News Introduction for Sunday 23-10-2011

The participation of both President Michel Sleiman and PM Najib Mikati in Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Ben Abdul Aziz condolences on Tuesday and Wednesday canceled the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon, postponing an inevitable clash in any upcoming meeting on a series of pending issues.

Canceling a cabinet meeting postpones discussing critical issues from administrative appointments to the newly raised issue of Hezbollah’s telecommunication in Tarshish, to the endless Syrian breaches in the North, the 2012’s budget and wage adjustments issue and finally the funding of the Special tribunal for Lebanon, in addition to basic non-political pending issues such as professor’s strike at the Lebanese University threatening the entire academic year.  

On the Arab scene, Tunisia, the Mother of Arab Revolutions, opened today the new path for Arab democracy during the Constituent Assembly’s elections where participation rates blew all expectations raising up to 70%.

On the Libyan scene, the Libyan Transitional Council chose Benghazi and not the capital Tripoli to declare the liberation of the country from Gaddafi’s rule.

It is notable that the head of the NTC Mustafa Abdel Jalil declared that Shariaa law will be the core of all legislations in Libya and the support of any ruling power elected in the country, pointing out that all “non-Islamic” laws are now ineffective.