LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
January 13/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins17/english.january13.17.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Herodias's daughter asked Hrod
to give her a platter John the Baptist's Head & He did what she asked for
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14/01-12./:"At that
time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants,
‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this
reason these powers are at work in him.’
For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of
Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had
been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ Though Herod wanted
to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a
prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before
the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant
her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head
of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ The king was grieved, yet out of regard
for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had
John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought on a platter and given to the
girl, who brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took the body and
buried it; then they went and told Jesus."
I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for
whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Second Letter to the Corinthians 12/01-10/:"It is necessary
to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and
revelations of the Lord. I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was
caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body I do not
know; God knows. And I know that such a person whether in the body or out of
the body I do not know; God knows was caught up into Paradise
and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to
repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not
boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool,
for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may
think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering
the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being
too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to
torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the
Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is
sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast
all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in
me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong."
Titles
For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on January 12-13/17
Aoun’s promised visit to Riyadh/Mshari Al Thaydi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 12/17
Aoun needs to mend fences with the Gulf/Michael
Young/The National/January 12/17
Hezbollah’s Latest Conquest: Lebanon’s Cabinet/David Daoud/Newsweek/January
12/17
Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen Appear to Have Been Made in Iran/ The New York
Times/published on January 10/17
How Team Trump should handle the failing Iran deal/Benny Avni/New
York Times/January 11/17
A Trump Administration's Effective Iran Policy Should Have an Eye to the
Mullahs' Weakening Grip/NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017
Kuwaiti Writer, Ahmad Al-Sarraf : The Recent Passing
Of The International Religious Freedom Act In The U.S. Indicates That The World
Has Had Enough Of Muslim Religious Extremism/MEMRI/January 12/17
On the death of Tehran’s besieged fox/ Abdulrahman
al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/January
12/17
French Ambassadors Declare War on Israel/Yves Mamou/Gatestone
Institute/January 12/17
India's Best Friend: Protector of the Free World/ Jagdish
N. Singh/Gatestone Institute/January 12/17
The UN Holocaust: More Lies and Treachery on the Way/Yves Mamou/Gatestone
Institute/January 12/17
A unified moral stance is the only path to peace/Samar Fatany/Al
Arabiya/January 12/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 12-13/17
Aoun Concludes SA, Qatar Trip, Says Lebanese
Will Eye Effect of Visit
Aoun against any weapons used inside Lebanon
Aoun Concludes SA, Qatar Trip, Says Lebanese Will Eye
Effect of Visit
Aoun to Jazeera:
Parliamentary elections shall take place based on new poll law
Aoun 'Not in Favor' of Hizbullah's Syria Role, Says 'Competent Ministers'
Discussing Saudi Military Grant
Aoun’s promised visit to Riyadh
Lebanon president expresses relief after Gulf visits
Khalifa receives condolences from Lebanon president
Geagea Says 'No Hostility' with Hizbullah,
Rules Out Return to 1960 Law
Fenianos: Additional Auditory Bird Repellents
Installed on RHIA Tarmac
Fenianos, Khatib discuss
airport bird issue
Jumblatt: Threats to civil aviation diverse including
Ghadeer River, Costa Brava Dump
Hariri receives Armenian Catholic Patriarch and Hamas delegation
Change and Reform: We Reject Any Procrastination Aimed at Keeping 1960 Law,
Extension
Qahwaji Inspects Eastern Border: Army Has Full Ability
to Fight Terror
Judge Orders Costa Brava Dump Shut After Birds Threaten Flights
Report: Dahiyeh Beefs Up Security over Terror Plots
Hizbullah Says President Trip to SA Part of Lebanon's
Duties
Hariri receives Mufti Chaar, Minister Bou Assi
Jumblatt, Ambassador of Sudan hold talks
Riachy confirms Gulf visit served its purpose,
without exaggeration
Aoun needs to mend fences with the Gulf
Lebanese president rejects use of arms locally, says intervention in Syria not
Lebanon's decision
Hezbollah’s Latest Conquest: Lebanon’s Cabinet
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on January 12-13/17
Suicide Bomber Kills at Least Eight in Damascus
France: Syria talks must convene quickly under UN
Syria regime kills six civilians in Aleppo strikes
Russia, Turkey agree to coordinate strikes
US sanctions Syrian officials for chemical weapons attacks
Astana: Mysterious negotiations as participants remain anonymous
Trump’s CIA nominee: Iran fueling tensions in the
Middle East
New U.N. Chief Heads Crunch Cyprus Talks
Iranian Activists, Academics Apologize For Iran's Syria Policy
Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen Appear to Have Been Made in Iran
Iran Regime Is Seeking Bloodshed and Destruction in Syria
Iran: 21 Hangings in 2017 and 26 Prisoner Facing Imminent Execution
Two Young Women Arrested in Iran for Riding Motorcycle
The Terrorist Quds Force Official Was Introduced as
the New Iran Regime's Ambassador in Iraq
Iran Regime's Factional Feuding Escalates During Rafsanjani's
Funeral
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 12-13/17
Aoun Concludes SA, Qatar Trip,
Says Lebanese Will Eye Effect of Visit
Naharnet/January 12/17/After a four-day trip to Saudi
Arabia and Qatar, President Michel Aoun and the
accompanying delegation of ministers returned back to Lebanon on Thursday.On his return, Aoun stressed
that ties with the “Gulf countries particularly with Saudi Arabia are back to
normal,” adding that the misunderstanding is over now and a “new leaf of
relations has been turned. The Lebanese will witness an increase in the influx
of Gulf tourists to Lebanon.”The President hailed the Lebanese community in the Gulf
and said: “During our trip we have sensed a huge respect and appreciation for
the Lebanese who have helped, and still do, with the developmental renaissance
in Gulf countries.”On the topics discussed with Gulf
officials, he said: “All subjects of common interest raised during the tour,
have received a positive response and clear support. The agreements will be
followed up in mutual visits.”The President concluded
pinning hopes that Lebanon witnesses quick improvement, he said: “We are all
hopes that Lebanon takes quick steps forward and gradually restores its
position at the Arab, regional and international levels.”During
his trip, Aoun held talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Qatar's
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani in Doha.
The trip was assessed as promising in terms of improving Lebanese-Gulf ties
mainly with Saudi Arabia.
Ties with Riyadh
were tense last year after SA halted a $3 billion military aid program for the
Lebanese army over what it said was the dominance of Hizbullah
movement.
Aoun against any weapons used inside Lebanon
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Thursday, 12 January
2017
In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya’s General
Manager Turki Aldakhil,
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said that he
visited Saudi Arabia because it is the first country to invite him since he
took power as he attempts to clarify specific foreign policy issues.
Aoun reiterated that Lebanon
has no intentions of working against Arab interests, particularly those of Saudi Arabia.
“We have grown up with Saudi
Arabia’s friendship so unsatisfactory
results are unacceptable during these tense times. But positions can be
clarified,” said Aoun during his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, adding that Lebanon has not
done anything that harms Arab interests.
The president said that Lebanon
was against weaponized conflict within his country,
adding that the recent presence of arms was linked to “certain circumstances.”
Aoun said that there is no longer space for
resistance within Lebanon, as resistance within the Middle East has been
overridden by interference from the US, Iran and Russia.
Hoping for Gulf tourists’ return
Aoun voiced hope that that Gulf tourists would return
to Beirut in
the near future, particularly Saudi citizens who are significant financial
contributors to Lebanese tourism.
Saudi and other Gulf citizens were advised to leave Lebanon a year ago and Aoun said this led to speculations in the wake of political
issues surfacing after the Syrian war.
Aoun to Al Arabiya: Lebanon did not harm Arabs
“Lebanon
has become 100 percent secure except for car accidents. We have a free market
now, especially for Saudi
Arabia which has existing investments,” Aoun told Aldakhil.
The war in Syria
Aoun said he would prevent any attempt being made
from Lebanon to launch an
attack against any country just as it prevents the entry of terrorists from Syria to Lebanon.
He also said that some Lebanese parties’ decision to participate in the Syrian
war was not sanctioned by the state, adding that he was against such decisions.
“As a Lebanese president, I don’t have the right to be with anyone against
anyone because I represent all the Lebanese people. The Lebanese people have
different opinions about the matter, and positive neutrality is the right
stance,” Aoun said, adding that the Syrian crisis can
only be resolved politically because international parties can fuel the war
from outside Syria.
Regarding Syrian refugees in Lebanon,
Aoun said that once there is security in Syria, refugees
must return home because there are economic difficulties in terms of aiding
them.
Currently there is one Syrian refugee for every two Lebanese citizens,
according to Aoun.
On Hezbollah’s militancy
Without directly naming Hezbollah during the
interview, he said that he supports “the resistance” but not “terrorism” from
the militants, adding that he is against any weapons used inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s armed militancy has divided Lebanon over the years as they do
not operate within the context of the state and army.
Aoun: Taif Accord was never
fully respected. Aoun who referred to Hezbollah as
the “resistance,” said the issue of weapons and its role is now part of the
Middle East’s crisis, which involves the United
States, Russia,
Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He added that this
was far more important than just the Lebanese state’s capability to address it.Aoun stressed the importance of enhancing the army’s
fighting capabilities and equipping it with modern weapons. He also expressed
the need for exchange of security information with friendly countries in order
to combat terrorism and empower the official military institution.
Domestic issues as important
With regards to domestic issues, Aoun said there were
clauses in the 1989 Taif Agreement, which helped end
the civil war in Lebanon, that have not been fully implemented. He said it was
of high importance for these clauses to be realized, particularly electoral
law, in order to promote co-existence and the proper representation of the
different segments of Lebanese society.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun (left) and Prime
Minister Saad Hariri during the October press
conference in Beirut
on October 20 2016. (Reuters)
He added that there are some electoral laws implemented “1992 onwards resulted
in parties loyal to Syria
gaining a certain advantage. Syria
left and this advantage remained."
The upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon will be held “on the basis
of the law,” Aoun said.
“The proportional electoral law will make me lose some seats but it guarantees
representation of all citizens. I expect there will be an initial settlement
but it will not provide complete justice in terms of an electoral law,” he
added.
Aoun Concludes SA, Qatar Trip, Says Lebanese Will Eye
Effect of Visit
Naharnet/January 12/17/After a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar,
President Michel Aoun and the accompanying delegation
of ministers returned back to Lebanon
on Thursday. On his return, Aoun stressed that ties
with the “Gulf countries particularly with Saudi Arabia are back to normal,”
adding that the misunderstanding is over now and a “new leaf of relations has
been turned. The Lebanese will witness an increase in the influx of Gulf
tourists to Lebanon.”The President hailed the Lebanese community in the Gulf
and said: “During our trip we have sensed a huge respect and appreciation for
the Lebanese who have helped, and still do, with the developmental renaissance
in Gulf countries.”On the topics discussed with Gulf
officials, he said: “All subjects of common interest raised during the tour,
have received a positive response and clear support. The agreements will be
followed up in mutual visits.”The President concluded
pinning hopes that Lebanon witnesses quick improvement, he said: “We are all
hopes that Lebanon takes quick steps forward and gradually restores its
position at the Arab, regional and international levels.”During
his trip, Aoun held talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Qatar's
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani in Doha.
The trip was assessed as promising in terms of improving Lebanese-Gulf ties
mainly with Saudi Arabia.
Ties with Riyadh
were tense last year after SA halted a $3 billion military aid program for the
Lebanese army over what it said was the dominance of Hizbullah
movement.
Aoun to Jazeera: Parliamentary
elections shall take place based on new poll law
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, categorically stressed that the misunderstanding with
some Gulf countries has been cleared out, indicating that a new chapter was
opened with the old one folded. President Aoun's
words came in an interview to the Qatari TV Channel "al-Jazeera" during his official visit to Qatar. On the
issue of providing aids to the Lebanese army including the Saudi Arabia's
military aid, Aoun said that this matter is under
consultation amongst the concerned ministers, with no final decision yet taken
due to the presence of some standing matters. In reply to a question, Aoun deemed his election as president of the republic a
"triumph to the Lebanese axis," underlining that Lebanon is
outside the frames of axes building its friendship with everyone. Aoun stressed that "the upcoming parliamentary
elections will be held on the basis of a new election law, notably with the
existence of a Lebanese determination to accomplish such a law.
Aoun 'Not in Favor' of Hizbullah's Syria Role, Says 'Competent Ministers'
Discussing Saudi Military Grant
Naharnet/January 12/17/President Michel Aoun has announced that he is “not in favor”
of Hizbullah's military intervention in neighboring Syria, while noting that the Saudi military
grant is being discussed by the "competent ministers" of the two
countries. “We are preventing harm from being launched from Lebanon against any state and we're preventing
the entry of terrorists from Syria
into Lebanon and vice
versa,” Aoun said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television that was recorded during his presence in
Riyadh. Noting
that the decision by some Lebanese parties to take part in the Syrian war was
not “the State's choice,” Aoun pointed out that he
does not support this choice. “As head of state, I do not have the right to
side with anyone against anyone, because I represent all Lebanese,” the
president added. “Lebanese have various viewpoints on this issue and positive
neutrality is the right stance,” Aoun went on to say.
He also stressed that the Syrian crisis “can only be resolved politically,
seeing as global forces can fuel the war externally.” Turning to Lebanon, the
president underlined that he is against “any weapons used domestically.”He
also noted that Hizbullah's arsenal of arms “has
become part of the Middle East crisis, which involves the U.S., Russia,
Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.”“This is a very major issue and it exceeds the Lebanese
state's ability,” Aoun noted. In another interview in
Qatar
with Al-Jazeera television, Aoun noted that the Saudi
military grant for the Lebanese army is still “on the table” and that the issue
is being discussed by the two countries' competent ministers.
“The issue has not been finalized yet due to the presence of some pending
matters, seeing as the issue does not only concern Lebanon
and the kingdom but also France,”
Aoun added. Asked about the government's quick
approval of key decrees that pave the way for oil and gas extraction off Lebanon's
coast, the president stressed that the swift passing of the decrees was not the
result of a “deal” among the political parties. “The approved points are
exclusively related to the basins,” he noted. Separately, Aoun
said the upcoming parliamentary elections will be held according to a new
electoral law. “There is a Lebanese will to pass a new law and the debate is
currently revolving around which law is the best for everyone,” the president
added. Turning to the region, Aoun noted that “what
some thought to be an Arab Spring turned out to be an Arab hell.” “I'm not
against any white or red revolution, on the condition that it is internal,
progressive and targeted at the future. It is unacceptable to return to the
distant past... and the bloody events and reactionary ideologies cannot be a
solution to the Arab problems,” Aoun explained.
Aoun’s promised visit to Riyadh
Mshari Al Thaydi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 12/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/12/mshari-al-thaydiasharq-al-awsat-aouns-promised-visit-to-riyadh/
As promised, Riyadh
was the first country which Lebanese President Michel Aoun
visited since his inauguration. The venerable president came to Saudi Arabia after the latter contributed to
providing political and moral support to resolve the complicated issue of the
presidency and helped achieve domestic political consensus in Lebanon. This
was all reflected when the parliament’s vast majority voted for Aoun to hold the major Maronite
post in the country.
Aoun’s visit expresses a lot during this difficult
and sensitive time. Lebanon
has been overcoming strong political pitfalls due to the Syrian conflict, which
Hezbollah has strongly got involved in with its men, media, speeches,
preaches, fatwas and politicians.
The massive Syrian war has politically divided the country. The conflict
has caused major polarization on the sectarian level and Iran has brought Shiite militias from across the
world to defend “holy shrines” and other sites in Syria
which we’ve suddenly discovered is the land of Shiite
shrines.
Despite all that, Lebanese politics protected itself from collapsing.
After the parliament’s inability to elect a president, politicians gave up on
their intransigence and some were even taken by surprise when the Future
Movement, and before that the Lebanese Forces, i.e. the Sunnis and the rest of
the Maronites, endorsed, Aoun,
the candidate whom they agree on with Hezbollah, for the presidency.
Speaking to Al-Ekhbariya television channel in Riyadh, Aoun said: “Domestic conflicts can only end through a
political solution.”
The first year of Aoun’s presidential term will
be important in terms of indicating the path which Lebanon takes and will show
whether Lebanon is capable of breaking Iran’s shackles
Political solution
These statements are in general true. Politics is another face of war
while war completes what politics is incapable of. However, a “permanent”
political solution does not succeed unless it guarantees the interests of major
blocs and a solution cannot be established on the basis of domination and
surrender.
President Aoun also addressed terrorism, the
issue that occupies politicians in the Middle East
and across the world the most. “We all need to cooperate to combat terrorism
and we also need to cooperate with Saudi Arabia,” he said.
During a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil, Saudi Foreign
Minister Adel al-Jubeir said: “We seek (to work) so Lebanon is
independent and free of foreign interferences.”
Bassil said the new phase “comprehends many
Lebanese distinctions and it has indeed comprehended them and Lebanon has
thus become an element uniting its Arab brothers.” Aoun’s
second stop will be Qatar
and it’s probable that other stops, such as Tehran
and Damascus,
will be on the list of countries he will visit.
The first year of Aoun’s presidential term will
be important in terms of indicating the path which Lebanon
takes and will show whether Lebanon
is capable of breaking Iran’s
shackles.
**This article was first published in Asharq
al-Awsat on January 12, 2017.
Lebanon president expresses relief after Gulf visits
The Daily /January 12/17/BEIRUT: President
Michel Aoun Thursday said that the results of his
tour to Saudi Arabia and Qatar will soon
flourish. On the plane en route to Beirut,
Aoun expressed relief to reporters over his meetings
in the two Gulf countries. "The direct and indirect results [of the tour]
will soon appear and they will be in favor of the
countries and their people," he added. Aoun
arrived in Beirut Thursday following a tour that
took him to Saudi Arabia
Monday and Qatar
Wednesday. A statement issued by Aoun's press office
said that the president had sent a message to Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani thanking him for his hospitality. "Talks [held
in Doha]
affirmed the [deep] ties between the two brotherly countries, which will [God willing] improve and progress." The leaders of the two
Gulf countries expressed support for Aoun and Lebanon. The
talks mainly focused on bolstering bilateral ties. Aoun
said that the "relations with Gulf States, Saudi Arabia at the forefront,
returned to normal and the page [of confusion] during the presidential vacuum
has been flipped over."He added that Gulf
tourists will return to Lebanon.
"All matters of mutual concern were discussed with Saudi and Qatari
officials, and I felt explicit support [for Lebanon]," the president said,
hoping that Lebanon would continue to recover and progress as it restores its
Arab, regional and international rank. It was Aoun's
first trip abroad since his election on Oct. 31 after an almost two-year
crippling presidential vacuum. Lebanon’s
relations with Saudi Arabia
and other Arab Gulf
countries deteriorated in February last year when Riyadh
halted a $3 billion grant to buy arms from France for the Lebanese Army, in
addition to another $1 billion grant to strengthen the military and security
forces. The move was in protest at perceived hostile stances against the
kingdom linked to Hezbollah and Iran
at Arab League and Islamic meetings. Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf states also warned their
citizens against traveling to Lebanon
in what appeared to be a punitive measure over the Lebanese government’s
perceived pro-Hezbollah policies.
Khalifa receives condolences from Lebanon
president
The Gulf Day/January 12, 2017/ABU DHABI:
President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has received a
cable of condolence from President Michel Aoun of Lebanon, expressing his condolences on the
martyrdom of a number of Emiratis while performing humanitarian and charitable
duties in Afghanistan.
In his cable, the Lebanese President condemned the heinous attack, on both his
behalf and on behalf of the Lebanese people, wishing Juma
Mohammed Abdullah Al Ka'abi, UAE Ambassador to Afghanistan, a
speedy recovery. He also prayed to Almighty God to rest the souls of the
victims in peace and inspire their families with patience and fortitude,
wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
Geagea Says 'No Hostility' with Hizbullah,
Rules Out Return to 1960 Law
Naharnet/January 12/17/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has noted that there
is no “hostility” between his party and Hizbullah,
while stressing that there will be no return to the 1960 electoral law. “We are
witnessing a positive atmosphere in the media but we do not know if it will
carry anything serious, seeing as there is no dialogue until the moment with Hizbullah,” Geagea said in an
interview with the LF's website and al-Massira magazine. “We are awaiting the groundwork for the
launch of such a dialogue according to a roadmap that would have a clear
timeframe aimed at pushing for the rise of a real State in Lebanon,” Geagea added. “This common groundwork has not been found
until the moment, knowing that there is no animosity or hostility but rather
contrasting viewpoints over the rise of the State in Lebanon,” the LF leader
went on to say. “Should a work paper be proposed for such a dialogue, we will
discuss it,” he added. Turning to the issue of the electoral law, Geagea noted that the upcoming parliamentary elections
“will greatly contribute to improving Christian representation.”He
also emphasized that “there certainly will not be a return to the 1960 law.”
Fenianos: Additional Auditory Bird Repellents Installed on
RHIA Tarmac
Naharnet/January 12/17/Public Works and Transport
Minister Youssef Fenianos
announced on Thursday that the Civil Aviation Directorate began installing
additional auditory bird repellents to keep the birds away from the Rafik Hariri International Airport's tarmac. “The
Directorate began early on Thursday the installment
of auditory bird repellents on the airport's tarmac. The process is under implementation
at a rapid pace,” assured Fenianos. The measures were
taken after the issue of birds threatening flight safety at the Beirut airport, surfaced
to the spotlight on Wednesday, when MP Walid Jumblat tweeted about the matter. “We were about to witness
a disaster yesterday,” Jumblat had tweeted, urging
the pushing of the Costa Brava garbage landfill, which lies close the terminal,
away from the airport. On Wednesday, and after a meeting with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Fenianos said that
flights in and out of Beirut
airport are at risk because of the large number of birds flying over a nearby
garbage dump. He said that the presence of the Costa Brava
dump has contributed to the increasing number of birds. Although Mount Lebanon
Urgent Matters Judge Hassan Hamdan has ordered on
Wednesday a "temporary closure of the landfill,” LBCI TV reported from the
dump site that normal activity was witnessed Thursday. The Costa Brava dump was
created in March 2016, as one of three "temporary" dumps intended to
provide an interim solution to the closure of the main landfill receiving waste
from Beirut.
Under a government plan intended to end the crisis caused by the landfill's
closure, the dumps were eventually intended to have waste processing
facilities, but that has not happened. As a result, garbage has piled up in
Costa Brava, on the coastline close to the runways at Beirut's international airport, reaching nine
meters in some places and wafting foul odors nearby.
Environmentalists have for months warned that the dump is attracting
rodents and increasing numbers of birds, posing potential risk for aviation. In
August, the Lebanese pilots' union warned of the possibility of the birds being
sucked into airplane engines. Local media reported that on Tuesday a plane
belonging to national carrier Middle East Airlines encountered a large flock of
birds as it landed on the airport's west runway, prompting concern. A permanent
solution for the waste produced by Beirut
and its surroundings has yet to be found, months after the Naameh
landfill was shuttered and garbage began piling up on the capital's streets.
The issue is one of many outstanding challenges that remain to be resolved by Lebanon's new
government, formed on December 18 after some two years of political paralysis.
Fenianos, Khatib discuss airport
bird issue
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - Public Works and Transportation Minister, Youssef Fenianos, held a meeting
at his Ministry office with Environment Minister, Tareq
Khatib, over the latest in the issue of birds problem in the vicinity of the International Rafic Hariri
Airport and procedures
taken by the Civil Aviation Directorate General in this regard. The meeting
also dwelt on the statement issued by the Development and Reconstruction
Council and the threats posed by Costa Brava Landfill and Ghadeer River to aviation movement. Fenianos recapped that the Directorate General has taken
the necessary procedures installing frequencies devices on parts of the two
main runways used for take-off and landing, as well as devices used at
international airports to drive out the birds.Two
devices were installed for the expulsion of birds above the sea runway, and
runway vehicles were equipped with audio devices carrying out periodic patrols.
Jumblatt: Threats to civil aviation diverse including
Ghadeer River, Costa Brava Dump
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - "Democratic Gathering" head MP Walid Jumbaltt noted via Twitter
that dangers posed to civil aviation are numerous and diverse, notably Ghadeer River and Costa Brava Landfill. "Closing the
eyes to one of them [Dangers] is considered a crime," MP Jumblatt said.
Hariri receives Armenian Catholic
Patriarch and Hamas delegation
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri
received this morning at the Grand Serail the
Armenian Catholic Patriarch Gregory Petros XX Gabroyan, heading a delegation that included MP Serge Tor Sarkissian, former MPs Jack Joe Khadarian
and Antoine Shader and Bishop Georges Assadourian, who said after the meeting: "The purpose
of the visit is to congratulate Premier Hariri for assuming Premiership. We
wished him success, especially that Lebanon and the Lebanese need to
see new hope after the election of President Michael Aoun
and Premier Hariri's assumption of Premiership."He
added: "We put ourselves at the disposal of the Lebanese state and Premier
Hariri for the success of his difficult task in light of the problems facing Lebanon and its
surrounding. We need the solidarity of all the Lebanese with the Prime Minister
who is pushing to implement big projects to achieve Lebanon's prosperity."
Abu Marzouk
Later on, Hariri received a delegation from "Hamas" Movement,
headed by its Deputy political bureau chief Moussa
Abu Marzouk, in the presence of the Chairman of the
Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee Hassan Mneimne.
After the meeting, Abu Marzouk said: "We had a
good meeting with Premier Hariri. We congratulated him on his initiative that
brought Lebanon
back on the political map. We also congratulated him on the formation of the
government and updated him on the previous Palestinian dialogues which Lebanon hosted
and the Palestinian agreement to hold a conference for the new National
Council." He added: "We discussed the Lebanese and Palestinian
situations, the civil rights of the Palestinians and the Lebanese-Palestinian
dialogue because we would like to resolve this file in the interest of the two
peoples in this country. It was also an opportunity to tackle the security and
political situation in Lebanon
and the situation in the Palestinian camps. We agreed on issues that would
enforce Lebanon's
security and unity, in addition to the Palestinian-Lebanese cooperation, the
stability and security of the Palestinian camps and keeping extremism away from
these camps and the surrounding areas."Hariri
also met with the Chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Committee with Lebanon in the
Latvian Parliament, MP Hussam Abu Merhi
who said after the meeting: "We talked with Premier Hariri about the
political developments and wished him success in his difficult mission. We also
asked him about the parliamentary elections, which we hope will take place this
year."
Change and Reform: We Reject Any
Procrastination Aimed at Keeping 1960 Law, Extension
Naharnet/January 12/17/The Change and Reform
parliamentary bloc announced Thursday that it rejects “any procrastination”
aimed at keeping the 1960 electoral law or seeking another extension of the
parliament's term. “The time for theoretical debate has ended and the time now
is for declaring clear stances on the proposed formats that all parties have
become familiar with,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly
meeting in Rabieh. “Seriousness requires clear
stances, not further procrastination and extension of the fait accompli
situation,” Change and Reform added. Interior Minister Nouhad
al-Mashnouq had recently warned that there is not
much time left to pass a new electoral law while announcing that the ministry
is ready to organize the polls under the 1960 law. Hizbullah
has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially al-Mustaqbal
Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, have rejected the proposal and
argued that the party's controversial arsenal of arms would prevent serious
competition in regions where the Iran-backed party has clout. Mustaqbal, the Lebanese Forces and the PSP have meanwhile
proposed a hybrid electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and
the winner-takes-all systems. Speaker Nabih Berri has also proposed a hybrid law. The country has not
voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending
its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960
electoral law and the next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Qahwaji Inspects Eastern Border: Army Has Full Ability to
Fight Terror
Naharnet/January 12/17/Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji on Thursday inspected military units deployed on
the eastern border between the al-Masnaa and Rashaya regions, state-run National News Agency reported. Qahwaji toured the military outposts and examined “the
measures that have been taken to control the border and prevent smuggling and
infiltration activities in both directions,” NNA said. He then met with the
officers and the soldiers, giving them instructions and lauding their efforts
to “protect this vital segment of the border, despite the harsh weather circumstances.”Qahwaji also called on the military units to
maintain “full readiness to confront any terrorist activity or infiltration in
a swift and decisive manner and to keep the initiative in the hands of the army.”“Preserving the border's safety and the security of
the neighboring towns and villages leads to serenity
and stability across the country,” the army chief noted. “This direct military
effort complements the preemptive operations that the
Intelligence Directorate and other army forces are carrying out against the
terrorist networks and cells inside the country,” Qahwaji
added. He reassured that the army “has full ability to continue its fight
against terrorism and consolidate security under any circumstances.”Qahwaji
also called on troops to safeguard the new phase of “breakthroughs and
stability in the country” and to protect “the new presidential tenure and its
aspirations to strengthen national unity and achieve social, economic and
institutional advancement.”
