LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِOctober 18/2011

Bible Quotation for today/Jesus Calls Matthew
Matthew 09/09-13: "Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, Follow me. Matthew got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with such people?  Jesus heard them and answered, People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Fruitless labor/By:Matt Nash/October 16/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 17/11
Ban Urges Assad to Stop Killing Civilians
More than 100 rights groups urge Arab action on Syria
Iran faces UN rights review on Monday
Khamenei: Iran Warns Against 'Inappropriate Action' on U.S. Plot Claims
Iran says ready to examine U.S. plot accusations
Syria Forces Shoot on Activist Funeral: Rights Group
Arab League seeks Syria dialogue
Arab League Urges Syrian 'National Dialogue' within 15 Days‎
Hollande Wins French Left's Presidential Primary
Geagea Warns of Manipulation in STL Funding
March 14 members slam Syrian envoy
March 8 Studying Alternatives to Replace Miqati
Arslan to a Syrian Delegation: Syria, Lebanon Destinies are One
Qassem: We Will Resort to Vote if Govt. Fails Reach Agreement on Complex Issues
Lebanese Cabinet won’t approve tribunal funding
Lebanon: Arsal residents fear large-scale Syrian incursion
Lebanese banks offer good value: EFG Hermes
Main Druze parties boycott Wahhab’s hospital project
Amin Gemayel visits Egypt, holds meeting with Coptic pope
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Oct. 17, 2011
Protesters clash with Syrian Embassy guards in Beirut
Main Druze parties boycott Wahhab’s hospital project
Berri Meets Miqati, Says Delay in Oil Exploration Might Lead to Debriefing Cabinet
Al-Rahi Urges Expatriates to Invest in Patriarchate’s Land
Taimur Jumblat Appointed to Prominent PSP Position ahead of Succeeding his Father as Chief
Report: Asarta Survives Emergency Chopper Engine Failure

Ban Urges Assad to Stop Killing Civilians
Naharnet /U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to immediately stop the killings of civilians and to accept an international probe on human rights violations. "There are continuous killings of civilian people. These killings must stop immediately," said the U.N. chief in Bern. "I told Assad, 'stop before it is too late'," said Ban, noting that thousands have perished in the regime's brutal crackdown on dissent. "It is unacceptable that 3,000 people have been killed. "U.N. is urging him again to take urgent action," he said.
The U.N. secretary-general also called on Assad to accept an international commission of inquiry into the violations. The U.N. Human Rights Council had ordered in April a probe into the situation in Syria earlier this year, but Damascus had blocked investigators from entering the country. During an emergency session in August, the council commissioned another probe.
At the end of September, the head of the investigation team said his team hoped to be allowed to visit Syria, although it had not yet been in contact with the Syrian authorities.
Concerning the exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas, Ban said that Israel's plans to release 477 Palestinian security prisoners in order to secure the freedom of captive soldier Gilad Shalit marked a positive step towards peace. "The recent announcement of the exchange of prisoners is welcome, it is a positive movement for peace," Ban said in Bern.
The Palestinians have been "suffering for six decades, they have not been able to enjoy genuine freedom or human rights." "The U.N. has been working very hard, and fully supports the process" towards peace, added the U.N. secretary-general. If the swap goes to plan, it would mark the first time in 26 years that a captured soldier has been returned to the Jewish state alive.Source Agence France Presse

March 14 members slam Syrian envoy
October 17, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: March 14 officials renewed their campaign Monday against Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali’s over his comments about allegations that the Syrian Embassy was involved in the kidnapping of Syrian opposition figures in the country.
Speaking to a local radio station, Kataeb Party MP Elie Marouni accused the Syrian envoy of overstepping his diplomatic prerogatives.
“[Ali] has overstepped his diplomatic role and has returned to play the roles that Ghazi Kanaan and Rustum Ghazali played,” Marouni said, referring to Syrian officials who held top-security posts during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
During a meeting of the Parliamentary human rights committee last week, Internal Security Forces Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi told lawmakers that evidence collected by the ISF on two high-profile kidnapping cases pointed toward the security personnel of the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.
In May, Shibli Aisamy, a Syrian dissident and one of the founding members of the Baath Party, went missing in the town of Aley.
Three Syrian brothers from the Jasem family were also believed kidnapped in February. According to Human Rights Watch, one of the brothers had been seen handing out flyers calling for reform in Syria a few days prior to his disappearance.
Ali has voiced his objections to the claims and is demanding hard evidence of his embassy’s involvement in the case of kidnappings in Lebanon.
“The comments made by the ISF commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi about the former Baath Party member Shibli Aisamy were made without any evidence,” Ali said Friday.
In an interview with An-Nahar newspaper published Monday, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea lashed out at Ali, saying the Syrian envoy had no right to comment on statements made by Lebanese officials.
“It is not permitted for any ambassador to issue statements about Lebanese officials,” said Geagea, referring to Rifi, who the LF leader praised.
Geagea also said the March 14 coalition would use all the diplomatic means necessary to deal with what he termed the “security expansion” of the Syria crisis.
“I am putting forward the issue in its political and national contexts. This issue strikes at the heart of our national sovereignty and it would be in nobody’s interest to turn Lebanon in another Somalia.
“The international community has requested that Lebanon protect the Syrian opposition on its territory and this issue is very important,” Geagea said, adding that failing to comply would risk Lebanon’s credibility and leaves the country in danger of turning into a “rogue state.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly stressed the importance her government placed on the Lebanese Army protecting members of the Syrian opposition living in Lebanon.
According to the United Nations, around 4,000 Syrian refugees have fled into Lebanon as a result of unrest in their home country.
MP Butros Harb, a member of the March 14 movement, Monday condemned the silence of the government and ministries in the case of the missing Syrian opposition figures.
“If Syria’s allies in Lebanon are controlling this government, it does not mean we should accept that the country’s sovereignty be [abused] or remain silent about the apparatuses belonging to the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon,” he said to a local radio station.
“[I] have protested this matter to the Foreign Ministry on several occasions as well as the Interior Ministry ... [I protested this] to the Foreign Ministry for its silence on this matter and asked that it summon the Syrian ambassador to voice Lebanon’s objection to this behavior.”
Harb, who has also called on the government to summon Ali over reports of Syrian Army incursions into the country, said evidence of the embassy’s involvement was strong and that some information suggested some of the missing Syrians had been killed.
“The information that ISF General Director Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi put forward proves the involvement of the Syrian Embassy in the kidnapping of individuals on Lebanese territories and that they were taken to unknown destinations,” he said. “There is some information that indicates that some of them might have been killed.”
Harb also said Ali was out of line making statements about the police chief.

Geagea Warns of Manipulation in STL Funding
 Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned on Monday of any manipulation concerning the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.
All the successive cabinets “insured the funding of the STL since 2008 with the participation of Hizbullah ministers,” Geagea told An Nahar newspapers.
The Netherlands-based tribunal, the only international court with jurisdiction to try acts of terror, was created by a 2007 U.N. Security Council resolution, at Lebanon's request, to try those responsible for Hariri's murder on February 14, 2005.
Lebanon has to pay its $33 million dues which are nearly half of the STL’s annual $65 million.
The STL had issued arrest warrants against four Hizbullah members; however, the party has announced that it will not cooperate with the tribunal, describing it as an American-Israeli product aimed at destroying it. Geagea warned that the reluctance to pay Lebanon’s dues to the tribunal threatens to “isolate” Lebanon, which will cause the international community to “impose sanctions” on the country. He noted this will “hit the Lebanese national unity.”
Asked about the abduction of Syrian opposition members in Lebanon, Geagea stressed that “the March 14 forces will follow-up the case with all the available democratic means.”
He stressed that the international community demanded Lebanon to protect the Syrian opposition members, noting that the military judiciary must continue its investigations in this case.
The LF leader praised Internal Security Forces commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi for “not fearing” anyone, and carrying out his probe.
He lashed out on the statements made by Syrian ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali, saying: “No ambassador has the right to give any statements concerning any Lebanese official.”
Last week, Rifi informed MPs during a meeting of the Parliamentary human rights committee about two abduction cases carried out by personnel from the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.
Three Syrian brothers from the Jassem family disappeared in February, after two of them went to pick up their brother, Jassem Merhi Jassem, from a police station east of Beirut.
He also said information pointed to the embassy’s involvement in the May disappearance of Shebli al-Aisamy, an 86-year-old Syrian dissident and former high-ranking Baath Party official who was abducted in Aley. Concerning Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour’s position on the Syrian crisis during the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo, Geagea wondered if “he (Mansour) took the approval from the President and the PM before adopting his stance.”“He (Mansour) can’t act on his own will and according to his political affiliations,” Geagea stressed.
“The worst case scenario was that Lebanon disavows itself (from the crisis),” he said.

Arsal residents fear large-scale Syrian incursion
October 17, 2011 /By Nicholas Blanford /The Daily Star
ARSAL, Lebanon: Residents of the isolated border town of Arsal, in the eastern Bekaa, say they fear that the recent cross-border forays by Syrian troops are a precursor to a larger military operation against them on the pretext of halting the smuggling of arms to the Syrian opposition.
“We are almost certain it’s going to happen. We saw pro-Assad demonstrators in Damascus calling for the destruction of Arsal. They think we are smuggling weapons into Syria,” said Ali Hojeiry, the mayor of Arsal, as members of the municipality nodded in agreement inside his smoke-filled office Friday .
Eleven days ago, a farmer was killed in the remote hills east of Arsal when, according to local residents, Syrian soldiers backed by tanks and armored vehicles penetrated several kilometers inside Lebanon and sprayed machine gun fire in the direction of Lebanese farms. A few days earlier, farm buildings were damaged by tank fire during another incursion. The cross-border penetrations, the latest occurringat dawn Friday morning, have forced most local farmers to flee the area.
Until recently, Syrian border violations tended to occur in the Wadi Khaled district of Akkar, consisting of Syrian troops slipping just over the frontier near the villages of Hnaider and Mouanse or firing machine gun rounds into Lebanese territory.
But the recent Syrian attention on Arsal appears to be connected to allegations of weapons being smuggled through the remote passes of the rugged and barren mountains that mark the border in east Lebanon. The prices of black market weapons have skyrocketed in recent months. Arms dealers say the unrest in Syria is fuelling the price hike, but most of the smuggling so far appears to be on an ad hoc and individual basis rather than a more organized transfer of arms to the opposition.
Certainly, Arsal has a history of smuggling commercial goods to and from Syria as do many Lebanese villages along the border, but the residents insisted that no weapons were being dispatched across the frontier.
“Not one gun has crossed the border from here and we have not received one member of the Syrian opposition,” said Mohammad, a member of Arsal’s municipal council.
Some residents claimed that Syrian troops are massing along the border in preparation for an attack on Arsal.
“The question is: What can we do?” said one resident who asked not to be identified. “We feel like we are hostages in the Hezbollah government today.”
The fears of a Syrian invasion of Arsal are probably exaggerated. While it is evident that Syrian troops have penetrated on occasions across the border, and may have set up a temporary presence on Lebanese soil, they are limiting themselves to the remote territory several kilometers east of the town. Indeed, it is often forgotten that there remain sizeable numbers of Syrian troops on Lebanese soil, most notably in the hills south of Deir al-Ashayer and east of Kfar Kouk in the Rashaya district of the Western Bekaa.
The government has played down reports of Syrian forays into Lebanon and insists there is good coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian authorities. Friday, Lebanese and Syrian army officers met at the Dabbousiyeh border crossing in the north to discuss how to “take more measures to prevent smuggling through illegal border crossings,” a statement said.
Still, it is easy to understand the paranoia that has gripped the 40,000 residents of Arsal. The town is geographically isolated, linked to the rest of Lebanon only by a single road that winds over the stark sepia-hued mountains that surround the town. More pertinently, Arsal faces political and sectarian isolation being the only Sunni town in an area that is predominantly populated by Shiites who support Hezbollah and back the Assad regime.
Furthermore, Arsal has a history of opposition to the Assad regime dating back to the mid-1970s and highlighted by the participation of residents in the anti-Syrian “independence intifada” rallies of February and March 2005.
The cluster of farmsteads exposed to the Syrian troop incursions lie in an area known as Khirbet Daoud, about10 kilometers east of Arsal. They are reached by a rutted stone track that winds across an arid, desolate wind-blasted landscape criss-crossed by dry river beds. The border runs along the crest of the barren Anti Lebanon mountains, although Syrian farmers long ago encroached onto Lebanese territory, planting and cultivating orchards of apricot, pear and almond trees and feuding with aggrieved Lebanese landowners.
The last presence of the Lebanese state is a police checkpoint on the eastern outskirts of the town. There are no Lebanese troops deployed east of Arsal, underlining the sense of vulnerability felt by local farmers.
There were no Syrian soldiers to be seen at the end of a tense hour-long drive through the wilderness. But, according to Hussein Wehbe, a farmer who lives with his family in a two-room house and adjacent tent, Syrian troops deployed on a hill a few hundred meters to the east that morning.
“They fired shots in the air and stayed on the hill for about half an hour,” he said as his wife stooped over a fire to brew a pot of Turkish coffee. “If I take one step closer to the border from here, they will shoot at me.”
Asked why he chose to stay when most other farmers had fled, he said, “This is my land and I’m not going to go anywhere else.”

Amin Gemayel visits Egypt, holds meeting with Coptic pope
October 17, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel called Sunday for dialogue between Arab states to lay the foundations for political systems based on freedom, democracy and equality among all citizens of the Arab world.
Gemayel made his remarks during a visit to Egypt, where he met with Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church and political officials. His visit came in the wake of clashes that left 26 Copts dead last week. The former president said Egypt would overcome such incidents and establish a new system that promotes freedom and the participation of all factions in drawing the map of the country’s future. “All officials whom I met stressed that they will not allow Egypt to fall prey to religious conflicts that will harm both Christians and Muslims,” Gemayel told reporters following his meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Amro.
Amro said that the Egyptian people were confronting attempts to spark strife in their country when, in a show of solidarity, Muslims and Christians joined hands in peaceful rallies after Friday prayers. Egypt’s military rulers have blamed Christian protesters and infiltrators for triggering the clashes, which were the worst between the military and protesters in the eight months since Egypt’s uprising began and have raised questions about the ruling military council. Gemayel said that Egypt should be as a model for stability on the domestic and regional level.
“I believe in the maturity of Egyptians and their sense of national responsibility. Egypt will undoubtedly overcome these incidents and lay the foundations for a new situation that includes all factions and respect for freedom of belief and the participation of all parties in the future of the country,” he said. Some Coptic Christians, who represent about 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million people, say they are treated like second-class citizens and that repeated attacks on them go unpunished, while many Egyptian Muslims view Christians with suspicion, claiming they are supported and influenced by Western powers. Asked whether he feared civil war in Syria, Gemayel said he hoped for stability to reign in the country as it moves toward the promotion of democracy. Touching on the situation in Lebanon, Gemayel said no signs have emerged so far with regard to a possible agreement to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and accused some of seeking to obstruct justice. Gemayel also held talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani and is scheduled to meet al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayeb.

Cabinet won’t approve tribunal funding
October 17, 2011
By Hussein Dakroub The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The government will not approve the financing of a U.N.-backed court and Prime Minister Najib Mikati is not likely to resign as the dispute over the payment of Lebanon’s share to the court’s funding escalates, threatening to throw the Cabinet into disarray, ministerial sources said Sunday.
In the meantime, Hezbollah, adamant in its staunch opposition to the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and a minister close to the party said that if no consensus was reached on the divisive issue of the STL, the matter should be put for a vote inside the Cabinet.
“So far, there has been no consensus on the issue of the court’s funding. We hope to reach an agreement on this issue. But if no agreement is reached, we will go for a vote in the Cabinet,” Minister of State Ali Qanso told The Daily Star.
Asked what would the result of the Cabinet vote be, Qanso said: “The result will be a vote against the court’s financing because the attitudes of the blocs are well known.”
Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, who oppose the STL altogether, let alone funding it, have a majority in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet and can block any decision. Qanso belongs to the March 8 camp.
Asked whether Mikati, who has repeatedly promised to pay Lebanon’s $32 million share to the STL’s funding, would resign if the Cabinet majority opposed the court’s funding, Qanso said: “I don’t think Prime Minister Mikati will resign.”
A senior March 8 source said the STL’s funding will not be approved by the Cabinet and Mikati will not quit over the issue.
“Even if the government did not approve the payment of Lebanon’s share to the court’s funding, Lebanon will not be punished with sanctions,” the source told The Daily Star.
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said the Cabinet should go ahead with a vote if it failed to reach agreement on the STL’s funding.
“Since this government has been formed by a parliamentary majority which has its own views and beliefs, it is only natural that its representatives do not agree on everything,” Qassem said during a student graduation ceremony in the village of Qsarnaba in the Bekaa region Sunday.
Apparently referring to the STL’s funding, Qassem said: “We have agreed to discuss everything freely inside the government. Each [party] has its own opinion and its position. But even in difficult and complicated matters, if we do not reach an agreement, there should be a vote inside the Cabinet. The majority can decide the direction and the others must comply.”
He added that the Cabinet voting will reflect commitment to the Lebanese ruling system in the formation of the Cabinet and its policy statement and also in deciding on divisive issues.
Qassem also praised Mikati’s government, saying that it has proved that it could communicate with both the East and West and as well as with Arabs and Persians.
“We are hearing today from [U.S. Secretary of State Hilary] Clinton and others that they want to see stability in Lebanon,” Qassem said.
Some opposition March 14 politicians have warned that the Mikati government, which is dominated by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, could be isolated by the West.
The remarks by Qanso and Qassem came as the Cabinet is set to begin discussing the 2012 draft state budget Tuesday. The draft budget includes allocations to pay Lebanon’s over $30 million share to the funding of the STL which is trying to uncover the perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Qanso said Tuesday’s ministerial session will not touch on the issue of the STL’s funding.
“The budget discussions will take weeks. We have time until the end of the year,” he said.
Despite Hezbollah’s opposition, Mikati appears to be determined to support the STL’s funding, warning that Lebanon’s failure to comply with U.N. resolutions will serve Israel.
Mikati was apparently referring to the possibility of U.N. sanctions on Lebanon if it failed to comply with U.N. resolutions, particularly Resolution 1757 which established the STL. The resolution calls on Lebanon to pay nearly half of the STL’s annual $65 million.
Mikati reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to U.N. resolutions, including the STL, during a dinner he hosted for visiting Irish President Mary McAleese at the Grand Serail Saturday.
“Lebanon, which is proud of being one of the founders of the United Nations, is committed to U.N. resolutions, particularly Resolution 1701,” he said, referring to the resolution that ended the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon.
But opposition March 14 politicians expressed skepticism about Mikati’s ability to honor his promise to pay Lebanon’s share to the STL’s funding.
“So far, there are no positive indications or signs of a solution to this problem [STL’s funding]. There are parties whose position is extremely negative and they do not want justice in Lebanon to take its course,” Kataeb (Phalange) Party leader Amin Gemayel told reporters in Cairo.
MP Ahmad Fatfat from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc told a rally in the northern district of Minieh: “I don’t think at all that this government will finance the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, even though I wish I am wrong. But it is clear that there is a decision from Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah not to finance the tribunal.”
Fatfat also ruled out Mikati’s resignation if Lebanon did not pay its share to the court’s funding.
A spokesperson for the STL warned last week that Lebanon may be referred to the U.N. Security Council if it fails to meet the 30-day deadline for paying its share for the court.
The spokesperson for the STL, talking after STL Registrar Herman von Hebel’s announcement that Lebanon must pay 49 percent of the tribunal’s running costs, said new president Sir David Baragwanath may choose to report the Lebanese government to New York if it proves uncooperative.

Main Druze parties boycott Wahhab’s hospital project
October 17, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The two main Druze parties, the Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblatt and the Lebanese Democratic Party of MP Talal Arslan, boycotted Sunday a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of an Iranian-funded hospital in the Chouf mountains sponsored by the Arab Tawheed Party led by former Minister Wiam Wahhab.
The reasons for the boycott were not immediately clear. Wahhab’s ties with Arslan have been strained for a long time, but his relations with Jumblatt have improved since the PSP leader reconciled with Syria and Hezbollah.
Despite their boycott, Wahhab appealed to the PSP and LDP to join hands with his party in the Chouf for the benefit of the Druze and Christian population in the area.
Wahhab laid the foundation stone of the hospital project during the ceremony held in the Chouf village of Jahilieh attended by Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil representing President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, representatives of mainly March 8 parties, and Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi. Iran is contributing part of the project’s funding, the state-run National News Agency reported, without giving details of the value of the project.
Wahhab said the building of the hospital was aimed at helping people who are unable to buy medicine or cannot afford treatment in hospitals.
“It is a project for every poor in the mountains, from Iqlim al-Kharroub, to the Chouf, Aley, Metn, Rashaya, Hasbaya, and [the Syrian province of] Soueida and Mount Hermon. Its doors will not be closed in the face of any poor,” Wahhab said.
“This hospital is not only for the Tawheed [Party], but also for the PSP, the Syrian Social National Party, the Communist Party, the Baath Party, the LDP, [MP Michel] Aoun’s [Free Patriotic Movement] and our colleagues in the Struggle Movement,” he said.
He added that the hospital will also be open to supporters of the Kataeb (Phalange) Party and the Lebanese Forces in the area.
“This is the wish of the Islamic Republic [of Iran] and the ambassador that this project is for the Christians as it is for the Druze, the Sunnis and Shiites. There is no discrimination between one needy person and another,” Wahhab said.

Arab League seeks Syria dialogue
October 17, 2011
By Hussein Abdallah Agencies
The Arab League called Sunday for the immediate cessation of violence in Syria and invited the Syrian government for a round of dialogue with the country’s opposition to be held at the organization’s headquarters in Cairo.
“The necessary contacts with the government and opposition will be made in order to hold a conference at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo and under its sponsorship within the next 15 days,” Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters following a meeting which lasted a little more than two hours.
The league decided to form a committee, to be headed by Qatar, and include Sudan, Algeria, Oman, Egypt and the Arab League’s secretary general with the task of contacting the Syrian government and opposition in a bid to initiate dialogue between the two sides of the conflict.
“The league’s secretariat will remain in session in the meantime to follow up on the situation in Syria,” Hamad said, adding that Syria was the only country to voice reservations on the league’s final statement, specifically on Qatar’s heading of the committee.
Relations between Syria and Qatar have been strained over claims by the Syrian leadership that the Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite channel was playing a role in “magnifying” the events in Syria to shake President Bashar Assad’s rule.
Voices of angry protesters could be heard while the Qatari premier was reading the meeting’s final statement, as 2,000 anti-Assad protesters gathered outside the Arab League building on the edge of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of Egypt’s uprising.
“Freedom is on fire. Go away, Bashar,” they shouted.
The newly formed opposition body known as the Syrian National Council called on the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership “until a new regime is born.”
It also appealed for the council to recognize it as the “sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”
The Arab League’s decisions fell short of meeting the opposition’s demand to suspend Syria’s membership. Divisions were reported among league members on what actions to take in response to the situation in Syria.
Earlier Sunday, Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for an activist in the oil-rich east, a human rights group said.
“Syrian security forces in Deir Ezzor fired live bullets at a funeral procession for Ziad al-Obeidi,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in reference to one of its associates on the ground. “Some 7,000 people took part in the funeral which turned into a demonstration calling for the fall of the regime.” Obeidi, 42, was killed by security forces who were hunting for him in Deir Ezzor, a province in Syria’s east. He had gone into hiding in August during military operations in the area.
Security forces on Sunday carried out raids and arrests in the flashpoint central province of Homs and in the outskirts of Damascus, with 19 people arrested in Dmeir, the Observatory said.
Also in the Damascus region, 25 people were arrested, including three young women, in the town of Zabadani, it said.
The official news agency SANA, meanwhile, said an “armed terrorist gang” ambushed and killed two security agents in the city of Hama, a hotbed of dissent and focal point of a 10-day military operation in August.
It said two cars filled with arms were seized on the Homs-Tartus road and four “members of armed terrorist gangs” arrested. Thirty-four other wanted people were detained in Homs, the agency said.
A campaign of sweeping arrests has rounded up a total of 923 people over the past week, according to the Observatory.
Also Sunday, thousands of Syrian troops backed by armor opened fire in the resort town of Zabadani on the border with Lebanon, a day after heavy fighting in the area between army defectors and loyalist forces, residents and activists said.
Armored vehicles fired machine guns and anti-aircraft guns as they entered the town, in the foothills of the Anti Lebanon Mountains, 35 kilometers west of Damascus. Troops combed flat farmland near the town on Saturday looking for defectors, ransacked homes, seized cars and arrested at least 100 people, including three female college students suspected of participating in pro-democracy protests, they said.
“Soldiers accompanied by Military Intelligence have set up road blocks everywhere. Zabadani is now cut off from Damascus,” said one resident who gave his name as Mohammad.
Local residents said army defectors fought loyalist troops for several hours on Saturday, and two vehicles belonging to the security police were seen riddled with bullets.

Protesters clash with Syrian Embassy guards in Beirut
October 17, 2011 /The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Syrian Embassy guards clashed with Syrian Kurds protesting in Beirut over the weekend, leaving at least one activist wounded, the man told local media. Kadar Biri told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published Monday that four men “often seen at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut and speaking in a Syrian accent" attacked a crowd of Kurdish activists who were protesting against the Syrian government outside the embassy in Hamra Sunday.
Biri said the protesters were dispersed by Lebanese riot police and minutes later were chased down Hamra Street by embassy guards, armed with guns and batons.
He said the guards beat up the demonstrators, including him, with guns and sticks. Lebanese authorities refused to comment on the incident Monday.
Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat Monday denounced the violence in Hamra and the ongoing cross-border incursions by the Syrian army into the Bekaa town of Arsal, saying “the problem seems to be growing bigger.”Pro- and anti-Syrian regime protests have taken place in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, particularly in the north, since pro-reform rallies broke out in Syria in March. The United Nations says than 3,000 people have been killed in the Syrian government crackdown on the demonstrations since they began.

March 8 Studying Alternatives to Replace Miqati
Naharnet /Hizbullah and its allies have left Prime Minister Najib Miqati with very little room to maneuver regarding the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper on Sunday. The parliamentary majority believes that the decision to fund the tribunal lies in its hands and not the premier. March 8 sources told the newspaper that the camp is starting to study possible alternatives to Miqati should he insist on funding the STL, regardless of President Michel Suleiman and Nation Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat’s positions on the international court. The sources revealed that several alternatives are being examined, included former ministers Abdul Rahim Mrad and Adnan Addoum.
Hizbullah circles asserted that the decision is final and that Lebanon will announce its disassociation with the tribunal at the right time, added al-Seyassah.
Meanwhile, National Struggle Front sources told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday that there can be no escaping the funding, adding that it is “out of the question” for Miqati to retract the commitment he made to the international community over the funding. Ministerial sources from the majority stated that direct contacts between the government factions over the funding have not started. They revealed that Tuesday’s cabinet session will not address this issue, but it will be limited to tackling Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi’s proposals over the state budget law. They said that a suggestion will be made to postpone tackling the STL funding until December.

