Anschutz obtains Wyoming oil interest

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Lebanon's Arabic press digest – Sept. 22, 2014

The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest to Daily Star readers. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

Al-Akhbar

Nusra holding captives in house on Arsal edge

Information made available to Al-Akhbar revealed that Nusra Front militants were not holding captive Lebanese servicemen in caves on the outskirts of Arsal, but in a two-story house on the town’s edge near a Syrian refugee center known as “Al-Nour camp.”

The same house had been previously used as a detention center to hold western journalists kidnapped in Syria and freed after ransom was paid, according to the information.

At the time, deputy Arsal mayor Ahmad Fliti and Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri played a key role in the release of the hostages, who were handed over to ISF-Information Branch after delivering the ransom to the kidnappers.

Syrian opposition sources said Nusra Front has threatened to re-storm Arsal if its demands were not met.

As-Safir

Army border raids kill 50 militants

Government sets condition: No negotiations before killings stop

The hostage crisis will top Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s agenda during talks with a number of heads of delegations taking part in the 69th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk pushes toward Turkey along with General Security head Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, who kept channels of communications open with Ankara and Doha, demanding that the captors stop killing soldiers before the negotiation process starts.

This condition was set during a weekend meeting of the crisis cell held under Salam.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army continued to implement a military plan that required the mobilization of more than 5,000 troops in the northern Bekaa region, backed by heavy, long-range artillery batteries and helicopter gunships, which for the first time used surface-to-air missiles recently supplied by the U.S.

Well-informed sources told As-Safir that the Army was able to kill more than 50 terrorists along with their leaders on the outskirts of Arsal, adding that aerial footage from the past 72 hours affirms the size of the military strike.

More to follow ...

Weak uptake for new eurozone stimulus program

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Lebanon on edge, Berri and Hariri warn of strife

BEIRUT: Lebanon appeared to be on edge Sunday with the government being helpless to stop militants from carrying out their threats to kill captured Lebanese soldiers, amid warnings by Speaker Nabih Berri and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri that ISIS and Nusra Front were seeking to incite sectarian strife.

The government threw its weight behind the Army in its battle against terrorism, while premier Tammam Salam vowed not to give in to terrorist groups, saying Lebanon had decided to confront ISIS and Nusra Front militants entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.

In an incident that raised fears of a wider confrontation in the tense Bekaa Valley, the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Hezbollah checkpoint amid conflicting reports on the resulting casualties.

A Nusra Front commander told the Turkish Anadolu News Agency Sunday that the attack on a Hezbollah checkpoint in the village of Khreibeh near the border with Syria late Saturday was the result of an explosive device and not a suicide bomber as earlier reported.

The militant group said the attack destroyed one 57 millimeter cannon.

Security sources and the National News Agency said at least three people were killed in the bombing.

But Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV Sunday denied reports that three party members had been killed, saying: “There were no martyrs in the blast. Only three people were wounded.”

The blast came after a deadly day that saw three Army soldiers killed.

Nusra militants Friday night executed Mohammad Maarouf Hammieh, an abducted Army soldier, hours after two other soldiers were killed in a roadside blast that targeted a military truck in Arsal. Two soldiers had earlier been beheaded by ISIS militants.

The militants from the Nusra Front and ISIS are still holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen they captured during their brief takeover of Arsal last month.

In addition to Hammieh’s execution, Nusra has threatened to kill another captive, policeman Ali Bazal.

Apparently in response to Hammieh’s execution and the killing of two soldiers, the Lebanese Army said Saturday it had pounded militants’ locations near Arsal with medium and heavy weapons.

It said it killed and wounded “a large number” of militants, pledging to continue the fight against terrorism throughout Lebanese territories “whatever the sacrifices might be.”

Faced with mounting security threats, the government gave the Army and security forces a free hand to crush terrorist groups.

“Instructions were given to the Army Command and security forces to take all necessary measures to implement the [agreed-upon] military plans and show no leniency toward all that threatens the well-being of Lebanon and the town of Arsal and its outskirts,” Defense Minister Samir Moqbel told reporters Saturday following a high-profile security meeting chaired by Salam at the Grand Serail.

Moqbel said the participants agreed on the necessity to press on with the “confrontation against terrorist organizations.”

They also rejected “all compromises made at the expense of the Army and the nation’s dignity,” he added. “All options are open and the military operation will not be affected by threats.”

