LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJanuary 05/2010

Bible Of The Day
The Good News According to Matthew 6/1-4: “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 6:2 Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6:3 But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, 6:4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly".

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
The worst moment to suck up to Syria/Benny Avni/New York Post/January 4, 2011
Stop assuming Christians are the enemy/By: Hussein Ibish/January 04/11
The past Lebanese decade/By:Hazem Saghiyeh/January 04/10
Nabih Berri/January 04/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 04/11
Widening cracks in Ahmadinejad's grip on power/DEBKAfile
Iran hard-liners blocked nuclear fuel swap deal, WikiLeaks cables reveal/Haaretz
Harb Meets Sfeir, Challenges Critics of Property Draft-Law to Have a Better Say/Naharnet
Suleiman Visits Coptic Church, Offers Condolences for Victims of 'Crime Against Humanity'/Naharnet
Shami to Ban: Israeli Exploitation of Lebanon's Oil Wealth is an Assault against Lebanese Sovereignty/Naharnet
Two Suspects Held in Grenade Attack on Faisal Karami's House/Naharnet
Zahra: Those Who Believe that Targeting Christians Will Uproot them are Being Naïve/Naharnet
Asarta: Situation in South Calm, We are Working on Plan to Guarantee Withdrawal from Ghajar/Naharnet
Berri Hopes Abdullah's Recovery Period Doesn't Last Long/Naharnet
Bassil Warns of an Electrical Catastrophe that Will Be Felt on a Daily Basis/Naharnet
Ongoing Paralysis as No Cabinet Session Looming in Horizon /Naharnet
Report: Qabbani Seeking to Hold Muslim-Christian Summit /Naharnet
Report: Hizbullah Readying Itself for Escalation Over 1st Part of Indictment /Naharnet
Fneish Blames March 14 on Settlement Failure but Expects Deal before Indictment/Naharnet
Arab Source: Solution to Lebanon Deadlock Through Formation of New Cabinet /Naharnet
Geagea Urges Firm Arab Stance on Defending Christians against Terror /Naharnet
U.S. diplomat: No Compromise and No Security Shakeup Over Indictment /Naharnet
Qassem: Let No One Think We're Endorsing Settlement because We're Scared /Naharnet
Netanyahu: We're Not Interfering in Lebanon to Avoid Giving Pretext for Igniting Border /Naharnet
Minor Quake Felt in Iqlim al-Kharroub, Chouf, Southern Metn /Naharnet
Conflicting Reports on Visit by Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff to Beirut /Naharnet
Lebanese Ambassador to Abidjan: Situation in Ivory Coast Calm /Naharnet

Harb Meets Sfeir, Challenges Critics of Property Draft-Law to Have a Better Say
Naharnet/Labor Minister Butros Harb on Tuesday rejected accusations that a draft-law that prevents sale of property between Muslims and Christians for a period of 15 years was "sectarian." In remarks to Future News, Harb said: There are suspicious sales of Christian lands as if there is a tendency to uproot Christians from their areas." Let those who have better ideas present them "or else let them have the courage to go ahead with my proposal," he said. Also Tuesday, Harb informed Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir about his newly proposed draft-law during a meeting in Bkirki. Harb told reporters that his aim behind proposing the draft-law is "consolidation of national unity and coexistence." "I rang the alarm bell because there is a danger on coexistence and the Christian presence in Lebanon," he said. Beirut, 04 Jan 11, 11:33

Widening cracks in Ahmadinejad's grip on power
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 4, 2011, 12:29 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Ahmadinejad infighting Iran Ahmadinejad - stripped of alliesThere are growing indications that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing his second epic struggle to stay in power since the 2009 popular riots against his election - with his back to the wall. Even the secretive revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran has been unable to conceal the widening fissures in Iran's ruling elite.

debkafile's exclusive Iranian sources report that the president's situation must be dire indeed because Monday night, Jan. 3 he called off at the last minute a secret trip to Beirut by his chef de bureau and son-in-law Rahim Esfandiar Mashaee for winding up a key power move in Lebanon. The need to keep his trusted confidant at his side was apparently more pressing than a key step in Iran's takeover of Lebanon. A day earlier, Ahmadinejad sacked his 14 top advisers, breaking up the inner cabinet which virtually ran the country under his control.
Mashaee was to have persuaded Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to have announced the dissolution of the UN tribunal set up to probe the Rafiq Hariri assassination and try its perpetrators. He would have had to override Saad Hariri's government and cut through the Saudi-Syrian formula for solving the Lebanese crisis to pre-empt the tribunal presentation of indictments against Hizballah officials. This stratagem would have satisfied and empowered Iran's proxy as the dominant power in Beirut. This mission was important enough for Ahmadinejad order Mashaee to remain in Beirut until it was accomplished.
But meanwhile, the president had dumped a body of advisers who had formed a super-government acting out his practical authority for countermanding the decisions of the government, parliament and other constituted institutions.
According to one source, the advisers he fired are: Mehdi Kalhor, media, Mojtaba Rahmandoust, Isargaran (martyrs and devotees) affairs, Davoud Danesh Jafari, senior economics adviser, Tavakkoli Bina, commerce, Etemadian, commerce, Vaziri Hamaneh, oil and gas industry, Sousan Keshavarz, education, Sattar Vafai, Haj Ali Akbari, youths affairs, Mehdi Chamran, councils affairs, Rouyanian, Ali Montazeri, Ali-Asghar Zarei, culture advisor, and Mehdi Mostafavi.
Our Washington sources report that the White House is keenly watching the infighting and deepening splits in the clerical regime. Opinions vary as to the cause which triggered the crisis, ranging from opposition to the deep slashes Ahmadinejad ordered last month in subsidies for essential consumer goods, to dialectical differences and a straight power struggle. But they all agree that the Iranian president is fighting for his life in a struggle that is approaching a resolution.
Washington sees three major forces ranged solidly against him for the first time:
1. The Iranian parliament, the Majlis, and its powerful speaker Ali Larijani, who has been working to check Ahmadinejad's limitless thirst for power for some time;
2. The generals: Never before since the 1979 Islamic Revolution have the armed forces chiefs taken a hand in Iranian politics. But they are now deeply concerned that Ahmadinejad's policies, including his push for a nuclear weapon, are bringing the country into perils it cannot withstand.
3. Long-time rival, the former president Hashem Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, the supreme body overseeing the various arms of the regime, is showing signs of recovering from the years of persecution and restrictions placed on the activities of his faction.
It was noticed in Washington this week that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who habitually praises the president and his works, has stopped mentioning him in his public appearances, probably watching and waiting to see how the internal discord turns out. Also sitting on the fence are the heads of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ahmadinejad's principle buttress until now. He appears therefore to be fighting for survival singlehanded except for a hard core of the most radical ayatollahs who have backed him through thick and thin.


Suleiman Visits Coptic Church, Offers Condolences for Victims of 'Crime Against Humanity'
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman visited the Coptic church in Jisr el-Basha on Tuesday and offered condolences for the victims of the bombing in Alexandria."This terrorist crime against al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church in Alexandria is a crime against humanity," Suleiman told Father Rwais Orshalimi at the Coptic church.On Sunday, Suleiman sent a cable to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemning the "bloody attack" that seeks to "ignite strife in Egypt."He said Lebanon stands by Egypt to overcome the repercussions of the bombing that targeted the church in Alexandria.In a telephone conversation with Mubarak, Suleiman said the crime aims at "striking coexistence which distinguishes the Arab world."The Lebanese president also telephoned Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenouda III offering his condolences.

Shami to Ban: Israeli Exploitation of Lebanon's Oil Wealth is an Assault against Lebanese Sovereignty
Naharnet/Foreign Minister Ali Shami sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Lebanon's petroleum wealth in the South in light of recent reports that Israel had reached an agreement with a number of companies to drill for gas and oil in the Mediterranean, with some of these fields lying in the joint regional waters between Lebanon and northern Palestine.The minister stressed in his letter "Lebanon's right to the complete petroleum wealth that lies within its economic zone" as indicated in international laws, adding that any "Israeli exploitation of this wealth is a blatant violation of these laws and an assault against Lebanese sovereignty."He hoped that all efforts would be exerted to prevent Israel from exploiting this wealth. Beirut, 04 Jan 11, 15:52

Zahra: Those Who Believe that Targeting Christians Will Uproot them are Being Naïve
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra stressed on Tuesday that those who believe that targeting Christians will be able to uproot them "are being naïve". He said: "Only diverse and open societies can exist in the Middle East."He reiterated statements by LF leader Samir Geagea that priority should be given to preserving the Christian presence in all Arab countries.
Beirut, 04 Jan 11, 16:19

