Lebanon’s Berri Sure Army Chief to Be President

by Reuters

Lebanon’s army chief will be elected the country’s next president, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in remarks published on Wednesday.

Berri, a leading member of the opposition, said rival Lebanese leaders had agreed on General Michel Suleiman, even if parliament has yet to elect him to the post empty since November 23 when the pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud left office.

Posted on: 12/05/07

March 14 MPs Appear to Have Changed Addresses

by Hani M. Bathish (The Daily Star)

March 14 MPs appear to have vacated the Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel after two months of "self-confinement" due to security concerns.

Around 40 MPs had moved into the hotel last month to protect themselves from possible assassination attempts. But in recent days, security restrictions around the downtown hotel have been noticeably eased, while access to the area around the Riviera and Lahoya Suites hotels in Beirut has been tightened, leading many to conclude that the legislators have moved to another location.

Posted on: 12/05/07

Olmert Tells Israeli Daily U.S. Will Not Sell Out Lebanon for Syria

by Agence France Presse

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the United States will not sell out Lebanon to Syria. In an interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Olmert also revealed that he was the one who insisted on Syria’s invitation to the Annapolis peace conference, despite Washington’s objection.

Olmert stressed that the US was not willing to deceive Lebanon in return for normalization of relations with Syria.

"We are aware that the Syrians will not get involved in peace talks unless the Americans changed their stance toward them," Olmert told the daily.

Posted on: 12/05/07

Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon Face Crisis

by CNN

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday published 66-page report, "Rot Here or Die There: Bleak Choices for Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon." The report "documents the Lebanese government’s failure to provide a legal status for Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and details the impact of this policy on the refugees’ lives," the group said.

"Iraqi refugees in Lebanon live in constant fear of arrest," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch. "Refugees who are arrested face the prospect of rotting in jail indefinitely unless they agree to return to Iraq and face the dangers there."

Posted on: 12/05/07

Lebanon: Part of a Comprehensive Solution

“Secretary Rice says nice things about Lebanese democracy, but the fact is that nothing matters to her half as much as the peace process. This myopia is what led Rice to make room for Syria in her three-ring circus on the Chesapeake Bay. Since Israeli- Palestinian comity warrants all of the time and prestige of the Secretary of State, and since Damascus’s friends in Hamas can make things very tough for peace processing, they must be rewarded for their blackmail and invited to Annapolis. Consciously or not, Rice signaled where America’s real priorities lie–not with protecting a fledgling democracy in Beirut from the terrorist state next door, but in trying to reward a society that breeds terrorism within its own state.”
–Lee Smith, visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, “The Price of Annapolis - Lebanese Democracy,” The Daily Standard, November 30, 2007

VS.

"There’s been a very clear link in the past two weeks between the Lebanon crisis and Annapolis… It’s part of a process that focuses again on the Arab-Israeli struggle. Definitely, it will have a positive impact on Lebanon."
–Ibrahim Hamidi, Al-Hayat’s bureau chief in Damascus, Lebanese Broadcasting Company’s correspondent and a frequent contributor to The Daily Star, November 27, 2007