Saturday, February 27, 2016

حديث الثورة- هل تصمد الهدنة مع خروقات النظام السوري؟

الائتلاف السوري المعارض: النظام خرق الهدنة وقصف 15 منطقة

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COMMENT

The Syrian opposition and its spokesmen sound remarkably like Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian "Authority." Totally inept, pathetic and helpless. They are increasingly like the Palestinians, who have spent the last 68 years pleading with the Security Council, the UN, the "International Community," etc. to bring them justice and peace.

And just like the Oslo "Peace Process," the Syrian revolution has entered the endless "Peace" charade, from which it will end up empty-handed and defeated.

The Syrians better find more competent leaders and fast!

It is enough to make me close to declaring myself as a self-hating Arab!

tionطالب الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية، بعد ظهر اليوم السبت، مجلس الأمن بالتصرف تجاه الخروقات التي ارتكبها النظام السوري خلال الساعات الأولى من الهدنة المؤقتة التي أعلنتها الولايات المتحدة وروسيا مستثنية تنظيمي "داعش" و"جبهة النصرة" وجماعات أخرى مدرجة على قائمة "الإرهاب" من قبل الأمم المتحدة.

وبحسب المكتب الإعلاميّ للائتلاف، فإنّ "النظام خرق هدنة وقف الأعمال العدائية بعد ساعات على بدء سريانها منتصف الليلة السابقة، حيث قصفت قواته ومليشياته 15 منطقة بالرشاشات الثقيلة والمدفعية والبراميل المتفجرة".

وشمل خرق النظام للهدنة، وفق المصدر، كلاً من دمشق وريفها ودرعا وحلب وحمص وحماة واللاذقية، حيث قصفت قوات النظام مدينة تلبيسة بحمص، والتفاحية باللاذقية، وداريا بريف دمشق، واللطامنة بحماة، واليادودة بدرعا، وحي بني زيد بحلب، وألقت طائراته ست براميل متفجرة على أطراف قرية الناجية، قرب أوتوستراد الدولي حلب - اللاذقية، في الريف الغربي لمدينة جسر الشغور.

وأكد أمين سر الهيئة السياسية في الائتلاف، أنس العبدة، أن الجيش السوري الحر وفصائل الثورة ما تزال ملتزمة بالهدنة، وأنّ نشاط الجيش الحر بالأصل لم يكن إلا للدفاع عن المدنيين وحماية مناطق الثوار.

واعتبر العبدة أن الخروقات الموثّقة خلال الساعات الأولى تتعمّد إجهاض الهدنة، وإحباط أي مدخل للحل السياسي، مضيفاً: "لا يمكن ترك نظام الأسد ليقوّض المساعي الدولية وقرار مجلس الأمن 2254 بعد كل الجهود، ومن واجب رعاة الاتفاق أن يتدخلوا لفرض الهدنة، وإجبار النظام على تنفذ القرارات الدولية بكل تفاصيلها".
وأشار الائتلاف إلى أنّ مكتبه الإعلامي سيصدر تقريراً يومياً لخروقات هدنة وقف الأعمال العدائية، يحدد أماكن خرق الهدنة ونوع القصف والخرق.

DNA- حزب الله وخامنئي..اليمن والتكفير - 26/02/2016

SYRIA "CEASEFIRE"

Friday, February 26, 2016

KERRY TO ABADI: YOU BORE THE HELL OUT OF ME AND PUT ME TO SLEEP!

كيري: ماضون بمحاربة "داعش" ونتحرك باتجاه هيت ثم الموصل

Look at Kerry's Body Language.....

THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT AN OBEDIENT PUPPET!

"النصرة" ترفض الهدنة وتدعو لتكثيف الهجمات ضد النظام السوري

FOR ONCE, AL-NUSRA MAKES A LOT OF SENSE!

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رفضت جبهة "النصرة"، جناح تنظيم القاعدة في سورية، اليوم الجمعة، اتفاق وقف الأعمال القتالية المقرر سريانه عند منتصف الليل، وطالبت المسلحين بتكثيف الهجمات على قوات النظام وحلفائها.
وقال زعيم الجبهة، أبو محمد الجولاني، في رسالة صوتية أذاعتها قناة أورينت التلفزيونية، إن اتفاق وقف إطلاق النار سيؤدي إلى "إنهاء الثورة، والإبقاء على مؤسسات النظام العسكرية والأمنية"، وبقاء الأسد في المرحلة الانتقالية وحتى بعدها.
وأضاف "من المعلوم أن اتفاقية الهدنة التي صدرت في البيان الأميركي لا تشمل جبهة النصرة ولا تنظيم الدولة الإسلامية"، مؤكداً أن "المفاوضات الحقيقية تكون في ساحات المعارك".
وبين أن "الثورة الناجحة هي التي تقتلع النظام ومؤسساته من جذوره".
وطالب الجولاني، "كافة الفصائل العسكرية بمواصلة المعركة وتكثيف ضرباتها ضد قوات النظام"، معتبراً أن "عدم حسم المعركة في سورية  ستمتد تبعاته إلى الدول المجاورة".
وأشار إلى أن "التدخل الروسي أثبت فشل النظام والإيرانيين، وأحرز تقدماً جزئياً يفضي الى خطة دي ميستورا التي تعني أن أرواح الآلاف التي أريقت على الأرض السورية ستذهب هباءً".
وصدرت رسالة الجولاني، قبل ساعات من سريان اتفاق لوقف الأعمال القتالية عند حلول منتصف ليلة السبت بموجب خطة توصلت إليها الولايات المتحدة وروسيا لكنها لا تشمل جبهة "النصرة" ولا تنظيم "الدولة الإسلامية". 

Jordan's mixed plans for its Palestinian 'guests'

By discriminating against Gazans, Jordan's authorities divide refugees as a way to subdue more than 2.4mn Palestinians living in the kingdom

By David Hearst

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AMMAN - The meeting hall was packed. The speeches welcoming a delegation of British MPs were fulsome and bordered on the raucous. Further contributions from the floor had to be restrained. 
The same greeting had been given many times before to foreign visitors of Prince El-Hassan camp, a showcase Palestinian refugee camp in Amman.
A government official intoned the statistics of Jordan’s burden. There were 2.4 million Palestinians in the country, 18 percent of whom live in 13 camps and 95 percent of whom had citizenship and a Jordanian passport. All of this cost the kingdom - and here the official comes finally to his point - $1bn a year.
A Palestinian speaker provided the official thanks: “As Palestinians, we live in Jordan as one family. We don’t have this feeling of being a refugee, because we have the full support of our brothers and sisters east of the River Jordan.
“But we don’t want to stay here. We want to go back to our villages and cities in Palestine. The people on the street, the government, His Majesty the King, all support the right of return. They refuse all solutions which lead to the Palestinians staying in Jordan,” he added.
A boy was led to the microphone: “My name is Mohammed Khamis and I live in a refugee camp in Amman. My uncle is from Palestine. My grandpa is from Palestine. We will return. We will return. Long live Palestine.”
That was the official message, spoken in a hall bearing the ubiquitous portraits of the three generations of Hashemite rulers - King Hussein, King Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein. 
The reality of the kingdom’s relationship with its permanent “guests”, however, is more complex and full of tensions. Mixed into it are other, less welcoming signals.
Just after the MPs departed, a demonstration emerged outside parliament. These are rare events as Jordan lives under the watchful and active eye of its security services. I asked Mahmoud Aqrabawi, director general for Palestinian affairs in the government what the demonstration was about.
He seemed reluctant to explain: “It’s just a debate about a proposal. No decision has been taken,” he mumbled.
It turned out to be more than that. Four years ago, the government issued a decree stating that foreign workers - of whom Jordan has many - should pay for a work permit every year.
The Palestinians took no notice. The government often passes laws it does not enact. But that changed when it announced last month that the law applied retrospectively to Palestinian refugees from Gaza, a group that does not have Jordanian citizenship. Not only did they have to apply for this permit, authorities said, but they now had to pay for the last four years as well.
Overnight 160,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom had been in Jordan since the 1967 war, were no longer being seen by the Jordanian government as refugees, even though they were registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).   
Some 70 percent of Gazans in Jordan were born there but they would now be considered as foreign workers.
In theory, they could be deported, like Egyptians, Yemenis and Libyans. But where to? The decree created an instant scandal. 
It is not as if Gazans had many rights to start with. Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank, Jordan considers Gaza pre-67 as Egyptian territory. In Jordan, Gazans cannot get a national ID number and a passport. They are barred from working in the public sector. Whole industries in the private sector are also off limits: finance, banking, tourism. For all other work, special permission has to be obtained from the security services. 
Even a highly coveted qualification like a certificate in education, a pharmacy or an engineering degree cannot secure you employment.
Gazans cannot be a member of a trade union or open a GP practice.
This means they get cheap, unskilled manual work, in agriculture (most of Jordan is desert) or construction, if they get any work at all.

Harsh reality in Jarash camp 

The least welcome of Jordan’s Palestinian refugees end up in a camp in the mountains of Jarash, over 60 kilometres north of the capital.
Jarash’s distress could be glimpsed from the hills above it. Between 35,000 and 40,000 people lived in little more than a square kilometre under tin roofs or plastic sheeting held in place by loose bricks. When it snows, charity workers go from house to house with metal staves to prop up the collapsing structures but Jarash is not for the faint hearted in any climate.
Makeshift homes in Jarash camp are not for the faint hearted in any climate (MEE)
Fatima al-Khateebm collects water from the holes in her roof to avoid using the expensive tap water, and gets two dinars ($3) every three days from selling bread in the market.
“I don’t have any income. My husband is disabled. If I want to let my son or daughter work, they say you are Palestinian, not Jordanian,” she said.
I asked her whether she received any money from the government. Her reply is echoed throughout the camp: “The government takes money from me and asks me to pay more.”
Her son Yousef had just left hospital after an operation on his lung. For Jordanian citizens, the operation would have been free. For Yousef, it cost 750 dinars ($1,000), which he had to borrow from friends.
“I had to have an X-ray. A Jordanian citizen pays one quarter of one dinar,” Fatima said.
“I had to pay 44 ($60) dinars. When my son was sick, I knew I could not treat him in hospital. So I prayed for him and it worked. There is no help from people. There is help from God.”
Khaled Abu Abdullah, the manager of the charity Human Appeal International for the camp took us to another house where a family of seven was living in one room, the bedding piled up around the walls.
He questioned the woman inside closely about what they had to eat that morning. He said: “All this family live in one room. Father, mother, sons. She does not have any income and don’t have any support.”
I asked her what she was doing for lunch and she said she did not have anything. I asked her what she had for breakfast. She insisted they had a proper breakfast, but refused to say what she ate.
Some camp residents may seem better off, but hardship is ubiquitous. The house of Abdulhakeem Abdullah, a retired teacher in the UNRWA school at the camp, had books but he said he has no money to pay the electricity bill. Instead his heating comes from one gas bottle that also feeds the stove and allowed them to do all their cooking.
“Education is more important than food,” Abdulhakim said. But the family’s battle to get their children educated is gargantuan.
“We don’t buy food. We spend what we have on getting our daughter Nayila to college every day. She has to pay 6 dinars ($8.50) for the bus from Jarash to Amman.” 
Mohammed, his son, has been studying business administration in Irbid University, some 20 kilometres north from the camp, for the last seven years. Every time the family runs out of money, has to stop. When his family spoke to MEE, he had to find nearly 1,000 dinars ($1,500) to start studying again.
His brother Ayman had to stop his engineering two years ago and had just received a letter from the university. If he did not pay the fees, he would lose his place, he was told.
Twelve people share Adulhakeem’s house. Four have BA certificates but all were destitute. The family owed 245 dinars ($350) in unpaid electricity bills. 
Educational achievements of Jarash camp are high. Every year, the king announces as a “gift” 200 university seats for the Palestinian population - whether they have a national number or not.
Students from Jarash regularly get awarded places, even though the competition is fierce. But the gift is not monetary and they still have to find the money to pay for the courses.
View from Jarash camp where there is little hope and even fewer opportunity (MEE)

