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.
Minister of
Social Affairs Wael Abou Faour revealed on Sunday that the Lebanese state has developed
a special mechanism to register displaced Syrians in order to prepare for new
statistics. “Statistics will be launched according to this mechanism in the
next 15 days,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Abou Faour told
Acharq al-Awsat Daily that the ministerial committee charged by
the Lebanese government has drawn a plan and developed a mechanism to register
the Syrian displaced during a meeting two days ago. “We cannot rely on the numbers
presented by the UNHCR,” he said adding that a mechanism to exchange information
will be signed with this UN agency in the upcoming days.
Abou Faour
denied that this sudden decision by the Lebanese authorities was due to a
specific incident, saying “we took this step only because we are not familiar
with the registration mechanism adopted by the UNHCR.”
Minister of Telecommunications Nicolas Sehnaoui said Sunday that
more than 250 Lebanese villages are suffering from frequent problems and a lack
of telephone services due to the state’s neglect. “The state neither invested
strategically in these villages nor wired them to the fixed telephone network;
it only provided them with a phone antenna which is ineffective given the
factors which influence the quality of service such as the weather,” he said.
Sehnaoui told
An-Nahar Daily that given the importance of
telecom services and in order to be fair to over 30,000 Lebanese who live in
the mountainous areas of Jbeil, Kesrouan, Baalbek… the ministry drew two plans;
“the first is a medium term plan to connect these areas to the fixed telephone
network by digging trenches, and the second is based on the fix mobile
technique which adopts the cellular network.”
Sehnaoui explained that the cabinet is keen on dealing with
the fixed cellular phone subscribers as if they were fixed phone subscribers. “They
pay the same tariff for phone calls and broadband; the code 010 has been
adopted in order for the caller to know that he will be paying for a fixed
phone call, not a cellular one.”
House Speaker Nabih Berri told
An-Nahar Daily on Sunday that
he endorses the political initiative intended to be launched by the Progressive
Socialist Party (PSP).
This initiative
comes in the context of keeping up with President Sleiman's efforts to protect
the country's stability and civil peace, and his continuing efforts to
emphasize that dialogue is the sole means to resolve conflicts among the
Lebanese.
A high level official who
accompanied President Michel Sleiman in his visit to Rome told
Al-Mustaqbal
Daily on Sunday that the President sent a letter of protest to his Iranian counterpart
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad through Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo during his
visit to Baabda Palace last week.
In the letter, the President protested
over the Ayoub drone which was launched into Israeli airspace and condemned the
fact that it provided Iran with the information it got without informing the
Lebanese president or government. “This step is a total disregard of the
feelings of the Lebanese and their commitment to national sovereignty.”
According to the same source, Sleiman
informed his Iranian guest that Hezbollah’s involvement in this case is to be
discussed by the Lebanese. “The way Iran is dealing with Lebanon, disregarding
all diplomatic norms, is unacceptable,” he said, and asked the Iranian minister
to convey this message to Ahmadinejad.
An-Nahar Daily reported Sunday that
March 14 MPs including Future bloc MPs have confirmed to the Parliament
Presidency their attendance to the lunch banquet called for by House Speaker
Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Tuesday afternoon in honor of the Armenian
President Serge Sarkisian.