Free Republic

There they go again. The story is so old already. Arab militia or Arab army or Arab terrorist attacks non-Arab. Or was that Muslim fanatic attacks non-Muslim? This time, it's happening in Sudan. While we're sitting and talking, probably a few hundred more black Africans in Sudan have starved to death, or been brutally killed, raped, enslaved, or simply pushed off their land by 7th century Arab imperialist invaders, or more rightly "Arab settlers". Oh yes, that's right. "Arab settlers". Like the ones Saddam Hussein brought into Kurdistan - i.e., the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq - in the 1970s...

Lebanon-based Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has rejected a call by visiting United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his terrorist organization to disarm, saying "The resistance is here to stay." Ban told a news conference Friday after meeting with Lebanese leaders, "I am deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hizbullah and... the lack of progress in disarmament," referring to the requirement for the terrorist group to disarm set forth in the ceasefire agreement with Israel that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Instead, Hizbullah has increased its weapons arsenal to a level beyond that which it had prior to the...

A bomb exploded near a UNIFIL peacekeeping patrol on Friday, wounding five French soldiers in southern Lebanon, a witness and security sources said. The blast, which hit a jeep carrying the French peacekeepers on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, was the third attack on the UNIFIL forces deployed to keep the peace along Lebanon's southern frontier with Israel.

Hizballah has for some time been a parasitic pseudo-state within Lebanon, complete with its own armed forces, and has slowly been working to devour its host. An attempt to take Beirut would be a rather logical progression of events, unfortunately. Would Hizballah face any resistance from the Lebanese armed forces? "If Assad falls, Hezbollah will take Beirut," from the Jerusalem Post, November 22: Hezbollah may launch a military offensive to take over the Lebanese capital of Beirut if Syrian President Bashar Assad is forced out of power, Dubai-based Arabic-language news website Al Arabiya reported Tuesday according to a "source close...

Channel Two on Saturday night broadcast a chilling preview of a diary kept by Ron Arad during the first weeks of his captivity in Lebanon, The full contents of the pages of the diary will be broadcast later this week on Channel Two's Uvda (Fact) program. The pages were apparently part of a diary that Arad kept in the hope that it would reach his loved ones -as indeed they did, 22 years after his disappearance over Lebanon, where he was shot down and captured by terrorists. The pages were returned to Israel three years ago by Lebanese terrorists as...

The shaky snippet of video looks like it was inadvertently filmed, as if the amateur cameraman -- in his haste to escape the intense gunfire crackling in the background -- forgot to press pause and wound up recording his sandal-clad feet as he ran along the sidewalk. It's meant to look like one of the countless amateur videos streaming out of Syria from an antigovernment protest, capturing the state's violent crackdown. Except it is not. Instead, this is the opening sequence in a music video by Syrian-Lebanese rapper Eslam Jawaad. The song, called "Dudd al-Nizam," or "Against the System," is...

Saboteurs bombed an Egyptian gas pipeline in the Sinai peninsula on Monday, sending flames into the sky with no immediate reports of casualties, a security official said.

* What is striking about the current crisis in Lebanon is that the efforts to resolve it are being made by countries in the region, with hardly any initiatives on the part of Western countries, enabling Iran and Syria to continue to stir the pot unmolested. * Iran no longer hesitates to state publicly that its forward defense line now passes through "Lebanon and Palestine." In practice, the Lebanese-Israeli border is in fact Israel's border with Iran. * For Iran, Hizbullah serves as a live and successful model for revolutions, one which is reflected in other organizations such as Hamas,...

Just a week after President Bashar Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing. .“In our meetings last week it was stated that Syria is not transferring any ‘new’ missiles to Lebanese Hizballah,’’ noted a cable sent by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in February, using an alternative spelling for the militant group. “We are aware, however, of current Syrian efforts to supply Hizballah with ballistic missiles. I must stress that this...

Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel, according to newly leaked U.S. diplomatic memos, which say the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments." According to one of the documents, a person whose name was not published "had seen missiles in the planes destined for Lebanon when delivering medical supplies to the plane." The plane was allegedly "half full" prior to the arrival of any medical supplies, according to the memo. Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that killed 1,200 Lebanese and...

It appears while our State Department and White House are asleep at the switch; the Iranians have been busy and fastidious in resetting the chessboard in the Middle East to their liking. What has Iran been doing in addition to moving their nuclear program forward, becoming the hegemonic power of the Middle East and supporting the international jihad? The Iranians (unlike the United States) are very clever at using proxies to do their dirty work. *snip* Iran has planned a larger, bolder strategy for the demise of Israel. Russia, somewhat remaining in the background, supplies sophisticated technology and military systems...

If War Comes: Israel vs. Hizbollah and its Allies Jeffrey White Policy Focus #106 | September 2010 The Washington Institute for Near East Policy The past several months have seen much discussion of growing tensions between Israel and Hizballah, along with the group’s allies, Syria and Iran. If war does in fact come to Israel’s northern border, it would bear little resemblance to the 2006 conflict in Lebanon. Instead, it would in all likelihood be a transformational, even fateful, event for the region—certainly for Hizballah and Lebanon, probably for Syria, and perhaps even for Iran. Israel and its regional standing...

A long-time Jewish neighborhood in the Lebanese city of Sidon that kept its Jewish name throughout the tribulations of Lebanese-Israeli tensions has finally lost the name. The residents renamed the neighborhood, known for decades as Haret al-Yahud (Neighborhood of the Jews), Haret Gaza. It happened at the end of last week, when the Arab world commemorated International Quds Day (Jerusalem Day). Sidon is the third-largest city in Lebanon, located about midway between the two largest cities, Tyre and Beirut, and only some 60 kilometers from Israel. Haret al-Yahud was long populated mostly by Jews, part of the Lebanese Jewish population...

Insane manchurian Obama Administration wants to keep supplying Hezbollah/ Lebanese army with American military weapons and equipment!In this Obama joins Iran in supporting a Lebanese government and army heavily infiltrated, and intimadated, by Hezbollah.From Ynet News report:The US administration will continue to supply the Lebanese army with weaponry and equipment, Al-Nahar quoted diplomatic sources as saying."The Lebanese paper reported Saturday morning that the sources said US President Barack Obama had commended the military and that he supported the State Department's desire to continue the flow of aid, estimated at $100 million. The US administration will continue to supply the Lebanese army...

The IDF has taken the unusual step of publicizing some of its “targets banks” in southern Lebanon – buildings in southern Lebanese villages that Hizbullah has taken over for the storage and launching of long-range rockets. It has long been known that Hizbullah uses quiet villages nestled in the hills of southern Lebanon to stockpile weapons and rockets. The IDF has now announced openly that it knows precisely which buildings to target if and when the Third Lebanon War breaks out. The first war fought by Israel in Lebanese territory took place in the summer of 1982, and was known...

Six months ago, authorities seized a cargo plane in Bangkok that contained 35 tons of North Korean military weapons. These included versions of the Chinese HN-5 “man-portable air defense system,” or MANPADS. The MANPADS were being shipped to Iran. The HN-5 — a copy of the Soviet SA-7— is less capable than the MANPADS Iran produces on its own. Why, you ask, would Iran be importing more primitive missiles than the ones it already makes? The only conceivable answer is that Iran was planning to provide North Korean missiles to Iran’s proxy terrorist groups, to gain plausible deniability in case...

U.S. Congresswoman Warns About Hizbullah-Drug Cartel Link on Border with Mexico Beirut, 27 Jun 10, 08:14 Hizbullah may be conspiring with drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congresswoman warned, calling on the Homeland Security Secretary to establish a special task force to figure out how to "clamp down" on this "national security" threat, Fox News reported. In her letter to Secretary Janet Napolitano, North Carolina Congresswomen Sue Myrick called on finding out and reporting more on the extent of the problem. She cited several developments that would point to Hizbullah creeping closer to and inside the U.S., with...

The Israeli intelligence community has determined that Hizbullah received a shipment of solid-fuel rockets from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Officials said the solid-fuel rockets were said to have included the Fateh-110, with a range of more than 200 kilometers. "Hizbullah in 2010 is very different to Hizbullah in 2006 in terms of military capability, which has advanced a great deal," Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, a senior Israeli military intelligence officer, said. "Hizbullah is now regarded by the Syrians as a component of their defense establishment." On May 4, Baidatz, head of military intelligence's research department, told the Knesset Foreign...

Lebanon expects to receive additional U.S. assistance to develop its military and security forces. Lebanese officials said the United States has pledged to lead an international effort to bolster Beirut's military and security forces. They said U.S. weapons began to flow to Lebanon in 2010 and could intensify over the next few months. "The U.S. military is convinced that the Lebanese army is capable of controlling stability in Lebanon," Ghassan Al Shibli, a researcher at the Washington-based Rand Corp., said. Officials said the Obama administration has concluded that U.S. aid should not be blocked by Hizbullah's domination of the government...

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah was said to have blocked the flow of information on military deployment in Lebanon. A retired U.S. Army general said Hizbullah has been monitoring and preventing communications between Lebanon and the outside world, particularly regarding the arrival of advanced weapons. The general, Paul Vallely, said Hizbullah has sought to keep secret the flow of conventional and nonconventional weapons received from Iran in 2010. "The Internet has been locked down, very tightly controlled," Vallely said. "Anyone associated with any Israeli will be assassinated." The retired U.S. general, an author and military analyst for the U.S.-based Fox News, said...

Israel's military has determined that Syria was producing its first solid-fuel rockets. Officials said the military and intelligence community said the regime of President Bashar Assad has been producing and deploying a variant of an Iranian long-range rocket. They identified the Iranian rocket as the Fateh-110, developed by Teheran nearly a decade ago and supplied to several countries as well as the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. "This certainly enhances the military capability of Syria from what it was even five years ago," an official said. Syria has taken the Fateh-110 and developed an enhanced variant. Officials said the upgraded weapon, termed M-600,...

North Korea was said to have become the latest military supplier to Hamas. Officials said North Korea has received orders from Iran for a range of missiles, rockets and other weapons for Hamas and Hizbullah. They said the orders were submitted in late 2009 with the first attempt at deliveries in February 2010. We saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on May 12. Lieberman...

During the Question and Answer period, David Horowitz had a chilling exchange with a member of the MSA, a Student, in which he prodded her to reveal the depraved depths of her Jew-hatred. What’s shocking is not so much that she holds such views, but rather that she was willing to admit it. - 05 10 2010 Link to Youtube Here

Lebanon and the United States are discussing cooperation in counter-insurgency at the highest levels. Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has been exploring the prospect of additional equipment and training for Lebanon's security forces. They said Washington raised the prospect of a program to enhance Lebanon's CI capabilities during a visit by presidential adviser John Brennan on April 27. "They discussed ways for U.S. aid to the Lebanese military," the Lebanese Army said. Brennan met Lebanese Chief of Staff Gen. Jean Kahwaji, Defense Minister Elias Murr as well as Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Officials said Lebanese leaders urged...

The U.S. Army has commissioned a study that concluded conventional ground forces would be required to battle the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. The Rand Corp. has relayed a study to the U.S. Army that analyzed Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah. The report, titled "Military Capabilities for Hybrid War," concluded that Israel's air combat strategy against Hizbullah was flawed and that infantry and armor would be required to fight the Lebanese-based militia, trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Finally, heavy forces — based on tanks and infantry fighting vehicles — are key elements of any force that will fight sophisticated irregular opponents,...

The chief of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement said on Saturday it had a "legal" right to own any weapon it wishes, but would not confirm or deny Israeli allegations it was stockpiling Scud missiles. "The Scud (issue) emerged a while ago... and it created a lot of fuss," Hassan Nasrallah said in his first public reaction to the controversy, according to a statement from Hezbollah's press office. "We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment," he told a committee in charge of security, financial and...

The United States said Wednesday it considered "all options" on the table if Syria is found to have supplied Scud missiles to Hezbollah, posing a major threat for Israel. Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, said the United States would have "really, really serious concern" if Syria delivered such high-grade weapons to the Lebanese Shiite militia. "If these reports turn out to be true, we're going to have to review the full range of tools that are available for us in order to make Syria reverse what would be an incendiary, provocative action," Feltman said....

The United States has summoned the senior Syrian diplomat in Washington to address "provocative behaviour" regarding the potential transfer of Scud missiles to Hizbollah that it said could be a threat to both Lebanon and Israel. "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the transfer of any arms, and especially ballistic missile systems such as the Scud, from Syria to Hizbollah," the statement, issued by State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid, said. "The transfer of these arms can only have a destabilising effect on the region, and would pose an immediate threat to both the security of Israel and the...

The Syrian government claimed Israel is using the Scud ballistic missile transfer to try to create an excuse for launching a war. "Israel aims from this to raise tension further in the region and to create an atmosphere for probable Israeli aggression," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement The U.S., however, is not happy with the Syrian transfer of missiles to Lebanon - and an expert says Israel will have to take action. Prof. Eyal Zisser, head of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Tel Aviv University, told Arutz-7 that the news requires Israel to make...

Lebanon faces rising unrest amid renewed Syrian dominance. Officials said the restoration of Syrian ties with Lebanon has increased the flow of heavy weapons and equipment to militias linked to the regime of President Bashar Assad. They said this has sparked unrest in several areas of Lebanon, particularly Tripoli, Tyre and the Bekaa Valley. "The pro-Syrian forces in Lebanon have become bolder and more aggressive," an official said. On April 8, a battle was fought in the Bekaa Valley between factions of the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Officials said Syrian-trained and equipped Palestinian fighters employed...

Hizbullah could tip its rocket arsenal with Iranian-supplied nuclear warheads, a report said. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies stated that Iran could supply its proxies with tactical nuclear warheads. In a report, BESA said Iran was likely to use its nuclear arsenal to wage what the report termed "nuclear terrorism against Israel." "Rockets, such as those already in Hizbullah's possession, could be fitted with nuclear warheads." "The potential means of conducting nuclear terrorism against Israel would be similar to those applicable to other countries — sea, air, and land-based — with one important addition: rockets," the report, authored by...

As Israel braces for possible war with Iran and its proxies, a new kind of conflict in which the civilian population will be a primary target for massive missile barrages, there are growing concerns about the military's ability to shield cities as well as its key bases. In the 34-day 2006 war Israel fought with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Tehran's main surrogate in the Levant, the Shiite movement fired some 4,000 rockets, supplied by Iran and Syria, into Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa, at a rate of around 150 per day. That was the deepest Hezbollah...

A Hezbollah minister said on Sunday that disarming his Shiite militant group was not "a subject for discussion," two days before Lebanon's national dialogue on defence strategy is due to resume. "Some have implied that the dialogue session seeks to establish when Hezbollah will be disarmed," Administrative Reform Minister Mohammad Fneich was quoted as saying by the state news agency ANI. "This issue is not a subject for discussion and will not be debated at the dialogue session," Fneich said. Politicians from rival parties are due to meet Tuesday for a new session on defence strategy to be chaired by...

Amid growing fears of another Middle East war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has thrown down the gauntlet for Israel by vowing to hammer Ben-Gurion Airport if Beirut's Rafik Hariri International is hit, as it was in their last conflict in 2006. That was not likely an idle boast. Nasrallah was unusually specific in what targets Hezbollah would hit, thus signaling its capabilities. "He's never been as detailed and candid," said Lebanese political scientist and Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb of the American University of Beirut. According to Israel's military intelligence, Hezbollah has in excess of 42,000 rockets and missiles stashed away,...

