Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati during the Cabinet meeting. (Credit: NNA)
The government meeting, which was held Friday afternoon at the Grand Serail, was adjourned early due to the Israeli strike that rocked the southern suburbs of Beirut shortly before 4 p.m., targeting a senior Hezbollah official. Caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari deplored "this new attack in a crowded area of Beirut, which shows once again that the Israeli enemy has no regard for human, legal or moral values."
According to the minister, who announced the decisions of the government during a press briefing, Mikati announced that he decided to go to New York in the coming hours, where a meeting of the U.N. Security Council should take place this Friday afternoon (10 p.m. in Beirut) dedicated to the explosions of the pagers and walkie-talkies of members of Hezbollah on Sept. 17 and 18, an attack attributed to Israel by the party and the government.
"Mikati asked Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to deliver the speech for Lebanon but said he would hold meetings on the sidelines to discuss the major Israeli violations against Lebanon," Makari continued. He said Lebanon would ask the international community to "assume its responsibilities" and would demand "the adoption of laws against the use of means of communication as weapons."
The Minister of Information also said that the government remains determined to discuss the 2025 budget "with a view to ensuring the monetary and economic stability of Lebanon" in crisis since the end of 2019. He specified that the date of the next meeting of the government will be communicated later.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.