On Christmas Day, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dropped in on servicemembers in Kaneohe, Hawaii to thank our troops for their "extraordinary service on behalf of our country."
Saturday, 27 December 2014
Siniora: Alternative to dialogue with Hezbollah 'frightening'
BEIRUT: Head of the Future bloc MP Fouad Siniora defended his party’s decision to launch talks with Hezbollah Saturday, saying that the alternative to dialogue was “frightening.”
In a speech inaugurating a street in the capital named after Mohammad Chatah, a former minister who was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2013, Siniora said it was no longer acceptable for a single party to jeopardize civil peace “by involving themselves in foreign or local adventures,” referring to Hezbollah’s role in Syria.
“They ask us why we agreed to launch this dialogue with Hezbollah and [said] that it would be futile like previous ones. ... This does not justify refraining from trying and honestly seeking progress,” Siniora said.
“The other alternative is frightening and only strengthens failure and paralysis and we have the honor to try once again,” added Siniora, a former prime minister.
“Our only option is dialogue and to search for means to strengthen our unity and civil peace.”
Rivals Hezbollah and the Future Movement launched a dialogue Tuesday under the patronage of Speaker Nabih Berri with the aim of containing sectarian tensions that have alarmingly increased as a result of the crisis in neighboring Syria.
The talks will also attempt to find a solution to the presidential deadlock, but participants will not discuss contentious issues such as Hezbollah’s presence in Syria or the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Siniora said the talks were aimed at “paving the way to revive the idea of a Lebanon as a nation; as a strong, just state that has exclusive rights over all of its territory” and its borders.
“It also aims at reactivating and protecting its constitutional institutions and for the state to expand its sovereignty to all of its territory and borders so that no foreign or local party can prevent it from achieving justice,” he said.
Siniora expressed hope that the much-needed dialogue would be “honest, committed to and encouraging, contrary to what some people seek to promote.”
Authorities arrest Lebanese man who shot Qatari in Bekaa
BEIRUT: Authorities arrested a Lebanese man who shot at a Qatari national in the Bekaa Valley earlier this month and were still in pursuit for a second perpetrator.
Two men shot at a 41-year-old Qatari man, identified by his initials W.S., at his residence in the town of Al-Marj on Dec. 12.
Investigations led the Internal Security forces to arrest a 24-year-old Lebanese man who confessed to shooting the Qatari over a personal dispute.
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Syrian boy found dead in south Lebanon home
SIDON, Lebanon: A 12-year-old Syrian boy was found dead in his house in south Lebanon Saturday, a security source told The Daily Star.
The boy, Mohammad Othman Mohammad, was found lying on the ground with a belt hanging from a ceiling and a shopping cart near him in the border village of Marwahin in the Tyre district. The source said it wasn't clear exactly how the boy had died.
Investigators summoned the father of the boy and later detained him over a warrant for his arrest on theft charges.
Security forces are looking into the circumstances behind the incident, the source said, adding that the boy was buried in the town.
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Salam: Parties should use dialogue to elect president
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on the country’s various political parties to take advantage of the dialogue that Hezbollah and Future Movement launched this week to address pressing issues including the election of a new president.
“There are many issues that need to be addressed including the oil sector and the waste dump, which is a danger to the entire country if we do not find a solution soon,” Salam told reporters after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh.
“Therefore, my call today is for political forces to take advantage of the dialogue and the calm so that we could resolve these issues.”
Salam said Berri, who prepared and oversaw the first dialogue session between Hezbollah and Future Movement, briefed him on the talks and described them as “promising.”
“The issue of the oil [sector] is similar to many other issues that benefit Lebanon and the Lebanese and requires finalization and consensus from everyone in the difficult circumstances we’re living,” he said.
“I want to reiterate that the most pressing issue is electing a new president so that all the elements are available for this democratic institution and we could together confront our problem.”
The absence of a president has crippled the work of the government, especially Parliament as some lawmakers refuse to attend legislative sessions amid a presidential vacuum.
The Cabinet has also been unable to settle issues in light of political disputes, preventing the government from issuing the long-delayed oil decrees and finding alternative waste dumps.
Asked about the hostage crisis of 25 servicemen held by ISIS and the Nusra Front since August, Salam said he would prefer to remain silent about the issue.
“We are dealing with this matter in utmost secrecy to give it a chance to succeed and to those who are still involving themselves in this political and media folklore, I say that it does not benefit anyone.”
Hariri remembers Chatah as symbol of moderation, dialogue
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri remembered Saturday his senior adviser Mohammad Chatah, who was killed in a car bomb last year, saying that the former minister was a symbol of moderation and dialogue.
“With his absence, we are missing a critical symbol of dialogue and never giving up in looking for solutions and finding an end to difficult crises,” Hariri said in a statement commemorating the first anniversary of Chatah’s assassination.
"Mohammad Chatah is absent today from a political moment in which he should have been at the front row, expressing the Future Movement's decision to make Lebanon's safety a top priority above all sectarian, religious or regional interests.”
Hariri is referring to the dialogue between Hezbollah and Future Movement that the two rivals launched earlier this week in an attempt to contain sectarian tension and search for means to end the presidential deadlock.
Chatah, 62, was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2013, when his convoy passed by a car rigged with explosives parked in the heart of Downtown Beirut. Seven other people were killed in the attack, which Hariri had implicitly blamed Hezbollah for.
In his statement Saturday, Hariri, the head of the Future Movement, said Chatah’s killing was a loss for the party and for himself.
“Those who took a decision to eliminate Mohammad Chatah recognize today that they attacked an irreplaceable target,” Hariri said.
“Eliminating Chatah from the political circle of the Future Movement leadership was a painful blow to me personally and created a vacuum in our political work.”
Hariri said that he had never thought Chatah could be a target of assassination, which the former prime minister described as part of a series of crimes “to eliminate symbols of moderation and national thinking and drag Lebanon further into division and sectarian strife.”
“Chatah is a name that equals moderation, complements moderation and an idea that instilled in our minds the responsibility to protect Lebanon. Therefore, he is always present in all of us.”
Nostalgic Palestine film is Lebanon's most shared
BEIRUT: While ISIS grabs headlines amid mounting fears that the extremist group, which bases its media campaign on social media, will gain ground in Lebanon, the country's "most shared" Facebook post in 2014 focused on a major traditional concern: Palestine.
Lebanese Blogs, a website that aggregates posts from Lebanon's most popular bloggers, some 364, reported that the most shared post on Facebook was one first posted by Hummus for Thought titled "What did Palestine look like in 1869?"
The video, which was shared 93,961 times, was originally posted by LobsterFilms.com, a website archiving rare and unknown films. The nearly 3-minute video shows black-and-white footage of Palestine with a narrator spotting a veiled woman, an Orthodox Jew and an Armenian bishop. It highlights the state of co-existence in Palestine at the end of the 19 century, particularly in Jerusalem, which today is the site of repeated, bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police.
While the most-shared was a thoughtful look at co-existence, the second most-shared post was about what type of shoes men should have, with 52,902 shares, and the third most-shared was a CNN story about Beirut being the No. 1 city in the world to invest, a different perspective contrary to CNN’s 2010 story that Beirut was among the top five most dangerous cities.
A rumored wedding in Lebanon for George Clooney and Lebanese-born Amal Alamuddin was the seventh most shared post on Facebook and the biggest rumor this year.
The only political story in the top 20 list on Facebook was a post by Moulahazat blog titled “When warlords become presidential candidates.”
The Palestine video was also Lebanon's most shared post on Twitter with 1,808 tweets. The second was by satirical blogger Karl Remarks: "We Give the Scottish Independence Referendum the Middle East Expert Treatment."
The third on Twitter was a post by A Separate State of Mind on assailants who torched a historic library in the northern city of Tripoli owned by a Greek Orthodox priest. At least 50,000 rare books and manuscripts were damaged in the fire, which was reportedly in retaliation to a rumored article that the protest had published online insulting Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
Lebanese Twitter users had more of a regional dimension with various stories on Egypt and Syria being among the most shared.
Lebanon's most viral blogger this year was Karl Remarks, while cartoonist Ink on the Side came in second place and Blog of the Boss third. Virality, according to Lebanese Blogs, is a measure of how well the blog is doing on social media.
The most prolific blogger, with more than 1,557 blog posts in 2014, was Blog Baladi, averaging four posts a day. The second most prolific was a restaurant review blog by Anthony Rahayel, No Garlic No Onions.
Blog of the Year was awarded to Ink on the Side, run by Sareen Akarjalian. Lebanese Blogs define “Blog of the Year” as the blog whose posts that have the highest probability of becoming No. 1 on the website.
When it comes to social media and reading articles online, Lebanese seem to divert away from the mundane political arena and be more involved in human interest stories and blog posts that ridicule the country’s depressing situation.
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MP: Berri-Aoun deal to move oil decrees forward
BEIRUT: Lebanon could see a breakthrough in the stalled offshore oil and gas exploration early next year after Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Michel Aoun reportedly agreed on a compromise that settled the dispute over the designation of blocs.
Speaking to Ashaqr Al-Awsat in remarks published Saturday, Change and Reform bloc MP Hikmat Dib said Berri and Aoun had agreed to auction off maritime blocks closest to Israel ina move to block the Jewish state from siphoning off gas and oil from Lebanon's territory.
"A few days ago, there was an agreement to auction [the blocs] based on importance and danger especially [near] the so-called Karish oil field, which Israel is digging into and is 4 kilometers away from Lebanese waters,” Dib, a member of Aoun’s parliamentary bloc, said.
"Berri and Aoun are keen on not giving Israel a chance to take advantage of Lebanese reserves, and we can no longer delay."
Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, was energy minister during the prelicensing round, while the current minister, Arthur Nazarian, is a member of his parliamentary bloc.
Last August, the Lebanese government postponed for the fifth time the first round of licensing for offshore gas exploration due to political disagreements, raising concerns that the continued delay would discourage international oil firms.
Berri has sought to auction off all 10 oil and gas blocks at the same time, while Aoun maintained that Lebanon should only auction a few, undisputed blocs.
Lebanon and Israel both lay claim to roughly 850 square kilometers of maritime area that is thought to have high potential for natural gas extraction.
Berri warned last week that Israel had started siphoning off gas from one of Lebanon’s reserves in an area close to the southern border with Israel, prompting the speaker to hold a series of meetings with lawmakers and experts to end the dispute over the designation of the blocks.
The pan-Arab daily reported that two crucial oil decrees, which Berri has long urged the Cabinet to approve, would be passed in the first months of 2015.
The decrees would set the number of blocks and establish the revenue mechanism as well as a tax policy for gas and oil exploration.
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