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Protests Rage On in Lebanon

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The Lebanese pound has lost a quarter of its value over two days and unemployment soars as the Lebanese become increasingly destitute, prompting another night of angry protests.

Protests rage

Angry protesters blocked roads across the country, with burning tires sending pitch black smoke into the night’s skies. What the protests lacked in size, relative to some of the mass demonstrations seen before the pandemic, they made up in intensity, hurling stones and fireworks at police who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

An announcement by the Lebanese central bank that it would inject more foreign currency into its market to stop the free-fall of the Lebanese Pound did anything but calm tempers. The Lebanese are exasperated by what they see as inefficient amateurism in government. Protesters appear to have little faith in their government’s ability to find a solution in coming talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Comprehensive reforms

Banks were a major target with several branches damaged or set alight as the Lebanese have few avenues left to convert righteous indignation into positive change for the country. The government of Hassian Diab is coming under increasing pressure as its promises of rapid reforms are yet to materialize.

Fears exist that the coming negotiations with the IMF will bring the painful austerity that usually accompanies assistance provided by the neoliberal institute. A Bloomberg reporter on June 4 asked the IMF, “In Lebanon it’s said that the IMF is asking to decrease government expenditures, will these costs of reforms fall on the poorest?” This prompted the IMF’s Communication Director, Gerry Rice, to vaguely emphasize the importance of “the right diagnostic and the right set of comprehensive reforms.”

Looming sanctions

The Lebanese appear to be completely justified in their frustration as further economic woes are on the horizon, a tie purposely made by a foreign actor. The US “Caesar Act,” a package of sanctions on Lebanon’s northern neighbor Syria, is about to destroy a large part of the country’s remaining international trade.

The sanctions are intended to cripple Hezbollah and perceived Iranian influence in the region, but they do so by attempting to impoverish the local population into revolt. For both Syria and Lebanon, trade with their neighbor has provided a fragile lifeline as both countries face a currency in free-fall that resulted in skyrocketing prices for basic necessities and food.

With few positives to look forward to and any optimism drained by an inefficient government, the Lebanese protests are set to continue as the people voice their exasperation with an increasingly worrying collapse of Lebanon’s future prospects.

Has Saudi-Arabia Won the Oil Price War?

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Riyadh will likely celebrate in receipt of a new report by investment bank JP Morgan Chase. “Saudi Arabia will come out on top in the fight for market share as non-OPEC and U.S. production fades,” Christyan Malek, a managing director at JP Morgan Chase told Reuters. The report predicts that Saudi Arabia’s share of the oil market will be the highest since the 1980s.

It appears Saudi Arabia has increased its market share because of a decline in higher-cost oil production around the world, a development unimaginable even a year ago. The development will be much-needed positive news for most OPEC countries who have collectively seen a dramatic drop in government revenue because of a historic drop in oil prices.

Amid low oil prices, investment in the development of new fields drops and higher-cost oil production such as American shale gas or oil produced from Canadian tar-sands is no longer profitable. Because of the massive global scale of oil production, even a temporary dip in investment or bankruptcies of competitors can give low-cost producers an advantage for the foreseeable future.

Oil price war

Saudi Arabia and Russia together drove down oil prices by refusing to curb production even before the COVID-19 pandemic drove down demand to unprecedented levels. The combination of high production levels and dropping demand meant oil prices crashed to hit an absolute first: They fell to negative $40 as the expiration date for oil futures approached with no buyers for the actual crude.

While low oil prices are extremely painful for the state budgets of both Russia and Saudi Arabia, for countries where oil is produced at a much higher cost, like in the US shale gas industry, such low prices are potentially lethal.

Large-scale state-owned oil producers such as Saudi Arabia’s Aramco can dial back production without too much long-term damage, but for smaller producers that depend on a few wells or fields, closing down wells can mean buckling under debt and going bankrupt.

Saudi market share

By keeping production high while demand was dropping, Saudi Arabia directly influenced global oil prices. Media reported on the decision to continue high production levels as a price war between Russia and the Saudis continued until both countries agreed on production cuts in April.

However, both countries ultimately stood to benefit much more from a drop in production in the US than any fathomable end-game of a Russo-Saudi dispute could have realized. This begs the question if their “disagreement” was ever the real underlying motivation.

Russia and Saudi Arabia were both declining in market share as the US enjoyed its “shale gas revolution” over the last decade, with no end in sight. Although Russia likely has unexplored oil and gas reserves, the Saudi reserves have little way to go but down.

Their gamble to continue oil production and even send cheap crude to the already overflowing US oil market appears to have paid off in the long-run.

US shale gas decline

The victims of the geopolitical plays to influence oil prices will be those working in the US shale gas industry. While environmental groups will likely cheer the decline of shale gas, or “fracking,” millions of Americans are employed in the industry, working-class people who have been part of the essential workforce that has kept America running throughout the first wave of the pandemic.

Adopting a Green New Deal would more than offset these jobs with new positions in industries that support a healthy environment and provide good working conditions. However, hope for such a legislative move runs thin amid entrenched partisan tensions.

The international supermajors have already written off previously cherished gas assets in a sign of the time, yet the fate of Chesapeake Energy, one of the US shale gas pioneers, could signal what World Oil called “the end of an era.”

Because of the absence of available credit that saved many smaller oil firms during the last oil crash in 2015-2016, many smaller companies are now facing bankruptcies. The continued uncertainty over the future value of oil assets makes mergers and acquisition a risky game.

Between January and May, 18 oil and gas firms filed for bankruptcy protection in North America with more expected as “lower for longer” becomes the expectation.

The Saudi-led OPEC bloc has now promised to extend production cuts with an additional one-month voluntary cut, which is enough to prevent a new crash in oil prices, but likely not enough to help US producers.

Erdogan Furious as Twitter Removes Turkish Suspicious Influence Accounts

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On Friday, Twitter Security announced it has permanently removed 32,200 accounts linked to the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Turkey for various violations of Twitter’s platform manipulation policies.  

Twitter said it detected the Turkish network of 7,340 accounts in early 2020, as well as involved accounts employing “coordinated inauthentic activity” aimed at a domestic Turkish audience.  

“Based on our analysis of the network’s technical indicators and account behaviours, the collection of fake and compromised accounts was being used to amplify political narratives favorable to the AK Parti, and demonstrated strong support for President Erdogan,” the social media platform said.  

“These compromised accounts have been repeated targets of account hacking and takeover efforts by the state actors identified above. The broader network was also used for commercial activities, such as cryptocurrency-related spam,” Twitter explained. 

The major account take-down has infuriated Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. The strong-man president slammed the removal and said Twitter’s accusations were untrue. 

“(This) has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company, but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations,” Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said.  

Turkish cyber rights expert Yaman Akdeniz said the network appeared to be made up of relatively inactive bots and requires further investigation.  

“But it makes it official that bots are used in Turkey for political purposes,” he told Reuters.  

Twitter said it has shared details of the disabled accounts with research partners Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the US-based Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) for further evaluation. 

Outside of the Turkish network, the bulk of the freshly-disabled accounts were linked to China. Twitter removed a new network 23,750 accounts that comprised the “core network,” and an additional 150,000 accounts that were “amplifiers.” 

“They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP), while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong,” Twitter revealed.   

The social media platform explained Friday’s take-down is part of its “site integrity efforts,” adding it is “the most critical work we do at Twitter to protect the public conversation.”

 

The United States Is In a State of Crisis

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In the midst of a global combined economic and public health crisis, American stock markets have been doing rather well. The country has pumped trillions into its large corporations which has avoided a large-scale market crash such as that seen in 2008. But while Wall Street remains relatively intact, the rest of the country is spiraling into chaos due to several inter-connected crises.

Just a month ago it was incomprehensible that any news could top the historic global pandemic as 2020’s biggest story. But a wave of protests across the United States has highlighted that the country is suffering from more than just COVID-19.

Crisis in health

After months of economically painful lockdowns, curfews, and restrictions the US is reopening the economy even as its cases continue to climb. Wednesday, June 10, saw the two millionth COVID-19 case recorded. US President Donald Trump has pushed for reopenings even while many public health experts warn the nation might still be in the first wave of infections.

Those who died from COVID-19-related complications have disproportionately comprised minorities, and continue a sad historic trend of hitting the country’s Black communities the worst.

The unique nature of the US healthcare system means many will now face thousands of dollars in medical bills just as a “tsunami” of bankruptcies is due to hit in the aftermath of lockdowns that saw millions lose their jobs.

Crisis in inequality

The brutal death of George Floyd served as another painful reminder that the United States still has not created even a semblance of parity between Black and white people in the country. The death of another Black man in police custody triggered protests around the country, and a heavy backlash from the country’s elites.

Media and many officials instantly painted the protests as violent riots, and labeled protesters “looters.” State officials and media channels rushed to discredit the genuine demands of the mostly peaceful protests. The anti-racism demonstrations have since been used by agent provocateurs from groups advocating for a second civil war to stir up more violence and resentment between racial and economic sections of the population.

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chris Hedges has called the government response to protests “treason by the ruling class” and says a “mafia state” has replaced the country’s capitalist democracy. “We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich,” Hedges wrote in Common Dreams, saying the country’s wealthy constitute “omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government.”

According to Hedges, who has seen several countries spiral into chaos and war, the US has only two possible paths left: Revolution or tyranny.

Crisis in the economy

The country’s shocking poverty has only worsened in a time of record highs in the country’s stock markets. The disconnect between main street and wall street is now painfully exposed as news of record highs in the NASDAQ feature on the same front pages as record numbers of deaths, unemployment, an approaching “avalanche” of evictions, and severe public discontent.

The crisis has similarly exposed the country’s nearly defunct labor laws to daylight as millions were immediately laid off from their jobs when lockdowns became a reality. Constantly clicking refresh on overwhelmed and continuously crashing state unemployment websites, citizens have started to realize that a welfare state is not a comfortable “handout” to those too lazy to work, as politicians have told them for years.

Instead people have been left to their own devices with little help from the government outside a one-time stimulus check that did not cover rent and expenses in most US cities. For decades Americans have swallowed tax cuts for big business, but the crisis has again proven that businesses actually have a responsibility to create as few jobs as possible to ensure maximum profits for shareholders.

Crisis in leadership

Amid the disintegration of the American social contract, US Donald Trump is rapidly undoing the post-WW2 era unspoken agreement that has sustained American hegemony. For decades, the US paid the most to global institutions such as the WHO and NATO. In exchange the US did not have to decolonize, was able to invade nations at will, and made its currency the favored exchange in the international market.

But President Donald Trump apparently considers that the country’s superior military strength alone should be enough to force the global community into compliance. By withdrawing funding from the WHO, pressuring NATO allies into paying higher dues, and sanctioning the world’s highest court, Trump is changing the image of the US from a benevolent global empire into a rogue state.

Vetoes at the Security Council are casually and repeatedly suppressing the will of the global community, while calls for mercy on states suffering under crippling US sanctions remain ignored. Trump has willfully broken the unspoken agreement between the US and the world, silently approved by Democrats who have signed off on every increase of the military budget, corporate hand-out, and even his wall on the Mexican border.

With America’s reputation badly damaged abroad and civil discord in the streets at home, the US is facing a historic crisis that could precipitate the final tumultuous decline of “global America” as we know it today.

Lebanon: Currency Collapse, Protests Trigger Emergency Cabinet Meeting

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Angry citizens in cities across Lebanon shrugged off recent sectarian clashes to present a united front that called for Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and Prime Minister Hassan Diab to resign in the wake of a spectacular currency devaluation.

Violent skirmishes with security forces and arson punctuated last night’s demonstrations and, amid calls for calm, triggered an emergency cabinet meeting on the morning of Friday, June 10. 

Pound plunge 

The currency hit a new low on Wednesday and Thursday, trading at 5,000 pounds to the dollar on the country’s parallel market. After trading at an official rate of 1,500 pounds to the dollar for 35 years, there were rumors the Lebanese pound hit highs of 6,000-7,000 pounds to the dollar on Thursday, although those appear to be unfounded. 

The dramatic plunge represents a 25% depreciation in the Lebanese pound in just two days. 

The pound has lost 70% of its value since protests kicked off last October and is heading into uncertain territory as neighboring Syria’s currency has also spiraled out of control in recent days, ahead of a fresh round of economic sanctions. 

The cost of living has risen exponentially, dollars are scarce, and, as the recent drop shows, the government’s efforts to stabilize the currency have so far failed.   

In response to the raging protests, Diab called an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday morning. In attendance was controversial Central Bank Governor Salameh, who many believe is responsible for mishandling Lebanon’s foreign currency reserves and the exchange rate. 

Speaking after an additional meeting between himself, Diab, and President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri ruled out sacking the Central Bank governor.  

“It was agreed with President Aoun and PM Diab to lower the dollar exchange rate as of today to below LBP 4,000 and gradually to 3,200, but the results will not begin appearing before Monday,” Berri announced on Friday afternoon.  

Berri added the ruling triumvirate will be “addressing the International Monetary Fund with a unified language,” referring to the ongoing negotiations with the IMF over a bailout triggered by Lebanon’s sovereign debt default, and ensuing economic deterioration. 

“Citizens in a State,a new political party which has gained a large following during the October revolt, rejected the government’s announcement and instead called for more protests on Saturday. 

Citizens in a State, backed by a coalition of 20 civil society movements, parties, and unions, is calling for Diab’s administration to be replaced by a transitional government with exceptional powers to drag the country out of the economic and political crisis it is now mired in.  

Protestors set up roadblocks and tents amid last night’s fury, indicating they are again in for the long-haul after a COVID-19-enforced break. Hezbollah and Amal supporters, who were behind last weekend’s unsettling sectarian violence, also rushed to join last night’s protests, according to Lebanese journalist Luna Safwan.

“With Hezbollah and Amal supporters joining the protests tonight, it seems that there’s a plan to take down the cabinet. Back to October 17th 2019,” Safwan tweeted last night. 

Thursday night’s fiery protests 

The streets of Beirut, Saida, Jal el Dib, Tripoli, Zouk, and many other cities filled with major demonstrations for the first time since the October 17 uprisings that brought down ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri. 

There was nothing to be seen of the sectarian clashes that punctuated demonstrations on June 6, with large moped-convoys of residents from majority-Shia suburbs joining the protests shouting, “Shia, Sunni, F*ck sectarianism.” 

In Beirut, law enforcement was minimal, and protestors set a massive bonfire directly in front of the country’s seat of government. Protestors set a branch of the Central Bank alight in Tripoli, along with tire barricades, billboards and other buildings. When riot police did try to disperse demonstrators in downtown Beirut, young men pelted them with rocks and fireworks, screaming “the riot police are sons of b**.”

The currency crash has reduced first responders’ wages to a pittance, and like the protestors they are supposed to control, police and fire crews are growing tired of the declining economic situation. 

“Why do you destroy shops and things and attack us security forces—do you think we’re happy? Go and f****** break that wall or go to the politicians’ houses,” a police officer told Al Jazeera as he stood by, watching protestors tear down a barrier set up to protect Parliament.  

“In the end we are with you and we want the country to change. Don’t you dare think we’re happy. My salary is now worth $130,” the officer added. 

The Civil Defence, whom the fire brigades fall under, later told local news channel LBCI they did not fight the many of the fires around Beirut, because they had no diesel to run their fire trucks—just another consequence of Lebanon’s economic implosion. 

The government — under intense pressure from protestors, the currency collapse, COVID-19, and Lebanon’s unenviable economic situation — will be waiting on tenterhooks to see what eventuates tonight, and if the protest movement maintains momentum.

Read also: Despairing Domestic Workers Dumped at Ethiopian Consulate in Lebanon

Honda Resumes Operations at Cyber-Attack Plants

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A month after resuming operations following the COVID-19 shutdown, a suspected cyber-attack forced global vehicle manufacturer Honda to stop work at a number of plants around the world, the company confirmed on Friday.  

The Japanese auto-company’s main US plant in Ohio resumed manufacturing on Thursday, but the company’s North American online financial services and call centres are still experiencing disruptions.  

“Honda has experienced a cyberattack that has affected production operations at some U.S. plants,” Honda North America Spokesman Chris Abbruzzese told Popular Mechanics on June 11.  

“There is no current evidence of loss of personally identifiable information,” Abruzzese assured, without commenting on the attack’s production impact, or the suspected perpetrator. 

Based on samples of the code used in the attack, cybersecurity researchers suspect ransomware software, known as Snake or Ekans, were used.”Looking at the code, we identified several markers related to the EKANS/SNAKE ransomware and several text strings containing the word ‘honda,’” according to Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes’ threat intelligence director Jerome Segura. 

A Turkish car factory and motorcycle manufacturers in India and Brazil came back online on Wednesday after also being disrupted by the June 9 attack. The incident is reminiscent of the 2017 “WannaCry virus” cyber-attack that shut down Honda’s US production for one day in 2017.  

Separate from the cyber-attack, Honda has been forced to cut shifts at some factories in Japan as the economic fallout of COVID-19 continues to impact demand and access to certain vehicle parts.

Read also: ‘Big Tech’ Leverages its Monopoly, Halting Innovation

 

Syrians Brace for Looming Sanctions

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On June 17, the ‘Caesar Act’ will come into effect in the United States, with potentially devastating consequences for Syria’s economy. The act consists of a broad package of sanctions that would, in effect, make it illegal for most countries to do business with Syrian enterprises.

The Caeser act shares the pseudonym of a Syrian military photographer who smuggled thousands of photographs of Syrian torture out of the country, revealing the brutality of the Syrian regime’s practices against detainees.

However, the package of sanctions could have far-reaching consequences for Syria. The war-torn country’s economy is already suffering from hyperinflation that has caused food prices to rise by 50% in a single month.

“Prices of goods in Syria, including locally produced ones, are rising with the exchange rate,” Elizabeth Tsurkov, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute told the Guardian. “The inflation is so rapid that prices in the morning would be lower than in the evening,” she explained.

Looming sanctions

The already dire situation in Syria is about to get worse since the Caesar Act will effectively penalize any country that does business with any company in Syria.

While existing EU and US sanctions already target senior regime officials and aligned business interests, the US sanctions set to trigger on June 17 will target any country that trades with Syrian entities, effectively targeting Syria’s few remaining trade-partners in neighboring countries and with businesses in Europe and the Gulf states.

The largest impact of the sanctions will be felt both in Damascus and Beirut, as trade with Lebanon has been one of the few remaining lifelines on which Syria’s fragile economy depended. Both Lebanon and Syria are facing spiraling currency crises and  the US sanctions aim to exacerbate these troubles in order to weaken Iranian influence in the two countries.

Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon’s government and Iranian support for both countries have long been a thorn in the side of the US military and the US now aims to break business ties between the two countries and plunge both into a dire economic crisis.

Victims

However, the victims of sanctions are rarely the elite that they nominally target. Rising prices of basic essentials and food scarcity are inevitable, but the regime’s leadership will always have enough to eat. The sanctions hope to make the economic situation in Syria and Lebanon so dire that the starving people will rise up and hold the governments responsible.

In over a century of sanctions, they have never actually produced this result. Sanctions on apartheid south-Africa actually further impoverished the black population, according to the then prime-minister de Klerk. Cuba has been under crushing US sanctions since it’s communist revolution, but the sanctions actually allow the regime to blame the US for any economic issues.

In Syria, an already devastated country with its infrastructure in ruins is facing an economic crisis even without the new sanctions. Rising bread prices have sparked protests which were met with counter-protests by government supporters, who directly highlighted Western sanctions as the reason for the economic troubles.

Following a nine-year conflict, Syria has few resources left to rebuild. The US now attempts to once again spark a popular uprising and reduce the influence of Iran and Hezbollah. But, after the first uprising was crushed with little to no official western backing, how are Syrians supposed to topple al-Assad now?

Qatari Royals, Banks Allegedly Actors in Terrorism Financing Conspiracy

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For decades, the small, gas-rich emirate of Qatar has apparently served as a major conduit for terror financing, funneling millions of dollars to hard-line Islamist militants across the Middle East.

Both international and domestic law have previously failed to confront the impunity of the Qatari government in seemingly financing terrorist organizations. However, a private lawsuit in a New York district court is challenging this, alleging that the Qatari royal family and leading Qatari banking institutions are complicit in a conspiracy to fund Islamist terrorism in the Middle East.

The lawsuit specifically names Masraf Al Rayan bank, Qatar Charity, and Qatar National Bank as the principal conspirators responsible for funneling resources to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization. The lawsuit further ties these organizations to the Qatari royal family and others within Qatar’s elite.

“It has long been the official policy of the government of Qatar to provide financial support to the Hamas terrorist organization,” the lawsuit reads. 

“It is thus no surprise that Masraf Al Rayan bank, Qatar Charity, and Qatar National Bank, which are dominated by the Qatari government and royal family, have joined in that effort.”

Qatar Charity—whose board of directors’ chairman, Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani, is a member of the Qatari royal family—allegedly spearheaded the operation, whereas the lawsuit identifies the other two institutions as middle-men.

“Qatar coopted several institutions that it dominates and controls to funnel coveted US dollars (the chosen currency of Middle East terrorist networks) to Hamas and PIJ under the false guise of charitable donations,” the lawsuit alleges.

The alleged logistics

At the center of the conspiracy, Qatar Charity allegedly solicited donations from benefactors in Qatar and elsewhere before transferring the funds to an account at Masraf Al Rayan bank in Doha.

The account’s funds would be subsequently transferred to a bank in New York, before being wired as US Dollars to Qatar Charity’s accounts at either the Bank of Palestine or the Islamic Bank in Ramallah. 

Finally, the funds—still in US Dollars—would then be directly distributed by Qatar Charity’s local branches to Hamas, the PIJ, and their affiliate organizations.

With Qatar Charity’s board led by a member of the royal family, paired with the significant influence the royal family has on both Masraf Al Rayan bank and Qatar National Bank, the connection between Qatar’s leadership and the financing conspiracy is apparent.

However, despite the ties between the Qatari government and the financial organizations coming to light, the question still remains as to whether Doha is ultimately complicit with the alleged conspiracy.

In the past, Qatar has defended itself from similar allegations, arguing that these fundraising efforts were untaken by individuals, rather than officials. As a result, Qatar contends that the government is not responsible for these activities.

Despite this, there is no denying there is a long history of systematic terror financing operations within Qatar’s borders.

Financing Terror

“Like any enterprise, terrorist organizations need money to operate,” the lawsuit argues.

“But unlike legitimate organizations, terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on sympathetic nation states and financial institutions who employ creative fundraising strategies to disguise their operations and evade anti-terrorism laws.”

For decades, Qatar has served the role of this sympathetic nation, claims a 2014 Foreign Policy report, saying that Qatar has been harboring financial institutions accused of financing and sponsoring terrorist organizations. The report added that Qatari policy favors these financial institutions, and terrorist financiers in the country often go unpunished.

Qatar’s policy of supporting extremists stretches back to the 1990s, initially aiding Salafist activists with disseminating and politicizing the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood. By the next decade, Doha became the center for an interconnected network of radicals throughout the Gulf. Accusations of this stem from a wide variety of official and journalistic sources, with Israeli diplomat Ron Prosor going so far as to call Qatar a “Club Med for terrorists.”

Beyond serving as a safe haven for extremist ideology, Doha would become the epicenter for a far-reaching conspiracy to launder money linked to al-Qaeda through Qatar-based charities.

Doha has since pursued its ambitions further, directly funding foreign insurgent groups in a bid to extend Qatar’s influence beyond the small peninsula it occupies. However, through its active sponsorship of extremist groups, Qatar has played an influential role in fueling the worsening of conflict zones across the Arab world.

Influence in regional conflicts

In 2011, Qatar expanded its network of radical proxies to Libya, where it joined the UAE and US in opposing the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. Although Qatar had aligned itself with much of the world in supporting the ousting of Gaddafi, Doha’s ambitions stretched further. 

As the US waged a campaign of airstrikes to weaken the Libyan state, Doha began funding insurgent groups on the ground. After months of conflict, rebels had taken Tripoli, Gaddafi was dead, and Doha found itself with an unprecedented influence in the new Libya.

When the Arab Spring turned its attention to Syria, so too did Doha. In the early stages of the Syrian Civil War, between 2012 and 2013, Salafists in Kuwait and Qatar would begin to join forces with Syrian expatriates, ultimately coalescing into the al-Nusra Front. Qatar would quickly become among the principal financial supporters for the Syrian opposition.

However, Libya remains a broken and conflicted state despite an apparent victory in 2011, and Syria continues to be a battleground between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his opposition. 

Critics claim Qatar’s foreign policy has failed. Because Qatar continues to support insurgents exclusively through financing networks not overtly affiliated with the government, as they argue, Doha remains untouched by the consequences. For its part, Qatar maintains that it has been a valuable ally to the United States and the West in counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East.

“We’ve been asked by our American friends if we can join, and we did,” said Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar.

