Opposition sources to Al-Manar: Cabinet session must be quickly held

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Opposition sources to Al-Manar: Cabinet session must be quickly held

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

Lebanon's Opposition: "Michel Sleiman was 'served notice'!

...Call for an immediate meeting for the Council of Ministers...

Posted by G, Z, or B at 3:32 PM

Michel Aoun: "Saudi and Syria fail to reach Lebanon deal"

"The two countries, who traditionally back rival camps in Lebanon, have worked since July to calm a dispute over the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating Hariri's killing which has paralyzed Lebanon's government and revived fears of sectarian conflict. Aoun, a political ally of the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, said the Saudi and Syrian initiative "has ended without a result," blaming supporters of Sunni Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri -- son of the slain leader -- for the impasse.... "Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's team has not responded to the (Saudi and Syrian) efforts and we have reached a dead end," Aoun told a televised news conference. Aoun said a delegation of ministers from Hezbollah and its allies were meeting President Michel Suleiman to discuss finding "another way out of the crisis." He also called for a meeting of opposition ministers later on Tuesday to discuss the stalemate..."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 12:25 PM

Lebanon Opposition Hold Open Meeting As Saudi-Syrian Efforts Announced "Dead"

11/01/2011 The head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun announced on Tuesday the death of the Saudi-Syrian initiative, declaring that it yielded no results. “Another Lebanese initiative has started,” he told reporters following his bloc’s weekly meeting in Rabiyeh, northeast of Beirut.

Aoun said that failure eventually was Lebanese made. “It’s neither a Saudi nor a Syrian failure, not even an American one. We hold full responsibility of our own failure,” he stressed.

“The Opposition has always been positive regarding any inter-Lebanese solution and we gave the Arab initiative enough time,” Aoun said as he thanked the Saudi king and the Syrian president for their efforts, regardless of the outcome.

PM Saad Hariri was in Washington to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and visit recovering Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz. There have been media reports in Lebanon quoting “close sources to Hariri” as saying that the Saudi-Syrian efforts to settle the crisis of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has reached a deadlock. Hariri himself told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat recently that the settlement has been finalized. It is still not clear what Clinton told Hariri in Washington, but the Lebanese opposition will seek answers.

Aoun has called for a Cabinet meeting to take the proper steps following the settlement failure.

According to Al-Jazeera satellite Channel, “reliable sources have said that Clinton openly informed Hariri and King Abdullah that the United States will not accept any solution in Lebanon before the STL indictment is released.”

Meanwhile, opposition leaders including the head of the Marada movement MP Sleiman Franjieh, (Amal Movement) MP Ali Hasan Khalil and Hezbollah Secretary General’s political adviser Hajj Hussein Khalil as well as other opposition leaders hold an “open meeting in Rabiyeh to discuss the crisis. The meeting took place after an opposition meeting with President Michel Sleiman at the Baabda Presidential Palace. Opposition sources told Al-Manar that a Cabinet session should be held as soon as possible and quoted President Sleiman as promising the opposition delegation to consider the call.

The sources added that the Rabieh meeting will remain open, stressing that the opposition is considering serious steps to face the repercussions of the “American obstruction.”

Raad: US Obstructing Efforts to Resolve Lebanese Crisis

11/01/2011 The head of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Mohamad Raad said there was a strong US interference to obstruct the efforts to resolve the Lebanese crisis.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with former Prime Minister Omar Karame, Raad pointed to the press interview made by PM Saad Hariri ahead of his visit to New York in which he declared that the settlement has been finalized since a while. “We will see if this stance will remain the same following his New York trip,” Raad said.

Asked about the declaration made by the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun concerning the end of the Saudi-Syrian initiative, Raad said that all signals point to an American strong interference to obstruct the solution.