The European Union Ambassadors to Lebanon, U.S. Ambassador David Hale and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly will hold a meeting next week in Beirut to discuss the Lebanese presidential elections.
According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Monday, the meeting will be held to urge Lebanese officials to elect a new head of state within the constitutional deadline.
Full StoryThe Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun has proposed to the Maronite church a vacuum in the government and parliament to pressure lawmakers into electing a new president, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.
Al-Akhbar quoted Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil as telling Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that neither Sunni nor Shiite officials were eager to hold the elections on time.
Full StoryNew TV S.A.L. and Karma Tahsin al-Khayat will testify before the international court on charges of “contempt and obstruction of justice,” the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily reported Monday, as al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin announced that he will not appear before the court.
Al-Amin said he won't go to The Hague because the STL did not respond to his request to postpone the hearing.
Full StoryPresident Michel Suleiman is mulling a legal measure to exercise his authorities as acting head of state if MPs failed to elect a new president by May 25, reports said Monday.
According to al-Akhbar newspaper, Suleiman asked Shadi Karam, one of his advisers, to draft a clause that would allow him to stay in power.
Full StorySpeaker Nabih Berri threatened on Monday to suspend the tripartite meetings held at al-Naqoura crossing between the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and senior Lebanese and Israeli officials if the Jewish state continues violating the country's sovereignty.
“Those who are keen to safeguard Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and those who are in a hurry to get rid of the resistance should take into consideration first the Israeli violations,” Berri said in remarks published in As Safir newspaper.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said Bkirki would not enter into a direct confrontation with any political party over the presidential deadlock although it would have harsh words against those paralyzing the elections.
In an interview with el-Shark daily published on Monday, Geagea said: “Bkirki does not play the role of a political party and does not put itself in a confrontation with any party.”
Full StoryThe army arrested this week in the Bekaa border town of Arsal 15 Syrian citizens on charges of illegal entry into the country and involvement in security-linked cases.
“Over the past three days, the Lebanese Army apprehended in the town of Arsal 15 Syrians, some of whom had entered Lebanon illegally and others are involved in security-linked cases,” state-run National News Agency reported.
Full StoryMaronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday blamed the presidential vacuum that has started to loom on the horizon on “those who are seeking it and those who might cause it,” rejecting what he described as a “maneuver.”
“We warn of the consequences of presidential vacuum and those seeking it or causing it will bear a historic responsibility,” al-Rahi said during Sunday's mass in Harissa.
Full StoryA foreign domestic worker attempted suicide Sunday by throwing herself off the seventh floor of a building on the Hadi Nasrallah Street in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Al-Jadeed television said “medics and security forces immediately arrived on the scene.”
Full StoryHizbullah on Sunday stressed that the country's new president must be “in harmony with the resistance,” accusing the March 14 camp of seeking presidential vacuum through fielding a “provocative” candidate.
“We insist on and cling to a president who would be entrusted with the national principles, interests and achievements, contrary to the March 14 camp, which is awaiting a chance to turn against the domestic political equations,” deputy head of Hizbullah's executive council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said at a memorial service in the southern town of Kafra.
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