Lebanon's Arabic press digest – Oct. 16, 2014

Budget deficit drops on higher revenues

A rise in government revenues helped the budget deficit in the first six months of 2014 to fall to 23.14 percent,...

Testimony casts doubt on key fact in Hariri case

BEIRUT: Defense lawyers at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Wednesday that a member of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s convoy who survived the explosion that killed Hariri had not seen the Mitsubishi vehicle that allegedly carried the explosives, casting doubt on a key fact in the case. The lawyers also suggested that at least one jammer used by Hariri’s motorcade to block remotely controlled bombs was not operational, a claim that could bolster their theory of an underground bomb or failures among Hariri’s security staff.

Defense lawyer Iain Edwards said a witness who will testify next week in the trial and who was part of the convoy had said the radio in his vehicle was operational, which indicates that jammers in Hariri’s motorcade meant to block remotely detonated bombs were not all working when the blast killed the former premier.

Edwards, who represents the interests of top Hezbollah operative Mustafa Badreddine, suggested that it was possible there were “catastrophic failures of the jammer system” and asked if Hariri’s top bodyguards would have had the incentive to cover up such a failure.

The lawyers also began discussing the role of Wissam al-Hasan, Hariri’s chief of protocol and later Lebanon’s top intelligence operative, who was assassinated in October 2012, and whose absence from Hariri’s convoy on the day of the assassination prompted the suspicion of international investigators.

Hasan’s whereabouts on the night before the attack were discussed but not decided upon in the trial. Prosecutors have said in the past that they do not consider him a suspect.

But the discussion of Hasan’s whereabouts in close proximity to the issue of the faulty jammer may indicate that the lawyers are seeking to draw a connection between the two, though they did not do so explicitly in trial.

The STL is tasked with prosecuting those responsible for the Valentine’s Day bombing in 2005 that killed Hariri and 21 others and plunged Lebanon into years of turmoil in addition to ending Syria’s formal tutelage over its smaller neighbor.

The U.N.-backed tribunal indicted five Hezbollah members in connection with the attack. Their trial in absentia is ongoing in The Hague.

Defense lawyers cross-examined a key witness in the case – a former bodyguard of Hariri who was in the motorcade but survived the explosion. It was the guard’s second day of testimony, and his identity was kept confidential after he reported receiving telephone threats.

The defense counsel disclosed testimony by the bodyguard given to U.N. investigators in 2005 and 2006, in which he said he had not seen a Mitsubishi Canter van in the moments leading up to the explosion. They said they were also in possession of statements by another member of the convoy who survived the explosion, who also said he had not seen a Mitsubishi van.

The witness said he did not remember anything from the final 50-meter stretch of road before the explosion due to the massive blast, though defense lawyers say his testimony indicates that he had a view of the front of the St. Georges Hotel, where the Mitsubishi was supposedly parked.

Prosecutors say Hariri was killed when his motorcade passed by the St. Georges and next to an explosives-laden Mitsubishi van that was double-parked on the side of the road. Defense lawyers say the blast was caused by an underground bomb.

Defense lawyers probed the bodyguard on whether Wissam al-Hasan had accompanied Hariri frequently on trips to Syria, as well as if he had visited the Hariri residence late the night before the assassination. They suggested that CCTV footage in Qoreitem Palace, Hariri’s home in the Hamra neighborhood, would have picked up Hasan’s visit, but did not say what happened when international investigators went looking for the tapes.

Testimony casts doubt on key fact in Hariri case

BEIRUT: Defense lawyers at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Wednesday that a member of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s convoy who survived the explosion that killed Hariri had not seen the Mitsubishi vehicle that allegedly carried the explosives, casting doubt on a key fact in the case. The lawyers also suggested that at least one jammer used by Hariri’s motorcade to block remotely controlled bombs was not operational, a claim that could bolster their theory of an underground bomb or failures among Hariri’s security staff.

Defense lawyer Iain Edwards said a witness who will testify next week in the trial and who was part of the convoy had said the radio in his vehicle was operational, which indicates that jammers in Hariri’s motorcade meant to block remotely detonated bombs were not all working when the blast killed the former premier.

Edwards, who represents the interests of top Hezbollah operative Mustafa Badreddine, suggested that it was possible there were “catastrophic failures of the jammer system” and asked if Hariri’s top bodyguards would have had the incentive to cover up such a failure.

The lawyers also began discussing the role of Wissam al-Hasan, Hariri’s chief of protocol and later Lebanon’s top intelligence operative, who was assassinated in October 2012, and whose absence from Hariri’s convoy on the day of the assassination prompted the suspicion of international investigators.

Hasan’s whereabouts on the night before the attack were discussed but not decided upon in the trial. Prosecutors have said in the past that they do not consider him a suspect.

But the discussion of Hasan’s whereabouts in close proximity to the issue of the faulty jammer may indicate that the lawyers are seeking to draw a connection between the two, though they did not do so explicitly in trial.

The STL is tasked with prosecuting those responsible for the Valentine’s Day bombing in 2005 that killed Hariri and 21 others and plunged Lebanon into years of turmoil in addition to ending Syria’s formal tutelage over its smaller neighbor.

The U.N.-backed tribunal indicted five Hezbollah members in connection with the attack. Their trial in absentia is ongoing in The Hague.

Defense lawyers cross-examined a key witness in the case – a former bodyguard of Hariri who was in the motorcade but survived the explosion. It was the guard’s second day of testimony, and his identity was kept confidential after he reported receiving telephone threats.

The defense counsel disclosed testimony by the bodyguard given to U.N. investigators in 2005 and 2006, in which he said he had not seen a Mitsubishi Canter van in the moments leading up to the explosion. They said they were also in possession of statements by another member of the convoy who survived the explosion, who also said he had not seen a Mitsubishi van.

The witness said he did not remember anything from the final 50-meter stretch of road before the explosion due to the massive blast, though defense lawyers say his testimony indicates that he had a view of the front of the St. Georges Hotel, where the Mitsubishi was supposedly parked.

Prosecutors say Hariri was killed when his motorcade passed by the St. Georges and next to an explosives-laden Mitsubishi van that was double-parked on the side of the road. Defense lawyers say the blast was caused by an underground bomb.

Defense lawyers probed the bodyguard on whether Wissam al-Hasan had accompanied Hariri frequently on trips to Syria, as well as if he had visited the Hariri residence late the night before the assassination. They suggested that CCTV footage in Qoreitem Palace, Hariri’s home in the Hamra neighborhood, would have picked up Hasan’s visit, but did not say what happened when international investigators went looking for the tapes.

Hujeiri says his arrest will scupper hostage negotiations

ARSAL, Lebanon: Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, who was charged Tuesday with belonging to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, said Wednesday that the arrest warrant would ruin efforts to obtain the release of 27 soldiers and policemen being held hostage by extremist groups outside his hometown of Arsal. Hujeiri made the comments during a news conference that was held in his mosque in Arsal, saying he would turn himself in once a fair judicial system was established in Lebanon, implying he had no intention of surrendering anytime soon, and decrying the arrest warrant as politically motivated.

A military judge is now seeking the death penalty for the sheikh.

The Salafist sheikh rose to prominence when he became a key intermediary between the Committee of Muslim Scholars and the Nusra Front and ISIS over the Arsal hostages.

“Am I now a terrorist because I supported the Syrian revolution since it started?” Hujeiri asked.

“[Because] I made it a lost opportunity for those who wanted to tamper with Lebanon’s security and for those who wanted to [destroy] Arsal and its residents? Or because I helped protect the soldiers and security forces and release some of them?” he asked.

Hujeiri played a key role in helping families visit their abducted relatives last month. He accompanied the family of George Khoury to the outskirts of Arsal to meet the abducted soldier and is said to have done the same for Rana Fliti, the wife of captured soldier Ali Bazzal.

He is also believed to have played an important role in facilitating the release of seven hostages held by the Nusra Front. Two policemen were freed Aug. 17, and four soldiers and a policeman were released Aug. 30.

But with the issuing of the arrest warrant, Hujeiri said there were no longer any assurances for the hostages’ safety: “There is a possibility that a huge danger [looms] over them.”

Hujeiri said he had suspended mediation efforts after the Lebanese Army closed off all supply routes leading from the northeastern border town to the area’s outskirts, where there are farmlands and caves that the militants are believed to be hiding out in.

He also pointed to the Lebanese government’s refusal five days earlier to free militant Imad Ahmad Jomaa, whose arrest sparked five days of heavy clashes in Arsal in August, during which the security personnel were seized.

The sheikh said the militants had given him a one-week deadline to secure the release of Jomaa, and he was forced to withdraw from negotiations when the government said it would not comply.

The militants have also demanded an exchange for a number of Islamists being held in Roumieh Prison – many of whom have been there for years without trial – an issue the Lebanese government has dragged its feet on.

“Our military sons deserve the best. Don’t be stingy with them, even if the price is the release of those unfairly imprisoned in Roumieh Prison,” he said.

“If the Nusra Front is a terrorist organization then you should hold Walid Jumblatt accountable, because he considered it to be a faction of the Syrian revolution,” Hujeiri said, referring to comments made by the Progressive Socialist Party leader to OTV Tuesday night that the Nusra Front was not a terrorist group.

The sheikh also called on the Lebanese Army “to treat all the Lebanese equally,” adding that he considered Hezbollah to have succeeded in exploiting the Army.

“The judicial system should have from the start directed its warrants at those killing Lebanese and Syrians,” Hujeiri said.

He also criticized the judiciary’s dealing with his son: “Where was the judicial system when my 17-year-old son was captured or kidnapped at an Army checkpoint and then imprisoned?”

Tripoli residents urge Lebanon to save northern capital

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Tripoli sheikhs and officials gathered Wednesday to confirm their rejection of any plots to incite violence in the restive northern city, calling on the government to execute projects to boost economic activity and development.

Those at the meeting, which was called by the Muslims Scholars Committee in Tripoli and held at Abdel-Rahman Mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh, also expressed alarm at the amount of reports targeting Tripoli in the media and by political and security figures.

The city was increasingly being painted as the source of all the crises in the country, scrutinizing things that were insignificant compared to what was happening in other cities, the statement said.

“Investigations revealed that people belonging to Hezbollah are responsible for the attacks on the Lebanese Army, which almost led to a big conflict,” the statement said.

The committee blamed Hezbollah for being outside of the state’s authority and for sheltering, embracing and protecting the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and those behind the fighting in May 2008 crimes.

No matter how great the Shiite party’s excesses and crimes, they were being ignored, the statement read, adding that Hezbollah was also sending hordes of men to Syria to kill people there, while Sunnis in Lebanon were being held accountable for giving basic support to the Syrian people.

The meeting was held in order to show solidarity with Tripoli residents and the people of the north, and to stand against the plot that is targeting them, the statement said.

Attendees condemned suspicious attacks on Army checkpoints in Tripoli, calling for those responsible to be arrested.

The committee rejected any crimes targeting Tripoli’s stability, requesting a reduction in military checkpoints and posts in order to lessen the traffic congestion inside the city, and urging the media to show the positive side of the city as well.

“The committee calls on the government to execute past promises to develop Tripoli, disburse compensations for Tripoli residents, and offer a solution to compensate for economic damages in the city,” the statement added.

The committee called on the government to adopt a different strategy to save Tripoli and achieve justice – a strategy not based on military solutions that it said had been proved not to work – by founding a development council for Tripoli and the north, like that in the south.

“We ask the government to declare Tripoli a devastated city and exempt it from taxes and fees until further notice,” the statement said.

The committee also asked the government to end the file of Islamist detainees, such as Hussam Sabbagh, after detaining them for years without trial.

The meeting was attended by the following sheikhs: Dr. Zakaria Abed Razzak Masri, Raed Hleihel, Mustafa Alloush, Saeed Awayek, Bilal Baroudi, Tarek Mezher, Mohammad Merheb, Hasan al-Yamin, Yehia Daouk, Faysal Yakhni, Salah Mikati, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Youssef Jajieh, and Sheikh Khaled Sayyed who read the statement.

Hezbollah taking steps to limit southern fallout

The recent visit of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah to the Bekaa Valley and his meeting with other prominent figures from his party is striking for its timing, form and content.

Crucially, it reflects how much importance the party places on the war Lebanon is fighting with ISIS and the Nusra Front on its mountainous eastern border, even though that battle may be less virulent than Hezbollah’s historical conflict with Israel.

Although it is not the first time that the party’s secretary-general has left his residence to go to the Bekaa Valley in spite of the associated security risks – he visited the area during the battle for Qusair last year – this trip is a significant final step in a series of actions Hezbollah is taking to control current events.

Hezbollah is intimately acquainted with Lebanon’s strong political divisions over various issues, including its involvement in the more than 3-year-old civil war in Syria and its non-state weapons arsenal.

Regardless, the party has chosen to continue fighting a battle that it considers vital to secure Syria’s future, a mission that is now no less important to it than battling Israel.

Perhaps it knows that since the liberation of the south in 2000, there is a red line that Lebanese parties – no matter how hostile – cannot cross concerning its weapons and continuing conflict with Israel.

