LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 27/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 18,21-35. Then Peter approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?'

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Confronting Islam- By Jamie Glazov- FrontPageMagazine.com. 26.2.08
Analysis: Nasrallah's existential dilemmas.By JONATHAN SPYER.Jerusalem Post -26/02/08
Hizbullah and War-By: Abdullah Iskandar-Dar Al-Hayat 26/02/08
Hezbollah and Iran: New threats?Claude Salhani. 26/02/08
Our World: Iran's game of grand strategy.By CAROLINE GLICK.Jerusalem Post- 26/02/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 26/08
Deep Divisions Threaten to Scuttle Moussa's Efforts to Solve Crisis-Naharnet
Seized Hizbullah Rocket Injures 2 Israelis-Naharnet
Syria: Hizbullah Leaders to Remain Active in Damascus-Naharnet
Man with Lebanese Passport Creates Commotion in Miami Airport-Naharnet
EU Condemns 'Uncivilized' Iranian Comments after Mughniyeh's Murder-Naharnet
Mubarak: Syria has to Solve Lebanon Crisis to Have Successful Summit-Naharnet
Bush, Jordan's King Abdullah to Discuss Lebanon Situation in March-Naharnet
U.S. Official Praises Lebanon for Combating Terror Financing-Naharnet
Edde: No Veto Powers to Opposition-Naharnet
Election postponed again as Moussa leaves Beirut-Daily Star
Jumblatt says surrender of Hizbullah's weapons to army is 'inevitable-Daily Star
Lebanese democracy is thin stuff indeed-Daily Star
Graziano escorts senior Italian officers on tour of South -Daily Star
Sidon's dump debacle: movement at last?-Daily Star
Two-day event honors late journalist Samaha-Daily Star
'Like sponges:' Campaign brings energy awareness to Lebanon's children-Daily Star
Fund will also address fallout from small, medium firms-Daily Star
Groups still at work cleaning up after conflict-Daily Star
German money will help Lebanon's environment-Daily Star
Syria Sees No Chance for Peace This Year-The Associated Press
Mughniyeh's widow says Syria behind husband's murder-Ya Libnan
Syria: No ME peace deal under Bush-PRESS TV
EU condemns 'uncivilised' Iranian comments on Israel: statement-EUbusiness (press release)
FACTBOX-Israel's options on Gaza-Reuters
March 14's Three Options-Naharnet
Presidential Election Pushed to March 11-Naharnet
Moussa's Double Failure: No Break Through Declared, No New Meeting Set-Naharnet
Lebanon's Crisis Threatens Damascus Summit-Naharnet
U.S. Official Praises Lebanon for Combating Terror Financing-Naharnet
Edde: No Veto Powers to Opposition-Naharnet
Qandil Accuses Saudi, U.S., Israel and Jumblat of Planning to Kill him and Wahab-Naharnet
Quartet Meeting on Presidential Crisis Ends … Solution Appears Distant-Naharnet
Jumblat Reminds Nasrallah: No Escape from Defense Strategy-Naharnet
Bazzi Urges Political Leaders to Make Arab Initiative a Success-Naharnet
Lebanese Forces, SSNP Exchange Accusations over Clashes that Left 10 Wounded-Naharnet

Deep Divisions Threaten to Scuttle Moussa's Efforts to Solve Crisis
Naharnet/Arab League Chief Amr Moussa left Beirut Monday with no breakthrough after reportedly the majority and the opposition rejected a cabinet formula he suggested during the quartet meeting. An Nahar daily said Tuesday that Moussa proposed a 13+10+7 formula under which a minister accepted by the opposition and another accepted by the majority would be among the seven cabinet members loyal to the president. His suggestion came Monday during the second round of talks in as many days between March 14 majority representatives, ex-President Amin Gemayel and Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri, and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in his capacity as representative of the Hizbullah-led opposition. An Nahar quoted majority sources, however, as saying the FPM leader insisted on three proposals during the meeting, saying the opposition could accept any of them: 11 ministers for the anti-government camp, the adoption of the 10+10+10 formula on condition the president guarantees consensus on major decisions, or a 13+10+7 formula under which the president chooses as part of his share one minister out of 3 suggested by the opposition. The majority sources told An Nahar that Aoun's three suggestions lead to veto power, a move rejected by the pro-government camp. They said the majority insisted on a 13+10+7 formula with no conditions and Hariri suggested the election of a president based on the Arab Initiative and then formation of a government. Opposition sources reiterated that the March 14 forces were insisting on holding into power.
The Beirut media said that the two sides agreed to avoid verbal accusations and work on preventing any moves that could further deteriorate the tense situation.
Moussa said before leaving Beirut that all factions agree to the first clause of the Arab initiative that calls for the election of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman president. However, he said, differences persisted on structure of the forthcoming cabinet. "It is a question of mathematics," he said. "I would have liked to leave with a comprehensive paper or a draft agreement but it became clear that more time is needed," Moussa said. No date has been set for further talks, a sign of no breakthrough. However, Moussa rushed to outline that "we've agreed on meeting again" in an apparent effort to avoid indicating that the Arab Initiative has collapsed. eirut, 26 Feb 08, 09:21

Seized Hizbullah Rocket Injures 2 Israelis
Naharnet/Two Israeli soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, when a Hizbullah anti-tank rocket they were testing exploded prematurely on Tuesday, the army and press reported.The missile, found during Israel's 2006 summer war with Hizbullah, exploded at a base south of Tel Aviv because of a fault in the launcher, the Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported. Israeli tanks, particularly the Merkava III and IV, are well protected against anti-tank missiles. However, a number of them were knocked out by Hizbullah fire during the 34-day war, and the army is investigating ways to improve their defenses.(AFP) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 11:21

Syria: Hizbullah Leaders to Remain Active in Damascus
Naharnet/Syria's ambassador to the United States Imad Moustapha has said Damascus will allow Hizbullah leaders to remain active in Syria despite the assassination of the party's commander Imad Mughniyeh. Moustapha also said in an interview with the Associated Press Monday that Syria's investigation into Mughniyeh's killing in a Damascus car bombing on Feb. 12 is progressing. Hizbullah leaders have accused Israel of killing Mughniyeh and have vowed to retaliate. Israel has denied involvement in the bombing. Meanwhile, Mughniyeh's widow claimed that Syria was behind her husband's killing, Iranian news website Alborz reported. "The Syrian traitors assisted in my husband's murder," the site quoted Saada Badr el Din as saying.
"The Syrian refusal to let Iranian investigators do their job is proof of Damascus' complicity in my husband's murder," she said.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moustapha said Israel and Palestinians will not reach a peace deal this year, and a recent Mideast peace conference in Annapolis was only "an exercise in public relations." He said U.S. President George Bush has no real desire to broker a peace deal and that there are powerful forces within his administration who believe "chaos is constructive" in the Middle East. "We believe that the whole Annapolis thing was an exercise in public relations," Moustapha said. The only thing that happened there was "people were smiling and saying 'cheese.'" Moustapha added, "I don't think there is a unanimous belief among the administration, across the departments of this administration, that peace should be the path forward in the Middle East."
"I don't know who he is referring to," responded Tom Casey, a U.S. State Department spokesman. "I certainly know that we have serious and ongoing concerns about Syria's unconstructive role in the region."The White House accuses Syria of harboring terrorists, supporting Hizbullah and of allowing insurgents to freely cross its border into Iraq. Palestinian officials are also pessimistic, Moustapha said, adding that they have told him no progress has been made in one-on-one negotiations with Israel.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 10:31

Man with Lebanese Passport Creates Commotion in Miami Airport
Naharnet/A man carrying multiple passports, including one from Lebanon, was arrested after he bolted from security screeners at Miami International Airport, jumped from a second floor concourse and broke his arm and ribs, authorities said.  Transportation and Security Administration officials became suspicious of Faid Beydoun as he stood in a security line Monday, waiting to board a Los Angeles-bound flight. When Beydoun's travel documents also raised concerns, agents asked him to step out of line for a secondary screening. Beydoun then ran from security screeners, jumped 7.5 meters off the second floor concourse and broke his arm and ribs, The Miami Herald reported. The man was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence, according to a statement. They did not identify him, but Miami-Dade County Corrections Department spokeswoman Janelle Hall said Beydoun was arrested for the same charges Monday, as well as loitering and prowling. Investigators told the newspaper Beydoun had a Lebanese passport and a fraudulent U.S. passport. Beydoun, 42, was being held in the hospital ward of the Miami-Dade jail at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Hall said. Beydoun did not have an attorney listed. Two other men, also headed to Los Angeles, were taken off a later flight that was still on the tarmac. The two men, one of whom was from Bahrain, told investigators they had paid for Beydoun's plane ticket and that he was a party promoter who knows the best U.S. night spots. No weapons or dangerous material were found with any of the men.(AP) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 09:57

EU Condemns 'Uncivilized' Iranian Comments after Mughniyeh's Murder
The European Union condemned "in the strongest terms" Monday remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials about Israel, after the killing of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh. "Their comments ... against Israel are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilized," a statement from the EU's Slovenian presidency said. "The EU calls on Iran to stop hostile rhetoric and refrain from all threats towards other states, members of the international community," it said. Last week, Ahmadinejad called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal," as Iran stepped up its rhetoric against the Jewish state after Mughniyeh's assassination in a Damascus car bombing on Feb. 12. "World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region," he said at a rally, in remarks broadcast on state television. The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari -- who along with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was also singled out by the EU -- had predicted Hizbullah would destroy Israel.
"The EU calls again on the Iranian leadership to support the need for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to the search for lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors," the statement said.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 09:42

