Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 10/13 

Gunmen Abduct Lebanese in Southern Nigeria
Naharnet /Gunmen have kidnapped a Lebanese national from a construction site in southern Nigeria, where abductions for ransom occur frequently, authorities said on Tuesday. The assailants kidnapped Sani Youssef, an employee with Lebanese-owned Setraco Nigeria Limited construction company in Benin City in the southern state of Edo on Monday, police spokesman Moses Eguavoen told Agence France Presse. "The incident happened yesterday at about 10:00 am, and the police have commenced investigation," said Eguavoen.
He said he could not confirm initial reports that at least one soldier guarding the workers had been wounded or killed. A military spokesman in Edo state could not be reached. A Setraco spokesman said he was not aware of a ransom being demanded. It was unclear who was behind the attack. Ransom kidnappings occur regularly in southern Nigeria, with victims usually released unharmed after payments are made, unlike in the country's north, where Islamist extremists have killed a number of their hostages. In February, two Lebanese were abducted along with two Syrians, a Greek, an Italian and a Briton from another Setraco site in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi. Islamist extremist group Ansaru later posted a video and a statement online announcing the hostages had been killed.Source/Agence France Presse

Hezbollah gets taste of own bitter dish
Ron Ben-Yishai/Ynetnews
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4403043,00.html
Analysis: Beirut explosion indicates Syrian civil war spilling over into Lebanon
Published: 07.09.13,/The explosion in Beirut's Bir al-Abed neighborhood apparently targeted a facility or a top Hezbollah figure. It is safe to assume that the target was not a member of Hezbollah's diplomatic leadership, but a figure in the Shiite movement's military-political leadership. Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the blast. A television station in Lebanon claims the car bomb was meant to harm the entourage of a senior Hezbollah figure, but this is not yet certain. It also remains unclear whether a top Hezbollah operative was hurt. A car bomb is not an accurate killing device, and the explosion often misses its target. This could have been the case in Tuesday's attack. Other questions are: Who carried out the attack and who orchestrated it? In Lebanon and Syria there are groups and individuals who have a score to settle with Hezbollah. I am not referring only to rebel groups in Syria, but also to Sunnis in Lebanon and Shiite families who lost their loved ones in battles beyond the border. And we must also mention Israel, which has a score to settle not only with Hezbollah but also with its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. The bomb used in the Beirut attack was relatively small, so it may not have been an indiscriminate attack - which is characteristic of al-Qaeda in Syria – but an attempt to harm specific people or an entourage. Forty kilos are not enough to blow up a military facility or even an apartment building in Beirut. We also cannot rule out the possibility that the bomb was planted by one group, while those who sent them belong to a separate group. Regardless of who was behind the bombing, it indicates that the civil war in Syria is spilling over into Lebanon and may even expand. Hezbollah is now getting a taste of the bitter dish it prepared.

Austria considers ban of Hezbollah’s military wing
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT07/09/2013
http://www.jpost.com/International/Austria-considers-ban-of-Hezbollahs-military-wing-319300
BERLIN – Austria backtracked on Tuesday from its hard-line position against a ban of Hezbollah within the EU, stressing its undecided position ahead of a late July foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to reach a consensus on outlawing the Lebanese terrorist group.
Speaking with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday on a mobile telephone, Isabella Pöschl, a spokeswoman for Austria’s Foreign Ministry, said: “Currently our position is neither yes or no” with respect to sanctioning Hezbollah’s military wing.She said Austria had requested information from the United Kingdom, and experts in the Austrian Foreign Ministry were reviewing the material to “make up our mind.” She declined to say what information the British government had sent to Vienna.
The UK is spearheading the effort among the 28 EU member countries to include Hezbollah’s military wing in the body’s terror list. Austria, the Czech Republic, Malta, Poland, Ireland and Slovakia have resisted labeling Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Austria’s opposition to this labeling is grounded in the consequences for Lebanon’s “internal situation,” since Hezbollah plays a key role in the fragile political system, Pöschl said.
In sharp contrast to the Austrian position, Mideast commentators have argued that Hezbollah is destabilizing Lebanon and Syria by fighting in suport of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Tony Badran , a leading expert on Syria and Lebanon and fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in March on the website of the popular Lebanese news outlet NOW that “the proposition that targeting Hezbollah would negatively impact Lebanon presupposes that the group currently contributes to stability.
Such a view requires quite the suspension of disbelief.
In reality, Hezbollah has thoroughly subverted the country and its citizens in virtually every aspect.”
He added, “Left unmolested, Hezbollah not only undermines Lebanon’s security, institutions, and political system, but is also on track to compromise its foreign relations, ruin its financial system, and destroy whatever remains of its social cohesion.”Austria has faced criticism from Israel and Middle East experts for a feeble foreign policy that fails to adhere to international pledges.
Austria announced in the spring that it would implement a phased withdrawal of its troops from the Golan Heights because of the Syrian war.
In response to Austria’s decision, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said last month that the move shows why Israel cannot rely on international forces for its security. Austria’s decision to withdraw 380 troops from the 1,000-member UN Disengagement Observer Force on the Israel-Syria border added to the volatile climate in the North. Meanwhile, in Brussels on Tuesday, Dr. Matthew Levitt , who heads the counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, delivered a presentation to the EU on the need to outlaw Hezbollah.
He wrote the Post by email: “While there are still several sticking points for a few member states, there is a very clear trend toward supporting a ban of Hezbollah’s military wing here in Brussels.”
Levitt, the author of Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God, added: “The evidence of Hezbollah’s terrorist activities easily hits the threshold of EU cp931, so discussions now surround issues related to foreign policy and implementation.”The EU’s cp931 working group deals with counterterrorism and the listing of organizations as terror entities.The British member of the European Parliament, Charles Tannock, widely considered a leading expert on Hezbollah and Iranian terrorism, tweeted that he attended the closed parliament hearing on the blacklisting of Hezbollah, noting that England and “most EU states” support sanctioning Hezbollah.
**Herb Keinon contributed to this report. Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Sleiman defends Army, hails its national role
July 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman sprung to the defense of the under-fire Army Monday, saying mistakes by soldiers during periods of conflict should not be exploited to launch a campaign against the body’s national role. leiman’s comments came as Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam admitted that no progress had been made in the Cabinet formation. For the first time, Salam listed stepping down as an option. In a statement released from the president’s office in Baabda Palace, Sleiman said: “Demands to hold the Army accountable for mistakes committed under the pressure of clashes ... should not turn into a political campaign targeting its national role that everyone recognizes and seeks when the situation is increasingly tense.” He added that campaigns should not target the Army when its soldiers are deployed across Lebanon and its border to defend its sovereignty and security. The March 14 coalition, spearheaded by the Future Movement, is calling for a comprehensive probe into violations which they said have accompanied the June military operation targeting Salafist Sheikh Ahmad Assir’s gunmen in Abra, east of Sidon.
The coalition raised questions about Hezbollah’s reported participation in fighting alongside the Army and what they called arbitrary arrest and torture of people by the Army over links to Assir. Investigative Military Judge Fadi Sawan issued Monday arrest warrants against an officer and four soldiers in the case of the death of a detainee who was being held over the Abra clashes, judicial sources told The Daily Star.
The Army has also launched a probe after two video clips emerged over the past weeks showing Amy soldiers beating up and humiliating detainees over the Abra clashes. Sleiman said that mistakes by Army personnel should be left to “the Army’s own mechanism of accountability,” through which it takes suitable measures at judicial and military levels.
He hailed the Army’s role in preventing strife in the country, commending its sacrifices.
Separately, Salam said after visiting Sleiman at Baabda Palace that his efforts to form a new government had yet to bear fruit. “Frankly, no progress had been made yet but this will not prevent me from continuing efforts [to form the Cabinet],” Salam said. “I had already said that I do not wish to wait long and make the country wait.”
For the first time since his nomination, Salam said that stepping down was an option. “Stepping down is one of the options, but I never said I intend to go for [this choice now] ... God willing, we will be able to pick the option that will benefit the country.”
The prime minister-designate also said he was holding on to his 24-member Cabinet lineup that would see an equal distribution of portfolios between the March 8, March 14 and centrists, and in which no political party is granted veto power. He said he still supported the rotation of key ministerial portfolios among sects.The Cabinet’s formation has been stalled for nearly three months because of conditions and counter-conditions from the rival March 8 and March 14 coalitions. The Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition demands veto power in a political Cabinet while the March 14 group calls for a neutral government that excludes political partisans.
Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement opposes the rotation of portfolios, saying this system is aimed at stripping it of the Telecoms and Energy ministries.
Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, from Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, told The Daily Star that Jumblatt had no initiative currently to achieve a breakthrough in the Cabinet formation.
“There is nothing new regarding the Cabinet formation, things are left to the prime minister-designate and efforts he is making,” Abu Faour said.
Caretaker Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law, discussed with Salam efforts to form the government. FPM sources told The Daily Star that during the talks, Bassil demanded five ministerial portfolios and refused to give up the Telecoms and Energy ministries.
The sources said that Bassil’s visit reflected the FPM’s stance that it had the right to negotiate the Christians’ share in the Cabinet since it represented the majority of Christians. Jumblatt warned against distorting the Army’s recent achievements in Abra, voicing concern over the country’s future. “On the backdrop of the slogan ‘Enough Fear,’ we prefer to raise the slogan ‘fear and caution’ because not being fearful over Lebanon’s future in terms of the increasing challenges would be illogical and irresponsible,” Jumblatt said.
He was referring to the “Enough Fear” campaign launched by the March 14 coalition in the wake of the Abra clashes. “Yes, we fear and caution against the paralysis that is spreading to all state institutions with the Lebanese Army at its forefront, particularly when we saw some brave [people] backtracking on the agreement at Parliament’s Secretariat on its agenda, which included extending the term of the Army commander and its chief of staff,” he said sarcastically. Last week, March 14 parties, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the FPM boycotted legislative sessions of Parliament that had been set to discuss some 45 draft laws, including the raising of the retirement age of senior security officials. The Future Movement, and other parties, argued that only urgent draft laws should have been put on the agenda. Jumblatt also warned against provocative stances toward the military and distorting its achievements in Abra as well as the possibility of sectarian strife breaking out in Lebanon. On the Cabinet formation, Jumblatt said inflexibility among political parties was preventing the birth of the next government. “We fear a prolonged government paralysis as a result of each party’s stubbornness and insistence on placing prohibitive conditions to forming a government and their unwillingness to take one step forward or waiver for the sake of the higher national interest,” he said.

Car bomb in Beirut southern suburb wounds over 50
July 09, 2013/By Thomas El-Basha/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A car bomb ripped through Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, wounding over 50 people, security sources said Tuesday, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan for some Shiites in Lebanon.
Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene of the blast site – a parking lot belonging to a local cooperative in the residential and commercial Bir Al-Abed – just before noon. "It happened shortly after I woke up. I was at my desk when I heard a very loud bang and the front window of my shop shattered," Mustafa Harb, whose business faces the parking lot, told The Daily Star. "I went upstairs and then came down again shortly after to see the entire parking lot on fire," he added. The explosive, weighing some 40 kilograms, caused extensive material damage in an around the parking lot, where plumes of thick smoke billowed into the sky.
According to military experts, the blast left a crater 2 meters wide and over 2 meters deep. At least 15 vehicles in and around the parking lot were completely destroyed.
Response teams and security forces quickly moved into the area just after 11 a.m. as residents helped in rushing the wounded to safety. Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said the total number of wounded stood at 53. He said 41 were discharged from hospital after suffering light injuries and that 12 were still receiving treatment.
Speaking to reporters in the area, Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said his party was being “targeted politically because it has confronted the U.S.-Israeli project in the region.” When asked about rumors the blast had targeted a major Hezbollah figure, Ammar said: "I have no information about this, and no Hezbollah figure was wounded. The casualties were all civilians,” he said.
Ammar said Bir Al-Abed had been targeted because it “embraces the resistance [Hezbollah],” adding that the attack “clearly bears the fingerprint of the Israeli enemy and its tools.”Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon described the bombing in the Lebanese capital as a struggle between Sunnis and Shiites.
"There are many explosions in the area. Our borders are calm and that's not a given,” Ya'alon, responding to news of the explosion in Beirut, was quoted by Israel’s Ynetnews.com as saying.
"We see war seeping from Syria to Lebanon, and we follow what happens in Tripoli and Beirut," he said. "This is a struggle between Shiites and Sunnis. We watch but we don't interfere,” he said.
Tuesday’s attack is the second this year to target the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, following repeated threats of retaliation by Syrian rebels over the Lebanese party’s growing military involvement in Syria.
Four people were wounded in a twin rocket attack in the southern suburb of Shiyah in May. That attack came hours after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah confirmed his group was fighting alongside troops loyal to President Bashar Assad in the Homs town of Qusair. Tuesday’s explosion was widely condemned.
President Michel Sleiman denounced the attack as a dangerous return to the country's previous instability and urged Lebanese authorities to bring those responsible to justice. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, for his part, said the Bir Al-Abbed attack had aimed at causing massive amounts of death and destruction. In 1985, a car bomb rocked the mainly Shiite neighborhood, killing over 80 people, in a failed assassination attempt on the late influential Shiite preacher Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.  The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon called for calm while condemning the car bombing. Judicial sources said the vehicle used in the attack was a stolen four-wheel-drive Nissan. The bomb was detonated remotely, they added. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, accompanied by the country’s police chief, described the blast as an “act of sabotage.”“This criminal act is designed to sabotage the country and create sectarian strife,” Charbel said after touring the blast scene. Lebanon has seen more and more security incidents linked to the conflict in war-torn Syria. The small Mediterranean country also hosts over a million Syrian refugees. – Additional reporting by Wassim Mroueh, Kareem Shaheen, Rima Aboulmona and Dana Khraiche.

Specter of strife looms over Lebanon after blast
July 10, 2013/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The nightmare of sectarian violence similar to that engulfing Syria and Iraq hung over Lebanon Tuesday after a car bomb exploded in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, wounding over 50 people in the worst incident linked to the unrest in Syria since it began. “What happened today carried more than one message. I fear that this bombing is the beginning of a series of explosions in Lebanon,” a March 8 leader told The Daily Star. Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, speaking at the bombing site, said the attack was aimed at “destabilizing the country and inciting Sunni-Shiite strife.”
The powerful explosion that ripped through the bustling commercial and residential neighborhood of Bir al-Abed just before noon wounded at least 53 people and caused massive damage to cars and buildings, security sources said. It came on the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan for some Shiites in Lebanon. The bombing comes amid spiraling political and sectarian tensions fueled by the civil war in Syria, where Hezbollah fighters have joined President Bashar Assad’s forces against armed rebels seeking to topple the regime. It also follows Syrian opposition threats to target the capital’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley cities of Hermel and Baalbek in response to Hezbollah’s deep involvement in Syria’s war. Hermel and Baalbek have recently been targeted by salvoes of rockets reportedly fired by rebels.
Caretaker Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said the total number of wounded stood at 54. He said 41 were discharged from hospital after suffering light injuries and that 12 were still receiving treatment.
Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene of the blast site – a parking lot belonging to a local cooperative in Bir al-Abed.
“It happened shortly after I woke up. I was at my desk when I heard a very loud bang and the front window of my shop shattered,” Mustafa Harb, whose business faces the parking lot, told The Daily Star. “I went upstairs and then came down again shortly after to see the entire parking lot on fire.”The explosive, estimated to be around 40 kilograms of TNT, caused extensive material damage in and around the parking lot, where plumes of thick smoke billowed into the sky. According to military experts, the blast left a crater 2 meters wide and over 2 meters deep. At least 15 vehicles in and around the parking lot were completely destroyed.
Rescue teams and security forces quickly moved into the area just after the 11 a.m. blast, as residents helped in to rush the wounded to safety.
Judicial sources said the vehicle used in the attack was a stolen four-wheel-drive Nissan. The bomb was detonated remotely, they added.
Speaking to reporters at the blast site, Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said his party was being “targeted politically because it has confronted the U.S.-Israeli project in the region.”He said Bir al-Abed had been chosen because it “embraces the resistance [Hezbollah],” adding that the attack “clearly bears the fingerprint of the Israeli enemy and its tools.”
Tuesday’s blast is one of the biggest in the southern suburbs since Lebanon’s Civil War ended in 1990, and a major breach of a tightly controlled security area.
“It is a large area, heavily populated. No force in the world can protect every area and every street,” Hezbollah MP Ali Mokdad told reporters at the site.
Bir al-Abed, a mainly Shiite neighborhood, has been hit before. In 1985, a car bomb killed over 80 people in a failed assassination attempt against the late influential Shiite preacher Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.
Tuesday’s attack is the second this year to target the southern suburbs following repeated threats of retaliation by Syrian rebels over the party’s growing military involvement in the warring country.
Four people were wounded in a twin rocket attack on Shiyah in May. That attack came hours after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah confirmed his group was fighting alongside Assad’s forces in the Homs town of Qusair. Hezbollah’s participation helped Assad’s forces recapture the rebel-held strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon last month.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon described the bombing as a struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, denying his country has played any role.
Lebanese leaders from across the spectrum condemned the bombing. President Michel Sleiman denounced the attack as a return to the “black page” of the war, which he said the Lebanese wanted to erase from their memories. He renewed his call for “understanding and dialogue” among the Lebanese. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed Israel for the “terrorist explosion” and accused the Jewish state of trying to incite Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon. “[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] into strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today,” he said in a statement. Hariri said the blast should shock Lebanese “to go back to the national consensus on keeping Lebanon away from external conflicts and to avoid slipping into wars that will only inflict further divisions in the country, place national stability at risk and expose Lebanon to the conspiracies of the Israeli enemy.”U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly called for calm and joined France, Britain, the United Nations and the European Union in condemning the bombing. “Such cowardly acts of violence aim at destabilizing the country and spreading fear among the population and are completely unacceptable,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said in a statement. In Brussels, Michael Mann, a spokesman for the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said: “This appalling act of violence underlines the need for all Lebanese to maintain their national unity and actively work to preserve peace, safety and stability in Lebanon.” – Additional reporting by Thomas El-Basha and Dana Khraiche

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri blames Israel for Beirut suburb bombing
July 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed Israel Tuesday for the “terrorist explosion” that rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs and accused the country of trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon.“[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] to strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today,” Hariri said in a statement. “After of terrible criminal scene that Beirut’s southern suburbs witnessed, the Lebanese can only express indignation and condemnation of the crime that targeted one of the most populated neighborhoods,” the statement said. A car bomb explosion ripped through the Beirut’s southern suburb neighborhood of Bir al-Abed, a pro-Hezbollah area, wounded dozens of people.“As I strongly condemn the terrorist bombing that harmed innocent civilians, I ask God Almighty to bless the wounded with safety and health,” Hariri said.
Hariri said that the blast should shock Lebanese “to go back to the national consensus on keeping Lebanon away from external conflicts and to avoid slipping into wars that will only inflict further divisions in the country, place national stability at risk and expose Lebanon to the conspiracies of the Israeli enemy.”The former PM, who heads the Future Movement, urged an investigation into the blast and called on political leaders to shoulder responsibility in addressing the country's deteriorating security situation.For his part, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned the blast and warned citizens to “be careful about who is plotting conspiracies and strife in this dangerous stage Lebanon and the region are going through.”Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani also condemned the explosion and said it aimed at “destabilizing Lebanon's security and the country’s civil peace.”Separately, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea condemned the attack and urged the judicial and security authorities to address the matter with “complete seriousness” in order to reveal the perpetrators and punish them as soon as possible. “The security of the nation and its people comes only through a strong and powerful state that alone handles the security and military mission,” Geagea said in a statement.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said he considered the attack as an assault on the entire nation and said that the sharp political divisions between the Lebanese people should come to an end.
“The blast confirms once again that it is not acceptable to carry on the sharp political divisions among the Lebanese,” he said.
“[Such divisions] expose the country to further security incidents and dangers at all levels,” he added. The Future bloc also condemned the bombing and warned against the Israeli defense minister’s statement that attributed the attack to a Sunni-Shiite conflict. “The bloc sees that the evil, criminal hand that carried out the crime seeks to shake up the security and provoke citizens against each other and incite the fire of strife in the country,” the parliamentary bloc said in a statement. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon described the bombing in the Lebanese capital as a struggle between Sunnis and Shiites. "There are many explosions in the area. Our borders are calm and that's not a given,” Ya'alon said according to Israel’s Ynetnews. "We see war seeping from Syria to Lebanon, and we follow what happens in Tripoli and Beirut," he said. "We watch but we don't interfere,” he said.

Rival Lebanese politicians unite in blast condemnation
July 10, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Politicians from across the spectrum condemned the attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs that injured more than 50 people Tuesday morning. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the explosion that ripped through the Hezbollah-controlled area was aimed at causing massive amounts of death and destruction. “The criminal terrorist bombing which targeted the southern suburbs today was designed to inflict a lot of death and destruction,” the speaker said in a statement He said it was “divine intervention that prevented a massacre in this densely populated area, in front of a crowded commercial place,” about Tuesday’s explosion outside a market in the Beirut suburb of Bir al-Abed that injured dozens. Berri said the blast also aimed at sowing discord among the Lebanese “which makes awareness a necessity.”
“The southern suburbs, since the ’80s, have been the target of Israeli-organized crime, terrorism and sabotage as well as enemy [attacks] by air and sea that destroyed and killed during the July [2006] war,” he recalled.
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said the attack was a “horrific crime attempting to undermine the stability of Lebanon and the security of its people.”
Salam called for the “highest degrees of vigilance and national solidarity” to preserve Lebanon’s security.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the explosion in southern Beirut. “I call on all Lebanese parties to work together to resist any efforts by extremists and terrorists to undermine Lebanon’s hard-won peace,” he said in a statement. “The U.K. remains fully committed to supporting stability in Lebanon and to helping the Lebanese authorities to respond to the impact of the Syrian conflict.” Druze leader Walid Jumblatt issued a strong condemnation of the attack, saying it aimed at “undermining stability and attacking civil unity.” “This explosion reaffirms that the sharp political polarization among the Lebanese cannot continue,” said Jumblatt, adding that the political split in the country exposed it to additional security threats. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack made dialogue imperative to avoid further strife. “Once again criminal hands meddled with the security of Lebanon and the Lebanese, this time targeting a dear Lebanese area,” Mikati said in a statement. He said the blast “reminds us of the dark eras of the history of Lebanon,” echoing remarks made by the president that warned of a return to previous periods of instability. “This explosion, if anything, indicates that the hand of hate and crime continues with its plot to [weaken] the situation in Lebanon and does not discriminate between one region or another, which makes it imperative that the Lebanese hasten dialogue in order to break the political and security impasse,” Mikati said. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel described the attack as a “criminal act” intended to sow strife between Sunnis and Shiites. The March 14 movement also condemned the attack, saying that “the targeting of any region of Lebanon is a targeting of all of Lebanon.”Lebanon’s mufti, Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, called for “calm, self-restraint and avoiding being drawn into strife” as a result of the attack.

Aoun Says 'Takfiri Ideology' behind Dahieh Blast, Asks Those 'Defaming' Army to 'Shut Up'
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday blamed the Dahieh bombing on “those who endorse the Takfiri ideology” and “those who make fiery speeches.”
“The bombing incident must not only be a subject for condemnation. Everyone who endorses an explosive rhetoric must be condemned and the person who detonates a bomb in residential neighborhoods is a major criminal,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabiyeh. “Those who endorse the Takfiri ideology, those who make fiery speeches, those who incite sectarianism and those who instigate against all the members of a certain sect are the biggest criminals, whether they are MPs, ministers or clergymen,” Aoun added. “We thank God that no one was killed ... but more vigilance must be exercised and those who are inciting must shut up. From now on, I will attack the criminals,” he went on to say. Earlier on Tuesday, a booby-trapped car exploded at a parking lot in the Beirut southern suburb of Bir al-Abed, wounding 53 people and causing extensive material damage.Turning to the issue of the Sidon clashes and the meeting held by the March 14 forces on Sunday in the southern city, Aoun said: “A military operation took place in Sidon and I challenge any army in the world to conduct a 'cleane' operation. The mosque inside the security zone was not hit by a single bullet, the residents were not hurt and the troops evacuated the civilians."On June 23, gunmen loyal to Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir attacked an army checkpoint near the Islamist cleric's mosque in Sidon's Abra. Eighteen soldiers were martyred and 20 others were wounded in the attack and in the fierce clashes that ensued. At least twenty of Asir's gunmen were also killed in the battle that ended when the army stormed Asir's headquarters on June 24. “We heard a political rhetoric from a meeting in Tripoli and another in Sidon which incited against the army and launched a campaign of collective defamation against it. Some troops committed abuses and the Army Command is conducting an investigation. Military personnel can be detained but it is unacceptable to defame the army all over Lebanon,” Aoun said, referring to two videos showing army troops abusing detainees allegedly linked to Asir, which were circulated in the wake of the Abra clash. Human Rights Watch has also urged an independent investigation into claims that a man identified as Nader al-Bayoumy had died under torture while in the custody of the army.Referring to March 14's meeting in Sidon, Aoun said: “Someone came from Batroun, another came from Zgharta and another came from Akkar. They all went to Sidon to defame the army after one person 'received two slaps' in Sidon.” “What happened is totally unacceptable. Has al-Asir turned into the defender of Lebanon's demands? Why did they endorse his demands? Why are you turning him into a saint? He killed officers in an ambush and you are exploiting the issue politically. Why are you making this uproar although you know that the army's intervention spared us a civil war?” Aoun added. “Why did you turn those who died while fighting alongside al-Asir into martyrs at the same level of the army's martyrs? When did these people stand by the army? In Akkar or in Arsal? They attacked the army four times in Arsal. Enough with this obscenity,” he went on to say. Aoun pointed out that soldiers “also get infuriated sometimes,” adding that they can be penalized.
However, he added: “I object against the Army Command's decision to refer five troops to the Military Court as a 'single slap' from them is more honorable than al-Asir's killing of army troops and his abuse of civilians.”
In a recent video circulated on social networking websites, al-Asir beats up with the butt of his machinegun a resident who hails from Sidon. The Islamist cleric has also been accused of several other abuses against civilians.
“It is regrettable to ask the army to do everything ... We will rise up and we will take to the streets and everyone attacking the army must shut up,” Aoun warned.
“Everyone used to visit and encourage al-Asir when he was cursing us,” he added. The March 14 alliance called on Sunday for announcing Sidon an arms-free city, saying the presence of an “illegitimate statelet” was the reason behind the violence in the southern city. Following a large-scale meeting held by around 170 politicians, academics and journalists at MP Bahia Hariri's residence in Majdalyoun, the alliance said in a statement read by former lawmaker Fares Soaid that Sidon's and Lebanon's wounds were “still bleeding.” They also rejected presence of the Hizbullah-affiliated Resistance Brigades in Sidon.
“The source of the violence and strife in Lebanon is the presence of a statelet,” they said, adding that such an “unprecedented situation” is drawing “unacceptable violent retaliation.”They also urged the judiciary to inform the public about the results of the investigation. The fighting in Abra was among the worst in Lebanon since the outbreak of conflict in neighboring Syria 27 months ago deepened sectarian tensions.
It highlighted widespread Sunni resentment against the army, accused of siding with Hizbullah and being selective in its crackdown on armed groups.

Residents in Southern Hezbollah MiniState point finger at Syrian rebels, vow to stand firm
July 10, 2013/By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star/HARET HREIK, Lebanon: The residents of Bir al-Abed accused Syrian rebels of orchestrating a car bomb which rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday, saying their support for Hezbollah and its activities in Syria was unwavering despite the attack. Over 50 people were wounded in the blast which hit a parking lot in the Hezbollah stronghold, security sources said. Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene of the blast. Adnan Shehimi, the owner of a roastery near the site, received phone calls from concerned relatives as he described the explosion. “It felt like an earthquake, I saw the glass of the front window falling,” Shehimi told The Daily Star, his hand wrapped in a bandage and blood caked on his shirt. “What happened is forbidden [by Islam], who accepts such acts?” he asked, as phone calls poured in with people expressing relief that he was safe. “It really felt like an earthquake,” agreed Ali Masri. “I was walking nearby when I felt the ground shaking,” said the young bearded man.
“We heard them [rebels] in Syria making threats. We welcome explosions if this is the action they take to match their words,” he said. The Syrian opposition had threatened to retaliate after Hezbollah’s involvement in the fighting in Syria alongside the regime of President Bashar Assad. The party played a major role in driving the rebels out of the strategic Syrian town of Qusair last month.
Masri added that supporters of the resistance would not be terrorized by “those kids in Syria,” after having confronted Israel. “We endured shelling by Israel, we will not fear what is happening now,” he said. “We were right when we intervened in Syria and we will stick to our stances,” he said. The streets intersecting the scene of the explosion were covered in debris and pieces of shattered glass from nearby shops and buildings in the bustling commercial and residential area. Hezbollah personnel, distinguishable in their green uniforms, were deployed around the site of the explosion, blocking some streets and redirecting traffic.
“It happened shortly after I woke up. I was at my desk when I heard a very loud bang and the front window of my shop shattered,” said Mustafa Harb, whose business faces the parking lot. “I went upstairs and then came down again shortly after and saw that the entire parking lot was on fire,” he added. Harb said he believed that the Syrian rebels were behind the attack, adding that such an act reflected the Syrian opposition’s desperation.
Shortly after the explosion, dozens of angry Hezbollah supporters carried posters of party leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and chanted “The Shiite blood is boiling!”
“All this blood which was spilled today and the sacrifices that were made were for the sake of Imam Hussein and Sayyida Zeinab,” said Lina Rmaity, in reference to the Prophet Mohammad’s grandchildren, revered by Shiites.
“What we saw today will not scare us, on the contrary it will make us stronger. We do not fear Salafists and our other enemies. We will stick to our stances and continue to support President Bashar Assad,” added the woman, wearing a shador and carrying a poster of Nasrallah. MPs flocked to the site of the explosion, condemning the act and expressing solidarity with residents of the southern suburbs. People became outraged when caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel arrived at the scene, surrounding his convoy and pelting it with stones, which prompted Hezbollah gunmen and the Army to fire shots in the air to allow Charbel’s convoy to leave the area.
Many Hezbollah supporters blame Charbel for being lenient with firebrand Sheikh Ahmad Assir, a fierce critic of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.

Beirut blast aimed for death and destruction: Berri
July 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday the explosion that ripped through a Hezbollah-controlled Beirut suburb was aimed at causing massive amounts of death and destruction. "The criminal terrorist bombing which targeted the southern suburbs today was designed to inflict a lot of death and destruction,” Berri said in a statement. He said it was “divine intervention that prevented a massacre in this densely-populated area, in front of a crowded commercial place,” about Tuesday’s explosion outside a market in the Beirut suburb of Bir al-Abed that injured dozens. Berri said the blast also aimed at sowing discord among the Lebanese “which makes awareness a necessity.” “The southern suburbs, since the 80s, have been the target of Israeli-organized crime, terrorism and sabotage as well as enemy [attacks] by air and sea that destroyed and killed during the July [2006] war,” he recalled.

Three wounded in Beirut grenade attack
July 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Three people were wounded Tuesday after an unidentified assailant tossed a hand grenade on the outskirts of Beirut’s Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra, a security source said. The wounded were identified as Maher Hadid, Ali Abdel-Rahman and Abdallah al-Rahman.Police have launched an investigation into the dawn attack. In a separate incident, police responded to a call Monday afternoon that several hand grenades were found near Al-Saha restaurant in Ouzai, Beirut.Explosives experts arrived at the scene and removed all seven of the unusable grenades, found by workers removing debris from a fallow land.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri: March 8 finished, Aoun out in the cold
July 10, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced the collapse of the March 8 coalition Tuesday, putting an end to the Amal Movement’s frail alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun. Berri’s bombshell was expected to give a major boost to efforts to form a new Cabinet, which have been mired by delays and a series of obstacles. By ending their alliance with Aoun, Berri explained that March 8’s key demand to acquire veto power within the new government “was no longer valid.”“There is no such thing as the March 8 alliance anymore,” Berri told The Daily Star. “We agree with [Gen.] Aoun on strategic issues such as the resistance and [the stance toward] Israel but not on domestic issues.”“On the domestic level, our choices differ and each will follow their own course,” he added. The alliance between the two Shiite groups and the former Army commander mainly hinged on a Memorandum of Understanding inked in February 2006 between Hezbollah and the FPM with Aoun and Berri enjoying lukewarm ties throughout.
But serious rifts surfaced in recent months over the extension of Parliament’s term, which the Christian leader opposed and more recently over the extension of the mandate of Lebanese Army chief Gen. Jean Kahwagi, a problematic issue that Aoun stands against. Berri said he informed his decision to break their alliance with the FPM to premier-designate Tammam Salam and to Aoun’s son-in-law and closest adviser caretaker Energy and Water Resources Minister Gebran Bassil. The speaker explained that from now on Hezbollah and Amal would be in charge of negotiating the Shiite share in Salam’s new government while the FPM and the Marada Movement of MP Sleiman Franjieh would negotiate the Christian share. “This means the March 8’s demand for veto power is no longer valid,” Berri said. “We will propose names to Salam and if he objects to certain names we have no problem replacing them.” Berri’s announcement is seen as a means to expedite the formation of a new government ahead of back-to-back Parliamentary sessions scheduled to begin on July 16.
Salam, who was designated to form a new government in April, discussed the matter with former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Khalil Hraoui, the political adviser of President Michel Sleiman during separate meetings Tuesday. As for the March 14 alliance’s insistence on including the extension of the retirement age of the retired head of the Internal Security Forces Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi on the agenda of Parliament sessions scheduled for July 16-18, Berri suggested holding an extraordinary Cabinet session to discuss extending the retirement ages of both Rifi and Kahwagi. “This is my proposal for a way out,” he said. Parliament had been expected to meet for a series of legislative sessions last week but was unable to do so due to a lack of quorum. Berri had to postpone the sessions to mid-July as a result of the boycott by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, March 14 political parties and the FPM. The March 14 and the Future Movement argue that the item on Parliament’s agenda to extend the terms of soon-to-retire security and military generals must include all security services including the ISF.
“Let the caretaker government meet and discuss those issues,” Berri said. “If they fail to reach a solution then they can resort to Parliament.”

Lebanese Judge seeks death penalty for 37 people in Arsal ambush
July 10, 2013/By Rakan Al Fakih/The Daily Star/HERMEL, Lebanon: Investigative Military Judge Fadi Sawan announced Tuesday that he would seek the death penalty against 37 individuals, including the mayor of Arsal, implicated in the killing of two soldiers in the town earlier this year. Sawan issued an indictment in killing of Capt. Pierre Bashaalani and 1st Sgt. Ibrahim Zahraman who were ambushed by gunmen while patrolling the town of Arsal near the Syrian border on Feb. 2. Sawan issued arrest warrants for 53 defendants for murder, attempted murder, assaulting military personnel, theft of weapons and ammunition, theft of personal papers and property belonging to the two soldiers, and possession of weapons and explosives.

Sawan also issued search and investigation warrants against 16 people whose full identities remain unknown.
Several Arsal officials who spoke to The Daily Star stressed that Sawan’s request was not a final verdict, adding that town leaders would hold a meeting tomorrow to decide what to do next. Mayor Ali Hujeiri declined to comment on the indictment, saying he would wait until a final decision was issued. Hujeiri has twice failed to appear in court as a witness. Deputy Mayor Ahmad al-Fliti, said he hoped the judge would reconsider, but warned that the wanted individuals would not submit easily. “I don’t think [the indictment] will have a direct affect on the security situation in the town because those named in it can disappear,” Fliti said. “This area is very mountainous and it’s difficult for the security forces to reach.” Baker al-Hujeiri, the local coordinator of the Future Movement in Arsal, urged caution, emphasizing the importance of preserving the town’s good relationship with the security forces, but added: “This indictment will raise tensions in town because no one can guarantee the reaction of people sentenced to death.” The attack that killed Zahraman and Bashaalani followed the arrest of local fugitive Khaled Hmayyed, who was wanted on terrorism charges. Hmayyed was killed during the shoot-out. Residents of Arsal have denied involvement in the ambush.

