LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 11/2010

Bible Of the Day
Luke
12/13-21: " 12:14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 12:15 He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.” 12:16 He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. 12:17 He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ 12:18 He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 12:19 I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 12:20 “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ 12:21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”/Naharnet
 

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
How Iranian shells reach the Mideast’s seashores/By: Tony Badran/February 10/10
Exerpts from MP. Walid Jumblat's interview with As Safier Daily/February 10/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 10/10
Ethiopian Plane 2nd Black Box Recovered, Mitri Denies Receiving Official Word on 1st Black Box Content/Naharnet
Khalife: Body of French Ambassador Wife Identified/Naharnet
Fight Sparks Shooting in East, North Lebanon/Naharnet
Lebanese PM: nation stands united against Israel/The Associated Press
Berri: Israel intends to break Lebanon’s national unity/Now Lebanon
Hamadeh says Jumblatt’s statement ensures his visit to Syria/Now Lebanon
Suleiman Asked Spanish King for Security Help/Naharnet
Separate St. Maroun Celebrations in Beirut and Brad, Sfeir Says Maronite Church Keen on Coexistence
/Naharnet
Jumblat Expresses Regret at 'Offensive Words' against Syrian People, Leadership
/Naharnet
Hariri Convinced with Syrian Clarifications on Assad's Remarks
/Naharnet
Struger: The Situation is Calm, All Sides Cooperating with UNIFIL
/Naharnet
Murr Kicks of Talks with U.S. Officials
/Naharnet
Army Arrests Majzoub's Uncle
/Naharnet
Saudi Government Urges International Response to Israeli Threats Against Lebanon, Syria
/Naharnet


Ethiopian Plane 2nd Black Box Recovered, Mitri Denies Receiving Official Word on 1st Black Box Content

Naharnet/Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi announced Wednesday that the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, from the ill-fated Ethiopian jet was pulled from the sea and moved to Beirut naval base before being handed over to investigators in France. The army marine commandos retrieved the first black box, the flight data recorder, on Sunday, and it was also sent to France. A judicial committee at the ministerial level met Wednesday to discuss future strategy and progress made in the search for more victims of the Ethiopian plane crash as a source close to the investigation into the disaster said the jet crash was caused by a pilot error. "The investigation team has reached an early conclusion that it was pilot error, based on information from the black box," the source told Reuters. The team made up of Lebanese, French and Ethiopian officials headed to France Monday with one of the two black boxes for analysis. Information Minister Tareq Mitri said following Wednesday's judicial meeting that Lebanon has not received any official information about contents of the first black box.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed in a fireball minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport early in the morning of Jan. 25. The Boeing 737-800 plane with 90 people on board plunged into the sea off Naameh south of the airport in stormy weather. Lebanese officials had blamed the pilot for failing to follow instructions from the control tower.
Defense Minister Elias Murr had said that a command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction.
"We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control," he added. Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi had in turn said the control tower sent the pilot a second warning when he failed to heed the first one. "The pilot, however, continued to fly the same route, then he made a sudden, strange turn before disappearing from the radar," Aridi said on the day of the plane crash. It was not clear why the pilot ignored the control tower or perhaps it was beyond his control. Boeing 737, like most other airliners, also is equipped with its own onboard weather radar which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into cumulonimbus, which is a rounded mass of cumulus cloud often appearing before a thunderstorm.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 10 Feb 10, 15:53

Khalife: Body of French Ambassador Wife Identified

Naharnet/Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife said Wednesday that the body of the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon has been identified. She was one of several human parts recovered from the Ethiopian plane crash site off the coast of Naameh on Tuesday. A French embassy delegation visited Rafik Hariri state hospital Wednesday morning and examined the body. They were able to identify her through her facial features. Khalife on Tuesday said DNA tests identified four bodies –Lebanese Hussein Youssef Hajj Ali and three Ethiopians.
They were among the 90 passenger and crew members on board the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 that crashed in flames into the sea off Naameh on Jan. 25. "We are sorry to say that we are pulling human remains," Khalife told reporters from Rafik Hariri state hospital Tuesday afternoon. "The first bodies which have been retrieved following the crash were intact but after that, we began pulling pieces or mutilated corpses," he said. Meanwhile, Lebanese army divers continued search for more bodies on Wednesday while the rescue ship USNS Grapple stepped up hunt for the second black box. Members of the plane crash investigation committee returned to Beirut late Tuesday after delivering the first black box to Paris on board a private jet belonging to PM Saad Hariri. Lebanese army divers retrieved one of the plane's two black boxes on Sunday. It was sent to France for analysis. "We cannot say when we'll have news because it is a process and there is an investigation," Ethiopian Airlines spokeswoman Wogayehu Terefe told AFP in Addis Ababa. Beirut, 10 Feb 10, 11:38

Lebanese PM: nation stands united against Israel

By ZEINA KARAM (AP) –
BEIRUT — Lebanon's prime minister voiced concern Wednesday about "escalating" Israeli war threats, and said his government will support the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah if a new war breaks out with the Jewish state. Saad Hariri's comments come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and its Arab neighbors. "We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out," Hariri said in an interview posted on the BBC's Web site Wednesday. "Every day we have Israeli warplanes entering Lebanese airspace. This is something that is escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous." The Western-backed Hariri leads a fragile national unity government that includes two ministers from the militant group Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in a monthlong war in 2006. Hariri said Lebanon, which has a notoriously fractious political system, would unite in the event of a fresh conflict with Israel. "I think they're (Israelis) betting that there might be some division in Lebanon, if there is a war against us," Hariri said. "There won't be a division in Lebanon. We will stand against Israel. We will stand with our own people." Israel's foreign minister brushed aside the Lebanese leader's warning.
"As prime minister, he's simply a hostage of Hezbollah, which has veto power in his Cabinet," Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio. Asked whether there might be a new war involving Lebanon and Syria, Lieberman said: "I very much hope not." "We have no interest in heating up the fronts with any of our neighbors. At the same time, we won't be a punching bag. And we won't shrug off vitriol that's directed at Israel," he said. Lebanon's president warned Israel Tuesday that a war against Lebanon will be "no picnic."
Last week, Syria's foreign minister accused Israel of "spreading an atmosphere of war" in the region after Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the stalled peace process with Syria could result in an all-out regional war. Walid al-Moallem warned Israelis that "a war at this time will be transferred to your cities." Lieberman said the Syrians "crossed a red line" and warned Syria its army would be defeated and its regime would collapse in a future conflict. Associated Press writer Amy Teibel contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

St. Maroun: Celebrations in Lebanon and Syria

February 9, 2010
Lebanon’s Maronites celebrated the 1600th anniversary of St. Maroun’s death on Tuesday in two separate masses held in Beirut’s Saint George church and in Brad in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir held the mass at Saint George in downtown Beirut at 11:00 am. The mass was attended by President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and several cabinet ministers, MPs and politicians.
The mass at St. Maroun church in Brad, Syria was attended by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, former President Emile Lahoud, Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh and Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, who traveled to Aleppo on Monday. Aoun thanked after the prayers President Bashar al Assad and the Syrian people for their warm welcome
Aoun slammed those criticizing his visit to Syria, stressing the occasion was celebrated worldwide rather than only in one church. Franjieh said he was proud of being part of the Syrian-Iranian axis. Ad-Diyar daily said Bkirki circles have expressed frustration at attempts to show a divide among Christians. “What’s happening in Brad is an attempt to target the Maronite Patriarchate and hint that there is a Christian authority that can make decisions to weaken the Maronite church,” the newspaper said. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir held the St. Maroun mass at Saint George Cathedral in downtown Beirut at 11:00 am. The mass was attended by President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and several cabinet ministers, MPs and politicians.

