February 10, 2021
Special Dispatch No. 9177
Lebanese Journalist: Lebanon Has Become A Bankrupt Country Where Life Is Cheap; Hizbullah Harms Us More Than Any Enemy
February 10, 2021
In a January 20, 2021 article titled Resistance Through Defending the People, Lebanese journalist Michelle Tueini, deputy general manager of the daily Al-Nahar
, wrote that the Lebanese resistance, i.e., Hizbullah, does not actually fight for Lebanon but rather destroys it more than any enemy. Tueini, who is the daughter of renowned journalist Gebran Tueini, a staunch opponent of Hizbullah and of the Syrian presence in Lebanon who was assassinated in 2005,
[1] added that the Lebanese are starving and their lives are held worthless by their own regime. In this situation, she said, nobody can wage effective resistance against Israel.
Disregarding Columnists Advice And Fears, Russia Plays Hardball With EU Foreign Policy Chief Borrell
February 10, 2021
Prior to the visit by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to Moscow between February 4-6, Russian columnists warned their government that Russia s position in the West following the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny was reminiscent of the Soviet Union s abysmal reputation in the 1970s and as public opinion hardened against it, Moscow had to reckon with an economic war unleashed against it that even its friends in the EU will be unable to prevent. Even the heralded Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, conveying Russian gas to Europe, was in danger. It was no good to stonewall or to claim that police tactics in Russia were benign compared to much tougher treatment of dissidents in the West.
The news agency of Haya't Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), published on February 9, 2021, Ebaa', an article defending the recent appearance of HTS leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani with Martin Smith, a journalist working for the U.S.-based PBS television network, and argued that the appearance served the Syrian revolution by presenting it in the global media.
An Iraqi Shi'ite group released a statement on February 7, 2021, claiming responsibility for an attack on a U.S. military logistics convoy in Samarra in Salah Al-Din province.