Deal struck on Lebanese hostages’ release
July 10, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Negotiations have moved forward on a deal to release Lebanese Shiites held in Syria that would see the release of the hostages in two batches in exchange for women held by the Syrian regime, a relative of one the kidnapped said Tuesday. “The deal will see the release of the first batch soon and the rest of the hostages will be freed later,” the source said. The number of hostages to be released in the first batch is still unknown and the entire deal relies on both the Syrian rebels and regime following through on the releases of their captives, still an uncertainty. There have been several aborted deals to free the hostages followed by months with little progress on the case. “The first batch of hostages should be released in the first days of Ramadan,” the source said.
Eleven Lebanese were kidnapped by Syrian rebels last May; two of them have been released so far. Their captors recently gave a list of female detainees held in Syrian prisons that they want released in exchange for the Lebanese that they allege are associated with Hezbollah. General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has paid several visits to Damascus to negotiate with the authorities over the demands of the abductors.
The relatives of the hostages met Tuesday with Ibrahim who briefed them on the progress over the case. The source said that Ibrahim also sent his envoy to Turkey to negotiate with the abductors over the deal.
According to the source, Ibrahim was seeking the release of all hostages at once, however the captors refused to set all the pilgrims free at once. “They will release the elders and those with special health conditions,” said the source. “The Syrian authorities will in turn release a batch of the detainees listed by abductors but not all of them. ... It depends on how many of the Lebanese hostages will be freed.”

Repair work begins in Abra after clashes
July 10, 2013 /By Mohammed Zaatari/The Daily Star
SIDON, Lebanon: Repair work has begun in the Sidon suburb of Abra where dozens of families are still homeless after fierce fighting between the Army and the firebrand Sheikh Ahmad Assir devastated the neighborhood last month. Loyal supporters of the fugitive sheikh dressed in conservative attire can be seen rebuilding the complex that houses the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, which has been turned over to Dar al-Fatwa.
One such supporter who identified himself as Abu Faisal said the congregation was repairing the complex in the hopes that one day Assir, whose current whereabouts are unknown, would return.
“Assir is coming back to his mosque and his house,” said Abu Faisal, who was carrying a large photo of Assir and never passes up an opportunity to lecture strangers and friends alike about how Assir was the victim of a grave injustice. Outside the complex, the Army and the Higher Relief Committee have finished surveying the damage and commenced repairs with the help of several local organizations. Heavily damaged buildings are covered with scaffolding and iron supports.
“We arrived here last Friday and the volunteers started right away with the interior and exterior of several buildings,” said Mohammad Diab, a volunteer with the Joy of Giving organization. “We are doing our best to keep the residents off the street.”Mohammad Saad, a dentist who also volunteers with Joy of Giving, took time out of repairing a wall that had been hit by several shells to speak to a reporter. “We have to be united, and we have to offer the people what skills we have because they need it,” he said. “They are the ones who were most affected by the clashes and we want to help whoever is still without a home to return.”
Much of the renovation and repair in the area is being carried out by Genico, the construction company of Shafik Hariri, brother of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Sidon MP Bahia Hariri.
Khalid Badia, one of the residents whose house was severely damaged, said he paid for the repairs after receiving assurances from the HRC that he would be reimbursed.
“We hope the committee keeps its word,” he said. Badia expressed fears that fighting could erupt once more, especially after last week’s demonstrations by Assir supporters: “It’s like we are back to square one. ... The mosque should be for praying, not incitement” The Daily Star has learned that a prominent Sidon political figure will announce in the coming days that “he or she will cover all the expenses of the reconstruction.” In the meantime, local organizations are banding together to raise money for families that have been displaced. A campaign titled “Together We Heal the Wounds” supported by several groups and Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya has been distributing $1,000 to families whose homes were destroyed. The campaign has already distributed cash to some 30 families in Abra and plans to distribute more in Taamir and Ain al-Helweh, which were also damaged in the clashes.
On June 23, militants loyal to Assir ambushed Lebanese Army soldiers at a checkpoint in Abra. Eighteen soldiers and some 40 gunmen were killed in the two-day battle that followed. Assir remains at large.

Sources: Militants attack Egyptian checkpoint in Sinai, kill 2
By REUTERS/CAIRO - Two people were killed and six wounded when Islamist militants attacked an Egyptian security forces checkpoint late on Tuesday using rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in the lawless North Sinai province, security sources said. It was not clear whether the casualties were civilians or security personnel in the attack in the remote village of Sadr El-Heytan, located in the center of the province
The attack came shortly after another assault in the town of Rafah, when security forces and militants exchanged gunfire. Another police checkpoint was also attacked nearby, the sources added.
Hardline Islamist groups based in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak to launch attacks across the border into Israel and on Egyptian security targets. The violence has risen since last week's overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military. Last Sunday, one Egyptian soldier was killed and a police officer was wounded in an attack on a security checkpoint in Sinai, and five security officers were killed in skirmishes with suspected militants on Friday. The Salafi Jihadi group, one of the biggest Sinai-based Islamist militant groups, had said in a statement that "current events ravaging the country" were affecting Sinai and threatened to launch attacks on police and military forces in Sinai.

Veteran economist Hazem al-Beblawi named new Egypt prime minister
July 10, 2013/Agencies
CAIRO: After days of deadlock, Egypt’s military-backed interim president named a veteran economist as prime minister Tuesday and appointed pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei as vice president.
While the army showed its strong hand in shepherding the process, military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi warned political factions against “maneuvering” that impedes the transition. The appointment of Hazem al-Beblawi as prime minister came soon after the interim leadership issued a timetable that sets a fast track for amending the constitution and holding elections for a new parliament within seven months, and a presidential election.
The moves – and the statement Tuesday by Sisi – showed the determination to entrench a new political system in the face of a campaign by Islamists to reverse the military’s July 3 ousting of President Mohammad Mursi. The military removed the country’s first freely elected president last week after four days of massive protests by millions of Egyptians demanding he leave.
Egypt summoned Turkey’s ambassador to Cairo Tuesday in protest at what it viewed as Ankara’s interference in Egyptian affairs, after Turkey described the Egyptian army’s overthrow of Mursi as an “unacceptable coup.”
The Muslim Brotherhood denounced the transition plan, saying it brings the country back to “zero” in the political process and vowed to continue protests demanding Mursi’s reinstatement. A day earlier, more than 50 Mursi supporters were killed by security forces inTurn to page 10From page 1clashes outside a military installation, heightening the country’s polarization between Islamists and their opponents.An Egyptian security official said Tuesday 650 people were arrested, most during Monday’s violence, for allegedly trying to storm the Republican Guard headquarters. The military claimed that was what sparked the violence that led to the deaths. Protesters and Mursi’s Brotherhood deny any attack took place, saying the troops descended on their sit-in outside the headquarters and started firing.
The naming of a prime minister was seen as a key step in moving ahead in the political process, but it had been deadlocked for days in negotiations between liberal, secular and youth factions and the sole Islamist party that backed Mursi’s removal, which blocked several of their candidates. Beblawi, 76, called for dialogue between the new leadership and their Islamist opponents. “Everyone in Egypt must sit together on the table for dialogue to solve current political differences, stop violence and bloodshed in the street,” he told AP. Beblawi served as finance minister in one of the first Cabinets formed after Mubarak’s ouster. He resigned in protest in October 2011 after 26 protesters, mostly Christians, were killed by troops and security forces in a crackdown on their march. Liberal, secular and youth factions have been trying to ensure one of their own in the spot, but collided with the ultraconservative Salafist Al-Nour Party. Last week, ElBaradei was on the verge of being named prime minister, but at the last minute he was withdrawn in the face of Al-Nour objections.
Soon after Beblawi’s appointment was announced by the spokesman of the interim president, Adly Mansour, Sisi issued a statement telling factions not to engage in political “maneuvering” in what appeared to be a veiled warning to Al-Nour. “The future of the nation is too important and sacred for maneuvers or hindrance, whatever the justifications,” Sisi said in a statement carried by state-TV.
A spokesman for Al-Nour, Ibrahim Abaza, told AP the group welcomes Beblawi’s appointment. The quick moves on a transition also aim to show the United States and other Western nations that the country is moving quickly back to an elected civilian leadership. The White House said Tuesday it was “cautiously encouraged” by the timeline proposed by Egypt’s interim rulers for elections to replace ousted Mursi. “We are cautiously encouraged by the announcement by the interim government that it [has] a potential plan for moving forward with a democratic process and elections, both parliamentary and presidential,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Ramadan cease-fire calls fall on deaf ears in Syria
July 10, 2013 /The Daily Star /BEIRUT: U.N. calls for cease-fire on the eve of Ramadan fell on deaf ears Tuesday as violence raged in flashpoint areas across Syria. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that: “I am calling for ... every person holding a gun, to stop fighting and offer this month of peace as a collective present to their people.” His statement followed a proposed truce by the Syrian National Coalition chief, Ahmad Jarba, in the embattled city of Homs for the holy month.The central city was pounded by government warplanes and artillery fire Tuesday for the 11th-consecutive day. Homs is seen as crucial to the government’s attempts to link the capital to President Bashar Assad’s coastal strongholds and divide rebel units in the north and south. Khaldieh, a northern district that links the outskirts of the city with the center, was the focus of the violence and the 13th-century Khalid bin Walid Mosque, a prominent central landmark, had been hit, the anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It added that the Krak de Chevaliers crusader castle, once a popular tourist site in Homs province, was the scene of clashes Tuesday.
Battles also raged in Aleppo, where many government-held areas are deprived of food supplies. Moscow’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Tuesday that Russian experts believed sarin gas was used in a suburb of the city on March 19 and was most likely fired by rebels. The incident at Khan al-Assal killed more than two dozen people. Both the regime and rebels have blamed each other for what they say was an attack involving chemical weapons. Both also deny using chemical weapons.
Russian officials visited the location where the projectile struck and took their own samples of material from the site. Those samples, Churkin said, were then analyzed at a Russian laboratory certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “The projectile involved is not a standard one for chemical use,” he said. “Hexogen, utilized as an opening charge, is not utilized in standard ammunitions. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that it was armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal.”Syrian rebels have intensified their blockade of government-held areas, opposition activists said Tuesday. Many activists condemn the tactic, aimed at weakening the supply routes Assad’s forces, arguing that it indiscriminately punishes more than 2 million people living in the western part of the city still held by the army.
“This is a crime ... Some of our rebel forces, God reform them, are participating in this blockade. Prices are soaring at an unimaginable rate. There is now horrible scarcity,” said an activist speaking by Skype.
Rebels have been working for months to block roads leading into western Aleppo, but food scarcity only became a serious problem this week. The fighters decided for the first time to block a highway once left open to civilians, according to an Aleppo-based activist who asked not to be named. Previously, they had only attacked Assad’s forces there. A rebel fighter in Aleppo said the blockade on residents was not intentional, but rather an unfortunate side effect of rebel clashes with the army. “This is really because of the battles. It’s not just the rebels’ fault, the army is also firing on any car that goes toward the west,” said the fighter, who calls himself Ahmad. Residents in government-held western Aleppo say food prices have jumped to more than ten times their original level and basics such as bread and flour have become harder to find.