Lately, the party believes Israel is trying to exhaust it by pushing it into another confrontation with ISIS and the Nusra Front in the southern Shebaa Farms and Arkoub villages, possibly by giving safe passage to rebel groups who have seized control of the Syrian part of the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah knows that uniting Nusra and ISIS into one front fighting Hezbollah and opening other fronts in the south would be a game-changer that would work to Israel’s advantage.

By keeping the party busy with new front lines – from the south to the northern Bekaa Valley – it would prevent it from attacking Israel or trying to involve it in other battles.

The party used the Oct. 8 operation in the UNIFIL-monitored Israeli-occupied Shebaa farms, which saw Hezbollah members detonate mines underneath an Israeli patrol, to send different messages to the various sides in the growing conflict.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this operation was the diplomacy and field mobilization by UNIFIL, which swiftly made calls with various Lebanese leaders in order to assess the situation. More than anything, UNIFIL is worried about its peacekeepers being kidnapped, something that has happened before in the Golan.

Through the Shebaa operation, Hezbollah was confirming its right to attack Israel, according to a politician who is close to the party.

Hezbollah “is not trying to find excuses to fight with Israel, the game rules are clear and we won’t let Israel change the conflict’s form – which is primarily about combating Israeli occupation – by letting in takfiri groups coming from Qunaitra,” the source said.

“Regardless of how other people interpret it, the Shebaa operation was a reply to intimidation by the chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Benny Gantz,” he said.

“Hezbollah is still a shield,” the politician said, “and he [Gantz] knows the price of the costly war that he will pay for fighting against Hezbollah.”

However, he also admitted: “Israel is capable of taking Lebanon 80 years back in time.”

Regardless of the various dimensions to the Shebaa operation, Hezbollah’s logistical power remains intact, the political source said. It is not tired at all from the conflict inside Syria and its soldiers are as ready as ever to battle on the southern front, he added.

“Hezbollah is capable of potentially confronting Israel at any time in the south,” he said.

“Hezbollah is not only defending Shiites on both the Syrian and Israeli fronts against the terrorism of both Israel and ISIS, but also the idea of a diverse Lebanon and its unique social fabric in the Middle East,” he concluded.

Tripoli residents urge Lebanon to save northern capital

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Tripoli sheikhs and officials gathered Wednesday to confirm their rejection of any plots to incite violence in the restive northern city, calling on the government to execute projects to boost economic activity and development.

Those at the meeting, which was called by the Muslims Scholars Committee in Tripoli and held at Abdel-Rahman Mosque in Bab al-Tabbaneh, also expressed alarm at the amount of reports targeting Tripoli in the media and by political and security figures.

The city was increasingly being painted as the source of all the crises in the country, scrutinizing things that were insignificant compared to what was happening in other cities, the statement said.

“Investigations revealed that people belonging to Hezbollah are responsible for the attacks on the Lebanese Army, which almost led to a big conflict,” the statement said.

The committee blamed Hezbollah for being outside of the state’s authority and for sheltering, embracing and protecting the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and those behind the fighting in May 2008 crimes.

No matter how great the Shiite party’s excesses and crimes, they were being ignored, the statement read, adding that Hezbollah was also sending hordes of men to Syria to kill people there, while Sunnis in Lebanon were being held accountable for giving basic support to the Syrian people.

The meeting was held in order to show solidarity with Tripoli residents and the people of the north, and to stand against the plot that is targeting them, the statement said.

Attendees condemned suspicious attacks on Army checkpoints in Tripoli, calling for those responsible to be arrested.

The committee rejected any crimes targeting Tripoli’s stability, requesting a reduction in military checkpoints and posts in order to lessen the traffic congestion inside the city, and urging the media to show the positive side of the city as well.

“The committee calls on the government to execute past promises to develop Tripoli, disburse compensations for Tripoli residents, and offer a solution to compensate for economic damages in the city,” the statement added.

The committee called on the government to adopt a different strategy to save Tripoli and achieve justice – a strategy not based on military solutions that it said had been proved not to work – by founding a development council for Tripoli and the north, like that in the south.

“We ask the government to declare Tripoli a devastated city and exempt it from taxes and fees until further notice,” the statement said.

The committee also asked the government to end the file of Islamist detainees, such as Hussam Sabbagh, after detaining them for years without trial.

The meeting was attended by the following sheikhs: Dr. Zakaria Abed Razzak Masri, Raed Hleihel, Mustafa Alloush, Saeed Awayek, Bilal Baroudi, Tarek Mezher, Mohammad Merheb, Hasan al-Yamin, Yehia Daouk, Faysal Yakhni, Salah Mikati, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Youssef Jajieh, and Sheikh Khaled Sayyed who read the statement.