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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese remember bloody past after Assad fall — Naharnet
2024-12-10
[NAHARNET] Across Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, the Middle East, and beyond, the fall of Syria's authoritarian government at the hands of Islamist-led rebels set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm.

Many Lebanese exulted at the overthrow of the Syrian leader while others worried about more instability rocking a region in turmoil.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a strict control of the border with Syria and for distancing Lebanon from the developments there. He urged the Lebanese "of all affiliations" to be "wise" and "avoid emotional reactions."

Mikati also asked Secretary-General of Council of Ministers Judge Mahmoud Makiya to communicate with the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons in Lebanon and with the relevant authorities regarding the release of Lebanese prisoners from Syrian prisons.

- LEBANESE IN SYRIAN PRISONS -
During 15 years of civil war in Lebanon, an estimated 17,000 people went missing. Many were held captive or were killed in detention centers operated by Syrian forces in Lebanon and Syria, but their fates remain unknown.

Since a Lebanese man, who was missing for 40 years, was freed by Syrian rebels from a prison in Hama last week, many Lebanese families are demanding to know the fate of their loved ones who are thought to be detained in Syrian prisons since Lebanon's civil war when Syrian troops were in Lebanon.

- GEAGEA SAYS 'NOTHING WORSE THAN ASSAD' -
Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
 leader Samir Geagea
....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005....
 congratulated all Lebanese on the fall of Bashir al-Assad's regime, saying that "over the past 50 years, the regime of Hafez and Bashir al-Assad was the biggest obstacle to the building of a state in Lebanon."

"It's impossible for the situation in Syria to be worse than Assad. There is noting worse," Geagea said.

- JUMBLAT SAYS 'JUSTICE ACHIEVED' -
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat
...Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
 saluted the Syrian people and celebrated Assad's ouster "after a lengthy wait."

Jumblat also called former PM Saad Hariri
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
 and told him that by Assad's fall "justice was achieved" for his slain father Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other March 14 figures.

Al-Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...

... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
 Movement, founded by Hariri, for its part, congratulated the Syrian people in a statement and called on the Lebanese to preserve national unity.

- ASSASSINATIONS BLAMED ON SYRIA -
Hariri was assassinated in 2005 by a bomb in Beirut, blamed on Syria and Hezbollah. His liquidation sparked protests that ousted Syrian troops from Lebanon. Following Hariri's killing, several anti-Syrian figures were assassinated, including Samir Qassir, George Hawi, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem and Walid Eido. Others escaped liquidation attempts including Elias Mur, May Chidiac, and Samir Shehade.

Jumblat's father, Kamal Jumblat was assassinated in 1977 in his car near Baakline by unidentified button men suspected to be members of the pro-Syrian faction of the Lebanese Syrian Social Nationalist Party, in collaboration with the Ba'ath Party.

In 1982, President Bashir Gemayel was killed with 26 other politicians by a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party who detonated a bomb from a few miles away using a remote detonator. He said he killed Gemayel because of his collaboration with Israel, which invaded Lebanon in 1982.

- GEMAYEL HAILS 'TYRANT FALL' -
Kataeb leader and Bashir's nephew Sami Gemayel wrote on X that "the criminal tyrant has fallen". "But Lebanon remains and the Kataeb remains."

He added that the names of his uncle Bashir, his brother Pierre Gemayel, and other deaders "stand tall, pulsating with freedom, illusory sovereignty and independence."

- BASSIL HOPES IT'S FOR THE GOOD OF LEBANON AND SYRIA -
Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
 leader Jebran Bassil hoped that the developments would be for the good of Syria and Lebanon and lead to a swift return of displaced Syrians to their country and to "positive and balanced relations" between the two countries.

- SYRIA STABILITY IMPACTS LEBANON -
Son of Hezbollah's presidential candidate and Assad's friend Suleiman Franjieh, Marada MP Tony Franjieh hoped, in a statement posted on the X platform, for a peaceful transfer of power that would preserve the country's stability and protect the rights of all Syrians.

"The stability of Lebanon has always been deeply affected by the stability of Syria," Franjieh said.

- BLOW TO HEZBOLLAH -
For Hezbollah, who had long used Syria as its key conduit for weapons and supplies from Iran, Assad's fall could further weakens the group, after the staggering losses it suffered in its own recent war with Israel.

"What's happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said.

"No one can downplay its impact but we draw our presence and strength from God, from our faith before anything else, and from our people — and the existence, presence, formations, capabilities and high competencies of the resistance, despite everything that has been inflicted on it in this war," Fadallah added.

Early in Syria's civil war, when it appeared Assad might be tossed, Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and its ally, Hezbollah, rushed fighters to support him. Russia later joined with a scorched earth campaign of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s.

For Israel, breaking Iran's regional network has been a major goal, though it is wary over jihadi fighters among the hard boyz who toppled Assad. Israel on Sunday moved troops into a demilitarized buffer zone with Syria by the Israel-held Golan Heights in what it called a temporary security measure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Assad's fall a "historic day," saying it was "the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad's main supporters."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Beirut Rally Backs Syrian Activists Call for Int'l Protection
2011-09-09
[An Nahar] A number of Lebanese activists, journalists, intellectuals and politicians on Thursday staged a sit-in at the Samir Qassir Square in downtown Beirut in support for "the freedom and dignity of the Syrian people."

Simultaneously, a group of supporters of Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
, who belong to a number of Lebanese political parties, gathered outside the Beirut Municipality in the center of the capital, carrying Syrian flags and pictures of Assad and shouting slogans in support of the Syrian leader and his regime, state-run National News Agency reported.

Security forces deployed in the area prevented any clash between the rival rallies.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers of the pro-Syrian uprising rally, activist Saleh al-Mashnouq said: "We reject that Leb, the representative of Lebanese and Arabs at the U.N., be a real partner in the attack against the Syrian people."

"Leb should rather be in its normal position, alongside the majority of Lebanese and Arab people who are opposed to the crimes against humanity being committed. A camp for Syrian refugees must also be set up in Leb, where they would feel secure and be treated according to the standards of human dignity," Mashnouq added.

"We declare our full support for the demands of the Syrians who are seeking international protection for civilians by all means possible. We call on all the Arab leaders to take a historic decision and achieve this Syrian demand, and we also urge all human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
 organizations concerned to stand by these refugees," he went on to say.

Present at the rally were MPs Khaled al-Daher, Marwan Hamade, Ahmed Fatfat and Khaled Zahraman; ex-education minister Hassan Mneimneh; ex-MPs Fares Soaid and Elias Atallah; Democratic Renewal Movement secretary Antoine Haddad; National Bloc chief Carlos Edde; and members of the March 14
Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys...
 general-secretariat.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN urged to investigate Lahoud's crimes
2007-11-28
As soon as Lebanon's former president Emile Lahoud stepped down and left the presidential palace the International Lebanese Committee (ILC) for UN Resolution 1559 issued the following press release urging the investigation of the crimes committed during Lahoud's term in office
The International Lebanese Committee ( ILC) for UN Resolution 1559 expresses its satisfaction that former President Emile Lahoud has finally left the Presidential Palace in Baabda after more than three years from his illegal extension of power, a breach of laws and principles which was addressed by one stipulation of the UN 1559 issued in September 2004, one day after the constitutional piracy was forced on the Lebanese People. However now that Mr. Lahoud has left the office, the Committee is calling on the UN special prosecutor in the Terrorist attacks in Lebanon since the fall of 2004 and the special envoy of the Secretary General of the UN to investigate General Lahoud regarding the following serious charges:

1. The Hariri and Lebanese politicians assassinations:
General Lahoud was an imposed President of Lebanon between October 2004 and November 2007. Under his Presidential mandate six political leaders, including legislators and a minister were savagely assassinated and two political activists murdered for political reasons. Under his Presidency the joint operations room between his regime, the Syrian regime and Hezbollah was still in function. General Lahoud was the higher supervisor of this joint operation room and thus is aware of the cooperation between the two regimes and Hezbollah in Lebanon during this period of time. A UN investigation with General Lahoud is now warranted in the Terror assassinations of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, MP Basem Fleihan and their escort, Samir Qassir, George Hawi, MP Gebran Tueni, Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel, MP Walid Eido and MP Antoine Ghanem. General Lahoud as the highest security official overseeing the joint intelligence operation room along with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah must be investigated at once by the UN investigation committee.

2. The assassination of Lebanese activists:
General Lahoud, being the head of the regime between 1998 ad 2007 and the highest authority overseeing the intelligence joint operation room with Syria and Hezbollah, should also be investigated in the assassination of Lebanese political activists who were kidnapped, tortured and killed between 1998 and 2007.

3. The Lebanese detainee in Syria:
General Lahoud, being the head of the regime between 1998 ad 2007 and the highest authority overseeing the intelligence joint operation room with Syria and Hezbollah, should also be investigated in the illegal arrest, kidnapping and transfer to Syrian jails of hundreds of Lebanese and non Lebanese national where they were tortured and some have been killed while others are still unaccounted for.

4. The Lebanese military and civilians murdered in 1990
General Lahoud, having deserted the legal Lebanese Army in 1990 and appointed by a Syrian-backed Government as a new commander of a Syrian controlled Lebanese Army that same year took responsibility for a joint Syrian-Lebanese military operation against the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace in Lebanon between 7 AM and 5 PM on October 13, 1990. During that operation hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and civilians were executed against all norms of international law and a number of military personnel and civilians were detained and transferred to Syria. General Lahoud should be investigated for information he may have kept about these executions and the fate of the vanished persons.
The Committee 1559 also calls on the parents and relatives of all the victims mentioned above to inform the UN Investigation Commission about all questions related to these crimes and acts of terror, so that the investigation with General Lahoud can be comprehensive.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lahoud denounced regarding suspects in Hariri assassination
2006-04-26
The opposition Future Movement, led by Lebanese member of parliament Saad al-Hariri, son of the assassinated prime minister Rafic al-Hariri, strongly criticized President Emile Lahoud's defense of the four top suspects in the assassination, and his call for the release of the generals, who they said constituted the pillars of his intelligence and police regime.

Saad al-Hariri leads the opposition in Lebanon's parliament, and have the majority of parliament members,

His party, the Future Movement reaffirmed yesterday confidence in the international probe of the February 14 assassination, and said President Lahoud's insistence on the release of the suspected generals has intensified ahead of the launch of an international tribunal that will put them on trial.

The party stressed that President Lahoud "has appointed himself as the judge, lawyer and investigator of the probe, overstepping the judiciary and the UN-commissioned team investigating the assassination." It pointed out that the United Nations Security Council has been monitoring the top judicial body's work to implement resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the Council, on the assassination.

The Future Movement said since his appointment by the custodian rule and the forcible extension of his term in office, against the will of the Lebanese, President Lahoud has been violating constitutional and legal norms. It cited the "ugliest crimes and violations that were committed in Lebanon's history" under his term in office, "including the manipulation of the judiciary, muzzling young demonstrators in 2001, the assassination of Mr. Ramzi Irani, persecutions by intelligence services of journalists, the terrorist attack that killed the late Premier along with MP Bassil Fuleihan and their colleagues, the assassination of journalist Mr. Samir Qassir, the murder of Mr. Geoge Hawi, the bombing attack that killed journalist and MP Gebran Tueini, and attempts on the lives of MP Marwan Hamadeh, media figure Ms. May Chidiac, and Minister Elias Murr."

The Future Movement made clear that the latest attempt by Lahoud to release the top suspects in Premier Hariri's killing, only adds to suspicions among the Lebanese about his "position" vis-à-vis the string of terrorist attacks. It noted that the Future Movement has yet to file charges for the assassination of Premier Hariri, against the suspects and those suspects who have not been arrested yet, allowing for the UN Security Council-led probe to proceed, and to put on trial the suspects in an international tribunal.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Another Witness Testifies with Perjury into Assassination of Hariri
2006-01-18
"Lies, all lies! Can I go now?
Damascus (SANA)- The witness Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura said he was forced to offer a false and fabricated testimony against Syria at the international investigation committee into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri because he was under threats and pressures to do so.

Jarjoura told Lebanese satellite NEW TV channel in an interview overnight that some Lebanese figures, particularly Deputy and Minister Marwan Hamada, forced him, in return to some promises, to retell the fabricated story to the international probe and the Lebanese Attorney Said Mirza as well as Bahiya Hariri, sister of the slain Hariri.

He said he is a Syrian national of Lebanese mother, adding he went to Lebanon to work and before that he looked for a job in Egypt, Iraq and Oman. He went back to Lebanon 14 days before late Hariri was assassinated with a Lebanese passport where he stayed there for six months at his grandfather house. The witness said the Lebanese military detained him at an army checkpoint six months after the expiry of his residence in Lebanon as written in the passport. After that, he was taken to prison where all his former inmates were released except him.

He added that three days later he was taken the Interrogation Department in Beirut where they told him he was working for the Syrian state security intelligence, and asked him if he had any information about the assassination of Hariri. He said he denied having any information on the issue, but despite that he was left to an assistant in the interrogation called Mohammad or Ahmad, to blackmail him.

Jarjoura said he was set free three days later, but a man called Wisam contacted him. This man turned out to be an intelligence agent and a bodyguard of Marwan Hamada as he took him to Hamada’s house. He added that he was taken several times to Information and Interrogation security offices in Beirut, and finally he met Marwan Hamada in his house and was inspected by Wisam himself.

The witness said he told Hamada that he knew nothing and he wanted no money or anything else, but Hamada hit kicked and swore him badly and told his bodyguards to coerce him into assisting them to fabricate the story about the assassination of Hariri and implicate Syria.
"They did things to me. Terrible things!"
He added that Hamada and others told him to go to Ms. Bahiya Hariri house and tell her that he had information about who killed late Hariri without saying that he met Hamada. They ordered him to tell Bahiya that he worked for the Syrian intelligence which trained him. “They made me memorize what I’m going to say to Bahiya
and tell her that Syrian General Hassan Khallouf and General Hassan Khalil had trained me to monitor figures in Lebanon, including the procession of Rafik Hariri.” He said he told her what was ordered to state, and thought of escaping to report to his government but failed to do so as he was under constant monitoring by the Lebanese security.

Jarjoura said they forced to add other names to the alleged list he was monitoring, including Sa’ad al-hariri, Walid Jumblatt, Marwan Hamada, Jebran Tueni, Samir Qassir, Layla Muawad, Elias Atallah, Fares Said, Boutross Harb and Samir franjieh. They also asked him to say that Syrian Gen. Hassan Khalil and Gen. Hassan Khallouf gave him these names by means of Brigadier Gen. Suheil Barakat of Palestine security branch.

He added that last time he gave his registered testimony before the investigation committee was in the presence of a Lebanese woman translator, saying they showed him the photo of President Bashar al-Assad, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Later they showed him the photo of Gen. Assef Shawkat and the four other detainees in Montverde but he didn’t recognize them. Jarjoura said he was sadly forced into a perjury by swearing the Bible for the first time in his life, adding he is repentant to do so.

He pointed out that “ I have more important things than his current testimony and would only disclose them to my government in Syria 
.I will not sell my country off 
.I received no money from anybody
and I was not sentenced in Lebanon
and all the false information came from Marwan hamada.” The witness said he sought several times to escape but couldn’t.
Link



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