Violent Ramadan ahead: Egypt’s army chief says no to dialogue with Brotherhood. Assad nixes ceasefire

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 9, 2013/The holy Muslim month of Ramadan beginning in the Middle East Tuesday, July 9, heralds more, rather than less, bloodshed. After at least 51 deaths in a Cairo shootout Monday, Egypt’s military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi rebuffed US diplomatic efforts to bring the various political forces in the country around the table for dialogue. The high military council is divided on this: One faction urges a relentless crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its deposed president; a second, led by Gen. El-Sisi, says they mustn’t be cowed by the backlash to Monday’s incident, but should keep the political process for a new and stable government on track/ In line with this perception, Provisional President Justice Adli Mansour issued a decree Tuesday for elections to a new parliament in February 2014, followed immediately by voting for a new president. He did not fix a precise date. No one expects this decree to tranquilize the turmoil in the country or deter the Brothers from an uprising (intifada) declared against the powers that unseated them after Egyptian soldiers shot dead at least 51 of their supporters. They were accused by the army of trying to storm the Republican Guards Club in Cairo where deposed president Mohamed Morsi is held. The Brothers claimed they were just holding a peaceful sit-in. The generals have geared up to meet this threat, which appears to have been kicked off Monday with attacks on strategic targets across Egypt - carried out, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, by the Brotherhood’s armed underground, Al-Gihas al-Sirri.In parallel, the military is also deploying for a major offensive to curb the armed Salafi Bedouin rampant in Sinai and now harnessed to the Brotherhoods uprising. The generals believe this center of revolt must be nipped in the bud without delay for the sake of confining the MB uprising to mainland Egypt.
To this end, heavy military reinforcements were seen pouring into Sinai in the early hours of Tuesday. The urgency of cutting down the Brotherhood’s capabilities for making trouble was attested to by the risk the Egyptian army took by withdrawing substantial military strength from the Suez Canal towns of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez and redeploying them in Sinai. They acted on the assumption that, in the short term, the Brothers would concentrate their defiance on street protests and clashes with the army to Cairo.Our military sources report that Maj. Gen. Ahmad Wasfi, head of the Second Army, arrived Monday in the northern Sinai town of El Arish to set up a command center for the forthcoming campaign against the Islamist opposition and its allies, the Salafist networks linked to al Qaeda and the radical Palestinian Hamas.
The outbreaks in Egypt this week overshadowed the disastrous situation in Syria.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that alongside thrusts on other fronts, such as Homs, the Syrian army and Hizballah are in the final stages of preparations for their big push to liquidate rebel strongholds in Aleppo and recapture Syria’s second city. Syrian President Bashar Assad decided to go ahead with this offensive despite the onset of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from sunup to sundown for a month.
Iran and Moscow are speeding extra military and arms supplies to aid this effort by airlift. Refusing to brook any further delays in the battle for Aleppo, Assad turned down a proposal by UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon’s and the new Syrian opposition president Ahmad Jabra to declare a bilateral ceasefire for the month of Ramadan.

Rouhani’s Nuclear Options
By: Seyed Hossein Mousavian/Asharq Alsawsat
The window for a diplomatic breakthrough in the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program will be most opportune during the second term of President Barack Obama. In his 2013 State of the Union address, he called on Iran’s leaders to “recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution.” Last month’s election of Hassan Rouhani, a former top nuclear negotiator, as Iran’s next president offers the prospect of a fresh approach to negotiations. There is, however, a risk that if the current American/Western policy of pressure politics continues, we will inch toward a military confrontation. Iran, as a sovereign state and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is entitled to enrich uranium. I believe that if Washington recognized Iran’s right to enrich, a nuclear deal could be reached immediately. Without this recognition, no substantial agreement will be possible. The Iranian nuclear dilemma is centered on the legitimate rights of Iran to enrichment under the NPT, and is not about building a nuclear bomb. Iran has signed onto every Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) convention, such as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1996, and the NPT in 1970. Such conventions entail rights and obligations for all signatories. The West, however, has chosen, in contravention of international law, to carry out a coercive policy whereby Iran is pressed on obligations while its rights are denied.
The NPT has been used by the West as an instrument of pressure against Iran and to falsely accuse Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Such tactics serve as a means to justify punitive measures and eventual military action. The NPT is effectively serving as a platform to deny the legitimate rights of Iran and to rally the international community to endorse and implement the most draconian multilateral and unilateral sanctions ever levied on Iran. As a result, Iran is increasingly disillusioned with international conventions that ignore its rights but expect full commitment to obligations. This has led some politicians in Iran to view the NPT as a national security threat, which is being used as an instrument by warmongers in the United States to press for measures to achieve their ultimate goal: regime change.
Rouhani’s first priority will be to manage the economic crisis. The nuclear standoff resulted in unprecedented unilateral and multilateral sanctions being placed on the country, a primary reason for its economic hardship. The new administration has various options for handling the nuclear stalemate and thereby alleviating the effects of sanctions on the country. There are different options. The favorable option for Iran is to seek a peaceful standoff. Enduring the barrage of sanctions and other punitive measures is not realistic, while giving up Iran’s nuclear rights would be impossible regardless who rules Iran.
In the absence of a realistic, face-saving solution, withdrawing from the NPT would become an attractive option for Tehran. Iran can substitute the treaties with the supreme leader’s religious fatwa banning nuclear weapons and all WMDs. This move will would ensure the international community that Iran is not after WMDs and would relieve Iran of its treaty obligations, which have been used by the West to place further sanctions on Tehran. The US and Western punitive measures on Iran have exceeded those placed on North Korea, a country that withdrew from the NPT, built nuclear weapons, conducted three tests, and threatened to use them against the United States. And, at the same time, the United States and other Western countries have forged close nuclear cooperation with non-NPT nuclear weapons states such as India, Pakistan and Israel. It is no wonder that the Iranians are growing frustrated with such international hypocrisy, which rewards violators and non-signatory states to the NPT with strategic alliances. In reality, Iran has paid a higher price for staying committed to the NPT and having no nuclear weapons. Since the 1979 Revolution, the NPT has proven more harmful than beneficial for Iran. Instead, the NPT has effectively become a national security threat, because the West has used it as an instrument to bring Iran to the United Nations Security Council.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has decreed that our religious tenets and beliefs consider these kinds of weapons of mass destruction to be instruments of genocide and are, therefore, forbidden and religiously banned. “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical and similar weapons as a great and unforgivable sin,” he has stated.
Iran can therefore lay a new foundation for non-proliferation based on Islamic values and principles, embodied in the supreme leader’s fatwa and not on the NPT or other WMD conventions. In this way, the credit would go to Islam. As a goodwill measure, Iran would provide unfettered access to inspectors and declare its peaceful intentions. This would ensure Iran no longer permits the West to use the NPT and other WMD conventions as a means to press Iran and inflict economic, social and political harm.

Iran: Nuclear talks on hold until Rouhani sworn in
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—International negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program will remain on hold until Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has been sworn in, a foreign ministry spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters during a weekly press conference, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said: “no formal negotiations can take place between Iran and the P5+1 [the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Germany] until the president-elect Hassan Rohani is inaugurated.”Talks over Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which has made the country the target of strict American and Western economic sanctions, would remain dormant “until the president-elect is sworn in and has his cabinet members in place,” Araqchi added. He highlighted the transition period and the change in the government, and said: “there has not been a scheduled time for the next round of talks. There had been some ideas before, but the two sides did not reach an agreement on that. Both sides are waiting for this transition period to go by, and resume the talks.” The last round of negotiations between the two sides took place in the Kazakh capital Almaty on April 6, and ended without agreement. In the same press conference, Araqchi also played down recent revelations of US role in the creation and use of the ‘Stuxnet’ computer virus, which was discovered to have infected equipment in Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010, and inflicted damage on a number of uranium centrifuges. Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee who leaked details of several classified US government mass surveillance programs to the press, said in an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Monday that Israel and the US had created the virus. “The remarks do not have anything new information and it is obvious that Iran has always been the main target of the US espionage operations. The US officials have repeatedly pointed to this issue,” Araqchi said. The spokesman also dismissed recent rumours that the resumption of direct flights from Tehran to Washington was imminent, saying: “Such baseless comments are not true.”In other news, Al-Arab, an Arabic language newspaper based in London, reported on Monday that the government of Saudi Arabia was preparing for an official visit by Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani, following successful consultations between Riyadh and Tehran. According to the source, Saudi Minister of Interior is in contact with a close aide of Rouhani in order to make preparations for the visit, and that recent moves by Irans to show willingness to improve the relations between the two countries has been welcomed by Riyadh. Al-Arab reports that Western diplomats informed of the contacts between the two states encouraged Riyadh to develop relations with Tehran to boost the position of moderate factions inside Iran.
The monarch of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, congratulated Rouhani on winning the Iranian presidential elections shortly after his victory. In particular, the king praised recent comments made by Rouhani in which he said was eager to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In an interview in June with Asharq Al-Awsat, the Iranian president-elect said that he intended to improve Saudi–Iranian relations and establish “mutual respect and mutually beneficial arrangements and cooperation to enhance security and restore stability in the region.”

Is history repeating itself?
By: Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat
The Egyptian army removed President Mohamed Mursi after giving him an ultimatum, and the squares were packed with crowds chanting, “The army and the people are hand in hand.” What is different this time is the US administration’s stance, which seemed to compete with the people in January 2011. Now, however, the US administration is adopting a more deliberate and patient attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood, while they continue in escalation that deepens the chasm they have created in Egypt, a situation that warned that violence would be committed and blood would be shed. US President Barack Obama’s administration did not call what happened a “military coup,” but it emphasized “the importance of a quick and responsible return of full authority to a democratically elected civilian government.” The previous US administration was clearer in its dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood: they considered it a radical group. Former US president George W. Bush described Yousef Nada, the Muslim Brotherhood’s foreign minister (as he liked to describe himself) and one of the Brotherhood’s loyal doves, as “Al-Qaeda’s bank manager.” Former presidential candidate and former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gringrich also said in February 2011 that “the Muslim Brotherhood is a mortal enemy of our civilization.” For decades, the US attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood has changed frequently amid secret meetings; it has been through ebbs and flows. Yet with the abject failure of the Brotherhood’s rule in Egypt, Obama’s theory that handing power over to political Islamist groups was the way to eliminate violence and spread democracy was also a failure. The events of the past year, in addition to Obama’s attitude towards the ousting of Mursi, are the best evidence of the failure of that theory. In Egypt, despite the importance of the events, the general course has not changed considerably. Chaos is prevalent and forces continue to reposition themselves. Chaos is stronger than any political party. When chaos spreads and prevails, in the absence of stable, sensible principles that govern individuals as well as groups, and in the absence of civilized discourse, it can only lead to further destruction. It is good to see the Brotherhood’s discourse and political Islam’s experience in rule collapsing in the Muslim Brotherhood’s backyard, within less than a year in power.
It is good to see the people and the army being united in their rejection of the Brotherhood’s monopolistic and scheming policies.
Their monopolistic policies were manifested in their attempts to dominate all the country’s organizations and institutions, whereas the scheming was apparent in the flagrant contradictions of the Brotherhood’s position towards Israel. In their external stances, such contradictions were manifested in President Mursi’s letter to the Israeli president in which the Egyptian leader addressed his Israeli counterpart as “Dear friend.” It was also apparent in his stance on the Syrian crisis.
Domestically, the Brotherhood’s contradictions were seen in their manipulation of extremist Islamic groups, using them to serve its purposes. It could be said that the Brotherhood have suffered a historic defeat, not only to the mother organization or its branches, but also to their ideology as a whole. They managed, in one single year, to make as many internal and external enemies as possible. Internally, they antagonized different state institutions, such as the army and the police, which are supposed to be under their jurisdiction in the executive authority. They did the same with the judiciary and political adversaries, Al-Azhar, the Coptic church, and youth organizations. Externally, they antagonized Arab states, especially Gulf states. They also showed antagonism towards the Syrian issue when they sided with the regime and Iran, only to turn suddenly and dramatically, in a manner that manifested a lack of strategic thinking. Externally, too, they forgot the sectarian dimension. Their ideological leaning towards Iran and its political project, which they often praised, has done them great harm. Egypt, with its strategic weight in the region, did not stand to be transformed into a ring on Iran’s little finger.
The Brotherhood chose confrontation and escalation. The speech of its general guide, Mohammed Badie, to his supporters last Friday at Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque was littered with the Brotherhood’s traditional violent discourse. The vocabulary and the religious texts he selected and the slogans he used suggested preparation for a violent confrontation and a bloody escalation. The Brotherhood’s stance emphasized the miscalculation of some intellectuals who believed that political Islam was a representation of an open and tolerant discourse, compared to that of Salafists, or that the “Muslim Brotherhood” had abandoned their historic discourse and had become more democratic than Western parties and nations.
It is important to be alert to the fact that the Brotherhood’s failure and the collapse of their state does not mean their end, or that they are excluded from the next phase. This is because they still have loyal popular support and are very organized and capable of mobilizing their supporters at any future elections, unless legal measures are taken to curb their eroding—although not vanishing—popularity. In fact, those who would suffer from such a scenario the most are the Brotherhood themselves, for being biased towards violence. It is very easy for the Brotherhood and the Islamic groups that support them to return to their old bases and to their experiences in the industry of violence, bombings, assassinations and destruction in general. Old habits die hard, especially in a chaotic, inflammatory climate in which they feel oppressed and stir up their supporters’ hatred through their customary promotional and ideological mechanisms, which they tried for years. In fact, their success in this can only be rivalled by their failure in their political leadership of the state.
The image is yet to be completed, but the result of violence as of Saturday night (the time this article was written) was that the death toll had risen to 17, apart from hundreds injured, and the situation is likely to escalate further.
The Brotherhood have one of two options: return to their historic practice of working underground and commit violence and assassinations, taking into consideration their weak control over their followers after the recent emotional and ideological aggravation. The second option is a long-term one: for the Brotherhood to rebuild itself from scratch by removing the old guard, who have led them for over two decades, and then come back with a completely different look, which is a very hard mission. Finally, description is very important in reading the present and predicting the future. Hence, it is important to remember that it was not the streets that overthrew the Brotherhood, it was the army. However, this is not to deny the amount of growing popular discontent with the Brotherhood. When taking into account the statistics regarding the number of anti-Brotherhood demonstrators on June 30, who were twice the number of those who took to streets in 2011, we must also remember the difference in temperature between the cold January and burning June in Egypt.

Opinion: The Algerian Nightmare in Egypt
By: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
Following the nationwide mass protests against Mursi that led to his ouster, the message coming from the Muslim Brotherhood was one of violence. Last week’s scenes of death, chaos and fires in parts of Egypt were reminiscent of Algeria in 1992, following the suspension of general elections. Overthrowing the president may have been a valid move, but we need to examine all the elements of the crisis in Algeria to draw comparisons. The suspension of elections in Algeria was preceded by chaos and growing calls to reject the new regime; violence took place after the suspension, and then extremists lost the trust of the Algerian people. Violence failed to fulfill their objectives. Up until 1988, Algeria had been an isolated country, but it had gradually started opening up its economy. When the late president, Al-Shazli Bin Jadid, tried to take a step back, and called for economic austerity measures due to declining oil prices, people revolted against him. Bin Jadid carried out a project of reforms, adopted a new constitution, ended monopoly rule and allowed elections and freedom of the media. As a result of this new competition, the country entered the chaotic phase, witnessing demonstrations that lasted for over a year.
Dozens of political parties emerged, including the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which was led the pack going into the elections. Other than statements from its leadership, it was not easy to get to know the new party; most of the leaders had made moderate speeches, like Sheikh Abbasi Madani. Some, like the party’s vice-president, Ali Belhadj, led extremist demonstrations in the squares of Algiers that called for the annulment of the constitution after winning the elections. Violent incidents mounted, but no one believed that the FIS was behind them; the army was accused of provoking violence, which was not strange back then, since it had the motive of derailing the elections and tightening its grip of power. But a few years later, the army was proven to be innocent. These incidents were the same as the violence on behalf of armed Takfirists carried out 20 years later. In addition to violence, extremists also resorted to excuses and justifications, such as threatening to revoke the constitution, saying that democracy was haram (unlawful) and burning shops. Many did not believe that the FIS was behind these incidents; in the 1980s neither the culture nor institutions in Algeria were ready for the change, especially with the extremists entering the scene. The Islamists showed that it was impossible for them to become moderate as a result of the democratic setup. Egypt cannot be understood without an analysis of the Algerian and Turkish experiences. In Turkey, an Islamist party is providing a modern Islamic version that can rule and adjust. But the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is closer to the Algerian FIS experience, which wanted to win the elections without adhering to the necessary conditions whilst ruling. The Brotherhood in Egypt is a political movement that tries to retain whatever will allow it to win over and rule the country. Technically, this is proper political work but the extremist voices inside the movement seem to have prevailed. They committed constitutional violations to dominate government, instead of sharing and respecting the authorities’ duties and rights; the presidency or the executive cabinet cannot disregard the judiciary, which was targeted by the Muslim Brotherhood. Is Egypt undergoing a complete repeat of Algeria? I do not know; each society has its own characteristics. It is most likely Egyptians that are suffering today will be able to come up with their own road map—one that will take them out of the darkness and into the light.

