What will Chuck Hagel do about Iran's plutonium production at Arak?
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis February 27, 2013
Chuck Hagel was swept into office Tuesday, Feb. 26 by a Senate majority as Barack Obama’s new defense secretary atop a cloud of disinformation which aimed to confirm that Iran’s nuclear program has gone too far to stop - like Iran’s grip on Syria and Lebanon. This message was accentuated by what the London Telegraph called Iran’s Plan B, signified by “…a cloud of steam that indicates heavy-water production for… a nuclear reactor that can produce plutonium, which could then be used to make a bomb.”DEBKAfile: The “cloud of steam” is no proof of an active plant; it could be just a trial run, but the timing of the British paper’s publication on the day of Hagel’s Senate endorsement and the Six-Power meeting with Iran in Kazkahstan to discuss its nuclear program, underscored the view of British Prime Minister David Cameron. He has said in private conversations that US President Obama, French President Francois Hollande and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are pursuing an unrealistic policy on Iran and should accept the reality that Iran has achieved a nuclear bomb capacity. Sanctions are therefore pointless and futile and should be lifted. The point contributed by the Telegraph – for the benefit of the incoming US defense secretary - was that Iran has achieved a dual track to an atomic bomb, which only goes to strengthen Cameron’s argument. Just as unrealistically, the Kazakhstan talks focused on curtailing Iran’s uranium enrichment up to weapons grade, while Tehran was creeping up on the six powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) with its Plan B for producing a plutonium bomb. It must also be said that the Arak plant and Iran’s plan for a plutonium weapon have been around for some time and were only brought into play now to support these arguments..As for the rumors of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah coming down with cancer and being flown to a hospital in Tehran – broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 26 – even assuming they were confirmed – prove nothing. HIzballah in fact strenuously denied the rumor Tuesday night. If Nasrallah were to disappear tomorrow, Hizballah’s military, political, intelligence and terrorist arms,which are managed totally by Tehran, would simply carry on as before in Lebanon and Syria. And whatever fate may overtake even Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran is too deeply entrenched in both countries to be dislodged.
The rumors of Nasrallah’s terminal illness come one month after the assassination of Gen. Hassan Shateri aka Hossam Khosh-Nevis, who was Iran’s overlord for Syria and Lebanon. They look very much like an attempt to undermine morale in Damascus and Beirut ahead of the March 5 negotiations opening in Moscow between the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition.
It is hardly likely that the Moscow-Tehran initiative for ending the Syrian war will be affected any more than images of a head of steam over Arak will halt Iran’s nuclear program.

Details emerge on Hezbollah member arrested in Cyprus
By David Barnett/Threat Matrix
February 27, 2013/Last week, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a 24-year-old Lebanese-Swedish dual citizen who was arrested on July 7, 2012, admitted in court to being a member of Hezbollah. While Yaacoub, who had the code-name Wael, denied that he had intended to conduct an attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus, he confessed to "staking out locations Israelis would frequent and acting as a courier for [Hezbollah] inside the European Union."
In addition, Yaacoub admitted to "recording flight arrivals and bus routes of Israeli tourists and checking out a hospital parking lot," as well as partaking in "previous missions with Hezbollah" in the Netherlands, France, and Turkey. On Feb. 26, the Washington Post reported that it had obtained "legal documents summarizing [Yaacoub's] statements to police during weeks of questioning last summer" that provide a fuller picture of his activities in Cyprus prior to his arrest. Additionally, current and former US officials told the Post that "Hezbollah is learning from its mistakes, employing the tactics of professional intelligence operatives to cover its tracks and expanding its threat." Yaacoub, who was recruited by Hezbollah during his trips to Lebanon, began to visit Cyprus in 2009, according to the Post. Some reports have suggested that Yaacoub first visited in 2008, as "Mr. Yaacoub was confused about whether it was in 2008, as he said in his written testimony, or in 2009" that he first visited Cyprus, according to the New York Times.
Nonetheless, it is clear that while in Cyprus, Yaacoub claimed to be running a juice business, which he registered with Cypriot authorities. According to the Post, "Hezbollah was grooming him for a long-term mission." However, he soon "attracted suspicion because of his apparent fascination with the habits of Jewish visitors."
"I was just collecting information about the Jews....This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world." Yaacoub told investigators. Yaacoub's reconnaissance activity in Cyprus increased in 2011, when he was told by his superiors in Hezbollah "to monitor charter flights bringing Israelis to Cyprus." The documents obtained by the Post revealed that Yaacoub had "spent many hours staking out the airport [Larnaca International Airport], recording flight information and watching passengers board special buses to the island's resorts." Among other activities, he "drew maps of the areas around the resort hotels, noting security stations and the proximity of police and rescue units," the Post reported. A verdict in the case is due in mid-March, according to the Jerusalem Post. In October 2012, Yaacoub pled not guilty. Cyprus' Justice Minister has previously said that "some patterns of [Yaacoub's] behavior were the same as that of the terrorist in the Bulgarian terrorist attack." The targeting of Israeli and Jewish targets by Iran and Hezbollah appears to be on the rise. Only weeks ago, Bulgaria declared that Hezbollah was responsible for the terror attack in Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian national last July. On Feb. 20, Nigeria's State Security Service announced the arrest of three members of an Iranian-backed terror cell that was reportedly planning to carry out attacks on US and Israeli interests as well as former Nigerian officials. Immediately following the Burgas attack, the NYPD's Intelligence Division said Iran has "sharply increased its operational tempo and its willingness to conduct terrorist attacks targeting Israeli interests and the International Jewish community worldwide." Between May 2011 and July 2012, over 20 attacks tied to Iran and Hezbollah against Israelis and Jews abroad were thwarted. These thwarted attacks, not all of which were publicly reported, took place in Cyprus, Turkey, Kenya, India, Thailand, and Azerbaijan, and elsewhere.

Elaborate surveillance operation raises concerns about broader Hezbollah attacks
By Joby Warrick, Feb 27, 2013/The Washington Post
The Israeli tourists on Arkia Airlines Flight 161 from Tel Aviv could not have known it, but their arrival in Cyprus July 6 was watched closely. A pair of trained eyes counted each passenger as the group exited the plane and boarded a shuttle, headed for resorts that had also been carefully studied and mapped. The bearded foreigner who silently tracked the Israelis had done his work well. He knew where the visitors would sleep, shop and eat. He knew how many security guards patrolled their hotel parking lots and how long it would take police to arrive from the station down the street. But the watcher was being watched. When Cypriot police picked him up, the Hezbollah operative quickly acknowledged what he was doing, although he claimed not to know why.“I was just collecting information about the Jews,” he told police, according to a sworn deposition. “This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world.”The arrest of Hossam Yaakoub, a Lebanese-born Swedish citizen, on July 7 was all but forgotten 11 days later when a bus containing another group of vacationing Israelis was blown up in the Bulgarian resort city of Burgas . The attack, which killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver, was quickly blamed on Hezbollah. Now, seven months after that attack, new details emerging in Yaakoub’s case are providing chilling insights into what investigators describe as a far broader effort by the Lebanon-based militant group to lay the groundwork for killing Israeli citizens and perhaps others in multiple countries. Some details have come from Yaakoub himself, who made his first public appearance last week during his trial in Cyprus. But a much fuller account comes from legal documents summarizing the Swedish man’s statements to police during weeks of questioning last summer and obtained by The Washington Post.The evidence echoes discoveries by investigators in Bulgaria and prosecutors in Thailand, India, Azerbaijan, Kenya and other countries hit by a wave of attempted assassinations and bombings linked to Hezbollah or its chief sponsor, Iran. U.S. officials characterize the plots as part of a shadow war directed by Iran in part to retaliate for Western efforts to derail Iran’s nuclear program. Evidence uncovered by investigators portrays a professional, well-funded effort by Hezbollah to recruit, train and position European-based operatives for what U.S. analysts describe as preparations for future terrorist operations.
‘Calculated tradecraft’
While most of the attacks were thwarted or failed, the accumulated intelligence shows that Hezbollah is learning from its mistakes, employing the tactics of professional intelligence operatives to cover its tracks and expanding its threat, according to current and former U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing nature of the inquiries.“In the beginning, they clearly emphasized speed over tradecraft,” said Matthew Levitt, a former counterterrorism official with the FBI and Treasury Department and author of the forthcoming book “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God.” An analysis of the more recent plots shows a shift in tactics, said Levitt, who said the Cyprus case in particular “underscores a very patient, careful and calculated tradecraft.”

Kidnapping arrests made in Beirut, two plots foiled
February 28, 2013 /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Higher Defense Council promised swift action Wednesday against a wave of kidnappings as authorities announced that progress had been made in recent cases.
The news came as Nazih Nassar, who was abducted around one month ago, was released in the Bekaa Valley. The National News Agency said a jeep dumped Nassar on the road at the entrance to the village of Brital and sped off. The NNA said Nassar made it safely home and denied that a ransom had been paid for his release. He was abducted in the town of Torbol and media reports indicated that the family was asked to pay a $2 million, non-negotiable ransom.
The Army said its Intelligence Unit thwarted two kidnapping attempts over the weekend after it tracked down two gangs and raided their homes, while the Internal Security Forces announced five other suspects in recent kidnappings were arrested by the police this month.
The Army issued a statement that said Musa Ali Harb was allegedly involved in a plot to kidnap a Lebanese expatriate visiting the country.
“After receiving information that Musa Ali Harb was planning to kidnap an expatriate named Ali Sabah, an Army unit then raided Harb’s residence in Beirut and detained him on Feb. 23,” the statement said, adding that the arrest had been made after closely monitoring Harb’s movements.
The statement also said an Army intelligence unit had foiled another kidnapping attempt that was being allegedly planned by a Syrian man identified as Ziad Abidine al-Jamal.
Jamal, who was arrested in the Zahirieh neighborhood of Tripoli, was working with accomplices to kidnap the son of the owner of Al-Mir Bakeries in Tripoli, the statement said.
It added that the gang was planning to demand $1 million in ransom.
The army said it was pursuing leads in order to arrest any accomplices in the two cases.
For its part, the ISF said three suspects in the abduction of 66-year-old Najib Youssef Youssef had been arrested in the southern city of Tyre. Youssef was kidnapped earlier this month and released five days later. The kidnappers had demanded $3 million for his release, but it wasn’t known how much money was paid to win his release.
Two suspects in the case, who were identified only by their initials, were arrested last Tuesday and the third last Friday, the ISF said.
The statement added that the ISF arrested Tuesday two other individuals believed to be involved in the kidnapping of a Syrian man, Ayman Badr Sabbagh, earlier this month.
“During interrogations with the arrested men, they admitted that they carried out the kidnapping with the help of others,” the statement said.
A wave of kidnappings over the past two years began by targeting wealthy businesspeople, and has recently seen the children of well-off individuals targeted by criminals. The latest incident was the abduction of a 12-year-old boy outside his house in a Beirut neighborhood. The boy was released days later after his family reportedly paid a $250,000 ransom.
Security sources told The Daily Star that the Internal Security Forces and the Army had identified at least 30 suspects involved in acts of kidnapping. The sources said that Army officials briefed participants in Wednesday’s session of the Higher Defense Council about a total of 37 suspects who are being sought by the authorities.
According to the sources, President Michel Sleiman urged the Army and senior security officials to bring the suspects to justice as soon as possible.
“Sleiman said during the meeting that whoever the kidnappers are and wherever they are from, they should be arrested at all costs,” a source said.
The Higher Defense Council said it also discussed Israeli violations of national sovereignty and incidents of “unrest” in the northeast of the country, as security bodies and ministries were instructed to deal with the threats.
Meanwhile, Lebanese leaders denounced the spate of kidnappings and called on citizens throughout the country to help the security forces arrest the perpetrators.
In a televised speech Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called the rash of kidnappings a “dangerous precedent.”
“We will not give anyone involved in kidnappings political cover and shelter,” Nasrallah said. “There are no streets and regions that are closed to the police and I call on all citizens to help them to catch the kidnappers,” he added. “Such money is the worst kind of money, it is fully rejected because it destroys homes, families and the country.”

Nasrallah warns rivals not to provoke Hezbollah
 February 28, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah Wednesday issued a strongly worded warning against what he said were attempts to incite Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon, advising his rivals: “Don’t make any miscalculations with us.” He also said that Shiite Lebanese living in Syria had the right to defend themselves against rebel attacks, asking them to spare the lives of civilians. Nasrallah’s remarks came during a televised speech he said had been brought forward to counter rumors that he had recently been transferred to Iran for medical treatment and Hezbollah figure Sheikh Naim Qassem had been killed by the rebel Free Syrian Army. The Hezbollah leader denounced efforts to incite sectarian clashes, particularly between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon, and criticized accusations that his party had a role in several security incidents. “There is someone pushing Lebanon in a swift manner into sectarian clashes and working day and night toward achieving this objective and a clash between Sunnis and Shiites,” he said. “This destroys everyone, and ignites the country into flames and no one has an interest in that.”He slammed as baseless the rhetoric by some Sunni lawmakers and sheikhs and said it contributed to the risk of strife.
“I think ... statements by some MPs and religious figures from the honorable Sunni community are taking an escalatory trend and that is very dangerous,” he said. “It’s also based on illusions that others build upon and present as facts while Hezbollah has nothing to do with it.”He also denied allegations that Hezbollah was involved in the shooting of two Sunni sheikhs last year at an Army checkpoint, as well as the October assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan or the Arsal incident earlier this month which left two soldiers dead.
“These are dangerous allegations. Where do you think you’re taking the country [with such remarks]?” he said.
Without naming him, Nasrallah responded to Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who recently said that Hezbollah members had moved into his area in order to attack him. “There are thousands of Shiite families and voters in Sidon ... we have centers in Abra [where Assir’s mosque is] even before any mosque was built. We were there before,” Nasrallah said. He said his party would not respond to insults or be dragged to retaliate on the ground.
“We are very, very keen on preventing confrontation but no one should make any miscalculations with us,” Nasrallah warned. Late last year, two of Assir’s bodyguards were killed along with an Egyptian passerby during clashes with Hezbollah in the Taamir neighborhood of Sidon over a dispute that resulted from the hanging of Hezbollah banners in the city. The fighting also left five other people wounded, among them a Hezbollah commander.
“We don’t want to attack anyone, or take over anything. We are busy trying to remain prepared for what Israel is planning for Lebanon, the region and Palestine,” the Hezbollah leader said, adding that the government should be held responsible for the sectarian incitements.Nasrallah touched on recent border clashes between the rebel Free Syrian Army and members of Hezbollah, saying that Shiite Lebanese living in Syria had the right to defend themselves.Three members of the resistance group and 12 Syrian rebels were killed two weeks ago during battles in the Syrian border town of Al-Qusair which is mainly inhibited by Shiite Lebanese.
“The Syrian opposition is the one that controlled [border] villages inhabited by Shiite Lebanese, forced their migration and burned their houses and crops ... those who remained armed and defended themselves, their houses, their fields,” Nasrallah said.
He added that Lebanese had been living there for over a century before the demarcation of borders between Syria and Lebanon and therefore had the right to retaliate against attackers.
“They have the right to defend themselves, and whoever is killed [in these battles] is considered a martyr, but these people did not attack civilians,” he said.
“I tell everyone there that you have the legitimate right of self-defense ... but the rest of civilians regardless of their sect and political stances are off limits,” Nasrallah said, criticizing the government for its inaction regarding the issue. He said the government failed to exert any political or diplomatic efforts to help 30,000 Lebanese living in Syria facing “sectarian cleansing” by appealing to countries that support the opposition including Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Nasrallah did not comment on FSA claims that the party was shelling Syrian territory near Qusair, but urged Lebanese in the border town to agree to any truce in order to preserve their land.
Referring to rumors circulated by the media in recent days about his health and the killing of a top Hezbollah commander, Nasrallah said such reports were part of a media campaign against the party.
“The rumors that were promoted generated a negative climate, which prompted me to make this appearance,” he said.

