Introduction to the evening news 05-04-2012

Despite the fact that the country entered Easter holiday’s long-weekend, several development occurred.          

While negotiations with Turkish Shipping Company urging it to decrease prices by 9% have ended in success, the assassination attempt targeting LF leader Samir Geagea opened communication lines that were absent or have been interrupted for a long time. Geagea received calls from Speaker Nabih Berri and Archbishop Boulos Sayyah who called on behalf of Patriarch Rai. This last call took place after a period of staleness between Bkerke and Meerab following Geagea’s comments on Rai’s positions.         

Syria was at the forefront of international updates today; following international envoy Kofi Annan’s announcement that the Syrian conflict must end at 6 am on April 12, a Russian position emerged, making the agreement even harder to reach. In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he told Annan Moscow only endorsed the UNSC’s statement since it understood that a second deadline will be set for the armed Syrian opposition to lay down its arms.          

Herein lies the landmine that may detonate and undermine all efforts; how will a compromise be reached between the Saudi call to arm the Syrian opposition and the Russian condition that the opposition lays down its arms?         

The Russian position is in line with a Syrian official’s statement at a time when some heavy vehicles started to be withdrawn from some region. The official called on Annan to provide guarantees that funding and arming “terrorist groups” will end. He stressed that countries of the region cannot call openly for funding and arming these groups and then urge Syria to put an end to violence, adding that calls for armament are an aggression against Syria.