President Michel Aoun is presently in Qatar to attend the opening ceremony of the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup football tournament. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said from Qatar that he will invite the country’s emir to invest in Lebanon and commented on the Beirut Port explosion probe and his mandate, which Aoun says he doesn’t wish to extend.
Here is what we know:
• In an interview with the Qatari newspaper al-Raya, Aoun said he will invite Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani to “invest in Lebanon, especially as the land is fertile at the moment.”
• The president also clarified he “would not accept a presidential vacuum” in Lebanon, asserting that an extension of his mandate “is not an option,” Aoun’s office tweeted. Aoun, whose term ends in October 2022, also declared that he has no intention of leaving Baabda Palace before his mandate expires.
• Speaking about the Beirut Port explosion, the Lebanese president said he is in favor of the separation of powers. His office quoted him as saying, “I do not interfere in the work of the judiciary.”
• Referring to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov supplying satellite images of the port blast site to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib last Monday in Moscow, Aoun’s office quotes him as saying, “I have not seen the satellite images provided by Russia. I requested that they be transmitted to the judiciary.”
• Commenting on Lebanon’s severe and persistent power outages, Aoun said that “political quarrels and personal considerations prevented the implementation of the electricity plan.”
• President Michel Aoun is currently on an official visit to Qatar at the invitation of Emir al-Thani, where he will attend the opening ceremony of the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup football tournament.