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Lebanon diplomatic crisis with Gulf states worsens
as envoys expelled, imports banned
Aoun seeks to heal rift; Mikati government cannot afford to resign, minister says
Published: October 30, 2021 18:57
Reuters
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati gestures meets with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al Rai at the government palace in Beirut on October 26, 2021. Mikati, in a phone call with Kordahi on Friday evening, asked him to put the national interest first and “take the right decision to fix Arab relations with Lebanon,” a statement by his office said.
Beirut: Lebanon’s government cannot afford to resign over a growing diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states, a member of a Lebanese crisis group of ministers said on Saturday following a near three-hour meeting over the widening rift.
“The country cannot be left without a government,” due to other pressing matters, and would continue to work to resolve the rift, Education Minister Abbas Halabi said after the meeting.
Lebanon’s president, meanwhile, said he wants good relations with Saudi Arabia, looking to heal a rift with the kingdom. In a tweet, Michel Aoun said Lebanon is keen on having the best relations with the Saudis and on strengthening links via bilateral deals.
The row over critical comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen had spurred calls by some top politicians for Kordahi’s resignation, while others opposed the move.
Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanon’s envoy and banned all Lebanese imports on Friday, and Bahrain and Kuwait followed suit, giving the top Lebanese diplomats 48 hours to exit.
Kordahi’s resignation would have knock-on effects that could threaten Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s coalition government.
But Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said Mikati’s contacts with officials from a number of states showed opposition to the resignation of the government, formed only last month after a 13-month stalemate.
“They told Mikati, ‘if you are thinking about resignation, take that out of your head,’” he said.
Richard Michaels, deputy head of the US mission in Lebanon, had joined the crisis meeting in Beirut, a US Embassy spokesperson said, declining to comment further.
Mikati had asked Kordahi on Friday to consider Lebanon’s “national interests” but stopped short of asking for his resignation.
Kordahi has been publicly backed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and has declined to apologise or resign over the comments, which have dealt the worst blow to Saudi-Lebanese relations since Saad al-Hariri’s 2017 detention in Riyadh.
The minister’s political patron, Suleiman Frangieh of the Hezbollah-allied Marada Movement, told a news conference he had refused an offer by Kordahi to resign and would not name a successor to him should he do so.
Yet a group of former Lebanese prime ministers called on Saturday for Kordahi to resign, saying his comments had inflicted a strong blow to relations with Gulf Arab nations.
Fouad Seniora, Hariri and Tammam Sallam, some of the country’s top Sunni politicians, said in the statement that Kordahi’s remarks “harmed Lebanon’s supreme national interest”.
“Remove this minister, who will destroy our relations with the Arab Gulf before it’s too late!” tweeted Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Progressive Party. “For how long, stupidity, conspiracies and proxies in domestic and foreign Lebanese policies will exacerbate?” he added without elaborating.
Bahaa, the son of ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al Hariri, meanwhile, called for the Lebanese government’s resignation, and not only Kordahi, in order to contain the crisis.
“Thanks to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries for hosting the Lebanese community and drawing a distinction between them and the system of quotas and sectarianism that has caused terrible deterioration in relations between Lebanon and its Arab brethren,” Bahaa said on Twitter.
If Kordahi resigns, ministers backed by Hezbollah and its Amal ally could follow suit at a time when the government is already paralysed by a dispute over an inquiry into the August 2020 explosion that devastated parts of Beirut.
A senior political source told Reuters that the United States and European nations were in contact with Lebanese officials to prevent the government from falling and there were no immediate indications any ministers would resign.
The row comes as Lebanon struggles with a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.
Mikati has been hoping to improve ties with Gulf Arab states strained for years because of the influence wielded in Beirut by the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Saudi Arabia had already in April banned all fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon, blaming an increase in drug smuggling that it said Lebanon had failed to address, a ban now extended to all goods.
Great setback
In Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abu Al Gheit said the crisis caused by Kordahi's comments has led to a "great setback'' to Lebanon's relationship with the Gulf countries.
He urged Lebanon's president and prime minister to take ``necessary steps'' to ease the tension, especially with Saudi Arabia. He did not elaborate which steps should be taken.
Abu Al Gheit also called on Gulf officials to review measures that could have negative consequences on Lebanon's already battered economy.
Elderly woman in Belgium called ‘racist’, thrown off bus
with head injury after suspected fight with Moroccans
30 Oct, 2021 11:04
Source: @tomvangrieken Twitter account
A video of a scuffle on a bus in Antwerp has surfaced online showing an elderly woman apparently thrown off the bus following a fight. Police are investigating the incident.
In the minute-long clip, a woman with a shopping trolley is seen on a bus, involved in an apparent heated argument with a group of people. Laughter and the crying of a child is heard in the background while someone calls the woman a racist. The video then cuts off, and continues with the woman screaming on the ground outside the bus, her head covered in blood. She holds on to her overcoat and trolley, her clothes soaked in blood.
A person still inside the vehicle is apparently lecturing the victim. The voice behind the camera says, “She was sent away from the bus… She offended a Moroccan and look what happens to her,” according to local media.
The video emerged on social media and was shared on Twitter by, among others, Belgian MP Tom Van Grieken, the leader of the regional right-wing Vlaams Belang party. In his post, he called the suspected offenders “beasts,” warning, “I never put disclaimers, but these images are really not for sensitive viewers.”
WARNING! DISTURBING VIDEO
The incident happened on Wednesday evening, when the 57-year-old woman was traveling on a bus full of passengers from Antwerp to a village near the city. The actual fight is not seen in the video, but the result appears to be a gaping wound on the woman’s head. She was hospitalized with a serious injury and her condition is still “worrying,” local media reports, adding that the bus driver was so shocked by the incident, he required counseling.
An investigation has been launched, with Antwerp police studying the video and also looking for a fuller picture. “It’s a cut version of what has happened. In such incidents it is not immediately clear who did what,” a police spokesperson told the media. At least one suspect has been identified and questioned, but no arrests have been made so far.
Come on, you guys. Don't be looking for an excuse to excuse the Moroccans for what they did, even if the old lady did say something stupid. There is no justification for beating an old woman bloody. These idiots need to be returned to Morocco.
ISIS releases video of 12-year-old child executing 2 Nigerian soldiers
"I don’t have any feelings anymore."
By Anugrah Kumar,
Christian Post Contributor|
Monday, November 01, 2021
Islamic State in West Africa Province, which is an offshoot of the Boko Haram, has reportedly released a video showing a 12-year-old child executing two Nigerian soldiers with an AK-47.
The 17-minute video, titled “Makers of Epic Battles,” carries the footage of ISWAP’s child soldier shooting to death two Nigerian soldiers, according to Sahara Reporters.
“There are no words to describe how awful it is,” Tomasz Rolbiecki, a researcher on the Islamic State’s attacks worldwide, wrote on Twitter after analyzing the video.
“In general, the video is mainly covering the attacks from ISWAP's spring campaign in northern Borno and Yobe, although there are also clips from southeastern and southwestern parts of Borno state,” the researcher was quoted as saying. “Most of the footage had been published in photo reports long before this video was released. Daesh has been doing it for years. However, there is also some new material.”
Terrorist groups, such as ISWAP, have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria and displaced millions in an attempt to discard Western influence and impose strict Islamic Sharia law, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said, responding to the news about the video.
ISWAP often tries to radicalize those whom they have taken captive. If they are unable to, they might use them as slaves, suicide bombers or ransom them back to family and friends. Often, those who are taken do not ever return to their homes or families.
Last week, Nigeria’s army said it had killed the new leader of ISWAP, Malam Bako, in a military operation two weeks after announcing the death of the group's former head Abu Musab al-Barnawi, Reuters reported.
ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, has been fighting against the Nigerian armed forces for over a decade.
“If confirmed, Bako would be the fourth leader of an Islamist insurgent group in West Africa to die this year, after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in August and al-Barnawi this month,” the newswire said.
However, Sahara Reporters noted, “The Nigerian army has repeatedly claimed that the insurgency has been largely defeated and frequently underplays any losses.”
The Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, has called its child soldiers “cubs of the Caliphate.”
In 2017, a 13-year-old boy, identified as Mohammed and former “cub,” shared that his uncle recruited him. “He took me to Sharia classes and then he told me: ‘Son, now you have to go to the training camp,’” he was quoted as saying at the time.
Mohammed was sent to Baiji, where IS and Iraqi government forces fought for the country’s largest oil refinery. “We had a car bomb. It was Abu Hudhaifa, a 14-year-old boy from Aleppo, who went in,” he recalled. “We attacked the Iraqi forces after the morning prayer. The driver of the car bomb blew himself up and we entered the refinery, but we did not find anyone. It was a trap: they had let us in to encircle us.”
He was among 100 fighters at the refinery, and only 30 escaped alive.
“One day, I saw a boy sitting alone. I asked him why he was acting like a robot,” Roueda Abbas, a teacher at a rehab center for ex-child soldiers, was quoted as saying. “He came next to me and said: ‘When I was with them, they beheaded people in front of my eyes. They cut hands and legs. Now I have no feelings. Even if you kill my father in front of me, I wouldn’t cry. I don’t have any feelings anymore.’”
Obviously, this is much better than any western influence!
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