France calls on Lebanon to uphold dissociation policy
March 03, 2013 /The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Lebanon needs to uphold the Baabda Declaration and its policy of distancing the country from regional conflict, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said in remarks published Sunday.In his remarks to An-Nahar daily, the French official said that all Lebanese sides should respect the agreement to keep Lebanon neutral from regional developments, referred to as the Baabda Declaration and endorsed by President Michel Sleiman.The Baabda Declaration, signed by rival March 8 and March 14 leaders in 2012, calls for “keeping Lebanon away from the policy of regional and international conflicts and sparing it the negative repercussions of regional tensions and crises.” The French official also said that his country supports the Lebanese authorities in their determination to maintain domestic security. He added that all Lebanese powers should work together to safeguard Lebanon from the Syrian crisis, that has been going on for almost two years now. France has repeatedly stressed the need for Lebanon to stay away from the Syrian crisis and all Lebanese powers must work to achieve that goal, Lalliot said. There are fears Lebanon’s stability could be shaken by events in Syria, particularly following reports of Hezbollah members engaging in the conflict against Syrian opposition fighters. Lebanon has also been affected by repeated cross-border shelling from Syria that has claimed the lives of many nationals and caused material damage and tension among residents.The official also said his country is committed to completing its mission in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon that function along the borders. According to Laillot, the presence of the international troops at such period of regional tension is essential to maintain stability in Lebanon. UNIFIL is still playing a central role despite the difficulties it is facing, he stressed.

Assir ignores Army appeal, holds protest in Sidon
March 03, 2013/The Daily Star/SIDON, Lebanon: Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir Sunday ignored the army’s appeal for the preacher to stay in the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque and carried out another protest in the southern city of Sidon.Around 400 of the sheikh’s supporters followed him as he changed the direction of his sit-in from the al-Karama roundabout and headed toward Sidon’s Nejmeh square, cheering slogans against Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.“We won’t calm down before Hezbollah’s arms are taken out,” said Assir, his supporters echoing his words. Army troops earlier cordoned off the southern city of Sidon to prevent the sheikh from visiting the graves of supporters killed in clashes with Hezbollah loyalists last year, describing the visit as “provocative.”The Army also encircled al-Karama roundabout in Sidon, where the supporters were buried and prevented vehicles from outside the city from approaching it. Two of Assir’s bodyguards were killed in a shootout in November over banners raised by Hezbollah in Sidon marking the party’s Martyrs Day. Sidon was spared violence Friday when Assir staged a protest that ended without incident amid strict security measures enforced by the Army and Internal Security Forces. Assir’s repeated protests in Sidon and Beirut have stirred criticism from various parties and prompted security authorities to remain alert to any movement planned by the Sheikh.

Kataeb, FPM list wins Qobeiyat by-elections
March 04, 2013/By Antoine Amrieh/The Daily Star
QOBEIYAT, Lebanon: The list backed by the Kataeb and the Free Patriotic Movement won municipal by-elections in the town of Qobeiyat in Akkar against a March-14 backed list, exit polls indicated Sunday.
The National News Agency reported that the list headed by Abdo Makhoul Abdo, the former mayor of Qobeiyat, won all 18 seats of the town’s municipal council. Although the Kataeb is a member of the March 14 coalition, it decided to support the FPM-backed list for the by-elections. The list was also supported by former MP Mikhail Daher. The winning list engaged in a heated battle against candidates supported by the Lebanese Forces and Future Movement MP Hadi Hobeish, who hails from the town which witnessed one of its fiercest electoral battles. Supporters of Abdo celebrated in the town by launching fireworks when preliminary results were announced.
Hobeish cast his ballot in Qobeiyat and said that elections were held amid a free and democratic atmosphere. He said he would have preferred that the battle be focused on development but that the rival group wanted to politicize the election process.In the Zghorta village of Baslouqit, members of the March-8 backed “Baslouqit Dignity” list, which was running against a March 14 backed ticket, swept all nine seats of the municipal council. The winning list was backed by Suleiman Franjieh’s Marada Movement. In the Chouf town of Debbieh, the list of former Mayor George Boustany defeated the rival list headed by Fadi Boustany, clinching all 12 seats.
No definite results emerged in the Akkar village of Bireh, where a March 14-backed list headed by former Mayor Mohammad Wehbe ran against a ticket headed by Jamal Merheb, who is seen as close to March 8.
While touring election centers in Qobeiyat, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel described the electoral process as “excellent.”
“Elections are a test of democracy ... despite security incidents, democracy is still present. Officials have to agree on an electoral law [for parliamentary elections] and we are ready [to make preparations],” he said. Charbel also visited election centers in Bireh and Kahaleh. In the Jezzine village of Kfar Houne, the battle split the March 8 coalition. Hadi Hindi headed a list backed by the FPM, Amal and a number of families which ran against a rival ticket backed by Hezbollah and local families. The LF decided to back candidates from both lists. The battle was focused on the eight Christian seats in the municipal council, as consensus between Hezbollah and Amal was reached on the remaining seven seats allocated for Shiites. In the newly formed municipality of the village of Sharbin in Baalbek-Hermel, 20 candidates competed over 12 seats for the village’s municipal council. The town, which has 2,114 eligible voters, is inhabited mainly by the Nasereddine and Rasheini families. In the village of Nassrieh in Zahle, polls ran smoothly as a nine-member-list ran against a single candidate. In the Aley town of Kahaleh, two lists headed by the Bejjani family competed for the 15-member council with no clear indication of who emerged victorious.
As The Daily Star went to press, the Interior Ministry had not yet issued official results, but had announced the unofficial voting turnouts. It said the voting turnout reached 60 percent in Qobeiyat, 56 percent in Bireh, 53 percent in Debbieh, 63 percent in Kahaleh and 30 percent in Kfar Houne. Election centers opened at 7 a.m., as Army and Internal Security Forces deployed in the 18 villages and towns that held by-elections.

Berri rules out elections without new electoral law
March 04, 2013/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri warned Sunday that the security situation in Lebanon was “very dangerous,” ruling out holding the June 9 elections on time unless there was an agreement on a new voting law.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Berri also urged the Lebanese Army and security forces to act firmly to consolidate law and order following a series of incidents that threatened to destabilize the country.
“The security situation in the country is very dangerous. ... The Arab dust, which they call the Arab Spring, is filling up Lebanon’s sky and I fear it could turn into a storm unless the political groups act strongly to bring the situation under control,” Berri said. “The priority now is for the security situation not the election law. You have to have a country for elections to take place.”Berri added that the authorities were playing a game of cat and mouse over security incidents, “while what it requires is decisive action.”Lebanon has been jolted recently by a wave of kidnappings for ransom, a series of deadly incidents on the Lebanese-Syrian border that left four Lebanese dead last month, in addition to mounting fears of Sunni-Shiite strife in the southern city of Sidon. Fears of strife grew after Sidon’s Salafist Sheikh Ahmad Assir vowed to escalate his protests until his demand for the departure of what he claimed were armed Hezbollah members in apartments located near his mosque in Abra, east of Sidon, was met. The Army and security forces have deployed heavily in Abra and Sidon to prevent sectarian clashes.
Berri denied he is considering calling for a Parliament session to vote on an election law. He said deadlines would mean little once a consensus is found on a law.
“There will be no elections if there is no agreement on a new election law,” Berri told The Daily Star.
The speaker’s remarks came as the March 8 and March 14 parties remained poles apart over a new electoral law. They also came amid signs of tension between Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati over the approach to a new voting system.
Mikati’s readiness to move forward with the parliamentary elections based on the 1960 law has reportedly irked Berri.
Political sources hinted that the speaker might call a session of Parliament’s general assembly to vote on a new law to replace the 1960 legislation.
“As the government is committed to the constitutional deadline with regard to the elections, Parliament also has to abide by the constitutional deadline to approve a new electoral law,” one source told The Daily Star.
The source said that since the joint parliamentary committees had approved the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal last month, this proposal stood a good chance of being endorsed by Parliament’s general assembly.
Mikati said his government would call for holding the elections as scheduled on June 9. “I will sign the decree [to hold the elections] before March 9,” Mikati said in remarks published by Al-Hayat newspaper Sunday.
As the rival factions have so failed to agree on a new electoral law, Mikati has repeatedly said that his government was committed to holding the elections, even if based on the 1960 law which is legally in force.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel had said that the voters should be called to participate in the elections before March 10. Charbel warned Sunday that if no consensus was reached on a new electoral law, the elections would be postponed, in the latest signal of difficulties facing the holding of the polls on time. “Matters are headed for a consensual electoral law. But if no consensus is reached, the elections will be delayed for a few months to allow for an agreement on a new law,” Charbel told The Daily Star. Charbel ruled out the possibility of holding the elections based on the 1960 law, even if President Michel Sleiman and Mikati signed this week a decree calling on voters to participate in the upcoming polls. “The signing by President Sleiman and Prime Minister Mikati of a decree calling on voters to participate in the elections does not mean that the elections will be held on the basis of the 1960 law because this law has been unanimously rejected by all the parties,” he said. “Therefore, the people and the [rival] parties will boycott any elections based on the 1960 law.”
Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said he expected a new electoral law to be approved by Parliament’s general assembly.
“We have entered the last days for approving a new electoral law. Anyone who is betting on the 1960 law and the postponement of the elections is betting on undermining stability in Lebanon,” Adwan told MTV Sunday night.
“Stability is linked to the elections and an electoral law. Therefore, we will gear our efforts toward reaching an electoral law,” he said. The 1960 law, which has been rejected by officials on both sides of the political divide and the Maronite Church, adopts the qada as an electoral district and is based on a winner-takes-all system. The Orthodox proposal, which designates Lebanon as a single electoral district in which each sect elects its own lawmakers through a proportional representation voting system, has deepened the political split in the country. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, head of the parliamentary Future bloc, renewed the bloc’s call for the formation a neutral Cabinet “to reduce this huge amount of tension and cause a positive shock at all levels.” Speaking at a rally in Sidon Saturday marking the 28th anniversary of the city’s liberation from Israeli occupation, Siniora again blasted the Orthodox proposal, saying it would cause sectarian divisions in the country: “We want the elections to be held on time through a law that can ensure the interests of everyone and achieve freedom of choice, true and fair representation, coexistence, and equal power sharing between Christians and Muslims.”

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel , France warn against violating disassociation policy
March 04, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and France called on Lebanon Sunday to uphold the disassociation policy on the Syrian crisis if it is to be spared the adverse consequences of the 2-year-old bloody conflict next door.Meanwhile, the rebel Free Syrian Army claimed that Hezbollah had recruited several thousands of its fighters in preparation for a massive military invasion of rebel-held Syrian areas near the border with Lebanon in order to shore up the regime of embattled President Bashar Assad. Referring to recent incidents on the Lebanese-Syrian border in which four Lebanese were killed by gunfire from the Syrian side of the frontier, Charbel said: “The Lebanese state and the Army are carrying out their duties within the available means on the border with Syria. Legal crossings are under the Army’s command, but there are illegal crossings. Shells are being fired from both two sides [of the border].”“When there is an accord [among the rival Lebanese factions] to distance ourselves from the events in Syria, the situation will be better and nothing will happen on the border,” Charbel told reporters in Qobeiyat after inspecting the municipal by-election process in the northern town.
Last month, President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Syria to stop shelling Lebanese territory after four Lebanese were killed by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border in the Wadi Khaled region and the village of Heesha.The renewal of deadly incidents on the Lebanese-Syrian border, which had claimed the lives of several Lebanese citizens last year, evoked fresh calls by the opposition March 14 parties for the deployment of the Lebanese Army and U.N. troops along the two countries’ common boundaries. Charbel’s remarks coincided with a statement by a French official who said that Lebanon needs to uphold both its disassociation policy on the crisis in Syria and the Baabda Declaration in order to defuse internal tensions arising from the Lebanese parties’ split over the conflict in the neighboring country.
In remarks published by a local newspaper Sunday, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said that all Lebanese sides should respect the agreement to insulate Lebanon from regional conflicts, better known as the Baabda Declaration. Asked if Hezbollah’s participation in the fighting inside Syria against anti-regime rebels posed serious challenges to Lebanon’s security, Lalliot said: “With regard to the Syrian crisis which threatens stability in the region, France stands on the side of the Lebanese authorities in their determination to defuse internal tensions and it supports the disassociation policy adopted by these authorities.”
He urged the rival Lebanese factions to respect the Baabda Declaration that, he said, “calls on all the parties in the Lebanese arena to bide by a neutral policy on the crisis in Syria.”
The Baabda Declaration, signed by rival March 8 and March 14 leaders in 2012, calls for “keeping Lebanon away from the policy of regional and international conflicts and sparing it the negative repercussions of regional tensions and crises.” There are fears Lebanon’s stability could be shaken by events in Syria, particularly following reports that Hezbollah members were fighting against armed Syrian rebels seeking to topple the Assad regime.
Last month, three Hezbollah fighters and 12 Syrian rebels were killed in fierce battles in the Syrian town of alQusair, whose residents are mostly Lebanese Shiites. AlQusair is located 5 km from the northeastern border with Lebanon. Following the clashes, the Syrian opposition accused Hezbollah of “military intervention” in the neighboring country’s conflict.
The FSA’s joint command warned Sunday that Hezbollah is preparing for a large-scale invasion of rebel-held areas near the border, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya channel reported.
The FSA claimed in a statement that Hezbollah had recruited several thousands of its fighters in the Baalbek-Hermel region and border areas with Syria, particularly near alQusair and the Homs province, for this purpose.
Describing the alleged Hezbollah military buildup as “a declaration of an open war” on Syria and the Syrian people, the FSA urged the United Nations and the Arab League to convene an emergency session to prevent a military flare-up on the common border with Lebanon, according to Al-Arabiya. The FSA warned of the “grave consequences” of Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria and called for sending Arab or international troops to maintain security on the border. Meanwhile, the Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel-Karim Ali said that his country would continue to respond to any sources of fire from across the border with Lebanon as a part of standard procedures.
“[Gunmen on the border] represent a violation of the sovereignty of both Lebanon and Syria. What Syria and its military are doing is responding to sources of fire which can only be viewed as necessary to protect Syria and its sovereignty,” Ali told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour Saturday. “This is a normal practice,” he added. Mansour had been asked by Mikati to protest to Syrian authorities over the recent Syrian shelling of northern border villages that killed four Lebanese. However, Ali denied he had been summoned by Mansour, saying he had requested the meeting with the minister.

Body of a man found hanging from electrical pole in Tyre
March 03, 2013/By Mohammad Zaatari/The Daily Star /TYRE, Lebanon: The body of a young man was discovered Sunday hanging from an electricity pole in the southern city of Tyre. The body of the man, in his twenties, was discovered by farmers early in the morning while heading to the fields in the area between the two Tyre villages of Batoulieh and Dair Qanoun - Ras al-Ain. Security sources said that the man may have climbed up the pole to steal copper wires from the electricity cables, when he was struck by electricity and died. Baggage on the floor suggested it may be used for collection. Security forces later arrived at the scene and launched an investigation into the incident.The sources said it is suspected the man had accomplices who ran away after he was killed, as copper thieves usually work in teams. Frequent copper thefts in south Lebanon have caused repeated power outages in many rural villages. Electricite du Liban has issued several warnings that cable theft is on the rise, and last year announced that theft represents close to 30 percent of its losses.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai calls on Christians to remain in the region
March 04, 2013/By Antoine Amrieh/The Daily Star
KFAR HAYY, Lebanon: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai issued a plea Sunday for Christians to remain in Lebanon and the Middle East to preserve their presence in the region. Rai made his comments during a mass to commemorate the death of the first Maronite patriarch, Saint Yohanna Maroun, in the village of Kfar Hayy in Batroun. The village was home to the first Maronite patriarchate in Lebanon.Environment Minister Nazem Khoury represented President Michel Sleiman at the mass, which was also attended by Minister Gebran Bassil as well as local and religious officials. “We pray for God to enlighten the officials and citizens of Lebanon so they can work together to protect the country. [We hope Lebanon remains] a shining destination for its culture, model [of coexistence], and its historical message whether in the Arab world or internationally,” Rai said during his sermon. “Our roots are deep and we pray that God will protect this region, so that the Christian Lebanese Maronites will maintain on their path without any stumbles,” Rai added. The Maronite patriarch called on Christians to eliminate their fears and remain steadfast. Rai also prayed for the former leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, and praised his resignation as a great example for Christians. “His holiness Pope Benedict XVI has left us with a great example. We pray together that God will fulfill his wishes. We pray with him so that Christ will send the church a shepherd to lead its ship guided by the Holy Spirit,” Rai said. The pope relinquished his position voluntarily last month due to his deteriorating health and concerns that he would no longer be able to fulfill his duties. The pope’s resignation is the first since Pope Gregory XII in 1415. Rai is scheduled to travel to Rome Monday to participate in the election of a new pontiff, marking the first time a Maronite patriarch has been eligible to vote in the conclave.

Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil calls on citizens to protect Lebanese resistance
March 04, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said Sunday that the resistance in Lebanon is a sign of strength and should be protected by its citizens. “Our strength lies in resistance, and resistance is not only an armed body. Resistance is culture, awareness and generations that have made sacrifices and were raised on opposing injustice and occupation,” Khalil tweeted. “Resistance is a deep-rooted culture not only in the South, but across Lebanon. It is the culture of true national belonging, which makes us all responsible for [strengthening] it,” he added. The minister, who is also a political aide to the leader of the Amal Movement, Speaker Nabih Berri, added that the entire country would lose if the resistance becomes weaker. “We should not engage in betting and calculations that weaken [the resistance] ... and prevent it from surviving in a world where there is no place for the weak,” Khalil said. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah warned last week against attempts by some officials in Lebanon to spark sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites.
Nasrallah argues that Israel and the U.S. are planning to drag Hezbollah into internal sectarian conflict after earlier attempts to eliminate the party didn’t work. Khalil added he is against strife in Lebanon because he adheres to the saying of Amal founder Imam Musa Sadr, that preserving civil peace in Lebanon is the best means to resist Israel.

