Looking into charges made by Nasrallah

To completely ignore the contents of the Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's press conference on Monday would be sheer obstinacy, wrote Samir Mansur for the Lebanese daily Annahar. It is true that what Hizbollah's secretary general presented cannot be construed as hard evidence, but it contained a number of facts that can be put at the disposal of the investigative committee.

Hizbollah's aim was to prove that the "Israeli hypothesis" can't be excluded and political accusations cannot be focused in one direction. However, there's no indication that the international tribunal is excluding any possibility. What is needed at the moment, for the sake of Lebanon's stability, is to determine what is wanted from the tribunal and how to overcome the repercussions of the first stages of its operation when mistakes in judgement undermined its power.

It seems that the head of the Democratic Congress, Walid Jumblatt, is about to assume the role of internal mediator in an attempt to contain the crisis in Lebanon while awaiting the tribunal's indictment. If Mr Jumblatt's efforts, in the backdrop of a Syrian-Saudi accord to protect Lebanon's stability, are to succeed in overcoming the impending crisis, they will need the participation of all parties concerned.

The decisions by various countries to ban BlackBerry services have split people between those who support the ban and those who oppose it. However, the fact remains that one of the biggest drawbacks of the device is the spread of rumours through its BlackBerry messenger service, argues Mohammed Al Hammadi in the Emirati daily Al Ittihad. BlackBerry as a phone never caused such controversy after it was first manufactured in 1999. At the time, only major business corporations used it to organise their e-mail systems. However, it quickly grew popular and is now in the hands of everyone, which inevitably led to the abuse that caused the proposed ban on its services in the UAE and other Gulf countries.

The controversy would have been solved had the Canadian company behind BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIM), agreed to offer its services from inside the UAE.Local telecommunication companies could assure their users that their privacy would be kept safe. Questions were also raised about the fact that RIM has enabled some major countries such as the US and France to have access to the information transferred by its BlackBerry users. This spurred talk about client discrimination at RIM. In the fast-changing world of telecommunications, these will not be the last questions to be raised.

More than 150 people have been suspected or accused of spying for Israel recently in an unprecedented wave of crackdowns in Lebanon, commented Samir Atallah in the Lebanese daily Annahar. The press and official statements did not hesitate to convict all suspects without recourse to legal proceedings, except in the case of General Fayez Karam.

The arrest of Mr Karam, one of the opposition leader Michel Aoun's closest aides, on suspicion of espionage came as a shock to his party and to Lebanon. While Mr Aoun had to resign himself to the accepting the fact, others are still hoping that the investigation would clear Karam's name. What is most baffling about the arrests is that the suspects are not restricted to one religion or to one political movement. Every religion and party in the country has had its share of spies.

In fact, spies flourish in the current political climate in Lebanon where values are devalued and the political system is based on common lies and mutual accusations. Nonetheless, people are innocent until proven guilty. "We still must listen to Fayez Karam's side of the story". For as catastrophic as the number of suspects is, the catastrophe is compounded by the way public opinion is taking matters in its own hands. Legal proceedings must prevail in these matters. It is the only way to make sure that the country's affliction will not be used to spread dissent and destroy stability.

In an opinion piece for the Qatari daily Al Watan, Mazen Hammad wrote: "All of the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's concerns on direct negotiations with Israel have been rejected."

The options were as follows: first, the US president's envoy would address a letter to both the Israeli and Palestinian sides suggesting the establishment of a Palestinian state according to 1967 lines. Second, the Middle East quartet committee would support the same concept. Third, a US-Israeli-Palestinian meeting would be held to agree on a reference for direct talks. The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused all three options, which creates a predicament for Mr Abbas. He could go into direct talks without a prior Israeli commitment to extend the partial freeze on settlement plans. This option would further harm his dwindling popularity. His second option would be to decline Barack Obama's personal request, which would be another triumph for Mr Netanyahu. Meanwhile Fatah figures are calling for a one-state solution.

Mr Abbas is one of the most enthusiastic leaders for the two-state solution. If Israel can't reach an accord with him, with whom would it agree with in the future? * Digest compiled by Racha Makarem @Email:[e-mail]