BEIRUT: The Lebanese government has taken a significant step away from Hezbollah interference with the appointment of several new security chiefs, though vacancies remain at the head of the nation’s central bank and within its diplomatic and judicial sectors.
The new appointments are Gen. Rudolph Haykal as army chief, Brig. Gen. Hassan Choucair as head of general security, Brig. Gen. Raed Abdullah as head of Internal Security Forces and Brig. Gen. Edgar Lawandos as head of the agency for state security.
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement had nominated Brig. Morshed Suleiman to head up the general security agency, as the position belongs to the Shiite sect, but the president and prime minister rejected that proposal and instead appointed him deputy director general of state security.
President Joseph Aoun, who headed the Cabinet meeting, told ministers he had “reviewed the professional history of the newly appointed individuals and was reassured by it.”
However, he added that the new chiefs would “be held accountable according to their actions” and that “the Cabinet can dismiss them if needed, just like it appointed them.”
Aoun said that “what matters is restoring internal and external confidence in Lebanon, which requires reforming economic, banking, financial and other sectors.”
The president told the Cabinet that the International Monetary Fund delegation he met on Wednesday stressed “the importance and the urgency of finalizing a program agreement before summer, citing previous unsuccessful attempts.”
The IMF representatives outlined several prerequisites, including the appointment of a new central bank governor, the creation of a centralized data system for the finance ministry and the passage of two vital pieces of legislation — revisions to the banking secrecy law and a comprehensive bank restructuring framework.
Aoun said that the nation’s security apparatus, as well as defense and interior ministries, remained “on high alert monitoring Syrian developments” along Lebanon’s northern and eastern frontiers.
Following their appointments, the new security leaders paid an official visit to the Presidential Palace for meetings with Aoun.
Haykal, who hails from Aqtanit in southern Lebanon’s Sidon region, formerly served as army operations director, first brigade commander and South Litani sector commander.
Military sources said he was ready to tackle challenges such as completing the army’s deployment across southern border territories as Israeli forces withdraw from occupied highlands, enhancing collaboration with UNIFIL to fully implement Resolution 1701, preserving military cohesion despite economic constraints, strengthening operational capabilities, sustaining anti-terrorism initiatives and ensuring national security amid an evolving situation in Syria.
Choucair originates from Mais Al-Jabal and previously served the Lebanese Intelligence Directorate in investigative and operational capacities throughout Beirut and southern Lebanon.
In 2022 he was appointed deputy director general of state security, which involved oversight of counterterrorism operations, anti-espionage efforts and coordination between Lebanon’s various security agencies.
Abdullah hails from the town of Chehime in Iqlim Al-Kharroub and previously headed the technical office at the information branch.
According to the ISF General Directorate, “Brig. Gen. Abdullah possesses extensive experience in key operational and administrative roles. His career has involved handling complex security issues in Lebanon and he has played a role in counterterrorism efforts in the post-ISIS phase.”
Lawandos represented Lebanon on the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire and the enforcement of Resolution 1701.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli army released Lebanese soldier Ziad Chebli at the Ras Naqoura crossing. Last week, Israeli forces, which continue to occupy strategic Lebanese hills, shot at Chebli while he was in civilian clothes en route to his fiancee’s home, injuring him before capturing him. He underwent surgery on the Israeli side and after being handed over to the Lebanese army was transferred to a hospital for further treatment.
Aoun described the release of detainees as having been “achieved through indirect negotiations.”
The army issued a statement confirming that it had “received soldier Chebli, who was abducted by the Israeli enemy on March 9, through the International Red Cross and has transferred him to a hospital for treatment.”
Lebanese pressure on the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire also led to the release of four Lebanese detainees from Israeli custody two days ago: Hussein Fares from Maroun Al-Ras, Hussein Qutaish from Hula, Ahmed Al-Sayyed Mohammed Shokr and Mohammed Najm.
According to unofficial sources, an estimated seven civilians and Hezbollah fighters, as well as several Syrian agricultural workers, are still being held by the Israelis.
After the Cabinet session, Deputy Premier Tarek Mitri denied any Lebanese intention to normalize relations with Israel amid discussions about the possibility of resuming negotiations on resolving the dispute over six out of 13 points on the southern land border.
A military source told Arab News: “After completing the military appointments and naming a replacement for Lebanon’s delegate to the ceasefire monitoring committee, Lebanon is set to form three working committees tasked with resolving disputed points with Israel.
“The first will focus on the Israeli occupation of the five hills and the second will follow up on the file of prisoners held by Israel, while the third committee will work on the issue of disputed border points.
“All of this falls within the framework of completing Resolution 1701 and does not imply direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.”
Following the Cabinet session, Mitri said: “Israel is trying to impose a fait accompli, but Lebanon still maintains its position.”
On Wednesday, Israeli media quoted an Israeli political official as saying that discussions with Lebanon regarding the land border were “part of a broad and comprehensive plan. We want to maintain momentum and achieve normalization with Lebanon.”
Lebanon appoints new security chiefs in move away from Hezbollah influence
https://arab.news/re5jh
Lebanon appoints new security chiefs in move away from Hezbollah influence
- Gen. Rudolph Haykal takes over as army chief
- Brig. Gen. Raed Abdullah named head of Internal Security Forces
The demise of ‘Iraq’s Sesame Street’ and a sea change in US soft power
- The Ahlan Simsim Iraq education project was terminated along with thousands of others as part of America’s retreat from decades of foreign spending.
- As America’s soft-power diminishes in the Middle East, will China fill the vacuum?
LONDON: Among the recent victims of the slashing of US foreign spending was an education project in Iraq developed by the people behind the famed American children’s TV show, “Sesame Street.”
The Trump administration used the $20 million grant awarded for the scheme as a prime example of what it claimed was the wastefulness and liberal agenda at the US Agency for International Development.
Yet the demise of the project poignantly illustrates the widespread damage being done to America’s formidable soft power machine, both in the Middle East and around the world.
It also raises questions over whether China will move to fill the soft-power vacuum left behind and increase spending in the region.
Soon after his inauguration, President Donald Trump made it clear he was going to upend one of the core pillars of US foreign policy by dramatically shrinking foreign aid spending.
The full extent was revealed late last month when the administration announced aid funding cuts of $60 billion, including the cancellation of 90 percent of contracts by USAID.
The agency, which was the world’s largest provider of foreign assistance, including lifesaving humanitarian relief for millions, was also considered America’s most important soft-power weapon.
Speaking about the cuts on Feb. 5, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the grant for a “new ‘Sesame Street’ show in Iraq” was part of a “long list of crap” in wasteful federal spending.
What she was referring to was not a new TV show but a USAID-funded education project known as Ahlan Simsim Iraq, which was run by Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind “Sesame Street.”
The project used the characters and stories from the existing “Ahlan Simsim” show, an Arabic version of “Sesame Street” watched by millions of children across the Middle East and North Africa.
“Ahlan Simsim,” meaning “welcome sesame,” premiered in 2020 funded by a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Ahlan Simsim Iraq was a spin-off project in 2021 in partnership with Save the Children and Mercy Corps “to support communities in Iraq impacted by conflict and violence,” a Sesame Workshop spokesperson told Arab News.
The project created content and materials “to reach children at scale,” the spokesperson said. It also provided learning materials such as storybooks, activity books, training and guides for teachers for early childhood development and training to teachers.
USAID documents show that the grant of $20 million was to be awarded over seven years. Almost $11 million had been paid out to Ahlan Simsim Iraq before the project was terminated last month, according to US government data.
The project is one of thousands funded by USAID that helped the US maintain its position as the world’s leader in soft power but have been stopped in recent weeks.
“Supporting Sesame Street projects is a good investment in soft power, the ability to attract,” Joseph Nye, professor emeritus at Harvard University, who coined the term “soft power,” told Arab News.
“The change in government policy damages US soft power,” he added.
Nye describes soft power as the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment.
USAID was set up at the height of the Cold War by President John F. Kennedy to make the US more attractive than the Soviet Union by helping poorer countries with development.
The agency evolved through the decades into a vast provider of foreign assistance to more than 100 countries, bolstering the image of the US around the world.
While it may be difficult to quantify the damage done to US soft power by the recent foreign assistance cuts, recent interviews with humanitarians and grant recipients in the Middle East suggest there could be a significant dent.
One USAID worker focused on Iraq described the retreat from providing aid to large numbers of displaced people as “unconscionable,” particularly given the 2003 US-led invasion of the country and its aftermath.
An NGO coordinator for Syria said the dropping of aid programs, just after the fall of Bashar Al Assad, was a “betrayal of Syrian people.”
Rana Sweis, owner of a media company in Jordan, which had a USAID grant terminated, said a debate was now taking place about why her country, one of America’s main allies in the region, had relied so heavily on the agency and what values does the US now stand for.
“USAID was supporting the values they (the US) talk about like women’s rights and human rights and freedom of speech,” Sweis said. “I don't want to say it was a lie, but how can you suddenly stop this and say ‘we no longer believe in this, it's no longer part of our values.’”
A big question now is whether China will step in to the soft-power vacuum in the Middle East and elsewhere.
For more than a decade China has tried to boost its soft-power influence, particularly in the Global South with projects under the Belt and Road Initiative.
But its foreign aid was a fraction of what the US was spending between 2013 and 2018 at just $7 billion a year compared with Washington’s $48 billion, according to commentary published this week by the Brookings Institution.
The article’s author, Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, told Arab News that Chinese aid is unable to compare with US aid in terms of size and purpose, “but soft power is a different issue.”
“US withdrawals leave space that China’s soft-power influence will naturally extend and expand into,” she said.
Nye said there is a further reason why China may not replace the US as the main soft-power influence in the region.
“Soft power emanates from a country’s civil society as well as government policy, and China is less well placed because if its tight Communist Party control over its civil society,” he said.
For now, NGOs, governments and businesses throughout the region are recalibrating to account for the loss of a major source of external funding. Time will tell how much the US will miss the soft-power returns on its investments.
UAE FM discusses enhancing relations with King Frederik of Denmark
- Sheikh Abdullah expressed UAE’s eagerness to collaborate on expanding cooperation with Denmark
LONDON: The UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan met King Frederik X of Denmark at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen during his official visit.
The meeting on Wednesday evening focused on enhancing bilateral relations and cooperation between the UAE and Denmark to benefit both countries and their peoples, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Sheikh Abdullah expressed pride in visiting Denmark and highlighted the UAE’s eagerness to collaborate on expanding cooperation. He thanked King Frederik for the warm welcome and generous hospitality, wishing for Denmark and its people to achieve further progress and prosperity, the WAM added.
Sheikh Abdullah conveyed the greetings of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, president of the UAE, to the Danish monarch. King Frederik conveyed his best wishes for the UAE’s continued prosperiy, and emphasized the strong and lasting relations between the two nations.
French finance ministry employee suspected of spying for Algeria, says prosecutor
- The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers
- The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration
PARIS: French prosecutors have placed a finance ministry employee under formal investigation on suspicion of spying for Algeria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, at a time of mounting political tensions between France and its former colony.
The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers, including known opponents of the incumbent Algerian administration, to an Algerian contact working at the Algerian consulate in the Paris suburb of Creteil.
The employee was placed under formal investigation in December. In France, being put under formal investigation means there is serious or consistent evidence that points to likely involvement of a suspect in a crime. It does not imply guilt and it does not necessarily lead to a trial.
The Creteil consulate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The French finance ministry declined to comment. The Algerian Embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration. The woman is accused of sharing asylum seekers’ confidential details and breaching rules around professional secrecy.
The immigration office said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have deteriorated in recent months after French President Emmanuel Macron recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. That decision angered Algiers.
As the diplomatic feuding has escalated, France last month threatened to review a decades-old agreement that makes it easier for Algerian citizens to move to France unless Algeria agrees to take back those the French authorities wish to deport.
Jordan welcomes US President Trump’s comment regarding ‘not expelling Palestinians’ from Gaza
- Jordan will partner US to achieve peace that is acceptable to Palestinians, Israelis
LONDON: Jordan has welcomed US President Donald Trump’s recent comment about not asking residents of the Gaza Strip to leave the Palestinian coastal territory.
Sufyan Qudah, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday that Jordan remained committed to achieving a peace that was acceptable to the Palestinians and Israelis, and that it would partner the US in efforts toward that end. He emphasized that the only viable path to security, stability, and peace in the Middle East was the establishment of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Trump said on Wednesday that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from Gaza. His comment was made in response to a reporter’s question during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin at the White House.
Trump’s statement contradicts his suggested plan in February for the US to take over Gaza, resettle Palestinians to neighboring countries, and turn the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Sudan’s refugees face deadly game of ‘snakes and ladders’ in Libya
- According to the UN refugee agency, there are more than 210,000 Sudanese refugees in Libya, accounting for 73 percent of all refugees
- Most Sudanese arrive through Kufra, then move north to cities like Ajdabiya in the east or the coastal capital Tripoli
SYRACUSE, Italy: The mayday relay came in from Eagle 3, a surveillance aircraft for the EU’s Frontex border agency — a rubber boat crammed with 70 people was taking on water off the coast of Libya.
Humanity 1, a rescue ship operated by the German NGO SOS Humanity, rushed to the scene and found the boat’s bow rising to breaking point, with people falling overboard, panicked and exhausted after two days at sea.
Most were unaccompanied minors who had fled Sudan’s war.
Among those rescued was Farid, a 17-year-old who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity. He had come from the city of Al-Fashir in Sudan’s North Darfur state.
“The helicopters still haunt me. Airstrike after airstrike. Dead bodies everywhere,” he said, sitting on the deck of Humanity 1 last November.
Tens of thousands have been killed since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in 2023.
More than 12 million people have been displaced, and 24.6 million — half the country’s population — need food assistance.
Farid said the warring factions were stealing food aid and selling it.
“That’s why so many are dying in Al-Fashir. They are starving.”
On his way from Sudan, Farid passed through Kufra, an isolated area in southeastern Libya where mass graves containing the bodies of scores of migrants have been discovered. Kufra is controlled by rival armed groups, representing the Arab Zway majority and the ethnic Tebu minority.
When he arrived outside Kufra, Farid found hundreds of Sudanese refugees crowded by the roadside seeking assistance.
He was offered a mattress and some food by Libyan authorities, but in return he was forced to work long hours collecting plastic waste for recycling. He was paid nothing.
When he complained, he was told that if he caused any problems, he would be sold to a rival militia or worse.
“Kufra is a tribal area. And we are slaves in their land,” Farid said, his voice trembling.
“They make us fight for them or sell us into forced labor. If you refuse, they can take your organs and bury you by the road.”
“SNAKES AND LADDERS“
According to the UN refugee agency, there are more than 210,000 Sudanese refugees in Libya, accounting for 73 percent of all refugees. Hundreds more arrive each day.
Since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has been torn by factional conflict and is a major route for migrants fleeing war and poverty.
Most Sudanese arrive through Kufra, then move north to cities like Ajdabiya in the east or the coastal capital Tripoli.
Many, like Farid, are abused and women, in particular, face extreme violence.
“I saw a girl being beaten and raped. They killed her and left her on the street,” Farid said. “The mother took her body back to Sudan. She’d rather die in the war than stay in Libya.”
Ahmed, a 19-year-old Sudanese man also using a pseudonym, said he was held captive in a smuggler’s warehouse near Zawiya, a northwestern coastal city, for four months.
“There’s a chain of detention centers that you work your way through, from Kufra in the south to Zawiya or Ain Zara in the north. You have to pay for your release each time. If you get caught again, you start over, like a game of snakes and ladders.”
EU FUNDS
Ahmed said the Libyan coast guard ran a “small boat lottery,” with the fate of a migrant depending on the fee they paid.
He said fees could range up to $15,000 per crossing, with those who pay more — often Egyptians or Syrians — getting better treatment and having more chance of success than those who pay less, often including Sudanese and Eritreans.
Since 2015, the EU has allocated more than 465 million euros for equipment and training for Libyan authorities to stem the flow of migrants into southern Europe.
Rights groups say the EU policy of farming out immigration control to third countries in return for aid leads to abuse and fails to address underlying issues.
The European Court of Auditors said in a September report on the EUTF that there was a lack of follow-up on allegations of human rights violations.
A 2023 UN fact-finding mission said crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in Libya in some detention centers managed by units that received EU backing.
Libyan authorities have previously denied abuse.
A European Commission spokesperson said in an email that no EU funding goes directly to any Libyan authority, but goes exclusively to implementing partners, either international organizations or member states.
The EU aims to bolster Libyan capacity to save lives at sea and in the desert and fight smuggling and human trafficking networks that profit from irregular migration, the spokesperson said, adding that the EU was also supporting local authorities’ efforts to address the situation of Sudanese refugees.
“The EU strongly encourages the Libyan government to ensure a thorough follow-up to any reports of abuses,” the spokesperson said, adding that the EU has been raising these issues as part of ongoing dialogue on migration with Libyan authorities.
As Humanity 1 headed toward Calabria in Italy, Ahmed reflected on his journey and said that despite the multiple risks he would do it all again.
“I don’t want to be killed by my brothers in Sudan,” he said. As for Libya — “Dying at sea is better. The sea will not torture you.”
