Mansour is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis this week as part of his meetings with the U.N. Security Council during Lebanon's presidency of the Council.
As-Safir
daily quoted Energy Minister Jibran Bassil on Tuesday as saying that he had
highlighted during the cabinet session Monday that it is important for the
state to take a firm position towards Cyprus.
Bassil explained that Cypriot-Lebanese
ties would be threatened if Cyprus does not correct the mistake it has
committed, in reference to the agreement it has signed with Israel over oil
drilling.
Bassil added
that “it is not permissible for Cyprus to begin exploratory drilling for oil
and gas in the Cypriot-Lebanese common zone.”
Bassil added
“I have told the Cypriot ambassador to Lebanon that Lebanon will not be
indulgent towards any state that
violates our sovereign rights.”
Bassil said
that he urged the cabinet to give priority to the oil drilling issue instead of
wasting time on issues already agreed upon, such as the electricity draft law.
Bassil
praised the cabinet’s resolution to demarcate Lebanon’s exclusive economic zone
and added that the geographic coordinates that the cabinet has approved are
exactly the same as the ones drafted in 2008.
Bassil
elaborated, “We have wasted 3 years to approve the same coordinates. Had we
done that earlier, Cyprus would not have signed an agreement with Israel.”
The trial chamber of the STL will hold its first meeting on Tuesday at the Hague as requested by the STL President, Judge Antonio Cassese. The meeting will take place as part of measures Cassese has recently set and which imply the discussion of several issues such as the possibility of holding a session during which the accused, if arrested, will appear before the chamber for the first time, the issue of trials in absentia and the adjudication of initial applications.
Lebanese Prosecutor Judge Said Mirza told Acharq al Awsat daily that he has submitted to the STL, at the request of Cassese, his monthly report on the outcome of the search for the four accused in the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
Mirza refused to display the content of the report in order to protect the confidentiality of correspondence between the Public Prosecution Department and the STL. Mirza confirmed that the Lebanese judiciary has submitted to the STL on Monday reports on the investigation of the attempted assassinations of Ministers Marwan Hamadeh and Elias Murr, and the killing of George Hawi, along with all related documents.
Sources told the daily that the investigation reports were transferred to The Hague on Monday.
The reports, as confirmed by a Lebanese judicial source to the daily, do not contain any additional information from previous versions, adding only that the Lebanese authorities have so far been unable to arrest the accused.
Al-Akhbar
daily reported on Tuesday that according to a report circulating under the name
of “Rightful Members of Dar al-Fatwa”, the Mufti of the Lebanese Republic
Sheikh Muhammad Rachid Qabbani is accused of sacking workers from institutions
affiliated with Dar al-Fatwa for supporting the Future Movement.
The report said
that the Mufti is seeking to diminish the privileges of Saad Hariri’s
supporters in Dar al-Fatwa and in related institutions; adding that Qabbani is
working on removing Hariri’s pictures from his supporters’ offices.
The report
also includes names of clerics that have allegedly turned against Qabbani and
started to support Hariri.
The reports,
however, shows no proof that implicates the Future movement as the source of
the report as well informed sources speculate that a third party is involved of
spreading the report.