Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 07/12
Netanyahu Congratulates Obama, Says Alliance Stronger than Ever
Maronite Bishops Call for Dialogue, Say Cabinet Issue Should be Resolved within Constitutional Framework
Egyptian FM Hails Suleiman's Efforts to Safeguard Stability
Romney Concedes Defeat, Prays Success for Obama in Guiding Nation
Obama makes history, re-elected as president
Pope Envoy Meets Suleiman as Benedict Scraps Planned Vatican Mission to Syria
March 14 Lauds Suleiman's 'Sovereign' Stands: Lebanon in Need of New Govt., Not Dialogue
Israel warns Damascus against Syrian Golan overflights
Strike on Sudan arms factory points to Iran threat to Israel
Bahrain arrests bombing suspects and blames Hezbollah
4 bomb blasts hit Bahraini capital, two killed
Aoun says Hassan responsible for his own death
Egyptian FM: No foreign solution for Lebanon crisis
Jumblatt wants dialogue for new cabinet
LF backs dialogue to change Lebanon cabinet
Aarsal’s deputy mayor blames Syrian regime for Monday’s attack
Lebanese speaker: Answer to Lebanon’s crisis is from within
LDP leader waves off possibility of “neutral” government in Lebanon
Future bloc says Hezbollah trying to turn attention from Hassan killing
Lebanese PM says country’s people forgiving, accepting
Aoun: Miqati's Cabinet in Power 'Until Further Notice'
PSP, Hizbullah Agree to Activate Govt. Work, Meet Periodically
Miqati from Hungary: I Am Keen on Preventing Anything that May Cause Chaos in Lebanon
Al-Mustaqbal MP Hobeish, his Father Receive Death Threats
West wants UN envoy to propose Syria action
Seven Syrian generals defect to Turkey
Russian FM says Syria rebels have 50 Stingers
UN has “credible” evidence Syria army using cluster bombs
UN condemns “grave” Syria war spillover into Golan
Kuwait must choose between law and chaos, emir says
Egypt backs Sleiman’s calls to end political crisis
Israel slams Turkey over flotilla 'show trial'
US: Qatar, UAE request $7.6 billion in missile defense
British PM says would agree safe exit for Syria's Assad

Barack Obama wins election for second term as president
By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News
National Affairs Reporter
President Barack Obama handily defeated Gov. Mitt Romney and won himself a second term Tuesday after a bitter and historically expensive race that was primarily fought in just a handful of battleground states. Networks project that Obama beat Romney after nabbing the crucial state of Ohio.
The Romney campaign's last-ditch attempt to put blue-leaning Midwestern swing states in play failed as Obama's Midwestern firewall sent the president back to the White House for four more years. Obama picked up the swing states of New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Ohio. Florida and Virginia are still too close to call, but even if he won them, they would not give Romney enough Electoral College votes to put him over the top. The popular vote will most likely be much narrower than the president's Electoral College victory.
The Obama victory marks an end to a years-long campaign that saw historic advertisement spending levels, countless rallies and speeches, and three much-watched debates.
The Romney campaign cast the election as a referendum on Obama's economic policies, frequently comparing him to former President Jimmy Carter and asking voters the Reagan-esque question of whether they are better off than they were four years ago. But the Obama campaign pushed back on the referendum framing, blanketing key states such as Ohio early on with ads painting him as a multimillionaire more concerned with profits than people. The Obama campaign also aggressively attacked Romney on reproductive rights issues, tying Romney to a handful of Republican candidates who made controversial comments about rape and abortion.
These ads were one reason Romney faced a steep likeability problem for most of the race, until his expert performance at the first presidential debate in Denver in October. After that debate, and a near universal panning of Obama's performance, Romney caught up with Obama in national polls, and almost closed his favoribility gap with the president. In polls, voters consistently gave him an edge over Obama on who would handle the economy better and create more jobs, even as they rated Obama higher on caring about the middle class.
But the president's Midwestern firewall--and the campaign's impressive grassroots operation--carried him through. Ohio tends to vote a bit more Republican than the nation as a whole, but Obama was able to stave off that trend and hold an edge there over Romney, perhaps due to the president's support of the auto bailout three years ago. Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan all but moved to Ohio in the last weeks of the campaign, trying and ultimately failing to erase Obama's lead there.
A shrinking electoral battleground this year meant that only 14 states were really seen as in play, and both candidates spent most of their time and money there. Though national polls showed the two candidates in a dead heat, Obama consistently held a lead in the states that mattered. That, and his campaign's much-touted get out the vote efforts and overall ground game, may be what pushed Obama over the finish line.
Now, Obama heads back to office facing what will most likely be bitterly partisan negotiations over whether the Bush tax cuts should expire. The House will still be majority Republican, with Democrats maintaining their majority in the Senate.
The loss may provoke some soul searching in the Republican Party. This election was seen as a prime opportunity to unseat Obama, as polls showed Americans were unhappy with a sluggish economy, sky-high unemployment, and a health care reform bill that remained widely unpopular. Romney took hardline positions on immigration, federal spending, and taxes during the long Republican primary when he faced multiple challenges from the right. He later shifted to the center in tone on many of those issues, but it's possible the primary painted him into a too-conservative corner to appeal to moderates during the general election. The candidate also at times seemed unable to effectively counter Democratic attacks on his business experience and personal wealth.

