June 29, 2010

Watch Your Mouth

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Lebanon | Tags: , , |
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Don’t miss Jean Aziz’s excellent op-ed in al-Akhbar today; it’s a letter to President Michel Sleiman, asking him to explain his reasons for arresting three young Lebanese for slander and defamation against the president, on Facebook.

The Western press is claiming that the incriminating Facebook posts were taken down, but you can find copies of them on this Orange Room forum.

According to this report at France24, “Lebanon’s general prosecutor must take action in any case of libel, slander or defamation against the president or any “sister state” of Lebanon regardless of whether a plaintiff comes forward to press charges.”

Hmmm, I wonder which “sister state” that might be…

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December 15, 2009

Sleiman meets Obama

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Hezbollah, Lebanon | Tags: , , , , , |
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President Michel Suleiman met with President Obama yesterday afternoon in the Oval Office. Judging from the two leaders’ remarks at the post-meeting press conference, it seems like it went roughly according to script.

Sleiman: Thank you for receiving us Mr. President.

Obama: Thank you for coming, Mr. President. It’s an honor to have you.

Sleiman: We would like to discuss the issue of US military aid to Lebanon.

Obama: Of course. As you know, we have reservations about US weapons reaching Hezbollah blah blah blah…

Sleiman: I’m glad you brought that up because we want to express our strongest opposition to the Israeli threats that are blah blah blah…

Obama: Well you see, that’s where we disagree blah blah blah…

Sleiman: Well I think you’ll find that blah blah blah…

Obama: Well, I think that we can both agree that blah blah blah…

Sleiman: Well, no, actually blah blah blah…

Obama: Oh my, look at the time! I’m afraid I have to run off and get back to the business of creating several million jobs, turning around the world’s largest economy, and passing a historic health care bill that could be the single greatest legacy of my presidency. But here, don’t forget your White House souvenir pen!

Sleiman: Thank you Mr. President.

**

To the right, you will find President Obama’s schedule for Monday, December 14, 2009. Besides his all-important meeting with the Lebanese president, Obama had a few other minor things on his plate, like the effort to salvage the Senate bill that Joe Lieberman’s defection had threatened to scuttle.

This was followed by a meeting with a bunch of financial titans, and a statement on the economy. Nothing really that important. Just the everyday run-of-the-mill things that a President has to keep an eye on.

This is why I’m sure that the Lebanese delegation’s negotiation strategy for its half hour slot with the most powerful man in the world was pitch-perfect. They went in there, complained about Israel, demanded military aid with no preconditions, and pretended not to know anything about any weapons being smuggled to anyone. Brilliant! And so unexpected!

I’m sure they gave that Obama something to think about while he was snoozing through all of his other (far less important) meetings.
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December 14, 2009

Sleiman in Washington to Meet Obama Today

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Lebanon | Tags: , , , |
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Lebanese President Michel Sleiman is in Washington today for an Oval Office ziyaara with President Barack Obama. Here’s what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had to say about the visit:

“The president looks forward to consulting with President Sleiman on a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including efforts to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the United States and Lebanon, achieve a comprehensive regional peace and implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

We’ll have more coverage here this evening, once the bilateral relationship has been strengthened, comprehensive regional peace has been achieved, and relevant UN Security Council resolutions have been implemented.

Until then, here’s AP’s pre-game commentary on the meet-up.

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September 9, 2009

Daily Star: Lebanon’s Political Woes Are a National Pain in the Ass

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Elections, Lebanon, Reform | Tags: , , |
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This Daily Star editorial means well, it really does. But who could resist pointing out the little Freudian slip…

“The only long-term solution to Lebanon’s perineal political woes is to completely overhaul the system. That means drafting a new electoral law that provides a basis for genuine representation in the government and creating mechanisms for actually implementing the long-ignored clauses of the Taif Accord.”

I do like an editorial with gumption, one that calls a spade a spade and a perineum a perineum. Here’s the Daily Star’s solution to the crisis:

“President Michel Sleiman can spare us the agony of watching this freak-show of attempted governance any longer by proposing a three-month unity cabinet that takes on the challenge of building a functional political system. Such a temporary government could then work on the urgent tasks of implementing the Taif Accord and drafting a new electoral law before being disbanded in preparation for the creation of a new cabinet. After this exercise, any newly created cabinet would be equipped with tools for actually governing the country, as opposed to merely embarrassing its citizens.”

While he’s at it, I think that President Sleiman should also task the three-month unity cabinet with coming up with a cure for cancer, building a nuclear fusion plant, and solving the Arab-Israeli crisis. You know, just to keep them busy. Implementing the Ta’if Accord isn’t going to take them a whole three months! They’ll have plenty of time to work on other projects too.

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