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Saudi Ambassador Calls on the Lebanese to Elect a President

Saudi Ambassador Calls on the Lebanese to Elect a President
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Saudi Ambassador Calls on the Lebanese to Elect a President

Saudi Ambassador Calls on the Lebanese to Elect a President

The Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid al-Bukhari, renewed his call to speed up the Lebanese presidential elections.

Bukhari met Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib on Monday during his tour with Lebanese political figures.

"We share the same desire with the international community to see the completion of the presidential elections [in Lebanon] as soon as possible," Bukhari stressed following the meeting.

"I want Lebanon to be, as it was, an oasis of thought and culture of life, and for its people to enjoy prosperity."

Meanwhile, political parties are yet to agree on the presidential candidates. The Shiite duo of Hezbollah and the Amal movement support the head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Frangieh, while the opposition still needs to agree on a candidate.

If the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, joins the opposition in rejecting Franjieh's candidacy, it would be reflected positively in their favor.

Sources of the Lebanese Forces party stressed that the opposition parties are in talks to unify their position, confirming they have yet to agree on a nominee.

They told Asharq Al-Awsat that if the Lebanese Forces could agree with the Free Patriotic Movement, they would secure the parliamentary majority with over 65 votes.

However, they indicated that Bassil has made a decision, realizing that agreeing with the opposition puts Hezbollah before the fait accompli. He is trying to ensure Hezbollah would back down from supporting Frangieh.

The sources renewed their call on Speaker Nabih Berri to hold open sessions to elect the president.

They believe holding open sessions would lead to naming a candidate who embodies the aspirations of the Lebanese and not a candidate of the axis of resistance.

They accused the axis of resistance of misleading the public, claiming a positive atmosphere in favor of its candidate, despite local and international conditions.

Asked about the Lebanese Forces' boycott of the election session if it favored Frangieh, the sources indicated that the other parties couldn't have more than 50 votes.

The opposition is currently divided between supporting former ministers Jihad Azour and Ziad Baroud, army commander General Joseph Aoun, and former lawmaker Salah Honien.

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Germany Says Sanctions against Syrian War Crimes Suspects Must Stay but People Need Relief

A group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP)
A group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP)
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Germany Says Sanctions against Syrian War Crimes Suspects Must Stay but People Need Relief

A group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP)
A group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP)

thGermany’s foreign minister said Sunday that sanctions against Syrian officials responsible for war crimes must remain in place but called for a “smart approach” to provide relief to the Syrian population after last month's overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Annalena Baerbock spoke to reporters after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a conference on Syria's future attended by top European and Middle Eastern diplomats.

Germany is one of several countries that imposed sanctions on the Assad government over its brutal crackdown on dissent. Those penalties could hinder Syria's recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war that killed an estimated 500,000 people and displaced half the prewar population of 23 million, according to The AP.

“Sanctions against Assad’s henchmen who committed serious crimes during the civil war must remain in place,” Baerbock said. “But Germany proposes to take a smart approach to sanctions, providing rapid relief for the Syrian population. Syrians now need a quick dividend from the transition of power.”

Baerbock announced an additional 50 million euros ($51.2 million) in German aid for food, emergency shelters and medical care, highlighting the ongoing struggles of millions of Syrians displaced by the war.

The sanctions imposed target not only senior government officials, but also the country's oil industry, international money transfers and hundreds of entities and individuals linked to the Assad government, crippling the wider economy.

There are exemptions when it comes to humanitarian aid, but relief organizations have said that overcompliance by financial institutions hinders their operations.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country, which was a strong supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, would try to aid Syria in normalizing ties with the international community.

He said it was important to establish “a balance between the expectations of the international community and the realities faced by the new administration in Syria.”

He pledged Turkish support to the new government, especially in combating threats from the ISIS group. “As Türkiye, we are ready to do our part to ease the difficult path ahead for the Syrian people,” he said in comments carried by state-run Anadolu Agency.

The United States has eased some restrictions Last week, the United States eased some of its restrictions on Syria, with the US Treasury issuing a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

The US has also dropped a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, a Syrian opposition leader formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month. Al-Sharaa was a former senior al-Qaeda militant who broke with the group years ago and has pledged an inclusive Syria that respects the rights of religious minorities.

The opposition factions led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule.

Much of the world severed ties with Assad and imposed sanctions on his government — and its Russian and Iranian allies — over alleged war crimes and the manufacturing of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon, which reportedly generated billions of dollars as packages of the little white pills were smuggled across Syria’s porous borders.

With Assad out of the picture, Syria’s new authorities hope that the international community will pour money into the country to rebuild its battered infrastructure and make its economy viable again.