Fight Sparks Shooting in East, North Lebanon

Naharnet/Lebanese troops stepped in overnight to quell two separate fights – one in east Lebanon's town of Baalbek and the other up north in the Qebbeh neighborhood near the port of Tripoli. Media reports on Tuesday said a quarrel between tow young men in Baalbek over the kidnapping of a girl developed into a gunfight in which rocket-propelled grenades were fired. They said troops dispersed a crowd of young men following an argument over a car accident. Beirut, 10 Feb 10, 10:02

Suleiman Asked Spanish King for Security Help

Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman has asked visiting Spanish King Juan Carlos for security help. During a dinner in his honor at Baabda Palace, Suleiman praised the Spanish leadership in the fight against terrorism and hailed the monarch for supporting peacekeeping efforts in the region. "More could be done to persuade Israel to honor its international commitments regarding Lebanon," Suleiman told Juan Carlos. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, calls on Hizbullah to give up its weapons and on Israel to respect Lebanese territory. Israel is accused of daily violations of Resolution 1701. Lebanon approved a measure in 2009 that allows Hizbullah to keep its weapons. Suleiman, meanwhile, praised the monarch for supporting peacekeeping efforts in the region as Spain assumes the leadership of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. Madrid holds the rotating presidency of the EU currently. Beirut, 10 Feb 10, 10:02

Separate St. Maroun Celebrations in Beirut and Brad, Sfeir Says Maronite Church Keen on Coexistence

Lebanon's Maronites celebrated the 1600th anniversary of St. Maroun's death on Tuesday in two separate masses held in Beirut's Saint George church and in Brad in the Syrian city of Aleppo.Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir held the mass at Saint George in downtown Beirut at 11:00 am. The mass was attended by President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and several cabinet ministers, MPs and politicians. Sfeir said in his sermon that the Maronite church, which was established by St. Maroun, has been keen on coexistence between Christians and Muslims. As for the mass at St. Maroun church in Brad, it was attended by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, former President Emile Lahoud, Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who traveled to Aleppo on Monday. The mass was held at noon and Aoun made a statement after the prayers. He thanked President Bashar Assad and the Syrian people for their warm welcome. Aoun said Monday his visit to Aleppo bears a historic significance, stressing the trip was aimed at reviving Eastern Christian culture. "Our visit today bears a historic importance since it sets a new track to revive true Eastern Christian culture because the Christian church originated from here," the MP told reporters upon arrival to the Syrian city. Aoun also slammed those criticizing his visit to Syria, stressing the occasion was celebrated worldwide rather than only in one church. As for Franjieh, he said his visit had a religious aspect although he hinted he was proud of being part of the Syrian-Iranian axis. Ad-Diyar daily said Bkirki circles have expressed frustration at attempts to show a divide among Christians. "What's happening in Brad is an attempt to target the Maronite Patriarchate and hint that there is a Christian authority that can make decisions to weaken the Maronite church," the newspaper said. Beirut, 09 Feb 10, 08:20

Jumblat Expresses Regret at 'Offensive Words' against Syrian People, Leadership
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has denied that he had told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius in a telephone interview in 2006 that the U.S. went to Iraq and "can do the same thing in Syria." "I never called for the invasion of Syria by the U.S. army … this is crazy," Jumblat told As Safir in an interview published Tuesday. "Maybe I thought that the condition of the opposition in Syria could improve." "I hope my clarification today would wipe out the offensive words against the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership," he said.
The Druze leader rejected continuous incitement against Damascus by some March 14 officials, saying "I don't see a necessity for that particularly after the historic settlement began with Premier Saad Hariri's visit to Damascus." About bomb attacks against anti-Syrian officials and journalists in Lebanon, Jumblat said that the series of assassinations continued after the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon. "Maybe someone wanted to pour oil on fire." On Hizbullah, Jumblat told his interviewer that he only sees "solidarity with the resistance in Lebanon and with Syria because Israeli madness" could lead to war anytime. "That's why I say that we are with the Syrian leadership above anything else in our confrontation with the Israeli enemy," the PSP leader said. He told As Safir that he would meet with Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah soon.
Turning to the Feb. 14 mass rally on the occasion of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's 5th assassination anniversary, Jumblat reiterated that he hoped the occasion would bring all Lebanese together.
He also said he would decide on how to participate in the event at the appropriate time. "Unfortunately some people are trying to isolate us from the commemoration and seeking to build a hostile atmosphere against us without any justification." Beirut, 09 Feb 10, 09:48

Hariri Convinced with Syrian Clarifications on Assad's Remarks

Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he was convinced with the clarifications of political sources on Syrian President Bashar Assad's controversial statement to The New Yorker.
Hariri told BBC radio on Monday that investigative journalist Seymour Hersh had misquoted Assad. The premier said he was in continuous contact with Assad and his latest phone conversation with him only dealt with Israeli threats to Lebanon and Syria. Assad had reportedly said that the civil war in Lebanon could start in days. An official Syrian source later clarified Assad's statement in remarks published by pan-Arab daily al-Hayat by expressing Syria's rejection of all forms of political sectarianism in the Middle East where several religious communities coexisted. Hariri hinted to BBC that he could visit Damascus to sign several agreements. On the Feb. 14 mass rally on the occasion of his father's 5th assassination anniversary, Hariri said: "I will go to Martyrs Square and people will go there too because this day is till very important." About the Ethiopian airplane that crashed upon take off from Beirut last month, Hariri said the Lebanese government was making every effort to help the victims' families know the truth behind the crash. He acknowledged that mistakes were made, saying a meeting was held to assess the government's failures in order to be ready in case of another disaster. The prime minister lauded officials involved in the rescue operations, saying their consciences were clear. Hariri told BBC he was ready to personally pay for vessels and ships scouring Lebanese waters for the plane's wreckage and victims' remains. Beirut, 09 Feb 10, 09:07

Struger: The Situation is Calm, All Sides Cooperating with UNIFIL

Milos Struger, a senior official with the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said UNIFIL's area of operations is generally calm. Struger made the comment during a briefing to reporters at the Tyre Rest House during which he announced that UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane will be replaced by Miraj Singh. Bouziane leaves her post on Tuesday and heads to Liberia to become the official spokeswoman of U.N. peacekeepers there. "There is no indicator in the south about the change in the positions of different sides. Everyone is cooperating with UNFIIL in accordance with Security Council resolution 1701," the official said. He told reporters that the Israeli army has increased its overflights. "Except that, the situation is generally calm and all sides have stressed they don't want war and are committed to stopping aggressions and cooperating with UNIFIL." Beirut, 09 Feb 10, 11:07

Walid Jumblatt
February 10, 2010
On February 9, As-Safir newspaper carried the following report:
As-Safir had a global interview with President of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt in what he described as an "interview for history" as he is on his way to Damascus whereby all the roads [to Damascus] have been crossed and nothing remains but the technical aspect related to being invited and being informed of the time of the visit. Jumblatt gave his interview a critical rhythm as he [even criticized] himself and some of his March 14 allies in addition to the entire political class that has benefited from the "Syrian tutelage" stage, saying, "Yes, we have introduced the Syrians into the Lebanese alleys and at a certain point they stepped with us into the alleys and interests..."
Jumblatt wanted to clarify to the Syrian people the truth about what went on between him and the American reporter at the Washington Post, David Ignatius, at the beginning of January 2006. He says that he had never called for the invasion of Syria by the American army as "it is illogical for me to call for the invasion of Syria. This is crazy… I may have thought that the conditions of some of the opposition [forces] in Syria must be improved. Maybe we had an illusion. But I never demanded the invasion of Syria…" Jumblatt rejected the constant incitement against Syria by some of the March 14 parties and said: "I see no reason for this especially since the historical settlement has started with the visit of PM Saad al-Hariri to Damascus." He expressed his belief that the inciting is an attempt to annul or forget that Al-Hariri has visited Damascus.
Jumblatt also thought that there is a great need for this settlement to be translated later into security relations - that preserve the Lebanese security from any Israeli or non-Israeli infiltration directed against Syria - in addition to political relations "where we would remind [ourselves] of the Israeli enemy and the Arab ally and depth. Indeed, until this moment, there are unfortunately some Muslim and Christian factions of the Lebanese people who do not realize this." And in answering a question, Jumblatt said that after the withdrawal of the Syrian army, the assassinations did not stop and we used to politically accuse the Syrian regime. However, there might have been a party who wanted to pour oil over the fire through the issue of the assassinations, since the land was infiltrated."
Jumblatt called for stepping out of the vicious circle internally and said: "let us come up with an electoral law that provides a breathing space for the new political forces and elites that might make a difference one day… Is there an alternative solution? From within the sectarian structure, you can do nothing. The sectarian forces break one another… Everyone wants to deal a blow to the Resistance in Lebanon and those who support it in Iran and Syria. I see nothing on the horizon but solidarity with the Resistance in Lebanon and Syria…Therefore I say that we are with the Syrian leadership - away from all the past considerations – in the face of the Israeli enemy…" Jumblatt asserted that he will participate in the [Rafik Al-Hariri] commemoration…He [also] confirmed that he will meet with Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah soon.

