LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 04/2013

Bible Quotation for today/The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
 Matthew 13:31-35. He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" He spoke to them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation (of the world)."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
 Assad and the Israeli Air Raid/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Alawsat/February 04/13
 Obama’s First Term May Prove Good for the Middle East/By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat/February 04/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 04/13
 President Suleiman from Mrayjat: Criminals Will Be Punished, No One Should Harbor Armed Men
Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji Condemns Arsal Clash, Labeling it 'Premeditated' Crime
Al-Rahi: Political Powers Responsible for Army Casualties in Arsal Clash
Report: IAF Warplanes Seen Flying the Skies of Lebanon
Report: None of Arsal Incident Suspects Have yet Been Arrested
 Barak: Assad’s fall is imminent. Jalili, Assad weigh reprisal for Israel
Egyptian Christian Girl, 13, Abducted By Muslims
'Failure to blacklist Hezbollah undermines security'
Obama green light for Israel to strike Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah military links
 Syria releases images of site 'targeted by Israel'
 Weapons convoys: Calculated risk
US to Syria: Don't transfer weapons to Hezbollah
Syria, Iran threaten retaliation against Israel

Ahmadinejad to make historic visit to Egypt
Turkey urging Syria to attack Israel?
Kerry sworn in, says will visit Israel
Biden raises possibility of direct U.S.-Iran talks
Peres asks Netanyahu to form new Israeli government
 Islamist threatens to attack Germany, Merkel: paper
 Egypt protesters stone PM's motorcade
Syria opposition chief meets Russia's Lavrov
Ahmadinejad unveils Iran's newest fighter jet
Hollande visits Mali to push for African takeover
Lebanese Army apprehends gunmen after deadly ambush
Hezbollah could get arms from Syrian 'chaos': Panetta
Lebanese MPs, religious leaders decry Arsal ambush
MPs, religious leaders decry Arsal ambush
Hezbollah, FPM shoot down Hariri vote plan
Interior Minister Warns Egypt Could Turn into Militia-State

Barak: Assad’s fall is imminent. Jalili, Assad weigh reprisal for Israel
http://www.debka.com/article/22736/Barak-Assad’s-fall-is-imminent-Jalili-Assad-weigh-reprisal-for-Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report February 3, 2013
Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak had strong words for Iran and its allies at the Munich Security Conference Sunday, Feb. 3, while, in Damascus, Iran’s National Security Director Saeed Jalili conferred urgently with Syrian President Bashar Assad. They discussed activating the secret mutual defense pact binding Iran, Syria, Hizballlah and Hamas in reprisal for the Israeli air strike which reportedly hit a military complex near Damascus last Wednesday.
Without directly confirming the Israel attack on the Jamraya military compound, defense minister Barak said, “…what happened in Syria several days ago… that’s proof that when we said something we mean it… and we say that we don’t think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon.”
Addressing top world diplomats and defense officials, Barak when on to say: "Hizballah from Lebanon and the Iranians are the only allies that Assad has left.” Assad’s fall is “coming imminently” and that “will be a major blow to the Iranians and Hizbollah. I think that they will pay the price," he said.
In Tehran, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned Israel Sunday of the consequences of its alleged strike. "The world is witnessing a vengeance carried out by the West, particularly the US, and some backward elements in the region against resistance." Larijani called on countries in the region to distance themselves from Israel and said he believed "the Islamic awakening movement in the region would give a proper response to the Zionist regime."
On the face of it, Tehran looks as though it is passing the buck for “a proper response to the Zionist regime” to fellow Muslims and the Arab world.
However, debkafile’s Iranian and intelligence sources believe the Iranians are simply playing for time to decide how to retaliate for Israel’s reported strike on the military complex which Syria shares with its allies. The man to watch is Jalilee who, we can report exclusively, arrived post haste in Damascus Saturday, Feb. 2, to warn Syrian leaders that Tehran is not willing to forego a military response to an attack which destroyed a whole supply of advanced Iranian weapons Tehran sent to Hizballah in the last two years and which were stored at the Jamraya compound.
The Syrian ruler clearly agrees with his Iranian guest. Sunday, he accused Israel of trying to "destabilize" his country. His first remarks on the reported Israeli air strike in Syria on Wednesday came after he met Jalilee. He added that Syria was able to confront "current threats... and aggression."
Iran, Syria and Hizballah must now decide on the nature of their reprisal, set up the operation and assign forces for its implementation, while taking into account Israel’s options for a counter-response.
Barak’s tough comments in Munich told Tehran that Israel is ready to remove the gloves against Syria and Hizballlah. Iranian leaders heeded his words well while at the same time keeping track of the Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib’s meetings in Munich with US Vice President Joe Biden and, for the first time, with the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran, Sergey Lavrov and Ali Akbar Salehi.
Salehi spent 45 minutes with the Syrian dissident on the sidelines of the conference addressed by the Israeli defense minister.
