The Tripoli Bar hosted on June 16 a workshop organized by the Defense Office and the Victims’ Participation Unit of the Registry of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in collaboration with the North Lebanon and the Beirut Bar Associations.

This occasion marked the start of a roundtable that will continue in Beirut and Leidschendam and will cover all aspects of the judicial activities of the Tribunal.

The Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali stated on Thursday that Syria wishes Lebanon well, hoping that its new government would be successful in its work because that would benefit Syria.

On March 14 camp claims that the new government belongs to Syria and Hizbullah, he said: “The statements of President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Speaker Nabih Berri, and all our brothers in Lebanon are a response to such allegations.”

The French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton, on behalf of his government, Thursday handed over eight Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) to the Lebanese armed forces at a ceremony held at the UNIFIL Headquarters in Naqoura.

The APCs were deployed with French troops in UNIFIL and had been returned to French Army control. France decided to release them directly to the armed forces.

Libyan rebel National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil confirmed that witnesses can reveal the truth about the disappearance and the fate of Shiite Imam Moussa al-Sadr.

Abdul Jalil told the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa on Thursday that he discussed the issue with some Lebanese officials. “We are ready to offer help if the Lebanese cabinet asked us to,” he said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed on Thursday that the opposition will adopt democratic measures in order to “get rid of this government and topple it as soon as possible.”

He told Voice of Lebanon radio: “This goal was set seeing as the new government belongs to Syria and Hizbullah … and it is seeking to isolate Lebanon on the Arab and international levels.”

A man died and another was rescued when they got stuck in a sewer in the southern town of Burj Rahhal on Thursday, media reports said.

Zein Mughniyeh, 28, died soon after he was rescued by civil defense teams and taken to Jabal Amel hospital in Tyre.

Iran’s ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi said on Thursday that four Iranian diplomats, seized in 1982 by a Christian militia in Lebanon, are still alive and being held in Israel.

“We believe that they are alive in Israeli jails. That’s why we have asked the Lebanese government to seriously follow-up the issue,” Roknabadi said following talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

The government policy statement may be finalized on Thursday or Friday given the “friendly and productive” discussions taking place among the committee charged with drafting it, Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s circles told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Thursday.

They said that should the committee fail to complete it today, it would hold a session on Friday seeing as all sides are eager to finalize it as soon as possible.

The committee charged with drafting a government policy statement has suggested adopting proportional representation in the next parliamentary elections.

Prominent ministerial sources told An Nahar daily in remarks published on Thursday that the committee approved on Tuesday the clause on the equation army, people, and resistance, while the political aspects of the policy statement were addressed during Wednesday’s meeting.

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi denied that U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly had imposed any conditions on MP Walid Jumblat or the new cabinet during her meeting with the Druze leader.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily on Thursday, Aridi said that Connelly did not impose on Jumblat “conditions or specific demands about the new cabinet, particularly the policy statement.”