JaFaJ – Page 91

Don’t expect Tunisia to join the Abraham Accords with Israel

August 9, 2022 / JaFaJ

08 August, 2022

Analysis: Despite rumours and grave economic problems, support for Palestine runs deep in Tunisian society, with Kais Saied seeing any benefits to normalisation vastly outweighed by the costs.

Since Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December 2020, there has been constant speculation about which Arab government might be next.
Various US officials and Israeli media outlets have implied or predicted that Tunisia could be that country.
But although the prospect isn’t impossible, there is ample reason to seriously doubt that Tunis would join the normalisation camp.
President Kais Saied now basically runs a one-man show in Tunisia. Therefore, his views on Israel-Palestine must be understood. Tunisia entering the Abraham Accords would require Saied to abandon an important political conviction that for years has been key to his image.
When participating in a presidential debate on 12 October 2019, Saied strongly denounced normalisation with Israel and even condemned the use of the word normalisation. He declared that the “normal condition is that we are in a state of war with an occupying entity”. Saied accused Tunisians who favour opening diplomatic relations with Israel of “treason”.

“Although the prospect isn’t impossible, there is ample reason to seriously doubt that Tunis would join the normalisation camp”

Saied’s passionate condemnation of normalisation in that 2019 debate was “very memorable for many Tunisians,” said Monica Marks, an assistant professor of Middle East politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi, in an interview with The New Arab.
But that wasn’t just campaign speak. In Saied’s 2019 victory speech he vowed to “support the just causes, including that of Palestine”.
As Marks put it, “He’s built not an insignificant part of his political identity in Tunisia on a throwback to old school Arab nationalism that is grounded in, among other things, opposition to having dealings with Israel”.
Saied’s firm opposition to normalisation has been important to his base of supporters during the 2019 election, his 2021 coup, and the present period.
“He has strong support still in certain corners of the Arab nationalist part of Tunisia’s ideological landscape which identifies itself very strongly with opposition to Israel. That’s a core feature, if not the core feature, of Arab nationalist political identity in Tunisia,” added Marks.

Saied is far from being the only Tunisian who has denounced any talk about the Tunisian state having dealings with Israel. Throughout Tunisia’s society there has long been passionate support for the Palestinians, underscored by public demonstrations in favour of Palestinian rights and the anti-normalisation bill brought up in the parliament.
“I don’t think there will be a normalisation between Tunisia and Israel,” Youssef Cherif, the director of the Colombia Global Centers in Tunis, told TNA.
“This move would be highly unpopular in Tunisia, and there are enough freedoms in the country, even after Saied’s power grab, to allow people to make their disagreements public if that’s to happen or to be debated.”
As Marks explained, the culture in Tunisia is “very oppositional” regarding anything resembling normalisation with Israel. “Its opposition to having any dealings with the Israeli state is actually a key feature of Tunisia’s regional geopolitics.”
Many Tunisians’ firm opposition to Israel is about much more than just the Palestinian cause.

A young protester lifts a placard that reads in Arabic, ‘you have to criminalize normalization with Israel if you are honest’, during a demonstration held in front of Tunisia’s parliament on 18 May 2021. [Getty]

Israel bombed the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s headquarters in Tunis in October 1985, which resulted in roughly 60 deaths and 100 injuries. That attack fuelled grievances which continue to inform many Tunisians’ perceptions of Israel as a threat not only to their fellow Arabs in Palestine, but also to their own country.
“Whenever a video gets leaked of tourists [in Tunisia] speaking Hebrew to each other on a tour bus and goes viral on Tunisian social media it provokes a lot of pushback,” Marks pointed out. “Having any kind of dealings between the Tunisian state and Israel is very much a political livewire in Tunisia.”
If Tunisia were to enter the Abraham Accords, it would be fundamentally different from Morocco doing so. The unofficial Israeli-Moroccan relationship that existed for many years before Rabat normalised with Tel Aviv in late 2020 resulted in a much less drastic change for Morocco than what could be expected in Tunisia if the country goes that route.

“Its opposition to having any dealings with the Israeli state is actually a key feature of Tunisia’s regional geopolitics”

“Roughly a fifth of the Israeli adult population is of Moroccan origin,” William Lawrence, a professor of political science at the American University in Washington, pointed out in a TNA interview.
“Prior to the pandemic about 70,000 Israeli tourists were visiting Morocco every year, partially as a part of heritage tourism, visiting refurbished synagogues and the Arab world’s only Jewish heritage museum. Morocco’s new security relationship with Israel is deeply rooted in historical, cultural, and economic ties with its own diaspora,” added Lawrence.
However, Tunisia’s landscape is different. “In Tunisia, you’d need a lot of time to prime things up and change the culture,” Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher specialising in Libya, told TNA. “Having your army and security forces accept being close friends with Israel, that’s going to take time.”

Regional dynamics
There are also regional factors to consider. Egypt and Morocco would welcome Tunisia entering the Abraham Accords. But it would fuel serious problems in Algerian-Tunisian relations.
To Algeria, Moroccan-Israeli relations as well as the Arab region’s trend toward normalisation are threatening.
Mindful of Israel’s support for Moroccan foreign policy vis-à-vis Western Sahara, Tel Aviv’s posturing against Algeria, and Moroccan-Israeli military cooperation, Algeria fears the implications of a stronger Moroccan-Israeli partnership. If Algeria becomes surrounded by states that have normalised with Israel, the Algerians will feel increasingly insecure.
In response to rumours about Tunisia joining the Abraham Accords, Algerian officials have expressed fear.
One Algerian official anonymously told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister publication, that Algeria is deeply concerned about Tunisia joining the Abraham Accords and the “possibility that there is a regional vision for ways to drag Tunisia towards normalisation, which involves destroying the political situation and exploiting Tunisia’s needs, and that the pro-normalisation axis is working quietly [to this end] and is happy to play the long game”.

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat walks amid the rubble of the PLO headquarters in Tunis on 2 October 1985 after six Israeli planes bombed and totally destroyed the PLO complex. [Getty]

Lawrence explained that “Algeria’s significant assistance to Tunisia is usually seen through the lens of helping keep Tunisia out of the Gulf or Egyptian sphere of influence, or even the Russian one. But another angle of analysis can be to see it as keeping Tunisia at some degree of distance from the burgeoning Israeli-Emirati-America sphere, and at the expense of further marginalising Palestinians”.
If Tunisia enters the normalisation camp, “Algeria is going to be unhappy and Algeria provides a lot to Tunisia,” said Harchaoui.
“It’s not publicised but it has resumed providing tourists since 5 July when the announcement of the reopening of the border was made and it provides natural gas. It provides a number of security guarantees. So, Algeria being unhappy will have tangible effects on Tunisia. They’re not of the pleasant kind.”

A reason to join?
Why should Tunisia joining the Abraham Accords be considered a possibility? The simple answer is desperation.
Tunisia faces several grave economic problems and needs support from foreign governments and institutions. “It’s a country where very soon you’re not going to be able to buy fuel, where civil servants are not going to receive their salaries anymore, where you’re not going to be able to buy insulin for diabetics,” Harchaoui said.
“All kinds of basic stuff are going to cease to be available because of this tragic situation that’ll translate most likely into a debt default, and still Western nations don’t seem to care”.
Whether entering the Abraham Accords could elicit a loan from the US, Gulf states like the UAE, or somewhere else is unclear. “What the world has been saying is that it doesn’t care about Tunisia. So…offering to join the Abraham Accords is something that Kais Saied might try,” explained Harchaoui.

“Ultimately, serious concerns about Tunisia’s economic future could prompt Saied to abandon his stance against Israel”

When asked if she thinks that Tunisia will normalise with Israel, Marks responded, “I’d be surprised if it happens as long as Kais Saied is at the helm”. But she maintained that it is not impossible, mindful of incentives that some Arab states could give him for bringing Tunisia into the Abraham Accords.
“Saied does find himself in close conversation with Sisi and in some ideological company with Gulf actors who see him as a potential vehicle for their interests,” according to Marks.
“I don’t think they’re convinced yet, but they see him as a potential vehicle. He has been willing to wheel and deal with states that see him as an important bulwark of stability. He has interests like any other leader.”
Ultimately, serious concerns about Tunisia’s economic future could prompt Saied to abandon his stance against Israel. There is no denying that the US, Israel, the UAE, and Morocco would strongly favour Tunisia joining the Abraham Accords. These governments may try to push Saied in that direction. However, the fallout could fuel problems for the leadership in Tunis, not only internally but also with its much larger neighbour Algeria.
Already certain political parties and civil society organisations in Tunisia have demanded that Saied reject the credentials of Joey Hood, the US’s ambassadorial nominee to Tunisia.

Nour Odeh

Their reasons have included Hood’s support for expanding the Abraham Accords to include Tunisia and his pledge to “use all tools of US influence to advocate for a return to democratic governance and mitigate Tunisians’ suffering from Putin’s devastating war, economic mismanagement and political upheaval”.
Tunisia’s former foreign minister, Ahmed Wanis, implied that Hood had “failed” as Washington’s ambassador to Tunisia before even beginning the post due to his efforts to bring Tunisia into a normalisation accord with Israel.
As Wanis put it, “they want to drag Tunisia to join those countries on the basis of a deal that involves granting Tunisia financial aid in exchange for recognition of Israel”.
Probably, at least for now, Tunisia’s government perceives the potential benefits of making such a controversial move as not outweighing the costs, which take the form of serious political risks.
Thus, Tunisian officials are likely sincere when denying the validity of claims that Tunis is on the verge of going down the normalisation road.

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Imran Khan has no real interest in actually representing his voters in parliament at the moment

August 9, 2022 / JaFaJ

By inviting supporters to take part in an attempt to also sabotage the Election Commission’s mandate, he is setting a dangerous precedent.
Asia News Network – Click Here

August 8, 2022
ISLAMABAD – OUSTED PM Imran Khan is attempting to make a very expensive point with his decision to contest all nine National Assembly seats going up for by-election on Sept 25. To recap, these nine general seats (as well as two reserved seats for women) were formally vacated after the controversial acceptance of the resignations of only 11 PTI MNAs recently by the National Assembly Speaker.
While the NA Speaker gave no rationale for his decision, the move seemed aimed at deflating some of the pressure for early elections that had been created by the en masse resignation of over 100 PTI lawmakers in April.
However, the PTI chief has now come up with a counter-strategy: pit himself in all nine by-elections announced and, in case he wins one or more seats, nullify the entire exercise by ensuring that by-elections have to be held on the same seats again and again. Mr Khan has thereby turned the by-election into a personal referendum. Victory along the lines of the July 17 by-polls in Punjab would give his narrative strong validation and a chance to thumb his nose at critics.
However, Mr Khan has no real interest in actually representing his voters in parliament at the moment. Therefore, this seems like an unnecessary attempt to stay relevant at the expense of the state exchequer. One also wonders what his strategy would be if by-elections were to be announced on all the seats vacated: would Mr Khan nominate himself as the PTI’s sole candidate on all 100 or so seats? Quite the farce that would be.
Meanwhile, the animus between the PTI chairman and the chief election commissioner that has been made central to the party’s discourse is also worth a review. It seems quite hypocritical considering that Mr Khan accepts that he endorsed Sikandar Sultan Raja’s appointment, even if at the advice of the establishment. Yet, regardless of who made what recommendations, as a leader, he must take full responsibility for his decision. Considering how many years his party spent gloating and stressing the same point when the then opposition had protested against the heavy-handedness of former NAB chief Javed Iqbal, it does not behove Mr Khan to now cry foul.
By inviting supporters to take part in an attempt to also sabotage the Election Commission’s mandate, he is setting a dangerous precedent. The exercise, if it succeeds, may turn people even more distrustful of and hostile to the electoral process. The move may drive home the point that the PTI is willing to go to any lengths to force a general election, but it is ultimately a destructive endeavour that will waste public resources and undermine the spirit of the democratic system. The PTI chief has already been propagating his political message through rallies and jalsas; why can’t he continue to seek public validation through such events?

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Constitution for future generations only

August 9, 2022 / JaFaJ

The Constitution must not be interpreted according to judges’ personal preferences

ByRaja Hamza Anwar

PakistanToday.com

The sentence “Constitution is an organic document that is to be interpreted with a mind to the future generations to come” is one of the cannon in the judicial arsenal that is more often than is necessary applied in interpreting the Constitution by the Supreme Court. The organic assessment of the Constitution has become a euphemism for validating a judicially active interpretation of the Constitution, justifying a form of construction concerned with the result founded on individual judges’ subjective moralities, as opposed to the means employed for reaching that conclusion. The development of Constitutional jurisprudence predicated on ensuring reaching ends and forsaking critical assessment of the means employed to reach those ends have consequently served to abridge and encumber the right of political representation in Pakistan.
No part of the Constitution has experienced a more morally zealous interpretation than Article 62(1-f). Take, for example, the case of Samiullah Baloch v Abdul Karim Nousherwani PLD 2018 SC 405, colloquially referred to as the ‘lifetime disqualification case’, in which the Supreme Court declared that any member of Parliament caught by the mischief of Article 62 would be disqualified for life. The Supreme Court while coming to this conclusion drew upon the principle that the Constitution was an organic document to be interpreted for times to come. The court’s view admitted that the virtues of moral sagaciousness, righteousness, honesty, and trustworthiness contained in Article 62(1-f) are subjective moralities and can hardly be objectively assessed.
Despite the difficulty in objectively assessing a list of open-ended virtues required of a parliamentarian, the court proceeded to impose a perpetual ban on parliamentarians from participating in elections thereby, invented and reading into Article 62(1-f) an onerous punishment by judicial interpretation. The inducement of shunning non-virtuous behaviour, couched in the organic interpretation of the Constitution had presented the Honourable court a doctrinal leeway to import its subjective morality denouncing what it considered to be non-virtuous behaviour and consequently stipulating a punishment unfound in the Constitution, either textually or structurally. The consequence of such moral reasoning would inescapably bind future courts to treat even cases involving inadvertent omission in the declaration of assets at par with intentional and fraudulent misdeclaration of assets.

Yet, even proponents of this doctrine have had to struggle with the predicament of the judiciary acting as an ecclesial body in acting under the pretext of making an enduring Constitution. It may appear, that the incessant need to attend to the unforeseen peculiarities of future generations have led to an abandonment of the text and the structure of the Constitution for the present generation.

An alternate result could have been achieved with a structural interpretation of the Constitution. This could have been done by reading Article 62(1-f) contiguously with Article 63(1)(h) as the latter provision espouses the same values enunciated in Article 62(1-f). Article 63(1)(h) imposes a disqualification penalty for five years following an imprisonment of not less than two years for being convicted of committing moral turpitude. The court in Samiullah Baloch could have read Article 62(1-f) to stipulate a disqualification for not more than five years. Logic also dictates that a finding of guilt, by a court of law, for committing moral turpitude according to Article 63(1-h) would carry a greater blot on a person’s character and moral righteousness, than an individual who has not been found guilty by a court of law. Penalty for moral turpitude coupled with a subsequent disqualification from contesting elections are two independent penalties conceived by Article 63(1-h). Whereas, Article 62(1-f) envisages only one penalty, i.e. disqualification, for virtually the same moral void in a Parliamentarian as one contained in Article 63(1-h) thereby, indicating that Article 63(1-h) was intended to be harsher punishment for committing non-virtuous behaviour than the one contained in Article 62(1-f). Such a structural reading of the Constitution, guided by an overarching fundamental right of individuals to contest elections may have guided the court to find a proportionate punishment for a violation of Article 62(1-f).
More recently, Article 63A Constitution has emerged as a victim of the ends and not means interpretation. A constant theme in the short order in Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan v Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf involved lambasting the vice of floor-crossing and defection. The court’s employment of choice of sentences such as ‘cancer afflicting the body politic’, coupled with an assertive direction to the Parliament to legislate against defection inseparably reflects its emotive stake in the issue. Instead of intricately engaging with past precedents to interpret Article 63A, the court relentlessly imported a subjective disdain for defection and floor-crossing that led to an interpretation inconsistent with a past judicial precedent of Wukala Mahaz Barai Tahafaz Dastoor PLD 1998 SC 1263, in which the Supreme Court held that Article 63A is a penalty provision in our Constitution which ought to be applied restrictively.
Contrastingly, the majority in deciding the presidential reference invented another penalty of not counting the votes of the defected members. Reacting to this judicial invention, the dissenting judges aptly described it to be a ‘re-writing and reading into the Constitution’. Constitutional dilemmas emanating from Article 63A have stoked political strife in Pakistan consequently, tarnishing the sanctity of Parliament as a hallowed institution. It may have been avoided, or at least added certainty for the future had the Honourable Court addressed the unanswered critical issues about the enigmatic relation vis-à-vis the “Parliamentary Party”, “Party Head” and a “Political Party”, as well as the mode and manner which a Parliamentary Party must adopt before issuing a direction to vote a certain way.
The use of the Constitution as an organic document emanates from a concept known as the “Living Tree Doctrine”, as advocated by Professor David Strauss. This style of reading the Constitution posits that a Constitution is a document that has to be given a wide meaning, ensuring the document’s longevity in the face of constant socio-economic evolution.
Yet, even proponents of this doctrine have had to struggle with the predicament of the judiciary acting as an ecclesial body in acting under the pretext of making an enduring Constitution. It may appear, that the incessant need to attend to the unforeseen peculiarities of future generations have led to an abandonment of the text and the structure of the Constitution for the present generation.

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Syria more than doubles petrol prices: Ministry

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

AFP
Damascus, Syria

Published: 07 Aug 2022, 02: 53- en.prothomalo.com

Syria’s internal commerce ministry has announced a petrol price hike of around 130 per cent in the war-torn country facing fuel shortages and extended power cuts

The cost of a liter of subsidized fuel will rise to 2,500 Syrian pounds, from 1,100 previously, a rise of 127 per cent, the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official SANA news agency late Saturday.

The cost of non-subsidised petrol will rise from 3,500 to 4,000 Syrian pounds, the ministry added.

The increases represent the third time this year that authorities have increased the price of fuel, as the Syrian pound continues to depreciate.
Syria’s currency is trading at around 4,250 to the dollar on the black market, compared to an official rate of 2,814.
“This measure will hit everyone,” said Raed al-Saadi, a warehouse worker. “Our salary is now only enough to get us to the workplace, and not even enough to get us home again.”

“Life has become very difficult and I don’t where this situation will lead us,” the 48-year-old added.
Since the outbreak of war in 2011, Syria’s oil and gas sector has suffered losses amounting to tens of billions of dollars.
The economy has been hit hard by both the long-running war and sanctions imposed against Damascus.
A UN commission in March called for a review of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime because of concerns that the measures were hitting ordinary people too hard.

The conflict in Syria started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests and escalated to pull in foreign powers and global jihadists.
It has killed around 500,000 people and displaced around half of the country’s pre-war population.

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Jumblatt to Hezbollah: Lebanon’s President Should be Accepted by All Sides

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

Saturday, 13 August, 2022 – 07:45 – Asharq Al-Awsat
English.Aawsat.com

The head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, and political advisor to Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hussein Khalil (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Beirut – Mohamed Choucair

The head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, and political advisor to Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hussein Khalil have discussed several problems facing Lebanon, mainly the upcoming presidential elections.
The meeting was attended by PSP officials MP Wael Abu Faour and former Minister Ghazi al-Aridi, and top Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that discussions focused on their differences over Hezbollah’s weapons and Lebanon’s defense strategy.
According to the sources, the meeting also reviewed the presidential elections, but no candidates were discussed. They instead addressed Jumblatt’s rejection to support a candidate backed by Hezbollah.
They pointed out that Jumblatt called for electing a president who is not provocative and is accepted by all political parties.
The sources quoted Khalil as saying that Hezbollah seeks to form a new government and elect the president on time after Jumblatt warned that the country cannot afford a presidential vacuum.
The term of President Michel Aoun will end in October 2022.
During Thursday’s meeting, the PSP chief addressed the issue of Hezbollah sending drones over the Karish field and asked whether it was an Iranian message to improve the terms of its negotiations on its nuclear program.
Hezbollah said in July it had sent three unarmed drones towards the Israeli Mediterranean gas rig, which the Israeli military said it had intercepted.
Khalil stressed that Iran does not need drones to improve its position and that the unmanned aircraft aimed to improve Lebanon’s position in the US-mediated negotiations with Israel on the maritime border demarcation.
The sources noted that Jumblatt asked about the possibility of a new war, and Khalil explained that if Israel continues to deprive Lebanon of its right, all options are on the table.
The head of the PSP asserted that Lebanon could not afford a new war, especially in light of the deteriorating economic conditions.

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Rethink urged on social housing priority list law

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

Bahrain News
By Mohammed Al A’AliMon, 08 Aug 2022

Housing and Urban Planning Minister Amna Al Romaihi and senior officials are being briefed on new social homes that would be built in the country

A RETHINK on a proposed law, which will aim at giving priority to Bahrainis suffering from disabilities, and chronic and long-term illnesses when distributing social homes, has been urged by the government. For the rest of the story, please click here

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Chad peace talks accord to be signed without key rebel group

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

08 August, 2022

Under the accord, to be signed in the Qatari capital Doha, talks aimed at paving the way for a presidential election will start on 20 August

Qatar has been mediating between Chadian opposition groups and the military government [AFP via Getty]

Chad’s military leader will sign a deal on Monday with more than 40 opposition groups to launch national peace talks, but the central African country’s main rebel outfit has refused to take part.
Under the accord, to be signed in the Qatari capital Doha, talks aimed at paving the way for a presidential election will start on 20 August.
Since March, Qatar has been mediating between opposition groups and the military government of Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a general who seized power after his father died in a battle with rebels last year.
But the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), the main rebel group, said it would not sign the deal despite last-minute efforts by Qatar’s mediators.
In a statement released in Doha, FACT said it “rejects the accord that will be put to signatories on Monday”.
It added that participants in the national dialogue would not be treated equally and demanded a new committee be set up to organise the talks, as well as the release of rebel prisoners in government prisons.
“However FACT remains available for dialogue anywhere and anytime,” added the statement from the group, which is estimated to have between 1,500 and 2,000 fighters.
FACT fighters led the rebel offensive in which Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had been president for 30 years, was killed.
Chad has had little stability since its independence in 1960, and the coming talks are being widely watched, as the country is seen as a key ally in international efforts to counter Islamic extremists fighting around the region.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said the talks, to be held in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, would seek “inclusive national reconciliation”.
Some 42 of the 47 groups represented in the Doha talks will sign the accord, officials said.
Talks will ‘struggle’ without FACT
The Doha accord commits signatories to a ceasefire during the N’Djamena talks.
The military government has also guaranteed the safety of rebel leaders who attend the talks.
Qatar had wanted FACT leader Mahamat Mahdi Ali to leave his desert camp in Libya to attend the signing.
But FACT and other groups say the guarantees were not strong enough. They have also demanded that Deby pledge in advance that he will not stand in any election.
Deby, 38, promised elections in 18 months when he seized power in April last year.
But his junta has retained the power to extend its “transitional” rule by 18 months. Deby faces pressure, however, from France, the European Union and the African Union to meet the October deadline.
“Getting this many groups to sign the accord is a good launchpad for the national dialogue, but it will struggle without outfits such as FACT,” said the head of one political group that has agreed to sign on Monday.
The Chadian government has said that more than 1,300 representatives of rebel groups, civil society, trade unions, political parties and government officials will attend the N’Djamena talks.

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Iran and Political Hallucination

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

Sunday, 7 August, 2022 – 09:30 – https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3802501/tariq-al-homayed/iran-and-political-hallucination

Tariq Al-Homayed
Saudi journalist and writer, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper

As Israel strikes Gaza, targeting Islamic Jihad with arrests and assassinations, the head of Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, said that Hezbollah was capable of wiping Israel off the map when the time is right.
Speaking on Friday evening in the city of Sari in northern Iran, he said that “security in the Zionist entity is declining, and Hezbollah is planning to deal it its final blow at the time is right;” adding that “Hezbollah, in eradicating this artificial entity, will achieve the aspirations of Imam Khomeini in wiping it off the map and the earth.” He also reaffirmed Iran’s support for Hezbollah.
The question we must direct at the Quds Force Commander and all the factions aligned with the lying axis of resistance is: when will it be the “right time” to wipe Israel off “the map and the earth?”
This question is especially pertinent given because the Quds Force Commander made these statements while Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib says that the border demarcation negotiations with Israel have reached an advanced stage.
Speaking to the Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria, Bou Habib explained that “we have made significant progress during the negotiations, and we are in advanced stages on several fronts, including technical stages of the talks. These negotiations will be made between US mediator Amos Hochstein’s team and the Lebanese team of experts.”
The pressing question thus becomes, when will it be the “right time” to wipe Israel “off the map and the earth” as the Quds Force Commander has promised? Why not now, in response to the Israeli strikes on Gaza targeting Islamic Jihad?
Even worse, on Saturday, Iranian television broadcasters quoted IRGC Commander Hossein Salami as saying: “The Israelis will pay a heavy price for their latest crimes.” He made the statements during a meeting with Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala, who is in Iran!
And so, the least we can say about these recent Iranian statements regarding Israel is that they are political hallucinations and attempts to promote an illusion to followers who have chosen to ignore reason and avoid comparing words with actions.
The war in Gaza is neither the first nor the last. However, with every eruption of war, Iran reaffirms that it is exploiting Gaza, just like it is exploiting Lebanon, to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table with the West. We all know that Iran has not and will not fire a bullet at Israel, neither to defend Lebanon nor Gaza.
History is witness to when, during the 2006 Lebanon War, Hassan Nasrallah went on screen to call on those who love Lebanon to stop the war. Lebanon today is not suffering from war to the extent that it is suffering from Iranian occupation enforced by Hezbollah, which has now come to threaten the collapse of the state.
For this reason, we are faced with Iranian political hallucinations that have only left destruction and scorched earth behind them in the region over the past four decades. That is true for Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, to say nothing about the scale of the calamity in Iraq.
This state of affairs will not change, and the hallucinations will not end until Iran pays a real price for all of its crimes in our region.

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Hamas pressing Islamic Jihad to accept truce with Israel

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that “around the clock” efforts were being made to “protect our people and stop the [Israeli] aggression.”

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Jerusalem Post
Published: AUGUST 7, 2022 16:30

Palestinian Hamas militants carry a rocket as they parade during an anti-Israel rally in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip
(photo credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)

Hamas leaders are exerting pressure on the Islamic Jihad organization to agree to a truce that would end the current round of fighting with Israel, Palestinian sources said on Sunday.

Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have in the past 24 hours stepped up their efforts to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that “around the clock” efforts were being made to “protect our people and stop the [Israeli] aggression.”
The Palestinian Quds Network website quoted unnamed sources in the Gaza Strip as saying that Islamic Jihad has rejected a proposal for a truce with Israel.

Palestinians gather at the scene where senior commander of Islamic Jihad militant group Khaled Mansour was killed in Israeli strikes, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, August 7, 2022. (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)
According to the sources, Islamic Jihad has refused to reply to calls from the Egyptians to discuss a truce proposal.

The sources claimed that the mediators have proposed a “humanitarian truce” as part of the ongoing attempts to end the fighting. However, the killing of senior Islamic Jihad military commander Khaled Mansour on Saturday night aborted these efforts, the sources added.

Statements
Earlier, senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi said that contacts have been made with the mediators, especially Egypt and the UN, to discuss the prospects of reaching a truce.
Abu Hamza, spokesperson for the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, Al-Quds Brigades, said on the third day of the fighting that his group has still not used all its rocket capabilities. He said that Islamic Jihad was still capable of inflicting pain on Israel. He also called on all Palestinians in the West Bank and the Arab Israelis to join the fight against Israel by launching a “massive uprising” to drive the “enemy from all of Palestine.”

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas was pursuing his efforts with regional and international parties to “stop the Israeli escalation targeting the Palestinian people and their Islamic and Christian holy sites.

PA Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh called on the UN Security Council to “assume its responsibilities to end the aggression.” He urged the US administration and the international community to intervene to stop the fighting “before it’s too late.”

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said during a press conference in Ramallah that Abbas has instructed the Palestinian envoy to the UN to request a special session of the Security Council to stop the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Shtayyeh called on the Security Council to issue a resolution calling for providing protection for the Palestinian people. “We want more than a condemnation from the council,” he said. “This is the third day of the Israeli aggression on our people in the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the martyrdom of 31 people and hundreds of injuries, as well as a lot of destruction.”

Shtayyeh criticized visits by Jews to the Temple Mount and Israeli military “incursions” into Jenin Refugee Camp and said that these “crimes will be added to the files submitted to the International Criminal Court.”

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U.S. keeps sanctioning Iran as “pressure leverage”: Iranian lawmaker

August 8, 2022 / JaFaJ

Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2022-08-07 20:53:30

TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — While the ongoing negotiations in Vienna are aimed at the removal of anti-Iran sanctions, the United States keeps sanctioning as leverage to pressure the Islamic republic, an Iranian spokesperson told official IRNA news agency on Sunday.
“Although we emphasize that the sanctions are oppressive and against the rights of our people and should be removed, and we are negotiating in Vienna to remove these sanctions, the other side (U.S.) is trying to use sanctions and the increase in the number of sanctioned companies as a pressure leverage and influence in the negotiation process,” said Abolfazl Amoui, spokesperson of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament.
His remarks were a reference to Iran’s informal negotiations with the European Union over the past weeks to thaw the ice in the Vienna process, while the United States imposed a series of new sanctions against entities related to Iran’s petrochemical exports recently.
Emphasizing that sanctions against Iran should not go unanswered, Amoui noted that “the decision of the Islamic republic is a logical decision which shows that it has the capability to increase the capacity of uranium enrichment.”
Therefore, the opposite party must have accurate calculations in applying pressure against Iran, and that action against Iran does not go without reaction, the Iranian lawmaker stressed.
Regarding the recent injection of gas into the advanced centrifuges in Iran, he said that Iran has acquired “good capabilities in the nuclear industry and centrifuge production, including the production of advanced generation or IR6 centrifuges, which can accelerate the process of enriched uranium.”
The new round of talks to revive the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), began in Vienna on Thursday after a five-month hiatus.
Iran signed the nuclear deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.
The talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington. ■

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