WarSclerotic

Nasrallah implies Israel behind Hariri hit – JPost – Middle East.

  Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday defended the four members of the terrorist organization charged with the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, praising the men as “brothers” and implying that Israel’s hand was behind the UN tribunal that last week issued the indictments.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, Nasrallah addressed the allegations for the first time since the UN court announced the indictments on Thursday. Charges that Hezbollah was behind the 2005 killing of the prominent Sunni leader have already inflamed sectarian tensions in the small and fractious country.

Nasrallah lamented that charges had been brought against “brothers who have made history in resisting the Zionist occupation.”

“We mentioned the possibility of having Israel involved in the murder and the fact that [Israeli] agents were present at the murder scene one day before the murder,” he said, according to a translation provided by the website Now Lebanon.

“No one in the STL [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] even asked the Israelis anything. This is normal, why? Because the tribunal, since its formation, had a precise goal and no one was allowed to talk to the Israelis … Instead of investigating the Israelis, [the STL] gathered information from them,” he said.

Nasrallah dismissed the tribunal as “politicized,” and said the arrest warrants issued against the Hezbollah operatives “are a step in a long journey whose course is becoming clearer, following Israel’s defeat and the victory of the resistance in the [Second Lebanon] war.”

The 2005 assassination of Hariri, seen as a Sunni leader, plunged Lebanon into a series of crises which included killings and brief internal fighting.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Jamal Wakim of Lebanese International University defended Nasrallah’s comments. “It would be in the interest of Israel to implicate Hezbollah in such an act so that it’s viewed not as a resistance moment but a terrorist movement involved in acts not only against Israelis but Lebanese,” he said. “That would mean it is a Shia movement that killed a Sunni leader … In order to engender civil strife that could lead to a civil war.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Iran: UN sanctions can’t slow missile advancements – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iranian defense minister’s comments come amid ten days of war games; Iran recently unveiled underground silos that can carry missiles capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

By The Associated Press and Amos Harel

Iran’s defense minister says the country’s missile development shows that UN sanctions are ineffective and won’t hinder defense programs.

Gen. Ahmad Vahidi says Iran’s missile program is “indigenous” and has no reliance on foreign countries.

	The purported launching of a Shahin missile during war games in Iran.
	Photo by: AP

Saturday’s comments come amid ten days of war games, the country’s latest show of military force amid a standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear program. Vahidi’s statement was posted on the official website of the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force.

Iran on Monday unveiled underground silos that can carry missiles capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases.

State TV broadcast footage of deep underground silos, claiming that medium- and long-range missiles stored in them are ready to launch in case of an attack on Iran. The silos are widely viewed as a strategic asset for Iran in the event of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.

An unidentified officer in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard told state TV that “only few countries in the world possess the technology to construct underground missile silos. The technology required for that is no less complicated than building the missile itself.”

Israel, which views Iran’s as an existential threat, has accused Tehran of receiving assistance from North Korea in building underground missile sites.

But Col. Qelichkhani said the silos are based on local technology developed by Iranian experts.

Iran is under four sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.

‘US accuses Iran of sending weap… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

  US senior officials have accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit, of sending military weapons to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

According to the report, Iran supplied the Taliban in Afghanistan with weapons that have increased the insurgents capabilities of striking US troops and targets from a farther distance.

The accusation comes as tensions between Tehran and Washington continue to escalate. Last Wednesday, the US Treasury Department said that it would impose greater sanctions on Iran following its support for another ally in the region: Syria.

The report of arms shipments from Iran to groups engaging in military conflict with the US heightens the competition for influence in the region playing out between the US and Iran.

And despite US sanctions on Iran, the Islamic Republic last week carried out a large-scale military drill called “Great Prophet Mohammad War Games 6” to allegedly test out Iran’s defense capabilities as well as practice the use of advanced equipment.

Besides the US, different nations in the Middle East have expressed growing concern over Iran’s military aspirations and regional influence.

Israel last week expanded economic sanctions against Iran, following a controversy over the late Israel shipping tycoon Sami Ofer’s supposed trade with the Islamic Republic.

Israel has long claimed that Iran arms and funds Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, two Islamist groups hostile to the Jewish State.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed that the sanctions were “an important step in the struggle against Iran’s nuclear program.”

Saudi Arabia also expressed concern over Iran’s military projects, including the contentious issue of nuclear arms development. A senior Saudi Arabian official said on Thursday “We cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we don’t. It’s as simple as that.”

“If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, that will be unacceptable to us and we will have to follow suit,” the official said.

Saudi Arabia has long been an opponent of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, and as a Sunni Muslim country sees a Shi’ite Iran as an threat of influence in the region as well.

Saudi Arabia has frequently accused Iran of engaging in pro-Shi’ite activities in neighboring Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon.

