Lebanon denouced the trespassing by Syria into Lebanese territory.

Beirut- The Lebanese government during its meeting yesterday at the Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman, has denounced the trespassing by Syria into Lebanese territory in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The cabinet outlined the stand in its meeting Friday in reference to the digging by Syrian teams of two wells in the Deir al-Ashayer village which abuts Syrian territory.

“The government denounced the trespassing into Lebanese territory in Deir al-Ashayer by digging two wells in Lebanese territory within property owned by Lebanese citizens,” the government said.

Information Minister Tareq Mitri said President Suleiman “informed the cabinet that he is following up his contacts in this regards and a waits an thorough response.”

Cabinet minister Wael Abou Faour had raised the issue during the cabinet meeting saying Syria has penetrated Lebanese territory to a distance of 100 meters from the border line to dig two wells.

Diplomatic sources noted that the cabinet’s denunciation as well as Suleiman’s comment on the reported trespassing did not mention Syria explicitly.

However, adopting such a decision by Premier Fouad Siniora’s cabinet reflects a development in dealing with Syria at a time Suleiman and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad agreed on setting up diplomatic ties between the two states, but have so far failed in reaching agreement on demarcating the joint borders.

The dispute followed a report by a U.N. committee that Lebanon’s eastern borders remain “OPEN” TO THE SMUGGLING OF WEAPONS FROM Syria, in a major violation of UNSCR 1701 that bans the illegal transport of weapons into Lebanon.

An-Nahar quoted diplomatic sources as saying denunciation of the Syrian trespassing by a cabinet that includes ministers who have relations with Syria is “an important development.”

New Army Chief

Beirut : Finally Lebanon has a new army chief. Yesterday Brigadier General Jean Kahwaji was appointed as the new commander of the Lebanese army during a cabinet session at the presidential palace in Baabda. Yesterday also Lebanon paid farewell to Samer Hanna,

the Lebanese officer that was killed by Hezbollah when its gunmen shot at a Lebanese army helicopter.
Hezbollah initially denied any knowledge of the incident , but yesterday Sheikh Naim Qassem , the second in command at Hezbollah told al Manar TV , that Hezbollah has handed over to the judiciary the gunman that shot down the Lebanese army helicopter to help in the investigation

Saturday

14:10 Interior Minister Baroud Meets Patriarch Sfeir in Diman.

13:45 Geagea : there are many questions regarding the helicopter incident and the dialogue talks . Shebaa Farms can only be liberated through diplomatic and not military means

13:42 Major traffic accident near the Nahr al-Kalb Tunnel involving ten vehicles occurred on highway north of Beirut. It was caused by an oil spill
Red Cross and Civil Defense Forces are evacuating casualties.
12:56 PM siniora plans to allocate next Tuesday for meeting with religious , political and influential leaders of Tripoli to find out the needs of the city

12:20 The new Army Commander Brig. Gen. Jean Kahwaji was promoted to the rank of General at the Baabda Palace where he met with president Michel Suleiman.

11:56 Grand Mufti of the Lebanese Republic Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani during 30th anniversary memorial of Imam Moussa Sadr’s disappearance: Religious leaders have large responsibilities, and those who carry weapons have much larger responsibilities. We must work for the stability and success of all Lebanon, because sectarian strife is not in anyone’s interest.

11:40 FPM leader general Michel Aoun leaves for Europe on a private visit.

11:30 Former pro-Syrian Minister Wiam Wahhab told al-Manar TV: “There have been many mistakes committed against Syria and the Syrians… This requires an apology…. I am a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, I will take no steps without collaboration with Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement.’

11:14 Baroud told VOL: I want an explanation for Thursday’s attack on a Lebanese army helicopter, which resulted in the death of an officer, and I want to know the details rather than Hezbollah justifications. The incident affected the Lebanese army’s morale… The judicial investigation into the event would continue “until the end,” because Lebanon’s political leaders have given their support to the judicial process… Supporting the army is mandatory because it is the only protector of Lebanon, and it upholds its stability”

11:07 Information Minister Tarek Mitri told LBC: “The helicopter shooting incident raises questions regarding the collaboration between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah…. The core of the problem is the ongoing attempt to obstruct the state-building process …. I think there is an Israeli war on Lebanon, but Hezbollah should not give Israel any excuse or opportunity to attack us “

11:05 former MP Fares Soueid told radio Free Lebanon: “More details of Thursday’s attack on a Lebanese army helicopter, which killed an officer, would be revealed in the coming weeks.” He added “the principle of having an armed force existing alongside the state was refused in 1975, leading to the civil war”. He also said : “it is the president’s duty to preserve the Doha Agreement, conduct the national dialogue, and guarantee that the weapons issue would be discussed during the national dialogue.”

