UN Fears Hezbollah Has Rearmed

by NOW Lebanon Staff

UN Undersecretary General for Politics Lynn Pascoe expressed the UN’s fears that Hezbollah has rearmed after the July War with Israel. A small spark could ignite a larger crisis, which could quickly escalate out of control in Lebanon, Pascoe said.

In a meeting of the Security Council regarding the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Pascoe noted that there were major obstacles to breaking the political deadlock in Lebanon.

Posted on: 03/12/08

Berri Mocks White House for Criticizing Latest Delay of Presidential Election

by Hussein Abdallah (The Daily Star)

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri criticized the United States on Tuesday for condemning his recent decision to postpone a scheduled parliament session to elect a new president to March 25. Berri accused the United States of blocking all solutions to Lebanon’s crisis. "How do you expect us to believe that you are concerned with seeing a new head of state in Lebanon after you openly said that you don’t support the Arab initiative, which outlines a way out of the deadlock?" Berri asked in a statement, addressing the United States. …

The White House condemned the latest delay as "unacceptable" and urged outside forces to stop meddling in the deadlocked political process, in a reference to Damascus.

Posted on: 03/12/08

Iran Joins Damascus Meeting over Lebanon

by Agencies

The foreign ministers of Iran, Oman, Qatar and Syria held an unannounced meeting in the Syrian capital on Saturday ahead of an Arab summit clouded by a crisis in Lebanon.

The four-way meeting was preceded by talks between Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, the official SANA news agency reported. The two officials mainly discussed "the situation in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories," the agency said.

Posted on: 03/12/08

U.S. Envoy to UN Says Funds are on Hand to Launch Hariri Court

by The Daily Star

Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations says the world body has secured enough donations and pledges to establish and operate the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Donors have handed more than $28.7 million and pledged another $21.3 million for the tribunal, envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said ahead of a UN Security Council session late Monday night in New York.

UN officials refused to comment on Khalilzad’s information, although UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had said in a February 13 statement that he had had "indications" the UN would receive enough contributions to cover the tribunal’s first 12 months of operations. … The UN commission investigating Hariri’s assassination and others will submit its next report to the UN on March 27.

Posted on: 03/12/08

Implementing UNSCR 1701

“[Ban’s] report was rife with tendentious Israeli allegations of weapon smuggling from Syria, despite the fact that the delegated commission confirmed the absence of any such activity in recent months.”
–Letter by Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari in response to the “Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701”

VS.

“Hezbollah, by admission of its leaders on several occasions, has replenished its military capacity since the 2006 war with Israel.”
–“Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701,” February 28, 2008