LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِApril 01/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
15:32-39: "Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away fasting, or they might faint on the way.” 15:33 The disciples said to him, “Where should we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?” 15:34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 15:35 He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground; 15:36 and he took the seven loaves and the fish. He gave thanks and broke them, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. 15:37 They all ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over. 15:38 Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 15:39 Then he sent away the multitudes, got into the boat, and came into the borders of Magdala."


Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Libyan rebels sold Hizballah and Hamas chemical shells/DEBKAfile/March 31/11
Assad's Speech: Too little, much too late/Now Lebanon/March 31/11
Will the Syrians feel they were fooled?/By Michael Young/March 31/11
Analysis: Syria status quo serves Israelis and Palestinians/J.post/March 31/11
More Reports of Jihadists Among Rebels as Washington Debates Sending Arms/Commentary/March 31/11
Obama needs to articulate a coherent Mideast strategy/By David Ignatius/March 31/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 31/11
Obscure group claims kidnap of Estonians in Lebanon/AFP
Rifi Says Ringleader is Wael Abbas as ISF Makes More Arrests in Kidnapping the Estonian Case/Naharnet
No major reforms as Syria’s Assad warns of “conspiracy”/Now Lebanon
US Senator Jon Kyl. US Should Urge Assad to Step Down for Undermining Lebanese Democracy/Naharnet
Naharnet/ Should Urge Assad to Step Down for Undermining Lebanese Democracy/Naharnet
Police make Toronto airport "terrorism" arrest/Reuters
Miqati Meets Nasrallah Amid Report About Differences on Cabinet Size, Shares/Naharnet
Suleiman Meets Jumblat, Confident Syria Will Overcome Recent Instability/Naharnet
Salam reiterates Lebanon's commitment to Resolution 1701/Daily Star
Israel releases map of Hezbollah bunkers in Lebanon/Ynetnews
Hezbollah-linked' demos cost 24 lives in Bahrain/Daily times
Hizbullah Denies Training Bahrainis, Says Providing Only Political Support to Opposition/Naharnet
Patriarch Raei warns against one-sided government/Daily Star
Patriarch Rai urges Christian leaders to unite, stop trading insults/Daily Star
Syria: Assad speech offers little new/BBC
Michael Ross: Syria's special place as the Middle East's mafioso/National Post
President Bashar Assad blames conspiracies for Syria unrest/Los Angeles Times
Syria & Israel: A Necessary Peace/Basil & Spice
Assad allies laud speech as Future Movement denies fueling unrest/Daily Star
Saudis' interest in Arab upheavals dwindling/Arab News
Reuters correspondent and photographer missing in Syria/Reuters
Four arrested in abduction of Estonians in Lebanon/AFP
US: Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah Presence Detected In Libya/RTT
Egypt government sacks editors of state media/Reuters
Drug arrests in south rise rapidly since 2000, figures show/Daily Star
President Amin Gemayel warns of a new kind of cabinet/Now Lebanon
Kuwaiti cabinet resigns amid new political crisis/Now Lebanon

Libyan rebels sold Hizballah and Hamas chemical shells
http://www.debka.com/article/20811/
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 31, 2011,
Senior Libyan rebel “officers” sold Hizballah and Hamas thousands of chemical shells from the stocks of mustard and nerve gas that fell into rebel hands when they overran Muammar Qaddafi’s military facilities in and around Benghazi, debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report. Word of the capture touched off a scramble in Tehran and among the terrorist groups it sponsors to get hold of their first unconventional weapons. According to our sources, the rebels offloaded at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells for cash payment amounting to several million dollars. US and Israeli intelligence agencies have tracked the WMD consignments from eastern Libya as far as Sudan in convoys secured by Iranian agents and Hizballah and Hamas guards. They are not believed to have reached their destinations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, apparently waiting for an opportunity to get their deadly freights through without the US or Israel attacking and destroying them. It is also not clear whether the shells and gases were assembled upon delivery or were travelling in separate containers. Our sources report that some of the poison gas may be intended not only for artillery use but also for drones which Hizballah recently acquired from Iran. Tehran threw its support behind the anti-Qaddafi rebels because of this unique opportunity to get hold of the Libyan ruler’s stock of poison gas after it fell into opposition hands and arm Hizballah and Hamas with unconventional weapons without Iran being implicated in the transaction. Shortly after the uprising began in the third week of February, a secret Iranian delegation arrived in Benghazi. Its members met rebel chiefs, some of them deserters from the Libyan army, and clinched the deal for purchasing the entire stock of poison gas stock and the price. The rebels threw in a quantity of various types of anti-air missiles. Hizballah and Hamas purchasing missions arrived in the first week of March to finalize the deal and arrange the means of delivery. The first authoritative American source to refer to a Hizballah presence in Benghazi was the commander of US NATO forces Adm. James Stavridis. When he addressed a US Senate committee on Tuesday, March 29, he spoke of “telltale signs of the presence of Islamic insurgents led by Al-Qaeda and Hizballah” on the rebel side of the Libyan war. He did not disclose what they were doing there.

Hezbollah located in 1,000 facilities in southern Lebanon
31 March 2011 , 09:46
Israel Defense Forces (press release)
The Hezbollah terrorist organization is spread out between as many as 1,000 facilities in southern Lebanon, located in 270 civilian villages. .
As published in the Washington Post, since the Second Lebanon War Hezbollah has strengthened both in munitions and number of operatives with tens of thousands of weapons stored in civilian villages throughout southern Lebanon, this is direct violation of UN Resolution 1701
Jonatan Urich
The Hezbollah terrorist organization is spread out between as many as 1,000 facilities in southern Lebanon, located in 270 civilian villages. The organization continues to acquire munitions and strengthen, funded by Syria which is also smuggling weapons to it. This includes weapons which can reach populations in the center of Israel in cities like Tel Aviv.
According to IDF intelligence, since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah has built as many as 550 bunkers in the southern Lebanon region, holding various weapons. In addition, the organization has built 300 underground facilities and 100 storage units for munitions including rockets, missiles and other weapons.
Many of these terror centers are located near hospitals, private homes and schools, Hezbollah's way of taking advantage of the civilian population of Lebanon. According to the IDF Northern Command, Hezbollah militants have doubled in number since the end of the last war. Today, Hezbollah is estimated to have an arsenal of more than 40,000 rockets. This being the case, if war breaks out, Hezbollah will be able to launch between 500 and 600 rockets at Israel every day. One of the organization's main civilian centers for storing munitions is the village of Al Khiyam in southern Lebanon, where hundreds of rockets and mortar shells with varying ranges are stored. More than 100 Hezbollah militants operate in the village, including special forces ready for combat with IDF soldiers. Hezbollah is thus trying to distort the balance of power in Lebanon and return to full, routine militant activity in southeast Lebanon, similar to its activity levels just prior to the war in 2006. Hezbollah militant activities are based in southern Lebanon, funded and maintained by Syria and Iran. All of these are in direct violation to the UN Security Council's 1701 decision, carried out on August 12th, 2006, at the end of the Second Lebanon War.

US Senator Jon Kyl. Should Urge Assad to Step Down for Undermining Lebanese Democracy
Naharnet/Number-two Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a fierce critic of U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to engage Syria, said Washington should call for Syrian leader Bashar Assad to step down for undermining Lebanon's democracy and smuggling weapons to Hizbullah. "We should not be fooled by his sacking of his government. This is still the same Assad who undermined Lebanese democracy, who worked with North Korea to develop a clandestine nuclear capability, and who smuggles arms to Hizbullah and lends support to Hamas," Kyl said in a statement on Wednesday. "We must learn from our mistakes, and President Obama and the Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton must promptly call for Assad to step down and pledge to support the legitimate Syrian opposition," he said. The Senator called for U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford to "investigate" attacks on protesters. "Ford should also visit Daraa immediately to investigate the Assad regime's attack on peaceful protests last week," he said. Beirut, 31 Mar 11

President Amin Gemayel warns of a new kind of cabinet
March 31, 2011 /“Lebanon is facing grave and dangerous challenges. A cabinet of a new kind will be formed for the first time,” Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel said in remarks set to be published tomorrow. In an interview in As-Sayyad magazine’s Friday edition, Gemayel predicted the formation of a “unilateral cabinet that holds the state’s capabilities while some elements [within the cabinet] hold special abilities, weapons, funding, and will.” “This will be a dangerous dualism,” he said. The Kataeb leader also criticized “interference by some Lebanese leaders in the affairs of Arab capitals by taking stances supporting popular movements that have a sectarian dimension […] especially in Bahrain.”Referring to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah without naming him, Gemayel said that Nasrallah’s stance on Bahraini protests has had “negative ramifications for the large Lebanese community [in the Gulf].” He called on the Lebanese state to take a “clear and public stance of sympathy and solidarity with sister states that embrace Lebanese [migrants].”Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, appointed in January with the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition’s backing, is currently working to form his cabinet. The March 14 alliance has refused to participate in his government. Bahrain has warned its citizens against travel to Lebanon after Nasrallah pledged his support for Shia protests against the country’s Sunni monarchy.
The island state has branded Hezbollah a "terrorist organization" and slammed Nasrallah's comments as "blatant interference.”
-NOW Lebanon

Miqati Meets Nasrallah Amid Report About Differences on Cabinet Size, Shares
Naharnet/Premier-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly discussed the government formation process with Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the second meeting between the two officials since Miqati's nomination on January 25. Al-Akhbar and As Safir dailies said that the two men met on Tuesday night to discuss the obstacles facing the formation of the new cabinet. However, Miqati's sources denied to Free Lebanon radio that a meeting took place recently between the premier-designate and Nasrallah, saying the two men held talks on February 24. Nasrallah reiterated to Miqati that he should take into consideration the demands of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and the representation of the Sunni opposition by former Premier Omar Karami's son, Faisal, al-Akhbar said.
Aoun has been insisting on getting the interior ministry portfolio and the lion's share of the Christian representation in the cabinet. As for Hizbullah, it is pressuring Miqati into giving a cabinet seat to Faisal Karami. Nasrallah's assistant, Hussein Khalil, and the advisor of Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, have already informed the prime minister-designate about their demand for Karami to be granted a seat. However, according to al-Akhbar, Miqati rejected to grant Aoun a large share and did not express readiness to include Karami in his government. Instead the premier-designate told Nasrallah that he was mulling to propose a 24-member draft cabinet lineup after reports that he had agreed to form a government made up of 30 ministers. Miqati also informed the Hizbullah leader that he wanted to make MP Talal Arslan a state minister but Nasrallah refused, al-Akhbar said. As Safir quoted Arslan as saying that he "should get a respectable portfolio" or else he won't take part in the cabinet and would not give his vote of confidence to Miqati's government in parliament. Beirut, 31 Mar 11,

Obscure group claims kidnap of Estonians in Lebanon
(AFP) BEIRUT — An obscure group has claimed the kidnapping of seven Estonians in Lebanon by sending an email to a local website along with copies of the ID cards of three of those abducted, the head of the website told AFP Thursday. "We received an email late yesterday and we informed the proper authorities," said Rabih Haber, head of Lebanon Files website. The email added that the Estonians were in good condition. The group, Haraket El Nahda Wal Islah (the movement for renewal and reform) said it would make known its demands at a later time. A security official contacted by AFP would not comment on the claim. The Estonian cyclists were abducted at gunpoint in the eastern Bekaa town of Zahle after entering Lebanon through Syria. Authorities believe a gang of Lebanese and Syrian nationals involved in smuggling and other criminal activities is behind the kidnapping.

Rifi Says Ringleader is Wael Abbas as ISF Makes More Arrests in Kidnapping Case
Naharnet/The father and brother of Wael Abbas, the alleged leader of the group that kidnapped seven Estonian tourists in the Bekaa Valley last week, are in the custody of the Internal Security Forces, ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said. Earlier, the media had identified the ringleader as Darwish Khanjar. Rifi confirmed to al-Liwaa daily in remarks published Thursday that the ring was made up of six or seven members and that four of them have been arrested so far. High-ranking security sources told An Nahar newspaper however that more than seven people, including the four men who have been involved in the kidnapping, were in police custody. The four are allegedly unaware of the whereabouts of the Estonian cyclists, the sources said. A white van used by the group to kidnap the tourists was found on the outskirts of the town of Majdal Anjar on Wednesday, they added. Voice of Lebanon radio station said Thursday that the ISF's Intelligence Bureau arrested Mohammed Hashisho in Kamed al-Lawz in the Western Bekaa for his suspected ties to the kidnappers. It added that police also found a Mercedes used in the abduction operation. Rifi told al-Liwaa that he thanked Majdal Anjar residents for their cooperation with the ISF and stressed that they shouldn't feel targeted in the operation aimed at finding the Estonians. He urged the kidnappers to surrender and hand over their hostages. "We won't allow Lebanon's security to be targeted," Rifi said, stressing that the ISF and the Lebanese army had a strong grip cable of sending a "painful" message to outlaws.Meanwhile, an obscure group has claimed the kidnapping of the seven Estonians by sending an email to a local website along with copies of the ID cards of three of those abducted, the website said. The group, Haraket El Nahda Wal Islah (the movement for renewal and reform) said it would make known its demands at a later time. Beirut, 31 Mar 11, 11:18

Israel releases map of Hezbollah bunkers in Lebanon
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4050124,00.html
Ynet Published: 03.30.11, 21:28 / Israel News
An Israeli security official provided the Washington Post with a map detailing no less than 550 bunkers, 300 surveillance sites and 100 other facilities the Jewish state believes belong to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Most of the sites marked on the map, which appeared in the American newspaper on Wednesday, are located south of the Litani River.
Ten arms caches are marked on another map featuring an aerial view of the Al Khiyam village in south Lebanon. The weapons storage facilities are located in close proximity to medical centers and schools.  According to the map, one of Hezbollah's bunkers is located in a mosque. "In releasing the map, the Israeli military appeared to be trying to preempt international criticism of any future offensive against the alleged sites, many of which are located in residential villages alongside hospitals, schools and even civilian homes," the Post reported. The daily quoted a senior Israeli commander as saying, “Our interest is to show the world that the Hezbollah organization has turned these villages into fighting zones.”
About six months ago then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi warned that Hezbollah was establishing "rocket villages" in south Lebanon, adding that the Shiite group was using civilians and UNIFIL's lack of authority to act in order to fortify its positions and rocket launchers inside the villages.


لقد حول جيش ايران في لبنان الذي هو حزب الله الارهابي والمذهبين حول لبنان الى معسكر ومخزن سلاح، والتقرير اعلاه يبين هذا الأمر فيما يخص الجنوب حيث المخازن في المسشفيات والمدارس والجوامع وهي بالمئات والحلة هنا أن إسرائيل تعرف بالتحديد هذه المخازن وسوف تفجرها في أول مواجهة عسكرية مع ايران أو حزب الله مما سيتسبب بمقتل الالاف من اللبنانيين. المطلوب أن تتحرك القوات الدولية العاملة في الجنوب وتقوم بواجباتها حتى لو اضطر الأمر وضع مهمتها تحت البند السابع. هذا حزب لا يهمه لا لبنان ولا اللبنانيين فهل من يسمع ويفهم!
 

Salam reiterates Lebanon's commitment to Resolution 1701
By The Daily Star
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United Nations Nawaf Salam said Tuesday he had reiterated before the U.N. Security Council Lebanon’s commitment to the full implementation of Resolution 1701, which put an end to the country’s 2006 war with Israel. “The unchanging position in all Lebanese demands before the Security Council since 1978 is to force Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is what all Security Council resolutions starting with Resolution 425 to 1701 have called for,” said a statement from Salam carried by the state-run National News Agency.
Salam was speaking before the Security Council during discussions among its members over the latest report filed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the implementation of Resolution 1701. “Israel has violated Lebanon’s sovereignty 7,817 times since the adoption of Resolution 1701, meaning a daily average of 11 violations documented in letters submitted by Lebanon to the council,” Salam said. He added that in his report Ban said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon found no evidence of weapons smuggling into its area of operations in south Lebanon, contrary to Israeli claims that violations of Lebanese airspace were justified by the need to monitor arms smuggling.
Salam also called on the Security Council to pursue efforts to force Israel to withdraw its troops from the occupied part of Shebaa Farms and Kfarshuba Hills, saying their occupation constitutes a violation to Security Council Resolution 1701. The Lebanon envoy also reminded the Security Council that Israel has yet to fulfill a promise it made to the U.N. Secretary-General in late 2010 that it will withdraw from the northern section of Ghajar, which straddles the border between south Lebanon and Israeli occupied Syrian territories.
Israel pulled out of the northern section of the village in 2000, but reinvaded during the 2006 34-day war. Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon after calling for an immediate end of hostilities, the deployment of the Lebanese Army and establishment of a weapons-free zone south of the Litani River. – The Daily Star

More Reports of Jihadists Among Rebels as Washington Debates Sending Arms
Alana Goodman 03.30.2011/Commentary
The potential presence of al Qaeda and Hezbollah isn’t the only concern about the makeup of the Libyan rebel forces. Former jihadist Noman Benotman, who used to lead Libya’s al Qaeda affiliate, told the Washington Times today that the unaffiliated “freelance jihadists” have joined the fight to oust Qaddafi: “We have freelance jihadists,” he said. “But everything is still under control of the interim national council. There is no other organization that says, ‘We are leaders of the revolution with this emir,’ like al Qaeda would. Everyone is afraid to do this; they would be labeled as undermining the people.”Benotman told the Washington Times that he estimates there are “around a thousand” unaffiliated jihadists in Libya, though he didn’t say how many were involved in the fight. He also made it clear that the leaders of the opposition are seeking democracy. Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that Washington is in a heated debate over whether to supply arms – and the necessary training – to the rebels, who badly need it. According to the paper, the French government is “mounting pressure on the United States to provide greater assistance to the rebels.” While American officials who have met with the opposition forces say that they’re largely democratic, nobody has been able to give a clear picture of the composition yet. If the U.S. decides against giving arms to the rebels, it may still be able to provide important assistance in the form of humanitarian and financial aid.

