At the time we are busy in our internal issues in Egypt and trying to keep up with Syria , the unexpected “somehow” happens in Lebanon in the most craziest way ever !! Today millions of Arabs were introduced to a new Clan in Lebanon that is participating by force in the decision making process not only in that beautiful country but in the Middle East judging on what is happening so far.
Today Al Mokdad family/Clan announced that its military branch has captured 30 Syrians allegedly from the Syrian Free army after the capture of a group of Lebanese in Syria including a member of their clan by the FSA.
The FSA claimed that this group of Lebanese was actually following Hezbollah and came to aid El Assad’s regime in its war against the rebels !!
The Clan’s spokesperson “Yes they got a spokesperson” threatened that military branch of the family to escalate their operations if their man is not released in 48 hours !!
It has been years in Lebanon that we hear a clan got a military branch in this Social media/televised way !!
Hours later we knew that the Al Mokdad kidnapped a Turkish hostage “Aidan Tufan”and a Saudi hostage.
As soon as the news of kidnapping the Turkish and Saudi hostages by the family of the Day in Lebanon , the Kingdom issued an order to its citizens in Lebanon to leave it ASAP.
After the threat of Al Mokdads that they will target Qatari citizens in Lebanon and the news that Saudi citizen was kidnapped by the militant family , Qatar urged its citizens to leave Lebanon ASAP. Of course there is an unconfirmed news that Qatari government threatened that if a single Qatari citizen is kidnapped in Lebanon , it will kick all the Lebanese citizens from Qatar !! “I hope it is untrue because it is disgusting and racist”
It was not a matter of hours when we found Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Zayed , the UAE’s minister of foreign affairs announced on his official twitter account that the UAE MOFA is discussing the matter.
Then in another tweet we found him announcing that all UAE citizens should leave Lebanon
Already according to citizen journalists and tweeps in Lebanon , in Beirut right now the Beirut airport aka Rafik El Hariri airport is being blocked by protesters from the families of the detainees in Syria who set tires on fire.
Already I do not know the Arab tourists from the Gulf will do in Beirut, there is no other option as surprisingly there is one pubic airport in Lebanon “!!” while the other airports are located in military airbases !! May be the Gulf states will send military jets to transfer their people from Lebanon.
Of course you will ask where the Lebanese authorities are from all this especially the armed forces and I will tell you that Lebanese have been asking themselves this question since early morning.
The best one to summarize the position of the Lebanese army from this made was Al Arabiya’s Washington D.C Bureau Chief Lebanese journalist Hisham Melhem.
Update : The Lebanese army appeared and emptied the airport road from protesters.I read that the Al Mokdad clan is threatening to attack the Saudi and Qatari embassy.
Now back to Egypt , tweeps online are wondering why on earth the Egyptian government is not acting quickly and evacuating its citizens from Lebanon despite they are not in the target list of Al Mokdads !!
Despite many point out that Al Mokdad clan is an ally to Hezbollah Party and that it is doing its dirty work , the clan insists that it has no partisan affiliation and that its members believe that the tribal affiliation is much important than the partisan affiliation. Many of them live in the famous Shiite Southern suburb currently.
The clan started to have its own military branch aka its mini-army in mid 1970s after the Two years war “1975-1976” when actually every big clan and every sect in Lebanon began to have its military branch !!
Realistically speaking in Lebanon owning guns and arms is something normal. I remember when the arms ownership spread like fire in Egypt after the revolution , my boss in work told us that we are turning in to Lebanon. It is something excepted that clans carry guns but Lebanese seemed to be forgotten or want to forget the awful days of civil war.Families and clans rule Lebanon and its sects actually thus we should not be surprised. We only forgot.
Now politically Dragging the struggle in Syria in to Lebanon and turning it in to a big Civil sectarian war has been expected for while. It is not the first time. It is just mad thing !!I can not ignored the Saudi-Iranian-Turkish talks on Tuesday about Syria in the Urgent OIC summit. What is taking place behind closed doors , I wonder !??
Welcome to Middle East where action never stops !!
Today Al Mokdad family/Clan announced that its military branch has captured 30 Syrians allegedly from the Syrian Free army after the capture of a group of Lebanese in Syria including a member of their clan by the FSA.
The Syrian POWs !!
The Clan’s spokesperson “Yes they got a spokesperson” threatened that military branch of the family to escalate their operations if their man is not released in 48 hours !!
It has been years in Lebanon that we hear a clan got a military branch in this Social media/televised way !!
Hours later we knew that the Al Mokdad kidnapped a Turkish hostage “Aidan Tufan”and a Saudi hostage.
As soon as the news of kidnapping the Turkish and Saudi hostages by the family of the Day in Lebanon , the Kingdom issued an order to its citizens in Lebanon to leave it ASAP.
After the threat of Al Mokdads that they will target Qatari citizens in Lebanon and the news that Saudi citizen was kidnapped by the militant family , Qatar urged its citizens to leave Lebanon ASAP. Of course there is an unconfirmed news that Qatari government threatened that if a single Qatari citizen is kidnapped in Lebanon , it will kick all the Lebanese citizens from Qatar !! “I hope it is untrue because it is disgusting and racist”
It was not a matter of hours when we found Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Zayed , the UAE’s minister of foreign affairs announced on his official twitter account that the UAE MOFA is discussing the matter.
Then in another tweet we found him announcing that all UAE citizens should leave Lebanon
الخارجية تطلب من المواطنين عدم السفر الى لبنان ومن المتواجدين فيه المغادرة فورا
— عبدالله بن زايد (@ABZayed) August 15, 2012
The MOFA demands the citizens not to travel to Lebanon and the citizens currently there to leave it immediatelyKuwait and Bahrain followed the UAE , Qatar and KSA steps and are asking their citizens to leave the small country. I assume there are not too Gulf tourists in Lebanon now in Ramadan hopefully.
Already according to citizen journalists and tweeps in Lebanon , in Beirut right now the Beirut airport aka Rafik El Hariri airport is being blocked by protesters from the families of the detainees in Syria who set tires on fire.
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| By @Amani_Lebanon |
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| By Bahgat Nassif |
Of course you will ask where the Lebanese authorities are from all this especially the armed forces and I will tell you that Lebanese have been asking themselves this question since early morning.
The best one to summarize the position of the Lebanese army from this made was Al Arabiya’s Washington D.C Bureau Chief Lebanese journalist Hisham Melhem.
سؤال ملحّ وبسيط : هل لدى الجيش اللبناني جناح عسكري؟؟
— Hisham Melhem (@hisham_melhem) August 15, 2012
An urgent and simple question : Does the Lebanese army have a military branch ??Seriously this is the death of Lebanese state for real. Well it was already dead for years.
Update : The Lebanese army appeared and emptied the airport road from protesters.I read that the Al Mokdad clan is threatening to attack the Saudi and Qatari embassy.
Now back to Egypt , tweeps online are wondering why on earth the Egyptian government is not acting quickly and evacuating its citizens from Lebanon despite they are not in the target list of Al Mokdads !!
Now to the Golden question of the hour : What is the history of Al Mokdad family/clan ???
Al Mokdad clan is more of a big tribe that originates from Beqaa Valley yet according to news reports I saw today it spread throughout Lebanon and in Beirut. From what I understood also the majority of its members is Shiite but amazingly it includes Sunni as well Roman Catholics “Do not even wonder how coz I do not know” |
| Al Mokdad's military branch in Southern Suburb by Reuters |
The clan started to have its own military branch aka its mini-army in mid 1970s after the Two years war “1975-1976” when actually every big clan and every sect in Lebanon began to have its military branch !!
Realistically speaking in Lebanon owning guns and arms is something normal. I remember when the arms ownership spread like fire in Egypt after the revolution , my boss in work told us that we are turning in to Lebanon. It is something excepted that clans carry guns but Lebanese seemed to be forgotten or want to forget the awful days of civil war.Families and clans rule Lebanon and its sects actually thus we should not be surprised. We only forgot.
Now politically Dragging the struggle in Syria in to Lebanon and turning it in to a big Civil sectarian war has been expected for while. It is not the first time. It is just mad thing !!I can not ignored the Saudi-Iranian-Turkish talks on Tuesday about Syria in the Urgent OIC summit. What is taking place behind closed doors , I wonder !??
Welcome to Middle East where action never stops !!
"the majority of its members is Shiite but amazingly it includes Sunni as well Roman Catholics"
ReplyDeleteThe Al Mokdad clan sound open-minded and non-sectarian. They'd get my vote.
Sorry but I have to say the FSA brought this upon themselves. They can't just kidnap random Shiites and say they are Hizbullah. They can't kidnap Iranians and say the are IRGC. They;ve done this for a while now and it seems the western media has decided that hostage taking is cute when the takers are on our side.
ReplyDeleteSO I can see how the clan got sick of that and decided they want their man back. Definitely it sucks for Lebanon but it's even worse if kidnapping goes unpunished.
The existence of more than 13 sects renders tribal loyalties overcome nationhood sympathies, henceforth Lebanon will never exist as a country.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Lysander!!!!! They started and I gaurantee the Mokdad will finish it
ReplyDelete