Introduction to the evening news 26-07-2012

Aleppo awaits a decisive battle amid fears of a potential “massacre”. The Syrian army has sent reinforcements to gain back control of the city.       

While clashes continue in Damascus, defected Commander Munaf Tlass has put himself forward as someone to unite the fractured opposition as the disparate factions were set to gather in Qatar Thursday to try to agree on a transitional leadership if Bashar Assad's regime is toppled.   

“I cannot vision Syria with Assad”, he said.    

However, the Syrian scene was marked by an announcement made by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who stated that he would strike against Kurdish militants in Syria if need be.    

Erdogan also accused the Syrian regime of placing a number of northern towns “in the hands of” the PKK. 

The move suggests that Turkey had revised its military rules of engagement toward Syria, especially since the downing of a Turkish warplane by Syrian air defenses.   

On the Lebanese scene, the issue of the EDL contract workers overshadows the political game.  In details, EDL contract workers broke their fast on Thursday evening on the premises of the much dispute EDL headquarters in Corniche al-Nahr.        

Simultaneously, the FPM had called for a sit-in on Thursday evening in Sassine Square Achrafieh to protest the EDL's “occupation”.

On a separate note, sources told LBCI that a solution is underway to grant tenure to 1,000 EDL contract workers and to employ the rest of them in related private companies.     

As for the issue of telecom data, MP Boutros Harb revealed that the president informed him of a decision to provide complete telecom date to security apparatuses.