Salam called on the Lebanese to rally behind the Army, saying the government had decided to confront terrorist groups. “Our fate hinges on our unity,” he warned after holding talks with Berri to discuss the government’s response to the ongoing hostage crisis. “We are in need of cooperation with each other and to be a single unified front and never give terrorists the chance to divide us.”

“We sought to negotiate to secure the safety of our sons, but our numerous attempts to reach positive results had no effect and you saw what they did last night,” Salam told reporters, referring to Hammieh’s execution.

“So long as the situation remains as such, our options are clear and it is to confront [terrorism] by rallying behind the Lebanese Army, its leaders and state institutions,” he said. ISIS and Nusra Front are demanding the release of Islamist detainees held in Roumieh Prison in exchange for the captured soldiers. The government has rejected a swap deal.

However, MP Walid Jumblatt said he supported a swap deal with the militants under “specific conditions to ward off strife.”

Meanwhile, the country’s top leaders warned that ISIS and Nusra Front were seeking to inflame sectarian strife.

“Kidnapping and counter-kidnapping is what Daesh [ISIS] and Nusra Front are seeking in order to incite Sunni-Shiite strife and among all the Lebanese,” Berri was quoted by visitors as saying. He praised Hariri’s statement following the execution of Hammieh.

Hariri said militant groups holding Lebanese soldiers captive were seeking strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.

In a statement Saturday, Hariri expressed condolences to the Hammieh family, as well as to the families of soldiers Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej who were beheaded by ISIS, and the two soldiers killed in Friday’s bombing.

“Terrorist organizations are making use of the abduction of our soldiers as a means to pressure our government and state and army,” Hariri said. “They want Lebanon’s Muslims to fall [in the trap of] strife.”

Hariri urged the Lebanese to rally behind the Army and security forces to root out terrorism and extremism. He also called for unity as terrorists were looking to sow strife between the country’s Muslim communities.

Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabik Kaouk also warned that “takfiri groups,” by killing Lebanese troops, were seeking to “inflame sectarian strife.”

Sunni-Shiite strife in the Bekaa Valley? Not yet

BEIRUT: The Lebanese government’s deep internal rifts and its dithering in addressing the hostage crisis are worsening Sunni-Shiite tensions in the Bekaa Valley, and experts and officials say there is a risk of open conflict breaking out.

But local officials are working hard to contain the sectarian fallout from the crisis, and neither Sunnis nor Shiites want to see tensions escalating to the point of outright fighting.

“The government’s actions are what will determine if we go toward tension or calm,” a source familiar with the negotiations to release the hostages said. “There is no doubt that the government’s performance in the negotiations is awful, which increases fears that the situation could get out of control.”

Militants from the Nusra Front and ISIS briefly overran the northeastern town of Arsal last month.

They are currently holding at least 21 Lebanese policemen and soldiers hostage, and have killed three. The gunmen are demanding the release of Islamist detainees.

The killings of the soldiers have inspired short-lived sectarian retaliations, with tit-for-tat kidnappings in the Bekaa Valley between Sunnis and Shiites raising fears of renewed civil strife.

The source said that the leaders of both Hezbollah and the Sunni community in the Bekaa Valley appeared to want to contain tensions.

The Sunni leaders have urged level-headedness in response to kidnappings and alleged abuses by security and military personnel toward Sunnis.

Hezbollah allows expressions of anger and street protests and then retakes control of the situation in the Bekaa Valley villages, the source said.

“It is clear the kidnappers must exchange prisoners for the soldiers,” the source said. “It is not appropriate at all for the situation to remain as it is with the soldiers being killed, dying a slow death.

“The government’s rigid position from a military and political perspective is causing loss of control on the street.”

He added that further beheadings as a result of governmental inaction could lead tensions to spiral.

The source also said that there was a risk of attacks by the militants on Shiite villages in response to any “provocations” by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army, and that such ground assaults could push the Bekaa region over the edge.

“That would mean entering into a sectarian war and nobody will be able to control the street,” the source said.

“If the leadership of Hezbollah and the Shiites is bolder and truly ends its involvement in Syria, which has exhausted it and all of Lebanon, I think the issue will not simply be about saving the soldiers, but about saving Lebanon,” the source added.

Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, agreed that government action was necessary to resolve Sunni-Shiite tensions in the area in the short term, through reviving national dialogue and launching a political rapprochement.

“Today, what is the point of convergence between the moderate Sunnis and those who represent the Shiites? Practically nil,” Nader said.

“They formed a government upon one single point of agreement, which is the rejection of the threat of radical Islam, but besides that nothing unites them, whether defense policy, electoral law, economic programs or how to solve the economic crisis.”

Nader said that the lack of a broad regional rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, tensions in Iraq and the scenes of the beheading of Lebanese soldiers had all served to fan the flames of sectarian tensions.

Nader said this had been exacerbated by how the Nusra Front and ISIS were increasingly defining themselves by their opposition to Shiite dominance, in a manner similar to how Arab nationalists have long defined themselves in opposition to Israel.

This resonates with some Sunnis in Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley who do not experience Israeli oppression, but who resent the dominance of Hezbollah, the detention of Sunni Islamists and what they perceive as bias in the Lebanese Army’s behavior, all of which can cause a sense of victimization among Sunnis.

Nader said the solution was to put Sunnis front and center in the battle against ISIS and the Nusra Front, and empower them through a broad national reconciliation.

In the long term, what is needed is a “cultural revolution or resistance” from within the Sunni community to confront radicalism.

Ramez Amhaz, the mayor of Labweh, the closest Shiite town to Arsal, said the Shiite community would not, for its part, succumb to sectarian provocations.

“If we lose a thousand dead we will not engage in sectarianism because it would mean the erasure of the country,” he said. “We understand this and will not take part in the project of those who carry out the beheadings.”

Amhaz said Shiite and Sunni leaders in the area must continue to cooperate to prevent tensions from spiraling out of control.

He also praised the “national sense” of the families of the soldiers killed by ISIS and the Nusra Front, who have stressed national unity and coexistence.

Amhaz said sectarianism would be fatal to the fabric of the Bekaa Valley, where historical relations have long existed between the various Shiite villages and the Sunni town of Arsal, and division within the country and the rest of the region would benefit Israel. Many of the Shiite villages in the Bekaa Valley back Hezbollah in the struggle against Israel.

“We all know where it will lead – sectarianism is death to us all,” Amhaz said.

Wife of captive Ali Bazal describes a love worth fighting for

BEIRUT: For 51 days, Rana Fliti has not finished a candy bar. “I always leave a little bit for my husband. I’m waiting for him to come back,” she said.

Fliti’s husband Ali Bazal was captured alongside more than 30 other servicemen during bloody battles in Arsal last month.

Bazal appeared in a video released by the Nusra Front Friday in which the group appears to execute fellow ISF officer Mohammad Hammieh. Cuffed and on his knees, Bazal pleaded in tears for Hezbollah to leave Syria as he glances at the lifeless body of his comrade. Nusra has said it will continue to kill the captive soldiers until Hezbollah stops its operations in Syria.

“To the Lebanese people, my life and my friends’ life depends on you. Stop Hezbollah,” Ali said, his cuffed wrists outstretched toward the camera in a desperate appeal.

Fliti refused to watch the video, but overheard her husband’s voice when someone nearby was streaming it. “I couldn’t take it anymore. I had a breakdown,” she told The Daily Star on the phone.

Twenty-five-year-old Fliti, whose voice quivers on the phone, prefers to talk about the early days of her romance with Bazal which reads something like a Hollywood script.

The two met after Bazal was assigned to man a checkpoint near her family’s house in Arsal.

Bazal, a Shiite, hails from the nearby town of Labweh and Fliti’s conservative Sunni family was initially wary of their relationship.

“It’s not because he was Shiite, but because he was a stranger,” said Fliti, whose large extended family enjoys both political and economic clout in Arsal. “Arsalis are used to marrying other Arsalis.”

Eventually, her father gave his blessing, but money troubles gave rise to a dispute. Fearing their parents would forbid the marriage, Fliti and Bazal eloped.

“No one knew we had married, and when my brothers found out they created some problems,” Fliti recalled. “Then my husband’s uncle shot one of my brothers.”

Her brother lived, but tensions ran high between the two families for almost a year.

During the blood feud, Fliti lived with her husband’s family, where she says her husband’s generosity of spirit was fully revealed. “He’s a gentleman ... He never tried to prevent me from talking to my family.”

Their confessional differences were never an issue either, Fliti said. “He told me to pray the way my father taught me. He told me to practice my religion however I wanted to.”

“Over time, my love for him just continued to grow.”

Just over a year after their marriage, Fliti gave birth to a daughter, Maram. Now 3 years old, Maram suffers a genetic blood disease and requires costly medications.

The young couple took out a loan from the bank to build their own home and money was tight.

Still, Fliti recalls that after her husband found a $100 bill on the road in front of a supermarket, he brought it to the cashier hoping it would be returned to the rightful owner. “I asked him why he did that,” Fliti said. “He told me, ‘because maybe it belongs to someone who is really in need.’”

The family home they strove to build, however, now lies empty.

“Since he was captured, I have been staying with my in-laws. I couldn’t bear opening the closet and seeing his clothes,” she said, breaking into tears.

“At night, I survive just by looking at his pictures,” she said. “Sometimes I am able to sleep.”

Fliti said she became hysterical after accidentally hearing the recording of her husband two days ago.

“I’m taking a lot of pills just to function,” she admitted.

Fliti said she does not blame the Syrian refugees for her husband’s capture. “I have never once blamed the refugees, because they are fleeing death and terror.”

Rather, she said the government is responsible for the current predicament, and is not doing enough to free her husband. “This is a political game, and my husband and the other captives are paying the price.”

“It’s not that the government doesn’t care [about the captives], they just don’t care enough.”

Fliti has joined families of the captive soldiers to block roads across the country, protesting what they say is government inaction. In light of the increasingly desperate situation, Fliti said that the families will block the Dahr al-Baidar highway, that links the Bekaa Valley to Mount Lebanon, effectively stopping all traffic between Beirut and the Bekaa.

As she works to draw more attention to the plight of the captive soldiers, Fliti has rebuffed those who seek to comfort her. “I don’t want anyone to console me, because they make it seem like Ali has died. He’s not dead yet.”

Wife of captive Ali Bazal describes a love worth fighting for

BEIRUT: For 51 days, Rana Fliti has not finished a candy bar. “I always leave a little bit for my husband. I’m waiting for him to come back,” she said.

Fliti’s husband Ali Bazal was captured alongside more than 30 other servicemen during bloody battles in Arsal last month.

Bazal appeared in a video released by the Nusra Front Friday in which the group appears to execute fellow ISF officer Mohammad Hammieh. Cuffed and on his knees, Bazal pleaded in tears for Hezbollah to leave Syria as he glances at the lifeless body of his comrade. Nusra has said it will continue to kill the captive soldiers until Hezbollah stops its operations in Syria.

“To the Lebanese people, my life and my friends’ life depends on you. Stop Hezbollah,” Ali said, his cuffed wrists outstretched toward the camera in a desperate appeal.

Fliti refused to watch the video, but overheard her husband’s voice when someone nearby was streaming it. “I couldn’t take it anymore. I had a breakdown,” she told The Daily Star on the phone.

Twenty-five-year-old Fliti, whose voice quivers on the phone, prefers to talk about the early days of her romance with Bazal which reads something like a Hollywood script.

The two met after Bazal was assigned to man a checkpoint near her family’s house in Arsal.

Bazal, a Shiite, hails from the nearby town of Labweh and Fliti’s conservative Sunni family was initially wary of their relationship.

“It’s not because he was Shiite, but because he was a stranger,” said Fliti, whose large extended family enjoys both political and economic clout in Arsal. “Arsalis are used to marrying other Arsalis.”

Eventually, her father gave his blessing, but money troubles gave rise to a dispute. Fearing their parents would forbid the marriage, Fliti and Bazal eloped.

“No one knew we had married, and when my brothers found out they created some problems,” Fliti recalled. “Then my husband’s uncle shot one of my brothers.”

Her brother lived, but tensions ran high between the two families for almost a year.

During the blood feud, Fliti lived with her husband’s family, where she says her husband’s generosity of spirit was fully revealed. “He’s a gentleman ... He never tried to prevent me from talking to my family.”

Their confessional differences were never an issue either, Fliti said. “He told me to pray the way my father taught me. He told me to practice my religion however I wanted to.”

“Over time, my love for him just continued to grow.”

Just over a year after their marriage, Fliti gave birth to a daughter, Maram. Now 3 years old, Maram suffers a genetic blood disease and requires costly medications.

The young couple took out a loan from the bank to build their own home and money was tight.

Still, Fliti recalls that after her husband found a $100 bill on the road in front of a supermarket, he brought it to the cashier hoping it would be returned to the rightful owner. “I asked him why he did that,” Fliti said. “He told me, ‘because maybe it belongs to someone who is really in need.’”

The family home they strove to build, however, now lies empty.

“Since he was captured, I have been staying with my in-laws. I couldn’t bear opening the closet and seeing his clothes,” she said, breaking into tears.

“At night, I survive just by looking at his pictures,” she said. “Sometimes I am able to sleep.”

Fliti said she became hysterical after accidentally hearing the recording of her husband two days ago.

“I’m taking a lot of pills just to function,” she admitted.

Fliti said she does not blame the Syrian refugees for her husband’s capture. “I have never once blamed the refugees, because they are fleeing death and terror.”

Rather, she said the government is responsible for the current predicament, and is not doing enough to free her husband. “This is a political game, and my husband and the other captives are paying the price.”

“It’s not that the government doesn’t care [about the captives], they just don’t care enough.”

Fliti has joined families of the captive soldiers to block roads across the country, protesting what they say is government inaction. In light of the increasingly desperate situation, Fliti said that the families will block the Dahr al-Baidar highway, that links the Bekaa Valley to Mount Lebanon, effectively stopping all traffic between Beirut and the Bekaa.

As she works to draw more attention to the plight of the captive soldiers, Fliti has rebuffed those who seek to comfort her. “I don’t want anyone to console me, because they make it seem like Ali has died. He’s not dead yet.”

Timeline of events involving jihadists in Arsal area

Syria blasts coalition against ISIS

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Arsal in chaos amid new violence, residents seek safety elsewhere

ARSAL, Lebanon: Uncertainty and fear are still rife in the rocky Bekaa Valley town of Arsal, with many residents choosing to stay away amid a spate of kidnappings and ongoing fighting between the Lebanese Army and Islamist militants holed up in the mountains along the border. “People are scared,” said Massoud, a middle-aged man living near an Army base in the border town.

The fighting has affected everyone in the area, and the façade of Massoud’s house was strewn with around half a dozen pock marks that he said were the result of a battle between militants and the Lebanese Army a few weeks ago.

The Lebanese Army fired a barrage of rockets at militants Saturday afternoon, following a night of heavy fighting Friday. Militants responded with their own rocket fire, hitting villages near Labweh and Ras Baalbek.

“It was night when they [the militants] snuck up the hill to attack the Army base,” Massoud said, adding that he was unsure which group it was. “Some were in camouflage fatigues and some wore all black.”

His house was hit by return fire from the Lebanese Army. No locals were killed in the fighting.

The weekend’s events came after a dark day for the Army Friday, on which a roadside bomb killed two men on patrol in an armed vehicle and Nusra Front released a video of soldier Mohammaed Maarouf Hammieh being executed. ISIS and Nusra Front are currently holding at least 21 Lebanese servicemen from the Army and police and Nusra is threatening to kill Ali Bazal, another soldier, if the government doesn’t meet their demands soon.

The Army wouldn’t let The Daily Star go any further than the final checkpoint before the town’s center, but residents who have temporarily moved to neighboring villages said the situation in the town had deteriorated significantly.

A mukhtar from Arsal currently renting a house in neighboring Ras Baalbek said he hadn’t been home in a week. “I was threatened so I got in my car and left,” said the man, who asked his name be withheld for fear of retribution. He said his support for the Army had led to his name being put on a list of people wanted by the militants.

“I’m from the biggest family in Arsal, and I haven’t gone into the village in over a week,” said a member of the military in Ras Baalbek.

The security situation in the town has also led to a change in sympathies among Arsal’s residents.

Arsal residents, who number around 35,000, are largely supportive of the Syrian opposition fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, and for a long time were welcoming toward the influx of refugees flowing across the porous mountain border; the town’s population more than doubled. But residents’ goodwill has been evaporating ever since August, when a five-day battle between the Army and militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front resulted in the death of more than 17 security personnel, as well as severe disruption and damage to the town.

Some Arsalis are starting to associate the refugees with the problems brought to the town by the militants, partially due to what a military intelligence source described as “sleeper cells” among refugees.

“These terrorists are taking advantage of the refugees by having sleeper cells in camps,” said the intelligence officer.

As a result, Arsal’s residents are increasingly fed up with the presence of thousands of refugees.

“Before, people were with the refugees, but now they aren’t,” Massoud said.

As the rocket fire quieted down Saturday afternoon, a group of young boys gathered outside their houses.

When asked how they felt about the presence of Syrian refugees, a slim boy, around 10 years old, responded: “They aren’t any near our houses anymore. They’re all in the camps over there,” pointing in the distance past the town center.

The change in sympathies has also extended to those who used to help the militants, according to the Arsal mukhtar, who said support for them had now waned to just a hardcore few.

“Bakeries used to take 4,000 bags of bread a day to the mountains,” he said. “The Army is now surrounding the village but some people still get through with a few bags of bread by telling the officers that they live on the town’s outskirts.”

He accused members of the local municipality – including Arsal Mayor Ali Hujeiri – of still being sympathetic to ISIS militants, a charge that has been echoed by the father of the latest soldier to be killed by the Nusra Front.

The Hujeiri family, however, has refuted the claims, and has released a statement saying the soldier’s death was terrorism aimed at creating divisions between the residents of the area.

Parliament set to meet next month to pass urgent laws

BEIRUT: Parliament looks set to meet in a legislative session next month to endorse urgent draft laws, including the public sector’s long-awaited salary scale bill.

“The atmosphere concerning the resumption of legislative sessions is positive,” Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted by visitors as saying Sunday. “But matters still need to be followed up through some contacts,”

Berri said he would call Parliament’s Secretariat General to meet to prepare the agenda of a legislative session, stressing that the salary scale bill would top the agenda.

He said he expected the issue of Parliament legislation to be tackled this week.

He added that he would meet former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the head of the parliamentary Future bloc, soon to hear from him details of the March 14 initiative to break the four-month-old presidential deadlock.

Berri predicted that the fate of Tuesday’s parliamentary session to elect a president would be the same as previous ones. “So far, no progress has been made in agreeing on the election of a new president,” he said.

There have been 11 sessions in the past four months that were aborted because of the lack of a quorum.

Earlier, Berri was quoted as saying that he would call for a legislative session once Prime Minister Tammam Salam returned from his visit to New York.

Salam leaves for New York Monday on a weeklong trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly sessions, during which he will deliver Lebanon’s speech at the General Assembly Wednesday.

In addition to the salary scale bill, other important items on the agenda include authorizing the issuance of Eurobonds to raise money for public financing, the rent law and a new electoral law.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan also spoke optimistically about the prospect of a session next month.

“Agreement has been reached to hold a legislative session in October to approve some essential draft laws that ensure the continuity of the work of institutions,” Adwan told a local TV station Sunday.

Adwan, who met Berri Saturday at Ain al-Tineh, said Parliament’s Secretariat General would convene next week to set the agenda for a parliamentary session.

Adwan said he and Berri had discussed efforts to amend items related to the parliamentary election deadlines in terms of the period in which the government should call for the poll and the creation of an election supervisory committee.

The presidential deadlock has paralyzed legislation in Parliament, which has been unable to meet over a lack of quorum even before former President Michel Sleiman’s six-year term ended on May 25.

March 14 lawmakers have refused to attend legislative sessions in the absence of a president, arguing that Parliament should only convene to discuss urgent matters.

Similarly, lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s bloc and Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies have boycotted parliamentary sessions to elect a president, demanding an agreement beforehand with their March 14 rivals on a consensus candidate.

Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, from Berri’s bloc, sounded optimistic about ironing out differences between the March 8 and March 14 blocs over proposed taxes to fund the salary scale.

“I can say that the obstacles that had obstructed the finalization of the salary and rank scale in the past weeks are perhaps on their way to being resolved, on the basis of preserving the rights of citizens, employees and teachers by approving the salary and rank scale, which the state has been unable to resolve in the past years,” Khalil told a rally in the southern town of Blida.

Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai slammed rival politicians, saying their divisions and arrogance were to blame for the presidential stalemate.

“Domination, arrogance, political and sectarian divisions, allegiance [to foreign powers], dogmatism and attachment to personal interests have all led to a grave violation of the Constitution, which is the failure to elect a president six months ago,” Rai said during Sunday Mass in Bkirki.

He said the presidential deadlock had subsequently paralyzed constitutional institutions.

“Perhaps the members of Parliament do not realize that the president is the head of the state, which includes its land and people and its political, administrative, military and judicial institutions,” Rai said. “It is because of this comprehensive role that the [president] also becomes a symbol of national unity.”

Man Caught At White House Is An Army Veteran

Omar J. Gonzales, the 42-year-old man who the Secret Service says ran onto the White House grounds and entered a door Friday night, is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and was reportedly a sniper.

As we reported yesterday, Gonzales is accused of scaling a fence and running across the lawn of the presidential residence and opening a door at the North Portico just before 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Obama family was not at home at the time, and initial reports were that the intruder was unarmed – but court documents filed yesterday say he was carrying a small folding knife.

"Authorities have identified the intruder from Friday night's shocking incident as Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas," the AP reports, "and the Army said he had served from 1997 to 2003, when he was discharged, and then again from 2005 to December 2012, when he retired."

Gonzalez has been suffering from depression and had been taking medication, according to a family member contacted by The Los Angeles Times. The relative says Gonzalez has had a hard time since he was injured by an IED while he was deployed to Iraq.

From the Times:

"A family member in California said Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, near Fort Hood, has been homeless and living alone in the wild and in campgrounds with his two pet dogs for the last two years.

"'We talked to him on 9/11 and he said he planned to go to a Veterans Administration hospital to seek treatments,' said the family member, who asked that he not be identified pending completion of the Secret Service investigation.

"'He's been depressed for quite some time,' the relative said. 'He'd been taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. I suspect he stopped taking it, otherwise this wouldn't have happened.'"

The Washington Post spoke to Gonzalez's former stepson, who said the veteran is a trained sniper who is "a very good guy. He is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder."

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Huge wildfire near Aley points at firefighting deficiency

BEIRUT: A wildfire erupted Sunday between the Aley villages of Deir Qoubel and Bshamoun, with the Deir Quobel mayor blaming a mechanical problem for an extreme delay in firefighters’ response to the blaze.

“It burned the whole valley from Deir Qoubel to the edge of Bshamoun,” Mayor Waddah Nassereddine told The Daily Star by phone. “And now an Army helicopter has arrived to help put the fire out.”

“The Civil Defense and firefighting teams arrived extremely late,” he said. “It has been three hours since the fire erupted, but they didn’t arrive until half an hour ago.”

The mayor aid both firefighting trucks in nearby Shoueifat were out of order.

“I was shocked to know that they just have not repaired the vehicles and that other trucks were sent from Beirut,” Nassereddine said. “If not for the residents, it would have taken over the houses.”

Although pushed back from the side of Deir Qoubel, the fire has spread to Bshamoun, where the Army’s helicopter and firefighting teams are working to prevent damage to properties or residences.

Nassereddine said that due to its size, the fire could take several hours to be entirely extinguished.

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Hezbollah MP belittles counterterrorism coalition

BEIRUT: Hezbollah will not be participating in an international coalition tasked with fighting terrorism in Iraq and Syria, Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad said Sunday, arguing that the plan is neither serious nor sufficient.

“We are not part of any international coalition, and we are not convinced by the seriousness of this alliance,” Raad said Sunday during a Hezbollah ceremony.

“Heading this coalition is a state that represents terrorism in this modern world,” the Hezbollah MP said, in reference to the U.S, which won backing from 10 Arab States, including Lebanon, for a planned attack against terrorists who have claimed swaths of land across Iraq and Syria.

Hezbollah was at the forefront of counterterrorism efforts, Raad said, stressing that the party was the first to confront the terrorist threat.

“We were the first to face the [the terrorists] before international investors conjured a confrontation plan,” Raad said, emphasizing that the planned assault would appear to be “deficient” as soon as it is implemented.

Raad rejected any foreign counterterrorism effort, saying that the Lebanese could protect their own communities through their “unity and clarity of vision” and by standing as “one man” against terrorist groups.

Raad slammed those sympathizing with terrorists, urging them not to make the act of defending them “more costly” to the Lebanese Army by lending their support to militant groups.

“Every week, they kill a soldier to blackmail the state,” Raad said, referring to Nusra Front and ISIS militants who are still holding at least 21 policemen and soldiers captive after capturing over 30 hostages during an attack on the northeastern town of Arsal earlier this month.

Nusra executed an Army soldier late night Friday, while ISIS militants have beheaded two captives in the past month.

