As-Safir: Nasrallah to hit back at Obama tomorrow

President Michel Sleiman enters the second half of his presidential term Wednesday. The harvest, however, seems very modest: Lebanon got a head of state to manage the crisis grasping the stick midway.

Tomorrow is also the 11th anniversary of Liberation Day and the completion of four months of efforts by Mikati to form a government, and perhaps the lesson should be represented by the launch of a national political resistance to liberate the lost government from the impasse over mutual impossible-to-meet demands.

Also tomorrow, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will deliver a televised speech to commemorate Liberation Day in east Lebanon’s Bekaa village of Nabi Sheet. Nasrallah will hit back at both Israeli-sided speeches by U.S. President Barack Obama, particularly the one he gave before AIPAC in which he declared, loud and clear, the content of the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by accusing Hezbollah of carrying out political assassinations in Lebanon!

An-Nahar: Raffarin: We do not seek a role that is not within our expertise

Approaching the fifth month of the Cabinet formation crises, it appears that the political powers are concerned more with events unfolding in Syria and reactions to it at the international and regional levels than with a new initiative at the internal level to end the Cabinet crisis. The neglect has led to lost opportunities in terms of resolving the crisis which has reached the most dangerous levels since the appointment of Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati to form a Cabinet.

While some in the new majority still expect a revival of talks regarding the crisis in the next few days, voices close to Mikati have not disclosed information or any clarifications about the extent of the political impasse.

An-Nahar has learned that Mikati is still awaiting the answers he requested during the last meeting he held with MP Ali Hassan Khalil, political aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Hussein Khalil, political aide to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and caretaker Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil of the Free Patriotic Movement.

Negative reactions by members of the March 8 coalition to the recent visit of Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman have also lingered. Voices in the March 8 group say they expect regional developments and their implications to dominate the festivities commemorating Liberation Day, particularly by Nassrallah during his speech Wednesday.

During an interview with Al-Manar, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt stressed the need for the resistance in light of the inability of the international community to even solve a problem like the small territory of Ghaggar.

On the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Jumblatt said it was clear the court would be used for political reasons against the resistance and the Syrian regime. But he expressed his belief that the country was immune regardless of whether the STL indictment was issued or not.

On Feltman’s recent visit, Jumblatt said he believed the envoy had sought to coordinate the issuance of a U.N. Security Council resolution against Syria, and said he told the U.S. envoy he did not believe a resolution would be useful.

At a news conference, French presidential envoy on Francophone affairs Jean-Pierre Raffarin stressed France’s support for Lebanese authorities during the period that the country is going through and his country’s backing of efforts at the level of the Cabinet formation.

On the matter of the government, Raffarin said: “France does not have a strategy on the Lebanese government. We have our expertise in this regard … but we do not seek under any condition to play a role that is not within our expertise.”

Al-Anwar: A warning of the collapse of businesses in Lebanon and a wave of bankruptcies shaking the economy

A breakthrough in the political impasse that could change the rules of the game, as leaks Monday forced trade unions to sound the alarm once again, warning that further deterioration could lead to the closing down of businesses and a wave of bankruptcies.

As the country remained mired in a vicious circle over a Cabinet lineup, trade unions held a meeting in Beirut after which they warned that the recent market decline and the status quo could further deteriorate the business sector, leaving the door wide-open to a wave of bankruptcies and closures of businesses.

Al-Akbar: Mikati rejects technocrats, Gemayel calls for national salvation

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has promised to revive consultations on the government formation. This coincided with the renewal of talk about a national salvation government by both Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri amid confirmation by visitors to Mikati that the business tycoon was not convinced about a Cabinet of technocrats.

No serious breakthrough came over the weekend regarding the Cabinet lineup except for Mikati’s pledge that he would restart the engines of the government formation Tuesday given that further delays were no longer acceptable.

Mikati visitors quoted the business tycoon from Tripoli as saying that he does not want a one-sided government, pointing out that the prime minister-designate meant he did not want the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition to have more than two thirds of Cabinet seats.

Mikati, according to the same visitors, also stressed that he does not favor a technocrat government because the issues to be addressed by the new government would need a compelling force.