France FM:Hezbollah is Lebanon’s problem

Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri met French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace. Following their meeting Hariri said :

9 pharmacies, involved in counterfeit drugs closed in Lebanon

Lebanon’s Health Minister Mohammed Khalife announced that 9 pharmacies and 4 medical warehouses have been closed down due to involvement in the smuggling of counterfeit drugs . Plavix was listed as the most prominent brand that was counterfeited and smuggled. The names of the pharmacies were not revealed .
Khalife said during a press conference that the counterfeit medicine was subjected to analysis in France and Lebanon and the results showed it only has forty percent of the therapeutic value of the original medicine.
“Those that are offering the medicine to people know that it can lead to death ,” said Khalife. Lebanon files

Contract teachers to go on strike next Wednesday

The contract teachers of the Lebanese public elementary schools declared a strike next Wednesday in front of the Grand Serail . The strike to continue until their demands are met.

Hariri met with former French president Chirac

Lebanese Prime Minister visited Saad Hariri said today the former French president Jacques Chirac at his office in Paris. He was accompanied by his adviser Basil Yared. During the meeting they exchanged views about the situation in Lebanon and the region.
Hariri , accompanied by his a ministerial delegation later visited Gerard Larcher, French Senate President who hosted a banquette to honor Hariri’s visit to France .
Larcher told Hariri that the” French Senate is proud to welcome you”. He added: “Paris is very pleased to welcome the Prime Minister of Lebanon”

Hezbollah: Mitchell is wasting his time because Israel does not want peace

In an interview with Russia Today satellite TV network Sheikh Naim Qassem , Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General said on Thursday that the current atmospheres does not point to an imminent Israeli attack on Lebanon:
“The resistance is preparing and working persistently in order to face such a possibility, whether it was delayed or sudden at any given moment,” added Qassem.
Qassem said that U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell “is wasting his time because Israeli will not respond to any peace initiative because all it wants is to preserve all of its gains achieved through hostility”
Qassem predicted failure for Mitchell’s mission, saying that “the whole peace settlement is faltered.”

Aoun: I am the founder of abolishing political sectarianism

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun described himself on Thursday during a ceremony to announce the new FPM committees as “the founder of abolishing political sectarianism,” but added “now is not the time for it in Lebanon.”

Aoun added: “Turkey abolished sectarianism and established a secular state, but it is not preserving it today because the (Turkish) people are not secular by nature.”
Aoun named the FFM committee members as follows:
The Constituencies Committee : Pierre Raffoul, Pascal Azzam, Antoine Farhat, Joseph Shahda, Raji Maalouf, Naim Aoun, Ramzi Kanj, Tony Mkheiber, Tanios Hobeika, Tony Bou Younis, Roland Khoury, Najm Khattar, George Attal, Maher Bassila, Bassam Nasrallah, and Walid al-Ashkar.

The Municipalities Committee : Jucelyn al-Ghoul, Mansour Fadel, Naji Hayek, Elie Bseibess, Tufiq Bou Nassr, Charbel Habib, George Haddad, Tony Nasrallah, Gaby Leon, Jean Nassr, Malek Abi Nader.

Wassim Hannoud was elected as Head of Communication Committee, Rommel Saber as Head of Finance Committee, and Adounis al-Akra as Coordinator of Education Committee.

US to couple military support for Yemen with economic aid

The Obama administration plans to couple expanded military support for Yemen to fight al Qaeda with an economic assistance program aimed at curbing the appeal of Islamists, officials said.

In addition to military cooperation that includes U.S. training and other assistance for Yemen’s counterterrorism forces, the Pentagon is working with the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development on a development and reconstruction package targeting young men and those who live in tribal and rural areas.

Washington hopes long-term economic development will eventually help erode al Qaeda’s appeal among the 50 percent of the Yemeni population that is under the age of 15. Reuters

Obama underestimated the difficulty of resolving ME peace

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview published on Thursday he had underestimated the difficulty of resolving the Middle East conflict and had set his expectations too high in his first year.

“The Middle East peace process has not moved forward. And I think it’s fair to say for all our efforts at early engagement, is not where I want it to be,” Obama told Time Magazine.

“This is just really hard … This is as intractable a problem as you get,” the president said. Reuters

Israel probes vandalism of Palestinian cemetery

The Israeli army said on Thursday it was checking a report of vandalism in a Palestinian cemetery in the West Bank which a Palestinian official accused Jewish settlers of desecrating.

Several tombstones were smashed in the cemetery in the village of Awarta south of Nablus, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official responsible for monitoring Jewish settlement activity in the area. Washington Post

Jumblatt can’t wait to visit Syria

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt on Thursday said that he is  few steps away from Damascus and revealed that Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah continues with his  effort in paving the way for the visit

Last week Jumblatt said his planned trip to Syria is 75 % complete , so he  must be inching closer.

In an interview with Al-Manar TV  he also voiced his support for forming a committee to look into the issue of administrative appointments as suggested by president Suleiman

“This committee has to be neutral, formed from experts, and to take into consideration that the good elements in administration should be given priority,” said Jumblatt

Following the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri , Jumblatt was the most outspoken Lebanese leader against the Syrian regime , but after the May 2008 events he decided to make a U turn by adopting a centrist position  to “spare the country from a civil war “, he said