Thu Mar 8, 2007 5:16am ET

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has testified he launched last year’s war against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon in line with a contingency plan he approved four months before.

Olmert, under fire for his handling of the inconclusive 34-day war, told a judicial inquiry last month that Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 triggered the plans for a large-scale attack in Lebanon, the Israeli newspaper said.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

BEIRUT: Achieving stability in Lebanon is the first step to solving other Arab crises, especially those of Palestine and Iraq,  former President Amin Gemayel said Monday. The former president was speaking from Egypt following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he met for talks on the current situation in the Arab world and the Lebanese crisis.

"During our meeting, I sensed from President Mubarak his complete understanding of the situation in Lebanon and his support for Lebanon’s march toward internal stability and peace through the respect for constitutional institutions and the Lebanese democratic system," Gemayel said

Tuesday, March 06, 2007   Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Monday he "supported" any gathering that promotes national cohesion, and hoped the Lebanese work to find a "final" solution to the current crisis. Sfeir was addressing a delegation from the Multaqa Gathering headed by MP Pierre Dakkash. Earlier Monday, Dakkash enumerated the goals of […]

آذار 2007  

قال عضو "تكتل التغيير والاصلاح" النائب فريد الخازن في لقاء نظمه مكتب "التيار الوطني الحر" في بلونة عن "الواقع السياسي والانمائي في لبنان وكسروان"

ورأى ان "القرار 1701 يمكن وضعه بالخزانة الكبيرة التي ضمت كل المسائل المطروحة على الساحة السياسي اللبنانية، واهمية هذا القرار ايضا انه ادى الى نشر الجيش على الحدود مع اسرائيل بعدما كان محظورا عليه الانتشار تحت نظرية تقول وجود الجيش في الجنوب يعني حمايته لاسرائيل تحت نظرية ليست موجودة الا في الفكر اللبناني. اليوم اصبح الجيش على الحدود مع اسرائيل وهو منتشر بشكل فاعل بالتعاون مع قوات الامم المتحدة المعروفة ب"اليونيفيل" المعززة والتي تضم في عديدها 29 دولة. ولم يعد الوضع ملتبسا، كما كان في السابق، بما لا يسمح لاسرائيل بالافادة من اية ذريعة للاعتداء على لبنان".     ولفت الى ان "الجانب الاسرائيلي لم ينفذ القرار 1701 بحذافيره بعد لكون اسرائيل لا تزال تخرقه عبر طلعاتها الجوية الاستفزازية".

تطرق الى "الوضع الحكومي لا سيما بعد احداث تموز المأسوية والتي دمرت لبنان"، فقال: "في بلد طبيعي سليم في نظامه الديموقراطي كان من المفروض ان تكون فيه حكومة جديدة غير الحكومة الحالية بعد حدث كبير كالذي جرى، لان من الطبيعي ان يحدث فيها تغيير كبير. وهذا الامر لم يحصل ومن الطبيعي انه وعبر التغيير ان يتحصن الوضع الداخلي عبر تمثيل اوسع في الحكومة الجديدة، لكن الامر لم يحدث. ونحن اليوم امام موضوعين اساسيين هما: المحكمة ذات الطابع الدولي والحكومة. فالمحكمة الدولية متوافق عليها من كل اللبنانيين بمعنى ان الاطراف اللبنانيين كافة متوافقون عليها. وفي ما يخصنا نحن كتيار وطني حر كرر الجنرال عون موقفه المؤيد لها اكثر من 49 مرة، اضافة الى بيانات التكتل في هذا المجال(…)".  

Friday, March 02, 2007 Hizbullah denied Thursday accusations made by US National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, who said that the resistance group was training Iraqi fighters in Lebanon and sending them back to Iraq to commit attacks against American troops. In a statement issued by its press office, Hizbullah described McConnell’s allegations as "yet another […]

Thursday, March 01, 2007

BEIRUT: Speaking from Washington on Wednesday, Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt said that the United States’ commitment to the Lebanese "model" remains unchanged, as various other Lebanese leaders expressed hope for a resolution early next month to the current political crisis.

In an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said that he had "emphasized to the US the importance of maintaining Lebanon as a model for coexistence, a model of free economy, a model of freedoms in the Arab East, in the face of a desire by the Islamic Republic [of Iran] and Syria to break this model."

Thursday, March 01, 2007

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Military Tribunal is prosecuting a General Security officer on charges of bribery and of preparing reports on Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda and possible terrorist elements in Lebanon on behalf of an unnamed European country.

 Military Investigating Magistrate Jean Fahd charged the unidentified officer, who worked as an inspector at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, with "disobeying military rules to realize a material and personal benefit by preparing security reports and sending them to non-Lebanese parties."

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

BEIRUT: South Lebanon will be cleared of cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance by the end of 2007, the director general of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Program to Support and Reconstruct Lebanon announced on Tuesday. The number of cluster bombs left over from the summer 2006 war with Israel is "unordinary," Mohammad Khalfan Rumaithi said in a statement. "We have never witnessed such a great number of cluster bombs in any previous war."

Wednesday, February 28, 2007BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces dismantled an explosive device made of dynamite in the eastern Beirut neighborhood of Mkalles on Tuesday, security sources said. The charge, made up of seven sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device and a detonator, was not equipped with a nine-volt battery required to set it off, security sources said.

Wed Feb 21, 4:34 AM ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes flew at a low altitude over large areas of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, witnesses said.

U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanon say Israeli overflights violate Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the July-August war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.