''There are some who spent $500 million in Lebanon to distort the image of Hezbollah*''

Hassan Nasrallah provided today substantial circumstantial evidence about a possible role for Israel in the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. The evidence is made of confessions by Israeli spies captured by Lebanese authorities, video footage sent by Israeli drones to Israeli operations centers, which Hezbollah intercepted, personal info gathered from Syrian authorities, and associations with other sources.

Nasrallah's argument is that if the Special UN Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) ignores this circumstantial evidence then its credibility can be put into question as a fundamentally biased and politicized tribunal.

Since the beginning, Nasrallah said (around when Israel was first defeated by Hezbollah and left Lebanon in 2000), Israel tried to isolate Hezbollah with:
1) A story they planted through their spies that Hezbollah was trying to assassinate Hariri (naming a spy who fled to Israel since);
2) The sudden withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon under accusations Syria was behind Hariri's assassination;
3) The 2006 war when Israel hoped that inflicting huge civilian casualties in a short time on Lebanon will turn the tide against popular support for Hezbollah;
4) And now the special tribunal who is apparently going to accuse members of Hezbollah for assassinating Hariri.

Israel has the motive to create civil unrest and strife in Lebanon and to distort the image of Hezbollah. Will the special tribunal, who conducted his work in a very unprofessional way and who never turned its attention to Israel's role in the Hariri assassination, investigate ?

Nasrallah's early take on the info that members of Hezbollah were going to be indicted by the STL for the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

UPDATE, August 10th:
Rami Khoury on Nasrallah and the doctrine of reasonable doubt.

Israeli newspapers and Hezbollah enemies need nothing less than complete irrefutable proof from Nasrallah's evidence but isn't the tribunal's job to examine circumstantial evidence and find the proof?


An interesting analysis by Elias Muhanna in Foreign Policy.

Related: Israeli spies in Lebanon...

Karam's arrest has come as a shock to Lebanon, already reeling from a number of high-profile detentions of military and telecom employees, and has raised debate over how deeply Israel has managed to infiltrate and compromise Lebanon's security.

Three employees at state-owned telecom firms have been charged with spying, prompting Hezbollah to suggest Israel could have used telecom agents to manipulate phone records to implicate the group in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.

*So said Hassan Nasrallah today in presenting his evidence for Israel's role in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, as reported by Al-Manar. $500million is the estimated cost incurred for the tribunal until now.

More to come...

''Those Who Are Conspiring Against Lebanon And The Resistance Will Fail''

From The Daily Star, Lebanon.

According to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, members of Hezbollah will be accused by the Hariri special tribunal, so says Saad Hariri who conveyed the news to Nasrallah. This is the latest attempt by this tribunal to play dirty political games in Lebanon to the benefit of Israel and Saudi Arabia against Hezbollah. March 14 are trying to achieve in Lebanon what Israel failed to achieve in 2006, kill Hezbollah and the resistance. But they lost their credibility long ago. However, what they will succeed in achieving is agitating sectarian tensions...

Nasrallah said he had information that such an indictment had been decided upon before 2008, but its announcement was being postponed to await more suitable political circumstances.

He expressed surprise that the decision to indict had been made even before the STL had summoned some Hizbullah members for questioning in April.
“Our indicators are that the indictment will be announced in September or October, given what is being prepared in Palestine and the region,” he said.

He said the charges targeted the resistance, after the failure of previous attempts to achieve the same goal. Lebanon will be pushed into a sensitive period given that the indictment will be issued soon, added Nasrallah.

...But Nasrallah rejected the indictment, stressing that his party was not afraid at all.
“Let them issue the indictment, those who are conspiring against Lebanon and the resistance, and whose projects have failed are the worried parties because their projects will fail again,” Nasrallah said.
...Tackling the STL’s expected move to absolve Syria of the crime, Nasrallah called upon March 14 officials who had accused Syria of the assassination to reconsider their positions and to engage in a “real” self-critique, “because the results of their decisions had consequences on all the Lebanese.”
He touched on the stances of March 14 coalition following the killing of Hariri, saying they had instigated sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah poisoned: Haaretz spreading false rumours again

At least that's what Haaretz is claiming today, that Hezbollah's leader was poisoned last week and was in critical condition.

Haaretz's source is an Iraqi website Almalaf. And Almalaf sources are western diplomats in Beirut as well as workers at international Beirut airport who noticed a team of 15 Iranian doctors 3 days ago with heavy equipment coming out from a Russian made plan Antonov 74 that landed at 11 p.m. on sunday.
And then the report goes on to claim that the same diplomatic sources told Almalaf that Nasrallah could have been shuttled to Tehran if Iranian doctors were not going to be able to save his life. The same sources reported also that they suspect that Israel is at the origin of the attempt.

Now I can't go on and translate the amount of non sense contained in Almalaf on the nature of the poison and the way Nasrallah was poisoned...on which Haaretz's report is based with some translation errors as to the time of the arrival of the Iranian doctors at Beirut's airport.

The story has no serious sources. Western diplomatic sources and airport workers reporting on two different aspects of the narrative, Nasrallah's illness and airport activity, something that cannot be cross-checked in any possible way. In addition, who would believe that Nasrallah's health would depend on doctors in Iran, and not right beside him ? And why transport Nasrallah to Tehran if heavy equipment was brought in to save him ? The whole story transpires nonsense and sensationalism.

The only attempt made by Almalaf to check the information was to call Hezbollah's secretary general who denied the story stating that Nasrallh was fine, even though, insists Almalaf, he didn't see him last week ! Almalaf claims that it is hard to verify the information given the lack of transparency in information coming from Hezbollah and that the party would never aknowledge such a thing especially since the assassination of one of his own, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus.

In a nutshell, Almalaf is just throwing a story, reverberated by Haaretz, or is it the other way around ? The story was planted in Haaretz from internal sources and offered under the disguise of western diplomatic sources and airport workers to Almalaf ?

In both ways, the story could have at least two purposes:
1. Provoke a reaction from Hezbollah as to Nasrallah's whereabouts. One may think that the party of God is not naive but it may engage in a press reaction just to dissipate doubts about its leader's health;

However, in my opinion, the most important aspect of the story is this:

2. Distract Shia in Iraq from the fact that Iraqi-born Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah who is a top Shia cleric in Lebanon and a respected and esteemed figure among shias in Iraq wrote an edict against the coming US-Iraqi security agreement calling it 'legitimization of the US occupation' while the local top cleric Ali Al-Sistani did not come against it nor expressed himself openly on the subject. The Haaretz article mentions that the Saudi Al Watan has announced that the Iranian speaker of parliament Ali Larijani will meet Hezbollah's leader next week and convey to him Sistani's position on the US-Iraqi security agreement. For that matter read here 'Iraq won't sign US deal'.

And of course, not one single serious news source has published the story, except Haaretz, Almalaf, and exclusively other Israeli news sources like the Jerusalem Post.

Coming from Almalaf, the propaganda is understandable, but why Haaretz is spreading the rumour ? This is not the first time Haaretz engage in spreading propaganda for the state of Israel and its allies, through manipulative and unprofessional journalism.

UPDATE: Well, at last, Haaretz is maybe trying to repare its reputation because when I said not one serious source published the rumour, that was true even days after it was published by Haaretz.

Thanks Annie for this update.

Michel Aoun and Hassan Nasrallah

Two Men. Two Generations. Two Destinies. One Vision for Lebanon.

On February 6th, Aoun And Nasrallah appeared on OTV. They answered questions and explained their Agreement of Mutual Understanding. The first of its kind, in a sectarian country like Lebanon, between two political leaders representing two communities. The agreement was signed two years ago. March 14th, on the contrary, ignoring the agreement, are calling for civil war.

Read the comment on the interview by Hanady Salman in Al Ahram weekly, republished on Tayyar's website (Michel Aoun movement's website).

Lebanese blogger Remarkz reports on the interview.

A Self portrait by Hassan Nasrallah (in French) on Alain Gresh's blog.

Michel Aoun: The US government is working to destabilise Lebanon

On August 9th, general Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free patriotic Movement and a Hezbollah ally in Lebanon, gave this post-election interview to Le Temps (Genève). The interview appeared in Le Monde. It is part of their paid archives now.

