Lebanon's cabinet meets at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on Sept. 13, 2021. The cabinet assumed caretaker status in May 2022. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
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Cabinet is scheduled to convene today, but some nine ministers have indicated they will boycott the session. The meeting, which was set to discuss “urgent” concerns, was called despite critics’ claims of its unconstitutionality given the government’s caretaker status and the presidential vacuum. Cabinet’s agenda includes the approval of aid for the Lebanese Army and funding for food and medicine imports. Caretaker ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, Henri Khoury, Maurice Slim, Amin Salam, Hector Hajjar, Walid Fayyad, Walid Nassar, George Bouchikian and Issam Charafeddine announced yesterday that they would not attend the session. Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun, whose presidential term ended on Oct. 31, said in a statement that the items to be discussed do not justify setting a “destabilizing” precedent by convening the cabinet amid the executive vacuum. When caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati first scheduled the meeting, the FPM riposted saying any decisions reached at the session would be “illegal.” Mikati, however, previously cited obtaining approval from Parliament. Aoun — who attempted to dissolve the already resigned Cabinet in a letter to Parliament a few days before the end of his term — alleged in his final speech as head of state that Mikati — who was designated to head Lebanon’s next cabinet in June — deliberately delayed forming a new government. Meanwhile, despite weekly Parliament presidential election sessions since mid-November, there’s no indication that MPs will succeed in electing a new head of state during a ninth election session scheduled for Thursday.
United Nations Refugee Agency head Filippo Grandi on Saturday concluded a three-day visit to Lebanon to call on international actors to support the country and the refugees within it amid escalated anti-refugee rhetoric by officials. Grandi urged the international community “to support [the] Lebanese in need and the hundreds of thousands of refugees that they have generously hosted for so many years.” On Saturday, the Kfar Roumane municipality in South Lebanon issued a series of discriminatory policies to “non-Lebanese” residents, including a 7 p.m. curfew, the violation of which will result in “immediate eviction.” The previous week, some inhabitants of another South Lebanon town called for the expulsion of Syrian refugees from the area after the murder of a teenage boy, allegedly at the hands of two Syrians. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati following a Thursday meeting with Grandi dubbed the repatriation of Syrian refugees a “priority,” reiterating claims about Lebanon’s inability to incur the costs of hosting the displaced. Lebanon previously organized “voluntary” return trips for Syrian refugees, facilitating thousands of displaced Syrians to go back to their country despite warnings from international organizations about the dangers the repatriates would face.
The French judiciary on Friday charged Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh’s ex-paramour, Anna Koskova, as part of an investigation into the central bank chief. Koskova faces charges of “criminal conspiracy,” “laundering in [an] organized gang” and “laundering of aggravated tax fraud.” The French investigation into Salameh began in May 2021 on suspicions of “money laundering and association with an organized criminal group.” In addition to France, four other European states are investigating Salameh. The central bank chief is also being investigated in Lebanon. Investigators suspected Koskova due to her management of BET, ZEL and Eciffice, alleged money laundering vehicles directly linked to Salameh’s brother Raja.
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday announced sanctions against alleged Hezbollah affiliates. OFAC sanctioned Al-Khobara, and its owner-manager, Adel Mohammad Mansour, for allegedly providing accounting services for Hezbollah, designated a “terrorist organization” by the US. Naser Hassan Neser, Ibrahim Daher, and his company, Auditors, came under similarly motivated sanctions. The Treasury Department also named Hassan Khalil for his suspected role in procuring weapons for Hezbollah. Last month, OFAC sanctioned key individuals, front companies and vessels allegedly running an oil-smuggling network covertly exporting Iranian oil from the UAE to finance Hezbollah. Sanctions on Iranian oil complicated a proposed donation of the product from Iran to Lebanon, which faces debilitating fuel shortages.
In case you missed it, here's our must-read story from this weekend: “Hezbollah sets out to conquer the Sunni scene”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz