LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 16/2012

Bible Quotation for today/The Rich Man
Luke 18/18-29: "A Jewish leader asked Jesus, Good Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him.  No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; respect your father and your mother. The man replied, Ever since I was young, I have obeyed all these commandments. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me. But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.  Jesus saw that he was sad and said, How hard it is for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God! It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The people who heard him asked, Who, then, can be saved? Jesus answered, What is humanly impossible is possible for God. Then Peter said, Look! We have left our homes to follow you.Yes, Jesus said to them, and I assure you that anyone who leaves home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will receive much more in this present age and eternal life in the age to come.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
The Massacre of the Syrians/By Abdullah Al-Otaibi/February 15/12
Hezbollah chief's reply to Haaretz/By Moshe Arens /February 15/12
Hamas of contradictions /By: Hussein Ibish,/February 15/12
A dangerous sideshow/Now Lebanon/February 14/12
Why did the Syrian regime choose option two/By Ali Ibrahim/February 15/12
In election-season Iran, domestic politics trump fear of Israeli attack/By Zvi Bar'el/February 15/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 15/12
Lebanon's Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi : Lebanon has not implemented anti-torture protocols
Israel incapable of attacking Lebanon: Iran’s envoy
20,000 Muslims Attempt to Kill Pastor and Torch Church in Egypt
Netanyahu: Iran's terror acts undermine the world's stability
Report: Iran stops oil exports to six European countries
India terror attack: 5 arrested, 'suspicious motorcycle' found
Zvi Bar'el / In election-season Iran, domestic politics trump fear of Israeli attack
U.S. condemns Thailand terror attack, hints at Iran 'fingerprints'
Barak blames Iran for botched Thailand terror attack
India: 'Well-trained person' behind terror attack at Israeli embassy
Intelligence experts: No proven links between Bangkok blasts and Indian, Georgian attacks '
U.S. Defense Secretary: Israel has yet to decide on Iran strike
Police Deploy in Tehran to Head Off Demos
Report: First opposition protests held in Iran capital in 12 months
Iran increases presence in Syria
'Israel warned India of possible terror plot'
Dennis Ross tells Haaretz: Sanctions against Iran are working
Bradley Burston / Ahmadinejad's Iran is the new best friend of Israeli settlers
The Muslim Brotherhood prepares for Egypt's new government
March 14 salutes the Syrian opposition
Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel: Lebanon Cannot Support Arab Revolts while it is Victim of Illegitimate Arms
Hariri: I Will Bear Responsibility of My Solidarity with Syrian People
Syrian National Council: We Back Lebanese in an Independent Lebanon, Not as Part of Syria
Geagea to Hizbullah: No Future for Illegal Arms, Velayat-e faqih, Regional Axes
Aoun Hits Back at Geagea, Gemayel: Govt. is Here to Stay
Jumblat: Syrian Intelligence behind Zawahiri’s Support for Syrian Revolt
Mansour Meets Aoun: Arab Decision on Syria Not in Lebanon’s Interest
Aoun ups ante in government crisis
Arabs open way for arming Syrians, civil war feared
Arab states ready to arm Syrian resistance
Syrian National Council to Choose Leader Wednesday in Doha
France Says Studying All Arab League Syria Options at U.N.

Netanyahu: Iran's terror acts undermine the world's stability
By Barak Ravid/Haaretz
Five arrested on suspicion of involvement in New Delhi attack against Israeli embassy; Thai police investigating Tuesday's botched bombing, one suspect reportedly fled to Malaysia.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Iran is destabilizing the world and urged the international community to condemn its terror acts against Israeli targets.
The prime minister's comments come a day after a botched terror attack in Thailand, which Israeli officials believe was meant to target Israel's ambassador in Bangkok. The bombing followed an attack on Israel's embassy in New Delhi and an attempted attack on Israeli diplomats in Tbilisi. "Iran's terror operations are now exposed for all to see," Netanyahu said during a Knesset plenum on Wednesday. "Iran is undermining the world's stability and harms innocent diplomats. World countries must condemn Iran's terror acts and draw a red line."
Four Thai civilians were wounded in Bangkok in a series of blasts that began Tuesday when a cache of explosives ignited at a house, apparently by mistake. One explosion blew off the leg of an Iranian who had fled, carrying what looked like grenades. On Monday, a bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi wounded four people, including a diplomat's wife. A similar bomb found under a car in Georgia on Monday was defused. The Indian police detained five suspects for questioning on suspicion of involvement in the New Delhi attack, India Today reported.
According to the report, the police was able to identify the assailant, who placed the bomb on the car of the wife of the Defense Ministry's representative in India, Tali Yehoshua-Koren, using footage from CCTV cameras positioned on the embassy’s street. The police also identified a red motorcycle believed to have been used by the terror cell.
The New Delhi police suspect that the terrorist had followed the Israeli diplomat. A few hours before the blast, the Israeli diplomat met with his wife for lunch in the Khan Market. Security cameras from the market area caught several of the suspects loitering around Tali Yehoshua-Koren’s car that was parked nearby.
Moreover, the police have been going over international phone calls made from New Delhi to Iran, Lebanon, and Pakistan during the hours following the bombing. During the half-an-hour from 3:30 to 4:00 P.M on the day of the attack, 115 calls were made to those three countries. Four of them were made from a phone booth near the market where the Israeli couple met. Thirteen of the conversations lasted between eight to ten minutes, and the police are trying to identify the persons who made these calls. According to the report in India Today, the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, gave its Indian counterpart a list of eight suspects, believed to have been involved in the attack. The investigation of the Iranian terror cell in Thailand is also in progress. The Thai police set up a special command center dedicated to the search and seizure of cell members still at large. The police issued an arrest warrant for an additional member. Another suspect had apparently already fled the country on a flight to Malaysia. Thailand asked the Malaysia police to arrest the suspect. Mohammad Haji, a member of the terror cell, who was arrested in Bangkok’s international airport trying to flee the country, denied all involvement in the bombing. Despite his denial, the Thai police believe they have enough evidence to prosecute him in the case. The police said the members of the terror cell arrived via Seoul, South Korea.

