Update 13 January / The Iranian-backed Shia armed militia Hezbollah, part of Lebanon’s unity government, has resigned, confirming earlier reports that it planeed to do so and spark the government’s collapseEleven ministers are reportedly resigned following a stalemate on negotiations to limit a UN tribunal’s investigations into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. Members of Hezbollah are to be indicted by the tribunal.
The current Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, son of Rafik, wants the investigation to go ahead and is scheduled to meet US President Obama in Washington 12 January.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Washington Post
Violent winds and freezing rain wreaked havoc in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt 11 and 12 December, as fishing boats were smashed by 10m waves along the Lebanese coast, small planes were tossed about at area airports, and sandstorms blew over Egypt. A Moldovan freighter sank off the coast of Israel but all 11 crew members were rescued. In northern Lebanon a woman was crushed in her car by a falling tree and Egyptian authorities blamed the storm on the collapse of a factory, which killed three workers.
The heavy rains turned to snow in the mountains along the coast, trapping drivers in their cars, and shipping through the Suez Canal was disrupted as most Egyptian ports were closed due to the heavy winds.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, NPR
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, have backed Israel’s position following the skirmish on 3 August that left a high-ranking Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist dead.
An Israeli detail was trimming a tree on the Israeli side of the blue line, the border, when Lebanese army sharpshooters shot at an Israeli military base nearby, killing one officer and wounding another. Israeli forces responded, killing two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist. The Lebanese termed the tree-cutting a “provocation”, but the operation had been cleared with UNIFIL and is not the first time it was undertaken. The UN clearly stated that the tree in question is on Israeli territory, and the Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri said Lebanon respected the border but contests parts of it.
Links to other sites: AP, Jerusalem Post, UNIFIL site, Wall Street Journal
The UN Security Council voted 12-2 for new and tougher sanctions against Iran in an effort to force it to stop its nuclear programme. Turkey and Brazil voted against sanctions and Lebanon abstained. The new, fourth round of sanctions since 2006 brings tighter financial controls and an arms embargo that bans exports of such items as attack helicopters and tanks. Iran has reacted by saying nothing will change as a result. It continues to insist its nuclear activity is peaceful, while other countries fear it is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Links to other sites: BBC, CNN, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The latest twist in the increasingly tangled tale of client data stolen from HSBC in Geneva comes from the thief himself, formerly known as Hervé Falciani. The former HSBC computer system employee who now lives under a new identity in the south of France told French journalists from Nice Matin that in August 2008 he was kidnapped by two men in a van in Geneva’s Champel district. The men were of unclear Middle Eastern origin, perhaps Israeli, says Falciani, who accuses his Lebanese girlfriend at the time of being part of a plot to discredit him.
The Lebanese link has surfaced following accusations by Switzerland that Falciani was trying to sell the names and other information about bank clients, which he acknowledges he stole, to several governments, notably Lebanon.
A commercial ship carrying 83 passengers and crew, plus livestock, has sunk off the coast of Lebanon in stormy seas. Rescue operations have been hampered by bad weather and choppy water, but 34 survivors have been rescued, four people are known to be dead,and the search for others from the Panamanian-registered Dany F II continues. Authorites believe the ship was traveling from Uruguay to Syria. The animals are believed to have all died.
A week earlier, an Israeli ship in need of repair was rescued in waters off Lebanon when it sank.
Links to other sites: AP, Arutz Sheva, Israel
The body of Alec Collett, kidnapped in 1985 but not heard from since 1986, has been found in eastern Lebanon, the UN announced 23 November, Monday. Collett, age 63 at the time, was working for UNWRA (Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). He was the first person to be kidnapped in what became a string of abductions in the 1980s in Lebanon. He was traveling in a car near the airport in Beirut, stopped by a group that called itself the Revolutionary Organization of Muslim Socialists. His Austrian driver was also taken, but later released. Collett had worked for several years as a journalist, in Prague, Czechoslovakia and later in New York, especially at the UN. An reported eyewitness account of his hanging, attributed to ruthless Palestinian leader Abu Nidal, was published in 2005, at which point Collett’s American wife, Elaine, also a UN worker, renewed calls to find the body in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
Links to other sites: CNN, United Nations press release, Times (May 2005)
Police in Melbourne, Australia swooped on 19 properties around the city and arrested four men they say were plotting to storm Holsworthy army base northwest of Sydney with automatic weapons and kill as many soldiers as possible until they themselves were killed. The men, Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese origin, are believed to be linked to militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, which is battling the Western-backed government. More than 400 police officers were involved in the early Tuesday 4 August operation. One of the men, Nayef El Sayed, aged 25, appeared in court and has been charged with terrorism offenses. A fifth man, arrested earlier for other reasons, was still being questioned. CNN, Sydney Morning Herald
Shadu, age 3, has lost his mother, DR Congo (image: ICRC June 2009, P Yazdi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More than half of the civilians directly touched by the world’s eight major conflicts have been displaced, and half say they have lost contact with a family member. One in five have lost their livelihood.
These are some of the findings of a statistical and interview set of surveys ordered by the International Red Cross (ICRC), based in Geneva, to ascertain the extent to which civilians today are affected by major conflicts.
The greatest fears mentioned by people surveyed:
Morges, Vaud, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Eight cartoonists from Lebanon are guests of honour at the Morges Festival sous rire, an annual humour fest in Vaud. Le Temps online carries a sample of their views of their country.
Parliamentary elections in Lebanon Sunday 7 June reinforced the government’s position and handed the pro-Western 14-March coalition 71 seats. Their opponents, a coalition led by Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, won 57 seats. A big loser in the vote was former General Michel Aoun, a Christian who had aligned himself with Hezbollah. He has stated that he will work with the majority.
Some saw President Obama’s conciliatory speech in Cairo, Egypt last week as an important factor in voters’ decisions, denying hardliners the possibility to demonize the United States, according to the New York Times. NYT, Le Monde, Now Lebanon
Four rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, injuring two people and increasing fears worldwide that the Gaza war will escalate, reports Reuters. It is unclear which of several groups who could be responsible fired the rockets. The Financial Times reports that Israel retaliated by firing five artillary shells at Lebanon after the resort town of Nahariya in Israel was hit.
