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.
National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblatt said the
meeting he held on Tuesday with House Speaker Nabih Berri was “excellent as
usual”, adding “agreeing with Berri is always a necessity; talks with him
tackle an array of topics and are never limited to one specific issue.”
On the electoral law, Jumblatt told
As-Safir Daily on
Wednesday: "Eventually, there is one fundamental pillar we all agree on, 'the
Taif agreement;' every now and then, we hear strange ideas which undermine the
Taif. We will never accept this since priority remains for the Taif."
As-Safir Daily
reported on Wednesday that pieces of information conveyed by a Lebanese political party
to a number of Palestinian factions' leaders in the north on the fear that the
Syrian crisis reaches al-Beddawi camp are not mere warnings based on political analysis, especially when similar information were previously conveyed to the
factions and to some Lebanese security apparatuses.
The Daily pointed out
that for the past few weeks, Palestinian factions were busy receiving displaced
Syrians and trying to help them when they received security data which are in
line with the statements made by the said Lebanese party and which stipulate that
al-Beddawi camp “is not okay” and that it must be immunized to avoid that it be "infected" by the Yarmouk camp’s crisis.
The sources added that
the sites of al-Beddawi camp’s “General Command” have become targeted by
certain groups under the pretext of the Command's close ties with the Syrian regime
and the rumors stipulating the existence of tunnels between the camp and Tripoli's Jabal Mohsen to
provide the Arab Democratic Party’s fighters with assistance during armed
clashes with Bab el-Tebbaneh’s fighters.
Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Adnan Mansour received
Wednesday a list of all the expatriates registered for the ballot of the upcoming parliamentary elections; the number
of those reached 6733 emigrants in 46 diplomatic missions while not a single
emigrant went to the other 35 missions to register. The consular
pages remained blank despite the extension of the registration deadline from
31/12/2012 to 8/1/2013.
In this regard, Mansour told
An-Nahar Daily on Wednesday that
he called on the diplomatic missions abroad to inform him of the reasons why
Lebanese expatriates applied for the ballot and why the turnout was low.
Mansour considered that the reason behind this low turnout is
not logistic "since everyone can apply, regardless of affiliation."
“What is shocking is the unresponsiveness of the sons of the
diaspora which were expected to apply for the ballot by 70 to 80%; but no one
applied,” he said.
- Syrian sources: Hezbollah
training Shiite fighters to protect Syrian towns
Syrian sources confirmed that Iran and Hezbollah are
intervening in the Syrian crisis to protect the Shiite towns and villages as
well as the shrines attacked by “Takfeeris.” The sources told
Acharq al-Awsat
Daily Wednesday that Hezbollah has training centers in the Lebanese Bekaa, training
Syrian Shiite young men to fight and paying them to participate in Syria’s
combats.
In this regard, Fahd al-Masri, the Free Syrian Army’s media
official told
Acharq al-Awsat that about two weeks ago that Hezbollah sent dozens
of militants to Al-Kalamoun Mountain, adding that Hezbollah militants are
mainly deployed in al-Zabadani and Homs Reef, mainly in the Christian city of “Dabla”
alongside the Syrian regime’s “Shabbiha.” Al-Masri stressed that the next few
days will witness decisive battles between Hezbollah and the Free Syrian Army
in these regions.
In turn, a defected officer told the newspaper that according
to confirmed reports, Hezbollah militants and Iranian experts are living in
Damascus and working as media and security experts; reportedly, they visit
media institutions and security apparatuses in huge cars with tinted windows
and participate in the planning and management of military operations. Some of
them live in Kfar Sousa.
Future bloc MP Mohammad
Kabbani said that the Orthodox Gathering’s electoral law is “a suicide project
for Lebanon”, adding that if it were ratified, “it would mark the beginning of
the end of Lebanon both as a nation and as a state and it would divide the Lebanese
into closed sects living in a land once known as Lebanon.”
“I don’t know how an MP
can become limited to his sect when the constitution stipulates that he is a
deputy for the entire nation; what nation is that? There will be no nation,” he said.
Kabbani told
Al-Liwaa
Daily on Wednesday that the Orthodox Gathering’s proposed law contradicts with the Lebanese constitution, the Taif agreement, the national pact which was
ratified in 1943 and to the idea of a Lebanese nation and the Lebanese state.
“I think that this draft
law will not be ratified at Parliament”, he said, adding that if it were to be
ratified, he will emigrate from Lebanon.