DAILY SCOPE: Daesh Targets Assyrians, ’Israel’ Seeking Offshore Oil

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES:

AS-SAFIR:

"Israel" Chasing Lebanon's Oil

Daesh Hits Assyrians in Hassakeh with Its Crimes

AN-NAHAR:

File of Abducted Soldiers Finds Way to Solution

Daesh Attacks Assyrians, Kidnaps 90, Displaces 3 Thousand

AL-BINAA:

Daesh Implements Organized Plan to Displace Christians, European Plan to Encompass them

Lebanese papers on Wednesday 25-02-2015 focused on the meetings and consultations between the different Lebanese parties to find a new mechanism for the government. As-Safir newspaper focused particularly on the Lebanese oil file, while An-Nahar shed light on the abducted soldiers file not to mention that al-Jomhouria concentrated on the Daesh abduction of Christian Assyrians in Hasaka.

Starting with As-Safir daily, the paper keeps track of the presidential void, reminding that Lebanon remains without president for the 277th day so far.

The paper, which noted that the Lebanese cabinet is not functioning due to the mechanism crisis, with the ministerial session un-held for two weeks, it focused on the developments concerning the Lebanese offshore oil, where European companies come to the scene since "Israel" had made deals with them through mediators during the 2014 Holidays.

In the details, "Israel" has changed its plans in cooperating with major European countries, and rather chose to resort to cooperation with little European companies instead, since these would open the door to European market, especially if Lebanon had to apply its boycott law and by that witness major loss.

Well-informed sources warn that the "Israeli" enemy might, in the coming five to six months announce its discovery of a new oil field, near the Lebanese maritime borders, which constitutes a major threat to the Lebanese natural resources especially in case the oil field is adjacent to it.

The sources, according to the paper, further stressed the importance of speeding up the process of issuing the draft-laws to start exploration for oil, warning of a new disappointment that would hit the companies which became interested in Lebanon and the process of oil exploration again.

On the regional level, the"ISIL" group has seized at least 90 Assyrian Christians in Syria, in the terrorist' first mass kidnapping of Christians in the war-torn country, a monitor said Tuesday.

So-called "ISIL" kidnapped the Assyrians on Monday after seizing two villages, Tal Shamiram and Tal Hermuz, in Hassakeh province from the control of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). The group had no immediate details on those kidnapped, including whether women and children were among them, or where they were being held.

As-Safir newspaper said quoted sources as saying that "the terrorist groups attacked most of the villages surrounding Tal Tamer, through targeting it with mortar shells," adding that "the forces entered Tal Tamer from the South-Western side."

The sources also noted that the inhabitants fled to Hassakeh and Qameshli neighboring areas, but the takfiri groups detained almost 50 of the families, majority of which are women and children. Moreover, sources quoted civilians who had fled that the takfiri terrorists killed almost all the men, not to mention stealing the houses and burning the churches.

Terrorist groups are gearing up for a major offensive deep into Lebanese territory along the eastern border with Syria to achieve two main goals: securing new supply routes and establishing a foothold as a prelude to setting up a so-called Islamic emirate in Lebanon, analysts and military experts said.

According to retired Lebanese Army generals, "ISIL"and the Nusra Front, entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, have long been preparing for such an attack, but have been hampered by bad weather conditions, particularly the severe blizzards that hit Lebanon in recent months.

"The two militant groups are just waiting for favorable weather conditions to launch their attack, which could happen in the second half of March," they said. Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese Army general and an expert on terrorism, said a major attack on Lebanon by Daesh and the Nusra Front, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate, was inevitable because the two militant groups weren't planning to come to Lebanon for tourism purposes.

"Daesh and the Nusra Front have been preparing military plans to attack Lebanon for quite some time. They have been militarily surveying areas on the eastern border in search of a weak belly where the Lebanese Army does not exist," Jaber told The Daily Star.

"These tafkiri groups are not waiting for the snow to melt. They will strike when they deem the conditions are fit for their attack," said Jaber, director of the Beirut-based think tank, the Middle East Center for Political Studies and Research. He said the two groups would try to break through Christian towns or mixed Christian-Sunni towns, such as Ras Baalbek, al-Qaa and Fakiha, areas on the eastern frontier with Syria where the resistance does not have any presence.

"The goal of the "ISIL"-Nusra attack is to undermine stability in Lebanon, strike the Lebanese Army, incite sectarian strife and hit Hizbollah in its stronguold in the Bekaa region," Jaber said.

Source: al-Ahed news