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 Nabih Berri said on Monday that “the regional situation doesn’t have any [positive] impact on Lebanon,” noting that Iran considers the Lebanese presidential elections an internal affair.
“Iranian officials had briefed French envoy to Lebanon Francois Giraud on Tehran’s stance regarding the Lebanese entitlement,” Berri noted, saying Giraud shared the Iranian position with all the officials he met in Beirut last week.
Speaker Berri also told his guests, as quoted by Al-Joumhouria newspaper, that the next dialogue session between Hezbollah and the Future Movement has not yet been scheduled.
“The session may be held after February 14, a day marking the anniversary of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination,” he said, adding “the presidential entitlement is set to be the second item on the session’s agenda”.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said on Monday that the peacekeepers are doing their utmost to uphold the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
“The good results that have been achieved by the U.N. mission on the field were appreciated by the U.N. Security Council,” Tenenti told As-Safir daily.
He also hailed the situation across the border as “stable and under control,” saying “the UNIFIL has bolstered its presence on the ground and stepped up patrols in coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces”.
“The artillery shelling that has been conducted by the Lebanese army against terrorist gunmen in mountainous areas during the last few days, was pre-emptive and aims to counter any prospect the gunmen may resort to,” military sources said on Monday.
In an interview with Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, the same sources stressed that “the army is in a permanent state of alertness to prevent any infiltration into the Lebanese territories”.
On another note, the sources said the U.S. military assistance that was delivered yesterday to the Lebanese army is “of a periodical nature and part of grants ranging between 80 and 100 million dollars a year”.
Sources with knowledge of dialogue between the Lebanese Forces party and the Free Patriotic Movement said a significant progress has been made on the political, social and economic levels.
“Nonetheless, the presidential file was not tackled and both sides were content with backing the election of a powerful president,” the sources said.
“Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun’s approach to the presidential entitlement totally differs from that of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea,” Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted sources close to Rabieh as saying.