President Michel Suleiman has expressed satisfaction with the cabinet’s performance saying it was the duty of all parties to support it in its efforts to meet the people’s demands.
Suleiman has told his visitors that the government was in harmony and was not witnessing clashes between the different parties. The cabinet should be described as centrist although it expresses a one-sided viewpoint.
Full StoryThe U.S. donated to the Internal Security Forces (ISF) facilities, equipment, and supplies valued at over $1.7 million in July, said a U.S. embassy statement on Friday.
The donation includes a new police station in the area adjacent to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the north fully furnished and equipped per ISF specifications. The value of this donation is $1,134,570.
Full StoryThe recent dispute between Lebanon and Israel will be a top priority for the Lebanese parliament when it meets on Aug. 3 and 4 and a main concern for the government in its effort to prevent the Jewish state from launching an aggression on Lebanon’s oil and gas fields.
As Safir newspaper said Friday that MPs from major parliamentary blocs could be tasked with preparing a draft-law that confirms Lebanon’s rights on the fields in the contested areas.
Full StoryU.S. official Frederic Hof is making routine visits to Beirut to follow up the dispute between Lebanon and Israel on their maritime borders, Western diplomatic sources in Beirut said Friday.
The sources told As Safir daily that Hof is visiting Lebanon along with cartographers in an expression of Washington’s interest in solving the feud over oil and natural fields and setting the stage for possible U.S. investments in the sector in the future.
Full StoryProgressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has unveiled that he held a telephone conversation with former Premier Saad Hariri thanking him for his latest stance on Jumblat.
The Druze leader told An Nahar daily published Friday that he heard “moving words” from Hariri but refused to give further details.
Full StoryIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he hopes the Arab Spring will result in democracies in the Arab world, warning that an “Iranian-style dictatorship” would harm revolutions in the region.
"If there's genuine democracy in the Arab world, in the Arab countries, then there will be genuine peace. Because a genuine democracy reflects the desires of the people, and most people Arabs, Jews, anyone they don't want their sons and daughters dying on battlefields," Netanyahu told al-Arabiya satellite channel in an interview aired Thursday evening.
Full StoryU.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said that he had been informed that a search is underway for the four suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.
In an interview with al-Hurra TV, Feltman said that the search for the four Hizbullah members against whom arrest warrants were issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was “the responsibility of the Lebanese government.”
Full StoryPolitical upheaval in Syria, hit by months of opposition protests, is weighing heavily on neighboring Lebanon where it risks sparking inter-religious clashes, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams warned Thursday.
"There is a great worry in Lebanon about this," said Williams, who raised the potential for "confessional clashes in Lebanon."
Full StoryLoyalty to Resistance bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah on Thursday said that Hizbullah was willing to engage in a national dialogue “on the basis of building a defense strategy for Lebanon, but not on the basis of dialogue over the Resistance and its weapons.”
“Because we don’t believe there’s a dialogue topic called weapons or the Resistance,” Fadlallah added, stressing Hizbullah’s keenness on “rapprochement, cooperation and understanding” among the Lebanese.
Full StoryHizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met Thursday with Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran (parliament), who was accompanied by a parliamentary delegation, Hizbullah’s press office said.
The meeting, which was also attended by Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, tackled the latest developments in Lebanon and the region and the means of possible cooperation between Lebanon and Iran, the press office added.
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