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.
High-ranking parliamentary sources said a meeting is likely to be held between Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in the next few days.
In an interview with the Kuwait-based Al-Seyassah daily, the sources said both politicians told the ones who mediated the meeting that they do not mind holding it in a bid to tackle the presidential file and put an end to the power vacuum.
“The Aoun-Geagea meeting may not resolve all obstacles to the election of a new president but may contribute to opening dialogue and tackling numerous options able to break the deadlock over the presidential elections,” the same sources added.
Deputy Speaker Farid Makari said on Monday that a serious dialogue will definitely be held between the Future Movement and Hezbollah before the end of 2014 or with the beginning of the new year.
“The meeting would ease tension between Hezbollah and the Future Movement, hence between Sunnis and Shi’ites,” Makari told Al-Joumhouria newspaper.
“I do not expect that this dialogue would settle all problems but it is required to reach a minimum level of agreement, i.e. the election of a Lebanese president,” he added.
Sources told An-Nahar daily on Monday that the surprising visit by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday is linked to the latest developments regarding Lebanon's presidential elections.
“LF chief Geagea is set to meet with Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri as well as a number of senior Saudi officials,” the sources said.
Well-informed sources also told the newspaper that Geagea’s visit comes as French envoy Jean-François Girault is heading to Tehran Monday, and Riyadh later on, after a round of consultations he held in Beirut.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday that “a lot had been said” during Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s visit to the French capital Paris, noting that the visit’s outcome was not limited to the stated positions.
“France is obviously concerned with the return of terrorists, mainly to its own territories,” the daily noted, saying “fighters of French descent number at around 1,800 in addition to hundreds of militants of Arab or other ethnicities”.
“Paris also fears attempts by terrorist organizations, like the Nusra Front and the Islamic State, to capture any part of Lebanon’s north and the Bekaa region,” Al-Akhbar said, adding “diplomats had heard this stance from French President Francois Hollande”.