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.
Sources from
the Syrian opposition told
al-Joumhouria daily that Free Syrian Army officers
are readying qualitative steps involving domestic operations that would change
the balance of power in favor of the revolt.
The
opposition sources voiced disappointed with the outcome of the second “Friends
of Syria” meeting held in Turkey after they were expecting advanced steps from
certain countries.
“The most
important decision taken during the meeting is the recognition of the National
Syrian Council as the legitimate representative of all Syrians while the
opposition was expecting that the council become the sole representative of the
Syrian people, a move to be followed by the withdrawal of all ambassadors to
Damascus”, the sources added.
The sources
also reported that they were expecting the endorsement of a legitimate armament
of the Free Syrian Army.
The report
of Energy Minister Gebran Bassil in which the latter refuted 10
misrepresentations included in PM Najib Mikati’s report on electricity
confirmed the fallacy of numbers related to the size of the power plant, its
expenses and the duration of its installation especially that several other
expenses were not considered.
Bassil added
in his report, a copy of which was obtained by
An-Nahar daily, that there is no
choice between leasing power-generating ships and establishing power plants on
the grounds that “the policy paper for the electricity sector as well as the
current plan stipulate the adoption of both options.”
The report
added that in case a decision to cancel calls for tenders was taken, production
will be at its worst heralding an electricity catastrophe especially that the
Zouk and Jiyeh plants have kicked off tenders while other plants are in poor
condition.
An-Nahar
daily learned that, while receiving a delegation of the International Energy
Agency (IAEA) and Lebanese scientific experts, PM Najib Mikati agreed on
conducting a feasibility study to establish a peaceful nuclear plant that would
serve scientific research in Lebanon.
Mikati
welcomed the idea and called for conducting the study within 6 months.
It is worth
mentioning that several Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE,
Morocco and Jordan have already developed the nuclear field.
The Imam of
Bilal bin Rabbah mosque in Abra Sheikh Ahmad Al Assir confirmed that his visit
to Wadi Khaled came under the tribes’ request.
Assir told
al-Akhbar daily that he had buried the hatchet with the Future Movement after
the explanation and apology presented by former PM Fouad Siniora.
In this
contest, al-Akhbar learnt that a communication channel was established between
the Future Movement and Assir, indirectly supervised by member of the Future
Movement political bureau, Radwan al-Sayyed.
Speaker
Nabih Berri told
al-Joumhouria that he had called Interior Minister Marwan
Charbel urging him to speed up the achievement of the electoral draft law at
the cabinet, to be later referred to the parliament for study.
Berri
vehemently objected the return to the current 1960 electoral law, saying “we
want an electoral law that serves Lebanon for the next 60 years rather than a
law that brings us back to 60 years ago.”
Berri said
proportional representation should be adopted in the new electoral law, not in
the current law, voicing support for a single electoral district in Lebanon.