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Hezbollah steers Lebanon closer to Syria, straining efforts to stay neutral

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Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri holds a cabinet meeting at the governmental palace in Beirut, Lebanon August 9, 2017. Picture taken August 9, 2017. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS

By Lisa Barrington BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah and its allies are pressing the Lebanese state to normalize relations with President Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, testing Lebanon's policy of "dissociation" from the Syrian conflict and igniting a political row. Calls for closer ties with the Syrian government, including on refugee returns and military operations on the Lebanon-Syria border, come as Assad regains control of more territory from insurgents and seeks to recover his international standing. The Lebanese policy of "dissociation", agreed in 2012, has aimed to keep the deeply divided state out of regional conflicts such as Syria even as Iran-backed Hezbollah became heavily involved there, sending fighters to help Assad, who is also allied to Iran. The policy has helped rival groups to coexist in governments bringing together Hezbollah, classified as a terrorist group by the United States, with politicians allied to Iran's foe Saudi Arabia, underpinning a degree of political entente amid the regional turmoil.

While Lebanon never severed diplomatic or trade ties with Syria, the government has avoided dealing with the Syrian government in an official capacity and the collapse of the policy would be a boost a political boost to Assad. It would also underline Iran's ascendancy in Lebanon, where the role of Saudi Arabia has diminished in recent years when it has focused on confronting Tehran in the Gulf instead. Assad's powerful Lebanese Shi'ite allies want the government to cooperate with Syria on issues such as the fight against jihadists at their shared border and securing the return of the 1.5 million Syrians currently taking refuge in Lebanon. "Everybody recognizes (the dissociation policy) as a farce to some extent, but at least it contained the conflict and prevented Lebanon from being dragged even further into what is going on in Syria," said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. "(A normalization of relations) would be viewed as a victory, if using sectarian terms, of Shi'ites versus the Sunnis and will just inflame tensions even more."

Britain reiterates support to Lebanese army

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BEIRUT, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The British Charge d'Affaires in Lebanon Ben Wastnage emphasized Friday that the Lebanese army is the "sole legitimate defender of Lebanon" and reiterated British support for the military institution. According to a press release by Prime Minister Saad Hariri's office, Wastange said "I reaffirmed the British support to the Lebanese Armed Forces as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon, which successfully and highhandedly repelled an invasion by Daesh in 2014, and is a cornerstone of Lebanese sovereignty." "In particular, I welcomed the convening of the Higher Defense Committee and the Prime Minister's backing for the Lebanese Armed Forces Commander," the British diplomat added.

Hariri, Richard launch Diaspora ID program

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Daily Star.com.lb - Federica Marsi - BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri raised the importance of renewing ties between the country and the Lebanese diaspora, at the launch of a new virtual network of entrepreneurs, businesspeople and creative minds Thursday. Diaspora ID – designed by the private company Netways and financed by a $1 million grant from USAID – seeks to virtually connect Lebanese entrepreneurs outside and inside the country, thus spawning mutually beneficial business relationships. “Diaspora ID has created an unimaginable opportunity for Lebanese at home and abroad. Its possibilities are endless,” Prime Minister Hariri said at the launch event held Thursday at the Grand Serail. “It has created a new IT solution and used cutting-edge artificial intelligence to capitalize on the enormous potential of the Lebanese diaspora to contribute to employment and economic growth in Lebanon,” Hariri added.

A video presentation of the project showed a world map of connected dots, representing Lebanese expats, located geographically with a pin containing the platform’s symbol – a bird with spread wings. No part of the world lacked its fair share of pins, each labeled with a Lebanese name. The Lebanese diaspora is estimated to be in the range of 14 million people – several times larger than the Lebanese population of the country. According to Hariri, many expats maintain an emotional bond with their native country and would be eager to give back to it and contribute to its development. “I am here today because I believe in your power, the power of today’s innovators and the power of Lebanon’s diaspora,” he said.

Engineer and Netways Managing Partner Rola Mousa conceived of the platform as a way to give back after having lived for a long time outside of the country. “I had a dream to provide the Lebanese with a similar opportunity,” she said at the launch event Thursday. As Mousa explained, the platform will serve several functions. By listing their companies on the platform, users inside and outside Lebanon can describe their services and their needs and be matched to users with a complementary profile. The platform will also provide users abroad with information on the history of their ancestral villages in Lebanon. “This will serve particularly medium and small companies, which represent 93 percent of businesses in Lebanon,” Mousa said.

She echoed Hariri, saying that many Lebanese nationals living outside the country share her eagerness to contribute to their homeland. Consequently, Diaspora ID also provides the opportunity for skilled individuals in a variety of sectors to offer virtual training to similar businesses in Lebanon that might be in need guidance and expert advice. “This is what I call ‘brain circulation,’” Mousa said, adding that the transfer of knowledge facilitated by the platform will give the Lebanese diaspora an easy and quick way to contribute to Lebanon’s development.

Lebanese army pounds IS posts on border with Syria

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BEIRUT, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army has shelled the posts of the Islamic State group (IS) on the outskirts of the eastern border towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek, the Army Orientation Directorate said in a statement on Thursday. "Army units have pounded with heavy artillery, missile launchers and helicopters, several posts of terrorist in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa. Several injuries were reported among their ranks," the Army's communique said. The move comes as the army gears up for a long-awaited assault to dislodge hundreds of IS militants from a remote corner near Syrian border, seeking to end a years-long threat posed to neighboring towns and villages by the extremists. Car bombs made in the area and sent to other parts of the country, including Beirut's southern suburbs, have killed scores of citizens. The planned operation follows a six-day military offensive by Hezbollah that forced al-Qaida-linked fighters to flee the area on the outskirts of the border town of Arsal, along with thousands of civilians.

