LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 10/2013

Bible/FaithQuotation for today/Revenge
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. ~ Confucius

Gunmen Abduct Turkish Pilot and Copilot in Beirut
Naharnet /A Turkish pilot and copilot were kidnapped in Beirut early Friday by gunmen who intercepted their van as they were heading to a hotel in the Lebanese capital. The kidnap is believed to be linked to the abduction of nine Lebanese pilgrims in Syria, whose families have urged Turkey to use its influence to secure their release. The Turkish Ambassador, Inan Ozyildiz, told LBCI TV that he is following up the case, hoping that Lebanese authorities would work for their release. Pilot Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca were on their way from Rafik Hariri International Airport to a hotel in Beirut's Ain Mreisseh seafront when they were kidnapped at the Cocodi bridge around 3:00 am. The abductors were riding a four-wheeler and a Kia. The van, which had six crew members on board, belongs to Turkish Airlines and its driver is a man from Zoaiter family who was taken for questioning by police. In the wake of the incident, Lebanese soldiers deployed in the area, with two armored personnel carriers stationed by the roadside where the kidnapping took place.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told Agence France Presse he had spoken with Turkey's ambassador and that an investigation was under way. He also telephoned President Michel Suleiman to brief him about the probe. On Friday afternoon, the state-run National News Agency revealed that a Turkish airplane landed at the Beirut airport and then flew around 122 passengers, among them the crew of the aircraft whose pilot and copilot were kidnapped back to Turkey. Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case of the abducted pilgrims in Syria, was quick to deny any involvement by their relatives in the kidnapping of the Turks. But he said: “Had we known about it we would have encouraged it.”“More than a year have passed on the kidnapping of the Lebanese and the Turks are manipulating the feelings of the Lebanese,” he added. Spokeswoman for the families of the pilgrims Hayat Awali also stressed that they had no link to Friday's incident. The families have in the past months held several protests near the Turkish Embassy and Turkish Airlines headquarters in Beirut. They accuse Ankara of procrastinating in the negotiation with the rebels, who have kidnapped the pilgrims, to secure their release. In May 2012, 11 pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's northern Aleppo province as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from pilgrimage in Iran. Two of them have since been released, while the rest remain held in Aleppo's town of Aazaz.

Abductors of Turkish airline pilots demand release of Lebanese hostages in Syria: report
August 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: A group called Zuwwar Imam Ali al-Reda claimed Friday responsibility for the early morning kidnapping of two Turkish Airlines pilots in Beirut and demanded the release of nine Lebanese hostages being held in Syria in exchange, local media reported.

Turkey Urges Its Citizens to Leave Lebanon
Naharnet/Turkey called on its citizens present in Lebanon to leave the country in the aftermath of the kidnapping of a Turkish pilot and copilot in Beirut at dawn on Friday. “Given the current situation it is vital that our citizens avoid all travel to Lebanon," the foreign ministry in a statement posted on its website. "We suggest that citizens who are still in Lebanon return to Turkey if they can, or if they have to remain, to take all measures to ensure their personal safety and be vigilant," it added. It said Ankara expected the Lebanese government to take "all necessary measures" to ensure the safety of Turkish citizens in the country. Gunmen kidnapped the pilots in an ambush on a bus carrying members of a Turkish Airlines crew from Beirut airport to a hotel. Source/Agence France Presse.

March 14 Says Kidnapping of Turkish Pilots Hits Lebanon's Credibility
Naharnet /The March 14 alliance's general-secretariat warned on Friday that the kidnapping of a Turkish pilot and copilot in Beirut targets the credibility of the Lebanese state. “This incident has the sole objective of striking what's left of the credibility of the Lebanese state in preserving security in Lebanon and the (best of) ties with Arab and Western countries,” the coalition's general-secretariat said in a short statement. The statement described the kidnapping as “very dangerous,” saying it could put Rafik Hariri International Airport on the list of “dangerous and unsafe” airports in the world. Such a move would have repercussions on all the Lebanese residing in the country in addition to expatriates, it said. The general-secretariat urged the Lebanese state to be “immediately mobilized” to put an end to such an encroachment and work on unveiling the people behind the kidnapping and handing over the Turks to their embassy in Beirut. Pilot Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca were kidnapped at dawn Friday at the Cocodi bridge when gunmen ambushed their van, which was carrying a Turkish Airlines crew. The armed men snatched the two men and let the rest continue on. The van was traveling between the airport to a hotel in Beirut's Ain Mreisseh seafront.

