DAILY SCOPE: Deash Attracts Christians for Extremism

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES:

AS-SAFIR:

"Daesh" Attracts Christians: ‘Jack' New Victim

AL-AKHBAR:

Mediator in Abducted Soldiers File Deceased

French Delegation to Syria: Assad Part of Solution

AL-BINAA:

Turkey Puts ‘Abducted Soldiers' File, Intervention in Aleppo for Negotiation

DAILY STAR:

Minister to Tackle Cabinet Row Next Week

In the wake of increasing terrorism in Syria, French MPs from the French Parliament and the Senate visited Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on which papers focused on Thursday.

Also, the local dailies shed light on the situation in Yemen, and highlighted the Daesh practices against the Assyrians and their displacement from Syria's Hassakeh.

On the local level, the newspapers touched on the governmental impass taking place in light of the mechanism crisis and the presidential void.

As-Safir newspaper noted that new phenomena are being uncovered with more young men joining the extremist movements in Syria.

The daily quoted security sources that a young Christian man with the nickname Jack has apparently joined the terrorist groups in Syria. Jack, 28 years old, from an well-known Orthodox family from Tripoli had moved to Turkey since a while and then to Syria where he joined Daesh. The information was obtained from his siblings during investigations by the Lebanese army.

According to the daily, sources feared that Jack will be appointed to carry out a terrorist operation in Lebaon, where the terrorist group exploits his religion to keep his identity hidden. Therefore, extra-ordinary efforts are being made by the security apparatuses in Lebanon to keep track of the so-called Jack and monitor all those who he might be in contact with.

This is not the first case of a Christian young man joining the lines of Daesh, the paper noted. Moreover, sources told as-Safir that so far, more than 400 young men have been recruited from North Lebanon, who have left their homes quickly, either through fooling their families that they are leaving for tourism or as having to move out to Beirut or the Bekaa valley for work.

Sources underscored that the recruitment process no longer requires meetings and gatherings but is rather done over the internet.

On the Lebanese government level, an-Nahar newspaper said that in a phone call with Premier Tammam Salam, he said that the current government mechanism being focused on is the implementation of article 65 of the constitution, which stipulates consensus, otherwise voting will take place.

Earlier on Wednesday, Salam noted that the failure to elect a president has caused numerous problems regarding the functioning of the government.

He said: "The obstacles standing in the way of government work and the debate over its mechanism are a result of failing to elect a president."

He made his remarks at that launch of the Arab Forum on Food Safety at the headquarters of General Union for Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries in Beirut.

Addressing food safety, the premier said: "The campaign is part of the government. The citizen's food became much better and is subject to the implementation of strong standards."

The Lebanese daily, touching on the Syrian crisis, said that around 5 thousand Assyrian Christians have been displaced from their homes in Syria's Hassakeh, after the so-called "extremists attacked the village and abducted its sons. Coinciding with the violent incident, four French lawmakers met with Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday during a private trip to the war-torn country, despite a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Paris and Damascus.

The French government, which supports the Syrian opposition and wants Assad to leave power, was quick to clarify that the lawmakers were there in no official capacity.

"We met Bashar Assad for a good hour. It went very well," Jacques Myard, an MP from the conservative opposition UMP party, told Agence France-Presse in a telephone interview.

He refused to reveal the content of the talks, but Syrian state television said they had discussed "the state of Syrian-French relations, as well as the developments in the Arab world and Europe, especially with regard to terrorism."

Also touching on the issue of extremists in Lebanon, media sources told al-Liwaa daily that "one of the most dangerous Lebanese terrorists who had joined Daesh, with the initials B.A. is linked to the beheading of the army personal Ali Sayyed in Arsal has been seen around Tripoli.

Security sources obtained information that the extremist is managing a network that aims at liquidating some Tripoli figures. Yet, sources in the army intelligence said there is no clear evidence that the network is linked to what has been reported before on the list of figures from Tripoli that are target to assassination.

Source: al-Ahed news