LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJanuary 12/2010

Bible Of The Day
The Good News According to Matthew 7/7-12: “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. 7:9 Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 7:12 Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Iran Steps Up Arming Hizbullah Against Israel/ By: Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah/January 11/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 11/11
Sarkozy Discusses Situation in Lebanon with Hariri, Abdullah/Naharnet
Obama Meets Sarkozy: We Are All Deeply Concerned with Special Tribunal/Naharnet
Hariri-Abdullah Meeting: No Settlement on Tribunal/Naharnet
Clinton Worried about Efforts to Destabilize Lebanon /Naharnet
Iran opens three intelligence fronts against Israel/DEBKAfile
Clinton Worried about Efforts to Destabilize Lebanon /Naharnet
Arab Diplomatic Source: Syrian-Saudi Initiative Won't Be Imposed on Anyone /Naharnet
Diplomacy over Lebanon intensifies in U.S./Daily Star
Zahra: Lebanese-Syria relations at delicate stage/Daily Star
Several Suspects Could Face Death for Spying /Naharnet
Syria's Mufti: Up to the Lebanese to Solve their Problems /Naharnet
Spanish Speaker in Beirut for Talks with Top Officials /Naharnet
Hizbullah, Islamic Unification Movement Warn Against Sectarian Sedition /Naharnet
Jumblat Cancels Press Conference, No Reasons Stated /Naharnet
Damascus Visitors: Hariri Expected to Make Commitments to Guarantee Arab Mediation's Success /Naharnet
50,000 Tons of Potatoes to the European Union in 2011 /Naharnet
Four Saved after SUV Drowns in Nahr Ibrahim River Mouth /Naharnet
Williams: Lebanon has Every Right to Benefit from Natural Wealth /Naharnet
Phalange: Deal to Halt Justice and Resume Cabinet Functioning Desperate Attempt to Escape Justice /Naharnet
Sources: Preparations for Release of Indictment Underway /Naharnet

Sources: Preparations for Release of Indictment Underway
Naharnet/Media leaks from New York City revealed on Monday that the expected meeting between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Saudi King Abdullah has taken place, with initial reports saying that the atmosphere was positive and that the talks addressed all pending issues without exception. Sources from the parliamentary majority told the Central News Agency that the majority has never ceased adopting openness and extending its hand towards the opposition to end the political crisis. The opposition however has only resorted to threats and intimidation, they added. "Hariri's positions are clear and known, while the opposition has only greeted him with a list of required concessions," they continued. "The time has come for us all sit together because a solution cannot be imposed, but it is a product of an agreement between the two sides," they stressed. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources expected that a number of Arab and foreign officials would begin flocking to Beirut in order to facilitate a settlement. They noted that these visits are expected to take place in light of the end of Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare's vacation, pointing out that a hotel near the court headquarters in The Hague has been rented in preparation for the release of the indictment in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Some reports have said that Syria may begin requesting meetings with leading opposition members for consultations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after he had met with them away from the media spotlight. Furthermore, sources monitoring the situation in Lebanon expected that the political differences may turn into street disputes through labor union strikes, for example. Beirut, 10 Jan 11, 17:32

Obama Meets Sarkozy: We Are All Deeply Concerned with Special Tribunal
Naharnet/.S. President Barack Obama has expressed concern over the crisis that has erupted in Lebanon over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. "I think we are all deeply concerned with the special tribunal there (Lebanon) and making sure that justice is appropriately served," Obama said Monday following talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Oval Office.
Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted French sources as saying Tuesday that the two leaders didn't discuss the issue of the tribunal at length because both sides "are in agreement that the court should continue its path without interference."  The sources said that "Sarkozy is hoping to convince Obama to increase the U.S. engagement with Syria to encourage it to make more positive steps in Lebanon."During the talks, Sarkozy warned against showing weakness to "barbaric" terrorists, after two Frenchmen died in a failed French bid to free them from al-Qaida-linked militants in Africa. The French president accepted condolences from Obama over the deaths of the hostages, who were kidnapped in Niger and killed by their captors in Mali during a rescue attempt Saturday. Sarkozy, in Washington for talks focusing on the G20 and the G8 global economic groupings, which France is chairing this year, said the United States and France stood united against terrorism. Sarkozy arrived in Washington Monday as Americans were digesting the shock of a shooting rampage in Arizona on Saturday, which wounded a U.S. congresswoman, and killed six people including a nine-year-old girl.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 07:38

Hariri-Abdullah Meeting: No Settlement on Tribunal
Naharnet/The meeting between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Saudi King Abdullah was "very good," informed sources told An Nahar newspaper, stressing that the premier is still awaiting the March 8 forces to execute their commitments made for the success of the Saudi-Syrian mediation. The Hariri-Abdullah talks at dawn Monday Beirut time lasted for a long time at the king's suite at the Plaza hotel in New York, the sources said. "Hariri's stance remains the same. He is waiting for the other party to execute its commitments," they told An Nahar.
Several diplomatic sources told the newspaper that reports about a Syrian-Saudi settlement are not true. "Hariri's stance from the tribunal will not change."
Al-Liwaa daily quoted an official at the U.S. State Department as saying that Washington was worried about a possible pressure by Abdullah on Hariri to accept a settlement on the tribunal and the indictment that will be issued in his father's assassination case. "However, the meeting between the Saudi King and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday dissipated such fears and … prioritized justice in addition to the stability priority," the official said. A source told al-Liwaa that the talks between Hariri and Abdullah were part of several meetings they held in the past 48 hours. Meanwhile, a U.S. official denied to An Nahar that President Barack Obama was planning to meet with Abdullah and Hariri. "There is no plan for President Obama to move to New York." Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 08:20

Sarkozy Discusses Situation in Lebanon with Hariri, Abdullah
Naharnet/French President Nicolas Sarkozy held separate talks with Saudi King Abdullah and Premier Saad Hariri in New York on Monday following a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington. Al-Liwaa daily said that Sarkozy and Hariri reviewed agreements they had reached since their last meeting on November 30 at the Elysee Palace.
A statement released by Hariri's press office on Tuesday said the two leaders discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region, and bilateral relations and ways to enhance them.
Hariri also met with French Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie and the diplomatic advisor of Sarkozy, Jean-David Levitte. Sarkozy made no comment to reporters following his meeting with Abdullah, but media reports said both officials discussed along with other issues the situation in Lebanon. An Nahar said that Sarkozy will continue his consultations with Lebanese officials from across the political spectrum. The French president is expected to meet with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on January 24 and Phalange party chief Amin Gemayel on the 28th. Furthermore, Sarkozy will meet with former PM Najib Miqati on January 29. An Nahar said that the French president will also hold talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and Marada movement chief Suleiman Franjieh. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 09:20

Several Suspects Could Face Death for Spying
Naharnet/Military judges on Monday called for the death sentence against several people accused of spying for Israel. Judge Fadi Sawan said Khalil Youssef Wehbe should face the death sentence for "collaboration with the Israeli enemy." Judge Imad al-Zain also called for the death penalty against Shawqi Shafiq Atiyyeh, Mohammed Hassan al-Zain, Ali Hussein Izzidine, Mohammed Shawqi Wansa and Najib Hussein Wansa. If the judges find that their collaboration resulted in a death, the men can be condemned to death. More than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested on suspicion of espionage for Israel since April 2009, including army personnel and telecoms employees. Lebanon has complained to the United Nations over the alleged spy networks. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 14:19

Spanish Speaker in Beirut for Talks with Top Officials
Naharnet/The president of the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, Jose Bono, kicked off a two-day official visit to Beirut on Tuesday. Bono arrived at Rafik Hariri international airport at noon at the head of a huge delegation. From the airport, he headed to the Spanish ambassador's residence to meet with several embassy officials. He will later head to Baabda palace for talks with President Michel Suleiman. Bono is also scheduled to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, who will throw a dinner banquet in his honor. The Spanish speaker will head to south Lebanon on Wednesday to inspect his country's UNIFIL contingent. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 13:02

Hizbullah, Islamic Unification Movement Warn Against Sectarian Sedition
Naharnet/Hizbullah and the Islamic Unification Movement on Tuesday cautioned against sectarian sedition and called for consolidating the country against Israeli threats.Following talks between Hizbullah official Sayyed Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed and a delegation from the movement headed by Sheikh Bilal Shaaban, the two sides issued a statement calling "on the need to be cautious from sectarian sedition … and work for the consolidation of the country against dangers from Israeli attacks."The conferees hoped for the success of the Saudi-Syrian mediation and the obstruction of U.S. plans to target Lebanon and the resistance. According to the statement, the two sides discussed the political situation in the country. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 12:36

Jumblat Cancels Press Conference, No Reasons Stated
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat scrapped a press conference he was scheduled to hold in Clemenceau at noon Tuesday, the party's media office said. It did not give the reasons behind the cancellation. The media office said Monday that Jumblat would hold a conference rather than writing his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa weekly.
Jumblat had told Hizbullah's al-Manar TV that he would tackle the Saudi-Syrian mediation and other regional issues. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 10:49

Syria's Mufti: Up to the Lebanese to Solve their Problems
Naharnet/Syria's Mufti Ahmed Badreddine Hassoun stressed Tuesday that it was up to the Lebanese to solve their problems. "Syria stands by Lebanon," Hassoun told Secretary-General of Jabhat al-Binaa al-Lubnani Zuheir al-Khatib. "Solving pending Lebanese problems remains in the hands of the Lebanese," he said. Beirut, 11 Jan 11, 13:30

Arab Diplomatic Source: Syrian-Saudi Initiative Won't Be Imposed on Anyone
Naharnet/The delay in reaching an agreement between the feuding Lebanese camps stems from the desire of Syria and Saudi Arabia that their initiative be accepted by all Lebanese parties, without being imposed on anyone, an Arab diplomatic source has revealed. The source told Italian news agency AKI that "a Syrian-Saudi plan for a settlement aimed at solving the Lebanese disputes does exist, despite the statements of some hardliners in both Lebanese camps which are denying the existence of such an initiative, although Premier Saad Hariri has publicly confirmed that a few days ago." He noted that the March 14 camp was insisting on three demands:
- Hizbullah's renouncement of its proposal to refer the issue of the so-called "false witnesses" to the Judicial Council.
- Syria's abandonment of the arrest warrants it has issued against Lebanese individuals.
- Hizbullah's taking back of its demand to "Lebanonize" the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by blocking further Lebanese financing of the court and condemning its rulings before their release.
As to Hizbullah's demands, the source said the Shiite party was insisting on at least three steps:
- A stance by the March 14 camp renouncing the U.N.-backed STL even before it issues any indictments.
- A decision by the Lebanese government to block further financing of the court in preparation for filing a request with the U.N. Security Council to move the tribunal to Lebanon.
- Guarantees for the implementation of these demands.A U.N. probe into the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri is reportedly set to indict operatives of Hizbullah, the powerful Shiite movement which is backed by Iran and Syria.
Hizbullah has warned against any attempt by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon to arrest its members, raising fears of instability in the country. But Saudi-backed PM Saad Hariri, son of the slain ex-premier, has vowed to see the court through. The standoff has sparked fears of renewed violence in Lebanon following the STL indictments, and regional power-houses Saudi Arabia and Syria have scrambled to find a settlement that would please Lebanon's feuding camps. Beirut, 10 Jan 11, 22:20

Phalange: Deal to Halt Justice and Resume Cabinet Functioning Desperate Attempt to Escape Justice
Naharnet/The Phalange Party politburo expressed on Monday its satisfaction with the international community's support and commitment to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and its rejections of any concessions on it. It also voiced in its weekly statement its appreciation for the international and Arab interest in Lebanon and its security. It also called the Lebanese public opinion against "falling victim to deliberate media discrepancies that are aimed at doubting the forces of sovereignty and independence's support for the STL."Furthermore, the politburo stressed the Lebanese state's role, above any other side, in achieving justice "because the state is responsible for stability." "This is why the media leaks over a deal to halt justice in return for the resumption of Cabinet functioning are desperate attempts to escape the mentality of justice towards the mentality of darkness," the statement continued. Beirut, 10 Jan 11, 18:31

Iran opens three intelligence fronts against Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 10, 2011, Monday night, Jan. 10, Tehran launched against Israel a full-scale intelligence onslaught on three fronts:
Intelligence Minister Haydar Selahi stated that after a year's effort, his agency had succeeded in penetrating the ranks of the Mossad, Israel's central espionage agency and rolled up a network of Iranian agents implicated in the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi last January.
In a separate statement, Iran's new foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi claimed "legal proof" that former deputy defence minister Alireza Asgari, who was in charge of Iran's nuclear and intelligence ties with Syria, was kidnapped by Israeli agents from his Istanbul hotel shortly after his arrival from Damascus on Dec. 9, 2006.
Tehran was demanding the incident be investigated by an international body.
The third step was blatantly anti-Semitic: The Fars news agency, which is owned by the Revolutionary Guards - IRGC, offered a new twist on the blood libel devised often in the past to justify the persecution of Jewish communities. It carried report noting that Jews were wont to add the blood of Muslim children to the "Ears of Haman", a pastry traditionally baked on the Purim festival which falls this year on March 20.
This accusation, together with the putative "exposure" of "the real holocaust," the massacre of Iranians and spy charges, are capable of unleashing a wholesale anti-Semitic rampage against the 20,000 Jews who are the last survivals of the 3,000-year old community.
Our Iranian sources report that in recent weeks, Iranian Jews, fearing for their lives, have been fitting steel plates on the Magen David symbols outside synagogues and Jewish institutions. Sunday, they hastily covered the tombs of Esther and Mordecai in Hamedan after watching Iranian students rallying in demand for the government to stop protecting the tombs as sacred sites and allow them to be demolished.
Monday night, a young Iranian presented as Majid Jamali went on Iranian TV to claim he had been a Mossad spy and received training at a facility "near Tel Aviv on the road to Jerusalem" in the use of explosives for planting in the cars of targeted Iranian nuclear program scientists.
His appearance coincided with the first anniversary of the murder of Dr. Massoud Ali Mohammadi. The authorities in Tehran badly needed to show some progress in the stalled investigation of his death – hence the Jamali show.
debkafile recalls that Iranian officials have variously hit on Israel, the US, Britain and other world powers as responsible for the scientist's murder. Iranian opposition circles and people close to its leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi have another theory: They are convinced that Mohammadi was killed by minions of the regime, because he supported the anti-government resistance. A week before his death, the scientist attended a meeting of the opposition Green Movement's supporters. And although he was a leading light of Iran's nuclear program, in the days after his assassination, Tehran denied his association with that program in any way.
Monday night, young Jamali was produced with Tehran's latest version of the episode, tailor made for its intelligence against Israel, whereby he took part in the murder on behalf of the Mossad who had hired him as an agent. In reality, he claimed, he was a member of the Revolutionary Guards and employed in one of its top- secret intelligence divisions which the Israeli Mossad had been able to penetrate.
Iranian sources backed up his statement by reporting they had photos of Jamali carrying a gun in the company of his IRGC comrades.
debkafile's Iranian sources who monitored his broadcast "admission" in the Farsi language described it as an amateurish concoction full of holes. Most of the information he offered about the alleged "capture of Zionist spies" was a rehash of the statements released by security officials in Tehran the week of Mohammadi's murder. The account of his experiences as a Mossad agent certainly did not ring true. No espionage organization operates in the way he described; it would be contrary to its professional logic.
Moreover, if he had really been involved in the murder, he and his confederates would not have waited around but have fled the country as fast as they could run. The fact is that he was still in Iran. And another careless mistake in the "legend" Iranian intelligence put together for its "Mossad spy" was the way he described his arrival at Ben Gurion airport as having to go through passport control It is hard to conceive of the Mossad sending one its secret assets to be openly processed through Israeli passport control along with a pack of tourists.

The Guardians of the Cedars Party - The Movement for Lebanese Nationalism issued the following message:
The cleansing campaign against the Christians in the East did not begin only recently with the attacks on the Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad and the Saints Church in Alexandria. This campaign has been ongoing since the late 1960s according to a meticulous plan designed by a number of radical regimes in the region that created proxy fundamentalist movements under various names, with the goal of executing it systematically, beginning in Lebanon.
We say 'beginning in Lebanon', since this country has, throughout history, played a pivotal role in protecting the persecuted minorities of various religions and denominations in this East. For example, the Druze and Shiite denominations sought refuge in Lebanon centuries ago, as they fled persecution by the Fatimids and the Abbasids.
The plan, whose implementation began on our soil in the early 1970s, called for bringing the country down and displacing its Christians as a prelude to displacing the Christians of the East, given that a strong Lebanon served as a moral guarantee for their existence in this obscurantist region of the world. This extremely dangerous fundamentalist Islamic plan would not have succeeded in Lebanon and the region had the people in charge here and in the West dealt with it properly and at the right time.
The Lebanese Resistance, contrary to all expectations, was able to confront it, with virtually non-existent capabilities. Yet, ultimately, it too fell because of the political mediocrity of Christian leaders in Lebanon, their crushing internecine fighting over money and power, and their mad pursuit of eliminating one another by all available means. With the fall of the Resistance in 1990, Lebanon fell in its entirety into the hands of fundamentalist terrorism and the regimes allied with it. It lost its immunity to defend itself and the other minorities beholden to it, and since that time, the emigration of Christian young men and women from Lebanon and the region began to grow, wave after wave, leaving those who remained as an easy prey to the monster of Islamic fundamentalism as is happening today in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and elsewhere. It is not an overstatement to say that the Christian leaders who brought down the Lebanese Resistance, perhaps contributed more than the Islamic fundamentalists to the destruction of the "Christian community" and, hence, of all of Lebanese society.
Meanwhile, Western capitals themselves bear responsibility for the spread of terrorism and its growing influence, because they did not heed the importance of Lebanon, its mission in the East, and its pioneering place in this delicate part of world. They abandoned it to fall into the hands of totalitarian and terrorist regimes. With the fall of Lebanon, the last wall that could have stemmed the fundamentalist tide to the West also tumbled. Today, that tide is knocking hard at the gates of Western capitals and in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and other flashpoints, they are paying dearly in their blood and flesh the price of having forsaken Lebanon.
If the Vatican is serious in its endeavor to protect the Christians of the East, it should not be merely content with issuing condemnation and denunciation statements, or for that matter, praying for the souls of the martyrs as we said in a previous statement. It should act immediately along two parallel paths:
First, it should mobilize all human, material, political and moral capabilities to support the international community, led by the United States of American and its allies, as well as the moderate Arab and Islamic regimes, in this war against terrorism and the fundamentalist organizations, at all cost and without any reservation.
Second, it should focus on Lebanon and find the means to empower that country and bolster its stability and security, in order for it to recover its wellbeing and resume its historic role of protecting the Christian and non-Christian minorities on its soil and its surrounding.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
January 7, 2011

Zahra: Lebanese-Syria relations at delicate stage
By The Daily Star /Tuesday, January 11, 2011
BEIRUT: Batroun M.P. Antoine Zahra said Monday Lebanese-Syrian ties were at a delicate stage but were not deteriorating. “The international efforts to reach a settlement in Lebanon focus on stability and justice in the country,” Zahra said in reference to Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s latest visit to New York. Zahra also dismissed reports that an agreement had been reached to discredit the national-unity government and described the matter as a means to put pressure on Hariri. Zahra also dismissed reports in the media about the contents of the Saudi-Syrian settlement and urged the March 8 alliance to resort to state institutions to solve problematic issues. – The Daily Star

Diplomacy over Lebanon intensifies in U.S.
Senior March 8 source says coalition will move to counter U.S. bid to derail deal
By Hussein Dakroub /Daily Star staff
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri was set to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in New York early Tuesday Beirut time, a day after he met Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz in separate talks that focused on Lebanon’s months-long political crisis.
Back in Beirut, a senior March 8 source voiced concern that U.S. pressure would derail a Syrian-Saudi initiative to defuse the Lebanese crisis. The source hinted that the coalition might make a move to counter the alleged U.S. pressure.
Hariri’s talks with Sarkozy came amid U.S. concerns over stability in the country as a result of an impending indictment by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.
The prime minister’s talks with Abdullah centered on the Saudi-Syrian initiative aimed at defusing political tension over the indictment, which is threatening to destabilize Lebanon. This was Hariri’s second meeting with the Saudi king since Abdullah was released from a New York hospital last month after undergoing two back surgeries. The king is now recuperating at a New York hotel.
Sarkozy, who met U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington earlier in the day, was also to meet separately with the Saudi king in New York, a French official said.
Obama told reporters ahead of his meeting with Sarkozy that he and his French counterpart would discuss the situation in Lebanon, among other issues, over lunch. “We’ll … be discussing Lebanon, where I think we are all deeply concerned with the special tribunal there and making sure that justice is appropriately served,” Obama said.
Sarkozy’s meeting with Hariri was in “a continuation of the discussions he had with him last Nov. 30 at the Elysee Palace over the situation in Lebanon and Lebanese-French relations,” the French official said. The Saudi-Syrian efforts on Lebanon were among topics discussed by Hariri and Sarkozy.
Sarkozy’s talks with the Saudi king were expected to center on regional issues including Lebanon, Iran, the Middle East peace process and the fight against terrorism, as well as bilateral French-Saudi relations, the official said.
Hariri met in New York Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has met with the Saudi king on a courtesy visit following his recovery from back surgeries. Clinton discussed with Abdullah and Hariri growing tensions in Lebanon over the forthcoming indictment at separate talks in New York.
Clinton expressed concern Monday over attempts to “destabilize” Lebanon amid tensions linked to a U.N. probe into Rafik Hariri’s killing. “I’m deeply worried about the efforts to destabilize Lebanon,” she said in Abu Dhabi during the taping of a television talk show when asked about the crisis in Lebanon.
“We should do everything we can to make sure those warnings are not accurate,” Clinton said, when asked to comment on warnings of a regional conflict.
“It’s very important we look at how disastrous a war would be for everyone and it still is a fact that there is no solution to the problems that beset the area through war,” Clinton said.
“I’ve also been working with the Saudis, and the French and the Egyptians, and others, to try to make sure we stabilize Lebanon and prevent any outside interest or anyone within Lebanon who is getting direction from outside interests from taking steps that will destabilize Lebanon and perhaps provoke conflict,” she added.
The U.S. has repeatedly reaffirmed its strong support for Hariri’s government and the tribunal that is expected to soon release its indictment, which is widely expected to accuse Hizbullah members of involvement in Hariri’s assassination.
The Cabinet has been paralyzed for months over political tension and the rival factions’ dispute over the issue of “false witnesses” linked to the U.N. probe.
Earlier Sunday, Hariri met at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. Hariri stressed to Ban Lebanon’s insistence on the full implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, and called for utmost pressure on Israel to stop its violations of Lebanon’s airspace, its territory and its territorial waters. Hariri also called for U.N. pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Lebanese part of the village of Ghajar and the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shuba hills.
Hariri’s meetings in New York coincided with reports that Syria was optimistic that a Saudi-Syrian-brokered agreement to break the Lebanese deadlock over the indictment would be implemented later this month.
In an interview with the Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat last week, Hariri said Saudi Arabia and Syria had reached an agreement to resolve the Lebanese crisis several months ago, but its implementation had been held up by Hizbullah and its March 8 allies who have failed to carry out their share of the deal. Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah have rejected Hariri’s accusation. Saudi Arabia and Syria, main power brokers in Lebanon backing rival factions, have been coordinating their efforts since July to defuse political and sectarian tensions between the March 8 and March 14 factions over the indictment.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said he welcomed Saudi-Syrian efforts to maintain stability in Lebanon, but stressed that dialogue among feuding parties was essential to resolve the crisis. Williams met separately with Berri and Hizbullah’s Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish to discuss the S.T.L.’s role.
“I welcomed the efforts being made by the friends of Lebanon to ensure stability in the country and particularly the efforts by Syria and by Saudi Arabia,” Williams said after meeting Berri.
“The speaker reassured me that he believed the unity and stability in Lebanon would be reaffirmed in the coming months. I also reiterated the position of the United Nations that dialogue between the parties within Lebanon was essential for resolving all problems, including the most sensitive.” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, said an inter-Lebanese agreement sponsored by Syria and Saudi Arabia would close the doors to strife in Lebanon. He added that the Saudi-Syrian efforts were seeking to facilitate an inter-Lebanese understanding. He said the Saudi-Syrian contacts were making progress, but warned of obstruction by the U.S. “America’s interest is to deepen internal divisions and drag Lebanon to strife,” Qaouk told a rally in the southern village of Zebddin.

Fouad Siniora
January 10, 2011
On January 9, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report: The head of the Future parliamentary bloc, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, hoped that the return of Prime Minister Al-Hariri would be fruitful and that there would be a possibility of returning to the institutions. He said: “The Cabinet institution is the place where all issues should be resolved, instead of placing conditions and linking the staging of the Cabinet session to the discussion of certain issues,” affirming that this would lead nowhere. Siniora then said that “what we have heard during the last few weeks in terms of theories and estimates and regarding the fact that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri should meet certain demands and implement a certain program turned out to be completely false.“We must show patience and must distance ourselves from unfounded assumptions and estimates. Before heading to New York and holding these important meetings, Prime Minister Hariri issued a statement. We must wait for his return to learn about the outcome of this visit instead of becoming involved in estimates and holding certain sides responsible.” He thus called for patience until the issuance of the indictment with regard to martyred Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination, while refraining from exploiting this indictment to undermine another Lebanese side or team, or even undermine the idea of the fight against Israel. He thus assured that no one could stop the issuance of the indictment and that no one knew when it would be issued and what its content would be. “We have placed our trust in the international tribunal and must wait and see the outcome. Only then can we prove the existence of anything going against the truth, justice and neutrality of this indictment.” On the other hand, Siniora welcomed any Arab effort, and especially that being deployed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Syrian Republic, saying that this contribution was positive at the level of bringing the viewpoints closer together, “while confirming our Lebanese principles, which are based on the Taif Accord, openness, democracy and justice, because there can be no security and stability without justice. The tripartite summit held in the presidential palace between President Suleiman, King Abdullah and President Bashar al-Assad, conveyed a message saying that these presidents are concerned about the Lebanese situation and that the solution is built on Lebanese convictions and Arab sponsorship… In light of the price rises, the Cabinet must meet and adopt the appropriate decision. This issue should not be handled in a populist way by taking to the street, because such methods do not resolve the problem but complicate it. Such decisions cannot be made by a minister or by taking to the street and pretending to solve the problem. This means there is some duping of the people because the path toward a solution is known and is through the staging of a Cabinet session to adopt the necessary conditions.”

Not all the extremists are Muslim
Hussein Ibish, January 11, 2011
Now Lebanon
A memorial for US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was injured in a shooting that left six others dead. (AFP photo/Shaun Tandon)
The horrifying massacre in Tucson, Arizona, targeting American Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, leaving her critically injured and killing six other people, again demonstrates that domestic terrorism in the United States, of which this is almost certainly a variant, can arise from many sources other than Muslim extremists.
The most recent comparable event of this magnitude, the Fort Hood massacre by Major Nidal Hasan, was seized on by much of the American right as another example of the pathology inherent in either Islam itself or contemporary Muslim culture. However, this latest outrage reminds us how many different ideologies can inform crazed acts of murderous violence.
There is a complex relationship between incendiary rhetoric and extremist violence. Many on the American left immediately pointed to inflammatory language against Giffords and others by right-wing ideologues such as the former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, and sought to tarnish the entire American right with the massacre.
That’s going too far. The motivations of the plainly deranged young man who perpetrated the Tucson killings, Jared Loughner, are not yet clear, and what exactly influenced him to go on this rampage has yet to be fully established. As with recent terrorist outrages in the Middle East, such as attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt, the direct blame lies with the killers themselves.
However, it would also be wrong to dismiss the relationship between even implicit incitement and its ultimate translation into violence at the hands of lunatics. My colleague Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, and I have recently written about the relationship between language and violence in the Arab context. Words matter. As we’ve pointed out, there is a progression between rhetoric that begins with chauvinistic bluster, descends into proclamations of fear and hatred, and finally informs acts of murderous violence.
This doesn’t mean that those who engage in irresponsible rhetoric bear a direct blame for the acts of those who take their words too literally, or their ideology to an irrational but predictable conclusion. But it does mean that everyone has a responsibility to carefully weigh the potential consequences of their interventions and understand the potential effect on some of their audience.
Arizona has been a hotbed of inflammatory rhetoric in the United States in recent years. The immigration debate; the Minuteman and Tea Party movements; the effort to promote the bearing of arms in public spaces; angry rhetoric about “taking the country back;” and dark implications about the origins, motivations and loyalties of President Barack Obama have all been strong features of its political climate.
The chief law enforcement officer of the site of the massacre, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat, bluntly stated, “When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government – the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. Unfortunately, Arizona, I think, has become the capital.”
Naturally many on the American right have reacted with anger at the suggestion that their side of the political aisle bears any kind of collective responsibility for this outrage. After I re-Tweeted comments by Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now lamenting the consequences of the deterioration of political discourse in her home state, I had an angry exchange with Noah Pollack. He was most recently involved in an Emergency Committee for Israel, the “emergency” apparently being that there was a Democrat in the White House.
Pollack was not surprisingly, and perhaps reasonably, upset at the implication that the American right in general bears any kind of responsibility for the actions of a lone lunatic. Perhaps he now knows how Arab and Muslim Americans felt after the Fort Hood massacre.
Indeed, how many of us had that familiar post-9/11 reflex reaction: “How horrible, but thank goodness it wasn’t an Arab or a Muslim culprit.” After almost 10 years of living with the constant terror of that kind of collective blame, enough is enough. Those whose incitement may have egged on the Arizona shooter bear their share of responsibility, but not direct blame. Those whose incitement provokes Muslim extremist terrorism must be similarly held to account. But no ethnic or religious community could conceivably be held responsible.
Some, such as Jack Shafer of Slate, have suggested that any effort to condemn extreme speech is tantamount to unacceptable censorship. However, in reality it’s up to all of us to set minimal standards for what can be regarded as responsible, acceptable speech, and what must be shunned as outrageous or indeed dangerous. The American right and left, like the Islamist right and Arab nationalist left, have a responsibility to police their ranks, or accept their share of the responsibility, if not direct blame, for the predictable acts of violence that the incendiary rhetoric they tolerate or promote is bound to eventually provoke.
**Hussein Ibish is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.ibishblog.com.