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https://asiatimes.com/author/david-p-goldman/

Beijing’s warning to fintech and property firms to raise equity and pay debts will hit stocks now but lift their long term prospects
Beijing’s warning to fintech and property firms to raise equity and pay debts will hit stocks now but lift their long term prospects

China’s economy and stocks have outperformed Western counterparts during the Covid recession. Image: Twitter

China’s regulators are fixing the roof while the sun is shining. With the economy in full rebound from the second-quarter Covid recession, Beijing has warned fintech and property companies to raise more equity and pay down debt.

That’s good news for China’s financial system but mixed news for some of this year’s best-performing stocks, including food-delivery service Methuan and smartphone maker Xiaomi. Financial stocks, by contrast, turned in their best relative performance of 2020 during the past month.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16796/arabs-warn-biden-do-not-embolden-hezbollah

The message they [the nationals of Lebanon] are sending to a new US administration is: The Lebanese people are hoping that you will help them get rid of Hezbollah. Cozying up to Iran would further embolden Hezbollah and allow it to destroy Lebanon by turning it into an Iranian-controlled colony.

“The Lebanese people… are being held hostage today by a militia that is financed by Iran, whose weapons are coming from Iran, and even whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is stating clearly and publicly that he takes orders from Iran.” — Samy Gemayel, leader of the Christian Kataeb Party, kataeb.org, November 23, 2020

“Hezbollah is the only party in Lebanon that has 20,000 soldiers on the ground….it can do a lot to make our democracy totally fictive. Today, we are being treated as hostages, and therefore the international community must help us.” — Samy Gemayel.

Rabi’s expressed hope that Biden would refuse to follow the policies of former President Barack Obama toward Iran. “This mistake needs to be corrected,” Rabi wrote, referring to Obama’s policy of appeasement toward Iran. “Correcting it can only be done by adopting a policy different from the Obama policy.”

The Lebanese and Arab warnings about a possible return to the nuclear deal with Iran and the resulting empowerment of Hezbollah need to be taken seriously by the new US administration. The Lebanese and Arabs are trying to tell Biden what they and the Trump administration have known for the past few years, namely, that Iran and its proxies — such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis — are poised to wreak havoc in the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon will be the first to celebrate if and when a Biden administration returns to the 2015 nuclear deal between the world superpowers and Iran.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has called on Biden to give Iran more money and return to the nuclear deal. “Now, an opportunity has come up for the next US administration to compensate for past mistakes and return to the path of complying with international agreements through respect of international norms,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16811/iran-fakhrizadeh-killing

Under the slogan “Death to America”, Iran has been at war with the US, Israel and their Western allies since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, using proxy groups to kill hundreds of Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other places; and to launch terror attacks across the Middle East, Europe, the US and Latin America.

Mr Fakhrizadeh was a brigadier general in the IRGC and therefore not only a senior military commander in a country at war with the US and its allies but also a proscribed international terrorist.

Iran will never abandon what it considers its absolute right to become a nuclear-armed state, not under the current regime nor any future regime…. It has lied to the IAEA and the archive even sets out in detail the ways in which it has deceived the inspectors.

Despite claims to the contrary, the JCPOA was never going to prevent a nuclear armed Iran… Its sunset clauses meant that at best the deal might have delayed Tehran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons for a few years…. Any return to the JCPOA by a Biden White House, as is being pushed by Mr Brennan and other prospective administration officials, will not see a strengthened deal but more likely an even weaker one.

Mr Brennan and the European supporters of his argument seem to believe that Iran can be contained by appeasement and negotiation rather than military strength and political will. The path advocated by the proponents of appeasement can only lead to infinitely greater bloodshed, violence and suffering than the death of a proscribed terrorist on the streets of Iran.

With unfailing predictability, EU external affairs spokesman Peter Sano as well as other European Iran-appeasers rushed to condemn the targeted killing on November 27 of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. In doing so they exhibited shocking disregard for the death, destruction and suffering likely to be inflicted by the totalitarian Iranian regime utilising the pernicious expertise of Mr Fakhrizadeh.

