LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 28/12

Bible Quotation for today/ Love for Enemies
Matthew 05/43-47:" You have heard that it was said, Love your friends, hate your enemies. But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect—just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Nasrallah cause of security lapse/By: Ahmed Al-Jarallah/Arab Times/May 27/12
NY Times: Iran Is Seeking Lebanon Stake as Syria Totters/By: By NEIL MacFARQUHAR/May 27/12
The time for foreign intervention in Syria is now/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 27/12
Egypt: A battle for alliances/By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat/May 27/12

International community condemns Syria over latest massacre
By Reuters, DPA and The Associated Press | May.27, 2012/
More than 92 killed in attack on town of Houla by government forces, including at least 32 children, UN confirms; U.S. says it will 'intensify pressure' to end Assad regime. The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists described as an artillery barrage by government forces on the central Syrian town of Houla.
"This morning UN military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children under the age of 10 and over 60 adults killed," Major General Robert Mood, the head of the UN team monitoring the ceasefire - which has yet to take hold – said in a statement. "The observers confirmed from examination of ordinances the use of artillery tank shells," he said, without elaborating, adding, "Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible." Activists said Assad's forces shelled the town of Houla on Friday evening after security forces killed a protester and following skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency fighting Syria's rulers, who belong to the minority Alawite sect.
The incident, which represented the worst violence since the start of a UN peace plan meant to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria's 14-month uprising, drew harsh condemnations from the international community. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement, "Those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account. The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the violence as a "massacre", and said he wanted to arrange a meeting in Paris of the Friends of Syria, a group that brings together Western and Arab countries keen to remove Assad. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was coordinating a "strong response" to the killings and would call for the Security Council to meet in the coming days.
In a statement, Arab League head Nabil Elaraby called the killing in Houla a "horrific crime", urging the U.N. Security Council - where Russia and China have protected Syria - to "stop the escalation of killing and violence by armed gangs and government military forces." International envoy and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement condemning the killings. "This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms," they said. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account," they added, calling on President Bashar Assad to end the use of heavy weaponry in populated areas and end all violence in the country. Although a 6-week-old ceasefire plan negotiated by Annan has failed to stop the violence, the United Nations is nearing full deployment of a 300-strong unarmed observer force meant to monitor a truce. The plan calls for a truce, withdrawal of troops from cities and dialogue between the government and opposition.

In wake of Syria massacre, West seeks to unify Bashar Assad's opponents
By Zvi Bar'el | May.27, 2012/Haaretz
Though there is no lack of denunciations of the attack that killed over 100 people near Homs, the international community faces significant hurdles in its bid to stop the carnage.
Whoever initiated, responded or contributed to this violent, regretful event must claim responsibility," – this was the weak response from the head of the UN observer team in Syria, Robert Mood. This was a typical, chilly response, which shows that even the chief observer doesn't know, or is unwilling to indicate "whoever initiated," and who should claim responsibility for the massacre in the village of Houla, in the province of Homs, which claimed the lives of over 100 people, including 32 children under the age of ten. The UN Security Council released a similar statement on Saturday, denouncing the massacre.
There is no lack of words or denunciations in this violent struggle. It seems however, this "regretful event" might also lead to government action as well. According to the New York Times, the U.S. is currently engaging in talks with the Russian government, in an attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole – to find a solution that will satisfy the opposition but allow for Bashar Assad's regime to remain in power, possibly even Assad himself.
Russia and the U.S. have dubbed the proposal the "Yemen Model," and discussions will continue during U.S. President Barack Obama's next meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in June.
New York Times' sources state that for the first time, Russia is not immediately rejecting a plan in which Assad would step down and pass his power to an interim leader, allowing for a political process and free elections to be held in Syria, similar to the situation in Yemen.
In order to properly prepare for Russia to join in on the plan, Obama, along with Turkey, is trying to coordinate the unification of the Syrian opposition, and influence opposition leaders to engage in talks that will lead to a regime change.
According to the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, the U.S. National Security Adviser met with Turkey's deputy foreign minister in Washington on Friday, to form a basic outline for the plan.
Up until this point, the Syrian National Council, an umbrella organization for all opposition groups, has refused all proposals to launch a dialogue with the Syrian regime.
Even if such a plan is developed, its implementation depends on Assad's consent – and that of his army. Assad has already proven in the past that he knows how to fold when the cards threaten his rule, but until now, he has yet to face the pressure of a do or die situation. If Russia agrees to join with the forces pressuring Assad, there's a possibility for change.
Meanwhile, the Gulf States, under Kuwaiti leadership this time, have initiated efforts to put pressure on the Security Council. The Gulf States were accused by Assad of funding and arming opposition militias within Syria. Until this point, the Gulf States have denied those accusations, and the Free Syria Army has also refused to reveal the origins of its armaments.
According to reports from within Syria, the Free Syrian Army has ties with regional countries such as Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, and Azerbaijan, through which it purchases weapons. Although they have purchased mostly light weapons, the passage of weapons into the hands of the rebels has been met with some setbacks, as Lebanese beaches are being patrolled by Russian naval vessels and have led to the capture of the "Lutfullah-2," a ship carrying weapons for the Syrian rebels. Syrian forces are also monitoring Iraqi border crossings.