Assad defiant as foes advance in north Syria
March 04, 2013 /Agencies
DAMASCUS/BEIRUT: President Bashar Assad has insisted he will not step down and blasted Britain’s support for his foes, as opposition chief Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib visited north Syria Sunday and hundreds were reported killed in a battle outside of Aleppo. “We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms,” Assad told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper in a rare interview conducted last week in Damascus.
“We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists,” he said in the videotaped interview. His offer of talks was aired as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and his Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they were prepared to broker peace negotiations between Assad’s regime and the opposition, after the two sides had proposed a dialogue. During a visit of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem to Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Saturday that Assad would contest a presidential election next year and it was up to the Syrian people to choose their own leader.But Assad rejected the idea of standing down to end the bloodshed.
“If this argument is correct, then my departure will stop the fighting,” he told The Sunday Times. “Clearly this is absurd, and other recent precedents in Libya, Yemen and Egypt bear witness to this.”
In terms of foreign support to the rebels, Assad said the “intelligence, communication and financial assistance being provided is very lethal.”
He bitterly criticized Britain, saying Prime Minister David Cameron’s push for peace talks is “naive, confused, unrealistic” while his government was trying to end the European Union’s arms embargo so that the rebels can be supplied with weapons. “We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter,” he said. British Foreign Secretary William Hague reacted to the interview by calling Assad “delusional” for failing to see that he was to blame for the carnage. Hague also said that he would this week announce more assistance to the Syrian opposition in the form of nonlethal equipment, and refused to rule out the possibility of arming them in the future.
“This is a man presiding over this slaughter,” Hague told BBC television. “We are the people sending medical supplies to try to look after people injured and abused by the soldiers working for this man.”
In an attempt to consolidate recent gains on the ground and strengthen links between Assad’s military and civilian foes, Khatib crossed into northern Syria from neighboring Turkey and toured the towns of Jarablus and Minbij.
In his first visit since becoming Syrian National Coalition chief in November, Khatib also attended a meeting of 220 rebel commanders and opposition campaigners in the Turkish city of Gaziantep to elect an administration for Aleppo province, home to 6 million people. Gulf monarchies criticized international inaction over the Syrian crisis, ahead of a visit to the Saudi capital by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
“The Syrian crisis has become more of a quasi-catastrophe through the unjustified killing of the Syrian people,” Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled al-Khalifa said at the opening session of a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting. Sheikh Khaled criticized “the international community’s lack of serious and rapid action” toward resolving the nearly 2-year-old conflict in which the U.N. estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain, reported some 200 troops and rebels killed in eight days of fighting over a police academy in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, with insurgents seizing control of most of the complex.
The group said at least 120 government troops were among those killed in the battle for one of the regime’s last remaining bastions in the west of the province. A police source in Aleppo confirmed that much of the academy had fallen into rebel hands. Opposition activists say the capture of the base, 7 km southwest of Aleppo, comes as a boost to a joint opposition military command set up last year with Western and Arab backing to try to counter the growing military prowess of the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. “It is a locally made victory achieved by a myriad of brigades from the rural west of Aleppo,” activist Abu Mujahed told Reuters from the area.
“It shows that you don’t have to have a foreign name to achieve victory,” the activist added. He said the brigades who took the site were mostly Islamist but did not subscribe to Al-Qaeda ideology. He added that an army academy on the western edge of the city is the last major barrier between the rebels and Assad’s forces inside Aleppo.
The walled complex at Khan al-Asal was turned into an army barrack from where artillery and rocket launchers gave cover for Assad’s forces holding around 40 percent of Aleppo, the opposition sources said.
Further east, Iraqi military sources said Iraq shut a border crossing with Syria Sunday after rebels seized the Syrian side of the frontier post close to the Syrian town of Yaarabiya.
An Iraqi official said Sunday that an Iraqi soldier was killed and three people wounded, including a soldier, inside northern Iraq during a gunfight the day before between Iraqi forces and Syrian rebels at the border crossing.
Later Sunday, a key Syrian opposition group accused the Iraqi government of intervening in Syria and “attacking the Syrian people.”
“After the Iraqi government headed by [Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki gave political and intelligence support to the Syrian regime ... the Baghdad regime has moved on to a new level of intervention in Syrian affairs,” said the Syrian National Council. It charged that Baghdad was “attacking the Syrian people, their basic rights and their territorial sovereignty.”Also Sunday, rebels in the southern province of Deraa seized an artillery unit in Jamla village near the armistice line with Israel, the Observatory said.At least 108 people were killed in violence across the country Sunday, according to a preliminary toll from the Observatory.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati to Sign Elections Decree before March 9
Naharnet/Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated that the Lebanese political powers have sufficient time to reach an agreement over a new parliamentary electoral law before the formation of the authority aimed at supervising the polls, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat Sunday.He told the daily that he will sign the decree to call on electoral bodies to hold the elections on June 9.The formation of the authority to oversee the elections would either take place on March 22 or April 9 after the necessary consultations are held.The premier's sources told the daily however that Miqati may delay “for a few days” signing the decree to hold the elections to allow for further discussions over a new electoral law seeing as an agreement over it has not yet been reached.President Michel Suleiman and Miqati had agreed on Thursday to hold the elections on June 9.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stated that signing the decree will take place before March 11. The rival parties are yet to agree on a draft law after the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal by the joint parliamentary committees, which drew a sharp debate among the opposition's faction and with rival coalitions. The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.But the draft law has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has been also criticized by Suleiman and Miqati.

Kataeb bloc MP Sami Gemayel calls for decentralizing Lebanon
Now Lebanon/Kataeb bloc MP Sami Gemayel said that delegating the power from the central authority to regional and local bodies would help consolidate the country. “Decentralization is the way to unify Lebanon, [while] the current system is the way to divide it,” Gemayel told MTV on Sunday. The opposition official went on to say that Lebanese citizens “feel distant from the state, but decentralization makes the government present in every district.”“Whoever refuses it wants to keep citizens under his power,” Gemayel added. The Kataeb MP’s remarks came amid an electoral crisis that is dividing the country between advocates of the Orthodox law that was approved by the joint parliamentary commissions last week –the Kataeb Party being one of them - and opposers of this draft, notably the Kataeb’s ally the Future Movement.

LF MP: Electoral law based on Berri’s proposal might get consensus
Now Lebanon/Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said that a new electoral law inspired by the draft presented by the country’s speaker Nabih Berri might be a good alternative to the Orthodox law. “Based on Speaker Nabih Berri and the LF’s electoral proposals, we could get 65 seats [in the parliament] for Christian MPs, which would provide consensus and stability in Lebanon,” Adwan told MTV on Sunday.
Berri’s draft proposes that 50% of the MPs be elected on the basis of a majoritarian voting system, while the remaining 50% be elected by way of proportional representation. The proposal would also ensure Christians 15 to 53 seats in the Parliament. The LF is one of the four major Christian parties that endorsed the Orthodox draft electoral law that proposes citizens vote for candidates of their own religious sect. Their decision, however, countered that of their ally the Future Movement who, along with the Progressive Socialist Party and independent March 14 Christians, strongly opposed this draft on the grounds that it would lead to sectarian divisions in the country.The severe criticism spurred by the joint commissions’ approval of this draft prompted most of the political parties to work on elaborating a new electoral proposal to replace the Orthodox draft as an alternative to the 1960 law currently on the books.

France: All Sides in Lebanon Must Adhere to Baabda Declaration
Naharnet/French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot voiced his country's support for the Lebanese government's policy of disassociation from regional developments, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.
He told the daily that all Lebanese powers must respect the Baabda Declaration that was sponsored by President Michel Suleiman and which calls for sides to adhere to the disassociation policy.France has repeatedly stressed the need for Lebanon to steer away from the Syrian crisis and all Lebanese powers must work to achieve that goal, he added. France supports the efforts of Lebanese authorities in their determination to ease internal tensions, Lalliot continued. Moreover, he said that his country is committed to completing its mission in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. This force is essential at this time given the regional tensions, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman noted to the daily. UNIFIL is still playing a central role despite the difficulties it is facing in maintaining stability in Lebanon, he said.The Baabda Declaration, approved in June, stipulates that Lebanon should commit to the policy of disassociation to avoid the spread of the unrest in Syria to Lebanese territory.Violence from Syria has however spilled over into Lebanese border areas with villages in those regions coming under shelling of regime forces.

Speaker Nabih Berri Questions Reports of Parliament Session on March 9 Given Lack of Agreement on Electoral Law
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri has questioned media reports that he will call parliament to session on March 9 in order to vote on a parliamentary electoral law, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.He told the daily that claims that a session will be held on March 9 are media speculation. The speaker had repeatedly said that he will not call for a parliament session in light of a lack of agreement over a new law. “I take the country's interests into consideration before taking any decision,” Berri stressed. The rival parties are yet to agree on a draft law after the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal by the joint parliamentary committees, which drew a sharp debate among the opposition's faction and with rival coalitions.The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system. But the draft law has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has been also criticized by President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Lebanese Security Forces Foil Attempt to Liberate Prisoner from Tripoli Hospital
Naharnet/Security forces on Sunday foiled an attempt to liberate a prisoner from a hospital in Tripoli, only eight days after gunmen stormed another hospital in the northern city and set free a man under arrest for allegedly being involved in the shooting at Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami's convoy.“Prisoner H. M. slashed parts of his body with a sharp object and after he was rushed to one of the city's hospitals, a group of people arrived and tried to liberate him, prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse them,” state-run National News Agency reported. The prison was quickly transported to Tripoli's serail, NNA said. Al-Jadeed television reported earlier that heavy gunfire was heard in the vicinity of Monla Hospital in Tripoli. For its part, LBCI television said security forces foiled an attempt by "unidentified, knife-wielding assailants to liberate a prisoner from Monla Hospital in Tripoli." On February 23, an armed group stormed the Islamic Hospital in Tripoli and freed prisoner Mohammed Youssef who is accused of involvement in the attack on Karami's convoy.
Youssef was handed over to security forces a few hours later after a mediation by Muslim clerics. Karami told Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) that the gunmen “invaded the hospital, frightened everyone present there and attacked the policemen”.

Private Schools In Lebanon to Reopen Monday, Teachers Threaten to Boycott Official Exams, Elections
Naharnet/Head of private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud on Sunday warned that teachers might boycott official exams and their role as poll clerks in the upcoming parliamentary elections if the new wage scale was not referred to parliament, as Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas revealed that 80% of the funding of the new scale has been provided. "We're still part of the protest movement, contrary to all the rumors and misconceptions," Mahfoud said, after a meeting for the Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees.Mahfoud announced earlier on Sunday that private schools will resume classes on Monday, with demonstrations set to take place in the afternoon. Mahfoud said the decision was taken at the request of President Michel Suleiman who pledged to tackle the new wage scale during the first cabinet session after his return from an upcoming African tour. The Public Schools Teachers Association, meanwhile, declared that the open-ended strike will continue in all public schools in Lebanon until the new wage scale is referred to parliament. During the press conference held later on Sunday, Mahfoud said: "We will resort to other forms of protest, as we can educate the students and hold demos after classes." "No one can protect teachers except their association and I salute many parent committees who expressed solidarity with the SCC and supported teachers' rights," he added."We salute the president of the republic because he is the only official who intervened and acted as a mediator," Mahfoud went on to say. But he warned that teachers might boycott official exams and the parliamentary elections if the new wage scale was not referred to parliament by the government.
The SCC had announced nearly two weeks ago an open-ended strike over the government's failure to send the wage scale bill to the legislature.
It has been holding daily demonstrations at various ministries and institutions to pressure the cabinet to resolve this issue. Meanwhile, Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas revealed that 80 percent of the funding of the new wage scale has been provided, adding that the government has been searching for the sources of the funding since September, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
He told the daily however that the strikes, held by the Syndicate Coordination Committee, have been harming the government efforts to resolve the dispute. He added that these efforts had been hampered by various internal security incidents and the Syrian crisis. “We will reach the solution,” asserted the minister.

Municipal By-Elections Held across Lebanon, Hbeish-Backed List Loses in al-Qoubaiyat
Naharnet/Municipal by-elections were held in a number of towns across Lebanon on Sunday, as the list backed by the Phalange Party, the Free Patriotic Movement, ex-MP Mikhail al-Daher and some Lebanese Forces figures was declared the winner in the Akkar town of al-Qoubaiyat. The counting of votes started at 7:00 p.m. as polling stations closed in the various regions. The by-elections, which did not witness any major security incidents, took place in 17 villages and towns in the districts of Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa, North, and South. Army troops and security forces deployed in the areas witnessing elections to avert any possible unrest and ensure the safety of voters. A fistfight erupted at a polling station for women in al-Bireh and the electoral process was suspended for 15 minutes, state-run National News Agency reported. Thirty-one polling stations were distributed in al-Bireh, Kroum Arab, al-Sahleh, and Rmah in Akkar, reported various media outlets. OTV said "5,290 out of 9,000 voters took part in the municipal by-elections in al-Qoubaiyat and the voter turnout reached 58.78%," amid a heated electoral battle between a list backed by Mustaqbal bloc MP Hadi Hbeish and the LF's leadership and another backed by the FPM, the Phalange Party and ex-MP Daher. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said from al-Qoubaiyat: "The by-elections confirm that despite all the incidents democracy still exists in Lebanon." Elsewhere in the northern region of Akkar, elections took place in the town of Qlaiaat.
In Aley, by-elections were held in the towns of al-Kahhaleh and Sarahmoul. Six ballot boxes were delivered to al-Kahhaleh and one to Sarahmoul. In Zgharta, 170 out of 713 registered voters were expected to cast their ballots in the town of Basloukit to elect a nine-member municipal council. In the South, 27 candidates were running for the municipal seats in the Jezzine town of Kafarhouna. Some municipal councils have already won uncontested while others are likely to witness fierce battles between the March 8 majority and March 14 alliance candidates.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: We Approved Orthodox Gathering Proposal for Sake of Agreeing on New Electoral Law
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea acknowledged that differences within the March 14 camp exist over the parliamentary electoral law, but added they are being resolved.He said: “We supported the Orthodox Gathering proposal at the electoral subcommittee for the sake of reaching an agreement over an electoral law.”An agreement over a new law can be reached in the upcoming days if political powers continue the serious efforts they have shown in the past few days, he remarked to al-Liwaa newspaper in an interview that will be published on Monday.Moreover, Geagea said that the mere thought of delaying the elections, set for June 9, will be “fatal for out democratic system.”“Postponing the elections for a month or two for technical reasons aimed at allowing the Interior Ministry to take the necessary preparations is the only acceptable excuse,” he said.
The rival parties are yet to agree on a draft law after the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal by the joint parliamentary committees, which drew a sharp debate among the opposition's faction and with rival coalitions.The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the proposal that divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.But the draft law has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and the March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has been also criticized by President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.Addressing other developments in Lebanon, Geagea told al-Liwaa: “A real state in Lebanon cannot be built amid Hizbullah's control of the country's strategic decision-making power.”Furthermore, he criticized the party for acknowledging that it is taking part in the fighting in Syria. He said: “No one can ignore Iran's role in Syria and the party should have stressed the need to maintain neutrality or support the people's revolt, but it unfortunately chose to take the opposite route.” Hizbullah's position has sparked the outrage of the Syrian people, which may drag Lebanon towards the unknown, warned the LF leader.
A Hizbullah source had announced in February that some Lebanese people residing in Syria and who are members of the party are combating the “armed groups” involved in the fighting.The members took it upon themselves to take part in the fighting without consulting the party, he revealed.In October 2012, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had confirmed that some party members were indeed fighting in Syria.

