Lebanon Sunnis back ex-PM Hariri to take top office again - Samir Khatib withdraws

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by AFP -- Sunni Muslim leaders threw their weight behind the Saad Hariri, the country's caretaker Prime Minister who resigned in late October over massive public unrest shaking Lebanon, his key contender said Sunday. Businessman Samir Khatib had been put forward as the likely successor to 49-year-old Hariri, but he said a visit to the country's highest Sunni Muslim authority had indicated otherwise. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdellatif Deryan informed Khatib that "a consensus had been reached to name Saad Hariri as prime minister to form the next government", the 72-year-old businessman said after relaying the news to caretaker PM in person. Under Lebanon's political system, designed to maintain a balance between the three key religious groups in the country - the Maronite Christians, Sunnis and Shiites - the PM's office is to be held by a Sunni leader. Hariri, who has been in power on and off since 2009, ruffled some feathers with the other major political actors in the ongoing turmoil by insisting that Lebanon needs a government of specialist ministers - and that he would only return to head a government like that. Hezbollah, the dominant Shiite force in the country, wanted it to include politicians as well. Lebanon desperately needs a new government to rebuild trust with both protesters demanding a cabinet of independent experts, and international donors able to provide financial aid. The demonstrators, however, have up until now protesting against the system itself, seeing the country's political class as fundamentally corrupt and unable to govern. On Sunday evening, dozens of protesters gathered in central Beirut near a road leading to parliament closed of by security forces.

Calls for halt to Saudi military training in US after attack

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by AFP -- WASHINGTON: Key lawmakers called Sunday for a halt to a Saudi military training program after a shooting rampage at a US naval base in which a Saudi officer killed three American sailors. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he has ordered a review of vetting procedures while defending the training program that brought Mohammed Alshamrani to Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. Alshamrani, a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force, opened fire in a classroom at the base on Friday, killing the three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police. The FBI: Rachel L. Rojas, FBI agent in charge said Sunday the shooting was being investigated with the "presumption" it was an act of terrorism, but that authorities had yet to make a final determination.

FBI are reportedly focused on finding several unaccounted for Saudi nationals linked to the shooting, as additional details have emerged about the shooter's movements in the weeks leading up to the rampage. "The fact that the FBI has not been able to, the reports say, the FBI has not been able to talk to every airman. I mean, I can't imagine that," US Senator Scott said on "Fox & Friends." "If the Saudi government is our ally, our partner, they will make sure that there is full cooperation, not one airman needs to leave this country until the complete investigation."

Alshamrani was reported to have posted a manifesto on Twitter before the shooting denouncing America as "a nation of evil." "We need to suspend the program until we investigate," Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican on national security issues, said on Fox News. "I like allies. Saudi Arabia's an ally, but there's something really bad here fundamentally. We need to slow this program down and reevaluate," he said. US media reported that six Saudi nationals also assigned to the base have been questioned, and that Alshamrani had shown videos of mass shootings at a dinner party the night before the attack. In a pre-taped interview that aired on Fox News Sunday, Esper confirmed that several Saudis have been detained, including "one or two" who filmed the shooting on their cellphones. He said it was unclear if they began filming before the shooting began or after it started.

Authorities believe the gunman made social media posts criticizing the U.S. under a user handle similar to his name, but federal law enforcement officials are investigating whether he authored the words or just posted them, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Also, investigators believe the gunman visited New York City, including Rockefeller Center, days before the shooting and are working to determine the purpose of the trip, the official said. All international students at the Pensacola base have been accounted for, there have been no arrests, and the community is under no immediate threat, Rojas said at a news conference. A Saudi commanding officer has ordered all students from the country to remain at one location at the base, authorities said. “There are a number of Saudi students who are close to the shooter and continue to cooperate in this investigation," Rojas said. “The Saudi government has pledged to fully cooperate with our investigation.”

Earlier in the week of the shooting, Alshamrani hosted a dinner party where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, another U.S. official told the AP on Saturday. Alshamrani wounded two sheriff's deputies, one in the arm and one in the knee, before one of them killed him. Eight others were also hurt. Both deputies were expected to survive. Alshamrani used a Glock 9 mm weapon that had been purchased legally in Florida, Rojas said. Family members and others identified the three dead as Joshua Kaleb Watson, a 23-year-old graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Florida, who joined the Navy after graduating from high school last year; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia. The official who spoke Saturday said one of the three students who attended the dinner party hosted by the attacker recorded video outside the classroom building while the shooting was taking place. Two other Saudi students watched from a car, the official said.

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Lebanese-born donor of Hitler items welcomed in Israel

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(AP) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday welcomed a Lebanese-born Swiss real estate mogul who purchased Nazi memorabilia at a German auction and is donating the items to Israel. Rivlin called Abdallah Chatla's gesture an “act of grace.” Chatila, a Lebanese Christian who has lived in Switzerland for decades, paid some 600,000 euros ($660,000) for the items at the Munich auction last month, intending to destroy them after reading of Jewish groups’ objections to the sale. Shortly before the auction, however, he decided it would be better to donate them to a Jewish organization. Among the items he bought were Adolf Hitler’s top hat, a silver-plated edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and a typewriter used by the dictator’s secretary. The items are to be donated to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

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Man in Lebanon sets himself alight at protest: Red Cross

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by AFP -- BEIRUT: A man in Lebanon tried to self-immolate during a protest in Beirut on Saturday, the Lebanese Red Cross said, before protesters extinguished the flames. Protesters in Riad al-Solh Square smothered the flames with jackets and blankets, an AFP photographer said. The man, who did not lose consciousness, was evacuated in a Red Cross ambulance.

The official ANI news agency reported that a man in his forties had doused himself in petrol before setting himself alight. While the reason for his action was not known, Lebanon is on the verge of economic collapse amid political paralysis and an ongoing protest movement. On Saturday, dozens gathered in the central Riad al-Solh Square for another demonstration against the country’s ruling elite. Protests began on October 17, mobilising hundreds of thousands of Lebanese demanding an end to corruption and incompetent leadership.

Lebanon’s financial situation, already precarious before the protests, has deteriorated markedly since. In recent weeks, thousands of people have lost their jobs or had their salaries slashed. Several cases of suicide have been reported in recent days, with financial difficulties believed to be a motivating factor. In February, a Lebanese man died from severe burns after setting himself on fire at his daughter’s school over a fee dispute with the management. The World Bank has warned of an impending recession that may see the proportion of people living in poverty climb from a third to half the population. Unemployment, already above 30 per cent for young people, would also increase, it has said.

Outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri asked Arab and Western allies for financial help on Friday. An $11 billion aid package pledged at a conference dubbed CEDRE in Paris in April 2018 has not been unlocked by donors for lack of reform.

Irreverent Lebanese cartoonists stir debate

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by middle-east-online.com -- BEIRUT - On the edges of a protest in Lebanon's capital, 24-year-old cartoonist Mohamad Nohad Alameddine bites through sticky tape and plasters one of his political sketches to a side wall. "I haven't been able to work with newspapers, so instead I come down and stick them up in the street," says the unemployed artist, who graduated this year with a master's degree in press cartoons. Until this autumn, Alameddine had been poking fun at his country's political and economic ills in sketches he posted online.

But from October 17, anti-government protests swept across the country, giving him a broader audience as protesters denounced the very same issues he had been drawing all along. In public spaces, he and friends stuck up gags about failing electricity and trash management plans, as well as sketches mocking a political class perceived as corrupt. In one cartoon, a skinny man stripped down to his underpants stands in front of a leader carried in on a gilded throne. "We want your underwear to pay back the debt," says the moustachioed politician, clutching a lit cigar.

Now in the grips of a dollar liquidity crunch, Lebanon is staggering under a public debt of $86 billion. Wherever there was a protest, "I'd go down and stick up a related cartoon," says Alameddine, who signs his drawings as Nougature. "A lot of people encouraged me." In late October, the government stepped down, but a deeply divided political class has yet to form a new one. Inspiration everywhere Last month, Alameddine drew his same long-nosed politician clutching the leg of his throne. "Don't worry my love, I'd never leave you," says the character he has called President Nazeeh, dressed in a rabbit-themed pyjama onesie. Alameddine says the fictional leader is his way of criticising the traditional ruling class without naming names. "President Nazeeh headed a militia in the civil war and then became a political figure" after the 1975-1990 conflict, he says. "We see how he deals with people, what he does under the table, what he says in public, how he manages corruption rings - but in a funny way," he says. "In the end you want to laugh at what's hurting you."

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Saudi student watched mass shooting videos during dinner party before Florida naval base attack: report

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By Paulina Dedaj | Fox News -- The Saudi national who killed three people Friday morning after opening fire in a classroom at a naval air station in Florida reportedly hosted a dinner party earlier this week where he and several others watched videos of mass shootings, a U.S. official said Saturday. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who was identified as a member of the Saudi military participating in a flight training program for foreign military personnel at Naval Air Station Pensacola, was killed by law enforcement after he fatally shot three people in what investigators are trying to determine was an attack motivated by terrorism.

While the FBI has declined to name the suspect or elaborate on a possible motive, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that federal investigators told him Alshamrani hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watch videos of mass shootings. It wasn’t immediately clear if the shooter acted alone but the U.S. official said authorities also told him that one Saudi student - who was at the dinner party - stood outside the building recording while the shooting took place. Two others were said to have watched from a car. 10 Saudi students are being held at the base while several others remain unaccounted for, the official continued. President Trump has remained in line with the FBI, declining to say if the attack was terror-related. Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, however, issued a scathing statement calling the shooting an act of terrorism “whether this individual was motivated by radical Islam or was simply mentally unstable." Alshamrani reportedly posted a short manifesto to Twitter in which he condemned the U.S. as a “nation of evil.”

SAUDI ARABIA'S KING Salman called President Donald Trump on Friday to "express his sincere condolences" "The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people," Trump tweeted regarding the incident earlier in the day at Naval Air Station Pensacola. Sheriff's deputies fatally shot the attacker, according to law enforcement authorities. Two deputies were reportedly among the injured. The Associated Press contributed to this report.