LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِSeptember
24/2011
Bible Quotation for today/Salt
and Light
Matthew 5/13-16: "13 You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt
loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become
worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it. You are like
light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one lights a
lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead it is put on the lampstand, where it
gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine
before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your
Father in heaven."
Latest
analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases
from
miscellaneous
sources
Maronites pray to a dispiriting
trinity/By
Michael Young/ September 23/11
A fiendish agenda/Now
Lebanon/September 23/11
President Michel
Sleiman's Speech at the UN/Now Lebanon/September
21, 2011
Mikati may not be that dead after
all/By:
Michael Young/September 23/11
Tehran: The Imamate and its
illusions/By:
Amir Taheri/September 23/11
Syria: Freedom is imminent/By:
Hussein Shobokshi/September 23/11
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 23/11
Hezbollah were able to kill Hariri: Alloush
Hizbullah Fighter Reportedly
Escaped to Israel in June, Party Denies Arresting New Spies
Hezbollah denies report about party
members being spies
Bkirki gathers Christian
leaders to discuss new electoral law
Lebanese Forces leader Samir
Geagea: Christians can agree on new electoral law
Maronite Meeting: Electoral Law Will Revitalize Christian Role in Lebanon
Lebanon: 9 Injured after Fatah al-Islam Inmates Take Hostages in Roumieh
Road Chaos as Heavy Rains Lash Lebanon
U.S. Military Delegation Meets Lebanon's army chief, Qahwaji, Visits Blue Line
Lebanon’s gas fields, a gift or
curse?
Jumblatt told to decide stance as he mends
broken ties
Bill Clinton: Netanyahu isn't
interested in Mideast peace deal
Clashes break out between
Palestinians and Israel security forces in East Jerusalem
Ari Shavit / Obama, Abbas and
Netanyahu squandered their golden opportunity
Israel mobilizes 22,000 police,
thousands of troops, for Palestinian disturbances
Israel Rejects Sarkozy’s Compromise on Palestinian State
U.S. Alerts Citizens in Lebanon to Avoid Refugee Camps, Gatherings
More deaths as sanctions on Syria widened
Report: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Fear there is No Going Home
Karzai Vows to Continue Afghan Peace Effort
EU Bans Oil Investments in Syria
Switzerland Slaps Fresh Sanctions on Syria, Targets Oil Products
France Warns of 'Dead End' for Palestinian U.N. Bid
IAEA won't discuss Israel's 'nuclear capabilities' after Arab proposal dropped
US leads mass walkout of Ahmadinejad speech at UN
Maronite Meeting: Electoral Law Will Revitalize Christian Role in
Lebanon
Naharnet /A meeting for Maronite leaders stressed on Friday the importance of
the electoral law in revitalizing the role of Christians in Lebanon. The
statement, read by the Patriarchate spokesman Walid Ghayyath, said: “The
Christians believe in the Lebanese state and its institutions and they believe
that an electoral law is the correct way to revitalize their role in the
country.” The electoral law is the foundation for building partnership in
Lebanon based on equal representation, he added. Rival Maronite leaders and
lawmakers met in Bkirki on Friday in the second round of discussions between
them on suggestions for a new electoral law that Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi hoped
would receive consensus.
The top four Maronite leaders Phalange party chief Amin Gemayel, Free Patriotic
Movement leader Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and the head of
the Marada movement Suleiman Franjieh along with MPs from the March 8 and March
14 forces attended the meeting. After the meeting, the conferees attended a
lunch banquet thrown by al-Rahi in their honor. On Thursday, a meeting was held
between members of the committee that was tasked by the last meeting held in
Bkirki on June 2 to study the best electoral law.
MPs George Adwan, Sami Gemayel and Alain Aoun and former Minister Youssef Saadeh
held talks for more than three hours following the parliamentary session, An
Nahar daily said.
The four-member committee reportedly made suggestions during Friday’s meeting
and proposed several law, starting with the best law that guarantees the right
representation.
The conferees are expected to reach an agreement on the best law that should be
adopted by parliament. Lawmakers Dori Chamoun, Farid Habib and Strida Geagea
didn’t attend while Salim Salhab said health reasons prevented him from heading
to Bkirki.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: Christians can agree on new
electoral law
September 23, 2011 /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Friday that “it
is possible” for the country’s Christians to reach consensus on a new electoral
law for the 2013 parliamentary elections. Following a meeting held between
Maronite figures at the Bkirki Patriarchate, Geagea told reporters that the
drafting of a new law “requires a lot of research.”
He added that talks held at the Patriarchate were “good… [however] reaching an
understanding on the issue is not simple.”
A meeting comprising Maronite leading figures under the auspices of Patriarch
Bechara Boutros al-Rai took place on Friday after the participants agreed to
follow up on the drafting of a new electoral law.-NOW Lebanon
Maronites pray to a dispiriting trinity
September 22, 2011
By Michael Young The Daily Star
This week the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa, citing sources at the Maronite
patriarchate in Bkirki, reported that relations between France and Patriarch
Beshara Rai had deteriorated. Rai apparently sought an apology from the French
ambassador, Denis Pietton, for having declared last week that his government was
“disappointed” with Rai’s recent comments in Paris, and would seek
clarification.
If Pietton is spared a surplus of patriarchal masses, he may come out of the
dispute a happy man. However, on Wednesday the ambassador visited Rai,
suggesting that their disagreement had been contained. Yet it is extraordinary
how Rai has made a splendid mess of things in just a few weeks, damaging his own
reputation, and with it that of his church. The patriarch gains nothing by
picking fights with foreign envoys who represent countries rather important for
Lebanon.
Someone should remind Rai that France has a large contingent in UNIFIL, the
United Nations force in southern Lebanon. It is well within Paris’ remit to ask
for clarifications from the patriarch when the position he has taken on
Hezbollah’s weapons – indicating that the party should hold on to them until the
Arab-Israeli conflict ends – directly contradicts Security Council Resolutions
1559 and 1701.
Rai’s gaffes are a manifestation of a larger problem among Maronites. The
community, through what is traditionally regarded as its three senior
representatives – Rai, but also President Michel Sleiman and the army commander,
Jean Kahwagi – has had pitifully little to add to the intellectual, spiritual,
political, and communal revitalization of a state that Maronites played so large
a role in creating and sustaining. The community is not alone in this
shortcoming, but it can offer considerably more for holding the crucial balance
between Sunnis and Shiites, who find themselves at profound odds over Lebanon’s
future.
Ironically, the one individual who once tried his best to define a particular
idea of Lebanon is former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. Today, he finds
himself routinely abused by followers of Michael Aoun and those pleased with
Rai’s political innovations.
That Sfeir made his share of mistakes is undeniable. In the end he presided over
a divided community, which sullied his reputation. However, he was always a
reluctant political actor, unlike his successor, and it was inevitable that he
would be sucked under by his fragmented flock. In the years when he stood alone
against Syrian hegemony, with Samir Geagea in prison and Aoun in exile, Sfeir
never wavered from a simple message: After a devastating 15-year war, Lebanon
was entitled to genuine sovereignty – meaning that Syria had to withdraw its
army from the country. And such a Lebanon could only survive through coexistence
between its religious communities.
Sfeir’s critics would do well to recall that this vision ended up informing
theirs. In the early postwar years when Aoun’s partisans were being beaten and
arrested, they sought Sfeir’s protection and sanction – though they had
humiliated the patriarch during their general’s failed campaign against the
Lebanese Forces. Aoun and Geagea, who contributed more than anyone to the
Christians’ ruin, still retain the loyalty of a majority in the community. But
the old man who echoed an earlier generation of Maronites, for whom Lebanon
personified communal self-confidence, achievement, and an often idealized form
of transcendental appeal, now finds himself compared unfavorably to the
careerist who followed him.
Rai has long tied his fate closely to that of Michel Sleiman, which should be a
cause for nervousness. To borrow from Vernon Walters’ remarks about former U.N.
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Sleiman is a man who couldn’t make
waves if he fell out of a boat. There was high promise the day he was
inaugurated, and that’s where the promise stayed. No one can say with a straight
face that Sleiman has turned himself into a credible alternative to Aoun or
Geagea. His influence among Maronites is anemic, and yet he has not succeeded in
incarnating the state either – particularly for those in the Muslim communities.
When confronted, he has consistently backed down, playing it safe and preserving
his measured gains. As a friend once put it, Sleiman came to office with the
ambition of being an ex-president, and it’s difficult to disagree with so
decapitating a phrase.
As for Kahwagi, he is now in the throes of that great malady of army commanders:
an expectation that he will become Lebanon’s next president. The stark measure
of the Maronites’ political poverty these days is that when it is not their
clergymen fiddling with politics, it is their soldiers. Since Emile Lahoud was
selected in 1998, it seems the presidency is reserved for anyone wearing a
cocked beret. And so we Lebanese for years have had to endure army commanders
who have meticulously, almost seismographically, assessed prevailing power
relationships in the country before taking their every decision – and who have
relatively frequently faced the dilemma of having to choose between their own
welfare and that of the institution they lead.
Absent from this triumvirate is any farsightedness as to the destiny of the
Maronites. Rai still seeks to unify the community, with a meeting planned for
this Friday in Bkirki, even as he has provoked the greatest internal upheaval
that Maronites have experienced since Aoun and Geagea fought each other more
than two decades ago. Sleiman is marching stalwartly toward a legacy whose
greater part threatens to be inconsequence. And Kahwagi will remain a hostage to
the house of many mansions that is Lebanon’s army – over which Hezbollah has
inordinate influence, arousing the suspicion of Sunnis – incapable of
transforming its battalions into the valid basis of a national project.
Maronites have the institutions, talent, and memory to reverse their community’s
steady mediocrization. What they don’t have is the self-assurance required to
reinvent themselves in the shadow of their demographic decline. Rai, Aoun,
Sleiman, perhaps even Kahwagi, have adjusted to this decline by accommodating
the view that their minority has a stake in allying itself with other
minorities, no matter how repressive these may be. Such is the path to communal
suicide.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of
Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon &
Schuster). He tweets @BeirutCalling.
Bkirki gathers Christian leaders to discuss new electoral
law
September 23, 2011/The Daily Star
BKIRKI: The third meeting to gather Lebanon’s rival Maronite leaders ended
Friday afternoon and another meeting will be scheduled to continue discussing a
new election law to protect the country’s Christians.
Following the end of the meeting MPs Robert Ghanem and Butros Harb left Bkirki
while the other attendees gathered for lunch at the seat of the Maronite
Patriarchate.
“Discussion only focused on the electoral law and it will be continued in
another meeting,” Harb told reporters upon leaving Bkirki, adding that the issue
should be taken seriously.
“It is a strategic issue, and tactical and such a discussion is about the future
and to create a political formula that would help build a better future for
Lebanon and coming generations,” he added.He voiced support for a one-man,
one-vote-one-vote formula as the most representative electoral law.
MP Sami Gemayel, who is on the committee, told Central News Agency Thursday that
the law should ensure proper Christian representation in the country.
"We have taken into consideration all possible laws and have noted our
observations and now we have a clear idea [of the type of law to be adopted],"
Gemayel told the agency.
The meeting comes weeks after Rai expressed his fears for the Christian presence
in Syria if President Bashar Assad’s government falls as a result of popular
uprising in the neighboring country.
He warned the international community and France against their support for the
six-month anti-government protests, saying that Assad’s alternative, a Muslim
Brotherhood rule, might threaten the presence of Christians. “If the situation
further deteriorated in Syria and we reached a more radical rule than the
current rule, like the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians there would
pay the price, either in the form of killings or displacement. Here the picture
of Iraq is front of us,” Rai said during his visit.
The patriarch’s remarks sparked controversy within the Christian community in
Lebanon, with Christians in the March 14 coalition, who have supported the
uprising in Syria, criticizing his comments as tacit support of the Syrian
government. Prior to the meeting, Rai said that the talks would only focus on
reaching consensus over the best new election law.
“Today we continue what we had started to meet common goals over the best
electoral law,” Rai said. The government is also working on drafting a new
electoral law based on proportional representation for the 2013 parliamentary
elections through a committee headed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.
Hezbollah were able to kill Hariri: Alloush
September 23, 2011/By Mohammad Zaatari/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah had the capability to assassinate former statesman Rafik
Hariri in 2005, Future Movement official Mustafa Alloush said Friday, but
proving that they did so is up to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
"If I was asked directly, I would say that this party had the capability to
assassinate Rafik Hariri, but proving this fact is the responsibility of the
international tribunal and this court is one of Hezbollah's main concerns
today,” Alloush said during a seminar organized by the Future Movement in Sidon
titled “Hezbollah and its difficult choices.”
The STL, established in 2007 to investigate the assassination of Hariri, has
indicted four members of Hezbollah, but the party’s chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah
said the accused will never be apprehended, adding that they were innocent of
the crime and describing them as honorable men of the resistance.
“Revealing facts behind the crime would show this party to be a terrorist group
domestically and internationally,” Alloush said.
The FM official also added that Hezbollah has long been opposed to Hariri’s
policies and said that the party had tried to present a “friendly” relationship
between Nasrallah and Hariri in the media. Future Movement has launched a
campaign against Hezbollah following the collapse of the government of former
Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain former prime minister. The
party has accused Hezbollah of placing Lebanon in confrontation with the STL and
the international community due to its vocal opposition to the court and
continued affirmation that Hezbollah will not cooperate with the tribunal.
Nasrallah has described the United Nations-backed court as an Israel-U.S. tool
aimed at targeting the resistance and sowing strife in the country.
Alloush said that Hezbollah’s support for President Bashar Assad’s government
during the six-month uprising in Syria has damaged its relationship with the
Syrian people.
Nasrallah has echoed Assad’s remarks that the anti-government protests in Syria
are part of a conspiracy against the country.
Hezbollah members escaped to Israel: An-Nahar
September 23, 2011 /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: An-Nahar newspaper confirmed Friday recent media reports that five
members of Hezbollah escaped to Israel in June and that a man it said was one of
the three spies discovered by Hezbollah in the same month is also now in Israel.
Reports surfaced in recent days that five additional Hezbollah members were
discovered to be cooperating with Israel after Hezbollah in June declared that
it had discovered three members of the party were spying for foreign
intelligence – two for the Central Intelligence Agency and one for an
unidentified foreign intelligence service. An-Nahar said the third member was
high-ranking official named Abu Abed Slim, who they said had escaped to Israel
with a substantial sum of money in June, shortly after Hezbollah’s revelation.
Hezbollah denied that any additional members had been found cooperating with
Israel in a statement Thursday night, and said Slim was not a member of the
party. “These reports are totally baseless,” said a statement released by
Hezbollah’s media office.