Bahrain FM accuses Hezbollah of training Bahraini protesters
MANAMA | iloubnan.info, with agencies - March 30, 2011Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad al-Khalifa accused Hezbollah of training Bahraini opposition protesters in Lebanon to topple the kingdom's regime. In remarks published on Wednesday in ‘Al Hayat’ daily, Sheikh Khaled said the kingdom has evidence that Shiite Bahrainis who participated in the protests against the government were trained by Hezbollah, and added that “we will announce our accusations when the comes.”
The foreign minister defended his country's description of Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization,” saying that “we woke up one day to hear the secretary general of a party attacking our regime, accusing it of injustice, insulting it, and vowing to interfere in our internal affairs,” he said. Khalifah said that his country has direct relations with Iran and does “not need an intermediary,” and called on Iran “to stop this attack on us.” Bahrain's Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa accused Hezbollah on Tuesday of having links with the unrest and anti-regime protests that spread in Bahrain in the past month. Bahrain is reported to be planning to throw out thousands of Lebanese Shiites on suspicion of links to Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, based on American, French and Bahraini intelligence suggesting that those groups are coordinating the protests against the regime.
Ninety Lebanese Shiites arrested during the recent crackdown on protesters will be deported immediately, and the Bahraini government is “examining the status” of 4,000 more resident Lebanese families. Diplomatic sources quote high-ranking Bahraini officials as saying, “No Lebanese Shiite linked to or suspected of being associated with Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards will remain in the Gulf.”

US: Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah Presence Detected In Libya
Stocks Seeing Moderate Strength In Mid-Morning Trading - U.S. Commentary
(RTTNews) - The presence of Islamist insurgents led by al-Qaeda and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah in violence-torn Libya has been established by Western intelligence agencies, reports quoting NATO's top military official said on Tuesday.NATO's supreme allied commander, Admiral James Stavridis, informed a US Senate committee that there were tell-tale signs of the presence of insurgents in the north African nation. Also, a close watch is being maintained on the political uprising as Western powers try to get a better understanding of rebels fighting the Moammar Qadhafi regime. "We have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaeda, Hezbollah. We've seen different things. But at this point I don't have detail sufficient to say that there's a significant al-Qaeda presence or any other terrorist presence in and among these folks," he said. According to Stavridis, intelligence inputs showed that the rebel leadership was made up of "responsible men and women who are struggling against Colonel (Moammar) Qadhafi and will continue to seek more information about the opposition." "We're examining very closely the content, composition, the personalities, who are the leaders in these opposition forces," the admiral added. Meanwhile, troops loyal to Qadhafi further turned on the offensive forcing rebels to retreat several kilometers thereby nullifying the gains made by them in recent days. The mass retreat followed the use of heavy weaponry by government forces. The setback to rebels comes as an International Conference On Libya attended by UN, NATO, the African Union, the Arab League and others met in London to plan the future course for Libya. Addressing participants at the conclave, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the military action would continue until Col Qadhafi complied with the terms of the UN resolution. UN chief Ban Ki-moon though said a transition to democracy in Libya would "take time and the support of us all."

Rai urges Christian leaders to unite, stop trading insults
By The Daily Star /Thursday, March 31, 2011
BEIRUT: Newly elected Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai urged Christian political leaders to unite over national principles and refrain from trading accusations as Christian factions of the rival March 14 and March 8 camps continue to bicker over political issues. “I told Christian officials to stop disputing because of principles that unite them. I did not address reconciliation efforts, I just told them they should refrain from disputing [over issues],” Rai told reporters Wednesday during the inauguration of a press center at the seat of the Maronite patriarchate in Bkirki.
“We are in a democratic country and principles are what unite us. We hope that verbal assaults among Christians stop,” Rai added.
Rai’s election comes at a critical time for the Christian community, whose leading political parties are divided between the Future Movement-led March 14 alliance and the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition. While March 14 Christian factions have recently escalated their campaign against Hezbollah’s weapons after their decision to boycott the new Cabinet, Hezbollah’s ally, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, continues to quarrel with President Michel Sleiman, a Maronite, over shares in the new government.
Addressing the small but mounting still shy movement to abolish political sectarianism, Rai said the Maronite church voiced support for the establishment of a civil state inspired by religious and humanitarian values. “We support a civil state that respects religious and worldly values, we are for a civil state that respects religions and draws inspiration from them. We do not want a religious state in Lebanon since religion cannot be politicized and vice versa,” Rai said. But Rai added that before abolishing political sectarianism, the Lebanese should agree on a precise definition of the term, the framework of its abolition and an alternative system. While many Lebanese Muslims demand the abolition of political sectarianism, a demand that is limited to the elimination of quotas reserved to representatives of Lebanon’s religious sects in Parliament as well as state administrative positions, leading Christian politicians often respond with demands to establish an entirely secular state. Christians, who make up almost 40 percent of Lebanon’s population, fear that the abolition of political sectarianism alone would weaken their role in the country’s confessional power-sharing system as demographics have shifted in favor of Muslims due to high emigration and low birth rates among the Christian community. Following a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Osseiri, Rai voiced hope that Saudi Arabia would maintain its role as a supporter of inter-religious dialogue. Osseiri said he was confident in the patriarch’s ability to unite the Lebanese and strengthen the country to confront external threats. Rai, who received a delegation from Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan, an Aley MP, also expressed openness toward Damascus, albeit on a pastoral level, saying he would visit Syria to connect with the Maronite community. Rai said the patriarchate’s relations with Syria should not be addressed from a political perspective, a task better left to state officials. “The Maronite patriarch must visit all Maronite dioceses once every five years. We have three dioceses in Syria as we will visit them the rest of diocese in the world,” Rai said. Rai’s predecessor Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir was a staunch critic of Syrian intervention in Lebanese affairs and never visited Damascus during his 25 years as patriarch. – The Daily Star

