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.
- Geagea: Syrian delegation visit to Bkerke is provocative
According to An-Nahar newspaper the head of the Lebanese Forces Party Samir Geagea said that the Syrian delegation’s visit to Bkerke is an attempt to impose on the Maronite Patriarch Bshara Rai unwanted stances and statements.
“President Assad is meeting with Lebanese politicians as if nothing is wrong in Syria; his plan is to get some Sunni legitimacy from Lebanon but he will fail to do that”, Geagea told An-Nahar.
- Jumblatt: I don’t have to take a blood test
According to As-Safir newspaper, the head of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblatt said that he is not obliged to provide a “certificate of good conduct” to those who are constantly wondering about his latest stances. “I don’t have to take a blood test to prove my nationalism or explain my stances to anyone”, Jumblatt told the newspaper.
“My stances are clear from the national dialogue and Doha agreement; some silly people question my political path because of my stances on the electricity plan, although I explained that they were based on technical issues and not political ones”
Jumblatt denied that he could raise Hezbollah’s weapons issue in the parliament, stressing that he still believes that these weapons should be progressively integrated into governmental institutions at the right time and in collaboration with Hezbollah officials, so that the decision to go to war rest solely in the hands of the government.
- Al-Mustaqbal cites Aoun: Jumblatt has to apologize for the genocides against Christians
Al-Mustaqbal newspaper published on Friday Wikileaks cable 3176, issued by the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on 02/10/2006 saying that the Free Patriotic Movement’s (FPM) leader Michel Aoun used “The Right of Return” of the Lebanese Christians displaced from Mount Lebanon to incite strife between Sunnis and Druze. Aoun was quoted during his speech as saying that Sunni leaders are trying to empower the Palestinian presence in the camps to use them against Shiites and Christians.
According to Al-Mustaqbal, Aoun focused his attack on the head of the National Struggle Front asking him to apologize for the acts of genocide he committed against Christians during the civil war era in Lebanon. Aoun’s speech came after Hezbollah asked Jumblatt to apologize for describing their supporters as being “insane”.
Aoun asked the concerned authorities to establish a special tribunal to investigate the spending of the Ministry of the Displaced. The cable added that an American official met with FPM MP Ibrahim Kennan and the Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil who recognized that their movement lost its popular support and that Aoun is trying to use the Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons to regain his popularity.
- Future on the line: will anti-Saudi comments get Alloush the axe?
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported that Future Movement bloc MP Mustafa Alloush is waiting for a regulatory decision from the Movement’s presidency that could end his political career in the party after he publically criticized the regime in Saudi Arabia and their “unhealthy ruling system.”
The newspaper added that Alloush received two phone calls, the first one on Wednesday from former PM Saad Hariri who expressed firm opposition towards Alloush’s statement and left him no room for explanations or justification, asking him to apologize for what he said. Alloush received a second phone call from the Secretary General of the Future Movement Ahmad Hariri who stressed the importance of Saudi Arabia’s role in Lebanon.
A top-ranking leader from the Movement told Al-Akhbar that no decision has been taken in this regard till now, as the General Secretariat is still studying the case.