Election law talks back to square one in Lebanon
February 28, 2013 01:47 AM By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Efforts to reach consensus on an electoral law returned to square one Wednesday after Speaker Nabih Berri withdrew his hybrid proposal, saying it had become a point of contention among rival groups.
After Berri’s move, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah proposed adopting proportional representation with Lebanon as a single district. Nasrallah called on rivals in the March 14 coalition to accept his proposal and prove that they had the support of the majority of the population as they claim. “My proposal was blasted by the March 8 and March 14 coalitions ... the proposal was unacceptable, it has now become a point of contention,” Berri was quoted as saying to MPs who attended his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his residence in Ain al-Tineh. “I tell them: You did not accept it and you did not propose another one that could win consensus. I say again, we are left with either the Orthodox proposal or implementing Article 22 of the Constitution,” the speaker continued. According to Article 22, Parliament would be elected on a non-confessional basis, while a Senate is established in which all the religious communities are represented. Berri said that the time had come for having a Parliament elected on a non-confessional basis while keeping the equal distribution of seats between Muslims and Christians. “We are fed up with sectarian draft laws that have been adopted since 1948,” he said.
Berri’s proposal, which he withdrew, calls for 64 lawmakers to be elected based on a winner-takes-all system and 64 to be elected under proportional representation. Those elected under a winner-takes-all system would run in qadas as electoral districts and those under proportional representation would be elected by voters of governorates. Berri said that his proposal did not give a majority for either group and allowed candidates from a centrist bloc to be elected as well. “Although no consensus was achieved on this proposal, it made progress because all blocs now accept proportional representation but do not agree on the number [of MPs to be elected based on it],” Berri was quoted as saying. The Orthodox plan would enable every sect to elect its own MPs under proportional representation, with the entirety of Lebanon as a single district.
Nasrallah said in a televised speech that because Berri had withdrawn his proposal, he believed that having Lebanon as a single district under proportional representation was a fair voting system.
“The proposal for Lebanon as one single district under proportional representation is a fair proposal that achieves equality, national integration, protects the country and prevents the rise of extremists,” Nasrallah said.“It does not divide the country based on the interests of parties, sects, movements, or families as some people are doing with other electoral proposals,” he added. “Let us sit and discuss the advantages of this draft law on the national level.”
Nasrallah said the Orthodox proposal was still present and had the backing of a majority in Parliament, but added that all political groups were now looking for alternatives.
“The March 14 coalition says it has the support of the majority of population, then let it [join elections] in a law which adopts Lebanon as a single district. Proportional representation allows all sides to be represented based on their size,” Nasrallah said in a challenge to March 14.
Nasrallah dismissed claims that his party was working on delaying elections that are scheduled for June, saying that rivals in Lebanon and some foreign powers had an interest in postponing the polls. “Holding Hezbollah responsible for a [potential delay] in elections is not right. There is a lot of talk about delaying the polls and there are foreign and local forces pushing in the direction of postponement. No one has the courage to say it publicly,” Nasrallah explained. “We, Hezbollah have an interest in holding elections on time under a new law,” he added.
“We do not suffer any financial problems and have no problems with our allies, our situation is good. So why would we want to delay the elections?” he asked.
In an indirect reference to the Future Movement, Nasrallah said that groups interested in delaying the polls were those experiencing financial crises and had cracks in their alliances.
Separately, Berri also met Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour from the Progressive Socialist Party who visited him with a delegation from the party. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Abu Faour said Berri would not allow any law to pass that went against the National Pact in Parliament, in reference to a possible vote on the Orthodox proposal.
“The Orthodox proposal contradicts the National Pact and I don’t think Speaker Berri or any other political group would risk carrying on with a law that enhances divisions among the Lebanese,” Abu Faour said.
Abu Faour said that the PSP was discussing a draft electoral law with the Future Movement that would serve the interests of all political parties. “We are working on having a draft law that provides balance and fair representation for all groups.” Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat said that having Lebanon as one district with proportional representation, which was also proposed by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, did not serve the interests of Christians. “His [Aoun’s] proposal ... is the worst for Christians, because it allows them to elect only 38 percent of their MPs,” he said. “Aoun wants only to win with his ally Hezbollah.”
The March 14 General Secretariat said after its regular meeting it was satisfied with talks within the March 14 coalition, headed by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, to agree on an electoral law.
Meanwhile, President Michel Sleiman discussed with Siniora ongoing efforts to reach an agreement on a modern electoral law that provides fair representation in line with the Constitution and the National Pact, a statement issued from Baabda Palace said. The president also tackled proposed draft electoral laws with former Minister Fouad Butros. Butros headed a commission in 2006 that submitted a proposal combining proportional representation with a winner-takes-all system.

Northern Bekaa gives cause for concern
February 28, 2013 01:46 AM By Nicholas Blanford/The Daily Star
HERMEL, Lebanon: Recent reports from Tripoli suggest that yet another round of violence is imminent between rival communities in Jabal Mohsen and surrounding areas.
But while the long-running feud between the city’s Sunni and Alawite communities continues to cause concern, it is the northern Bekaa Valley out of all Lebanon’s potential flashpoints that should elicit the greatest worry. There are other areas of the country where Sunnis and Shiites live in close proximity that have the potential for trouble, such as Sidon and its suburbs, the central Bekaa, and areas of Beirut.
But the northern Bekaa Valley is potentially the most dangerous because of the dynamics of the Shiite and Sunni communities that live there. Both communities are rooted in strong tribal traditions, have a general disdain for the authority of the state, are fiercely independent, have a history of militancy, are well armed and, most pertinently, have chosen to actively back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war raging just across the border.
The Sunnis of the northeast Bekaa Valley, centered on the town of Arsal, are staunch backers of the Syrian armed opposition. Arsal’s relative isolation from the rest of the country and its proximity to Syria via routes across the rugged unpopulated mountains to the north (to reach the Al-Qusair area) and east (to the Nabk region) has turned the town into a logistical support hub for rebel militants.
Several hundred Sunnis from the northern Bekaa Valley and elsewhere in Lebanon have joined various rebel groups and are fighting inside Syria.
The northwest Bekaa Valley is predominantly Shiite, and centered on the town of Hermel. Hezbollah is the dominant political force in the area and enjoys a high level of support from the local Shiite community. It is no secret that Hezbollah fighters are operating inside Syria, particularly in a string of some 23 villages populated by Lebanese Shiites opposite the border town of Al-Qasr. Some 5 kilometers east of these Shiite villages is Al-Qusair, which lies in rebel hands. This has resulted in the peculiar situation where Lebanese Sunnis (with the armed Syrian opposition) and Lebanese Shiites (with Hezbollah) are fighting and killing each other just across the border inside Syria, while maintaining a wary peace when they withdraw back inside Lebanon.
A mere 6 kilometers of flat unpopulated stony terrain separates the Hezbollah-dominated Hermel area, bordered to the east by the Orontes river, from the mainly Sunni Masharih al-Qaa district where opposition rebels can be found. So far, both sides appear to recognize the dire consequences of allowing the conflict in Syria to spill across the border. Sunni and Shiite militants and residents in the northern Bekaa generally air the same sentiment: If they leave us alone, we will leave them alone. Traditionally, there has been little sectarian hostility between the two communities in the northern Bekaa Valley, but the war in Syria has stoked mutual fears and suspicions.
“We are very worried about the Salafists coming here and attacking us,” said Abu Ali, a local businessman who lives in Hermel. “We all support Hezbollah here. They are our only guarantee of protection.”
But a few kilometers across the valley to the east and there is no disguising the anger of Sunnis toward Hezbollah.
“When we are done there [in Syria] we are going after Hezbollah here,” said Khaled, a Sunni from a village in the northern Bekaa Valley who fights with the Syrian rebels. “The Free Syrian Army will come and clean Lebanon and then leave, just like we are helping them there [against President Bashar Assad’s regime].”
Developments in the northern Bekaa in recent weeks risks overturning the reluctance of both sides to drag the war into Lebanon. The deadly clash between the Lebanese Army and residents of Arsal at the beginning of the month, which left a local militant and two soldiers dead, placed the town in the spotlight.
The Air Assault regiment of the Army established a checkpoint on the only asphalted road leading into the town and patrolled the outskirts while the judiciary issued summons for some three dozen people for questioning, including the mayor, Ali Hujeiri. But instead of yielding to the demands of the state, the residents adopted a defiant stand bolstered by a flow of Sunni delegations to Arsal to lend their support.
Initially, the Army’s security measures isolated Arsal from Syria, essentially neutralizing it from supporting the armed rebels. The local residents also claimed that Hezbollah units had deployed into the mountains east of Ras Baalbek, which lies north of Arsal, to serve as a blocking force if the FSA rebels continued to use the route to slip into Al-Qusair.
Such a step would have been a bold and risky undertaking by Hezbollah and would almost certainly have led to clashes in the remote mountains.
However, tensions appear to have eased somewhat in recent days with political and diplomatic sources in Beirut as well as FSA militants in Arsal saying that the clandestine routes from Arsal to Syria are no longer being heavily patrolled by the Army and that no Hezbollah presence has been detected in the mountains north of the town, allowing once more for the flow of cross-border traffic.
But the fragile peace in the northern Bekaa came under renewed threat last week with the FSA delivering a 48-hour ultimatum to Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria or face having its “positions” shelled inside Lebanon. At the expiry of the deadline, an FSA statement claimed to have attacked a Hezbollah position on Hawsh Sayyed Ali on the border near Hermel. There was no attack, as confirmed by a Daily Star correspondent who was a few hundred meters from Hawsh Sayyed Ali at the time of the claimed shelling.
However, five days earlier, two rockets struck the center of Al-Qasr for the first time. There were no injuries, according to Rakan Jaafar, the mayor of the village.
The FSA released a video purportedly showing militants firing homemade rockets at “Hezbollah positions inside Lebanon,” underlining that the attack was deliberate and not simply a result of stray rounds. There also have been a number of unreported incidents in the past month or two of mortar rounds, presumably fired by the FSA, exploding just across the border in the Hermel area. The Daily Star was shown what appeared to be two mortar impact sites beside Mazraat Beit al-Tashm near Hermel. The FSA may not have followed up on last week’s threat to shell Hezbollah inside Lebanon, but tensions in the northern Bekaa Valley are rising and it will require a high level of discipline and control from both sides to ensure that the violence remains on the Syria side of the border.

