DAILY SCOPE: Berri Optimistic on Hizbullah, Future Soon Dialogue

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES:

AN-NAHAR:

Franjieh: Between Weak President and Vacuum We Choose Void

AS-SAFIR:

Jumblatt: ‘Hizbullah' and ‘Future' Dialogue Helps Presidential File
Bekaa's Security Plan Faces Wanted Individuals... Crisis of Confidence

AL-AKHBAR:

Siniora to STL: No for Dialogue

THE GUARDIAN:

Obama Confirms Death of US Hostage Peter Kassig after "ISIS" Release Video

TELEGRAPH:

'Jihadi John' and British Extremists in Syria and Iraq Face a Violent Death, Cameron Says

The Lebanese still await the outcome of the Faour campaign on ‘waste' food, and suffer again with the first winter showers as they turn the streets into rivers. Meanwhile, parliamentary concerned committee prepares for a session today to put an electoral law draft in a session headed by Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri, the latter continues his effort to start dialogue between Hizbullah and the Future Party.

According to al-Akhbar Lebanese daily, and Syria through the Special Tribunal for Lebanon once again.

Al-Akhbar noted that Senoira does not see any mutual agenda between his party and Hizbullah looming in the horizon, and demands raising the slogan of ‘No dialogue with Hizbullah' before its withdrawal from Syria and the election of a President for Lebanon.

On the other hand, and from the same camp, MP Nuhad al-Mashnouq sees that dialogue as the only solution, and expresses worry on political tension which might result from the testimonies of political figures to take place in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Sources close to al-Mashnouq reported him as saying that Future and Hizbullah are convinced about dialogue, and that they should put this conviction into action soon. According to the source, this is the ongoing debate inside the Future party.

On the same note, as-Safir newspaper noted that Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri is working on reviving direct dialogue between the two sides. Berri, according to the Lebanese daily, promises positive results yet without elaboration.
For his part, head of the Socialist Progressive Party Walid Jumblatt told as-Safir newspaper he, along with Berri are working on launching dialogue between the two sides, which can resolve the dispute between the two and save Lebanon from its presidential crisis. "Berri and I have agreed on the concept, we will remain together in this," he told the paper.

Berri reiterated his optimism about ending the political deadlock that has left Lebanon with no president for nearly six months, citing "positive signals" both at home and abroad.

"This dialogue will create a general positive atmosphere and will naturally push matters more on the path of the presidential election," Berri said.
Moreover, Free Patriotic Movement [FPM] parliamentary sources told The Daily Star that talks in Rabieh covered topics that could serve as the basis of a dialogue between Hizbullah and the Future Movement with the aim of resolving outstanding internal issues.

A Hizbullah delegation had visited Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun last week and was designed to reassure the party's key Christian ally about the outcome of any dialogue with the Future Movement, especially after the FPM leader last week declared that his dialogue with Hariri had stopped.
For his part, Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh said he would prefer a vacuum to the election of a weak president, sources told An-Nahar Lebanese daily.

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The New York times reported that the so-called "ISIL" militants released a chilling videotape on Sunday showing they had beheaded a fifth Western hostage, an American aid worker the group had threatened to kill in retaliation for airstrikes carried out by the United States in Iraq and Syria.

President Obama on Sunday confirmed the death of the aid worker, Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger who disappeared more than a year ago at a checkpoint in northeastern Syria while delivering medical supplies.
The footage in the video released Sunday was of poorer quality than some of the group's previous, slickly produced execution videos.

The video shows a black-robed executioner standing over the severed head of Mr. Kassig. Though the end result of the footage was grimly familiar, it was strikingly different from the executions of four other Western hostages, whose recorded deaths were carefully choreographed.
In the clip released early Sunday, the so-called "ISIL" displays the head of Mr. Kassig, 26, at the feet of a man with a British accent who appeared in the previous beheading videos and has been nicknamed Jihadi John by the British news media.

Unlike the earlier videos, which were staged with multiple cameras from different vantage points, and which show the hostages kneeling, then uttering their last words, the footage of Mr. Kassig's death is curtailed - showing only the final scene.

Analysts said that the change in the videos suggested that something may have gone wrong as the militants, who have been under sustained attack from a United States-led military coalition and have faced a series of setbacks in recent weeks, carried out the killing.

On another note, the New York Times said that the US State Department on Sunday became the fourth government agency to announce a breach of its computer systems in recent weeks, after an infiltration forced the agency to temporarily shut down its unclassified email system and
"This has impacted some of our unclassified email traffic and our access to public websites from our main unclassified system," said one senior State Department official, adding that the department expected its systems to be up soon.

While the attack at the White House was quickly contained, the breach at the Postal Service, reported last week, compromised a database containing telephone numbers and email addresses of customers who contacted the agency's call center between January and mid-August.

The Financial Times for its part reported that the European Union has set itself on a collision course with "Israel" after drawing up a list of sanctions to be imposed if the country takes steps that would make the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible.

A catalogue of measures has been set out in a secret document prepared by the European External Action Service and distributed to the EU's 28 member states.
While diplomats are shying away from characterizing them as "sanctions", the paper - whose contents are said at the early discussion stage - advocates a "carrot and stick" approach to relations with "Israel".

The proposed penalties drew a robust response from Avigdor Lieberman, the "Israeli" foreign minister, who said "Israel's" relations with Europe should not be linked to its conflict with the Palestinians.
The Zionist entity will never agree to limit its construction activity in occupied east Al-Quds, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday.

"One thing should be clear: we will never accept the definition of building in "Jewish" neighborhoods of "Jerusalem" as settlement activity," he said at a news conference with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "We won't accept any limitation on building in Jewish areas of (east) Jerusalem," he said.
His remarks came four days after the Zionist entity approved plans to build 200 units in Ramot in occupied east "Jerusalem" despite months of almost daily clashes and tensions there with Palestinians, triggered in part by settlement expansion.

The announcement prompted a sharply-worded rebuke from Washington which reiterated its "unequivocal" opposition to such construction in east "Jerusalem", warning it could "exacerbate this difficult situation on the ground and... will not contribute to efforts to reduce the tension."