Future bloc says Hezbollah trying to turn attention from Hassan killing
November 6, 2012 /Lebanon’s opposition Future bloc accused Hezbollah figures of attempting to divert attention away from the deadly October 19 car bombing that rocked Beirut’s Ashrafieh neighborhood. “[The statements of Hezbollah MPs] that objecting to the party’s weapons goes against the Taif Accord are a clear violation of the accord [itself] and the National Charter and aim at turning attention away from [Internal Security Forces intelligence chief] Wissam al-Hassan’s assassination,” the Future Bloc said Tuesday in a statement following their weekly meeting.
The Future bloc also warned of the threat of renewed assassinations, adding that the car of Future bloc MP Hadi Hobeish’s father was intercepted by five armed men who told the driver to warn the MP’s father to “be careful” because he and his son would be soon targeted. A number of Future bloc MPs in recent weeks have said they received threats, including by SMS, warning them they could be assassinated. The March 14 alliance party also slammed the government for “disregarding” economic problems and reiterated its calls for forming a new impartial government.
The party praised French President Francois Hollande’s Sunday visit to Beirut “in spite of it being brief” and said the European leader’s position on respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty and freedom was important. The statement added that “[the Future bloc rejects] the attack on the ISF checkpoint in Aarsal and demands that the perpetrators be arrested and appropriate measures be taken against them.”
A border clash on November 1 between security forces and armed Syrian men crossing illegally into Lebanon on Thursday left one dead and at least 10 injured at an ISF checkpoint in Aarsal.
-NOW Lebanon

Romney Concedes Defeat, Prays Success for Obama in Guiding Nation
Naharnet/Republican challenger Mitt Romney conceded defeat in the U.S. election early Wednesday, telling supporters that he had called President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his victory.
"His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations," he said, in a brief address at his election watch party in Boston.
"I wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters."
It was a quick, underwhelming end to an 18-month campaign that began on a farm in New Hampshire, survived brutal Republican infighting during the party primaries early this year and a barrage of negative attack ads by the Obama camp, and rose to give the incumbent a serious scare weeks before the election.
Romney was neck-and-neck with the president for a considerable part of the campaign, but despite repeated trips to swing states like Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa, Obama held on to leads in the battlegrounds, which eventually became the challenger's undoing.
As of 1:20 am Wednesday, Obama won 303 electoral votes, compared to 203 for Romney, with only Alaska and the key battleground of Florida outstanding.
"This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation," Romney said, to modest cheers and applause.
Several members of Romney's senior staff stood next to the stage, many stone-faced and somber, as the Republican nominee addressed his supporters.
Romney returned to a theme that he began injecting into his stump speeches in the closing two weeks of the campaign: the need for greater bipartisanship in Washington.
"At a time like this, we can't risk partisan bickering and posturing," he said.
"Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens have to rise to the occasion."
Romney also thanked his wife Ann, his tireless surrogate on the campaign trail whom he called "the love of my life."
"She would have been a wonderful first lady," he mused, to loud applause.
Romney's comments were brief and basic, and it was not immediately clear if he had written a concession speech.
Earlier in the day, when asked by reporters on his campaign plane whether he had two speeches ready to go for Tuesday night, he said he was confident of defeating Obama and had penned an 1,118-word victory speech.Agence France Presse

Netanyahu Congratulates Obama, Says Alliance Stronger than Ever
Naharnet /Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on his re-election, saying ties between their two countries were "stronger than ever."
"The prime minister congratulates the president of the United States for his victory in the election," Netanyahu said in a statement. "The strategic alliance between Israel and the United States is stronger than ever.""I will continue to work with President Obama to ensure the vital security interests of Israel and the United States," Netanyahu added. Relations between Obama and Netanyahu have at times been tense, with the Israeli leader appearing to throw his support behind Obama's Republican opponent Mitt Romney during the election campaign. But in recent weeks, as Obama's re-election looked increasingly likely, Israeli officials stressed that a second term for the U.S. president would not mean a deterioration in bilateral ties. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak also offered Obama his congratulations, saying he expected the U.S. president to continue to offer Israel strong support. "I have no doubt that the Obama administration will continue its policy whereby Israel's security is at its very foundations, as well as its efforts to tackle the challenges facing all of us in the region," he said in a statement."I believe that in the tradition of deep friendship and with a backdrop of shared experiences accrued with President Obama, it will also be possible to overcome any differences in stance, should they arise."Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom offered a similar assessment."All the U.S. administrations have supported Israel on the political, security and economic fronts because we have common interests and values," he told public radio."Barack Obama has been with us during the most sensitive moments," he added. "Those who say that it will be hard and that there will be a confrontation during the second Obama term are wrong."Agence France Presse

Egyptian FM Hails Suleiman's Efforts to Safeguard Stability
Naharnet /Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr praised on Wednesday efforts exerted by President Michel Suleiman to maintain stability in Lebanon. Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) reported that the two officials discussed during a meeting at the Baabda Palace the bilateral ties and the regional situation. Amr also held talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.He described the meeting as "fruitful."The Egyptian FM stressed earlier after a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart FM Adnan Mansour at Bustros Palace that the timeline of his meetings with Lebanese officials doesn't hold any political indications. “I haven't met so far with any Hizbullah official,” Amr told reporters. The FM arrived on Tuesday in Beirut for a two-day visit, where he kicked off his meetings by holding talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab. He also met with Speaker Nabih Berri, Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel and al-Mustaqbla parliamentary bloc head MP Fouad Saniora.
“I conveyed a message from President Mohammed Moursi that our country supports Lebanon and is ready for a role that would be accepted by all the Lebanese,” he said. Amr pointed out that Egypt in the era of Morsi “will be better” than it was under the governess of Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Maronite Bishops Call for Dialogue, Say Cabinet Issue Should be Resolved within Constitutional Framework
Naharnet /Maronite Bishops urged on Wednesday Lebanese politicians to cooperate with President Michel Suleiman's call for dialogue, saying the cabinet issue should be resolved within the constitutional framework. Following their monthly meeting under Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and with the partial attendance of papal envoy Cardinal Robert Sarah, the bishops urged “all politicians to abide by the Baabda Declaration and mainly the article that calls for steering Lebanon clear of conflicts.”“The crisis in the country over mainly the cabinet issue cannot be solved outside the national constitutional principles,” the council of Maronite bishops said in its statement. The Lebanese should “hold onto national unity and legitimate institutions,” it said, urging them not to jump into an unknown that would let the country face a mysterious fate.” The March 14 opposition has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet and the formation of a new salvation government following the Oct. 19 assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan. The coalition has also refused to sit at the national dialogue table with Hizbullah despite insistence by President Michel Suleiman to resolve the deepened rift at the all-party talks at Baabda palace. In their statement, the bishops condemned al-Hasan's assassination and called on the state to speed up the payment of compensations to the families whose homes and property were damaged in the car bomb blast that killed al-Hasan and two others, including his bodyguard.
The council also called for holding the 2013 parliamentary elections through a new law that guarantees the best representation of all factions.
It congratulated al-Rahi on his appointment as cardinal and welcomed Sarah, who has been tasked by Pope Benedict XVI with visiting Lebanon “to express his compassion with the Syrian people and its suffering.” Benedict called for peace in Syria on Wednesday but admitted that a planned visit by a Vatican delegation to the conflict-torn country would not go ahead because of conditions in Syria.

Circumstances in Syria "have not rendered possible" the visit, the pope said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, adding that he had dispatched Sarah to Lebanon to discuss the crisis.

British PM says would agree safe exit for Syria's Assad
November 6, 2012 /AFP/British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would support granting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a safe passage out, if requested, to end the nation's bloodshed, in an interview to be aired Tuesday. Asked what he would say if Assad asked for a safe exit, Cameron told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television: "Done. Anything, anything to get that man out of the country and to have a safe transition in Syria." "Of course, I would favor him facing the full force of international law and justice for what he's done," he said, according to a transcript of the interview made available to the press. "I am certainly not offering him an exit plan to Britain but if wants to leave, he could leave, that could be arranged," he added. Cameron who is on a tour of the Middle East, arrived Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after concluding a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates. "I am very frustrated that we can't do more," Cameron said. "This is an appalling slaughter that is taking place in our world today—40,000 lives lost already and you can see, on your television screens, night after night, helicopters, airplanes belonging to the Assad regime pounding his own country and murdering his own people," he said.

Aoun says Hassan responsible for his own death
November 6, 2012 /The leader of Lebanon’s Change and Reform bloc said that Internal Security Forces Information Branch chief Wissam al-Hassan was responsible for his assassination.
“Hassan is responsible for his assassination, because he took security measures that only he knew about,” MP Michel Aoun said in a press conference following his bloc’s weekly meeting.
Aoun also lambasted the March 14 coalition for boycotting the cabinet and the dialogue sessions following Hassan’s assassination, and accused them of “paralyzing the country.”
“They say that Lebanon is in danger, but in fact the situation in Lebanon is not worse than that in France… they should [stop] they boycott, otherwise, they will bear responsibility if the parliament does not agree on an electoral law,” he said. Following the deadly blast that targeted Hassan in Beirut’s Ashrafieh on October 19, the pro-Western March 14 coalition announced that it was cutting all ties with the government of Prime Minister Najib Miqati. Aoun also revealed that he filed a lawsuit against several media outlets over reports regarding the assassination attempt that targeted him.
In September, Aoun said an assassination bid had been made against him after local media reported his convoy came under fire in the southern city of Sidon while returning from a tour in Jezzine.
