LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMay 24/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 1/15-23: " For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, 1:16 don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; 1:18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 1:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might 1:20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, 1:21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. 1:22 He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
An Obama road map to change in Syria/By Michael Young/May 23/11
Hesitant Turkey/By: Ana Maria Luca/May 23/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 23/11
UN, EU appeal for release of Estonians in Lebanon/AFP
SYRIA: Activists raise death toll to 76 in three days of violence [Video]/LAT
Thousands bury slain mourners in Syria, witness says/CNN
Kuwait blacklists Syria nationals/Daily Press News
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, gathers Christian leaders for second meeting/Daily Star
U.N. urges steps to prevent repitition of border violence/Daily Star
Jordan's king boycotts Abbas. Moscow: Hamas must recognize Israel/DEBKAfile
Obama defends vision, raps Hezbollah/Agencies
U.S. maintains Lebanon on IPR protection Watch List/Daily Star
Seeking to Disrupt Protesters, Syria Cracks Down on Social Media/NYT
Syrian soldiers fortify border positions/Daily Star
American project in region doomed to failure: Hezbollah/Daily Star
Hezbollah, south revive Resistance Day/Daily Star
Aridi hails the struggle of southerners against Israel/Daily Star
Syrian soldiers fortify border positions/Daily Star
US maintains Lebanon on IPR protection Watch List/Daily Star
Lebanese business makes up 35 percent of Ivory Coast economy/Daily Star
Aridi hails the struggle of southerners against Israel /Daily Star
Hezbollah, south revive Resistance Day/Daily Star
Lebanon should solve issues internally: French official/Daily Star
Williams Meets Suleiman, Berri, Stresses Need to Form Government to Avoid Lost Opportunities /Naharnet
Berri Condemns Feltman's 'Blatant Interference,' Says he Was Right in not Meeting with him /Naharnet
Renewed Controversy Over Legitimacy of Parliamentary Session /Naharnet
Miqati to Launch New Round of Consultations to Break Cabinet Impasse /Naharnet
March 14 Hints at Need for Change in Miqati's 'Nomination Status' /Naharnet
Report: Nasrallah to Address Syria Turmoil, Obama's Speech on Liberation Day /Naharnet
Army Frees 3 Abducted Iraqis after Gunfight with Kidnappers in Wadi Khaled /Naharnet

The Syria Illusion
Wall Street Journal/One mystery of American foreign policy, in Administrations of either party, is the eternal hope that the Assad family dynasty in Syria will one day experience an epiphany and become a reforming, pro-Western government. Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Damascus more than 20 times in the 1990s in search of a concession to peace that never came from Hafez Assad. President George W. Bush refused to implement the stiffest sanctions on Syria legislated by Congress and sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to beseech current President Bashar Assad to stop being a highway for jihadists into Iraq. To no avail. President Obama also bought into the illusion, sending emissaries to turn Mr. Assad away from Iran, stop serving as a conduit for heavy weapons into Lebanon, and other impossible dreams. Even after the regime's crackdown on political opponents and the murder of hundreds, Mr. Obama held out hope in his Mideast speech last week that Mr. Assad will come around: "The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of the way."Mr. Assad long ago made his choice, and America's choice should be full-throated support for his democratic opponents.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, gathers Christian leaders for second meeting
May 23, 2011
The Daily Star/ BEIRUT: Under the patronage of the Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, another meeting for Christian leaders will be held on June 2 in the seat of in Bkirki, the secretariat of the Maronite Patriarchate announced Monday. Some Christian leaders and Maronite MPs were invited to the meeting to discuss building a spiritual, social and national partnership for the sake of Lebanese living in Lebanon and abroad. The meeting complements the April 19 gathering which brought together for the first time rival Christian leaders under the sponsorship of Rai: Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel and the head of the Marada Movement Sleiman Franjieh. The meeting was reported to have taken place in a friendly atmosphere as Maronite leaders, divided between the Future Movement-led March 14 alliance and the Hezbollah-led March 8, agreed to discuss contentious political issues in a civil and democratic manner. The leaders discussed high emigration rates, the increase of Christians in state administrative positions, and the reduction of large-scale property and land sales to non-Christians. Bkirki’s attempt to ease tensions within the Christian community reportedly stems from its fear of the widening schism between the two camps, one siding with the U.S.-French-Saudi axis and the other with the Syrian-Iranian axis. March 14 Christian factions have recently escalated their campaign against Hezbollah’s weapons after boycotting the new Cabinet while Hezbollah’s ally, Aoun, continues to quarrel with President Michel Sleiman, a Maronite, over shares in the new government.

Obama defends vision, raps Hezbollah
May 23, 2011 01:/May 23, 2011 Agencies
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama defended Sunday his endorsement of Israel’s 1967 boundaries as the basis for a future Palestine, adding that his views reflected long-standing American policy that needed to be stated clearly. Speaking to an audience at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC Policy Conference, Obama warned that the Jewish state would face growing isolation without “a credible peace process.”
The U.S. president also vowed to “keep up pressure” on Tehran to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, as he condemned its support for groups in the region, namely Hezbollah, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States. In a bid to alleviate concerns that his administration was veering in a pro-Palestinian direction, Obama told AIPAC that border lines must be subject to negotiated land swaps and said these principles reflected U.S. thinking dating to President Bill Clinton’s mediation efforts.
“If there’s a controversy, then it’s not based in substance,” Obama said in a well-received speech at a Washington convention center. “What I did Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately. “I have done so because we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace.”
The event was eagerly anticipated after Obama outlined his vision for the changing Middle East at the State Department Thursday and then clashed in a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day later. Outlining U.S. and U.N. sanctions imposed on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, Obama said Iran is now “virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system.”“We’re going to keep up the pressure … So let me be absolutely clear – we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he added to roaring applause from the AIPAC audience. Obama also pointed to Iranian “hypocrisy” in “claiming to support the rights of protesters while treating its own people with brutality.”
He said Iran was funding, arming and otherwise supporting violent extremists. “So we will continue to work to prevent these actions, and we will stand up to groups like Hezbollah, who exercise political assassination and seek to impose their will through rockets and car bombs,” said Obama. The U.N. Security Council has adopted four sets of sanctions against Iran, the most recent in June last year, over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that lies at the heart of Western concerns.
A panel of experts that monitors the sanctions said Iran was circumventing them but that its nuclear work had been impaired. The speech came ahead of a weeklong trip for the president to Europe, where he will tend to old friends in the Western alliance and look to secure their help with the political upheaval across the Arab world and the Afghanistan conflict.Netanyahu said in a statement after Obama’s remarks that he supported the president’s desire to advance peace and resolved to work with him to find ways to renew the negotiations. “Peace is a vital need for us all,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader’s tone was far more reserved than last week, when he issued an impassioned rejection of the 1967 borders as “indefensible” and even appeared to publicly admonish Obama after their White House meeting. Netanyahu was to address the pro-Israel lobby Monday night and Congress Tuesday.
Obama did not retreat from his remarks on what it would take to reach a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Repeating a large section of his Thursday speech, he said the result must come through negotiation, and that Israeli border security and protections from acts of terrorism must be ensured.
“By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967,” Obama said. That was before Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and a half-million Israelis settled on war-won lands.
Obama flatly opposed a Palestinian drive to win U.N. recognition for an independent state, even without a peace deal with Israel. He did note increased international impatience with what he termed the “absence” of a peace process. “For us to have leverage with the Palestinians, with the Arab states, and with the international community, the basis for negotiations has to hold out the prospect of success,” Obama said. Palestinian reaction to Obama’s speech was mixed. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to address Obama’s opposition to Palestinian efforts at the United Nations. “I want to hear from Mr. Netanyahu,” he said, calling for the Israeli leader to hold peace talks according to Obama’s principles. “Before he says yes, it’s a waste of time to talk about a peace process.” Hamas said it would not recognize the Israeli “occupation” and that it, too, rejected Obama’s reference to the 1967 borders.
“It is a mistake to consider the U.S. as an honest sponsor for the so-called peace process,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Prisons in Lebanon operating at double capacity: report
 May 23, 2011 /By Simona Sikimic The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanese prisons are operating at double their official capacity, prompting a string of grave human rights violations, according to a report obtained exclusively by The Daily Star.
While maximum capacity is listed as 3,653 inmates across Lebanon’s 21 adult prisons, between 5,876 to over 7,000 prisoners are currently detained in Lebanese jails, the “Prisons and Prisoners in Lebanon, legislation, rights and recommendations,” report said. Scheduled for release next month, the legal dossier addresses the main gaps in Lebanese prison legislation and living conditions within detention facilities, contrasting them with international norms. “Conditions in Lebanese prisons are in no way consistent with international standards,” said report author Rabih Kays, a university law professor and human rights activist, who has worked on the study for the last five months. “We are in serious need of major prison law reforms to tackle the problem. “The conditions of the prisoners are worsening and they are living in a very bad situation,” he added. The most grievous offenses caused by the overcrowding include, inadequate access to natural light, insufficient exercise time, poor meal provisions, deplorable sanitation, and chronic overcrowding where inmates are often left sharing beds or sleeping on the floor. Poor medical care has also been highlighted as a major grievance, with most prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses, such as heart conditions or some cancers, failing to undergo consistent monitoring and care. “There are not enough doctors to take care of the prisoners,” said Kays. “Under Lebanese and international regulations a doctor is required to check up on all patients at least once a week to see if they are in need of medicines, or have any symptoms, but this is not carried out.” Hospital visits are usually limited and only carried out in emergencies, making little room for life-saving treatments, such as radiotherapy. Additionally, inmates are denied access to dentists and no special provisions are available for drug addicts, many of whom suffer from extreme physical side effects of withdrawal, the report said. Overcrowding has widely been blamed on the slowness of the trial process and the unsatisfactory state of legal aid, which is provided to all detainees on a pro-bono basis, but is in extremely short supply. “A judge can seek a postponement upon the presentation of new evidence,” said Kays. “Every time this happens, the session is delayed for another three to four months, which means that four is the absolute maximum amount of sessions you can have in one year.
“This is part of the reason that we have people waiting for many months and years without a sentence.” Over recent months riots have swept through Roumieh prison, Lebanon’s most notorious jail and home to over 3,200 inmates. Separate reports emerged last week that at least 20 inmates were hospitalized after staging a hunger strike, started in opposition to the slow pace of legislative reforms. While Roumieh is at the heart of the humanitarian controversy, conditions at other jails, namely the General Security prisons where foreigners are detained for illegal entry, or breaking the terms of their visas, were also condemned by the report. “I found no legal justification at all for the General Security prisons used to detain foreigners,” said Kays. “Authorities say that they are just transit facilities where foreigners await deportation, but many are left there for a long time.”
The General Security Detention Center in Adlieh that houses many of the jailed migrants is located underneath a bridge and is overwhelmingly underground, which is considered a major human rights violation. Some 13 percent of the Lebanese prison population consists of foreigners who have concluded their sentence but have not been released, either through inaction by their home embassies or the slowness of the bureaucratic process in Lebanon. “There are lots of obstacles to human rights in Lebanon but from my point of view we have three major human rights problems: the Palestinian refugees, the state of Lebanese prisons and the treatment of foreign domestic workers,” said Kays. Several legal steps have been suggested and the report advocates the immediate enactment of a 2002 law reducing sentences for “good behavior.” “The law has received parliamentary approval but not the governmental implementation decree,” said Kays. “It would be a good first step.”

An Obama road map to change in Syria
May 19, 2011
By Michael Young The Daily Star
Today, President Barack Obama, in what is being described by administration officials as “a major address,” will talk about the political upheavals in the Middle East. Better late than never.
However, you get an uneasy sense that on the most potentially significant uprising of the moment, the one taking place in Syria, Obama will not say very much more than he has until now.
That doesn’t mean Washington will not raise the heat on Syria’s President Bashar Assad. This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alongside the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, noted, “Assad talks about reform, but his heavy-handed brutal crackdown shows his true intentions.” She added, “They have embraced the worst tactics of their Iranian ally and they have refused to honor the legitimate aspirations of their own people in Syria.”
The U.S. and the Europeans have indicated that a new round of sanctions is forthcoming, and these will even cover Assad himself. This is too little too late. The U.S. and leading European states such as France and the United Kingdom must formally demand that the Syrian president step down. By ordering, or allowing, his army and security forces to open fire on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators, Assad has forsaken all legitimacy. Something is fundamentally broken in Syria, and delaying recognition of that reality may be ruinous.
We’ve heard Obama administration officials declare lately that they have little leverage over Syria. But nations build leverage, they don’t just pick it out of the ether. If there is one country that has the means to bring the Arab states, Europe, and Russia and China into some sort of concerted effort to hasten Assad’s exit from power, and more importantly, to help Syrians who oppose their regime organize a smooth transition to a democratic, pluralistic, order, it’s the United States. In fact only the United States can take such measures.
That’s not to say that such a process would be easy. However, enough states have enough of a stake in avoiding the further disintegration of Syria, one that might well lead to widespread sectarian conflict, that it is entirely possible to push for a successful end to Assad rule.
The Arab countries would play an essential role. The Obama administration could fashion an Arab consensus by portraying a change in Syria as fatal for Iranian interests in the Levant. Despite Saudi-American tensions in recent months, there would be much sympathy with this approach in Riyadh, helping to unlock Gulf skepticism. What bothers the Saudis is that they see an Obama administration without any discernible strategy to contain Iranian power. An American initiative to use the Syrian crisis as a means of countering the influence of Iran and Hezbollah could reverse this sentiment. It would likely also earn considerable support from Egypt, which views Iran as a major spoiler on the Palestinian front.
Russia and China have been recalcitrant at the United Nations, blocking all efforts to condemn Syria. This week the French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, announced that France and the U.K. were close to getting nine council votes for a resolution on Syria. Moscow and Beijing have threatened to wield their veto, but there is probably more room for Washington and the Europeans to find a middle ground than is apparent. Ultimately, the Assad regime is not more important to the Russians and Chinese than Iran, and yet the Security Council repeatedly managed to approve tough resolutions against Tehran.
The case that could be put to Russia and China is this: The Assad regime, by escalating the repression of its own population, has made a peaceful resolution to the revolt in Syria highly improbable. Nor is the violence even working to quell demonstrations against Assad rule. Worse, the Syrian leadership has exacerbated sectarian antagonisms through its brutal retaliatory actions. This could have dangerous repercussions in neighboring states with mixed societies, heightening regional instability, therefore endangering international security.
Neither Russia nor China would want to risk valuable political capital by defending a despotic Syrian regime against hardening international recognition that Bashar Assad’s days in office are numbered. A crucial ingredient in bringing about this Russian and Chinese realization would be an adamant American and European, perhaps even an Arab, statement that it is time for fundamental transformation in Damascus; not bogus “reform” that the Assad family sees merely as a means of neutralizing dissent.
The doubters would respond that the Assads have great latitude to adopt a scorched earth policy to remain in place. They do, but as the Syrian situation festers and worsens, as it almost certainly will do, we should not underestimate the willingness of family members to look for escape routes. This is where international justice and diplomacy comes in: the first to limit the Syrian regime’s destructiveness; the second to negotiate an end to Assad rule by offering key figures possible incentives. Arab states and Turkey could play a significant role in this, but Obama alone can bring all the pieces together.
The progress would be dynamic. As the Assads watch Arab governments, the United States and Europe moving forcibly against them, followed by Russia and China, they would necessarily begin recalculating their options. They have tried to suffocate the uprising in Syria, but their efforts have gone nowhere. Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of the Syrian president, has warned that Israel would suffer from the Assads’ departure. That did little to keep the Israelis on the regime’s side, and the border incidents last weekend, which Israel and the United States blamed on Syria, only made matters worse.
A civil war in Syria would be a catastrophe, as much for a majority of Syrians as for the regime’s minority Alawite community. The Assads have boldly implied that it must either be them dominating in Damascus or chaos. Obama and the Arabs above all must quickly shoot down that mad thought. Syria can become democratic without more carnage, but it does need outside assistance. The Assads have to sense that their “Samson option,” that of bringing down the temple over everyone’s head, will fail. For the region’s sake it has to fail.
Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster), listed as one of the 10 notable books of 2010 by the Wall Street Journal. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

American project in region doomed to failure: Hezbollah
May 23, 2011
The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah kept up Sunday its blistering campaign against U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East, dismissing it as biased toward Israel, with the party’s caretaker minister saying the U.S. project in the region was doomed to failure.
Caretaker Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Haj Hassan said that except for Syria, Arab governments did not criticize Obama’s speech on the Arab-Israeli conflict which made no mention of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
“We tell the U.S. administration, that its project, be it concerning Lebanon, the Palestinians, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia or others, will not succeed and Israel will not survive. The American project in the region will be defeated and the Zionist entity in the region is doomed to extinction. We are working so that this happens sooner rather than later,” Haj Hassan told a school graduation ceremony in the eastern city of Baalbek.
He further scoffed at the U.S. administration for presenting itself as the one that grants freedom to the Arab peoples while “it exercises misleading, lies and hypocrisy.”
“Obama spoke about Arab peoples and regimes. He concentrated in his speech on rejectionist Syria whose president is backing the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine while he ignored talk about other Arab states where there is no trace of the peoples’ freedom and democracy,” Haj Hassan said, adding: “The story is that Obama is standing against anyone who opposes the policy of his administration and threatens Israel’s security and superiority.”
Hezbollah lashed out at Obama Friday, asking how the U.S. president could call for reform when the U.S. is “allied to dictators.”
In this speech Thursday, laying out a new U.S. policy in the Middle East, Obama hailed the popular uprisings in the Arab world as a “historic opportunity,” and said that “it will be a policy of the United States to promote reform across the region.”
Obama said that any agreement creating a Palestinian state must be based on the borders that existed before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with “mutually agreed [land] swaps.”
Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad accused the U.S. of exercising “a double standard” policy in the Middle East, saying that Syria was being punished with a wave of anti-regime protests for rejecting Israel’s conditions for a peace settlement.
“The focus of the American and arrogant policies is Israel’s security and the Arabs’ relations with the Zionist entity. If the rejectionist powers and states are punished these days, it is because these powers have rejected a humiliating settlement with the Israeli enemy,” Raad told a rally held in the southern city of Nabatieh to eulogize former lawmaker Rafik Shahin, who died more than a week ago.
Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad slammed Obama’s speech, saying it was based on “dualism” and gave priority to Israel’s security. “Obama’s speech was filled with all criteria of selectivity, dualism and exploitation. This kind of bribery cannot mislead our Arab peoples. Everyone realizes that America’s only concern is Israel’s interests and that America’s priority is Israel’s security,” Fayyad told a Resistance and Liberation Day rally in the southern village of Qantara.


Syrian soldiers fortify border positions
May 23, 2011
By Antoine Amrieh, Youssef Diab The Daily Star WADI KHALED, Lebanon:
The Syrian army fortified its positions on the northern Lebanese border over the weekend, as residents of northern Lebanon warned of a looming humanitarian crisis.
For its part, the Lebanese Army reinforced border patrols, tightening security along the border towns of Boqaya and Debabiyeh.
Around 5,000 Syrians have already fled to the border area around Wadi Khaled since the start of popular demonstrations in Syria and some of them are currently living inside schools, according to human rights groups.
While the crackdown on protests in several Syrian cities continued over the weekend, measures taken by the Syrian Army completely stopped the flow of refugees into Lebanon.
In Boqaya, where many Lebanese have welcomed Syrian refugees into their homes, one resident told The Daily Star that the situation was becoming critical.
“A humanitarian crisis will surface in a few days, especially after the refugees have heard of the lootings and break-ins of their property in Syria,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a statement Sunday, Akkar’s Future Movement MPs said that the aid to Syrian refugees in north Lebanon would be sped up because of the Lebanese people’s sense of humanity.
In the statement, the MPs reiterated that they stood by the Syrian refugees and vowed to provide humanitarian aid to the people who had fled their homes.
Hours after the Future Movement statement, a group of political parties and officials in Akkar denounced what they called the “abusive practices” of the Future Movement, embassies and human-rights groups toward the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Following a meeting at the residence of former MP Mustafa Hussein Sunday, officials from Akkar called on the government and the international community to help the Syrian refugees. The meeting also accused the Future Movement of exaggerating the situation of the refugees and inciting fear among Syrian families near the border. “The people of Akkar are not in a position to intervene in Syrian domestic affairs and Akkar won’t become a place that targets the brotherly relationship between the two countries,” said a statement following their meeting. Despite pressure by human-rights organizations on the Lebanese authorities, more than a dozen Syrians refugees are being held at detention centers across the country, according to a security source. The source told The Daily Star that 13 Syrians are in police custody and have been accused of entering Lebanese territories illegally. Seven of them were handed over to the Internal Security Forces by the Lebanese Army in Beirut, while four are being held at the Qoba prison in Tripoli.
“Two wounded Syrians are at Tripoli’s public hospital under police custody,” the source added. A judicial source said that local judicial authorities are directly responsible for the safety of the refugees, after several media reports said that the Lebanese Army have forcibly handed over three Syrian soldiers, who had crossed into Lebanon, to the Syrian authorities.
Lebanon, which has been a member of the United Nations Convention Against Torture since 2000, is obligated to provide temporary asylum to any and all foreign citizens wielding the proper justifications

Lebanese business makes up 35 percent of Ivory Coast economy
May 23, 2011 /The Daily Star staff
“Lebanese own 50 percent of the industrial sector, 99 percent of malls, and 80 percent of the fish trade and export industry, 60 percent of the construction sector, 75 percent of the import and export in wood, and 70 percent of the publications sector,” Khoury said. BEIRUT: Lebanese expatriates in Ivory Coast account for 35 percent of the African country’s economy, the head of the Lebanese Chamber of Commerce for Trade and Industry in Abidjan said Monday. Joseph Khoury’s remarks came at a conference with Foreign Minister Ali Shami and the director general of the Foreign Ministry Haitham Joumaa in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, during Shami’s four-day visit to Ivory Coast, the National News Agency reported.
The conference focused on the role Lebanese play in Ivory Coast’s economy and the need to strengthen and preserve that role.
“Lebanese own 50 percent of the industrial sector, 99 percent of malls, and 80 percent of the fish trade and export industry, 60 percent of the construction sector, 75 percent of the import and export in wood, and 70 percent of the publications sector,” Khoury said, adding that Lebanese own 4,000 institutions that provide labor for 300,000 workers.
In April, 8,000 Lebanese expatriates fled the war-town Ivory Coast as many were caught in the crossfire of fighting between newly elected President Alassane Ouattara and former president Laurent Gbagbo, who had clung to power after his election defeat. In a statement released on Apr. 27, Lebanese Ambassador to Ivory Coast said that Lebanese in Ivory Coast were facing massive losses of property and livelihoods. An estimated 90,000 Lebanese expatriates live in Ivory Coast, 90 percent in Abidjan.
Joumaa emphasized the importance of showcasing Lebanese expatriates in a positive light.“[We should] explain to the Ivorian public that we are not here to take advantage of their resources ... we are faithful to this country and our success is vital,” Joumaa said during the conference.
During the conference, Shami praised the work of the Lebanese government and the Foreign Ministry during the fighting in the African country, urging Lebanese not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. As the conflict in the West African country intensified, Lebanese consul to Ivory Coast Reda Traboulsi urged the Lebanese government to protect the community, as accusations that Lebanon had sided with Gbagbo raised fears over the safety of expatriates

U.N. urges steps to prevent repitition of border violence
May 23, 2011 /The Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: The United Nations called on Lebanese officials to work together with UNIFIL and prevent repetition of the border conflict between Palestinians and Israeli forces, U.N. official Michael Williams said, as Palestinians prepare to march to the Blue Line on June 5. The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the two discussed ways to avoid repetition of the tragedy which occurred in Maroun al-Ras on May 15.Israeli troops Sunday shot dead 15 people and wounded hundreds more as Palestinians marched on the country’s borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, each home to generations of Palestinians deprived of their right to return to Palestine ever since the establishment of the Jewish state.Eleven people were killed and more than 100 people were wounded in Lebanon.
“I think all of us need to work to prevent any repetition of that tragedy, the LAF, UNIFIL, the Palestinians and the Lebanese authorities,” Williams said following the meeting, his press office said. A second march to the Blue Line is planned for June 5 to mark the 54th anniversary of 1967 war, and Hamas committee member Yasser Azzam, who helped organize the May 15 Nabka march, said he expected a big turnout. “This march on June 5 will be for all Palestinians. Within the organizers, there will be Hamas, Fatah, other Palestinian [parties] and Hezbollah,” Azzam added. United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon deputy spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said that the peacekeeping force had received no information regarding future southern demonstrations, but reiterated that it would be willing to assist with security if asked by the Lebanese Army. “The aim of this march is to send the Israelis a message, that the Palestinian people have said their word and decided to return to their borders of 1948.”The two also discussed the situation in the south and the implementation of Resolution 1701, as Williams emphasized the urgent need for Lebanon to have a functioning government. “There are many problems before Lebanon, problems of economy, problems of security and these problems are growing, they grow by the day," Williams said, adding that the issue of Lebanon's maritime resources could only be tackled with the formation of a new Cabinet.

Aridi hails the struggle of southerners against Israel
May 23, 2011/ By Mohammed Zaatari /The Daily Star
NABATIEH: Caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi hailed over the weekend the struggle of southerners to fight Israel during a tour in south Lebanon to inspect plans of development projects.Aridi added that the delay in the formation of a government was weighing heavily on all vital sectors.
Speaking before Hezbollah officials at the Mleeta tourist complex, which showcases the resistance’s military operations against Israeli forces prior to the liberation of May 2000, Aridi said that the failure to form a Cabinet was obstructing development projects. “The Works Ministry cannot fix a hole on the road because it lacks political decision making power, as well as financing. We are all concerned with the prompt formation of a government to serve the interests of all Lebanese and confront foreign threats, particularly by Israel,” Aridi said Saturday.
“We need to form a Cabinet as soon as possible … every day that we delay reflects negatively on all Lebanese, particularly the political parties that agreed to nominate Najib Mikati as prime minister,” he added. Aridi also praised those behind the construction of the Mleeta complex, hailing it as a way to commemorate the achievements of the resistance.
Before his tour at Mleeta complex, Aridi, in the company of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc leader Mohammad Raad, inspected plans to expand a bridge connecting Nabatieh to Iqlim al-Kharoub. On his arrival to Raad’s village of Jbaa, Aridi met with local municipal officials and vowed that the ministry would kick off construction on a road linking the suburbs of Sidon to the village of Haboush in the Nabatieh region. According to local officials, the road is necessary to promote tourism and investment in the area.
Raad, who offered Aridi an honorary shield, hailed the minister’s visit to the Mleeta, which he said “witnessed the defeat of the Israeli enemy.”
“The tour [of the complex] marks the historic path of men who dug into these mountains with determination stronger than the enemy’s weapons and its terrorism,” Aridi told reporters.
After his tour, Aridi attended a lunch banquet in the village of Alwazir, attended by several Amal Movement lawmakers as well as south Lebanon military and security officials.
Speaking at the banquet, Raad said that Hezbollah’s efforts to build a strong state to serve the Lebanese people would not divert the resistance’s attention away from strategic issues.
Raad added that obstacles reportedly hindering the government formation process were not acceptable at a time when Israel and the U.S. sought to undermine resistance movements in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Raad also cited previous governments’ failure to establish development projects in south Lebanon to provide job opportunities to residents.

U.S. maintains Lebanon on IPR protection Watch List
May 23, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: In its annual Special 301 review of the state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement around the world, the Office of the United States Trade Representative maintained Lebanon on the Watch List, along with 29 other nations and jurisdictions. The USTR placed Lebanon on the Watch List in 1999 and then downgraded it to the more critical Priority Watch List in 2001 where it remained till 2007. It then upgraded Lebanon to the Watch List in 2008, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. The USTR also included 12 countries this year on its Priority Watch List. Countries from the Middle East & Africa on the 2011 Watch List include Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and Turkey, while Algeria and Israel remained on the more critical Priority Watch List. The USTR indicated that Lebanon continued to work on improving its IPR legislative framework in 2010. It said the Lebanese Parliament ratified the WIPO Internet Treaties, and began work on amendments to the Patent Law to provide an effective system for protecting against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test and other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products.
It added that the Judicial Training Institute will include for the first time IPR courses in its training program for new judges, starting in the fall of 2011.
The USTR expressed hope that this would help increase judicial awareness about the importance of effective protection and enforcement of IPR.
The USTR noted, however, that several other necessary legislative measures concerning IPR remain pending. It said that the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau of the police department still lacks ex officio authority, even though it tried to improve its enforcement efforts. Further, rights holders must file a complaint before the Bureau may initiate a criminal investigation, which presents a major hurdle to effective IPR enforcement. It encouraged Lebanese authorities to increase their efforts to combat piracy and counterfeiting effectively, including the counterfeiting of medicines. It also pledged to continue working with Lebanon to strengthen its IPR laws and improve its enforcement regime through Lebanon’s WTO accession process and other bilateral areas. In parallel, the USTR said the statute of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences trade program has expired at the end of 2010.
The GSP provided unilateral duty-free access of goods from Lebanon and other developing countries to the U.S. market based on “the adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights.” Lebanon exported $38.4 million worth of duty-free products to the United States in 2010, equivalent to 45.7 percent of its total exports to the U.S. last year, compared to $43.6 million, or 56.5 percent of total exports to the U.S. in 2009. The USTR “accepted for review” in September 2003 a petition from the International Intellectual Property Alliance to have the U.S. government evaluate whether to suspend some or all of Lebanon’s benefits under the GSP trade program for failure to adequately protect copyrights.
The IIPA said that if the U.S. Congress reauthorizes the GSP statute, its petition to review whether Lebanon should continue to receive duty-free treatment for many of its goods imported into the U.S. should remain ongoing until Lebanon enacts the draft legislation currently being considered.

Hezbollah, south revive Resistance Day May 23, 2011
By Mohammed Zaatari /The Daily Star
SIDON, Lebanon: Residents in south Lebanon started celebrating Resistance and Liberation Day early this year, marking 11 years since Israel withdrew from the south in 2000 after more than two decades of occupation. Celebrations and activities for the national holiday, which falls on May 25, are coming shortly after thousands of Palestinians marched to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the “Nakba” on May 15, when in Maroun al-Ras Israeli forces opened fire on the protesters, killing 11 and injuring dozens.
This year, Hezbollah is working to revive the spirit of Resistance and Liberation Day, which has been overshadowed by the more recent 34-day 2006 summer war with Israel.
“The blaze of victory has not faded, but we are rekindling the May 25 anniversary as it [marks] a new page in the history of this nation,” a Hezbollah media official, Ali Daher said.
According to Daher, a number of activities are planned for Resistance and Liberation Day, which will feature political and society figures as well as local celebrities.
Daher said that in addition to celebrations across the country, the main festival will take place in the city of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa, where Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will make an appearance.
“This year’s activities will have greater momentum in both form and number, despite the passage of 11 years since the liberation,” Daher said.
He added that the celebrations at Fatima’s Gate and in the village of Maroun al-Ras will be marked by the killings of the protesters this month.
Daher added that participation of Palestinians in the celebrations had not been planned, but Palestinian organizations and associations may make their way to Maroun al-Ras, Kfar Kila or other areas near the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Amal Movement, Hezbollah’s ally, is participating in the commemoration of Resistance and Liberation Day with joint celebrations with Hezbollah. The movement will also hold celebrations in areas under its influence. Banners and signs for the May 25 victory have been set up along roads on the southern coast and mountains, especially those near the border with Israel. Posters of Nasrallah are interspersed with posters of Speaker Nabih Berri, the head of Amal, along the roads and entrances of southern villages and posters recalling the withdrawal of Israeli troops have been posted in the villages that were most damaged by the Israeli occupation. A number of former detainees attended Sunday a celebration in an indoor hall in the Khiam detention center, which was partially destroyed by Israeli forces during the 2006 Lebanese Israeli war.  Standing with other former captives near the rubble of her prison cell, Fatimia Sharafidinne spoke of the pain and humiliation she suffered in the years she spent there. She said that Resistance and Liberation Day was the day when she and her fellow captives escaped from hell. The detention center is now considered a monument to the resistance and has seen thousands of visitors. Tanks, cannons and Israeli artillery are displaced in its courtyard and visitors can take pictures in front of the tanks and cannons, while army personnel patrol the courtyard. “In 2000, I was still in my mother’s womb and I don’t know what happened, but I remember the events of July 2006 and that many children died,” said 11-year-old Mohammad Shahrour, a visitor to the center. Meanwhile, hundreds of the families of Hezbollah martyrs stood along the Lebanese-Israeli border, near Fatima’s Gate in the village of Kfar Kila, as part of a trip organized by Hezbollah. Some of the orphans played on the swings in the Iranian-funded Fatima Gate garden. Hussein Mahmoud, who lost his father in the 2006 war, said “my father died a martyr and he’s in heaven now. I hate Israel and when I grow up I want to shoot Israelis.” “We have raised our children to fight Israel. One generation dies and another waits,” a martyr’s wife said.

Jordan's king boycotts Abbas. Moscow: Hamas must recognize Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 23, 2011, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has run into blank walls in his ploy for using a unity pact between his Fatah and the extremist Hamas as the fulcrum for a diplomatic offensive against Israel to climax in UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September. This is reported by debkafile's exclusive Middle East sources.
Since his unity pact with Hamas was signed on May 4 Jordan's King Abdullah has refused to receive him or any of his messengers. Sunday, May 22, when Abbas asked for an urgent interview, the king told his office to stop transferring any more of these requests.
The king accuses the Palestinian leader of betraying his commitment under a secret agreement to give Abdullah advance notice and consult with him on any moves for reconciliation with Hamas. By keeping the king in the dark, Abbas is held guilty of jeopardizing Jordan's national security. The Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas offshoot are the most powerful force opposing the throne in the Hashemite Kingdom. Enhancing Hamas' hand in the Palestinian stakes has major ramifications for Jordan's domestic political equilibrium. Abdullah's boycott of the Palestinian leader covers the cutoff of Jordanian intelligence ties with Palestinian counterparts.
Abbas had been counting on meeting the king in Amman Sunday to receive a briefing on his talks with US President Barack Obama at the White House on May 18, the day before Obama unveiled his Middle East policy. Abdullah not only denied him that interview but asked US officials not to share the content of his conversation with Obama with any Palestinian. Abbas thus lost a vital source of information on US administration plans.
Abbas went to Amman Sunday nonetheless. He was fobbed off with Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, whose brief is limited to domestic affairs, while the king takes personal charge of strategic, security and external policies. From Bakhit, Abbas heard the complaint that while everyone harps on the Palestinian refugees "right of return," no one talks about its applications to Jordan; neither have any mechanisms been put in place for its execution. He asked Abbas for answers on the mechanism and the criteria he envisages for relieving the Kingdom of Jordan of its burden of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. debkafile's Middle East sources disclose that the rift between the Jordanian monarch and Abbas is also blocking Palestinian channels to the Saudi royal house. One reason for Jordan's Abdullah eagerly snatching up the invitation to join the GCC was his estrangement from Abbas. A condition for his joining the Gulf emirates grouping was a commitment to refer all Palestinian issues on the emirates' tables to Jordan, which would concentrate the handling of those issues in Amman.
Saudi King Abdullah accepted this condition.
After being outmaneuvered in the Arab arena, the Palestinian leader's plans to internationalize the Palestinian-Israel dispute and confront Israel with a Palestinian state with 1967 borders ran into another impediment – in Moscow. In a bid to outmaneuver Washington's role as sponsor of the peace process, Abbas turned to Russia in deference to its veto power at the UN Security Council. He offered to transfer negotiations on the next phase of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation to Moscow.
Abbas duly arrived in the Russian capital Friday, May 20, for the first session along with delegations from Hamas, the Democratic and Popular "Fronts" and the Palestinian al-Shaab communist party. But to his dismay, the Russians stalled the opening session, debkafile's Moscow sources reveal, demanding that all the Palestinian factions represented must first accept the three standing stipulations of the Middle East Quartet (US, Russia, EU and the UN), namely recognize Israel, abjure violence and accept previous international commitments. Hamas stood by its adamant refusal to accept any of those conditions. And so the Palestinian leader was confronted with exactly the same impediment in Moscow as the one placed in his path by President Barack Obama on May 22, when he assured the American-Israel lobby's conference that his administration stood by the demand for all Palestinian negotiating partners to abide by those same conditions. Hamas was thus cut out of the diplomatic equation on three fronts along with its new partner, Mahmoud Abbas.
Monday, May 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arranged to meet the visiting Palestinian delegations to discuss the deadlock.

Hesitant Turkey
Ana Maria Luca, /May 23, 2011 /Now Lebanon
In a house in Wadi Khaled, a Lebanese village in the northern region of Akkar, several Syrian men who crossed the border into Lebanon to escape the Syrian security forces’ crackdown on anti-regime protesters sat around a living room, sipping from small cups of Turkish coffee and debating their political program. They said that they are all from the Homs district, that they were involved in protests and that they want democracy for their country: the Turkish type of democracy.
“We want a liberal system based on the separation of powers, a multi-party system, institutions. We like the Turkish Justice and Development Party’s economic ideas, its openness to the West. Relations based on dialogue [and giving] importance to institutions, principles and political opinions, is where we should start from,” an activist, who acts as a spokesperson for the group, told NOW Lebanon.
In Syria, Turkey has been seen as a supporter of the protests after it received around 240 refugees through the Hatay border crossing and hosted a meeting of the opposition in Istanbul. In Banyas, one of the cities where the crackdown on the revolt has been very harsh, protesters carried pictures of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also the head of the center-right Turkish Justice and Development Party, which holds the majority in the parliament in Ankara.
Syrian opposition figures gathered on April 26 in Istanbul at a meeting organized by Turkish NGOs in support of the uprising in Syria. The chairman of the Movement for Justice and Development in exile, Anas Abdah, said that Turkey should get tougher on Syria.
But is Turkey really so supportive of the uprising in Syria? Professor Veysal Ayhan of the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies in Ankara says that the Turkish government is quite hesitant in taking a stance, especially since it has engaged Damascus heavily over the past eight years.
“When the revolts started in Daraa and the Assad regime used force against the demonstrators, the Turkish government supported the regime and started talking about the reforms in Syria,” Ayhan told NOW Lebanon, referring to the visits Turkish officials made to Damascus asking President Bashar al-Assad to grant freedom of speech and create a parliamentary system in his country.
During Erdogan's term in office, Turkey and Syria signed a free trade agreement, visa requirements on Syrians traveling to Turkey were lifted, and Bashar al-Assad visited Ankara in 2004 after 47 years of cold Turkish-Syrian relations.
“However, although Turkey expressed demand for reforms, it also abstains from criticizing the Assad regime for violating human rights. Apart from ‘We do not want to see any new Hama’ statement, there was no condemnation of the Syrian government for the deaths during the protests in Syria,” Ayhan said, adding that any change that might happen in Syria will affect Turkey in all aspects – politically, economically and socially.
Ayhan says that Turkey would prefer to be a mediator between the opposition and the regime in Damascus. “But the Syrian regime was not responsive and preferred to keep its alliance with the Iranian regime, and it’s been two weeks already since the Syrian regime stopped meeting with Turkish diplomats.”
“My personal opinion is that President Assad is not willing to make too many compromises. He won’t agree to give the opposition more rights and start real reforms; he just wants to give them some minor rights to keep them appeased so that he can continue his own way,” the analyst explained. “The Assad regime is not ready to start real reforms, while the opposition knows what it wants. The regime plays the card of sectarian strife in the country, but if we look at Syrian history, we don’t find any time when the Syrians engaged in any such sectarian conflict. They lived together for so long.”
The activists in Wadi Khaled say they know that it is as important for them to have Turkish support as it is to have the international community pressuring the Assad regime. One activist says he understands Turkey’s concerns. “There is something that we are aware of, and so is the international community, and that is that Syrian society is made of diverse sects and ethnicities. The majority [Sunnis] has been deprived for a long time of practicing its real ideas, opinions and convictions.”
“But we want free democratic elections, based on political headlines and ideas and projects. We hope not to see a senate representing sects, tribes. We want real national projects, a parliament seeking reform, fight corruption, aiming at dialogue and openness,” he said.