LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
December 14/06Bible Reading For the Day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11,28-30.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Free Opinions, Studies & Reports
Release From thr International Lebanese Committee for UNSCR 1559
Letter to the president of UNSCR ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser RE: Mediation of Arab League Delegate Mustafa Uthman Ismael in Crisis in Lebanon not welcomed.13.12.06Open letter to General Aoun from Joe Baini, Presient for the World Council of the Cedars Revolution
General Aoun: Before you drown yourself in the quagmire of terrorists, the door is still jarred open for you to return to the fold and take your position among the greats of the Cedars Revolution and protect the sovereignty, independence and democratic freedoms of the great people of Lebanon. December 13.06Interview With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
RICE: U.S. Will Not Allow Syria To Reassert Authority over Lebanon & tribunal on Prime Minister Hariri's assassination "must go forward"/Interview was conducted by Sylvie Lanteaume and David Millikin of Agence France Presse December 13/06Latest News miscellaneous sources for December 14/06
Saniora Out of Siege Thursday-Naharnet
Moussa Achieves 'Progress' in Settling Lebanon's Crisis-Naharnet
Arab League chief upbeat on possible Lebanon deal-Reuters
Hostages in Nigeria, Including One Lebanese, are 'Fine'-Naharnet
New poll points to sectarian division in Lebanon-Ya Libnan
No Compromise Seen as Arab Diplomats Try to Defuse Crisis-Naharnet
Lebanese Cabinet Approves Tribunal Plan-Washington Post
Siniora Stands Fast-Washington Post
Security Council reiterates strong support for Lebanon's ...International Herald Tribune
Dutch FM says Syria can play key role in Mideast region-People's Daily Online
US may talk to Syria, but not Iran-Christian Science Monitor
US Will Not Allow Syria To Reassert Authority over Lebanon-Washington File
Canada probes claims of Syria torture-Houston Chronicle - United States
Arab Mediators Struggle to Bridge Divide in Lebanon-Voice of America
History, Hezbollah and Lebanon's resurgent Shias-Khaleej Times
UN council calls for talks to avert Lebanon crisis-Reuters
Feds obtain search warrant to stop package to Lebanon
Fla. senator defies Bush, visits Syria-Houston Chronicle
Lebanon war veteran oils gun, fears new conflict-Reuters
Bush criticizes Syria on human rights, Lebanon-Washington Post
UN Lebanon statement welcome; arms, Israeli violations must stop ...Kuwait News AgencyNew poll points to sectarian division in Lebanon
Tuesday, 12 December, 2006 @ 6:21 PM
Beirut- An overwhelming majority of Lebanon's Shiite population has lost confidence in Prime minister Fouad Siniora's government which most of the country's Sunni and Druze sects support, according to a poll published Tuesday. The survey by the country's main polling institute, the Beirut Center for Research and Information, also pointed to an even split within the country's Christian population.
A full 94 percent of Shiites and 50 percent of Christians said the Siniora government had "lost constitutional legitimacy."Eighty-three percent of Sunnis and 90 percent of Druze, the main backers of the government, said the opposite.
Despite the divisions, the poll showed nearly three quarters of Lebanese agree that there should be a new national unity government. The survey was based on a sample of 800 people between November 30 and December 5 and its results were published by the English-language The Daily Star newspaper. No margin of error was given. The polling coincided with the start on December 1 of a massive opposition demonstration, led by Hezbollah and General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, which has paralyzed the government.
The poll also pointed to major disparities on the hot-button issue of a Special International Tribunal on Lebanon.The survey showed that 73.1 percent support the creation of the international court.
Nearly 52 percent agreed with the way the government was handling the issue, while 48 percent disagreed.
The government accuses the opposition of trying to block cabinet moves to support the creation of an international court in the 2005 murder of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.
On Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel's assassination, more than 48 percent were undecided about the culprits behind the murder, while 21 percent said they believed the March 14 forces were responsible.
Many leaders have warned that the current crises could lead to civil war and cautioned about the use of the street to force the government to resign a move described as “ red line “ by the Lebanese Mufti.
Picture: The pro- government protesters in Tripoli held this poster showing Syria's president Bashar Assad ( L) Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinajad ( C) and Lebanon's president Emile Lahoud . The protesters accuse Syria and Iran as being behind the crises in Lebanon and accuse Lahoud of being a Syrian puppet
Sources: Naharnet , Ya LibnanU.S. Will Not Allow Syria To Reassert Authority over Lebanon
Rice says tribunal on Prime Minister Hariri's assassination "must go forward"
By Stephen Kaufman
USINFO Staff Writer
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed support for the Lebanese government and pro-democracy activists in Lebanon who have resisted Syrian control of their country, and said the United States will not compromise the future of Lebanon for its other interests in the Middle East.
In an interview with Agence France Presse December 11, Rice said the Bush administration understands "who Lebanon’s enemies are," and who is seeking to bring down the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, and who is acting against the interests of those who demonstrated in 2005 against the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
We are committed to standing by those Lebanese democrats who have risked everything in favor of Lebanese democracy and who have faced assassinations … and who stood in the streets of Lebanon to get Syrian forces out," she said, adding "there is no way that the United States or the international community could ever countenance a reassertion of Syrian authority in Lebanon."
The "struggling democratic forces … need to understand that we are fully and completely, along with the international community, in support of them and their goals and their legitimacy in Lebanon," Rice said.
Rice accused Syria and Iran of working to undermine the Siniora government, and said despite calls for the United States to engage both countries in discussions over neighboring Iraq, Washington will not negotiate Lebanon’s future with anybody. "In no way is the United States going to get into a situation where it is even a conceivable notion on the part of Syria or Iran that the future of Lebanon would somehow be compromised for other interests of the United States. We're simply not going to get into that situation," she said.
She said the tribunal authorized by the U.N. Security Council to try individuals suspected of involvement in the February 14, 2005, murder of Prime Minister Hariri "has got to go forward," saying it is "a matter of justice," as well as a means to demonstrate that "people who assassinate leaders can't do so with impunity."
Rice said Syria has shown no cooperation with the international community’s efforts to establish the tribunal, and speculated that Syria’s support of extremist forces in Lebanon seeking to bring down the Siniora government has been driven by its opposition to the tribunal.
She called for an end to the ongoing Hezbollah demonstrations against the government and for compromise among the Lebanese. "There has to be a Lebanese solution to this problem and I think we have to let the Lebanese deal with it," she said.
Asked about efforts to restart discussions between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Rice said there is "a better chance" than in the past to establish a Palestinian state "because certain fundamentals are in place."
Before President Bush’s June 24, 2002, speech calling for an independent Palestinian state, "no American president had dared say it," and now a two-state solution to the conflict "easily rolls off our tongues," Rice said, adding that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself began to talk about the need to share the land and implemented a Gaza disengagement plan that "for the first time, actually took Israeli settlers out of land and returned land to the Palestinians."Rice said the international community should not "facilely throw away what's happened in the last four years because a great deal of it has moved us closer to the day when we can realize a Palestinian state, not further away from it."She said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and others are working to resolve the Hamas-led government’s "unwillingness to govern from a position that is internationally acceptable," including its support of terrorism and refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. "[O]nce they come to a way to resolve the crisis, I am sure we'll be there to support them," she said.Rice also discussed progress on a U.N. Security Council resolution concerning Iran’s nuclear activities, talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Iraq, Russia, Sudan and the United Nations. A full transcript of Rice's interview is available on the State Department Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Lebanon Assistance.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Arab Mediators Struggle to Bridge Divide in Lebanon
By VOA News -12 December 2006
Arab diplomats are struggling to bridge differences between Lebanon's government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
Lebanese PM Fuad Siniora, (r), listens to Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa at Government House in Beirut, 12 Dec 2006
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa arrived in Beirut Tuesday for meetings with both sides. He said he has ideas about resolving the standoff.
An Arab League envoy, Mustafa Ismail of Sudan, met with Syrian officials in Damascus and the parties in Lebanon on Monday.
Thousands of Hezbollah supporters have been camping out in central Beirut since December 1, demanding that the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora step down. The demonstrators are pressing demands for a national unity government that grants more power to pro-Syrian Hezbollah and the Shi'ite militant group's allies. Mr. Siniora's government Tuesday agreed to refer to parliament a United Nations plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Hafik Hariri - an anti-Syrian politician.
Mr. Siniora's coalition accuses the pro-Syrian opposition of conspiring to scuttle the creation of the tribunal.
In related news, the head of the U.N. probe into the Hariri assassination said in a report released Tuesday that Syria's cooperation has been generally satisfactory. A previous U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, implicated senior Syrian security officials in the killing. Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Lebanese Cabinet Approves Tribunal Plan
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB-The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Cabinet reaffirmed Tuesday its approval of a U.N. plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of a former prime minister _ a fresh challenge to the Hezbollah-led, pro-Syrian opposition seeking to oust the U.S.-backed prime minister. The Cabinet move came as the Arab League chief began talks with Lebanese politicians in an attempt to defuse rising political and sectarian tensions that are threatening to tear the country apart.
Lebanese women supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora hold pictures of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri at the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006. Saniora's government pushed ahead Tuesday with a challenge to the Hezbollah-led opposition, which has been waging street protests to oust him, as the chief of the Arab League arrived to mediate. (AP
The suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri include several pro-Syrian Lebanese generals. The Cabinet had approved the tribunal draft plan on Nov. 25 and sent it to President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian, who did not approve the document.
Lahoud's rejection meant the Cabinet had to reaffirm its approval.
Although the move enables the government to get around the Lebanese president's opposition to setting up such a court, ratification by parliament presents fresh challenges. The anti-Syrians hold a majority in parliament, but the legislature can only be convened by the speaker. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, is expected to resist convening a session to endorse the draft.
Meanwhile at the United Nations, the chief investigator into the assassination reported Tuesday that the U.N. probe has reached "a critical stage." Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the inquiry has now identified suspects and witnesses and found possible links to 14 other murders or attempted murders in Lebanon in the last two years. Lebanon's political crisis began after Saniora rejected Hezbollah's demand for a national unity government that would give the guerrilla group and its allies veto power in the Cabinet. In response, six pro-Hezbollah ministers resigned from the Cabinet and the militant group has staged demonstrations in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 to pressure the prime minister into quitting.
Hezbollah vehemently opposes moving ahead with the tribunal, saying the government must first be reshuffled to give it and its allies veto power. Saniora says the Cabinet is still legally constituted and empowered to make decisions.
Lahoud refused to endorse the tribunal plan, maintaining the Cabinet was no longer legitimate because it had no Shiite representation. Constitutionally, all major sects must be represented in the government. The Cabinet move coincided with the arrival of Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Beirut for another round of talks with the rival leaders. He met promptly with Berri before heading for talks with Saniora.
Moussa told reporters at the Beirut airport "there should always be hope" for solving the Lebanese crisis. Despite the street protests, both sides have expressed willingness to talk to draw the country away from the sectarian tones of the division. Lebanon's Sunni Muslims largely support the Sunni prime minister, and Shiite Muslims back Hezbollah. Christians are split. The visit by Moussa follows that of the envoy of Sudan, who currently holds the chair of the Arab Summit and is trying to mediate between the prime minister and the political leaders of the protesters camping in a city square near his office.
Hezbollah's support among Shiites surged after its war with Israel over the summer and emboldened it to push for more political power.
But pro-government, anti-Syrian factions resent Hezbollah for sparking the war when it captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid and accuse the militant group's two main backers _ Syria and Iran _ of seeking to overthrow the government. Saniora, who has received Western and Arab support, has repeatedly refused to resign. He has been living at his downtown offices for more than a week. The office is surrounded by riot police, troops in armored vehicles and barbed wire.
Siniora Stands Fast
By David Ignatius
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; Page A27
BEIRUT -- The Lebanese not so long ago liked to refer to their gaudy capital as "the Paris of the Orient." But on Sunday afternoon, with more than a half-million pro-Hezbollah demonstrators chanting "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" in the heart of downtown, the Lebanese capital seemed more like a vision of Tehran.
The very incongruity of this scene, in the most Westernized city in the Arab world, makes me wonder if Hezbollah is overplaying its hand in its campaign to oust the pro-American government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. America isn't very popular here, after its ally Israel bombed the country's infrastructure last summer in reprisal for Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. But for all their anger at America and Israel, the Lebanese aren't likely to defect to the Iranian camp.
Watching the demonstrations with seeming serenity is Siniora himself, the man the Hezbollah protesters are targeting. When I visited him Monday, he had been holed up in his office for 10 days, surrounded by Lebanese soldiers and acres of barbed wire. During our discussion he was the picture of calm and confidence. That's been his tactic as the protests have mounted: The louder Hezbollah's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, has called for his head, the quieter has been Siniora's response.
Siniora hasn't yet found a way out of the impasse, and the crisis is giving the country a serious case of the jitters. But he did seem to strike a chord with many Lebanese when he said last Friday, after an especially feverish speech by Nasrallah: "You are not our lord. . . . Who made you a judge over us to decide who is a traitor or a nationalist?" He said Nasrallah's supporters were attempting a coup d'etat.
The Lebanese prime minister continued his measured tone in his conversation with me Monday. "I think Nasrallah has become very much tense," he said. "He is between a rock and a hard place. Everybody knows the influence being exercised on Hezbollah by Iran and Syria." He said at another point of Nasrallah, "He has lost the battle."
"We all have to realize we have Iran on our borders," Siniora explains. "But Iran has to understand it cannot impose things on the Arabs. This is not helpful to them." When I asked Siniora if he thought the Iranians had gotten this message, he answered: "Not yet."
Siniora said he is looking for a compromise -- he used the Arabic word taswiyah, which means an arrangement short of a final settlement -- that will defuse the crisis before it explodes into open sectarian conflict. He said there are various formulas, short of a paralyzing veto, for giving the opposition a stronger voice in the government. He used the phrase "the majority" to describe the pro-government coalition of Sunni Muslims, Druze and some Christians and "the minority" to describe Nasrallah's coalition of Shiite Muslims and Christians led by former general Michel Aoun.
The prime minister's apparent confidence isn't widely shared in the Lebanese capital, which is bracing for another escalation of Hezbollah's tactics. Beirut isn't on the edge of civil war, but there are some spooky precursors. A Shiite friend tells me he is beginning to feel unsafe living in a Sunni neighborhood. When you drive home at night, he says, "the watchers are out."
The hard edge of Siniora's strategy, hidden behind his lawyerly calm, is that he is prepared to play the sectarian game, too. An ominous sign of the dangers ahead was a huge counter-rally Sunday in support of the government by angry Sunnis in the northern city of Tripoli. "They don't have the numbers," Siniora said of the Hezbollah-Aoun alliance. "The majority can send to the street more than what the opposition can send."
The Sunni trump card is rarely discussed but universally understood: Syria, a crucial ally of Hezbollah, is an overwhelmingly Sunni country. If the Syrian-Iranian alliance squeezes the Sunnis in Lebanon too hard, there is likely to be a backlash inside Syria. Here's the way Siniora delicately phrased it to me: "The Syrian position is what it is. It has to be part of the Arab world, not the Iranian overall plans in the region."
And what of America, whose supposed mastery of Lebanon enrages the demonstrators outside Siniora's office? Its diplomacy unfortunately has been as feckless here as elsewhere in the region. Despite American promises to bolster Siniora by getting a map of Israeli land mines in southern Lebanon, or exploring Lebanese claims to a disputed, Israeli-occupied territory known as Shebaa Farms, the Bush administration has done little. "America gives us letters of support," says Siniora. "We get tons of paper, which can't be recycled."
**The writer co-hosts, with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal. His e-mail address isdavidignatius@washpost.com.