Those meetings were taken as suggesting that the Syrian opposition does not expect the Syrian ruler to fall in the short term and has therefore decided there is no option but to start talking to him about a power-sharing format for ending the Syrian conflict. Tehran is already angling for a role in a Syrian peace settlement.
However an Iranian-backed reprisal operation countered by a tough Israel response could upset this promising scenario.

Report: IAF Warplanes Seen Flying the Skies of Lebanon
Lebanese media reported Sunday afternoon that Israeli war planes were spotted in the skies above southern Lebanon.
By Chana Ya'ar /Arutz Sheva
Israel news photo: Flash 90Lebanese media reported Sunday afternoon that Israeli war planes were spotted in the skies above southern Lebanon.
It appeared the pilots were rehearsing attacks on targets in the region, local sources told media outlets.
Both Syria and Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out air strikes on a convoy last Wednesday that was transporting Russian-made surface-to-air missiles from the Damascus area towards the border with Lebanon.
The two countries also accused Israel of bombing the Jamraya military research center, where chemical weapons were being processed. At least two people died in the attack, and a number of others were wounded. Among the casualties were alleged members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
For the first time, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak this weekend obliquely acknowledged that indeed, Israel had carried out the strike, which he referred to as “proof that when we say something, we mean it."
“We say that we don’t think it [Syria] should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon,” he told top international diplomats and defense officials at a conference Sunday in Germany.
Barak did not bluntly say that Israel had carried out the strike, skirting the issue by saying, “I cannot add anything to what you have read... about what happened in Syria several days ago.
“But I keep telling ... that we said, and that is another proof that when we say something we mean it, we say that it should not be allowable to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon and Hizbullah from Syria when [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad falls.”
Barak added that in his view, “Hizbullah from Lebanon and the Iranians are the only allies that Assad has left.” He said the region has not been this unstable since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Assad’s fall could come at any time, Barak added, noting “this will be a major blow to the Iranians and to Hizbullah.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Sunday of seeking to “destabilize” his country, in a statement released to the government-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The air strike had “unmasked the true role Israel is playing, in collaboration with foreign enemy forces and their agents on Syrian soil, to destabilize and weaken Syria,” Assad was quoted as saying during a meeting in Damascus with top Iranian officials.




Suleiman from Mrayjat: Criminals Will Be Punished, No One Should Harbor Armed Men
Naharnet /President Michel Suleiman on Sunday said that “no one should harbor armed men,” stressing that the killers of Major Pierre Bashaalani and First Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman “will be punished.”
“The state and the army must come first and we hope that justice will be served and the criminals will be arrested,” Suleiman said from the Bekaa town of Mrayjat, where he offered condolences to Bashaalani's family. The president also called for “embracing the army, rejecting extremists and terrorists and refraining from harboring armed men.” Bashaalani and Zahraman were killed in clashes in the Bekaa town of Arsal on Friday as the army was seeking to apprehend a wanted suspect, who was also killed in the unrest. Hundreds of suspects are linked to Friday's incident in the Bekaa border town of Arsal, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday. Military sources told the daily that the army has identified all of the suspects and that raids to capture them will take place at "the appropriate time."

Report: None of Arsal Incident Suspects Have yet Been Arrested
Naharnet/Hundreds of suspects are linked to Friday's Arsal incident, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday. Military sources told the daily that the Lebanese army has identified all of the suspects and yet it has not yet arrested any of them. The raids against the suspects will take place at "the appropriate time," they added. They revealed that those apprehended on Saturday are not linked to the incident in the northeastern town.
“Those involved in the crime will be held accountable,” the sources declared. “All political statements on the attack are baseless as Arsal's residents back the army and some 500 of its sons are part of the military institution,” they continued. The army arrested several residents of Arsal on Saturday a day after two soldiers were killed when gunmen ambushed a military patrol, the National News Agency reported. NNA said the men were arrested either for the possession of illegal arms or for failing to stop at several checkpoints set up by the military at the entrances of the town. An army communique said Friday that a patrol was ambushed by Arsal gunmen as it was hunting a man wanted for several terrorist acts.The clashes that ensued left an officer with the rank of captain, Pierre Bashaalani, and Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman dead, and several military personnel wounded.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji Condemns Arsal Clash, Labeling it 'Premeditated' Crime
Naharnet/Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji condemned on Sunday the Arsal clashes, while saluting the two slain officers. He said in a statement: “We reject any attempt to make light of the gravity of the premeditated crime committed against the army.”“Those who believe that our combating of terrorism will halt for any local or regional power are mistaken,” he declared. “We will not accept a political compromise at the expense of the blood of martyrs Pierre Bashaalani and Ibrahim Zahraman,” he added. “No matter what the cost, the army will not waver in apprehending the criminals, regardless of their identities or affiliations,” Qahwaji stated.
