LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 30/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.april30.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
For where two or three are gathered in my
name, I am there among them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew
18/18-22:"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell
you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for
you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them.’Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of
the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven
times?’Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven
times."
Do all things without murmuring and arguing,so that you may be blameless and
innocent, children of God without blemish
Letter to the Philippians 02/12-18:"Therefore, my beloved, just
as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who
is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and
innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding
fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not
run in vain or labour in vain .But even if I am being poured out as a libation
over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with
all of you and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.
Pope Francis's Tweet For Today
Jesus conquered evil at the root: he is the Door of Salvation, open wide so that
each person may find mercy.
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on April 30/16
Elect a Lebanese president by majority/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/April 29/19
Sens. Rubio and Kirk: If Iran wants access to the dollar it must clean up its
act/By Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mark Kirk Published April 28, 2016 FoxNews.com
Assad siege of Aleppo could be 'imminent,' experts warn/George Russell Published
April 28, 2016 FoxNews.com
Palestinians: University Students Vote For Terror/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/April 28/16
Turkey's Islamic Supremacist Foreign Policy/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/April
29/16
Moment of transformation for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al
Arabiya/April 29/16
Is soft power the key to Iran dominating the Middle East/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al
Arabiya/April 29/16
Vision 2030 and solar energy: A timely development/Ahmed S. Nada/Al Arabiya/April
29/16
The skewed Middle East equation/Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/April 29/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 30/16
Salameh Says Lebanese Banks
Committed to anti-Hizbullah Law
Prosecutor Rejects Appeal to Release ex-MP Yaaqoub
Report: Lebanon Might Witness Improved Power Supply
Israeli Officer Says Hizbullah ‘Obsessively’ Gathering Intelligence in Golan
Hariri Holds Talks in Istanbul with Erdogan
Jordan Lifts Ban on Performance by Popular Lebanese Band
Syrian Child Dies from Gunshot in Wadi Khaled amid Conflicting Reports on
Hospital's Responsibility
Elect a Lebanese president by majority
Trump is not racist towards Arabs or Muslims, claims Lebanese advisor
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 30/16
Iran asks UN chief to intervene with
US after court ruling
Iran holds run-off parliamentary election
European lawmakers condemn repression in Iran
Iran: A woman publicly flogged
Rising cost of food prices in Iran
Iran calls on UN to help with US court asset award
Iraqi forces prevent merchants from coming to Camp Liberty
Obama: US may admit 10,000 Syria refugees this year
U.N. Rights Chief Condemns 'Shameful' Global Response on Syria
U.S., Russia 'Agree Freeze' on Two Syrian Fronts
Yemeni sides to meet face-to-face Saturday
Regime of calm’ agreed as Syria fighting rages
Clinic hit in Syria's Aleppo amid Outcry over Hospital Strike
Hamas says Israel bus bombing proof of ‘resistance’
Israel treads carefully with claim to Golan
Suicide bomber in Turkey's Bursa 'linked to Kurdish militants'
Libya calls for halt on anti-ISIS Sirte offensive
N. Korea Gives Korean-American 10 Years Hard Labor
Libya Unity Government Vows to End Jihadist 'Scourge'
Report: Kuwait Steps up Deportations of Expat Workers
Philip Hammond arrives in Cuba to help 'forge new links'
Links From
Jihad Watch Site for
April 30/16
Muslim cleric from UK now head of Islamic State in Somalia
UK: Two Muslims arrested for funding Paris jihad massacre
UK’s Labour Party, in thrall to Islamic supremacists, has “serious anti-Semitism
problem”
Turkey: Muslims scream “Allahu akbar” as columnists get jail for Muhammad
cartoon
UK: Imam who favors death for apostasy to investigate death threats to apostates
UK: Islamic State security guard wished friends “Happy 911”
Islamic State recruiters arrested, worked at Moscow airport & for Russian
intelligence
Scotland: Saudis cut funding to ex-Muslims after they refuse to aid building of
mosque
Pakistan’s ISI controlled Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound
Italy arrests 4 Muslims in Islamic State plot to attack Israeli
embassy, Vatican
Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 30/16
Salameh Says Lebanese Banks
Committed to anti-Hizbullah Law
Associated Press/Naharnet/April
29/16 /Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has said Lebanese banks will not be
able to circumvent a U.S. law that imposes sanctions on banks, which knowingly
do business with Hizbullah. Salameh told LBCI’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on
Thursday night that the Central Bank will issue two circulars that urge Lebanese
banks to implement the law and inform it about the closure and opening of
accounts. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Hizbullah International
Financing Prevention Act on Dec. 18.This month, the U.S. treasury department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, issued regulations aimed at
implementing the Hizbullah financing prevention act. The U.S. regulations say
Washington will target those "knowingly facilitating a significant transaction
or transactions for" Hizbullah and those "knowingly facilitating a significant
transaction or transactions of a person identified on the List of Specially
Designated Nationals and Blocked persons."OFAC's list includes names of
officials, businessmen and institutions that the U.S. says are linked to
Hizbullah. The list includes Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasarallah and top
military commander Mustafa Badreddine as well as some businessmen. The list also
includes the group's al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio. Salameh said the accounts of
persons mentioned in the blacklist will be immediately closed. But he stressed
that Lebanon will continue to enjoy its banking secrecy.
Lebanon adopted the banking secrecy law in 1956 in a bid to attract Lebanese and
foreign deposits.
Prosecutor Rejects Appeal to Release ex-MP Yaaqoub
Naharnet/April 29/16
/Lebanon's court rejected on Friday an appeal requesting the release of ex-MP
Hassan Yaacoub who was arrested on alleged links to the December kidnapping of
Hannibal Gadhafi, the state-run National News Agency reported. South Lebanon's
Public Prosecutor Judge Afif al-Qadi has rejected the appeals request by
Yaacoub's defense team, NNA added. The mother of Yaaqoub threatened to step up
measures and said: “I will escalate measures and I will uncover all the hidden
issues without taking into consideration any red lines.”Yaaqoub has been in
detention since December on claims that he was involved in the kidnapping of the
son of slain Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, Hannibal. Hannibal was abducted
in a Syrian area near the Lebanese border on December 11 before being smuggled
into Lebanon's Bekaa region. He was handed over hours later to Lebanese security
forces. Lebanese authorities have charged Hannibal with withholding information
about the disappearance of revered Shiite cleric and founder of the AMAL
Movement Moussa al-Sadr, who vanished in Libya in 1978 along with two
companions.
Yaaqoub is the son of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub – one of the two companions who
disappeared with al-Sadr in Libya.
Report: Lebanon Might Witness Improved Power Supply
Naharnet/April 29/16 /The
Electricity of Lebanon has completed a plan that would increase energy
production after raising the capabilities of two Turkish power generating
vessels that supply Lebanon with power, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.
“EDL concluded a plan that would increase power supply by about 100 megawatts
after raising the production capacities of the two ships that lie off the
Zahrani and Zouk power plants from 280 megawatts to 380 megawatts,” an informed
source to the daily on condition of anonymity.
“The experimental steps have been concluded and the increase in production was
put into implementation a few days ago,” they added. The daily pointed out to a
possibility to renew the contracts with the working ships for another two years
until the current maintenance procedures in the Jiyeh, Zouk and Deir Ammar
plants are complete. Lebanon signed deals with the Turkish vessels some three
years ago to provide it with electricity through power-generating vessels.The
country is plagued with a power shortage crisis compelling it to manage its
limited supply with a combination of rationing and privately owned generator
power.
Israeli Officer Says
Hizbullah ‘Obsessively’ Gathering Intelligence in Golan
Naharnet/April 29/16 /An Israeli military official has said that Hizbullah’s
military activities on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights are similar to what
Israel observed prior to the 2006 summer war. Hizbullah is “obsessively”
tracking and monitoring Israeli soldiers from across the border, Lt. Col. Eliav
Elbaz told Israel’s Channel 2. He said the party is “gathering (information)
about everything happening here, everything our security forces” are doing. The
group’s activities are still “reminiscent of what they did before the Second
Lebanon War,” the officer added. Hizbullah has deployed thousands of men to
fight alongside the Syrian regime in the country's conflict. In 2006, the group
fought a month-long war with the Jewish state that devastated several parts of
Lebanon. That conflict killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly
civilians, and around 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Hariri Holds Talks in
Istanbul with Erdogan
Naharnet/April 29/16 /Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks
in Turkey on Friday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two officials
discussed the latest Lebanese and regional developments, his press office said.
Hariri revealed that they addressed "Iran's negative role in the region and
means to address the refugee crisis," said MTV. He refuted claims that he
visited Russia and Turkey to push for a certain candidate for the presidential
elections, saying that he instead underlined the dangers of the vacuum.
The MP had traveled to Turkey late Thursday night. He is accompanied by former
minister Bassem Sabeh and his advisor Ghattas Khoury.
Jordan Lifts Ban on Performance by Popular Lebanese Band
Associated Press/Naharnet/April 29/16 /Jordan is permitting a popular Lebanese
rock band to perform, lifting an earlier ban imposed amid claims the group's
songs promoting religious and sexual freedom violate local customs and religious
beliefs.Khalid Abu Zeid, a regional politician who initially announced the ban
against "Mashrou Leila," or Leila's Project, said in a new statement that "we
don't mind if this concert takes place." He didn't elaborate. The indie band,
known for songs about controversial subjects, says the reversal comes too late
for the Jordan show to take place as scheduled on Friday.The initial ban sparked
criticism of Jordan, which presents itself as an island of relative tolerance in
a turbulent region where religious fundamentalism is on the rise.The group's
detractors apparently included both Christian and Muslim clerics and officials.
Syrian Child Dies from
Gunshot in Wadi Khaled amid Conflicting Reports on Hospital's Responsibility
Naharnet/April 29/16 /A Syrian child died on Friday after suffering from a
gunshot wound to the head a day earlier, reported the National News Agency. It
said that ten-year-old Hussein al-Issa was brought to a hospital in the
northeastern region of Wadi Khaled after being struck by a stray bullet. Wadi
Khaled municipal head Fadi al-Asaad said that the child remained in the
emergency room until Friday morning when he passed away.He was forced to wait in
the area until his family could provide the sufficient funds for his operation,
he explained. Asaad slammed the delay, wondering: “Have humanity and mercy left
the hearts of the people?” For its part, the hospital administration stated:
“The child arrived at the facility with a severe wound.”“All necessary services
were given to him and his family was not asked to pay for any of them.” Health
Minister Wael Abou Faour later ordered the launch of an investigation in the
affair at the behest of Asaad. The name of the hospital was not disclosed, but
NNA said that it is located in the town of al-Fard.
Elect a Lebanese president by majority
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/April 29/19/A futile dialogue about legislation and its
validity has been ongoing in Lebanon. The dialogue is not based on logic, the
constitution, or the interests of the state and its people. There are conditions
and counter-conditions as each party plays to win a political round.
The Lebanese people do not care who wins, because they think they are the
biggest loser due to parliament’s inability to elect a president. Parliament
speaker Nabih Berri is unable to convince his most significant ally Hezbollah to
attend parliament sessions.
Draft laws
Meanwhile, the parliamentary elections law makes us laugh and cry at the same
time. There are 17 draft laws, and the parliamentary committees assigned to
study them have miserably failed to achieve anything. This clearly shows the
state of domestic and foreign divisions. No one will make any concessions in
this regard as everyone wants to win, even if at the expense of the state.
Christians are being unjustly treated by not being asked what they think about
that, especially since Syrian tutelage was repeatedly unjust to them. However,
they are being unjust to themselves and to Lebanon by not agreeing on a viable
draft law that is acceptable to their partners in the country. It must be
announced to the public who is obstructing the election of a president, and they
must be accused of treason No party in Lebanon can impose its will on others.
Even Hezbollah, the strongest party militarily, has realized after a long period
of wars and domestic struggles that it cannot impose an Islamic state. It must
be announced to the public who is obstructing the election of a president, and
they must be accused of treason. Then MPs must elect a president on the basis of
the majority (locally often referred to as “half plus one”). Then they must
launch a real legislative workshop to approve a modern electoral law.
Trump is not racist towards
Arabs or Muslims, claims Lebanese advisor
By Staff writer Al Arabiya English Friday, 29 April 2016/Lebanese academic Walid
Phares, who is the foreign policy advisor to US presidential candidate Donald
Trump, claimed Thursday Trump would surprise Arabs with a conciliatory speech to
be delivered this week. In an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper,
Phares said Trump “is certainly not a racist” and blamed his “lack of expertise
in politics” for making comments that are interpreted as racist and fascist
towards Arabs and Muslims. “He is certainly not a racist and nothing on a
personal level shows that he is,” Phares said of Trump. “The opposite is true, a
number large of the employees in his companies are from different races…
Muslims, women also occupy high positions in his companies, and he has a lot of
investments in the Arab and Muslim world with Arab and Muslim partners.” Phares
said Trump did not intend to ban the entry of Muslims to the US, describing the
remarks as “illogical and does not reflect his policy or orientation.”“I have
been informed that Trump had planned last December his first tour in the Middle
East that was supposed to include Jordan, Egypt and Gulf countries. If he was
appointed as a candidate for the Republican Party, he is expected to make this
tour.”Regarding Trump’s exclusionary speech towards Arabs and Muslims, Phares
said: “There will be a significant change in the content of his speech, in which
he will highlight for the first time his foreign policy lines, which will adopt
moderation in the region. And then he will address the Arab and Islamic world
and will explain how his statements about preventing the entry of Muslims to the
US were a reaction after California’s terrorist attacks and Paris bombings.”
Phares - a Lebanese academic who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago –
served part of Mitt Romney's foreign policy team in 2011. He works as an adviser
in the US House of Representatives and is also an expert in anti-terrorism
affairs.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 30/16
Iran asks UN chief to
intervene with US after court ruling
Reuters, United Nations Friday, 29 April 2016/Iran asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon on
Thursday to convince the United States to stop violating state immunity after
the top US court ruled that $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be paid to
American victims of attacks blamed on Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif wrote to Ban a week after the US Supreme Court ruling, calling on
the Secretary-General to use his “good offices in order to induce the US
Government to adhere to its international obligations.”Zarif’s appeal comes amid
increasing Iranian frustration at what they say is the failure of the United
States to keep its promises regarding sanctions relief agreed under an historic
nuclear deal struck last year by Tehran and six world powers. In the letter,
released by the Iranian UN mission, Zarif asked Ban to help secure the release
of frozen Iranian assets in US banks and persuade Washington to stop interfering
with Iran’s international commercial and financial transactions. “The US
Executive branch illegally freezes Iranian national assets; the US Legislative
branch legislates to pave the ground for their illicit seizures; and the US
Judicial branch issues rulings to confiscate Iranian assets without any base in
law or fact,” Zarif said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser
Ali Akbar Velayati was quoted by Iranian state media as saying that “Iran will
never abandon its right and will take any necessary action to stop such an
international theft.”“This money belongs to Iran,” he said. Ban’s spokesman and
the US mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for
comment on the letter or the accusations made against the United States. Zarif
told Ban he wanted to “alert you and through you the UN general membership about
the catastrophic implications of the US blatant disrespect for state immunity,
which will cause systematic erosion of this fundamental principle.”The US
Supreme Court found that the US Congress did not usurp the authority of American
courts by passing a 2012 law stating that Iran's frozen funds should go toward
satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment won by the US families against Iran in US
federal court in 2007. “It is in fact the United States that must pay long
overdue reparations to the Iranian people for its persistent hostile policies,”
Zarif wrote, citing incidents including the shooting of an Iranian civil
airliner in 1988. Last week Zarif met several times with US Secretary of State
John Kerry in New York to discuss Iranian problems accessing international
financial markets. Tehran has called on the United States to do more to remove
obstacles to the banking sector so that businesses feel comfortable investing in
Iran without fear of penalties. Some hardline lawmakers have called on the
government of President Hassan Rowhani to consider the ruling a violation of the
nuclear deal reached with the United States and other major powers in 2015.
Iran holds run-off
parliamentary election
Reuters Friday, 29 April 2016/Iranians started voting on Friday in a second
round of parliamentary elections for 68 seats of the 290-seat assembly, state TV
reported, with the allies of President Hassan Rowhani seeking to wrest seats
from hardliners. “The voters will elect 68 lawmakers in constituencies that
candidates failed to get 25 percent of votes cast in the first round of the
election,” said Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, state TV reported.
Rowhani’s moderate and centrist allies made major gains in the parliamentary
election held on February 26, but failed to win a majority. The current
parliament is dominated by the hardline allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Rowhani’s allies gained all 30 seats representing the capital city of
Tehran in the first round of elections. Rahmani Fazli said the results will be
announced by Sunday. The new parliament will begin its session on May 27. It has
no direct control over major policy matters but it can back the policies of
Rowhani to bolster the country’s sanction-hit economy. Sanctions were lifted in
January in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear programme under a deal reached
with major powers in 2015. A moderate-dominated parliament also can influence
the re-election of Rowhani as president in 2017.
European lawmakers condemn
repression in Iran
National Council of Resistance of Iran/Friday, 29 April 2016/Members of the
European Parliament on Friday condemned the heightening level of repression in
Iran.
A statement by the Friends of a Free Iran inter-group at the European Parliament
urged European leaders to publicly condemn the human rights violations in Iran.
The following is the text of the statement:
Press release- 29 April 2016
EU MUST CONDEMN THE INCREASING REPRESSION IN IRAN
Friends of a Free Iran intergroup, which has enjoyed the support of over 200
members of the European Parliament from different political groups, strongly
condemns the increasing trend of executions, inhuman treatment of political
prisoners and jailing of journalists in Iran.
Iranian regime hanged at least 10 people in prisons since the weekend, in what
has been described as a new wave of executions. Among the latest cases was the
execution of eight Iranian Baluchis in Zahedan Prison on Saturday and Tuesday.
According to reports, at least six other death-row prisoners in Ghezelhesar
Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, were transferred on Wednesday 27 April to
solitary confinement for their imminent execution.
On Wednesday 27 April, a group of United Nations human rights experts warned
that “over a dozen political prisoners in Iran, including some prominent human
rights defenders, lawyers and political activists, are at risk of death in
detention due to their worsening health conditions and the continued refusal by
the Iranian authorities to provide them with medical treatment.”
Dr Omid Kokabee, 34, an Iranian physicist and a postdoctoral student in atomic
physics was arrested in Iran after returning from the United States to visit his
family in January, 2011. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Amnesty
International has said that Kokabee is a prisoner of conscience and held solely
for his refusal to work on military projects in Iran. He had been diagnosed with
kidney cancer and his right kidney was removed few days ago. The photo of Omid
Kokabee, chained to a bed in hospital after the surgery, has shaken many in Iran
and in the scientific world.
Iranian authorities have acknowledged that 12,000 ethnic Iranian Kurds were
imprisoned in Iran in the last Iranian calendar year, which ended March 19,
2016.
A woman was flogged in public in Golpayegan, central Iran on 27 April. The
woman, who was only identified by her initials S. T., was given 100 lashes,
state media reported.
We were shocked to hear that four journalists were sentenced to a combined total
of 27 years of jail, on Tuesday 26 April. Ms Afarin Chitsaz was sentenced to 10
years; Mr Ehsan Mazandarani was given a seven year sentence; Mr Davood Assadi
and Mr Ehsan (Saman) Safarzaie were each handed down a five year sentence. The
four detained journalists previously wrote for state-run media in Iran. They
were arrested on November 2, 2015 in raids on their homes by intelligence agents
of the Revolutionary Guards who accused them of spying for western governments.
The increasing trend of executions and human rights violations indicates that
the recent visits of senior European officials to Iran, without making any
public condemnations of human rights violations are used by the mullahs’ regime
as means to legitimise its internal as well external brutal and unacceptable
actions. That is the reason why we once again urge the European leaders to
publicly condemn the human rights violations in Iran, as this is what the people
of Iran expect from Europe. Any expansion of relationship with Iran must be
conditioned to a halt of executions and a clear progress of human rights.
Gérard Deprez MEP
Chair, Friends of a Free Iran
European Parliament/Brussels
Iran: A woman publicly
flogged
National Council of Resistance of Iran/Friday, 29 April 2016/The misogynic
Iranian regime publicly flogged a female prisoner on April 27 in Golpayegan
County, Esfahan Province. The religious fascism ruling Iran has intensified
repression in recent weeks to control the society and as usual women are bearing
the brunt of this pressure and repression. Accordingly, Tehran’s suppressive
security forces announced on April 16 a new round of repression upon the pretext
of battling mal-veiling: “Since this morning, police officers in the form of
various patrols have been deployed in various sections of the capital and will
confront mal-veiling and lack of hijab inside vehicles…” (ISNA state news agency
– April 16). On April 18, Hossein Sajedinia, commander of Tehran’s security
forces, announced a 7000-strong clandestine police dubbed ‘intangible patrol’.
He announced the complete authority of these force and speaking on their
responsibilities noted, “This 7000 police force, is trained and they are also
judicial guards and are skilled to carry out these acts.” Sadeq Larijani, head
of the regime’s judiciary, threatened women with punishment and said: “All those
who break the norms due to ignorance or mistake should know that they are
obliged to observe the rights of others; and even if they personally don’t
believe in a law, they still need to observe it. Mal-veiling or lack of hijab is
a crime and its punishment is specified by the law.” (Jam-e Jam – April 25) Ms.
Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chair of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, condemned the brutal and medieval measures against women and
noted: “The antihuman and misogynic mullahs’ regime is attempting to rein in
social protests by ratcheting up repression and resorting to these oppressive
schemes. Women always play a prominent role in these protests and are the
vanguards and principal force behind them. However, Iranian women and the youth
should stand up against this medieval brutality to neutralize it and confront
the regime’s oppressive schemes, to force the regime to retreat.”
**Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/April 29, 2016
Rising cost of
food prices in Iran
Thursday, 28 April 2016/NCRI - The mullahs' regime has acknowledged a
considerable rise in the price of food items in Iran. The Iranian regime's
Central Bank has published a new report comparing the price of goods over the
past week with the same period one year ago. Although figures published by the
regime generally tend not to show the true scale of the economic and social
crises that exist in Iran, but the latest tally is a considerable admission of
the Rouhani government’s failure to improve the economic situation of ordinary
people.According to the Central Bank’s latest figures:
The price of dairy products has gone up by 5.8 percent;
The price of eggs has gone up by 6.4 percent;
The price of rice has gone up by 16.5 percent;
The price of beans has gone up by 31.7 percent;
The price of fresh fruit has gone up by 4.4 percent;
The price of fresh herbs has gone up by 35.2 percent;
The price of red meat has gone up by 5.9 percent;
The price of sugar has gone up by 17.9 percent;
The price of tea has gone up by 14.8 percent.
The regime’s former Minister of Education announced last week that Iran’s
economy is on the verge of collapse and that not all problems related to the
dire economic situation are the byproduct of international sanctions. The Fars
News Agency, affiliated with the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), reported
on April 21 that Hamidreza Haji-Babai said that the “country’s economy is on the
verge of a stroke. We are facing stagnation, and we are not in good shape.”
Haji-BabaI, who in addition to being a minister was a legislator of the regime
for 20 years, made the following assessment of the regime’s economy: “We should
note that not all the problems are related to the sanctions. Just 30 percent of
our problems are due to sanctions and the remaining 70 percent have to do with
management.”
Iran calls on UN to help with
US court asset award
Fri 29 Apr 2016/NNA - Iran asked the United Nations on Thursday to intervene
with the U.S. government over a Supreme Court ruling that allows nearly $2
billion in frozen Iranian assets to be paid to victims of terrorist attacks for
which the Middle Eastern country has been blamed. In a letter to Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Javid Zarif argues that
the U.S. court decision will have "catastrophic implications" and "will cause
systematic erosion" of the principal of state immunity. "I wish to call on Your
Excellency to lend your good offices in order to induce the US Government to
adhere to its international obligations, put an end to the violation of the
fundamental principle of state immunity," the letter reads in part. The
Secretary General's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on
the letter. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the families of victims
of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Iran can collect nearly
$2 billion in frozen funds from Iran as compensation. The U.S. court's ruling
directly affects more than 1,300 relatives of victims, some who have been
seeking compensation for more than 30 years. They include families of the 241
U.S. service members who died in the Beirut bombing.
Iran denies any links to the attacks.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the United States Government responsible for
this outrageous robbery, disguised under a court order, and is determined to
take every lawful measure to restore the stolen property and the interest
accrued to it from the date it was blocked by the United States," the letter
stating, adding that U.S. should instead pay Iran reparations over the downing
of Iranian airliner in 1988. The letter comes amid Iranian complaints that they
have been unable to access the international financial system despite sanctions
relief outlined in a deal reached on Iran's nuclear program. U.S. officials have
said they are trying to address Iranian complaints. Secretary of State John
Kerry, who met Zarif last week, said the United States would not stand in the
way of foreign banks or firms doing business with Iranian companies that are no
longer subject to U.S. sanctions.
Kerry said the administration was willing to further clarify what transactions
are now permitted with Iran and urged foreign financial institutions to seek
answers from U.S. officials if they have questions.--AssociatedPress
Iran elections: Reformists
seek majority in run off vote
Fri 29 Apr 2016/NNA - Iranians are voting in the second round of elections which
will decide the balance of power between moderates and conservatives in
parliament. In February's first round, reformists made substantial gains but
need to win 40 more seats to control the 290-member parliament. Friday's
elections take place in 68 constituencies where no candidate won the minimum 25%
of the vote. Polls are open until 13:30 GMT and results are expected on Sunday.
February's vote was the first since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers
and was seen as a key test for reformist President Hassan Rouhani.-----BBC
Iraqi forces prevent
merchants from coming to Camp Liberty
Friday, 29 April 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/In violation of
agreements, Iraqi forces prevent merchants from coming to Camp Liberty to buy
residents’ property. On Thursday, April 28, 2016, agents of the Governmental
Committee tasked to suppress Camp Liberty residents headed by Iraqi National
Security Advisor Faleh Fayyad prevented two groups of Iraqi merchants from
coming to Camp Liberty to buy residents’ property and returned them after hours
of stalling. Similarly, on April 24, two other groups of merchants were barred
from entering Camp Liberty. Thus, in a span of six months, six groups of Iraqi
merchants who had referred to purchase residents’ property have been turned
back. This is despite the fact that since two months ago the Iraqi government
had agreed to the sale of residents’ property and the decision had been conveyed
to residents. The names of the merchants and time of their arrival had been
conveyed to pertinent authorities a few days back. Since the sale of residents’
property is a requisite to bankroll their resettlement, prevention of merchants’
entry is blatant interference in the resettlement process and a replica of the
scenario carried out in Camp Ashraf which aims at systematic thievery and
plunder of the property in Camp Liberty. During the transfer of the last group
of residents from Ashraf to Liberty, according to the written and joint plan of
the U.S. Embassy and UNAMI on September 5, 2013, the Iraqi government approved
the sale of residents’ property in Camp Ashraf. However, since then, 89
merchants have referred to Camp Liberty to discuss the purchase of the property,
but Iraqi forces have prevented their entry into the camp. The Iranian
Resistance reminds the international community of its obligations concerning the
security and wellbeing of Camp Liberty residents and calls on the U.S.
government, the European Union, and the United Nations to take urgent measures
to remove the siege on Camp Liberty, especially lifting any restrictions on the
sale of residents’ property that is a requisite for their resettlement.
**Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/April 29, 2016
Obama: US may admit 10,000
Syria refugees this year
Reuters, Washington Friday, 29 April 2016/President Barack Obama said on
Thursday he expected the United States would meet a goal of admitting 10,000
Syrian refugees before the end of the year despite delays and opposition from
critics concerned about security implications. As Europe grappled with Syrians
fleeing the country’s civil war last autumn, Obama promised to admit 10,000
Syrian refugees by the end of fiscal year 2016. But the State Department
reported on March 31, halfway into the fiscal year, that only 1,285 Syrians had
been admitted into the United States. “We’re going to keep on pushing,” Obama
said when asked on Thursday whether the goal would be achieved. Obama’s promise
has come under fire from Republicans concerned that violent militants could come
into the United States posing as refugees. More than 30 governors have tried to
block refugees from their states, but courts and attorneys general have said it
is up to the federal government to screen refugees and settle them. The
president said his administration wanted to assure the public the refugees were
being properly screened and vetted. Congress may put up roadblocks to the
process, he said. “Administratively I think now we have the process to speed it
up,” he told a news conference with student journalists at the White House. “Our
goal is to continue to try to make the case to Congress and the American people
(that) this is the right thing to do and we believe that we can hit those marks
before the end of the year.” Washington has offered refuge to far fewer of the
millions fleeing war in Syria and Iraq than many of its closest allies in Europe
and the Middle East. The agency responsible for processing and admitting
refugees, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, is under added pressure to
make sure none of those admitted have ties to violent extremists. Requirements
for additional screening measures were passed following the Nov. 13 attacks in
Paris after Obama had laid out his goal of admitting 10,000 Syrians.
U.N. Rights Chief Condemns
'Shameful' Global Response on Syria
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/Major powers backing warring sides in
Syria appear to have become "accomplices" in the bloodshed, the U.N. rights
chief said Friday, blasting as "shameful" the failure to pursue justice for
victims in the war-ravaged country.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement that renewed violence in Syria,
including strikes on markets and medical facilities, showed a "monstrous
disregard for civilians lives by all parties to the conflict".But he directed
especially tough criticism towards the powerful countries influencing the
conflict. "The persistent failure of the Security Council to refer the situation
in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an example of the most
shameful form of realpolitik," Zeid said. "In the minds of many, the world's
great powers have in effect become accomplices to the sacrifice of hundreds of
thousands of human beings, and the displacement of millions."The comments
appeared to be reference to both the United States, which is backing some rebel
groups and Russia, a key supporter of President Bashar al-Assad. Assuming
Damascus does not directly ask the ICC to intervene, referring the conflict to
The Hague-based court would require approval of the Security Council's permanent
members, including Russia and China which until now have blocked any such
referral. The rights chief joined a list of world leaders who have expressed
grave concern over the rapid deterioration of a ceasefire declared on February
27. Through March, the fragile truce led to a significant decline in violence
and increased access for humanitarian workers. But fighting has surged over the
last two weeks, putting added strain on U.N.-mediated peace talks in Geneva. The
main opposition High Negotiations Committee suspended its participation in the
talks last week to protest at renewed government offensives. "The violence is
soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities," Zeid
said, warning that all signs pointed to "a lethal escalation" in the conflict.
More than 200 civilians have been killed in Aleppo over the past week as rebels
have pounded government-held neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and
the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids. Fighting has also surged around
Damascus, Homs and other areas. Syria's conflict has left more than 270,000
people dead since 2011.
U.S., Russia 'Agree Freeze' on Two
Syrian Fronts
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/The United States and Russia have
agreed on a "freeze" in fighting along two major fronts in Syria, but not in
war-ravaged Aleppo, the Syrian and Russian militaries said Friday.Fighting in
the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and the province of Latakia
is set to halt at midnight on Friday (2100 GMT). Syria's army said the freeze
would come into effect at 1:00 am and would last for 24 hours in Eastern Ghouta
and for 72 hours in coastal Latakia, the heartland of President Bashar Assad's
Alawite sect. There was no mention of Aleppo, where a week of fighting has
killed more than 200 civilians. In February, the U.S. and Russia brokered a
partial truce in Syria between regime forces and non-jihadist rebels. The U.S.
special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, said Friday that the agreement was a
"general re-commitment" to that truce, "not a new set of local
ceasefires.""Likewise, persistent violations in Aleppo have stressed the
Cessation of Hostilities and are unacceptable," he said."We are talking to
Russia to urgently agree on steps to reduce violence in that area as well."
A Syrian security source in Damascus said the deal had been reached in Geneva
between U.S. and Russian officials."The Americans asked for Aleppo to be
included, but the Russians refused," the source said. Russia is a key backer of
Assad's regime, while the U.S. has supported various opposition factions in the
country. A diplomatic source quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti
said that Moscow and Washington, co-chairs of the International Syria Support
Group, "are the guarantors of the 'regime of silence' implementation by the
sides."Russian Lieutenant-General Sergei Kuralenko, based in the Hmeimim airbase
in Latakia province, said that during the freeze, "all combat and using any
weapons will be forbidden"."We call upon all parties interested in establishing
peace on Syrian land to support the Russian-American initiative and not disrupt
the 'regime of silence'," he said, quoted by RIA Novosti. Although the February
27 truce had seen violence drop across large parts of the country, fighting
against jihadist groups continued in Latakia, the eastern province of Deir Ezzor
and elsewhere. Eastern Ghouta is held by the powerful Jaish al-Islam (Army of
Islam) rebel group, which has signed on to the truce.
But fighting there between Jaish al-Islam and regime forces has been building in
recent weeks. Opposition factions in Eastern Ghouta and Latakia were not
immediately available for comment on the freeze. More than 270,000 people have
been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government
protests.
Yemeni sides to meet
face-to-face Saturday
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Channel Friday, 29 April 2016/Yemen’s warring
sides are getting ready to meet for direct talks scheduled Saturday for the
first time after peace negotiations entreated its second week on Thursday,
sourced told Al Arabiya News Channel. The sources said each side will have a
four-member team for the direct talks which will be headed by the UN special
envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. Sources close to the negotiations have told
Agence France-Presse on Thursday that the two delegations have not yet met
face-to-face. In preparation for the Yemeni talks on Saturday, the Yemeni
government delegates have offered their vision for the withdrawal of armed
forces, handing of arms, forming security committees and charting urgent
economic measures to salvage the country. In the same time, Yemen’s
representative for the UN Khaled al-Yamani emphasized that his government and
international community will not accept militias participating in the country’s
political bodies like the Shiite movement Hezbollah in Lebanon’s parliament.
More than 6,800 people have been killed and around 2.8 million displaced in
Yemen since a Saudi-led Arab coalition began operations in March 2015 against
the Iran-backed Houthi militias, who have seized swathes of territory including
the capital Sanaa. Ahmed hailed on Thursday the “positive atmosphere” at crucial
peace talks between the country’s warring sides. So far there was no major
breakthrough in the previous several rounds of talks for Ahmed but the UN envoy
has managed to get the two sides to approve the agenda and has begun debating
key issues. Besides discussing ways to firm up an ongoing ceasefire, delegates
also tackled “the issues related to the withdrawal of armed groups, handover of
heavy weapons, resumption of the political transition and the release of
prisoners and detainees,” Ahmed said in a statement. (With AFP)
‘Regime of calm’ agreed as
Syria fighting rages
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 29 April 2016/A “regime of calm” will
be enforced in parts of Syria’s Latakia and Damascus regions from 1:00 am (2200
GMT) on April 30, in order to “secure the implementation of the agreed cessation
of hostilities”, a Syrian military statement said on Friday. A statement from
the Syrian Army General Command did not mention the city of Aleppo, focus of
fighting, and did not explain what military or non-military action a “regime of
calm” would involve. It would last for 24 hours in the Eastern Ghouta region
east of Damascus and in Damascus, and for 72 hours in areas of the northern
Latakia countryside. “This is in order to sever the road for some terrorist
groups and their supporters, who strive to prolong this state of tension and
instability and to find pretexts to target peaceful civilians,” the statement
said. A Feb. 27 cessation of hostilities agreement was intended to allow an
opportunity for peace talks and delivery of humanitarian relief across Syria.
Peace talks in Geneva aimed to end a war that has created the world’s worst
refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of Islamic State and drew in regional and
major powers, but the negotiations have all but failed and a cessation of
hostilities agreement to allow them to take place has all but collapsed.
US-Russian agreement
The “regime of silence” has also been agreed by Russia and the United States
which forbids military action in several parts of Syria, including the use of
any kinds of weapons, the Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian military
official as saying on Friday. General Sergei Kuralenko, in charge of Russia’s
ceasefire monitoring center in Syria, was also cited as saying he saw no risk
that the situation would slide back into a full-blown military conflict. The
agreement comes a day after the US and its allies carried out 22 strikes against
ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, focusing on the Mar'a area of western Syria and
the city of Fallujah in Iraq, according to military figures released on Friday.
The airstrikes destroyed six fighting positions, four mortar positions and a
vehicle, the military said in a statement. Four strikes were also carried out
against militants around the ISIS-held city of Fallujah, about 40 miles west of
Baghdad. The strikes destroyed three fighting positions, a vehicle and two
bridges, the statement said. The coalition also carried out air or rocket
artillery strikes against ISIS positions near Mosul, Qayyarah, Kisik, Al
Baghdadi, Ramadi and Sinjar in Iraq, including the stronghold of Raqqa in Syria.
Aleppo attacks
An air strike on a hospital in the city of Aleppo that killed dozens of people
was probably the work of Syrian government forces, a spokesman for the German
government said on Friday. A US official has also said the attack on Wednesday
night appeared to be solely the work of the Syrian government. Syria’s military
has denied its warplanes targeted the hospital. German government spokesman
Steffen Seibert told a news conference the destruction was targeted and
therefore constituted the “murder of a huge number of civilians”. “The available
information suggests that this attack can, with some degree of probability, be
traced back to the troops of (President Bashar al-Assad’s) regime,” Seibert
said, adding that it was a “blatant violation of humanitarian law”. The German
government warned that the escalation of fighting in Aleppo and elsewhere
threatened to undermine peace talks in Geneva. “That must be avoided,” said
Seibert, adding that Russia had a duty to prevent the ceasefire and the
political process from failing. The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has
created the world’s worst refugee crisis, allowed the rise of Islamic State and
drawn in regional and major powers, but a truce intended to allow negotiations
to take place has collapsed. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
said in a statement on Friday: “The Syrian government must decide - does it want
to take part in negotiations seriously or does it want to continue to reduce its
own country to rubble?” Airstrikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo killed 123
civilians including 18 children during the past seven days of intensified
violence in the northern Syrian city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said on Friday. Seventy-one civilians, including 13 children, were killed by
rebel shelling into government-held areas of the city during the same period,
the British-based monitoring group said. Eight more civilians, including three
children, were killed by government shelling into areas not under its control in
the city, the Observatory said. In another attack in Aleppo, three people were
killed and 25 wounded when rebel-fired mortars hit a mosque in Aleppo as people
were leaving Friday prayers, the Syrian state news agency SANA said. The mosque
was in the government-held Bab al-Faraj area of Aleppo. SANA also said there
were more deaths and injuries from rebel mortar attacks which hit the Bab al-Faraj
and al-Midan quarters of Aleppo on Friday. (With Reuters)
Clinic hit in Syria's Aleppo amid
Outcry over Hospital Strike
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/Regime aircraft pounded rebel areas
of Syria's second city Aleppo on Friday, hitting a clinic just days after a
strike destroyed a hospital, killing two doctors and sparking an international
outcry. More than 200 civilians have been killed in Aleppo over the past week as
rebels have pounded government-held neighborhoods with rocket and artillery fire
and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids. The bloodshed has brought a
February 27 ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebels to the
verge of collapse and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the northern
metropolis and other battleground areas. A nurse was among several people
wounded when the air strike hit the clinic in the rebel-held Al-Marja
neighborhood, the civil defense known as the White Helmets said. The clinic,
which had been providing dental services and treatment for chronic illnesses for
about five years, was badly damaged. An AFP photographer said he heard nearly a
dozen air raids within the space of a few minutes, followed by the wail of
ambulances. "The planes didn't sleep and didn't let us sleep either," one
resident of the densely populated Bustan al-Qasr district told AFP.
"The earth is shaking beneath our feet."At least two civilians were killed in
the strikes on Friday, one of them a child, the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said. The rebels bombarded government-held areas with rocket and
artillery fire, killing three people as they were leaving a mosque after the
main weekly prayers, state television reported. In rebel areas, Friday prayers
were canceled because of the air strikes. It was the second time this week that
an air strike had hit one of the few medical facilities still operating in rebel
areas. Late on Wednesday, air strikes hit the Al-Quds hospital and a nearby
block of flats in the Sukkari neighborhood, killing 30 people, including one of
the last paediatricians still working in the east of the city. U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry expressed "outrage" over the hit on the hospital, saying it
appeared to be "a deliberate strike on a known medical facility."He called on
Moscow to press its Damascus ally "to stop attacking civilians, medical
facilities, and first responders, and to abide fully by the cessation of
hostilities."Al-Quds was supported by both Doctors Without Borders and the
International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC has warned that Aleppo is "on
the brink of humanitarian disaster". "Everyone here fears for their lives and
nobody knows what is coming next," said Valter Gros, who heads the ICRC's Aleppo
office.Thursday was the deadliest day in Aleppo since the violence flared last
week, with 54 civilians killed, according to the Observatory. "It is the worst
day in Aleppo in five years. The regime did not spare a single neighborhood,"
one resident told AFP. An online campaign to halt the carnage picked up speed,
with Twitter users posting pictures of destroyed buildings in flames with the
hashtag #AleppoIsBurning. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said attacks that
target civilians are "inexcusable" violations of humanitarian law. "There must
be accountability for these crimes," he said. Aleppo was once Syria's economic
powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by fighting since 2012 when rebels seized
the east of the city, confining the government to the west. The worsening
bloodshed has raised fears for the ceasefire in other areas of Syria and called
into question the future of peace talks in Geneva that have now gone into
recess. In what would probably be the death knell for the tattered truce, the
Syrian army is poised to launch an offensive to retake the whole of Aleppo and
the surrounding province. Leading pro-government daily Al-Watan said it would
begin in the next few days. "Now is the time to launch the battle for the
complete liberation of Aleppo," the paper said, adding that it "will not take
long to begin, nor to finish". Control of Aleppo province is divided between a
myriad of warring armed groups -- jihadists of Al-Qaida and the Islamic State
group, Kurdish militia and various rebel factions as well as the army. The
province is heavily fought over because of its supply lines to neighboring
Turkey. Since the conflict in Syria erupted in 2011, more than 270,000 people
have been killed and millions more been forced from their homes.
Hamas says Israel bus bombing
proof of ‘resistance’
AFP, Jerusalem Friday, 29 April 2016/Last week’s Jerusalem bus bombing carried
out by member of Hamas shows the Islamist movement’s “determination” to continue
resisting Israel, the head of the Palestinian group in Gaza said on Thursday.
Addressing thousands of supporters in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya praised the
“heroic action” of Abdel Hamid Abu Sorur, who killed himself and wounded 20
people in the April 18 attack. Haniya said the bombing “shows that Hamas and the
sons of Hamas are committed to resistance and determined to pursue the intifada
(uprising)”. “We say to the Zionist occupier that our people can no longer stand
the blockade” which Israel imposed on Gaza in 2006. “It is our right to have a
port and an airport,” in Gaza, he said. Israeli police said that a Hamas
militant carried out the bus attack. A wave of violence across Israel, the
occupied West Bank, and Jerusalem has killed 203 Palestinians and 28 Israelis
since October. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or
car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Israel treads carefully with
claim to Golan
The Associated Press, Jerusalem Friday, 29 April 2016/Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked a new diplomatic brushfire by declaring that the
Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, is and should remain
“under Israel’s sovereignty permanently.”But following tough international
criticism, Israeli officials said Netanyahu’s statements had been misconstrued
and that a 1981 decision to apply Israeli law to the strategic plateau fell
short of annexation. The debate offers a window into a more nuanced Israeli
perspective that, despite statements from the country’s hard-line political
leadership, continues to leave the door open, just barely, to a peace deal when
Syria’s civil war finally winds down. For now, the debate is largely academic.
Syria has been engulfed in civil war for nearly five years, and there is no end
in sight. With Syria, and the Syrian side of the Golan, divided between Syrian
troops and various rebel forces, there is nobody to talk to, even if Israel
decided to open negotiations. But the Golan remains central to any future peace
deal with Syria, and its fate is a key part of a 2002 Saudi initiative that
offered Israel peace with the Arab world in exchange for a full withdrawal from
all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. While that offer is usually
connected to areas sought by the Palestinians, the Golan is also considered
occupied land by the international community. Past Israeli leaders, including
Netanyahu himself, have held talks with Syria about control of the Golan.
So when Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for a first-ever meeting in the Golan on
April 17, he triggered an international uproar by calling it “sovereign” Israeli
territory. “The Golan Heights will forever remain in Israel’s hands,” he
declared. “After 50 years, the time has come for the international community to
finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel’s sovereignty
permanently.”The US, Israel’s closest ally, quickly criticized Netanyahu, saying
the Golan is “not part of Israel.”Germany and the European Union also rejected
his statement, as did the Arab League, 57-member Organization of Islamic
Cooperation and the Syrian government. And early this week, the UN Security
Council took issue with him. “Council members expressed their deep concern over
recent Israeli statements about the Golan and stressed that the status of the
Golan remains unchanged,” said Council President Liu Jieyi, China’s ambassador
to the UN. He noted a previous 1981 resolution that said Israel’s decision to
impose Israeli law on the Golan is “null and void.”
Suicide bomber in Turkey's
Bursa 'linked to Kurdish militants'
AFP | Istanbul Friday, 29 April 2016/A female suicide bomber who blew herself up
in the centre of one of Turkey’s most historic cities this week was linked to
Kurdish militants and had also fought in Syria against militants, a report said
Friday. There was no fingerprint evidence available from the remains of the
woman who blew herself up in front of a mosque in the former Ottoman capital of
Bursa on Wednesday but she has now been identified after DNA testing, the
Hurriyet daily said. The woman has been identified as Suzan B., who the report
said is a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been fighting
the Turkish security forces since a truce collapsed last summer. It said she had
also spent time in Syria fighting with the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG)
militia against ISIS militants and had crossed back into Turkey in April. This
fits the narrative of the Turkish government that the YPG is the Syrian branch
of the PKK, an assertion disputed by Washington which works with the Syrian
Kurdish militia as allies in the fight against ISIS. Hurriyet quoted its sources
as saying the woman had fought against ISIS in the battle for the Syrian border
town of Kobane which was won by the Kurdish militia last year. The Turkish
authorities have detained 15 people in the wake of the bombing, which created
new jitters in the country after a wave of deadly attacks this year. Thirteen
people were wounded in the blast but no one else was killed, leading some
commentators to conclude the bomber ignited her charge prematurely. Those
detained include two women whose identity cards the bomber had taken and one of
her friends. Hurriyet said the bomber’s identity was confirmed after DNA samples
were taken from her family in the Mardin region of southeast Turkey. Two attacks
that killed dozens of people in the capital Ankara in February and March were
claimed by a group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical
splinter group of the PKK. Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Thursday
that the group behind the attack has been identified but the authorities have so
far been tight-lipped on making the details public.
Libya calls for halt on
anti-ISIS Sirte offensive
Reuters, Tripoli Friday, 29 April 2016/Libya’s UN-backed unity government called
on Thursday on military factions to hold off from any campaign against the
ISIS-controlled city of Sirte until a unified military command structure is
created. The statement came amid signs that factions from both eastern and
western Libya could be gearing up for an advance on Sirte, although such
operations have repeatedly been announced in recent months without taking place.
ISIS has held Sirte since 2015, taking advantage of a conflict between loose
alliances of armed brigades allied to Libya’s rival governments to seize a 250km
strip of coastline around the central Mediterranean city, which lies between the
eastern and western power bases. Western states are hoping the unity government,
which arrived in Tripoli last month, will be able to make Libya’s armed factions
work together against the ultra-hardline militant group, and have said they are
ready to provide training for Libyan forces if requested by the unity
government. The United States has already conducted air strikes against ISIS
militants in Libya. The unity government’s leadership, or Presidential Council,
said on Thursday it welcomed the “push by various factions and armed forces to
fight ISIS forces in Sirte”, but warned that an uncoordinated offensive could
lead to civil war. “In the absence of coordination and unified leadership ...
the Council expresses its concern that the battle in Sirte against Daesh (ISIS)
will be a confrontation between those armed forces,” it said in a statement,
adding such a conflict would likely benefit ISIS. “Accordingly, the Presidential
Council, as the supreme commander of army, demands all Libyan military forces
wait for it to appoint a joint leadership for the Sirte operation,” the
statement said.
N. Korea Gives
Korean-American 10 Years Hard Labor
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/North Korea on Friday sentenced a
detained Korean-American, Kim Dong-Chul, to 10 years hard labor on charges of
subversion and espionage, China's official Xinhua news agency said. The
announcement, which comes at a time of elevated military tensions on the Korean
peninsula, followed an even harsher sentence of 15 years hard labor passed last
month on a U.S. student, Otto Warmbier, for stealing a propaganda banner from a
tourist hotel in Pyongyang.The brief Xinhua dispatch from Pyongyang said Kim's
penalty was handed down by North Korea's Supreme Court. The 62-year-old, who
became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1987, was arrested on espionage charges
back in October. Kim was paraded in front of media cameras in the North Korean
capital a month ago, when he admitted to stealing military secrets and pleaded
for clemency in a carefully orchestrated "confession". His detention first came
to public attention when he was produced in January during an interview CNN was
conducting with a detained Canadian pastor in a Pyongyang hotel. At that time,
Kim said he had been living in China near the North Korean border for the past
15 years, commuting regularly to Rason -- a North Korean special economic zone.
According to the North's state media, he had been arrested in Rason as he was
receiving a USB stick containing nuclear-linked and military secrets from his
source. Foreigners detained in North Korea are often required to make a public,
usually officially scripted acknowledgement of wrongdoing as a first step
towards a possible release. Observers said the long sentences handed down to Kim
and Warmbier reflected soaring military tensions following the North's nuclear
test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later. The United States
took a leading role in securing the resulting sanctions that the U.N. Security
Council imposed on the North in March.
Libya Unity
Government Vows to End Jihadist 'Scourge'
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/The head of Libya's unity government
has announced plans to drive the Islamic State group out of the North African
country through a "united effort" by all its military forces. Fayez al-Sarraj
said that the jihadists would be routed by "Libyan hands and not through any
foreign intervention". "We have begun to concretely implement a national
strategy to put an end to this scourge," he said, referring to the Sunni
extremist group which has fed on years of chaos to establish a stronghold on
Libya's Mediterranean coast. His comments late on Thursday came hours after the
unity government announced plans to establish a joint military command to tackle
IS. It called on "all military forces" in Libya to await instructions and not to
launch any unilateral offensive on Sirte, the hometown of slain dictator Moammar
Gadhafi that is now controlled by IS. The announcement of the joint military
command was welcomed by the UN special envoy for Libya, Martin Kobler. The unity
government fears that separate operations in Sirte could spark clashes between
the multitude of different fighting forces in Libya and play into the jihadists'
hands. Sarraj said contacts would be made with "all military commands" across
the country, insisting on the need for a "united effort" to confront the
jihadists. He said the military commands would be asked to "launch the necessary
preparations to begin the operation to liberate Sirte".IS overran the coastal
city, located 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Tripoli, last June and has
transformed it into a training camp for Libyan and foreign militants. With its
port and airport, there are growing fears that IS may use Sirte as a staging
post for attacks on European soil. Western powers including the United States,
Britain and France have openly considered an international military intervention
in Libya against IS.Experts have said any future foreign strikes could target
Sirte as well as the region around it. The jihadist group is estimated to have
around 5,000 fighters in Libya, and is trying to attract hundreds more.
Report: Kuwait
Steps up Deportations of Expat Workers
Naharnet /Agence France Presse/April 29/16/Kuwait has stepped up deportations of
expatriate workers this year, a newspaper in the Gulf emirate reported Friday,
with most expelled for outstaying their residency permits but others sent home
for traffic offences. In the first four months of the year, authorities deported
14,400 expats, compared with 26,600 in the whole of 2015, Al-Anba newspaper
reported. Expatriates make up some 70 percent of Kuwait's 4.3 million
population, greatly outnumbering its 1.3 million citizens. In April 2013, then
labour minister Thekra al-Rashidi announced plans to deport around 100,000
expatriates each year for the next decade to reduce the number of foreigners
living in the emirate by one million. The government made a string of traffic
offences punishable by deportation, including skipping red lights and driving
without a licence, a document difficult for many expats to obtain. Al-Anba said
most of the deportations were carried out without trial, using controversial
powers given to senior interior ministry officials that have drawn criticism
from human rights groups.
Philip Hammond
arrives in Cuba to help 'forge new links'
Fri 29 Apr 2016/NNA - Philip Hammond has become the first British foreign
secretary to visit Cuba since before the communist revolution of 1959. Arriving
in Havana, Hammond said that Britain was keen to forge “new links” with the
Caribbean nation. His visit follows US president Barack Obama’s historic trip
last month intended to normalise relations between the two countries after
decades of hostility. Hammond will hold meetings to discuss recent social and
economic changes, human rights and the fight against global health threats such
as the Zika virus. He will also sign a bilateral agreement restructuring Cuba’s
debt to the UK, as well as agreeing future cooperation on financial services,
energy, culture and education. “Britain and Cuba have outlooks on the world and
systems of government that are very different,” Hammond said. “But as Cuba
enters a period of significant social and economic change, I am looking forward
to demonstrating to the Cuban government and people that the UK is keen to forge
new links across the Atlantic. “As the first British foreign secretary to visit
Cuba since before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, this is an opportunity to hear
for myself what Cuba thinks about its present challenges and where it sees its
future.”--TheGuardian
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 30/16
Sens. Rubio and Kirk: If Iran wants
access to the dollar it must clean up its act
By Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mark Kirk Published April 28, 2016 FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/04/28/sens-rubio-and-kirk-if-iran-wants-access-to-dollar-it-must-clean-up-its-act.html
Last year, as the Obama administration urged support for the flawed Iran nuclear
deal, it repeatedly claimed the deal would not undermine America’s broader
efforts to halt Iran’s destructive behavior in the Middle East and beyond. “We
harbor no illusions about the Iranian government’s nefarious activities beyond
its nuclear program,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew wrote in July 2015. “Make no
mistake: we will continue to impose and aggressively enforce sanctions to combat
Iran’s support for terrorist groups, its fomenting of violence in the region,
and its perpetration of human rights abuses.”But now that the administration has
implemented the flawed deal against the will of majorities in the Senate and the
House of Representatives, it has dropped the tough talk on Iran. Worse,
Secretary of State John Kerry is leading U.S. officials in siding with the
Iranian terror regime’s complaints that the deal—which, among many other things,
unfroze over $100 billion in overseas assets—still did not provide enough
sanctions relief.
Access to the U.S. dollar is not an international right. But if Tehran wants
access, the onus should be entirely on Iran to clean up its act and reduce the
risk that Iran’s dangerous activities pose the global financial community. On
Friday, Secretary Kerry tried to reassure international financial institutions
about the risks of doing business with Iran. But as he tries to offer new
unilateral concessions to Iran, Secretary Kerry is willfully ignoring an
important fact: Iran is denied access to America’s financial system and
transactions in U.S. dollars, not because of the Iranian nuclear program, but
rather because of Iran’s abuse of its own financial system to promote terrorism
and other dangerous activities. In February 2009, the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF), an important inter-governmental body that sets standards to
prevent abuse of the international financial system, called on its members to
apply countermeasures against Iran to “protect their financial sectors from
money laundering and financing of terrorism risks emanating from Iran.”
In response to FATF’s action, international financial institutions have rightly
been wary of doing business with Iran due to the risk of enabling Iran’s
terrorist financing and other illicit activities. In fact, the U.S. Treasury
Department even issued a finding in November 2011 that Iran is a jurisdiction of
primary money laundering concern under the USA PATRIOT Act’s Section 311. The
nuclear deal changes none of this because, as administration officials admit,
Iran remains the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism and its ballistic
missile program and related pipelines for proliferation and money laundering
continue to flourish. In a speech in Washington on April 15, Iran’s Central Bank
Governor Valiollah Seif claimed Iran has addressed money laundering and
terrorist activities. But as with most statements by Iranian leaders, Seif’s
claims are far from the truth. In fact, FATF declined in February to reverse its
past warnings about Iran’s misuse and abuse of its financial system, and instead
renewed its call for international countermeasures. Given FATF’s prestige and
membership, this is a clear indictment of Iran’s continuing dangerous behavior.
Despite Secretary Kerry’s advocacy on behalf of Iran’s financial system, the
U.S. Treasury Department noted last month that Iran continues to engage in
deceptive financial practices in support of terrorism when it imposed modest
sanctions against entities and individuals associated with Iran’s Mahan Air.
Moreover, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon told the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month that Iran’s destabilizing
activities have not abated. Indeed, Shannon conceded Iran continues to support
Hezballah terrorists, prop up the Assad regime in Syria and the Houthi rebels in
Yemen, and systematically violate the human rights of its citizens, including by
detaining over 1,000 political prisoners and subjecting them to harsh treatment
as well as extended pretrial detention. In addition, Iran is accelerating the
development of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons with
launches in October 2015 and March 2016, including the test of one missile
inscribed with the phrase in Hebrew, “Israel must be wiped off the arena of
time.”
Iran does not need access to the U.S. dollar, nor should we allow it because it
would serve to facilitate and further all of its destabilizing activities by
boosting the very same Iranian financial system that the administration is now
trying to enrich and empower. Access to the U.S. dollar is not an international
right. But if Tehran wants access, the onus should be entirely on Iran to clean
up its act and reduce the risk that Iran’s dangerous activities pose the global
financial community. Yet Iran refuses to address grave and growing concerns
about its destabilizing activities and deceptive financial practices. And,
sadly, the administration appears to be more focused in capitulating to Tehran
than in forcing Iran’s terror regime to fundamentally change its behavior. It’s
time for the U.S. to stop making unreciprocated concessions and to start holding
Iran fully accountable for continuing its dangerous and destructive behavior.
Republican Marco Rubio represents Florida in the U.S. Senate. He is a member of
the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and a candidate for
the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
**Mark Kirk is a United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the
Republican Party.
Assad siege of Aleppo could
be 'imminent,' experts warn
George Russell Published April 28, 2016 FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/28/assad-siege-aleppo-could-be-imminent-experts-warn.html
A government encirclement of the Syrian rebel stronghold of Aleppo could be
“imminent,” according to military and humanitarian observers, some of whom point
to United Nations-sponsored peace talks as having given the regime of Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad maneuvering room.
If Syria’s largest city is surrounded by government troops, the strategic
situation in Syria could change very rapidly for the worse, not only for
Syrians, but also for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—and for the Obama
Administration, which has banked heavily on the crumbling peace talks to end
five years of civil war and an expanding presence for ISIS amid the chaos. The
encirclement would also be a major strategic advance for Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who has drawn his forces in Syria, but has also been helping the
Assad regime conduct more focused military operations under a two-month
“cessation of hostilities.”.“A number of signs, including a higher concentration
of air strikes, the movement of Russian artillery support for regime forces, and
a variety of skirmishes near a 3-to-4 kilometer gap that still keeps Aleppo from
being besieged, all show that they are getting ready to move,” says Chris Kozak,
a Syria analyst with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Recent air attacks on civilian institutions in Aleppo, including the Wednesday
bombing of an underground hospital, and attacks on civilians in other centers
are also symptoms of the impending military move, says Valerie Szybala,
executive director of the Syria Institute, a Washington-based non-profit
research organization. “The assault on Aleppo that everyone has been expecting
is beginning,” she told Fox News. “It doesn’t look good.” “We think they will
move to besiege Aleppo City as soon as they can,” Dr. Khaled Almilaji, a doctor
providing emergency medical training for relief workers in the Turkish city of
Gazientep, not far from the Syrian border. “We are stockpiling medical supplies
in Aleppo City as much as we can.”The pessimistic analysis of the situation on
the ground contrasts sharply with the message of strained optimism that emerged
yesterday from U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who briefed the
U.N. Security Council on his efforts to keep the faltering peace talks on life
support.
Those talks, he related to journalists after his briefing “have instead been
overshadowed, let’s be frank, by a substantial and indeed worrisome
deterioration of the cessation of hostilities,” in the past several weeks,
following a decision by Syrian opposition forces to withdraw from the talks on
April 19.
That withdraw in turn was sparked by opposition charges that the Assad regime
and its supporters were already using the “cessation of hostilities” to carry on
their military actions. The cessation is “still alive, but barely,” de Mistura
insisted, while adding that “the perception is that it could collapse at any
time”—a distinction not felt by those affected by recent bombings. The U.N.
envoy declared that even while the Geneva-based peace talks were frozen,
progress had been made in a series of “substantial technical meetings” and
consultations among the warring sides, interested nations and other Syrian civil
groups that had taken place elsewhere.The “commonalities” from those meetings,
according to a “mediator’s summary” made public by da Mistura, included the need
for a new Syrian constitution, and a “Syrian-owned and Syrian-led” political
transition in the future, overseen by a “new, credible and inclusive
transitional governance” that “could include members of the present government
and the opposition, independents and others.”
Da Mistura hailed the “commonalities” as “an opportunity of going deeper” in
future rounds of peace talks, and declared that “we have at least one or two
more rounds before July,” when a timetable passed by the Security Council called
for the peace process to turn the “commonalities” into actual facts.
Meantime, however, regime aircraft are bombing “on a daily basis,” according to
a media spokesman for the volunteer Civil Defense units known as White Helmets,
who lost five of their own members during attacks this week,. The attacks are
occurring not only in Aleppo but in other major Syrian opposition centers such
as Idlib, where rebels have charged that barrel bombs were used. Many aid
workers, as well as opposition forces, have charged that Russian aircraft were
used in the Aleppo hospital strike—charges that have not been confirmed—because
regime aircraft are not deemed capable of accurate night-time attacks. A least
14 people, including two doctors, died in the hospital bombing. Nearby buildings
were also struck, bringing the death toll, including children, to 25 and rising.
The “outrageous targeting of yet another medical facility in Syria” was roundly
condemned by, among others, Muskilda Zancada, the head of Syrian operations of
Medicins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, which supported the hospital.
Overall, according to da Mistura’s Wednesday briefing, “In the last 48 hours, we
have had an average of one Syrian killed every 25 minutes.”A tightening of
border controls with neighboring Turkey means that refugees from the violence
are less and less able to flee the country even as humanitarian supplies that
cross the Turkish border face greater difficulties in reaching the besieged
populations. At the same time, the crisis in long-besieged opposition centers
such as the town of Daraya is continuing to be “absolutely dire,” according to
Ashley Proud, humanitarian director for Syria for Mercy Corps, the biggest
non-government relief organization involved in cross-border relief operations.
“It is very important for us to support the U.N. but we also need genuine,
sustained humanitarian aid for Syrian populations. Humanitarian discussions so
far only include discreet convoys for U.N. relief.”
And despite the lengthy “cessation of hostilities,” she added, “most of the
places where we work are still really tightly under siege.”All of those
situations would grow dramatically worse in the event of Aleppo’s encirclement,
according to the Institute for the Study of War’s Kozak. “It would be a
tremendous morale blow to the opposition,” he told Fox News, “and a tremendous
opposition blow to opposition power.”One result could be to cause links between
opposition factions to break down, and drive some in the direction of extremist
groups like ISIS, and cause a “deeper radicalization of the opposition in
northern Syria.” The longer term danger is that the military shift would be a
“direct blow to the strategic perspective of Turkey’s Erdogan, who has heavily
backed the insurgents, “and if Erdogan decides to take a position of support, it
would invite retaliation by Russia.”
Indeed, Kozak added, “I think Russia would be ecstatic if Erdogan takes military
action.” Moscow is already embedding military support with Kurdish groups on the
Turkish border who would put additional pressure on that country, a NATO member,
and thus “provide a new front to pressure NATO.”
Kozak also declared himself “pessimistic” that Western backers of the anti-ISIS
campaign and a brokered peace arrangement in Syria would react effectively to
any strategic shift caused by Aleppo’s encirclement. “They are going to be
strategically surprised by the most obvious strategic surprise,” he declared.
“It may already be too late.” If so, added the Syria Institute’s Szybala, she
believes a major factor in the darkening perspective has been the much touted
“cessation of hostilities,” which has “worked to the Syrian government’s
benefit.”“The regime’s big conundrum was that it was unable to carry out
offensives on multiple fronts,” she said. “The ceasefire allowed them to focus
militarily on a few key areas. Their continued military actions have been
tolerated by the international community because no-one wants to see the
ceasefire dead.”
Palestinians:
University Students Vote For Terror
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/April 28/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7935/palestinians-university-students-vote-for-terror
Palestinian political
analysts said that the Hamas victory is an indication of what would happen if
general elections were held these days in the West Bank.
The 3,481 students who voted in favor of the Hamas-affiliated list want to see
the destruction of Israel.
Both Hamas and the PFLP are strongly opposed to any peace process with Israel.
They continue to call for terror attacks against Israelis. The results of the
election mean that most of the students at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank,
not Gaza, support groups that have chosen terrorism over peace.
The Hamas victory at Bir Zeit University also shows that it does not matter how
much money you pour on Fatah's campus supporter; a majority of students would
still prefer to vote for terror groups that do not believe in Israel's right to
exist.
The main charge against Fatah is that it has failed to reform and pave the way
for the emergence of new and younger leaders.
"Fatah needs an internal shake-up before it faces more defeats." --Sufyan Abu
Zayda, a senior Fatah official from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders also called for holding long overdue presidential and
parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. They said they had no
doubt that their movement would easily defeat Fatah.
Under such circumstances, it is not a good idea to promote the idea of free and
democratic elections in the Palestinian territories. Worse, the talk about a
renewed peace process and a two-state solution has become a tasteless joke.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction suffered yet
another humiliating defeat at the Bir Zeit University student council elections,
held on April 17. Last year, for the first time since 2007, the Hamas-affiliated
student list on campus also won the vote. The results of this year's election at
one of the Palestinians' most important universities reflects the growing
discontent with Abbas's Fatah faction among Palestinians in the West Bank.
Palestinian political analysts said that the Hamas victory is an indication of
what would happen if general elections were held these days in the West Bank.
The Wafaa list, which belongs to Hamas, won 25 of the student council seats,
while Fatah's Martyrs Yasser Arafat list got 21 seats. A list belonging to the
terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) won five
seats. Both Hamas and the PFLP are strongly opposed to any peace process with
Israel. They continue to call for terror attacks against Israelis. The results
of the election mean that most of the students at Bir Zeit University in the
West Bank, not Gaza, support groups that have chosen terrorism over peace. Bir
Zeit University, which has 12,000 students, is located only a few miles from
Ramallah, which houses the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah
leadership. As such, the Hamas victory carries symbolic significance because it
shows that even in Abbas's own backyard, he Islamist movement remains as strong
and popular as ever.
What Is also significant is that the Hamas victory came despite a massive
crackdown by Abbas's security forces on Hamas supporters in the West Bank. The
crackdown included university students affiliated with the Islamist movement.
Not surprisingly, this crackdown seems to have backfired, driving more
university students into the waiting open arms of Abbas's political enemies.The
Hamas victory at Bir Zeit University also shows that it does not matter how much
money you pour on Fatah supporters on campus; a majority of students would still
prefer to vote for terror groups that do not believe in Israel's right to
exist.The results of the election should be seen more as a vote of no-confidence
in Fatah and Abbas's policies than a Hamas win. Palestinian analysts said that
the results reflected Palestinians' distrust of Fatah, a faction that has long
been suffering from internecine fighting and splits. The main charge against
Fatah is that it has failed to reform and pave the way for the emergence of new
and younger leaders.
Sufyan Abu Zayda, a senior Fatah official from the Gaza Strip, commented on the
results of the Bir Zeit University election by saying, "Fatah needs an internal
shake-up before it faces more defeats." He noted that those who were defeated
were not the Fatah-affiliated students, but their leaders. In recent years, the
Fatah leadership in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been torn apart by internal
strife. In the Gaza Strip, rival Fatah activists have been beating and shooting
at each other. In the West Bank, Abbas has been busy getting rid of his critics
in Fatah. The latest victim of Abbas's measures is Gen. Akram Rajoub, the
Palestinian Authority Governor of the largest West Bank city, Nablus. Last week,
Abbas surprisingly fired Rajoub, who is also a senior Fatah official.
Rajoub's dismissal came days after he walked out of a Passover ceremony
organized by the tiny Christian Samaritan community near Nablus. Rajoub and
scores of Palestinian dignitaries walked out of the event after discovering that
some leaders of the Jewish community in the West Bank had also been invited.
Some Palestinians said that Abbas decided to fire the governor because his
action seriously embarrassed the Palestinian Authority leadership in the eyes of
the international community and threatened to damage relations between the
Samaritan community and the Palestinians.Other Palestinians, however, surmised
that Abbas's decision was related to criticism the governor had made against top
Fatah officials.
Whatever the reason, many Palestinians agreed that the dismissal of the powerful
and popular governor was a sign of increased tensions among the top brass of the
Palestinian Authority and Fatah leaderships.It is precisely because of this
internal bickering that many Palestinians have lost confidence in Abbas and
Fatah. The results of the Bir Zeit University elections are also an indication
of the Palestinian students' rejection of Abbas's general policies, especially
regarding Israel. This is a vote of no-confidence in the Oslo Accords with
Israel, the "peace process" and ongoing security coordination between the
Palestinian Authority and Israel. The 3,481 students who voted in favor of the
Hamas-affiliated list want to see the destruction of Israel. Similarly, the he
668 students who voted for the PFLP-affiliated list support terrorism and would
also like to see the destruction of Israel. These numbers reflect the general
sentiments that have long been prevalent among many Palestinians, including
students and professors on various campuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"How can Fatah win any election when it is divided and its leaders are openly
saying that they listen to Zionist songs?" remarked Palestinian political
analyst Hisham Sakallah. He pointed out that while Hamas supporters on campus
ran in the election on a ticket that promoted "armed resistance" against Israel,
Fatah leaders were continuing to conduct security coordination with the
Israelis.
Hamas correctly sees its victory in the Bir Zeit University election as a sign
of growing Palestinian support for its "armed resistance" and the "Al-Quds
Intifada" against Israel. Hamas leaders were quick to celebrate the victory of
their list. They stressed that the vote was a severe blow to Abbas, Fatah and
all those who believe in any "peace process" with Israel. Buoyed by the victory,
the Hamas leaders also called for holding long overdue presidential and
parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. They said they had no
doubt that their movement would easily defeat Fatah. "The results of the
election (at Bir Zeit University) are a victory for the path of resistance,"
declared Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. The Hamas victory provides further
evidence of the increased radicalization in Palestinian society. This is the
direct result of the ongoing campaign of anti-Israel incitement that continues
to be waged not only by Hamas, but the Palestinian Authority and Fatah too, and
that is funded in large part by Europe. Under such circumstances, it is not a
good idea to promote the idea of free and democratic elections in the
Palestinian territories. Worse, the talk about a renewed peace process and a
two-state solution has become a distasteful joke.
Turkey's Islamic Supremacist Foreign Policy
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/April 29/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7811/turkey-foreign-policy
"We have never been involved in an attack against Turkey ... we were never
involved in such an action... Davutoglu wants to pave the way for an offensive
on Syria and Rojava and cover up Turkey's relations with the ISIS which is known
to the whole world by now." — YPG (Kurdish) General Command.
"Thousands of settlers from Anatolia were shipped in by the Turkish government
to occupy former Greek villages and to change Cypriot demography -- in the same
manner the occupying Ottoman Empire once did in the 16th century." — Victor
Davis Hanson, historian.
Turkey, for more than 40 years, has been illegally occupying the northern part
of the Republic of Cyprus, historically a Greek and Christian nation, which it
invaded with a bloody military campaign in 1974.
What Turkey would call a crime if committed by a non-Turkish or a non-Sunni
state, Turkey sees as legitimate if Turkey itself commits it.
Between March 29 and April 2, 2016, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
paid a visit to Washington D.C. to participate in the 4th Nuclear Security
Summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama.
In an interview with CNN broadcast March 31, Erdogan said, "We will not allow an
act such as giving northern Syria to a terrorist organization... We will never
forgive such a wrong. We are determined about that."
Asked which terror organization he was referring to, Erdogan said: "The YPG
[Kurdish People's Protection Units], the PYD [Democratic Union Party] ... and if
Daesh [ISIS] has an intention of that sort then it would also never be allowed."
Erdogan was thereby once again attempting to equate Islamic State (ISIS), which
has tortured, raped, sold or slaughtered so many innocent people in Syria and
Iraq, with the Kurdish PYD, and its YPG militia, whose members have been
fighting with their lives to defeat genocidal jihadist groups such as al-Nusra
and ISIS.
The question is not why Erdogan or his government have such an intense hatred
for Kurds. Turkey's genocidal policies against the Kurds are not a secret.
Turkey's most recent deadly attacks are ongoing in Kurdish districts even now.
The more important question is why Erdogan thinks that Turkey is the one to
decide to whom the predominantly Kurdish north of Syria will belong -- or who
will not rule that part of Syria.
On February 17, Turkey's capital, Ankara, was shaken by a car bomb that killed
28 people and wounded 61 others.
Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, immediately announced that the
perpetrator was a Syrian national with links to the Syrian Kurdish People's
Protection Units (YPG).