Mubarak: Syria has to Solve Lebanon Crisis to Have Successful Summit
Naharnet/Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said the success of an upcoming Arab summit in Syria depends on Damascus' willingness to solve Lebanon's political crisis."The summit will be held in Syria, and Syria has a role in Lebanon's problem, that's why I hope that Syria would solve the problem so that we could resolve other problems when the summit is held," Mubarak told Bahrain's state TV after talks with King Hamad Bin Issa al Khalifa in Manama Monday. Mubarak also wondered "until when Lebanon will stay divided and shattered." Egypt and Gulf states fear the Arab summit that will be held next month in Damascus could fail if a president for Lebanon was not elected, a senior Bahraini official said."Egypt and the Gulf states see it necessary to resolve the question of the empty presidential post in Lebanon before the summit," the official, who declined to be named, told Agence France Presse after the meeting between Mubarak and Bahrain's King.
Egypt and Gulf states believe "failure to resolve this question could contribute to the failure of the summit," the official added. Mubarak arrived in Bahrain on Monday from neighboring Saudi Arabia where he discussed with King Abdullah ways to resolve Lebanon's crisis. Arab League chief Amr Moussa left Lebanon on Monday having failed in a new mediation bid to break the deadlock. Despite consensus on Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman for president, feuding Lebanese politicians have failed to agree on power-sharing in a future government.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 10:48

Bush, Jordan's King Abdullah to Discuss Lebanon Situation in March
Naharnet/U.S. President George Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah II are to meet at the White House on March 4 for talks expected to center on Middle East peace efforts and Lebanon's political crisis, a spokeswoman said Monday. "The president looks forward to discussing with the king the bilateral relationship between the United States and Jordan, Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, the situation in Lebanon, and other regional issues," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
After their talks, the two leaders along with First Lady Laura Bush and Queen Rania were to have a private lunch, Perino said. Jordan is a key ally of the United States and considered by Washington to be an influential partner in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. While in the United States, the Jordanian king will also hold talks with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, address Princeton University on regional challenges, and meet with Muslim and Jewish leaders, the royal palace said.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 26 Feb 08, 08:20

U.S. Official Praises Lebanon for Combating Terror Financing
Naharnet/U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Africa and the Middle East Andrew Baukol on Monday praised Lebanon's government for combating "illicit financing" of terror. Baukol made the remark in a statement issued after talks with Finance Minister Jihad Azour, Minister of Economy and Trade Sami Haddad, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and other officials in the public and private sectors. "I am pleased that Lebanese banks and banking regulatory officials in the government and Central Bank are seriously addressing the issue of illicit financing, which is essential to maintaining strong relations with U.S. banking institutions," he said. His Lebanon visited aimed at expressing "United States support for the government of Lebanon and discussing how the international community can help Lebanon improve prosperity for people throughout the country." "The Lebanese economy has shown impressive resilience in the face of many challenges over the past two years. This is a testimony to the sound economic management by the Lebanese government and the Central Bank of Lebanon. It also is a testimony to the skills of Lebanon's financial and business community," he added. Baukol said he "congratulated the Lebanese authorities on successfully meeting the targets in the International Monetary Fund's Post Emergency Post-Conflict Agreement last year, despite the difficult political environment.
"I also encouraged the government to continue to advance economic policy reforms as laid out in the government's agenda at the Paris III Donors Conference. In addition, I highlighted international efforts to combat terrorism finance." Beirut, 25 Feb 08, 20:33

Edde: No Veto Powers to Opposition
Naharnet/National Bloc Party leader Carlos Edde said Monday giving the Hizbullah-led opposition veto rights would finish off Lebanon and its democratic political system. Edde, in a statement distributed by the state-run National News Agency, also said the March 8 forces try to keep Hizbullah weapons outside the jurisdiction of international resolutions and link them to domestic dialogue."This would lead to totally blocking Lebanon's political system and the mere existence of Hizbullah weapons is enough to threaten democracy," he added. He warned against attempts by March 8 factions to sponsor the return of Syria's dominance over decision-making in Lebanon. Beirut, 25 Feb 08, 19:57

Jumblat Reminds Nasrallah: No Escape from Defense Strategy
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Monday that the Lebanese authority is the only power that is eligible to possess weapons.
Jumblat lashed out at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, without naming him, reminding him that there is no escape from a defense strategy.
"There is no getaway from a comprehensive defense strategy where all the weapons will be under the Lebanese army command," Jumblat said in an editorial to be published by the PSP weekly mouthpiece al-Anbaa on Tuesday.
"The Lebanese authority should be the only one eligible to possess weapons just like all over the world," the Druze leader added.
"No country in the world agrees to have armed factions outside its control that want to open war with the enemy whenever they desire as if they are the only ones that run the country's businesses," Jumblat said in reference to Nasrallah's declaration of "open war" against Israel following the killing of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh. "We in Lebanon have liberated our land and defeated the Israeli occupation more than once. We have also accomplished our national duties," Jumblat said. "We can do without terrorist or non-terrorist wars that could drag us to never ending conflicts on our territory," he stressed.
"An open war can be averted through a defense strategy and through the handing over those alive (Israeli soldiers) or the body parts to the legitimate authority in order to negotiate this dossier with the United Nations," Jumblat proposed. Beirut, 25 Feb 08, 15:18

Hizbullah and War
Abdullah Iskandar
Al Hayat - 25/02/08//
Once again, no one is betting on a potential election of a new president of Lebanon tomorrow, especially under the Arab Initiative, which seeks a domestic settlement based on a consensus on General Michel Suleiman and power sharing between the opposition and the majority, while seeing the Cabinet retain the meaning of a majority that can rule.
This wager, which has been repeated 14 times since last November 24 (when President Emile Lahoud's term ended), remains a losing one. The basic reason for this is that the concept and meaning of a settlement oppose, if not contradict what the majority and the opposition are striving for.
The majority wants to find a formula to end the crisis of electing a president of the Republic, followed by the formation of a government that reflects the balance of power in Parliament; in other words, it wants to bring the political life back to normal based on domestic developments. In turn, the opposition believes that this domestic formula for a solution targets it in the first place, as it places a premium on its concern with confronting Israel and its domestic and regional "branches." This stance means the opposition is unconcerned with a domestic settlement as a formula of rule, but rather as a guarantee in an external confrontation. Such a guarantee will not work in light of the domestic balance of power, where one side is trying to restore the country's political and economic life while adhering to a peaceful solution for the conflict with Israel, whereas the other side is preparing for a coming war with Israel, even if imposed by the Jewish state.
In other words, the opposition, which is basically Hizbullah, is relying on the hypothesis that the continuous war with Israel requires proper preparations, and thus places political life in its entirety as well as the necessary domestic settlement at the service of this battle. This will give the Islamic Resistance, Hizbullah's military wing, the absolute priority in the agenda of a settlement, which means not moving toward a solution for the crisis crippling Lebanon's institutions.
This resistance was born from a big domestic crisis, represented by the repercussions of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the election of Bashir Gemayel as a result of this invasion, and the end of the armed Palestinian presence. Through this resistance, Syria's influence took hold, along with the end of the "national resistance" that was launched by parties of the National Movement at the time. Hizbullah cemented its influence among Lebanon's Shiites, benefiting from Syrian and Iranian patronage and the aggravating domestic crisis under President Amin Gemayel, whether regarding negotiations with Israel or managing the Lebanese domestic situation. The atmosphere of crisis provided the opportunity to overturn the balance that was established by the Israeli invasion in the early 80s.
Today, when Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pushes the domestic situation toward the logic of a confrontation with Israel, he is trying to avoid the repercussions of any coup against the system that arose with the Taif Accord, and the method in which it was implemented over 18 years of direct Syrian presence (during the Hrawi and Lahoud eras). This coup is represented by the rise of a parliamentary majority that supports the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN resolutions on Lebanon and the international tribunal to try those involved in political assassinations. Thus, the coup represents the attempt to anchor natural political life in an independent state with constitutional institutions of rule. As such, targeting these institutions becomes necessary to prevent this coup from achieving its objectives.
It's no coincidence that on the occasion of marking one week since the assassination of Imad Mughniyyeh, the military leader of the Islamic Resistance, Nasrallah linked the "open comprehensive war" against Israel (the assassination was part of this) and the "refrain of reassuring some parties in power," which holds that "an imminent war will finish off Hizbullah." This link happened with the Israeli invasion of 1983, which hit at the infrastructure of the PLO and the election of Bashir Gemayel. In other words, the context of the current condition is not a crisis of the presidency and institutions, but rather foiling "a preventive war." The condition for the success of this drive is putting the presidency and Lebanon's institutions at the service of thwarting this war, i.e. at the service of the resistance. As Nasrallah said, the resistance rejects resorting to the "current authorities, which are embarrassed by our victory and conspire against us.. and have nothing to do with the Security Council or the international community." In other words, the elements of this continuing war with Israel involve, first of all, changing this authority and rejecting international resolutions, mostly the international tribunal, which has been politicized before its formation. The crisis will thus continue until Israel can do away with Hizbullah in the coming war, or until Hizbullah can do away with the authorities who conspire against it.