More than 100 rights groups urge Arab action on Syria
Now Lebanon/A coalition of 121 Arab and international rights groups on Sunday urged the Arab League to take action on Syria to prevent it from sliding into civil war, as the organization prepared to meet in Cairo. "The Arab League can ramp up the diplomatic and economic pressure to help end the crackdown and prevent Syria from descending into civil war now," said Alice Jay, campaign director of AVAAZ, a signatory of their joint statement. "For months, Syria’s brutal President [Bashar] Assad has waged war on his own people," Jay said, two days after the United Nations said the death toll in Syria had exceeded 3,000 since anti-regime protests broke out in mid-March. In the letter signed by 121 rights organizations from across the Arab world and abroad, activists called on the Arab League "to be on the right side of history" and fill the region's "leadership vacuum." They urged the League to step up diplomatic pressure on the Syrian regime by suspending its membership of the League, downgrading diplomatic missions in Damascus, and backing action at the UN Security Council. The statement came as Arab foreign ministers were to meet at League headquarters in Cairo to discuss the deadly crackdown on dissent in Syria at the request of the Gulf monarchies. It called on Arab leaders to isolate the Syrian regime economically "as long as the crackdown continues" and "to impose restrictive measures on persons and companies of the regime involved in the crackdown." The groups warned that international sanctions would be "limited in impact without pressure on Syria from similar measures in the region."
Signatories included the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), AVAAZ, the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect and the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Iran faces UN rights review on Monday
October 16, 2011 /The UN's human rights committee will on Monday begin questioning Iran over its attempts to reduce executions and other extreme judicial sentences, while probing the country's efforts at promoting key rights.Iranian officials will face questions from the 18 independent experts who make up the UN committee that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights among state-parties. The review is set to begin Monday with the presentation of a 224-page report produced by the experts and will wrap on Tuesday when the committee presents its conclusions. Iran was last reviewed by the committee in 1993, when its experts condemned "the extremely high number of death sentences that are pronounced and carried out, in many cases after a trial where the guarantees of a regular hearing were not applied in an appropriate manner".The council equally denounced the application of extreme disciplinary measures, including flagellation and stoning. Those practices continue in Iran and are relentlessly criticized by rights activists and many Western governments. Under Iranian law, murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death, and Tehran insists the punishment is essential to maintain public order. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted in 1966 and came into force in 1976. It has 167 state-parties.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Fruitless labor
Matt Nash, October 16, 2011
Now Lebanon
Unable to rally its political patrons, Lebanon’s General Worker’s Union (GWU) lost a battle for wage hikes this week, exposing its relative weakness and prompting a compromise that pleased no one.
In a decision that has since been derided across the board, cabinet on Tuesday agreed to raise wages for two tranches of employees: those earning monthly salaries between 500,000 and 1 million Lebanese Liras ($333 and $666) and those earning between 1,000,001 and 1.8 million LL ($666 and $1,200). The GWU wanted much more, and most workers seem particularly incensed with the 1.8 million LL limit on which workers will receive raises.
The decision, accepted by GWU leader Ghassan Ghosn, prevented a general strike the organization had scheduled for October 12. Strikes, of course, are means for labor unions to flex their muscles and extract concessions. However, Ghosn was likely relieved to see the demonstration stopped.
Founded in 1970, the GWU is an umbrella organization grouping many of the country’s labor federations (themselves comprised of individual unions). Viewed as neutral and at times even a unifying force during the civil war, the GWU became increasingly politicized after the conflict ended, according to a 1997 paper by Lebanese American University Political Science Professor Sami Baroudi.
Today Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement is best represented in the GWU, and Berri, many argue, more or less controls the body’s actions. In recent years, at times of political crisis, GWU strikes have gone ahead.
As the March 8 coalition called for the toppling of Fouad Siniora’s government in early 2007, after resigning from it in 2006, and tensions soared over establishing what is now the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the GWU led a strike many saw as a means to pressure the government. None of the GWU’s demands were met.
The organization had more success in May 2008. On May 7, the GWU held a 24-hour general strike that led to fist-fighting on Beirut’s streets, days after cabinet decided to investigate Hezbollah’s private phone network in the South and sack the head of airport security, who was close to the Party of God. The following day, after a speech on the cabinet’s decision by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, March 8 supporters took over half of Beirut.
In the aftermath of what is euphemistically referred to as “the May 7 events,” the GWU won a coat-tail victory in seeing the minimum wage rise from 300,000 LL ($200) per month to 500,000 LL. Additionally, the minimum wage hike decision mandated that all employees receive a 200,000 LL ($133) raise.
That Ghosn accepted a deal this week belies the fact that without the consent of the real powers-that-be in the GWU, it carries little sway.
“I don’t think that the labor union [GWU] wanted to [hold the strike] because it would have shown their limited ability to get people out,” LAU’s Baroudi told NOW Lebanon. He said Ghosn probably took an initially hard-line position assuming the government would be on his side. Baroudi dismissed the idea that the timing of raising their demands was politically calculated on the GWU’s part.
However, a showdown is brewing between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and ministers from the March 8 alliance over Lebanon’s funding for the STL. Cabinet is also soon expected to fill dozens of administrative vacancies—an opportunity for politicians to both exercise patronage and gain influence in ministries and other state bodies. There may have been more being negotiated this week than a wage increase, but in the end, the GWU was left without political backing for their strike, and ultimately backed down.
Many of the federations within the GWU—particularly teachers—are so upset with the deal they are insisting on striking next week (and, indeed, many teaches did strike on October 12).
“We as the teacher’s union are also objecting to the fact that the decision [to cancel the strike] was taken without our consent,” Walid Jradeh, head of the union in South Lebanon, told NOW Lebanon. “We were working on the basis that there be coordination between us and the GWU. It is unacceptable that the latter be the sole decision maker and decide to freeze the strike without referring back to the different bodies that are involved and taking part.”
The teachers are not the only unhappy ones. Business leaders are enraged and have threatened not to give their employees raises, while several economists have condemned a decision they say will spark a jump in inflation.
Kamal Hamdan, an economic specialist with the Consultation and Research Institute, was particularly critical of the 1.8 million LL limit on salary increases. Workers earning $1,201 and above will not be happy seeing their lower-paid colleagues get raises they are not entitled to, he said.
On the political level, allies of Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, particularly Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, also slammed the compromise, insisting on a more holistic approach to improving the social and economic problems the country faces—quite in line, actually, with the larger basket of demands the GWU initially proposed.
For Samir Farah, a representative of the German organization Friedrich Ebert Stiftung who has worked with the GWU in the past, this week’s display was quite disappointing.
“This is the first time they’re demanding in such a chaotic and humiliating way the rights of workers,” he told NOW Lebanon. “It’s clear they are manipulated by politicians.”
When asked what could be done to revamp the GWU to make it a more effective tool for securing workers’ rights, he sighed, half smiled and shook his head.

Hollande Wins French Left's Presidential Primary
Naharnet /French Socialist lawmaker Francois Hollande was crowned favorite for next year's presidential election on Sunday, winning the left's primary to choose a challenger for Nicolas Sarkozy. The center-right incumbent is expected to stand for re-election, but all recent opinion polls show him on course to lose to any left-wing challenger, and Hollande's victory will serve as a springboard for his campaign. With almost two million of an estimated 2.8 million votes counted, Hollande had an unassailable 56 to 43 percent lead over Socialist leader Martine Aubry, who conceded defeat and vowed to support his campaign. The vote was France's first U.S.-style open primary -- any elector who said he or she supports the ideals of the left could vote -- and the huge turnout was hailed by Socialist leaders as a boost for the battle ahead.
"Tonight, we rally behind our candidate," Aubry declared, preparing to welcome her erstwhile opponent to Socialist Party headquarters to celebrate his victory and make a speech designed to re-unite and motivate activists. Segolene Royal, who is both Hollande's former partner and the Socialist's defeated candidate in the 2007 election, said the win was both an "undeniable advance" and showed supporters' "very strong trust" in the victor. Hollande had the backing of the four defeated first-round candidates and entered the run-off as favorite, but Aubry mounted a tough fight back, branding him a soft centrist without the steel to defeat Sarkozy.
Aubry, 61, the former labor minister who gave France its 35-hour working week, also attacked Hollande's lack of executive experience.
But 57-year-old Hollande turned the attacks to his advantage, accusing Aubry of undermining party unity and suggesting his lack of a track record would make it easier for him to run as a candidate of change. Sarkozy's camp was wrong-footed by the primary. Some of his supporters grudgingly admitted it served as a good shop window for the Socialists, but the president himself dismissed it as alien to French political tradition.
The majority UMP mocked the left's policy debate, portraying it as a throw-back to the 1980s, but televised confrontations drew large audiences.
The right had hoped the primary format would sow discord between the six hopefuls, triggering the infighting for which the Socialist Party is infamous.
In fact, the first round remained relatively civil, despite a history of personal animosity between the frontrunners.
Aubry succeeded Hollande as Socialist Party general secretary and has since let it be known that she found the organization in a sorry state.
Hollande was the partner of fourth-placed challenger Royal for 30 years, raising four children with her, but split from her secretly before her failed presidential and moved in with his girlfriend. Despite the bad blood, the campaign only turned truly bitter in the closing straight, when Aubry attempted to close down Hollande's narrow but consistent lead by tacking to the left and branding him weak. Historically, both she and Hollande come from the party centre ground.
In 1995, when France's last Socialist president Francois Mitterrand left office, they were both apostles of modernizing former European Commission chairman Jacques Delors -- Aubry is his daughter, Hollande his protege. Even before the result was confirmed, Jean-Francois Cope, leader of Sarkozy's UMP warned: "This evening we'll have an opponent, and we'll finally be able to demand some answers." *Source Agence France Presse

The Guardians of the Cedars Party - The Movement for Lebanese Nationalism issued the following message:
Lebanon and the Syrian Revolution
Some people ask us why we stand with the Syrian revolution. What if it fails and the regime succeeds in quelling it? Or the regime falls and is replaced by chaos, which then spills into Lebanon? These are questions on the minds of the Lebanese people who are divided over them across sectarian and party lines, or for personal interest. Yet, reality demands that Lebanon support the Syrian revolution from, first, a standpoint of principle first, and second, from historical, humanitarian, and political standpoints.
A revolution, in the conventional sense, is an expression of repressed wrath that explodes when people in a given circumstance have had enough of cumulative injustices perpetrated against them by a tyrannical ruler or corrupt regime.
When people undertake a revolution against their ruler, they are always right because injustice comes from the ruler and not from the people. Hence, backing the popular uprisings calling for freedom, justice, and democracy, is a humanitarian and ethical obligation. On the basis of that obligation, we stood on the side of the free people of the world in all the outbreaks of revolution around us, from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and now Syria, while others, specifically the Lebanese regime, took a selective stance vis-à-vis these revolutions. It supported the Libyan revolution to the exclusion of others against the background of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, while it stood against the Syrian revolution against the background of its subservience to the Syrian regime and the interests it shares with it.
From a historical perspective, any failure to support the Syrian people, in their face-off with the most dangerous and repressive regime in the world, violates Lebanon's unique mission which it has upheld since time immemorial, namely to disseminate a culture of freedom and democracy and to support persecuted peoples. Lebanon was, in fact, among the first nations to lay down the texts of the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations.
From a humanitarian perspective, we share with the Syrian people their pain and suffering, given that we are both afflicted with the same calamity. The systematic and daily massacres to which the Syrian have been subjected for the seven months now were previously our lot for decades at the hands of the same regime, with the difference that the whole entire world colluded against the Lebanese at the time of the Syrian-Palestinian onslaught since 1975. Russia, which is known for its anti-humanitarian positions, was then called the Soviet Union, the US administration was riding the coattails of the pro-Syrian, pro-Palestinian Saudi policy, the European continent, now known as the European Union, was absent, and the regional and international media, which today prominently cover the crimes of the Syrian regime, were also absent during the war against Lebanon.
Lastly, from a political perspective, the collapse of the Syrian regime will inevitably lead to the liberation of Lebanon from the Syrian iron grip under which it continues to reel to date, imposing on it governments allied with it. It will also lead to breaking the geo-strategic bridge linking the Iranian revolution to its tentacles in Lebanon. This will contribute to weakening the armed mini-states that prevail today over the central state. The success of the Syrian revolution will also inevitably spawn a democratic system, even if after some time, which would relieve Lebanon on the long term from the calamities of the dictatorial regimes surrounding it and their expansionist aspirations and crimes against humanity.
From the honorable people in Lebanon to the free people of Syria, we extend our salutation of esteem and admiration.
Lebanon, at your service
Etienne Sacre – Abu Arz

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Oct. 17, 2011 October
17, 2011/The Daily Star
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Monday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
An-Nahar
Syrian security expansion could have impact [on Lebanon]
Mikati denies resignation ... [STL] funding to a vote?
As the government gears up to address pivotal issues with the start of the new week – mainly the draft 2012 state budget that includes the article concerning funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) – the phenomenon of cross-border incursions has taken on a new shape that could further impact on the overall political and security situation in the country.
Amid ongoing political bickering over a statement made by Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel-Karim Ali, with regards to accusations that the Syrian mission in Beirut is involved in the kidnapping of Syrian opposition figures, a clash broke out in Hamra, Beriut, Sunday between Syrian Embassy security personnel and Kurdish protesters.
One Kurd was injured in the fighting. Syrian protesters said they were beaten up by Syrian Embassy security guards, who were brandishing weapons and sticks.
Lawmakers told An-Nahar they would request for an urgent meeting of the human rights parliamentary committee to hear clarifications from judicial authorities with respect to the case of the missing Syrian opposition citizens.
Meanwhile, as Cabinet prepares to debate the state budget during its Tuesday evening meeting, sources close to Prime Minister Najib Mikati denied reports that Mikati or his government planned to resign [over the STL funding].
While the sources stressed that the issue of STL funding was up for debate in Cabinet “and will be discussed calmly and logically,” Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, hinted over the weekend that the STL funding would likely to be put to a vote.
Al-Mustaqbal
Syrian hostilities from Bekaa to Beirut as Mansour declares Lebanon won’t ‘deviate’ from Assad support
Cabinet this week is overwhelmed with issues such as the STL funding in light of contradicting stances between Mikati and Hezbollah, although Hezbollah’s Sheikh Naim Qassem has already made up him mind, saying the issue is to be put to a vote.
Moreover, it was not yet clear how Mikati planned to translate his commitments regarding STL funding.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour turned into an assistant to Syria’s foreign minister when he assured before heading to attend an Arab League meeting that his stance would “not deviate from supporting Syria and the reform policies adopted [by Damascus].”
Ad-Diyar
Mikati sources: STL is legitimate, only solution is to fund it or we will enter into the unknown
Funding the STL continues to be a key controversial issue as government members have so far failed to find an exit to the dispute over the issue.
A ministerial source close to Mikati told Ad-Diyar that the only solution would be to fund the STL as the tribunal is legitimate “and any talk contrary to that is likely to take Lebanon to the unknown.”
As-Safir
Support the poorest families’ program kicks off Monday: donations to 74,000 families
Government plagued by issues: oil, budget, strike
Oil returns to the forefront as Speaker Nabih Berri called for a meeting in Parliament Monday of the relevant parliamentary committees to discuss the issue.
In addition to Berri, the meeting will be attended by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the concerned Cabinet ministers.
The state budget, in turn, will be in the spotlight during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. However the session will be a sensitive one given that it includes a “big landmine” – the issue of STL funding – which is likely to have an impact on the government.
However, Mikati sources denied rumors about the possibility that differences within the government over funding for the STL would lead to the resignation of government [ministers]. The sources stressed that the STL funding would be discussed in Cabinet as part of the state budget.
The sources told As-Safir that the government would remain for a long time, adding that it is doing its job away from political or media bickering.
“All things will be addressed in a timely manner,” one source said.
Meanwhile, as the teachers’ unions were readying for Wednesday’s strike to protest the government's handling of wage increases, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour is set to launch Monday a program in support of the poorest families in Lebanon under the auspices of President Michel Sleiman. Sleiman and Mikati will attend the opening ceremony.
Abu Faour told As-Safir that the program would initially cover about 74,000 families living below the poverty line.

Assad’s raids on Lebanon, and Syria’s slow slip into civil war
October 17, 2011/ By: Robert Fisk/The Independent
Cross-border tank incursions; four Syrian opponents of the Damascus regime kidnapped in Lebanon, supposedly in a vehicle belonging to the Syrian embassy in Beirut; a truckload of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades destined for President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents on the other side of the Lebanese frontier seized by the Lebanese army – not to mention the mass rally in favour of Bashar in Damascus last week, which Syrians arriving in Lebanon say really – really – did count a million people on the streets. Every tragedy has its mystery, I suppose, but this one is taking on Gone With The Wind proportions.
Above that huge mass of Bashar supporters flew Syrian military helicopters carrying massive national flags of Russia and China – Syria’s two friends in the Security Council, who vetoed UN sanctions against the Damascus government last week. It was the perfect antidote to all those YouTube pictures of dead protesters and dying children, not to mention the infamous photograph of a girl allegedly beheaded by the Syrian secret police who turned out – deus ex machinus on Syrian television – to be very much alive and obviously well and even wearing a modest veil. Confusing? At least we now know, from the very lips of Assad’s opposition, that the “armed gangs” that the regime says it is fighting really do exist, albeit that they wear uniforms.
But first, the incursions. After enjoying the benefits of Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon – the army left in 2005 – the Lebanese are a bit sensitive when Bashar’s lads appear near their border, apparently looking for gun-runners of the kind who were driving the truck near Halba last week. And when a Syrian drives a few metres across the frontier and fires a shell into an abandoned battery factory, it all becomes a little more serious. There have been at least three recorded Syrian incursions into Lebanon – a further eight are suspected – and during one of them, near the village of Ensal, a man was killed. He turned out to be a local Syrian resident. The border, needless to say, is notoriously difficult to locate. One R. Fisk even crossed it by accident years ago, but opponents of Lebanon’s Hizballah-inclusive (and thus pro-Syrian) government raged against this supposedly massive incursion upon Lebanese sovereignty.
They cared a lot less about the lorry-load of weapons on its way to the unofficial border crossing at Wadi Khalek where the “armed gangs” were presumably waiting for it, a bit of an incursion into Syria’s sovereignty although opposition newspapers in Beirut – largely representing the Sunnis and part of the Christian community – sarcastically asked why Lebanese security services were so good at finding smugglers but so slow in driving Syrian armour back over the frontier.
On now to the case of 86-year-old Chibli al-Aysoouni, a founder of the original Baath party who left Syria in 1966, before the Assad family even came to power. Against the regime but inactive since 1992 – he had also exiled himself in Egypt, Iraq and the US – he disappeared from his home in the Lebanese mountain town of Aley on 24 May and was never seen again. Then three Syrian brothers from the Jassem family were grabbed by “unknown men” outside a police station in east Beirut when they came to collect their brother, Jasem Merii Jasem, who had been seen handing out flyers calling for “democratic change” in Syria.
At the time, no one paid much attention to these disappearances, although EU ambassadors had already complained to the Beirut government when the Lebanese army sent back to Damascus three Syrian military deserters. Fearing that the latter were not greeted by their officers with tea and cakes by the fire, the ambassadors warned that this could amount to a crime against humanity. But then last week came a political explosion.
Lebanese MPs revealed that at a closed parliamentary committee meeting, General Ashraf Rifi, the friendly, beatle-eyed head of Lebanon’s paramilitary Internal Security Force, claimed that Syrian embassy vehicles in Beirut were used in the abductions and that documents and security cameras in the embassy parking lot in west Beirut – along with “security agents” – had all confirmed this. Indeed, it appears that some of Rifi’s own ISF were driving the cars. The plot thickened – in fact, it virtually turned to glue – when it transpired that the Syrian embassy guard unit is run by Lebanese First Lieutenant Salah Hajj, the son of Major General Ali Hajj, one of four Lebanese officers imprisoned for four years by the UN on suspicion of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri – until the UN decided that it had been conned by false evidence and freed the four men.
Explosions of fury could then be heard from the office of Syria’s intelligent ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel Karim Ali – he has just finished reading a book about Lebanon by the author of this article – who transmitted to Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour his anger that these extraordinary allegations had been made against him. He denied them all, and demanded proof from General Rifi, an undeniably pro-opposition top cop who has since remained silent. Syria and Lebanon, Mr Ali announced, were the victims of “an American-Zionist plot”. Syria would come stronger out of these troubles than it had been before.
And yet there was the UN this weekend, warning of a “full-blown civil war” in Syria – a distant cousin, I guess, of ordinary civil war of the Libyan variety – as the death toll in seven months of anti-Assad protests rose, again according to the UN, to 3,000, 187 of them children. On Saturday, the Lebanese press published photographs of a 14-year-old Syrian boy, Ibrahim al-Chaybane, whom it said had died in a Syrian hospital after being shot in the chest by Syrian security forces. Again, the picture was on YouTube. A unit of Syrian army deserters, claiming they were several thousand strong – a statistic which probably belongs in the ho-hum department – has now emerged on the internet, along with pictures of some of the uniformed men; an audacious act which also proves that the opponents of Assad, while they may not be “gangs”, are very definitely armed.