The Gulf States are fervently trying to involve the Arab League in the discussions, in order to force a decision calling for international military action, similar to the situation in Libya.
It is doubtful that such demands will be answered, as NATO and its member states have expressed that they have no intentions of initiating military action in Syria.
It remains to be seen if the Arab League or the Gulf states will agree to send weapons to the rebels out in the open, a move that would increase international involvement and could drag western states into doing so as well.
Reluctance to get involved militarily as requested by Syrian opposition stems primarily from a fear of additional conflicts erupting in areas like Lebanon, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf. Such conflicts could be initiated by Syria's allies Hezbollah and Iran, in an attempt to divert attention from Syria.
Opposition to supplying the Free Syria Army with heavy arms exists as well, because of dissent and lack of centralized leadership among opposition groups. Such factors could lead to weapons being used not only against the Syrian government, but also in internal onflicts between opposition groups - or worst of all - weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah or other terrorist groups operating within Syria.
This dilemma only leaves the West and the Arab nations with one course of action - funding and training the opposition. Such a move would not require the Free Syria Army to make an international agreement. The money comes from Arab sources, Syrian benefactors residing abroad.

The time for foreign intervention in Syria is now!
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Syria has witnessed a new al-Assad regime massacre; this is not the first massacre of its kind, nor unfortunately will it be the last. This is a massacre that has claimed the lives of Syrian children and their mothers, slaughtered in a brutal manner, in the midst of a shameful international silence, despite everything that has been said about Annan’s mission, not to mention the presence of international observers.
There are several motives behind the massacres being carried out by the regime of al-Assad the tyrant. It is noteworthy that the al-Assad regime is exploiting every event in our region to send a bloody message to the suffering Syrian people. Whilst the entire region is preoccupied with the course of the Egyptian elections, and its implications and consequences, the regime of the tyrant carried out the Houla massacre in order to intimidate the Syrian people, and then claimed that “terrorists” had carried out this massacre and that it is the regime that will protect the people! At the same time as this, the pro-Assad media machinery promotes this view, exploiting the circumstances in some Arab Spring states, in order to strengthen the tyrant’s message. The Houla massacre is the greatest and most recent evidence of this fact, for even the manner in which this massacre was carried out was along the lines of an Al Qaeda operation, namely wholesale slaughter. This is something I previously termed al-Assad’s Qaeda, which is based on utilizing terrorism and deception in order to suppress and intimidate the Syrian people, in addition to sending a message to the international community that Al Qaeda is running riot in Syria.
The al-Assad regime’s lies have been exposed, except in the eyes of those who are accomplices to this regime in the international community and who continue to remain silent. This is a silence of actions, not words, for statements do not benefit the unarmed Syrian people, and will not stop the tyrant’s regime from killing and carrying out one massacre after another. Al-Assad has broken every taboo with regards to his actions towards the Syrian people, transgressing every red-line, carrying out brutal crimes against humanity. He has done everything, whilst the international community has done nothing concrete to stop this except issue statements. As for the economic sanctions, the majority of the international community is well aware that Iraq, Lebanon and Russia are not respecting this, and that the al-Assad regime continues to arm itself and manage its affairs via these afore-mentioned countries. Moreover, the death toll in Syria is escalating, whilst the crimes of the al-Assad regime are ongoing, and it continues to utilize deceptions that have been exposed.
The problem, as has been stated time and time again, is that the crimes being carried out by the al-Assad regime will push Syria as a whole towards division, violence and complete destruction, which in turn will impact on the entire region. The images of the massacres and crimes being committed by the al-Assad regime in Syria will serve to fuel regional violence, fanning the flames of extremism and sectarianism in an unprecedented manner. Therefore what al-Assad is doing makes him the worst criminal in the history of the region, and the international silence towards his crimes also surpasses any previous silence towards a dictator in our region.
Therefore, what Syria needs today is not more statements or stalling or prolonging Annan’s suspect mission, rather what the Syrian people need is foreign intervention to forcibly stop al-Assad’s killing machine which continues to kill young children and their mothers, stabbing them to death with knives in the most brutal manner. In this case, what al-Assad has done over the past 18 months represents a genuine crime against the unarmed Syrian people, whilst the international community continues to grant him more time and opportunity. There must be real foreign intervention in Syria today to stop al-Assad’s massacres; otherwise we will all pay a steep price!


Dozens of children killed in new Syria attack
27/05/2012/Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood, chief of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), speaks during a news conference in Damascus. (R)
BEIRUT (AP) — Gruesome video shows rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts with gaping head wounds, haunting images of what activists called one of the deadliest regime attacks yet in Syria's 14-month-old uprising. The shelling attack on Houla, a group of villages northwest of the central city of Homs, killed more than 90 people, including at least 32 children under the age of 10, the head of the U.N. observer team in Syria said Saturday.
The attacks sparked outrage from U.S. and other international leaders, and large protests in the suburbs of Syria's capital of Damascus and its largest city, Aleppo. It also renewed fears of the relevance of a month-old international peace plan that has not stopped almost daily violence.
The U.N. denounced the attacks in a statement that appeared to hold President Bashar Assad's regime responsible, and the White House called the violence acts of "unspeakable and inhuman brutality."
"This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and international envoy Kofi Annan. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account."
