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Democrat win paves way for Mideast 'chaos'
Lebanese leader fears emboldened Hezbollah will provoke violence

 The Democrats' midterm election victories last week and the subsequent resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent a message of American weakness to Syria that will likely result in "instability and chaos" in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, Lebanon's Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt said in a WND interview today.

Jumblatt is head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and is widely considered the most prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese politician.

He charged the Democrats' calls for a withdrawal from Iraq and for changes in U.S. Middle East policy in part emboldened the Syrian-backed Hezbollah militia to bolt the Lebanese parliament this past weekend and to threaten street protests that many say could easily turn violent.

Hezbollah's parliamentary departure threw into crisis the composure of the majority anti-Syrian Lebanese government, with some in parliament stating the government is no longer legitimate.

"The Syrians play this game where they have been waiting for the Americans to get weaker in Iraq," said Jumblatt. "Now with the Democrat's win paving the way for an American withdrawal and with Rumsfeld's resignation making a statement, the Syrians believe they have the upper hand in the region to retake Lebanon."

"The Syrians are trying to profit from the circumstances by creating havoc and by using Hezbollah to stage a coup d'etat to get rid of us (the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority)," Jumblatt said.

Yesterday, Lebanon's environment minister, Yacoub Sarraf, loyal to Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, resigned shortly before the country's cabinet met to approve U.N. statutes to try the killers of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Syria has been widely blamed for the February 2005 car bombing in which Hariri and 22 others were killed. Following the assassination, a general Lebanese uprising resulted in the removal of Syrian forces that were present in Lebanon for nearly 30 years.

On Saturday, five Shi'ite Muslim ministers from Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, resigned over the collapse of talks on their demands for effective veto power in the Lebanese government. Hezbollah had demanded one third of the cabinet's 24 seats, prompting some ministers to accuse the militia of seeking veto rights to protect Syria from prosecution in the Hariri affair.

If two more cabinet minister resign, the Lebanese government will fall.

Already, pro-Syrian President Lahoud said Hezbollah's departure has made the parliament irrelevant.

"The government has lost its legitimacy following the ministers' resignations, and any decision it makes will be considered unconstitutional," Lahoud said prior to yesterday's cabinet meeting on the Hariri tribunal.

Also yesterday Hezbollah ministers said they would stage "peaceful" street protests as part of a campaign to press demands for better representation in government for its allies, especially the Christian opposition leader, Michel Aoun.

Lebanese leaders, including Jumblatt, fear Hezbollah protests could turn violent.

The United States and Israel has accused Syria of arming Hezbollah with rockets and advanced weaponry.

"There is no question these protests can foment violence and instability," said Jumblatt, who accused Syria of orchestrating the Hezbollah ministers' resignations.

"This could not have happened without Syria's backing," Jumblatt said.

He said Syria was taking advantage of the "changes in attitude" in the U.S., where many see the Democrats' victory and Rumsfeld's resignation as setting the stage for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq.

Jumblatt said President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was "the right thing to do," but stressed an early evacuation would send the wrong signals to Syria and Iran, and could result in regional instability.

'Vote Democrat'

Jumblatt's statements follow a series of WND exclusive interviews just prior to last week's midterm elections in which prominent Middle East terrorist leaders said they hoped Americans would sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawing from Iraq, a move, the terrorists explained, that would ensure victory for the worldwide Islamic resistance.

The terrorists told WND an electoral win for the Democrats would prove to them Americans are "tired." They rejected statements from some prominent Democrats in the U.S. that a withdrawal from Iraq would end the insurgency, explaining an evacuation would prove resistance works and would compel jihadists to continue fighting until America is destroyed.

They said a withdrawal would also embolden their own terror groups to enhance "resistance" against Israel.

"Of course Americans should vote Democrat," Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, told WND last month.

"This is why American Muslims will support the Democrats, because there is an atmosphere in America that encourages those who want to withdraw from Iraq. It is time that the American people support those who want to take them out of this Iraqi mud," said Jaara, speaking to WND from exile in Ireland, where he was sent as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended the church siege.

Jaara was the chief in Bethlehem of the Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing inside Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis.

Muhammad Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said the Democrats' talk of withdrawal from Iraq makes him feel "proud."

"As Arabs and Muslims we feel proud of this talk," he told WND. "Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal."

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the policy of withdrawal "proves the strategy of the resistance is the right strategy against the occupation."

"We warned the Americans that this will be their end in Iraq," said Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

"They did not succeed in stealing Iraq's oil, at least not at a level that covers their huge expenses. They did not bring stability. Their agents in the [Iraqi] regime seem to have no chance to survive if the Americans withdraw."

Abu Ayman, an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin, said he is "emboldened" by those in America who compare the war in Iraq to Vietnam.

"[The mujahedeen fighters] brought the Americans to speak for the first time seriously and sincerely that Iraq is becoming a new Vietnam and that they should fix a schedule for their withdrawal from Iraq," boasted Abu Ayman.

The terror leaders spoke as the debate regarding the future of America's war in Iraq became the central theme of last week's elections, with most Democrats urging a timetable for withdrawal and Republicans mostly advocating staying the course in Iraq.

Terrorist laughs at Pelosi's comments

Many Democratic politicians and some from the Republican Party have stated a withdrawal from Iraq would end the insurgency there.

In a recent interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, stated, "The jihadists (are) in Iraq. But that doesn't mean we stay there. They'll stay there as long as we're there."

Pelosi would become House speaker if the Democrats win the majority of seats in next week's elections.

WND read Pelosi's remarks to the terror leaders, who unanimously rejected her contention an American withdrawal would end the insurgency.

Islamic Jihad's Saadi, laughing, stated, "There is no chance that the resistance will stop."

He said an American withdrawal from Iraq would "prove the resistance is the most important tool and that this tool works. The victory of the Iraqi revolution will mark an important step in the history of the region and in the attitude regarding the United States."

Jihad Jaara said an American withdrawal would "mark the beginning of the collapse of this tyrant empire (America)."

"Therefore, a victory in Iraq would be a greater defeat for America than in Vietnam."

Jaara said vacating Iraq would also "reinforce Palestinian resistance organizations, especially from the moral point of view. But we also learn from these (insurgency) movements militarily. We look and learn from them."

Hamas' Abu Abdullah argued a withdrawal from Iraq would "convince those among the Palestinians who still have doubts in the efficiency of the resistance."

"The victory of the resistance in Iraq would prove once more that when the will and the faith are applied victory is not only a slogan. We saw that in Lebanon (during Israel's confrontation against Hezbollah there in July and August); we saw it in Gaza (after Israel withdrew from the territory last summer) and we will see it everywhere there is occupation," Abdullah said.