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 political sources
from the Kurdistan Alliance revealed to the Kuwait-based
Al-Seyassah Daily
that Kurdish leaders from the Democratic Party of Kurdistan and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan have sensed “danger” in Iran’s recent stance.
Tehran earlier announced that it
will continue supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad "even if this required
engaging in a regional war".
According to the Kurdish sources, the
Syrian regime has transferred a significant part of its chemical weapons to the
Iraqi-Syrian border in anticipation of a western preemptive strike launched
from the Jordanian-Turkish border to gain control of the arms cache.
The sources added that Assad’s
threat to use these weapons in case of a “foreign attack” implies that the
latter has taken preventive measures in the event of a “real regional war”.
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour
told
An-Nahar Daily that “there is no need to recall Syrian Ambassador to
Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali since there is no state of emergency requiring such
a move”.
“Such an [action] should not take
place between brothers”, he stressed.
Mansour explained that there is no
definite date for the handover of the protest letter, adding that “a diplomatic
memo should have been sent instead of a protest letter since the violation was
not unilateral”.
MP Walid Jumblatt told
Al-Akhbar
Daily that communication with former PM Saad Hariri is at a stalemate since the latter
is currently in Saudi Arabia.
Jumblatt stated that “there is no
need to inject friendliness in the Mukhtara- Meerab relationship. We will talk when
elections are near”.
Commenting on his relationship with
General Michel Aoun, Jumblatt said “despite our political differences, Aoun is right. A fair solution must be found for the EDL issue but this
should not be used [by the protesters] as a pretext for occupying and sabotaging
a public facility”.
An-Nahar Daily reported that
Hezbollah’s security body has detained 5 days ago two cadres belonging to the
party as well as a member of a municipal council in the Bekaa region on charges
of collaborating with Israel.
An-Nahar Daily reported that prominent Ecclesiastic sources in Damascus have revealed that pro-Assad intelligence and
security officials visited a number of religious figures in the Christian neighborhoods
of Damascus, calling on them to arm themselves and form militias in
anticipation of upcoming developments in Syria.
The sources confirmed that the
residents of these areas are not willing to carry arms, "be it now or in the
future", refusing attempts to drag them into the “bloody armed conflict” in
Syria.