Lebanon: 'Foreigners’ Residency' Could be Overturned as Aoun Cedes to Rai’s Pressure

Lebanese President Michel Aoun meets with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese President Michel Aoun meets with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon: 'Foreigners’ Residency' Could be Overturned as Aoun Cedes to Rai’s Pressure

Lebanese President Michel Aoun meets with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese President Michel Aoun meets with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanese President Michel Aoun responded on Tuesday to the growing wave of opposition to Article 49 of the State Budget Law, which stipulates the granting of residency to every Arab or foreigner who buys a housing unit in Lebanon.

Aoun sent a letter to Parliament, asking it to reconsider the article, before agreeing with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to put the issue on hold, pending a decision by the Constitutional Council on the motion filed by ten deputies, led by the head of Kataeb Party, MP Sami Gemayel.

Article 49 stipulates that any foreigner, who purchases a property worth at least $300,000, would receive a residency along with his family. The residency would remain valid as long as the foreigner retains ownership of the property.

The article sparked a wave of opposing reactions, including by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, who voiced the Lebanese people’s concerns over the repercussions of such law, calling for its abolition. He also underlined the need to amend and suspend the law on the ownership of foreigners, “as the number of such people now exceeds half the population of Lebanon.”

Despite an attempt by the head of the Finance and Budget parliamentary committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, to calm down the fears of the resettlement of displaced Syrians in Lebanon, saying that “the residency of foreigners in Lebanon does not allow them to have the Lebanese nationality”, the Maronite Patriarch remained firm in his position, putting great pressure on the officials to reconsider the law.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Former Minister Salim al-Sayegh, who is close to the head of the Kataeb Party, said that the budget law “includes several constitutional violations, but the most important is Article 49, which affects the Lebanese identity and the issue of land purchase.”

“This article needs a broader discussion and cannot pass through the budget law,” he added.



France Expels 12 Algerian Officials in Tit-for-Tat Move amid Diplomatic Tensions

Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
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France Expels 12 Algerian Officials in Tit-for-Tat Move amid Diplomatic Tensions

Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)
Algerian flags fly at half-staff along the seaside walk in Algiers, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (AP)

France said Tuesday it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomatic officials a day after Algeria announced the expulsion of the same number of French officials in escalating tensions between the two countries.

Algeria said Monday that its expulsion of 12 French officials was over the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case, but relations between the two sides have been deteriorating since last summer. That's when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara — a disputed territory claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which receives support from Algeria.

Tensions further peaked in November after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is an outspoken critic of the Algerian regime. He has since been sentenced to five years in prison — a verdict he subsequently appealed.

In addition to what French officials called the "symmetrically" calibrated expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, France's ambassador to Algiers also was being recalled home for consultations, a statement from the French presidential palace said Tuesday.

It said Algerian authorities were responsible for "a brutal deterioration in our bilateral relations."

French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerian nationals in total were arrested last week and handed preliminary charges of "kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking."

The group is allegedly involved in the April 2024 kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir Boukhors, or Amir DZ, a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

The latest surge in acrimony followed a brief easing of tensions about two weeks ago when French President Emmanuel Macron called Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. French officials said they had agreed to revive bilateral relations.