Report: Assad forces kill 24 civilians in violent protests across Syria – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters flood cities throughout Syria in day activists call largest outpour against Assad regime; No sign of security forces in Hama; Officials say 10,497 refugees still in Turkey.

By News Agencies

Syrian forces killed at least 24 civilians on Friday during pro-democracy protests across Syria and in military assaults on villages in a region bordering Turkey, prominent human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouna said.

Zaitouna told Reuters by phone that the 24 included seven people in the central city of Homs, scene of widening protests against President Bashar Assad and 14 villagers in the northwestern province of Idlib, where troops backed by tanks and helicopters have been storming villages to subdue dissent in rural areas near Turkey.

	Syrians carry national flags during a candle vigil in honor of those who were killed in recent violence, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, June 29, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

Activists described Friday’s protests as the largest outpouring against the Assad regime and a powerful message of the opposition’s resolve, as hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded cities around Syria.

The wildfire rage — flaring in dozens of places at the same time — further strained the resources of Assad’s security forces and military as they also try to choke off a refugee wave into Turkey.

The centerpiece of the latest protests — the central city of Hama — brings further complications for the government. Security forces moved outside Hama in early June after shootings that left 65 people dead, and now the streets appear fully under the sway of the opposition with an estimated 300,000 people gathering Friday in the central square, activists said.

Crowd estimates and other details cannot be independently verified. The Syrian government has banned most foreign media from the country and restricted coverage.

But the protest surge Friday appeared to dwarf recent weeks as Assad’s forces tried to wear down the opposition with relentless force. Syrian rights groups say more than 1,400 people have been killed, most of them unarmed protesters, since mid-March.

The regime disputes the toll, blaming “armed thugs” and foreign conspirators for the unrest that has posed the most serious challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year ruling dynasty in Syria.

In Hama, anti-government crowds defiantly staked their claim to the city — which carries important symbolism to the opposition. In 1982, Assad’s late father, Hafez Assad, stormed the city to crush an uprising, leaving between 10,000 and 25,000 people dead, rights groups say.

Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso estimated 300,000 people joined the rally in Hama without any sign of security forces, which remained outside the city and appeared unwilling to risk major bloodshed again.

It also could reflect fatigue in Assad’s core troops and the need to concentrate on what officials consider strategic fronts. Assad’s elite forces have waged nearly nonstop crackdowns around the country as new protest hotbeds emerged.

Now, they are mobilized in difficult terrain along the Turkish border in efforts to clamp down on refugees fleeing across the border. The regime is deeply embarrassed by the exodus and also fears the camps could become opposition enclaves out of the government’s reach.

“Syrian security forces are exhausted,” said Osso. “There are demonstrations all over Syria and they cannot cover these areas.”

In Lithuania, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Assad’s regime to either begin a credible political reform process or “continue to see increasingly organized resistance.”

“It doesn’t appear that there’s a coherent and consistent message coming from Syria,” Clinton told a news conference. “We know what they have to do. They must begin a genuine transition to democracy and allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient action toward achieving that goal.”

Osso said huge protest crowds moved into the streets after the Muslim noon prayers in places across the country, including the capital Damascus. Some carried red cards to copy the “send off” signal by soccer referees.

A video posted on the Local Coordination Committees’ Facebook page showed dozens of people marching outside a mosque in Damascus’ central neighborhood of Midan as they chanted “Bashar out, Syria is free.”

Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which track the protests in Syria, said Friday’s demonstrations were the largest since the uprising began in mid-March. He did not give a figure, but said there were gatherings in 172 different locations with numbers ranging from few hundreds to hundreds of thousands as in Hama.

Activists — including Idilbi and the Local Coordination Committees — said at least 11 people were killed by security forces around the country, including five in the central city of Homs and two in Damascus.

In separate clashes, three people were killed during a military operation seeking to halt the flow of refugees heading across the border to Turkey, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 10,000 Syrians have already taken shelter in refugee camps in Turkey to escape the violence.

State-run Syrian TV aired footage of pro-government demonstrators in different parts of the country carrying Syrian flags and posters of Assad. State TV said gunmen opened fire at police officers, killing a police officers and a civilian.

Although Syria’s northern border with Turkey, Syrian forces have been combing through villages and hinterlands hunting down soldiers who abandoned their weapons and trying to quell demonstrations.

An activist said some villagers have fled as Syrian soldiers neared.

“They are ghost towns,” said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

In the same area Friday, the activist said other villagers were marching toward the Roman-era city of Barah, where he said Syrian forces had encircled the town of some 20,000 people and positioned snipers on rooftops. Power and water supplies to the city were cut, the activist said.

Turkish officials said Friday 113 refugees have returned to Syria since Thursday and there were no new arrivals. They said the number of refugees still in Turkey is 10,497.