'Friends of Syria' Group Created after Russia and China Veto U.N. Draft Resolution to Pressure Syria's Assad to Step Down

As Syria Burns, Neighboring Lebanon Feels the Heat

Associated Press
February 11, 2012

The tensions between the two neighborhoods were building for days in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. On one side live Sunni Muslims who hate the Syrian regime. On the hill above are members of the Alawite sect, Bashar Assad's strongest backers.

Overnight, the tempers exploded. For hours, gunmen in the two districts traded automatic weapons fire and volleys of rocket-propelled grenades across the avenue that divides them, ironically named Syria Street.

By the time a shaky truce was reached Saturday, two people were dead — one from each side — and 12 people wounded, half of them soldiers trying to stop the clashes.

The fighting underscored how the bloodshed in Syria, where Assad's regime is cracking down on an 11-month-old uprising against his rule, is enflaming emotions in its tiny neighbor Lebanon. The already deep divisions between Lebanese are being strained, and many fear Syria's chaos will bleed over across the border.

Lebanon is sharply split along sectarian lines, with 18 religious sects. But it also has a fragile political faultline precisely over the issue of Syria.

There is an array of diehard pro-Syrian Lebanese parties and politicians, as well as support for the regime on the street level. There is an equally deep hatred of Assad among other Lebanese who fear Damascus is still calling the shots here. The two sides are the legacy of, and backlash against, Syria's virtual rule over Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 and its continued influence since.

Tempers between the two sides are high enough. But Syria opponents worry the regime may intentionally cause trouble.

"The Syrian regime holds a lot of cards in Lebanon, and the biggest fear is that as the Assad regime gets more desperate, it would decide to use them to create regional chaos," anti-Syrian politician Mustafa Alloush said.

Among those cards is Hezbollah, the Syrian and Iranian-backed Shiite militant group with an arsenal of weapons more powerful than that of the Lebanese army.

Already, any talk about Syria is potential cause for a fight.

On a political talk show on Al-Jazeera TV earlier this month, Lebanese writer and Syria supporter Joseph Abu Fadel flew into a rage over taunts from the other guest, a Syrian opposition member.

Abu Fadel leaped from his chair and charged around the table, fists clenched — and though the host got between them, he managed to land a slap on his rival's face.

An earlier show on Lebanese television turned into a brawl when Alloush called Syria's president a liar. His rival guest, Fayez Shukur, the head of the Lebanese branch of Syria's ruling party, hurled a glass of water in his face.

Northern Lebanon, in particular, is a potential powder keg.

It has a strong Sunni Muslim population, sympathetic to its sectarian brethren who have been the backbone of the Syrian uprising. But it also has pockets of Alawites, the Shiite offshoot that makes up the majority of the Syrian regime's leadership and to which Assad himself belongs.

The Friday-Saturday night clashes were between the mainly Sunni Bab Tabbaneh neighborhood and the adjacent, Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen, on a hill overlooking its rival.

Short bouts of gunfire or grenade-throwing between them has been going on for years because of the sectarian tensions. But the violence has become more frequent as Syria worsens. Sunnis in Bab Tabbaneh resent their Alawite neighbors' backing of Assad, while Jabal Mohsen residents accuse their rivals of giving aid to the uprising.

In Beirut last week, hundreds of Lebanese demonstrators faced off outside the Russian Embassy after Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at the U.N. Security Council aimed at pressing Assad to step down. An army cordon separated the anti-Assad crowd from the president's supporters to prevent clashes.

"Bashar, we are your men!" supporters shouted unanimously.

"Come on, Bashar, leave!" opponents chanted back.

Many of Lebanon's Christians, meanwhile, have been laying low on the subject of Syria.

Their community is divided between pro- and anti-Syrian camps. Even some Christian opponents of Damascus are hesitant about backing an uprising they fear will bring Sunni fundamentalists to power in Syria.

Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, head of the Maronite Church, which had long been critical of Damascus, raised an uproar in September when he warned that the Christian presence in the Mideast could be threatened if Assad falls. He said Assad should be given a chance to reform.

The tensions come at a time when anti-Syrian parties in Lebanon, which once ran the government, are weakened. They were replaced in 2010 by a government dominated by Hezbollah and pro-Syrian allies. Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a personal friend of Assad, says he isn't taking sides in the crisis, adopting a policy of "disassociation."

Still, opponents accuse the government of complicity with Damascus.

Lebanon voted against suspending Syria from the Arab League in November and was the only member state that did not endorse a League plan calling on Assad to transfer powers to his vice president.