An Nahar reported that the five escaped in early June before Hezbollah Chief
Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah revealed that two members of the group were found spying
for the Central Intelligence Agency and a third had links to an unknown foreign
intelligence service. On June 24, Nasrallah said the two members, whom he
described as low-level, had been in contact with diplomats at the U.S. Embassy
in Beirut. Nasrallah's June revelation came days after the group denied reports
it had detained members for spying for Israel and said all reports attributed to
Hezbollah sources were untrue. Sources also told An-Nahar that Slim fought
against Amal members during Hezbollah’s conflict with the party in 1990. They
also said that he had planted a bomb intended for an Amal official, but had
avoided arrest
Hizbullah Fighter Reportedly Escaped to Israel in June,
Party Denies Arresting New Spies
Naharnet /A Hizbullah member escaped to Israel last June after the Shiite
party’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah unveiled that the group had captured
three spies among its members, two of whom were allegedly recruited by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency, An Nahar daily reported Friday. Nasrallah said at
the time that CIA members at the U.S. embassy had recruited at least two
Hizbullah members and the group was investigating whether the intelligence
agency or another foreign agency recruited a third.
On Thursday, Hizbullah denied media reports about the arrest of new members on
charges of spying for the Mossad and said a man named Abou Abed Salim has never
been a party official. But An Nahar quoted informed sources as saying that the
third member of the spying network that Nasrallah had talked about is Salim who
escaped to Israel a few days after the Hizbullah leader’s speech. Media reports
said Thursday that five Hizbullah members had escaped to the Jewish state.
A party member told the newspaper that Salim had participated in the battles
between Hizbullah and Amal Movement in Iqlim al-Tuffah in 1990 and had
successfully targeted a top Amal official in the southern town of Baysariyyeh
with an explosive device. The movement had at the time arrested his accomplices
but he managed to escape.
An Nahar’s report came as informed sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat
that Hizbullah had arrested four of its members on charges of spying while a
fifth had escaped.
Other sources said that a top Hizbullah official had gone missing “for allegedly
collaborating with the Mossad.”
The man who was identified by his initials as M.S. was allegedly a top official
in Hizbullah’s military operations and was questioned in April 2010 by the U.N.
commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination. The sources
said the man’s parents and wife don’t know his whereabouts since he disappeared
from the family home in the Ghobeiri district of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
According to rumors, the man is an Israeli spy and was involved in the
assassination of Hizbullah military commander Imad Mughniyeh. Other rumors say
that the party distanced him for unknown reasons.
Hezbollah denies report about party members being spies
September 22, 2011 /Hezbollah issued a statement on Thursday night denying
alleged reports that party members were arrested for collaboration with Israel.
“These [reports] are false… and the person named ‘Abou Abed Salim’ was never a
Hezbollah official,” the statement said. Cellular text messages were sent to
Lebanese subscribers of a news service on Thursday saying that five members of
Hezbollah were arrested for collaborating with Israel, adding that a Hezbollah
official identified as Abou Abed Salim fled to Israel. -NOW Lebanon
9 Injured after Fatah al-Islam Inmates Take Hostages in
Roumieh
Naharnet /Two security personnel and seven inmates were injured after Fatah
al-Islam prisoners took several soldiers hostage during a mutiny that lasted a
few hours at Roumieh prison, media reports said. A high-ranking source told
Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that the riot started at the 3rd floor of
bloc B with a dispute over a decision to make changes in the responsibilities of
soldiers and during routine prison search. The wounded security personnel were
identified as Toufiq Nasser and Hussein Ali Jaber. The hostages were freed after
an operation carried out by an Internal Security Forces special Panthers unit
and a Rapid Intervention squad. Meanwhile, the families of inmates held a sit-in
outside the mosque of the Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar to protest the injury of
the prisoners, the National News Agency reported.
Road Chaos as Heavy Rains Lash Lebanon
Naharnet /Autumn’s first rains spread chaos on Lebanese roads on Friday as a
heavy downpour caused bumper-to-bumper traffic blocking drivers in their
vehicles. All entrances to Beirut were blocked as drivers waited for hours
to reach their destinations after rains flooded the streets. Every year, heavy
rains in September and October disrupt traffic following several months of dry
weather. Experts estimate Lebanon annually has an average 2.1 billion cubic
meters (73.5 billion cubic feet) of renewable hydraulic resources, more than
half of which is dumped straight into the Mediterranean for lack of any
strategic planning.
Qabbani Returns from Saudi, Says 'No Crisis' with Mustaqbal
Naharnet /Upon his return to Lebanon from a several-day visit to Saudi Arabia,
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani on Thursday denied the presence of a
“crisis” between the Mustaqbal Movement and Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest
Sunni Muslim authority. “There is no crisis, this is a crisis of newspapers and
articles and a crisis of gossips,” Qabbani said, when asked by reporters at the
Beirut airport about the “deterioration” of his relation with the Mustaqbal
Movement. Tackling the controversial issue of the financing of the U.N.-backed
Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the mufti said “Lebanon and the Lebanese
government should finance the STL, as Lebanon should be the first country to
fund it given that the crime happened in Lebanon, and it’s not true that we have
changed our stance. Our stance is steady.”Qabbani also denied that he had met
former premier Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia, noting that he was “constantly
occupied with the conference” and stressing that “communication is not severed
with anyone at all.”
U.S. Military Delegation Meets Qahwaji, Visits Blue Line
Naharnet /U.S. Military Commander Brig. Gen. Kenneth Tovo discussed with
Lebanese army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji military cooperation between the two
countries as well as Lebanon’s initiatives to implement its obligations under
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. Tovo held a meeting with Qahwaji in the
presence of U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly in Yarze, An Nahar
newspaper reported on Friday. The U.S. commander toured the “Blue Line”
accompanied by officers from the Lebanese army. The daily noted that the visit
was made away from the media spotlight, with heavy security measures by the army
along the technical fence. A statement issued by the U.S. embassy said that Tovo
made the two-day visit on Thursday, to meet with Qahwaji and other senior
officials.
U.S. Alerts Citizens in Lebanon to Avoid Refugee Camps,
Gatherings
Naharnet /The U.S. embassy in Lebanon warned its citizens to avoid Palestinian
refugee camps and large gatherings in light of the expected showdown at the
United Nations over Palestinian statehood. "The U.S. embassy in Lebanon is
alerting U.S. citizens to a possibility of a surge in demonstrations in Beirut
and around Lebanon in the coming days," the embassy said in an emergency message
sent to its nationals. It said such gatherings should be avoided, as should the
12 refugee camps across the country housing an estimated 300,000 Palestinians.
Demonstrations have been held in Beirut this week in favor of Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas' expected historic bid later Friday for statehood at the
United Nations.
Israel and the United States are fiercely opposed to the plan.**Source Agence
France Presse
Jumblatt told to decide stance as he mends broken ties
September 22, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: As Walid Jumblatt attempts to mend relations with his former allies in
the March 14 coalition, Hezbollah is urging the Progressive Socialist Party
leader to decide where his allegiances lie, Al-Liwaa newspaper reported
Thursday. According to PSP sources quoted by the daily, there are efforts under
way to mend relations between Jumblatt and March 14’s regional ally Saudi
Arabia, with the PSP leader preparing to visit King Abdullah in the near future.
“The date of Jumblatt’s visit to Saudi Arabia is becoming more imperative in
light of what has been revealed to the kingdom about the reasons that led to
Jumblatt’s previous behavior,” sources told Al-Liwaa. Jumblatt’s relations with
Saudi Arabia were strained after the PSP leader realigned with the Hezbollah-led
March 8 alliance following the collapse of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s
government earlier this year. Jumblatt has recently made several statements that
conflict with Hezbollah’s firm stance on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and
the resistance’s possession of arms.
