Al-Akhbar: Bellemare met with Siniora secretly? An indictment before March?

During a farewell visit to Beirut, chief prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Daniel Bellemare met with various officials, including a secret meeting with former prime minister Fuad Siniora. High-level political sources from March 14 confirmed this meeting to Al-Akhbar. The sources said that Bellemare confirmed to Siniora that a draft indictment will be completed before he departs from his post in March. Bellemare reportedly stressed that the indictment will include the name of a fifth indicted suspect, in addition to the four men already named in the initial indictment. When asked if any of the new suspects were Syrian, Bellemare replied in the negative.

Sources said that the STL prosecutor expressed confidence in the judicial process, including the evidence in the tribunal's possession, allowing him to issue the first indictment and to prepare a draft for the second indictment, which will be completed by the end of February. Bellemare emphasized the importance of circumstantial evidence, adding that evidence in the new indictment will increase the importance of evidence relied upon in the first indictment.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Mikati wants to avoid a battle with Hezbollah on the extension of the court's mandate, with some accusing him of prolonging the government crisis until the end of the filing of the extension of the court, which the prime minister denies.

An-Nahar: Long delays and no initiatives by a government ‘in crisis’

Attention is now focused on politics and the steps taken by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to suspend the sessions of his cabinet, and the issue of suspended issues being brought to the table. However, there didn’t appear to be any initiatives to resolve the problem.

Mikati told An-Nahar that lack of communication and mediation had led to the current impasse, most notably the long power outages throughout the country. He criticized the officials for having unproductive sessions and blaming one another for power outages. He added that he didn’t want to disregard the institution of the cabinet.

Meanwhile, opponents of Mikati criticized the prime minister for suspending cabinet meetings.

In other news, the army has been setting up road blocks in the area of Wadi Khaled to prevent smuggling. According to the army, the military is looking for men who are wanted for smuggling weapons across the border.

Commenting on these developments, MP Khaled Daher told An-Nahar that these operations were being carried out to give a negative image of the region and to justify to the Syrians the deployment of their army on the border.

Al-Liwaa

Berri’s initiative awaits [outcome of] of Paris visit

Aoun’s team calls for Mikati to back down

The snow storm has cleared, but a cold atmosphere lingers as the crisis in the cabinet continues. The parties involved are waiting for two developments.

First, they are waiting for the return of Prime Minister Najib Mikati from a visit to Paris on the ninth of the month.

The prime minister had defended the suspension of cabinet meetings, saying they were a necessary measure.

However, sources close to Aoun said that this is a mistake by Mikati, and the issue does not require mediation, only following the constitution and recognizing the cabinet in its entirety.

Second, people are waiting for a new resolution to be issued by the United Nations Security Council on Syria, which could have overall repercussions in the region, as well as between the United States, Russia and China.