Sleiman backs Qatar”s call for Arabs to hold emergency meeting on Gaza
The situation in Gaza cast a shadow on the Lebanese political scene Wednesday, with President Michel Sleiman renewing calls for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the situation and take action against the ongoing carnage.
"We have informed Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani … of Lebanon”s unconditional support for holding the summit," which Doha has been pushing for, Sleiman said "Arab states should at least agree to hold the summit in support of Gaza and a unified Arab stand concerning Gaza ought to be formulated," he told activists from the Dignity, a small vessel carrying aid supplies to Gaza that was forced to divert to the Port of Tyre on Tuesday after it was rammed by an Israeli warship in international waters.
The situation in Gaza was also the main theme of talks between Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and French Ambassador Andre Parant.
Lebanon”s Cabinet said on Tuesday it would donate $1 million to help Palestinians affected by the continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Siniora and Parant also discussed a visit to Lebanon by French President Nicolas Sarkozy set for January 6.
Parant told reporters at the Grand Serail that Sarkozy will also visit members of his country”s contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
A statement by the Elysee Palace on Wednesday said Sarkozy would also meet visiting parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri on Friday. "Talks will focus on bilateral ties as well as the situation in Gaza," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon”s response to a Cabinet call for a day of national mourning was mitigated on Wednesday, with the Lebanese flooding shopping centers and supermarkets for last-minute shopping for New Year celebrations.
However, Lebanon”s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh, observed a large-scale demonstration in support of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians from all across the political spectrum took to the streets of the camp chanting anti-Israeli slogans and waving Palestinian flags.
Also, leftist groups organized a demonstration facing the Beirut offices of the Arab League in Achrafieh. Demonstrations in support of Gaza were also staged in several other areas, including the Bekaa Valley village of Khiara and the northern province of Akkar.
Also on Wednesday, delegations participating in Thursday”s Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union emergency meeting in support of Gaza, to be held in Tyre, at a request by Speaker Nabih Berri, started arriving in Beirut.
According to a report carried by Beirut”s official National News Agency, so far legislators from 18 Arab countries – including Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Sudan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Mauritania and Yemen – had confirmed their presence at the meeting.
In related news, Hizbullah politburo member Sayyed Hashem Safieddine defended the party”s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, against heavy criticism by Egyptian and Lebanese politicians.
Nasrallah urged Egypt”s government on Monday to open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza in order to help Gazans survive the Israeli assault.
Nasrallah called on Egyptians to "massively" take to the streets to press their government to open the crossing to allow aid to flow in and the wounded to be evacuated.
"Those people criticizing the sayyed don”t have the qualifications to do so," Safieddine said Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, MP Walid Jumblatt, sent an appeal to Socialist International, the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties, to urge Israel to stop its assault on Gaza.
"All forms of pressure should be exerted on Israel to stop attacks against innocent Palestinian people," Jumblatt said in his appeal
Separately, UNIFIL deputy spokesperson Andrea Tenenti denied in comments on Wednesday that there was any emergency that might affect the peacekeeping force”s work in South Lebanon, adding that UNIFIL”s evaluation of danger remained unchanged.
In an interview with As-Safir newspaper, Tenenti insisted that UNIFIL operates in line with "comprehensive security procedures" but was not implementing any further procedures. He added that UNIFIL was focusing on the situation in the South and the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to hostilities in the 2006 war with Israel.
He added that peacekeepers were cooperating with the Lebanese military "to ensure a secure atmosphere."