LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 15/12

Bible Quotation for today/Jesus Calms a Storm
Mathhew 08/23-27: 23 Jesus got into a boat, and his disciples went with him. Suddenly a fierce storm hit the lake, and the boat was in danger of sinking. But Jesus was asleep. The disciples went to him and woke him up Save us, Lord! they said. We are about to die! Why are you so frightened? Jesus answered. What little faith you have! Then he got up and ordered the winds and the waves to stop, and there was a great calm. Everyone was amazed. What kind of man is this? they said. Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Iranian built and assembled in Lebanon/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 14/12

Iranian built and assembled in Lebanon
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran says it will cut imports of non-essential goods
Reuters Published: 10.14.12/Ynetnews
Tehran urges citizens to reduce use of foreign-made products as country continues to struggle with sanctions . Iran said it would seek to cut imports of non-essential goods and urged its citizens to reduce their use of foreign-made mobile telephones and cars, as the country struggles to cope with Western economic sanctions.
The policies suggest the government is moving the economy onto an austerity footing to resist the sanctions, which have been imposed over Iran's controversial nuclear program and have slashed its income from oil exports this year. Authorities have divided imports into 10 categories based on how essential they are, and will provide importers with dollars at a subsidized rate to buy basic goods, Deputy Industry Minister Hamid Safdel was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Meanwhile, importers of goods in two non-essential categories will have to obtain dollars at much more expensive rates on the open market, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) quoted him as saying.
Goods in these two categories include cigarette papers, wallpaper, mobile phones, luggage, clothing and cars, ISNA reported. It said about $10 to $12 billion was spent annually on importing luxury and non-essential goods into Iran. Industry Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari urged Iranians on Saturday to limit their use of such goods and turn to domestic manufacturers to help the government cope with sanctions.
"If we move towards reducing the import of goods in these categories, which are not so necessary, we can save foreign exchange," Ghazanfari said, according to the Mehr news agency. "If people do not use these goods, the need for currency for them would drop to zero."
Value of Rial plunges
As the value of its rial currency has plunged in the face of the sanctions this year, Iran has moved gradually to favor essential imports while discouraging luxuries. The latest announcements showed it was stepping up this approach. A new foreign exchange center established last month supplies petrodollars to designated importers at cheap rates of roughly 25,000 rials per dollar.
At the same time, the rial was trading in the open market at around 34,000 on Sunday, Tehran money changers said – less than half its value a year ago, and down about a quarter since late last month.
Currency trading volumes in the open market are very low, since the central bank cut back its supplies of dollars to the market. The arrest of traders on charges of manipulating the rial in recent weeks has also made money changers cautious. With a gross domestic product of about $6,400 per person, according to the International Monetary Fund, Iran is not a wealthy country overall.
But its population of about 75 million includes a sizeable urban middle class who have been avid consumers of foreign-made goods, including Samsung and Sony electronics and Peugeot cars.
Safdel said on Sunday there were no plans to raise import tariffs on luxury items; authorities apparently think the rial's weakness will be enough to slash purchases of those goods.
Iran's merchandise imports are running at slightly over $50 billion a year, according to the government, so if it succeeds in slashing them by an amount close to $10-12 billion, that could reduce pressure to run down its foreign exchange reserves. The reserves stood at $106 billion at the end of last year, according to the IMF, but some analysts estimate they may have dropped by several tens of billions of dollars as the sanctions cut oil income. The government keeps their level secret. Tehran's effort to use the exchange rate to reduce luxury imports risks a surge in corruption and black market dealing. Traders now have the opportunity to make huge profits if they can illegally obtain f rom Mohammad Bayatian, a member of parliament's industry committee, said last week the committee would investigate claims that 750 luxury cars were imported illegally using cheap dollars purchased at a special government rate of 12,260 rials, parliamentary news agency Icana said. That rate is supposed to be used for the most vital goods such as food and medicine.

