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.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told
Al Akhbar Daily on
Friday that the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and Al Marada partisans are
the main parties of the Koura political battle, adding that the Lebanese Forces
are reassured by surveys.
Geagea stressed that "Aounists" in Koura have not forgotten
what SSNP supporters did to them during the war, unlike the "Aounists" in the Metn.
“'Aounists' in Koura
have always been against the SSNP and the practices of its partisans who persecuted
the region’s residents; therefore their electoral machine is not active and
their participation is shy”, he said.
Al Akhbar Daily reported on Friday that a delegation of officials
in Donniyeh visited the Future bloc’s Secretary General Ahmad Hariri in Beirut
last week and informed him of their refusal to nominate MPs Ahmad Fatfat and
Qassem Abdul Aziz as candidates for the 2013 elections, “because they do not
serve people and do not open their homes for citizens”.
According to the same newspaper, Hariri said he needed time
to study this issue, adding “we want an MP like (former MP) Jihad al Samad”.
The delegation was supposed to include 60 persons, but
pressure was exerted by Fatfat’s office, reducing the number to 17.
President Michel Sleiman told
As-Safir Daily on Friday that
the case of the detained Lebanese political prisoner Georges Ibrahim Abdullah is taking
its normal legal course, adding that it would be preferable to deal with it quietly.
Sleiman denied that the Free Syrian Army is deployed on Northern Lebanese
territory. He said that as long as the LAF is deployed, there won’t
be a Syrian military presence in north Lebanon.
Sleiman said that the recent wave of assassinations in Lebanon is serious,
adding that the telecommunications data has been handed to the security
apparatuses with no breach of legal and judicial terms.
Sleiman called for putting an end to violence in Syria, widening
the scope of democracy and favoring the political process under the
supervision of the U.N. in order to draw a constitution accepted by all
Syrians. In his concluding remark's, Sleiman expressed his refusal any international military intervention in Syria.
In reply to the March 14 coalition that accused him of evading
the STL funding, Prime Minister Najib Mikati told
As-Safir Daily on Friday “We
believe in justice and exercise it in both word and deed”.
Mikati added that criticism is easy compared to assuming
obligations towards the nation and fulfilling Lebanon’s international
commitments.
Mikati pointed out that the government has completed the
budget within the deadline it pledged to meet before the Parliament, adding
that it committed itself to work as a team in order to make more achievements
in the next phase.
Al-Joumhouria Daily reported on Friday that the main reason
behind the interruption of assistance to displaced Syrians, is
mismanagement alongside arbitrary distribution of funds for both
the needy and those who are exploiting those funds. The newspaper added that money was paid to people who
registered themselves as displaced but later turned out to be living in Lebanon
for some time.