But as long as Iran insists on its narrow interpretation of the root causes of problems in the wider region, any tangible rapprochement will remain some way off. Until Tehran begins dialogue with Saudi Arabia, which has recently shown its openness to such a prospect with several invitations extended to Iranian figures, these other visits… اقرأ المزيد
Hussein Dakroub BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Monday he hopes the Cabinet will resolve the row over exercising the president’s prerogatives during its session Tuesday, while stressing the need for consensus to pass crucial decisions. In an interview with MTV, Salam also ruled out an early election of new president to succeed former… اقرأ المزيد
Senior Russian officials have recently seen no problem in engaging in the most blatant kind of double standard when discussing developments in Ukraine and Syria. In statement after statement, top Russian officials have provided a new definition of hypocrisy. They have stood firmly behind President Bashar Assad as he goes ahead with holding a… اقرأ المزيد
BEIRUT: Maronite parties could step up their sectarian rhetoric this week if the government fails during Tuesday’s session to agree on a legal mechanism to exercise the president’s prerogatives, parliamentary sources said Sunday. The sources told The Daily Star that it is in the interest of everyone that the raging debate over the Cabinet’s… اقرأ المزيد
The race to convince Michel Aoun to accept a compromise over electing a president in Lebanon has been on for some time, as the Free Patriotic Movement leader receives delegations of people trying to change his mind. The interlocutors have ranged from Aoun’s own March 8 allies and the Maronite patriarchate to his political… اقرأ المزيد
BEIRUT: The Cabinet agreed Friday on the broad lines of a mechanism to fill the power vacuum caused by Parliament’s failure to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman and sought to avert a constitutional row that threatened government work. Meeting for the first time since the end of Sleiman’s six-year term on… اقرأ المزيد