Israeli FM: EU failure on Iran would be like appeasement to Hitler
By HERB KEINON 10/14/2012/ Liberman meets visiting Brazilian counterpart Patriota, invokes West's failure to prevent Holocaust in urging EU to "pass the right message" to Iran at "critical" upcoming meeting of 27 EU FMs in Luxembourg. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman characterized Monday's meeting of 27 EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg as "critical" in sending a message of determination and resolve from the west to Tehran.
The foreign ministers, at their monthly meeting, are scheduled to discuss tightening European sanctions on Iran, something the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany – all members of the body known as the P5+1 that has been negotiating with Iran – have called for.
"It is critical, essential and necessary that the EU pass the right message, which is that the West has enough will and determination to stop the Iranian efforts to destabilize the world," Liberman said.
The failure of the EU to make the "right decision and the lack of willingness to adopt strict sanctions against Iran will bring us to the brink of a new reality similar to that which existed in the 1930s when the west erred, and instead of strangling the Nazi regime at the outset, decided to compromise and appease Hitler," he said.
Liberman said he hoped the West does not repeat the same mistake it made in the 1930s.
Patriota arrived for a visit at a time when Israel and Brazil's bilateral ties were expanding even as disagreements over key diplomatic issues - such as Iran and the peace process with the Palestinians - continue. Patriota, according to an Israel Radio report, told President Shimon Peres at an earlier meeting his country viewed with concern Israel's threats to attack Iran, saying such an action would destabilize the region. He also stressed in his meeting with Peres the need for progress in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
"We are very aware of the tensions in the region; this is a source of great concern for Brazil. We look at some of the situations around the region with concern," he said. "We would also like to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians." Two years ago Brazil unleashed a wave of recognition by South American countries of a Palestinian state prior to the Palestinian effort in 2011 to get statehood recognition from the UN Security Council. Patriota also met Sunday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but no details from that meeting were released.

Spreading Iranian cyber attacks hit Israeli military, US financial and Gulf oil targets
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis October 13, 2012
http://www.debka.com/article/22438/Spreading-Iranian-cyber-attacks-hit-Israeli-military-US-financial-and-Gulf-oil-targets
A week ago, on Oct. 6, an unmanned Iranian aerial vehicle with stealth attributes breached Israeli air space. By eluding Israel’s radar, the UAV exposed serious gaps in its air defenses. Thursday, Oct. 11, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah admitting the drone had come from Lebanon, promised it would not be the last. He seemed to be mocking Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his reliance on strong border fences to keep Israel safe. A week went by and Saturday, Oct. 13, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) website quoted its chief, Lt. Gen. Ali Jabari as stating that his naval and missile forces are on “strategic deterrent readiness” – a novel term just invented by the Islamic Republic. He spoke Friday at an army base in Khorrasan, during a tour with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian general hinted that the Iranian-Hizballah drone had been able to come close to Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona.
Both admissions that Iran and Hizballah were conducting military cyber warfare on Israel were tinged with contempt, arising from the certainty that Israel would not retaliate for the UAV’s invasion any more than it had responded to the posting of thousands of Iranian elite Al Qods troops just across its Syrian and Lebanese borders.
Shortly after Nasrallah spoke, the US Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan managed to break through VP Joe Biden’s interruptions to reveal the stark fact that Iran already possesses enough fissile material to make five nuclear bombs. The cat was finally out of the bag after years in which American and Israeli leaders contrived to keep this secret dark by verbal acrobatics and blinding showers of impenetrable “facts and figures.”
It was no slip of the tongue: Mitt Romney’s running mate was briefed by the team which is preparing the candidate himself for his second debate against President Barack Obama next Tuesday, Oct. 16.
debkafile’s Washington sources disclose that the team is headed by the former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, who is slated for the job of National Security Adviser if Romney wins the Nov. 6 election. Ryan’s revelation implied that a Romney administration’s Iran policy would take off from the point of its possession of sufficient fissile material for a nuclear arsenal.
Not that this guarantees US military action against Iran’s nuclear program under a new president - or even backing for an Israeli strike - only that now we all know that it is not necessary to destroy the 20 or more Iranian nuclear sites to demolish its program, only to home in on the stockpile of fissile material which took Tehran 20 years to enrich and accumulate.
The Iranians, realizing their secret was out, are certainly not hiding their precious fissile stockpile of approximately one ton at the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant which continues to turn out more enriched uranium. This stock encased in a lead container no bigger than a large kitchen table could be concealed anywhere in the vast 1.6 million-square-kilometer area of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
So a fleet of bombers and array of bunker buster bombs have become dispensable for pre-empting Iran’s nuclear bomb aspirations. All that is needed is one missile – provided of course that the vital core stock can be located.
Also on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta unveiled his “pre-9/11 moment” speech which revealed that for two weeks, hackers had been hammering the websites of big American banks, the Saudi national oil company Aramco and Qatar’s Rasgas.
In a strong comment, he said the US would strike back and consider a preemptive strike against cyber terrorism, without saying how or actually naming Iran.
However in leaks to the American media, former U.S. government officials and cyber-security experts reported that the administration believes Iranian-based hackers were responsible for what Panetta warned could be the first “cyber Pearl Harbor” against America.
The Wall Street Journal pointed to a team of 100 Iranian experts as the perpetrators of the cyber attacks on America and the Gulf oil states.
Tehran appears to be sending a message that if US-led sanctions continue to cut down its oil exports and restrict its banking business, Gulf oil producers and American banks would pay the price.
Panetta’s words may therefore be read as Washington’s final warning to Iran to desist from cyber warfare.
In the days leading up to his speech on cyber-terror, the defense secretary was tireless in cautioning against the menace of the Syrian civil war spreading to neighboring countries and evoking Bashar Assad’s threat to bring out and use his chemical weapons.
Before he turned to the cyber threat, the Syrian war had indeed tipped over into an escalating Turkish-Syrian showdown.
Both these developments mean that the waves of Middle East violence are lapping ever farther afield. All the parties with an interest in stirring up trouble are keeping a weather eye on the Obama-Romney debate next Tuesday to see if the president recovers the momentum he lost to his Republican challenger in the first debate.
Before or after the debate, each of them - Al Qaeda, Iran, Syria or Hizballah - is capable of taking direct action to show it is a player to be reckoned with. Such action may explicitly target an American interest or stir the pot by going for Israel, Turkey, Jordan, or a Gulf oil nation.
It can no longer be denied that Tehran is already on a cyber offensive against them all. In the absence of any response, Iran may decide to push further against its targets.

Syrian Opposition Head: Hizbullah Must Reconsider Positions, Prepare for Post-Assad Phase
Naharnet /Head of the Syrian National Council Abdel Basset Sayda demanded that Hizbullah and Iran refrain from meddling in the Syrian revolt against President Bashar Assad and his regime, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily on Sunday. He urged Hizbullah to “prepare for the post-Assad phase.” He hoped that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's assertions that the party is not interfering in the crisis are true, he told the daily. “We hope however not to find any evidence that implicates Hizbullah, but recent signs have emerged that indicate that the party is in fact involved,” he noted.
He hoped that his fears would not be realized over this matter. Sayda called on Hizbullah to “properly assess the situation, prepare for the post-Assad phase, and participate in a serious and constructive dialogue with the Lebanese forces.” “The developments in Syria are an internal affair and all who are calling against meddling in the crisis should apply those statements to themselves,” said that the head of the Syrian National Council. A Hizbullah commander and several fighters have been killed inside Syria, a Lebanese security official told the Associated Press earlier in October.
The Syrian opposition has long accused the group of helping the Syrian leadership crack down on the uprising — a claim the group has repeatedly denied.
Hizbullah has stood by Bashar Assad since the uprising began in March 2011, even after the group supported revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain.
The group says it is backing the Syrian regime because of its support for the anti-Israel resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine and because it is willing to implement political reforms.

Mansour: Drones Don't Violate Resolution 1701, Lebanon to Assume Responsibility for Hizbullah Action
Naharnet/ Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour stressed that Lebanon is not violating United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, saying Israel has violated the resolution “tens of thousands of times” since its adoption in 2006. He told the daily: “Hizbullah's unmanned drone that flew over Israel recently does not violate the resolution.” “Lebanon will definitely assume responsibility for Hizbullah's recent action because the country in a confrontation with Israel,” he added. “This is not about Hizbullah, but about an ongoing Israeli violation against Lebanon through its occupation of Lebanese territories,” he remarked. On the Hizbullah drone, the minister said: “It is as if the party is saying that since Israel is capable of violating the resolution, then so can we.” “It is time for Israel to halt its provocations,” Mansour declared.
“Israel has no excuse to retaliate to Hizbullah's action because it is constantly practicing aggression against Lebanon,” he explained. “The United Nations has never held Israel responsible for its violations,” he noted. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday acknowledged that his group sent a sophisticated unmanned drone over Israel last week, saying the device was built by the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran. His acknowledgment came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed at Hizbullah and vowed to defend his country against further "threats."
On October 6, the Israeli air force jets shot down the unarmed drone over southern Israel's Negev desert after it entered the country's airspace from the Mediterranean Sea.
On the Syrian crisis and warnings that it may spread to Lebanon, Mansour said: “We do not need warnings because Lebanon is the most concerned with the crisis due to the historic and geographic ties between the two countries.” “We are closely monitoring the situation. We are concerned with the security and safety of the region of the whole and not just that of Syria,” stated the foreign minister.
“The developments that have been ongoing in Syria for a year-and-a-half is becoming a threat to neighboring countries,” he added. On shelling of Lebanese border towns from the Syrian side of the border, Mansour said: “It's one thing for rockets deliberately fired by the Syrian army to land in Lebanon and another for the rockets to land in Lebanon as a result of clashes between the army, opposition, and armed groups.”“Rockets are bound to land on either side of the border should military operations be taking place nearby,” he noted. “The army is doing its utmost in protecting the border, but that cannot completely prevent the infiltration of armed groups,” he said.

