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SOUTH LEBANON – On his first working day after being elected president, President Joseph Aoun called for binding parliamentary consultations next Monday to name the prime minister-designate to form the next government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
External pressures, however, suggest that Najib Mikati will keep the post until May 2026, the date of the next parliamentary elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his visit to Beirut, Yazid bin Farhan, the Saudi envoy, had reportedly made clear the prime minister that Riyadh and the five-member committee favour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The five-member committee includes representatives of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, the US and France.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hezbollah-Amal Movement duo, in addition to the Marada Movement and the Socialist Party would apparently nominate Mikati unlike the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party.<\/p>\n
Several prominent Sunni figures have expressed their dissatisfaction with Samir Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Forces, nominating MP Fouad Makhzoumi to head the government. They affirm that it is unacceptable for a Christian leader to impose the nomination of the prime minster.<\/p>\n
Since the 1990s, after the end of the civil war and the signing of the Taif Agreement, political sectarianism has given the presidency of the republic to the Maronites; the speaker of the parliament to the Shiites; and the post of prime minister to the Sunnis.<\/p>\n
Although the Taif Agreement has not distributed ministries among the sects, customs imposed the rotation of the 4 sovereign ministries (foreign affairs, interior, finance, and defense) among the four major sects (Maronites, Sunnis, Shiites, and Orthodox). Legally speaking, when customs are repeated, \u201cthey acquire the force of a legal basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before heading to Damascus, ending a 13-year official rift between the two states, Mikati had noted that Lebanon\u2019s new cabinet must be able to implement Aoun\u2019s roadmap to save the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mikati, the first Lebanese official to meet the new Syrian government, had already contacted Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Julani) about a month ago, but he obviously postponed the visit until he received Riyadh and Washington\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the families of the anti-Takfiri martyrs have expressed their resentment over Mikati\u2019s ignorance of al-Julani\u2019s crimes in Lebanon, especially in early August 2014, when his gunmen attacked Lebanese army positions in Arsal, on the northeastern Lebanese border with Syria, killing about 20 soldiers and kidnapping others, along with various assassinations and terrorist bombings in various Lebanese regions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, a more serious challenge looms, i.e. the ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, especially since the enemy under the pretext of avoiding a repetition of the October 7 scenario, is following an expansionist doctrine aiming at securing a wide buffer zone on its borders.<\/p>\n
An article in Maariv has recalled Zionist theorist Ze\u2019ev Jabotinsky\u2019 suggestion that \u201cthe only way that will make the Arabs agree to recognize the right of the Jews to establish their state is by building a huge iron wall.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The article added: \u201cIn order for Israel to perpetuate its existence, the most important lesson learned after October 7 is the need to create buffer zones behind our borders, like the security belts that were recently established in Gaza, southern Lebanon and the eastern Golan Heights,\u201d noting that the move \u201cwill require massive investment in: combat means; technological capabilities; and human development.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In turn, Amir Avivi, an Israeli reserve brigadier general, spoke at length to Channel 7 on \u201cthe threat posed by Hezbollah,\u201d recalling the statement of Hezbollah\u2019s Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem that \u201cif Israel continues its attacks and breaches the ceasefire, Hezbollah will respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avivi claims the reason Tel Aviv has not asked its colonial settlers to return to the northern occupied Palestinian territories \u201cis that the situation is still fragile and completely unstable. It is not clear whether the ceasefire will continue. It is difficult to assess the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avivi linked the developments mainly to \u201cTrump\u2019s return to the White House,\u201d acknowledging the Israeli occupation of \u201cmany areas beyond the border fence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whilst Lebanon\u2019s ministries of foreign affairs and agriculture has asked the country\u2019s Permanent Mission to the United Nations to file a complaint before the UN Security Council condemning the Israeli ongoing attacks on the Lebanese agricultural sector, as a provocative video has gone viral revealing the Israeli army\u2019s theft of old olive trees from southern villages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hebrew reports revealed that \u201cit is likely that Israel will not allow the southerners to return until next March, after the settlers return to their settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the five days set by the Lebanese Army to deploy forces in the western sector came to an end, the enemy did not just procrastinate in withdrawing, but continued its violations, carrying out bombings in<\/p>\n
Al-Jabin and Aita al-Shaab. It also launched a raid on the vicinity of Tayr Dibba, killing five citizens and wounding others. It then continued targeting fire engines, which collided with a car, leading to the killing of two other citizens.<\/p>\n
Amos Hochstein, the US envoy to West Asia, has not guaranteed that the occupation regime\u2019s violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 would stop, but rather justified\u2014like Jasper Jeffers, the US general who heads the committee\u2014what the enemy is blatantly committing.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the election, Walla claimed that the process is \u201ca major achievement for the pro-Western camp in Lebanon and a blow to Hezbollah and the pro-Iranian bloc in the region,\u201d pointed out that delaying the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon \u201ccould harm Aoun shortly after he takes office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Walla quoted a senior US official as stating that \u201cif Israel does not withdraw and violates the (ceasefire) agreement, it will find itself in conflict with the international community\u2026 The Israelis will soon receive a message that they must come to terms with reality and that there is no chance to remain in Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n