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Saudis’ Grant to Lebanon Is Seen as Message to U.S.

If a wealthy patron were all the Lebanese Army needed to counter the Shiite militant group Hezbollah as the dominant force in the country, the recent $3 billion grant from Saudi Arabia might make a decisive difference in the country’s complex political landscape. But the Saudi aid package — nearly twice Lebanon’s $1.7 billion annual defense budget — is earmarked to buy French arms and is unlikely to give the army what it needs most, say supporters and opponents of Hezbollah here. And even if it does, they say, it will take years to make an impact. And while the Saudis are clearly alarmed at Hezbollah’s staying power and its intervention in Syria’s civil war, analysts say the gift announced last week was intended as much to send a message to the United States as to shift the military balance. Yezid Sayigh, a scholar of Arab […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hezbollah Upgrades Missile Threat to Israel

U.S. officials believe members of Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran, are smuggling advanced guided-missile systems into Lebanon from Syria piece by piece to evade a secretive Israeli air campaign designed to stop them. The moves illustrate how both Hezbollah and Israel are using Syria’s civil war as cover for what increasingly is seen as a complex and high-stakes race to prepare for another potential conflict—their own—in ways that could alter the region’s military balance. Some components of a powerful antiship missile system have already been moved to Lebanon, according to previously undisclosed intelligence, while other systems that could target Israeli aircraft, ships and bases are being stored in expanded weapons depots under Hezbollah control in Syria, say current and former U.S. officials. Such guided weapons would be a major step up from the "dumb" rockets and missiles Hezbollah now has stockpiled, and could sharply increase the group’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Beirut Bomb Hits Hezbollah Stronghold

A car bomb ripped through a Hezbollah stronghold in a crowded district of southern Beirut on Thursday, days after a blast in another part of the Lebanese capital killed a politician who opposed the Shiite political and militant group. Thursday’s bombing, which killed five people, drew warnings from officials across Lebanon’s divided political spectrum that the country was teetering on the edge of sectarian warfare, threatening the kind of tit-for-tat killings that marked the country’s 1975-90 civil war. Tensions and violence has surged in Lebanon as the country has been pulled into the civil war in neighboring Syria over the past three years. Three bombs have struck Beirut’s southern suburbs—knownbroadly as Dahyeh after the Arabic word for suburb—in the past year, apparently targeting Hezbollah and its supporters. Hezbollah has sent fighters to Syria to bolster regime troops in their fight against mostly Sunni rebels, a role that became public […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hezbollah Moving Long-Range Missiles From Syria to Lebanon, an Analyst Says

Amid the chaos of Syria ’s civil war, Hezbollah has been moving long-range missiles to Lebanon from bases where it had stored them inside Syria, including long-range Scud D missiles that can strike deep into Israel , according to an Israeli national security analyst. The analyst, Ronen Bergman, who has close contacts with Israeli intelligence officials, said Thursday that despite Israel’s undeclared campaign of airstrikes in Syria to stop new deliveries, most of the long-range surface-to-surface missiles given to Hezbollah by its allies Iran and Syria have been disassembled and moved to Lebanon. American intelligence analysts have also concluded that members of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, are smuggling components of advanced Russian-made antiship missile systems piecemeal into Lebanon from war-stricken Syria to avoid an Israeli air campaign, a United States official said Thursday. As many as 12 Russian-made antiship cruise missile systems may now be […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudis Pledge $3 Billion to Support Lebanon’s Army

Saudi Arabia pledged $3 billion to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, in a challenge to the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia’s decadeslong status as Lebanon’s main power broker and security force. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman revealed the Saudi gift on Lebanese national television Sunday, calling it the largest aid package ever to the country’s defense bodies. The Saudi pledge compares with Lebanon’s 2012 defense budget, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put at $1.7 billion. Lebanon would use the Saudi grant to buy "newer and more modern weapons," from France, said Mr. Sleiman, an independent who has become increasingly critical of Hezbollah. It followed what he called "decades of unsuccessful efforts" to build a credible Lebanese national defense force. As a direct challenge to Hezbollah, the Saudi gift—and the Lebanese president’s acceptance—has potential to change the balance of power in Lebanon and the region. It also threatens to raise sectarian and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudis Pledge $3 Billion to Support Lebanon's Army

