LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 03/10
Bible Reading of the day
Malachi 2/10-17: "Don’t we all
have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every
man against his brother, profaning (defile) the covenant of our fathers? 2:11
Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination (disgrace) is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he
loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 2:12 Yahweh will cut off,
to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of
Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies. 2:13 This again you
do: you cover the altar of Yahweh with tears, with weeping, and with sighing,
because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good
will at your hand. 2:14 Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness
between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt
treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. 2:15
Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He
sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed (Observe) to your spirit, and let no
one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 2:16 For I hate divorce,”
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with violence!”
says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you don’t deal
treacherously. 2:17 You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How
have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the
sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special
Reports
From Tehran to the Suburb/By:
Hassan Haidar/Al Hayat/January
02/10
The Oppression of the Iranian
Regime Destroys Its Aura/By: Raghida Dergham/Al Hayat/January
02/10
A Project to Assassinate a
State/By: Zuheir Kseibati/Al Hayat/January
02/10
A soldier’s holiday/New Year’s Eve
on a UNIFIL base/By: Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/January
02/10
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for January 02/09
Israel acts like “spoiled
child,” says Saudi FM/Now
Lebanon
No official request to abolish
Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council, says Nasri Khoury/Now Lebanon
First Wahhab, then Aoun on Jumblatt
agenda/Now
Lebanon
Sfeir: Content with
reconciliations/Future News
Damascus to Start Implementing
Assad-Hariri Meeting Resolutions/Naharnet
Baroud Says Major Car
Theft Network Arrested/Naharnet
Khalil: Berri Won't Form
Commission of Abolishing Political Sectarianism 'on His Own/Naharnet
Matar Says Offensive
Article Row Ended after Apologies of Newspaper, Saudi Ambassador/Naharnet
'CNN Arabic' Poll Grants
Assad 'Personality of the Year 2009' Title/Naharnet
Michel Hayek Predicts More
Reconciliations, Security Tension and Economic Prosperity/Naharnet
Syria will gradually implement
Hariri-Assad agreement/Future News
Damascus to Start Implementing
Assad-Hariri Meeting Resolutions
/Naharnet/The outcome of PM Saad Hariri's first visit to Syria as Lebanon's
premier and his meeting with its President Bashar Assad will start unfolding
within the next few weeks, according to Syrian officials.
The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday quoted well-informed sources
close to Syrian officials as saying that Lebanon and Syria have resolved their
dispute over the different approaches to dealing with U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1559. "Damascus will prove to the Lebanese
its commitment to the resolutions reached in the Assad-Hariri meeting," added
the sources. The sources stressed that Syria "observes
the improving of relations with Lebanon from a regional scope."
On the other hand, al-Hayat sources confirmed that the dispute between
Beirut and Damascus over Resolution 1559 has ended.
"Lebanon cannot agree on the demands of withdrawing Resolution 1559 and
annulling it for many reasons, starting by its credibility before the
international community as well as the compliances of Resolution 1701 which
mentions Resolution 1559," added the sources. Beirut, 02 Jan 10, 10:43
Baroud Says Major Car Theft Network Arrested
Naharnet/Interior Minister Ziad Baroud on Saturday said that security forces
arrested the members of a major car theft network. At
a press conference held in Tripoli, Baroud stressed that security forces, in
cooperation with the Lebanese Army, are exerting important security efforts,
describing the security situation Lebanon witnessed on New Year's eve as
"exemplary." On the other hand, Baroud said that the
electoral law of the upcoming municipal elections needs amending, the thing
which is underway currently. Beirut, 02 Jan 10, 13:42
Khalil: Berri Won't Form
Commission of Abolishing Political Sectarianism 'on His Own'
Naharnet/MP Ali Hassan Khalil on Saturday stressed that Speaker Nabih Berri
"will not form the National Commission for the Abolition of Political
Sectarianism on his own, but in a frame of understanding and cooperation among
all political forces."In an interview with LBC TV network, Khalil stressed that
"the issue of abolishing sectarianism is neither a provocation nor directed
against anyone." Khalil added that Berri's call for
abolishing political sectarianism came after a similar call made previously by
President Michel Suleiman. Beirut, 02 Jan 10, 13:17
Matar Says Offensive Article
Row Ended after Apologies of Newspaper, Saudi Ambassador
Naharnet/Maronite Archbishop of Beirut Boulos Matar on Saturday stressed that
"the row of the insult" he received "because of an article published by the
Saudi daily Okaz has ended after the apology of the newspaper and the Saudi
Ambassador (to Lebanon) Ali al-Essiri." In an
interview with Voice of Lebanon radio station, Matar said that what happened was
a "mistake," and that there is no need to blow things out of proportion after
the official apology of those concerned. On the other
hand, Matar stressed that "Muslims and Christians respect each other, which is
our (the Lebanese) fortune," adding that "Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah is a Lebanese leader who has all respect for Christians."
Beirut, 02 Jan 10, 12:08
'CNN Arabic' Poll Grants Assad 'Personality of the Year 2009' Title
Naharnet/The readers of the website CNNArabic.com chose Syrian President Bashar
Assad as the "Personality of the Year 2009" with a 67% of total votes after
winning 20,687 votes out of 30,679. CNN Arabic
considered that the improvement of Syrian-Lebanese relations and the recent
visit of Lebanon's PM Saad Hariri to Syria helped in making Assad a key player
in the region. The website added that at the end of the year, Assad reaped the
fruits he had sown in its beginning. It said that Assad's participation in
Doha's emergency summit of the Arab League during the Gaza War helped in
boosting his popularity. Beirut, 02 Jan 10, 11:21
Obama ties failed plane
attack to al Qaeda
US president says al Qaeda affiliate trained suspect in Christmas attack, gave
him explosives for plane
Reuters Published: 01.02.10, 09:57 / Israel News
US President Barack Obama said it appeared the suspect who tried to bomb a
Detroit-bound plane over Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained
and equipped by the Islamic militant network.
Offering a robust defense of his administration's counterterrorism efforts,
Obama said he received preliminary results of the reviews he ordered into air
travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watchlist system" and expected
final results in the days to come.
Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, had called for an immediate study of what
he termed "human and systemic failures" that allowed 23-year-old Nigerian Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab to get on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Dec. 25
allegedly with explosives in his clothes.
"The investigation into the Christmas Day incident continues, and we're learning
more about the suspect," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address,
released on Friday local time.
"It appears that he joined an affiliate of al Qaeda, and that this group, al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives
and directed him to attack that plane headed for America," Obama said. The
president's comments were his most explicit to date tying the suspect with the
al Qaeda group. Obama, a Democrat, has come under intense criticism from
Republicans, who accuse him of mishandling the incident and not doing enough to
prevent attacks on the United States. Appearing on the defensive, Obama used
much of his address to outline his administration's actions to keep the country
safe, including withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in
Afghanistan and strengthening ties with Yemen, where the suspect spent time
before the attack.
A soldier’s holiday
New Year’s Eve on a UNIFIL base
Ana Maria Luca, Now Lebanon
January 2, 2010
Soldiers Yana Yoco and Ferrer at the post office in the Miguel de Cervantes
UNIFIL base in Marjayoun. (NOW Lebanon)
If it weren’t for the “Happy Holidays” sign on the dining room door advertising
the brief party that would take place later that evening, December 31 at the UN
7-2 Miguel de Cervantes base in Marjayoun would feel like any other day for the
1,100 Spanish UNIFIL soldiers posted there.
“We don’t have Sundays or holidays here. We stay here for four months, but those
months are very intense. We are here to do a job and we cannot stop for a
second,” Captain Miguel Gallego tells NOW.
The soldiers in the UNIFIL Multinational Brigade East – led by Spain but also
including Chinese, Indian and Indonesian contingents – mainly conduct patrol
missions on the Blue Line separating Lebanon from Israel. It’s not an easy – or
safe – job for the UN peacekeepers. In 2007, six Spanish soldiers died in a
suicide bomb attack while on a routine patrol in the Khiam area. Two other
soldiers lost their lives in traffic accidents during missions.
“There are always dangers. If there were no danger, we wouldn’t be here,” the
captain says.
Most of the Spanish soldiers in Marjayoun arrived in Lebanon only two weeks ago,
but there are a few who have already spent two months on the base.
Sergeant Rizo, a bearded middle-aged man, has served in the Spanish army for 21
years and says he can’t see himself as anything but a soldier. “See these boots?
They have been in Europe, Africa and Asia, Spain, Burundi, and now, Lebanon,” he
laughs. He says he is used to spending Christmases and New Years thousands of
miles from home.
For soldiers Ferrer Valdivia and Paul Yana Yoco Rueda, the holidays are the
busiest time of the year. They work in the post office of the Spanish contingent
and handle hundreds of packages and cards that soldiers send their families back
in Spain for the holidays.
“Look around. This is the mail we gathered in four days,” Valdivia says pointing
at a giant pile of boxes in the hangar.
Rueda, originally from Ecuador but now a Spanish citizen, says he is happy to be
in Lebanon on his first international mission. He has been on the base for two
months and is happy to say he’s had the chance to visit Beirut on a short trip.
“It really looks like my native South America,” he says with a hint of nostalgia
in his voice. But then he cheers up. “The girls are very chic here. They have
their hair done, and they wear high heels. It’s a pleasure to look around you on
the street.” He touches a silver ring on his finger. “But I have to remember I
have a girlfriend.”
Valdivia says he hopes to travel around Lebanon too. “Until now I’ve only met
very nice people from the villages around the base. It’s a miracle how they
learned so easily to speak Spanish!” He says he also learned some Arabic during
his short time on the base. “Yalla, yalla!” he laughs.
Spanish soldiers don’t get to choose the country they go to on international
missions, but follow their unit wherever it deploys. Most of the Spanish
soldiers who have been on missions in Iraq, Kosovo or Afghanistan say they are
very happy in Lebanon.
“You feel that the people here want you to be with them. We feel far more
comfortable here,” Nurse Suarez Rodriguez says. She was in Afghanistan on her
previous mission and says the experience there was very different. “Here people
are Mediterranean like us. There, you looked at people’s faces and you saw that
they don’t like you, that they don’t want you there. The culture was very
different,” she tells NOW. She says that even though she is on active duty and
spends New Year’s Eve in the small Spanish hospital together with Doctor
Gozalvez Sancez, she is happy. “New year, new life. That’s what I always say,”
she chirps.
Dr. Sancez and Nurse Rodriguez at the first aid station on the base (NOW
Lebanon)
If the hospital is virtually empty on New Year’s Eve, the contingent’s engineers
are busy running from one armored vehicle to the next to make repairs.
Florencio Hernandez Martin is wearing his overalls and can’t shake hands because
they are covered in engine oil. Though he misses his wife and daughters in Spain
very much, “I see them every day on the webcam. Not yesterday, though, because
the connection was bad,” he says.
Martin works on the recovery team. Whenever one of the UN vehicles is in
trouble, breaks down or gets stuck in the mud when it rains, he leads his team
off the base on a rescue mission. “A few days ago we had to go out to rescue a
vehicle because it was stuck in the mud. They had to make way for a bus full of
children, and they got stuck in a ditch.”
Martin has served in the Spanish army for 16 years, though Lebanon is his first
international mission. But he says he is feeling happy like everyone else on the
base, even though he is spending New Year’s Eve away from his family.
“It was quiet here over the holidays. We gathered on Christmas and we are
gathering on New Year’s Eve in the dining room. We can have a glass of
champagne, and then everybody is off to bed, because tomorrow is another day of
work.”
A Project to Assassinate a State
Thu, 31 December 2009
Zuheir Kseibati
The cost of the “welcome” offered by the extremist Taliban and Al-Qaeda members
to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Pakistan goes beyond 300 dead and
injured. The carnage caused by a booby-trapped car in Peshawar, which coincided
with another huge strike in the heart of Kabul, was directed by the Taliban
against UN employees, in order to devastate the role of the international
organization in Afghanistan. The carnage is the most recent evidence that
Al-Qaeda and Taliban have moved to the phase of counter- and intensive offense,
so as to challenge the American and NATO forces and reveal their impotence in
achieving any victory…
The "low" spirits of the Western world in the war on terrorism will inexorably
reinforce the non-military option in facing the organization and the movement,
while American President Barack Obama is still "reluctant" and cautious in
determining the "new strategy" for fighting in Afghanistan.
While this caution is justified by his concern over lessening the losses of the
Americans in Afghanistan, after these losses reached their climax since the
toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001, this same caution has encouraged the
movement's fighters to manipulate Washington's reluctance and thus entice its
soldiers and expand the lists of its dead and number of coffins. It appears
clear that Taliban responds with missiles to Obama's administration's offer to
allow the movement's "moderates" to join the Afghani Government that will be
formed after turning the page of the file of rigged elections. The answer is
that there are "no moderates" among the ranks of Taliban, and the war is to come
to its end. But how will the NATO forces achieve today what they have failed to
achieve for eight years, while President Hamid Karzai's administration is
accused of nurturing corruption and undermining the credibility of the American
objectives in Afghanistan, instead of strengthening the growing army?
Taliban benefits from Karzai's reputation, who is accused of forging the
elections, while the Americans leak a story saying that his brother received
money from the C.I.A. While the Afghani President represents a predicament for
Washington, the latter will face a bigger quandary when it experiments the "new
strategy" to withdraw from the sand-fire, as long as Taliban considers that the
bad reputation of the ruler in Kabul can improve its image, even if its suicide
attacks claimed the lives of many innocent civilians. The movement also relies
on the "mistakes" of the NATO, which have become daily events. But this
certainly does not infer which side gains popularity among the Afghans, who
represent fuel for daily killings.
Some of them will be able to accuse the American troops - whom Obama's
administration will decide to deploy to heavily-populated areas – of using the
civilians as "human shields" to protect themselves against the attacks of
Taliban and Al-Qaeda and their suicide bombers… The same trap will incite the
organization and the movement to accelerate the pace of "pursuing" the Western
forces. This will increase the pressures put by the public opinion in Europe and
the United States in order to end the war. But at what price? Is it by
abandoning "victory" to those for whom the United States mobilized its troops to
topple in Kabul in 2001?
Washington left for Karzai the civil aspect of managing Afghanistan, so that it
becomes, along with its allies, in charge of the fighting in the field. Failure
is a clear result of the first part of the mission, and Obama's administration
fears that the fate of the war will also be a failure, after many years of
destruction and blood, and after squandering tens of billions of dollars in
vain. The only alternative for Washington is to talk to Taliban, i.e. accept to
normalize its relations with Al-Qaeda's ally!
But what are the region's alternatives, as the very thought of Taliban's rule of
its "emirate" in Afghanistan once again seems to be a sign of an imminent danger
that threatens the destruction of the nuclear state of Pakistan and leaves it an
easy prey for the nuclear…Al-Qaeda.
Isn't the pursuit of generals in the heart of Islamabad to liquidate them in
daylight an indication of a new period, after challenging the Pakistani Army to
break into its command's headquarters in Rawalpindi? When this army pursues
Taliban in Waziristan, the movement responds in the cities. The army reiterates
its confidence of its control of the nuclear arsenal, but it is certainly not
confident of the American pledges after Washington quickly accepted anything
that reinforces India's power, while it remained hesitant for so long with
Pakistan, under the pretext of the bitter experiences of Islamabad's support of
the war on Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
The eyes of a confused Obama are on Afghanistan, whose caves have beaten the
greatest power in the world… The region's heart is with Pakistan whose state is
threatened to be assassinated by the caves of the Afghani Al-Qaeda as well.
The Oppression of the Iranian Regime Destroys Its Aura
Fri, 01 January 2010
Raghida Dergham
The news from Iran is still in the limelight both in the region and in the world
at large, and will continue to be so for some time, given that this internal
affair has become an international issue, and since the regime in Tehran has
been shaken, while its aura, stature and the absolute powers given to the
Supreme Leader seem to have collapsed. Thus, the patience battle has started
within Iran between reformists and hardliners, both of whom coming from a social
fabric and political acumen that uses patience as a strategy and as a tactic,
which in turn is an indication that this battle will drag on. Also, it is now
too late for any compromises that may have months ago occurred to the senior
officials in the regime, most importantly Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, such as
offering Ahmadinejad as a scapegoat in order to put out the fire of the
reformist revolution, or “coup” as the word also means in Persian. The page has
thus been turned on the idea of the “grand bargain”, whereby the United States,
Europe and the rest of world recognize the legitimacy of the ruling regime in
Tehran, and offer the latter reassurances and guarantees of not supporting those
who challenge the regime or rise up against it.
The Iranian leadership’s panic then manifested itself through the oppression by
the militias and their brutality against the civilians, while terror was evident
on the faces of extremist mullahs and of those individuals who are holding on to
the idea of the religious-military monopoly of power in the country.
Moreover, the hitherto overwhelming self-confidence has also been shaken because
of economic reasons, amidst the expectations of a large budget deficit that
would tie the hands of the regime in what regards its regional ambitions from
Iraq, to Palestine and Lebanon, and which would also hinder Tehran’s regional
strategy as a result of its inability to spent as it did in the past.
Furthermore, the question of imposing further international sanctions against
Iran has now entered the implementation stage, as a result of the regime’s
irresponsiveness to the “carrot” offered in what regards the nuclear issue and
the regime’s insistence on rendering any compromise impossible. As such, these
sanctions will be extremely detrimental and harmful to the regime, no matter how
hard the latter is trying to give the impression that these sanctions will have
no effect, and that it is now impractical to carry on with imposing further
sanctions, regardless of Iran’s domestic strife, or in waiting until the picture
becomes clearer in what pertains to the current round of the confrontation in
Iran.
As the world has been observing Iran’s neighbouring region, in light of the
internal developments in Iran and the effects these may have in regional issues,
the role of Saudi Arabia and Turkey came into the forefront, while attention
turned to how Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas will deal with the Iranian incidents,
and also to what Israel has in store in what regards Iran, at all levels. Iraq,
however, remains at the forefront because this country is practically a compass
and a balance that measures, even if clandestinely, what is going on in the
minds of the Iranian leadership in terms of hegemony and in terms of the deals
Iran is willing to reach whilst using retaliation as a bargaining card.
Meanwhile, the rules of engagement with Iran seem to have changed, given the
condemnations that were expressed against the regime’s repressive measures.
President Barack Obama would have preferred to avoid such an engagement
altogether, as he was building a new relationship with the Islamic Republic in
Iran. However, a new phase in the U.S relation with Iran has begun, with its
slogan perhaps being: our patience versus yours. This is because Barack Obama,
too, is good at being patient, an essential part of his nature and his fabric,
and as such, he seems to be shifting and adjusting his position while closely
watching the terror and panic of the regime in its war against the patience of
the reformists.
Today, there is more than one view, and many expectations and hypotheses about
what will happen in Iran. For instance, there is a scenario predicting that
Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s faction will provoke crises in
Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, in order to divert attention away from the uprising
inside Iran, and to justify suppressing all efforts at protest there. The
opposing scenario, meanwhile, indicates that the regime needs to limit focus its
efforts on the domestic developments in order to contain the dissidents and
circumvent them; this will deplete all of its strengths and tie down its ability
to implement any retaliation strategy.
While the first scenario is valid and plausible, and thus cannot be ruled out,
the second scenario seems to be more likely to occur. This is because what is
taking place in Iran is both terrible and astounding, and there can be no going
back from it. It is a battle for survival that requires mobilizing a huge
domestic crowd. In fact, the issue of the dichotomy within the Revolutionary
Guard is of great importance, and an issue that Ayatollah Khamenei’s close
circle does not understate. It is perhaps for this reason that this circle
deployed the Basij in the streets, in order to suppress the protestors in the
aftermath of the elections last summer.
The Basij were in fact bolstered as a result of haphazard recruitment based on
money, and which was carried out by the authorities following the election of
Mahmoud Ahmadinjead as president. According to insiders who are closely aware of
the security hierarchy within the regime in Tehran, there is a narrow circle
around Ayatollah Khamenei characterized by its ability to be chillingly brutal.
This group is betting on the triumph of oppression against patience, and is
working on uprooting the revolutions completely. However, the divisions within
the guard may very well prove to be the thorn in this group’s back, which
renders the domestic battle an outmost priority given that any deal between the
loyalist camp and the opposition is impossible.
The very fact that the regime resorted to deploying the Basij militia to enforce
the law in the country proves that the regime is inevitably on its way to
collapsing, whether this takes a short or long time to happen.
On the other hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran has failed in exporting its
theological police state. Iran thwarted its own efforts for greatness and
regional dominion owing to its oppressive regime that invites hostility with its
regional environment, and with both the east and the west, a regime that uses
subterfuge as a means for having influence in the countries of the region, while
employing militias for the purpose of coups, threats and interference in the
affairs of other countries. Thus, the aura around the head of the regime in Iran
has fallen.
In fact, Iran’s influence in Iraq waned because of the regime’s excessiveness in
the methods it follows, and in its ideology and calculations. While Tehran did
indeed reap the benefits bestowed upon it by the George W. Bush administration’s
war in Iraq, it has failed in achieving its desires and ambitions regarding
dividing Iraq, a goal that it shared with the neo-conservatives in the United
States who orchestrated the Iraq war.
Iran strongly wanted to divide Iraq. However, the wisdom of the Iraqis, led by
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, thwarted this objective. Even the Shiite leaders
who wanted to divide Iraq to satisfy Iran’s ambitions changed their minds.
Moreover, the view that religion and politics should be separated, and which was
maintained by Ayatollah al-Sistani, triumphed in the end. Even the cleric Ammar
Baqir al-Hakim is speaking today about a civil state in Iraq. Hence, Iran’s
attitude in Iraq has changed in conjunction with its influence. Iran now
realizes that there is no dependency by default on Iran by Iraq’s Shiites, nay,
there is no dependency whatsoever when the ambitions touch on a national
question such as Iraq’s unity, and the protection of its wealth and natural
resources.
Of course, this does not mean that Iran does not have a large influence inside
Iraq; quite the contrary, its influence there cannot be compared with that of
any other neighbouring country. Moreover, it is clear that Iraq is very basic to
the regional Iranian strategy, and to the one it adopts in dealing with the
United States. It is also clear that the Iranian regime is in the position to
activate its saboteurs in Iraq, and that the options of the first scenario
mentioned above are not yet off the strategy table. In addition, it is clear
that the comfort margin that the Iranian regime has enjoyed prior to the
reformists’ rebellion against it is shrinking. Iran has itself now become
surrounded domestically by the reformists’ revolution; regionally, by the Saudis
embarking on the extremely important strategy of Intra-Arab reconciliation; and
internationally, by the sanctions part of the U.S dual policy of dialogue and
agreement, on one hand, and of preparing sanctions and other measures, on the
other hand.
This situation requires the regional players to play several roles in order to
benefit from the current situation with some deal of positivity, and away from
the equation of sectarian competition that generates a harmful mobilization in
any circumstances. While it is true that Turkey is playing an important regional
role, the Saudi role remains vitally important in more than one area, extending
from Iraq to Palestine.
It is not required of Iran’s neighbours to play a direct role in the domestic
Iranian scene, because the internal Iranian affairs are not susceptible for
intervention, and it is wiser that no Arab countries get involved. Also, the
support that the reformists are seeking is an international moral support.
Moreover, it is the right of the opposition in Iran to expect from the West, the
East and the Arabs to provide a professional media coverage of what is taking
place there, on the rooftops and on the streets, as part of the revolution
during the course of which young men and women were killed in front of mobile
phone cameras in “the internet uprising”, which was set off by the vote rigging
that took place during the presidential elections.
Those dissidents are rising up against the regime’s oppressive and extremist
side. They also comprise, however, those who have despaired of the worsening
economic situation caused by political corruption, and smuggling through the
military channels in power. According to insiders, while the Revolutionary Guard
is the elite force, factions within it are responsible for the corruption, while
the smuggling of alcoholic drinks has led to the increase of supply which
manifested itself in cheaper alcohol. It is thus no secret from the dissidents
in Tehran that some of those who are now on the side of the opposition, are
merely riding the wave of the opposition when they themselves were until a short
time ago in power, and made billions during the course of the revolution.
Those who are closely aware of the domestic situation in Iran point out that the
senior clerics in Qom are mostly on the opposition’s side today, while only two
senior clerics support the loyalist camp. They also point out that the most
senior cleric in Qom, the late Ayatollah Montazeri was against vileyet-e-faqih
[clerical rule] in the first place, before the latter’s stature collapsed when
Ayatollah Khamenei entered as a direct political party in the presidential
elections.
Moderation cannot co-exist with the doctrine of a regime, or a party that adopts
a religious-militaristic-dominating ideology that is ever mobilizing support for
itself; yet, the impact of the events being unfolded may impose a change that
was not expected. Morally, the Republic is no longer what it used to be prior to
the reformists’ revolution. On the material side, a sudden interruption of
financial support will definitely affect Iran’s regional allies such as
Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. This is while the divisions within
the Republican Guard will definitely impact the regional ambitions and their
supporting strategies in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen.
Last fall, some issued a rash obituary of the reformists’ revolution, or coup in
the Persian language. This year, however, the cards will be reshuffled and
reconsidered. The reformists’ revolution has thus been unleashed, and Iran is
now at the threshold of a momentous change.
From Tehran to the Suburb
Thu, 31 December 2009
Hassan Haidar
Ahmadinejad does not bother innovating to break the routine. Indeed, the dossier
of the “American-Zionist scenario” is ready in his desk’s drawer and it would be
enough for him to take it out and paste the names of the opposition leaders and
the hundreds of thousands of those who took to the streets to demand change with
their blood to relieve his conscience from the burden of discussing their
demands, even if in form. For his part, a representative of Khamanei simply
demanded their execution to spare both efforts and time and avoid trials and a
media coverage which could expose the real criminals.
As for Hezbollah, it does not bother thinking about the reasons which made more
than half of the Lebanese population reject the continuity of its arms and its
security zones, headed by the Christians of the majority. It thus hurriedly
reminded the latter of the lessons of May 7 and the fate of the Christians of
Iraq, after casting boring accusations related to the wager on America and
Israel.
Between Tehran and the Southern suburb of Beirut, there is a thick line of
ideas, money and arms. There is also one mentality, one school and one method,
that of accusing those who dare attack the opposition of treason and of
marginalizing those who surrender or build alliances.
What made the situation in Iran concern us more than it should - considering it
is a foreign country - is the fact that Tehran has infiltrated the details and
privacies of many Arab states, at the head of which is Lebanon that engaged in a
war on its behalf in 2006, and Iraq that is experiencing the occupation of parts
of its territories and whose officials believe it is linked to their possible
request for the re-negotiation of the Algeria Accord between the Shah and
Saddam, in which the latter offered geographic concessions in exchange for
Iran’s disregarding of his oppression of the Kurds.
However, what concerns us even more is the fact that Sayyed Nasrallah compared
the Christians in Lebanon to those in Iraq, which forced some to wonder whether
or not he made a mistake after he appeared as though he was recognizing Iran’s
responsibility for the targeting of the Christians of Iraq “whom America was
unable to protect,” without pointing to the side in the face of which they
required protection. It was as though he were corroborating the fact that Iran’s
strategy of submission was the same in all the places it could reach, knowing
that many Iraqi circles assured that the Iranian-inclined Mahdi Army was the
first to launch a campaign against the Christians in Basra and Baghdad.
As for the second mistake committed by Nasrallah, it was his attempt to isolate
the Christians in Lebanon and distance them from the overall national dimension
carried by the positions of their leaders toward the legitimacy of his arms, as
well as their instigation against one another under claims that the problem was
now theirs and that it required concord between them. In other words, he said
that the Christian parties should either abstain from attacking the state of the
fait accompli which he is running, especially in light of the constitutional
appeal filed by the Phalange Party to challenge the recognition of the
resistance as an independent entity from the state and inside of the state in
the Cabinet statement, or he will repeat the experience of the “Sunni” Beirut
which he occupied by armed force.
However, what Hezbollah missed is that such attempts that were seen in the near
past to isolate the Christians due to their demands to control the spread of
Palestinian arms inside and outside of the camps, to uphold the sovereignty of
the state and keep the peace and war decision in its hands, all failed with the
recognition of those who were carrying them out. Therefore, the repetition of
this approach toward the Christians would mean that the party does not care
about its alliance with one of their leaders.
If the Christians of the majority understood the positions of the leader of the
Sunni sect, Saad al-Hariri, at the level of the renewed relations with Syria in
their wider regional context and his reliance on a flexible formulation for the
statement of the national unity government, thid does not imply that they should
accept all its articles and recant key positions which are supported by the
majority of the Lebanese.