LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
DECEMBER 30/2006
Bible Reading of
the day
Holy
Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2,22-35.
When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of
Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is
written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be
consecrated to the Lord," and to offer the sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves
or two young pigeons," in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous
and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon
him. It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death
before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the
temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of
the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for
my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the
peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people
Israel." The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is
destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be
contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed."
Free Opinions
Beirut paralysis-By:
Lucy Fielding - Al Ahram 30/12/06
Latest news from Miscellaneous sources for December
30/06
Jumblatt remarks spark anger - reconciliation at risk-Monsters
and Critics.com
Jumblat: Hizbullah Involved with Syrian Regime in 'Some Assassinations-Naharnet
Assad Asked U.S. Senator to Convey Peace
Call to Israel-Naharnet
Iraq on alert as Saddam Hanging Could Happen Saturday-Naharnet
Iranians Held by U.S. Forces in Iraq Released-Naharnet
The year that was in the Middle East-ABC
Online
Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets at ...Kuwait
News Agency
Claim: Iran, Hezbollah pay for attacks-United
Press International
Hezbollah after the skins of sacrificed animals-Sabah
- Turkey
Hamadeh to sue Hezbollah for 'Inciting' his Assassination-Ya
Libnan
Hezbollah Plots Ambitious Overhaul of Shiite Slums-New
York Sun
Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths-San
Jose Mercury News
Holiday
decorations barely conceal political crisis in Beirut-International
Herald Tribune
Risks and perils loom large-Gulf News
Govt seeks Lebanon's cooperation on child protection-ABC
Online
Review of the year: The Middle East-Independent
An eyewitness view of the new world war-Sydney
Morning Herald
Saddam may be hanged within hours, Iraqi officials say-
AP
In the name of their children-Sydney Morning Herald
Israeli probe raps army's handling of Lebanon war-Reuters
Two peacekeepers hurt by cluster bomb in Lebanon-Jerusalem
Post
Lebanon Leaps into the 'Known'-Naharnet
Jumblat: Hizbullah Involved
with Syrian Regime in 'Some Assassinations'
Druze leader Walid Jumblat has accused for the first time
publicly Hizbullah of involvement together with the Syrian regime in "some
assassinations if not say all."
In an interview with the Al Arabiya television network Thursday evening, Jumblat
said the question of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian Lebanese figures
became intolerable the day MP-journalist Gebran Tueini was murdered in a massive
car bomb December 12, 2005. "I said enough," added Jumblat, a legislator and a
key figure in the anti-Syrian majority coalition. "There is a political,
security and intelligence linkage (between Hizbullah and the Syrian regime)."
"The tools, operations and results are all the same," Jumblat said. "Ever since
that time I have been accusing them somewhere of standing behind some
assassinations if not say all."Jumblat wondered "why was it then that Hizbullah
quit the government on 12/12/2006, tugging behind (Parliament Speaker) Nabih
Berri?" The leading daily An Nahar said Jumblat's allegation was an
unprecedented move since the beginning of the October 2004 killings and car
bombing attacks in Lebanon. His charges came a day after Communications Minister
Marwan Hamadeh has vowed to sue Hizbullah and its television mouthpiece, Al-Manar,
on charges of "inciting" his assassination. Hamadeh, who was seriously wounded
in a booby-trapped car explosion on Oct. 1, 2004, said Wednesday evening that
Hizbullah also "covered up" the attempt on his life. Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 09:22
Hamadeh to sue Hezbollah for 'Inciting' his
Assassination
Thursday, 28 December, 2006 @ 5:03 PM
Beirut- Lebanon's Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, a key member in the
anti-Syrian majority coalition, has vowed to sue Hezbollah and its television
mouthpiece, Al-Manar, on charges of "inciting" his assassination. Hamadeh, who
was seriously wounded in a booby-trapped car explosion on Oct. 1, 2004, said
Wednesday evening that Hezbollah also "covered up" the attempt on his life. He
said Al-Manar's news broadcast on Wednesday evening targeted him with
"allegations and false charges that had been repeatedly spread by Syrian
intelligence for months."
Based on that, Hamadeh announced, "I will sue Hezbollah on charges of inciting
my assassination and attempting to terrorize me politically and
psychologically."
He also said Hezbollah had "covered up those who tried to assassinate me in
October 2004. The car which targeted me was booby trapped in an area controlled
by Hezbollah and its license plate was forged at a workshop in the same area."
Al-Manar's report claimed Hamadeh had "revealed" to U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey
Feltman the hideout of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the
34-day war between the Shiite group and Israel last summer.
The war started on July 12 after Hezbollah operatives kidnapped two Israeli
soldiers from north Israel. The Jewish state threatened to retaliate by
assassinating Nasrallah. Hamadeh said he would respond to Al-Manar's allegations
through "the judiciary … I will deliver a recorded video copy of Al-Manar's
report to the international investigation committee" which is probing the 2005
assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.
Hamadeh's statement was seen as a challenge to Hezbollah's reported rejection of
the Special International Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the Hariri
murder. Hamadeh, Defense Minister Elias Murr and TV anchorwoman May
Chidiac suffered serious wounds in separate attempts on their lives by
booby-trapped car blasts that are believed to be related to the Hariri
assassination. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, MP-Journalist Gebran Tueni,
former Lebanese Communist Party Leader George Hawi and journalist Samir Kassir
have all been killed in separate attacks that are believed to be linked to the
wave of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian figures. Hezbollah, which has been
leading an open-ended protest to topple Premier Fouad Siniora's majority
government since Dec.1, reportedly wants the international tribunal's bylaws
amended to limit its powers to the Hariri assassination, without having the
authority to look into the other crimes.
Source: Naharnet, LBC, Ya Libnan
Beirut paralysis
By: Lucy Fielding
Al Ahram 29/12/06
Israel lost its war of aggression on Lebanon, but repercussions
continued as voices were raised, calling for a change of government in Beirut.
Lucy Fielding guages the year's events
In July, Lebanon was once again ablaze with war, in which Israeli brutality
left the country in shambles. Before the year's end, people took to the streets
amid fears of a renewed civil war that could destroy the country's delicate
sectarian balance. It would take some time, and a miracle, for Lebanon to regain
its cheerful façade
Lebanon reaped the consequences of its inherent contradictions in 2006. The
fragile balance established to end the civil war was only ever meant to be
temporary. Sixteen years later, the spoil-sharing system kept various sects
engaged in politics, but had done little to ease sectarian divisions or the gap
between rich and poor. A resistance movement existed in parallel to the Lebanese
army, but the state was ambivalent about its role in the Arab- Israeli conflict.
Paralysis and polarisation reigned. And then came the war.
On the night of 13 July, Israel's pounding of the southern suburbs shook
Beirutis from their sleep and brought the simmering conflict in South Lebanon to
the fore. By then, Israeli jets had pounded the border area for two days
following Hizbullah's seizure of two soldiers and killing of eight in a
cross-border raid aimed at bringing about a prisoner exchange. Many analysts say
the raid was timed to also divert international attention from Iran's nuclear
programme.
Instead of limited anticipated border skirmishes, Israel launched an all-out war
to destroy Hizbullah, killing 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. The
destruction was unprecedented in scale, including 130,000 housing units, most in
the south, schools, hospitals, factories, hundreds of bridges and roads. In the
last three days of the war, according to the UN, Israel showered the south with
cluster bombs, leaving more than a million "duds" that have killed and injured
scores of people since. Nearly a million people were driven from their homes;
many found nothing to return to when the UN- brokered cessation of hostilities
came into effect 34 days later. Questions about Lebanon's regional role and
alignments and how the tiny state of four million should defend itself could no
longer be ignored.
Neither side won a decisive victory, though both claimed one. Hizbullah defied
expectations by inflicting heavy losses on Israel's army and preventing the
Jewish state from achieving its aims -- to destroy Hizbullah's fighting capacity
and rescue those taken prisoner. It also brought the war home to Israelis,
firing thousands of rockets over the border.
But despite garnering unprecedented respect across the Arab world -- including
cult status for Secretary- General Hassan Nasrallah -- Hizbullah was cornered at
home. Lebanon's army spread to the far south following the ceasefire agreement
for the first time; a step Hizbullah ostensibly welcomed, but which limited its
scope for open manoeuvre along the border. Meanwhile, UNIFIL's border force was
expanded. Although Hizbullah says it has rearmed and has more rockets now than
it did before 12 July, there is little appetite among the devastated Shia
community, let alone Lebanon as a whole, for more confrontation. For now,
Hizbullah is focusing on rebuilding and gaining the political representation it
sees as commensurate with its successes.
Washington's refusal to pressure Israel into a ceasefire left its ally Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora in an awkward position, to say the least. Siniora put
forward a seven-point plan to end the war, parts of which were eventually
incorporated into UN Security Council Resolution 1701. But the damage was done.
As 2006 came to an end, Hizbullah and Michel Aoun's opposition stepped up
accusations that the government collaborated in a war on its own people, hoping
Israel would solve the problem of "Hizbullah's arms". Because of perceptions
concerning the US's hand in the war, Hizbullah sees its campaign against the
government as a battle against hegemonic US plans for a "new Middle East".
Resolution 1701 called for all weapons to be in the hands of the state but did
not stipulate how this should be done. Instead, Hizbullah and the army tacitly
agreed to leave the weapons and underground tunnels intact for as long as they
remain hidden. Hizbullah's claim of a "strategic victory" reinforced its will to
keep its arms; Israel's aggression was cited as further justification.
The resignation of Hizbullah's two cabinet ministers, three allies from the Shia
Amal Party and one allied to the president in November 2006, as well as a
walk-out at the start of the year, showed the fragility of Lebanon's consensual
system. While Saad Al-Hariri, son of Rafik, and the 14 March bloc based their
legitimacy on commanding a parliamentary majority won in the 2005 elections,
Hizbullah and Shia ally Amal cited the constitutional need for consensus and
sectarian representation.
Disputes over an international court to try suspects in Rafik Hariri's killing
cropped up at several key junctures. In late 2005, Lebanon's government made a
formal request to the UN for a tribunal. Five Shia ministers walked out. They
said they had not been consulted on the decision; the anti-Syrians led by Hariri
said Syria was trying to block the court. A year later, when consultations broke
down over a national unity government and ministers resigned in the run-up to a
major opposition push to bring down the government, 14 March again said the aim
was to block the court. Controversially -- some said illegitimately -- it rushed
through a vote on a UN draft plan to form the court. Pro-Syrian President Emile
Lahoud refused to sign it and the dispute continues.
Earlier in the year, Hizbullah and its allies approved the court in principle in
a "national dialogue" of leaders. Amal leader and parliament speaker Nabih Berri
convened the talks in March to tackle issues that had polarised Lebanon since
Al-Hariri's death. The talks were widely hailed as the first time Lebanon's
major leaders had gotten together; some had not met since the civil war. Early
agreements were reached on disarming Palestinian groups outside Palestinian
camps, the need to establish diplomatic relations with Syria and the Lebanese
identity of the Israeli- occupied Shebaa Farms area, which the UN rules as being
Syrian, but Syria and Lebanon say are Lebanese.
The dialogue stalled in June, however, without agreement on elections to replace
Lahoud , seen as illegitimate by the anti-Syrian camp since his term was
extended under Syrian pressure in 2004. The president has defied expectations
that he would have to leave office early and may even sit it out until the end
of his term in late 2007. On another front, despite talk of a national "defence
strategy" that might involve bringing Hizbullah's fighters under the nominal
command of the Lebanese army, Hizbullah's arms survived to fight another day.
If the 14 March anti-Syrian movement had hoped that Syria's withdrawal in 2005
would weaken and isolate Hizbullah, 2006 was the year the group jumped to the
fore. Help came from an unlikely quarter. In February, Hizbullah signed a
"Memorandum of Understanding" with former General Michel Aoun, once Syria's most
vocal critics and Lebanon's most popular Christian leader. It was a savvy move
that pulled the rug out from under the 14 March bloc, giving presidential
hopeful Aoun a more decisive role. It also, many argued after this summer's
cataclysm, prevented a descent into civil war.
The war exposed Lebanon's rifts. As the opposition accused the government of
corruption and collaboration, the pro-government camp accused Hizbullah of
dragging their country into a ruinous war at the bidding of Iran and their
archenemy Syria. The assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, grandson
of the founder of the far-right Christian Phalange Party, accentuated these
splits. The 14 March bloc immediately accused Syria while others said Damascus
had little to gain in a killing that wrong-footed its allies in Lebanon.
An opposition campaign of street demonstrations was delayed as a result, but
when it started, it was huge. Initially calling for a blocking third in the
government, and therefore a veto on its decisions, the opposition upped its
demands in December to new parliamentary elections. The Hizbullah- Aoun axis
also wants a new electoral law that would be less sectarian and, therefore, the
theory goes, favour the true majority on the ground that it says it commands.
The year ended with the now familiar sight of flag- waving protesters thronging
Beirut's central squares while Siniora and his ministers were holed up in the
Grand Serail government building round the clock. The dispute has taken on
worrying Sunni-Shia trappings, with the government praying behind Sunni clerics
in the government building, and the killing of a Shia protester in a Sunni area.
Desperately needed political and economic reform remains distant. Deadlock,
polarisation and stagnation may be Lebanon's headlines for 2007, too, if the
government and opposition cannot meet halfway. A new electoral law, analysts
say, would be a first step towards abolishing a troubled sectarian political
system. Regional efforts to end the crisis stepped up at the end of the year,
with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa shuttling to and from Lebanon to
meet leaders on both sides. Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- which backs
the Siniora government -- appeared to be in the offing.
Lebanon's battles always have a strong parochial element, but the country
undeniably took on its familiar role of a theatre for proxy wars this year.
Major regional movements in 2007 will have a knock-on effect in Lebanon -- in
particular any push for peace in Israel-Palestine, US pressure on Israel to
respond to Syrian calls for renewed talks on the Golan, or warmer Western
relations with Iran. A Democratic Party victory in November's US mid-term
elections was seen as a bloody nose to President Bush over his foreign policy
and the Baker-Hamilton Commission prescribed dialogue with Iran and Syria to
extricate Washington from the mess in Iraq. Whether Lebanon continues to
suffocate or starts to deal with embedded and difficult issues will in part rest
on a changing regional and international context.
Assad Asked U.S. Senator to Convey Peace Call to Israel
Syrian President Bashar Assad is "very interested" in peace talks with Israel,
according to a message given to a U.S. senator who visited Damascus last week,
Israeli television has reported. Channel 10 quoted Republican Senator
Arlen Specter as saying that Assad asked him "to convey a message that Syria is
very interested in peace negotiations with Israel" to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Specter, who met with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, held talks with Olmert on
Thursday, his office said. Olmert on Monday called on Assad to stop talking and
"do something towards a peace process", saying Syria should stop backing
Palestinian militant groups and Hizbullah in Lebanon as a precondition for peace
talks. Syria has repeatedly said in recent months that it is ready to strike a
peace agreement with the Jewish state in exchange for the strategic Golan
Heights plateau, which Israel captured in 1967 and where 15,000 Israelis now
live.
Peace talks between the two countries collapsed in 2000. Four American
senators have visited Assad in December after the U.S. bipartisan Iraq Study
Group suggested talking with Syria might achieve better results for U.S. forces
in Iraq than the current policy of isolation. The administration of U.S.
President George Bush has been outspoken in opposing greater outreach to
Damascus, which it accuses of letting extremists into Iraq and undermining what
it calls Lebanon's fragile democracy.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 13:46
Iraq on alert as Saddam Hanging Could Happen Saturday
Iraq is nervously awaiting the execution of Saddam Hussein, which
the White House thinks could happen as early as Saturday, amid fears it could
trigger yet more violence in the blood-soaked country. The head of Iraq's
interior ministry command center, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, said the
country's beleaguered security forces would be on high alert for a hanging
expected to exacerbate sky-high sectarian tensions. "Certainly, this is a big
event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer," he said. "We
will take measures proportionate to this event. We will put all our forces on
the streets so that no lives are jeopardized."
On November 5, when Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity and
sentenced to death, protests erupted in some parts of Iraq and authorities
declared a three-day curfew to head off attacks by Sunni insurgents. Khalaf said
that such a measure would be decreed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but that
his forces stood ready to act once informed of the date of the execution, which
has yet to be confirmed.
On December 26, a panel of appeals court judges confirmed Saddam's sentence and
ordered that he and two former aides be hanged within 30 days.
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie refused Friday to put a date
on the execution, but told Agence France-Presse that the hanging would be
announced in advance and not carried out in secret as some have speculated.
Maliki's main backer, U.S. President George Bush's White House, thinks the
ousted dictator could go to the gallows as early as Saturday, the first day of
the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the Muslim "Feast of Sacrifice."
"It's the government of Iraq's decision," a senior U.S. official said at the
Bush ranch in Texas. "It's not going to be tonight our time, or tomorrow their
time, it's going to be maybe another day." Asked whether the execution could
spark violence by Saddam loyalists, the official said: "They start violence for
any reason they can come up with." In the almost four years since a U.S.-led
invasion drove Saddam from office, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation has been
engulfed in a rising tide of violence between warring political and sectarian
factions.
Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and breakaway Kurds welcomed Saddam's fall, but many
members of the Sunni Arab minority flocked to the banner of Islamist or
pro-Saddam insurgent groups fighting his U.S.-backed successors.
The execution, when it comes, can be expected to further deepen the sectarian
divide. Shiite hardliners hope that it will knock the heart out of the
insurgency, but other observers fear violent reprisals. Meanwhile, Iraq's deadly
daily diet of bloodshed continued.
On Friday, gunmen opened fire on a cafe in the town of Hindiya south of the
capital and killed an off-duty policeman and a bystander, Captain Muthanna
Hassan of the Babil province police told AFP. In a separate attack by
unidentified gunmen in nearby Mussayib another policeman was killed and five
wounded, he added.
Once the formality of hanging Saddam and his cohorts, who were convicted of
killing 148 Shiite villagers, is out of the way, Bush and Maliki still face a
major battle to restore peace to a shattered nation. Maliki has promised to put
more Iraqi army troops onto the streets of the capital as part of a new Baghdad
security plan, but Bush has yet to unveil a promised "new way forward" for the
129,000-strong U.S. force. On Thursday, Bush met his top security officials at
his ranch.
"I've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan,"
Bush told reporters afterwards. "I'm making good progress toward coming up with
a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective." Washington is expected
to unveil its new plan early in the New Year.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 10:58
Iranians Held by U.S. Forces in Iraq Released
Two Iranians being held by U.S. forces in Iraq were released
early Friday, Iranian state television reported.
"Two of the Iranian diplomats who were detained by the American forces were
released this morning in the presence of the Iraqi National Security Advisor
Mowaffak al-Rubai and the Iranian ambassador to Iraq," Hasan Kazemi Qomi, the
report said.
It gave no further details.Rubai refused to confirm the releases, telling AFP:
"I do not wish to comment on this."
The U.S. military press office in Baghdad referred questions about the Iranians
to the office of the secretary of defense in Washington, which did not
immediately respond to an inquiry. On Wednesday, military spokesman General
William Caldwell said U.S. forces were holding two Iranian nationals detained
last week in the Iraqi capital on suspicion of weapons smuggling. "There
was an operation on the morning of December 21 based on intelligence. We
conducted a raid on a site in Baghdad," Caldwell told reporters. Ten people were
arrested in the raid and "documents, maps, photographs and videos" were seized
which, he said, linked them to "illegal activities". After interrogation it was
discovered that two of the 10 were Iranians. "Debriefing of the detainees and
investigation of the seized materials has yielded intelligence linking some of
the individuals being detained to weapons shipments to illegal armed groups in
Iraq," said a US military statement.
President Jalal Talabani, who invited the two Iranians to Iraq as part of an
agreement between the newly forged allies to improve security, was said earlier
this week by his office to be "unhappy with the arrests." (AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec
06, 10:23
Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets
at Israel --
MIL-MIDEAST-HEZBOLLAH-QASSAM
Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets at Israel --
paper GAZA, Dec 28 (KUNA) -- Hezbollah is paying Palestinian armed groups
"thousands of dollars" for each Qassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The
Jerusalem Post claimed Thursday. The newspaper quoted Israeli intelligence
sources as saying that Hezbollah was smuggling cash into Gaza Strip and paying
"a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack. Shin Bet (Israel
Security Agency) sources said Hezbollah "paid several thousand dollars for each
attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded."
"We know that Hezbollah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank," a security official told the newspaper. Moreover, it
said that while Israeli officials believed Islamic Jihad was behind most recent
rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded a
14-year-old in Sderot - several armed Palestinian groups were also involved and
received direct funding from Hezbollah.(end) zt.
Claim: Iran, Hezbollah pay for attacks
TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Iran is financing Palestinian
rocket attacks on Israel through Lebanon's Hezbollah, Israeli intelligence
officials say.
Ha'artez, quoting sources with Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, reported
Thursday the money is being smuggled to Palestinian groups through Lebanon and
Syria in a cash-for-attack scheme.
"We know Hezbollah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip
and West Bank," an unidentified Sin Bet official was quoted as saying.
"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are
paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon and the money
gets transferred a short while later." According to intelligence officials,
Islamic Jihad receives the money from Hezbollah through its headquarters in the
Syrian capital. Fatha's Tanzim group and the so-called Popular Resistance
Committees get payments through Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The money, the report said, all originates from Iran, which is the major
financial backer of Hezbollah, which in addition to its military wing that
fought Israel last summer has a number of legislators in the Lebanese
parliament. Hezbollah is based in southern Lebanon, which borders Israel.
The report quoted officials as saying Hamas, which dominates the Palestinian
Authority legislature, is not involved in the rocket attacks on Israel from the
Palestinian territories but is doing nothing to stop them.
Hezbollah after the skins of sacrificed animals
In a report prepared by the army and submitted to General Ergin
Saygur, it said that Hezbollah terror organization is making preparations to
collect the skins of sacrificed animals in order to record gains. The report,
which indicated that radical Islamist organizations in Turkey are in search of
new ways for extension also said: "Hezbollah terrorist organization has formed a
groundwork through Israel-Lebanon conflict. Organization has started an aid
campaign on August 2006 in order to strengthen its constitution. Organization is
also motivating its organizational activities by using Israel's aggressive
attitude. It uses the "jihad" concept for propaganda as well as religious
obligations of people for its own benefit. We have been informed that during the
past Ramadan Month, offerings of the community had been collected by Hezbollah
partisans. Skins of the sacrificed animals are also being seen as physical
resource for many illegal organizations. The skins will not be collected under
the name of Hezbollah but for mosques and Qur'an schools. Hezbollah had begun
planning this operation about three months ago. The names of the mosques and
schools to be used in this operation had already been determined by the
organization's members and the lists were submitted to their leaders in prisons.
Hezbollah Plots Ambitious Overhaul of Shiite Slums
By MEGAN K. STACK-Los Angeles Times
December 28, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Mohamed Haidar watches yellow machines chew smashed kitchen
appliances like hungry beasts, crumpling the stoves and refrigerators,
compressing them into tight-packed wads. Neighbors in the bomb-wrecked streets
are glad to scavenge the mangled guts of domesticity; they buy the balls of
metal cheap."It's deformed and weak. People take it and remold it," Mr. Haidar
says. "They should recycle the whole city."
