Press Digest for Sunday September 11, 2011

3^min

Mikati: Either we are committed to all decisions or to none

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that Lebanon cannot be selective in the application of international resolutions: “Either we are committed to all the decisions or to none, so we can protect our reputation, preserve our image in front of the international community and maintain Lebanon’s position in the international legitimacy” Mikati added.

Asked about the Special Tribunal’s funding PM Mikati told An-Nahar: “We can discuss all the pending issues between us; this should be done discretely and far away from any political pressure in order to preserve Lebanon’s unity” “The priority now is to focus on the administrative appointments of regulators in the Audit Bureau, the government’s Central Inspection and the Civil Service Board” Mikati said, pointing that there will be a significant increase in the government’s investment spending, up to 49 percent in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs

American dissatisfaction with Rai’s statements

A senior American official expressed his dissatisfaction with the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai’s recent statements on the popular uprising in Syria and Hezbollah’s weapons, saying that such statements are unjustified and affect Rai’s image in the world.

The American official told An-Nahar daily that Rai’s allegations that the “Syrian uprising” will lead to the dominance of radical Sunni movements are completely untrue and vague.

“We saw in these statements that Patriarch Rai ignored the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri” he added, “Rai gave a blessing for Hezbollah’s weapons, relating the weapons issue to a possible solution for the Palestinians in Lebanon; I wonder how he saw in these weapons a means to defend Lebanon and not an extension of the Iranian regime in the region” An-Nahar reported on the American official.

The newspaper added that the American official expects Rai’s visit to the United States in October to be purely religious, implying that representatives of the American government or politicians will not receive him.