Introduction to the evening news 19-11-2011

A raft of developments reveals that the Lebanese volcano will not wait until the Syrian picture is elucidated to erupt.     

Now it is time to lay the cards down on the table regarding the issue of funding the STL, whose deadline was postponed by the prime minister as much as possible; and the timing is likely to be set in coordination between PM Najib Mikati and his ally Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi.    

The funding-related clause will be discussed, during a cabinet session to be held on November 30, in light of a treasury loan request submitted by the minister of finance to the cabinet.     

As for the electoral draft law prepared by the ministry of interior which was rejected, publicly, by MP Walid Jumblatt and implicitly by former PM Saad Hariri, Future Movement and its allies, it will be the focus of a December 9 interior ministry conference sponsored by the president.    

As for Hariri, who recently resumed political activity through Twitter, he decided to wage a battle and challenge PM Mikati, particularly in Tripoli, during Sunday’s ceremony to be held on November 27.    

Hariri intends to address, during the ceremony, a political message to the prime minister which is, “no safe haven for him [Mikati] anymore” as previously announced by former MP Mustafa Allouch, who also said that the ceremony aims at reproaching the cabinet for “bringing back to Lebanon the era of the Syrian tutelage.”      

This ceremony, during which Saad Hariri, MPs Boutrous Harb, Marwan Hamadeh and Samir Jisr will be delivering a speech, was preceded by a campaign launched against Mikati in Tripoli [burning of his photos], and will constitute a challenge to the Syrian regime, a few kilometers away from the volatile border with Syria.

The frenzy on the border is sparked by the infiltration of Syrian army defectors among which the LBCI met today in Akkar, where they are being embraced by the residents and supported by the Future MPs.

On the Syrian front, security operations and blood shed continued and sectarian killing was on the rise in Homs. The Syrian army defectors escalated their attack against the army despite a warning addressed by the U.S. Secretary of State.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that civil war in Syria is a very real possibility, with an opposition force 'directed and influenced' by defectors from the ruling regime's armed forces.

The deadline set by Arab foreign ministers for the government to end its deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters nears the end tonight; noting that the remarks submitted by Syrian foreign Minister Wallid al-Muallem, whether in Damascus or Cairo, have not been revealed yet.