Lebanon (all aspects)

[davidbfpo]

A long explanation of the Lebanese, then UN investigation into the murder of the Lebanese politician, Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister, was killed with 21 others in 2005, when a truck bomb exploded near his motorcade in Lebanon. Allegedly by Hezbollah and now a trial minus defendants in the Netherlands:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/ma...=tw-share&_r=2

The case against the defendants depends on years of cell phone analysis. Using techniques now very familiar.

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to FP's email on this deal:

The project is being entirely funded by Saudi Arabia, which is keen to see Lebanon’s Army defend its borders against Syria-based jihadi groups, particularly ISIS and the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate.

France is expected to deliver 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar attack helicopters, three small corvette warships and a range of surveillance and communication equipment over four years as part of the $3 billion modernization program. The contract also promises seven years of training for the 70,000-strong Lebanese Army and 10 years of equipment maintenance.

Link:http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Leb...ror-fight.ashx

[davidbfpo]

From Australia's Lowy Institute, the author I note has been "on the ground" and she starts:

Islamic extremism in Palestinian communities in the Middle East is emerging as a significant security threat. These relatively ungoverned spaces are proving vulnerable to radical takeover from without and within.

Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...xtremism.aspx?

[OUTLAW 09]

LEBANON: Hassan Nasrallah's speech this morning at commemoration ceremony for Hezb fighter killed in #Syria. Some choice quotes:

Hezbollah has fought "for 30 years on the border with Palestine and have now gone to Sahl al-Ghab... to Hama, Idlib, Latakia, and Aleppo."

Hezbollah's presence "is larger than ever before, qualitatively, quantitatively, in equipment, b/c we are in a critical & definitive battle"

Why? Because both projects -- Zionist and takfiri -- want to achieve the same result: destroying our peoples and our societies."

The battle is open & it may be long. But with blessing of our perseverance, we have been able to protect these countries & this region."

Their fate would have been what the people of Mosul, Salahuddin, Anbar, Raqa, and Deir Ezzor are living now."

"Without the resistance on the ground confronting Daesh and its brothers, from Iraq, to Syria, to Lebanon, where would the region be today?"

We began confronting the takfiri project, which threatens the region & the world & wants to destroy everything: humans, life, societies..."

[OUTLAW 09]

Arsal Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon covered with snow need urgent fuel & food supplies.
https://youtu.be/LCSZb4Fj_I0

[OUTLAW 09]

KSA is now using their financial power as a "hard power" and letting Lebanon feel that they are in fact a version of Iran with Hezbollah and Amal existing within it's borders......

Should have been done ages ago, that country has become Iran lite-
Saudi withdraws all assets in Lebanese banks closed all bank accounts

[OUTLAW 09]

KSA now showing their Islamic Army leadership .....they view the Lebanon to be an Iran lite......their own version of KSA non linear warfare hard at work....

[BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE] Top GCC source to me just now: Saudi and UAE are about to withdraw their funds from Lebanese Central Bank.

NNA - Commenting on Saudi Arabia's decision to halt its aids to the Lebanese army and security forces, "Lebanese Forces" chief Samir Geagea on Friday held Hezbollah responsible for "losing billions of dollars" as a result of its permanent attack on Saudi Arabia.

Geagea called in a tweet on the government to instantly convene to take the appropriate measures in this regard, either through officially asking Hezbollah to desist from attacking the Kingdom from now on, or to dispatch an official delegation to the Kingdom to ask Saudi Arabia to activate once more its frozen aids.

[davidbfpo]

Saudi Arabia is halting a $3bn (£2.1bn) military aid package to Lebanon, as part of what one Saudi official called a "reassessment" of relations.The state-run Saudi Press Agency said the money was to be used by the Lebanese army to buy French weapons.A $1bn deal to equip the internal security forces is also being stopped.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35614917

Hardly unexpected.

[OUTLAW 09]

Lebanese Minister of Justice @Ashraf_Rifi resigns from the Government, says he won't be a part of an Iranian statelette in #Lebanon.

[davidbfpo]

A rare commentary on the peculiar relationship between the Lebanese Army (LAF), Hezbollah and UNIFIL in Southern Lebanon by an Australian academic. In summary:

Following civil war, re-establishing the legitimacy of a state’s army is a crucial part of security sector reform and international actors can aid this process. The capacity-building work of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon provides a useful example of this.

Link:https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016...sector-reform/

[davidbfpo]

A commentary by a SME I recognise; the Lebanon rarely get such coverage and there is a lot on Hezbollah:https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/neil-partrick/lebanon-in-eye-of-regional-storm?

[davidbfpo]

I suppose the official relationship between the USA and Lebanon's Army meant this could happen, plus some of the stranger SOF deployments in Syria between rival factions was a sign.

From an Israeli newspaper and their headline:

U.S. Special Forces in Lebanon Prepare to Fight ISIS – Alongside Hezbollah? The Americans are training with the Lebanese army, while Hezbollah is gearing up to fight ISIS.

Link:http://www.haaretz.com/amp/us-news/1.805446

[davidbfpo]

Updates, first a truce and now a ceasefire after the last post from the mountains along Lebanon's eastern border via the BBC.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41065305

Plus a very astute PR photo by the Lebanese Army:
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40990487

[davidbfpo]

Not only a strange partnership, replete with promises and then diplomatic obstruction as this article explains:http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...lah-syria.html

Curiously the end result is:

The current unspoken partnership between the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Syrian army is a direct result of the efforts of those who have worked so diligently to keep the Lebanese Armed Forces under-equipped. By doing so, they have also inadvertently strengthened Hezbollah, making it the only viable military force in the country able to repel armed groups along the Lebanese border, and are now creating a reality on the battlefield that everyone is aware of but no one wants to acknowledge.

Yes Hezbollah emerges stronger, as this NYT article illustrates:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/w...-lebanon.html?