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Boueiz: Rift with Gaddafi, Saddam due to Provocative Message, Assassination Plot

Colonel Gaddafi alongside Arab leaders, including President Hosni Mubarak, President Chadli Bendjedid and King Hassan II, during the inauguration of a reservoir for the waters of the Great Man-made River in Suluq, south of Benghazi in 1991. (Getty Images)
Colonel Gaddafi alongside Arab leaders, including President Hosni Mubarak, President Chadli Bendjedid and King Hassan II, during the inauguration of a reservoir for the waters of the Great Man-made River in Suluq, south of Benghazi in 1991. (Getty Images)
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Boueiz: Rift with Gaddafi, Saddam due to Provocative Message, Assassination Plot

Colonel Gaddafi alongside Arab leaders, including President Hosni Mubarak, President Chadli Bendjedid and King Hassan II, during the inauguration of a reservoir for the waters of the Great Man-made River in Suluq, south of Benghazi in 1991. (Getty Images)
Colonel Gaddafi alongside Arab leaders, including President Hosni Mubarak, President Chadli Bendjedid and King Hassan II, during the inauguration of a reservoir for the waters of the Great Man-made River in Suluq, south of Benghazi in 1991. (Getty Images)

When President Elias Hrawi assumed office, Lebanon was facing severe challenges, with a fragmented state and crumbling institutions. Despite the circumstances, then Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz rejected the approach to deal with Lebanon as a weak country and a quasi-state.

He restored the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the glow it had when it was in the custody of a brilliant minister, Fouad Boutros, who is highly admired by Boueiz.

The minister rejected the language of dictations imposed Lebanon, and refused to devote the country as an arena for settling scores. What further strengthened his role was his direct relationship with President Hafez al-Assad.

I asked Boueiz about the diplomatic incident that led to the severing of relations with Libya.

He said: “One day, the Libyan ambassador comes to me to convey a message from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The letter was a green cardboard book inlaid with gold or gold ink and weighed about 10 or even 12 kilograms. He gave me the book as if it were a fateful international treaty, so I opened it and read a line that talks about “the conspiracy of the Jews and Christians against the Arab nation...” I read these words, closed the book and threw it into the arms of the ambassador, saying: Tell Colonel Gaddafi that this book is totally unacceptable. Tell him: We are the real Arabs. The Christians of Lebanon restored the Arab renaissance after 450 years of Turkification and the disappearance of this language. They preserved the Arabic language in their monasteries and through its printing presses and monks. Tell Colonel Gaddafi: These are the ones who created the Arab political thought...”

Boueiz added that he asked the ambassador for an immediate letter of apology, or consider himself “persona non grata”. He gave him and the Libyan embassy staff 48 hours to leave the country.

“Indeed, the delegation left Lebanon and I went to the Council of Ministers. The authority to expel an ambassador falls within the powers of the foreign minister; but the power to sever relations requires a cabinet decision. So I asked the Council of Ministers to cut the relations, and this is what happened,” the former minister recounted.

- Rules and principles

Boueiz said that his decision was not based on a sectarian stance, but rather an attempt to recall the rules and principles.

“Days passed, and whenever I would go to a conference abroad, the Lebanese ambassador would come to me to tell me that the Libyan ambassador had called him and that the Libyan foreign minister wanted to meet with me. My answer was always the same: I will not meet him unless he is provided with a letter of apology.”

The minister told Asharq Al-Awsat that he faced pressure in Lebanon over this issue.

“It’s the Lebanese commercial mind. Lebanon exports apples to Libya. I am from an area where apples are grown. But I used to answer that our national dignity is more important than apples...”

The rift lasted for at least two years, Boueiz said, until the Lebanese ambassador to Cairo told him that the Libyan foreign minister wanted to meet him and convey a letter of apology.

The ambassador informed Boueiz of the content of the letter, which he described as “acceptable”. Relations with Libya were consequently restored.

_ Al-Sadr Case

Boueiz said that during his tenure at the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, he did not receive any information on the disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr, except for undocumented and unconfirmed reports.

He recounted: “The story that we have received, which is not confirmed, states that during the war, Colonel Gaddafi had asked Imam Musa al-Sadr that the Shiites in Lebanon engage in a war against the Christians... But Imam Musa al-Sadr used the money (which Libya provided for this purpose) for social and charitable reasons. He built schools and hospitals there... It seems that Palestinian and Lebanese parties complained to Gaddafi when he asked them: How did you not win over these Christians? Gaddafi summoned Imam al-Sadr and told him: What did you do with all this aid... Al-Sadr gave him a list of social and other institutions...Then, Abdullah Al-Senussi, the intelligence chief, entered and kidnapped Imam Al-Sadr, and it is said that they hid him somewhere in the desert. Later, they sent a delegation to Rome with a sheikh wearing a turban to prove that Sadr went to Italy after Libya.”

-Saddam Hussein and the assassination of Taleb al-Suhail

There is an expressive story that happened with Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Boueiz said: “There was a senior Iraqi tribal leader in Lebanon named Taleb Al-Suhail, who was an opponent of Saddam’s regime and resided in the Raouche area of Beirut. Three people came to his house... shot and killed him and then fled. The police chased them until they reached the Iraqi embassy, where they sought refuge, and the police could not enter it due to diplomatic immunity.”

The former minister told Asharq Al-Awsat that he immediately summoned the Iraqi ambassador, asking him to hand over the culprits, otherwise he would consider him “persona non grata”.

He said he was sure that the Iraqi diplomat would not hand them over, and that they were intelligence men coming from Baghdad.

“The next day, I received a call from Beirut Airport at eight in the morning. It was the Public Prosecutor of the Cassation Court, Judge Mounif Oweidat. He told me: Your Excellency, the entire staff of the Iraqi embassy has been arrested while trying to flee.”

Boueiz asked for the names of the arrested people to find out that three of them were not diplomats. He then requested the immediate release of the ambassador and all the diplomats, while the wanted persons were referred to the judiciary and sentenced with imprisonment. One of them died in jail from cancer, he noted.

- A letter of apology

Similar to what happened with Libya, at every conference Boueiz went to, he would be approached by his Iraqi counterpart, who would ask him for a meeting.

“I can only accept a letter of apology,” the Lebanese minister used to reply.

“I knew that Saddam would not apologize for the matter (the assassination of Al-Suhail). One day, our ambassador in Jordan called me to tell me that the Iraqi ambassador conveyed a letter from Saddam Hussein... Indeed, I found the content of the letter acceptable.”

Boueiz noted that Hussein did not use the apology word, but described what happened as a mistake and whoever did it “will bear responsibility.” He also denied any role for the Iraqi state in the crime. The bilateral relations were then mended.

-Yasser Arafat and the complex relationship with Hafez al-Assad

According to Boueiz, Arafat’s relationship with Syria was complicated. There was a kind of hatred towards the Palestinian leader.

“In Syria, if President Hafez al-Assad hates a person, it means that the entire regime hates him. They had some kind of picture of Arafat. They accuse him of being dishonest, and that he will not spare any opportunity for... an unacceptable political settlement.”

- Ding Xiaoping

I asked Minister Boueiz about his meeting with Deng Xiaoping, who laid the foundation for the Chinese renaissance.

He replied: “I was greatly touched by what he said to me during one of my visits to China in the early nineties. I was amazed at the way China emerged from Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, and the growth of the Chinese economy.”

The former foreign minister quoted the Chinese leader as saying: “We realized that Marxism is an economic doctrine that is no longer viable, and that it has fallen. We saw that Leninism is a dictatorial political doctrine that has outlived its time. We also realized that Stalinism is a police security doctrine that is also outdated. But we cannot get out of the three doctrines without the country collapsing into chaos. We have seen before us the example of Russia; when Gorbachev abolished these three beliefs together, and Russia collapsed as a whole. So, we decided to gradually eradicate these beliefs, starting with Marxism, to make way for economic renaissance and people’s development, and the trend towards more freedoms and democracy will gradually follow.”

Boueiz said that he conveyed this opinion to Hafez al-Assad during one of the meetings, saying that Syria, too, may be in a situation similar to China, which means that if it begins with economic renaissance and freedom, it will gradually get out of these situations.

“I think that this matter greatly touched President Assad, although he was very far from giving priority to the economic issue, but it impacted him as an idea. This prompted him request my help for Syria to join the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Agreement, on the grounds that this partnership would open the door to economic development and help Syria grow and develop, and preventing it from descending into chaos,” the former Lebanese minister stated.

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Features

Rebuilding the Army: One of the Syrian Govt’s Greatest Challenges

Soldiers and police officers from the former Syrian regime handing in weapons last year to new security forces in Latakia, Syria. (Ivor Prickett for The New York Times)
Soldiers and police officers from the former Syrian regime handing in weapons last year to new security forces in Latakia, Syria. (Ivor Prickett for The New York Times)
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Rebuilding the Army: One of the Syrian Govt’s Greatest Challenges

Soldiers and police officers from the former Syrian regime handing in weapons last year to new security forces in Latakia, Syria. (Ivor Prickett for The New York Times)
Soldiers and police officers from the former Syrian regime handing in weapons last year to new security forces in Latakia, Syria. (Ivor Prickett for The New York Times)

When opposition factions in Syria came to power a year ago, one of their first acts was to dismiss all of the country’s military forces, which had been used as tools of repression and brutality for five decades under the rule of Bashar al-Assad and his family.

Now, one of the biggest challenges facing the nascent government is rebuilding those forces, an effort that will be critical in uniting this still-fractured country.

But to do so, Syria’s new leaders are following a playbook that is similar to the one they used to set up their government, in which President Ahmed al-Sharaa has relied on a tightknit circle of loyalists.

The military’s new command structure favors former fighters from Sharaa’s former Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group.

The Syrian Defense Ministry is instituting some of the same training methods, including religious instruction, that Sharaa’s former opposition group used to become the most powerful of all the factions that fought the Assad regime during Syria’s civil war.

The New York Times interviewed nearly two dozen soldiers, commanders and new recruits in Syria who discussed the military training and shared their concerns. Nearly all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Defense Ministry bars soldiers from speaking to the media.

Several soldiers and commanders, as well as analysts, said that some of the government’s rules had nothing to do with military preparedness.

The new leadership was fastidious about certain points, like banning smoking for on-duty soldiers. But on other aspects, soldiers said, the training felt disconnected from the needs of a modern military force.

Last spring, when a 30-year-old former opposition fighter arrived for military training in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, instructors informed roughly 1,400 new recruits that smoking was not permitted. The former fighter said one of the instructors searched him and confiscated several cigarette packs hidden in his jacket.

The ban pushed dozens of recruits to quit immediately, and many more were kicked out for ignoring it, according to the former fighter, a slender man who chain-smoked as he spoke in Marea, a town in Aleppo Province. After three weeks, only 600 recruits had made it through the training, he said.

He stuck with it.

He said he was taken aback by other aspects of the training. The first week was devoted entirely to Islamic instruction, he said.

Soldiers and commanders said the religious training reflected the ideology that the HTS espoused when it was in power in Idlib, a province in northwestern Syria.

A Syrian defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the government had not decided whether minorities would be allowed to enlist.

Syria’s leaders are relying on a small circle of trusted comrades from HTS to lead and shape the new military, several soldiers, commanders and recruits said.

The Syrian Defense Ministry did not respond to a detailed list of questions or repeated requests for comment.

After abolishing conscription, much hated under the Assad regime, the new military recruited volunteers and set qualifications like a ninth-grade education, physical fitness and the ability to read.

But soldiers who had fought with the opposition in the civil war were grandfathered into the ranks, even if they did not fulfill all the criteria, according to several soldiers and commanders.

“They are bringing in a commander of HTS who doesn’t even have a ninth-grade education and are putting him in charge of a battalion,” said Issam al-Reis, a senior military adviser with Etana, a Syrian research group, who has spoken to many former opposition fighters currently serving in the military. “And his only qualification is that he was loyal to Ahmed al-Sharaa.”

Former HTS fighters, like fighters from many other factions, have years of guerrilla-fighting experience from the war to oust the Assad dictatorship. But most have not served as officers in a formal military with different branches such as the navy, air force and infantry and with rigid command structures, knowledge that is considered beneficial when rebuilding an army.

“The strength of an army is in its discipline,” Reis added.

Most soldiers and commanders now start with three weeks of basic training — except those who previously fought alongside Sharaa’s group.

The government has signed an initial agreement with Türkiye to train and develop the military, said Qutaiba Idlbi, director of American affairs at the Syrian Foreign Ministry. But the agreement does not include deliveries of weapons or military equipment, he said, because of American sanctions remaining on Syria.