By Alain Campiotti

Lebanese live in bubbles, against their own good, prisoners of archaic and sectarian institutions set by the French mandate which administered the country after the fall of the Ottoman empire until 1943. There are maronite bubbles very high in the mountains. Shia bubbles at the periphery of Beyrouth and in its south. Sunni bubbles in Tripoli and Hamra... Michel Aoun's bubble is in Rabieh, on a wooded hill, where luxurious villas are protected by multiple layers of high-tech security. "Six assassination attempts including three who died around me", says Aoun.

Since his return, two years ago, from a 15 years exile in France for fighting the Syrian occupation in his country, this politician and military has been fighting the sectarian bubbles. Or at least that's what he declares forcefully he is doing in Politics. His adversaries in the Sanyura government, furious at his alliance with Hezbollah, accuse him of the contrary. As a justification, Michel Aoun accpeted to be interviewed by le Temps in his eagle's nest, the headquarters of his political party, the Free Patriotic Movement.

Le Temps : Since you defeated ex president Amine Gemayel in an election last sunday, Your Maronite adversaries are saying that you lost, that you don't control, like in 2005, the Maronite community.

Michel Aoun : They are deluding themselves and they still have an old way of thinking politics in Lebanon. Those among them who are in parliament today were elected by a sunni majority in an elctoral law devised by Rafiq Hariri and Syria destined to dilute the Christian vote. Our candidates' electorate is half Christian and half non Christian. I am ready to sacrifice 20% of my popular support if this is the price to pay in order to prevent a confrontation in the country. That's what we were looking for when we signed last year an agreement with Hezbollah.

Le Temps : Is putting an end to the system of confessional parity in the state's institutions, inherited from the French mandate, the goal of such a move ?

Michel Aoun : This is a bankrupt system destined to become extinct. We want to establish, step by step, a secular state. Lebanese must get themselves used to excercise power and take decisions on a political level without resorting to a confessionnal organisation of¨Politics.

Le Temps : Isn't your agreement with Hezbollah an example of this confessionnal organisation ?

Michel Aoun : Our agreement with hezbollah is not an empty agreement meant to exercise parity for the sake of parity. It is a political program ! On the reform of the state, its independance, relations with Syria, and with the Palestiniens (Aoun actually wanted to discuss this program with other parties and sects in Lebanon but they were not interested). Hezbollah is convinced by the idea that Lebanon needs a civil code. Its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, declared, ten days ago, that he was ready to discuss the following: laying Hezbollah's arms and armistice between Israel and Lebanon, independant of the situation in the rest of the Middle East. I challenge our adversaries, supported by th West, to have the courage to come up with such a program as we did.

Le Temps : But is Hezbollah independant ? Aren't they tied directly to the supreme guide of the Iranian revolution by the principle of "Velayat al-faqih" in the Shia religion ?

Michel Aoun : Political leaders, as ordinary people change over time and according to circumstances. To assume that Hezbollah's allegiance lies outside Lebanon, within the Shia principle of "Velayat al-faqih", is to assume that the human being is a rigid stone that does not change over time. Hezbollah used to refer to "Velayat al-faqih", as much as Samir Geagea, the Maronite chief of the Lebanese Forces, used to refer to some areas in Lebanon as Christian cantons, and as much as Walid Joumblatt, the Druze chief, used to refer to Druze frontiers in Lebanon. Times have changed. Hezbollah, today, is claiming its fair share of power in Lebanese politics, nothing else.

Le Temps : Isn't Syria still yielding much more political influence than Iran in Lebanon ? And didn't you meet recently in Germany, according to the Saudis, with a Syrian emissary ?

Michel Aoun : That's a fabricated and defamatory lie intended to hurt me. I caught Amine Gemayel repeating this calumny. Syria is playing against me. Some pro-Syrian movements have called last sunday to vote for my candidate. This has costed us votes because Lebanese have developped a rejection of the Syrian diktat.

Le Temps : Do you consider the West, and especially the US, as your adversary ?

Michel Aoun : The US is refusing any attempt at ending the isolation of Hezbollah in giving their full support to the Sanyura government in order to maintain this isolation. George Bush had announced last week the freezing of assets of any individual who acts against the "legitimate government" of Lebanon. We have been disputing the legitimacy of this government for a year now. Bush's announcement came three days before the August 5th sunday election as to scare those donors who support us.

Le Temps : You have called for a national unity government. Do you believe that Lebanon's unity is under threat ?

Michel Aoun : Our agreement with Hezbollah on a political program for Lebanon, and the unity we are calling for, are the only way to salvage the country. The West doesn't want to discuss our proposal. I suspect the US is working to destabilise Lebanon, after having destabilised Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, etc. I believe that the US wishes for a new armed confrontation in our country. Their goal is to create, amid the confusion of a new confrontation, the conditions for a permanent implementation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. That's because the US does not intend to give those Palestinians a homeland.

Hassan Nasrallah on the confrontations between the Lebanese army and Fatah El-Islam

The analysis of Nasrallah's speech by Angry Arab

The Hezbollah between USraeli sponsored anti-guerilla and national and regional dialogues

The political situation in Lebanon is in a dead end. The Sanyura government supported by the Bush administration is refusing any internal dialogue with its opponents, which are a majority in Lebanon and include Hezbollah, Amal and the Free patriotic movement. Arguing that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation holding allegiances to Iran and Syria, the Bush administration has undermined any solution to the Lebanese dead end and is actively promoting confrontation by literally arming the anti-Hezbollah Samir Gea'gea's militia, the security apparatus of Sanyura's puppet government, which doubled in a matter of months reaching 24000 men, and by tolerating the activity of openly islamist sunni extremist organisations in Lebanon. The last bombing of two passengers buses in the Lebanese mountain at 'Ayn 'Alaq had the signature of sunni extremists. Read the April report of the International Crisis Group, page 11.
The opposition to the Sanyura government has entered its fifth month of standoff with no solution in sight despite some attempts (not genuine in my opinion) from the Saudis to come up with a proposal. Initially, the opposition has asked for an extension of the Sanyura government into a national unity government to include ministers from the Christian Free Patriotic Movement. As their pacifist demand was ignored, they have now one outcome, the ballot box. But even here, the Sanyura government seems to be reluctant to agree on early elections and is afraid of losing its grip on power.

It is in this tense climate that Hassan Nasrallah gave Alain Gresh the following interview translated by the author of this blog.

Meeting and interviewing Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the most important party in Lebanon, is not an easy task. Even though Hezbollah is a parliamentary party with a large social infrastructure and a preponderant influence among Shiites, it is classified as a terrorist organisation by the US. Hassan Nasrallah is, without a doubt, un « homme à abattre », a man on the killing list.

The interview is meant for TV and is a part of a TV documentary on Hezbollah. We are told that the meeting will take place in the afternoon and that someone will meet us at a restaurant and drive us to the meeting venue without any other precision as to the time of the meeting. A first car drives us into a garage where we are transferred into a second car with blackened windows: we cannot identify the trajectory. We will be transferred five times from one car to another before we reach our destination: an improvised studio with two flags, the Lebanese and Hezbollah's.

Despite all these precautions, the man who comes to meet us does not appear anxious. He speaks slowly, smile often and tries to convince without ever raising the tone of the conversation. The interview lasts 2 hours. Here are some themes tackled in the interview. There are no transcripts yet of the recordings and the quotes are taken from personal notes. Questions are in Italic Bold.

The internal situation in Lebanon.
The risks for a renewal of the civil war exist, however Hezbollah will do everything in its power to avoid it. The majority of the Lebanese people, who have already experienced a civil war, do not want another one. Our objective for Lebanon is not an Islamic republic for to be implemented the Islamic republic will require the consent of the majority of the population. That is not the case in Lebanon: not only the Christian minority refuse to live in an Islamic republic but even Lebanese Muslims are not convinced by such a project. We want a Lebanon whose destiny is not decided by one religion but by all its religious communities. It is for this same reason that we asked for a national unity government. The Imam Moussa Sadr was the first to advocate an end to sectarianism in Lebanon; but we have to take into account the realities and fears of Lebanese, those among Christians who are afraid from becoming marginalised.

Why doesn't Hezbollah give its weapons in a sign of good will destined to the other communities?
Our weapons are not directed at other communities in Lebanon neither are they for at internal combat operations. They were never used as such. Our weapons are destined to Israel and the resistance against the external enemy, Israel and Israeli aggression and occupation.

The velayat e-faqih [1] and relations with Iran. Is there a contradiction between the fidelity to the religious principle of velayat e-faqih and the fact that Hezbollah is a national Lebanese political party ?
No. On one hand, all what we do we do it to serve our country Lebanon. We even make use of our relations with Iran in the service of our country, never the contrary. We define our Politic and our strategy according to our priorities. On the other hand, the velayat e-faqih is an allegiance to a man and not a country. The Velayat e-faqih is actually Iranian, before he was Iraqi, and in the future he will probably be Lebanese. Iran is a state and it designs its strategy and obligations accordingly. These strategy and obligations are not ours. For example, Iran has diplomatic relations with Lybia but we don't. We are hostiles to such relations as long as Lybia does not explain the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr (Sadr is the founding Shi'ite Imam of the political movement 'Al-Mahroumin', the dispossessed, the precursor movement to present Shi'ite political parties, Amal and Hezbollah. He disappeared in Lybia in suspicious circumstances in 1978 and his disappearance has not been explained by Lybian authorities). We also differed with Iraq's Sh'ia on the decision to execute Saddam Hussein. We had concerns about the timing and the conditions in which the execution was carried. In Iran, there were different opinions on this matter also.

On Israel and Palestine.
The creation of Israel is the result of a denial; denying the Palestinians their right on their land. Time will do nothing to this fact and Palestinian rights must be respected. The two state solution is not possible, it is not realistic. The best solution is a one state solution. One democratic state on the entire territory of Palestine in which Jews, Muslims and Christians can live and coexist. The name of such a state is not important, it can be agreed upon by all parties.

What will happen if the Palestinian national unity government signs a peace agreement with Israel?
We supported the Mecca agreement signed by Hamas and Fatah. The Palestinian problem should be left to Palestinians themselves to decide and we should not impose upon them a solution (as we should not impose upon Lebanese a solution they don't agree with). Our first responsibility goes for Lebanon and its occupied territory, not Palestine.

If a global peace agreement is signed between Israel and Arab countries, will Hezbollah recognize Israel ?
There are too many ifs. We will define our position in due time according to the regional and international contexts.

Al-Qaida.
Our disagreements with this movement are numerous and they concern Religion and Politics. This movement the non participation of Islamic movements i n national elections while we in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, as well as the Muslim brothers in Egypt, are engaged in the political electoral process. Moreover, Al-Qaida denounces Muslims who depart from Al-Qaida's political and religious agenda and does not refrain from killing them. That is not our conception of Religion and Politics. Some tried to suggest the existence of links between our movement and Al-Qaida but nobody has been able to substantiate this claim with the slightest proof. We will never engage if fight against them as we do not intend to fight anybody who does not attack us (Nasrallah is sending a message here to Sunni Muslim extremists in Lebanon linked to Al-Qaida whose presence was revealed by the article of Seymour Hersh, the redirection, and who seem to infiltrate Lebanon with the blessings of the US and its allies, the Sanyura government and Saudi Arabia).

Risk of war.
If there is a war on Lebanon, the situation will be totally different from what was before the July war when Israel attacked Lebanon. We have vacated the border positions between Israel and Lebanon and they are now occupied by the Lebanese army. If Israel were to attack again, the role of the army will be to defend the Lebanese territory. We are present in the south because we live in the cities and villages of the south. Our combatants come from these cities and villages, they can fight in the next war. The UNIFIL will be in a very difficult position: either it will be a spectator of the war or it will help repel the aggression. It can also retreat. None of these solutions is satisfactory. Some are surprised and concerned that we are renewing our weapons arsenal but they do not react the same way to the fact that Israel is seeking weapons from the US and is preparing for war through maneuvers and intensive training


Read here my post: Hassan Nasrallah, the New Face of Moderation in Lebanon and the Middle East


Notes
[1] The principle of velayat e-faqih, or the government of the doctrine, is to assign an important power to the guide of the community of the faithfuls in the Shi'ite religion. Since the creation of the Islamic republic of Iran, this position was attributed to ayatollah Khomeini and is now filled by Ali Khamenei. This principle is disputed by many Shi'ite clerics. It is accepted by Hezbollah while rejected by ayatollah Mohammad Fadlallah, one of the highest ranking Shi'a clerics in Lebanon. Fadlallah is considered also as someone who is close to Hezbollah.

Read how Haaretz reports on Hezbollah's public declarations about its weapons arsenal. It seems that Hezbollah is doing this just to offset Israel.