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Israel Lays Hands on 1,500 sq km of Lebanese Waters as Cabinet Seeks to Confront it

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil is expected on Monday to ask both President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Miqati to place the issue of Lebanon’s maritime border with Israel on the agenda of the cabinet meeting this week.

On Sunday, Bassil said that Beirut will not give up its maritime rights. His comment came after Israel's cabinet approved a map of the Jewish state's proposed maritime borders with Lebanon to be submitted for a U.N. opinion.

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FM, Diplomatic Sources: International Drilling Companies Don’t Operate in Disputed Areas

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and diplomatic sources have calmed Lebanese fears that Israel would drill for oil and natural gas in Lebanese waters saying oil drilling companies do not make investments on disputed territory.

“No company can make gas and oil investments in disputed maritime areas,” Mansour told An Nahar daily in remarks published Monday.

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Report: Hizbullah Facing Financial Crisis

The Syrian turmoil and the international condemnation of the crackdown on protesters increased Hizbullah’s concerns over the halt of weapons flow from Iran, the German Der Spiegel weekly magazine reported.

Hizbullah is currently facing a financial crisis “which contradicts the Israeli allegations,” the magazine said.

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Lebanon Denies Receiving Israeli Warning Via U.S. on Oil, Gas Fields

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour denied that Lebanon has received an Israeli warning through Washington on the maritime boundary line between the two countries and the conflict over huge oil and natural gas reserves.

In remarks to An Nahar daily Monday, Mansour said that Washington hasn’t warned Lebanon about anything linked to the issue.

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Miqati Avoids Removing Sunnis from ‘Sensitive Posts’ as Packed Agenda Awaits Cabinet Meeting

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will keep top Sunni personalities in their “sensitive posts” despite previous campaigns by his allies to remove them for being close to former Premier Saad Hariri, ministerial sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Monday that among the officials that Miqati intends to keep in their posts are General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and head of the Intelligence Bureau Col. Wissam al-Hassan.

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Report: STL Defense Office Head Wants to ‘Crush’ Bellemare

Head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Defense office Francois Roux is seeking the help of a prominent lawyer in the new majority to acquire substantial material that could help him in his task, As Safir newspaper reported on Monday.

“I want to crush (Prosecutor) Daniel Bellemare, just like the former World Bank manager did with New York’s prosecutor Cyrus Vance, after accusing him with a sex scandal,” Roux said, according to As Safir.

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Guy Says Lebanon Should Reveal Truth about Issues Bigger than STL

British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Mary Guy said that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is a small point in a list of requirements that the Lebanese officials should admit and unveil to the international community.

“There is a list of demands (the Lebanese officials) should admit and unveil, which are bigger than the STL and goes back to the Lebanese civil war era,” Guy told As Safir in an interview that will be published on Tuesday.

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Feltman Denies he Intends to Visit Beirut

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman denied media reports that he was intending to visit Beirut soon to pressure Lebanese authorities into complying with international resolutions.

Media reports had said that Feltman’s visit was aimed at pushing the Lebanese government towards committing itself to the resolutions on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and cooperate with the court.

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Bassil Hits Back at Israel, Asks It to Sign U.N. Law of Sea Treaty

In response to the Israeli cabinet’s approval on Sunday of a map of the Jewish state's proposed maritime borders with Lebanon, which conflicts significantly with those proposed by Lebanon in its own submission to the U.N., Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil said Lebanon had demarcated its maritime borders according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, calling on Israel to “sign this convention before speaking about international laws.”

Commenting on the Israeli cabinet’s announcement that it will soon present the map of its maritime economic zone located between Lebanon and Cyprus for a U.N. opinion, Bassil told Agence France Presse: “We don’t have a presupposition. Let’s see what will Israel send to the U.N. Should it respect international law, there will be no problem.”

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Raad: The More You Use Indictment, The More We'll Push for Suing False Witnesses

MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, on Sunday noted that the indictment and the arrest warrants recently released by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon against four Hizbullah members in the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri were “aimed at ensnaring the Resistance by holding it responsible for a crime that was committed in Lebanon and the Resistance was the first to be negatively affected by its impact.”

“Those who had endured your global war in 2006 will be easily able to endure your latest lie – the indictment. And the same as your goals had failed in the 2006 war, the repercussions of this lie will fail and will fire back at you and at everyone who has been involved with you in plotting conspiracies and fabricating rumors,” Raad added.

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