Report: Hizbullah Drone Renews Hariri Investigation Interest in Israeli Linke to Crime
Naharnet/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's acknowledgment of the party's possession of a drone has renewed interest in the possible Israeli involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday. Sources following the investigation noted to the daily Nasrallah's 2010 conference during which he presented images obtained from Israeli drones that followed the slain former premier's travel route in Lebanon. He had stated during the August 9, 2010, conference that Hizbullah technicians succeeded in breaking the code of the drones and obtain the images they had photographed. The investigation team in Hariri's murder had demanded that Hizbullah present this “evidence” to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but the party had refused under the excuse that it does not recognize the international investigation, said the sources. The party is still awaiting that the Lebanese judiciary look into Hariri's assassination, they added.
It had also presented a copy of Nasrallah's press conference to then General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza who in turn handed it over to then STL Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare, they continued.
An Nahar reported that Israel had once acknowledged that Hizbullah could infiltrate its drones, but only those produced before 1997.
The Israeli authorities said that the images presented by Nasrallah in his August 2010 press conference were taken during different dates and possibly from the internet.
It is not unlikely that the international investigation would request information from various countries on Hizbullah's drone, the sources told the daily.
During the August press conference, Nasrallah showed several clips, each minutes long and undated, showing aerial views of the coastline off west Beirut on various days prior to the Hariri assassination.
Nasrallah, who has accused Israel of the February 14, 2005 bombing which killed Hariri and 22 other people, said the footage was intercepted from Israeli MK surveillance aircraft.
Hizbullah's chief said the images were not "conclusive evidence" but noted that his party had no offices, positions or presence in the areas under surveillance that could have been of interest to its Israeli foes.
The alleged Israeli cameras panned across the Hamra district, Hariri's residences in west Beirut and parliament, his last stop before the killing in a seafront bomb blast.

Saniora: Hizbullah Dragging Lebanon into Regional Crises
Naharnet /The head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora accused on Sunday Hizbullah of following Iran's bidding through its recent sending of an unmanned drone to fly over Israel.
He said during a seminar in the southern city of Sidon: “Hizbullah is dragging Lebanon towards military operations and a possible Israeli retaliation that the country has not been consulted over.”
“The party did not consult the government when it sent the drone over Israel and it therefore subjected national security and the Lebanese people to danger,” he continued.
The former premier noted that Hizbullah carried out a similar action in 2006 when it conducted a cross-border raid into Israel and kidnapped two soldiers, which sparked that year's 33-day war that stretched from July to August.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that Lebanon was victorious against Israel in the war, “but we were not victorious because Lebanon not only incurred major material damage, but it created a national division among the people that persists to this day,” Saniora added.
“This was all because Nasrallah took it upon himself to decide when Lebanon should wage a war because he simply can, without consulting any authority in Lebanon or its people,” he remarked.
Moreover, the flying of the drone demonstrates that it was conducted at Iran's behest, he said.
The expertise to fly the drone is only available in Iran, and it is therefore an Iranian action and Lebanon has been dragged into regional and international crises, noted the head of the Mustaqbal bloc.
“Despite the technical and military importance of the drone in its ability to escape radar detection, the development carries new dangers with it,” he continued.
Saniora said: “Hizbullah is involving Lebanon, the Lebanese people, and a huge sect of them in major crises.”
On Hizbullah's alleged involvement in the Syrian crisis, the former prime minister said: “The party tried to justify its actions in Syria through saying that some Lebanese people are residing in Syria and it was simply trying to arm them.”
In addition, he cited the recent death of a Hizbullah commander in Syria as another indication that the party is meddling in the Syrian crisis.
“The party has therefore paved the way for a crisis between the Lebanese and Syrian people,” he warned.
“Hizbullah is a main component of this government, which has only held high its policy of disassociation from the Syrian crisis. We find that the party is violating this policy and we know that the government is also selectively applying it,” he said.
Saniora accused Hizbullah of violating the main reason for which the national dialogue was resumed, adding that the explosion in Nabi Sheet earlier in October, the party's meddling in the Syrian crisis, and its sending of the drone over Israel eliminate the dialogue's purpose of devising a defense strategy for Lebanon.
“These three developments violate the agreements of the national dialogue that stressed the need for Lebanon to maintain a distance from the Syrian crisis,” he noted.
Three Hizbullah fighters were killed and several other people wounded on October 3 in a blast at a depot for old ammunition in the Bekaa town of Nabi Sheet, the party announced earlier this month.
“The blast took place at a storehouse for old shells and ammunition and the remnants of the Israeli attacks on the area,” it added.
“Hizbullah is not only linking Lebanon to regional crises, but Iran's international crisis over its nuclear program,” remarked Saniora.
He revealed that the contacts he made with recent leaderships in Lebanon were aimed at highlighting the dangers of dragging Lebanon into regional and international disputes.
“I believe that the various powers were receptive of my efforts and we hope they will be fruitful in that they will create a certain public opinion, which Nasrallah and Hizbullah officials must take not of seeing as they do not care for the Lebanese people's views,” he said.
“Nasrallah and the Hizbullah officials must abandon their arrogance and observe what the Lebanese people want,” he stressed.
“I believe that the people are not keen on being dragged to regional crises and I believe that if we asked Hizbullah's supporters of their opinions, we would find that a large portion of them do not back the party's recent actions,” he concluded.
Nasrallah on Thursday acknowledged that his group sent a sophisticated unmanned drone over Israel last week, saying the device was built by the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran.
His acknowledgment came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed at Hizbullah and vowed to defend his country against further "threats."
On October 6, the Israeli air force jets shot down the unarmed drone over southern Israel's Negev desert after it entered the country's airspace from the Mediterranean Sea.

Asir Urges 'Rational Shiites' to Save Lebanon from 'Nasrallah Involvement in Syria'
Naharnet /Anti-Syria Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on Sunday urged the “rational brothers in the Shiite sect to save the country from the Iranian scheme and from the creeping woes that are being drawn by (Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah's involvement in Syria.”“I salute our heroic, free people in Syria,” Asir said during a sit-in he organized in downtown Beirut in support of the Syrian people. “May God curse the protectors of Israel's security -- Bashar and Maher Assad,” the Salafist cleric added, in a scathing attack on the embattled Syrian president and his brother Maher, who heads the elite, feared Fourth Armored Division. Slamming Tehran, Syria's main regional ally, Asir accused the Iranians of “spending their money on killing the Syrian people.”
Asir also blasted Hizbullah and accused it of aiding the Assad regime militarily. “No to any arms other than the state's arms and no to the arms of the 'jihadist duty,'” Asir added.
“We cannot coexist with the arms of the 'party of Iran' (Hizbullah) which are targeting us daily,” he went on to say. Asir's remarks come after media reports said a top Hizbullah commander and several fighters were killed while taking part in the raging conflict in Syria. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has denied the reports and clarified that the Hizbullah fighters were killed while defending Lebanese-inhabited border towns inside Syria. “During the first days of the Syrian crisis, some Arab satellite networks claimed that Hizbullah had sent 3,000 fighters to Syria and we said that the reports were false and they are still false,” said Nasrallah. “In Lebanon, nothing can be kept under wraps and we do not hide anything. When a martyr falls, we tell the truth to his family about when, where and how the dear brother was martyred,” he noted. “Until the moment, we have not fought alongside the Syrian regime. It has not asked us to do so and who said that we have an interest in that,” he noted.
Nasrallah explained that there are 23 Syrian border towns and 12 farms that are inhabited by Lebanese residents of various religious beliefs, adding that around 30,000 Lebanese residents live in these towns.
“A large number of Lebanese residents of these border towns belong to Hizbullah and they have been fighting in the party's ranks since 30 years. We did not tell them how to deal with the incidents. We told them make your own choice and they chose to stay in their homes. Armed groups attacked them and carried out killings, kidnappings and even rapes,” Nasrallah clarified.
“Some of them decided to flee the area, but most of them stayed in their towns and started to arm themselves. The residents of these towns took the decision to stay and defend themselves against the armed groups and did not engage in the battle between the regime and the opposition,” Hizbullah's leader added.
He stressed that the party has decided to open a new front. “I cannot prevent anyone, whether they belong to Hizbullah or not, from staying in the border areas. We have not opened a new front and our front is well-known,” Nasrallah added.

Two Lebanese Killed in 'Armed Attack' on Syrian Border Town
Naharnet/Two Lebanese nationals were killed in an armed attack in the Syrian town of Rableh on the border with Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday, after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that around 30,000 Lebanese residents live in 23 Syrian border towns and 12 farms in the frontier region.
Lebanese citizens "Abdo Yaacoub al-Ahmar, who was born in the Hermel town of al-Shawaghir in 1920, and Taifallah Nicola Atiyyeh, 53, were transported from Syrian territory for treatement in Lebanon via the Lebanese border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali after they sustained severe wounds in an armed attack on the town of Rableh. However, they succumbed to their wounds a short time later," NNA said. "Dozens of the area's residents staged a rally to demand that the state protect the Lebanese citizens who live in Syrian border towns," NNA added.
And after Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) reported earlier that "the bodies of two Lebanese citizens were transported from Syria to the al-Batoul Hospital in Hermel," NNA later said that the two bodies were taken back to the town of Rableh for burial. On Friday, Nasrallah denied reports that a Hizbullah commander and several fighters were recently killed while fighting alongside the regime in Syria, clarifying that the Hizbullah fighters were killed while defending Lebanese-inhabited border towns inside Syria.
The Lebanese residents of Syrian border towns "maintained their ties with Lebanon and they vote in Lebanon. Some of the men of these Lebanese families have been members of Lebanese parties since decades,” Nasrallah added. “A large number of Lebanese residents of these border towns belong to Hizbullah and they have been fighting in the party's ranks since 30 years. We did not tell them how to deal with the incidents. We told them make your own choice and they chose to stay in their homes. Armed groups attacked them and carried out killings, kidnappings and even rapes,” Nasrallah clarified.
“Some of them decided to flee the area, but most of them stayed in their towns and started to arm themselves. The residents of these towns took the decision to stay and defend themselves against the armed groups and did not engage in the battle between the regime and the opposition,” Hizbullah's leader added.

Assad Supporters Thank Russia, China in Beirut Demo
Naharnet /Hundreds of Syrian and Lebanese supporters of the regime of President Bashar Assad staged a rally in Beirut on Sunday to thank Russia and China for supporting the Damascus regime, Agence France Presse reported. Demonstrators held posters bearing slogans including "Thank you Russia!" and "Lebanon for ever with Assad's Syria," and also chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which support the anti-regime revolt. They also waved flags of Syria, Damascus' main regional ally Iran and Lebanon's Hizbullah. Since the anti-regime uprising broke out in Syria in March last year, Moscow and Beijing have vetoed three draft U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad's regime. The pro-Assad demo coincided with a sit-in organized by Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in support of the Syrian people, which was held a few hours later in downtown Beirut.
SourceAgence France Presse

Iran says it will cut imports of non-essential goods
Reuters Published: 10.14.12/Ynetnews
Tehran urges citizens to reduce use of foreign-made products as country continues to struggle with sanctions . Iran said it would seek to cut imports of non-essential goods and urged its citizens to reduce their use of foreign-made mobile telephones and cars, as the country struggles to cope with Western economic sanctions.
The policies suggest the government is moving the economy onto an austerity footing to resist the sanctions, which have been imposed over Iran's controversial nuclear program and have slashed its income from oil exports this year. Authorities have divided imports into 10 categories based on how essential they are, and will provide importers with dollars at a subsidized rate to buy basic goods, Deputy Industry Minister Hamid Safdel was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Meanwhile, importers of goods in two non-essential categories will have to obtain dollars at much more expensive rates on the open market, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) quoted him as saying.
Goods in these two categories include cigarette papers, wallpaper, mobile phones, luggage, clothing and cars, ISNA reported. It said about $10 to $12 billion was spent annually on importing luxury and non-essential goods into Iran.
Industry Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari urged Iranians on Saturday to limit their use of such goods and turn to domestic manufacturers to help the government cope with sanctions.
"If we move towards reducing the import of goods in these categories, which are not so necessary, we can save foreign exchange," Ghazanfari said, according to the Mehr news agency. "If people do not use these goods, the need for currency for them would drop to zero."
Value of Rial plunges
As the value of its rial currency has plunged in the face of the sanctions this year, Iran has moved gradually to favor essential imports while discouraging luxuries. The latest announcements showed it was stepping up this approach.
A new foreign exchange center established last month supplies petrodollars to designated importers at cheap rates of roughly 25,000 rials per dollar.
At the same time, the rial was trading in the open market at around 34,000 on Sunday, Tehran money changers said – less than half its value a year ago, and down about a quarter since late last month.
Currency trading volumes in the open market are very low, since the central bank cut back its supplies of dollars to the market. The arrest of traders on charges of manipulating the rial in recent weeks has also made money changers cautious.
With a gross domestic product of about $6,400 per person, according to the International Monetary Fund, Iran is not a wealthy country overall.
But its population of about 75 million includes a sizeable urban middle class who have been avid consumers of foreign-made goods, including Samsung and Sony electronics and Peugeot cars.
Safdel said on Sunday there were no plans to raise import tariffs on luxury items; authorities apparently think the rial's weakness will be enough to slash purchases of those goods.
Iran's merchandise imports are running at slightly over $50 billion a year, according to the government, so if it succeeds in slashing them by an amount close to $10-12 billion, that could reduce pressure to run down its foreign exchange reserves. The reserves stood at $106 billion at the end of last year, according to the IMF, but some analysts estimate they may have dropped by several tens of billions of dollars as the sanctions cut oil income. The government keeps their level secret. Tehran's effort to use the exchange rate to reduce luxury imports risks a surge in corruption and black market dealing. Traders now have the opportunity to make huge profits if they can illegally obtain from Mohammad Bayatian, a member of parliament's industry committee, said last week the committee would investigate claims that 750 luxury cars were imported illegally using cheap dollars purchased at a special government rate of 12,260 rials, parliamentary news agency Icana said. That rate is supposed to be used for the most vital goods such as food and medicine.

One bullet will be enough!
By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat
I do not believe there is a decisive military solution - at ground level - to resolve the conflict between the Syrian regime’s army and the rebel army, both engaged in a civil war.
Unfortunately, the solution will likely be a qualitative operation along the lines of “kill or be killed”. It may be a bombing, an assassination, an arrest, a bullet in the back, or a palace coup whether from outside the regime or from within the Alawite sect. Bashar al-Assad has decided to fight until the last soldier and the last Syrian citizen, and he will not succeed in imposing his will. The Syrian opposition has decided to wage a war that has developed from house to house to an outright conflict on the streets, in the face of the third strongest army in the region in terms of armament and numbers, and this may take years and years. Because the President has decided not to relinquish power, step down, leave the country or seek political asylum, and because he has decided not to use a political settlement as a frame of reference to end the crisis, he has no choice but to pursue a bloody solution. The people are paying the price for this bloody solution in numbers nearing 40,000 martyrs, 300,000 wounded, and a million refugees and displaced persons inside and outside Syria who are awaiting the cold winter with a scarcity of resources.
This conflict will remain, and the bill for the bloody solution will continue to be paid by the people, until God decrees otherwise.
Turkey will not enter the fight unless:
1. America requests and encourages this.
2. It receives full funding from the Gulf States.
3. Most importantly, if popular pressure inside Turkey makes the decision to go to war the best option for the ruling party and Erdogan’s political standing.
As for a war of entanglement, Ankara is smarter than to fall into that. Turkey avoided such a fate when Israel attacked Turkish ships off the coast of Gaza in 2010, and also when Syria’s air defense forces shot down a Turkish plane earlier this year. Yet regular warfare - an invasion from abroad - or civil warfare are not the solutions. The practical solution comes from within the regime. It is still a bloody solution, but it only involves one bullet; to topple the regime’s head who has lost his mind and rejects all forms of political settlement.
Turkey’s national dignity has been wounded, and it has moved 250 tanks and 55 bomber aircraft to the Turkish-Syrian border. However, this is not to prepare for an actual war, but rather for reasons relating to the internal status of the ruling party and the prestige of the Turkish military establishment. Turkey certainly does not want a war, for it does not want to pay an expensive financial bill at a time when the ruling party is evaluating every political achievement in accordance with the number of trade deals and economic treaties established with other countries.