Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources

Revisiting Karbala in Syria/By: Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon/May 03/13
Road to somewhere/By: MICHAEL WEISS /Now Lebanon/ May 03/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 03/13

Sources: Suleiman gives 10-day deadline to form cabinet
Five Wounded in IED Explosion in Ain el-Hilweh
Amine Gemayel Says Extending Parliament Term 'Inevitable': If No Accord on Vote Law Reached, We'll Go with What's Available
Meqdad Slams Nasrallah's Speech, Considers it 'Evasive'
Watchdog: Syrian Forces, Hizbullah Tighten Noose on Homs Rebels
ISF: Mastermind Behind Abduction of Estonians Arrested, Had al-Qaida links
March 14 leaders slam Nasrallah’s vow to defend Assad
Al-Mustaqbal MPs Say Baabda Declaration has No Value for Nasrallah
First Clashes in Syria's Banias and Dozens Reportedly Killed
Official Sources Deny Reports about Syrian Army Entering Masharii al-Qaa, Threatening to Bomb Houses
Fatfat Meets Berri, Asks Him to Reconsider Hariri's Electoral Initiative
Fatmagul's Leasing Company: Inconvenient Fuel Caused Vessel's Malfunction
U.S. Official Meets Qahwaji, Stresses Importance of Abiding by 1701
Qaouq Says Hizbullah Flexible to Achieve Breakthrough over Cabinet, Electoral Crises
Pilgrims' Families Vow to Move Sit-in to New Turkish Airlines Location
FSA condemns Assir trip to Syria
Azaz hostages’ fate in hands of Turkey, Qatar
Muslim scholars support “peaceful” prevention of fuel tankers entering Syria
Hezbollah lenient about govt formation, official says
Al-Mustaqbal MPs Say Baabda Declaration has No Value for Nasrallah
March 8 Parties Express Solidarity with Aazaz Abductees, Say Solution Looming as Kidnappers Demand Release of Syrian Women Detainees
Taliban Bomb Kills Eight Afghan Police
Hagel: U.S. Reconsidering whether to Arm Syrian Rebels
Ban Discusses Syria Peace Envoy with Major Powers
Israel PM Says Any Peace Deal Will Go to Referendum
Syria widens campaign to uproot rebels
Syria: A Dangerous Assignment for Journalists
Ban discusses Syria peace envoy with major powers
Exclusive: Kerry’s plans double peace track: Israel vs Palestinians and vs Arab League

Sources: Suleiman gives 10-day deadline to form cabinet
Now Lebanon/Lebanese President Michel Suleiman was quoted as saying by figures that visited him recently that he has given a ten-day deadline to form the new cabinet. Suleiman’s visitors told NOW that March 14 forces are pressuring the president into signing the cabinet line-up which Premier-designate Tammam Salam will present. The president has reportedly previously voiced that if Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt does not approve the governmental line-up, then he will not sign it. However, the PSP leader has recently voiced his openness to back any government line-up that Suleiman supports.
Lebanon’s political parties are jockeying over the composition of the country’s new government as Salam has set to work forming a government. Regarding the issue of the electoral law, sources told NOW if the Orthodox proposal is adopted, Suleiman will appeal the law without signing it or returning it to parliament for a review, which aims at avoiding the precedent of lodging an appeal after a law is signed or sent back to the parliament.
In recent months, Lebanon has been gripped by a crisis centered around which electoral law to adopt for this year’s upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for June 16.

Al-Mustaqbal MPs Say Baabda Declaration has No Value for Nasrallah
Naharnet/Al-Mustaqbal bloc lawmakers criticized on Thursday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for allegedly backing off from a deal reached between the rival political leaders last year to keep Lebanon away from the policy of regional and international conflicts. In remarks to Future TV, MP Ammar Houri said that Nasrallah “has announced his party's withdrawal from the Baabda Declaration.”
Nasrallah said Tuesday that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar Assad's regime militarily, warning that Syria's "real friends," including his group, were ready to intervene on the government's side. He also acknowledged that members of his group are fighting inside Syria. During their first national dialogue session in over 18 months, Lebanon's political leaders agreed in June last year to spare Lebanon the negative repercussions of regional tensions by adopting a dissociation policy. But the March 14 alliance has accused Hizbullah of violating the so-called Baabda Declaration by sending fighters to Syria to help Assad's regime in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebels. Hizbullah members are also reportedly active in the area of the holy Shiite shrine of Sayida Zeinab, named for the granddaughter of Prophet Mohammed and located south of Damascus. Nasrallah said his fighters had a duty to protect the shrine. Rebels have captured several villages around it and have threatened to destroy it, he added.
According to Houri, Nasrallah's acknowledgment was a sign that the presence of Syrian regime troops in the region of Homs - mainly the town of al-Qusayr that borders Lebanon - and the area of Sayida Zeinab was weak.
“Nasrallah has told us that the regime's army has no presence there and that this situation does not bring comfort to its (Syria's) allies in Lebanon and Iran,” Houri told Future TV.
Another al-Mustaqbal MP, Ahmed Fatfat, echoed similar remarks, telling Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) that Nasrallah's statement was an “official announcement that the Baabda Declaration has no longer any value and that the dissociation policy towards Syria is a huge lie.” “Hizbullah has turned its resistance weapons into a regional militia arsenal that executes Iran's orders,” he said.
“The state should take an immediate decision to deploy the army on the entire border with Syria to separate Lebanon from the raging fire in Syria,” Fatfat added.
His press office said in a statement that the lawmaker made the same appeal during a meeting with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace on Thursday.
The criticism of both Houri and Fatfat came a day after al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri said that Nasrallah has completely “written off the Lebanese state” and substituted it with the party. “The most dangerous remark by Nasrallah was not his position on the Syrian revolt or his undying defense of President Bashar Assad, but his suicidal link of the fate of Lebanon to that of Syria,” he said in a statement.

First Clashes in Syria's Banias and Dozens Reportedly Killed
Naharnet /Fierce clashes between troops and rebels erupted on Thursday for the first time in a Sunni Muslim village in the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias in northwestern Syria, a watchdog said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting broke out in the morning and killed at least seven soldiers, while the official SANA news agency reported that troops killed "terrorists" -- the regime's term for insurgents. Meanwhile, activists later said that the Syrian regime's army has killed more than 50 people in the village of Bayda at the southern entrance to the town of Banias, pointing out that the death toll is expected to exceed 100. "Since this morning, the army and pro-regime forces have been besieging Bayda," said the Britain-based Observatory. "The village is the scene of fierce fighting between the army and rebel battalions -- the first of its kind in the Banias area," it said. The watchdog, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, gave a preliminary toll of "at least seven soldiers killed and 20 others wounded."
SANA, quoting an unnamed top official, said regime forces "killed terrorists in Bayda and the village of Mirqab, as well as in the (Sunni) district of Ras al-Nabah," in the port of Banias
According to the Observatory, the troops and the shabiha (pro-regime militiamen) carried out "summary executions" in Bayda, and warned of a new "massacre" in Syria.
"The army has cut off all communications with the village and it is very difficult to get a precise toll," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of President Bashar Assad, but has several Sunni villages to the south.
In the south of the port city, where there is also a large Sunni population, "sustained gunfire coming from the army was heard, and the security services are out in the streets to terrify residents," the watchdog said. Witnesses have seen "ambulances taking soldiers wounded in the fighting to Bayda," it added. The Observatory said most young Sunnis left the Banias area after an army offensive in May 2011, two months after the start of the uprising against the Assad regime. "They left because they were afraid of being arrested or forced to join the army," Abdel Rahman said. Banias, along with Daraa in the south, the cradle of the uprising, saw some of the first demonstrations against the regime in March 2011. The region's three main coastal cities of Banias, Latakia and Tartus and their surrounding areas form the "Alawite heartland" where analysts say Assad could seek refuge if his regime falls.
Source/Agence France Presse.

First Clashes in Syria's Banias and Dozens Reportedly Killed
Naharnet /Fierce clashes between troops and rebels erupted on Thursday for the first time in a Sunni Muslim village in the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias in northwestern Syria, a watchdog said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting broke out in the morning and killed at least seven soldiers, while the official SANA news agency reported that troops killed "terrorists" -- the regime's term for insurgents. Meanwhile, activists later said that the Syrian regime's army has killed more than 50 people in the village of Bayda at the southern entrance to the town of Banias, pointing out that the death toll is expected to exceed 100. "Since this morning, the army and pro-regime forces have been besieging Bayda," said the Britain-based Observatory. "The village is the scene of fierce fighting between the army and rebel battalions -- the first of its kind in the Banias area," it said. The watchdog, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, gave a preliminary toll of "at least seven soldiers killed and 20 others wounded." SANA, quoting an unnamed top official, said regime forces "killed terrorists in Bayda and the village of Mirqab, as well as in the (Sunni) district of Ras al-Nabah," in the port of Banias According to the Observatory, the troops and the shabiha (pro-regime militiamen) carried out "summary executions" in Bayda, and warned of a new "massacre" in Syria. "The army has cut off all communications with the village and it is very difficult to get a precise toll," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse. The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of President Bashar Assad, but has several Sunni villages to the south.
In the south of the port city, where there is also a large Sunni population, "sustained gunfire coming from the army was heard, and the security services are out in the streets to terrify residents," the watchdog said. Witnesses have seen "ambulances taking soldiers wounded in the fighting to Bayda," it added. The Observatory said most young Sunnis left the Banias area after an army offensive in May 2011, two months after the start of the uprising against the Assad regime. "They left because they were afraid of being arrested or forced to join the army," Abdel Rahman said. Banias, along with Daraa in the south, the cradle of the uprising, saw some of the first demonstrations against the regime in March 2011. The region's three main coastal cities of Banias, Latakia and Tartus and their surrounding areas form the "Alawite heartland" where analysts say Assad could seek refuge if his regime falls.
Source/Agence France Presse.

ISF: Mastermind Behind Abduction of Estonians Arrested, Had al-Qaida links
Naharnet/The Internal Security Forces revealed that it detained the mastermind who plotted the kidnapping of the seven Estonians in 2011 at the behest of al-Qaida cadre in Iraq, the ISF General Directorate said on Thursday.
In a communique the Directorate said: “on the backdrop of the kidnapping of the seven Estonians in the Bekaa region on 23/03/2011, investigations led to the arrest of the mastermind, Lebanese H.H. Born in 1983 (in reference to Hussein al-Hujairi) who plotted the kidnapping on the behest of al-Qaida cadre in Iraq.”A special unit from the ISF Intelligence Branch arrested al-Hujairi in the outskirts of Arsal and Ras Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa valley after luring him to the area. Al-Hujairi's record is full of law-breaking crimes as he gave orders to kidnap other foreigners after the release of the Estonians in return for a ransom, the communique added.
Efforts to bring al-Hujairi into custody were ongoing since the incident took place. And he was able to escape the efforts of the Intelligence Branch on 10/09/2011 where he was spotted in Arsal and engaged in a shooting spree. Hujairi was able to flee into the Syrian territories with some wounds. He is also a suspect in the killing of Sergeant Elias Nasrallah whose patrol came under fire by armed men at the Jlala bridge-Chtaura in the Western Bekaa in September the same year, the statement said. Information have also revealed that he is involved in the kidnapping of three BBC journalists and transferring them to Syria where they were later released.
The detained is also wanted for the murder of Information Branch Sgt. Maj. Rashed Sabri, reports say.The seven Estonians were freed in July 2011, almost four months after being abducted by armed men as they entered the country on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria. Their release took place amid unclear circumstances.

Watchdog: Syrian Forces, Hizbullah Tighten Noose on Homs Rebels
Naharnet/Regime forces were on Thursday tightening the noose on rebels holed up in a key area of the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights watchdog said. "The Syrian army, supported by back-up forces and expert officers from Iran and Hizbullah, has taken control of large parts of the Wadi al-Sayeh district" in the center of Homs, the group said in a statement. The neighborhood is half way between the Khaldiyeh district and the Old City, two rebel-held areas that have been under siege by the army for nearly a year. "Taking Wadi al-Sayeh would enable the army to isolate those two districts" by severing links between them, said the Britain-based Observatory which relies on a network of activists and medical staff on the ground for its information. "In the Old City 800 families have been under siege for nearly a year, and hundreds have been wounded. If (Sunni-majority) Old Homs is taken, sectarian revenge attacks could take place" by pro-regime forces, it said. Homs, the third largest city in the country, has been dubbed by the opposition Syrian National Council as the "beating heart of the revolution.” It was one of the first cities to join the revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime that began two years ago with peaceful protests but morphed into a bloody insurgency after a fierce crackdown on dissent.
Homs is divided along sectarian lines into Sunni, Alawite, Christian and ostensibly mixed quarters. The regime is led by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while Syria's population is majority Sunni, as are the rebels.
In the Observatory statement, its chief Rami Abdel Rahman said officers from Iran and Hizbullah were directing the army's operations in Homs.
Hizbullah has already said that members of the group have been fighting in the Qusayr region in Homs province. On April 17, Assad said his regime's defeat is not an option. "There is no option but victory. Otherwise it will be the end of Syria, and I don't think that the Syrian people will accept such an option," he told state television al-Ikhbariya in an interview.Source/Agence France Presse.

