Press Digest for Monday March 18, 2013

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.

• MP Jumblatt: Only deputies can annul the 1960’s electoral law                     

Head of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblatt said that his Ministers will vote for the formation of the electoral supervisory committee tasked to oversee electoral campaigns, since the 1960’s electoral law is still valid until Lebanese factions agree upon another electoral law.                                 

Jumblatt told As-Safir newspaper that forming the supervisory committee is an inevitable administrative procedure adding that only deputies have the right to annul the 1960’s law.                                            

• 38 bodies of Hezbollah fighters arrive in Lebanon

Sources told Al-Joumhouria newspaper on Monday that the bodies of 38 members from Hezbollah, who were killed in Syria, arrived secretly into Lebanon and were hence delivered to concerned parties for burial.        

Sources added that only 10 bodies were identified due to burns on them as a result of shelling.                 

• March8: Voting against the formation of the supervisory committee is a definitive decision                    

March8 sources said that the coming cabinet session may witness a conflict should President Michel Sleiman call for voting for the formation of the electoral supervisory committee.              

In this context, the sources told As-Safir newspaper that voting against the formation of this committee is a definitive decision regardless of its political outcomes.               

• Officials meet in Rome, discuss electoral file

            
Al-Liwaa newspaper said on Monday that meetings in Rome between Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Environment Minister Nazem Khoury and Lebanon's Ambassador to the Vatican Georges Khoury were mainly related to the upcoming parliamentary elections.            

The sources added that the aim of the meetings is to shed light on the presidential cooperation and decrease tension between President Sleiman and March8 forces.                

In this context, sources close to PM Mikati said that the atmosphere of the meetings is positive adding that details will be revealed today.                            

• Sheikh Dokmak calls on security apparatuses to control the situation

       
Sheikh Bilal Dokmak told Al-Joumhouria newspaper that attacking young men in Tripoli and Muslim scholars in Beirut as well as promoting the al-Nusra Front and the al-Qaeda groups in Lebanon are dangerous issues which will have negative repercussions on the country.          

Dokmak called on the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Internal Security Forces to speed up efforts to control the situation 'before its too late.'