Aoun said he sued Future TV, LBC and MTV as well as local newspapers such as An-Nahar, Ad-Diyar, Al-Mustaqbal and Al-Liwaa for publishing security reports denying that his convoy came under fire. He also said he sued the Lebanese Forces website.-NOW Lebanon

PSP, Hizbullah Agree to Activate Govt. Work, Meet Periodically
Naharnet/A meeting was held Monday night between officials from the Progressive Socialist Party and Hizbullah at the residence of Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi, during which the conferees agreed to “activate the government's work,” Hizbullah's al-Manar television reported. The talks relaunched the "coordination meetings" between the two parties and "the conferees will meet again regardless of the circumstances," said al-Manar. The four-hour meeting was attended on Hizbullah's side by State Minister Mohammed Fneish, Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, MP Hasan Fadlallah and security apparatus chief Wafiq Safa, according to the TV network. Aridi, Displaced Persons Minister Alaeddine Terro and MP Akram Shehayyeb represented the PSP.
The meeting tackled the "bilateral ties" between the two parties and stressed the importance of "self-dissociation" towards the Syrian crisis, al-Manar reported.
The two sides also agreed on the need to “tone down the political rhetoric and deal rationally” with the developments.
“We agreed on certain things and disagreed on other things, but we stressed the need to refrain from interfering in the Syrian crisis,” Aridi told al-Manar.
“We discussed the threats of sectarian strife and stressed the need to prevent it,” he added. According to the minister, the two parties also discussed “the issue of the government, the economy, the living conditions, combating corruption and theft and activating the administration.”

Bahrain arrests bombing suspects and blames Hezbollah
(Reuters) - Bahrain said it had arrested four suspects on Tuesday in the bombings that killed two people in the capital Manama and accused the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of being behind the attacks.
Public Security Chief Major-General Tariq Al Hassan said in a statement published by the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) the suspects were detained after prosecutors issued arrest warrants and police were hunting for other killers.
The five home-made bombs on Monday bore the hallmarks of Hezbollah, the Shi'ite group allied with Iran, authorities said.
"Their terrorist practices prove that they have been trained outside the kingdom," BNA said. "The hallmarks of Hezbollah are crystal clear."
The Sunni Muslim-dominated, U.S.-aligned Bahrain government has been struggling since early last year to suppress pro-democracy unrest led mainly by the Gulf Arab kingdom's majority Shi'ite Muslims.
BNA quoted Information Minister Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab as saying the bombings were staged by terrorist groups trained outside Bahrain and based in countries including Lebanon.
She said the groups were operating under principles set by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and that 19 pro-Iran satellite media channels were inciting their supporters in Bahrain to subvert the government.
The blasts in the capital Manama on Monday killed two street cleaners and wounded another, according to state media.
Some opposition activists have suggested the attacks, which came a few days after the government banned opposition gatherings with the stated goal of ensuring public safety, could have been the work of forces trying to justify the clampdown.
The government has repeatedly accused Shi'ite Iran of fomenting the turmoil, a charge the Islamic Republic denies. Hezbollah denies involvement in the Bahrain protests, but has criticized the government's handling of them.
Bahraini police say they have been the target of numerous attacks with homemade bombs since April, including one that killed a policeman last month.
The U.N. Secretary-General's spokesman Martin Nesirky said in an e-mailed statement the U.N. condemned the bombings in Bahrain and that such violent acts could not be justified by any cause.
"We call on all concerned to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from any provocations. We urge all Bahrainis to come together in a spirit of national unity and to resolve differences peacefully through dialogue and reconciliation."
(Reporting by Mirna Sleiman; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Andrew Roche)

4 bomb blasts hit Bahraini capital, two killed
By Andrew Hammond
DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Five bombs exploded in the heart of the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday, killing two Asian street cleaners, officials said, and prompting mutual accusations from activists and a government trying to put down a mostly Shi'ite pro-democracy uprising.
The Interior Ministry said the bombs were homemade and described the blasts as "terrorist acts" - its term for violence by opposition activists.
But an opposition politician and a rights activist said the attacks, which came days after the government said it had banned all rallies and opposition gatherings to ensure public safety, could have been the work of government forces trying to justify the ban or a further crackdown.
Injuries to protesters or police are relatively common in the 21-month-old uprising, but attacks on the public have been rare on the Gulf island, where the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a majority Shi'ite population.
The explosions took place between 4:30 and 9:30 a.m. (0130-0630 GMT) in the Qudaibiya and Adliya districts of Manama, the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said, citing a police official. It described the explosives as "locally made bombs" and said a third Asian worker had been wounded.
One of the attacks took place outside a cinema, where one of the street cleaners died when he kicked a package that blew up. A witness said that blast caused little material damage, suggesting it had not been large.
ATTACKS ON POLICE
Police say they have been the target of numerous attacks with homemade bombs since April, including one that killed a policeman last month, as the government has stepped up efforts to quell an uprising that has crippled the economy.
The United States condemned the attack and called for all sides to enter into a dialogue without pre-conditions to resolve the tension.
"We remain deeply concerned about the rise of tensions in Bahrain... all of this just undercuts the process of national reconciliation that we have strongly been urging on Bahrainis of all stripes for many, many months," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.
Opposition politician Matar Matar of the Shi'ite party Wefaq said he doubted that opposition activists were behind Monday's attacks, noting that leading Shi'ite clerics had called on followers to avoid escalating the conflict with the government.
He suggested the police or military might have been responsible, or a rogue unit.
"This incident is strange - why would anyone target workers?" he said. "I'm worried that police and military are losing control of their units or it is (preparation) before declaring martial law."
Maryam al-Khawaja, acting head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said: "As always, we condemn violence but, given the Bahraini authorities' background in spreading disinformation, we call for an independent investigation into the deaths of the two migrant workers."
Khawaja, who is based in Denmark, said the attacks were "not grounds to start a campaign of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests, and torture, as we've see happen before".
Amnesty International called for an independent investigation into the attacks. "...those responsible (must be) brought to justice in proceedings that comply with internationally recognised standards for fair trial and with no possibility of the death penalty," a statement said.
REGIONAL RIVALRY
Shi'ites complain of discrimination in the electoral system, jobs, housing and education, and say they are mistreated by government departments, the police and the army. Government promises of action to address their concerns have come to nothing, they say. The authorities deny this.
Washington has urged Bahrain to begin dialogue on democratic reforms with the opposition. But its criticism has been offset by its support for a country that plays a key role in U.S. efforts to challenge Iranian influence in the region and hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols oil-shipping lanes.
Bahrain has become caught up in regional rivalry between Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia - which helped Bahrain to crush mass protests last year - and Shi'ite power Iran, which champions the cause of Bahrain's Shi'ite opposition but denies accusations of fomenting the unrest.
Thirty-five people were killed in Bahrain during protests in February and March 2011 and the two months of martial law that followed. While mass protests in central Manama have been stamped out, there are still clashes between protesters and riot police almost every day in Shi'ite districts.
Activists and rights groups say nearly 50 civilians have been killed in the turmoil since the end of martial law, while the authorities say two policemen have died. (Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Strike on Sudan arms factory points to Iran threat to Israel
Washington Times/Emad Altohamy, Sudan’s top diplomat in Washington, said there was plenty of evidence, including parts of the missiles that hit the site, to prove that Israel bombed the arms factory.
“We consider this as a terrorist act,” Mr. Altohamy said.
“Israel should be held accountable for violation of sovereignty and for provoking international law,” he added. “This is not the first time Israel committed such an aggression, but the third time.”
Israel has struck before
The former U.S. official said Israel has bombed targets inside Sudan at least six times in the past two years. It has struck Sudanese ships, as well as smuggling routes in the vast desert in Sudan’s north.
“They have done it without a lot of public outcry, without any accounting,” he said. “Israel has really done this very much under the radar.”
Mr. Altohamy insisted that Sudan’s relationship with Iran is “very natural” and not directed against any other nation.
Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, is skeptical.
“Most of the terrorist activity that we are now faced with in the world really came out of Sudan,” said Mr. Wolf, a longtime critic of Sudan’s president, Lt. Gen. Omar Bashir.
“I would never trust Bashir,” he said.
Gen. Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in the western province of Darfur.
Sudan’s relationship with Iran goes back more than two decades to a coup in 1989 that brought Gen. Bashir to power. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard supplied weapons to Gen. Bashir.
Iran has been one of Sudan’s few “stalwart friends,” said Jon Temin, director of the Sudan and South Sudan program at the United States Institute of Peace.
Andrew Natsios, a former U.S. special envoy to Sudan, said, “Iran’s closest ally is not Syria or Russia, but Sudan.”
Predominantly Sunni Muslim Sudan and Shiite Muslim Iran make for strange bedfellows.
But Sudan has forged an enduring alliance with Iran based on a shared Islamist ideology, said Mr. Natsios, an executive professor at the George H.W. Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University.
The U.S. administration is uneasy about the relationship.
“[Sudan has] cooperation with the government of Iran in areas that are benign and areas that concern us,” the former U.S. official said.
In the early 1990s, Sudan served as a base for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorist groups.
In 1993, the United States designated Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposed crippling sanctions.
President Obama on Thursday extended by a year a national emergency with respect to Sudan, which was first declared by the Clinton administration in 1997. The “actions and policies of the government of Sudan continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Mr. Obama said.
International sanctions on Gen. Bashir’s regime have isolated Sudan and forced it to deal with rogue states, the former U.S. official said.
“In many ways, by isolating the government of Khartoum, we have pushed them into dealings with the Iranians because they are not able to transact business in normal markets, especially for defense-sector-related activities,” he said.
Bin Laden connection
Osama bin Laden arrived in Sudan at the invitation of Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi. The al Qaeda leader cemented the alliance by marrying Mr. al-Turabi’s niece.
“Hassan al-Turabi is revered among the ayatollahs [of Iran],” Mr. Natsios said. “They signed a secret agreement between the intelligence services of both countries to cooperate, there are Iranian munition factories around Khartoum, and they signed a treaty many years ago to allow unlimited access of the Iranian navy to Port Sudan.”
The terms of the defense agreement between Sudan and Iran are “quite opaque,” said Jonah Leff, project coordinator for the Small Arms Survey’s Sudan/South Sudan Project.
Small Arms Survey, an independent research project at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, has documented Iranian weapons used by Sudan’s military in the southern border state of South Kordofan and in Darfur. These have included small-arms ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortar bombs and two drones.
“Iran has provided support to Sudan’s weapons manufacturing sector, including training and technological support,” Mr. Leff said.
Part of this training is provided by Iran’s notorious Quds Force, a special military unit tasked with exporting the Iranian revolution.
Difficult position
Sudan, however, is not comfortable with the relationship it has with Iran, the former U.S. official said.
“Our sense has always been that they would prefer to have training, cooperation and assistance from more reputable partners, but they don’t have that luxury,” he said.
The Sudanese are in a difficult position. While Iran could be fomenting extremism within Sudan, it also is providing Sudan with intelligence training that could be used to combat that extremism, the former U.S. official said.
“Iran is looking to continue to wage its battle against Israel and assist proxies throughout the region to achieve its larger objective,” he said. “What Sudan represents is an ability for Iran to project power and influence outside its traditional sphere of influence
Future bloc says Hezbollah trying to turn attention from Hassan killing
November 6, 2012
Lebanon’s opposition Future bloc accused Hezbollah figures of attempting to divert attention away from the deadly October 19 car bombing that rocked Beirut’s Ashrafieh neighborhood.
“[The statements of Hezbollah MPs] that objecting to the party’s weapons goes against the Taif Accord are a clear violation of the accord [itself] and the National Charter and aim at turning attention away from [Internal Security Forces intelligence chief] Wissam al-Hassan’s assassination,” the Future Bloc said Tuesday in a statement following their weekly meeting.
The Future bloc also warned of the threat of renewed assassinations, adding that the car of Future bloc MP Hadi Hobeish’s father was intercepted by five armed men who told the driver to warn the MP’s father to “be careful” because he and his son would be soon targeted.
A number of Future bloc MPs in recent weeks have said they received threats, including by SMS, warning them they could be assassinated.
The March 14 alliance party also slammed the government for “disregarding” economic problems and reiterated its calls for forming a new impartial government.
The party praised French President Francois Hollande’s Sunday visit to Beirut “in spite of it being brief” and said the European leader’s position on respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty and freedom was important.
The statement added that “[the Future bloc rejects] the attack on the ISF checkpoint in Aarsal and demands that the perpetrators be arrested and appropriate measures be taken against them.”
A border clash on November 1 between security forces and armed Syrian men crossing illegally into Lebanon on Thursday left one dead and at least 10 injured at an ISF checkpoint in Aarsal.
-NOW Lebanon


The Cedar Retribution: The Long Struggle for the Levant, from Hariri to Hassan
http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2012/11/the-cedar-retribution-the-long-struggle-for-the-levant-from-hariri-to-hassan-.html
Washington Arsenal
By Anthony Elghossain, an attorney at a global law firm based in Washington, D.C. He blogs at Page Lebanon.
On October 19, a bomb tore through Achrafieh, a predominantly Christian neighborhood and upscale gathering place in Beirut. Initially, many Lebanese believed the bomb was a scare tactic or a senseless consequence of a long-anticipated Syrian “spillover.” But investigators soon announced that Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan was among the dead. He’d been the target; Achrafieh was merely the price.
And then Lebanon exploded. Angry youths took to the streets. At Hassan’s funeral in downtown Beirut, ardent members of the March 14 coalition attempted a quixotic coup. Meanwhile, armed bands performed another of their almost ritual bloodlettings. Although the state has since quelled major fighting, Beirut and other flashpoints across the country remain tense.
The assassination wasn’t surprising. Hassan’s relationships, politics, communal affiliation, and security endeavors made him a prime target. A Sunni with close ties to the Hariri family, Hassan headed the Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) information branch. While transforming the information branch into an effective operation, Hassan cooperated with the U.S., France, and Arab states in Lebanon and beyond.
Of course, immediate causes are evident. Hassan had recently uncovered an alleged Syrian plot to destabilize Lebanon. Furthermore, in recent months, Hassan had reportedly joined international efforts—not all of them public—to bolster Syrian rebels.
But this killing means more.
At its heart, Hassan’s assassination was another salvo in the long struggle for the Levant. For more than a decade, rival factions—each aligning Lebanese and Syrian actors alongside foreign sponsors—have sought to control Beirut. Lebanon’s capital has long been an open arena; with the onset the Syrian conflict, these rivals are competing for Damascus too.
The scenes have included Beirut, foreign capitals, the media war, licit and illicit business, and Lebanon’s far-flung diaspora. The Assad regime and allies like Hezbollah have routinely used violence to silence opponents, eliminate liabilities, deplete pools of knowledge, and create political space. They probably killed Hassan because, in the complicated tapestry of the Levant, he tied many threads together:
No Justice, No Peace: Syria, Hezbollah, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
In 2005, a massive explosion killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri and more than twenty others. The killing rang across the region and altered Lebanese politics drastically. At his apex, Hariri had personified the convergence of Saudi and Syrian interests in Lebanon. With their concurrent support, he leveraged his talent, extensive contacts, and massive resources to drive the reconstruction of downtown Beirut and guide Lebanon’s erratic economic recovery. In a typically Levantine compromise, he and others ceded security and foreign policy to the Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus and Hezbollah. Despite rampant failures and the subjugation of free minded citizens, post-war Lebanon enjoyed a balance of sorts.
After “inheriting Syria” from his father, Bashar al-Assad strained the system. During decades of rule, the elder Assad carefully manipulated and exploited factions and communities to position Syria, and himself, as an indispensable arbiter in Beirut. Less adept at this game, Bashar clashed with Lebanese elites—a “forest of fathers”—including Hariri. Syrian maneuvers to extend then-President Emile Lahoud’s term caused a crisis. Among others, Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt resisted Syrian’s bribes, enticements, and threats. Bashar reportedly humiliated Hariri at a private meeting in Damascus. Hariri, who had been resisting certain policies, began considering a more overt stance against the Syrian occupation. And then he was killed.
Instead of stifling dissent, the assassination triggered the Cedar Revolution. Millions of Lebanese—mostly Christians, Sunnis, and Druze—demanded an end to Syrian hegemony. A domestic counter-elite soon forged a broad consensus against Syria’s continued presence in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the U.S. and France led international pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops. In turn, the U.N. established an international investigative body, which has since transferred jurisdiction to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). These initiatives were to end the killing and, eventually, the culture of impunity that pervades the Middle East.
But the killing has continued. Assassins have targeted several proponents of Lebanese sovereignty and security officials. The ISF’s information branch has played a significant role. First, by participating in investigations, the ISF has ensured that successive Lebanese governments—including those beholden to Syria or Hezbollah—have pursued justice with more than words. Second, the ISF offers a broad in-country presence, local knowledge, inroads with informants, more freedom of movement, and a degree of domestic legitimacy that the STL would otherwise lack. Third, ISF officers have claimed ownership of the investigation, providing needed dedication and ingenuity in spite of innumerable challenges.
ISF officers like Hassan, Lieutenant Colonel Samer Shehadeh, and Captain Wissam Eid used telecommunications date to help identify the assassination team and a network of collaborators. Without clearing the Syrian regime and other suspects, ISF and STL investigators implicated Hezbollah members in the killing. (At one point, Hassan may have been a suspect.) Perhaps coincidentally, assassins have targeted all three men. Shehadeh survived and now lives in Canada. Hassan and Eid are dead.
The Empire Strikes Back: In a (Suspended) Syrian Spillover, Hassan Paid for Disrupting a Conspiracy to Destabilize Lebanon
Hassan didn’t confine himself to the Hariri investigation. With security assistance from the West and Arab states, his information branch greatly improved its ability to gather, sift, and analyze information. In recent years, the information branch uncovered several Israeli spy rings, including one that featured a high-ranking member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party allied with Hezbollah. (Conspiratorial analysts have argued that Israel killed Hassan to halt the ISF’s progress and to ensnare Hezbollah in domestic unrest.)
In August, Hassan uncovered an alleged plot to destabilize Lebanon. Rooted in the Syrian civil war, the conspiracy ostensibly involved Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese cabinet minister, who confessed to smuggling explosives from Syria into Lebanon. The conspirators were to bomb various, mostly Christian, areas of Lebanon to sow discord and—less plausibly—to cow minorities into supporting the Assad regime as a bulwark against Sunnis. The information branch arrested Samaha, who remains in custody, and indicted a top Assad aide in absentia.
The arrest seemingly exposed the Assad regime’s loss of influence in Beirut. The former minister is now a bit player, which indicated that few of Syria’s allies were willing to execute the alleged scheme. As the March 14 coalition paraded around the arrest while statesmen celebrated Lebanon’s “disassociation” from the Syria, Hezbollah and a lesser collection of pawns and mouthpieces remained silent.
Achrafieh was the reply. Quite simply, the assassination has again demonstrated that those who challenge Syria and Hezbollah risk their lives. More profoundly, the assassination has reminded the Lebanese that their country’s stability depends on the goodwill of others.
The Battle for Beirut: Hassan’s Death Highlights the Levant’s Inability to Institutionalize
The STL controversy and Lebanon’s debate on the Syrian crisis have unfolded alongside the battle for Beirut’s institutions, another vital part of the broader struggle for the Levant. Decades of concurrent Syrian and Israeli occupations, negligible security assistance, and institutional gerrymandering gutted rump institutions that survived the Lebanese Civil War.
Beholden or amenable to particular factions and foreign patrons, with fragmented officer corps, each security service pursues its own agenda. Moreover, Lebanese officials must also contend with deficient trust within their each organizations.
Against that backdrop, Hassan carefully built the information branch into a counterweight to Lebanese military intelligence and the General Security Service, which are more amenable to Syria and Hezbollah. To do so, Hassan and his superiors cooperated with international partners, particularly the U.S. and France. Under a 2007 Letter of Agreement on Law Enforcement, for instance, the ISF has trained and equipped thousands of officers, explored new community policing and other techniques, and developed its infrastructure and communications.
Even so, Lebanese institutions remain politicized. While security assistance is critical to Lebanon’s long term stability, the inability to extend assistance to all institutions has had a perverse effect. As the ISF has acquired competence, thereby challenging the security monopoly of agencies closer to Syria and Hezbollah, Lebanese institutional rivalries have intensified. Once relatively harmless, the ISF is now a target and part of the politicized environment.
