adel Al- Jubeir has recently said that the kingdom was satisfied with President Barack Obama’s assurances over the nuclear deal, adding that he be-lieves the deal will contribute to security and stability in the Middle East. The international community is becoming increasingly encouraged to engage Iran with its neighbors to find a political solution to the crises in Yemen and Syria I believe the international community is becoming increasingly encouraged to engage Iran with its neighbors to find a political solution to the crises in Yemen and Syria, which today have become global disasters, stretching far beyond these countries’ borders. This may mean cozying up to the U.S. even more in the post-deal era, especially as the White House has said that sanctions relief for Iran is tied to compliance with the agreement. Speaker of the Iranian parliament Dr. Ali Larijani was visiting New York early September to attend the Fourth World Conference of Parliament Speakers in the United Nations. Larijani found the visit an opportunity to praise President Barack Obama for being “wiser” than his predecessor in negotiating a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear file. Interestingly, Dr. Larijani’s brother - Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani - is one of the most powerful political figures in Iran. As the head of judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani representing the conservative side of the regime in Tehran.
Prisoner swaps?
One of the main concerns from Obama’s administration has been the fate of the three Americans in prison in Iran on charges of espionage. In another indicator Iran wants to get closer to Washington, Ali Larijani has said there were "practical ways" to free Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's correspondent in Tehran, and that a prisoner swap was one possible option. "For example, there is a number of Iranians in prison here (in the U.S.) Definitely for matters of this sort, one can come up with solutions. I think your politicians know about those ways," he told NPR, speaking through an interpreter. When the interviewer asked whether he was referring to a prison swap, Larijani replied: "That's one way. There are other ways that the judiciary systems of the two countries can come up with. It is the judiciary that has to decide about it.”Not long ago, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi, was quoted by Iran's ISNA news agency as saying Tehran was not considering a prisoner exchange. No official in Tehran has publicly opposed Ali Larijani remarks about the prisoner exchange yet and if his proposal has been given the nod by his brother Ayatollah Larijani, than it would be wise to expect a deal towards the end of the year

The Syrians between a Rock and a Hard Place
Eyad Abu Shakra/ASharq Al Awsat/September 08/15
Russia’s Vladimir Putin is never tired. He is still actively promoting a “peace deal” in Syria that keeps Bashar Al-Assad and those backing him as an integral part of the “solution” to Syria’s crisis, although the only “solution” Assad has sought since March 2011 is best described by “escaping forward” toward more killings, destruction, and disintegration.
The Assad regime’s chosen path for the Syrian popular uprising has been perfectly portrayed during the last few days by murder: through car-bombs that were employed to assassinate Sheikh Wahid Al-Bal’ous, the leader of the Druze uprising in Sweida Province, and the deaths of desperate refugees drowning at sea, as was the case with toddler Aylan Kurdi, his brother, and their mother. In the meantime, Iran is busy redrawing Syria’s demographic map, and those who have planted the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the country are harvesting the fruits of their crimes in the shape of Syria’s devastated past, present, and future.
Understandably, the heartrending tragedy of three-year-old Aylan shook the West. In the UK, where only one national newspaper—the Independent—was courageous enough to publish on its front page the picture of the toddler’s little body washed up on the Turkish shore, the overwhelming public response forced Prime Minister David Cameron to shift his initial stance and declare his government’s willingness to welcome Syrian refugees into the UK.
In general, throughout Europe, the reaction to the deeply touching picture, combined with the footage of a flood of refugees crossing barbed-wire border fences, has had similar results; in spite of the shameless sectarian comments from Hungary’s right-wing premier Viktor Orbán, and the not-so-innocent interchangeable usage of the terms “migrants” and “refugees” by circles traditionally known to be hostile to “economic migrants.”
Be it as it may, most European countries have still managed to absorb the shock of tens of thousands Syrian refugees flocking across their frontiers and, temporarily at least, racist and xenophobic voices have kept quiet, allowing the “Aylan Storm” to pass while waiting to fight another day.
