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Williams Urges Lebanon to Commit to Resolution 1701

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said on Wednesday that he will travel to New York the upcoming week to discuss with the U.N. Security Council the possibility of holding a meeting over resolution 1701.

He stressed after a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati the importance of committing to international agreements according to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and all the Security Council resolutions.

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March 14: Phase to Topple Miqati’s Government Has Begun

The March 14 General Secretariat announced on Wednesday the launch of its campaign to topple Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government “through all possible peaceful and democratic means.”

General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said: “We are not keen on creating security unrest and diplomatic problems in Lebanon.”

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WikiLeaks: Jumblat Said Mirza is Weak, Doesn’t Deserve his Position

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described in a leaked U.S. Embassy cable General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza as weak, adding that he doesn’t deserve his position.

The WikiLeaks cable dated March 22, 2008, spoke of the MP’s fear of a Hizbullah and Syria-led campaign to release the four generals who were imprisoned for allegedly being involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

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Charbel Says Cabinet Won’t Discuss Interior Ministry Appointments on Thursday

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that the cabinet’s meeting on Thursday will not discuss the interior ministry’s new appointments not regarding the director-general of General Security nor the judiciary police chief.

“These appointments are interlinked with other appointments,” Charbel told As Safir newspaper on Wednesday.

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Mirza Says No Need to Speed up Arrest of Suspects Named in Indictment

Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza said that there is time to find and arrest the four people named in the warrants issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

“We have 30 days to deal with the issue,” Mirza told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday.

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Majority Source to Hariri: U.S., Israel are Capable of Changing Indictment

A high-ranking source in the March 8 forces said that the majority agrees with former Premier Saad Hariri that it won’t be able to change anything in the indictment issued by the international tribunal.

But the source told As Safir daily on Wednesday that experience in the past six years showed that the U.S. and Israel are capable of changing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s accusations.

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Cassese Says Indictment Decisive Moment for Lebanon

President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Antonio Cassese said that the release of the indictment along with the arrest warrants in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case is a critical moment for Lebanon and the region.

“This is a decisive moment for the Lebanese, their state and for international justice. It is also a decisive moment for the region,” Cassese said in an opinion article published Wednesday in The New York Times.

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Hariri: Nothing Will Be Changed in Indictment Even If Nasrallah Holds 300 News Conferences

Former premier Saad Hariri stressed Tuesday that “nothing will be changed in the indictment” issued last month by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon along with arrest warrants for four Hizbullah members in the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, “even if (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah holds 300 press conferences.”

“I will return to Beirut as soon as possible,” Hariri, who is currently in Paris, announced in an interview on MTV, when asked whether his next interview will be broadcast from the Lebanese capital.

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Aoun: Wissam al-Hasan’s Position at Head of Intelligence Bureau Violates ISF Law

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that Wissam al-Hasan’s position at the head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau is a violation of the ISF laws seeing as there is no such thing as the Intelligence Bureau.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “It is a branch that does not exist on the legal level and its violations were covered up by the then prime minister.”

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Quiet Holds 5 Years after Israel-Hizbullah War

The fifth anniversary of Israel's war in Lebanon passed largely unmarked in the Jewish state on Tuesday, with no official events planned and the border between the neighbors mostly quiet.

The conflict that began on July 12, 2006, ending 34 days later with the deaths of 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, has faded into the background in Israeli public life.

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