Miqati and Berri to Turkish FM: No Effort will be Spared for Release of Pilots
Naharnet/Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati condemned on Friday the kidnapping of a Turkish pilot and copilot in Beirut, saying Lebanese authorities were exerting all efforts to find the abductors. "We expressed our condemnation of the kidnapping, we are in the process of making every effort to determine the identities of the kidnappers," Miqati told Agence France Presse. "We are doing everything possible to secure the release" of the pilots, he said. His remarks to AFP came after the Turkish foreign ministry's official Twitter account said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had called Speaker Nabih Berri and Miqati."Expressing grief on the incident, Miqati and Berri said no effort will be spared for the release of the Turkish pilots," the account said. Meanwhile, caretaker premier Tammam Salam discussed the abduction with Charbel.
"We have condemned the kidnapping of the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria and we have asked for exerting efforts to release them in cooperation with Turkish authorities,” Salam said. He added: “But we cannot overlook today's incident that harms Lebanon's image and prestige and threatens the country's visitors.” Salam stressed that authorities should follow-up on this case and deal “seriously and strictly with it.”"We urge political parties to support these effort and use their connections and mediation to release the kidnapped.” The Turkish nationals were kidnapped around 3:00 am Friday by armed men who ambushed their van as they were traveling from Beirut's airport to a hotel in Ain Mreisseh. SourceAgence France PresseNaharnet.

UNIFIL: Turkey Informed Us on August 6 the Withdrawal of Its Engineering Construction Unit
Naharnet/The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon revealed on Friday that Turkish authorities announced on August 6 the withdrawal of their Engineering Construction Unit from South Lebanon. "The withdrawal will be completed by the first week of September while Turkish troops will continue to serve in the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force,” UNIFIL Spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said. Tenenti was answering reporters' queries about the future of Turkey's forces serving with UNIFIL in the South following the kidnapping of two Turkish pilots at dawn on Friday in Beirut. "The Turkish Engineering Construction Unit started serving with the UNIFIL in 2006 and has since provided great support to the troops for its experience and expertise,” he noted. Tenenti added that 58 Turkish peacekeepers are currently serving with the UNIFIL. He explained, however, that many countries reduce the number of their peacekeeping troops while others contribute with more forces. "What matters is that the UNIFIL is capable of maintaining its power on ground to efficiently complete its mission.”

UNIFIL Vows to 'Accurately Define' Labbouneh Incident
Naharnet /The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon vowed on Friday to “accurately define the nature” of the latest Israeli incursion in the southern town of al-Labbouneh and prevent future violations of the border. "Due to the seriousness of the situation, it is very important for the UNIFIL to uncover what happened on Wednesday,” UNIFIL Force Commander Major General Paolo Serra said. The Lebanese army said Wednesday that a group of Israeli soldiers crossed the border into the southern area of Labbouneh near Naqoura and were wounded in an explosion which reports have said was caused by a landmine. The communique said the Israeli troops reached as far as 400 meters inside Lebanon. Serra noted: “This requires the collaboration of all parties and we have asked the leadership of the Lebanese Armed Forces to provide us with all information they have regarding this case.”
"We want to prevent the repetition of such incidences and any other tension that could contribute to aggravating the situation.” He revealed that a group of UNIFIL investigators headed to the incident's location and coordinated its efforts with the army on ground to uncover the details behind the Israeli infiltration. He pointed out that the results of the U.N. forces' investigation will be shared with both the Lebanese and Israeli parties during their upcoming meeting in September. "The obvious presence of Israeli forces in Lebanon and their violation of the Blue Line is a dangerous breach of the U.N. Security Resolution 1701.” Serra said that a “stern objection” was addressed to the Israeli Armed Forces. "We also urged Israel to fully cooperate with the UNIFIL's investigators in this case.”

UNIFIL says Israel clearly breached 1701
August 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: UNIFIL Commander Gen. Paolo Serra said Friday Israel had crossed the Blue Line into Lebanon earlier this week, in a breach of U.N. resolutions, and urged both the Jewish State and Beirut to cooperate fully with the investigation into the incident. “Even as UNIFIL investigators are working on the case, it is clear that the presence of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in violation of the Blue Line constitutes a serious breach of the terms of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701,” Serra said in a statement. “UNIFIL has strongly protested the violation to the Israeli [Army] and called for its full cooperation with UNIFIL’s investigations into the incident,” he added. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded Wednesday morning by an explosion after they crossed the border into southern Lebanon. The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon has launched an investigation into the incident. Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Wednesday the soldiers were wounded during an "operational activity meant to preserve the calm for the northern communities in particular and for the residents of Israel in general," Ynetnews.com reported. Yaalon, whose remarks came during a tour of southern Israel, added that during the activity, "the force's movement activated an explosive device."
“Given the seriousness of the incident, it is very important for UNIFIL to establish what exactly happened that night,” Serra said. “This requires full cooperation from both the parties and accordingly we have also asked the LAF [Lebanese Army] Command to provide us with any relevant information it might have in this connection,” he said. Serra also noted that the findings from the UNIFIL probe would be presented to both sides at the upcoming tripartite meeting later this month. “UNIFIL’s primary objective is to determine the precise nature of the violation of resolution 1701 so that we can work with the parties to prevent any recurrence of such incidents or any related tensions that could escalate the situation,” he said.

