Category: Lebanon

Lebanon: Lebanon Bans Nuclear Tests 292 Reads

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 12:56 PM

Lebanon on Tuesday became the 148th nation to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the organization working for the treaty's implementation said.

The CTBTO has been signed by 180 countries, but to come into effect it still needs ratification by nine key holdouts including China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.
Supporters of the treaty, which was concluded in 1996, hope ratifications will start rolling in once US president-elect Barack Obama, who supports the CTBTO, takes office on January 20.

Indonesia and nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India appear likely to be the next nations to take steps toward ratification of the treaty, according to the Vienna-based CTBTO preparatory commission.

The commission has some 340 facilities around the world as part of its verification regime to monitor any signs of nuclear explosions.(AFP)

Beirut, 25 Nov 08, 19:53

Lebanon: Fatah man shot dead in Palestinian camp in Lebanon: report 294 Reads

Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 12:28 PM

AIN EL-HELWEH, Lebanon (AFP) — A member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party was shot dead in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Thursday, a Palestinian official said.

"An unknown attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot a Fatah member in the Hettin area of the camp" at Ain el-Helweh, Fatah official Mounir Maqdah told AFP.

Maqdah heads the force in charge of security in the camp. Ain el-Helweh, on the outskirts of the port of Sidon, is the biggest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon with some 45,000 residents.

"Khodr al-Khatib, 30, was killed on the spot," Maqdah said, adding that the reason why he was shot was not yet known.

In recent months, the camp has been the site of several clashes between Fatah and the mainly Sunni Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Damascus) group.

The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are considered volatile places and a fertile breeding ground for extremist groups.

In summer 2007 more than 400 people, including 168 soldiers, were killed in a 15-week battle in the northern Nahr al-Bared camp before the Lebanese army defeated Islamists holed up there.

Extremists believed to have links with Al-Qaeda have settled in the country's Palestinian refugee camps, especially in Ain el-Helweh.

The Lebanese army does not enter the camps, leaving responsibility for security to Palestinian factions.

Lebanon: Intelligence Warnings by Egyptian Envoy 304 Reads

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 07:54 AM

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has reportedly made a decision to send Deputy Head of Egyptian Intelligence General Omar Qinawy to Beirut, following reports that the security situation in Lebanon might deteriorate unless Cairo makes a quick move.

The daily al-Akhbar on Tuesday quoted an Egyptian source as saying that "it would have been easy for President Mubarak to send his Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to Lebanon. However, he felt that it would be best for those concerned in Lebanon to hear first hand what information Egypt has about the issue."

al-Akhbar article in Arabic (also found at the end of this article): http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/99476

Concerned Lebanese parties have been calling for a revival of Egypt's political role in Lebanon following an agreement to set up diplomatic relations between Beirut and Damascus, al-Akhbar explained.

The paper stated that General Qinawy will present Hizbullah with "an Egyptian proposal" for the Shiite group to send a high level delegation to Cairo for official talks.

Al-Akhbar said the Egyptian invitation had stirred the Israeli government to conduct intensive contacts with Cairo.

Egypt responded however that there was no invitation for the time being.

Some sources in Beirut described Qinawy's visit as fact finding, while others said sending the deputy head of intelligence means that his visit is "specific."

The same sources added that Cairo "has sent someone for an initial fact finding mission."

The visit has three goals: "to follow up on the Egyptian track that seeks to open up to all parties, attempt to revive the Egyptian role on the Arab scene and gather information that will allow Egypt to politically move on the Lebanese" issue, sources said.

Al-Akhbar stated that Qinawy did more listening than talking and posed a number of questions concerning the chances of the national dialogue's success and what the Lebanese expect from the Egyptian role. He also asked about what Egypt could do to help solve the Shebaa Farms issue, stressing that Cairo won't interfere in relations between Beirut and Damascus.

Lebanon: Fatah Rearranges Itself in Lebanon 277 Reads

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 07:11 AM

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' special envoy to Lebanon Adib al-Husan commenced his duties by rearranging Fatah's military, political and financial position in the country.

The daily al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday that al-Husan has taken a number of steps in this regard including the dismissal of a number of officers from military service among them Sultan Abul Ainain, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement in Lebanon.

The Palestinian special envoy has also started a dialogue regarding the status of Fatah official Munir al-Maqdah at the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

This also includes a standing issue with Fatah member Khaled Aref who is refusing to leave Lebanon and accept a new position at Palestine's embassy in Korea.

Al-Husan also visited a number of Lebanese political, religious and security officials, al-Akhbar reported.

Beirut, 28 Oct 08, 11:32

Lebanon: Beirut blast still resounds 301 Reads

Friday, October 24, 2008 - 06:18 AM

Suicide bomber killed 241 American troops 25 years ago in barracks
By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 23, 2008

In the green expanse of Arlington National Cemetery's Section 59, a Lebanese cedar tree grows near the final resting place of some of the first Americans to shed blood in the fight against Middle East terrorism.

JOHN GASTALDO / Union-Tribune
Former Navy journalist Joe Ciokon of Poway was sleeping next door to the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that were hit by a suicide bomber 25 years ago today. After scrambling to locate survivors, he was ordered to take up his camera and record the scene.

British soldiers gave a hand in rescue operations at the bomb-wrecked U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport on Oct. 23, 1983. The two nations were part of U.N. peacekeeping force sent to stabilize peace in war-torn Lebanon.

Twenty-five years ago today, a suicide bomber steered a truck loaded with the equivalent of six tons of TNT down the airport road in Beirut, Lebanon. He plowed into the four-story barracks where more than 300 U.S. troops from a U.N. peacekeeping mission slept and detonated what the FBI called the largest non-nuclear bomb in history.

The explosion and fireball pulverized the concrete fortress, killing 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines. A second blast minutes later at the compound of the French peacekeeping force killed 58 more Western troops. Three months later, President Ronald Reagan pulled the Americans out of Beirut.

A quarter-century and two wars with Iraq have dulled the public's memory of the Beirut attack. But the United States and its allies still feel the effects, said retired Marine Col. Tim Geraghty, who commanded U.S. forces in Lebanon at the time.

A splinter group of the Iranian-and Syrian-supported Hezbollah organization carried out the attack, which allegedly was planned by a man who later inspired Osama bin Laden. Then a tiny guerrilla outfit, Hezbollah has grown into a political and military force in Lebanon.

Geraghty sees a line from the Beirut bombing through the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – and ultimately to the U.S. war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of whom are buried in Arlington's Section 60, a few hundred feet from those killed in Beirut.

“Who would have thought, 25 years later, here we are (fighting) essentially the same crowd?” said Geraghty, who lives in Phoenix. “The enemy learned: Terrorism works.”