Meqdad Slams Nasrallah's Speech, Considers it 'Evasive'
Naharnet/The Free Syrian Army's Political and Media Coordinator, Louay Meqdad, lashed out on Thursday at Hizbullah's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, considering his latest speech as “elusive.”“Nasralla's threats of intervening along with Iran to safeguard the Syrian regime is a direct confession that the regime (of Bashar Assad) began collapsing,” Meqdad said in comments to the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper.
He called on Nasrallah to announce the accurate number of his party's fighters who were killed in Syria, the location of their death and the battles they were killed in. Meqdad said that Hizbullah and Iran are running the field battles in Syria as “they know that the Assad fell.” On Tuesday evening, Nasrallah acknowledged that members of his group are fighting inside Syria and suggested Iran and other states could intervene to support the Syrian regime against rebel fighters. President Bashar Assad has "true friends in the region who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel and 'takfiri' groups," he said.
"If the situation gets more dangerous, states, resistance movements and other forces will be obliged to intervene effectively in the confrontation on the ground," he added.
"You will not be able to bring down the regime militarily," Nasrallah told Syria's rebel forces. "The battle is still long." Meqdad denied Hizbullah chief's claims that the Lebanese in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr were assaulted.
“These claims are baseless and not true,” the FSA official said, accusing Hizbullah of dragging “the region to strife and Syria to a holocaust as a sacrifice to Assad.”
‪”We won't leave the Lebanese in Qusayr's countryside vulnerable to attacks and we will not hesitate to help them‬,” Nasrallah said explaining his party’s involvement in the Syrian conflict. He also announced that Hizbullah fighters are defending holy places in the Syria, in particular, the Sayyeda Zainab shrine. Meqdad rejected Nasrallah's claims, saying: “Sayyeda Zainab's shrine is an Islamic holy place and not for Hizbullah... He has no right to pretend to be protecting it.”The FSA spokesman demanded Hizbullah to withdraw from Damascus immediately. On Wednesday, Syria's opposition denounced what it called "threats" from Nasrallah, and warned the party against any intervention by it or by Iran in the Syrian conflict.

Five Wounded in IED Explosion in Ain el-Hilweh
Naharnet/Al least five people were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated in Ain el-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday.
"The explosion took place in the Fawqani street in the camp's al-Manshieh neighborhood,” the NNA detailed. It added: “The wounded were transferred to Sidon's hospitals and the camp's health centers for treatment.”
"Calm has been restored in Ain el-Hilweh after the explosion.”Meanwhile, LBCI television had said that seven people were wounded when the IED detonated, noting that the camp's Security Committee convened following the incident. By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves. Ain el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees who live in dire conditions and is known to harbor extremists and fugitives.

Gemayel Says Extending Parliament Term 'Inevitable': If No Accord on Vote Law Reached, We'll Go with What's Available
Naharnet/Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel announced on Thursday that extending the parliament's term has become “inevitable,” hinting that there is a possibility to give up the support to the Orthodox Gathering's draft electoral law. “We will not call for a revolution on the constitutional institutions and we will go with any law adopted at the parliament,” Gemayel stated in an interview on LBCI television, stressing that he is most concerned about the possibility of not holding the elections. “We urge Speaker Nabih Berri to call for a parliamentary session to vote on an electoral draft law,” he stressed. “Not holding the elections is the most dangerous thing that can happen.”He added: “We will try our best to reach a consensual and constitutional electoral law. Or else, we will accept what is available.”Gemayel denied talks about an American intervention to block a vote in favor of the Orthodox proposal at the parliament. He elaborated: "I haven't met with American Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly in a long time and in the talks I held in the U.S. I did not discuss the Orthodox Gathering's draft electoral law.”The former president announced that extending the parliament's term has become inevitable: “The Ministry of Interior needs time for preparation and for the logistics.”
"The elections might be postponed to the spring of 2014.”
Berri has said he would call for a parliamentary session on May 15 to vote on the Orthodox proposal for being the only plan approved by the joint committees.
The draft, which divides Lebanon into one electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, was rejected by President Michel Suleiman, caretaker PM Najib Miqati, al-Mustaqbal bloc, the National Struggle Front and the March 14 Christian independent MPs. They said it deepens sectarian divisions in the country. The political powers have so far failed to reach an agreement on an alternative law, threatening to postpone the parliamentary elections that are scheduled for June 16.
On the cabinet's formation process, Gemayel said: “A political government is important in this phase as it constitutes a cover for the army in its operations on the border.”
"A technocrat cabinet cannot deal with this,” he remarked.  Commenting on the turmoil of the neighboring country, Gemayel said Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war is “unacceptable.”
“And another party's involvement is not the answer,” he pointed out. The Phalange leader expressed that it is for the best of the Syrian people “to get rid of the current regime as soon as possible.” “We were the first to applaud the revolution,” he noted. “We look forward to the cooperation between both countries and to a democratic system and to the freedom that we aspire to have.”
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah acknowledged on Tuesday his party's participation in the neighboring country's war, explaining that this stems from its belief in helping the Lebanese in al-Qusayr “who are vulnerable to attacks by gunmen.” He also announced that Hizbullah fighters are defending holy places in the area: “Armed groups are only hundreds of meters away from the Sayyeda Zainab shrine and Takfirist groups launched clear threats on the Internet that they will destroy the shrine should they enter the area."
Meanwhile, several salafist Sunni figures in Lebanon and in response to Hizbullah's activities in Syrian, called on their supporters last week to fight alongside the opposition's rebels in the Syrian al-Qusayr.

Ban discusses Syria peace envoy with major powers
Now Lebanon/UN leader Ban Ki-moon discussed deadlocked efforts to end the Syria conflict with the major powers on Thursday amid mounting signs that peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is to quit.Diplomats and UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed the meeting but declined to say whether Brahimi has already told the United Nations and Arab League that he would be leaving.
A senior aide to the 79-year-old former Algerian foreign minister told AFP no announcement of any resignation was likely to be made until mid-May. Diplomats say however that Brahimi is determined to leave the post.
The permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- have all been urging Brahimi to stay in the position he took up in August last year after former UN leader Kofi Annan quit, diplomats said. Brahimi wants to leave out of growing frustration with the deadlocked international efforts to end the two-year-old civil war in which the UN says well over 70,000 people have been killed.
"People are saying 'we want a political solution' but no one is taking serious steps towards that," said the aide, speaking to AFP in Cairo on condition of anonymity because of the topic's sensitivity. Brahimi has been criticized by the Syrian opposition, and Assad's government said last week it would no longer cooperate with him. But the Arab League decision to recognize the opposition Syrian National Coalition as the legitimate government of Syria was the final straw for the veteran UN troubleshooter, diplomats said. The aide said Brahimi has not yet resigned. "But as you know, he said he thinks about this every day," the aide said. Ban and the ambassadors from the Security Council's five permanent members held informal discussions on Syria, said Nesirky. "They discussed possible diplomatic moves to end the crisis. He briefed them on the latest developments relating to the chemical weapons investigation mission," said Nesirky. "They also discussed the ever-worsening humanitarian situation inside Syria," he added.
Britain's ambassador Mark Lyall Grant confirmed to reporters that the peace envoy was discussed at the meeting but added "it was not just about Brahimi."Brahimi could keep a role as an advisor to the UN secretary general on Syria or the Middle East, according to envoys. "The Syria conflict is so bad and the international divisions so entrenched that the secretary general now faces a very difficult decision on whether to replace Brahimi," said one senior UN diplomat. "Ban will not rush to appoint a third person," added another Security Council diplomat. "You have had Annan, you have had Brahimi -- are you going to get someone who can do better than them?"

Muslim scholars support “peaceful” prevention of fuel tankers entering Syria
Now Lebanon/Lebanon’s Muslim Scholars Association voiced its support for the “peaceful” prevention of fuel tankers from entering Syria from Lebanese territory, the National News Agency reported.
The association also denounced in a statement issued Thursday the violent clash between Lebanese army troops and protesters attempted to stop diesel trucks from entering Syria through the Al-Masnaa border crossing in the Beqaa on Wednesday. “We hold the Lebanese Armed Forces command fully responsible for implicating its members in battles and confrontations with the Lebanese people and the Sunni sect,” the statement said.
They also called on President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam and the army command to “stop these practices against the people who are peacefully protesting before this issue turns into a dangerous spark [that could cause strife] in the entire country.”The scholars called on the Lebanese government to “commit to the dissociation policy it had adopted and stop providing the Syrian regime with diesel.”
On Wednesday, a number of youths in the Beqaa town of Taanayel attacked several diesel tankers heading towards Syria and hit their drivers, Free Lebanon radio reported. There have seen a series of protests in Sunni-majority areas of the Beqaa Valley of eastern Lebanon and in the north aimed at stopping the transfer of fuel to Syria.

Hezbollah lenient about govt formation, official says
Now Lebanon/Deputy Chairman of Hezbollah’s Executive Board Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said that his party has a “positive” approach on the issues of cabinet formation and the elaboration of a new electoral law.
“Hezbollah is lenient and very positive about agreeing on the formation of the government and a new electoral law,” the National News Agency quoted Qaouq as saying on Thursday during the commemoration of Haidar Ayyoub’s death a week earlier when he was killed while “fulfilling his Jihadist duty.”The Hezbollah official also stressed that no party can remove from the ministerial statement the formula of the unity of the people, the army and the Resistance—a legalistic formula for the cabinet to continue upholding the status of Hezbollah’s arms. “The formula of army-people-Resistance is unshakable,” Qaouq said. Lebanon has been gripped in recent months by a crisis centered around which electoral law to adopt for this year’s upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for June 16. The country’s political parties are also jockeying over the composition of the new government as Premier-designate Tammam Salam has set to work on creating a cabinet to replace the resigned government. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah official said that the Arab League and Arab leaders “have the [Syrian] people’s blood on their hands.” Hezbollah has come under criticism for reportedly fighting on the side of the Syrian regime against rebels in the Al-Qusayr area and outside Damascus, with news outlets in the past weeks reporting that a number of party members had been killed in fighting in Syria. However, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denied that large numbers of fighters affiliated with his party had been killed in the fighting in Syria.
Nevertheless, he vowed in a televised address Tuesday evening that “friends” of the Syrian regime would not allow it to fall and that his party would defend Lebanese Shiites residing in Al-Qusayr.

March 8 Parties Express Solidarity with Aazaz Abductees, Say Solution Looming as Kidnappers Demand Release of Syrian Women Detainees
Naharnet/..The relatives of the nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria's Aazaz on Wednesday staged a sit-in at Beirut's Martyrs Square, amid a noteworthy participation by March 8 politicians and reports of an imminent swap deal. Later on Wednesday, the kidnappers of the pilgrims, the so-called Northern Storm Brigade, issued a statement on its official Facebook page declaring that “after interrogating the Lebanese who are in our custody, it turned out that they are members of Iran's party in Lebanon and not pilgrims like the party is claiming because there are no holy shrines in Aazaz.”
“We would have preferred to begin negotiations over our detainees in Assad's prisons months ago, but the interference of Iran's party impeded the negotiations, and now is the right time to announced our legitimate demand, which is the release of the innocent women held in the prisons of the Assad regime,” the statement added. The Brigade confirmed media reports circulated in Beirut that “an international mediation committee has been formed, comprising Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon's Muslim Scholars Committee” and that “the names of the women have been submitted to this committee.”“We, the revolutionaries of Syria, don't have a problem with any sect or religion. Our problem is with Iran's party in Lebanon which is taking part alongside the Assad regime in killing our children and raping our women,” the Brigade added. For his paer, caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told MTV: “The conditions for the release of the Aazaz abductees will be announced soon and the agreement contains stages that involve the release of a number of detainees from the Roumieh prison.” MTV said among the conditions for the release of the abductees is the release of “women and men held in Syrian prisons.”
Charbel told al-Jadeed television that the kidnappers will broadcast a video Wednesday night that contains three conditions for the release of the Lebanese hostages. According to information obtained by OTV, accusing the pilgrims of being Hizbullah members "will not impede the positive course their case has taken." "We come today in the name of the gathering of national parties and forces and after the remarks of the secretary-general (of Hizbullah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah) yesterday it is unacceptable anymore to stand idly by," said deputy head of Hizbullah's politburo Mahmoud Qmati at the Martyrs Square sit-in.
"We will witness positive results in the coming days and there are promising indications but publicizing them does not serve the cause," Qmati added.
On Tuesday, Nasrallah revealed that he had told Lebanese officials about his willingess to visit Damascus to discuss the issue with the Syrian regime if the abductors had specific demands.
Meanwhile, the Beirut-based, pan-Arab television al-Mayadeen reported that "the abductors of the Lebanese in Aazaz have demanded the release of 282 women detainees from Syrian prisons in return for the release of the Lebanese." It noted that the kidnappers have submitted a list of the names of women detainees to "a high-ranking diplomatic figure and a Turkish official handed the list to a Lebanese official who has arrived in Beirut a while ago." Later on Wednesday, OTV identified the Lebanese official as Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, the chief of General Security, adding that "the indications are increasingly positive." Ibrahim told OTV that “a new mechanism has been reached in the negotiations over the release of the abductees.” Al-Jadeed television said Ibrahim will receive a list containing the demands of the abductors in the next few hours.
Speaking at the sit-in, Daniel Shoaib, the brother of the hostage Ali Shoaib, said "the snowball has started to grow and we will continue our pressure on Turkish interests and politicians are also required to practice pressures," urging all the Lebanese to "boycott Turkish goods." Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who was tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up on the case, announced that "no party can resolve the issue other than the Turkish state," calling on Lebanese politicians to "pressure Turkey."  He also thanked politicians for their presence at the sit-in alongside the relatives of the abductees, but noted that the step is a bit late.
"It's better late than never," Zgheib went on to say. The relatives of the abductees have stepped up their protests in recent days, blaming the Turkish government for the failure to release the pilgrims who are being held hostage by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border. Ankara is a staunch supporter of the rebel Free Syrian Army that is fighting regime troops. Eleven pilgrims were kidnapped in May 2012 in northern Syria's Aleppo province as they returned by land from a pilgrimage in Iran. Two of them were released in August and September. They were later taken to the Aleppo town of Aazaz. The kidnapping was claimed by a man who identified himself as Abu Ibrahim and says he is a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army, but the opposition group denies any involvement in the abductions.

Pilgrims' Families Vow to Move Sit-in to New Turkish Airlines Location
Naharnet /The relatives of nine Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped in Syria last year, promised on Thursday to move their protest to the new location of the Turkish Airlines. The families held another protest near the Turkish Cultural Center and the offices of the Turkish carrier but promised to move their sit-it after the holidays after the company had set up a new headquarters to evade protesters. Their movement was accompanied by positive developments on the case of the pilgrims who were abducted by armed rebels in May last year on their way home by land from a pilgrimage to Iran. There were 11 abductees at first but the rebels released two of them in August and September. Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case, hoped that Lebanese officials wouldn't give details on the case “so that things would not go back to the starting point.” Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed later in comments to reporters that the security situation in Lebanon has improved. Chabel said ahead of a meeting for the Central Security Council that he is following up the case of the 9 men along with General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. “We still don't know who is responsible for the kidnapping of the men,” he pointed out. Charbel said that “the Turks and Qataris are still involved in the matter and exerting efforts to end it.” On Wednesday, the so-called Northern Storm Brigade issued a statement demanded “the release of the innocent women held in the prisons of the Assad regime.” Charbel reiterated that he had contacted the pilgrims, who are held in the Aleppo town of Aazaz, and was awaiting a list of detainees to be included in a swap. He told reporters that Lebanese authorities are “still waiting for the names of the women imprisoned by the Syrian regime.”

Fatmagul's Leasing Company: Inconvenient Fuel Caused Vessel's Malfunction
Naharnet /The Turkish Karadeniz power company, which leased the “Fatmagul Sultan” power vessel to the Lebanese government, announced on Thursday that the fuel it had received to operate the ship “was not convenient”, explaining the reasons for the barge's malfunction. "Shortly after the production process had started, the results of tests conducted by international laboratories revealed that the fuel we have been receiving was not convenient,” a statement issued by the company said. "Electricite du Liban is now providing Fatmagul with the convenient type of fuel, which will allow the vessel to go back to producing energy.”
The statement detailed that before the malfunction occurred, the vessel had completed the operational examination phase under the supervision of a group of international independent experts and had started generating 188 megawatts of power, "even before the date mentioned in the contract had started." "The barge is equipped with the latest technological systems and is operated by a team of 60 expert engineers and technicians. This is necessary to provide the necessary hours of power supply, which was highly welcomed by the Lebanese citizens.” Karadeniz remarked: “Technical problems are not strange to big projects like this one, especially in what regards the convenience of the fuel's type.” President Michel Suleiman tasked on Tuesday the Central Inspection Authority to investigate the causes of the malfunctions of the “Fatmagul Sultan” power-generating vessel.
He tasked the authority to uncover the circumstances that led to the malfunctions and determine the sides responsible for it. Nine out of 11 generators on the Fatmagul Sultan barge have stopped functioning, media reports said in April, pointing out that the power-generating vessel is only producing 15 percent of its capacity, which is 27 megawatts.  “Since it began producing electricity, Farmagul Sultan didn't reach its capacity of production as it only generated around 80 percent,” the sources noted.

U.S. Official Meets Qahwaji, Stresses Importance of Abiding by 1701
Naharnet/Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism William Wechsler held talks on Wednesday with Lebanese Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji. Wechsler discussed with Qahwaji the local political and security situation and other regional issues, according to a statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Beirut. The U.S. official emphasized the strong and sustained military cooperation between the two countries as well as U.S. support for Lebanon’s initiatives to implement its obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. Resolution 1701, which ended the Hizbullah-Israel war in 2006, expanded the mandate of U.N. troops in the South, which was originally formed in 1978 after the outbreak of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. It imposed a strict embargo on weapons destined for Lebanese or foreign militias in Lebanon, and pressed Israel to end violations of Lebanon's airspace and to withdraw from northern Ghajar. Wechsler renewed his country's commitment to a stable, sovereign and independent Lebanon. He stressed continuing joint effort between the two countries to strengthen the capacity of Lebanese army as the it is the “sole legitimated defense force in securing Lebanon’s borders and defending the sovereignty and independence of the state.”Fighting in Syria along the border has spilled over into Lebanon, with rebels reportedly targeting border towns inside Lebanon in response to Hizbullah involvement in the conflict

Fatfat Meets Berri, Asks Him to Reconsider Hariri's Electoral Initiative
Naharnet/Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Ahmed Fatfat revealed on Thursday that he asked Speaker Nabih Berri to reconsider former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's electoral initiative that calls for electing a senate along with holding the parliamentary elections, and later introducing the reforms mentioned in the Taef Accord. "We have asked Berri to revisit Hariri's suggestion and he showed high responsiveness to our request,” Fatfat said after meeting with the speaker in Ain al-Tineh.  Fatfat remarked: “I believe he will have an initiative in this respect and it will be a solution that gets us out of the current deadlock.” Hariri called in January for electing a senate representing the various Lebanese sects according to the Orthodox Gathering's proposal and a parliament based on small districts.
In an initiative he launched during an interview on LBCI television, he said that a “real solution” for the concerns of Christians would be “holding elections on time under an electoral law based on small electoral districts -- which would ensure proper representation for all regions, groups and religious communities -- and creating a senate that represents all religions and sects in Lebanon as stipulated by the Taef Accord.
Hariri's initiative also calls for “addressing the chronic complaints of all Lebanese regions and groups concerning developmental and administrative obstacles by immediately implementing Taef Accord's stipulations relating to expanded administrative decentralization. The al-Mustaqbal MP explained: “When electoral laws are debated, each party is evaluating its gains and the losses, but when an all-embracing proposal is under consideration, one that includes electing a parliament, a senate, introducing constitutional amendments, decentralization in the administration and applying the Taef Accord, such calculations will become irrelevant.”
“However, we heard that Christian factions are looking into a hybrid suggestion and we do not mind this if it is true,” Fatfat pointed out.
Berri has said he would call for a parliamentary session on May 15 to vote on the Orthodox proposal for being the only plan approved by the joint committees.
The draft, which divides Lebanon into one electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, was rejected by President Michel Suleiman, caretaker PM Najib Miqati, al-Mustaqbal bloc, the National Struggle Front and the March 14 Christian independent MPs.  They said it deepens sectarian divisions in the country.
The political powers have so far failed to reach an agreement on an alternative law, threatening to postpone the parliamentary elections that are scheduled for June 16.

Qaouq Says Hizbullah Flexible to Achieve Breakthrough over Cabinet, Electoral Crises
Naharnet /Top Hizbullah official Nabil Qaouq said on Thursday that the party is flexible and acting positively with the consultations concerning the formation of the cabinet and the adoption of a new electoral law.
“No one is being targeted as the nation's best interest states that all parties should be engaged in the process of the formation and the adoption of a draft-law,” Qaouq, who is the deputy head of the party's executive council, said. Prime Minister-designate Salam has announced that he wants to form a 24-member government with rotational portfolios. He has also rejected having electoral candidates in the executive authority whose only mission would be the supervision of the parliamentary elections. The political powers have also so far failed to reach an agreement on an alternative law, threatening to postpone the parliamentary elections that are scheduled for June 16.
Qaouq pointed out that despite the turmoil in the neighboring country Syria and the local division over it “Hizbullah is dealing with all parties locally.” The official lashed out at the Arab League, accusing it of “instigating strife in Syria, arming it, obstructing any peaceful political solution and sending fighters to engage in battles in the country.”In March, Arab League leaders gathered for an annual summit in Doha gave member states the "right" to offer Syrians all means of self-defense, including arms supplies. On Tuesday evening, Hizbullah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that members of his group are fighting inside Syria to help the Lebanese in Syria’s border town of al-Qusayr, assuring that the party prides itself in its martyrs. He announced that Hizbullah fighters are defending holy places in the area, including, the Sayyeda Zainab shrine.

Taliban Bomb Kills Eight Afghan Police
Naharnet/A Taliban bomb killed eight Afghan police Thursday in Logar province outside the capital Kabul, officials said, four days after the insurgents started their annual "spring offensive". The members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) force were on a joint patrol with NATO-led coalition forces near Puli Alam town when the blast was detonated. "One of the police vehicles hit an IED (improvised explosive device) in which eight local police were killed and their pick-up truck was totally destroyed," Rais Khan Sadeq, Logar provincial deputy police chief, told Agence France Presse. Din Mohammad Darvish, the provincial spokesman, confirmed the incident and the death toll. "Eight local police are killed in a Taliban bomb," he said. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told AFP the insurgent group was responsible for the attack. "A big number of police are dead and a big number of them are wounded," he said, without giving details. Founded in 2010, the ALP is a controversial unit tasked with community-level policing to suppress violence in some of the country's most dangerous areas.
It was designed as a homegrown force of locals ready to take on Taliban hardliners in places where the national police and army were scarce, but is often criticized as indisciplined and poorly-trained.
The Taliban vowed their annual spring offensive would target international airbases and diplomatic buildings with multiple suicide bombings, as well as featuring "insider attacks" by Afghan soldiers and "special military tactics".
No large-scale attacks have yet been launched, but three British soldiers fighting in the NATO-led coalition were killed by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday.
Shah Wali Khan, the head of the High Peace Council in Helmand, was also killed in a similar attack in the province on Wednesday. More than a decade after the Taliban government was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan remains in the grip of a violent insurgency with militants launching daily strikes on government officials, police and international and Afghan soldiers. Afghanistan's inexperienced security forces are taking over responsibility for fighting the Taliban, but fears are growing that the country could tip into civil war after NATO military operations cease at the end of next year. This year's "fighting season" is seen as crucial to Afghanistan's future as its security forces take the lead in offensives against the insurgents fighting to topple President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government.
Source/Agence France Presse.

Revisiting Karbala in Syria
Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon
Hezbollah promises another “divine victory” in Syria
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah stated clearly in his recent speech that his party has and will continue to fight in Syria next to the regime forces. His reasoning remained purely political: he linked it to Syria’s role as a strategic regional partner. However, within the Shiite community in Lebanon, this political rhetoric has no real value, as more dead bodies of ‘martyrs’ come back from Syria. A different kind of narrative was needed to convince Hezbollah’s constituency why the enemy is now on the other side of the border. In Shiite villages and towns, the rhetoric has little to do with “foreign powers aiming to destroy Syria as a country, people, and army, and canceling its regional role,” as he mentioned in the speech. Hezbollah’s leaders managed to quell public discontent by adding a sacred element to their involvement in Syria: Karbala. The divine narrative has been invoked, yet again. In the beginning of the 1980s, Hezbollah built its rhetoric to tie together political and historical narratives to gradually form a Shiite collective memory. The Party of God employed the memory of the battle of Karbala, when an army sent by the Sunni Umayyad caliph Yazid I defeated Al Hussein bin Ali, grandson of the prophet Mohammad. This battle marks the root of the historical schism between Sunnis and Shiites.
When Hezbollah decided to take over resistance in Lebanon and eliminate the National Resistance Front, the act of resisting Israel was intertwined with Hussein and his family’s resistance to Yazid.
The family Hussein suffered and were eventually martyred in order to preserve the Shiite faith, and Hezbollah invoked this martyrdom in reference to its ‘divine victory’ in the 2006 July War. In fact, tales of Hussein and his family’s spirits helping Hezbollah fighters in the battles against Israeli soldiers are still told and have been merged with the collective Karbala memories.
Today, as Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria can no longer be kept secret, this memory is being exploited again. Many of its symbols are being used by Hezbollah’s leaders to tie their fight in Syria to a scared mission. This time, it is not only to defend Shiites in Syria, or Lebanese on the borders, or even Shiite shrines for that matter; the real mission Hezbollah is marketing to its community is to save the Shiite existence exactly as Hussein bin Ali did in the year 680. “It is a sacred battle and a religious duty,” their leaders tell them. “The Shiites in Syria are suffering death, torture, and thirst, exactly as Hussein and his family suffered before them. Their fault is that they loved Hussein,” states many of their Facebook pages and websites. Recently, whenever Syria is mentioned, Hussein bin Ali and his family are brought up. Syria is no more a war between the regime that supports resistance and fighters that wish resistance to end. Instead, this war is painted as a divine battle to defend the Shiite faith and pave the way for the appearance of the “awaited” Al Mahdi, the twelfth Imam for the Shiites. People are recounting old forgotten tales of Mahdi’s appearance and now it is believed that he and his army are going to appear soon in Damascus with yellow flags to conquer and restore peace.
Hezbollah has realized that this collective memory is the only way to drag the Shiites again to a battle decided by Iran, which serves only Iran. But when more dead bodies come back from Syria and the promised “victory” is not fulfilled, Shiites will eventually realize that the divine narrative is not always a guaranteed recipe for power and victory. Hezbollah will then lose its last recourse, and eventually the collective memory will probably collapse and take down both the party and its popular base. Unfortunately, it will be too late for the Shiites as they will be in a bloody and violent confrontation with Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon.
But Hezbollah seems to have dropped Lebanon from its strategic map. In his speech, Nasrallah cast off all Lebanese-related issues and stated before he concluded that there is no time to discuss these as they are not significant. Lebanon is not important to the Party of God. When he declared war against the international community by saying that “Syria has real friends in the region and across the world that will not let the country fall into the hands of the US, Israel, or takfiris,” Nasrallah certainly did not have Lebanon’s interest in mind. If Lebanese Shiites do not realize that they are being exploited in a war that serves Iran, not Lebanon, then they will have to face a civil war in which neither Hussein bin Ali, nor his family, can save them.
**Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW. She tweets @haningdr

