LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 09/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6,35-40.  Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it (on) the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
INTERVIEW-Geagea sees more killings, deadlock in Lebanon.Reuters 09/04/08
Egypt's farcical elections can only hurt those who staged them-The Daily Star 09/04/08
Saudi Arabia is prime source of terror funds, U.S. says. By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times 09/04/08
Arab rights groups, figures slam Saudi death fatwa. Reuters 09/04/08
INTERVIEW-Geagea sees more killings, deadlock in Lebanon.Reuters 09/04/08
Egypt's farcical elections can only hurt those who staged them-The Daily Star 09/04/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 09/08
US: Iran, Syria Pursuing Lebanization strategy in Iraq-Naharnet
Report: Jimmy Carter to Meet With Hamas Leader in Syria-FOXNews
Fars: Syria Arrests Saudi Official Over Mughniyeh Assassination-RTT News
Bellemare still believes 'political' issues spurred Hariri killing-Daily Star
Siniora hits Riyadh, Abu Dhabi to garner support at new summit-Daily Star
Don't let meddlers bring out the Irish in the Lebanese-Daily Star
Hoss stresses dialogue as only solution for crisis-Daily Star
Israel jamming phone networks in South - report-Daily Star
PLO envoy passes message from Abbas to Siniora-Daily Star
Security Council yet to agree on Lebanon statement-Daily Star
Daily says Mughniyeh probe will damage Syria-Daily Star
UNIFIL steps up patrols in South as sounds from Israeli drills cross border-Daily Star
Shun 'mentally blind' political parties, Fadlallah says
US sees Iran and Syria "Lebanon" gambit in Iraq-Reuters
 Iran's president announces installation of new centrifuges-AP
Syria: Saudis behind slain Hezbollah commander's death say Iranian ...AKI
Azour touts growth of 'close to 4 percent' despite obstacles-AFP
Beirut pulls in a few good marks in cautious IMF report on economy-Daily Star
Senior FPM official insists delay of party polls is over technicalities, not cronyism-Daily Star
'Tempus National Information Day' promotes 'unified' higher education space-Daily Star
Assad after Meeting Berri: Syria Ready to Help End Lebanon Crisis-Naharnet
Saniora Rejects Berri's Dialogue Offer-Naharnet
Hizbollah turns to Iran for new weapons to wage war on Israel-Independent
Israel: Lebanon Will Pay 'Dear Price' if Hizbullah 'Commits Mistake'-Naharnet
Hoss Hails Berri's Dialogue Initiative-Naharnet
No Security Council Agreement Yet on Lebanon Presidential Statement-Naharnet
Sirens Sound across Israel in Drill for Possible Attack by Iran, Syria, Hizbullah-Naharnet
Egypt Warns Syria against Boycotting Arab Meetings on Lebanon-Naharnet
Fatah al-Islam Threatens Balamand University-Naharnet
Lebanon Phone Network Jammed Following Israeli Drill-Naharnet
Jumblat Slams Celebratory Gunfire, Comments on Suleiman's Plans to Quit-Naharnet
Gemayel: Franjieh's Request is 'Positive"-Naharnet
Lebanon's Future Remains in the Hands of the U.S., Iran-Naharnet
Ahmadinejad: Iran to Install 6,000 New Nuclear Centrifuges-Naharnet

Fatah al-Islam Threatens Balamand University
Naharnet/A statement allegedly signed by the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group has threatened to bomb the Balamand University in north Lebanon. News reports said a number of Balamand students on Monday put their hands on the statement that threatened to bomb the university on April 7, 2008.
The university administration announced it will take necessary precautionary measures.
Last year, Fatah al-Islam fought a bloody gunbattle with the Lebanese army at the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Beirut, 08 Apr 08, 09:22

INTERVIEW-Geagea sees more killings, deadlock in Lebanon
Tue Apr 8, 2008
MAARAB, Lebanon, April 8 (Reuters) - Lebanese leader Samir Geagea said on Tuesday he expected Syria to try to kill more leaders of his anti-Damascus governing coalition, blaming it for previous assassinations. Geagea, one of Lebanon's main Christian leaders, also said he saw no end in sight to a political conflict between the U.S.-backed governing alliance and opposition factions led by Hezbollah, a group backed by Syria and Iran. "I expect new assassinations if those undertaking them get the chance," Geagea told Reuters in an interview. "Naturally, these assassinations will target the official and non-official leadership of March 14," he said, referring to the governing alliance whose members have been targeted in a series of attacks over the past three years. Eight anti-Syrian politicians have been assassinated, starting with the Feb. 14, 2005 truck bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. "In my view ... the Syrian intelligence stands behind these assassinations, or attempted assassinations," said Geagea, consistently one of the toughest opponents of Syrian involvement in Lebanon. Syria has denied involvement in the killings.
Damascus dominated Lebanon from the end of the 1975-90 civil war until 2005 when the Hariri killing triggered international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw troops from the country. Geagea spent most of the post-civil war period in jail -- the only wartime leader not to benefit from an amnesty. He was sentenced to four life terms in 1994 for political murders. He always claimed his innocence and said he was a political prisoner. Leader of the Lebanese Forces group, Geagea was freed in 2005 after the Syrian withdrawal. The March 14 alliance accuses Syria of trying to reassert itself in Lebanon through its allies in Beirut, led by the powerful political and military group Hezbollah.
STATUS QUO
The opposition has been locked in a power struggle with the governing coalition since November 2006. The conflict has paralysed much of the work of government and left Lebanon without a president for four months. Geagea was sceptical of a new call for dialogue by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, leader of the Amal Movement and a close ally of Syria. He said the initiative seemed designed merely to ease pressure on Syria, which is accused by Arab states including Saudi Arabia of thwarting efforts to resolve the crisis. "That's why we are very hesitant in giving a response to the dialogue before we know what's on the agenda and where it will lead," Geagea said. A recent Arab mediation effort failed to make progress, leaving the conflict in a state of stalemate.
"Regarding the current balances of power locally, regionally, internationally ... I think the situation will stay as it is," Geagea said.
"For the foreseeable future, weeks or perhaps the coming few months, the status quo will remain," he said. "It's not in anyone's interest for there to be any escalation." The crisis, Lebanon's worst since the civil war, has triggered bouts of violence between supporters of rival leaders.
But Geagea dismissed the chance of a more widespread conflict. "I am not afraid of civil war or internal war in the foreseeable future," he said. Neither March 14 or opposition groups Hezbollah and Amal wanted such a conflict, he added.
"I don't think they have the intention or that there is any political decision to go towards internal fighting." (Editing by Catherine Evans)

Egypt Warns Syria against Boycotting Arab Meetings on Lebanon
Naharnet/Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Tuesday warned Syria against boycotting any Arab meeting on Lebanon. "If a President is not elected and if issues are not settled, the Lebanon crisis may widen further and we will not be able to pursue it later," Abul Geith told Future News channel on Tuesday. He said "it would be strange if Syria decides to boycott any Arab summit … since it is President of the Arab League." Abul Geith warned Syria that it should "shoulder all responsibilities" towards the Arab League presidency and reminded Damascus of its commitments.
He said no date has yet been set for an Arab foreign ministers meeting that had been called by Prime Minister Fouad Saniora. Beirut, 08 Apr 08, 10:18

Saniora Rejects Berri's Dialogue Offer
Naharnet/Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on Monday rejected an offer made by Speaker Nabih Berri to resume national dialogue, saying only a new President in Lebanon would sponsor all-party national talks.
Saniora's remarks came at the end of a two-day visit to Cairo where he met Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Geith and Arab League chief Amr Moussa in an effort to settle the Lebanon crisis and patch up Beirut-Damascus differences. "We have always said that there are no settlements (to the Lebanon crisis) without dialogue," Saniora said at a joint press conference with Moussa. "But who stopped dialogue and where is true dialogue held?" Saniora asked. "The person who should conduct a dialogue should be the President of the Republic," Saniora stressed. Saniora earlier was quoted as saying that contacts were underway between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria to settle the political crisis in Beirut and tackle the deteriorating Lebanese-Syrian relations. "Lebanon has one neighbor, that is Syria, and one enemy, that is Israel," Saniora said. "The Arab umbrella shadows Lebanon," he added without further elaboration on the remark. The majority premier is scouting possibilities of requesting a meeting by Arab foreign ministers to tackle the strained Lebanese-Syrian relations. From Cairo, Saniora flew to Abu Dhabi late on Monday, where he held talks with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan. Saniora is also due to visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Beirut, 07 Apr 08, 20:33

Assad after Meeting Berri: Syria Ready to Help End Lebanon Crisis
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said after talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that Damascus was ready to help end the political crisis in Lebanon and shore up security in its neighboring country. "Syria stands ready to provide all possible help which the Lebanese could request, to guarantee security and stability in Lebanon," Assad was quoted by Syria's official SANA news agency as saying on Monday.
The Syrian president also voiced support for inter-Lebanese talks. He said such talks between the feuding Lebanese politicians would help resolve the crisis that has pitted the pro-government majority against the Hizbullah-led opposition. Berri, who is also a key opposition leader, issued on Monday a new call for all-party national dialogue. But his call was quickly rejected by Prime Minister Fouad Saniora. After talks in Cairo, Saniora said that only a new President in Lebanon should sponsor national dialogue. Berri told reporters after a two-hour meeting with Assad that Syria was imposing "no conditions" on the inter-Lebanese talks which he has been trying to organize. Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem attended the Assad-Berri talks.
"In one word I tell our people in Lebanon, Arabs and the world that our brethren in Syria have absolutely put no conditions for consensus in Lebanon," Berri said.
He said Syria was willing to provide support for any issue. Berri said his visit had provided him "with a new boost" to launch a dialogue aimed at electing Army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as President.
Berri intends to gather Lebanon's political leaders for talks before April 22 when parliament is due to convene for an 18th attempt to elect a president.
The anti-Syrian majority March 14 coalition and the opposition have both agreed on Suleiman as a consensus candidate for the presidency. However, they continue to bicker about the make-up of a new cabinet. Press reports said Berri is to head to Egypt after his Damascus mission for talks with Egyptian and Arab League officials. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is to make a brief visit to Egypt on Tuesday for talks with President Husni Mubarak on Arab divisions over Lebanon.
It could not be determined if the two leaders would hold a joint meeting with Berri, whose office said his tour would include Riyadh, Doha and Paris.
Berri would scout stands by Arab leaders on his plan to re-launch national dialogue between the various Lebanese factions prior to a parliamentary session designed to elect a president and scheduled for April 22. News reports said Berri is planning to launch a four-day dialogue as of April 18, in an effort to work out consensus on the Arab initiative. Beirut, 07 Apr 08, 13:53

Gemayel: Franjieh's Request is "Positive"
Naharnet/Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel on Monday said a request made by Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh regarding the 1960 electoral law was "positive" since it restricted the opposition's demand. Following a meeting of the Phalange Party, Gemayel also stressed his support for efforts by both Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and Speaker Nabih Berri to resolve the Lebanese crisis. Gemayel, however, said that these efforts are doomed to fail if they were not accompanied by "domestic awareness." He announced his intention to bring together the various Lebanese sides. Beirut, 07 Apr 08, 19:14

Lebanon's Future Remains in the Hands of the U.S., Iran
Naharnet/The Independent - By Robert Fisk
The Shiite "martyrs" of the hill village of Teir Dibba are normally killed in the dangerous, stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or attacks from the sea. Hizbullah duly honors them. But the body of the latest Shiite fighter to be buried there – from the local Hashem family – was flown back to Lebanon last month from Iran. He was hailed as a martyr in the village Husseiniya mosque but Hizbullah would say no more. For when a Lebanese is killed in live firing exercises in the Islamic Republic, his death brings almost as many questions as mourners. Yet it is an open secret south of the Litani river that thousands of young men have been leaving their villages for military training in Iran. Up to 300 men are taken to Beirut en route to Tehran each month and the operation has been running since November of 2006; in all, as many as 4,500 Hizbullah members have been sent for three-month sessions of live-fire ammunition and rocket exercises to create a nucleus of Iranian-trained guerrillas for the "next" Israeli-Hizbullah war.
Whether this frightening conflict takes place will depend on President Bush's behavior. If America – or its proxy, Israel – bombs Iran, the response is likely to be swift and will come from the deep underground bunkers that Hizbullah has been building in the fields and beside the roadways east and south of Jezzine.
For months, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader, has been warning Israel that his organization has a "surprise" new weapon in its armory and there are few in Lebanon who do not suspect that this is a new Iranian-developed ground-to-air missile – rockets which may at last challenge Israel's air supremacy over Lebanon. For more than 30 years, Israel's fighter-bombers have had the skies to themselves, losing only two aircraft – one to a primitive Palestinian SAM-7 shoulder-fired missile, the other to Syrian anti-aircraft guns – during and after its 1982 invasion.
After its 1980-88 war with Iraq, Iran introduced a new generation of weapons, one of which – a development of a Chinese sea-to-sea missile – almost sank an Israeli corvette in the last Hizbullah-Israeli war in 2006.
Can Hizbullah shoot Israeli jets out of the sky in the event of another conflict? It is a question much discussed within the 13,000-strong United Nations force in southern Lebanon – essentially a NATO-led army, which contains French, Spanish and Italian troops as well as Chinese, Indian and sundry other contingents – which would find itself sandwiched between the two antagonists.
There are no armed Hizbullah fighters in their area of operations – Nasrallah respects the U.N. resolution which placed the peacekeepers between the Israeli border and the Litani in 2006 – but the U.N. mission, along with its soldiers, will be gravely endangered in the event of another war.
If its aircraft could no longer bomb at will over Lebanon without fear of being destroyed, would Israel stage another costly land invasion – highly unlikely after the bloodying its troops took in 2006 – or use its own ground-to-ground missiles on Lebanon? For if the latter option were chosen, it would bring a whole new dimension to Lebanon's repeated wars. Long-range missiles have proved hopelessly inaccurate in Middle East conflicts and the Iran-Iraq war. But whatever political sins they still commit, the Lebanese – despite their current crisis – appear to have rejected any return to civil war. In such a war, no one could repeat the old lies about "pinpoint accuracy".
The government of Fouad Saniora may be trapped in its own "Green Zone" in central Beirut – it even refused to attend the Arab League summit in Damascus – and parliament is suspended after 17 vain sessions to elect a president. A series of prominent Lebanese MPs and journalists have been murdered or attacked since 2005 but Syrian troops have left and the Lebanese army still manages to keep a form of order on the streets. However, the Syrian intelligence presence has been maintained in Lebanon – and Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. This does not mean that war is inevitable.
So the future of Lebanon remains – as it did in 2006 – in the hands of the United States and Iran. Just as the Israelis constantly warn of war, so Hizbullah still promises revenge for the car-bomb murder of its former intelligence officer Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February. Regularly, the Israelis warn that they will respond to attacks but that they will "choose the moment and the place and the means."
And sure enough – following Hizbullah's pattern of using Israel's own words – Nasrallah said on 24 March that Hizbullah would "choose the moment and the place and the means" to retaliate for Mughniyeh's death.  And each month, Hizbullah improves its new bunkers north of the Litani. Some now sprout aerials but they may be "dummies" for Israel's pilots to attack. Deep underground telephone land-lines have been laid to those which are visible and to those others which are beneath the surface. Hizbullah learned a lot from the 2006 war. Then its secret bunkers were air-conditioned with beds and kitchens attached. But when Israeli troops discovered a handful of them, they also found copies of their own Israeli air force reconnaissance photographs, complete with Hebrew markings.
Hizbullah had obviously bribed or blackmailed Israeli border guards for the pictures – from which they could tell at once which bunkers the Israelis had identified and which remained unknown to them. Which is how, in 2006, its guerrillas sat safely through days of air bombardment in the latter, while allowing the Israelis to blitz the "known" fortresses to their hearts' content. Who knows if Hizbullah has not since collected a new batch of photographs for the coming months?
Beirut, 08 Apr 08, 09:38

Ahmadinejad: Iran to Install 6,000 New Nuclear Centrifuges
Iran is starting work to install 6,000 new uranium-enriching centrifuges at its nuclear plant in Natanz, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday, according to state media. "Today, the phase for installing 6,000 new centrifuges at the facility in Natanz has started," the state broadcaster's website quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the atomic plant. According to the last report by the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran has already installed 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz in defiance of Western calls for it to freeze uranium enrichment. Iran was on Tuesday marking its "national day of nuclear technology", which commemorates the April 2006 anniversary of Iran's first production of uranium sufficiently enriched to make atomic fuel.(AFP) Beirut, 08 Apr 08, 11:35
 

اSaudi Arabia is prime source of terror funds, U.S. says
By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror2apr02,0,5813573.story
WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia remains the world's leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow, the Bush administration's top financial counter-terrorism official said Tuesday.
Stuart A. Levey, a Treasury undersecretary, told a Senate committee that the Saudi government had not taken important steps to go after those who finance terrorist organizations or to prevent wealthy donors from bankrolling extremism through charitable contributions, sometimes unwittingly.
"Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world," Levey said under questioning.
U.S. officials have previously identified Saudi Arabia as a major source of funding for extremism. But Levey's comments were notable because, although reluctant to directly criticize a close U.S. ally, he acknowledged frustration with administration efforts to persuade the Saudis and others to act.
"We continue to face significant challenges as we move forward with these efforts, including fostering and maintaining the political will among other governments to take effective and consistent action," Levey said, later adding: "Our work is not nearly complete."
Levey was the sole witness before the Senate Finance Committee, which Tuesday ordered an independent review of the efforts to choke off financing used by Al Qaeda and other extremist groups.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the committee chairman, announced the review at the end of the hearing held to assess the money-tracking campaign by Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, headed by Levey.
The Bush administration created the office in 2004 to spearhead efforts to disrupt the flow of money to extremist causes, primarily from wealthy donors in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf.
However, U.S. officials and counter-terrorism experts have said that international support for the effort has waned while terrorist groups have found ways around the financial restrictions. At the same time, there have been turf battles among the 19 federal agencies that work on the problem.
Senators praised work done by Levey but expressed concerns about the overall U.S. effort. The committee's Democratic and Republican leaders cited a Los Angeles Times report last week detailing problems undermining the effort.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican, said extremist groups had adapted to changing U.S. investigative methods: "We are simply not prepared right now to keep up with them and put them out of business once and for all."
Levey said the campaign has succeeded in disrupting terrorist financing by freezing suspicious assets and in gathering intelligence that could be used to identify extremists and disrupt their activities.
But under questioning by senators, Levey also spoke of difficulty in getting Saudi Arabia to take the steps U.S. officials consider necessary.
Levey said the Saudis had been aggressive in going after terrorist cells. But he said they had not lived up to promises to establish the kind of financial intelligence unit needed to trace the money trails of terrorists. Another problem is that the Saudi government has not set up a charity oversight commission to track whether donations end up in the hands of extremists.
Levey said the Saudi government has not moved to publicly hold accountable those within the kingdom who have been the subject of enforcement actions by the U.S. and other authorities.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the Saudi failures mean that Americans who pay more than $100 a barrel for oil are in effect bankrolling extremism because wealthy Saudis "back-door" their profits into charities that fund extremist causes.
Nail Jubeir, press attache for the Saudi embassy in Washington, dismissed those concerns, saying the Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi Arabia for its efforts to combat terrorism.
"We have been very vigilant in our campaign against terrorism financing," Jubeir said. "We have come a long way since 9/11 on this issue."
Jubeir confirmed that Saudi Arabia has not set up the financial intelligence unit or charity commission, but said it was cracking down on the financiers of terrorism in other ways, such as making it illegal for anyone to send money outside the kingdom "without going through official government channels."
Alleged financiers of terrorism identified by the United States are being investigated, and their assets have been frozen, Jubeir said. "But unless we have evidence to try them . . . we don't parade them in public," he said. "What if it turns out they are innocent?"
At the hearing, senators also expressed concern about disputes among U.S. agencies and other administrative and investigative functions of Levey's office. Baucus and Grassley asked that the Government Accountability Office review its internal efficiency and effectiveness as well as its cooperation with foreign governments.
Levey said he had not seen the request from Baucus and Grassley, but added: "We welcome any source of advice as to how we can improve."
josh.meyer@latimes.com

Arab rights groups, figures slam Saudi death fatwa
25 Mar 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0143449420080401
RIYADH (Reuters) - A group of over 100 Arab rights groups and intellectuals on Tuesday condemned a Saudi religious edict calling for the death of two writers for apostasy, saying "clerics of darkness" were practicing intellectual terrorism.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, one of Saudi Arabia's most revered clerics, said in a rare religious ruling last month that two newspaper columnists should be put to death if they did not renounce their "heretical articles" in public.
The two had questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that Christians and Jews should be considered unbelievers, which Barrak said implied Muslims were free to follow other religions.
Barrak was backed by a group of 20 Saudi clerics. None of them speak for the Saudi government, which is represented by the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Al al-Sheikh.
Liberal reformers in Saudi Arabia are engaged in a battle with religious hardliners over the direction of the country, a key U.S. ally and the world's biggest oil exporter.
"All we can see in this fatwa is intellectual terrorism which sees 'Islam' as its exclusive monopoly and only sees in the 'other' blood which can be shed freely," said the statement sent to Reuters.
"It is incumbent upon Saudi and Arab intellectuals and those in official and unofficial institutions to stand up to this," it said, citing the attempted murder of Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz in 1994 by Islamists angry over his work.
The statement was signed by more than 100 Arab rights groups and intellectual figures from across the region, some of them seen as Islamist thinkers such as Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi and Lebanese academic Radwan al-Sayyed.
It said religious scholars who branded other Muslims as infidels were "clerics of darkness, fooled through their arrogance and inflated by their status into thinking that they speak in the name of God."

