BEIRUT: The Lebanese pound had seen a significant improvement in its dollar exchange rate following an announcement last week by Saad Hariri, the leader of the Future Movement, that he is the “natural candidate” to head the next government.
However, the rate jumped to over LBP8,000 to the dollar on the Lebanese black market on Thursday — having dropped by LBP1,200 over the previous two days — after President Michel Aoun announced that the binding parliamentary consultations to designate Lebanon’s new prime minister, which were scheduled for Thursday, were to be postponed for a week.
Questions were raised about Aoun’s unilateral decision, and about the message he is sending to the international community and the Lebanese people, who are hopeful that the rapid installation of a new government might alleviate some of the economic and social ills that the country currently faces.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he was against postponing the consultations “even for one day.”
The leader of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Frangieh, said, “Postponing the consultations is forbidden under the circumstances the Lebanese are experiencing.”
A majority of Lebanon’s parliamentary blocs had announced that they would back Hariri as the new prime minister during the parliamentary consultations. Aside from his own party, Hariri has the support of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), the Marada Movement, and Armenian MPs, giving him a total of at least 70 votes — a clear majority among the 120 currently serving MPs. The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Lebanese Forces will reportedly not support him.
FPM leader Gebran Bassil — who is also the president’s son-in-law — launched an attack on Hariri on Tuesday, widening the political divide. However, presidential palace sources said there was “no personal reason” behind Aoun’s decision to postpone the consultations. In 2018, Aoun blocked the formation of a government led by Hariri, stipulating that Bassil had to be given a ministerial position.
The palace statement said that Aoun took his decision “at the request of some parliamentary blocs, after the emergence of difficulties that require … solutions.”
Former MP Fares Souadi said simply: “We are headed down to hell.”
A source close to Aoun told Arab News the president is “keen to provide the largest (possible amount) of parliamentary support for the PM who will form the Cabinet, given the importance … of the tasks required of the government in the next phase, which needs a broad national consensus and not division.”
Several politicians pointed out that governments had been formed without unanimous consensus in the past, including those of Hassan Diab and Najib Mikati.
There is concern among parliamentarians that Aoun has postponed the consultations in order to force Hariri not to nominate himself as PM. However, Hussein Al-Wajeh, Hariri’s adviser for media affairs, told Arab News: “Postponing the consultations will not change the position of Hariri, who is holding on to the French initiative and government of specialists. The French initiative was, and still is, the only — and last — chance to stop the collapse and to reconstruct Beirut. The postponement will not change that, and disruption was never a solution for Lebanon and the Lebanese.
“If the president abides by legitimacy, that should be reflected while forming a government, not while assigning the person who will form the government”, he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Lebanon two days after the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion that devastated the city, and returned three weeks later to check on the status of the reforms he specified as a condition for international support.
The ‘French initiative’ Macron laid out for debt-ridden Lebanon included a two-week deadline for the formation of an independent government of experts that would only stay in office a few months.
Also on Thursday, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker met with Berri and PSP President Walid Jumblatt on the second day of his visit to Lebanon, after attending the opening session of the Lebanon and Israel negotiations in Naqoura.
Schenker also met with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, whose media office said: “Schenker showed particular interest in Al-Rahi’s talk about neutral Lebanon. He stressed the US’s (desire to see) an effective and transparent Lebanese government that provides basic services for the Lebanese people, regardless of (who its leader is), and reiterated America’s ongoing support for Lebanon.”
Lebanese MPs criticize delay of consultations to choose new prime minister
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Lebanese MPs criticize delay of consultations to choose new prime minister
- A majority of Lebanon’s parliamentary blocs had announced that they would back Hariri as the new PM during the parliamentary consultations
- FPM leader Gebran Bassil launched an attack on Hariri on Tuesday, widening the political divide
Saudi companies exhibiting at ArabPlast in Dubai to showcase petrochemical innovations
- ArabPlast will feature a diverse range of products, technologies and solutions that shape the future of plastics and petrochemicals in the region
LONDON: Saudi petrochemical firms will showcase their products and innovative solutions at the 17th ArabPlast, hosted by the Dubai World Trade Center, the Emirates News Agency — WAM —reported.
ArabPlast, an international trade show that takes place from Jan. 7-9, is an important event in the calendar of companies working in the plastics, recycling, petrochemicals, packaging and rubber industries.
In 2025, ArabPlast will host 12 national pavilions and 750 exhibitors from a total of 35 countries, including companies from Saudi Arabia, Austria, China, Egypt, Germany, Italy, India, Switzerland, Jordan, UAE and the rest of the GCC countries.
They will showcase “a diverse range of products, technologies and solutions that shape the future of plastics, petrochemicals and rubber sectors in the region,” WAM reported.
Nidal Mohammed Kadar, director of ArabPlast, said that the event would also feature the “latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence technologies in the field of recycling,” which will contribute to sustainability.
Sadiq Al-Lawati, executive director of Polymers Marketing at OQ Oman, said that ArabPlast will focus on “sustainable, environmentally friendly solutions” as the global demand for plastic increases in industrial sectors, such as construction, food and beverage, aviation, automotive, health care and sports.
Alongside the exhibitions, hundreds of professionals and decision-makers will discuss the latest solutions and challenges that the plastic and petrochemical industries are facing in the Arab region.
Two Israeli strikes hit south Beirut: Lebanon state media
- “Israeli warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the Kafaat area,” official National News Agency said
- The raids “caused massive destruction over a large geographical area” of the Kafaat district, NNA said
BEIRUT: Lebanese state media reported two Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, about an hour after the Israeli military posted evacuation calls online for parts of the Hezbollah bastion.
“Israeli warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the Kafaat area,” the official National News Agency said.
The southern Beirut area has been repeatedly struck since September 23 when Israel intensified its air campaign also targeting Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon’s east and south. It later sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.
AFPTV footage showed grey smoke billowing over south Beirut.
The raids “caused massive destruction over a large geographical area” of the Kafaat district, NNA said.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned on social media platform X that the military would strike “Hezbollah facilities and interests” in the Hadath and Burj Al-Barajneh districts, also sharing maps of the areas to be evacuated.
Full-on war erupted following nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Iran-backed Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas, after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack sparked the Gaza war.
Israel records 160 launches fom Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, south
- Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into its territory from Lebanon on Sunday, with the group saying its attacks had targeted the Tel Aviv area and Israel’s south.
The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it had “launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of attack drones on the Ashdod naval base” in southern Israel.
Later, it said it fired “a barrage of advanced missiles and a swarm of attack drones” at a “military target” in Tel Aviv, and had also launched a volley of missiles at the Glilot army intelligence base in the city’s suburbs.
The Israeli military did not comment on the specific attack claims when contacted by AFP.
But it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several locations in central and northern Israel, including in the greater Tel Aviv suburbs.
It later reported that “approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization have crossed from Lebanon into Israel.”
Some of the projectiles were shot down.
Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition.
AFP images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel.
The wave of projectiles follows at least four deadly Israeli strikes in central Beirut in the past week, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.
In a speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem had said the response to the recent strikes on the capital “must be expected on central Tel Aviv.”
The Lebanese army, meanwhile, said that a soldier was killed on Sunday and 18 others injured, “including some with severe wounds, as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a Lebanese army center in Amriyeh.”
Though the Lebanese army is not a party to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli strikes have killed 19 Lebanese soldiers in the last two months, authorities have said.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops after nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them since September this year.
Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others
- It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops
- Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts
BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.
It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.
“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.
The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.
Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.
The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.
Lebanon’s army reflects the religious diversity of the country and is respected as a national institution, but it does not have the military capability to impose its will on Hezbollah or resist Israel’s invasion.
Top EU diplomat urges ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Hezbollah-Israel war
- “We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said
BEIRUT: The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to the Lebanese capital for talks.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war.
“We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said after meeting Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of Hezbollah.
Resolution 1701 ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006 and stated that Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces in the country’s south, where Hezbollah holds sway.
It also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon.
“Back in September I came and was still hoping we could prevent a full-fledged war of Israel attacking Lebanon,” Borrell said on Sunday.
“Two months later Lebanon is on the brink of collapse.”
He said the European Union was ready to provide 200 million euros for Lebanon’s army, whose deployment in larger numbers along the border forms a crucial point in truce talks.
France and Washington have been spearheading ceasefire efforts, with US envoy Amos Hochstein visiting Lebanon and Israel this week to discuss a truce plan based on implementing Resolution 1701.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the US proposal for a ceasefire,” Borrell said, calling for an “immediate” truce.
