News Introduction for Saturday 10-12-2011

PM Najib Mikati closed all debates regarding the wage-hick decision taken by the government last week, revealing that what the government voted on is the ceiling of what could be given in the meantime.   

Mikati announced that everyone has been faced with difficult choices, the trade union bodies’ strike is most certainly set to take place on Thursday, the General Labor Confederation (GLC) is torn apart between government’s decision and the unions escalation, Hezbollah supporting the strike is still trying to contain the repercussion of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting as the Party will have to support the strike growing the gap with Speaker Nabih Berri, Amal movement and the GLC.

During the upcoming week Hezbollah will have to review its relation with the Free Patriotic Movement, as sources revealed that intensive contacts are taking place between both leaderships to rearrange the political and popular understanding between the parties which was establish since 2006.

On the Syrian scene, a diplomatic source at the Arab League announced that the Arab ministerial meeting that was expected to be held on Saturday in Doha to discuss the Syrian situation was called off. The Arab states preferred to wait for the Syrian response on the speech of the Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Araby who stressed that the League would cancel the economic sanctions against Syria if Damascus signs the Arab protocol, and decided to set the upcoming meeting early next year.

Did the Arab initiative reach a dead end and a point of no return? The Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called on the Syrian leadership to take advantage of non-Arab crystallized stance so far, and to accept and the Arab initiative because the alternative would be internationalization.

What would the Iraqi mediation add to the Arab imitative?  Especially that Iraqi Foreign Ministry sources told Reuters today that a high diplomatic delegation from the ministry will visit Syria soon representing the Arab League in a series of talks with Syrian officials.

Was the dead end reached because of an Arab disagreement of because the international community was not ready for the fast past actions on behalf of the Arab League?

Is Russia pressuring Syria to accept the Arab imitative in order to keep more cards in Syria President Bashar Assad’s hand?

What will happen in Homs from now until any possible solution could be agreed on and the implementation of the Arab observers, amid international warnings of a possible massacre in the city?