Hezbollah should retaliate from Syria, not Lebanon: PSP, Kataeb
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and Kataeb deputy head Sejaan Azzi have warned Hezbollah that any...
Monday, 19 January 2015
Hezbollah should retaliate from Syria, not Lebanon: PSP, Kataeb
BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and Kataeb deputy head Sejaan Azzi have warned Hezbollah that any retaliation for the weekend Israeli airstrike that killed six party members should be carried out from Syria, and not Lebanon.
"Lebanon cannot afford any adventure," Jumblatt said in remarks published Tuesday by local daily Al-Mustaqbal. “What happened in Qunaitra on Sunday was an attack on Syrian territory and not Lebanese territory.”
"We have nothing to do with what is happening in Syria,” he stressed. “We are interested in our occupied lands in Kfar Shouba Hills and the Shebaa Farms.”
Jumblatt warned against being dragged into a new war with Israel, while praising Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s situational awareness and good judgment.
Six Hezbollah fighters, including the son of Hezbollah’s late top military commander Imad Mughniyeh were killed in Sunday’s helicopter attack in Qunaitra, in Syria’s Golan Heights. Iran Monday said one of its commanders was also killed in the attack, as well as two Syrian fighters affiliated with Hezbollah, a Lebanese security source had told The Daily Star.
The Kataeb Party deputy chief also shared Jumblatt’s concerns about a possible Hezbollah avenge from Lebanon.
“The Israeli raid took place in Syria, which requires that any response, should Hezbollah decide to respond, be carried out from Syria, not Lebanon, which is committed to resolution 1701,” Azzi, who is also the labor minister, told An-Nahar newspaper in comments published Tuesday.
"There is no need for Lebanon to shoulder the burden of what happened,” he cautioned.
But Future Movement MP Atef Majdalani thought different of Jumblatt and Azzi, warning that any Hezbollah retaliation from Syria would threaten Lebanon.
"If Hezbollah responds from Lebanese territory, Hezbollah would be implicating Lebanon in war,” Majdalani told a local radio station, arguing that Israel needs an excuse to wage war. “Even if Hezbollah carried out an attack from Syrian territory, this action threatens Lebanon and the Lebanese.”
Enhancing the 2015 State of the Union: Announcing our "River of Content"
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This year, we've been hard at work -- and tomorrow, we'll be rolling out a whole new stream of supporting material at WH.gov/SOTU. We’re calling it our “river of content." In addition to the enhanced livestream that features graphics augmenting the speech, the river will provide a series of discrete pieces of content, or "boats," that showcase expanded, standalone views into Administration policy -- often with an interactive or personalized component. It’s part of an effort to make policy more specific and interesting, and more relevant to the people who will be affected.
Hezbollah silent on retaliation plans
BEIRUT: Hezbollah kept mum Monday on how and when it would retaliate over an Israeli raid that killed six of its fighters and an Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights, in a move apparently designed to keep the Israelis guessing and at bay.
Meanwhile, thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters streamed to the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs to mourn the son of slain military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in the Israeli airstrike.
In similar events in the past, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah would address his supporters through a televised speech to outline the party’s response to any deadly Israeli attack targeting its fighters, but by Monday evening he had still not appeared.
Nasrallah’s no-show gave rise to speculation that Hezbollah would prefer to first avenge the killing of its fighters before speaking on the implications of the raid, viewed as a major military escalation in the decadeslong struggle between the powerful Shiite party and the Jewish state.
The Israeli raid ratcheted up tensions with Hezbollah, which recently boasted of rockets that could strike any part of the Jewish state, and threatened to spark a new confrontation between the two sides which fought a devastating 33-day war in the summer of 2006.
A number of Hezbollah officials contacted by The Daily Star refused to comment either on the Israeli raid or the party’s possible retaliation.
But Mahmoud Qomati, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, said in a TV interview the party would respond to the Israeli attack in “the right place and at the right time.”
A former minister said he expected Hezbollah’s retaliation against Israel to be limited to avert a major military conflagration in the region. He also said any retaliation decision to be taken by Hezbollah would have to be coordinated with Iran.
Any Hezbollah response to the Israeli raid would be “constrained and calculated” in order to forestall a major military flare-up in the region, the former minister said.
Speaker Nabih Berri telephoned Nasrallah to offer his condolences for the killing of the Hezbollah fighters.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk described the Israeli raid as “a major incident that reflected magnitude of complication in the region.”
“This complication will increase as a result of this operation and the nature of martyrs who fell,” Machnouk said after meeting with Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea at the latter’s residence in Maarab, north of Beirut. “But we are doing our job to preserve the country’s safety in the hope of reaching the desired solution.”