"A direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established," Davutoglu
said. "The YPG attack was carried out with logistical support from the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) inside Turkey. Just as al-Qaeda or Daesh do not have seats
at the table, the YPG, which is a terrorist organization, cannot have one." He
then once again refused to permit Kurdish YPG participation in U.N.-brokered
Syria peace talks in Geneva.
Saleh Muslim, the head of Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), replied
via Agence France-Presse: "We deny any involvement in this attack. These
accusations are clearly related to Turkish attempts to intervene in Syria."
The General Command of the YPG also denied any involvement in the attack:
"Under challenging conditions, we are protecting our people from barbaric gangs
such as ISIS and Al-Nusra. Countless states and media outlets have repeatedly
reported about the support Turkey has been providing to these terrorist groups.
Apart from the terrorist groups attacking us, we as YPG have engaged in no
military activity against the neighboring states or other forces.
"We would like to repeat our message to the people of Turkey and the world: We
have no links to this incident... We have never been involved in an attack
against Turkey. The Turkish state cannot possibly prove our engagement in any
kind of attack on their side because we were never involved in such an action.
Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu's remarks 'Ankara attack was conducted by YPG'
is a lie and far away from the truth. With this statement, Davutoglu wants to
pave the way for an offensive on Syria and Rojava and cover up Turkey's
relations with the ISIS which is known to the whole world by now."
The Middle East is going through mass murders, kidnappings, rapes, the sexual
slavery of women and other crimes. And Turkey's aggressive and supremacist
foreign policy, which does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbors, has
played a large role in this situation.
Syria and Iraq, Turkey's southern neighbors, are now the breeding ground of
genocidal jihadist groups, foremost the Islamic State (ISIS). Many reporters,
experts and eyewitnesses have revealed that Turkey has contributed to the rise
of jihadist terrorists in the region -- by letting ISIS members get in and out
of Turkey and even by providing funds, logistics, and arms for ISIS.
Inside its own boundaries, Turkey has been engaged in an all-out war against its
own Kurdish citizens since last August. Turkey has been murdering them
indiscriminately and destroying their homes and neighborhoods.
Turkey's hatred of Kurds is so intense that it also targets Kurdish defense
forces in Syria.
On February 13, Davutoglu confirmed shelling the Kurdish YPG group in Syria,
after the YPG advanced on the rebel-held town of Azaz in Syria. "We will
retaliate against every step [by the YPG]," Davutoglu said. "The YPG will
immediately withdraw from Azaz and the surrounding area and will not go close to
it again."
The rebels in Azaz and elsewhere in Syria are mostly Islamist jihadists.
According to the scholar Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Azaz was mostly controlled in
early 2015 by the group Liwa Asifat al-Shamal ("Northern Storm Brigade"),
affiliated with the Islamic Front. Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra
("Al-Nusra Front") also had a presence there.
"Azaz is a symbol for Turkey," said Fabrice Balanche of the Washington Institute
For Near East Policy. "Prime Minister Davutoglu fears that if the Kurds capture
Azaz, they could start a big offensive from Kobane to the west and from Afrin to
the east," he told BBC.
As widely reported, the crisis in the region reached a peak when a Turkish Air
Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Air Force Su-24 bomber along the
Turkey-Syria border on November 24, killing the pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg
Peshkov. The Turkish government tried to excuse the attack by claiming that the
jet was downed after it had violated Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.
The Russia Defense Ministry, however, denied the aircraft ever left Syrian
airspace, and released a video they claimed shows that the Su-24 was not in
Turkish airspace when it was shot down.
Meanwhile, Turkey's neighbor to its West, Greece, has long been a victim of
Turkey's violations of its sovereign airspace. According to data recorded by the
Greek military, in 2014 alone, Turkish aircraft violated Greek airspace 2,244
times. On just one day, February 15, Turkish warplanes violated Greek airspace
22 times, according to Athens News Agency.
After Syria, Greece and Russia, Turkey's next target was its other southern
neighbor, Iraq. In December, Iraq's President, Fuad Masum, said, "The presence
of the Turkish Army Forces in Mosul Province without our permission violates
international rules. I want Turkish officials to get its force out of Iraq's
territory immediately."
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also condemned Turkey's action: "We have
not asked Turkey for any force and no one had informed us about the arrival of
the force."
Two neighbors of Turkey, Cyprus and Armenia, have also been victims of Turkish
aggression -- for an even longer time.
Turkey, for more than 40 years, has been illegally occupying the northern part
of the Republic of Cyprus, which it invaded with a bloody military campaign in
1974. According to historian Victor Davis Hanson:
"Thousands of settlers from Anatolia were shipped in by the Turkish government
to occupy former Greek villages and to change Cypriot demography -- in the same
manner the occupying Ottoman Empire once did in the 16th century. ... The island
remains conquered not because the Greeks have given up, but because their
resistance is futile against a NATO power of some 70 million people. Greeks know
that Turkey worries little about what world thinks of its occupation."
Turkey has also been blockading yet another neighbor since 1993: "Turkey and
Azerbaijan have effectively been exercising an illegal unilateral economic
blockade against Armenia, which has hurt the latter economically," wrote Armen
V. Sahakyan, the executive director of the Eurasian Research and Analysis
Institute. "Turkey and Azerbaijan are in clear violation of the Principle of
Good Neighborliness, as well as all of the General Assembly resolutions
condemning unilateral coercive measures."
Turkey has been assaulting its neighbors in what appears as outbursts of Turkish
Islamic supremacy. What Turkey would call a crime if committed by a non-Turkish
or a non-Sunni state, Turkey sees as legitimate if Turkey itself commits it.
When Turkey invaded Cyprus, historically a Greek and Christian nation, it is not
called an invasion. Turkey still refers to the 1974 military campaign as a
"peace operation." Senior politicians and military officials from Turkey also
participate in the official ceremonies called "the Peace and Freedom Festival,"
organized in occupied northern Cyprus on July 20 every year, to celebrate what
they "achieved" more than 40 years ago -- namely, an ethnic cleansing and
colonization campaign that they conducted through many crimes, including mass
murders, wholesale and repeated rapes, torture and inhuman treatment, plundering
Cypriot cultural heritage and destroying churches, among others.
The crumbling buildings of the Varosha district of Famagusta, Cyprus,
photographed in 2009. The area lies within Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.
The inhabitants fled during the 1974 Turkish invasion and the district has been
abandoned since then. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
If anyone blockaded another state, especially a Sunni state, Turkey would most
certainly condemn it. But when Turkey itself blockades a Christian nation, it is
always "justified" -- most often as a response to some "unacceptable wrongdoing"
by the other side.
If a non-Turkish, or non-Sunni state, treated a Turkish or Sunni minority
brutally, Turkey would passionately condemn it. But Turkey sees no harm in
slaughtering its own Kurdish citizens, and devastating their towns. Turkey
claims this is a just way of "fighting against terrorism."
Turkey can shoot down a Russian plane in the blink of an eye, because supposedly
no one can violate Turkish airspace even for a few seconds -- or even if no such
violation takes place. But Turkey can violate the Greek sovereign airspace
countless times as a national sport or hobby whenever it feels like it?
If Western authorities criticize Turkey for its policies, Turkey accuses them of
"intervening in Turkey's internal affairs."
For instance, when a group of journalists close to the movement of the Islamic
cleric Fethullah Gulen were detained in a mass arrest operation on December 14,
2014 in Turkey, the European Commission, in a joint statement, criticized the
police raids and arrests of the media representatives.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and the commissioner heading EU
enlargement talks also said the arrests went "against European values."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded in a public speech:
"When we take a step, someone in the European Union immediately comes up and
makes a statement. According to what do you make this statement? What do you
know?
"Those who have made this country wait at the gate of the European Union for 50
years, do you ever know what this [our] step is? The elements that threaten our
national security -- be they members of the press, or this or that -- will get
the required response. It is impossible for us to make them sovereign in this
country.
"And when we take such a step, we do not think about 'what will the European
Union say?' or 'will the EU accept us [as a member]?' We do not have such
concerns. We will pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Please keep your
intellect to yourselves."
Erdogan also said that the detentions were not an "issue" of press freedom and
claimed that the Fethullah Gulen movement was backed by Israel, which Erdogan
referred to as "the country in the south that he [Gulen] loves."
So, the European Union, of which Turkey is allegedly "striving" to be a member,
cannot even issue a critical statement concerning Turkey's policies because that
would "intervene in Turkish steps for national security," but Turkey can send
jihadist fighters, arms or funds into Syria or Iraq and destroy lives and
civilizations there?
Turkey seems to believe it always has to be strong and a leading force in the
region. But if Kurds -- an indigenous, stateless and persecuted people -- are to
gain a single right anywhere in the world, does Turkey find that unacceptable?
The entire history of Turkey as well as its current policies demonstrate that
Turkey believes Kurds are inferior to Turks. Turkey does not even recognize the
Kurds' right to be educated in Kurdish, evidently in an attempt to separate them
from their identity.
"The policy of Republican Turkey since its establishment in 1923," wrote the
author Amir Hassanpour, "is a typical case of what has been called 'linguicide'
or 'linguistic genocide.' Forcing the Kurds to abandon their language and become
native speakers of Turkish is the primary goal of the language policy."
Freedom and sovereignty are for Turks only. Kurds are just to be murdered or to
be Turkey's servants. This has been the state policy of Turkey ever since it was
founded in 1923.
"The master in this country is the Turk," said Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, Turkey's
first Minister of Justice, in 1930. "Those who are not genuine Turks can have
only one right in the Turkish fatherland, and that is to be a servant, to be a
slave. We are in the most free country of the world. They call this Turkey."
**Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is currently based in Washington DC.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone
website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without
the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Moment of transformation for Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/April 29/16
Positive change is taking place in my part of the world and for that I am
grateful to the leaderships of all GCC member countries, and especially to the
governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their decisive and
foresighted geopolitical and economic policies. A new era of unity,
self-reliance and self-defence is fast unfolding. I have been alerting the
leaderships of Gulf states of impending threats, both internal and external for
many years. I warned about the possibility of a ‘Grand bargain’ between the
United States and Iran designed to weaken predominately Sunni countries at a
time when the idea was thought to be outside the realm of possibility. I have
long urged Gulf heads of state to adopt a more independent stance towards
regional affairs, which involves being less reliant upon the ‘advice’ of foreign
powers that ultimately serve their own interests. I have outlined in detail my
concerns over a shift in the regional balance of power while stressing that in a
tumultuous neighbourhood plagued by conflicts, sectarianism and terrorism, the
urgent need to shore up our defences and do all that we can to preserve our
economic standing amid falling oil prices.
I did so because I care deeply about the security and stability of my own
homeland the United Arab Emirates as well as the safety of all our brotherly
neighbours with whom we share tribal bloodlines, religion and culture. I have
always longed for the day that we would be united, strong and well positioned to
independently react to dangers moving in our direction.
We have been too comfortable for too long. But that was then and this is now.
Saudi Arabia and its allies around the Gulf are taking a more assertive role in
various fields. The message is loud and clear: “Anyone who believes we can be
pushed around is in for a shock”. President Barack Obama wrongly accused us of
being “free riders” along with other uncomplimentary accusations. He did us a
favour. His opinions related by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic partnered with
the resolve of various presidential candidates to bar Muslims as well as
Congressional efforts to pass a law allowing individuals to sue Saudi Arabia for
its fictitious role in the September 11, 2001 attacks have rung alarm bells.
This brilliantly conceived plan will prove Saudi Arabia’s capability to compete
on a global level. No one should underestimate the country’s economic know-how
or its determination to succeed
I have always been a proud Emirati and citizen of the Gulf but rarely as proud
as I am today. Saudi Arabia asked no permission from foreign capitals to aid
Bahrain in its efforts to quell an Iranian-backed insurgency. And neither did
the Kingdom or its partner the UAE seek approval from Western leaders before
they launched a military intervention to free Yemen from an unlawful takeover by
Iranian proxies and to defend Saudi borders from enemy infiltration. We proved
our ability to defend our lands, our people and our brothers.
Our men and women, who did not hesitate to respond to the call, showed exemplary
bravery and commitment to the task of rescuing the Yemeni people and it is a
certainty they will do the same if the day comes when they need to defend our
homes and territories. I salute these fine young people and congratulate our
leaders for decisively rising to the occasion. Thanks to them we can hold our
heads up higher than ever and know deep in our hearts they will keep our
families safe from predator foes.
Collaborations
When the chips are down, GCC states always stand shoulder to shoulder. I was
gratified to learn that almost all predominately Sunni countries are with us as
evidenced by their willingness to join a Saudi-conceived Islamic Military
Counter Terror Coalition and to know that the formation of a Joint Arab Force is
proceeding as planned. In the short time since Salman bin Abdelaziz became the
King, he has displayed rare leadership skills and is fearless in his pursuit of
a powerful Arab world no matter how many toes he has to tread on to achieve his
aim. He has proven his ability to coalesce Sunni states into a mighty defence
bloc and is putting his progressive ideas concerning the Kingdom’s economic
trajectory into effect with his unveiling of a 15-year economic blueprint titled
Saudi Vision 2030. Saudi Vision 2030 includes three core themes – a vibrant
society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation – and is premised upon
reducing the country’s reliance on oil revenues through the expansion of its
investment portfolio and the capitalisation of opportunities in hitherto
untapped sectors, such as tourism, industry, mining, trade, commerce and
business.
During a rare interview on Al Arabiya aired on 25 April, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy
Crown Prince and Minister of Defence Prince Mohammed bin Salman revealed his
nation’s core aim. “We seek to develop our economy and create an attractive and
perfect environment in our homeland,” he said. To this end there will be job
creation, improved health care and the provision of recreational and cultural
opportunities. People sometimes assume that GCC governments are captive to a
fluctuating oil market. Saudi Arabia has put pay to that false assumption. Those
oil producing countries that have flooded the market driving prices to new lows,
while piling pressure on Riyadh to cut production in the hope of bringing Saudi
to heel, will be disappointed, with this announcement.
This brilliantly-conceived plan will prove Saudi’s capability of competing on a
global level. No one should underestimate the Kingdom’s economic know-how or
determination to succeed and anyone who was rubbing his hands together in glee
predicting the country’s economic collapse, should beware because it will not be
long before Saudi and its Gulf allies are economic world leaders. We Gulf Arabs
are not empty boasters. Our actions speak louder than words and it is
indisputable that we are now on the right economic, security and geopolitical
paths. Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund is set to be the biggest in the world worth
$1.9tn by 2030. At the same time, we are also leaders in philanthropy. The UAE
was one of the largest donors in the world in 2014 and 2016, and the Kingdom has
historically come to the rescue of its Arab allies in need and has shown
unstinting generosity towards countries facing economic woes. Our eyes are
fixated on the target. We will show the international community that we are not
dependent on anyone or anything, and prove that we can be successful surpassing
all expectations. Watch out world! We are very close.
Is soft power the key to Iran
dominating the Middle East?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/April 29/16
The mainstream media and politicians have emphasized Iran’s hard power, military
capacity and its army’s role in the Middle East, which is part of Tehran’s
expansionist policies. The emphasis is warranted. Nevertheless, focusing solely
on Iran’s hard power and military capacity is misplaced. By dedicating all their
resources and concentrating on Iran’s military capacity, regional and global
powers are running the risk of falling into the Iranian government’s political
trap which is what exactly Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and the high
commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) aim for.
It is accurate to argue that governments around the region should take the
Islamic Republic’s military capacity as well as the IRGC and Quds forces’
expansions in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen seriously. However, Iran still exerts a
significant amount of non-military influence in the region, and continues to
expand it, through manipulation of various soft power tactics. But it is crucial
to point out that although Iran’s major strategies of deploying successful soft
power resources remain intact, there is going to be a new trend and tactical
shift. Iranian leaders are delighted to make noise about their military power,
launch missiles in order to shift the focus from their real goals of exerting
influence and having a say in the domestic politics of neighboring countries.
Militarily speaking, Iranian leaders are cognizant of the fact that they are not
a match for the American military or other regional powers. The US can easily
inflict significant damage and even cripple Iran’s military infrastructure in
matter of weeks. Being aware of that, however, the Islamic Republic continues to
project its military power in order to steer attention away from the real
issues.
Manipulation of soft power
First of all, Iran’s soft power strategies are long-term oriented. As an Iranian
official once said to me, the reason behind Iran’s growing presence in the
region despite the sanctions and isolation were “soft power accompanied with
patience”. The Islamic republic was established with almost no allies in the
region. During the subsequent decades, they managed, with minimal cost to
dominate Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as have proxies in other countries in
the region, such as Bahrain and Yemen. If this trends continues, in 10 or 20
years, the number of these proxies and Iran’s influence in the region will
absolutely increase. Iran still exerts a significant amount of non-military
influence in the region, and continues to expand it, through manipulation of
various soft power tactics. Before sanctions were lifted, Iran focused primarily
on manipulating and capitalizing on the grievances of other groups, building
alliances with them, showing them they share the same ideological views (such
opposing Israel, opposing their government, helping them topple the Sunni
majority government, opposing the United States, etc.) Iran’s soft power is not
only theological but also ideological. Tehran does not only focus on building
alliances with Shiites in order to exert its influence in the region and
interfere in the domestic politics of countries. For example, Tehran is
currently forming strong relationships with some Kurdish Sunni groups by
demonstrating to them that Iran shares the same grievances with them.
After building alliances with these groups and forming a united public opinion,
Tehran then assists them in becoming political realities in those nations in
order to exert its influence through the “legitimate” political institutions of
that country. In this case, if the government of that particular nation is
overthrown, Iran’s proxy is well-placed to take over (such as in Iraq). Even if
the government is not overthrown, that government will think twice about
reacting to Iran (such as Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah). Secondly, Iran’s
soft power is multi-layered and sophisticated, encompassing several governmental
organizations. Iran also continues to use other strategies including cultural,
educational and religious institutions, such as training powerful Shiite
religious figures from other countries in Qum, establishing thousands of
seminaries, giving scholarships and fellowships to foreigners to come and study
Shiism in Iran, establishing Iranian studies programs in other countries,
promoting the Persian language, investing in Arabic and English news outlets
(such as Press TV, Al Alam, Al Kawthar), pioneering investments in religious
films- which advances Iran’s political version of Islam. Third, Iran’s soft
power is coherent and well-organized, although it might not always produce the
outcome that Tehran desires (For example, some instances of tension with Hamas).
As one can see, Iran used both top-down and bottom-up approach to utilize its
soft power and exert influence before sanctions were lifted. The emphasis at
this time was more on the bottom- up approach. But Iran’s priorities in soft
power strategies have tactically shifted due to the sanctions reliefs and its
application of hard power.
Vision 2030 and solar energy:
A timely development
Ahmed S. Nada/Al Arabiya/April 29/16
Much has already been said about the potential for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
to harness the power of solar energy. In the years that I’ve been in the solar
energy industry, rarely a conference goes by that does not have a segment
dedicated to talking about the country and how renewable energy must be factored
into its future. With the launch of Vision 2030, by Prince Mohammad bin Salman
bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Deputy Crown Prince and Chairman of the Council of
Economic and Development Affairs, the solar energy industry can now stop
speaking in speculative terms. That potential is now well defined and backed by
the country’s visionary leaders. The future is now. The Vision 2030 document
reveals a well-thought-out strategy that takes into consideration Saudi Arabia’s
strengths and its capabilities. The focus on specific sectors, including
renewables, is deliberate and evidently backed by a solid socio-economic
rationale.I have no doubt that there are far more qualified experts who can
comment on the various sectors included in the document and I will focus my
analysis on the two paragraphs that succinctly summarize Saudi Arabia’s emphasis
on developing its new renewable energy market.
By reviewing the legal and regulatory framework with a view to facilitate
private sector investment in renewable energy, Saudi Arabia effectively signals
that it is open for business. First and foremost, the upcoming launch of the
King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative and an “initial” renewable energy target
of 9.5 gigawatts (GW) made headlines for obvious reasons. What differentiates
this from previous initiatives announced by the country, is that Vision 2030 is
the highest level commitment to renewable energy ever seen from the Kingdom. The
“initial” target suggests that the country will grow its renewable energy
capacity in increments, taking advantage of future cost declines and efficiency
improvements, while also leaving the door open for emerging technologies. The
second point that stood out was the country’s commitment to “guarantee the
competitiveness of renewable energy through the gradual liberalization of the
fuel market.” This, in my opinion, is clear evidence that the government fully
intends to deliver on its renewable energy goals.
Liberalizing the fuel market
Subsidies for conventional fuels tend to hinder the adoption of renewables in
many net energy exporting countries, for the simple reason that renewables
simply cannot compete on an uneven playing field where subsidized oil is fueling
domestic power generation. By liberalizing the fuel market, Saudi Arabia will
effectively grant renewable energy technologies, such as thin film photovoltaic
(PV) solar, a level playing field on which to successfully compete against
conventional generation as they currently do in other markets. The document also
spells out Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to becoming a renewable energy power house,
citing research and development, and manufacturing as elements of the value
chain that the country would look to invest in. Vision 2030 accurately points
out that the country has “all the raw ingredients for success” and this cannot
be disputed. In fact, with the Balance of Systems – all the components of a PV
power plant excluding the module – accounting for roughly a quarter of the cost
of a solar power plant, the Kingdom is already well placed to leverage its
existing local manufacturing base for the steel, cables and even other
components, such as inverters, that are needed to build a utility-scale solar
energy program. The final aspect that needs to be highlighted is the emphasis on
public-private partnerships. By reviewing the legal and regulatory framework
with a view to facilitate private sector investment in renewable energy, Saudi
Arabia effectively signals that it is open for business.
While more details are forthcoming, with the launch of the King Salman Renewable
Energy Initiative, my hope is that Saudi Arabia will take a consultative
approach on its renewable energy policy framework by leaning on capable,
credible industry partners to share their expertise. This will allow the country
to skirt the steep learning curve that other markets have had to endure.
Speaking on First Solar’s behalf, I would welcome the opportunity to share our
views and over 13GW of global experience with Saudi Arabia, a country that we’ve
maintained a longstanding commitment to.
The skewed Middle East equation
Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/April 29/16
The Egypt Economic Development Conference that was held in Sharm al Sheikh in
March last year was a dramatic show of international investor support for
Egypt’s ambitious economic plans that aim to restore security and stability to
the Arab world’s most populous and, arguably, most important country.
World leaders, industry captains and investment heavyweights flew in from around
the world to deliver this very message, and by the end of the three-day
conference, had pledged US$36.2 billion in investments. It was, indeed, very
impressive – but more than a full year later, long after all the clapping and
cheering has finally quieted down, we must be a little more pragmatic both about
what was since achieved, and about what we need to do next. Sustainability, for
example, was a key recurring topic throughout the conference and, while there is
no arguing the importance of sustainable economic development to the security
and stability we so desperately seek, we seem to remain entirely unable or,
perhaps, unwilling to face a key fact: we’ve got our fundamental equation
entirely askew.
For the past sixty years or so, post colonization, most countries in the Middle
East have worked on the basis that security brings stability, and that stability
brings sustainable development. Unfortunately, it is the other way around
entirely: sustainable development brings stability, stability brings security.
That’s why we’ve never quite managed to make it to the “sustainable development”
part of the equation.
Egypt alone needs about US$85 billion over the next five years simply to create
a process for, and a path towards, sustainable development. To succeed in this
specific goal, these investments cannot be exclusively in glamorous, big-ticket
projects like many of those announced at the conference.
For the past sixty years or so, post colonization, most countries in the Middle
East have worked on the basis that security brings stability, and that stability
brings sustainable development
In fact, I am not sure how much of the money pledged or spoken for during the
conference is truly being earmarked for genuine sustainable development.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the majority of it is being invested in the
security-end of the equation: many are simply thinly-veiled attempts at trying
to buy security in the hope that this will, in turn, lead to stability and, from
there, sustainability.
It is tragic because we already know it doesn’t work. It is even more so because
we already know, as demonstrated by many, many developed economies, what
actually does work.
Long-term goals
We must think of our long-term goals, and recognize that all of us who
participated in the Sharm conference are part of the establishment and that we
must all, individually and collectively, pay a price to ensure that economic
sustainability becomes a tangible reality.
An important first step, and another key recurring topic at the conference, is
to work towards ensuring economic inclusion. This really is an obvious
prerequisite to any meaningful attempt at economic sustainability. We must
recognize that we are all born equal and that we should all be given the same
equal opportunities in a merit-based society.
Unfortunately, the concept of meritocracy does not seem to exist in the Arab
world. For many of us in the Middle East, this is a very difficult pill to
swallow – but, until we do, we will not be able to address the social ills that
are plaguing our communities.