LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJanuary 06/2010

Bible Of The Day
The Good News According to Matthew 6/19-21:  “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also".

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Interview from the Daily Star with Zaher Eido, the son of late M.P. Walid Eido/January 05/11
Bearing faith in Lebanon, we grow/Daily Star/January 05/11
Syria and Israel’s dirty little secret/By: Hussain Abdul-Hussain/January 05/11
Obama and Syrian trap/By: Matthew RJ Brodsky/January 05/11
The Role of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Region/By:George Semaan/January 05/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 05/11
Samir Franjieh: Hezbollah can only cause breakdown/Now Lebanon
Allouch: Political deadlock to continue until STL indictment is issued/Now Lebanon
Maronite Bishops: We Must Close Ranks to Ward Off Dangers, Maintain Christian Presence in Mideast  /Naharnet
Syria Fails to Respond to Najjar's Request on Referring Arrest Warrants to Lebanese Judiciary /Naharnet
Majdalani: Hezbollah has the final say in March 8/Now Lebanon
Hariri Meets Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal in Saudi Arabia  /Naharnet
March 14 Vows to Hold Onto Islamic-Christian Solidarity /Naharnet
EGYPT: Coptic pope demands effort to tackle grass-roots sectarian problems/Los Angeles Times
LEBANON: Proposed ban on sale of land between Muslims and Christians/Los Angeles Times
Lebanon urges UN to curb Israel offshore drilling/iloubnan.info
Harb defends pitch to prohibit inter-religious land sale/Daily Star
Paris urges E.U. response to attacks on Mideast Christians/Daily Star
Lebanon: Deadlock persists despite parliamentary activity/Daily Star
Aoun: Harb's Draft Law is Illegitimate, Options that Contradict Surrounding are a Danger against Christians/Naharnet
Obama and Syrian trap/Ynetnews
Alliot-Marie: Hariri Should Preserve National Unity and Tribunal Should Continue to Operate /Naharnet
LF Attacks Aoun: His Slogans a Cheap Way to Fight for Presidency /Naharnet
Syria Fails to Respond to Najjar's Request on Referring Arrest Warrants to Lebanese Judiciary /Naharnet
UN to Shami: We Won't Delineate Lebanese-Israeli Maritime Border /Naharnet
Wahab: Solution Likely in 10 Days /Naharnet
Diplomatic Sources: Lebanon Solution Not Only Restricted to S-S /Naharnet
Mofaz Warns U.S. Pullout from Iraq Consolidates Iran-Hizbullah Ties /Naharnet
Majdalani: Hizbullah had Final Say, Not Berri, Not Aoun /Naharnet
US Diplomat Tells March 14 'Indictment Very Soon', Report /Naharnet
Mneimneh: March 8 Seeking to Install New Cabinet Formed by it /Naharnet
Gunmen Kidnap Underage Girl, Elderly /Naharnet
Mashaii's Trip Postponed Over Khamenei's Rejection /Naharnet
Fneish Rules Out Government Change, Expects Settlement Soon /Naharnet
STL Requested 2 Hotels Be Evacuated to Accommodate Witnesses /Naharnet
No Cabinet Meeting in Return for Concessions, Hariri Reportedly Declares /Naharnet
Hariri Sources: PM Would Never Accept Deal to Stop Tribunal Funding /Naharnet
AMAL's Moussa: Progress in S-S Efforts to Solve Tribunal Crisis /Naharnet
Opposition Source: Hariri Can Take National Position to Resolve Crisis /Naharnet
March 14 Sources: No Compromise before Indictment or Without Tribunal /Naharnet
Abu Faour Informs Suleiman About Jumblat's Views on Political Situation /Naharnet
Aoun: Harb's Draft Law is Illegitimate, Options that Contradict Surrounding are a Danger against Christians /Naharnet
France Seeks to Persuade Bellemare to Delay Indictment, Report /Naharnet
Larijani: Iran Stands by Hizbullah Against Occupiers, Arrogant Powers /Naharnet
Shami to Ban: Israeli Exploitation of Lebanon's Oil Wealth is an Assault against Lebanese Sovereignty /Naharnet
Berri Prepares for Legislature Meeting in January /Naharnet
4 Million Keptagon Drug Pills Made-in-Lebanon Seized in Syria /Naharnet
Paraguay to Extradite Hizbullah-Affiliated 'Terrorist' to US /Naharnet
Cyprus to License Offshore Oil and Gas Search that Involves Lebanon /Naharnet
PFLP Official Dies in Lebanon /Naharnet

Maronite patriarch: expats vital to the country
By The Daily Star /Wednesday, January 05, 2011
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s emigrants around the world are vital to the country’s, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Tuesday. He also called on emigrants to help Lebanon preserve its diverse identity. “While there are 3.5 million Lebanese in Lebanon, there are more than 10 million living abroad,” Sfeir told a visiting delegation from the Lebanese Cultural University (L.C.U.). Sfeir added that he hoped expats would either return to their homeland or at least register their names in the country’s official records. L.C.U. head Abed al-Shedrawi urged Sfeir to support the campaign to facilitate the granting of citizenship to Lebanon’s emigrants. Shedrawi called on the government to examine the best means to facilitate emigrants acquiring Lebanese citizenship. – The Daily Star

Boutros Harb
January 5, 2011
The Lebanese National News Agency carried the following reports on January 4:
Following the meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir in Bkirki today, Labor Minister Boutros Harb said, “It is only natural that I visit His Eminence during the holidays in order to extend my best wishes for the new year, as I hope that Lebanon will be fine and that we will exit the state of paralysis which the country is facing. It was also an occasion for me to inform His Eminence about the draft law I presented to prevent the selling of land between the sects for an exceptional period of 15 years, in order to preempt any demographic transformations and the jeopardizing of national unity.
I explained to His Eminence the reasons why I presented this draft and the motives which prompted me to move forward with it, so that the selling of land is codified and contained and so that the mayhem that is seen is ended. This is especially true in light of the existing fears and the presence of plans to purchase the lands of the Christians in certain areas of Lebanon, considering that this will lead to a demographic change and the containment of the Christians in Christian areas and the Muslims in Muslim areas, in the absence of a merger which justified the presence and establishment of Lebanon throughout history. Indeed, this will cause Lebanon to no longer be a unified country in which all the sects and creeds merge to produce a Lebanese culture that can consequently secure coexistence through cultural interaction between the sects. If the formula that is based on dialogue and interaction is toppled, I believe that Lebanon will be at threat through the presence of Christians whose presence and future in the country are at threat.
It was also an occasion for me to recall the similar draft law I presented in 1983 during the events in Mount Lebanon, in order to prevent the selling of land in the Chouf, Aley and Metn areas by Christians to non-Christians, in light of the attempts that emerged to displace these Christians. At the time, there were no violent reactions such as the ones seen during these last couple of days. In this context, I coincidently saw in An-Nahar today a fatwa issued by the late Imam Shamseddine 27 years ago, preventing the selling of land by Muslims to non-Muslims. What was noticeable at the level of this fatwa was that it confirmed the reasons on which I based my current proposal. Indeed, the justifications extended by the late deputy head of the Higher Shia Council stated that the extensive selling of land and exchange of realty between the owners in the different regions was not being conducted as a result of normal commercial and economic activities – which is the same situation today with companies conducting the purchasing operations and dubious deals taking place – but based on a political inclination aimed at annihilating the coexistence formula in Lebanon and at isolating each sect in a specific geographic area. This is exactly my goal and I am surprised that Sheikh Mohammad Shamseddine did not face the same reactions I am facing today as we both tried to protect coexistence and Lebanon’s unity.
I conveyed to His Eminence the reasons which prompted me to present this draft law, assuring that with all due respect to all the remarks I heard and to some of those who issued them, I have rang the alarm bell in regard to a threat facing coexistence, the Christian presence in Lebanon and the future of this presence, and consequently a threat facing Lebanon’s very existence. I have presented an idea and a draft law. But this idea is not a Koranic verse or a Holy Bible. It is a mere idea and whoever has a better one can present it, considering I am not holding on to the draft law in itself, rather to its goals.”
How did the patriarch react to this draft law?
The patriarch expresses his own opinion but all the people know that the fears that were featured in my draft law exist. If there is one thing that characterizes it, it is that I presented out loud and with courage what the people are whispering. I said in public what they are saying in secret because I have enough moral courage and no reason to be afraid. I thus call on all the loyal people to read the draft law calmly and patiently and to help present new ideas which could achieve the goals that I wanted to achieve through my proposal.
Speaker Nabih Berri considered that the fatwas you have been issuing for years are irrelevant.
My great respect for and friendship with Speaker Berri cannot be undermined by a divergence affecting opinions. Speaker Berri is right in that he and I have not been seeing eye to eye for the last couple of years. True, I did not support Speaker Berri in regard to the amendment of the constitution during the presidential elections or at the level of the false witnesses file and the Judicial Council, but I did support the one whose fatwas were respected by Speaker Berri, i.e. the late Imam Mohammad Shamseddine, and my project is a translation of his fatwa.

