Hezbollah reaches out, says ready for Lebanon settlement

Beirut- Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s
second-in-command has reached out to rival political leaders,
announcing that his group was ready for any settlement under the emblem
of national unity.

“Our hands are stretched out for any national or unity proposals,”
said Qassem in remarks published by the Lebanese media on Monday.

Referring to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt ’s reconciliatory tone in
recent statements, Qassem said, without naming him, that his words were
“positive.”

Tragedy brings rival political camps together

BEIRUT:
A delegation from Hizbullah and another from the March 14 Forces met
for the first time in many months on Sunday at the family homes of two
Sunni youths killed last week in a crime that shocked the nation and
threatened to plunge the country into renewed sectarian conflict.
Hizbullah MP Amin Cherri, speaking from the home of slain Ziad
Ghandour, 12, quoted Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah as saying that the murderers of Ziad Ghandour and Ziad
Qabalan, 25, “ought to be severely punished to preserve unity among the Lebanese.”

 

Source:Daily Star

Has the state squandered funds for the displaced?

BEIRUT:
Although Lebanon’s Civil War ended more than 17 years ago, thousands of
families have not yet returned home. One of the most difficult
challenges facing successive governments since the end of the war in
1990 has been to rebuild the destroyed villages in the South, Chouf
mountain and Alley, and to pave the way for the return of more than
450,000 Lebanese who were forced out of their ancestral homes.

 

Source:Daily Star

 

A vice-presidency position in Lebanon !

By Joseph A. Kachichian *
Beirut- A few decades after a bloody civil war, and continuing internal
upheavals that would destroy most Middle Eastern governments, Lebanon -
the only functioning Arab democracy, warts and all - is still on its
feet.

All of the assassinations, kidnappings and murders in the post-1989
Taif Accord period, confirm a simple truth: that the Lebanese are
condemned to live together. The sole remaining issue is whether that
may be a harmonious undertaking.

Syria still uses the ‘old book

Beirut- Thursday April 27, marked the second anniversary of the Syrian
withdrawal from Lebanon, in the shadow of events warning about dramatic
developments in the Lebanese arena.

These events are bringing some people to the conclusion that there
must be a relation between some of these symbolic incidents and the
anniversary.

As far as many of Syria’s allies in Lebanon are concerned, the
disorder in their country on the anniversary is a sufficient reason to