Saudi Arabia pledged $3 billion to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, in a challenge to the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia’s decadeslong status as Lebanon’s main power broker and security force. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman revealed the Saudi gift on Lebanese national television Sunday, calling it the largest aid package ever to the country’s defense bodies. The Saudi pledge compares with Lebanon’s 2012 defense budget, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put at $1.7 billion. Lebanon would use the Saudi grant to buy "newer and more modern weapons," from France, said Mr. Sleiman, an independent who has become increasingly critical of Hezbollah. It followed what he called "decades of unsuccessful efforts" to build a credible Lebanese national defense force. As a direct challenge to Hezbollah, the Saudi gift—and the Lebanese president’s acceptance—has potential to change the balance of power in Lebanon and the region. It also threatens to raise sectarian and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Beirut bomb kills anti-Assad Lebanese former minister, at least 4 others

Former Lebanese minister Mohammed Shattah, who opposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was killed in an explosion that targeted his convoy in Beirut on Friday along with at least four other people, security sources said. Shattah, a Sunni Muslim, was also an opposition figure and an adviser to former prime minister Saad al-Hariri. Sources at the explosion site said Shattah was on his way to attend a meeting when the explosion went off. A Reuters witness at the scene said his car was "totally destroyed. It is a wreck." The sound of the blast was heard across the city at around 9:40 a.m. (0740 GMT), and a plume of black smoke was seen rising in the downtown business and hotel district. Ambulances could be seen taking victims from the area, a Reuters witness said. A restaurant and a coffee shop were destroyed in the blast, and several cars […]

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In Lebanon, minority Alawites wounded in attacks in latest spillover from Syria’s civil war

One man was dragged from his taxi. Eight others were ordered off a bus on their way home from work. The victims were shot in the legs by masked gunmen, a brutal tactic that officials say has been used on dozens of members of Tripoli’s minority Alawite community in recent months. The intimidation campaign is the latest spillover from neighboring Syria’s long-running civil war, which has been re-created in microcosm in this impoverished port city, Lebanon’s ­second-largest. Alawite residents of the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood who back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , a fellow Alawite, have frequently clashed with Sunni residents of nearby Bab al-Tabbaneh, who support the Syrian rebels. The Alawites are a minority Shiite sect. In August, two Sunni mosques were bombed , killing more than 40 people; Alawite leader Ali Eid was charged with aiding one of the suspects. A few days after the […]

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Car bomb hits Hezbollah stronghold in east Lebanon

A car bomb struck a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group in eastern Lebanon early on Tuesday, causing a number of casualties, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said. A Lebanese official and the group’s Al-Manar TV confirmed the blast and said it occurred near the remote village of Sbouba in the Baalbek region, but there was no immediate word on the nature of the explosion or the target. The TV station owned by Hezbollah said there were no casualties. The explosion appears to be part of a wave of attacks on Hezbollah strongholds and interests in Lebanon. The group is fighting in Syria alongside President Bashar Assad’s troops and has received threats of retaliation from the largely Sunni rebels fighting to topple him. A Lebanese security official confirmed the explosion but said there was no immediate word on the nature of the target or casualties. He […]

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Israel Says Soldier Killed by Lebanese Sniper

An Israeli soldier was killed by a Lebanese army sniper late Sunday as he drove along the border, the Israeli military said, drawing Israeli threats of retaliation. The shooting near Rosh Hanikra raised the possibility of renewed fighting in the volatile area, which has remained mostly quiet since a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. Hezbollah, the guerrilla group that waged the war seven years ago, didn’t appear to be involved in Sunday’s incident. Lebanon’s National News Agency confirmed the shooting by member of the Lebanese army. It wasn’t clear why the soldiers opened fire. The Lebanese army has opened fire in the past after saying Israeli soldiers had tried to infiltrate. Lebanese security officials didn’t immediately comment. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said Israel had protested "this outrageous breach of Israel’s sovereignty" with U.N. peacekeeping forces and heightened its state of preparedness. "We will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple