President Michel Aoun heads cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Lebanon Sept. 13, 2021. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT – Cabinet on Thursday appointed Ziad Makary as the new information minister, the state-run National News Agency reported. The former information minister, George Kurdahi, resigned on Dec. 4, 2021, after a diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and some gulf countries was fueled by comments he made on the Saudi-Yemeni war.
Here’s what we know:
• According to Annahar, Mkari, who hails from the Zgharta district, is close to the Marada Movement, and is a professor at the Lebanese University and the founder and CEO of design firm ARCA.
• Cabinet also dropped Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi’s proposal to implement megacenters for the upcoming parliamentary elections on Thursday, but approved their use, along with electronic voting, in the 2026 parliamentary elections, Education Minister and Acting Information Minister Abbas Halabi said after the cabinet meeting.
• Halabi said cabinet also agreed to approve the recommendations made by the committee tasked with studying the matter of the port silos, which are at risk of collapsing.
• Halabi also said that cabinet was notified of the exclusion of voting centers in Ukraine for Lebanese residents residing there due to the Russian invasion.