LEBANON BECOMING “GREATER SYRIA!”
November 21, 2006
Late Morning Blog
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Ever since Lebanon became a nation, Syria has referred to it as “greater Syria,” and seems determined for that name to become a reality.
In our BLOG of November 20 we covered the precarious situation in Lebanon, and discussed in detail the danger of attempted coups against the majority government by three minority factions representing a pro-Syrian form of governmental control. Please go back and take a look at “Humpty Lebanon sat on a Wall, Humpty Lebanon had a great Fall.”
The three articles which follow, from the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and DEBKAfile, are the latest available at this time, and should give you an overall view of what is known up to this time.
Begin Jerusalem Post Report
Lebanese industry minister gunned down in Beirut
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST
November 21, 2006
Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his party’s radio station reported.
His fatal shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where Hizbullah’s leading Muslim Shiite party has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.
Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party’s radio station, reported.
The party radio later said he was dead.
Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which has been locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hizbullah.
End Jerusalem Post Report
Beg in Haaretz Report
Lebanese cab
inet minister assassinated in Beirut
Haaretz
By News Agencies
November 21, 2006
BEIRUT – Lebanese anti-Syrian cabinet minister and Christian leader Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.
Security sources said gunmen opened fire as his convoy drove through the Christian Sin el-Fil neighborhood. Gemayel was rushed to hospital, where he later died of his wounds.
Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party mouthpiece reported.
He was later declared dead.
The shooting – at a time when Lebanese political and sectarian tensions already are at fever pitch – seemed certain to intensify the tensions, regardless of who was responsible.
Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.
Lebanon is in the throes of a political storm pitting the anti-Syrian ruling majority against the pro-Damascus opposition. The political tension threatens to spill into street confrontations.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said Tuesday his depleted cabinet was legitimate despite the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers, and warned that any anti-government protests could turn violent.
Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies are preparing to take to the streets to topple Siniora’s government, which they accuse of being allied with the United States, arguing that it has lost its legitimacy since Shi’ite Muslims are no longer represented.
The depleted cabinet last week approved draft United Nations statutes for a tribunal to try the killers of former prime minister Rafik Hariri despite the resignation of the six pro-Syrian ministers.
Many Lebanese blame Syria for the killing of Hariri in a suicide truck bombing in Beirut last year. Damascus denies involvement. A UN commission investigating the assassination has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.
Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and son
of the slain former prime minister, broke off a televised news conference after hearing that Gemayel had been shot.
“This is the act of a coward regime,” said Hariri, in an apparent reference to Syria.
“The cedar revolution is under attack,” he said. “Today one of our main believers in a free democratic Lebanon has been killed. We believe the hand of Syria is all over [this].
“The people of Lebanon will not give up on the international tribunal. This will make them even more determined. We will bring justice to those who killed Pierre Gemayel.”
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her British counterpart Margaret Beckett, speaking at a joint press conference in London as the news broke of Gemayel’s assassination, both condemned the murder.
“The news from Lebanon is another example of the kind of neighborhood we are living in,” Livni said. She said that the killing illustrated the ongoing battle “between moderates and extemists” in the region.
Beckett said that Britain condemned the killing, adding that, “we are dismayed… there are enough problems in Lebanon already.”
End Haaretz Article
Begin DEBKAfile REPORT
Lebanon’s industry minister Pierre Gemayel is murdered near Beirut
November 21, 2006, 5:00 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile Report
The Christian minister’s convoy was attacked driving through the Christian Sin el-Fil district as Lebanon faces a Hizballah threat to the anti-Syrian Fouad Siniora government unless it is granted veto powers. Gemayel died on the way to hospital.
Majority leader Saad Hariri, architect of the anti-Syrian pro-Western New Lebanon, said he sees the hand of Syria behind the murder. His own father was assass inated last year
in a suspected pro-Syrian plot. The government is already shaky after the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers, including Hizballah’s, ten days ago.
It is feared the murder could tip the country over into civil war. Last week the Siniora government approved a proposed UN tribunal for the killers of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri last year, despite their resignation.
Sunday, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah threatened to call a million Shiites to the streets to topple the anti-Syrian Siniora government.
This challenge was a decisive step in the proxy standoff over domination of Beirut involving Hizballah’s backers Iran and Syria, on the one hand, and the United States and Israel, on the other.
End DEBKAfile Report
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