Gov’t Postpones Extra Spending Bill, Aoun, Al-Rai Slam Geagea
Head of Extremist Cell in Ain al-Hilweh
Responses to Geagea
As "Israel" failed with its Iron Dome to defeat the Palestinian resistance's will in Gaza, the fog of truce exposed some of the new regional equations:
"Israeli" bets that Gaza turned to an easy target after the Iron Dome proved to be failing as Gaza's sea of resistance fractions vowed to burn all "Israeli" dreams.
This came as the moderate Arabs forgot all about Gaza. They also turned to playing cards against a major resistant country known with its support to the Palestinian cause, Syria.
In Damascus, all foreign attempts of toppling the Syrian regime are back to column zero as the field developments proved there is no outcome of the crisis other than through dialogue with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Adjacent to the Syrian developments, the Lebanese security concern overshadowed political circles.
Following the revelation of an extremist cell which breached the Lebanese army by planning to attack the military school and other military bases, "as-Safir" Lebanese newspaper mentioned Wednesday new developments in the case.
According to the paper, the Lebanese army concentrated in the recent hours on arresting the head of the extremist cell known as Abu Mohammad after capturing the other members of the group.
"Abu Mohammad, who belongs to Abdullah Azzam Brigadges, is in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp," sources informed the daily, pointing out that a motorcycle is his means of transportation.
Highlighting that "the dangerous criminal had been engaged in a number of attacks against the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon and other terrorist attacks," "as-Safir" sources confirmed that "he is in contact with al-Qaeda's chief Ayman Zawheri's groups."
The sources further uncovered that contacts are being held with "Esbat al-Ansar" group in Ain al-Hilweh to hand over Abu Mohammed to the LA army.
A Palestinian security official at Ain el-Hilweh confirmed that the various factions are holding consecutive and intensive meetings to find the wanted man.
"They have agreed to lift any cover protecting any person that tampers with the security of the camp and its surroundings," the source told "as-Safir" adding that "several wanted criminals were handed over to the Lebanese army during the past few weeks out of the media spotlight."
In parallel, the National News Agency reported that the army intelligence arrested Tuesday two people in addition to seizing weapons and ammunition from vehicles near the Ain al-Hilweh camp.
"A pickup loaded with ammunition was seized at the camp's entrance near the southern city of Sidon while the occupants of a Mercedes carrying a DShK Soviet-era machinegun were arrested," the agency detailed.
Gov't Postpones Extra Spending Bill
At the political scene, the Lebanese government is not to discuss the draft law of extra-money spending on Wednesday's session due to technical issues.
The government is scheduled to convene Wednesday at Baabda palace with 64 items on its agenda.
Reflecting that there are no more obstacles in front of the draft law, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that "finance minister Mohammad al-Safadi has to prepare some extra data i.e. the expenses and the revenues of past governments because what we are doing is similar to preparing a new budget."
In an interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper, Mikati added that "the draft-law on the 2006-2010 extra-budgetary spending was finalized."
Moreover, Mikati's sources asserted to "as-Safir" that no political reasons are after postponing the draft law.
"The plan could be discussed next week as soon as the finance ministry finishes its work," sources clarified.
"As-Safir" also learned that Mikati contacted the head of the parliamentary finance and budget committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, to inform him that the delay is only linked to technical issues.
"He also met with Safadi on Tuesday night to discuss ways to speed up the process," the paper added.
For his part, House Speaker Nabih Berri stressed to the daily that he is to keep his promise of leaving the $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill outside the parliamentary agenda Thursday.
"I will refer the draft law on past governmental expenditures to the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee as soon as the government refers it to the parliament," Berri told al-Joumhouria.
The speaker also said that Thursday's parliament will discuss many issues that matter to the Lebanese, "such as approving the wage raise decree and the transportation allowance decree."
In the same context, former President Emile Lahoud revealed Wednesday that former PM Fouad Siniora's lost money is not limited to the $11 billion, in fact the sum exceeds it, stressing that it must be surveyed and scrutinized."
In remarks to "as-Safir" daily, Lahoud said "There are $ 3.6 billion that nobody has mentioned."
He further called "the parliament and the government to pay attention to the huge squander of public money, particularly on the donations issue which Lebanon received during and after 2006 July war."
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai hit back at Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea saying Geagea, like many people in Lebanon, do not read the whole text of a statement.
"Those who read the full text of my statement should have all the answers," al-Rai stressed
.
Days ago, Geagea criticized the stances of the Maronite Patriarch claiming that his remarks "put all the Christians in the region in danger."
In response, "Change and Reform bloc" leader MP Michel Aoun snapped back at Geagea.
"I'm not surprised by the campaign against the patriarch," he said, noting that "even at the peak of our dispute with the Maronite patriarchate, we did not launch such remarks against this spiritual post."
After the weekly meeting of his bloc, Aoun considered that "personal accusations against the patriarch are rejected and unacceptable reiterating "we stand by His Eminence."
"It is not for Geagea to judge the value of the patriarch's remarks," Aoun stressed
Source: Lebanese newspapers, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org
