SYRIA: Crisis may hurt economies of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq

Editor’s note: This post is from analyst Ibrahim Saif, below left, with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of the analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Current events in Syria are expected to impact other states economically, especially neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan. The first potential effect is on bilateral trade between Syria and its neighbors. Turkey comes to the fore here, since its trade to and from Syria was valued at $2.27 billion last year.

The situation in Syria affects Turkey in two ways. The first is the potentially large drop in trade volume, especially since demand for imports and Turkish commodities –- which used to be high –- has dropped sharply since the beginning of the events. Some sources estimate that trade volume has dropped between 30% and 40%, and that these percentages could drop even lower with the expiration of prior arrangements and the continued state of chaos.

Meanwhile there is an absence of desire on both sides, Syrian and Turkish, to renew these contracts before matters become clearer. During 2010, Syrian exports to Turkey were valued at $1.6 billion, while Syrian imports from Turkey were around $630 million.

LEBANON: Pro-Assad enforcers attack protesters in Beirut [Video]

Gangs of supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad armed with whips and clubs assaulted a small anti-regime protest in front of the Syrian Embassy in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, leaving several injured. 

According to accounts of the victims, mostly Lebanese activists and members of civil society organizations, gathered in front of the embassy Tuesday night to show support for those killed by Assad's gunmen in the Syrian city of Hama when groups of men began striking them and whipping them with belts.  

In the video above, men and women are heard screaming as they are attacked by men in white button-down shirts, who appear to be lashing at them with unseen objects. 

"It was all planned. They came, started chanting for Bashar and then started getting closer to us," said Saad Kurdi, one of the anti-regime protestors. "We didn't provoke them. As they chanted 'We sacrifice ourselves for you, Bashar,' we chanted over them, 'We sacrifice for you, Syria,' and then they attacked us." 

Demonstrators blamed the Lebanese Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, known for being closely aligned with the increasingly isolated Baathist regime in Damascus, for inciting Syrian laborers around the neighborhood to attack them. Lebanon is home to a large community of Syrians who work in construction and many other blue-collar jobs.

"There were some men who were guiding Syrian laborers towards us, telling them what to do," said Kurdi. 

LEBANON: Court releases names and pictures of Hariri's alleged killers

 The United Nations-backed international tribunal set up to bring to justice those responsible for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others on Friday published the identities, photographs, and background information of four suspects named in the indictment, issued on June 28.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon splashed photographs and detailed information on its website about the personal history of the four suspects -- identified as Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra.

The men range in age from 36 to 50. The published information includes the names of their parents, their passport and social security numbers, and their last known addresses.

LEBANON: Popular musician briefly detained for defaming president

Zeid Hamdan, 35, singer, composer and producer in the Lebanese band Zeid and the Wings was briefly imprisoned Wednesday morning for defaming Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in his single "General Suleiman."

Before Suleiman was elected as President of the Republic, he served as General of the army.

Hamdan, who was held at the prison of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, wrote on his Facebook wall that he was arrested Wednesday morning. 

"Dear friends, I am now in the prison of the police station of the Palace of Justice in Beirut because of my song 'General Soleiman'. They are prosecuting me for defammation of President Soleiman. I dont know, until when I am staying in prison. Please mobilize!" he wrote on his wall.

News of Hamdan’s arrest spread instantly throughout Facebook, provoking widespread condemnation of the Lebanese security apparatus and inciting the mobilization of several networks of Lebanese activists. 

"Zeid was arrested this afternoon for insulting the President when he said 'General Suleiman..Go Home' in his song," said  Hamdan's lawyer, Nizar Saghieh. His release followed immense public pressure.

ISRAEL: Natural gas deposits stir waters with Lebanon

Five years after what Israel calls the Second Lebanon War, the border seems quieter than ever -- although this could always change.

The war prompted the Israeli military to dust off routine drilling of forces and other things neglected due to budget cuts and the assumption that "those kinds of wars" were gone. It also showed that the civilian population was the new front line, after a third of the country was pinned down in bomb shelters for a month. 

Hezbollah has turned a corner too, Israelis observe, improving its capabilities and replenishing its arsenal above and beyond what it had in 2006, which calls into question the effectiveness of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the war and was supposed to curb such armament.

Fifty tons of explosives could be dropped on Israel in the next war, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a parliamentary committee recently, quickly adding that Israel could retaliate with 1,500 tons of its own extremely precise ammunition.

But at present, Israel and Lebanon are fighting a different kind of war -- over maritime borders and economic issues. If past maritime disputes were mostly about fishing rights, today's squabble concerns a far bigger matter -- billions of dollars worth of natural gas.

LEBANON, ISRAEL: Belly dancer and metal band rock the boat

Seeing a gorgeous dancer on stage with a heavy-metal band is nothing unusual.

But when the dancer is Lebanese and the singer Israeli and they hold the flags of their respective countries -- which remain in a state of war -- alongside each other, you have a recipe for potential trouble.

The controversial joint appearance and performance by Lebanese belly dancer Johanna Fakhry (reportedly based in France) and the Israeli heavy-metal band Orphaned Land last month at the Hellfest music festival in Clisson, France only recently emerged in the news and is now stirring the pot.