"The Lebanese government is cooperating with the Syrian regime, they are only using this policy of disassociation as a cover," Alloush said.

A longtime Syrian military presence in Lebanon ended after massive 2005 protests sparked by the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bombing. Many Lebanese accuse Syria of involvement in the assassination, a charge Damascus denies.

A Western-backed, anti-Syrian government was elected, but its stint in power was plagued by constant feuds with Hezbollah, until the Shiite movement succeeded in bringing it down and elevating pro-Syrians to power.

Writing in the leading An-Nahar daily, political analyst Abdelwahab Badrakhan warned that Syria could stir up trouble in Lebanon to intimidate the West and "settle scores" with Arabs it accuses of conspiring against it.

Anti-Syrian politicians say they fear possible assassinations, recalling a string of unsolved killings of Lebanese critics of Syria in 2006. Last week, media reported that legislator Sami Gemayel had been warned by a security chief to take precautions because of a threat.

Alloush, the anti-Syrian politician, said he takes the warnings seriously.

"The Syrian regime is in trouble and as it goes down, the concern is that it will try to bring everyone down with it."

Arab League Wants UN Peacekeepers in Syria

Associated Press
February 13, 2012

The Arab League called Sunday for the U.N. Security Council to create a joint peacekeeping force for Syria and urged Arab states to sever all diplomatic contact with President Bashar Assad's regime, the League's latest effort to bring an end to the violence that has killed more than 5,000 people.

Syria immediately rejected the moves, spelled out in a resolution adopted by League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal conveyed the 22-nation League's deep frustration with Syria, telling delegates that it was no longer appropriate to stand by and watch the bloodshed.

"Until when will we remain spectators?" he said. The bloodshed in Syria "is a disgrace for us as Muslims and Arabs to accept."

Syria's state news agency said the regime rejected the Arab League decisions, which were taken without a Syrian representative present. Syria's ambassador to the Arab League, Ahmed Youssef, was quoted as saying that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were "living in a state of hysteria after their last failure at the U.N. Security Council to call for outside interference in Syria's affairs and to impose sanctions on the Syrian people."

The Arab League has been at the forefront of regional efforts to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria. The group put forward a plan that Assad agreed to in December, then sent in monitors to check whether he was complying. When it became clear that Assad's regime was flouting the terms of the agreement and the killings were continuing, the League pulled out the observers last month.

"The time has come for a decisive action to stop the bloodshed suffered by the Syrian people since the start of last year," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told the Arab foreign ministers. "We must move quickly in all directions ... to end or break the ongoing cycle of violence in Syria."

The League called for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution that provides for an immediate cease-fire in Syria, the protection of civilians and overseeing a humanitarian effort for victims of the violence. It demanded that regime forces lift the siege on neighborhoods and villages and pull troops and their heavy weapons back to their barracks.

It urged Syrian opposition groups to unite ahead of a Feb. 24 meeting in Tunisia of the "Friends of Syria" group, which includes the United States, its European allies and Arab nations working to end the uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule.

The group was created after last weekend's veto at the U.N. by Russia and China of a Western and Arab draft resolution that would have pressured Assad to step down. That resolution also would have demanded that Assad halt the crackdown on dissent and implement the Arab League peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to clear the way for elections.

Elaraby told the Cairo meeting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wrote him a letter Saturday saying Russia would agree to a joint U.N.-Arab League peacekeeping force.

The League also said it wanted to provide Syrian opposition groups with political and material support. It called for a halt to all diplomatic contacts with Syria and for referring officials responsible for crimes against the Syrian people to international criminal tribunals. It urged a tightening of trade sanctions previously adopted by the League that have not been fully implemented.

The foreign ministers were also expected to consider a proposal by Gulf states to expel Syrian ambassadors from Arab capitals, but the resolution made no mention of that.

Meanwhile, Washington piled more pressure on Syria.

President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Jacob Lew, said it was only a matter of time before Assad's regime collapsed.

"The brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable and has to end," Lew told "Fox News Sunday." The U.S. is pursuing "all avenues that we can" and "there is no question that this regime will come to an end. The only question is when," he said.

Late Saturday, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri threw the terror network's support behind Syrian rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad, raising fears that Islamic extremists are exploiting the uprising that began peacefully but is quickly transforming into an armed insurgency.

The regime has long blamed terrorists for the revolt, and al-Qaida's endorsement creates new difficulties for Western and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help force Assad out of power.