Syrian regime’s invite creates rift in Lebanon’s ‘unity govt’

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Arab news - NAJIA HOUSSARI - BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday banned official visits to Syria by ministers — and was immediately defied by a Hezbollah member of his Cabinet. Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan said he would accept an invitation to attend the Damascus International Fair this month in an official capacity. “I will attend the opening of the Damascus exhibition and I will meet with our fellow ministers there,” he said. Earlier, Hariri had reminded a Cabinet meeting that they were “a national unity government” and should distance themselves from regional conflicts. For that reason, he said, any “Lebanese ministerial visit to Syria in the name of the government” would be refused. The Syrian regime has invited several Lebanese ministers to the Damascus event, which begins on Aug. 17 and is aimed at “rebuilding Syria.” They include Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, a known opponent of the Assad regime.
Information Minister Melhem Riachy said after the Cabinet meeting: “Prime Minister Hariri was clear about the disassociation policy and distancing ourselves from regional conflicts and axes. The visit of any minister to Syria will be on a personal level and not in the name of the government.”

Beirut's Burkini Backlash: Muslim Bathing Suit Banned From Lebanese Beaches

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Tunisian women, one (R) wearing a "burkini", a full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women, swim at Ghar El Melh beach near Bizerte, north-east of the capital Tunis

by sputniknews.com/ Many beaches and swimming pools in Lebanon have reacted to increasing numbers of women arriving in "burkinis," by banning the swimming suit. More and more beach-goers in Lebanon have become subject to a restriction on wearing the "burkini," a swimming costume for conservative Muslims that covers a women's body from top to toe. Burkini sales have soared in recent years as the garment has received attention from the media and the authorities in Europe and elsewhere. After the burkini was banned from beaches in several regions of southern France in August 2016, sales of the garment increased several times over, suppliers reported Australian designer Aheda Zanetti, who claims the trademark on the name burkini and burqini, told the BBC that online sales were up 200 percent as a result of the furor.

Recently, the owners of private beaches and swimming pools in Lebanon have ordered swimmers not to wear burkinis. One swimming pool owner told Sputnik Arabic that he banned the costume, explaining that the socially accepted clothing for females to swim in public places is a bikini. Lebanese sociologist Talal Atrisi told Sputnik that the country is home to diverse cultures which have peacefully co-existed for a long time. A burkini ban on certain beaches doesn't mean that these women are completely prevented from swimming, but rather that they are supposed to visit special women-only beaches or pools. Some owners of public pools and beaches are trying to attract a certain clientele, who might not want to see women in burkinis, the expert explained. "There is a culture with a conservative Islamic dimension which is manifested in terms of dress and tradition. In contrast, there is another culture that is also relatively conservative but influenced by the western atmosphere," Atrisi said.

North Korea probably couldn't nuke the US military in Guam even if it tried

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FILE PHOTO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 (Mars-12) in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS/File photo

by Alex Lockie - Business insider - After strong words from President Donald Trump promising "fire and fury" in response to continued threats from Pyongyang, North Korea threatened to launch a nuclear-missile attack on the US military in Guam. But North Korea mentioned a specific missile, the Hwasong-12, that it has tested just once, and an expert contacted by Business Insider says hitting the US military in Guam would be easier said than done. "No one, not even the North Koreans, knows the CEP of the HS-12," Mike Elleman, the senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Business Insider, referring to circular error probable, or the distance by which a missile can be expected to miss its target. "Having said that, we can guesstimate a minimum CEP from first principles," Elleman said. Essentially, even a small task like cutting off the engines a fraction of a second too late can make the missile go miles off course. "All told, the CEP will be greater than 5 km," Elleman said. (Five kilometers is equal to about 3 miles.) "But this is a very rough estimate.

Given the paucity of flight tests, I suspect if used today, the HS-12 would have a CEP considerably larger than 5 km, perhaps 10 km, or more." While Andersen Air Force Base, the home of the strategic bombers North Korea expressly wanted to target, spans about 35 miles across, North Korea would have greater problems than accuracy. The massive blast radius caused by a nuclear device, which North Korea, according to news reports this week, is believed to have perfected and miniaturized to deliver on missiles, could make up for a lack of accuracy. But serious questions remain around North Korea's ability to build vehicles to reenter the planet's atmosphere through tremendous pressure and friction.

The only test of the Hwasong-12 was done on a lofted trajectory and not a realistic, flatter curve. b-1 bomber guam Four B-1B Lancers assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, arriving at Andersen AFB in Guam on February 6. US Air Force "The more interesting and important question revolves around the missile's reliability," Elleman said. Though Elleman thinks the Hwasong-12 would work more often than not, North Korea would need to launch several missiles, and there's just no evidence it has enough deployed and available. Additionally, the US military at Guam has the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile-interceptor system, perhaps the most reliable anywhere. "We always maintain a high state of readiness and have the capabilities to counter any threat, to include those from North Korea," Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Business Insider. When North Korea tested its intercontinental Hwasong-14 missile on July 4, the US was aware 70 minutes ahead of time, according to the Diplomat. After North Korea issues a warning like the one it did Tuesday, the US would be even more on guard and may intervene if it spotted North Korea preparing a launch.