Jihad Mughniyeh, 25, was one of six Hezbollah fighters killed Sunday when an Israeli helicopter attacked a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra. At least one Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander was also killed in the raid.
A Lebanese security source told The Daily Star that two Syrian fighters affiliated with Hezbollah were also killed.
Amid chants of “Death to Israel” and calls for revenge, thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters poured onto the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs to mourn Mughniyeh. With women throwing rose petals from balconies, the black-clad mourners raised their fists into the air, chanting religious slogans as the Hezbollah flag-draped coffin of Mughniyeh was carried shoulder high toward the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery in the Ghobeiri district, where he was laid to rest in a tomb next to his slain father’s.
Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s top military commander who was on the U.S. most-wanted list for the attacks on Israeli and Western targets, was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008 which the party blamed Israel.
Funerals for the other five victims of Sunday’s attack are planned in south Lebanon Tuesday.
Iran denounced the Israeli airstrike and confirmed that a Revolutionary Guard general was killed in the raid.
A statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry did not mention reports that a top Iranian field commander was also killed in the attack.
But Sepah News, the official website for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, confirmed that Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was killed in a “Zionist helicopter attack while he was inspecting the Qunaitra region.”
The Sepah report said Dadi had previously served as a commander in Iran’s central Yazd Province.
“The terrorist act indicates that the Syria war is a part of the confrontation with the Zionist regime [Israel],” the Foreign Ministry’s statement said, praising Hezbollah for its firm stance to continue “on the path of jihad and martyrdom against occupation and foreign interference in the affairs of other nations.”
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, said Hezbollah’s retaliation to “the Zionist air attack in Qunaitra will be severe.”
In a letter to Nasrallah offering his condolences over the death of six Hezbollah fighters, he said: “These heinous crimes, which are repeated by the Zionist entity, are aimed at weakening the resistance axis in confronting terrorism and occupation in the region.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers intensified their patrols along the Blue Line on the border with Israel amid heightened tensions in the region caused by the Israeli raid.
Security sources told The Daily Star that the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, backing Lebanese soldiers, has been closely monitoring movements on both sides of the volatile border with night goggles and binoculars.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said the situation along the Blue Line was calm and under control, adding that the peacekeepers did not take any extraordinary measures. He said he did not see any signal for any escalation or military reinforcements in the region that falls under UNIFIL supervision and control. – Additional reporting by Mohammed Zaatari
Hezbollah’s retaliation to Israeli strike requires creativity
BEIRUT: Coming just days after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah warned Israel of his party’s military strength, the Israeli airstrike Sunday against a convoy of senior Hezbollah and Iranian officers in the Golan Heights was unusually provocative.
The brazenness of the airstrike, in which Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa and Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of slain military leader Imad Mughniyeh, were killed along with four other Hezbollah cadres, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general and reportedly several other Iranians, leaves Hezbollah little choice but to mount a retaliation. Still, Hezbollah’s leadership must tread a very fine line in delivering a response that is sufficiently strong to signal the party’s displeasure and possibly deter Israel from a repetition but not to the extent that the party and Israel lead each other into an escalation that results in a war that neither currently seeks.
Contrary to widespread reports that it was a helicopter that carried out the attack, international security sources told The Daily Star that the Hezbollah convoy was targeted by a pair of missile-firing pilotless drones instead. The drones crossed the United Nations line of separation shortly before midday Sunday before returning to the Israeli side nine minutes later having carried out the attack.
Israel has officially stayed quiet on the airstrike, leaving it unclear why the attack was carried out at this time, particularly in light of heightened rhetoric over the past two weeks emanating from both sides. Some have linked it to the Israeli electoral campaign, an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bolster his security credentials.
But the elections are not for another two months and if all remains calm along Israel’s north border, the electorate will have forgotten this little display of resolve by the time they head for the polls. If, on the other hand, it triggers a war, Netanyahu will face the wrath of the Israeli public as Hezbollah’s ballistic missiles smash into Tel Aviv.
The claim that it was a helicopter that carried out the attack appears based on comments from an Israeli security source widely quoted Sunday by Agence France Presse as saying the strike was intended to thwart an attack against the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan.
Israel has in the past directed fire at suspected militants approaching the separation fence. But Issa and Mohammad Ali Allahdadi were not on the way to plant bombs beside the fence or launch Grad rockets at Israeli settlements. They were senior commanders, which makes this airstrike less of a pre-emptive raid to prevent an attack and more like a carefully planned targeted assassination in the full knowledge that it would likely provoke a retaliation from Hezbollah.
It is also debatable that the group was putting in place the nucleus of a future resistance campaign against the adjacent Israeli-occupied territory.
The Golan has witnessed a fierce struggle in the past four months between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, the latter having gained some ground in the Qunaitra province. Mounting a new and sustained resistance campaign against Israeli occupation would be a luxury neither Hezbollah nor the Assad regime can afford at present.
