llLCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 24/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may24.16.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006
Bible Quotations For Today
If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done
for you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15/01-08:"‘I am the true
vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears
no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in
me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.I am the vine, you
are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because
apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away
like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and
burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear
much fruit and become my disciples."
This Jesus is "the stone that
was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone." There is
salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among
mortals by which we must be saved."
Acts of the Apostles 04/05-12:"The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes
assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and
Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the
prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name
did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers
of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done
to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be
known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing
before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you
crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is "the stone that was
rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone." There is
salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among
mortals by which we must be saved."
Pope Francis's Tweet For
Today
In a broken world, to communicate with mercy means to help create closeness
between the children of God.
Dans un monde divisé, communiquer avec miséricorde signifie contribuer à la
proximité entre les enfants de Dieu.
إن التواصل برحمة، في عالم مقسّم، يعني المساهمة في القرب بين أبناء الله
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published on May 23- 24/16
Aoun to Christians: Apology accepted/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/May 23/16
Why Trump is a
better choice for the economy/Peter Morici/ FoxNews.com/May 23/16
Stéphane Dion urged to use Saudi arms deal to free Raif Badawi
ROBERT FIFE And STEVEN CHASE/OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail/May 23/16
The new coalition to destroy the Islamic State/David Ignatius/The Washington
Post/May 23/16
Pakistan: "Blasphemy" for Ethnic Cleansing/Lubna Thomas Benjamin/Gatestone
Institute/May 23/16
Europe: Allah Takes over Churches, Synagogues/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone
Institute/May 23/16
CAIR's Dawud Walid: Civil Rights Champion or Radical Hiding in the Open/M. Zuhdi
Jasser/Gatestone Institute/May 23/16
French Political Gymnastics and How to Help the Palestinians/Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone
Institute/May 23/16
Kurdish President Barzani: The Sykes-Picot Agreement Has Failed; It Is Time To
Establish A Kurdish State/MEMRI/May 23/16
There is no Plan B in Yemen, or in Syria/Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
The servants and the served/Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
Tunisia’s Ghannouchi and separating religion from politics/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al
Arabiya/May 23/16
A Qatif delegation visit to the Saudi General Intelligence Prison/Turki Al-Dakhil/Al
Arabiya/May 23/16
Education cannot wait/Sultan A. Al Saud/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
Titles Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 23- 24/16
Iran Says to Try to 'Speed Up' Held
Lebanese Man's Case
Captagon Powder Confiscated at Airport
Another Fake Bomb Discovered in Sidon
Salam from Istanbul: Syrian Refugees Will not be Naturalized in Lebanon
Communist Party Hails 'Remarkable Results' in South Elections
Interior Ministry Announces Official Results of Jezzine By-elections
U.S. Embassy Sponsors Lebanon-U.S. Terrorist Designations Workshop with the
Central Bank
Salameh in workshop on terrorism and money laundering: We are issuing required
regulations in favor of banking safety
Jreij arrives in Cairo
Salam, Parolin meet in Istanbul
Aoun, Greek Orthodox Gathering delegation meet at Rabieh
Aoun to Christians: Apology accepted
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
May 23- 24/16
Pope and top
imam hug in historic meeting
ISIS Would Have Taken All of Syria If Iran Hadn’t Helped Damascus: General
Soleimani
Iran: 23 executions in 2 days
PMOI supporters in Denmark denounce rights abuses in Iran
Taliban leader killed in U.S. strike was returning from Iran
We can destroy Israel in ‘less than 8 minutes’: Iranian commander
Iran political prisoner exposes Intelligence Ministry’s deceit in case of PMOI
Independent member of the U.K’s House of Lords & a member of the British
Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom,Lord Maginnis: Correcting the false
White House Iran narrative
145 killed as ISIS attacks Syria regime bastions
U.N., U.S. Condemn IS Bombings in Syria, Concerned about Escalation
U.S. Says Kerry Urged Lavrov to Press for End of Syrian Bombing of Rebels
Russia must push Syria to stop strikes, says US
Iraq: district northeast of Fallujah liberated from ISIS
Egypt prosecutor seeks data on crashed plane from France, Greece
Egypt parliament speaker warns MPs not to criticise monetary policy
Leaders try to fix failing aid system at Turkey summit
Turkish Airlines plane in Istanbul evacuated after bomb hoax: spokesman
Turkey could suspend EU deals: Erdogan advisor
Libya gives green light for EU coastguard training
Israeli rights group rejects court demand
Netanyahu rejects French peace initiative, offers to meet Abbas
UN Palestinian agency says half its schools hit by conflict
Incoming Turkish PM: New cabinet to be ready quickly
UN: Yemen foes resume direct talks after boycott
ISIS claims deadly attacks on Yemeni recruits in Aden
Zambia ‘worried at Iran’s attempts to spread sectarianism in Africa’
Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party reelects chief
Hajj stampede area to become a direct road to Jamarat site
Links From Jihad Watch Site for
May 23- 24/16
Iran: “We will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight
minutes”
Islamic State executioner was refugee in UK who turned to jihad after 17 days of
sermons at local mosques
Belgium’s Prime Minister: “This is not a war between the West and Islam”
UK convert to Islam jailed for trying to take her children to live in the
Islamic State
Germany’s largest Muslim organization gets Muslim prof fired for saying violent
Qur’an verses not valid for all time
Islamic State calls on Muslims to make Ramadan “a month of calamity everywhere
for the non-believers”
UK’s Cameron: Trump’s Muslim immigration ban “very dangerous thing to say”
Video: Robert Spencer on How Could ISIS Represent 1.5 Billion Muslims?
University of California Irvine: Angry mob screaming “F**k Israel, long live the
Intifada” chases Jewish student
U.S. backs arming new Libyan government to fight the Islamic
State
Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 23- 24/16
Iran Says to Try to 'Speed Up' Held
Lebanese Man's Case
Associated Press/Naharnet/May 23/16/Iran "will try to speed up" the case
involving a detained U.S. permanent resident who advocates Internet freedom, an
Iranian official said Monday, making the first government acknowledgment of the
man's detention. Hossein Jaberi Ansari's brief comments focused on Lebanese
citizen Nizar Zakka, who disappeared in Tehran in September after attending a
government-sponsored conference. Although no charges have been announced,
Iranian media has accused him of being an American spy, allegations vigorously
rejected by his family and associates. "The Iranian government will try to speed
up the process of addressing this issue and provide any help possible, but
ultimately a legal case should be addressed by judicial authorities," Ansari
said in Tehran at a weekly news conference. "Any verdict by the judicial
authorities will be the final ruling and we do not intervene in judicial
rulings." The Associated Press reported last week that the Washington-based
nonprofit organization headed by Zakka, IJMA3, had received grants totaling
$730,000 from the U.S. government for Middle East projects. It is not clear from
records obtained by the AP if any IJMA3 work involved Iran. Zakka's family and
his supporters are pressing the U.S. government to become more active in trying
to obtain his release, arguing that his arrest was due to his ties to America.
Supporters have written Secretary of State John Kerry stating Zakka traveled to
Iran "with the knowledge and approval of the U.S. State Department, and his trip
was funded by grants" from it. His friends say they can't obtain copies of the
contract from the State Department due to federal regulations. It's still
unclear what prompted Iranian authorities to detain Zakka. His supporters say
his September trip marked the fifth time he had traveled to Iran. Relations
between Iran and the U.S. remain tense even after the recent nuclear deal and a
prisoner swap in January that freed Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian
and three other Iranian-Americans. At least two Iranian-Americans are imprisoned
in the Islamic Republic, Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his
80-year-old father Baquer Namazi. Also unaccounted for is former FBI agent
Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA
mission.
Captagon Powder Confiscated
at Airport
Naharnet/May 23/16/The Finance Ministry said on Monday that the customs
authorities at the Rafik Hariri International Airport confiscated 1,110
kilograms of white powder that is used in the manufacturing of Captagon, the
National News Agency reported. The drugs were found in a shipment coming from
China, NNA said. It added that the related authorities have been contacted to
take the necessary measures. Three people with potential links were detained and
the file was referred to the central anti-narcotics bureau.
Another Fake Bomb Discovered
in Sidon
Naharnet/May 23/16/A fake bomb was found Monday in Sidon, media reports said, a
day after a similar object was discovered during the southern city's municipal
and mayoral polls. “Security forces discovered a suspicious object in the al-Dakraman
area near the southern entrance of the Lebanese University in Sidon,” reports
said. A security cordon was imposed in the region before a bomb technician
announced that the object was “a fake bomb consisted of a thermal indicator
connected to a small gas cylinder.”On Sunday, police found a fake bomb that was
planted in a school in Sidon, state-run National News Agency reported.The bogus
device was found in the Maarouf Saad Public School and was also tied to a
thermal indicator.
Salam from Istanbul: Syrian Refugees Will not be Naturalized in Lebanon
Naharnet/May 23/16/Prime Minister Tammam Salam stated on Monday that Lebanon
does not accept any form of naturalization of the Syrian refugees or granting
them the Lebanese citizenship, and urged U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to rally the
efforts to help displaced return to their homeland.“Lebanon’s constitution does
not allow it to neither accept nor reject any forms of integration, resettlement
or naturalization of Syrian refugees,” emphasized Salam from the World
Humanitarian Summit that kicked off in Istanbul on Monday. He voiced calls on
Ban to reactivate the United Nations' role and to put the efforts together to
return the refugees to their homeland. The PM affirmed that a political solution
"is the only way to end the conflict in Syria," pointing out that the gradual
return of displaced Syrians to safe areas in their country will, "without a
doubt affect," the course of the reconciliation process. He added that "Lebanon
does not have enough resources to help more than 1.5 million Syrians and
Palestinians who sought refuge on its territories." Salam had held talks on the
margins of the summit with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas. In an interview to the daily An Nahar on Monday, the
premier stressed that the controversial file of naturalizing refugees in host
countries requires close follow up. He made his stance in wake of controversial
statements made by Ban on the naturalization of displaced people. Ban made some
clarifications and denied that he was seeking to urge Lebanon to naturalize the
Syrian refugees on its territories. “We are thankful, but this does not mean
that we should not follow up on this matter amidst the decisions taken around
the world with regard to the refugees,” Salam said. “What applies in other
countries does not apply in Lebanon and vice versa,” he added.Salam denied
reports claiming that he will have a special meeting with Ban, saying: “There
are 177 participating countries (in the summit), but we might run into each
other and then I might have something to say. I am sure that he will be keen to
clarify things further.” According reports, Ban had said in a report he
submitted to the Vienna conference on Syria that refugees have the right to
obtain the nationalities of the countries they live in. Ban's remarks had
prompted an urgent meeting for the Lebanese government's Syrian refugee cell,
which comprises Salam, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Interior Minister Nouhad
al-Mashnouq, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas and Labor Minister Sejaan
Qazzi. It announced that it unanimously rejects any attempt to naturalize Syrian
refugees in Lebanon.
Communist Party Hails
'Remarkable Results' in South Elections
Naharnet/May 23/16/The Lebanese Communist Party declared Monday that it managed
to achieve “remarkable results” in the municipal and mayoral elections that took
place Sunday in the South and Nabatieh, after its candidates were able to win
against the powerful Hizbullah-AMAL Movement alliance in several towns. “The
preliminary results of the polls that were held in the South and Nabatieh
governorates have showed that the party has managed to achieve remarkable
results,” the LCP said in a statement. “The party's lists won in several
villages and towns and managed to clinch several seats on the municipal councils
of other towns while achieving noteworthy results in other towns,” it added.
“Elections in the South and the rest of the regions have indicated that there is
a groundwork for confronting the forces that are keen on this sectarian
political system which generates crises and encourages corruption,” the party
said. “The electoral achievements of the LCP and the rest of the leftist,
national and democratic forces as well as the civil society and the independents
hold us all responsible for unifying the efforts, continuing the confrontation
and taking to the streets to demand the legitimate rights of the people,” it
added. The party also called for “improving the services of water, electricity,
health, retirement and housing,” while urging “better wages and environment” and
demanding “a non-sectarian parliamentary electoral law based on proportional
representation and a single electorate.”According to its statement, the LCP-backed
lists won fully in the towns of Ain Baal, al-Hibbariyeh, Rashaya al-Fikhar,
Kfarshouba and Ibl al-Saqi. The party also managed to achieve partial wins in
the towns of Srifa, Ansar, Deir al-Zahrani, Kfar Rumman, al-Zrariyeh, Adloun,
Deir Siryan, Safad al-Batikh, Kfar Hamam, al-Taybeh, Tifahta, Ansariyeh, Tayr
Dibba, Deir Mimas, Aitaroun, Roum, Tayr Harfa, Blida, Blat, Azza, al-Abbasiyeh,
Ain Qinya and Bourj al-Molouk. The municipal polls first kicked off in the
capital Beirut and the Bekaa Valley on May 8. They were followed by elections in
Mount Lebanon on May 15. The last round will be held on May 29 in the North.
Interior Ministry Announces
Official Results of Jezzine By-elections
Naharnet/May 23/16/The Interior Ministry announced Monday that the candidate for
the vacant parliamentary seat in Jezzine, Amal Abou Zeid, has won the
by-elections. Abou Zeid, fielded by the Free Patriotic Movement, was elected for
the seat that was left vacant after the death of Change and Reform local MP
Michel Helou. He was facing other candidates running for the post. Abou Zeid
garnered 14,653 votes, Ibrahim Azar 7,759, Salah Nicolas Jebran 3,162, and
Patrick Rizkallah 399, said a ministry statement. The parliamentary by-elections
were held on Sunday in Jezzine in parallel with municipal and mayoral elections
in the district and entire South Lebanon. Abou Zeid was nominated by the FPM and
enjoyed key support from the Lebanese Forces, which was allied with the FPM in
the municipal polls. His main competitor was Azar, the son of ex-MP Samir Azar
who is close to Speaker Nabih Berri. Azar, who enjoyed the support of some
families, was expected to garner votes from Berri's AMAL Movement, although it
did not officially endorse him.
U.S. Embassy Sponsors Lebanon-U.S. Terrorist Designations Workshop with the
Central Bank
Naharnet/May 23/16/U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Richard Jones and Central Bank
Governor Riad Salameh delivered on Monday opening remarks at the Lebanon-U.S.
Terrorist Designations Workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in collaboration
with the Central Bank.The two-day event brings together representatives from
Lebanon’s legal and security institutions and the U.S. Departments of State,
Treasury, and Justice to discuss the shared U.S.-Lebanese commitment to
combating international terrorist finance. The workshop facilitates an exchange
of ideas and best practices on the role of terrorist designations in upholding
rigorous international standards to prevent the funding of terrorist
organizations. Sessions include an overview of designations authorities and
protocols, as well as hands-on exercises creating mock designation packages.
Participants will learn how to work in partnership with the international
community to list terrorists domestically and at the United Nations. Jones said
at the event: “We are confident that this important dialogue between our two
countries will improve our understanding of each other’s designations processes
and will enhance our coordination on designations and U.N. listings in the
future. “The United States and Lebanon have stood with one another to confront
terrorism here and abroad. In my continuing discussions with Lebanon’s leaders,
we have discussed the importance of our counter-terrorism relationship and
agreed on the need to strengthen that partnership. “Well known is our assistance
to the Lebanese army, including vital equipment, munitions, and training. This
help has supported Lebanon’s fight against the Islamic State group in Arsal and
along Lebanon’s border over the past several years. “We know Lebanon faces
tremendous challenges, and we remain committed to supporting its safety and
security. Our strong partnership, our resolve, and our resilience are our
greatest strengths in this battle. “Over the past few years, the threat from
terrorism has been heightened by the rise of the IS and the changing nature of
the global terrorist threat. It has forced the international community to look
differently at the way terrorist organizations operate – including how they
secure funding to finance their operations and the use of social media in
recruitment.”“This is why the United Nations and governments around the world
created and uphold legal frameworks to protect the international financial
system from abuse by these groups,” stressed Jones. “Our efforts to counter the
financing of terrorism are predicated on the use of international standards,
institutions and best practices from the U.N., the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),
regional FATF style bodies, the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs),
and similar entities. When the Lebanese Parliament passed a package of
anti-money laundering and terrorist finance legislation last November, it was a
major step to safeguard the integrity of the banking sector in accordance with
these standards. “Terrorist designations play a vital role in our overall
approach to counter the financing of terrorism. They protect our economic
systems from terrorist attack and abuse. They uphold the integrity of the
worldwide financial system and ensure that it is used for legitimate economic
activities, rather than aiding international terrorism. Additionally,
designations help to prevent the travel of known terrorists, thereby
safeguarding the region’s aviation, maritime, and other transportation systems
that are critical to travel and trade.“Designations, both domestic and
international, can help stem the flow of economic support to terrorists
operating throughout the region and the world by identifying and focusing
attention on which organizations and individuals to take financial
counter-measures against. This process is not haphazard but follows a precise
legal framework. It involves a multitude of domestic and international political
and law enforcement institutions that uphold rigorous standards.
“Over the course of this dialogue, our U.S. experts will share how the U.S.
designations process works, how we meet our international obligations at the
U.N., and how designations fit into international efforts to combat terrorist
finance. “We are eager to learn from you how similar actions are taken in
Lebanon. We look forward to sharing techniques, best practices, policies and
experiences, both positive and negative that help build skills and increase our
ability to work bilaterally, regionally and internationally. Working together,
we will be able to gain a better understanding of each other’s information
needs, which will ultimately lead to greater collaboration on future
designations and U.N. listings,” said the ambassador.
Salameh
in workshop on terrorism and money laundering: We are issuing required
regulations in favor of banking safety
Mon 23 May 2016/NNA - Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, said, "Despite the
challenges we are facing, we are continuing the exertion of required efforts and
the issuance of recommended regulations in favor of combating money laundering
and terrorism funding - something that safeguards the banking and financial
sector."Bank of Lebanon on Monday hosted a workshop under title, "US Lebanon
Terrorist Designations Exchange," with Salameh giving a word on the occasion.
"Implementing the international standards in the field of combating money
laundering and terrorism funding is a priority with respect to us since such
would protect our society and economy from crimes and enhance the safety of our
financial and banking sector," said Salameh. He added, "Such would protect the
sector from threats, especially the ones relevant to reputation, knowing that
Lebanon is a partner in the international efforts exerted in this concern."
Jreij arrives in Cairo
Mon 23 May 2016/NNA - Information Minister Ramzi Jreij arrived in Cairo this
evening to participate in the Arab Information Ministers Conference to be held
on Wednesday.
The Minister was received at the airport by Lebanon's permanent representative
at the Arab League, Antoine Azzam.
Salam, Parolin meet in
Istanbul
Mon 23 May 2016 /NNA - Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, currently in Istanbul, met
with the Foreign Minister of the State of Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Aoun, Greek Orthodox
Gathering delegation meet at Rabieh
Mon 23 May 2016/NNA - "Change and Reform" bloc head MP Michel Aoun met on Monday
at his Rabieh residence with Greek Orthodox Gathering Secretary General, former
MP Marwan Abu Fadel, who came in the company of a delegation of said Gathering.
Aoun to Christians: Apology accepted
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/May 23/16
After their thin municipal victories, nothing captured the mood of Lebanon’s
oligarchs better than a statement by Michel Aoun’s parliamentary bloc.“What
happened to them (and made them) challenge General Aoun in his lion’s den?” the
statement read, questioning the sanity of Aoun’s opponents in the district of
Jounieh. The statement added: “The (opponent) party was the one that transformed
the battle from one over development into a political one for the sake of
dividing the Christians… it lost, and the president (sic) of the bloc Michel
Aoun was victorious.”Throughout Lebanon, the chances of nonpartisan municipal
candidates were slim to non-existent. For decades, the oligarchs have maintained
patronage networks by dispensing state resources to partisans. Because it was
impossible for the nonpartisans to compete at the “services” level, that is
offer alternative patronage, they were forced to play the “platform” game. Thus,
Lebanon saw a surge in platforms, not all of which were realistic, smart or
achievable. Yet platforms shifted the debate from “which sectarian patriarch is
stronger” into one over governance.
Aoun initially accumulated power by stirring Christian hatred against the
Sunnis. The Christians believe that former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri stole
their thunder. Aoun promised Christians to regain the upper hand if they rallied
around him. Once they did, Aoun carved for himself a piece of the state. With
state resources and money from Iran, Aoun put together a well-funded patronage
network for the Christians, and started thumbing his chest, arguing that
Christians, under his leadership, got their horse back in the race. But apart
from the patronage network that is usually narrow and covers a small core of
loyalists, the Christians of Lebanon remained as weak as ever. Their average
income did not rise, their demographics did not increase and their rate of
emigration did not recede. This means that when Aoun talks about restoring power
to Christians, he means to a small group of Christians that includes his family
and the circle around it. Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, who has yet to
win in an election, now display signs of wealth unjustifiable for a former army
general and a middle class engineer.
Aoun has maintained a network with which he has killed democratic competition,
not only at the state level as he has kept Lebanon without a president for two
years, but also at the local level where he monopolized power at the expense of
other Christians. Aoun’s model is not particularly his. It is the same old
tribal configuration that has been serving Lebanon’s oligarchs for over five
centuries. Druze patriarch Walid Jumblatt and Shiite Speaker of Parliament Nabih
Berri have perfected this game since they have been in power — undisputed — from
1977 and 1978 respectively. Not so long ago, late Sunni Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and Shiite Hezbollah were able to build similar, yet much bigger
networks, often without recourse to state resources, thanks to their generous
regional sponsors Riyadh and Tehran. But with oil prices tumbling, both Hariri
and Hezbollah have become increasingly reliant on the state. This is why we saw
both Hariri and Hezbollah (usually nonchalant toward elections) engage in a
bitter fight against their own partisans who dared to challenge them in
municipal elections, just like Aoun did in Jounieh. The reason why Lebanon’s
oligarchs fought hard to win the powerless municipal councils was due to the
potential that such councils offer competitors. Had the oligarchs let go of
these councils, their tight grips over their own sects might have loosened, and
before they knew it, a competing patronage network might have emerged within
their respective sects.
And because such a fight is local, sectarian scaremongering failed and the
oligarchs won by slim margins. Hariri called his ticket “Beiruti” (read Sunni)
to undermine Sunni rivals. Aoun claimed his Christian opponents received “black”
(read Saudi oil) funding. An opponent of Hezbollah complained that unless he
were a martyr, it was impossible to compete with the Party of God and its
“resistance” (read Shiite) talk. But the oligarchs realize parliamentary
elections are coming, and that they will need the same locals whom they defeated
in municipal elections. Therefore, Aoun’s statement concluded: “Aoun is the
strongest Christian, and his movement is on top. To those who have challenged
him, apology accepted.”Perhaps this is why, instead of falling back inline,
those Christians, Shiite, Sunni and Druze who dared to challenge their oligarchs
should rally together in the coming parliamentary elections and give the
oligarchy another beating. This is why the oligarchy will never approve of an
electoral law that makes Lebanon into one district. Such law will allow the
Lebanese to come together and show the oligarchs how angry they are.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
May 23- 24/16
Pope and top imam hug in historic meeting
AFP, Vatican Monday, 23 May 2016/Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on
Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and
exchange of kisses. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s
Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a
significant improvement in relations between the two faiths since Francis took
office in 2013. “Our meeting is the message,” Francis said in a brief comment to
a small pool of reporters present at the start of his meeting with Sheikh Ahmed
al-Tayeb. In a statement on the trip, Al-Azhar said Tayeb had accepted Francis’s
invitation in order to “explore efforts to spread peace and co-existence.”The
“very cordial” meeting lasted around 30 minutes, the Vatican said in a statement
after the talks. Tayeb’s decision to fly to Rome, unexpectedly announced last
week, followed the easing of serious tensions that marked the reign of Francis’s
predecessor, Benedict XVI. Ties were badly soured when the now-retired Benedict
made a September 2006 speech in which he was perceived to have linked Islam to
violence, sparking deadly protests in several countries and reprisal attacks on
Christians. Pope John-Paul II met the then-grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo in
2000, a year before the September 11 attacks on New York transformed relations
between the West and the Islamic world.
ISIS Would Have Taken All of Syria If Iran Hadn’t Helped Damascus: General
Soleimani
Tasnim News Agency/FrontPage/May 23/16/The Commander of the Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, commented on
Tehran’s assistance to the Syrian government in the ongoing war, stressing that
Damascus would have fallen if it was not for Iran’s help.
Here’s IFP’s translation of excerpts from General Soleimani’s Monday May 23
remarks, as reported by Tasnim. “Today, the Islamic Republic is on the winning
side in the battle against Takfiris [radical Islamic terrorists], and we are
witnessing their defeat,” General Soleimani said in an address to seminary
teachers and students in Qom. “If the Islamic Republic had refused to help the
Syrian government resistance, Daesh [also known as ISIS and ISIL] would be
ruling the entire country today.”He further talked about US attempts to foster
sectarian wars with the aim of defeating Iran, and stressed that Washington is
now being forced to withdraw from all its targets. “In spite of all US pressure,
Sunnis, Shiites, and the Kurds of Iraq are now in favour of Iran, and are proud
of their friendship with Tehran,” General Soleimani added.“Today, the Islamic
Republic is definitely the victor in all regional fields; of course we have
played minor roles in certain fields, but the enemy has been defeated even in
those, due to its incorrect ideas.” The IRGC general also pointed to the ongoing
war in Yemen, stating that the enemy’s “arrogant war” has led to their own
defeat. “The result of the Yemen war is the stabilization of [Houthi]
Ansarullah’s power,” he said.Quoting materials from Iran Front Page is permitted
only if the source is mentioned by name.
Iran: 23 executions in 2 days
Sunday, 22 May/16/Iranian Resistance calls for saving the lives of 10 young prisoners facing the
gallows.
At a time when 23 prisoners were executed on May 17 and 18 in the prisons of
Urumieh, Tabriz, Yazd, Yasouj, Sari and Mashhad across Iran, another 10 young
prisoners between the ages of 21 and 25 are currently facing imminent execution.
On Saturday, May 21, these inmates were transferred from various wards,
including the youths’ ward, in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj (west of Tehran) to
solitary confinement in the quarantine ward of this facility, specifically
allocated for prisoners before being sent to the gallows. The Iranian Resistance
calls on the international community and especially human rights organizations
to take urgent action aimed at preventing these vicious executions. The goal of
the mullahs’ regime in Iran, already engulfed in crises, in increasing the
horrendous use of executions is to cement a climate of fear in society to rein
in increasing social protests. Yasouj public prosecutor Mehrdad Karimi said that
these executions “will teach a lesson for others in the society, and the
judiciary will take action with the utmost severity and full jurisdiction.”
“There is no longer any time for counseling and this is a black month for
hooligans and thugs; a new trend has been launched in the judiciary system… in
the next few days several hooligans and thugs will be executed,” said Isfahan
Province police chief Abdulreza Agha-Khani while launching the oppressive
“Social Security” plan from May 21 and announcing the arrest of seven
individuals described as ‘hooligans and thugs.’“In implementing the plan to
improve security, the struggle against hooligans and thugs is priority number
one, and actions will be taken against drug distributors, people harassing
women, raucousness regarding vice and hijab regulations, violating luxurious
halls and restaurants, dog runners and vehicles with +20% tinted windows,” he
added. (State-run Tasnim news agency – May 21, 2016).
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/May 22, 2016
PMOI supporters in Denmark
denounce rights abuses in Iran
Monday, 23 May 2016/NCRI – Supporters of the main Iranian opposition group
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) on Saturday, May 21,
rallied in the Danish city Aarhus to denounce the Iranian regime’s appalling
human rights violations. They strongly condemned the recent increase in the rate
of executions and torture in Iran. The PMOI (MEK) supporters in Denmark also
denounced the suppression of teachers and workers by the mullahs’ regime.One of
their banners urged European officials to “Make improvement of relations with
Tehran contingent on cessation of executions.”Another banner read: “End
suppression of teachers in Iran.”They pointed out that since Hassan Rouhani took
office as president of the mullahs’ regime, the human rights situation in Iran
has drastically deteriorated.
Taliban leader killed in U.S.
strike was returning from Iran
Monday, 23 May 2016/NCRI - The man killed over the weekend by a U.S. drone
attack in Pakistan and believed to be Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar
Mansour had just returned from Iran when his vehicle was struck, Pakistani
security officials told AFP on Sunday. The U.S. late Saturday said Mansour was
"likely killed" in the attack in Pakistan's southwestern province of
Baluchistan. Afghanistan's spy agency said Sunday that Mansour was dead. His
passport found at the scene showed he had left for Iran on March 28 and returned
the day he was killed. "He was returning from Iran when he was hit by a drone
strike near the town of Ahmad Wal," one security official told AFP. An
immigration official at the border town of Taftan confirmed the man's travel
dates, adding that he was carrying euros when he entered Pakistan which he then
converted to Pakistani rupees. A passport and ID card recovered from the scene
gave the man's name as Muhammad Wali, a resident of Killa Abdullah district of
Baluchistan province who was born on January 1, 1972. The second address listed
on his ID card was in Karachi. The photographs on both documents both closely
resemble known photographs of Mullah Mansour. In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign
ministry revealed that the slain person was killed within hours of entering
Pakistan from Iran. “His passport was bearing a valid Iranian visa,” the foreign
ministry said. “He was traveling on a vehicle hired from a transport company in
Taftan.”The statement said the passport was in the name of “Wali Muhammad S/o
[son of] Shah Muhammad.”Based in part on wire reports
We can destroy Israel in ‘less than
8 minutes’: Iranian commander
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Monday, 23 May 2016/A senior Iranian military
commander has claimed that the Islamic Republic is capable of destroying Israel
in under eight minutes, the latest of a long series of threats against what it
deems as the “Zionist regime.”“If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be
executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the
Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” said Ahmad Karimpour, a senior
adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force. Iran’s
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s head of state and most
powerful figure, has repeatedly threatened to annihilate the Jewish state. In
September, the 76-year-old leader suggested Israel would not exist in 25 years’
time. Iran’s current president, Hassan Rowhani, represents Iran’s moderate
faction, and usually strikes a more reconciliatory tone. But he also has shown
support for the Islamic Republic’s missile program. Earlier this month, Iran’s
military said that it had successfully tested a precision-guided, ballistic
missile with a 2,000 kilometer range – easily within reach of Israel, the
state-run Tasnim agency reported. Although Iran signed an accord with six world
powers last July, pledging to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for
lifting of sanctions, ballistic missiles are not covered in the agreement. In
March, the US placed fresh sanctions on several companies in the Islamic
Republic over the testing of a ballistic missile.
Iran political prisoner
exposes Intelligence Ministry’s deceit in case of PMOI
Monday, 23 May 2016/NCRI - Iranian political prisoner Afshin Baymani has written
an open letter from inside Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison
exposing the activities of the agents of the Iranian regime's Ministry of
Intelligence and Security (MOIS or VEVAK) against members of Iran's main
opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), in
Camp Liberty, Iraq. In his letter, Mr. Baymani ridicules MOIS agents for
pretending that they have gone to the gates of Camp Liberty to 'liberate' family
members who are PMOI (MEK) members. He points out that if these Iranian
intelligence agents, posing as relatives of PMOI members, are indeed genuine in
seeking people's freedom, then rather than travelling thousands of kilometers to
Camp Liberty, they could make a short trip to Gohardasht Prison where Mr.
Baymani is held and ask the regime to free him instead. Mr. Baymani further
exposes the treacherous suggestions of the MOIS agents who are urging Camp
Liberty residents to return to Iran to live under the 'compassion of the
regime,' pointing out that his own mistreatment by the mullahs' regime has
brought him to the point that he would even wish execution for himself rather
than continuing to languish in Iran's notorious dungeons. Mr. Baymani, in his
mid-forties, suffers from a serious heart condition and is being held in Ward 4
of Hall 12 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran. Last week he was
refused hospital treatment by the authorities after suffering what appeared to
be a heart attack. Mr. Baymani, a father of two, has been imprisoned for some 16
years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and Gohardasht Prison for allegedly
helping his brother evade arrest. Mr. Baymani was originally sentenced to
execution on September 6, 2000, but his sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment six years later.
The following is the text of his open letter which has been smuggled out of
prison: Your friend is in prison, and yet you are looking in the other corners
of the world…
One of the prisoners told me about an article, after which I was quite baffled
for hours. My God, what is going on?! It mentioned that a number of family
members of PMOI (MEK) members had gone to the gates of Camp Liberty and demanded
their freedom. I saw it necessary to write a few sentences and tell them that if
there is the slightest honesty in their souls, they should come to their senses.