Security Council reiterates strong support for Lebanon's democratic government
The Associated Press - Published: December 13, 2006
UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Security Council reiterated its strong support for Lebanon's democratically elected government and condemned any attempts to destabilize the country. The council issued the presidential statement late Tuesday as Arab League chief Amr Moussa began talks with Lebanese politicians in an attempt to defuse rising political and sectarian tensions that are threatening to tear the country apart.
"The Security Council calls upon all Lebanese political parties to show responsibility with a view to preventing, through dialogue, further deterioration of the situation in Lebanon," the statement said.
Lebanon's latest political crisis began after Prime Minister Fuad Saniora rejected demands by Hezbollah, the militant group that fought Israel in a 34-day war this summer, for a national unity government that would give the guerrilla group and its allies veto power in the Cabinet.
In response, six pro-Hezbollah ministers resigned from the Cabinet and the militant group has staged demonstrations in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 to pressure the prime minister into quitting.
United and Continental discussing possible mergerA key issue is the establishment of a U.N.-backed tribunal to prosecute those charged in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which killed 22 others. Saniora's Cabinet reiterated its approval of the tribunal late Tuesday, but final approval must be given by Parliament whose speaker, Nabih Berri, contends the Cabinet's agreement is illegal because there were no Shiite ministers. "The Security Council reiterates its full support for the legitimate and democratically elected government of Lebanon, calls for full respect for the democratic institutions of the country, in conformity with the constitution, and condemns any effort to destabilize Lebanon," the statement said.
The council also called for implementation of all U.N. resolutions, including one demanding the disarmament of all militias inside Lebanon — which would include Hezbollah's armed fighters. It welcomed the maintenance of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah since Aug. 14 and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south for the first time in three decades along with more than 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
While expressing deep concern at Israel's continuing violations of Lebanon's airspace, the council appealed to all parties to respect the ceasefire and the U.N.-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon, and "to refrain from any act of provocation."
US may talk to Syria, but not Iran
US courtship of Syria might drive a wedge between Syria and Iran – a welcome result.
By John Hughes
SALT LAKE CITY – One of the most controversial recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) is that the Bush administration should enlist the aid of Iran and Syria to achieve stability in Iraq.
The bipartisan commission of nine men and one woman, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, concede that this would be difficult. But they argue that to resolve conflicts a nation must engage with its enemies.
They recommend that the US engage directly with Iran and Syria under the aegis of a yet-to-be formed "Iraq International Support Group." This would involve Iraq and all the states bordering it, including Iran and Syria; key regional states such as Egypt and the Gulf states; the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and the European Union.
The proposal that the US should engage with two of its most contentious adversaries has predictably triggered arguments pro and con in the US political and foreign policy communities. Those in favor of such a dialogue argue that neither Iran nor Syria should want a disintegrating Iraq that would destabilize the region, and therefore should be open to new US diplomatic persuasion.
Those opposed argue that the US should not negotiate with two nations that are promoting violence in Iraq, support and supply terrorists, have a long history of discord with the US and militancy toward Israel, and one of which (Iran) is presumed to be working to create nuclear weapons.
There is, however, a third option. It is for the US to engage with Syria but not Iran. Syria is meddling in Lebanon, is hostile to Israel, but has occasionally shown itself to be open to constructive discussion.
By contrast, Iran is in the grip of extremist mullahs, who are possibly permitting development of an atomic bomb and supporting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he declares that the Holocaust is a myth, and threatens the obliteration of Israel.
In a sense, the US would be differentiating between two egregious levels of behavior. One, in Syria's case, might be open to some moderating. The other, in the case of Iran, shows little prospect of improvement. Indeed, in the course of the group's analysis, ISG co-chairman James Baker met with a senior Iranian official to discuss Iraq. The ISG report suggests he was told that Iran had no interest in helping the US out of its problems in Iraq.
One positive fallout from courting Syria but keeping Iran at a distance might be the driving of a wedge between the two, and disrupting their alliance against Israel, the US, and proponents of democracy.
The ISG says Syria could help Iraq by controlling the border between the two nations, over which supplies, money, and reinforcements to the insurgents flow with little hindrance.
If Syria's President Bashar al-Assad really wanted to warm ties with the US, he could stop the transshipment of Iranian arms across his country to Hizbullah in Lebanon, and support for Hamas in the Palestinian territories. He could cease his attempts to undermine the democratically elected government of Lebanon and cooperate with investigations of political assassinations in Lebanon, especially those of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.
Any US negotiation with Syria would have to offer incentives to Syria for reformed behavior, along with warnings of punitive measures, such as travel and economic sanctions, in the event of noncooperation.
One plum that could be offered to Syria would be US support for the return to Syria of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel would likely take a frosty view at present of such a move, given the state of tension in the region. But it did once come close in earlier negotiations to returning the Golan Heights and conceivably might do so again as part of an overall Syrian-Israeli peace agreement.
The ISG concedes that any US engagement with Iran is "problematic." But it notes that Iran did cooperate with the US in Afghanistan and says the US could explore whether that kind of cooperation could be replicated in Iraq.
The huge issue that currently seems to rule out any bilateral US dialogue with Iran is Iran's determination to pursue its nuclear program. The Americans say the Iranians must halt the program as a precondition for talks. The Iranians say the Americans must commit to troop withdrawal from Iraq as a precondition to any dialogue.So what are the prospects of US dialogue with Syria and Iran recommended by the Baker-Hamilton group? With Iran: for now, out of the question. With Syria: remote but possible.
• John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, is editor and chief operating officer of the Deseret Morning News.
Khaleej Times Online
History, Hezbollah and Lebanon's resurgent Shias
BY MATEIN KHALID
13 December 2006
A QUARTER century after it emerged as a shadowy Shia militia armed and financed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah is the political kingmaker of Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister and his Cabinet are literally besieged behind barricades and barbed wire as Hezbollah demands a new government, ironically using the same street demonstrations that defined the Cedar Revolution against the Syrian occupation. Downtown Beirut, the promenades and piazzas that symbolised the postwar reconstruction of Lebanon with million dollar condominiums and extravagant Solidiere projects, is now a sea of tents pitched by Hezbollah supporters determined to topple the elected government of Fuad Siniora.
The Lebanese Shia were an impoverished, disenfranchised community of peasants and farmers in the south and the Bekaa Valley ruled by a handful of landowners whose feudal pedigree went back to Ottoman times. Yet history thrust the Lebanese Shia in the cauldron of the Arab Israeli conflict when the PLO set up Fatahland, its “state within a state” in South Lebanon after its commandos were expelled from Jordan in Black September. Israel subjected South Lebanon to savage aerial bombardment, followed by two invasions in 1972 and 1978 in its quest to vanquish the PLO.
The Lebanese Shia, caught in the brutal crossfire, faced economic devastation even as the Lebanese state in Beirut disintegrated into sectarian cantons. The slums of Beirut swelled with Shia refugees and Israel carved out a cordon sanitaire in South Lebanon ruled by its agent Major Haddad in their ancestral land.
The charismatic Iranian expatriate cleric, Sayyed Musa Sadr, organised the Shia into a new movement called Amal (hope), giving the community a political voice, weakening the power of feudal landowners and staking its place in Lebanon’s communal politics. Yet Musa Sadr vanished on a trip to Libya just as history intervened once again with a vengeance in the politics of the Lebanese Shia. In the autumn of 1978, as Musa Sadr boarded his last fateful fight to Rome, the Shia clergy orchestrated the street riots that were to drive the Shah of Iran from his Peacock Throne and change the balance of geopolitical power in the Middle East forever.
Revolutionary Iran used the unique pathology of Lebanese sectarian politics for its own national interest. Mired in an existential war in the Gulf with Baathist Iraq, allied to the minority Alawite dictatorship in Damascus, Iran armed Hezbollah as its own anti–American, anti–Israeli weapon of resistance and terror. Hezbollah suicide bombers gutted the US Embassy in Beirut and killed 241 of President Reagan’s Marine peacekeepers in their barracks, a clear win for Syria.
Hezbollah, allied with Syrian military intelligence to navigate the treacherous minefields of Lebanese politics after the Taif Accords ostensibly ended the civil war in 1990. Yet Hezbollah also created a network of schools, hospitals and orphanages for the Shia the Lebanese state had so often ignored and scorned.
Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah is the most compelling and charismatic leader of Shia Lebanon since Musa Sadr. He plunged Lebanon into the 34-day summer war with Israel by ordering a cross–border raid to kidnap two IDF soldiers that was certain to provoke Zionist retaliation. He has used Shia Islam’s powerful, messianic symbols of martyrdom and suffering to castigate the Lebanese government as corrupt and complicit in Israeli atrocities. An ubiquitous Hezbollah slogan in the Beirut protests is “no to the pourers of tea” (Lebanese policemen served tea to IDF troops in Marjayoun during the summer war) and “no to the government of Feltman” (the name of the current US Ambassador to Lebanon). Anti–Israeli and anti-American rhetoric defines Hezbollah’s political DNA. Its alliance with Syria and Iran and the Beirut government’s ties to France, the US and Saudi Arabia mean that yet another regional proxy war is being played out on the streets of Beirut. The confrontation in Beirut, branded a “coup d’ etat” by Siniora and the widow of an assassinated Maronite Christian President, has taken Lebanon to the precipice of civil war. The fragile sectarian equation, the traditional warlord politics of money and patronage dominated by clans like the Gemayels/Jumblatts and Siniora’s technocratic, pro–West elected government, all seem doomed.
Hezbollah’s blood feud with Israel, its umbilical cord to Iran’s theocratic elite in Qom, its formidable arsenal of missiles and its militant anti – Zionist, anti – American ideology will define the destiny of Lebanon. The Arabian Switzerland that Hariri tried to create with Saudi petrodollars out of the ashes of the civil war seems a cruel, surreal illusion now. Three decades after Musa Sadr first founded Amal, the Lebanese Shia make history as history once made them.
*Matein Khalid is a Dubai based investment banker
UN council calls for talks to avert Lebanon crisis
13 Dec 2006
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged all Lebanese political parties to enter into talks to prevent a further deterioration of the political crisis there. A statement approved unanimously by the 15-nation council reaffirmed the U.N. body's "full support for the legitimate and democratically elected government of Lebanon" and condemned any effort to destabilize the country.
Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets to press for a national unity government that would give it veto power in the Cabinet. The opposition calls the Western-backed government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora illegitimate.
But parliamentary majority leaders who control the Cabinet are refusing to give in to opposition demands, saying that would lead to greater Syrian and Iranian influence in the government. The government says the opposition is trying to undermine it to derail creation of a special international court that would try suspects implicated in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri -- a killing anti-Syrian officials blame on Damascus. Syria denies any involvement. The council statement also expressed "deep concern" at unverified reports that weapons were being smuggled into southern Lebanon from Syria, in violation of a U.N. arms ban. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported Dec. 1 that he was receiving reports, which he could not verify, of illegal arms smuggling into Lebanon despite Lebanon's deployment of 8,000 troops along its border with Syria.
Security Council resolutions have called on Lebanon to disarm all militias on its soil, including Hezbollah guerrillas, and banned all unauthorized arms in Lebanon. Tuesday's council statement invited Annan to assess Lebanon's border monitoring effort and report back to the council with recommendations.
The statement also invited U.N. member-states to consider providing aid to the Lebanese government to help it improve its border security.
Feds obtain search warrant to stop package to Lebanon
By Tom Searls
The Charleston Gazette-Staff writer
http://wvgazette.com/section/Today/200612125?pt=10
Federal authorities continued their investigation of a McDowell County pharmacist, obtaining a search warrant to stop him from sending a package overseas. Saad Kamil Deeb, who owns and operates Citizen’s Pharmacy in Welch, is accused by federal authorities of conspiracy to evade reporting about $1.7 million in income he received from allegedly operating a gambling parlor. Deeb allegedly made cash deposits of just under the reporting level of $10,000 at MCNB Bank & Trust in Welch.
An indictment released last month accused Deeb of making dozens of illegal cash deposits and withdrawals of less than $10,000 and noting he has allegedly sent some money overseas. Deeb is also charged with illegal gambling, conspiracy to illegally structure financial transactions and intent to distribute controlled substances.
Last week, FBI agents obtained a search warrant and intercepted a Federal Express overnight package being sent to a man in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Deeb employee. While the contents have not been disclosed, investigators believe the 2-pound, standard overnight package contained either documents or cash. FBI agent Michael A. Yansick wrote in his application and affidavit for a search warrant that the package was addressed to Tanos Ghanem and Deeb “has previously sent money to Tanos Ghanem.” “I have learned from other investigators that Saad Kamil Deeb has made numerous wire transfers of money to Tanos Ghanem in Beirut, Lebanon, within the past three years,” Yansick wrote.
The agent said a confidential informant told him the package had been sent Dec. 7. The name listed as the sender is an employee of Deeb’s Citizen’s Pharmacy, he wrote.The package was marked as containing documents, but Yansick wrote that a Federal Express employee told him if it contained documents “they had been folded.” Asked if the package could contain currency, Yansick wrote that the employee said, “if it did it was a brick of currency.”Deeb is accused of making dozens of illegal money transactions at MCNB Bank and Trust Co. in Welch, all in order to hide large amounts of cash from the Internal Revenue Service. The cash deposits and withdrawals were all for under $10,000, an amount that triggers a federal reporting requirement. Authorities have alleged Deeb’s illegal gambling business was operated from a rear room in the pharmacy in downtown Welch.
A recent trial in the death of the late McDowell County Dr. E.K. Whitley showed many prescriptions from his Iaeger clinic were called in to Deeb’s pharmacy in Welch, despite a drug store being located adjacent to Whitley’s clinic.
Authorities want to seize more than $1.7 million from Deeb they claim he used in the illegal transactions. They also want to seize real estate the pharmacist owns, along with a luxury car and several antique automobiles.
Federal agents also raided Deeb’s residence shortly after the early November indictment.
Deeb has hired Charleston attorneys Lonnie Simmons, Rudy DiTrapano and Tim DiPiero to represent him.
To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5192. http://wvgazette.com/section/Today/200612125?pt=10
U.N. probe IDs Hariri suspects
December 12, 2006 -UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has now identified suspects and witnesses and found possible links to 14 other murders or attempted murders in Lebanon in the last two years, the chief investigator said Tuesday. Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his investigation has reached "a critical stage." Investigators are looking at numerous motives including assassination by an extremist group because of Hariri's links to other states in the region and in the West, before his possible success in May 2005 elections, because of his likely expose of a bank fraud, and as "a convenient cover" to cast suspicion on others.
In Lebanon, U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Cabinet confirmed its approval of a U.N. plan for a tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's assassination and sent it to Parliament for final approval. But Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to resist calling a session because he has sided with pro-Syrian government critics who call the Cabinet's action illegitimate because Shiite members resigned.
The new report was issued amid street protests in Lebanon by pro-Syrian Hezbollah to back its demand for a unity government that could block the tribunal. In its fourth report to the U.N. Security Council, the International Independent Investigation Commission which Brammertz heads provided new evidence and tantalizing clues about the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on February 14, 2005.
Brammertz said his investigators have now identified a number of suspects and witnesses but agreed with Lebanon's prosecutor general that none of their names should be made public to avoid prejudicing any trial.
"The commission has reached a critical stage in its investigations, and with this in mind, the commission and the prosecutor general of Lebanon believe that placing information concerning witnesses and suspects in the public domain would be contrary to the principles of fairness and justice," Brammertz said.
He also revealed that the commission's work on 14 other cases of murder and attempted murder since October 2004 "continues to elicit significant links between each case, and to indicate links to the Rafik Hariri case."The U.N. team is also helping Lebanese authorities investigate the November 21 assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel -- an event that pushed lingering political tensions in the country to a new crisis point.
A report last year by Brammertz's predecessor implicated Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services and four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for 15 months accused of involvement in Hariri's murder.