To stroll through the Dahiyeh, the predominantly Shiite slums of southern
Beirut, is to take a tour through the ruins of Hezbollah's past — and prospects
for its future. Six months after Israeli airstrikes laid waste to these streets,
teams of Hezbollah designers are drawing up grand plans for its rebirth.
This is more than terra sancta for the powerful Shiite political party and
militia. In a real sense, the Dahiyeh and its people are Hezbollah: a district
and a movement defined by each other.
Thousands of chronicles of displacement, hope, and fighting crisscross the
streets of the Dahiyeh. It was in these slums that Hezbollah first began to use
the deprivation of Lebanon's Shiites as an instrument of defiance, and to turn
neglect into political capital.
In spite of, and in part because of, the destruction of its de facto capital and
southern heartland, Hezbollah emerged from last summer's war with heavy
political ambitions. No longer willing to remain largely independent of state
power, Hezbollah called massive street demonstrations to demand a larger share
in the government. The Dahiyeh is the history of the Shiites, the transformation
from quietism to activism," the editor of Hezbollah's newspaper and a Dahiyeh
native, Ibrahim Moussawi, said. The Dahiyeh was still a swath of sleepy seaside
villages and fruit orchards when droves of Palestinian Arabs arrived at
makeshift camps here after 1948. For decades after, the neighborhoods kept on
growing. At the eve of last summer's war, nearly half a million people were
packed into its maze of apartment houses — almost an eighth of Lebanon's total
population. They lived in perpetual neglect.
The neighborhoods here are improvised as if the chaotic lives of war refugees
had hardened into a tangle of concrete, dented cars, and electrical wires. There
have never been enough bridges, traffic circles, or tunnels. The electricity
would shudder to a stop for hours at a time. There was nowhere to park the car,
no place for children to play, no fresh air to breathe.
"The people were left to their fate," Mr. Moussawi said. "They started to look
after themselves."
From its 1982 foundation, Hezbollah's message to the Shiites was revolutionary:
Forget the discrimination and neglect you have faced. Never mind the government.
We can take care of ourselves. "With the arrival of Hezbollah, there was the
creation of Shiite territory," a professor of urban planning at the American
University of Beirut, Mona Fawaz, said. The Dahiyeh, she said, "became
sanctified." And then it was destroyed. The bombs that crashed down on the
Dahiyeh left behind a bewildering, postmodern wilderness of shattered buildings.
In 34 agonizing days, thousands of residential apartments were lost.
"The government did not help us at all. The government did not even ask us what
we needed," a 33-year-old grocer and father of two children who lost his home
and his shop in the bombing, Mohammed el Zein, said. "Where is the state? They
haven't done anything."
Many people believe the government is starving the southern suburbs of aid, he
said, in hopes that desperation will sour sentiment toward Hezbollah. But
instead, he said, the reverse is happening. The Shiite party didn't bother with
promises or bureaucracy. It just showed up with stacks of cash.
Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths
SAM F. GHATTAS
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon - More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and combatants died during
the summer war between Israel's army and Hezbollah guerrillas, according to
tallies by government agencies, humanitarian groups and The Associated Press.
Israeli authorities put the death toll for the Jewish state at 120 military
combat deaths and 39 civilians killed by Hezbollah rockets fired into northern
Israel during the July 12-Aug. 14 conflict.
Both sides have revised their figures of Lebanon's war dead. The latest Lebanese
and AP counts include 250 Hezbollah fighters that the group's leaders now say
died during Israel's intense air, ground and sea bombardments in Lebanon - more
than triple the 70 they acknowledged during the war. Israel initially said 800
Hezbollah fighters died but later lowered that estimate to 600.
None of the counts of war dead include Lebanese killed since the fighting ended
by exploding land mines or Israeli cluster bombs scattered around southern
Lebanon. Such blasts have killed 27 people and wounded 167, according to the
National Demining Office. No Israelis have been killed by war-related blasts
since then. The Lebanese and AP counts of Lebanon's war dead range from 1,035 to
1,191.
Lebanon's top police office, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, says
1,123 Lebanese died in the war - 37 soldiers and police officers and 1,086 other
people, including 894 named victims and 192 unidentified ones.
The report lists the 1,086 dead as "martyrs." It does not differentiate between
civilians and Hezbollah combatants, because the government considers them all
Lebanese citizens. It also can be difficult to tell a Hezbollah fighter because
many do not wear military uniforms.
A security official, who agreed to discuss the tally with AP on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the figure
of 1,086 was based on reviews of hospitals, death certificates, village
officials, families of the deceased and eyewitness accounts.
In a reflection of the confusion of wartime, the Higher Relief Council, an
agency of the Lebanese prime minister's office that deals with calamities, has a
higher death toll - 1,191 people, most of them civilians. The council says its
number is based on figures from the health ministry, police and other state
agencies.
The United Nations Children's Fund, meanwhile, says 1,183 people died, mostly
civilians and about a third of them children.
Human Rights Watch is still compiling a final list, said Nadim Houry, Lebanon
researcher for the human rights group. So far, he said, the list has 1,119
names, based on the group's own visits to villages, information from mayors and
a check of tombstones as well as other lists made by local media and rescue
services. The names include civilians, military personnel and guerrillas.
During the war, AP counted 855 killed, tallying only confirmed deaths reported
by Lebanese police, security officials, civil defense and hospital authorities.
That included 37 military personnel reported in official statements and 70
Hezbollah guerrillas reported killed either by the group or by police.
Adding the additional 180 deaths now conceded by Hezbollah raises the AP tally
to 1,035.
The higher Hezbollah figure of 250 killed was disclosed in mid-December during
an AP interview with Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of the group's ruling
politburo.
Komati dismissed Israeli claims that 800 guerrillas were killed in the war.
Asked about the Hezbollah disclosure, Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin
revised that estimate, saying: "We think that it's closer to 600."
Some of the discrepancies in numbers result from the fact that three separate
agencies were involved in search and rescue efforts in southern Lebanon's hilly
and remote terrain: the Lebanese Red Cross, Islamic ambulance services and
government civil defense teams.
The Lebanese security official who talked with AP said the lack of a central
office to follow up accounts of dead and missing had made it hard to get precise
numbers even months after the war's end.
In addition, determining an exact figure has not been a priority during the
political strife that has snarled the country since the war. Lebanon is enduring
its worst crisis in over a decade, with the pro-Western government in a standoff
with Hezbollah and its allies.
Hezbollah has come under fire from critics who blame it for the war, which the
guerrillas set off by carrying out a brazen cross-border raid into Israel in
which they killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others.
So the disclosure of a higher Hezbollah death toll could bolster the group's
standing during the political fight by showing it sacrificed in defending the
country. During the war, a higher Hezbollah toll could have hurt morale.
The 192 unidentified victims included in the police count consist of body parts
or remains of dismembered bodies, the Lebanese security official said.
The official said it was unclear why relatives had not claimed them, but it
could be because some were from whole families that had been killed. The
"unidentified" also could include remains of Hezbollah fighters, the official
said.
Holiday decorations barely conceal political crisis in
Beirut
Both sides prepared for long political fight
By Hassan M. Fattah Published: December 28, 2006
BEIRUT: Sleigh bells jingled, carols blared from loudspeakers and dancing Santa
Clauses lent the center of Beirut the feel of a Christmas fair this week,
complete with street sellers hawking trinkets.
And there are posters of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. If not for the
razor wire and heavily armed soldiers ringing much of the area, one could have
forgotten the crisis in the city this week. "We are Muslims and Christians
standing together to tell the world this is Lebanon," announced a speaker with
the Free Patriotic Movement, an opposition party, shortly before a massive cake
was rolled out Monday night. "The future is ours and after the feast we will
resume out protest till victory."A month since Hezbollah and Christian
opposition parties took over the center of Beirut, seeking to bring down the
government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, both sides have dug in for a long
fight. Fears of imminent ethnic strife have yielded to a sense of stalemate.
Opponents of Islamists take capital of Somalia Holiday decorations barely
conceal political crisis in Beirut Saddam's death sentence exposes a rift
In Riyadh al-Solh Square, where protesters have camped out in a tent city,
Hezbollah and its allies have continued raising their demands, calling for
Siniora to resign and for early parliamentary elections and a trial of Siniora
himself.
Siniora, supported by Saudi Arabia and the United States, shows no signs of
wavering, insisting that Hezbollah and its allies leave the streets and return
to negotiations.
The rallies were more muted this week as opposition leaders urged families to
celebrate Christmas and the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice this weekend,
promising to increase the political pressure again next week. Pouring rain
Tuesday and Wednesday also helped quiet things down.
The business of governing Lebanon has come to a virtual halt, with President
Émile Lahoud unwilling to consider any legislation from the cabinet, the cabinet
unwilling to speak to Lahoud and the speaker of Parliament, the Shiite Amal
leader Nabih Berri, unwilling to call legislators to order.
"Each side is supported by people that don't want them to give up a thing," said
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. "It's becoming more
likely that a very long, drawn-out stalemate will take hold."
Gradually, Salem and others here say, people in Beirut have grown used to the
protests in the center of town, easing the urgency of resolving the standoff.
"The easiest thing for people to do now is to postpone, to stall," Salem said.
Hezbollah and its allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement, led by Michel
Aoun, and the Marada movement of the former president Suleiman Franjieh, onetime
enemies, took to the streets Dec. 1. The action followed the rejection by the
governing coalition led by Siniora of their demands for a bigger say in the
government, including the ability to veto government actions.
They set upon the center of Beirut with a noisy, peaceful protest, mirroring one
held by the governing March 14 coalition last year. That protest forced Syria
out of Lebanon and swept the March 14 movement, named for the date of a rally in
which more than one million Lebanese were said to have descended on Beirut, into
government. Much like the March 14 movement, the opposition has sought to
emphasize its sectarian mix, saying it represents the true Lebanese and
assailing foreign control of the government. Both Syria and the United States
have called on foreign powers to stay out of Lebanon's affairs.
The opposition has promised to step up its protest significantly next week,
suggesting, among other steps, that it might establish a shadow government and
block highways and access to Beirut's airport.
The protests continued to sap Lebanon's economy, which had already been pummeled
by Israel's bombardment of the country last summer. Store owners in central
Beirut briefly opened their shops Wednesday but saw almost no customers.
"We will carry on with this campaign until we topple the government," said Nabil
Nicola, a member of Parliament with the Free Patriotic Movement led by Aoun. "We
still have not used all the peaceful weapons available to us, and it's just the
beginning of the road."
On Saturday, Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said he had been
unable to negotiate a solution to the standoff and ended two weeks of shuttle
diplomacy with a promise to resume his efforts after the Muslim feast. Moussa,
who had traveled through the region to meet with Saudi Arabia's leaders,
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and an Iranian envoy in Beirut, said the
impasse had been made worse because neither side was communicating with the
other.
Nawar Sahili, a member of Parliament with Hezbollah, said: "Unfortunately Amr
Moussa was taking a side during his last round of negotiations and unfortunately
some Arab countries are taking sides too. But there are talks about a new, less
biased Arab initiative. We are hoping it will solve the crisis."
Analysts and officials close to the discussions said the most contentious issue
remained legislation to form an international tribunal with sweeping powers to
prosecute suspects implicated in the February 2005 assassination of the former
prime minister Rafik Hariri and in numerous assassinations that followed. The
law was rushed through Parliament days after Hezbollah and its allies resigned
from Parliament and withdrew from the cabinet.
The court's sweeping powers and its open-ended establishment have made it a
nonstarter for Hezbollah, which supports and is supported by Damascus. But the
government comprises friends and associates of Hariri and is backed by his son
Saad, all whom assail Syrian interference in Lebanon.
Moussa said in Beirut on Saturday that he had managed to coax both sides to
agree on the outlines of a national unity cabinet in which major decisions would
be decided by consensus. He also cited growing willingness on the part of the
government to discuss the jurisdiction of the Hariri tribunal.
Nada Bakri contributed from Beirut.
Risks and perils loom large
By Patrick Seale, Special to Gulf News
Although peering into the fog of the future is always a hazardous business, it
would not be rash to say that, of all the potential man-made catastrophes that
might afflict the world this coming year, for sheer destructiveness none would
surpass an American/Israeli attack on Iran.
Is such an attack probable or even possible? Regrettably, it is.
In the current confrontation with Iran, the military option remains very much on
the table. In the US and Israel, the same military planners, political lobbyists
and armchair strategists that pressed America to attack Iraq are now urging it
to strike Iran - and for much the same reasons.
These reasons may be briefly summarised as the need to control the Middle East's
oil resources and deny them to potential rivals, such as China; the wish to
demonstrate to friend and foe alike America's unique ability to project military
power across the globe; and, last but not least, Israel's determination to
maintain its supremacy over any regional challenger, especially one as
recklessly provocative as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
To be effective, an American/Israeli strike against Iran would have to destroy
not only its nuclear facilities but also its ability to hit back, that is to say
its entire military-industrial complex.
It seems more than likely that, if attacked, Iran will, one way or another,
manage to strike back - against US troops in Iraq, against Israel, and against
US bases and US allies in the Gulf.
The impact would also be devastating on US-Arab relations, on Israel's long-term
security, on the flow of oil from the Gulf, on the oil price, on the economies
of the industrial world and on the already highly fragile dollar.
And yet, some influential voices in the US argue that the only way the US can
hope to "win" in Iraq is to destroy Iran.
US President George W. Bush is due to make a statement of his Middle East
strategy early in the New Year. There is talk of sending more troops to Iraq, of
tightening sanctions against Iran and Syria, of mobilising "moderate" Arab
states against "extremists", of arming the Fouad Siniora government in Lebanon
against Hezbollah, and the Fatah forces of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
National Authority president, against the democratically elected Hamas
government.
In the Horn of Africa, the US is lending its "tacit support" to Ethiopia in its
war against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts, all this in the name of the
ill-conceived "Global War on Terrorism", which continues to create more
"terrorists" than it eliminates.
Instead of calming passions and bringing peace to a deeply troubled region,
American policies are feeding the flames of civil war in Iraq, exposing American
troops to still greater danger, forcing Iran and Syria to look to their defences,
exacerbating conflicts in Lebanon and Palestine and opening a "new front" in
Somalia, which risks destabilising much of East Africa.
Insane belligerence
Still in the grip of the neocon cabal which has destroyed his presidency by its
insane belligerence, Bush continues to see the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hamas
axis as the main enemy to confront and bring down.
The real danger this coming year is that Saudi Arabia, alarmed at the rise of
Iran and at the self-assertion of Shiite communities in Lebanon and the Gulf
region, will be persuaded to side with the US against Tehran.
It would be wiser for the Kingdom to engage Tehran in a wide-ranging dialogue
leading to an agreement on mutual interests, and even to the conclusion of a
Saudi-Iranian security pact which alone could stabilise the region without the
interference of external powers.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to play cat-and-mouse with the international
community, pretending to make concessions to Abbas, while blatantly establishing
a new illegal colony in the Jordan valley and pressing ahead with its infamous
separation wall.
The message is clear: Israel's land grab on the West Bank will continue whatever
Washington or anyone else might say.
Various influential Israelis have stated that if the US does not strike Iran to
destroy its nuclear facilities, Israel must do so itself.
If one considers the likely impact of these American and Israeli policies, it is
clear that the coming year is likely to be a hot one in the region.
Real problem
The real problem is a world-wide lack of leadership. There is hardly anyone
around with the power or the vision to end the current state of international
anarchy.
Bush has de-legitimised himself and squandered American authority by his
blunders. Russia's Vladimir Putin has managed to hoist his country back into the
front rank of international powers, but his focus is still on reasserting
Russian state control over oil and gas resources, while keeping neighbours such
as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia firmly within Russia's orbit.
The European Union is a magnificent example of how 27 nations can, by mutual
agreement and by means of carefully crafted laws, give 500 million people a life
of peace, stability and considerable prosperity.
But in terms of a common foreign policy, the Union has been a failure. Its
members have pulled in different directions.
Britain's Tony Blair has marginalised himself and his country by his slavish
attachment to the US. He will, in any event, be leaving office in 2007.
President Jacques Chirac of France - an experienced and sober Middle East hand -
will be out of office by May.
Neither of his potential successors has much foreign affairs experience, and
both are committed to mistaken policies.
In the Middle East, three men will bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the
coming year. They are King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, President
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
They all have great problems at home, but if they were to get together, pool
their considerable resources and jointly exert their political influence, they
could protect the region from some of the risks, perils and potential
catastrophes of the year ahead.
***Patrick Seale is a commentator and author of several books on Middle East
affairs.
Govt seeks Lebanon's cooperation on child protection
The Australian Government is negotiating a bilateral agreement with Lebanon on
the issue of parental child abduction.
Lebanon is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on child abduction, which
includes international arrangements for the return of children wrongfully taken.
Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock says Australia already has a bilateral
agreement with Egypt to cover the problem of child abduction.
Mr Ruddock says he hopes to develop a similar agreement with Lebanon.
"What we would like to do with Lebanon if it's not prepared to become a party to
the Hague Convention is to at least have negotiations on a similar agreement
that we have with Egypt, and I hope to be able to finalise those during the
course of this year," he said.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1819375.htm
Broadcast: 28/12/2006
The year that was in the Middle East
Reporter: Matt Brown
SCOTT BEVAN: With 2007 fast approaching the Middle East is bracing itself for
more uncertainty, after another year of violence and war. Despite a month old
cease fire the Israeli Government announced overnight it will resume operations
against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. And the so
called "road map to peace" appears to be in tatters, with the United States
claiming Israel is planning to build a new Jewish settlement in the occupied
West Bank. Elsewhere in the strife torn region each new day brings more
bloodshed in Iraq. Iran continues to be the pariah of the West as it sticks to
its nuclear policy, while Lebanon remains on tenterhooks four months after its
war with Israel. ABC correspondent Matt Brown looks back at the year that was in
the Middle East.
MATT BROWN: This was, in many ways, the year of the pariah. The year in which
the ostracised and out of favour made their play for real power and, despite the
muscle and might of America, they made important progress.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, BEIRUT: What we're basically talking
about here is a strategic axis which extends from Iran to Syria to Hezbollah in
Lebanon to Hamas and they are basically partners in confronting the United
States and Israel.
MATT BROWN: In the Palestinian territories, the Islamist militant group Hamas
won democratic elections and took control of the Palestinian Government. It was
a stunning victory all round. Hamas came to power, offering a 10 year truce with
Israel if Israel would withdraw from the Palestinian land it conquered in 1967.
AZIZ DWEIK, HAMAS SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT: The two-step solution is something that
depends on Israel. If Israel would like to live in peace with the Palestinians
and giving them their rights, I think things would be OK.
MATT BROWN: But Hamas was founded on a devout desire to destroy Israel, and the
Hamas Government was quickly cut off from the crucial international cash flow to
the Palestinians. Then gunmen, including members of Hamas, captured an Israeli
soldier patrolling the border with the Gaza Strip. Gilad Shilat disappeared into
the streets and allays of Gaza, once of the most densely populated places on
earth. Israel struck back with a vengeance. Hundreds of Palestinians, civilians
and gunmen alike, were killed in a series of punishing air raids and ground
attacks that left Gaza reeling. But Hamas has not been defeated. Iran has
stepped into the breach with hundreds of millions of dollars in support.
MICHAEL OREN, MILITARY HISTORIAN, JERUSALEM: They are both Islamic extremists,
albeit the Shi'ite-Sunni divide. They're both anti Western. They share a desire
to overthrow pro Western moderate regimes in the region. So the interest is not
just financial, it exists on far deeper levels of religion and political goals.
MATT BROWN: Hamas is now on the edge of a civil war with the more moderate Fatah
party headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. While the West is
backing Abbas, the outcome is far from clear. The democratic Arab Spring
heralded by the United States has been decidedly stormy.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: Elections that had been encouraging in Palestine and Egypt
ended up with Islamist victories and its last potential success story or
showcase, Lebanon, appears to be slipping out of its hands as well, now.
MATT BROWN: It began with another audacious move by an enemy of Israel. Two
Israeli soldiers were captured and eight were killed on Israel's border with
Lebanon. The Iranian backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah was behind the raid and it
fired thousands of missiles into Israel. Israel responded with even more force
than it used in Gaza. Two million people Israelis and Lebanese on either side of
the border lived in fear of death from the air at any minute and most were
forced to flee their homes.
ISRAELI RESIDENT: Why they shoot me? They don't like the Israeli? You don't like
the Israeli? The Hezbollah? Why?
LEBANESE RESIDENT: It's very upsetting, what's happened to this country. It's a
very beautiful country.
MATT BROWN: Israel rained tens of thousands of bombs down on Hezbollah positions
in south Lebanon and south Beirut.
MICHAEL OREN: On purely military terms Israel won an overwhelming victory. We
destroyed Hezbollah's mini state in Lebanon. All that elaborate array of
underground bunkers and caches and headquarters, completely destroyed. Not a
brick left on a brick.
MATT BROWN: In fact Hezbollah, backed by Iran, managed to transform military
defeat into a sort of political victory.
MICHAEL OREN: Two Israeli soldiers remain hostages in Lebanon and, if anything,
Hezbollah's political clout in Lebanon has been strengthened rather than
diminished.
MATT BROWN: Lebanese killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 44 Israeli civilians.
Israel killed 500 Hezbollah fighters and around 600 Lebanese civilians. For
weeks the United States refused to call for a cease fire in the war, despite the
mounting death toll. Its chief diplomat was remarkably candid about the reasons
why.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, US SECRETARY OF STATE: What we're seeing here in a sense is
the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain
that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old
one.
MATT BROWN: The contrast between vision and reality could not have been more
stark than in Iraq. When Sunni insurgents bombed the Shi'ite mosque at Samarra
they unleashed an escalating spiral of sectarian violence, pitting Sunni Muslims
against their Shi’ite neighbours. American and Iraqi forces managed to kill Abu
Mussab al-Zarqawi - the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was dead. Saddam Hussein was
on trial, but the murder toll continued to skyrocket. Iraq this year was, quite
simply, more and more out of American control. Iranian backed Shi'ite militias
waged a bloody conflict against their Sunni enemies.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: It illustrated that the US was a very, very weak power,
especially given that it was occupying that country. It did not achieve any of
its strategic aims in Iraq. It just fuelled anger, not only within Iraq but
within the entire Arab world.
MATT BROWN: Where does all this lead? It leads, of course, to the rising power
across the Persian Gulf, to Iran, America's avowed enemy in the Middle East.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: What's interesting is a country like Iran, a Shi'ite non
Arab country, has become probably the most influential power in the Arab world
and really the standard bearer, if you like, of Arabism.
MICHAEL OREN: This is the year of Iran in the Middle East. Iran is on a roll in
the Middle East, just about in every quarter of the Middle East. Iran has
replaced Egypt as the dominant Muslim State in this region.
MATT BROWN: A state that began the year being warned not to keep up with its
controversial nuclear program, but went ahead anyway, even in the face of
looming sanctions.
MICHAEL OREN: They're laughing in Tehran. They have the example of Pakistan
before them. They have the example of North Korea, more recently, before them.
They see how countries can defy the international will.
MATT BROWN: Perhaps the last days of 2006 bore witness to a different future. In
Iran the hardliners connected to the radical President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
suffered a serious blow in local elections. If there is hope in the ballot box
after all, it remains to be seen whether the United States could bring itself to
talk to those who might change course in Tehran.
**SCOTT BEVAN: That report from Matt Brown