Mughniyeh's widow: Treason & treachery are behind his murder
Sunday, 24 February, 2008
Beirut - Saudi Arabia's newspaper "Okaz" has reported that the widow of Hezbollah's slain leader Imad Mughniyeh who was assassinated on February 12 in Damascus Syria , left Damascus as soon as her husband was murdered. The newspaper also reported that Mughniyeh's widow, who is Iranian was extremely angered by the murder of her husband and blamed it on "treason and treachery" without expanding what she meant and whom she had in mind as the traitors .
Mughniyeh's widow requested immediate departure from Syria to either Lebanon or Iran , but the Iranian embassy decided to take her to Tehran away from the Lebanese media . Okaz wrote Many intelligence experts are of the opinion that the assassination of  Mughniyeh could only have taken place with the collaboration of the Syrian intelligence . These experts do not deny that Israel may be behind the assassination , but the job could not have been done without the help and collaboration of the Syrians. After all one expert who did not want his name revealed for fear from the Syrian intelligence said " Syria and Israel enjoy the most peaceful borders and not one shot was fired by Syria in the occupied Golan Heights since the Assad dynasty took control of Syria" . The expert continued
" Israel loves the Syrian regime and has been fighting the Americans who wanted to change that regime for the past 3 years , ever since
Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005 "
Syria is currently probing the murder of Mughniyeh on its own as Foreign Minister walid Mouallem has declared . But, given the possible implications of the Syrian intelligence in this crime , many doubt Damascus regime's abilities in probing such a murder, specially since Assef Shawkat , the top man of the Syrian intelligence is the brother- in- law of the Syrian president Bashar al Assad. http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/02/mughniyehs_wido.php

Analysis: Hezbollah and Iran: New threats?
Published: Feb. 25, 2008
By CLAUDE SALHANI
UPI Contributing Editor
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Should the close and ongoing alliance between the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran be a cause for concern to the West?
Particularly in the aftermath of the assassination in Damascus earlier this month of a top Hezbollah operative, indeed, say a number of observers, all threats should be considered seriously.
And if one is to take Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, at his word, then yes, by all means, they should be taken very seriously. If past records are any indication to go by, Hezbollah, whether one hates what it stands for or supports it avidly, has usually done what it has said it would do. Especially Nasrallah.
But now throw in the Iran factor -- with its potential to become a nuclear power in the very near future -- combined with the knowledge that Iran has long cherished the desire to play the dominant role in the Middle East and the Islamic world, and the threat leveled is multiplied by two.
Nasrallah warned that his organization would seek revenge for the killing of one of its top commanders. Imad Mughnieh, who was assassinated in Damascus, was considered by Western and Israeli intelligence services to be one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world, but at the same time he was revered by many within the Shiite community and hailed as a hero.
Speaking from an undisclosed and secure location via a live television hookup during Mughnieh's funeral, Nasrallah blamed Israel for the killing and vowed that "the blood of Imad Mughnieh will bring Israel's destruction, God willing."
Nasrallah said that Mughnieh's killing would trigger "an open-ended war against Israel." It would be a war, he said, that would transcend Lebanon's borders and strike at Israeli interests around the world.
While no one has claimed responsibility for the assassination, the London Sunday Times reported earlier that Israel's Mossad had carried out the operation. The report states that the headrest in Mughnieh's car was substituted with one stuffed with explosives while he attended a meeting in Damascus. It was remotely detonated when Mughnieh returned to his car and drove away. The explosion took place shortly after he left the meeting.
According to al-Manar, the Hezbollah-run television channel broadcasting from Beirut, Mughnieh had established a list of potential Israeli targets that included a number of top Israeli officials. A Kuwaiti newspaper, citing a Hezbollah source, said when the group strikes back, "the target will be as important to Israel as Mughnieh was to Hezbollah."
Al-Manar has been broadcasting scenes from Mughnieh's funeral, including an interview with a young boy, probably not older than 12, who says that he hopes to "follow in the martyr's footsteps, God willing; and God willing, we will become martyrs like him (Mughnieh).
Hezbollah has two things going for it: first is the Shiite fervor found among young boys like the one interviewed on al-Manar who are ready to give their lives for a cause they truly believe in. And second it has the full backing of Iran.
In their latest book "The New Iranian Leadership: Ahmadinejad, Terrorism, Nuclear Ambitions, and the Middle East," authors Yonah Alexander and Milton Hoenig described Hezbollah as having quickly become "the vanguard of terrorist groups operating within Lebanon, responsible for nearly 90 percent of the attacks on international peacekeeping and foreign armies in Lebanon throughout the 1980s."
The authors go on to report that from 1992 to 1995 attacks by Hezbollah against Israeli forces in Southern Lebanon grew from 63 to a high of 344.
The book by Alexander and Hoenig, two seasoned experts in their fields -- Alexander is senior fellow and director at the International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute in Washington with some 95 books to his credit; co-author Hoenig is a nuclear physicist who worked in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency -- is an absolute must for anyone writing reports on or about Iran, Hezbollah, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or for anyone who needs to have more than a cursory glance at the very complex web of multiple layers of government that constitutes Iran today, and the role it plays on the international arena, particularly relating to its support of international terrorism.
Published shortly before Mughnieh's death, the two authors have this to say: Hezbollah's operational command maintains close relations with Iran's embassies in Beirut and Damascus as well as with the Pasdaran. The Pasdaran is possibly involved in supplying Hezbollah's Special Security Apparatus with training, military equipment and financial backing.
The two authors state that Iran is still Hezbollah's primary source of support and reportedly provides an estimated $50 million to $600 million a year to fund the organization. That is in addition to the monthly stipend of $150 to $200 given to each fighter.
With a new administration set to take over in the White House in less than a year, the question the Iranian government should be asking itself is just how much they want to alienate the new administration. (Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

Analysis: Nasrallah's existential dilemmas
By JONATHAN SPYER
Jerusalem Post -25/02/08
In a speech last week broadcast at the Sayed al-Shohada Mosque in south Beirut, Hizbullah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah promised his supporters that Israel's 'disappearance' was an 'established fact.'
The Hizbullah leader railed from his unknown hiding place against the 'robbing and murdering Zionists', whom he accused of killing prominent Hizbullah official Imad Mughniyeh. Behind the Hizbullah leader's customary defiant rhetoric, however, his movement currently faces a series of dilemmas.
Firstly, the movement's attempt to bring down the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, launched in late 2006, has gone nowhere. A few Hizbullah supporters (and a lot of tents) remain at the movement's 'permanent demonstration' in downtown Beirut. But the Saniora government has stood firm.
The constitutional crisis over the presidency is dragging on. There is a growing sense that Hizbullah's only non-Shi'a ally, the Free Patriotic Movement of Michel Aoun (Christian Maronite), is becoming an irrelevancy, because of the failure of Aoun to emerge as a realistic presidential candidate.
The result of this is to make Hizbullah's camp look more and more like a narrow, sectarian Shi'a force. The movement has spent the last decade and a half cultivating an image of itself as a 'patriotic' Lebanese and pan-Arab movement, rather than a sectarian, Iran-sponsored militia. This image is now looking increasingly frayed.
The recent clashes at Mar Mikhael in southern Beirut, in which Hizbullah and Amal demonstrators clashed with the army, has served to reinforce this sense. The Army remains one of the few national institutions generally trusted by the Lebanese.
The events since the killing of Imad Mughniyeh have further entrenched the sense of Hizbullah as a Shi'ite militia, operating on behalf of Iran. Mughniyeh was associated with the movement's first phase, in the 1980s, when it had openly engaged in attacks on US and French forces, and acts of international terror such as the hijacking of TWA flight 847.
In subsequent years, Hizbullah leaders had denied any connection with Mughniyeh. This fiction had been faithfully re-produced by journalists and analysts close to the movement, and contributed to the carefully-cultivated sense Hizbullah wished to convey of a Lebanese and pan-Arab, rather than narrow Shi'ite force. The open embrace afforded Mughniyeh by the movement following his killing of course put paid to this image.
Revelations of Mughniyeh's activities on behalf of Hizbullah and Iran over the years have subsequently emerged in the Arabic media. Most recently, it has been reported that Mughniyeh was involved in bringing members of the Iraqi Shi'ite Mahdi Army to the Lebanese Beqa'a valley, where they trained in paramilitary methods.
Mughniyeh is also reported to have been involved with a Kuwaiti Shi'a opposition group, the 'Tharallah' organization. This activity was conducted in cooperation with the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
As Nasrallah swears revenge on Israel from his place of hiding, meanwhile, there is growing evidence of the war-weariness of ordinary Shi'ite Lebanese. Many inhabitants of southern Lebanon have not yet recovered from the damage inflicted by Israel in the Second Lebanon War. A year and a half after the war, the destruction it wrought is still very apparent in the border towns of the south. A section of Maroun a Ras, for example, remains in rubble and uninhabited.
Shi'ite civilians interviewed recently by Agence France Presse sounded far from enthusiastic at Nasrallah's latest speeches. One border villager asked reporters "Why must we pay the price every four years or so," adding that "They should leave us to live in peace, wars are no longer acceptable."
Another said "That war took us 100 years back. It's enough."
So Hizbullah currently faces growing political isolation in Lebanon, an increasing sense of the return of the movement's original image as a Shi'a agent of Iran, and a populace weary of war and longing for a chance to return to normality.
Nasrallah may well conclude that the quickest way to escape isolation, once again re-brand the movement as the defender of Lebanese and Arabs, and re-galvanise its core supporters would be to seek another round of fighting against Israel. Certainly, all estimates indicate that while the rubble may remain in the border towns, the movement has successfully recuperated the losses in arms and equipment sustained in the 2006 war. The killing of Mughniyeh makes some form of retaliation inevitable.
But here the Hizbullah leadership faces the final item in the list of dilemmas. In 2006, the movement encountered an Israeli government and military caught off guard, confused and under-prepared. If pulled once again into confrontation, Israel will be concerned above all to commit all necessary force to reversing the ambiguous, troubling result of July-August 2006. The Hizbullah leader and his backers in Teheran will no doubt be weighing the odds and their options carefully in the weeks and months to come.
***The writer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, IDC Herzliya.

Our World: Iran's game of grand strategy
By CAROLINE GLICK
Jerusalem Post- 25/02/08
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203847464442&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Sunday thousands of IDF and police forces began streaming to the border with Gaza. In a massive show of force, they successfully deterred Gazans from participating in Hamas's first attempt to assault the border with Israel on Monday morning.
Israel's successful response to Hamas's provocation stemmed from the IDF's understanding of the doctrinal source of Hamas's call for tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians to approach the border together.
Just before Israel's precipitous withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hizbullah launched a similar attack on a South Lebanese Army base at Taibe. Back then, Hizbullah organized a crowd of thousands which marched on the base and threatened to overrun it. Not wishing to kill civilians, SLA forces abandoned their post. The move precipitated the collapse of the SLA's lines throughout South Lebanon.
All of Hamas's moves today - from its mortar and missile campaign against Israel, to its use of mass protests, to its weapons buildup, to its political and military humiliation and hamstringing of Fatah, to its tactical doctrines - have Hizbullah written all over them. And when you say Hizbullah - you say Iran.
Any lingering doubts about Hizbullah's intimate connection to the regime in Teheran were dispelled in the aftermath of Imad Mughniyeh's assassination in Damascus this month. The same Hizbullah leaders who for years had denied any connection to Mughniyeh and even denied that he existed - suddenly bemoaned the death of their operational commander. The same Iran which denied any connection to Mughniyeh, sent its foreign minister to his funeral in Beirut. The near identical vitriol calling for Israel's annihilation and likening the Jewish people to pestilence flowing from the mouth of Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah expose the simple, self-evident truth that a thousand denials sought to hide: Hizbullah is an Iranian organization.
IN THE WEST, public discussion of Iran is compartmentalized. Most discussion of Iran is focused on its nuclear weapons program. And Iran's nuclear weapons program is presented as separate from its other strategic policies in the region. This compartmentalization of the West's treatment of Iran is the result of the US's misdiagnosis of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs ahead of the 2003 invasion of that country. And while it is understandable, it is also self-defeating and dangerous because the danger posed by Iran's nuclear weapons program, and the obvious intentions of Iran's nuclear efforts can only be fully understood when seen in the context of the war that Iran is waging against the US, Israel and the West through its regional policies.
The linkage between Iran's nuclear program and its other strategic policies in the Middle East was made clear in July 2006. Then, as the G-8 met in Russia and was poised to develop a joint policy for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Iran ordered Hizbullah to attack Israel, kidnap soldiers and so precipitate war.
That is, as the world powers were scope-locked on Iran's nuclear weapons program, to divert international attention away from that program at a critical juncture, Iran ordered its proxy to go to war with Israel. Rather than understand the ploy, by and large the international media, and with it, the international policy community completely ignored the connection between Iran's regional policies and its nuclear program. Consequently, in the discussions leading up to the war's inconclusive conclusion, no attention was paid to how the war's outcome would affect either Iran's willingness to set aside its nuclear program or the developments in other Iranian sponsored battlefields in Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, and Afghanistan. The Israel-Hizbullah war's impact on Iran's escalating domination of Syria was similarly not taken into consideration at the time or since.
IN AN attempt to break through the post-Iraq invasion compartmentalization of Western discourse on Iran, the American Enterprise Institute published a 68-page report last week that sets out Iran's actions in Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Afghanistan. Authored by Frederick Kagan, Kimberly Kagan and Danielle Pletka, the report, "Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq and Afghanistan," shows in copiously documented detail how Iran is strengthening its regional posture at the West's expense not only through military actions but also through economic, cultural and infrastructure projects that build bilateral and multilateral relationships with states and terror groups based on dependency on Teheran.
In November 2006, Syria's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al Abrash said, "Damascus considers consultation and cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran as a major rule and principle of its foreign policy." The report's authors explain that since Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced his father as the country's leader in 1999, Iran has worked steadily to transform its relationship with Syria from a strategic partnership between two equals to a master-vassal relationship.
Assad has allowed the Syrian economy to become dependent on Iranian investment. Iranian cultural domination of Syria is similarly rising as Iran builds cultural, religious and educational institutions throughout the country. At the same time, Iran has essentially asserted control over the Syrian military and Assad has allowed Iran's Revolutionary Guards not only to operate throughout the country, but to open training bases outside Damascus. As the authors' conclude, "Th[e] growing economic interdependence (with Iran at the center of the dependency network) and the increase in military aid from Iran to Syria risk reducing Damascus to a vassal state that is so tied economically and militarily to its more powerful patron that disobedience may become unthinkable."
SOME ANALYSES of Hizbullah's position in Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 war with Israel argue that its decision to go to war weakened its popularity in Lebanon. The destruction caused to Lebanese infrastructure by IDF operations made many Lebanese who had previously supported Hizbullah turn against the organization they believed sacrificed Lebanon's well-being to advance Iran's interests.
While Hizbullah may have suffered some political setbacks as a result of the war, its determined fighting then and Iran's open support for its rearmament since have successfully intimidated its foes in Lebanon. Hizbullah today, acting openly as Iran's agent, has paralyzed Lebanon's political system by blocking the election of a president for three months.
Iran's sponsorship of Palestinian terror groups is longstanding. Islamic Jihad was established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1988. Hamas leaders have been trained in IRG camps in Iran since the early 1990s. After Israel temporarily deported 415 Hamas leaders to Lebanon in 1992, the operational connection between Hizbullah, Iran and Hamas deepened. And of course, IRG officers received their first terror training at PLO camps in Lebanon in the early 1970s.
AHEAD OF the January 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas together with Hizbullah and Iran decided to transform Hamas into a Hizbullah-like political and military force in Palestinian society. As the AEI report notes, since Hamas's electoral victory, it has received some $400 million from Iran. Thousand of Hamas fighters have undergone advanced military training in Iran and IRG and Hizbullah trainers are also active in Gaza. The report's authors explain that Iran's economic assistance to Hamas is not simply aimed at enabling military operations against Israel. Rather, "as in Lebanon, Iran appears to be insinuating itself into the social and economic fabric of the Palestinian areas, making itself an indispensable ally."
IN IRAQ, both through Hizbullah proxies and through its own IRG command structure, Iran has set out not only to sponsor both the Sunni and Shi'ite insurgency, it has also worked to destabilize the Iraqi government while engendering Iraqi dependence on Iranian economic ties and fragmenting Iraqi society.
The report documents that not only is Iran financing, training and arming the Shi'ite militias, it is also sponsoring elements of al-Qaida in Iraq and the Sunni Ansar al Islam group. In al-Qaida dominated areas in Baghdad for instance, 15-20 percent of improvised explosive devices were made in Iran. The report concludes, "There can be no question that Iran is actively supporting multiple insurgent and terror groups in Iraq, that its efforts began even before the American invasion, that Iranian elements have included the provision of direct support in the form of weapons and advisers, and that they have been involved in the growth of a solid relationship between Lebanese Hizbullah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias."
AS THE report notes, Iran's multilevel policies aimed at promoting dependence on Teheran play out in Afghanistan as well. In 2007 alone, Iran made low-cost but vital infrastructure investments in Western Afghanistan that worked to economically tie the region to Iran and cut it off from Kabul. It destabilized the Karzai government by forcibly removing more than 100,000 Afghan migrant workers from Iran in a three month period and so fomented the resignation of two Afghan cabinet ministers. It gave sufficient military support to the Taliban at critical junctures to sow Western demoralization and military instability. And it topped off its efforts with information operations aimed at alienating the Afghan people from the West and engendering sympathy with Iran.
What the report shows is that Iran engages in a concerted, multilevel policy of containing, deterring and defeating America, Israel, the West and moderate Muslims throughout the region. At the same time, by refusing to acknowledge the comprehensive or well-considered nature of Iran's strategic policies, the US, Israel and the West bar themselves from constructing a similarly well thought out, comprehensive strategy for containing, deterring and defeating Iran. And as deterrence theory shows, when both sides of a struggle are not equally aware of what is happening, the chances of full-blown war rise.
ISRAEL WAS right to mass its forces along the border with Gaza on Monday. But that was just one small battle in a long war. As one Iran analyst in Washington recently noted, "Iran is playing chess and we're playing backgammon. We have to understand the game they're playing."
The AEI report provides the factual basis for understanding the game. It is the responsibility of policymakers and political leaders to use that understanding to construct a comprehensive policy towards Iran before it is too late.
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