Many in Lebanon blamed Syria for Hariri's death and massive street protests coupled with an international outcry in the wake of the killing forced Syria to end its 29-year domination of its smaller neighbor. Syria has denied involvement in the killing. The U.N. investigation has determined that a single blast from a Mitsubishi van packed with high explosives was likely detonated by a male suicide bomber who did not grow up in Lebanon but spent his final months there. Brammertz said they were still trying to pinpoint where the bomber came from and were analyzing 33 human parts believed to be the remains of the bomber to that end. The commission said the most likely scenario was that a bomber triggered the device that killed Hariri from inside or immediately in front of the van.
"The commission has received new information specifying details of the preparation of the van and establishment of the route of the van as it was brought to the St. Georges hotel area prior to the attack," the report said, referring to the hotel next to the bombing site.
The commission is also continuing to investigate "matters arising from a victim at the crime scene who had been discovered in a situation protected from the blast but who was killed by falling masonry," Brammertz said. The report did not identify that victim.
Brammertz said the commission is also investigating someone named Ahmed Abu Adass, who appeared on a video tape claiming responsibility. The investigation "has elicited some useful information" from individuals associated with him in Lebanon and abroad.
The commission has given few details on Adass' identity and a previous report from Brammertz in June said there was no evidence he was involved. But in Tuesday's report, he said investigators were focusing on how Adass was chosen "for the role he played" and his alleged involvement with unnamed individuals in late 2004 and early 2005. The investigators have discovered that a team of bombers used aliases and six cell phones to communicate on the day of the Hariri bombing and there were indications that they had significant knowledge about security measures.
"The location of the telephones when used, and the purposes for which some of the linking numbers were used have revealed the high degree of security-aware behavior exhibited by individuals under investigation," Brammertz said. He also said the commission is assuming the Hariri tribunal will be created. But he stressed that his investigation is taking place in a "volatile" and "highly unpredictable" political and security environment that could contribute to the reticence of witnesses.Brammertz said Syria's cooperation with his investigators "remains timely and efficient" though he criticized 10 other countries -- which he did not name -- for failing to respond to 22 requests from the commission.
Lebanese Cabinet Approves Tribunal Plan
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; 7:01 PM
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Cabinet reaffirmed Tuesday its approval of a U.N. plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of a former prime minister _ a fresh challenge to the Hezbollah-led, pro-Syrian opposition, which has been waging street protests to oust the U.S.-backed prime minister. The Cabinet move came as the Arab League chief began talks with Lebanese politicians in an attempt to defuse rising political and sectarian tensions that are threatening to tear the country apart.
Lebanese women supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora hold pictures of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri at the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006. Saniora's government pushed ahead Tuesday with a challenge to the Hezbollah-led opposition, which has been waging street protests to oust him, as the chief of the Arab League arrived to mediate. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar) (Ahmad Omar - AP)
Save & Share Article What's This? The suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri include several pro-Syrian Lebanese generals. The Cabinet had approved the tribunal draft plan on Nov. 25 and sent it to President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian, who did not approve the document.
Lahoud's rejection meant the Cabinet had to reaffirm its approval.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters after the brief Cabinet meeting that ministers also decided to refer the tribunal draft plan to the parliament, dominated by anti-Syrian lawmakers, for ratification.
Lebanon's political crisis began after Saniora rejected Hezbollah's demand for a national unity government that would give the guerrilla group and its allies veto power in the Cabinet. In response, six pro-Hezbollah ministers resigned from the Cabinet and the militant group has staged demonstrations in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 to pressure the prime minister into quitting.
Hezbollah vehemently opposes moving ahead with the tribunal, saying the government must first be reshuffled to give it and its allies veto power. Saniora says the Cabinet is still legally constituted and empowered to make decisions.
Lahoud refused to endorse the tribunal plan, maintaining the Cabinet was no longer legitimate because it had no Shiite representation. Constitutionally, all major sects must be represented in the government.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, is expected to resist convening a session to endorse the draft.
The Cabinet move coincided with the arrival of Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Beirut for another round of talks with the rival leaders. He met promptly with Berri before heading for talks with Saniora.
Moussa told reporters at the Beirut airport "there should always be hope" for solving the Lebanese crisis.
Despite the street protests, both sides have expressed willingness to talk to draw the country away from the sectarian tones of the division. Lebanon's Sunni Muslims largely support the Sunni prime minister, and Shiite Muslims back Hezbollah. Christians are split.
The visit by Moussa follows that of the envoy of Sudan, who currently holds the chair of the Arab Summit and is trying to mediate between the prime minister and the political leaders of the protesters camping in a city square near his office.
Hezbollah's support among Shiites surged after its fierce war with Israel over the summer and emboldened it to push for more political power.
But pro-government, anti-Syrian factions resent Hezbollah for sparking the war when it captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid and accuse the militant group's two main backers _ Syria and Iran _ of seeking to overthrow the government.
Saniora, who has received Western and Arab support, has repeatedly refused to resign. He has been living at his downtown offices for more than a week. The office is surrounded by riot police, troops in armored vehicles and barbed wire.=====================================================================================================
Interview With Secretary of State Condoleezza RiceRICE: U.S. Will Not Allow Syria To Reassert Authority over Lebanon & tribunal on Prime Minister Hariri's assassination "must go forward"
Interview With Sylvie Lanteaume and David Millikin of Agence France Presse
Washington, DC
December 11, 2006
QUESTION: Well, I'll begin very briefly on Baker-Hamilton since I think that's quite a topic of conversation. Has the possibility of opening unconditional direct talks with Syria and Iran, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton report and many others in the region and beyond, been definitively taken off the table as the Administration finalizes its Iraq policy review?
SECRETARY RICE: I think that we do not think this is an issue of whether you talk to Iran or Syria, but what you're likely to get. The fact of the matter is that Syria is engaged in a policy that is being demonstrated right now in the streets of Lebanon, where there is an attempt to bring down the Siniora government using or supporting extremist forces in Lebanon. There has been no cooperation with the international community's demand for an international tribunal, which is really what an awful lot of this is about. And Syria is engaged in policies that are if not 180 degrees, 170 degrees antithetical to the interests of mainstream forces in the Middle East. And we are not the only ones who recognize this. The French recognize this. Read what Jacques Chirac has said about talks with Syria. Look at the isolation that Syria is experiencing from moderate Arab states like Saudi Arabia and others.
So the Syrians, if they want to stabilize Iraq, if that is in Syria's interest to stabilize Iraq, and I assume that people -- that countries understand their interests. If it's in Syria's interest to stabilize Iraq, then they'll do it. If it's not in their interest to stabilize Iraq, then they won't or they're looking for compensation, and I do not want to get into a circumstance in which we're talking about compensation. And I just want to take one moment here to say something. Our friends in the Middle East, the struggling democratic forces like those of Prime Minister Siniora and the March 14th coalition in Lebanon, need to understand that we are fully and completely, along with the international community, in support of them and their goals and their legitimacy in Lebanon. And we understand what forces are trying to undo that, including Syria and Iran. And in no way is the United States going to get into a situation where it is even a conceivable notion on the part of Syria or Iran that the future of Lebanon would somehow be compromised for other interests of the United States. We're simply not going to get into that situation.
Now, as to Iran, we have said that we will change 27 years of American policy, and I've said to my Iranian counterpart through you and others, anyplace, anytime, anywhere, once they suspend their enrichment program. And about any subject. We didn't say you can only come and talk about the nuclear issue. The Iranians have not wanted to do that. Why? Because the Iranians are seeking nuclear technology that can lead to a nuclear weapon to strengthen their capacity to carry out a policy that supports extremist forces throughout the Middle East. And if there's any thought that the Iranians are going to talk about Iraq over here and stabilizing Iraq over here, and then the nuclear issue over here, I just don't see it. And again, so you have to ask what is the price and what is the compensation.
Now, in the context of Iraq's neighbors and the international community, if Syria and Iran come to the table responsibly, ready to support Iraqi efforts with their neighbors, we have no problem with that. And the Iraqis are carrying out their own diplomacy with their neighbors. And Iran and Syria are participants in the international compact. So there are plenty of opportunities for Iran and Syria to support a more stable future for Iraq. They don't need us to tell them how they might do that, and I would be concerned that the reason that they would want to have us to tell them that is because there would be some expectation of compensation, and compensation is clearly not on the table.
QUESTION: In Lebanon, Madame Secretary, a compromise seems to be taking shape with Arab League support and it would give Hezbollah and its allies a blocking minority in the government. Is it something that would be acceptable?
SECRETARY RICE: We are following the discussions. I talked with Amr Moussa when he was here. There has to be a Lebanese solution to this problem and I think we have to let the Lebanese deal with it. You know, Prime Minister Siniora is the elected leader of Lebanon and he should not be "brought down" by these forces that are trying to undo what is a democratic process. We would hope that the Lebanese would respond to the desire to find a compromise. But you know, the Hezbollah demonstrations that really, as Siniora called it, were really aimed at a kind of coup need to stop. But if the Lebanese can come to a resolution of this, then you know, obviously they can come to a resolution of it. I trust Prime Minister Siniora to do what's right for Lebanon.
QUESTION: And would -- the Hariri tribunal would be -- would it be a price acceptable
SECRETARY RICE: I'm sorry?
QUESTION: The existence of the Hariri tribunal.
SECRETARY RICE: The Hariri tribunal has got to go forward. First of all, it's under Security Council resolution. Secondly, it's a matter of justice. Third, it's a matter of showing that people who assassinate leaders can't do so with impunity. The Hariri tribunal has got to go forward and I've heard no one in the March 14th coalition suggest anything to the contrary.
QUESTION: On the Middle East, President Bush and Tony Blair both spoke last week about the need for a renewed push on the Israeli-Palestinian front. You've gone to the region seven times, I believe, as Secretary of State in the last two years, but the situation has deteriorated over that same period. What do you plan to do differently now to make -- to get this thing moving?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, let's look at this question of deterioration. But in order to do so, if you don't mind, I have to go back a little bit. And I'm going to confine this to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. I won't speak to the questions of the broader Middle East and the importance of democracy there, although it is extremely important.
But let's go back to 2001. This Administration came to power. The Camp David accords -- or the Camp David process had collapsed. The second intifada had been launched. Ariel Sharon had been elected. And we went through more than a year and a half of really unrelenting violence. You'll remember the Dolfinarium. You'll remember the Passover massacre and so on and so on. You remember the siege of the Muqataa. And we went through a period that was really a crisis period.
The President in the midst of all of that, at the beginning of all of that in 2001, declared that there would be a Palestinian state, that that was the goal of American policy. He even said it's going to be called Palestine. Now, lest we think that what now easily rolls off our tongues -- oh there should be a two-state solution, oh there should be a Palestinian state -- that that was kind of always the consensus, no American President had dared say it before President Bush said it.
And by 2003, not only did you have the President of the United States saying it, but you had the Likud Prime Minister himself, Ariel Sharon, talking about the need to share the land, and launching shortly after that a Gaza disengagement plan which, for the first time, actually took Israeli settlers out of land and returned land to the Palestinians.
You also had in that same period an election which brought Mahmoud Abbas to power, but shortly, not too long after that, an election that brought Hamas to power, then a period of time in which the international community united around a set of principles to say to the Palestinian Government, the Hamas government, you must recognize Israel's right to exist, you must renounce violence and et cetera. And the international community and Mahmoud Abbas came together around that set of principles.
So yes, there have been ups and downs. But if you look at where we were in 2001 and you look at where we are now, you have consensus on a Palestinian state, you have consensus that any Palestinian government must accept those principles even though Hamas has actually gone the electoral route, you have an Israeli leadership that has been willing to give up territory and actually dismantle settlements. And I think as a result of now a broad center around that set of principles, it is possible to make a push toward the creation of a Palestinian state. And that is what we will try to do.
But you know, we shouldn't just facilely throw away what's happened in the last four years because a great deal of it has moved us closer to the day when we can realize a Palestinian state, not further away from it.
QUESTION: Well, if I can just carry that forward a bit, I mean, President Abbas has been given the green light by his movement to --
SECRETARY RICE: Can I just say one other thing?
QUESTION: Sure.
SECRETARY RICE: How long have American Secretaries of State been shuttling back and forth trying to get a Palestinian state? Has it ever worked? You have to ask: Are the fundamentals better now than they were at a time, another time in history? I think the fundamentals are now better and I think we've got a better chance because certain fundamentals are in place.
QUESTION: Okay, just to follow up, that he's been given the green light to call early elections. Now, are you -- if that goes ahead, are you willing to accept whatever the result is of those elections?
SECRETARY RICE: We always are going to accept democratic results of democratic elections.
QUESTION: Are you confident this time you'd have a different outcome?
SECRETARY RICE: I've talked to President Abbas several times. I know that he and his advisors and others in the Palestinian political class are trying to find an answer to the political crisis that attends Hamas's unwillingness to govern from a position that is internationally acceptable. That's what they're trying to resolve. I think they have not fully settled on a course yet of how they might do that. But we obviously want to support the moderate Palestinians who are represented by Mahmoud Abbas, those that are committed to the internationally accepted principles. And once they come to a way to resolve the crisis, I am sure we'll be there to support them.
QUESTION: If we can speak about the Iran nuclear program. Is the latest European draft submitted today at the UN acceptable to you?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, it is.
QUESTION: It is? Nothing is missing? You --
SECRETARY RICE: It's not the draft that we would have drafted. That's called negotiation and diplomacy. But it's a good resolution. It's a first-step resolution. It establishes Chapter 7, which to my mind is the most important element here. It would make very clear to the Iranians that they are not going to be able to pursue this program and remain integrated into the international system, and I would hope would give them pause so that they might consider coming back to negotiations.
QUESTION: So you are still optimistic a sanction resolution can be voted before Christmas?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, I am optimistic. I don't -- I think it has to be voted soon. I think this has gone on long enough.
QUESTION: The negotiations have been dragging on for a month about this resolution and during this time Iran has continued to develop its capabilities. So when do you think they will pass the point of no return?
SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I don't think it ever passes the point of no return. I don't think we're at the point of no return with the North Koreans, and they've tested. I don't think you ever pass the point of no return. I think at any time reasonable people in a government can decide that they've gone down the wrong course and should change course. But I do think that it's time to pass the resolution and to make clear to the Iranians that we can, in fact, do that path or take that path and still leave the other path open to them. But it needs to happen soon. It has been long enough.
To be fair, the resolution said August 31st, but then we wanted to give the Solana efforts a little bit longer. There was also the matter of the North Korean circumstances that kind of intervened for a bit and took attention, I think, toward the North Korean issue. But the time has come.
QUESTION: Just to turn to the North Korean issue, the six-party talks are due to resume a week from today. What will the U.S. be bringing to the table that you believe will help convince North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons this time around?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have -- what we're bringing to the table is the agreed statement of September 25th -- sorry, September 19th, 2005, which makes very clear to the North Koreans that if they denuclearize and support a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, there are a whole -- that their integration into the international community could be begin, including economic assistance and energy assistance and ultimately political relations. It's all laid out in the joint statement.
Now, as to the specifics of how that might go, I think that everybody is looking in the next round or so for the North Koreans to do something that demonstrates that they are, in fact, committed to denuclearization. And we are certainly committed to living up to the terms of the joint statement if they're committed to living up to the terms of the joint statement. So that's the starting point for negotiations and we'll see. But I'm delighted the talks are going to start again. They have to start to show results pretty soon.
QUESTION: Would you like to see that denuclearization achieved during the life of this Administration?
SECRETARY RICE: Certainly.
QUESTION: Is that a timetable you're taking to the --
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's the only timetable I've got because, you know, I'll be long gone in two years. So of course that's my timetable.
Look, I think that this could be achieved in a reasonable period of time. I don't mean the technical elements of denuclearization. It takes a long time, as we're seeing with the dismantling of nuclear infrastructure and weapons in the former Soviet Union. It takes a long time to bring down a nuclear program and to really dismantle a nuclear program. But it shouldn't take very long to take some steps that would clearly be irreversible in terms of denuclearization and we've been very clear that we think at stake is more than just the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but the future of the Korean Peninsula as well as security relations in the region as a whole.
What the North Koreans did do in testing was they got everybody else much closer together. And in addition to the joint statement, we, of course, also go to the table with Resolution 1718, which puts North Korea under pretty stiff sanctions for the first time even though its program has been going on for decades.
QUESTION: In Russia, Madame Secretary, your predilection country, there is mounting evidence that the polonium used to kill the former spy Litvinenko came from Russia. So has this incident, coming after a number of other political motivated murders, heightened your concerns about democracy in this country?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've been very clear to the Russian Government that all of these issues need to be investigated and investigated thoroughly. Our principal role in this latest Litvinenko situation is to try to be supportive of the British Government in any way that we can. I think this is -- principally, the British and the Russians are working on this issue. But you know, it's an investigation; I shouldn't get into anything about it except to say that everybody ought to try and get to the bottom of it because it has dimensions that are quite troubling, given that, you know, there are traces of it showing up in lots of different places. There are lots of dimensions that are just troubling. So our principal role is just to try and help if we're asked and to be very clear that we think total cooperation on this is necessary.
QUESTION: But other -- the fact that all of the traces go to Russia, is it concerning?
SECRETARY RICE: I just -- well, I think it's concerning, period. I mean, when somebody is poisoned with polonium and it starts to show up in lots of places, I think that's concerning. That has to be concerning to everybody; to the police, to law enforcement officials, to political officials. But I -- you know, I don't have any comment on what the investigation is finding.
QUESTION: Turning to Sudan, President Bush once said that following the genocide in Rwanda that it would never happen again on his watch. And yet, the violence in Darfur is soon going to be entering -- it's almost four years long at this point. And still, the Sudan Government is not agreeing to the terms -- the international terms for deployment of a peacekeeping force. Now, do you still feel that -- Andrew Natsios has set kind of a year-end deadline for approval of that. Do you think and feel that that still is a deadline and is there a plan B?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, Andrew is out there now and very good work has been done by Kofi Annan and by, really, all of the interested parties: the AU, the Arab League, the Egyptians, the European Union. Everybody is focused and centered around this compromise proposal. And I think the issue is: Is the Sudanese Government willing to take this lifeline that people are trying to give them? Because if there is widespread humanitarian suffering in this region as a result of their unwillingness to take the help of the international community, they're going to be held accountable.
And so this is the time to accept the help of the international community and that's the point that we are making to them. You know, we retain other resolutions in the Security Council, including ones about designations for sanctions and the like that can always be employed, but I think we would like for now to try and see if we can't bring through the fact that everybody is united around this proposal the Sudanese Government to accept this help that the international community is willing to give.
QUESTION: Is action on possible crimes against humanity one of the options?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, that's always an option. I think at this point, the best option would be for Sudan to accept the help that is being offered it.
QUESTION: December 31st, for you, remains an important --
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think Andrew was just making a point that there are -- there have to be deepening concerns about the humanitarian situation as we hear from the UN and from others. And so this can't go on forever, but I wouldn't say that, you know, on January 1st, everything changes, no.
QUESTION: Maybe just a quick one on -- Kofi Annan gave a long-awaited speech today towards the end of his time as Secretary General of the United Nations and it was quite critical of U.S. foreign policy, parts of U.S. foreign policy. What's your assessment of his period as head of the United Nations?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me just say about the speech, I mean, it's a real missed opportunity, because I would have hoped that it would have talked about some of the things that I remember about the work that we've done together with the Secretary General: Standing in the Rose Garden for the launch of the Global Fund for AIDS, which has been a dramatic success for people suffering with AIDS; the Democracy Fund, which is supporting democracy projects around the world; the very good work we've just been talking about about Sudan, which actually brings the world together; the end to the war in Lebanon, where really, frankly, it was the United States -- that ceasefire would not have happened without the United States.
I can go on and on about the positive things that we have achieved in this period of time. And so I'm sorry that those were not the focus of the speech. You know, U.S. support for the United Nations through thick and thin, through budget issues and new building issues and Oil-for-Food scandals; the United States has always been there for the United Nations. So it's unfortunate, but those are the things that I'll always remember about this period.
QUESTION: If we can go back to Lebanon, you said at the beginning that you won't do anything that could harm the future of Lebanon in exchange of anything --
SECRETARY RICE: I want it to be very clear that the future of Lebanon is not an issue for negotiation with anybody.
QUESTION: So who is asking you to negotiate anything?
SECRETARY RICE: I just -- I think it's just extremely important that that be very clear. And we understand who Lebanon's enemies are and those who are trying to bring down the Siniora government. And Lebanon -- we are committed to standing by those Lebanese democrats who have risked everything in favor of Lebanese democracy and who have faced assassinations -- some successful, some that were close to succeeding -- and who stood in the streets of Lebanon to get Syrian forces out. And there is no way that the United States or the international community could ever countenance a reassertion of Syrian authority in Lebanon.
QUESTION: And what do you answer to critics who say that U.S. contributed to the extreme weakness of the Siniora government today because they didn't seek for a ceasefire soon enough during the war last summer?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, this has been a difficult political environment in Lebanon well before the war. I think we forget the resignations of the ministers and the fact that 1559 largely came to a halt. Prior to the war, I accept responsibility for the fact that I think the international community lost focus on 1559. I really do. I think we lost focus. And that didn't help matters, but Lebanon is an extremely complex political environment.
Now, after the war, yes, there were some terrible things that happened in the war that undoubtedly made it difficult for democratic forces. But it is also, after the war, the case that the Lebanese army is, for the first time, in control of its entire territory -- for decades. The Lebanese army is in control of its territory. There is an international force in Lebanon that is helping the Lebanese forces to extend the authority of the Lebanese Government. There is about to be a major reconstruction conference for the Lebanese in Europe shortly after the first of the year to put billions of dollars into the reconstruction of Lebanon on top of the billions of dollars that were put in for immediate relief of Lebanon.
And the Lebanese Government has in Fuad Siniora a strong, dignified spokesman for Lebanese democracy. Now, if I contrast that with 1996 when my predecessor, Warren Christopher, managed to get a ceasefire, he did it between Hezbollah and Syria. Think of that. There is actually a Siniora government in Lebanon with which we're dealing.
See, I mean, part of the problem is that we lose perspective on the broad changes that are going on in the Middle East and how much ground has shifted and how, when changes of this kind start, they are going to -- they are turbulent.
Every day, as I watch what's going on in Lebanon, I'm pulled back in my own mind to the terrible suffering of Lebanese civilians and Israelis during that war. I wish we could have done more so that innocent civilians didn't suffer. But I also recognize that the cause of that was Hezbollah acting like a government within a government, not even telling the Siniora government that it was about to launch an attack across an international line and plunge the entire country into war.
So I think we have to recognize where the fault lies, but it doesn't make any easier the fact that I think frequently about what the Lebanese suffered in that war.
QUESTION: Thank you. David, do you want the last question?
QUESTION: You go ahead.
QUESTION: Okay. Madame Secretary, you said that thousand of mistakes were made in Iraq. What is your biggest personal regret?
SECRETARY RICE: I think I said thousands and thousands. (Laughter.) Look, Sylvie, I think I've said several times I'm enough of an historian to know that the -- history will judge what turned out to be mistakes and what turned out to be right policies. I'm sure that there are many, many, many things that we could have done differently, maybe should have done differently, perhaps didn't foresee; absolutely. It's a huge historical undertaking and that's going to be the case.
