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.
Sources told
Al-Joumhouria Newspaper that the General Security Chief Abbas
Ibrahim promised the families of the Lebanese hostages in Syria’s Aazaz to handover the list including the names of Syrian female prisoners to Syria, within
the two upcoming days.
The same sources also reported that Ibrahim is set to hold negotiations with the
‘official’ Syrian authorities in a bid to exchange the aforementioned prisoners
with the nine Lebanese hostages in Aazaz.
In this context, the General Security Chief told the families that the
situation is “reassuring”, adding that the Syrian authorities are ‘responsive’
more than ever.
Ibrahim called on the families of Aazaz hostages to stop their open ended strike
near the Turkish offices but the families however stressed that “it is
impossible to do so”.
Parliamentary sources told
al-Hayat Daily that members of the Parliament's
bureau committee will ask Speaker Nabih Berri, who announced that he will
propose the Orthodox Gathering's draft law "since it is better than the 1960's
electoral" law which remains in effect currently, to backtrack on his decision.
Same sources quoted the said members as saying that the Orthodox Gathering’s
law is deemed “unconstitutional”, noting that key Lebanese parties oppose it,
mainly the Future bloc, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati as well as the
National Struggle Front.
Well-informed sources told
Al-Joumhouria Newspaper that the
Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) arrested a four-member terrorist cell that was
posing a threat to the country, noting that the cell was tasked with
perpetrating criminal and terrorist acts in order to compromise Lebanon's
security and stability.
Investigations have revealed that the members of the cell, in
cooperation with terrorist members affiliated with the al-Nusra
Front, were intending to create a new wave of assassinations in Lebanon,
similar to the one that targeted high-ranking Lebanese officials during the
last few years.
Security sources also revealed that the dangerous
terrorist members live in South Lebanon's Ain el-Helwe
Palestinian Refugee Camp, the region of Arsal and the city of Tripoli.
Visitors to Damascus quoted Syrian President Bachar Assad as
saying that Syria was capable of launching rocket attacks on Israel, in response
to the Israeli raid that targeted Damascus, adding that Syria is aware that
Israel and the United States "do not want war".
The said visitors told
Al-Akhbar Daily that President Assad extended his gratitude to Hezbollah for being
"loyal and rational", and quoted him as saying that "Syria has decided to
become a State of 'resistance' which falls in the country's interest
and serves the next generations".