Col. Ali Abdul Baqi, staff commander of the 70th Battalion in Damascus, is among the few high-level commanders who was not a member of the HTS. Speaking from his office in Damascus, Abdul Baqi said that had he been in Sharaa’s place, he would have built the new military in the same way.

“They aren’t going to take a risk on people they don’t know,” said the colonel, who commanded another opposition group during the civil war.

Some senior commanders said the religious instruction was an attempt to build cohesion through shared faith, not a way of forcing a specific ideology on new recruits.

“In our army, there should be a division focused on political awareness and preventing crimes against humanity and war crimes,” said Omar al-Khateeb, a law graduate, former opposition fighter and current military commander in Aleppo province. “This is more important than training us in religious doctrine we already know.”

*Raja Abdulrahim for The New York Times

Features

Winter Storm Rips through Gaza, Exposing Failure to Deliver Enough Aid to Territory

Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Winter Storm Rips through Gaza, Exposing Failure to Deliver Enough Aid to Territory

Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Rains drenched Gaza’s tent camps and dropping temperatures chilled Palestinians huddling inside them Thursday as storm Byron descended on the war-battered territory, showing how two months of a ceasefire have failed to sufficiently address the spiraling humanitarian crisis there.

Children’s sandaled feet disappeared under opaque brown water that flooded the camps. Trucks moved slowly to avoid sending waves of mud toward the tents. Piles of garbage and sewage turned to waterfalls.

“We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” said Um Salman Abu Qenas, a mother displaced from east of Khan Younis to a tent camp in Deir al-Balah. She said her family could not sleep the night before because of the water in the tent, The AP news reported.

Aid groups say not enough shelter aid is getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel's military suggest it has not met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.

“Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in a terse statement posted on X. “This suffering could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid, including medical support and proper shelter."

Rains falling across the region wreak havoc in Gaza Sabreen Qudeeh, also in the Deir al-Balah camp, said her family woke up to rain leaking from their tent's ceiling and water from the street soaking their mattresses. “My little daughters were screaming and got shocked when they saw water on the floor,” she said.

Ahmad Abu Taha, a Palestinian man in the camp, said there was not a tent that escaped the flooding. “Conditions are very bad, we have old people, displaced, and sick people inside this camp,” he said.

In Israel, heavy rains fell and flood warnings were in effect in several parts of the country — but no major weather-related emergencies were reported as of midday.

The contrasting scenes with Gaza made clear how profoundly the Israel-Hamas war had damaged the territory, destroying the majority of homes. Gaza’s population of around 2 million is almost entirely displaced and most people live in vast tent camps stretching for miles along the beach, exposed to the elements, without adequate flooding infrastructure and with cesspits dug near tents as toilets.

The Palestinian Civil Defense, part of the Hamas-run government, said that since the storm began they have received more than 2,500 distress calls from citizens whose tents and shelters were damaged in all parts of the Gaza Strip.

Not enough aid getting in Aid groups say that Israel is not allowing enough aid into Gaza to begin rebuilding the territory after years of war.

Under the agreement, Israel agreed to comply with aid stipulations from an earlier January 2025 truce, which specified that it allow 600 trucks of aid each day into Gaza and an agreed-upon number of temporary homes and tents. It maintains it is doing so, though AP has found that some of its own figures call that into question.

COGAT said Dec. 9, without providing evidence, that it had “lately" let 260,000 tents and tarpaulins into Gaza and over 1,500 trucks of blankets and warm clothing. The Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council, sets the number lower.

It says UN and international NGOs have gotten 15,590 tents into Gaza since the truce began, and other countries have sent about 48,000. Many of the tents are not properly insulated, the Cluster says.

Amjad al-Shawa, Gaza chief of the Palestinian NGO Network, told Al Jazeera Thursday that only a fraction of the 300,000 tents needed had entered Gaza. He said that Palestinians were in dire need of warmer winter clothes and accused Israel of blocking the entry of water pumps helpful to clear flooded shelters.

"All international sides should take the responsibility regarding conditions in Gaza,” he said. “There is real danger for people in Gaza at all levels.”

Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal said that many people’s tents have become worn out after the two-year war, and people cannot find new places to shelter. He said Gaza also needs the rehabilitation of hospitals, the entry of heavy machinery to remove rubble, and the opening of the Rafah crossing — which remains closed after Israel said last week it would open in a few days.

COGAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claims that Israel was not allowing water pumps or heavy machinery into Gaza.

Ceasefire at a critical point Mashaal, the Hamas official, called for moving to the second, more complicated phase of the US-brokered ceasefire.

“The reconstruction should start in the second phase as today there is suffering in terms of shelter and stability,” Mashaal said in comments released by Hamas on social media.

Regional leaders have said time is critical for the ceasefire agreement as mediators seek to move to phase 2. But obstacles to moving forward remain.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that the militants needed to return the body of a final hostage first.

Hamas has said Israel must open key border crossings and cease deadly strikes on the territory.

Features

Ukraine Hasn’t Held Elections since Russia’s Full-scale Invasion. Here’s Why

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to press before his meeting with President of Cyprus in Kyiv on December 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to press before his meeting with President of Cyprus in Kyiv on December 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
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Ukraine Hasn’t Held Elections since Russia’s Full-scale Invasion. Here’s Why

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to press before his meeting with President of Cyprus in Kyiv on December 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to press before his meeting with President of Cyprus in Kyiv on December 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected suggestions that he is using the war as an excuse to cling to power, saying he is ready to hold elections if the US and other allies will help ensure the security of the poll and if the country's electoral law can be altered.

Zelenskyy’s five-year term was scheduled to end in May 2024, but elections were legally put off due to Russia’s full-scale invasion. That has become a source of tension with US President Donald Trump, who has criticized the delay as he pushes Zelenskyy to accept his proposals for ending the war.

Zelenskyy responded to that criticism on Tuesday, saying he was ready for elections.

“Moreover, I am now asking — and I am stating this openly — for the United States, possibly together with our European colleagues, to help me ensure security for holding elections,” he told reporters on WhatsApp. “And then, within the next 60–90 days, Ukraine will be ready to hold them.”

Until now, Zelenskyy has declined to hold an election until a ceasefire is declared, in line with Ukrainian law that prevents a poll from being held when martial law is in effect. Ukrainians largely support that decision.

Here is a look at why Ukraine has not been able to hold elections so far:

A wartime election would be illegal

Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The country’s constitution provides for martial law in wartime, and a separate law bars the holding of elections while it remains in force.

Beyond being illegal, any nationwide vote would pose serious security risks as Russia bombs Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones. With roughly one-fifth of the country under Russian occupation and millions of Ukrainians displaced abroad, organizing a nationwide ballot is also widely seen as logistically impossible.

It would also be difficult to find a way for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line to cast their votes, The Associated Press said.

Although Zelenskyy’s term formally expired in May 2024, Ukraine's constitution allows him to legitimately remain in office until a newly elected president is sworn in.

What Trump said

In an interview with Politico published on Tuesday, Trump said it was time for Ukraine to hold elections.

“They’re using war not to hold an election, but, uh, I would think the Ukrainian people ... should have that choice. And maybe Zelenskyy would win. I don’t know who would win.

“But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

Trump's comments on elections echo Moscow's stance. The Kremlin has used Zelenskyy’s remaining in power after his expired term as a tool to cast him as an illegitimate leader.

What Zelenskyy said Zelenskyy reiterated previous statements that the decision about when to hold elections was one for the Ukrainian people, not its international allies.

The first question, he said, is whether an election could be held securely while Ukraine is under attack from Russia. But in the event that the US and other allies can guarantee the security of the poll, Zelenskyy said he is asking lawmakers to propose legal changes that would allow elections to be held under martial law.

“I’ve heard it suggested that we’re clinging to power, or that I’m personally holding on to the president’s seat, that I’m clinging to it, and that this is supposedly why the war is not ending. This, frankly, is a completely absurd story.”

Zelenskyy has few political rivals

Holding elections in the middle of a war would also sow division in Ukrainian society at a time when the country should be united against Russia, Zelenskyy has said.

One potential candidate who could challenge Zelenskyy in an election is former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the current Ukrainian ambassador to Britain. Zaluzhnyi has denied plans to enter politics, though public opinion surveys show him as a potential Zelenskyy rival.

Petro Poroshenko also is a key political rival of Zelenskyy’s and the leader of the largest opposition party. He is unlikely to run again, analysts said, but his backing of a particular candidate would be consequential.