LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

Bible Quotation for today/
The Letter to the Hebrews 6/9-20: "But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this. For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them. We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”* Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

By JPOST.COM STAFF07/17/2013
http://www.jpost.com/International/Bulgaria-New-evidence-linking-Hezbollah-to-Burgas-bus-bombing-320161
Interior Minister says there is "no doubt who masterminded the attack" that killed five Israeli tourists and their driver. Bulgaria bus bomb.Bulgaria's interior minister said Wednesday that his country has received additional evidence implicating Hezbollah in the 2012 bus bombing in Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver, Sofia News Agency reported.
Thursday marks the one year anniversary of the attack Tsvetlin Yovchev who was speaking at a briefing, said that he would not provide any details of the evidence as the investigation was ongoing, according to the report. But the Interior Minister also said that "there was no doubt who masterminded the act, only the ID of the perpetrator remained unclear."
He said that there was no change in Bulgaria's position on the bombing and that Bulgaria "has leads pointing to Hezbollah." The EU will hold meetings this week, ahead of its foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, in an effort to marshal a consensus to include Hezbollah’s military wing on its terror list. There is cautious optimism among EU and Israeli diplomats that Europe will sanction a part of Hezbollah. A diplomat from a country in favor of a Hezbollah ban said a “consensus is clearly building” because “the evidence that it [Hezbollah] committed terrorism on EU soil is strong,” AFP reported on Tuesday. The diplomat appeared to reference the evidence linking Hezbollah to last years bus bombing. Bulgaria said last month that it only had an "indication" that Lebanon's Hezbollah might have been behind a deadly bus bombing in July and that this alone did not justify any European Union move to list it as a terrorist group. "It is important that the (EU) decision be based not only on the bombing in Burgas because I think the evidence we have is not explicit," Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, told national state radio BNR in June. Reuters, Jonny Paul and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.

Syrian Pro-Regime Figure, Mohammed Darrar Jammo Killed in Southern Lebanon
Naharnet /Gunmen have assassinated a prominent Syrian pro-government figure at his home in southern Lebanon, state-run media in Damascus and Lebanese security officials said Wednesday. The SANA news agency said Mohammed Darrar Jammo was gunned down by "terrorists" outside his home in the southern coastal town of Sarafand. A Lebanese security official said Jammo was killed in the early hours of Wednesday. "Mr. Jammo was shot dead by armed men at about two in the morning as he was about to enter his home in Sarafand where he lives with his Lebanese wife," the official told Agence France Presse. "They shot him with 20 bullets in different parts of his body," he said. His daughter was with him at the time of the attack and was later rushed to hospital suffering from shock, security officials said. They said a Lebanese man was detained near Jammo's house shortly after the shooting and was being questioned. Jammo, a political analyst who often appeared on Arab TV stations, was one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's strongest defenders. Assassinations of politicians, army officers and journalists are not uncommon in Syria but the killing in Lebanon of a Syrian figure is a rare incident. The shooting is the latest spillover from Syria's civil war, now in its third year, into Lebanon, where people are divided between Assad supporters and opponents. Source/Associated PressAgence France Presse.

Jumblat's Druz Party condemns killing of pro-Assad official in Lebanon
July 17, 2013/Daily Star /BEIRUT: The Syrian Social National Party condemned Wednesday the killing of Mohammad Jemo, a Syrian Baath Party official living in Sarafand near the coastal city of Sidon, saying the crime is a sign that Lebanon has become a hub of terrorist acts. The SSNP described the attack in a statement as “a terrorist crime that represents a dangerous challenge to Lebanon's security and stability.” “It is now clear that Lebanon is in the eye of a terror and extremist storm and fending off such danger requires steps to fortify the social, political and security aspects of Lebanon,” the statement said. Jemo was shot in his home over two dozen times at close range by an automatic assault rifle. The assailants fled the scene immediately after killing the man who was a staunch supporter of President Bashar Assad. “The timing of this assassination which comes after the explosion in Majdal Anjar on the Damascus-Beirut road and days after the bombing in Bir al-Abed, indicating that there is a plan to strike security and stability in Lebanon and the parties behind that are known, and it's known how the parties are contributing to the creation of such environment,” the SSNP said. The statement referred to the roadside bombing Tuesday that targeted a Hezbollah convoy and a bombing in a Beirut suburb that wounded over 50 people. The party said they hold some March 14 coalition members accountable for “providing an environment that embraces extremist groups who use Lebanon as a headquarters and path for gunmen and [transfer] of arms to Syria.”The regional leadership of the Arab Baath Party also denounced the crime, saying the action “would not deter Syrian media personalities and the free speech from saying the truth and continue to face the conspiracy and the dirty war targeting the Syrian people.”

Suleiman Says May Call for Dialogue Soon, Proposes Amending the Constitution
Naharnet /President Michel Suleiman said on Tuesday that he hopes he will be able to call for a national dialogue session “soon” to discuss the defense strategy and find solutions to the current political crises.
“Launching serious and all-encompassing dialogue sessions and supporting the state are among the Lebanese people's goals. This dream can come true if wills and capabilities were united,” Suleiman said at an Iftar banquet in Baabda Palace. The Iftar was attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and premier-designate Tamam Salam, in addition to several political and religious figures. Suleiman reiterated calls for abiding by the Baabda Declaration, urging factions to commit to it “in words and in deeds.” He noted that the international community “keeps voicing support for the declaration.”
“Could the United Nations Security Council's member states be more keen on the Lebanese people's security and safety than the Lebanese themselves?” he asked.
“We agreed in the Baabda Declaration on disassociating Lebanon from regional events, and preventing the transfer of weapons through the country to Syria and on continuing the discussion on the defense strategy,” Suleiman pointed out. He asked: “Who put Lebanese factions in a confrontation with each others and used expressions of treason in the political speech, and overthrew the parliamentary elections and allowed the involvement in military activities on the border?' "Each one must consider the dangers of their actions before it is too late.” The Baabda Declaration was unanimously adopted during a national dialogue session in June 2012. It calls for Lebanon to disassociate itself from regional crises, most notably the one in Syria. The president announced that he will come forward with a suggestion for discussion to amend some articles of the constitution.
He explained: “The problems that accompanied the work of the Constitutional Council show the need to revise the law that tackles the council's formation, regarding the distribution of its members and the authorities of the legislative and executive powers.” He added that the “first sign of reform is an electoral law that allows for questioning.” “It is the responsibility of the parliament to produce this kind of an electoral law,” he said. Suleiman called for showing “unconditional support to the army that has given many martyrs for the country's sake.” He continued: “We must support the military institution so that it could impose security, protect civil peace and confront the enemy.”He also urged political factions “to be responsible and facilitate the premier-designate's mission and trust him.” “There are no alternatives to forming a national unity cabinet.”

Army Checkpoints Force Release of Kidnapped Man
Naharnet /National Ayman Rayed, who hails from the Bekaa town of Arsal, was released on Wednesday by his kidnappers due to the efforts exerted by the Lebanese army. The state-run National News Agency reported that the army has erected checkpoints on main and side roads forcing the abductors to free Rayed. Rayed was released in Sahel Shaet in north Bekaa. The parents of Rayed denied paying a ransom in exchange for his release, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said. Kidnappings for ransom have increased in recent months amid a fragile security situation in the country.

One Year On, Bulgaria Still Hunts for Anti-Israeli Bus Bomber
Naharnet/A year after an anti-Israeli bus bombing killed six people, Bulgaria is struggling to identify the attacker or confirm his suspected links to Hizbullah or Iran. The July 18, 2012, bombing at Bulgaria's Black Sea Burgas airport was the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004 and the first in a EU member state. Five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian (Muslim) bus driver were killed and some 30 other people were injured. The bus was carrying a group of more than 40 Israeli tourists from the airport after they had just arrived in the country. On Thursday, officials from Bulgaria and Israel as well as relatives of the victims will open a monument at the site of the attack on the first anniversary of the bombing. But 12 months on, investigators are increasingly frustrated at efforts to track down those responsible. The bomber -- who was also killed in the attack -- was a Caucasian-looking man caught on airport cameras loitering in the arrivals hall with a big backpack on his shoulders. Bulgarian investigators managed to recover DNA and fingerprints from his remains along with an fake American driver's license in the name of Jacques Felipe Martin. This data and a computer-generated image however failed to return a match from Interpol databases. Israel immediately blamed Iran, which denied complicity, and its "terrorist proxy" Hizbullah for the bombing. Two identical driver's licenses -- made in Lebanon and used by two of the perpetrator's suspected accomplices -- allowed investigators to track down the real identities of Canadian and Australian passport holders residing in Lebanon since 2006 and 2010. "What we can make as a justified conclusion is that the two persons whose identity we have established belonged to the military wing of Hizbullah," the then interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said in February. DNA recovered from one of the licenses in the name of Ralph William Rico matched that of the bomber, the minister added, supporting the theory concerning his presumed Hizbullah links. "The justified conclusion stands," new Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin confirmed last week while insisting that the EU should not base a decision on whether to blacklist Hizbullah on these circumstantial findings alone. Talks on whether to add the military wing of Hizbullah to the bloc's list of "terrorist groups" also take place on Thursday. "The identity of the direct perpetrator has not been established yet and this hinders the probe to some extent," Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev told 24 Hours in an interview Tuesday. "There is progress. We have received additional data from foreign partner services that confirms the proposition already made," he added. A coroner's examination of the man's severed head recovered from the site of the accident indicated a young person, aged around 25, about 1.8 meters (five foot nine inches) tall, with fair skin and mixed eyes.
Airport CCTV footage showed him wearing typical holiday wear -- shorts, baseball cap and eyeglasses. Witness reports suggested his shoulder-length hair was probably a wig.
Investigators initially thought the man was a suicide bomber but a closer examination of the blown up bus and a later re-enactment of the bombing with silicon mannequins confirmed that he either died by mistake or his device was detonated by a remote-controlled device, at a distance. The re-enactment confirmed that about 2.2 kilograms (4.9 pounds) of trotile equivalent -- a common material in bombs used as standard measure of explosives strength -- was used in the attack. Investigators have so far been unable to establish whether the bomb was made abroad and smuggled into the country or assembled on the ground, with local or imported materials.
Israel's almost immediate repatriations both of the victims and the survivors prevented Bulgarian prosecutors from questioning them. Their written testimony was only received earlier this month and is still being translated, Burgas regional prosecution chief Kalina Chapkanova told 24 Hours newspaper last week. The investigation's initial end-of-June deadline has been extended by another five months.Source/Agence France Presse.

Geagea: Hizbullah Takes Unilateral Decisions, Wants a Political Cabinet Cover
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea stated on Wednesday that appointing a new army commander is the best solution to the controversial issue of extending the tenure of military chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji, and accused Hizbullah party of taking unilateral strategic decisions, the As-Safir daily reported. “Hizbullah party takes unilateral strategic decisions, which they later burden us with and ask for a cover through a political cabinet,” said Geagea. On extending Qahwaji's mandate, Geagea assured “I am not totally against or with extending it. I am waiting for things to take shape before I take my final decision. But I see that the best solution is to appoint a new army commander.” Qahwaji's term ends this September when he turns 60, the maximum age for the post of the army commander. On the delay in the cabinet formation process, Geagea assured that the March 14 alliance is not responsible for that. He said past experiences have shown that forming national unity cabinets proved to be a failure because they transfer divisions and tension from within the government to the streets.
Moreover, Geagea slammed reports accusing Saudi Arabia of the delay in forming a government. He said that March 14's demands exclude Hizbullah members was not inspired by Saudi Arabia.
He warned that “divisions are profound” adding that “March 14 is the sole party capable of real salvage to accomplish this mission,” otherwise the only acceptable solution is to form “an impartial cabinet that excludes March 14 and March 8.” He called on PM-designate Tammam Salam to speed up the formation process in coordination with President Michel Suleiman. March 14 demands to distance Hizbullah from the cabinet after its involvement in the Syria conflict, while March 8 asks for a political one, and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat says he rejects to vote for a single party cabinet.
On the latest campaign targeting the Lebanese Army after the Sidon clashes between Islamist cleric Ahmad al-Asir's supporters and the military, Geagea said: “There is no organized campaign against the army. There were only objections to the involvement of other illegitimate forces” in the fighting. He added: “the political authority is complicit with Hizbullah and gives instructions to the military institutions on that basis.”

Hizbullah Says Jammo Assassination Highlights Threat Facing Lebanon, Saniora Slams Murder
Naharnet/Hizbullah on Wednesday condemned the “terrorist and heinous” assassination of prominent Syrian pro-regime figure Mohammed Darrar Jammo in southern Lebanon, a Hizbullah stronghold.
The party said the incident “increases the belief that the criminal hand that is committing massacres in Syria does not differentiate between those fighting in the battlefield and those struggling through their words and stance, the thing that exposes the inability of the killers to confront an argument with a counter-argument.” “The heinous assassination crime that targeted struggler Jammo -- who had raised his voice high to express his free stance and honest word – highlights the approach of elimination that governs the behavior of the groups of violence and terror who claim to be seeking justice and freedom while exerting efforts to stifle every free opinion that contradicts with their interests and desires,” Hizbullah added. It warned that “this terrible crime must raise the alarm in Lebanon and push us to look for the most appropriate way to confront these terrorist groups before they become out of control … which would threaten safety and stability in Lebanon and in the region.”Hizbullah called on Lebanese authorities to “take all the necessary measures immediately in order to arrest the terrorists and bring them to justice and to pursue the conspirators and instigators to hold them accountable and protect the country from the evil of any new crime they might be plotting.” Meanwhile, head of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, ex-PM Fouad Saniora, condemned Jammo's assassination, describing it as a “crime by all standards.”“The assassination or killing of any Lebanese, Arab or foreign citizen is rejected and the killers must be identified and held accountable,” Saniora added, noting that the March 14 camp “had suffered assassination crimes committed over political differences.”“We reject this approach and we reject the use of violence and weapons against civilians,” Saniora added. He also condemned the roadside bomb attack that targeted a Hizbullah convoy on Tuesday in the Bekaa region. Jammo was assassinated by armed men at his home in south Lebanon early Wednesday, his wife and witnesses said, in the first such killing on Lebanese soil. He is a pro-regime Syrian political commentator who often appeared on Lebanese television to defend the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Witnesses said the 44-year-old official was shot as he arrived at his home in Sarafand, southern Lebanon, at around 2:15 am. His wife Siham Younis said his "friends in the (ruling) Baath party in Syria had warned him (on Tuesday) by phone that he needed to be careful." Lebanon is deeply divided between opponents and supporters of Assad, a rift that has intensified since the open intervention by Hizbullah on the side of the regime.

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Plumbly Meets Berri. Salam, Voices Concern with Failure to Form New Govt.
Naharnet/United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly stressed on Wednesday that the best way to safeguard Lebanon’s stability during this period was through reinforcing and respecting Lebanon’s state institutions. He said: “In this context the delay in forming a new government is a matter of concern.” He made his remarks after holding separate meetings with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam.
“I know that the speaker very much shares this concern. I encourage all sides to engage with the Prime minister-designate on the formation of his government,” added Plumbly. Discussions with Berri also addressed the extension of military appointments. “In this context, I would like to say that the Lebanese army is a vital partner for the United Nations in Lebanon,” continued Plumbly. “We very much hope that this problem, the problem of a possible vacuum in senior army positions, is resolved as soon as possible,” he stressed. Earlier on Wednesday, he had expressed concern of vacuum at the head of the military institution if the term of Army commander General Jean Qahwaji's term ended. “Politicians must resolve the matter. There's a pressing need to find a solution,” Plumbly said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper. Qahwaji's term ends this September when he turns 60, the maximum age for the post of the army commander. The diplomat pointed out that western countries have voiced strong support to the army and stressed the need to fortify its capabilities to confront the upcoming challenges. A Security Council statement proposed by France called for "strong, coordinated international support for Lebanon to help it continue to withstand the multiple current challenges to its security and stability." The Security Council statement said there should be international help for the Lebanese Armed Forces to help police the border and made a new appeal for all sides in Lebanon to stay out of the Syria conflict. A dispute emerged between political foes over the extension of Qahwaji's tenure. March 14 lawmakers insist on linking the extension of Qahwaji's mandate to that of Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, who retired after turning 59 – the ISF’s maximum working age – on April 1. While, Change and Reform MPs on the other hand refuse the extension of the term of the army commander, who turns 60 in September – the age of retirement for military chiefs. Plumbly also expressed fear over the involvement of Lebanese groups in battles in the neighboring country Syria, warning that the conflict might spill over into Lebanon. “Lebanon must be safeguarded from the negative repercussions of the turmoil in Syria,” he pointed out. He called on the Lebanese foes to abide by the Baabda declaration. In June 2012, a national dialogue session approved the Baabda Declaration that demands that Lebanon disassociate itself from regional conflicts. Hizbullah's backing of the Syrian regime has angered the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad and raised sectarian tensions inside Lebanon. Several Syria-based Islamist groups have threatened to attack Hizbullah strongholds in Lebanon in retaliation. Rockets from the Syrian side regularly crash into Shiite towns and villages near the border with Syria. Twice this month, rockets slammed into the Hizbullah stronghold known as Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs. In the most ominous sign yet that the sectarian war in Syria has begun to consume Lebanon, a car bomb tore through a heavily guarded sector of Bir al-Abed area on last week, wounding 53 people.

New Iran President Backs Assad, Hizbullah
Naharnet /Iran's president-elect has sent messages to Syria's Bashar Assad and Hizbullah, reaffirming support for the two allies. The official IRNA news agency on Tuesday cited Hassan Rowhani as saying close Iranian-Syrian ties will be able to confront "enemies in the region, especially the Zionist regime," or Israel. Rowhani said Syria will "overcome its current crisis." The note was in response to Assad's congratulatory message on Rowhani's June election. Tehran has sided with Assad's regime in Syria's civil war. Rowhani also wrote to Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying Iran backs the "steadfast nation" of Lebanon and the Palestinians, a reference to Hamas. He highlighted the group's "endeavors" for the anti-Israeli resistant front -- comprised of Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The notes reflect Rowhani's intentions to emphasize links to Iran's key regional allies even as he urges for greater outreach to the West.Source/Associated Press/Naharnet.

Report: Berri Plans Decree that Delays Qahwaji's Retirement Date
Naharnet /Speaker Nabih Berri is reportedly planning to resolve the vacuum in the army chief's post by a decree that calls for the postponement of Gen. Jean Qahwaji's retirement date for a limited period. As Safir daily said Wednesday that the decree would be signed by President Michel Suleiman, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and the caretaker ministers of defense and finance. Berri told local newspapers on Monday that he was preparing for what he called a “constitutional fatwa” that would allow the extension of Qahwaji's mandate if parliament failed to take action. Berri said the formula or the fatwa would pave way for the extension of Qahwaji's term, which ends this September when he turns 60, if the legislature failed to convene or a new government was not formed before the end of his mandate. In remarks to al-Joumhouria published Wednesday, Berri was adamant to call for parliamentary sessions until there was quorum and insisted to keep the 45 draft-laws on the agenda. A three-day session was postponed for the second time on Tuesday over lack of quorum caused by the absence of the March 14 alliance's lawmakers and the Change and Reform bloc. The new session was set by Berri for July 29. Miqati has also boycotted the session over his claim of lack of balance in the powers of the parliament and his resigned cabinet. Berri reiterated that he backed the quick formation of the new government and said Premier-designate Tammam Salam should discuss with “others their ministerial shares, including Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun.” “The shares of the Shiite sect are known. They are five ministers in a 24-member cabinet,” Berri said. The speaker's remark came against the backdrop of criticism that he hadn't yet proposed the names of the five candidates of Hizbullah and his Amal movement to Salam.

U.N. concerned over delay in Lebanon Cabinet formation
July 17, 2013 /The Daily Star/BEIRUT: U.N. Official in Lebanon Derek Plumbly said Wednesday the delay in forming a new Cabinet is a matter of concern, saying that he hopes the related issue of the impasse over the Army commander’s term is swiftly resolved. “In both meetings [with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam] I stressed that the best way to safeguard Lebanon’s stability during this period was through reinforcing and respecting Lebanon’s state institutions,” Plumbly told reporters in Ain el-Tineh. “In this context the delay in forming a new government is a matter of concern,” he added, encouraging all sides to engage with Salam on the formation process. Berri and Plumbly also spoke about the failure of lawmakers to end the impasse over extending Gen. Jean Kahwagi’s term which ends in September.
“I would like to say that the Lebanese army is a vital partner for the United Nations in Lebanon. We very much hope that this problem, the problem of a possible vacuum in senior army positions, is resolved as soon as possible,” Plumbly said. During Plumbly's meetings he reinforced the U.N.'s commitment to Lebanon's dissociation policy from the Syrian conflict and its support for the related Baabda Declaration.

Lebanese trim expenditures as pessimism reigns
July 17, 2013/By Mohamad El Amin/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: As Lebanon continues to slip into recession, the country’s citizens are growing increasingly pessimistic regarding the economy and cutting back on unnecessary expenditures, The Daily Star discovered during recent interviews. Coming in the wake of a survey published last week by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies showing that 95 percent of Lebanese believe the economy is “bad” or “very bad,” and 65 percent expect the economic situation to worsen, the interviews conducted by the The Daily Star sought to determine the impact of the slowing economy on the livelihoods and consumption habits of citizens in different Beirut neighborhoods.
Moussa Achour, a 50-year-old money changer on Maarad street in Beirut Central District, says he couldn’t be in a worse situation. “The area where we are is seeing no business. It is slightly above zero. Business has fallen by up to 80 percent compared to 2010 and numerous businesses have already closed down,” he said, referring to scores of restaurants that have closed over the past months.“Austerity ... austerity,” Achour said when asked how the slowdown of his business impacted the livelihood of his family. “Family outings, dinners and so on were completely canceled rather than reduced. We are down to bare necessities,” he added, highlighting that the family was forced to tap into its saving account several month ago. Like many, Achour cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. “The country is going to collapse and I cannot see solutions,” he said. Taxi driver Jamal Kahili waits near the Beshara Khoury intersection. “Don’t you need to go somewhere after this?” he asked jokingly, interrupting the interview with the familiar “taxi” shouts at passersby. “Taxi drivers are the most affected by the decline in the economy, particularly tourism,” he said. “We used to wait for this season every year but this is the worst in years and, aside from a small remaining number of tourists, no one is hiring taxis these days.”
Asked how the family coped with the fall in income, Kahili said that on many days he could not even make ends meet and had been delaying payments to his landlord for months.
Fadi, an owner of a Gemmayzeh gallery who asked to be identified only by his first name, was also pessimistic: “Look for yourself ... the streets are empty and speak louder than words.”
“When I first opened the gallery in 2010, I was barely able to meet demand. Today we are barely selling anything,” he said. Asked whether he was hopeful the situation could improve this summer, Fadi’s answer was full of sarcasm. “[It can improve] if the Lebanese people donate $1 each and buy some far away island and ship all [politicians] so that they can fight as much as they want,” he said. Gemmayzeh shop owner Therese Chamoun was equally downbeat. “This street was booming only a few year ago. Today hardly any customers are coming into the shop,” she said.
She admits that inflation has been weighing on her lifestyle since she opened her shop a year-and-a-half ago. Since then, Therese has cut down on luxury expenditures, cutting down on outings, clothing as well as many other items. Therese’s family is now hesitant to register their son at a leading private university after he was admitted. Previously planned house remodeling, new furniture and cars are all on hold, she said. “Now we are at a block and cannot take any decisions,” she said. In Beirut’s Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood the situation is not any better. “We sit at the laundry all day and hardly do any customers show up,” Ali Kanaan said. “The economic decline is hitting everything ... homes, shops and businesses and no one is spared.”Yet some people still see a glimpse of hope. Kanaan’s neighbor Fawaz Yassin, who owns a furniture gallery, said his business was tied to the political and security situation. “If the week sees security turmoil business slows down and when things calm down it improves a bit,” he said. Travel agency owner Mohammad Barakat was more optimistic than most. “Without doubt the situation is difficult but I do not think it is exceptional,” he said. “There is a slowdown but no collapse.”Unlike other business owners, Barakat did not put his investment plans on hold. “On the contrary, we are expanding and we have a new 200-square-meter shop in Downtown and another branch in Verdun opening next September,” he said. “Every day people tell me that ‘you are taking too much risk.’ But since we opened the businesses in 1989, the trend in the country is the same. We cannot just sit aside and do nothing until the situation improves.”

Kurds Expel Jihadists from Flashpoint Syrian Town
Naharnet/Kurdish fighters have expelled jihadists from the Syrian flashpoint frontier town of Ras al-Ain and the nearby border crossing with Turkey, a watchdog said on Wednesday. Elsewhere, a car bomb attack killed at least seven people, among them a child, southwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish fighters took total control of Ras al-Ain "after 24 hours of fighting. The (jihadist) groups were expelled from the whole of Ras al-Ain, including the border post" with Turkey, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Earlier, the Britain-based group had reported clashes between Kurds and Al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other groups.
Ras al-Ain has a majority Kurdish population and is of strategic importance because of its location close to Turkey. Kurdish fighters are trying to ensure that neither the regime of President Bashar Assad nor the opposition takes control of the area.
The clashes between Kurdish fighters and jihadists erupted after Al-Nusra Front attacked a convoy of Kurdish women fighters, Abdel Rahman said.
Nine jihadists and two Kurdish fighters have been killed since the fighting broke out, the Observatory said. Activists in Ras al-Ain said members of the jihadist groups had taken advantage of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began last week, to try to impose their extreme version of Islam.
In the early days of the Syria conflict, when opponents of Assad's regime were desperate for help from any quarter, jihadist fighters were welcomed but a spate of abuses has fueled a major backlash.
Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center, pointed out that tensions between Kurdish fighters and Islamist rebels go back months, and have persisted despite a series of ceasefires.
Other fighters perceive the Kurds as "interested only with Kurdish interests, rather than those of Syria or of Islam," he said. Additionally, "the predominance of more liberal values -- in terms of lifestyle, appearance, and culture -- make Kurds a typical target of Islamist derision". He said the Ras al-Ain clashes "emphasize the potential for damaging distractions to emerge for Syria's anti-government opposition".
Elsewhere in Syria, a child and six men were killed when a car bomb attack hit Kanaker in Damascus province, said the Observatory.
In the north of the capital, troops renewed their shelling campaign of rebel areas in Barzeh, while clashes also raged in the neighborhood, the group added. And in the central city of Homs, an army onslaught aimed at taking back rebel districts was in its 18th day, activists said.
Troops began a new attempt to break into the rebel area of Bab Hud, which like other districts of Homs has been under tight army siege for more than a year, Homs-based activist Yazan told Agence France Presse via the Internet. Meanwhile, "the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate day after day because of the suffocating siege", he said. The lack of medical equipment in flashpoint areas means "there is a growing need to evacuate dozens of wounded, who urgently need operations that cannot be performed here", Yazan added. More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's 28-month war, the Observatory estimates. Wednesday's violence comes a day after at least 112 people were killed across the country, the group added. SourceظAgence France Presse.

Islamic council: Lebanon Mufti to stay until end of term
By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Higher Islamic Council said Wednesday after a special session under Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani that the mufti will remain in his post until the end of his term in September 2014.
A statement after the meeting accused political groups of demeaning Qabbani and the post of the grand mufti, harming the higher interests of Islam and sparking strife among Sunnis. “[The council] stresses that the grand mufti will remain in his post in line with articles of Decree 18 until the last minute of his term despite the will of critics, hypocrites and forgers,” said a statement by attendees that gathered at Dar al-Fatwa.
The council has been beset by divisions over the past years, mirroring disputes between Qabbani and Saad Hariri's Future Movement which alleges the grand mufti committed financial wrongdoing among other violations. The disputes led to the body splitting into two. The statement added that Decree 18 of 1955, which organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa, grants the grand mufti the rights and privileges of other senior religious leaders. Qabbani’s term expires in September 2014. Dar al-Fatwa’s meeting came after members of the councils’ electoral body signed a petition calling on the council to convene a session during which they would vote on sacking Qabbani for misconduct. The petition, backed by the Future Movement, was signed by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, Hariri and former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the head of the Future parliamentary bloc. The statement said that demeaning the grand mufti and his post did not occur even when Lebanon was under French mandate. “This amounts to a clear aggression against the post of the grand mufti and Decree 18 of 1955 and a confiscation of the freedom of Muslims in managing their own religious affairs,” the statement said. “Hence, the Higher Islamic Council...retains its right to sue impersonators and forgers,” it added.
The statement said that dragging the premiership to a confrontation against Dar al-Fatwa to serve the goals of some political groups is a desperate and futile attempt. “[These campaigns] are part of attempts to target [the grand mufti] ...particularly over the stances of the grand mufti in defending the independence of the religious institution against politics do harm to the political interests of some,” the statement added.
The council said that no official or private institution has authority over Dar al-Fatwa or the Higher Islamic Council. At the end of last year, members of the council who are close to the Future Movement convened under its deputy-head, former Minister Omar Miskawi and extended the term of the body until the end of 2013. Considering the extension illegal, Qabbani held council elections in April. Qabbani argues that the Future Movement seeks to strip the grand mufti of his powers by introducing amendments to Decree 18. The Future Movement denies such allegations, saying that Qabbani has committed financial wrongdoing and other violations. In remarks published Wednesday, Qabbani said he would remain in his post until the end of his term. “I will not leave Dar Al-Fatwa even if they sack me, and I will stay in it until the end of my mandate or if I die,” Qabbani told Al-Akhbar newspaper. He also slammed Salam and Siniora, describing their behavior not to attend prayers he led before an iftar banquet hosted by President Michel Sleiman Tuesday as “childish.”“Their minds are small, and they are acting like children, this is not how men should be. They do not know the meaning of religion and the manners of Islam,” he said.

Fatah official denies Assir, Shaker in Palestinian refugee camp
By Mohammed Zaatari/The Daily Star/SIDON, Lebanon: A Fatah official denied Wednesday reports that firebrand Salafist Sheikh Ahmad Assir and pop singer-turned-Islamist Fadl Shaker have taken refuge in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian camp near the southern city of Sidon. “Let's be clear, we haven’t had any information until now confirming that Ahmad Assir or anyone otherwise are within the camp's parameter or Taamir,” head of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Armed Struggle in Lebanon Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Issa, better known as Lino, told reporters. “Until now, we don't have anything confirming such information,” he added.
Reports have emerged in recent weeks suggesting both Assir and Shaker fled the Taamir neighborhood to the nearby Ain el-Hilweh camp after the Army launched a military operation to crush Assir’s fighters in the Sidon suburb of Abra. Security sources told The Daily Star last week that Shaker and 10 other gunmen had taken refuge in the Palestinian camp near the coastal city.
The military investigative judge has issued arrest warrants in absentia against Assir and Shaker. Lino made his remarks while supervising the distribution of aid to Palestinian refugees from Syria by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s institution for humanitarian work. The Fatah official also spoke about the security situation at the camp and reiterated that Palestinians would remain neutral toward internal Lebanese conflicts. “The situation is stable in the camp and the security situation is acceptable,” he said, adding that he was in contact with other Palestinian factions in Lebanon to ensure security given the situation in the country and region. “We have already announced and we say it again that, as Palestinians, we will remain at a distance from any internal Lebanese conflicts,” Lino added, vowing that any Palestinian involving themselves in such disputes would be held accountable. As for the help Palestinian refugees from Syria are receiving inside the camp, Lino said Fatah has opened two centers to assist the popular committees and other organizations in order to distribute aid to some 20,000 additional people in the Ain el-Hilweh camp. “The number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who have fled Syria to Ain el-Hilweh, according to estimates, is 17,000 and 400 families until now,” he said, adding that each family received a $150-voucher that was valid until the end of the year.

Car bomb kills women and children in Syria's south
July 17, 2013-BEIRUT: A car bomb killed several civilians, including women and children, in a town south of Damascus on Wednesday, Syrian state television said. The car was parked near the Amari Mosque in Kanaker, the channel reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, quoted activists as saying seven people had died. The small town is under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces but there are rebels in the surrounding area. The province around Damascus has seen intense fighting during the two-year conflict. Syria's civil war started with pro-democracy protests that were suppressed by government forces. An ensuing civil war has killed 90,000 people and drawn in regional powers hoping to sway the outcome of the conflict. Assad's forces, spurred on by a series of recent battleground victories, have staved off rebel advances near Damascus and further south of the capital, in areas near the Jordanian border. Insurgents have used car bombs to target areas they are not able to push into with ground forces.

Hostage negotiations ongoing despite obstacles: minister
July 17, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Caretaker Labor Minister Salim Jreissati said Wednesday efforts are ongoing with Turkey to overcome obstacles that have blocked the release of Lebanese hostages in Syria.
"Efforts and contacts are still ongoing with the Turkish side, knowing that there are obstacles but they are being dealt with,” Jreissati told reporters during a news conference to discuss recent developments in the case of the nine Lebanese hostages. Director of General Security, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, has been leading negotiations between Turkish and Syrian officials and the kidnappers over a plan to release the Lebanese in exchange for female Syrian detainees. Jreissati however declined to specify what the obstacles were preventing the release of the abducted men who have been held over a year, saying a ministerial committee and Ibrahim will maintain a policy of “useful silence” to ensure a happy ending to the case. Eleven Shiite pilgrims were abducted by a rebel group in Azaz in the Aleppo district in May of last year. Two have been released so far.
The kidnappers recently said they would exchange the hostages for a list of female detainees held by the Syrian regime. General Security has cited progress in the case but denied recent media reports from family members that the hostages would be released soon in batches in exchange for the prisoners. Jreissati's comments came after the caretaker Cabinet’s ministerial committee met with Ibrahim to discuss the negotiations.
“The families have been informed of the efforts and are in constant contact with Ibrahim,” Jreissati said.

Incoherent policy
July 17, 2013/The Daily Star/Over the last two years, many have waited with bated breath over U.S. foreign policy in the region, and where exactly it was headed. But now it appears that all along there was no grand plan, and it is precisely as haphazard and shortsighted as it has seemed since the start of the Arab Spring. Where once it seemed as if the American vagueness was based on calm and reasoned wisdom, a pragmatic approach gained after decades of experiences and learning in the Middle East, it now appears that its foreign policy, or lack thereof, actually stems from a gross misunderstanding of events on the ground. It is hard to remember a time of greater controversy or of conflicting voices coming from the White House, Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department. There is no one singular voice speaking on any of the greatest issues facing the region today, no one central policy, excluding the Gulf. This policy wavering would be a luxury if it were not for the thousands of lives being lost in the region, 5,000 a month in Syria alone, the U.N. said Tuesday. On this issue, the U.S. has flagrantly procrastinated and dithered, so much so that not only is the Syrian regime not even slightly perturbed by U.S. support for the opposition but it is actually encouraged by it, and uses it as a pretext on which to carry out more atrocities against the population. This American “support” for the opposition, which transpires as little more than words, is perhaps more harmful to the rebels, and civilians than Russian arms handed to the regime. This same tangled foreign policy approach has been witnessed in Egypt, where, three weeks after the ousting of Mursi and the U.S. still appears as lost and befuddled as ever, clearly not knowing what to do or who to ally with. The U.S. government seems to hope that its meager $1.5 billion in annual aid will be enough to win it friends, but after the $12 billion in gifts and loans from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait – frankly a slap in the face to Washington – this looks more like a booby prize. U.S. policy in this part of the world has long been based on two principal interests: Israel and oil, and so the region has always been strategically important to the U.S. But whereas the country used to try and sugar coat this by attempting to deal with other regional problems – for example the Palestinian issue, which instead of helping they actually hindered – now, however, it appears there is no longer any attempt to hide their interests in the region. The only good that can come from this confused and incoherent policy is that now the veil has been removed. The people of this region can see the U.S. for what it is, and while the election of President Barack Obama once seemed to symbolize a future full of hope for the Middle East, his presidencies now stand for a nightmare.

Obama uses EU to confront Israel with tough interlinked choices: borders or nuclear-armed Iran

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 17, 2013/
It doesn’t take a political genius to see how US Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival in Amman Tuesday, July 16, for his sixth bid to bring Israelis and the Palestinians to the table, ties in with the new EU anti-Israel funding guidelines published on the same day. To avoid a head-on clash with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the US president has loosed the Europeans in full cry against Jerusalem and its policies. European Union foreign affairs executive Catherine Ashton chairs the international negotiating forum with Iran. And so, the EU has given Tehran a broad wink that it is worth its while to come to a fresh round of nuclear diplomacy while Israel is kept on the run in the settlements-cum-borders dispute.
Israel is further weakened by its own internal political difficulties.
The third Netanyahu cabinet is painfully shorthanded of ministers for dealing with foreign diplomacy and national security affairs. In the absence of a foreign minister, shackled with a new cabinet which took office in February, and beset with a reshuffle of his close aides, the prime minister is obliged to carry himself most of the burden for key decisions on the essential business of state.
When he decides not to decide on any issue, that issue is shuffled into the pending tray to await his attention - and of late, this is happening too often.
Netanyahu is taxed currently with keeping tabs on the conflict close to Israel’s borders in Egyptian Sinai, the threatened spillover of the Syrian war – only part of which reaches the public – and the approach of a nuclear Iran, which he admits is dangerously close to consummation. Every few weeks, he is put on the spot for fast decisions by US Secretary of State Kerry’s peace drive.
It is no wonder that Netanyahu drops some of the balls he is juggling.
The last ball to slip out of his hands was the new European Commission’s new guideline for the alliance to distinguish between the state of Israel and territories outside the 1967 Green Line for the purpose of co-funding projects and grants. This guideline is grounded in the EU’s fixed determination that East Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan were illegally occupied by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israel war. The “settlements” housing more than a half a million Jews are likewise deemed illegal. Therefore, from Jan. 1, 2014, any Israeli entity seeking European project funding or grants will be obliged to declare it has no connection, direct or indirect, with a “settlement.” There is nothing new about this determination. The European Union has for years boycotted goods manufactured in settlements and demanded that Israel exporters label their products with the source of manufacture. Ever since 1967, the UK has withheld pensions and allowances from British expatriates living outside the Green Line until they relocate to addresses London deems kosher.
And that is only one of many examples.
However, the new guidelines have exacerbated the rift between Brussels and Jerusalem and signal a further deterioration. If in future every Israeli firm is required before every financial or business transaction with Europe to disassociate from EU-proscribed Jewish communities, then bilateral trade, whose volume has climbed to 40 billion euros, will gradually decline, with as much economic fallout for Europe as for Israel.
Israel’s prime minister responded fast and hard to the new EU guidelines with a bitter broadside for what he sees as outside interference in the definition of Israel’s borders, in a manner which compromises direct Israel negotiations with the Palestinians. Direct negotiations are the only way to define those borders, he stressed, and the EU measure had the effect of tilting them in the Palestinians’ favor.
Netanyahu was particularly incensed by the EU dropping its bombshell on the day John Kerry arrived in Amman to pick up his mission for reviving the peace track, which he interrupted empty-handed earlier this month.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon greeted Kerry’s arrival by eulogizing his mission, accusing the Palestinians of burying it by sheer obstructionism. Ya’alon no doubt followed the line set by the prime minister.
Kerry spent five hours talking to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday night, in yet another effort to melt his insistence on Israel meeting his preconditions for a meeting.
By Wednesday morning, the US Secretary had not yet arranged to meet Israeli officials this time round.
Israeli policy-makers understand that Washington is dodging a showdown with Netanyahu by using the Europeans to clobber his policies at a moment of internal weakness in Jerusalem. Now they realize they must brace urgently for the next chapter in the Obama campaign: Ashton will build on the EU steps to get a fresh round of world power-Iranian nuclear negotiations underway by persuading Tehran that Brussels, with Washington’s backing, is in full flight of a diplomatic campaign for cutting Israel down to size.
By pulling the wires behind the European campaign, the Obama administration is after three goals:
1. Persuading Tehran to return to international diplomacy on its nuclear program by diminishing Israel’s leverage.
2. Confronting Israel with diplomatic isolation on an issue of prime importance to its security, i.e., the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, unless the Netanyahu government agrees to concessions to the Palestinians on final borders.
3. Warning Netanyahu that his failure to toe the Obama line on the Syrian conflict and the Egyptian army coup will cost Israel dear. Instead of lining up with what is seen in the region as an ineffectual Washington, Israel struck out on its own to play ball with regional forces on the move, the Arab rulers of the Gulf and the Egyptian army. The US president has used the European Union to make sure Jerusalem understands that he too will pursue his own game - and it will be at the expense of Israel’s interests.

Is Syria Finished?
Dennis Ross/The Mark News/Washington Institute
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/is-syria-finished
If Washington doesn't help contain Syria's civil war, the whole region could plunge into chaos.What was supposed to be the Syrian phase of the so-called "Arab Spring" has evolved into one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century. The once-peaceful opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's deeply entrenched and powerful Ba'ath Party regime has escalated into armed resistance and, finally, a brutal civil war -- one that has now claimed close to 100,000 lives. This escalation poses a serious threat, not just to Syria's neighbors, but -- given the existence of chemical weapons in Syria -- to the international community as well.
The United States, like other nations supportive of the Syrian opposition, has chosen to act, but to do so primarily through diplomatic and economic means. Its hesitancy to take more direct action is understandable given the fractious nature of the opposition, but the cost of failing to influence the balance of power between the opposition and the Syrian regime could be high. I say this not only because of the horrific humanitarian toll that is being exacted, but also because the conflict is almost certain to spread to all of Syria's neighbors. Meanwhile, Assad, confident of his military strength and with support from Iran and Hezbollah, continues to wage war on his own people in what has now become an overtly sectarian conflict.
At this stage, it might appear almost too late for the United States to have an influence on the Syrian crisis. To be sure, providing small amounts of lethal assistance will not have much impact on the situation. Iran and Hezbollah are determined to keep Assad in power, even to the point of using their own forces. As such, the U.S. will need to do more to make sure that the provision of lethal assistance can affect the balance of power. This will require actually assuming responsibility for managing the whole assistance effort to the opposition.
This will not be easy. It will require coordinating all the disparate sources of support on the outside -- from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, and France -- and ensuring that all money, training, weapons, and non-lethal and humanitarian assistance are channeled in a complementary and cooperative fashion.
There should be no illusions: Should the U.S. take over the management of the assistance effort -- something that will require a serious investment of time and political capital on the part of the administration -- transforming the situation and the balance of power will take time, and is not a given at this point.
After all, the Syrian opposition remains fragmented despite the formation of a Syrian National Coalition last year. Moreover, the Jihadist elements, having received the most money and arms, retain the upper hand within the opposition, at least at this juncture. To help influence a positive outcome, then, the U.S. administration would need to ensure that all assistance is going only to those who are committed to a non-sectarian, inclusive Syria. These groups are at a disadvantage now, and, even if they are given the kind of assistance and training that they need, it will take time before they are able to exploit it.
The larger point here is that the U.S., and others that support the opposition, need to have a clear objective. Providing more material assistance, including weapons, in a more systematic and coordinated fashion is a means to altering the balance of power on the ground, and that is the only way a politically negotiated transition can become possible.
That is the hope, and it remains a long shot at the moment. Not only must the opposition become more credible and less divided, but the international coalition that supports the opposition must itself become more unified and provide determined and consistent support to those fighting the Assad regime. Even if some sort of political agreement became possible, it would need to be enforced by an international peacekeeping presence.
If a political resolution to the situation seems like an increasingly forlorn objective, how can the United States respond to the ever more probable outcome that Syria will simply fall apart? Assad, whatever he believes, is not going to succeed. He may continue to control certain areas within Syria for a while, but a fragmentation of the country is more likely. Such a deterioration would pose a threat to the international community as a whole: Not only might al-Qaeda embed itself in what would effectively be a failed state, but the loss of control over Syria's chemical weapons could have catastrophic implications for everyone. If the situation does worsen along these lines, Syria as we have known it for decades will cease to exist.
At a minimum, assuming that a political solution proves impossible, we need to have a fallback strategy of containment that aims to build a buffer zone in and around Syria. While this is not a very satisfactory approach, the fragmentation of Syria cannot be allowed to destabilize the whole region.
**Dennis Ross is counselor at The Washington Institute.

Debate: Mursi’s ouster was a military coup
Ibrahim Munir/Asharq Alawsat
This was not just a coup. Mursi’s ouster is the tip of the iceberg, demonstrating the conspiracy that has been enacted against the Egyptian people and state since “military rule” began in Egypt. This “military rule” has been in place since the 1950s, and it has hijacked revolutions and uprisings that the people paid dearly for. Military coups came to impose false leaders who exploited certain incidents and events to come to power. These leaders operated under cover of such incidents to suppress people’s freedoms and limit the scope of religion until it was a mere formality. In fact, religion was only summoned on formal occasions, while anti-religion slogans were spread under the guise of false secularism in order to fight true faith, destroy the economy, push the country into fruitless wars with its neighbors, subject Egypt to the will of foreign elements, and strip the Egyptian people of their identity and sense of belonging.
Today, Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is trying to revive military rule in Egypt. Sisi, like his predecessors, is not the real mastermind, and perhaps he and those who are backing him have failed to realize that life in Egypt has changed, and it is now easy to expose the secrets behind such military coups.
Thank God, the announcement of this coup—which they wanted to appear as being merely the ouster of Mursi and his group from power, rather than against the political system itself—proved to be nonsensical and shortsighted. The fact is that up until today, more than 40 million Egyptians have taken to the streets across the country, confronting the bullets of the putschists. This demonstrates that claims that the military leadership intervened in response to the will of the Egyptian people is patently false.
This fascistic coup was a complete miscalculation, particularly as its leader is completely unlike other military figures who staged coups in the past. The historical figures who staged coups had some political experience, because they were allowed to be involved in politics. This is completely contrary to Sisi, who was graduated from and advanced in a military system that prohibited involvement in, or even thinking about, politics. Sisi—whose opinion was shaped in line with what the leadership says in public—is well aware that many of his military colleagues and contemporaries had been isolated by the regime for possessing such ambitions.
However, accompanied by other figures that do not enjoy mass approval, Sisi staged his coup, violating the oath he had swore to Mursi, Egypt’s first civilian and democratically-elected president, in addition to betraying the constitution that he swore to preserve.
To make things worse, he immediately violated the democratic system that he claimed to be championing. Sisi’s first decision was to shut down all Islamic TV channels, while he left a number of other channels that had publicly attacked Islam and President Mursi on the air.
Thus, Sisi immediately consolidated the concept of a military coup by first bringing in the head of the Supreme Court to be sworn in on a non-existent constitution which will be drafted later, while the same applies to the oath of office that he took. How can an official swear allegiance to something that does not exist?!
Second, by calling for the implementation of a roadmap in Egypt that is precisely the same as the one President Mursi had announced two days before this coup.
Third, fabricating accusations against Muslim Brotherhood figures that are known—by Egyptians as well as all Arabs and Muslims—for their transparency, sacrifices and criminalization of violence. In fact, Sisi relied on the same government apparatus that had acquitted former president Mubarak and his aides of charges of killing protestors in order to convict Muslim Brotherhood figures.
It is insane, even for an opponent of the Brotherhood, to seek to arrest Mohamed Saad El-Katatni, the first freely elected speaker of parliament in the history of Egypt, just 12 hours after a coup that he had refused to take part in. Fourth, was appointing a judge whose integrity as head of the Supreme Court has been challenged, as the country’s new interim president. Following this, the new president issued a constitutional decree dissolving the Shura Council, which had been democratically elected by the Egyptian people.
If all this does not constitute a coup, then what does?

Mursi’s ouster was not a military coup
Abdul Ghaffar Shukr/Asharq Alawsat
The fact of the matter is that before the announcement of the Egyptian military’s decision to depose Mursi, there were crowds in the streets across the country. More than 22 million people came out to demand early presidential elections.The military decision can be seen as an affront to constitutional legitimacy, according to the constitution that was active at the time. However, the presence of popular legitimacy cannot be ignored. Millions of Egyptians took to the streets—twice as many as those who voted for Mursi in the elections.
These people went out in rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood before the Egyptian military made a move. Millions went out because they saw that Mursi had not fulfilled his duties to be a president to all Egyptians. They expressed this in writing by signing the Tamarod (Rebellion) petition that called for a withdrawal of confidence in the president of the republic, and the holding of fresh elections. They expressed this in action as well, taking to the streets before the eyes of the watching world.
Therefore, we are facing the will of the people, while the 2012 constitution—which was drawn up by the Muslim Brotherhood themselves—begins by emphasizing that “the people are the source of authority,” and that the government draws its powers from the will of the people. Therefore, there is a constitutional basis to legitimacy through the will of the people. The Tamarod movement, which was the genesis of the former president’s ouster, can be summarized in the fact that Mursi made promises to the electorate which he could not keep when he took office last year. Therefore, he broke the bond between himself and the electorate who voted for him.
In this manner, we can look at the army’s intervention as being against constitutional legitimacy, but we cannot ignore the fact that it happened in response to the will of the people, serving as an expression of popular legitimacy.
Here, we stand before a very important point: The proof that what happened was not a military coup can be seen in the fact that the army did not assume power. A military coup would mean, quite simply, the army assuming political authority and ruling the country through a military council or government.
We have instead a president who had been the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, while a constitutional declaration was issued to announce an interim presidency. This declaration stipulates the executive, legislative and judicial powers, and how they are implemented. Egypt is today governed by a government of civilians, while a committee of legal professors and political figures will be appointed to amend the constitution. Therefore, we are governed by civilian rule, not military rule.
I recall an article by Thomas Friedman in which he described the events in Egypt as being akin to “a coup that is not a coup,” and, therefore, everyone who looks at the event inside and outside Egypt. can see that there is a paradox: Yes, there was a decision to remove the former president, and this decision was made outside constitutional legitimacy. However, it was an expression of the will of the people, while at the same time, the army did not assume power. Those who ultimately assumed power were civilians.
I think that the presence of Mohamed El-Baradei as vice-president will change the international take on what is happening in Egypt, particularly due to his global influence and reputation. All this will help completely change the West’s stance, and I think that the world will support the political process in Egypt, largely thanks to Baradei’s presence.
However, this goes beyond the West, of course. There are major countries in the east, such as Russia, China and Japan. All these will not be slow to support the change in Egypt, along with the Arabs too, of course.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, was invited to the political consultations currently taking place the Republican Palace, but rejected this invitation. It said that the consultations in this framework were tantamount to approving the decision to remove Mursi, which both the political party and the Muslim Brotherhood organization reject. Therefore, they are now outside the ongoing political process in Egypt.
The absence of the Brotherhood, however, will present a problem. As long as the Muslim Brotherhood are not satisfied, Egypt will have problems. The Brotherhood are a powerful and large political faction which is capable of causing the government problems at any time, as they are doing today in some places by disrupting traffic and attacking municipal buildings and so on.
I think that this attitude will not change unless the current Muslim Brotherhood changes and a new, moderate leadership that cares about the organization’s future, takes over. The course currently being pursued by the Brotherhood leadership will almost certainly finish the organization.
The situation needs a new leadership, away from the group known as the Qutbists (in reference to Egyptian Islamic theorist Sayyid Qutb). It needs a leadership that is able to understand political development in the country and deal with this flexibility, enabling the Muslim Brotherhood to save itself, and continue to play a role in Egypt’s political future.

Self-Criticism in the Muslim Brotherhood?
Hazem Saghieh/Al Hayat
The 1920s, the decade during which the Muslim Brotherhood was founded, saw the beginnings of communist groups in Egypt and Lebanon. But one of the many and massive differences between the two parties is that the communists were expressing the birth of a modern sector, representing industry and its working class, as a result of new colonial relations. By contrast, the Brotherhood was expressing the shock resulting from the contact with the West, which they tried to rebut categorically.
It was not without significance that the Brotherhood chose as its slogan “the Quran is our constitution,” or that the city where the group was founded, Ismailia, hosted at the same time the headquarters of the British forces and the Christian missionaries in Egypt.
Twenty years later, the inception of the Arab Socialist Baath Party was linked to the expansion of the military institutions and branches, following independence, in Syria first and then in Iraq. This link to some form of modernism remained a strange concept to the Brotherhood, whose clash with the military establishment and vice versa became one of the main phenomena characterizing political life in the modern Arab Orient.
In truth, if we are to examine how easy it was for the military regimes, in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, to get rid of pro-Brotherhood elements that had managed to infiltrate the armies, we would be astounded by what is indeed absolute repulsion between the two.
True, the terrorist ‘Special Apparatus’ founded by the Brotherhood in the early 1940s, and the radical literature produced by Sayyid Qutb in the 1960s, assigned to the pupils of Hassan al-Banna a modern-like functional and instrumental role. However, this was not at all sufficient to transform that broad popular block into one that endorses modernism, whatever the definition of this term or the position on it may be.
On the whole, the Brotherhood’s sense of victimization, which became most entrenched under Nasser, strengthened its tendency to withdraw and retreat from the new jahiliyya – the ungodly age as per Islamist literature – brought about by foreign and local ‘devils.’ And regarding the exodus of Brotherhood cadres from Egypt and then Syria to the Arab Gulf, the financial revenues they amassed there still did not translate into a strong social intermediary, despite their extensive investments in Islamic advocacy.
This could be better illustrated by a comparison between the Arab Muslim Brotherhood and the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. To be sure, the rise of the latter took place in parallel with the emergence of new social changes and structures, such as the Anatolian bourgeoisie or the television boom made possible under Turgut Ozal (1989 - 1993). The Turkish Brotherhood, through this experience that sought to blend between Islamism and liberalism, learned many things about politics, the market, and public opinion trends. The same cannot be said about the Egyptian Brotherhood, however.
We say this in order to highlight the astronomical distance that the Brotherhood must traverse in order to become an influential force in the modern world, the only world that exists in actual reality. The fact that the Brotherhood did not go in that direction yet has been a disaster, not only to itself, but also to the societies in which the Brotherhood thrives.
The Syrian revolution, in one of its aspects, shed a lot of light on the banality of modernist non-Brotherhood factions, and the superficiality of their modernism per se. But in the same sense, we can say that the recent Egyptian coup, taking advantage of Mohamed Morsi’s dismal year in the presidency, highlighted the dilemma of the Muslim Brotherhood’s disconnection from our inescapably modern world.
With a Brotherhood like this, there is no hope. But without a reformed Brotherhood, given its broad popularity, there is no hope either.

Egypt's Trajectory and Western Confusion
Randa Takieddine/Al Hayat
Wednesday 17 July 2013
The confusion by the west and the international community over what is happening in Egypt, from the deposing of the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, recalls the confusion that prevailed in the west when the Algerian Army halted parliamentary elections in 1992, because it seemed the polls would be won by the FIS had they taken place. In Egypt the army intervened because the people were in the street, demanding Morsi's ouster. The millions who turned out objected to how Morsi ran the country and his failure to meet the demands of the people, who were asking for better economic conditions, freedom and democracy. Morsi preferred to see the Muslim Brotherhood's dominance over the country in all sectors. The west's confusion, and its saying that the democratic election path should continue in Egypt, result from the fear of seeing the army re-take power, as a military dictatorship that moves the country away from the democratic course. At the same time, the west certainly enjoys the departure of the Muslim Brotherhood regime, because most western countries are afraid of Islamists. This was clear during Morsi's short term, when the world's leaders did not rush to receive him. Egypt's ending of Morsi's presidency and the Muslim Brotherhood's dominance came about because of a popular demand and the help of the army, which was obliged to intervene. Had it not, Egypt would have been threatened with strife and civil war.
The biggest challenge today before the next government, the country's democratic groups, and the transitional president, is to try and improve the economic situation, which should be a priority, along with stable security conditions. Economic reports by the International Monetary Fund indicate that the economy’s conditions in Egypt have deteriorated gradually since the uprising of 2011, which has increased tension in Egyptian society. Neither the civilians nor the army have managed to restore confidence in the Egyptian economy, and the continuing decline in security conditions has halted investment. Morsi was hesitant about reaching an agreement with the IMF before the parliamentary elections, because this would be costly for the Brotherhood in electoral terms. Any agreement with the IMF would require reforms that remove some subsidies and increase taxes. The reforms required by the IMF require a stable government and political consensus, which were absent under Morsi. Now, the transitional government, its prime minister and the transitional president and his deputy face a great challenge. The speeding up of drafting a convincing economic plan for the country and the outside world is the most difficult challenge. This is especially because the country is unstable and the international community is confused; when the world's leaders reiterate the need to continue the democratic process, this should be accompanied by an international awareness that during this phase, the army will have to ban the Brotherhood, which was excluded from power, from spreading chaos and instability. If not, no one will be succeed in improving the country's economic conditions, no matter how competent or professional in dealing with the outside world – whether this is Vice President Mohammad El-Baradei, who enjoys considerable international respect, the prime minister, Hazem El-Beblawi, or the foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, a diplomatic figure who is reassuring to the international community and especially the United States, where he served for a long time as a skilled ambassador. This team, even if they are transitional officials, faces a great mission, because the huge challenge is security, the basis for improving the economy. The army will certainly have to pay attention to respecting human rights and this is not a trait of the military, which was established under past dictatorships. During this phase, the armed forces must take note that the essential thing is to bring security to Egypt. But the west and the international community must encourage the new transitional leadership quickly, support it, and prompt it to improve the economy, attract foreign investments, and encourage the return of tourism, even if conditions remain difficult.
The departure of Morsi from power in Egypt presents an opportunity that should be welcomed; the international community should not be cautious and confused, after his utter failure to satisfy many Egyptians. A recent joke tells it all. A pro-opposition person tells a Morsi supporter, who is explaining his point of view that Morsi was elected for four years and should finish his term, the following: "But if you bought a can of fava beans (ful) with a four-year expiration date and opened it and found it to be rotten, what would you do? You'd throw it in the garbage." Morsi's Egypt failed, despite the support from the US and Qatar. A transitional period should now allow Egypt to make a qualitative leap, and this is the big challenge.
Syrian President Bashar Assad welcomed the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and this is part of his attempt to tell the confused west: "My regime is a guarantee against the Brotherhood." But this is a big miscalculation, as he always has, trying to turn the matter into simply and Islamist one. Recent news has talked about his getting ready to naturalize thousands of Shiites in the governorate of Swaida, most followers of Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Iraq. It is a recipe for sectarian strife, which Assad hopes for, to tell the international community that he is the guarantee of having a non-Islamic state. In fact he is the guarantee for the break-up of Syria, and the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt does not change the wager that Assad's regime and policies will collapse, with certainty, even if it takes a while.