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.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told
as-Safir
Daily that the case of the Lebanese hostages held in Syria’s Aazaz has ended since
they were transported to Turkey Friday evening.
“We will discuss their return to Lebanon with the Turkish
authorities on Saturday,” Charbel noted.
In this context, the caretaker minister said that the
discussions will also tackle means to transport the abducted Turkish pilots as
well as a number of Syrian female detainees released by the Syrian regime, to Turkey.
On another note, Lebanese ministerial sources told
an-Nahar
Newspaper that the return of the Lebanese hostages to Lebanese may take 24 to
48 hours, without specifying if it depends on the release of the Turkish
pilots.
In turn, a Turkish source told
al-Liwaa Newspaper that Qatar
has closed the negotiations conducted in the case of the hostages by paying an
amount of USD 150 million in exchange for guarantees that the abductees will be
handed over immediately to the Qatari Foreign Ministry to be then escorted to
Beirut International Airport.
Sources close to the Prime Minister-Designate Tammam Salam
quoted him as saying that the delay in the cabinet formation is caused by the conditions
imposed by some parties in order to serve their interests, according to
as-Safir daily.
“If I met all the parties’ demands, I will be forming an
unproductive cabinet that cannot assume governmental duties,” Salam was
cited as saying.
The sources added that Salam seeks to make progress in the
formation progress since he had given all the parties enough time to present
their demands and proposals in this regard, stressing that a cabinet must be
formed in order to end the governmental void in the country, calling on all the
political factions to assume their responsibilities.
As-Safir Daily quoted sources close to President Michel
Sleiman as saying that the president has become disturbed by the delay in the
cabinet formation.
In this context, a well-informed source told the daily that
the president will be ready to sign any governmental decree presented by the
Prime Minister-Designate Tammam Salam “who is deploying strong efforts to form
a cabinet capable of facing the political and constitutional challenges, as well
as the economic and social issues.”
The same source said that Sleiman is concerned regarding
further delay in the formation, which threatens Lebanon’s stability and causes
negative stagnation in all the fields.
On the international level,
al-Akhbar Daily cited Western diplomatic sources as saying that
“Washington does no longer reject Hezbollah’s participation in the new cabinet.”
The sources added that the United States believes that “Hezbollah’s
participation in the cabinet as a partner is better than leading the majority,
as it was the case in the caretaker cabinet of Najib Mikati, and better as well
than no cabinet at all.”
Caretaker Economy Minister Nicolas Nahas stressed that during
the meeting held between President Michel Sleiman and foreign ambassadors and
representatives, it has been agreed that an evaluation must be conducted to
assess the situation following the conference of the International Support
Group for Lebanon held in New York and the World Bank’s meetings held in
Washington.
On the case of oil and gas exploration, Nahas told
an-Nahar
Newspaper that this issue is technical, calling on all parties to leave the
case for the oil sector management committee,
which is entitled to take decisions in this regard.
The caretaker minister noted
however, that the law passed to form the said committee has weakened its role
as a monitoring body, deprived it from absolute powers to take final decisions and
caused disputes between the concerned parties.