Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi demanded on Tuesday the formation of a neutral cabinet to bridge the gap between the March 8 and 14 alliances and achieve reconciliation.“The March 8 and 14 coalitions sit on one table to save the country,” al-Rahi told reporters at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport before heading to the Vatican.

He pointed out that a national unity government should be formed after the two sides reach reconciliation and amend the ties.The Patriarch called on the Lebanese to act responsibly, stressing that there's no need to hold a spiritual summit currently as there are no disputes between Muslim and Christian spiritual leaders.

“The most important matter is to achieve reconciliation between the March 8 and 14 camps in order to maintain Lebanon's highest interest,” al-Rahi said.

(Link) 

 The army announced that it will immediately respond to any further cross-border attacks by the Syrian military after a helicopter gunship attacked on Wednesday.

"Army units deployed in the (Arsal) area took the necessary defensive measures to respond immediately to any similar violations," an army statement said, in a rare warning against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

President Michel Suleiman stated that Lebanon "has the right to take the necessary measures to defend its sovereignty," urging an end to the "Syrian violations" against Arsal.

"These raids put the security and safety of Lebanese people in danger and it contradicts with revolutions regulating the relations between both countries," he expressed in phone calls with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji and Head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council Nasri Khoury.

The Army Command's communique came hours after a Syrian airstrike targeting Arsal injured at least one person earlier on Wednesday.

(Link)

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the pro-opposition monitoring group, the boy, Mohammad Qataa was shot in the face and neck a day after being seized.  "The Observatory cannot ignore these crimes, which only serve the enemies of the revolution and the enemies of humanity," said the group's leader Rami Abdulrahman. The group is based in Britain and uses a network of observers across Syria.

A photo released by the Observatory showed Qataa's face with his mouth and jaw bloodied and destroyed, as well as a bullet wound in his neck. The group based its report on witness accounts of the killing, said Qataa, who was a street vendor selling coffee in the working-class Shaar neighborhood. The boy had been arguing with someone when he was overheard saying: "Even if the Prophet Mohammad comes down (from heaven), I will not become a believer."

The gunmen, who belong to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a militant group that started off known as the Nusra Front, took the boy on Saturday and brought him back alive in the early hours of Sunday to his wooden stand, with whiplash marks visible on his body. "People gathered around him and a member of the fighting brigade said: 'Generous citizens of Aleppo, disbelieving in God is polytheism and cursing the prophet is polytheism. Whoever curses even once will be punished like this." "He then fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy's mother and father, and got into a car and left," the report said.

The boy's mother had pleaded with the killers, whose language suggested that they might not be Syrian, not to shoot her son. Qataa's parents said the youth had taken part in pro-democracy demonstrations in Aleppo.  © 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman discussed Tuesday the weekend killing of an anti-Hezbollah protester with Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad. “The meeting today at Baabda Palace came in the wake of Sunday’s incident outside the Iranian embassy,” Environment Minister Nazem al-Khoury told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

He said that during his meeting with Raad, Sleiman “would speak honestly about the requirements during this critical phase Lebanon is going through.” The meeting comes a day after the Lebanese leader urged Iran and Hezbollah to assist in the probe into the killing of a protester outside Tehran’s mission in Beirut.

(Link)

 Lebanon will "pay the cost" of the Syrian conflict, a top Roman Catholic cardinal said in an interview. "Where do the refugees go? The Christians go to Christian homes in Lebanon, the Druze go to Druze homes in Lebanon, the Alawites go to their relatives (in Lebanon)," said Jean-Louis Tauran, who was secretary of state under pope John Paul II.

"This country already has the problem of Palestinian refugees, those from the civil war of the 1980s, and now those from Syria," the 70-year-old French cardinal added in the interview.

More than 500,000 Syrians fleeing the conflict have sought refuge in Lebanon, which is increasingly being sucked into the war."Lebanon will pay the cost. I've said that since the start" of the conflict, now in its third year, said the cardinal, who as the most senior cardinal in the order of deacons had the honor of announcing the election of Pope Francis in March.

"We have always said, save Lebanon in order to save the Christians, and not save the Christians to save Lebanon. It has a heritage of inter-faith dialogue and conviviality."

Syria dominated Lebanon politically and militarily for 30 years until 2005, and continues to exercise significant influence through its allies.

On Friday, the Lebanese army warned a plot was being hatched to embroil Lebanon in the Syrian war.

(Link)

 BEIRUT: One protester was killed and several were injured Sunday outside the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital as protesters prepared to demonstrate against Hezbollah’s military intervention in neighboring Syria. A Daily Star journalist on the scene saw men in black shirts with yellow ribbons around their arms shoving protesters away from the site as they exited buses some 200 meters from the embassy complex.

The protesters barely had time to raise their banners before they were beaten up, and several were injured with sticks, he said.Several of the men in black shirts then opened fire in the air to disperse the demonstrators. They fired over two dozen shots.In a statement, the Lebanese Army said a citizen was killed as a result of a fight outside the embassy.

“Upon the arrival of a convoy belonging to a political aide in Bir Hassan for a protest outside the Iranian Embassy over the ongoing events in Syria, a fight broke out between members of the convoy and some citizens during which one of the individuals opened fire using a pistol that led to the serious wounding of a citizen, who later died,” the military said.

The protest had been planned and organized by the Lebanese Option Gathering, and the party’s founder, Ahmad al-Asaad, identified the fatality as Hashem Salman, who headed the party’s student committee.

(Link)