He had earlier met with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn at the Defense Ministry in order to address the Arsal incident. The army commander later attended Bashaalani's funeral in the Bekaa town of Mrayjat. Bashaalani and Zahraman were killed in clashes in the Bekaa town of Arsal on Friday as the army was seeking to apprehend a wanted suspect, who was also killed in the unrest.

Al-Rahi: Political Powers Responsible for Army Casualties in Arsal Clash
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi condemned on Sunday the recent clash in the Bekaa town of Arsal that left two army officers dead. He said during his Sunday sermon: “We hold political powers responsible for their deaths due to their covering up of such assaults against the army and security forces.” Furthermore, he added: “They are the victims of the so-called consensual security being imposed in Lebanon.”
Two officers were killed on Friday in Arsal as the army was attempting to apprehend a wanted suspect, who was also killed in the clashes. The patriarch therefore called for fortifying the internal security scene “by eliminating the possession of illegal arms and the phenomenon of consensual security.” The state should prevent riots, kidnappings, the blocking of roads, occupation of buildings and public institutions, and “pointless open-ended strikes,” al-Rahi said in reference to the Syndicate Coordination Committees' announcement of an open-ended strike over the government's failure to refer the new wage scale decree to parliament.
“The social and security stability will provide economic stability,” he explained. The cabinet has stalled in finding sources to fund the new wage scale that was approved in 2012, leading to growing differences with the SCC, which has been accusing it of negligence. The SCC said it would take “fateful” measures in February in order to tackle the government's negligence.

'Failure to blacklist Hezbollah undermines security'
By JONNY PAUL, BENJAMIN WEINTHAL JPOST CORRESPO 02/03/2013 02:12
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=301897
London conference discusses EU failure to list Hezbollah as terrorist organization as "undermining security goals."
LONDON – The Iranian regime’s genocidal threats toward Israel and the European Union’s failure to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization shaped many of the panel discussions at a one-day conference in London last week on “Iran and the international community.”
It is a “very bad thing that Hezbollah can operate in Europe regarding fund-raising and logistics,” US Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, a former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department in the first Obama administration, said. Hezbollah’s legal status in the EU “undermines security goals,” he said.
If you want to put a dent in Hezbollah activities, it would be a positive thing” to outlaw the Lebanese group, and an EU terror “designation would be a blow to Hezbollah’s legitimacy,” Benjamin said.
The London-based Henry Jackson Society and the Washington- based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tanks hosted a series of panel discussions with a who’s who of global experts on Iranian sanctions, human rights in the Islamic Republic, and the use of military force to stop Iran’s illicit nuclear program.Mark Dubowitz, an authority on economic sanctions, said there is a “stark reality that Iranian nuclear physics is beating Western economic pressure.”He urged rigorous enforcement of existing sanctions and a trade embargo that would “bring Iran’s economy to collapse.”
The goal, said Dubowitz, who is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is to break the political will of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to compel him to end his drive to weaponize his nuclear program.
Dr. Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, described Tehran’s rush to obtain nuclear weapons capability as the “most pressing issue of our time.”
Dr. Michael Broer, a senior nonproliferation and nuclear arms control expert at Germany’s Defense Ministry, said a nuclear-armed Iran would “set up a cascade of nuclear proliferation” in the Middle East region. A nuclear Tehran “allows Iran to pursue its aggressive policies toward its neighbors,” he warned.
Rafael Bardaji, a former special adviser to former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, cited an example of Iran’s lethal anti-Semitism: A 2001 meeting between the then-Spanish prime minister and the supreme leader of Iran.Bardaji, who attended the meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said when Khamenei was asked what his role within the Islamic Republic is, he responded: “To set Israel on fire.”
Bardaji raised the anti-Israel ideology of Khamenei at the panel discussion on how to tackle the Iranian threat in 2013 and the policy prescriptions available.
Iran’s rhetoric about dissolving the Jewish state “is in their nature,” Bardaji said.
“As we think through the likelihood of arriving at a good negotiated solution with Iran, and the possibility of persuading and pressuring the supreme leader to abandon his nuclear weapons program, it is worth keeping this rare encounter withhim by a Western democratic leader very much in mind,” commented Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the US-based Council of Foreign Relations, on his blog about Bardaji’s account of Khamenei. Abrams spoke at the London event and noted skepticism in certain sections of the US policy- making establishment about the seriousness of the EU to tackle the Iranian threat. He cited the example of Hezbollah.
“If they [European countries] can’t even designate Hezbollah, how serious can they be taken,” he said.
During the panel discussion on “What if Sanctions Fail? Military Action vs. Containment,” John Hannah, a senior Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow and a former national security adviser to US vice president Dick Cheney, said the international community is “getting close to the end of diplomacy” but there is still time to “let coercive diplomacy play out.”
He stressed a paradoxical situation where there is the need for “the credibility of a military threat” to avoid war. Hannah said, however, that in the event that sanctions and diplomacy fail to persuade Iran, it is important to have the option of US military action, preferably coupled with a coalition of governments, to knock out Iran’s nuclear weapons sites.
Richard Perle, a fellow with the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, said an “interesting possibility” is to make sanctions so onerous that the Iranian people change the regime. He raised the policy prescription of “sanctions associated with regime change.”
Perle said the number of military targets that would be needed to destroy in Iran is not enormous and cast doubt on whether the Iranian population would “rally around the government” in the event of a strike on nuclear facilities, largely because the population is unhappy with the clerical leadership.
**Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Obama green light for Israel to strike Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah military links
http://www.debka.com/article/22734/Obama-green-light-for-Israel-to-strike-Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah-military-links
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis February 2, 2013
The air raid over the Jamraya military complex near Damascus Wednesday, Jan. 30, attributed to Israel by Western sources was Israeli’s first assault on the Syrian-Hizballah military compact forged between Bashar Assad and Hassan Nasrallah.
That was the real strategic import of the operation, which took place with the approval of US President Barack Obama, debkafile’s military sources report.
In every other respect, it was a surgical strike on a well-defined target, comparable to Israel’s attack in September 2007 on the nuclear reactor North Korea was building at El Kabir in northern Syria. The object then was to sever the Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear link before it took physical shape and began turning out plutonium for Iran’s nuclear program.
After its destruction, Tehran and Pyongyang decided to cut Syria out of their nuclear plans because its proximity to Israel made any nuclear site an easy mark.
The overriding importance of the attack on the Syrian military compound therefore lies in its three objectives:
1. The Jamraya complex was selected because it serves the shared military agendas of Syria, Hizballah and Iran.
The bombers struck three targets: a Syrian chemical weapons store and laboratories; a depot holding the sophisticated weapons Iran had sent Hizballah in the last two years - some of which, like the SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, are termed “game changers” in a potential clash with Israel; and a large fleet of trucks standing by to ferry the munitions across the border into Lebanon.
Israeli threats to destroy the weapons had so far prevented their transfer.
In a separate building at Jamraya, Hizballah forces learned how to use the new Iranian hardware and maintained a team of drivers ready to move the arsenal over to Lebanon. This building was not attacked.
2. The air strike was a move toward disrupting the cooperative military efforts of all three allies in Syria and Lebanon;
3. Israel took its first step into the Syrian conflict.
As we first reported in the latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday, the operation went forward with a green light from President Obama, after he was briefed on the plan by AMAN (Israeli Military Intelligence) commander, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi at the White House on Jan. 22.
Our sources also reported that another Israeli emissary, National Security Adviser Yakov Amidror, visited Moscow at the same time to warn Russian leaders of the coming attack in Syria.
While Russian officials voiced objections to Israeli attacking Syria, they also apparently omitted to forewarn President Assad of what was coming and he was taken by surprise. After the raid, President Vladimir Putin advised the Syrian ruler to refrain from exacerbating the military situation with Israel.
The reported Israeli strike on Jamraya had two key consequences of future relevance:
a) President Obama’s consent for Israel and its armed forces IDF to be the first pro-Western power to intervene in the Syrian war, after keeping them out of involvement in the Arab Revolt raging around its borders for two years:
b) Officials in Tehran publicly warned last week that an attack on Syria would be deemed an attack on Iran, a message no doubt underlined through diplomatic channels to Washington. Nonetheless, after holding the Israeli government back for years from striking Iran’s nuclear sites, Obama approved an attack with the potential for widening into a major Israeli-Iranian military clash.
While the importance of keeping sophisticated missiles and poison gas out of Hizballah hands cannot be overrated, debkafile’s sources in Washington and Tehran reveal that what really pushed the US president into his change of face was Iran’s withdrawal from the secret talks he set much store by for a diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.
Three further changes of major strategic importance occurred this week.
Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna that new, high-speed IR2m centrifuges were being installed in Natanz to expand the 20-percent uranium enrichment taking place at the Fordo underground facility.The Iranian letter was posted to the IAEA the day after the two Israeli emissaries visited Washington and Moscow.
The diplomatic channel to Tehran was symbolically shut down in Washington last week by the resignation of Gary Samore, President Obama’s Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Counter-Terrorism and Arms Control.debkafile discloses that Samore was lead negotiator in the failed nuclear talks with Iran. His exit means that he sees no way of curbing Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon. He has taken up an appointment as Executive Director of Research in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.
US Vice President Joe Biden provided the third key development. Asked Saturday, Feb. 2, in Munich when Washington might hold direct talks with Tehran, he replied dismissively: “When the Iranian leadership, the supreme leader, is serious.”Biden spoke for the Obama administration when he suggested that Khamenei has not been serious to date.
All three events contributed to the US president’s decision to let Israel have a go at the Syrian military complex, thereby broadcasting a signal to Tehran that, in the absence of serious negotiations, Washington is ready to expand its efforts for breaking up the Iran-Syrian Hizballah axis, using the IDF as its hammer.

Peres asks Netanyahu to form new Israeli government
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday formally asked incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new governing coalition following the January 22 general election.
Netanyahu will initially have 28 days to form a coalition. His rightist Likud-Beitenu party took a battering at the ballot box and won 31 seats, 11 fewer than it had going into the election, but it nevertheless emerged as the largest party. Last week Peres consulted with representatives from the 12 parties elected to the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, and factions that control 82 seats recommended that Netanyahu should be asked to form a coalition.
His administration is expected to be cobbled together from a new centrist party headed by former TV personality Yair Lapid, which with 19 seats, is the second-largest party, the 12-seat far-right Bayit Yehudi ("Jewish Home") faction and other centrist and religious parties. Israeli coalition-building can be a laborious process and Netanyahu may require the full 28 days before announcing success. He can ask Peres for another 14 days to complete the task, if needed.(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Islamist threatens to attack Germany, Merkel: paper
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German Islamist has threatened to attack Berlin this summer and kill Chancellor Angela Merkel in a video posted on the Internet, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
A spokesman for Germany's intelligence service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, confirmed its agents had seen such a video.
"This is an Islamist battle song. It is known to the security services and is being evaluated," said the spokesman. Die Welt newspaper reported that a three-minute video had surfaced on the Internet with a German Islamist calling himself Abu Azzam, believed to be a radical Salafist who moved to Egypt last year. "Looking back at an Arab spring, we are looking forward to a European summer," said Abu Azzam in the video, according to the newspaper.
"Osama, wait for us... We want to see Obama and Merkel dead," he was quoted as saying, adding that Germany's Reichstag parliament building would be subject to attacks like those on New York's World Trade Center in 2001. German authorities have stepped up surveillance of Salafist groups who espouse a radical version of Islam. Germany is home to roughly 4,000 Salafists, a tiny proportion of the total Muslim population of about four million. Germany's involvement in the NATO mission in Afghanistan has led to fears of an attack on German soil. Berlin is also supplying military transport planes to fly West African troops to Mali to help French and Malian forces fighting Islamist rebels.(Reporting by Thomas Seythal; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Syria releases images of site 'targeted by Israel'
Damascus' state-run TV station airs images of Jamarya Research Center, northeast of country capital, which was allegedly 'flattened' by IAF jets
Roi Kais Latest Update: 02.02.13, 23:12 / ynetnews
Syria's state-run television channel aired first images of the site allegedly targeted by Israel last week.
The images, aired on Saturday, show the damage caused by what Syria claims was an air raid against the Jamraya Scientific Research Center, on the outskirts of Damascus.Jamarya is located northwest of the war-torn country's capital. Time Magazine reported Friday that "The center was flattened out of concern that it might fall into the hands of Islamist extremists fighting to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad."
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the raid targeted a convoy of trucks carrying surface-to-air missiles from a military complex suspected of housing chemical agents towards the Lebanese border.
While both Jerusalem and Washington refrained from commenting on reports of the alleged strike, US security officials were quoted by several top American media outlets as saying that Israel informed the US about its intentions, adding that the target was a shipment of SA-17 anti-aircraft weapons that could cut into Israel's ability to fly reconnaissance flights over Lebanon.
SA-17s are highly sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, which would be strategically "game-changing" in the hands of Hezbollah. Syria, Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world, were unanimous in their condemnation of the alleged strike. Damascus announced it "reserves the right to retaliate," adding that numerous air-defense battalions – particularly those deployed in the area stretching between the Syrian capital and the Lebanese border – were placed on high alert.Iran said that it will "Lend its full support to Syria to keep it strong. The Arab world has to do everything it can to minimize the suffering of the Syrian people as they fight against Israel's aggressions and the international community's arrogance." Turkey criticized the war-torn country's inaction. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Damascus to retaliate: "Why didn't (Bashar) Assad even throw a pebble when Israeli jets were flying over his palace and playing with the dignity of his country?" Davutoglu told reporters Saturday.
"Why didn't the Syrian Army, which has been attacking its own innocent people for 22 months now from the air with jets and by land with tanks and artillery fire, respond to Israel's operation? Why can't Assad, who gave order to fire Scud missiles at Aleppo, do anything against Israel?"
Ankara, he said, "Will not stand by when a Muslim country is attacked

Ahmadinejad to make historic visit to Egypt
Islamic Republic's president to make first Cairo visit by Iranian head of state since 1979; visit part of Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit
Reuters Published: 02.02.13, 23:34 / ynetnews
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Cairo next week, becoming the first Iranian president to travel to Egypt since Iran's 1979 revolution ruptured diplomatic ties between the two most populous countries in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad will head Iran's delegation to a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, said Amani Mojtaba, head of Iran's interest section in Cairo, which it maintains in the absence of an official embassy.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Cairo next week, becoming the first Iranian president to travel to Egypt since Iran's 1979 revolution ruptured diplomatic ties between the two most populous countries in the Middle East. Ahmadinejad will head Iran's delegation to a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, said Amani Mojtaba, head of Iran's interest section in Cairo, which it maintains in the absence of an official embassy
"I hope that Iranian-Egyptian relations return to the full diplomatic level," he said.
