Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 06/10
President Michel Sleiman cancels National Dialogue session
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: Hariri's absence contributed to rise of extremists
Geagea: Opposition to Call for Voting on Electoral Draft-Law if Subcommittee Meetings Fail
MP Walid Jumblatt says mistake to bet on Syria crisis, urges Dialogue
Bassil says Lebanon should limit Syrian refugee influx
General Security denies banning movie directed by Lebanese
Sleiman, Mikati, Jumblatt tackle Dialogue, vote law
Lebanon maintains BB- rating
Lebanese Sunni Higher Islamic Council Delegation Tours Sunni Leaders over Elections Dispute
Lebanese President Hails Completion of Reconciliation in the Mountains
Mother of Lebanese Hostage in Syria Seeks General Security Chief's Help
General Security Denies Allegations over Banning Lebanese Film
Syrian National Caught with Smuggled Communication Devices at RHIA
Kuwaiti reported missing found staying in Beirut hotel
Soliciting Russian military aid on Sleiman agenda
Likud loses ground over Netanyahu’s fuzzy security messages
Israel's Netanyahu rival moots center-left alliance for election
US deports Iranian accused of nuke smuggling
Syrian army rockets rebellious Damascus district
Report: Syrian journalist dies of wounds
Patriot missile troops in Turkey as Syria war worsens
Shell hits Damascus Christian neighbourhood: activists
Report: Iranian FM to visit Cairo next week
Israeli fighting Assad 'can't go home'
Will Assad's 'Lionesses' save him?
Fugitive Saddam deputy lends support to Iraq Sunni protesters
Egypt's Mursi to meet IMF aide on $4.8 billion loan request - newspaper  

President Michel Sleiman cancels National Dialogue session
January 05, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman cancelled for the second time the National Dialogue session scheduled this week, his office reported Saturday. “President Sleiman informed members of the National Dialogue Committee his decision to postpone National Dialogue session scheduled for Monday in Baabda,” the president’s office said.  It added that no other date has been set for the upcoming session. His decision comes as the Future Movement continue their boycott on all-party talks which Sleiman had hoped could end the current government crisis. Future Movement MP Nabil De Freij said Saturday the March 14 group should not be blamed for boycotting Dialogue sessions, saying a return to the talks would not ease political tension in the country. "No party can blame March 14 for boycotting this dialogue because items that were agreed on during last dialogue sessions were not respected,” De Freij told Voice of Lebanon radio station. He was referring to the Baabda Declaration adopted by rival leaders in one of last year’s sessions which stipulates that Lebanon should be at a distance from regional conflicts particularly events in Syria. “A return to Dialogue will not contribute to easing political tensions because Hezbollah's decision to use arms does not fall to Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah but is a foreign decision and Hezbollah violated the Baabda Declaration when they launched Ayyoub plane,” he added.The Future Movement, along with some of its allies in the March 14 coalition, are boycotting National Dialogue sessions, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet and the formation of a neutral one to oversee the upcoming parliamentary election.
The opposition’s move is aimed at adding further pressure on the Cabinet to step down in the aftermath of the October assassination of Intelligence Chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.
After Sleiman’s efforts to convene National Dialogue failed, MP Walid Jumblatt launched an initiative in November to prevent the country from plunging into "Sunni-Shiite strife" by holding contacts with rival factions in a bid to resume the multi-party talks. His efforts have so far been fruitless. Political sources earlier told The Daily Star that Sleiman would cancel the session but that he was hesitant to do so because it would be frustrating for the Lebanese and would deal a shock to foreign investors. Sleiman resumed National Dialogue sessions in June of 2012 in the presence of rival leaders except for Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to discuss the issue of Hezbollah’s arsenal.  Geagea has doubted Hezbollah's willingness to discuss the issue. The president proposed a national defense strategy that would benefit from the resistance group’s arms and would meet the demands of opposing parties. Discussion was halted following Hasan’s killing.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: Hariri's absence contributed to rise of extremists
January 05, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said in remarks published Saturday that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s absence left a gap in the Sunni community and contributed to the rise of extremist groups in the country. “Hariri's absence left behind a huge gap particularly in the Sunni community which contributed to the rise of several phenomena in Tripoli, Sidon and other areas,” Geagea told L’Orient Le Jour.
“If he was present in Lebanon, we would have never seen such phenomenon. Therefore, fighting moderate leaderships such as Saad Hariri is similar to directly supporting extremist groups in Lebanon,” he said.
The northern city of Tripoli and the coastal city of Sidon have witnessed the emergence of Salafist groups who have also gained momentum and popularity.
Hariri, the head of the Future Movement, has been out of the country for over a year for security reasons, but has vowed to return to Lebanon when the time is right.
As for the 2013 parliamentary elections, Geagea said the goal of the March 14 coalition lawmakers was to finalize and approve a new electoral law by the end of January as part of the parliamentary committee tasked to do so.
“In the case that the parliamentary committee fails to reach a solution by the end of January, we will ask Speaker Nabih Berri to hold a parliamentary session to vote on the three proposals,” he said.
The committee is scheduled to resume discussion on a new electoral law on Jan. 8 following weeks of boycott by the opposition group. The Cabinet, March 14 and the Free Patriotic Movement have put forward drafts for a new elections law as most parties reject the 1960 law which was used in 2009 with some amendments. Geagea reiterated his opposition to the 1960 law, rallying behind his allies’ proposal based on a majority system dividing Lebanon into 50 small districts. Future Movement and MP Walid Jumblatt have rejected the Cabinet’s draft based on proportional representation with 13 medium-sized districts with the latter insisting on an amended 1960 law. The Free Patriotic Movement have also presented a proposal similar to the one suggested by the Orthodox Gathering whereby every sect elects its own MPs, under a proportional representation system and with the adoption of Lebanon as a single district. During his chat with the French local daily, Geagea also accused his rivals in the March 8 alliance of returning to the assassination of March 14 figures for political gains.
“After the other groups dominated the government, recognized that the Syrian regime is on its way to a total collapse and after opinion polls showed March 14 in the lead, this group is back to its old method of assassinations for political gains that prepares them to win the elections,” he said.

MP Walid Jumblatt says mistake to bet on Syria crisis, urges Dialogue
January 05, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: MP Walid Jumblatt said in remarks published Saturday that it is a mistake to bet on the turnout of the crisis in Syria, urging rival groups to engage in Dialogue as the only means to find necessary solutions. “We cannot do anything but get together without preconditions. We should not mistakenly bet on the [turnout] of Syrian events but we should direct our attention toward our joint national interest,” Jumblatt told As-Safir. “It is a mistake to wait [for the turnout of Syrian crisis] because Syria will fall into the abyss,” he added. His remarks came as President Michel Sleiman was expected to postpone for the second time the National Dialogue session scheduled for this week aimed at discussing the government crisis. Future Movement and the Lebanese Forces are adamant sticking to their boycott of the National Dialogue session until the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet, which they blame for the assassination of a top intelligence chief in October of last year. Jumblatt who has described himself as centrist and allied with Sleiman and Mikati said he adopted the logic of Dialogue since the May 7 2008 events when street clashes between pro and anti-government protesters erupted in Beirut after Hezbollah briefly took over part of the city in protest of the Cabinet’s decision to dismantle its own telecoms network. “I have held the slogan of communications and dialogue and I still work by that logic which I have held since the May 7 event by stressing on the need to get together and hold talks to find needed solutions,” Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, said. “I haven't changed nor have I steered away from that logic but maybe others have; those need to know that there is no way at the end but to sit on the Dialogue table together,” he said. He also criticized March 14 lawmakers for also boycotting legislative work attended by Cabinet ministers which the opposition used to add further pressure on Mikati to resign. He said the opposition holds a double standard since they have boycotted Dialogue but agreed to sit with their rivals to resume discussion on a new electoral law

Lebanese Sunni Higher Islamic Council Delegation Tours Sunni Leaders over Elections Dispute
Naharnet/The deputy of Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said Saturday that the Higher Islamic Council is the only body that has the authority to call for the election of its members. Following talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the head of a Council delegation, Omar Mesqawi said: “We want effective elections that are capable of giving the Council the ability to control the performance of Dar al-Fatwa, including the Mufti.”The delegation which visited Miqati at his home in the northern city of Tripoli also met Saturday with former Prime Ministers Salim al-Hoss and Omar Karami. “It is very dangerous to call for the elections without giving the Higher Islamic Council the ability to monitor them,” Mesqawi said. Former PM Karami said after the meeting: “It has become a necessity to draw a road-map that would take us out of this state of chaos, rumors and wrongdoings that tarnished the sects' reputation”.During the meeting, Miqati called Karami and the two statesmen agreed to convene soon with the participation of all former prime ministers to discuss the Council's elections.
Qabbani called in December for electing new council members within the next three months after he declared that the three-year term of the Council ended. The mufti had earlier canceled the elections that he had called for on December 31 to allow Dar al-Fatwa, which is Lebanon’s top Sunni religious authority, to issue a list of eligible voters for the 32-member Council. His move came after the Shura Council suspended the polls over a challenge filed against Qabbani by 21 Higher Islamic Council members, who are close to ex-Premier Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement. They described the elections as illegal over Qabbani's failure to consult them before making his call. The Council elects the mufti and organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa. Qabbani's ties with al-Mustaqbal deteriorated last year when he met with a delegation from Hizbullah the same day the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indicted four party members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination. Relations between the two sides were also shaken when the mufti met with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali, whom al-Mustaqbal and the March 14 opposition alliance have on several occasions said should be expelled. Mesqawi said following his meeting with Miqati that the prime minister promised the delegation to invite former PMs for talks at the Grand Serail to resolve the dispute over the Council's elections.

Syrian army rockets rebellious Damascus district
By REUTERS 01/05/2013 /Journalist from pro-government TV dies after attack; Syrian deputy foreign minister in Iran to ensure support.
BEIRUT - The Syrian army fired rockets at a Damascus district on Saturday, trying to drive out insurgents fighting their way closer to the seat of Syrian President Bashar Assad's power.
As fighting that has killed 60,000 persists in the 21-month uprising turned civil war, Syria's deputy foreign minister visited Iran on Saturday, seeking to maintain the support of Assad's main regional ally.Iran's Fars news agency said Faisal al-Makdad would meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials.
Government forces fired rockets at Jobar, a Sunni enclave close to the center of Damascus, a day after bombarding Daraya, a suburb in the east and part of a crescent of rebel-held areas on the outskirts, said Housam, an activist in the capital. "The shelling began in the early hours of the morning, it has intensified since 11 a.m., and now it has become really heavy. Yesterday it was Daraya and today Jobar is the hottest spot in Damascus," he said by Skype. Western countries have so far shown no appetite for military engagement in Syria of the sort that helped oust Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, but NATO is sending US and European Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to the Turkish-Syrian border. The United States military said US troops and equipment began arriving in Turkey on Friday for the deployment. Germany and the Netherlands are also sending Patriot batteries, which will take weeks to deploy fully. Turkey and NATO say the missiles are a safeguard to protect southern Turkey from possible Syrian missile strikes. Syria and allies Russia and Iran say they could presage eventual military action by the Western alliance.
Syria's war, the longest and deadliest of the conflicts that arose out of popular uprisings in Arab countries over the past two years, has killed at least 60,000 people, according to a United Nations tally released in recent days.
The war pits rebels, mainly drawn from the Sunni Muslim majority, against Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority sect, whose family has ruled Syria since his father seized power in a coup 42 years ago.
Syria's SANA state news agency said a journalist, Suheil al-Ali from pro-government Addouniya TV, had died of wounds sustained in an attack by terrorists, the term government media use to refer to rebels. Syria was by far the most dangerous country for journalists last year, with 28 killed. The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain through a network of activists on the ground, reported fighting and shelling on Saturday near Damascus, in the eastern Euphrates river town of Deir al-Zoor and near the central city of Hama. Rebels have made big advances in the past six months, seizing swathes of territory in the north and east and an arc of suburbs on the outskirts of Damascus. However, their control over areas they hold is limited by Assad's air power. Assad's forces still control most of the densely populated southwest around the capital, the Mediterranean coast, the main north-south highway and military bases across the country from which aircraft are able to strike at rebel-held areas. The rebels appear to have failed so far to seize a northern air base at Taftanaz after an assault in recent days; the base is still in government hands and Observatory chief Rami Abdelrahman said it had been quiet since Friday. Video posted by opposition activists on the Internet on Saturday showed the corpses of men, some of which had been mutilated. It was impossible to verify the provenance of the video or the identities of the victims. Both sides in the conflict have been accused of carrying out atrocities. The United Nations says government forces have been more culpable.