The worst moment to suck up to Syria
January 4, 2011/Benny Avni/New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_worst_moment_to_suck_up_to_syria_hwswgBsD7Q9HDu3yW9K8rO
The appointment of Robert Ford as US ambassador to Syria late last week may have been a shrewd move for Washington, but the timing couldn't have been worse for the Middle East.
Sources tell me that a Netherlands-based, UN-backed court investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will issue its first indictments as soon as the end of this week.
Remember that 2005 murder?
Shortly after the Hariri killing, with evidence of Syrian complicity abounding, a disgusted President George W. Bush pulled our ambassador from Damascus. But President Obama, filled with hopes of "engagement" with America's worst enemies, has long wanted to return an American ambassador to Syria.
Yet, even with last year's sizable Democratic majority, the Senate wouldn't hear of it. Unable to get the necessary confirmation and knowing that this year's Senate is bound to be even tougher, Obama decided to overcome objections by using the holiday congressional recess to appoint Ford as his conduit to President Bashar al-Assad.
Back in the region, much of the Arab world didn't see this as legitimate parliamentary maneuvering -- far from it. The Lebanese press and other Arab media were filled with rumors and creative analysis -- with Syria mostly emerging a winner.
The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai reported over the weekend that Obama's top Mideast adviser, Dennis Ross, secretly negotiated with Damascus recently to relaunch peace talks with Israel. In this version, sending a new ambassador was just one detail in a larger, strategic Washington turnaround on Syria.
The Saudis reportedly pushed another scheme: America will help exonerate Damascus in the Hariri probe; in return, the Assad regime will deliver several concessions to the West, which wants Syria out of Iran's regional orbit.
The problem with all these real and imaginary scenarios is that, back here on earth, Assad may appear coy but won't play ball. Like several other regional leaders, he increasingly believes that we're unreliable and that his best bet is on the rising regional power: Iran.
Under Bashar's father, Hafez al Assad, known as "The Lion," Syria had aspirations of regional leadership. Under the son, however, it has devolved into an Iranian franchise, yet one more satrap in the mullahs' growing regional sphere that includes Hezbollah, Hamas and America's worst enemies in Iraq.
But Bashar Assad's aides aren't dummies. With American sanctions hurting, they know they can't completely break ties with the West. So they revert to an old Damascus game, dangling promises of better future relations in front of gullible guests.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu played that game with Assad Sr. during his previous term in office, in the 1990s, sending former Ambassador to Austria Ronald Lauder to conduct secret peace talks with Damascus. Yesterday, the Israeli press reported that an American Jewish leader, Malcolm Hoenlein, visited Damascus recently. But Jerusalem insiders say now that neither the Lauder talks nor others have ever gotten close to finalizing any agreement.
"Bashar Assad always wants an advance payment for any promised concession," says a veteran diplomat in the region. "But, whether you pay or not, he never delivers on his end of his deal."
Even Team Obama is disillusioned with Damascus. Nevertheless, the president, set on "engagement," rarely gives up. So last week he used a recess appointment to get his man to Damascus.
What a difference several years make. In 2005, then-Sen. Obama railed against Bush for using a recess appointment to send John Bolton to the United Nations. Because the Senate hadn't approved him, Ambassador Bolton would arrive at Turtle Bay as "damaged goods" with less credibility, Obama said.
"It's certainly gratifying to see that President Obama has matured from the views he held on recess appointments during his Senate days," Bolton said over the weekend. Then again, he told me, "sending an ambassador to Syria rewards five years of Iranian and Syrian bad behavior. What a signal to send right before the likely indictments by the UN tribunal in the Hariri assassination."
Regional players are expecting earth-shaking events -- including possibly an inter-Lebanese or even a regional war -- to follow the indictments. Nothing could be more damaging now than appearing to renew our friendship with the crowd that ordered the Hariri killing. beavni@gmail.com

Assyrian Woman Killed In Her Baghdad Home
GMT 1-3-2011 21:10:35
Assyrian International News Agency
Baghdad -- A new episode of violence against Christians was recorded in Iraq. Several armed men broke into a woman's home in Baghdad, opening fire and killing her on the spot and then vanishing with her belongings. The news was reported by an official of the Ministry of the Interior. The woman, whose name was Rafah Toma and lived alone in the Al-Wahda suburb, is the latest victim of a wave of attacks against Christians in Iraq.