More than a dozen amateur videos posted online Saturday gave glimpses of the carnage, showing lines of bodies laid out in simple rooms, many with bloody faces, torsos and limbs. In some places, residents put chunks of ice on the bodies to preserve them until burial.
One two-minute video shows at least a dozen children lined up shoulder to shoulder on a checkered blanket on what appears to be the floor of a mosque. Blood trickled from one girl's mouth. One boy, appearing to be no more than 8, had his jaw blown off. The video shows flowered blankets and rugs covering several rows of other bodies.
Another video posted Saturday showed a mass grave, four bodies wide and dozens of meters (yards) long.
Activists from Houla said Saturday that regime forces peppered the area with mortars after large demonstrations against the regime on Friday. That evening, they said, pro-regime fighters known as shabiha stormed the villages, gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
A local activist reached via Skype said regime forces fired shells at Houla, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Homs. The shabiha entered the villages, raiding homes and shooting at civilians, Abu Yazan said. More than 100 people were killed, more than 40 of them children and most of them in the village of Taldaw, he said. Many had stab wounds, another activist said.
"They killed entire families, from parents on down to children, but they focused on the children," Yazan said.
The Syrian government blamed the killings on "armed terrorist groups" — a term it often uses for the opposition — but provided no details or death toll.
But like U.N. officials, the White House issued a statement directed at the regime.
The U.S. is "horrified" by the Houla attacks, National Security Council spokeswoman Erin Pelton said in a statement. "These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms," demanding that "those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account."
"The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end," Clinton said in statement.
U.N. observers, among more than 250 who were dispatched in recent weeks to salvage the cease-fire plan, found spent artillery tank shells at the site Saturday, and U.N. officials confirmed the shells were fired at residential neighborhoods. The head of the team, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, called the attack a "brutal tragedy."
The bloodshed is yet another blow to the international peace plan brokered by Annan and cast a pall over his coming visit to check on the plan's progress. The cease-fire between forces loyal to the regime of Assad and rebels seeking to topple it was supposed to start on April 12 but has never really taken hold, with new killings every day.
The U.N. put the death toll weeks ago at more than 9,000. Hundreds have been killed since.
The grisly images were condemned by anti-regime groups and political leaders around the world.
"With these new crimes, this murderous regime pushes Syria further into horror and threatens regional stability," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement Saturday.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released an unusually harsh statement, saying Arab nations and the international community were "partners" in the killing "because of their silence about the massacres that the Syrian regime has committed."
The Houla villages are Sunni Muslim. The forces came from an arc of nearby villages populated by Alawites, members of the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, the activists said.
The activists said the Houla killings appeared to be sectarian between the two groups, raising fears that Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with protests calling for political reform, is edging closer to the type of war that tore apart Syria's eastern neighbor, Iraq.
"I don't like to talk about sectarianism, but it was clear that this was sectarian hatred," said activist Abu Walid.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 96 people were killed, 26 of them children and four of them army defectors.
The group's head, Rami Abdul-Rahman, who relies on activists inside Syria, said all were killed in shelling, but that no forces entered Houla.
Syrian state TV condemned the opposition groups for the "massacre" in a statement Saturday.
"The armed groups are escalating their massacres against the Syrian people only days before international envoy Kofi Annan's visit in a bid to defeat his plan and a political solution to the crisis and with the aim of exploiting the blood of Syrians in the media bazar," it said.
The videos could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from operating inside the country.
The harsh condemnation from anti-regime groups reflects their growing frustration with international reluctance to intervene in Syria's conflict.
World powers have fallen in behind the U.N. plan. The U.S. and European nations say they will not intervene militarily, and while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya have said they will arm Syria's rebels, no country is known to be doing so.
A spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council called on the U.N. Security Council "to examine the situation in Houla and to determine the responsibility of the United Nations in the face of such mass killings, expulsions and forced migration from entire neighborhoods."
Also Saturday, the story of 11 Lebanese Shiites who were reported kidnapped in Syria this week took another strange turn.
Lebanese officials first said their expected arrival on a plane from Turkey to Lebanon late Friday was delayed for "logistical reasons."
On Saturday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry denied the men were in Turkey — raising new questions about their fate.
Lebanese and Syrian officials blamed Syrian rebels for Tuesday's kidnapping. No group has claimed responsibility.

The Al Houla atrocity: The outcome of nuclear diplomacy with Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis May 27, 2012/The wanton (immoral) slaughter by Syrian forces of 92 confirmed victims, 32 of them children under ten, at the Homs village of Al-Houla Friday, May 25, was the most horrifying atrocity in the Middle East this week, but not the only one: In Sanaa, six days ago, al Qaeda’s suicide bombers, having penetrated Yemeni military ranks, detonated two tons of explosives at a parade rehearsal killing more than 100 soldiers and civilians and injuring 400.
Yet, according to the New York Times, after 15 months of bloodshed, President Barack Obama is working on the Yemenbi model for a plan to push Bashar Assad out of office, while “leaving remnants of his government in place. The Yemeni model replaced President Ali Abdullah in Sanaa with his vice president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Whereas US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Assad and his “cronies” for the al-Houla massacre, the “Yemen plan” would leave in place those very “cronies,” including Assad’s close relatives, who are responsible for massacres not only in al-Houla, but also in Homs, Hama, Idlib and Deraa, to name a few.
According to the NYT, when Obama tested the idea with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the Group-of-8 summit in Camp David last Saturday, May 19, the Russian prime minister raised the example of “Mubarak in a cage,” referring to Mubarak’s court appearance at his trial. Obama then “countered with Yemen, and the indication was, yes, this was something we could talk about.”
This scrap of dialogue lifted the veil from a key aspect of Obama’s broader Middle East program and the role he has assigned Moscow for carrying it through. This role was first revealed exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 542 of May 25 which reported that the US president is acting to bring the Russians into a partnership for securing deals on the Iranian nuclear program and the Syrian crisis.
So far, his venture has had two results:
1. The Iranian nuclear impasse and the outcome of the Syrian civil war have been more tightly integrated than ever before.
2. Any deal reached by the US, Russia and Iran on the two issues would have to entail a carving-up of Middle East influence among those three powers.
As for Israel’s role in the ongoing bargaining, we also disclosed in debkafile of May 19 that Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak had agreed to stand back for Barack Obama to put his interim deal with Iran to the test. Despite their reservations, they decided to go along with it after receiving assurances from the White House that Iranian violations would result in the immediate termination of negotiations and bring military action forward as the sole remaining option for stopping a nuclear Iran.
The US president promised to put his accord with Israel before the G-8 summit. And he did.
But for now there is no deal although Israel, in effect, gave Obama six months’ grace to explore his diplomatic initiative with Vladimir Putin and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before turning back to the military option.
But as the days pass, major hurdles are piling up in the path of what some observers hail as Obama’s “Grand Bargain,” and others his “Grand Failure:” The Six-power talks with Iran have failed to persuade the ayatollahs to give up uranium enrichment up to weapons-grade; the world wants actions not words to halt the brutal massacres in Syria; rising bloodshed in Yemen continues to cripple the country. Obama’s hopes of a crisis-free six months for electioneering in peace look more and more like pipe-dreams.
The bargaining with Tehran is likely to stay stalled because Iran’s leaders take Obama’s deal with Israel as a six-month respite from a military threat. So why should they hurry in May or even June to reach a compromise with America on its demand to stop 20 percent uranium enrichment?
Bashar Assad and his army chiefs likewise feel US hands are tied by Obama's hopes of a breakthrough with Iran and they can safely carry on with their “unspeakable crimes” for the next six months under the Iranian-Russian umbrella. Words however strong will not discourage him from sending tanks to crush every last opponent and their children.
And Israel, seeing the US president lurching from one bargaining position to another to keep his initiative afloat, shifts uncertainly in and out of its unwritten commitment to withhold military action against Iran until November. None of the parties involved in granting Obama his six-month grace period, whether Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei, Binyamin Netanyahu or Bashar Assad, can be sure that he will in fact be returned to the Whie House in November. And even if he is, how much will be left of his Grand Bargain.


Statement on the Violence in Houla, Syri
May 26, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“Reports of a ‘massacre’ at Houla are very disconcerting because of its depravity. The number of children feared dead is especially reflective of the regime’s utter contempt for humanity and decency.
“Canada continues to be seized with developments within Syria’s borders and the broader region.
“The international community must redouble its efforts to get adherence to Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan or move on and explore other diplomatic solutions to the crisis.
“We again call on all parties to immediately and fully respect the ceasefire, cooperate with the UN observers, and support the efforts of Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan to resolve the crisis.
“We continue to work with our international partners to isolate the Assad regime, limit the damage it causes to Syria and the broader region, and support the Syrian people’s hopes for a better, brighter future.”

Syria blames rebels for Houla massacre
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Reuters
AMMAN (Reuters) - Facing growing world outrage over the killing of at least 109 people in a restive town, Syria on Sunday accused rebels of carrying out the massacre, in which dozens of children perished. Images of bloodied and lifeless young bodies, lain carefully side by side after the killings in Houla on Friday, triggered shock around the globe and underlined the failure of a six-week-old U.N. ceasefire plan to stop the violence. Syrian authorities blamed "terrorists" for the massacre, among the worst carnage in the 14-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which has cost about 10,000 lives. "Women, children and old men were shot dead. This is not the hallmark of the heroic Syrian army," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi told reporters in Damascus.
Opposition activists said Assad's forces shelled the town of Houla after a protest and then skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency.
Activists say Assad's ‘shabbiha' militia, loyal to an establishment dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, then hacked dozens of the victims to death, or shot them at close range.
U.N. military and civilian observers counted 32 children under 10 among at least 92 dead on Saturday. More bodies have since been found, activists said. The observers confirmed the use of artillery, which only Assad's forces have, but did not say how all the victims died. Western countries and Arab states opposed to Assad put the blame squarely on Damascus.
The Gulf Cooperation Council of Sunni-led monarchies accused Assad's soldiers of using excessive force and urged the international community to "assume its responsibilities to halt the daily bloodshed in Syria". EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton spoke of a "heinous act perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilian population" in a statement on Sunday. The head of the European parliament said it could amount to a war crime.
"RULE BY MURDER"
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that those who carried out the killings be held to account.
"The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end," she said.
France said it would call a meeting of the Friends of Syria, a group of Western and Arab countries keen to see Assad removed.
Britain said it would summon Syria's envoy over the massacre and that it would call for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in coming days.
The United Arab Emirates requested an urgent meeting of the Arab League, whose head, Nabil Elaraby, urged the U.S. Security Council to stop the killing.
But there was no immediate official word from Russia, which along with China has vetoed Council resolutions calling for tougher action.
Although the ceasefire plan negotiated by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan has failed to stop the violence, the United Nations is nearing full deployment of a 300-strong unarmed observer force meant to monitor a truce.
The plan calls for a truce, withdrawal of troops from cities and dialogue between the government and opposition.
Syria calls the revolt a "terrorist" conspiracy run from abroad, a veiled reference to Sunni Muslim Gulf powers that want to see weapons provided to the insurgents.
The United Nations has accused Assad's forces and insurgents alike of grave human rights abuses, including summary executions and torture.
(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby in London and Dubai Bureau; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


NY Times: Iran Is Seeking Lebanon Stake as Syria Totters
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: May 24, 2012
TANNOURINE, Lebanon — The Islamic republic of Iran recently offered to build a dam in this scenic alpine village, high in the Christian heartland of Lebanon.
Farther south, in the dense suburbs of Beirut, Iranian largess helped to rebuild neighborhoods flattened six years ago by Israeli bombs — an achievement that was commemorated this month with a rollicking celebration.
“By the same means that we got weapons and other stuff, money came as well,” the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, exclaimed to roars of approval from the crowd. “All of this has been achieved through Iranian money!”
Iran’s eagerness to shower money on Lebanon when its own finances are being squeezed by sanctions is the latest indication of just how worried Tehran is at the prospect that Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, could fall. Iran relies on Syria as its bridge to the Arab world, and as a crucial strategic partner in confronting Israel. But the Arab revolts have shaken Tehran’s calculations, with Mr. Assad unable to vanquish an uprising that is in its 15th month.
Iran’s ardent courtship of the Lebanese government indicates that Tehran is scrambling to find a replacement for its closest Arab ally, politicians, diplomats and analysts say. It is not only financing public projects, but also seeking to forge closer ties through cultural, military and economic agreements.
The challenge for Iran’s leaders is that many Lebanese — including the residents of Tannourine, the site of the proposed hydroelectric dam — squirm in that embrace. They see Iran’s gestures not as a show of good will, but as a stealth cultural and military colonization.
“Tannourine is not Tehran,” groused Charbel Komair, a city council member.
The Lebanese have largely accepted that Iran serves as Hezbollah’s main patron for everything from missiles to dairy cows. But branching out beyond the Shiites of Hezbollah is another matter.
“They are trying to reinforce their base in Lebanon to face any eventual collapse of the regime in Syria,” said Marwan Hamade, a Druse leader and Parliament member, noting that a collapse would sever the “umbilical cord” through which Iran supplied Hezbollah and gained largely unfettered access to Lebanon for decades.
“Hezbollah has developed into being a beachhead of Iranian influence not only in Lebanon, but on the Mediterranean — trying to spread Iranian culture, Iranian political domination and now an Iranian economic presence,” Mr. Hamade said. “But there is a kind of Lebanese rejection of too much Iranian involvement here.”
That has not stopped Iran from trying. Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Iran’s first vice president, arrived in Beirut a couple of weeks ago with at least a dozen proposals for Iranian-financed projects tucked under his arm, one for virtually every ministry, Lebanese officials said. The size of the Iranian delegation — more than 100 members — shocked government officials. Lebanese newspapers gleefully reported embarrassing details of the wooing; in their haste to repeat their success in forging closer ties with Iraq, for example, the Iranians forgot to replace the word Baghdad with Beirut in one draft agreement.
Iran offered to build the infrastructure needed to carry electricity across Iraq and Syria into Lebanon. It offered to underwrite Persian-language courses at Lebanon’s public university. Other proposals touched on trade, development, hospitals, roads, schools and, of course, the Balaa Dam in Tannourine.
Yet virtually no substantial new agreements were signed. The Iranian ambassador, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, reacted like a spurned suitor, grumbling publicly that Lebanon needed to do more to carry out agreements. The embassy here rejected a request for an interview, but Iran’s state-run Press TV quoted Mr. Roknabadi as saying, “The Iranian nation offers its achievements and progress to the oppressed and Muslim nations of the region.”
Therein lies the rub. Syria, run by a nominally Shiite Muslim sect, fostered its alliance with Iran as a counterweight to Sunni Muslim powers like Saudi Arabia. The alliance was built more on confronting the West and its allies than on any sectarian sympathies.
In Lebanon, a nation of various religious sects, many interpret Iran’s reference to “Muslim” as solely “Shiite Muslim.” Hezbollah insists that that is not the case and that the money comes with no strings attached and is for the good for all Lebanese.
“The Iranians say, ‘If you want factories, I am ready, if you want some electricity, I am ready,’ and they do not ask for any price in return,” said Hassan Jishi, the general manager of Waad, the organization that rebuilt the southern suburbs. (The name means “promise” in Arabic, referring to Mr. Nasrallah’s promise to reconstruct the area.) It cost $400 million to build apartments and stores for about 20,000 people, Mr. Jishi said.
Half the money came from Iran, Mr. Nasrallah said in his speech, adding that he had telephoned the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to ask for reconstruction aid even before the August 2006 cease-fire with Israel. Both Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded generously, he said.
“We owe a special thanks to the leaders of the Islamic republic of Iran, to the government, to the people, because without Iranian funding, we could not even have begun to achieve what we did,” Mr. Nasrallah said.
In the southern suburbs, what was once a jumble of haphazard construction is now neat rows of handsome tangerine-and-rose-colored apartment blocks with elevators, generators and parking. But anarchic power lines still crisscross the streets like so many cobwebs, because the electricity supply remains hit-or-miss. Lebanon suffers from a chronic shortage of electricity, generating just 1,500 megawatts against a peak summer demand of 2,500 megawatts.
Iran’s project to finance the dam appeared to be aimed at addressing such problems — and winning hearts and minds by meeting a need the government has so far failed to address.
Here in Tannourine, the sound of rushing water ricochets off the high valley walls, riven with caves where the first Christian monks sought sanctuary from prosecution centuries ago. Restaurants built over the Joze River draw a weekend crowd from Beirut, 45 miles south, for long lunches of meze and shish kebab washed down with smooth, locally made arrack. Local springs also feed one of Lebanon’s most popular bottled-water brands, called Tannourine.
The idea of a dam proved popular among the 35,000 inhabitants because it would both generate electricity and provide for irrigation, said its mayor, Mounir Torbay.
The dam was included in Lebanon’s 2012 budget and the contract was awarded to a Lebanese company, the mayor said. Then it got embroiled in local politics.
A prominent Christian politician trying to one-up his rivals asked the Islamic republic for $40 million for the dam, and Iran agreed last December, provided an Iranian company built it. Most of the solidly Christian area’s population was horrified by the prospect that the Iranians would move in, said Mr. Torbay, most likely bringing their mosques, their wives and perhaps even their missiles. Many suspect that some company with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will get the contract.
“We want the dam badly, but we don’t want an Iranian company to build it,” the mayor said. “They are from a different religion, a different social condition.”
There are still about 70 churches in Tannourine, with 22 dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and most Christians feel that their culture and tradition face enough of a threat already throughout the Middle East, residents said.
“One of the dreams of Iran is to gain a foothold over the mountains,” the mayor said. “It is important for them to oversee the Mediterranean. So Lebanon is a full part of their strategy.”
The fate of the project remains uncertain. The cabinet is inclined to accept the $40 million, not least because most foreign aid has dried up since a Hezbollah-dominated alliance formed the government last year.
As to Iranian plans to prevail in Lebanon, many Lebanese point out that the Christians and Sunni Muslims have failed at that endeavor before.
“I think the Iranian project to control Lebanon is a candidate for failure, too,” said Sejaan M. Azzi, vice president of the Phalange Party, a political party and once a Christian militia. “We don’t have confidence in Iranian economic aid; we consider it part of a political, security, military project.”
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
**This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 25, 2012
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect affiliation for Sejaan M. Azzi. Mr. Azzi is vice president of the Phalange Party, not the Lebanese Forces.
 

Nasrallah cause of security lapse
By: Ahmed Al-Jarallah/Arab Times
The head of the armed group in Southern Lebanon (Hassan) Nasrallah always talks about defending the southern frontiers of the country from Israeli aggression but to the contrary he and his men are the reason for security lapses in that part of the country. This is in stark contrast to what he claims. We have seen how he allowed Beirut to be violated on more than one occasion and how he brought injustice and torture to the people of Lebanon because of his dominance on the executive authority. His behavior forced the various factions inside Lebanon to take up arms to defend themselves — to defend their honor, their land and their means of livelihood.
Currently, Lebanon is facing the weapons equation which loosely translated means a return to the scenario of the 1980s when every street, village and town boasted of its own special militia group which defended the area and imposed taxes on the citizens of that particular area. There is no second thought about what is happening in Lebanon. The current situation is no secret and those responsible for it can no longer take cover behind vague excuses. They are the reason for the current turmoil regardless of the efforts being exerted by them to cover their follies.
The trait of being the armed militia which Hezbollah is fighting to maintain with the help of its partners has brought suffering for the people of Lebanon. The entire country has become a wrestling arena for parties involved in the conflict including the government. As a result the tourism activities in Lebanon have come to an abrupt end amid threats by big powers to boycott the country financially are knocking at the door because of accusations the Lebanese financial institutions are involved in money laundering to finance the Hezbollah mafias.
What Lebanon is going through at the moment is not due to conflicts of the past few days between supporters of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah on one hand, and the people of one town on the other. It is due to the inability of the state to instill logic among ‘tiny factions which are fighting each other’.
The inability to understand the bloody message of 12 years ago, which kept popping up every now and then, particularly during the past few months throughout Lebanon in sensitive areas which are facing the threat of another civil war. It has become clear, because of the arms race; these small wars will one day engulf the entire country.
Nasrallah is trying to distinguish between his weapons and the arms taken up by people to defend themselves because of his dictatorial attitudes. He is trying to use his ‘political magic wand’ which is no longer working because no matter what he calls it, his ‘armed resistance’ has lost its glitter — the same armed resistance which had at one helped him to transform some parts of Lebanon into criminal hideouts which was beyond the control of the legitimate authority.
That is why when he ordered the people to lay down their arms he should have realized that no one would accept his offer because for these people their weapons were the only means of defending their lives and their livelihoods. They did not want someone else to defend them especially the armed ghost who has been dominating the decision-making process and imposing his will on some judicial institutions rendering himself above the state and the people.
This person who has strengthened his position with weapons will heed no calls to cool down the situation in Lebanon if he is not forced to lay down his weapons or if the weapons are not taken away from him by force. It is enough the people have suffered injustice and oppression for decades.
If the Lebanese are serious to see their country stable and peace returning to Beirut they have to resist the armed mobs headed by Nasrallah who is fighting his resistance in the name of liberating the country.
If the Lebanese don’t force Hezbollah to surrender the weapons Nasrallah will take them further than Somalia and perhaps will give birth to a new civil war considering the past civil war for them was just a walk in the park. Do the Lebanese really know where Hezbollah is leading them to?
All they need to do is just look at what has happened lately in the North of the country and Beirut and the Bekaa valley so that they can learn a lesson... that is if they don’t want history to repeat itself.

Egypt: A battle for alliances!
By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat
The Egyptian presidential election results are precisely what we predicted here 4 days ago.
The election results have failed to resolve the situation, and there will be a run-off vote, whilst voter turnout stood at around 43 percent. The competition was between Dr. Mursi and General Shafiq, whilst other candidates vied for third place. Let us look at a breakdown of the results:
Mohamed Mursi, the presidential candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party – the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood organization – won 5,553,087 votes, approximately 25.3 percent of the vote, whilst former Egyptian Prime Minister General Ahmed Shafiq won 5,210,978 votes, approximately 23.7 percent of the overall vote. Therefore, the presidential run-off will take place between these two candidates in around three weeks’ time in order to determine who will emerge as Egypt’s next president. This will see power finally being transferred from the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] to a civil and democratically elected administration.
The question that must be asked here is: what are the rules of the game? How will each political party take part in this political battle? How will each party seek to secure victory?
The primary element in answering these questions is each candidate’s capability of securing political alliances with the voting blocs who have proven their presence and effectiveness during the previous election battle. The three defeated presidential election candidates – Hamdeen Sabahy, Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh and Amr Musa – took around 12 million votes between them, representing around 50 percent of the votes cast at the presidential elections – and these votes will be up for grabs at the forthcoming run-off vote. From here, Dr. Mursi and General Shafiq will work to win part or all of these votes, and this will be the most important deciding factor regarding the outcome of the presidential run-off. This battle was begun by the Muslim Brotherhood as soon as the initial results were announced and revealed to the public, with the Brotherhood issuing statements regarding the necessity of “nationalist” political forces standing with them in order to prevent a counter-revolutionary candidate from reaching power.
However Muslim Brotherhood opponents are asking why they are only now bringing up the revolution, after they ignored this following the fall of the previous regime, establishing a political deal with the Egyptian army that – in their eyes – came at the expense of the Egyptian revolution. Whilst General Shafiq is playing the game calmly, for he is aware that he is now the champion of the civil state project that opposes the Muslim Brotherhood’s state project, and therefore enjoys the support of the Copts, the military, and supporters of the civil state, as well as those who believe that the revolution has ultimately harmed – rather than benefited – Egypt’s economy and stability. From here, we can say that the manner in which each candidate manages the political battle to win alliances and mobilize support – not to mention their handling of campaign finances – will be the deciding factor of this election battle. This will decide whether the Muslim Brotherhood are able to benefit from their first real opportunity to win power in Egypt or not. This is a very difficult battle, and it will have a huge impact on the future of Egypt and the region.

Iran official says unconvinced of need for IAEA to inspect Parchin nuclear site
By Haaretz | May.27, 2012/
Comments by head of Iran's atomic energy agency come despite reports of a burgeoning deal between Iran, UN nuclear watchdog, which would allow the agency access to the military installation suspected of housing nuclear arms tests.The United Nation's nuclear watchdog has failed to convince Iran of the need to inspect a military base suspected of housing nuclear weapons' experiments, Iranian media cited the head of country's atomic agency as saying on Saturday.
Comments reportedly made by the head of Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi came despite last week's announcement of a burgeoning deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to which the international community would have more access to the Parchin base.
Speaking on Tuesday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, who had been looking for a deal giving his inspectors a freer hand to investigate suspected atomic bomb research in Iran, described the outcome of his meetings in Iran as an "important development."
He said he had raised the issue of access to the Parchin military site - an IAEA priority in its inquiry - and that this would be addressed as part of the agreement's implementation.
However, Iran's state-run TV and semi-official Fars news agency both cited
Abbasi as saying Saturday that Iran had not been convinced of the need to inspect the Parchin site, adding that "no documents or reason has been presented to us" to persuade Tehran otherwise.
According to the Iranian nuclear chief, the UN's nuclear watchdog "is interested in visiting Parchin due to pressure from countries that want the agency to investigate the issue," reiterating Iran's refusal to stop enrichment: "We do not ask for permission from anyone to meet our country’s demands.”
“It would be better for them to negotiate with our country with regards to obtaining fuel and not ask us to stop producing fuel,” Abbasi added.
"There is no reason for us to give up enriching uranium to 20 percent because we produce this fuel only to meet our needs, no more and no less," He said.
Abbasi's remarks were made the U.S. Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) claimed that Iran has significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total production in the last five years would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons if refined much further.
ISIS, a think-tank which tracks Iran's nuclear program closely, based the analysis on data in the latest report by the IAEA which was issued on Friday.
The IAEA report suggested it was possible that particles of uranium enriched to higher-than-declared levels could be the result of a technical phenomenon. Experts say that while it is embarrassing for Iran, there is no real cause for concern.
The UN agency also said satellite images showed "extensive activities" at the Parchin military complex which inspectors want to check over suspicions that research relevant to nuclear weapons was done there. Earlier this month, an image said to come from inside the Parchin base and showing an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that UN inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted at the site. The image was provided to The Associated Press by an official of a country tracking Iran's nuclear program who said the drawing proves the structure exists, despite Tehran's refusal to acknowledge it. The official said he could not discuss the drawing's origins beyond that it =was based on information from a person who had seen the chamber at the Parchin military site, adding that going into detail would endanger the life of that informant. His country, a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is severely critical of Iran's assertions that its nuclear activities are peaceful and asserts they are a springboard for making atomic arms.

Former U.S President Carter: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will not cancel peace treaty with Israel
By Reuters | May.26, 2012 | 9:47 PM | 2
Carter, 87, spoke after initial vote tallies put the Brotherhood's candidate ahead in first round of Egypt's presidential election, which Carter Center helped monitor. The Muslim Brotherhood may seek to modify, but will not destroy, Egypt's 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Saturday.
Carter, 87, was speaking after initial vote tallies put the Brotherhood's candidate ahead in the first round of Egypt's presidential election, which his Carter Center helped monitor.
The U.S. statesman, who brought together Israeli leader Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat in 1978 to agree the Camp David accords which led to a 1979 treaty, said he had held long discussions with senior Brotherhood figures in Egypt this week. "My opinion is that the treaty will not be modified in any unilateral way," Carter said at a news conference in Cairo to present the preliminary findings of his election monitors. Official results in Egypt's first free leadership election are due on Tuesday, but informal tallies put the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and Mubarak's last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in the lead. If confirmed, they would fight a run-off in June. Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist who has championed Palestinian resistance against Israel, was running a close third.
The peace treaty remains a lynchpin of U.S.-Middle East policy and, despite its unpopularity with many Egyptians, was staunchly upheld by President Hosni Mubarak until his overthrow last year in a popular uprising. The Brotherhood, long suppressed under Mubarak, is vehemently critical of Israel, and its Palestinian offshoot Hamas rules the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials have watched political turmoil since Mubarak's overthrow with growing wariness. Mubarak's fall opened up a freer form of Egyptian politics in which the popular mood looms far larger.
Mursi criticises Israel but says he would respect the treaty. One of his aides said Mursi would not meet Israeli officials as president, though he might delegate that task.
Cairo needs good ties with Israel's closest ally the United States, which provides billions of dollars in military and civilian aid and is pressing other major foreign donors to support Egypt's struggling economy.
But some of the election contenders said the peace treaty should be reviewed, partly because of perceptions the deal Carter brokered was biased in Israel's favor.
Carter said the treaty had not been violated by either side since its inception and that any problems had been resolved peacefully, including a flare-up of tension last year over the killing of some Egyptian border guards. "The Israelis apologised for that. They see great value in preserving the treaty," said Carter.
The Camp David accords were also supposed to guarantee the rights of the Palestinians, at Sadat's insistence, but that aspect had not been honored, Carter said.


Iran nuclear chief says Tehran to build new nuclear plant by early 2014
By Haaretz | May.27, 2012
Speaking to state-run TV, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran says ill build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr; work on existing plant in the area has suffered many delays.Iran plans to complete another nuclear power plant by the early 2014, the head of the country's nuclear agency was cited as telling Iranian state TV on Sunday.
According to a report by the French news agency AFP, Fereidoun Abbasi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that "Iran will build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr next year." Abbasi was apparently referring to the Iranian calendar year, running from March 2013 to March 2014.
Delays have been plaguing Iran's existing Bushehr plant ever since its construction began in the 1970s by a German consortium, only to be abandoned after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
These holdups returned even after Russia began work to complete it under a billion-dollar deal with Tehran in the mid-1990s.
Earlier this year, Abbasi told Fars news that Bushehr plant, located along the Persian Gulf coast, will reach its full capacity of 1,000 megawatts by February 1." However, it is not clear if the plant indeed reached the mark. In the past, Iranian officials indicated that the plant would supply 2.5 percent of the country's electricity demands.
In March, Abbasi told state-run television network Press TV that Iran was “capable of designing and building pool reactors in the country because the main problem was the production of fuel plates which our fuel [production] complexes are currently producing.”“Pool reactors are similar to the Tehran [Research] Reactor which has a capacity of 5 megawatts (MW) [of electricity] and we are planning to build a similar reactor with a capacity of up to10 MW in the country," he added.The Tehran reactor was established in 1967, and the fuel was initially provided by Argentina, but this stopped a few years ago. The fuel was then to be provided by Russia and France, but a deal struck in October 2009 failed.