Judge Orders Costa Brava Dump Shut After
Birds Threaten Flights
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
12/17/Mount Lebanon Urgent Matters Judge Hassan Hamdan,
issued a decision on Thursday notifying Jihad al-Arab's company, operating the
Costa Brava landfill in Khaldeh area, to abide by an
earlier decision for the temporary closure of the dump, until a solution for
the birds threatening flights at the Rafik Hariri
Airport is found. The judge has ordered the temporary closure of the rubbish
dump near Beirut
airport after warnings that birds attracted by the garbage were threatening
aircraft safety, a lawyer said. "There is a court decision... to close the
doors and prevent the entry of any trucks," said Hani al-Ahmadiya, a lawyer and campaigner against the Costa Brava dump. On Wednesday, Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos acknowledged the
problem posed by the increasing numbers of birds at the refuse tip. "Today
we face an emergency... we recognize that there is a danger posed to civil
aviation movement by the birds," he said after a meeting with Prime
Minister Saad Hariri. The first measure to counter
the threat began Thursday, and Fenianos announced
installing additional devices emitting high-pitched frequencies and bird of
prey calls to scare away the nuisance birds. Costa Brava was opened in March
last year as one of three "temporary" tips intended to provide an
interim solution after the closure of the main landfill receiving waste from Beirut. The dumps were
eventually intended to have waste processing facilities, but that has not happened.As a result, garbage has piled up in Costa Brava, on the coastline close to the airport
runways, reaching nine metres (30 feet) in some places. Environmentalists have
for months warned that the dump is attracting rodents and increasing numbers of
birds. In August, the Lebanese pilots' union warned of the possibility of the
birds being sucked into airplane engines. Speaking from outside the dump on
Thursday, Ahmadiya confirmed that the site was closed
to new refuse. "The decision is only temporary." he said. "It
will be up to the judge whether to extend or rescind it." A permanent
solution for the waste produced by Beirut
and its surroundings has yet to be found, months after the Naameh
landfill was shuttered and garbage began piling up on the capital's streets.
The issue is one of many outstanding challenges for Lebanon's new government, which was
formed on December 18 after two years of political deadlock.
Report: Dahiyeh Beefs Up Security over Terror Plots
Naharnet/January 12/17/Security measures in Beirut's southern suburbs
have been upped recently, and Iranian security forces were called for
assistance deploying at the entrances leading to Hizbullah's
stronghold of Dahiyeh, media reports said Thursday.
“Days ago, security measures have been intensified in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh,” unnamed Lebanese sources had said. The
preparedness was associated with a warning that a plot to
carry out terrorist acts inside the suburbs are likely. However, the
sources did not give additional details on the nature of the process or the
parties that intend to implement it, according to reports. In an exceptional
move, Iranian security members have established checkpoints at the entrances of
Dahiyeh and conducted thorough inspection of vehicles
entering the area, including those that belong to Hizbullah,
according to reports.
Hizbullah Says President Trip to SA Part of Lebanon's Duties
Naharnet/January 12/17/Head of Hizbullah's
Political Bureau Sayyed Ibrahim Amin
Sayyed said on Thursday that President Michel Aoun's trip to Saudi Arabia
is a “regular” step as part of Lebanon's
duties since the country is in the Arab States League, media reports said
Thursday. “President of the Republic's visit to Saudi
Arabia is a normal and regular procedure because Lebanon is within the Arab States' League,” said
Sayyed from Tehran,
adding “I believe the President will have similar visits to other Arab and non
Arab countries.”
Aoun took his first foreign trip as President on
Monday where he traveled on head of a delegation to SA and met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz. On the Saudi aid package to provide
military assisstance for the Lebanese army, he said:
“We have noticed some positions as for equipping the army with weapons from Saudi Arabia.
There is an understanding with France
in that regard. Saudi Arabia
has backed down for political reasons.”Sayyed
stressed the need for providing the army with weapons to counter extremist
groups whether through assistance from Saudi Arabia or other states. Saudi Arabia halted a $3 billion arms deal with Lebanon in February and banned Saudis and other
Gulf nationals from traveling there after what the Saudis described as Beirut's failure to condemn attacks on Saudi missions in Iran by
demonstrators angered by the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
Weeks later, Lebanon
abstained from an Arab League vote branding Hizbullah
a terrorist organization. Hizbullah is fighting
alongside President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria, while Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries support the rebels. Aoun said he discussed
the arms deal with Saudi officials, without elaborating. Reports have also said
that "the decision about the return of the tourists has been taken."
Reports added that the Saudi king has promised to review the restoration of the
aid package to the Lebanese army but without giving a timetable.
Hariri receives Mufti Chaar,
Minister Bou Assi
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - Prime Minister, Saad Hariri
received on Thursday night at the Grand Serail, the
Mufti of Tripoli and the north, Cheikh Malek Chaar. Discussions focused
on the situation in Tripoli and northern Lebanon. Hariri
then met with the Minister of Social Affairs, Pierre Bou
Assi with talks featuring high on the ministry's
affairs. Prime Minister also chaired a meeting that focused on the
proliferation of birds over the Costa Brava dump, hampering air traffic around Beirut International
Airport. The meeting was
attended by Ministers of the Environment, Tarek Khatib, Public Works and Transport, Youssef
Fenianos, Chairman of the Development and
Reconstruction Council, Nabil el-Jisr,
Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Fouad Fleifel and the Chairman of Middle East Airlines, Mohammad Hout.
Jumblatt, Ambassador of Sudan hold talks
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - PSP leader, Deputy Walid Jumblatt met on Thursday night at Clemenceau with the
Ambassador of Sudan to Lebanon, Sadiq Ali with talks
featuring high on the current developments in Lebanon. Separately, Jumblatt met with Deputy Executive Secretary for
"ESCWA" Khola Matar.
Discussions touched on the developments in Lebanon and the region.
Riachy confirms Gulf visit served its purpose, without
exaggeration
Thu 12 Jan 2017/NNA - Information Minister, Melhem Riachi, confirmed on Thursday that the Lebanese President's
visit to the KSA and Qatar
has fully served its purpose, without exaggeration. Interviewed by NNA in the
wake of the Lebanese President's official visit to the Gulf, Riachy described the tour as "excellent" on so
many different levels, adding that KSA and Qatar
officials have revealed zealous concern on Lebanon's military, security, and
economic dossiers. "We sensed full responsiveness and assertion on having
gulf tourists return to Lebanon
in an attempt to give Lebanon
back its Arab-Middle Eastern dimension," the Minister added. Riachy reiterated his agreement with Saudi Information
Minister to bolster ties between the Ministries of both countries, especially
in line with altering the tasks of Lebanon's Ministry of Information,
which serves as a portal of communication and dialogue. "Saudis are also
heading in the same direction, and they have expressed insistence to support Lebanon's
Ministry of Information on its way to becoming fully digital," he added.
On the other hand, Riachy denied any existing Saudi
complaints about the way Lebanese media was functioning, with the exception of
the KSA's keenness having personal matters be
respected. "Political criticism should remain political and not turn into
something personal. This will help safeguard bilateral relations between both
countries," he added. "In Qatar,
I held a meeting with the person in charge of Qatar media, whose rank is similar
to that of an Information Minister, the person in charge of Al-Jazeera. We will
maintain contact over issues of mutual interest at the level of media and
communication. Qatar will
help us a lot in this area and this is the future role of Lebanon's
Ministry of Information," the Minister added.
Aoun needs to mend fences with the Gulf
Michael Young/The National/January 12/17
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/aoun-needs-to-mend-fences-with-the-gulf#page2
Michel Aoun, Lebanon’s president, began his
first foreign visit on Monday. It was no coincidence that he flew to Saudi Arabia.
That may sound counter-intuitive, since Mr Aoun,
mainly because of his close alliance with the pro-Iranian Hizbollah,
has long been regarded as hostile to the kingdom. Nor have the Saudis been
enthusiastic about the idea of an Aoun presidency,
regarding him as the candidate of Iran and its allies. However,
such views fail to take into consideration that once Mr Aoun
fulfilled his ambition of being elected, he needed to recentre
his presidency in such a way as to reflect a Lebanese consensus and satisfy Lebanon’s
Sunnis as he had done the Shia. There were also more
prosaic reasons for the president to reconcile with the Saudis, not least that Lebanon cannot afford to alienate the Gulf states.
The relationship between Lebanon
and the Gulf has deteriorated sharply. Early last year, the Saudis announced
that they would suspend $4 billion (Dh14.7bn) in aid to the Lebanese army and
security forces. This followed the refusal of Lebanon’s
foreign minister, Gebran Bassil,
Mr Aoun’s son-in-law, to condemn attacks against
Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran
following the execution by the kingdom of a Shia
cleric. More generally, the Saudis were said to be displeased with the
fact that opposition to Hizbollah in Lebanon was not
strong enough. Some Lebanese were expelled from the Gulf for their alleged ties
to the party, and Gulf countries continued to discourage citizens from
travelling to Lebanon
– a significant blow given the country’s economic difficulties and the fact
that Gulf tourists are a major driver of the tourism sector.
The Saudis were flexing their muscles and reminding the Lebanese that
they could not survive long by falling entirely into the Iranian sphere of
interest. Of particular worry in Beirut was that
the Saudis would withdraw $1bn they had placed with Lebanon’s central bank. While the
economic impact would have been small, by coming on the tails of the Saudi
National Commercial Bank’s decision to close its branches in Lebanon, it
would have been a blow to confidence in the economy.
Confidence is what keeps Lebanon
economically afloat. The country’s financial backbone is its banking sector and
Mr Aoun’s visit to Saudi
Arabia is in part recognition of the importance of the Gulf states
in ensuring that financial stability continues. That said, before Mr Aoun left for Riyadh,
there was little clarity about what he hoped to achieve other than to rebuild
ties.
The reason for this ambiguity is that the Saudis themselves continue to
have doubts about Mr Aoun. Proof of this was that
little was said in Riyadh
about reversing the decision not to finance the army. The president’s decade-long
political relationship with Hizbollah, often directed
against a prime Saudi ally in Lebanon,
Saad Hariri, is not something they will quickly
forget. But the Saudi invitation for Mr Aoun to visit
the kingdom was a way of showing they were keeping an open mind. The
Saudis themselves are also taking a different tack with regard to Mr Hariri,
who has returned as Lebanon’s
prime minister. Mr Aoun’s election was secured when
Mr Hariri ordered his parliamentary bloc to vote for him. Many believe Mr Hariri
imposed his decision on a wary kingdom, a move facilitated by the Saudis’
leaving Mr Hariri in the lurch financially in the past year, amid allegations
they were unhappy with his performance.
The Saudi decision to receive Mr Aoun was
recognition of its willingness to endorse Mr Hariri’s support for the new
president, even if it has yet to resolve the serious difficulties faced by Mr
Hariri’s Saudi Oger contracting company in the
kingdom. But it’s also likely that the decision to deal differently with Mr Hariri,
and no longer make him the focal point of Saudi
Arabia’s Lebanon
policy, eased the new approach to Mr Aoun.
While the kingdom may look differently at Lebanon from a year ago, there are
no certainties and the situation may be reversed. The Saudis will be watching
closely at how Mr Aoun deals with Syria, for example, and whether he
meets president Bashar Al
Assad. It will also be keeping a close eye on Lebanon’s
contacts with Iran, with
Iranian officials visiting Beirut
on a regular basis. Lebanon
will continue to try walking a tightrope in the region, with a wary eye on the Gulf states.
But what the Saudis can see, as can the Lebanese, is that it’s difficult
to veto anyone in regional diplomacy. Isolating Iran
is no more possible than is isolating Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf
states. For most countries, dealing with both sides
of the Saudi-Iranian regional divide is a necessity. The outcome of Mr Aoun’s visit to Saudi Arabia
will reveal if Lebanon’s
delicate balancing act remains viable. By travelling to the kingdom first, the
Lebanese president showed that he thought it was.
Michael Young is a writer and editor in Beirut
On Twitter: @BeirutCalling
Lebanese president rejects use of arms
locally, says intervention in Syria not Lebanon's decision
The Daily /January 12/1`7/BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun
rejected Thursday the use of arms by any group locally, saying that some
Lebanese factions' decision to participate in the conflict in Syria was not
related to the state. Aoun's statements were made in
an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV to be
broadcast on Thursday. The president expressed support to the
"resistance" and not "terrorism," saying he was against
"any arms used locally."Aoun didn't refer
to Hezbollah in his remarks but the issue has been a matter of contention
between Lebanese factions. Rival political leaders have accused Hezbollah of
using its weapons internally against Lebanese citizens and as a tool of
political pressure.
However, Hezbollah and its allies say that the “people, army, and
resistance” formula is the only way to defend the country. Hezbollah publically
admitted in 2013 that it was fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. It is one of the major forces on the
ground in the Syria war,
playing a significant role in Damascus and Aleppo. The party's
rivals have criticized Hezbollah’s deep involvement in the war in Syria, with
Arab League declaring Hezbollah a "terrorist organization" earlier in
2016. The 1989 Taif Accord ended Lebanon's Civil
War provided for the disarmament of all Lebanese militias. Aoun
said in his interview that the "weapons issue was a big part of the Middle East conflict that... was bigger than the Lebanese
state to handle." He urged "friendly" countries to increase the
combat capabilities of the Lebanese Army, in effort to fend off terror threats.
Syria Conflict
Aoun said that the Lebanese government was
decisive in its decision to prevent extremists from entering Lebanon or heading to Syria. "The decision by some
Lebanese groups to take part in the Syrian conflict wasn't the state's
decision." He said that the post of president "compels me not to take
part in any conflict, because [the president] represents all Lebanese."
Saudi aid grants
Aoun told Qatar-based satellite news broadcaster
Al-Jazeera in an interview set to be aired on Thursday that "the Saudi
grant to the Lebanese Army hasn't been resolved yet." The president also
expressed reservations about Iranian aid to the Lebanese Army "in the
meantime." Lebanon’s
relations with Saudi Arabia
and other Arab Gulf
countries deteriorated in February last year when Riyadh
halted a $3 billion grant to buy arms from France for the Lebanese Army, in
addition to another $1 billion grant to strengthen the military and security
forces. The move was in protest at perceived hostile stances against the
kingdom linked to Hezbollah and Iran
at Arab League and Islamic meetings. Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf states also warned their
citizens against traveling to Lebanon
in what appeared to be a punitive measure over the Lebanese government’s
perceived pro-Hezbollah policies.
Ties to flourish
On the plane en route to Beirut, Aoun
expressed relief to reporters over his meetings in the two Gulf countries.
"The direct and indirect results [of the tour] will soon appear and they
will be in favor of the countries and their
people," he added. Aoun arrived in Beirut Thursday following a tour that took him to Saudi Arabia Monday and Qatar
Wednesday. A statement issued by Aoun's press office
said that the president had sent a message to Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani thanking him for his hospitality. "Talks [held
in Doha]
affirmed the [deep] ties between the two brotherly countries, which will [God willing] improve and progress."The
leaders of the two Gulf countries expressed support for Aoun
and Lebanon.
The talks mainly focused on bolstering bilateral ties.
Hezbollah’s Latest Conquest: Lebanon’s
Cabinet
David Daoud/Newsweek/January 12/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/12/david-daoudnewsweek-hezbollahs-latest-conquest-lebanons-cabinet/
http://www.newsweek.com/hezbollahs-latest-conquest-lebanons-cabinet-541487
In late December, Lebanon’s parliament swore in a new cabinet dominated by
Hezbollah and its partners in the pro-Syrian March 8 Alliance. For the Shiite
group, this was a political victory even greater than the selection of its
ally, former general Michel Aoun, for the presidency
two months earlier. Lebanon
is unusual in that its cabinet is by law the country’s executive authority,
more powerful than the president, prime minister or parliament. Holding the
cabinet will tighten Hezbollah’s grip on Beirut,
as its pro-Western opposition in the March 14 Alliance continues to dissolve.
Hezbollah kept Lebanon
without a president for two years. It paralyzed the government until its
adversaries caved and, on Halloween day, Parliament—which elects the
president—voted Aoun into office. However, when the
former general tapped Saad Hariri, the head of the
March 14 Alliance,
as prime minister, Hezbollah feared its hard-fought
gains were at risk. Luckily for the “Party of God,” its March 8 allies
subsequently maneuvered to neutralize the premier’s
influence in cabinet talks in order to select pro-Hezbollah candidates for
those posts. How was this allowed to happen? The short answer is Hariri’s weakness.
Hariri has long been fearful that political paralysis was eroding the Lebanese
republic’s legitimacy. For years, he therefore granted one concession after the
next to Hezbollah and its allies in a desperate bid to keep the group from
eroding the country’s democratic institutions. By contrast, Hezbollah knows
that such an erosion would only serve its goal of
replacing the republic with a theocratic, limited democracy on the Iranian
model.
Throughout 2015, the March 14 Alliance
had lined up behind presidential candidate Samir Geagea of the Christian-dominated Lebanese Forces party,
whom Hezbollah opposed. But Hariri’s desperation to break the presidential
deadlock led him to break ranks with his partners and endorse a third candidate
instead. Hezbollah still wouldn’t budge—it was determined to get Aoun—and Geagea then responded to
Hariri’s betrayal by himself aligning with Hezbollah’s preferred candidate.
Hariri, isolated by his own miscalculation, finally conceded and endorsed the
former general, paving his way to the presidential palace.
In the process, however, Hariri left the March 14 Alliance in shambles. Each of its political
parties was now pursuing its own interests, no longer united by the ideals of
the Cedar Revolution—the non-violent popular protest that ended the 35-year
Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 2005. Only the Kataeb
Party—a center-right Maronite Christian
party—remained committed to March 14. Fast forward to today and Hariri is
alone. At the same time, the March 8 Alliance
put aside its internal differences and presented a relatively united bloc in
cabinet talks, enabling it to force the prime minister into one concession
after the next.
The result saw the cabinet expand from 24 to 30 seats to accommodate
pro-Iranian and Syrian parties. In this enlarged cabinet, the March 8 share
increased from eight to 17 seats, with its hardliners seizing the most
important ministries. Among others, Gebran Bassil, whose pro-Iranian positions precipitated a crisis
between Lebanon and the Gulf States a year ago,
retained his post as foreign minister.
The new justice minister, Salim Jreissati, is a Lebanese judge known as a staunch opponent
of the international tribunal’s investigation of the assassination of former
prime minister Rafic Hariri, Saad’s
father. The new minister also served on the defense
team of a handful of Hezbollah members whom the tribunal accused of murdering
the former premier. The Defense Ministry went to
another close ally of Hezbollah, who in his previous positions has consistently
sided with the organization’s interests.
Some of the Shiite group’s biggest supporters now hold portfolios
controlling the issues most important to Hariri: a pro-Saudi foreign policy
orientation, the investigation of his father’s assassination, and the legitimacy
of Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal remaining outside the state’s authority. By
contrast, his March 14 allies in the Lebanese Forces and his own Future Party,
which now only have 11 cabinet positions, received less important ministries at
Hezbollah’s insistence. The Kataeb Party chose to
remain outside of the government entirely in protest over its pro-Hezbollah
orientation.
The cabinet’s composition will have dire consequences for Lebanon. As the
country’s constitutional executive power, the Cabinet sets government policy
“in all fields” and controls the armed forces. It is given power to propose and
execute laws, regulate “all of the government’s branches, including the civil,
military and security administrations and institutions,” and dissolve parliament
at the president’s request. By a two-thirds majority, it can also propose
amending the constitution, change electoral laws, declare war or a state of
emergency, and decide foreign policy.
On October 31, Aoun gave a pro-Iranian
inaugural address in which he said Lebanon would pursue a foreign
policy independent of the Arab League’s consensus. As Hariri was putting the
final touches on his cabinet in December, Aoun said
its actions would be guided by that speech, a fact soon made apparent in the
cabinet’s policy statement—a constitutionally required guiding document for the
agenda it intends to pursue.
The statement promised a new national defense
strategy which, if guided by Aoun’s positions from
before becoming president, could include Hezbollah in a central role. An
indication that this might be the case is the statement’s inclusion of a
“Resistance Clause,” which vowed that the state would “spare no effort or
resistance in the struggle against the Israeli enemy.” But then, in a
concession legitimizing Hezbollah and its armed activities, it affirmed the
right of “citizens” – as opposed to even the state itself—“to resist the
Israeli occupation, respond to its aggressions, and return the occupied lands.”
The occupied lands which the statement is referring to are the Lebanese
portions of Ghajar, the hills of Kfarchouba,
and the Shebaa Farms. However, the U.N. considers the
Farms, a tiny plot of land, to be Syrian and not part of Lebanon. A more
subtle concession to Hezbollah was the promise of reforming the parliamentary
election law. Hezbollah and its allies have been championing a proportional
representation law that would grant them more than half of the country’s 128
parliamentary seats. By controlling Parliament, the so-called Party of God
could use the legislative body to legalize its existence as a military force
and its retention of a vast weapons arsenal outside of the state’s
authority—helping it to pave the way for the election of another president
sympathetic to the group when Aoun’s term expires. As
the Lebanese government recovers from its paralysis, Hezbollah is seizing the
state’s institutions one by one. First it cemented the presidency, and then the
cabinet—now its eyes are set on Parliament. At the same time, the March 14
Alliance’s constituent parties continue to accede to Hezbollah’s demands,
speeding along the alliance’s de facto dissolution, and with it any credible
opposition to the group shaping the country on its own terms. Slowly but
surely, the Party of God is clearing its own path towards full control of Lebanon’s
government.
*David Daoud is an Arabic-Language research
analyst at the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense
of Democracies with a focus on Lebanon
and Hezbollah.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 12-13/17
Suicide Bomber Kills at
Least Eight in Damascus
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
12/17/A suicide bomber killed at least eight people in Damascus on Thursday,
said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. The
Britain-based Observatory said initial reports indicated that "eight
people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted Kafr
Sousa" in the southwest of the capital.
France: Syria
talks must convene quickly under UN
Reuters, Paris Thursday, 12 January 2017/France
said on Thursday Syrian peace talks should resume as quickly as possible under
the auspices of the United Nations and appeared to question plans for
Russian-backed discussions on the subject in Kazakhstan. Syria's government and rebel forces started a
ceasefire on Dec. 30 as a first step towards face-to face negotiations, backed
by Turkey and Russia, and due
to take place in the Kazakh capital Astana. The date and its participants
remain unclear. The United Nations had previously led talks in Geneva,
but after several fruitless rounds and an escalation of violence in the
six-year civil war that has benefited Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and his backers, Moscow and Ankara agreed in December
to launch new peace efforts. “Negotiations have to resume as quickly as
possible,” President Francois Hollande told the
foreign diplomatic corps in a New Year address. “They have to be led under the
auspices of the United Nations within the framework agreed in Geneva in 2012.” Moscow has said the proposed Astana talks
would complement the United Nations. However, European diplomats and opposition
sources have suggested only some armed groups will be invited with political
opposition representation limited despite discussions on aspects such as the
constitution. Hollande, a key backer of the Syrian
opposition, said there was no need to go over the framework for talks. “The
parameters have been set so what needs to be done is to invite the concerned
parties, all the parties, except fundamentalist and extremist groups, and to
act in the Geneva
framework,” Hollande said. UN Special Envoy for Syria
Staffan de Mistura has said
he wants to convene a new round of talks during February.
Syria regime kills six civilians in Aleppo
strikes
AFP, Beirut Thursday, 12 January 2017/Syrian government air strikes killed at
least six civilians, including four children, in Aleppo province on Thursday,
despite a fragile two-week-old truce, a monitor said. In neighboring
Idlib province, at least 22 extremists were killed in
air strikes over the past 24 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said. Some were carried out by government aircraft, others by aircraft of the
US-led coalition, the Britain-based monitoring group said. The civilians were
killed early on Thursday when a government air strike hit a house in the village of Babka in the west of Aleppo province. It said the death toll could
rise because a number of the wounded were in serious condition. Most of the
dead in the Idlib strikes were fighters of the former
Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham. Two of the group’s
commanders were among 16 fighters killed in a coalition strike on their convoy
on Wednesday, the Observatory said. More than 310,000 people have been killed
in Syria
since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Russia, Turkey agree to coordinate strikes
AFP, Moscow Thursday, 12 January 2017/Russia and Turkey have signed an
agreement spelling out mechanisms to “coordinate” their air forces in Syria
when conducting strikes “on terrorist targets,” the Russian defense
ministry said Thursday. Delegations from the two countries, which last month
brokered a ceasefire in war-torn Syria,
met in Moscow
and signed a document that “defines the mechanisms to coordinate and cooperate”
on strikes as well as to prevent dangerous incidents in Syrian airspace, the
ministry said.
US
sanctions Syrian officials for chemical weapons attacks
Reuters, Washington Thursday, 12 January 2017/The United States on Thursday
blacklisted 18 senior Syrian officials it said were connected to the country’s
weapons of mass destruction program, after an international investigation found
Syrian government forces were responsible for chlorine gas attacks against
civilians. The action marked the first time the United States has sanctioned Syrian
military officials for the government’s use of chemical weapons, according to a
Treasury Department statement. A joint inquiry by the United Nations and the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that Syrian
government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks and that
Islamic State militants had used mustard gas, according to reports seen by
Reuters in August and October. Chlorine’s use as a weapon is banned under the
Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled,
chlorine gas turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning
lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has denied its forces have
used chemical weapons. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Syrian
regime’s use of chemical weapons,” Ned Price, a White House National Security
Council spokesman, said in a statement. “The Assad regime’s barbaric continued
attacks demonstrate its willingness to defy basic standards of human decency,
its international obligations, and longstanding global norms.” Following the
reports of the international inquiry, Britain and France circulated a draft
resolution to the UN Security Council in December that would ban the sale or
supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and blacklist 11 Syrian military
commanders and officials over chemical weapons attacks during the nearly
six-year war. A vote on the draft resolution has not yet been set, but diplomats
said Syrian ally Russia,
one of five council veto powers, has made clear it opposed the measures. Ten of
the individuals sanctioned by the United States on Thursday are
listed for designation in the draft resolution, which - if adopted - would
subject them to a global travel ban and asset freeze. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in November
that there was “just not enough material proof to do anything” and described
the French and British bid to impose UN sanctions as a “misplaced effort.” Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in
2013 under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington. The Security
Council backed that deal with a resolution that said in the event of
non-compliance, “including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any
use of chemical weapons by anyone” in Syria, it would impose measures
that could include sanctions.
Astana: Mysterious negotiations as
participants remain anonymous
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 13 January
2017/At a time when preparations are under way for the
Astana talks under the auspices of Russia
and Turkey which is expected
to start on January 23rd. Moscow
announced that a direct dialogue between the disputed parties can be launched
in the arbitration. Nevertheless, the identity of the participants from the
Syrian opposition is still ambiguous, especially after the disruption of the
truce in Syria
because of the regime violations. Furthermore, the factions that signed the
cease fire in Ankara
on December 30th stated that they may boycott the diplomatic conference
highlighting that the truce will end if the regime continues the
transgressions. In this context, sources in Moscow disclosed that the Russian Foreign
office intend to invite the opposition for a meeting later this month. In turn,
the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stressed that
the UN did not receive an invitation to participate in the talks, emphasizing
at the same time their support for the negotiations as they consider it a
starting point for the Geneva
talks. So far, the agenda of this conference will focus on security
understandings clauses, and some peaceful political principles. The only sure
thing about the Astana conference is that it is going to take place in the 23
of this month, the rest is still a mystery.
Trump’s CIA nominee: Iran fueling tensions in the Middle East
Reuters, Washington Thursday, 12 January 2017/US President-elect Donald Trump’s
nominee to head the CIA portrayed multiple challenges facing the United States
on Thursday, from an aggressive Russia to a “disruptive” Iran to a China that
he said is creating “real tensions.”He called Iran an “emboldened, disruptive player in the
Middle East, fueling tensions” with allies of the United States.
Diverging from Trump’s stated aim of seeking closer ties with Russia, Pompeo said that Russia is “asserting itself aggressively”
by invading and occupying Ukraine, threatening Europe, and “doing nearly
nothing” to destroy ISIS. Mike Pompeo, a Republican
member of the House of Representatives and a former US Army officer, was
speaking at the start of his confirmation hearing in the US Senate.
In his prepared opening statement, Pompeo noted that
the CIA does not make policy on any country, adding, “it
is a policy decision as to what to do with Russia, but it will be essential
that the Agency provide policymakers with accurate intelligence and clear-eyed
analysis of Russian activities.”His testimony came at
a time when Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, has openly feuded
with US intelligence agencies. For weeks, the president-elect questioned the
intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia used hacking and other
tactics to try to tilt the 2016 presidential election in his favor. Trump said on Wednesday that Russia was behind the hacking but that other countries
were hacking the United
States as well. This week, Trump furiously
denounced intelligence officials for what he said were leaks to the media by
intelligence agencies of a dossier that makes unverified, salacious allegations
about his contacts in Russia.
Pompeo, a conservative lawmaker from Kansas who is on the House Intelligence Committee, listed
challenges facing the United States,
saying “this is the most complicated threat environment the United States
has faced in recent memory.”This included what he
called a “resilient” ISIS and the fallout from Syria’s long civil war. Pompeo also included North Korea, which he said had
“dangerously accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.” He
said China was creating
“real tensions” with its activities in the South China Sea
and in cyberspace as it flexed its muscles and expanded its military and
economic reach.
New U.N. Chief Heads Crunch Cyprus Talks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
12/17/U.N. chief Antonio Guterres led a crunch
conference Thursday aimed at ending decades of division in Cyprus, billed
as the "very last chance" to solve one of the world's longest-running
political crises. Guterres was undertaking his first
foreign trip as the United Nations' new secretary general in a bid to achieve a
breakthrough at a Geneva summit that involves
rival Cypriot sides as well as Greece,
Turkey and former colonial
power Britain.
The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish
troops invaded in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece.
Thursday's multi-party talks follow three days of negotiations between Greek
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades
and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci aiming to
forge a united, two-zone federation. The intra-Cypriot talks have focused on
thorny domestic issues such as territory and what a future, unified government
might look like. U.N. Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide has called this week "the moment of truth"
and insisted that a deal to solve the long-standing division was within reach.
Guarantor powers
Guterres, in office since January 1, was
hosting top diplomats from Cyprus's
so-called "guarantor powers", including British Foreign Secretary
Boris Johnson, and his counterparts Nikos Kotzias of Greece and Turkey's Mevlut
Cavusoglu. Under a 1959 treaty, those nations were
allowed to intervene to defend the island's sovereign integrity, which Ankara used to justify
its invasion. Any peace deal will likely include significant changes to or even
the elimination of the guarantor power arrangement. Greece
has called it out of date and Britain
has said it was happy to give it up if Cypriots asked, but Turkey on
Thursday insisted that some form of the system needed to be preserved.
"Taking into consideration the current situation in our region,
continuation of the Security and Guarantees system... is a necessity," Cavusoglu told the closed-door conference, according to a
speech released from his office. Britain
also retains military bases in Cyprus
that are sovereign British territory but has offered to give up nearly half of
its land as part of a final settlement. The estimated 30,000 Turkish troops
deployed on the island remain a deeply divisive issue, with Anastasiades
wanting them to leave the island but Akinci determined
to keep a military presence. U.N. peacekeepers also safeguard a buffer zone
between the two sides.
'Very last chance'
In a crucial step, Anastasiades
and Akinci late Wednesday exchanged maps detailing
their visions of how internal boundaries should be redrawn. Turkish Cypriot
leaders have agreed in principle to return some of the land they have
controlled since the failed 1974 coup.
Greek Cypriot government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides
said that the presented map was "within the framework" agreed during
previous negotiations that foresees the Turkish
Cypriot zone amounting to a maximum of 29.2 percent of the island. "We
consider it as a particularly positive development," Christodoulides
said while noting that disputes remain and a final map has not been agreed. On
Tuesday the two sides tackled the island's relations with the European Union,
with the U.N. seeking to create a unified nation that would be a full EU
member. While Cyprus
has been an EU member state since 2004, Anastasiades'
internationally recognized government exercises no control over the northern
Turkish-ruled part of the island, and EU legislation is suspended there until a
settlement is reached. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, in Geneva
as an observer to the conference, said before arriving that the island's future
was hanging in the balance. "I really think that, without overdramatising what is happening in Geneva, this is the very last chance to see
(a solution for) the island being imposed in a normal way," he said.
Iranian Activists, Academics Apologize
For Iran's Syria Policy
MEMRI/January 12/17/On December 31, 2016, a group of 299 Iranian students,
political activists, and journalists, both inside and outside Iran, issued a communique apologizing to the Syrian people for the Iranian
regime’s role in the massacres perpetrated against them and stressing
condemnation and rejection of its part in the fight against the Syrian people.
The Iranian people, it said, had no part in this. It should be noted that most
of the signatories are academics and activists living in Iran. One of
the most well-known signatories is dissident Ahmad Batebi,
in the U.S.
since 2008. Batebi fled Iran in 2005 after being
imprisoned and sentenced to death after a photo of him in the 1999 student
demonstrations holding aloft the bloody shirt of a fellow student was published
on the cover of The Economist magazine.[1] Other
notable signatories are former Iranian deputy foreign minister and diplomat
Professor Abbas Maleki;
journalist and political activist Behzad Mehrani, who has fled Iran; and poet and writer Mohammad
Reza Shafaei. MEMRI has on file the names of all 299
signatories.
Following is the communique:
"In the name of the God of the soul and the mind, "We, the
signatories named below, are shamed by the wounds that have been inflicted upon
the Syrian people for the past several years. It has been several years now
that governments, in both the East and the West, that thirst for expansion have
been attacking the oppressed Syrian people. We consider ourselves duty-bound to
renounce any part played by our government in this war that was forced upon the
Syrian people. The Iranian people does not have, and
has never had, any part in determining the Iranian government's Syria
policy. "The signatories below harshly condemn the official positions of
the Iranian government on Syria,
because it is playing a part in this great global evil, and we seek to
apologize vocally to the Syrian people that is suffering and in pain."[2]
[1] Nytimes.com, July 13, 2008.
[2] Tribunezamaneh.com, December 31, 2016.
Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen
Appear to Have Been Made in Iran
The New York Times/published on January 10/17
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/world/middleeast/yemen-iran-weapons-houthis.html?_r=0
Photographs recently released by the Australian government show that
light anti-armor weapons seized from a smuggling
vessel near Yemen’s coast appear to have been manufactured in Iran, further
suggesting that Tehran has had a hand in a high-seas gunrunning operation to
the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The weapons, a selection of at
least nine rocket-propelled grenade launchers, were among thousands of weapons
seized by an Australian warship, the Darwin,
in February from an Iranian dhow that was sailing under the name Samer. The photographs of the weapons, a sample of the much
larger quantity of arms, were obtained by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based
international research center, after a long open-records dispute with the
Australian military.
Iran has been repeatedly accused of providing arms helping to fuel one
side of the war in Yemen, in which rebels from the country’s north, known as
the Houthis, ousted the government from the capital,
Sana, in 2014. The United States
and other Western governments have provided vast quantities of weapons, and
other forms of military support, to the embattled government and its allies in
a coalition led by Saudi
Arabia, contributing to violence that the
United Nations said last year had caused more than 10,000 civilian casualties.
Matthew Schroeder, an analyst for the survey, said a study of the
weapons’ characteristics and factory markings had showed that they match
Iranian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers previously documented in Iraq in 2008 and 2015,
and in Ivory Coast
in 2014 and 2015. That finding follows a report late last year by Conflict
Armament Research, a private arms consultancy, that said the available evidence
pointed to an apparent “weapon pipeline, extending from Iran to Somalia and
Yemen, which involves the transfer, by dhow, of significant quantities of
Iranian-manufactured weapons and weapons that plausibly derive from Iranian
stockpiles.”
For years, Iran
has been under a series of international sanctions prohibiting it from
exporting arms. The United States
has frequently claimed that Tehran has violated
the sanctions in support of proxy forces in many conflicts, including in Iraq, Syria,
Yemen
and the Palestinian territories. The grenade launchers that were the subject of
Mr. Schroeder’s analysis are the central component of a reusable weapon system
commonly called RPG-7s.
They were among 81 launchers seized on the Samer
by Australian sailors, part of a hidden cargo that included 1,968 Kalashnikov
assault rifles, 49 PK machine guns, 41 spare machine-gun barrels and 20
60-millimeter mortar tubes — enough weapons to arm a potent ground force.
Although the evidence was not conclusive, Mr. Schroeder said, “the seizure appears to be yet another example of Iranian
weapons being shipped abroad despite longstanding U.N. restrictions on arms
transfers from Iran.”
With Iran
observing three days of mourning following the death of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, it was not possible to contact the
government for comment. But on previous occasions, Iran has refused to respond to
inquiries about the smuggling.
The Samer episode was one of four interdictions
of Iranian dhows from September 2015 through March 2016 that yielded, in total,
more than 80 antitank guided missiles and 5,000 Kalashnikov rifles as well as
sniper rifles, machine guns and almost 300 RPG launchers, according to data
provided by the United States Navy.
In 2013, the Navy stopped another dhow off the Yemeni coast and found it
to be carrying shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles and launchers, rifle and
machine-gun cartridges, C4 plastic explosives, night-vision equipment and other
military items.
In an interview in Bahrain,
Vice Adm. Kevin M. Donegan, the commander of the
Navy’s Fifth Fleet, suggested that these seizures were part of a larger effort
by Iran
to move weapons to the Houthis.
“Absolutely it’s not everything,” he said of the four seizures in 2015 and
2016. “These are the ones that I know of because we were able to interdict
them.”
Admiral Donegan noted, however, that the
captains operating the vessels are typically “out-of-work fishermen, smugglers;
they’re not necessarily working for the government” of Iran. He added
that the evidence of Iran’s
hand in the shipments, while strong, was not ironclad.
This echoed the report by Conflict Armament Research, which said that
antitank weapons apparently seized in Yemen have matched lot numbers for
the same class of weapons seized on Iranian dhows but stopped short of claiming
to have clear proof of an Iranian government hand. The consultancy also
documented weapons manufactured by China,
Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and perhaps in North Korea
in seizures from the dhows.
The consultancy also did not suggest that the evidence indicated a direct
handoff of weapons from the dhows to Houthi forces.
Rather, it said, the weapons appear to be offloaded in Somalia and transferred to smaller vessels for
smuggling into southern Yemen.
Weapons from Iranian dhows would not be alone in reaching the conflict,
which has been fueled in part by extensive arms
transfers by outside governments.
Western governments, including those of the United
States, Britain
and Canada,
have provided billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment, as
well as intelligence and logistics support, to the Saudi-led coalition, which
has been waging an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis.
Among the American-provided weapons have been GBU-series guided bombs and
cluster munitions, both of which have been linked by human rights groups and
journalists to attacks on Yemeni factories and civilian deaths.
Thomas Erdbrink contributed reporting.
Iran Regime Is Seeking Bloodshed and Destruction
in Syria
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017/ Syrian revolutionary forces’ Press Secretary in
Damascus ‘Yusuf Bustani’ says in his interview with
Al-Arabiya TV that the Iranian regime is seeking
bloodshed, destruction and forced displacement of people in Barda
Gorge in Damascus suburb.Yusuf Bustani:
People in towns and villages of Barda Gorge are
subject to hysteric bombing and shelling with various weapons. Militias backed
by Assad and the Iranian regime prevent injured people to leave the area. People
have been targeted by Snipers in the past couple of days with some of them
being killed and wounded. What the Iranian regime and Assad backed groups offer
is not a ceasefire, but a forced displacement of residents and occupation of
these areas. Iranian regime seeks nothing but bloodshed, destruction,
domination and forced evacuation of the residents of these areas. They intend
to fully occupy this area. Currently, there’s a drinking water crisis in Damascus. The Russian
side tries to save the ceasefire, since the Syrian fighters had said that if
the military operation in Barda Gorge continues, or
any change in its demography takes place, they would completely abolish the
agreement and pull out of the peace talks. We have asked the UN and Russians to
intervene. The Russian delegation has twice attempted to enter Barda Gorge, so far without success. Iranian regime’s
hirelings, Hezbollah militias and Assad’s Republican Guards have failed to move
even one step forward. We are ready for a ceasefire and reconstruction of the
water supply facilities but to surrender and going back to Assad is not what we
fight for.
Iran: 21 Hangings in 2017 and 26 Prisoner Facing Imminent
Execution
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017/ On January 11, the inhumane
mullahs’ regime executed a prisoner in Urmia Prison,
northwest Iran.
The day before another prisoner was sent to the gallows in Maraghe
Prison, northwest Iran.
On January 8, two other prisoners were hanged in public on charges of theft in
the town of Sarpol Zahab in Kermanshah
Province, western Iran. Youths
are being hanged in public at a time when senior regime officials, their family
members and close friends are involved in the largest embezzlement cases of Iran’s history.
One example amounted to nearly $3 billion, and those involved in such thefts
and plundering of the Iranian people’s God-given riches remain safe and sound
from any accountability. At least 21 executions have been registered from
January 1 to this day. In the meantime during the past few days 22 prisoners in
Central and Gohardasht prisons of Karaj have been transferred to solitary
confinement in preparation for their executions. Four inmates in Maraghe Prison are scheduled to be executed shortly. The
Iranian Resistance calls for urgent action by international human rights
organizations to save the lives of these 26 prisoners. The Iranian Resistance
calls on all people across Iran,
especially the brave youth, to protest barbaric executions and rise to the
support of the families of those executed, families of prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/January 11, 2017
Two Young Women Arrested in Iran for
Riding Motorcycle
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017/The Iranian regime has arrested two young women
for the ‘crime’ of riding a motorbike in Dezful,
southern Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on January 12. “In
absence of State Security Forces, two ‘norm breaking girls’ exploited the
opportunity in Boostan Jangali
(a natural park) and committed an action against revolutionary norms and values
by riding a motorcycle,” stated Colonel Ali Elhami,
the commander of Dezful’s State Security Forces on
Wednesday, January 11.
Elhami described the motor biking of the two women
and dissemination of their photos in cyber space as an obscene and despicable
act and said: “This manifested the utmost denunciation of religious norms by
the two girls and caused serious torment and anxiety among city officials.”“The State Security Forces carried out an
extensive investigation and finally managed to find, arrest, and deliver them
to judiciary officials,” Elhami added. Shahin Gobadi, a member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran NCRI),
said: “Misogyny and suppression of women as second class citizens have been a cornerstone
of the clerical regime ruling Iran since its inception. But as the regime is
getting weaker and dissent by the population, in particular among the youth, is
on the rise, the regime has stepped up its suppression in all aspects,
including suppression of women.” “The fact that the notion of ‘moderation’ and
‘reform’ is a total myth under Hassan Rouhani is
becoming more evident on a daily basis,” Gobadi
added.
On January 4, a Judiciary official announced that six people were arrested in
Tabriz (northwest Iran) in connection with modeling and cyberspace ‘crimes’.The state-run news agency, Fars, affiliated to the
Revolutionary Guards, reported on December 27, 2016 that 25 people including an
actor and an author of satirical programs were arrested in Tehran after the
police and security forces raided a party.
The Terrorist Quds
Force Official Was Introduced as the New Iran Regime's Ambassador in Iraq
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017/On Wednesday 11 January, Iran regime announced Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, adviser of Qassem Soleimani, the commander
of the terrorist Qods Force as the new ambassador of
the Iranian regime in Iraq.
The state run website Asr-e
Iran wrote: "The
Iranian regime's embassy in Baghdad,
is one of the strategic positions abroad and is considered and its ambassador
is of the utmost importance." Asr-e
Iran added, "Iran's
incumbent ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danaifar’s
six-year mission will end soon and he will be replaced by Masjedi.
Iran Regime's Factional Feuding Escalates During Rafsanjani's Funeral
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017/The burial ceremony of Hashemi Rafsanjani became a prelude for the divide and
factional feuding among Iran
regime different bands. Some state-run media put finger on issues like Khamenei performing prayer and requiem for the deceased
(Rafsanjani) during which he removed phrases of good deeds attributed to the
deceased substituting them with phrases used to ask forgiveness for him. In his
condolence message issued on the occasion of Rafsanjani’s
death, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei,
spoke of his differences and disagreements with him, especially in recent
years. Khamenei, in his message, used a lower ranking
epithet of “Hojatoleslam”, contrary to what is known,
and refused to use the higher rank title of “Ayatollah” to refer to Rafsanjani.
Changing the phrases of requiem and prayers by Khamenei
during Rafsanjani’s burial and referring to him in
his message contemptuously as “Sheikh Ali Akbar” and “Hojatoleslam”
were extensively reflected by some media and sources affiliated to Rafsanjani-Rouhani faction.
Despite the regime's efforts to display the so-called unity and cohesion during
Rafsanjani’s funeral, and despite government’s
planned censorship of television and radio, some peripheral issues surrounding
the ceremony and conflicts among the ruling factions were released whether unwantedly via direct TV broadcast or knowingly through the
internet and social networking. During the funeral ceremony, when the
participants saw the head of the regime’s Radio and Television (IRIB,
affiliated to Khamenei’s band) on his route, they
chanted the slogan “Our IRIB is our shame, our shame.” Moreover, while Khamenei’s band chanted the slogan “All these people (army)
have come for the love of Rahbar (i.e. Leader meaning
Khamenei),” supporters of
Rafsanjani chanted the slogan “All these people have come for the love of Akbar
(i.e. Rafsanjani).”Reports indicate that a number of people who chanted slogans
against the regime were arrested by the security forces. Earlier, Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s son, did not allow the head of the regime’s
IRIB to go under Rafsanjani’s coffin and hold it up,
as close people usually do during the funeral before placing the coffin into
the grave, and rejected him.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 12-13/17
How Team Trump
should handle the failing Iran deal
Benny Avni/New York Times/January 11/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/12/benny-avninew-york-times-how-team-trump-should-handle-the-failing-iran-deal/
Wasn’t President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal — what he considers his top
foreign-policy achievement — supposed to mellow the mullahs?
If so, it’s failing. Badly. As Washington’s
transition to President Trump fast approaches, Iran is acting increasingly
aggressive.
Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson was right
when he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that under Obama, America
was all too willing “to ignore violations of international accords, as we have
done with Iran.”
Take Tehran’s
habit of producing more plutonium than the deal allows. We’ve already learned
that the Obama administration helped Iran avoid this violation by simply buying
— in some cases, with bags of cash — the excess heavy water that Iran was
overproducing.
US
officials offered justifications for their actions, of course. For example,
they argued, by getting heavy water out of Iran, we’d be slowing its path to a
bomb. And that’s worth the cost of bribing the mullahs a little, no?
Except there’s more than monetary bribery involved.
This week the Associated Press reported that in addition to some $8.6 million
that the United States paid Iran to ship out its excess heavy water, we also
gave Iran
other compensation — in the form of 116 metric tons of raw uranium.
Now, it’s true that under the nuclear deal Iran is allowed to possess raw
uranium, which can be used for peaceful energy production. But if further
enriched, it can be used to make bombs. In this case, the raw uranium we gave Iran, once
enriched, could make up to 10 nuclear bombs.
And as former UN nuclear inspector Olli Heinonen
reports, Iran
is acquiring raw uranium from other sources as well. Which,
as Heinonen says, “suggests [Iran] may be stockpiling uranium to
reach nuclear breakout before the deal’s initial limitations expire.”
So what happens if America
under President Trump decides to tear up the deal? Now, thanks to Obama’s help,
if the mullahs make the likely decision to resume their mad dash to producing
the bomb, they’ll have all the raw material they need.
It almost sounds like we’d be foolish to break the deal, because that would ensure
Iran’s
fast-track path to a nuke. Obama’s insurance against his deal being undone was,
in effect, to make the whole situation much more dangerous.
Tillerson said that, if confirmed, he’d order a “full
review” of the Iran
deal. There’ll be “no nuclear enrichment in Iran,
no storing of nuclear materials in Iran.” And we’d “hold [the
Iranians] to that agreement.”
But with all our secret and known deals, it’d seem difficult for President
Trump to undo President Obama’s legacy project.
And there’s another concern: Would Iran risk a military confrontation with us?
After all, Obama & Co. have long argued that the
deal — and the improvement in Iran’s
economy it entails — will strengthen Iranian “moderates” and weaken the
hardliners.
Yet since the deal was struck, Iran
has become more aggressive, sending weapons and fighters to Yemen, Iraq,
Lebanon, Syria and the
rest of the region increasingly destabilized by Iranian terror proxies. This
week, a new UN report documented Iranian weapons transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis
in Yemen
and other nefarious players, in violation of a UN Security Council ban on such
Iranian exports.
Worse: Iranian boats this week got dangerously close to an American destroyer,
the USS Mahan, in the Strait of Hormuz. The
Mahan was forced to fire warning shots, risking a major confrontation in a busy
commercial naval passage.
Plus, this week Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died. Iran watchers tell me that’s
good news for Khamenei’s allies, the Revolutionary
Guard, which is now set to further dominate Iran’s politics.
The Guard already controls much of Iran’s
economy and backs an extremely hard line against America while advancing the
clandestine nuclear program.
So what should the incoming administration do?
Tillerson indicated that his preference would be to
negotiate a better deal. One way to do that is to designate the Revolutionary
Guard as a terror organization.
Another powerful signal we could send: Recommit to ridding Persia of the clerical
regime that has wreaked havoc on the country and its neighbors.
By doing so, we’d put it on notice: Make the wrong move, and you risk
confrontation with the world’s foremost superpower. At least Washington will no longer bend over backward
to help you break the rules.
http://nypost.com/2017/01/11/how-team-trump-should-handle-the-failing-iran-deal/
A Trump Administration's Effective Iran
Policy Should Have an Eye to the Mullahs' Weakening Grip
NCRI/Thursday, 12 January 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/12/ncri-a-trump-administrations-effective-iran-policy-should-have-an-eye-to-the-mullahs-weakening-grip/
On January 11, IJR published an article by Soona Samsami the representative in the United States for the
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) the following is the full text.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the Iranian judiciary had granted
temporary release to Golrokh Ebrahimi.
A political prisoner, Ebrahimi made international
headlines after she was brought up on charges stemming from the “dissident”
sentiments expressed in an unpublished, fictional short story found in her home
during a police raid. Amnesty International described the charges as
“ludicrous,” explaining that she was “effectively being punished for using her
imagination.”
Over the past two months, her case attracted more attention after her husband, Arash Sadeghi, launched a hunger
strike. He had been imprisoned ahead of her on vague national security charges
stemming from his peaceful human rights activism. Ebrahimi’s
release on Tuesday finally prompted Sadeghi to end
his fast that had lasted a staggering 71 days.
Sadeghi’s supporters emphasized that after more than
two months of starvation, even a few hours delay could
have made the difference between life and death. Support for his protest became
a top trending topic on Twitter, even though the social network is banned in Iran as part of
the theocratic regime’s strict control over social sentiment and the flow of
information.
The widespread use of Twitter is one more sign that that control is eroding,
despite a recent security crackdown whose targets almost certainly included Sadeghi and Ebrahimi. Another
sign is the fact that remarkable numbers of Iranian activists are willing to
risk arrest and violent reprisal by gathering in support of causes like the
release of Golrokh Ebrahimi
and the preservation of her husband’s life.
Clearly Ebrahimi’s release was not motivated by
humanitarian concern. It was more likely taken in response to the outcry from
hundreds of activists who had gathered outside of Evin
Prison on Monday, and more specifically reflected the regime’s fear of another
popular uprising like that of 2009. Four years after the widespread protests to
the election of 2009 were violently suppressed, Hassan Rouhani
became president. His election was heralded by some as a victory for moderation
and a partial vindication of those protests. But critics of the Islamic
Republic rejected this narrative.
Many skeptical Western officials and Iran’s domestic
resistance movements, chiefly the People’s Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), tended to view Rouhani
as an established regime insider and an unlikely agent of change. More than
three years later, the ongoing plight of the Iranian people and of political
prisoners like Sadeghi and Ebrahimi
corroborates their perspective. Sadeghi’s hunger
strike focused attention on his wife’s unjust imprisonment, but the protestors
outside of Evin Prison were certainly responding to
more than just his case. The Iranian people are keenly aware of the regime’s
criminal behavior. Moreover, recent efforts by
prominent activists have resurrected past crimes for which the regime has never
been held accountable.
Last summer, an audio recording from a former regime official brought to light
new information about a 1988 massacre, in which as many as 30,000 political
prisoners were hanged over the course of just a few months. The slaughter,
intended to wipe out the MEK, had been subject to a conspiracy of silence but
has lately become a hot-button issue, discussed almost openly across society in
spite of the threat of government reprisal. The activist community has done its
part to keep attention focused on the topic, even as more recent political
violence and unjust imprisonments are added to the catalogue of crimes. For
instance, while serving a sentence for “enmity against God”, MEK activist Maryam Akbari Monfared
filed a formal complaint demanding an investigation of the execution of her
siblings in the 1988 massacre.
According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, several other
political prisoners have followed her lead. Their actions parallel those the
NCRI itself is taking on the global stage, urging the United Nations to
establish a commission of inquiry into the 1988 massacre. This is but one of
the ways in which the international community can and should bring human rights
issues into the forefront of its dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Signs that the Iranian regime’s grip over the country is weakening are becoming
ever more evident. Acting virtually on their own, domestic activists were able to compel a repressive, but fearful regime to
release one of its political prisoners and prevent the death of another.
In the wake of that victory, it is inspirational to think of what else they
could accomplish if they had the full support of the international community.
Hopefully, the Trump administration will take note. Apart
from the obvious fact that it is also the right thing to do.
Kuwaiti Writer, Ahmad Al-Sarraf : The Recent Passing Of The International Religious
Freedom Act In The U.S. Indicates That The World Has Had Enough Of Muslim
Religious Extremism
MEMRI/January 12/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/12/ahmad-al-sarraf-the-recent-passing-of-the-international-religious-freedom-act-in-the-u-s-indicates-that-the-world-has-had-enough-of-muslim-religious-extremism/
In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas,
journalist Ahmad Al-Sarraf wrote about the Frank Wolf
International Religious Freedom Act recently passed by the U.S. administration.
The act, which was signed into law in December 2016, is an amendment to the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which authorizes the U.S. to
impose sanctions on foreign countries in response to violations of religious
freedom.[1] The amendment broadens the application of
the International Religious Freedom Act by specifically extending protection to
non-theists as well as those who do not profess or practice any particular
religion. [2]
Al-Sarraf wrote that today, after the passing
of the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, Arab and Muslims states
will be more vulnerable to U.S.
sanctions. He added that the passing of the act at this time indicates that the
world has had enough of Muslims’ religious extremism and their involvement in
terrorist attacks, and called to “end all this madness.”
He stated that the law would not have passed had the Muslims countries
understood and applied the principles of human rights, and expressed a belief
that it would help to promote religious freedom worldwide. “To write is to
fulfill a duty and warn [people of dangers], as well as a way to let out steam
and express one’s thoughts. Like hundreds of others, we [journalists] warned
about underestimating [the danger posed by] religious extremism. I have also
demanded many times that school curricula prioritize the teaching of science
over the teaching of the humanities – including religion, which has become a
common theme in the study of humanistic subjects such as languages, literacy,
history and geography.
But nobody took heed [of this demand], either out of ignorance regarding
the gravity of the problem or out of a desire to please the religious forces
that have become [political] parties, such as the [Muslim] Brotherhood, and
others.
“We also wrote that governments are making light of religious extremism,
which will bring disaster upon us and harm our interests and those of the Arabs
and Muslims living in the West. One day the world will lose its patience, and
the developed countries will be forced to limit the entry of Muslims or [start]
monitoring Muslim residents, barring them from certain professions or sending
them back to their countries of origin.
“However, it seems that things progressed even faster than we thought,
[for] the U.S. Congress recently passed the Frank R. Wolf International
Religious Freedom Act, by means of which the U.S. will force the governments of
the world to grant their people freedom of worship, to allow them to build
houses of worship as they please, and to refrain from punishing citizens or
anyone else for converting from one faith to another or expressing [their]
religious beliefs. The law went into effect when U.S. President Barack Obama
signed it into law. The meaning of this law is that we in the Muslim countries,
and especially the Arab countries, will be more vulnerable to persecution by
the U.S.
administration. We have poor commerce and industry and a weak healthcare
system, and if we stubbornly insist on refraining from developing and
improving, we will be exposed to sanctions that we will not be able to endure.
“The new law will no doubt contribute to promoting religious freedom
around the world, strengthening minorities, ending religious extremism and
reducing sectarianism, even if only gradually. It will also liberate Muslims,
Christians, Hindus, Jews and others from oppression, and prevent them from
oppressing others, after religiously-motivated killing, expulsion and
discrimination have spread in many countries that were once free of this kind
of extremism.
“This is a serious matter, and it would be foolish to respond to this law
by saying that we will starve rather than capitulate [to U.S. dictates],
or go back to the desert and live on milk and dates. In fact, we must deeply
contemplate this matter and realize that the world has had enough of us, of our
extremism and of our involvement in most terror operations that take place on a
daily basis. It’s time to end all this madness. This law would not have passed
in this manner, which many regard as blunt interference in the internal affairs
of other countries, had we really understood the essence of human rights in our
countries and applied the principles [of human rights] to everyone, without
discrimination.”[3]
[1] State.gov, January 27, 1998.
[2] Congress.gov, May 16, 2016.
[3] Alqabas.com, December 25, 2016.
https://outlook.live.com/owa/?id=64855&path=/mail/inbox/rp
On the death of Tehran’s besieged fox
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al
Arabiya/January 12/17
Elegies that Iran’s regime is now in danger following the death of its
pillar, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani are not true. The
regime lost its hawk years ago and then it weakened him until he became
powerless and without any real official value. He was isolated and under
surveillance. Most of his men were distanced from governance salons.
They jailed his daughter Faezeh and then lured
his son Mehdi into Iran by telling him if he
voluntarily returned to the country, he will not be held accountable. However, Mehdi was arrested and imprisoned the minute he stepped out
of the plane.
Iran’s
regime has been devouring its foot soldiers since the beginning of the
revolution as those competing over power conspired against the young man, Abolhassan Banisadr, who was close
to Ayatollah Khamenei and who had won the presidency
following the revolution. He escaped from Iran
at night and fled to Paris,
and he still fears for his life.
They then arrested their foreign minister Sadegh
Ghotbzadeh, who was the voice of the revolution, and
he was executed by a firing squad. Many of the revolution’s comrades were
placed under house arrest. Mehdi Karroubi
and Mir Hossein Mousavi
were most recently put under house arrest because they objected to forgery and
abuse of power. All these figures were the regime’s men and not its rivals.
The Iranian opposition expressed doubts over the circumstances leading to
Rafsanjani’s death as, despite aging, he carried out
his activities until the last day before his death. However, even if his death was
natural, what’s certain is that the current command practically killed him
years ago when it eliminated him from the scene.
The Iranian opposition expressed doubts over the circumstances leading to
Rafsanjani’s death as, despite aging, he carried out his
activities until the last day before his death
Crime and punishment
What did he do to be punished? He did not do anything or take a stance
that opposes the regime. His disputes with the command were over the details of
politics and this is not a reason for rivalry as it’s the Supreme Leader who
gets to decide. They feared Rafsanjani because his legitimacy comes after the
supreme guide’s. He was the revolution’s son, one of the bazar’s
richest men and one of the oldest regime leaders. All this made him a target
for rivals competing over power.
Accusations were made against his family members but he was not
personally accused of anything because he is popular in the traditional Iranian
street and he was more connected internationally than any of Tehran’s politicians. He established these
relations after he became president and supported the “moderate” figures of the
regime’s clerics. He also contributed toward bringing Mohammed Khatami to power.
Governance in Iran
is not managed through individuals but is a security and religious regime that
works collectively, just like the communist regime worked in the past. They
operate regardless of posts and hierarchy and this includes the president
himself. Only one person is excluded and that is the Supreme Leader as his word
is final.
Rafsanjani was seen as a fox in politics even before he became president.
He was keen to draw himself as the moderate leader as opposed to the frowning
faces we usually see in the state’s hall today. However, this does not mean he was
moderate as per global standards.
He called on comrades in government to end the western siege on Iran years
before the negotiations over the country’s nuclear program were launched. The
negotiations later led to the same result which he had called for. However, his
rivals did not back down until the economic sanctions became tough and
threatened the regime’s survival.
Tehran’s fox
Tehran’s fox is the one who led the
reconciliation process with Gulf countries following the war of Kuwait’s
liberation. Back then, he was concerned about talking to Saudi Prince Abdullah
bin Abdulaziz – may he rest in peace – who was the
crown prince at the time and the head of the Saudi delegation at the Islamic
summit in Senegal.
He went to him and reconciled with Saudi
Arabia after resolving the problem of the quota of
Iranian pilgrims as Saudi Arabia
had insisted on cutting the number down from 120,000 to 70,000 in harmony with
the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation’s decision and following the
sabotage attempted by Iranian pilgrimage missions in Mecca. Tehran
accepted the decreased quota and the kingdom agreed to allow Iranian pilgrims
to perform the ritual of Baraa, in the area where
they reside, but not in the Great Mosque or near it.
Relations relapsed again when the Iranian intelligence carried out the
explosions of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia
and which killed and injured many Americans. Rafsanjani went to Saudi Arabia
and spent two weeks there trying to amend relations, and the two countries
reconciled. However, relations relapsed for the third time when it was revealed
that Tehran was a party in the 2004 Riyadh explosions and which were carried
out based on directions by al-Qaeda leaders residing inside Iran.
Tehran
did not deny this when it was confronted with evidence and it claimed the
operation happened behind its back. The Saudis, like the rest of the region’s
countries, no longer trusted the promises of Rafsanjani or of any of Iran’s leaders.
Rafsanjani’s death proves to the world Tehran’s inability and
its command’s failure to transition from the era of revolution to the moderate
and modern state.
**This article was first published in Asharq
Al-Awsat on Jan 11, 2017.
French Ambassadors Declare War on Israel
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/January 12/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9754/france-ambassadors-israel
For our ambassadors, terrorism does not exist in
"Palestine".
They just whisper Quixotically about "the need
for security" for Israel.
The obvious conclusion is that they are just trying to hide their own
detestation of Israel
behind the Arab one.
The problem is not Jewish "settlers" in "Palestine". Before 1967, there were no
settlements, then what was the Palestine Liberation
Organization "liberating" when it was created in Cairo in 1964? The answer, as the PLO was the
first to admit, was "Palestine" --
meaning the entire state of Israel,
regarded by many Arabs as just one big settlement. Just look any Palestinian
map.
The problem is that these ambassadors are not as dangerous to Israel as they are to Europe
and the free world, as they keep on succumbing to the demands of Islam.
Do not forget these names: Yves Aubin de La Messuzière; Denis Bauchard;
Philippe Coste; Bertrand Dufourcq;
Christian Graeff; Pierre Hunt; Patrick Leclercq; Stanislas de Laboulaye; Jean-Louis Lucet;
Gabriel Robin; Jacques-Alain de Sédouy and Alfred Siefer-Gaillardin.
These men are retired French ambassadors. They are apparently well
educated, very polite and aristocratic people and they regularly publish op-eds in Le Monde. However, they
publish in Le Monde only to threaten Israel.
Their most recent op-ed in Le Monde on January
9, 2017, was to explain how an international conference on the Middle East, the
one which scheduled for January 15 in Paris,
would be beneficial for the "security" of Israel. Their text is a
discouraging enumeration of traditional clichés of France's hypocritical diplomacy.
Example: "For the Palestinians, nothing is worse than the absence of
a state". In which way is it the worst? As Bret Stephens
wrote this week in the Wall Street Journal:
"Have they experienced greater violations to their culture than
Tibetans? No: Beijing
has conducted a systematic policy of repression for 67 years, whereas
Palestinians are nothing if not vocal in mosques, universities and the media.
Have they been persecuted more harshly than the Rohingya?
Not even close."
Stephens also noted that:
"a telling figure came in a June 2015 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center
for Public Opinion, which found that a majority of Arab residents in East
Jerusalem would rather live as citizens with equal rights in Israel than in a Palestinian state. "
The French ambassadors, however, do not explain. They just add: "The
Proclamation of a Palestinian state will certainly not change anything on the
ground," but they say that they hope this symbolic move will create
"a new dynamic imposing new realities". Hmm.
Now what could these "new realities" be in a Palestinian state in the
middle of a war-torn Middle East?
"Today," reflects Diana B. Greenwald of the Washington Post,
"with Fatah in charge in the West Bank, the main threat comes from
Islamist groups, such as Hamas, and even militant groups associated with Fatah
that have chafed under Abbas's heavy-handed
rule."
This evaluation was backed up by the landslide vote for Hamas, not in Gaza, but at Birzeit
University in the West
Bank.
For these French ambassadors, all Israeli governments, and especially
Netanyahu's, are seemingly driven by a "religious nationalism" which
supposedly makes Israel's prime minister deaf to the national aspirations of
Palestinian people -- the same Palestinian people who pursue a state by killing
Jews with knifes, bus-bombs or vehicular ramming attacks, at the same time
shouting, "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is
Greatest"]. For our ambassadors, terrorism does not exist in "Palestine". They
just whisper Quixotically about "the need for
security" for Israel.
Unhappy France-Israel diplomacy. Pictured:
French President François Hollande (right) greets
Their article is a long and boring lament about
the oh-so-difficult conditions of the Palestinian people. But after this
complaint, our ambassadors finally get to their real intent: they threaten to
banish Israel.
If Israel does not comply with its condemnation; if Israel refuses to go back
to the "Auschwitz borders" of 1949 as UN Security Council Resolution
2334 dictates; if Israel does not renounce Jerusalem, the soul of its civilization
for more than 3,000 years, to make room for a Palestinian state -- they also
conveniently leave out that it would most likely soon be an Islamic terrorist
state -- then the process of international sanctions will be launched.
"It is unfortunate, however," the ambassadors wrote, "that
Mr. Netanyahu from the outset announced that he did not want to meet Mr. Abbas in Paris.
But this refusal shows the need for international pressure to reframe an
impossible dialogue."
"Otherwise, how would Israel escape the danger of
sanctions? By calling for the labeling of products
from the Israeli settlements, the European Union, was being consistent with its
condemnation of the settlements, and paved the way. It is a perilous process
for Israel,
open to the outside world, and therefore vulnerable. We recall the role of
sanctions in the end of apartheid in South Africa".
They are not precise about what "sanctions" would be. But in an
earlier op-ed, published on February 3, 2016, the same group of retired French ambassadors
gave some examples of their wishes.
Immediate recognition of the State of Palestine by France
and all countries of the European Union. A suspension
of the association agreement between the European Union and Israel.
The end of economic and scientific cooperation between
the European Union and Israel.
These pedantic diatribes against the Jewish state are a pathetic
illustration of the traditional blindness of European diplomacy, and especially
France's.
These ambassadors make the statement that "the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is eclipsed in world opinion by the misfortunes of Syria, Iraq
and Yemen, and by the
perilous presence of the Islamic state", but they continue to think that
"the resentment of Arab public opinion against the Western world"
exists because this same Western world is "accused of complicity with Israel".
The obvious conclusion is that they are just trying to hide their own
detestation of Israel
behind the Arab one. The problem is not Jewish "settlers" in "Palestine". Before
1967, there were no settlements. So what was the Palestine Liberation
Organization "liberating" when it was created in Cairo in 1964? The answer, of course, as the
PLO was the first to admit, was "Palestine"
-- meaning the entire state of Israel,
regarded by many Arabs as just one big settlement. Just look at any Palestinian
map.
Middle East expert Gregg Roman straightens out the factual history
distorted by the UN and Europe: "[W]hen
taking into account 3,000 years of history and context, Palestinian Arabs, not
indigenous Israeli Jews, become the offending party.... Around 1,300 years ago,
descendants and followers of the Prophet Mohammad from Arabia
poured out of the Peninsular in an orgy of conquest, expansionism and
colonization. They first annihilated ancient Jewish tribes in places like Yathrib (known today as Medina)
and Khaybar before sweeping north, east and west,
conquering what is today known as the Middle East, North Africa and even
southern Europe.... Wherever Arab and Islamic
rulers conquered, they imposed their culture, language and — most significantly
— their religion.... At first, Arab settlers and conquerors did not want to
intermingle with their indigenous vassals. They often lived in segregated
quarters or created garrison towns from which they imposed their authority on
native populations.... while slavery became rampant and unfettered.... Slowly,
but surely, the "Arab world" that we know today was artificially and
aggressively imposed."
Arabs, who have been trying to kill Jews there for nearly a hundred
years, long before 1967, represent a problem -- there are 1.5 million Arab
people in Israel,
but no one considers them "settlers". The problem is that these
ambassadors are not as dangerous to Israel
as they are to Europe and the free world, as
they keep on succumbing to the demands of Islam.
Yves Mamou is a journalist and author based in France. He
worked for two decades for the daily, Le Monde,
before his retirement.
© 2017 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.
India's Best Friend: Protector of
the Free World
Jagdish N. Singh/Gatestone
Institute/January 12/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9752/india-israel-friendship
Israel has always been
appreciative of New Delhi's
security imperatives. New Delhi, however has yet to be fully appreciative of Israel's
security imperatives.
New Delhi has yet to be morally
conscientious enough openly to back Israel in multilateral fora such as the United Nations. One hopes
Prime Minister Modi would show the statesmanlike
leadership at which he is so expert and which makes him so admired.
Israel stands and
fights for openness, diversity, truth and its existence, just as India does. India must back Israel. New Delhi
also needs Jerusalem
in combating Islamist terrorism, one of the greatest threats to its unity and
territorial integrity.
The operational code of anti-India Islamist forces' behaviour is similar
to that of Israel's
Palestinian counterparts: spread the culture of hatred and violence against the
free world. Israel
knows better than anyone it how best to protect it against such elements.
Ever since former Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha
Rao decided in January 1992 to establish full
diplomatic ties with Israel,
relations between the two democracies have flourished in all fields. Socially,
there have been unprecedented people-to-people exchanges. Today over 40,000
Israelis travel to India
annually. Since the Israeli poet Amir Or translated
the famous Indian epic he Mahabharata into Hebrew in 1998, more books of Indian
poetry have been translated into Hebrew.
Economically, technologically and militarily, relations between India and Israel also have moved from
strength to strength. In 1992 trade between the two nations stood at a meagre
$100 million. Today this stands at $5 billion with the possibility of its being
tripled if a free trade agreement is concluded between the two nations.
Israel has always been
appreciative of New Delhi's
security imperatives. Jerusalem stood by India in its wars in 1965, 1971 and 1999, and The was helpful to India in winning the Kargil war of 1999.
During India's "Kargil War" of 1999, Israel
came to India's
assistance. Since then, India
has increasingly turned to Israel
for advanced weapons systems.
During India's Kargil War of 1999, Israel
came to India's
assistance. Since then, India
has increasingly turned to Israel
for advanced weapons systems. Pictured: Indian soldiers in Batalik
during the Kargil War. (Image source: Narendra Modi/Flickr)
India has emerged as Israel's second largest Asian trading partner,
after China.
Today Israel is India's second largest arms supplier, after Russia. The
Indo-Israeli relationship in this sector has developed into the formation of joint
military ventures for the development of specific weapons systems and
technologies.
Since 1999, India's
Ministry of External Affairs and Israel's
Foreign Ministry have held annual consultations on counterterrorism in both New Delhi and Jerusalem.
During Israeli President Reuven Rivlin's recent India visit (November 15-20, 2016 ), the two nations concluded agreements on cooperation
in agriculture, water, education, cyber security, defence cooperation and
counter-terrorism.
New Delhi, however has yet to be fully appreciative of Israel's
security imperatives. At the United Nations General Assembly, as late as in
2014, India
voted in favour of resolutions criticizing Israeli settlement activity in the
occupied territories. New Delhi also voted at the UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva censuring Israel for its 'Operation Protective Edge' (2014) and Israel's
supposedly "disproportionate" retaliation in the Gaza strip, an
allegation since proven false.
Clearly, New Delhi did not take in
consideration that the Israeli action has throughout been in retaliation for
11,000 rockets and missiles launched since 2005 from Palestinian areas into a
country not even the size of India's
state of Mizoram (21,087 sq. km; Israel, 20,770 sq. km). According
to BBC news, Amnesty International reported that "Hamas rocket attacks
amounted to war crimes."
The Palestine Authority (PA), formerly the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), accompanied by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) and most regrettably the biased United Nations, currently busy rewriting
historical facts has continued the politics of hatred and Israel, and
encouraged activities, including suicide bombings, intifadas and rocket
barrages, against the Israeli citizens. Hamas and its counterparts, such as
Islamic Jihad, do not grant Israel
any legitimacy or even a right to exist.
It is heartening to note that New Delhi
under current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increasingly appreciated Israel's
security imperatives. New Delhi abstained at the
UN Human Rights Commission on July 1, 2015 on a resolution that welcomed the
report of the Commission of Inquiry established a year ago to investigate
violation of international humanitarian and human rights law in the "Occupied Territories" during "Operation
Protective Edge."
New Delhi also abstained from backing an
Islamist narrative on the Temple Mount at the UNESCO vote in Paris in October last.
New Delhi has yet to be morally
conscientious enough openly to back Israel in multilateral fora such as the United Nations. One hopes Prime Minister Modi would show the statesmanlike leadership at which he is
so expert, and for which he is so admired. It is hoped that make some positive,
bold announcements during his expected visit to Israel in the near future, and demonstrate
even greater leadership in international fora.
Israel stands and
fights for openness, diversity, truth and its existence, just as India does. India must back Israel. New
Delhi also needs Jerusalem
in combating Islamist terrorism, one of the greatest threats to its unity and
territorial integrity. This terrorism has claimed hundreds of thousands of
Indian lives so far. Between 1980 to 2008 alone
terrorism claimed around 150,000 lives.
Israel
has long been a frontline democracy fighting the Islamist threat relatively
successfully. While meeting an Indian ministerial delegation in Jerusalem in 2010, the late Israeli President Shimon Peres
offered New Delhi complete co-operation in its
war against terror, stating "India's
security is as important to Israel
as its own". New Delhi could take full
advantage of this bond with Jerusalem.
New Delhi could learn from Israel how its
security and intelligence agencies dismantle terror camps. The operational code
of anti-India Islamist forces' behaviour is similar to that of Israel's
Palestinian counterparts: spread the culture of hatred and violence against the
free world. Israel
knows better than anyone it how best to protect it against such elements.
**Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based
in New Delhi.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights
reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
The UN Holocaust: More Lies and Treachery on the Way?
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/January 12/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9730/un-holocaust-treachery
The launch of this diplomatic attempt to gut Israel will start on January
15, in Paris, at a "peace conference" -- which should immediately be
postponed a week.
"Led astray from their primary mission, these organizations [such as
the United Nations] have become tools of corruption or terrorism, reinforcing
global Islamic power... Their latest resolutions do not only confirm the
victory of jihadism and illiteracy: they also express
the success of the years of effort made by this post-war Europe that continues
to destroy, defame and delegitimize the Jewish State in the name of Islamic
justice." — Bat Ye'or, prizewinning historian.
With a UN now run as if it is the universal caliphate, assisted mostly by
dictators and despots, it is hard to see much good ever coming from it. No one
has yet been made accountable for the $100 billion "oil for food"
scandal, and peacekeepers still dole out food to children in exchange for sex. "The
beginning of this long journey dates back to 1967, in France... Europe rushed to adopt the French position in 1973 and,
along with the OIC, planned political measures designed to destroy the Jewish
State by denying its sovereign rights and its cantonment on an indefensible
territory. Resolution 2334 is now the icing on the cake of this policy, which
forms the basis for a Euro-Islamic policy..." — Bat Ye'or.
All freedom loving nations would be wise to abandon the UN, or,
second-best, defund it. Sadly, that is the only language the UN seems to
understand. Countries imagining that in Donald Trump they have another pushover,
watch out. You will be in for quite a shock.
Israel, this tiny
country in the heart of Middle East, has become the new target of
diplomacy-abuse at the United Nations, headed by the Americans, the Europeans
(mainly France) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) -- 57 Islamic
states plus "Palestine",
which at the moment forms the largest bloc at the UN.
On December 23, 2016, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334,
which effectively sets the boundaries for the Palestinian state at the 1949
armistice lines. The Arabs had previously refused to accept the armistice line
as a border, presumably because agreeing to it might preclude the Palestinians
from trying to get the rest of "Palestine",
defined by them as "from the river [Jordan]
to the sea [Mediterranean]" -- meaning all of Israel. Just look at any
Palestinian map -- It is identical to the shape of the entirety of Israel.
According to Res. 2334, not only are Jewish settlements are illegal,
overnight, effectively making their Jewish residents criminals, but the Jewish
Quarter, the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City -- the
heart of Judaism for nearly 4,000 years and the seat of Christianity for more
than 2,000 years -- are now grotesquely considered "occupied territory".
As Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer noted:
"It's as if the U.N. passed a resolution declaring Mecca
and Medina to
be sovereign Jewish or Christian territory. It's absurd. It's an insult to the
intelligence of the world and is supremely damaging to the Israeli claim to its
own holy places."
Krauthammer then wondered why the resolution included East Jerusalem,
site of the Old City
and the western retaining wall of the Temple
Mount -- all that is left of the Jews'
Second Temple, which was destroyed by the
Romans in 70 A.D., and at which Jews pray every day. Hmm.
As Res. 2334 rejects Res. 242's founding assumptions that peace can only be
negotiated between belligerents, could it be that President Obama and the US
administration, along with the Islamists, dictators, and many of Europe's
Islamized leaders who now populate the UN, are planning to declare a
Palestinian State, presumably with East Jerusalem as its capital at a UN
Security Council meeting scheduled for January 17, three days before Obama
leaves office? We sincerely hope to be proven wrong.
A vote at the UN Security Council (illustrative).
[Image source: U.S.
State Department]
Regrettably, the US-UN-OIC assault on Israel
clearly seems to be the second prong of outgoing US President Barack Obama's
lame duck campaign against Israel
-- part of a larger plan to displace much of Israel, including its heart, the
Old City of Jerusalem, with an Islamic state. Already, on October 13, 2016,
another branch of the United Nations, UNESCO, falsely declared the site of
Judaism's two ancient temples, Islamic sites.
Before that, in 2015, UNESCO also falsely declared two ancient Biblical
Jewish sites, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, "Islamic
sites" -- despite Islam not even having historically existed until
hundreds of years later in the seventh century.
The vote was unanimous, except for the US,
which, after orchestrating and nurturing the entire assault, demurely abstained
and then tried to deny that the US
was behind it.
The denial played out like a bad film in which the wife hires a hit-man
to kill her husband, and then tells the judge she is innocent because at the
time of the murder she was having her hair done. Secretary of State John
Kerry's "candid thoughts" on December 28, 2016, tried to disguise the
Obama Administration's treachery -- the US abstaining instead of opposing
Res. 2334 -- with a lot of fake-friendly advice. But according to Kerry, the
"interests of the United States"
were not aligned anymore with the interests of Israel. Why is that? Because of
settlement policy:
"We've made countless public and private exhortations to the
Israelis to stop the march of settlements. In literally hundreds of
conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I have made clear that continued
settlement activity would only increase pressure for an international response.
We have all known for some time that the Palestinians were intent on moving
forward in the UN with a settlements resolution, and I advised the prime
minister repeatedly that further settlement activity only invited UN
action."
So because of the State of Israel's settlement policy, the interest of
the United States is now to
weaken the diplomatic position of Israel, and make the only free,
open, pluralistic democracy in the region a pariah among other nations and
every Israeli in the area a potential criminal or a potential target for a
general boycott. Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick said:
"...contrary to what has been widely argued, 2334 does not
strengthen the boycott of 'settlements.' 2334 gives a strategic boost to the
boycott of Israel
as a whole.
"2334 calls on states 'to distinguish in their relevant dealings,
between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since
1967.' Since no Israeli firms make that distinction, all Israeli economic
activity is now threatened with boycott. Tnuva is an
'occupation' dairy because it supplies communities beyond the 1949 lines with
dairy products.
"Bank Hapoalim is an 'occupation' bank
because it operates ATM machines in post-1967 neighborhoods
in Jerusalem. "Fox clothing chain is an 'occupation' chain because
it has a store in Gush Etzion. And so on and so
forth.
"Resolution 2334 gives Europe and its NGOs a green light to wage a
complete trade and cultural boycotts against all of Israel."
Kerry finished his speech by enumerating six principles for peace,
supposedly based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed equivalent swaps (but
of course leaving Israel with nothing much to swap); recognition of Israel by
the Palestinians as a Jewish state; help to solve the refugee issue;
internationalization of Jerusalem as a capital for two countries; viable
borders for Israel; end of the conflict and all outstanding claims. These
"principles" can only be considered a monument to hypocrisy. These
"simple" goals contradict resolution 2334. Why should Palestinians
agree to land swaps if settlements have already been declared illegal?
Alarmingly, we probably have not yet seen the end of this mess yet. A
third stage of this anti-Israeli rocket is in preparation and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has good reasons to think "that the United Nations
Security Council could take fresh action against Israel during a meeting on
January 17, three days before US President Barack Obama is slated to leave
office". France has
protested that it is "not planning" an Israeli-Palestinian UN
resolution, but of course that leaves other countries -- perhaps New Zealand, Venezuela,
Malaysia or Senegal again
-- to "help out"? The launch of this diplomatic Holocaust will start
on January 15, in Paris,
at a "peace conference"; it should immediately be postponed for at
least a week.
Otherwise, at the initiative of France's
equally lame duck, President François Hollande, an
international conference will gather the foreign ministers of some fifty States
to drive Israel
to a fictitious "peace with the Palestinians". But one thing is for
sure: All these diplomats can elaborate a resolution of their own, to be put
forth by another hit-man, perhaps presented by France
or Sweden or another
"real friend" of Israel.
And the United States
can again disingenuously save face by abstaining.
Soon after Kerry's speech, Britain's
Prime Minister Theresa May distanced the UK
from Washington on Kerry's condemnation of Israel, in
comments that appear to be designed to build bridges with the incoming Trump
administration. Britain's
ambassador, Sir Kim Darroch, has even said he hopes
it will emulate the rapport between Margaret Thatcher and her US counterpart
Ronald Reagan. It would be magnificently Churchillian
or Thatcherian if May were to veto any further UN hijinks.
With a UN now run as if it is the universal caliphate, assisted mostly by
dictators and despots, it is hard to see much good ever coming from it. No one
has yet been made accountable for the $100 billion "oil for food"
scandal, and peacekeepers still dole out food to children in exchange for sex.
If the US
separately wants to fund the World Health Organization as a spin-off, for
example, that is always an option.
The UN does not solve the refugee problem; instead the UN perpetuates it,
noted the great Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky.
The UN also does not prevent or resolve world conflicts, instead, it
seems to perpetuate them - take Syria,
Iraq, the
Sudan.
As the prizewinning Middle East
historian Bat Ye'or recently wrote about the UN and
UNESCO:
"Led astray from their primary mission, these organizations have
become tools of corruption or terrorism, reinforcing global Islamic power.
But let us not forget that those who vote are Heads of State, fully conscious
and responsible individuals, motivated by interests and ideologies that are
often criminal and not all of which represent the opinions of their people whom
they tyrannize, including those from European 'democracies'. Their latest
resolutions do not only confirm the victory of jihadism
and illiteracy: they also express the success of the years of effort made by
this post-war Europe that continues to destroy, defame and delegitimize the
Jewish State in the name of Islamic justice. The beginning of this long journey
dates back to 1967, in France....
Europe rushed to adopt the French position in
1973 and, along with the OIC, planned political measures designed to destroy
the Jewish State by denying its sovereign rights and its cantonment on an
indefensible territory. Resolution 2334 is now the icing on the cake of this
policy, which forms the basis for a Euro-Islamic policy to merge in all EU
political and social sectors, as well as in promoting globalism and the
enforcement of the UN's supranational decision-making
powers."
All freedom-loving nations should, unfortunately, abandon immediately
before laws are made for them next -- or, second-best, at least de-fund it.
Sadly, that is the only language the UN evidently understands.
On January 5, the US House of Representatives voted 342-to-80 to condemn
the UN vote, with 100 Democrats joining the Republicans. Countries imagining
that in US President-elect Donald J. Trump they have another pushover, watch
out. You will be in for quite a shock.
**Yves Mamou is a journalist and author based
in France.
He worked for two decades for the daily, Le Monde,
before his retirement.
© 2017 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.
A unified moral stance is the only path to
peace
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/January
12/17
The whole country is mourning the Saudi martyrs of the
barbaric terrorist attack carried out by criminals and the enemies of humanity
in Istanbul on
New Year’s Eve. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman
condemned the cowardly terror attack and expressed his grief to the families of
those killed and to the dozens who were wounded. For three days residents of
Jeddah and Madinah flocked to offer their condolences
to the families of the innocent souls who were brutally murdered by the
cold-blooded killer.
May Allah rest in peace the innocent souls of the 24-year-old twins Mohammed
and Ahmed Saud Bin Abdul Wahab Al-Fadl,
the young mothers Wissam Al-Jafri
and Lubna Ghaznawi and the
young lawyer Shahad Samman. Our sincere prayers
go to the families who lost their loved ones; may Allah grant them the strength
and the patience to overcome their grief.
Meanwhile, the nation is praying for the speedy recovery of 12 other Saudis who
are in critical condition and are currently receiving treatment for injuries in
different hospitals in Istanbul.
The victims also include people from Morocco,
Lebanon, Libya and Jordan and other countries. They
are all innocent people with no grudges, no prejudices and no hate who went to Turkey to
celebrate life and had hopes for a happy new year. The killer willfully premeditated their murder and robbed them of
their youth devastating the lives of their loved ones.
What cruelty and what wicked, crooked and twisted mind can justify such
cold-blooded murder? For those who keep repeating the rhetoric of the criminals
and identify them as ISIS, I say enough is
enough. The Muslim world has labeled these criminal
terrorists as Daesh and rejects referring to them as ISIS.
If they were true warriors of justice they would be headed to liberate
Palestine and rescue the innocent Palestinians who are being ejected from their
homes and whose women and children are suffering
Imposters to the faith
I speak in the name of all Muslims who believe in God, the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) and the Day of Judgment. Only imposters to the faith can
justify the actions of these criminals. All Muslims today speak loudly and
clearly against the defamation of Islam by the criminal perpetrators of terror
and those who associate them with Islam.
Muslims do not have to defend their faith with every satanic attack that goes
against every principle of Islam. “O you who believe!
Enter absolutely into peace (Islam). Do not follow in the footsteps of satan. He is an outright enemy to
you.” (Holy Qur’an – 2: 208). The word “Islam” is derived from the word meaning
“peace” in Arabic.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) used to recite a prayer of
peace every day after every prayer: “O God, You are the original source of
Peace; from You is all Peace, and to You returns all
Peace. So, make us live with Peace; and let us enter Paradise:
the House of Peace. Blessed be You, our Lord, to Whom
belongs all Majesty and Honor!”
The Prophet (pbuh) taught good manners and preached mercy,
compassion, peace and love for all humanity. “We have appointed a law and a
practice for every one of you. Had God willed, He would have made you a single
community, but He wanted to test you regarding what has come to you. So compete
with each other in doing good. Every one of you will
return to God and He will inform you regarding the things about which you
differed.” (Holy Qur’an – 5: 48)
Evil intentions
It is obvious that the goal of the criminal outcasts
is to terrorize people and create chaos throughout the region destroying the
peace and harmony of its people. There is clearly nothing Islamic about that.
The criminals who claim to be Muslims are nothing but imposters who have evil
intentions and are using religion for their own selfish agendas.
If they were true warriors of justice they would be headed to liberate Palestine and rescue the
innocent Palestinians who are being ejected from their homes and whose women
and children are suffering at the hands of Israeli occupiers and the injustice
of the Zionist state.
Security experts maintain that the Kingdom and the Arab world are facing grave
security issues. According to Dr. Jibreel Al-Areeshi, a professor of informatics at King Saud University, “Some are trying to drag the Kingdom into
the quagmire of the wars going on in the Middle East
and divert its attention from focusing on its economic progress and playing its
leading role in the region. Economic progress is closely associated with
national security. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin.”
Our world can never be safe until the dark and destabilizing forces terrorizing
the Middle East and the world at large are
eliminated. A unified moral stance by the Muslim world and the global community
is the only path to peace.
*This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on January 07, 2016.