Unbelievable Chain of Assassinations!
September 22, 2007
The apparent attempt to gain control of the Lebanese Parliament by Syria and Hizbullah, through a long chain of assassinations of the ruling coalition, has narrowed its slim majority ahead of the vote on a new President of the Parliament.
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Begin Two Articles excerpted from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs – Daily Alert
Article 1
Lebanese MPs Go into Hiding
(Arab News-Saudi Arabia)
Jittery members of Lebanon’s ruling coalition have gone into hiding, many of them abroad, for fear of meeting the same fate as anti-Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem, who was blown up just days before a key presidential poll.
“There are instructions for us not to move, not to have a fixed agenda, not to use the same vehicles,” said lawmaker Marwan Hamadeh, who survived an assassination bid in October 2004. Several lawmakers blamed the attack which killed Ghanem on Syria and said it was aimed at reducing the slim majority they hold ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
Article 2
Syria Is Making Its Way Back to Lebanon
Eyal Zisser
(Israel Hayom-Hebrew, 20Sep07)
In the last two years, Syria has assassinated its major opponents in Lebanon one after another.
First and foremost, their efforts are directed at killing off members of the Lebanese parliament who oppose Damascus and its policies.
Thus, the majority which the anti-Syrian camp in parliament has enjoyed has been narrowed from 72 to 68.
Another one or two assassinations and this camp will equal the pro-Syrian camp, which is led by Shiite organizations at the head of
which is Hizbullah.
The writer is head of the Dayan Center for Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Begin OneNews New Zealand Article (Reuters)
Lebanon leaders seek to ease tension
Sep 21, 2007 9:54 AM
Rival Lebanese leaders have held discussions to defuse rising tension a day after the assassination of an anti-Syrian lawmaker threatened to derail efforts to elect a new president.
But political sources maintained that a parliament session planned for next week to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud would not yield the necessary quorum for a vote and the election would be postponed.
A two-third quorum in the 128-seat assembly requires a political agreement between the anti-Syria coalition that holds a slight majority and the opposition that includes Hezbollah, supported by Syria and Iran.
The sources said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an opposition leader allied to Damascus, discussed the fallout of Wednesday’s assassination of Christian MP Antoine Ghanem with majority leader Saad al-Hariri, who is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, in a telephone conversation.
“Things are still under control,” a senior opposition source said.
But he said it was virtually impossible that an agreement would be in place
in time to hold the presidential election on Tuesday.
“Things have not collapsed but more time is needed to ease tension. A compromise is still possible, eventually,” the source said. Parliament has until Nov.
23 to elect a president.
Government ministers affirmed their “commitment to holding the presidential elections on time”, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after an emergency ministerial meeting. “Terrorism will not intimidate us,” he said.
The UN Security Council called for the election to be held within the constitutional time frame and without foreign interference despite the killing of Ghanem, which it said was a “terrorist attack”.
“On the eve of the crucial period of the presidential election any attempt to destabilize Lebanon, including through political assassination or other terrorist acts, should not impede or subvert the constitutional process in Lebanon,” a Council statement said.
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