The Saudi and Egyptian foreign ministers have agreed that justice should be served in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination to achieve stability in Lebanon, informed sources said.
Al-Liwaa daily quoted the sources as saying that Egyptian FM Mohammed al-Orabi and his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal stressed during talks they held on Sunday that the questioning of the suspects is the only way to deter the offenders and end the series of assassinations that shook Lebanon in the past years.
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The March 8 MPs are looking forward for calm parliamentary sessions and will not resort to escalatory rhetoric out of their keenness on the country’s stability, a high-ranking source in the parliamentary majority told As Safir daily Monday.
The source said, however, that if March 14 MPs make escalatory statements, then the March 8 lawmakers would give the appropriate response.
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The opposition has coordinated the stances it would make during parliamentary sessions to discuss the cabinet’s policy statement starting Tuesday, March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid said.
Soaid told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that opposition lawmakers have agreed on the role of each MP during the sessions that are scheduled to take place for three days and are aimed at giving the vote of confidence to Premier Najib Miqati’s government.
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Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi described the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri as “politicized,” saying he supports a “non-politicized” international justice.
“We are keen that no one in Lebanon objects that Israel is the enemy, despite the differences over the techniques of the resistance,” Roknabadi told As Safir newspaper on Monday.
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The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is expected to issue in the coming months more arrest warrants in the case of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination, informed sources told al-Liwaa daily published Monday.
The warrants could be issued before or shortly after the 30-day period granted to Lebanon to serve out the STL warrants that were handed to Lebanese authorities last week. If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the tribunal can then publicly call on the four Hizbullah members to surrender.
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Premier Najib Miqati said Monday that the truth in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder and stability go hand in hand, stressing that it was his responsibility to preserve Lebanon’s stability.
In remarks to As Safir newspaper, Miqati said: “There is a correlation between the truth and stability.”
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Al-Mustaqbal MP Nohad al-Mashnouq called on Hizbullah ministers to quit their posts in the cabinet, saying there can’t be Hizbullah members in the government at a time when the party’s militants are wanted for involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder.
The Hizbullah ministers should quit “until the truth” is found in Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination, he said.
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Following a broad meeting for the March 14 forces at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut on Sunday, the coalition called on Prime Minister Najib Miqati and his government to announce their commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1757, which established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or step down.
“As a national, democratic opposition … we call on the premier to openly and directly declare his commitment to Resolution 1757 in parliament on Tuesday morning, and to announce his commitment to the practical steps for implementing this resolution, or to step down along with his government,” the March 14 forces said in a statement recited by former premier Fouad Saniora after the meeting.
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Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday traveled to the United Arab Emirates upon an official invitation from Emirati officials, state-run National News Agency reported.
Geagea is accompanied by MPs Strida Geagea and Antoine Zahra, LF Foreign Relations Officer Joseph Nehme and LF Gulf area official Fadi Salameh.
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Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said Lebanon needs “a new mentality, a new vision and a democratic rhetoric,” stressing that “we will not allow anyone to determine our fate.”
“Those who came before us had paid a heavy price throughout the consecutive and long stages,” al-Rahi added during a meeting with MP Samer Saade, MP Boutros Harb’s representative George Harb and a number of political figures on the second day of his pastoral visit to the northern region of Batroun.
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