A drone carries a flag of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement above Aaramta bordering Israel on May 21, 2023 ahead of the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
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Banque du Liban (BDL) chief Riad Salameh on Friday said he intends to appeal an Interpol red notice that Lebanon received against him the same day. Meanwhile, caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said a consultative cabinet meeting is scheduled for today to discuss the issues surrounding Salameh’s position in light of the warrant against him. Last Tuesday, a French judge issued an international arrest warrant for Salameh after he missed a hearing in Paris related to accusations brought against him of financial wrongdoing. The same day, Mawlawi said a red notice would be necessary for Lebanon to prosecute or arrest Salameh. William Bourdon, who represents parties suing the central bank chief in France, told L’Orient Today that Salameh will not be able to appeal the French judge’s decision until he is arrested. Tomorrow, the French judiciary is scheduled to discuss a restitution request for assets linked to Salameh worth tens of millions of euros — among the hundreds of millions of euros seized in assorted European jurisdictions and suspected to have been acquired with embezzled BDL funds.
In the first such high-scale show of force for the media in years, Hezbollah performed military exercises — including reportedly live ammunition — on Sunday for a crowd of local and international journalists. "We say to Benjamin Netanyahu [the Israeli prime minister] and his incapable team that we have observed their capabilities, and we know that they will not be able to change the situation," Hezbollah executive council head Hashem Safieddine said, in remarks reported by pro-Hezbollah news outlet Al-Manar. The exercises came amid increased tensions with Israel following threats from Lebanese groups in recent weeks of retaliation over deadly Israeli military raids on Palestinians.
Feminist groups and activists gathered near Saida’s public beach to protest the harassment of bikini-clad beachgoers in the area last week while counter-protesters called for “modesty and virtue against nudity.” The two protests proceeded despite Saida mayor Mohammad Saoudi’s attempt to ban them. L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area said that at least three people were injured and one person was arrested. Activist Josephine Zgheib said their protest was to “call for the right of citizens to wear whatever they want and exercise their freedom of movement in their own country.” Sheikh Hussam al-Ailani, meanwhile, told L’Orient Today the issue had become a “challenge to God” and criticized what he considered a provocation by people who “get drunk and get naked on our beaches.” On May 14, two sheikhs and their supporters allegedly harassed two women at the Saida public beach they considered “indecently” attired. Mayssa Hanouni Yaafouri, one of the women harassed on May 14, has filed a complaint against the sheikhs who were responsible for the intrusion.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for Arab countries’ support in electing a president and repatriating Syrian refugees in Lebanon in the context of the 32nd Arab League summit in Riyadh. On Saturday, a day after the summit, Mikati told the al-Arabiya and al-Hadath TV channels that Lebanon needs Arab countries’ “financial support” and their help to “hold an internal dialogue.” A day earlier, during the summit, Mikati called for a “united Arab framework that would stimulate projects and build and revive destroyed places” in Syria, which would facilitate the repatriation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Since early April, the Lebanese government has ramped up efforts to reduce the number of Syrian refugees in the country through increased policing and deportations. On Friday, the Access Center for Human Rights released a report claiming that Lebanese authorities “arbitrarily” arrested at least 808 refugees, 336 of whom were “forcibly deported,” since early April. Commenting on the recent rise in deportations, human rights watchdog Amnesty International reported that “Syrian returnees, including children” have faced “unlawful or arbitrary detention and torture and other ill-treatment, rape and sexual violence and enforced disappearance.”
The Lebanese Army announced Saturday the arrest of a Lebanese man they said is “one of the most prominent leaders of Al Qaeda and the founder of its cells in Lebanon.” The man’s arrest on Friday in the town of Deir Ammar, northeast of Tripoli, culminated “several years of efforts,” the army said. The statement claimed that the suspect was among the founders of the Fatah splinter group, Fatah al-Islam, which in 2007 clashed with the Lebanese Army, leading to the deadly destruction of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp. The suspect also allegedly played a role in the 2014 clashes between the Lebanese Army and Islamist extremists in Tripoli.
Bahrain announced on Saturday that it would restore diplomatic ties with Lebanon after a year and a half of cutoff. The Bahraini decision came the day after the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia against a backdrop of unexpected rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, brokered by Beijing. Bahrain and other Gulf countries followed Saudi Arabia in recalling their diplomats towards the end of 2021 after the-then information minister, George Kurdahi, criticized Riyadh's military intervention in Yemen, where a grinding war had produced what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “How Hezbollah’s electoral strategy backfired”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz