Jordan'sTank Reef

A tank sunk by the Jordanian government into the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea as an artificial reef for sea life and a tourist attraction for snorkelers and scuba divers (Dan Lundberg/CC BY-SA via In Focus - Original)

Shark Meat in Benghazi

People stand next to caricatures of Moammar Khadafy in Benghazi May 8. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters via Big Picture)

Video Report: UNIFIL Convoy Attack in South Lebanon

Hizballah Still on the Wrong Side of Arab Spring

Video allegedly shows Syrian protesters in the city of Homs burning the Hizballah flag on May 22 2011.

Michael Young with an excellent view of Hizballah's headaches when it comes to the Arab Spring - and the Syrian Revolution in particular:

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First, as hard as Nasrallah tries, he just cannot seem to convince Arabs anymore that “resistance” must be given priority over most other aspects of their lives. In Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, people have talked about emancipation, democracy and liberty, with the targets of their opprobrium almost exclusively domestic. Protestors may dislike America and Israel, but for now their aim is to rewrite failed social contracts, impose states that reflect their needs, and be rid of leaders and their families who have suffocated and robbed them for decades.

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There was something terribly off-key in Nasrallah’s comments, showing how alienated he seems to be from the spirit of this Arab moment. The language of rockets, guns and combat is jarring against a backdrop of societies demanding freedom. In armed resistance there is an implicit call for regimentation, for compulsory unity and the banishment of dissent in the greater cause of defeating the enemy. Yet everything about the Arab uprisings has been directed at undermining regimentation and authorizing dissent. Those in the region know all too well that their despots have spent decades using the conflict with Israel as justification for building up vast military and security apparatuses to facilitate open-ended internal repression.

Nasrallah’s second cause of fear is that he’s on the wrong side of the revolt in Syria. Hezbollah, which has always claimed to be the champion of the downtrodden, is defending a leadership crushing its own people. Nasrallah is covering for the soldiers, security officers and gang members who have fired live ammunition at unarmed civilians, killing an estimated 1,100 people in the last two months. He is covering for the unit in Daraa that placed a prisoner under a tank tread before running him over twice, tearing him to shreds.

... The reaction on social media outlets was acerbic from many in Syria. They saw that in defense of his party’s and Iran’s interests, Nasrallah would abandon justice and applaud their tormentors. If Syrian protestors prevail, they will not soon forgive him his double-standards.

A third headache for Nasrallah is that he now finds himself at the epicenter of a sectarian confrontation in the Middle East. For a long time Hezbollah managed to transcend Sunni-Shia differences thanks to its accomplishments on an issue that most Arabs sympathize with, namely the battle against Israel. But much has changed since then. To a great extent Iran’s Arab enemies have made headway in portraying the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah as pursuing a project of Shia hegemony, regardless of the merits of such an accusation.

And in Syria Hezbollah’s ally, the Assad regime, also appears to be implementing a sectarian strategy. Many Arabs will have read or heard lately that Alawites are expelling Sunnis from places such as Tal Kalakh. Even diplomats in Beirut worry that this may be a step in establishing an ethnically cleansed Alawite mini-state. It would be disastrous for Nasrallah if a majority of Arabs were to begin lumping his Shia community together with the Alawites in an alleged partnership against Sunnis. He knows that for Hezbollah to be depicted as a sectarian group would undermine it as the vanguard in a model of regional resistance. And yet this has already started.

Hassan Nasrallah is behind the curve on what is going on around us in the Middle East. The Hezbollah leader is employing both rhetoric and imagery that are anachronistic in these transformative times. The future, we hope, will bring a promise of free societies, the reflexes of compromise and greater pluralism. If that fails, as it may, Nasrallah will have saved himself; but at the expense of many innocents.

U.S. Weighs in on Lebanon-Syria Relationship

The alternative title for this post was, "Feltman: Syria is the North Korea of the ME" ... catchy! The LA Times reports:

The United States is upping pressure on Lebanon to reduce its ties to neighboring Syria in an effort to further isolate President Bashar Assad as his security forces violently suppress a pro-democracy movement, according to diplomats and officials.

Visiting Beirut last week, the State Department's Middle East envoy, Jeffrey D. Feltman, bluntly warned Lebanese officials that the tide had turned against the autocratic four-decade-old Damascus regime and urged them to distance themselves from a nation that has long been a major player in Lebanese political life, a Western diplomat and Lebanese officials said.

"There is no return back to the bad old days. Syria is going to change," a source with knowledge of the talks said, characterizing the U.S. message to Lebanon.

... Feltman warned that Lebanese leaders "risk being as isolated as Syria," which he characterized as "potentially the North Korea of the Middle East," said the source, who requested anonymity because of the private nature of the talks.

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At the same time, the U.S. effort in Lebanon, a Western diplomat said, was one prong in a larger campaign to push the Arab world to stand against Syria's crackdown on protesters. Other steps have included outreach to such nations as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have sent emissaries and messages and support to Damascus in recent weeks. On Wednesday, a draft resolution by several European nations was submitted to the U.N. Security Council demanding that Syria stop the violence against protesters and cooperate with the U.N. investigation of alleged rights abuses.

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Feltman, who arrived in Beirut late Thursday and left early Saturday, delivered his message to Mikati, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Hariri aide Mohammad Chatah and President Michel Suleiman ...

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American officials are concerned that Lebanese ambivalence on the Syrian uprising has resulted in refugees and defecting Syrian soldiers being sent back home. "In Syria, deserting soldiers are executed," said the Western diplomat.

Some 4,000 families have fled Syria to Lebanon, most of them to the north via illegal border crossings, which Lebanese and Syrian armed forces vowed to close off Wednesday. Human Rights Watch last week warned Lebanon that it could be legally responsible for any harm suffered by refugees it sent back to Syria.

"We want to ensure that the people who are refugees are afforded all their rights," said the Western diplomat. "We had great concerns over the humanitarian implication of all this."

Syria and its allies have been increasingly flexing their muscles in Lebanon. Damascus' allies have sometimes violently disrupted peaceful demonstrations by Lebanese activists. A hotel in Beirut canceled a conference of intellectuals and journalists to demonstrate solidarity with the Syrian government.

Syria's surrogates have managed to create a climate of fear in Lebanon. Even traditionally anti-Syrian bastions have toned down their criticism of the Assad regime. Reporters and producers at Hariri's Future TV acknowledged that they've been ordered to ease criticism.

"There's been a little bending over backwards in order not to be perceived as meddling in what's happening in Syria," said Chatah, Hariri's aide. "The Syrians have been pointing fingers. Historically, Lebanon has been the scapegoat. In an effort not to be involved, most people have gone a little bit in the other direction of not saying much."

But some Lebanese are saying a lot about the unrest in Syria — mostly in support of the regime. Syria's allies in Lebanon often appear on pan-Arab television stations speaking out on behalf of Assad. "It seems like I only see Lebanese people on television defending the regime," said Rami Nakhle, a Syrian democracy activist in Lebanon.

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• Rami Makhlouf Speaks ... Confirms Detestability 
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• Video: US Senator Joe Liberman: Assad Must Go
• Video: Rima Maktabi with an Excellent Report on Syria
• The Syrian Regime Insiders
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• Video: Face the Nation - U.S. Perspectives on Syria
• Al Jazeera English Video Interview: The Syrian Police State
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• Video: Al Jazeera English on Syria
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• HRW Documents Atrocities by Syrian Regime
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• American Student Describes 15 Days in Syrian Prison 
• Don't Expect Change from Bashar al Assad
• Video: Woman Attacks Bashar al Assad's Car After Speecha

Video: Israeli Police Commander Slaps Female Lawyer

Kobi Bachar, deputy commander of the Galilee District Police, slaps an Arab lawyer after she asks him why he's arresting protesters.

Meanwhile on the Turkey-Armenia Border

A crane brings down one of the two heads of the 35-meter (115-foot) stone sculpture which features a divided human figure, near the Turkey-Armenia border as workers are dismantling the giant sculpture meant to promote reconciliation between the two nations, in Kars, Turkey, Tuesday, April 26, 2011. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it a "freak," prompting moves by local officials to have it removed. Artists campaigned unsuccessfully to save the monument and a prominent Turkish painter was stabbed and hospitalized last week after a speech in which he condemned plans to tear it down (AP Photo via Daylife)

Ghaddafi "Yeah Buddy!"

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi arrives to give television interviews at a hotel in Tripoli in this March 8, 2011 file photo. The International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on May 16, 2011 he had requested arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and the country's spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity (Reuters Pictures via Daylife).

U.S. Court Filing: Iran helped Al Qaeda Plan 9/11 Attacks

The New York Times reports:

Two defectors from Iran’s intelligence service have testified that Iranian officials had “foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks,” according to a court filing Thursday in a federal lawsuit in Manhattan that seeks damages for Iran’s “direct support for, and sponsorship of, the most deadly act of terrorism in American history.”

Imad Mugniyah, the Hezbollah leader killed in 2008, also was accused of a role in 9/11.

One of the defectors also claimed that Iran was involved in planning the attacks, the filing said. The defectors’ identities and testimony were not revealed in the filing but were being submitted to a judge under seal, said lawyers who brought the original suit against Iran on behalf of families of dozens of 9/11 victims.
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The suit contends that Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization with close ties to Tehran, helped Al Qaeda in planning the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and in facilitating the hijackers’ training and travel. After the attacks, the suit contends, Iran and Hezbollah helped Qaeda operatives escape, providing some with a safe haven in Iran.
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In their court papers, the lawyers assert that Imad Mugniyah, as the military chief of Hezbollah, was a terrorist agent for Iran, and that he traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2000 to help with preparations for the 9/11 attacks.
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The 9/11 commission report said there was “strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.” The report also said there was circumstantial evidence that senior Hezbollah operatives were closely tracking the travel of some of the hijackers into Iran in November 2000.

But the commission said that it had “found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack,” and that the “topic requires further investigation by the U.S. government.”

Thomas E. Mellon Jr., a lawyer for the families, said the suit, first brought in Washington in 2002 and later moved to Manhattan, sought to do that investigation.
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The lawyers’ filing included reports of 10 specialists on Iran and terrorism, including former 9/11 commission staff members and ex-C.I.A. officers. “These experts make it clear that 9/11 depended upon Iranian assistance to Al Qaeda in acquiring clean passports and visas to enter the United States,” Mr. Mellon said.

But the expert reports do not in most cases seem to go as far as the defectors in contending Iran had foreknowledge of the attacks.

The filing says the defectors worked in Iran’s Ministry of Information and Security “in positions that gave them access to sensitive information regarding Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism.” It says they have reason to fear for the safety of themselves and their families “should their identities and the content of their testimony be revealed publicly.”

Leb Web Digest 20.05.11

• Tony Badran: An End to the Syrian Pipe Dream
  
• Michael Young: Lebanon Fasten Your Seatbelts
• Blogging Beirut: Telecoms Ministry Meeting 1
• Angie Nassar: Assad's Mafia-Style Intimidation in Lebanon
• Beirut Spring: My Impression of Obama's Speech
• Hussain Abdul Hussain: The Syrian Doomsday Scenario
• Al Ahram: Counter-revolution and Sectarian Strife
• Qifa Nabki: Nakba Day Controversies
• NY Times: Secret Desert Force Setup by Blackwater Founder