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.
Al Hayat Daily
reported Sunday that President Michel Sleiman was annoyed by the fact that his
initiatives are being thwarted due to selfishness “while dialogue in any form
is an absolute necessity at the time being”, his visitors quoted him as saying.
Sleiman is reportedly considering alternatives for the initiatives he has
launched until now in order to resume dialogue between different Lebanese
parties.
“Communication
between the Lebanese should not be interrupted; this is what motivates me to
suggest alternatives for my previous initiatives, especially if I do not have
any guarantees that my call for a national dialogue session on January 7 will
be heeded,” he said, according to his visitors.
Razan El Moghrabi announced via
An-Nahar’s Twitter account that
Colombian pop star of Lebanese origin Shakira will perform a duet with her.
Razan had secretly headed to Joe Baroudjian’s studio to lend
her voice to the duet song with the international star.
This song is reportedly a romantic song which portrays love
from a different perspective. A music video for the song is expected to be shot
soon.
It is noteworthy that Razan is still the presenter of
amateur show “Sawt al-Hayat” broadcast on the Egyptian channel Al Hayat.
- Gemayel: No
development in Syria can make drastic change to balance of forces in Lebanon
Kataeb leader
Amine Gemayel said that he discussed with President Michel Sleiman the repercussions
of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon, a fear which is supposedly haunting everyone. “If
we do not understand the risk of these developments in Syria, Lebanon may pay
the price,” he said.
Gemayel told
Al Hayat Daily on Sunday that
the situation in Lebanon is worrisome, pointing out that no development in
Syria can make a drastic change to the balance a forces in Lebanon “so long as
the main parties maintain their stances, power, existence and regional ramifications,
whether it is Hezbollah or the other party.”
Gemayel stressed the necessity of immunizing
the domestic scene and protecting it from any political or security development
in Syria “especially that the return of extremism may go beyond all limits.”
- Merhebi: Assad’s governments in Lebanon and
in Syria are one
Future bloc MP Mouin Merhebi said that sending
the bodies of the Talkalakh victims in batches aimed at sowing strife in
Tripoli and the north; “but this did not happen during the delivery of the 3
first batches,” he said, hoping that the situation will remain calm when the
truth surrounding the two other men is revealed.
On the role of the Lebanese government in
this case, Merhebi told
Acharq al-Awsat Daily on Sunday that the Syrian and
Lebanese governments are cooperating closely, considering that the governments
of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria and in Lebanon are one.
“For a long
time now, we no longer distinguish between Assad’s government and the government
of Najib Mikati since the latter has become annexed to the first,” he said.
March 14 sources considered that Prime
Minister Najib Mikati did not spare the opposition his “dry and unusual offensive
tone” in the latest speeches he made in Tripoli on the before leaving Lebanon
to spend the holidays abroad. The sources reassured Mikati that March 14 still
believes in the necessity of changing the government and forming an impartial
government to oversee elections.
The sources told
Al Anbaa al Kuwaitiya Daily
that with his campaign against the opposition, Mikati has undoubtedly put
himself in a position of acute rivalry.