Getting Egypt Right This Time
By: Michael Singh/Washington Insitute
Foreign Policy
International legitimacy and international aid are Washington's best sources of leverage for convincing the Egyptian military and its allies to act responsibly. In the aftermath of the Egyptian military's ouster of President Mohamed Morsy, much of the debate in Washington has focused on the question of U.S. aid. Should the United States call the military's action a coup and suspend aid as demanded by the law, or not? The answer has been hotly debated, with prominent analysts and former officials coming down on either side. But the question itself is the wrong one, and the narrow focus on U.S. aid is misplaced. As is the case with the long debate on arming the opposition and setting up a no-fly zone in Syria, it is generally misguided in foreign policy to zero in on and debate a specific tactic in the absence of any clear sense of one's objective or strategy for achieving it. In the case of Egypt, the United States has a number of interests at play, but the one most relevant to current events is regional stability. For Egypt to play a positive role in maintaining the stability of the region, it must not only pursue stabilizing foreign policies -- such as maintaining its peace treaty with Israel and working to counter terrorism and nuclear proliferation -- but it must also be stable domestically.
Morsy seemed willing, at least initially, to pursue stabilizing foreign policies; however, his majoritarian -- and increasingly authoritarian -- approach to governing further destabilized Egypt rather than stabilizing it. At a moment when Egyptians needed their best and brightest to coalesce around principles and plans to lead their country out of political and economic crisis, Morsy sought to institutionalize Islamist ideology and amass as much power as possible for his own movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, to the exclusion of others.
The Egyptian military's solution to Morsy's misrule, however, offers little consolation to U.S. policymakers. Not only does it appear to portend increased violence, since the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists will not simply acquiesce or fade away, but the disparate groups that came together to oust Morsy do not appear to have any clearer plan than he did for pulling post-Mubarak Egypt out of its state of persistent and deepening crisis.
Washington would have preferred that Morsy be removed -- or his power diluted -- through a political power-sharing deal, which would have avoided the first problem by keeping the Brotherhood in politics and off the streets, and which would have potentially helped address the second. The challenge for U.S. policymakers now is to achieve the result that Barack Obama's administration seemed to prefer before June 30 -- a coalition government focused on alleviating Egypt's crisis -- against the backdrop of a military intervention and escalating violence.
In practical terms, this requires a quick transition from military rule to a civilian government, though not necessarily an elected one at first. To avoid a repeat of the mistakes and turbulence of Morsy's tenure, the United States should emphasize pluralism and respect for human rights; the building of democratic institutions, especially a constitution conforming to broad principles to which most Egyptians can agree, and the development of political parties; and the development of a plan for resolving the economic crisis -- rather than calling for immediate elections. Elections are necessary but, as Morsy so clearly demonstrated, not sufficient to make a democracy.
This brings one back to the question of U.S. military assistance to Egypt. While significant at $1.3 billion, this assistance does not provide the United States with much leverage over the Egyptian military. This was vividly illustrated over the past week, during which Egypt's generals disregarded the Obama administration's explicit and public warning not to oust Morsy.
While both Egypt and the United States reap benefits from their military relationship, the logic of providing Cairo with a steady stream of tanks and jets has eroded as the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli wars have faded into history. It may make sense to reconfigure and renegotiate that relationship, but the United States should be under no illusions that threatening to do so will compel Egypt's generals to do what it asks.
What does appear to concern Egypt's military and its allies, however, is the stigma that accompanies the "coup" designation, with its strong connotation of illegitimacy. If the United States makes such a designation, it is reasonable to expect that others will follow, compromising whatever government succeeds Morsy's. This provides Washington with leverage, but it will largely disappear once a determination is made. Thus, the best course of action is to defer the decision temporarily, giving the military and its allies time and incentive to act responsibly. The other major source of leverage that the United States should seek to employ is international assistance. The economic disaster that loomed prior to Morsy's ouster continues to hang over Egypt, threatening the success of any government, however it is constituted. To emerge successfully from this crisis, Egypt will require external financing in the form of both official assistance and private investment. While U.S. aid is too small to make much of a difference to Egypt's fortunes, the sum total of assistance that can be offered by America's allies is far more significant. To credibly put these two incentives -- international legitimacy and international aid -- on the table, Washington will need to make a major push to line up the support of allies within the region and outside it. The most skeptical may be America's Persian Gulf allies, most of which welcome Morsy's fall, and all of which have been displeased with U.S. policy, not only toward Egypt but toward other regional issues. Getting these allies on board will require overcoming a perception of U.S. passivity and inconstancy and demonstrating a willingness to act decisively not just on this issue, but also on others of vital importance to them, such as Syria and Iran.
In Egypt, the United States has been given a second chance it hoped not to require. To make the most of it, American policymakers should view it not just as a chance to revisit U.S. policy toward Egypt, but to reassert American leadership in the Middle East.
**Michael Singh is managing director of The Washington Institute.

Egypt’s “déjà vu”
By: Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat/The world-famous French expression “déjà vu”—which is also the title of a famous film—means thinking that a new incident or life experience had occurred before. This expression may be somehow applied to the current events in Egypt, particularly the new revolution of June 30. The difference is that the revolution is not a quirk of the human brain, as scientists and psychologists define déjà vu. In fact, what happened in Egypt is an everyday reality. Almost the same scenes of the January 25, 2011, revolution against the former president have been repeated on June 30, 2013, against the deposed President Mursi. Even the slogans used are very similar. In fact, what happened is like a film whose scenario went out of control or did not meet the hopes of the director who accordingly stopped filming and reconstructed the scenario. The difference between the film that the world-famous Denzel Washington starred in and the situation in Egypt is that the director rewriting the scenario is the angry protesters who occupied the streets and the squares of Egypt, attracting the attention of political movements and regional and international players. Similar to what happened on January 25 and the first transitional period that followed, the June 30 revolution has been caused a regional and international reaction. Unable to ignore the role of international powers, local players in Egypt try to woo, or at least neutralize, them. However, the difference now is that attitudes have changed. Regional players that had supported January 25 revolution expressed their opposition to June 30 on the pretext of the legitimacy of change by the ballot box. The side that managed to topple the president justify themselves that those who took to the streets in the millions represent the same legitimacy that everyone accepted and acknowledged when it toppled the former president. They wonder why they oppose the toppling of Mursi in the same way. They also insist that in both cases this legitimacy demanded the support of the military, a thing which happened in both cases. Many believe that the reason why a second revolution has happened, leading to the ouster of a supposedly freely elected president on his first anniversary in office, is due to the mistakes committed during the first transitional period, creating ever-deepening divisions throughout the last two and a half years. It all started when elections were held before a constitution was drafted to serve as a middle ground that everybody accepts. Instead, this led to a parliament which was dissolved and a president who, because he did not have specific powers, issued constitutional declarations to award himself almost absolute powers. This is not to mention the constant clashes between the presidency and the judiciary, as well as the rapidly collapsing economy and the government whose strategic interests are threatened by domestic weakness. Why did that happen? History will answer that question. However, the state of perplexity everybody felt following the fall of Mubarak in 2011 and the absence of political leaders who can instruct and negotiate on behalf of youth movements and the protesters led a political trend which is not favored by the public to take control.
Now there is no way these mistakes can be repeated. Moreover, given the opportunity to correct the revolution, the one to run Egypt during the transition period should strike a balance between wisdom and firmness in order to avoid the scenarios of chaos or civil war that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has mentioned. The bloody confrontations that took place yesterday and the day before, as well as the violent footage being circulated on social networking websites, please no one and presage danger.
The regional and international scene is split between those who describe what happened as a “coup d’état” and the ones who prefer to wait, particularly after seeing the massive protests. This division and state of polarization point to the confusion over June 30 to the extent that friends have become enemies. In fact, Egypt is going through the most difficult time throughout its modern history, and the future of Egypt hinges on how the transitional period will be managed to enable the country escape the danger.

Canada Congratulates South Sudan on Second Year as Independent Nation
July 9, 2013 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Development, today issued the following statement:
“The creation of South Sudan two years ago gave hope to its people for a better, brighter future.
“Canada continues to support the common goal of long-term peace, stability and prosperity in South Sudan and urges both Sudan and South Sudan to implement agreements on security, borders and oil without delay and without conditions.
“Canada is committed to supporting South Sudan’s development as a democratic nation. In addition, we are helping South Sudan improve the health of mothers, newborns and children, helping farmers increase agricultural production and gain access to markets, and engaging at-risk youth in the social and economic development of their communities.”
For more information, please visit Canada: Active in Sudan and South Sudan.