Why have you gone through all the trouble and travelled thousands of kilometers
to free an individual from Camp Liberty? Why instead don’t you come and see me,
Afshin Baymani, who hasn’t been a PMOI member or experienced their way of life
and ask the Iranian regime to have me released? If this is asking too much, at
least ask them to give me a few days furlough after 16 years behind bars. If
this is also asking for too much, repeal my court ruling and have me executed
quickly. With all this I would be relieved from the pressures and sufferings of
prison life, and my family and two dear children would no longer be hoping in
the lies fed to them by the Ministry of Intelligence. To all those ‘families’
who introduce themselves as saviors of the Ashrafis [PMOI members], do you also
consider asking for my execution to be asking for too much? I am also asking you
to call on the regime that if it agrees to my request, it would also donate all
my body parts to those in need when it executes me. I should add that I am not
speaking to you from abroad for you to have to go to all the trouble of going
around the world to save people in need. In fact, I am in the same country that
you claim its people enjoy freedom and welfare, and whose people you claim to
support with all your heart without seeking any remuneration. My address is very
simple: Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, Hall number 12.
Is it truly not ridiculous? After 16 years in prison because of the MOIS' lies,
an individual in the Iranian regime’s custody has reached the point of seeking
his emancipation in the gallows. His only accusation is that he has been with
his brother, a PMOI member, for a few days, and yet you would instead want to
have the real PMOI members returned to [Iran] to ‘continue a free and dignified
life under the compassion of the regime’?! Whoever reads this letter and thinks
I am lying or mistaken, feel free to guide me. Finally, I want to address those
individuals living in Camp Liberty. On my behalf tell those [Iranian
intelligence] people gathering at Camp Liberty’s gate that if you want to
liberate a dove, first start with those you have caged for years, and those who
you are killing each day, so that you would actually prove your honest
intentions for everyone. Then you can go for the doves who are in their nests
and speak of more freedom.
Independent member of the
U.K’s House of Lords & a member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran
Freedom,Lord Maginnis: Correcting the false White House Iran narrative
NCRI/National Council of Resistance of Iran/Monday, 23 May/16 /It can be no
surprise how political debate on the West’s policy toward Iran has intensified
in the wake of the recent New York Times Magazine article revealing the
deliberate deceptions carried out by the Obama administration to justify its
nuclear negotiations and its broader policy of appeasement, Lord Maginnis of
Drumglass has said.
"White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben
Rhodes helped President Obama convince not only American policymakers, but
policymakers and citizens throughout much of the world, that the Iranian regime
had achieved moderation under President Hassan Rouhani, and that it was well on
its way to reform," Lord Maginnis wrote on Monday in The Washington Times. "Yet
anyone with even a modicum of understanding of Iranian politics and the regime’s
ideology would have recognized the deceit, and a number of my own colleagues
remained admirably resistant to the White House narrative. But perhaps
unsurprisingly, given that the current United Kingdom Foreign Office functions
without any obvious coherent policy or strategy, others embraced it with little
question. While that may have been out of a naive sense of loyalty to one’s own
administration, others appear to do so simply through an eagerness that European
businesses could claim the benefits of re-engagement with Iran’s oil and export
economy."
Lord Maginnis, who is an independent member of the United Kingdom’s House of
Lords, added that the Obama administration's deal with the Iranian regime has
allowed the mullahs to carry out systematic human rights abuses at home,
threaten Iran's neighbors and Western democracies, and destructively intrude
into conflicts like those still tearing apart Syria and Yemen.
"One must hope that those who supported the Obama administration’s narrative
will do everything in their power to reverse those effects now that they know
how the White House narrative was based on convenient falsehoods. Surely, it is
not too much to hope that they will recognize the all-too-evident lack of
prospects for improvement in Iran’s behavior, and will take appropriate measures
to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran to effect those concessions
that it will never offer up on its own," he wrote.
"But perhaps what is more important than reversing the immediate effects of our
recent mistakes is simply making sure that we learn from them. It is conceivable
that some Western policymakers accepted the nuclear deal and its implied trend
toward appeasement because they took it for granted that the most powerful
figures in the U.S. government would understand what was going on in the Middle
East, that they would not deliberately seek to mislead NATO allies about
something so important."
"The New York Times Magazine bluntly implies that the harmful impact of recent
Iran policy was largely the result of lies. But it is entirely possible that
somewhere along the line, highly placed figures in the administration genuinely
believed that Iran was capable of internal reform, and that Mr. Rouhani could be
the one to bring it about."
"Such ideas have been thoroughly and systematically disproved both during and
after the nuclear negotiations. Mr. Rouhani’s negotiators repeatedly pushed for
more concessions, and the P5+1 nations naively offered them up only to find the
Iranians conducting ballistic missile tests and making a range of other
provocative gestures of defiance. And far from encouraging moderation, Mr.
Rouhani responded by ordering his defense minister to greatly expand the
country’s ballistic missile program."
"At home, Mr. Rouhani has also presided over the worst period of executions in
more than 20 years of Iranian history, thereby demonstrating that the prospects
for reform were every bit as bad for Iran’s domestic policy as for its foreign
policy."
"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Obama administration presented
the world with an unequivocally false narrative about Mr. Rouhani and the future
of the Islamic republic. In so doing, it demonstrated that Mr. Obama’s wishful
legacy cannot automatically be trusted. Worse is that, by extension, it now
casts doubt upon every subsequent president, and upon careless European
governments that, like the United Kingdom, unquestioningly drift along with
Washington’s foreign affairs narrative."
"If anyone should be entrusted with pointing the way on Iran policy, it is
surely those who have direct experience with the Islamic republic, its ideology
and abuses, and who could have no motive for formulating their policies other
than to improve the lot of their homeland and the Iranian people."
"Fortunately, such people express their views en mass every year, when the
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), led by Maryam Rajavi, holds its
annual international gathering in Paris. Last year, many of those experienced
Western ex-military and political activists who opposed the Obama
administration’s narrative were in attendance, alongside an estimated crowd of
100,000 Iranian expatriates and their lay supporters. Unfortunately, those who
had succumbed to the White House narrative were not only absent but were utterly
dismissive of the NCRI’s alternative message — that real change cannot come to
Iran until the theocratic regime comes to an end."
"In light of what we now know, those who dismissed this message in the past can
and should begin the long process of making up for their mistake by expressing a
tolerance of and attention to this year’s gathering of the NCRI, which is
scheduled for July 9, and which has the credibility to set the tone of Western
policy toward Iran in the months ahead," the article added.
***Kenneth Maginnis of Drumglass is an independent member of the United
Kingdom’s House of Lords and a member of the British Parliamentary Committee for
Iran Freedom.
145 killed as ISIS attacks Syria regime bastions
Agencies Monday, 23 May 2016/ISIS claimed a series of bombings in two Syrian
regime bastion cities on Monday, killing more than 140 people. Attackers set off
at least five suicide bombs and two devices planted in cars, the Observatory
said, the first assaults of their kind in Tartous, where government ally Russia
maintains a naval facility, and Jableh in Latakia province, near a
Russian-operated air base. The Observatory said 145 people were killed in the
attacks by at least five suicide bombers and two devices planted in cars. State
media said 78 people had been killed in what is President Bashar al-Assad’s
coastal heartland. The Observatory's head Rami Abdel Rahman said the scale of
the attacks on the two cities was "unprecedented". One of the four blasts in
Jableh hit near a hospital and another at a bus station, while the Tartous
explosions also targeted a bus station, the Observatory and state media
reported. State television broadcast footage of the damaged bus station in
Tartous, where charred mini-buses lay on their sides while others were still
ablaze. The two cities targeted are both strongholds of the regime of President
Bashar al-Assad -- whose family hails from the village of Qardaha, just 25
kilometers east of Jableh. They have been relatively insulated from the war
raging in Syria, which has killed at least 270,000 people since March 2011.
Pictures circulated by pro-Damascus social media users showed dead bodies in the
back of pick-up vans and charred body parts on the ground. ISIS claimed the
attacks in a statement posted online by the group's Amaq news agency, saying its
fighters had targeted "gatherings of Alawites". Syria's Information Minister
Omran al-Zoubi said in an interview with Ikhbariya that terrorists were
resorting to bomb attacks against civilians instead of fighting on the
frontlines, and vowed to keep battling them.Damascus refers to all insurgents
fighting against it in the five-year conflict as terrorists. Bombings in the
capital Damascus and western city Homs earlier this year killed scores and were
claimed by ISIS, which is fighting against government forces and their allies in
some areas, and separately against its militant rival al-Qaeda and other
insurgent groups. Latakia city, which is north of Jableh and capital of the
province, has been targeted on a number of occasions by bombings and insurgent
rocket attacks, including late last year. Government forces and their allies
have recently stepped up bombardment of areas in Aleppo province in the north,
which has become a focal point for the escalating violence. Insurgents have also
launched heavy attacks in that area. (With AFP and Reuters)
U.N., U.S. Condemn IS Bombings in Syria, Concerned about Escalation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 23/16/U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on
Monday condemned bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in two Syrian
coastal cities and voiced concern about the military escalation in and around
Damascus.
More than 148 people were killed in the bomb blasts at bus stations, hospitals
and a power station in the cities of Jableh and Tartus, two strongholds of
President Bashar Assad's regime. Ban "condemns the terrorist attacks today that
claimed the lives of dozens of civilians in the Syrian coastal cities of Jableh
and Tartus," said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. He expressed "great concern"
over the escalating military activity in and around Damascus, particularly in
Daraya, Aleppo and Idlib and in northern Homs, especially Al-Houla, he added.
Fourteen civilians -- four of them children -- were killed when a barrage of
barrel bombs hit the town of Al-Houla and neighboring villages last week,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Barrel bombs are
indiscriminate weapons typically dropped from helicopters. Their use in Syria's
war has come under fierce criticism by rights groups but the regime denies using
them.
Ban renewed his call to all warring factions to spare civilians and said those
responsible for such attacks must face justice. U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to urge him to
press the Damascus regime to halt its attacks on Aleppo and Daraya, the U.S.
State Department said. "Russia has a special responsibility in this regard to
press the regime to end its offensive attacks and strikes that kill civilians,
immediately allow relief supplies (...) and to comply completely with the
cessation of hostilities," said spokesman Mark Toner in Washington.
The United States strongly condemned the attacks in Jableh and Tartus and vowed
to continue its military campaign against IS jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
U.S. Says Kerry Urged Lavrov
to Press for End of Syrian Bombing of Rebels
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 23/16/The United States urged Russia on Monday
to press Syria to stop bombing opposition forces and civilians in Aleppo and the
Damascus suburbs.
The appeal came in a phone call from Secretary of State John Kerry to his
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "Russia has a special responsibility in this
regard to press the regime to end its offensive attacks and strikes that kill
civilians, immediately allow relief supplies, as determined solely by the U.N.,
to reach all in need, and to comply completely with the cessation of
hostilities," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. The United States and
Russia are co-partners in the so-called Vienna diplomatic process of the
International Support Group for Syria, which met last week in the Austrian
capital but made no notable progress. The 20 world and regional powers taking
part in the process have so far failed to turn a fragile cessation of
hostilities in Syria, in effect since February 27, into a durable truce between
the government and opposition groups. Toner said the regime of President Bashar
Assad was using air strikes and attacks on civilians to gain tactical
advantage.He said the United States is looking to Russia to provide the pressure
needed to get the regime "to reconsider the fact that if this keeps up, we may
be looking at a complete breakdown of the cessation."He said a cessation of
hostilities was needed to create an environment for negotiations to begin.
Indirect negotiations between the government and the opposition have been held
three times in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations, but have made no
progress. No date has been set for their resumption. "Such a (diplomatic)
solution will allow all parties to focus on the shared threat posed by Daesh and
other terrorists," Toner said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State,
the anti-regime militant group that the United States is also fighting.
Russia must push Syria to stop
strikes, says US
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Monday, 23 May 2016/The United States urged
Russia on Monday to push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to stop
air strikes on opposition forces and civilians in the Aleppo and Damascus
suburbs.The appeal came in a phone call from Secretary of State John Kerry to
his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. “Russia has a special responsibility in
this regard to press the regime to end its offensive attacks and strikes that
kill civilians, immediately allow relief supplies, as determined solely by the
UN, to reach all in need, and to comply completely with the cessation of
hostilities,” the department said in a statement reported by AFP. The United
States is concerned about an surge in violence in Syria - by both ISIS and
Assad's forces - and said Russia had a special responsibility to press the
Syrian leader to end attacks and strikes that kill civilians, said State
Department spokesman Mark Toner. The Syrian government needs to recognize that
"if this keeps up, we may be looking at a complete breakdown" of the cessation
of hostilities, Toner said. A truce brokered by the United States and Russia in
February has been unraveling for weeks. Washington urged the Assad regime to end
its escalating attacks on Aleppo and Daraya, as well as besieging towns and
obstructing humanitarian access, the department said. Meanwhile on Monday, the
UN chief condemned ISIS bombings which killed over 148 people in Syria’s two
coastal cities of Jableh and Tartus – strongholds of Assad’s regime.He expressed
“great concern of the escalating military activity in many areas in and around
Damascus,” according to his spokesman. (With AFP and Reuters)
Iraq: district northeast of Fallujah
liberated from ISIS
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Monday, 23 May 2016/Iraqi forces have liberated
Gourma distrtict northeast of Fallujah on Monday, Al Arabiya News Channel’s
correspondent reported Baghdad Operations Command as saying. The announcement
comes after Iraqi forces clashed with ISIS militants near Fallujah on Monday
while bombing central districts in the initial hours of an offensive to retake
the militant stronghold just west of Baghdad that could last several weeks. Some
of the first direct engagement occurred in al-Hayakil area on the city’s
southern outskirts, a resident said. Troops also approached the northern suburb
of Garma, the top municipal official there said, to clear out militants before
turning attention towards the city center. Air strikes and mortars overnight
targeted neighborhoods inside the city proper where ISIS is thought to maintain
its headquarters. But the bombardment had eased by daylight. Later on Monday,
the UN called for “safe corridors” to be set up to allow Iraqi civilians to flee
the offensive. Some 50,000 civilians in the city are at “great risk” during a
campaign against IS fighters by the Iraqi army backed by militias, said a UN
spokesman. Earlier, the government called on civilians to flee and said it would
open safe corridors to areas south of Fallujah. Residents living in the center
said they had moved to relative safety in outlying northern areas but roadside
bombs were preventing them from leaving the city. Iraqi and US officials
estimate there are as many as 100,000 civilians still living in Fallujah, a city
on the Euphrates river whose population was three times that size before the
war. A six-month siege has created acute shortages of food and medicine, pushing
the city towards humanitarian crisis.
Iraqi forces advance ‘carefully’
Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, speaking on state
television, described the forces’ advance as “careful” and reliant on engineers
to dismantle roadside bombs planted by the militants. Fallujah, a longtime
bastion of Sunni Muslim militants, 50 km (30 miles) from Baghdad, was the first
city to fall to ISIS, in January 2014. Six months later, the group declared a
caliphate spanning large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi forces have
surrounded the city since last year but focused most combat operations on
ISIS-held territories further west and north. The authorities have pledged to
retake Mosul this year in keeping with a US plan to dislodge ISIS from their de
facto capitals in Iraq and Syria. But the Fallujah operation, which is not
considered a military prerequisite for advancing on Mosul, could push back that
timeline. Two offensives by US forces against al-Qaeda insurgents in Fallujah in
2004, which left the city badly damaged, each lasted about a month. There are
currently between 500 and 700 ISIS militants in Fallujah, according to a recent
US military estimate. Army helicopters were shelling ISIS positions in nearby
Garma and targeting movement in and out of the area in order to weaken
resistance enough for ground troops to enter, Mayor Ahmed Mukhlif told Reuters.
The defence minister and army chief of staff visited part of that northern axis
on Monday, a ministry statement said.
Populated city
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who also faces political and economic crises in
the major OPEC producer, visited a command center set up nearby to oversee
operations, exchanging his suit for the black uniform of an elite commando unit.
