Syria and Iran defy Clinton in show of unity
Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS
Thu Feb 25, 2010
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria and Iran put on a show of unity and defied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday, dismissing her call on Damascus to loosen its decades-long alliance with Tehran.
President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a bilateral deal to remove travel visas and attended a Muslim ceremony in the Syrian capital.
Ahmadinejad's visit came a day after Clinton said the United States was asking Syria "to begin to move away from the relationship with Iran," and to stop supporting the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran.
"We must have understood Clinton wrong because of bad translation or our limited understanding, so we signed the agreement to cancel the visas," Assad said.
"I find it strange that they (Americans) talk about Middle East stability and peace and the other beautiful principles and call for two countries to move away from each other," he added.
Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference: "Clinton said we should maintain a distance. I say there is no distance between Iran and Syria."
He added: "We have the same goals, same interests and same enemies. Our circle of cooperation is expanding day after day."
Support for Hezbollah forms the linchpin of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, formed 30 years ago despite ideological differences between the ruling hierarchy in the two countries.
Diplomats in Damascus said Syrian support for the group has been a main sticking point in the rapprochement between Syria and the United States, which started shortly after President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
NUCLEAR DISPUTE
Assad backed Iran in its nuclear dispute with the West and said Western moves to exert pressure on Tehran constituted "neo-colonization."
The United States, along with other United Nations Security Council members and Germany, is discussing possible fresh sanctions on Iran because of suspicions it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon, which it strongly denies.
Relations between Syria and Iran improved after the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought Shi'ite clergy to power. Alone among Arab countries, Syria, whose ruling hierarchy is secular, supported Iran during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.
But their alliance is being tested by Syrian moves to seek a peace deal with Israel and the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iran did not hide its displeasure at Syria's participation in a 2007 U.S.-supervised Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland that it attended with Israel, prompting Syrian officials to emphasize that Syria was a sovereign country and not a proxy of Iran.
Syrian officials have also made it clear that while Syria is against any Israeli attack on Iran, Syria's struggle with Israel does not mean it would be party to any hostilities between Tehran and the Jewish state.
Clinton told Senate members this week that Syria's ties with Iran were "deeply troubling" to Washington and Syria must stop helping arm Hezbollah, an accusation Syria denies.
She urged Syria to resume peace talks with Israel, saying Washington would consider doing anything that could resolve the stalemate between them. Indirect talks between the two, under Turkish mediation, broke down two years ago.
Diplomats said U.S. envoy George Mitchell raised the issue of Syrian backing for Hezbollah during a meeting with Assad last month. Obama has since nominated an ambassador to Damascus after a five-year absence and Undersecretary of State William Burns, the architect of a deal that rehabilitated Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, visited Damascus this month.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Peres: Chance of peace with Syria about to dissipate
By Haaretz Service 25/02/10
President Shimon Peres said Thursday that the chance of peace with Syria is about to dissipate, in a speech during a national ceremony in Tel Hai.
"A peace deal with Syria could have been signed 30 years ago, as was done with Egypt. It was not us who delayed a deal, it was the Syrians," said Peres. "Syria believed that time would stand by its side." "The time has come to say the truth ? the problem in the Middle East is not the Palestinian problem, the Palestinian problem will be solved in the framework of the peace process with Israel. The central problem in the Middle East is Iran's effort to control it. The central problem in the Middle East is the insanity of Ahmadinejad.
"Assad needs to decide ? go with Iran on an axis of evil and terror or make peace with Israel." The President also said that Hezbollah threatens the fate of Lebanon and the peace in the region. "Nasrallah and his group are the ones who waste money on purchasing missiles and the ones who threaten Israel. They go against Lebanon's interests and their actions reflect the Iranian ambition to control the Arabic region." Peres blamed Iran for manipulating Hezbollah. "Iran and Hezbollah use Israel as an excuse in order to hide the real goal, which is Iranian hegemony over the Arab world in the Middle East," said Peres. Peres called on Syrian and Lebanese leaders to return to negotiations as soon as possible. "I came to once more extend a hand to peace. I came to call on Syria and Lebanon to take the only road that leads to a new and better future. The road to peace," the president said in his Tel Hai speech.
"Iranian armament will not decide the fate of the region. Only dialogue has the power to bring serenity to the region."

Ahmedinajad Envisions Middle East "Free of Zionists"
by Hillel Fendel ?Arutz Sheva
At a press conference in Damascus on Wednesday, Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmedinajad and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad took turns threatening and taunting Israel. The former received more headlines, with his remark about a “New Middle East free of Zionists." Assad said, “We assume that we are facing an entity [Israel] that is ready to attack us at any time. We are always ready for aggression, whether small or large.” He said that he had discussed with his Iranian guest “Israel’s crimes, and how to deal with [Israel] and help the resistance forces.”
Ahmedinajad, for his part, told the reporters, “The new Middle East [a phrase originally made popular by President Shimon Peres who envisaged a peaceful, prosperous region – ed.] will be a Middle East without Zionists and without imperialists. With Allah’s help, this will happen.”
“We hope that they [Israel] will recognize the rights of the nations of the region,” the Iranian president said, “but they must know that if they continue their mistaken ways of the past, they will have no place in our region… If the Zionists repeat their past mistakes, all the nations of the region will stand against them and rip them up from their roots.”
"No one can damage" the close Iranian-Syrian ties, Ahmadinajad said, which will “become deeper and develop over the years… We are brothers. We have mutual interests, as well as common goals and enemies.” On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton downplayed last month's decision by the Obama administration to return an ambassador to Syria. Clinton told Congressmen that the U.S. demands that Syria sever all ties with Iran.

Son of Hamas Leader was Top Spy for Israel
by Gil Ronen /Arutz Sheva
Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of jailed Hamas terrorist leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, operated undercover in the service of Israel's intelligence agency for a decade. Yousef reveals this information in an upcoming book, and in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz to be published this weekend.
According to the newspaper, the intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of several high-ranking terrorists including Ibrahim Hamid, a Hamas terror commander in Judea and Samaria, as well as Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti and Hamas bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti.
Mosab Hassan Yousef converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S. in 2007, where the book he co-wrote, Son of Hamas, is due to be published shortly. He said that after he converted to Christianity, he decided he had to escape and "live my life away from violence, because I couldn't coexist with that situation as a Christian."
"He provided very important information [as did] hundreds of others fighting against terror," MK Gideon Ezra (Kadima), formerly deputy chief of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), told BBC World Service.
Haaretz said that Yousef “was considered Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership.”
"The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," said his ISA handler, who is named in the book as "Captain Loai.”
Yousef's father, who has great influence within Hamas, was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 from his prison cell.
Appalled by Torture

Yousef has said that from an early age he was appalled by the brutality of the Hamas movement. "Hamas, they are using civilians' lives, they are using children, they are using the suffering of people every day to achieve their goals. And this is what I hate," he said.
In an interview with Fox News in 2008, Yousef said that when he was 18 years old, he was arrested and placed in an Israeli jail. “Hamas had control of its members inside the jail and I saw their torture; [they were] torturing people in a very, very bad way... Hamas leaders that we see on TV now, and big leaders, [were] responsible for torturing their own members. They didn't torture me, but that was a shock for me, to see them torturing people: putting needles under their nails, burning their bodies. And they killed lots of them... I was a witness for about a year for this torture. So that was a huge change in my life.”"Islam is the Problem"“The problem is not Hamas, the problem is not people. The root of the problem is Islam itself as an idea,” he added. He said he saw no chance for Israel and the PA to make peace.

Is Bellemare slowly preparing to bail out?
By Michael Young
Commentary by
Thursday, February 25, 2010
An interesting news item has appeared lately in several Arabic newspapers, including the local Al-Liwaa. Reports, citing Lebanese judicial sources, suggest that the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, will soon instruct his Beirut office to issue legal orders to interview “Lebanese personalities,” whose testimonies he can use to build up indictments. Bellemare will supposedly ask the Lebanese to select 300 soldiers to implement the summons orders.
The story has not been confirmed by Bellemare’s office, so it’s right to be careful. However, the story makes rather more sense than all those other leaks about the tribunal’s work, and this for several reasons: It was always viewed as a distinct possibility by observers that Bellemare might hold a round of interviews in the interim before issuing indictments, if indeed indictments ever come. And an analysis of the tribunal’s work indicates why such a course of action might be necessary.
We can assume that Bellemare does not have enough to indict anyone today, otherwise he would have already issued indictments. Nor does his legal strategy appear to be a factor in the delay. Had Bellemare been near to issuing indictments, it is highly doubtful that his chief investigator, Naguib Kaldas, and the tribunal’s registrar, David Tolbert, would have announced that they were leaving at the end of this month.
If Bellemare does not have enough to indict, that means he is still pursuing an investigation to gather the information required to draft accusations that can hold up in court. There are essentially two sorts of information the prosecutor must rely upon: old information that he and his predecessors assembled during their years of work; and information that Bellemare’s investigators must pull together starting now. However, unless we missed something, there appears to be no police investigation taking place today in Lebanon, or anywhere else for that matter. The staff in the Beirut office has been drastically reduced, with most investigators having either been released or living in The Netherlands.
It follows from this that Bellemare and his team are relying on what United Nations investigators collected previously, including testimonies, telecommunications intercepts, forensic evidence, and so on. But if the prosecutor still remains unable to build indictments on the basis of that information five years after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, it is probably a safe bet to argue that he desperately needs new material. No one doubts that Bellemare knows who committed the crime, and the particulars of how it was carried out. But that’s not necessarily enough to indict, which requires testimony based on fresh leads, arrests, and, most important, suspects willing to point the finger at other suspects.
In that context, the reports that Bellemare intends to bring witnesses in make more sense. Aside from the practical fact that such an undertaking creates the impression that the prosecutor is doing something amid growing doubts that the UN investigation has advanced since 2006, it would serve three other crucial purposes.
First, it might allow Bellemare to supplement his apparently thin testimony files, particularly when it comes to Lebanese participation in the Hariri assassination. Still, it doesn’t seem especially probable that the prosecutor will get much more out of such a process than he and his predecessors did from questioning witnesses earlier, unless he plans to question new witnesses. That seems to be the real point of the exercise.
Which leads us to the second purpose. There are unconfirmed reports that Bellemare has had trouble bringing in witnesses during the past year to give testimony, because they have refused his summons. The story is that the prosecutor asked the Lebanese authorities to assist him, but given the nature of the parties he sought to question, the authorities replied there was little they could do to help. If that is correct, a new round of summons may just be a way of putting the Lebanese on the spot and compelling them to take on their responsibilities in the investigation.
Which leads us to the third purpose. If the Lebanese do not bring in the witnesses whom Bellemare asks them to bring in, or even some key figures among them, this could provide the prosecutor with a pretext to announce that he does not have enough in hand to bring indictments. The blame, however, would fall on the Lebanese, not on Bellemare and the United Nations. Lebanese officials should be aware of the prospect for such a scenario, and probably are. Which is why you have to wonder whether the judicial sources who leaked about Bellemare’s alleged scheme did so to derail it – or to shift the onus onto his shoulders.
Whatever the answer, if Bellemare does call in new witnesses, this will be more a maneuver on his part than anything else. At this late stage the prosecutor knows very well who will offer testimony and who will refuse to do so. And he knows this because he spent a year as commissioner of the UN investigating team before becoming prosecutor. If he forces the issue now, his primary objective would be to justify his own failure.
In recent weeks, the former justice minister, Charles Rizk, has appeared on television talk shows to discuss the Hariri investigation, which took place largely during his days in office. Though Rizk expressed optimism about the outcome of the investigation, that was merely a gloss over his pointed criticism directed against the work of Bellemare and his predecessor Serge Brammertz. Rizk’s main beef was that the two men had placed the burden of detaining suspects, above all the four generals, on the Lebanese judiciary, without having enough proof to validate this.Charles Rizk is both intelligent and experienced. His statements may indicate that, somewhere, he is beginning to smell a rat, and doesn’t want to be made the fall guy for the poor work of the UN commission. If Bellemare is preparing to shift the blame onto the Lebanese for the absence of indictments, Rizk perhaps decided to beat him to the punch. You really have to wonder if the tribunal can still be effective in this atmosphere.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.

Resistance culture
February 25, 2010
Now Lebanon/Hezbollah supporters during a rally to celebrate the
Resistance culture is apparently back in vogue. And with 2010 already awash with rumors of a new conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, it is a climate that is allowing Lebanon’s more hawkish leaders to give vent to their fury. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah set the tone last week, when he warned Israel that any attack on Lebanese infrastructure – he gave Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International airport as an example – would be met with a mirrored response. You bomb our airport, we’ll bomb yours.
Nasrallah’s thundering sermon, and the by-now famous antics of the alleged Israeli hit squad in Dubai, inspired his No. 2 , Naim Qassem, to launch a holier-than-thou sermon on Israel’s violations of international law. This was more amusing than anything else, because of course Hezbollah would never resort to using falsified documents on any of its missions. Qassem segued neatly back into familiar territory by reinforcing the Resistance credo, declaring that “what was taken by the force of occupation can only be regained by the force of the Resistance.” It’s a familiar tune.
Still, not to be outdone, the Change and Reform bloc has been reinforcing its own credentials. On Wednesday, MP Fadi al-Aawar accused Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea of not having “Resistance culture”. Geagea’s shortcoming was, according to Aawar, exposed during his Monday press conference when he had the nerve to suggest that that perhaps Nasrallah’s bellicose warnings were unwise in the current climate and that any conflict he provoked would threaten the entire country.
Geagea has always been a controversial figure. His war record is no better or no worse than many of Lebanon’s senior politicians still in office, and, as his supporters will tell you ad nauseam, whatever “crimes” he was found guilty of, he has paid his debt to society. If any ideals of the March 14 movement still remain intact, we have Geagea to thank. On February 14, when many of his colleagues chose to talk of Arab solidarity, his speech could be summed up in six words: the state the state the state.
So bearing this in mind, we can hardly blame Geagea for not giving Nasrallah a standing ovation. Anyone who believes in the concept of the state would be appalled at such confrontational taunts delivered by a man who holds no public office and whose last attempts at shaping foreign policy led to the deaths of over 1,000 people, mostly civilians, the displacement of over 1 million others and billions of dollars of damage.
What Nasrallah, Qassem, Aawar and all those who promote Resistance culture fail to see – or can see, but don’t care – is that today Lebanon will never move forward while Hezbollah’s armed wing squares off against Israel; that Lebanon will never achieve a sense of genuine statehood as long as an armed militia, arguably the most effective fighting force in the Middle East, operates outside the state of which it claims to be part; and that Lebanon will never experience real peace as long as this militia exists to implement a regional agenda set by Iran and managed by Syria.
Israel is not Sweden. The Lebanese do not need to watch CNN to know how ruthless it can be to ensure its own security. On Thursday, Israel conducted more over flights in the South. These are violations of international law, but Lebanon will never be able to mount a focused defense of its own sovereign interests as long as the waters are muddied by the Hezbollah factor.
Whether we like it or not, as long as Hezbollah is deployed along Lebanon’s southern border, Israel will always be twitchy. It can claim to the international community that its borders are targeted by a non-state actor, and they would be right.
Bottom line: Hezbollah’s armed wing has no place in modern Lebanon. Nor, for that matter, does Resistance culture.

Clinton Says Washington Urging Syria to End Interference in Lebanon, Transfer of Arms to Hizbullah
Naharnet/U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the United States is urging Syria to distance itself from Iran as well as to stop arming Hizbullah and interfering in Lebanon.
In disclosing U.S. demands for engagement with Syria, Clinton was blunter than ever about Washington's bid to drive a wedge between Damascus and Tehran.
Clinton's remarks during a Senate budget debate come as Syria announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Damascus on Thursday for talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. Speaking to senators, Clinton presented a set of demands that Washington is making to Syria now that a U.S. ambassador is returning to Damascus for the first time in five years under President Barack Obama's policy of engagement. She said William Burns, the number three diplomat at the State Department, "had very intense, substantive talks in Damascus" when he visited there last week. "And we've laid out for the Syrians the need for greater cooperation with respect to Iraq, the end to interference in Lebanon and the ... provision of weapons to Hizbullah, a resumption of the Israeli-Syrian track...," she said. Clinton said Washington is also asking Syria to "generally to begin to move away from the relationship with Iran, which is so deeply troubling to the region as well as to the United States." The United States accuses Syria and Iran of supporting armed groups in the region, including Hizbullah and Hamas.
It also accuses Syria of turning a blind eye to militants crossing its border into Iraq. Clinton also said she would study a senator's proposal to consider ways to invite Syrian leader Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in a bid to break the stalemate in talks between the two countries. "I certainly will look at anything that might break the stalemate. I'm not sure that would be acceptable or do-able to all the parties involved," Clinton told the senator Arlen Specter. She repeated that the goal is to restart the formerly Turkish-brokered talks that Syria suspended after Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in December 2008. Obama last week announced that Robert Ford will be the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since Washington recalled its envoy after Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed in February 2005 in a bombing widely blamed on Syria. The move is part of the Obama administration's year-long campaign to engage a former U.S. foe and energize its thwarted push for a broad Arab-Israeli peace, particularly between Israel and the Palestinians.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 24 Feb 10, 19:34

Lebanon Seeking Death Penalty for Alleged Spies for Israel
A Lebanese military prosecutor has called for two men to be sentenced to death for allegedly spying for Israel, a judicial source said.
A sentence of 15 years hard labor is being sought for a third person, who is accused of having been in contact with Israel following the 2006 summer war between the Jewish state and Hizbullah. The source said the names of the three could not be divulged. One of the two alleged spies is a fugitive, and presumably living in Israel. The other was arrested last June amid dozens of detentions, and the third person is also in custody. The two alleged spies are suspected of having "given to the enemy intelligence on Hizbullah positions." Last week, a retired member of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces was sentenced to death for having spied for Israel and for his involvement in the murder of two Palestinian militant leaders. Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh, 63, was convicted of "collaboration and espionage on behalf of the Israeli enemy," according to the verdict handed down by a military tribunal. He was also convicted of involvement in the 2006 car bomb murder in the southern coastal town of Sidon of brothers Mahmoud and Nidal Mazjoub, members of the Islamic Jihad group. More than 70 people were arrested in Lebanon in 2009 in a crackdown on espionage rings, including a retired general and a policeman. Lebanon and Israel remain in a state of war, and convicted spies face life in prison with hard labor or the death penalty if found guilty of contributing to Lebanese loss of life.(AFP) Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 07:09

Assad Snaps Back at Clinton, Ahmadinejad Says Region's Peoples, Including Lebanese, will Stand against Israel
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday that support for the resistance was a 'moral and legal' duty and expressed 'surprise' at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for Syria to distance itself from Iran. "We thank them (the Americans) for their advice," Assad said during a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Damascus. "I am surprised by their call to keep a distance between the countries ... when they raise the issue of stability and peace in the Middle East," Assad said. The region's people should be ready for any Israeli attack, the Syrian president told reporters. The Iranian president, in his turn, said Arab countries will usher in a new Middle East "without Zionists and without colonialists."  He said that "if the Zionist regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation." Ahmadinejad said the region's peoples, including the Lebanese, will stand against Israel. The U.S. should pack up and leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affairs, Iran's president added. Ahmadinejad's trip to Damascus follows a string of U.S. efforts to break up Syria's 30-year alliance with Tehran. Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 12:08

Peres Rules out War with Hizbullah
Naharnet/Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday ruled out war with Hizbullah and accused the Shiite group of "preventing Lebanon from becoming the Switzerland of the Middle East."
Speaking before high school students in the northern city of Hatzor Haglilit, Peres also accused Hizbullah of preventing Lebanese unity. "Hizbullah has changed from a religious movement into a military wing. It has changed from a Lebanese organization into an Iranian agent," he said. "Israel has upheld the U.N. resolution (1701) in its entirety, and returned to Lebanon all of the territories belonging to it. Those who have destroyed and continue to destroy and prevent union are Hizbullah," the Israeli president said. Referring to Iran, he expressed hope that "Hizbullah would stop cherishing "the gods of missiles and begin praying to the god of peace."
Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 14:27

Medvedev Calls for Full Implementation of 1701, Rejects Interference in Lebanese Affairs
Naharnet/Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Thursday for the full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and vowed coordination with Lebanese authorities to fight terrorism. "I told the Lebanese president that Russia always called for preserving Lebanon's sovereignty. Interference in its internal affairs is unacceptable. The Lebanese should themselves solve their problems," Medvedev said during a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman in Moscow. Moscow "calls for the full implementation of 1701 and UNIFIL's jurisdiction in Lebanon," the Russian president said. "It is necessary to reach comprehensive peace in the Middle East and set up a Palestinian state."
He called for "fighting international terrorism" saying that Lebanon and Russia have already faced such a danger. "We will continue to cooperate to combat" terror, Medvedev said.
Suleiman, in his turn, described his trip to Moscow as "historic" because it is the first official visit of a Lebanese head of state since the independence.
Lebanon is abiding by the implementation of 1701 and is working on forcing Israel to implement it, he told reporters. Suleiman said he discussed with Medvedev continued Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and threats to Lebanon, its institutions and infrastructure. "We agreed to consolidate cooperation and coordination between our missions in world organizations after Lebanon was elected non-permanent member in the Security Council," Suleiman said. The Lebanese and Russian sides also discussed the signing of a military and technical cooperation between the two countries "in an effort to achieve long-term cooperation," the Lebanese president said. "It is a framework agreement and is planned to be signed in the near future," said head of Russia's military-technical cooperation agency, Mikhail Dmitriyev, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. However, there was no mention of past promises by Russia to deliver 10 MiG-29 fighter jets as a gift for the Lebanese military, an issue that had been discussed by the countries' defense ministers in December. Under the plan, the fighter jets would be modernized before delivery and the transport of the jets would be paid for by the Russian defense ministry.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 15:00

Chamoun: Aoun, Jumblat Became Pillars of Syrian Regime
Naharnet/National Liberal Party leader Dori Chamoun on Thursday strongly criticized both Druze leader Walid Jumblat and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, calling them "pillars" of the Syrian government. Aoun and Jumblat "have become pillars of the Syrian regime," Chamoun said in an interview with the weekly Al-Masira magazine.
He believed Jumblat should quit representing the nation and called on him to give up his Lebanese identity so long as he rejects the slogan "Lebanon first."Chamoun also criticized Aoun's visit to the Shouf Mountains, calling it a "failure." "Jumblat wanted through openness to Aoun to create a balance with the Christians of March 14 forces," Chamoun thought.
He said Aoun considers himself "Saint Maroun the Second," adding that the FPM leader sought to visit the Chamoun family cemetery "not in honr of President Camille Chamoun, but is search of popularity." Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 14:13

Syria Resents Hariri's Remarks, Demands Explanation that Prompted Saudi Intervention
Naharnet/A new crisis loomed between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad after recent remarks made by Hariri in which he compared Lebanese-Syrian relations with those that prevailed during Saddam Hussein's era between Iraq and Kuwait. Hariri said Syria had rejected diplomatic ties with Lebanon. "Syrian behavior was similar to the one that existed between Iraq and Kuwait when former President Saddam Hussein refused to recognize Kuwait," Hariri said in a recent interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Syria has reportedly expressed dismay about Hariri's remarks.  Damascus' criticism indicated the start of a confidence crisis, the first since Hariri's visit to Syria last Dec. 19 ties frozen after the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri. Syria has had strained ties with both France and the United States since Hariri's assassination in a massive Beirut car bombing. Lebanon accused Syria of orchestrating the attack, one of a string targeting its critics in Lebanon. Syria repeatedly denied the charge but two months later withdrew its troops from Lebanon, ending three decades of domination of its small neighbor. Damascus is seeking clarification from Hariri which considered his remarks "insult" to both Lebanon and Syria. The daily As-Safir on Thursday quoted well-informed Lebanese sources as saying that what has been expressed by the Syrian press came a day after a telephone conversation between Assad and Hariri in which the Syrian president admonished Hariri for his "verbal expressions that do not help to create a new atmosphere in relations between the two countries."
The sources said high-level contacts between Saudi Arabia and Syria have recently been undertaken in this regard.
They said Riyadh was in the picture of Hariri's decision to visit Syria for a second time before end of February. However, no follow-up efforts have been taken by the Lebanese side in this regard for unknown reasons, As-Safir said. The Syrian newspaper Al-Watan had quoted high-ranking Syrian sources as expressing dismay about Hariri's remarks published in Corriere della Sera last Sunday.The Syrian sources said that history and facts reveal that the late President Hafez al-Assad recognized Lebanon since the seventies, "but no one in Lebanon requested diplomatic relations with Syria in a formal or an informal way."They said the first to demand diplomatic ties between the two countries was Bashar Assad during a 2005 meeting of the Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council that was attended by the then President Emile Lahoud, Speaker Nabih Berri and former PM Omar Karami. Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 08:21

Jwayya Concerned over Continuing Spiral of Burning Homes, Cars
Naharnet/Unknown assailants on Thursday set ablaze a Toyota van that belongs to Abbas Fahs in the southern village of Jwayya. Police arrived at the scene and launched an investigation.
The house of Akram Nehmeh Fawwaz was also set on fire late Wednesday. The attacks were part of a series of assaults against Jwayya houses and shops for the past two months. Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 11:07

Jezzine Rages over FPM's Aswad Anti-Municipal Remarks
Naharnet/Angry residents of Jezzine blocked overnight the main road to their southern town with burning tires to protest remarks by Free Patriotic Movement MP Ziad Aswad.
Local media said residents loyal to former MP Samir Azar set tires ablaze outside the Municipal Palace building after having roamed the streets in protest. Aswad had attacked Azar as well as head of the Jezzine Municipality, accusing them of corruption and violating the law by selling property that belongs to the town hall.
Aswad also pointed to the breaches committed at Jezzine hospital and said he possessed documents that verify his claims. Beirut, 25 Feb 10, 13:02

Rayess Denies Jumblat Went to Turkey Seeking Mediation for Damascus Trip
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party Media Officer Rami Rayess on Wednesday denied that MP Walid Jumblat's visit to Turkey aims at seeking a Turkish mediation for visiting Syria, adding that "the political aspect of the Damascus visit has been accomplished pending the practical aspect."Rayess called for making use of the Turkish dynamism on the regional level as he stressed that "the date of Jumblat's visit to Damascus would be officially announced." He reiterated PSP's "stance that refuses to shift from centrism toward any new position."
As to Kamal Jumblat's 33rd assassination anniversary, Rayess clarified that "Jumblat will state 'serious' remarks on this occasion." On the other hand, Rayess stressed that PSP "is not against proportional representation as an idea," warning against adopting it in the upcoming municipal elections "where it could face some executive difficulties such as equal Christian-Muslim powersharing in Beirut and the local division among families in some towns." Beirut, 24 Feb 10, 18:33

The Iranians are all over Iraq, and everywhere in between
By David Ignatius /Daily Star
Commentary by
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Iran is conducting what US officials say is a broad covert-action campaign to influence Iraq’s elections next month, pumping money and other assistance to its allies. The best way to counter this assault, American officials have decided, is by exposing it publicly. The most direct criticism of Iran’s meddling has come from General Ray Odierno, the commander of US forces in Iraq. In meetings with reporters during a visit to Washington last week, he focused on the role played by Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi who lobbied the Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003 and is now alleged to be working closely with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Odierno has also briefed top Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on US intelligence reports about the Iranian campaign. A source provided me with an unclassified summary of Odierno’s briefing, which included the following allegations:
“Iran provides money, campaign materials, and political training to various individual candidates and political parties [in Iraq].
“Iran interferes in Iraq’s political process, urging alliances that not all Iraqi politicians favor, in an effort to consolidate power among parties supported by Iran. For example … Ahmad Chalabi met with IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Iranian Foreign Minister [Manouchehr] Mottaki in late November to discuss” merger of two slates of Shiite candidates backed by Iran. “Iran supports de-Baathification efforts engineered by Ahmad Chalabi for the purpose eliminating potential obstacles to Iranian influence. Chalabi is also interested in Iran’s assistance in securing the office of prime minister.
“According to all-source intelligence, Ahmad Chalabi visited Iran at least three times since last year. Additionally, he met with key Iranian leaders in Iraq on at least five occasions.”
The decision to release this sort of intelligence information is unusual, and it reflects concern across the United States government about Iran’s push to shape the March 7 Iraqi balloting. The US has “information operations” and other activities in Iraq to counter the Iranians, but apparently it has not mounted a full-scale covert-action campaign of its own, in part because of a desire not to manipulate a democracy that America helped create.
“To covertly go after Iran, we’re too late,” says a top US official. “What we can do is expose.”
Chalabi, reached by e-mail, denied Odierno’s allegations that he was acting as an Iranian agent: “These accusations resurface every time we take a course of action that is contrary to the political agenda of the US … However, we forgive General Odierno because he captured Saddam [Hussein].”
Iran’s operations in Iraq are directed by Soleimani, who is described by people who have met him as a brilliant, soft-spoken Persian version of John le Carre’s master spy, Karla. He is backed by his deputy for Iraq, known as Abu Mehdi Mohandes, who US officials say was involved in the bombing of the US embassy in Kuwait in 1983.
The Iranians allegedly are pumping $9 million a month in covert aid to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite party that has the most seats in the Iraqi Parliament, and $8 million a month to the militant Shiite movement headed by Moqtada al-Sadr.
The current Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, is said to play a delicate balancing game with Iran, opposing some of its moves and acceding to others. According to US intelligence reports, a member of Maliki’s staff personally hand-delivers sensitive documents from Tehran, thereby avoiding electronic communications that might be intercepted.
For the Iranians, maintaining a compliant government in Baghdad is a crucial matter of national security, especially for the generation that survived the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s. Tehran is still settling scores for that conflict. According to US intelligence reports, the Iranians two months ago circulated a list of 600 Iraqi officers who are targeted for assassination because of their role in the Iraq-Iran war. Asked what the US was doing to counter these killings, a commander responded: “We notify people who are on the list.”
“The Iranians are everywhere, all over the place – overtly, covertly, you name it,” says a White House official who closely monitors Iraq. “They’re putting chips on red and black and whatever is in between.”
The best check against these Iranian machinations, US officials believe, is the simple patriotism of the Iraqi people. Opinion polls show that Iran is even more mistrusted by Iraqis than is America. Iranian meddling has backfired in the past, officials say, and they are hoping that will happen again when Iraqis go to the polls.
**Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by THE DAILY STAR.