EDL workers, baker exchange blows in Beirut

EDL workers, baker exchange blows in Beirut

A brawl erupts between striking Electricite du Liban contract workers and a bakery owner near EDL headquarters in...

Ibrahim 'obstructing' Lebanese hostage negotiations: Nusra Front

BEIRUT: General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is "obstructing" negotiations to free the 27 captive soldiers held by jihadists in Lebanon's northeast border region, the Nusra Front said, according to the father of a hostage.

Hussein Youssef, the father of Mohammed, told a local radio station Thursday that he had received a call from his son's captors complaining that Ibrahim is preventing a deal with the Islamists to free the captives.

"The Nusra Front told us yesterday that [Ibrahim] is obstructing the file of the military hostages," Youssef told Voice of Lebanon radio station.

"Health Minister Wael Abu Faour is the only one who takes this file seriously, and we should be thanking him for preventing our children from being executed," he added.

He also said the families would soon be escalating their protests to pressure officials to free the hostages, abducted by Nusra and ISIS militants during a five-day battle with the Army in Arsal nearly three months ago.

"Escalations will not stop at burning tires," he warned. "We will pressure politicians and ministers using all the means available to us."

The captors routinely call the families of the hostages to urge them to escalate their protests.

Abu Faour, who has been tasked with following up with the hostage families, has been credited with stopping the imminent execution of soldier Ali Bazzal earlier this week.

Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, who at one point was involved in negotiations, told The Daily Star Wednesday that Abu Faour persuaded Nusra not to kill Bazzal or other soldiers.

Abu Faour last week said he has personally received a list of demands from the jihadists.

The demands have not been publicly disclosed, but it has been widely reported that they are seeking to swap the hostages for Islamist prisoners.

Plumbly denies attempt to naturalize Syrian refugees

BEIRUT: U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly has denied reports that the international community was seeking to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

In remarks published Thursday by local daily As-Safir, Plumbly said also dismissed reports that pressure had been exerted on Lebanon as part of an international effort to naturalize the refugees.

He said he had no idea where this report originated from and stressed that the issue of naturalizing Syrian refugees in Lebanon was “out of the question.”

“What is important is the continuity of aid in light of the ongoing displacement crisis resulting from the Syria conflict, based on the need to draw up plans for the coming months.”

An-Nahar newspaper said Wednesday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam was disappointed by meager amount of donations pledged to Lebanon at the two-day Berlin conference earlier this week.

The amount was not publicly disclosed.

It said pressure by the international community to establish long-term Syrian refugee camps had been rejected by Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who fear the move could pave the way for their naturalization and further deteriorate the Lebanon crisis.

“Our proposal on the issue of Syrian refugees was how to encourage states participating in the Berlin conference and other countries to accommodate larger numbers of Syrian refugees who are in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, just like refugees were resettled in Sweden and Germany, and not to resettle them in Lebanon,” Plumbly explained.

“The very thing is to provide the necessary aid to Lebanon to address the Syrian refugee issue and reduce the growing burden on Lebanon,” he added.

Plumbly stressed that assistance for Lebanon was a priority at the Berlin Syrian refugee conference held earlier this week.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest – Oct. 30, 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.

As-Safir

Plumbly denies Berlin conference aimed to naturalize refugees

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly categorically denied reports that pressure had been exerted on Lebanon as part of an international effort to naturalize Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“Our proposal on the issue of Syrian refugees was how to encourage states participating in the Berlin conference and other countries to accommodate larger numbers of Syrian refugees who are in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, just like refugees were resettled in Sweden and Germany, and not to resettle them in Lebanon,” Plumbly told As-Safir.

He said he has no idea where this report originated from.

He stressed that the issue of naturalizing Syrian refugees in Lebanon was out of the question.

“What is important is the continuity of aid in light of the ongoing displacement crisis resulting from the Syria conflict, based on the need to draw up plans for the coming months.”

Al-Liwaa

Stricken Bab al-Tabbaneh needs urgent aid

North Lebanon Mufti Malek Shaar has suggested a number of urgent development projects for Bab al-Tabbaneh as well as the old, historic souks.

Al-Liwaa has learned that Shaar has contacted former prime ministers Saad Hariri and Najib Mikati as well as Layla Solh, Vice President of Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation to secure the necessary funding for these projects.

Shaar has received tentative approval of the three parties to fund the projects, which will likely change the tragic reality of Bab al-Tabbaneh, the scene of on-again, off-again fighting for the past few years.

Al-Joumhouria

Army Intelligence collection techniques helped dismantle terror networks

A military source told Al-Joumhouria that the Intelligence collection techniques used by the Lebanese Army have greatly contributed to the dismantling of terrorist networks, especially that it used advanced methods of intelligence to observe communication between members of the groups and monitor their movements.

The source said the zero-hour for the military attack against those groups was set after completion of information-gathering, the proof of which was the collapse of the terrorist groups in the north, the south and the Bekaa all at the same time.

Kahwagi: No compromise with soldier-killers

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Army chief Wednesday declared there would be no truce with terrorists who attack soldiers, dismissing rumors that a secret compromise with militants was forged to end this week’s crisis in Tripoli.

Gen. Jean Kahwagi vowed to hunt down Islamist militants during a visit to the families of two soldiers killed during the four-day military offensive against jihadists in north Lebanon that ended Monday.

“There will be no compromise or truce with the soldier-killers,” Kahwagi said in remarks carried by the state-run National News Agency.

He reiterated the Army’s position against striking any deal with militants, insisting that the clashes ended after the jihadists crumbled, and not because of a secret agreement.

“Each party that attacked the Army is considered a terrorist,” Kahwagi added.

The fighting that killed 42 people, including eight civilians and 11 Army troops, was among the fiercest bouts of Syria-related violence in the northern port city since the 2011 outbreak of the neighboring war.

But Shadi Mawlawi and Osama Mansur, two jihadist leaders who were involved in the clashes, disappeared as the Army moved into their embattled neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, leading some to suspect a secret compromise.

The Army chief’s remarks were made during Kahwagi’s visits to families of Maj. Jihad Haber and Capt. Firas al-Hakim in the towns of Mansourieh, Bhamdoun and Aley Wednesday afternoon.

He commended the fallen soldiers’ “momentous sacrifices during the battle,” promising that “their blood and the blood of their military companions would not go to waste.” Kahwagi’s comments came as the Army launched widespread raids in the north, arresting 16 suspected militants.

Troops raided suspected militant hideouts in Tripoli’s neighborhood of Abi Samra, arresting eight people, including three Syrians, and confiscated three automatic rifles, a rocket-propelled grenade and 10 hand grenades, in addition to ammunition and military gear, an Army statement said.

Similar raids were carried out on Syrian refugee gatherings in the area of Minyeh, during which eight people were apprehended on suspicion of having links to terrorist groups, it added.

Earlier Wednesday, the Army raided an apartment in Abi Samra which was occupied by fundamentalist preacher Sheikh Khaled Hablas, confiscating a computer, security sources told The Daily Star.

By midday, the Army arrested one of Hablas’ supporters, identified by his last name Khalaf.

The Army said in a separate statement Wednesday that three gunmen had turned themselves in. It also issued a strongly worded statement Monday warning militants to hand themselves over, or be hunted down.

Hablas, who was previously seen as a low-key figure, preaches at Haroun Mosque in his hometown of Bhenin in the district of Minyeh, north of Tripoli. He is also an outspoken opponent of the military.

The Army carrying out raids beginning in the early morning over a large perimeter stretching between Abi Samra and Dahr al-Ain, including Wadi Haab in the region of Koura.

Helicopter gunships backed ground troops as they searched for the runaway militants involved in the fighting in Tripoli.

Soldiers redeployed heavily in Abi Samra, conducting patrols and setting up fixed and roving checkpoints on the roads leading to the battered neighborhoods.

About 200 suspects have been arrested since the fighting erupted last Friday. In the meantime, schools and universities in the city reopened after several days of forced closure.

Residents displaced by the fighting continued to return gradually to Tripoli’s battered Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, where much of the fighting was centered.

Local sources said that some residents returned to check on their belongings, amid calls for government assistance to help them repair their damaged property.But dozens of shops and businesses remained closed Wednesday, with some parts of the neighborhood in complete ruins.

The Army’s campaign spread to the south in Sidon, where it found six bomb detonators, rifles and ammunition in an abandoned house in the area of Sirob, a military statement said.

The military also arrested a suspected militant in connection with a foiled attack against an Army headquarters and a Hezbollah complex in Sidon, security sources told The Daily Star.

The residence of suspect Abdel-Rahman Hallaq overlooks Hezbollah’s Fatima Zahra Compound, which houses a Shiite mosque, an infirmary and a lecture hall.

Army troops also raided several informal refugee settlements in the area of Sharhabil, arresting three Syrians for not possessing legal documents, they added.

An Army source said the situation in Sidon was not dangerous and measures there were intended as precautionary. Additional reporting by Antoine Amrieh

MPs fail on president, prepare to extend term

BEIRUT: Parliament will vote next week on a bill that would extend its mandate by over two years, Speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday, shortly after the legislature failed again to elect a new president.

The speaker did not set a specific date for the legislative session on the controversial draft law, which political sources have said is almost guaranteed to pass.

The bill, presented by MP Nicolas Fattoush, proposes to extend Parliament’s term by two years and seven months.

Berri’s visitors said the speaker had announced he would work on endorsing a new election law and push for the election of a new president once the extension was passed. They also said that discussions with Christian parties on the extension were ongoing.

The session might convene Thursday next week.

The major Christian parties, including the Free Patriotic Movement, the Kataeb Party and the Lebanese Forces, have spoken out against the extension, but their members are unlikely to boycott the extension session, sources told The Daily Star.

Sources close to Berri said that the speaker hoped that one of the three major Christian parties would vote in favor of extension so that the move would not be depicted as a violation of the National Pact, an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.

