December 22, 2006

AMR MOUSSA CONTINUES HIS EFFORTS TO FIND A SOLUTION TO THE LEBANESE CRISIS. SANIORA CALLS FOR EUROPE TO HELP LEBANON IN REGAINING SHEBAA FARMS AND RETURNS FROM RUSSIA WITH THE PROMISE OF A RUSSIAN ROLE IN SOLVING THE CRISIS. INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATOR IN THE ASSASSINATION OF AL-HARIRI CONFIRMS PROGRESS OF THE INVESTIGATION IN THE AREA OF IDENTIFICATION OF SUSPECTS. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has continued his efforts to resolve the crisis where he met with Lebanese personalities of the parties to the dispute, revealing the existence of contacts with Iran on the Lebanese issue, with the opposition preceding his arrival in Beirut by raising the ceiling of political demands in front of the government. For his part, former Prime Minister Salim Hoss to deal with the initiative Moussa positively by all, pointing out that Lebanon could no longer bear further ramifications of an inflicted crisis, which has no justification. The Norwegian Prime Minister Jan Stoltenberg visited Beirut, where he stressed his country's support for the democratic process in Lebanon, at the outset of a tour in the region that will also take him to Damascus and Tel Aviv. At the same time, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora asked for the Norwegian Prime Minister's help in achieving a total pull-out by Israel from The Shebaa Farms and the Chairman of the Forum democratic MP Walid Jumblatt passed on a message to the Syrians with Stoletenberg telling them to stop their interference in Lebanese internal affairs. Stoltenberg also visited the Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri. Stoltenberg then visited Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, where they held a joint press conference. "The Norwegian initiative will constitute an essential step toward a true peace process which might pave the way for an Israeli pullout from all occupied territories," Saniora added. Stoltenberg said Norway and Lebanon "have a strong relationship since Norwegian troops have been part of the United Nations interim force in the South (UNIFIL) since 1978. We want to expand our cooperation with Lebanon ... we will continue to support it on humanitarian and reconstruction levels and we will support all civil society institutions which deal with health, de-mining and unexploded ordnance clearance," he said. The Norwegian leader also expressed his country's willingness to train the Lebanese Navy in order to increase its ability to monitor the border, to establish official diplomatic relations with Lebanon by opening an embassy here and to help with oil exploration projects. "We will try to find oil and gas in Lebanese territory in a bid to share our experience and develop Lebanon in this field," Stoltenberg said. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora went on to Moscow for talks he hoped would help Beirut smooth its relations with Syria. Saniora was due to meet with Igor Ivanov, the head of the Kremlin Security Council, among other officials, Russian news agencies reported. «We want to settle our relations with Syria. I think that Russia could make certain efforts in that direction,» Saniora told reporters, the Interfax news agency reported. «The Lebanese have no alternative to dialogue,» Saniora said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. «We mustn't allow the country to split.» The Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said in an interview with official television channel «Lebanon» after his return from Russia, that there was a confirmation from the Russians of their obligations to the international community especially that they consider the issue of the Court's decision as an international no-return decision and that they are against political assassination, against terrorism and thus the punishment and hold accountable those responsible for the sequence of crimes in Lebanon. Aridi mocked talk of the involvement of Israeli judges of the International Tribunal, and said that it is of the many rumours that go around in Lebanon. Serge Brammertz, the UN chief investigator in the Rafiq al-Hariri assassination inquiry, on Monday cited progress in gathering crime scene evidence and investigating potential perpetrators. Briefing the UN Security Council on his 22-page interim report, unveiled last week, he said his panel "has reached a critical stage" in its investigation. Brammertz said the panel and Lebanese authorities both "believe that placing information concerning suspects and witnesses in the public domain would make it difficult for sensitive witnesses to step forward and engage with the commission and may be prejudicial to future trials before a tribunal". The Belgian prosecutor noted that his panel's objective was "to collect evidence that will be admissible before a future [international] tribunal" that is to try suspects in the al-Hariri murder. He said that he could not say when his probe would be completed, noting that "an investigation of this complexity takes time". Serge Brammertz, the UN chief investigator in the Rafiq al-Hariri assassination inquiry, on Monday cited progress in gathering crime scene evidence and investigating potential perpetrators. Briefing the UN Security Council on his 22-page interim report, unveiled last week, he said his panel "has reached a critical stage" in its investigation. Brammertz said the panel and Lebanese authorities both "believe that placing information concerning suspects and witnesses in the public domain would make it difficult for sensitive witnesses to step forward and engage with the commission and may be prejudicial to future trials before a tribunal". The Belgian prosecutor noted that his panel's objective was "to collect evidence that will be admissible before a future [international] tribunal" that is to try suspects in the al-Hariri murder. He said that he could not say when his probe would be completed, noting that "an investigation of this complexity takes time". The Belgian prosecutor meanwhile said that a final report by outside experts endorsed his panel's assumptions that the attack consisted of only one blast of an RDX-based high explosive used in military and industrial application. The Belgian prosecutor described Syria's cooperation as satisfactory. At the same time, he stressed the importance of Syrian cooperation with the Independent Commission. Syria continued denying any involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said: «The greatest danger facing the investigation was the continued use of some of the parties in the region or outside of the courtroom investigation which leads to jumping to conclusions and political preconditions which are not relevant to the requirements of the investigation and are not based on firm evidence and proof».