Middle East Experience

A UN-backed court on Tuesday began reading the verdict in the case of four Hezbollah members charged with conspiracy to carry out the 2005 bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire, had close ties with the United States, Western and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, and was seen as a threat to Iranian and Syrian influence in Lebanon. He led efforts to rebuild Beirut following the 1975-1990 civil war.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The verdict comes as Lebanese are still reeling from the aftermath of a huge explosion that killed 178 people this month and from an economic meltdown that has shattered their lives.Hariri’s assassination plunged Lebanon into what was then its worst crisis since the war, setting the stage for years of confrontation between rival political forces.The Iran-backed Shia Muslim group Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing.‘International Justice Defeats Intimidation’ read a headline in Lebanon’s an-Nahar daily with a caricature of the slain Hariri’s face looking at a mushroom cloud over the devastated city, with a caption: “May you also (get justice)”, referring to an investigation that could unveil the cause of the blast.Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that if any members of the movement were convicted, the group would stand by their innocence.But views of the case are mixed.Beirut tour guide Nada Nammour, 54, speaking before the reading of the verdict began, said that the 2005 bombing was a crime that should be punished. “Lebanon needs to see law and justice ... We were born in war, we lived in war and will die in it, but our children deserve a future.”The verdict in The Hague may further polarize the already divided country and complicate an already tumultuous situation after the August 4 blast at Beirut port, where authorities say ammonium nitrate stored unsafely detonated, fueling public outrage and leading to the government’s resignation.Harri’s killing removed a powerful Sunni leader and allowed the further political expansion of Shia power led by Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon.Justice 15 years onThe judgment had initially been expected earlier this month, but was delayed after the port explosion.The investigation and trial in absentia of the four Hezbollah members has taken 15 years and cost roughly $1 billion. It could result in a guilty verdict and later sentencing of up to life imprisonment, or acquittal.DNA evidence showed that the blast that killed Hariri was carried out by a male suicide bomber who was never identified.Prosecutors used cell phone records to argue the men on trial, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Assad Hassan Sabra and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, carefully monitored Hariri’s movements in the months leading up to the attack to time it and to put forward a fake claim of responsibility as a diversion.Court-appointed lawyers said there is no physical evidence linking the four to the crime and they should be acquitted.The reading of the verdict is set to last several hours.Hariri’s son Saad said he was not seeking revenge, but that justice must prevail.Some Lebanese say they are now more concerned with finding out the truth behind the Beirut port blast.“I do want to know what the verdict is ... but what matters now is who did this (port blast) to us because this touched more people,” said Francois, a volunteer helping victims in a ruined district.Also read:Beirut explosion leaves hundreds of children mentally traumatizedBusiness owners suffer blow as Beirut explosion wrecks cafés, galleries, livelihoodsBeirut port explosion equivalent of 200 to 300 tons of high explosives: Experts
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lebanon braces as UN tribunal starts reading verdict in Hariri killing case

Since the Turkish-backed FSA took control of areas north of Aleppo and some areas of the countryside of Raqqa and Hasakah, the bombings that claimed hundreds of civilian lives never stopped, nor did the kidnappings and assassinations, while clashes erupted among some factions allied with Turkey.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Turkish backed armed groups clash in northern Syria

The exposure of the clandestine affair between Israel and the United Arab Emirates creates a substantive change in the Middle East.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Exposure of Israel-UAE ties changes Middle East substantively

The head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad, Yossi Cohen, met the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates during a visit to the country, the UAE’s state news agency WAM said on Tuesday.“The two sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the security field, and shared perspectives on regional developments and issues of common interested, including both countries’ efforts to contain COVID-19,” WAM said.Cohen’s trip marked the first visit to the UAE by an Israeli official after the announcement last week by US President Donald Trump that the two countries had agreed to normalize relations.As part of the deal, Israel agreed to suspend the annexation of occupied West Bank territories, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the plan was not off the table in the long run.The Israel-UAE deal is only the third such accord Israel has struck with an Arab country, and raises the prospect of similar deals with other pro-Western Gulf states.Trump said leaders from the two countries would sign the agreement at the White House in the coming weeks.Read more:Israel’s president invites Abu Dhabi Crown Prince to Jerusalem following agreementEight moments that led up to the UAE’s agreement with Israel‘Great news for peace’: Former Israel, US officials react to historic UAE-Israel deal
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Israel Mossad head and UAE national security adviser discuss security cooperation

A special UN-backed tribunal looking into the 2005 truck bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Tuesday found only one of the four defendants guilty.At a hearing that opened with a moment of silence for the victims of the August 4 port explosion that devastated Beirut, and in the presence of family members of those killed in the truck bombing that assassinated Hariri – including his son, Saad Hariri, who also served as Prime Minister before resigning last October – judges from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon read out the long-awaited verdict after a recap of the evidence by trial chamber judges.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra were charged in absentia with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.Ayyash, the convicted lead defendant, was also charged with committing a terrorist attack by means of an explosive device, intentional homicide of Rafik Hariri and the 21 other victims, and attempted intentional homicide of 226 additional people.The other three defendants were charged with being accomplices in these acts.A fifth accused, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, who was a top Hezbollah commander, died in 2016 and was subsequently removed from the case.The tribunal found Tuesday that there was enough evidence to convict Ayyash in absentia of the all the charges against him.The tribunal found that Ayyash, the chief defendant, had been the user of a cell phone identified by prosecutors as critical in the attack – part of a “red network” of mobile users that appeared based on its movements to be the core team involved in carrying out the attack.The tribunal was "satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt" that the evidence showed that Ayyash used the phone, Judge Micheline Braidy said, reading a summary of the 2,600-page verdict. While the defense had asserted that Ayyash was outside Lebanon in Saudi Arabia on a hajj pilgrimage at the time of the attack, the tribunal found that in fact, he had postponed the trip and remained in Lebanon.But the tribunal found that the circumstantial evidence connecting the other three defendants to the attack was not strong enough to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.Prosecutors alleged that Hariri’s movements were tracked for months before his assassination by a network of co-conspirators using color-coded mobile phones.The case against the defendants relied heavily on telecommunications evidence showing how the movement of the specific mobile phones tracked Hariri’s movements and additional evidence connecting the mobile phones in question to the defendants, including colocation with their personal phones.The tribunal noted that people who took part in some of the preparations for the attack, including those who were surveilling Hariri, did not necessarily know that they were preparing for an assassination attempt or for a suicide bombing.The judges noted that Ayyash had an affiliation with Hezbollah and that the accused were all supporters of the group, but the verdict also stopped short of directly pointing to responsibility by Hezbollah in the attack.While noting that Hariri’s killing was “undoubtedly a political act” and that “the growing opposition to Syrian presence in Lebanon (by Hariri’s allies) threatened Syria’s interests,” Judge David Re added that while “the trial chamber is of the view Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr. Hariri and some of his political allies; however there was no evidence that Hezbollah leadership had an involvement in Mr. Hariri's murder and there is no direct evidence of Syrian involvement in it."But Judge Janet Nosworthy said that those responsible for the bombing “must have known that numerous people would have been killed or injured regardless of whether or not it succeeded in killing Mr. Hariri” and evidence shows it was “designed to destabilize Lebanon generally.”The tribunal also addressed the case of Ahmad Abu Adas, a Palestinian man who appeared in a video claiming responsibility for the attack and who has since never been found. Prosecutors had claimed that Merhi, Oneissi, and Sabra had targeted Abu Adas before the attack to find someone who would make a false claim of responsibility.The judges found that while Abu Adas was not the suicide bomber and the video appeared to be a false claim, the prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the three defendants had been part of the making of the video or that they were involved in Abu Adas’ disappearance.The mood in Beirut was anxious leading up to the reading of the verdict, with many anticipating clashes between Hariri supporters and Hezbollah supporters. The verdict had originally been scheduled for August 7 but was postponed in light of the Beirut port explosion.Also read: Massive explosions rock Lebanon’s capital of Beirut; Trump says it was an ‘attack’Justice after 15 yearsFor 15 years, debate has swirled over who was responsible for the assassination, with many fingers pointing at Syria or Hezbollah.Hariri served as prime minister of Lebanon five times following the 1975-90 civil war. A multi-billionaire who made his fortune in construction in Saudi Arabia, he was the dominant Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon’s sectarian system.He was assassinated on February 14, 2005, after visiting the Parliament building and neabry Café de l’Etoile. As his motorcade passed along the seafront corniche near the St. George hotel, a truck bomb tore through his vehicle, leaving a massive crater and ripping the facades of the surrounding buildings.The other victims killed included Hariri’s bodyguards, pedestrians, and the former economy minister Bassil Fleihan.By June 2005, an international investigation was underway headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, and by October it had issued a report implicating high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials. Syria always denied any involvement.In August, four Lebanese generals who were pillars of the Syrian-dominated order were arrested at the request of Mehlis. They were released nearly four years later without charge after the tribunal said there was not sufficient evidence to indict them. They always denied any role.Hariri and SyriaIn the year before his assassination, Hariri had been embroiled in a row over the extension of the term of pro-Syria President Emile Lahoud. Under Syrian pressure, the constitution was amended to allow the three-year extension. Hariri had opposed the move but eventually signed the amendment.While Hariri is credited with much of Lebanon’s post-war reconstruction, he resigned in 2004 as a UN Security Council resolution put pressure on Syria over its role in Lebanon.The resolution called for a free and fair presidential election, the withdrawal of all foreign forces, and for the disbandment of armed groups in the country, which included the pro-Damascus Hezbollah.His assassination ignited the “Cedar Revolution,” mass protests against the Syrian presence in Lebanon. Under growing international pressure, Syria withdrew its troops in April 2005.What unfolded after would reshape Lebanon for the next decade and a half until new popular protests would break out in October 2019 that called for an end to the sectarian system.Hariri’s son Saad, who would become prime minister and step down last October, led a coalition of anti-Syrian parties known as March 14, which was backed by Western states and Saudi Arabia. Syria’s Lebanese allies, including the Shia Hezbollah, gathered into a rival alliance called March 8. A sectarian divide emerged between Sunnis and Shia.Lebanon’s two main Christian Maronite leaders, Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea, both returned to political life: Aoun returned from exile and Geagea was released from jail.The March 14 alliance won a parliamentary majority in June.Several years of political conflict ensued between March 14 and March 8, much of it focused on the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons. The tribunal into the Hariri killing was also a point of conflict.The tension culminated in a brief eruption of civil conflict in 2008 during which Hezbollah took over Beirut.Blame shifts to HezbollahThe German prosecutor Mehlis was replaced in 2006, and several personnel resigned. Saad Hariri, who had blamed Syria retracted his accusation in 2010, and in 2011 the tribunal named four Hezbollah members wanted over the killing, none of which have been detained by Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah has said they will not be.The indictment said they were linked to the attack largely by circumstantial evidence gleaned from phone records. A fifth member of Hezbollah was indicted in 2012.Hezbollah dismissed the indictment, saying it contained no proof of what it said were fabricated accusations. One of the original four suspects, senior Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria in 2016.Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has accused the tribunal of trying to undermine his group and has said it is a tool of its enemies in the United States and Israel.-With Reuters
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UN-backed court: One defendant out of four guilty in 2005 murder of ex-Lebanon PM

Israel and the United States are campaigning for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's mandate to be revised, empowering the force to eject Hezbollah from south Lebanon.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Israel files grievance against Hezbollah as UNSC retools UNIFIL

Morocco is preparing to open the Grand Theatre of Rabat, which, at 47,000 square meters will be the largest theater in the Arab world and Africa, adding a new dimension to Morocco’s official capital..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Grand Theatre of Rabat soon to open as the largest in Arab world, Africa

Russia's defence ministry said the device went off while the convoy was returning from a humanitarian operation..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Russian general killed by 'explosive device' in Syria: agencies

Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Tuesday called on Hezbollah to turn in the man held responsible for his father’s 2005 assassination, Rafik, shortly after a UN-backed tribunal said a commander from the Iran-backed group was responsible for the slaying.“The [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] proved that one of Hezbollah’s commanders carried out the operation,” Hariri told Al Arabiya in an interview.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Hariri said that from the time his father was killed, “we wanted justice, and we call on this, Ayyash, to be turned in to the international tribunal.”Salim Jamil Ayyash, the convicted lead defendant, was charged with committing a terrorist attack by means of an explosive device, intentional homicide of Hariri and the 21 other victims, and attempted intentional homicide of 226 additional people.The judges noted that Ayyash had an affiliation with Hezbollah and that the accused were all supporters of the group, but the verdict also stopped short of directly pointing to responsibility by Hezbollah in the attack.Three defendants were charged with being accomplices in these acts.A fifth accused, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, a top Hezbollah commander, died in 2016 and was subsequently removed from the case.The tribunal found Tuesday that there was enough evidence to convict Ayyash in absentia of the all the charges against him.“Hezbollah needs to know that it [is responsible] for this crime. And the accused should be turned in,” Hariri told Al Arabiya.Some Lebanese, including victims waiting 15 years for justice, voiced disbelief at the verdict that acquitted three other Hezbollah members and found no evidence of the involvement of the leadership of Hezbollah or the Syrian government.“I am shocked. Instead of the network (of culprits) expanding, it is now one superman who has done all of that?” said Sanaa al-Sheikh, who was wounded in the February 14, 2005 bomb blast on Beirut’s waterfront that killed Hariri. She added that she had never expected an outcome like this.“They should pay us back the money they got,” said Mahmoud, speaking from a mainly Sunni Muslim district of Beirut loyal to Hariri, referring to the roughly $1 billion cost of the trial.There was only silence from Hezbollah, which denies any involvement in the bomb attack. Fireworks were briefly heard in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s Shia Muslim southern suburbs.In central Beirut, Hariri family members and loyalists stood at his grave waiting for his son, Saad, also a former premier, to speak from outside the tribunal in The Hague.Read more:Saudi Arabia: Rafik Hariri tribunal verdict beginning of steps to seek justiceUN-backed court: One defendant out of four guilty in 2005 murder of ex-Lebanon PMLebanon braces as UN tribunal starts reading verdict in Hariri killing case(With Reuters)
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Hariri calls on Hezbollah to turn in mastermind behind father's assassination

The Jerusalem Post has learned a significant number of new details which place the plea bargain in a new light.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Explaining expected light sentence for soldier who shot Palestinian