Attacks against Lebanese Alawites deepen fears

Lebanese Sunni gunmen opposed to the Syrian regime head to join comrades in Bab al-Tabbaneh during clashes with Alawite pro-Syrian regime supporters.

Lebanese members of the Syrian leader’s Alawite sect fear their tiny community will be a casualty of the civil war raging in the neighboring country.

Already, Sunni Muslim extremists have stoned a school bus, vandalized stores and beaten or stabbed a number of men in a wave of attacks against Lebanese Alawites, stoking fears of even more violence should Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from power.

In one particularly humiliating case, angry Sunnis tied a rope around an Alawite man’s neck and dragged him around the streets of Tripoli.

“The Alawites are being subjected to an organized campaign that aims to eliminate them on all levels,” said Ali Feddah, a prominent member of Lebanon’s Arab Democratic Party, which is mainly Alawite.

Feddah spoke to The Associated Press in his office in Tripoli’s predominantly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen. Sitting next to a picture of Assad, he said the Alawites face an “existential threat,” mainly because of extremist Sunni incitement against them.

His words echo the sentiments of many Alawites, who have long enjoyed privileges in Syria under Assad family rule and now fear for their future. The tiny community in Lebanon, which has long been a Syrian client state, has also benefited from Assad’s rule, particularly during Syria’s three-decade hold on its smaller neighbor that ended in 2005.

The Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, represents little more than 10 percent of the population in Syria and about 2 percent in Lebanon. Before their ascent in the mid-20th century, the Alawites were impoverished and marginalized, largely confined to the mountains of the province of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

Under the French mandate, the Alawites were granted an autonomous territory stretching in a band along the coast from the Lebanese border to the Turkish border. It lasted a few years until 1937, when their state was incorporated into modern-day Syria.

After the 1963 coup that brought the Baath Party to power in Damascus, Alawites began consolidating their presence in the Syrian government and armed forces.

The uprising against Assad’s rule that began in March 2011 quickly became an outlet for long-suppressed grievances, mostly by poor Sunnis from marginalized areas. It has since escalated into an outright civil war.

Many of the rebels trying to overthrow Assad today say they want to replace his government with an Islamic state.

The war, now in its third year, has turned increasingly sectarian with countless cases of tit-for-tat slayings between Sunnis and Alawites. Sunni rebels are often seen in videos posted online referring to Alawites as dogs and heretics.

Abu Bilal al-Homsi, an activist in the central Syrian city of Homs who has links with several rebel groups, said the Assad regime has carried out massacres against Sunnis. He points to waves of sectarian killings this month, allegedly carried out by pro-government Alawite gunmen in the coastal towns of Banias and Bayda. More than 100 civilians were killed in the attacks.

“We will completely wipe out the Alawite sect,” said al-Homsi, who does not use his real name because of fear of government reprisals. “There will be no Alawites in Syria. The young and the old will be punished.”

Bassam al-Dada, an official in the rebels’ Free Syrian Army, disagrees with al-Homsi. “The Alawites have nothing to do with Bashar’s crimes,” he said.

The U.N. estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed in the war. Human Rights activists say most of them are Sunnis, but Alawites have also paid a heavy price. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday the group has documented the names of more than 35,000 Alawites who have died, most of them soldiers and pro-Assad militiamen.

“Their losses statistically are very high. There is a lot of resentment in Alawite regions,” said Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University in Beirut.

The tensions in Syria are playing out in Lebanon, which is sharply split along sectarian lines and has recently seen repeated bouts of street fighting related to the war across the border.

Northern Lebanon, in particular, is a potential powder keg. It has a strong Sunni population but also has pockets of Alawites.

The Alawites live mainly in Jabal Mohsen, a hilly district where posters of Assad and his father and predecessor, the late Hafez Assad, decorate the streets.

For years, residents of Jabal Mohsen have traded short bouts of automatic weapons fire and volleys of rocket-propelled grenades with residents of the mainly Sunni Bab Tabbaneh neighborhood.

The two districts in Tripoli are separated by a roadway named Syria Street.

The clashes have become more frequent since Syria’s uprising began – and so have the targeted attacks.

Ali, an unemployed 25-year-old Alawite from Jabal Mohsen, says he has not been to Sunni neighborhoods of Tripoli for more than a year after he was beaten up in the central Tal neighborhood.

Ali, who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals, described how he was intercepted by a man who ran toward him, grabbed him by the neck and tried to choke him as he shouted: “Are you from the Jabal?”

He said he denied he was an Alawite and was eventually saved by a Sunni man who knew him.

Last month, a bus carrying school children was attacked on the edge of Jabal Mohsen by a group of extremists who pelted it with rocks for several minutes before troops intervened.

“Since then, all school buses from Jabal Mohsen are accompanied by troops,” Feddah said.

Residents say several men have been stabbed and beaten up in the past few weeks. Several shops in Jabal Mohsen were set on fire, their fronts seen shuttered on a recent visit.

Earlier this month, bearded extremists grabbed a Syrian man in Tripoli, beat him up and stripped him to the waist before tying a rope around his neck and parading him through the streets. “I am an Alawite shabih,” they wrote on his bare chest, in reference to widely feared pro-Assad militiamen who fight alongside soldiers in Syria.

In Syria, thousands of Alawites have left their homes in war-shattered cities such as Homs, for the relative safety of the overwhelmingly Alawite provinces of Tartous and Latakia.

Syrian opponents of Assad say Alawite fighters are trying to carve out a breakaway enclave in the country’s mountainous Alawite heartland by driving out local Sunnis. They say recent killings in overwhelmingly Sunni villages close to Alawite communities are meant to lay the groundwork.

Earlier this month, regime forces from nearby Alawite areas were blamed for killing dozens of civilians in Banias and Bayda, two Sunni communities in western Syria. The violence bore a closer resemblance to two reported mass killings last year in Houla and Qubeir, Sunni villages surrounded by Alawite towns in central Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper that having failed to control the entire country, Assad was now executing his “plan B” – which involves opening up an Alawite corridor between central Syria and Lebanon and driving Sunnis away from the area.

“There is an effort to cleanse the region,” Davutoglu said in the interview, published last week. “This will cause turmoil in Lebanon too. It could cause a culture of revenge.”

(Source / 14.05.2013)

Lebanese Sunni youth sign up for holy war against Hezbollah

Hundreds of Lebanese Sunni Muslim men have signed up for Jihad (holy war) against the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah in Syria.

Lebanese youth from the city of Saida, south of Beirut, began Wednesday signing up for armed Jihad in Syria, responding to a call yesterday by firebrand Sunni cleric Ahmad Assir.

Individuals in charge of enlisting Jihadists at Bilal Bin Rabah mosque told Al Arabiya that “hundreds” have signed up so far and that the number is expected to reach thousands.

This came a day after Sheikh Assir, who is the Mosque’s Imam, lashed out at Hezbollah for helping President Bashar al-Assad’s forces fight the predominately Sunni opposition in Syria.

Sheikh Assir announced Tuesday the formation of “Free Resistance Brigades” to go fight Hezbollah’s army in Syria.
In an interview with Al Arabiya Sheikh Assir said his call came in response to “Hezbollah’s continued role in the persecution of Sunni Muslims in Syria.”

He said it was a “a religious duty” for his Sunni followers to join the fight against Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
Assir slammed the Lebanese government for not being able to prevent Hezbollah from interfering in Syria.

The Shiite gruella group admits to fighting in Syria, but insists it is only acting to protect Lebanese citizens in Syrian border villages.

Tripoli-based Sunni Sheikh Salem al-Rafei also called for a “general mobilization” for holy war against Hezbollah in Syria. In an interview with Al Arabiya, he dismissed Hezbollah’s justifications, saying, “We also have our Lebanese [Sunni] people in Syria to defend.”

He called for the formation of “secret armed groups consisting of five members.”

“We will be sending the first batch of armed men to fight alongside the Syrian armed militias in al-Qseir,” al-Rafei said.

But Syria’s main rebel Free Syrian Army has rejected the calls for jihad, saying what it needs is support with weapons not with foreign fighters.

“Our official position as the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army… is that we thank them but we reject any calls for jihad in Syria,” FSA political and media coordinator Louay Muqdad told AFP.

“We reject any presence of foreign fighters, regardless of where they are from. We have said that what we are missing in Syria is weapons, not men,” he added.

(Source / 26.04.2013)

‘Only the state has legitimate arms:’ Lebanon’s PM Salam

 

The only party that should possess arms in Lebanon is the state, newly-named Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in an interview with Al Arabiya, his first television interview as prime minister.

“Arms within the country, everyone doesn’t want them. The only arms that should be in the country in my opinion are the legitimate arms, arms held by the state,” Tammam said.

“The state is what decides on issues of the people, public matters, disputes and all what has to do with security. Any other weapon lacks legitimacy and is against the state,” he added.

The Lebanese Hezbollah group has a powerful army inside Lebanon and is equipped with heavy weaponry supplied by Iran and the Assad’s regime in Syria.

Lebanese factions opposed to Hezbollah as well as Western powers have regularly called for disarming the group. The guerrilla group is often accused of running a state within a state and of facilitating foreign intervention in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, however, says its army and weapons are meant to defend the country against Israel in the south because the state’s army is incapable of doing so.

Salam came to office amid heightened political tension in Lebanon. He won all almost all votes in the parliament and hopes to bridge the divide between the U.S. and Saudi-backed opposition and the Syria and Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

(Source / 07.04.2013)

Lebanon names a Sunni, UK-educated lawmaker prime minister

Lebanese Prime Minister designate Tammam Salam arrives at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, April 6, 2013.

BEIRUT — A British-educated lawmaker from a prominent political family was named Lebanon’s new prime minister Saturday, and vowed to work toward ending divisions in the nation and preventing the civil war in neighboring Syria from spilling over into the country.

Tammam Salam, a 68-year-old lawmaker and a former culture minister, was asked by President Michel Suleiman to head a new government. Lebanon’s parliament strongly endorsed Salam, who is widely seen as a consensus figure, with 124 lawmakers in the 128-seat legislature voting in favor of his nomination.

A difficult job in the best of times, Salam faces an even more daunting list of challenges than usual for a Lebanese prime minister.

The country faces rising sectarian tensions linked to Syria’s civil war, with Lebanon’s two largest political blocs supporting opposite sides in the fight between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and rebel fighters trying to oust him. The conflict also has forced some 400,000 Syrians to seek refuge in Lebanon, putting a severe straining on the country of 4 million to cope with the influx.

“I start from the necessity of taking Lebanon out of divisions and political tensions that were reflected in the security situation,” Salam said in his first public statement after being chosen.

He added that he also wants to mitigate threats from the “catastrophic situation next door,” remarks aimed at trying to allay fears in Lebanon that Syria’s 2-year-old civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people, will spread to Lebanon.

Salam said he would do his best to form a “national interest government,” a process that could take time because of the sharp divisions among Lebanese politicians as a result of the Syrian crisis.

Once he cobbles together a Cabinet, his new government must win a vote of confidence in parliament to be approved. Many here will be keeping close tabs on how Salam will deal with the militant Hezbollah group and its arsenal, which is one of the biggest dividing issues among Lebanese.

Hezbollah’s armed wing is the strongest military force in the country, outstripping even the national army, and many Lebanese are wary of the Shiite militant group’s power and refusal to set aside their arms.

Hezbollah and many other Lebanese, however, counter that the weapons are necessary to defend Lebanon against any Israeli attack.

Salam went straight home from the presidential palace where he was seen kissing the hand of his Syrian mother, Tamima Mardam Beik. “I took my mother’s blessing,” he told reporters while sitting between her and his wife, Lama Badreddine.

The Syrian conflict has fueled a sharp spike in tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East. Most of the rebels fighting to topple Assad are from the country’s Sunni majority, while the president belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Sectarian clashes in Lebanon tied to the Syrian conflict have killed and wounded scores of people over the past months. Most of the fighting had been taking place in the northern port city of Tripoli.

Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati abruptly resigned last month over a political deadlock between Lebanon’s two main political camps and infighting in his government. Mikati, who had served as prime minister since June 2011, headed a government that was dominated by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group and its allies.

Mikati stepped down to protest the parliament’s inability to agree on a law to govern elections set for later this year, as well as the refusal by Hezbollah and its allies in the Cabinet to extend the tenure of the country’s police chief.

“I start from the point of uniting national visions and to quickly reach an agreement on a new elections law that gives justice of representation,” Salam said.

Salam is the son of the late former Prime Minister Saeb Salam, and politically leans toward the Western-backed anti-Hezbollah coalition. He studied in Britain and has degrees in economics and business administration.

He will be holding the top post in the country that a Sunni Muslim can hold.

Lebanon’s politics are always fractious, in part because of the sectarian makeup of the country’s government. According to Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. Each faith makes up about a third of Lebanon’s population.

Salam was first elected to parliament for four years in 1996. He became minister of culture in 2008 under then prime minister Fuad Saniora. He was elected to parliament for the second time in 2009 when he ran for a seat in Beirut and joined a Western-backed coalition led by former prime minister, Saad Hariri.

Salam headed the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut, a non-profit organization that runs schools, cultural centers and a hospital, between 1982 and 2000. He is currently the honorary president of the association that was headed by several members of his family.

(Source / 06.04.2013)

Hezbollah threatens regional security: Lebanese Sunni cleric

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah “has become a dangerous militia, threatening the region’s security as well as civil peace,” Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir told Al Arabiya TV.

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah “has become a dangerous militia, threatening the region’s security as well as civil peace,” Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir told Al Arabiya TV, in comments to be broadcast Friday on the weekly program “Point of Order.”

Acting as “Iran’s party,” Hezbollah “assaults all the Lebanese, even free-thinking Shiites,” added Assir, who is the imam of Belal bin Rabah mosque in Sidon, southern Lebanon.

Many politicians, including Hezbollah, deal with Sunnis as if they are a “defeated sect in Lebanon,” by appointing and removing the Sunni prime minister at will, said the cleric.

He described “Iranian hegemony on all Lebanese” as more dangerous than the Israeli occupation.

However, he said he does not support the Israelis or favor an attack by them against Iran, and is not calling for the disarming of a resistance.

“We want a defense strategy. Hezbollah was the party of the resistance, but it changed its principles when it used its weapons internally in Lebanon and in Syria,” said Assir.

The door is open to dialogue with Hezbollah, he added, lamenting that “arms control political life in Lebanon.”

Assir accused Sunni politicians of using extremism as a scarecrow to frighten others and present themselves as a moderate substitute.

“I’m with empowering the legal government and giving it full control over weapons, along with a defense strategy,” he said.

“I want to live in peace with all other religious sects. We don’t have any negative position towards any sect. Our problem is only with the Iranian project.”

(Source / 06.04.2013)

Lebanon proposes UN camps inside Syria

Syrian children play in at a refugee camp in the village of al-Marj in Lebanon on March 6, 2013.

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on Thursday called for an international conference to discuss establishing UN-protected camps inside Syria, as his country struggles with a wave of refugees from the conflict.

In a statement, Sleiman suggested that the camps be created “inside Syrian territory, far from conflict zones, be protected by United Nations forces, and located near the Lebanese, Jordanian, Turkish and Iraqi borders.”

He also suggested that Syrians taking refuge in Lebanon in the future could “be distributed to neighboring and friendly countries.”

The comments come as Lebanon struggles under the weight of a wave of Syrian refugees from all walks of life who have flooded across the border as the conflict in their country continues into a third year.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has registered more than 400,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, though many more are believed to be in the country.

“There are more refugees. Lebanon cannot support (these numbers),” a source in the presidency told AFP.

Lebanese officials have frequently said that the country of just four million residents is ill-equipped to handle the number of refugees it is currently seeing.

More than a million Syrians have sought refuge outside their country since the uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad began in March 2011, with another four million believed to be internally displaced.

Syria’s neighbors have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis, with Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq all affected.

Turkey, which is hosting more than 200,000 Syrian refugees and backs the Syrian uprising, has made frequent calls for the creation of a safe zone inside Syrian territory where displaced citizens could seek refuge.

(Source / 04.04.2013)

Lebanon PM resigns after cabinet deadlock

Najib Mikati steps down after deadlock in his cabinet over election preparations and senior security official dispute.

During his two years in office Mikati has sought to insulate his country from the civil war in neighbouring Syria

Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s prime minister, has resigned after deadlock in his cabinet over preparations for a parliamentary election and a dispute over extending the term of a senior security official. The outgoing prime minister has called for the formation of a national unity government. “I announce the resignation of the government, hoping that this will open the way for the major political blocs to take responsibility and come together to bring Lebanon out of the unknown,” Mikati told a news conference on Friday. Shia group Hezbollah and its allies, which backed the government, blocked the creation of a body to supervise parliamentary elections which is due in June and opposed extending the term of a senior security official. The cabinet failed on Friday to extend the term of Major General Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon’s internal security forces, who is due to retire early next month. Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli. Mikati was appointed prime minister in 2011 after the Hezbollah and its allies brought down the unity government of Saad al-Hariri, son of former prime minister Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in 2005. During his two years in office he has sought to insulate his country from the civil war in neighbouring Syria which deepened Lebanon’s own sectarian tensions and led to street battles in the northern city of Tripoli. Lebanese politicians have yet to agree arrangements for the poll. The president and the prime minister said they were not prepared to chair any cabinet meeting if the supervisory body was not on the agenda, ministers said, effectively halting further cabinet meetings. The Syrian fighting, a tide of Syrian refugees pouring into Lebanon and the country’s own domestic turmoil have also caused a sharp slowdown in Lebanon’s economy and a 67 percent surge in its budget deficit last year. (Source / 22.03.2013)

Bridging the gap: the health workers who visit Palestinian refugee camps in Lebano

A narrow alley in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Just under half of Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon are aged under 25. One of the most striking features of any visit to the country’s Palestinian refugee camps is the visibly high number of children among the population. Accordingly, one of the greatest medical needs within the camps is for comprehensive and effective obstetrical care.

Yet this is complicated by Lebanese labor laws, which bar Palestinians from working in professions that require syndicate membership, including both medicine and midwifery. Palestinians in the camps are therefore reliant on receiving these services from Lebanese health professionals, most of whom work in the national health system. That system is in turn unavailable to many Palestinians because as non-citizens, they are not entitled to government assistance with the high costs of medical care.

In Lebanon last month, I accompanied midwife Mariam and nurse Lamis on an ante-natal home visit within the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh, near the city of Sidon. Mariam and Lamis’ backgrounds reflect Lebanon’s complex social and political situation; like most midwives in the country, Mariam is Lebanese. Lamis, meanwhile, is a Palestinian, born in Lebanon to parents who had fled their hometown of Acre in 1948.

Her family have not been able to return and are now dispersed across Lebanon andJordan. Yet unlike most Palestinians in Lebanon, Lamis does not live in one of the refugee camps and explained to me that she had not spent much time inside them until her job required her to do so. As a Palestinian, she cannot work as a midwife, but she has been able to qualify as a nurse. Indeed, it has conventionally been easier for Palestinians to train as nurses rather than as midwives in Lebanon, partly because of the lower costs; Palestinian nurses have therefore always worked inside the camps.

Changes to labor law

Yet it was not until very recently that a change in the policy of the Lebanese order of nurses allowed Palestinians to practice nursing within the national health system. They have now have gained the right — at least in theory — to work in national hospitals under regular contracts.

Lamis and Mariam drove me to Ein al-Hilweh, telling me the background to their work there. Their words painted a vivid picture of the many challenges that the camps pose to health professionals; poverty and systemic discrimination against Palestinians in Lebanon mean that there is a great need for their services. The fact that this particular camp has been frequently blighted by political violence and fighting only exacerbates the problems.

As we drove through one the main streets, Lamis told me, “This street is called the street of death.” It was nearly destroyed during the civil war, and many families there have lost relatives to the fighting.

After parking the car in one of Ein al-Hilweh’s makeshift car parks we made the short walk to the home we were visiting. We were going to see Fatima, a 42-year-old Palestinian woman 34 weeks into her first pregnancy. Mariam had been visiting Fatima since the early stages of her pregnancy and had established a strong relationship with her.

I was looking forward to meeting Fatima, but we had to get there first — and reaching Fatima’s flat was itself indicative of the daily difficulties of life in Ein al-Hilweh. As Lebanese law prohibits Palestinian camps from expanding outwards, residents are often forced to build homes on top of one another in order to accommodate the growing population.

Housing restrictions

Fatima’s home had been built on top of a second-story flat, and could only be accessed by climbing up a set of shaky steps — so shaky, in fact, that only one person could be on them at a time. As Mariam, Lamis and I teased each other about who was the most nervous, and joked about our unsuitable shoes, I tried not to think about a heavily pregnant woman making that trip on a daily basis, or about the fact that she would soon be doing it while carrying a newborn baby.

Fatima was evidently pleased to see Mariam and welcomed me with typical Palestinian hospitality. She was very close to her due date and was having a difficult pregnancy, suffering from ongoing nausea and sleeplessness. The calm confidence with which Mariam talked to her was both inspiring and reassuring to see, with Fatima clearly very comfortable discussing her concerns with the midwife. Towards the end of our visit, Fatima’s neighbor, Aziza, came in to ask if she was feeling better. I continued to learn more about the multi-layered difficulties of life there as Aziza took me into her own home and told me about her situation.

Her husband had spent many years in prison and was only released to die at home when he became very ill. Aziza is now the sole carer for her children, and to add to the pressure she recently took in a family of Palestinian refugees from Syria. She showed me around a small room in which nine people are now living, with an adjoining kitchen. It was a cold day but neither Aziza nor Fatima had any heating in their homes; Aziza was sitting close to the stove to stay warm.

Accompanying Mariam and Lamis on this home visit opened my eyes to the far-reaching impact of their work. Fatima is clearly benefiting from Mariam’s consistent support and advice, but the positive effects do not stop there. While both Mariam and Lamis have lived in Lebanon their whole lives, neither had previously spent time inside the Palestinian camps and they both admitted that they were initially anxious and even scared at the thought of it.

After countless home visits, Mariam and Lamis are now well-integrated into life inside Ein al-Hilweh and thoroughly familiar with the camp. Lamis even told me that she goes there to do her shopping, having discovered some gems in the camp markets.

Fatima is expected to give birth to a baby girl next week. Mariam will continue to make post-natal home visits to Fatima in the coming months to monitor both her and the baby’s health, a relationship that will endure despite Lebanon shutting Palestinians out of the system.

(Source / 19.03.2013)

Lebanon needs $370 mn to cope with Syrian refugee crisis: PM

Mikati said Lebanon will need at least $370 million in support this year under the current conditions.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Arab states to help Lebanon cope with the rising numbers of Syrian refugees flooding to the country and stretching its scare resources.

Mikati said Lebanon will need at least $370 million in support this year under the current conditions.

Mikati said hospitals were full of Syrians, the sick and wounded from the civil war next door, and doctors were struggling to prevent outbreaks of disease among 340,000 refugees crammed into host communities around the country.

Lebanon also faces rising crime, added Mikati. He said 700 Syrians were caught breaking the law in January, a high figure in a country of 4 million, and the influx of refugees into Lebanese homes had brought with it social problems including child marriage.

“We are coming to a very critical point,” Mikati told Reuters in an interview.

“We need help. Lebanon is bearing the burden of the events in Syria,” he said. “We ask Arab countries to look supportively and sympathetically at Lebanon, because Lebanon needs these countries right now.”

International donors, including wealthy Gulf Arab states, have pledged $1.5 billion for refugees and displaced Syrians, but two Lebanese ministers – for social affairs and health -told Reuters on Tuesday they had not seen a penny of that money.