At the Cairo meeting, foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council proposed that all Arab League nations withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus and expel Syria's ambassadors from their capitals, according to officials.

The proposal was not mentioned in the resolution, but the clause calling for a halt to all diplomatic contacts with Syria appeared to reflect a compromise.

The six gulf nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been campaigning for a tougher stand against Assad's regime and may offer formal recognition of the National Syrian Council, the largest of Syria's opposition groups.

Assad's regime has pursued a harsh crackdown against the uprising since it began last March. More than 5,400 people have been killed, according to a U.N. estimate in January. That figure has not been updated because the chaos in Syria has made it all but impossible to do so, and hundreds have been reported killed since.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

Israeli Drone Buzzes Over South Lebanon

PressTV
February 3, 2011

An Israeli reconnaissance plane has penetrated Lebanese airspace and flown over southern part of the country in clear violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

The Israeli aircraft crossed into Lebanese airspace at 10:22 p.m. local time (1922 GMT) on Wednesday and conducted several unwarranted flights above the border town of Alma al-Shaab and southern Lebanon, a statement released by the Lebanese military said on Thursday.

The remote-controlled drone left Lebanese airspace at 6:45 a.m. local time (0345) on Thursday while flying over the southern sector of the country.

Israel violates Lebanon's airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.

Lebanon's government, the Hezbollah resistance movement, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have repeatedly cited Israel's air surveillance flights over Lebanon as flagrant violations of UN resolution 1701 and the country's sovereignty.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the war of aggression Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

Ahmadinejad Receives Hero's Welcome in Lebanon

"The Zionist regime will continue its downfall and no power can save it because of the resistance in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, Iran and the rest of the region", he vowed. - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

AFP
October 14, 2010

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a hero's welcome on his first official visit to Lebanon, where he hailed the country's resistance against Israeli "aggression."

And on Thursday he was due to defy his international critics by touring villages in the south of the country, just a few kilometres (miles) from the Israeli border that were destroyed during the 2006 conflict.

Ahmadinejad was showered with rice and rose petals Wednesday by tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters who lined the streets and waved Iranian flags as his motorcade made its way from the airport to the presidential palace.

He can also expect a hero's welcome in southern Lebanon Thursday, where Iran has been a major donor in reconstruction following the month-long 2006 war.

The two-day trip is viewed as a boost for the Shiite militant Hezbollah. Members of Lebanon's pro-Western parliamentary majority however have criticised it as a bid to turn the country into "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean."

In Washington, the White House described the official visit as "provocative", while Israeli officials said it marked Lebanon's transformation into an "extremist state."

"We reject any efforts to destabilise or inflame tensions within Lebanon," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday in Kosovo.

"We would hope that no visitor would do anything or say anything that would give cause to greater tension or instability in that country."

At a press conference with Lebanese counterpart Michel Sleiman, Ahmadinejad hailed Lebanon's resistance against the "Zionist regime" and offered his country's backing toward that end.

"We fully support the resistance of the Lebanese people against the Zionist regime and we want full liberation of occupied territory in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine," he said.

"As long as (Israeli) aggression exists in the region, we will not see stability," he added.

A beaming Ahmadinejad later appeared at a rally in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut. He waved to a rapturous crowd of tens of thousands before taking his seat next to the militant party's deputy commander Naim Qassem.

Chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," Hezbollah supporters turned out en masse to welcome Ahmadinejad, whose country is a major financial, military and ideological supporter of their militant Shiite group.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, whose party fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, on Wednesday echoed Iran's call for Israel to disappear.

"President Ahmadinejad is right when he says Israel is illegitimate and should cease to exist," Nasrallah told the ecstatic crowd via video link.

Ahmadinejad, who has called Israel a "tumour" and has denied the Holocaust, repeated at the rally assertions that the Jewish state's downfall was inevitable.

"The Zionist regime will continue its downfall and no power can save it because of the resistance in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, Iran and the rest of the region", he vowed.

The rally was held at an outdoor stadium where Iranian flags and photos of Ahmadinejad were hoisted alongside two life-sized pictures of overturned Israeli Merkava tanks.

"Iran is the heartbeat of the resistance," said Hussein Khawi, 50, who was at the rally. "Israel won't dare come near south Lebanon anymore."

Ahmadinejad's first visit since his election in 2005 highlights the clout Iran wields in Lebanon through Hezbollah, but it comes at a sensitive time in politically turbulent Lebanon.

Hezbollah is locked in a standoff with Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri over unconfirmed reports that a UN-backed tribunal is set to indict members of the Shiite militant group over the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.

Tensions over the tribunal have grown steadily in recent weeks, raising fears of renewed sectarian violence and the collapse of Lebanon's hard-won national unity government.

At the Beirut rally, Ahmadinejad made a passing remark defending Hezbollah.

"In Lebanon, a friend and patriot was viciously assassinated," he said in reference to Rafiq Hariri.

Western countries "are trying to sow sedition and conflict... by manipulating the media to accuse our friends (Hezbollah) and fulfill their aims in the region," he added.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

A Divided Lebanon Waits for Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

By Nicholas Blanford, The Christian Science Monitor
October 12, 2010

The chatter of families and the smell of grilled lamb and chicken from barbecues wafts through a newly built tourist park perched on a windy hilltop overlooking Lebanon's border with Israel.

This park, in an area occupied by Israeli troops until 10 years ago and pounded during the 2006 Hezbollah war with Israel, is a sign to many Lebanese of the revitalization of the south. But it's a symbol to others, particularly Israel, of what they fear most: an Iranian outpost on the border.

The development was paid for by Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to arrive in Lebanon tomorrow to cement his relationship with Hezbollah, the Shiite political party and militia that is Israel's principal enemy in its northern neighbor.

Mr. Ahmadinejad will attend a rally Thursday in the nearby town of Bint Jbeil and briefly visit this park with its horseback rides, paintball arena, palm-thatched dining areas, and small-scale model of Jerusalem’s golden-domed Al-Aqsa mosque – topped with an Iranian flag. Southern Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah are eagerly looking forward to Ahmadinejad’s visit to this hilltop village, a key battleground in the 2006 war.

“This place means the same to Ahmadinejad as it does to us,” says Mohammed Hussein, taking a break from cooking lamb kebabs. “This place is a symbol of sacrifice and freedom.”

Other Lebanese, however, express misgivings about the imminent arrival of the outspoken Iranian president, fearing his stage-hogging antics will provoke friction along the perennially tense Lebanon-Israel border and potentially aggravate already strained ties between Lebanon’s Shias and Sunnis. On Tuesday, an open letter signed by 250 politicians, civil society activists, journalists, doctors, and teachers called on Ahmadinejad to stop meddling in Lebanese affairs and end its military and financial backing for Hezbollah.

Front line?

“One group in Lebanon draws its power from you… and has wielded it over another group and the state,” the letter said. "Your talk of ‘changing the face of the region starting with Lebanon’ … and ‘wiping Israel off the map through the force of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon'… gives the impression that your visit is that of a high commander to his front line,” the letter added.

Hezbollah has requested its supporters turn out en masse to greet Ahmadinejad when he arrives Wednesday on what will be his first visit to Lebanon since taking office in 2005. Iranian and Lebanese flags line the highway linking Beirut’s city center to the airport alongside portraits of a smiling Ahmadinejad inscribed with “welcome” in Arabic and Farsi.

Hezbollah follows Iran’s religious system and is the recipient of large quantities of financial and military aid from the Islamic Republic.

Ahmadinejad’s visit will be a welcome morale booster for Hezbollah at a time of rising tensions in Lebanon over an investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister who died in a truck bombing in February 2005.

Although Syria was widely blamed for Mr. Hariri’s death, there is increasing speculation that the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is handling the investigation and any subsequent legal proceedings, has uncovered evidence implicating Hezbollah in the assassination.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement, insisting that Israel killed Hariri. The tribunal is thought to be preparing to issue its first indictments against individual members of Hezbollah before the end of the year.

Syrian room

With the spotlight on Hezbollah, Syria has been given some breathing space, allowing it to patch up relations with Arab states like Saudi Arabia and regain some of the influence in Lebanon it lost in the wake of Hariri’s death. The United States also has stepped up its diplomatic engagement with Syria, hoping to revive peace talks with Israel and to gradually wean Damascus from Tehran’s tight embrace.

Saudi Arabia has played a role in the same process by encouraging Saad Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister and son of the slain Rafik, to reconcile with the Syrian leadership. Saad Hariri has met several times in recent months with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he once blamed for ordering his father’s murder. Last month, he publicly exonerated Syria in a newspaper interview, saying his past accusations were “political."

Some analysts believe Syria is maneuvering for advantage by playing off its strategic alliance with Iran against Saudi and US efforts to win Mr. Assad to their side.

