- Sectarian tensions grow as Shias in Lebanon kidnap Sunni Syrians
- Sunni Arab countries urge their citizens to leave Lebanon
- Reporters witness Assad regime bombing of women and children
- Anniversary of Japanese surrender triggers heightened tensions with Korea
- China protests detention of citizens by Japanese on disputed islands
Sectarian tensions grow as Shias in Lebanon kidnap Sunni Syrians
The al-Meqdad clan (Reuters)
Sectarian tensions throughout the Mideast took a big jump on
Wednesday, when the al-Meqdad clan of Lebanon, described as a Shia
Muslim family with a military wing, kidnapped more than 20 people in
retaliation for the kidnapping on Monday of family member Hassan
al-Meqdad. A Syrian rebel group had taken credit for the kidnapping
of Hassan, accusing him of being a sniper and a member of the Lebanese
Shia group Hizbollah. The 20 kidnapped people were presumably Sunni
and of the Free Syrian Army. There was one Turk, with the rest
Syrian. Al-Jazeera and Naharnet (Lebanon)
Sunni Arab countries urge their citizens to leave Lebanon
The string of kidnappings led four Sunni Arab countries -- Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait -- to urge
their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. A UAE foreign ministry
official said it issued its alert after the embassy "received
information about UAE nationals being targeted and because of the
difficult and sensitive circumstances in Lebanon."
BBC and
Guardian
As I've written many times, both Syria and Lebanon are in generational
Awakening eras, and so a crisis civil war in either country is
impossible at this time, despite the warnings of various politicians
and experts. However, much of the rest of the Mideast is in a
generational Crisis era, and the real danger is that the sectarian
violence in Syria will trigger a war throughout the region. Saudi
Arabia is becoming increasingly nationalistic and sectarian. For all
practical purposes, it has annexed Bahrain, where a Sunni minority is
brutally governing a very large Shia majority, and Shia populations
in eastern Saudi Arabia itself are becoming increasingly restive. As
usual, Israel serves as an energizing factor, but the conflict in
Syria is seems to have overtaken Israel as a factor in mobilizing
riots and demonstrations. Generational Dynamics predicts that
there'll be a new war in the Mideast, re-fighting the war between Jews
and Arabs that following the 1948 partitioning of Palestine and the
creation of the state of Israel.
Reporters witness Assad regime bombing of women and children
Reporters from AP, VOA, Fox News and other media all witnessed the
systematic bombing of civilian neighborhoods in the town of Azaz in
Syria on Wednesday by fighter jets from the military forces of the
Bashar al-Assad regime. Anti-Assad activists have been claiming that
Assad's military purposely targets civilians instead of Free Syrian
Army forces, and Wednesday events appeared to support that claim. The
bombs targeted a poor residential neighborhood with no rebel bases.
The UN Human Rights Council said Wednesday that war crimes have been
committed on both sides, but that the greatest responsibility lay with
the al-Assad regime.
AP
Anniversary of Japanese surrender triggers heightened tensions with Korea
Wednesday was the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II, and
South Korea's president Lee Myung Bak angered the Japanese by using
the occasion to ask the Japanese to provide compensation to surviving
South Korean "comfort women" who were captured and used for sex during
the war. He also asked Emperor Akihito to apologize for Japan's
treatment of Koreans during the period 1905-45, when Korea was a
colony of Japan. In return, the Japanese angered the Koreans when two
Japanese Cabinet ministers visited the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. The
shrine honors Japan's war dead, including those now branded as war
criminals.
LA Times
China protests detention of citizens by Japanese on disputed islands
There were several new incidents related to disputed islands in the
Pacific on Wednesday, including one where South Korean rock star Kim
Jang-hoon swam to an island whose sovereignty is disputed between
Korea and Japan. However, the event with the most potential for
increased tension was the detention of five Chinese nationals on
islands claimed by both China and Japan. China's Foreign Ministry has
lodged a formal protest with the Japanese.
Yonhap (Seoul) and
Xinhua
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail