Originally posted by Mos
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Re: Hezbollah
F*ckin' Bahrain invites Saudi Arabia to invade its own country then tells Hezbollah to not interfere in its business when Bahrain is massacring its Shi'a majority population? Lol.
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Bahrain: Hezbollah remarks will hurt ties with Lebanon
March 21, 2011 ⋅ 1:11 am ⋅ Post a comment
Bahrain condemned on Sunday Hezbollah’s criticism of its government, describing it as an intervention in the Gulf country’s internal affairs and held the Lebanese government responsible saying the statements would have a negative impact on the Lebanese-Bahraini bilateral ties.
A statement released by the The Bahraini Foreign Ministry said Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s verbal “assault against Bahrain and its people” was aimed at serving foreign interests, a reference to Iran, the party’s major ally.
The statement described Nasrallah as the “representative of a terrorist organization with a known history in destabilizing security in the region,” and added that Bahrain would remain stable while Nasrallah’s “terrorist remarks” would fail to provoke the Bahraini people.
During a televised speech via video link on Saturday evening Nasrallah called the events in Bahrain a “special injustice”. Nasrallah asked whether Arab silence about the repression of protests there is due to sectarian prejudice against the Shiite-majority opposition.
“I ask some in the Arab and Islamic worlds: Why have you remained mum over the tyranny against our people in Bahrain, is it only because they are Shiites?”
He also said Hezbollah is ready to help
Special training
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa warned senior US military figures that opposition groups in Bahrain were receiving training from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
He also told senior American military official that Syria was “complicit” in the training by providing the Bahrainis with false passports.
The claims were reported in a leaked embassy cable sent by US diplomats in Bahrain to Washington.
King Hamad made the claim in a 90 minute meeting on 30 July 2008 with General David Petraeus who at the time was commander of the allied forces in Iraq.
King Hamad asked Gen Petraeus: “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
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Re: Hezbollah
It's great to have connections (wasta)
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'Syrian embassy aided Hezbollah prisoner's escape'
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/17/2011 12:26
Report: Syrian embassy in Cairo issued a false passport, documents to convicted Hezbollah terrorist in order to help return him to Beirut.
The Syrian embassy in Cairo aided Egyptian Hezbollah president Mohammed Yousef Mansour, known as Sami Chehab, in leaving Egypt by issuing him a false passport, a Syrian source told Kuwaiti Arabic-language daily Al-Seyasseh Wednesday.
Chehab, exploiting the chaos that had erupted in Egypt during demonstrations that called for president Hosni Mubarak's ouster, had escaped the prison where he was serving a 15-year sentence for planning terrorist activities on Egyptian soil. Following his escape, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah sent an adviser to Syria's intelligence head in order to request that Syria provide Chehab with a false Syrian passport and documents, the source told Al-Seyasseh. The Syrian intelligence head was reportedly eager to help.
The Syrian embassy then issued Chehab a new passport - replacing one that "was lost" - which he used to travel from Egypt to Khartoum where members of the Sudanese Hezbollah cell helped usher him to the international airport. From there, Chehab flew to Syria, and crossed over into Lebanon.
Chehab appeared in a Beirut rally Wednesday, waving Hezbollah flags and raising his hands in a V-victory sign.
The Shi'ite group said that Mansour was among the thousands of prisoners across Egypt who are believed to have escaped or been set free shortly after the revolt against longtime president Hosni Mubarak erupted Jan. 25. But this was his first public appearance.
Mansour was convicted in 2010 along with 25 others of spying for Hezbollah and plotting attacks in Egypt.
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Re: Hezbollah
Hezbollah building up its arms stockpile: Israel
Deputy Prime Minister Shalom claims that the group is seeking to take total control of Lebanon
By Patrick Galey
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
BEIRUT: Israel’s deputy prime minister Tuesday became the latest high-profile Israeli official to accuse Hezbollah of violating international law by increasing its alleged stockpile of arms.
Silvan Shalom, addressing a security conference attended by Israeli ministers, military officials and university professors, warned that Hezbollah was seeking nothing less than total control over Lebanon. “Hezbollah is not only a terrorist organization; they are going to take control of the whole country,” Shalom told conference attendees.
He added the party, “which first ran in the [Lebanese] Parliament saying that they didn’t want to take a lot [of power] in Lebanon,” now has “full control.”
“These days they control the army, the security forces, the police: everything that is needed,” Shalom said.
Israel has already voices disquiet over the prospect of a Lebanese Cabinet headed by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati – the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance’s choice for the post. Since the Jan. 12 collapse of caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet, speculation has mounted in Israeli media that Hezbollah is seeking to takeover Lebanese security apparatuses in anticipation of having members named in an indictment, filed last month by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, implicating the group in the 2005 assassination of former statesman Rafik Hariri.
Shalom’s comments followed those made by outgoing Israeli military commander Gabi Ashkenazi, who told the same conference that Israel was facing a war on two fronts – against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We have to be ready to fight on more than one front,” Ashkenazi told the conference Monday night, adding both organizations would fail if they sought to take on Israel by conventional warfare means. “I don’t discount Hamas or Hezbollah,” Ashkenazi said. “But they are not able to conquer the Negev or the Galilee. We have to be ready to fight on more than one front, ready for conventional, unconventional and non-conventional warfare.”
Hezbollah and Israel last came into sustained military contact during the July-August 2006 war, which killed over 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly military. Israel accuses Hezbollah of replenishing its weapons stockpiles ever since, in contravention of international law.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 – drafted in the wake of 2006 hostilities – beefed up the international peacekeeping presence in south Lebanon and, barring the outbreak of fire which killed two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and an Israeli military officer in August 2010, peace along the Blue Line has held. Successive U.N. resolutions have outlawed the existence of weapons in Lebanon outside of state control, a stipulation which Israel has continually accused Beirut of allowing Hezbollah to sidestep.
Shalom labeled Hezbollah “a political party which is aiming 60,000 rockets [against Israel],” warning that its increased domestic clout opened the way for further Iranian regional influence. “If Hezbollah is controlling the new prime minister, it means Iran is taking control,” he said. “We have to ask the army of Lebanon to implement Resolution 1701 … they have to prevent the Syrians and Iranians from bringing in those rockets. Under 1701 they have to disarm Hezbollah.”
Satellite images allegedly showing rocket storage facilities at a Syrian military base were uncovered by a French daily earlier this year, fueling speculation that Damascus was arming Hezbollah across the porous Lebanon/Syria border. Hezbollah has refused to comment on the makeup of its arsenal.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article....#axzz1DZOHgSjLLast edited by KanadaHye; 02-10-2011, 07:32 AM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Hezbollah
Hezbollah vague on whereabouts of escaped prison members
09/02/2011
By Paula Astatih
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- Hezbollah acted with the utmost discretion when dealing with issue of Sami Shehab, the escaped leader of one of its cells, who had been detained in Wadi el-Natrun prison in Egypt. A member of the Hezbollah Political Council, Mahmoud Qamati, recently confirmed the news of Shehab’s escape, revealing that he was safe, although without confirming whether he had arrived in Lebanon. Shehab is still in hiding since news has spread of his escape from prison. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his latest comments the day before yesterday, was keen to avoid mentioning the issue, despite the fact that the focus of his speech was the Egyptian situation. Hezbollah MPs contacted by Asharq al-Awsat refused to comment on matter, describing it as “very sensitive”.
However, sources within Hezbollah told Asharq al-Awsat that “all we can say for sure is that members of the cell, and Sami Shehab, are fine”. They expected that “they are still on Egyptian soil; otherwise they would have been officially received by the party, and given a proper welcome”. The sources added that “the caution in dealing with this issue is to preserve the safety of our brethren, and their lives”. Reuters news agency has quoted sources close to Shehab’s family, saying that he has arrived in Beirut, but they refused to give more details.
The Hezbollah sources refused to consider Shehab’s escape a victory for their party, pointing out that “what happened was the result of the Egyptian popular revolution”.
They said “In the end, the issue regarding our [escaped] brethren will be resolved diplomatically, and it will end with their release, because the charges against them could not stand on one leg”.
Egyptian security sources confirmed last week that Sami Shehab, the Lebanese Hezbollah member, had escaped. He was convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on Egyptian soil, within the framework of what was known as a Hezbollah cell. His escape happened amidst the security chaos that engulfed Egypt and its prisons, as a result of the demonstrations demanding an end to the regime. Shehab fled from el-Natrun prison, where he was serving a 15 year sentence under a ruling issued against him and 27 other individuals on the 27th of April last year, by the Supreme State Security Court in Egypt.
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Hezbollah quits Lebanese Government
Lebanon government falls as Hezbollah pulls out
Lebanon's national unity government has collapsed after Hezbollah ministers and their allies resigned over a United Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The walkout ushers in the country's worst political crisis since 2008 in one of the most volatile corners of the Middle East.
The tribunal is widely expected to name members of Hezbollah in upcoming indictments, which many fear could re-ignite sectarian tensions that have plagued the tiny country for decades.
Lebanese opposition minister Jibran Bassil, centre, announces he is quitting the cabinet as two other resigning ministers, Mohammad Khalifeh, right, and Hussein Haj Hassan, listen at a news conference in Rabieh, near Beirut, on Wednesday. Lebanese opposition minister Jibran Bassil, centre, announces he is quitting the cabinet as two other resigning ministers, Mohammad Khalifeh, right, and Hussein Haj Hassan, listen at a news conference in Rabieh, near Beirut, on Wednesday. (Sharif Karim/Reuters)"This cabinet has become a burden on the Lebanese, unable to do its work," Energy Minister Jibran Bassil said at a news conference announcing the resignations, flanked by the other ministers who are stepping down. "We are giving a chance for another government to take over."
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project" and urged Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain politician, to reject any findings by the court even before it announces any indictments.
But the prime minister has refused to break co-operation with the tribunal.
Saad Hariri was in Washington on Wednesday to meet with President Barack Obama, but he cut short his visit to return to Lebanon.
Diplomatic failure
The walkout followed the failure of a diplomatic push by Syria and Saudi Arabia to ease political tensions in Lebanon. There had been few details about the direction of the Syrian-Saudi initiative, but the talks were lauded as a potential Arab breakthrough, rather than a solution offered by Western powers.
Bassil said the ministers decided to resign after Hariri "succumbed to foreign and American pressures" and turned his back on the Syrian-Saudi efforts.
Calls to the tribunal seeking comment Wednesday were not immediately returned.
Hariri formed the current national unity government in November 2009, but it has struggled to function amid deep divisions. The crisis over the tribunal has paralyzed the government in recent months.
Rising tensions
Violence has been a major concern in Lebanon, where Shias, Sunnis and Christians each make up about a third of the country's four million people. In 2008, sectarian clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged Lebanon into another civil war.
Rafik Hariri's assassination in a suicide bombing that killed 22 other people both stunned and polarized Lebanese. He was a Sunni who was a hero to his own community and backed by many Christians who sympathized with his efforts in the last few months of his life to reduce Syrian influence in the country. A string of assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians and public figures followed, which UN investigators have said may have been connected to the Hariri killing.
The Netherlands-based tribunal has not said who it will indict, but Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has said he has information that members of his group will be named.
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Re: Hezbollah
Israeli spying devices found in Lebanon
The Lebanese army has said it has dismantled two Israeli spy systems planted in the mountains above Beirut.
The army said it was alerted to the long-range surveillance devices by the Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah. One of the devices bore writing in Hebrew.
Meanwhile, an explosion in the southern port of Sidon late on Wednesday sparked reports of a possible Israeli attempt to destroy a third device there.
Israel denied any involvement, saying there had been "no unusual activity".
The devices were concealed in fake rocks
Fake rocks
On Wednesday, the Lebanese army released a statement saying troops had located two sophisticated, Israeli-made surveillance devices in the mountains of Sannine and Barouk, north and south of the capital, Beirut.
Pictures on the army website showed devices concealed inside large fake rocks on the slopes of the mountains.
The system found in Sannine included a camera, a device to send images and a third to receive signals, the army said.
The device found in Barouk was "more complicated", it added.
The army urged citizens to inform it about any suspicious objects they found
The system was placed at a height of 1,715m and made up of two artificial boulders.
One boulder contained equipment for transmitting and receiving signals, which covered the towns of the western and central Bekaa Valley - a Hezbollah stronghold - towns in southern Lebanon, and parts of Syria.
It had the ability to communicate with wireless transmission stations in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the army said.
The other boulder contained a large number of batteries which would have provided power for the equipment for a number of years, it added.
One picture showed a device bearing the words "mini cloud" in Hebrew, along with the name of the manufacturer - "Beam Systems Israel Ltd" - in English.
One picture showed a device bearing the words "mini cloud" in Hebrew
The army said it planned to remove the cameras and urged citizens to inform authorities about any suspicious objects they found.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah said it had discovered an Israeli device spying on its private telecommunications network.
In a speech late on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said underground Israeli spy radars were sending pictures "day and night".
He told supporters that Hezbollah was ready to fight any Israeli attack on Lebanese sovereignty, despite internal divisions over a UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
More than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested since last year on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.
Hezbollah fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead. Lebanon and Israel remain officially in a state of war.
Israel and the US have accused Syria of helping Hezbollah rearm. Earlier this year, Damascus denied it was supplying Scud missiles to the group.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12012452Last edited by KanadaHye; 12-16-2010, 07:54 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Hezbollah
LEBANON: Hezbollah strays from Iranian line on WikiLeaks, praises its disclosures
December 12, 2010 | 8:01 am
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah appears to have acknowledged the credibility of WikiLeaks, breaking with the official stance of the group's patron, Iran, that the leaked diplomatic cables are part of some American and Israeli-backed conspiracy.
By supporting WikiLeaks, Nasrallah now finds himself in the same camp as an unlikely figure: Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who said in comments published Saturday that the documents expose Iran's "vulnerability."
In a speech late Friday night, the Hezbollah leader said the resistance would be targeted by conspiracies even greater than those already revealed in the leaked United States diplomatic cables, hinting mysteriously at more to come.
During the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the party and its supporters "faced serious threats and conspiracies" from many sides, Nasrallah said, adding: "This is what we see in WikiLeaks day after day, and which we will see on a greater [scale]" (Arabic link).
Was Nasrallah's ominious prediction a rhetorical flourish, or does he have knowledge of sensitive cables on Lebanon that have yet to be published?
Some figures at the leftist Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, which obtained advance copies of some cables, are said to be close to Hezbollah, but the paper already appears to have published all the documents in its possession.
It is more likely Hezbollah simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to capitalize on the exposure of its political rivals in some of the WikiLeaks documents, even if it meant coming out in support of the watchdog site after Iranian officials had publicly dismissed it as a "Zionist plot."
The leaked cables quoted several Lebanese politicians, including the defense minister and former telecommunications minister, passing sensitive information about Hezbollah's telecommunications networks and military strongholds to American officials.
America is a close ally of Israel, which Lebanon considers an enemy state. Many Lebanese have accused the politicians of knowingly providing assistance to Israel through a proxy. Hezbollah has so far refrained from making personal attacks, but the scandal has been seen as a vindication of the group, which has justified many of its actions by citing plots against it.
WikiLeaks documents also provided evidence that the international tribunal investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which is expected to issue indictments against Hezbollah members, sought technical assistance from the U.S. Hezbollah has used these documents to bolster its claim that the tribunal is politicized and part of a plan to target the group's weapons.
Hezbollah has made it clear that it will not accept the indictments, attempting -- awkwardly --to draw a red line without leaving itself open to accusations of bullying.
"When we warn of unrest, we are not threatening or intimidating," Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati said Saturday. "When we say that the issuance of the indictment might cause unrest or civil strife, that does not mean, as they are interpreting, that Hezbollah and the opposition are plotting a coup."
Of course, Hezbollah is nothing if not an extremely effective security force, and civil unrest could not take place in those areas under the group's control without top-down approval. Qmati and other officials have said that the group would be open to an agreement with its rivals who support the tribunal, but so far the two sides have not publicly come to a consensus.
-- Meris Lutz in Beirut
Photo: Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said important conspiracies against Hezbollah had been revealed in WikiLeaks documents. Credit: Screenshot by Meris Lutz via Al Manar
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Re: Hezbollah
I'm not too familiar with the history, but I was researching the Maronites and ran across this:Originally posted by Yedtarts View Post
The Maronites and Lebanon, A Brief History
The outbreak of World War I in August1914 brought Lebanon further problems, as Turkey allied itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Turkish government abolished Lebanon's autonomous status and appointed Jamal Pasha, then minister of the navy, as the commander in chief of the Turkish forces, the fourth army, in Syria and Lebanon, with discretionary powers. Jamal lost no time in dealing with Lebanon, considered the most disloyal of all the provinces. Known for his harshness, he militarily occupied Lebanon.
Nationalist feelings were running high in Lebanon and in other parts of the Ottoman Empire such as in Armenia and the Turks were not willing to tolerate anything that may lead to the break up of their Empire. In February1915, frustrated by his unsuccessful attack on the British forces protecting the Suez Canal, and an Allied initiated a blockade of the entire eastern Mediterranean coast to prevent supplies from reaching the Turks, Jamal Pasha vented his anger on Lebanon and its people.
In August 1915, Jamal replaced the Armenian mutasarrif, Ohannes Pasha, with a Turk, Munif Pasha and abolished Lebanon's autonomy. Before the end of the month a military court was established in Aley and thousands of Maronites were imprisoned or exiled for little reason. In 1916 Turkish authorities publicly executed 16 Lebanese of various religions in Beirut, for alleged anti-Turkish activities. The date, May 6, is commemorated annually as Martyrs' Day, and the site in Beirut has come to be known as Martyrs' Square. Jamal earned his new title of al-Saffah, the blood shedder. Using the war as cover the Turks hoped to finally put an end to the troublesome Lebanese who had resisted Turkish rule for so long. Conscription was imposed and it was so decided that Lebanon was to starve. The Turks committed mass murder by commandeering Lebanon's food supplies and requisitioning its beasts of burden and so caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from widespread famine. The Druze fled to Houran. The land of Lebanon became a paradise for disease and plagues claimed thousands of souls. Furthermore, the Turkish Army cut down trees for wood to fuel trains or for military purposes, and it was the huge Cedar forests that suffered the most with over 60% being cut down in three years.
In a letter to The Times on 15th September 1916 quoted by George Antonius in his book 'The Arab Awakening' an American woman resident of Beirut writes how she passed 'women and children lying by the roadside with closed eyes and ghastly, pale faces. It was a common thing to find people searching the garbage heaps for orange peel, old bones or other refuse, eating them greedily when found. Everywhere women could be seen seeking eatable weeds among the grass along the roads.' Another American resident in 1917 states: 'the scenes were indescribable, whole families writhing in agony on the bare floor of their miserable huts. Every piece of their household effects had been sold to buy bread, and in many cases the tiles of the roof had shared the same fate. It is conservatively estimated that not less than 120,000 persons have died of actual starvation during the last two years in Lebanon'.
To compound all of these problems, the war also deprived the country of its tourists and summer visitors, and remittances from relatives and friends abroad were lost or delayed for months. The Maronite Church opened its doors to the poor as much as it could and Patriarch Anthony ARIDA set up a cement making factory and also the Kadisha Electricity Company to provide jobs for hundreds of young men.
During this period, Lebanon suffered more than any other Ottoman province, loosing over one third of its population to slow and painful deaths. Suffering under Turkish rule however was not limited to Lebanon, the Armenians also felt the fury of the Turk in what is now known as the Armenian Genocide.
Relief for Lebanon came in September1918 when the British general Edmund Allenby and Faysal I, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, moved into Palestine with British and Arab forces, thus opening the way for the liberation of Lebanon and Syria.
Read more: Phoenicia: The Maronites and Lebanon, A Brief History
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