Beirut, Lebanon –
Lebanon’s top politicians have resumed a series of round-table discussions to devise a national defense strategy, at the heart of which is finding a compromise over the militant Shiite Hezbollah’s powerful military wing.

Although Lebanon is enjoying a taste of political stability and a buoyant economy after several years of internal violence and a war with Israel in 2006, the rival political factions of this tiny Mediterranean country are still divided over Hezbollah’s continued armed status.

The dispute is underlined by persistent fears here that another devastating war is brewing between Hezbollah and Israel, possibly as an outcome of intensifying efforts to forge an international consensus to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Given the rising tensions and recent strengthening of an Iran-led alliance in the Mideast, a war between Hezbollah and Israel could expand to become a regional conflagration involving Iran and Syria, both of which support the Lebanese Shiite party.

“We have managed to put ourselves on the frontline of the main critical issue that will dominate the international agenda for the next three or four years,” says Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Center in Beirut.

In this strained regional atmosphere the national dialogue session, grouping Lebanon’s top 18 political leaders, met Tuesday under the auspices of President Michel Suleiman for the first time since before the parliamentary elections last June.

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CANBERRA (AFP) –
Indonesia’s president on Wednesday confirmed that a bombmaker believed to be behind the Bali bombings was killed in a Jakarta raid and vowed to keep hunting extremists in a landmark address to Australia’s parliament.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Dulmatin, an Al-Qaeda trained bomb specialist with a US bounty of $10 million on his head, was killed by police in a major blow to Indonesia’s Islamic militants.

“We can confirm that one of those that were killed was Mr. Dulmatin, one of the top Southeast Asian terrorists that we have been looking for,” Yudhoyono said through an interpreter in Canberra.

Yudhoyono also promised to keep up the pressure on militants including Dulmatin’s Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the 2002 Bali blasts which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

“Just yesterday our police authorities raided an important terrorist cell in a suburb of Jakarta and put several terrorist operatives out of commission,” he told parliament.

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