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Report: Nasrallah Has Held Several Meetings with Assad over Reforms

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has held more than one meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss reform in Syria, al-Akhbar daily reported Monday.

The newspaper did not say when the talks were held.

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Berri Meets Asarta: Political Vacuum Paving Way for Security Violations

Speaker Nabih Berri lamented that the attack on a peacekeeping patrol on Friday came due to a political vacuum.

“The attack that targeted international troops in Rmeileh is very dangerous and should push us towards speeding up the formation of the cabinet because the vacuum is paving way for security violations,” Berri told As Safir newspaper published Monday.

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Nahhas: Employees Banned from Inspecting 3rd GSM Network

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas said that the telecom ministry employees in Beirut’s Adliyeh building were banned from entering the rooms where the equipment donated by China were located.

Nahhas told As Safir newspaper on Monday that “Ogero officials changed the magnetic card codes that are used to open the doors.”

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Baroud Says Only Political, Judicial Solution Would Give him Back his Rights

Ziad Baroud has said that the settlement for the army to take over the second floor of a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry did not mean that the crisis was solved.

Baroud, who relieved himself of his duties as caretaker interior minister last week, said that he doesn’t consider himself involved with the settlement because a solution to Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s rejection to abide his orders was not found yet.

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Berri: Some Parties Bid to Settle Accounts with Syria Threatens Lebanon Security

Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday warned that “attempts by some people in Lebanon to settle political accounts with Syria represent a threat to Lebanon’s security and future.”

In a speech delivered by his representative, caretaker Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife, at a ceremony in the southern town of al-Mseileh, Berri warned against “attempts to deviate attention in Lebanon towards the North instead of confronting the impending danger looming over Lebanon, Palestine and Syria due to Israel’s hostility on the southern front.”

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Jumblat: Are We Supposed to Believe that Aoun’s Demands are Behind Delay in Govt Formation

Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat has informed the leadership of the Progressive Socialist Party that he cannot stand idly by in the face of the cabinet formation impasse, wondering whether he was supposed to believe that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s insistence on getting one or two portfolios was the real reason behind the delay, sources close to Jumblat said.

“An ordinary citizen would not believe that, so how is Jumblat supposed to believe it,” the sources told pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in remarks published Sunday.

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Suleiman, Baroud Inclined to Refer Rifi to Judiciary

President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who on Thursday absolved himself from his duties at the ministry, are reportedly “inclined to refer Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to a judicial inquiry for repeatedly disobeying their orders to pull out the ISF Intelligence Bureau personnel of the second floor of the building affiliated with the telecom ministry, where OGERO Telecom is in charge of the installations of the third mobile network donated by China to Lebanon according to a cabinet resolution.”

Sources following up on this issue told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday that state prosecutor Saeed Mirza has asked Suleiman and Baroud to “file a lawsuit so that the judiciary can act accordingly.”

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Aoun Again Denies Insulting Sunnis, Says Political Life Proof of his Good Ties with Muslims

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun denied on Saturday that he had insulted Sunnis, saying his political life was proof of his good ties with all Muslims.

A statement released by his press office, said that after the FPM chief denied reports about his alleged insult of the Sunni sect, the campaign by some clerics against the lawmaker continued.

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Hundreds Demand Government to Free Detained Syrians

Hundreds of protesters gathered in north Lebanon on Saturday to demand caretaker government release Syrian refugees who are reportedly being held by the army.

Some 500 people gathered in the Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood of Tripoli in the north to voice support for anti-government protesters in Syria and demand the release of any refugees who could be held in Lebanon.

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Nahhas Says State Emerged Victorious as he Reportedly Hands over Telecom Data to ISF

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas refused to describe a decision for the Lebanese army to take control of a telecom building in Beirut’s Adliyeh area as a settlement.

“What happened is a victory of the logic of the state and the law and not (a victory) of a person or a party,” Nahhas told As Safir daily in remarks published Saturday.

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