Aoun is the New Lebanese president

"During Lebanon's civil war, Aoun's battalion fought pro-Syria forces. He became the country's president in 1988, although some factions disputed it. He was then forced out of the presidential palace and into exile in France in 1990.

He returned to Lebanon in 2005 and has served as a member of parliament since then. He signed a memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah in 2006.

 

The Republican Guard Brigade welcomed Aoun back to Baabda Palace outside Beirut with a 21-gun salute, the state-run National News Agency, an arm of the Information Ministry, reported.

 

The U.S. State Department considers Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization. In 2012, the U.S. Treasury Department also designated Hezbollah a terrorist group for its support of the Syrian regime.

 

"This action highlights Hezbollah's activities within Syria as well as its integral role in the continued violence being carried out by the (President Bashar) Assad regime against the Syrian population," said David Cohen, then-Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence."  CNN

 

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The US government caused the deadlock in Lebanese government over the last 29 months.

 

We did that by allowing the neocon faction in the Obama Administration to conduct an obstructionist political campaign in Lebanon designed to prevent the assumption of power by the elected parliamentary coalition of Hizbullah and Aoun's small Maronite Christian Party plus a few other small factions.

 

We did this for the purpose of blocking any participation by Hizbullah in Lebanon's government.  It has been the fixed policy of the US to accomplish that goal just as it has been the policy of the US to block the functioning of the elected Hamas government in Gaza.

 

Can anyone doubt that we have done this in both places because of our servile attitude toward Israel's desires?  In Lebanon our policy seems to have failed for the moment, but I have no doubt that President Clinton would continue and intensify the effort.  pl  

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/31/middleeast/lebanon-michel-aoun-president/

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Today the international Indian is everywhere - to be joined by the international Chinese.

[LeaNder]

Esquire (esq, magnificus, your highness), interesting topic. Earthrise doesn't refer to "gang rape" but to "sexual harrassment".

Any explanation that neither sexual harassment nor gang rape are reported in the police report? Rape only surfaces on talk radio in a study of the contribution to the chain of events.

From the original report, page 30 of 112, linked in the Wikipedia article:
The Road go Public Disorder
The Role of the Media
Following the incident at North Cronulla Beach on Sunday 4th December, 2005 involving lifesavers and Middle
Eastern youths, a media release was distributed by the Police Media Unit on Monday morning, 5th December,

page 34 (talk-back radio):
Commentator: Lets not get too carried away Bertha; we don't have Anglo-Saxon kids out there raping women in Western Sydney Let's not get carried away with all this mealy mouth talk about there being two sides I can tell you because my correspondence here from mums and dads I'm inundated and I don't hear people complaining about Catholics and Protestants and Anglicans, I'm sorry but there is this religious element in all of this and we've got to make sure we welcome people into our community but we welcome them in on certain terms and certain standards and those standards are not being met so let's not have this mealy mouth talk about everyone's to blame. AN across Sydney there is a universal concern that there are gangs, the gangs are of one ethnic composition and they have one thing in mind and I have read some of the correspondence from here. These people are not stupid so they are actually at the coal face, they see it and they hear it. We have to respond to that and we have a Police Force that is armed and equipped to do that job, we've got to give them the chance to do it".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots#Background

[Babak Makkinejad]

Thank you for your comments.

It was not just Arabs.

As Muslim governments set about eradicating political opposition, they destroyed the political middle; the wishy-washies of this world, the relaxed-and-the-cynical, the realists-and-the-middle-of-the-roaders, the liberals and other fellow-travelers.

This process, in every single Muslim country, evacuated the political arena from men like Mossadegh and the National Front types, leaving it to the politicized and Muslim-oriented parties and organization to fill.

That is why there is no Liberal Politics in any Muslim country that you can care to mention. In Iran, for example, "Liberal" is a political swear word, subject of derision by the Muslim Revolutionaries.

I agree that political developments as well as social ones in Turkey (and in Iran) could have a profound effect on the rest of Muslim world - and not just Arabs.

I would not discuss Turkey - a Seljuk country - with other Arab allies of US in that region. She is qualitatively very different and in fact superior; it is like comparing Austria with Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Mishkilji]

Tongue in cheek comment, Lee didn't save the South and Awn did not save Lebanon.

[Earthrise]

Cheers Lemur,

Problem is the carve up of the Ottoman Empire into these dysfunctional states was imperial policy. The British always did this; draw a line around a majority living with a minority. They put the minority in charge, then they can be assured that the whole population will never unite against them.

I am a citizen in the world's most successful multicultural experiment. I have seen the Greeks and Italians, after three generations, consider themselves Australian. I saw the Vietnamese come here in the late 70's, followed by the Cambodians. And lately the Sudanese and other Africans. It takes three generations for people to assimilate (unless they put themselves in self-imposed ghettos). Muslims are going to be our greatest challenge, because they oppose Secularism and refuse to keep religion in the Private realm. Watch this space, I guess we all are.

I have a greater appreciation for cultural harmony these days. This is a key feature of Secularlism; that we all keep our individual cultures private, and we all share a common culture in the village square. As the West rolls back, this is one of the many civilisational advances we developed which we cannot lose. Time is coming good people to circle the wagons around what is best about the West. The storm is almost upon us.

[Tigermoth]

Confirmed Hariri is PM.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/saad-hariri-named-lebanese-prime-minister/

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (1:15 P.M.) - Minutes ago, the newly elected Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, announced that Saad Hariri will be the country's Prime Minister after almost every political party endorsed him.