In addition, Doha continues to be one of the most important sponsors for Hamas and the PIJ. Between 2012 and 2018, Qatar invested $1.1 billion in the Gaza strip, with Israeli outlet Haaretz reporting a large percentage of this went directly to support Hamas.

Doha also has an extensive history with supporting Hamas beyond financial contributions. Since 2012, Doha has offered sanctuary for a number of Hamas’ most prominent figures, including its political leader Khaled Meshal and the founder of its military wing, Saleh al-Arouri.

This close relationship with Hamas and the PIJ—in addition to Doha’s history of turning a blind eye to terrorist financiers—has often led it into conflict with both its neighbors and the West, in particular the United States.

Repercussions Abroad

In the Middle East, Qatar’s alleged relationship with terrorist organizations and their financiers has led to heightened tensions with its close neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt. All of these countries severed ties with Qatar in 2017.

For its part, Qatar has continued to deny all allegations of the government’s relationship to terrorist organizations. Qatar has also argued that the severance of ties was illegitimate and a “violation of its sovereignty.” Doha further maintains that the blockade is a danger to unity within the Gulf.

“The Gulf summit statement talked about a unified Gulf, but where is it amid the continuation of Qatar’s blockade?” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister.

Abroad, the United States and the United Kingdom have criticized Qatar for its relationship with Hamas, with the latter investigating Qatari-based charities for their potential link to the terrorist organization.

The families of ten Americans either killed or injured by violence allegedly perpetrated by either Hamas or the PIJ brought the lawsuit forward, further emphasizing the impact that the lawsuit will have in the United States.

Among the victims named in the lawsuit is Taylor Force, a 28-year-old American student and former Army officer killed in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016. Force’s death later prompted Congress to pass the Taylor Force Act, which ended US aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until the PA ended its support for the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund.

The Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund, operated by the PA, is designed to pay a stipend to the families of Palestinians killed, injured, or imprisoned for involvement in anti-Israeli violence. Many have criticized the fund for potentially encouraging the very same terrorism which killed Taylor Force and other plaintiffs mentioned in the lawsuit.

With the administration of US President Donald Trump increasing its support for Israel and aligning itself in opposition to Hamas, Qatar’s support for Hamas has become a point of contention between the two countries.

Qatar-US diplomatic tensions

This is not new information to the United States government, which has been aware of Qatar’s close relationship with Hamas since the early 2000s.

Leaked US diplomatic cables from 2009 show that the US government previously listed Qatar Charity as a “terrorism support entity” for “having demonstrated intent and willingness to provide financial support to terrorist organizations.”

Qatar Charity has been further accused of affiliation with the Union of Good, an organization created by Hamas to facilitate the transfer of donations to Hamas-controlled organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. The United States has also designated the Union of Good as a supporter of terrorism.

The lawsuit is ultimately posed to reawaken an old discussion regarding the United States and its relationship with Qatar, as well as whether Qatar should be held accountable for its alleged role in supporting terrorist organizations.

 

Read also: Qatar Under Fire as 2022 FIFA World Cup Workers Await Payment

Syria’s Ailing Economy Draws Protesters Back to the Streets

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Syria is in the grips of a deepening economic crisis, fuelled by US and European sanctions, plus neighboring Lebanon’s dramatic financial decline and associated currency crash.  

The Syrian pound followed its Lebanese counterpart this week and crashed spectacularly, sending the cost of living through the roof and sparking fears amongst ordinary Syrians of an impending famine.  

Syrian Pound in trouble  

The Syrian pound traded at 47 pounds to the dollar prior to the country’s bloody civil war, but has now hit 3,000 pounds to the dollar. The currency had been on an even-paced decline until last week. From Saturday to Monday the parallel exchange rate skyrocketed from 2,300 to 3,000 pounds to the dollar where it was still hovering on Wednesday.  

The head of Lebanon’s money-changing syndicate, Mahmoud Murad, said the plunging Syrian and Lebanese currencies are “surprising and incomprehensible,” but the two economies are intrinsically linked. “They are twins,” he explained to Arab News on June 11.  

“What affects the Lebanese pound affects the Syrian pound, and vice versa. The dollar exchange rate in Syria suddenly jumped to 3,500 pounds before unexpectedly dropping to between 2,600 and 2,700 pounds.  

“We do not know why. Has someone poured US dollars into the Syrian market to cause this drop? Where did these dollars come from? It is strange,” Murad said.  

As of this week, the Syrian pound has lost 80% of its value in the last 12 months alone. The worrying trend is concerning all levels of society, pushing some Syrians back to the streets for the first time since the 2011 Arab Spring protests that descended into civil war. 

Protests entered their fourth day on Wednesday, and have spread to the majority Druze city of Suweida. Demonstrators started with economic slogans, but in Suweida, which has largely been exempt from the conflict, openly called for Al Assad’s downfall. 

“Protesters called for freedom and toppling of the regime as a result of popular anger over the deteriorating economic, social, security and political situation,” Syrian activist Noura al Basha told Reuters on Thursday. 

Soaring Cost of Living 

The sudden currency crash has sent the price of basics like bread through the roof, pushing more Syrians into poverty and hunger.  

“Prices are through the roof. Every day… it’s more expensive than the day before,” Damascus mother of five Lamees al-Sheikh told the French Press Agency (AFP).

“I’m scared one day I’ll… come back home empty handed.” 

Business owners are also worried by the fast-developing situation, and say that even after raising prices, they cannot make money.

“There is one exchange rate in the morning, and another one in the afternoon,” said grocery store owner Rashed Umari from Qamishli in the north. “Everything we sell is at a loss.” 

Meanwhile, Al Assad replaced Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis Thursday, according to state media. Al Assad is yet to provide an explanation for Khamis’ downfall, but the move indicates the growing civil unrest and economic problems are also being felt in the upper echelons of Syrian politics. Given the interlinked nature of the Syrian and Lebanese economies and ongoing sanction pressure, it is unclear how Al Assad can reboot Syria’s ailing economy and how the war-weary Syrians will respond to the unfolding situation.

Read also: Despairing Domestic Workers Dumped at Ethiopian Consulate in Lebanon

The Palestinian Thobe as a Symbol of National Pride

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Consisting of multiple pieces, including front and back panels, a square chestpiece, and sleeves, it is possible to trace the Palestinian back to the second century B.C. Records from the era show the Canaanites (as people from the region were then known) dressed in the distinct fashion.  

The detailed embroidery that features on the thobe, known as tatreez, is a skill that mothers have passed down to their daughters for centuries. In the post-Crusades era, tatreez patterns and the thobe styles began to influence the attire of European women. 

Paintings from the period show garments featuring the same intricate patterns or Arabic calligraphy. By tracing the trading routes of the Middle Ages, historians have been able to link the garments directly to modern day Palestine. 

Popular patterns featured on the thobe include the ancient eight-pointed star. The symbol has been found in crafts across the Middle East since antiquity. In Europe, it featured heavily on garments where it was known as the “Holy Star of Bethlehem.”

In recent years, the thobe has emerged as an important subject in projects seeking to preserve Palestinian history and culture. For historians and activists alike, the ability to trace the presence of the thobe in the region for thousands of years further legitimizes Palestinian claims to the territory as their ancestral homeland. 

#TweetYourThobe

In January 2019, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, wore a thobe during her swearing-in. 

Tlaib’s announcement in December 2018 that she would wear the thobe sparked controversy with some netizens claiming that it was “anti-American” to wear the traditional dress of another country. 

The backlash prompted fellow Palestian-American Susan Muaddi Darraj to start the hashtag #tweetyourthobe. In defiance of the anti-Arab sentiment at the heart of the controversy, hundreds of women shared photos of their thobes and pride in their Palestine heritage. 

On her decision to wear the thobe, Tlaib wrote, “It fills me with joy to be able to show aspects of Palestinian culture.” For Tlaib, the decision was also political with the thobe as symbolic of the diversity of the United States. She described the move as “an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country.”

The survival of the thobe and the practice of tatreez following the creation of Israel and mass exodus of Palestinians in 1948 is in itself a political statement. For many, the hundreds of hours of labor needed to produce a thobe is as much about Palestinian nationalism as it is about the production of the dress. 

As Rachel Dedman of the Palestine Museum noted, “The historic thobe conjures an ideal of pure and untouched Palestine, before the occupation.” In diaspora communities, the thobe and tatreez have become important means of connection to Palestine and keeping Palenstianian culture alive. 

In recent years, the production of cheaper and lighter versions has facilitated the thobe’s transition to an everyday piece worn to express pride and nationalism.