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Syria has become a regional missile threat. Officials said the intelligence community has concluded that Syria could attack every one of its neighbors with short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. They said the Syrian surface-to-surface weapons could be enhanced with biological and chemical warheads. "All of Syria's missiles are mobile and can reach much of Israel and large portions of Iraq, Jordan and Turkey from launch sites well within the country," a report by the Defense Department said. The Pentagon report, citing assessments by its Defense Intelligence Agency, said Syria's missile arsenal consists of...

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has begun deployment of new combat units in preparation for a war with Israel. Lebanese sources said Hizbullah plans to deploy thousands of combat troops trained in Iran and capable of a rapid invasion of Israel. They said many of the newly-trained troops would arrive from Iran in 2010 amid an alert for an attack by neighboring Israel. Hizbullah and IRGC tactics were said to have been used by Yemeni Shi'ite rebels during their three-month war with Saudi Arabia. In November 2009, the Believing Youth, trained by Hizbullah, captured at least two Saudi villages near the Yemeni...

Hamas has limited military capabilities overseas but can rely on other terrorist groups, such as Hizbullah, as part of its effort to strike at Israel in retaliation for last month’s assassination in Dubai of one of its top operatives, which has been attributed to the Mossad. Unlike Hizbullah, defense officials noted on Sunday, Hamas does not have much experience operating overseas. Hizbullah, with Iranian assistance, is believed by Israel to have been behind the bombing in 1992 of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, in retaliation for the targeted killing of Abbas al-Musawi, the head of the guerrilla group, by Israel...

Syria is training Hizbullah to operate a Soviet-origin air defense system according to regional news reports. The Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported that Syria provided Hizbullah with SA-2 surface-to-air missile systems for operations against Israel. On Jan. 17, the Kuwaiti newspaper, quoting a senior U.S. official, said Israel has warned Syria not to grant the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah access to the SA-2. "War will erupt in the forseeable future between Lebanon and Israel unless Syria agrees to additional red lines," the U.S. official told Al Rai, a newspaper believed used by Israel and the United States to relay messages to the...

For the second time in the last year, Israel has publicized special precautions to deal with Hezbollah terrorist teams seeking revenge for one of their leaders killed two years ago. This time, there was only a vague mention that more security personnel will be assigned to Israeli government officials travelling overseas. Last time, it was additional security personnel assigned to four Israeli legislators (members of the Knesset, or parliament) travelling outside the country. A recent roadside bomb attack directed against Israeli diplomats in Jordan, was believed to be the work of Hezbollah. The attack failed, and the Jordanians are not...

Hezbollah has dispersed its long-range-rocket sites deep into northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a move that analysts say threatens to broaden any future conflict between the Islamist movement and Israel into a war between the two countries. More than 10,000 U.N. troops now patrol traditional Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, and several thousand Lebanese armed forces personnel also have moved into the area. A cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas in summer 2006 triggered a month-long war that prompted the United Nations to deploy its force as part of a cease-fire. The United Nations is confident...

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has been identified as operating in Iraq's southern oil capital. Officials said Hizbullah formed insurgency cells in several Iraqi cities, including Basra. They said Hizbullah was targeting Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite politicians in the Basra region. "Hizbullah is acting in Iran's interest, which is to take over the energy sector of Basra," an official said. In September 2009, Hizbullah Brigades conducted a rocket attack on security forces in Basra. Other Hizbullah strikes targeted pro-Western Shi'ites aligned with the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. Officials said Hizbullah was using rockets and mortars in their attacks....

Israel's intelligence community has determined that Hamas was developing a capability to fire rocket salvos. The sources said Hamas, with increased help from Iran and Hizbullah, was seeking to enhance the accuracy of Palestinian unguided missiles and rockets as well as connect batteries to a command and control system. They said Hamas has accumulated more than 5,000 missiles and rockets in the aftermath of the 2009 war with Israel. In 2009, Hamas tested its first rocket with a range of 60 kilometers, the sources said. They said Hamas has acquired at least 50 Iranian-origin Fajr-3 rockets, modified to contain a...