Some in Europe have been demanding more is done than simply just allowing in refugees and caring for them, going as far as comparing the current plight of Syrians with that of the Jews during the Holocaust. But the momentum is still lacking as far as what the effective and decisive treatment for the problem should be. The suffering of the Jews did not end in central Europe except after the final defeat of the Nazis. Likewise, the Syrians’ suffering will never end, and waves of refugees will never stop, unless something is done about the root cause of their suffering— that is, bringing down the regime responsible for the ongoing genocide.
This is the stark and simple truth.
Admitting Syrian refugees into the countries which they have reached is surely a necessary step and a moral obligation. However, their crisis has a fundamental political dimension, which means it needs to be tackled as such, not merely as a “natural disaster,” as if it were a case of famine, an earthquake, or floods. The problem is political and so the solution must be political—through taking the perpetrator out of the equation. This is the primary condition for a proper and comprehensive political strategy that aims, first, at rebuilding Syria and what remains of its damaged social and national fabric; and, second, facilitating the war against terror and extremism, both of which have emerged as a reaction against injustice and repression before finding malignant sponsors who have used and exploited them.
It certainly is not enough to just admit refugees while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, deploying fighters of several nationalities, carries out sectarian cleansing and then negotiates a population exchange—as we see taking place in the town of Zabadani and the environs of the Barada Valley west of Damascus, and the Shi’ite enclaves of Fou’a, Kefarya, Nubbul, and Zahraa’ in northern Syria. This, indeed, means practically helping the Assad regime and its Iranian backers achieve their aim of partitioning Syria. To make matters even worse, continued Western—namely American—refusal to establish safe havens in northern and southern Syria makes such a scenario more than just viable as it encourages more and lengthier sectarian confrontations, nurtures more extremism, and day-by-day destroys what remains of common denominators still sustaining coexistence between Syria’s constituent communities.
In the north, after Washington gave its backing to the Kurdish militias and thus helped control the whole border area extending from Al-Qamishli in the east to Kobani in the west, we now notice the collapse of much-touted plans for an “ISIS-free zone” between the border towns of Jarabulus and Azaz. The latter plan is now nowhere to be seen although it was thought as being necessary in keeping ISIS at bay, protecting the major city of Aleppo and its countryside, and preventing the establishment of a Kurdish “mini-state” by separating the bulk of Kurdish-controlled areas from the ‘Afrin Kurdish-populated enclave in Syria’s far northwest corner.
In southern Syria, the birthplace of the current uprising, the situation is just as bad. There are actually no signs of real intentions from the international community to keep geopolitical control of the region in spite of its great political importance.
In the south, there are several highly sensitive elements, the most significant of which are:
1) The Israeli presence in the southwest part of the Golan Heights.
2) The Jordanian historical plateau of Hauran, where many clans and tribes are subdivided by the present Syrian–Jordanian border.
3) The Province of Sweida, home to the world’s largest concentration of Druze, some of whose outlying villages have been attacked by extremists including ISIS which has approached the province across the Syrian Desert with the intention of invading both the Sweida and Dera’a provinces. The ISIS encroachment was never checked by the Assad regime’s barrel bombs which have for months on end been raining down on the city of Dera’a and its countryside.
The assassination of Sheikh Al-Bal’ous, founder and leader of the anti-Assad “Sheikhs of Dignity” group, is most definitely part of the regime’s plans for internecine Sunni–Druze confrontations, as is the exploiting of ISIS which was recently expelled from Dera’a Province and has since been trying to return through Sweida, in order to relieve the pressure of the Syrian opposition—including the Free Syrian Army (FSA)—at what is currently one of the regime’s few remaining military outposts.
To describe the gravity of the current situation, I find nothing closer to the truth than the strong words uttered by the Muslim commander Tariq Ibn Ziyad upon crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and setting his ships on fire en route to conquering Spain: “My people, there is no escape [from war]; the sea is behind you, and the enemy before you!”

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Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006