Lebanon’s Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, got underway Thursday with a regular agenda, but Hezbollah's ministers were expected to raise the issue of entry permits for Syrians from outside the schedule, ministerial sources told The Daily Star.
Hezbollah’s State Minister Mohammad Fneish said before walking into the meeting that “the border measures imposed on Syrians” would be followed up at the session.
In a separate meeting earlier in the morning, General Security chief Gen. Abbas Ibrahim briefed Salam and Minister of Health Wael Abu Faour on his two-day visit to Damascus earlier this week, during which he had discussed the new immigration rules for Syrians and the issue of the 25 Lebanese captive soldiers in the hands of the Nusra Front and ISIS, the sources said.
Abu Faour stepped out after the meeting, apparently to relay the content of the briefing to his Progressive Socialist Party chief, MP Walid Jumblatt, the sources added.
They said the fate of the captive servicemen and the latest security developments, including the twin-bombings in Tripoli’s neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen in which at least nine people were killed, and the security plan for the Bekaa, would be on the table of the cabinet meeting.
ISIS and the Nusra Front are seeking the release of Islamist inmates in Roumieh prison and detainees in the hands of the Syrian regime in return for the liberation of the captives.
