Cabinet approves license for Qleiaat airport and purchase of prefabricated housing for the displaced

BEIRUT — The Cabinet on Thursday approved the granting of licenses for regular international flights at Rene Moawad Airport in Qleiaat (Akkar), Information Minister Paul Morcos said after a meeting during which security and political issues were not discussed.

Asked about the airport's rehabilitation, Morcos said that "the previously set deadlines [for the airport's rehabilitation] will, to a large extent, be met." "Work is progressing step by step to implement the planned measures," he added. Rehabilitation work began on June 8, and Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rassamny said at the time that the first flight was expected to take place around mid-September.

In another development, as hundreds of thousands of residents — mostly in south Lebanon — remain unable to return to their homes despite the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Cabinet approved a request by the Higher Relief Committee (HRC) and Parliament to authorize the purchase, as needed, of "prefabricated housing to accommodate citizens whose homes were destroyed by Israeli attacks," Morcos said. The units will be purchased "through direct contracting, in accordance with Article 46 of the Public Procurement Law, after a price consultation," he added.

Ten days ago, Social Development Minister Haneen Sayed announced that 400,000 displaced people in Lebanon — out of more than one million displaced since the resumption of the war on March 2 — had "returned to their areas of origin," representing around "the equivalent of 40% of the displaced."

Regarding buildings at risk of collapse in Tripoli (North Lebanon), where 114 structures were deemed unsafe and evacuated following an assessment carried out after several building collapses last winter, ministers approved the continued "payment of accommodation allowances to affected persons." They also agreed to establish a dedicated fund, financed by domestic and international donations, to support these efforts.

Finally, the Cabinet approved three draft agreements between Lebanon and Morocco on judicial cooperation in criminal matters and the extradition of wanted persons.