Afghan Christian Faces Potential Death Sentence for Apostasy
Given One Week to Renounce Christian Faith
Washington, D.C. (January 3, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a judge has given an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity a week to renounce his faith, or else be sentenced with the death penalty or up to twenty years’ imprisonment. The verdict is expected this week.
Shoaib Assadullah was arrested on October 21 in Mazar-e-Sharif for giving a Bible to a man who later reported him to local authorities. He is currently in a prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan.
ICC sources closely following the case tell us that at a court hearing on December 28, Assadullah was told to recant Christianity and return to Islam. Pamir Productions spoke to Assadullah on December 31. Assadullah said, “he is quite certain that they [court officials] will give him the death penalty. At his last court appearance, the judge gave him one final week to renounce his faith otherwise he would be hanged or killed for his faith. Shoaib stated he has given his life completely into the hands of Jesus. He said he was so happy for the spiritual fight, saying, ‘Without my faith I would not be able to live’.”
An ICC source in Mazar-e-Sharif was told by a court official today that Assadullah will be summoned to court on January 4 at 10:00 a.m. local time.
Afghanistan is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). According to article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “Shoaib Assadullah may be given a death sentence as early as tomorrow if the international community does not act quickly. If Assadullah is executed, his death will signify the failure of the United States and her allies to liberate Afghanistan from the radical ideals of the Taliban after investing millions of dollars to reform the country’s judicial system. We urge the international community to demand the immediate release of Assadullah and to hold Afghanistan accountable to its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Call the Afghanistan embassy in your country to express your concern:
United States: +1 202 483 6410
Canada: +1 613 563 4223
United Kingdom: + 44 207 589 88 91/2
Germany: +49 22 825 1925
France: +33 1 45 25 05 29
Australia: +61 2 62827311 6282/6034
For interviews, contact Aidan Clay, Regional Manager for the Middle East: clay@persecution.org
# # #
You are free to disseminate this news story. We request that you reference ICC (International Christian Concern) and include our web address, www.persecution.org. ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.

Stop assuming Christians are the enemy
Hussein Ibish,
January 4, 2011
Egyptian Christians protest outside the Al-Qiddissine church following an overnight car bomb attack, which killed 21 people, hitting Egypt's Christian community, the biggest in the Middle East. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
The appalling attacks against Christians in Egypt and Iraq signal a disturbing new campaign on the part of the most extreme Islamists in the Arab world to massacre, and presumably attempt to drive out, Christian communities. It is important to understand the linkage between these two apparently unconnected events, because they fit broader patterns in both their own societies but also, and more ominously, a broader pattern sweeping the Arab world and other parts of the Islamic world.
It’s perfectly true that the attacks on Christians in Iraq are a subset of the widespread sectarian violence that has accompanied the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the difficulty of creating a new order in that country. Most sectarian violence has focused on Sunni-Shia tensions and a kind of ethnic cleansing in neighborhoods of Baghdad and other parts of the country, creating sectarian zones. But this intra-Muslim violence in Iraq has been mainly in the context of a battle for power in the post-Saddam era, with sectarian communities feeling vulnerable and seeking protection in relatively homogenous enclaves policed by militias.
The violence against Christians is of a different order. A church massacre in Baghdad last October was followed this Christmas by bomb attacks against Christian homes, leaving at least two more dead and 16 injured. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates are conducting a campaign to try to drive the remaining Christians out of Iraq, and at least 6,000 have fled to northern Iraq or neighboring countries. Perhaps half of the community has fled since the American invasion. There is no way to read this violence as anything other than sectarian cleansing through murder and terrorism.
In Egypt, the context is both very different and distressingly similar. Tensions between the majority Muslim community and the large and heavily-discriminated-against Coptic Christian minority have been increasing, particularly in and around Alexandria, in recent months. The Alexandria church bombing has to be seen in that context, and more broadly in the way many Islamists view Christians as a toehold of the West in what otherwise ought to be a purely “Islamic” society in the making.
The most direct link is that the lunatics of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq,” which is what the self-described Salafist-Jihadists or Al-Qaeda elements in Iraq are calling themselves these days, are justifying their attacks on Iraqi Christians by pointing to alleged persecution by Coptic Christians of converts to Islam in Egypt. It’s a preposterous excuse, of course, but it certainly provides a context for connecting the anti-Christian rampage in the two countries.
The Christian communities in the Arab world are simply soft targets – relatively undefended, unloved, and regarded by far too many Muslim compatriots as suspicious, unwelcome and possibly disloyal. The days in which Arab identity could trump sectarian animosities are waning fast, though there remain huge segments of Muslim society in both Egypt and Iraq, as well as elsewhere in the Arab world, that cling to a more inclusive sensibility.
In Iraq, the extremists see an easy opportunity in attacking Christians in an era when attacks against other Sunnis, Shia or Western forces have become, for many complicated reasons, much more difficult. In Egypt too, the relatively undefended character of the Coptic community has made it a distressingly inviting target.
In Egypt, this problem has been underlined by the fact that while large segments of Egyptian society have reacted with outrage, the government’s response so far has included unconvincingly blaming outside elements, followed by violent attacks by security forces against Coptic protesters and their allies. Just because there is an obvious link between anti-Christian violence in Egypt and Iraq doesn’t mean the Alexandria massacre was the work of “outside agitators” – Egypt has plenty of Islamist and indeed “Salafist-jihadist” fanatics of its own. That the same anti-Christian agenda is manifesting itself in separate Arab countries simultaneously makes the problem worse and more widespread, not simpler and more isolated as governments would probably like to pretend.
All of this anti-Christian violence, however, comes in the context of rising rhetoric throughout the Arab world and other parts of the Muslim world that is paranoid and chauvinistic, and which sees all religious minorities as unacceptably heterogeneous and dangerous. Christians, of course, are particularly suspect since they are alleged or presumed to have particular ties to or sympathy with the West, which is cast as the eternal and implacable enemy.
Though the immediate contexts for the attacks in Egypt and Iraq are quite different, the Arab Muslim cultural context is exactly the same: an increasing desire to impose a false religious and cultural homogeneity on a heterogeneous Arab world and to repress or drive out disparate elements, including Christians, Shia, smaller Muslim sects like the Ahmadiyya or various Sufi groups, and secularists and other liberals. Parts of Arab political and Muslim religious culture that would repudiate violence nonetheless promote the thinking that ultimately rationalizes it by embracing a paranoid and chauvinist worldview. The real blame lies with the killers themselves, but the ultimate responsibility for this carnage must be placed disturbingly far and wide throughout contemporary Arab political and religious attitudes, in an all-too-common delusional perspective that sees enemies and traitors in every corner and is convinced that the world is out to get us.
**Hussein Ibish is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.

The past Lebanese decade
Hazem Saghiyeh,
January 4, 2011
Ten years ago in the year 2000, a political event marked a new era. That day saw the beginning of the context whose consequences we are still experiencing: the Israelis withdrew from the occupied territories in the South and the Western Bekaa, and two voices appeared.
One voice argued that the Israeli withdrawal removed the justification for continued Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and that if the Israeli exit was followed by that of the Syrian army, we would have a historic opportunity for a new national beginning.
The other voice spoke about the “withdrawal conspiracy” and inflated the matter of the newly discovered Shebaa Farms, aiming to keep Lebanon in the heart of the regional struggle (which is only ever waged in Lebanon) and on this basis to keep the weapons of the Resistance on Lebanese territory, together with the Syrian army.
The first voice has gained forces and supporters, the most important of whom was Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in the ugliest way in 2005. The March 14 movement began immediately afterward and, in spite of its enormous and costly shortcomings, succeeded in establishing a cross-sectarian alliance. The alliance was certainly fragile, but it was the first of its kind in modern Lebanese history.
Through the effort and momentum of March 14 that day, and thanks also to political support from abroad, the Syrian army left Lebanon. However, this direction had to be reversed, and the spotlights had to be turned away from it – priority and consideration had to be given back to the old agenda, symbolized by the word “arena.” Thus was waged the 2006 July War, which succeeded in directing attention away from the political struggle over authority in the country, especially given that the general parliamentary elections in 2005 had given the majority and a popular mandate to the advocates of the Lebanese national choice.
The infamous cabinet freeze completed the suspension of politics that began with the “war of destiny.” This was crowned violently by the military takeover of Beirut in May 2008. The Doha Agreement patched over the problem to end the open struggle, but it was unable to halt the decay of sectarian relations, especially between the Sunni and Shia.
Meanwhile, new elections were held in 2009 and proved the same result as the previous elections: the opinion of the popular majority has no value in the shadow of weapons. The difficulties encountered in reaching the election of a new president and in the formation of a new cabinet indicate that the country has become completely empty of politics.
Today, with the subject of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon occupying the minds of the Lebanese, there is nothing left for us to depend on to avoid the Frankenstein of violence except Syrian-Saudi mediation. The decade has ended in this way, and we have ended up with a nation suspended from a rope in thin air.

Nabih Berri
January 3, 2011
An-Nahar newspaper carried the following reported on January 3:
Speaker Nabih Berri hoped that the year 2011 will be different from the previous one on the political and economic levels, adding a dosage of optimism by saying, “At least the new year will not be worse than the previous one.” What he meant was that this past year featured many disappointments for the Lebanese, the least of which was the hindering of the work of the national-unity government which continued to carry this name in its ministerial statement but failed to practically translate it on the ground due to the disputes between its different parties. He believed that these disputes were mainly due to the inability to reach a unified vision over the international tribunal file – investigating the assassination of [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri – but also over the ways to set the mechanism of the false witnesses’ file which kept the government occupied throughout the last months without it reaching a happy ending.
Asked about the priorities he will seek to achieve during the current year in light of the blocked political horizon, he said to An-Nahar, “My priorities will be the same as in 2010, and include the oil file, the false witnesses file and the provision of water and electricity to the citizens. I will also tend to the livelihood issues which should not be handled by the government the way they current are. As usual, I am optimistic and would like to reiterate that the new year will not be worse than the previous one.” Asked whether or not there will be a settlement of the files on the table and the thorny crises witnessed inside the cabinet during the month of January, he responded by saying, “January is the month of decisiveness at the level of the international tribunal crises. In the end, I always say do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”
In this context, what is mostly reassuring to him is that the security situation in the country is in his opinion under control and acceptable, although he described the political situation as being “decayed” due to the stalemate affecting the major production projects. He therefore issued a call to start pushing these projects forward, at the head of which is the project to extract oil. He also called for caution and follow-up vis-a-vis what Israel was doing in this sector, as well as vis-a-vis its ongoing threat to the national oil wealth on Lebanon soil, wondering on the other hand, “What have we done in the electricity and water sectors? It is a blessing from God that the security situation in Lebanon is stable, but this should not prompt us to rest.” At this level, he recalled the bleak days of 1975 and how the parties at the time reached over a thousand ceasefire agreements which only led to failure and the resumption of the killing machine, until the signing of the Taif Accord “which was unfortunately not implemented,” assuring, “Security stability should accompany political concord.”
On the other hand, Speaker Berri did not receive the draft law presented by Minister of Labor Boutros Harb with relief, as this draft called for the prevention of the selling of land between the different sects. The speaker indicated to An-Nahar, “This draft law is among the first repercussions of the refusal to form a national committee for the abolishment of political sectarianism in Lebanon. What Harb has presented does not serve the Christians and head of the Democratic Gathering [bloc] Walid Junblatt did well when he responded to him.” Asked what he will do if Harb’s draft were to reach parliament, Berri responded, “I am eagerly awaiting it. Why all this commotion? This is not the way to protect the Christians. Why are we hearing talk about the besieging of lands and regions?”
He therefore put forward a series of examples leading to the fact that Lebanese businessmen, regardless of their sect, had the right to purchase lands in their country and to invest in this sector, adding, “Are we required to implement the calls of the Jewish rabbis who prevent non-Jews from purchasing land in Israel? Why such racism under the banner of the defense and protection of the Christians? On the other hand, the most expensive lands in the South do not belong to the followers of the Shia sect which welcomed everyone,” calling on the skeptics to “check this reality with the real-estate authorities. On this occasion, I would like to reiterate my calls on the Kaslik and Louize universities as well as on the Lycee [Francais] schools to establish branches and institutions in the South over land that is offered for free, based on my belief in the unity of the Lebanese and in the non-segregation between them.”
Speaker Berri had received with great discontent the news about the explosion which targeted the church in Alexandria. He therefore said it was Lebanon’s duty to be the first country in the East to raise the banner of the protection and preservation of the presence of the Christians [in the region], adding, “We should not stand by and watch their tragedies and open crises in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. I will certainly focus on this sensitive point during the parliamentary meeting in Abu Dhabi.”