According to
As-Safir newspaper Speaker Nabih Berri revealed that if the parliament fails to issue any draft law regarding Lebanon’s offshore resources, he will set a date after New Year’s break for the parliament to meet again to discuss with the cabinet the oil issue.
Berri added that both PM Najib Mikati and Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil vowed to finalize this issue with the joint parliamentary committee before the end of 2011. Berri told As-Safir that the Lebanese are busy fighting on shallow issues and completely neglecting their resources, warning that Israel and Cyprus are ready to start drilling while our country is still wasting time.
Sources from the Libyan Transitional Council told
Al-Liwaa newspaper that Imam Moussa Sadr died is his cell where Muammar Gaddafi’s forces had kept him since 1978.
The sources added that Sadr died in the summer of 1998 in the Libyan capital Tripoli in his underground cell where he was subject to hard living conditions. Sadr’s body was kept in a safe place after his death based on Gaddafi’s orders.
The investigations revealed that the body was kept in Tripoli Central Prison until the first days of the Libyan appraisal and was then buried in a mass grave in the outskirts of the capital.
According to
Al-Joumhouria newspaper, the head of the Kataeb Party Amine Gemayel commented on President Michel Sleiman’s calls to launch a national dialogue saying that his Party participated in 2006’s dialogue and played a vital role in finding a solution to most critical pending issues between different political parties in Lebanon.
Gemayel called on political figures who will participate in the dialogue to open “open their heart and their minds” and accept opposing views from a democratic point of view, saying “I am not jumping to conclusion and nothing is definite and until this moment we are still in a direct confrontation with most of the political parties in the country”.
Asked about the current situation in Syria he said “Some parties are betting on a certain outcome in Syria, while others are not willing to take any stance or initiative regarding that issue”.
Sources from Lahay-Holland told
Al-Akhbar newspaper that a number of employees at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon General Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare office are currently in Israel celebrating Christmas and New Year’s break.
Sources from the STL revealed that the Tribunal does not interfere in its employees’ private life as currently they are on a leave period and they choose their vacation destination as they wish.
Sources close to the head of the Lebanese Forces Party Samir Geagea told
An-Nahar that Geagea will visit Saudi Arabia very soon to meet with Saudi officials as well as the former Lebanese PM Saad Hariri.
The sources added that Geagea and Hariri will discuss a transitional period in March 14’s politics after the collapse of the Syrian regime in Syria and will prepare the return of Hariri to Lebanon.