Rai Criticizes US, STL another Failure

The Lebanese government is newborn.

However, it has recorded many milestone achievements in the face of the dark rooms stacked with old corrupted files.
 
Electricity, oil, telecommunications, and chairing the UN formed only the beginning.
 
According to the Lebanese rule that sea loves the more, the Lebanese government is to face more to of the files that start with cutting wages and strikes and does not end at the borders of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
 
So, is the white smoke going to rise before the announced strikes?

Series of Meetings Ahead of Strike

Labor Ministry-led committee tasked with proposing a new minimum wage has recommended a 20 percent across-the-board wage hike after deliberations Friday.

Labor Minister Nicolas Nahhas, who made the announcement, said the hike would be accompanied by a publicly funded universal health care plan covering all Lebanese citizens, and a further 9-10 percent provided through phasing out fees for the National Social Security Fund.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Friday with a General Workers Union delegation. In an interview with "as-Safir" Lebanese daily, Mikati said that there "was mutual understanding during the meeting.

"We did not discuss specific issues with the delegation but general ones," Mikati said adding that "we want to devise an equation that would improve the purchasing power and is not affected by other economic factors."

Clarifying that another appointment will be set to meet with the delegation, PM noted "the importance of dialogue between all parties to reach the desired goals by fortifying all aspects of civil peace i.e. political, security, social, and economic developments."

Moreover, Mikati unveiled that he is to meet House Speaker Nabih Berri Saturday to address the domestic situation as well as the General Workers Union's demands.

For his part, Berri hoped that the issue of the workers' strike is resolved through dialogue.

"There is time before the scheduled timing of the strike next Wednesday. We will see what we can do based on the meeting to be held with PM Mikati," Berri told "as-Safir".
 
In the same context, Head of General Workers Union Ghassan Ghosn told "as-Safir" that "the meeting with PM Mikati was serious. We submitted the numbers we have on inflation and set the ceiling of our demands. The dialogue has moved to the cabinet as it has been proven that dialogue with representatives of economic committees is useless."
 
In parallel, the Lebanese University teachers' strike is still ongoing as an expression of the teachers' rejection to transfer the draft law on wages and salaries to a ministerial committee.
 
Education Minister Hassane Diab informed "as-Safir" that the meeting with the delegation representing the Lebanese University Teachers' Association "was excellent."
 
"The government does not have any intention whatsoever to stall. We are always open to constant communication with the association," the minister stressed.

For its part, "an-Nahar" daily reported that ministers received the agenda of the ordinary session of the Council of Ministers, which is set to be held at the Serail this Tuesday.
 
The agenda includes 47-items, the most important of which is the appointment of Brigadier General Robert Jabbour as acting ISF director general.
 
"An-Nahar" mentioned that an ordinary session and three extraordinary ones will be earmarked for the draft budget in the week after the next.
 
Rai Criticizes US, Kahwaji to Washington

At the political level, a series of new positions marked the Maronite Patriarch Bshara Rai\'s visit to the US resembled by criticizing the US administration over its inappropriate conduct with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.
 
"How none of the US officials did receive the President of the Lebanese Republic of Lebanon during his chairing of the Security Council. He didn't meet his US counterpart, and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton canceled a date with him. Even Jeffrey Feltman did not suffer the trouble to call knowing that he was a former ambassador in Lebanon," Rai stressed.

For his part, Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Jean Kahwaji is to start an official visit to Washington this Monday based on an invitation extended by the US military leadership.
 
A key military source told "an-Nahar" that the aim of the visit and the meetings to be held during that time is "to request support for providing the LAF with equipment, weapons and logistical tools."
 
According to this source, "No conditions were imposed on the LAF whether with regard to the composition of the delegation or to the substance of the visit."
 
STL another Failure

At another level, the prosecutor of the STL has failed in an appeal to keep selected witness statements from a former general imprisoned for four years in connection with the crime, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Friday.

Canadian Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, following a ruling from STL President Antonio Cassese, will now have a week to hand over testimonies to the counsel of Jamil Sayyed, as part of the latter's ongoing legal requests to the court.

"The Appeals Chamber ruled today that statements of certain witnesses must be provided by the prosecutor to Mr. Jamil Sayyed swiftly," a tribunal statement said.


Source: Lebanese Newspapers, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org