Britain Blasts 'Delusional' Assad
Naharnet /British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad was "delusional" for failing to see that the bloodshed in his country was at his own hands. Hague said that he would this week announce more assistance to the Syrian opposition in the form of non-lethal equipment and refused to rule out the possibility of arming them in the future. In an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times, Assad accused London of wanting to arm terrorists in his country. Britain has been pushing to lift a ban on the sale of arms to Syria's rebels, but at a meeting last month European Union foreign ministers ruled that only "non-lethal" aid and "technical assistance" could be given to the opposition. "How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians?" Assad said in a rare interview with Western media. The United Nations estimates 70,000 people have been killed in the 23-month conflict. Hague told BBC television: "This is a man presiding over this slaughter. "And the message to him is we, Britain, are the people sending food and shelter and blankets to help people driven from their homes and families in his name. "We are the people sending medical supplies to try to look after people injured and abused by the soldiers working for this man."Assad thinks and is told by his inner circle that all of this is an international conspiracy, not the actual rebellion and revolt of his own people."This will go down as one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times."In the interview, Assad dismissed the suggestion that Britain could play a constructive role in resolving the conflict, saying: "We don't expect an arsonist to be a firefighter."He added that London had long been out of contact with Damascus and lacked credibility in Syria due to its dealings in the Middle East.Agence France Presse

Syrian President Bashar Assad Offers Talks with Opposition, Refuses to Quit
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is ready to negotiate with the country's opposition but refuses to consider stepping down, in a rare interview with a UK newspaper.
Assad offered to hold talks with rebels in a bid to end the crisis on the condition they lay down their arms, but made the distinction between the "political entities" he would talk with and "armed terrorists".
"We are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender their arms," Assad told The Sunday Times in a video-taped interview conducted last week in his Damascus residence, the Al-Muhajireen palace.
"We can engage in dialogue with the opposition, but we cannot engage in dialogue with terrorists." His offer of talks echoed that of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Moscow last week -- the first such move by a top Syrian official. Syria is locked in a 23-month-long conflict in which the United Nations estimates more than 70,000 have been killed but Assad dismissed the idea that the fighting is linked to his continued role as president.
"If this argument is correct, then my departure will stop the fighting," Assad said. "Clearly this is absurd, and other recent precedents in Libya, Yemen and Egypt bear witness to this."
Assad accused the British government of wanting to arm "terrorists" in his country.
"How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians?"
Britain has been pushing for the lifting of a European ban on arms supplies to Syrian rebels but at a meeting last month European Union foreign ministers decided instead to allow only "non-lethal" aid and "technical assistance" to flow to the Syria's opposition.
Assad added that "Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in different issues for decades, some say for centuries -- I'm telling you the perception in our region.
"The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of a bullying hegemony."
The British government is currently bound by an EU arms embargo which European foreign ministers decided not to lift at a meeting in Brussels on February 18.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague had called for changes to the existing arms ban "so that we can provide a broader range of support to the National Coalition", the opposition umbrella group in Syria.
"We give them strong political and diplomatic support. We also give them assistance in terms of equipment at the moment to help them try to save people's lives," he added. "I think there is a broader range of equipment that we could give to them."Assad in his interview dismissed the suggestion that Britain could play a constructive role in resolving the fighting, saying: "We don't expect an arsonist to be a firefighter."
He said that for a long time there had been no contact between the Syria regime and the British government, which lacked credibility in its dealings with Syria because of its history in the Middle East.
"If you want to talk about the role, you cannot separate the role from the credibility," Assad said.
"And we cannot separate the credibility from the history of that country."
Assad accused Britain of wanting to escalate the conflict through its desire to supply military equipment to the rebels.
"How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarize the problem?" Assad said. "I think they are working against us and they are working against the interests of the UK itself. "This government is acting in a naive, confused and unrealistic manner. If they want to play a role they have to change this, they have to act in a more reasonable and more responsible way."Separately, Assad did not rule out retaliation for an Israeli air raid near Damascus in January."Retaliation does not mean missile for missile or bullet for bullet. Our own way does not have to be announced," Assad said.
Israel, which fears the transfer of Syrian weapons to Lebanon's Hizbullah, implicitly confirmed that it carried out an air raid near Damascus on January 30. The raid targeted surface-to-air missiles and an adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mortar rounds believed to be have been fired from Syria hit the southern Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday without causing damage or casualties, the Israeli army said.
In recent months, there have been several instances of gunfire or mortar shells hitting the Israeli side of the plateau. In November, troops responded with artillery in the first such instance of Israeli fire at the Syrian military since the 1973 war. Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognized by the international community.
It is currently upgrading its security fence along its armistice line with the work expected to be finished by the end of the year.
Agence France Presse

Kerry in Riyadh for Gulf talks on Iran, Syria
AFP/US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the Saudi capital on Sunday for talks with the Gulf monarchies on Iran and the deadly conflict roiling Syria. Kerry, on his first trip to the region since taking over as the top US diplomat, was to dine with foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the group of six Gulf monarchies including Saudi Arabia. On Monday he will hold separate talks with each GCC nation.
"We thank Kerry for America's commitment with regard to the security of the region and we will share our concerns about the relationship with Iran and the developments in Syria," Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled al-Khalifa said at a news conference after meeting with his five GCC counterparts. Several oil-rich monarchies of the GCC, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have supported the rebellion inside Syria, while Iran has steadfastly backed President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Kerry arrived in Riyadh after a two-day visit to Cairo where he urged Egyptian political factions to bury their differences and unite in order to help revive the country's sliding economy. After Riyadh Kerry will head to Abu Dhabi on Monday and later to Qatar. US Secretary of State John Kerry. (AFP/Jacquelyn Martin)We thank Kerry for America's commitment with regard to the security of the region.

Kerry talks economics, finds Morsi preoccupied with Islamizing Egypt
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 4, 2013/
When visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry sat one-on-one with Egyptian President Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, March 3, he talked at length about Egypt’s calamitous economic straits, relations with Israel, democratization and essential reforms. He had hoped to find the Egyptian president amenable to getting to grips with his country’s fast approaching bankruptcy. In the event, Morsi nodded politely but, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report, he was far more preoccupied with pushing forward the three-point plan he and the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader Mohammed Badie have begun implementing:
1. The Muslim Brotherhood will not settle for a parliamentary majority in the coming general election – most likely in April or June; it is aiming for 100 percent of the seats.
2. To set the stage for this campaign, the Brothers have installed their loyalists in the governates of Egypt’s 19 provinces. The spreading of Brotherhood values in the national constituency is going full steam ahead across Egypt.
The MB turned to this course when they saw they had no hope of exercising total control over the restive capital and the protest movements springing up regularly in Tahrir Square. So they decided to build up their support in the country at large in the hope of making Cairo an isolated Island in the predominantly Islamist country.
3. To boost their popularity in the coming election, Morsi and Badie decided they could not afford the painful measures required by the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan to tide the economy over its current crisis - spending cutbacks, downsizing the vast Egyptian civil service, reducing food subsidies and cutting away dead wood.
Instead, they dropped their credit application to the IMF altogether and so avoided mass unemployment and widespread hardship in the months leading up to the election.
However, the US Secretary of State sternly called the Egyptian president’s attention to three major concerns which need to be addressed with the utmost urgency:
a) Egyptian foreign currency reserves continue to bleed dangerously and no one knows how to stop the disastrous drain. By April, it is predicted that no more than $4 billion will be left to sustain a population of 80-90 million souls.
2. Egypt’s industrial plants are working at just 50 percent capacity because fuel is scarce and the money to buy it even scarcer.
3. Gas for powering electricity is running out. More and more areas no longer receive regular electricity – some none at all. The water supply is also affected.
DEBKAfile’s sources report two conflicting approaches on how to resolve Egypt’s calamitous economic emergency:
The Morsi Badiah upbeat approach which maintains that Egypt can keep going for three or four months until parliamentary elections. The Brotherhood will win 100 percent of the house and can then safely impose the necessary harsh economic measures that would hurt every part of the population, but hope to put the economy on its feet. This pie-in-the-sky approach has Washington up in arms. They don’t believe the Egyptian economy can wait another three to four months before tough remedies are put in place. They warn that a delay that long will see the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi crash and Egypt slump into a failed state. Whichever approach is realistic, the Egyptian people will very soon be faced with extreme hardship and a heavy price tab for their revolution.

Militant Islam and Political Islam
By: Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat
Militant Islam is a term used to cover those groups, currents, symbols, and individuals who use Islam as a pretext for armament, fighting, and violence. It is a term that covers various methods and styles, ranging from radical theorizing and the issuance of provocative fatwas, to planned and organized operations, to simple cold-blooded murder.
According to some today, there is a vast difference between militant and political Islam, yet history tells us that this is not an accurate reading. From the beginning, the Muslim Brotherhood—the oldest and most prominent representatives of political Islam—have cultivated militant Islam from within through secret organizations and specialist groups. It is well known that the Brotherhood carried out many bombings, assassinations, and acts of violence under the eyes of their founder, Hassan Al-Banna. The group also sought to incite revolutions, as happened in Yemen in 1948. During the era of the second Brotherhood General Guide Hassan Al-Hudaybi, this violent trend continued. At the time, illustrious Brotherhood member Yusuf Al-Qaradawi conveyed his consent, as did Zaynab Al-Ghazali. The trail can also be traced back to Sayyid Qutb, who was executed following a state crackdown on the Brotherhood in the 1960s. Indeed, we can assert that the violent religious organizations of the 1970s emerged from the womb of Qutb’s rhetoric.
In the 1980s, at the time of the Afghan Jihad against the soviets, some claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood had nothing to do with what was happening there. However, this is untrue because the group was actively involved from an early stage with the Afghan Arabs, most notable with Abdullah Azzam, a true Brotherhoodite in terms of origin, thought, and loyalty. The same goes for Osama Bin Laden, who was once a Brotherhood member until he was expelled from the group at a certain stage due to a dispute over the tenets of discipline and obedience. Two of the Brotherhood’s General Guides famously visited Pakistan, Mohammed Nasr and Hamed Abu Mustafa Mashhur, the latter of whom offered Bin Laden a return to the group’s ranks but he refused. The Brotherhood also used to support Burhanuddin Rabbani and his military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud unreservedly, and they benefitted from the situation in Afghanistan overall for two reasons: They were able to gain influence over the charitable organizations that were providing financial support to the Afghan and Arab Mujahedeen, along with the training camps where recruits were preparing for “a day after Afghanistan”.
In the 1990s armed Islamic movements returned strongly to the Arab scene, especially in Egypt. They were based—in terms of their rhetoric and stances towards the state and society—on the literature of the Muslim Brotherhood. Here some may contend that a fatwa actually acquits the Brotherhood’s discourse from the consequences of these militant groups, but this is only a small part of the truth. The fatwa may isolate the radical discourse of those groups, but their organization and infrastructure still owe themselves to the Brotherhood.
The infrastructure of these violent religious groups was built on the Muslim Brotherhood ideology. It occupied center stage and represented the principal recourse to justify their bloody acts.
In this context, we can observe that militant Islam, represented by terrorists and violent acts, often spreads under the banner of political Islam. Aside from the history mentioned above, consider the example of the jihadi movement that has grown under the rule of Hamas in Gaza, or how Al-Qaeda has grown under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan. Likewise, Shi’a violence and terrorism grew under the rule of Shi’a political Islam in Iran, and then moved on to Iraq to spread terror, murder, and devastation after power was seized there.
Today, in light of the fundamentalist spring that has swept through the so-called Arab Spring states, we can identify a continuous relationship between current events and history. To emphasize the point, under the Ennahda movement in Tunisia jihadi movements are wreaking destruction, and in Egypt the same is happening in Sinai and elsewhere, with preachers on the streets of Cairo glorifying Sadat’s assassin, Khaled Islambouli, as a hero and a martyr. In Libya, although political Islam has not come to power due to multiple factors unique to the situation in that country, the Islamists still have a strong political presence. Violent religious groups are spreading in the south, in contact with the triangle of Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania in the west, and southern Egypt and northern Sudan in the east.
There are three important conclusions to note here. Firstly, attempts to market a decisive separation between militant Islam and political Islam are not necessarily fact-based or objective. In most cases they are attempts to polish, serve, and promote an agenda. They do not actually intend to read or analyze the situation in as much as they are concerned with acquitting political Islam and the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, its rhetoric, and its ideology, from any links with violence.
Secondly, a high degree of intimacy between these militant and political groups and currents has been found in all political and social processes after the fundamentalist spring. Any disputes going on between them merely fall within the notion of “tensions brought about by close proximity”. In other words, all these groups head out from the same starting points and the same rhetoric, and are fighting over the same social strata. Any disputes are borne out of similarity, not contradictions.
Thirdly, political Islam groups—after coming to power—have benefitted greatly from the presence of these militant groups and currents. They exploit them to put pressure on state institutions such as the judiciary, and public institutions such as the media and other political parties. The political Islamists put themselves forward as a form of salvation front that can curb the actions of the radicals. This is especially true when it comes to relations with Western countries, where they say: “It’s either us or them, we represent moderate Islam and they represent radical Islam or political Islam as opposed to militant Islam”.
All of the above confirms that we have entered a fundamentalist era with fundamentalist priorities. From here, political and diplomatic mechanisms, thoughtful arguments, and understanding and analysis will help to create a more coherent and sophisticated vision.
Militant Islam and political Islam share a deep-rooted history, ideology, and rhetoric. Given recent developments, this would suggest that religious violence will only increase in future.

