Gov’t Scores Achievements: Passes Budget, STL Tests , Army Deploys along Northern Borders

Zeinab Essa
Here is Lebanon: "Israel's" nightmare and quagmire.
Here is Lebanon were six years ago legendary heroes taught the enemy lessons of pride and dignity.
Six years on July 2006 "Israeli" aggression against Lebanon, the Divine Victory of both Lebanon and Hizbullah still irritates "Israel". 33 days of brutal aggression resulted in a clear result: Hizbullah defeated the so-called invincible "Israeli" army.
And from six years, Hizbullah remains steadfast in facing all kinds of international pressures and internal conspiracies.
In this context, the government confirmed Wednesday its firmness in facing all sorts of political and economical challenges.

Gov't Scores New Achievement
Lebanese government succeeded in approving the state budget of 2012 in parallel to finding an outcome for paying Lebanon's share of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon.
"As-Safir" Lebanese newspapers hailed the step as "another achievement to the government headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati."
"This step is resembled by funding the STL's 26 million Euros through a special allocation from the Council of Ministers' Presidency in a repeated scenario to the previous funding," the paper added.
On another level, the state budget came free from neither new taxes nor an increase in Value-added Taxes.
"This step reduced the pressure on the consumer on the one hand, and the banking and economic sectors on the other hand," "as-Safir" mentioned.

Mikati Slams March 14 Campaign
Meanwhile, the government suspended donating money to Syrian refugees as no International agency is aiding Lebanon at this level.
PM Mikati's sources confirmed to the same daily that "not a single international agency is helping the government in this burden."
"Lebanon decided to suspend the medical assistance temporarily pending the reorganization of the operation and the discussion with the international agencies on how to assist the government in guaranteeing the source of funding,” the sources said.
In another context, PM Mikati denounced "March 14" campaign against the government on telecommunication data.
In an interview with "an-Nahar" daily, Mikati stressed that "the Lebanese security bodies are satisfied with the level of information being handed to them."
He further stated that "such verbal attacks on the government have a negative role as they are tarnishing Lebanon's image."
"Our priority is to preserve the country," Mikati said and hoped that "they have an objective criticism."
For his part, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel highlighted that the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces, the General Security, and the Army Intelligence concluded that " the Lebanese security agencies will receive the data that they ask for in accordance with law 140 that preserves the confidentiality of calls."
"The requests of the apparatuses would be met within a certain geographic location to pursue the criminals,” he said.

Hizbullah, FPM Alliance Firm
On another level, "al-Akhbar" daily reported that "Hizbullah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has told his party's cadres that the crisis with the Free Patriotic Movement will be resolved."
According to the daily, His Eminence stressed that "the alliance between Hizbullah and Gen. Michel Aoun is solid and cannot be smashed.”
Sayyed Nasrallah also praised MP Michel Aoun's firm stances in supporting the resistance in all stages of their relationship during the past six years.
"We need to resolve the current dispute and to elevate ties to a higher level," His Eminence emphasized.

LA Deploys along Northern Borders
On the security level, the Lebanese Army continues deploying its units along the Northern borders with Syria.
In this context, security sources clarified to "al-Joumhoria" daily that " the LA's deployment plan will not stop at the border points."
"There will be additional sites for the army in the front lines of the border to form a force of support to secure the borders and stop the infiltrations and smuggling of weapons from and into Syria," the paper said.
It also learned that the meetings of the security services leaders will be held Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of the Directorate General Security Forces in Beirut.
The meeting aims to discuss security developments and ways to strengthen cooperation between various security forces.