An Event and a Regional Trend

The French envoy Jean Claude Cousseran arrived in the Syrian capital within the framework of an Arab tour. By this France stressed its new stand which rejects response to Saudi pressures that aim at preventing the French openness on Syria and marketing the theory of coordination with Iran and besieging Syria until Bush’s administration makes its decision and gives Syria a password.
An expert in European affairs stressed that the French stand is based on a precise knowledge of the area’s conditions and Syria’s vital role in the area, pointing out that Saudi Arabia and the US need a solution to their problems which resulted from foreign regional policies since the invasion of Iraq. But the France of Sarkozy tries to change the method of the last four years which negatively affected France’s interests and influence in the Middle East during Chirac’s term.
The expert added that the French Foreign ministry follows up closely the consequences of Iraq’s crisis inside the US and the ongoing battles between the Congress, the state department and the Pentagon on the one hand and between the White House and vice-president Dick Cheney on the other. French diplomats said this condition resembles the last year of Chirac’s term when the foreign ministry and the defense ministry were looking angrily at the interventions of the presidential adviser Gourdeau-Montagne and the corridors and the circles of experts and advisers in personalizing the French foreign policy.
As for Saudi Arabia, the reports say that thousands of Saudis belong to terrorist networks in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and European states. Hundreds of them are detained while some Saudi officials are suspected of being involved in exporting some of these terrorists within the framework of buying wings in Al-Qaeda to launch terrorist operations in Lebanon and Syria under a US umbrella.
This data pushed France to put the Saudi advises aside and call the Saudis to look at their problems while it authorized Cousseran to go to Damascus where he worked once as an ambassador for many years and gained an excellent experience in the Syrian-French constructive cooperation.

An Event and a Lebanese Trend

The Tripoli bloc stand caused confusion in the political and press circles due to its rejection of participation in a Parliamentary session to elect the president with the quorum of the half plus one. This led the future bloc and the Democratic Meeting to stress that there will be no change in the parliamentary balance, while parliamentary and political circles said they believe a new map is drawn inside the parliament and many representatives may leave the loyal to a moderate position between the loyal and the opposition and this may take at any moment the shape of a parliamentary and political bloc which is not biased to any of the two sides. This change is not simple and will have consequences on the future of the presidential merit after it became certain that it will not pass through electing the president without the obligatory quorum of the two thirds.
The representative Mohmed Kabbarah stressed in a televised talk that it is impossible to attend a session with the quorum of the half plus one. This ended the interpretations that some spokesmen for the loyal tried to market in order to belittle the size of the parliamentary change and its consequences.
The loyals denied that other representatives will leave their quorum while the corridors of the press circle added to the ten names announced yesterday 8 new names at least, 3 of them are from the Democratic Meeting .

Arab and International Press

Arab and international press agencies said president Bashar Al-Assad stressed that there will be no negotiations with Israel without guarantees for the return of the occupied Golan Heights.
Arab and international press agencies quoted an official Libyan source as saying that the higher council of judicial organizations decided to reduce the punishment of the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor from execution to a life sentence.
Arab press said the Palestinian authority and a number of Arab states welcomed the US president George Bush’s promises to establish an independent Palestinian state.
Agence France Presse said a new report by the US intelligence warned from AL-Qaeda’s growing danger and what it called as the terror of Hezbollah.
The Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth said the reports of the Israeli army point out that the numbers of those who escape military service is growing to the extent that it will set a record.
Arab and international press said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan pledged to desert politics if his party – the Justice and Development party – does not get enough votes to be alone in power in the coming legislative elections.
Russian press agency Novosti said Moscow warned London that it will expel 80 British diplomats if Britain does the same in the issue of expelling diplomats related to rejection of handing over the Russian businessman Ander Logovoi.
The Israeli paper Ha’aretz quoted former Israeli war minister Moshe Arenz as saying that Hezbollah did not only defeat Israel but also confused its thought and this led to wrong calculations in Israel.
International press agencies cited an opinion poll conducted by Tel Aviv University which said the spirits of the Israelis are very weak.
Reuters quoted Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying that Iran and the Us will hold a second round of talks concerning Iraq.

Lebanese Press

Lebanese press talked about the French ambassador Cousseran’s Arab tour which will cover Cairo and Damascus, pointing out that Paris dialogue meeting pushed towards searching for a solution to the Lebanese crisis.
An-Nahar quoted Arab League secretary general Amer Moussa as saying that he did not receive any phone call from house speaker Nabih Berri in the last few hours, stressing that he is still in contact with Lebanese leaders. He added that the Arab foreign ministers’ council meeting will be held on July 30 to discuss the Middle East peace process.
Al-Akhbar said the Lebanese army will besiege Nahr Al-Bared completely and destroy the rest of Fath al-Islam fighters.

Arab Satellite Stations Interviews

Al-Almam
Program : A Special Statement
The official spokesperson for Hamas Sami Abu Zahri said the US president Bush’s threats against Hamas does not mean anything to the movement.

Television Stations News in Lebanon

The NTV said the contract of March 14 dissolved.
The LBC wondered why the Syrian president did not talk about Lebanese condition in his speech as he did before.
The Future said no French or Syrian source stressed that French envoy Cousseran landed in Damascus.

Lebanese Television Stations News

LBC
Program: With all the Courage
Representative Wael Abu Fa’ur said Paris dialogue forum is A French- Iranian dialogue.
Dr. Kamel Muhanna said to the same program that there is no solutions in France to the two topics of the president and the unity government.
Michel Tueni the representative of Gassan Tueni in Paris meeting said the French initiative was good. For his part, the writer Saj’an Qazi said Paris meeting is an initiative that covers Lebanon and the Middle East.