Bellemare in Beirut Thursday, Friday
It seems that the government, which will celebrate its first anniversary under Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Jan. 25, has a busy week ahead, one loaded with issues including: the state budget; public appointments; a bloody incident at sea; contacts made to contain the repercussions of the incident at sea; and the power cuts crisis, which has resulted in the escalation of the phenomenon of road blockades in protest.
To make things worse, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri joined Hezbollah in criticizing Energy Minister Gibran Bassil.
Amid all this, the issue of an elections law was again at the forefront. An-Nahar is publishing a summary of a detailed report prepared by the Foreign Ministry, based on information made available from more than 70 Lebanese embassies and concular missions. The report also includes a map indicating the distribution of the Lebanese in the world, and the number of voters expected.
Regarding the issue of electricity, Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah held the government responsible for the ongoing power cuts and called for a fair distribution of power.
Bassil responded, saying “the worst is yet to come” regarding power rationing.
Later Sunday, visitors of Berri quoted the Speaker as criticizing Bassil. They said Berri believs Bassil should tell the Lebanese the truth about what is going on.
Representatives of Hezbollah and Berri in south Lebanon and the Bekaa had earlier harshly criticized the chronic power outages.
Meanwhile, Special Tribunal for Lebanon President Daniel Bellemare will make a two-day farewell visit to Lebanon Thursday and Friday.
An-Nahar has learned that Bellemare will meet Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Friday to discuss the outcome of the Lebanese probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
As-Safir
Authorities contain Arida boat incident
Electricity threatening to "burn" the government
As residents of the border town of Arida buried teenager Maher Hamad, a comprehensive picture has emerged of the circumstances surrounding the Lebanese fishing trawler incident that left Hamad dead.
As it turns out, the facts contradict several statements made in public.
Sources close to the presidential palace told As-Safir that President Michel Sleiman held intensive talks aimed at containing the incident, which paved the way for the release of the three kidnapped Lebanese.
As for the electricity crisis, more popular protests were held in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley as well as in Mount Lebanon, Iqlim Kharroub and Beirut’s southern suburbs in protest against power cuts.
Protesters blocked roads with burning tires. Things very nearly got out of hand for the struggling municipalities, municipal unions and the various political forces.
Bassil told As-Safir that several sides were to blame for hindering a solution to the electricity crisis.
Bassil: “The government should know that it has two options – either Cabinet and Parliament together bear immediate responsibility and take appropriate steps to push the frozen projects forward, or [the government] as a whole will become threatened because the electricity issue does not only burn the minister but the government.”
No comments:
Post a Comment