Hezbollah to react, uninterested in escalation: report
Israel has raised the alert on the Syrian border in the wake of the weekend air strike on Syria’s Golan Heights that...
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Hezbollah to react, uninterested in escalation: report
BEIRUT: Israel has raised the alert on the Syrian border in the wake of the weekend air strike on Syria’s Golan Heights that killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of late Hezbollah top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, and an Iranian official, Israel’s Ynet news said Monday.
In an analysis, Ynet said Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah's response to the assassinations of Sunday’s assault is likely to lead to attacks against Israeli targets outside of Israel's borders.
It said Hezbollah's massive arsenal of missiles and rockets will stay in the organization's bunkers until the day Israel strikes Iran's nuclear facilities.
The most intriguing question, according to the analysis, is what will happen next. It's perfectly clear that Hezbollah is not currently interested in a major escalation with Israel. But it's also clear – especially in light of Nasrallah’s speech last week – that Hezbollah is interested in creating a new balance of deterrence with Israel.
Why do defense officials estimate that Hezbollah is not currently interested in an escalation? The main reason is that the Iranians do not want a war between Israel and Hezbollah at the moment, Ynet said. They have trained Hezbollah fighters and sent to Lebanon a massive arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles of every type for one purpose only: so the Lebanese organization can land a heavy and precise blow against Israeli population centers and infrastructures, should the Israeli army attack Iran's nuclear facilities, the report said.
It said, the Ayatollah regime, was not interested in Hezbollah wasting its resources on border skirmishes that have no strategic significance for Iran. This is the first and foremost reason.
The second reason that Hezbollah is not interested in an escalation, according to the analysis, is that the militants killed on Sunday were killed in the Syrian Golan, where Hezbollah has no justification to operate against Israel under the title it gave itself as protector of Lebanon.
In an interview last week, Nasrallah strenuously denied that Hezbollah has operated in the Golan in the past. The very fact that five Hezbollah men were killed right on the border in the Golan presents him as a liar to the Lebanese people, and it is therefore clear why Hezbollah has no legitimacy from the other groups in Lebanon, and from its own Shiite group, to operate in the Golan against Israel, the report went on.
It said Hezbollah and Nasrallah see themselves foremost as Lebanese, and they, according to estimates by defense officials, will be in no hurry to drag Lebanon into a war that has no distinct justification and legitimacy.
So what is likely to happen? Hezbollah will not remain silent. In a few weeks, Israel may encounter an explosive device on the border fence with Syria, or on Mount Dov, or perhaps even on the northern border with Lebanon. Another possibility is rocket fire towards population centers in the Golan, in the hopes that Israel will not escalate the situation. There could also be an anti-tank missile against an Israeli patrol in the Golan fired by a pro-Assad Palestinian group, according to the report.
Hezbollah, the report added, is also likely to respond with a symbolic act, such as flying a drone into Israeli territory – an action that would harm Israel’s army prestige but not cause a disastrous response that would push the region into war.
Except that the blow Hezbollah suffered is of a magnitude that could, in its eyes, justify a terror attack abroad against Israeli targets, perhaps even with Iranian help, such as the bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria in July 2012 in revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh.
Hezbollah cannot let the deaths of five of its people, including the son of Imad Mughniyeh, pass by in silence, but it will hesitate to act in a way that will entangle it in a large-scale confrontation with Israel, the analysis said. The question is what will happen in this attempt at payback, and how Israel will respond. One way or another, the Israeli army will further increase intelligence activity over the coming days.
Shots Fired Near Vice President's Delaware Home, Biden Wasn't There
An unidentified person or persons fired multiple gunshots from a vehicle near Vice President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Del., according to the U.S. Secret Service.
Residents in the area heard the shots and saw the vehicle speed away, according to Reuters.
The home is several hundred yards from the main road and authorities have been searching the area to see if anything was hit.
Police in New Castle County told The Associated Press that there were no reports of any injuries related to the incident.
Biden and his wife were not at home at the time of the shooting, which happened about 8:25 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.
After the shooting, police took a man into custody who allegedly resisted arrest near the vice president's home, and officials are working to determine if he is related to the shooting in any way, according to The Hill.
Neighbor Young Cho, who lives two houses down from the Biden residence, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he heard four gunshots on Saturday evening.
"We heard the shots, four of them," Cho said. "But next door there is always Secret Service so I wasn't too worried. I feel really safe here. But it was really strange, to hear those kinds of shots next to the vice president's house."
Biden planned to speak Monday in Wilmington at the Organization of Minority Women's 31st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.
Lebanese Army arrests four terror suspects
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army said Sunday it arrested four people over the weekend for involvement in terrorist acts as part of the military’s open battle against militant groups seeking to destabilize the country.
Mohammad Ali Shukkor, a Lebanese who has two arrest warrants against him for involvement in terrorist acts, was arrested in the Haret Hreik neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday night, the Army said in a statement.
It added that he was accompanied by Syrian nationals Ahmad Rahmo Sattouf and Ghossoun Ibrahim al-Hussein who were also arrested. Money and counterfeit bank checks in Shukkor’s possession were confiscated, the statement said.
Army soldiers also arrested Ahmad Mustafa Kahwagi, a Lebanese, Sunday after raiding his house in the Beirut suburb of Sabra. He is wanted on several arrest warrants for involvement in terrorist acts and shootings, the statement said. It added that cannabis and other drugs were confiscated from his house.
Elsewhere, an unknown assailant threw a hand grenade at an Army vehicle stationed in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli at midnight Saturday, slightly injuring citizens, the state-run National News Agency reported Sunday.
The attack came amid a high security alert in Tripoli following the Jan. 10 deadly twin suicide bombings in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 30 others in the most serious setback to a government security plan that restored law and order to the strife-wracked city last year.
The Army has stepped up its preemptive action against terror cells in the past few days that have led to the arrested of several suspects linked to militant groups and the foiling of a string of suicide attacks.
The Army Saturday arrested Wassim Khodr Omar after raiding a number of houses in Bab al-Tabbaneh. A quantity of military-grade weapons, ammunition, hand grenades and communication equipment were confiscated during these raids, according to an Army statement.
The Army also arrested Mohammad Jihad Ghaddara, a Lebanese, in the Wadi Hmayyed near the northeastern town of Arsal Saturday, for participating in terrorist attacks against the Army and the Internal Security Forces, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai visited the bombing site in Jabal Mohsen to offer his condolences to Sheikh Assad Assi, head of the Muslim Alawite Council, and families of the victims who died in the twin blasts.
“This visit is to show solidarity with you. It is a visit in which we again stress our unity and solidarity,” Rai told the families of the victims. He praised the families of the victims for foiling plans to incite sectarian strife by the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up in a crowded cafe in Jabal Mohsen.“In your heart, there is a torch of forgiveness, awareness and realization. Rest assured, all of Lebanon appreciate how you had extinguished the spark of evil and revenge,” Rai said.
The patriarch urged the government to assume its responsibility toward Tripoli’s development, saying poverty and deprivation are destabilizing factors in the pursuit of peace.
“In order to confront those aiming at instigating divisions, it is unacceptable for Tripoli to be a city of poverty and deprivation because there is no peace where there is deprivation,” he said. He added that there could be no honorable life without the Army and security forces.
After his visit to Jabal Mohsen, Rai headed to the Karami residence in Tripoli to pay condolences over the death of ex-premier Omar Karami.
Separately, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi told the relatives of Islamist inmates at Roumieh Prison that the prisoners’ trials would wrap up within two months.
Speaking at the meeting held at Tripoli’s As-Salam Mosque, Rifi said it was impossible “to undo in three months what the Syrian regime has done over a period of 30 years.” He told the relatives of Islamist prisoners that the issue needed more time and pledged to follow up on the cases and organize family visits shortly, the NNA reported.
Rifi said the two-month period was determined based on the delay caused by detainees’ refusal to appear in court sessions.
Last Monday, security forces stormed the notorious Roumieh Prison and dismantled a terror operations room run by Islamist militants and transferred them to a more tightly controlled jail block.
Rifi said the prisoners would be returned to their original block after repairs were made and fixed landlines installed to allow them to make calls in a way that was consistent with the law. Inmates’ relatives had protested in Tripoli Friday over the alleged abuse of some prisoners during the raid on the prison, contradicting an official position that no one was harmed during the operation.
Region on edge after Israel’s deadly strike
BEIRUT: The drums of war thundered Sunday as Lebanon and the region awaited Hezbollah’s retaliation to an Israeli helicopter strike on Syria’s Golan Heights that killed the son of slain Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Iranian commander and five other fighters.
Reprisal was seen as inevitable in light of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s remarks last week that his party’s military capabilities were growing and it had the right to respond to any Israeli attacks.
Jihad Mughniyeh, 25, field commander Mohammad Issa, 42, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Issa, and four other Hezbollah fighters were killed in the attack.
A senior Iranian field commander Abu Ali Tabtabai was also killed in the strike, a Lebanese security source told The Daily Star.
The strike entirely destroyed one Hezbollah vehicle and damaged another, the source added.
“Think not of those killed in the way of Allah dead, but alive and well with the Lord,” a Hezbollah statement read. “In all faith and pride the Islamic resistance in Lebanon announces to its loyal people the names of the honorable martyrs.”
In addition to Mughniyeh and Issa, Hezbollah mourned Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 35, Mohammad Ali Hasan Abu al-Hasan, 29, Ghazi Ali Dawi, 26 and Ali Hasan Ibrahim, 21.
Hezbollah confirmed the strike in an earlier statement, saying “a number of mujahedeen were martyred,” during “an inspection mission” in the Syrian town of Qunaitra.
According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, although a date for the funerals has yet to be set, the party’s members will be buried in the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery in Beirut’s southern suburbs or at their respective villages in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was on the United States’ most-wanted list for the attacks on Israeli and Western targets and was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008, is buried in Rawdat al-Shahidayn.
Believed to be the mastermind of Hezbollah’s combat tactics, Mughniyeh was considered to be involved in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed over 350 people, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s.
An Israeli helicopter carried out a strike against “terrorists” in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights who were allegedly preparing an attack on Israel, an Israeli security source told AFP earlier.
The source said the strike took place near Qunaitra, close to the cease-fire line separating the Syrian part of the Golan Heights from the Israeli-occupied sector, confirming an early report by Al-Manar.
Israeli media said the men who were killed had been plotting to attack or capture towns in northern Israel. Nasrallah revealed that an attack on Galilee in northern Israel and the conquering of villages there was possible in the event of a new war.The report had said that an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles in the Syrian province of Qunaitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in an area called the Amal Farms.
The Israeli military declined comment on the attack.
In the introduction to its evening news bulletin, Al-Manar described the Israeli strike as a “foolish venture” which reflects “Israel’s madness” in light of Hezbollah’s growing capabilities and it could lead to “a costly adventure that puts the entire Middle East region in jeopardy.”
Qunaitra has seen heavy fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels, including Al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the nearly 4-year-old civil war, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria said last month that Israeli jets had bombed areas near Damascus international airport and in the town of Dimas, near the border with Lebanon.
In his interview last week with Al-Mayadeen satellite news channel Nasrallah said “the frequent attacks on different sites in Syria is a major breach. We consider that those hostilities target the resistance axis.”
“[Retaliation] is an open issue ... it could happen any time,” he added.
The Hamas Movement condemned the Israeli “offensive” that targeted a Hezbollah convoy and called for powerful retaliation.
Salam seeks to defuse Nasrallah’s Bahrain comments
BEIRUT: Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s criticism of the Bahraini government should not negatively affect Lebanese that are working there or in other Gulf countries, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Sunday, in a bid to quell tensions over comments made by Hezbollah’s leader earlier this month.
Speaking to visitors at his residence in Msaitbeh, Salam emphasized that thousands of expat workers in the region were there purely for work reasons, and provide numerous benefits for Lebanon and its economy.
When asked whether the latest developments, particularly the very public bickering going on following Nasrallah’s comments in a Jan. 9 speech, would affect the government’s work and its ties with Bahrain and its neighbors, Salam said this was not the first time the government had dealt with such problems.
“This isn’t the first time that [certain] political factions are tackled about such things, and they are represented in the government,” he said, a reference to Hezbollah.
Asked whether the issue would be tackled in the Cabinet, he replied: “We are fixing this issue ... But what has been said doesn’t express the Lebanese government’s position or its politics.”
This echoed an earlier statement by the premier Saturday, in which he reiterated that “any remarks made by a Lebanese political faction against Bahrain do not represent the official position of the Lebanese government.”
He added that Lebanon’s diverse political fabric allowed for contrasting opinions and should not be used to justify harming Lebanon’s ties with ally states.
Two weeks ago, Nasrallah publically denounced Bahrain’s arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of the country’s main opposition group, calling the move “very dangerous.”
Bahrain has been in turmoil since 2011 when a popular pro-democracy movement was violently crushed. Its population is majority Shiite, and is ruled by the Khalifa royal family, who are Sunni.
Nasrallah voiced his strong support of the opposition movement, which is largely Shiite, accusing the Bahraini government of being “tyrannical and oppressive.” He also compared the Bahraini government’s actions to those of the Zionist project, accusing it of naturalizing Sunnis from across the region to change the country’s demographics.
Salam’s comments are the most recent in a wave of Lebanese political reactions – not all condemnatory – to Nasrallah’s comments following the Arab League’s provocative statement on the issue last Thursday.
The League called Nasrallah’s remarks a “repetitive interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain” and called on the Lebanese government to take a clear stance on the matter.
That same day, the Future bloc condemned Nasrallah’s decision to speak so bluntly about events in Bahrain, accusing him of “unacceptable interference” in the Gulf country’s affairs.
“The Lebanese have not only received help and solidarity ... from the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, [but these countries] have always backed Lebanese’s unity and stability,” the bloc said in a statement following its weekly meeting. “This should not be rewarded with an attempt to incite turmoil inside their nations.”
Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, took to Twitter Friday to accuse Lebanon of being controlled by a “terrorist agent,” in reference to Nasrallah.
It wasn’t until Saturday, in comments published by a local newspaper, that Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil weighed in.
“Lebanon’s implicit position does not differ from that of Arab states as per the [Arab League] statement with regards to non-interference in Bahraini affairs,” Bassil said, and as a result, “the Lebanese should not be punished for the position of a certain group.”
Extremism: The biggest threat to Islam
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Last week, as news of the attack on the offices of magazine Charlie Hebdo broke, Dr. Mahmoud Ziadeh was busy following up on the situation in Paris. He flipped between French television channels before grabbing the phone to check up on his children, who live in France’s capital.
The francophone academic, who was once the director of the faculty of arts at the Lebanese University in Tripoli, came back to Lebanon a few days before the incident, and he fears that Arabs and Muslims are going to pay the price for Islamist extremism.
He had lived in Paris since he went there as a student in 1969. Despite his support for the Arab nationalist movement and the Palestinian cause, he said he never felt out of place or unwanted.
“We were part of a vibrant, active society in France,” he said. “As Muslims, we never felt any discrimination. On the contrary, we considered ourselves part of one intellectual body that calls for justice and respect for human rights.”
“However, today things are completely different. Half of French society is now made up of immigrants coming from conflict zones in the world which has led to an increase in discrimination by the French.”
Ziadeh sent his children to France because the situation there was better than here in Lebanon, but now, in the wake of the Hebdo incident, he’s not so sure it’s the right decision. A friend of his son, he said, recently decided not to take a train from Paris to Lyon out of fear of another attack.
Both Paris and Tripoli are reeling from terror attacks, he said, pointing at the deadly twin suicide bombing at a cafe in Jabal Mohsen the other week.
“Terrorism does not discriminate between a Muslim, a Christian or an atheist, and that’s the dilemma that we need to work to resolve now. Terrorism is not limited to our Middle Eastern societies, but is also preying on the mind of the West.”
The Paris assault and the attack in Jabal Mohsen have exposed a deep-running problem regarding extremist Islamists.
This has prompted many Islamist intellectuals in the north of Lebanon to question their position amid the growing power of extremist groups such as ISIS and Nusra Front, both in the region and in Lebanon, particularly in the north.
Their doubts are especially strong given the declining influence of the Muslim Scholars Committee, their head Sheikh Salem Rafei, and the founder of the Salafist Movement in northern Lebanon, Sheikh Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal.
It is no exaggeration to say that not only have ISIS and other extremist groups gained control of various parts of Syria and Iraq, but that their reach is felt in many more places as a result of the number of smaller groups that are pledging allegiance to them.
Tripoli is a clear example of this, from the presence of fundamentalists Shadi Mawlawi and Osama Mansour, who have suspected links to ISIS, to the Jabal Mohsen bombings, which was claimed by the Nusra Front.
This situation is exacerbated by the lack of a president, the government’s stagnation and the poverty and social marginalization experienced by many in the city, providing fertile ground for extremist groups looking for new recruits for attacks such as that in Jabal Mohsen.
Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sheikh believes that the source of this recent wave of extremist Islamic ideology is down to Muslims feeling as if they are treated unjustly in their respective societies.
Sheikh stopped studying for his degree at the American University of Beirut to be part of the Islamist movement that was gaining ground in Tripoli back in 1985. These days, he works in Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni body, visiting prisons and giving religious advice to inmates. He points to security-related developments as having distorted the image of Islam as a religion of forgiveness.
Muslims, he said, should work on communicating the true meaning of Islam. Religion is all about how we treat one another, he added, and any injustices Muslims feel they are being subjected to should not be an excuse for such violence.
Muslims should instead explain the injustices they are suffering, he said, using words not weapons.
Another sheikh from Dar al-Fatwa in Tripoli blames the absence of a strong religious authority for the rise in extremism.
“How can a highly qualified sheikh play the role he should when he is only being paid LL2,500 or some other shameful amount by Dar al-Fatwa for each session of religious instruction to spread the message [against extremism] in mosques?” asked the sheikh, who declined to be identified.
“It’s very important to first fix the religious institutions, and then focus on proper religious education, as it’s not right to incorrectly explain Islamic texts.”
Dar al-Fatwa’s position centers on the need for Muslims to rise above provocations.
“These acts [in Paris] are suspicious and we condemn them. They are a crime against Islam and its Prophet, because the Prophet of mercy, the Prophet of Islam – Mohammad – did not teach us to face aggression with aggression,” said Sheikh Hasan Merheb, general inspector at Dar al-Fatwa.
“Those who insulted the Prophet Mohammad with drawings and pictures wanted to provoke Muslims who love their Prophet, so that their emotions would drive them to create strife,” he added.
“This, in turn, taints the reputation of Muslims and Islam and leads them to facing restrictions.”
This lack of trust in and curtailing of freedoms for Muslims is exactly what far right groups in Europe were calling for, Merheb said. “Extremist groups are the greatest danger to Islam, even more than Islam’s enemies.”
There are other options that would have been just as effective to protest the magazine’s decision to run pictures of Prophet Mohammad, he continued, and that would not have negatively affected Islam’s image.
The same goes for Jabal Mohsen, Merheb said. “It’s not acceptable that such a terrorist attack would take place in the name of Islam. This is shameful.”
Praising Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, he said the grand mufti had done much to contain tensions in the Muslim community in Lebanon and combat extremism. “Derian has proven his wisdom in this issue.”
But he also admitted that the body faced many difficulties: “Dar al-Fatwa is facing a lot of big challenges in terms of developing itself as a religious institution in the wake of the dangers of extremism, which no logical and Islamic mind could accept.”
Militant recruitment in Ain al-Hilweh for attacks on Army
The Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp seems to be on edge again following reports that a group of militant Islamist Palestinians and Syrians are being recruited to carry out bombings against military, security, diplomatic and partisan targets in Lebanon, security sources said.
The sources said senior Lebanese security officials have relayed to leading Palestinian groups in Lebanon “worrisome signals” about the security situation the camp, located on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, despite efforts made by various Palestinian factions to distance Ain al-Hilweh from the reverberations of the war in Syria.
According to the Lebanese officials, the bank of targets being pondered by terror cells include the Lebanese Army’s posts, buildings and administrative offices used by the military establishment, a number of clinics, in addition to military checkpoints in certain areas.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk’s recent statement in which he said that those who had plotted the Jan. 10 deadly twin suicide bombings in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli were hiding in Ain al-Hilweh probably constituted the first step toward putting the camp under further Lebanese security surveillance, the officials said.
They added that confessions by Bassam al-Naboush, one of three terror suspects arrested by the Lebanese Army last week, have revealed that a network of would-be suicide bombers was touring all Lebanese areas and was in close coordination with Shadi Mawlawi, one of the most-wanted Islamist fugitives.
Mawlawi is working to recruit some Islamists at the request of the commander of the Nusra Front Abu Malek al-Tali with the aim of targeting only military positions at this time, the officials said.
The Army has said that Naboush, and the other two terror suspects, Elie Tony al-Warraq and Mohannad Ali Abdel-Kader, were plotting a series of terrorist attacks against “Army locations and residential areas” following the Tripoli bombings. It said the three suspects were linked to Mawlawi and Osama Mansour, who, according to Machnouk, have taken shelter in Ain al-Hilweh since they fled Tripoli after the Army crushed Islamist militants in Tripoli in October.
The Daily Star has obtained a copy of a security report that revealed that “the Ain al-Hilweh camp has become a gathering place to a number of Islamist cells that include Palestinians from inside the camp and people of various nationalities who have been arriving in the camp since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis [in 2011].”
Haitham Mahmoud Mustafa, codenamed “Haitham Shaabi,” the commander of militant Jund al-Sham group who maintains contacts with the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, is working to recruit Syrian refugees in Shiite areas in Lebanon to carry out security missions, according to the report.
He is also recruiting cells from Ain al-Hilweh to send them to jihad in Syria, the report said.
It added that security agencies had monitored suspicious movements by a number of Islamist militants in Bustan al-Wadi area in Ain al-Hilweh, where meetings were held and arms were clandestinely distributed to cells in the camp by officials who were reported to be activists within Al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam group.
A Palestinian, identified only as Khaldoun T., codenamed “Abu Yasser,” keeps contacts with takfiri groups outside the Ain al-Hilweh camp which provide arms to Fatah al-Islam cells, the report said.
It warned of suspicious movements by Jund al-Sham and Fatah al-Islam groups in Ain al-Hilweh, adding that a senior Nusra Front official, Sheikh Osama Chehabi, is personally supervising the training of the Front’s group in the camp in coordination with Saleh Mustafa, a Syrian.
This security information was discussed last week during a meeting held at the Zgheib Army Barrack in Sidon between Brig. Gen. Ali Shahrour, the chief of the Army intelligence in the south, and senior Palestinian officials based in Ain al-Hilweh.
According to sources familiar with the meeting, Shahrour spoke about worrisome signals in Ain al-Hilweh as manifested in the rising number of the Nusra Front’s flags hoisted in the camp, along with armed protests by some masked gunmen against last week’s security operation that dismantled a terror operations room run by Islamist militants in Roumieh Prison, and the presence of dangerous wanted people who pose a threat to civil peace in Lebanon.
Shahrour stressed the need to take quick measures to prevent Ain al-Hilweh from turning into a den to export terrorism and strife, the sources said.
For their part, Maj. Gen. Subhi Abu Arab, the commander of the Palestinian National Security in Lebanon, and Fathi Abu al-Ardat, the secretary of the Fatah Movement, who attended the meeting said that the equation of “security by consent” is allowing some wanted Islamists to plot subversive acts from inside the camp, the sources added.
The two officials pointed out that the postponement of the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue presented Ain al-Hilweh with dangerous possibilities which the Palestinian situation in Lebanon cannot bear, especially amid an increased talk that the camp has become a tool in the raging conflict in the region.
Syrian lawyers assault Lebanese counterparts at Cairo meet
Israel says cracks first local ISIS cell
Israel says it has cracked the first ISIS cell on its soil, made up of seven Arab citizens who will be prosecuted on...
Expect Taxes, Economy To Top Obama's State Of The Union
President Obama will deliver his sixth State of the Union address to Congress and the nation on Tuesday night. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with senior Washington editor Ron Elving about what to expect.
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Delegation Of Congressional Democrats Visits Cuba
U.S. delegation leader Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) talks with reporters as he leaves the Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, on Saturday. Desmond Boylan/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Desmond Boylan/AP
U.S. delegation leader Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) talks with reporters as he leaves the Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, on Saturday.
Desmond Boylan/AP
A U.S. Congressional delegation led by Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy is in Cuba to discuss greater cooperation after President Obama embarked on a historic thawing of relations between the two countries after a decades-long chill.
"We are going this time to discuss our expectations, and the Cubans' expectations, for the normalization of relations," the Vermont senator said in a statement on Saturday. "We want to explore opportunities for greater cooperation, and to encourage Cuban officials to address issues of real concern to the American people and to their representatives in Congress."
The delegation, all Democrats, includes Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont. The six will meet with members of the Cuban government.
"We have all been to Cuba before, and we strongly support the president's new direction for our policy toward Cuba," Leahy said on Friday. "We are going this time to discuss our expectations, and the Cubans' expectations, for the normalization of relations."
"The delegation is scheduled to meet with Cuban government officials, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino and ambassadors to Cuba from Mexico, Spain, Norway and Colombia. The statement said the delegation might meet with "representatives of Cuba's civil society," a term referring to those working for reform within the communist political system.
"It is the second trip to Cuba for Mr. Leahy in a month. In December, he traveled there with two congressmen around the time Mr. Obama made the surprise announcement about restoring diplomatic relations.
"On that trip, Mr. Leahy picked up Alan P. Gross, a former government contractor from Maryland who had been imprisoned there for five years. Mr. Gross was released as part of the agreement between the United States and Cuba that ended a half-century in which the countries had no formal ties."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office also announced that he would make a separate visit in hopes of drumming up business ties between the state and America's erstwhile Cold War adversary.
Hezbollah death toll in Israeli strike on Syria revised to 9: source
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Republican Leaders Dismiss Obama's Tax Proposal As 'Not Serious'
House Speaker John Boehner listens as President Obama speaks to media during a bipartisan, bicameral leadership meeting at the White House this week. Boehner and others have reacted dismissively to Obama's tax overhaul plan. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP
House Speaker John Boehner listens as President Obama speaks to media during a bipartisan, bicameral leadership meeting at the White House this week. Boehner and others have reacted dismissively to Obama's tax overhaul plan.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Republicans are firing back at a White House proposal to push tax cuts for middle income families by raising the capital gains tax rate on couples making more than a half-million dollars a year.
As we reported on Saturday, the proposal, expected to be outlined in the president's State of the Union speech on Tuesday, would increase the tax paid on profits from the sale of property or investments to 28 percent from the current 23.8 percent rate. It would also require estates to pay capital gains tax on inherited securities, closing what the White House calls "one of the biggest tax loopholes" in the current code.
"More Washington tax hikes and spending is the same, old top-down approach we've come to expect from President Obama that hasn't worked," a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said.
"Republicans are offering better solutions focused on helping small businesses grow and hire, and helping families improve their lives," Michael Steel said.
In the Senate, a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed the sentiment of many in the GOP who have long opposed what they have described as the president's goal of "redistributing wealth." The president has said that the nation needs to work to close the growing gap in wealth and income between rich and poor Americans.
Don Stewart, deputy chief of staff for the Kentucky Republican said: "It's not surprising to see the president call for tax hikes, but now he's asking Congress to reverse bipartisan tax relief that he signed into law."
Stewart said that "Republicans believe we should simplify America's outdated tax code; that tax filing should be easier for you, not just those with fancy accountants; and that tax reform should create jobs for families, not the [Internal Revenue Service]."
The White House says the move would raise $200 billion over the next decade to expand tax credits for families in which both spouses work, expand the child tax credit to $3,000 per child under 5 years of age and overhauling the education tax system by providing students up to $2,500 a year to cover college tuition.
While the plan enjoys almost zero chance of passing either the House or Senate, both now controlled by Republicans, the move by Obama is seen as a shot across the bow of the GOP in the lead-in to the 2016 presidential race. In what appeared to be an effort to blunt Republican criticism, the administration points out that the change in the capital gains rate would bring it back to where it was "under President Reagan."
A spokesman for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, also dismissed the president's proposal.
"This is not a serious proposal," said Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck in a public statement. "We lift families up and grow the economy with a simpler, flatter tax code, not big tax increases to pay for more Washington spending."
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Poverty and deprivation hamper peace: Rai
BEIRUT: Poverty and deprivation are destabilizing factors in the pursuit of peace, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said Sunday following his visit to the site of last Saturday’s suicide bombings in Tripoli.
“In order to confront those aiming at instigating division, it is inacceptable for Tripoli to be a city of poverty and deprivation because there is no peace where there is underdevelopment,” the National News Agency (NNA) quoted Rai as saying.
Rai expressed his condolences to the families of those who died in last week’s attack on Jabal Mohsen, that left nine dead and 30 injured.
He urged the government to assume its responsibility toward Tripoli’s development, emphasizing that the Army and the security forces were the only guarantors to a decent and honorable life, El-Nashra reported.
In turn, the Head of the Alawite Islamic Council Sheikh Assad Assi noted that “ethical and religious motivations are indeed what led Rai to make this visit, which can only be seen through a humanitarian perspective,” El-Nashra reported.
After his visit to Jabal Mohsen, Rai headed to the Karami residence in Tripoli to pay condolences over the passing of late former Prime Minister Omar Karami.
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Obama's Trouble Articulating The State Of The Economy
President Obama used the word "crisis" 11 times when he addressed a joint session of Congress in 2009. Since then, he's had a hard time hitting the right note when talking about the economy. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
President Obama used the word "crisis" 11 times when he addressed a joint session of Congress in 2009. Since then, he's had a hard time hitting the right note when talking about the economy.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
When you're president of the United States, what you say about the economy matters, because it isn't just about numbers and widgets; It's about people's lives and hopes. The health of the economy is intertwined with the national psyche.
On Tuesday, when President Obama delivers his State of the Union address, he will talk about the economy, something that in the past he's struggled to describe in a way that resonated with the American people.
"I know that for many Americans watching right now," Obama said, addressing a joint session of Congress in 2009, "the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others."
That February, Obama's first in office, the nation was in the throes of the worst recession in generations. He used the word "crisis" 11 times. The month before, the economy had shed nearly 800,000 jobs, and the situation would get worse before it got better.
"You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day," he said. "It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights."
In that first address, Obama and his speechwriters figured the American people weren't simply looking to him for sympathy and an accounting of economic doom. Obama had been elected on a message of hope, and he needed to offer some.
Why Isn't Obama's Speech A State Of The Union? Feb. 23, 2009
"Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," he said.
But since then, Obama has had a hard time hitting the right note when talking about the economy. In that first speech, he was still an outsider. But in the years that followed, it was his economy.
In 2010, he reframed, saying the worst of the storm had passed.
"And after two years of recession, the economy is growing again," he said. "Retirement funds have started to gain back some of their value, businesses are beginning to invest again."
But just barely. The recession was technically over, but there was huge disconnect between Obama's words and what Americans were experiencing. One in 10 people still couldn't find work.
The story was the same in 2011, when an optimistic Obama told an unconvinced America, "The stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again."
Year after year, Obama described green shoots and good news that economists say were real, but many people watching at home simply didn't feel. Each year, Republicans, in their official response, had no problem finding very real pain to highlight.
The contrast between Obama's assessment and the GOP response was never starker than in 2012.
"The state of our union is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," he said.
Then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels gave this GOP response: "The president did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight, but he was elected to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have done anything but make them worse."
The economy wasn't actually worse: The unemployment rate was no longer rising. It was coming down, and that trend has continued. In 2014, U.S. businesses added more jobs than in any year since the go-go '90s.
When Obama stands at the front of the House chamber and talks up the economy this Tuesday, polls, consumer confidence surveys and $2-a-gallon gas all indicate the American public is more likely to agree with his assessment.
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State Of The Union Is Obama's Big Chance To Frame The Debate
During his State of the Union address, President Obama will announce a plan to help the middle class and raise taxes on the wealthy. NPR's Mara Liasson previews the speech with NPR's Rachel Martin.
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Lebanese politicians mourn Arab icon Faten Hamama
BEIRUT: Lebanese politicians expressed their condolences following the passing of Arab film icon Faten Hamama who died Saturday, at the age of 83, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said.
Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea Sunday called Hamama’s death a loss for Arabic and Egyptian art, the NNA reported.
Geagea expressed his condolences to Hamama’s relatives, her fans and to Egyptians in general saying "the Lady of the Arabic screen shall remain a beautiful memory in our consciousness and a source of pride to Egyptians and Arabs alike.”
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also commented on the actress’ passing, quoted by the NNA as saying “with Hamama’s death, the Arabic screen is now left without its respectful and discreet lady who represented her country and nation, and presented a classy and decent model of culture and art and creativity.”
Siniora also expressed his condolences to the Lebanese, Egyptian and Arab audiences hoping for an artistic and cultural “renaissance” in the Arab World.
"The Lady of the Arabic screen," as she was known, died after suffering from a “sudden health problem,” according to Egypt's official news agency MENA.
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SIDON, Lebanon: Several Lebanese Army soldiers experienced shortness of breath after an Israeli unit carrying out maneuvers on the other side of the border in the Aita Shaab region dropped smoke bombs, a security source told The Daily Star Sunday.
The injuries sustained were not serious, the source added.
The National News Agency had reported earlier Sunday that Israeli patrols were combing large swathes on the border from the Kfar Shuba hills to Abbasieh-Kfar Shuba area. The combing was coupled by an intense Israeli surveillance drone activity along the border with Lebanon.
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Lebanese Army arrests four terror suspects
BEIRUT: Four people were arrested over the weekend for engaging in terrorist activity the Lebanese Army said in a statement Sunday.
A Lebanese man and two Syrians were arrested in the Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik, and a man identified as Ahmed Kahwagi was arrested in the Beirut suburb of Sabra over terrorist links the statement said.
The statement said that Mohammad Ali Shukkor, who has two arrest warrants against him for terrorist activity, was arrested in Haret Hreik, accompanied by Syrian nationals Ahmed Rahmo Sattouf and Ghossoun Ibrahim al-Hussein. Money and counterfeit bank checks in Shukkor's possession were confiscated.
The Army said that Kahwagi was wanted for several shooting incidents and terrorist activity. Cannabis and other drugs were confiscated from his home in Sabra's Hay al-Gharabi.
At midnight Saturday, an unknown assailant threw a grenade at an Army vehicle in Bab al-Tabbaneh, injuring at least two civilians, the state-run National News Agency said.
The attack came amid heightened security operations in the northern city following last Saturday’s suicide bombings in the Jabal Mohsen area that left nine dead and 30 injured.
Two suspects were also arrested Saturday following extensive raids by the Army in Tripoli. Riad al-Amoudi and Wassim Khoder were apprehended in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood along with military-grade weapons, ammunition, hand grenades and communication equipment, according to reports in El-Nashra.
The Army also arrested Mohammad Jihad Ghaddara in the Wadi Hmeid area of Arsal Saturday, on suspicion of participating in terrorist attacks against the Army and the Internal Security Forces (ISF). He has been handed over to the relevant authorities.
According to the official ISF Twitter account, there were 41 arrests Saturday for crimes related to murder, robbery, fraud and drugs.
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