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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."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Abdullah Azzam Brigades Threaten Hizbullah with 'Successive Rounds of Terrorism'
2014-07-02
[An Nahar] The Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades
... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed...
 on Tuesday demanded Hizbullah
...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
 to withdraw from Syria "before it is too late," vowing to carry out "successive terrorist acts until security is restored" in the war-torn neighboring country.

"I tell Iran's party to quickly withdraw from Syria before it is too late," the Brigades' spokesperson Sheikh Sirajeddine Zouraykat wrote on his official account on social media website Twitter.

"When we bombed — with God's help — the Iranian embassy, and then (Iran's) cultural center to secure victory for the oppressed in Syria and Leb and to respond to the aggression, they called this terrorism," he said.

"And if terrorism is the answer to your crimes, expect more successive terrorist acts that will make you forget all previous rounds until security is restored in Syria," the Brigade's spokesperson warned.

Zouraykat elaborated on what he considers to be the party's activities in Leb and Syria: "Hizbullah's terrorism in Leb was manifested in the attack on al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
 (in northern Leb), in burning down the Bilal (bin Rabah) mosque in Abra (neighborhood in the southern city of Sidon), in killing sheikhs and youngsters on the streets, and in arbitrary arrests."

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit.
Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed...
 the "terrorism" of Iran's party in Syria according to the Brigades was manifested in "killing women and kiddies in Aleppo, in besieging Eastern Ghouta (near Damascus), in occupying al-Qalamoun (on the border), in shelling peaceful citizens in southern Damascus, and in continuing to support (Syrian President) Bashar (Assad)."

Zouraykat also considered that Hizbullah was behind the bombing attacks that targeted former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, former army chief Francois al-Hajj, late MP Walid Eido, journalist and activist Samir Kassir, slain chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces Wissam al-Hassan, former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah, and "a long list that the Lebanese are aware of."

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades had claimed the deadly attack that targeted the Iranian embassy in the southern suburbs of Beirut in November.

At least 23 people were killed and 150 maimed in the Bir Hassan twin suicide kabooms.

The bad boy group also claimed the two suicide kabooms that went off near an Iranian cultural center in Beirut's southern suburbs in February 2014.

The blasts killed six people and maimed over 130 others.

The Brigades have repeatedly called on Hizbullah to withdraw from Syria and the release of Islamist inmates in Roumieh prison in order to stop the attacks on the party's stronghold.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hariri: Lebanese Made the Accusation against Syria at Time of My Father's Murder
2009-05-09
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri on Thursday responded to charges made by his political opponents that his movement had accused Syria of the assassination of his father ex-premier Rafik Hariri, saying: "The people of Lebanon made the accusation when the crime took place."

"I am the son of Rafik Hariri and I say the accusation made against the Syrian regime is political," Hariri told a huge electoral rally in the area where MP Walid Eido and his son were assassinated in a car bomb in 2007.

Addressing the crowd, Hariri said: "You were the first to know that the accusation did not come from nowhere. You also know that Rafik Hariri, prior to his assassination, was threatened by well-known people at the top of the pyramid of the previous regime under (Syrian) tutelage."

Hariri reiterated his political stance regarding the 2005 assassination crime that killed his father saying: "If Israel was the one that assassinated my father, then why the attempts to hinder the Special Tribunal? Israel assassinated Palestine, gentlemen it assassinated Palestine."

"We shall never fall into the trap of arms, sedition and civil war. We shall maintain our path -- that of the legitimate state, justice, moderation and education," Hariri said.

He was referring to events last year on the same day when Beirut was overrun with violence.

"Today is the first anniversary when madness believed it could overrun Beirut, but the city overran madness with its patriotism," he said.

Hariri added, "The only weapon my father provided for young people is the weapon of education and progress. When Lebanon was under tutelage, when all Lebanese were desperate to have a state and an army, Rafik Hariri drafted the plan for state institutions," Hariri said.

He accused his political opponents of attempting to carry the country outside the Taef accords. "The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is established and justice is coming. Criminals won't escape justice," Hariri charged.

He announced Al-Mustaqbal Beirut 3 district list which includes Tamam Salam, Imad al-Hout, Ghazi Aridi, Atef Majdalani, Ammar Houry, Nabil de Freij, Ghazi Youssef, Bassem al-Shab and Mohammed Qabbani.

Earlier, Jamaa Islamia parliamentary candidate Imad al-Hout said: "We don't want any sectarian clashes. We shall proof that May 7 events are behind us."

Beirut 3 parliamentary candidate Culture Minister Tamam Salam added: "I am honored to be with Hariri on a single list. We want a strong Arab Lebanon far removed from any axis."

Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi addressed rally supporters saying: "Beirut knows how to overcome hardships. This is the capital that has vanquished every injustice."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
By-election set to spark new Lebanon politics showdown
2008-05-24
A Lebanese by-election has set the stage for a new showdown between the anti-Syrian government and its opponents by laying bare a deep split among the country's once dominant Maronite Christians.

The competition for the Maronite seat in Metn district, northeast of Beirut, is part of a broader political conflict between Lebanon's governing coalition and the opposition, including Syria-allied Hezbollah.

The struggle for control of government has already caused Lebanon's worst civil strife since the 1975-1990 war. Many Christians expect Sunday's by-election to trigger more violence. "Most probably there will be problems," said Jean Kharrat, a shopkeeper from the Maronite village of Bikfaya, home to former President Amin Gemayel, who is one of the candidates.

Gemayel, leader of the Phalange Party, aims to fill the seat of his son, Pierre, who was assassinated in November.

Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, part of the opposition, is contesting the seat, enraging Gemayel supporters. Gemayel and his allies accuse Syria of orchestrating the killing of Pierre Gemayel and other anti-Syrian figures including Walid Eido, a Sunni Muslim MP killed in June. A by-election for his seat will also be held on Sunday. Damascus denies involvement in the killings.

Christian tempers flared this week when rival activists clashed with sticks in scenes reminiscent of street battles between rival Christians in January.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Slain Lebanese security officer "possesed sensitive terrorism files"
2008-01-26
(KUNA) — A car packed with explosives blew up at the morning rush-hour in eastern Beirut on Friday killing an officer who "possessed sensitive files on terrorism" along with at least nine people and turning the location into a hairy scene dotted with shreds of human flesh. Major General Ashraf Riffi, Director-General of the Internal Security Force (ISF), also known as the police, confirmed in a statement to journalists after the blast that the car bomb explosion targetted Captain Wissam Eid "and a number of innocent people ... it constitutes a message to the internal force."

Eid, who served in the intelligence (information) department of the ISF, was killed along with a bodyguard in the rumbling blast that hurled shreds of human flesh many meters away in the district of Hazmiyah during the morning high traffic, set scores of cars afire and inflicted heavy damage within a wide radius.

Maj. Gen. Riffi said several people were wounded in the fiery blast and were whisked to nearby hospitals. "The martyr Eid had possessed very sensitive files related to terrorist explosions that occurred in Lebanon," the chief of the police said. Eid was reportedly involved in last summer's fighting that pitted the Lebanese government forces, both the ISF and the army, against a shodowy group known as Fatah Al-Islam in the refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese forces crushed the militants' hideout and took over the camp following fierce fighting. The group's chief, Shaker Al-Absi, whose whereabouts have been unknown, has recently threatened revenge in remarks posted on the internet.

Interior Minister Hassan Al-Sabaa told the press that Eid had been targeted with at least three botched bids on his life, and described the deadly attack as "intended to strike at the basic nerves of the Lebanese security system." A security source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the authorities detained several suspected persons for interrogation after the explosion that occurred at 10:15 a.m. (local time).

The explosion whose sound echoed throughout the congested capital set many cars alight, sending black clouds of smoke billowing into the skies, while civil defense teams struggled for hours to put out blazes of the burning cars. The blast followed an explosion that occured in eastern Beirut on the 15th of this month, trageting a vehicle of the US embassy. An American was injured in the blast and several locals were killed.

Last December a senior officer of the Lebanese Army was killed in a similar attack. Beirut has witnessed a wave of deadly bombs since assassination of the former premier, Rafic Al-Hariri, on Februaray 14, 2005. Several leading figures had been killed since the assassination of Al-Hariri — including journalist Samir Kassir, former Communist Party leader George Hawi, caretaker Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, MP Walid Eido and Brigadier General Francois Al-Hajj of the Lebanese Army.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Majority hands the Parliament petition on proposed amendment
2007-12-28
A delegation of Lebanon’s majority MPs which included Akram Chehayyeb, Antoine Zahra and Ammar Houri handed the petition on the proposed amendment to the Secretary-General of the Council of Deputies Adnan Dahir at 2 PM local time .

Chehayyeb said : "On behalf of the majority we have presented the petition on the amendment of article 49 of the Lebanese constitution to allow the election of the Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as President of the Republic signed by more than 10 MPs . This is an additional proof of the sincere desire of the parliamentary majority of March 14 to save the presidential elections by the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman as the compromise president for all of Lebanon, specially since the country is going through a lot of turmoil."

MP Antoine Zahra said : “I apologize for the absence of MP Walid Eido and MP Antoine Ghanem , two of the colleagues that Akram and I are used to accompany . He added those 2 MPS that were killed by 'wild pigs' will be back one day when Lebanon becomes a truly independent and democratic and free country.”

Eido and Ghanem who were outspoken anti Syrian MPs were assassinated in 2007. Syria ( and not the wild pigs ) was accused of the assassination but it denied any wrongdoing .

The MPs who signed the petition are Eli Aoun, Antoine Zahra, Imad Houri, Mustafa Hashim, Mohammad Qabbani, Serge Torsrkisian, Nabil de Freij, Riyad Rahhal, Jawad Boulos, Henry Helou, Akram Chehayyeb, Atef Majdalani, Ghazi Youssef. The petition urges the parliament to adopt the proposed amendment without any further delay to facilitate the election of General Suleiman and save the country from further turmoil.

MP Ali Bazzi, a member of Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc predicted Berri will reject the petition, because he considers the government that initiated the proposed amendment to be unconstitutional.

Yesterday Hezbollah parliament bloc leader Mohammad Raad attacked Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government and accused it of seizing the presidential powers. Raad pledged "new complications" to the already tense situation.

The Lebanese media has also expressed pessimism about Saturday's election session and predicted that it will most probably meet the fate of previous attempts and leave the country without a president until after the new year when the parliament will be in recess. Saturday Dec. 29 is the date set for the election of the president.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Sophistication of Hajj's murder underscores Syria's role
2007-12-16
Wednesday's car bombing of Lebanese General Francois Hajj is being treated as something of a murder mystery because, unlike Lebanon's other recent assassination victims, the general was not an overt foe of Syria. Yet the method of his killing, along with the political benefits that accrue from his death, hardly rule out a Damascene hand.

Hajj made a name for himself earlier this year by routing Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni terrorist group that had been hiding out in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, up the coast from Beirut. This has led to speculation that Hajj was killed by that group to avenge its defeat. While that may be true, what's more significant is that Fatah al-Islam is widely suspected of being controlled and aided by Damascus. The sophistication of the bomb that killed Hajj -- a remote-control device similar to the one that killed anti-Syrian figures Gebran Tueni, Walid Eido and Antoine Ghanem -- underscores that suspicion.

No less important is that in targeting Hajj, who had reportedly been tipped to become the next chief of staff, a message has been sent that the Lebanese military is now fair game. The current chief of staff, General Michel Suleiman, is the nominee to be Lebanon's President, and Damascus is ambivalent about his candidacy. Murdering Hajj is a signal to General Suleiman and other officers not to chart too independent a course from Syria.

All this should alarm the Bush Administration, which was instrumental in evicting Syria from Lebanon in 2005. Instead, it has been helping to rehabilitate Bashar Assad's regime. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a point of meeting one-on-one with her Syrian counterpart at a regional meeting on Iraq in May. Syria's state-run news agency condemned the Hajj assassination via an unnamed government official, but the Syrians also condemned the murder with a remote-control bomb of Rafik Hariri in 2005. A U.N. probe into that murder has found overwhelming evidence of Syrian complicity.

The difference this time is that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack praised Syria for its condemnation, calling it "positive if continued over time." Maybe Secretary Rice believes she can get the Syrians to play nice on Iraq and Israel while thwarting their ambitions in Lebanon. For their part, the Syrians tend to view such American entreaties as signs of weakness. On Tuesday, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa remarked that "no one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria." The next day Hajj was dead, which, if nothing else, was a perfect illustration of Mr. Sharaa's point.
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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.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon calls for a strike to protest Ghanem's assassination
2007-09-22
Lebanon's Phalange Party called for a two-day strike Thursday, a day after a powerful bomb blast in Beirut killed an anti-Syrian lawmaker and four other people. The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks targeting prominent anti-Syrian figures. The explosion, widely blamed on Damascus, killed Phalange member Antoine Ghanem, 64, an anti-Syrian Lebanese parliamentarian and Christian Maronite. Along with the Phalange Party, known for its anti-Syrian stance, the bankers' union and the Ministry of Education backed the strike.

Wednesday's bomb exploded in a huge fireball that ripped through an upscale Christian neighborhood during evening rush hour. The attack wounded at least 70 people in addition to the five slain, Lebanese security sources said. The bombing threatens to deepen the country's political turmoil days before a key presidential vote.

Walid Jumblatt, head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and a parliamentarian, called the killing "a bloody message" as it comes ahead of elections, reducing government supporters' parliamentary majority bloc from 69 to 68 and increasing the difficulty of electing "a free president for Lebanon." Prime Minister Fouad Siniora vowed that the attack would not derail Lebanon's attempts to choose a president, according to The Associated Press. "The hand of terror will not win and will not succeed in subduing us and silencing us," he said in a statement late Wednesday reported by the AP. "The Lebanese will not retreat and will have a new president elected by lawmakers, no matter how big the conspiracy was."

Former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel called Ghanem a "very close friend of mine," adding that his assassination is "very, very dangerous for the future of democracy in Lebanon." Gemayel's son Pierre, a Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentarian, was assassinated last November.

Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh accused the Syrian regime of "using its terrorist skills to assassinate, one after the other, the MPs belonging to the Lebanese independence movement majority ... in order to deplete the majority of its numbers and to impose a comeback of Syria over Lebanon."

But an unidentified source with the state-run SANA news agency, which speaks for the Syrian government, condemned the killing. "This criminal act targets the efforts and endeavors exerted by Syria and others to achieve the Lebanese national accord," the source told SANA.

President Bush called the incident a "horrific assassination." "Since October 2004, there has been a tragic pattern of political assassinations and attempted assassinations designed to silence those Lebanese who courageously defend their vision of an independent and democratic Lebanon," Bush said in a statement Wednesday.

Three months ago, anti-Syrian parliament member Walid Eido was killed along with nine others, including his son and two bodyguards, in an explosion in western Beirut. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut in February 2005, sparking widespread protests that led to the ouster of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
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U.N. investigators concluded last year that Hariri's death may be linked to high-ranking Syrian officials. Syria has denied any involvement in the killings and said the U.N. tribunal investigating Hariri's death is a violation of its sovereignty. Siniora asked the United Nations to include Ghanem's killing in its investigation into the Hariri slaying, the AP reported.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Desperate Enemies Continue to Assassinate Democracy in Lebanon
2007-09-20
Anti Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem was murdered on Wednesday, just days away from the parliamentary elections to appoint Lebanon's next president. 5 others were killed, and over 50 wounded. A powerful blast that ripped through Ghanem's car in the east Beirut Sin el-Fil suburb, in what appears to be a bloody scheme to strip the Anti Syrian March 14 coalition of its parliamentary majority just six days before a scheduled session to elect a new president.

Antoine Ghanem was the eighth member of the anti-Syrian majority to be assassinated since the 2005 murder of former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri. World powers condemned the attack as a blatant bid to destabilize Lebanon ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary session to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, saying it exacerbated a months-long political crisis.
A 40-kilogram strong car bomb explosion shattered Ghanem's black Chevrolet Sedan as it drove in the plush suburb, killing him and eight other people, including his driver and an unidentified person who was sitting next to the slain MP on the back seat of the vehicle. Two of the deputy's bodyguards were among the dead, according to Ghanem's daughter, Mounia.

Tongues of flame shot up from the wreckage of Ghanem's car and at least eight other vehicles as fire fighters combated the blaze and ambulances evacuated at least 47 wounded people to nearby hospitals. The powerful explosion, which echoed across the Lebanese capital, shattered glass windows in Sin el-Fil and the plush suburb of Horsh Tabet.

People wailed and screamed at hospitals where some of the injured were transported and pleaded with staff for information about the fate of loved ones. "Tony is gone, Tony is gone. My tall blond son is gone," wailed a woman, as she pulled her hair and raised her hands to the sky outside the Lebanese Canadian Hospital. She said her son, Tony Daou, 23, was a bodyguard of Ghanem.

The crime was committed three months after a similar car bomb explosion on June 14 which claimed the life of MP Walid Eido. Ghanem, 64, returned to Beirut from safe haven in Abu Dhabi two days ago.
The crime was committed three months after a similar car bomb explosion on June 14 which claimed the life of MP Walid Eido. Ghanem, 64, returned to Beirut from safe haven in Abu Dhabi two days ago. Fellow Christian MP Antoine Andraos said Ghanem had called him "earlier in the afternoon to ask me where he could get a bullet-proof car."

"He felt threatened, just like all the other members of the majority are threatened by the regime of (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad," he said in tears.

MP Saad Hariri blamed the assassination on the "cowardly regime" of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Druze leader Walid Jublatt also said Assad's regime is behind Ghanem's assassination, pledging that "we will not succumb to Bashar Assad's threat." A Friend of the victim, speaking on condition of anonymity, quoted Ghanem as telling him Tuesday evening: "I face the threat of assassination. They want to kill me to open the door for by-elections to choose a new MP from (Michel Aoun's) Free Patriotic Movement."

Ghanem had represented the Baabda-Aley constituency in parliament since the year 2000. Ghanem's constituency houses Hizbullah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the party that is opposed to the March 14 alliance carries a sizeable influence. Hizbullah, also backed by Iran, is allied with Aoun's FPM in the attempt to topple Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government and prevent the election of a new president who is not controlled by the Damascus regime of President Bashar Assad.

In addition to Ghanem and Eido, MP and Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a prominent member of the Phalange Party and the March 14 alliance, was gunned down by unidentified assailants on Nov. 21. By-elections held on Aug. 5 in Gemayel's Metn constituency were won by FPM candidate Camille Khoury, thus stripping the March 14 alliance of a vote in the presidential elections to choose a successor to Syrian-Backed President Emile Lahoud.

Pro Syrian Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had summoned Parliament to elect a head of state on Sept. 25. Lahoud's extended term expires on Nov. 24.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hariri blames Assad for assassinating MP
2007-09-20
A powerful bomb killed a pro-government lawmaker and six others Wednesday in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut, threatening to derail Parliament's already deeply divided effort to elect Lebanon's next president in voting due to start in days. Antoine Ghanem, a 64-year-old member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party, was the eighth anti-Syrian figure and fourth lawmaker from the majority assassinated since 2005, reducing the ruling coalition's margin in Parliament.

Members of the coalition held Syria responsible for Ghanem's death, which came only two days after he returned to Lebanon from the safety of abroad. Damascus denied the accusations of involvement, as it has done for each of the past seven assassinations.

Security officials said 67 people were wounded in Wednesday's blast, half of which have left the hospital. The explosion occurred at rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil district, severely damaging nearby buildings, setting several cars on fire and leaving the street littered with blood and debris. Bystanders watched in shock as ambulances and civil defense workers searched for victims. Explosive experts were seen sifting through the engine of Ghanem's car, which was blown at least 50 meters (165 feet) by the force of the explosion. A security official said the bomb was likely detonated by remote control near Ghanem's car.

"I have never seen a more cowardly regime than that of Bashar Assad's," said lawmaker Saad Hariri, blaming the Syrian president for Ghanem's death. Hariri heads the anti-Syrian majority in Parliament, a role he stepped into after his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was killed by car bomb in 2005.

Cabinet member Ahmed Fatfat also blamed Syria for the attack, saying Damascus wanted to derail recent efforts by majority and opposition leaders to begin presidential elections on Sept. 25. "It is the only regime that does not want presidential elections in Lebanon to be held," Fatfat told The Associated Press.

Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud also implied Ghanem's death was meant to undermine the upcoming elections, saying "it is no coincidence that whenever there are positive signs" that someone is killed.

Syria was quick to condemn the attack, which it said aimed at sabotaging efforts by the Lebanese people to reach agreement. "This criminal act aims at undermining efforts paid by Syria and others to achieve Lebanese national accord," Syria's state-run news agency SANA quoted an anonymous Syrian official as saying.

The assassination of anti-Syrian figures began in 2005 with the death of Hariri, the former prime minister. Hariri's death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected. Since then, the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hizbullah. Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition.

After the assassination of Lebanese Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators had to leave the country to spend the summer abroad for security reasons. Others who stayed in Lebanon took extra security.

Ghanem was traveling Wednesday in a car with regular license plates, his blue plate hidden in the trunk, apparently as a security measure. Cabinet member Fatfat told the AP that Ghanem returned two days ago from abroad where he had been taking refuge for the past two months. Antoine Andraos, another colleague of Ghanem, said Ghanem called him this afternoon asking for a bulletproof car, a TV station linked to Hariri reported.

According to security officials, a landmark hotel near the Parliament building in downtown Beirut has been rented for majority members to protect them during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins Tuesday.

Wednesday's bombing heightens tensions before the presidential vote that already threatens to throw the country into deeper turmoil. Many fear divisions over the presidency could lead to the creation of two rival governments, a grim reminder of the last two years of the 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.

Lahoud is due to step down from the presidency by Nov. 23, and government supporters see the vote as the opportunity to put one of their own in the post. Hizbullah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they don't approve of - and they can do so by boycotting the vote, preventing the necessary two-thirds quorum. If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, Saniora and his Cabinet would automatically take on executive powers. If that happens, opposition supporters have said Lahoud might appoint a second government, a step many fear would break up the country. With Ghanem's death, Saniora supporters hold 68 of parliament's 128 seats, compared to the opposition's 59.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Beirut car bomb kills another anti-Syrian lawmaker
2007-09-19
A bomb rocked a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and six other people, security officials said.

Antoine Ghanem is the eighth prominent anti-Syrian figure assassinated since 2005. Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, was targeted by the bomb, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The Voice of Lebanon radio station, which is owned by the Phalange party, confirmed Ghanem's death. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known. The attack came six days before parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a vote expected to be deeply divisive. Three of the slain lawmakers have been from the U.S.-backed majority coalition, reducing its margin in parliament.

A local television station, LBC, said 20 people were wounded in the blast in the Sin el-Fil district. Video showed severe damage in nearby buildings and several cars on fire. The explosion sent a cloud of gray smoke over the area, and blood covered parts of the street.

The assassinations of anti-Syrian figures began with former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005. Syria's opponents in Lebanon have accused Damascus of being behind the killings, a claim Syria denies.

His death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected. Since then, the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hezbollah. Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition. After the assassination of Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators spent the summer abroad for security reasons. Others who stayed took extra precautions.
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