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.
PM Najib Mikati voiced his comfort
with the results reached on Wednesday, including the graduation of officers,
the agreement reached over the pay scale and the solution found for the issue
of EDL contract workers.
In this context, Mikati told
An-Nahar Daily “it is true that, at the beginning, the prestige of the
state and the role of the cabinet were seemingly disrespected. However, as prime
minister, I had to choose between pressing ahead with solutions through the use
of force or addressing the issues calmly and carefully. I have chosen the
second option”.
“What matters to me the most is achieving
goals through peaceful means”, he stressed.
As-Safir Daily
learned that a certain Islamic group in Ain al-Helweh camp has played a key
role in talking Sheikh Ahmad Assir into lifting his sit-in, in coordination
with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and the army intelligence.
Information
made available to LBCI revealed that the head of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Ain al-Helweh, Sheikh Jamal Khattab, has
visited Assir in his tent four days earlier, where both parties held a
3-hour-long meeting.
Well-informed
sources told the daily that Khattab reached with Assir an agreement tied with 5
conditions that were relayed to the Palestinian businessman Imad Assadi who in
turn conveyed them to PM Najib Mikati and Minister Charbel.
Accordingly,
the minister of interior visited Sidon and met with Assir to endorse the
agreement and announce the end of the sit-in.
In a
statement to
An-Nahar Daily, Ain al-Tineh sources described the current ministerial
situation as “the broken wings”, saying that the majority is absent from the
cabinet.
The
sources quoted Speaker Nabih Berri as saying that most parties represented in
the cabinet want to throw their responsibility for the electoral draft law on
the “parliament’s shoulder”.
Commenting on the March 14 camp’s
preparations for the upcoming legislative elections, the sources said “Bravo”.
“What has the majority done so far
to face this event?” the sources wondered.
Well-informed Islamic sources told
As-Safir Daily that a delegation from Hamas Movement visited Beirut two days
ago and met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as well as Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya Secretary General Sheikh
Ibrahim al-Masri and Amal Movement's politburo chief Jamil Hayek.
The sources pointed out that discussions
focused on local and regional developments, particularly means to face the
threats of sectarian strife.
According to the same sources, their talks
mulled the possibility of putting forward an initiative to solve the Syrian crisis
in coordination with concerned Arab and Islamic parties.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel described
the lifting of Sheikh Ahmad Assir’s sit-in as a “breakthrough”, adding that the
move spared the town of Sidon and its surrounding [too many troubles].
Charbel revealed to
Al-Liwaa Daily
efforts to bring about reconciliation between Tripoli’s rival neighborhoods of
Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mouhsen.