Free Syrian Army Kidnaps Three Lebanese in the Bekaa
Naharnet/The Free Syrian Army kidnapped three Lebanese citizens in the Bekaa region, media outlets reported on Friday. "FSA rebels entered Lebanese territories and kidnapped three members of the Ismael family in the Brital plains in eastern Baalbeck,” al-Jadeed television said, adding that a fourth person was injured during the operation. The same source pointed out that financial reasons could have motivated the abduction.
Meanwhile, LBCI television said four members of the Ismael family were kidnapped by the FSA in the Brital plains. Later on Friday, however, the state-run National News Agency said FSA members that are located on the western side of the Eastern Mountain Belt near Syria kidnapped two people who hail for the Ain al-Qarqouz town in the Brital plains. "They transferred the abductees to Syria amid a heavy gunfire exchange,” it elaborated.
The NNA remarked that a third person, Ibrahim Hikmat Ismael, was injured during the incidence and was able to escape. "He headed towards Lebanese territories and reported the kidnapping of his brother Hasan Ismael and his brother-in-law Saleh Kurdieh who got injured in the foot." In May 2012, members of the FSA abducted two Lebanese citizens and a Syrian national. Khodr Hussein Jaafar, Ahmed Medlij, and Syrian Abdullah al-Zein were kidnapped for their alleged role in persecuting Syrian opposition members in Syria.

Charbel Shies Away from Confirming Abduction of Turkish Pilots by Zuwar al-Imam Rida
Naharnet/Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Friday that Lebanese authorities were investigating a claim made by a previously unknown group for kidnapping two Turkish pilots in Beirut. In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) and several TV stations, Charbel said: “We haven't heard of the so-called Zuwar al-Imam Rida.”The investigation will reveal whether such a group truly exists or it is “fictional,” he said. The alleged responsibility for the kidnapping came after al-Jadeed TV reported that the group was asking for the release of nine Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria in return for setting free a Turkish pilot and copilot abducted by armed men at dawn Friday. Their abduction took place as the van they were traveling in near Rafik Hariri International Airport was ambushed by the gunmen. The families of the pilgrims were quick to deny any involvement in the ambush. The Syrian rebels, who are backed by Turkey, have been holding the nine Lebanese Shiites hostage since May last year. Despite their denial, the relatives of the hostages welcomed the abduction. Daniel Shoaib, the brother of pilgrim Abbas Shoaib, “thanked Zuwar al-Imam Rida” for kidnapping the Turkish Airlines crew members but urged it to treat them well. “We reject kidnappings but our relatives are facing injustice,” he told the National News Agency.

Shiite Religious Leaders Urge Unity, End of Siege
Naharnet/Lebanon's Shiite religious leaders called on Friday for unity and urged the Lebanese to steer clear of strife and for officials to end the country's “siege.” “We should open a new page … of cooperation and (rejection) of strife,” Deputy Head of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan said in his sermon on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr. “We in Lebanon should be united and cooperative,” he said during prayers at the Council's headquarters. Grand Jaafarite Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan appealed in his sermon during prayers at Imam al-Hussein mosque in Burj al-Barajneh for “Lebanese leaders to end the country's siege and turn the page on their rivalries and disputes.”“We should together without preconditions find ways to come out of the danger zone,” he said. Qabalan called for national reconciliation that would lead to a roadmap to rebuild the state and its institutions. He also called for building the capabilities of the army to be able along with the resistance to confront challenges. Qabalan warned against what he called security and economic “nightmares,” which he said that the Lebanese would overcome only through unity. He called for the quick formation of an all-embracing government away from “ridiculous conditions.”

Raad Says Cabinet Formation Premature
Naharnet /Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad revealed on Friday that it was premature to form the new government and criticized Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for making a proposal whose success is not guaranteed In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5), Raad said a proposal to form a de facto government had been suggested by Premier-designate Tammam Salam since he was tasked with forming the cabinet.
President Michel Suleiman also hinted to it during his Army Day speech two weeks ago, he said. But Raad, who is the head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, expressed skepticism at Jumblat's stance on the issue.
“We don't know whether he is ready to vote on this proposal because he is making a suggestion without confirming whether he would be able to guarantee a (parliamentary) majority for it,” the lawmaker told VDL.
Jumblat told Egypt’s Middle East News Agency MENA on Wednesday that he “will study the available options, including a neutral de facto cabinet, should a neutral technocratic one be rejected.”
“I do not want to take the risk in advocating a de facto government as I was among the first to demand the establishment of a national unity cabinet that Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam had described as one of national reconciliation,” he said.In remarks to As Safir daily the next day, Salam reiterated that he is seeking to come up with a cabinet that is “compatible with the requirements of the nation's interest.”
He did not confirm whether he would go ahead with forming a fait accompli government after his attempts to form a cabinet of rival political figures have faced major obstacles over conditions and counter-conditions set by the bickering March 8 and March 14 alliances.

Protest against court ruling in north Lebanon
August 09, 2013/By Antoine Amrieh/The Daily Star/TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Supporters of Salafist Sheikh Tareq Merhi held a protest in the northern city of Tripoli Friday against a recent court ruling which sentenced the preacher to 15 years of hard labor. Protesters marched through the city's streets after Friday prayers at the Amira Mosque in Tripoli, holding black flags and signs demanding the release of Merhi who was convicted in the 2008 attack against the Army. The Lebanese Army backed by military vehicles monitored the protest to prevent any security incidents.The Judicial Council issued Tuesday death sentences for five people and sentences eight others, including Merhi, to 15 years of hard labor. Seven others were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. In a ruling that cannot be overturned, the court identified three radical Islamist cells based nationwide in Palestinian refugee camps of being behind the attack in Tripoli which killed 13 soldiers back in August of 2008. Lawyer Mohammad Sablouh, representing the Islamist prisoners, said the Judicial Council's ruling was "a major injustice," accusing the court of mishandling the case. "Each person was tried three or four times before several courts and with the same charge which is a clear violation of the Lebanese Penal Code which prohibits the trying a person for the same crime twice," he said. He also criticized the court for making all the convicts pay compensation for the relatives of the soldiers who were killed in the attacks, saying some of the Islamists were convicted of being involved in the crime while "others merely smuggled Fatah al-Islam members." "The sentencing came as a surprise because it was very harsh without any evidence or witnesses to prove or deny the evidence," he said.

Lebanese Border Town Comes under Shelling from Syria
Naharnet /A house was damaged in a northern town near the Syrian border from overnight shelling, the state-run National News Agency reported. The shelling damaged the house in the Akkar town of Jenin, which along with other border towns and villages have bore the brunt of the cross-border attacks. Jenin residents urged the authorities to protect them, NNA said. Lebanese towns near the Syrian border have been shelled and come under rocket attacks, the result of fighting between Syrian government troops and rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad.

Journalist Nasri Akkawi Commits Suicide
Naharnet/Journalist Nasri Akkawi committed suicide on Friday, MTV television reported, remarking that he was suffering form financial problems. "Akkawi threw himself from his apartment's window, which is located in al-Metn's Sad al-Bouchrieh neighborhood,” MTV said. It pointed out that the worsening of his financial situation could have triggered him to commit suicide. The same source noted that the journalist's sister Colette got a nervous breakdown following the incident, which required transferring her to a hospital. Akkawi had worked with al-Bayrak newspaper during his career.

U.S. Orders Diplomats Out of Lahore, Pakistan
Naharnet/The State Department has warned Americans not to travel to Pakistan and evacuated nonessential government personnel from the country's second largest city because of a specific threat to the consulate there, a U.S. official said Friday. The move was not related to the threat of an al-Qaida attack that prompted Washington to close temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa. According to U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Meghan Gregonis, the U.S. is shifting its nonessential staff from the consulate in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore to the capital, Islamabad. Emergency personnel will stay in Lahore, and embassy officials do not know when the consulate will reopen, she said. "We received information regarding a threat to the consulate," said Gregonis. "As a precautionary measure, we are undertaking a drawdown of all except emergency personnel."
The consulate in Lahore was already scheduled to be closed for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr from Thursday through Sunday. The personnel drawdown at the Lahore consulate was precautionary and wasn't related to the recent closures of numerous U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world, said two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the order.
Earlier this week, 19 U.S. diplomatic outposts in 16 countries in the Middle East and Africa were closed to the public through Saturday and nonessential personnel were evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen after U.S. intelligence officials said they had intercepted a recent message from al-Qaida's top leader about plans for a major terror attack. None of the consulates in Pakistan or the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were affected by the earlier closures. On Thursday, the State Department issued a travel warning saying the presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups posed a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan.
The country has faced a bloody insurgency by the Pakistani Taliban and their allies in recent years that has killed over 40,000 civilians and security personnel, and is also believed to be home base for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Most of the militant attacks have been in the northwest and southwest along the border with Afghanistan. Gunmen killed six people and wounded 15 others Friday in an attack on a former lawmaker outside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of southwest Baluchistan province, said police officer Bashir Ahmad Barohi. The lawmaker escaped unharmed. A day earlier, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 30 people at a police funeral in Quetta.
Pakistan's major cities, including Lahore, have also experienced periodic attacks. A powerful bomb exploded at a busy market street in Lahore in early July, killing at least four people and wounding nearly 50.
Lahore is considered Pakistan's cultural capital and has a population of at least 10 million people. A CIA contractor shot to death two Pakistanis in Lahore in January 2011 who he said were trying to rob him. The incident severely damaged relations between Pakistan and the U.S. The contractor, Raymond Davis, was released by Pakistan in March 2011 after the families of the victims were paid over $2 million.
SourceAgence France PresseAssociated Press.

Khamenei Says Talks 'Detrimental' to Palestinians, Wary of Civil War in Egypt
Naharnet /Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday warned the Palestinians against renewed peace talks with Israel, saying they would be "detrimental" to their cause. The U.S.-mediated talks will force "the Palestinians to relinquish their rights," Khamenei told worshippers in Tehran University after Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. His remarks came a day after the U.S. State Department said Palestinian and Israeli negotiators would resume talks on ending their long-standing conflict on August 14 in Jerusalem. Both sides have already agreed to try to resolve their differences within nine months.
The talks, restarted last month in Washington mediation, will also "encourage the aggressors to increase their aggression and suppress the rightful resistance of the Palestinians," said Khamenei, who has the final say on Iran's foreign policy. Dismissing the talks as "the doing of the arrogance" -- an allusion to Iran's arch-foe the United States -- he said the result would "definitely be detrimental" to the Palestinians. Iran, a major regional supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip, does not see eye to eye with the Palestinian Authority. The Islamic republic has repeatedly voiced opposition about talks focusing on a two-state solution, saying the Jewish state would never agree to withdraw from "occupied lands". Khamenei on Friday also called on the Muslim world to condemn Israel's "oppressive" actions against Palestinians. "The Muslim world must not back down from its support for Palestine, and it should condemn the oppressive action of fierce Zionist wolves and their international supporters," he said. Khamenei also warned that the political crisis in Egypt after the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi could spark a civil war. "We are worried about what is happening in Egypt," he said in the Eid al-Fitr remarks broadcast on state television. "Speculation of a civil war is gaining momentum on a daily basis," Khamenei said. "This would be a disaster with dire consequences." "What will stop the civil war if, God forbid, it happens?" he asked. SourceAgence France Presse.

Five killed in explosions in Egypt near Israeli border: MENA
August 09, 2013/Daily Star/CAIRO: Five Islamist militants were killed in an explosion south of the Egyptian city of Rafah near the border with Israel on Friday, the state news agency MENA said. Security sources in Sinai told Reuters that Israel mounted a missile attack on armed Jihadists, killing four, after discovering they had planned to fire rockets into Israel. They had no information on how the alleged Israeli missiles were delivered. An Israeli army spokeswoman in Jerusalem declined to comment on the incident. The Egyptian military said there had been two explosions west of the international border 3 km (two miles) from Al Agra on Friday evening but gave no further details. Soldiers were searching the area in the North Sinai region to find out more, army spokesman Ahmed Ali said in a statement. MENA, quoting witnesses, said at least five Jihadists were killed near Rafah. The witnesses said the explosion was the result of the destruction of a launchpad ready to fire rockets into Israel. Militants based mainly in North Sinai near the border with Israel have escalated attacks on Egyptian security forces and other targets since July 3, when the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and installed a new government. The Egyptian army said on Wednesday it had killed 60 militants in the Sinai Peninsula in the month since then. The Sinai is largely demilitarized as part of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979 but Israel has approved troop reinforcements to combat the militants and arms smuggling by Palestinians into Gaza.