Harb defends pitch to prohibit inter-religious land sale
By Elias Sakr /Daily Star staff/Wednesday, January 05, 2011
BEIRUT: Labor Minister Butros Harb defended Tuesday his proposal to ban inter-religious land and property sales saying it was aimed to counter “suspicious” transactions to drive Christians out of certain Lebanese territories. “There are suspicious sale operations of Christian territories happening as if there is a trend of expelling Christians from their land,” Harb told Future News. “Christian presence in Lebanon allows cultural and religious diversity.” The Batroun M.P. also slammed accusations voiced by several politicians that the law proposal was drafted to satisfy sectarian motives. Harb’s proposal has drawn criticism from a number of officials, particularly Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement leader M.P. Michel Aoun, saying it violated the Constitution, the principles of a free economy and promoted divisions within the population. Harb’s draft law would prevent Christians and Muslims from selling property to each other for a period of 15 years. The proposed legislation was said to be a response to fears that the demographic balance in Lebanon would be affected by a recent, quasi-organized trend in land sales from members of one religion to another.
Harb responded to Berri’s remarks saying his proposal was based on a fatwa issued by the Higher Shiite Council 27 years ago forbidding Muslims from selling their land to non-Muslims.
The Higher Shiite Council’s late Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine issued a religious edict in 1984 banning the sale of Muslim-owned land to non-Muslims in mixed areas in order to preserve the diversity of various Lebanese regions. “My proposal mirrors that of Sheikh Shamseddine, whom Speaker Berri used to support,” Harb said.
But a source close to Berri told the state-run National News Agency that Shamseddine’s fatwa was “circumstantial” and was aimed at preventing further divisions among the Lebanese.
Shamseddine’s son, former Minister of State for Administrative Affairs Ibrahim Shamseddine said his father had issued the fatwa under Israeli occupation when fears mounted over land exchange being used to shape religiously homogenous regions as a prelude for dividing the country. He added that though he was supportive of Harb’s valid concerns with regard to suspicious sale activities, Harb’s proposal contradicted constitutional norms. But after a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, Harb called on parties with alternative proposals to come forward with their suggestions. He said the proposal was based on a prior proposal he had filed in 1983 to ban inter-religious land sale in Mount Lebanon’s Chouf, Aley and Metn regions to counter the emigration of Christians in war-torn regions of Lebanon. Harb has served as an M.P. for Batroun since 1972 and has assumed several ministerial posts. “Whoever has a better idea to preserve national coexistence, then let them come forward or have the courage to support my proposal,” Harb told reporters following talks with Sfeir.
Harb’s concerns over suspicious sale activities were also shared by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Geagea said all Christian factions, irrespective of their political affiliations, were concerned with large-scale land sales. “The state should intervene in multicultural societies to preserve the balance between all factions,” Geagea said. However, Aoun slammed Harb’s proposal as a violation of the Constitution and one that imposes illegitimate restrictions on the freedom of property ownership and trade.

LEBANON: Proposed ban on sale of land between Muslims and Christians sparks controversy
Los Angeles Times/January 4, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/lebanon-muslim-christian-land-butrous-harb.html
Labor Minister Butros Harb on Tuesday vigorously defended his controversial draft law that would ban the sale of land between Christians and Muslims for the next 15 years on the pretext of protecting Lebanon's Christian community. Outraged critics have pointed out that the law is not only discriminatory and unconstitutional, but also fails to address the economic and political pressures pushing Lebanese of all sects to leave the country. "There are suspicious sales of Christian lands as if there is a tendency to uproot Christians from their areas," he was quoted telling a local television news station by the news website Naharnet. Harb's proposal does not appear to affect the sale of land by Christians to wealthy Muslims from Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula countries who have invested heavily in the Lebanese real estate sector. Civil-society activists, politicians and ordinary people have reacted with disgust to the proposal, which some have called fear-mongering. The draft law "is actually a direct violation of the constitution and the coexistence that is part of the constitution," said Kamel Wazne, head of the Center of American Strategic Studies. "Today they are calling for not selling land to someone from another sect, tomorrow they will want to outlaw intermarriage," he said. "The premise for the law is very racist, and if this is allowed to pass in Lebanon, it will set a very bad precedent for the country."
Harb did not respond to several requests for comment. The proposal comes at a time of heightened anxiety among Christians in the region following recent violent attacks on churches in Iraq and Egypt. Although Christians are widely thought to be a shrinking minority in Lebanon, no statistics are publicly available, and a census has not been conducted since 1932.
Rumors of an organized Shiite Muslim "takeover" of Christian areas have been amplified since the 2006 war between Israel and the militant Shiite group Hezbollah.
But the whispers were dismissed by even the group's staunchest political rival, Defense Minister Elias Murr, in secret American diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.
So far, the proposal does not appear to have the support needed in parliament to become law. Harb may be playing politics, seeking to tap into the fears of a Christian minority that feels threatened by the demographic shifts of the last decades. Among those who have come out against the proposed bill are Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammad Fneish, who told Lebanon's Daily Star on Sunday that although he empathized with concerns over rising emigration, Harb's proposal failed to address the problems at the root of the phenomenon. “We should look for the reasons behind the emigration of Lebanese and particularly Christians and act accordingly,” Fneish said. “Among these reasons is the lack of stability, destructive political ventures and economic recession."

Maronite Bishops: We Must Close Ranks to Ward Off Dangers, Maintain Christian Presence in Mideast
Naharnet/Maronite Bishops on Wednesday condemned attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt, stressing that Lebanese should close ranks to ward off dangers and maintain Christian presence in the Middle East. "These massacres necessitate various officials, political and religious, to take measures to maintain Christian presence in the Middle East and put an end to these attacks," said a statement by the Maronite Bishops at the end of their monthly meeting in Bkirki. "We must unite ranks to ward off dangers," the statement added. Turning to the domestic Lebanese scene, the Bishops said coldness between the various political officials was "not assuring." The statement called on the rival political camps to "work together for the good of the country." Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 12:33

Boutros Harb
January 5, 2011
The Lebanese National News Agency carried the following reports on January 4:
Following the meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir in Bkirki today, Labor Minister Boutros Harb said, “It is only natural that I visit His Eminence during the holidays in order to extend my best wishes for the new year, as I hope that Lebanon will be fine and that we will exit the state of paralysis which the country is facing. It was also an occasion for me to inform His Eminence about the draft law I presented to prevent the selling of land between the sects for an exceptional period of 15 years, in order to preempt any demographic transformations and the jeopardizing of national unity.
I explained to His Eminence the reasons why I presented this draft and the motives which prompted me to move forward with it, so that the selling of land is codified and contained and so that the mayhem that is seen is ended. This is especially true in light of the existing fears and the presence of plans to purchase the lands of the Christians in certain areas of Lebanon, considering that this will lead to a demographic change and the containment of the Christians in Christian areas and the Muslims in Muslim areas, in the absence of a merger which justified the presence and establishment of Lebanon throughout history. Indeed, this will cause Lebanon to no longer be a unified country in which all the sects and creeds merge to produce a Lebanese culture that can consequently secure coexistence through cultural interaction between the sects. If the formula that is based on dialogue and interaction is toppled, I believe that Lebanon will be at threat through the presence of Christians whose presence and future in the country are at threat.
It was also an occasion for me to recall the similar draft law I presented in 1983 during the events in Mount Lebanon, in order to prevent the selling of land in the Chouf, Aley and Metn areas by Christians to non-Christians, in light of the attempts that emerged to displace these Christians. At the time, there were no violent reactions such as the ones seen during these last couple of days. In this context, I coincidently saw in An-Nahar today a fatwa issued by the late Imam Shamseddine 27 years ago, preventing the selling of land by Muslims to non-Muslims. What was noticeable at the level of this fatwa was that it confirmed the reasons on which I based my current proposal. Indeed, the justifications extended by the late deputy head of the Higher Shia Council stated that the extensive selling of land and exchange of realty between the owners in the different regions was not being conducted as a result of normal commercial and economic activities – which is the same situation today with companies conducting the purchasing operations and dubious deals taking place – but based on a political inclination aimed at annihilating the coexistence formula in Lebanon and at isolating each sect in a specific geographic area. This is exactly my goal and I am surprised that Sheikh Mohammad Shamseddine did not face the same reactions I am facing today as we both tried to protect coexistence and Lebanon’s unity.
I conveyed to His Eminence the reasons which prompted me to present this draft law, assuring that with all due respect to all the remarks I heard and to some of those who issued them, I have rang the alarm bell in regard to a threat facing coexistence, the Christian presence in Lebanon and the future of this presence, and consequently a threat facing Lebanon’s very existence. I have presented an idea and a draft law. But this idea is not a Koranic verse or a Holy Bible. It is a mere idea and whoever has a better one can present it, considering I am not holding on to the draft law in itself, rather to its goals.”
How did the patriarch react to this draft law?
The patriarch expresses his own opinion but all the people know that the fears that were featured in my draft law exist. If there is one thing that characterizes it, it is that I presented out loud and with courage what the people are whispering. I said in public what they are saying in secret because I have enough moral courage and no reason to be afraid. I thus call on all the loyal people to read the draft law calmly and patiently and to help present new ideas which could achieve the goals that I wanted to achieve through my proposal.
Speaker Nabih Berri considered that the fatwas you have been issuing for years are irrelevant.
My great respect for and friendship with Speaker Berri cannot be undermined by a divergence affecting opinions. Speaker Berri is right in that he and I have not been seeing eye to eye for the last couple of years. True, I did not support Speaker Berri in regard to the amendment of the constitution during the presidential elections or at the level of the false witnesses file and the Judicial Council, but I did support the one whose fatwas were respected by Speaker Berri, i.e. the late Imam Mohammad Shamseddine, and my project is a translation of his fatwa.