The PSP leader has voiced support for the financing of the STL, which in June
indicted four Hezbollah members of involvement in the assassination of former
statesman Rafik Hariri, and has urged Hezbollah to defend its members at court.
The resistance has described the tribunal as a U.S.-Israel tool aimed at
targeting the group.
He also urged for the implementation of a National Defense Strategy that would
gradually absorb Hezbollah’s arsenal. Hezbollah has rejected all proposals to
discuss its possession of arms.
An Arab diplomat told Al-Liwaa that Jumblatt’s realignment with Hezbollah and
its allies in January was circumstantial, adding that the MP’s strategy is to
please all sides in a bid to gain everyone’s trust without losing allies.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah is not satisfied with Jumblatt’s recent comments and has
urged him to take a decisive stance, according to the paper.
“The head of the PSP should step out of his grey area since he cannot support
the resistance and Syria and at the same time criticize the resistance, Syria,
and defend the international tribunal,” a Hezbollah parliamentary source told
the paper. “Jumblatt should … make a decision and determine his position.”
Relations with Hezbollah might be on shaky grounds, but his relations with
former allies appear to be on the mend. PSP sources told Ad-Diyar newspaper in
an article published Thursday that things are back to normal between March 14 MP
Marwan Hamadeh and Jumblatt. The two were members of the same parliamentary
bloc, the Democratic Gathering, until its disintegration following the PSP’s
realignment. Hamadeh has now been spotted in various PSP ceremonies and dinner.
“Sources confirmed that friendship between the two prominent politicians is
back,” Ad-Diyar reported.
Report: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Fear there is No Going Home
Naharnet /Abir, her husband and two sons are bracing for their first winter as
Syrian refugees in Lebanon's impoverished mountain area of Wadi Khaled, near the
northern border with Syria. Locking the door behind her, Abir removes the black
niqab from her face and sits her two sons on a futon in the single room she
shares with her family in an abandoned school in the scenic village of Mashta
Hammoud. "Would you believe that I can't even bring myself to ask for sweaters
for my children?" says the 29-year-old, lighting a Bunsen burner to boil
potatoes for her doe-eyed boys, aged four and two. "All the refugees here in the
school are getting ready for winter, but in my mind I cannot yet accept that
there's no going home, that it will begin to get cold and we'll still be here."
Since the regime of President Bashar Assad launched a brutal crackdown on
pro-democracy protesters in March, more than 3,580 Syrians have registered as
refugees with the United Nations in north Lebanon. The United Nations refugee
agency (UNHCR) estimates 900 of them are between the ages of four and 17 and
will need schooling this winter. "The Lebanese education ministry has agreed to
allow the displaced Syrian children to register in public schools, and UNHCR
will be covering tuition fees," said Jean Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR's deputy
representative to Lebanon. But for the refugees, the problem runs deeper than
paperwork.
Nazha, who hails from the Syrian border town of Heet, fears her son and two
daughters will face discrimination at school; worse yet, that they might be
abducted by Syrian operatives in Lebanon. "I am afraid for them on so many
levels," said the 35-year-old, whose son was supposed to start high school this
month. "So I will not send them to school this year."
Like other refugees, she is convinced the Assad regime has powerful proxies in
Lebanon, where the government is dominated by the Syrian- and Iranian-backed
group Hizbullah.
"I am terrified every time my husband goes outside for a walk. I am always
afraid the regime or its friends here will find him," said Abir.
At least 600 Syrians entered Lebanon between September 1 and 7 alone. Many more,
Cavalieri says, could be stuck on the other side of the border.
"We have reports that security on the Syrian side has been tightened and that
there are many who are trying to come across but are stuck," he told Agence
France Presse.
Most of the refugees who did make it came across on foot come from Heet, Tal
Kalakh and Homs via illegal border crossings, making their way across the rocky
terrain to the Kabir River.
From the illegal Buqayaa crossing on the Lebanese side of the Kabir, a lone
Syrian military tank can be seen rumbling slowly along the border. Three Syrian
soldiers puff on their cigarettes as they monitor the area. In recent months,
thousands of refugees have used the crossing, often braving gunfire. Some are
able to bring with them basic provisions; others, nothing.
While most have found shelter with relatives in Lebanon, many like Abir are
entirely dependent on hand-outs, mainly from the United Nations and small
regional non-governmental organizations. As winter approaches, so does her
realization that they will not be going home anytime soon and are trapped in an
area where even the local population is struggling to survive.
In the Mashta Hammoud School, many of the children have not bathed in days and
lack proper shoes.
They have invented games to pass the time, drawing a "map" of Syrian towns on a
piece of cardboard. Where the stone falls, they explain, there will be war.
The United Nations estimates that more than 2,700 Syrians have been killed, many
of them civilians, since mid-March when the protests erupted.
Several of the refugees interviewed said they fear the conflict will drag on
indefinitely unless Western powers intervene and force Assad out.
For Abir, leaving behind her parents and her two-bedroom home in Tal Kalakh was
the only choice after her younger brothers -- identical twins -- disappeared in
a protest three months ago. One of them made it back bruised and broken, but
alive.
The other was found at the local hospital's morgue and was buried 24 hours
before Abir fled to Lebanon. "My children were terrified, and my elder son began
to wet the bed at night. They would scream and hide in their room when the
gunfire broke out," she said, choking back tears and proudly displaying her
brothers' photos on her cell phone.
"The world needs to know that we fled an all-out war by the state on the Syrian
people."*Source Agence France Presse
Israel mobilizes 22,000 police, thousands of troops, for Palestinian
disturbances
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 22, 2011,
Israeli police have mobilized 22,000 officers and border police alongside
thousands of soldiers as the country's forces go on the highest level of
preparedness ahead of Palestinian prayers and demonstrations Friday, Sept. 23,
in support of their application for UN approval of statehood. Beefed up police
and troops are preparing for the rallies to turn violent and surge out of the
Palestinian towns. They are also deployed at mixed population centers of Jews
and Arabs up and down the country to avert clashes and concentrated on the Green
Line enclosing the West Bank and the approaches to Jerusalem. In defiance of
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' directive for rallies to stay
within the limits of Palestinian towns and remain orderly, the PA's Religious
Affairs Minister Mahmoud Habbash secretly instructed the imams Thursday to turn
up the volume of their loudspeakers at Friday prayers and keep on shouting Allah
is Great! This call coming from Al Aqsa on Temple Mount aims at reaching every
Muslim in the West Bank and Israel.
Israeli security chiefs are treating this call, characteristic of suicide
bombers, as a war cry for stirring up riots.
Wednesday, Sept. 21, debkafile reported:
Israel's military, Shin Bet security service and police went on elevated
preparedness for trouble Wednesday night, Sept. 21, after receiving information
that the Palestinian Hamas and other radical groups were preparing to stage
violent confrontations with Israel on the West Bank, exploiting the anti-US mood
sweeping Palestinian areas after President Barack Obama's UN speech. Western
Middle East experts rate his address as the most supportive of Israel ever
delivered at the world body by any US president. It has stirred powerful
emotions of resentment and disappointment among the Palestinians of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. Crowds gathered in Ramallah and the streets of West Bank
towns Wednesday - originally to celebrate the Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas' application for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood - instead
shouted anti-US slogans and burned American flags.
Hamas and its radical allies determined to seize the moment for taking charge of
the rallies set up by the Palestinian Authority and the rival Fatah for the rest
of the week in the expectation of a UN victory.
