Matthew 18 Who Is the Greatest

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 19/2012

Bible Quotation for today/The Wedding in Cana
John 02/01-12: " Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, They are out of wine. You must not tell me what to do, Jesus replied. My time has not yet come. Jesus' mother then told the servants, Do whatever he tells you. The Jews have rules about ritual washing, and for this purpose six stone water jars were there, each one large enough to hold between twenty and thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, Fill these jars with water. They filled them to the brim, and then he told them, Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast. They took him the water, which now had turned into wine, and he tasted it. He did not know where this wine had come from (but, of course, the servants who had drawn out the water knew); so he called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone else serves the best wine first, and after the guests have drunk a lot, he serves the ordinary wine. But you have kept the best wine until now! Jesus performed this first miracle in Cana in Galilee; there he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this, Jesus and his mother, brothers, and disciples went to Capernaum and stayed there a few days.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha/By Tariq Alhomayed/February 18/12
Chaos is the new 'status quo' in the Middle East/By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi/February 18/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 18/12
Crisis in US-Israel relations over nuclear talks with Iran
FBI: Man Arrested near U.S. Capitol in Terror Plot
U.S. officials don't believe sanctions will stop Iran's nuclear program, says U.K.'s Guardian
Top Obama aide heads to Israel for talks on Iran, Syria
U.K.'s Hague: Iran nuclear program will bring ‘new Cold War’ to Middle East
U.S., EU welcome Iran nuclear letter, suggest talks possible
Iranian naval ships enter Mediterranean via Suez Canal
Report: Israel advises Thailand to up security, fearing fresh attacks
Report: Testimony of Israeli victim in New Delhi terror attack sheds new light on incident
Iran says Stuxnet virus infected 16,000 computers
Israel seeks tighter sanctions against Iran
Reports: Iranian Warships Dock in Tartus Port, Israel ‘Closely Watching
Jumblat Advises Nasrallah to Support Syrian People, Not Assad Regime
Extension of STL Mandate Begins to Take Course as Beirut Fails to Make Observations
STL refuses to confirm media reports on new indictment
Trouble ahead as Parliament mulls rent law reform
Damage from red river could be long felt
First nationwide study of dementia launched at AUB
March 14 politicians slam Hezbollah’s defense of its arms
Berri-Aoun talks may help end Cabinet crisis
Hariri, Fadlallah promise to prevent strife
Military Court Sentences 3 to Death for Spying for Israel
Building Evacuated in Sidon after Parts of it Collapse
Jumblat Meets Davutoglu: Political Solution Will End Syria Crisis
Arabic press digest - Feb. 18, 2012/Daily Star
Lebanon hit by extreme weather conditions
Berri meets Italian ambassador
Lebanon's Kurdish community to hold demonstration
MP Fayyad lashes out at critics of Hezbollah
Hizbullah and Amal Back Assad’s Reform to Consolidate Syria
Young Man, Woman Killed by Gas Leak in Faraya
Lebanese Man Found Killed in Nigeria Hotel Room
Report: U.S. drones flying over Syria to monitor crackdown
Activists say Syrian tanks shell Homs intensively
China envoy meets Assad, backs Syria election plan
56 killed on Friday in Syria as Assad regime ignores UN resolution
West seeks united Syrian opposition
Activists say Syrian tanks shell Homs intensively

U.S. officials don't believe sanctions will stop Iran's nuclear program, says U.K.'s Guardian
The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper cites officials saying that Obama administration does not want conflict, but has few options left; says sanctions partly aimed at showing Israel U.S. serious over Iran. U.S. officials don't believe sanctions will stop Iran's nuclear program, says U.K.'s Guardian
By Haaretz and Reuters
The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper cites officials saying that Obama administration does not want conflict, but has few options left; says sanctions partly aimed at showing Israel U.S. serious over Iran. U.S. officials increasingly believe that sanctions are not enough to stop the development of Iran’s nuclear program, and that the U.S will have to launch a military strike on Iran, or support Israeli action, the U.K’s Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the report, officials in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration say the U.S. does not want a conflict, but that sanctions are not working. The White House wants to see sanctions work. This is not the Bush White House. It does not need another conflict," the newspaper cited an official who is knowledgeable on U.S. Middle East policy as saying. "It’s problem is that the guys in Tehran are behaving like sanctions don't matter, like their economy isn't collapsing, like Israel isn't going to do anything,” the official said. “Sanctions are all we've got to throw at the problem. If they fail then it's hard to see how we don't move to the 'in extremis' option."
"We don't see a way forward. The record shows that there is nothing to work with," the newspaper quoted another U.S. official as saying. One former U.S. official told the newspaper that the question of how serious Israel is about military action is part of the calculus behind U.S. policy toward Iran, the Guardian said.
"The sanctions are there to pressure Iran and reassure Israel that we are taking this issue seriously," it quoted one official as saying. "The focus is on demonstrating to Israel that this has a chance of working. Israel is skeptical but appreciates the effort. It is willing to give it a go, but how long will it wait?"
Colin Kahl, who was U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East until last December, told the newspaper, “It's not that the Israelis believe the Iranians are on the brink of a bomb. It's that the Israelis may fear that the Iranian program is on the brink of becoming out of reach of an Israeli military strike, which means it creates a 'now-or-never' moment."
"That's what's actually driving the timeline by the middle of this year. But there's a countervailing factor that [Ehud] Barak has mentioned – that they're not very close to making a decision and that they're also trying to ramp up concerns of an Israeli strike to drive the international community towards putting more pressure on the Iranians," the newspaper cited Kahl as saying. "If you look at the calendar, it doesn't make much sense that the Israelis would jump the gun. They probably need to provide a decent interval for those sanctions to be perceived as failing, because they care about whether an Israeli strike would be seen as philosophically legitimate; that is, as only having happened after other options were exhausted. So I think that will push them a little further into 2012," he added. Obama said earlier this month that he did not believe Israel had decided how to respond to its concerns about Iran's nuclear program, following public discussion within Israel about whether it should attack Tehran to stop it from getting a nuclear bomb. The newspaper also reported that some criticism of sanctions stems from the belief that the Obama administration is using them to prepare the ground for a military strike. "The latest drum beat of additional sanctions and war against Iran sounds too much like the lead-up to the Iraq war,” the Guardian cited Congressman Dennis Kucinich as saying this week. "If the crippling sanctions that the U.S. and Europe have imposed are meant to push the Iranian regime to negotiations, it hasn't worked," he said. "As the war of words between the United States and Iran escalates it's more critical than ever that we highlight alternatives to war to avoid the same mistakes made in Iraq.Obama’s national security adviser Tom Donilon's will visit to Israel on Saturday for two-days of talks on regional issues which will include Iran and Syria.

Crisis in US-Israel relations over nuclear talks with Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report February 18, 2012/In the last 24 hours, the approach of international talks with Iran on its nuclear program has escalated already high tensions over the issue between the Obama administration and the Israeli government and triggered the following developments:
US President Barack Obama decided to send his US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to an urgent visit to Israel Saturday, Feb. 18, for three days of talks “on regional issues including Syria and Iran.”
This unusually long trip by a top White House official over the weekend is a measure of the crisis in relations.
The visit is part of the US “unshakeable commitment to Israel's security,” according to a White House statement. It was called “the latest in a series of regular, high-level consultations between the United States and Israel, consistent with our strong bilateral partnership.”
Such pledges no longer wash in Jerusalem, debkafile’s political sources report, in light of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s strong sense of betrayal from what he sees as surreptitious US diplomacy with Iran for promoting talks that will end the promised sanctions for halting Iran’s momentum for building a nuclear weapon now in its final stages. T
The existence of those back-channel exchanges and the imminence of negotiations with Iran were first disclosed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 529 of Feb. 17.
In private conversations, Netanyahu has said he feels cheated. By its actions the Obama administration leaves Israel with no recourse other than to grapple with the Iranian menace on its own, he has said, and be less sensitive to Washington’s wishes.
A bipartisan group of concerned US senators warned President Obama Friday that they would strongly oppose any proposal in talks with Iran that would allow it to continue uranium enrichment activities.
A letter signed by a dozen senators from both parties expressed concern that Iran would try to use a resumption of talks with world powers on its nuclear program to buy time and dilute international pressure on it. "Such tactical maneuverings are a dangerous distraction and should not be tolerated," the senators said.
Belgium-based SWIFT, which provides 10,000 banks in 210 countries with a system for moving funds around the world, said Friday that it was ready to block its network to money transfers by Iranian banks. Expelling Iranian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication would shut down Tehran's main avenue for doing business with the rest of the world.
Two Iranian warships sailed through Suez Canal to Mediterranean Friday on their way to Syria. Israel called their mission a provocation.
Wednesday, Netanyahu blasted Iran – and indirectly Washington– when he said in Cyprus that sanctions “haven’t worked” and that for a regime which attacks diplomats to have nuclear weapons “is something of enormous concern for the United States and for Israel.”

FBI: Man Arrested near U.S. Capitol in Terror Plot
by Naharnet /An FBI sting operation resulted in the arrest near the U.S. Capitol on Friday of a man who thought he had explosives for a terror attack, law enforcement officials said.
The FBI confirmed the man had been detained following a long running FBI terrorism investigation, while media reports said he was Moroccan and had been apprehended in connection with an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack. "Explosives the suspect allegedly sought to use in connection with the plot had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. The arrest was "in connection with a terrorism investigation," and "was the culmination of an undercover operation during which the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement," the FBI added. Fox News reported that the suspect was of Moroccan descent and had expressed interest in an attack on the Capitol to undercover FBI agents, who he had thought were with al-Qaida. The police force responsible for security at the Capitol said it was intimately involved in the "lengthy and extensive" operation from the start, and "at no time was the public or congressional community in any danger." Authorities declined to provide further detail on the arrest. The Washington Post, citing an unnamed U.S. official, said the suspect was in his thirties and was picked up near Labor Department offices on his way to the Capitol for what he thought would be a suicide attack.He was carrying with him a vest that he believed was packed with explosives but that actually contained harmless material, the newspaper reported. Agence France Presse.

Top Obama aide heads to Israel for talks on Iran, Syria
By Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon's will visit the country from Saturday through Monday. U.S. President Barack Obama's top security aide will visit Israel for two days of talks on regional issues including Syria and Iran, the White House said on Friday. National security adviser Tom Donilon's trip from Saturday through Monday comes amid tensions over Iran's nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at securing weapons capability, but Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.U.S. and European officials on Friday voiced cautious optimism over the latest signals from Tehran that it might be willing to resume talks with major powers on the nuclear issue, after the Iranians sent them a letter. Donilon's visit was "the latest in a series of regular, high-level consultations between the United States and Israel, consistent with our strong bilateral partnership, and part of our unshakeable commitment to Israel's security," the White House said in a statement. Obama said earlier this month that he did not believe Israel had decided how to respond to its concerns about Iran's nuclear program, following public discussion within Israel about whether it should attack Tehran to stop it from getting a nuclear bomb. In Syria, which borders Israel to the northeast, violence continued to rage on Friday despite international protest and the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad renewed their attack on the opposition stronghold of Homs.

Iranian naval ships enter Mediterranean via Suez
Reuters /Two Iranian vessels, a destroyer and a supply ship, cross through Suez into Mediterranean, possibly en route to Syrian coast, source in canal authority says . Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel. "Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said on Friday. The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region. Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a "provocation". Syria and Iran are hostile to Israel.Egypt's military, which has a close defense ties with the United States, has been governing the country since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak a year ago.
The Suez Canal cuts through Egypt and allows shipping to pass from the Middle East to Europe and vice versa, without going around southern Africa.

STL refuses to confirm media reports on new indictment
February 18, 2012/ By The Daily Star The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesperson refused to confirm Friday local media reports that the court’s prosecutor had filed a draft indictment in three cases to the pre-trial judge. Marten Youssef only said that it was up to the prosecutor alone to decide when to file an indictment for review. “It is also his prerogative to file it confidentially and ex-parte, in which case, we would not be privy to that filing,” he told The Daily Star. Quoting sources close to STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s office, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday that Bellemare submitted recently to Judge Daniel Fransen a draft indictment in the attempted assassinations of former Deputy Prime Minister Elias Murr and MP Marwan Hamadeh, as well as in the assassination of former Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi. In October 2004, Hamadeh was seriously injured in a car bomb attack in Beirut. Hawi was assassinated on June 21, 2005 while Murr survived an assassination attempt on his life on July 12 of the same year. A judicial source told The Daily Star that Lebanon had received no official information on the matter. If the media reports prove accurate, Fransen would assess the indictment and could ask the prosecution for additional material if it is not sufficient. The local newspaper said that Bellemare, who is leaving his post at the end of February, also submitted additional documents related to the STL’s indictment in the case of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Al-Akhbar said that a fifth person might be indicted in Hariri’s case. Last June, four members of Hezbollah – Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hasan Oneissi and Assad Hasan Sabra – were named in an indictment by the U.N.-backed court, which was established in May 2007 to investigate and try Hariri’s assassins. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah strongly denies any involvement of his party in Hariri’s assassination, dismissing the court as an “American-Israeli” tool targeting the resistance. The Hezbollah leader had vowed not to hand over the indicted “even in 300 years.” The dispute over the STL led to the collapse of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet in January last year.

Extension of STL Mandate Begins to Take Course as Beirut Fails to Make Observations
by Naharnet /The renewal of the protocol signed between the Lebanese government and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will likely take effect soon after Beirut failed to make its observations, al-Liwaa daily reported Saturday. The newspaper said that a document calling on the U.N. Security Council to renew the tribunal’s mandate became part of the official U.N. documents on Friday at around 5:00 pm New York time and will likely be approved soon if the Council expresses no reservations on it. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had sent a letter to Lebanese authorities asking for Lebanon’s comments by Feb. 15 on the plan to extend the mandate of the STL for another three years. The mandate of the court, which will try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins, expires on March 1. But the Lebanese government failed to meet to discuss Lebanon’s observations due to a cabinet crisis that erupted on Feb. 1. Premier Najib Miqati suspended the sessions after he accused ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun of hindering the government’s work. Some reports had said that Miqati suspended the sessions to avert a clash among cabinet ministers over the protocol’s renewal although the role of the Hizbullah-led government is only observatory. Hizbullah strongly opposes the STL which has indicted four of its members in Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.

Jumblat Advises Nasrallah to Support Syrian People, Not Assad Regime
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Saturday that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah should have announced his backing for the Syrian people rather than defending the Assad regime. “I would have hoped that for Syria’s sake he would directly address (President) Bashar Assad and tell him that Syria is more important” than anything else, Jumblat told As Safir daily.
“I wish that he told him to be realistic, particularly that there could no longer be any reform in Syria after all the bloodshed,” the Druze leader said.
During a televised speech on Thursday, Nasrallah said he was ready for unconditional dialogue with his March 14 foes and renewed his support for Assad, accusing Arab and Western states of seeking to topple the Syrian president. Jumblat criticized a newly drafted constitution that could end nearly five decades of Baath Party rule, saying the text is an “illusion.” Syrian authorities have called for a Feb. 26 referendum on the charter. Nasrallah’s “support for the Syrian people is much more important that his support for the regime and its deluding reform,” the PSP chief told As Safir. “Sayyed Hassan knows what I mean and I don’t want to go into a public confrontation with him.”“But for the sake of Syria and the resistance, it’s better to accept the international consensus on a U.N. recommendation for the Syrian president to step down,” he said. Jumblat described the central protest city of Homs as the Stalingrad of Syria. “If it falls, then Syria would fall” and have an unknown fate.
He also defended his call for a new Taef agreement, saying unlike what his critics said, he was neither backing a new social-political contract to replace the deal nor altering the balance between Christians and Muslims.On Wednesday, Jumblat called for a new deal between Shiites and Sunnis, stressing that the Taef, which ended the Lebanese civil war in 1990, had expired.
He told As Safir on Saturday that the only way to safeguard Lebanon against the “complicated” Syrian crisis, was for officials to steer themselves clear of the dangerous repercussions of the developments in the neighboring country. “The best and most efficient solution is to sit at the dialogue table,” Jumblat stressed, welcoming Nasrallah’s announcement that he was ready to engage in dialogue.

