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.
High ranking sources from the Lebanese Forces told
An-Nahar newspaper on Friday that during the launching of the campaign of adherence to the Lebanese Forces, Geagea will stress his determination to turn the LF into a pioneering party in Lebanon.
Geagea is expected to link between the "military resistance generation and the March 14 generation for peaceful resistance".
Geagea is also due to respond to the "harsh" campaign launched against the Lebanese Forces, recalling that the party has a cause to defend and that its members are "the sons and daughters of the Cedars Revolution."
On another note, he will stress the necessity to find a new electoral law which would "satisfy everyone" and convey a message to his allies in March 14 urging them to spare no effort to reach consensus in this regard.
Sources from participants in the Bkerke gathering told
An-Nahar Daily on Friday that the Kataeb party, the Lebanese Forces, the Free
Patriotic Movement and El Marada Movement have a unified position on the Orthodox
Gathering draft law while being open to any other draft law which would
guarantee just representation.
The Daily added that Patriarch Rai was mainly a listener
during the meeting and did not give any instructions.
The sources added that Aoun reiterated his determination not
to propose alternatives for the Orthodox Gathering draft law, while Kataeb
leader Amin Gemayel and LF MP Georges Adwan stressed the necessity that all
parties remain open to any suggestion ensuring "the just representation of
all Lebanese components".
According to the Daily, MP Boutros Harb stressed that the
Orthodox Gathering draft law exposes Christians to dangers.
One of the participants in the meeting revealed that the Patriarch
is neither supporting nor rejecting the Orthodox Gathering draft law.
Sources told
As-Safir newspaper Friday that the First Secretary and Lebanese Consul to France Walid Minkara met with Georges Adballah in his prison cell for about an hour on Thursday in light of the Lebanese government's efforts to release him.
Minkara is due to submit his report on this visit to the Lebanese government.
The visit came days after the assignment of the Ministry of Justice's Director General Omar An-Natour to follow up on the case with the French authorities and the Lebanese ambassador to France, and one week before the Court's enforcement of judgments in Abdallah's case.
The sources also told the Daily that a delegation from the International Campaign for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will meet with Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel in Bekfaya on Saturday.
House Speaker Nabih Berri told
An-Nahar newspaper on Friday that he did not set any deadline for the consultations at the Parliament's General Authority.
Berri denied having issued such a statement, saying that the required consultations are still underway to agree on a new electoral law.
Hezbollah sources told
Al-Joumhouriya newspaper that there are two contradictory policies. The first one supports the plot against Syria, the US project for the Arab region and Israel's security, while the second one adopts the Resistance and supports Syria in its Arab nationalist policy against the US project for the region.
The sources added that Hezbollah indirectly agreed on a self-distancing policy towards the Syrian crisis.
On another note, the sources responded to the threats of the Syrian Free Army saying: "We reiterate that those who are engaging in fights are Lebanese Shiites living in Syrian villages and defending themselves; While Hezbollah is not intervening officially, it cannot prevent those from defending themselves."