LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِNovember 08/2011

Bible Quotation for today/The Parable of the Sower & Its Explanation
Matthew 13/01-09: " That same day Jesus left the house and went to the lakeside, where he sat down to teach. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the crowd stood on the shore. He used parables to tell them many things. Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep. But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty.  And Jesus concluded, Listen, then, if you have ears!
13/18-23 Listen, then, and learn what the parable of the sower means. Those who hear the message about the Kingdom but do not understand it are like the seeds that fell along the path. The Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in them. The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they hear it. But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once. The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit. And the seeds sown in the good soil stand for those who hear the message and understand it: they bear fruit, some as much as one hundred, others sixty, and others thirty.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Has Iran ended Israel's Begin Doctrine?/By Dan Williams/Reuters/November 07/11
Finnish delusions/by Efraim Karsh/The Jerusalem Post/November 07/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 07/11
Report: IAEA to say Iran nearing nuclear capability
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: Iran's regime has 'no legitimacy left'
Condoleezza Rice: I have no doubt Israel will defend itself against Iran
Ahmadinejad Warns against Attack, Says Israel's End Imminent
Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami Hits Out at U.N. Nuclear Chief
Russia says strike on Iran 'very serious mistake'
Yehezkel Dror / Here's how to decide whether to support an attack on Iran
Iran complains to UN over U.S. accusation of Saudi assassination plot
March 14 Rejects Fruitless Dialogue that is Held for Appearances
Miqati Stresses Need to Cooperate with STL Ahead of Meeting with Cameron
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani Rejects Bickering with International Community, Slams Divisions
Aoun Says Security Council 'Imposed' STL on Lebanon
Standing by Assad, Lebanon's Alawites wait and watch
Fares Soaid: Lebanese Supporters of Syrian Regime Would Collapse with it
Sources: Wael Abbas was Held in Syria for 20 Days
Ain al-Hilweh Tense after Fatah Member Wounded
4 Syrians Robbed in Bekaa, Abducted Lebanese Freed
Lebanon man released after two days in captivity
West fears revival of armed pro-Damascus groups in Lebanon: report
19 Killed as Syrians Rally on Eid al-Adha
Arabs Say Syria Not Honoring Roadmap, Assad Vows to 'Win Any Battle'
Syrian forces kill 13 as Arab League calls meeting
Tehran: For an Israeli attack, four Iranian missiles would hit a million Israelis
Assad's Move Against Facebook
U.S. cautions on Syria deal, says Assad must go
Syria Opposition Calls for Declaring Homs ‘Humanitarian Disaster Area’
Kuwait Denies Plan to Bolster U.S. Troops in Country
Greek PM Steps Down for Unity Government
U.S. Warns Nigerian Extremists May Target Hotels in Capital
Miss Venezuela Wins Miss World Crown

Report: IAEA to say Iran nearing nuclear capability
Details from UN nuclear watchdog report continue to leak. Iran apparently mastered critical steps needed to build nuclear weapon with help of former Soviet weapons scientist, Washington Post reports Monday.
Reuters Published: 11.07.11, 09:35 / Israel News
Details from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report regarding the Iranian nuclear program continue to leak. Intelligence provided to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency shows that Iran has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
According to the intelligence, Iran appears to have received crucial technical assistance from foreign experts, the newspaper reported, citing Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings by the IAEA.
The Washington Post said the report's findings provide new details on the role played by former Soviet weapons scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko who allegedly tutored Iranians on high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, the nuclear experts said. Danilenko was described as a key element who helped the Iranians over at least five years, giving lectures and sharing research papers on developing and testing an explosives package that the Iranians apparently incorporated into their warhead design. His’s role was judged to be so critical that IAEA investigators devoted considerable effort to obtaining his cooperation, the newspaper said. The scientist acknowledged his role but said he thought his work was limited to assisting civilian engineering projects, the sources said.There is no evidence that Russian government officials knew of Danilenko’s activities in Iran.The IAEA report indicates that Iran purchase sensitive nuclear technology and may be able to quickly assemble a bomb if it chose to. Nevertheless, the Washington Post reported that US officials fear an exaggerated reponse to the report as the US feels it has sufficient time to convince Tehran to change its behavior.Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinajed on Sunday issued his first response to reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iran and talk of fresh sanctions. The United States fears Iran's growing military power because it is now able to compete with Israel and the West, he said. Iran is increasing in capability and advancement and therefore we are able to compete with Israel and the West and especially the United States," he added. Ahmadinejad added: "It is Israel that has about 300 nuclear warheads. Iran is only keen to have nuclear capability for peaceful means." Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to this report

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: Iran's regime has 'no legitimacy left'
Former Secretary of State says Washington should mull tougher sanctions against Tehran, 'do everything to bring regime down'
Associated Press Published: 11.06.11, 17:43 / Israel News
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday said the US should consider even tougher penalties against Iran's government and "be doing everything we can to bring it down."
Rice told ABC's "This Week" that the US should never take the option of military force off the table when it comes to dealing with Iran She noted the current Iranian government is trying to obtain a nuclear weapon and has repressed its own people, adding that "the regime has absolutely no legitimacy left." Also on Sunday, reports of a possible Israeli strike in Iran continued to dominate the political agenda in Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting. Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan slammed the chairman of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee MK Shaul Mofaz who criticized the cabinet members. "I believe all this chatter gravely damaged the State of Israel," Erdan said. Minister Michael Eitan called on his fellow ministers and other officials to cease making public statements on the matter. "The law restricts public servants who are privy to information pertaining to state security and this applies in this case too," he said. Diplomats have told The Associated Press over the weekend that the UN atomic agency (IAEA) plans to disclose intelligence this coming week suggesting that Iran made computer models of a nuclear warhead. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for peaceful aims such as energy production.

Condoleezza Rice: I have no doubt Israel will defend itself against Iran
By Shlomo Shamir and Haaretz /Latest update07.11.11/Former Secretary of State says pressure on Iran is absolute must to prevent 'unintended consequences' of Israeli attack.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she is sure the Israelis will defend themselves against the Iranians if they were to reach nuclear capabilities.
“I don’t have any doubt that the Israelis will defend themselves if the Iranians look as if they really are about to cross that nuclear threshold," Rice told Newsmax in a TV interview.
Rice maintained that pressure on Iran must continue in order to prevent an Israeli attack. "Pressure on the Iranian regime is an absolute must, because the unintended consequences of an attack by Israel on Iran, the very fact that we talk about something like that, shows how extremely crucial this issue is," Rice told Newsmax. Earlier Monday, Western experts reported that Iran has acquired the knowledge, technology, and resources to build a nuclear bomb within months, according to a report by the United Nations' atomic agency they were briefed on.
Moreover, Israel's media has been rife with speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to secure cabinet consensus for an attack on Iranian nuclear installations.
Russia's foreign minister warned on Monday that an Israeli military strike against Iran would be a grave mistake with unpredictable consequences. "This would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said when asked about reports that Israel planned a military strike against Iran.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami Hits Out at U.N. Nuclear Chief
Naharnet/ Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami warned the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday not to become "an instrument without will in the hands of the United States" against Iran. The hardline cleric hit out at IAEA director general Yukiya Amano in an address during communal prayers in Tehran marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast.
"If Mr. Amano acts like an instrument without will in the hands of the United States and publishes lies by presenting them as documents, the IAEA will lose the little credibility it has left," said Khatami, an influential cleric who often leads Friday prayers in Tehran.
His comments come as the U.N. nuclear watchdog prepares to circulate an intelligence update among its members on Tuesday or Wednesday which is expected to focus on Iran's alleged efforts towards putting radioactive material in a warhead and developing missiles. "The report is not going to include some sort of 'smoking gun'," one Western diplomat told Agence France Presse. "But it will be an extensive body of evidence that will be very hard for Iran to refute as forgery, as they have done in the past."
Iranian officials have already seen the Vienna-based IAEA's information, diplomats told AFP, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published in Iran on Sunday that it was based on "counterfeit" claims. Amano said in a September report he was "increasingly concerned" about the "possible military dimension" of Iran's atomic activities, including those "related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile."Western officials cited by The Washington Post said the intelligence reinforced concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 when, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.
The newspaper reported Sunday that the Iranian government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon after receiving assistance from foreign scientists.
Citing unnamed Western diplomats and nuclear experts, the newspaper said a former Soviet weapons scientist had allegedly tutored Iranians on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, the report said.
Source Agence France Presse

Tehran: For an Israeli attack, four Iranian missiles would hit a million Israelis
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 6, 2011,
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) new agency Fars headlined a threat Sunday, Nov. 6: Four Iranian missiles can destroy tiny Israel, said the paper in Tehran's first reaction to the flood of conflicting reports about a possible Israel attack on Iran's nuclear sites. However, Iran's leaders are divided on how to assess the seriousness of an Israeli or American threat to their nuclear program and this is reflected in their various media. The writer of the Fars story is identified by debkafile's Iranian sources as Saad-allah Zarey, its senior military commentator and a crony of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He stressed that the four missiles capable of causing the Zionist entity a million casualties would be conventional. According to those sources point that the experiences of the Gulf war show that this number of ordinary missiles could not cause anything like the damage calculated by the writer. What Zarey may be referring to are the stubborn rumors going around Western intelligence circles since early 2005 that during the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tehran laid hands on black market nuclear cruise missiles form the Ukraine and 3 to 5 more from Belarus.debkafile cites a BBC report of March 18, 2005:
Ukrainian arms dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in 1999-2001, Ukraine's prosecutor-general has said. The Soviet-era Kh-55 missiles - also known as X-55s - have a maximum range of 2,500km. They are launched by long-range bombers. The Kh-55, known in the West as the AS-15, is designed to carry a nuclear warhead with a 200-kiloton yield.
Our military sources add that with these missiles in hand, Iranian warplanes could bombard Israel 1,200 kilometers away without leaving their own air space.
The Ukrainian prosecutor-generalclaimed at the time that the missiles were not exported with nuclear warheads.
However our sources cite Western intelligence as suspecting that Tehran obtained those warheads from Belarus or from unconventional arms traffickers based in the Muslim Republics which were part of the USSR up until the 1990s. And indeed the Fars report did not specify what warheads the "conventional" missiles would carry.
Saad-allah Zarey described Israel as so small and vulnerable that even 100 Israeli bombs would not substantially damage Iran which is 80 times larger in area, whereas in a missile war Israel would not have enough time to rally its defenses. Therefore, he concludes, the chances of Israel or the US launching a military operation against Iran are slight.
Iran's most radical publication Kayhan finds in its Sunday editorial that Israel is too weak and America to exhausted to do much harm to Iran. Past experience has consistently shown that outside pressure makes Iran stronger, this paper says. Iran will come out on top of threats and sanctions compared with "Israel's defeat in its 33-day war against Hizballah," and America's "defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan." However, another state-controlled paper, Tehran Emrooz, takes the opposite tack. Its editorial writer advises against underestimating the chances of an American military assault. According to this publication, Washington is preparing a "shock and awe" strike on Iran while at the same time stepping up sanctions.
Another editorial in Sharq agrees that "enemy plans" to attack Iran should not be taken lightly.
While all these comments reflect the debate underway among the various factions in the Iranian regime on the likelihood of an attack, no Iranian official has so far stepped forward with a definitive position. Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei sent a message of greeting to the Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, but made no mention of the nuclear issue except for a warning of the "perils and enemies" in wait for the Islamic Republic. And Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi likewise held his tongue on the issue in a speech he made Sunday in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad Warns against Attack, Says Israel's End Imminent
Naharnet /Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States and Israel of seeking world support for a military strike on Iran, in comments published Monday in which he also warned against attacks on his country. Ahmadinejad, in an interview with Egypt's state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper, lashed out at Israel after its president, Shimon Peres, warned at the weekend that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely. Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, was "bound to collapse," Ahmadinejad said.
"Iran's capabilities are increasing and it is progressing, and for that reason it has been able to compete in the world. Now Israel and the West, particularly America, fear Iran's capabilities and role," he said."Therefore they are trying to gather international support for a military operation to stop (Iran's) role. The arrogant should know that Iran will not allow them to take any action against it," he said. Ahmadinejad, who repeated Iran's frequent denials that the Islamic state is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its atomic program is for peaceful purposes only, added that Washington wanted to "save the Zionist entity, but it will not be able to do so."
"This entity (Israel) can be compared to a liver transplanted in a body that rejected it," he said. "Yes it will collapse and its end will be near."
Peres warned in an interview aired by Israel's privately-owned Channel Two television on Saturday that an attack on Iran was becoming "more and more likely."
He followed this up in comments published on Sunday by the Israel Hayom daily, saying: "The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option. "We must stay calm and resist pressure so that we can consider every alternative," he added.
"I don't think that any decision has already been made, but there is an impression that Iran is getting closer to nuclear weapons," Peres added.
*Source Agence France Presse

Insight: Has Iran ended Israel's Begin Doctrine?
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM | Mon Nov 7, 2011
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Menachem Begin did not pull his punches. In 1981, as work neared completion on an Iraqi nuclear reactor that Israel believed would produce plutonium for warheads, the Israeli prime minister dispatched eight F-16 bombers to destroy the plant. Begin later said that the raid was proof his country would "under no circumstances allow the enemy to develop weapons of mass-destruction against our people".
The event defined a strategy that became known as the "Begin Doctrine" and is best summed up by the phrase "the best defense is forceful preemption."
Israel's message is now more guarded. In a civil defense drill of unprecedented scale last June, sirens summoned schoolchildren to shelters, radars searched the skies for computer-simulated missile salvoes, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet descended into the Jerusalem foothills to inaugurate a nuclear bunker with a mock war-session.
Why would a country that has long vowed to stop its foes attaining nuclear weapons need a nuclear bunker? The question highlights a new, reluctant restraint that has quietly infused Israeli decision-making in recent years as regional threats have grown more complex and sapped the applicability of classic force of arms. Nowhere is this felt more than in the Netanyahu government's posture toward Iran.
The spin of the Islamic republic's uranium centrifuges stirs mortal fear in the Jewish state. In defiance of western pressure to curb the project's bomb-making potential, Iran has pushed on with its nuclear program, saying it has no hostile designs. The International Atomic Energy Agency will say this week that Iran now has the ability to build a nuclear weapon, the Washington Post has reported. Israeli officials have long hinted they may launch a preemptive strike.
That threat has taken on fresh intensity in the two years since Netanyahu -- a right-wing ideologue like Begin -- assumed office. Media speculation that Israel might launch a unilateral strike has surged again in the past two weeks.
In October, the dean of Israeli pundits, Nahum Barnea, suggested on the front page of the best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the government was hatching an imminent attack. Days later Netanyahu warned of the "direct and heavy threat" posed by Iran's nuclear program and then, on November 2, Israel test-fired a missile. The same day the military said it had completed air exercises in Sardinia, "practicing operations in (a) vast, foreign land".
Such talk robs Israel of some of the element of surprise if it really is planning an assault on Iran. Could it instead be a loud reminder to the rest of the world of its problem with Iran in the hope that Washington or another power might intercede?
Interviews in recent months with government and military officials -- most speaking on condition of anonymity -- and independent experts suggest that Israel prefers caution over a unilateral strike against the Iranians.
The country has been digging in under sophisticated strategic defenses with at least as much energy as it has been preparing offensive options. Netanyahu's own circumspection is instructive.
As opposition leader in 2005, he told Israel Radio that in dealing with Iran he would "pursue the legacy" of Begin's "bold and courageous move" against Iraq. But as prime minister he has been less explicit -- both in public and, to judge by leaked U.S. diplomatic cables dated as recently as 2010, in closed-door meetings he and aides held with visiting American delegates. Instead, Israel has pushed its demand that world powers stiffen sanctions on Tehran and that the United States provide the vanguard of any last-ditch military move.
"The military option is not an empty threat, but Israel should not leap to lead it. The whole thing should be led by the United States, and as a last resort," Deputy Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel's Army Radio.
The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment directly on whether Netanyahu felt bound by the Begin Doctrine regarding Iran.
NO SILVER BULLET
Israelis have known for years that an attack on Iran would be much more difficult than their Iraq strike. Iran is larger, more distant and, perhaps because it learned the lessons of Iraq, has built numerous and well-fortified facilities. Taking these out would require a sustained campaign by the Israeli air force, which is more geared for precision strikes through the use of advanced technology.
"With Iran it's a different project. There is no one silver bullet (with which) you can hit," a senior Israeli defense official told Reuters, in a rare admission of his country's tactical and strategic limitations.
Iran has guerrilla allies across its borders in Lebanon and Gaza, against whom Israel fought costly wars in 2006 and 2009. With the Netanyahu government facing growing isolation -- its impasse with the Palestinians is deepening; its alliances with Turkey and Egypt fraying -- Israel acknowledges that it is reluctant to go it alone against the Iranians.
"We have to learn that the situation is changing, the region is changing. Not everything that was possible before is possible now and new possibilities open up," said Dan Meridor, deputy prime minister in charge of Israel's nuclear and intelligence affairs.
It was Meridor who recommended "defense" as a fourth pillar of Israeli national security in a secret memorandum he authored on behalf of the government in 2006. That report added to the three doctrinal "D's" set out by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, soon after the country's founding in a 1948 war with neighboring Arabs: detect enemies' threats, deter them with the promise of painful retribution and, if hostilities nonetheless ensue, defeat them quickly on their own turf.
"This was something counter-intuitive for Israel, especially for the military. Israelis like to be on the attack, not on the defensive," Meridor said.
While he declined to discuss the prospect of military action against Iran, Meridor distanced himself from the idea that the Begin Doctrine commits Israel to such a course.
"I am not sure what people mean when they use this term. In any event, there is no contradiction between any attack doctrine and a defense doctrine. They are complementary. If the attack doesn't does not solve the problem, then you need to be able to defend yourself."
LIMITS OF SHIELDS
The most obvious example of Israel's shifting stance is its pioneering missile shield, which incorporates a network of radar-guided interceptors designed to shoot down everything from the ballistic Shehab and Scud missiles of Iran and Syria to the lower-flying, Katyusha-style rockets of Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas.
In artist renditions at Israeli defense conferences, the shield covers Israel in overlapping bubbles, like some huge plexiglass Babushka doll. That sits in contrast to the publicity images of warplanes or tank columns taking the offensive, which used to define Israel's military self-image.
The shield is a work in progress. Its lowest tier, the short-range Iron Dome interceptor, was deployed this year. The top tier, Arrow, is designed to blow up threats above the atmosphere, high enough to safely vaporize a nuclear warhead. The Arrow III upgrade, due for live trials by early 2012, features a detachable satellite that will collide, kamikaze-like, with incoming missiles in space.
Many Israelis rankle at the idea that the shield, which was conceived following Iraq's use of conventional Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf war, should be relied on to stave off nuclear catastrophe.
"Hermetic protection will be impossible," Colonel Zvika Haimovitch of the air defense corps told Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in a September 5 speech. "I assess that, in any conflict, rockets and missiles will fall here."
But others, including INSS scholar and retired Israeli general Shlomo Brom, argue for Israel's defensive posture to be expanded, and perhaps even for the secrecy to be eased around the country's own, reputed atomic arsenal. Aiming to avoid a regional arms race and skirt international anti-proliferation scrutiny, Israel currently neither confirms nor denies having the bomb.
"The answer is mutual deterrence, with the other side knowing the price it would pay for launching a nuclear strike -- mutual destruction," said Brom.
Like Meridor, Brom dismissed the suggestion that the Iraqi reactor strike set a precedent for a potential Israeli strike on Iran. He notes Israel's decision not to take military action against suspected chemical weapons programs of Syria and Iraq has already undermined the Begin Doctrine.
SIGNALS FROM SYRIA
Israel did loose its jets on Syria in 2007, to destroy a desert installation that Washington later described as a nascent, North Korean-supplied atomic reactor. Damascus denied having such a facility and Israel has never formally taken responsibility for the raid. In his memoir, former U.S. President George W. Bush said Israel's prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert, preferred the reticence "because he wanted to avoid anything that might back Syria into a corner and force (President Bashar) Assad to retaliate".
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was not surprised that Israel went it alone. "I ... remembered 1981, when the Israelis had ignored world opinion and launched an air strike to destroy a nuclear reactor Saddam Hussein was building at Osirak in Iraq," Cheney wrote in his autobiography. "For the Syrians and the North Koreans ... the private message was clear -- Israel would not tolerate this threat."
But some argue the attack on Syria was designed to send a message to Iran.
"We noted a whole lot of Iranian interest in what happened in Syria -- trips by consultants, intense communication," said a one-time adviser to Olmert, breaking Israel's official silence around the episode.
By tackling Syria, Israel hoped to make the Iranians think twice about pursuing their nuclear program. To illustrate, the ex-adviser cited "Family Business", a 1989 crime drama in which a veteran jailbird, played by Sean Connery, counsels his grandson on how to survive prison: "You pick out a tough guy, kick his ass right away ... Word gets around, and it makes your time easier."
Of course, the Americans also took note. Visiting Israel last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was asked by a reporter about the possibility that the 2007 sortie augured an Israeli attack on Iran. Panetta did not answer directly. He made clear that Washington disapproved of the idea of unilateral action, but said "a number of countries in this region recognize the threat from Iran," and that concerned countries would "work together to do whatever is necessary to make sure that they do not represent a threat to this region."
TIME RUNNING OUT
Israelis often question U.S. President Barack Obama's resolve in the Middle East. But even if he loses power in next year's presidential election to a more hawkish Republican, it may be too late for Israel, which predicted last January that Iran could have its first nuclear device in two years. That forecast was echoed by Britain.
"If they (Israel) feel they could achieve their objective, or at least initiate the kind of conflict that would meet their objective, through a one-off strike, that would be feasible," said Richard Kemp, a retired British army colonel who has studied Israeli strategy.
Israel's military does not comment on prospective operations. But many in Israel's defense establishment have gone out of their way to downplay the feasibility of a unilateral attack. Former Mossad spymaster Meir Dagan has repeatedly ridiculed the idea in briefings to Israeli reporters.
"Attacking the reactors from the air is a stupid idea that would have no advantage," he said in May. "A regional war would be liable to unfold, during which missiles would come in from Iran and from Hezbollah in Lebanon."
The Mossad under Dagan, who retired in January, is widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet software attack on Iran's nuclear computer systems as well as the assassination of several Iranian scientists. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied those allegations.
And even Netanyahu has shown signs of being gun shy -- certainly when compared to his predecessor, the centrist Olmert, who ordered the Israeli wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
The prime minister's swift deployment of short-range Iron Dome interceptors outside the Hamas-ruled territory of Gaza in April helped scotch Palestinian rocket attacks that might have otherwise drawn an Israeli invasion.
In January 2010, after the United Arab Emirates accused the Mossad of murdering a senior Hamas arms procurer in his Dubai hotel room, Israeli officials whispered that such skullduggery was preferable to the civilian toll of another Gaza war.
Keeping the world guessing as to how -- and if -- a confrontation might happen is in itself part of Israel's strategy.
"I hope that the Iranians see an Israeli conspiracy in this," said Yaalon of the mixed messages emanating from the Netanyahu government and its detractors, like Dagan. "That could help."
(Edited by Simon Robinson, Crispian Balmer, Chris Kaufman and Sara Ledwith)

March 14 Rejects Fruitless Dialogue that is Held for Appearances
Naharnet /March 14 MPs have rejected to become “false witnesses” in Speaker Nabih Berri’s renewed initiative to launch the national dialogue, saying the all-party talks would end up in the vicious cycle of Hizbullah’s arms. In remarks to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published on Monday, MP Elie Marouni said that the March 14-led opposition “rejects to become the false witness of a dialogue that is called for by the March 8 forces.” The lawmaker said the all-party talks would continue to revolve around Hizbullah’s weapons and the national defense strategy without any solution. Marouni stressed that March 14 doesn’t reject dialogue but said the pro-government forces have bad intentions. Another March 14 MP, Antoine Zahra, stressed that Hizbullah’s arms is the only remaining item on the agenda.The Lebanese Forces is ready to participate in the dialogue if it was only going to focus on Hizbullah’s arms and the defense strategy, he said. Opposition MP Butros Harb told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) on Monday that Berri re-launched efforts to hold the national dialogue because the country is in a crisis. “But I think the parties involved are not ready to go back to the dialogue table unless previously reached agreements such as the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are implemented,” he said. “The dialogue would be useless if it is only held for appearances,” Harb told the radio station. Last week, Berri held talks with al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora who has placed conditions on the dialogue’s resumption, namely the implementation of agreements reached during previous sessions, including those relating to the STL, the disarmament of bases outside the Palestinian refugee camps and the demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border. He also said that Hizbullah’s arms are the only remaining topic to be discussed at the all-party talks.

Premier Najib Miqati Stresses Need to Cooperate with STL Ahead of Meeting with Cameron
Naharnet /Premier Najib Miqati is scheduled to hold talks with his British counterpart David Cameron in London on Monday as his government is coming under increased western pressure to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. His press office said Miqati would discuss with Cameron the situation in the region, bilateral ties and ways to receive British technical, administrative and military assistance. Ahead of his talks with Cameron, Miqati met with Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Lord David Howell. He also discussed with the British Ambassador to Beirut Tom Fletcher the preparations for his meeting with the British PM.  U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman warned on Saturday that ties with Lebanon would suffer if Beirut fails to pay its share of funding to the tribunal that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins. "I’d expect the same thing in terms of some other countries as well," he said. Lebanon is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs of the court. But the Hizbullah-dominated government has yet to pay its share, estimated at $33 million. Miqati said Thursday that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah did not rule out funding the STL. “I did not conclude that (Nasrallah) said ‘no’ to the tribunal,” Miqati told the BBC. In remarks to Lebanese personalities residing in Britain, the premier stressed Monday “the need to fully cooperate with international resolutions including 1757” that established the STL. “We can’t be selective in asking the international community, the Security Council and the U.N. to support the full implementation of 1701 in southern Lebanon and at the same time say that we don’t want to implement another resolution,” he said. “I am sure that the cabinet will be at the level of responsibility” when the STL funding is put up for discussion,” Miqati said. “Whenever we find a solution to the issue of Lebanon’s share in the STL funding … we could go ahead in resolving the remaining essential issues,” he said.Miqati also urged the Lebanese to remain united and preserve the stability of the nation.

Soaid: Lebanese Supporters of Syrian Regime Would Collapse with it
Naharnet /March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said on Monday that Syria’s supporters in Lebanon would fall if the Assad regime collapses.In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), Soaid said: “If the Syrian regime collapses in the coming months, the Lebanese figures that revolve in its orbit will fall with it.”On the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the March 14 official said the Lebanese government has a “moral duty to support the logic of justice in Lebanon.”“This issue is not only linked to funding or a technical issue called the international tribunal,” he said in a hint that Lebanon should seek the truth and call for justice in the series of assassinations that rocked Lebanon after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 murder. “We are asking for a commitment to the morality of justice because a state can’t be built where there is no strong law,” Soaid told VDL. He slammed the government for putting all its resources at the disposal of the Syrian regime at the Arab League, the U.N. Security Council and even at the security and political level. But Soaid stressed the majority of the Lebanese believe that the Arab Spring and the Syrian revolution provide hope to end the rule of the regime that had controlled Lebanon for nearly 30 years.

19 Killed as Syrians Rally on Eid al-Adha
Naharnet /Security forces killed at least 19 civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the hajj, a human rights group said. It was the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to an Arab peace blueprint aimed at ending nearly eight months of bloodshed.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the killings made it clear that President Bashar al-Assad's regime had no intention of ending its bloody bid to crush dissent.
Sixteen of the civilians were killed in Homs, the flashpoint central city where protests against Assad's rule were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown.
Most of the deaths occurred in the Baba Amro neighborhood of Homs, where clashes have raged for days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.
Security forces also shot dead two civilians in the city of Hama, which lies further to the north, and another in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey.
And in Talbi, a town near Homs, "four protesters were wounded, one seriously, when the security forces fired on a demonstration," said the Britain-based Observatory.
"Dozens of people were injured by security forces who shot at a major demonstration in Kafrouma, an area of the province of Idlib, in the northwest of Syria," it added.
Security forces also fired teargas and shots in the air to disperse a demonstration in Damascus' western Kafar Sousseh neighborhood, the watchdog said.
Five protesters were wounded and more than 70 people arrested during the Kafar Sousseh crackdown, the Observatory said.
In other incidents, armed forces stormed and surrounded the villages of Zamalka and Irbin, in the province of Damascus, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), an activist network spurring protests in Syria. The latest reported crackdown on protests came as Syrian state radio said President Assad attended Al-Nour mosque in the northern town of Raqqa for prayers on Sunday morning to mark Eid al-Adha. But following the morning prayers, marches were held across the country in support of Homs and against the regime, said both the Observatory and the LCC. The latest deaths bring to at least 60 the number of people killed since Assad's government signed on to the Arab League peace plan on November 2.
The Arab roadmap calls for an end to violence, the release of those detained, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as talks between the regime and opposition. As a first step, Syria on Saturday said it had released more than 550 people who were arrested during anti-regime protests, to mark the Eid al-Adha feast. But the Syrian Observatory said detainees in prisons across Syria had on Sunday begun hunger strikes in protest at the authorities "who are not keeping their promises of freedom."
The French foreign minister said it was now clear there was "nothing more to expect" from Assad's regime in terms of honoring its commitments under the Arab peace plan.
"I personally think there is nothing more to expect from this regime and that, despite its occasional announcements, it will not commit to a program of reforms," Juppe told Europe 1 radio on Sunday. "Different initiatives have been taken to try to bring Bashar al-Assad to dialogue. You can see what happened to the last one: Bashar al-Assad accepts the Arab League peace plan and the next day he massacres dozens more people in the streets."Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said that failure of the peace deal agreed on Wednesday would be catastrophic and demanded an immediate end to the bloodshed. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 people have been killed in a brutal crackdown since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March. Source Agence France Presse/Associated Press

Arabs Say Syria Not Honoring Roadmap, Assad Vows to 'Win Any Battle'
Naharnet /Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss Syria's failure to implement an Arab proposal to end a crackdown on protests, the Arab League said on Sunday. A League statement said the Cairo meeting was called because of "the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plan to resolve the Syrian crisis."A foreign ministers task force which negotiated the deal that Syria signed on to last Wednesday will hold a preparatory meeting on Friday, the statement said. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed Sunday that “the Syrian people’s defiance in the face of sedition, terrorism and foreign intervention” was the basis of “Syria’s steadfastness against the conspiracies,” state-run news agency SANA quoted him as saying.
“Syria is strong through its people, national choices and free decision and it is keen on fully restoring its national rights,” SANA quoted Assad as telling “clan seniors and political, economic and social figures at al-Raqqa Governorate building after performing the Eid al-Adha prayer” at al-Nour mosque in the northern town.
“We have no choice but to win any battle that may target our sovereignty and national decision,” Assad pledged, as quoted by SANA.
The announcements came as a Britain-based Syrian rights group said security forces killed another 11 civilians during anti-regime protests on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha. Nine of the civilians were killed in Homs, the flashpoint central city where protests against Assad's rule were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown.
Most of the deaths occurred in the Baba Amro neighborhood of Homs, where clashes have raged for days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by Agence France Presse. The latest deaths bring to at least 60 the number of people killed since Assad's government signed on to the Arab League peace plan on November 2.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Saturday warned that that the failure of the peace deal -- which calls on President Bashar al-Assad to begin talks with opposition and end violence against protesters -- would be "catastrophic" for Syria and the region.
His deputy, Ahmed Ben Hilli, told AFP that Assad was given two weeks to start the talks but his regime should have ended the violence on November 2, when Syria agreed the proposal.
Several countries in the 22-member organization have been pushing for a freeze of Syria's membership, as the Arab League had done to Libya in February after its former regime cracked down on protests. But the Arab League has ruled out support for foreign intervention, which it backed in Libya's case with its call for a no fly zone.
Source Agence France Presse

West fears revival of armed pro-Damascus groups in Lebanon: report
November 06, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Western countries fear that armed Palestinian organizations loyal to Damascus have sprouted once again in Lebanon, An-Nahar reported over the weekend.
“Western sources have been talking about the return of Palestinian organizations loyal to Damascus in Palestinian camps,” the daily newspaper said in an article published Friday, adding that the resurgence of such organizations was the result of the deteriorating security situation in neighboring Syria.
Despite the decline in these organizations’ influence following the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005, the paper reported that these groups had returned through the border with Syria and spread into a number of Palestinian camps including the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, the Bourj al-Barajneh camp in south Beirut and the Ain el-Hilweh camp near the southern coastal city of Sidon The porous Lebanon-Syria border is poorly demarcated and there are disputed areas between the two countries. However, since the start of the anti government protests in Syria, both the Lebanese and the Syrian Army have bolstered their presence along the border in a bid to control it and prevent arms smuggling.
The report also said that Saiqa, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction, has restructured and a younger generation has taken the leadership.
Local security sources fear that the spread of these elements inside camps could also lead to violence, voicing concern of possible clashes with other organizations that already operate in the camps like the Fatah movement and others. The paper added that there were other fears that in the event of the deterioration of the security situation in Syria, there was a possibility of the return of political assassinations in the country.

Lebanon man released after two days in captivity
November 06, 2011/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: A man was safely released to his family Sunday after being held by his captors for two days, the National News Agency reported Sunday.
The agency said Maher Kiwan, a local from the north Beirut suburb of Dbayyeh, was released after he was abducted on Nov. 4 by a group of men from the Baalbek whom he owed $2,000. Kiwan’s father contacted the relevant security services, who helped secure his son’s release, after the abductors threatened to raise their ransom to $20,000 if they were not paid the sum they were owed, it added.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani Rejects Bickering with International Community, Slams Divisions
Naharnet /Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said Sunday that Lebanon should improve its relations with the international community and rejected any deal that would divide the region. “We should hold onto each other amid attempts to redraw the map of the world particularly in our Arab region,” Qabbani said in his Eid al-Adha sermon.
“We won’t allow for a new Sykes-Picot agreement in the Arab region that comes in Israel’s interest,” he said in reference to the 1916 deal that divided the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of future British and French influence. “We as Lebanese should preserve our friendship with abroad and work on improving our ties with the international community and avoid bickering with it,” he said. “Our only enemy is the Zionist entity which has usurped the land of Palestine, Lebanon and the Arabs,” he added.
Turning to the bickering between the March 8 and 14 forces, Qabbani said in his sermon that the word “minority” should be limited to the parliamentary representation.
“Minority should be dropped from our public, social and national lives,” he said. “We are all majorities and there are no differences between us,” Qabbani added.
He stressed that “Lebanon does not belong to anyone,” saying it neither belongs “to any sect nor to any party or movement or politician.”
Lebanon is for all its citizens who should reject its division, Qabbani told worshippers, asking them “do you want to break your country?”
“We should hold onto our nation … reject differences and walk hand in hand towards a strong and fair state in which the Lebanese race towards serving each other,” he said

Bkirki Sources: Al-Rahi Asked Ban to Announce Lebanon a Neutral State
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has suggested to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to announce Lebanon as a neutral country, Bkirki sources told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily on Sunday.The sources said that al-Rahi made the proposal during his visit to New York last month. He allegedly asked for U.N. assistance to achieve this objective which serves the stability of Lebanon and the region. The suggestion complements another proposal made by President Michel Suleiman to transform Lebanon into a permanent center of dialogue between cultures and civilizations, al-Anbaa said. “The positive neutrality that the patriarch is calling for means not to be a follower of any country or regional or international axis,” the sources said.
Al-Rahi celebrated mass in Bkirki on Sunday. In his sermon, he said that if Christians are minorities in the east then they should preserve their identities.
Bkirki’s press office has announced a postponement of the patriarch’s trip to the northern port city of Tripoli that was scheduled to take place on November 12 upon the request of Tripoli and the North Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar. Al-Shaar is currently in Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj.

Aoun Says Security Council 'Imposed' STL on Lebanon
Naharnet /Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Sunday described as “unconstitutional” the agreement signed in 2007 between Lebanon and the U.N. on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, noting that the STL was “imposed” by the U.N. Security Council. In an interview with Hizbullah’s mouthpiece Al-Manar television, Aoun said: “There is no treaty, the agreement reached was a U.N. Security Council resolution that had unilaterally imposed the tribunal” on Lebanon. “The parliament was bypassed, because even if the president signs it would not come into force without the parliament’s approval,” Aoun noted. “The whole text of Article 52 of the Constitution is not being respected … and Lebanon is not obliged to finance” the U.N.-backed STL, he went on to say. Lebanon is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs of the STL, which has indicted four Hizbullah members in the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri. But the Hizbullah-led government has yet to pay its share, estimated at $35 million for 2011, as international pressure mounts on Prime Minister Najib Miqati to uphold his avowed commitment to the STL. Miqati in recent weeks has received a series of notifications from the court on the overdue funds.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has openly opposed Lebanon paying its annual share to the Netherlands-based STL.
Nasrallah has dismissed the court as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy against his party, warning that no member of Hizbullah would ever be found or arrested.

4 Syrians Robbed in Bekaa , Abducted Lebanese Freed
Naharnet /Unidentified assailants robbed at gunpoint four Syrian workers at midnight Saturday in the western Bekaa area of al-Faida, state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday. The gunmen intercepted the taxi carrying the four in al-Faida and managed to speed away with around four million Lebanese pounds ($2667), NNA said.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese man who was kidnapped Friday returned safe to his family on Sunday. “Citizen Maher Kiwan, who hails from Dbaye, returned safe to his family after he was abducted on November 4 at the hands of individuals who hail from Baalbek, to whom he owed around 2,000 dollars,” NNA reported. “The kidnappers contacted Maher’s family, demanding their money and threatening to raise the amount to $20,000 if they were late in paying, which prompted his father to inform the relevant security authorities who made efforts to free” the man, NNA added.

Greek PM Steps Down for Unity Government
Naharnet /Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday agreed to step down and political leaders will meet tomorrow to form a new unity government to end the political crisis, the president's office said. The deal was reached after a meeting lasting nearly two hours between Papandreou, main opposition leader Antonis Samaras and President Carolos Papoulias, the Greek head of state. "An agreement was reached to form a new government to immediately lead the country to elections after ratifying the decisions taken by the European Council on October 26," the president's office said in a statement. This is a reference to a hard-fought EU deal reducing Greece's monster debt by nearly a third that had been placed in jeopardy by the political uncertainty in Athens, with European leaders threatening to withhold loan funds shielding the country from a looming bankruptcy. "Prime Minister George Papandreou has already stated that he will not lead the new government," the president's statement added. "Tomorrow there will be a new communication between the prime minister and the head of the opposition on the new prime minister and the new government. "Tomorrow the president will hold a meeting between political leaders," it added.
Samaras had demanded Papandreou's resignation and early elections as a condition for granting the support of his conservative New Democracy party, which enjoys a large lead over the ruling socialist Pasok party in the polls. Papandreou had cautioned against holding elections at this stage, pointing out that both main parties have been weakened after two years of economic crisis and painful austerity, and that no clear victor is likely to emerge. The conservatives are blamed for ramping up huge deficits in their five years in power until 2009 while the socialists are hated for inviting the International Monetary Fund to rescue the country and ordering two years of breakneck austerity. The Communist party, Greece's third-largest, immediately announced they would boycott Monday's talks. The leftist Syriza party, ranked fifth in parliament, also said they wanted no part in the talks, which they said were "borderline as far as the constitution is concerned" as the new government would not emerge from elections. European leaders are increasingly frustrated at the political bickering in Athens when they want to press on with urgently needed agreements on tackling the eurozone debt crisis. Polls published in the Sunday newspapers show that the Greek people are largely in favor of a unity government and want to keep the euro.

U.S. Warns Nigerian Extremists May Target Hotels in Capital
Naharnet /Nigeria marked the Muslim feast of Eid el-Adha amid fears and tears as the U.S. warned of possible new attacks after deadly blasts claimed by Islamists killed 150 people in the northeast of the country. The attacks on Friday in Damaturu were among the deadliest ever carried out by Boko Haram, an Islamist sect based in the north of Africa's most populous country. The U.S. embassy in Nigeria warned that the sect could next attack hotels and other targets in the capital Abuja during the Muslim holiday. "Following the recent Boko Haram, aka Nigerian Taliban, attacks in Borno and Yobe State, the U.S. embassy has received information that Boko Haram may plan to attack several locations and hotels in Abuja," during the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, the embassy said in a statement. Security was stepped up in Abuja, which has been a target of past extremist attacks, including the August 26 suicide bomb at the U.N. headquarters which claimed 24 lives. Some 13,000 policemen and specialist anti-terror squads were deployed to mosques and churches and other strategic locations in the city, a police official said. Worshippers were screened by metal detectors before they entered some churches.
In the grief-stricken city of Damaturu where the 150 died, thousands of Muslims gathered for Eid el-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifices prayers at an open ground patrolled by dozens of armed police. Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, who described the wave of gun and bomb attacks in the capital of Yobe state as "heinous", appealed to Muslims to pray for peace in the country as they marked Eid.
"It is a period that we are all expected to live in peace but as a nation we have our own challenges, even during this holy period we still have incidents happening here and there," he said.
While Christian churches and police were among the initial targets for the attacks, gunmen fired indiscriminately in the streets and Muslims and Christians alike were among those killed, local officials reported. "The death toll cuts across religion, profession, status," said Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for Nigeria's emergency management agency in the northeast.
"The attack seems to have been haphazardly carried out which explains the heavy toll. Both Muslims, Christians, civilians, soldiers, policemen and other paramilitary personnel were all part of the casualties." Eid celebrations in the sleepy and dusty city of Damaturu were low key on Sunday.
Gudusu, a 58-year-old resident who lost a brother in the attacks, voiced outrage at Boko Haram, sobbing as prayers were offered for the sibling he buried on Saturday evening.
His family called off the celebrations but simply prayed and slaughtered a ram to mark Eid al-Adha, one of the most important feasts in the Muslim calendar.
"It's a season of mourning and celebration at the same time," said another resident Aisami Bundi. "People are struggling to strike a balance between the merriment of the season and the losses the city has incurred from the attacks, especially the large number of people that have been killed," he said.
Pope Benedict XVI appealed for an end to the violence, saying it did "not resolve problems but increases them, sowing hatred and divisions, even among the faithful."
Boko Haram claimed Friday's rampage and warned of further attacks. Opposition Action Congress party of Nigeria said it was "horrified" at the scale of the attacks alleging "government has now run out of ideas on how to tackle this crisis." Militants from Boko Haram, whose name means "Western Education Is Sin" in the regional Hausa language, have in the past targeted police and military, community and religious leaders, as well as politicians. The sect, which wants to see the establishment of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, staged an uprising which was brutally put down by security forces in 2009. Nigeria's more than 160 million people are divided almost in half between Muslims and Christians, living roughly in the north and south of the country respectively. Regions where they overlap are prey to frequent tensions.
Source Agence France Presse

Syrian forces kill 13 as Arab League calls meeting
By OREN KESSLER /Jerusalem Post
11/06/2011 19:52 /Analyst tells 'Post' "Arab League has intentions to support uprising in Syria but needs US commitment to support them if Iran retaliates." Syrian forces killed 13 people on the Id Al-Adha holiday Sunday, and Qatar called on the Arab League to reconvene over the Syria crisis just days after a similar meeting produced no tangible results. The new meeting would discuss "the continuing violence and the government's failure to stick to its obligations under the Arab Action Plan to solve the crisis in Syria," Egypt's official news agency MENA reported. Last week the Arab League proposed a plan for the Bashar Assad regime to withdraw its tanks from Syria's cities, release political prisoners from jail and hold talks with opposition figures. Damascus agreed to the plan, but has yet to carry out any of the steps it outlined. Analysts and observers have expressed skepticism that the Arab League would be able to match its rhetoric with action.
Walid Phares, a Washington-based Mideast analyst and author of the recent book The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East, said Arab leaders would be pleased to see Assad removed, but fear retaliation from Damascus' patron Iran. "The Arab League has the intentions to support the uprising in Syria but needs a US commitment to support them if Iran retaliates," Phares told The Jerusalem Post by e-mail. "The regime knows that if it pulls out its security forces from the streets, more demonstrations will break out and they will eventually overwhelm the regime. The opposition knows that if they stop demonstrating in the streets, the security forces will go get them in their homes," he said. "[Assad] has seen the fate of his predecessors in the Arab Spring: Mubarak on trial, Ben Ali in exile, Gaddafi killed. This explains why he doesn't want these choices and decided to stay and fight."
Sunday's violence again centered on Homs, a battleground city between anti-government protesters and forces loyal to the government that has been under tank bombardment since Tuesday.  Activists said another 13 civilians were killed by tank fire in the city on Saturday. More than 3,000 people have been killed in seven months of protests.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland accused the Syrian government of failing to follow through on the Arab League plan and said Washington has no confidence that it would. "We have a long, deep history of broken promises by the Assad regime," she told reporters this weekend.
Reuters contributed to this report

Miss Venezuela Wins Miss World Crown
Naharnet /Miss Venezuela, Ivian Sarcos, was crowned the 2011 winner of the Miss World beauty pageant on Sunday at a glittering final ceremony in London. Wearing a pink dress with diamante studs that had giant frills slashed below the waist, the 22-year-old threw her hands to her face as she was announced the winner. Last year's Miss World, Alexandria Mills of the United States, placed the sparkling crown on her successor's head. "I believe that the next Miss World should be a woman of responsibility and reason," Sarcos said before winning the title.
"I believe the woman should be committed to the organization and help people in need. Beauty with a heart", added the Venezuelan, who works for a broadcasting company and has a degree in human resources. Miss Philippines, Gwendoline Ruais, was named the runner-up, while Miss Puerto Rico, Amanda Perez, came third in the contest, which was back in its home city to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Some 113 beauty queens from around the world, including Miss Lebanon Yara al-Khoury, took their place on the stage, with the show being broadcast live to an estimated audience of more than one billion viewers in 150 countries. Around 50 feminists staged a demonstration outside, waving placards reading "Objectification won't achieve world peace", "Being a woman is not a competition" and "Sexism is pretty ugly".
Around a half dozen were veterans of the 1970 pageant protest, which caused a major disturbance. Inside the Earls Court Two auditorium in west London, the few thousand fans cheered, waved national flags and shouted for their favorites. To whittle them down to the 15 semi-finalists, several point-scoring rounds were held during the contestants' tour of Britain over the previous two weeks, with the results revealed on stage. Miss Venezuela topped the interview round; Miss Dominican Republic, Marianly Tejada Burgos, was named the general sports champion; home favorite Miss England, Alize Lily Mounter, won the beach beauty title, while Miss Kazakhstan, Zhanna Zhumaliyeva, was named top model.
The crowd were played clips from the talent round -- where performers sang, danced and gave piano recitals -- won by Miss Chile, Gabriela Paz Pulgar Luco.
Miss Ghana, Stephanie Adwoa Agyeiwaa Karikari, and Miss Indonesia, Astrid Ellena Indriana Yunadi, were the joint winners of the beauty with a purpose category, where contestants can highlight a charity project. With the scores in and only the top 15 going through to the semi-final, Miss Puerto Rico topped the leaderboard, ahead of Miss Venezuela, Miss Philippines, Miss Ukraine and Miss Scotland. The final seven, chosen by the judges, were Miss England, Miss Korea, Miss Philippines, Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Scotland, Miss South Africa and Miss Venezuela. It was announced that Ordos in Inner Mongolia, China, will host the 2012 competition.
Source Agence France Presse/Naharnet

Finnish delusions
By: Efraim Karsh
The Jerusalem Post
November 7, 2011
http://www.meforum.org/3091/finnish-delusions
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has done it again. No sooner did this 1960s radical ease himself back into the foreign minister's seat after four years in the opposition than he unveiled again his anti- Israel prejudice.
"No apartheid state is justified or sustainable," he told a panel discussion in Helsinki last week. "If you are occupying areas inhabited by... Palestinians who do not have the same rights as the Israelis in Israel, that is apartheid.... I think that the majority in Israel has also realized this, but they have been unable to provide a leadership that [can] move forward on the two-state solution, on the Palestinian problem."
As the longest-serving foreign minister in Finland's history (2000-2007, 2011-present) one would have expected Tuomioja to show greater familiarity with the facts. For one thing, all Israeli prime ministers over the past two decades – from Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres to Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu – have unequivocally endorsed the two-state solution, whereas all Palestinian leaders have rejected this solution, refusing to allow a single Jew to live in a prospective Palestinian state. For another, Israel's "occupation" of the populated areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ended in the mid-1990s.
The declaration of principles signed on the White House lawn in 1993 by the PLO and the Israeli government provided for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a transitional period, during which Israel and the Palestinians would negotiate a permanent peace settlement. By May 1994, Israel had completed its withdrawal from Gaza (apart from a small stretch of territory containing settlements in the south of the Strip, which was vacated in 2005) and the Jericho area of the West Bank. On July 1, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat made his triumphant entry into Gaza.
On September 28, 1995, despite Arafat's abysmal failure to clamp down on terrorist activities in the territories now under his control, the two parties signed an interim agreement, and by the end of the year Israeli forces had been withdrawn from the West Bank's populated areas, with the exception of Hebron (where redeployment was completed in early 1997). On January 20, 1996, elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council were held, and shortly afterward, both the Israeli civil administration and the military government were dissolved.
The geographical scope of these withdrawals was relatively limited; the surrendered land amounted to some 30 percent of the West Bank's overall territory. But its impact on the Palestinian population was nothing short of revolutionary. In one fell swoop, Israel relinquished control over virtually all of the West Bank's 1.4 million residents. Since that time, nearly 60% of them – in the Jericho area and in the seven main cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Kalkilya, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron – have lived entirely under Palestinian jurisdiction. Another 40% live in towns, villages, refugee camps and hamlets where the Palestinian Authority exercises civil authority but where, in line with the Oslo accords, Israel has maintained "overriding responsibility for security."
In short, since the beginning of 1996, and certainly following the completion of the Hebron redeployment in January 1997, 99% of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have not lived under Israeli occupation; rather, they have been under the jurisdiction of the Arafat-led PA.
But a person like Tuomioja wouldn't be bothered with such facts as far as the Jewish state is concerned. Time and again, he has allowed his anti-Israel animosity to get the better of him. In an infamous 2001 interview, he compared Israel's attempts to protect its citizens from the savage terror war launched by Arafat's PA in September 2000 to the Nazi persecution of European Jewry: "It is quite shocking that some implement the same kind of policy toward the Palestinians which they themselves were victims of in the 1930s."
Ignoring criticism of this comparison, which subsequently became an integral component of the EU's working definition of anti-Semitism, he told the same Finnish magazine four years later that he "could have avoided many unnecessary reactions with a different wording, but the matter itself has not changed in any way."
Nor, for that matter, does Tuomioja seem to believe that the Jewish state has any right to self-defense. In 2003, he used the apartheid metaphor to denounce the erection of the security fence, which has done more than any other single factor to slash the tidal wave of Palestinian terrorism, though Finland has long had a similar fence along its border with the Soviet Union/Russia. When Israel responded to years of Gaza rocket attacks on its towns and villages by unleashing Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, Tuomioja, now chairman of the Parliament Grand Committee, condemned this supposed disproportionate use of force. When IDF commandos killed eight Islamist militants in violent clashes on board a Turkish ship trying to break the naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza in June 2009, he demanded that "trade and other ties with Israel should be linked to Israel's regard for international law and commitment to the peace process."
One could have dismissed Tuomioja's musings as a desperate ploy by an aging politician to regain his luster after the highly successful term of his predecessor – the charismatic Alexander Stubb, 22 years his junior – had Finland not been aggressively campaigning for the rotating Security Council seat for the 2013-2014 term. Next time Abbas touts his Jew-free revanchist state to the council, he is likely to find an eager collaborator.
The writer is research professor of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at King's College London, director of the Middle East Forum (Philadelphia) and author, most recently, of Palestine Betrayed.

Standing by Assad, Lebanon's Alawites wait and watch
By Khaled Soubeih (AFP) – 10 hours ago
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — In the impoverished Jabal Mohsen area of the port city of Tripoli in north Lebanon, a small Alawite community is watching anxiously as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fights to stay in power."Syria is our neighbour, our brother, our mother," Abdul Latif Saleh, mayor of Jabal Mohsen, told AFP."We will never forget the sacrifices the Syrian army made in Lebanon and we are behind the Syrian regime because they alone confronted the United States and Israel," added Saleh, who also serves as spokesman for the local Alawite Arab Democratic Party."Without them, Lebanon would never have found peace."Saleh's view is echoed throughout Jabal Mohsen, home to the majority of the country's estimated 100,000 to 120,000 Alawite Muslims, from Lebanon's overall population of an estimated four million.
The community follows the same offshoot of Shiite Islam as the Assad dynasty and for the most part has remained loyal to the embattled regime in Damascus.
Portraits of Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez dot the rundown streets of this enclave, perched on a hilltop and surrounded by Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods whose residents back anti-regime protesters in Syria.
Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, has regularly seen deadly clashes between residents of Jabal Mohsen and those of the nearby Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh.
The area was the site of an armed streetbattle in June sparked by an anti-Assad rally in a Sunni neighbourhood, leaving seven people dead.
Today, as protests in Syria enter their eighth month, the Alawites of Jabal Mohsen continue to voice their loyalty to the Alawite-controlled Syrian regime.
"We will stand by President Bashar al-Assad to the end and as everyone can see he is introducing reforms," said Mahmud Zeitoun, seated in his tiny grocery store in Jabal Mohsen.
Minority Alawites gained political clout when Syrian troops entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of its 1975 civil war.
Damascus dominated Lebanon militarily and politically for 29 years, before withdrawing in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Sunni ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Lebanon's Alawites were granted two seats in the 128-strong parliament in 1992 but they still have no representative in cabinet -- which like parliament is equally divided between Christians and Muslims.Because of their historic ties with the Syrian regime, this tiny community will likely feel the repercussions of any change in Damascus.
"The events in Syria will naturally affect Lebanon's Alawites as it will redefine the balance of power," said Marwan Rowayheb, political science professor at the Lebanese American University."As the situation in Syria gets more complicated, I think we could well see Lebanon's Alawites begin to distinguish or even distance themselves from the Assad regime and emphasize that they are first and foremost Lebanese."But in Jabal Mohsen, many say they will back the embattled Assad to the end.
"What is really going on in Syria is not at all what you see on television," said Rabih Mohammed, who has draped a Syrian flag across the storefront of his cafe.
"There is a conspiracy against President Assad," Mohammed told AFP. "The Muslim Brotherhood and saboteurs are fighting to bring down Syria."
The Sunni Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Syria by the ruling Baath Party for decades.The group was all but wiped out in 1982 when Hafez al-Assad ordered a military crackdown that killed thousands in the town of Hama to quell a rebellion by the group.Assad's troops also entered Tripoli shortly afterwards, where they clashed with local Sunni parties.
For the people of Tripoli, the memory lingers as they hold their breath -- and hope for the best."We have a long history of sectarianism sparking anger so it's only natural that fears are running pretty high right now, but we all refuse to engage in more violence," said Ali Fedda, who runs a clothing store in Jabal Mohsen.
"Unfortunately for us, stability in Jabal Mohsen is like a stock market that rises and plunges depending on political dynamics."
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved

Assad's Move Against Facebook
Nov 6, 2011 11:32 PM EST Bashar al-Assad is trying to snuff opposition in Syria by silencing the media and blocking access to Facebook and other Internet services. But author Rula Jebreal says the strong-arm tactics cannot thwart a people committed to his ouster
While Muammar Gaddafi’s death was breaking news throughout the world, for five days Syrian state television totally ignored it.
Gaddafi’s fall is by no means the only thing the Syrian government tries to hide from its own people. At checkpoints throughout the country, armed soldiers ask everyone they stop whether he or she has access to the Internet, or a Facebook account. Give the wrong answer, and you risk losing not just your computer or cellphone but your life.
For the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the spread of information is an ever-present danger, making the media and the Internet public enemy No. 1. The regime seems to think that by silencing the media and forcibly disconnecting people from the Internet, it can escape the same fate as the Libyan dictator. But this tight-clenched control of information cannot combat mounting international pressure and a people who, despite upwards of 3,000 deaths in the past eight months alone, remain committed to Assad’s ouster.
Every day thousands of people fill the streets in major cities such as Homs, Daraa, and Hama, as well as suburbs of Damascus. Their ranks swell on Fridays as a tide of people leaves prayer services and takes to the streets. Under banners demanding freedom and the end to Assad’s regime, they march, calling for a no-fly zone and asking for international protection. After eight months of demonstrations, the only answer they have received from the government has been crushing and relentless force.
Even on the day after the Assad regime agreed to a plan, brokered by the Arab League, to halt violence, release 70,000 political prisoners, and begin talks between the government and the opposition, government brutality continued unabated. The moment peaceful protesters took to the streets, the Army gave its now-usual reply, slaughtering its own citizens.
The immediate fallout from the Arab League peace plan was only the beginning. Since the plan’s supposed implementation, excessive government violence actually has increased. Tanks and barricades never left the cities. Even during the holy month of Ramadan, the Army never stopped killing.
The spread of information is an ever-present danger, making the media and the Internet public enemy No. 1.
The new mission of the Army is not to protect the Syrian people but to keep the regime in power—at any cost. “They deal with us as if we were their property, and that will never change,” said dissident Wadid Hadad. Even children are not spared from the bloodshed, with 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib tortured and executed by security forces after he was found chanting, “People want to overthrow the bloody regime of Assad.”
Although the level of violence is unprecedented, hypocrisy and governing with an iron fist are nothing new for President Assad. Since taking power 11 years ago, he has promised reforms while forcefully quashing all debate and dissent. Recognizing the tenuousness of his hold on power—being a Shiite leader governing a majority-Sunni country—Assad has forged alliances with Sunni businessmen and enlisted Shiite-run security forces to ensure his total control over the Syrian populace.
Now, however, he faces not only the determination of an impatient and long-repressed citizenry but also increasing international pressure.
This pressure is not coming from the usual suspects, though. The United Nations actually emboldened Assad when a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on the regime was struck down by China and Russia. This failure instilled in Assad and his forces the belief that they won’t be held accountable.
Assad’s latest words reveal his willingness to internationalize the conflict. In a recent interview, he promised that “any intervention in Syria will cause an earthquake that will burn the region.” Businessmen living in Beirut (whose fear of deadly repercussions led them to request anonymity) interpret those words as a direct threat to instigate and orchestrate sectarian warfare in Lebanon, with the support of Hizbullah. Assad's goal: to divert attention from the conflict within Syria.
Indeed, the regime has already internationalized the conflict, first by orchestrating the kidnapping of a Syrian dissident in Beirut, who was a major voice of dissent against Assad. Shibli al-Ayssami, along with three brothers, the Jassems, has not been heard from since they were whisked away by armed men in black masks whose cars bore Syrian government license plates.
Assad has even taken to taunting the international community, threatening, “Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or maybe tens of them?” and demanding that other countries stop interfering with his business.
But while he thinks the international community will let him rest easy, one country is determined—and likely—to prove him wrong. Assad angered Turkey, whose leaders felt lied to when they sought to help mediate the conflict between Assad and the Syrian opposition.
Since then, Turkey has been helping and sheltering anti-Assad fighters and opposition leaders. The country also recently hosted a training camp for a new militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces. The Turkish government has deepened its support of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella political-opposition group.
Through these efforts, the conflict will shift from peaceful domestic protests to violent cross-border attacks. Over the past few weeks, a series of mysterious killings of Syrian soldiers seems to herald the advent of this new phase in the strife.
Although the outcome of the struggle in Syria remains uncertain, one thing is clear: after eight months, 3,000 people killed, and countless tortured, disappeared, and imprisoned, the Syrian people continue fearlessly protesting, determined to have the last word.

U.S. cautions on Syria deal, says Assad must go
Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday expressed reservations about whether Damascus would live up to an Arab League plan aimed at ending a violent crackdown on protesters and repeated the U.S. call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
The U.S. State Department said it would review details of a deal announced by the Arab League under which it said Syria had agreed to a complete halt to violence, the release of prisoners, removing the military presence from cities and residential areas and allowing the Arab League and media access to report on the situation.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggested that Washington had doubts about the viability of the plan.
"Syria's made a lot of promises to the international community in the past," Nuland told a news briefing, saying the core issue was "a real process of democratization in Syria."
"That is the basis on which we will judge whatever has been agreed to here," Nuland said. "We're not going to judge them by their words, we're going to judge them by their actions."
"There is a risk here that they are trying to string out diplomacy, that they are trying to offer their own people half steps, or quarter measures, rather than taking the real steps."
The White House said Assad should step aside, repeating a call made repeatedly since U.S. President Barack Obama in August said the long-time Syrian ruler was standing in the way of real reform in the country.
"Our position remains that President Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule and should step down," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
"We support all international efforts that are aimed toward convincing the regime to stop attacking its own people."
The United States has imposed a series of sanctions on Syrian officials and government organizations since Damascus launched the crackdown in March, and Nuland said Washington remained concerned about continued violence despite the Arab League mediation effort.
"We've seen Syria saying publicly its prepared to accept the (Arab League) proposals, at the same time we've also seen new violence at the hands of the regime in Syria itself," Nuland said.
"There is concern that even as they say they're prepared for peace they are still exacting violence and brutality on their own people."
The United States pulled its ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, out of Syria on October 24 because of threats to his safety. Ford has been an outspoken critic of the Assad government and his support for protesters seeking an end to 41 years of Assad family rule.
The United States has said it hopes Ford will be able to return to Damascus by the November 24 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
(Reporting by Andrew Quinn, Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick; editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Kuwait Denies Plan to Bolster U.S. Troops in Country
Naharnet/The Kuwaiti defense minister has denied reports about plans to bolster U.S. troops in the Gulf emirate after their withdrawal from Iraq by year's end, local media reported on Monday."Not at all. We have (no plan) to relocate U.S. troops to Kuwait or increase their numbers," Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah was cited as saying by al-Watan newspaper."They (U.S. troops) will only pass through Kuwait from Iraq (on their way) to the United States. Their presence is governed by the U.S.-Kuwait (defense) pact and nothing will surpass this agreement," the minister said.The 10-year defense pact expires next year.Around 23,000 U.S. troops are permanently stationed at Arifjan in Kuwait, one of the largest military bases in the Gulf. The emirate has been used as a transit point for U.S. troops both to Iraq and Afghanistan.The Kuwaiti minister's comments came in response to reports that Washington was studying options to relocate some of the 39,000 U.S. troops due to leave Iraq to neighboring Kuwait apparently due to concerns over the perceived Iranian threat.
"We will not allow or accept for our country to be used as a launching pad for attacks on any state, not Iran or others," Sheikh Jaber said.
Source Agence France Presse

Russia says strike on Iran 'very serious mistake'
Daily Star/MOSCOW: Russia warned Monday that a possible military strike against Iran would be a "very serious mistake" that leads to further conflict and civilian casualties.
"It would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a warning by Israeli President Shimon Peres that an attack was increasingly likely.
"Military intervention only leads to a multiple rise in casualties and human suffering," said Lavrov.
"There can be no military solution to the Iranian nuclear problem, just like there can be none for any other problem in the modern world."
Israel's warning came ahead of this week's expected presentation on a new report from the UN nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear drive.
Russia has urged Iran to improve its nuclear program transparency while trying to shield its Soviet-era ally from the most damaging sanctions and possible threat of war.
Lavrov said current military campaigns such as the one being waged by NATO in Afghanistan proved the dangers of foreign involvement.
"The use of force is only possible under two circumstances envisioned by the UN Charter," said Lavrov.
"Either through self defense, when you come under armed attack, or through a decision by the UN Security Council."