LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
May 16/12
Bible Quotation for today/The
Fate Of the Evil Ones
Isaiah 05/20-30: " You are
doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and
light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make
bitter. You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever. You are
doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing
drinks! But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the
innocent from getting justice. So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and
burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow
away, because you have rejected what the Lord Almighty, Israel's holy God, has
taught us. The Lord is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to
punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be
left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the Lord's anger will not be
ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
The Lord gives a signal to call for a distant nation. He whistles for them
to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly! None
of them grow tired; none of them stumble. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt
is loose; not a sandal strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp, and their bows
are ready to shoot. Their horses' hoofs are as hard as flint, and their chariot
wheels turn like a whirlwind. The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an
animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them. When
that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this
country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.
Latest analysis, editorials, studies,
reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Bashar or
destruction/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 15/12
Why has Al Qaeda
emerged in Syria now/By Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat/May 15/12
Rage and
arms in Tripoli/By: Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon/May 15/12
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for
May 15/12
Tripoli clashes after direct
orders from Assad to Lebanese army
Dennis
Ross: Iran must 'stop clock' to show its serious
IAEA urges Iran to grant access to military site as Vienna talks begin over
Islamic Republic's nuclear program
Iran 'could order Hezbollah hit on Israel'
Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails end hunger
strike with Egyptian-brokered deal
Egypt Police Raid Iran TV Office in Cairo
EU Harshly Slams Israel over Settlements, Settler Extremism
Saudi FM tells Iran to keep out of Saudi-Bahraini affairs
Iran to launch observation satellite on nuclear talks day
Saudi Arabia: U.N.-backed peace plan in
Syria unraveling
Canada Concerned by Spillovers of Syrian Violence
Abboudiyeh residents to take up arms if
hostage not returned
6 Dead, 70 Hurt as Clashes Spread in Tripoli and Islamists
Reclose al-Nour Square
Hariri urges necessary steps to end deadly
Tripoli fighting
Hopes for ending spending row fade, Mikati
plans more talks
Nakba Day commemorations to only take place
inside camps
Qassem dares Hariri to endorse proportional representation
Emergency meeting in Sidon aims to safeguard city against repeat of Tripoli
scenario
Arrest Warrant Issued for Mawlawi as Video of His Arrest is Released
General Security Remains Silent on ‘Real Story’ behind al-Mawlawi’s Arrest
Baalbek Archbishop Hands Muslim Girl who Converted to Christianity Back to Her
Family
Berri Refuses to Call on Cabinet to Resign despite Crisis, Says Aoun is
‘Oppressed’
Jumblat: Syria Influencing Some Security Agencies to Harass Revolution
Supporters
Phalange Slams Tripoli Unrest, Calls on Govt. to Enforce Military Plan to
Control Whole of Lebanon
Assir in Tripoli: Sunni sect taken for granted
Qortbawi calls manner of Mawlawi’s arrest “wrong”
Siniora demands army deployment in Tripoli
Raad: Tripoli parties reaping what they sowed
Charbel summons officer who arrested Mawlawi
Kabbara says Higher Defense Council “conspiring” against Tripoli
An-Nahar: Damascus requested Lebanese General Security arrest
‘wanted’ people
Kataeb proposes law to commemorate
Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon
Hollande sworn in as president of France
Army deploys in north Lebanon after deadly
clashes
New US battle strategy against
Iran in US movements and Israeli drill
Iran executes alleged Mossad agent for killing nuclear scientist
Deaths as Syria's revolt enters 15th month
Iran says nuclear
talks with U.N. "good, constructive"
Palestinians march
in annual mourning ritual
Kataeb
proposes law to commemorate Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon
May 15, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Kataeb MPs Sami Gemayel and Samer Saadeh
proposed a draft law Tuesday to set April 26 as a national holiday to
commemorate the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.“The draft law sets
April 26 of every year as a holiday for the resistance and liberation from the
Syrian occupation and designates it as an official holiday where all public and
private administrations, schools and universities will close,” a statement by
Kataeb press office said. Article I of the draft law stipulates that on April 25
schools should devote the first class lesson to explaining the importance of the
event in Lebanon’s history. The reasoning behind the proposal, according to the
statement, is to commemorate the end to the Syria’s 30 year presence in Lebanon.
"On May 15, 2000, the Israeli army was forced out of Lebanon after 18 years and
in April 26, 2005, the Syrian army was forced out of Lebanon as a result of the
resistance that became popular, political and among the ranks of students after
30 years of occupation,” the press office quoted Gemayel as saying. The
statement also said that the proposal comes after May 25 was announced a
national holiday.
“In a bid to safeguard the sacrifices of Lebanon's martyrs and pursuant to the
principles of justice, fairness and equality between citizens and to recognize
their virtues in liberating the country, we propose to Parliament this draft law
in hopes that it will receive approval,” a copy of the proposal said.
New US battle strategy against Iran in US movements and Israeli drill
DEBKAfile Special Report May 15, 2012/A series of apparently unconnected
military movements observed in Middle East seas and skies in the last tendays
have a common factor: introduction of the new US Air Sea Battle (ASB) doctrine,
which is designed to make the most of tightly coordinated operations by air,
land, sea, undersea, space and cyberspace capabilities for defeating those of
the enemy.
Monday, May 14, the day that Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned Iran
not to meddle in the evolving Saudi-Bahraini union, large US Navy and Marine
forces put into Jeddah port for first time in 11 years. Last week, Israel’s Navy
and Air Force and their special operations units - Shaldag, Shayetet 13 and 960
Task Force - carried out their largest combined exercise ever in the
Mediterranean. It ended with Israeli surface ships and submarines arrayed in a
dense defensive line against enemy vessels armed with unconventional weapons
approaching the Israeli coast.
The Israeli exercise, which ended May 13, practiced the new American ABS
doctrine of simultaneously massing large-scale sea and air strength against Iran
on two seas, in this case, the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. It also drilled
operating in unison with their American counterparts under the same doctrine.
debkafile’s military sources report that Washington timed the unveiling of the
new battle strategy for May 10, two weeks before the Six Power nuclear talks
with Iran resume in Baghdad.
US Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert explained that the ASB concept
was developed "to defeat A2AD (Anti-Access/Area Denial) strategies such as the
closure of the (Hormuz) strait, cyber attack, mines, cruise and ballistic
missiles and air defense systems, threats enhanced by technological
advancements.”
Our military sources add: The concept is also closely applicable to American
tactics for defending the Persian Gulf nations against possible Iranian
aggression as the GCC takes its first unification steps to shore up its defenses
against that threat. Adm. Greenert wrote: “There’s been attention recently about
closing an international strait using, among other means, mines, fast boats,
cruise missiles and mini-subs.”
debkafile: Those are precisely the systems Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hold
ready for a decision to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz to international
oil traffic.
ABS concepts include “submarines hitting air defense and cruise missiles in
support of Air Force bombers: F-22 Air Force stealth fighters taking out enemy
cruise missile threats to Navy ships.”
Adm. Greenert was the first senior American commander to put on public record
the measures for repelling Iranian cruise missile attacks on US aircraft
carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf. He also spelled out the mission for which
a squadron of F-22 jets was stationed at the Al Dhafra air base in late April.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 539 revealed on May 4 that a second squadron was due to land
soon in the Gulf region. On May 16, Adm. Greenert and US Air Force chief
Gen. Norton Schwartz are to discuss the ABS in a public event at the Brookings
Institute in Washington.
US and Israeli air, sea and special forces have meanwhile begun operating under
the new doctrine in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Monday, the
US Amphibious Ready Group, 24th MEU, led by the USS Iwo Jima put into Jeddah,
the Saudi Navy’s Red Sea command port, with 2,200 Marines aboard.
It was the first time since the 2001 Gulf War that the Saudis had permitted US
naval and air units of this size to anchor in one of their ports and, moreover,
allowed American military personnel to show themselves in its streets. The GCC
summit which began in Riyadh on the same day had three key items on its agenda:
Iran’s military, political and covert threat to the region’s stability; the
Syrian crisis; and unification steps between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to ward
off Iranian interference in the Shiite-led unrest.
Bashar or destruction
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
The Hezbollah leader’s comments about the situation in Syria, saying that the
Syrians have only two options; either reform led by al-Assad or the path of
carnage, i.e. the revolution, means that Hassan Nasrallah wants to tell the
Syrians in all simplicity that the choice is simple: “Bashar or destruction”!
When Nasrallah says that “what is happening in Syria today is not demands for
reform or democracy”, and that the Syrian people are faced with two choices,
“one that is serious about reform” led by the authorities, or the choice of
“destruction at the hands of forces who are readily providing weapons, money,
explosives and even terrorists”, this means that Nasrallah is like an al-Assad
regime tank that roam the Syrian streets emblazoned with the words “al-Assad or
no one”. The difference is that Nasrallah is roaming the media satellite
channels, conveying the same message written on the tanks that are killing the
Syrians, yet how many deaths of our fellow Arabs are these satellite channels
responsible for?! Nasrallah is adopting the same point of view as the al-Assad
regime, namely that all that is happening in Syria today stems from external
funding and al-Qaeda terrorism. Indeed he is acting just like Bashar al-Jaafari,
al-Assad’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who promoted an
unprecedented lie that al-Qaeda was the product of a Western-Arab alliance
against the Syrian regime!
In reality, Nasrallah’s recent words are aimed at two groups of people, firstly
towards the security forces in Syria, who are witnessing continuous divisions.
Those who are very familiar with Syrian affairs know that the Syrian army watch
al-Manar and al-Alam television channels more than any others, and therefore
Nasrallah is trying to convince them of the need for stability, that al-Assad is
the one who will undertake reform, and that anything other than this is an act
of sabotage from the outside. The other people that Nasrallah wants to address
through his discourse are those within Lebanon itself, to whom Nasrallah wants
to say that the departure of al-Assad will mean that Hezbollah will not hesitate
to repeat what it did in May 2008, when it occupied the Sunni part of Beirut. We
can see that Tripoli in Lebanon has been already been ignited by violence, thus
confirming al-Assad’s threat that he will burn the region, and Syria before
that, if the tyrant is forced to leave his country!
This is what Nasrallah wants to say in all simplicity to al-Assad’s forces and
to the Lebanese, i.e. it is Bashar or destruction. Nasrallah is part of a
political and media machine that is maneuvering vigorously today in defense of
al-Assad, and like Nasrallah there are others in Iraq and elsewhere, all of whom
are moving under the Iranian umbrella. The reason for this current move is
al-Assad’s belief that an opportunity has opened up in front of him to escape,
owing to the political changes in Russia and France that will require time to
settle, and through exploiting America’s preoccupation with its election dates.
However, the good news, which is of course bad for Nasrallah, al-Assad and
others, is that the torch of the Syrian revolution is still burning and moving
from hand to hand in Syria. Most importantly, the international community is
aware of the severity of the “Bashar or destruction” equation, and that the
rapid fall of the tyrant of Damascus will protect Syria and the region from a
grave cost, and this is what we have said again and again.
Why has Al Qaeda emerged in Syria now?
By Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat
Many doubt the credibility of a statement issued by an organization appearing to
be a branch of Al Qaeda, calling itself “The Support Front for the People of
Syria”, claiming responsibility for the recent bombings that took place in
Syria, including the latest bloody explosion in Damascus which killed dozens of
bystanders. These bombing campaigns seem to be trying to instill an idea that
the regime itself has been trying to promote about the Syrian popular uprising,
which has been ongoing for more than a year, namely that it is nothing more than
armed terrorist groups trying to intimidate the Syrian citizens and impose their
will on the people.
For the most part, the reactions were political, whether at a regional or
international level,and reflected parties who continued to stand either against
or alongside the Syrian regime. The regime itself immediately took advantage of
the bombings to target all the countries standing against its suppression of the
popular uprising, accusing them of supporting terrorism, ranging from Turkey to
Libya to the Western countries. Meanwhile pro-Assad Russia yesterday said, via
its deputy Foreign Minister [Gennady Gatilov] that "for us it is absolutely
clear that terrorist groups are behind this – Al Qaeda and those groups that
work with Al Qaeda". He warned that this could spell a long and bloody conflict,
which neither side is in a position to win. This was also the position of Hassan
Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, who similarly warned the Syrians that
they are facing two options: either a serious approach to reform led by the
Syrian authorities, or destruction. His words are clear here, namely that the
destruction he is alluding to is the opposition, whereas reform can only come
from the regime.
Nasrallah’s logic inverts the facts, how can the same entity that is supposed to
lead reform also be conducting the indiscriminate shelling of Rastan, as
happened yesterday, destroying entire neighborhoods in Homs, as happened
previously, and causing the displacement of tens of thousands of Syrians outside
their own country? Would those with such a destructive ideology also be calling
for freedom and justice?
No one can justify the bombings, they are condemned by everyone, including the
Syrian opposition that the regime accuses of being responsible, but the question
is: why now? What is the purpose of trying to highlight Al Qaeda in the Syrian
scene, whether it is true that the perpetrators of the bombing were from a group
adopting its ideology or not?
The answer lies in analyzing the stances and positions that have been taken
since the beginning of the Syrian uprising until now. The uprising began with
simple demands for freedom and justice after a brutal crackdown on children in
Deraa, who had written anti-regime slogans on the walls. For long months the
Syrians – who had taken the initiative after what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and
then Libya to take to the streets – continued to demonstrate peacefully.
However, these protests were met with bullets, and thus the protestors escalated
their demands in accordance with the magnitude of the reaction from al-Assad’s
security machine. Demands soon reached calls to overthrow the regime, and then
matters continued to develop over more long months with defections from the
Syrian military and the establishment of the Free Syrian Army [FSA].
Ever since the first weeks of the uprising the regime has been trying to promote
the image that the demonstrators are in fact armed gangs or extremists. However,
the world was not convinced after seeing the images and videos that showed it
was actually the regime’s forces that were behaving like armed gangs, whether
they were the regular forces or the pro-regime Shabiha militia, who have been
terrorizing the Syrian people. The regime played – and succeeded in part – the
game of scaremongering, warning other minorities that this was a Sunni uprising.
It argued that if the Sunnis – being the majority sect in Syria – came to power,
they would abuse other sects, something that has been denied by the opposition
over and over again.
Therefore, extremist organizations or groups entering the scene in Syria will
not benefit anyone apart from the regime, in order for it to justify the
continuation of its armed operations and the presence of its tanks inside
cities, contravening Kofi Annan’s initiative which it had previously accepted.
Even if the regime is not behind these groups directly, it is indirectly
responsible for them. If we cast our memories back to the stories of bloody
bombing campaigns in Iraq, and the infiltration of Al Qaeda fighters into Iraq
from all over the world, their route always passed through Damascus and the
training camps concentrated on the Syrian-Iraqi border. It is not conceivable
that all this could have been done without the knowledge of the authorities in a
regime known for the iron fist of its security apparatus. Therefore these
groups, and the style of their bombings, are the merchandise of this regime, and
something that it previously exported across the region!
Iran executes alleged Mossad
agent for killing nuclear scientist
By Reuters | May.15, 2012/By News Agencies | May.15,2012/ Iran has hanged a man
it said was an agent for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad whom it convicted of
killing one of its nuclear scientists in 2010, Iranian state media reported on
Tuesday. Twenty-four year old Majid Jamali Fashi was hanged at Tehran's Evin
Prison after being sentenced to death in August last year for the murder of
Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, Iran's state news agency quoted the central prosecutor's
office as saying. It said he had confessed to the crime. Ali-Mohammadi was
killed in January 2010 when a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle
outside his home in Tehran went off. Tuesday's report said Fashi had travelled
abroad on several occasions to receive training from Mossad before returning to
Iran to plot the assassination. Yet Western analysts said Ali-Mohammadi, a
50-year-old Tehran University professor, had little, if any, role in Iran's
sensitive nuclear program. A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation
said at the time he was not involved in its activities. The most recent attack
on an Iranian scientist occurred in January. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan - a deputy
director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility - was killed when a magnetic
bomb planted on his vehicle detonated. Tehran has accused Israel and the United
States of assassinating four Iranian scientists in order to sabotage its
controversial nuclear program. Washington has denied any U.S. role, while Israel
has declined to comment. Last month, Iranian intelligence officials said they
had arrested 15 people they called a "major terror and sabotage network with
links to the Zionist regime". The group had plotted to assassinate an Iranian
scientist in February, the authorities said. Iran denies Western accusations it
is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, but major powers are pushing
Tehran to become more transparent and cooperative ahead of talks later this
month. British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday warned the European
Union would impose tougher sanctions on Iran if it failed to take concrete steps
to allay international concerns over its nuclear program.
Rage and arms in Tripoli
Hanin Ghaddar , May 14, 2012 /Now Lebanon
The arrest of Shadi al-Mawlawi has set off rage among Islamists in Tripoli this
weekend. It is hard to believe it wasn’t intentionally done to ignite conflict.
(AFP photo)
The admins and members of the Facebook groups “Tripoli, the Capital of Sunnis”
and “The Sunna in Lebanon II” have been very active since Saturday, reporting on
the bloody events taking place in Tripoli. Posts and comments on these groups
clearly implied that the street is not going to calm down anytime soon; it was
speaking its own language, a very dangerous one.
Sunni Muslim Shadi al-Mawlawi’s arrest on Saturday, which triggered the
violence, is not convincing. He was detained by officials from the Lebanese
General Security, an institution that is controlled by Hezbollah and Amal and
that is not usually involved in this kind of arrest. It is as if the stage was
being set to ignite rage among Islamists in Tripoli, and that’s exactly what
happened.
The Facebook groups’ posts called for jihad, lobbying Muslims “to join their
brothers in the streets and never go home before all Islamists prisoners are
released from Roumieh Prison.” The issue was not about Shadi al-Mawlawi; they
wanted to defeat the state and “end the injustice.”
The sectarian rhetoric of the Facebook groups says a lot about the rage and
determination of those affiliated with Islamists groups in the North. Feeling
abandoned by the state and their so-called Sunni leaders, many have found refuge
in the political identity and promise of victory provided by the rising Islamist
groups in Tripoli.
Along with the feeling of belonging comes the sectarian anger, seemingly because
Sunnis have been feeling threatened by the growing power of the Shia Hezbollah,
even within Tripoli itself. The threat was at the door, and they had to do
something about it, even if it was symbolic.
“Violent clashes between the dirty Alawite and Shia dogs and the Sunni lions of
Tripoli. This is the threat of Hassan Nasrallah to whoever supports the heroes
of the Syrian revolution,” posted the admin of the group “The Sunna of Lebanon.”
Another commented: “Sunnis of Lebanon, this is your day. Rise united and join
your brothers with arms and determination.” Another group, “Stop Intimidating
Sunnis and Brothers” posted that they have arrested eight armed members of
Hezbollah on their way to Jabal Mohsen, killing one of them. This was not
reported elsewhere.
Some of the other groups they “like” are: “A million signature to put Khamenei
in a barn” and “Sheikh Adnan al-Arour fans,” and others that link to Islamist
communities in both Lebanon and Syria, with many references to religious moments
in Islamic history and nostalgic recollections of past victories, interrupted by
juvenile anticipation of another soon-to-come victory over the “dirty pigs of
Assad and Iran.”
This cannot be taken lightly, as money and arms are abundant in Lebanon, and
wars only need a stupid spark like Shadi al-Mawlawi. The problem is that no one
seems to be capable of containing this anger. The immediate solution the state
came up with was to send troops to the streets, a temporary plan that might or
might not confine the clashes. But what about the real reasons behind this
violence, such as extreme poverty, ignorance and a total loss of citizenship?
This is not the first time sectarian clashes erupt in Tripoli, although today it
is certainly more dangerous considering the Syrian context. Every time, the
state send troops, politicians meet and leaders issue statements, and then
everyone goes back to their mundane existence, leaving behind the city to
accumulate more rage and a collective feeling of abandonment.
The rage in the streets of Tripoli can and will be used to pass political
messages, and some say that this latest round of violence was a message from the
Syrian regime to PM Najib Mikati, who is from Tripoli himself. That’s why an
institution like the General Security was sent to ignite the spark.
It is not a secret that Bashar al-Assad is not completely satisfied with
Mikati’s “dissociation” policy vis-à-vis the Syrian revolution, allowing in and
protecting many Syrian refugees in North Lebanon. Assad certainly wants Mikati
to be more committed to the regime in terms of handing in Syrian activists,
giving more support to the demands of FPM leader Michel Aoun, and adopting the
proportional representation electoral law, which would guarantee better results
for Hezbollah and its Syrian allies in the parliamentary elections in 2013.
Mikati has avoided any comment on these issues for months, and Assad is not
happy.
At the same time, this weekend’s events could substantiate Assad’s story of
al-Qaeda and Islamists’ involvement in the Syrian revolution, including the
smuggling of arms and terrorists from Lebanon’s northern borders into Syria.
It doesn’t really matter if this is true or not. The messages have been
delivered, and those who started it will stop everything as soon as they see
results. Meanwhile, the Lebanese will pay, again, in blood and lives for
agreeing to pass on the message. No one is a victim here. We are all
responsible, but sanity seems to be less abundant than arms, anger and fear.
*Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW Lebanon.
Baalbek Archbishop Hands
Muslim Girl who Converted to Christianity Back to Her Family
إNaharnet /14 May 2012/..Archbishop of Baalbek-Deir al-Ahmar Semaan Atallah
handed over on Monday Banin Qataya back to her parents after she had left their
home two weeks ago.
Qataya, who had converted to Christianity from Islam three years ago, had fled
her home following psychological and physical abuse from her father as a result
of her conversion, said Semaan.
He revealed that she had left her home “out of her own freewill.” She was handed
over to her parents at Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek’s office.
Semaan said: “Qataya left her home and her parents had the right to search for
her.” “We had the duty to help to find out what she wants,” he continued. “My
hand is extended to Sheikh Yazbek to cooperate in order to demonstrate Lebanon’s
message of coexistence in the region,” he stressed. For his part, Yazbek said:
“This issue should be dealt with in an open heart and mind.” The pastor of
Baalbek’s Our Lady of Good Help Church, Father Walid Gharious, aka Father Elias
Maroun Gharious, was recently kidnapped for baptizing the girl. Her father
Sheikh Ahmed Qataya had vowed to LBC television on Thursday that he will recover
his daughter “even if it will create a civil war in Lebanon.” On May 7, unknown
individuals kidnapped Father Walid Gharious on the Baalbek road near the
intersection leading to the town of al-Ansar.
He was released later that day. LBC had said that Gharious was handed over to
Yazbek following his release.
6 Dead, 70 Hurt as Clashes
Spread in Tripoli and Islamists Reclose al-Nour Square
Naharnet/14 May 2012/..Sectarian violence linked to the unrest in Syria claimed
another six lives in the northern port city of Tripoli on Monday as clashes
spread beyond the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and
Islamist protesters reclosed the roads around al-Nour Square after their
Salafist comrade Shadi al-Mawlawi remained in custody.
OTV said four B-10 RPGs fell on al-Zahriyeh district in central Tripoli and that
residents were massively fleeing from the neighborhood. And as LBC television
quoted military sources as saying that army units had started deploying in Jabal
Mohsen ahead of deploying in Bab al-Tabbaneh, state-run National News Agency
said the army was reinforcing its presence in Tripoli and that army units had
reached Jabal Mohsen's outskirts. Clashes erupted in the afternoon in the areas
of al-Mallouleh, Jabal Mohsen, al-Riva and al-Baqqar, leaving two people dead --
Bahaa Mohammed Daoud and Riad Ali Maarouf, NNA reported. Meanwhile, OTV said
clashes killed citizens Mahmoud Maarouf and Khodr al-Jalakh.
For its part, LBC television said at least 70 people were wounded on Monday. NNA
earlier said Haidar al-Rashed was killed by gunfire as he was standing on the
balcony of his house in the area of Wadi al-Nahle-al-Baddawi during the fighting
overnight. Later in the day, Ramzi Taan Bakir was killed in Jabal Mohsen.
Clashes intensified at around 3:00 p.m. as several RPGs fell on al-Mankoubin
district and flames and smoke could be seen rising from a building on the area’s
outskirts. The ongoing violence has brought Lebanon’s second largest city to a
standstill socially and economically, with piles of garbage visible across its
neighborhoods after clashes forced the suspension of waste collection. NNA
reported that several gunmen were seen on scooters on Azmi Street, which is
outside the clashes area.
Meanwhile, Islamist protesters reclosed the roads leading to al-Nour Square to
protest the continued detention of their comrade Shadi al-Mawlawi, whose arrest
on Saturday by General Security agents had sparked the unrest.
LBC reported that Internal Security Forces troops were preventing vehicles from
heading to al-Nour Square, as Islamists formed disciplinary committees to
maintain the sit-in’s “peaceful nature.”
Mawlawi’s brother, Nizar, told LBC that the protesters “were surprised by the
judiciary’s ploy against Shadi,” vowing that they will maintain their sit-in
until the release of Shadi.
Later on Monday, a group of young men blocked the Halba-al-Abdeh road at the
Wadi al-Jamous intersection with metal barriers and burning tires in solidarity
with the Tripoli sit-in. The road was later reopened.
Fighting had erupted on Saturday night between the rival neighborhoods of mainly
Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and majority Alawite Jabal Mohsen. Clashes witnessed the
first use of mortar shells on Monday, after rival gunmen used machineguns,
rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and Energa rifle-launched anti-tank grenades.
The Lebanese army has sent reinforcements to the city and warned that it would
not tolerate any attempt to shake Tripoli’s security and stability. The
gunbattles erupted over the General Security Department’s arrest of Mawlawi by
luring him to an office of Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi’s welfare
association under the pretext that he would receive health care.
Mawlawi was seized for allegedly contacting a terrorist organization. Media
reports said that the suspect is an avid supporter of the Syrian revolution
against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Premier Najib Miqati told As Safir daily that some parties are trying to picture
the army as being against the Islamist forces in the city. “But the reality is
different and the proof is that it didn’t interfere to end the sit-it on
Saturday.”He was referring to the protest held by Mawlawi’s supporters at al-Nour
Square on Saturday. The sit-in was followed by the deadly clashes between the
two neighborhoods.
“When the clashes spread … the army had to interfere to control security in the
city,” Miqati said.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel also said that security agencies have the names
of the gunmen involved in the clashes and the judiciary will take action.
Tripoli Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar told Future News that the only solution to
remove arms from the streets lies in taking a firm political decision. He blamed
the deadly clashes however on a fifth column that he said is capable of
smuggling weapons to the city anytime it wants. “There won’t be any security
without justice,” he said in other remarks to al-Liwaa daily. “Security would
return to the city when its residents feel that justice has returned.” Al-Shaar
said the clashes were partly to be blamed on the lack of development projects in
Tripoli, adding the residents believe that they don’t have equal opportunities.
The mufti also told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that the sit-in at Abdul Hamid
Karami Square might not end because the protestors believe that holding a
demonstration is a democratic right.
North Lebanon clashes escalate, kill 5
May 14, 2012/ By Antoine Amrieh /The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Fighting with assault rifles and grenades between opponents
and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad escalated in the northern city
of Tripoli Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 10, security
sources said. The sources said four men died in the mainly pro-Assad
neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, while a fifth person was killed near Bab al-Tabbaneh,
a mainly by anti-Assad district of the port city. Tension and fear had gripped
Tripoli earlier Monday after both political and security efforts failed to
maintain a cease-fire along the demarcation lines between the rival
neighborhoods. Armed men on motorcycles were seen on Tripoli’s Azmi Street for
the first time since clashes broke out late Saturday evening. Azmi Street is
outside the battle zone.
Loudspeakers on mosques in Beddawi, Wadi an-Nahla and Jabal al-Beddawi repeated
warnings to tenants living on upper-level floors to evacuate for fear they could
be wounded as a result of RPG fire in the area, the National News Agency (NNA)
said.
Some schools in north Lebanon did not open due to the fighting. Gunbattles,
which erupted after midnight Saturday, pitted opponents of Syrian President
Bashar Assad in the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh against Assad supporters in the
mostly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen. Three people, including a Lebanese
Army soldier, were killed in the weekend fighting. The violence broke out after
tension spiked Saturday over the arrest of Shadi Mawlawi. Mawlawi and five other
Lebanese suspects were charged Monday of belonging to an “armed terrorist group
... with the intent to carry out terrorist acts inside and outside of Lebanon.”
Mawlawi was reportedly lured by the General Security – under the pretext that he
would receive health care – to an office of Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi’s
welfare association in Tripoli.
The arrest of Mawlawi was condemned over the weekend by both Safadi and Prime
Minister Najib Mikati, the latter having described the manner in which the
detention was carried out as “unacceptable.”
Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani added his voice Monday to those denouncing
the detention.
“[Qabbani denounced] the manner and the procedures of the detention,” a
statement from Dar al-Fatwa said.
He also urged the state to resolve the issue of Islamists detained without
charge in Lebanese prisons, and voiced opposition to the practice.
“Dar al-Fatwa does not accept the detention of people for years without charge
[out of concern for] human rights, the dignity of the individual and [so that]
their relatives are not harmed.”
Some 300 prisoners were arrested on charges of fighting or aiding fighters
during the 2007 armed clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Palestinian
militant group Fatah al-Islam in the refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, in the north
of the country.
Relatives of the prisoners have been protesting and demanding the detainees be
released or receive a fair and speedy trial. Meanwhile, Health Minister Ali
Hasan Khalil ordered hospitals in Tripoli Monday to treat all the wounded from
the clashes. Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri again postponed a
planned visit to Tripoli, the Saudi Embassy said in a statement.
Asiri was due to visit Tripoli’s public hospital to check on the well-being of
Syrian citizens wounded in the fighting in their country. Meanwhile, Sheikh
Ahmad Assir, a Sunni preacher in the southern city of Sidon, described at a news
conference Monday the Tripoli fighting as “very, very serious.”
While he urged an end to the presence of weapons outside the authority of the
Lebanese state, Assir also warned against provoking and disparaging the Sunni
sect, which would not benefit coexistence.
Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara, following a meeting at his residence Monday, said
there was a conspiracy aimed at his city “because there is no political decision
to end what is occurring and the meeting by the Higher Judicial Council headed
by President Michel Sleiman did not [result in] a bona-fide decision to end what
is happening.”The Future Movement lawmaker also called on Prime Minister Najib
Mikati to resign over the affair. The NNA reported that Akkar MP Mouin Merhebi
had earlier pulled out of the meeting at Kabbara’s residence and accused the
Lebanese Army of not implementing the decisions by the Higher Defense Council
and held the body responsible for any “drop of blood that is spilled or a life
that is lost because of reticence to enter the area of clashes.”
In light of the clashes, the Higher Defense Council convened an emergency
session Sunday under President Michel Sleiman, highlighting its keeness to
protect civil peace. “The council discussed the security situation in the
country in general and in the city of Tripoli in particular,” the council said
after its meeting in Baabda Palace. “The council praised the role played by
security bodies to restore security, arrest [members of] terrorist networks ...
[and] prevent arms-smuggling from all Lebanese areas,” added the statement. The
council gave instructions to the Army and security bodies and distributed tasks
to relevant ministries and bodies. It kept its decisions confidential, as
allowed under the law.
Iran 'could order Hezbollah hit on Israel'
May 14, 2012/By Hazel Ward /Daily Star
JERUSALEM: Lebanon's Hezbollah may not want a new war with Israel but an order
to attack would come from Tehran in the event of a strike on Iran, a senior
military official in Israel's northern command told AFP. And if the regime of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad collapses, the resulting unrest could see
Al-Qaeda type groups create chaos on the Syrian Golan Heights, he said in an
interview conducted on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Any military
strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would likely spark a deadly response from
its ally Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Friday that its
missiles could strike anywhere inside the Jewish state. But senior military
officials do not believe Nasrallah wants another war with Israel and would only
attack as a direct result of orders from Tehran.
"The biggest spending of Iran in 30 years has been on the nuclear programme, and
Hezbollah is the second," the Israeli official told AFP, adding that Tehran's
aim was to create "Iranian footprints near the border with Israel." "If
something would happen in Iran, it's a tool that they can use in all kinds of
scenarios," he said. "They (Iran) have so many high-ranking officials in
Lebanon. I don't think this is a decision of Nasrallah -- he will get orders.
That's why he was created," said the official.
"If you ask Nasrallah today, he would say 'no' (to a new war with Israel) but I
don't think that's his call," he said. "Nasrallah understood the power of Israel
and he is still licking his wounds."
He said other scenarios which could spark a new conflict between Israel and
Hezbollah include an attack on Israelis abroad or the transfer to Hezbollah of
chemical weapons from Syria, which is in the throes of a brutal crackdown on
anti-regime protests. Last month, Major General Yair Golan, head of the Israeli
military's northern command, said the ongoing bloodshed in Syria raised fears
that Damascus' weapons stockpiles, which included the "world's largest stockpile
of chemical weapons," could end up in Hezbollah's hands. But the military
official said Israel also feared the collapse of Assad's regime could see the
Syrian Golan Heights fall to groups like Al-Qaeda. "If the Assad regime will
fall, the biggest threat is that the northern border, the no-man's land, can be
taken over by groups like Al-Qaeda," he said, raising fears the strategic
plateau could turn into the next Sinai, where a wave of lawlessness has left the
Egyptian army struggling powerless to rein in militant activity.
Last year, gunmen snuck across the border from the Egyptian territory and
carried out attacks in southern Israel that killed eight people. "This could
happen if the Assad regime collapses," the official warned.
Should Assad fall, it was likely to deal a very heavy blow to Hezbollah, which
stood to lose a key ally in terms of weapons and logistical support, he said.
"Hezbollah is very worried about what is going on in Syria because all their
logistics are there," he said. "If the Assad regime collapses, they will be
alone in this region and will have no border with a friend that can help and
support it. They are very worried about it," he said. "That's why Hezbollah is
working very hard to support the Assad regime."
Hezbollah's main fear was losing the support of Assad, whose minority Alawite
sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
"The top advisers from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are helping
Assad to slaughter his own people because they know that if Assad falls, this
axis won't work any more because most of the (Syrian) people are Sunni," he
said. But such an outcome could also benefit Israel, he said. "Without Syria,
Hezbollah will be much more careful in its acts," he said. In the meantime,
should a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupt, it would be ended "much
faster" than the 34-day war which broke out in July 2006, he said. "This will be
much shorter, much faster than the month" it took last time, he said. "The most
important mission today is to win decisively in any kind of war in Lebanon. If
you win, you win -- everybody sees it." He said Israel's biggest challenge in
any new conflict would be Hezbollah's positioning of weapons in the heart of
civilian areas in around 100 Lebanese towns and villages along the border. "The
people that live there are human shields," he said. "Every Shiite village has
become such a compound. The great challenge will be to deal with all these
compounds."The Jewish state fought a devastating war against Hezbollah in 2006
that cost the lives of 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160
Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Abboudiyeh
residents to take up arms if hostage not returned
May 15, 2012/ By Nicholas Blanford /The Daily Star
ABBOUDIYEH, Lebanon: When Mahmoud Ibrahim strolled down to the border crossing
at the northern end of his village last Thursday evening, he was expecting to
meet with some Syrian friends.
But awaiting the 40-year-old father of four instead at the border were four
Shabbiha militiamen, from the predominantly Alawite militia loyal to the regime
of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Shabbiha dashed across the border into Lebanese territory while being
covered by armed Syrian soldiers from the other side of the frontier. They used
an electric stun gun to subdue Ibrahim before dragging him back across the
border. Since then not a word has been heard from him, and his family have no
idea where he is being held.Ibrahim’s abduction comes amid an escalation of
cross-border shootings and tit-for-tat kidnappings along Lebanon’s northern
frontier connected to the violence wracking Syria.
In the past week alone, several people, including an elderly woman, have been
shot dead allegedly by Syrian soldiers firing into Lebanon; clashes have resumed
between rival factions in the perennially troubled Tripoli, leaving at least
seven people dead; and some 40 Sunni Syrians have been kidnapped in reprisal for
the abduction of three Lebanese Shiites.
Supporters of the Future Movement living in villages strung along the northern
border accuse the Lebanese government and security services of either failing to
block Syrian transgressions or actively colluding with the Syrian regime in some
of the abductions. “Any person who is wanted by the Syrians is easily picked up
because the Lebanese authorities are working with the Syrian security,” said
Ali, a 22-year-old resident of the border village of Abboudiyeh. Like others
interviewed here, Ali requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.
In response to Ibrahim’s kidnapping, the angry residents of Abboudiyeh
temporarily blocked the international road leading to Syria. “The Lebanese
authorities asked us to give them four days to secure Mahmoud’s release,” said a
close relative of Ibrahim. “We are building our hopes on that. Otherwise, we
will cut the international road and no one will come in or out of Syria. Then we
will think of the next step.”
The international highway is little more than a narrow dusty potholed lane
passing through Abboudiyeh, which sits on the southern bank of the Kabir River,
the frontier between Lebanon and Syria. The road is choked with parked trucks
waiting to cross into Syria. The Syrian customs officers are being more thorough
than usual to ensure that none of the vehicles entering Syria are carrying
weapons and ammunition for the armed opposition.
The kidnapping of Ibrahim is not the first such security incident in Abboudiyeh,
locals say. Two weeks ago, Adnan Mohammad, a cousin of Ibrahim, was snatched
while walking on the southern bank of the river. No news has been heard about
him. Five days ago, Shabbiha militiamen crossed the border again and opened fire
on a house belonging to Saleh Mansour. “The Syrians tried luring him to the
border crossing like they did Mahmoud, but Saleh didn’t fall for the trick,”
said Ibrahim’s relative. What remains unclear is why the Syrians would want to
kidnap anyone from Abboudiyeh. The residents claimed that the village was well
known for supporting the Syrian opposition, and that made them potential targets
for the Syrian regime. “We are all targets here. Mahmoud in particular was known
for bad-mouthing Assad,” said Haitham, 24, who was sitting in a barber shop with
some friends.
The Syrian authorities have accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding and arming
the Free Syrian Army, the main military opposition force in Syria. Two weeks
ago, the Lebanese Navy intercepted a ship carrying 150 tons of weapons,
including U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles. The ship, which had sailed from
Libya, was due to dock in Tripoli from where the arms apparently were to be
smuggled into Syria. Smuggling has been a way of life for decades in these
northern border villages, but if any residents are involved in dispatching
weapons to the Syrian opposition, no one was going to admit to it.
Tuesday marks the deadline set by the residents of Abboudiyeh for the government
to arrange for Ibrahim’s release. The villagers say they are ready to escalate
the situation if necessary. One man hinted that Alawites in neighboring villages
could be abducted if Ibrahim is not released. “If the government does nothing,
we will cut the road, get weapons and protect ourselves. We will not allow the
Syrians to cross when they want and take people away,” said Haitham.
Saudi Arabia:
U.N.-backed peace plan in Syria unraveling
May 15, 2012/Agencies
UN observers inspecting a burnt car which was targeted in Deir Ezzor in a
shooting attack in which a local tribal leader identified as Sheikh Abdelaziz
Rashid al-Hafal was killed. (AFP PHOTO/ TOPSHOTS/ HO/ SANA)
DAMASCUS/AMMAN/CAIRO: Fighting in Syria killed at least 32 people Monday,
activists said, and Saudi Arabia said stubborn violence was shredding the
credibility of a U.N.-Arab League peace plan stipulating a truce and dialogue
between President Bashar Assad and his foes.
Away from the battlegrounds, efforts to find a viable political alternative to
Assad’s rule faltered when an exiled umbrella opposition group said it would
boycott Arab-brokered talks to unite its splintered ranks. The latest bloodshed
centered in Rastan, where opposition sources said rebels killed 23 members of
Assad’s security forces in fighting while heavy government shelling of the town
killed nine people – further unraveling an April 12 cease-fire deal that is
being overseen by international monitors.
Rastan, 180 km north of Damascus, has slipped in and out of government control
during a 14-month-old uprising in which peaceful protest has given way to a
sectarian-tinged insurgency that answers Assad’s violent bid to crush unrest.
“Shells and rockets have been hitting the town since 3 a.m. (midnight GMT) at a
rate of one a minute. Rastan has been destroyed,” a member of the rebel Free
Syrian Army in Rastan who declined to be named told Reuters by satellite phone.
He said that among those killed was Ahmad Ayoub, an FSA commander whose fighters
were battling army forces he said were comprised of elite units and Military
Intelligence members.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels destroyed
three armored personnel carriers and seized two others, capturing around 15
soldiers.
Syria’s state news agency said “terrorists” assassinated a military officer in
Damascus and an intelligence officer in Deraa, where the uprising against Assad
first took shape.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who has previously called for arming the
rebels, said Monday that special U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan
was losing meaning as bloodshed was raging on. “Confidence in the efforts of the
envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League has started to decrease
quickly,” he told a news conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
SANA, the Syrian official news agency, also said Abdelaziz al-Hafl, a pro-Assad
tribal notable in the oil-producing province of Deir al-Zour, was slain Monday
along with his son.
Opposition sources said Hafl was the 17th prominent Assad supporter killed in
the eastern province in recent months.
A member of Hafl’s tribe said he had been repeatedly warned by insurgents to
stop cooperating with the secret police, “but he did not heed the warnings and
was bumped off today.”
There was no independent confirmation of any of the reports of fighting and
killing from inside Syria, which has severely limited media access over the
course of the uprising.
Meanwhile, the Arab League has postponed a Syrian opposition meeting it was due
to host in Cairo this week in response to a request from Syrian opposition
groups, the League said in a statement Monday.
The meeting had been scheduled to take place Wednesday and Thursday. The
statement from the Arab League said the postponement had been at the request of
the Syrian National Council and the National Coordination Body. The SNC said
earlier it would not join Arab League-brokered talks aimed at healing its
divisions.
“The SNC will not be going to the meeting in Cairo because it [the Arab League]
has not invited the group as an official body but as individual members,” Ahmad
Ramadan told Reuters in Rome, where the group is trying to decide its
leadership. In a statement, the group rejected talks it said were aimed at
negotiations with Assad, who it said must quit power: “No negotiations can be
held properly unless their aim is the end of the dictatorship and moving the
country to democratic rule.” Political jockeying within the SNC has prevented it
from gaining full international recognition as the sole representative of the
anti-Assad movement. Executive members told Reuters they may choose a new
president or restructure the council in a bid to garner broader support.
The United States, Europe and Gulf Arab states want Assad to step down but his
ally Russia has blocked more robust action against Syria in the U.N. Security
Council while backing Annan’s peace blueprint.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov defended Russia’s weapons deliveries to
Syria in the face of Western criticism, saying government forces need to defend
themselves against rebels receiving arms from abroad. “It is very sad to see
very powerful foreign support for the opposition – both financial and military.
This foreign support only emboldens the diehard opposition, prompting them to
continue their terrorist activity,” he said. Gatilov also blamed last week’s
deadly Damascus bombings on Islamist extremists. “For us it is absolutely clear
that terrorist groups are behind this – Al-Qaeda and those groups that work with
Al-Qaeda,” he told reporters. The twin suicide blasts in Damascus last Thursday
killed 55 people and wounded 372. In Brussels, the European Union said in a
statement that it had extended sanctions against Syria, freezing the assets of
two firms it said gave financial support to Assad’s government, and imposing
travel bans on three people.
Canada Concerned by Spillovers of Syrian Violence
May 14, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following
statement:
“Canada is deeply concerned that the Assad regime’s continued campaign of
violence is aggravating an already acute refugee crisis across Syria’s borders.
“This is the latest tragic consequence of the Assad regime’s brutal repression
of its own people, as pro- and anti-Assad factions in places like Tripoli,
Lebanon, are now resorting to violence.
“We urge those who live on Syria’s borders to reject violence and not allow the
conflict in Syria to spill over.
“Canada continues to call on all parties in Syria to end the violence and to
respect the UN-monitored ceasefire.”
Canada has committed up to $7.5 million in humanitarian assistance in response
to the crisis in Syria, of which $1 million has been provided to the UN refugee
agency to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.Canada continues to work with the international community to pursue all
diplomatic measures to resolve this crisis.
Dennis Ross: Iran must 'stop
clock' to show its serious
By HILARY LEILA KREIGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT 05/15/2012 03:45 Former Obama
adviser says Iran would need to ship-out large amounts of enriched uranium, even
below 20% level, no military solution; Bush adviser credits PM, DM for momentum.
WASHINGTON – A former White House Iran adviser said Monday that for Tehran to
prove its seriousness in new talks over its nuclear program, it must take a step
that “stops the clock” on its uranium enrichment.
Dennis Ross, who served as a senior adviser on Iran until late last year, said
that Iran would need to agree to steps such as a “significant ship-out” of its
piles of enriched uranium. He specified that it must include not only the
currently discussed 20 percent enriched uranium, but also significant amounts of
its stockpile of low-enriched uranium as well.
He stressed, though, that he didn’t expect a breakthrough at the next round of
talks on May 23 in Baghdad, adding, “I don’t think we should set ourselves up
for that being
the standard.”
But Ross, who was part of panel
addressing Iran at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that talks needed to be
held regularly and frequently if they were expected to make progress.
“This is not a serious process if it meets once a month,” he said.
Still, Ross said that it was important the US make a credible offer to Iran so
that any failure in talks and subsequent use of force would be blamed on Tehran,
and not the West.
“There is no military solution,” Ross said, arguing that even in the case of an
attack, the Iranian nuclear program would be set back but not ended, so the
United States would need to still be in a position to rally an international
regime to maintain sanctions and other measures to keep Iran from quickly
rebuilding.
He predicted that in the short term, Iran was looking to divide the P5+1, the
group of six world powers now handling negotiations with Iran comprised of the
United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China.
A top Bush administration official also participating in the panel Monday warned
that recent political developments could make maintaining the international
resolve on Iran harder.
Nicholas Burns, who served as an under secretary in the State Department during
the Bush administration, said the new French president might have a different
mindset than his predecessor.
“I doubt that President François Hollande can be as tough-minded as Nicolas
Sarkozy was, and he was the steel in the P5+1,” Burns assessed.
Burns also said that that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister
Ehud Barak deserve credit from the international community for making the threat
of a military attack credible – a threat which was key to building momentum for
sanctions and diplomatic efforts.
At the same time, he contended that any military action should be undertaken by
the US, calling an early Israeli strike “unwise.”
“The United States has greater military capacity, and the United States can
exercise a combination of diplomacy and the threat of force I think more
skillfully and more credibly than anybody else,” he said.
“I think it would be better for Israel and Israel’s long-term security
interests.”
IAEA urges Iran to grant access to military site as Vienna talks begin over
Islamic Republic's nuclear program
Senior official from UN nuclear watchdog says aim of two-day meeting is to reach
agreement with Iran on approach to resolving issues about disputed atomic
activities.
By Reuters/Haaretz/ | May.14, 2012
A senior UN nuclear watchdog official said Iran needed to give his inspectors
access to information, people and sites as he began a two-day meeting with
Iranian officials on the Islamic state's disputed atomic activities on Monday.
Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), told reporters as he arrived at an Iranian diplomatic mission in
Vienna that Iran should now engage on issues of substance with the UN agency,
which is investigating suspicions that Tehran may be seeking nuclear weapons
capability.
"The aim of our two days is to reach agreement on (an) approach to resolve all
outstanding issues with Iran, in particular clarification of the possible
military dimensions remains our priority," Nackaerts said.
On Sunday, an image was revealed by The Associated Press which was said to come
from inside an Iranian military site and shows an explosive containment chamber
of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that UN inspectors suspect
Tehran has conducted at the site. Iran denies such testing and has neither
confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber.
The image was provided by an official of a country tracking Iran's nuclear
program who said the drawing proves the structure exists, despite Tehran's
refusal to acknowledge it.
The official said he could not discuss the drawing's origins beyond that it was
based on information from a person who had seen the chamber at the Parchin
military site, adding that going into detail would endanger the life of that
informant.
After months of being rebuffed, IAEA and Iranian officials meet starting Monday
in Vienna, and the IAEA will renew its attempt to gain access to the chamber,
allegedly hidden in a building. Any evidence that Iran is hiding such an
explosives containment tank, and details on how it functions, is significant for
IAEA investigations.
Beyond IAEA hopes of progress, that two-day meeting is being closely watched by
six powers trying to persuade Iran to make nuclear concessions aimed at reducing
fears that it may want to develop atomic arms as a mood-setter for May 23 talks
between the six and Tehran in Baghdad.
Warnings by Israel that it may attack Iran's nuclear facilities eased after Iran
and the six - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -
met last month and agreed there was enough common will for the Baghdad round.
But with the Jewish state saying it is determined to stop Iran before it
develops the capacity to build nuclear weapons, failure at the Iraq talks could
turn such threats into reality. The IAEA has been stonewalled by Iran for
more than four years in attempts to probe what it says is intelligence from
member states strongly suggesting that Iran secretly worked on developing
nuclear weapons.
Gulf Arab Leaders Meet to Discuss Syria and Iran
Simon Henderson /Washington Insitute
May 11, 2012
The upcoming GCC meeting in Riyadh reflects concern about events in Syria, fear
of Iran, and anxieties about Washington's policies.
Normally, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab
Emirates, and Oman meet as a group only once a year, at the Gulf Cooperation
Council summit held annually in December. The May 14 talks in Riyadh are
therefore being dubbed a "consultative meeting" rather than a true summit. Yet
their importance is likely greater than the term indicates.
Arab diplomats suggest that Syria will top the agenda -- a symptom of both the
anguish that Gulf Arabs feel at the growing number of casualties and the
worsening prospects for any arranged transition to a post-Assad government, as
evidenced by yesterday's attack on one of the regime's intelligence buildings in
Damascus. In the vocabulary of Arab diplomacy, the Syria tragedy is being called
a "key regional development in the Arab world."
In addition, GCC officials have been quoted in the Saudi English-language
newspaper Arab News as saying that strained Gulf relations with Iran would also
"top the agenda" at the meeting. The Gulf states have been fearful of Iran ever
since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a sentiment only worsened by Tehran's nuclear
advances. Since the tumult of the recent Arab uprisings erupted throughout the
region, the GCC states have largely kept their own populations content by
increasing subsidies, funded by their copious oil revenues. The exceptions to
this quiescence were Oman (briefly) and Shiite-majority Bahrain, where the Sunni
monarchy blames continuing protests on Iranian mischief-making.
The impact of the Riyadh summit will be assessed on two criteria: which leaders
attend in person, and the wording of any official statement. Infirmity is one
likely reason for any absences; the desire to put diplomatic distance into any
apparent consensus will be another factor.
Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar back military support of the opposition in Syria. On
Iran, the Saudi view -- partly because of trouble from its own Shiite minority
-- is more confrontational than that of Qatar, which shares an offshore natural
gas field with Tehran. Kuwait and Oman avoid any semblance of antagonism with
Iran, while the UAE, which joined Saudi Arabia in sending forces to Bahrain last
year, has been concerned about Tehran's recent antics regarding three islands
occupied by Iranian forces since 1971. Last month, to the GCC's horror,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a high-profile visit to the main island, Abu
Musa, where sovereignty is notionally shared with UAE emirate Sharjah.
A subtext of GCC concerns about Syria and Iran is that Gulf Arab leaders believe
Washington's interest in democracy and freedom comes at the expense of the
bigger challenge, which they judge to be Iran. They are also concerned that U.S.
withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan presage a diminution or full withdrawal of
America's presence in the Gulf. There is even a widespread belief that
Washington regards Iran as its natural partner over the GCC, no matter how
irrational that prospect sounds.
In fact, working with the GCC remains a vital part of the U.S. regional mission
of protecting energy flows and, as evidenced by this week's uncovering of a new
al-Qaeda plot against airliners, combating terrorism. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton described the U.S. commitment to the Gulf nations as unwavering while
visiting the region in March. Nevertheless, the GCC apparently doubts such
pledges and has renewed talk of a closer political union between member states
in recent weeks. The group also invited the Arab monarchies of Morocco and
Jordan to join last year.
The Riyadh meeting is therefore important to watch, despite the fact that many
Arab summits are easy to dismiss as irrelevant. Washington should be concerned
that it will widen Gulf Arab differences with U.S. policy rather than emphasize
common interests. U.S. diplomats in the field could have a tough job countering
this problem at a time when GCC leaders believe Washington is becoming
distracted by the approaching presidential election.
**Simon Henderson is the Baker fellow and director of the Gulf and Energy Policy
Program at The Washington Institute.