March 14 politicians slam Hezbollah’s defense of its arms
February 18, 2012/By Hussein Dakroub The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Politicians in the opposition March 14 coalition hit back at Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah Friday, accusing him of setting preconditions for the resumption of national dialogue based on his party’s arms. They also rejected Nasrallah’s accusations that March 14 parties were funding and arming Syrian opposition groups fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, said Hezbollah had not been serious about dialogue over the Special TribunalLebanon and accused the resistance group of committing crimes in times of peace and times of war.“Hezbollah was never serious about the dialogue sessions we held [regarding the STL]. We had agreed to an international tribunal and the matter took a little time. But where is Hezbollah’s commitment to this?” he asked. “We don’t want to put conditions [on dialogue]. But they [Hezbollah] were never serious. Yesterday, he [Nasrallah] set a precondition: ‘Don’t speak about arms,’” Geagea said in a speech to mark the launch of the LF party’s charter in Maarab, northeast of Beirut. During national dialogue sessions in 2006, Hezbollah and other March 8 parties agreed to establish an international court to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. However, Hezbollah and its March 8 allies later rejected the U.N.-backed tribunal, dismissing it as an “American-Israeli court.” Last year, the STL indicted four Hezbollah members in Hariri’s killing and demanded their arrests. Hezbollah has rejected the indictment, vowing never to hand over the four suspects.
In a televised speech Thursday, Nasrallah left the door open to a resumption of dialogue with the March 14 alliance, stalled since November 2010, but said any talks must have certain preconditions. He also accused the March 14 coalition of arming and financing the Syrian opposition against the Assad regime, saying that such actions destabilized Lebanon. Nasrallah also rejected former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s call on Hezbollah to surrender its arms to Lebanese authorities, saying that March 14 leaders were not in a position to impose conditions on any dialogue.
However, Geagea said that Hezbollah’s weapons, a major bone of contention between the March 8 and March 14 camps, threatened the country’s stability.
“The ones who are involving Lebanon [in crises] are those wielding power outside the Lebanese state,” Geagea said, in reference to Hezbollah’s arms. “What we [March 14 parties] are doing is taking a political and ethical stance,” he added, referring to March 14 parties’ support for the Syrian opposition.
Responding to Nasrallah who scoffed at Geagea saying that he was the last person to condemn “massacres” in Syria, the LF leader defended his party’s actions during the 1975-90 Civil War.
“Assuming that all the accusations against the LF about massacres during the war were true, then they would be worth just one drop in the sea of [crimes] of which Hezbollah was accused during the war and during peacetime,” Geagea said.
MP Ahmad Fatfat from Saad Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc said there was nothing new in Nasrallah’s speech, except insistence on keeping Hezbollah’s arms.
“Sayyed Nasrallah appeared to be confused as a result of the [March 14 leaders’] speeches at the BIEL center, particularly [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s speech in which he extended his hand and called for dialogue,” Fatfat told Al-Fajr radio station. He described Nasrallah’s speech as that of “a militiaman” against Hariri’s speech of “a statesman.”
Fatfat rejected Nasrallah’s accusations that March 14 parties possessed arms and were financing the Syrian opposition. “Nasrallah is the one who possesses arms. He has admitted receiving political money [from Iran] and collaboration with Iran,” he said.
Deputy Speaker Farid Makkari also denied March 14 parties were sending arms and money to the Syrian opposition. “It is only political and media support [for the Syrian opposition], while the other side [Hezbollah] is practically supporting the [Syrian] regime by sending some of its members to fight alongside the regime and help it in suppressing its people,” Makkari said.
MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, defended the the party’s right to carry arms against criticismfrom March 14. “This resistance is not a choice of a group, nor a choice of a part of our people. This resistance has become a slogan for all our people and for our awakening nation,” Raad told a rally in the southern town of Kfar Tibnit. “Any change that does not take into account the bolstering of the resistance’s strength is not a change at all but a step backward. Conspirators, and those who collude to surround the resistance, have missed the boat.”

Hariri, Fadlallah promise to prevent strife
February 18, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali Fadlallah highlighted during a telephone conversation the importance of calls to combat strife, a statement by Fadlallah’s media office said Friday. The two discussed general developments and welcomed calls for preventing strife in Lebanon in general and between Muslims in particular, the statement said. Delivering a speech to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the assassination of his father former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Future Movement head promised to prevent the outbreak of Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon in wake of ongoing unrest in neighboring Syria.

Berri-Aoun talks may help end Cabinet crisis
February 18, 2012/ By Hussein Dakroub, Hassan Lakkis The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun paid a rare visit to Speaker Nabih Berri Friday, in what appeared to be the first move toward ending a row between Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati that has brought the Cabinet to a standstill. During the two-hour meeting at the speaker’s residence in Ain al-Tineh, Berri and Aoun discussed the 2-week-old Cabinet crisis sparked by a dispute between Mikati and ministers from Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc over the issue of civil service appointments. Details about the results of the meeting were not immediately known. Sources close to Berri kept mum on the outcome of the talks.
But Baabda MP Alain Aoun, a nephew of the FPM leader, described the meeting as “a good step” toward finding a solution for the Cabinet crisis. He said his uncle was satisfied with the talks with Berri. “General Aoun briefed Speaker Berri on all aspects of the [Cabinet] crisis and his vision for a solution,” MP Aoun told The Daily Star Friday night.
As a means to resolve the crisis, the Baabda MP said Mikati must recognize Aoun’s bloc, which is the second largest bloc in Parliament with 27 MPs, as “a main partner in executive authority.” “Mikati must take into account the size and role of the Change and Reform bloc in [administrative] appointments,” Aoun said. Asked whether Friday’s meeting would encourage Berri, who had intervened in the past to end Cabinet rifts, to begin efforts to resolve the crisis, Aoun said the answer lay with the speaker. A political source said the Berri-Aoun meeting, which lasted longer than expected, had been “a major indication” that the FPM leader was ready to seek a solution for the crisis. “Berri and Aoun addressed in depth the causes of the crisis and the atmosphere was very good,” the source told The Daily Star.
Michel Aoun has accused Mikati of violating the Constitution with the suspension on Feb. 1 of Cabinet sessions following sharp differences with ministers from Aoun’s bloc over appointments of Christians to key public administration posts. Aoun’s ministers rejected names that were proposed by Mikati to head the High Disciplinary Committee, a position traditionally reserved for Greek Catholics.
Mikati defended Thursday his decision to suspend Cabinet meetings, saying the move was not meant to shirk responsibility but rather to protect state institutions.
Mikati has signaled that Cabinet sessions could resume once Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas signs the transportation allowance decree. Nahhas, one of Aoun’s 10 ministers in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet, has refused to sign the decree contending that it should first be ratified by Parliament.
The Berri-Aoun meeting came as Parliament is expected next week to approve a draft law authorizing the government to set the transportation allowance, a move that is likely to eliminate a major hurdle in the way of resuming Cabinet sessions.Meanwhile, sources in the Change and Reform bloc said the meeting between Berri and Aoun came in the wake of an understanding on a solution to a dispute over the transportation allowance decree.
Parliamentary sources in the FPM said that the presence of the bloc in the Cabinet had begun to have an adverse effect on the movement’s popular base, especially since the country was not far from the 2013 parliamentary elections that would lead to the emergence of a new authority in Lebanon.
Aoun has become convinced that President Michel Sleiman and Mikati have agreed not to let ministers from his bloc make any achievements in their ministries and also not to give the bloc a share of Christian appointments, the sources said. They added that some of Berri’s stances on the Cabinet crisis converged with the “diabolical alliance” between Sleiman and Mikati against Aoun. According to the sources, only “a new approach” by Mikati and Berri can prevent the withdrawal of ministers of Aoun’s bloc from the Cabinet, although the circumstances through which Lebanon is passing require that the Cabinet stay in office and despite insistence by Aoun’s main ally Hezbollah that the time is not suitable now for a government change. The same sources said that unless there was a change in the Cabinet’s conduct toward Aoun, the FPM leader would inform Hezbollah of the reasons that would prompt him to withdraw his ministers from the Cabinet. However, the sources expected the Cabinet crisis to be resolved when Parliament approves a draft law next Wednesday authorizing the government to act on the transportation allowance and Nahhas signs it. The sources said that unless a solution to the transportation allowance problem was accompanied by an agreement to eliminate Aoun’s concerns, the crisis would be renewed in the Cabinet.
Mikati has implicitly accused Aoun’s ministers of obstructing the Cabinet’s work, saying he will not allow anyone to undermine the prime minister’s prerogatives. He has since said that he will not resume Cabinet sessions before agreement is reached on a formula to make the government productive. Last month, Nahhas signed a Cabinet decree approving a wage hike which increased the minimum wage among other measures. Nahhas refused to sign a decree under which the government would set the transportation allowance, arguing that this was illegal and required a draft law to be passed by Parliament. Sleiman was outraged by Nahhas’ stance, saying that previous Cabinets had set transportation fees and that was the norm. Sleiman reiterated Thursday the need for Nahhas to sign the transportation allowance decree. Meanwhile, Information Minister Walid Daouk said Mikati’s suspension of Cabinet sessions constituted “a positive shock” that made everyone aware of the drawbacks of impeding Cabinet’s work. Lebanon is facing “fateful challenges and the government’s concern should not be confined to this huge amount of searching for false victories at the expense of the public interest,” Daouk said in an interview to be published in Al-Massira magazine Saturday.

Military Court Sentences 3 to Death for Spying for Israel
by Naharnet /The Permanent Military Tribunal headed by Brig. Gen. Nizar Khalil on Friday sentenced to death Haitham al-Sahmarani, a retired Internal Security Forces first sergeant, on charges of collaboration with Israel. Upon his arrest in 2009 Sahmarani confessed to collaborating, along with his wife, with the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. With the help of his sister who had fled to Israel in 2000, Sahmarani began his relation with the Israelis in 2004. The sister, Sahera al-Sahmarani, and her husband Mohammed Amin Khazaal were sentenced to death in absentia on Friday. Hizbullah’s mouthpiece, Al-Manar television, said “Sahmarani met with Israeli officers in Turkey and Israel and gave coordinates to the enemy during the (2006) July war of (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah's possible locations.” Separately, the military tribunal sentenced Ragheda Daher to two years hard labor on charges of spying for Israel. And it handed a similar verdict to Assem Hammoud, who had been accused of plotting to bomb train tunnels in the U.S. More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of spying for the Israeli Mossad since April 2009, including members of the security forces and telecom employees. Several have since been sentenced to death.

Jumblat Meets Davutoglu: Political Solution Will End Syria Crisis
by Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed the need for exerting political and humanitarian efforts to end the crisis in Syria, announced the PSP in a statement on Thursday. He said after holding talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Turkey: “The political solution alone will end the Syrian regime’s violence” against protesters. The MP’s talks in Turkey also focused on Lebanese and other regional developments. Jumblat had traveled to Turkey on Wednesday on board a private jet. The PSP leader had met with Davutoglu during the latter’s visit to Beirut in January. The Lebanese official had stressed the importance of maintaining stability in Lebanon to avert any repercussions the Syrian crisis may have on the country. Turkey “is keen not to allow the Syrian crisis slip into Lebanon,” Jumblat remarked

China envoy meets Assad, backs Syria election plan
AMMAN/BEIRUT, (Reuters) - China said on Saturday it backed President Bashar al-Assad's plans for a referendum and multi-party elections to resolve the Syria crisis, a show of support against world condemnation of the Syrian leader's crackdown on a popular uprising.
After meeting Assad in Damascus, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun also called for an immediate end to the violence by all sides in the 11-month-old conflict.
Assad announced his plan on Wednesday for a referendum on a new constitution on February 26 followed by a multi-party election. The Syrian opposition and the West swiftly dismissed it as sham.
"We hope that the referendum on the constitution and the parliamentary elections take place in a continuous way," Zhai said, according to Syrian state television monitored in Beirut.
"China supports the path of reform taking place in Syria and the important steps that have been taken in this respect."
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua highlighted Zhai's comments that China was "deeply concerned by the escalating crisis and wanted the government and various political factions in the country to end all acts of violence against civilians".
The Syrian report quoted him as saying: "The Chinese experience shows a nation cannot develop without stability".
China and Russia have been Assad's most important international defenders during the crackdown which has killed several thousand people and divided world powers. The United Nations, the United States, Europe, Turkey and Arab powers want Assad to step down and have condemned the ferocious repression.
Beijing and Moscow vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on February 4 calling on Assad to quit and also voted against a similar, non-binding General Assembly resolution on Thursday.
BOMBING THE OPPOSITION
Syrian government forces meanwhile renewed their bombardment of the opposition stronghold of Homs on Saturday.
A blanket of snow covered Homs, on the highway between Damascus and the commercial hub Aleppo, as Syrian troops pounded mainly Sunni Muslim rebel districts with rockets and artillery.
The troops were close to Baba Amro, a southern neighborhood that has been target of the heaviest barrages since the armored offensive began two weeks ago, activists said.
"Troops have closed in on Baba Amro and the bombardment is mad, but I don't know if they are willing to storm the neighborhood while it is snowing," activist Mohammad al-Homsi said from Homs.
"There is no electricity and communications between districts are cut, so we are unable to get a death toll... there is no fuel in most of the city."
On Friday, opposition activists reported anti-Assad demonstrations in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities after weekly Friday prayers. Security forces shot dead at least three demonstrators in the capital after prayers, they said.
The military has also opened a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father. The Assad clan are Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a majority Sunni country.
Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000 after he had ruled for 30 years, portrays his enemies as nothing more than foreign-backed terrorists.
The uprising began with civilian protests in March, but now includes a parallel armed struggle led by the loosely organized Free Syria Army, made up of army deserters and local insurgents.
Syria's other significant ally is Iran, itself at odds with the West. An Iranian destroyer and a supply ship sailed through the Suez canal this week and are believed to be on their way to the Syrian coast, a source in the canal authority said.
The West has ruled out Libya-style military intervention, instead imposing sanctions and urging a fragmented opposition, which includes activists inside Syria, armed rebels and politicians in exile, to present a common front against Assad.
Tunisia, which is hosting a meeting on Syria next week, said on Friday Arab countries would encourage the opposition to unite before they would recognize them as a government-in-waiting.

Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha
By Tariq Alhomayed
Asharq Al-Awsat,
Hassan Nasrallah, who is akin to a member of the Syrian pro-regime Shabiha militia, during a speech on Thursday, asked “could any Arab king, emir or sheikh put forward the same reforms that have been put forward by al-Assad and the Syrian leadership?” The simple answer to this question is: no, for no Arab king, emir or sheikh would kill seven thousand of their own citizens simply to cling to power!
Since Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha, is not familiar with Arab history, as he is too wrapped up in Persian – and Khomeinist – history, let us take this opportunity to inform him that King Farouk of Egypt abdicated the throne without bloodshed, whilst in Saudi Arabian history, Imam Abdullah Bin Saud surrendered to the Ottoman forces of Ibrahim Pasha in 1817, after Diriyah – then capital of the country – was besieged. By doing so, he protected innocent lives, although the Turks took him into custody and later executed him in Istanbul. This is not the only such case in Saudi Arabian history, for Imam Faisal Bin Turki also did this, surrendering to the forces of Hursid Ahmed Pasha after Dalam was besieged; therefore Imam Faisal took the decision to surrender to spare the blood of his people, and he, along with his sons and his brother, was placed under house arrest.
As for today, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz was amongst the first to raise his voice about reform in late 1998, long before the so-called Arab Spring. King Abdullah spoke about the role of women and minorities, and he launched national dialogue; most importantly, he rallied his people around him when elsewhere in the Arab world, people being ruled by military dictatorships were revolting. Therefore what Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha, is not aware of is that the kings, emirs, and sheikhs of the Arab world are not imitating the “republic” of al-Assad, for indeed it is the tyranny of al-Assad the son which has transformed Syria into a false republic ruled by military dictatorship.
When Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha, defends what he describes as al-Assad’s reform, by which he means the drama being played out over a new constitution, he is intending to mislead public opinion. The new al-Assad endorsed constitution says that any Syrian president is allowed to have two terms in office, whilst each single presidential term is seven years; this means that al-Assad wants to rule Syria for 25 years, for he has not said that he would not stand at any forthcoming elections. Indeed, all the Syrian president is interested in is “resetting the clock”, according to the expression coined by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Hence, when Hassan Nasrallah, the Shabiha, speaks, he is not just misrepresenting the facts, he is completely perverting the truth, and putting forward Shabiha rhetoric par excellence that is akin to the speeches made by Syrian Envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari in New York, or Syrian ambassador to the Arab League Youssef al-Ahmed in Cairo. The morals and customs of monarchy are being completely misrepresented by Nasrallah, the Shabiha, for we have seen King Abdullah II of Jordan say that if he were in al-Assad’s position, he would step down; whilst the King of Morocco has invited his opponents to be partners in ruling the country. As for the King of Bahrain – a country Nasrallah claims is “oppressed” – he brought renowned and respected statesman Mahmoud Cherif Bassioun to head an independent Commission of Inquiry [into the events that took place in Bahrain from February 2011], whilst al-Assad met with [Arab League Observer mission head] General Mohammed al-Dabi, who put forward a shameful report regarding the situation in Syria, equating the killers with the victims!
Therefore, this is the ethics of kings, emirs, and sheikhs; they do not kill their own people, like al-Assad, nor do they live in caves, like Hassan Nasrallah the Shabiha.

Chaos is the new 'status quo' in the Middle East
By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi/Haaretz
For Israel, chaos is ultimately a good thing. It means that the Islamists and other hostile forces will be too distracted by infighting to focus any attention on fighting Israel.One year after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt, what conclusions can we draw regarding the ongoing wave of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa?
Around this time last year at the Herzliya Conference, the Israeli historian Prof. Martin Kramer lambasted the Obama administration for taking the view that the "status quo" in the region was no longer sustainable, and even went so far as to accuse the U.S. government of "throwing Mubarak under the bus." Yet Kramer's critique was off the mark even then, for the fact is that the "status quo" - that is, the apparently stable order imposed by strongmen that prevailed in the Middle East and North Africa prior to the outbreak of the so-called "Arab Spring" - was never sustainable. The unrest that has come upon and now characterizes the region can be compared to a tidal wave: It is simply unstoppable.
The United States could no more have saved Mubarak than President Nicolas Sarkozy could have saved the former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, whom the French government was eager to see retain power even as mass protests erupted in Tunisia. By promulgating the notion that the Obama administration threw Mubarak "under the bus," Kramer was inadvertently echoing the thoughts and intellectual legacy of a scholar whom he rightly took to task in his book "Ivory Towers on Sand": Edward Said.
The writings of Said - especially his best-known book, "Orientalism" - have unfortunately disseminated a patronizing view that in the Arab world, responsibility both for what goes wrong and for setting things right rests on the shoulders of Western powers.
What led to Mubarak's resignation in Egypt was not that the U.S. government had somehow abandoned him, but rather that the military, feeling the heat of mass protests, carried out a de facto coup. The same is true of Ben Ali in Tunisia, although there the military has now chosen to withdraw from politics.
In any case, a widespread problem with analysis of current developments in the Arab world is a tendency to impose false dichotomies. For instance, on the subject of Egypt's future, too much ink has been wasted on asking whether that country will emerge as a full-blown Islamist state or a healthy democracy. In fact, it is time to appreciate that a new norm will be dominating the region: chaos. Too often, commentators overlook demography, economy, tribal affiliations and climate change in their assessments of current and likely future trends.
For example, in Egypt, the ongoing protests in Tahrir Square have brought the economy to a grinding halt. Besides considerable decreases in tourism revenue and deleterious labor strikes, Bedouin tribes are stirring up trouble in Sinai, having taken over the Aqua Sun holiday resort - once a favorite destination for Israelis - at the end of last month with demands for a ransom of $660,000.
More generally, with a rapidly growing population of over 80 million, huddled around the Nile in an area that is only some 2.5 times the size of Israel, and with sharp divisions among political parties regarding how to solve the economic crisis facing the nation - Egyptians will continue to be quick to anger, having realized that the overthrow of Mubarak has led to no real improvement in quality of life, triggering a vicious cycle of further unrest. Likewise, few have noticed that Syria looks set to face a Malthusian-style collapse in the event of the fall of Bashar Assad's regime. The Sunni heartland is likely to succumb to the demographic and environmental pressures that helped trigger the uprising in the first place.
A traditionally pro-natalist policy on the part of the government has meant that the tribally dominated peripheries of Syria in particular have witnessed rapid population growth, especially among the armed tribes of Deir ez Zor, which contains most of Syria's dwindling oil reserves.
With Assad gone, these tribes will surely demand their fair share of oil revenues, potentially triggering another "periphery versus center" conflict like those that have characterized much of this country's uprising so far, or leaving the rest of Syria with less to spend on itself - above all as regards net importation of petroleum and oil products.
In addition, the suburban slums of Syria's major cities are teeming with hundreds of thousands of displaced migrants, owing to climate change and severe water shortages, with 500,000 people displaced from areas inhabited by the Inezi tribe in eastern Syria because of drought caused by shifts in rainfall patterns.
In 2007-8, 160 villages in northern Syria were abandoned for the same reasons. All this significantly increases the possibility that the country will fall apart once Assad goes, especially when one factors in sectarian tensions that have plagued cities like Homs.
For Israel, chaos is ultimately a good thing. It means that the Islamists and other hostile forces will be too distracted by infighting to focus any attention on fighting Israel. As for policy, Israel need only adopt a strong deterrence strategy. That is, to issue a stern warning that any foreign aggression will be met with severe retaliation, and act on such a warning should such aggression arise. Deterrence, however, must be consistent.
In the meantime, we must accept that chaos will be the main trend in the region for quite some time, rather than constantly fret over false "liberal democracy vs. Islamist theocracy" dichotomies.
**Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His website is http://www.aymennjawad.org.

Report: U.S. drones flying over Syria to monitor crackdown
By Zvi Bar'el and DPA/Haaretz
Pentagon officials say drones used to gather evidence to make case for international response; 40 Turkish intelligence officials captured in Syria, Assad regime claims Israel's Mossad trained them. The United States is flying unmanned reconnaissance planes over Syria to monitor the regime's escalating crackdown on dissent, U.S. defense officials told NBC television on Saturday.
The drones are being used to gather evidence on the Syrian security forces' violence against pro-democracy protesters that can be used to "make a case for a widespread international response," the U.S.-based broadcaster quoted the unnamed officials as saying.The Pentagon officials stressed that the U.S. is not preparing the ground for a military intervention, but is simply collecting evidence of President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protesters.
There was no official comment from Syria on the report.
The West has ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria to stop 11 months of bloodshed.
Meanwhile, there have been disagreements regarding what action must be taken against Syria. Turkey refuses to set up buffer zones for civilians on its border with Syria, and demands that the transfer of equipment and medicine be done via the sea and not through its territory.
France, on the other hand, maintains that such buffer zones must be on land and will anyhow spill over the Turkish border.
While the Syrian army continued to attack Daraa and Homs with tanks and heavy artillery, large protests also took place in Damascus, as well as Aleppo, a city which hasn't taken part in anti-regime protests regularly thus far.
The resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly condemning Syria, supported by 137 countries, has not impressed the Syrian regime which is only escalating its war against the opposition and widening its war zones. Russia continues to come to aid of the Assad regime with weapon shipments, and on Friday two Iranian warships passed through the Suez Canal on the way to Tartus port in Syria.
Western officials fear that Iranian military presence along with Russian aid could turn Syria into a center of international friction much worse than the struggle inside Syria. They fear that the control over actions in Syria will be taken over by a Russian-Iranian "partnership" which would exclude the European Union and Turkey and that U.S. involvement could be too late and inefficient.
Turkey fears this development after a diplomatic crisis erupted with Syria when more than 40 Turkish intelligence officers were captured by the Syrian army. Over the past week, Turkey has been conducting intensive negotiations with Syria in order to secure their freedom, and Syria insists that their release will be conditioned on the extradition of Syrian officers and soldiers that defected and are currently in Turkey.
Syria also conditioned the continuation of the negotiations on Turkey's blockade of weapon transfers and passage of soldiers from the rebels' Free Syria Army through its territory. It also demanded that Iran sponsor the negotiations of releasing the Turkish officers.
Turkey, who mediated several weeks ago between the Free Syria Army and Iran to secure the release of several Iranian citizens who were captured by the rebels, rejects Syria's demands, and for this reason Turkish sources believe that Turkey will soon decide on hardening its stance on Syria.
Syria, on the other hand, has recently published "confessions" that it allegedly gathered from the Turkish officers that they were trained by Israel's Mossad, and were given instructions to carry out bombings to undermine the country's security. According to the Syrians, one of the Turkish officers said that the Mossad also trains soldiers from the Free Syria Army, and that Mossad agents came to Jordan in order to train al-Qaida officials to send to Syria to carry out attacks.