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DAILY SCOPE: Rifi Enters Tripoli Electoral Race, Lebanon’s Security Not Certain

DAILY SCOPE: Rifi Enters Tripoli Electoral Race, Lebanon’s Security Not Certain
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LEBANESE DAILIES:

AS-SAFIR:

Internet Scandal: Youssef as Witness; Security Forces "Withdraw"!

AN-NAHAR:

"Daesh" Bloody Attacks Reach Tartous; al-Nusra Prepares for Attacking Gouta

Municipalities Democracy: Triumph of the Inheritors

AL-AKHBAR:

Rifi Enters "Destiny" Battle

The Last Days of Daesh in Fallujah

AL-BINAA:

Turkish-Saudi "Burst" in Tartous, Jabala Precedes Aleppo War, Reaps Tens of Lives

AL-JOMHOURIA:

Daesh Approaches Russian Bases

AL-LIWAA:

Salam to World Leaders: Lebanon is Not A Place for Naturalization

The third round of elections is still the talk of the town especially in light of the big win of Hizbullah and the Amal Movement amid bets that the popularity of the Resistance has decreased in South Lebanon after the war in Syria.

DAILY SCOPE: Rifi Enters Tripoli Electoral Race, Lebanon’s Security Not Certain

Lebanese newspapers on Tuesday continued its follow up on the municipal elections in Lebanon, including the third round that took place last Sunday in the South and the coming elections next week in Tripoli and the North. Other domestic topics were of the dailies' interest, such as the illegal internet file and the naturalization of Syrian refugees.

Newspapers also touched on the major developments in the region, in light of the advancements made by the Iraqi army in the Fallujah battle causing retreat to the Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] extremist forces.

AS-SAFIR: Delay in Internet Scandal Investigations Technical

In follow-up to the illegal internet scandal and the investigations that have been taking place during the past three months since the scandal was uncovered, well-informed sources told As-Safir newspaper on Tuesday that "in light of the investigations that have been carried out during the past two weeks, there will be no exceptions in dealing with any of the suspects and they will be all pursued."

According to the sources, the delay that has taken place in investigations with 23 suspects is only a technical matter because their attorneys had presented defenses that stalled the process.

The Lebanese government has been busy investigating illegal internet companies for the past three months. The scandal includes illegal large communication devices and towers installed in several areas across Lebanon and a 40GB per second bandwidth bought from Turkey and Cyprus and equivalent to 1/3 of the bandwidth set by the Telecom ministry.

Earlier in March, Head of the Parliamentary Media Committee MP Hassan Fadalallah stated that the illegal internet network file is growing like a snowball, but assured that the committee's efforts will continue until all the perpetrators behind this scandal are revealed.

AL-AKHBAR: Political Success or Suicide; Rifi Enters Electoral Battle in Tripoli

Sources close to the "Tawafoq" list in Tripoli told al-Akhbar newspaper that the resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi "suffers a clear political and popular defeat," adding that the list he declared to back for municipal elections was his savior.

The sources pointed out that the list backed by Rifi is weak, and suffers a clear problem in structure, in terms of human resources; financial capabilities and logistics and therefore it cannot compete with Tripoli's "Tawafoq" list. The sources further added that "Many of the candidates who did not find a place for them in the "Tawafoq" list preferred to enter the electoral race as "independent candidates" rather than join the list backed by Rifi.

Rifi's relationship with the Future Movement, to which he was close, has been strained over policy differences, most clearly on display when he resigned from the Cabinet.

Political sources in Tripoli said that Rifi's move is a big gamble, because of which he will either end up as a major political figure in Tripoli, or it would be his political suicide."

Also, in terms of the list Rifi decided to support, the sources questioned "How can Rifi object Saad Hariri's nomination of Head of the Marada party Suleiman Franjieh for presidency while the list he supports includes good friends of Franjieh?"

Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, one of the staunch defenders and allies of Future Party head Saad Hariri declared his resignation from the government in February, without prior consultation or notice.

AL-JOMHOURIA: Not Certain of Stable Security in Lebanon in Light of Regional Happenings

On the security level, and in light of all the talk about the dire circumstances the region is passing through, head of the general Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim told al-Jomhouria that he cannot say for sure if Lebanon will maintain a stable security situation if the exacerbated happenings in the region are taken into consideration.

"If there had not been ongoing threats, I wouldn't have visited Washington where I had several meetings with security officials, most important of which was with the CIA director John Brennan and President Obama's "senior adviser for the Counter-Daesh Campaign in Iraq and Syria Rob Malley."

Ibrahim noted that "coordination between the Lebanese and American security apparatuses have become advanced, which falls in the interest of Lebanon," concluding that the meetings in Washington will continue in order to follow up on the results that have been reached so far.

Source: al-Ahed News

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