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 Seyassah al Kuwaiti daily reported that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah dispatched on Thursday more than 200 of his fighters to Syria, through the northern Lebanese border.
According to the daily, this operation aims at providing back-up to both the forth and the fourteenth brigades led by Maher Assad in their “oppressive” crackdowns against the villages of Al Ksayr and Rablah in Homes countryside. The newspaper added that members of the Syrian opposition saw “with their own eyes the arrival of dozens of trucks loaded with the Lebanese Iranian-backed Shiites carrying small arms, rocket propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns.”
Al Seyassah al Kuwaiti quoted opposition leaders from Paris as saying that dozens of Hezbollah members participating in the internal Syrian events were killed during the last six months. Their bodies returned to their hometowns in the Bekaa, the south and the coastal regions to be given an appropriate burial ceremony without declaring the reasons behind their death.
The opposition leader added that Hezbollah and the Iranian regime doubled the number of members from the revolutionary guards and the Basij backing the Assad regime, especially after the number of dissident Syrian soldiers began increasing.
The daily added that Al Ba’ath Party fears that the dissident soldiers will spark a war in the heart of the army between those benefiting from it such as the Alawites and the anti-Alawites independent brigades.
The Head of the Syrian National Transitional Council (NTC) Burhan Ghalioun told
Acharq al Awsat daily that the NTC welcomes all efforts exerted to put an end to the Syrian crisis and to stop bloodshed.
Ghalioun voiced surprise when hearing that the Arab League accepted to send a delegation to Damascus while the blood of innocent Syrian martyrs is shed every day.
“I call on the Arab League to act in earnest”, Ghalioun said, adding that talks regarding dialogue will not be taken seriously as long as the Syrian regime is killing its people.
Al Akhbar daily reported that Syrian senior officials told visitors to Damascus that they are not satisfied with the stances taken by the Head of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblatt. The newspaper added that the Syrian regime was offended by Jumblatt’s gesture when he took a paper out of his pocket claiming that it is a road map to guide Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the crisis.
Al Akhbar added that Jumblatt’s recent stances embarrassed the Assistant Vice President Maj. Gen. Mohammad Nassif, who is considered Jumblatt’s “sponsor” to the Syrian leadership.
The newspaper said that Syria will not meddle in the relations between Jumblatt and Hezbollah, adding that the Syrian regime will leave it up to Hezbollah to define the nature of their relation since that it is best placed to determine Lebanon’s best interest.
The daily stressed that Jumblatt is no longer welcomed in Syria, adding that from now on his envoy Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi will have a hard time arriving to the Syrian capital.
The President of the Lebanese University Adnan Sayyed Hussein told
As-Safir daily that he endorses the professors’ rightful demands.
“I urge the Lebanese cabinet to take prompt actions and to adopt the ranks and pay grade proposal submitted by Education Minister Hassan Diab to end this just yet negative strike,” Sayyed Hussein said.
The newspaper said that Sayyed Hussein stressed the need to establish the LU council that will take charge and start solving the university’s problems, adding that he is not worried about the fate of the academic year.
Al Akhbar daily reported that Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Fayyad attended to a lunch banquet organized by the Head of the UNIFIL Spanish Gen. Alberto Asarta on Friday, in his residence in Naqoura. The newspaper added that Fayyad’s visit is the first of its kind to any Hezbollah figure to the UN headquarters.
Al Akhbar stressed that the lunch, attended by the two men only, resembled a friendly get-together on the beach of Naqoura near the border with Palestine.
The newspaper noted that UNIFIL officials are counting on this meeting to change the negative environment surrounding the southern part of the Litani River.