Dirty U.S. politics
August 08, 2013/The Daily Star
The situation in Egypt continues to deteriorate by the day, and the flurry of Western “mediators” who have been coming and going appear to be making a bad situation even worse. Egypt’s crisis has seen the new government make it clear it will tolerate no disturbance to public order, as it warns pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters they must end their sit-ins. As the socio-economic situation worsens and political paralysis deepens, there is growing popular pressure on the military to act against the sit-ins, just as there was earlier popular pressure on the military to remove President Mohammad Morsi, because of his government’s performance on many levels.
But the sides to the conflict have been joined by mediators from the European Union and the U.S.; the role of the latter is particularly worthy of attention.
In effect, high-profile politicians such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have traveled to Cairo in a bid to bring the two sides together. But their intervention has been both distracting and harmful.
In effect, the U.S. is playing a dirty game in Egypt as it dispatches such individuals to the front lines. The White House has made strenuous attempts to avoid using the word “coup” in describing the ouster of Morsi; if it makes such a pronouncement, the U.S. will be obliged to sever its massive economic aid package to Egypt, due to legal restrictions on which kind of governments deserve such funding. Thus, it is disturbing to see Graham and McCain show up as mediators and then voice opinions that have to do with either domestic U.S. politics or an elaborate game of political blackmail directed at one of America’s most important allies in the region. McCain spoke out and said Morsi’s ouster constituted a coup, while Graham spoke about support in Congress for suspending American aid. Both are Republicans, and it benefits them to score points against the Democrat in the White House. They have the full right to do so, but not when they are trying to pass themselves off as representatives of Washington on an extremely sensitive foreign policy mission.
The U.S. approach on Egypt, as with other Arab states undergoing popular protests and political tension, has been a case of “constructive confusion” because the message is either garbled, or willfully vague. McCain and Graham appear to be doing their best to revive the “Ugly American” image of half a century ago, in South Vietnam, when misguided meddling in that country’s affairs led only to death and destruction.
The Brotherhood can now rely on these two senators – who hold no official executive branch foreign policy posts – for leverage in their struggle against Egyptian authorities. The behavior of the American “honest brokers” is only postponing the kind of healthy, made-in-Egypt solution that is required. The U.S. and other concerned parties should be facilitating Egyptian-Egyptian dialogue, and not engaging in political blackmail.

Imminent Crackdown in Egypt: Potential Consequences
Adel El-Adawy/Washington Institute
Although aggressive military action could yield stability in the short term, the long-term consequences may not bode well for meaningful democratic transition.
After several days of high-level diplomacy and behind-the-scenes negotiations, all efforts have failed to reach a peaceful compromise and resolve Egypt's political deadlock. As a result, a crackdown on the protracted pro-Morsi protests in the Rabaa al-Adawiyya and al-Nahda neighborhoods of Cairo and Giza could come at any moment.
On Wednesday, the U.S. embassy warned American citizens to stay away from both locations due to fears of violence. And on Thursday evening, Egyptian military spokesman Ahmed Ali stated that the sit-ins are not peaceful and pose a national security threat due to the presence of weapons and continued incitement. He added that "an expeditious move to disperse the [protests] could have negative consequences due to the presence of children and women in the crowds; therefore, a careful assessment of the dispersion strategy is being examined." Indeed, the transitional government has made clear that it wants to minimize loss of life, urging the demonstrators to leave before the Interior Ministry takes action to remove them. They have remained defiant, however, with some protestors even building iron fences around the sit-ins to hinder any move by security forces.
Whether a crackdown is legitimate or not, the regional and international response to such a development would put great pressure on Egypt's transitional government. The interim authorities already face internal tensions and debates about the potential consequences, with Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei and other senior officials even threatening to resign. Any high-profile resignation, especially by ElBaradei, would undermine the transitional government's credibility and destabilize the ongoing political process. An aggressive crackdown would also make it more difficult for the Muslim Brotherhood to join that process, since it would feed the group's victim/underdog narrative and thereby perpetuate its political marginalization.
Following a crackdown, the Brotherhood would likely continue to protest, leading to one of two scenarios:
The security apparatus becomes even more aggressive, completely suppressing the Brotherhood's supporters in order to create short-term political and social stability.
The security apparatus eschews extraordinary measures, leaving room for the Brotherhood to protest indefinitely and, perhaps, resort to more radical means of expressing their grievances. This in turn would threaten the political process.
Although the first scenario is more likely, both would make it difficult for an inclusive political transition to take place. Aggressive military and security action could yield stability in the short term, but the long-term consequences of such measures may not bode well for meaningful democratic transition.
**Adel El-Adawy is a Next Generation fellow at The Washington Institute.

Five terrorists killed in Sinai as a result of Israeli-Egyptian intelligence cooperation
DEBKAfile Special Report August 9, 2013/
Intelligence sharing and military cooperation between Egypt and Israel foiled a terrorist missile attack from Sinai on Eilat Thursday, Aug. 8, say foreign sources. Egyptian security officials reported that an Israeli drone fired a missile in the northern Sinai peninsula, killing five suspected Islamic militants and destroying one or more launchers. Egyptian military helicopters circled over head. The launcher or launchers, said the officials, were rigged for launching against targets in Israel from the vicinity of Egyptian Rafah in northern Sinai.
Residents heard a large explosion Friday in the region near the border with Israel.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the report. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it is not absolutely clear that the Israeli air force was responsible for the attack on the terrorists’ missile squad. It may have been an Egyptian operation in the course of its counter-terrorism campaign ongoing in Sinai for which the Egyptian command prefers not to admit happened on the Eid al Fitr festival.
According to those sources, six terrorists were killed, not five as reported.
Eilat has come under rocket fire from Sinai in the past.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the report. DEBKAfile’s military sources say it is not absolutely clear that the Israeli air force was responsible for the missile attack on the terrorists’ missile squad. It may have been an Egyptian operation in the course of its counter-terrorism campaign ongoing in Sinai, to which the Egyptian command preferred not to own up because it occurred on the Eid al Fitr festival.
According to those sources, six terrorists were killed, not five as reported, at al Gora, south of Egyptian Rafah not from the Egyptian-Gazan border. The terrorist group was apparently in flight from a part of the Egyptian-Israeli border opposite Eilat from where they had planned to strike Israel’s southernmost airport Thursday night. Their route 230 km north toward the Gaza border indicated they planned to cross over and reaching safety in the Palestinian Hamas-ruled enclave.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report further that the military-intelligence cooperation in force between Israel and Egypt in the war against Salafist, al Qaeda and Hamas jihadis broke surface Friday when
an Egyptian security official told The Associated Press that intelligence suggesting terrorists planned to fire missiles Friday at Israel as well as locations in northern Sinai and the Suez Canal was passed by Egypt to Israel. Eilat airport was closed for two hours Thursday night in response to the tip-off. The official also said that Egyptian authorities planned to start air patrols Thursday night over the Naqab desert in the Egyptian Sinai, where Islamist terrorists have hideouts.
Egyptian airports in the Sinai operated normally into Thursday night despite the warning, including those in the resort cities of Sharm el-Sheikh and Taba, said Gad el-Karim Nasr, the head of state-owned Egyptian Airports Co. Taba is only 10 kilometers from Eilat.
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Husam Itani/Al Hayat
Today, many types of crimes coexist in Lebanon, some of which are due to the mounting poverty and the social tensions accompanying it, while others are part of pure political violence. Yet, all of them come together to draw an alarming image for this country.
And among the crimes that are seen more often nowadays are ones that can be described as “why not?” crimes. Indeed, if the security bodies’ practicing of their tasks is so terribly flawed to the point where a journalist is detained and insulted over a “suspected” blog on the internet, while convoys of armed men move around the country and spread anarchy and corruption, “why not” kidnap this or that citizen in exchange for a ransom.
Why not carry out shootings using heavy machine guns between homes upon the return of the dead who were participating in the battles in Syria? And why not render the discovery of bullet-riddled corpses a daily event that is not worth mentioning in the media? This is not to mention the explosions, assassinations and silent security wars that are ongoing in Lebanon between known and unknown forces. This is happening at a time when the state apparatuses seem to have exited the control of the law, thus blatantly and un-reluctantly joining the system of sectarian-political loyalties and its mechanisms of hegemony.
And it is not new to say that the emergence of hundreds of armed men in broad daylight to participate in the battles of the clans and the (honorable?) families – which happens almost every week – is a clear sign of the state’s dissolution and disintegration, and that the mutual kidnappings against denominational and regional backdrops are deepening division and increasing the threat of seeing the sectarian conflicts widening and turning into civil war.
The fact that this talk is old does not annul the necessity of repeating it, while wondering about the required solution to exit the current situation and about the direction where this country is heading.
Obviously, the anticipation of the formation of a new government is useless, considering that the Lebanese crisis has reached the regime’s bones and marrow. And whether or not the contacts and settlements facilitate the task of Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam in his government formation, the next government will not be able to operate outside the current balances of power. It would actually be safe to say that these balances will render whichever governmental formation quadriplegic. The difficult situations inside and around Lebanon will not allow any Cabinet to be productive at the level of the services, which have transformed into a dueling arena between the political powers. This is seen for example with the electricity and communication files, but also with the political reform file, seeing how the failure to ratify an electoral law clearly shows it would be impossible to achieve such reform for the time being.
Anticipating the Syrian developments by both Lebanese teams is a game in which the participants are at the very least irresponsible towards their country. And at a time when they believe they can go on with this tug of war, dynamics and social mechanisms are evolving within each group and between each other in a way threatening with a collapse which will be so acute that constructors will find it hard to get good enough stones to build the next country and its meaning.
Just like small-time merchants, Lebanese politicians prefer to deal with small pieces and day to day politics, instead of trying hard to seal major agreements that would guarantee a certain level of stability for the next generations. They have two excuses for that, the first being their mere inheritance of a rotten structure which has become impossible to reform, and the second being the non-existence of any serious opposition by their supporters who are ready to offer all that is near and dear to defend the honor of the sect and denomination.

Rohani's Priorities in Abandoning "Delusions"
Walid Choucair/Al Hayat
The expressions chosen by Iran's new president, Sheikh Hasan Rohani, in his inaugural speech Sunday, and a news conference on Tuesday, were very precise.
Rohani, a seasoned diplomat described as rational, chose his terms carefully in presenting himself to Iranians and the rest of the world. He spoke of "moving away from delusion" and "balancing between principles and reality," and described the moderate approach he would be bringing to the presidency as "rationally moving away from extremism."
The main factor that has brought together bazaar merchants, reformists, clergymen from Qom, and some of the Revolutionary Guard involves the popular national desire to escape the poor social situation that Iranian society has experienced thanks to the economic policies of the two governments of the former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over the last eight years. An alliance of all of these forces is based on the wager that Rohani can achieve openness at home and abroad, which will save Iran from the repercussions of a 70 percent drop in the value of the Rial, and from the rise in employment, which has reached a frightening level of almost 30 percent, in a country rich in gas and oil resources. Moreover, there is the drop-off in oil exports, even though a number of countries, such as from the BRICS group and elsewhere, have not adhered to sanctions. This drop has reached the lowest levels in the history of the strong Islamic Republic, representing only 40 percent of Iran's petroleum production capacity.
If it was understandable for Rohani to reject "ignoring" Iran's right to produce nuclear power, and in its negotiations over its nuclear program, the main reason for the sanctions, then it was natural for him to refuse the "radicalism" of Ahmadinejad, who was supported most of the time by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and the Revolutionary Guard, the strongest military institution and the one that dominates the political system. The policy of attack that was led by the former president and the country's decision-making centers went as far as expecting the collapse of the United States and the west. There was a heavy reliance on the country's ability to undertake military and technological development as a way of exercising influence regionally and internationally, through soft power before all else.
It is easy for Rohani to announce that his country, after taking office, will leave behind the bluster of Ahmadinjad, who went as far as to expect even an ending to the rise of China, while being derisive of Moscow's power, at a strategic level. The man relied on phantom power and religious beliefs that some Iranians quickly considered a type of political charlatanism.
Moving power in Iran from Ahmadinejad's unrealistic situation is the easiest thing to do; and if this is the case, Rohani's challenge is to translate the innuendos and expressions he used in presenting his future program into a tangible reality, one that changes the state's terrible economic conditions. State leaders used to predict a change in the world and defy the Great Powers with Tehran's readiness to reach an understanding over how it would "participate in ruling the world." This was after the earlier policy drained the treasury of revenue, as $800 billion was spent over eight years. A large portion of it went to developing Iran's nuclear capability, and proxy wars, intervention in Iraq, Yemen, Gulf countries, Palestine, Central Asia and Afghanistan; the money also went to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to support for President Bashar Assad (it is said that the scope of assistance to Assad has reached $7 billion since the outbreak of the uprising of the Syrian people). Ahmadinejad turned the economy into a rentier one in some aspects, bartered oil with China and India for agricultural and other goods, and for gold with Turkey, while the price of gold has dropped. Ahmadinejad, the Supreme Leader, and the Revolutionary Guard all shared responsibility for the damage this policy brought.
Realism dictates that Rohani not sever ties quickly and suddenly with past policies, although if the difficulties are examined closely, all of these items become priorities. This is in order to limit any retreat on the nuclear issue or in expanding regional influence. The supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guard will not allow any type of coup. Even though the Iranian president did not mention Assad's name when he adhered to ongoing policies on Syria, observers saw this as an interesting difference between Rohani and his predecessor. There are no changes expected when it comes to Tehran's support for the Syrian regime, whose survival is considered to be of fundamental importance. Most likely, the matter will be dealt with pragmatically, and with the balance of power on the ground in Syria kept in mind, in parallel to a setting of priorities: Will these involve reducing the losses incurred by sanctions, by getting some of them lifted via negotiations on the nuclear issue, and sufficing with improving relations with Gulf neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, and not the Levant; or, will there be a comprehensive deal, both regional and international, covering the nuclear issue and Iran's regional role?
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