Have we made adjustments? Yes. I'll tell you an adjustment that we've made. You know, we started out with a reconstruction program that was probably too centralized and probably too big and maybe focused on -- you know, with large contracts to do things because we really wanted to make an impact on -- you know, the fact that the electrical grid was in the, you know, in the 30s from the Iraqis and that, you know, you wanted to be able to deliver water. And we did a lot of that. But we found that by now having these provincial reconstruction teams, we can actually deliver infrastructure projects in a much more effective and efficient way at the local level than we were ever able to do at the national level. We found that smaller amounts of money to a commander and a provincial reconstruction leader, with the input of a provincial council, can fix a problem right there on the spot.
So yeah, there are important adjustments like that that we have had to make. But I absolutely don't -- it's not that I just don't regret having participated in the liberation of Iraq or the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, but I'm very proud that this country finally helped to liberate 25 million Iraqis from a tyrant who had put 300,000 of them in mass graves, who had used weapons of mass destruction against Iranians and against Kurds and against Shia, who was still fighting us day in and day out with no-fly zones, who had caused two wars in his region.
Yeah, the aftermath and the reconstruction and the fighting, and particularly the sectarian violence, is very bad and it's very hard to take; and if you are at all responsible for the decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein, you feel a personal responsibility for what's going on there every day, a personal responsibility for it. But you also feel a personal responsibility to support and be committed to these people who are struggling out of the ashes of that tyranny to build something new and different in the entire Middle East.
And so I think that, you know, Iraqis have got to take responsibility for their future, but they sure deserve to have committed friends who understand the challenge of what they're doing. And I feel an equal responsibility to do that.
QUESTION: Thank you, Madame Secretary.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
2006/1105
Released on December 12, 2006
The World Council of the Cedars Revolution
Representing the hopes and aspirations of many millions of Lebanese throughout the Diaspora
www.cedarsrevolution.org
cedarsrevolution@gmail.com
Tuesday 12th December 2006
Washington Bureau
Media Release
General Michel Aoun MP
- We Trusted You and You Sold Us Out
- We Respected You and You Trampled Upon Our Respect
- We Worked With You and You Betrayed Our Efforts
For the duration of your fifteen years of exile in Paris, you spoke and seemed to convince the Lebanese Diaspora that you were the champion of the cause for the restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and democratic freedoms. Your supporters who were dispersed around the world, also in exile, proudly projected your loyal and nationalistic qualities. We were all skeptical nevertheless, we knew that we needed to begin the unifying process somewhere, so we took the chance on working with a group of people who supported a General, Commander of the armed forces of Lebanon, a man who was installed as temporary Prime Minister until a legitimate Presidential election was effected and a new government sworn in.
At that time, your loyalty to the people of Lebanon and your military background and training forced you into an almost fatal position which resulted in your exile. Your enemies at that time were the Syrians and their terrorist allies. Many people in Lebanon and the Diaspora admired your stand and commitment to your responsibilities. We admired even further that you were prepared to gather your forces in Lebanon and the Diaspora and work towards restoration of all that was dignified, great and honorable in Lebanon. Perhaps that was the only way in which you could maintain an effective role in the political arena in Lebanon.
You needed the support of the Lebanese Diaspora and we all worked with you, from all political, cultural and community organizations, we worked with you and with other political leaders who showed outstanding leadership in the unifying efforts to produce a combined and powerful movement which would ultimately move the people of Lebanon in numbers exceeding one and a quarter million people onto liberty square and drive the Syrians out of Lebanon in that famous and unforgettable operation known as the Cedars Revolution.
Despite the fact that you had not yet returned to Lebanon, you were one of the leaders of the Cedars Revolution. Your Free Patriotic Movement was there in force. Your participation was unquestionable and your anticipated return to Lebanon was anxiously awaited. Equally anticipated was the imminent release from prison, of the Leader of the Lebanese Forces Dr Samir Geagea.
Together with the return from self exile of the former President and leader of the Lebanese Katateb Amine Gemayel and the active presence of the Leader of the National Liberal party of Lebanon Mr Dory Chamoun, there seemed to be a wave of positive expectation by the people who had been oppressed for approximately thirty years by the Syrians and their terrorist allies.
The people of Lebanon welcomed you in glory with open arms and open hearts and paved the way for you to reach the pinnacle of your clearly stated objectives, but you misunderstood their welcome and their hunger for your presence and you have turned your back on them. That, they will not forgive.
The people of Lebanon placed their trust in you. They elected you and your team comfortably so that you can represent their dreams and motivations for the rebuilding of Lebanon and an honorable and dignified life for themselves and their families, but you have turned your back on them; and that, they will not forgive.
The people of Lebanon were prepared to work with you in the redevelopment of our nation, but you turned your back on them; and that they will not forgive.
Dear General, great leaders serve their constituents and not their enemies. Great leaders communicate with their constituents and not go off on a tangent without the knowledge and support of their public.
You were welcomed, embraced and elected to parliament because of your participation in the original movement of the Cedars Revolution, but you have turned your back on the Cedars Revolution and aligned yourself with the axis of terrorism in Iran-Syria-Hezbollah and their terrorist allies.
Your coup de etat is in alliance with the very enemies who drove you out of Lebanon and against whom you fought for over seventeen years.
You are now being used by the terrorists to destroy the Cedars Revolution and the democratic freedoms it represents to the people of Lebanon.
Your operatives are roaming throughout the world in collaboration with Hezbollah in an attempt to generate pressure and bring about the fall of a democratically elected government in Lebanon.
You are losing your intellectual support by the hundreds. You are losing your political support by the thousands. By what authority do you take to the podium and pontificate honor and respectability to the great people of Lebanon who have demonstrated their greatness by their ability to withstand all the pressures of terrorist activities, assassinations of their elected officials and the continuous attempts to destroy their unquestionable right to a quality life as free people.
General Michel Aoun MP, are you not guilty of political corruption and manipulation against the very people who elected you? Your alliance with Hezbollah, an acknowledged terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, renders you vulnerable to the same classification. For affiliation with terrorists attracts the same classification. That puts you in direct opposition to the people who elected you. You should resign your position in parliament, for you may be deemed to be there under false pretences.
Before you drown yourself in the quagmire of terrorists, the door is still jarred open for you to return to the fold and take your position among the greats of the Cedars Revolution and protect the sovereignty, independence and democratic freedoms of the great people of Lebanon.
For the World Council of the Cedars Revolution
Joseph P Baini
President
For media release:
This letter was sent to the president of UNSCR today.
THE INTERNATIONAL LEBANESE COMMITTEE FOR UNSCR 1559
www.cedarsrevolution.org
SG1559@UN1559.org
For Media Release
13th December , 2006
Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser
President UN Security Council
Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations
809 United Nations Plaza, 4th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10017
RE: Mediation of Arab League Delegate Mustafa Uthman Ismael in Crisis in Lebanon not welcomed.
Dear Ambassador Al-Nasser,
The International Lebanese Committee for UNSCR 1559 rejects the mediation of Mustafa Othman Ismael of Sudan in the current crisis in Lebanon. Mr. Ismael is the emissary of the genocidal President of Sudan, Omar Bashir. Sudan is responsible for the deaths of over one million South Sudanese and Darfurians and is presently, at best, thwarting the efforts of the United Nations aimed at resolving the present crisis in Darfur. Replace the Janjaweed in Darfur, with the terrorist regimes of Iran and Syria and their proxy militia, Hezbollah and the similarities become quite clear. Under the auspices of Mr. Ismael, events in Lebanon could turn out as disastrous as events in Sudan.
The Sudanese regime of Omar Bashir, with its horrendous records of human rights abuses, is only doing the bidding of its fellow Arab League member state, Syria and is allied with Iran and Hezbollah in their plans to overtake the democratically elected government of Lebanon. Mr. Ishmael is not welcome in Lebanon. Let him go back to his own country and stop the genocide in Darfur.
However, we welcome any Arab leagues initiative as long as they are part of UNSC and for full implementations of UNSC Resolutions 1559 & 1701
Sincerely yours,
SG for ILC UNSCR 1559