20,000 Muslims Attempt to Kill Pastor and Torch Church in Egypt
15-2012 1:49:11/Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- A mob of nearly 20,000 radical Muslims, mainly Salafis, attempted this evening to break into and torch the Church of St. Mary and St. Abram in the village of Meet Bashar,in Zagazig, Sharqia province. They were demanding the death of Reverend Guirgis Gameel, pastor of the church, who has been unable to leave his home since yesterday. Nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building. A home of a Copt living near the church and the home of the church's porter were torched, as well as three cars.
The mob demanded the return Rania of Khalil Ibrahim, 15, to her father. She has been held with the Security Directorate since yesterday. Christian-born Rania had converted to Islam three months ago after her father, who had converted to Islam two years ago and took custody of her. She had disappeared from the village on Saturday, after claiming to go shopping. According to Reverend Guirgis Gameel, she had a disagreement with her father, who had arranged a marriage for her with a Muslim man.
Her father, Khalil Ibrahim, went to the police on Saturday and accused the priest of being behind her disappearance, and said she had gone to live with her Coptic mother.
Yesterday a Salafi mob of 2000 went to the priest's home and destroyed his furniture and his car, surrounded the church and pelted it with stones. They demolished a large section of the church fence. In the evening security forces announced that they had found Rania in Cairo and that she was not abducted by Christians; she was brought to the police station in Meet Bashar.
"After hearing this news yesterday everyone was relieved," said Coptic activist Waguih Jacob. "However, the Copts noticed that the Muslims did not completely disperse, but were hovering in all streets." The few security forced who were stationed in front of the church were dismissed as the village seemed to return to peace.
But the mob became more angry this evening when they heard that Rania refused to go back to live with her father, and returned in much greater numbers.
Some Coptic eyewitnesses said that a number of Muslim villagers tried to prevent the Salafis from assaulting their Christian neighbors and some stood as human shields to protect the church, until security forces arrived.
Bishop Yuaness, Secretary to Pope Shenouda III, said this evening that they have been in contact since yesterday with authorities "at the highest levels."
Ms. Marian Malak, a Coptic member of parliament, contacted the Egyptian prime minister El-Ganzoury, who ordered sending reinforcements to contain the crisis.
Bishop Tadros Sedra, of Minia el Kamh and Zagazig Coptic diocese, said this evening that military and police forces have arrived in great numbers and have dispersed Muslims from outside the church and the home of Reverend Guirgis Gameel. He confirmed that security will stay in the village for at least two weeks.
US-based Coptic Solidarity International, issued a press release today strongly urging the international community, through the United Nations Human Rights Council, to appoint a special rapporteur for the Copts in Egypt, particularly in light of the recent evictions, property confiscations and attacks against Copts (AINA 1-28-2012).
By Mary Abdelmassih
Copyright (C) 2012, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Hezbollah chief's reply to Haaretz
By Moshe Arens /Haaretz
No wonder Nasrallah feels a little shaky and is trying to shore up his public image by insisting he's an independent factor in the Middle East equation.
Is it possible that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reads Haaretz? Not the Hebrew edition, of course. But does he read the English edition online, or is the print edition smuggled to him in Beirut by one of his agents in Israel? Or is it translated to him by one of his aides?
One way or another, he seems to have decided to react to an article on Haaretz's op-ed page, not very prominently displayed, on January 24; the piece discussed a statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his recent visit to Beirut. There he said Hezbollah's arsenal outside the authority of the Lebanese government was unacceptable. Commenting on Ban's statement, the Haaretz article stated that whereas a situation where a terrorist organization had deployed tens of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel was unacceptable to the UN secretary-general, it was intolerable for Israel. What's more, it was creating a situation where all Lebanon was sitting on a time bomb. If Israel were forced to destroy this vast rocket arsenal, great destruction would inevitably rain down on all Lebanon. In other words, Hezbollah was putting all Lebanon in danger.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Follow Haaretz.com on Facebook and share your views. Hezbollah's rockets, it was pointed out, serve as a protective shield against Iran's nuclear ambitions and will be unleashed against Israel on orders from Tehran. Therefore, sooner or later, action will have to be taken to bring about the dismantling of these rockets.
It took Nasrallah about two weeks to digest the full meaning of this message and all its implications - just what the people of Lebanon, sitting on the powder keg he had built under them, would conclude, and how that would affect Hezbollah's standing in Lebanon. Also an issue was the danger of international moves forcing the dismantling of his rockets in Lebanon, and failing that the possibility of military action to destroy his rocket arsenal.
On February 7, from his hideout in Beirut, Nasrallah broadcast by video-link a message to the people of Lebanon, a message also of interest to Haaretz's readers. Yes, he said, Hezbollah receives financial and material aid from Iran, but he denied that it takes operational instructions from Iran. Then he added a key sentence. If Israel were to attack Iran's nuclear sites, Iran's leadership "would not ask anything of Hezbollah." If that were to happen, he continued, Hezbollah's own leadership would "sit down, think and decide what to do."
So there you have it, believe it or not. Hezbollah, though it receives financial and material aid from its "brothers" in Iran, is an "independent organization," does not take orders from Tehran, and will decide when to launch or not to launch the tens of thousands of rockets it has deployed all over Lebanon against Israel. It will do this only after it has "sat down, thought about the problem and decided what to do." So, Nasrallah says, the people in Lebanon and the people in Tel Aviv have nothing to worry about.
Nasrallah must be really foolish if he believes he can hoodwink the people of Lebanon, the people of Israel or the international community. His ties to his masters in Tehran are too well known. It is they who call the shots. It is they who are trying to bolster the Assad regime in Syria. It is the continuation of Bashar Assad's rule in Damascus that assures the Iranian supply line to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
No wonder Nasrallah feels a little shaky and is trying to shore up his public image by insisting he's an independent factor in the Middle East equation. But the basic facts remain. Hezbollah's rockets in Lebanon are part and parcel of the Iranian effort to attain nuclear weapons, and neutralizing this rocket threat must be part of the strategy to keep Iran from attaining a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran increases presence in Syria
Ron Ben-Yishai /Ynetnews
Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah operatives aiding Assad's brutal crackdown on protesters now number in the hundreds Iran has significantly increased its involvement in Syria over the past few days, Ynet learned Monday.The presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah operatives assisting Syrian President Bashar Assad's in his brutal crackdown of protesters now number in the high hundreds; while the Arab League said that it will not supply the rebels with arms unless the bloodshed comes to a halt. The majority of Iranian and Hezbollah operatives in Syria supply Assad's army with intelligence and train the Damascus forces on weapons' maintenance and reconnaissance. A smaller group of operatives is involved in the actual fighting. Tehran has also increased the financial assistance it lends Damascus. It also maintains regular flights to the Syrian capital – a practice Arab League members have suspended due to the escalating violence. Iran's financial aid is one of Assad's lifelines, as it keeps the middle class in Damascus and Halab (Aleppo) from rising against him as well. The Islamic Republic's decision to bolster ties with Syria at a time when Tehran has to deal with growing international sanctions, imposed on it over its refusal to suspend its nuclear program, indicates that the ayatollah's regime believes Assad and his government can survive the uprising. The rebels have long claimed that Iran is helping Assad – an assessment backed by Britain and the United States. Meanwhile, the Arab League is preparing a draft on a UN Security Council resolution on Syria. The draft coincides with a recent decision passed by the pan-Arab organization, which urges its members to "lend any political and monetary assistance possible" to the Opposition. An Arab diplomat said that the Arab League "Will offer the Opposition funding and diplomatic assistance at first, but if the regime's killing continues, we must help the citizens protect themselves… The decision grants the Arab nations the possibility to defend the Syrian people."

Intelligence experts: No proven links between Bangkok blasts and Indian, Georgian attacks
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 14, 2012, 11:21/Notwithstanding the loud and angry Israel official contentions that the three explosions in Bangkok Tuesday Feb. 13 were part of an Iranian global terror drive, senior Israeli intelligence sources told debkafile that no connection – other than circumstantial - had been uncovered as yet between that incident and the sticky-bomb attacks on Israeli official cars in New Delhi and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi 24 hours earlier. The wife of an Israeli official and three Indians were seriously wounded in the first attack, which Indian home minister P Chidambaram attributed to a “very well trained person.”In contrast, the Bangkok episode stands out as bizarre and aberrant: No terrorist attack actually took place there and there is no proof that the three persons who rented an apartment in the city were preparing to attack Israelis or anyone else, although they had bomb materials with them. Something caused those materials to blow up and all three took to their heels. One of the trio, identified by his Iranian passport as Saeib Morabi, kept the explosives with him. He threw one at a local cab driver who refused to pick him up and another device at a policeman who came to arrest him. The second bomb bounced back and blew off one of his legs. Senior intelligence experts find this conduct incredible. A terrorist on the run would above all keep his head down and avoid attracting attention. He would certainly not start throwing bombs on busy foreign streets. Neither would members of a terrorist cell operate use their real identities and carry genuine passports. Those passports were used to rent an apartment in Bangkok on Feb. 8.
So why did Israeli officials assert so confidently that a major terrorist attack had been planned in Bangkok as part of the Iranian global campaign? Three reasons:
1. There are no plans for retaliation;
2. Israeli counter-terror agencies failed to see the New Delhi and Tbilisi bombing attacks coming on Feb. 13 and missed the start of a fresh wave of terror;
3. They are in the dark about the source or sources of the attacks on Israeli diplomats abroad and the investigations have a long way to go.
Tuesday, Thai police declined to make any link between the three explosions Tuesday and the arrest last month of a Lebanese man in Bangkok who had links to Hizballah.
At first, Israeli terrorist investigators assumed Hizballah carried out the bomb attacks on diplomats in Georgia and India to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of the Lebanese Shiite group’s commander in chief Imad Moughniyeh.
They shifted ground when it was discovered that a motorcyclist had attached a magnetic bomb to the Talya Koren’s car not far from the Israeli embassy, and noted that the attack mirrored the method used in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran.
Tuesday, Iranian spokesmen stopped denying responsibility for the incidents. Instead, Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, avoiding mention of Georgia and India, said this: “The Supreme Leader’s remarks indicate that we will never and under no circumstances back down and give in to the enemy’s threats, but we will make threats against them using appropriate mechanisms.”
He was confirming the strategy laid down at a three-way meeting in the summer of 2011 meeting between Vahidi, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which debkafile reported at the time from its military and intelligence sources.

The Massacre of the Syrians
By Abdullah Al-Otaibi
Asharq Alawsat
Most eras throughout human history have been full of bloodshed and brutality, whilst only a few have been calm and peaceful. Arab and Islamic history is no exception, having certainly experienced its fair share of brutality.
The title of this article comes from a book by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani entitled “The Massacre of the Talibyeen [descendants of Ali Ibn Talib]”. This is a collection of articles about the battles fought by the ruling families during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate eras. After observing the history of the al-Assad family era in Syria, from Hafez to Bashar, I cannot think of a more apt name for this bloody phase in Syria’s history than the “Massacre of the Syrians”.
With the bloody and inhumane killings, the “Massacre of the Syrians” continues unabated. This was a plan first initiated by Hafez al-Assad, whilst Bashar only wants to continue and amplify it. From the massacre of Hama to the massacres of Palmyra and Homs, the total death toll is larger in terms of magnitude and significance than any development or economic figures to emerge from Syria. From reading Arab or Islamic history, one would encounter many atrocities, whether in general history books detailing wars exchanged between states or political entities, or in those that depict the ordeals, calamities and sufferings within a single political regime. The most recent publication in this regard is the book entitled “The Encyclopedia of Torture” written by Abboud al-Shaliji, who collated material through extensive historical and cultural investigations. The book leaves the ordinary reader with a sense of pain due to the overwhelming account of injustice, torture and murder. However, the does not detail atrocities to the extent that the al-Assad regime has gone to, in terms of the horrors it carries out and the killing machine it operates against its own people.
Although the Arab and Islamic history books have no precedent to help us with this size of organized bloodshed that the Syrian state is exercising against its own citizens, other modern history books can give us explicit examples of political regimes killing their own people, most notably Hitler’s Nazis in Germany, surpassing the communist Stalin as the leading example, having claimed millions of lives. Likewise we can consider Mao Tse Tung’s massacres in China, and the 20th century also gives us other examples, although smaller, that fit in the same bloody context.
The history of the Russians, who support the leaders of the al-Assad regime in Syria, is full terms of committing massacres or defending them. In terms of committing massacres, the history of Soviet communism bears testament to this, and in terms of defending them, then we do not have to look much further than the Russian stance in defense of the Bosnian genocide after the breakup of the state of Yugoslavia. Perhaps, in evoking this history, we are provided with an answer to those who wonder: How can Russia bear all these crimes and how does it have the capacity to defend them? The modern history of China also testifies that it too has the ability and capacity to do so.
Among the significant differences between the massacres of the father and son in the al-Assad regime, one of the most notable is the media, its power and its strength. During the reign of Hafez al-Assad, the media did not have the capacity and proliferation as it does now, where technological developments can provide all you need in terms of pictures and video clips, sent directly from the scene of the events. When the massacre of Homs took place, the regime know that every Homs citizen could be a reporter through their mobile phone, which can capture images and video clips and send them to the world in seconds. Hence the regime sought to cut off all means of communication from the city.
When ordinary words are unable to explain sufferings, and when phrases fail to express anguish, many people resort to the creations of our authors and literature. Hence, we see how both the elite and the general public tend to recite the poems of late Syrian poet Nezar Qabbani, when simple words fail to depict and portray what is going on.
In the literary expression of human sufferings, poetry has profound strength, persistence, distinction and impact, and novels have a different sort of strength and a different impact. An eternal line of verse or a creative novel can have the same effect in terms of immortalizing pain and suffering, and can preserve crimes in people's memory so that they are never forgotten. We can recall what was written by the female Chinese novelist Yung Chang about the modern history of pro-Assad China in her significant novel "Wild Swans". We also remember was written in the Arab world by Abdul-Rahman Munif, firstly in his novel "East of the Mediterranean ", and then in his follow-up "Here and Now: Or East of the Mediterranean Once Again". In these two novels, Munif offers a painful account of the Arab states that witnessed military and ideological coups in the mid-20th century. Although he did not name specific countries, his account of events is close to that of Syria and Iraq, more specifically the reign of the Baath Arab Socialist Party.
I'm not well acquainted with Russian literature and cannot recall a specific novel or poem to serve this particular context. However, I am certain that the authors who succeeded Tolstoy and Dostoevsky must have been able to produce many works about Stalin's massacres.
Therefore, "a few claim that the history of the 20th century and the political thinking therein is a success story - whilst in fact the truth is the opposite because the 20th century was full of outbursts, tension, mass movements and mass killings" (Political Thought in the 20th Century: 1/15). We must surely re-evaluate history more carefully and patiently, in order to discover a new approach or a different vision to realize what is really going on. History has its ups and downs in accordance with a variety of elements and variables, and it is certain that history will not necessarily advance in a positive manner, as some believe, nor will it regress in the future as others like Bashar al-Assad may believe.
Arab states, most prominently in the Gulf region, alongside Turkey and Western powers, are seeking to form an international alliance named the “Friends of the Syrian People”. This aims to maintain the pressures mounted on the al-Assad regime; diplomatically through the UN or by returning to the Security Council, and politically by intensifying sanctions and isolating the regime. These countries should also follow the Gulf measures and expel the Syrian regime's ambassadors. They should also support Turkey; Syria's only neighbor able to create a buffer zone to protect the Syrian civilians. Likewise, it is now time for us all to recognize the Syrian National Council as the true representative of the Syrian people. The regime's manner of conduct is becoming extremely violent with every passing day following the Russian-Chinese veto, and the daily death toll in Syria has doubled. The regime is not content with the use of the Shabiha and the military; it is now using heavy military equipment, shelling houses and neighborhoods with tanks and missiles. It is intimidating the residents of Homs by bringing its military vehicles closer to it, along the lines of what Bashar al-Assad's father did when he carried out a massacre in Hama previously.
The al-Assad regime is tirelessly seeking to repeat history in Syria, yet it seems to be overlooking the fact that the logic of history is stronger than that of al-Assad and his regime.

'Israel warned India of possible terror plot'
New Delhi media say Israeli intelligence
Ynet Published: 02.15.12, 01:30 / Israel News
forwarded list of 50 Iranian nationals to Indian counterparts two weeks before attack on Israeli embassy . "A list of about 50 Iranians was submitted by a high-level Israeli delegation to the Union home ministry over two weeks ago… Israel requested that the individuals named on the list be kept under surveillance," a New Delhi security source told the newspaper. The Times of India reported that Israel and India are working in tandem to investigate Monday’s blast.
"India is working closely with Israel at all levels to get to the bottom of Monday's explosion," the report said. India has also formed a joint taskforce with Georgia, where an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi was foiled. New Delhi authorities were still baffled Tuesday by the exact nature of the explosives used in Monday's attack on the Israeli diplomatic car. An Israeli team of experts arrived in India and teamed with the New Delhi Police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
According to the report, the FBI has also offered its assistance in the investigation. The nature of the dual attacks has prompted the Foreign Ministry to order Israeli diplomats stationed overseas to avoid travelling in marked embassy vehicles, in the immediate future, and opt for taxis instead.

Geagea to Hizbullah: No Future for Illegal Arms, Velayat-e faqih, Regional Axes
by Naharnet /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday called on Hizbullah not to be “mistaken in its calculations,” stressing that “there is no future for any illegal arms and no future for any mini-state.”Speaking at a rally held by the March 14 forces at the BIEL hall in Beirut to mark ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s seventh murder anniversary, Geagea said: “The moment of freedom, democracy and real statehood has come in the region, so do not be mistaken in your calculations.”
“You (Hizbullah) are our dear partners, so why are you insisting on isolating yourselves from the rest of the Lebanese. The future belongs to the State, the future belongs to a sovereign, free and independent Lebanon, not to (Iran’s doctrine of) Velayat-e faqih or any (regional) axis.”
Slamming the Hizbullah-led government in Lebanon, Geagea described it as “a wretched government witnessing wretched internal conflicts.”
“The wretched ministers are trying to cover their scandals with slogans, their slogans with lies and their lies with overbidding,” he charged.
“Every additional day in the life of this government deducts a year from the life of Lebanon and its freedom and economy. This government has been blundering around in all directions, but what’s required is one thing: stepping down,” Geagea added.
He stressed that the government “will leave with those (the Syrian regime) who are leaving.”
Addressing the ministers, Geagea said: “You have suffocated us with the smell of your deals and scandals, you have exhausted what’s left of our economy, you have paralyzed what’s left of our state.”
“The current Lebanese government is a bizarre government that is going against the natural democratic flow in the region and against Lebanon’s historical path. It is the government of clinical death and it is full of paralysis, darkness, corruption, squandering and blackmailing,” Geagea lamented. He also criticized the government over its stance on the Syrian crisis.
“At the same time the officers and soldiers of the Syrian army themselves are refusing to heed the orders of their regime, some in this government and some of its administrations are rushing to meet the desires and orders of the regime, even if that required them to persecute the innocents, refugees, displaced and homeless who have fled the inferno of violence in Syria,” Geagea said.
I see an old epoch collapsing and a great Arab Spring approaching. “Today's crimes against the innocent and against those who are struggling are being committed under the banner of serving the Resistance and the defiance, in the vein of what happened in Lebanon.” Attacking both Syria and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, Geagea said: “It is a resistance against peoples and against the rise of a true state in Lebanon, and defiance against the peoples' right to life. It is an occupation of our hopes and aspirations.”
He noted that a “democratic, free” new regime in Syria will be “the best support for Lebanon’s independence and a true chance to turn the black pages written by the current regime in the history of the two countries.” “A democratic, free regime in Syria is a guarantee for real and serious ‘brotherhood, cooperation and coordination’ between the two countries. A democratic, free regime in Syria is a historical inevitability that is in the interest of Syria, Lebanon and all the countries in the region,” Geagea noted. “Today, in your name (March 14 supporters), and in the name of a people that has been tortured, persecuted, prisoned and martyred, I call on the entire world, especially the countries in the region, to exert all efforts and do everything necessary to halt the bombardment, killing and bloodshed in Syria,” Geagea pleaded.

Syrian National Council: We Back Lebanese in an Independent Lebanon, Not as Part of Syria
by Naharne /The Syrian National Council pledged on Tuesday that it will establish proper ties with Lebanon once the Syrian regime is overthrown. It said in an address to the Lebanese people that it will back the Lebanese “in an independent Lebanon, not as people who are part of Syria.” Former MP Fares Soaid recited the address during a BIEL rally marking the seventh anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Council added that Syria will not meddle in Lebanese affairs, saying that it will review agreements signed between the two countries “during the phase of hegemony in Lebanon.” It vowed to establish proper diplomatic ties with Lebanon and demarcate the Lebanese-Syrian border, “starting with the Shebaa Farms.”On the anniversary of Hariri’s murder, the council “saluted the slain premier and the martyrs of the Cedar Revolution,” voicing its solidarity with Lebanon’s “ongoing struggle for independence and democracy.”
It acknowledged that the 2005 Cedar Revolution “acted as the first slap to the Syrian regime”, which led to the end of Syria’s hegemony over Lebanon. “Ever since that date, the regime failed in garnering the trust of the Syrian people,” it said.
“Democracy in Syria supports democracy in Lebanon. Democracy in both countries will support an independent Palestinian nation,” noted the council. Addressing the Syrian revolt, it declared: “Our people and revolution will persevere and the Syrian regime will fall.” “The more it kills its people, the sooner it will near its end,” it added. “We are relying on our people to achieve victory and it will not back down from its demands,” stressed the Syrian National Council. “Our revolt does not need to use Lebanese land to wage its battle against the dictatorship. Lebanon is simply harboring refugees who are hoping to receive aid,” it continued. “We have repeatedly announced that we want the establishment of a democratic system in Syria that respects the country’s diversity because Syria deserves it,” it stressed. “Syria’s sectarian and ethnic diversity are its history, present, and future,” it declared.

Hariri: I Will Bear Responsibility of My Solidarity with Syrian People
February 14, 2012
Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri delivered a speech via satellite on Tuesday to commemorate the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-Premier Rafik Hariri. He said:
“Dear friends, as much as I feel that I am present with each one of you, I feel the pain of speaking from outside of [Lebanon]. It is not easy for me at all to address this ceremony without standing in front of my father’s and his friends’ tombs. I am really sad… and nothing compensates this sadness except staying with you in the path we chose seven years ago for the sake of independence, freedom and democracy. Nothing transforms this sadness to hope except seeing the model for which we revolted seven years ago. Many people revolted against their corrupt regimes and called for freedom and justice. From Tunisia to Syria.
Let us remember and hold our heads up high. What did we do after the assassination of Hariri and his friends seven years ago? What you did is that you refused to be submissive. You took to the streets and you screamed: ‘The people want…!’ You said: The people want… sovereignty and independence. We still have to achieve freedom and dignity. Justice will be achieved.
[Current revolutions] call for dignity and freedom. It is the people’s right to have dignity and not beg. These are the demands of those taking part in the Arab Spring. These are the values that were and still are embodied by Rafik Hariri’s projects.
Today, we in Lebanon meet again with the model we launched seven years ago. Either what is happening in the region will lead us to our demands of freedom or it will lead us to strife, God forbid. It is our responsibility to prevent strife and achieve freedom.
Speaking of responsibility, I say I bear the responsibility for the previous stage. I bear the responsibility of making concessions sometimes and not making concessions at other times. Today, I bear the responsibility of being in solidarity with the Syrian people. Today, I, Saad Hariri, bear the responsibility of supporting the Syrian people’s rights to establish a democratic system.
Dear brothers, sisters and friends, after February 14, 2005, Hariri and his friends’ were victorious and Lebanon entered a new phase. The withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Today, Hariri and his friends win again, and Lebanon moves to a new political turn due to two events: the Arab Spring and the countdown to the end of the Syrian Baath regime as well as the STL’s indictment and announcement to begin trials in absentia.
There have been attempts to obstruct the STL. This all stopped when the Arab Spring began, specifically when the Syrian people started revolting. The Syrian people will win, God willing, despite the massacres. The Syrian regime will fall. We are living in a moment of historical transition. Establishing a [proper] democratic system in Syria will strengthen Lebanon’s democracy. All Lebanese people should understand this transition. A democratic system will improve relations between two brotherly countries [Lebanon and Syria].
The SNC has reflected this vision of relations. This is an occasion to say that our hand is extended to the SNC. The Syrian revolution will inevitably win, and that is why there are attempts to scare the Lebanese people. Some tell the Christians in Lebanon that the Sunnis will feel powerful [if the regime in Syria falls]. To those we say, we are a movement that supports plurality. We are the people of the Taif Accord. We are the people of equality between Christians and Muslims no matter how Syria looks like. We are the people of freedom of speech. We are the movement of democracy and freedom no matter how Syria looks like. We launched the slogan ‘Lebanon First’ and we paid with [our] blood.

We clearly say that we do not hold the Shia in Lebanon, our brothers, responsible for Hariri’s blood. We consider Hariri’s blood as their blood and our blood. We chose the way of justice and not vengeance. [The STL] has not accused a sect or a group. We clearly say that we do not consider arms to have an identity. We know the Shia in Lebanon are like all the Lebanese people. They support freedom and democracy in Lebanon just like they support freedom and democracy in Syria.
Weapons in the hands of political parties have proven to contradict rules to establish a state. It is an [issue] used to incite strife. The Lebanese people have realized that non-state arms occupy a part of the state’s responsibilities.
Israel is our enemy. It is a threat to all of us. We all face it. Let us all be victorious against it under the government’s [resistance]. But non-state arms only serve Israel. In brief, and frankly, we say that our opinion is that arms should be limited to the state. We again call on Hezbollah to begin organizing its arms to integrate them with state so it can avoid the collapse of the state. We call on Hezbollah to guarantee with us the establishment of a state.
The path of justice in the issue of Hariri’s assassination has taken the path of no return. This path will reveal who were involved. Attempts to evade international justice will not yield results. This is what should be understood by the Lebanese officials concerned in coordinating with the STL. I confirm brotherhood ties with all the Lebanese people… and I call on Hezbollah to reconsider its manner in dealing with the STL because holding on to protect the indicted people will not cancel the indictment.
Brothers and sisters, dear friends, I am confident that I will soon be among you in Beirut. I am confident that justice will be victorious and that spring will blossom. Hariri’s path will not stop and we will continue to defend freedom. I ask God to protect Lebanon and bring victory to the Syrian people.Long live Lebanon.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel: Lebanon Cannot Support Arab Revolts while it is Victim of Illegitimate Arms
by Naharnet /Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stated on Tuesday that the spirit of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri has returned with the wave of Arab revolts and with the release of the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He asked: “Is it logical for us to back Arabs revolting against their regimes and accept that the Lebanese remain captive to the illegitimate arms?”
He made his statement during a ceremony at BIEL in downtown Beirut marking the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Hariri. He continued: “I am certain that no power can thwart the STL.”
“The truth will be revealed and justice will be achieved,” declared Gemayel. Addressing former PM Saad Hariri, he said: “Together we demonstrated, together we resisted, together we united the people, and together we were oppressed.” “We liberated the land and we contributed in the launch of the tribunal,” he added. “We have placed the foundations of a new pact and we will remain together, loyal to the people who are longing for freedom and we will remain loyal to the martyrs,” stressed the Phalange Party leader. “The March 14 movement belongs to the whole of Lebanon and all the Lebanese who believe in the country’s sovereignty and independence,” he stated. “It belongs to all who believe in peace and the Arab revolts,” concluded Gemayel.

A dangerous sideshow
February 14, 2012
Now Lebanon/The Arab League upped the ante on Sunday. It scrapped its futile observer mission to Syria, recognized the Syrian opposition and even went as far as calling for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to end the “vicious cycle of violence.” But in Lebanon, another cycle, one that could be equally vicious, has started to gather alarming momentum, and the fear in Beirut is that the Syrian regime has finally activated its plan to open a new front in the neighborhoods of Tripoli, Lebanon’s volatile northern capital.
Because nothing happens by accident in Lebanon, especially when it comes to simmering tensions between its many religious groups. One of the most dangerous feuds in recent years has been in Tripoli between the Alawites of Jabal Mohsen and the Sunnis of Bab al-Tabbaneh. The sectarian animosity has in the last few days witnessed a worrying level of violence with the deaths of at least three people and the deployment of the Lebanese Special Forces. The area is a Petri dish containing a culture of the region’s most dangerous tensions. It is one that the Syrian regime, helped by its Lebanese allies, has put in a warm and fertile corner of its fiendish laboratory.
There was always the fear that if pressure on Damascus reached critical levels—if the opposition were seen to be in the ascendancy—then the Assad regime would sow instability in Lebanon and use any ensuing unrest to show the world the dark consequences of its downfall.
It tried this tactic before. In 2007, the Nahr al-Bared uprising was almost certainly coordinated by a Syrian government still smarting from its forced departure from Lebanon in 2005. Then, the government of Saad Hariri did not hesitate to commit troops to crush the insurgency. It came at a tragic price—the deaths of over 170 Lebanese soldiers—but the state had acted. (Even if Hezbollah, the so-called defenders of Lebanese sovereignty, sat by and did nothing.) However, today the government is hewn from different timber, and it remains to be seen if it is prepared to quell the fighting.
Bottom line: The Lebanese government must once again act in the best interests of its people. As Kataeb bloc MP Samer Saadeh said on Monday, “The Syrian crisis will be reflected on Lebanon if the cabinet does not order the army to enter all regions and take control of all weapon warehouses.” If Prime Minister Najib Mikati doesn’t take action, he will not only have lost whatever credibility his government has left, but he could be responsible for igniting a touch paper that could very easily plunge the nation into conflict. It’s that simple.
And while we are on the subject, Mikati must rein in (perhaps even fire) Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, whose defense of the Syrian regime (and his condemnation of the Syrian opposition) at the Arab League meeting on Sunday would have us believe that he is nothing short of a spokesman for Damascus. If so, where does that leave the government?
Mansour should do his job and represent his country’s best interests by supporting all actions that are needed to stabilize the situation in Syria, especially those that will reduce pressure on Lebanon. Advocating non-action as he did by saying that it would “put the country in a dark tunnel” goes beyond his remit. One wonders where his allegiances truly lie.
Sadly, it doesn’t matter how many commando regiments are sent north, if the state does not act, the shameful conclusion we must draw is that the government is in cahoots with Damascus as part of a wider plan to ensure its survival. Lebanon’s policy of not interfering in Syrian affairs is clearly an elastic concept.

Hamas of contradictions
Hussein Ibish, February 14, 2012
The growing split that has been emerging within the leadership of Hamas has exploded into a bitter public feud. It was prompted an agreement reached last week in Qatar between the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. According to the deal, Abbas would take on the additional role of prime minister until elections are held later this year.Since the beginning of the Arab uprisings, the divergence of interests between Hamas’ leadership in Gaza and its leadership abroad has been steadily intensifying. External leaders, Meshaal in particular, have come under increasing pressure to adapt to regional transformations, particularly the growing sectarian split in the Middle East.
It has become impossible for Hamas to remain friendly with Sunni Arab governments and Islamist movements while being simultaneously allied to Syria and Iran. The days in which the mythology of an “axis of resistance” could rationalize a Sunni Islamist movement being part of an Iranian-led—essentially Shia—alliance are long gone. Hamas leaders proved unable to side with Bashar al-Assad while their colleagues in the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood are a key component in the uprising against his regime. No Hamas official remains in the movement’s Damascus headquarters.
The external Hamas leadership has a branding and identity crisis, and needs desperately to find new patrons and headquarters, and a new international political and strategic profile. Hence Meshaal has been intensively courting Qatar, Jordan and Egypt, among others, seeking alternative sources of support and a new regional orientation.
The Gaza leadership does not share much of this crisis. Their rule is effectively unchallenged, and they continue to draw on various sources of income. From their perspective, there is no immediate need for a major reorientation. They argue that sooner rather than later their fellow Islamists will gain unchallenged power in Egypt and other key Arab states, and that it makes no sense to compromise with Abbas or anyone else at this stage. This is a gamble the external leadership cannot afford.
Many Gaza leaders clearly think the external leadership is making momentous decisions for its own purposes, but at their political expense. Resentment has boiled over. Already, last year a Hamas hardliner in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahhar, was disciplined for insisting that the primary leadership of Hamas was the one in Gaza. That proved to be a foretaste of the current crisis.
The “Change and Reform” bloc in Gaza, which includes Zahhar and the de facto prime minister, Ismail Haniyyeh, immediately reacted to the agreement with Abbas by issuing a blistering “legal memorandum.” The document laid out detailed and categorical objections to the accord, declaring it illegal. Zahhar, speaking on behalf of many and openly attacking Meshaal, said that “no one in the organization had been consulted,” and described the deal as “a mistake” which “could not be implemented” and “a real crisis.”
Meanwhile, Haniyyeh visited several Gulf states, and more importantly Iran, to shore up Iranian support, despite the dispute over the Assad regime. If the Gaza leadership is to mount an effective pushback against this new initiative, which enjoys Arab Gulf backing, it is going to require significant support from Iran. The Iranians might have incentives to continue to fund Hamas in Gaza to try to sabotage the Arab-led Palestinian reconciliation agreement, and to retain Hamas as a potential chit in the face of a possible Israeli or American attack on its nuclear facilities.
How the crisis in Hamas develops depends on several factors. A close ally of Meshaal, Ahmed Youssef, has implied that Qatar promised strong financial backing in return for the agreement. If that is delivered, especially if it is augmented by aid from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, it will require a great deal of Iranian and other leverage for the Gaza-based leaders to prevail.
The position of the Hamas paramilitary Ezzeddine al-Qassam Brigades will also be crucial. Its leaders, Ahmed Jabari and Marwan Issa, have traditionally deferred to the leadership of the political bureau, and reportedly urged Meshaal not to step down as its chief. But they have also expressed dismay at some of Meshaal’s recent comments regarding the tactical value of nonviolent resistance.
The power struggle in Hamas reflects regional rivalries and strikingly divergent interests that have developed in the context of the Arab uprisings. But a complete split in the movement is highly improbable, and one side is going to prevail.
Whether the agreement with Abbas is implemented or not, Hamas will only go as far as it absolutely must to adjust to new realities. But relying on states like Qatar, Egypt and Jordan will necessitate very different behavior than being a client of Syria and Iran. And Hamas leaders counting on the Arab Spring turning into an “Islamic Awakening” that fulfills their ideological fantasies are spending more time reading coffee grounds than the emerging regional order.
Hussein Ibish writes frequently about Middle Eastern affairs for numerous publications in the United States and the Arab world. He blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.

March 14 salutes the Syrian opposition
February 15, 2012 01
By Van Meguerditchian/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The mass protests following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut seven years ago laid the foundation for the current uprisings in the Arab world, leaders of the March 14 coalition said Tuesday.
In wide-ranging speeches in Downtown’s BIEL on the commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Hariri, March 14 figures also slammed the Lebanese government for standing idle as the Syrian regime continues its brutal crackdown on an 11-month-old uprising in Syria.
Hariri and 22 others were killed and dozens of others wounded in an enormous explosion that targeted the former premier’s convoy as it passed through Ain al-Mreisseh on Feb. 14, 2005.
Although no officials from the opposition Syrian National Council attended the commemoration in Beirut, the SNC sent a formal letter to the March 14 coalition announcing their readiness to open a new page in relations between the countries after the collapse of the Syrian regime.
Kataeb (Phalange) Party leader Amin Gemayel said the popular uprising that took place in Beirut after Hariri’s assassination inspired many people in the Arab world who have taken to the streets in the past year demanding a transition to free and democratic political systems.
“The Cedar Revolution changed the face of Lebanon. While we freed Lebanon from foreign armies, Arabs today who have decided to follow our path are getting rid of their regimes,” said Gemayel. The Kataeb leader was referring to a series of protests in the aftermath of the Hariri assassination which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after an almost 30-year presence.
Speaking at the gathering, Gemayel said that since 2005, some have attempted to forcibly end the Cedar Revolution. “Today we understand why they were trying to do that. Today we know why they tried to destabilize Lebanon. They did it because they feared the Cedar Revolution would quickly spread to their societies and democracy would reach their countries.”
“But the revolution did spread,” Gemayel added, in reference to the the Syrian uprising.
Peaceful demonstrations that started last March in Syria have been met with a brutal crackdown by the Syrian regime, and according to recent estimates by the United Nations, 6,000 people have been killed and thousands of others have arbitrarily been arrested.
“Is it possible that Arab societies are fighting regimes that rely on arms while we in Lebanon continue to live under the threat of arms?” asked Gemayel.
Gemayel, whose son Pierre was also assassinated in 2006, said that nothing can stop the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is investigating Hariri’s assassination.
“I am sure that there is no force that can stop STL’s work because justice will ultimately be achieved,” said the Kataeb leader.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea praised demonstrators in Syrian cities. “We salute you Homs, we salute you Deraa, Idlib, Zabadani, Hama ... Duma and Jisr al-Shoughour,” said Geagea in his speech.
“The brutal killings of innocent protesters in Syria are being justified under the pretext of resistance as happened and is still happening in Lebanon, whenever needed,” said Geagea, drawing a wave of applause and cheers from the crowd.
“This is a resistance in the face of people’s rights for change, freedom, dignity and justice ... this resistance is an occupation of people’s free will and dreams,” he added.
Hezbollah officials have repeatedly accused Syrian pro-democracy demonstrators of conspiring with foreign governments against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Geagea also said that a free and a democratic Syria is a guarantee to Lebanon’s independence and an opportunity for reinstating good relations between both countries.
“I call on the world powers and especially countries in the region to join their efforts and put an end to the bloodshed in Syria, to end the shelling and killing of Syrians,” the LF leader said, adding that the Syrian people should decide their fate with freedom and dignity.
Geagea also criticized ministers within the Lebanese government for what he described as taking orders from the Syrian regime to arrest Syrian refugees in the country. “While many commanders within the Syrian army are refusing to follow the regime’s orders, some within the Lebanese government are competing to fulfill the regime’s demands,” Geagea said.
Following Geagea’s speech, a letter from the Syrian opposition was read by the March 14 General Secretary Fares Soueid. “The Syrian National Council salutes the martyrs of the Cedar Revolution, the SNC considers your [Lebanese] victory against Assad’s army as the first blow to this regime,” said the letter.
“Assad’s regime will ultimately collapse and Syria will have the best relations with Lebanon, a relation based on brotherly ties not based on slogans that the regime had adopted,” said the letter. The SNC also said it vows to stand by Lebanon’s independence. “We reject the lies of the regime regarding terrorist groups in Lebanon ... we don’t need to use Lebanese territories in our struggle against Assad

Arab states ready to arm Syrian resistance
February 15, 2012 01:57 AM
By Daily Star Staff Agencies
BEIRUT/CAIRO/PARIS: Government forces clashed with opponents of President Bashar Assad in cities and rural areas across Syria Tuesday, as Arab officials confirmed that regional governments would be ready to arm the resistance if the bloodshed does not come to and end.
Pro-opposition neighborhoods in the western city of Homs, heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule, suffered bombardment for the 11th day running.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 20 people killed across the country Tuesday, including opposition supporters, civilians and five government soldiers who were shot in clashes with rebels in the town of Qalaat al-Madyaq in the restive Hama area.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said 13 soldiers were laid to rest Tuesday after they fell in clashes with “armed gangs” in Homs, Ildib and the countryside near Damascus.
Meanwhile, thousands of Assad supporters took to the streets in Latakia Tuesday to support the president’s planned reforms and denounce foreign interference in Syria, SANA reported.
With Assad oblivious to international condemnation of his campaign to crush the revolt, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia prepared for a new resolution at the U.N. in the next few days to support a peace plan forged at a meeting in Cairo Sunday.
But Arab League diplomats said that arming the opposition forces was now officially an option.
A resolution that was passed at the meeting urged Arabs to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition.
This would allow arms transfers, they confirmed to Reuters.
“We will back the opposition financially and diplomatically in the beginning but if the killing continues, civilians must be helped to protect themselves. The resolution gives Arab states all options to protect the Syrian people,” an Arab ambassador said in Cairo.
The threat of military support was meant to add pressure on the Syrian leader and his Russian and Chinese allies but it also risks leading to a Libya-style conflict or sectarian civil war.
Smuggled guns are already filtering into Syria but it is not clear whether Arab or other governments are behind the deliveries. Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are also crossing from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers said.
Assad, whose Alawite-minority family has ruled the mainly Sunni Muslim country for 42 years, is trying to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations and insurgent attacks. He dismisses his opponents as terrorists backed by enemy nations in a regional power-play and says he will introduce reforms on his own terms.
While the uprising initially involved rallies by civilians, armed insurrection by the Free Syrian Army, made up largely of army defectors, is increasingly coming into play.
The government says at least 2,000 members of its military and security forces have died and the U.N. says its forces have killed 6,000 people.
In Homs, a strategic city on the highway between Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, the pro-opposition neighborhood of Baba Amro was struck at dawn by the heaviest shelling in five days, the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.
Six people were killed, it said, adding to an estimated toll of more than 400 since the assault began on Feb.3
“They are hitting the same spots several times, making venturing out there impossible. The shelling was heavy in the morning and now it is one rocket every 15 minutes or so,” activist Hussein Nader said by satellite phone.
Another opposition activist, Mohammad al-Homsi, said the humanitarian situation was getting worse, with food and fuel short and prices soaring. Army roadblocks had been set up around opposition districts, Homsi said from the city.
In Rankous, a rural town near Damascus, many residents had fled from government shelling, activist Ibn Al-Kalmoun said. Bombardments were also reported in the town of Rastan.
In other action reported by activists, security forces and army defectors clashed near Aleppo, where the government appears to have strong support. Three people were killed there. Two people were killed in a skirmish between rebels and government forces in Bou Kamal, in Deir al-Zour province, they said, and arrest campaigns continued in the Jabal al-Zawiya region. Foreign media have to rely on unverified activists’ accounts because the Syrian government restricts access. But reports from neutral international organizations confirm a general picture of widespread violence.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected criticism from U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Monday accused Assad of launching an indiscriminate attack on civilians. “The High Commissioner has become a tool in the hands of some countries that are targeting Syria and are ignoring the terrorist crimes committed by armed groups,” it said.
At the United Nations, diplomats said a draft General Assembly resolution, supporting the Arab League plan and calling for the appointment of a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria, could be put to a vote Wednesday or Thursday.
The resolution, seen by Reuters, is similar to a Security Council draft vetoed by Russia and China on Feb. 4 that condemned the Assad government and called on him to step aside. There are no vetoes in General Assembly votes and its decisions are not legally binding.
An Arab League proposal that a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping mission be sent to Syria elicited a guarded response from Western powers, which are wary of becoming bogged down militarily in Syria. It was rejected by Assad’s government.
Russia, Assad’s main ally and arms supplier, showed little enthusiasm, saying it could not support a peacekeeping mission unless both sides stopped the violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington that the peacekeeper proposal would be tough to get through, given Russian and Chinese support for Damascus.
The head of Egypt’s influential seat of Islamic learning, Al-Azhar, called Tuesday for bold Arab action to stop the Syrian government’s “hellish killing machine” while scolding China and Russia for blocking a peace plan in the U.N. Security Council.
Grand Imam Ahmad al-Tayeb, head of the Cairo-based institution, also urged Syrian protesters to refrain from turning their struggle into an armed confrontation two days after Arab League diplomats suggested that arming opposition forces could be an option.
“The situation now, brothers, no longer needs statements to condemn and criticize, but it is in desperate need of urgent, serious, and bold action from the Arabs,” Tayeb added, without giving details of what kind of action he sought.
“I call on the human conscience to stop this hellish killing machine that works to shed blood. It must be stopped.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said it would meet Wednesday in Doha to choose a new leader or extend the term of current head Burhan Ghalioun.
“We are meeting tomorrow in Doha to choose a president. There will be several candidates and we want to take an independent decision, without external interference,” SNC spokeswoman Basma Kodmani told AFP by telephone from Doha.
She said the group wanted to make a choice based on who would do the best job and not on “denominational etiquette.”
Kodmani said the council’s rules require it to choose its leader every three months. “In general there is a rotation, but there can be exceptions,” she said.
According to several sources within the SNC, three candidates have emerged for the leadership: Ghalioun, the leader since the SNC’s founding last October, Kodmani and George Sabra, a long-time dissident.
The SNC is hoping to win recognition abroad as Syria’s legitimate authority.

Lebanon's Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi : Lebanon has not implemented anti-torture protocols
February 15, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said Tuesday Lebanon has not implemented an international agreement it signed to prevent torture, but it is working to criminalize and punish torture.
“It is true that Lebanon signed the [United Nations] Convention Against Torture in 2000 and joined the [U.N.] Optional Protocol Against Torture in 2008, but honestly the agreement has not been practically implemented,” Qortbawi said this week at a meeting of an EU-funded project that works to fight and prevent torture and rehabilitate victims.
The U.N. protocol mandates that states prevent torture at home and not transport people anywhere abroad where there is reason to believe they will be tortured.
The optional protocol deals with the monitoring of detention sights.
Qortbawi said Lebanon was preparing the progress reports, now overdue, that the protocols require it to send to the U.N.

“The Justice Ministry will not hesitate to carry out its role in criminalizing torture and punishing its perpetrators,” he said, adding that tackling torture “does not contradict with fighting crime, especially since any investigation under physical or emotional pressure can be nullified.”

He said fighting torture also requires decent living conditions. “This requires modern prisons, detention centers and investigation rooms – which will require a large budget.”

Fateh Azzam, the Middle East representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that despite Lebanon’s signatures on the U.N. protocols, “there is a great need to make sure that the protocols are being implemented in reality.”

Qortbawi, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil have all toured Lebanon’s largest prison, Roumieh, recently. Late last month Charbel called the condition of prisons in Lebanon “no longer bearable,” and referred to the health of inmates as a “miserable situation.”

A representative of Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Charbel Mater, said that torture does take place in investigation rooms and detention centers.

“Everyone is responsible” for torture, he said, adding that this includes employees at places where investigations take place, as well as “lawyers who intervene to pressure a detainee and judges who exercise pressure on police investigators to hurry up or get a confession and turn a blind eye to a detainee in a miserable health situation that has resulted from beating or torture.”He said the ministry “will be strict to the maximum with everyone who is proven to have been involved in ill treatment, and they will be prosecuted.”
Torture is widespread in the country, according to a report issued in December by Alef-Act for Human Rights on Lebanon’s progress toward upholding international conventions.
The report said over 700 cases were reported to a single NGO in the 2008-2009 period. Those most at risk include those in prison, non-Lebanese, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual individuals, drug addicts and women and children.

Israel incapable of attacking Lebanon: Iran's envoy
February 15, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Israel has neither the power nor the ability to attack Lebanon, Iran’s Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi said Wednesday.
“The Israelis don’t have the strength to carry out any attack on Lebanon,” Roknabadi told Hezbollah’s Al-Nour radio station. “We do not want to have to repel any attack; Israel would be automatically wiped out of existence,” he said. Roknabadi said Iran “challenges the whole world” in its 33-year-long and ongoing commitment to the principles of the Iranian revolution.
“We are proud to support all the just and righteous causes. And on this basis we support the resistance and all those who resist the Zionist occupation in the world," he added in reference to Hezbollah of Lebanon and Hamas of Palestine. But Roknabadi maintained that the current era is not one of war. "We are not in a time of military conflict. Instead, we have entered the age of technology and nanotechnology,” he said, while boasting that Iran ranks first among Arab and Islamic countries when it comes to nuclear technology. He said Iran has never succumbed to diktats from the U.S. or Israel “and now we are headed toward changing global governance." Roknabadi also warned that Tehran would respond should the West commit any follies.

In election-season Iran, domestic politics trump fear of Israeli attack
By Zvi Bar'el/Haaretz
Although sanctions talk is uniting politicians, personal enmities are never far from the surface.
Last Saturday was the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Despite the official ceremonies and the officially-organized demonstrations, it was not an especially pleasant day. Light rain fell on Tehran and at night the temperature fell to minus 3 degrees Celsius. In the streets, according to some bloggers, there is talk of "the year of the war" against Iran. "There isn't panic yet, or fear, but there are questions," wrote one blogger. On his site there is a link to a Reuters report stating that China has decided to cut the amount of iron it imports from Iran. Is the fear of sanctions increasing? Not necessarily. India has announced that its oil imports from Iran increased by 37 percent in January, and the ski site at Shemshak - about a 45-minute drive from Tehran - is full of skiers of both sexes, despite the strict warning against mingling there published last month by the morality police. The British tourism company Persian Voyages is still offering organized tours to Iran's ancient cities (1,750 pounds Sterling in four-star hotels ), treks up Mount Damavand to an altitude of 5,500 meters or ski trips. The dates for the tours apparently are not taking the coming war into account. In August 2012, the next trek will set out and only a few places are left for the ski packages in February.
Nor do members of the Iranian parliament look especially troubled by an Israeli or other attack. There, the campaign for the elections on March 3 is well underway. These are important elections, not because they will draw a new political map in Iran, since most of those defined as reformists have decided to boycott them, but rather because they will determine the extent to which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will manage to leave a political legacy that will continue his path even after he stops serving as president next year, as the Iranian constitution requires.
This is a dirty political fight that in some of its elements is reminiscent of Israeli politics. For example, take the story of MP Ahmad Tavakkoli's doctorate. Tavakkoli, one of Ahmadinejad's most strenuous opponents, accused the president's associate, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, of complicity in one of the worst corruption scandals in Iran, in which about $3 billion "disappeared."
Last September the affair raised a storm in the banking system and government's insurance company, which bore most of the loss. At that time the head of the court system, Sadeq Larijani, a brother of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani - another of Ahmadinejad's rivals - ordered a swift investigation and the punishment of those guilty with the full force of the law. However, when it emerged that Rahimi was one of the key people involved, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei intervened and ordered that he not be tried. It is hard to find a satisfactory explanation for Khamenei's intervention apart from Ahmadinejad's implied threat that he intends to reveal the involvement of Khamenei's son Mojtaba in "terrible" corruption affairs.
Following the investigation's cessation, Tavakkoli called for renewing it and trying Rahimi. In response, Rahimi published an "indictment" of his own against Tavakkoli, in which he related that Tavakkoli had received a scholarship to complete a master's degree in the sciences in London when he already had a master's degree from Beheshti University in Iran. And, worse than that, his doctorate is not actually real.
"How can it be that Tavakkoli receives a scholarship for 38 months when he has been approved for only 11 months?" wondered Rahimi in his memo. He then hastened to add more wrongdoings to Tavakkoli's misdeeds, including the purchase of land in north Tehran "for an eighth of the market price."
This isn't the only political scrapping that is inflaming Iran. The conservative groups running in the elections are split between supporters of Ahmadinejad and supporters of Khamenei. However, within Khamenei's camp - which unites 18 movements - a dispute emerged when Ali Motahari, brother-in-law of the parliamentary speaker and fierce opponent of Ahmadinejad, announced he was forming an independent group that will not run in the framework of Khamenei's supporters. He is calling his group Critics of the Tenth Government - Ahmadinejad's - and its aim is to push the president's supporters out of the parliament. These are not struggles that will decide the question of the atomic program - there is more or less wall-to-wall consensus regarding the development of nuclear technology - but they could pose more serious challenges to Ahmadinejad than in the past with regard to his economic policy and the state of the economy in Iran, which is being affected by the sanctions.
Are the ructions in Iran's domestic politics likely to affect its policy toward the West? Not in the short term, in light of an election race in which each side is making an effort to present a fiercer nationalist outlook than the next. In an election season, even the sanctions imposed by the West are not helping to change the policy when every side is trying to present determined patriotism against the enemies from without. However, after the elections and before the presidential elections next year, the parliament will have to examine the diplomatic implications for the country and to propose diplomatic alternatives. This is a period of time that suits the proponents of an attack on Iran, but anyone who wants to see a change from within will have to dance to the Iranian beat.

India terror attack: 5 arrested, 'suspicious motorcycle' found
Ynetnews /India Today reports security camera footage showed suspects 'loitering around' Israeli diplomat's vehicle before explosions; TV networks says police trying to verify if red motorbike found in city's Lado Sarai area was used to stick bomb on Israeli car . New Delhi police have arrested five suspects in connection with Monday's terror attack in which the wife of an Israeli envoy was injured, India Today reported Wednesday. New Delhi police officials did not reveal the suspects' identities or indicate whether they were tied to Iran or Hezbollah. Security camera footage obtained from the Khan Market area, which is a hotspot for foreign nationals, showed the suspects "loitering around" the Israeli embassy car, according to the report. One of the detainees works for a delivery service company, the newspaper said.Koren managed to call the embassy and report that "the vehicle exploded," before being evacuated to a local hospital in a rickshaw. Officials said she suffered shrapnel wounds to her lower body. The driver of the vehicle was also hurt in the blast. Indian police officials said security camera footage revealed the face of the attacker who allegedly attached the bomb to the rear of the car. They said the footage showed the attacker carrying a bag and the explosive that was stuck to the car. Meanwhile, the New Delhi-based NDTV network reported that local police have found a red motorbike in the city's Lado Sarai area and are trying to verify if it was the one used to stick a bomb on the Israeli car. The television network quoted investigators as saying that a "very well-trained" person on a motorcycle drove up to the Toyota Innova car and attached a device to it while it was waiting at a traffic intersection. The car exploded within seconds, injuring four people, including the Israeli diplomat's wife.
The Hindustan Times reported that "a team from Israel" was due to arrive in New Delhi on Wednesday to examine the bombed vehicle.
Israel accused Iran and Hezbollah of orchestrating the terror attack in India and the failed attack in Tbilisi, Georgia. The attacks were carried out on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh. Tehran and Hezbollah said Israel's Mossad was behind the arch-terrorist's death. Also Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the recent terror attacks in Georgia, Thailand and India, saying that "Iran is the biggest exporter of terror in the world. In recent days Iran's terrorist activities have been exposed for the world to see. "Iran is destabilizing global security and hurting innocent diplomats in several countries. The world must condemn Iran's terror acts and declare its red lines in the face of Iranian aggression," he said, adding "such aggression will eventually spread to many countries."
*Moran Azulay contributed to the report

Why did the Syrian regime choose option two?
By Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat
In his speech at the Arab League on Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that Syria is between two possible paths: either it voluntarily chooses the path of wisdom, or it moves towards the depths of chaos and loss. Unfortunately, it has become clear over time that the Syrian leadership has chosen the second option, deciding to kill its own people and destroy the country in order to cling to power. This is a clear accounting of the situation in Syria today, whose people have expressed their desire – in a peaceful manner – for change and transition from a totalitarian regime which is politically and economically stagnant and dependent upon methods that are no longer accepted by the people to confront the protesters with violence and bloodshed. This violence and bloodshed has intensified throughout this uprising, which has transformed into a revolution and which is today approaching its one-year anniversary. The question that comes to mind here is: why did the Syrian leadership choose this path, particularly when they had the opportunity to learn lessons from what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and later Yemen, and realize that the security solution would only result in the protesters raising their demands, in addition to greater violence and bloodshed taking place, leaving the regime no room for retreat? We are now looking at a situation that could be investigated by the International Criminal Court [ICC] as a case for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Is this due to delusions of power and detachment from reality on the part of the [Syrian] leadership, which believes that it can lead its people with iron and fire in an era when people are communicating with one another across continents in seconds via new media, as well as witnessing how people in other societies live and enjoy freedoms and rights?
Or is this due to the composition and balance of power in the [Syrian] regime, which has become accustomed to a certain internal balance of power and style of rule which is dependent upon a complex network of security apparatus that have become empires in themselves within the regime? Has this made any political reform process driven from the top akin to a coup against the regime, which would require the sacrifice of senior figures that are used to rule, and are not adverse to utilizing suppression to consolidate power?
Most likely it is a mix of the two; namely delusion of power and detachment from reality, and the composition and balance of power within this regime which has been ruling the country for decades, under different names and forms. This regime has been granted superficial cover from slogans justifying its presence, such as the slogans of the “resistance”, “opposition”, and “victorious party”. However these slogans are false, and are essentially nothing more than tools to secure and control the people.
Gaddafi clearly expressed this state of detachment from reality with his most famous statement issued following the uprising of the [Libyan] people, namely when he addressed the protesters and asked “who are you?” It is likely that Gaddafi’s wonder and shock at the Libyan revolution was not contrived, for he believed that he had tamed the Libyan people over 4 decades of tight security and political slogans that were the subject of international ridicule. However Gaddafi was caught off guard by the Libyan people, who still possessed the courage to revolt against him and the methods of his rule. He thought this was a crisis that he could confront with the old methods of security suppression, rather than attempt to seek a political solution that involved him stepping down from power, and this ultimately blew up in his face. This is practically the same situation in Syria, although there are differences in the conditions and composition of the two countries. Indeed, al-Assad is in a stronger position than Gaddafi was, for he has been granted one deadline after another to find a political solution to the crisis and attempt to conduct dialogue towards a political roadmap that meets the demands of the peaceful protesters, creating a new social contract that befits the twenty-first century. However he [al-Assad] always preferred the bloody security solution, which did not give anybody room to stand with him or offer assistance, and even the Russians and China are indicating that their attempts to defend the regime are becoming a source of embarrassment.
We have now reached the turning point, despite all the opportunities that the regime was granted and which it ignored, namely to hand-over power to a transitional authority to avoid more bloodshed and destruction. As for the question, why did the al-Assad regime choose the second option: this is something that will be answered accurately after change occurs [in Syria] and the secrets of the former regime begin to be revealed, which is what happened in all similar circumstances.