Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Thursday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
An-Nahar: Wave of warnings against "repressive approach” Bellemare mulling Hezbollah documents
The dynamic parliamentary session Wednesday, which ended in the approval of 25 draft laws out of 67, did not stop the escalation of the climate represented in acts that warn of repressive approaches. The series of security breaches ranging from the ambiguous release of the seven Estonians and the attack on journalists in Lassa to the mysterious explosion in Rweiss in the southern suburbs of Beirut and attacks against demonstrators near the Syrian Embassy, all these facts incited fears of repressive trends, sending lawmakers and prominent politicians to sound the alarm.
March14 MP Marwan Hamadeh pointed to Tuesday’s anti-Syrian regime demonstration outside the Syrian Embassy, accusing the embassy of dealing with the protesters supporting the Syrian people “as though it was a Security Directorate in Daraa or Hama.”
While MP Jean Oghassapian raised questions on the Lassa issue and the southern suburbs blast, MP Butros Harb warned of “chaotic land [transactions].” He also touched on the issue of the Estonians who had been abducted and later released and so did fellow lawmaker George Adwan who said: “Don’t the Lebanese have the right to know how the Estonians’ issue started and how it ended? Did the state enter Rweiss to find out what happened?” The most prominent position, however, came from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, who raised the issue of media freedoms. And while stressing the need to maintain the right to peaceful demonstrations, Jumblatt warned against turning some Beirut streets and neighborhoods into “security zones.” Meanwhile, an official Lebanese position on the Security Council statement on the Syrian crisis Wednesday appeared to have warned against further internal repercussions after Lebanon abstained from voting. Al-Mustaqbal: March 14 warns against "further linking Lebanon to the Syrian regime and its practices" Coup government ignores “Shabbiha” and threatens of “uncontrolled media”
Prime Minister Najib Mikati did not see that Hamra Street had been the scene of an attack by Syrian regime “Shabbiha” and their allies against those [protestors] in solidarity with the Syrian people. Instead, he “turned a blind eye” as if nothing had happened. This lent argument that his Cabinet is “President Bashar Assad’s government in Lebanon."
Head of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblatt, however, was shocked by what happened and warned against “turning Beirut streets into security zones that do not help anyone." More importantly was that Jumblatt’s position culminated in denouncing the “Shabbihas” in Cabinet by criticizing "some ministerial figures," who had described during a recent Cabinet meeting some Lebanese media outlets who had "turned against Syria."
Well-informed political sources described Jumblatt’s statement as a message to his allies in the government, with Mikati at the forefront. The March 14 alliance has also warned “the Lebanese government against further linking Lebanon to the Syrian regime and its repressive and bloody practices.” March 14 called on the Lebanese government to voice support for the Syrian people’s right to freedom at the U.N. Security Council.
Ad-Diyar: Because the statement does not help to address the situation, "Lebanon" distances itself from it
After three weeks of consultations, the U.N. Security Council was finally able to persuade Russia and China to issue a presidential statement condemning Syria. Lebanon, however, via its representative at the Security Council meeting, said the statement on Syria “does not help address the current situation in Syria, so it [Lebanon] will distance itself from it [Syria].”
Al-Akhbar: Tel Aviv: Our maritime installations are within Hezbollah's firing range
A Hebrew reading into Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s recent statements on the oil issue did not just come from an ordinary military analyst, but from Israeli Navy Intelligence Chief Brig. Gen. Yaron Levi during a conference at Tel Aviv University, excerpts of which were published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Israel, Levi has said, knows that Hezbollah has Iranian-made C-802 surface-to-sea missiles that originally came from China and may also obtain Russian-made rockets from Syria. These missiles are capable of hitting all Israeli ports and offshore infrastructure such as oil rigs. The missiles have a range that "covers all of Israel's ports, our economic waters and a large part of the shipping lines to Israel,” he said.
Levi reminded that Nasrallah recently said that if Israel imposes a naval siege on Lebanon as part of another war between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah will respond with missiles aimed at Israeli targets at sea. "You don't need to be a genius to know where our oil rigs are," he said. "I'm sure you can find their location on the Internet." Levi pointed to the fact that a large part of Israel's strategic infrastructure is concentrated in a narrow strip along the coast, and said that "any damage to them would be critical."
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