Bombing Incident Accompanies Damascus Decisions Preceding Brahimi’s Arrival
Parties Declare Opening Crossings and Airport, Linking the Siege to the Chamber and a Lebanese Committee
Aoun Considers the Issue Between the League and Syria and Expresses Surprise at the Fragmentation
The surprise of the half-solution issued yesterday in Damascus after the meeting of parties and national forces, which decided to open the crossings and the airport while maintaining the sieges on the ports, constituted a new element on the eve of the expected arrival of the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is due to arrive from Damascus tomorrow or the day after. It was noted that the circles of Prime Minister General Michel Aoun and the Eastern factions tended to criticize the decisions, considering them as fragmenting the issue of sieges, similar to the way the ceasefire issue was fragmented earlier. The national parties held an extraordinary meeting yesterday evening at the residence of the head of the Amal Movement, Minister Nabih Berri, attended by the following gentlemen: Minister Walid Jumblatt, Assem Qansouh, Ali Eid, Karim Mroue, Dawood Baz, and Marwan Fares. Subsequently, Berri read a statement to the press, stating that the Lebanese National Front held an extraordinary meeting after receiving from Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa, the Syrian Foreign Minister, the talks held with the committee of Arab foreign ministers arising from the tripartite summit. The meeting discussed the Lebanese situation, and in confirmation of the National Front’s support for the success of the efforts of the Arab committee and the decisions of the Casablanca Conference, it was decided to open all land crossings from the eastern regions to the north to the museum and to open Beirut International Airport to everyone starting from twelve noon tomorrow (today), Tuesday. Berri explained that this decision does not include the seaports.
