People watch a whirling dervish spiritual performance during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in Lebanon's southern city of Said, late on March 15, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
Want to get the Morning Brief by email? Click here to sign up.
Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 165 of the Gaza war here.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon — established to facilitate Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon following its 1978 invasion — marked its 46th year of operations. UNIFIL’s mandate has been regularly renewed since 1978 — albeit not always automatically — while its mission was expanded to include liaison operations and helping the Lebanese Army maintain its arms monopoly in the border region as part of Security Council Resolution 1701, which set terms ending the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. More than 330 members of UNIFIL have been killed since the mission’s founding, the highest death toll of any UN peacekeeping force.
Marking the first time a Hezbollah official has visited the United Arab Emirates on party business, the political group’s liaison and coordination unit chief, Wafiq Safa, traveled to the gulf country yesterday to negotiate the release of several Lebanese detainees currently held in Emirati prisons who are suspected of having ties to Hezbollah. A spokesperson for the relatives of the detainees, told OT that six Lebanese citizens, including four who are serving life sentences and two who face 15 years in prison, remain incarcerated there on the charge of "laundering money for Hezbollah and Iran, as well as having made contact with the Shia party," designated a terrorist organization by the UAE. Each of the accused have denied the allegations. It is unknown what the legal process surrounding their detention entailed and whether they were represented by lawyers or provided with a fair trial.
Yesterday, the caretaker government allotted $6 million to rehabilitate the Chekka freeway, appointed counsel to the French and German cases against former central bank governor Riad Salameh, and exempted taxpayers from inflation-driven levies when revaluing their assets. The government opted to “study in greater depth” the proposed appointment of new customs officials, which caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said needs “objective” examination amid a controversy over unmet sectarian quotas in the slated hires. The freeway renovation comes six years after a landslide rendered part of the road inaccessible. The tax adjustment, sent to Parliament, exempts changes in asset values resulting from the lira’s depreciation from taxable capital gains. The foreign counsel in France and Germany seek to protect the Lebanese state’s claim over assets potentially seized if the European jurisdictions convict Salameh of accruing investments worth hundreds of millions of euros through embezzled public funds.
Ambassadors from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar in Lebanon met with former President Michel Aoun, continuing a series of meetings aimed at bringing the more-than-yearlong presidential vacuum to an end. The five states’ ambassadors also met with Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and former Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Joumblatt. After a dozen attempts to elect a successor to Aoun, political groups have continued shifting the blame for the vacuum as local and international attempts to mediate discussions have failed to breach the deadlock.
A French national wanted internationally for allegedly shipping nearly three-quarters-of-a-ton of cocaine to the wrong address was arrested on arrival at the Beirut International Airport on Sunday, a judicial source told AFP yesterday. Lebanese authorities are seeking to repatriate the alleged trafficker, the same source continued, who came to Beirut after his release from detention in the United Arab Emirates.
At least 31,819 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s health ministry. Qatari mediators expressed “cautious optimism” over a new cease-fire in Gaza, awaiting Israel’s presentation of a counter-proposal to Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks continued to ravage Gaza as the US repeated warnings against plans to invade Rafah, which has seen its population rise sixfold with more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians — which international actors say could not be realistically evacuated by Israel ahead of an attack targeting Hamas elements reportedly present in the city on Egypt’s border.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “For traditional Palestinian embroiderers, a quiet ‘resistance’ of art amid war”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz