DAILY SCOPE: Saudi ’Captagon’ Prince Detained, New Round of Talks amidst Presidential Deadlock

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS' HEADLINES:

AS-SAFIR:

Palestinian Uprising: Martyr Every 10 Hours, Injured Every 8 Hours

Tons of Captagon in Saudi Royal Packages

AL-AKHBAR:

Netanyahu Promises Displacing Thousands of al-Quds Residents

Turkish Ballistic Missiles to Terrorists

AL-JOMHOURIA:

Dialogue Determines Traits of President, Waste Crisis Sees Obstacles

AD-DIYAR:

Breaking: Prince Abdul Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdul Aziz Arrested in Lebanon's Prison

Flashing headlines on a drugs smuggling operation prevailed in Lebanese newspapers on Tuesday, as a Saudi Prince's attempt of smuggling 4 tons of Captagon pills was foiled by the Lebanese security forces on Monday. Newspapers also followed up on the cabinet developments, as there seems to be no real progress in the waste management file and while the presidential deadlock continues. Tuesday's Lebanese dailies also touched on the latest regional developments.

AS-SAFIR: No Dialogue if First Condition to Topple al-Assad

An anonymous Omani official told As-Safi newspaper on Tuesday that "dialogue cannot be held while the first condition is to topple al-Assad."

"A political solution in Syria requires all parts to be realistic," noted the official.

He told the paper that Oman is putting its efforts into finding a soon solution to resolve the Syrian crisis, and that Muscat's concerns is that a positive result is reached, whether or not the Oman is in the spotlight.

He also underscored there is no particular initiative on behalf of Oman, but it is rather trying to find proximity among the concerned sides when it comes to the Syrian file.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with Oman's Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah in Damascus, with efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis topping the agenda of their talks, a report says.

The meeting took place on Monday in the Syrian capital, where both sides also discussed bilateral relations and plans to continue cooperation aimed at increasing fraternal relations among their countries, Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported.

The Omani official confirmed Oman's commitment to take every possible measure to help resolve the Syria crisis.

AL-AKHBAR: Detained Saudi Prince will not be Released Anytime Soon

Lebanese Judicial sources told al-Akhbar newspaper that the Saudi prince who was arrested on the charge of smuggling drugs to Saudi Arabia will not be released anytime soon, especially as the judge Dani Sharabiyeh believes that the given evidence is enough to turn them in to prosecution.

The Saudi prince of the royal family and four others were detained after authorities discovered two tons of drugs on a private jet in Beirut on Monday, as they were trying to smuggle "huge quantity" of Captagon pills - 40 bags worth - to the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

An-Nahar: News Dialogue "Finalizes" Presidential Personae "on Paper"

An-Nahar newspaper commented on the 8th round of talks in the Lebanese Parliament, noting that the session resulted no new positive information that would boost hopes built on a serious and "referential political decision" to provide support for PM Tamam Salam regarding the garbage crisis that appears to be floating without a clear horizon.

Furthermore, the Phalanges party's boycotting the dialogue rounds until this crisis is solved appeared as indicator of escalation resulting from the continuity of the crisis.

Although it appeared a little weird that the round of dialogue marked some "seriousness" acknowledged by most of the participants in discussing the personae of the presidential candidate, yet the lookout of the parliamentary office community's meeting was clear today, in which the fate of the parliament's legislative session will be decided, surrounded by a known battle of vetoes.

What was obvious in this round was that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri set a table of presidential personae, in which he summed up what was mentioned in the written papers presented in an earlier session by the leaderships participating in the dialogue.

The characteristics were mentioned horizontally as follows: "status [the president's position within his sect, among other components], interlocutor [rounding corners, communication with all, universal, openness on resistance [supporting], reformative [fights corruption], Constitution [applying the Taif Accord, abiding by the Constitution, cancelling sectarianism], modifying the Constitution, self-distant, returning to the people, not supported by sponsors of "Israel", self-made, no foreign dependence."

Vertically, the names were listed starting with PM Tamam Salam who didn't express his opinion; and just like crosswords, the presidential personae found in each candidate was ticked.

There was a unanimous agreement on status, interlocutor, reformative, committed to fighting corruption, abiding by the Constitution and the Taif Accord, self-made and not dependent on foreign sides.

Source: al-Ahed News