Announcing the offensive in a late-night speech, Abadi said it would be
conducted by the army, police, counter-terrorism forces, local tribal fighters
and a coalition of mostly Shiite Muslim militias. Iraqi officials say the
militias, including ones backed by Iran, may be restricted to operating outside
the city limits, as they were largely in the battle for nearby Ramadi six months
ago, to avoid aggravating sectarian tensions with Sunni residents. State
television showed footage of armored vehicles sitting among palm groves on the
city's outskirts, a green tracer glow emanating from shells and machine gun
fire. Video showed a family standing in the daylight outside a simple one-storey
home, cheering and waving a white flag as a military convoy passed by. (With
Reuters)
Egypt prosecutor seeks data on
crashed plane from France, Greece
Reuters, Cairo Monday, 23 May 2016/Egypt’s Public Prosecutor has asked his
French counterpart to hand over data on the crashed EgyptAir plane during its
stay at Charles de Gaulle airport and until it left French airspace, his office
said in a statement on Monday. Nabil Sadek was requesting documents, audio and
video records, it said. He has also asked Greek authorities to hand over
transcripts of calls between the pilot and Greek air traffic control officials,
and for the officials to be questioned over whether the pilot sent a distress
signal. EgyptAir flight 804 from Paris to Cairo vanished off radar screens early
on Thursday as it entered Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean. The 10 crew
and 56 passengers included 30 Egyptian and 15 French nationals. Ships and planes
scouring the sea north of Alexandria have found body parts, personal belongings
and debris from the Airbus 320, but are still trying to locate the "black box"
recorders that could shed light on the cause of Thursday's crash. French
investigators say the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had
been detected on board shortly before it disappeared. The signals did not
indicate what caused the smoke or fire, and aviation experts have not ruled out
either deliberate sabotage or a technical fault. Greek Defence Minister Panos
Kammenos said on Friday that Greek radar had picked up sharp swings in the jet’s
trajectory as it plunged from a cruising altitude to 15,000 feet, then vanishing
from radars.
Egypt parliament speaker warns MPs
not to criticise monetary policy
AFP | Cairo Monday, 23 May 2016/The speaker of Egypt’s parliament has threatened
to take disciplinary action against members who publicly criticise the
government’s monetary policy, raising further questions about the legislature’s
independence. Ali Abdel-Al told MPs on Sunday that the country faces foreign
“conspiracies”, and “constructive criticism is accepted, but not when it is in
the context of destruction”, according to parliament’s website. The speaker was
referring to “a systematic campaign abroad to destroy the country’s
constitutional institutions”, the report said. Abdel-Al’s comments were the
latest in a parliament seen largely by analysts as a rubber-stamp assembly
designed to pass laws for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with little debate.
Sisi and the Central Bank, which manages monetary policy, have come under rising
criticism amid an acute dollar crunch which has led to a rise in prices
including of medicines, with hundreds of products becoming unavailable or hard
to find. Some local firms have also scaled back their business activity as they
struggle to find dollars to import raw materials. In March, the central bank
devalued the Egyptian pound by 14.3 percent to 8.95 to the US dollar amid a
shortage which has worsened over the past few months, with black markets
offering the dollar at much higher rates. “Some have been keen to appear on
television shows to discuss the state’s monetary policy, an issue which leads to
harmful consequences,” Abdel-Al told MPs. “Therefore all parliament members must
refrain from speaking about the state’s monetary policy as it could expose it
(the country) to harmful ramifications.“Those who violate these instructions
will be referred to the ethics committee,” he warned. MP Ahmed al-Tantawi
criticised the speaker’s comments, telling AFP: “We are dealing with members of
parliament, not high school students.” Other lawmakers backed Abdel-Al, however.
“He said it in the form of advice, not as a threat, and this is very
acceptable,” said New Wafd party member Magdy Bayoumi. Ashraf Iskander, also of
the New Wafd party, said that “truthfully, this falls under the topic of
national security”, adding that guidelines were needed on how to discuss the
topic. “I read that one organisation held more than one workshop for some
members at which they discussed this topic. There seems to be some suspicion of
incitement against the state,” Iskander said. The current parliament was elected
last year with a low turnout of 28.3 percent two years after the army overthrew
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his
followers. Live broadcasts from parliament stopped after its first two chaotic
sessions that featured Abdel-Al shouting at lawmakers for not following
procedure.
Leaders try to fix failing
aid system at Turkey summit
Reuters, Istanbul Monday, 23 May 2016/Global leaders met in Istanbul on Monday
to tackle a “broken” humanitarian system that has left 130 million people in
need of aid, a near insurmountable task for a two-day summit that critics say
risks achieving little. Billed as the first of its kind, the United Nations
summit aims to develop a better response to what has called the worst
humanitarian crisis since World War Two, mobilize more funds and find agreement
on better caring for displaced civilians. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
called on governments, businesses and aid groups to commit to halving the number
of displaced civilians by 2030. “We are here to shape a different future,” he
said in an address at the start of the conference. “I urge you to ... find
better long-term solutions for refugees and displaced people based on (a) more
equal sharing of responsibilities.”But that may be difficult to attain. The
global aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres pulled out of the conference earlier
this month saying it had lost hope the participants could address weaknesses in
emergency response. Critics say the global aid system needs greater financing to
cope with a proliferation of regional wars and failed states that have ballooned
the numbers of displaced people, and to reduce inefficiency and corruption that
consume considerable humanitarian funds before they can benefit those most in
need. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which is saddled with around 3
million refugees from neighboring Syria’s civil war - the world’s largest
refugee population in a single country, again accused the West of doing little
to help Syrians. Erdogan has been among President Bashar al-Assad’s fiercest
critics and sees his removal as essential to ending Syria’s war. “The extent to
which the international humanitarian system lies broken is alarming,” he wrote
in an opinion piece published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “The
international community in particular has largely ignored its responsibilities
toward the Syrian people by turning a blind eye to Bashar al-Assad’s crimes
against his own citizens.”
Sore point
Turkey has run up around $10 billion in costs in taking in the majority of
Syrian refugees since 2011, and the West’s perceived futility in brokering a
halt to Syria’s multi-factional conflict has long been a sore point for Erdogan.
Addressing the summit on Monday, he criticised the UN Security Council, saying
it should have more than five permanent members - the United States, Britain,
France, Russia and China. “It is illogical, unconscionable and unfair to confine
all peoples’ fate to the political interest of five countries.”Some 6,000
participants from 150 UN member states were expected at the Istanbul talks,
including 57 heads of state or government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said
there needed to be improvements in how humanitarian aid is delivered.
She was due to meet Erdogan during the summit and has said she would raise the
Turkish parliament’s vote last week to strip its members of immunity, voicing
disquiet at a measure likely meant to sideline the pro-Kurdish opposition.
Merkel is facing accusations at home that she has become too accommodating of
Erdogan, who faces accusations of creeping authoritarianism, as she tries to
secure a European Union deal with Ankara to stem an influx of refugees from
Turkey.However, Merkel on Monday said she had told Erdogan of her “deep concern”
over a law lifting immunity for Turkish lawmakers that critics believe is aimed
at evicting pro-Kurdish lawmakers from parliament. “Of course, the lifting of
the immunity of one quarter of the deputies is a source of deep concern. I
expressed this to the Turkish president and we discussed these questions very
openly,” she said. “Not all my questions have been answered, we will have to
watch developments closely,” she told reporters at the German consulate after
the talks. Turkey’s parliament on Friday adopted a highly controversial bill
that would lift immunity for dozens of MPs, which the opposition pro-Kurdish
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) fears is aimed directly against its lawmakers.
The move could see dozens of HDP deputies facing criminal prosecution and losing
parliamentary seats on accusations of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in the southeast.(With
AFP)
Turkish Airlines plane in
Istanbul evacuated after bomb hoax: spokesman
Reuters | Istanbul Monday, 23 May 2016/A Turkish Airlines aircraft at Istanbul’s
main airport was evacuated and searched after a note threatening a bomb attack
was found on board on Monday, an airline spokesman said, although it later
turned out to be a hoax.
All 134 people, including the crew, who had been on board the flight from
Ataturk Airport to the central Turkish city of Kayseri had been evacuated, the
spokesman said. Another plane was later arranged for them, he said. Turkey has
suffered a series of suicide bombings in its cities this year, including two
attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul blamed on ISIS and two car bombings in the
capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish militant group. Last year an
offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility
for a mortar attack at Istanbul’s second airport that killed one airport cleaner
and injured another. A NATO member and a candidate to join the European Union,
Turkey is participating in the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and
Iraq, and also battling a militant insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast
region.
Turkey could suspend EU
deals: Erdogan advisor
AFP, Ankara Monday, 23 May 2016/Turkey could make “radical decisions” and
suspend all of its agreements with the European Union, an advisor to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday. “We do not expect anything from
them (EU),” Yigit Bulut, who advises the president on the economy, told the
state-run TRT Haber television. “Let them continue to apply double standards,
let them continue not keeping promises made to Turkish citizens,” he said. “But
they should know that Turkey will make very radical decisions very soon as long
as they maintain their attitude.”
Turkey has concluded a deal with the EU to curb the flow of migrants pressing
the bloc’s gates in exchange for a series of incentives including visa-free
travel for Turkish citizens. But Ankara is obliged to meet a list of 72 criteria
-- ranging from biometric passports to respect for human rights -- that were set
when Brussels and Ankara first talked about 90-day visa-free travel to the
Schengen area. However, Erdogan has made clear that his government will not
change its counter-terror laws -- one of the key demands by Brussels for
visa-free travel -- while the army is battling Kurdish militants in the
southeast.
“Turkey could review all relations with the EU including the customs union
deal,” Bulut said. “Readmission agreements, and all other deals could be
suspended. Europe has to keep its promises.” Bulut, a former newspaper
commentator, is known as belonging to the more radical wing of Erdogan’s
advisors. But the president has in recent weeks stepped up his rhetoric toward
Brussels as frustration grows in Ankara over implementation of the migrant deal
and Turkey’s stalled EU bid.
Libya gives green light for
EU coastguard training
AP | Brussels Monday, 23 May 2016/Libya has given the European Union permission
to begin training its coastguard, as increasing numbers of migrants leave the
country bound for Italy. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday
that the training effort “will be very important to control Libya’s territorial
waters, together with our Libyan partners, as well as to control the migrant
influx.”Mogherini’s remarks came as she arrived in Brussels for talks with EU
foreign ministers on how to move ahead with the training, among other issues,
including the fight against the Islamic State group.
The EU also has a naval operation in the Mediterranean, and the Europeans have
been waiting for approval from Libya’s government to allow operations within the
country’s territorial waters to combat migrant smugglers. “The Libyan coastguard
is the basis on which we have to build security in the coastal waters of Libya,”
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters. “The key thing is that
we’ve now got the Libyan government asking us for that help,” he said, adding
that a more effective coast guard “will cut down arms smuggling along the coast,
but it will also of course cut down illegal migration towards Europe.”The West
is hoping that Libya’s fledgling government will unify Libyans and help combat
the ISIS affiliate there. Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 death of
leader Muammar Qaddafi, with ISIS-linked militants gaining in strength as two
rival governments grappled for control. One, based in Tripoli, was backed by
Islamist militias, while another in eastern Libya was internationally
recognized.
Israeli rights group rejects court
demand
AFP, Israel Sunday, 22 May 2016/An Israeli NGO which tracks alleged army abuses
of Palestinians told a court Sunday that it could no longer function if the
government forced it to name its anonymous informants. “To demand lifting the
confidentiality of testimonies would amount to simply demanding the end of
Breaking The Silence,” the group’s lawyer Michael Sfard told the magistrates
court on the first day of hearings on the state’s demand that it hand over the
names. Proceedings are set to continue on July 18. The NGO provides a platform
for military veterans to describe what they say were disturbing aspects of their
service in the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip and in operations in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank. The state attorney’s office says that anonymous
witnesses allow potential lies to spread and make it impossible to investigate
alleged abuses. “What is at stake is more than the future of Breaking The
Silence,” Sfard said in the packed courtroom in Petah Tikvah near Tel Aviv.
“Today it is Breaking The Silence which finds itself in court, tomorrow it will
be bloggers, tomorrow it will be other members of the press and of course NGOs
which defend human rights.” Founded in 2004 by army veterans, the organization
has come under political pressure from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, one of the most rightwing in Israel’s history. It drew intensified
fire last year when it published a book about the 2014 Gaza war, in which 2,251
Palestinians and 73 Israelis died, which included allegations by more than 60
officers and troops of abuse and excessive use of force. Justice Minister Ayelet
Shaked has said Breaking the Silence and other NGOs provided evidence to the
United Nations which formed the basis of a 2014 UN inquiry into the Gaza war,
which concluded Israel and Palestinian militants may have been guilty of war
crimes.
Netanyahu rejects French
peace initiative, offers to meet Abbas
AFP, Jerusalem Monday, 23 May 2016/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
rejected a multilateral French peace initiative as he met his French counterpart
on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak
to President Francois Hollande about Netanyahu's proposal.Direct negotiations
with the Palestinians are "the only way to proceed to peace," Netanyahu said. He
offered "a different French initiative" of face-to-face talks with Abbas in
Paris. Valls is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories to advance his
country's plan to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Abbas has welcomed
the French initiative to hold a meeting of foreign ministers from a range of
countries on June 3, without the Israelis and Palestinians present. Another
conference would then be held in the autumn, with the Israelis and Palestinians
in attendance. The goal is to eventually restart negotiations that would lead to
a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has criticized the initiative and called for
direct negotiations between the two sides. Negotiations between the Israelis and
Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in
April 2014. Netanyahu has repeatedly offered to meet Abbas for direct talks.
Palestinians leaders say years of negotiations with Israel have not ended its
occupation and have pursued a strategy of diplomacy at international bodies.
UN Palestinian agency says
half its schools hit by conflict
AFP | Istanbul Monday, 23 May 2016/Nearly half of the schools run by the UN’s
agency for Palestinian refugees have been hit by conflict in the last five
years, it said on Monday on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in
Istanbul. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier reminded participants on the
opening day of the two-day summit that attacks on schools and hospitals in
conflict cannot go unpunished any longer. But the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said 302 out of 692
schools it runs for Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and
West Bank have suffered damage due to conflict in the last half decade. “Nearly
half of the 692 schools run across the region have been impacted, attacked or
otherwise rendered inoperable by conflict or violence in the last five years,”
it said in a report unveiled at the summit. UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Pierre
Kraehenbuehl, complained that the figure was “staggering”. Kraehenbuehl called
on states and non-state parties to “refrain from such attacks, to respect the
civilian character of UN installations and to spare the lives of children,
civilians and humanitarian workers.” He said that protecting schools against the
effects of conflict was a “key test” of the world’s ability to deliver on its
humanitarian commitments. The UNRWA report said that in Syria five years of war
have rendered over 70 per cent of its schools inoperative, due to damage, access
restrictions or the need for schools to be used as shelters. Before the outbreak
of the conflict, UNRWA operated 118 schools throughout Syria but 34 have been
fully or partially damaged and currently only 44 are open, it said. Even after
half a decade of war, an estimated 450,000 Palestinian refugees remain in Syria,
it said. UNRWA complained the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip had a
“devastating effect” on refugee children, while clashes in Lebanon had also
damaged schools. It said it was seeking to counter the problems by providing
self-learning materials and facilities, rebuilding damaged schools and and
seeking accountability for attacks against UNRWA schools.
Incoming Turkish PM: New
cabinet to be ready quickly
Reuters, Ankara Monday, 23 May 2016/Turkey's incoming Prime Minister Binali
Yildirim told reporters on Monday the new cabinet list would be prepared quickly
and be presented to President Tayyip Erdogan when he was available.Erdogan
confirmed Yildirim, a close ally for two decades and a co-founder of the ruling
AK Party, as his new prime minister on Sunday, taking a big step towards the
stronger presidential powers he has long sought.
UN: Yemen foes resume direct talks
after boycott
AFP, Kuwait City Monday, 23 May 2016/Yemen’s warring parties held their first
face-to-face meeting in nearly a week on Monday after the government delegation
ended a boycott, the UN envoy said. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement
that a joint meeting was held between the two delegations which have gathered in
Kuwait and later he met with them separately. He urged the two parties “to exert
all efforts to achieve a sustainable solution for the sake of easing the
suffering of Yemenis.”“Any delay, retreat or boycott will take us backward and
slow down the solution Yemenis are waiting for,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said. The
troubled negotiations which began on April 21 broke off last Tuesday when the
government delegation suspended its participation accusing Iran-backed rebels
who control the capital of failing to keep their word. The government demanded a
written pledge from the Iran-backed Houthi militias and their allies recognizing
an April 2015 UN Security Council resolution calling for their pullout from
Sanaa and other territories they have overrun since 2014, as well as well as
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s legitimacy. Hadi agreed to end the boycott
after mediation by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
Al-Thani, the UN special envoy said on Sunday. Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi
said at the face-to-face meeting Monday that the government had received a
letter from the UN envoy reaffirming a commitment to “references, the talks
agenda and the legitimacy” of Hadi and his government. Mikhlafi reiterated in
the speech distributed by the government delegation that the talks were the
“last chance for all of us to prove that we have come for peace.” “We will
exercise flexibility and make concessions for the sake of our people and for the
sake of peace. We hope that the other side has the same readiness,” he said. The
government has insisted that rebels should implement Resolution 2216 which calls
for withdrawals, the surrender of weapons and the restoration of state
institutions. Despite a 14-month-old Saudi-led military intervention in support
of Hadi’s government, the Houthis and their allies still control many of Yemen’s
most populous regions, including the central and northern highlands and Red Sea
coast. In Yemen itself, twin bombings Monday claimed by ISIS militant group hit
government forces in Aden, killing at least 41 people in the latest of a spate
of attacks in the southern city.
ISIS claims deadly attacks on
Yemeni recruits in Aden
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Monday, 23 May 2016/Yemeni security officials
say that a pair of suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in the southern
city of Aden, Al Arabiya News Channel reported. The blast occurred as the
recruits lined up to enlist for military service in the Khormaksar district of
the port city, which serves as the temporary capital of Yemen's Saudi-backed
administration while it seeks to seize back the capital Sanaa from the armed
Houthi militias. According to an AFP report, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The officials said
Monday that the two bombers targeted young men seeking to join the army. One
suicide car bomber targeted a line outside an army recruitment center, killing
at least 20. A second bomber on foot detonated his explosive vest among a group
of recruits waiting outside the home of an army commander, killing at least 25.
People check the site of a suicide bombing in the southern port city of Aden.
(Reuters) Local news website Aden al-Ghad showed pictures of soldiers picking up
bloodied comrades in uniform from the ground and witnesses reported seeing
ambulances with blaring sirens collecting the wounded from the scene. Militants
have exploited the unrest in Yemen as loyalist forces, backed by a Saudi-led
coalition, fought against Iran-backed militias since March 2015 in a war that
has left more than 6,400 people dead. (With AP)
Zambia ‘worried at Iran’s
attempts to spread sectarianism in Africa’
Jameel Al-Diyabi, Saudi Gazette Monday, 23 May 2016/President Edgar Lungu of
Zambia has expressed serious concerns over Iran’s attempts to make headway in
Africa to spread its sectarian ideology. “These attempts are a source of serious
concern for the African leaders,” Lungu told Okaz/Saudi Gazette in an exclusive
interview. The Zambian president was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit during
which he held talks with Saudi King Salman and senior Saudi officials on
Tuesday. Lungu called for an immediate halt to Iran’s machinations in the region
and asked Muslims to sit together to settle their differences lest they might
destroy each other. “We should stay away from sectarianism. We all believe in
the same God. We should all be tolerant. Our message is peace. We should stay
away from anything that might disturb peace or create turmoil,” he said. Lungu
also condemned the Russian protection to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
“There is no reason for Russia to destroy Syria under the pretext of protecting
the regime,” he said. He called for putting an immediate end to the killings of
innocent people especially women and children in Syria and said all African
leaders are looking forward to an immediate cessation of hostilities and
destruction in this Arab country. The Zambian president called for amending the
statute of the UN and the Security Council so that small countries will not feel
the hegemony of the big powers. Lungu said his talks with King Salman on Tuesday
focused on bilateral relations, regional and international issues and the
current developments in the region, particularly Syria and Yemen. “Saudi Arabia
is playing a pivotal role in resolving these two crises and we support and
encourage him,” he added. The president was sure the Houthi rebels in Yemen will
come back to the negotiating table and pointed out that all crises in the world,
even the World War Two, were resolved through negotiations. Lungu expressed his
worries over extremist activities in Africa, especially by Boko Haram of
Nigeria, and said the continent wants peace and stability. “A reason of my visit
to the Kingdom is to have a firsthand assessment of its experiment in combating
terrorism,” he explained. He considered religious extremism to be a major cause
of extremism and said they should not be allowed to steal religion to promote
their agenda. “In Zambia we also have extremists and we are trying to face this
challenge through close cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the United States,” he
said.
Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party
reelects chief
AFP Monday, 23 May 2016/The president of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party was
reelected Monday, as the group meets for a key congress to discuss separating
religious and political activities. Rached Ghannouchi, who won the ballot
comfortably with 800 votes, about 570 more votes than the runner-up, said his
party is keeping apace with changes in Tunisian society. Ennahda is a “Tunisian
movement that is evolving with... Tunisia and is part of its evolution”,
Ghannouchi said, according to local media. “From today, we are seriously moving
towards becoming a national and civil political party with an Islamic core,
which operates under the country’s constitution and inspires Muslim and modern
values,” he said. Ghannouchi, 74 -- an intellectual who once advocated a strict
application of Islamic law -- founded the Islamic Tendency Movement in 1981
along with others inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. The movement became
Ennahda in 1989. Will Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood follow in Tunisia's Ennahda
footsteps? Banned under the dictatorship of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,
the party was legalized after the 2011 uprising that kicked off the Arab Spring
and ousted the veteran leader. Ghannouchi, who lived in exile for 20 years,
returned to a triumphal welcome after the uprising and won post-revolution
elections in October 2011.But two years later he had to step aside amid a deep
political crisis. In 2014, the secularist Nidaa Tounes party of President Beji
Caid Essebsi won parliamentary elections, beating Ennahda which came second. On
the eve of the congress, French daily Le Monde published an interview with the
party leader in which he said there was no longer any room for “political Islam”
in post-Arab Spring Tunisia. “Tunisia is now a democracy. The 2014 constitution
has imposed limits on extreme secularism and extreme religion,” he was quoted as
saying. Around 1,200 Ennahda delegates are meeting for the three-day meeting
that opened Friday in Hammamet, south of Tunis, to discuss the party’s future
and adopt economic, political and social roadmaps.
Hajj stampede area to become a
direct road to Jamarat site
Saudi Gazette, Makkah Monday, 23 May 2016/A street numbered 206, which was the
scene of stampede that killed hundreds of pilgrims during last year’s hajj, will
be made a direct road to the Jamarat (stoning of the devil) area to avoid any
overcrowding of pilgrims. Quoting informed sources, Makkah Arabic daily said on
Sunday that pilgrims using this new road will not have to cross any
intersections and will directly access the Jamarat area. The sources said the
project, which is being implemented by the Authority for the Development of
Makkah and the Holy Sites, will be completed on September 2. They said a number
of tents which block the road will be dismantled and shifted to another area in
Mina which has become spacious after government offices were relocated outside
the tent city. On the other hand, temperature in the tents in Mina will be
brought down from 33 degrees Celsius to 21 degrees during the year’s hajj thanks
to a new type of air conditioner developed by an Australian company. The company
was contracted by the Public Investments Fund (PIF) of the Finance Ministry
which has been responsible for the installation of the air conditioners.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on
May 23- 24/16
Why Trump is a better choice for the economy
Peter Morici/ FoxNews.com/May 23/16
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump carry more baggage than a paroled safecracker
seeking employment at a bank. Those negatives may consume the media, but voters
should consider that Trump is the better choice for the economy.
Apart from getting tough with China on trade, Trump wants to simplify personal
and corporate taxes and otherwise ease regulatory burdens—essentially make
dealing with the government easier for ordinary folks filing their taxes and
buying health insurance and businesses looking to expand and add jobs.
Clinton’s economic message is much different and largely premised on the ideas
that businesses invest foolishly and discrimination by corporations,
universities and other institutions are disadvantaging women and minorities and
handicapping growth. According to her, tightly regulating behavior—for example,
through the tax code and generalizing to the national level California’s Fair
Pay Act—will miraculously add trillions to our GDP and solve most of the
inequality issues plaguing America.
The challenges we face are more radical and paradoxical than Clinton supposes
and require a lighter touch.
Capital and energy—once scarce and expensive—are now abundant in American and
many workers’ jobs are becoming obsolete.
The digital economy is based more on intellectual property—computer apps and
artificial intelligence—and less on hard assets—industrial buildings and
equipment. This greatly reduces the amount of financial capital businesses need
to make and create products.
For example, Google was launched with only $25 million in 1999 and grew into a
$23 billion enterprise at its initial public offering five years later. It took
billions and decades for Henry Ford to create a company of similar value and
global scope.
Digital growth is powered by electricity, not petroleum. Even in the old
economy, the electric car will displace gasoline powered vehicles over the next
several decades, and abundant natural gas and cheaper solar and wind power will
make that power. Oil prices will stay down.
Over the next three decades, robots that can think and handle materials with
human-like agility have the potential to partially replace workers in 90 percent
of contemporary occupations—including to my horror many college professors.
The new good paying jobs in the will be mostly in more creative pursuits—for
example, in robotics, industrial design, finance, the arts, and various fields
of basic scientific and social research. Of course, we may still remain
reluctant to cede to machines some ordinary tasks such as caring for young
children.
The political impulse to disruptive technologies is to legislate against them.
Consider that taxi and limousine services recruit municipal governments to block
Uber, and California regulators are drafting rules that would slow the
deployment of driverless vehicles.
Yet, the future of the automobile industry is at stake and if Americans don’t
pioneer these technologies entrepreneurs elsewhere will do so to our great
peril.
Smart people, alone or in small groups, can accomplish wondrous things. Two
geeks working out of a garage and with less than $25,000 in financing designed
and marketed the Apple I computer. That launched an industry that put the
internet and the resources of the world’s largest libraries on virtually every
desk in the industrialized world. The social media revolution has similar
origins.
Businesses are circumventing large investment banks to engineer mergers in favor
of smaller practitioners and lawyers. After all, small businesses now have
analytical power on their laptops that rivals the army of expensive analysts
housed by Wall Street giants.
Regulating corporate payroll and hiring policies and imposing restrictions on
free speech and endless instruction in political correctness at our universities
will not adequately prepare or empower our young people and businesses for a
world that places a premium on agility, adaptability and entrepreneurship as
opposed to conformity, compliance and the huge overhead of multinational
corporations.
At her core, Clinton is devoted to economic micro-management by government
regulation and under President Obama that has yielded a terribly mediocre
record—slow growth, poorer job opportunities for virtually every demographic
group and dysfunctions in the health care and banking systems.
Warts and all, Trump is an entrepreneur and all about taking things the other
way. There you have it—choose between a more certain but tired past, or a
riskier but bolder future.
**Peter Morici served as Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade
Commission from 1993 to 1995. He is an economist and professor at the Smith
School of Business, University of Maryland, and a widely published columnist. He
is the five time winner of the MarketWatch best forecaster award. Follow him on
Twitter @PMorici1.
Stéphane Dion urged to use Saudi
arms deal to free Raif Badawi
ROBERT FIFE And STEVEN CHASE/OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail/May 23/16
Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion is being urged to use Canada’s
$15-billion combat vehicle deal with Saudi Arabia to seek clemency for
imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi when he meets with senior members of the ruling
monarchy in the Mideast country Monday.
Mr. Dion expects to meet one-on-one with the powerful son of the Saudi King,
30-year-old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the Defence Minister
and also in charge of reforming the Saudi economy.
Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, Mr. Badawi’s lawyer, sat down with
Mr. Dion before he left for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will attend a meeting
of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council.
“I told him the Saudis have been so criticized internationally they might be
looking for a way out to refurbish their image somehow,” Mr. Cotler told The
Globe and Mail in an interview. “He can leverage the fact of the $15-billion
arms sale for which the government has been criticized and turn it around in
securing Badawi’s release.”
Mr. Badawi, whose wife and three children live in Canada, was sentenced to 10
years in prison and 1,000 lashes in January, 2015, for insulting Islam on his
blog. After he received 50 lashes, the Saudis suspended the remainder of the
punishment in the face of an international outcry but he remains behind bars.
The Saudis are using Canadian-made combat vehicles in Yemen right now to fight
Shia-led Houthi rebels – machines very similar to those Canada will be shipping
to the House of Saud under a $15-billion deal brokered by Ottawa. As The Globe
and Mail first reported, Mr. Dion quietly approved export permits in April
covering more than 70 per cent of the transaction with Saudi Arabia, a country
with an abysmal human-rights record.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in a year of fighting in Yemen,
according to the United Nations. The world body has denounced a Saudi-led
coalition of Gulf nations for being responsible for twice the number of Yemeni
civilian deaths as all other combatants, as well as causing a severe
humanitarian crisis in an already poor country.
The Crown Prince has been criticized for leading the Sunni-dominated coalition
after Houthi militants swept a Saudi ally from power last year.
“The Crown Prince might want to refurbish his image at this point personally as
well as Saudi Arabia’s so this might be a good opportunity,” Mr. Cotler said.
“They have been harmed by the UN with violations of international law in Yemen.
They have been criticized by the UN with regard to their general treatment of
women’s rights and gender.”
Mr. Badawi was jailed for “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and is
reportedly in ill health. He recently received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought from the European Parliament.
Mr. Badawi’s spouse, Ensaf Haidar, and their three children were granted
sanctuary in Canada in 2013 and live in Sherbrooke, Que.
Mr. Cotler, an international human-rights expert who recently founded the Raoul
Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said he presented Mr. Dion with a written
legal brief.
“I told him don’t indulge the argument that we don’t have standing because
that’s what the Saudis will say – that he is not a Canadian citizen,” Mr. Cotler
said. “I said we do have standing for a variety of reasons because his wife and
children have refugee status in Quebec and … the Saudis have breached
obligations to Canada in the sense that we are state parties to the torture
convention.”
Mr. Cotler, who is respected by Mr. Dion and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an
international champion of human rights, has urged the Liberal government to
reconsider its controversial $15-billion deal to sell combat vehicles to the
Saudi kingdom.
It’s not clear that everyone in Mr. Dion’s office believes Canada has clout with
Saudi Arabia when it comes to human rights.
Just six weeks before he took a senior adviser job with Mr. Dion, academic
Jocelyn Coulon wrote in Montreal’s La Presse newspaper that Saudi Arabia has
“bought the silence” of Western countries by awarding them lucrative contracts
to supply it with military and civilian goods.
Just last year, Saudi Arabia told Canadian legislators to stop criticizing their
treatment of Mr. Badawi after the Quebec National Assembly passed a motion
condemning the flogging sentence.
Naif Bin Bandir Al-Sudairy, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Canada, sent a letter
to Quebec’s legislature saying the kingdom “does not accept any form of
interference in its internal affairs.”
“The Kingdom does not accept at all any attack on it in the name of human
rights, especially when its constitution is based on Islamic law, which
guarantees human rights,” the letter read.
Riyadh’s forces have also used armoured vehicles against Saudi Arabia’s Shia
minority in the country’s Eastern Province. Ali Adubisi, director of the
Berlin-based European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, says Saudi
authorities have deployed armoured vehicles against Shia civilians in the
province more than 15 times since 2011.
The Shia enclave of al-Qatif is a hotbed of opposition to the Sunni-dominated
government and unrest broke out most recently in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising
as well as after Riyadh executed a dissident Shia cleric in January of 2016 who
was a harsh critic of the House of Saud.
Mr. Dion is expected to tell the Saudis that Canada would be opposed to the use
of Canadian light armored vehicles against Shia civilians in the kingdom. A
government insider said Mr. Dion also will question how the Sunni-dominated
kingdom is treating its Shia population, and raise the issue of equal rights for
women.
The Foreign Affairs Minister was personally invited to attend the Gulf
Cooperation Council where discussions will centre on how to confront the
expansion of Islamic State and al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula in the region.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/stephane-dion-urged-to-use-saudi-arms-deal-to-free-raif-badawi/article30117475
The new coalition to destroy
the Islamic State
David Ignatius/The Washington Post/May 23/16
The raw Sunni recruits in crisp camouflage uniforms, popping off rounds at the
firing range at a U.S. training camp here, illustrate the dilemma for the United
States as it seeks to form a strong military force to drive the Islamic State
from its capital, Raqqah. The United States could try to build the Sunni army it
would want, ideally, to capture Raqqah, a Sunni city. But that might take years.
Or it can go with the army it has, which is dominated by the tough, experienced
Kurdish fighters from the YPG militia. They’re anathema to Turkey, to the north,
and to the official Syrian political opposition. But the rampaging Syrian Kurds
get the job done.
The United States is trying to do some of both, by building a new opposition
coalition under the makeshift banner of the “Syrian Democratic Forces,” or SDF,
which integrates Sunnis, Christians, Turkmen and other inexperienced fighters
with the larger, powerhouse that is the YPG. That’s not ideal politically but it
makes military sense. “We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got,” says
Gen. Joseph Votel, the Centcom commander who oversees the war here, at the end
of a long Saturday spent touring SDF bases. A small group of reporters was on
the trip on condition that we couldn’t write about it until we had left the
country. It was a rare chance to report from inside Syria.
The practical reality is that only the Kurds — not the Sunnis — have the muscle
now, and Votel’s job is “to achieve military objectives on the ground” by
continuing to roll back the Islamic State. This attempt to integrate the weaker
Sunnis with stronger Kurds represents a more pragmatic alternative to the
earlier $500 million “train and equip” program, which had been intended to
create, in effect, a new Sunni-dominated army, but collapsed last summer.
Despite bitter objections from Turkey (which claims the Kurds are part of the
“terrorist” PKK), U.S. commanders decided to go with the battle-hardened Kurdish
fighters who had savaged the Islamic State in Kobani in 2014 and began to
liberate a big swath of northeast Syria. Starting last October, they tried to
graft less-experienced Sunni and Christian forces into the SDF coalition.
The Syrian Kurds are ferocious fighters, men and women alike. We met several
leaders of the Kurdish women’s militia, called the YPJ. Wearing beaded
headdresses over military camouflage, they said they had all fought in
front-line combat. U.S. advisers say the Kurdish women are so tough they
sometimes go into battle with suicide belts so they won’t be captured by Islamic
State fighters who would turn them into sex slaves. American advisers tell
awe-struck stories of YPJ warriors who fought to the last woman in Kobani. The
equality of male-female sacrifice, proclaimed on billboards in Kurdish regions,
is a breath of fresh air in a Middle East where women’s rights are suppressed.
Votel says the United States has learned from earlier Syrian missteps not to try
to build a perfect force, but to work with the allies it has. When adding
recruits to the SDF, he says, “we had to shorten the training period, and focus
it more on combat basics,” adapting to the forces that existed rather than
trying to remake them. Sunni sheikhs, always opportunistic, seem to be buying
into the strategy as their best hope against the Islamic State. We met three
such leaders who are sending their young tribesmen to fight with the Kurdish-led
group. The sheikhs described how some members of their tribes around Raqqah are
beginning to defect from the Islamic State — and pleading for relief from the
barbarous extremists. “We found that the YPG is the only force that can liberate
us,” says Sheikh Mohammed al-Mila of the Tufaiha tribe. A similar view is
expressed by Kino Gabriel, a local Syriac Christian leader whose small militia
of 500 to 1,000 has allied with the Kurds. The alternative, he says, was “a
lose-lose situation for all of us. None of us could defend the area by
ourselves.”
Here, at least, the
United States can’t be accused of trying to build Switzerland in the Middle
East. It’s raw realpolitik, and sometimes the pieces don’t fit. Nujin Dirik, the
commander of the Kurdish women’s militia, says she’s fighting for a place the
Kurds call “Rojava,” which they hope will be an autonomous region someday. But
Col. Ali Hajo, an SDF Arab commander from the northern town of Jarablus, says
he’s fighting for a nation called Syria.
Pakistan: "Blasphemy"
for Ethnic Cleansing
Lubna Thomas Benjamin/Gatestone Institute/May 23/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8051/pakistan-blasphemy-ethnic-cleansing
After the attack,
some villagers gathered and started threatening other Christians, demanding they
either convert to Islam or move out of the area. Then an Islamic religious
decree was issued, to hand over Masih to the local Islamic clerics so that he
could be burned alive for blasphemy.
Why was only Masih (a Christian) accused of blasphemy, when Bilal (a Muslim) had
obviously watched the video in question?
The Christians who are left are searching to find an alternate place to live,
and are now facing hatred in the guise of a boycott. No one is selling them food
or any daily essentials.
In Punjab, harassing Christians has become a norm; a way of getting rid of them.
Every time Christians are threatened and forced to leave the area, the charge is
always blasphemy.
It started as a normal day in the remote Pakistani village of Chak-44 for Imran
Masih, a Christian man, and Bilal, his Muslim friend, in mid-April. Masih had
revealed to Bilal that the woman he had fallen in love with was a Muslim.
According to media reports, Masih was called away urgently and left his phone
with Bilal, who apparently came across a video that appeared in Masih's Facebook
feed, which allegedly contained content against the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.
Bilal's accusation that Masih had viewed that video became the reason to charge
Masih with blasphemy.
You start asking questions, such as: Wait a minute, who has committed blasphemy?
No one will probably ever even know what was on that video or whether Masih even
watched it. But even if Masih did watch it, he was not the only one: Bilal also
watched it. However, in a country where might is right, Bilal, a Muslim with the
support of fellow villagers, is always right.
In an instant, a friend had become not only a stranger, but a liar.
Bilal called in two other Muslims to help beat up his Christian friend. A doctor
who appeared at the scene to save Masih from the angry men was apparently also a
Muslim clergyman. He asked Imran for an apology.
After the attack, some villagers gathered and started threatening other
Christians, demanding they either convert to Islam or move out of the area. Then
an Islamic religious decree was issued, to hand over Masih to the local Islamic
clerics so that he could be burned alive for blasphemy.
What had those Christian residents done to infuriate the local Muslims? They had
merely lived in this remote region of Punjab.
Why was only Masih (a Christian) accused of blasphemy, when Bilal (a Muslim) had
obviously watched the video in question?
The news reports also indicate that three quarters of the area's Christians have
already abandoned their homes. The Christians who are left are searching to find
an alternate place to live, and are now facing hatred in the guise of a boycott.
No one is selling them food or any daily essentials.
The history of Punjab brims with violence and the torching Christian homes. All
these horrific incidents illustrate an intense hatred for Christians. Religion
here is a force that could divide any friendship.
The government and human rights organizations are well aware of this hatred and
violence. Here, harassing Christians has become a norm; a way of getting rid of
them. Every time Christians are threatened and forced to leave the area, the
charge is always blasphemy.
A few years ago, I covered the story of Rimsha Masih, an underage Christian girl
charged with the blasphemy in the outskirts of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. As
one talked to the shopkeepers and her neighbors, their eyes would fill with
hate. "We want to get Christians out of here," the residents would say. Using a
young Christian girl and getting her charged with blasphemy seemed like the
perfect plan.
In Pakistan, under the guise of blasphemy laws, the Muslim citizens have been
getting rid of the Christians for years.
*Lubna Thomas Benjamin, recipient of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship for the
year 2011-12, was a television producer in Pakistan and has worked at CNN
Atlanta. She is currently a freelance writer in the United States.
© 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.
Europe: Allah Takes over
Churches, Synagogues
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/May 23/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8005/europe-mosques-churches-synagogues
In the Dutch province of Friesland, 250 of 720 existing churches have been
transformed or closed. The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint
Ignatius Church. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the Al Aqsa Mosque. In
Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel now stands. Catholic
arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.
"The French will not wake up until Notre Dame becomes a mosque." — Emile Cioran,
author.
Germany is literally selling its churches. Between 1990 and 2010, the German
Evangelical Church closed 340 churches. Recently in Hamburg, a Lutheran church
was purchased by the Muslim community.
"History teaches us that these transformations are rarely innocent." — Bertrand
Dutheil de La Rochère, assistant to Marine Le Pen.
Last year, at the famous Biennale artistic festival in Venice, Swiss artist
Christian Büchel took the ancient Catholic Church of Santa Maria della
Misericordia and converted it into a mosque. The church had not been used for
Christian worship for more than forty years. Büchel decorated the baroque walls
with Arabic writing, covered the floor with a prayer rug, and hid the crucifix
behind a prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca, the holy city of Islam.
It was a provocation.
But everywhere else in Europe, the practice of Islam really is outstripping
Christianity, while Jews are leaving -- not only France but the old continent --
en masse.
In January, Zvi Ammar, the president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory,
recommended that Jews that stop wearing a kippah (skullcap) when out in the
street. Too many anti-Semitic incidents have cast fear into the hearts of
Marseille's 70,000 Jews, who make up a tenth of the city's population. 500 Jews
already left the city in 2015. A few days ago, Mr. Ammar announced another
attempt at appeasement: the conversion of a historic synagogue into a mosque.
The synagogue Or Torah ["light of the Torah"] was bought by the Muslim
organization Al Badr for 400,000 euros ($456,000). The synagogue was empty, due
to rampant anti-Semitism in Marseille, while the nearby mosque, run by Al Badr,
was unable to handle the overcrowding every Friday, with the faithful forced to
pray in the street (a quarter of the inhabitants of Marseille are Muslim).
Muslims in Marseille already have 73 mosques.
A year ago, the Muslim French leader Dalil Boubakeur suggested turning empty
churches into mosques. It is the first time in France that something similar
happened to a synagogue. "History teaches us that these transformations are
rarely innocent," said Bertrand Dutheil de La Rochère, an assistant to Marine Le
Pen, leader of the National Front party. He appeared to be comparing the fate of
the synagogue to that of the Hagia Sophia Basilica, which became a mosque in
Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, after its capture by the Muslim Ottoman
Turks.
The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the grandest cathedral in the Christian world,
until it was captured and converted to a mosque by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in
1453. The Middle East is full of churches and synagogues turned into Islamic
sites. Today, every traveler in a modern European city can notice the new
mosques being built alongside abandoned and secularized churches, some converted
into museums. (Image source: Antoine Taveneaux/Wikimedia Commons)
"What should we do?" Zvi Ammar asked this author.
"Security concerns had already pushed the Jews out of the city's center. We
could no longer live in a Muslim area, so the synagogue was empty. Thousands of
synagogues in the Arab-Islamic world, from Libya to Morocco, from Iraq to
Tunisia, have been converted into mosques. The only difference is that in
France, Muslims cannot expropriate a synagogue; they have to pay for it."
What a sad consolation.
Zvi Ammar, however, is right: not only is the Middle East full of synagogues
turned into Islamic sites, but also of churches converted into mosques, such as
the Umayyad in Damascus, the Ibn Tulun in Cairo and the Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul. In Hebron and on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Muslim conquerors built
their sites atop the Jewish ones.
A few years ago, Niall Ferguson, the brilliant contemporary historian, wrote
about Europe's future as "the creeping Islamicization of a decadent
Christendom." It is easy to find images of the decay of Europe's Christianity
and the growth of Islam in the heart of the old continent. Every traveler in any
modern European city can notice the new mosques being built alongside abandoned
and secularized churches, some converted into museums.
The most crucial moment in Michel Houellebecq's novel, Submission, is when the
novel's protagonist, a Sorbonne professor searching for a conversion experience,
visits a Christian shrine, only to find himself unmoved. This is a reality in
France.
In the French region of Vierzon, the Church of Saint-Eloi has become a mosque.
The diocese of Bourges had put the church on sale, and a Muslim organization
made a most generous offer to buy the site. In the Quai Malakoff, in Nantes, the
old Church of Saint Christopher became the Mosque of Forqane.
In the Dutch province of Friesland, 250 of 720 existing churches have been
transformed or closed. The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint
Ignatius Church. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the Al Aqsa Mosque.
The Church of St. Jacobus, one of the oldest of the city of Utrecht, was
recently converted into a luxury residence. A library just opened in a former
Dominican church in Maastricht.
The main mosque in Dublin is a former Presbyterian church. In England, the St.
Marks Cathedral is now called the New Peckam Mosque, while in Manchester, the
Mosque of Disbury was once a Methodist church. In Clitheroe, Lancashire, the
authorities granted permission to have an Anglican church, Saint Peter's Church
in Cobridge, transformed into the Madina Mosque. It is no longer taboo in the
media to talk about "the end of British Christianity."
Belgium, once a cradle of European Catholicism, is closing dozens of its
churches. The Church of St. Catherine, built in 1874, dominates the historic
center of Brussels, the only religious building created in the city's "pentagon"
at the end of Ancien Régime, and today one of the most protected in the EU's
capital, especially after the terror attacks there on March 22, 2016. Brussels,
however, wanted to convert the church into a fruit market. Only the mobilization
of the faithful hindered the city's plan.
Last month, The Economist explained what is happening in Belgium, once famous
for the Madonna of Bruges, one of Michelangelo's most famous paintings: "If
anything holds Belgium together through its third century of existence,
Catholicism will not be the glue," the magazine wrote. That, it noted, will be
Islam. In Brussels, half the children in state schools choose classes in Islam;
practicing Catholics amount to 12%, while 19% are practicing Muslims.
According to La Libre newspaper, dozens of Belgian churches are in imminent
danger of conversion to other uses. The Church of Saint-Hubert in
Watermael-Boitsfort is expected to accommodate apartments, while the Church of
the Holy Family of Schaerbeek awaits an investor. In Malonne, the chapel of
Piroy has been transformed into a restaurant. In Namur, the Saint-Jacques Church
was transformed into a clothing store and the Church of Notre Dame, built in
1749 and deconsecrated in 2004, is now a "cultural space." The square will be
redeveloped, with ticketing services and catering. Dozens of exhibitions,
concerts and fashion shows have already been held in the church. In Tournai, the
Church of St. Margherita has been transformed into apartments.
Eight centuries after its founding, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament at
Binche, a majestic building in the heart of a medieval town close to Brussels,
was put on sale for the symbolic sum of one euro. In Mechelen, Flanders, in
place of a famous church, a luxury hotel has arisen. Catholic arches, columns
and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.
Despite the fact that the "Pope Emeritus," Joseph Ratzinger, comes from Germany,
that Chancellor Angela Merkel is the daughter of a Lutheran minister and the
current German president, Joachim Gauck, is a Protestant pastor, Germany is
literally selling its churches. Between 1990 and 2010, the German Evangelical
Church closed 340 churches. Recently, in Hamburg, a Lutheran church was
purchased by the Muslim community. In Spandau, the church of St. Raphael is now
a grocery store. In Karl Marx's town, Trier, some churches have been turned into
gyms. In Cologne, a church is now a luxurious residence with a private pool.
The writer Emile Cioran once cast a sinister prophecy on Europe: "The French
will not wake up until Notre Dame becomes a mosque." Five years ago, a French
historian, Dominique Venner, shot himself on the altar of Notre Dame, Paris's
most famous Cathedral. This suicide, which the mainstream media dismissed as the
gesture of a Catholic crank, was a terrible warning to Europe. But no one was
paying attention.
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 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.
CAIR's Dawud Walid:
Civil Rights Champion or Radical Hiding in the Open?
M. Zuhdi Jasser/Gatestone Institute/May 23/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8044/cair-dawud-walid
With his March 25 Facebook post, CAIR's Dawud Walid cemented his position as a
preacher of hate and radicalism. He has already become known to many Muslims as
an extreme figure, who bullies anyone who disagrees with him, maligns
dissidents, harasses gay Muslims, and foments anti-American sentiments.
It is beyond denial to ignore the fact that Muslims such as Walid are leading
radicalizers of American Muslims, and their efforts are dedicated to pushing
vulnerable Muslims away from integration and reform against Islamist movements.
Dawud Walid is the longtime executive director of Michigan's chapter of the
Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). His Twitter profile currently
bills him as a "human rights advocate and political blogger," and his blog sells
him as an imam who lectures on topics such as how to maintain your manners when
dealing with hostile people (the irony of this will soon become abundantly
clear), and how to address the very real problem of anti-Black racism within the
Muslim community.
To anyone less familiar with Walid's persona -- especially online -- he could
easily appear to be a champion of civil rights, a man before his time in terms
of addressing intra-community problems as well as hostilities between Muslims
and non-Muslims. A more comprehensive review of his activities -- or even just a
cursory review of his commentary on one of the days he has chosen to lash out at
anyone with whom he disagrees -- reveals a more sinister, even cruel, man.
Further, his true aim seems not to be civil discourse and community cohesion,
but rather the furtherance of a particularly malignant, vicious strain of
political Islam.
I have seen Walid demean, bully, and slander other Muslims for years. He has
actively worked to silence discussion of critical issues, by working to shut
down screenings of Honor Diaries, a film addressing the mistreatment of women in
the name of "honor" culture; instigating online hate campaigns and witch hunts
against dissidents -- women in particular -- and pushing Muslims to ostracize
those with whom he disagrees. While this behavior has been abhorrent and has
brought significant distress and even potential danger to those he has targeted,
the broader public has paid little mind.
His most recent tirade on social media, however, may -- and should -- wake the
public up to his real agenda.
On March 25 of this year, Walid took to social media to talk about the Easter
holiday, and how he believes Muslims should treat Christians on this day. Rather
than using the opportunity to offer best wishes to Christians and condemn the
slaughter of Christians by ISIS, Walid urged Muslims not to "encourage infidels"
by wishing Christians a "Happy Easter." His comments were at best hateful, at
worst incitement. His is the kind of thinking that leads to attacks such as the
one against Christians in Pakistan over Easter, or when the Pakistani Taliban
blew up a crowd of mostly women and children of Ahmadi Muslims, or when Asad
Shah, stabbed 30 times, was assassinated recently in his store in Glasgow,
Scotland, for wishing Christians a Happy Easter.
On March 25 of this year, Dawud Walid (left), executive director of Michigan's
CAIR chapter, posted in Facebook, urging Muslims not to "encourage infidels" by
wishing Christians a "Happy Easter." This kind of thinking leads to attacks such
as the stabbing murder this year of Asad Shah (right) in Glasgow, Scotland, who
was killed by a fellow Muslim who claimed Shah "disrespected" Islam by wishing
Christians a Happy Easter.
Dawud Walid wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post:
"Being respectful of others' rights to observe and practice religious holidays
doesn't mean welcoming or celebrating them.
"'Good Friday' and Easter Sunday symbolize the biggest theological difference
between Christians and Muslims. The belief of 'original sin' needing a human
sacrifice of Jesus (peace be upon him) who is believed by Christians to be the
son of Allah the Most High is blasphemous according to Islamic theology.
"There's no original sin for humans to atone for since 'no soul bears the burden
of another' according to the Qur'an. Regarding the crucifixion, 'they killed him
not' and it was only a 'likeness of him' is stated in the Qur'an. And of course,
'He begot none, nor was He begotten' meaning Allah didn't have a son is also a
primary belief of monotheism articulated in the Qur'an.
"Be respectful, and don't pick theology debates with your Christian family
members and friends this weekend. However, avoid wishing them 'Happy Easter'
greetings.
"Avoid giving the remote appearance of passively affirming shirk [polytheism]
and kufr [disbelief]."
In the above post, Walid is referencing blasphemy -- a crime in places such as
Pakistan, where Christians and even minority Muslims are marked for death under
archaic "blasphemy" laws, perceived insults to Muhammad or Islam. He further
suggests that he believes Christianity to be a polytheistic religion, again
asserting his belief in the doctrine of blasphemy. Finally, he instructs Muslims
to self-isolate from both family and friends, by not extending the normal human
kindness of a "Happy Easter" greeting, lest they seem to be affirming "shirk"
(idolatry, polytheism) and "kufr" (disbelief; related to kafir, often used to
mean "infidel"). Where blasphemy laws exist, and where this mentality takes
hold, the punishment for what he calls "kufr" is death -- sometimes by the
state, sometimes by mobs tacitly endorsed by the state.
With this post, Walid cemented his position as a preacher of hate and
radicalism. He has already become known to many Muslims as an extreme figure,
who bullies anyone who disagrees with him, maligns dissidents, harasses gay
Muslims, and foments anti-American sentiments. The above post could have been
written by Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam who preached violence. In fact, when
blogging about Awlaki's long overdue assassination by an American drone in 2011,
Walid's few comments were not reserved for the opinions of Awlaki, who had
radicalized countless Muslims who have massacred countless innocent Americans,
but instead he referred to yours truly as "the lone wolf."
For years he has advocated for every radical Islamist he could get away with
defending. For example, Detroit's radical Islamist imam Luqman Abdullah has long
been the focus of Walid's innumerable grievances against local police and FBI.
He continues to this day to portray this armed militant imam, who led a
separatist "Ummah" (or Islamic State) group (long before ISIS), as the "victim"
of an overly aggressive FBI shooting, despite every investigation having shown
otherwise and despite Abdullah's core anti-American separatist militant
ideology.
It should raise many alarms that his social media posts, such as the one this
Easter (which he deceptively took down), was written not by a known radical in
Yemen, but by a man employed as a leader of the self-appointed "representative"
of American Muslims, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in one of the
regions of the United States most densely populated by Muslims. It is beyond
denial to ignore the fact that Muslims such as Walid are leading radicalizers of
American Muslims, and their efforts are dedicated to pushing vulnerable Muslims
away from integration and reform against Islamist movements.
*M. Zuhdi Jasser is the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy
based in Phoenix, Arizona and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement. He is
author of "A Battle for the Soul of Islam."
© 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.
French Political Gymnastics
and How to Help the Palestinians
Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone Institute/May 23/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8097/france-palestinians
"I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised
by terror. I call upon them to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance
and liberty. If the Palestinian people meet these goals, they will be able to
reach agreements with Israel, Egypt and Jordan on security and other
arrangements for independence." — President George W. Bush, 2002.
The Palestinians do not have "a practicing democracy based on tolerance and
liberty," but erasing Israel evidently remains their goal.
Rather than offering the Palestinians no-cost recognition, the French should
demand a few changes first.
The French government seems to be falling over itself to undo its craven vote in
favor of a UNESCO resolution accusing Israel -- referred to as the "Occupying
Power" in Jerusalem -- of destroying historic structures on the Temple Mount:
Prime Minister Manuel Valls apologized. "This UNESCO resolution contains
unfortunate, clumsy wording that offends and unquestionably should have been
avoided, as should the vote."
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve apologized. [I do] "not take a supportive
view of the text." The resolution "should not have been adopted" and "was not
written as it should have been."
President François Hollande apologized. [The vote was] "unfortunate," and, "I
would like to guarantee that the French position on the question of Jerusalem
has not changed... I also wish to reiterate France's commitment to the status
quo in the holy places in Jerusalem... As per my request, the foreign minister
will personally and closely follow the details of the next decision on this
subject. France will not sign a text that will distance her from the same
principles I mentioned."
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault did not quite apologize: "France has no
vested interest but is deeply convinced that if we do not want to let the ideas
of the Islamic State group prosper in this region, we must do something."
It sounds as if they thought they had made a mistake. But the vote was not a
mistake. Underestimating the depth of Israel's anger about it might have been a
mistake, but not the vote. The French -- who, according to their foreign
minister, have "no vested interest" but need to "do something" about Islamic
State -- could not have thought that a UNESCO resolution that offended Israel
would do anything to slow ISIS "in the region" or in Europe. There is no way it
could; the two are not connected.
The French however, apparently thought a vote accusing Israel of something,
anything, would keep the Palestinian Authority from presenting a resolution on
Palestinian independence to the UN Security Council; Ayrault implied in Israel
that the UNESCO vote was a quid pro quo. Why? The French have a veto they could
exercise in the UN Security Council. But the Palestinians might then object to
France replacing the U.S. as the "Great Power" in the "peace process." They
already have experience with a veto-wielding interlocutor -- the U.S. -- and
they do not want another. The price of an elevated status for the French appears
to entail not vetoing Palestinian resolutions, voting for them in UNESCO, and
sacrificing Israel in a process that will end in French recognition of a
Palestinian State, whether Israel agrees to be bound to the altar or not.
French President François Hollande welcomes Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas in Paris, July 8, 2012. (Image source: Office of the President of
France)
It should be noted that the Russians immediately put out a statement that the
UN-sponsored Middle East Quartet is the "only mechanism" for resolving the
Palestinian issue. It is not clear whether Putin was supporting American or
Israeli interests. Iran and ISIS are similarly disinclined to see the French
ascend on this issue.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, are thrilled to have an international
conference where others will make demands of Israel as the Palestinian
experiment in self-government degenerates into poverty and chaos by its own
economic, political and social choices, looking more like Venezuela every day.
For Palestinians in the street, killing Jews in the "knife intifada" did not
take the edge off the popular anger and frustration with their own leadership.
Under the circumstances, the French, and France's enabler, U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, might usefully consider the approach taken in fact by
President George W. Bush, which required changes in Palestinian behavior as a
prerequisite for support for statehood. Honored mainly in the breach, Bush's
2002 speech nevertheless remains the best statement of American, and Western,
interest in moving the Palestinians toward a functioning state:
It is untenable for Israeli citizens to live in terror. It is untenable for
Palestinians to live in squalor and occupation. And the current situation offers
no prospect that life will improve. Israeli citizens will continue to be
victimized by terrorists, and so Israel will continue to defend herself...
Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian
state can be born.
I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised
by terror. I call upon them to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance
and liberty. If the Palestinian people meet these goals, they will be able to
reach agreements with Israel, Egypt and Jordan on security and other
arrangements for independence.
And when the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new
security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will
support the creation of a Palestinian state whose borders and certain aspects of
its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement
in the Middle East.
I wrote at the time that,
"Mr. Bush made one huge leap of faith in the speech when he said, 'I've got
confidence in the Palestinians. When they fully understand what we're saying,
that they'll make the right decisions when we get down the road for peace.'
What, in fact, will the U.S. do if the Palestinian people weigh a new
constitution and free political parties and STILL decide that blowing up Jews is
better? What if they have transparent government, economic advancement and an
independent judiciary, and STILL decide Jewish sovereignty must be eradicated
with the blood of their children?"
The Palestinians have answered half the question. They do not have a "practicing
democracy based on tolerance and liberty," but erasing Israel evidently remains
their goal. Rather than offering no-cost recognition, the French should demand a
few changes first.
*Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center.
© 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.
Kurdish
President Barzani: The Sykes-Picot Agreement Has Failed; It Is Time To Establish
A Kurdish State
MEMRI/May 23, 2016 Special Dispatch No.6444
In a statement on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot
agreement, Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, called
on the international community to acknowledge that the Sykes-Picot agreement has
failed. Barzani said that this agreement, which disregarded the makeup of the
region and the will of its peoples, was a great injustice perpetrated against
these peoples, especially against the Kurds. For the Kurds of Iraq, he said, it
resulted in 100 years of discrimination and atrocities perpetrated against them
by the various Iraqi regimes. Barzani stressed that, despite this, for 100 years
these Kurds did their best to protect the integrity of the Iraqi state. But
today, the countries of the region and the world at large must not allow the
tragedy to continue, but must allow the peoples of Iraq to determine their
political future. Barzani called for a serious dialogue between Baghdad and
Erbil to reach a new solution. "If partnership cannot be achieved, let us be
brothers and good neighbors," he said.
The following are excerpts from the English version of his statement, as
published on the official website of the Kurdistan Region Presidency.[1]
"Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement. This agreement
led to the carving up of the region following the First World War, disregarding
the opinion of the peoples of the region and of the geographical reality in the
region. It was a great injustice on the peoples of the region, especially the
Kurds.
"The consequences of this agreement were first and foremost detrimental to the
people of Kurdistan in the state of Iraq. An Iraqi state that was originally
established to be based on partnership between Kurds and Arabs, in fact decided
to marginalize the Kurds. Successive Iraqi regimes have since denied Kurds their
rights and have committed great tragedies against the Kurdish people. The share
of the Kurdish people in this partnership has been the murder and deportation of
12,000 young Faili Kurds, the murder of 8,000 Barzanis, the murder and
disappearance of 182,000 Kurds in Garmiyan area and elsewhere, the chemical
bombardment of Halabja, the destruction of 4,500 Kurdish villages, the
Arabization of Kurdish areas, and countless other injustices.
"After the uprising of 1991, the people of Kurdistan opted to open a new chapter
with the state of Iraq, and refrained from retaliation against their
perpetrators. But this too was futile as the then Iraqi government continued its
oppressive policies against the Kurdish people.
"After the fall of the Ba’ath regime in 2003, the people of Kurdistan decided to
return to Baghdad and to help build a new Iraq by the drafting of new
constitution that guaranteed the principles of genuine partnership, democracy,
and federalism. Instead, Iraqi governments have since disregarded the
constitution, reneged on their commitments, ignored partnership, and decided to
cut the Kurdistan Region’s budget share...
"For all intents and purposes, today Iraq is a divided country along sectarian
lines. In Iraq, in Syria, and many other countries, Daesh has rendered borders
meaningless, and new borders have been created. The people of Kurdistan are not
responsible for this in Iraq. The responsibility lies with those who carved up
the region one hundred years ago, and with the flawed policies of the rulers of
the region who have wanted to maintain stability by the use of force, violence,
and oppression. In this, they have failed.
"In the last one hundred years, the people of Kurdistan have tried their best to
protect the territorial integrity of a genuine state of Iraq, but to no avail. I
would be thankful to anyone to come forward and tell us what more the Kurdish
people could have done to protect the unity of Iraq. To prevent war,
instability, and more tragedy, the Sykes-Picot agreement must be revised. The
people of Iraq cannot any longer tolerate war, disagreement and extremism. We
cannot continue with more tragedy and insist on a one-hundred-year-old
arrangement that has demonstrably failed. The international community and
regional countries must understand that in order to end the tragedies of Iraq,
we must take into account the makeup of the country, and leave it to the peoples
of Iraq to determine their political future. On the future of the Kurds in other
parts, they must each seek their solutions through peace and dialogue, and based
on their special circumstances.
"We must acknowledge the new realities; citizenship has not been developed;
borders and sovereignty have become meaningless, the Sykes-Picot agreement is
over. The international community must shoulder this historical responsibility
and instead of insisting on the continuation of the suffering of the people of
Iraq, they must seek a real solution for Iraq and the region. Otherwise, we are
destined for continued war, extremism, and tragedy, and international peace and
security will be under threat...
"On this hundredth anniversary of Sykes-Picot agreement, I call for a serious
dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to reach a new solution. If partnership
cannot be achieved, let us be brothers and good neighbors.
"If political parties in the Kurdistan Region, for whatever reasons, decide not
to shoulder this historic responsibility to act, the people will make their
decision, and the people’s decision will be stronger and more legitimate. I am
confident that the people of Kurdistan will make the right decision."
Endnote:
[1] Presidency.krd, May 16, 2016.
There is no Plan B in Yemen,
or in Syria
Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
Let the talk about a Plan B stop out of mercy for the victims of the policies of
attrition and the patchwork strategies being pursued in the raging battlefields
of Syria and Yemen. There is no Plan B in Syria, because the US administration
will not agree to what it will be needed to bring about a qualitative shift in
the military equation in Syria, because of the lack of confidence in the
abilities of the moderate Syrian rebels, and because the priority for both
Washington and Moscow remains the US-Russian accord and de-facto partnership in
Syria.
Let the two key players stop pretending their differences are vast, or that US
Secretary of State John Kerry has a Plan B as he exchanges retorts with his
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in what resembles more a comedy with
pre-arranged roles. There is no Plan B in Syria because the Gulf countries,
which speak of “alternatives” leading to the departure of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, do not intend to use the Islamist armies they are mobilizing to
fight terrorism to topple Assad’s regime, nor do they intend to dispatch
advanced weapons to the Syrian rebels to achieve a breakthrough that would tip
the military balance of power.
It is time to return to the policy-drafting table to scrutinize the reality of
these conflicts today, after the policy of attrition proved to be a failure and
to have an appalling human cost. Reconsidering policies in light of new facts is
not surrender; it is a necessary awakening to the dire need for a realistic
re-evaluation of policies and strategies, to replace the principle of attrition
with the principle of stopping the bleeding. This applies to both Yemen and
Syria, and it is time to be candid without fear of recrimination.
Clearly, Kuwait, which is hosting intra-Yemeni talks brokered by UN envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed, is worried about the prospect of the negotiations collapsing.
For this reason, the emir of Kuwait intervened personally to rescue them. Oman,
which is playing a behind-the-scenes role to prevent the collapse of the
critical negotiations between Yemeni government and rebel representatives, and
all the Gulf countries, is holding its breath because it is aware the collapse
of negotiations would mean the continuation of the war of attrition in Yemen,
now a gaping wound in the Gulf body.
Resolution masterstroke
Simply put, the ongoing negotiations are stuck at discussing UN Security Council
resolution 2216, which was adopted following the coup in Yemen. The resolution
was a “masterstroke” for having laid the roadmap for what can be described as
the surrender of the rebels to the legitimate government. The resolution called
on the forces of the Houthis and those loyal to former President Ali Abdullah
Saleh to withdraw from cities and handover their weapons in surrender to the
legitimate government, in addition to releasing detainees and restoring the
situation that existed prior to the coup, while effectively granting them
immunity.
That was an important diplomatic achievement for Saudi Arabia scored by its
ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah al-Muallem, with the resolution
winning unanimous approval and becoming the reference frame for the solution in
Yemen and legitimacy there.
This will be no surrender because the fact of the matter is that there is no
victor in Syria, regardless of whether some might believe Assad remaining in
power is a victory
That was then. But today, due to the reality on the ground and military
balances, and the resulting attrition strategy and the situation in the Yemeni
arena, sticking to it to the letter is neither practical nor realistic. This is
the view of many Gulf stakeholders, who feat a protracted conflict in Yemen and
the repercussions of the humanitarian crisis there on Gulf countries themselves
and their image in the eyes of international public opinion.
The climate in the Gulf suggests interest in Yemen has receded, and that Saudi
Arabia, which leads the Arab coalition forces in Yemen, has lost a lot of its
enthusiasm in the recent period. According to a notable observer, “it has lost
the will to continue the fight,” which inevitably affects both the military and
political course of events.
According to another veteran Gulf observer, a senior official in the Saudi
leadership believes the war in Yemen was a pre-emptive one to avert projects by
the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh against Saudi interests, national security,
and the interior. Therefore, the goal of the Saudi war in Yemen was to prevent a
Yemeni war in Saudi Arabia, and this has been achieved in the Saudi view. From
the standpoint of Yemen’s interests, however, the cost has been high without a
clear prospect of salvation. The destruction of Yemen has become clear and
embarrassing for the Arab coalition, particularly since the international public
opinion, including the Islamic and Arab one, is critical of turning Yemen into a
scorched earth as part of the pre-emptive strategy. The UN has blamed the Arab
coalition and its leaders, not just Saleh’s forces and the Houthis. Famine is
coming to Yemen, exacerbating the humanitarian situation there and inviting more
recrimination, criticism, and calls for an end to attrition in favor of policies
that stop the bloodletting. Especially so when al-Qaeda is spreading in the
south, and ISIS is planning to enter Yemen to carry out its schemes in that
scorched earth. The major powers, especially the US and Russia, are currently
giving leeway for negotiations led by the UN envoy to Yemen. However, according
to both public and behind-the-scenes indications, they are preparing to place
Yemen under US-Russian bilateral care similar to Syria.
Such a development would pull the rug from under the feet of Saudi Arabia in
particular, as the leading military player in Yemen’s conflict. So far, there is
a desire in the Obama administration not to comply with the Russian call for
withdrawing the Yemeni issue from the Security Council and Saudi Arabia, to be
handled by the US-Russian diplomatic duo. However, more deterioration in Yemen
and the collapse of negotiations will help Russia to get its way along with the
US. Such a development is something that Saudi leaders find extremely dangerous
with long-term repercussions.These circles also speak about the background of
the decision made by the Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to replace the
prime minister Khaled Bahah a few months ago, in a measure that was sudden for
the Saudi leadership. According to these informed circles, the Yemeni president,
whom Riyadh is keen to keep as the image of legitimacy, acted without
coordination with the capital that is hosting him. Riyadh was said to be upset
by the surprise move and the claim that Hadi “tried to contact” them but could
not. These important issues require a new approach to the question of how to end
the war in Yemen, regardless of who exactly needs an exit strategy. In truth,
there is no other option now except pursuing an exit strategy to leave the
Yemeni quagmire and end the humanitarian tragedy. This requires first and
foremost admitting to the failure of the costly policies of attrition, which
have a moral, humanitarian, as well as material toll.
The military situation in Yemen has yet to produce a decisive victory or defeat
for any of the parties. The continuation of the current situation and its high
cost might also be an unfavorable situation for Saudi Arabia, which wants the
world to focus on its vision for 2030 instead of pigeonholing it though its role
in Yemen’s war.
Ali Abdullah Saleh and some Houthis could benefit from the policy of
counter-attrition, and thus may not mind for Yemen to become a quagmire for
others. There is a chance for a political solution through the UN envoy, who
simplified the equation accurately when he said that there can be no solution
except when the Yemeni and other parties agree to compromise. The room for
compromise begins with a serious intention to implement a ceasefire and agree a
transitional government, which accepts the Houthis as part of the internal
Yemeni fabric rather than an outlawed group. One of the most prominent obstacles
to this solution is the resolution 2216 itself. The government party insists,
with Saudi support, on the full implementation of resolution 2216, which has
become impossible. The Houthis meanwhile believe there is no need for them to
surrender as per the resolution, and therefore are seeking a different solution
to the one at the heart of 2216, which they believe is unrealistic. Some in
their ranks want a full divorce with the resolution, which is also impossible.
Others are willing to make concessions, but link them to similar concessions by
the other party. This is in fact the only possible solution in the current
negotiations. Such a solution would take into account the facts on the ground,
while enshrining consensus and not dictating surrender, which is no longer an
option anyway. The foe remains strong, and there is no Plan B in Yemen just as
there is no Plan B in Syria.
“Afghanization” of Arab wars
The “Afghanization” of Arab wars, especially the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts, is
not a wise policy. It is the worst form of investment for all concerned, and
will backfire sooner or later. Wisdom instead requires for a decision to be
taken to stop the attrition, and replace the Afghan model with the Bosnian
model, based on de-escalation and compromise solutions. It is just unacceptable
to sustain Syria’s crucible for years to come, until Assad falls. His fate
ultimately is to leave, because of the Afghanization he and others imported into
Syria. But the condition to remove Assad as a first step towards a solution is
no longer feasible, because of the military balance of power on the ground.
There is an axis supporting Assad that has dedicated for carnage huge military
capabilities, from Russia’s warplanes to Iran’s ground forces and militias. By
contrast, the backers of the Syrian opposition have been reluctant about
providing game-changing military support that can overturn the balance of power
or influence the battlefield for diplomatic gains. Obama’s United States has
held on to the pledge not to supply weapons to the opposition, and not to
implicate its forces in Syria, or do anything that would shake its accord with
Russia, including holding accountable the Islamic Republic of Iran for its
actions in Syria.Turkey played the Syrian card arrogantly, and ended up
implicating rather than helping the opposition. The Gulf countries took one step
forward and two steps back, under the pretext of US restrictions on supplying
US-made weapons to the Syrian opposition, but they continued to issue threats
without a meaningful Plan B. All this made the current balance of power what it
is, and it is no longer possible to change it because of the weakness of the
opposition. Political solutions, when they are reached, cannot be seen in
isolation from actual maps imposed by the military balance of power through war.
The facts on the ground require a return to the policy-drafting table. If the
investment in changing the regime in Damascus adopted the failed policy of
attrition while the foe adopted a policy of sustained military support, perhaps
it is time to consider compromise solutions, even if they are cosmetic. This
will be no surrender because the fact of the matter is that there is no victor
in Syria, regardless of whether some might believe Assad remaining in power is a
victory. There is no victor in Yemen either, no matter how much some might
believe containing the war in Yemen is a victory.Let there be cosmetic solution
at the expense of UN resolutions and principles. This is the lesser evil, lesser
than subjecting Syria and Yemen to another year of horrific tragedies. Neither
the illegitimacy of Assad nor the legitimacy of Hadi deserve crushing Syria and
Yemen’s children, as long as there is no Plan B as a serious option against war
crimes, away from criminal justice.
The servants and the served
Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
We have a major problem in the Middle East when it comes to accountability. In
an ideal political situation, all public servants should be accountable to the
people. Without this scrutiny the lines will undoubtedly blur, and it can
sometimes be difficult to see who is the servant and who is the one being
served.
Due to the nature of most of the ruling regimes in our region, however, many of
those in public office, from the most senior down, have become perhaps a little
too comfortable in their positions, almost as if they have come to see their
jobs as entitlements.
I cannot think of many examples of public servants in the Arab world who
resigned their position due to not having achieved their goals. Are they all so
brilliant in our part of the world that not a single one has failed at any task
in all these many years?
Even a casual observer would note that, unfortunately, many are not even up to
their jobs, let alone capable of delivering true excellence. Despite that,
almost none have had the courage and strength of character to come out and say:
“I’m sorry, I failed to perform, and therefore I am resigning my position.”
Instead, they have had to be removed or reassigned by the same masters who put
them there in the first place. Regulators, generally, are a great example of
this very problem. Let me be clear in that I am not against regulation. I
welcome high quality regulation which is beneficial to any industry, but it is
important that the people in those positions be whiter than white, and saintlier
than saints.Those in public office should understand that there is no shame in
resigning a position to allow someone who may be better to try something
different
Trickle-down effect
Unfortunately, and it hurts me to acknowledge this, many of our Middle East
regulators have not been up to the level that they should be, and as a result we
have all suffered. This not only affects specific industries, but the economy as
a whole, including the wealth that trickles down to the average man on the
street.
Those in public office should understand that there is no shame in resigning a
position to allow someone who may be better to try something different. The
shame is actually in clutching onto those positions the way a child will hold
onto a comfort blanket. These are important positions and it should always be
the general public good that comes first, not the whims of bureaucrats or their
masters.
Since the Middle East seems to be taking its time in terms of developing a true,
lasting solution to this issue, one in which public servants are directly
accountable to the people, perhaps we should consider, as a medium-term fix,
establishing an independent accountability body to audit the activities of all
government departments. It is crucial, however, that this body, no matter how
limited its powers, be accountable to the people, and not to another government
entity. At least this way public servants would have some fear of losing their
jobs, or at the very least of their scandals being publicly aired. The fact
remains that a lot of the problems we face are simply a result of not having the
right people in the right positions. The longer we carry on this way, the longer
our region will lag behind the rest of the world. Government jobs should never
be seen as a right for anyone. They are a duty to the public, not to the masters
in power, and no one in any position of authority should forget that. This is
why it is called “public service”. It is about serving the public, and the
emphasis should always be on the word “service”. There are no masters that need
serving in this relationship, just the public.
Tunisia’s Ghannouchi and
separating religion from politics
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party chief Rached Ghannouchi is one of the few
leaders in political Islam with the influence to alter the paths of political
movements and Islamic governments, saving them from themselves and saving the
region from their plans to dominate. However, there are two Ghannouchis - the
one who addresses the West, and the one who leads Ennahda. Ahead of the party’s
congress last week, he told French daily Le Monde that there was no room left in
post-Arab Spring Tunisia for political Islam. “We confirm that Ennahda is a
political, democratic and civil party whose point of reference remains rooted in
the values of ancient and modern Islam,” he said. “We’re heading towards
[transforming] the party into one which only specializes in political activity.
We will exit political Islam and enter Muslim democracy. We’re Muslim democrats,
and we don’t define ourselves as affiliates of ‘political Islam.’ We want
religious activity to be completely independent from political activity. This is
good for politicians because in the future they won’t be accused of employing
religion to serve political aims. It’s also good for religion so it’s not held
hostage to politics, and thus it’s not employed by politicians.”
These are great statements that we need to hear at this time. However, we saw
the other Ghannouchi as he addressed Ennahda on the same day. “We’re surprised
by some parties’ insistence to eliminate religion from national life, although
the leaders of the national movement have historically adhered to our Muslim
religion,” he said.
Contradiction
He made contradictory statements on the same day, voicing surprise that some
want to separate religion from politics, yet promising to do exactly that. Most
members of other Tunisian parties are also Muslim, but Ennahda wants to be
presented as representative of Islam. This is where the problem rises. Islam is
a fixed doctrine, while politics is changeable civil work. Figures of authority
who work in religion have often used the latter. Addressing the Ennahda
congress, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said although there are many
licensed parties in the country, he chose to attend Ennahda’s conference because
the party has an important role. Essebsi urged its transformation toward civil
life. He made contradictory statements on the same day, voicing surprise that
some want to separate religion from politics, yet promising to do exactly that.
Despite the contradictions, Ghannouchi’s statements to Le Monde were welcomed by
the media, social-networking platforms, intellectuals and political figures.
They believe that with this approach, he will not only lead Tunisia but the
entire Muslim world toward modernizing the concept and role of political Islam.
If he means what he says, his statements reflect a progressive ideology that
distinguishes him from other clerics of political Islam. However, we do not know
which Ghannouchi to believe. What makes leaders who are described as “moderate”
make contradictory speeches? Is it due to pious policy, because they want to
market themselves and their parties to the West, or because they live a life of
contradictions?I have held discussions with many of these figures, including
Ghannouchi. Despite the disagreement between us, which reached British courts,
he is a prominent intellectual. He has a renewed proposal, and he has lived
through the era of several movements, learning from them and influencing them.
However, I see him as a fox, like all other foxes of politics. This does not
underestimate the value of his intellect. I think he means what he says about
his desire to develop Islamic partisan ideology in order to resemble the western
European experience, where those with Islamic ideas can work in politics and
influence it from their religious perspective while respecting their
competitors. However, what may obstruct this tolerant ideology is the desire to
remain in power, as the leader must adhere to the intellect of his party
members, and most of them do not believe in these Western liberal ideas. This is
why he wears two hats. As Ennahda chief, Ghannouchi is concerned with pleasing
the party’s supporters and the Islamic audience, which is mainly against
coexisting with others and adopts the principle of monopolizing governance. This
is what the late Hassan al-Turabi did in Sudan, and what the Muslim Brotherhood
tried to do in Egypt after it rode the wave of democracy and made it to power.
The Brotherhood sought to dominate, abandoning the rules of democratic work and
allowing others to use its practices as an excuse to make it to power.
A Qatif delegation visit to
the Saudi General Intelligence Prison
Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
The state will remain the only power in Saudi Arabia, and those who want to
assume its role will be held accountable, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef
said following a number of terrorist events. If society helps the state and its
institutions with security, the task will be easier for everyone.
A few days ago, 17 social, religious and media figures from Qatif visited the
General Intelligence Prison in the eastern region for five hours, checking out
what sort of care was provided to inmates.
Aid
The aid to prisoners include paying their rent, paying off fees and fines, and
paying for their children’s tuition, particularly those with special needs. The
General Intelligence Prison has also established a committee to look into
providing compensation for the losses prisoners incur due to imprisonment.
A comprehensive advice program, which includes specialists and holds discussions
with those involved in extremist ideology, has been established. More important
is the prison’s work on the ideological front. A comprehensive advice program,
which includes specialists and holds discussions with those involved in
extremist ideology, has been established. The point of this program is to engage
in debates that discuss prisoners’ references that led to their extremism, and
to refute their arguments. Some people in Qatif criticized this visit, but it
represents a significant pattern of communicating with the state, instead of
being isolated and misinformed about the situation of prisons.
Education cannot wait
Sultan A. Al Saud/Al Arabiya/May 23/16
It is a sad state of affairs that the 21st century has not only heralded marked
technological and scientific advances but also the highest of levels of human
suffering since the Second World War. It is for this reason that the UN
Secretary General has asked world leaders, philanthropists and other key
stakeholders to take part in the first World Humanitarian Summit this week in
Istanbul. It is here that the Education Cannot Wait fund, to provide education
to children suffering from emergencies and humanitarian crises, has been
launched. An unprecedented level of conflict has resulted in a record number of
forcibly displaced people, as of last year there were some 60 million refugees
worldwide . The tragedy of this is that children are often the worst affected.
In transit, faced by poverty, sickness and violence their education is in great
jeopardy. These children are likely to spend their school-age years outside the
classroom, their talents ignored and their potential locked. This message is all
the more relevant in the Arab world, where almost two decades on from the first
Arab Human Development Report , the region’s youth still suffer from a “poverty
of opportunities”. This has been compounded by recent conflicts, leaving many of
young people without hope and worryingly uneducated. It is for this reason that
the Education Cannot Wait fund has been launched by former British Prime
Minister and UN Global Education Envoy Gordon Brown. Currently, education
receives less that 2 percent of humanitarian aid and the support is often late
to arrive and is insufficient to cover the needs of children. Philanthropy in
the Arab world is intrinsic to its culture and religious practices, yet though
charitable donations are made, there is a need for them to be more strategic and
efficient. Worldwide it is thought that refugees spend 17 years displaced on
average, this is a critical period of time in the upbringing of a child. Syrian
children born in 2011 at the beginning of the uprising are now of school age,
however many will remain outside the classroom at risk of trafficking, child
labour and child marriage. Recognizing that in times of crisis, education can
offer stability yet there is a lack of capital to support it, the fund seeks to
provide a constant financial reserve to close this education gap. With an
average cost of just over $100 per child, education can be provided to support
those affected by war, natural disaster and other emergencies that severely
disrupt learning. It is vital that donors from the Arab World also contribute to
this fund. Philanthropy in the Arab world is intrinsic to its culture and
religious practices, yet though charitable donations are made, there is a need
for them to be more strategic and efficient. Education is the single most
important developmental challenge facing the region and it is only through
supporting it that we may build a better tomorrow. It is estimated that every
year $200bn-$1tn is given in charity across the Muslim world, with GCC
philanthropy comprising a significant percentage of these figures.
Structured approach
However, very little of the money goes toward sustainable development and is
thereby limited in its effectiveness. The Education Cannot Wait platform
provides a more structured approach, providing the benefits of a global
coalition that can collaborate to meet the single goal of education. The fund
has brought to together public and private partners to increase the efficiency
of current approaches, leverage traditional financing and innovate the delivery
of education in emergencies and protracted crises. It cannot be left to
governments in the region to fill the funding gap; philanthropists and the
growing number of non-governmental organisations have a duty to respond to the
call. Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally
displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would
be the world’s 24th largest. Put in in Arab context, every day last year an
average of 42,500 Syrian people became refugees. A sustained drive from donors
in the region could fill the education gap not just in regionally but globally.
This is a historic moment and the first time that such a fund has been
established and Arab philanthropic organizations and individuals must take part,
education cannot wait.