DAILY SCOPE: Riyadh Responsible For Killing the Region

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS' HEADLINES:

AS-SAFIR:

Does Officers' Promotions Settlement await Hariri or Riyadh?

AN-NAHAR:

Contacts to Release Kidnapped Servicemen Cut

AL-AKHBAR:

Dialogue without Settlement

AL-BINAA:

Russian-American Coordination Approves Fighting ‘Al-Nusra' Front as Part of War on ‘ISIL'

Lebanese newspapers on Wednesday shed light on the different domestic and regional issues, focusing on the pending crises in Lebanon most important of which are the garbage crisis and the presidential impasse.

Nasrallah: Saudi Arabia Responsible for Killing Our Region

Hizbullah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah assured that "Saudi Arabia is responsible for killing our region;" adding that "Riyadh killed us in the 2006 July war."

In his remarks during a meeting with eulogizers and proselytizers on Wednesday, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that "We should remain aware that our enemy is ‘Israel', despite the fact that the existential threat in the region today is Wahhabism."

"Since their establishment, the role of Saudi Arabia and ‘Israel' has been to serve US interests in the region. [Saudi Arabia] has financed wars since the Saddam war on Iran, then in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq... Saudi intelligence has been managing the terrorist takfiri groups in Iraq since 2003, and it is responsible for all the bloodshed among people from different sects and backgrounds in this country. It also tried to target the resistance axis including Iran, Venezuela and Russia by decreasing oil prices," Sayyed Nasrallah explained.

Saudi Arabia "is running ‘ISIL' and al-Qaida in Yemen, although these terrorists will pose a danger to it later, but it is blind now and does not care even if it were hurting itself" said Sayyed Nasrallah. On Syria, he said "We are before a chance to enhance our victories and topple the scheme being prepared for the region," adding that the coming phase will witness many victories."

In his remarks, the Secretary General held Riyadh responsible for the death of thousands of pilgrims during the Hajj rituals because of its "bad administration and because it hadn't learned of its past mistakes."

He also said that Riyadh intentionally did not help the victims of the September 24 stampede; and with much disrespect used bulldozers to remove the bodies of the deceased pilgrims in the mass, without even differentiating between those who were dead or still alive."

Commenting on the Lebanese arena, Sayyed Nasrallah said "There is no prospect of a solution in the country because everyone is awaiting the situation in the region to make his choices."

He stressed that Hizbullah and its allies are holding onto their demand for the implementation of an electoral law based on proportionality, which leads to the right representation.

Sayyed Nasrallah added that March 14, and mainly the Future party, is rejecting a law based on proportionality because in the last elections it lost 35 percent of the support of its electoral support.

Trash Crisis in Limelight; to See Solution Soon --- AL-LIWAA

The fourth round of national dialogue Tuesday was dominated by the trash crisis, overshadowing the 16-month presidential election deadlock, which has been set as the first and main topic on the agenda.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper, the waste management crisis was in the limelight; with all the ministers assuring that the crisis and its solution is merely the responsibility of the cabinet.

Moreover, sources said that a meeting was held on Tuesday between Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb and Hizbullah's top security official Wafiq Safa to collaborate on finding a landfill location in the Bekaa in light of the exasperating crisis.

The meeting between the two officials was meant to find a "secure and environmentally safe" location for a sanitary landfill in Bekaa.

Shehayeb's waste crisis plan had received momentum from the parties at the national dialogue meeting a day earlier.

The waste crisis erupted in July when Lebanon's largest landfill in Naameh was closed.
Trash began piling up on the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, forcing the dumping of waste in makeshift sites and along riverbanks.

Efforts to Resolve Military Promotions Issue --- AS-SAFIR

As-Safir daily on Wednesday quoted sources that "the cabinet could convene on Thursday, a sign that the efforts aimed at resolving the controversial issue of military promotions have made progress."

House Speaker Nabih Berri discussed the issue with Change and Reform bloc head MP Michel Aoun ahead of the national dialogue session on Tuesday. The cabinet has not yet met to approve the promotion of three senior army officers, among them Commando Regiment Chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, to the rank of major general.

The promotion of the officer, who is set to retire on October 15, is rejected by several factions represented in the cabinet, including Defense Minister Samir Moqbel who is rejecting to sign any such decree under the request of former President Michel Suleiman.

Despite the optimism that the cabinet could convene to settle the issue, well-informed sources told As Safir that the "race against time has reached a sensitive stage."

The sources warned that the government could collapse if the promotions do not take place before Roukoz's retirement.

Yemeni Army, Popular Committees Confront Saudi Attacks --- AL-AKHBAR

A military source told al-Akhbar newspaper that several Saudi tanks and armored vehicles protected by the aerial force advanced towards the villages of Hameda and Qamar in the Jizan area; adding that units of the Yemeni army and popular committees confronted the attack and managed to destroy an armored vehicle.

The source also told the paper that very fierce confrontations took place at the outskirts of the area, where the popular committees managed to target another armored vehicle and kill the soldiers who were harshly bombing the area.

On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies backed by the United States began to launch a military aggression against Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former Yemeni President, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Saudi Arabia. The airstrikes had not been authorized by the UN.

Source: al-Ahed News