Press Digest for Wednesday May 28, 2014

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.

• Speaker Berri still pinning hope on electing a "made in Lebanon" president-sources

Visitors of Speaker Nabih Berri quoted him as saying on Wednesday that he will call for a parliamentary session to elect a new president on June 9.

The visitors told An-Nahar newspaper that Berri still pins hopes that lawmakers would be able to elect a "made in Lebanon president."

According to the daily, he also warned against the dangers of the political vacuum, as well as foreign intervention in the Lebanese presidential bid.

• Outgoing President Michel Sleiman says will back Resistance whenever its needs support

Outgoing President Michel Sleiman told As-Safir newspaper on Wednesday that he will back the Lebanese Resistance [Hezbollah] whenever needed.

Sleiman also stressed that the Resistance should remain within the scope of the Lebanese state.

• Bishop Boulos Matar: Patriarch Rai went to Jerusalem to make peace

Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday that the visit of the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai to Jerusalem "is excellent," adding that Rai wanted to check on his parish.

Bishop Matar added that Rai called on the Maronite Christians in the occupied territories "to hold onto their land and face challenges."

He concluded by saying that Rai went to Jerusalem to make peace, adding that the visit has "historic dimensions."

For his part, the head of archbishops of Haifa and the Holy Land Maronite Bishop Mousa al-Hajj told the daily that all Maronite Christians in the Holy Land "eagerly awaited" Patriarch Rai's visit, just as Christians are eager to visit the Holy Land.

• Saudi authorities will allow hundreds of Saudi tourists to visit Lebanon - sources

Sources told Al-Seyassah newspaper on Wednesday that Hezbollah made promises to the Lebanese state that it will not deter Gulf tourists in Lebanon in exchange of Gulf states refraining from expelling Lebanese Shiites belonging to Hezbollah from the Gulf region.

The same sources added that Saudi Arabia will allow only hundreds of its residents to visit Lebanon in order to "test Hezbollah's promises" and to see whether the armed party will abduct or assassinate Gulf tourists.