Judiciary proves last hope for lost causes
February 28, 2013/By Meris Lutz/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Independent unions, women’s nationality rights, civil marriage, justice for the disappeared – causes once considered lost are being successfully championed in Lebanon’s judiciary after years of being shunted aside.
“It’s what we call strategic litigation, to get a change in policy,” said Nizar Saghieh, a well-known lawyer and activist who has represented many such cases. “I believe that having a government and a Parliament who ... are more attached to the protection of their interests than the protection of the public interest [means] yes, the judiciary may be a good arena to defend a cause.”
Many of these claims can be loosely gathered under the umbrella of “civil society.” While civil society has become something of a catchall phrase, legal professionals and activists who spoke to The Daily Star repeatedly invoked the civil state as one in which the rights of citizens as individuals trump their rights as members of a particular religious sect. What most of these causes have in common, from women’s citizenship to investigating mass graves from the Civil War, is that they been dismissed as a threat to the country’s sectarian power-sharing agreement.
Over time, the few activists, lawyers, notaries, judges and even politicians who have been working toward empowering individual over collective rights have built up a network of like-minded individuals in strategic positions, although each is mindful to maintain boundaries or else risk endangering their tenuous gains. “As professionals, we cannot call ourselves activists,” said Joseph Bcharra, the notary who certified the country’s first civil marriage contract. “We have a professional duty to provide a legal service. We can say that in the administration, there are people who are ready to implement the law and grant people their rights.”
Civil society, labor and women’s rights movements have scored a number of legal victories in recent years.
In 2009, Lebanese national Samira Souweidan successful petitioned a court to grant her four children Lebanese citizenship even though her late husband was Egyptian. The state appealed the ruling, and the case is currently pending in the Court of Cassation, the highest appeals court. Last year, a court sided with employees of the supermarket chain Spinney’s in their struggle to form an independent union, and a few weeks ago, the Justice Ministry’s Higher Consultative Committee approved the civil marriage contract of Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish. The couple is now waiting for the Interior Ministry to formally recognize the marriage.
Saghieh himself recently succeeded in winning the right to have a forensic expert examine an alleged mass grave in the Baabda village of Shabanieh that was previously sealed off by authorities.
He is suing on behalf of the Committee for the Families of the Disappeared, which represents some of the families of the over 17,000 people who went missing in Lebanon, mostly during the Civil War. The lawyer hopes the evidence gathered by the forensic expert will be a first step toward opening Shabanieh and other alleged mass graves scattered throughout the country. The final verdict in expected sometime in the next few months.
“We hope that even if we don’t win the case, [the judiciary] can become the theater for such causes,” said Saghieh. “Strategic litigation is a new phenomenon in Lebanon. When the government opposes such causes more people will look toward other possibilities, and the judiciary is one of those possibilities.”
Unlike the government, Saghieh pointed out, a judge is obliged not only to reply to cases that have been filed, but to justify his or her decision on legal grounds. Despite this, for many years it was widely perceived as weak compared to the traditional political power players. Even civil society NGOs tend to focus more on drafting legislation than litigation. Over time, however, people grew frustrated with the endless protests, with no response from the executive branch. “Previously, all these movements just chanted slogans; they didn’t have the methodology or legal studies to support these steps on the ground, but today it’s different,” Bcharra said.
“There is a general feeling among citizens now that the confessional system is choking us, and people are being turned back into numbers within sects as a prelude to a new round of sectarian violence. Many people have come to feel that there is no alternative other than citizenship.”
Talal Husseini, the head of the Civil Center for National Initiative and the driving force behind the recent resurgence of the civil marriage debate, said the problem was often the lax implementation of laws that already exist.
Husseini, a writer and researcher who has been mistakenly identified as Succariyeh and Darwish’s lawyer in media reports, has devoted much energy to studying the historical roots of the country’s confessional political system. It was his study of the Lebanese personal status law and its Ottoman and French precedents on which the civil marriage contract was based.
“People have been talking for years about a law for civil marriage in Lebanon, and they ask a sectarian Parliament to give them a civil personal status law, and this will not happen,” he said. “The plan is to create a reality on the ground using the existing laws.” Husseini said he was not surprised when the initial protests inspired by the Arab uprisings and calling for the fall of the country’s sectarian regime fizzled, leaving many disappointed that Lebanon seemed to be left out of the wave of change sweeping the region. “There is no regime; there are remnants of a regime,” he said. “We are using the Constitution and the laws to bring down the remnants of the sectarian regime and to open the door to a nonsectarian regime, a civil state. Many people criticize this mobilization for being too slow, but I say this pace is necessary for real change.”
The efforts to push certain issues through the judiciary have not been without setbacks.
In 2010, Judge John Azzi, who ruled in favor of Souweidan in her quest to secure Lebanese nationality for her children, was removed from his post as a chief magistrate of the Civil Court of First Instance in the Metn after a series of similar rulings that appeared to challenge the confessional personal status laws.
In some of his most controversial rulings, Azzi approved the adoption of a child by a couple who had been married in a civil ceremony and granted shared custody in a civil divorce case. Azzi is currently a court counselor at the civil appeals court.
Despite the incremental pace of progress, many see the judiciary as a potential platform for forcing action of some kind from the state, or at least being heard.
“There is cooperation between the civil society, which continues to raise these social issues, and the legal institutions in all its branches, especially the judiciary, which is issuing very daring verdicts granting rights to those who are entitled to them,” said Bcharra. “There is a kind of accrual happening, which at a certain moment will become a qualitative shift.”

Lost in Geagea’s maze of maneuvering
February 28, 2013/By Michael Young/The Daily Star
The tension between Samir Geagea and the Future Movement is palpable thanks to Geagea’s support for the Orthodox election proposal. But beyond the political calculations that we know – the fact that the Lebanese Forces leader does not want to appear “less Christian” than Michel Aoun (in a rivalry that has devastated Christian fortunes) – what deeper thoughts explain his decision? A fair answer shows that there continues to be Christian mistrust of Muslim political power. Amid talk of Sunni-Shiite tension threatening Lebanon, we cannot underestimate that an old fault line, between Christians and Muslims, still very much survives, despite Geagea’s alliance with Saad Hariri and Aoun’s closeness to Hezbollah.
In discussions with journalists, Geagea has reportedly justified his support for the Orthodox scheme by arguing, among other things, that he sought to contain Walid Jumblatt. For Geagea, the 1960 law will lead to a similar alignment to what we have today, which will give Jumblatt the ability to hold the balance between March 8 and March 14. This the Lebanese Forces leader wanted to prevent, insisting that by pushing Jumblatt into a corner, he would then force the Druze leader to rejoin March 14, which is good for the coalition.
Perhaps, but there are several problems with this rationale. For one thing, the 1960 law is far more likely to bring March 14 a parliamentary majority, while the Orthodox plan will not do so. So, forcing Jumblatt to adhere once again to March 14 seems slightly ridiculous a goal if, ultimately, there is no majority to show for it; or rather, if the plan to compel Jumblatt to reintegrate March 14 actively ensures the coalition will not win a parliamentary majority. Moreover, Geagea’s calculation may be faulty in another way. Recently, Jumblatt visited Saudi Arabia in what was plainly a reconciliation visit. This suggested that Saudi funding may have resumed, or will soon resume, which is essential to Jumblatt’s power of patronage. Under such circumstances, does he have any latitude to betray March 14 a second time, which would mean a new cutoff of Saudi money? Can Jumblatt afford this at a difficult time economically for his electorate?
All this suggests a more profound malaise in Geagea, one that goes beyond his declared aims in approving the Orthodox law. It’s very likely that the Lebanese Forces leader took badly the meeting between Jumblatt and Saad Hariri last January to discuss the electoral law. This came at a time when the 1960 law was likely to prevail given the inability to agree on an alternative, and neglect by Future officials of Geagea’s own election law proposal. The meeting also was held at a moment when the mood in the Future Movement was that Hariri would not place Lebanese Forces candidates on his lists as Geagea had sought.
The Hariri-Jumblatt meeting must have provoked complex thoughts in Geagea. Here was the Druze leader being received with open arms by the man whom he had undermined a year earlier, while he, Samir Geagea, the unshakeable ally who had done more than most to reconcile Sunnis and Christians, was taken for granted. Worse, here was Geagea holding the fort in Lebanon, while Hariri had spent nearly two years abroad, and getting nothing for his efforts.
So, as the Lebanese Forces leader saw it, he was the Christian dupe, destined to pick up the crumbs of a Sunni-Druze entente. Hariri’s mistake was not to sense this displeasure and head it off, no doubt the heaviest price he has had to pay for his prolonged and damaging absence. But more worrisome is that Geagea likely interpreted his predicament in the context of Christian-Muslim mistrust.
Which leads us to a third motivation, namely that Geagea is nervous about the Sunni revival that is occurring thanks to the uprising in Syria, a revival he feels may marginalize him completely. Geagea was already embarrassed by Sheikh Ahmad Assir’s foray into Faraya on the Prophet’s Birthday, which angered many Christians. He felt, rightly, that it was a case of Assir provoking a confrontation to rally support, and that his own political interests were completely ignored. But beyond Assir, Geagea senses that if Islamists triumph in Syria, there will be negative consequences in Lebanon, and many Christians may well embrace those who best express their fears. Aoun has been a consistent opponent of Sunni Islamism, and Geagea doesn’t want to lose political ground to him over Syria. Worse, with the Future Movement frequently outmaneuvered by Salafist groups, Geagea worries that the trend in the Sunni community is toward radicalization.
The diagnosis may prove correct, but Geagea’s reaction is bizarre. The only way Salafists will be marginalized is if the Future Movement and other moderate Sunnis do well in the elections. This will definitely not happen under the Orthodox proposal. On the contrary, if the proposal passes, thanks to the proportional representation it mandates we can expect fringe groups to do far better than under the 1960 law.
Some will insist that the entire debate is worthless, given that the Orthodox proposal is unlikely to be approved by Parliament. Perhaps, but in that case Geagea has been duplicitous, with some journalists who have talked to him suggesting that he favors the Boutros commission election proposal. So basically Geagea is playing sectarian politics for reasons of convenience, which means, additionally, that we should doubt his reasons for supporting the Orthodox proposal. But an arch-maneuverer is not likely to secure public confidence, particularly when he has earned the mistrust of his political allies.
Voters will judge Geagea on his ideas, not his acrobatics. In recent years he has stuck to his positions, as others have readjusted theirs. This made him credible. However, his latest moves on the Orthodox proposal smack of opportunism, sectarian opportunism above all.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Pope Admits 'Stormy Waters' as he Bids Farewell to Huge Crowds
Naharnet /Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday admitted "stormy waters" during his pontificate as he held his last audience in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of pilgrims on the eve of his historic resignation.
Benedict toured the Vatican plaza in his famous "popemobile,” stopping to kiss children and waving to the crowd of more than 100,000 gathered under a bright, cloudless sky. Some in the throng held up huge banners with messages such as "Benedict, we'll miss you!" and "The pope is the heart of this city!" or waved the Vatican's yellow and white flag at the pontiff's last public event. The pope drew an analogy between his reign and a miracle recounted in the Bible when Jesus Christ calmed the waters as he was sailing with his disciples including St. Peter -- a fisherman by trade who is believed by Christians to be the first pope. "The Lord gave us days of sun and of light breeze, days in which the fishing was good. There were also moments when there were stormy waters and headwinds," the pope said. "But I always knew that God was in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, is not ours, but is his and he will not let it sink," the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics told the cheering crowd. Benedict also said his decision to resign -- which makes him the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages -- had not been an easy one but had been taken for the good of the Church. "I took this step in full awareness of its gravity and novelty but with profound serenity of spirit," he said, adding: "I will continue to accompany the Church with prayer and reflection." Pilgrims flocked to bid a final farewell to the frail 85-year-old, who earlier this month abruptly cut short his pontificate, an eight-year reign dogged by scandal and Vatican infighting, by declaring he was too weak to keep up with the modern world. "I have come in gratitude for everything he has done these past eight years," said Father Giulio, a 67-year-old priest from the Abruzzo region.
"Resigning is a powerful message for every Christian. He resigned without bitterness but instead in sweetness and serenity," he said.
The Vicar General of Rome, cardinal Agostino Vallini, said residents of the Italian capital were turning out in great numbers because they felt a special bond with the aging pope. "It is something our heart and our faith demands," Vallini told Vatican Radio ahead of the event. "Rome likes the pope a lot and feels a special affection for him so it could not miss his last public act," he said. Benedict's resignation is a break with Catholic tradition that has worried conservatives but kindled the hopes of Catholics around the world who want a successor who will breathe new life into the Church. Rome has been gripped by speculation over what prompted Benedict to resign and who the leading candidates might be to replace him, as cardinals from around the world fly in ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope. Rumors and counter-rumors in the Italian media suggest cut-throat behind-the-scenes lobbying, prompting the Vatican to condemn what it has called "unacceptable pressure" to influence the papal election. Campaign groups have also lobbied the Vatican to exclude two cardinals accused of covering up child sex abuse from the upcoming election conclave. The Vatican has said Benedict will receive the title of "Roman pontiff emeritus" and can still be addressed as "Your Holiness" and wear the white papal cassock after he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday. Just before that time, the Vatican said Benedict will be whisked off by helicopter to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome where he will begin a life out of the public eye.
Benedict will wave from the residence's balcony one last time before retreating to a private chapel and, as he has said, a life "hidden from the world". Starting next week, cardinals from around the world will begin a series of meetings to decide what the priorities for the Catholic Church should be, set a start date for the conclave and consider possible candidates for pope. The conclave -- a centuries-old tradition with an elaborate ritual -- is supposed to be held within 15 to 20 days of the death of the pope, but Benedict has given special dispensation for the cardinals to bring that date forward as no mourning period is needed. A total of 115 "cardinal electors" are scheduled to take part after one voter said he was too sick and another, British cardinal Keith O'Brien, said he would not be taking part after allegations emerged that he made unwanted advances towards priests in the 1980s. Agence France Presse

Truck Wheel Blows Up in Hazmieh, Explosion Heard in Beirut's Southern Suburb
Naharnet/The wheel of a truck blew up near Hazmieh highway on Tuesday night and the explosion was heard in the southern suburb of Beirut. “The explosion took place at al-Sayyad bridge and it was heard all over the southern suburb of Beirut,” al-Manar television reported. Meanwhile, Future TV said the explosion took place around the Hadi Nasrallah highway. “Sirens were heard in the region afterwards,” it added. Several explosions are repeatedly heard in Beirut's southern suburb, without any information regarding their cause or an official report by judicial authorities. In January, an explosion was heard in al-Abbas street in Hay al-Sellom neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburb, al-Jadeed television reported. “An explosive device was placed under Hizbullah member Abbas Mazloum's car,” Future television detailed, adding that the explosion took place near an AMAL Movement office.

Miqati Says Final Evaluation of Wage Scale Financing is Underway: Street Escalation Won't Lead Anywhere
Naharnet /Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Wednesday that the Syndicate Coordination Committee's movements are “futile and useless”, urging the protesters to refrain from escalation as “it will not lead anywhere”."No one is against the new wage scale,” Miqati expressed during Wednesday's cabinet session, adding that he had explained his point of view to the SCC in this regard. "The SCC, however, is seeking media attention,” he expressed. Miqati revealed that a final evaluation of the revenues needed to fund the new wage scale is being conducted at the moment. The Prime Minister said that an agreement has been reached on a series of measures to address some security issues “in a wise and calm manner”. “But some people have not appreciated this approach,” he remarked. The SCC had urged on Wednesday President Michel Suleiman to call for an extraordinary cabinet session, vowing to stage a general strike if its demands weren't met by the end of the week. Angry protesters held banners that read “we will not back down until the new salary scale is referred to the parliament without any delay”. Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi, however, said that new wage scale will not be discussed at Wednesday's cabinet session. Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5) reported earlier on Wednesday that Education Minister Hassan Diab will raise the issue of the new wage scale during the cabinet sessions, describing the situation as unbearable. Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud told VDL: “No one is against the new wage scale, but I personally won't raise the issue”.The cabinet has been stalling in finding sources to fund the scale that was approved last year, leading to growing differences with the SCC, which has been accusing it of negligence.
The government argues that it is delaying the decision on the funding in an attempt to thoroughly discuss plans to boost the treasury's revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost. The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, kicked off last week an open-ended strike to protest the government’s procrastination.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee Rallies en Masse, Pledges a General Strike if Demands Not Met
Naharnet /The Syndicate Coordination Committee urged on Wednesday President Michel Suleiman to call for an extraordinary cabinet session, vowing to stage a general strike if its demands weren't met by the end of the week.
“Our demonstration today is the beginning of the starved people uprising,” head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib told protesters. Gharib pointed out that the uprising day in Lebanon will be “outstanding.” “Get ready for a general strike if the new wage scale wasn't referred by the end of the week,” he said, noting that the retirement system is a “red line.” He lashed out at Prime Minsiter Najib Miqati, stressing that the endeavors carried out by the SCC will remain peaceful and independent. “The salary adjustments will not be paid in installments,” Gharib added. The SCC kicked off at 11:00 a.m. a demonstration from Barbir Square towards the Grand Serail. Angry protesters held banners that read “we will not back down until the new salary scale is referred to the parliament without any delay.”
Another protester held a banner saying: “Fund the new salary scale by ending corruption...” A cabinet session set to be held at the Grand Serail at 3:00 p.m. will not tackle the matter, which prompted the SCC to escalate it rhetoric. The government's wages increase will be retroactive from July 1, 2012, but the salary adjustments would be paid in installments over a period of five years. The SCC demands that the wages be made in one full installment and that the government approve the format that was agreed upon with the committee. Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil criticized the government via twitter saying: “It's unacceptable for the cabinet's agenda not to include the SCC demands. We will set an extraordinary session to resolve the matter soon.”For his part, head of the private school teachers association Nehme Mahfoud urged president Suleiman to call for an extraordinary session if the cabinet didn't discuss the issue from outside the cabinet's agenda on Wednesday. He vowed to remain in streets until the cabinet refers the new wage scale to the parliament. The cabinet has been stalling in finding sources to fund the scale that was approved last year, leading to growing differences with the SCC, which has been accusing it of negligence. However, the government argues that it is delaying the decision on the funding in an attempt to thoroughly discuss plans to boost the treasury's revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost. The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover over the presence of 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel. On day nine of the SCC strike, public schools and several private schools closed their doors as media reports said that Trials at the Justice Palace were halted after employees suspended work in solidarity. The parents' committees in private schools announced Tuesday night that they will stop paying educational fees in institutions where professors are boycotting classes. The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, kicked off last week an open-ended strike to protest the government’s procrastination. It has been staging since then protests near ministries and escalating its measures by forming “protest committees” to halt the work at public institutions, vowing not to back down.

Sayed Karam was Killed, Three Wounded in Qornet al-Sawda Avalanche
Naharnet/A man identified as Sayed Karam was killed on Wednesday in an avalanche in the Cedar's Qornet al-Sawda region in the north, which also left three other people wounded. The Civil Defense Forces rescued Joseph al-Batoulani, Mohsen Iskandar and Andre Nadira and transferred them to the north's hospitals for treatment. Meanwhile, the army's helicopters roamed the region to explore the situation in Qornet al-Sawda after the avalanche.
Located in north Lebanon, Qornet al-Sawda is the country's highest peak at more than 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) above sea level. In a similar incident, on December 30, 2012, Civil Defense members rescued three people injured in a skiing accident that involved four other skiers in a mountainous area of Baabda district. Tarshish Municipal chief Gaby Semaan had told MTV that the three skiers were lifted from a cave they fell in on Mount Kneisseh in an area between the villages of Tarshish and Kfarsalwan which lie at an elevation of around 1,500 meters. And on January 28, 2011, the Lebanese army rescued 10 people, one of them critically injured, who had been trapped in an avalanche on Lebanon's highest mountain peak, a military spokesman said.

Lebanese Woman Dies in Self-Immolation
Naharnet /A Lebanese woman died on Wednesday after setting herself on fire at her house near the southern city of Tyre, the state-run National News Agency reported.NNA said that B.Z., 38, was killed when she self-immolated at her home in the area of al-Marj in Jwayya. Her husband was injured as he tried to rescue her, it said. Security forces launched an investigation into the incident, whose cause remained unknown.

Lebanon's Speaker Nabih Berri Lashes Out at Security Forces for Failing to Control Situation
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri considered on Wednesday that the security situation in the country is “intolerable,” lashing out at the security forces for failing to protect the Lebanese. “If the security and military forces are incapable of safeguarding the Lebanese then why are we paying them their salaries? Every Lebanese then would protect himself,” Berri said in comments published in As Safir newspaper. He pointed out that the security forces should strike with an “iron fist,”end the security chaos and detain offenders across the country, whether in Beirut's southern suburbs, the Bekaa, the northern city of Tripoli or the coastal southern city of Sidon. The speaker noted that security forces don't reveal all the security incidents that occur, warning that if the chaotic situation remains as it is, it will have dangerous repercussions. “Several investors informed me that they intend to leave the country if the situation remains the same,” Berri added. He called on officials to allow the security agencies to carry out their duties “before it's too late,” and lifting the political cover off those who are carrying arms. The AMAL leader warned of the increasing sectarian incitement and attacks on the army and the judiciary, saying: “The state's prestige has hit the bottom, we should restore it.”According to An Nahar newspaper, the speaker held telephone conversations on Tuesday with President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati. Berri tackled with the two officials the security situation in the country, stressing the importance of holding a meeting for the Higher Defense Council to end the “irregular situation.” Since the eruption of Syria's clashes in 2011, Lebanon has been witnessing several security incidents in Tripoli, along the Lebanese-Syrian border and in several other regions. The rate of kidnappings in return for ransom has also increased, where abductees have been released without any trace of the offenders after the payment.

Madina Bank Scandal Back at Forefront as Koleilat Intends to Hand Over Names of Culprits
Naharnet/Rana Koleilat, who was accused of playing a key role in the fraud case at al-Madina Bank, revealed on Wednesday that she will hand over to authorities the names of her accomplices. Koleilat said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper that General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi will be handed over during the upcoming two weeks the names of the figures that received funds from her. The newspaper expected that the experts committee, tasked with the case, will accomplish its report in two weeks and will hand it over to judge Madi. The committee was formed when the bank's millions of dollars of fraud erupted in 2003 to investigate money laundering. Judge Madi tasked earlier this month the committee to probe the amount and the reasons of the payments made within a maximum three week deadline. During 12 years at the private al-Madina bank, Koleilat rose from clerk to executive. It was an era in which Syria dominated Lebanon and when paying off Syrian intelligence agents and providing gifts to powerful politicians was common. Koleilat was at the center of the scandal that engulfed al-Madina when the Central Bank announced in July 2003 that it had detected a cash deficit at the bank of more than euro 250 million, along with other irregularities. Other suspects in the case include Adnan Abu Ayash and his brother Ibrahim. Reports have said that the amount missing from the two banks could total as much as euro 1.0 billion.

Lebanon: Judge al-Qadi Appointed in ex-Minister Samaha's Case
Naharnet/Judge Walid al-Qadi succeeded on Wednesday head of the criminal court of cassation Judge Joseph Samaha to study the file of ex-Minister Michel Samaha's case.
Head of the Higher Judicial Council Judge Jean Fahd appointed al-Qadi after Judge Samaha stepped down on Monday over kinship. Judge Samaha sought to withdraw not to be "embarrassed" as the ex-Minister is a relative and hails from the same town. Last week, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr referred a death penalty request against ex-Minister Samaha and Syrian security official Ali Mamlouk to the military court to kick off trials. First Military Examining Judge Riyad Abu Ghida recently indicted Samaha and Mamlouk on terrorism charges. A search warrant to identify a Syrian colonel known only by his first name Adnan who plotted for the bombings with the other suspects was also issued. Abu Ghida said Samaha and Mamlouk should be given the death sentence "for transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in an attempt to assassinate Lebanese political and religious leaders.” The indictment also said that Samaha told the Syrian colonel and general that he would recruit people to carry out attacks in the northern Akkar region targeting Syrian rebels and weapons smugglers to Syria. Samaha was detained in August, but Mamlouk remains free.

Transportation Drivers Union in Lebanon Suspends Thursday Strike
Naharnet/The Transportation Drivers Union suspended its strike on Thursday to pave way for further consultations with the government, the state-run National News Agency reported. “Prime Minister Najib Miqati vowed to discuss our demands with officials,” Fadi Abou Shaqra, advisor to the Gas Station Owners Association told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Wednesday. Earlier, a delegation from the Land Transportation Union held talks with the premier at the Grand Serail. The delegation pointed out that Miqati will discuss their demands from outside the cabinet's agenda during Wednesday's session. On Tuesday, a meeting between head of the public drivers syndicate Bassam Tleis and Miqati failed to avert the Transportation Drivers Union's strike. Tleis rejected any attempts by officials to slap additional burdens on the people.“The premier is convinced about the importance of setting a cap for fuel prices despite the economic and financial situations, but taxi drivers are suffering,” Tleis said. The Transportation Drivers Union announced earlier this month that it will stage a strike on February 28 to protest high fuel prices and demanded the cabinet to cap rising gasoline prices, calling on all the Lebanese people to participate in their rally. Soaring fuel prices have exacerbated Lebanon’s already battered economy as rising production costs put more pressure on industrialists and farmers. The transportation sector had continuously staged several similar strikes. The weekly update of fuel prices showed on Wednesday a further hike of LL500 on gasoline prices, while the diesel prices increased by LL100. The price of 95-octane rated fuel now costs LL37,100, while the 98-octane rated fuel is selling at LL37,800.
The price of diesel now sells at LL28,200.

The March 14 General Secretariat Calls Suleiman to Take 'Sovereign Stand', Deploy Army on Border
Naharnet/The March 14 General Secretariat accused the cabinet on Wednesday of “disassociating itself from the people and the workers' interests”, urging President Michel Suleiman to deploy army forces on the border with Syria. "The internal security crises and the situation on the border will transform Lebanon into a failed state,” the secretariat said in a released statement after its weekly meeting. It expressed: “The Lebanese people's dignity and rights are being violated”. The statement pointed out to “more than 80 Syrian violations on the northern and eastern border between November 2011 and February 2013 that have left several people dead or wounded”.
A man was killed on Saturday in the northern village of Wadi Khaled by gunshots fired from Syria's side of the border, as Syrian shells have landed in al-Dbabiyeh and al-Noura towns of the northern district of Akkar, the National News Agency reported. Since the eruption of Syria's clashes in 2011, Lebanon's northern cities have been witnessing several security incidents, the latest of which was in October 2012, when heavy Syrian gunfire targeted the border town of al-Abboudiyeh, forcing residents to flee the area en masse. The March 14 secretariat cited “Iran's Ayoub drone” among these violations: “We can add also Hizbullah's participation in Syria's war as well as the transfer of gas and weapons to the neighboring country”. Israel's air force shot down an unarmed drone over the Negev desert on Oct. 6, 2012, after it entered the country's airspace from the Mediterranean Sea.
Several days later, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced his movement had sent the drone, saying the aircraft, Ayoub, was Iranian-built and assembled in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, HA has repeatedly announced burying fighters since the beginning of Syria's uprising, with party members explaining that they were acting in "self-defense”.The Syrian opposition has long accused the group of helping the Syrian leadership crack down on the uprising — a claim the group has repeatedly denied. HA has stood by Syrian President Bashar Assad since the uprising began in March 2011, even after the group supported revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain. The group says it is backing the Syrian regime because of its support for the anti-Israel resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine and because it is willing to implement political reforms.
"We regret that these activities have become normal daily news in Lebanon,” the March 14 secretariat expressed. It remarked: “We call on President Suleiman to take a sovereign decision and deploy military forces on the northern and eastern border as it would be the only solution to survive this situation”. "We can also seek the support of international emergency forces in respect to article 14 of resolution 1701,” the secretariat elaborated, expressing that this would be a “true application of the Baabda Declaration”.In the Baabda Declaration, rival March 8 and 14 alliance leaders have affirmed their commitment to the Taef Accord and agreed to distance Lebanon from the policy of regional and international conflicts.The secretariat also discussed the economic situation in the country, accusing the cabinet of “disassociating itself from the people's interests”.
"Several ministries are making suspicious deals,” it stated.

Iraq's prime minister, Maliki Warns of Civil Wars in Lebanon, Iraq if Syria Rebels Win
Naharnet/Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for Syria's rebels will spark sectarian wars in Lebanon and Iraq and will create a new haven for al-Qaida that would destabilize the region.
The comments by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with The Associated Press marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad could create in the Middle East. "If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue ... then I see no light at the end of the tunnel. "Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off," he said. "If the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Lebanon, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq."Maliki's warning comes as his government confronts growing tensions of its own between the Shiite majority and an increasingly restive Sunni minority nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Fighting in Syria has sharp sectarian overtones, with predominantly Sunni rebels battling a regime dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Assad's regional allies are Shiite Iran and Hizbullah. Al-Maliki too is a Shiite and his sect dominates Iraq's government. His comments reflect growing fears by many Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere that Sunnis would come to dominate Syria should Assad be pushed from power. The toppling of Assad would deal a serious blow to the regional influence of Syria's patron Iran, which has built increasingly strong relations with Iraq's Shiite-dominated government. Iraq has tried to maintain a neutral stance toward the civil war in Syria, saying that the aspirations of the Syrian people should be met through peaceful means. Speaking from his office in a Saddam Hussein-era palace inside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, al-Maliki reiterated his stance that foreign military intervention is not a solution to ending the crisis in Syria. He called on outside countries to "be more reasonable regarding Syria."Al-Maliki, 62, has long been accused by many Sunnis of promoting his Shiite sect at their expense and for being too closely aligned with neighboring Iran. His government has faced two months of unexpectedly resilient protests from the Sunni minority, whose members held many senior positions in Saddam's regime and lost their political prominence to the Shiites after he was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Associated Press

Berri Hints He May Withdraw Electoral Proposal, PSP Says Speaker Won't Allow Any Step that Harms Coexistence
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday hinted that he might withdraw the hybrid draft electoral law he has proposed, as a Progressive Socialist Party delegation that visited him stressed that the parliament speaker will not allow any step that harms coexistence among religious communities in the country. “It is known that the joint (parliamentary) committees had set a final 15-day deadline for consensus over the electoral law, and if no consensus is reached, it will immediately start discussing the Orthodox Gathering electoral law,” Berri said during his weekly meeting with MPs. The speaker clarified that “in a bid to reach consensus,” he has proposed a draft law that takes into consideration the following: “It is known that the smaller the districts the more they would serve March 14's interest and the bigger the districts the more they would serve March 8's interest.”
“On the other hand, a higher number of MPs elected according to the winner-takes-all system would serve March 14's interest and a higher number of MPs elected according to proportional representation would serve March 8's interest,” Berri added. “Thus, according to the proposal, half the number of MPs would be elected according to the winner-takes-all system and the current electoral districts, and the other half according to proportional representation and (the six) provinces (of Lebanon),” Berri went on to say.He noted that his proposal does not grant the parliamentary majority to any camp as it would ensure the victory of a number of centrist MPs.
“Although no consensus has been reached yet over this proposal, but it has achieved some progress and all blocs have agreed to the principle of proportional representation,” Berri said, adding that both the March 8 and March 14 camps have criticized his proposal. “The proposal has become a point of contention, that's why I will save everyone's time and say: You have neither accepted it, nor submitted a proposal that enjoys consensus, and once again we must choose between the Orthodox Gathering law and Article 22 of the Constitution,” Berri warned.
He stressed that “it's about time we established a national, non-sectarian parliament while preserving the principle of equal power-sharing.” “Since 1948 until now, we have been proposing unconstitutional, sectarian laws and that must stop,” Berri added. Later on Wednesday, a PSP delegation visited Berri in Ain al-Tineh. “It does not seem that there is enough national immunity to prevent a spillover of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon,” Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour said on behalf of the delegation after the talks. “Since all political forces have submitted unfeasible electoral proposals, we should seek a law that satisfies everyone and ensures fair representation,” Abu Faour added. “What we know about Speaker Berri is that he won't allow any step that harms coexistence in Lebanon and he is keen on ensuring that any law will respect the National Pact,” he went on to say.
He said that Berri considers the “so-called Orthodox law as unconstitutional and I don't think he might risk approving it, especially that it would open the door for partitioning proposals.”
Abu Faour revealed that the PSP is discussing with al-Mustaqbal movement “several formulas that would preserve the interests of all political forces.”“We're counting on Speaker Berri,” Abu Faour added.
He described The government's proposal, which is based on proportional representation and 13 electorates, as “nothing but a smoke screen.”“The PSP approves the electoral districts it contains but it rejects proportional representation,” he noted.
Abu Faour stressed that elections must happen on time "because the paralysis of politics would push the Lebanese to choose non-political alternatives."

Tunisia Ruling Islamists Say to Give Up Key Ministries
Naharnet/Tunisia's ruling Islamists said Wednesday they have agreed to give up key ministries to independents, a concession that could speed up the formation of a new government and end a political crisis. "We confirm the 'neutralization' of the four sovereign ministries," Ennahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi said on Radio Kalima, referring to the interior, justice, foreign and defense portfolios. It appeared to be a significant backdown from the powerful politician who had previously declared that Ennahda would "never give up power" which it secured through "the legitimacy of the ballot". Ennahda has controlled the interior, justice and foreign ministries since Tunisia held its first free elections in October 2011, nine months after strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in an uprising that sparked the Arab Spring. The defense portfolio is already in the hands of an independent, Abdelkarim Zbidi, who has held the post since the revolution. Ghannouchi said a new government could now be formed "at the end of the week". "We see that it is in the interests of the Tunisian government, in the transitional period and for the period to come, to bring together Islamists and secularists... even though we are the majority," he said. Ennahda was responding to a demand by almost all of the opposition and the government's two secular, center-left partners, Ettakatol and the Congress for the Republic of President Moncef Marzouki. Ghannouchi has said the new cabinet would be made up of "five or six parties," and suggested the Wafa movement, the Freedom and Dignity bloc and the Democratic Alliance as potential partners. But Ettakatol spokesman Mohamed Bennour said his latest concession did not mean a positive compromise had been reached. "There is an agreement that departments are entrusted to independents, but not the names of the ministers," he told AFP, adding talks on the matter were unlikely to be completed before "the middle of next week". "There also remains the question of other departments," said Bennour, whose party is calling on Ennahda to reverse a series of disputed appointments in public institutions and regions of Tunisia. Interior Minister Ali Larayedh was charged last week with forming a new government following the resignation of prime minister Hamadi Jebali, after his plan for a non-partisan government failed. Jebali announced the plan on February 6, the day that a lone gunman shot dead leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid outside his home in the capital Tunis. The assassination of the fierce Ennahda critic triggered violence that deepened a crisis already building for months due to rising tensions between Islamists and liberals.
Larayedh, also an Ennahda member, has until March 8 to form a new government, which he has vowed will be "for all Tunisians". The struggle to form a new government comes amid deadlock over the drafting of a constitution, with parliament divided over the nature of Tunisia's future political system 16 months after it was elected. Since the revolution, Tunisia has also been rocked by violence blamed on radical Salafists, and ongoing social unrest over the government's failure to improve poor living conditions.Agence France Presse

U.S. Ambassador Maura, Connelly Calls for Lebanon's Prosecution of Human Traffickers
Naharnet /U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly urged Lebanon on Wednesday to criminalize trafficking in persons to ensure that suspects are prosecuted, the U.S. embassy announced. During talks with Minister of Justice Shakib Qortbawi, Connelly “urged Lebanon to fully implement Law 164, which criminalizes trafficking in persons, to ensure those involved in trafficking are prosecuted.” “She also urged the government and security services to work with civil society and other partners to provide appropriate assistance and protection to trafficking victims and to take measures to prevent the exploitation of domestic workers and other trafficking victims,” said the embassy statement. “The Ambassador further encouraged efforts by Lebanon’s criminal justice system to investigate and prosecute those involved in human trafficking,” it said.
The statement added that Connelly and Qortbawi discussed bilateral relations as well as the political and security situation in Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea Denies Supporting Government Proposed Vote Law
Naharnet /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea denied on Wednesday that he supported a government proposed draft-law for the parliamentary elections, saying such a backing would hit hard all the negotiations made so far to reach consensus on another vote law. “The return to the government's draft-law means hitting hard all efforts and negotiations aimed at agreeing on a new law,” Geagea told al-Akhbar newspaper. “It would bring us back to the starting point.” The LF leader's denial came after a political source said that Geagea announced his backing for the government's proposal after agreement was reached to increase the number of districts from 13 to 15.
The proposal is based on a propositional representation system. Geagea stressed that the parties willing to achieve consensus should discuss a hybrid draft-law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems. Geagea hoped that all parties backing a draft-law that guarantees the best representation would work as soon as possible on reaching consensus on the hybrid law. He stressed that the elections should be held on time. “That's why all parties should take this factor into consideration and speed up in setting their stances or else they would contribute directly or indirectly to the collapse of” the polls. The joint parliamentary committees have approved the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal which sets Lebanon as a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own lawmakers based on a proportional representation system. But the proposal has been severely criticized by President Michel Suleiman, PM Najib Miqati, the opposition al-Mustaqbal movement, the centrist Progressive Socialist Party and the March 14 opposition alliance's independent Christian MPs and officials. The lack of consensus compelled Speaker Nabih Berri to procrastinate in calling for a General Assembly session to vote on the proposal, saying he would not set a date for a legislative meeting in the absence of agreement on a draft-law.

Lebanon's Higher Defense Council Takes Measures to 'End Behaviors' that Threaten Unity
Naharnet/The Higher Defense Council discussed on Wednesday the Israeli violations and the kidnap-for-ransom phenomenon that has lately spread in the country, calling for ending “behaviors” that ignite strife.
Following a meeting it held at Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman, the Council “discussed the country's general security situation, mainly the South after Israel intensified its overflights and violations, and some areas that witnessed trouble and security incidents.”Israeli flights have been recently intense, although they frequently overly south Lebanon, and Beirut often files complaints with the U.N. over the incursions into its airspace.
The statement read by the Council's Secretary-General, Maj. Gen. Adnan Merheb, also said that the conferees discussed the kidnappings of wealthy businessmen and their relatives in return for ransom.
It was briefed by the security agencies on the measures undertaken to control the security situation and prevent the distortion of civil peace. The Council “gave instructions to the involved ministries and the heads of security agencies on the security and judicial measures that they should undertake to limit the behaviors that threaten national unity and ignite sectarian strife.”The Council kept its decision confidential.

Lebanese Rival Officials Intensify Consultations to Resolve Dispute over Electoral Law
Naharnet /Consultations are ongoing among the Lebanese foes to reach an agreement on a new electoral law that would govern the upcoming parliamentary elections as officials opposing the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering draft-law are insisting on their stance. According to An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday, Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to hold talks later in the day with a delegation from Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's National Struggle Front. “If the security chaos remains the same, the polls will be definitely postponed,” Berri told the newspaper. The daily also reported that envoys of President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati continued on Tuesday their consultations with the political factions. Suleiman's envoy, former Minister Khalil al-Hrawi, and Miqati's envoy, Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas, discussed with Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan the matter. The two officials are also expected to hold talks on Wednesday with National Struggle Front MP Akram Shehayeb and PSP official Hisham Nasr Eddine and another meeting will be held with Berri's Liberation and Development parliamentary bloc MP Ali Bazzi. Media reports said on Tuesday that Suleiman and Miqati's envoys are holding talks with the rival officials on a law that sees the election of 68 MPs based on the winner-takes-all system and 60 based on the proportional representation system.

The president and premier's draft law is also based on 26 electoral districts and nine provinces.
This law combines that of Berri and the Mustaqbal bloc. Sources close to al-Mustaqbal movement told An Nahar that head of the parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora held a telephone conversation on Tuesday night with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. The report said that the two officials discussed the possibility of reaching common ground over an electoral law. The sources described discussions as “positive,” stressing the unity of the March 14 alliance. The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the Orthodox proposal that was approved by the joint parliamentary committees. It divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system. But the proposal has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has also been criticized by Suleiman and Miqati. The electoral law was also tackled during a meeting between the president and head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad on Tuesday. Suleiman, according to An Nahar, reiterated during the meeting his rejection to the Orthodox proposal.

Kerry Says Looking at Ways to Speed Up Syrian Transition
Naharnet/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday the United States and France were mulling ways to speed up political transition in war-torn Syria, which would be discussed in a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Rome. "We are examining ways to accelerate the political transition,", Kerry said, addressing a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. He said this would be discussed at the Rome meeting Thursday. Kerry also signaled that Washington could be mulling increased aid to the Syrian opposition, saying: "The opposition needs more help. "We think it's very important that more of our assistance gets to areas that have been liberated from the regime," he said. Citing U.S. and European officials, the Washington Post newspaper said the White House is mulling a major policy shift on Syria and is toying with the idea of supplying rebels with direct aid like body armor, armored vehicles and even military training.Agence France Presse


Netanyahu: Iran Should Face 'Military Sanction'
Naharnet/If Iran does not heed calls to halt its nuclear program, it should face "military sanction," Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday in an apparent reference to a military strike.
"Iran is continuing to defy the international community, (and) doesn't seem to seek an end to its military nuclear program," the Israeli prime minister said during talks with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris."Like North Korea, it continues to defy all the international standards and I believe that this requires the international community to ratchet up its sanctions and make clear that if this continues there will be also a credible military sanction," he said. "I think no other means will make Iran obey the wishes of the international community," he said following two days of talks between world powers and Tehran in Kazakhstan which ended without a breakthrough. Israel and much of the West believes Iran's nuclear program is a cover for building a nuclear capability, a charge which Tehran strongly denies. Netanyahu has repeatedly called for the world to lay down a clear red line for Iran which if crossed, could spark harsh repercussions. Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, believes Iran must be prevented from reaching a military nuclear capability at any cost and has refused to rule out a preemptive military strike to stop it.
Agence France Presse

Erdogan Calls for More Support for Syrian Opposition
Naharnet /The lack of clear leader among Syria's opposition is no reason to maintain support for the "cruel" regime of President Bashar Assad, Turkey's prime minister said Wednesday. "The international community thus far unfortunately has not taken the kind of position it was expected to take," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a U.N. event in Vienna. "Some countries ask who will replace Assad when he leaves. I always say that major events, major revolutions, bring their own leaders," he said through an interpreter at a news conference. "Sometimes leaders are instrumental in bringing about major developments or revolutions," he said. "The struggle of the opposition is important and should be appreciated. Their effort is the way to prepare the ground for a democratic process to take hold for the Syrian people." Early in the ongoing two-year revolt against Assad's regime, Turkey broke ties with Damascus. It led international calls for Assad's ouster, has offered shelter to defectors from the army and hosted opposition meetings. Turkey will host this weekend a meeting in Istanbul of the main opposition National Coalition aimed at electing a "prime minister" and government to run parts of the rebel-controlled country. Analysts say the move will help the opposition-in-exile gain credibility with Syrians inside the country and the international community, and also catch up with well-established Islamist groups. Erdogan repeated Wednesday that he believes the Assad regime's days were numbered. "The Syrian people are fighting for their freedom ... Sooner or later this aggressor, this cruel, autocratic regime of Assad and his followers, will go. It will not be possible for them to remain," he said. The Turkish premier was speaking at the three-day fifth global forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) also attended by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. Ban said in a speech that in Syria he is "extremely concerned about the risk of sectarian violence and mass reprisals as the situation continues to worsen." The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, also present, said that a "genocide" was being carried in Syria by a government "that has lost all legitimacy".
The UNAOC, founded in 2005, aims to "forge collective political will and to mobilize concerted action aimed at improving cross-cultural understanding and cooperation among countries, peoples and communities."
Agence France Presse