By Farid Elias El Khazen,  The recent parliamentary elections held in Lebanon in May and June came at a time of drastic change in postwar Lebanese politics. It was the first parliamentary election held after the withdrawal of Syrian troops, and it followed the international community’s renewed interest in Lebanese politics embodied in the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 on September 2, 2004. The elections were also the culmination of events that marked Lebanese politics following the prolongation of President Emile Lahoud’s term for three years in violation of Resolution 1559. The status quo that had prevailed in Lebanese politics since the end of the war in 1990 was shattered by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, followed by approval of Resolution 1595, which established an international independent investigation commission to look into Hariri’s assassination; and by the “Independence Intifada” that brought together over a million Lebanese on March 14, from all communities, to demand a withdrawal of Syria’s military and intelligence apparatus. Notwithstanding these momentous developments, the electoral law that governed the recent elections was the same one used in the 2000 elections, and differed little from the electoral laws of the two previous elections in 1992 and 1996, both dictated by Syria. These laws, which created large constituencies and involved extensive gerrymandering, were designed to influence the outcome of elections so that they targeted specific political groups and communities, notably the Christian communities.

BEIRUT (AFP) – The UN Human Rights Committee has asked Damascus to investigate the disappearances of Lebanese nationals in Syria and the practice of arbitrary detention, a Paris-based rights group said. Syria “should… take immediate steps to establish an independent and credible commission of inquiry into all disappearances,” said a UNHRC statement published by a group called Support for Arbitrarily Detained Lebanese (SOLIDA).Syria “should give a particularized account of Lebanese nationals and Syrian nationals, as well as other persons, who were taken into custody or transferred into custody in Syria,” said the committee during its annual meeting in Geneva, which ended July 29.Lebanese groups estimate that 440 Lebanese have disappeared in Syria, including some women and people who were minors at the time they disappeared.In 2000, 54 Lebanese were freed from Syrian prisons.The Lebanese government established a government commission in 2001 to investigate the cases of Lebanese prisoners, but the commission was dissolved before it could publish its findings.

LONDON, August 5 (IranMania) – Lebanese Hizbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrollah in a meeting here Wednesday with Iran’s Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani said, “Hizbollah has a national objective which is supporting Lebanon’s sovereignty against Israel threats”, according to IRNA. In the meeting, Nasrollah emphasizing Hizbollah’s efforts and tireless campaign […]

By Michael Young, year after the fall of Baghdad, I asked a senior U.S. official involved in planning the Iraq war whether the whole thing was a Shiite-centered project. He insisted it was not, and that Saddam Hussein had engaged in “equal opportunity repression” against both Sunnis and Shiites. No doubt he meant what he said, but today, among Iraq’s Arab communities, it is the Shiites (objectively at least) who are on the Americans’ side, and the Sunnis who are leading the insurgency. Though the Sunni-Shiite rivalry seems most acute in Iraq, it is being felt throughout the Middle East where the communities live together, most recently in Lebanon. Following the Syrian military withdrawal last April, Sunnis and Shiites have been locked in an understated, mostly peaceful, yet very real contest to fill the ensuing political vacuum and put their stamp on Lebanon’s future. Lebanon is unlikely to go the violent way of Iraq. However, what is taking place is not limited to domestic politics; it reflects concentric, overlapping circles of competition between various actors – not just Shiites and Sunnis – at the local and regional levels, motivated by sometimes different, sometimes parallel interests.Inside Lebanon, Syria’s recent departure (though Syrian intelligence agents continue to be active) effectively left two powerful political forces facing one another: the Sunni-dominated Hariri camp, led by Saad Hariri, the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination set in motion the disintegration of the Syrian order in Lebanon; and the Shiite Hezbollah, which is close to Syria and which Damascus allowed to retain its weapons after the end of the war in 1990, in order to fight Israeli forces occupying south Lebanon.As far back as the early 1980s, but starting even sooner, the Syrians began a strategic relationship with Lebanon’s Shiites, partly because the minority Alawite regime in Damascus sought to contain its own majority Sunni community by developing a counterweight to Sunnis in next-door Lebanon. Hariri, who with Saudi backing became prime minister in 1992, always threatened this balance, while Syria also disliked his close relations with France and the United States. Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt has argued that Hariri was killed precisely because the Syrians wanted to avoid facing “the project of a strong Sunni.”

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah for its military and political performance as the militant faction’s chief held talks in Tehran. “Hezbollah has shown it is skillful and wise in politics as it is powerful and displays initiative in the field of Jihad and resistance,” Khamenei told Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, the student agency ISNA reported.Khamenei said Hezbollah, formed in 1982 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was a source of pride for the Islamic world.”Today, the United States has really become weak in the region,” Khamenei said. “This is proved by its failure in Iraq and defeat of its plans in Lebanon and Iran.”Touching on Mahmood Ahmadinejad’s upset victory in Iran’s June presidential election, Khamenei said the United States had been “shocked and stunned” by the result. “They were forced to retreat a long way.”Hezbollah was among the first to hail Ahmadinejad’s win, describing it as a slap in the face for the United States.

CANBERRA – Australian women and teenage girls of Lebanese descent have approached their embassy in Beirut seeking help to escape arranged marriages and to return to Australia, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Australian embassy had been approached in the past two years by 12 females – seven of them under 18-years-old – fleeing their new husbands, The Australian newspaper reported.

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — King Fahd, who led Saudi Arabia since 1982 as he balanced pro-U.S. policies and local Islamic forces, died after years of worsening health, state television reported. His age isn’t known, though he was in his early 80s. The king’s half-brother, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who assumed day-to-day power after Fahd’s 1995 stroke, becomes monarch. He’ll be crowned Wednesday, a Royal Court spokesman said on state TV. Abdullah, who ignored terrorists in the kingdom for a decade, is now battling al-Qaeda cells in the country, where they killed almost 100 foreigners in the past two years. “I don’t expect any change in policies, only continuity,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., told reporters at a meeting in London. As ruler of Saudi Arabia since 1982 after the death of half- brother King Khaled, Fahd tapped the world’s largest oil reserves to bolster the royal family and bankroll Islamist groups and poorer Arab states. King Fahd died in King Faisal hospital in the capital, Riyadh, at 7:30 a.m. local time, said a member of the royal family, who declined to be identified. `Saudi Arabia is a dinosaur state,” said Anthony Harris, formerly the U.K.’s ambassador the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf neighbor. “It can’t be good for a country to ruled by leaders in their 80s,” Harris said. Al-Qaeda The ruling family’s balancing act began to unravel after 15 Saudi nationals took up the call of Fahd’s greatest nemesis, Osama bin Laden, and conducted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Two decades of per-capita-income decline while the House of Saud continued to build palaces across the world, along with an education system dominated by Islamic studies, provided a recruiting ground for al-Qaeda. To view more pictures and News update pls click READ MORE

President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Monday the Lebanese Hizbollah is a symbol of pure thought of Islam in Lebanon and at the forefront of the Islamic world. Ahmadinejad made the remark in a meeting with leader of Lebanese Hizbollah Sheikh Hassan Nasrollah who is currently here on an official visit. “Success, victories and progress of this popular and faithful force in political, cultural, social and military domains of Lebanon are results of purity and reliance on God’s will which should be preserved and institutionalized as the main factor in the fight against enemies of Islam,” he said. Terming Lebanon’s Hizbollah as a very respectful and dear organ for the Islamic ummah (nation), Ahmadinejad said, “Hizbollah as an intelligent and smart force lies in the hearts of world Muslims. “The Islamic world, particularly the Iranian nation are following up with keen interests and sensitivity the developments in Lebanon as well as Hizbollah’s stance and role in this regard.” The president-elect stressed the permanent relationship between the Iranian and Lebanese nations. He referred to recent presidential election in Iran as a Divine blessing and a great victory for the Islamic system and a symbol of the Iranian nation’s strength. Nasrollah, for his part, called his visit to Iran as a chance to convey the congratulatory message of the Lebanese nation to the president-elect on his election as Iran’s president. Terming the recent presidential election in Iran as very significant event, he felicitated the Iranian president-elect on his election to the post.