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.
An-Nahar
daily quoted on Sunday sources close to former PM Saad Hariri as saying that
Hariri is currently in Riyadh.
The sources
confirmed that Hariri will not hold any meeting in Paris despite media reports
to the contrary.
Al-Mustaqbal
newspaper published on Sunday Wikileaks
cable 465, issued by the U.S. Embassy
in Lebanon on 29/03/2007, saying that El Marada leader MP Sleiman Frangieh
admitted that the opposition will use the STL as a bargaining chip to gain
political advantages such as “the toppling minority” in the cabinet.
According to
the cable, Frangieh told the then-U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman,
during a lunch he hosted at his residence in Zgharta on March 23rd 2007, that
"you'll probably get the tribunal, but at least we need some price in
return."
In response
to Feltman’s question on the reservations of the opposition to the tribunal,
Frangieh said "give us a committee to study the expansion of the cabinet
and the tribunal, and we'll give our comments. Give us a 19-11 national unity
cabinet and no more secrets.”
On the other
hand, the cable added that “Frangieh defended Hezbollah’s right of resistance
against Israel. He claimed, nevertheless, that he was against the goal of
removing Israel.”
“Furthermore,
it can be discussed, he said, whether Hezbollah should have the right to
determine war and peace for Lebanon” the cable quoted Frangieh as saying.
Future Movement
official Mustafa Allouch spoke out to al-Anbaa daily against reports published
by Al-Akhbar which quoted him as saying that “I am waiting for a regulatory
decision that would put an end to my career in the movement.” Allouch confirmed
that “what al-Akhbar has quoted me as saying is untrue and not founded on the actual
ongoing deliberations within the movement.”
Allouch said
that his statement on the leadership of Saudi woman contravenes the official
stance of the Future movement, adding that the movement has the right to demand
explanations on the matter and to take accordingly the appropriate decision within
the institutional framework of the movement.
Al-Anbaa daily quoted Allouch on Sunday as
saying that “Each of the former PM Saad Hariri and General Secretariat of the Future
Movement Ahmad Hariri called me to seek clarification on the dimensions of my
statement and they both voiced objection to my stance, on behalf of the entire Future
movement.”
Al-Hayat daily learned Sunday that President
Michel Sleiman and PM Najib Mikati have agreed during their Saturday meeting to
include 130 items to Wednesday’s cabinet agenda.
The daily added that Sleiman and Mikati have
selected 130 out of 370 items which were transferred to the general secretariat
of the cabinet.
Al-Hayat also reported that the issue of the STL
funding will not be tabled during Wednesday session.
The daily quoted ministerial sources as saying
that “it is still early to table the issue of the STL funding; we still have
time until next November.”
Kuwaiti newspaper
Al-Siyasa quoted Future bloc MP Ammar Houri on Sunday as saying that “delusional is the
one who speaks about a tradeoff between an amendment of the STL system and its
funding,” stressing that “introducing amendments to the STL or extending its
term can only be done at the request of U.N. Chief Ban Ki-Moon.”
Houri told the daily that “the majority party,
which is blowing its own trumpet, has come to the conclusion that failing to
fund the STL will take its toll on Lebanon. Those who set such conditions and
call for amending the STL system are doing so to say, in a desperate attempt to
compensate for their loss before their supporters: I have funded the STL but under my own conditions.”
“It is unlikely not to fund the STL. Such a decision
would put the cabinet on a suicidal course that would lead to its immediate
collapse,” he added.