Nevertheless, whatever the Israeli motive for the airstrike, the deed is done and now the ball is in Hezbollah’s court.
The obvious means of retaliation are staging roadside bomb ambushes or anti-tank missile strikes anonymously from the Golan or openly in the Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah and its allies staged four attacks in the Farms and the Golan almost a year ago in response to Israel’s airstrike against a facility near Janta in the eastern Bekaa used for the transfer of weapons from Syria. Hezbollah carried out another attack in the Shebaa Farms in October in retaliation for the death of a technician who was killed while dismantling a booby-trapped tapping device on a communications cable in Adloun.
But for such an act of retaliation this time around to carry weight commensurate with the loss of the senior cadres, Hezbollah cannot settle for wounding Israeli soldiers (as in the previous reprisals) but will have to inflict fatalities. Depending on the number of dead soldiers, Israel will then have to calibrate the strength of its counterretaliation.
Perhaps, instead, Hezbollah this time will choose a less orthodox manner of retaliation to send the requisite message to Israel.
Hezbollah possesses the technological and military means to inflict various degrees of pain openly or deniably. Could it make use of its fleet of weaponized pilotless drones to strike a military target inside Israel, a suitable tit-for-tat for Israel’s raid?
How about targeting an Israeli naval vessel with one of its anti-ship cruise missiles? Could Hezbollah’s amphibious warfare unit slip silently into the Israeli naval base in Haifa to attach limpet mines to ships? Apparently, they tried it once before.
Alternatively, Nasrallah has referred lately to his fighters invading Galilee in the event of another war. Could a small team infiltrate Israeli territory to conduct a sabotage operation against a military target a few kilometers south of the border? All highly speculative, of course, but if Hezbollah is to deter Israel from repeating its assassinations of top commanders in Syria or elsewhere, it may require some creativity in selecting an effective response.
Hezbollah’s retaliation to Israeli strike requires creativity
BEIRUT: Coming just days after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah warned Israel of his party’s military strength, the Israeli airstrike Sunday against a convoy of senior Hezbollah and Iranian officers in the Golan Heights was unusually provocative.
The brazenness of the airstrike, in which Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa and Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of slain military leader Imad Mughniyeh, were killed along with four other Hezbollah cadres, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general and reportedly several other Iranians, leaves Hezbollah little choice but to mount a retaliation. Still, Hezbollah’s leadership must tread a very fine line in delivering a response that is sufficiently strong to signal the party’s displeasure and possibly deter Israel from a repetition but not to the extent that the party and Israel lead each other into an escalation that results in a war that neither currently seeks.
Contrary to widespread reports that it was a helicopter that carried out the attack, international security sources told The Daily Star that the Hezbollah convoy was targeted by a pair of missile-firing pilotless drones instead. The drones crossed the United Nations line of separation shortly before midday Sunday before returning to the Israeli side nine minutes later having carried out the attack.
Israel has officially stayed quiet on the airstrike, leaving it unclear why the attack was carried out at this time, particularly in light of heightened rhetoric over the past two weeks emanating from both sides. Some have linked it to the Israeli electoral campaign, an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bolster his security credentials.
But the elections are not for another two months and if all remains calm along Israel’s north border, the electorate will have forgotten this little display of resolve by the time they head for the polls. If, on the other hand, it triggers a war, Netanyahu will face the wrath of the Israeli public as Hezbollah’s ballistic missiles smash into Tel Aviv.
The claim that it was a helicopter that carried out the attack appears based on comments from an Israeli security source widely quoted Sunday by Agence France Presse as saying the strike was intended to thwart an attack against the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan.
Israel has in the past directed fire at suspected militants approaching the separation fence. But Issa and Mohammad Ali Allahdadi were not on the way to plant bombs beside the fence or launch Grad rockets at Israeli settlements. They were senior commanders, which makes this airstrike less of a pre-emptive raid to prevent an attack and more like a carefully planned targeted assassination in the full knowledge that it would likely provoke a retaliation from Hezbollah.
It is also debatable that the group was putting in place the nucleus of a future resistance campaign against the adjacent Israeli-occupied territory.
The Golan has witnessed a fierce struggle in the past four months between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, the latter having gained some ground in the Qunaitra province. Mounting a new and sustained resistance campaign against Israeli occupation would be a luxury neither Hezbollah nor the Assad regime can afford at present.
Nevertheless, whatever the Israeli motive for the airstrike, the deed is done and now the ball is in Hezbollah’s court.
The obvious means of retaliation are staging roadside bomb ambushes or anti-tank missile strikes anonymously from the Golan or openly in the Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah and its allies staged four attacks in the Farms and the Golan almost a year ago in response to Israel’s airstrike against a facility near Janta in the eastern Bekaa used for the transfer of weapons from Syria. Hezbollah carried out another attack in the Shebaa Farms in October in retaliation for the death of a technician who was killed while dismantling a booby-trapped tapping device on a communications cable in Adloun.
But for such an act of retaliation this time around to carry weight commensurate with the loss of the senior cadres, Hezbollah cannot settle for wounding Israeli soldiers (as in the previous reprisals) but will have to inflict fatalities. Depending on the number of dead soldiers, Israel will then have to calibrate the strength of its counterretaliation.
Perhaps, instead, Hezbollah this time will choose a less orthodox manner of retaliation to send the requisite message to Israel.
Hezbollah possesses the technological and military means to inflict various degrees of pain openly or deniably. Could it make use of its fleet of weaponized pilotless drones to strike a military target inside Israel, a suitable tit-for-tat for Israel’s raid?
How about targeting an Israeli naval vessel with one of its anti-ship cruise missiles? Could Hezbollah’s amphibious warfare unit slip silently into the Israeli naval base in Haifa to attach limpet mines to ships? Apparently, they tried it once before.
Alternatively, Nasrallah has referred lately to his fighters invading Galilee in the event of another war. Could a small team infiltrate Israeli territory to conduct a sabotage operation against a military target a few kilometers south of the border? All highly speculative, of course, but if Hezbollah is to deter Israel from repeating its assassinations of top commanders in Syria or elsewhere, it may require some creativity in selecting an effective response.
Families of Hezbollah fighters bid farewell
ARAB SALIM/GHAZIEH, Lebanon: Safaa couldn’t find the strength to stand when the coffin of her husband, Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa, arrived in to their hometown of Arab Salim in Nabatieh. “Today is the last day you are going to sleep in your home, and tomorrow the soil will carry you, and I will never forget you, hero, the son of the resistance,” she said, speaking to the body of her deceased husband.
He was among six Hezbollah fighters who were killed in an Israeli helicopter strike Sunday on Syria’s Golan Heights, which also claimed the life of slain commander Imad Mughniyeh’s son Jihad, sparking fears of more bloodletting ahead.
Banners and pictures praising the bravery of Issa, also known as Abu Issa as his fellow fighters referred to him, were festooned on the streets. A portrait of the slain leader also hung outside the town’s Imam Khomeini Complex.
Abu Issa hailed from a family of martyrs, residents of Arab Salim told The Daily Star. When the Syrian uprising began, he considered fighting for Hezbollah alongside the Syrian regime a duty. The son of a Lebanese mother and Syrian father, Abu Issa was described by those who knew him as determined and brave.
“Since he was a kid and he loved to hike the mountains and valleys and he loved rigorous work,” his uncle Yehya Moukalled said. “When he was 12 he was already a man.”
“The hills of our town were occupied by the Israeli enemy and bombs used to fall on us all the time, only Mohammad would go outside to provide the people with their needs,” he said.
“He was martyred and that was his wish, to fall as a martyr facing the Zionist enemy,” Moukalled said.
Tens of men who were trained by Abu Issa stood by to pay their respects, describing him as a man who thrived in the field.
At the age of 14 Abu Issa joined the resistance.
His first important task entailed inspecting Israeli army posts as well as those belonging to the South Lebanon Army, aligned with the Jewish state in 1986 which was occupying south Lebanon. On his days off he would dedicate himself to social work.
Abu Issa quickly climbed up the ranks of the resistance and assumed a leadership role in many key battles with Israel, including the July 2006 War. He was married and leaves behind four children.
Hezbollah also mourned the deaths of Mohammed Ali Hasan Abu al-Hasan, 29, from Ain Qana, Ghazi Ali Dawi, 26, who hails from Khiam and is married with one child, and Ali Hasan Ibrahim, 21, from Yohmour Shqif, who joined the resistance when he was 15.
In the Sidon district of Ghazieh, residents prepared to bury their son Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 35, alongside his father, who passed away due to illness a few hours after the family was informed of the fighter’s death. The elderly Hijazi, known as Abu Kamal, had been in a coma for a month, and served Hezbollah as a founding member and dedicated 30 years of his life to the resistance.
Abbas Hijazi played an important role during the 2006 War, and during battles between Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and Syrian rebel factions in Qusair and Yabroud last year.
Hijazi was the youngest of six siblings and gained prominence as a resistance fighter.
He is married to the daughter of Abu Hasan Salameh, a Hezbollah commander who was killed by the Israelis in 1999.
Hijazi leaves behind a wife and four children, including a newborn girl, whom he had had a chance to see before departing for Syria. Rather than mourn him, the Hijazi family congratulated his martyrdom, a fate he had long sought, relatives said.