Samir Franjieh: Hezbollah can only cause breakdown
January 5, 2011 /“Hezbollah, with its weapons and missiles, can only cause a breakdown [of the government], and not more,” former MP Samir Franjieh—who is a member of the March 14 General Secretariat—said in an interview Wednesday. “Speaker [Nabih] Berri and [Progressive Socialist Party leader] MP Walid Jumblatt should support President [Michel] Sleiman in his role,” he told LBCI television.Franjieh also said that the issue raised in Labor Minister Boutros Harb’s draft bill “already exists,” adding that Jumblatt “was the first one to raise it.”
Last week, Harb submitted a draft bill to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers forbidding the sale of lands from Lebanese Christians to Lebanese Muslims and vice versa for a period of 15 years.The cabinet has met once since its November 10 session and has not tackled institutional work in depth as March 8 and March 14 ministers have been deadlocked over how to resolve the issue of the witnesses who gave unreliable testimonies to the international probe into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.-NOW Lebanon

Allouch: Political deadlock to continue until STL indictment is issued
January 5, 2011 /Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch said on Wednesday that the political deadlock in Lebanon will probably continue until the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) issues its indictment.“Talks about a settlement have decreased in the past two days because it has been [shown] that it is an illusion,” he told New TV.Instead of a settlement, there is a dialogue to calm the domestic situation after the indictment is issued, Allouch added. A settlement at the expanse of the tribunal is out of question for Prime Minister Saad Hariri, he said, adding that he expects the indictment to be issued by STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen between the end of February and beginning of March.Saudi and Syrian officials have reportedly been communicating in efforts to reach a compromise that would resolve tensions in Lebanon due to reports that the UN-backed probe may soon indict Hezbollah members in its investigation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder, a move the party repeatedly warned against.-NOW Lebanon

Majdalani: Hezbollah has the final say in March 8
January 5, 2011 /“[Speaker Nabih] Berri has lots of ideas, but Hezbollah has the final say in the March 8 coalition,” Future bloc MP Atef Majdalani said in an interview on Wednesday.
“The Saudis and Syrians denied the existence of a compromise and only mentioned efforts to solve the [Lebanese impasse],” he told Future News TV. “Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun is still seeking the presidency.”Saudi and Syrian officials have reportedly been communicating in efforts to reach a compromise that would resolve tensions in Lebanon due to reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon may soon indict Hezbollah members in its investigation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder, a move the party repeatedly warned against.-NOW Lebanon

Syria and Israel’s dirty little secret
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
January 5, 2011
The Syrian president and Israeli PM have been conspiring lately to get Washington back on their sides. (AFP photo)
During the last week of December, two news tidbits came to the fore in Washington. The first had it that the US administration was planning to replace Peace Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell with his predecessor, current Special Advisor on Iran Dennis Ross. The second reported that America had succeeded in establishing a secret channel for peace talks between Syria and Israel.
Putting the two together, I reported that Ross had visited Damascus as a secret conduit for peace with Tel Aviv. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) denied the Ross visit and the secret channel, and insisted that Syria’s peace talks with Israel were conducted strictly through Mitchell. One day later, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein told Israel’s Channel 10, and later US daily Politico, that he had made a trip to Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad.
Hoenlein insisted, though, that the purpose of his visit was “humanitarian,” and that he sought to urge Assad to approve the return of the remaining Syrian Jews to Israel.
It is hard to believe that, with the Mideast peace process stalling on all tracks, Hoenlein – a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who made his trip with the latter’s knowledge – went to Damascus only to discuss Syrian Jews.
It is more conceivable, however, that Hoenlein’s trip was a repeat of a visit of another one of Netanyahu’s friends, Ron Lauder, to then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1998, when Netanyahu was facing trouble with Washington for dragging his feet on peace talks with the Palestinians. It has been argued that the Israeli prime minister often uses the Syrian track to ease America’s pressure on him when it comes to the Palestinians.
In 1998, like in 2007, 2008 and 2010, secret channels were created between Damascus and Tel Aviv, but none resulted in a peace accord. And while it seems that both Damascus and Tel Aviv are now familiar with such political maneuvers, it looks like Washington is the only one that never learns. Whenever an Israeli-Syrian channel is created, US officials become ecstatic, express optimism that peace could be realized very soon, and turn a new page in their relations with both Damascus and Tel Aviv.
For both Syria and Israel, the “secret peace talks” between them have proven to be the best button they can press to reset their relations with Washington. The trick has always worked.
In Beirut, the Lebanese have always known that Damascus uses the “peace talks with Israel” card whenever it feels it has its back against the wall with the Americans. But what many Lebanese don’t notice is that the Israelis also use this trick.
Between Syria and Israel, there has always been a sort of regional political symbiosis, often at the expense of the Lebanese and the Palestinians.
In 2010, Netanyahu was still being blamed in Washington – albeit discreetly – for obstructing peace with the Palestinians. The Israeli leader therefore needed a way out: Enter Hoenlein and the Syrian meeting. Assad too fears that the impending indictment from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) could point the finger at parties from his regime for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Israeli-Syrian maneuver is clear: A US delegate convinces Washington that both are peace-seeking nations and should be rewarded. Pressure on Netanyahu stops, while the STL is undermined.  In Washington, however, some still believe that Israeli-Syrian peace is possible. This faction now has the ear of President Barak Obama, who has been convinced that with Hoenlein visiting Assad, both Syria and Israel are serious about peace.
Obama, frustrated by the stalling Palestinian peace track, appointed Robert Ford Ambassador to Syria during the US Congressional recess, falsely believing that Israeli-Syrian peace is within reach, at least in the coming 12 months, before Ford has to appear on Capitol Hill to convince senators that his deployment was a good idea.
On a recent TV talk show that hosted me and a Syrian analyst from Damascus, I quoted a statement by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who said that it was Israel who broke Syria’s international isolation through indirect peace talks in 2008.
Naturally, the Syrian analyst was offended to hear that his country had gotten help form the “Israeli enemy.” To counter my argument, he said that on the contrary, it was former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was facing domestic political trouble and who used talks with Syria to boost his position. The analyst found himself unwillingly arguing that Damascus had extended a political lifeline to Olmert, a secret Syrians rarely like to discuss in public, but always want Washington to hear in private.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington correspondent of Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Rai

Hariri Meets Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal in Saudi Arabia
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal at his office in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Hariri's press office said in a statement. Hariri was accompanied by his advisor Hani Hammoud, the statement said. It added that the premier discussed with the Saudi prince the latest developments. A short meeting was held between the two men on the sidelines of the opening of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beirut in June. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 13:34

March 14 Vows to Hold Onto Islamic-Christian Solidarity
Naharnet/The March 14 general-secretariat vowed on Wednesday to hold onto Islamic-Christian solidarity within the independence movement and at the national level.
"The independence movement resisted the plan to abolish it" through "keenness on preserving Islamic-Christian solidarity" particularly at a time when Lebanon and the region are witnessing attempts to ignite strife among different sects, the general-secretariat said in a statement following its weekly meeting. Resistance also came through the insistence of the March 14 forces to hold onto the project of the state and Security Council Resolutions 1701 and 1757 and the support of the initiatives of President Michel Suleiman and Premier Saad Hariri, the statement said. It lamented that differences over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon have worried all Lebanese after the March 8 forces threatened to push the country to civil war if the people do not back off from their demands for the truth and justice in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination. The conferees also said that the Lebanese were worried over the March 8 team's obstruction of government work and settlements proposed by Suleiman and Hariri along with the Saudi-Syrian initiative to solve the Lebanese crisis. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 14:49

LF Attacks Aoun: His Slogans a Cheap Way to Fight for Presidency
Naharnet/The Lebanese Forces on Wednesday attacked Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for criticizing a draft law proposed by Labor Minister Butros Harb.
"Aoun's slogans are nothing but cheap consumption for electoral purposes," an LF statement said. The LF accused Aoun of seeking to reach the post of the President of the Republic.
"Aoun is the only one who moved in all directions -- regional and international – for one goal: to become President of the Republic," the statement said. It said Aoun's position on Harb's proposal was against the interests of both Lebanese and Christians. The LF said Aoun's remarks came to support a call by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to "invade the Christian areas, caring less not only about Christian territory and their property, but about the free Christian presence." Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 14:16

Alliot-Marie: Hariri Should Preserve National Unity and Tribunal Should Continue to Operate
Naharnet/French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie stressed that Premier Saad Hariri should preserve Lebanon's unity and said the international tribunal cannot be toppled.
Hariri's job "is to preserve Lebanon's unity," Alliot-Marie told French daily 20 minutes when asked if she believed the indictment that will be issued by the court could provoke civil war.
"The Special Tribunal for Lebanon should continue its work" and "no one can prevent it from functioning," she said in the interview published Wednesday. Asked if she believed it was still possible for the tribunal to function properly, Alliot-Marie said: "Yes, I think so. Hizbullah has elected members in institutions which proves that institutions can function."If the court indicts members of Hizbullah, this does not mean that they were indicted as representatives of a certain party or a community, she added. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 13:56

Syria Fails to Respond to Najjar's Request on Referring Arrest Warrants to Lebanese Judiciary
Naharnet/Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar has asked his Syrian counterpart Ahmed Younes to refer the arrest warrants against Lebanese personalities to the Lebanese judiciary but has received no answer. Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan unveiled to Future News on Tuesday night that the request was made on December 17.
An Nahar daily said Wednesday that Najjar sent the request to Younes through the general-secretariat of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council two days after the last cabinet session which failed to agree on the false witnesses issue. The justice minister's request was based on a judicial agreement signed between Lebanon and Syria in 1951 which states that any crime committed on Lebanese territory should be resolved by the Lebanese judiciary. Sources following up the issue told An Nahar that the Syrian judiciary is free to respond to or reject the Lebanese request. The sources stressed that the lawsuit filed by the former head of the General Security Department, Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, is not linked to Hizbullah's demand on false witnesses. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 08:16

Diplomatic Sources: Lebanon Solution Not Only Restricted to S-S
Naharnet/The Kuwaiti daily Ad-Dar on Wednesday quoted diplomatic sources as saying that a solution to the Lebanon crisis was not only restricted to Damascus and Riyadh.
The sources said the U.S., France, Iran and Turkey were also involved in efforts to find a settlement to the crisis over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. They said a solution, however, won't be at the level of the Taif Accord or at the level of the Doha agreement, but will rather deal with the reality in the event the tribunal will be threat to the security of Lebanon and the region. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 11:44

Majdalani: Hizbullah had Final Say, Not Berri, Not Aoun
Naharnet/Mustaqbal MP Atef Majdalani on Wednesday said Hizbullah has the final say, not Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri nor Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.
"Speaker Berri has big ideas, but he does not have the ability to present them because the final say is not his neither it is that of FPM leader Gen. Michel Aoun.
"Hizbullah has the final say," Majdalani told Future News. Turning to the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Majdalani said "no one can accept or reject any indictment before it is issued."He noted that instability is "caused by the lack of justice and equality." Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 11:20