Syria: Saudis behind slain Hezbollah commander's death say Iranian sources
Tehran, 8 April (AKI) - Saudi Arabia is believed to be behind the death of a top commander with Lebanon's militant Shia group Hezbollah, Imad Mughniyeh, according to well-informed sources cited in a report on the Iranian news agency Fars, .Mughniyeh was killed on 12 February in a car bombing in Syria.
Unnamed sources told Fars that Syria's delay in announcing the results of an investigation into Mughniyeh's death "cannot be explained other than by the pressure exercised by some Arab states."
Fars is said to be close to the government of hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Fars report said that the Syrian commission of inquiry should have already concluded its probe into the killing and the results should have been made public before the recent meeting of the Arab League in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"Pressure by Kuwait convinced the government in Damascus to postpone everything till the day after the [Arab League] meeting ended," said the Fars report.
The news agency goes on to say that the additional delay has come about because of pressure from Riyadh.
One of the sources cited by Fars also pointed the finger at the Saudis and suggested that Riyadh was behind Mughniyeh's death.
"Through a Syrian woman, a Saudi secret service agent who works in Damascus acquired two cars that were used by Israeli secret service agents to kill the commander Haj Imad Mughniyeh," said the Fars report.
According to the Iranian news agency, the people involved in organising the attack which killed the military leader of Hezbollah, were Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian citizens.
The source cited in Fars also said that it knew the place where the killers had lived in the days leading up to the 12 February car bomb attack.
According to this source, the Palestinians and Jordanians who gathered in Damascus to kill Mughniyeh, lived with their family members in certain apartments in the Kafr Sousa quarter of the city, so as not to raise suspicion.
The Fars report said the former US ambassador to Washington, Banda al-Sultan, ordered the killing of Mughniyeh and that the Saudis did so to avenge the attack against a US military base in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
A car bomb attack on 25 June 1996 at the Abdul Aziz airbase in Khobar, near Dhahran, killed 19 US soldiers and injured 446 people, including 173 Americans.
The Saudis have always suggested Mughniyeh planned and organised this attack.
Fars also cited an attempt by the governments of Qatar and Kuwait to bring about mediation between Damascus and Riyadh, so that the results of the investigation into Mughniyeh's death are not made public or at least do not contain any reference to Saudi Arabia.
The publication of this information in an Iranian news agency could be interpreted as an attempt by Tehran to neutralise this effort at mediation.

What's at Stake for the West in Lebanon?
A briefing By: David Wurmser
March 6, 2008
http://www.meforum.org/article/1878 (includes an audio recording of this talk)

"Iran's Stake in the Levant"
Mr. Wurmser calls Lebanon a "key battleground between the West as a whole and the forces that seek to drag the Middle East down." The situation in Lebanon must be viewed in the context of the larger conflict in the region, which is becoming far more dangerous. Two years after the Cedar Revolution in March 2005, which was brought on by the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese are still living through a tragedy. The inability to install a new president today is indicative of the situation. It is because of the size and success of the popular demonstrations by the Lebanese, however, that Lebanon has become the focal point of the enemies of the West, namely Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah.

Mr. Wurmser focused on the Iranian strategy toward Lebanon, arguing that Iran is undergoing a transformation, not in the direction of reform as the West hopes, but from a pure theocracy toward a "theofascist state on the edge of an even more aggressive foreign policy." This transformation in Iranian politics, according to Mr. Wurmser, is being played out in Lebanon and in Gaza.

Top American officials have made statements to the effect that U.S. and U.N. sanctions have hurt the Iranian regime, and that the support for former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and other figures deemed "moderate" in the December 2006 elections indicated the weakening of the Iranian regime. Mr. Wurmser asserts that this perception is false because it ignores the real indicators. Rather, a new power structure is emerging in Iran that is closely aligned with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For example, Ahmadinejad fired many government officials and replaced them with a group of hard-core members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mr. Wurmser singled out Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei, whom Ahmadinejad placed in control of Intelligence, who espouses an aggressive anti-Western foreign policy and supports terrorism; and Saeed Jalili, whom Ahmadinejad appointed as head nuclear negotiator for Iran, is a veteran of the IRGC who was mutilated in the Iran-Iraq war.

Mr. Wurmser traced several of Ahmadinejad's actions to Jalili's 1990 book, Foreign Policy of the Prophet, arguing that Jalili's writings, though they describe the time of Muhammad, are a blueprint for Iran today. Jalili cites an episode in which Muhammad told his followers to proselytize, not negotiate. In this spirit, Ahmedinejad has fired ambassadors and replaced them with more proselytizing ones. Jalili wrote about how Muhammad and his successors sent letters out to other tribes telling them to "convert or you will face the sword," as well as to major powers in Byzantium and Persia. Mr. Wurmser linked this to Ahmedinejad's sending similar letters to President Bush. He pointed out how the "language is lifted straight out of Jalili's book, and that, in fact, "Jalili is the mind behind Ahmedinejad."

Mr. Wurmser analyzed tensions between IRGC officers and the ayatollahs whom the officers believe "betrayed the will of Allah" when they signed the treaty ending the Iran-Iraq war. A separate group of ayatollahs, based in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, sees itself as true believers. This group considers the current state of Islam to be weak, and it seeks to expose the West as "a collapsing, hollow tree." It expects the imminent return of the Twelfth Imam, the hidden Imam at the center of the Twelver Sh'ia movement of Islam. Its version of Islam is messianic and apocalyptic, and according to Mr. Wurmser, it provides the ideological basis for Iran's shift to a more aggressive and risk-seeking stance against the West.

He also identified a radical change in Iranian's notion of Islam. While the Iranian revolution defended Shi'ite interests and opposed Arab nationalism, over the past four years, "Iran has made a bold move to co-opt Arab nationalism." The Arab-Israeli conflict has become a key issue on which Iran can attempt to seize leadership of the Islamic world from the Sunnis and Arabs. A central part of Iran's national policy, Mr. Wurmser asserted, is to have an active war with Israel, be victorious, and seize leadership of the Muslim world. Iran's success at assuming the mantle of Islam is evident in that in the past two or three years, Muslim Brotherhood leaders have recognized that Shi'ites are true Muslims, a concept that they had vehemently opposed previously.

Mr. Wurmser argued that Iran needs Syria in order to co-opt Sunni politics and Arab nationalism. He called Syria a "geographic gateway for Iran to be a player in the Arab-Israeli conflict," and through this, to maintain the appearance of a successful Iranian revolution. Ahmedinejad came to power because it was thought that the Iranian revolution was weak. If Syria collapses, Mr. Wurmser thinks Iran will implode and that Syria is the avenue through which to attack Iran. Gaza is also a battleground for Iran, said Wurmser, citing that 80% of terrorist activity in Gaza is committed by a force trained in Iran that answers directly to Damascus and Tehran.

Mr. Wurmser considers things to have gone well for Ahmadinejad in the last few months. He compared Ahmadinejad's bold opposition to the West and accusations of cowardliness on the part of followers who urge a more cautious policy to the way Hitler galvanized his generals in the 1930s by accusing them of lack of will. Disturbingly, each crisis increases Ahmadinejad's reputation as his supporters rally round him.

In his recommendation for American foreign policy, Mr. Wurmser stressed that the United States must take into account how its policies are perceived in the Middle East. In 2003, when the United States acquiesced to the European acceptance of the Iranian regime as a legitimate interlocutor on nuclear issues, the Iranians read this as tacit acceptance and, therefore, weakness. During the same year, when the U.N. sanctioned the American presence in Iraq, Iran saw this as weakness on the American part because the superpower asked for permission to strike. Mr. Wurmser described the summer of 2003 as a "key moment, because the momentum the Iranian people were building against the regime was punctured by perceived American weakness."

On the question of what concrete things the United States can do to support democracy in Lebanon, Mr. Wurmser emphasized the need for swift response to the assassinations of Lebanese leaders. At least six government officials have been killed since Hariri, but the U.S. response has been slow and ineffective. Meanwhile, Hezbollah and Syria are "killing the Lebanese government out of existence." Mr. Wurmser concluded that "the United States can have an effect if we show we are committed to acting to preserve what happened in March 2005" when the Lebanese staged the Cedar Revolution.

***David Wurmser is a specialist on the Middle East and served as an advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney until recently. His prior positions included special assistant to John R. Bolton at the Department of State and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Wurmser is the author of numerous influential papers and three books, including Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein (AEI Press, 1999). In 2000, he contributed to the Middle East Forum's Lebanon Study Group report, "Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role," which condemned Syria's occupation of Lebanon. He received a Ph.D. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Wurmser addressed the Middle East Forum on March 6, 2008 in New York City.