West Bank vs Gaza

Faraj Shalhoub, assistant editor of the opposition newspaper Assabeel, is a Gazan.  
“All Palestinians in Jordan are targeted and all are weak, but some are weaker than others,” he said.
“The government has in the past withdrawn citizenship from Palestinian people. So most Palestinians are afraid to pressurise or to show solidarity with refugees from Gaza. There is discrimination against Palestinians in Jordan, their presence in state institutions is very low.”
The status of Palestinians in Jordan was a political football between competing power centres within the Jordanian government, Shalhoub said.
“There are two power centres in the regime, pro and anti-Palestinians. Both groups make life harder for Gazans, some of them because they discriminate against all Palestinian people and some of them because they want to make life easier for non-Gazan Palestinians.”
The relationship between Palestinians and Jordanians is an uneasy balancing act. 
A Palestinian, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The real problem is that Palestinians do not engage in political life, because they have their passport and their job and they don’t want a conflict with Jordanians.”
He said the unspoken pact went something like this: “You give us the right to work, you can have your security forces, your army and do what you want. If you interfere with our life, things will change. Sometimes the government uses the same argument on us: if you want to change the election law, think about the security of the country you live in.”
For now, the government has withdrawn the demand for four years back payment, but insist on Gazans applying for a work permit from now on. Down the line the plan could be revived and the next step is to introduce residency cards for Gazans.
One resident of Jarash said: “I came from Bersheva [in modern-day Israel] in 1948. They took my land and I moved to Gaza. I had to leave Gaza for Jordan in 1967. I have been here for 39 years, and now they tell me I am from Gaza. I am not a Jordanian but I am very, very tired.”


Newly-Translated WikiLeaks Saudi Cable: Overthrow the Syrian Regime, but Play Nice with Russia

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It is no secret that Saudi Arabia, along with its Gulf and Western allies, has played a direct role in fueling the fires of grinding sectarian conflict that has kept Syria burning for the past five years. It is also no secret that Russian intervention has radically altered the kingdom’s “regime change” calculus in effect since at least 2011. But an internal Saudi government cable sheds new light on the kingdom’s current threats of military escalation in Syria.
Overthrow the Regime “by all means available”
A WikiLeaks cable released as part of “The Saudi Cables” in the summer of 2015, now fully translated here for the first time, reveals what the Saudis feared most in the early years of the war: Russian military intervention and Syrian retaliation. These fears were such that the kingdom directed its media “not to oppose Russian figures and to avoid insulting them” at the time.
Saudi Arabia had further miscalculated that the “Russian position” of preserving the Assad government “will not persist in force.” In Saudi thinking, reflected in the leaked memo, Assad’s violent ouster (“by all means available”) could be pursued so long as Russia stayed on the sidelines. The following section is categorical in its emphasis on regime change at all costs, even should the U.S. vacillate for “lack of desire”:
The fact must be stressed that in the case where the Syrian regime is able to pass through its current crisis in any shape or form, the primary goal that it will pursue is taking revenge on the countries that stood against it, with the Kingdom and some of the countries of the Gulf coming at the top of the list. If we take into account the extent of this regime’s brutality and viciousness and its lack of hesitancy to resort to any means to realize its aims, then the situation will reach a high degree of danger for the Kingdom, which must seek by all means available and all possible ways to overthrow the current regime in Syria. As regards the international position, it is clear that there is a lack of “desire” and not a lack of “capability” on the part of Western countries, chief among them the United States, to take firm steps…
Amman-based Albawaba News – one of the largest online news providers in the Middle East – was the first to call attention to the WikiLeaks memo, which “reveals Saudi officials saying President Bashar al-Assad must be taken down before he exacts revenge on Saudi Arabia.” Albawaba offered a brief partial translation of the cable, which though undated, was likely produced in early 2012 (based on my best speculation using event references in the text; Russia began proposing informal Syrian peace talks in January 2012).
Russian Hardware, a Saudi Nightmare
Over the past weeks Saudi Arabia has ratcheted up its rhetoric on Syria, threatening direct military escalation and the insertion of special forces on the ground, ostensibly for humanitarian and stabilizing purposes as a willing partner in the “war on terror.” As many pundits are now observing, in reality the kingdom’s saber rattling stems not from confidence, but utter desperation as its proxy anti-Assad fighters face defeat by overwhelming Russian air power and Syrian ground forces, and as the Saudi military itself is increasingly bogged down in Yemen.
Even as the Saudi regime dresses its bellicose rhetoric in humanitarian terms, it ultimately desires to protect the flow of foreign fighters into Northern Syria, which is its still hoped-for “available means” of toppling the Syrian government (or at least, at this point, permanent sectarian partition of Syria).
The U.S. State Department’s own 2014 Country Report on Terrorism confirms that the rate of foreign terrorist entry into Syria over the past few years is unprecedented among any conflict in history: “The rate of foreign terrorist fighter travel to Syria – totaling more than 16,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 90 countries as of late December – exceeded the rate of foreign terrorist fighters who traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, or Somalia at any point in the last 20 years.”
According to Cinan Siddi, Director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Georgetown’s prestigious School of Foreign Service, Russian military presence in Syria was born of genuine geopolitical interests. In a public lecture recently given at Baylor University, Siddi said that Russia is fundamentally trying to disrupt the “jihadi corridor” facilitated by Turkey and its allies in Northern Syria.
The below leaked document gives us a glimpse into Saudi motives and fears long before Russian hardware entered the equation, and the degree to which the kingdom utterly failed in assessing Russian red lines.
For the first time, here’s a full translation of the text
THE BELOW original translation is courtesy of my co-author, a published scholar of Arabic and Middle East History, who wishes to remain unnamed. Note: the cable as published in the SaudiLeaks trove appears to be incomplete.

[…] shared interest, and believes that the current Russian position only represents a movement to put pressure on him, its goals being evident, and that this position will not persist in force, given Russia’s ties to interests with Western countries and the countries of the Gulf.
If it pleases Your Highness, I support the idea of entering into a profound dialogue with Russia regarding its position towards Syria*, holding the Second Strategic Conference in Moscow, working to focus the discussion during it on the issue of Syria, and exerting whatever pressure is possible to dissuade it from its current position. I likewise see an opportunity to invite the head of the Committee for International Relations in the Duma to visit the Kingdom. Since it is better to remain in communication with Russia and to direct the media not to oppose Russian figures and to avoid insulting them, so that no harm may come to the interests of the Kingdom, it is possible that the new Russian president will change Russian policy toward Arab countries for the better. However, our position currently in practice, which is to criticize Russian policy toward Syria and its positions that are contrary to our declared principles, remains. It is also advantageous to increase pressure on the Russians by encouraging the Organization of Islamic States to exert some form of pressure by strongly brandishing Islamic public opinion, since Russia fears the Islamic dimension more than the Arab dimension.
In what pertains to the Syrian crisis, the Kingdom is resolute in its position and there is no longer any room to back down. The fact must be stressed that in the case where the Syrian regime is able to pass through its current crisis in any shape or form, the primary goal that it will pursue is taking revenge on the countries that stood against it, with the Kingdom and some of the countries of the Gulf coming at the top of the list. If we take into account the extent of this regime’s brutality and viciousness and its lack of hesitancy to resort to any means to realize its aims, then the situation will reach a high degree of danger for the Kingdom, which must seek by all means available and all possible ways to overthrow the current regime in Syria.
As regards the international position, it is clear that there is a lack of “desire” and not a lack of “capability” on the part of Western countries, chief among them the United States, to take firm steps […]
*[in the Arabic text: Russia, but this is a typo]
https://www.wikileaks.org/saudi-cables/pics/f93dc529-7eff-43ea-87f3-7ec121b906fc.jpg
Reprinted with permission from Levantreport.com.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Russia: ‘Shameful’ plan to deport Syrian refugees back to warzone violates international law



Link

Russia is violating international law by trying to deport three Syrian refugees who were detained in Dagestan after seeking asylum in the country, Amnesty International has said.
The three men are due to be flown to Damascus on Thursday despite the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) asking Russia not to deport them to a country at war.
“The Russian authorities are pretending it is safe for people to go back to the country where Russia itself is a warring party and is unforgivably ignoring the country’s refugee crisis,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.
“The attempt to deport these three men - in violation of international human rights and refugee law - is the latest example exposing Russia’s shameful approach to people in need of international protection.”
In 2015, not a single person from Syria was given refugee status in Russia, while temporary asylum was given to only 482 people.
Not only is Russia’s Ministry of Defence falsely denying that civilians are being killed in its aerial bombardment of Syria, it is also knowingly sending refugees back to a country where they are at real risk of serious human rights violations.

Amnesty International's Denis Krivosheev
The three Syrian men, Zakari Barri Abdalmuzma, Drubi Khaisam and Wafan Sadakh Edlin, were taken to Moscow from a temporary detention centre for foreigners in Makhachkala, Dagestan on Wednesday.
UNHCR has called for the deportations to be halted, while the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has also intervened and ordered the Russian authorities not to deport Abdalmuzma.
“Not only is Russia’s Ministry of Defence falsely denying that civilians are being killed in its aerial bombardment of Syria, it is also knowingly sending refugees back to a country where they are at real risk of serious human rights violations,” said Denis Krivosheev.
“The Russian authorities must stop this deportation and instead fulfil their international obligation to protect refugees by offering asylum to these three men, along with other refugees from Syria.”
Two other Syrians are held in the detention centre for foreigners in Makhachkala. One of them, Kuro Sabri from Aleppo, has seen his requests for asylum systematically rejected since he was detained a year ago today.
Sabri has been living in Russia since 2011 and has a Russian wife and child, but this has had no impact on the stance of the Russian authorities. Until now, only the intervention of the ECtHR has prevented his return to Syria.
The Russian Migration Service has also attempted to deny asylum to another refugee, Shava Mohamed from Aleppo, in defiance of a Russian court ruling. The Migration Service claimed that there is no fighting in the city and that only Kurds, Armenians or Circassians are in need of protection.



Amnesty International has documented heavy fighting in Aleppo that has displaced tens of thousands of people in February alone.


عرب جرب

حديث الثورة- خطاب السيسي.. واقع أليم ومستقبل غامض

DNA- وقف إطلاق النار في سوريا - 25/02/2016

PATHETIC SCARECROW

20150223112431afpp-par8105580.h111

PATHETIC SCARECROW......

YOU ARE SCARING NO ONE!

FROM "ZERO PROBLEMS" TO TOO MANY PROBLEMS.

THIS IS THE PRICE OF INDECISION AND SUBSERVIENCE TO THE US. 

What's to become of Lebanon?

Can the Lebanese steer away from the regional turmoil?


By Marwan Bishara


Lebanon is a diverse and industrious nation and that's a cause for celebration. But the Lebanese are a divided people, and that is a major cause for trepidation.
Since its 14-year civil war ended with a peace accord signed in Saudi Arabia in November 1989, Lebanon has tried hard to maintain its plurality while at the same time "managing" its sectarian divisions.
But many Lebanese insist that they could only do so much against the regional odds; that their nation is a victim of conflicts instigated or manufactured by foreign powers that projected their differences on to this open and all too fragile nation.
Inside Story - New laws bar Syrians from taking refuge in Lebanon?
They grumble about foreigners waging proxy wars on Lebanese soil. And there is some truth to that. Just as much truth as in the fact that they have been the local foot soldiers abetting, enacting and executing these wars and conflicts.
So much so that at times it's not clear whether foreign powers exploited the Lebanese to advance their regional interests, or whether the Lebanese factions used foreign assistance to fight each other and expand their own narrow interests.

A decade of tensions

Over the past decade, most of the regional tensions projected in or on Lebanon were between the allies of Syria and Iran, and those allied with Gulf and other Arab states.


Lebanese tensions peaked after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005, leading to the Cedar Revolution - a series of mass demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate Hariri's assassination, which they blamed on Syria and Hezbollah.
Riyadh and its Gulf allies have grown exasperated with Hezbollah's growing influence over the Lebanese state. They accuse it of causing the country's political paralysis and its presidential crisis.

Syrian forces withdrew soon after in April and the United Nations established the tribunal. But Lebanon continued to simmer, leading to a series of assassinations and sporadic violence in addition to two wars against Israel.
During the initial turbulent period, the Lebanese political factions consolidated into two opposing blocks: the March 8 coalition of pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian groups, and the March 14 coalition that leaned closer to Gulf and Arab positions.
The labels came after two of their massive March 2005 demonstrations galvanised and polarised the entire country.
The following decade had its ups and downs with the two blocks competing and conflicting, and at times reconciling in coalition governments. But this was a decade of more downs than ups.
A case in point has been the regional crisis over Syria that has polarised the Lebanese. Except this time it wasn't over Syria's intervention in Lebanon, rather over Hezbollah fighting in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad and the Iranian regime.

Paying the price

Riyadh and its Gulf allies have grown exasperated with Hezbollah's growing influence over the Lebanese state. They accuse it of causing the country's political paralysis and its presidential crisis. Lebanon hasn't had a president for two years.
They are also angered by Hezbollah's anti-Saudi activities in Syria, Yemen and other Arab countries.
A poster with the portrait of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri during a Beirut rally to mark the 11th anniversary of his assassination [EPA] 
Fed up, Saudi Arabia announced this week that it was halting $4bn of military and security aid to Lebanon. And along with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, they are suspending all travel by their citizens to Lebanon.
All of which has forced Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam to make conciliatory statements in support of Saudi Arabia and in support of Arab unity (vis-a-vis Iran).
But Riyadh is not satisfied and more punitive actions will be forthcoming if the Lebanese government doesn't take certain measures to restrain Hezbollah.
If the kingdom and its allies further escalate their punitive measures against Lebanon, as some Saudi officials warned indirectly, it could badly hurt the struggling Lebanese economy.


For example, limits on - or a ban of - Lebanese businesses and expats could have a major financial and psychological effect on Lebanon. Remittances from Lebanese citizens in the Gulf comprise a significant chunk of its $80bn economy.
According to the World Bank, of the $6.7bn in remittances annually, 70 percent come from Lebanese expatriates living in the Gulf States.
Likewise, if the Gulf states decide to pull their deposits from Lebanon's central bank, and suspend all investment in its real state, an important factor in economic growth, the Lebanese currency and economy could suffer badly.

Lebanon is in a bind

Hezbollah has lost its raison d'etre, but it is not about to sever its relations with Iran, or stop its destabilising activities. And the March 14 block can hardly neutralise Hezbollah without an escalation to civil war that no one can win, but could destroy the country. 
Worse, a growing number of Lebanese and Arabs fear Hezbollah is maintaining the current political paralysis because it is bent on changing the entire governing system in Lebanon to suit its interests.
This means scrapping the Taif political accord reached in Saudi Arabia in 1989, and replacing it with one that advances its influence and eventually strengthens Iran’s role in the eastern Mediterranean.
To be clear, changing a quarter of a century's transitional system based on a sectarian division of authority should be welcomed, but not if it leads to an imbalance of power where one group dictates policy to the rest. It was this unjust system that led to the Lebanese civil war in the first place.
In sum, the national and regional dynamics have become so intertwined in Lebanon that it is hard to see how Lebanon could emerge from them politically stable and economically sound.
Only if they pull back from the brink and act wisely by putting the interests of their country first will they be able to save themselves from the regional turmoil; starting with Hezbollah ending its reckless military adventures in Syria on the side of dictatorship; and eventually, reaching a consensus on the best way forward for the country.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. Follow him onFacebook.

Emad Hajjaj's Cartoon: Sisi's Attempt to Revive the Egyptian Economy

مبادرة السيسي لانقاذ الاقتصاد

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

DNA- أيرنة لبنان أم عربة لبنان؟ - 24/02/2016

الواقع العربي-ماذا يريد السيسي وحزب الله من بعضهما؟



EXCELLENT!

JOHN PILGER PRAISES TRUMP, SAYS HE HAS AN “ABSENCE OF HYPOCRISY”

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[After Patrick Cockburn praised Trump, John Pilger Followed him. Not enough those two are also staunch Assadists , they now praise an outright American Fascist]

