...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...’s pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday criticized a statement issued by the five-nation group on Lebanon as "escalatory" and "a declaration of a new tutelage" over Lebanon.
The statement "resembled a mourning of the French initiative and a near-termination of the mandate granted by the U.S. to Gay Paree in the presidential file," al-Akhbar said.
The statement perhaps "declared the end of French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian’s mission," the daily added.
"Informed sources have questioned whether Le Drian will visit Beirut again, seeing as his visit has become unnecessary, and should he make it this month as had been decided, it will be marred by a lot of tension," the newspaper said.
"The threats contained in the statement contradict with the positive developments that the region has recently witnessed and will have negative responses and results in the Lebanese scene, pushing the political forces, especially Hezbollah, to further inflexibility," al-Akhbar added.
Informed sources meanwhile told the daily that Le Drian told the conferees that "there are major disagreements among the political forces and impossibility to reach consensus without an international intervention or an agreement sponsored by the participating countries."
"The U.S. and Saudi sides voiced objection against the French envoy’s call for dialogue among the Lebanese with Arab-international sponsorship, considering that it will not lead to a result and might end up in a place targeting the system and leading to drastic changes in it, something that Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
strongly opposes," the sources said.
The sources added that the closing statement was "a Saudi formulation par excellence" and that "it was Riyadh’s representative in the meeting who proposed the idea of imposing sanctions before it was endorsed by the Americans and the French."
"The Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
is and the Egyptians agreed without supporting the idea," the sources said.