Lebanon’s Mikati Denies Discussing Issue of Hannibal Gaddafi with Dbeibeh

Dbeibeh meeting with the wounded Libyans in Italy (The Government of National Unity)
Dbeibeh meeting with the wounded Libyans in Italy (The Government of National Unity)
TT

Lebanon’s Mikati Denies Discussing Issue of Hannibal Gaddafi with Dbeibeh

Dbeibeh meeting with the wounded Libyans in Italy (The Government of National Unity)
Dbeibeh meeting with the wounded Libyans in Italy (The Government of National Unity)

The Libyan interim Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, ignored an official denial issued by Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati regarding a recent contact between them to follow up on the developments of the Hannibal case.

Hannibal, the son of the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has been detained for years in Lebanon.

In a statement issued by his media office, Mikati said he received no contact from any Libyan side pertaining to the case.

"The file of Gaddafi's son is in the hands of a competent judiciary, and any follow-up to this file takes place through competent judicial methods," said Mikati.

However, the Lebanese PM expressed Lebanon's keenness on what he described as "the best relations with the Libyan people."

Dbeibeh had earlier said that telephone contacts were held with Mikati to discuss Hannibal Gaddafi’s case and that an “official Libyan committee is set to travel to Lebanon to follow up on the matter.”

Separately, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed in a statement Libya's agreement on the laws for presidential and legislative elections.

The members of the Libyan 6 + 6 Joint Committee for the Preparation of Electoral Laws, which is mandated by the Libyan House of Representatives and the High Council of State, have agreed on laws regulating presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of this year.

The Saudi ministry expressed hopes that the Libyan parties would formally sign the electoral laws, being an “important step towards ending the crisis.”

 



Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
TT

Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's military bases there.
In his first public comments on the subject, Putin said he had not yet met former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since was overthrown and forced to flee to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.
In response to a question on the subject from a US journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of US reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria's new rulers about Tice's whereabouts too.
"I will tell you frankly, I have not yet seen President Assad since he came to Moscow. But I plan to do so. I will definitely talk to him," said Putin.
He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing, Reuters said.
Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in Assad's favor, had also told other countries that they could use its airbase and naval base to bring in humanitarian aid for Syria, he said.
"You want to portray everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia. I assure you, it is not. And I'll tell you why. We came to Syria 10 years ago to prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there," said Putin.
"On the whole, we have achieved our goal. It is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them (Syria's new rulers). If they are terrorist organizations, why are you (the West) going there? So that means they have changed."