In a text webchat on the Guardian website today, writer and filmmaker John Pilger praised Donald Trump as a man who is “speaking straight” to Americans, and is “making sense”.
Though Pilger condemned his views on immigration as “gross”, he said they were no worse “in essence” to that of Cameron’s views.
He also said that at least Trump was telling the truth on Iraq, wasn’t planning to invade anywhere and “not beholden to Israel”.
Here’s what Pilger wrote in full, in response to being asked his take on Trump:
Trump is speaking straight to ordinary Americans, not through the usual media/liberal filter. He is making sense to a lot of people. They like his absence of hypocrisy and the fact that he’s prepared to say George W. Bush committed a war crime in invading Iraq.
Apart from his gross views on immigration – though no more gross in essence than, say, David Cameron’s – he is not planning to invade anywhere, he doesn’t hate the Russians or the Chinese, he is not beholden to Israel. People like this lack of cant, and when the so-called liberal media deride him, they like him even more.
In response to different question on Putin, Pilger said:
Compared with Obama, Cameron and the rest, he’s [Putin] the most intelligent by far.
We would suggest that Pilger do a bit more research into Trump’s views.
Earlier, Trump had said he would be “neutral” between Israel and Palestine.
Then in a more recent interview with Fox News, Trump said he saw Israel as the main victim in that conflict.
100% I’d come to their [Israel’s] defense. 100%. Now, you know that under the Iran deal… but under the Iran deal, if Israel ends up attacks Iran because they’re — they see they’re doing the nuclear, or if it’s the other way around, we have to fight with Iran.

حكومة اليمن: "حزب الله" متورط بالحرب الدائرة ولدينا وثائق

حكومة اليمن: "حزب الله" متورط بالحرب الدائرة ولدينا وثائق
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أكّدت الحكومة اليمنية، اليوم الأربعاء، أنها تمتلك أدلة دامغة على تورط "حزب الله" اللبناني في دعم مليشيات جماعة "أنصار الله" (الحوثيين) الانقلابية في اليمن.
واتّهمت الحكومة، "حزب الله" اللبناني، بالضلوع في الحرب الدائرة باليمن، من خلال قيامه بتدريب الحوثيين والمخلوع علي صالح، على القتال والتواجد في ساحات المعارك على الحدود اليمنية السعودية، فضلاً عن التخطيط للمعارك، وترتيب عمليات التسلل والتخريب داخل الأراضي السعودية.

وأكّد المتحدث باسم الحكومة اليمنية، راجح بادي، في بيان حصل "العربي الجديد" على نسخة منه، أنّ الحكومة اليمنية لديها العديد من الوثائق والأدلة المادية التي توضح مدى تورط أفراد ينتمون لـ"حزب الله" في الحرب، وطبيعة المهام التي يقومون بها على أكثر من صعيد، والمشاركة الفعلية على الأرض.

وبيّن أن "مشاركة الحزب وأفراده في طبيعة المهام التي يقومون بها في اليمن تعددت على أكثر من صعيد"، موضحاً أنها "لم تقتصر على الدعم المعنوي المعلن عنه رسمياً، بل تعدى ذلك إلى المشاركة الفعلية على الأرض، وذلك بتدريب أفراد المليشيا الانقلابية على القتال، والتواجد في ساحات القتال على الحدود السعودية، والتخطيط للمعارك، وترتيب عمليات التسلل والتخريب داخل الأراضي السعودية".
وأوضح متحدث الحكومة اليمنية أنه "بتلك الأدلة الموثقة لا يمكن لحزب الله أن ينفي دوره في الخراب الذي يشارك فيه، سواء بالدعم المعنوي أو اللوجستي الواضحين، وأنه أحد المسؤولين بصورة مباشرة عن إطالة أمد الحرب، وجلب الخراب لليمن وشعبه ومقدراته، في مخالفة واضحة للقرار الأممي 2216، وتحدٍ سافر لإرادة المجتمع الدولي".
واعتبرت الحكومة أن "تدخل حزب الله بهذه الصورة يعد تدخلاً سافراً في شؤون دولة مستقلة، وأن قيامه بهذه الأعمال العدائية تجاه الشرعية وقوات التحالف العربي من شأنه أن يفاقم الأزمة، ويساعد المنشقين عن الشرعية على التمادي في أعمالهم العدوانية تجاه اليمنيين".
وأعلن بادي عن "نية الحكومة اليمنية تقديم ملف كامل إلى مجلس الأمن الدولي، والجامعة العربية، يثبت فيه التدخلات والممارسات الإرهابية لحزب الله في اليمن"، مطالباً باتخاذ الإجراءات الدولية القانونية بحقه.
وتتهم الحكومة اليمنية جماعة الحوثيين، التي تطلق على نفسها "أنصار الله"، بتلقي الدعم من إيران وحلفائها في المنطقة، وفي مقدمتها "حزب الله". ولم يتسن على الفور الحصول على تعليق رسمي من الحوثيين، حول هذه الاتهامات.