Amateur video footage purportedly showing the performance depicts a member of Orphaned Land singing in what appears to be Hebrew while Fakhry dances around him wearing traditional belly dancer's grab and holding a Lebanese flag.

She then approaches the singer and helps him hold a large Israeli flag before taking her own Lebanese flag and brandishing it alongside the Israeli before the audience.

LEBANON: Seven Estonian hostages freed after nearly four months in captivity

A case that for months was shrouded in mystery has finally come to an end.

After nearly four months in captivity, seven Estonian cyclists abducted by a group of gunmen as they entered Lebanon from Syria where they had done a bicycle tour were freed in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on Thursday.

The Estonian foreign ministry said in a statement that the men were all in "good health" and that they were being looked after at the French embassy in Beirut.

Their release, the statement says, came as a result of cooperation by Estonia, Lebanon and others.

Babylon & Beyond comments switching to Facebook

Babylon & Beyond today is switching to a new commenting system.

The system requires commenters to sign in through their Facebook accounts. People without Facebook accounts will not be able to leave comments.

Readers will have the option of posting their Babylon & Beyond comments on their Facebook walls, but that's not required. Readers are welcome to express their opinions about the news -- and about how the new Facebook comments system is working.

Jimmy Orr, the Los Angeles Times managing editor in charge of latimes.com, discussed our online comments and the Facebook system in a March entry to the Readers' Representative Journal.

We hope to see your comments on Facebook.

-- The Foreign Staff of the Los Angeles Times

LEBANON: Former World Bank president shunned by students and faculty, withdraws from ceremony

What has been coined the "Arab Spring" has gained momentum, this time in the region's most well-reputed and prestigious university, the American University of Beirut. The campus has been a scene of protests ever since the university decided to grant Sir John Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank and member of the advisory council for the Israeli Democracy Institute, an honorary degree during this year's graduation ceremony. 

Ninety-five faculty members and hundreds of students have signed a petition in opposition to the university's plans to ask Wolfensohn to deliver the keynote speech to the graduating class of 2011 later this month.

The signatories stated that honoring Wolfensohn "symbolically undermines AUB’s legacy in the struggle for social justice and its historical connection to Beirut, to Palestine and beyond."

In response to the petition, Wolfenson informed the AUB community on Saturday of his intention to skip the ceremony “out of concern that his presence would distract from the celebratory nature of the event."

LEBANON: Lady Gaga's newest album seized as potentially offensive to Christians [Video]

Boxfuls of Lady Gaga's newest album "Born this Way" were intercepted and impounded at Beirut's international airport by Lebanese authorities late last week as potentially offensive to the country's Christian population. 

Despite having sold millions of copies worldwide, Lady Gaga's album isn't for sale in Lebanese music stores for now. Instead, cartons of the new release are stacked in police offices. But officials cautioned that no final decision had been made on whether Lady Gaga's sizzling hot second studio release would be formally banned.  

"We collected the CDs on the grounds that the music was offensive to religion," said one official from the office of censorship, which is part of the country's notorious General Security, a powerful branch of the Ministry of Interior. "They are still in our offices. We are still deciding what to do with them."

He refused to give his name without citing any reason for insisting on anonymity.

LEBANON: Casualties reported in explosion targeting U.N. convoy

Reports have surfaced about casualties in an explosion targeting a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers as it traveled near the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon.

Samir Ghattas, a spokesman for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), told Babylon & Beyond that a blast appeared to have targeted the convoy on a highway. He said he didn't have information on the number of reported casualties.

"Preliminary reports indicate there was an explosion against a UNIFIL logistics convoy along the main highway ... ," Ghattas said. "There are reports about casualties among UNIFIL peacekeepers, but we can't confirm numbers and our teams are on the way to the location now."

Contradictory media reports about the number of casualties emerged after the incident. Lebanese media reports said Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that two Italian U.N. peacekeepers had died in the blast. 

Pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported that one Italian peacekeeper had been killed in the explosion. Other media reports said injuries had resulted from the blast, which apparently occurred on the same day that UNIFIL marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, which  honors colleagues who died while doing their duty.

UNIFIL is tasked with keeping peace along Lebanon's southern border with Israel.

Friday's explosion was not the first time the force has come under attack.

A similar attack occurred in January 2008 near Beirut when a roadside bomb hit a U.N. vehicle, injuring two peacekeepers.

In 2007, six Spanish peacekeepers were killed when a bomb hit their armored vehicle near the Israeli border.

--Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

LEBANON: Hezbollah chief calls on Syrians to stand by Assad regime

You don't bite the hand that feeds you.

After heartily hailing popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been unenthusiastic about the wave of anti-government protests in Syria, the Shiite militant group's close ally. 

In a speech late Wednesday, Nasrallah threw his full support behind the Syrian regime and denounced international sanctions slapped on Syria for an ongoing brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that human rights  activists say has left more than 1,000 people dead.

Speaking via video link before a large crowd of supporters in a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese Bekka valley marking the 11th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, Nasrallah called on Syrians to stand by the regime led by president Bashar Assad and urged them to give the Syrian leadership a chance.

"We call on all Syrians to preserve their country as well as the ruling regime, a regime of resistance, and to give their leaders a chance to cooperate with all Syria's communities in order to implement the necessary reforms," he was quoted as saying in media reports.