Hezbollah and Amal support Iran and Syria

[pieter]

Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Amal stand by Iran and Syria against U.S., Israeli threats
Tuesday, 22 November 2011


Lebanon’s House Speaker Nabih Berri says his group, the Amal movement, will stand by their allies Iran and Syria against any external threats towards them. (Reuters)

By AL ARABIYA
DUBAI

Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement led by Speaker Nabih Berri, vowed to stand by Syria and Iran against U.S. and Israeli threats to attack the two countries, a Lebanese daily reported on Tuesday.

The Daily Star reported that both Hezbollah and Amal issued a joint statement, following their meeting on Monday, asserting that the current turmoil in Syria was part of an “international conspiracy” targeting Damascus for its support for Arab and Muslim resistance movements in the region.

The statement came amid mounting international pressures on Iran over its controversial nuclear program and against Syria over its brutal crackdown on an eight-month popular uprising demanding a regime change.

On Monday, Washington has declared Iran of “primary money-laundering concern” -- a label that could dissuade non-U.S. banks and businesses dealing with it under threat of U.S. reprisals.

London said it was “ceasing all contact” between its financial system and that of Iran. Canada said it was halting “virtually all transactions” with Iran. France said it, too, was “in favor of new unprecedented sanctions.”

Hezbollah and Amal (both Lebanese Shia movements) emphasized their “firm support for the Islamic Republic in the face of American and Israeli threats,” the statement said.

“They said that what is happening in Syria is an international conspiracy targeting Syria’s rejectionist position and its policies which support the Arab and Muslim resistance movements, particularly in Palestine,” reported the Daily Star citing the statement.

Reiterating their solidarity with Syria’s people, army and institutions, Hezbollah and Amal stressed that Lebanon will never be “a conduit for a conspiracy against sisterly Syria.”

Earlier this month, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Washington of ramping up pressure on Iran and Syria as a way to divert attention from “America’s defeat” as it withdraws its troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

[pieter]

[pieter]

The Lebanese Druze militia leader Waleed Jumblatt in 2006 on Iran, Syria, Hezbollah. I think he is right and the situation is stil the same. Lebanese (Hezbollah) Shia militiamen and Iranian Revolutionairy Guards support the Syrian Baath regime and oppress the Syrian people.

[karl]

Pieter

It is quite very timely of your presentation upon this very sensitive topic of information. It is good to bring to light what is present and currant.

The political climate in this region is rather volatile at moment, in as so, must be light in this response.

Karl

[pieter]

Karl,

I fear that the very volatile situation of the Middle east is rahter dangerous. Look at the broader persective of the region. Who are involved in the region? Both the Turks and Greeks have old and deep ties in the Middle east, and both have complicated relationships with the Arabs and Israeli's. The relations between the Greek and the Turkish states have been marked by alternating periods of mutual hostility and reconciliation ever since Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. Since then the two countries have faced each other in four major wars—the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the First Balkan War of 1912 to 1913, the First World War (1914 to 1918) and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).

Cyprus crisis, Turkish invasion and the collapse of the Greek military junta

The main irritant to Turkish-Greek relations after the 1950s was Cyprus; at the time it was a British protectorate with Greek-Cypriots who made up 82% of the island's population. Some of the Greek Cypriots desired unity (enosis) with Greece, and in 1931 there were nationalist riots in Nicosia. The Greek government was forced by its financial and diplomatic dependence on Britain to disavow any desire for unification with Cyprus.
In the 1950s the Cyprus issue flared up again when the Greek Cypriots, under Archbishop Makarios, claimed union with Greece, and the EOKA group launching a paramilitary movement on the island - mainly against the British, but also inflicting collateral damage to other parties and civilians. Eventually, Greek Prime Minister Alexander Papagos took the Cyprus issue to the United Nations.
Turkish nationalist sentiment became inflamed at the idea that Cyprus would be ceded to Greece, and the Greek communities of Istanbul were targeted in the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955. In response Greece withdrew from all co-operation with Turkey and the Balkan Pact collapsed.
In 1960 a compromise solution to the Cyprus issue was agreed on. Cyprus became independent, and a constitution was hammered out. Greek and Turkish troops were stationed on the island to protect the respective communities. Greek Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis was the main architect of this plan, which led to an immediate improvement of relations with Turkey, particularly once Adnan Menderes was removed from power in Turkey.
Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots were displaced during the period of inter-communal strife in 1963 and 1964. Thousands were displaced and massacres from both sides took place.
On 30 December 1964, Makarios declared his proposal of Constitutional amendment which included 13 articles. However, Turkey restated that she was against this and threatened war if Cyprus tried to achieve unity with Greece. In August Turkish aircraft bombed Greek troops that surrounded a Turkish village (Erenkoy) and war seemed imminent. Once again the Greek minority in Turkey suffered from the crisis, many Greeks fled the country, and there were even threats to expel the Ecumenical Patriarch. Eventually intervention by the United Nations led to another compromise settlement.
The Cyprus dispute weakened the liberal Greek government of George Papandreou, and in April 1967 there was a military coup in Greece. Under the clumsy diplomacy of the military regime, there were periodic crises with Turkey. Turkey rightly suspected that the Greek regime was planning a pro-unification coup in Cyprus.
On July 15, 1974, a band of Greek Cypriot nationalists formed EOKA B, advocating Enosis (Union) with Greece, and backed by the Greek military junta in Athens, staged a coup against the Cypriot President and Archbishop Makarios. An ex-EOKA man, Nikos Sampson (who took part in the fighting against the Turkish Cypriots during the "Bloody Christmas" (Turkish: Kanlı Noel) of 1963 mentioned above) was appointed President. On July 20, Turkey, using the guaranteur status arising from the trilateral accords of the 1959-1960 Zürich and London Agreement, invaded without any resistance from the British forces in the island, occupying the northern 37% and expelling the Greek population. Once again war between Greece and Turkey seemed imminent. War was averted when Sampson's coup collapsed a few days later and Makarios returned to power; and the Greek military junta in Athens, which failed to confront the Turkish invasion, also fell from power on 24 July; but the damage to Turkish-Greek relations was done, and the occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkish troops would be a sticking point in Greco-Turkish relations for decades to come.

Delicate ballance in the Region

Where Lebanon is segregated in sectarian groups, political parties and semi-authonomous territories (the Shia Hezbollah area's, the Maronite Christian and Druze villages, towns and neighbourhoods, and the Sunni Muslim, Armenian Christian area's and the Palestinian refugee camps), the situation in Syria is also very devided between oponents and supporters of president Assads regime. Minorities like Allawites, Christians and others support the regime. The Sunni Muslims support the opposion forces.

Mass Pro-regime demonstration in Damascus




And Anti-Assad demonstrations in Syria




In Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Oman, Lybia, Tunesia, Algeria and Saoudi Arabia you see the same polarisation between ethnic, religious -Sunni against Shia, regime supporters against opposition- tensions. Israel is very nervous I think due to the fact that the country dous not know which direction it's neighbour countries will go. I think the country is monitoring the situation very closely and isn't taking sides.
Saoudi Arabia might be the next authoritarian country which will see unrest, uprisings and demonstrations against it's Royal regime. Seperatist or authonomy and equality demanding Shia minority, the Al Qaida rebels of the Arab Peninsula (Sunni resistance and opposition towards the regime). Pressure from Shia Iran and Shia Iraq. The Middle east is like a vulcano which is ready to burst.

Turkey's role in the Middle-east, North-Africa and the Caucacus is growing. The country is a growing regional "Muslim" power, with it's conservative Muslim government. An instabile Greece and Greek Cyprus may cause tensions in the near future, because on the other side of the Island you stil have Turkish Cyprus, and the Island therefor is stil devided and the border is militarised.

Cheers,
Pieter