Berri calls on Lebanon to boycott Libya’s summit

Speaker Nabih Berri called against Lebanon’s participation in the upcoming Arab League summit in Libya, during a speech on Wednesday to a medical conference at Beirut Al-Zahraa Hospital.
Berri accused Libya of being behind the 1978 disappearance of Lebanon’s Shiite leader Imam Moussa Sadr.
Berri also urged all Arab leaders to avoid participating in the summit and giving political cover to Libya.
We and our partners who gathered for the February 14 commemoration of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri wish to build a new state, Berri said. However, he said that the journey to build a new state begins with eliminating political sectarianism.
The speaker called the elimination of political sectarianism a national duty, reiterating his call to form a national committee on the issue. We do not wish for one sect to dominate over the others, the speaker said, adding, “We want all 18 sects to dominate.”
He said that in order to build a new state, the Lebanese should admit that the sectarian system has failed.
He also blamed corruption on political sectarianism, saying, “Some parties try to attain more privileges than others to serve their own interests.” Berri called for the building of a modern country, in which no party has veto power.
Berri warned Israel against any new aggression saying Israel would only lose the war and will fail to split Lebanon or create a rift between the Resistance and the Lebanese army.
Berri also called for exploring the oil and natural gas reserves off the Lebanese coast to help pay off the national debt.
berri also called for establishing a crises committee to handle disasters .
“In light of the crash of the Ethiopian plane, I call for establishing a committee to manage disasters,” he said.

Death penalty sought for Qaeda suspects in Lebanon

Judge Samih al-Haj indicted the group of Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians, six of whom have fled Lebanon and the rest have been detained, on charges that carry a death penalty.

The indictment said the men had “formed an armed gang with the purpose of committing crimes against people … undermining state authority and prestige, spying on the military and U.N. peacekeepers, and forging passports”.

Among the accused is a fugitive leader of Fatah al-Islam, the Qaeda-inspired group that battled the Lebanese army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon in 2007.

Another suspect was accused of carrying out a bomb attack that killed 15 people, including 10 soldiers, in the northern city of Tripoli in 2008. Reuters

Burns meets Assad

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns headed to Syria from Lebanon and met today with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a day after the White House confirmed the named its first ambassador to Damascus in five years.
The White House said the visit was intended to boost dialogue on all aspects of a relationship, which has been strained by Syria’s three-decade-old alliance with Iran, as well as US allegations against Syria for meddling in the affairs of its eastern neighbor, Iraq.
Burns assured Lebanese president Michel Suleiman yesterday that no deal will be done at Lebanon’s expense .

UN: ‘Israel’s war on Lebanon is not anytime soon’

U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams ruled out the possibility of an Israeli attack on Lebanon in the near future.
“Israel’s war on Lebanon is not anytime soon,” Williams said in an interview published Wednesday by the daily An-Nahar.
He expressed “great satisfaction at the serious commitment” from all concerned parties to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 “despite continued Israeli violations of the Lebanese airspace.”
Williams also hoped he would be able to include an Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of Ghajar in his next report.

Israel not planning war with Iran, says Natanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday his country is not planning a war with Iran and that Tehran’s concerns over such a conflict are the result of the threat of additional international sanctions.
“We are not planning any wars,” Netanyahu said, speaking in Moscow after meetings urging Russian officials to approve tougher sanctions against Iran.
In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel is “seeking to start a war next spring or summer, although their decision is not final yet,” without saying where he got that information. AP

Syria shuts down fake drug ring

A recent seizure of counterfeit drugs and the shutdown of the ring that provided them shows how Syria is stepping up its response to a problem that remains widespread in the Middle East.

Piled up in huge plastic bags, the haul netted millions of dollars worth of breast cancer, leukemia and other medicines, along with tens of thousands of anticoagulant pills that purported to treat heart attacks and other diseases. At least 65 people were detained; it couldn’t be learned if they were charged. A trial date hasn’t yet been set.
All were fakes with no medicinal value, copies of legitimate medicines made by Novartis AG, Sanofi-Aventis SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Roche Holding AG and Pfizer Inc.
The bust, which also seized equipment used to make and package fake drugs, stopped one ring’s lucrative trade of counterfeits to Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and Egypt, according to pharmaceutical-company managers and a Syrian official familiar with the investigation. Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis confirmed the Syrian seizures. WSJ

US confirms that Ford is its nominee for ambassador in Syria

President Barack Obama took a major step toward improving strained ties with Syria on Tuesday, announcing his intention to reappoint a U.S. ambassador to Damascus after a five-year absence.
The White House said Obama had nominated career diplomat Robert Ford to the post. The nomination must still be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after the assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria’s foes in Lebanon accused Damascus of involvement, a charge Syria denied.
Ford’s name was mentioned by the media a while back but the White refused to confirm or deny the name of its nominee. Reuters

NY Times holds Taliban news at White House request

The New York Times nailed down the news about the capture of the Taliban’s No. 2 commander in Afghanistan last week but held off publishing the information at the request of a key player in the article — the Obama administration.

The cooperation with the White House added another layer of intrigue to the Times’ exclusive report about the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence forces. The newspaper broke the news on its Web site on Monday night, at least three days after its reporters learned about the action. AP

Burns meets president Suleiman

US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns met with Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman  at  the  Baabda  presidential on Tuesday.

According to  the The National News Agency (NNA)  the president talked with the US official about recent measures adopted for US-bound passengers travelling through countries described as “sponsors of terrorism,”…. Lebanon is on that list. He also talked about the US congressional bill aimed at banning “ satellite channels accused of supporting terrorism,” which  includes Hezbollah’s  Al-Manar television.

Suleiman criticized   these measures and told Burns “they  deny general, as well as media freedoms.”

According to the NNA, Suleiman thanked Burns for his country’s objection  to the  naturalization of  Palestinians living  in Lebanon.

Burns reiterated US support for Lebanon on several levels, especially on the level of military assistance to the Lebanese army, the NNA reported.

The US official  assured Suleiman that   Washington will not support any developments in the Middle East peace process at the expense of Lebanon, NNA reported .

Burns will head to Syria tomorrow . During this trip to the region Burns will   also be visiting Turkey, and Azerbaijan according to the US state department

Nasrallah warns Israel: ‘If you hit Beirut, we will hit Tel Aviv

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned israel during his speech on Tuesday : “If you target Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, we will strike Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport,”