The trip follows a visit by Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to Iran in August last year, when the two leaders agreed to reopen official embassies.
Tehran broke off relations with Cairo in 1980, a year after both Iran's revolution and Egypt's peace agreement with Israel. While the countries were estranged, Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi, who is buried in a medieval Cairo mosque alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king, Farouk. Iran named a street after the assassin who killed Egypt's President Anwar Sadat.
The 2011 uprising that toppled Egypt's former autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak has provided a chance to reopen formal relations. But Egypt, like other Sunni Muslim Arab states, remains at odds with Shiite Iran over many regional issues.
Morsi has been among the most vocal opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran's ally.
Syria's membership of the OIC was suspended at the organization's last summit, despite strong Iranian objections, and the civil war there is likely to be one of the main issues discussed in Cairo next week.
The OIC summit will be the biggest international event Morsi has hosted since taking power seven months ago as the first elected leader in Egypt's 5,000-year history.
It follows days of violent street demonstrations by his political opponents in which nearly 60 people have been killed since January 25.


Army apprehends gunmen after deadly ambush
February 02, 2013/The Daily Star
ARSAL, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army apprehended Saturday four gunmen who were trying to flee from Arsal, the country’s defense minister said, a day after an ambush on the military claimed the lives of an officer and a soldier in the border town.
The head of the Lebanese Army, who was on an official visit to France, also returned to Lebanon to follow up on the incident that drew wide condemnation from officials and politicians.
“The [Lebanese] Army arrested four gunmen who were trying to make their way out to the outskirts of Arsal,” Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn told LBCI television station, referring to the eastern town that borders Syria.
According to the minister, Army Intelligence managed to obtain a list of the gunmen involved in the ambush on the military Friday. “The Army is carrying out raids and searching Arsal to arrest the wanted suspects in the area,” Ghosn added.
In the morning, the Army beefed up its security measures by cordoning off the town and setting up checkpoints at its entrance, security sources told The Daily Star.
The Army said Friday that gunmen had carried out an ambush on a military patrol that was attempting to apprehend a man wanted “for several terrorist acts,” adding that several gunmen and other soldiers were also wounded in the fighting.
Security sources told The Daily Star Friday, that Khalid Hmayyed, the wanted man, was killed in a clash with the military, which prompted gunmen in the area to retaliate.
Friday’s ambush led to the death of Captain Pierre Bashalani, 31, and Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman, 32. Zahraman was laid to rest Saturday afternoon in his hometown of Akkar, north Lebanon. Beshalani’s funeral will be held Sunday in the Zahle town of Mraijet in east Lebanon, the army said.
Zahraman’s relatives had earlier in the day blocked several roads in Akkar, angered at authorities for not having caught the gunmen involved in the attack, security sources said.
President Michel Sleiman was among several officials to condemn the killing of the Lebanese soldiers.
“The president denounces the Arsal incident and the repeated attacks against the army and any violation of the state’s authority,” a statement from Sleiman’s office said.
Sleiman called on the Army to act “firmly with anyone violating the law and urged the Army to apprehend the gunmen and bring them to justice.”
“The security apparatuses should intensify efforts to locate the places that the gunmen fled to and bring them to justice,” the president said.
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the incident was “unacceptable under any pretext.”
“We are in a state governed by the rule of law and [we] denounce any attack against the state, its military and security institutions,” the head of the Future parliamentary bloc said in a statement.
Siniora also said the state should extend its authority throughout the country and voiced his rejection to the logic of “security by consensus.”
In the afternoon, Ghosn, the country’s defense minister, and Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati to brief him on the developments of the Arsal incident, a statement from Mikati’s press office said.
Kahwagi left to Paris Wednesday as part of an official visit to the European country. He was invited by the head of the French military, Adm. Edouard Guillaud, according to an army statement Wednesday. The statement did not specify how many days Kahwagi would spend in France during his visit.
The Army has urged Arsal residents to cooperate fully with the measures the military will be taking in the area as part of its efforts to apprehend the gunmen.
It has also warned residents that it will not be lenient “with any attempt to smuggle or hide the gunmen, and those caught committing such acts will be subject to legal prosecution.”

Egyptian Christian Girl, 13, Abducted By Muslims
Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- On December 23, 2012, 13-year-old Agape Essam Girgis from the village of Nahda, el-Ameriya, near Alexandria, went to school as usual. Failing to return home, the family knew that she went out of school accompanied by the Muslim social worker Heba and two teachers, one of the them a Salafist. She stayed missing for 9 days during which the family and sympathizers organized a sit-in in front of the renowned Alexandria Library. The Coptic Church in Alexandria also organized a conference on December 30 on the abduction of Coptic girls, with focus on Agape, which was attended by journalists and the public.
On December 31 state security contacted Bishop Pachomios and told him that they have the kidnapped girl. She was handed over to her family and the church priest where she stayed with his family for some time due to the terrible ordeal she experienced during her abduction.
Bishop Pachomios said in an aired interview with Al Balad TV that what happened to Agape is "heart-breaking." He said that she went in a taxi with her school's social worker Heba and two men, and that she was drugged and awakened to find herself in a secluded place with an elderly woman. He said that after she returned home he spoke to her and she said that the Salafists tried to convert her to Islam.
Activist Ramy Attia Zakaria, of the April 6 Liberal Movement in Alexandria, interviewed Agape upon her return and said it is now confirmed that her Muslim social worker Heba was behind the abduction. "Agape left school with her and two teachers. The girl was drugged in the car to wake up in a secluded house with two sheikhs and an elderly woman," Ramy said. He added that Agape stayed there for about eight days until three sheikhs came and spoke with one of the sheikhs she was staying with, telling him that Agape has to returned to her family as they are making demonstrations for her return. Agape said that during her stay with the Salafis sheikhs they tried to make her convert to Islam by saying the "Islamic Two Faith Confessions" but she refused. They forced her to wear the full veil and took photos of her in this dress. Agape said that she was beaten two or three times when she refused to convert to Islam.
After her release she was taken to el-Ameriya police station where she was told to say that "she has left home and went to el-Ameriya, where she found a sheikh and she told him that she wants to convert to Islam," continued Ramy. When her family received her from the police station, her father, who works as a tailor, said they do not wish to accuse anyone in this case as he was pleased to get his daughter back. "Besides I have a younger daughter and I fear for her safety" said her father. Agape's father and their church priest decided that she will not go back to school. Activist Ramy said that most of the Coptic inhabitants of Alexandria are refusing to send daughters older than 9 to school. He accused the Salafist Sheikh Sherif el-Hawary in el-Ameriya of being behind all abductions of Coptic girls in Alexandria and surrounding areas. "When a girl is abducted we go and get her from this sheikh," said Ramy.
"From the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution on January 25, 2011 until January 26, 2013, over 500 girls have been abducted," says Ebram Louis, founder of the Coptic non-governmental organization Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance (AVAED), which handles cases of abducted Coptic minors. Louis blamed the interior ministry for all the disappearances of Coptic minors, saying the ministry colludes with the Muslims. "There is hardly a day which passes by without a Coptic girl disappearing."
According to Louis it is Salafists sheikhs who are behind nearly all abduction cases, especially in Alexandria (AINA 7-13-2011) and Mersa Matrouh. "In every Egyptian province there is a Salafist association which handles the kidnapping of Coptic girls. They have homes everywhere where they keep them." He added that "if we inform the police where the kidnapped girl is being kept, they inform the Salafists, who then move her away to another home and then we lose all trace of her."
Attorney Said Fayez, who also works for AVAED, said the reason for the escalation of cases of adduction and forced Islamization of girls since the 2011 Revolution is that before the ousting of the Mubarak regime the then so-called State Security was carrying out these abductions for political reasons, and the Salafists at the time were doing the kidnapping on their behalf. "After the Revolution and with the dissolving of the State Security, it is the Salafists now that are abducting the girls." Fayez said that whenever a girls goes missing the new central security directs us to ask certain Salafist sheikhs on her whereabouts, depending on the area where the kidnapping took place. "We have observed that the age of the abducted girls is growing younger -- 13, 14 years old. A girl disappears until she is 18 years old, which is the legal age for marriage and conversion of religion." He said that they were directed by security to go to the Salafist leader of the area, Sheikh Sherif el-Howary. Attorney Fayez confirmed that this is an organized operation which includes Salafist leaders, parliamentarians and the police.
*By Mary Abdelmassih
Copyright (C) 2013, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Assad and the Israeli Air Raid
By Tariq Alhomayed
Asharq Alawsat
Israel’s air raid on Syria cannot be considered surprising, particularly as the Assad regime has done the impossible to drag Israel into the crisis, according to its own calculations, in order to portray what is happening in the country as being the result of foreign schemes. Therefore the question that must be asked here is: Why now? And what are the implications of this?
Assad has repeatedly tried to engage Israel in this regard, whether via the Golan Heights or Lebanon, but this always met with failure. However Israel has now carried out an air raid against an uncertain target, with the Assad regime claiming that this struck a research center, while international reports claim that it targeted rockets being transferred to Hezbollah. In order to further clarify this, let me relate some information that I heard about approximately six weeks ago when a well-known Arab leader told me that Israel was monitoring all weapons in Syria, and that it intends to target any arms being moved or transferred, including targeting chemical weapons sites. The Arab leader said that it would be an act of madness for Israel to take unilateral action to target Syrian chemical weapons, as the consequences of this would affect everybody. He said that it was therefore vital to convince Israel not to take this course of action. This means that Israel was, and continues to, closely monitor the situation in Syria, and it has comprehensive plans on how to deal with the developing situation there.
The implications of the Israeli operation in Syria are also very important. If this operation was to target Russian-made rockets being transferred to Hezbollah—and this is the most likely story so far—then this means that Assad has realized that the balance of power on the ground has changed, and that he is no longer even capable of ensuring that SA-17 missiles remain in his hands. The other possibility is that Assad has sensed that there may soon be international intervention against him, and therefore wants to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in the hope that they can be used from Lebanese territory. This represents last minute thinking and is ultimately a desperate move reminiscent of what Saddam Hussein did when he smuggled his warplanes to Iran following his occupation of Kuwait. This also indicates that Assad is prepared to fight till the end, but with fragile capabilities. It would be disastrous for Hezbollah to defend Assad in this manner, not just militarily, but also in terms of the group’s popular support.
Another consequence of this air raid is that it has revealed that Israel is monitoring the course of events on the ground in Syria, and is acting according to specific goals, unless Assad breaks the rules of the game. This means that it is acceptable for him to kill his people and destroy Syria, and this of course represents a strategic gain for Israel; however it is not acceptable for Assad—nor the rebels—to change the rules of the game. For all that the Israelis want is to ensure that this war continues to be an inter-Syrian affair, which exhausts Assad’s allies, particularly as Israel is sure that Assad’s fall is inevitable. This also exhausts Syria as a whole, which is something that ensures future security for Israel when the crisis ends, regardless of its result. This is because Syria as a whole will be exhausted and out of the equation for a long period of time. This viewpoint, of course, is limited. However what is strange is that this is precisely Assad and Iran’s plan, namely that there is no Syria after Assad.

Obama’s First Term May Prove Good for the Middle East
By Amir Taheri
Asharq Alawsat
Almost 68 years ago, one Valentine’s Day, President Franklin Roosevelt met Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud aboard the warship Quincy in the Suez Canal. The meeting marked the positioning of the United States as guarantor of stability in the Middle East. Eleven presidents from both parties honored that commitment with consistency. Though in appeasement mood, even President Carter defended the policy in 1980 with a forceful statement dubbed “the Carter Doctrine”.
In his first term, Obama vacillated between a desire to disengage from the Middle East and the fear of appearing weak to his electorate. The result was a weasel style policy that exposed America as a fickle friend while encouraging its foes inside and outside the region.
Obama appeared uncomfortable with the values, history and global ambitions of his own side. Without saying so in so many words he depicted the US as an “imperialist” power that, having done wrong to others, should seek atonement.
That attitude encouraged Iran’s Khomeinist regime to speed up its race towards the nuclear threshold. When Obama entered the White House, Iran was enriching uranium with a few hundred centrifuges. Today, that number is closer to 12000 in defiance of five resolutions of the United Nations’ Security Council.
The mullahs saw Obama’s offer of a “stretched hand of friendship” as America throwing its hands up.
Fear of appearing weak, persuaded Obama to try and prop up despots hit by the “Arab Spring”. Days before Hosni Mubarak bowed out; Obama’s envoy to Cairo announced declared support for “transition led by President Mubarak.”
Even then, Obama did not side with pro-democracy groups that had triggered the”Arab Spring”. He regarded them with suspicion, partly because some had benefited from the Bush administration’s “Freedom Agenda” launched in 2003. Since Obama claimed that whatever Bush did was wrong he had to find new allies, and found them in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Earlier, Obama had provoked a quarrel with the Iraqis, using it as a pretext to terminate commitments to that country’s security and development.
Obama’s “weaselism” also manifested itself in Libya. The US did the heavy-lifting in NATO’s bombing campaign against Kaddhafi. But Obama’s “ leading from behind” meant staying behind, except when it came to having your ambassador lynched by Jiahdists in Benghazi.
Obama’s “weasleism” is also clear in Syria. Anxious not to upset “re-set” with Russia, Obama has allowed Moscow to modulate America’s policy through the UN. The “re-set” happened, but on Putin’s terms.
Obama’s other achievement is to downgrade relations with Israel, branding Premier Netanyahu “a coward and a liar.” However, that did not earn him kudos from Palestinians who remember his promise of “a Palestinian state” within a year of his entry into the White House.
Thanks to Obama’s first four years, the US has lost many friends while acquiring more enemies in the region. It has been re-imaged as an indecisive actor incapable of using its immense resources in a coherent manner. Increasingly, many feel that beset by contradictions the US may have become irrelevant.
Paradoxically, Obama’s first four years may prove good for the Middle East in the long run. Obama’s confusion sapped the morale of Washington’s despotic allies, allowing speedy change in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. Having come to power in alliance with the US, Islamists could no longer use xenophobic populism to justify their probable failures.
Meanwhile, Arab countries and Turkey would have to work out how to deal with the Iranian challenge without an American or an American-Israeli input.
The American retreat might also force Israel and the Palestinians to stop waiting for the American Godot to end their conflict.