Lebanon moves to quell Syria related violence

As gunfights have continued to flare, primarily in Beirut and Tripoli, the Lebanese Army is working to restore order. At least six people have been killed, 27 wounded, and 50 arrested since clashes rooted in the Syrian crisis began on Sunday. Most of the people reported dead were killed in the northern city of Tripoli in fighting between the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite district of Jebel Mohsen. Additionally a resident of a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut was killed after he reportedly fired at Lebanese forces. Violence was sparked on Sunday after a funeral for slain intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan. The U.S. State Department confirmed that it is sending a team from the F.B.I. to assist in investigating the bombing that killed Hassan Friday. Jordan is also working to contain spillover from Syria; authorities reported they have seized a group of Jordanian extremists who obtained arms from Syria. The Jordanian military saw its first casualty in related violence when a corporal was killed in clashes with suspected Islamist militants traveling along the Syrian and Jordanian border. Meanwhile, the U.N. Refugee agency has reported that Lebanon has registered over 100,000 Syrian refugees, joining Jordan and Turkey.

Syria

The United Nations is putting together a peacekeeping force for Syria, hoping the regime and opposition fighters will implement a proposed ceasefire for the holiday Eid al-Adha beginning Friday. U.N. peacekeeping head Herve Ladsous stated, "We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved." However, the prospects for a temporary truce appear slim as deadly clashes continue across Syria. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, over 115 people were killed across Syria on Monday. Aleppo saw fighting in several districts with warplanes bombing the Katergi quarter. Clashes were also reported in Damascus, Daraa, and Deir el-Zour. Government forces and opposition fighter have continued the battle over the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, which is on a strategic supply route between Damascus and Aleppo. On Tuesday, Syrian warplanes reportedly bombed the town as fighters clashed over a nearby Syrian military camp.

Headlines  

• Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has arrived in Gaza as the first head of state to visit since Hamas came to power in 2007 set to launch a $254 million assistant program.
• After clashes at demonstrations over election law, Kuwait has banned gatherings of over 20 people ahead of the December 1 election.
• Egypt’s Administrative Court has referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court the decision of whether to disband the Constituent Assembly, which is tasked with drafting the constitution.
• A man has released an audio message claiming to be Saeed al-Shihri, al Qaeda’s number 2 in Yemen, countering accounts that he was killed in a drone strike.

Arguments and Analysis

This Is Not a Revolution (Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, The New York Review of Books)

"Darkness descends upon the Arab world. Waste, death, and destruction attend a fight for a better life. Outsiders compete for influence and settle accounts. The peaceful demonstrations with which this began, the lofty values that inspired them, become distant memories. Elections are festive occasions where political visions are an afterthought. The only consistent program is religious and is stirred by the past. A scramble for power is unleashed, without clear rules, values, or endpoint. It will not stop with regime change or survival. History does not move forward. It slips sideways.

Games occur within games: battles against autocratic regimes, a Sunni-Shiite confessional clash, a regional power struggle, a newly minted cold war. Nations divide, minorities awaken, sensing a chance to step out of the state’s confining restrictions. The picture is blurred. These are but fleeting fragments of a landscape still coming into its own, with only scrappy hints of an ultimate destination. The changes that are now believed to be essential are liable to be disregarded as mere anecdotes on an extended journey."

Yemen: can southern separatists break up Yemen? (Helen Lackner, OpenDemocracy)

"Yemeni unity in 1990 was greeted with enthusiasm by Yemenis at large, whether from the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) or People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY).  Although there was considerable discussion and disagreement in the leadership about the form it took, there is no doubt that for ordinary Yemenis the possibility of travelling anywhere in the country was welcome. 

While many women in the YAR had looked forward to the spread of the PDRY’s Family Law to the whole country, many men and women everywhere hoped to see the same for qat consumption laws, and southerners were looking forward to economic liberalisation, all were swiftly disappointed when the economy collapsed after the sanctions taken against Yemen by neighbour states following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. In addition, after the initial flourishing freedom of expression through a multiplicity of new parties and newspapers in the first years of enthusiasm, the political situation rapidly deteriorated as tension developed between the two former ruling groups.  Starting with some clearly targeted assassinations of Southern leaders, this eventually brought about the 5 months Civil War of 1994 which was decisively won by Sana’a’s forces."

Debate Reveals Outdated US Foreign Policy (Gregor Peter Schmitz, Spiegel Online)

"The two contenders for what is likely the world’s most powerful office left little time for thinking — either for themselves or for the television audience. And they failed to adequately address the new challenges facing the wobbly global power America — climate change, for example, which was left unmentioned in presidential debates for the first time since 1984. Or the rise of Asia. Or even the lack of domestic investment in infrastructure and education.

Most of all, however, in the debate in Boca Raton they declined to discuss how they intend to address the country’s central foreign policy conundrum: Americans no longer want their country to be a global police force, but they still want to continue believing in American exceptionalism."

–By Jennifer Parker and Mary Casey