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.

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 26, 7:47 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Saudi Arabia’s king on Monday invited Lebanon’s president to an Arab summit next month amid signs in this fractured country that his Western-backed political opponent, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, might not be asked to attend.

The invitation was delivered by Saudi State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Abdullah Zeinel during a meeting with President Emile Lahoud, a statement released by the president’s office said.

Mon Feb 26, 6:55 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Monday he was in Washington to ask for US aid to fight Syrian influence in his country.

"It is not a secret. Yes I am seeking assistance," said Jumblatt, a prominent lawmaker from the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.

 27, 2007

BEIRUT: Iran denied Monday the existence of any joint plan with Saudi Arabia to break the political deadlock in Lebanon, but said the two regional powers were talking with all Lebanese sides in order to help resolve the situation. "There is no set Saudi-Iranian plan," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a news conference with former Lebanese Premier Salim al-Hoss, who is visiting Tehran as part of a mission to resolve the current political deadlock.

"But we are carrying out negotiations with the various Lebanese sides and there have even been suggestions to bring the sides closer," Mottaki added.

Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, has held talks with Saudi officials in Riyadh twice this year, while his Saudi counterpart, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, visited Tehran in late January.

"The talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia were to shed light on the different angles of the situation in Lebanon and on how we can bring the different points of view closer," said Mottaki

In the charming if somewhat rundown marina of Larnaca, the cedar-emblazoned flag of Lebanon flies proudly from a yacht as nearby Israelis clad in kippa and prayer shawl prepare for the Sabbath. The holiday island of Cyprus and its coastal resorts, which have long played host to sworn foes in the Middle East, is once again gearing up to serve as safe haven for a troubled region.But given the bloodshed just 160km away across the water in Lebanon, the Israeli boats moored alongside the Lebanese yacht have opted to play it safe and not hoist the Star of David. For it was here, in a violation of the unofficial Arab-Israeli truce on this Mediterranean island, that a Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) commando killed three Israelis on their boat in Larnaca marina in September 1985, claiming they were Mossad agents.

Nearby, a Lebanese boy asked his father what language their neighbours in the marina were speaking among themselves. Jean-Philippe el-Khazen, the 50-year-old skipper of a 10m yacht, one of three Lebanese vessels stranded in Larnaca by Israel’s air and sea blockade, had nothing but praise for his Cypriot hosts. "The Cypriots always welcome us … They really put us at ease and are ready to assist in everything we need, even to take us by car to the supermarket," he said.