The intelligence received in Israel reveals directions to all the extremist
organizations close to Hamas, like for instance the Association of young Muslims
on the West Bank, to go into action Thursday and build up to a climax Friday,
Sept. 23. They were told to break into Jewish settlements to vandalize and torch
homes, taking their model from the mass storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo
on Sept. 10. Friday, Palestinians were told to mob the checkpoints guarding
Jerusalem, make for Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount. Riots and start a rampage there
which would be sure to attract world attention to the Palestinian protest
against President Obama and US support for Israel.
The Palestinian extremist groups will be venting their rage not just on the US
but also Britain, France, Germany and the West at large.
At UN headquarters in New York, meanwhile, debkafile's exclusive sources
disclose that the Palestinian delegation and its leader Mahmoud Abbas, under
extreme pressure to back away from their application for UN recognition, have
informed Lebanese President Michel Suleiman who presides over the UN Security
Council session Friday that their application will be filed on that day as
planned. However, they will not insist on having it debated at once or put to
vote.
Our sources report that this is the first crack in the Palestinian determination
to go through with their UN initiative against all odds.
A western source in New York told debkafile that the Palestinians have begun to
finally wake up to the virtual impossibility of their motion being carried by
the Security Council.
Straight after the Obama speech, US diplomacy threw all its resources into
persuading every Security Council member to oppose or at least abstain from
endorsing the Palestinian motion. As of now, Nigeria, Gabon, India and Bosnia
have agreed to consider withholding their support.
The key points President Obama highlighted in his address to the opening of the
UN General Assembly Wednesday, Sept. 21 were:
- There are no short cuts to peace. It can only be achieved through negotiations
- not statements and resolutions at the United Nations.
- Ultimately it is up to Israel and the Palestinians to agree on borders,
security, refugees, Jerusalem.
- I also believe a genuine peace can be attained only between the Palestinians
and Israelis themselves.
- The Palestinians deserve a territorial base for their state. (Ed: The 1967
borders were not mentioned.)
- But they must acknowledge the very real security concerns Israel faces every
day.
- Israel is surrounded by neighbors who have repeatedly waged war against it.
Its people are killed by missiles on its borders and suicide bombers. Other
children are taught to hate them and far bigger nations want to wipe them off
the map.
- They deserve a historical state in their historical land just as the
Palestinians deserve a stated for which they have waited too long.
- Peace depends on compromise. Each side has legitimate aspirations and both
must learn to stand in the other's shoes.
- The US president stressed that the US is unshakably committed to Israel's
security.
Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Obama stressed peace cannot
be imposed on the parties and a UN resolution will not bring the Palestinians a
state.
Syria: Freedom is imminent
By Hussein Shobokshi
AsharqAlawsat
Any one that observes and contemplates the eroding and disfigured Syrian regime
has no option but to compare it to an old man breathing his last breath, whilst
his family gather round and speak of him. This is the case with the Syrian
regime that has seen the free and united world distance itself and reject it, in
protest against its bloody nature, its crimes, and the despotism it has
practiced against its own people. The Syrian regime can now see the world
opening its doors for the honourable opposition that will soon rise to power
after the demise of the al-Assad government. The Syrian National Council has
announced itself as a political entity, and declared Burhan Galion as its
president. This is a measure which the US, Britain and France have welcomed, and
Turkey and Qatar have also displayed similar reactions. Key elements of the
Syrian opposition have been welcomed in Canada, the Arab League, Egypt, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Russia and elsewhere. This is all happening whilst the situation
on the ground in Syria continues to aggravate, as the free rebels are determined
and have said extremely clearly that they will continue until the regime is
overthrown. The number of defections from the Syrian army today has now reached
the tens of thousands, which is undeniable, contrary to what Syrian regime's
miserable and pathetic media machine attempts to portray.
Nevertheless, the Syrian regime continues to "treat" the situation with a
bizarre "patchwork" remedy. The regime is circumventing the economic sanctions
imposed on it by the international community by printing banknotes locally, and
it has already printed special 1000 and 500 pound notes. The regime is also
buying and selling gold with the aim of making some gains. This also applies to
the US dollar exchange rate, where banks are buying dollars but refusing to sell
them on, except when dealing with the ruling regime's closest associates as
happened recently when a prominent businessman reportedly withdrew a "huge sum
of money" in US dollars from Bank Audi in Syria. There are also much talk about
the regime "disposing" of some of the gold reserves in the Syrian Central Bank,
with the purpose of generating the funds required to pay for the suppressive
military machine, the Shabiha, and security elements. This is after payments
were reported to be late and supplies were reported to be lacking, besides the
fact that the military machine is now exhausted because it operates day and
night on a daily basis, whereas in the past it came into force only after the
Friday prayers. There are also defections within the army among the higher
ranks; including the navy and the air force. Furthermore, an officer from the
Republican Guard is said to have fled the country, and his name will be
announced next week.
The regime has also tried to "exploit" the miserable statement issued by the
patriarch of the Maronite church in Lebanon, in which he said that the "al-Assad
regime is a prop supporting the minorities and it alone can prevent the
hardliner Sunnis from rising to power." No sooner had this statement been issued
than the regime received a hard slap on the face when senior sheikhs of the
Alawi sect declared defection from the regime and disavowed its actions. What
Bechara Boutros al-Rahi failed to mention in his statement is that the Christian
community throughout the reigns of al-Assad Sr. and Jr. has shrunk in number to
less than one million. Many of them were forced to emigrate due to harsh
security conditions and economic hardships as a result of the regime's
practices, which caused them to resettle in different counties around the globe.
This prompted some honourable Syrian Christians to issue a strongly-worded
statement in which they rejected the patriarch's comments, declaring their firm
stance supporting the Syrian revolution.
Since the first day of the Syrian revolution, the regime repeatedly stated to
the world that it would "guarantee" and end to the security disorder, it would
"guarantee" reforms, it would "guarantee" revealing the truth, and it would
"guarantee" quelling the Salafis, the armed militia, the infiltrating elements,
mercenaries and traitors. It also declared that it would "guarantee" holding a
dialogue, "guaranteeing" that the opposition would be present as an alternative.
It also “guaranteed” to undertake the protection of civil liberties and punish
whoever had committed violations of such freedoms. Now seven months have elapsed
since the revolution broke out, and the regime is proving to the world that its
"guarantees" are meaningless and lacking in credibility. The promises which it
long promoted are invalid and unreliable.
The Syrian people are demanding a change of regime, the overthrow of the
President, and a total renunciation of such a system of rule. Now freedom is
imminent.
Tehran: The Imamate and its illusions
By Amir Taheri
AsharqAlawsat
These days, the hottest topic in chancelleries is "the Arab Spring", a cake from
which everyone hopes to snatch a slice. For the first time in a long while,
Arabs, or at least some of them, appear to have started a winning bandwagon. So,
why not try and jump on it? Initially, the Khomeinists in Tehran tried to ignore
the whole thing. The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt resembled what had happened
in Iran in 2009 when IT-savvy youths led a movement against the re-election of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When it became clear that the Arab uprisings were
not fading, Khomeinist propaganda shifted gear. The uprisings were described as
fruits of "Zionist and American plots" to replace "old lackeys". By June,
Tehran's position had shifted again. Now, the official line was support for
revolts everywhere except Syria. However, the question remained: what did Arabs
want? Official media could not tell their audiences that Arabs wanted human
rights and democracy. That sounds like what Iranians revolted for in 2009.Did
Arabs want unity?
Again, Tehran would not like the idea. In its modern form, launched by Jamal
Abdul-Nasser, Arab nationalism has always had an anti-Iranian edge.
What if Arabs wanted an "Islamic" system, whatever that means? Tehran would not
be comfortable with that analysis either. Most Arab "Islamists" are of Salafist
brand and, thus, enemies of Iran's version of Islam. The issue was debated
within the "star chamber" that runs the Islamic Republic under "Supreme Guide"
Ali Khamenei.
The outcome of the debate was simple: the Islamic Republic should claim that
Arabs revolts are inspired by Iran's experience in 1979 when mullahs, in
alliance with Communists, seized power. Once that strategy was fixed several
steps were taken.
First, the media were allowed to show the Arab revolts, except in Syria, in a
positive light.
Next, they started promoting Khamenei as "Imam" rather than mere ayatollah. This
meant that Iran was no longer a "republic" as its title asserts but an
"imamate". The change would enable Khamenei to claim to be leader of Muslims
throughout the world, whether they liked it or not.
The next step was to build an organization to promote that claim. Thus was born
the "Islamic Awakening Conference" in Tehran this week.
According to organizers, it attracted some 600 "scholars and political leaders"
from 53 countries. It was inaugurated by Khamenei with a sermon in which he
presented the late Ruhallah Khomeini as the father of the "awakening". The
implication was that, as Khomeini's successor, he should now be regarded as
"Imam of the Ummah".
However, claiming that Arabs had risen to demand that Khamenei be their "Imam"
still needed an ideological context.
But what could that be? Obviously, the participants could not agree on
theological issues. Some guests were not even ready to pray alongside their
Iranian hosts. It was impossible to claim that all Muslims wanted to live under
"Walayat al-Faqih", or rule by the mullahs, as practiced in Iran. So, what to
do? The solution was found in the last refuge of the scoundrel:
anti-Americanism. Thus the "Conference of Islamic Awakening" was transformed
into an anti-American fest celebrating Khomeini's supposed "humbling of
America." (Some "Zionist" bashing added for good measure.)
Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Foreign Minister and now foreign policy advisor to
the "Supreme Guide" had the temerity to claim that the Arab Spring was all about
hatred for the "Great Satan". With anti-Americanism established as the
movement's ideology, the conference sat back to hear diatribes from a cast of
characters. These included ageing Communists, often picked up in intellectual
cafes in Paris, and glitterati who have built their boutique around "the
sufferings of Palestine".
The real participants in the Arab Spring were nowhere to be seen. A couple of
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood exiles came from London. A single Tunisian Communist
who has lived in France since 1960 also turned up. A couple of Houthi activists
came from Yemen. Syrian rebels were absent because Khamenei denies the revolt in
Syria.
By conference's end it was clear that what united the participants was neither
Islam nor any love for the self-styled "Imam" but anti-Americanism.
Dismissing the Organization of the Islamic Conference as "an ineffective
gadget", Tehran has announced the creation of a rival body: "The Islamic
Awakening Movement". The new body will have a secretariat with Velayati as
Secretary-General.
The secretariat will have 12 members. Among possible members are former Iraqi
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Mostafa Osman Ismail, an advisor to the
Sudanese President, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese section of
Hezbollah, and Ramadan Abdullah, leader of the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation
of Palestine.
Other possible members are Ali Nasser Muhammad, the Communist former President
of the People's Democratic Republic of South Yemen, Yemeni militant Adnan Junaid,
Uzbek activist Muhammad Saleh and Kamal Halbawi, an Egyptian businessman in
London.
The next step was to sell the new organization across the "Arab World."
Ahmadinejad was charged with the task. However, his hopes were quickly dashed.
Libya, Tunisia and Egypt indicated they were not prepared to receive him on his
way back from the United Nation's General Assembly in New York. Syria was keen
to have him but he was reluctant to go. In the end, he will visit only two
countries: Mauritania and Sudan, the last remaining Arab countries with a
military regime.
Over the past weeks, leaders from some 40 countries, among them a French
President, a British Prime Minister, a Russian Foreign Minister and a Turkish
Premier, have visited Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to show solidarity with the Arab
Spring.
It seems that the only people not welcome are the leaders of the "Imamate" in
Iran.
Ahmadinejad is wrong to refuse going to Damascus while he can. Soon, he might be
unwelcome even there.
A fiendish agenda
September 22, 2011
Now Lebanon
When we hear of Hezbollah’s objections to the $30-plus million needed to pay for
49 percent of the running costs of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the
court established to try the killers of former PM Rafik Hariri and at least 30
other victims of political violence since 2005, we are in fact hearing the
government’s objections. For today in Lebanon, Hezbollah, for all intents and
purposes, is the government.
Sure, Energy Minister Gebran Bassil can present his road map for electricity
reform, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud can encourage the world to come to Lebanon,
and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh can prop up the Lebanese Pound with his
usual fiscal panache. But on the key issues—security, war and peace, and
relations with key “allies” Iran and Syria—Hezbollah, not Prime Minister Najib
Mikati, is at the wheel.
The matter of the STL funding has exposed the government for what it is: a sham.
There may be the patina of what appears to be a functioning broad-party
majority, but when it comes to fulfilling its international obligations, the
government is taking Lebanon further and further away from its rightful place as
a contributing member of the modern international community. In short, the
destructive forces of the March 8 coalition are undoing the good work done in
recent years to convince the world that we are a thoroughly modern and vibrant
Arab democracy.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, is feeding the paranoia that has become its oxygen. It
declares everything that it does not like a Zionist conspiracy, and its legions
of obedient followers nod in agreement. It is clear that the party wants to
thwart the court’s objectives (and at the same time Lebanon’s aspirations) at
every turn. International justice is not its priority; maintaining a grip on its
power, its security belt in South Lebanon, its pliant electorate and its role as
an adjunct to Iran’s revolutionary guard is.
Lebanon’s share of the court’s cost is less than 1 percent of its GDP. For those
who want to see international justice imbue Lebanon with a sense of fair play
and send a message to state-sponsored killers that the rules of the game have
changed, it is a paltry amount. That Hezbollah does not want to see this happen
is a damning illustration of its fiendish agenda.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati has clearly gotten himself into something of a
pickle; the aftereffects of what Shakespeare would have called “vaulting
ambition.” Here is a man who in 2006 told American diplomats that Hezbollah was
a “tumor,” and yet he is today a Sunni leader with a sizeable constituency that
wants justice that he cannot deliver. He is a successful businessman who under
normal circumstances would be happy to cozy up to the international community,
and yet he is powerless to act.
So we have the bizarre situation of a government that outwardly supports the
court but is reluctant to pay. And all no doubt because Hezbollah feels insulted
that it should provide funds to see its own people in court and, heaven forbid,
they be found guilty. Then again, that is precisely what we have come to expect
from Hezbollah, a party that puts its own interests before those of the nation.
If we don’t pay, we risk sanctions. If we don’t pay, other nations will foot the
shortfall. This is hardly the message Lebanon wants to send to the world. But
more importantly on a practical level, such a situation would offer the perfect
excuse for those who oppose much-needed funding for the Lebanese army and the
Internal Security Forces, institutions they would claim would be at the mercy of
Hezbollah. In short, Lebanon will once again be seen as a state not to be
trusted, either in international diplomacy or in terms of foreign investment.
Is this really the sort of government we want to lead the country at a time when
the region is in turmoil and the global economy is on the slide? We don’t think
so.
Mikati may not be that dead after all
Michael Young,/September 23, 2011
Now Lebanon
The electricity expansion project remains a substitute battlefield for the
factions making up Lebanon’s government. On Wednesday, ministers named by Prime
Minister Najib Mikati, Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblatt agreed to a demand from
March 14 that forced their Aounist ministerial colleagues to swallow a bitter
legislative pill.
As you might recall, the cabinet recently passed a draft electricity bill that
was approved on Thursday by parliament. That draft included certain oversight
measures—the introduction of a regulatory authority to supervise the sector, the
naming of a new board for the electricity utility, and the adoption of a revised
mechanism to consider bids. However, when the energy minister, Gebran Bassil,
sent the draft law to parliament this week, those measures had been removed.
March 14 parliamentarians balked, demanding that the government resend the draft
passed earlier by the council of ministers. Bassil and his Aounist partners
replied that it was not up to the legislature to impose oversight conditions on
the executive. However, they backtracked when Mikati, Jumblatt and Berri sided
with March 14, accepting that Bassil should resubmit the original draft.
Some time ago I described Mikati as Lebanon’s very own dead man walking. To an
extent I still believe that is true. The prime minister’s margin of maneuver on
a variety of essential national issues remains very slim, not least Lebanese
cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. More ominously, Mikati
continues to be a hostage to his community’s reservations about him. He has had
to balance every decision because he is caught between Sunni outrage with
Hezbollah and the Syrian repression on the one side, and his own alliance with
the party and with President Bashar al-Assad on the other.
Economically, the prime minister is equally constrained. He faces a veritable
minefield when it comes to macroeconomic reform. One might observe that the
Hariri government didn’t greatly progress on that front either. However, Mikati
presides over a government of “one color,” or so they say, therefore
theoretically better apt to endorse a broad reform plan than an unwieldy
government of national unity.
But one has to be fair. The shortcomings of Mikati’s government are not very
different from those demonstrated by the government of Saad Hariri. Bearing in
mind that no authority could have arrested the four Hezbollah suspects, the
prime minister has sought as best he can to work with the STL, against the
predictions of many, present company included, that he would toe Hezbollah’s
line. Mikati has also refused to sanction retribution against the previous
majority through political appointments, rebuffing Aoun’s demand that Ashraf
Rifi and Wissam al-Hassan be removed at the Internal Security Forces.
Left largely unmentioned amid the discord within the government over the
electricity expansion scheme is the core reason for the dispute: Mikati doubts
Bassil’s integrity. A senior politician currently represented in the government
told me months ago that Mikati did not want to return Bassil to the Energy
Ministry, on the basis of disturbing information he had in his dossiers. Mikati
was compelled to do so when the Syrians demanded that a government be formed
quickly. A lack of trust alone explains why the compromise over the electricity
plan involved breaking down payment into four installments and improving
oversight and bidding methods.
The Aounists would complain that Berri and Jumblatt are hardly entitled to take
the moral high ground against Bassil. However, Mikati has no reason to be
defensive, and has fought hard when he needed to fight. Even on Lebanon’s
funding of the STL, the prime minister has shown a readiness to go all the way.
He has used Hezbollah’s and Aoun’s helplessness to bring the cabinet down (since
Syria would say no) as leverage to push his agenda forward.
The maneuvering within the Mikati government is more interesting than initially
forecast by March 14. It was plain early on that Berri and Jumblatt would work
with Mikati to clip Aoun’s wings. Interestingly, Hezbollah has responded to this
with some restraint. The party avoided leaning too heavily in Aoun’s direction
on the electricity plan, and has not followed the general’s lead on
appointments. Instead, Hezbollah is employing its power sparingly to protect its
“red lines.” The party has embarrassed Mikati when it comes to the STL, but
until now has also remained relatively quiet over funding, leading some to
believe, perhaps naively, that a compromise will be found.
The calculation of March 14 has been that Mikati is the weakest link in the
government, therefore that he is the man the coalition must target. Maybe. The
prime minister is indeed vulnerable to decisive shifts in the Sunni mood, and
events in Syria remain unpredictable. However, Mikati has one advantage. Efforts
to undermine him risk being interpreted by many Lebanese as just another way of
undermining the country’s wellbeing, therefore their own. Mikati also happens to
be in Lebanon and his rival, Hariri, abroad, which could be to the advantage of
the prime minister in public opinion.
If Mikati is working to reinforce the authority of the state and to contain
Lebanon’s growing economic problems, then it would be irresponsible not to
support him. That is even more imperative if the situation in Syria deteriorates
further. Whether March 14 likes it or not, in a potential struggle between the
partisans of a sovereign state and Hezbollah to fill a possible post-Syria
Lebanese vacuum, Mikati will be the man representing the state. And if his
performance in recent weeks is anything to go by, he will do so with conviction.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and
author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life
Struggle. He tweets @BeirutCalling.
Michel Sleiman's Speech at the UN
September 21, 2011
Now Lebanon
President Michel Sleiman addressed the 66th session of the UN General Assembly:
“First, I would like to congratulate you for your election as President of the
66th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, especially since you
represent a brother country that has constantly shown solidarity with Lebanon
and has played a key-role in advancing agreement in the Doha Accord and in
Lebanon's re-construction; hoping that our deliberations would contribute to
shedding the light on rightful causes and buttress the logic of justice.
And while I commend your predecessor, M. Joseph Deiss, former President of the
Swiss Confederation for his success in fulfilling his role, I would also like to
express my appreciation for His Excellency the Secretary-General of the United
Nations Mr. Ban Ki-moon, at the threshold of his new mandate, for all the
efforts he has deployed to achieve the objectives and purposes of the United
Nations.
This year's General Assembly is held in a context dominated by Arab major
developments and the Palestinian rightful effort for the State of Palestine to
be recognized and obtain full membership to the United Nations, in addition to
other issues such as the persistent tensions on the Korean peninsula, the
positive developments on the African continent, sustained efforts to control the
repercussions of the global financial crisis, natural disasters that threaten
different parts of the world, and the persistence of the phenomenon of
terrorism, while we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11
attacks with the strongest words of condemnation
Mr. President, I stand before you as the representative of a country that has
since its inception carried the message of freedom, concord, and moderation, and
it strives to consecrate and consolidate this message, despite of the challenges
and threats that have targeted, both in the East and the West, models of
coexistence and cultural diversity.
In accordance with its constitution, Lebanon is a parliamentary democratic
republic based on respect for civil liberties, especially the freedom of opinion
and belief. Moreover, the people are the source of authority and sovereignty;
they shall exercise these powers through the constitutional institutions.
Indeed, Lebanon has committed itself to these principles, to the devolution of
power and to the participation of all communities in the management of public
affairs, on the basis of equal sharing and concord, despite the wars and
aggressions it suffered from over decades.
Moreover, Lebanon has always been committed to respecting resolutions of the
international legitimacy, including those of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,
and that in accordance with what the Ministerial Statements of the successive
Lebanese cabinets have asserted.
Mr. President, Over the past months, our Arab region has witnessed events and
mass popular movements calling for freedom, democracy and the establishment of
the rule of law, away from authoritarianism, favoritism and corruption.
Lebanon and its scholars, media, and activists that have accompanied and
supported every renaissance project in the Levant and contributed to refining it
and upholding its banner, cannot but hail any peaceful approach or means to
achieve reform, to consecrate the principles of democracy, justice and
modernity, and to preserve human dignity and fundamental freedoms.
Only through these principles and systems, can security and peace be achieved
for all the components of our societies and a convenient environment for a
healthy human development be ensured.
Nevertheless, we are to follow up these changes in the Arab world so that they
would serve its common good, foster its progress and dignity and prevent that
developments veer towards extremism or chaos or fragmentation and division on
religious or sectarian bases.
In parallel, it must be brought to the attention of the international community,
which is following up these developments, that the wave of popular protest that
affected some Arab countries cannot perceived as simply stemming from demands
pertaining to their living conditions.
Therefore, allocating funds to support the economic and social development in
Arab countries that have now entered a transitional phase, and that with the aim
of promoting democracy, moderation and openness would not be sufficient.
Indeed, means that would dispel feelings of injustice and oppression rankling in
the hearts of the Arab peoples, for the latter have been marginalized for
decades and thus stalled in the face of the Israeli challenge and practices on
one hand and that of modernity and globalization on the other should be
explored.
Such approaches primarily require engaging seriously and urgently within the
framework of an integrated process to impose a just and comprehensive solution
to all aspects of the conflict in the Middle East, based on the resolutions of
international legitimacy, Madrid's Terms of Reference and the Arab Peace
Initiative in all its provisions.
This would thus lay the foundations for a project of a broader dialogue and
understanding between the East and the West and among civilizations, cultures
and religions. It is an overdue historical understanding, following decades
marked by feelings of injustice and hostility, decades of destructive wars and
missed opportunities.
In this context, it is important to underscore the rightful Palestinian efforts
aiming at earning the recognition of the State of Palestine and its full
membership to the United Nations, in line with the right to self-determination.
Lebanon will support these efforts, in order for the latter to succeed, with the
coordination and cooperation of brotherly and friendly countries.
However, the recognition of the Palestinian State and its accession to the
United Nations – albeit its importance - neither restores full rights nor could
be considered a final solution to the Palestinian issue, as stipulated by the
concept of justice and the international legitimacy resolutions.
Consequently, and until reaching a final and just political solution to the
question of Palestine, which guarantees the Palestinians' Refugees Right of
Return, the UNRWA remains responsible for the Relief of Palestinian refugees and
for ensuring their welfare, in cooperation with the host countries, in line with
the General Assembly resolution based on which the agency was established in
1949, and that away from any form of permanent settlement of these refugees,
which is equally rejected by Lebanon and our Palestinian brothers.
This requires supporting the UNRWA's budget steadily and not seeking to merge it
with other UN bodies or to weaken its capacity.
In another context, Lebanon, which has recognized the Libyan National
Transitional Council and participated in the Paris summit on Libya's future,
expects from Libyan officials, with whom it is communicating for this purpose,
to uncover the fate of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions who went
missing in Libya during an official visit in the year 1978.
A few days ago, Lebanon hosted the Second Meeting of States Parties to the
Convention on cluster bombs that concluded with the Beirut Declaration, which
constituted a defining moment in the course of implementing this Convention. And
although addressing this issue stems from humanitarian considerations, this
meeting has highlighted the terrible fallout of these weapons which have been
heavily used by Israel during the aggression of July 2006.
These weapons still threaten civilians on their farmlands and the innocent
children in the open fields of their games in South Lebanon, which warrant
condemning Israel and requesting that it appropriately compensate for the harm
and extensive damage it has caused Lebanon through these weapons as well as the
overall damage of its repeated aggressions against Lebanon, including those
caused by the oil slick resulting from the Israeli bombardment of the Jiyeh
power plant in the summer of 2006.
On the fifth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 170I,
Lebanon reiterates its commitment to persevere in implementing this resolution
and calls once again the international community to pressure Israel and compel
it to implement all its provisions.
In other words, Israel is to halt its daily violations of the Lebanese
sovereignty and to immediately withdraw from Lebanese territories that it still
occupies in the northern part of Al Ghajar village, the Shebaa farms, and the
hills of Kfar Shouba.
Furthermore, it needs to desist its persistent threats against Lebanon and its
infrastructure and its endeavors to destabilize the country through its spying
networks and its recruitment of agents, while we retain our right to liberate or
retrieve all
our occupied territories through all legitimate and available means.
On the other hand, we reaffirm that we are strongly attached to our full
sovereign and economic rights over our territorial waters and exclusive economic
zone and our freedom of exploitation of our natural resources, be they on land
or deep in the sea, away from any designs or threats.
As a matter of fact, we have addressed to the Secretary General of the United
Nations a series of correspondence which marked and underscored the limits,
extents of these waters' boundaries and the legitimacy of these rights, namely
the geographic coordinates respectively pertaining to the southernmost and
south-west border of the exclusive economic zone of Lebanon, objecting in
particular the Israeli violations and aggressions that affect these rights.
Furthermore, as we warned against any initiative to exploit the resources of the
disputed maritime zones, we asked His Excellency the Secretary-General to take
all measures he deems appropriate to avoid any conflict.
I would like to seize this opportunity to commend the crucial role of the UNIFIL
forces in South Lebanon, within the ongoing coordination and full cooperation
between these forces and the Lebanese Army.
I would also like to commend the UNIFIL dedication, commandment and staff, in
carrying out the mission they have been entrusted with and the immense
sacrifices they have been offering for the service of peace.
While we thank the countries which contributed military personnel for their
continued commitment despite the challenges, we cannot but strongly condemn the
terrorist attacks the international forces, particularly the French and Italian
battalions, were subject to in the past months, and we are working earnestly to
uncover the perpetrators, bring them to justice, and prevent the recurrence of
such incidents.
Mr. President, The United Nations has fulfilled an ever-increasing role, since
the end of the Cold War, in maintaining international peace and security and in
intervening to resolve disputes in many troubled regions of the world.
However, it was unable to prove its effectiveness in the Middle East, where
great dangers still threaten international peace and security, as a result of
Israel's ongoing defiance of the international legitimacy resolutions, its
unacceptable rejections of the requirements of peace, and its persistence in the
abusive practices in Gaza and the occupied territories, the illegal construction
of settlements, and violation of human rights.
This requires that the negotiations on Security Council reform be completed, for
the Council to be more aligned with the new geopolitical situation and be
capable to ensure the implementation of binding Security Council resolutions,
especially those related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In conclusion, and as we celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day
this year, we are to take more advantage of the potentials and talents of half
of the humanity, and not just seek to consecrate gender equality in principle.
Indeed, women could greatly contribute to the upbringing and education, to
giving the upper hand to the logic of peace, to reducing poverty, hunger,
disease and environmental degradation, and to promoting sustainable development
opportunities.
The General Assembly deliberations and heavy agenda with its political, economic
and social issues constitute an occasion for all of us to renew the vow we took
since 1945, to address the challenges and crises facing the international
community, by resorting to the institutions of international legitimacy and to
agreed collective solutions, in conformity with the basic principles of the
Charter of the United Nations, its resolutions and the provisions of
international law, provided that they are based on the spirit of justice and
stay away from double standards.
And history has taught us that this choice is the one and only reasonable
solution.
Thank You.”
US leads mass walkout of Ahmadinejad speech at UN
September 22, 2011 /The United States led a mass walkout of the UN General
Assembly on Thursday when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched an
outspoken attack on Western nations. A US diplomat who was in the assembly hall
to monitor the speech left halfway through, while the 27 European Union nations
then followed in a coordinated protest move.
Without naming any country, the Iranian leader strongly attacked the role of the
United States and its allies in wars and the financial crisis and called on
major powers to pay reparations for slavery. "They officially support racism,"
Ahmadinejad said. "They weaken countries through military intervention and
destroy their infrastructures, in order to plunder their resources by making
them all the more dependent." "Mr Ahmadinejad had a chance to address his own
people's aspirations for freedom and dignity, but instead he again turned to
abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories," said US
mission spokesperson Mark Kornblau. "It was a coordinated position by the EU if
the Iranian president called into question European nations for their 'support
of Zionism' and made reference to the Holocaust," a French source told AFP.-AFP/NOW
Lebanon