Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Syria has demanded new U.N. and Lebanese inquiries into the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister after a witness recanted his testimony implicating Syrian officials. Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad made the demand on Wednesday after Husam Taher Husam, a Syrian barber and self-proclaimed intelligence operative, came forward with claims that he had been offered money by the family of slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri and by Lebanese officials to frame Syria.

Husam’s accusations, made on Sunday, were immediately rejected by the Lebanese government and Hariri’s family. And the head of the U.N. commission into the killing, Detlev Mehlis, said in remarks published Thursday that Syria was trying to obstruct the U.N. investigation. But Mekdad said Husam’s claim that he lied to investigators about Syria’s involvement was “a new, important development” that requires re-evaluation of the initial findings of the U.N. inquiry into the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut.

Beirut, 1 Dec. (AKI) – Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN commission of inquiry into the death of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, may resign if the UN extends the commission’s mandate beyond its current 15 Dec. deadline, according to several Lebanese newspapers. The English language Daily Star, citing commission sources, says Mehlis is considering an offer for a top job in the German judiciary.

The Arabic language daily As-Safir suggests that Mehlis is under pressure to leave the commission from political forces in Germany who are concerned that the German judge’s high profile role could harm the country’s relations with the Arab world.Another Arabic newspaper An-Nahar also suggests Mehlis is on the verge of quitting, but, citing UN Undersecretary-general for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, says that the UN commission will continue its work "with or without Mehlis, because the truth in the assassination [of Hariri in February] cannot be established within the next weeks [in time for the 15 Dec. deadline]."

 By Pierre el Khazen 30/11/05 , This article concentrates on the Biological-Genetical role for human behavior and in contrast to previous articles; it will not concentrate on Psychological aspects of it. In fact, it will want to convince you of its correctness. As I can not debate all sorts of human behavior, this article will […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Lebanese former security chief arrested in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has been taken to hospital with heart trouble, his lawyer said on Wednesday.Security sources said Brigadier General Raymond Azar, former head of military intelligence, was taken from prison to a Beirut hospital late on Tuesday and was in intensive care.

"He suffered from high blood pressure which affected his heart after the prison authorities asked his family to meet him in the same waiting room with dozens of ordinary detainees," Naji al-Boustani, Azar’s lawyer, told Reuters by telephone."They cited lame security excuses for this… He was moved to hospital but he is not in a critical condition," he added. Azar and three other top pro-Syrian former security chiefs have been detained in Lebanon on murder charges over the February 14 killing of Hariri and 22 other people in a Beirut truck bombing. U.N. investigators last week questioned Colonel GhassanTufayli, whose surveillance unit in military intelligence constantly wiretapped Hariri’s telephone calls and passed transcripts to Azar and Army Chief General Michel Suleiman.

 MUKHTARA, Lebanon, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt accused Syria on Tuesday of trying to destabilise Lebanon to undermine a U.N. inquiry implicating Damascus in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. A Syrian witness who has accused Hariri’s son Saad of bribing him to testify falsely said on Monday a report by U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis implicating Syrian and Lebanese officials in the assassination was based mainly on his own lies.

Jumblatt said the allegations of Hosam Taher Hosam, a former Syrian intelligence agent, were part of a Syrian campaign to discredit Mehlis just before U.N. investigators question five Syrian witnesses flown to Vienna to meet them."This political senility and this deception by the Syrian security apparatus is a laughable farce and at the same time it seems they will use all means, even security, to shake up security (in Lebanon) to try to confuse the inquiry," Jumblatt told Reuters television

The Druze leader, an erstwhile ally of Damascus who turned into a fierce critic of Syria’s military presence in Lebanon, said the Syrian still had security networks in the country.Syria dominated its neighbour politically and militarily for almost three decades until a Lebanese and international outcry over Hariri’s death forced it to withdraw its troops in April.

               إلتقى الرئيس لحود الوزير السابق الشيخ وديع الخازن وعرض معه عددا من مواضيع الساعة، وبعد اللقاء تحدث الخازن الى الصحافيين فقال: "أخرج اليوم مرتاحا من لقائي مع فخامة الرئيس، اذ لمست لديه كل استعداد للاستمرار في تحمل مسؤولياته الدستورية رغم الضغوط والمضايقات وحملات التجني والافتراء والتحامل التي لا يمكن ان تنال من مقام الرئاسة ودورها، وانما تفضح نيات اصحابها واهدافهم المكشوفة وآفاقهم الضيقة. وقد أبدى الرئيس لحود اسفه ان يقدم البعض على استغلال موقع ديني وصرح وطني نجل ونحترم، وعلى الاساءة الى مناسبة وطنية وذكرى اليمة عزيزة على قلبه وقلوبنا، من اجل إمرار مآرب وغايات سياسية وعرض طموحات وبرامج رئاسية من باب التحريض ضد رئاسة الجمهورية وتشويه الحقائق وتضليل الرأي العام". وأضاف: "لقد أبدى فخامة الرئيس في المقابل ثقته بأن هذه الاساليب لا تنطلي على اللبنانيين، ولم تعد قادرة على خداعهم، وخصوصا اذا كانت صادرة عن جهات تدين لما تسميه نظام الوصاية بالوصول الى ما وصلت اليه، وكانت من مكوناته ورموزه. وأشار رئيس الجمهورية الى رغبة دفينة عند البعض في الانتقام منه وتدفيعه ثمن مواقفه الوطنية التي التزمها طوال سنوات حكمه في رفضه التنازل عن حقوق لبنان، وفي وقوفه بجانب المقاومة، وفي رفضه التوطين، معتبرا ان الحملات والمواقف غير المسؤولة التي تستهدفه انما تندرج في اطار الضغوط على لبنان من خلال الضغط على رئيسه للقبول بتنازلات معينة وصيغ ملتبسة ومشبوهة لمستقبل الوضع اللبناني، وبهدف ترويض الموقف اللبناني، وجعله اكثر طواعية وأقل قدرة على الممانعة والرفض في مواجهة المشاريع التي تعد للمنطقة ودولها وشعوبها". وتابع: "لقد أعاد الرئيس لحود التأكيد انه مستمر في ولايته الدستورية التي تنتهي في تشرين الثاني 2007، وانه مصمم على البقاء في موقعه لانه يمثل الشرعية الدستورية ويتمتع بثقة أفرقاء كثيرين في لبنان وتأييدهم، والامر ليس محصورا بجهة او فئة، ولا يتوقف عندها. أما الذين يتحدثون عن عزلة داخلية لرئيس الجمهورية فانهم في الواقع يعزلون انفسهم ويتجاهلون وجود فريق آخر وفئة لبنانية واسعة لا توافق على محاصرة الرئيس ومقاطعته او عزله. والذين يتوسلون جريمة اغتيال الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري لتحقيق غايات سياسية ويقفزون فوق نتائج التحقيق الدولي ويستبقونها مستعجلين استقالة رئيس الجمهورية، سيكتشفون قريبا ان رهاناتهم وتوقعاتهم ليست في محلها

وديـع الخـازن في ذكرى إستشهاد الرئيس رينه معوض أدلى الوزير السابق وديع الخازن بالتصريح التالي: في ذكرى إستشهاد الرئيس رينه معوض نستذكر مواقفه الجامعة والأهداف التي سعى من أجلها في حياته وهي المصالحة الوطنية التي لا تستثني احدا وإرساء دعائم الدولة  بالعمل على نشر المساواة والعدالة الاجتماعية وتحسين العلاقات مع الاشقاء العرب.

أين اصبحنا من تحقيقها بعد ستة عشرة سنة من استشهاده؟

أين نحن من المصالحة الوطنية، من حكمة الاتفاق الوطني ووحدة الشعب والارض والمؤسسات، من نشر التضامن والعدالة والمساواة، من إستعادة السيادة الكاملة والاستقلال والقرار الحر؟ 

By Michael J. Totten, No war without Egypt. No peace without Syria." – BEIRUT – Once again Lebanon‘s hot southern border is a frontline in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Last week it exploded in violence as Israel was not respecting Lebanese Air Space and as Hezbollah fighters retaliates back the border into the village of Al Ghajar, inside Syria‘s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They also fired mortars and rockets at Israel‘s Abbassiyeh post. Israel retaliated with air strikes against the villages of Shebaa and Kfar Shouba, the Al-Mari Valley, and at Hezbollah positions outside Khiam and southeast of Tyre. Beirut‘s Daily Star says more than 250 explosions were reported. Israel says it was the largest counterattack inside Lebanon since the withdrawal of their occupation forces five years ago.

Several Lebanese people I know in Beirut said this is exactly what was going to happen. On October 22 UN Special Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis named high level Syrian officials as chief suspects in the assassination of Lebanon‘s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and in the wave of terrorist attacks in Beirut throughout 2005. Syria needs a distraction. Al Ghajar village, where the fighting broke out, is an odd place. One side is Lebanese. The other side is controlled by Israel. All the villagers on both sides of the border are Alawite, a minority sect — some say heretical — that long ago splintered off Shia Islam. Historically the village was part of Syria. The Alawites of Al Ghajar belong to the same ethnic-religious group that holds almost all the levers of power in Syria.