Lebanon’s MPs fail for seventh time to elect president

Lebanon’s parliament is split between supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority. (AFP/File)
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Updated 24 November 2022
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Lebanon’s MPs fail for seventh time to elect president

  • Constitutional Council annuls representation of 2 lawmakers, including Change MP

BEIRUT: Lebanese MPs failed for the seventh time on Thursday to elect a successor to former President Michel Aoun.

MP Michel Moawad won the support of 42 MPs, but his tally fell well short of the required majority and was exceeded by the number of spoiled ballots cast by pro-Hezbollah lawmakers.

Next Thursday has been set for a new session of parliament to elect the president.

Moawad obtained two new votes from Change MPs Najat Saliba and Mark Daou. He said that his support was growing and called on the opposition to build bridges among themselves.

A Hezbollah MP suggested the name of Gen. Joseph Aoun, commander of the armed forces, for the presidency, but his candidacy requires a constitutional amendment.

MP Sajea Attia had demanded the formation of a mixed parliamentary committee that would set a road map to break the stalemate.

MP Adeeb Abdel-Masih said that depositors camping in the vicinity of the parliament had threatened him, and added: “Either you elect a president and work to return our money, or there will be blood in the country. I consider this a threat to civil peace.”

Following the session, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, who is Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide in the Amal Movement, stressed the need to search for a formula to break the stalemate.

He added that “exiting the session and losing the quorum for the second session is one of the methods of expressing an opinion, and the white paper confirms our insistence not to challenge any other component.”

Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar stressed the need for dialogue. He said Gen. Aoun presented “a good example in his management of the military institution and was able, through his leadership of the army, to protect civil peace.”

Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel described the latest developments as “a tasteless play,” and urged future polling sessions to elect a president.

Meanwhile, two newly elected MPs, including Change’s Ramy Finge, lost their seats following an appeals process before the Constitutional Council.

Finge, an activist who had pledged to fight corruption, had his Sunni seat in Tripoli revoked by the council and returned to his opponent and long-time MP Faisal Karami, who said that it would not be possible to elect a new president without consensus and dialogue.

The council also accepted the appeal submitted by candidate Haider Asif Nasser for the Alawite seat in Tripoli of MP Firas Al-Salloum.

Hezbollah MPs and allies left the plenary hall before the start of the second session to ensure that it lost the quorum.

The session at the 128-member parliament was attended by 110 MPs.

There were 50 white papers belonging to MPs of the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah, Amal Movement, and independent MPs allied with Hezbollah.

Eighty Sunni and Change MPs, who have not yet made up their minds about voting for Moawad, put papers on which the phrase “New Lebanon” was written.

Academic Essam Khalifa received six votes, five of which were from independent MPs, while Ziyad Baroud won two votes, one of which was from Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab.

There was also a paper in the ballot box bearing the name Badri Daher, director general of customs, who has been arrested in connection with the Beirut Port explosion. He is affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement.

Another paper bore the name of Salvador Allende, the Marxist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973.


Lebanon PM to visit new Damascus ruler on Saturday

Updated 52 min 56 sec ago
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Lebanon PM to visit new Damascus ruler on Saturday

  • Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will on Saturday make his first official trip to neighboring Syria since the fall of president Bashar Assad, his office told AFP

BERUIT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will on Saturday make his first official trip to neighboring Syria since the fall of president Bashar Assad, his office told AFP.
Mikati’s office said Friday the trip came at the invitation of the country’s new de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa during a phone call last week.
Syria imposed new restrictions on the entry of Lebanese citizens last week, two security sources have told AFP, following what the Lebanese army said was a border skirmish with unnamed armed Syrians.
Lebanese nationals had previously been allowed into Syria without a visa, using just their passport or ID card.
Lebanon’s eastern border is porous and known for smuggling.
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah supported Assad with fighters during Syria’s civil war.
But the Iran-backed movement has been weakened after a war with Israel killed its long-time leader and Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month.
Lebanese lawmakers elected the country’s army chief Joseph Aoun as president on Thursday, ending a vacancy of more than two years that critics blamed on Hezbollah.
For three decades under the Assad clan, Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon after intervening in its 1975-1990 civil war.
Syria eventually withdrew its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.


UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition

Updated 10 January 2025
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UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition

  • Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month
  • Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary forces

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: An estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in war-torn Sudan, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Eva Hinds, UNICEF Sudan’s Head of Advocacy and Communication, told AFP late on Thursday.
Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment.
Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and, according to the United Nations, uprooting 12 million in the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Confirming to AFP that 3.2 million children are currently expected to face acute malnutrition, Hinds said “the number of severely malnourished children increased from an estimated 730,000 in 2024 to over 770,000 in 2025.”
The IPC expects famine to expand to five more parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region by May — a vast area that has seen some of the conflict’s worst violence. A further 17 areas in western and central Sudan are also at risk of famine, it said.
“Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access facilitating a significant scale-up of a multisectoral response, malnutrition is likely to increase in these areas,” Hinds warned.
Sudan’s army-aligned government strongly rejected the IPC findings, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.
In October, experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused both sides of using “starvation tactics.”
On Tuesday the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group’s leader.
Across the country, more than 24.6 million people — around half the population — face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to IPC, which said: “Only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further.”


Turkiye says France must take back its militants from Syria

Updated 10 January 2025
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Turkiye says France must take back its militants from Syria

  • Ankara is threatening military action against Kurdish fighters in the northeast
  • Turkiye considers the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as linked to its domestic nemesis

ISTANBUL: France must take back its militant nationals from Syria, Turkiye’s top diplomat said Friday, insisting Washington was its only interlocutor for developments in the northeast where Ankara is threatening military action against Kurdish fighters.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted Turkiye’s only aim was to ensure “stability” in Syria after the toppling of strongman Bashar Assad.
In its sights are the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which have been working with the United States for the past decade to fight Daesh group militants.
Turkiye considers the group as linked to its domestic nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye and is considered a terror organization by both Turkiye and the US.
The US is currently leading talks to head off a Turkish offensive in the area.
“The US is our only counterpart... Frankly we don’t take into account countries that try to advance their own interests in Syria by hiding behind US power,” he said.
His remarks were widely understood to be a reference to France, which is part of an international coalition to prevent a militant resurgence in the area.
Asked about the possibility of a French-US troop deployment in northeast Syria, he said France’s main concern should be to take back its nationals who have been jailed there in connection with militant activity.
“If France had anything to do, it should take its own citizens, bring them to its own prisons and judge them,” he said.


Lebanese caretaker PM says country to begin disarming south Litani to ensure state presence

Updated 10 January 2025
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Lebanese caretaker PM says country to begin disarming south Litani to ensure state presence

  • Najib Mikati: ‘We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani’

DUBAI: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the state will begin disarming southern Lebanon, particularly the south Litani region, to establish its presence across the country.
“We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani specifically in order to pull weapons so that the state can be present across Lebanese territory,” Mikati said.


Tanker hit by Yemen militia that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvaged

Updated 10 January 2025
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Tanker hit by Yemen militia that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvaged

  • The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard
  • The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started

DUBAI: An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea and threatened a massive oil spill has been “successfully” salvaged, a security firm said Friday.
The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard that had been struck and later sabotaged with explosives by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia. It took months for salvagers to tow the vessel away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil.
The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged Sounion tanker on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of Operation Aspides rescued its crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the militia have done before in their campaign.
The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.