Israeli strikes on Syria kill 6 Iran-backed fighters, says watchdog

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by AFP -- BEIRUT: Israeli missile strikes on Syria killed at least six Iran-backed fighters on Friday, a war monitor said. The dead were all foreign paramilitaries fighting alongside Bashar Assad’s forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said. The missiles, which were fired from Lebanese airspace, hit positions held by Iran-backed militias in the Masyaf district of Hama province, Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman said. One also targeted a government-run research center, where surface-to-surface missiles are developed and stored, the Britain-based watchdog said. Iranian experts are believed to work in the research center. The Israeli military said it would not comment on reports in foreign media. The research center in Masyaf has been hit several times by Israeli strikes in recent years, the Observatory said.

According to the US, sarin gas was being developed at the center, a claim denied by Syrian authorities, who say the country has possessed no chemical weapons since it dismantled its arsenal under a 2013 agreement. Syrian state news agency SANA said air defenses intercepted missiles fired by Israel on Masyaf. “Our air defenses intercepted an Israeli attack on the Masyaf area,” SANA reported. It said air defenses hit “most” missiles before they reached their target. State television aired footage purporting to show air defenses responding to the Israeli attack. The Israeli activity in the skies was heard over parts of neighboring Lebanon, where many took to social media to denounce the Christmas Day attack. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. It has targeted government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria, but says Iran’s presence in support of President Bashar Assad is a threat to which it will continue to respond.

French Investigators to Meet Carlos Ghosn in Beirut on Jan. 18

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(Bloomberg) -- French investigators will arrive in Beirut on Jan. 18 to speak with Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, as part of a probe into expenses, according to an official in the Lebanese judiciary and a person close to the former auto executive. The French team will be joined by Lebanon’s state prosecutor, according to the Lebanese official, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. The French Justice Ministry and a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo almost two years ago and accused of financial misconduct.

He has denied wrongdoing and escaped to Lebanon last December hidden inside a large box. Last month, Ghosn said French criminal investigators would question him in 2021 as part of a separate investigation of expenses covered by a Dutch subsidiary of Renault and Nissan. Authorities in France are looking into interactions with a car distributor in Oman and spending on events and trips that may have been personal, as well as payments made by Renault-Nissan BV to consultants. Ghosn has not been charged and has agreed to cooperate with the inquiries, which are at the preliminary stage, according to the person close to his team, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The French team will be in Beirut until Jan. 22, they said.

Turkish and Lebanese spies within Muslim migrants

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Christine Douglass-Williams -- weeklyblitz.net -- Turkey, which has been bullying Greece for some time, recently threatened the EU that it shouldn’t “dare” to impose sanctions over Turkish aggression toward Greece and Cyprus. For the past few months, Greece has been bolstering its military, amid Turkey’s ongoing “provocative statements” and “near-daily” threats of war. Particularly worrying with the latest spy news development is Lebanese involvement. Turkey is feared to be expanding its influence in Lebanon and shipping weapons there. Turkey has also been working with Qatar to shape Libyan politics. The two countries were reportedly setting up a military training camp to train Muslim Brotherhood troops in Libya. Both Libya and Lebanon are marked by instability, which Turkey has demonstrated its eagerness to settle. Given its aggressive expansionary ambitions, its opportunism is expected. Days ago, Greek police “detained a Turkish consular official on suspicion of spying… in a case likely to further strain troubled relations between the two NATO allies.”

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Pope issues appeal for stricken Lebanon

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By Linda Bordoni -- vaticannews -- In a letter addressed to the head of the Church in Lebanon, Pope Francis makes an urgent appeal to political and religious leaders and to the international community to help the nation surmount the grave crisis in which it finds itself and resume a normal existence. Writing on Christmas Eve to His Beatitude Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites and President of the Assembly of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon, the Pope says his words are for the “Lebanese people, without distinction of community or religion.” They are words, he says, “of comfort and encouragement as we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.”

Sharing his concern and sorrow to see the suffering and anguish that has engulfed Lebanon undermining its resilience and resourcefulness, the Pope says, “It is even more painful to see you deprived of your precious aspirations to live in peace and to continue being, for our time and our world, a message of freedom and a witness to harmonious coexistence.” In particular, Pope Francis expresses his sorrow for the many young people of Lebanon “robbed of any hope for a better future.”

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Lebanon to ask consultants to resume central bank audit

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Reuters -- caretaker finance minister said it would contact a consulting firm to resume a forensic audit of the central bank, a key condition for foreign aid that has hit a roadblock. Parliament agreed this week to lift banking secrecy for one year, after the restructuring consultancy Alvarez & Marsal pulled out of the audit, saying it had not been given information it needed. “It was decided based on the law from parliament and government decisions to contact the firm A&M to resume the forensic audit,” caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni’s office cited him as saying after meeting with the president. A presidency statement later quoted Wazni as saying the firm had recently sent a letter to the central bank that showed its willingness to resume work with the Lebanese government. Such an audit is on list of reforms donors have demanded before helping Lebanon out of its financial crisis, rooted in decades of state waste and graft. Central Bank governor Riad Salameh said last month that he favoured an audit but that disclosing the accounts of local banks would require a change in legislation. Some Lebanese officials have accused Salameh of using bank secrecy laws to justify withholding information.

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Lebanese use spirit of Christmas to recover from deadly August shock

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by Michael Jansen -- jordantimes.com -- French President Emmanuel Macron's COVID-cancelled visit to Beirut this week appears to have torpedoed hopes that he would be able to coax Lebanon's squabbling politicians to agree on a formula for a fully-fledged government before the end of the year. Macron has consistently called for an independent government of experts capable of launching reforms put forward in the road map presented by him in September. President Michel Aoun has retorted by rejecting the notion of an independent Cabinet of experts and calling for the usual government of party appointees and demanding for his Free Patriotic Movement one-third of posts and veto power over any decisions. After mediation by France, Maronite Catholic Archbishop Beschara Al Rai, and Hizbollah Aoun now insists on interior and justice portfolios. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has rejected this proposition on the ground it is designed to "bypass the French initiative" and would "open the door to the representation of political factions in the government". This is precisely what the French, foreign donors and the International Fund want to avoid.

Hariri resigned following the eruption in October last year of popular protests against the politicians, whose incompetence and corruption have diven Lebanon into an economic crisis. He expected he would be asked to form the very sort of government the people want and he is meant to establish at this time. Instead, the politicians asked Hassan Diab, an academic with no political clout, to put together a new Cabinet. He, also, dreamed he would enlist independent experts but was soon disabused of this idea. The experts he was permitted to appoint were chosen by the very political factions the Lebanese people are determined to oust. Needless to say, the politicians scuppered every attempt Diab made to initiate the reforms demanded by the donors and the IMF. The Lebanese economy continued to slide downwards while resentment has soared against the politicians who refused to budge from their right to decide who would be in the government. One would have thought the politicians would be prepared to cede to the demand for independent ministers following the August 4th explosion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored for six years in Beirut port, levelling it and four neighbouring districts, killing 204 people, wounding several thousand and rendering 300,000 homeless. The politicians were accused of causing this disaster through indifference and neglect. It was the largest man-made explosion since US atomic bombs devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

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