Berri had initially opposed any extension, but announced last week that he had become convinced of necessity for the move after the Future Movement said it would boycott parliamentary elections, scheduled for Nov. 16, in the absence of a president.

If it passes, the extension will be second of its kind voted on by the current legislature since its election to office in June 2009.

Parliament last year voted to extend its mandate by 17 months, with political factions arguing that the country’s fragile security situation prevented elections. Its current term expires Nov. 20.

Berri also set Nov. 19 as a new date for presidential elections after lawmakers failed to elect a new head of state for the 14th time Wednesday, reflecting persistent disagreement on a consensus candidate.

Only 54 of 128 lawmakers showed up for the vote, leading to a lack of a quorum, which has been the case over the last 13 sessions earmarked to elect a head of state.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai condemned the latest failure, saying it was time to use the “stick.”

In one of his harshest statements on the issue, he accused MPs of waiting on foreign powers to elect a head of state.

“Both political factions are waiting to see who is victorious: Sunnis or Shiites, Iran or Saudi Arabia, the regime in Syria or the opposition,” Rai said.

LF leader Samir Geagea, who was nominated by the March 14 bloc for the presidency, told reporters after the session that the failure to elect a president amounted to “overthrowing the Lebanese political system” and would have dire consequences on all the Lebanese and the Christians in particular.

He called for pressure to be put on Hezbollah and FPM leader Michel Aoun, the March 8 candidate, to reach a deal on the presidency, and said Aoun’s ambitions had left the country with a vacuum.

Geagea also criticized the proposed extension of Parliament’s mandate, saying it was the “greatest current fraud operation.”

Meanwhile, Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel met Aoun at his residence in Rabieh to discuss the ongoing political deadlock, a meeting he described as “excellent.”

“If we don’t meet in these circumstances, when will we meet?,” Gemayel told reporters following the talks.

“We tried to convince Aoun to go down with us to a parliamentary session to elect a president, but he was not convinced. Maybe next time,” Gemayel said, jokingly.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tammam Salam will chair a Cabinet session Thursday morning that is set to discuss a raft of security and administrative items, including a proposal by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk to recruit 1,000 General Security personnel, along with 400 Internal Security Forces members.

The plan is part of a broader effort to draft 17,000 new security personnel into the military and security institutions.

Salam will also brief ministers on this week’s conference in Berlin, in which donor countries pledged financial assistance to Lebanon to help it address the refugee problem.

The Cabinet is also expected to address the crisis of the servicemen captured by ISIS and Nusra Front militants during their brief takeover of the northeastern town of Arsal in August, the recent fighting in Tripoli and the Army’s continuing efforts to combat terrorism.

Eight soldiers were killed during four days of fighting that started over the weekend between the Army and Islamist militants in Tripoli and other parts of the north.

Hujeiri: Hostage negotiations going in a positive direction

BEIRUT: Negotiations between the Lebanese government and militants holding 27 Lebanese servicemen hostage will likely take a positive turn this round, former mediator Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri said, adding that they had yet to resume. According to the Arsali sheikh, who maintains strong ties with the Nusra Front, Qatar’s envoy, Ahmad al-Khatib, representing the Lebanese government in talks with militants, had yet to arrive on Arsal’s outskirts.

Hujeiri, who had visited the outskirts earlier Wednesday, said that “by the time I left, the mediator had not yet arrived.”

The Nusra Front and ISIS militants who captured more than 30 servicemen during an attack on the northeastern town of Arsal in August are demanding the release of Islamists detained in Roumieh prison, but the two groups have yet to deliver a list of exact names, Hujeiri said.

“The militants are waiting for the Lebanese government to accept the principle of a swap deal before issuing exact names,” he said.

According to Hujeiri, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Taqiyyeh, the militants do not have any qualms with the current mediator.

“They don’t care if the mediator is Syrian, Lebanese, Qatari or Turkish, all they care about is that their demands are met,” he said.

The sheikh expressed his belief that negotiations were going in a positive direction.

He said that he had “sensed a sincere seriousness from Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, who worked relentlessly to stop the killing of the abducted soldiers.”

The Nusra Front had threatened to execute Ali Bazzal, one of the Lebanese soldiers it is holding captive, at 5 a.m. Monday after accusing the Army of “cheating to gain time” and failing to meet its demand to end an military offensive against militants in Tripoli. The group did not carry out this threat.

Hujeiri said that militants had been planning on executing other hostages, one after another, not only Bazzal, if the military failed to end its offensive in Tripoli. According to the sheikh, the militants were persuaded to halt the executions after Abu Faour intervened.

Meanwhile, families of the victims burned tires outside the Grand Serail Wednesday, after a committee formed by the government to oversee the hostage crisis did not brief them on the results of a meeting it held at the Grand Serail.

“The ministers promised that they would update us after the meeting, so we waited for them for hours, but it turned out that they had left without telling us a word” Rana Fliti, the wife of abducted soldier Bazzal told The Daily Star.