The Hezbollah MP argued that the killing of the captives serves to damage the “prestige” of Lebanon’s judicial and military institutions, urging citizens to stand in solidarity with the Army.

Jumblatt: Not every Syrian refugee is a terrorist

BEIRUT: Not every refugee is a terrorist, MP Walid Jumblatt said Sunday, condemning any form of unwarranted aggression against Syrian refugees.

“Some Lebanese and Syrians have drifted in to terrorism, and we have to distinguish between a terrorist and a refugee," the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said during a tour of the predominantly Druze village of Ain Ata, pointing out that a suicide bombing that targeted the Iranian Embassy earlier this year had been carried out by a Lebanese.

“If we suspect that someone has a link to terrorism, we should rely on the state to deal with it.”

The PSP has worked to discourage the Druze community from taking security into their own hands over the last several weeks as Lebanon experiences a series of attacks by militants from Syria. Jumblatt has visited several Druze villages in a tour over the last few days, delivering variations of these warnings.

Addressing the crowd that gathered to hear him Ain Ata, Jumblatt quoted the king of Saudi Arabia as saying that he considered the Druze community in Lebanon as "one of his own," warning that by attacking Syrian refugees, the perpetrators would also be “harming the interests of the Druze in the Gulf.”

“Do you want us to make the king mad?” he asked.

Separately, Jumblatt condemned threats by the Nusra Front to continue killing hostages.

“We will not negotiate over our hostages this way,” the PSP chief said.

The Nusra Front executed a soldier late Friday night, in a move that marks the first killing of a captive being held by the group after over it and ISIS captured more than 30 soldiers and policemen during an attack on the northeastern town of Arsal last month. ISIS has killed two of the captives it is holding.

Jumblatt called on the judiciary to speed up the “fair trials” of Islamists held in Roumieh Prison, whose release is a key demand of the militants.

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BEIRUT: Parliament will likely convene in a rare legislative session, according to Speaker Nabih Berri, who said that the controversial salary scale proposal would take priority over other affairs.

There is a “positive atmosphere” concerning the chances of convening in an upcoming legislative sessions, Berri told An-Nahar in remarks published Sunday.

Parliament has only convened a handful of times since lawmakers extended their mandate in 2013.

Berri said that Parliament's Secretariat General would have to extend invitations to the MPs to set the agenda for the session before a date could be set.

The speaker also said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam must return from New York before lawmakers could convene.

Referring to the agenda, Berri said that the controversial salary scale topped the list.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee seeking ways to resolve the salary scale debate is still struggling to put final touches on proposed taxes.

The issue over the salary scale has been the subject of several years of strikes and protests by the Union Coordination Committee, who also organized the teacher's boycott over the correction of Lebanese official exams.

The speaker also said the new rent and electoral laws would be prioritized in a forthcoming session.

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Lebanese captives being held in caves: report

BEIRUT: Militants are holding the captive Lebanese troops in deep caves in the border region between Arsal and Syria’s Qalamoun, a Lebanese newspaper reported Sunday.

In the report quoting “very accurate information,” Al-Mustaqbal said that kidnapped troops held by ISIS were in a cave in Wadi al-Rahwe in Arsal’s outskirts while the captives held by the Nusra Front are most probably in Wadi Mira in the Qalamoun region of Syria.

The outskirts of Lebanon's Arsal and Syria's Qalamoun are divided only by the undemarcated border between the countries, with little to differentiate the two areas.

According to Al-Mustaqbal, there are many caves in the area, with some as large as 7 meters in height and 70 meters in depth.

The report said that the soldiers and policemen were sleeping in dormitories created inside the caves, which are setup with lighting and heating equipment.

Al-Mustaqbal’s sources said the militants had taken over many farmhouses in the area to equip and supply themselves, while cutting the farms’ cherry trees to use as fuel in the winter.

The two fundamentalist groups kidnapped more than 30 policemen and soldiers in August, during fierce clashes with the Lebanese Army in Arsal.

However, the Nusra Front executed one of the captive soldiers, Mohammad Hammieh, with a bullet in the head Friday night, threatening to kill another soon. Hammieh was the third captive to be killed, while Nusra Front has released seven.

The Lebanese government has been carrying out negotiations with the extremists through various mediators, but has ruled out releasing Islamist prisoners, a key demand of the militants.