Introduction to the evening news 16-12-2011

Major developments from Lebanon to Moscow, in many different issues and cases: In Moscow, the submission of the Russian draft law on the Syrian crisis to the U.N. Security Council constituted a leap in the course of this crisis. International stances on it varied between welcoming and reticent. Yet, in the wake of this draft resolution, the situation in Syria will undoubtedly not remain unchanged, mainly since the issue of the Syrian crisis has been transferred from the Arab League’s table to the UNSC’s.          

Another update in this crisis is the expected visit of Minister Farouk al-Sharaa to Moscow, as reported by the Russian News Agency. The Agency quoted a source in the Kremlin as saying: “Anyone who thinks we are going to praise the vice president of Syria is wrong; Russia is not going to become Syria's lawyer”.           

As for the major developments in Lebanon, they covered many issues: First, the Maronite meeting held at Bkerke today mirrored the concerns of the participants; yet, these concerns remained limited by these participants’ duty of meeting their other partners in the nation halfway, especially regarding the electoral law that is supposed to take into consideration the standards of a popular and confessional representation, and respect the real partnership between the different Lebanese components.       

The third major development was the U.S. that, once again, targeted Lebanon economically. In fact, following investigations conducted by American media outlets, the U.S. judicial authorities filed a lawsuit against a number of Lebanese companies.              

We begin in Moscow where, once again, the world's spotlights have turned after its submission of a draft resolution on Syria to the UNSC.