Kuwait PM Survives Non-Cooperation Motion
Naharnet/Kuwait's prime minister on Wednesday narrowly survived a parliament vote seen as a serious bid by the opposition to oust him, speaker Jassem al-Kharafi said. Twenty-five MPs in the 50-seat assembly voted in support of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, while 22 were against him and one abstained. One MP is a minister who cannot vote on such issues, while another MP is outside Kuwait. The motion of "non-cooperation" was filed on December 28 by opposition lawmakers who accused the premier of breaching the constitution and suppressing freedoms. It required the support of 25 MPs to be passed.  But opposition MPs said afterwards that they would not deal with a government headed by Sheikh Nasser, a senior member of the al-Sabah ruling family, and vowed to bring it down. "Today is the beginning... We will continue to work to bring about the downfall of this government through the streets," opposition MP Mussallam al-Barrak said after the vote. Speaking to reporters outside the parliament, Islamist MP Jamaan al-Harbash said the "crisis will only end when this government reaches its end. "It's not possible for MPs to deal with a government that has humiliated the Kuwaiti people," Harbash said.(AFP) Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 11:57

UN to Shami: We Won't Delineate Lebanese-Israeli Maritime Border
The U.N. will not define the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border after the Israeli recent discovery of a major gas well across their border, U.N. Spokesman Martin Nesirky said.His remarks came to confirm a statement by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Nesirky said the U.N. position is "what UNIFIL said." He said UNIFIL's mandate - among others to monitor the coastal waters in conformity with Security Council resolution 1701 - "does not include delineating maritime lines. We are talking about two different things: coastal waters and a disputed boundary." The decision came after Foreign Minister Ali Shami asked the U.N. to curb Israel's offshore drilling plans, days after the discovery of a large gas field. Shami's letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Lebanon's petroleum wealth in the South came 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. Shami urged Ban to do "everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon's hydrocarbon resources." He stressed "Lebanon's right to the complete petroleum wealth which 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." Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 07:12

STL Requested 2 Hotels Be Evacuated to Accommodate Witnesses
Naharnet/The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has requested that two hotels near its headquarters in The Hague be evacuated to accommodate witnesses, the daily Ad-Diyar reported Wednesday.It said the move aims at securing protection for the witnesses starting from February and until further notice to enable them to stay in these hotels under strict security measures. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 10:25

Larijani: Iran Stands by Hizbullah Against Occupiers, Arrogant Powers
Naharnet/Parliament speaker Ali Larijani has said that Tehran will strongly and openly support Hizbullah and Hamas in their "resistance against occupiers and arrogant powers."
"It is Iran's policy to fight against the global arrogance and support the oppressed, so we say openly that we back Hizbullah and Hamas," Larijani said Tuesday.
Campaigning against the arrogant powers and also resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime are the principles of the Islamic Revolution, he said. Larijani also pointed to Iran's military and scientific achievements, saying, "We don't hide anything, we have made significant achievements in manufacturing missiles and we should continue this path." The nuclear program is also one of the most strategic plans of the country, he stated. Beirut, 05 Jan 11, 08:08

Coptic pope demands effort to tackle grass-roots sectarian problems
Los Angeles Times/January 4, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-coptic-pope-demands-tackling-grassroots-sectarian-problems.html
While calling on his fellow Copts to maintain calm despite their frustration and grief over a church bombing that left 25 dead on New Year's Eve, Coptic Pope Shenouda III asked the Egyptian government to address Christians' main complaints. "We believe in the rule of the law and order but we want equality, and if certain laws can't bring us such equality, then they should be amended," the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church told Egyptian state television on Monday. "I believe that the state has a duty to solve Copts' problems."
Riots have spread across Egypt over the last three days, with thousands of Coptic protesters demanding an end to what they call religious discrimination. Scores of demonstrators and police officers were injured in violent clashes. "I plead with our sons to calm down," Shenouda said. "We can't prevent people from expressing their sorrow, yet I ask them to express it without violence."Shenouda's calls to resolve sectarian problems coincide with a statement issued by a coalition of 12 Egyptian human rights organization, which said that the deadly attack should be used by the government as an opportunity to adopt new policies in dealing with the sectarian issue.
"A policy must be based on principles of equality and nondiscrimination among citizens on the basis of religion or belief," the statement said. "The state itself at times even spreads and adopts disposition of violence in its policies when dealing with religious minorities and even all citizens." Egypt's Copts, who form the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, amount to 10% of the country's population of 82 million. For years they've lived in relative harmony amid majority Muslims, but in recent years there has been an alarming rise in tensions between the two communities.
Obstacles in granting Christians approvals to build new churches, as opposed to the ease of building new mosques, have long fueled Copts' sense of injustice.
As a result, many Christians resort to illegally transforming houses, villas and social service centers into houses of worship, which upsets neighboring Muslims and has caused violent confrontations in a number of towns in the south of Egypt. Another source of conflict has been the Egyptian constitution, which was amended by the late President Anwar Sadat to make Islamic Sharia law the only source for legislation. Also, the rise to fame of a number of Coptic billionaires in recent years, amid the financial woes experienced by the majority of Muslims, have created a feeling of envy and isolation for struggling Muslims. Muslims who convert to Christianity find it nearly impossible to get new identification cards designating their new faiths, despite a law stating that every Egyptian has the right to adopt his own religion. Copts have repeatedly stressed their dismay at the government for not acting on the increasing resentment by some Muslim extremists toward Christians, as well as for failing to issue new laws guaranteeing equality in Egypt.--

Paris urges E.U. response to attacks on Mideast Christians
Coptic Pope Shenouda calls on Cairo to address community’s grievances about discrimination
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
PARIS/CAIRO: France called on Europe Tuesday to come up with a coordinated response to attacks on the Middle East’s Christians following a New Year bombing outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria as the death toll from the attack rose by two to 23. In a rare criticism, the head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church and Egyptian rights activists called Tuesday on the government to address Christian grievances about discrimination. Coptic Pope Shenouda III also urged his flock to quell violent rioting over the attack.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told Europe 1 radio that she would send a letter to E.U. foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton asking that “not only France but all of Europe takes up … this problem in its entirety.” She said she had called for the issue to be raised during a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers on Jan. 31 and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was expected to co-sign the letter. She said the goal would be to see “how we can very concretely … help” the region’s Christians.
“We must act together, to welcome, to offer the right of asylum to those who feel threatened, but most of all we must act so that these people can stay in their homes,” she said.
In Cairo, a Health Ministry official said Tuesday that 18 bodies had been identified but put the possible number of dead at 23, based on studies of body parts found at the scene.
The main lead in the probe into the attack was a severed head found at the scene they said probably belonged to the bomber, investigators said Tuesday.
Police also believe that a severed foot, which the blast had thrown over the roof of a mosque across the street from the church, also belonged to the suspected attacker, who they said was a man in his 30’s.
Officials suspect that the bomber planned to enter the church, which was holding a New Year’s Eve Mass, but was deterred by police guards at its gates.
He then set off an explosives belt packed with between 10 and 15 kilograms of T.N.T., bolts and ball bearings as the congregants emerged shortly after midnight.
Police also found a still-unidentified hand amputated by the powerful blast, which overturned a car and damaged the church’s facade.
Copts, who account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80-million population, are the Middle East’s largest religious minority. They have been the targets of attacks and complain of discrimination. In an interview late Monday with Pope Shenouda on state television, the 87-year-old church leader appealed to the government to address Christian complaints, especially of laws restricting freedom of worship. “The state also has a duty. It must see to the problems of the Copts and try to resolve them,” Shenouda said. “If there are laws that are unjust to some, the state should correct many laws.
The pope said the unprecedented attack in Alexandria had “caused panic” among Muslims and Christians, but he appealed for calm among his flock and warned that political activists might use protests to push their anti-government agenda.
“Problems are solved with calm and communication, not with anger and emotions,” he said, while acknowledging that the tensions were fed by the Christian community’s long-standing grievances. “There are laws that are painful to some, and despite our commitment to the laws, the pain is still there, and this needs to be addressed,” he said, while counseling patience to Christians. Echoing Shenouda’s appeal to the government, 12 Egyptian rights groups said the state’s mishandling of sectarian rifts in the country created an environment that allowed attacks such as the church bombing. “Mismanagement of sectarian tensions and violence by the state creates a fertile ground and conducive environment for these incidents to take place,” the statement said. “It is time for state officials to stop denying that there is a real sectarian crisis in Egypt and insisting on handling sectarian incidents using a heavy-handed security solution,” said the rights groups’ statement. – Agencies

Deadlock persists despite parliamentary activity
By Hassan Lakiss /Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
BEIRUT: The revival of parliamentary activity Wednesday was unlikely to constitute a major boost to Lebanon’s stagnant political scene, which is expected to awake from its inaction following the return of Prime Minister Saad Hariri to the country. While a date for Hariri’s return is yet to be fixed, lawmakers are expected to flock to Speaker Nabih Berri’s residence in Ain al-Tineh. “The speaker will have something to say to M.P.’s and will also listen to them,” a source close to Berri told The Daily Star, adding that an array of topics will be tackled including the controversial draft law submitted by Labor Minister Butros Harb to ban inter-religious sale of property and land.
The source said Berri will receive M.P.’s at his residence rather than Parliament due to renovation works being carried out at Parliament’s headquarters in Downtown Beirut’s Nejmeh square. The source also ruled out that Berri might head to Baabda Wednesday for his weekly meeting with President Michel Sleiman, who returned Tuesday from a family holiday to Spain.
Lebanon’s Cabinet has not met since December 18 and Cabinet sessions of November and October have been far from being productive, with the issue of the so-called “false witnesses” crippling the work of the government.
March 8 accuses the “false witnesses” of misleading the probe into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and call for their trial by the country’s highest court, the Judicial Council. Their rivals in the March 14 coalition say the case of “false witnesses” can be looked into by the regular judiciary.
The prime minister’s Future Movement parliamentary bloc said following its weekly meeting that the government paralysis had “drastic repercussions” on the country’s already struggling economy. “The paralysis of the government shakes trust in the work of state institutions and reflects negatively on citizens,” said a statement Tuesday.
But a source close to Berri said the situation will not change until Harri’s return.
In a bid to spare Lebanon the negative repercussions of the indictment, the country’s two main powerbrokers Saudi Arabia and Syria have launched an initiative to solve the deadlock in Lebanon. Several March 14 lawmakers, however, slammed this week excessive reliance by the March 8 coalition on the Saudi-Syrian bid. “A Saudi-Syrian settlement does not exist and all what is being circulated in the media are pressure tools being exploited by the March 8 group,” Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra told The Daily Star.
Pro-March 8 newspapers published this week some of the points the Saudi-Syrian agreement on Lebanon might encompass.
Zahra described the summit in Beirut on July 30, which gathered Sleiman with Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz and Syrian President Bashar Assad as an “analgesic summit.” “None of the three sides can present anything to the others,” he said.
But Zahra said Saudi Arabia and Syria were working to preserve stability in Lebanon and avoid the negative repercussions of indictment. “We in the March 14 alliance, and the Future Movement in particular, espouse such a bid,” he added.
Zahra said the March 14 coalition refused to make compromises on a series of principles including the support to the Netherlands-base STL and the Taif agreement. “We will not be the first one to scream,” he said. “We will cooperate with president Sleiman to revive the work of the government.”

Bearing faith in Lebanon, we grow
Daily Star/Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Today’s print edition of The Daily Star has grown by one-third, increasing from 12 pages to 16. The newspaper had added one page each of international news, business, sports and entertainment, with all the content also available on our Web site.
A number of reasons stand behind the expansion of The Daily Star. Without evolution comes extinction, first of all. The ever-increasing torrent of news and information also demands that we supply our readers with more content relevant to their lives. Citizens demand more and more independent reporting and analysis of the burgeoning plethora of pertinent events, and this is a demand that our duties as carrier of information require us to fulfill.
The added content also enhances our role as a platform for our readers; The Daily Star can interact more with the public while creating more public space for citizens to make use of.
The Daily Star is expanding also because we have confidence in Lebanon and its future. The Lebanese are among the most resilient of human beings, and, despite the difficulties that still bedevil the country, we believe in the ability of this nation’s people to continue achieving success. As such, we also have confidence that years of plenty await Lebanon; the country’s economy is growing hardily, and we expect that trend to continue.
We are enlarging this medium because we also have confidence that freedom of the press is robust in Lebanon; this is a rare privilege in this region, and we have a responsibility to perform up to the standards that such a privilege requires.
The Daily Star is also carrying out its role as a bridge between the Middle East and the outside world. The world’s interest in this region also continues to grow, and our readers also display a greater and greater interest in doings around the world. The exponential rate of technological innovation has in many ways erased the borders between nations; significant events in any country make profound ripples around the globe.
In its new size, The Daily Star will stand fast in promoting the same principles that this newspaper has always supported: We will not relent in our backing for the rule of law so sorely lacking here, for an independent judiciary to enforce and implement the rule of law, as well as for the equality of all before the law; for the protection of human rights and the environment. We will also continue to champion the cause of justice for the nations of this region, especially for Palestine.
But this expansion will mark but the first of several new services we plan to provide in 2011 for our readers of the print version and for our Internet audience. As a platform for interaction with the public, we will always welcome our readers’ comments and criticism. We hope you enjoy our new additions, that they bring you better content and that we perform better our duties to you.

Son of late M.P. says any compromise over Tribunal will lead to assassinations
The son of Walid Eido, murdered in 2007, talks to The Daily Star about justice in Lebanon
By Wassim Mroueh
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 /Interview
BEIRUT: The son of a slain M.P. says he rejects any deal on the expense of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (S.T.L.) because it would lead to further assassinations in Lebanon.
“I don’t accept any compromise, I want to know who killed my father and brother,” Zaher Eido, the son of late M.P. Walid Eido, said in an interview with The Daily Star.
“If I agree on a compromise, then next month they will kill two or three other figures, we want the truth to stop the series of assassinations that have plagued Lebanon since its formation.”
Zaher’s father, and brother Khaled, were killed on June 13, 2007, in a car bombing on Beirut’s seafront. The late M.P. was a member of the assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s Future Movement parliamentary bloc.
“Does anyone calling for a compromise accept such a deal if he lost his father and brother?” asked Eido, who is a bank manager in Lebanon.
Asked what his position would be if Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of late Rafik, accepts a compromise over the S.T.L., Eido said that “based on my knowledge of Saad Hariri, I am confident he will not accept compromising his father’s blood, he might agree on a settlement to spare the country strife, but not to bury the truth.”
Eido noted that his father had been killed a few days before he was scheduled to discuss the S.T.L.’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence in France.
The S.T.L. was established by the U.N. to investigate the 2005 assassination of Hariri and the following series of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian figures, including Eido.
But since July, Hizbullah has mounted an offensive against the Netherlands-based court, labeling it an “Israeli project” designed to foment strife in Lebanon and expecting members from the party to be named in a looming S.T.L. indictment.
Saudi Arabia and Syria are trying to broker a settlement to avert potential strife in the wake of the indictment. Media reports said that the alleged settlement could call on Prime Minister Saad Hariri to renounce the S.T.L.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said last week that January was to be a “decisive month” for Saudi-Syrian efforts.
Hariri and his March 14 coalition have so far endorsed the court as the only means to serve justice.
Eido urged Hizbullah to defend any member that could be named in the indictment through judicial means.
“We demand that Hizbullah waits until the indictment is released and if some rogue members from the party were named, then let Hizbullah prove their innocence via legal means,” Eido said.
“If it was not possible to detain them in order to avert strife in the country, then at least we will know who is implicated,” he said.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to “cut off “the hand of anyone that tries to arrest a member from his party.
He has repeatedly said that for any compromise to succeed, it should be worked out before the indictment is released. Analysts fear Sunni-Shiite strife might break out following the indictment, a threat which Eido downplayed.
“What can a Sunni do? Who is capable of confronting Hizbullah? It is the only side possessing arms, and took over Beirut within 10 minutes,” he said in reference to the May 2008 clashes, when Hizbullah fighters overran western neighborhoods of Beirut after a decision by former Prime Minister Fouad Sinora’s Cabinet to dismantle the party’s private telecommunications network. Eido, in his early 30’s, wondered why Hizbullah was strongly opposed to the tribunal’s functions if it was not involved in Hariri’s assassination.
He said he was confident that those behind Hariri’s assassination were involved in the killing of his father and brother as well. “They were killed in the same way,” he stressed.
He said that the assassination of his father and brother has changed the life of everyone in his family.
“This wound will never heal, although it differs from one person to another. I am busy with my work and family, unlike my mother who has nothing to think about in life other than Khaled and my father,” he said.
Eido said that a Canadian team of S.T.L. investigators were looking into the case of his father and brother. “We are in continuous contact with each other, they update us every now and then and assure us that they are working very hard,” he said. “We trust them because we come from a family of which many members have worked in judiciary and because they are a professional team,” Eido added.

Aoun: Harb's Draft Law is Illegitimate, Options that Contradict Surrounding are a Danger against Christians
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Tuesday Labor Minister Butros Harb's draft law on real estate saying that it is "unconstitutional and illegitimate."
He said after the movement's weekly meeting: "The law is not based on national principles as the Lebanese citizen has the right to buy property from anyone."
"We presented a law on foreigners' possession of property but no one speaks of it … there are several properties that have been sold to foreigners that should be regained," he added.
Furthermore, the MP demanded state real estate circles to present announcements of periods during which foreigners are allowed to possess property.
Addressing Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea's recent statements, Aoun said: "My problem with Syria existed when it was in Lebanon, today, it is no longer here … whoever wants to antagonize his neighbor must be from another planet."
Regarding Geagea's statement that Christians should fear each other and his claims that Aoun is a threat to them, the MP said: "This is because I am adopting a policy of dialogue and openness … unfortunately, political decisions that contradict their surrounding are a danger to Christians."
Turning to the Saudi-Syrian initiative to end Lebanon's political crisis, Aoun stated that all media reports on the issue mislead the public, adding that the indictment in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will not create a conflict in Lebanon. "Even if a hundred indictments are issued, Sunni-Shiite strife will not erupt in Lebanon," he stressed.
Beirut, 04 Jan 11, 18:17

Son of Iran Shah Commits Suicide in U.S.
Naharnet/The youngest son of the late shah of Iran has committed suicide in his home in the United States, his family said Tuesday.
"It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our compatriots of the passing away of Prince Alireza Pahlavi," Reza Pahlavi, the shah's oldest son, said on his website.
He said that his brother, 44, who was studying at Havard University, had struggled to come to terms with the political troubles in his native country of Iran.
"Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life," Reza Pahlavi wrote. "Although he had struggled for years to overcome his sorrow, he finally succumbed, and during the night of the 4th of January 2011, in his Boston residence, took his own life, plunging his family and friends into great sorrow." Alireza Pahlavi was undertaking a postgraduate degree at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in philology and ancient Iranian studies. His father, the former shah, Mohammad Reza, was ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution, and his family moved to live in exile in the United States. The deposed shah died in July 1980 and is buried in Cairo. It was a further tragedy to befall the family. The shah's youngest daughter, princess Leila Pahlavi, died in 2001 at the age of 31 when her body was found in a London hotel. There were reports that she took a drugs overdose. According to widespread press reports in Britain, the princess had struggled for years against an eating disorder, had never accepted her exile from Iran and suffered periodic bouts of depression. "For the past few years, Leila was very depressed. Time had not healed her wounds," the princess' mother, Farah Pahlavi, wrote on a remembrance website in 2001. "Exiled at the age of 9, she never surmounted the death of her father, His Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, to whom she was particularly close. "She was never able to forget the injustice and the dramatic conditions of our departure and the erring which was to follow. She could not stand living far from Iran and shared wholeheartedly the suffering of her countrymen." Former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who has lived in the United States since 1984, has traveled around the world to raise awareness of what he calls the plight of Iranians living under the Islamic regime in Iran. In 2009, he warned of dire consequences if the international community allowed the Iranian regime to defeat the protest movement which was rocking the country over disputed presidential elections.
"At worst, fanatical tyrants who know that the future is against them may end their present course on their terms: a nuclear holocaust," Pahlavi told journalists.(AFP)
Beirut, 04 Jan 11, 22:51

The Region: Dopes of the day
By BARRY RUBIN
Jerusalem Post
It is embarrassing to see Western journalists and officials fooled time and again by Middle Eastern radicals.
I’ve recently written about how easily fooled Western politicians, officials, journalists and academics are by Middle Eastern radicals and I’m going now going to provide some outstanding examples.
In Lebanon, while other newspapers are in decline or starved for funds, one called Al-Akhbar is curiously expanding. The New York Times reporter who recently wrote about the newspaper fell for the foolish notion that it is some model of independence.
In fact, it’s no secret in Lebanon that it’s a hard-line, Syrian-backed newspaper that repeatedly slanders moderate forces and is a mouthpiece for Hizbullah.
And that’s where the money comes from.
So the Times is cheering a Syrian propaganda operation just as, not long ago, The Guardian went into rhapsodies about a supposedly wonderful publication in Turkey that is a front for Islamists, producing false material that enabled the regime there to throw innocent people into prison on trumped-up charges of conspiring to overthrow the government.
Any serious investigation should have shown the true nature of Al-Akhbar but the reporter couldn’t even find anyone to quote on this point, apparently not even trying to produce a balanced article, much less an accurate one.
Instead here’s what we get: “It was the latest coup for a five-year-old paper that has become the most dynamic and daring in Lebanon, and perhaps anywhere in the Arab world. In a region where the news media are still full of obsequious propaganda, Al-Akhbar is now required reading, even for those who abhor its politics.”
But perhaps this free advertising for a Hizbullah and Syrian parrot can be explained by the article’s lead: “Ibrahim al-Amine, the hawk-eyed editorial chairman of Al-Akhbar, describes his newspaper’s founding ambitions this way: ‘We wanted the US ambassador to wake up in the morning, read it and get upset.’” Right, so it’s anti-American, isn’t that recommendation enough? But I don’t think Amine would want the Syrian or Iranian ambassador to get upset. If they did, they might cut off his funding (and maybe some parts as well).
It is like the old Cold War joke about the American insisting that the US had freedom of speech and the Soviet Union didn’t. “After all, I can go in front of the White House and shout, ‘Down with Reagan!” “Oh,” replies the communist, “we have just as much freedom of speech! I can go in front of the Kremlin and shout, ‘Down with Reagan!’ any time I want.”
SPEAKING OF free advertising, Al-Akhbar needs ads even though it seems to prosper while not running any! Let me suggest the Jammal Trust Bank, an institution that launders money for Hizbullah, funds a TV station that supports it and is directed by one of Al- Akhbar’s editors (Jean Aziz). The bank also helps pay the newspaper’s bills. The Times reporter didn’t notice those details. One can compile a long and publicly known set of links connecting Al-Akhbar with Hizbullah and Syria, as well as writers who tend to follow the lines set forth by them.
To present such an enterprise as wonderful is shameful, especially since several honest journalists in Lebanon have been murdered or had to run for their lives, while better newspapers are collapsing for want of financing.
Yet it’s the totalitarians that get kudos from The New York Times. Oh, and Politico’s Laura Rozen had to chime in about this truly wonderful newspaper which is an example to all Arab media! I guess the proposed example is: support revolutionary Islamist terrorist groups, get backing from Syria and only criticize America and those moderates opposed to Iran and Islamism. If there’s a Pulitzer Prize for terrorism, then Al-Akhbar might be in the running for it.
Meanwhile, it seems increasingly likely that an international investigation will show that Hizbullah was involved in the murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. I guess that will be one story Al-Akhbar won’t cover.
Speaking of Syria, while the Saudis are so worried about the US being too soft on Syria and Iran that they are trying to cut their own deal surrendering Lebanon to the Syrians, what does President Barack Obama do? Why, of course, he is in such a hurry to name a US ambassador to Syria that he bypasses Congress and does a recess appointment, even though he has gotten nothing from Syria after two years of ‘engagement.’ What this technique does is shield the Syrian dictatorship from criticism by Congress, since if there had been confirmation hearings for the proposed ambassador, there would have been a lot of questions about Syria’s backing of terrorism, especially against US troops in Iraq. If the administration had more sense, it could have used the harder line from Congress as a rationale to get tougher on Syria. But instead of a “good cop/bad cop” approach, we get a Keystone Kop approach.
But there is also a remarkable and highly revealing quote from an administration official on this matter: “We have implemented our commitments, and we expect Syria to [do the same]. The ball is now in the Syrians’ court.”
That statement will stand as the perfect memorial for the administration’s foreign policy (including on the “peace process”): We’ve done everything for you, now it is time for you to do something for us.
No, you don’t give all the concessions first and then hope that your enemy will do something. That’s dopey. You use leverage and threats and credibility and sometimes even force. You take advantage to some extent of being stronger. You make the other side give something too.
The administration has argued that sending an ambassador to Syria is not a gift to that dictatorship (which is helping murder Americans in Iraq, sponsoring Hamas and Hizbullah, and helping Iran in every possible way), but a necessity in order to communicate with Damascus. But since this US government only wants to communicate flattery and concessions, it’s hardly worthwhile.
Indeed, have no doubt that everyone in the Arabic-speaking world will interpret this as a Syrian victory.
That’s why these actions are worthy of a Dopes of the Day award.
Oh, tremble, all of you who depend on the US as an ally and protector. And tremble, too, if thou doth depend on The New York Times for your understanding of the world.
The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal and Turkish Studies.

‘Hizbullah can fire 400-600 rockets a day in next war’
By YAAKOV KATZ AND LAHAV HARKOV
Mossad official’s estimate from leaked cable predicts Tel Aviv will be hit; Iran has 300 long-range missiles, IDF chief says.
Hizbullah would likely shoot between 400 and 600 missiles a day into Israel during a future war, a senior Mossad official told a congressional delegation to Israel in 2009, according to a US diplomatic cable published on Sunday.
The cable from November 2009 summed up meetings a delegation led by Ike Skelton (D-Missouri) held with top officials from the Mossad, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF. It was first published on Sunday by Norway’s Aftenposten newspaper, which received it from WikiLeaks.
According to the Mossad official, 100 of the missiles will hit Tel Aviv.
Hizbullah, the delegation was told, has 40,000 missiles as well as a number of Iranian-made Ababil unmanned aerial vehicles that have a range of 150 km. and can be loaded with explosives and sent to bomb strategic targets in Israel.
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told the delegation that due to the military buildup in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, he was preparing the IDF for a “major war” since it would then be easier to scale down for smaller conflicts if needed.
As a result of the growing rocket threat, Ashkenazi told the congressmen that the IDF was investing heavily in missile defense systems, such as the Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome.
While the Iranian threat was grave, Ashkenazi told the Americans that the threat from Hamas and Hizbullah, which were funded by Iran, was most acute since due to their proximity to Israel, their rockets would be more accurate.
Turning to Iran, Ashkenazi said that Israel would have 10 to 12 minutes to prepare after its radar systems detected an Iranian missile fired toward the country. He said that Teheran had more than 300 missiles capable of reaching Israel.
Ashkenazi also gave some rare insight into how Israel gathers intelligence on Hizbullah and locates targets in Lebanon. Israel frequently sends drones over Lebanon to identify potential targets, he said, calling their use a “success.”
In addition, he revealed that the IDF closely cooperates with the US National Security Agency, which gathers signal intelligence such as communications.

PFLP Official Dies in Lebanon
Naharnet/The radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine says one of its founders, Ahmed Yamani, has died in Beirut after a stroke. He was 86.
Yamani, also known as Abu Maher Yamani, died Monday in a Beirut hospital. The PFLP was launched by the late Palestinian leader George Habash in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights to Israel. The PFLP is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It gained notoriety for the 1970 hijackings of four Western airliners over the United States, Europe, the Far East and the Persian Gulf. The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after passengers and crews disembarked.
Yamani will be buried in Beirut on Wednesday.(AP)

Boutros Harb
January 5, 2011
The Lebanese National News Agency carried the following reports on January 4:
Following the meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir in Bkirki today, Labor Minister Boutros Harb said, “It is only natural that I visit His Eminence during the holidays in order to extend my best wishes for the new year, as I hope that Lebanon will be fine and that we will exit the state of paralysis which the country is facing. It was also an occasion for me to inform His Eminence about the draft law I presented to prevent the selling of land between the sects for an exceptional period of 15 years, in order to preempt any demographic transformations and the jeopardizing of national unity.
I explained to His Eminence the reasons why I presented this draft and the motives which prompted me to move forward with it, so that the selling of land is codified and contained and so that the mayhem that is seen is ended. This is especially true in light of the existing fears and the presence of plans to purchase the lands of the Christians in certain areas of Lebanon, considering that this will lead to a demographic change and the containment of the Christians in Christian areas and the Muslims in Muslim areas, in the absence of a merger which justified the presence and establishment of Lebanon throughout history. Indeed, this will cause Lebanon to no longer be a unified country in which all the sects and creeds merge to produce a Lebanese culture that can consequently secure coexistence through cultural interaction between the sects. If the formula that is based on dialogue and interaction is toppled, I believe that Lebanon will be at threat through the presence of Christians whose presence and future in the country are at threat.
It was also an occasion for me to recall the similar draft law I presented in 1983 during the events in Mount Lebanon, in order to prevent the selling of land in the Chouf, Aley and Metn areas by Christians to non-Christians, in light of the attempts that emerged to displace these Christians. At the time, there were no violent reactions such as the ones seen during these last couple of days. In this context, I coincidently saw in An-Nahar today a fatwa issued by the late Imam Shamseddine 27 years ago, preventing the selling of land by Muslims to non-Muslims. What was noticeable at the level of this fatwa was that it confirmed the reasons on which I based my current proposal. Indeed, the justifications extended by the late deputy head of the Higher Shia Council stated that the extensive selling of land and exchange of realty between the owners in the different regions was not being conducted as a result of normal commercial and economic activities – which is the same situation today with companies conducting the purchasing operations and dubious deals taking place – but based on a political inclination aimed at annihilating the coexistence formula in Lebanon and at isolating each sect in a specific geographic area. This is exactly my goal and I am surprised that Sheikh Mohammad Shamseddine did not face the same reactions I am facing today as we both tried to protect coexistence and Lebanon’s unity.
I conveyed to His Eminence the reasons which prompted me to present this draft law, assuring that with all due respect to all the remarks I heard and to some of those who issued them, I have rang the alarm bell in regard to a threat facing coexistence, the Christian presence in Lebanon and the future of this presence, and consequently a threat facing Lebanon’s very existence. I have presented an idea and a draft law. But this idea is not a Koranic verse or a Holy Bible. It is a mere idea and whoever has a better one can present it, considering I am not holding on to the draft law in itself, rather to its goals.”
How did the patriarch react to this draft law?
The patriarch expresses his own opinion but all the people know that the fears that were featured in my draft law exist. If there is one thing that characterizes it, it is that I presented out loud and with courage what the people are whispering. I said in public what they are saying in secret because I have enough moral courage and no reason to be afraid. I thus call on all the loyal people to read the draft law calmly and patiently and to help present new ideas which could achieve the goals that I wanted to achieve through my proposal.
Speaker Nabih Berri considered that the fatwas you have been issuing for years are irrelevant.
My great respect for and friendship with Speaker Berri cannot be undermined by a divergence affecting opinions. Speaker Berri is right in that he and I have not been seeing eye to eye for the last couple of years. True, I did not support Speaker Berri in regard to the amendment of the constitution during the presidential elections or at the level of the false witnesses file and the Judicial Council, but I did support the one whose fatwas were respected by Speaker Berri, i.e. the late Imam Mohammad Shamseddine, and my project is a translation of his fatwa.

Samir Franjieh: Hezbollah can only cause breakdown
January 5, 2011 /“Hezbollah, with its weapons and missiles, can only cause a breakdown [of the government], and not more,” former MP Samir Franjieh—who is a member of the March 14 General Secretariat—said in an interview Wednesday. “Speaker [Nabih] Berri and [Progressive Socialist Party leader] MP Walid Jumblatt should support President [Michel] Sleiman in his role,” he told LBCI television.Franjieh also said that the issue raised in Labor Minister Boutros Harb’s draft bill “already exists,” adding that Jumblatt “was the first one to raise it.”
Last week, Harb submitted a draft bill to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers forbidding the sale of lands from Lebanese Christians to Lebanese Muslims and vice versa for a period of 15 years.The cabinet has met once since its November 10 session and has not tackled institutional work in depth as March 8 and March 14 ministers have been deadlocked over how to resolve the issue of the witnesses who gave unreliable testimonies to the international probe into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.-NOW Lebanon

Allouch: Political deadlock to continue until STL indictment is issued
January 5, 2011 /Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch said on Wednesday that the political deadlock in Lebanon will probably continue until the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) issues its indictment. “Talks about a settlement have decreased in the past two days because it has been [shown] that it is an illusion,” he told New TV.Instead of a settlement, there is a dialogue to calm the domestic situation after the indictment is issued, Allouch added. A settlement at the expanse of the tribunal is out of question for Prime Minister Saad Hariri, he said, adding that he expects the indictment to be issued by STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen between the end of February and beginning of March. Saudi and Syrian officials have reportedly been communicating in efforts to reach a compromise that would resolve tensions in Lebanon due to reports that the UN-backed probe may soon indict Hezbollah members in its investigation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder, a move the party repeatedly warned against.-NOW Lebanon

Majdalani: Hezbollah has the final say in March 8
January 5, 2011 /“[Speaker Nabih] Berri has lots of ideas, but Hezbollah has the final say in the March 8 coalition,” Future bloc MP Atef Majdalani said in an interview on Wednesday.
“The Saudis and Syrians denied the existence of a compromise and only mentioned efforts to solve the [Lebanese impasse],” he told Future News TV. “Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun is still seeking the presidency.”Saudi and Syrian officials have reportedly been communicating in efforts to reach a compromise that would resolve tensions in Lebanon due to reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon may soon indict Hezbollah members in its investigation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder, a move the party repeatedly warned against.
-NOW Lebanon

Syria and Israel’s dirty little secret
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
January 5, 2011
During the last week of December, two news tidbits came to the fore in Washington. The first had it that the US administration was planning to replace Peace Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell with his predecessor, current Special Advisor on Iran Dennis Ross. The second reported that America had succeeded in establishing a secret channel for peace talks between Syria and Israel.
Putting the two together, I reported that Ross had visited Damascus as a secret conduit for peace with Tel Aviv. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) denied the Ross visit and the secret channel, and insisted that Syria’s peace talks with Israel were conducted strictly through Mitchell. One day later, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein told Israel’s Channel 10, and later US daily Politico, that he had made a trip to Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad.
Hoenlein insisted, though, that the purpose of his visit was “humanitarian,” and that he sought to urge Assad to approve the return of the remaining Syrian Jews to Israel.
It is hard to believe that, with the Mideast peace process stalling on all tracks, Hoenlein – a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who made his trip with the latter’s knowledge – went to Damascus only to discuss Syrian Jews.
It is more conceivable, however, that Hoenlein’s trip was a repeat of a visit of another one of Netanyahu’s friends, Ron Lauder, to then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1998, when Netanyahu was facing trouble with Washington for dragging his feet on peace talks with the Palestinians. It has been argued that the Israeli prime minister often uses the Syrian track to ease America’s pressure on him when it comes to the Palestinians.
In 1998, like in 2007, 2008 and 2010, secret channels were created between Damascus and Tel Aviv, but none resulted in a peace accord. And while it seems that both Damascus and Tel Aviv are now familiar with such political maneuvers, it looks like Washington is the only one that never learns. Whenever an Israeli-Syrian channel is created, US officials become ecstatic, express optimism that peace could be realized very soon, and turn a new page in their relations with both Damascus and Tel Aviv.
For both Syria and Israel, the “secret peace talks” between them have proven to be the best button they can press to reset their relations with Washington. The trick has always worked.
In Beirut, the Lebanese have always known that Damascus uses the “peace talks with Israel” card whenever it feels it has its back against the wall with the Americans. But what many Lebanese don’t notice is that the Israelis also use this trick.
Between Syria and Israel, there has always been a sort of regional political symbiosis, often at the expense of the Lebanese and the Palestinians.
In 2010, Netanyahu was still being blamed in Washington – albeit discreetly – for obstructing peace with the Palestinians. The Israeli leader therefore needed a way out: Enter Hoenlein and the Syrian meeting. Assad too fears that the impending indictment from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) could point the finger at parties from his regime for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Israeli-Syrian maneuver is clear: A US delegate convinces Washington that both are peace-seeking nations and should be rewarded. Pressure on Netanyahu stops, while the STL is undermined.
In Washington, however, some still believe that Israeli-Syrian peace is possible. This faction now has the ear of President Barak Obama, who has been convinced that with Hoenlein visiting Assad, both Syria and Israel are serious about peace.
Obama, frustrated by the stalling Palestinian peace track, appointed Robert Ford Ambassador to Syria during the US Congressional recess, falsely believing that Israeli-Syrian peace is within reach, at least in the coming 12 months, before Ford has to appear on Capitol Hill to convince senators that his deployment was a good idea.
On a recent TV talk show that hosted me and a Syrian analyst from Damascus, I quoted a statement by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who said that it was Israel who broke Syria’s international isolation through indirect peace talks in 2008.
Naturally, the Syrian analyst was offended to hear that his country had gotten help form the “Israeli enemy.” To counter my argument, he said that on the contrary, it was former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was facing domestic political trouble and who used talks with Syria to boost his position. The analyst found himself unwillingly arguing that Damascus had extended a political lifeline to Olmert, a secret Syrians rarely like to discuss in public, but always want Washington to hear in private.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington correspondent of Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Rai

Obama and Syrian trap
Op-ed: By engaging Syria now, US rewards rogue behavior, emboldens America’s enemies
Matthew RJ Brodsky Published: 01.05.11, 11:33 / Israel Opinion
With the Palestinian-Israeli peace process returning to a deep freeze, the Obama administration is eyeing an opportunity to make headway with Syria. The theory is nothing new: If the regime in Damascus can make peace with Israel, end its sponsorship of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, distance itself from Iran, and reorient itself toward the West, then the US would further isolate Tehran’s rulers while giving a critical boost to peace efforts around the region. To that end, President Obama confirmed the new US ambassador to Syria and reports have surfaced of a recent back channel opened between the White House and Syrian officials in Damascus.
While Team Obama may see such a development as a panacea for what ails the Middle East, the reality is that Syria will simply use the opportunity to play all sides against each other and pocket concessions, while preserving the very status quo that Washington seeks to alter.
Negotiations
Back to Syrian track? / Sever Plocker
Op-ed: With Palestinian track going nowhere, return to ‘Syria first’ approach seems natural
The timing could not be any better for the Assad regime. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon tasked with investigating the string of assassinations in 2005 including that of the pro-freedom, former Lebanese premier, Rafik Hariri, is set to hand down indictments in a matter of weeks. Hezbollah will likely be held responsible with the support and orders coming from Assad’s inner circle.
Moreover, just last month US satellite imagery revealed a compound in Western Syria with hundreds of missile-shaped items, functionally related to the North Korean-designed nuclear reactor destroyed in September 2007. For more than two years, Syria has blocked International Atomic Energy Agency access to the remains of the al-Kibar nuclear site and similar installations.
The pattern is already familiar. Damascus makes tactical choices for diplomatic engagement without making the strategic decision to change its worldview in a manner consistent with a state seeking either peace or a regional realignment. By engaging with Syria now, the US not only ensures that Damascus will not be held to account, but it rewards their rogue behavior and emboldens America’s enemies.
Fundamental misreading of region
Nevertheless, even if one buys the diplomatic snake oil Damascus is selling, there remains the problem of enforcing any imagined peace deal. The international community and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon have utterly failed to prevent the rearmament of Hezbollah now stocked with more weapons from Syria’s shelves than ever before. If the US remains incapable of stemming the flow of insurgents across Syria’s border into Iraq, what makes the administration believe it would be successful in enforcing an Assad commitment to stop arming Hezbollah in Lebanon, and cut support for Hamas?
The Assad regime always benefits from the process of peace, but it is the process and not the peace that interests Damascus. That is because Syria has no intention of trading alliances or stopping its support for terrorists as its regional importance rests solely on its capacity to light fires around the region. Nor has there been any change in Syrian rhetoric.
President Assad still considers Hamas to be a legitimate resistance group and preserving Hezbollah’s strength is a strategic imperative for the regime whose first foreign policy priority is regaining and retaining its domination over Lebanon. Simply put, for Syria, the rewards for a peace agreement acceptable in Jerusalem and Washington are far outweighed by the benefits provided by its strategic and longstanding alignment with Tehran.
Washington’s current flirtation with Damascus, then, only provides benefits to Syria. This distraction points to an American foreign policy in the Middle East that for two years has been built on a fundamental misreading of the region. Indeed, it still rests upon the belief that the problem is one of communication, rather than the decisions and strategic calculations of states and actors such as Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. President Obama came into office with engagement as his mantra, seeking to reset US relations around the globe. One can only hope the White House finds the reset button quickly when it comes to its current approach to the Middle East.
**Matthew RJ Brodsky is the Director of Policy of the Jewish Policy Center in Washington, DC, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly

The Role of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Region
Mon, 03 January 2011
George Semaan /Al Hayat
The settlement that was reached by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Syria over the international tribunal that was formed to look into the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri is not only preoccupying the Lebanese political circles, but also all the concerned regional and international sides. What has raised and is still raising the tension is this secrecy that surrounds the details, and that prompted Washington to deny a few days ago any knowledge of a settlement and corroborate its insistence on the tribunal. This denial firstly conveys an attempt to learn the details, and secondly aims at warning against any measures which might lead to the relinquishing of the tribunal. It also conveys a rejection of any settlement that could divest the American administration and its partners from a card that could be used as a pressure tool in the face of Iran and its allies in the region.
It is normal for the American administration to express its discontent toward the anticipated settlement. Indeed, it never felt comfortable about France’s openness toward Syria, but also about that of Saudi Arabia and then Saad al-Hariri, who exonerated Syria from his father’s assassination. Earlier, it had expressed its discontent toward Walid Jumblatt’s complete reversal from one position to another. This administration did not break away from the course of the previous one that was exerting pressures on Syria, firstly through its support of the international investigation into Al-Hariri’s case and the other assassinations, and secondly through its support of the formation of the international tribunal, considering that the administration of Bush Jr. perceived Damascus as being “Iran’s tool” due to its support of Hezbollah.
Washington’s recent positions stem from the fact that it was completely distanced from what is happening between Riyadh and Damascus, but also from its conviction that the upcoming settlement will end the effects of the tribunal, even if it were to proceed with its work. The settlement will not stop at the level of the rejection of the indictment, considering that the upcoming measures of Al-Hariri’s government will lead to the relinquishing of the tribunal by Lebanon. This will render Lebanon like Sudan, which ignored and is still ignoring all the measures and arrest warrants issued by Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of “involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity and massacres committed in Darfur.” In the meantime, the Sudanese president is having no trouble moving in the Arab, African and Islamic space.
Washington is aware of the fact that the settlement will reshuffle the cards and change the positions on the Lebanese domestic arena, and that it will establish a new balance of powers that will grant Syria the upper hand in the management of the country. This simply means that a change will affect the balance of powers in the region, or at least the conditions of the political game, at the expense of the American strategy. In this context, it would be enough to recall that former American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice believed that the elimination of Hezbollah will allow the birth of a democratic government in the context of the “New Middle East.” This belief prevailed prior to the July 2006 war, and following the obstructed instatement of democracy in Iraq that was destined to constitute the cornerstone in building this Middle East, and could have carried the “infection” to its neighbors Syria and Iran, i.e. the United States’ archenemies.
This was recalled a few days ago by former envoy of the Bush administration to the United Nations John Bolton, who wrote that the indictment of the STL will accuse Hezbollah and Syrian officials and renew the July 2006 war. This talk enhances Hezbollah’s theory regarding the fact that the tribunal is politicized and is a “tool” in the hands of the United States and Israel, but also its concerns in regard to seeing the indictment constitute a signal for the resumption of an Israeli war that failed to achieved its desired results in 2006.
In reality, whether the tribunal is politicized or not, it has become part of the greater political game in the region and everything that affects it will affect the balance prevailing over the regional confrontation between all the conflicting sides. Therefore, Syria’s warnings against the negative repercussions of the indictment on Lebanon surfaced early on, knowing that these repercussions will affect it next although it did not mention this issue. It is also in this context that we saw the emergence of the position of Supreme Guide Sayyed Ali Khamenei in the form of a “fatwa,” in which he described the tribunal as being “fabricated and only in form,” assuring it was “rejected” and that any decision it issues is “null” and without value. It is as though he were defining the ceiling of the Saudi-Syrian settlement which was rejected by Washington on the other hand.
There is no doubt that the contradictory positions of Washington and Tehran are casting their heavy shadows over the understanding, and are placing restrictions that will render the ripening of the bilateral understanding between Riyadh and Damascus quite difficult. Iran does not want a temporary solution to be reached by the understanding and wants to see the tribunal buried once and for all. As for the United States, it wants the understanding to be part of a process which includes all the other elements that compose the confrontation with Iran and its allies – the most prominent of which being Hezbollah. The question at this level is the following: Did these two positions lead to the delay affecting the settlement? Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri announced his approval, but stated that the other side was “not respecting the steps it pledged to undertake.”
Of course a settlement means there is a compromise or a trade-off, but until now, the “price” offered to Al-Hariri, who will face discontent in the ranks of his sect and anger in the ranks of his allies – which might lead to the end of the March 14 movement – is not yet known. Is it just the reactivation of the governmental work, the closing of the false witnesses file and the other financial files related to the Ministry of Finance and public debt and the closing of the file of the Syrian warrants issued against a number of his close aides? Or will there be other items which Hezbollah will have difficulty abiding by? Of course, the arms issue is the one over which Washington wants to reach a compromise, knowing that this is impossible, because the party is not ready to tackle it and Lebanon is not ready to face it. Moreover, there is the party’s relation with two major states, i.e. Syria and Iran, which are completely rejecting any attempt to touch these arms, unless there is a miracle and all the sides in the region were to sit around the table of negotiations to resolve this complex network of issues, from Afghanistan to Lebanon going through Iraq and Palestine.
In the meantime, the administration’s insistence on the tribunal does not mean it favors war as it was heralded by Bolton, considering that President Barack Obama is not about to stop his diplomatic efforts, whether at the level of the Palestinian cause, the nuclear file or the renewal of the relations with Damascus despite Congress’ opposition. Moreover, he is not about to stop the efforts to rebuild trust in the United States and its credibility in the region. What interests the administration is to halt the settlement because it is convinced that Iran – which is concerned about Hezbollah’s fate – is not ready to engage with it in serious talks. Indeed, if the Islamic Republic is delighted about the retreat of the American projects in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, why would it give Washington an opportunity and offer it “rewards” in Lebanon where its ally has proved to be capable of changing the entire situation and of controlling it even if by force as it happened in May 2008. Consequently, neither Syria is willing to relinquish the party which is strengthening its regional role, nor is the Islamic Republic allowing anything to affect the weapons of the resistance which constitute a main tool in the strategy to defend its interests and role in the “Great Middle East,” and especially its nuclear file which Israel is threatening to annihilate.
Even the United States itself is not ready to sit around the table since - alongside Israel - it believes that the Iranian nuclear program is facing numerous troubles and that the production of a nuclear bomb will require three years as it was stated by Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli minister of strategic affairs. It also considers that the sanctions are achieving their goals seen in the repeated security events in official and non-official sensitive locations, the threats received by the Iranian scientists, the millions of cyber attacks against the centrifuge facility, the Stuxnet virus which targeted the Bushehr reactor, and the social implications that will be result from the decision to remove the subsidies on gasoline, diesel and some food products. Sooner or later, these problems will weaken the regime from within, and consequently its ability to provide its allies abroad with the required financial and military aid. Only then will the conditions of the settlement ripen.
Therefore, there is no way for the United States to achieve its goal in Lebanon, while although the Saudi-Syrian understanding distanced it from the details of the settlement, what is mostly disconcerting to it is seeing the surfacing of an understanding that is not under its auspices, so as not to say far from its wishes. The same goes for Iran which is supporting the settlement and is knowledgeable about its details through Damascus and Hezbollah, but would have probably preferred to be a partner with Saudi Arabia as its new foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, expressed the wish to build exceptional relations with the Kingdom and with Turkey. However, Riyadh certainly wants to enhance Damascus’ role solely, a thing that is rendering the latter more influential at the level of Hezbollah which will owe it for its role in toppling the tribunal. Moreover, enhancing bilateral relations will facilitate coordination and agreements over other regional files which constitute a common object of concern.
Back when it was engaged in dialogue with Syria, the United States knew what was happening in Lebanon and especially on the southern front. Therefore, its appointment of a new ambassador in this country a few days ago means it is willing to renew this dialogue. This will lead to the enhancement of Damascus’ role in the region whenever there is an American need to deliver messages or demands to the resistance. As for the appointment itself, it falls in line with the foreign policy of Obama’s administration which is aware of the fact that the best way to maintain stability in light of the obstruction of the settlement and the troubles in Iraq, would be by establishing some sort of dialogue with Syria. Indeed, such dialogue would alleviate the tensions on certain fronts, impose some sort of red lines which all the sides will have to respect, and prevent the eruption of a major conflict in the event of an unanticipated event. In this manner, the administration will not only be talking to Israel and will be able to include Syria while maintaining the confrontation with Iran and the pressures on Hezbollah through the tribunal. This is also why Washington is always stressing the necessity not to obstruct the tribunal, so that it remains a pressure tool that is also used when dealing with both Damascus and Tehran.