Canadian FM: Turkey's comments on Zionism 'deplorable'
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, BENJAMIN WEINTHAL03/04/2013 /J.Post
WASHINGTON -- Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird sharply criticized the Turkish premier's recent statement equating Zionism with a crime against humanity, in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
"These remarks, we deplore them, and they're incredibly unhelpful to the situation in the region," Baird told the Post ahead of his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual policy conference.
During a speech Wednesday in Vienna, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that, "Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity."
"How many Islamic states are there? There's only one Jewish state," Baird said.
"I think events in the middle of the last century compel humanity to make sure there is a Jewish homeland, a sanctuary, and today a country with peace and security."
Baird also warned that the Palestinian Authority would stand to lose a significant amount of aid from Canada should Fatah join Hamas in a national unity government as is currently being discussed.
"If Hamas were to come into a goverment of the Palestinian authority, that is a red line for us," Baird said.
"We're not going to be partnering with and funding an international terrorism group. It's a non-starter."
His comments come after Israel's Ambassador the US Michael Oren told AIPAC's opening conference panel Sunday morning urged the Palestinians not to take such a step.
Baird has also been campaigning amongst his European counterparts to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, which would also have consequences for the Lebanese militant group's funding.
"When terrorist incidents can happen right inside the European Union by Hezbollah, that compels civilized people everywhere to act," Baird said, referencing the killing of several Israeli tourists in a bombing in Bulgaria this summer that the local authorities have blamed on the Lebanese group.
"We've got to call it for what it is. No moral relativism," he declared. "No saying well the left hand gives out social services and the right hand is an international terrorist organization. It's all attached to the same body and the same head."
Canada, he noted, had recently designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and taken other strong actions against Tehran, which is suspected of working on a nuclear weapons program.
Earlier this week, six world powers known as the P5+1 offered Iran some sanctions relief in exchange for certain concessions on its uranium enrichment efforts.
"Would I say I was optimistic on the P5+1? No," Baird said. "But I think it is well worth continuing to take every diplomatic measure possible."
Baird, in addition to stressing the importance of continuing with diplomacy, seemed to warn against the consequences of a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"Obviously we don't want to see Israel have to do that," he said. "There are real concerns: On one night with one strike could you accomplish it, and then what would happen the next morning?"
Baird assessed that Canadian-Israeli relations were "by a factor of 10, at a high water mark."
Making a joking reference to the push-back Canada has received from some quarters for its unequivocal support for Israel at the UN, "some people think they're too good."
 

America's Withdrawal from the Middle East under the Obama Doctrine
A briefing by Lee Smith
February 6, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3457/obama-doctrine-middle-east

Lee Smith, senior editor with the Weekly Standard, Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and author of the 2010 critically-acclaimed book, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations, briefed the Middle East Forum via conference call on February 6, 2013.
Mr. Smith characterized the Obama administration's Middle East policy as one of "extrication" from the region. The major problem with this policy, he argued, is that "vacuums are filled by other people, and not always filled by friendly powers."
Nor has the administration explained why it no longer deems the Middle East a region of vital interest. If, for example, the U.S. becomes a net exporter of energy in the near future and is less reliant on Middle Eastern oil, the administration has yet to make this case with the public. Instead, its policy of "leading from behind," adopted during the Libyan intervention, is a prime example of the vacuum left since the toppling of Qaddafi as the decision to leave the newly elected Libyan government to fend for itself has led to instability.
The tragic consequence of this instability was most notably seen in the attack on the Benghazi consulate and the killing of four Americans, including ambassador Christopher Stevens, but Libya has also become an "exporter" of small arms. Had the IDF entered Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense, it would have run into a NATO-quality arsenal that had been in Qaddafi's care. These same weapons have also ended up in Syria in the hands of seasoned jihadist fighters. According to Smith, the U.S. should have empowered other groups at the jihadists' expense so that different assets were fighting on its behalf.
Reverberations of the Libyan vacuum have also been felt across the Levant and North Africa:
The notion of "leading from behind" is now playing out in the administration's avoidance of entanglements in Syria, though bringing down the Assad regime would serve U.S. interests. While the Sunni majority opposition is unlikely to rule democratically or become an important ally and friend, Washington should be sequencing threats in order to undermine its foremost threat in the region - Iran - which has identified itself as a sworn enemy and has effectively been waging war against the U.S. over the past 30 years.
In North Africa, the Libyan vacuum can be seen, inter alia, in the Mali turbulence, where Tuareg nationalists who were among Qaddafi's fighters are pitted against Malian forces. The conflict has drawn in al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) which played an active role in the 9/11 attack on the Benghazi consulate.
How will Washington's extrication from the region affect Israel and other allies? The realist approach subscribes to the concept of "offshore balancing" whereby the U.S. doesn't need to land troops abroad but can instead rely on local allies to advance its interests. Israel is the only ally in the eastern Mediterranean capable of filling the role of "an unsinkable battleship" and Washington has to draw the obvious strategic conclusions.
Summary account by Marilyn Stern, Associate Fellow with the Middle East Forum