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.
- Foiled attempt to assassinate Jumblatt and Chehayeb
Sources voiced their fear over the life of the National
Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblatt in the coming period, as well as the
Front’s member MP Akram Chehayeb after both MPs received clear threatening
messages in the past few weeks. Accordingly, Jumblatt and Chehayeb took more security
precautions.
Sources in the Progressive Socialist Party told
Al-Anbaa
newspaper on Saturday that threats began emerging gradually since Jumblatt announced that
he will not go back to supporting the Syrian regime. The sources mentioned two
clear messages:
The first message was conveyed to Chehayeb; it was a security
threat that was kept secret then. The sources said that Chehayeb’s security
guards and an official Lebanese security apparatus managed to foil this plot before
it was carried out. The sources said that the devotion and affiliation of parties
tracking him for the past two months are now well-known, adding that the cars’
types and real plate numbers are now in the possession of an influent security
apparatus.
The second message was a political threat coming from a
country in the region. In Jumblatt’s opinion, it aims at subjugating Lebanon to
the “axis of objection” whose theory was proven to fail by the events in Syria.
- Suleiman: King Abdullah says ready to contribute in
disclosing Lebanese abductees’ fate
President Michel Suleiman told
As-Safir daily on Saturday that
his visit to Saudi Arabia was important on many levels, adding that Saudi King
Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz was very positive and reiterated his support to the national
dialogue and to the disassociation policy adopted by the Lebanese government in
regards to the Syrian crisis.
Suleiman said that he was the one who contacted former Prime
Minister Saad Hariri before going to Saudi Arabia, and they both decided to
meet in Jeddah around the table of Prince Faisal. On the call for dialogue, he
said “I did not make him give a specific answer and he did not confirm his presence”.
Suleiman said that he tackled the issue of the Lebanese men abducted
near Aleppo in Syria with King Abdullah who said he was ready to help and to
make contacts to disclose the fate of the abductees and to secure their return.
- Reactions to
Nasrallah’s call, Future bloc first to object
Reactions started
coming to the call of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to hold a
constitutive conference which was met with a swift and direct objection by the
Future bloc.
In this regard,
Future bloc MP Ammar Houry told
Al-Liwaa daily on Saturday that this call was
like a call to undermine the Taef agreement.
Houry said that
talks on constitutional amendments must take place at the Parliament, not in a conference
that has no clear foundations. “In his speech, Nasrallah took the domestic
situation back to square one, meaning he undermined the constitution and the National
Pact i.e. the Taef agreement”, Houry added.
For his part, the coordinator of the March 14
General Secretariat Fares Souaid told
An-Nahar daily that Nasrallah’s
suggestion to hold a constitutive conference violates the National Pact of 1943
and the Taef agreement that became a constitution after costing Lebanon 120,000
dead, 240,000 injured, 10, 000 missing persons and grief that can still be felt
today; “he is throwing the country into the unknown”, he said.
- Hezbollah says Future bloc well aware of the gravity of this
phase
Sources close to Heazbollah told
As-Safir daily on Saturday
that the Future bloc was well aware of the gravity of the situation in the past
few weeks, mainly in some delicate moments.
Sources said that despite the fact that it is held fully
responsible for mobilizing the street and playing the role of the victim in
ironic scenarios, the Future bloc dealt with the latest developments, the
security situation or even the Lebanese abductees, in a responsible way showing
that it is aware of the implications of a possible strife.