Augusta Alternative -> Rave for Hezbollah

Rave for Hezbollah

Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

synergy

Posted: Aug 16 2009, 06:07 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah chief: We'll hit Tel Aviv if Beirut hit

QUOTE

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 14, 5:56 pm ET

BEIRUT � The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah warned Israel Friday his fighters would hit Tel Aviv with rockets if Israeli forces attack Beirut or the guerrillas' stronghold in its southern suburbs.

Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the Shiite militants are now capable of striking any Israeli city.

In 2006, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah rocketed the port of Haifa and other parts of Israel's north but spared Tel Aviv to the south. Israeli warplanes destroyed entire blocks in Beirut's southern suburbs, including Nasrallah's office and Hezbollah's headquarters. The inconclusive, monthlong war killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and about 160 in Israel.

Nasrallah's speech added to the tension of back-and-forth warnings between Hezbollah and Israel that have escalated since a July 14 explosion at a suspected Hezbollah arms depot near the Israeli border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any attacks on Israeli targets by Hezbollah. He warned Lebanon against letting Hezbollah join the new government. He said the government in Beirut could not turn a blind eye to Hezbollah's activities while the group sits in the Lebanese parliament and plays a major role in the country's politics.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak made an even starker warning last week, saying that in the event of renewed hostilities, Israel would "go after not only Hezbollah but the entire state of Lebanon."

Nasrallah, appearing on a giant screen from his hiding place, addressed thousands of supporters waving yellow Hezbollah flags who gathered for the rally in south Beirut. He said recent Israeli warnings against Lebanon do not signal that Israel is planning to attack soon.

He said the Israeli warnings were part of a "psychological war" aimed at preventing the militant group from joining a new Lebanese unity government, whose formation has been stalled since the June 7 election.

"Today we are capable of striking any city or village" in Israel, Nasrallah told the crowd. He promised "surprises" if Israel launches a new war on Lebanon. He did not elaborate.

"It is our right to make (Israel) understand that if it bombs Beirut or the southern suburbs, we will strike Tel Aviv," Nasrallah said, drawing the cheers of supporters.

The 2006 war began when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border attack that killed three Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah calls the outcome of the war "a divine victory" because Israel failed to crush the guerrillas, who withstood massive Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardment.

A U.N.-brokered cease-fire has held despite the threats from both sides.

synergy

Posted: Sep 20 2009, 01:14 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Rebuilding after devastation [Left I on the News] posted 9/16/2009

QUOTE

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still devastated. Three years after the Israeli assault destroyed almost every village in southern Lebanon, it has been largely rebuilt, thanks to that "terrorist" group Hezbollah.

And the better part of one year after large parts of Gaza were devastated by another vicious Israeli assault, virtually no rebuilding has occurred, thanks to the blockade imposed on Gaza not just by Israel, but by Egypt, the U.S., and the E.U. as well.

synergy

Posted: Apr 29 2010, 09:26 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Egypt sentences 26 in 'Hezbollah cell' for spying

QUOTE

Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2010

By Miret El Naggar | McClatchy Newspapers

CAIRO � An Egyptian court Wednesday convicted 26 men of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and planning terrorist attacks in Egypt, handing down prison terms ranging from 25 years to six months.

The trial � commonly referred to as the "Hezbollah cell trial" � involved two Lebanese, five Palestinians, a Sudanese and 18 Egyptians. It was held in the heavily guarded State Security Emergency court whose verdict can be reversed only by a presidential pardon.

The charges against the group included: plotting attacks against tourists; targeting vessels crossing the Suez Canal; spying; training agents; building explosive belts and devices; and smuggling weapons to the Islamist Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Attorneys for the defendants said the charges were politically motivated.

The outcome of the trial could aggravate the already strained relations between Egypt, a Sunni nation and key U.S. ally in the region, and the Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Syria and Iran.

Three of the accused, including the group's Lebanese leader Mohammed Qiblan, received life sentences in absentia.

Presiding Judge Adel Abdelsalam Gomaa said the investigations showed the group had been planning operations with the aim of "hurting Egypt's economy, shredding the bonds between its people and spreading chaos," he read from the charges list.

"God is great. God will avenge us," the defendants roared from the dock, rattling at the prisoners' cage and climbing on it as soon as the judge read the verdict in a packed Cairo courtroom.

Outside the courthouse, family members wept on hearing the prison sentences, slapping their faces and screaming out their relatives' names.

"This is an oppressive government, they've already been tortured and humiliated for the past two years," said Sherin Ali, 36. Her husband Mohammed Shalabi, a fisherman, was given 10 years in prison. "His kids have been made homeless, there is not a penny at home," she sobbed.

In April 2009, Egypt's security apparatus said it had uncovered a cell belonging to Hezbollah and accused its members of planning to disrupt the country's safety and stability.

At the time, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, admitted he'd sent one of the defendants, Mohamed Mansour, also known as Samy Shehab, to facilitate delivery of weapons into the Palestinian-inhabited Gaza Strip. Nasrallah, as well as the defendants, denied they had planned any attacks against Egypt.

Three of the accused were also charged with digging smuggling-tunnels under their homes into Gaza, and with harboring militants.

"These are very harsh sentences. Nothing in the evidence found supports these charges" said Shehab's lawyer Essam Sultan. "They were only trying to help the people of Gaza, sending foodstuff and weapons to help them," Sultan added. Shehab was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Sultan said the defense strategy had cited historical examples, such as the French occupation of Algeria, where Egypt sent weapon shipments to Algerian rebels.

Nasrallah has angered the Egyptian regime before, when he accused it of supporting Israel's attack against the impoverished Gaza Strip last year. Observers said Hezbollah had crossed a line by forming a cell in Egypt.

"This is a sovereign country with rules and laws that have to be respected," said Amr al-Shobaki, a researcher at the semi-official think tank Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, and an expert on Islamist movements.

