Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat
FILE PHOTO: The closed entrance of the Association of Banks in Lebanon in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Lebanese banks reopened on Friday after remaining shut for 12 consecutive working days amid a series of new procedures imposed on clients in an effort by the authorities to protect the banking sector. Long queues formed outside banks in the capital, Beirut, as doors opened. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new measures would prevent transfers from local banks to outside the country in the coming period. “Currently, there is a cap for outward financial transfers, despite some exceptions allowing transfers for Lebanese students studying abroad,” the sources said. They explained that the banks would raise the ceiling of payments in credit cards abroad. “This given margin on cash withdrawals is exceptional for a limited time. It aims to control a drawdown and to prevent the withdrawal of large sums of money,” the source said. Also, Lebanese lira deposits in banks could be exchanged to a foreign currency, the sources said, adding that such decision aims to confirm the solvency of the Lebanese monetary markets and to boost confidence in the financial situation. Following a meeting held on Thursday, Lebanon's banking association said banks across the country would open their doors on Friday morning to meet "urgent" needs such as salary payments. Banks in Lebanon were closed for safety reasons following protests that started on Oct. 17 demanding the resignation of the government. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s dollar bonds rose for the first time in ten working days on Thursday. The 2021 issue rose 0.8 cents, its most in six weeks, to 68.5 cents in the dollar, while the 2037 bond added 0.6 cents to 54.9 cents in the dollar, Tradeweb data showed. The bonds have been under huge selling pressure in recent days after two weeks of anti-government protests that have led to the closure of banks and simmering concerns about the government’s ability to meet its debt obligations.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971381/lebanese-banks-impose-new-measures-depositors
Amir Taheri
Amir Taheri - Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987
For the past two weeks or so, the state-controlled media in Tehran have been wondering how to cope with news of popular uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq. In the first phase, the official line was that the protests reflected anger at poor economic performance and defective public services. The narrative echoed media coverage of last year’s popular protests in Iran itself. It was inconceivable that “the people”, always an abstraction, might not appreciate the blessings of the system let alone revolt against it. In the second phase, the protests were portrayed as indicative of the failure of the authorities to respond to popular grievances. In the third and current phase, the uprising was depicted as the result of sinister plots by “enemies of Islam”, including the usual “Zionist” suspects and “agents of the American Great Satan.” Thus, Tehran media are advising the “authorities” in Beirut and Baghdad to crush the popular uprisings “by all means necessary”. One of Tehran’s Iraqi propagandists even advised Prime Minister Adel AbdulMahdi “to kill leaders of sedition (fitna)” who had gathered in a restaurant in Baghdad. The daily Kayhan, believed to reflect “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei’s views, started calling for “strong action” against protesters in Lebanon days before units of streetfighters from Hezbollah and Amal attacked the protestors’ base in Beirut. Anyone following the state-owned media’s coverage would detect as sense of panic in Tehran. What if we were witnessing a version of peripheral revolts that shook the Soviet Empire in its satellite territories in Eastern and Central Europe? For years, Tehran has been trying to sell its expansionist strategist in the Middle East as a great success not only for the Islamic Revolution but also for Iranian nationalism. In an interview, published posthumously, Revolutionary Guard general Hussein Hamadani boasted about having “saved” Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad from defeat and death at the moment he and his cronies had packed suitcases to run away. However, he also noted that this was the first time since the 7th century AD when Iranian armies had reached the Mediterranean under their pre-Islamic King of Kings Khosrow Parviz. That narrative also found echoes in Tehran accounts of Yemen. Iranians were told that, under Khosrow Anushiravan, the Sassanid Emperor, a Persian army led by Wahraz had gone to Yemen to expel Abyssinian invaders and that, today, Iran was doing the same thing but sending “arms and advisers” to the Houthis to expel Arab “invaders.” As for Iraq, the Islamic Republic did not only have a right to intervene but a duty to protect the Iraqi Shiites and Kurds as members of “our great family.” As for Lebanon, the Islamic Republic’s leading role there was the natural continuation of a relationship that started with the importing of large numbers of Lebanese Shiite clerics to Iran in the 16th century, helping convert Iran to Shiism under the Safavids. There is no doubt that this Khomeinist grand strategy met with some initial successes as Tehran expanded its influence in the Middle East with a minimum of blood sacrifice. Even the treasure spent on acquiring a pseudo-empire was not very big. Best estimates put Iran’s expenditure for gaining a dominant position in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen at around $40 billion over the past four decades. The daily Kayhan compared that figure with “the eight trillion dollars that Trump says the US spent in the Middle East, ending up with nothing.” In building their empire, the mullahs made a big mistake: they prevented the emergence of genuine local authorities, including national armies that could hold things together in a semi-autonomous way. The British did that with some success in India where they fostered a large number of maharajas, nabobs and sardars enjoying a measure of local legitimacy while the sub-continents security depended on a regular army consisting largely of native, often ethnic and/or confessional minority, elements. As a result the formal organs of state in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen were reduced to mere facades hiding the reality of power exercised by militia groups such as Hezbollah, the Popular Mobilization Forces, Zayanbiyoun and the Houthis. In the recent attack on Saudi oil installations, the Houthis heard about their own imaginary role in the operation from foreign media quoting Iranian sources. Tehran did not even have the courtesy to tell the Houthis that they would be mentioned as authors of the attack before releasing the claim to world media. In 2017 Gen. Ismail Qa’ani, number-two of the Quds Crops under Gen. Qassem Soleimani told a Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seminar that real power in all the countries involved rested in the hands of “resistance forces linked to our revolution.” Soleimani put that claim even more starkly in his first ever interview, making it clear that he did not acknowledge the existence of anything resembling a state in Lebanon. That, of course, is a repeat of the experiment in Iran itself where formal state structures, including a President, a Cabinet, various ministries and even a regular army exist but only as facades for parallel, the notorious “deep state” structures, that wield real power. The Soviet Empire established a similar scheme in satellite countries where even Communist parties were little more than a façade. That scheme began to unravel when the puppets, including leaders of some local Communist parties, started to resign or even join the opposition. The current crisis in the countries concerned may well take the same turn. Like the scared Soviet Union, the Khomeinist regime may try to stop the march of history by force. If so, it will fail just as the USSR did in its satellites. However, positive change may well become more possible if those who form the facade of power in the countries concerned find the courage to step down and let Tehran’s surrogates to assume responsibility commensurate with the real power they have behind the scenes. The Houthis, the Assad clan, Hezbollah, PMF and kindred groups are puppets in a surrealistic show scripted by faceless puppet-masters in Tehran. That they, in turn, hide behind secondary puppets, playing president and/or prime minister, makes for an even more absurd flight into fantasyland. Just over 1000 years ago, Nizam al-Mulk noted that what appears legal is not necessarily legitimate and that being in office but not in power produces the worst kind of tyranny.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971341/amir-taheri/middle-east-pull-down-facades
Harley Willard: ‘Iceland’s a Good Place Just to Concentrate on Your Football’
Sports
London - Nick Ames
Harley Willard in action for Víkingur Ólafsvík in 2019. Photograph: Haraldur Jónasson/Morgunblaðið/Hari
Harley Willard made one of those sliding-doors decisions that can turn anyone’s life around last December. He had arrived at Heathrow airport, packed and ready for the 14-hour slog back to Phnom Penh, and at that point another season at the Cambodian club Svay Rieng felt like a trade-off he could just about stomach. The football there offered few real prospects but he had enjoyed the lifestyle and, after such an uncertain year and a half since leaving Southampton, surely his happiness was the most important thing. But something did not quite feel right. Doubts had crept in during three weeks back home. “I want to progress in my career” was a thought he could not shake and it grew stronger as he sat in the terminal, the vision of the bumpy, sandy pitches and iffy facilities in south-east Asia looking less appealing by the minute. He rang his agent, then rang him again and again. “Should I get that on that plane?” was the recurring question and when the answer came it was the one that, deep down, he wanted to hear. Now Willard is on his post-season break after eight months spent with the Icelandic second division club Víkingur Ólafsvík, which is a world away from the steam and bustle of his old home. “It’s only got just under 1,000 people but, you know what, I like it,” he says of the village, out on a limb in Iceland’s far west, where he has quietly begun getting things back on track. “It’s a good place just to concentrate on your football, no distractions, and that’s why I went there. It’s been great to be part of and I’ve enjoyed every game. Because I’m happy, I’m progressing and showing it on the pitch.” Willard scored 12 times in 22 league games last season, an impressive record for a winger, and was named in the division’s team of the season. There is no kidding: this is not what he had imagined five years ago when, on his 17th birthday, he signed professional terms with Saints after showing the promise that would earn him a place on the Guardian’s inaugural Next Generation list that year. But he feels he is regaining the momentum that was crudely halted in the manner so many young players endure each year. “I didn’t see it coming to be honest,” he says of the day in May 2017 when the Premier League club cut him adrift. He was no longer a regular in the under-23s, for whom he had made his debut at 16, but he felt Claude Puel, the senior team’s manager at the time, had taken a liking to him. “It was quite strange, but that’s just how it is. The more I wasn’t playing for the under-23s I was thinking: ‘Maybe it’s not going to work out,’ but then the next day I’d be training with the first team and the manager would be talking to me. So it was a bit of a shock.” He is quick to stress that he bears no grudges. Martin Hunter, who coached Southampton’s second string at the time, preferred other wide players but Willard says the pair got on well. “It’s a sport full of opinions, and you can only try and change someone’s,” Willard says. “I did what I could do.” The problem, and perhaps the most important issue facing the majority of academy products at top-flight clubs today, was what came next. “I didn’t know what direction to go in after I left,” he says. “The agent I had at the time wasn’t giving me the advice I needed and I had nowhere to go really. I had in my head that I was going to prove Southampton wrong and get back where I need to be, but I didn’t know what to do so it was hard.” Almost a year of bobbing around in non-league with Maidstone, Eastbourne and Welling ensued. For a 20-year-old who had never been out on loan, or experienced much beyond the pristine surfaces and intense technical drills at top-level training grounds, the experience was “brutal, a completely different game – you just can’t compare the two”. He knew he could quickly be swallowed up in the remorseless to-and-fro so found a move to the Swedish lower leagues with IFK Hässleholm. That was, on the bright side, an early chance to fulfil his ambition of playing overseas but the team only trained three times a week and when Svay Rieng’s Irish manager, Conor Nestor, called in the summer of 2018 he decided to gamble on the complete change of scene. It has all posed a different mental challenge to the one that, trailed as a prodigy at Southampton, he now realises he found difficult to handle. “At the time I was young and I had a lot of pressure on me,” he says. “I was the first person in my age group to sign professionally and the club had put a lot into me. I felt I had a lot to give back but perhaps it got to me. You’re 16 and about to sign that contract, thinking: ‘I’m going to be a star here and break into the first team’. But obviously it’s not as easy as that and when I got to 18 or 19 it was tough, I struggled. My family were so supportive but other people around me were negative and it wasn’t the best. I was listening to the wrong people.” He thinks that, at that stage of a nascent career, environmental factors can be the difference between academy products thriving and, in some cases, dropping out of football altogether. “When you’re happy, confident and everything around you is good, you play your best football,” he says. “You’re wanting to learn and progress, wanting to succeed so badly, and it happens to you because people can see it and they help you more. You get one chance, and if you take it then it could be you.” The example of Marcus Rashford, another of the 2014 Next Generation picks, is particularly pertinent to Willard. The pair met while he was on trial at Manchester United, shortly before joining Southampton from Arsenal’s youth setup in 2013. They became friendly, hanging out together in the Trafford Centre on occasion, and he believes the England forward’s meteoric rise is proof of what can happen when that opportunity is seized. “It looked like we were both going down the same route: youth team, reserve team, first team,” he says. “He took his chance and now look at him. When you have that happiness, confidence and good people around you the only way is up.” For Willard, those elements are now back in place. He does not rule out returning to Ólafsvík, the place that brought the joy back, but his return from the brink has not gone unnoticed. Clubs in Iceland’s top flight would take him but there has been interest from Scandinavia and the Dutch second division, too. The sense, at last, is that the tide has turned. “I went through some dark days thinking: ‘What’s happened?’ and ‘How can I get back?’” he says. “Some really hard times. But when I look back now I’m happy I went through the struggle and think that was the making of me, going through the bad times and knowing things can’t get much worse than they were then. Now I’m on the way up, starting to get a bit of success, and I know what I need to do.” The penny appears to have dropped, to some extent, for young English footballers and their representatives that foreign leagues are a logical next step from the academy education. Willard feels his technique has been allowed to shine in Iceland and is, unsurprisingly, eager to champion moving abroad as an option for others seeking a second chance. “I’d advise it for anyone if they get released or things don’t work out,” he says. “I think a lot of players will succeed with it. Hopefully things work first time but, if not, then don’t give up because there’s always a path for you.” Even if it took a dramatic change of heart before passport control, Willard’s now seems awash with possibility once again. The Guardian Sport
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971326/harley-willard-%E2%80%98iceland%E2%80%99s-good-place-just-concentrate-your-football%E2%80%99
Bahrain: Five Ashtar Brigades Convicts Sentenced to Life-sentence
Arab World
Manama - Obaid al-Suhaimy
Police and security officials stand guard at a checkpoint on a highway in Sanabis west of Manama, Bahrain on February 9, 2017. Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
The Bahraini judiciary issued Thursday life sentences in the case of five convicts for charges of forming a terrorist cell affiliated with al-Ashtar Brigades, which is designated a terrorist by the Arab anti-terror quartet. The sentence also targets two convicts from the same organization who were sentenced to seven years in prison. Chief of Terror Crime Prosecution Advocate General Ahmed al-Hammadi stated that the fourth High Criminal Court awarded varying jail terms to seven terror suspects found guilty of running and joining a terrorist organization. Hammadi added that the court sentenced the first five suspects to life in jail and handed down the sixth and seventh suspects seven-year jail terms. The court also ordered the confiscation of the seized items. The suspects were charged with possessing and manufacturing explosives, possessing firearms and ammunition without a license, receiving training on weapons and explosive materials and funding terrorism. Court files say the first suspect, a member of the “Al-Ashtar Brigades”, recruited the fourth suspect to commit terror crimes against Bahrain’s kingdom. He received training in 2017 with the assistance of the sixth and second suspects. The fourth suspect also recruited the fifth. The files say Iraqi “Kataib Hezbollah” also trained the fifth suspect in 2016 to make explosive materials and devices. The fourth suspect was instructed by the first to receive the explosive device and monitor the security patrols accompanying oil tankers to target them. The third suspect instructed the fifth to receive and transport firearms and materials for terrorist purposes.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971316/bahrain-five-ashtar-brigades-convicts-sentenced-life-sentence
Bristol City Investigate Alleged Racist Chants by Their Fans at Luton Supporters
Sports
London - Ben Fisher
Bristol City’s Andi Weimann is pursued by Kazenga LuaLua of Luton on Saturday. Photograph: Rogan/JMP/Shutterstock
Bristol City are investigating reports that a small group of their supporters engaged in alleged racist chanting towards Luton fans during the Championship match at Kenilworth Road on Saturday. “We naturally condemn any form of abuse or racist language,” City said in a statement. “We are a family club which celebrates its diversity and inclusivity and will take action against anyone behaving in a racist manner at a Bristol City match who has purchased their ticket or season card through the club, as well as reporting them to the relevant authorities. “The club are now fully investigating these reports and can assure supporters that appropriate action will be taken. Anyone wanting to report inappropriate behaviour can do so through slo@bcfc.co.uk.” On Saturday Haringey Borough’s FA Cup match against Yeovil was abandoned after the goalkeeper Valery Pajetat and the defender Coby Rowe were allegedly subjected to racial abuse. Last Monday England’s black players were targeted by a section of Bulgaria supporters in a Euro 2020 qualifier that was overshadowed by racist chanting and the game was twice stopped. Luton said they would support any investigation, adding that their chief executive officer, Gary Sweet, had been in contact with Mark Ashton, his counterpart at City. “Like the Robins, Luton Town are a family club that celebrates diversity and inclusion, and will not accept any discriminatory comments or behaviour at our matches,” said Luton in a statement. The Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown said anyone found guilty of behaving in a racist manner will be banned from Ashton Gate and also from purchasing tickets for away games. “I am shocked and disappointed to hear of these allegations,” Lansdown said in a statement. “Racial intolerance is not something that we want being associated with our club in any shape or form. I firmly believe that, in no way is it representative of our true supporters or the essence of Bristol City as a family club which celebrates diversity and inclusivity.” Bedfordshire police has confirmed it is currently investigating two allegations of racist and indecent chanting. “Officers are following lines of enquiry to establish events surrounding the incidents,” read a statement. “We work in partnership with Luton Town Football Club and allegations such as this will be investigated appropriately to ensure the sport is family-friendly and accessible to all.” The Guardian Sport
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971301/bristol-city-investigate-alleged-racist-chants-their-fans-luton-supporters
KAUST Develops Secure High-speed Communication Systems
Varieties
Jeddah - Asharq Al-Awsat
Laboratory buildings at KAUST's campus in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Image: AT Service/Wikimedia Commons
Military and civil authorities could benefit from secure optical communication systems that use light to carry messages between moving vehicles. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology-KAUST have now demonstrated rapid data transfer using ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light, which provides many advantages over visible light. This is where UV-B becomes useful. UV-B from the sun is mostly absorbed by ozone in the upper atmosphere, so it doesn't interfere with communication. Optical communications systems using visible lasers and light emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from interference due to the high levels of visible light in sunlight. What's more, the transmitter and receiver must be aligned very precisely, which is very difficult for vehicles on the move. PhD student Xiaobin Sun worked on the project with professors Boon Ooi and Slim Alouini from the Department of Computer, Electrical and Computational Science and Engineering, alongside other coworkers at KAUST and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. "Accurate beam alignment for point-to-point (or line-of-sight) optical communication is challenging-slight movements of just a few millimeters might break the communication link. This problem motivates us to look for a nonline-of-sight communication system," said Sun. Sun, Ooi, Alouini and coworkers are developing high-performance UV-LED sources and highly sensitive detectors that receive UV signals quickly and accurately. Commenting on their achievement, Ooi said: "Other groups have used different types of UV sources for transmitting relatively slow NLOS signals for communications. We are the first to achieve multiple tens of Mbps transmission using UV-B LEDs." Now that KAUST scientists have proven their concept in a low-power system, the team plans to increase the optical power and sensitivity until they achieve long-distance nonline-of-sight UV communications with high data transmission rates. "These collaborative efforts between the photonics and communication theory groups at KAUST are paving the way toward the next frontier for optical wireless communication systems," says Alouini.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971291/kaust-develops-secure-high-speed-communication-systems
Baghdad to Prosecute Iraqis who Committed Terror Crimes in Iraq
Arab World
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim said on Thursday that Iraq’s judiciary is committed to prosecuting Iraqi terrorists and foreigners who committed crimes in the country. However, he said Baghdad is not prepared to put foreign militants who fought with ISIS in Syria on trial for crimes committed against non-Iraqis. “We take responsibility for our own citizens, their wives and children,” the minister said in a television interview with the Dutch Media Network and the NRC newspaper. “European countries such as the Netherlands should take responsibility for their own nationals. That is what we advise these countries,” Hakim explained. He also pointed out that Iraq is not allowed to take to trial people for offenses committed in countries other than Iraq. Several European countries including France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have been working on having their nationals, convinced on terror charges, put to trial in Iraq without taking them back into Europe. However, Hakim said: "Iraqi justice does not allow this.” The minister stressed the importance of continuing international efforts in fighting terrorism, cutting off its funding, holding terrorists accountable for their crimes, and reaffirming Iraq’s keenness to bring to justice victims of terrorism. Hakim said the Iraqi government values the relationship with Netherlands pointing out that the main directions of Iraq’s foreign policy aims to build the best relations with the countries of the world. Hakim was in the Netherlands for two days of talks on Dutch-Iraq relations. The minister’s comments came a few days after US President Donald Trump announced that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had died as a result of a US raid in northern Syria. Last summer, Baghdad sentenced 12 French militants to death. France opposes the death penalty, but, Baghdad refused to commute the death sentences. Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces said Thursday they arrested three terrorists near Mosul.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1971266/baghdad-prosecute-iraqis-who-committed-terror-crimes-iraq
