Families of the victims of the Beirut port blast at a sit-in at the Justice Palace, after news of an alternate judge appointed in the Beirut port investigation, Sept. 7, 2022. (Photo credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today)
“We have reached a solution that satisfies both parties,” Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said yesterday, as Lebanese and Israeli officials lauded the latest proposed resolution to the maritime border dispute. US President Joe Biden congratulated Lebanese President Michel Aoun on the end of negotiations — which were indirectly mediated by US envoy Amos Hochstein. "The Presidency of the Republic considers the final version of this offer satisfactory to Lebanon,” Aoun’s office tweeted, expressing hopes for the imminent announcement of a deal. “This is a historic achievement,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said. However, former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu said he considered the agreement to be a “historic capitulation.” The forthcoming border resolution follows a period of uncertainty during which Israeli media reported that Lapid rejected Lebanon’s amendments to an earlier proposal — which Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri attributed to “an internal electoral Israeli scuffle.” Bou Saab said the final version of the agreement "gives Lebanon all its rights," a sentiment paralleled by Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata, who claimed all of Israel’s demands were met. According to a political source in the negotiations who spoke with L’Orient-Le Jour, Lebanon and Israel reached a compromise on the two points of contention that had previously jeopardized the agreement. The first was the disputed area between the Israeli “line of buoys” and the Lebanese Line 23, which will be marked a “free zone” with logistical arrangements to follow. The second was the removal of any mention of Israel receiving compensation from Lebanon for exploration of the Qana field — which would fall under Lebanese sovereignty in the agreement — instead relegating the task to energy giant TotalEnergies, a member of a consortium licensed to explore the offshore oil and gas blocks. The multinational energy company’s senior Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Laurent Vivier, met with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Lebanon Tuesday, after which caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad told Reuters gas exploration would begin immediately after the conclusion of the border negotiations.
Parliament will meet tomorrow in their second parliamentary meeting to elect the next president of Lebanon, which also coincides with a court hearing regarding Sali Hafez's bank holdup involving two accomplices. Ahead of President Michel Aoun's Oct. 31 presidential deadline, Parliament is set to vote on the next president tomorrow. On Sept. 29, during Parliament's first session to elect a president, 122 of the 128 deputies participated in the election session. After the first round of voting, 64 deputies voted blank, 36 voted for their colleague Michel Moawad (independent, North Lebanon III), 11 voted for Salim Eddé, co-founder of the company Murex and shareholder of L'Orient-Le Jour, while 12 others were protest votes to "Lebanon," "Mahsa Amini," and "the line of Rachid Karami." On Monday, Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil announced that FPM will "probably not" participate in tomorrow's session. Also tomorrow, there will be another court hearing session for Sali Hafez and the two activists who helped her during the holdup, Abdel Rahman Zakaria and Mohammad Rustom. Last month, Hafez held up a Blom Bank with a toy gun demanding access to her deposits in order to reportedly pay for her sister's cancer treatment. A series of bank holdups have since occurred, resulting in banks closing indefinitely, after initially closing for a week.
Families of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast victims protested outside Beirut’s Palace of Justice while the Higher Judicial Council met inside the courthouse to discuss the appointment of an alternate judge in the blast probe to rule on detainees. A representative of the blast victims' families told L'Orient Today that they left the Justice Palace after learning the session had ended due to lack of quorum. The council’s President, Judge Suhail Abboud, boycotted the session to denounce “political interferences,” referring to caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury’s move to convene the council yesterday and delays in appointing members to the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation. The plenary assembly, without quorum since several members’ retirement in January, is the legal body eligible to rule on complaints against lead blast investigator Tarek Bitar, which have suspended the probe. Amid the stalled investigation, families of detainees held in connection to the blast welcomed the appointment of an alternate judge, seeing it as a chance for their relatives’ release. However, Aug. 4 victims’ families regarded the decision as a politically-motivated perversion of justice. The Higher Judicial Council said they would reconvene next Tuesday in a statement following yesterday’s meeting, which they claimed occurred “far from any political atmosphere, in order to ensure the continuity of the judiciary's work and monitor the moral and financial work conditions of the judges.”
“An agreement has been reached to provide electricity to water treatment and distribution stations in northern Lebanon,” caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad said, announcing a measure in response to the World Health Organization’s warning of a cholera “outbreak” amid 18 confirmed cases of the infectious disease. NGOs and government entities will collaboratively power water infrastructure, Abiad added. So far, the cholera cases have been confined to northern Lebanon, attributed to a porous border with Syria where the UN estimates the same disease has killed 36 people and infected more than 10,000 others. Abiad added that another meeting would be held today with organizations providing aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon. “Cholera transmission is closely linked to inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities,” according to the WHO. Electricity shortages have previously translated into water shortages, as power disruptions interfered with aqueduct operations.
A family vendetta killed one and injured five others yesterday in Machghara, a town in the western Bekaa. Armed clashes between the Ammar and Sharaf families escalated due to "the mediation of Amal, Hezbollah and the Supreme Shiite Council," according to our correspondent. Assailants shot at a vehicle occupied by Ammar family members, a senior member of the Amal Movement and his aid, leading to their hospitalization. Retaliatory clashes killed Jaafar Sharaf and injured his brother. The wounded were transferred to non-neighboring hospitals to avoid collateral damage reaching the medical institutions, while schools in the area evacuated their students and the Lebanese Army deployed a large force to the area.
In case you missed it, here's our must-read story from yesterday: “Mohammed el-Kurd: ‘Palestinian youth have managed to transform the terms of the debate.’”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz