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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

Lebanese anti-Syria figures threatened

2014-01-06

[Al Ahram] Several prominent Lebanese politicians and media figures opposed to Syria's regime and its ally Hezbollah have been threatened, the official National News Agency reported on Sunday. The report comes less than a fortnight after a boom-mobileing in central Beirut killed eight people including anti-Syria former finance minister and member of the March 14 coalition Mohammad Shatah. The NNA said Sethrida Geagea, a Christian member of parliament, March 14 member and wife of Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... chief 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 ... , had a series of threats sent to her mobile phone. "At 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on January 4, Sethrida Geagea MP started receiving calls on her mobile phone from several local, international and hidden numbers," the agency said, quoting the politician's media office. A statement said Geagea's colleagues answered the calls, and heard "personal threats against her life, insults and obscenities". More such calls came on Sunday, the NNA said. The threats were reported to the security forces, whom Geagea's office said should "take the necessary measures" to identify the callers. A string of other personalities have received similar threats, the statement said. They include former interior minister Ahmad Fatfat, outspoken TV presenter Nadim Koteich and liquidation attempt survivor and journalist May Chidiac. All are seen as high-profile opponents of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... 's regime and its powerful Lebanese ally, Hezbollah. The Shiite movement has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to help Assad's troops in their bid to crush the revolt that erupted nearly three years ago. Reports have also emerged that Sunni politician Khaled Daher, a fierce critic of the Damascus regime, has also received threats against his life. Chatah's death on December 27 was the latest in a string of nine high-profile liquidations of Syria critics that began in February 2005 with former prime minister Rafiq Hariri's murder. Syria and Hezbollah have systematically denied any links to the attacks. An international tribunal tasked with investigating Hariri's liquidation is due to start trying five Hezbollah members in absentia from January 16. Syria dominated Leb for nearly 30 years until the international outcry over Hariri's killing forced Assad's troops out. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... Damascus still exerts influence over Leb through its allies.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Two Hariri Murder Suspects Linked to Murr, Hamadeh, Chidiac, Hawi Cases

2011-08-12

[An Nahar] The joint U.N. and international Sherlocks commission informed former ministers Elias Murr and Marwan Hamadeh and ex-LBCI anchorwoman May Chidiac that two of the Hizbullah suspects accused of being involved in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri are also involved in their liquidation attempts, revealed widely informed sources to the Central News Agency on Thursday. The commission also informed them that these same two suspects are also involved in the liquidation of former Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi, who was killed in a kaboom planted in his car on June 21, 2005. It added that the international judiciary has now taken over Murr, Hamadeh, and Chidiac's cases, informing them that they should prepare themselves to appear in court at the Special Tribunal for Leb, said the sources. Furthermore, an indictment in their cases, as well as Hawi's, will be releases soon. It will also be accompanied by arrest warrants against a number of suspects. Earlier on Thursday, a delegation from the joint U.N. and international Sherlocks commission held talks with Murr, Hamadeh, and Chidiac on the investigations and their findings. On June 28, the first phase in the indictment in the 2005 liquidation of former Premier Hariri was released along with arrest warrants against four Hizbullah members. Leb had 30 days to apprehend the suspects, but it failed to do so. Hizbullah has repeatedly announced that it will not cooperate with the STL, deeming it an American and Israeli product. The Central News Agency added that the details of the first indictment may be released to the public in a few weeks.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Abdo: Hezbollah considers Aoun a 'winning lottery ticket'

2008-06-12

Former Ambassador Johnny Abdo said during an interview with May Chidiac on LBC Television on Tuesday, June 10, that dialogue is the priority in Lebanon today. According to Abdo, "Not only is dialogue an urgent and more important need than the formation of the government, but it will also help eliminate the obstacles blocking the government's formation." Abdo stressed that President Michel Suleiman should call for national dialogue amid the latest Sunni-Shia tension. "Yet a meeting between MP Saad Hariri, head of the Future Movement, and Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is necessary to diffuse tension in Beirut and other regions." "Head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun does not want Michel Suleiman as president," Abdo added. "Once he lost the biggest victory, that of becoming president himself, he started creating illusory victories. This is like psychiatric therapy for him." "I don't believe that the role of Christians in Lebanon is only in the Christians' interest. It is in all of Lebanon's interest... I can't be against someone calling for Lebanon first." Abdo accused the Free Patriotic Movement of imposing unnecessary burdens on the president. "Aoun was forced at Doha to accept Suleiman's election as president. He was about to quit and withdraw from political life when Suleiman's election was decided." Abdo added that Hezbollah considers Aoun a "winning lottery ticket," because "the General is providing a cover for Hezbollah's actions, whether right or wrong." He also said that Hezbollah's controversial network of landlines connects all of the party's allies. "There is a line to Rabieh, too," he said in a reference to Aoun's home. The former Lebanese intelligence chief further stressed the need for the new president to be given the ministries of Defense, Interior and Justice, "as he is the commander in chief of the Armed Forces." On the security situation, Abdo said that "politicians must not give the impression that there are no men in the country capable of solving the crisis," calling this a big problem that requires a quick solution. Commenting on the violent incidents that started on May 7, Abdo said the Army Intelligence Services passed MP Walid Jumblatt the information on Hezbollah's telecommunications networks and the surveillance camera the group had set up at the airport; information that that Jumblatt revealed, sparking the conflict. "A campaign was directed against Jumblatt and not the source that gave him the information," Abdo said, adding, "Did someone push Jumblatt to do this?" He slammed the opposition, especially Hezbollah, for its attack on Beirut and the Mountain. "Are the residents of the capitol and the Chouf the ones who made the decisions regarding Hezbollah's network and Brigadier General Wafiq Choucair?" Abdo asked, in reference to the head of the airport security services, who was sacked for his alleged ties with Hezbollah. Abdo also said that when Hezbollah gunmen invaded Beirut, they were looking for specific people as if their search was based on a list of names, which "reveals that the party possesses a reconnaissance network that covers Beirut." Abdo compared Hezbollah's current status to that of the PLO during the Lebanese civil war. "It is written on Hezbollah's flag: 'The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon', not 'The Lebanese Islamic Resistance.' This means that Hezbollah's agenda has nothing to do with the state." "Hezbollah is saying, 'We have our own state and institutions, and we want a share in your state and then take control,'" he added.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Mehlis : 'Dangerous threats were made against me in Lebanon'

2008-03-21

Former Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis has said the assassination of An Nahar General Manager MP Gebran Tueni was part of threats made against the German prosecutor and the commission he headed. Mehlis, who appeared Tuesday on May Chidiac>May Chidiac's LBC talk show Bi Kul Jura'a ( with all your courage) in Berlin that "dangerous threats" were made against him during his mission in Beirut and Tueni's killing in a car bombing on Dec. 12, 2005 was part of such threats because it came a day before the former investigator handed over his last report to the U.N. Security Council. "The late MP Gebran Tueni was assassinated a day before I released the December 2005 report," Mehlis said in his first TV interview since he stepped down as head of the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14, 2005 assassination and related crimes. A group calling itself Jund El Sham, threatened to slaughter German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis in October 2005. Criminals are feeling "safe" in their attacks and erecting security "cameras in every street corner" could help catch the murderers, the German prosecutor told Chidiac about the series of assassinations since Hariri's killing in a massive explosion in Beirut. When asked that some parties in Lebanon refused erecting security cameras, Mehlis said: "Better being spied on than getting killed."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hezbollah involved in Lebanon assassinations: Jumblatt

2006-12-30

In other news, water is wet, but Walid gets points for speaking publicly. BEIRUT - Prominent Lebanese MP Walid Jumblatt has accused the Shia militant group Hezbollah of being involved in a string of political assassinations, according to an interview aired on Arab television. The accusations marked the first time that Jumblatt, a leading MP from the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, pointed the finger at the Teheran- and Damascus-backed group which is spearheading an opposition protest to topple the government. “In one manner or another, they (Hezbollah) are implicated in certain attacks, if not all,” Jumblatt told Al-Arabiya television late Thursday. “The fog over my eyes dissolved once and for all after the assassination of journalist and MP Gibran Tueni on December 12, 2005,” said the Druze chief, who has previously accused Syria of being involved in the killings. Six prominent anti-Syrian figures have been slain in the past two years. A UN investigation into the 2005 bomb blast that killed ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri has implicated senior Syrian officials and Lebanese accomplices. Jumblatt equally accused Hezbollah of fearing an extension of the UN probe into Hariri’s assassination that could cover other bomb and shooting attacks against outspoken Damascus critics. “Hezbollah pulled out of the government saying they were in favour of an international tribunal (in the Hariri slaying) but against any extension of the probe,” Jumblatt said, referring to the resignations of six pro-Syrian ministers, including two from Hezbollah, last month. “That is because in one way or another, they are implicated in the attacks that killed Tueni, Samir Kassir, Georges Hawi (all in 2005) and Pierre Gemayel (2006) and which targeted journalist May Chidiac and minister Elias Murr (2005),” Jumblatt said. Echoing an accusation voiced by anti-Syrian Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh on Thursday, Jumblatt said the “the car bomb that targeted Marwan (on October 1, 2004) was prepared in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” a Hezbollah stronghold. Hariri’s assassination “was prepared high up,” Jumblatt said in an apparent reference to Syria, “but the other crimes, or some of them, took place here” in Lebanon. “There, I don’t want to say more, but I said it.”

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hamadeh to sue Hezbollah for 'Inciting' his Assassination

2006-12-29

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, 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 was seriously wounded in a booby-trapped car explosion on Oct. 1, 2004. 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. 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.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel Assassinated

2006-11-21

Beirut, 21 Nov. (AKI) - Lebanon's Industry Minister, Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in Beirut on Tuesday by unknown gunmen. The minister was hit when the motorcade he was travelling in drove through a Christian neighbourhood in the Lebanese capital. A Christian, Gemayel was the son of a former Lebaneser president Amin Gemayel and a prominent anti-Syrian politician. RIP. I believe he is the son of Amin Gemayel, former Christian president of Lebanon. Assassinations are seldom solved in Leb. My guess is that the killers won't be found. They're likely in the same place is the guys who killed Tueni and maimed May Chidiac. They may even be the very same people. I'm also guessing that if they were caught they'd coincidentally be either Shiites (barely likely not) or owned by Syria. Kofi's back to asking Syria and Iran to ensure Leb's "stability," which recall Syria did for the past 30 years or so. Once the civil war's fired up again, Syria will be the logical candidate to step in and do what it does best, which is to colonize its neighbor. More, from Ya Liban... Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. Gemayel, an outspoken critic of Syria, was assassinated near Beirut on Tuesday, security sources said. Gunmen opened fire as his convoy drove through the Christian Sin el-Fil neighbourhood. Gemayel was rushed to hospital where he later died of his wounds. Gemayel, a member of the Christian Phalange Party and industry minister, was the son of former President Amin Gemayel. He was an opponent of the influence in Lebanon of Syria, who many Lebanese blame for the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Lebanon is in the throes of a political storm pitting the anti-Syrian ruling majority against the pro-Damascus opposition. The political tension threatens a new civil war to spill into street confrontations. Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Tuesday his depleted cabinet was legitimate despite the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers, and warned that any anti-government protests could turn violent. Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies are preparing to take to the streets to topple Siniora's government, which they accuse of being allied with the United States, arguing that it has lost its legitimacy since Shi'ite Muslims are no longer represented. The depleted cabinet last week approved draft U.N. statutes for a tribunal to try the killers of Hariri despite the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers. Many Lebanese blame Syria for the killing of Hariri in a suicide truck bombing last year. Damascus denies involvement. A U.N. commission investigating the assassination has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials. Gemayel is the first anti-Syrian politician to be killed since Gebran Tueni, who was assassinated in a car bomb blast on December 12, 2005.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Rice: Hizbullah must choose between terror and politics

2006-10-28

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up international pressure on Hizbullah to disarm, saying in a television interview aired Friday that the guerrilla group must surrender its weapons if it wants to remain part of Lebanon's political process. Rice urged Hizbullah to lay down its arms according to the cease-fire that ended its 34-day war with Israel last summer, and choose between being a militant group and a legitimate political organization. Hizbullah is under heavy international pressure to surrender its weapons, but the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group - which holds 11 seats in the Lebanese parliament and two spots in the Cabinet - has refused to disarm. "You cannot have one foot in terror and the use of violence and the other foot in politics." "If Hizbullah wants to be in politics... Hezbollah should be disarmed. You cannot have one foot in terror and the use of violence and the other foot in politics. It just doesn't work that way," Rice said in an interview with the privately-owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. "Hizbullah has to decide whether it's going to maintain its terrorist wing and remain a terrorist organization or whether it's going to ... be part the political process," she said. The interview was taped at Rice's office in Washington, and conducted by May Chidiac, a Lebanese journalist who lost an arm and a leg in car bombing in Lebanon in September 2005. The US government has labeled Hizbullah a terrorist organization and blames it for the deaths of 241 US Marines in the bombing of their Beirut barracks in 1983, as well as for two attacks on the US embassy in Beirut and the 1985 TWA hijacking that killed an American serviceman on board. Hezbollah has repeatedly denied such accusations and says it now opposes terrorism. Rice also urged the Lebanese government to end what it called Hizbullah's "state within a state" and prevent weapons from reaching the militant group. "A normal state has an army and police that answer to the state, not to a state within a state." "I'm counting on Lebanon to live up to its obligations, and I'm counting on Lebanon to want to evolve to a normal state," Rice told the satellite channel. "And a normal state has an army and police that answer to the state, not to a state within a state." The UN cease-fire resolution that ended the Hizbullah-Israel war on Aug. 14 called for the Lebanese army to deploy alongside international peacekeepers in Hizbullah strongholds across south Lebanon. Some 16,000 Lebanese troops have fanned out across the region, including along the border with Israel, for the first time in decades. The two forces are tasked with establishing a Hizbullah-free buffer zone stretching some 30 kilometers north of the Israeli border. Rice also warned that as Lebanon tries to rebuild, some people might try to destabilize its Western-backed government. "We've heard that there are people who would like to intimidate or assassinate again," she said, referring to the 2005 assassinations of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other anti-Syrian politicians. She did not elaborate. Asked if Syria was trying to destabilize Lebanon following its withdrawal last year, Rice said: "It's not any great secret that there are concerns about what Syria, which once occupied the country, might try and do through continuing contacts in the country. But I don't want accuse any one place. I just want to make very clear that the international community believes there should be no foreign intimidation of the Lebanese people."

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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.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Maimed TV anchor to run as MP

2006-01-29

A prominent Lebanese journalist who was maimed last year in an assassination attempt says she will run for a parliamentary seat that has become vacant after the death of a legislator. May Chidiac, an anchorwoman with LBC television, told a news conference in Paris, where she is receiving treatment, that she would run as an independent. Chidiac said she wanted to work in parliament "so that what happened to me does not happen to others and so that the series of crimes taking place in Lebanon are not repeated." "My sacrifices were at the level of the whole of Lebanon and I hope I will get the support of Lebanon as a whole," she said. Chidiac, sitting on a wheel chair, said in footage aired by LBC she hoped "that there will be accordance concerning my nomination." Last September, Chidiac lost her left leg and arm in after bomb placed under her car exploded. The attack was one of more than a dozen have killed or wounded politicians, journalists and other Lebanese in the last year.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon Politicians in Battle for Their Lives

2005-12-21

(Sapa-AFP) -- A sleek official-looking convoy rolls up in front of Beirut's Maronite patriarchate. No-one emerges. Seconds later a lone, humdrum jeep pops up. And out steps Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. Such fake convoys are just one of the methods used by Lebanese politicians attempting to outwit potential attackers who have reportedly already compiled hit lists of their next targets. Even the most sophisticated equipment and armoured convoys have been incapable of preventing targeted assassinations against critics of Syria - the last being parliamentarian and press magnate Gibran Tueni a week ago. "The rhythm of the attacks is scary. We hardly have the time to bury a martyr, before another one falls," said Maronite Catholic Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir. The 85-year-old cardinal, a vocal critic of Syria's presence in Lebanon whose own name appeared on the alleged hit-lists, has also used similar dummy convoys and army helicopters for his movements. For some, the only option in a climate of fear that has seen 15 attacks and political killings since October 2004 last year has been to barricade themselves at remote mountain retreats or leave the country altogether. Figures critical of Syria's role in Lebanon have adopted tight measures or stayed abroad like Saad Hariri, son and political heir to slain former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. But even pro-Syrian figures, such as Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Shi'a Muslim group Hezbollah, and Nabih Berri, the powerful parliament speaker and chief of the rival Shi'a Amal movement, have restricted their movements. International pressure after the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri in October led to the arrest of top security officials as well as the withdrawal of Syrian forces after nearly three decades in their tiny neighbour. But as international and Lebanese investigators pursued the probe into Hariri's killing, the bombing campaign continued. Tueni was killed the morning after he arrived from Paris, where he had been staying for security reasons. Powerful Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt, long retrenched in his mountainous home southeast of Beirut, has warned of more attacks as "the objective is to kill enough MPs to make the country impossible to rule." Samir Geagea, the head of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, has mostly remained in his private home in the Cedar mountains in northern Lebanon. At Tueni's funeral, Geagea arrived at the Greek Orthodox cathedral in downtown Beirut in a small, regular car closely followed by an army of bodyguards. Christian leader Michel Aoun has been also retreated to his villa in Rabiyeh, an exclusive residential hilltop overlooking the capital. Even companies and malls have been hiring private security agencies. "In general, cement blocks are placed around buildings and cars are prohibited from parking close by," the head of a security company who did not wish to be identified said. "There is sophisticated equipment to catch explosive materials, but the assassinations are taking place outside secured premises," he added. He noted that Hariri's convoy had been secured with an extremely sophisticated jamming system and that Tueni's car was an armoured vehicle. "It did not prevent Hariri's car from being blown up by remote-control, according to the report of the UN commission of inquiry. "And it did not prevent Tueni's car from being thrown into a ravine and being burned," he said. Fear has also spread among journalists after the assassination of Tueni and An Nahar editorial writer Samir Kassir, as well as the bombing attack that maimed May Chidiac, a star newscaster for the leading LBCI television. "I only use taxis, and I am still afraid. We are forced to be constantly on the move and we do not have any sophisticated protection system," one An Nahar journalist said on condition of anonymity. Marcel Ghanem, a prominent LBCI talk-show star, said the channel had adopted security measures for homes as well as means of transportation and communication. "Everyone is a target," he said.

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