07:47 Zahra told an Nahar : The most important result expected from the dialogue is a solution to Hezbollah arms . If it can’t accomplish this result then the dialogue will be considered a failure and this failure will only serve the interest of those that do not want a strong Lebanese state

07:34 Houri told An Nahar : The demand of Hezbollah to have an electoral law before heading to the dialogue talks is suspicious

07:22 2 wounded in overnight clashes between Fatah mainstream and Jund el Sham in Ein el Helweh Palestinian refugee camp

07:13 Judicial sources told Hayat last night: Hezbollah has handed over to the judiciary the gunman suspected of shooting down the Lebanese army helicopter and killing Samer Hanna . According to Hayat it was speaker Berri who urged Hezbollah to hand over the gunman for the investigation

07:02 al Hayat: Minister Murr revealed during the cabinet meeting details on the helicopter incident

06:53 Al Akhbar : What is being rumored about direct participation in the forthcoming elections by the president has no basis. The president is expected to remain neutral and this is not a slogan but the reality

06:22 A Safir: the objections by Ministers Aridi and Abou Faour during the cabinet session were against the procedure and standards used in selecting Kahwaji and not against the man himself

Fires consume 4 forests overlooking Beirut

Beirut- A huge fire broke out in forests surrounding four villages southeast of Beirut Tuesday consuming thousands of trees.

Civil defense Directorate manager Darwish Hobeika indicated the
fires are premeditated, saying they erupted before dawn, which is not
normal in summer fires that erupt due to heat.

Civil defense teams, Lebanese Army helicopters and Cypriot
helicopters took part in trying to combat the blaze as tongues of flame
shot up in the sky and smoke billowed from the slopes overlooking
Beirut.

The civil defense Directorate said the blaze could threaten the
villages of Basatine, Qabr Shmoun, Sarhamoul and Ainab, southeast of
the capital.

Mayor of Ainab Fouad Shaar questioned the allegations that the fires
are premeditated . He told reporters around noon today: Until this
moment we cannot declare for sure whether that the fire was arsenal
despite the claims that point in this direction, but we can say for
sure that there was delay in the extinguishing of the fire”

Wild wood fires are common in Lebanon during the summer season.

Still unnamed

Compiling a list of detainees in Syrian remains a difficult task

Hana
Yahya, mother of a Lebanese man who has been missing since 1988,
decorates a Christmas tree with pictures of missing Lebanese citizens
in front of the UN headquarters in Beirut on December 22. (AFP/ANWAR
AMRO)

As
calls for the release of Lebanese citizens in Syrian prisons grow
louder, their exact number is still the subject of much debate. Syria
has long denied holding Lebanese prisoners, and its 29-year dominance over the country prevented any serious inquiry into the subject.

Several lists of detainees exist, but all differ in the number of
names. Perhaps the most accurate list is the one compiled by the NGO
Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE). Since 1990, SOLIDE
has worked with families of the missing to compile a list of 580 people
known to be detained in Syria or to have died while in custody.

“When we write a name on our list, it comes from the families” who
have seen a relative in a Syrian jail, said Ghazi Aad, SOLIDE’s
director and co-founder.

During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, many families were afraid
to speak to SOLIDE for fear of reprisals from the Syrian intelligence
services or of losing the visitor permits the Syrian authorities
granted them. Although SOLIDE’s list is long, past experience suggests
it represents only a fraction of the actual detainees.

“In 1998, when Syria released 151 [Lebanese], we had only four names
out of the whole amount,” Aad said. “And in 2000, when they released
54, we had only 12 names out of the whole package. So this is a clear
indication of how many people might be there that we don’t know about.”

Incomplete lists

The other lists are less comprehensive. In December 2000, the state
published a list of 82 individuals, 40 of whom were dead. MP Fouad
al-Saad, who formerly headed a committee dedicated to establishing how
many of the 17,000 Lebanese who disappeared during the civil war
languished in Syrian prisons, said in an interview last week with the
Voice of Lebanon radio station that the list now stands at 91 names.

In a brief telephone conversation with NOW Lebanon, Saad said the
list was based on interviews with detainees’ families and repeatedly
insisted it was incomplete. His work was hampered, he said, by the
political climate at the time, when Saad was told to hand the list over
to then-State Prosecutor General Adnan Addoum, who was appointed in
1995 at the behest of Syria’s military intelligence chief in Lebanon,
General Ghazi Kanaan. Addoum did not pursue the issue.

Finally, last Wednesday, the Al-Mustaqbal daily published 117 names, a list Aad said was very similar to Saad’s.

Several commissions have been formed to determine the precise number
of Lebanese in Syrian custody, however, very little serious progress
has been made. A committee formed in 1998 by then-Prime Minister Salim
al-Hoss concluded in 1999 that all missing Lebanese should be declared
dead. Families who had seen their relatives in Syrian prisons were
outraged.

This obviously politically-motivated conclusion was never taken
seriously and only served to add insult to emotional injury. A second
committee was formed by the late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,
the mandate of which has been continuously extended and is still
functioning today. Aad, however, dismissed its importance, as it is
comprised of “employees, military employees or police employees. It’s
not transparent.”

A hint of progress

With talk of establishing diplomatic relations between Lebanon and
Syria after the election of President Michel Sleiman and the hoopla
surrounding the release of Samir Kantar, the four Hezbollah POWs and
the Resistance’s dead, the detainee file has once again been thrust to
the fore with several politicians and officials demanding action.

Progress of sorts was made, although the subject is still shrouded
in some mystery. For the first time ever, Damascus publicly
acknowledged it is holding Lebanese, a surprising shift in policy, but
it was an admission that came with a callous sting.

“I say to the families of those missing and those detained that he
who has been patient for 30 years can wait a bit longer,” Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem told reporters after meeting President
Sleiman on July 21. Finally, according to a short report from the
National News Agency on Saturday, a delegation from Syria and Lebanon
met on the border to discuss the prisoners, but the details of the
meeting were not revealed.

Two days after Mouallem’s visit, Aad, from SOLIDE, met with Sleiman
in an effort to persuade him to form an independent committee with
foreign experts to investigate the matter. “We don’t have a legal
mechanism in Lebanon to identify who was taken by the Syrians and who
was killed by local militias,” Aad said. “That’s why we met the
president and told him we should have a new commission based on
international norms.”

Aad said that president was open to the suggestion, but this is
hardly likely to offer much cheer to the families who still wait for
news.

Source:Now Lebanon

Lebanon backs Hezbollah’s arms

Lebanon’s newly formed national unity government has agreed on a policy statement that may allow Hezbollah to keep its weapons.

The
draft statement written on Friday agreed “on the right of Lebanon’s
people, the army and the resistance to liberate all its territories”.

The
“resistance” is a common term for Hezbollah in Lebanon, pointing to its
stance in the country as a movement dedicated to fighting Israeli
occupation.

The issue
has been a point of disagreement, with many in Lebanon’s Western-backed
majority wanting to disarm Hezbollah – a demand the group rejects.

The
statement, agreed at the 14th meeting of a ministerial committee set up
to draft it, will be presented to parliament next week for a vote of
confidence.

“The ministerial statement is drafted and
forwarded to the cabinet with the agreement of all its members,” said
Tareq Mitri, the information minister, after the meeting.

Political wrangling

The
compromise came after more than three weeks of negotiations. The
statement had been delayed by disagreements over the role of
Hezbollah’s army, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Fouad
Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, wanted to exclude mentioning
Hezbollah’s right to regain Lebanese land by force and defer the
subject to a national dialogue to be chaired by Michel Sleiman, the
president.

Hezbollah’s weapons became an even more divisive
issue after the group used them in street fighting in Beirut, the
capital, in early May.

Political sources said the statement
renewed Lebanon’s commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1701
which ended the 2006 war and refers the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons to
the drafting of a “national defence strategy” to be agreed at the
national dialogue meeting.

Source: Aljazeera.net