Still, Syria needs Hezbollah, the most powerful political force in Lebanon, to help project its influence in its tiny neighbor, and the three-decade alliance between Damascus and Tehran shows no sign of unraveling.

“If Syria is reshuffling its cards, it has to take into account Hezbollah as much as Iran,” says Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, an authority on Hezbollah. “They are not equal in terms of power, but they [Hezbollah and Iran] benefit Syria in different ways and the alliance between them is extremely important.”

'Axis of resistance'

In a sign that the alliance remains intact, Assad visited Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Oct. 2 and both pledged to expand the “axis of resistance,” the informal union of nations and militant groups opposed to Israeli and US ambitions in the Middle East.

“Policymakers in Washington at first thought Assad’s comments in Tehran were an exaggeration by the Iranian media,” says Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “but the Syrians have confirmed Assad’s words, which… demonstrate the ‘axis of resistance’ seems stronger than ever.”

The prospect of indictments against Hezbollah has roiled Lebanon's sectarian waters, particularly between Shias and Sunnis, which inevitably has affected Ahmadinejad’s high profile visit to Lebanon.

Last week, in Tripoli in north Lebanon, posters of the Iranian president were erected with a X across his face and the message: “You are not welcome in Lebanon.” On Monday, Lebanese media reported that the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a Sunni Al Qaeda affiliate, issued a warning that “the whole of Lebanon will tremble if Ahmadinejad sets foot in Lebanon.”

Last month, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades released a televised documentary attacking Hezbollah and the Shiite sect in general (adherents of Al Qaeda's chauvinistic brand of Islam deem Shiites to be apostates).

The slickly produced program, titled “The Oppressed Sect,” referring to Sunnis, features scenes from Lebanon’s 16-year civil war of Shiite militiamen attacking Palestinians and more recent footage of Hezbollah fighters with Sunni captives during clashes in May 2008. The hour-long documentary was compiled in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon.

But this isn't the case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility last year for firing a pair of rockets into Israel from south Lebanon. United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the southern border are wary of a repeat attack to coincide with the Iranian president’s visit to south Lebanon.

“The Israelis would not be able to resist firing back into Lebanon knowing Ahmadinejad is in the district,” says one UN officer, who asked that his name not be used.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

Are Lebanon and Israel Headed for War?

Word on The Streets of Beirut is That The Drums are Beating for Battle

By Simon McGregor, ABC News
February 15, 2010

To the casual observer, people on the streets of Beirut show no fear of war. But talk to many Lebanese today, and you'll soon find war is very much on their minds.

All the people ABC News spoke to say conflict with Israel is looming. It's just a matter of when.

Neither side wants to be guilty of starting the next war, but people in Lebanon say tension is now so high the smallest incident may provide the trigger.

And the next round of hostilities, they warn, will be much broader and more terrible than the last war when Hezbollah battled the Israeli army in 2006.

There are old scores to settle. Hezbollah wants to avenge the assassination of its military mastermind Imad Mugniyeh. Last Friday marked the second anniversary of his mysterious car bombing death in Damascus. Hezbollah also claims Israel still occupies a sliver of Lebanese territory in the south. It is ideologically opposed to Israel's very existence.

The Israelis fear Hezbollah's growing arsenal of long range rockets. They fear for their biggest cities and strategic targets. They see Hezbollah and Syria as Iran's proxies, liable to attack from the north if Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites. Hezbollah fought the once feared Israeli Defense Force to a standstill in 2006. The Jewish state's reputation and deterrence was severely dented. The Israelis have unfinished business.

Hezbollah today has somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 missiles, many more than in 2006, and many capable of hitting targets deep inside Israel. The U.N. patrols the south near the Israeli border so Hezbollah has moved north and into the Bekaa valley. Almost the entire local male population of fighting age has been through military training. Hezbollah leaders talk of military "surprises." No one we spoke to knows what they might be.

Many people speak of Hezbollah changing tactics, even of infiltrating northern Israel. There's talk of plans to take hundreds of Israeli civilians hostage.

Harsh Israeli Response Expected

Everyone ABC News spoke to expects a brutal Israeli response if war breaks out. Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government. So, Israel says, all of Lebanon will be responsible for a Hezbollah attack. To reassert military deterrence Israel must achieve a tangible victory.

And they believe there is substance to Syria's tough talk too. On the road between Damascus and Beirut, residents tell of unusual military activity, all night construction work, army flat bed trucks moving around with their lights switched off.

Defense analysts report the retraining of the Syrian army. Out of armored brigades burdened with Soviet era tanks, and into small commando units armed with hi-tech anti tank rockets used to such deadly effect by Hezbollah fighters in 2006.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is also showing new confidence. Once thought unlikely to stay the course, he has now seen three different Israeli prime ministers. Some say he believes he can survive a war and it may even speed the recovery of his beloved Golan Heights, occupied by his enemy since 1967.

Israeli, Syrian and Lebanese leaders have all pitched in with some dangerously intemperate language. Hezbollah's leader Hasan Nasrallah keeps promising to change the face of the region. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem spoke of his country striking deep into Israeli territory. His Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman promised that Syria would lose the next war and that the ruling Assad regime would be deposed.

Then there is Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under increasing pressure over his country's clandestine nuclear project and who has made barely veiled threats against Israel.
Whether they are western diplomats or analysts from well funded think tanks, Lebanese newspaper editors or writers with close links to Hezbollah, all say they hear the drums of war starting to beat.

A deadlocked peace process between Israel and the Palestinians doesn't help either. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing coalition has resisted U.S. pressure to freeze settlement building. President Obama's hectic domestic agenda, say our Lebanese sources, means his focus will be elsewhere.

In Israel Netanyahu started a recent cabinet meeting by calling for peace with Syria but warning Israel knows how to respond to threats.

And this weekend while the unusually warm temperatures and blue skies led many to the beaches of both Tel Aviv and Beirut Lebanese forces warned Israeli warplanes out of their airspace with anti-aircraft guns. A sound the people of Beirut may have to grow used to.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

Ahmadinejad Warns Israel Against Any Military Move

Reuters
February 11, 2010

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel should be resisted and finished off if it launched military action in the region, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Thursday.

Ahmadeinjad's comments were made when the president spoke over the telephone with his Syrian counterpart late on Wednesday.

Last week, Syria -- a key regional ally of Iran -- accused Israel of pushing the Middle East toward a new war.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, said Israeli aircraft were making daily incursions into Lebanese air space, creating a very dangerous situation.

"We have reliable information ... that the Zionist regime is after finding a way to compensate for its ridiculous defeats from the people of Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah," Ahmadinejad told Syria's Bashar al-Assad, referring to conflicts in 2006 and 2009.

"If the Zionist regime should repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all."

Ahmadinejad, who has often predicted the imminent demise of the Jewish state, said Iran would remain on the side of regional nations including Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

The Islamic Republic does not recognize Israel, which it refers to as the Zionist regime. Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat and has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.

Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude exporter, says it would retaliate for any attack on its nuclear facilities, which it says are part of a peaceful energy program but which the West suspects are aimed at making bombs.

In a statement late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not planning any imminent attack on Lebanon, from where Hezbollah launched some 4,000 rockets at it during the 34-day war in 2006.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, responding to Syria's accusation last week, has said Damascus would be defeated and Assad would lose power in any future conflict. Netanyahu later reassured Syria that Israel sought peace.

Lebanon Warns of "Dangerous" Situation with Israel

Reuters
February 10, 2010

Israeli aircraft are making daily incursions into Lebanese air space, creating a very dangerous situation, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Israel has insisted such flights are needed to monitor Hezbollah guerrillas and has criticized the 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, for not stopping weapons Israeli officials say have been flowing to the group.

The overflights and any rearming of Hezbollah are a violation of Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006.

"We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats," Hariri told the BBC.

"We see what's happening on the ground and in our air space and what's happening all the time during the past two months -- every day we have Israeli war planes entering Lebanese air space," he said.

"This is something that has been escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous," Hariri said in a video posted on the BBC's website.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, asked on Israel Radio about Hariri's comments, said the Lebanese leader was "a hostage to Hezbollah," an allusion to the Iranian-backed group's military power in Lebanon.

The BBC quoted Hariri as saying he feared the prospect of another war with Israel.

In a statement late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not planning any imminent attack on Lebanon, from where Hezbollah launched some 4,000 rockets at it during the 34-day war in 2006.

Last week, Syria accused Israel of pushing the Middle East toward a new war.

Lieberman replied at the time that Damascus would be defeated and President Bashar al-Assad would lose power in any future conflict. Netanyahu later reassured Syria that Israel sought peace.

The BBC quoted Hariri as saying that Lebanon was united and that the government would stand by Hezbollah.

"I think they're betting that there might be some division in Lebanon, if there is a war against us," it quoted him as saying. "Well, there won't be a division in Lebanon. We will stand against Israel. We will stand with our own people."