Israel has completed testing its Iron Dome short-range missile defence system, designed to protect the Jewish state from missile attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas. The first Iron Dome battery is expected to be deployed in the country's south in about six weeks. Expected to be operational by May, the Iron Dome system is expected to counter Hamas' improvised rockets, called the Qassam. The system will be operated by the Israeli Air Force. Subsequently, batteries will be deployed in the country's north against the Hezbollah's more varied missile forces. "Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's political...

If Israel were to attack Hizbullah in Lebanon, Syria would respond and not sit idly by, the Katari Al Watan newspaper quoted Syrian sources as saying in a report published Wednesday. The sources reportedly added that Damascus considered any threat to Lebanon's security and stability as a threat to Syria's security. The paper reported that Damascus was worriedly taking notice of "Israeli deployment and maneuvers along the northern border," and that Syrian leadership assessed Israel was planning a military operation in Lebanon in May. US officials have notified the Lebanese government that if it does not manage to unarm Hizbullah,...

Iran has helped Hizbullah form an operational network for attacks on Western targets, officials said. The officials said the Hizbullah priority was to strike Israeli and U.S. interests in Turkey. "Hizbullah established an operational cell in Istanbul that included members of Iran's IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]," an official said. Officials said Hizbullah organized a safe house and formed a front company in Istanbul. They said IRGC helped Hizbullah set up a tourist agency that would enable Iranian agents to easily enter Turkey. In mid-2009, officials said, Turkey foiled a Hizbullah strike on an Israeli target. Officials said the attack,...

The Argentinean prosecutor who ferreted out Iranian links to Argentina's largest terror attack warned Wednesday of Teheran's growing terror network in Latin America. "The Iranians are moving fast," assessed Alberto Nisman, who has secured Interpol backing for the arrest of several Iranians, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires. "We see a much greater penetration than we did in 1994." He said that Iran, particularly through Lebanese proxy Hizbullah, has a growing presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, using techniques it honed in Argentina before the...

Iran's harsh condemnation of Western meddling in its election has triggered an alert over a new wave of international terrorism after the regime backed a dramatic expansion of the network operated by Lebanon's Hizbollah movement. The country's leaders have repeatedly lashed out at the West, blaming British and other foreign agents for inciting the biggest demonstrations, which were ignited after presidential candidates accused officials of rigging the election in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president. Intelligence experts have warned that rather than merely seeking to distract attention from its domestic turmoil with rhetoric, Iran will seek retaliation beyond its...

Six Missing Israeli Soldiers By Norma Zager and Ari Bussel “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see…” Ayn Rand Three years ago a Jewish son was taken from his parents. Hamas terror organization kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad during an incursion from Gaza into Israel. His captors have denied access to him by Red Cross workers in violation of the Geneva Convention. For three years his parents have suffered with worry for their son. For three years a merciless enemy has held captive a young man, a soldier. While Gilad Shalit became...

Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Monday accepted the results the Lebanese parliamentary elections in which the guerrilla group and its allies were defeated by the Western-backed coalition. "We accept these results...with sportsmanship and in a democratic way and we accept that the ruling camp has achieved the parliamentary majority," Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding that opposition leaders would meet soon to agree on a joint stance over the naming of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government. He went on to congratulate "the Lebanese people for this national electoral achievement," adding that the...

The publication of Hizbullah's subversive plan against Egypt and the exposure of a Shiite group headed by a Hizbullah activist that planned to act against Egyptian targets diverted attention from the challenge that Hizbullah has made against the very foundations of Lebanese authority. On April 3, 2009, Hizbullah published its political platform in advance of elections to the Lebanese parliament scheduled for June 7, 2009. The document calls for the abolition of sectarian politics and for the enactment of a new election law that would alter the equation of sectarian forces in Lebanon. In this manner, Hizbullah seeks to destroy...