by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Gulf News

Beirut: Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri stressed that he will not accept a third extension of parliament’s term, that elections will be held at all costs, and warned of “public outrage” if current efforts by the joint parliamentary committees failed to agree on a new electoral law to replace the 1960 voting system.

Berri told his weekly meeting with selected lawmakers that gather every Wednesday at his Ain Al Tineh residence that citizens will be outraged if no agreement is reached on a new law, and renewed his “absolute rejection” of yet another extension under any pretext, although he issued similar notices in the past.

By Nicholas Blanford,

Beirut, Lebanon — The death last month of a top Hezbollah commander in Syria prompted proud eulogies from the party’s leadership, satisfaction from his enemies – and, in a quiet suburb of The Hague, a legal quandary. For Mustafa Badreddine was not only a veteran Hezbollah commander who oversaw the party’s military intervention in Syria. He is also being tried in absentia by an international tribunal for helping to organize the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former billionaire prime minister who was killed, along with 22 other people, in a massive truck bombing in central Beirut.

Although Badreddine was given a full public funeral and his body lies buried in Hezbollah’s “martyrs” cemetery in southern Beirut, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has concluded that his trial would continue. The Judges do not believe that sufficient evidence has yet been presented to convince them that the death of Mr. Badreddine has been proved,” the STL said in a statement last week.

The STL’s decision has hardened the perception among many in Lebanon that the tribunal, which is tasked with uncovering and prosecuting Mr. Hariri’s killers, has failed in its core mission. After 11 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, those that ordered Hariri’s murder and the motive behind the assassination are still unknown and the subject of intense and conflicting speculation. The only men currently on trial are Badreddine and four other Hezbollah men, who are alleged to have been foot soldiers rather than architects of the assassination plot.

“[The STL] has been beneath all expectations … it’s a case of justice delayed, justice denied … and this idiotic rejection of the death of Badreddine is another expression of their surreal impotence,” says Chibli Mallat, presidential professor at the University of Utah and author of "Philosophy of Nonviolence: Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Justice beyond the Middle East."

AP, Daily Star Lebanon's Agricultural Ministry is banning the import of Syrian produce in an effort to protect Lebanese farm revenues.

Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb says he is trying to protect "production and farmers" in the country. He says authorities will crack down on cross-border smuggling. Lebanon's agricultural sector has suffered under the strain of the war in neighboring Syria, now in its sixth year. The Jordanian-Syrian border has been closed since 2015, freezing overland exports from Lebanon to the rich Gulf market, and causing a glut of agricultural produce in Lebanon.

Vegetables and fruits have overwhelmed the local markets, having a huge negative effect on the farms, which can no longer handle the situation,” he said, adding that there has been an “unprecedented” flow of Syrian produce over the past few days.

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