“He was promised [martyrdom] and he used to say ‘I want to be the first of my brothers to be martyred,’” Hijazi’s mother said. “He came to me, said goodbye and left. The second day, he was martyred.”
The family accepted condolences for both deaths at the Imam Mahdi Complex and the family home.
“I am proud of him,” Hijazi’s wife Zeinab said.
“This is the house of a mujahedeen and it’s not unusual for martyrs to be produced in it,” said the wife of Abu Hasan Salameh, Hijazi’s mother-in-law. “We are proud of your martyrdom, Abbas.”
A cousin said Hijazi’s martyrdom was one many Hezbollah supporters would willingly replicate. “We tell Sayyed Hasan [Nasrallah] the great leader that everything that has happened will only increase our determination and pride.”
“We tell you that we’re all with you, with the blood of our children and our souls, and all that we have.”
Sea of mourners buries son of Mughniyeh
GHOBEIRI, Lebanon: Beirut’s southern suburbs were swarmed with people Monday paying their condolences and showing support during the funeral parade of Jihad Mughniyeh, who was killed during an Israeli airstrike in the Golan Heights in Syria the previous day.
“Goodbye you martyr, son of Imad,” Hezbollah official Ali Abbas bellowed at the crowd gathered in Ghobeiri. “Let the entire world see how we bid farewell to our martyrs!”
The 25-year-old Mughniyeh’s death held symbolic weight with the party as he is the son of the deceased Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, a revered figure.
Thousands of people participated in the march. Abbas rallied the crowd from the back of a van mounted with loudspeakers, as Mughniyeh’s coffin – draped in the Hezbollah flag – was carried above the sea of people following.
The stream of chants never wavered as Abbas seamlessly moved between screaming, “Death to Israel!” into “We will do anything for you Hussein!” – referring to revered Shiite figure and grandson of Prophet Mohammad, Hussein Ibn-Ali – with Hezbollah anthems woven in-between.
The procession carried an air of pride and defiance. Very few tears were shed and the attendees seemed almost joyful. “Today is an honorable day for us,” a man who did not wish to be named told The Daily Star. “When we have a martyr we become stronger. We grow. Of course there are costs to this fight, we will obviously take hits, but we thank God.”
Confetti and rice rained down on the parade from the overhanging balconies as Hezbollah flags held by fighters wearing military fatigues ruffled in the afternoon wind. Brief moments of celebratory gunfire were peppered throughout.
Taming the crowd proved a difficult task for the security in place as more and more people tried to get closer to the coffin. Security officials – some all-black clad wearing keffiyehs and scarves bearing images of Mughniyeh and his father draped around their necks – locked their arms and formed lines to try and bring order to the march.
Many in the crowd were certain that Hezbollah would strike Israel back for this.
“There’s no doubt that this was a cowardly act carried out by the Zionist enemy,” Samir Shakar told The Daily Star. “But this act will be reversed on the land of the Zionists.”
Mughniyeh follows in the footsteps of his father and both his uncles – Jihad and Fouad Mughniyeh – who were all killed by Israel. His uncle and namesake Jihad Mughniyeh was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs in 1984.
His father Imad, who was on the United States’ most-wanted list for attacks on Israeli and Western targets, was assassinated in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008.
Imad Mughniyeh was revered highly by Hezbollah supporters and his funeral procession was one of the largest in the southern suburbs in recent history.
Following in his father’s footsteps Jihad Mughniyeh was also heavily involved in the party.
Mughniyeh led Hezbollah’s student body when he attended the Lebanese American University and his university friends described him as a sociable, charismatic leader who was always intent on fighting for the party.
“Everybody has plans A and B and C for his life but for Jihad, martyrdom was the plan A, B and C,” Mahdi Berjaoui, a close friend of Mughniyeh’s and representative of the Hezbollah student party at LAU prior to him, told The Daily Star.
Mughniyeh wasted no time working toward his goal. A profile of him that aired on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV showed him performing weapons training during his university years.
He was killed alongside five other Hezbollah fighters and a senior Iranian military commander, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali-Allah Dadi, by an Israeli helicopter attack in the Golan Heights. Al-Manar TV reported that they were carrying out a reconnaissance mission to explore cooperation between the Nusra Front and Israel.
The parade ended with Mughniyeh’s coffin being carried into the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery, where he was buried alongside his father and two uncles.
The young Mughniyeh’s desire for martyrdom was echoed by many of the funeral goers.
“We all ask for martyrdom, this is what we want,” a man named Youssef told The Daily Star during the procession. “This is like a wedding day for us. This is an open war. The goodness is coming.”
Hezbollah likely to avoid major flare-up with Israel over raid
As Hezbollah seems to keep Israel guessing on how and when it would respond to an Israeli raid that killed six of its fighters in Syria’s Golan Heights, a former minister said the party’s retaliation would be “constrained and calculated” in order to avert a major conflagration in the region.
Although it is too early to predict the way Hezbollah might avenge the killing of its field commander Mohammad Issa, Jihad Mughniyeh and four other fighters, the former minister, who is close to the party, said any decision by the group to retaliate would have to be coordinated with Iran.
The six Hezbollah fighters were killed Sunday when an Israeli helicopter attacked a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra. At least one Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, was also killed in the strike.
“Any [Hezbollah] response [to the Israeli strike] will have to be coordinated with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the former minister told The Daily Star.
“But Tehran today is unlikely to engage in an adventure that could lead to a world war, especially since it is in a position now to secure its interests by peaceful means through negotiations with the Big Powers,” he said, referring to the ongoing talks between Iran and Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“It is not in Iran’s interest to bring its relations with the West back to square one with all the political and economic repercussions this entails on the internal situation in Iran,” he added.
Based on this assessment, he said any Hezbollah retaliation to the Israeli raid, which might not necessarily take place soon, would be “constrained and calculated” to forestall a major military flare-up in the region, as had happened in the past in the party’s response to Israeli violations against the resistance on the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line in south Lebanon.
The former minister warned that if there was “a hidden link” in the Western powers’ dealing with Iran designed to pave the way for a war between Israel and Hezbollah, including Tehran, “this means that a world war is in the works, but this is highly unlikely if not impossible.”
Asked if the Israeli raid would leave any impact on the internal political situation in Lebanon, the ex-minister said the ongoing dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement would not stop, even though it would “remain in the framework of internal generalities without touching on strategic issues.”
He added that the big hopes pinned on the Future-Hezbollah talks were losing momentum, as attention shifted to how Hezbollah might react to the Israeli strike in the Golan Heights.
With regard to an intra-Christian dialogue, the ex-minister said preparations would continue to arrange a meeting between the two rival Maronite leaders, Free Patriotic Movement head MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan from Aoun’s bloc and Melhem Riyashi, head of the LF’s media and communication section, have held several rounds of talks in the past few weeks to prepare the agenda of talks between Aoun and Geagea.
Obama Can Expect An Unfriendly Audience — But There's A History Here
When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday, he'll be speaking to a Congress dominated by Republicans. At least he can take comfort in the fact that the moment has precedent: Second-term presidents have often found themselves addressing a chamber stocked with the opposition.
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President Obama Reflects on Dr. King's Legacy and Honors It with Service
Honoring the life of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Obama issued a proclamation commemorating the federal holiday marking Dr. King's birthday, and encouraged all Americans to honor his legacy through their own service.
Stun grenade explosion shakes Sidon, no casualties
Syria gunfire wounds man in north Lebanon
A man was wounded Monday in the northern Lebanese border area of Wadi Khaled from a bullet fired by an unknown source...
Bar association denounces attack on Lebanese lawyers
BEIRUT: The Beirut Bar Association Monday denounced a delegation of Syrian lawyers who assaulted one of their Lebanese counterparts a day before at the Arab Lawyers Union conference in Cairo.
“The remarks made by one of our colleagues may be controversial but the [Syrian lawyers] should not have responded by punching, beating and abusing him,” read a statement released by the Beirut Bar Association.
The statement expressed the union’s commitment to the principles of free speech, irrespective of geographic location, saying “freedom in Beirut should not become oppression in Cairo.”
The assault Sunday came following a speech by Fadi Saad, a lawyer from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, in which he criticized some oppressive dictatorships in the Arab world. But it was one remark in particular that infuriated a portion of the crowd.
“Let’s compare the Egyptian army and the Syrian army. The Egyptian army defended its people twice ... in 2011 and 2013, while the Syrian army is killing its people,” he said, sparking an instant melee.
Cellphone footage captured from inside the Cairo meeting showed a group of men jumping from their seats and rushing at the speaker, with several altercations breaking out between the attendees.
The Bar Association in Beirut and Tripoli convened in a special meeting Monday following the assault.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the attendees stressed the importance of respecting freedom of expression, calling the attack an “assault on free speech.”
The statement also said that the Arab Lawyers Union did not belong to either pro-Assad or anti-regime camps, noting that the union should be a space for free interaction and communication.
The Bar Association in Beirut and Tripoli also called on the head of the Arab Lawyers Union to announce the names of the lawyers who waged the assault after disbarring them. Otherwise, Syria’s membership in the Arab Lawyers Union should be revoked all together, the statement added.
ISF: Roumieh Bloc B inmates in ‘good health’
BEIRUT: A medical delegation Monday dispelled rumors that inmates recently transferred from Roumieh Prison's notorious Bloc B had been abused, concluding that the vast majority were in good health following an examination of the group.
The medical review was ordered by the Internal Security Forces after families of Islamists in Roumieh Prison, all of whom were kept in Bloc B until they were moved during a police raid last week, protested in Tripoli Friday over the alleged abuse of some prisoners during the move, contradicting an official position that no one was harmed during the operation.
President of the ISF’s health department Brig. Amer Zaylaa and Roumieh’s Medical Center head Col. Dr. Habib al-Taqsh, along with 12 certified doctors, inspected all Islamist inmates who were transferred to Bloc D last week, according to an ISF statement issued Monday.
The inspection revealed that the detainees were “in good health and very few were sick,” said the statement, adding that those ill were given the necessary medication, but that no one needed hospital treatment.
The Red Cross is also set to inspect the inmate’s detention center by next week.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk has maintained that no prisoners were wounded during last week’s raid, during which hundreds of inmates were transferred from Roumieh's notorious Bloc B, which was largely off-limits to authorities for years and years, to Bloc D, which is better monitored.
The move came after information revealed that some of the prisoners in Bloc B were connected to this month's twin suicide attacks that targeted a cafe in Tripoli's majority Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, killing at least nine and wounding more than 30.
Army shoot-out wounds two soldiers
Army shoot-out wounds two soldiers
A shootout erupted Monday between the Lebanese army and wanted suspects hiding out in a safe-house in east Baalbek.
“Prepare your shelters”: Twitter users launch war on Israel after Syria strike
BEIRUT: Although met with a relatively calm reaction from Hezbollah, Israel’s deadly strike on the party’s convoy in the Golan Heights sparked a fierce campaign against the Jewish state on social media Monday.
“#Prepare_your_bomb_shelters,” was the most trending hashtag in Lebanon on Monday evening, with tens of thousands of tweets and millions of accounts reached.
The expression, written in Arabic as “#Jahhizou_Malaji’akoum,” was first used by a Lebanese Twitter account that launched the campaign in support of Hezbollah in response to the Israeli army’s strike on a party convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra Sunday.
The strikes killed six party members, two Syrian nationals affiliated with Hezbollah and one senior Iranian military commander.
The social media campaign was used by many to vent their frustrations over the provocative Israeli move, which comes in the wake of reports questioning the relationship between Israel and fundamentalist groups fighting in Syria, particularly the Golan Heights, part of which Israel occupies.
Many users accompanied their tweets with a Hebrew translation of the expression in order for the message to reach deeper into the Israeli Twittersphere.
Posts included pictures of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, statements calling for retaliation, and promises of revenge against Israel.
Although there was no immediate response to the attack, Nasrallah had warned in an interview last Thursday that his party had a right to respond to any Israeli strike or violation, be it on Lebanese or Syrian soil.
Those killed in the strike include Jihad Mughnieh, the son of late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, and Mohammad Issa, a field commander known by his nom-de-guerre Abou Issa.
Lebanon to prosecute 2 over hospital fraud
BEIRUT: Financial Prosecutor judge Ali Ibrahim filed a lawsuit Monday against two suspects accused of fraud and embezzlement of health ministry funds.
Media reports said one of the defendants, who is in police custody, was charged with forging documents, signatures and stamps to secure drugs and medicine from the Ministry of Health.
The two suspects were referred to First Investigative Judge in the Bekaa Imad al-Zein, the reports said.
The Health Ministry, which has embarked on a campaign to stamp out food corruption led by Minister Wael Abu Faour, had busted one of its employees last August for signing fake bills allowing a hospital in Hermel to exploit public insurance funds.
The culprit, a physician employed by the Health Ministry to audit hospital bills and verify their authenticity, was bribed to allow the hospital to inflate their bills and thus increase the returns they would get from the National Social Security Fund and the Health Ministry.
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Harb urges caution in aftermath of Israeli attack
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam met Monday with Telecoms Minister Boutros Harb, who urged caution over carrying out retaliatory attacks against Israel following the airstrike that killed six Hezbollah members in Syria a day earlier.
“It’s not in anyone’s interest for a front to be opened [with Israel] and for Lebanon to enter a war,” Harb said in a statement released after his meeting with the premier.
The meeting came a day after an Israeli helicopter strike on Syria’s Golan Heights killed the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, five other Lebanese fighters, and a senior Iranian commander.
A Lebanese security source told The Daily Star that two Syrian fighters affiliated with Hezbollah also died as a result of the attack.
“This issue concerns all the Lebanese, because [ensuing] repercussions and reactions could make Lebanon vulnerable to adverse consequences,” Harb said.
Such concerns urge the Lebanese government to prepare itself for “all possible outcomes,” Harb noted, adding that efforts should be taken to curb any impact the attack may have on Lebanon’s citizens and sovereignty.
The telecoms minister offered his condolences to "Lebanese citizens" who were killed during the attack, while expressing hopes that Hezbollah wouldn’t be involved in battles outside of Lebanon.
Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel also extended his condolences to the Hezbollah fighters killed in Saturday’s attack, while slamming the group for involving Lebanon in foreign conflicts.
“What do we have to do with the Golan Heights? ... Defending Lebanon originally involved fortifying our internal arena as well as state institutions,” Gemayel said in a televised interview Sunday evening, following the attack.
The timing and manner of Hezbollah’s response remains very vague.
Mahmoud Qmatti, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, said Monday that the party would respond to the attack “in the right place and at the right time," in comments that mark the first official response by a Hezbollah senior official to the Israeli assault.
Dialogue with Future serious, positive: Hezbollah MP
BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad announced Monday that the dialogue between his party and the Future Movement has been serious and could lead to positive results.
“The three dialogue sessions that have taken place so far are promising and serious, and we encourage their continuation,” Raad said during a Hezbollah ceremony in the southern village of Harouf.
“We are still, and will remain, open to dialogue with all powerful political factions and sides in the country.”
He reiterated Hezbollah’s support to any dialogue between two other rival parties in Lebanon, saying the Lebanese must unite and share a single vision.
“Dialogue is rolling in a positive direction, and we hope to reach some outcomes that encourage the election of a new president,” Raad, who heads Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said.
“The reason why no presidential election is taking place is because of the existence of a balance in the Parliament between the two blocs,” Raad said. “A bloc that wants a president according to its own logic, strategy and political vision, and another than wants a president who violates this logic, strategy and vision.”
He stressed on the need for sticking to the consensual nature of decision making.
“The alternative to that is the fall of the government and the occurrence of a huge vacuum on the level of authorities,” Raad warned.
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Airport warehouses still in 'tragic' condition: Lebanon health minister
BEIRUT: The conditions inside Beirut airport’s food and medicine warehouses remain "tragic," Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announced Monday, but said the overall conditions in the country had improved.
“The ratio of samples that meet the standards is increasing, and there are improvements in the tests’ results,” Abu Faour said in a televised news conference, referring to food samples taken by his ministry’s inspection teams.
“The establishments’ owners are requesting more lab tests. This is a positive indicator and should become self-evident.”
Since its launching in mid-november, Abu Faour’s campaign against food safety violators has expanded to target a variety of establishments, including the country’s airport and seaports.
“The campaign is entering some shadow areas now,” the minister said. “I’m talking about administrative, not political shadow areas.”
Abu Faour said his ministry had started witnessing more responsiveness by the other state institutions, and that the judiciary’s interaction with the food safety cases showed significant progress.
He said police were generally responsive but some hesitation has been witnessed in law enforcement in many areas.
The minister praised the judiciary’s decision to arrest several people over the expired sugar cases in Tripoli’s port, and called on the Economy Ministry to shut down the private sugar refinery operating in the port and the warehouses. He said the recommended closure was temporary until the situation is fixed.
However, Abu Faour revealed that the conditions in the food and medicine warehouses at Beirut’s airports remained “tragic,” noting that he sent a letter to the public works minister asking him to launch reform projects immediately.
“Nothing has been done yet,” he said. “The garbage dump is still a garbage dump, and the tragic situation is still tragic.”
The minister also tackled the State Security’s detention of a Syrian merchant who had been bringing expired food from Syria and selling them to local restaurants.
Abu Faour identified the restaurants buying from the merchant as Al-Mazar in Sadd al-Boushrieh, Mazat in Mkalles, Al-Zaghloul in Shiyah, Al-Agha on the Hadi Nasrallah highway, Barbar in Hamra and Spears, Harout in Hamra, Grand Cafe in Downtown Beirut, Farrouj Abou Sami in Burj Abi Haidar, Al-Halabi in Qasqas and Al-Rabebeh in Barbir.
Abu Faour expressed his disappointment with media, whose interest in the food safety campaign had “un-aspiringly” declined after the first month.
“The last list [of food safety violators] that we published just before New Year’s Eve did not appear in any media outlet,” he said, calling on media to reclaim its role as the main ally of the ministry in this campaign.
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Obama Strategizes How To Be A Successful Lame Duck President
President Obama has made it clear he does not want to be a lame duck. His State of the Union speech is a chance to show he won't be one. We examine how lame duck presidents have succeeded and failed.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Private Sector Included In Plan To Finance Infrastructure Improvements
The Obama administration is looking to the private sector to help finance costly improvements to the nation's aging infrastructure.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
White House Rolls Out Tax Proposals Before State Of The Union Address
The focus of Tuesday's speech will be the middle class. One item mentioned will be a plan to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for tax cuts for the middle class and working poor.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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