Khazen.org wishes all its readers and all the Lebanese a Happy New Year 2012!    

    While Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn is still convinced there’s Al-Qaeda members in Lebanon under the guise of Syrian opposition activitists, a central security council’s meeting was requested by President Michel Suleiman few days ago whereas most parties concerned asserted that Al-Qaeda is not present in Lebanon.   Prime Minister Najib Mikati had denied […]

    أثار موضوع بيع الأراضي لغير المسيحيين بمساحات شاسعة في المناطق ذات الطابع المسيحي حفيظة الرابطة المارونية التي ستجتمع في 11 المقبل لمناقشة هذا الأمر، بعد أن وضعت المعلومات المتوفرة لديها عن قضية بيع أرض في منطقة الدلهمية بمئات ألوف الأمتار في عهدة البطريرك الماروني مار بشارة بطرس الراعي، كما أعلن عضو المجلس التنفيذي […]

    After emphasizing during his Christmas letter that "it is the state’s duty alone to ensure the security of citizens and peace throughout the country, to gather up all arms and to place them under the sole control of Lebanon’s legitimate forces, so that Beirut and the whole of Lebanon be freed of arms”, […]

  Chritmas tree at Bkerke. Nativity cavern at Bkerke courtyard   You can watch the video of the Patriarch Mar Bechara el Rai lighting up the Christmas tree [Here].  

    في عيد الميلاد نجدد إيماننا بما رأينا وسمعنا. لقد رأينا النور الحقيقي مشرقا في مغارة بيت لحم، وسمعنا كلمة الله الآتي من عند الآب، كلمة الحق والمعرفة. لذلك نرتل في طروبارية العيد: "ميلادك أيها المسيح إلهنا قد أظهر نور المعرفة في العالم". لم نعد بعد في حيرة الشك وظلمة الجهل. لذلك نرتل فرحين: […]

By Hussein Dakroub –

BEIRUT: A radically new election law endorsed by Maronite leaders that would allow each sect to choose its own representatives during the 2013 parliamentary elections has come under fire from officials across the political divide, with some warning that it would deepen sectarianism in the country.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he will comment at the “appropriate time” on the agreement reached Friday by Christian leaders from the rival camps of March 8 and March 14 on a proposal adopted by the newly established Orthodox Gathering.

But two MPs from Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc have harshly criticized the Bkirki agreement.

“I have been repeating two matters for years. First, Lebanon cannot exist without an effective role for its Christian citizens. Second, I reject that sects adopt [political] attitudes because this will be the beginning of the end to a united Lebanon,” Beirut MP Mohammad Qabbani said in a statement Sunday.

“Therefore, I consider the proposal for sects to elect their MPs as a mass suicide of Lebanon’s people and a consecration of the federation of sects which will eventually lead to the partitioning of the country into geographically sectarian cantons,” he added.

Qabbani said that the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal could be discussed only after the implementation of a provision in the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord which called for the establishment of two parliaments: A non-sectarian Parliament and a Senate that elects its members along sectarian lines.

The current 128-member Parliament is equally divided by Muslims and Christians.

Beirut MP Nuhad Mashnouq said the agreement announced at Bkirki is “not reassuring.”

  The President of the Lebanese Republic Michel Sleiman has dispatched a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowing to capture the criminals behind the bomb attempt against French UN soldiers. Sleiman vowed to end all terrorist attacks against UN troops and portrayed them as a threat to Lebanon’s security.

  Hezbollah official Ghaleb Abu Zeinab said that he delivered a “message of peace” from Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai. “My meeting with the patriarch [on Friday] comes in the context of strengthening relations between [the patriarchate] and Hezbollah,” Abu Zeinab said in an interview with Al-Jumhuriya newspaper published […]

   عقد اللقاء برئاسة البطريرك مار بشاره بطرس الراعي وحضور المطارنة: بولس صياح، كميل زيدان وسمير مظلوم، الأمين العام للدوائر البطريركية الأب أنطوان خليفة. كذلك حضر رئيس حزب الكتائب الرئيس امين الجميل، ورئيس "تكتل التغيير والاصلاح" النائب العماد ميشال عون، ورئيس "تيار المردة" سليمان فرنجية، ورئيس حزب "القوات اللبنانية" سمير جعجع، والنواب الموارنة الذين غاب […]