FRI 11 - 7 - 2025
 
Date: Jul 5, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest

Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Tuesday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.


Al-Mustaqbal: Mikati accuses March 14 of ‘sabotaging the nation’ …Al-Mustaqbal responds:  You are repeating the words of your guardian
Hezbollah’s government faces accountability in Parliament


March 14 moves as of today [Tuesday] the battle into Parliament, where sessions to discuss the policy statement of the coup government headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati will face an open battle based on the principles outlined Sunday by leaders of the March 14 coalition during a meeting at the Bristol hotel in which the alliance gave the Cabinet a choice between cmmitment to U.N. resolutions – above all Resolution 1757 which deals with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon - or go.
Mikati, overriding facts and the memory of the Lebanese, tried Monday to escape the inevitable through a proactive step to respond to the battle unleashed by the forces of independence against the dominance of illegal weapons. He found nothing but to accuse March 14 with "subversion," which necessitated a response from the Future Movement and the General Secretariat of the March 14 forces.


Al-Akhbar: Mikati to March 14: You know who made a trade-off over martyrs’ blood


With mutual mistrust, the majority and the opposition head to Parliament Tuesday to discuss the government’s policy statement ahead of a vote of confidence. Equipped for a war of words, especially since most lawmakers are fond of media appearances, what will it be like with live television broadcast for three days, with cameras monitoring every movement that at meetings that might turn into more than just words?
The festival of a vote of confidence in Parliament kicks off Tuesday. Both the majority and minority teams are ready with their offensive and defensive plans: March 14 has divided the roles and dropped the idea that was being circulated overnight to walk out of the Parliament conference room to announce a statement from outside the assembly building after Christian leaders of the March 14 movement got “enthusiastic” about responding to Aoun’s remarks.
High-ranking sources in the minority forces [March 14] said it would only raise the rhetoric inside Parliament and not allow the political conflict to spill into the streets, at least not in the coming few days.
The majority forces [March 8], however, drew up a defensive plan for the Mikati government in which it has decided not to initiate any attack, and only appropriately respond when attacked.


As-Safir: Hezbollah presents new documents ... Barak expects Lebanese quake, indictments include Syria
Parliament a fighting arena … Army assures Lebanese


Parliamentary sessions kick off Tuesday to debate the government’s policy statement amid a heated political climate prior to the legislative meetings that was the result of the issuing of the indictments in the assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri and arrest warrants against Hezbollah members on charges of involvement in the Hariri murder.
While the Lebanese Army took a series of preventive security and military measures - mostly out of sight - from the moment the indictments were issued and which doubled on the eve of the parliamentary meeting for fear the political conflict might spill ontothe street – particularly in the capital [Beirut] and some "sensitive areas,"  a high-ranking Lebanese military source said the army was on the “lookout for anybody attempting to undermine stability and civil peace.”
Meanwhile, the first Israeli reaction to the indictments came from Defense Minister Ehud Barack who hinted at a Syrian role in Hariri’s assassination, adding that the issuing of the indictments against Hezbollah officials “caused a quake in Lebanon.”


An-Nahar: Open battlefield in Parliament between majority, opposition
Mikati responds vehemently, stresses cooperation with tribunal
Bellemare to Nasrallah: We rely on credible evidence
Russian Foreign Ministry: No backing down on truth


The wide-ranging political rhetoric aroused by the statement issued by March 14 at the Bristol Hotel meeting will represent a hot doorway to the sessions to discuss the government’s policy statement which will initially go on for three days and, if possible, make way for a vote of confidence Thursday night.
Parliament will certainly turn into a battlefield between the majority and opposition forces that will stand face to face for the first time since the fall of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government.
Moscow said in a statement in response to the indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that “Russia, which provided to the STL … will not back down on its position on its stance calling for the need to uncover the truth about the assassination of [Former Prime Minister] Hariri and punish the guilty.”



 
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