A man walking past a poster of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, Feb. 7, 2024. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient-Le Jour)
The new Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad al-Assaad, who was appointed a month ago, is expected to arrive in Beirut on Sunday, Aug. 17, to examine the issue of disarming the Palestinian camps throughout Lebanese territory, al-Markaziya reported Monday. This comes as the international community, led by the United States, is pressuring the Lebanese state to disarm Hezbollah and other militias across its territory. L'Orient-Le Jour was not immediately able to independently confirm this information.
While the timetable for Hezbollah's disarmament was announced at two cabinet meetings last week, the timeline for the Palestinian camps had been set at the end of May, during a visit by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Beirut, and was supposed to begin on June 16. However, this dismantlement was postponed indefinitely in the wake of the war between Israel and Iran, from June 13 to 24. The plan was for the dismantling of the Palestinian factions' arsenals to start with the camps near the capital, where the presence of weapons is limited, followed by the northern camps and finally, in the most delicate stage, the southern camps, including Ain al-Hilweh near Saida, which is home to a multitude of rival armed factions.
Disagreements within Fatah — which has held power since 1994 as the dominant force within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Mahmoud Abbas since 2004 — are complicating matters. Assaad replaced former ambassador Ashraf Dabbour, who was dismissed from his post.
"Contacts [between the Lebanese government, through the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, and the PLO groups] are ongoing. But the Palestinians have requested extra time to resolve internal Fatah problems following some decisions by Mahmoud Abbas [including the one concerning Dabbour) before resuming this dialogue," a source close to the government told L'Orient-Le Jour on July 11. Beyond the divisions within Fatah, attention remains focused on factions not affiliated with the PLO, notably Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose stance remains unclear.
Assaad served as Palestinian ambassador to Ukraine in 2009 and 2010 and had been ambassador to Mauritania since April 1, 2021.