Assad allies laud speech as Future Movement denies fueling unrest
By The Daily Star /Thursday, March 31, 2011
BEIRUT: Syria’s allies in Lebanon praised Wednesday’s address by President Bashar Assad, who announced his intention to kick off social and political reforms, as rival Lebanese parties continued to trade accusations over alleged involvement in spurring unrest in a number of Arab countries. Speaker Nabih Berri said Assad was laying the foundations of a modern Syria based on principles of freedom and democracy in the second “correctional movement” after his father, Hafez Assad, established Damascus as a pioneer in the resistance movement against Israel. “This is the second correctional movement, led by President Bashar Assad, after the first one carried out by the late President Hafez Assad. In the first movement, the late president set down the foundations of Syria, the citadel of immunity [to foreign influence] and the compass of the Arabs,” the speaker said. The correctional movement is the term applied by the Baath regime for the coup that brought the elder Assad to power in 1970. “In the second movement, President Bashar Assad founded the modern Syria, the center of freedom, participation, national democracy, civil rights and the citadel of resistance and immunity,” Berri added. Future Movement official and Minyeh MP Ahmad Fafat, whose party was accused by Damascus’ allies in Lebanon of fueling unrest in Syria, said Assad’s speech failed to “come up with anything new.” “The issue concerns Syria and we do not interfere in Syrian affairs. The Arab people and Syrians are capable of handling their issues alone. But I did not see anything new in Assad’s speech,” Faftat told The Daily Star.
While Assad was making his speech before Parliament, Syrian workers in Lebanon took to the streets in a number of towns in Tyre to voice support for the Syrian regime and its leader.
Syrian workers also toured in convoys in Baalbek to express solidarity with Assad, while celebratory gunfire in Jabal Mohsen, the Alawite neighborhood of Tripoli, damaged a number of properties as well as vehicles in nearby streets. Berri’s ally, Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan, called on the Lebanese to learn from Assad’s speech in order to avoid involvement in plots to instigate strife, whether intentionally or unintentionally. “This is the speech of a great man known for his honesty, nobleness, modesty and virility,” Arslan said.
“We should be attentive to what President Assad said about getting involved in strife intentionally or unintentionally because those [getting involved] will be working against Syria’s interest … As Lebanese should learn from Assad speech,” he added. Recent reports, which Syrian authorities later denied, said Damascus seized seven arms shipments that allegedly sailed from the city’s port to unload on Syrian shores and overlapped with reports that the Future Movement intended to plan protests in Tripoli against the Syrian regime.
Fatfat accused Hezbollah’s allies of spreading rumors about the Future Movement’s alleged involvement in fueling unrest in Syria to cover up for the party’s intervention in a number of Arab states. He added that the March 8 campaign also aimed at gaining further Syrian backing to exploit it in Lebanese internal politics in the ongoing tug of war between the rival camps.
Fatfat’s colleague, Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara dismissed Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s accusations against groups in Tripoli for delivering arm shipments that sailed from the city’s port destined for Syrian shores to fuel unrest against Assad’s regime. “The General [Aoun] claims that seven ships loaded with weapons sailed from Tripoli toward Syria to support the opposition to Assad’s regime. However, fish in Tripoli can’t leave the port without passing through the checkpoints of the army, General Security and Customs,” Kabbara said.
The Future Movement lawmaker snapped back at Aoun, describing the latter’s accusations as valid when it comes to its ally Hezbollah, which according to Kabbara, was exporting weapons to a number of Arab states in a bid to destabilize their regimes. For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on the judiciary to take the necessary legal measures and follow up on claims about weapons smuggling, to either try the concerned parties if the claims are found to be correct, or hold those spreading rumors responsible for tampering with issues of national security. – The Daily Star

Will the Syrians feel they were fooled?
By Michael Young/Daily Star
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Among the more idiosyncratic innovations of dictatorships is the mass demonstration in favor of the regime. Normally, countries organize elections to gauge the popularity of their governors. In Syria on Tuesday, Bashar Assad’s operators ordered out the multitudes to say how much they loved their president. However, the effort, like the excesses in the choreography, also represented a paradoxical admission that quite a few Syrians perhaps did not share that view.
The public expression of approval, soon followed by the resignation of Syria’s government, was a transparent move by Assad to increase his leverage and offer absolutely nothing to a still embryonic, but surprisingly widespread, protest movement. On Wednesday Assad made a long-awaited speech, but issued only vague promises to introduce reform and combat corruption. The president framed the protests in Syria as the consequence of a plot by unnamed outsiders to sow dissension, therefore as a confrontation the regime needed to win. A confrontation is quite possibly what Assad will have assured thanks to his speech. The Syrians were anticipating much more. All week the president’s people affirmed that a decision to lift the state of emergency had been taken. Many in Syria will now feel that they were fooled.
By week’s end we will know better if Assad’s gambit has worked. If disgruntlement grows and Syrians take to the streets in greater numbers, his regime has provided itself with an excuse to return to violence. But it will not be easy for Assad to resolve the dilemma faced by other Arab leaders forced out of office during the past three months, or still under pressure to leave. Brutality by the security forces will only engender greater discontent and mobilize more people against the Assad system; genuine reform, in turn, will raise expectations and ultimately bring the Assads’ edifice crashing down.
The president’s principal difficulty is that the political structure built by his father was designed to impede change. Hafez Assad left behind an inflexible machine in near-perfect equilibrium, with members of the political and military elite, as well as the separate security and intelligence services, aligned in such a way that the president could play them off against one another. In this manner, the regime was able to prevent the formation of coalitions that might organize a coup.
At the same time, the regime’s Alawite-dominated nucleus, with its control over the institutions of subjugation, developed an implicit alliance with a Sunni entrepreneurial class, even as prominent members of the larger Assad-Makhlouf clan, above all the president’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, came to dominate the business community. All this greatly reinforced the web of interests underpinning the Assad regime, rendering a strictly sectarian reading of today’s events in Syria too narrow. Most significantly, authentic reform would require a prior dispensation from powerful political and economic actors who have absolutely no intention of relinquishing their privileges.
Assad’s advantage is that regional states, as well as the United States, prefer him to the prospect of chaos in Syria. In the end the president’s fate will be in the hands of his own people. However, rare were those Gulf Arab leaders who did not made the call to Damascus this past week to lend Assad support. Iran is even keener to see the president carry on, as is Israel, with whom Syria has been the best of enemies, the two having maintained a peaceful border for almost four decades. And the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, serenely assured us some days ago that Assad was a cut above Moammar Gadhafi for not having deployed the air force against his own people.
The irony is that one of the Arab world’s less progressive individuals yet managed to capture the mood of the moment in Syria. In a sermon delivered last Friday, Sheikh Yusif al-Qaradawi proclaimed, sympathetically, that the train of Arab revolution had reached Syria. The Assad regime was left reeling by the remarks, interpreting the sheikh’s words as a denunciation of Alawite-led rule. Clinton and others share Assad’s anxieties, and worry that an uprising in Syria might play out in favor of Sunni Islamists. And yet for as long as the United States and other democratic countries surrender the rhetoric of freedom to the likes of Qaradawi, they will only strengthen the credibility of the Islamists at the expense of Syrians who advocate a non-sectarian, consensual, broadly national approach to reform. In several of the recent Arab revolts, once a threshold of popular dissatisfaction was reached, regimes were incapable of holding back the tide. What began as the expression of specific beefs soon morphed into irrepressible demands for freedom and a change of leadership. A grand narrative took over and the public’s ambition followed. Can Bashar Assad successfully counteract the grand narrative of liberty that many Syrians have started to embrace? His address makes this far less likely.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster), listed as one of the 10 notable books of 2010 by The Wall Street Journal.

Obama needs to articulate a coherent Mideast strategy
By David Ignatius/Daily Star
Thursday, March 31, 2011
President Barack Obama declared victory Monday night for his limited military intervention in Libya. After just a week, he said, America has achieved its goal of preventing a slaughter of the rebels. So does that mean Obama is ready to provide similar U.S. military help to besieged protesters down the road in Bahrain, say, or Yemen or Syria?
The answer is probably not – and that was an important but unstated note of realism underlying his attempt to explain what has been a confusing Libya policy. Although Obama came around to supporting a “war of choice” to halt Moammar Gadhafi, sources make clear that he doesn’t see the Libya intervention as a precedent for similar interventions elsewhere in the region.
Obama offered a formula that’s similar to what I heard last week traveling with Defense Secretary Robert Gates: The United States should use military force unilaterally only when it involves core U.S. national interests; in other cases, such as Libya, the United States should act militarily only with the support of its allies. America won’t act as the world’s policeman, in other words. But it’s ready to act as “police chief,” in organizing international peacekeeping operations. Here’s how Obama put it in one of the speech’s key passages: “American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well.”
The president doesn’t want to articulate this as an “Obama doctrine” – partly, no doubt, to leave himself wiggle room – but it’s there for all to see. And if there’s any doubt about its roots in Obama’s larger intellectual framework, turn to Page 308 of his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope,” where he makes that same distinction between “imminent” core threats that require a unilateral response and ones where a multilateral approach is preferable.
White House officials tried to explain the “what’s next?” issues that Obama’s speech only hinted at. The initial military phase of the Libya campaign will be followed by political and diplomatic efforts (and, unstated, intelligence activities) aimed at creating a coalition government that can run Libya after Gadhafi is gone. The president understands that this is a messy mission, but at least it’s a mess where the United States will have company – with the United Nations and major European and Arab countries along for the bumpy ride.
Already, according to Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, the United States is in contact with rebels and potential “reconcilables” within the Gadhafi regime about framing a future government. The Libyan opposition is such a rag-tag group that the White House may actually welcome a little time to get to know the players better and help them create transitional governing structures.Obama appears to be evolving a hybrid strategy, blending “realist” and “humanitarian interventionist” themes. Several weeks ago the administration seemed almost to be allying with Shiite protesters in Bahrain against the minority Sunni monarchy. But Obama has recognized that America has an abiding interest in the stability of neighboring Saudi Arabia, which sees Bahrain as its 51st state and won’t tolerate the overthrow of its ruling family.Similarly, in the case of Yemen, Obama is balancing America’s enthusiasm for a democratic political change with its strategic need for a strong government that can combat Al-Qaeda’s operations in the Arabian peninsula. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is on his way out, but the White House sensibly wants to have a better understanding of what’s on the other side of this transition – and to make sure that counterterrorism policies will be sustained. Obama’s speech Monday was a lesson in how presidencies are a matter of trial and error. A candidate who came into office partly on the strength of his opposition to the Iraq war has ended up committing more American troops on more battlefields. Yet he does it, each time reluctantly, delaying and debating before sending the military.
Obama gave a good Libya speech, but soon he needs to deliver a “Cairo II” speech that will articulate a coherent strategy for the region. As he said, “history is on the move” from Morocco to Iran – and yes, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, too. If Obama can connect his Afghanistan-Pakistan policy with the democratic wave that transformed Tunisia and Egypt, he will solve the core riddle of his presidency.
**Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR.

Drug arrests in south rise rapidly since 2000, figures show
By Mohammed Zaatari /Daily Star staff
Thursday, March 31, 2011
SIDON: Seventy-one individuals have been arrested so far this year in south Lebanon for drug-related crimes, and arrests have seen a drastic increase since 2000, according to figures from the Anti-Drug Office in south Lebanon. During a lecture entitled “No to Drugs, Yes to Life,” Major Henry Mansour provided the number of those detained for drug-related crimes between 2000 and this year. He said that 426 individuals were arrested in 2010, following the detention of 407 people in 2009, 228 people in 2008, and 346 people in 2007. The arrest figure stood at 113 people in 2003, and only eight in 2000. Mansour, who was speaking Wednesday during a lecture hosted by the 4B Club in Qayyaa near Sidon, said that drug use in south Lebanon was on the increase for several reasons. Mansour said that some southerners were introduced to drugs in countries in Africa and Europe where limited drug use is allowed and had continued using drugs after returning to Lebanon, where the substances are readily available.
Other reasons for the rising rate of drug use, he continued, were the fact that people pick up the habit after they mix with drug users in prisons.
Mansour went on to blame unemployment, an unstable security and political situation that reduces the efficiency of the Anti-Drug Office, the inability of the security forces to access areas that shelter a large number of wanted people on drug-related crimes “like the Palestinian refugee camps for example,” not enough manpower, the absence of observation points on borders and seaports, the lack of cooperation with mukhtars, municipalities and locals and the absence of centers for rehabilitating drug addicts.
Mansour said that the most common types of drugs were hashish, cocaine and heroin, amid indications that the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, has been increasing.
Mansour said there was no drug cultivation in the south, but noted that a 1,000-meter area of land planted with cannabis was discovered and subsequently destroyed in the southern village of Ansar in 2003. He said most drug dealers were located in Baalbek and Beirut’s southern suburbs rather than in south Lebanon. “There are some [drug] dealers inside Palestinian refugee camps [in the south] which cannot be accessed for security reasons,” he said. As for drug smuggling in the south, Mansour said the process had become much more difficult after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon in May 2000. “[Smuggling] was easily carried out during the Israeli occupation due to the easy entry and exit of [southerners] from Israel,” he explained.Separately, an exhibition was held in the southern town of Nabatieh under the auspices of Ali Daoun, a Hezbollah official in the south, to raise young people’s awareness of the dangers of drug use. Entitled “Sarkha,” Arabic for “a cry,” the exhibition was organized by Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee at the Irshad complex. On display were models illustrating the successful life of a normal person compared to the miserable life of a drug addict. Ali Darwish, head of the committee’s psychological health section, said the group was trying to highlight the issue for the public. “We started by holding several lectures and seminars, and then we wanted to organize an activity that would have a stronger impact,” he said.

Police make Toronto airport "terrorism" arrest
By Julie Gordon | Reuters – Wed, 30 Mar, 2011
TORONTO (Reuters) - A man was arrested for "terrorism-related offenses" at Toronto's international airport just before he was about to board an airplane bound for North Africa, Canadian police said on Wednesday.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said 25-year-old Canadian citizen Mohamed Hassan Hersi was headed to Somalia to join al Shabaab, which police said is a hard-line Islamist group that has ties to al Qaeda. "Al Shabaab is a listed terrorist entity," said RCMP Inspector Keith Finn at a press conference. "Any participation in that group would constitute an offense." Hersi was arrested Tuesday evening at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, moments before he was to board a one-way flight to Cairo via London, the RCMP said. They said Hersi planned to travel to Somalia from Cairo.Somalia has replaced Iraq as the state most at risk from terrorist attack, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft. Hersi appeared in a Toronto area courthouse on Wednesday, and was remanded to custody until Friday. He has been charged by police under section 83.8 of the Criminal Code for attempting to participate in terrorist activity and for providing counsel to a person to participate in terrorist activity.The RCMP said that they, along with Toronto police, have been investigating Hersi since October 2010. Finn would not comment on additional suspects or charges. "There was nothing in the investigation that would suggest direct threat to Canadians within Canada," Finn said. "The issue of radicalization, and of people from Canada traveling overseas and receiving that type of indoctrination and training, remains a concern to the RCMP."(Reporting by Julie Gordon; editing by Peter Galloway)
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Israel fears the alternative if Syria's Assad falls
Syria is one of Israel's strongest enemies, but it has been predictable and relatively stable.
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times
March 30, 2011, 4:02 p.m.
E-mail Print Share Text Size Reporting from Jerusalem— As popular unrest threatens to topple another Arab neighbor, Israel finds itself again quietly rooting for the survival of an autocratic yet predictable regime, rather than face an untested new government in its place. Syrian President Bashar Assad's race to tamp down public unrest is stirring anxiety in Israel that is even higher than its hand-wringing over Egypt's recent regime change. Unlike Israel and Egypt, Israel and Syria have no peace agreement, and Syria, with a large arsenal of sophisticated weapons, is one of Israel's strongest enemies. Though Israel has frequently criticized Assad for cozying up to Iran, arming Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and sheltering leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, many in Israel think their country might be better off if Assad keeps the reins of power. "You want to work with the devil you know," said Moshe Maoz, a former government advisor and Syria expert at Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Several Israeli government and military officials declined to speak in depth about Assad, fearing any comments could backfire given the strong anti-Israel sentiments in the Arab world. That's what happened when some Israeli officials attempted to bolster Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before he resigned Feb. 11. "Officially it's better to avoid any reaction and watch the situation," said Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, the Defense Ministry's policy director. He predicted Assad's regime would survive the unrest.
Privately, Israeli officials confirmed that although Assad is no friend, he's probably better than the immediate alternatives, which could include civil war, an Iraq-style insurgency or an Islamist takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel is worried about what might happen to Syria's arsenal, including Scud missiles, thousands of rockets capable of reaching all of Israel, chemical warheads, advanced surface-to-air systems and an aging air force. After spending billions of dollars in recent years to bolster its army in a bid to catch up to Israel's military capability, Syria was reportedly pursuing a nuclear program until Israel bombed its suspected reactor facility in 2007. Despite Syria's ambitions, Assad has been a predictable foe and something of a paper tiger, analysts say. He did not retaliate for the 2007 airstrike and, like his predecessor and father, Hafez Assad, has been careful to avoid direct confrontation with Israel, preferring instead to arm anti-Israel militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Assad has even flirted with peace talks with Israel, though he insists that Israel return the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Middle East War. "Despite problematic aspects, Bashar maintains a stability," said Eyal Zisser, head of Mideast studies at Tel Aviv University. "The border is quiet. You know where you stand with him. On the other hand, when you go toward the unknown, it is really unknown."
If Assad were to fall, many in Israel say, the best-case scenario would be a government of moderate Sunni Muslims. Syria's Sunni majority has long resented rule by Assad's Alawite-minority family, and some hope that a Sunni-led government would break Syria's ties with Iran. "A Sunni regime would clearly distance itself from the Shiite Iran and Hezbollah," Zisser said. "Any other regime would be less committed to such an alliance." In the short term, however, Israel's military is worried that Assad might attempt to divert attention from his domestic problems by triggering a clash with Israel, either directly or through Hezbollah or Hamas. On Wednesday, Assad blamed Western powers with an "Israeli agenda" for fomenting Syrian unrest. Some say Israel squandered a chance in recent years to reach a peace deal with Syria that might have provided a foundation for bilateral relations with a future government. A succession of recent Israeli prime ministers has been reluctant to reach such a deal, in part over the Israeli public's resistance to returning the Golan Heights. Maoz said such a deal could have pulled Syria away from Iran's influence and improved relations with the Arab world, but now such talks are unlikely because of the unrest threatening Assad's rule.
"Israel missed an opportunity to make peace with Syria," he said.
edmund.sanders@latimes.com
Batsheva Sobelman in The Times' Jerusalem bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Too little, much too late
March 31, 2011
Now Lebanon/On Wednesday, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria gave his much-anticipated speech to the Syrian House, or Majlis As-Shaab, the largely useless assembly that passes for a parliament. It was his first address to the Syrian people since unrest broke out across the country on March 16, leading to the deaths of over 100 people. But instead of giving concrete promises on reform – lifting the emergency law, in place since 1963, along with greater press and judicial freedoms were widely expected to be announced – the speech was the distillation of everything that has held back development in the Arab world over the past 60 years.
His rhetoric was rooted in the culture of his father, Hafez, who gave no quarter during his often brutal, 30-year rule. Assad spoke of conspiracies by foreign countries and the threat to Syria’s position as the front line in the battle with Israel and in the defense of the Palestinian people. And yet in truth, the revolt is domestic; Syria has been in a de facto state of peace with Israel for over 30 years, and its support for the Palestinian people is no greater or no less than that of any other Arab country. Reform? Well, that was coming but, according to Assad, it couldn’t be rushed, especially during “this passing wave.” Has he forgotten that Syrians have waited 48 years?
These were hardly the words of a leader, who in January told the Wall Street Journal – in what was clearly a hastily-arranged interview to make sure he was on-message as Egypt was crumbling – that the Arab nations needed to “upgrade” to keep up with the demands of their people in a Middle East diseased by “stagnation.”
Even a fawning profile in Vogue that painted him as a tech-savvy leader, a Gap dad shuttling between his Mac and his children’s favorite DVDs, failed to gloss over the fundamental realities of his regime. The man, who would have us believe he has swapped the AK47 for an iPad and repression for Twitter, blamed social media and the evil that is satellite TV for the unrest that has gripped his country. To add insult to 30 years of injury, earlier in the week, Syria accused Lebanon of meddling in its internal affairs. It was also hinted at during Assad’s speech. The accusation is galling in the extreme given that, for nearly three decades, Syria was the de facto ruler of Lebanon. It installed its intelligence services to make sure everyone toed the line. It controlled our ports, picked our presidents and prime ministers, and made many of our people simply disappear. Furthermore, Lebanon has been without a government for nearly three months because Damascus has not signed off on that particular file. One wonders if there will be a similar delay in the formation of the new Syrian government, which we are told will be announced by the end of the week and which Assad has assured his people will implement the new set of, albeit unknown, reforms. Judging by the blogs and the Twitter feeds, Wednesday’s speech has not quenched the reformists’ thirst for change, and they have not fallen for Assad’s empty rhetoric. They are waiting for him to follow through on his word when he declared, “When the people demand their rights, it is the state’s duty to fulfill their demands.” But one feels they are not holding their breath.
They know that the Assad regime is caught between a rock and a hard place. Given the mood across the region, it cannot avoid reform. But any meaningful reform will surely signal the end of the Baathist regime as we know it. If the Syrian regime is convinced that there is foreign interference in its country, then maybe they now know what it feels like.

Kuwaiti cabinet resigns amid new political crisis
March 31, 2011 /Kuwait's government handed in its resignation on Thursday, as a fresh political crisis brewed in the oil-rich emirate, State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Rudhan al-Rudhan announced. In a step unrelated to revolts in the Arab world, it was the sixth cabinet led by Prime Minister Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to resign since his naming five years ago, during which time three parliaments have been dissolved. "The Kuwaiti cabinet submitted its resignation today at an extraordinary meeting," Rudhan told state news agency KUNA.
The move comes after MPs filed motions to question three ministers who are senior members of Kuwait's Al-Sabah ruling family, over a variety of allegations ranging from corruption to failure to perform their duties. Liberal MPs Adel al-Saraawi and Marzouk al-Ghanem have filed to grill the deputy premier for economic affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah, in connection with corruption charges over contracts worth $900 million. Also this week, Shia MP Faisal al-Duwaisan started moves to question Information and Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Sabah, and MP Saleh Ashour demanded to grill Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Sabah. The cabinet's resignation also coincided with a Kuwaiti opposition campaign for the resignation and replacement of the premier, Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.Kuwait's last election was held in May 2009.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

No major reforms as Syria’s Assad warns of “conspiracy”
March 30, 2011
President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday blamed conspirators for deadly unrest in Syria but failed to lift emergency rule or offer other concessions in his first speech since protests demanding greater freedoms erupted earlier this month.
In a highly anticipated address to parliament that lasted almost one hour, Assad took aim at social networking websites and pan-Arabic satellite television news channels but made no mention of any plans to lift the state of emergency.
Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban had told AFP on Sunday that Syria has also decided to lift emergency rule, which has been in force in the country since 1963.
But the autocratic regime of Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad in the year 2000, has been rocked by a wave of demonstrations in defiance of the law over the past two weeks, with protesters emboldened by uprisings in the Arab world.
"I know that the Syrian people have been awaiting this speech since last week, but I was waiting to get the full picture... to avoid giving an emotional address that would put the people at ease but have no real effect, at a time when our enemies are targeting Syria," Assad told parliament.
Assad, who warned Syria was going through a "test of unity," said his country's enemies had taken advantage of the needs of the people to incite strife.
"This conspiracy is different in shape and timing from what is going on in the Arab world," he said.
"Syria is not isolated from the region... but we are not a copy of other countries.”
"We are all for reform. That is the duty of the state. But we are not for strife," said the Syrian leader.
"Reform is not a trend," he added. "When the people demand their rights, it is the state's duty to fulfill their demands.”
"What we should watch out for is starting reforms under these circumstances right now, this passing wave.”
An ally of Iran and sworn foe of Washington's key regional partner Israel, Syria's government has been facing demands for major change by protesters emboldened by popular uprisings in the Arab world.
Assad was widely expected to elaborate on a string of reforms announced last week, which came in response to two weeks of protests demanding reform and more freedoms in the country ruled by the Baath party since 1963.
Shaaban on Sunday told AFP in an interview that the decision to lift the state of emergency had already been made, but could not elaborate on the "time frame."
Assad echoed that statement on Wednesday.
"The measures announced Thursday were not made suddenly," he said.
"The emergency law and political parties law have been under study for a year.”
"There are more, unannounced reforms ... but giving a timeframe is a logistic matter.”
"When we announce it in such circumstances, it is difficult to make that deadline," the president said.
The wave of protests, which began on March 15 in Damascus, were quickly contained by security forces, before taking root in the southern tribal region of Daraa and the multi-confessional coastal city of Latakia in the north.
For live updates on the Syrian uprising, click here.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon