Hezbollah plans to bring down Lebanese government; Israel on war standby

UPDATE: 11 Ministers have indeed resigned, at the moment the Prime Minister Hariri was meeting with Obama, as planned. Subsequently, the Lebanese goverment has collapsed.

A situation in Lebanon ahead of Obama's meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri seems to be exploding now. Hezbollah and other factions are planning to bring down the Lebanese Government prior to the 10.30AM meeting between Hariri and Obama at the Oval Office through an action of making mass resignations. Saad Hariri's father was Lebanon's immediate former premier (Rafiq Hariri) and was assassinated in 2005.

Talks have been negotiated by proxy these last couple of days. They have been insisting that the UN probe into the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri. It has been a long-running standoff combined with delays on that request with the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon that seemed to collapse last night. The Saudis arrived on the scene carrying messages from Obama and Clinton. The Syrians arrived on the scene carrying messages from themselves and Iran. Both sides sat around a table and a negotiated settlement collapsed last night. Hezbollah is reporting the failure of talks is due to Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.

Al jazeera reports, "Syria and Saudi Arabia have failed to broker an agreement aimed at easing political tensions in Lebanon over the international investigation into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former prime minister. The efforts by the two regional powers, who have previously backed rival blocs in Lebanon, had been seen as the best chance of avoiding unrest if, as expected, the UN-backed tribunal into the killing indicts members of the Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement. Hezbollah, which has rejected allegations it was involved in the suicide bombing on the Beirut seafront in 2005 that killed Hariri and 22 others, blamed "American intervention and the inability of the other side to overcome American pressure" for the failure to reach a compromise. When asked why the talks collapsed, Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah cabinet minister, said: "Ask Mrs Clinton," referring to the US secretary of state."

Haaretz is reporting: "Health Minister Mohamad Jawad Khalifeh, whose Amal party is allied with Hezbollah, said 11 ministers would tender their resignations Wednesday afternoon unless the cabinet convenes to discuss" the assassination probe, but truly, while the request is likely genuine, Hezbollah/Iran will use any reason to poke a finger in the eye of the USA. Obama plans to meet Prime Minister Hariri this morning and  Hezbollah hopes to mess with this  by acting ahead of that, thereby meaning that when Hariri and Obama meet, the Lebanese government will have collapsed, and Hariri will have already been deposed from his post as Prime Minister and will carry no weight.

In addition, it seems that Iran is pushing Hezbollah to take over Beirut and take control of Lebanon. Hezbollah is a Shia political party based in Lebanon widely believed to be a terrorist arm of Iran. US Mediterranean forces are on standby to intervene with Marine deployments to prevent a Hezbollah/Iranian coup (The Enterprise Group is in the Med- see below). Israel has gone on to a war footing, Israel will not sit still for a Hzbollah-controlled Lebanon. France has moved military assets into the area too. Right now it is looking like Hezbollah and Iran will make a power play for Lebanon rather than form a new government democratically. If as expected, this likely creates a civil war situation in Lebanon, and Hariri will ask for US military support.

Militarily, the situation is also fluid and explosive. I mentioned above that Israel has gone to a war footing, PressTV reports: "Israel has deployed a naval vessel dangerously close to the Lebanese coast, prompting Beirut to put the Armed Forces on high alert. The development followed yet another Israeli violation of Lebanon's airspace, which was reported by the Lebanese Army."

Washington Post reports, "Another official allied to Hezbollah confirmed the resignation plan, which calls for Hezbollah and its allies to step down along with one more minister who would tip the balance and force the government to fall. To bring down the government, Hezbollah needs the backing of more than a third of the ministers. Hezbollah and its allies have 10 ministers in the 30-member Cabinet, and an official close to Hezbollah said an 11th minister close to President Michel Suleiman would also submit his resignation. Violence has been a major concern as tensions rise in Lebanon, where Shiites, Sunnis and Christians each make up about a third of the country's four million people. In 2008, sectarian clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged Lebanon into another civil war."

Please stay tuned to this dangerous situation as events unfold this morning. The lineup is as follows: Lebanese army and anti-Hezbollah Lebanese, France, USA, Israel v. Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria. Link to Psalm 83 here. Isaiah 17:1 says that Damascus will be destroyed, it will become a ruinous heap, never to rise again.
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