The presidential palace in Baabda. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
Former US Middle East diplomat David Schenker predicted Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun will become president in the next "three to four months," amid renewed calls for an end to the presidential vacuum. Schenker cited Aoun’s good relations with Hezbollah, the party which, according to the US diplomat, chooses “the right time” for successful elections. However, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah in a Tuesday speech blamed the delay on politicians awaiting regional and international political agreements while claiming progress towards ending the deadlock was made the past week. Parliament has repeatedly failed to name a successor to former President Michel Aoun since the start of the election period two months before the end of his term on Oct. 31. Legislative head Nabih Berri recently expressed doubt as to whether a dialogue session regrouping different parliamentary blocs would prove successful after the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement rejected two such initiatives. Local and international political actors repeatedly call for consensus on the next head of state to end the vacuum as Zgharta MP Michel Moawad remains the only candidate to garner significant votes during election sessions.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry yesterday condemned the "assault" on the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied east Jerusalem. The ministry’s statement claimed that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gavir’s visit to the mosque “reveals the extremist policies that the Israeli government has begun to practice towards the Palestinian people and their rights.” Lebanon’s condemnation joins a host of international criticisms leveled against Ben Gvir’s visit, described as “reckless” by Jordan’s Foreign Ministry and potentially “harming the status quo of holy sites” by the US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called Ben Gvir's visit a “serious threat,” while Israel's Sephardi chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, saw the Israeli minister’s move as one that flouts the position of the rabbinate. A war erupted in May 2021 between Palestinian militants in the Gaza strip and Israel after violence at Al-Aqsa mosque amid tensions sparked by the potential eviction of Palestinians by Israeli settlers.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah claimed there is “no reason to worry” about his health, denying earlier rumors of serious illness “in the Israeli and Gulf media.” Rumors of Nasrallah suffering a stroke emerged after a canceled speech by the Hezbollah head scheduled for last Friday, along with reports of his hospitalization in critical condition. A party spokesperson denied the rumors to L’Orient Today on Monday, affirming that the party head was only suffering from the flu and would give a speech Tuesday. Nasrallah himself apologized for causing concern, claiming that aside from a chronic condition there “there is absolutely no reason to worry” during a speech marking the third anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces arrested a man who allegedly pilfered a church collection basket from a Bekaa Valley church. The security forces apprehended the suspect accused of stealing LL3 million (approximately $70 at the parallel market rate) from the Our Lady of Assumption Church in the Bekaa village of Houch Hala accompanied by another alleged thief wanted for a separate crime. Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced in December the deployment of “522 officers and 7,690 agents” outside “391 churches” to ensure security during the end-of-year period.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “How Najib Mikati got into Macron’s good graces”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz