LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

September 21/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.september21.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today
Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 09/33-37/:"Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades
Book of Revelation 01/09-20/:"I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’ Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 20-21/16

Lebanon Needs Help to Cope With Huge Refugee Influx/Sara Atrache/International Crisis Group/September 20/16
Lebanon positions itself as hub for Syrian reconstruction/Scott Preston/Al-Monitor/September 20/16
Canada: Islamist Views in Ontario Schools/Tom Quiggin/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
What Is My Religion? I Feel Shame on My Self because am a Muslim/Hakim Haider/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
Eastern Europe: The Last Barrier between Christianity and Islam/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
Could Britain justify permanent UN Security Council seat after Brexit/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
Is it too late for Syria to find a political solution/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
When al-Nusra leader states the fact on US policy in Syria/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
How did Yemen’s militias squander $4 billion/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
Palestinian UN membership: A goal or a tool/Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
Interview with Waleed Al-Husseini/Grégoire Canlorbe/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 20-21/16
Lebanon Needs Help to Cope With Huge Refugee Influx
Lebanon positions itself as hub for Syrian reconstruction
Hollande Tells Salam Paris in Contact with All Parties over Presidential Vote
Salam Says Syrian Refugees 'Won't be Forcibly Deported'
Mustaqbal Urge Parties to 'Communicate to Find Solutions'
Change and Reform 'Won't Back Down' from Escalation: We Won't Allow Abolition of National Pact
Mustaqbal Clings to Franjieh, Urges Others to Make Initiatives
Marada Confident Hariri Would Coordinate Presidency Plans With Franjieh
Hariri Denies Meeting Bassil in Paris, Says September 28 Won't Witness New President
LF Will not Partake in FPM Rallies
Several Hurt in Lebanese-Syrian Armed Clash in Dawhat Aramoun
Lebanese IT Expert Zakka Gets 10-Year Iran Prison Sentence
Michel Murr Prosecuted in International Calls Case, Harb Says Will Cover for No One
General Strike in Ain el-Hilweh Protests Recurrent Killings
Unremitting official, banking efforts to spare Lebanon from being blacklisted amongst tax haven countries
Bou Saab holds meetings on sidelines of Refugee, Migration Summit in New York
Meeting at Kataeb Central House to commemorate the launch of Cornet Chahwan meeting
Derbas: Absurd who thinks Lebanon can uphold 2 million refugees

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 20-21/16

UN urges those with ‘influence’ to end Syria war
US names Syrian group Jund al-Aqsa to terror list
Obama: ‘No military victory to be won’ in Syria
Kerry Says Ceasefire 'Not Dead' at NY Meeting as Syria Returns to Bloodshed
U.N. Suspends Syria Aid Convoys after Deadly Strike
Erdogan at UN urges global action against preacher
Pope meets refugees, religious leaders at Assisi peace day
Syria: Attack on humanitarian convoy is an attack on humanity
Tom Ridge: past crimes of the Iranian regime can no longer be ignored
Revealing true nature of the so-called ‘reformists’ in Iran
UN Human Rights Council: Joint written statement of NGOs, condemning Iran regime for 1988 massacre
MARYAM RAJAVI'S MESSAGE TO IRANIANS' DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK
60 days of pressure on environmental activists in Iran Prison
Indian, Pakistani Troops Exchange Fire in Kashmir

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on September 20-21/16

NYC jihad bomber became “way more religious” after trip to Afghanistan
Ten times in past two years jihad terrorists slipped through immigration process into U.S.
NYC Mayor: Islamic terror “vanishingly rare,” calls for more Muslim migrants
Father of NYC jihad bomber called FBI on his son in 2014; Marine says father was jihadi in Afghanistan
NY jihad bomber asked Congressmen for help to bring wife to US; wife left country days before jihad bombing
The “Islamophobia” Lie
New York: Muslim gets nine years for bashing gay couple over their heads with heavy wooden chair
Reality-resistant authorities probing New York jihad bomber’s motive

Muslim migrant boat captain faces murder charges for pushing Christians overboard

Utah: Elementary school evacuated after Muslim threatens to blow it up
Video: Behind the Terror in NYC, New Jersey and Minnesota — a Daniel Greenfield Moment
Hugh Fitzgerald: The Dalai Lama: In Every Sense, On Islam He’s All Over the Map

Links From Christian Today Site for on September 20-21/16
Which country has the fastest-growing church in the world?
Boat captain goes on trial for murder after six Christian migrants died at sea
Unarmed black pastor shot dead by police despite having hands up
Three Christians attacked in India for distributing Christian literature
Priests in deprived area of Mexico found murdered
Paris teenager arrested over false security alert at church
Archbishop tells UN: You have to fix refugee crisis
Jesus' forgiveness needed to heal post-referendum anger, says Lib Dem president
Canterbury Cathedral gets armed patrol as part of anti-terror drive
Muslims in CAR 'slaughter 26 Christians in door-to-door village attack'
Catholic Bishop of Aleppo: 'The Lord will bless us and give us his peace'
Vast majority of Americans identify as Christian, say faith is very important to them

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 20-21/16

Lebanon Needs Help to Cope With Huge Refugee Influx
Sara Atrache/International Crisis Group/September 20/16
https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/lebanon/lebanon-needs-help-cope-huge-refugee-influx

Lebanon hosts some 1.5 million Syrian refugees, more refugees per capita than anywhere in the world.

 International support is needed to keep this fragile country from reaching the breaking point.
Lebanon, a small country whose population hovered around four million, has gained an astounding million and a half more residents in under four years, mostly refugees from neighbouring Syria. By contrast, the United States government proudly announced that it reached its target this year of granting asylum to 10,000 Syrians – to be settled in a population of more than 320 million – in the face of opposition from citizens worried about a flood of refugees and migrants.
Any serious attempt to deal with the global refugee crisis should acknowledge these startling disparities. The UN and U.S. are hosting back-to-back summit meetings on the refugee emergency on 19-20 September in New York, but advocates are pessimistic that the discussions will result in more equitable resettlement among the world's richest countries or adequate support to frontline states.
To frame an international response commensurate with the Syrian catastrophe, it is vital to understand what is happening in a frontline state like Lebanon. As the Syrian war escalated, Syrians began fleeing primarily to neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Lebanon, in particular, received the swiftest and largest refugee influx in its history. Around one million are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while an additional 500,000 unregistered refugees, migrant workers and wealthier Syrians have melted into the local population.
Such a sudden influx would pose a big challenge to any country, but Lebanon is without an effective government or significant resources, and has historically been unstable. Its resilience so far in the face of this shockwave is therefore remarkable. Yet the inflow has exposed a series of worrying fault lines.
The state’s endemic dysfunction is glaring: Syrian refugees arrived in a country sunk in a deep malaise. In recent years, Lebanese politicians have been unable to agree on electing a president or holding parliamentary elections, or even on a policy to collect garbage from city streets, whose pungent smell wafted through the capital last year. In view of such a dismal state of affairs, seeing the government implement a policy to address the refugee crisis would have been nothing less than a miracle.
Beirut’s default response of inaction has had serious consequences. In the absence of official camps established specifically for refugees, the majority of Syrians have sought shelter in Lebanon’s most deprived areas. This has put new strains on places that already lacked infrastructure and whose population was already struggling. Gradually, and not surprisingly, host communities have become resentful toward the refugees. In turn, many Lebanese officials have used the refugee issue to deflect criticism for the state’s failings, further feeding tensions.
Changing demographic realities are another source of concern. The arrival of refugees who are, for the most part Sunni Muslims, has alarmed Christians, Shias and Druze eager to preserve a delicate sectarian balance in a multi-confessional political system. Even Lebanese Sunnis, however, share their compatriots’ concerns about an enduring refugee presence. The refugee crisis has produced an uncommon consensus among Lebanon’s communities: everyone blames the Syrians for the country’s many ills.
Add to this Lebanon’s history with Palestinian refugees, estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 and mostly living in camps created after 1948. What was envisioned as short-term refuge turned into a seemingly permanent exile for these Palestinians, whose militarisation became a major trigger for the civil war a generation ago. As the Syrian war continues without an immediate end in sight, there are concerns that Syrian refugees may likewise become a long-term presence.
The spectre of renewed conflict has led the Lebanese authorities to adopt a heavy-handed security approach toward the refugees. They have repeatedly raided whatever encampments exist and arrested hundreds of men. Moreover, they have allowed local councils to impose discriminatory measures, such as nighttime curfews, on Syrians.
 

Lebanon positions itself as hub for Syrian reconstruction
Scott Preston/Al-Monitor/September 20/16
There may be no end in sight of the Syrian war, but Lebanon is already positioning itself as a hub for Syrian reconstruction markets once the war is over. Strategically located between the Mediterranean Sea and some of Syria's most devastated provinces such as Homs and Damascus, Lebanon could become one of the most important gateways for reconstruction efforts.
According to the World Bank, the restoration of Syria represents an industry estimated to be worth over $200 billion. The figure has some businessmen and policymakers hoping that the anticipated boost in multinational trade will save the Lebanese economy, which has stagnated in recent years.
Two free trade agreements, a common language and historic commercial ties are expected to give Lebanon a competitive advantage over other countries that share a border with Syria. “In the last 10 or 15 years when we started liberalizing the economy, at the time when Syria was pursuing a protective planning system, Lebanon was pursuing a free trade economy,” Nabil Sukkar, the managing director of the Syrian Consulting Bureau for Development and Investment, a consultancy specializing in market and investment expertise, told Al-Monitor.
“Lebanon became sort of the Hong Kong of Syria. A lot of business was done in Lebanon to serve Syria, and I expect that in the post-conflict reconstruction period, Lebanon will again become the Hong Kong of Syria,” he said.
However, Lebanon’s ability to make the most of its prospects hinge on whether it can draw foreign corporations to its shores despite its uncompetitive business environment. Currently, Lebanon ranks 13 out of 15 Arab countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index. Across the country, the government, along with international partners — including the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and United Nations agencies — are evaluating a number of initiatives that could spur foreign investment as well as bilateral trade.
In anticipation of lucrative reconstruction contracts, the Ministry of Industry and the UN Industrial Development Organization are evaluating the possible creation of up to three industrial zones. These zones might be established in the eastern Bekaa Valley or southern Chouf region, where local manufacturers would be well-placed to service the Damascus area.
Several other projects are being enabled through funds from a new financial instrument established in April by international donors. The Concessional Financing Facility (CFF) is meant to offer loans at highly concessional rates with a 40-year repayment window and a 10-year grace period. “The grant money that was initially received during the April meeting from the international community is put into a CFF trust fund. This will allow us to program about $800 million worth of money,” Peter Mousley, the program director at the World Bank’s regional office in Beirut, told Al-Monitor.
That money will be put to use in Lebanon’s north where World Bank funding is being used to upgrade 700 kilometers (435 miles) of roads, according to Hassan Dennaoui, a special consultant at the Tripoli Chamber of Commerce. Through this initiative, the government is hoping to stimulate job creation while laying the ground work for Syrian reconstruction activity.
Perhaps no city in Lebanon stands to gain more from Syria’s repair than Tripoli, an impoverished city that, as recently as March 2014, was the site of fierce clashes between factions on opposing sides of the Syrian war. Now, with the violence quelled, Tripoli is set to become the country’s most crucial hub for the Syrian reconstruction business and a key supply route to the devastated Syrian province of Homs, located north of Lebanon.
The potential wealth to be made from Syria’s restoration has also energized work on existing projects such as the expansion of Tripoli’s seaport. In 2012, the government awarded a contract to Gultainer for the construction and operation of a terminal at the port, and new developments are ongoing.
For his part, Dennaoui told Al-Monitor that the city is even being prepared to compete with Syria’s own harbors to the north. “There is no readiness for the seaports in Syria to host the big shipments because, here [in Tripoli], we have a depth of around 15.5 meters [51 feet] and it will be [dredged] for 17 meters, which does not exist is Syria,” Dennaoui said.
With the coordination of the Tripoli Chamber of Commerce, the seaport will work in tandem with a special economic zone (SEZ) that is in the early phases of development. The site of the SEZ, which is located next to the sea, is currently under reclamation and is expected to be finished by mid-2017.
“There’s a lot of desk work that has to be done,” Raya al-Hassan, who formerly served as minister of finance and was thereafter appointed as the chairman of the SEZ, told Al-Monitor. “Our law allows us to work with private developers. So either we mobilize funding through concessional financing by multinational organizations or we have to knock on the door of private developers, equity or loan financiers to basically provide funding no less than $30 million for the infrastructure.”
If all goes according to schedule, Hassan believes that the SEZ could be operational by 2020. Once completed, the zone is expected to play an integral role in attracting foreign corporations to Lebanon with a scheme of tax breaks and incentives, including a 50% foreign worker allowance.
Tripoli’s most ambitious project will be the laying of a 30-kilometer (19-mile) railway to the Syrian border that will be used to transport construction materials and other goods for reconstruction. Dennaoui said that the Islamic Development Bank has accessed the CFF and committed some of the $85 million that are needed to build the railroad over the next five to six years.
According to Dennaoui, the chamber predicts that these megaprojects and subsequent foreign investment could create as many as 7,000 jobs across a range of sectors, including information-technology, consulting, construction and logistics.
However, skeptics like Nassib Ghobril, the chief economist at Byblos Bank, are hesitant to put their hopes in Syrian reconstruction markets. “For the Lebanese economy, you have an obsession now: the reconstruction of Syria. We have to wait for the reconstruction of Syria and the Lebanese economy will boom again. … But you need to upgrade the infrastructure in the country regardless of what happens in Syria for a simple reason: our competitiveness is declining, and second you don’t know when the war in Syria will end,” Ghobril told Al-Monitor.
One thing that experts can agree on is Lebanon’s need to prepare for reconstruction-related activity to maximize its earnings. If the country cannot meet expectations, Syrian reconstruction could become a missed opportunity for Lebanese and Syrians alike.

Hollande Tells Salam Paris in Contact with All Parties over Presidential Vote
Naharnet /September 19/16/French President Francois Hollande told Prime Minister Tammam Salam during a New York meeting on Tuesday that Paris will maintain its contacts with all parties to press for the election of a president in Lebanon, media reports said. “Salam told Hollande that he is counting on France's support for Lebanon in resolving its crises,” Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said. Hollande for his part told Salam that he is following up on the developments in Lebanon, especially the Syrian refugee crisis and its impact on the Lebanese situations, the radio network added.The French president also noted that he will raise the issue of Lebanon's presidential vacuum during all of his upcoming meetings in New York, “especially with the Saudi and Iranian delegations,” Voice of Lebanon said. Hollande also revealed that France is preparing for a Paris meeting for the International Support Group for Lebanon that will be held in November in order to “take the necessary measures to help Lebanon at all levels.” LBCI television meanwhile said the French president reassured Salam that France will continue to support Lebanon at all levels, “especially in terms of assisting the army and helping Lebanon cope with the heavy presence of Syrian refugees.”“Hollande stressed to Salam the need to continue the work of state institutions – the parliament and the cabinet – and the importance of electing a president, emphasizing that France will maintain its contacts with all parties to press for the election of a president and for resolving the institutional paralysis crisis,” the TV network added. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's initiative followed a Paris meeting with Franjieh. The ex-PM's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Salam Says Syrian Refugees 'Won't be Forcibly Deported'
Naharnet /September 19/16/Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed Tuesday that the Syrian refugees in Lebanon will not be “forcibly deported,” a day after he urged the U.N. to devise a plan for the “safe return” of refugees to their country and for the redistribution of some of them to other countries. “We cannot invent appropriate circumstances and we cannot forcibly deport them – neither to Syria nor to any other country,” Salam told an LBCI TV reporter who asked whether Syrian refugees will stay in Lebanon for decades to come under the argument of “awaiting the appropriate circumstances.” “Shall we throw them into the sea for example? We can press to secure a safe return for them and this is what we are doing,” the premier added. Addressing the first-ever U.N. summit on refugees in New York on Monday, Salam had warned that the “huge and sudden influx of refugees is posing dangerous risks to our stability, security, economy and public services.” “Lebanon risks collapsing if the international community does not exert major efforts in this regard,” Salam added, addressing U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.Five years into the Syria conflict, Lebanon hosts more than one million refugees from the war-torn country, according to the United Nations. More than a third live in the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border.

Mustaqbal Urge Parties to 'Communicate to Find Solutions'
Naharnet /September 19/16/Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement stressed during their 34th dialogue session on Tuesday the need for “communication” among the various political parties. “The conferees discussed the deep crisis that the three constitutional institutions are suffering from, its impact on stability in the country and means to overcome it, especially after the suspension of national dialogue,” said a joint statement issued by the two parties after their bilateral talks in Ain el-Tineh. “They stressed the need for communication among the various parties in order to find solutions,” the statement added. Hizbullah has recently showed solidarity with its main Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement by boycotting a cabinet session that was held in the absence of FPM's ministers.The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact. The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Change and Reform 'Won't Back Down' from Escalation: We Won't Allow Abolition of National Pact
Naharnet /September 19/16/The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc emphasized Tuesday that it “will not back down” from its promised escalation, warning that “the abolition of the National Pact is equivalent to the abolition of Lebanon.”
“We reassure everyone that our stance on the presidential vote and the rest of the national issues is not linked to the political stance of any party,” bloc secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan told reporters after Change and Reform's weekly meeting in Rabieh. “Preserving this political system, coexistence and Lebanon begins with preserving the National Pact and the abolition of the National Pact is equivalent to the abolition of Lebanon,” Kanaan added. He pointed out that the presidency “does not only concern” the Free Patriotic Movement, its founder MP Michel Aoun or Christians, “but also Muslims and the idea upon which Lebanon was built.”Referring to the street protests and other escalatory steps that the FPM intends to stage, Kanaan underlined that any other party cannot influence the movement's decisions in this regard. “Our stance is principled and we will not back down in this regard. We will not stand idly by in the face of the attempt to abolish Lebanon,” the MP vowed. “We are performing our duty in preserving the Lebanon of partnership and the presidency is Lebanon's symbol, unity and real partnership,” he added. “The electoral law is also the source of all authorities and is it logical that we have been demanding an electoral law and a president that conform to the National Pact for 27 years now?” Kanaan went on to say. The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact. The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership. FPM chief Jebran Bassil has warned that the country might be soon plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the FPM's demands regarding Muslim-Christian “partnership.” The FPM has also announced that it will resort to street protests to press for its demands. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Mustaqbal Clings to Franjieh, Urges Others to Make Initiatives
Naharnet /September 19/16/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday that al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri is still clinging to the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh. “The repeated publishing of lies and fallacies related to alleged promises and imagined meetings that did not happen will change nothing of the facts and realities,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, refuting media reports about a purported Paris meeting between Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil. “The bloc considers that ex-PM Saad Hariri's initiative on backing the presidential nomination of MP Suleiman Franjieh is still ongoing and the others are required to present any suggestions or initiatives that they might have,” the bloc added. It also reiterated that “Hizbullah's claim that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and al-Mustaqbal Movement are to blame for the obstruction of the presidential vote is a rejected, desperate and silly claim that cannot convince anyone.”“It cannot cover up for the role of the party and Iran in obstructing the vote and in withholding the presidential election card in service of Iran's regional agenda,” Mustaqbal added. “The election of a president in Lebanon must happen according to the rules stipulated by the Constitution and not according to the conditions of any political party of group,” it stressed. “During this critical and dangerous period, Lebanon needs a president who can unite the Lebanese people rather than divide them and whose election would bolster up Lebanon's noble coexistence concept,” Mustaqbal added. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Marada Confident Hariri Would Coordinate Presidency Plans With Franjieh
Naharnet /September 19/16/Marada Movement senior officials said they were confident that al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri will coordinate with his candidate for the presidency MP Suleiman Franjieh the steps he plans to take with regard to the election of a president, media reports said on Tuesday. The sources said they were positive that Hariri will not take any step without coordination with his declared candidate Marada Movement chief Franjieh. Pointing to reports, which were denied by Mustaqbal, that a meeting between Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief Foreign Minster Jebran Bassil took place in Paris, the sources remarked that Mustaqbal has denied the meeting which proves that no changes were introduced as for Hariri's candidate for the head of state position. Reports alleged recently that a meeting between Hariri and Bassil in Paris took place, and that it might herald a change in the position of Mustaqbal leader with regard to the nomination of the FPM and Hizbullah candidate MP Michel Aoun. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties, including Kataeb, as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Hariri Denies Meeting Bassil in Paris, Says September 28 Won't Witness New President
Naharnet /September 19/16/Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri told senior party officials that he has not met with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil while in Paris as alleged in media reports, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday. On the election of a president Hariri stressed that the 45th parliament session scheduled on September 28 to elect a president “will not witness the election of a head of state, whether named Michel Aoun or Suleiman Franjieh or any other compromise candidate,” he was quoted as saying. Sources close to Hariri said that it is impossible for him to agree on a presidential settlement without having paved way for the issue with his allies, parliamentary bloc and supporters. The sources were referring to alleged reports that Hariri is set to agree on the election of Aoun as president. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties, including Kataeb, as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between the two parties. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

LF Will not Partake in FPM Rallies
Naharnet /September 19/16/The Lebanese Forces will not take part in the popular rally called by the Free Patriotic Movement unless it sensed that its demand, with regard to agreeing on an electoral law that respects the Christian representation, was not taken into consideration. Senior LF sources denied media reports claiming that the LF has informed the FPM of their willingness to participate in the street rallies under the title of preserving the National Pact. They said: “The LF will partake in the rally only in one case, if the agreement with regard to the electoral law was harmed.”The LF has briefed its March 14 allies, namely al-Mustaqbal, of its position, they went on to say. Media reports said earlier that the FPM chose to brand its planned street rallies under the title of commitment to the National Pact in order to embarrass its allies, mainly the LF, into participation in the rallies. Last week, the Change and Reform bloc announced that it has started mobilizing for street protests on September 28 and October 13 as part of its escalatory steps that are aimed at pressing the other parties in the country to “abide by the National Pact.”FPM chief Jebran Bassil has threatened that the FPM would “topple the government” through street protests if the other parties do not heed the movement's demand regarding “partnership” and the National Pact. The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.

Several Hurt in Lebanese-Syrian Armed Clash in Dawhat Aramoun
Naharnet /September 19/16/An armed clash broke out Tuesday evening between a number of Lebanese and Syrian nationals in Dawhat Aramoun, an area that lies around 22 kilometers south of Beirut, state-run National News Agency reported. “Several people were wounded in a heavy and intense exchange of machinegun fire in Dawhat Aramoun between a number of the area's residents and Syrian refugees,” NNA said. The causes of the clash are still unclear, the agency added. The army eventually intervened and arrested a number of shooters and was pursuing others, NNA said later in the evening.The incident comes around a week after a Lebanese-Syrian brawl in the Jounieh area of Sarba that sparked major tensions in that region.

Lebanese IT Expert Zakka Gets 10-Year Iran Prison Sentence
Associated Press/Naharnet /September 19/16/A Lebanese citizen and U.S. permanent resident detained for a year in Iran over spying allegations has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine, his supporters said Tuesday, the latest move in a crackdown on those with foreign ties following last year's nuclear deal. The sentence for Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen who advocates for internet freedom and whose nonprofit group did work for the U.S. government, comes as Iranian officials attend the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York. It also shows the challenge faced by Western governments and those wanting warmer ties with Iran, where hard-liners in the security forces and judiciary target dual nationals and others in secret trials. "There's no regard for any international order, any international agreement or any international state of relations that they care about," said David Ramadan, a former Virginia state legislator who co-founded a group called Friends of Nizar Zakka. A statement early Tuesday from Jason Poblete, a U.S. lawyer representing Zakka, said a Revolutionary Court in Tehran handed down the sentence in a 60-page verdict that Zakka's supporters have yet to see. Amnesty International has said Zakka had only two court hearings before the ruling and received only limited legal assistance. The closed-door tribunal handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government. Supporters say Judge Abolghassem Salavati heard Zakka's case. Salavati is known for his tough sentences and has heard other politically charged cases, including one in which he sentenced Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian to prison. A prisoner swap in January between Iran and the U.S. freed Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans. There was no mention of Zakka's sentence in Iranian state media. Iran's U.N. mission did not respond to a request for comment.
Zakka, who lives in Washington and holds resident status in the U.S., leads the Arab ICT Organization, or IJMA3, an industry consortium from 13 countries that advocates for information technology in the region. Zakka disappeared Sept. 18, 2015, during his fifth trip to Iran. He had been invited to attend a conference at which President Hassan Rouhani spoke of providing more economic opportunities for women and sustainable development. On Nov. 3, Iranian state television aired a report saying he was in custody and calling him a spy with "deep links" with U.S. intelligence services. It also showed what it described as a damning photo of Zakka and three other men in army-style uniforms, two with flags and two with rifles on their shoulders. But that turned out to be from a homecoming event at Zakka's prep school, the Riverside Military Academy in Georgia, according to the school's president. It's unclear what prompted Iranian authorities to detain Zakka. The Associated Press reported in May that Zakka's IJMA3 organization had received at least $730,000 in contracts and grants since 2009 from both the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. Zakka's supporters have written Secretary of State John Kerry stating that Zakka traveled to Iran "with the knowledge and approval of the U.S. State Department, and his trip was funded by grants" from it. Those assertions could not be verified by the AP, and Zakka's friends say they can't obtain copies of the contract from the State Department due to federal regulations. Neither American nor Lebanese officials, who the U.S. says are responsible for providing consular assistance to Zakka, have publicly acknowledged Zakka's work with the U.S. government. In a statement, the State Department said it was "troubled" by Zakka's reported sentence and demanded his immediate release."We reaffirm our calls on Iran to respect and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, cease any arbitrary or politically motivated detentions and ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all criminal prosecutions," the statement said.
Ramadan, however, criticized the State Department's conduct in Zakka's case, saying it "refuses to do anything for him."
Others known to have been detained in Iran since the nuclear deal include:
— Homa Hoodfar , an Iranian-Canadian woman who is a retired professor at Montreal's Concordia University;
— Siamak Namazi , an Iranian-American businessman who has advocated for closer ties between the two countries and whose father is also held in Tehran;
— Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian and U.N. official in his 80s who is the father of Siamak;
— Robin Shahini , an Iranian-American detained while visiting family who previously had made online comments criticizing Iran's human rights record; and
— Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe , a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in prison on allegations of planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while traveling with her young daughter.
Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission.

Michel Murr Prosecuted in International Calls Case, Harb Says Will Cover for No One
Naharnet /September 19/16/Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim took legal proceedings against Michel Gabriel Murr, chairman and CEO of MTV channel, and the Studio Vision company on charges of squandering public funds in the case of illegal international calls, LBCI said on Tuesday. The accusal includes a punishment that would reach to three years imprisonment. The magnitude of funds that have been wasted in this case have reached LBP 90 billion, LBCI added. In August, Judge Ibrahim questioned Murr in the case over his connections to the Zaarour station. Early in 2016, it has been reported that wireless internet towers and technical equipment were placed illegally in some mountainous terrains including Tannourine, al-Dinnieh, Sannine and al-Zaarour. Head of the parliamentary media committee MP Hassan Fadlallah said after a committee meeting on Tuesday, that the state-owned mobile companies have been buying the internet services from private companies at prices higher than those provided by the state. “We are entitled to form an investigative parliamentary commission to be able to prosecute the parties accused in the illegal internet file,” said the For his part, Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb said: “Despite the storms battering Lebanon, we were able to record some accomplishments. I will not provide a cover for anyone in the illegal internet file. “The media committee meeting is the start of picking the fruits of judicial work in Lebanon,” added Harb. Before the media committee convened, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour had said: “The judiciary has made its first steps and got the permission to prosecute Abdul Menhem Youssef after his involvement in wasting public funds has been proven. I don't think that Harb would refuse the request.”Early in 2016, the media committee unveiled that anonymous parties described as a “mafia” are taking advantage of internet services in Lebanon by installing internet stations that are not subject to the state control. The owners of these stations are buying international internet bandwidth with nominal cost from Turkey and Cyprus which they are selling back to Lebanese subscribers at reduced prices. Smuggled internet services initiate risks namely the possibility of security breach as it lacks the basic control standards exposing Lebanon's security to third parties including Israel. Adding to the above is the fact that smuggling online services outside legal frameworks is a waste for the state's treasury amounting to over $2 million losses on a monthly basis.

General Strike in Ain el-Hilweh Protests Recurrent Killings
Naharnet /September 19/16/Residents in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in Sidon, held a general strike on Tuesday in protest to the recurrent killings in the camp the latest was against Palestinian Simon Taha who was killed Monday night in the al-Fawqani street, the National News Agency reported. UNRWA schools, business , health and social institutions were closed. The main road in the al-Tahtani street was blocked in condemnation of the crimes “targeting the security and stability of Ain al-Hilweh camp,” added NNA. The strike came at the invitation of the Popular Palestinian Committees that rejected recurrent killings and in solidarity with the family of Taha. The family of the deceased said that the strike will be “open and the road will be blocked until the perpetrators are found and punished.”The camp is home to about 50,000 refugees who live in dire conditions. Such incidents have become frequent in recent years in Ain el-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps. By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the Palestinian camps in the country, leaving the Palestinian factions themselves to handle security. That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain el-Hilweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives. But the camp is also home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the fighting in Syria. More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered in Lebanon with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

Unremitting official, banking efforts to spare Lebanon from being blacklisted amongst tax haven countries
Tue 20 Sep 2016 /NNA - Lebanon's economic and financial sectors are currently preoccupied with the possible imminent risks of blacklisting Lebanon at the end of the month amongst countries considered as tax havens in the world, based on the recommendation of G-20 Finance ministers, at the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in the United States, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Panama and Vanuatu (Dzer archipelago located in the South Pacific) are to be added to this list. In spite of Lebanon's adoption of a series of legislations in the past years, most recently related to the declaration of mobile funds across borders and laws' pertaining to the fight against tax evasion, the danger is still imminent, especially after the Parliament's failure to convene for legislation purposes, under the presidential vacuum.The Lebanese government, The Central Bank of Lebanon and Banks' Association are exerting relentless efforts to prevent Lebanon being blacklisted.
In this framework, the government has decided to participate in the meetings of the International Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes, affiliated to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris between 26 and September 30, through a committee comprised of the ministries of finance, justice, economy and Bank of Lebanon, to explain Lebanon's viewpoint and its actions in terms of devised bills of motion in an attempt to move from the first phase to the second phase of evaluation, amidst the current political circumstances that hinder the approval of such project laws demanded by the International Forum.
The Organization issued its decision due to the lack of commitment by a number of countries, including Lebanon, to the standards which it has set to determine the extent of the States' commitment with regard to tax cooperation at the global level, and the lack of flaws which might be exploited by some individuals or companies to avoid paying taxes. Among the most prominent standards that the Organization is keen on its existence is the international treaty that stipulates the exchange of information for individuals or organizations and companies that are internationally prosecuted on charges of tax evasion, with the concerned State- via this treaty- providing the international sides with the correct information for some taxpayers who are being interrogated in issues related to tax evasion.
The Organization is also considering another standard that States should commit to in the fight against such a "crime", notably commitment to the automatic exchange of information as of the year 2018- an international project that the Organization has re-insisted on since 2011 to limit tax evasion at the request of the G-20 Group.
The Organization stipulates the adoption of a sophisticated system for the exchange of information on taxpayers across borders.
Lebanon seeks through its adopted procedures, at the legislative level and circulars issued by the Central Bank, to convince G-20 and the International Organization that it owns all the appropriate weapons for fighting tax evasion.
MP Ibrahim Kenaan, Chairman of House Committee for Finance and Budget, told NNA in an interview that "the Finance and Budget Committee has endorsed several project laws which have been referred to it by the government, related to tax exchange, transfer of money across borders, money laundering and terrorism financing."
He added that "the parliament has approved these laws amidst the presidential vacuum and under the headline of 'necessary legislation'."
Kanaan added: "As for other project laws, they have not been referred to the Committee and in the meantime we are ready to discuss any bill once referred".
Joseph Torbey, Chairman of the World Union of Arab Bankers and Chairman of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, elaborated during the Arab European Banking Dialogue Conference at its third session in Paris yesterday, "that Lebanon is officially committed as of May 11, 2016, to the implementation of the exchange of information in accordance with the requirements of the OCDE. As such, Lebanon proves its cooperation in this regard, despite the main challenges that the country is currently facing in the implementation of such a pledge, with the need to issue new laws."
Torbey also pointed out the existence of hurdles in front of the implementation of the automatic exchange of information.
"The main obstacles are the paralysis of constitutional institutions and the political life in the country, as well as the failure to elect a president over the past two years, the closure of the parliament and government's paralysis," he asserted.
He warned that politics in Lebanon has become a hostage of war on the country's borders, urging Lebanon and the banks to commit to the fiscal transparency.
"Commitment to fiscal transparency is essential, and we depend on the understanding of our friends in the international community such as the OCDE to implement our commitments gradually," he stressed.
Torbey also indicated that the sturdy banking system in Lebanon, which is supervised by the Bank of Lebanon, and which remained immuned from the negative global repercussions of the financial crisis, has repeatedly proved its commitment to international legislations, such as those issued by the "Basel Committee" and the American "FATCA" law. Finally, the question remains whether the Lebanese government will succeed in sparing Lebanon the risks of being blacklisted at the outset of September?!.

Bou Saab holds meetings on sidelines of Refugee, Migration Summit in New York
Tue 20 Sep 2016 /NNA - National Education and Higher Education Minister, Elias Bou Saab, held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Summit of Refugees and Migrants in New York a series of meetings related to the education of migrants. The attendees confirmed that the first investment in finance would provide a good education to one and a half million children from Syria, Yemen and Tchad during the forthcoming two years. "We will invest in reinforcing the humanitarian response in education worldwide," they added, indicating that efforts will focus on the enrollment of children in Lebanese schools.

Meeting at Kataeb Central House to commemorate the launch of Cornet Chahwan meeting
Tue 20 Sep 2016/NNA - A large political meeting was held on Tuesday at the Kataeb Central House in Saifi to commemorate the launch of Cornet Chahwan meeting since 16 years ago. Several political figures attended the meeting, the representative of Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Minister Boutros Harb, the representative of former PMs Saad Hariri and Fouad Siniora, MP Ahmad Fatfat, Minister Alain Hakim, the representative of the Maronite Patriarch, Bishop Yousef Bechara and a number of MPs and March 14 figures. Former president, Amin Gemayel warned in his speech against forced election of the President of the Republic. For his part, Minister Boutros Harb spoke about concerns related to the means of reconstruction of the Lebanese state, calling on the Lebanese "to establish the basis of the future".

Derbas: Absurd who thinks Lebanon can uphold 2 million refugees
Tue 20 Sep 2016 /NNA - Social Affairs Minister, Rashid Derbas, said if the international community thought that Lebanon was able to uphold two million refugees across its lands to become citizens, the community would be believing an absurd thing. Minister Derbas on Tuesday received at his office a delegation of the justice committee belonging to European Union that discussed with him the condition of displaced Syrians. Derbas hoped that a positive cooperation would be conducted between Lebanon and European Union in favor of projects serving the return of displaced people to their homeland.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 20-21/16

UN urges those with ‘influence’ to end Syria war
AFP, United Nations Tuesday, 20 September 2016/UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the annual General Assembly debate on Tuesday with a call to end the fighting in Syria as he condemned the “sickening, savage” attack on an aid convoy. “I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started,” Ban said in his farewell address. Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians. The former South Korean foreign minister is stepping down on December 31 after 10 years in what has been widely described as the world’s most impossible job. Now in its sixth year with over 300,000 dead, the war in Syria is dominating this year’s gathering of world leaders. Ban denounced the “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack” on an aid convoy and confirmed that the United Nations had suspended deliveries of humanitarian assistance. “Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” he added. The UN chief hailed the aid workers on the convoy to Aleppo province as “heroes” and said “those who bombed them were cowards” before calling for accountability for crimes committed in the war. Ban blamed all sides for killing innocent people, but “none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees.”
He took a swipe at “powerful patrons” who are fueling the conflict and attending the General Assembly debate this week in New York. “Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians,” he said.

US names Syrian group Jund al-Aqsa to terror list
AFP, Washington Tuesday, 20 September 2016/The United States officially labelled the Syrian militant rebel group Jund al-Aqsa a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organization Tuesday as talks continued on securing a ceasefire in the war-riven country. The US State Department said the four-year-old group was originally a unit of the al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda arm in Syria, before splitting off to carry out operations independently. Today Jund al-Aqsa operates primarily in Idlib and Hama provinces, but remains “openly allied” with al-Nusra, already designated a terror group two years ago, the State Department said. It said Jund al-Aqsa was behind two suicide bombings in Idlib in March 2015 and a February 2014 “massacre” of 40 civilians in Maan in central Hama. The designation, and parallel sanctions by the US Treasury Department, forbid US entities and individuals from any transactions with the group. The designation came as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov led talks in New York Tuesday aimed at preserving a ceasefire in Syria after the Syrian military declared the week-old truce over and launched new bombardments on rebel-held cities. “The ceasefire is not dead,” Kerry insisted following the brief meeting of the International Syria Support Group, which one person in attendance described as “tense.”
 

Obama: ‘No military victory to be won’ in Syria
Agencies Tuesday, 20 September 2016/US President Barack Obama insisted diplomacy is the only way to end the brutal five-year conflict in Syria Tuesday, as a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow lay in tatters. “There’s no ultimate military victory to be won, we’re going to have to pursue the hard work of the diplomacy that aims to stop the violence and deliver aid to those in need,” Obama told the United Nations. His comments came hours after the Syrian military declared the ceasefire over and 18 UN aid trucks were destroyed as they tried to bring relief to war-ravaged citizens near Aleppo. Syria and Russia denied striking the convoy, with Moscow suggesting it may have caught Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry insisted hopes for a ceasefire remain alive after meeting his Russian counterpart and key powers with a stake in the civil war. In brief remarks to reporters as he left a New York hotel after a meeting of the 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG), Kerry said talks would reconvene later this week. “The ceasefire is not dead,” Kerry insisted, one day after the Syrian military declared a week-old truce over and launched new bombardments on rebel held The United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura confirmed that there was still hope of reviving the ceasefire, but admitted that delegates agreed it was in danger. The ISSG, chaired by Kerry and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The talks were brief and, participants said, tense. “The mood is that nobody wants to give this thing up,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told “Quite frankly the Kerry-Lavrov process is the only show in town and we’ve got to get that show back on the road.”His French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault agreed that the meeting had been tense but argued other countries should now help Moscow and Washington overcome their differences.
“It was a fairly dramatic meeting, the mood was gloomy. Is there hope. I can’t answer that yet, but we should do everything we can,” he said. “The US-Russian negotiation has reached its limit. There’s a lot left unsaid. The Russians and the Americans can't do it alone.” The ministers are in New York for the week to attend the UN General Assembly and officials said they would try to get together again to talk about Syria. A short distance across the city at United Nations headquarters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was opening a General Assembly debate with a plea to halt the fighting. In his Farwell address, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the annual General Assembly debate of world leaders on Tuesday with a call to end the fighting in Syria. “I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started,” Ban said. In Syria, fighting continued, one day after a strike on a UN and Red Cross aid convoy marked a low point in what was already a brutal five-year-old conflict. US officials hold Moscow responsible for what they say was a deliberate air strike, carried out either by Russian forces or strongman Bashar al-Assad's regime. Moscow and Damascus have both denied being behind the attack, which killed more than 20 civilians including aid workers, pointing the finger at US-backed insurgents. Moscow later said that the convoy caught fire and was not struck from the air. Russia and Syria are also furious with Washington over a coalition air strike on Saturday that killed dozens of regime soldiers and which Washington admits was a mistake. Kerry and Lavrov were joined by more than 20 foreign ministers from countries with a stake in the Syrian conflict, including bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Kerry Says Ceasefire 'Not Dead' at NY Meeting as Syria Returns to Bloodshed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /September 19/16/As Syria plunged back into bloodshed and the U.N. suspended humanitarian aid convoys Tuesday, world powers struggled to convince themselves that a ceasefire can be salvaged. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that U.S.-Russian attempts to broker a truce are "not dead" despite an air strike on an aid convoy and promised international talks will resume this week. Syria's beleaguered opposition sneered at this, branding the international community weak for not immediately taking action against Bashar Assad's regime for breaking the truce. Opposition leader Riad Hijab, head of the rebel High Negotiations Committee, said the ministers had shown "total weakness" and said he had proof Russian and Syrian jets were involved in the aid convoy strike. But U.S. President Barack Obama backed his top diplomat Kerry, saying there was "no ultimate military victory to be won" and calling on nations to pursue the "hard work" of diplomacy.
Kerry's terse declaration that talks would continue after a brief meeting in New York of the International Syria Support Group, did not conceal a pessimistic mood among his fellow foreign ministers. Washington's top diplomat arrived for the ISSG meeting with his Russian opposite number and constant sparring partner Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, co-chair of the 23-nation group. Relations between the nominal partners were already at a low ebb after a US-led coalition air strike on Saturday killed dozens of Syrian soldiers -- in what Washington said was a mistake. Then, on Monday, the negotiations appeared doomed after the Syrian army declared an end to the U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and a U.N. aid convoy was hit in an air strike. But Kerry nevertheless took the opportunity of the ISSG members being gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly to convene crisis talks. The mood was grim and the brief meeting inconclusive, but it allowed Kerry and U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura a chance to insist that the process has not collapsed. The talks lasted less than an hour and participants said the mood was tense but serious. Kerry's spokesman John Kirby said the ministers had agreed that, "despite continued violence," they would still use the agreement between the United States and Russia as a basis for more talks.
The ISSG is thus to reconvene in New York this week. "Quite frankly, the Kerry-Lavrov process is the only show in town and we've got to get that show back on the road," Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson admitted. France was more openly skeptical, President Francois Hollande telling opposition figures that the truce hadn't lasted as long as the time it had taken to declare it. His foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, warned that trust was breaking down in the U.S.-Russian partnership and said other countries should help push the process forward. "It was a fairly dramatic meeting, the mood was gloomy. Is there hope? I can't answer that yet, but we should do everything we can," Ayrault told reporters. "The Russians and the Americans can't do it alone."
Officials said participants had agreed to reconvene -- probably on Friday -- but analysts warned that more failures would not come without political costs. Without a ceasefire, attempts to deliver aid to starving civilians or to broker a political dialogue will fail. "A failed ceasefire means that the other two prongs of the approach are doomed," Emile Hokayem from the International Institute for Strategic Studies told AFP.
Savage attack'
U.S. officials have demanded that Russia take responsibility for what they said was an air strike on a U.N aid convoy near the northern city of Aleppo by either Russian or Syrian warplanes. The Russian defense ministry has denied any role in the attack, attempting to point the finger at rebels against Assad's regime. A short distance across Manhattan at the U.N. meeting, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack" that left around 20 dead. And Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that the convoy bombing had poisoned the mood at the ISSG, where delegates were "heavy with indignation."
Fighting rages
Meanwhile, air raids and shelling continued on frontlines around Syria, where more than 300,000 have died since Assad began efforts to suppress a popular revolt. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 barrel bombs -- crude explosives packed with scraps of metal -- were dropped on Aleppo on Tuesday.The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Monday night's raid destroyed at least 18 of 31 vehicles and a Red Crescent warehouse. The strike came just hours after the Syrian army announced the end of the truce Monday, accusing rebels of failing to "commit to a single element" of the U.S.-Russia deal.

U.N. Suspends Syria Aid Convoys after Deadly Strike
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /September 19/16/The United Nations suspended all humanitarian convoys in Syria on Tuesday following a deadly air strike on aid trucks, as fighting intensified after the regime declared an end to a week-long truce. Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed "around 20 civilians" including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent. Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country -- dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived. Key players including the United States and Russia were meeting in New York Tuesday in an effort to salvage the peace process, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had warned could be the "last chance" to end Syria's civil war. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened a meeting of the 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in New York, where world leaders have gathered for the U.N. General Assembly. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon opened the assembly debate with a call to end the fighting in Syria. "I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started," Ban said. Monday's strike on the aid convoy provoked outrage from U.N. officials, with aid chief Stephen O'Brien warning that if deliberate "it would amount to a war crime." The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Monday night's raid destroyed at least 18 of 31 vehicles, as well as a Red Crescent warehouse in Orum al-Kubra in Syria's Aleppo province. "Much of the aid was destroyed," the IFRC said in a statement, stressing that "the attack deprives thousands of civilians of much-needed food and medical assistance."Omar Barakat, who headed the local Red Crescent branch, was wounded in the strike and later died, IFRC spokesman Benoit Carpentier told reporters in Geneva.
'Dark day' for aid workers -
U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said that the movements of all aid convoys in Syria had been suspended as an "immediate security measure" after the raid. The attack marked a "very, very dark day for humanitarians in Syria and indeed across the world," OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said, adding that it was "paramount that we are able to establish the facts through an independent investigation." A Syrian military source denied any regime involvement, telling state media: "There is no truth to media reports that the Syrian army targeted a convoy of humanitarian aid in Aleppo province."The Russian defense ministry also said that both its forces and the Syrian air force "did not conduct any strikes against the U.N. aid convoy."The strike came just a few hours after the Syrian army announced the end of the truce on Monday night, accusing rebels of failing to "commit to a single element" of the U.S.-Russia deal. Heavy fighting almost immediately resumed, with activists and AFP correspondents on the ground in Syria reporting bombardments overnight and on Tuesday in several areas. In the battleground city of Aleppo, air raids and artillery fire hit rebel-held districts until approximately 2:00 am (2300 GMT Monday), an AFP correspondent said.
- 'Ready for barrel bombs' -
Residents spent the night huddled in their apartments sharing news about the collapsing truce via text messages and heard loud intermittent booms on Tuesday morning. At least 39 civilians were killed in overnight bombardment of Aleppo and the surrounding province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said, and fresh clashes erupted on the city's southern edges.In the week after the truce was declared on September 12, only 27 civilians were killed as fighting dropped significantly across the country.In the northwestern province of Idlib Tuesday, activist Nayef Mustafa said planes circled over the opposition-held town of Salqin. "It's calm now, but there was machinegun fire by military aircraft overnight," Mustafa told AFP. "The ceasefire has collapsed and people are getting ready to be hit by barrel bombs."At least four air strikes hit the central rebel-held town of Talbisseh on Tuesday morning after artillery fire throughout the night, activist Hassaan Abu Nuh said. Kerry and Lavrov had negotiated the truce deal earlier this month, hoping to put an end to more than five years of conflict in which more than 300,000 people have been killed. Aid to desperate civilians was a key element of the deal, but deliveries were minimal during the truce and cross-border assistance never entered Syrian territory. The ceasefire was already under massive strain after a U.S.-led coalition strike on Saturday hit a Syrian army post near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where government forces are battling the Islamic State jihadist group.

Erdogan at UN urges global action against preacher
AFP, United Nations Tuesday, 20 September 2016/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday demanded international action against the US-exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of orchestrating an aborted coup d’etat against him. “I would like to call on all our friends to take the necessary measures against the Fethullah Terrorist Organization in their own countries for the future of their own people and their well-being,” he told the UN General Assembly, referring to Gulen’s movement. Gulen, who fled Turkey for Pennsylvania and has been active in religious dialogue and charity, strongly denies Erdogan’s charges that he organized the July military coup attempt, which quickly collapsed. Erdogan told the United Nations that the movement was present in 170 countries, posing a “national security threat” to all of them. “This terrorist organization is in a deep mental heresy of subduing the whole world, far beyond Turkey,” he said. “It is evident from our experience that if you do not fight against FETO now, tomorrow may be too late,” he said, referring to the group by an acronym.
Erdogan has pressed the United States to extradite Gulen. US Vice President Joe Biden said on a visit to Turkey that legal experts and courts would need to review evidence against the preacher.

Pope meets refugees, religious leaders at Assisi peace day
The Associated Press, Assisi (Italy) Tuesday, 20 September 2016/War refugees and leaders and representatives of several religions, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, joined Pope Francis on Tuesday in a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis, who preached tolerance and gentleness. After chatting and shaking hands with dozens of participants, Francis sat down to dine with them in the Franciscan convent. The guests included 12 refugees who fled war and conflicts in Nigeria, Eritrea, Mali and Syria, which was represented by three Christians who fled the besieged city of Aleppo. Francis took his papal name from the peace-loving saint who was born in the Umbrian hill town, where Franciscans from the religious order founded by the medieval saint care for the basilica and its renowned artworks. St. John Paul II established the inter-religious prayer gathering in Assisi in 1986.
This year, Christians were invited to pray in the Basilica of St. Francis, while those from other religions will pray in the town that for centuries has drawn admirers of the saint who abandoned family wealth for an austere existence of preaching tolerance.
Closing event
The closing event gathers all participants in Assisi’s main square for speeches by the pope, Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, a representative each from Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, and remarks from a victim of war. Then time was allotted for a moment of silence for victims of war. Francis has urged people worldwide to find time to pray on Tuesday whenever then can. From the start of his papacy in 2013, Francis has decried war and conflicts which he says are tantamount to a “Third World War in segments.” He has also pressed for countries and individuals to welcome refugees. As an example, he flew Syrian civil war refugees back to Rome with him after his visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, where thousands of those fleeing fighting and poverty had set foot in Europe after risky journeys in smugglers’ boats. Among those dining with Francis in Assisi was a 23-year-old man from Mali, who survived a voyage on a fishing boat from Libya, where human smugglers are based, to Sicily.

Syria: Attack on humanitarian convoy is an attack on humanity
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Syrian Arab Red Crescent
20 September 2016
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are outraged by last night’s horrific attack on a SARC warehouse and an aid convoy in Orem Al Kubra (Big Orem) in rural Aleppo.
Around twenty civilians and one SARC staff member were killed, as they were unloading trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid. Much of the aid was destroyed. The attack deprives thousands of civilians of much-needed food and medical assistance.
“We’re totally devastated by the deaths of so many people, including one of our colleagues, the director of our sub-branch, Omar Barakat. He was a committed and brave member of our family of staff and volunteers, working relentlessly to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. It is totally unacceptable that our staff and volunteers continue to pay such a high price because of the ongoing fighting," said the SARC President, Dr Abdulrahman Attar.
“From what we know of yesterday's attack, there has been a flagrant violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which is totally unacceptable. Failing to respect and protect humanitarian workers and structures might have serious repercussions on ongoing humanitarian operations in the country, hence depriving millions of people from aid essential to their survival”, said Peter Maurer, the ICRC President.
“Today, the Red Cross and Red Crescent is in mourning. In solidarity with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, we are calling on the international community to ensure the protection of humanitarian aid workers and volunteers. We are not part of this conflict,” said Tadateru Konoé, the President of the IFRC.
Syria is one of the most dangerous conflicts for humanitarian workers in the world. During the past six years, 54 staff and volunteers of SARC have lost their lives whilst carrying out their duties.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement repeats its demand that all parties to the conflict adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law, which includes protecting aid workers.
For more information, please contact:
Ingy Sedky, communications delegate – Syria, ICRC
E-mail: isedky@icrc.org ¦ Twitter: @isedkyicrc¦ Mobile: +963 930 336 718
Stephen Ryan, communications coordinator – Middle East and North Africa, IFRC
E-mail: stephen.ryan@ifrc.org ¦ Twitter: @stiofanoriain ¦ Mobile: +961 71 802 779
Mona Kurdy, spokesperson, SARC, Syria, Email: mona.kurdy@sarc-sy.org Mobile +963 933735025
Krista Armstrong, communications officer, ICRC
E-mail: karmstrong@icrc.org ¦ Twitter: @KArmstrongICRC ¦ Mobile: +41 79 447 3726
Benoit Carpentier, team leader – public communications, IFRC
E-mail: benoit.carpentier@ifrc.org ¦ Twitter: @BenoistC ¦ Mobile: +41 79 213 2413

Tom Ridge: past crimes of the Iranian regime can no longer be ignored
NCRI Iran News/Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Unquestionably the US first Homeland Security Secretary is the most qualified to talk about Iran government and its officials as the ‘central bankers of terrorism’ which was the term used by Condoleezza Rice to describe Iran regime.
Tom ridge in an article which was published in thehill.com on Tuesday September 20 has specific points regarding the past crimes of Iran regime. Following is the full text:
At UN General Assembly, past crimes of the Iranian regime can no longer be ignored
It appears that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will once again be attending the annual UN General Assembly in New York. But when he arrives this year, it will be under much different circumstances, both domestically and internationally.
His presence presents a great opportunity to challenge Rouhani and his colleagues on their human rights record and their supposedly moderate credentials. This year’s visit will take place amidst an arguably unprecedented climate of awareness about his administration’s role in previous crimes.
One incident in particular is in focus among Iranians, expatriate activists, and their foreign supporters. In early August, an audio recording was thrust into the spotlight by the son of a former top cleric, Hossein-Ali Montazeri. The late ayatollah had been the heir-apparent to the founder of the Islamic Republic in the 1980s, but was ousted from his position and from the regime itself as a result of the contents of the recording.
The 1988 tape records Montazeri chastising four other officials for their involvement in the massacre of political prisoners that took place that summer. More than 30,000 dissidents were reportedly killed. Montazeri’s long-suppressed tirade upholds this narrative, specifically confirming some of the most shocking details of the proceedings, including the execution of teenage girls and pregnant women. Many were condemned for little more than expressions of sympathy for members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK). The group is the largest and best-organized pro-democracy opposition movement in Iran that promotes a secular, non-nuclear republic in Iran.
One of the individuals heard on the 1988 recording is today the justice minister in the Rouhani administration, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was the Intelligence Ministry’s representative on the Tehran “death commission,” which held the minutes-long trials to determine which of the local political prisoners would be put to death. On the recording, Pourmohammadi eagerly defends the activities that Montazeri described as the “worst crime of the Islamic Republic.” And today he characterizes the massacre as the enactment of “God’s commandment” regarding the MEK.
Speaking to provincial officials, Pourmohammadi said that he was “proud” to have participated in the carnage. His unrepentant attitude about responsibility for a crime against humanity underscores the irony of his role as justice minister. Moreover, the fact that Pourmohammadi was Rouhani’s personal choice for the position casts profound doubt upon the assumption, by President Obama and other Western policymakers, that the Rouhani administration is a moderate alternative to the hardliners associated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not to mention that under Rouhani’s tenure, the regime has continued to defy Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile tests, and has continued to support terrorism and extremist groups around the globe, which undercut the fallacy about moderation in Tehran.
The international community and U.S. Congress should have already disabused President Obama of the notion that the Rouhani administration could be reasoned with over such issues as human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. That should have been obvious during the first two years of Rouhani’s presidency. Executions skyrocketed, to the extent that nearly 1,000 people were hanged in 2015 alone. Most were condemned for political crimes like “enmity against God,” the same charge that doomed most victims of the 1988 bloodbath.
It is difficult to understand how the Obama administration failed to notice or elected to ignore recent human rights abuses. Whatever the case, the growing knowledge of Tehran’s past abuses cannot be so easily ignored, especially since the Rouhani administration’s complicity in the 1988 massacre is by no means limited to the justice minister.
Last week, the MEK, which maintains an extensive intelligence network inside Iran, revealed the names of 60 individuals who can now be connected to the massacre of political prisoners. All hold important positions, some in the Rouhani administration, some in other government entities, and some in financial institutions with close government ties. These revelations make it abundantly clear that the current Iranian government has in no fashion moved away from its past crimes against humanity – crimes for which no one has been held accountable. Indeed, those who participated willingly, even proudly like Mostafa Pourmohammadi, have been rewarded.
The complacency of the UN General Assembly and its American hosts year after year may have gone largely unnoticed in the recent past, but that will no longer be the case in the new circumstances of this year’s gathering. A dialogue has started both inside and outside of Iran in the month since the publication of the Montazeri recording. There is now unprecedented awareness about the lack of justice for the 30,000 who died. And as such, the Iranian people and the world will be watching more closely if the Obama administration and its allies once again choose to turn a blind eye to crimes for which the Rouhani government shares so much responsibility.
**Tom Ridge was the nation's first Homeland Security Secretary and Pennsylvania governor.

Revealing true nature of the so-called ‘reformists’ in Iran
Tuesday, 20 September 2016/NCRI - Sadegh ZibaKalam, an Iran regime’s political figure close to Rafsanjani, has made significant confessions during statements aimed at defending Rafsanjani.
According to revolutionary guard’s Fars news agency on Setember 18, in an interview with “Panjareh” weekly, Zibakalam has said: “Not one of today’s reformists, I reiterate it, not one of today’s reformists, did care a bit about the issues like freedom of speech, freedom of thought, rule of law or free elections during the 80s. From Mohammad Khatami (former President) to Taj Zadeh (former Deputy Interior Minister), Hajarian (former deputy of Ministry of Intelligence), Mousavi Khoeiniha(), Ali Akbar Mohtashami Poor (former member of regime’s parliament), Karubi (former speaker of regime’s parliament) and Mir Hossein Mousavi (former Prime Minister).”ZibaKalam added: “Rafsanjani cannot say that what they did during the 80s was wrong because if he acknowledges that they were wrong, he will not be the only one who would be called into question. Rather, it will actually put Khomeini under question … and this will be equivalent to acknowledging that the system, Khomeini, the Islamic Republican Party and the Revolutionary Council have been wrong.”
Acknowledging in part of the interview that the anti-monarchy revolution was confiscated by Khomeini and the Mullahs, Zibakalam says: “Our main dispute with Shah was over these same issues (freedom of speech, freedom of thought, rule of law and free elections)… while following the revolution, instead of these democratic goals which were essentially the reason for our conflict with Shah, other issues like conflict with the west and feud with the United States were raised as the main reasons for our uprising, thus casting a shadow on those democratic goals. By pointing to a hypothetical example, Zibakalam added: “If someone from planet Mars came to Iran in 1980, by checking out the society, press, political groups and leaders of the revolution, he would have definitely turned back to Mars assuming that the reason for Iranian revolution and their uprising against Shah was that people wanted to fight against the United States and Israel and to export the Islamic Revolution to the region and the world, but Shah was preventing them from doing so.”

UN Human Rights Council: Joint written statement of NGOs, condemning Iran regime for 1988 massacre
Tuesday, 20 September 2016 15:57/NCRI - In the thirty-third session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, which was held from 13 to 30 September 2016 in Geneva, 5 NGOs with The UN consultative status in addition to five human rights associations registered a statement, entitled "The massacre of political prisoners in 1988, a crime against humanity " this statement was recorded and published as an official document on 13 September 2016 by the Secretariat of the Human rights Council. Following is the full text of this statement:
Human Rights Council
Thirty-third session
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention
Joint written statement* submitted by the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, non-governmental organization in general consultative status, the Women's Human Rights International Association, France Libertes : Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, International Educational Development, Inc., Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples, non-governmental organizations on the roster
The massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 constitutes a crime against humanity
On August 9, 2016 a confidential audio file of a meeting held on August 15, 1988 between Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, former heir to Ayatollah Khomeini, and members of the Judiciary and Intelligence Ministry of Iran, became public after 28 years showing new details of the largest wave of political executions in the world since World War II. In this audio file the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre confirm the executions in their own voice. The mass executions of political prisoners in Iran began in 1981.
After the Iran-Iraq ceasefire in July 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (decree) stating:
“As the treacherous Monafeqin (MeK/PMOI) do not believe in Islam and what they say is out of deception and hypocrisy, and as their leaders have admitted that they have become renegades, and as they are waging war on God, it is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin (Mek/PMOI), are waging war on God and are condemned to execution. In Tehran, Mr. Hojatol-Islam Nayyeri, Sharia judge, and Mr. Eshraqi (Tehran’s prosecutor) and a representative of the Intelligence Ministry will decide on the fate with a majority vote. In prisons located in provincial capitals the Sharia judge, revolutionary prosecutor, and member of the intelligence ministry will be making the ruling. Those responsible for the rulings should not be hesitant or doubtful and should be most ferocious in the face of infidels”.
When asked by the Head of the Judiciary if this fatwa should apply to those who have already received their prison sentences, Ayatollah Khomeini stated:
“In all the above cases, if the person at any stage or at any time maintains their support for the hypocrites (MeK/PMOI), the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately. As regards to the cases, use whichever criterion that speeds up the implementation of the verdict.”
Based on Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa, similar commissions were created throughout the provinces. The official title of the commissions was the “Amnesty Commission” but prisoners dubbed them the “death commissions”. Many of those executed in this wave of executions were prisoners who had been sentenced by the revolutionary courts to several years of imprisonment and were serving their sentences. Some had already completed their sentences, but had not been released or had been groundlessly imprisoned. Others had been released but were re-arrested and executed during the massacre of political prisoners.
In the audio file of the August 15, 1988 meeting, Mr. Montazeri is heard addressing the death commission. Those present include Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, representative of the Intelligence Ministry; Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, the religious judge; Morteza Eshraqi, Tehran Prosecutor; and Ebrahim Raissi, Deputy Tehran Prosecutor. Pour-Mohammadi is currently Iran’s Justice Minister, Nayyeri is the head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges, and Raissi is the head of the Astan Qods-e Razavi foundation, one of the most important state affiliated political and economic powerhouses in Iran. He is also a candidate to succeed Khamenei. The following points were made in this meeting:
Montazeri:
“In other cities, they committed all sorts of things (crimes) … and in Ahwaz it was really horrendous. This judge, that judge, in this city, in that city, they condemned someone to 5 years, 6 years, 10 years, 15 years. Now executing these people while there have been no new activities (by the prisoner) means that the entire judicial system has been at fault.”
Addressing Pour-Mohammadi, the representative of the Intelligence Ministry, Montazeri said:
“Intelligence had control on the (killings) and had invested in it. Ahmad Khomeini (Khomeini’s son) has personally been saying for 3-4 years that the PMOI affiliates should all be executed, even if they only read their newspaper, publications or statement.”
Montazeri:
“15-year-old girls and pregnant women were among those killed. In Shiite jurisprudence even if a woman is ‘Moharreb’ (waging war on God) she shouldn’t be executed, I told Khomeini this but he said no, execute the women too.”
In the aftermath of the implementation of the fatwa in some prisons across the country including Kermanshah’s Dizel Abad Prison, Mashad’s Vakil Abad Prison, Gachsaran Prison, Khoramabad Prison, Kerman Prison, and Masjed Soleyman Prison not a single political prisoner was spared. In other prisons practically all those affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) were executed. In one of the wards for women in Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in the city of Karaj, only four out of 200 prisoners survived.
In a letter to Khomeini, dated 31 July 1988, Ayatollah Montazeri protested against the mass executions and unveiled “the death of several thousand people in a few days.” In another letter, Ayatollah Montazeri refered to the killings as a “massacre” and wrote that the Mojahedin represent an ideology and a school of thought which will not be eliminated with executions.
Soon after the start of the massacre of the Mojahedin many of those affiliated with other political groups were also executed.
“Death Commission” Procedures
According to numerous reports the procedure of the death commissions was very simple. The first question was: ‘What is your political affiliation?’ Those who answered ‘Mojahedin’ (PMOI) were sent to the gallows. The ‘correct’ answer was ‘Monafeqin’ (hypocrites, the derogatory term used by Iranian authorities to describe the PMOI). According to Ayatollah Montazeri in some cities this response wasn’t enough and other questions were posed:
- Are you willing to give a televised interview to condemn the Monafeqin?
- Are you willing to fight against the Monafeqin?
- Are you willing to put the noose around the neck of an active member of the Monafeqin?
- Are you willing to clear the minefields for the army of the Islamic Republic?
A negative response to any of these questions meant execution.
Mass graves
Those executed in Tehran and other cities were buried in mass graves. In some cases, more than 100 bodies were piled on top of one another and have never been investigated: Iran's rulers have tried to wipe out all traces of the mass graves. Once at the end of 2008 and in early 2009, bulldozers flattened the site of mass graves in Khavaran Cemetery in east Tehran. In a statement on January 20, 2009, Amnesty International insisted these graveyards must be kept intact for investigations.
The UN Commission on Human Rights’ Rapporteur on arbitrary executions stated in his 1989 report, “In the days of 14, 15 and 16th of August 1988, 860 bodies were transferred from Evin Prison [Tehran] to the Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery.” This is despite the fact that the majority of the dead were buried in mass graves in Khavaran Cemetery.
Reza Malek, a former senior official of the Intelligence Ministry who became a whistle blower, was arrested and only recently released after spending 12 years in prison. He had secretly sent a video clip to Ban Ki-moon from within prison revealing that 33,700 people were executed in a matter of days during the 1988 massacre.
Dr. Mohammad Maleki, the first chancellor of Tehran University after the 1979 revolution and a prominent Iranian dissident in Iran, pointed out in an interview with Dorr TV on August 14, 2016 that Reza Malek, who held a position in the intelligence ministry and dealt with the documents and archives, has stated that more than 30,400 of the executed prisoners were from the PMOI, and 2000-3000 were leftist and Marxists.
Independent Reports
British Barrister Geoffrey Robertson, QC, head of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, published an in-depth and documented report regarding these killings in 2010 despite not having access to all the evidence. In his book entitled, “Mullahs without Mercy” he states clearly these killings are crimes against humanity and can be classified as genocide. Judge Robertson blames the international community for a lack of firmness in the face of this crime. He concludes that the international community’s inaction and insensitivity to this crime allowed the Iranian government to feel free to violate international law and to continue violating human rights. He concludes:
“In Iran the prison massacres, by virtue of their calculated cruelty designed by the political and judicial leaders of the state, are more reprehensible than their comparators… The two leaders who advised and implemented the 1988 massacres, Khamenei and Rafsanjani are respectively Supreme Leader and Expediency Council head, and the Death Committee judges remain in judicial place. They deserve to be put on trial at an international court, of the kind that can only be established by the Security Council.” (Page 104)
What happened in Iranian prisons in 1988 remains a deep scar in the body and soul of the Iranian people. The only way to soothe this wound would be a comprehensive investigation and identifying those who abused their power to execute thousands of their ideological opponents.
On November 2, 2007, on the 20th anniversary of this massacre, Amnesty International released a statement and referred to this day as a “massacre of the prisoners”. It added: “Amnesty International believes this has been a crime against humanity.” In the 25 December 2005 report of Human Rights Watch, these killings are also referred to as “crimes against humanity.”
On February 4, 2001, an article in the British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph stated, “Khomeini’s fatwa cost 30,000 lives.” A witness to the massacres, interviewed in 2004 under the pseudonym "Payam" by the Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star, also put the number of executions close to 30,000.
The head of the Iran and Afghanistan desk of Reporters Without Borders confirmed the same figure in the French newspaper La Croix in 2010.
In a recent article about Rwanda, Mohammad Nourizad, a close associate to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before the 2009 suppression of the uprising in Tehran, writes: “Here, in a matter of 2 or 3 months, 33,000 men, women, young and old were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Their bodies were taken to Khavaran Cemetery and barren lands by trucks and buried in mass graves, happy of what they had done…”
On 20 September 2013, on the 25th anniversary of these atrocities, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) announced that it and LDDHI qualify the events of 1988 as extrajudicial and arbitrary executions and crimes against humanity. According to international conventions there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. It is the international community, including the Human Rights Council and the Security Council’s responsibility to attend to this matter and to bring the perpetrators to justice. What gives this matter urgency is that the massacre and genocide of 1988 has not come to an end and still continues -- the execution of 25 Sunnis on 2 August 2016 is a recent example. Additionally the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre still hold key positions and continue to supress and kill different sectors of Iranian society.
In conclusion we recommend that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly place the massacre on their agenda and as a first step appoint an international commission to investigate this atrocious crime and to send this case to the UN Security Council.
Finally, we urge the UN Security Council to form an international tribunal so that the perpetrators of the crimes be brought to trial.
Hands off Cain Edmond Rice Centre Association of Humanitarian Lawyers Association des Femmes Iraniennes en France comite de soutien au droits de l'homme en iran NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.

MARYAM RAJAVI'S MESSAGE TO IRANIANS' DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK
NCRI Statement/Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Fellow compatriots,
Friends and supporters of the Iranian Resistance,
Your demonstration and rally against admission to the UN of the President of the religious dictatorship in Iran is cause of pride of the Iranian nation that expresses her protest loud and clear despite massive reign of repression and executions prevailing the country.
So long as the U.S. admits on its soil the leaders of a regime which it calls the "central banker of terrorism," and so long as the U.N. receives them at the General Assembly instead of arranging for their international prosecution for committing crimes against humanity, this is tantamount to their standing up to the desire of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy.
Rouhani represents a regime which has executed 120,000 political prisoners, and massacred 30,000 political prisoners upon a criminal edict in summer 1988. Khomeini ordered execution of anyone who was loyal to the PMOI/MEK. At the time, Rouhani was one of the top decision-makers in the Iranian regime.
Today, the movement to obtain justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre is spreading. The highest officials of the regime have publicly defended the carnage. Rouhani's Justice Minister declared that he was proud of the massacre. Such admissions which constitute irrefutable evidence of their complicity in crime against humanity, double the United Nations responsibility in prosecuting the leaders of the clerical regime.
Rouhani does not represent the Iranian nation; he represents the most vicious enemy of the people of Iran. In addition to his active engagement in all the crimes of the Iranian regime since the first day, his own presidential record is studded with killings, devastation, and plunder of Iran's national wealth and resources, including:
- Over 2500 executions;
- Repeated attacks and blood baths against the PMOI/MEK freedom fighters in Ashraf and Camp Liberty;
- Several fold increase in the number of executions of political prisoners;
- Stepped up suppression of and discrimination against ethnic and religious nationalities;
- Supporting a ruthless dictator like Bashar al-Assad and warmongering in the region;
- Proliferation and testing of ballistic missiles by violating UN Security Council resolutions;
- And plunging the country more than ever before in economic recession, unemployment and grievous poverty of the general public.
These are the defense shields of a wobbly and crisis-riddled regime whose existence is threatened by deep-seated and acute social discontent and an organized resistance movement.
We emphasize that any party that is truly seeking to contain war, terrorism and instability in the Middle East, it must evict the Iranian regime from the entire region as the first step. The emergence of Daesh was the outcome of suppression of the peoples of Iraq and Syria by the clerical regime and its puppets. There will be no conceivable end to the crises in the region without driving out the IRGC from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
The policy of appeasing the Iranian regime and standing by its side has hurt all the world. We urge all governments and the United Nations to put an end to this defeated policy and stand by the people of Iran, condition their relations with the Iranian regime on end to executions and freedom of political prisoners, and respect the Iranian people's struggle to bring down the regime and achieve freedom.
I urge the international community, particularly the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to investigate the crimes of the Iranian regime, particularly the massacre in 1988, and bring to justice the perpetrators of this great crime against humanity. This is the most serious yardstick of respect for human rights in contemporary history.

60 days of pressure on environmental activists in Iran Prison
Tuesday, 20 September 2016/NCRI - According to news published in websites and social networks, it’s now more than 60 days that a group of environmental activists are under severe interrogations in prison, while five of them being kept in solitary confinements and still not allowed to have a lawyer.
According to reports, someone close to these civil rights activists, whose name has not been revealed, has said that during the interrogation, the activists are being insulted and threatened while wearing blindfolds and facing the wall. He added that the activists are under pressure to “make a commitment in exchange for their freedom.”
According to this report, on Saturday July 16, 2016, Shiraz Intelligence agents arrested six environmental activists named Yekta Fahandaj Sa’adi, Nushin Zenhari, Behnam Azizpoor, Saeid Hasani, Ramin Shirvani and Esmaeil Roosta while they were at a house belonging to a friend of theirs, talking about environmental issues. They were then transferred to Shiraz Intelligence Detention Center known as No. 100. One day later on Sunday July 17, two Baha’i citizens named Nabil Tahzib and Naeim Ghaned Sharafi were also arrested in connection with the same case.
The detainees had attempted to clean up the natural areas around Shiraz during the holidays.
Naeim Ghaned Sharafi was released on July 18, one day after being arrested. Nooshin Zenhari and Ramin Shirvani were also released on bails of 200 million Tomans on August 13 and August 21, respectively.
The other detainees are still in an uncertain situation, being kept in solitary confinements while no detailed information being available on their case or charges.
It is possible that some of these activists were arrested due to being Baha’i.
Yekta Fahandaj Sa’adi, a Baha’i citizen who has been arrested for her environmental activities, was also arrested and interrogated twice before in January 2012 and February 2014. She was released on a bail of 200 million Tomans. One week before her third arrest, she was sentenced to five years in prison for acting against national security and propaganda against the system.
Following the arrest of the activists, the intelligence agents referred to their houses and while disrespecting and insulting their families, they inspected and confiscated the activists’ belongings including their hard disks, tablets, cell phones and even their vehicles.
The detainees were not allowed to make any phone calls or to meet their families or their lawyers for 10 days and despite their families’ efforts to hire a lawyer, they still are not allowed to meet a lawyer or to sign a power of attorney.
Besides, the families of the detainees have been threatened by Shiraz Intelligence Office over their reporting on the status of their children and asked not to reveal any information in this regard.

Indian, Pakistani Troops Exchange Fire in Kashmir
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /September 19/16/Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire across their disputed border in Kashmir on Tuesday, two days after a deadly raid on an army base that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Eighteen soldiers died in Sunday's attack, which was the worst of its kind to hit the divided Himalayan region in more than a decade and has increased hostility between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Indian army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said there had been a "ceasefire violation" near Uri, where Sunday's attack took place, but gave no details. Uri is near the Line of Control (LoC) which divides the disputed territory. "Small-arms exchange of fire is on in the area," a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. Separately, Kalia said troops in the same area had blocked an attempt by suspected militants to cross the LoC into Indian-administered Kashmir. "A group of 10-12 terrorists attempted to infiltrate the Uri sector. They were intercepted and the infiltration bid was foiled," he told AFP. The Press Trust of India news agency said 10 suspected militants had been killed in the incident but this could not immediately be confirmed. India regularly accuses its arch-rival of arming and sending rebels across the heavily militarized border that divides Kashmir between the two countries, to launch attacks on its forces. Occasional violations of a 2003 ceasefire between the nuclear-armed rivals are not uncommon. The last was reported on September 6 this year and caused no Tuesday's exchange was the first since Sunday's attack, which the Indian army has blamed on Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad. The same group was implicated in an audacious assault on an Indian air force base in Pathankot in the northern state of Punjab in January. It left seven soldiers dead and dashed hopes of a revival of peace talks, which have been on ice ever since. The death toll from Sunday's attack in which gunmen hurling grenades stormed a base was particularly high at 18, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to punish those responsible. Modi promised during his election campaign to take a hard line over Kashmir and has faced calls from army veterans -- and even some in his own party -- for military action against Pakistan. On Sunday Home Minister Rajnath Singh accused Pakistan of "continued and direct support to terrorism and terrorist groups" and called for it to be internationally isolated. But security experts say India lacks the military capabilities to take on its neighbor in the divided Himalayan region, already tense after weeks of violent clashes between police and demonstrators protesting at Indian rule. Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the disputed Himalayan territory in its entirety and have fought two wars over it. Several rebel groups have fought an estimated 500,000 Indian forces deployed in the territory, demanding independence for the Muslim-majority region or its merger with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have died in the fighting, most of them civilians.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on September 20-21/16

Canada: Islamist Views in Ontario Schools
Tom Quiggin/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8955/canada-islamists-schools
The government of Canada has been calling for greater work towards identifying the causes of extremism and radicalization in Canada.
One source of extremism is clearly in educational institutions. If the government of Canada is truly serious about attacking extremism in Canada, then having a national level investigation into educational institutions would be a good place to start.
Canada's so-called feminists have remained silent on the issue of wife-beating, inequality for women and the generally misogynistic views advanced in schools, universities and public groups such as the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). In certain circles, apparently, brown women's lives do not rate as highly as white women's lives. At the same time, the social justice warrior scale places Islam -- even its Islamist variety -- at the top of the protected scale. Therefore, feminists allow the advocacy of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and wife-beating while refusing to condemn those who advocate it, including Canada's Minister for the Status of Women.
The government of Canada has been calling for greater work towards identifying the causes of extremism and radicalization in Canada. In an August 2016 statement, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale stated that, "We need to know how to identify those who could be vulnerable to insidious influences that draw certain people — especially young people — toward extremism leading to violence."
One source of extremism is clearly in educational institutions. If the government of Canada is truly serious about attacking extremism in Canada, then having a national level investigation into educational institutions would be a good place to start.
Muslim children need to be stronger so they "won't get mixed with the moral degeneration of the Canadian community." At least this is the view of a teacher who explains why an Ottawa Islamic school uses the textbooks it does to keep Muslim youth firmly in the Sunni (Islamist) camp.[1] At York University in Toronto, the Muslim Student Association has handed out literature that says beating a wife is permissible and that some wives will enjoy the beating.[2]
These examples serve to highlight the many other instances of what is being taught in Ontario schools under current provincial Premier Kathleen Wynne and national leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Lovers of Death
Young Muslims of Canada, based in Mississauga, is an offshoot of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which has offices in Canada and the USA. Its website, aimed at young Muslims, tells them that they should: "Prepare for jihad and be the lovers of death. Life itself shall come searching after you."
Advocating martyrdom is also being taught in Islamic (Islamist) schools in Ontario. School textbooks discuss the role of al-Khansaa[3], who was a contemporary of the Prophet Mohammed.[4] All four of her sons died in a battle and she is reported to have said, "Praise be to Allah who honored me with their martyrdom." Should we be teaching young Muslim girls that as mothers they should be pleased when their sons die as martyrs?
Text Books in Islamic Schools
Currently, a number of full-time Islamic day schools in the Ottawa area are using textbooks imported from the Middle East. This means that the students are exposed to a version of Islam based on the typical Sunni Wahhabist sect popular there.[5]
This type of practice does not seem to be limited to Ottawa. In Toronto, a full time Islamic day school was the subject of a 2012 hate crimes investigation by the York Regional Police. The Jaffari Mosque (Shia), which runs the East End Madrassah (Islamic religious school), was found to be using textbooks imported from Iran. The teaching material was flamboyantly misogynist and anti-Semitic. The books contrasted Islam to "the Jews and the Nazis."
The York Regional Police also found the following statement:
"Islam has allowed boys to engage in sports for one specific reason and that is to always keep them healthy and strong. But why should a Muslim be healthy and strong? Firstly, it is necessary to take care of the body because it is a gift from Allah. Secondly, so that you may physically be ready for jihad whenever the time comes for it." (Level 7 Curriculum).
The same investigation also revealed that: "Girls should stick to 'hobbies' that prepare them to become wives and mothers." (Level 7 Curriculum).
The East End Madrassah, one of three madrassahs operated by the Jaffari Mosque, founded in 1973, had more than 400 students when it was suddenly shut down in the middle of the police investigation.
A similar complaint was made about another Jaffari Mosque-operated madrassah in the fall of 2014. The York Regional Police have not yet responded to, or acted on, this complaint.
Ontario Public Schools
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees equality for women (Sections 15 and 28) -- provisions regularly ignored by the Toronto District School Board.
In the Valley Park Middle School, for instance, Friday Muslim prayers are being run in the school cafeteria. Boys are positioned at the front, girls at the rear; "unclean" (menstruating) girls are forced to sit outside the hall or at the very back of the room. Only boys can be prayer leaders; girls are forbidden from doing so. Forcing girls to sit at the back, denying them a leadership role and identifying them as "unclean" is a clear violation of their rights in a public, taxpayer-funded school.
This school is in the Don Valley West home district of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and it was the first in Ontario to allow such a practice. The Province of Ontario Ministry of Education is aware of the current situation: it was reported by the Toronto Sun, which broke the story -- subsequently followed up by the Toronto Life, the Toronto Star and others.
University Life and Beating the Wife
The Muslim Student Association, which has a number of connections to extremism, held an annual Islam Awareness week in January 2015 at York University in Toronto. During this time, its followers handed out a number of books, including Women in Islam. This book has a section on disciplining one's wife. It advises that wives should only be beaten as part of a three-stage correctional process. It also suggests that there are different kinds of women, including the quote from the book: "Submissive or subdued women. These women may even enjoy being beaten at times as a sign of love and concern."
Misogyny and Violence against Women and Girls
Dr. Iqbal Al-Nadvi, the chairman of Canadian Council of Imams, was also recently elected as the Amir (President) of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA openly advocates, among other policies, that women are inferior to men and that wife-beating is permissible. It also condones holding women, under certain circumstances, as sex slaves. Above all, ICNA claims that Islam is totally incompatible with democracy. As noted, ICNA also advocates that Muslim youths in Canada should become lovers of death in the pursuit of martyrdom.
Notwithstanding its violent, misogynist and anti-democratic view, the government of Canada regularly interacts with ICNA and the Canadian Council of Imams. Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, John McCallum, received an award for his "outstanding service" from the Canadian Council of Imams in April 2016. Patty Hajdu, the Minister for the Status of Women, is aware of this situation but has not made any public comment.
Canada's so-called feminists have, of course, also remained silent on the issue of prescribed wife-beating, inequality for women and the generally misogynistic views advanced in schools, universities and public groups such as ICNA. In certain circles, apparently, brown women's lives do not rate as highly as white women's lives. At the same time, the social justice warrior scale places Islam -- even its Islamist variety -- at the top of the protected scale. Therefore, feminists allow the advocacy of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and wife-beatings while refusing to condemn those who advocate it, including Canada's Minister for the Status of Women.
If Prime Minister Trudeau truly is a feminist, as he says, why are he and the third- and fourth-wave feminists not speaking out against such activities?
[1] "The Lovers of Death"? Islamist Extremism in Our Mosques, Schools and Libraries, by Saied Shoaaib and Thomas Quiggin, Second Star Publishing, Ottawa, 2016, p 13.
[2] Ibid, p 41.
[3] There are a number of interpretations and explanations of her role in history. For one, see article by Islam Web.
[4] "The Lovers of Death"?
[5] Ibid.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute

What Is My Religion? I Feel Shame on My Self because am a Muslim
Hakim Haider/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8958/what-is-my-religion

Mosques are a basic school where your children learn the Subject of Terrorism.
I ask again to Teacher (Mulla) in Mosque, Sir, there are so many Groups in Islam. One Group orders to Kill the other Group because he is a Non-Muslim. Why? He Replied Because he do not follow our Rules. Am Surprised to Listen. This means One Person who do not follow our Rules we Kill him?
I ask one more Question. Sir, if am a Sunni or Wahabi, I Kill the Person who belongs to an Other Sect like Shia? He reply, Yes off Course. Am shocked and say shoutly, No Sir I do not Kill Any Body whether he is Muslm or Non-Muslim or Muslim belong to an Other Sect. Am just talking. He (Mulla) slapped me hardly. Next am sit on the corner of Mosque, Quietly.
Every group or Sect are telling, We do this because our Prophet order us to. So what is the Prophet teaching, to kill someone just because he do not follow us?
I open my eyes in a Islamic Family in a Islamic Country but in 23 years I do not know what is Islam? What is the purpose of Islam?
Once I ask a question to my Teacher (Mulla) in the Mosque, What is the difference in the Muslim and the Non-Muslim?
He Replied One who beleaves on ALLAH and prophet MUHAMMAD P.B.U.H is a Muslim and One who does not beleave on ALLAH and MUHAMMAD P.B.U.H is a Non-Muslim.
I ask Again, So what we do? How we teach the Non-Muslim?
He replied Just Kill him.
I ask Why we Kill him? And when I Kill him?
He replied When you Grow up then you Kill him.
Am thinking from that day Why this Teacher (Mulla) telling me this? On Next Day I ask again to Teacher (Mulla) in Mosque, Sir there are so many Groups in Islam. One Group orders to Kill the other Group because he is Non-Muslim Why?
He Replied Because he do not follow our Rules.
Am Surprised to Listen. This means One Person who do not follow our Rules we Kill him? I ask One more Question, Sir if am a Sunni or Wahabi, I Kill the Person who belongs to an Other Sect like Shia.
He Replied Yes off Course.
Am shocked and reply shoutly, No Sir I do not Kill Any Body whether he is Muslim or Non-Muslim or Muslim belong to an Other Sect.
Am just talking. He (Mulla) Slapped me hardly. Next am sit on the corner of Mosque, Quietly.
Now so many Groups or Sects of Islam are killing one an Other and the most horrible thing is Muslim Countries support to these groups, Like Iran who is a Pure Shia Islamic State support to these groups who are fighting against the SUNNIS. And Saudia Arabia who is pure SUNNI or WAHABI State support to these groups who are fighting against the SHIA SECT. Even these Muslim Countries provide weapons and training to these groups.
There are more than 80 Sects in Islam now, every One trying to show he is Right and Other is Wrong. No Muslim group or Muslim country trying to keep concentration on Peace, doing welfare work for mankind. Every Muslim trying to kill an Other.
So I listen to killing lesson from the Mosque and watch this lesson practiced on the Ground. In every Terrorist Attack, Hidden Hand was a Muslim Hand. So I feel Shame on my Self that am belong to such a Religion who are running on just Terrorism Lesson, Nothing more. A Religion who are divided into more than 80 Groups or Sects then How somebody realize which Group or Sect is true? Every Group or Sect pray is differently.
And every group or Sect are telling, We do this because our Prophet order us to. So what is the Prophet teaching to kill someone for, just because he do not follow us? Muslim abusing a lot of Jew and Christian because not a follower of ALLAH and MUHAMMAD P.B.U.H. But on the Other side, these religions grow up because they all have a peace full mind, they are working on humanity. But on the Other hand, I do not see any humanity in Islam, and the few Humanity Work was done just for showment in front of world, nothing more.
Humanity is a only religion in the world who is the best Religion and am saying that Jews, Christians work on Humanity. So Now then What is the Credibility of mosques? What is the Credibility of Teachers (Mullas)? And which religion is true? On my view Muslim Religion is not True and Mosques or Madrasas are a root of terrorism. Am not a Jew or Christian am a Muslim and am saying all this being a Muslim and I feel Shame on My Self because am a Muslim.
I totally disagree with Islamic lesson, Islamic terrorist Sects, and Islamic groups. Mosques are a basic school where your children learn the Subject of Terrorism. Madrasas are a Lab where your Children practice terrorism, and the World are a place where your children do terrorism. Islam is nothing more, just simply, "One who is disagree with you, just Pick up a Gun and Shoot him".
A madrasa in Srirangapatna, India. Photo is for illustrative purposes only. (Image source: Prakash Subbarao/Wikimedia Commons)
**Hakim Haider is a Muslim based in the Middle East.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Eastern Europe: The Last Barrier between Christianity and Islam
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8972/eastern-europe-christianity-islam
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the Eastern nemesis of the European elite. No one else in Europe except him speaks about defending "Christianity."
"Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims ... This is an important question, because Europe and the European identity is rooted in Christianity." — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The last chance to save Europe's roots might well come from the former communist members of the EU -- those who defeated the Ottomans in 1699 and now feel culturally threatened by their heirs.
Cypriots know much better than the comfortable bureaucrats of Brussels the consequences of a cultural collision. Ask about their churches on the Turkish side of the island; how many of them are still standing?
Austria's fate is now at stake.
Perhaps it was a coincidence that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna and tipped to be the next Pope, chose September 12, the anniversary of the Siege of Vienna, when Turkey's Ottoman troops nearly conquered Europe, to deliver a most dramatic appeal to save Europe's Christian roots.
"Many Muslims want and say that 'Europe is finished'," Cardinal Schönborn said, before accusing Europe of "forgetting its Christian identity." He then denounced the possibility of "an Islamic conquest of Europe."
Konrad Pesendorfer, head of the Austrian Office of Statistics, said that by 2030, 40% of the population of Vienna will be foreign-born, thanks to internal demography and migration flows (60,000 arrivals in just one year).
Since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, much of Eastern Europe's Christian population spent centuries under Islamic occupation, particularly under the Ottomans. It now seems that the clock has reverted to 1683, when Ottoman armies were at the gates of Vienna.
It is not a coincidence that the fierce resistance of Eastern Europeans has been the main impediment to a unified response by the European Union to the migrant crisis. It was these Eastern states that forced German Chancellor Angela Merkel to halt the massive flux of migrants. Today, where there is no border, migrants keep coming en masse. In August alone, 23,000 migrants arrived in Italy.
Brussels is whipping up a propaganda war to cast the Western Europeans, who favor unvetted Muslim migration, as cosmopolitan and tolerant, and Eastern Europeans as a bunch of xenophobic bigots, if not outright neo-Nazis.
Europe's educated elite might do well to listen to their Eastern brethren. These countries, ironically, are the core of the "new Europe," the last to join the European project and the very countries, having escaped from authoritarian regimes, which should have revived it. Brussels' policy is now pushing this Eastern bloc back under Russia's sphere of influence.
The Eastern Europeans' reluctance to open the doors to massive Muslim migration can be explained by the economic crisis, falling birth rates, their relatively homogenous societies, the persecution of the Christians under Communism, memories of a conflict with Islam dating back to the Middle Ages, and the attempt by Brussels to impose a cultural agenda. The European Parliament, in fact, has constantly passed resolutions pressuring conservative East European member-states such as Poland, Hungary and Croatia, to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion on demand.
The President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, calls him "Viktator" Orbán. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, defiant, is going ahead with the construction of a wall on Hungary's border with Serbia. When Communism fell, Hungary was the first country to open the Iron Curtain and let people out. Now it is first country to erect a fence to keep people out. Orbán is also planning an additional fence along that border.
Orbán is the Eastern nemesis of the European elite. No one else in Europe except him speaks about defending "Christianity." The "Visegrad-4," the alliance between Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia, want to distinguish between Christian and Muslim immigrants. Orbán has the support of Hungarian bishops who oppose Pope Francis' open-armed policy toward migrants.
In an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, Orbán wrote:
"Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity."
Orbán's rebelliousness goes back to his student days in 1989, when he was at the funeral of Imre Nagy, who led the anti-Soviet insurrection of 1956 -- Orbán had the courage to demand the withdrawal of the communist invaders.
Orbán later led Hungary into NATO.
Son of a communist and a Calvinist mother, Orbán has a devout Catholic wife and five children. To those who question whether he is a reactionary, Orbán replies: "I eat with a fork and a knife, but we are not nice guys from the mainstream." For him, the European Commission is a kind of new politburo. "We did not tolerate being dictated to from Vienna in 1848 nor from Moscow in 1956 and 1990," Orbán said. "Now we're not going to allow ourselves to be dictated to by anyone from Brussels or anywhere else."
Orbán's speeches are full of historical references, as when he asked Hungarians to behave with the same courage shown by their ancestors "in the war against the Ottoman armies."
The Hungarian constitution is unique in Europe; it protects "life from conception" and says that marriages can take place only between a man and a woman.
Orbán's approach has been adopted by other ex-communist members of the EU. Poland's President Andrzej Duda complained about "dictates" from Brussels to accept migrants flowing into the Continent from the Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile Poland's Law and Justice Party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, appealed "to an old historical viewpoint, according to which Poland is a bulwark for Christianity in the East and must save Europe from itself."
"Since its adoption of Christianity in 966, Poland has often played the role of Antemurale Christianitatis, a bastion of Christendom," according to Crisis Magazine.
"From halting the European advance of Mongols at the Battle of Legnica in 1241, to saving Europe from Muslim colonization when King John III Sobieski defeated the Turks at Vienna in 1683, this has been reinforced. Communism failed to extinguish Polish Catholicism, when John Paul II was elected pope in 1978 and inspired the rise of the Solidarity movement, which playing a crucial role in ending communism. More recently, Polish immigrants have filled hitherto empty pews in Western Europe. During the current Vatican synod on the family, Polish bishops have been among the most vocal defenders of tradition."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the Eastern nemesis of the European elite. No one else in Europe except him speaks about defending "Christianity." Right: Poland's King John III Sobieski in battle against the Ottoman Turks at Vienna, in 1683.
The prime minister of another Eastern European country, Robert Fico of Slovakia, said his country will accept only Christian refugees; that Islam "has no place" in his country and that "multiculturalism is a fiction."
Czech President Milos Zeman also attacked multiculturalism. Even Socratis Hasikos, Cyprus' interior minister, said that his country would accept refugees but wanted them to be Christians. For many Cypriots, the line that divides the island is a frontier between Greek Christianity and Turkish Islam, just as the Berlin Wall was a frontier between democracy and communism.
As the prestigious American Catholic magazine First Things noted, "in Hungary, Croatia, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, a pro-family, pro-life revolution and a rediscovery of Christian roots is occurring."
Like it or not, the last chance to save Europe's roots might well come from the former communist members of the EU -- those who defeated the Ottomans in 1699 and now feel culturally threatened by their heirs.
Cypriots know much better than the comfortable bureaucrats of Brussels the consequences of a cultural collision. Ask about their churches on the Turkish side of the island; how many of them are still standing?
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Could Britain justify permanent UN Security Council seat after Brexit?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
The Security Council of the United Nations was set up after World War 2 to oversee the international political development of the world in the post-war era, and it locked in the powerful position of the allied victors in that new world, by giving them each a permanent position in this Council. It was thus that the United States, the Soviet Union, China (originally the Western-allied Republic of China, Taiwan), France and the United Kingdom were designated as the most powerful countries in the world. And in 1945, they most certainly were. France and the United Kingdom still held huge empires, the United States and the Soviet Union were the new, undisputed military superpowers of the world, and China, though in a politically very complicated situation, was then recognized due to rise to the heights it is now reaching. But whereas China’s seat at the table was ultimately claimed by the ever ascendant continental People’s Republic in 1971, and they have since grown ever more into their role as a global leader, the position on the Permanent Security Council of France and the United Kingdom in the wake of them losing their empires has become progressively more difficult to justify. One reasonable response these two countries have had in response to such criticism is that they remain militarily among the most powerful countries in the world, and that they retain a huge amount of political and cultural influence. But on both these counts, there remain problems. When the leaders of the Free World need to call Europe, they will not be calling us anymore. They only need to call the German Chancellor’s office, if they want to know what Europe will do.
As far as military power is concerned, both the UK and France remain in the global top 10, but on that basis it is difficult to see why Britain should be on the Permanent Council and not, say Saudi Arabia, which in the past year has had a 50 percent higher military spending than the UK, or India, which spent a similar amount to both the UK and France. Saudi Arabia may not also be a nuclear power and much of its spending would have been inflated in the past year as a consequence of its involvement in regional conflicts such as in Yemen, but India? It is both a nuclear power, and matches France and the UK for spending even though it is carrying out fewer operations. And on the cultural and political argument, the same can be said. Britain and France’s positions in the political heart of the European Union, the world’s largest economic block, has continued to put them at the forefront of global affairs. But India has a good 50 percent higher population than the entire European Union, and, even though it is still significantly behind economically, it is catching up with a vengeance. And the UK has just declared its intention to resign from the EU.
Flimsy grounds
Even if we were to concede that France will continue to be important in foreign affairs in virtue of its position in the EU, though by that measure Germany is much more influential, what about the UK? On what grounds could we now justify the UK’s position on the Permanent Council, against an Indian bid?
India is the world’s largest democracy, it is a nuclear power, it has the second highest population in the world, and it has among the highest rates of economic growth anywhere in the world – indeed, it is expected to become a bigger economy than the UK before 2020. By contrast, the UK is a diminished, and diminishing presence on the world stage. It has enjoyed a seat at every high table of international affairs for centuries, in virtue of its imperial past and its continued global power and status. But with Brexit, it has also forfeited much of that power and status. In the wake of Brexit, the UK is no more than an average-sized country with an oversized past. Germany is currently more relevant in the world. When the leaders of the Free World need to call Europe, they will not be calling us anymore. They only need to call the German Chancellor’s office, if they want to know what Europe will do. And if they want to know where the world is going, they will be calling Beijing, Moscow, Berlin, and soon, Delhi. In that order. After Brexit London will be sitting at the back of the queue.

Is it too late for Syria to find a political solution?
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
Syria had a good chance to solve the ongoing conflict but seems to have squandered it. The Geneva agreement reached by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov following marathon negotiations is about to collapse. The two-day ceasefire was not renewed as the Syrian military said they are not going to fulfill it unilaterally (they said the opposition had been violating it). The US says it is prepared to extend the Syrian truce, despite violations and the Syrian announcement that it is over, as according to the State Department the ceasefire deal was reached with Russia, not the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The controversy and absurdity started even before the Kerry-Lavrov Geneva agreement. Both sides have been negotiating the truce while accepting that much of the belligerent parties will not sign up to it. So, it is an exercise in futility and the ceasefire has been violated while opposition forces used the lull in activity to regroup. The situation took a turn after the US-led coalition mistakenly targeted the Syrian army in air strikes that were meant to target ISIS positions. In explaining the mistake, the US reverted to its go-to statement that “Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit,” or so US Central Command said. The US further promised that the strike would be reviewed and lessons would be learned. Russia, for its part, was not satisfied with the response and it is easy to see why. The US would not be satisfied with such an explanation if, while targeting the al-Nusra Front, the Russians were to strike US-backed forces instead.
Tensions rise
Russia began to spread panic and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Russia apparently forgot that it once mistakenly struck the Syrian army during the Palmyra offensive and the death toll was quite significant. It important to stress that the emergency meeting of the UNSC was called after another on Syria was canceled as Washington refused to reveal the contents of the agreement with Russia. It is suspicious that Russia is interested in discussing the Syrian case on the global stage while the US seems to want to limit the input of international institutions. It seems that the UN’s involvement in the Syrian conflict is limited to the role of UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. There is a truth that we need to look straight in face. There is no way to end the violence and there is no more possibility of peaceful negotiations. In my opinion, the US has reason to be discontent with Russia about calling the emergency meeting of the Security Council over the coalition strikes that led to the death of more than 60 Syrian soldiers. The US officially admitted its mistake, immediately stopped airstrikes and officially apologized and sent condolences to the families of the victims. For its part, when Russia was in a similar position, it did not apologize to the moderate opposition when it hit their positions. Furthermore, Russia never admitted and recognized such facts and yet the US did not call for a similar meeting at the UNSC. The only difference is that in one case we have a state and its forces (Syria and the army) and in the other case we have a sub-state actor, the Syrian opposition.
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power left the emergency UNSC meeting in demonstration of her disagreement with the move and that can be extrapolated out to signify the American stance on the matter. Russia is openly accusing the US of undermining the reached agreement.
A crumbling situation
The next day, the Syrian military announced the end of the ceasefire and blamed rebel groups for undermining the agreement. Aleppo was hit with airstrikes for the first time this week on Monday. Since then, 35 airstrikes have been carried out and it was announced that the al-Nusra Front had begun an offensive Aleppo. In such messy circumstances, the US declaration that this ceasefire agreement was reached between the US and Russia is beginning to look quite awkward. There is no doubt that a lot of the suspicion and misunderstanding regarding what is currently happening would be cleared up if the content of the agreement was to be made public. Both countries are playing games in Syria, gaining time and pursuing their own interests. The situation raises more questions than answers. The conflict is moving toward a military resolution, one that promises to be violent and dangerous. A humanitarian aid convoy was bombed overnight. Anger is rising. It seems that French confidence that the resolution of the conflict is in the hands of the US and Russia is mere wishful thinking. The same can be said of Staffan de Mistura’s stance that resolving the conflict is one step away. There is a truth that we need to look straight in face. There is no way to end the violence and there is no more possibility of peaceful negotiations. Parts of the moderate opposition have radicalized, having lost hope in a political solution and many consider a military solution the way forward. The international community has to be ready for a long and bloody continuation of the conflict, at least until the death toll and devastation reach such level that both sides will have to rethink the situation. The international community will continue facing the dramatic refugee crisis that will affect global stability, influencing the world and particular countries separately. Neither Russia nor the US have the keys to resolve the conflict. The Syrians have lost the keys and have chosen the military solution. Maybe they will find them again, but the cost in terms of human lives will be enormous.

When al-Nusra leader states the fact on US policy in Syria
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of Fateh al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front), said interesting things during his interview with Al-Jazeera TV on Saturday. Julani – whose forces and alliance target Russia, the US, Iran and the UN – said things that must be thoroughly considered. He thinks the recent Russian-American deal aims to eliminate all the “real” powers that are fighting the Syrian regime, and that the aim is to launch a war against the country’s Sunni presence. Julani said even if a party other than his had surfaced with the ability to fight the regime, Russia, the US and the UN would have targeted it also.
Syria’s Sunnis are “lost and defending their existence and survival,” he said, highlighting “the necessity of uniting all factions… and resuming jihad until the regime falls.” He added: “There are other simple steps to take to reach a comprehensive agreement that will make Muslims in [Syria] happy.” What about Syrians who are not Muslim or Sunni? Julani cannot be blamed for his sectarian approach, as Moscow’s policies and the problems caused by Washington have led to it
US policy
Julani declared his split from al-Qaeda in July. Many, including myself, did not believe it, but our suspicions do not deny that during his interview, he pinpointed the flaw in the US policy toward Syria.
Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is clear, but what about those who are supposed to support the moderate Syrian opposition? Washington is not performing this role, which has been a huge disaster for the Syrian cause. Julani cannot be blamed for his sectarian approach, as Moscow’s policies and the problems caused by Washington have led to it. How else can we understand what happened under UN supervision in Darayya, Zabadani and Moadamiyeh, when Sunni residents were displaced in favor of a Shiite political map? US policy is unquestionably wrong, and whether it is due to ill intentions by President Barack Obama or stubborn stupidity, the result is the creation of a perfect environment for Sunni anger. However, there is a question that Julani must be asked: Was it not al-Qaeda that harmed the Sunni cause earlier by targeting Arab security via cooperation with Tehran against Saudi Arabia and other countries?
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 19, 2016.

How did Yemen’s militias squander $4 billion?
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
When Houthi militias entered Yemen’s capital two years ago, the Central Bank had at least $4.6 billion in hard currency, as well as reserves of gold and other foreign currencies. Today, only a small amount is left - not enough to run the state or pay employees. Why did the legitimate government, which left Sanaa following the coup, not establish an alternative central bank in the temporary capital of Aden? The reasonable explanation is that after leaving to Aden, the government preferred to leave the Central Bank as is and not compete with the militias over its management, in order to avoid harming state employees and obstructing the service sectors, although most of these sectors have stopped operating. Now that the bank is empty, the government in Aden has announced the establishment of an alternative central bank. Yemen is suffering from the horrors of a war that erupted after the Houthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized the country via military power and toppled the legitimate government. The situation has worsened since they looted and wasted more than $4 billion to fund their fighters and transferred money to the houses of rebel leaders to fund war efforts. The looted money includes $1 billion that Saudi Arabia transferred to the Central Bank two years before the coup to help provide stability to Yemen’s financial system and riyal during the disturbances of the revolution.
Lack of support
A few months ago, the planning and development minister of the Houthi militias requested that the international community support it with $5 billion to stop financial and economic collapse. However, no one has helped them yet because Western donor countries know what happened to the Central Bank funds.
Meanwhile, Iran - the key country sponsoring and supporting the coup - will also not provide financial aid to the rebel government, as it usually sends weapons, experts and trainers, and only pays its direct militias, as it does with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It will not aid the millions of Yemenis who work in different sectors. It will not pay for education or healthcare, or compensate the rebels’ bankrupt bank with a single dollar. Once opened in Aden, the alternative central bank will only be responsible for liberated areas. The bankruptcy of the Central Bank in Sanaa does not mean that the rebel government is hungry for money, as they still have the funds looted from the bank. Also, Saleh is considered one of the region’s richest men. His secret bank accounts outside Yemen contain enough money to fund the country for five years. He did not steal this money to donate it. Most of his known bank accounts are frozen by the UN Security Council, and the legitimate government will most likely later request the right to confiscate them.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 20, 2016.

Palestinian UN membership: A goal or a tool?
Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/September 20/16
As world leaders descend on New York City for the 71st annual UN General Assembly session, it is certain that once again the never-ending Israeli Palestinian conflict is going to play at least some part in the discussions. Symbolically, may be ironically, this year’s session began on the 13th of September, the very same day that the Oslo Accords were signed between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership in 1993. Twenty-three years since this euphoric day peace is not the offing. The issue that once upon a time was one of the most fiercely debated in the heart of many UN debates seems to have given way to other more pressing issues. There is a combination of fatigue and sense that the impasse between the two protagonists is impenetrable.
Yet, there will still be the inevitable blame game of whose fault it is that nearly seventy years after the UN voted for the partition of Palestine, an independent Palestinian state still remains elusive. Most predictably the majority of speakers will express their support for the Palestinians’ bid for statehood and almost everyone will call for peace negotiations to resume, but not much is going to be done about it.
It begs the question, whether the UN relevant in this conflict at all anymore? Can it incentivise both sides to go back to the negotiating table, let alone sign a peace agreement? Or, can it penalise those who harm the chances of ending this conflict? Thus far the UN has made almost every possible political and symbolic gesture to express its support for Palestinian statehood, short of the ultimate prize of passing a Security Council resolution that recognises Palestine as an independent state.
The simple answer to the inability to pass such a resolution, is the veto power held by the United States, which has so far been used rather effectively to block or deter majority support for such a resolution. The reality, as always with the case of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, is somewhat more complex and convoluted. It depends to a large extent on whether Palestinian statehood is seen as a reward for the Palestinians for reaching a peace deal with Israel. Or alternatively, since there is an international consensus that the Palestinians as a distinct nation are entitled to a state, a UN recognition should only be a formality, and the details over all the other outstanding issues should be conducted between two already internationally recognized states. The US supports Israel, among a small number of states, in advocating that Palestinian self-determination cannot precede a peace agreement. Even the frosty relations between Obama and Netanyahu, who is seen in Washington as bearing the lion’s share of responsibility for the current stalemate, will not prevent a US veto when and if the Palestinians apply again.
Past negotiations.
The premise of past peace negotiations, from the Madrid Conference, the Oslo Accords, Camp David 2000 and the Abu Mazen-Olmert talks, has been that unless there is an agreement on all the core outstanding issues such as borders, Jerusalem, security, refugees and settlements, Palestinian statehood remains on hold. Towards the end of the last decade the Palestinian leadership began reconsidering their route to international recognition as a state. Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat and especially Nabil Shaath, among others, lost faith in the negotiation route and saw the armed struggle as futile and counter-productive.
What was left for the Palestinians then was appealing to the international community to recognise in practice, not in principle, their right for self-determination. Consequently, the struggle for independence moved to the international political diplomatic stage. It was aimed at acquiring international legitimacy by being admitted as members into international organisations and also in parallel the delegitimising of Israel for the occupation of Palestinian land. This was done through the BDS movement and by encouraging the ICC to indict senior Israeli military personnel and politicians with war crimes. In September 2011 the efforts to achieve international recognition moved up a gear, when President Abbas first submitted an official letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, requesting membership recognition of Palestine as a state.
The Security Council hurdle
The Palestinian Authority and the PLO have made huge strides in their bid to gain international recognition, and sway public opinion in their favour, but failed the most coveted goal of clearing the Security Council hurdle. In the process the Palestinians gained membership in UNESCO, the International Criminal Court and in November 2012 Palestine was granted non-member observer State status by a vast majority of UN member states. Nevertheless, a resolution brought to the Security Council at the end of 2014 gained a majority, but failed to meet the minimum nine yes votes required for adoption by the council for recognition as a state. In any case the United States, Israel’s closest ally, had made it clear that it would have used its veto power to block the resolution anyway. The nearly two years that have elapsed since then have not brought any major developments suggesting that in the near future the United States will change its mind. Hence it is hard to imagine a successful new bid for Palestinian statehood. Even the frosty relations between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is seen in Washington as bearing the lion’s share of responsibility for the current stalemate in peace negotiations, will not prevent a US veto when and if the Palestinians decide to apply again.
During the presidential elections, especially when the outcome hangs so finely in the balance, it is very unlikely that the Obama administration will take such a risk. There are no signs that this state of affairs may change no matter who is elected as the next US President in November.
General Secretary Ban Ki moon warned on Thursday in the Security Council that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership should take the difficult steps to change the destructive trajectory currently leading both sides towards a one-state reality. He was clear in blaming the expansion of Israeli settlements, violence and vitriolic language from both sides for the impasse. However, beyond urging the sides to resume negotiations, there is no sign that the road to Palestinian statehood will go through the Security Council, unless an agreement is reached with Israel and not the other way around.

Interview with Waleed Al-Husseini
Grégoire Canlorbe/Gatestone Institute/September 20/16
"The world is changing, and more and more Muslims wish to live without the oppressing "tutelage" of Islam." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
"I find it difficult to speak of Muslim integration in France. In fact, except for a tiny minority, they are not really looking to integrate themselves." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
"The only ones who create stigmatization are the Muslims themselves... I cannot see one scintilla of evidence of a plot against Islam." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
"In addition, more and more Islamists refuse to integrate into a society that they deem godless and that they wish to convert." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
"Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, Muslims discreetly approve or at least try to justify the attacks." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
"According to their speeches, the Islamists indeed have set themselves the goal of conquering and ruling the entire world. If they manage to do it, they will owe their success not to their intellectual power or their faith, even less to their military force, but to their adversaries' cowardice." — Waleed Al-Husseini.
Waleed Al-Husseini is a Palestinian blogger and essayist, as well as the founder of the Ex-Muslim Council of France. He garnered international fame in 2010 when he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority, imprisoned and tortured for articles he posted, in which he criticized Islam. He has received threats and death threats. He is one of the most celebrated cyber-activists from the Arab world and now lives in France, where he sought refuge. He continues to be a defender of its secular, republican values.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Could you start by reminding us of the circumstances and motives of your dissent?
Waleed Al-Husseini: My atheism is the result of a long quest for the truth about what I saw happening in front of me. Obviously, nobody holds all of the truth, but during my research, I realized that religion in general, and Islam in particular, was highly incompatible with the values of human life. That was the beginning of my rejection of Islam. As time goes by, the horrors and crimes committed against mankind in the name of Islam seem to have proven me right. They have strengthened my conviction that it was the right choice to make.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Despite being jailed, tortured, threatened, persecuted and socially pressured, you have never given up your opinions or curbed your determination to defend them. How come?
Waleed Al-Husseini: Once I had made up my mind, I had to defend my new convictions against all sorts of pressures, whether in prison or in the street. To do so, I gathered my strength out of the weakness and archaism of the religious speech. I simply used intelligence against faith. The former opens the mind, the latter puts human beings in prison. It feels as if religious leaders practice some sort of psychological torture on their followers in order to dominate them. In Muslim societies, all the citizens live in a huge prison called Islam. I wish to remind the readers that, if I am deeply hostile to Islam as a religion, I respect Muslims as human beings and deplore the situation in which they have to survive.
Grégoire Canlorbe: "Mahometism," writes Tocqueville in his Writings on the Koran, "is the religion that has mixed both political and religious powers, and in a way that the high priest is necessarily a prince, and the prince is the high priest, and all the acts of civil and political life are ruled more or less according to religious law... This concentration and confusion established by Mahomet between both powers... was the primary cause of despotism and social immobility... which has always been a characteristic of Muslim nations."
Do you think that things can change? Or that Islam — and the Islamic world — cannot be reformed?
Waleed Al-Husseini: During the genesis of Islam — which looks in many aspects like a sect — the political power relied on religion in order to control and dominate society. Subject to certain exceptions, the situation has not changed in 1,400 years.
In his time, the prophet Mohammad had already made use and abuse of many fatwas, attributed to the angel Jibril, in order to justify what can never be justified. He awarded himself the right to rape young girls, in the name of polygamy, and used religious discourse to wage his wars, which he called "Islamic conquests." He also committed the first war crimes in the name of Allah — upon, he claimed, divine command!
The same methods are still common practice today, in the main Islamic countries. Iran is ruled by the Wali e-Faguih, the Supreme Leader, who claims he is "God's vicar on Earth". Saudi Arabia is under the rule of the "Keeper of the Holy Places". The king of Morocco is the self-proclaimed "Commander of the Believers". In the other Muslim countries, the rulers call themselves Wali al-Amr, "the tutor", a title that works as a deterrent, allowing imams to use religion in order to ban any possible objection to the tutor's authority.
The world is nevertheless changing and more and more Muslims wish to live without the oppressing "tutelage" of Islam. One can hope that the mentality of many will start to change for good, perhaps through the Internet and the social networks. They are the only space for free speech available to citizens; there is merciless opposition by the powerful against this "mass weapon." Faced with the horrors perpetrated in the name of Islam, more and more Muslims are turning their backs on this religion and are trying to release themselves from its yoke. It seems, unfortunately, there is still a long way to go.
Grégoire Canlorbe: What is your opinion of the behavior and integration of Muslims in France? Is the Muslim community generally eager to proclaim and practice an open and enlightened Islam — even in spite of the alleged stigmatization and exclusion that are the daily lot of French Muslims according to the press?
Waleed Al-Husseini: The only ones who create stigmatization are the Muslims themselves. This is a tested strategy which consists of turning oneself into a so-called "victim" in order to tighten the links within the Muslim community and to claim that it is being targeted because of its faith. They try to blame the fight on their identity.
Otherwise, how can we explain the absence of firm, frank, sincere and massive condemnations after the attacks perpetrated by a Muslim minority in the name of Islam? The Muslim masses seem to have difficulty distancing themselves from violent activists; they give the impression that their activists are defending the majority of Muslims against some sort of attack. But I cannot see one scintilla of evidence of a plot against Islam.
We must also stop confusing Arabs with Muslims. All Arabs are not Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs. Iranians, Egyptians and Turks, for example, are not Arabs. The Arabs, ethnically speaking, are a minority in Islam.
I find it difficult to speak of Muslim integration in France. In fact, except for a tiny minority, they are not really looking to integrate themselves. To Muslims, by definition, the Koran and Sharia (Islamic law) are superior to any law drafted by men. Islam claims to transcend borders and does not recognize nationalities. It is a view that partly fuels the radicals. Hence there is the difficulty for Muslims to speak about the wish for an open and tolerant Islam and to practice it. They are immediately accused of treason and apostasy.
As long as the founding texts of Islam are not reformed and rewritten in a sound way, that allows Islam to acquire an enlightened ecclesiastical authority at its head, integration seems unreachable. In addition, more and more Islamists refuse to integrate into a society that they deem godless and that they wish to convert.
Grégoire Canlorbe: It is sometimes argued that Wahhabism, the doctrine that historically inspires the terrorists who claim to belong to Islam, is a form of heresy and not a return to the "basics" and the literal meaning of Islam. In other words, there is nothing traditional or fundamentalist in the doctrine of Wahhabism, which appeared belatedly in the 18th century, professed by Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and denounced by his own brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Wahhab and other respected ulemas — religious scholars — within the Hanbali School, the most austere of the four Islamic law schools. How would you sum up the defects and merits of the Islamophile argument?
Waleed Al-Husseini: It is true that the "drifts" of Mohammad Ibn Abdel Wahhab were vividly denounced by his brother. It is also true that the Wahhabi doctrine served as a social and religious basis for the al-Saud family to establish its power in Arabia — a typical example of the connection between religion and politics. But it is not the only instance in that field.
In the 20th century, Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, was also taken to task by his own brother over the sectarian and violent drifts of his writings. More recently, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, denounced the policy of the Supreme Leader, who has been using religious power to strengthen his political and economic influence on Iran. But these dissenting robins do not necessarily indicate the arrival of spring. For Islam, regardless of all its stripes — whether it is Wahhabi, Salafist, Muslim Brotherhood or Iranian Shi'ite — feeds on the same source, the Koran.
Today, Muslims apply the same methods that prevailed in the time of the Prophet. The barbaric acts perpetrated by ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran, Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries that behead and violate human rights, had already occurred during the Islamization of the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic conquests.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler all tried to conquer the world. They all failed. An illiterate prophet from the desert also tried to achieve what Alexander and his successors dreamed of. How do you assess the spread of Islam? Do you think Islamists could finally achieve Mohammad's world domination scheme — and subject the West?
Waleed Al-Husseini: According to their speeches, the Islamists indeed have set themselves the goal of conquering and ruling the entire world. If they manage to do it, they will not owe their success to their intellectual power or their faith, even less to their military force, but to their adversaries' cowardice.
Except for Iran, Islamic countries or organizations produce no weapons, no culture, no food and no civilization. Without the West's contribution, they would starve. Please let me remind you that the Western companies discovered and exploited the oil that enabled these countries to develop.
The idea that the influence of Islam would go beyond the borders of the ancient Empires does not seem an appropriate comparison.
Grégoire Canlorbe: After the attacks in Paris on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan Theater in 2015, a lot of Muslims around the world raised their voices to exonerate Islam from any ideological responsibility and to blame the massacres on a so-called "judaeo-masonic conspiracy," the aim of which was supposedly to discredit Islam.
Two psychological options seem possible. Either these individuals, deep down in, condemn the attacks but turn a blind eye to the responsibility of Islamic ideology because they cannot bear thinking that the terrorists are also Muslims. Or they approve of those attacks, at least unconsciously, and actually desire to see Islam conquer the West and sap Christianity of its power — a wish they cannot openly declare in public.
Of these two options, which one is the most plausible or widespread in your view?
Waleed Al-Husseini: Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, Muslims discreetly approve or at least try to justify the attacks. The adherence of Muslims to Islam prevails over their adherence to a nation or a country. It is inconceivable at this stage that Islam will side against those who strictly apply its teachings. However, some leaders brilliantly handled taqiyya, or "dissimulation": they verbally condemned the attacks while refraining from castigating Islamic ideology.
Regarding conspiracy theories, they are denied by the Islamists themselves who keep on promoting terrorist attacks and promising more. The attack against Charlie Hebdo was first established by an Iranian fatwa issued in 2006 against a Danish cartoonist and his magazine — accusing him of insulting the Prophet — as well as against any media, including Charlie, that dared to publish the cartoons.
Terrorists are also indoctrinated in mosques, then enroll in terrorist groups where they can put what they were taught into practice.
Grégoire Canlorbe: It is now fashionable among intellectuals sensationalized by universities and the media, such as Tariq Ramadan and Michel Onfray, to acknowledge a positive side to the ideology embraced by terrorists. They imply that "radical Islam", apparently a code name for Islam itself, promotes a warlike ideal of self-sacrifice and heroism which, since the advent of capitalism and the consumer society, has deserted our Western way of life. They also imply that Islam, which prohibits wine, gambling activities and statues, constitutes a remedy for the "decadent" permissiveness of Western societies.
What would you reply to this fashionable speech?
Waleed Al-Husseini: Tariq Ramadan, who is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, delivers a public speech which pretends to be peaceful, but which is totally contrary to the content of the conferences he discreetly held in the suburban areas, notably after the 9/11 attacks. There, he exhorted young girls to wear the veil, vigorously criticized the laws of the French Republic that were against ostensible signs of religion in public areas, and he raised the issue of a supposed American-Zionist plot against Islam. I have not seen one scintilla of evidence of that, either.
It is worth here reminding everyone that the strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood, tested in Egypt, consisted in surfing on the wave of extremism among terrorists, systemically defended by lawyers paid by the Brotherhood, in order to gain notoriety and go ahead with its political agenda. Egyptians have been suffering from this complicity ever since. French Islamists and their spokesmen seem to be tempted by the same scenario: paying lip services by condemning barbaric acts while defending terrorists in a hidden manner and continuing on their path.
Finally, I do not understand why the Islamists, who seek asylum in the West in order to benefit from its wealth as well as freedom of religion and speech, want to impose the Islam they ran away from. If the decadence and materialism of the West do not suit them, they would do better to go back home. Those who stay should comply with the laws of the Western country they chose, and respect them.
Grégoire Canlorbe: In addressing Muslims, if you had to recall only one argument in favor of pluralistic mores and beliefs, individual freedom and the prohibition of "any interference by any family, parental or official public authorities in the private lives of men and women", what would it be?
Waleed Al-Husseini: I kindly invite them to embrace democracy which guarantees freedom in all its forms, and which necessarily goes along with secularism: it leaves religion to religious followers, politics to politicians, justice to judges. This separation between secular and religious affairs on the one hand, and between legislative, executive, judicial powers on the other, is the best driver of creative and economic development and consequently the best driver of human development.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Thank you for your time. Would you like to add a few words?
Waleed Al-Husseini: I would just like to say to Muslims that Islam is not an accident of fate. Since they did not choose it when they were born, they can leave it at any time. But although many of them have made the leap, they are not always ready to claim it openly. Professed apostates are indeed persecuted in traditional Muslim societies. Some, like me, get arrested. Others get killed. That's the situation prevailing in Muslim countries. Meanwhile, in Western countries, apostates are regularly reproached for supposedly being "racist" or "Islamophobic." We should get support, not be ostracized. We know what Islam really is. If you want to be informed on Islam, you should listen to ex-Muslims, not to any type of Muslim. We should get more support to share our view and our experience in the public debate and to fight against terrorism and fundamentalism. Thank you for your good questions.
Waleed Al-Husseini is the author of an autobiography, Blasphemer! Allah's prisons! edited by Graset in 2014 (re-issued in 2015), as well as articles in Le Monde, La Règle du jeu and Libération. His blogs are "la voie de la raison" and "I'm proud to be atheist".
*Grégoire Canlorbe, a journalist, currently lives in Paris.
Initially published in French in slightly different form on the website of the Institut Coppet.
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