The
following are summaries of today's major stories published in the
Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content,
giving English-language readers insight into the various views expressed
in newspapers across the Arab world.
Sources told
An-Nahar newspaper on Saturday that the car
that exploded outside the al-Salam Mosque, facing the residence of the former general director of the Lebanese Internal
Security Forces Major General Ashraf Riffi in the Northern
Lebanese city of Tripoli, is a 4x4 Ford and mentioned that the explosive weighs
at 175 KG of TNT.
The sources added that investigations are underway to reveal
the type of the other car that exploded near the Al-Taqwa Mosque, noting that
the mosque is located near the residence of caretaker Prime Minister Najib
Mikati who cut short his visit to return to the
country amid the current situation.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Saturday that a Lebanese
Armed Forces’ Intelligence unit raided the residence of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Gharib
(40 years) in Tripoli’s al-Minyeh region and arrested him.
Security sources told the newspaper that military maps for
the city of Tripoli along with a quantity of explosives were seized in the
latter’s house, adding that he was arrested on the backdrop of the twin blasts
that rocked the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday.
Al-Akhbar newspaper added that Sheikh Gharib had been taken
to Beirut’s LAF Information Branch, stressing that he had been visiting the
Syrian territories frequently since he was tasked by the Head of
the Command Council of the Lebanese Islamic Unification Movement, Sheikh Hashem Minkara with following up on some files with the Syrian regime.
In this regard, sources close to the Lebanese Unification Movement
denounced the arrest of
Sheikh Gharib, expressing their concerns over fabricating charges against him.
The representative of Hamas Movement in Lebanon Ali Baraki
said on Saturday that the movement is cooperating with Hezbollah and Lebanese security
apparatuses to meet the current security tensions, adding that Mohammad Tah
who is arrested on suspicion of firing rockets on the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, is
not related to the movement.
Baraki told
As-Safir newspaper that the Hamas Movement is
keen on Lebanon’s stability, adding that it rejects using the Palestinian refugee
camps as a means to destabilize the country’s stability.
Baraki added that the movement rejects any foreign
intervention in the Lebanese affairs, stressing that the relation with
Hezbollah is based on mutual coordination, and cooperation.
The head of the political committee at the Arab Democratic
Party Refaat Ali Eid said on Saturday that perpetrators of Tripoli’s blasts are
also behind the blast that rocked southern Beirut’s Roueis region and other Lebanese
regions, noting that they are also responsible of the continuous bloodshed in
Syria and Iraq.
Eid called via the
Al-Akhbar newspaper on the Secretary
General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri
to speed up the formation of a national unity cabinet, considering that all Lebanese
citizens have become victims of the deteriorating security situation.