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Monday, 6 April 2015
U.S. confidence in Lebanon bolstered by official visit
A Lebanese official who often travels to Washington to meet with U.S. officials said the superpower has confidence in Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s government, which was underscored by a visit from a senior U.S. official to Lebanon this week.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Lebanon this weekend for a two-day visit. He has held talks with officials including Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt.
Observers following the details of Blinken’s visit to Beirut believe it falls within a wider regional context and is not solely a result of security concerns stemming from the presidential vacuum.
An initial framework of the Iran nuclear deal was agreed on last week after marathon talks between U.S. and Iranian delegates in Lausanne, Switzerland. Many in Lebanon link the election of a president to the outcome of the talks. But this is a belief among Lebanese officials that Blinken’s visit was aiming to negate.
Blinken’s visit comes at an important time and will help to assuage concerns that American interest in Lebanon are beginning to flounder after U.S. Ambassador to Beirut David Hale, who was appointed envoy in August 2013, was reassigned to Pakistan. Lebanese politicians had expressed concerns that the move reflected changing U.S. priorities.
One of Blinken’s goals was to reassure Lebanese officials that Hale’s reassignment was the result of diplomatic considerations and nothing more.
U.S. interests in Lebanon run parallel to the Iran talks, as the White House and State Department continue to support policies in Lebanon. The U.S. has also served as an international umbrella of protection over Lebanon, considering its security a red line not to be crossed.
Blinken’s visit will reassure Lebanese officials that the U.S. still has vested interests in Lebanon’s stability and will continue to support the country on political and military levels. A batch of U.S. weaponry is expected to be delivered to the Lebanese Army soon.
In January, the U.S. delivered dozens of new armored Humvees to help protect Lebanese soldiers. In February this was followed by a U.S. weapons shipment of over 70 M198 Howitzers, as well as 26 million rounds of ammunition.
Blinken’s visit to Defense Minister Samir Moqbel and Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi highlighted a particular support for the Army.
Messages of support from U.S. officials were also relayed to Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk during his visit last month to the U.S., where he met with various security officials.
The Lebanese official said, however, a recent visit to the U.S. capital left him flummoxed by the American stance toward the ongoing presidential crisis.
“It is up to the internal democratic game,” the source quoted American officials as saying.
Lebanon has been without a head of state for 11 months since President Michel Sleiman’s term ended May 25. A successor has yet to be chosen amid the going political deadlock.
The American administration, the official said, prefers not to interfere in Lebanese politics at present in order not to fuel tensions. The U.S. is dedicated to preserving stability in Lebanon amid the deteriorating situation in the region.
Americans, the official explained, believe that Hezbollah sets the pace as far as political and security issues go in Lebanon and that the party holds the keys to solving the presidential issue.
The sources also said that America was concerned in particular for Christians in Lebanon. Talks and conferences held in the U.S. about Lebanon often center on the plight of Christians in the region in the wake of advances made by Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria.
ISF cracks down on drug dealers after TV tipoff
BEIRUT: Internal Security Forces arrested eight drug dealers in Mount Lebanon over the weekend after an investigative reality TV show revealed the identities and locations of the country’s most notorious drug lords.
Policemen raided Saturday the residences of two infamous drug dealers from the Zeaiter family in Dikwaneh and Fanar, according to an ISF statement released Monday.
The drug dealers themselves were not found in the two separate homes, but police arrested employees who were selling narcotics on their behalf.
A shootout erupted between police and area residents in Dikwaneh during the raids but the statement did not report any casualties.
As part of their crackdown on the sale of narcotics, police arrested five Syrians, an Egyptian and two Lebanese nationals who were selling drugs on behalf of the two members of the Zeaiter family.
The ISF also seized 613 grams of cocaine, 575 grams of cannabis, 2,850 grams of salvia, 220 grams of marijuana and 117 ecstasy pills.
The move comes more than a week after the latest episode of LBCI’s Hakee Jeles (Talk Straight) revealed three major drug hubs in Mount Lebanon.
The investigative TV show revealed the location and identities of drug dealers and disclosed their method of transporting and distributing drugs. Presenter Joe Maalouf also divulged how the dealers would evade arrest and hide in Baalbek’s Sharawneh neighborhood or along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
In more controversial content, Maalouf claimed that officers in the Lebanese security forces were being bribed to protect drug dealers from arrest.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on April 07, 2015, on page 4.
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Nasrallah: Nuclear deal will embolden Iran
BEIRUT: A nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers will strengthen Tehran’s role in the region and rules out the specter of a regional war, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Monday.
“There is no doubt that the Iranian nuclear deal will be big and important to the region,” Nasrallah said in a live interview with Syria’s Al-Ekhbariya TV. “The agreement, God willing, rules out the specter of regional war and world war.”
“Iran will become richer and wealthier and will also become more influential. This will also reinforce the position of its allies.”
“A stronger and wealthier Iran in the coming phase will be able to stand by its allies, and especially the Palestinian resistance, more than at any other time in history,” he said.
Israel’s rejection of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, in light of a framework agreement announced last week, and Saudi Arabia’s implicit opposition to it, reveals the importance of these talks, he said.
“There is no doubt that an agreement will have repercussions on the region,” he said.
He said the possibility of Israel bombing nuclear facilities in Iran has become unlikely. Second, the agreement has ended Iran’s isolation.
Nasrallah said that negotiations have also revealed that talks are not linked or related to developments in the region. “The Americans had insisted on bringing regional issues to the negotiation table, but the Iranians refused,” he said.
In a more than two-hour-long interview, Nasrallah also described Lebanon’s policy of disassociation from regional conflicts as “a big lie,” hitting back at critics who accuse the party of destabilizing the country with its military intervention in Syria.
He also vowed to bear complete responsibility for Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria, saying the battle for the country remains “open ended.”
“Lebanon’s policy of disassociation is a big lie,” he said, adding that the smuggling of arms and people across the Lebanese border proves so.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted more than four years ago, the country has been facing a conspiracy led by countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, he said.
Nasrallah said the party’s forces located in Syria are in areas where they are “needed” and in accordance with their capabilities.
“Wherever we need to be, we will be,” he added. “The decision of Hezbollah’s presence is fully determined by Syrian leadership whether politically or militarily,” Nasrallah said.
Citing an example, he said that Hezbollah is needed in Syria’s Qalamoun region near the border with Lebanon. “The Qalamoun battle is a joint necessity for Lebanon and Syria,” he said.
The fact that Qalamoun is linked to the Bekaa Valley allowed for the transport of mercenaries, goods and weapons, not only into Lebanon, but also back into Syrian areas like the suburbs of Damascus.
Nasrallah recounted examples of what he said were attempts by states to undermine “independent Syrian decisions.”
He said that putting the blame on Syria for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was one example of how the country’s adversaries wanted to undermine the Syrian state.
“Those who killed Rafik Hariri had prepared the entire scenario, in the media and politically,” he said.
Nasrallah said that the Syrian conflict was hijacked by extremists groups like Al-Qaeda, which had long sought control over Syria like in Yemen.
“President Bashar Assad was ready and willing to respond to rightful demands of the people,” he said. But the interference of extremist groups changed the situation, he said.
When asked about casualties suffered by the party as a result of its intervention, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah’s physical losses were in fact “less than expected when considering the size of the battle.”
When asked about accusations of Iranian occupation of Syria, Nasrallah said that the first to talk about an occupation was Saudi Arabia because the kingdom did not acknowledge the will of free peoples.
This is a “problem in the mentality of the Saudi regime.” They claim that Iran occupied Syria, in the same way they claim Iran occupies Yemen, he said.
But “there is no Iranian military presence in Syria.”
He reiterated his belief that the Yemen war was motivated by Saudi Arabia’s desire to reclaim control over the country. The kingdom also wanted to intervene in Yemen because Sanaa was moving toward full independence, he said.
Nasrallah added the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen has so far failed to achieve any of its declared objectives. “This confirms the big failure of the Saudi-U.S. aggression,” he said.
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Protesters in solidarity with Al-Akhbar against ‘media slave market’
BEIRUT: Roughly one hundred protesters gathered in front of Al-Akhbar's headquarters Monday in a display of public anger against Saudi Arabia which aims to sue the Lebanese daily.
Activists, media figures and civilians demonstrated outside Al-Akhbar’s offices in Beirut three days after the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Awad Asiri, accused the Lebanese newspaper of spreading lies and rumors about Saudi Arabia in a published report.
“The time has come to put an end to this,” the envoy was quoted as saying in the Kingdom’s Al-Watan newspaper Friday.
The Saudi Arabian daily also announced that Riyadh’s embassy in Beirut will task a legal team with filing a lawsuit against Al-Akhbar, describing the newspaper as “belonging to the Iran-Hezbollah-Syria axis.”
Protesters Monday shouted slogans and raised banners denouncing what they deemed to be a blatant violation of freedom of press.
“The protests show that there are journalists who are ready to support other news outlets despite differences in political views,” an Al-Akhbar employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star. “They are just here to support freedom of press.”
Political analyst and staunch March 8 supporter, Faysal Abdel Sater, delivered a heavy-handed criticism of Saudi Arabia in a televised statement issued from the protest site.
“Those who wage an aggression on the Yemeni people have no right to give us lessons on democracy,” he said in reference to the Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen launched last month.
Abdel Sater considered the Saudi Ambassador’s remarks as a blatant violation of freedom of press and interference in the affairs of a Lebanese publication.
He also said that the Kingdom was attempting to exert control over Lebanese media outlets in the same way it censors media in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Akhbar has been one of the most prominent voices against the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen launched last week.
The envoys criticism sparked a backlash from Hezbollah that vocally expressed its solidarity with Al-Akhbar.
On Sunday, Hezbollah accused Saudi Arabia of running a "media slave market" and attempting to threaten freedom of press in Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia, which dominates Arab media outlets, is attempting to threaten and insult “the Lebanese free voice,” Hezbollah MP Nawaf al-Moussawi said Sunday.
He distinguished Al-Akhbar, which he described as an “honorable free media outlet,” from other media outlets that “scavenge” for funds from the Saudi Arabian treasury.
“Al-Akhbar is a voice that represents free people and not a...media slave market purchased with oil money,” he added.
In a statement issued by the party's media office Saturday, spokesperson Mohammad Afif accused Asiri of endangering the lives of the newspaper staff.
"[Asiri's remarks] represent a blatant and direct threat to the newspaper and the life and safety of its employees, a direct assault on the dignity and freedom of the press in Lebanon, as well as a gross interference ... in Lebanese internal affairs," Afif said.
The only sin Al-Akhbar has committed, Afif went on, was to "expose ... Saudi aggression against brotherly Yemen and reveal scenes from Saudi policy that continually create discord and unrest in the Arab and Islamic world."
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ISF crackdown on drug dealers after TV show tip-off
BEIRUT: Internal Security Forces arrested eight drug dealers in Mount Lebanon over the weekend after an investigative reality TV show revealed the identities and locations of the country’s most notorious drug lords.
Policemen raided Saturday the residences of two infamous drug dealers from the Zeaiter family in Dekwaneh and Fanar, according to an ISF statement released Monday.
The drug dealers themselves were not found in the two separate homes, but police arrested employees who were selling narcotics on their behalf.
A shoot out erupted between police and area residents in Dekwaneh during the raids but the statement did not report any casualties.
As a result of their crackdown on the sale of narcotics, police managed to arrest five Syrians, an Egyptian and two Lebanese nationals who were selling drugs on behalf of the two members of the Zeaiter family.
The ISF also seized 613 grams of cocaine, 575 grams of cannabis, 2,850 grams of salvia, 220 grams of marijuana and 117 ecstasy pills.
The move comes more than a week since the latest episode of LBC’s Hakee Jeles revealed three major drug hubs in Mount Lebanon.
The investigative TV show revealed the location and identities of drug dealers and disclosed their method of transporting and distributing drugs. Presenter Joe Maalouf also divulged how the dealers would evade arrest and hide in Baalbek’s Sharawneh neighborhood or along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
In more controversial content, Maalouf claimed that officers in the Lebanese security forces were being bribed to protect drug dealers from arrest.
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Two truckers still in captivity on Syrian-Jordanian border
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Two Lebanese truck drivers were still being held captive by jihadis at the Nasib crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border Monday, while most of their fellow countrymen have been freed.
Seer al-Dinnieh Mayor Ahmad Alam, who owns eight of the trucks that were stuck at the border crossing starting last Tuesday, told The Daily Star that negotiations were ongoing for the release of the last two truckers.
Alam said that while the situation should be resolved in “the coming hours,” many truckers had already reached the Jdeideh area on the Syrian side of the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The truckers were awaiting paper work to enter Lebanon, Alam added, one day after six others had entered the country through the Masnaa crossing.
Some trucks remained on the Nasib crossing due to technical malfunctions and calls were being made to facilitate their return, he said.
The crossing was taken over by Syrian rebels last Wednesday, one day after Jordan had closed the road on its side of the border and evacuated all civilians from the area.
Many of the trucks contained food products that have expired since last Tuesday, when at least 30 Lebanese trucks were banned from entering Jordan.
Others were looted by gunmen, who were shown in pictures using cars and pickups to carry tons of stolen products from the area.
Alam called on the Lebanese and Syrian authorities to facilitate their entry, and addressed Prime Minister Tammam Salam asking him to provide owners whose trucks were lost or damaged with proper compensation.
Syria has not yet admitted to losing the crossing, which was the last major crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border to be operated by the regime.
The crossing is also vital for trade between Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the GCC. Its closure is expected to significantly impact Lebanon’s exports.
Report: Jeb Bush Self-Identified As Hispanic On Voter Application In '09
Former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba arrive, at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference on April 18, 2013, in Coral Gables, Fla. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Wilfredo Lee/AP
Former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba arrive, at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference on April 18, 2013, in Coral Gables, Fla.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate in 2016, self-identified as Hispanic in a 2009 voter-registration application, The New York Times reports, citing the application it obtained from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department.
A spokeswoman for Bush could not explain the characterization to the newspaper.
Bush, the brother of a former president and the son of another, hails from one of the country's most-prominent political and business families. Indeed, Burke's Peerage, a directory of royalty, lists the Bush family's connections to European royal families.
The Times notes, Bush "speaks fluent Spanish. His wife, Columba Bush, was born in Mexico. For two years in his 20s, he lived in Venezuela, immersing himself in the country's culture." Bush, a former Florida governor, has long advocated appealing to Spanish-speaking voters. Univision, the Spanish-language network, even labeled him a "Hispanic candidate."
But, as The Times notes, heritage is serious business in politics. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.' claims of Cherokee ancestry during her academic career sparked controversy when she was running for the U.S. Senate in 2012.
Refugees in Beirut urge Sudan election boycott
BEIRUT: A small group of Sudanese refugees in Beirut held a largely symbolic demonstration Monday to call for the boycott of this month’s legislative elections in Sudan and for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.
“The protest was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sudanese people’s revolution,” Idriss Mohammad, the organizer of Monday’s protest, told The Daily Star.
On April 6, 1985, a popular uprising ended the military rule of Gen. Jaafar Numiri and instated a civilian-led multi-party government.
Bashir, then a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, led a coup and seized power four years later. He has been Sudan’s president ever since, despite widespread opposition and international condemnation over war crimes he is accused of committing, including genocide.
Mohammad heads a Sudanese refugee group called Anjo, comprised of political refugees who fled their country as a result of persecution by Bashir’s regime.
Around 10 members of Anjo attended the protest, which was held outside the UNHCR office in Beirut’s Jnah area around noon.
“Down with military rule” and “Omar Bashir is wanted” were just some of the slogans used, while another denounced participation in the elections as “betrayal of the martyrs’ blood.”
On Sunday, a coalition of parties and militias opposed to Bashir - named Sudan Call - released a statement calling on their fellow countrymen to “escalate the resistance against the fraudulent elections.”
Mohammad said his group endorsed the opposition’s statement, which called for continuing “the resistance campaigns until the overthrow of the regime.”
The armed rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North announced Sunday that they had hijacked a lorry carrying ballot boxes to polling stations.
The group pledged to continue their military campaign to disrupt the controversial vote, which is scheduled for April 13.
Ain al-Hilweh camp becomes jihadi refuge
AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon: Lebanon's Ain al-Helweh camp has long provided a stable, if destitute, bolthole for Palestinian refugees, some of whom have lived within its walls since fleeing their homes more than six decades ago.
But the war in neighboring Syria has transformed parts of the southern camp into a safe haven for jihadis traveling to fight there, creating districts where even Palestinian security forces fear to tread and raising tensions among residents.
In Taware district, the black flag of ISIS flutters in the wind.
A photograph of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has proclaimed a "caliphate" in parts of Iraq and Syria, is plastered on the walls of a small kiosk, alongside a picture of slain Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Abu Hajer, a Palestinian from Ain al-Helweh who fights with Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front in Syria, uses the camp as a rear-base in between fighting.
"The first time, I spent three months in Syria, then I went back to the camp after I was wounded," he told AFP by Skype from Syria.
"This is how it is every time, I go and I come back," the man in his twenties said.
Wanted by Lebanese security forces, he crosses government checkpoints at Ain al-Helweh's entrances with a fake ID and "small adjustments to my appearance," like shaving his long beard.
"It's jihad in the path of Allah, who I hope will end my fighting with the martyrdom that I love," he said.
Lebanon's security forces say at least 46 men have left Ain al-Helweh to fight in Syria's four-year war, in addition to a number who "come and go."
Major General Mounir al-Maqdah, head of Palestinian security forces in Lebanon, said many of the fighters were no older than 17.
"They're from a new generation that is very reckless," he said.
Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps offer few employment opportunities. Lebanese law bars their residents from several professions.
Under a decades-old agreement, state security forces do not enter the camps, leaving them under the control of Palestinian militant groups.
But even they are afraid of entering the three neighborhoods of Ain al-Helweh that have come under the control of extremist groups.
One of these groups, "Shabab al-Muslim" (the Muslim Youth), was established in Ain al-Helweh as hardliners rose to prominence in Syria. It includes militants accused of bombings and assassinations in Lebanon.
Jamal Hamad, a cleric and leading official in Shabab al-Muslim, called the group a "mosaic" of jihadis.
"There's empathy in the camp with jihadi groups... There's empathy with Al-Nusra Front, and there's some empathy with ISIS," Hamad told AFP.
He said neither group had an "official" presence in the camp, but supporters were galvanized by sectarian rhetoric.
"It's alright for the Shiite Muslims to come from Lebanon to fight in Syria, and it's not alright for Sunnis to empathize with the Sunni people being killed," complained Hamad.
Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but spiraled into an armed conflict that has killed more than 215,000 people.
The Sunni-led opposition has significant support among Sunnis in Lebanon, while President Bashar Assad's government is backed by Hezbollah, which has dispatched forces to Syria to bolster his regime.
More than 61,000 Palestinian refugees live in Ain al-Helweh, including 6,000 who recently fled the war in Syria.
The rundown alleyways are filled with potholes, and electricity wires dangle perilously above residents' heads.
Posters of Palestinian leaders adorn the walls, and armed men patrol the streets.
At the camp's entrance, Lebanese soldiers search all those entering and leaving, with female officers searching women wearing the veil.
The rise of jihadis in Ain al-Helweh has worried camp authorities, who are stepping up cooperation with the army.
They want to prevent a repeat of the 2007 battles between Lebanon's army and Palestinian Islamists in the northern Nahr al-Bared refugee camp that left dozens dead.
"There's an understanding with the army that the issue of wanted persons will be resolved calmly," said Maqdah.
Palestinian security official General Sobhi Abu Arab played down the concerns, insisting only "a minority" of residents were involved in the conflict in Syria.
He said many of those had returned because "they weren't convinced by what they were doing."
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