Likud loses ground over Netanyahu’s fuzzy security messages
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis January 5, 2013/ Netanyahyu challenged by Tzipi Livni, Shelly YacimovitchLikud’s chief asset, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, may also be said to be its chief liability. While unchallenged as preferred prime minister in every opinion poll 17 days before Israel’s general election, his party – the joint Likud-Yisrael Beitenu ticket – is on a downward slide (34) from its first 47-seat rating.
Netanyahu’s secretiveness and ambiguity on security and peace, issues which in the last reckoning determine the outcome of Israeli elections and fate of its politicians, are leaving his party unarmed against savage opposition tactics and dividing his own camp. While keeping his undoubted achievements in these fields under his hat, his mistakes and shortcomings are hard to miss.
Five months ago, Netanyahu was perceived as suddenly backing off plans to attack Iran’s nuclear program, after declaring for years that a nuclear-armed Iran was the most dangerous threat facing Israel. What happened was that on Sept. 5, he abruptly closed a meeting of the security-diplomatic cabinet on Iran without explanation, except for throwing in their faces that no forum competent to make policy on Iran was safe from press leaks.
For most of the country, Netanyahu lost points by failing to go through with this long-held resolve. His cartoon presentation of Israel’s “red lines” at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27 did not change that perception. He spoke of postponing until “late spring or early summer” an action vital to Israel’s security - apparently in deference to Washington and out of consideration for Barack Obama’s campaign for reelection.
Then, after months of silence, on Thursday Jan. 3, the prime minister stood up before a gathering of Israel’s envoys in world capitals to inform them, “Iran is still our No. 1 threat. I have set out our red line and Iran has not yet crossed it. Our commitment was and is to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.”
Those words had the same ring as sentiments heard from the US president. Common to both is their distance from the facts.
In recent months, Iran has developed a strategy for sidestepping “red lines” on quantities of 20-percent enriched uranium by periodically announcing the suspension of the process or the diversion of stocks to “medical research.”
This strategy passed unchallenged although it should have been for four reasons:
1. The amounts of fissile material claimed by Tehran are unverifiable by Israeli or Western intelligence - or even the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
2. The interminable wrangling between Iran and the world powers over amounts of medium-grade enriched uranium deemed sufficient for a bomb is no longer relevant because Tehran's consent to “negotiations” with world powers has bought Iran time to acquire the knowhow for assembling nuclear weapons and making them operational. A few kilos of enriched uranium lacking here or there are easily obtainable, either by domestic production or foreign acquisitions. Netanyahu’s graphic red lines, effective at the time, have been overtaken by events.
3. And his five-month silence has persuaded Iran’s rulers that they no longer need fear an Israeli military strike on their nuclear sites.
4. Iran has used those months free of international harassment and Israeli thunder for giant steps toward developing plutonium-based weapons. Netanyahu’s boast that he placed the Iranian nuclear menace at the forefront of the world's platform has had its downside: As the preamble to lay the ground for a proactive military policy, it was effective; however the gap between rhetoric and inaction has harmed Israel’s credibility and damaged its strategic deterrence.
The same credibility gap is marked on the question of Syria’s chemical weapons and Hizballah. Prime Minister Netanyahu, his ministers and diplomats, have repeatedly pledged Israel would take steps to prevent unconventional weapons reaching terrorist hands, including the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah often declares his rockets can reach every corner of Israel - “from Kiryat Shemone to Eilat!”
A year ago, in January 2012, a number of Western and Arab sources confirmed that Syrian ruler Bashar Assad had transferred a portion of his chemical weapons arsenal to Hizballah strongholds in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley and Hizballah units had trained in their use.
Last month, the Defense Ministry’s political coordinator, Amos Gilad, firmly asserted that Syria’s chemical weapons were “under control.” But this did not amount to a denial that those unconventional weapons had come under the joint logistical control of Iran, Syria and Hizballah.
It is possible that Netanyahu has opted in some to degree to follow Obama’s lead on security matters with regard to Iran, Syria and Hizballah and Hamas. Even then, he needs to do a better job of offering consistency to the Israeli voter. Instead, he offers silence or, at best, hazy, general messages that perplex the voter and keeps his own party in turmoil.
On the one hand, he incurred popular resentment for keeping 50,000 army reservists hanging around for nothing in the November anti-terror Gaza operation. But on the other, his government and party are not cashing in on the credit for the weeks of total calm on the Gaza front since Nov. 21 – the first time Hamas has honored a ceasefire in a decade.
Neither is he coming clean on the three additional advantages gained by working with Obama and his collaborators, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, to negotiate that ceasefire. They could give his party's election campaign a badly needed shot in the arm.
One is the improvement in relations with Turkey’s Erdogan government after years of acrimony. It came out of Israel’s consent to support the US president's venture to combine those three nations - plus the Palestinian Hamas - into a new pro-American Sunni Muslim axis. Netanyahu agreed to modify Israel's attitude on Hamas in a gamble for the prizes of rapprochement with Ankara and the stabilization of ties with Muslim Brotherhood-ruled Egypt.
Reading this map, the Palestinian Authority, under its Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, is stirring up unrest on the West Bank as a reminder to Washington and Jerusalem of his existence.
Although when he met the ambassadors in Jerusalem, Netanyahu spoke of the danger of Hamas seizing control of the West Bank like the Gaza Strip in 2007, this was contradicted by his decision to step back from vanquishing Hamas in the November operation. And last week, he opened the Gaza crossing points to supplies of building materials for the first time in six years as well as cash.
The prime minister has a long way to go to bring his right-of-center party around to a policy that embraces Hamas – even though it would help stave off opposition accusations that Israel is diplomatically isolated. Although he has invested considerable effort in thawing the iced-over peace process with the Palestinians, he is constrained from placing this squarely on the party platform because it would not gain a consensus.
All the opinion polls, show that, contrary to left-of-center opposition rhetoric, a majority of Israelis don't trust the Palestinians, including Mahmoud Abbas, as partners for negotiations or for peaceful coexistence. Neither do most Israelis subscribe to the international condemnation of Netanyahu’s policy of strengthening Jerusalem and the settlement blocs on the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.
The Israeli voter tends to judge every step taken by the government in terms of his and his family's personal and financial security.
By keeping the voter in the dark, he is hurting the electoral prospects of hiss Likud-Israel Beitenu as a party. And by aligning too closely with Obama on Iran and the Middle East, he is causing the more extreme factions of his party to cross the lines to the religious nationalist Habayit Hayehudi and its new leader, Naftali Bennett. There, they find a clearly-articulated platform calling for independent Israeli stances on the core issues of security, peace with the Palestinians, borders and Jewish settlements.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the left-of-center opposition parties accuse Netanyahu and Lieberman of extreme right-wing pro-war policies that threaten the country with disaster. Their campaign is turning increasingly savage and personalized rather than issue-oriented. Even though the Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance is declining in the Polls (down ten seats to 34 in the 120-member Knesset since November), its rivals are battering their heads against the solid support Binyamin Netanyahu enjoys (43+ percent) as favorite for prime minister.
The contrast between the declining popularity of Netanyahu’s party and his leadership rating is striking.
The Likud bloc is followed by Shelly Yacimovitch’s Labor (16 seats), Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi (14), ultra-religious Shas and the new Yesh Atid (Future) – 11 each; Hatenua founded by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni come next with 10 seats.
Friday night, Jan. 4, Livni publicly exhorted Labor and Future leaders to join forces for building a front to prevent Netanyahu from forming the next government after the Jan. 22 election. Pundits estimate that if Hatnua, Labor and Future leaders do manage to forge a common platform, they can count on around 40 Knesset seats compared with the right-of-center bloc’s 51. However, the multiplicity of Israeli parties means that no single grouping has ever achieved a parliamentary majority without coalition partners. This situation makes for extreme mobility between the various blocs when the time comes to build a government.

Patriot missile troops in Turkey as Syria war worsens
DAMASCUS, (AFP) - US troops began arriving in Turkey on Friday to man Patriot missile batteries against threats from neighbouring Syria, where the 21-month conflict between the regime and rebels has escalated.
Syrian air and ground forces were pounding insurgents dug in outside Damascus in a ferocious offensive a day after a car bomb in the north of the city killed at least 11 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The arrival of the US personnel specialised in the six Patriot systems to be deployed on the Turkey-Syria border under a NATO agreement has highlighted fears that Syria's civil war could suck in other nations in the region. Cross-border fire has already erupted several times in recent months from combatants in Syria into Turkey, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The United States last month also expressed concerns that there were signs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be preparing to use chemical agents in missiles or aerial bombs as a last-ditch measure against insurgents.
The US military's European Command (EUCOM) said on Friday that the troops being sent to Turkey's Incirlik air base would swell to 400 within days to support the two US Patriot batteries being supplied by America.
Germany and the Netherlands will supply the four other Patriot batteries under the NATO agreement struck at Turkey's request and described as purely defensive.
"The forces will augment Turkey?s air defence capabilities and contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the Alliance's border," the EUCOM said.
Syria's chief ally Iran, however, has called the Patriot deployment "provocative," seeing it as a blunting of its own offensive capabilities.
Ankara has responded by telling Tehran to use its clout with Assad to resolve the civil war in his country.
That conflict has worsened in the past six months as Assad has ordered warplanes and heavy artillery to blast rebels who hold great swathes of Syria's countryside, especially in the north.
The United Nations this week said 60,000 people have died since the rebellion began in March 2011. Its figures showed average daily fatalities have multiplied since mid-2012, correlating with the increased use of regime air power. On Friday, fighter-bombers hit Duma, northeast of Damascus, and artillery was shelling the southwestern Daraya neighbourhood which the rebels have held for weeks, the Observatory said.
Troop reinforcements were being sent to Daraya, the British-based group added.
The offensive was being waged a day after a car bombing in the Damascus district of Massaken Barzeh, mostly inhabited by members of Assad's Alawite minority, killed at least 11 people, the watchdog said.
They were among at least 191 people killed on Thursday, including 99 civilians, it said, adding that fighting in Damascus and its outskirts accounted for 87 deaths.
Nationwide on Friday at least 115 people died, among them 66 civilians, according to the Observatory.
It also said rebels killed a relative of political security chief Rustom Ghazali, a key regime figure, wounded another and kidnapped a third in the southern province of Daraa.
State television also reported the attack, without identifying the victims. A pro-regime journalist working for Dunya TV was also shot dead in Aleppo while reporting there, the channel announced.
People demonstrated across Syria in solidarity with the central city of Homs, where conditions are dire in areas besieged by regime forces. Meanwhile, Damascus slammed as "biased" a UN report released on December 20 that called the conflict "overtly sectarian in nature." The foreign ministry accused the UN of a "lack of professionalism" in producing its report, and said any sectarian dimensions to the conflict were because of foreign support for "armed groups," state news agency SANA said.

Fake “revolutionaries” attacking Moaz al-Khatib
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
The al-Assad regime in Syria has survived for 40 years, dominating the country and regional politics thanks to two things; secret security services that kill without hesitation according to a strategy of deterrence and subjection, and the creation of fake institutions under various populist slogans. This is how it all began when Hafez al-Assad carried out his coup under the Baathist slogan “One Arab Nation, Bearing an Eternal Message.” At the time, this slogan was viewed as being bright and patriotic; however in reality it was nothing more than propaganda for al-Assad to legitimize his coup, and later his reign, during which he killed his comrades and rivals alike. Following this, Hafez al-Assad invented other entities, this time under the name of “Arab nationalism”, for those who were opposed to the Baathist party. When he discovered that Iran’s Khomeinist regime was rallying popularity under the banner of Islam, al-Assad created extremist Islamist entities with the help of Tehran, establishing the first Shiite entity in southern Lebanon, as well as a Sunni entity in northern Lebanon, linking both groups to Iran. As for the Sunni leadership in Lebanon, this included late Sheikh Saeed Shaaban. There can also be no doubt that Hafez al-Assad most traded on the Palestinian blood and Cause, followed by Iran, jeopardizing the region’s people and imposing his hegemony under the pretext of liberating Palestine. However in reality, it was these two parties who most traded with the Palestinian people’s rights, utilizing them to dominate Lebanon and the Palestinian forces, and then strike at the Arab regimes that opposed them whilst never actually threatening Israel.
Those who were shocked today by the acts of Ahmed Jibril and the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command” [PFLP-GC] for openly participating in the killing of the Syrian people as well as Palestinian refugees in support of al-Assad have failed to understand what we have been saying for years regarding our doubts and rejection of these groups that have been linked to Iran and Syria, and prior to this, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, including the “Abu Nidal Organization”. Those who refuse to believe what we are saying today about other similar groups will tomorrow discover something that will not please them at all, because there can be no doubt that all the entities that have worked with the Syrian and Iranian regimes have stained their hands with the Syria people’s blood. It is difficult for people like me to believe that such groups are independent whilst at the same time working with al-Assad's security apparatus. This is what we have been saying about Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah, namely that when he raised the slogans of Palestine and Lebanon, he was actually nothing more than an Iranian-Syrian battalion, and if Israel wanted to eradicate him, it would not have failed. The Palestinian, Turkish, Iraqi and Gulf organizations that previously developed in Damascus were employed under the same Syrian hegemony and leadership, but when some of them saw al-Assad’s predicament they ran away just like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
But what does all of the above have to do with this article’s title and Moaz al-Khatib, the President of the National Coalition for Opposition Forces and the Syrian Revolution, i.e. the man primarily responsible for the Syrian uprising today?
When he took over the leadership of this coalition, we saw many figures and groups issue statements opposing him. These statements were directed towards the West claiming that al-Khatib is a Muslim radical who has secret links to Al Qaeda, whilst contradictory statements were also issued by Islamist, national and revolutionary groups, attacking him and claiming that he is an agent of Israel and the US. In reality all of these statements can be traced back to a single source; the Syrian regime. The al-Assad regime has mastered the art of propaganda and fabrication. This is similar to what the Syrian regime previous did in Iraq namely issuing statements on behalf of Al Qaeda and the various national Iraqi forces, whilst at the same time working with Iran to secure Nouri al-Maliki’s appointment as prime minister despite Iyad Allawi’s election majority; this is a documented story that has only been revealed lately. For years, al-Assad misled a superpower – the United States – claiming he was against radical Islamic groups and Al Qaeda. The Americans were taken in by this to the point that they shared their intelligence with him and sent Al Qaeda suspects for interrogation to his security services. At the same time as this, Syrian intelligence officers, wearing false beards, claimed to be jihadist leaders secretly working in Syria, receiving Arab, Gulf and Libyans recruits and training them to kill and carry out terrorist operations that were unprecedented in the history of our region.
The Al-Assad regime has long experience in “reincarnating” groups, something that began in Lebanon. Back in the eighties, the regime used to train Lebanese groups to abduct Arab and foreign diplomats, and carry out suicide operations under Shiite, national and Palestinian banners. Through these violence workshops, al-Assad was able to control Lebanon for three decades, then al-Assad the son tried to imitate his father. He he ordered the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 20 other Lebanese figures in order to intimidate his opponents and take control of the entire country however this plan ultimately back-fired. Militarily, Hariri was the weakest of the Lebanese leader, because he had no militia; nevertheless his assassination represented the beginning of the end, and the fire that was ignited by al-Assad in Lebanon spread into Syria, as we are witnessing today.
As for those who are engaged in the Syrian revolution and its millions of sympathizers, we should stress that you must not judge a book by its cover. There are jihadist and national groups that have been fabricated or infiltrated and their major objective is to dismantle the revolution’s gains and turn the rebels’ weapons against each other so that the Syrian people will be preoccupied by discord and sedition for long years to come and the Syrian people will wish to return to the al-Assad era.
We have to realize, based on this huge amount of evidence, that al-Assad is not stupid, as some like to portray him, and that he has been well aware – for more than a year – this his regime will collapse but has refused to step down before he has completely destroyed Syria and its tolerant and reconciliatory society. He has refused to step down before ensuring that the Syrian people inherit a civil war based on religion, identity, history and conflicting interests. Therefore those who accuse al-Khatib of being an agent are nothing but fake revolutionaries employed by al-Assad to crush his opponents.

The crystal ball and the year of many dangers
By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat
The start of each new year is always an excuse for predicting the way things might turn out. In many cultures the figure 13 is associated with misfortune. However, 2013 is not necessarily doomed to confirm that prejudice.
Since a journalist is not a fortune-teller, and certainly not an historian either, he should steer away from both predictions and narratives of the past. My purpose in this column, therefore, is not to predict the future through any imagined crystal ball. Nevertheless, looking at what is actually happening here and now it may be possible to discover certain trends that might help shape the new year’s events.
The first trend worth noting is the gradual breakdown in world order. Though incomplete, that order had taken shape in the wake of the Cold War with a series of regional balances of power, often implicitly guaranteed by the weight of the American “superpower”. We could see the system working in Latin America, parts of Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf region and the Pacific.
With the US embarking on a strategic retreat under President Barack Obama that system is likely to come under growing pressure, in some cases even breaking down. Obama regards American leadership as a form of arrogance to which he is opposed. His policy of “leading from behind” is the first step towards “leaving by the back door.” Over the next four years, dramatic cuts in the US defense budget could make it hard for any future president to project power effectively.
The American retreat is likely to create vacuums that opportunistic powers will try to fill. In Latin America, three emerging power blocs are setting to compete over influence in the region. The moderate left bloc, led by Brazil, is opting for a cautious distancing of the sub-continent from the giant in the north. A more radical left bloc, led by Venezuela and backed by Russia and Iran, is seeking an effective exclusion of the United States. As Hugo Chavez has said had the US not been located in the American continent it would not have had any place in the new version of the Organisation of American States. A third bloc, including Mexico and Colombia, is still banking on a future return of the US as a major player on the international scene.
In the Middle East, most players are already writing the US out. Israel is pushing ahead with its settlement programme in the West Bank, disregarding Washington’s advice not to do so.
The Palestinian Authority has already ignored American injunctions and secured observer-state status in the United Nations. Hamas is putting final touches to its silent coup against Fatah, with the clear aim of propelling Khalid Mishal into the chair occupied by Mahmoud Abbas.
The two-state idea, launched by President George W Bush in 2003, may witness its burial under Obama in 2013.
Having noted Washington’s confusion during the Arab Spring, the countries concerned are shaping their different trajectories with little regard for American views. Nowhere is the American confusion more dramatically manifested as in Syria. Over six months ago, President Obama made a solemn call for toppling Bashar al-Assad. He is still trying to figure out what he might do about that.
In the Gulf region, Obama is preparing the ground for surrendering to the mullahs of Tehran. Ironically, this could come at a time that the Khomeinist regime, at its most vulnerable phase, desperately needs a foreign policy success to save itself. A deal between Obama and the mullahs would show that a US unwilling to defend its own interest could not be expected to risk defending the interests of erstwhile allies. The Gulf countries would have to re-think defense doctrines that, since the 1940s, have been based on the assumption of American support. A Khomeinist regime armed with nuclear weapons could trigger an atomic arms race in the region.
The vacuum being created by Obama is also felt in the Far East where China and Japan are beating the drums of war. Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan might well launch a major military build-up that could include a constitutional amendment to allow the development of nuclear weapons as well. Abe could use such a build up to kick-start an economic upturn, ending more than two decades of flat-lining in Japan.
China for its part is speeding up the building of a blue-water navy to bully neighbours such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan with which it is in irredentist dispute over resource-rich islands and atolls.
Meanwhile, Russia is busy exploiting the Obama retreat to project power in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe while consolidating its alliance with the mullahs in Tehran.
For its part, Iran will speed up its attempts to control the political agenda in Iraq while trying to prevent the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria and the destruction of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In Afghanistan, Iran is allying itself with Russia, India, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to oppose Pakistan’s plans to bring the Taliban back as a major player in Kabul.
American absence will also be felt in Europe where, threatened by economic meltdown, the European Union is incapable of halting the recessionary trend of the global economy.
In Africa, large chunks of the Sahel appear to be heading for a Somalia-like status while war is brewing among countries surrounding the Great Lakes. Only lack of resources ensures the African continent against the possibility of major wars in 2013.
An American global retreat is not necessarily good news for those interested in international peace and stability.
A couple of weeks ago, a German friend, with a long history of European-style anti-Americanism, something very fashionable in leftist circles throughout the Cold War, had this to say: Having shouted “Yankee! Go Home” all my life, now I feel I have to shout: “ Yankee! Come Back!”
Well, he may have a point