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.
House Speaker Nabih Berri told
An-Nahar newspaper on Monday that he welcomes
the security plan that will be implemented in Beirut’s Southern Suburbs, adding
that residents of the region will respond to it positively.
In the same context, Speaker Berri expressed to
As-Safir newspaper his anxiety
over some negative comments regarding the aforementioned plan, stressing that
“it is shameful that some factions are saying that security forces who are part
of the plan had been chosen on the basis of specifications set by a certain
party.”
Deputy Ahmad Fatfat said on Monday that the Future Bloc will boycott the
parliamentary sessions scheduled for today on the backdrop of the bloc's position
which denounces legislating in the absence of a cabinet.
MP Fatfat expressed his astonishment over the fact that Speaker Nabih Berri is
calling for a legislative session on the basis of an agenda that political factions
did not agree upon.
MP Fatfat added to
An-Nahar newspaper that caretaker Prime Minister will also refrain from attending
the session, urging Berri to hold a meeting for the Parliament’s Bureau in
order to set a new agenda for the legislative session.
“Berri along with Hezbollah are disrupting the work of the parliament,” MP
Fatfat concluded.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Monday that a meeting was held last
Wednesday between him and Hezbollah’s official Hajj Wafik Safa during which the
latter informed him that Hezbollah is ready to cooperate with security forces
in order to make their plan successful.
Minister Charbel told
Al-Joumhouria newspaper that he also discussed the
security plan with President Michel Sleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Najib
Mikati.
Minister Charbel added that security units include Lebanese Armed Forces
soldiers, Internal Security Forces members, as well as General and State
Security members, refusing to disclose the number of armed forces that will
participate in the security plan.
Deputy Ibrahim Kanaan said on Monday that Free Patriotic Movement deputies will
not participate in today’s scheduled parliamentary session, adding that “the
issue of the parliament should be solved politically.”
MP Kanaan noted that the Future Bloc considers it illegitimate to legislate in
the absence of a cabinet, and FPM deputies will not participate in the session, adding that its agenda should be exceptional for the fact that basic issues in
the country should be solved first.
Kanaan told
An-Nahar newspaper that the parliamentary issue should be either
solved by forming a cabinet or by agreeing on the session’s agenda in order to
legislate proposals and laws considered as a priority at the current time.