Much ado about lobbying
Talking to pro-peace lobbyist Sama Adnan
Farrah Zughni , February 10, 2010
Now Lebanon
When it comes to influencing US foreign policy, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has held legendary sway. A popular subject of conspiracy theories and journalistic inquires alike, AIPAC is ranked among the most powerful lobbies in the country and was recognized by the New York Times as "the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel” according to the group’s own website.
Sama Adnan wants to change that. Last October, he founded ANewPolicyPAC, a political action committee (PAC) that hopes to counter AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbies by funding politicians who support what he describes as a “pro-peace” position. Among his organization’s objectives are calling for an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza, an immediate freeze on Israeli settlements and “[t]he establishment of a Palestinian state next to a secure Israel.”
NOW spoke to Adnan about his organization and what he hopes to achieve in the notoriously pro-Israeli world of DC lobbying.
What would you say to skeptics who question whether forming a lobby is the way to bring about change?
Adnan: I would say that it’s a bit futile at this moment to try to change the American system. I mean, we have a system that has been functioning for more than 200 years in essentially the same way, although you can argue that the power of lobbies has grown increasingly throughout history. The issue becomes then: How do we affect change in the United States. Anybody who cares about peace in the Middle East has to really engage the American system as it functions, not as we want or wish it to be.
As a lobbyist myself, there’s a lot to be desired about the system in the United States, but I still think it’s a great system. Do I wish that lobbies had less power? Yes. Do I wish that American voters were more engaged and had more say in what goes on in American foreign policy? Of course I do. But right now, the only way to fight the pro-Israel lobby is to form another lobby that can also get congressmen and senators elected.
AIPAC and other organizations already have such an incredible advantage, aren’t you afraid the battle is already lost?
Adnan: I think we’ve only lost that battle because we haven’t tried. If you look at AIPAC’s numbers during the 2007-2008 election, AIPAC and the hard-line pro-Israel PACs in general altogether contributed $3.5 million. That is not a large sum of money.
In fact, the liberal pro-Israel lobby, it’s named J Street, which is quite more liberal than AIPAC, in its first year of operation in 2008 raised $500,000 and supported more than 40 congressmen.
So why can’t a PAC that is neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian, but is pro-peace and working for America’s national interests, raise $1 million in its first year and maybe $5 million in its fifth year?
When so many of your opponents are deliberately branding themselves as “pro-Israel” why have you opted for a neutral position rather than labeling yourself “pro-Palestine”?
Adnan: The reason that we decided that ANewPolicyPAC should be a nonpartisan PAC is that we very sincerely believe that what is good for Palestine is good for Israel. The conflict in this region has consumed both sides and has consumed them for just as long. If anything should be learned from history it’s that [both sides] are inextricably intertwined and there is no way to extricate either side from the other. And so, there has to be an agreement by both sides to live together, whether in one state or two states – whatever they decide – but this is really the choice of the people. Being simply a pro-Palestinian lobby would obfuscate or obstruct this vision.
Why hasn’t this been done before?
Adnan: We should have had such a lobby maybe 50 years ago. The only issues are that the Arab American and Muslim American populations are relatively new. Thirty years ago, most Arab Americans and Muslim Americans were immigrants. This is changing now; we have a first and second generation of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans that are extremely engaged in the political process, who care about this issue a lot and are raising awareness about this issue. This is in great contrast to Jewish Americans, who have been here and have been politically engaged for more than 100 years.
Considering the rate of settlement expansion and violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories, isn’t it too late to achieve your goals?
Adnan: Well it’s definitely late… Now, as far as it being too late, you can never be too late for this issue because it’s not going to resolve itself. And secondly, the United States is really the only country that can resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Period… The United States is the only country that has any leverage with Israel because it finances Israel’s… basically everything.
Once [the pro-Israel lobbies] don’t have a monopoly on campaign funding, then [our work] can be very easily done. Congressmen can propose that Israel, in order to continue getting American support, must leave the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem and establish a Palestinian state or give Palestinians citizenship and have a one-state solution with equal rights for all… Do you think it’s possible to change American public opinion on this issue? Adnan: Unfortunately, the reality is that most Americans do not care about Israel and Palestine. Because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is too remote for most Americans, they do not realize the effect it has had on American security and American prosperity in the last 60, 70 years… They don’t understand how it has negatively impacted America’s image around the world. Most Americans don’t think the Arab-Israeli conflict has anything to do with the United States.
As such, most Americans do not go to the voting booth asking themselves, “What does this candidate think about the Arab-Israeli issue?” They vote on things they care about, which is similar to most people around the world. They care about education, their healthcare, they care about how high their taxes are going, if their standards of living are being maintained or rising… If not the public, who do you have to win over? Adnan: The Arab-Israeli conflict battle in the United States is being fought mainly in Congress, and this is the reason why AIPAC has been extremely successful. Congressmen don’t have to answer to their constituents about their votes on the Arab-Israeli issue because most of them do not care. So they do what is politically expedient, which is take money from AIPAC and just give whatever AIPAC vote they have to give… But many congressmen increasingly realize that this blind support for Israel has great repercussions for the United States and has really endangered the United States in terms of terrorism and financial capability in the last ten years. These congressmen are increasingly speaking out, and the least we can do as American citizens is to be able to fund their campaigns and help them in the next five to ten years…
Does your organization take a stand on the wider, regional conflict between Israel and its neighbors? What about Lebanon specifically?
Adnan: Absolutely [we address] everything in the Middle East. Our mission statement pushes for the resolution of all Arab-Israeli disputes, including the return of the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon. Also, [we call for] the return of the Golan Heights to Syria and of course, integration of Israel into the Middle East – meaning, as the Arab peace initiative has promised, total normalization between Israel and all Arab countries for a comprehensive peace. Israel has to become part of the Middle East if it wishes to survive and if the Middle East wishes to prosper, frankly…

How Iranian shells reach the Mideast’s seashores

Tony Badran, February 9, 2010
Now Lebanon/
The Israeli military display arms sent from Iran to Hezbollah after they were seized from the Francop on November 4, 2009. (AFP photo/David Buimovitch)
The recent assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai has been described as another episode in an ongoing shadow war between Israel and Islamist groups, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah. However, the Mabhouh incident also shed light on another shadowy enterprise underpinning the destabilization of the Middle East and Iran’s quest for regional hegemony, namely Tehran’s smuggling of arms.
One of the details to emerge from the Mabhouh killing was that he played a key role in smuggling “special weapons” to Gaza, and that his trip to Dubai was related to this task. Dubai has long been a hub for Iran’s arms supply efforts to the region. Last year, for instance, the Emirati authorities stopped an Iran-bound ship, the ANL Australia, which was carrying 10 containers of North Korean weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and components for thousands of short-range rockets.
In recent years, Iranian maritime smuggling of arms has evolved exponentially in the Gulf, across to East Africa and the Red Sea, as well as in the eastern Mediterranean. The networks extend to several hotspots in the region and include Iranian allies and proxies, all of which are used as assets or levers in Iran’s efforts to advance its interests in the Middle East.
The smuggling networks span from the Bandar Abbas port in Iran, across to Yemen’s Aden and Al-Hudaydah ports, the Aseb port in Eritrea, and Sudan’s Port Sudan. The 2002 Karine-A affair, in which Israel intercepted a Palestinian vessel apparently carrying Iranian weapons for Palestinian combatants in Gaza, was a harbinger. The ship used ports in Sudan and Yemen, before heading up the Red Sea, where it was seized.
Last March, a convoy of arms smugglers was bombed, presumably by the Israel Air Force, as it drove from Sudan to Egypt, carrying what some speculated were Iranian Fajr missiles intended for Hamas. Those killed in the strike included Sudanese, Ethiopians and Eritreans, and their route was regularly used by smugglers moving weapons into Egypt. The operation exemplified the complex methods employed by Iran to move weapons into the Sinai, then into Gaza through the Rafah tunnels.
Hezbollah has also smuggled arms into Gaza using similar passages. For example, the Hezbollah cell uncovered by the Egyptian authorities last April was involved in such an operation, as acknowledged by the party’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. Egypt’s tighter control of its border with Gaza, including its building of a steel barrier, has made smuggling into the territory much more difficult. That is a reason why Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas have so vehemently attacked Egypt since.
Iranian involvement in East Africa is multifaceted. Tehran had spent time cultivating closer ties with the Sudanese government, and in 2008 the two signed a military cooperation agreement a year after talks began.
A 2006 report (PDF) on Somalia by a UN monitoring group shed more light on Iranian involvement in East Africa. It noted that Tehran explored obtaining uranium from Somalia in return for supplying weapons to the Somali Islamic Courts Union. Moreover, Iran and Hezbollah, as well as a host of other countries including Syria and Libya, were said to have offered, with Eritrean assistance, to support and train ICU combatants.
Fast-forward three years to 2009, to another conflict on the other side of the Red Sea. A top Yemeni intelligence official stated last December that his government had evidence showing Iranian support for the Houthi rebels. “We [have] also intercepted a ship loaded with weapons which we believe originated from Iran,” the head of Yemen’s National Security Council, Ali Muhammad al-Anisi, told participants at the Manama Dialogue security summit. Meanwhile, the private intelligence firm Stratfor claimed in a report that Iran has been using Eritrean and Somali connections to supply arms to the Houthis through Eritrea’s Aseb harbor.
The United States has been more reserved. In a recent interview with Al-Hayat, the US assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, said (in remarks translated from the Arabic) that while Washington was “very aware of the fact that Iran had a history of very negative intervention in other countries’ affairs, as is the case in Lebanon and Iraq ... currently we simply don’t have evidence that Iranian intervention with the Houthis is as deep as it is with Hezbollah.” The statement was hardly a strong denial of Iranian involvement, since Iran’s ties to Hezbollah far surpass that with any other armed group.
If Iran’s meddling in Gaza has put pressure on Egypt, the Yemeni conflict has earned Tehran a valuable pressure point against Saudi Arabia and a lever with which to project its power with the other Gulf States.
What these episodes show is that naval smuggling has been developing as Iran’s preferred method for supplying weapons. The episode of the Francop – the ship carrying 500 tons of weapons to Hezbollah and intercepted by Israel last November – was probably the tip of the iceberg. In addition to highlighting the failure of UNIFIL’s naval contingent off Lebanese shores, it raised questions about the role of the Beirut port in Iran’s efforts to supply Hezbollah with weapons.
Iran’s arms smuggling also gives it leverage over allies such as Syria, by turning Damascus into a secondary actor when it comes to Hamas and Hezbollah. The Syrians have become more dependent on Iran and Hezbollah – integrating both more closely into their military strategy and hosting Iranian listening posts and other intelligence assets on Syrian soil. Syria can no longer credibly sell itself as the obligatory mediator to deal with matters related to Hamas and Hezbollah, as the two are now capable of receiving logistical backing directly from Tehran.
Iran is playing an old game in Middle Eastern power politics: building regional influence through arms supplies to those who can further its agenda. For all the talk about non-state actors, the Iranian smuggling networks highlight that political violence and destabilization in the Middle East remain first and foremost a state enterprise.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.