Free Republic

1. Ahmad Abu Adass In 2005, the last year of his life, Ahmad Abu Adass was 22 and still living with his parents in Beirut, Lebanon. He was kind and liked people, his friends later told investigators, but none of them thought he was very sophisticated. The best way to describe him was simple, one said. He was generous and a little naïve. He was very weak, physically. A Sunni Muslim of Palestinian descent, Adass had become interested in religion and now spent many hours at the Arab University Mosque near his home. It was there, after a prayer session,...

Qandil: Syria's Army will be back in LebanonTuesday, 12 February, 2008 @ 8:23 PM Beirut - Former MP Nasser Qandil, a staunch supporter of Syria and a suspect in the Hariri assassination rejected the international tribunal as "illegitimate" and predicted the return of Syria's army to Lebanon. The International tribunal is being established in Holland to try all the suspects in the Hariri assassination. The top Syrian security officials were named as suspects by Detlev Mehlis , the first UN chief investigator .Qandil told a news conference Tuesday that the tribunal is based on an agreement between the government of...

Local News>>President al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan hold talks on regional issues President al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan hold talks on regional issuesSunday, November 18, 2007 - 09:15 PM DAMASCUS, (SANA)-President Bashar al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan on Sunday underlined the importance of finding a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the Arab peace initiative and international relevant resolutions to restore the occupied Arab territories in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. A final statement following a Syrian-Jordanian summit held by President al-Assad and King Abdullah II announced support to Arab,...

The emergence of the Shaba Farms as a possible item in an agreement authorizing a multinational force for South Lebanon raises a number of issues of which not all the participants in the current negotiations may be aware. They go deep into the question of the very existence of Lebanon as a sovereign state. What are the issues? In the 1923 Anglo-French Demarcation Agreement, which set the borders between the British and French mandates in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, the area was included in Syria. The maps of the 1949 Israeli-Syrian Armistice Agreements similarly designated the area as Syrian. In...