From across the Atlantic they were joined by, among others, former CIA Director John O. Brennan, who described the killing as “state-sponsored terrorism” and “a flagrant violation of international law”. Yet Mr Brennan was in the White House Situation Room in 2011 when the US launched an operation to kill Usama bin Laden on Pakistani sovereign territory. Presumably he was not whispering into President Barack Obama’s ear that SEAL Team Six were violating international law.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16784/persecution-of-christians-october

One of the men captured confessed that he was “promised a monthly 2000 dollar payment for fighting against ‘kafirs’ in Artsakh, and an extra 100 dollar for each beheaded “kafir.” (Kafir, often translated as “infidel,” is Arabic for non-Muslims who fail to submit to Islamic authority, which makes them enemies by default.) — Armen Press, November 1, 2020, Armenia/Azerbaijan/Turkey.

“It is not possible to get justice in this part of Somalia where almost everyone is a Muslim. We are being hunted down like wild animals because of putting our faith in Issa [Jesus].” — The father of a 7-year-old boy who was beaten and hospitalized, Morning Star News, October 30, 2020, Somalia.

“A sexual act with a minor is felony even if she is willing. The court has validated a rape despite the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2014 that punishes contractors of child marriage with up to three years’ imprisonment…. What is the future of minority girls in Pakistan?” — Samson Salamat, the Christian chairman of an interreligious organization, Union of Catholic Asian News, October 28, 2020, Pakistan.

“As an Egyptian, I have rights—including the right to see my daughter and sit with her and make sure she is okay. If she wishes to follow another path [Islam], that is her right, but my right is to see her…. She is not some “chicken” I can forget about… As for the video, I am a father and know well how my daughter talks, and she [appeared] terrified… Is it that hard for the Egyptian police to return the girl?” — Coptic Solidarity, October 6, 2020, Egypt.

The following are among the abuses that Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of October 2020:

Slaughtered Christians and Terrorized Churches

France: On October 29, a Muslim man who wielded a knife entered the Notre Dame Cathedral of Nice and, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is greatest”], beheaded a Christian woman and stabbed two others to death. According to one report:

“Married Nadine Devillers, 60, was the first person attacked by Tunisian knifeman Brahim Aoussaoui, 21, who slit her throat near the baptismal font. After he tried to decapitate Devillers [other reports state the beheading was complete], Aoussaoui hacked 54-year-old sacristan Vincent Loques to death as he prepared for the first Mass of the day. Brazilian-born Simone Barreto Silva, 44, was then stabbed multiple times but managed to escape the church, running to a nearby burger bar where she succumbed to her injuries. The mother-of-three’s last words to paramedics were: ‘Tell my children that I love them’. On arrival, French police shot Aoussaoui 14 times as he screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ … a phrase he kept shouting even after being sedated and put into an ambulance.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16645/eu-pact-migration-asylum

The question at the core of the internal EU conflict over migration in Europe is not practical but political: whether the EU should take any migrants at all. On that question, the European Commission and the Central and Eastern European countries could not be further apart.

The proposed system invariably gives rise to multiple questions about the practical viability of the proposed system. Will frontline states become efficient at screening migrants? Will the planned increased border control work? How, exactly, are widespread, years-long people-smuggling and human trafficking by gangs who profit immensely from it, going to be stopped?

“The big gamble is that you are betting on all members states each living up to their part of the responsibility…. it only takes a few states not living up [to] their commitments and then the entire system breaks down.” — Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, professor of migration and refugee law at the University of Copenhagen, euronews.com, October 8, 2020.

“[W]e must ensure that the external borders of the EU and the Schengen Area remain perfectly sealed along all sections… Though it appears under a different name in the European Commission’s new package of proposals on migration and asylum, the migrant quota is still there, and Hungary opposes it, along with Poland and the Czech Republic.” — Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations.

The European Commission has proposed a new Pact on Migration and Asylum for the European Union in the hope that it will solve the deep-seated political crisis that the issue of migration continues to pose in the EU.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16799/afghanistan-taliban-peace-deal

While Mr Trump has fulfilled his side of the bargain by overseeing a significant reduction in America’s military presence from 9,000 to 4,500 troops since the deal was signed, the Taliban has been less forthcoming in terms of honouring its side of the deal.

The upsurge in Taliban violence certainly raises significant questions about whether Afghanistan’s security forces will be able to defend the country once American forces have been withdrawn, with US forces due to be reduced to 2,500 by early next year.

There are also concerns that, if the Taliban succeeds in seizing control of large swathes of the country, they could allow Islamist terror groups like Al-Qaeda to return and use the country as a base from which to launch attacks against the West — the initial cause of America’s military intervention following the September 11 attacks.

The fear now is that, if Mr Trump and his senior advisors are no longer in a position to conclude the peace deal he negotiated earlier in the year, then the Taliban will simply take matters into their own hands and seize control of the country by force.

The latest spate of terror attacks carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan suggests that the terrorist organisation remains determined to seize control of the country through violence rather than by negotiating a peace agreement with the democratically-elected Afghan government.

Under the terms of the historic agreement that the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in February, Taliban leaders undertook to negotiate a lasting peace deal with President Ashraf Ghani’s administration in Kabul.

The aim of the deal, so far as US President Donald Trump was concerned, was to end America’s long and costly involvement in the Afghan conflict which, most recently, dates back to the September 11, 2001 attacks, and has claimed the lives of more than 2,300 US military personnel and cost the American taxpayer nearly $1 trillion.

As part of the agreement, the US undertook to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan on the understanding that the Taliban would cut all ties with international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS), and engage in a sincere dialogue with the Afghan government to formulate a lasting peace agreement.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16793/palestinians-arabs-apology

The Palestinian decision to renew ties with Israel comes at a time when the Palestinian media is continuing to condemn other Arabs for engaging in normalization with Israel.

“They [the Palestinians] were trampling on the pictures of our leaders. But we have not seen them trampling on the pictures of Abbas.” — Emirati social media user BintUAE1900, Twitter, November 18, 2020.

Several Palestinians and Arabs took to social media to demand sarcastically that the PA withdraw its ambassador from Ramallah to protest its own decision to “normalize” relations with Israel.

The PA leadership’s decision to restore ties with Israel and return the Palestinian ambassadors to the UAE and Bahrain is viewed by some Palestinians as an apparent attempt to cozy up to a possible new US administration under the presumptive new President-elect Joe Biden. Abbas is also likely hoping that in return, the US and some Gulf states will resume pouring money into the PA coffers — for a start.

Will the Palestinian leadership apologize to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for accusing them of betraying the Palestinians and Arabs by signing peace agreements with Israel?

Last week, the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by President Mahmoud Abbas, in a surprise move, announced that it has decided to restore all relations with Israel, including security coordination between the PA security forces and the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank.

Abbas also owes Palestinians an apology because his decision to sever ties with Israel deprived Palestinian patients — except for another prominent Palestinian leader, Saeb Erekat — from receiving medical treatment in Israel. The decision also deprived thousands of Palestinians from receiving full salaries: Abbas had refused to accept tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16783/caucasus-imperial-dreams

To start with, the mini-victory he [Erdogan] has won against Armenia may have whetted Erdogan’s appetite for further conquests. Pro-Erdogan papers in Turkey are beating the drums about “victory in the Caucasus” as the first time, since the end of the Ottoman Empire, that Turks have managed to “liberate” a chunk of Islamdom from “infidel” rule.

Worse still for Putin, Erdogan has already indicated he wants to involve his Foreign Legion of Jihadis in protecting “Muslim lands”.

By mixing his Muslim Brotherhood jihadism with pan-Turkic themes that recall Enver Pasha, Erdogan hopes to replace the Ataturk narrative with a new narrative of religious nationalism.

It is no accident that he is also sharpening his anti-West rhetoric and tightening ties with the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkish outfit banned by the European Union as a “terrorist organization.” The “Grey Wolves” dream of a Turkic empire stretching from the Balkans to Central Asia.

As the dust settles after the latest fighting in Transcaucasia we may be witnessing the shaping of a bigger disaster involving more parts of the Western Asian arch of instability spanning from the Caspian Basin to the Mediterranean.

Let’s briefly recall what happened.

Sometime in 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to help his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev to reconquer the High Qarabagh enclave captured by neighboring Armenia in the early 1990s, soon after the disintegration of the Soviet Empire. A crash program of training and arming the newly created Azeri army was launched by Ankara, financed by Azerbaijan’s spiraling oil revenues. The fact that the so-called Minsk Trio, the United States, France and Russia, who guaranteed the status quo had lost interest in the whole thing enabled Erdogan to put the new and as yet fragile Azeri republic on a war footing with the help of over 100 Turkish advisers and some 300 Syrian jihadis forming part of a Turkish Foreign Legion.