"The message of this trial is that Egypt will not allow any playing behind its back, even to support a Palestinian resistance group. There has to be cooperation with the Egyptian security apparatus," said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University. "This is a red line," he added

However, Nafaa said that at the beginning of this trial, tensions had been soaring between Egypt and Iran, whose diplomatic ties have been severed since the Iranian revolution 31 years ago.

Now, with the Arab-Israeli peace process at a standstill, and a rightist government in Israel, relations between Egypt and Iran may be thawing, Nafaa said.

His theory may prove correct, as Egypt's foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit recently flew to Lebanon to express Egypt's solidarity in case Israel attacks again.

(Naggar is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Egypt retries property tycoon in Lebanese pop star's killing

Israel moves to deport 'illegal' Palestinians form West Bank

As tempers cool, U.S. and Israel ready to restart peace talks

A year after Israeli assault, uneasy peace settles over Gaza

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/28/9308...l#ixzz0mV1QW1pI

synergy

Posted: May 23 2010, 03:35 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Syria defies Western pressure over Hezbollah

QUOTE

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
3:12 pm EDT Sun 23 May 2010

DAMASCUS (Reuters) � Syria defied Western pressure on Sunday over its support for the militant group Hezbollah and said it will not act as a policeman for the Jewish state to prevent weapons from reaching the Lebanese Shi'ite movement.

"Did Israel ever stop arming itself, did it stop instigating violence or making military maneuvers, why are arms forbidden to Arabs and allowed to Israel?" Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said after meeting his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

Citing Israeli occupation of Arab land and the technical state of war between Syria and Israel, Moualem said the Damascus government "will not be a policeman for Israel."

"Israel is beating the drum of war. In the absence of real peace everything is possible," he added.

Syria, a country Washington says is critical for Middle East peace, has shown no signs of withdrawing backing for Hezbollah, which is also supported by Iran, although the issue has clouded a rapprochement between Damascus and Washington.

The row intensified when Israeli President Shimon Peres last month accused Syria, which borders Lebanon, of sending long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.

Syria said it only gives Hezbollah political backing and that Israel may be using the accusation as a pretext for a military strike.

"A Scud missile is as big as this room. How could it be hidden and smuggled with Israeli planes and satellites all over the region?" Moualem asked, adding that cumbersome Scuds were not suited to Hezbollah's guerrilla tactics.

Hezbollah's weapons have been a focus of Western diplomacy toward Syria in the last several months. Senator John Kerry, who had raised the issue with President Bashar al-Assad last month, met Assad again in the Syrian capital on Saturday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also met Assad earlier.

France had led Western moves to rehabilitate Syria, but Kouchner said on May 2 that Hezbollah's array of weapons made the situation "dangerous" and that France wants Syria to "guarantee the security" of the Syrian-Lebanese border.

Hezbollah used hundreds of shorter-range rockets against Israeli in a 2006 war that cost Lebanon a heavy civilian toll but failed to neutralize Hezbollah as a fighting force.

Israel said then Hezbollah's supplies were coming through Syria, but it chose not to widen the war.

The United States has avoided giving a view on whether the Scud transfer happened.

But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said senior U.S. officials have raised the issue of the suspected transfer of more sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah with Assad who "was making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region."

A U.S. official said President Barack Obama is likely to raise U.S. concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah when he meets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Monday.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

synergy

Posted: Jun 8 2010, 07:21 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Former U.S. envoy favors talking to Hezbollah

QUOTE

Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON
Tue Jun 8, 2010 7:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States should talk to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, former U.S. diplomat Ryan Crocker said on Tuesday. But current U.S. officials rejected dealing with the group listed as a terrorist organization by Washington.

Crocker, who was U.S. ambassador in Baghdad from 2007 to 2009, suggested Washington should engage with Hezbollah in the same way that Americans had engaged with some former Sunni insurgents in Iraq. As a result, they turned against al Qaeda helped and reverse the tide of sectarian conflict.

"One thing I learned in Iraq is that engagement can be extremely valuable in ending an insurgency," Crocker told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"We cannot mess with our adversary's mind if we are not talking to him," Crocker said. "Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanese political landscape, and we should deal with it directly."

Hezbollah, meaning "Party of God" in Arabic, shares the Shi'ite Islamist ideology of Iran. It was set up with the help of Iranian Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces that invaded Lebanon in 1982 and aims ultimately to destroy the Jewish state.

It is now part of a national unity government in Lebanon, and also the most powerful military force there. It still has strong support from Tehran and is also backed by Damascus.

Crocker's suggestion followed recent comments by White House official John Brennan that the Obama administration wanted to build up "moderate elements" in Hezbollah.

But State Department officials at Tuesday's hearing denied U.S. policy was in flux. "We do not ... think that there is any room right now for engagement with Hezbollah," said Daniel Benjamin. the department's counter-terrorism coordinator.

"I don't anticipate that policy changing," said Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. He said Washington could rethink its policy if Hezbollah would stop maintaining a militia, drop "terrorist" activities and evolve into a "normal" part of Lebanon's political fabric.

Hezbollah fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006. Recently Israel accused Syria of arming Hezbollah with long-range Scud missiles capable of hitting deep inside Israel.

Crocker, one of Washington's most experienced Middle Eastern hands before he retired last year, also urged senators to confirm a new ambassador to Syria. President Obama's nominee, Robert Ford, has stalled in the Senate amid concerns that Syria may have transferred Scuds to Hezbollah.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

synergy

Posted: Jun 28 2010, 09:44 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah doesn't want dialogue with US

QUOTE

(AP) ~ 9 am EDT Mon 28 June 2010

BEIRUT � Hezbollah's deputy chief says his group doesn't want a dialogue with Washington until it changes its Mideast policy, which he said is totally biased toward Israel.

Sheik Naim Kassem was responding to Ryan Crocker, ex-U.S. ambassador in Iraq, who told Congress this month the United States should break with long-standing policy and start talking to the Iranian-backed group.

Crocker told a Senate hearing that the U.S. stands to gain more than it would lose by negotiating with Hezbollah, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization.

Kassem added in an interview Monday that he does not expect a war with Israel, but the group is preparing for it "as if it is happening tomorrow." The two sides fought a bloody monthlong war in 2006.

synergy

Posted: Jul 25 2010, 09:06 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah Looks for a Shield From Indictments� Sting

QUOTE

The New York Times

July 24, 2010
Hezbollah Looks for Shield From Indictments� Sting
By ROBERT F. WORTH

WASHINGTON � For more than five years, much of Lebanese politics has seemed to revolve around a single question: Who killed Rafik Hariri? For years, billboards bearing the face of the former prime minister � killed in a Beirut car bombing in 2005 � hung in the city with the words �The Truth � for the sake of Lebanon.�

An international tribunal was established under United Nations auspices, and many Lebanese believed that an indictment of top Syrian officials � widely believed to be the culprits � could help protect Lebanon�s sovereignty.

But in recent weeks, a consensus has emerged in Lebanon � presumably, through leaks � that the tribunal will soon indict members of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite movement, for playing a role in the killing. That accusation, which has been rumored since last year, is already raising tensions in Lebanon, and some fear it could provoke another bloody internal conflict between Hezbollah and its pro-Western rivals like the one that took place in May 2008.

Hezbollah, which is allied with Syria, remains the most powerful political and military force in Lebanon, and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has made clear that he will not accept any indictment of Hezbollah members. He has warned the Lebanese authorities to do the same. (The tribunal, which is based in the Netherlands, has not issued any statements about potential indictments.)

In a July 16 speech, Mr. Nasrallah cast the tribunal as part of an Israeli plot. That provoked angry responses from some of Lebanon�s Western-aligned political figures, who said Mr. Nasrallah�s comments amounted to an admission of guilt.

Then, on Thursday, Mr. Nasrallah held a remarkable news conference in which he said he knew the tribunal would soon issue indictments against Hezbollah members. Mr. Nasrallah said he had been told so by Mr. Hariri�s own son, Saad Hariri, the current prime minister. He added that Saad Hariri had essentially pardoned him in advance, declaring that the men to be accused were �undisciplined� members of Hezbollah with tenuous connections to the group.

Mr. Nasrallah clearly hoped to undercut any indictment, not only by breaking the news himself in advance, but by invoking Mr. Hariri, who has long been the tribunal�s chief supporter. Mr. Nasrallah�s gambit may work, some analysts say, because Mr. Hariri�s own political position has changed.

After his father�s death in 2005, Mr. Hariri emerged as the leader of an anti-Syrian political coalition that called for Hezbollah�s disarmament. But his movement, known as March 14 (the date of a vast anti-Syrian demonstration in 2005), gradually eroded as its Western allies moved toward engagement with Syria. After he became prime minister of a national unity government last year, Mr. Hariri bowed to political reality and began building a relationship with Damascus.

At the same time, the tribunal, which had released early reports that pointed to high-level Syrian involvement in the killing of Rafik Hariri, went quiet, and some of its witnesses recanted. More questions about the tribunal emerged last year after a judge released four senior Lebanese state security officers who had been held for four years in the Hariri killing but were not charged. Some have speculated that the tribunal�s prosecutors will charge Hezbollah members of playing accessory roles in the fatal car bombing, because they were unable to find enough evidence against the main perpetrators.

Mr. Hariri maintained a conspicuous silence on Friday, and on Saturday he gave a speech that emphasized the need to maintain national unity and better ties with Syria.

�The tribunal was a card to be played against Syria, and now it seems they�re trying to get rid of it,� said Elias Muhanna, the author of the Lebanese political blog Qifa Nabki. �It�s almost as if nobody wants to know who killed Hariri anymore.�

Even so, some analysts say any indictment of Hezbollah members would damage the group�s reputation.

�In this part of the world, when you say �this person is suspected� and Hezbollah refuses to hand them over, everyone will believe Hezbollah is guilty,� said Sarkis Naoum, a columnist for the Beirut daily newspaper Al Nahar, which is aligned with the March 14 coalition.

Mr. Naoum also pointed out that while Mr. Nasrallah�s tone in Thursday�s speech was calmer than in previous speeches, his message was more aggressive. Mr. Nasrallah demanded that the March 14 faction acknowledge the mistakes it had made in recent years with its accusations against Syria and its allies.

Some analysts say Hezbollah is on the defensive for reasons that go well beyond the tribunal. Fears of another war with Israel have been on the rise in recent months, fueled by reports that Hezbollah obtained Scud missiles from Syria and tensions over the nuclear ambitions of Iran, Hezbollah�s chief patron. Mr. Nasrallah is aware that many Lebanese would blame Hezbollah for the damage inflicted in such a war, which is likely to be devastating. The country is still recovering from Hezbollah�s July 2006 war with Israel. In that context, Mr. Nasrallah�s need to discredit the tribunal and protect Hezbollah�s reputation from potential indictments is all the more urgent.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.

synergy

Posted: Oct 17 2010, 08:50 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah chief 'deceived' Iran leader with gun gift

QUOTE

(AFP) ~ 6 am EDT Sun 17 Oct 2010

JERUSALEM � Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah deceived Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by giving him a gun he claimed was taken from an Israeli soldier in the 2006 war, an Israeli newspaper said Sunday.

The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot said the gun, which Nasrallah presented to Ahmadinejad in person on his controversial two-day visit to Lebanon, was a type of weapon not been used by the Israeli military since the early 1970s.

The paper quoted a military spokesperson as saying the weapon was "most likely" a FNFAL 7.62 rifle that went out of use in 1974, meaning it could not have been taken from soldiers during Israel's more recent invasion of Lebanon.

A military spokesman contacted by AFP declined to comment on the report.

The devastating 34-day war in the summer of 2006 claimed the lives of some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, and destroyed much of southern Lebanon.

The war was widely seen as a victory for Nasrallah's Shiite Lebanese movement, which continued to fire hundreds of rockets on northern Israel until the end of the fighting and prevented Israeli forces from recovering two soldiers whose capture in a deadly cross-border raid had sparked the conflict.

Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon, in which he again predicted Israel's demise from a Hezbollah stronghold near the border, was condemned as "provocative" by the United States and Israel.

Israel views Iran as its main strategic threat because of Tehran's harsh rhetoric, its controversial nuclear enrichment programme and its support for both Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas movement ruling Gaza.

synergy

Posted: Oct 28 2010, 09:18 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah calls for boycott of UN tribunal

QUOTE

Thu 28 Oct 2010

ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press

Image
Lebanese Dr. Iman Sharara speaks to journalists in her clinic, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Sharara says dozens of women have stormed her clinic as international investigators were visiting her, asking for some of her patients telephone numbers. Police and witnesses say more than a dozen women have scuffled with U.N. investigators and chased them out of a Beirut clinic as they tried to conduct interviews connected to the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister. Police and witnesses said the women pulled the hair of a U.N. translator and stole a briefcase from the investigators. The Hague-based court said in an e-mail that they are taking the incident seriously. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BEIRUT � The leader of Hezbollah called Thursday on all Lebanese to boycott the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister, saying all information gathered by the team was being sent to Israel.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah spoke Thursday, a day after a crowd of women attacked two U.N. investigators and a Lebanese interpreter as they gathered evidence at a private gynecology clinic in Beirut. The women scuffled with investigators and stole several items from them.

The attack underscored the charged emotions behind the tribunal, which Hezbollah says is biased.

Nasrallah did not address the violence at the clinic or whether Hezbollah had asked the crowd to gather, but he confirmed that the wives and relatives of Hezbollah commanders and officials were among the clinic's patients.

In a reaction late Thursday, the tribunal criticized Nasrallah's boycott appeal and vowed to continue its investigation.

"Any call to boycott the tribunal is a deliberate attempt to obstruct justice," the court said in a statement. "The Special Tribunal for Lebanon will continue to rely on full cooperation by the Lebanese government and the support of the international community in fulfilling its mandate, in accordance with its statute."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, saying that "such acts of interference and intimidation are unacceptable," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The U.N. chief stressed that the tribunal is an independent court, established at the Lebanese government's request with a mandate from the U.N. Security Council, which is "an important tool to uncover the truth and end impunity," Nesirky said.

He called on all parties to refrain from interfering in the court's work, saying it is imperative that it be allowed to operate "safely and securely." He also commended the Lebanese authorities for their swift action in opening an inquiry into the incident, Nesirky said.

The tribunal has not yet indicted any suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but speculation that the court could name members of Hezbollah has raised fears of violence between the heavily armed Shiite guerrilla force and Hariri's mainly Sunni allies.

Image
Lebanese Dr. Iman Sharara, center, speaks to journalists in her clinic, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Sharara says dozens of women have stormed her clinic as international investigators were visiting her, asking for some of her patients telephone numbers. Police and witnesses say more than a dozen women have scuffled with U.N. investigators and chased them out of a Beirut clinic as they tried to conduct interviews connected to the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister. Police and witnesses said the women pulled the hair of a U.N. translator and stole a briefcase from the investigators. The Hague-based court said in an e-mail that they are taking the incident seriously. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The tribunal's president and the State Department on Wednesday said the investigation will not be deterred by the attack, which happened in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, a Hezbollah stronghold.

"Those who carried out this attack must know that violence will not deter the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, a court of law, from fulfilling its mandate," Judge Antonio Cassese said in a statement Wednesday.

The Hague-based court said the visit to the clinic had been arranged in advance "in accordance with legal safeguards."

Nasrallah called it scandalous.

"I think we have reached a very sensitive and dangerous point that has to do with our dignity, pride and honor and which requires of us to take a different stance," he said.

"Why is it necessary for the international investigation to have the medical records of our women?"

"Why is it of concern to them? why is it necessary for the investigation to have the gynecology records of our women, wives, daughters and sisters?" he asked through the group's Al-Manar TV.

He said all sorts of violations and infringements against Lebanese sovereignty were taking place under the cover of the international investigation.

"Can we allow this violation of everything in our country to continue?"

"I call on every official and every citizen in Lebanon to boycott those investigators and not to cooperate with them ... because all that is being offered to them reaches the Israelis," he said.

Image
Lebanese Dr. Iman Sharara speaks to journalists in her clinic, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Sharara says dozens of women have stormed her clinic as international investigators were visiting her, asking for some of her patients telephone numbers. Police and witnesses say more than a dozen women have scuffled with U.N. investigators and chased them out of a Beirut clinic as they tried to conduct interviews connected to the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister. Police and witnesses said the women pulled the hair of a U.N. translator and stole a briefcase from the investigators. The Hague-based court said in an e-mail that they are taking the incident seriously. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

"Continuing cooperation with those encourages more violations of the country and helps with the aggression against the resistance.

The massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront on Feb. 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic political assassinations the Mideast has seen. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Suspicion fell on neighboring Syria, since Hariri had been seeking to weaken its domination of the country. Syria has denied having any role in the murder, but the killing galvanized opposition to Damascus and led to huge street demonstrations helped end Syria's 29-year military presence.

Since then, speculation has grown that Hezbollah � which is backed by Syria � will be indicted. Nasrallah has announced that he expects members of his group to be indicted. He vows not to hand them over to be prosecuted.

The United States on Thursday accused Hezbollah and its allies Iran and Syria of attempting to endanger Lebanon's stability and undermine its independence.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice singled out Syria for displaying "flagrant disregard" for Lebanon's sovereignty and political independence, citing its provision of increasingly sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah and other militias in violation of a U.N. resolution and issuance of arrest warrants for senior Lebanese officials and foreigners.

Hezbollah and Syria have mounted a campaign to try to undermine the tribunal by raising questions about its neutrality. Earlier this month, Syria's judiciary issued arrest warrants against 33 Lebanese officials and foreigners for allegedly misleading the investigation, among them figures close to Saad Hariri and the first U.N. chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis.

��

Associated Press writer Mike Corder in Brussels contributed to this report.

synergy

Posted: Dec 8 2010, 06:57 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Saudi plan for anti-Hezbollah force: leaked memos

QUOTE

AFP) ~ 5 am EST Wed 08 Dec 2010

WASHINGTON � Saudi Arabia proposed setting up an Arab force to fight Hezbollah militants in Lebanon with the help of the United States, UN and NATO, a leaked US diplomatic cable said Tuesday.

In a meeting in May 2008 with a US diplomat in Iraq, David Satterfield, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said a "security response" was needed to the "military challenge" posed to Beirut by the Iran-backed militants.

The Saudi prince feared a Hezbollah victory against the Lebanese government led by then prime minister Fuad Siniora would eventually lead to Iran's takeover of the country.

There was a need for an "Arab force" to create and maintain order in and around Beirut, he argued, saying the Lebanese army was "too fragile to bear more pressure," according to the cable from the US embassy in Riyadh, one of the latest to be released by the website WikiLeaks.

Such a force would be aided by UNIFIL troops deployed in southern Lebanon, while the "US and NATO would need to provide movement and logistic support, as well as naval and air cover," the cable added.

But the plan would likely have triggered alarm in Washington, proposing a return for US troops to Lebanon for the first time since the 1983 suicide bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut which killed almost 300 people.

Saud argued that "of all the regional fronts on which Iran was now advancing, the battle in Lebanon to secure peace would be an easier battle to win."

He told Satterfield that Siniora strongly supported the plan but that only Jordan, Egypt and the Arab League were aware of it.

What was needed was an "Arab force" drawn from Arab "periphery" states to deploy to Beirut under the "cover of the UN," Saud said, accusing the UN troops in southern Lebanon of "sitting doing nothing."

But Satterfield said there were real questions about the "political and military" feasibility of such a scheme, and winning a new mandate for UNIFIL would difficult.

A US diplomatic memo released earlier by WikiLeaks showed Saudi Arabia is obsessed by what it sees as a threat from Iran, fearing Tehran's alleged ambition to spread Shiite Islam.

Underlying the rivalry is a deep Shiite-Sunni schism. Saudi Arabia is predominantly Sunni, and minority Shiites face regular condemnation by officials as having rejected "true" Islam.

Iran, meanwhile, is predominantly Shiite.

synergy

Posted: Dec 13 2010, 03:54 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

QUOTE

Lawyer for accused Hezbollah cell leader says 155-year sentence unfair

Mohamad Hammoud has spent 10 years behind bars for conspiring to aid Middle Eastern terrorists. The 37-year-old suspected leader of a Hezbollah cell in Charlotte, N.C., has 145 years left on his sentence. But Hammoud is fighting to get out of prison now.

Lawyer for accused Hezbollah cell leader says 155-year sentence unfair

QUOTE

Posted on Monday, December 13, 2010

By Gary L. Wright | The Charlotte Observer

Mohamad Hammoud has spent 10 years behind bars for conspiring to aid Middle Eastern terrorists. The 37-year-old suspected leader of a Hezbollah cell in Charlotte has 145 years left on his sentence.

But Hammoud is fighting to get out of prison now.

His attorneys will try to persuade U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen at a hearing Wednesday to slash Hammoud's sentence to time served - or at least to no more than 15 years in prison.

"The overwhelming evidence here is that Mr. Hammoud's original sentence is a miscarriage of justice," defense attorneys James McLoughlin of Charlotte and Stanley Cohen of New York argued in court documents.

Hammoud should not be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison because of what his lawyers say are irrational fears about him and Hezbollah.

Hammoud's attorneys say their client should get no more than 15 years in prison. Any longer sentence, they argue, would be "unconstitutionally disproportionate" and "grossly excessive."

But federal prosecutors are urging the judge to keep Hammoud in prison for the rest of his life.

"Defendant was motivated by fanatical terrorist ideology and, thus, represents a serious future danger to society," Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Brown and Craig Randall wrote in court documents. "Any sentence less than life imprisonment will provide defendant the opportunity and the motivation to carry out acts of violence in support of Hezbollah."

Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 Americans, prosecutors say, "and ushered in the modern age of suicide attacks."

Hammoud's case is among hundreds that the U.S. Supreme Court has sent back to courts across the country following a ruling in 2005 to abandon nearly two decades of federal sentencing practices.

Federal judges no longer have to follow the complex system of guidelines that Congress designed in the 1980s to make prison terms tougher and more uniform.

The nation's highest court didn't throw out the guidelines altogether. Instead, the justices ruled that they are to be advisory - not mandatory as they had been.

Hammoud was the first person tried in the United States under a 1996 federal law banning material support to terrorist organizations.

To read the complete article, visit www.charlotteobserver.com.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/13/1051...l#ixzz181ksLBbP

synergy

Posted: Dec 29 2010, 07:08 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Indictment could be blow to Lebanon's Hezbollah

QUOTE

By ZEINA KARAM and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press
5:58 am EST Wed 29 Dec 2010

BEIRUT � Hezbollah says looming indictments by a U.N. court for the assassination of a former prime minister are of no concern to the group. Hezbollah's leader, in fact, says he is so relaxed he sleeps an extra hour every night.

Behind the veneer of confidence, however, analysts say the Shiite Lebanese group is deeply worried at the impact of what will likely be charges against some of its members. At the least, it could be a blow to one of the movement's most important foundations � its reputation.

For decades, Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah has gained support by depicting itself as a pure resistance movement, clean of corruption, aimed only at defending Lebanese against neighboring Israel. Instead, indictments would plant a new image in the mind of some Lebanese: a movement willing to turn its weapons against fellow Lebanese to carry out a political assassination.

That could weaken Hezbollah's position in sharply divided Lebanon, undermining one of its main justifications for maintaining its large arsenal, which make it the most powerful military force in the country.

"One of Hezbollah's main strengths is its reputation in the Arab and Islamic world as a resistance movement fighting Israeli occupation," said Ibrahim Bayram, an analyst with An-Nahar newspaper who closely follows Hezbollah affairs. "This will definitely tarnish its image in the Arab world."

That could turn into more than just an image problem. Hezbollah's enemies may see the group as weakened and vulnerable. "In the eyes of Israel, America and the West, Hezbollah will be accused. It will become a rogue entity that is more easily targeted. This may provide a pretext for others to pounce on it," Bayram said.

In the worst case scenario, the indictments could cause the collapse of Lebanon's fragile unity government and spark new fighting between Shiite Hezbollah and Sunnis. Shiites, Sunnis and Christians each make up about a third of Lebanon's four million people.

The 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a suicide bombing that killed 22 other people both stunned and polarized Lebanese. Hariri, a Sunni, was a hero to his Sunni community and backed by many Christians who sympathized with his efforts in the last few months of his life to reduce Syrian influence in the country. A string of assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians and public figures followed, which U.N. investigators have said may have been connected to the Hariri killing.

The Netherlands-based tribunal has not said who it will indict, but Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has said he has information it will be members of his group.

Hezbollah has responded by staunchly denying any role in the assassination, denouncing the court as a conspiracy against it and demanding that its fellow Lebanese publicly stand by it � something its rivals have so far resisted doing.

Already the impending indictments have paralyzed Lebanon's government, an uneasy partnership between Hezbollah and Western-backed factions led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the slain leader's son.

Nasrallah demands the government publicly discredit any findings by the tribunal, but Hariri has refused to break cooperation with the court. Hezbollah officials have reportedly said they will not sit on the same table with a prime minister who accepts an accusation that they were behind the death of his father.

Hezbollah has also pressed on the case of the "false witnesses" � witnesses who reportedly gave false information to U.N. investigators to implicate Syria in the Hariri killing. The case is sensitive because close associates of Saad Hariri are alleged to have bribed the witnesses to do so.

Hezbollah demands that the Cabinet vote to send the case to the Higher Judicial Council, which handles political and state security crimes. The lower courts where Hariri and his supporters want it handled are seen as more under Hariri's control.

Hezbollah and its allies refuse to attend any Cabinet meeting that does not vote on the issue, while Hariri has reportedly vowed to walk out of any meeting that decides to hold a vote. As a result, the Cabinet has met only once since Nov. 10, and that single meeting lasted only a few minutes. State institutions have been deadlocked.

In a recent speech, Nasrallah denied he was worried, saying, "I have been sleeping an extra hour each day for the past few months." Talking tough, Hezbollah has threatened to "cut off the arm" of anyone who tries to arrest any of its members.

But Bilal Saab, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland who advises the U.S. government on Lebanon, said Hezbollah faces hard choices, none of which are good.

"Right now, Hezbollah is thinking of ways to weather the storm," he said.

He said a violent reaction by the group can throw the country into turmoil and reawaken the various armed Sunni jihadi groups that are present in Lebanon. A political reaction that seeks to overthrow the government may buy Hezbollah some time but is not sustainable in the long term, he said.

The group has already suffered setbacks that affected its image among some in the Arab world, first when it was forced to use its weapons to battle Hariri loyalists in May 2008 � something it had vowed never to do.

Hezbollah and its rivals are now relying on mediation by Syria and Saudi Arabia, their respective international patrons, to try and reach a settlement that would allow both camps to step back.

"The problem (in Lebanon) is in its total dependance on the outside and internal inability to carry out any national role," wrote columnist Rafik Khoury in the daily Al-Anwar.

"We are not able to rule ourselves."

synergy

Posted: Jan 12 2011, 05:58 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah and allies to topple Lebanon govenment: source

QUOTE

By Laila Bassam
5:31 am EST Wed 12 Jan 2011

BEIRUT (Reuters) � Ministers from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and its political allies will resign on Wednesday, forcing the collapse of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government, political sources said.

"The resignation statement has been written and will be announced at 4.30 p.m. (1430 GMT)," said a senior political source, who asked not to be named. Eleven ministers would quit, enough to automatically bring down the government, he said.

Lebanese politicians on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia and Syria had failed to forge a deal to curb political tensions in Lebanon over a U.N.-backed tribunal set up to try the killers of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Disagreements over the investigation had paralyzed the "unity" government and revived fears of sectarian conflict.

The tribunal prosecutor is expected to issue draft indictments this month and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects members of the group to be accused of involvement.

Hezbollah has denied any role in the 2005 bombing which killed Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others. It has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project" and urged Saad al-Hariri to reject its findings -- a demand he has resisted.

Hariri was due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington around the time of the planned resignation announcement.

Gebran Bassil, a Christian government minister allied to Hezbollah, said Hariri had rejected demands for an urgent session of cabinet to discuss Hezbollah's insistence that Lebanon withdraw all cooperation with the special tribunal.

"The grace period has ended, and the waiting stage that we lived through without any result has ended," he told Reuters.

Hezbollah minister Mohammad Fneish blamed the United States for obstructing attempts by Riyadh and Damascus to find a solution. "There were Arab efforts that gave us the chance to work positively... These efforts have not worked because of American intervention," he said.

Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University in Beirut, said Washington had "vetoed" the Saudi-Syrian initiative and there was little prospect of a new government being formed quickly.

He said Hezbollah was unlikely to repeat the events of May 2008, when gunmen took over Beirut in protest over government steps against the Shi'ite militant movement, but he did not rule out demonstrators taking to the streets.

"The phenomenon of food riots is spreading in the Arab world, so the opposition may shield itself behind popular demands for combating inflation," he said.

Beirut's bourse fell more than 3.0 percent in response to the political turmoil, with shares in market heavyweight Solidere, which has led the reconstruction of Beirut since the 1975-1990 civil war, dropping as much as 7.8 percent.

"(Because) the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Syria was blocked, we have seen a sell-off," said Louis Karam, senior investment adviser at Arab Finance Corporation.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Lyon and Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Jon Boyle)

synergy

Posted: Jan 13 2011, 04:34 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Hezbollah aims for more political power in Lebanon

QUOTE

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press
2:03 pm EST Thu 13 Jan 2011

BEIRUT � Hezbollah, already Lebanon's most potent military force, is now making a bid to expand its political power by installing an ally as prime minister now that it has brought down the government.

If Hezbollah succeeds, the Shiite militant group and its patrons in Iran and Syria would have far more sway in this volatile corner of the Middle East � something Washington has worked to prevent.

"They would have proven that they can dominate Lebanon without using their guns," Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

But success is by no means guaranteed. After Hezbollah and its allies quit the government Wednesday, causing it to collapse, lengthy negotiations lie ahead between Lebanon's Western-backed blocs and the Hezbollah led-alliance known as March 8. And if those fail, Lebanon could see a resurgence of the street protests and violence that have bedeviled the country in the past.

Still, that the militant group even has somewhat realistic sights on the government is a blow to the United States. Washington has tried the past five years to move Lebanon firmly into a Western sphere and put an end to the influence of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.

Instead, with military and political might, Hezbollah managed to show that the pro-Western bloc can't run the country without it � and now could go a step further to show it doesn't need its opponents. The movement boasts an arsenal of weapons that far outweighs that of the national army, is backed by millions in Iranian funding and enjoys popular backing from most of Lebanon's Shiites.

The government's collapse plunged the country into political uncertainty after a year of relative stability under Prime Minister Saad Hariri, an ally of the U.S. and other Western powers, in an uneasy unity government with Hezbollah and its allies.

The crisis was the climax of long-simmering tensions over the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal is widely expected to indict members of Hezbollah soon, which many fear could rekindle violence in the tiny nation plagued for decades by war and civil strife.

Lebanon suffered through a devastating civil war from 1975-1990, a 1982 Israeli invasion to drive out Palestinian fighters, a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and deadly sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shiites in 2008.

President Michel Suleiman will launch formal talks Monday on creating a new government, polling lawmakers on their choice before nominating a prime minister. According to Lebanon's constitution, the president must be a Christian Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite. Each faith makes up about a third of Lebanon's population of 4 million.

At the moment, Hariri � now caretaker prime minister � is conferring with international allies for support. He was in Washington meeting President Barack Obama when Hezbollah brought down his government, stopped off in France and was next heading to Turkey.

Hezbollah's allies, meanwhile, said it would be futile for Hariri to stay in the post. Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad said the next prime minister should be a strong supporter of his group.

"We should agree on the way to administer the country with a strong government headed by someone with a history of national resistance," Raad said.

Politicians in the pro-Western coalition, meanwhile, said there was no alternative to the 40-year-old billionaire Hariri, who remains the most popular choice among Sunnis.

Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian right-wing Lebanese Forces group which is allied with Hariri, said Hariri's backers would name him again as their choice.

"It would be a grave mistake to even think about an alternative to Saad Hariri," he warned Wednesday.

Finding a Sunni candidate might prove the biggest obstacle for Hezbollah. Some analysts believe running against Hariri would be seen by Sunnis as too big a betrayal.

Hezbollah allies insist a Sunni loyal to the movement can be found and garner enough backing in parliament, particularly one from among the Sunni politicians who served in the pre-2005, pro-Syrian governments.

In order to form its own government, Hezbollah also would require the backing of Walid Jumblatt, the influential leader of the Druse sect who broke with his former allies in Hariri's camp in 2009. Jumblatt has been a shrewd politician, known for shifting loyalties, and has not indicated his position.

Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, says neither side can accomplish much on its own.

"Hezbollah is much stronger militarily, but this isn't going to be a military battle," Khouri said Thursday. "They have got to find a compromise."

But at least for the moment, neither side is willing to back down on the issue of the tribunal, the cause of the government collapse.

Hezbollah denounces the Netherlands-based tribunal as a conspiracy by the U.S. and Israel. It had demanded Hariri reject any of its findings even before they came out, but Hariri has refused to break cooperation with the court and its investigations.

For the past two months, the dispute had paralyzed the 14-month-old unity government, an uneasy coalition formed in hopes of stabilizing the country. When talks between Syria and Hariri's ally Saudi Arabia failed to find a compromise, Hezbollah walked out of the coalition.

Now, Hezbollah is hoping its withdrawal � something clearly intended to highlight its power � will hand it a stronger bargaining position than ever before. While pre-2005 governments were generally headed by prime ministers supportive of Hezbollah, but Hezbollah members were not part of government then.

A sympathetic prime minister and seats in the Cabinet would give the group unprecedented clout.

synergy

Posted: Jan 13 2011, 07:53 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 98,142
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

For Hezbollah, Claiming Victory Could Be Costly

QUOTE

The New York Times

January 13, 2011
For Hezbollah, Claiming Victory Could Be Costly
By ANTHONY SHADID

BEIRUT � With Hezbollah�s toppling of the Lebanese government, the militant Shiite Muslim movement entered what may prove one of the most dangerous chapters in a 30-year history that has made it reviled in the West and popular in the Arab world: At the moment seemingly of its greatest power, the path facing it could unveil its most glaring weaknesses.

Hezbollah and its allies acted on long-standing threats Wednesday to bring down Lebanon�s national unity government in a dispute over a United Nations-backed tribunal, which is expected to indict its members in the assassination of a former prime minister, Rafik Hariri.

The result followed a familiar script in Lebanon, where institutions have been paralyzed more often than not since the killing of Mr. Hariri and 22 others in a devastating bombing along Beirut�s seafront in February 2005. Lawmakers predicted weeks, perhaps months of stalemate as the country tries to navigate questions unanswered since the end of its civil war in 1990: the power of Lebanon�s largest religious communities; its posture toward Israel; the fate of Hezbollah�s arms; and the power of foreign patrons.

Few dispute Hezbollah�s prowess in that standoff; it vanquished its foes in just a few days of fighting in May 2008, when it seized part of the capital. But to do so again could further tarnish its reputation here, making it look more and more like a sectarian militia than the resistance movement to Israel it considers itself.

It would undoubtedly heighten tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, a prospect the movement fears could undermine its stature in the wider, predominantly Sunni Middle East. The irony is that only that confrontation may deliver it what it wants: a Lebanese government that denounces the indictments and ends cooperation with the tribunal.

�In some ways, they�re in a catch-22,� said Robert Malley, the Middle East and North Africa program director for the International Crisis Group. �Even as it increases its power in Lebanon, it could be exacerbating its own problems in the country.�

In that, the Hezbollah that entered the crisis may look far different from the group, born in the crucible of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, that emerges.

A day after the collapse of a national unity government headed by Rafik Hariri�s son, Saad Hariri, the capital was more troubled by traffic jams than the prospect of fighting. Both sides seemed eager not to escalate, and Hezbollah officials refused to make any public pronouncements that might stoke more tensions.

But no one questioned the depth of the crisis. It could be seen as the worst since the fighting in 2008, though it is probably more accurate to view it as simply another iteration of the crisis that began with the Hariri assassination in 2005. His killing would soon draw the line between two camps in an almost equally divided country and help end Syria�s 29-year military presence and, with Saudi Arabia, its political control here.

What followed was a string of political assassinations, a devastating war with Israel, sectarian fighting, mass protests in the tony downtown and almost two years of government paralysis. After the 2008 fighting, a truce was reached in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar, in which Hezbollah achieved far greater power in the government, effectively enabling it to veto legislation and, in a worst-case scenario, bring it down.

It did that Wednesday after a Saudi-Syrian attempt at mediation failed.

�We�re facing a crisis that, I think, will be long,� said Nabil Haytham, a prominent columnist for as-Safir, a pro-opposition newspaper in Lebanon.

Neither side seemed to want to reach this point. Weaker and more divided than a few years ago, Mr. Hariri�s allies were thought to be buying time until the handing down of the indictments, which would have strengthened their hand in negotiations.

Hezbollah, analysts say, had hoped for an agreement mediated by Syria � with Iran, Hezbollah�s ally � and Saudi Arabia, the patron of Mr. Hariri. Having failed, Hezbollah found itself dragged deeper into a political arena that it still, with perhaps a degree of arrogance, views as beneath its calling as a resistance movement, even as it exercises unprecedented power within it.

�The party is facing developments that are quickly changing,� said Talal Atrissi, a professor at Lebanese University. �They are trying to keep up with the pace of change inside the country and at the same time keep the priority for confrontation with Israel.�

Hezbollah has evolved from a shadowy organization blamed for two attacks on the American embassy and the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks here, killing 240 soldiers, into an expansive movement with an armed militia more powerful than the Lebanese army and a sprawling infrastructure that delivers welfare to its Shiite constituency, Lebanon�s largest community. Over those decades, it has seen its political role grow, as well, particularly when it felt vulnerable, as was the case with the Syrian withdrawal.

Even its supporters acknowledge its vulnerability now. Not that it fears the tribunal would try its members � the prospect of their arrest is almost impossible to fathom, given Hezbollah�s discipline. Rather, it is concerned about the impact of the indictments on its standing in the Arab world. Both it and its allies worry about the reach, too, of the tribunal, a body whose foreign backers (France and America) and supporters here (Mr. Hariri�s allies) have seen as serving their interests.

With the country now facing a stalemate, the question has become: What next?

�They see the trap of either backing down, and losing credibility, or acting on their threat, and paying a price in terms of their image,� Mr. Malley said. �At some point, they�re going to have to decide whether they cross the threshold of taking actions.�

To do so would almost certainly deepen anger at a movement that once declared a red line against turning its weapons on Lebanese themselves. It would widen fault lines that are no longer most pronounced between Christian and Muslim but rather between Sunni and Shiite; some fear a new vein of frustrated Sunni militancy here would be the result.

The longer the movement is enmeshed in the crisis, the more it is seen as just another actor in a country where power is rigidly divided among its religious sects. Even seizing the government � an option not beyond the realm of possibility � would make it no less vulnerable, essentially making Hezbollah and the state synonymous.

�Hezbollah doesn�t want to control the government or country, even though they could if they wanted,� said Anis Nakkash, director of the Aman Research Center here.

The alternative, for now, may be a familiar wait.

Nada Bakri and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)

0 Members:

« Next Oldest | Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Next Newest »

DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you