Road to somewhere?
By: MICHAEL WEISS /Now Lebanon/
Obama still has a long way to go on Syria Obama has been good on telling Americans to be tolerant and not judge by appearances, a key aspect of his outreach to the Islamic world. He might want to apply that logic in Syria, and realize that the U.S. still has allies ready to end the long nightmare of the Assad regime – they just need to be recognized as such. Beard length has become an unfortunate marker in the West for extremism.
Yet this too can be deceptive. Here is Abu Bashir's rebel portrait, in which he looks like a young Shamil Basayev Now here's a photo of what Abu Bashir looked like when I met him – an aspiring bassist for Hootie and the Blowfish. When asked the inevitable question about Syria and transgressed 'red lines,' President Obama gave this response at his April 30 press conference: "If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, we can find ourselves in a position where we can't mobilize the international community to support." Yet it has been precisely members of the "international community" that have embarrassed the White House in the past several weeks by going public with their own intelligence agencies' findings about the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Presumably that same community is therefore aware of the consequences that derive from such evidence. It's not a secret that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan, Britain, France, and even Israel have already intervened in Syria in some form or another and have done so without the United States. This renders the word 'unilateral,' now being trotted out by the anti-intervention camp to silence any talk of a no-fly zone or direct military action, more applicable to the administration's current disposition than to the one its allies encourage it to adopt.
So where does Obama stand and where is he headed? The short answer is nowhere – at least for now. Fred Hof, who used to coordinate Syria policy for the Obama Administration, has suggested that the White House is not making itself a hostage to a "comprehensive" U.N. chemical weapons investigation which will never take place because the Assad regime won't allow it. Rather, if you read the administration's messaging carefully, Hof writes, it is indeed pursuing alternative means of fact-finding and authentication. Exhibit A is the White House's April 25 letter to John McCain and Carl Levin, which claimed that, even though the "chain of custody" of chemical weapons was as yet unknown, the government was highly skeptical that any party other than the regime deployed them in Syria. The letter went on to state that the White House was "also working" with allies, friends, and the Syrian opposition (i.e. going around the U.N.) to "establish the facts."
Yet this letter was then belied by Obama's own comments five days later in which he said that he still had no idea who used chemical weapons (so it might have been the rebels after all?) or how or when they were used. It hardly matters anymore that 'who,' 'how' and 'when' were never relevant to the president's August 2012 policy, which made utilization and mobilization of chemical weapons the triggers for changing his "calculus" or "equation" on Syria. Obama has just created the possibility that America's supposed investigative partner, the Syrian opposition, might in fact be the real perpetrator. This will not only further alienate the very people whom the president has designated the inheritors of a post-Assad state, it will give Iran, Hezbollah and Russia stronger strategic coherence in framing the conflict, and of course it will give Assad a license to dip further into his non-conventional arsenal. General Salim Idriss, the head of the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army, was forced to respond with a letter of his own to Obama in which he tutored the leader of the free world in the lessons of totalitarianism.
The administration's wavering over the WMD question has form. For well over a year, its favorite fall-back position whenever it finds itself in the soup on Syria is to profess to be 'working with' an opposition that it subtly reminds the world is not all that scrutable or trustworthy to begin with. You can't really blame Syrians for suspecting that Washington is secretly supporting Damascus (every rebel I talk to these days thinks so) and that the real American policy is to keep people it doesn't like busy killing each other indefinitely
Even the unsentimental realists now applauding Obama's "prudence" – while also telling him that the use of chemical weapons is of no consequence to U.S. interests – must think it a colossal waste of time and money to run humanitarian aid to revolutionaries it doesn't want to help who reside in parts of a country that are still susceptible to being bombarded by MiGs and Scuds, let alone nerve agents.
Among Obama supporters who can see the administration is in disarray, there is still a rush to apologize and defend. Much of the president's policy muddle, we're told, is the lingering trauma in foreign policy caused by his predecessor. Obama came to office promising to end wars in the Middle East. He also vowed to be the un-Bush. Both are admirable goals but not when taken to the point of absurdity or at the expense of an overcorrection that sees the follies of Iraq repeating themselves ad infinitum, regardless of wholly divergent circumstances. Remind me again when Iraqi rebels clashed with Saddam's Republican Guard in and around Baghdad in 2002, or blew up Tariq Aziz in his office in advance of "shock and awe."
The failure to adjust one's thinking in light of new historical developments is a sign of ideological sclerosis, not progress. Many in Washington are beginning to grasp this. One disgruntled official in the State Department has said that the administration has been "borderline isolationist" in its thinking on Syria. This is actually slightly fair to Obama given the starring role that he has granted, and continues to grant, Russia. The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung reported yesterday that the president may be considering the provision of "lethal weaponry" to Syrian rebels, although a "political solution" to a conflict that now includes weekly reports of chemical agents being deployed is still apparently his preferred resolution. The real purpose of this vaguely provocative, anonymously sourced article and no doubt leaked article is to pressure Vladimir Putin into abandoning his copper-bottomed support for Bashar al-Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to arrive in Moscow in the coming days and Obama has a one-on-one meeting with Putin scheduled for June. In other words, this is to be the absolute last chance – and this time we really mean it – for the Russian strongmen to get on the right side of history, even as they engage in a campaign of repression against their own opposition and civil society, which Human Rights Watch has called "unprecedented" in the post-Soviet era. Surely an excellent time for compromise and accommodation.
DeYoung's colleague David Ignatius further elaborated on this new-old stratagem:
"Obama's desire for Russian cooperation is one reason he has been cautious in responding to allegations that Assad has used chemical weapons. Obama talked by phone to President Vladimir Putin Monday, and an official said 'we still do believe there's a constructive role for Russia to play.'"
One way to politicize intelligence is to purposefully slow the investigation of war crimes in order to wield soft power leverage with a diplomatic adversary. (What price asphyxiated Arabs against the priority of the 'reset'?) Such thinking also shows how tenaciously committed the administration is to misreading intransigent regimes that have tried in vain to make their positions clear to the West.
The Putinists believe that all of Syria's rebels are terrorists. Threatening to arm those rebels is thus not likely to change the Putinists' view of the matter. The Russian Foreign Ministry has in the past blamed atrocities carried out by Assadist proxies, such as the Houla massacre, on the opposition. Most recently, Russia has facilitated and seconded the regime's propaganda about the supposed origin of a chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, by objecting to the U.N.'s demand for a forensic investigation that encompasses all of the targeted sites including those in Homs and Damascus. This suggests that the Russians, too, want to convince the world that it wasn't the regime that used sarin gas but its enemies – an allegation that would backfire if Obama took his own red line more seriously.
I almost felt sorry for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who once again finds himself having to beg to be understood. In a recent interview with Foreign Policy, he expressed himself "gratified" to discover that it was the Americans and Europeans who were the ones quietly unspooling their old preconditions about not engaging in "dialogue" with Assad. Lavrov also reaffirmed Russia's right to deliver anti-aircraft weapons and other lethal hardware to Syria and described his imminent visitor Kerry as "pragmatic," which is the same word Assad used to complimentarily characterize the United States's approach to his country as a whole.
What must the poor Russians do to show that they intend to play a destructive role in America's Syria policy? And what must it take for President Obama to realize that he's got as much international support on resolving the Syria crisis as he is ever going to get?
***
Many people otherwise sympathetic to what's happening in this luckless country believe that it's simply too late to do anything substantive because the opposition has been too 'radicalized' to ever possibly accept U.S. assistance in good faith. Jabhat al-Nusra has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaeda and Ayman al-Zawahiri (then un-pledged it, but whatever), and they're not even the largest franchise among Salafist-jihadist groups. Even if Obama did decide to run guns to the rebels, wouldn't he be enabling the nasties who want to wage sectarian holy war and then turn their attention to America when they're done?
Unfortunately, because we waited so long, 'blowback' is a more likely unintended consequence than it was a year ago and it is simply not possible to ensure that all weapons imported into Syria will stay out of the hands of the jihadists. Many of the Croatian arms have already found their way to Jabhat al-Nusra. (A way around this, of course, is to deny the rebels the heavy-duty hardware – namely anti-aircraft munitions – and instead do the work of neutralizing the regime's air power for them through some combination of aircraft and stand-off mechanisms.)
All this to one side, the administration's other stated objective of trying to put some "more skin in the game" by arming rebels is not so quixotic. Without overstating the case, there are still moderates within the ranks of the opposition, even if some have technically joined up with extremist elements. In many instances, "Islamists" make themselves known only when they believe that paymasters in Doha or Riyadh might be watching.
On a recent trip to Antakya, I met one such fighter called Abu Bashir. He belongs to a brigade known as the Mujahedeen of Jisr al-Shoughour and he was in Turkey to have some shrapnel removed from his arm and leg. Here's his group's declaration video, in which someone other than Abu Bashir says:
"Bismillah. Those who believe fight in the way of God. And those who reject faith fight in the way of tyranny. So fight the friends of Satan, sons of our great country. Because of the crimes of the Assad regime and their desecration of holy sites we have created the Brigade of the Mujahideen of Jisr al Shughour led by the civil commander Bassam al-Masri. And on this occasion we promise God and our people that we will defend the country and promise Assad's fighters that we will fight them anywhere we see them. God have mercy on our martyrs."
This is fairly mild stuff in comparison to what other rebel formations are putting out these days, but it nonetheless led me to inquire as to the patron or sponsor of Abu Bashir's katiba. Without hesitating he told me that it was the Muslim Brotherhood. This is how the conversation went from there:
"So you're Ikhwan?"
"No."
"Then why have you joined them?"
"Because I need to pay my men and coordinate with other brigades in Idlib and they are the ones to do this."
"And if someone else came along and offered to pay your men and coordinate with other brigades, you would accept them?"
"Of course."
I've heard some variation of this line many times in the past several months, chiefly among those who are more frustrated with America than irreconcilably opposed to America. The talk with Abu Bashir then moved to how problematic Jabhat al-Nusra had become for the country (as well as the regime's prior underwriting of the very same al-Qaeda agents now waging war against the regime). Then, an hour or so later, I saw Abu Bashir smoke the biggest joint I've seen since my college days.
The point is not that they aren't hardcore ideologues fighting in Syria but that not everyone who professes himself to be one is necessarily that. Many so-called "Salafis," for instance, could not tell you the first thing about the Salafi doctrine – they just joined Suqoor al-Sham because they wanted comrades with the highest level of discipline and battlefield experience. Editor's Pick Begging in Beirut
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Exclusive: Kerry’s plans double peace track: Israel vs Palestinians and vs Arab League

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 2, 2013/US Secretary of State John Kerry has gained the consent of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for his novel plan to run peace negotiations on two tracks – Israel versus Palestinians plus Israel, for the first time in its history, directly facing the Arab League.
This is reported exclusively by debkafile.
The two tracks will run simultaneously. Kerry says more work needs to be done before a starting date can be scheduled but he hopes the talks can begin this summer.
This formula was designed to address the fundamental objections he ran into in the spring at the start of his initiative for re-launching Middle East peace talks.
Netanyahu said that while the withdrawal of the 2002 Saudi Peace plan, which gained Arab League endorsement as the Arab Peace Initiative, was not an Israeli pre-condition for attending peace negotiations, the talks would quickly run into a stalemate if the demand for a total Israel withdrawal to pre-1967 lines in return for peace and normal relations with the Arab world remained on the table.
Abbas, for his part, told the Secretary of State that comprehensive Arab backing was imperative for him to consent to reenter peace talks with Israel after two years of stalling.
Kerry accordingly invited a group of prominent Arab foreign ministers, heads of the Arab Peace Initiative follow-up committee, to visit Blair House, the official guest house of the US government, for a thorough threshing-out of the issues standing in the way of an Arab peace with Israel. Among those present were Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, chair of the Arab Peace Initiative follow-up committee, Arab League Chairman Nabil al-Arabi and Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki.
After putting before them the Israeli prime minister’s objections to the Saudi peace plan, Kerry was able to
persuade the Arab ministers to accept President Barack Obama's formulation, which provides for an Israeli return to the 1967 boundaries with "comparable and mutual agreed minor swaps of the land.”
Obama added this rider to accommodate “the burgeoning communities in the area.”
Netanyahu had told Kerry that if he could convince the Arab League ministers to adopt this rider, he would have taken a big step towards getting negotiations moving between Israel and the Arab League for a comprehensive peace.
As Kerry prepared to inform the PA leader that he had obtained “Arab endorsement” for the simultaneous two-track talks, the Palestinians were sending out mixed signals: Wednesday night, May 1, Abbas said the “minor swaps” locution was acceptable, followed by Riyad al-Maliki who insisted that the Arab Peace Initiative must be accepted as it stood, unless the full Arab League endorsed amendments.
Nevertheless, there is much optimism in Washington that a breakthrough in the stalled Middle East peace process is at hand. Vice President Joe Biden seconded Kerry's description of "a very positive, very constructive discussion," at Blair House this week.
According to senior sources in Washington and Jerusalem, the Secretary of State is running his initiative virtually single handed without recourse to the usual bevy of Middle East experts. He accepts that there is plenty of work ahead before he can declare the two negotiating tracks ready to go.