Tag Archives: President Michel Aoun

Lebanon’s Aoun calls for defense dialogue, hinting at friction with Hezbollah

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Monday for national dialogue on matters including a defense strategy which he said it was the state’s responsibility alone to implement, hinting at friction with his allies in the heavily armed Hezbollah.

In a televised speech, Aoun also said he wanted the best ties with Gulf Arab states, asking why relations were being put under strain following comments by a Hezbollah-aligned minister on the Yemen war that triggered a diplomatic crisis in October.

The alliance between Aoun, a Maronite Christian, and the Iran-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah has shaped Lebanese politics for 16 years.

But tensions have surfaced of late, pointing to the possibility of realignments ahead of a May parliamentary election in which Hezbollah’s adversaries hope to overturn the majority won by the group and its allies in 2018.

The new parliament will elect a new head of state next year.

Hezbollah helped propel Aoun to the presidency in 2016, while the president and his Free Patriotic Movement have provided vital political support for Hezbollah’s possession of an arsenal more powerful than the Lebanese army’s.

Aoun is nearing the end of his six-year term with Lebanon in the throes of what the World Bank has called one of the sharpest economic meltdowns ever recorded.

Warning the state was “falling apart,” Aoun called for urgent dialogue on a financial recovery plan, administrative and financial decentralization, and the defense strategy.

“It is true that defending the nation requires cooperation between the army, the people and the resistance, but the main responsibility is the state’s. The state alone puts in place the defense strategy and attends to its implementation,” Aoun said in a televised speech, without naming Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s opponents have long said its arsenal has undermined the state, embroiled Lebanon in regional conflicts, and damaged ties with wealthy Gulf Arab states that once invested heavily in Beirut but have shunned it for years.

Hezbollah, formed in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, says its weapons are vital to defending Lebanon from Israel. It also says its fighters shielded Lebanon from jihadists such Islamic State in Syria.

Aoun said: “I wish for the best relations with the Arab states, specifically the Gulf states. I ask: what is the justification for straining ties with these states and interfering in matters that do not concern us.”

He also said it was imperative that the government convene after going more than two months without a meeting.

Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally Amal want the judge leading the probe into the 2020 Beirut port explosion removed and have refused to allow cabinet to meet until the issue is on the agenda. Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said the issue falls outside cabinet’s powers.

(Reporting by Lilian Wagdy and Laila Bassam; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Alison Williams)

‘God help the country’: Hariri abandons bid to form Lebanese government

By Maha El Dahan and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his effort to form a new government on Thursday, dimming hopes of a cabinet being agreed any time soon to start rescuing the country from financial meltdown.

Hariri was designated in October to put together a government following the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet in the wake of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion. Lebanon’s deeply divided politicians have failed to agree despite fears of social unrest over worsening living conditions.

“It is clear we will not be able to agree with his Excellency the President,” Hariri told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun for barely 20 minutes.

“That is why I excuse myself from government formation and God help the country.”

Lebanon is suffering an economic depression the World Bank has described as one of the most severe in modern history. Its currency has lost more than 90% of its value in less than two years, leading to spiraling poverty and crippling shortages.

Hariri’s decision marks the culmination of months of conflict over cabinet posts between him and Aoun, the Maronite Christian head of state who is allied to the Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah.

There is no obvious alternative for the post, which must be filled by a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon’s sectarian system.

Barring significant changes in the political landscape, politicians and analysts say it now seems very difficult for a government to be formed before parliamentary elections next year, leaving Diab in a caretaker capacity.

Western governments have been piling pressure on Lebanese politicians to form a government that can set about reforming the corrupt state, threatening sanctions and saying financial support will not flow before reforms begin.

Earlier this month, Diab warned that Lebanon was days away from a social explosion, underscoring concerns about social unrest in a country that was shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Hariri said Aoun had requested fundamental changes to a cabinet line-up he had presented to him on Wednesday. Aoun had told Hariri that they would not be able to agree, Hariri said.

There was no immediate comment from the presidency.

Hariri was designated to form the new government in October. Diab continues in a caretaker capacity.

Aoun will be required to consult MPs over who to designate as a new premier. But analysts doubt that any Sunni politician of standing would accept the role without Hariri’s blessing.

The most influential Sunni politician in Lebanon, Hariri is backed by Lebanon’s Sunni religious establishment and, while his support from Sunni led-Saudi Arabia waned in recent years, he is still backed by other Sunni Arab-led states, including Egypt.

Following the announcement, the Lebanese currency weakened further on the parallel market, where dollars changed hands at more than 20,000 pounds, compared to around 19,000 earlier this morning, a dealer said.

(Reporting By Beirut Bureau, writing by Maha El Dahan/Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra and Philippa Fletcher)

Lebanon sets starting point for sea border negotiations with Israel

BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Michel Aoun on Thursday specified Lebanon’s starting point for demarcating its sea border with Israel under U.S.-mediated talks, in the first public confirmation of a stance sources say increases the size of the disputed area.

Israel and Lebanon launched the negotiations last month with delegations from the long-time foes convening at a U.N. base to try to agree on the border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.

A presidency statement said Aoun instructed the Lebanese team that the demarcation line should start from the land point of Ras Naqoura as defined under a 1923 agreement and extend seaward in a trajectory that a security source said extends the disputed area to some 2,300 square km (888 sq. miles) from around 860 sq. km.

Israel’s energy minister, overseeing the talks with Lebanon, said Lebanon had now changed its position seven times and was contradicting its own assertions.

“Whoever wants prosperity in our region and seeks to safely develop natural resources must adhere to the principle of stability and settle the dispute along the lines that were submitted by Israel and Lebanon at the United Nations,” Yuval Steinitz said.

Any deviation, Steinitz said, would lead to a “dead end”.

Last month sources said the two sides presented contrasting maps for proposed borders. They said the Lebanese proposal extended farther south than the border Lebanon had years before presented to the United Nations and that of the Israeli team pushed the boundary farther north than Israel’s original position.

The talks, the culmination of three years of diplomacy by Washington, are due to resume in December.

Israel pumps gas from huge offshore fields but Lebanon, which has yet to find commercial gas reserves in its own waters, is desperate for cash from foreign donors as it faces the worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

U.S. envoy: Lebanon’s Bassil was open to breaking ties with Hezbollah

By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The U.S. envoy to Lebanon said on Monday that Lebanese Christian politician Gebran Bassil, who has been sanctioned by the United States, had voiced willingness to sever ties with Hezbollah, challenging his assertion that he rejected the idea outright.

Washington on Friday blacklisted Bassil, son-in-law of Lebanon’s president and leader of its biggest Christian bloc, over charges of corruption and ties with the Iran-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah, which Washington deems a terrorist group.

Bassil slammed the sanctions as unjust and politically motivated, saying they were imposed after he refused to submit to a U.S. demand to break ties with Hezbollah as that would risk Lebanon’s national unity and peace.

U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea told Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV that Bassil, in exchanges with her, had “expressed willingness to break with Hezbollah, on certain conditions.

“He actually expressed gratitude that the United States had gotten him to see how the relationship is disadvantageous to the party,” said Shea, without elaborating on the conditions.

Bassil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He, along with an array of the political elite, have been the target of mass protests since October 2019 against widely perceived corruption, waste and mismanagement of state funds.

Bassil denied corruption charges and said he would fight the sanctions in U.S. courts and sue for damages. President Michel Aoun said Lebanon would seek evidence from Washington.

“We endeavor to make as much information publicly available as possible when announcing designations, but, as is often the case, some of this information is not releasable,” said Shea, adding that Bassil was welcome to legally contest the blacklisting.

Bassil was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets human rights abuses and corruption. Shea did not rule out further sanctions against him or others in Lebanon.

Washington in September blacklisted two former Lebanese government ministers it accused of directing political and economic favors to Hezbollah.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Mark Heinrich)