French Envoy Pledges to Facilitate Dialogue Between Lebanese Parties

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliament session in a bid to elect a head of state to fill the vacant presidency, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon June 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliament session in a bid to elect a head of state to fill the vacant presidency, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon June 14, 2023. (Reuters)
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French Envoy Pledges to Facilitate Dialogue Between Lebanese Parties

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliament session in a bid to elect a head of state to fill the vacant presidency, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon June 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliament session in a bid to elect a head of state to fill the vacant presidency, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon June 14, 2023. (Reuters)

French presidential envoy former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian pledged to facilitate a constructive and inclusive dialogue between Lebanese political forces to reach a consensual and effective solution to end the presidential vacuum.

He concluded a visit to Beirut where he met various representatives of parliamentary blocs and three presidential candidates: head of the Marada movement, Suleiman Franjieh, former minister Ziad Baroud, and commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces General Joseph Aoun.

The visit came in light of sharp political difference that have been preventing the election of a president for eight months.

During a press conference, Le Drian said he visited Beirut at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, who appointed him as his special envoy for Lebanon.

He indicated that during his first visit, he wanted to hear what the civil, religious, and military authorities had to say and would submit a report on this mission to the president upon his return to France.

The envoy announced he would return in the coming weeks, pledging to facilitate dialogue between the local forces to end the impasse and carry out the necessary reforms for Lebanon's sustainable advancement.

The envoy concluded his visit by meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, accompanied by the French Ambassador, Anne Grillo.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said Le Drian briefed Bou Habib on his meetings with Lebanese parties and that he will soon continue his contacts with them.

MP Ashraf Rifi said on Saturday that France was aware that people have the right to determine their destiny and enjoy the freedom of choice.

After meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, he added that Le Drian is attempting to persuade the Shiite duo of Hezbollah and the Amal movement to abandon Franjieh’s nomination given that the Christians refuse for Hezbollah to name their presidential candidate.

The president in Lebanon is always a Maronite Christian.

The same goes for the Sunnis, who oppose Nawaf Salam’s appointment as prime minister, because he does not represent them, continued Rifi. The position of PM is always a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon.

The lawmaker said Le Drian was more of a listener than a speaker, in that he asked officials how they would describe the situation in Lebanon and how they would resolve the crisis.

Rifi said his answer was simple: The need to hold successive presidential elections sessions in line with the constitution until a candidate is elected.

Meanwhile Free Patriotic Movement MP Simon Abi Ramia said France is still backing Franjieh’s run for president.

However, Le Drian did not come to Lebanon to promote France’s initiative regarding Franjieh. He noted.

Meanwhile, former minister Jihad Azour, who is backed by the opposition, FPM and independent and Change MPs, is still running for the presidency, the MP went on to say.

Abi Ramia remarked, however, that neither candidate can secure enough votes in the elections to become president given the ongoing division between the rival camps and the MPs’ constitutional right to withdraw from the electoral sessions, thus disrupting quorum.



US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)

US State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of civilian harm during Israel's military operations in Gaza involving US-furnished weapons, but have not taken further action on any of them, three sources, including a US official familiar with the matter, said this week.

The incidents - some of which might have violated international humanitarian law, according to the sources - have been recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Gaza war started. They are being collected by the State Department's Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of US-origin weapons.

State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and non-public sources, including media reporting, civil society groups and foreign government contacts.

The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to be applied to all countries that receive US arms, has three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment, and coordinated department action, according to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.

None of the Gaza cases had yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the matter. Options, the former official said, could range from working with Israel's government to help mitigate harm, to suspending existing arms export licenses or withholding future approvals.

The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.

The Biden administration has said it is reasonable to assess that Israel has breached international law in the conflict, but assessing individual incidents was "very difficult work," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

"We are conducting those investigations, and we are conducting them thoroughly, and we are conducting them aggressively, but we want to get to the right answer, and it's important that we not jump to a pre-ordained result, and that we not skip any of the work," Miller said, adding that Washington consistently raises concerns over civilian harm with Israel.

The administration of President Joe Biden has long said it is yet to definitively assess an incident in which Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration "has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations."

"The US government hasn't done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers," he said.

The civilian harm process does not only look at potential violations of international law but at any incident where civilians are killed or injured and where US arms are implicated, and looks at whether this could have been avoided or reduced, said one US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A review of an incident can lead to a recommendation that a unit needs more training or different equipment, as well as more severe consequences, the official said.

Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

The latest episode of bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.