Thursday, March 01, 2007

BEIRUT: Speaking from Washington on Wednesday, Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt said that the United States’ commitment to the Lebanese "model" remains unchanged, as various other Lebanese leaders expressed hope for a resolution early next month to the current political crisis.

In an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said that he had "emphasized to the US the importance of maintaining Lebanon as a model for coexistence, a model of free economy, a model of freedoms in the Arab East, in the face of a desire by the Islamic Republic [of Iran] and Syria to break this model."

Thursday, March 01, 2007

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Military Tribunal is prosecuting a General Security officer on charges of bribery and of preparing reports on Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda and possible terrorist elements in Lebanon on behalf of an unnamed European country.

 Military Investigating Magistrate Jean Fahd charged the unidentified officer, who worked as an inspector at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, with "disobeying military rules to realize a material and personal benefit by preparing security reports and sending them to non-Lebanese parties."