Humanitarian agencies pleaded Wednesday with governments around the world to make good on pledges of aid for Syrian refugees.

Joel Charny, vice president of InterAction, urged donors to make good on their promises to the pledging conference in Kuwait in January.

So far, only around 20 percent of the $1.5 billion pledged has been received, according to figures from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

With four million Syrians, out of a total population of 20 million, now in need of assistance “the needs are overwhelming and there are numerous challenges,” said Charny.

As the Syria war enters a third year, Charny said it was “baffling considering the global attention that this crisis is receiving” that refugee programs were not fully funded despite $1.5 billion pledged in January.

“We are faced with delivering aid in the face of a medium intensity conflict, advanced weaponry is being used,” he said on a conference call.

“Our community hasn’t really been asked to do this since the Balkans,” he added, referring to the 1990s conflict which tore the former Yugoslavia apart.

The biggest chunk of some $880 million was pledged by the Gulf nations such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which each put up some $300 million.

The United States has already provided about $385 million in humanitarian assistance, with a further $115 in non-lethal aid.

During a visit to Jordan Wednesday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said one million Syrians had now fled the conflict since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began on March 15, 2011.

It has triggered a tide of humanity, both inside and outside the country, placing a huge strain on smaller neighbors such as Jordan and Lebanon.

Jordan, with a population of only six and a half million, has taken in some 450,000 refugees over the past two years, and the United Nations estimates the figure could grow to 660,000 by the end of 2013.

Lebanon took in some 70,000 to 80,000 new refugees in February alone, with the Syrians now approaching some 20 percent of the population there.

(Source / 13.03.2013)

No Iranian, Syrian weapons needed to counterattack Israel: Hezbollah

Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, says his group doesn’t need weapons from Iran or Syria as everything needed for any future battle with Israel is available in Lebanon.

Speaking to hundreds of supporters via video link, Hezbollah’s leader warned Israel Saturday not to attack Lebanon, saying Hezbollah’s response will be harsh and that it doesn’t need weapons from its allies, Iran and Syria.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has refused to comment on a Bulgarian report that said members of the Lebanese militant group carried out an attack that killed five Israeli tourists in the European nation.

Nasrallah said the “issue is being followed calmly and carefully,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying.

The July 18 bombing killed the five Israelis as well as a Bulgarian bus driver and the suspected bomber at the airport in the Black Sea resort of Burgas.

Three men are suspected in the attack, including the bomber.

The latter’s identity has not been established. The names of the two other suspects, believed to still be alive, have not been made public.

Hezbollah doesn’t need Iranian weapons

Meanwhile, Nasrallah said that his group does not need support from allies in Syria or Iran for any future battle against Israel, and that the Jewish state knows that.

Nasrallah’s comments, during a speech from an undisclosed location, are the closest thing yet to a response to allegations that Israeli jets were targeting a Syrian weapons convoy destined for Hezbollah during a strike near Damascus on Jan 30.

World powers fear that as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad loses control during a 23-month-old civil war, militant groups such as Hezbollah or Syrian rebels could acquire arms to use against Israel, including chemical weapons.

But Nasrallah, a close ally of Assad, said that Hezbollah is prepared for a future fight against its southern neighbor Israel, with which it fought a 34-day war in 2006.

“Everything we need for the next battle we have in Lebanon and we keep in Lebanon,” Reuters quoted him as saying. “We do not need to take anything, not from Syria nor Iran.”

Damascus has denied assertions by diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources that Syrian weapons were to be sent to Hezbollah. It said the Israeli air strike hit the Jamraya military research complex on the northwestern fringes of Damascus, 8 miles (13 km) from the border with Lebanon.

Syrian television broadcast what it said was footage from the Jamraya base showing extensive damage to buildings and several heavy military vehicles that appeared capable of carrying missiles.

Israel has maintained official silence about the raid. But on Feb. 3 Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attack showed Israel was serious about preventing the flow of heavy weapons into Lebanon, appearing to acknowledge for the first time that the Jewish state was behind the strike.

(Source / 16.02.2013)