"... Jumblatt & even Saad Hariri in secret talks with Hizballah to guarantee one-third for March14 ministers.."

Link

DEBKA: "....The radical bloc's almost certain victory is tantamount to a pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian coup in Beirut, a debacle for American long-held strategic positions of influence in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the US-Syrian détente has moved ahead fast enough to spread despair among Lebanese who had once hoisted the pro-Western flag. The anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and even the majority leader Saad Hariri are said by our Beirut sources to be in secret talks with Hizballah to be sure of a one-third presence in the pro-Tehran, pro-Syrian majority house expected to rise from the Sunday elections

DEBKAfile's Middle East sources disclose that when he met Clinton, the Syrian foreign minister promised for the umpteenth time in the six-year Iraq war, to deal "in earnest" this time with the flow of al Qaeda terrorists through its border into Iraq. All that is needed, said Mualem, was direct engagement between Washington and Damascus.

Syrian president Bashar Assad made the gesture of replace his defense minister Gen. Hassan Turkemani with chief of staff Gen. Ali Habib, reputedly to be one of the most pro-American officers in the Syrian army.

But, according to our counter-terror sources, this did not prevent Assad refreshing his directives for terrorists, including suicide fighters, arms, explosives and cash, to continue to be allowed to cross into Iraq.

They are reinforcing a group called "The Mustafa Brigades," whose brutalities in the northern Iraq town of Mosul have contributed to the sharp rise of US troops killed in Iraq to 24 in May, making it the worst month since September 2008."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 1:39 PM