Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil informed President Michel Suleiman that Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun’s decision not to attend the presidential Iftar on Sept. 1 is for logistics reasons.
“I informed President Suleiman that Gen. Aoun won’t participate in the presidential Iftar” for “logistics and not political reasons,” Bassil told LBC TV station about his talks with Suleiman on Friday.

The minister also said that attempts to create a rift between the president and the FPM leader “will not succeed.”

On the next cabinet, Bassil said: “We are awaiting an initiative or a move by the premier-designate. He alone should present solutions because the cabinet formation task is his and not that of the president.”

Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest Sunni authority headed by Mufti Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, announced that the holy fasting month of Ramadan begins on Saturday.
The start of the ninth and holiest month of the Muslim calendar is traditionally determined by the sighting of the new moon, often dividing rival Islamic countries and sects over the exact date.

Because it follows the lunar cycle, Ramadan comes 11 days earlier every year on the Gregorian calendar, bringing the fasting month this year in the summer.

During Ramadan, Muslims are required to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn until dusk as life slips into a lower gear during the day. Activity peaks between “iftar,” the breaking of the fast at sunset, and “suhur,” the last meal of the day before sunrise.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric says the Muslim holy month of Ramadan will begin on Friday August 21.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said Monday in a statement that Ramadan will begin Friday based “on accurate astronomical calculations.” The beginning of Ramadan is traditionally based on the sighting of the new moon so most Muslims don’t know exactly when the month begins until a day or two before.

Lebanon’s Shiites are alone in their reliance on astronomical calculations rather than moon sightings by the naked eye.

Ramadan is Islam’s holiest month and a time of reflection when Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk.

Also on Monday, Sayyed Fadlallah met with Saudi Ambassador Ali at-Assiri, who stressed the need to preserve Lebanon’s social and cultural diversity, while reiterating his country’s support to Lebanon.

For his part, Fadlallah urged Saudi Arabia “the cradle of Islam and the place from which the message of Islam spread to the world” to persevere to preserve Muslim unity “inside and outside” the kingdom.
Fadlallah highlighted Saudi Arabia’s “determined battle” against “Takfiri factions that are dividing the Muslims and distorting the image of Islam.”

The Sayyed Fadlallah emphasized the need to maintain “the stability and security of the Arab and Muslim World, especially the Hijaz region,” in reference to an area renowned for its historical and religious heritage in Saudi Arabia.

The Sayyed said the main factors “to implement stability are associated with the pressing need to safeguard of inter- Islamic relations as well as Islamic-Arab relations.”

As such, he called on all concerned sides to “keep working on ameliorating and developing those relations in order to provide security for the Arab World.” – The Daily Star, with AP