Because of deficient trust and professionalism, officials have continued to operate personally— through back-channels, in private offices, and with a closed circle of counterparts. In turn, Lebanese institutions remain weak. “Tsars” and trusted officials become essential. Thus, besides their obvious consequences, assassinations of men like Hassan, Eid, and LAF General Francois Hajj disrupt operational networks, undermine trust, plant broader uncertainty in the ranks, and erase stores of knowledge that have remained outside of the institutional setting.
The threads have come loose.November 05, 2012 k

Israel warns Damascus against Syrian Golan overflights
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 6, 2012/Israeli Air Force F-16 planes on patrol over Golan Israel has given Damascus a final warning that a military response would be forthcoming if its fighter aircraft infringed the airspace over the Golan demilitarized zones, debkafile’s military sources report.. The warning was relayed through the UN Disengagement Observer Force in an effort to contain any spillover of the Syrian civil war across Israel’s border. Ratcheting up border tensions, Damascus was warned to desist from the following actions:
1. Ordnance of any kind must not be allowed to fly across the border, including shells and bullets.
2. Syrian forces entering the demilitarized zones straddling the Israel-Syrian Golan border would get the same treatment as infiltrators crossing into Israel proper. Israel cited the three Syrian tanks which Saturday, Nov. 3, approached the no-go zone in the course of a battle with rebels around the Circassian village of Beer Ajam. This must not be repeated, Damascus was warned.
3. Syrian fighter-bombers and combat helicopters may not infringe the airspace over those zones, and certainly not Israel’s Golan and Galilee skies.
debkafile has covered four days of evolving tension on Israel’s Golan border with Syria in detail.
On Monday, Nov. 5, we reported that Syrian small-arms fire from 1 kilometer over the Golan border hit the jeep of the Golani Brigade’s Patrol Battalion commander on a routine border patrol. There were no injuries. The jeep was badly damaged. debkafile’s military sources: The incident occurred after a gunfight between Syrian troops and rebels over the Golan town of Quneitra ended in the town falling to the rebels.
Israeli air force planes are patrolling the Golan and Galilee skies of northern Israel after the Syrians were observed preparing aircraft and helicopters to fly to the aid of their defeated ground forces in Quneitra.
After the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade was forced to retreat, Damascus is reported by Western sources about to send reinforcements over to the Golan to recover Quneitra. IDF contingents on the Golan and the Israeli-Lebanese border are high alert in case the Syrian combat spills over the border.
On Sunday, Nov. 4, we reported Israeli warplanes flew over the divided Golan in a show of strength and as a deterrent against the Syrian civil war seeping across the border, debkafile’s military and Western intelligence sources report. In Paris, President Francois Hollande vowed Sunday that “France would oppose with all its strength any bid to destabilize Lebanon. Lebanon must be protected.”
He spoke regardless of the 5,000 Lebanese Shiite Hizballah fighters who have poured into Syria from their Beqaa Valley stronghold of al-Harmel to fight Bashar Assad’s war. Our sources reveal that these Lebanese fighters have now advanced 50-60 kilometers deep into southwestern Syria, up to the outskirts of the embattled town of Homs.
On the Golan, further to the east, Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz visited the IDF contingent stationed there to reinforce the message broadcast by the IAF.
Hizballah is now openly flaunting the presence of its regular troops in Syria. They are armed with heavy artillery and Chinese WS-1 multiple-launch rocket systems made in Iran. These “Katyushas,” shoot 302mm rockets at targets up to 100 kilometers away and can operate in the rugged mountain terrain of Lebanon, Syria and Israel and in harsh weather conditions, including snow.
Hizballah fighters are reported by our sources to have already used this weapon with deadly effect in a battle with Syrian rebels over the town of Quseir opposite the Lebanese Beqaa Valley. It ended in Hizbalah’s capture of the town.
Coordination is tight: Hizballah forces on the ground get in touch with Iranian command headquarters in Beirut and Damascus to call up Syrian helicopters for air cover.
The Hizballah commander in Syria is Ibrahim Aqil, a veteran of the Hizballah militia and one of the most trusted by Hassan Nasrallah and Tehran.
Aqil took part in the 1983 assault on US Marines Beirut headquarters in which 241 American troops were killed, the highest death toll in a single event after World War II. In the year 2000, Aqil, then commander of the southern Lebanese front against Israel, orchestrated the kidnap from Israeli territory and murder of three Israeli soldiers, Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawad.
Hizballah’s expeditionary force in Syria has been assigned three missions:
1. To seal off the routes used by the rebels to smuggle fighters and arms from Lebanon into Syria, most of which run through the Beqaa Valley. This mission is near completion.
2. To defend the clusters of Syrian Alawite and Shiite villages in the area of Hizballah control.
3. To provide a strategic reserve force for the Syrian units defending the main hubs of Syrian highways running west to east from the Mediterranean coast to the Syrian-Iraqi border and crisscrossed from north to south by the route running from the Turkish border up to Damascus. Control of these hubs makes it possible for the Syrian army to move military forces between the different warfronts at high speed.