The
following are summaries of today's major stories published in the Arabic press.
LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving English-language
readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers across the Arab
world.
Al-Anbaa
Kuwaiti daily learned from well-informed sources that Syrian President Bashar
Assad’s response to the proposal put forth by U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria
Kofi Annan and which calls for an end to violence and launching reform,
includes a halt to financial and military support for “terrorist groups”.
The response
also calls on neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon,
to stop military drills or extending support to “terrorists”, Turkey to refrain
from harboring Syrian army defectors, and Gulf States to stop media campaigns
against Syria, particularly those launched by al-Arabiya and Aljazeera.
The response
also ties the ceasefire with the suspension of political and economic Arab and
international sanctions imposed on Syria and its leaders.
Al-Joumhouria
daily quoted a senior diplomat in Russia as saying that, during discussions
with foreign Arab ministers regarding the agreed-upon 5-article proposal for
Syria, Russian leaders said that U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s efforts to
solve the Syrian crisis were grounded on the Arab initiative and the decision
of the U.N. General Assembly.
The diplomat
conveyed Moscow’s annoyance at the Syrian response to Annan’s proposal,
pointing out a possible issuance of a U.N. resolution that includes the
proposal.
An-Nahar
daily reported on Friday that the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of
former leader Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination in Mukhtara on Friday will be
limited to placing flower on Jumblatt’s grave, adding that PSP leader MP Walid
Jumblatt and other parliamentary, political and partisan figures will be among key
participants while no speeches will be delivered.
The daily
added that another ceremony will be held at 4:00 p.m. in Baaklin and will be
attended by Jumblatt, MP Marwan Hamadeh as well other MPs and party leaders.
Speeches are likely to be delivered during the Baaklin ceremony.
Al-Mustaqbal
daily quoted March 14 General Secretariat Fares Soueid on Friday as commenting
on the speech delivered by Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday.
Soueid said
that Nasrallah seemed “weak and confused; he calls for a dialogue on rotten
meat while he postpones dialogue on the issue of arms using evasive rhetoric
that does not measure up to his position.”
Soueid said
that Nasrallah’s escalating statements on disarmament will not affect the March
14 camp determination “to call on everyone to return to the state under the
State conditions in order to establish internal and external peace.”
Visitors of
President Michel Sleiman told
Al-Joumhouria daily that the president is
comfortable with the security situation.
The sources
added that Sleiman is also comfortable with efforts exerted by concerned
parties to control the situation, deter the spread of regional chaos into
Lebanon and limit the repercussions of regional events as much as possible.