Pamela Engel

Iran is holding 10 American sailors after two US Navy riverine patrol boats drifted into Iranian waters, and US officials are trying to reassure the public that the sailors are safe and will be released shortly.

The ships were reportedly near Iran’s Farsi Island to refuel. A senior US administration official told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that there’s nothing to indicate anything hostile on the part of Iran. Administration officials also reportedly said that releasing the sailors at night would be "unsafe."

But Iran’s actions seem intentionally provocative to some experts. Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider that it’s another example of Iran "pushing the limits" with the US.

catholicHerald.co.uk

The Prince of Wales has made a donation in aid of suffering Christians in the Middle East as the crisis in the region deepens.

The undisclosed gift from Prince Charles’s charitable foundation was made to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and came after the Prince made a speech about persecuted Christians at an advent reception hosted by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, in London last month.

In his address to invited guests including Church leaders and Middle East Christians, he warned that the growing crisis of extremism could threaten “the very existence of Christianity in the land of its birth”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Syria needs to start working on a new constitution as a first step to finding a political solution to its civil war, though he acknowledged the process was likely to be difficult.

Putin, who has thrown Russia’s support behind Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with air strikes, also said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild that the crisis in relations between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran would complicate the search for peace in Syria.

"I believe it’s necessary to move toward constitutional reform (in Syria). It’s a complicated process, of course. And after that, on the basis of the new constitution, (Syria should) hold early presidential and parliamentary elections", Putin said in the interview which was conducted on Jan. 5.

BEIRUT | iloubnan.info –

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri praised the decision of the emergency meeting of the Arab Foreign ministers, which translated the unified stance of the Arabs in the face of the blatant Iranian interference in their internal affairs, and their solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia concerning the attack on its diplomatic mission in Iran.

iloubnan.info

 Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister, Gebran Bassil, indicated Sunday that Lebanon has "refrained from voting for the Arab Foreign Ministers final decision at the closing of its meeting in Cairo," adding that the Lebanese delegation also objected to, and demanded the elimination of, the statement’s mentioning of "Hezbollah" and linking it to "terrorist acts."

"We have succeeded in maintaining our unity, without causing any sabotage to the Arab consensus," said Bassil, on emerging from the Arab Summit meeting earlier today.

Top Arab diplomats rallied behind Saudi Arabia on Sunday in a dispute with Iran that has threatened to derail efforts to resolve Middle East conflicts, including the war in Syria.

by Harry Farley 

As millions of Christians flee the Middle East and Christianity’s original homeland becomes increasingly bereft of Christians, an odd anomaly is occurring.

Christianity in the Gulf states is surging. Amid a shocking exodus in neighbouring countries, this strictly Islamic region has seen a jump in its Christian population.

Figures show that in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Christianity was practically non existent just over a hundred years ago. There were only 80 Christians in the UAE in 1910 (0.1 per cent of the population) and 50 in Saudi Arabia, even less than 0.1 per cent, according to a recent study.

Pamela Engel

Sectarian divisions in the Middle East are only getting worse, and there’s little sign that tensions in the region will abate before they explode into war, experts say.

The Soufan Group, a New-York based strategic security firm, said in a note on Friday that the "weaponization of sectarianism," fueled by the divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims, is the "greatest threat facing the Middle East."

"In a region beset with chronic and widespread problems, ranging from poor governance, war, violent extremism, and resource scarcity, one threat stands above the rest in terms of potential for destruction and cost in opportunity: the use of sectarianism as a geopolitical weapon," the firm wrote.

catholicHerald.co.uk

One year after the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the nation’s bishops asked what people learned and emphasised that religions must live and work together in society.

“Have these tragic events provoked some genuine awakening, and have we offered perspectives for the society of tomorrow by learning lessons from the past?” asked a January 6 statement from the French bishops’ conference.

“It is certainly urgent to listen to our youth and offer them prospects for fulfilment and success. But the Church stresses that we must imagine and build our country’s future together in mutual respect, recognising everyone’s contribution to the collectivity. Every suspicious glance at religions injures believers and serves to exclude them from the national community.”

By Thanassis Cambanis

I used to feel smug about Lebanon’s dysfunction when I moved here from New York three years ago. I knew the country well as a frequent long-term visitor. I had reported the 2006 war from the battlefields in Lebanon’s south and subsequently criss-crossed it while researching a book. However familiar and modern Lebanon seemed, I was convinced that it lay in the category of failed states, its problems of an entirely different nature than those facing the United States.

hen two critical things changed, evaporating my smugness and leaving in its place a sort of dread that I fear might never leave me. I began to really live here, raising my family and establishing a home. Soon after, I realized the paralysis and failures that mar Lebanon are not so far removed from the pathologies of the United States.

Lebanese police on Sunday arrested the suspected mastermind behind blasts in southern district of the capital that killed dozens of people in November, a security source said.

The man, identified as Abu Talha, was accused of being the chief "coordinator" of a "cell that prepared a string of explosions in Lebanon" including in Beirut’s Burj al-Barajneh district, the security source said.

He was seized in a special operation carried out by an elite unit of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in the northern port city of Tripoli, the source told AFP.

The explosions in the densely populated neighbourhood of Burj al-Barajneh on November 12 killed 44 people. They were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

According to the security source, Abu Talha "was in communication with IS in Raqa," the de facto Syrian capital of the jihadist group’s self-styled "caliphate".