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Lebanon’s Cabinet Sessions Remain Stalled Pending Results of Aoun-Hariri Contacts

President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday with Ghattas Khoury (NNA)
President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday with Ghattas Khoury (NNA)
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Lebanon’s Cabinet Sessions Remain Stalled Pending Results of Aoun-Hariri Contacts

President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday with Ghattas Khoury (NNA)
President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday with Ghattas Khoury (NNA)

Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri agreed on not holding a cabinet session this week pending a solution to a crisis that emerged over demands to refer to the Judicial Council the killing of two aides of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib in the Druze area of Aley earlier this month.

Contacts between Aoun and Hariri on Tuesday focused on handing over all suspects from the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and the Lebanese Democratic Party (LDP), both involved in the deadly shootout.

“The general atmosphere signals a possible solution,” sources familiar with the issue told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The PM dispatched his political adviser, ex-minister Ghattas Khoury, to learn from the President the clear position of LDP leader MP Talal Arslan from the latest developments.

Gharib is a member of the LDP.

Hariri is hoping that Aoun would convince Arslan to relinquish his demand to refer the deadly shooting to the Judicial Council, the country’s top judicial court, during the next cabinet session.

However, Arslan seems to be sticking to his stance.

Cabinet sessions have been stalled since the June 30 Aley shooting, which has widened the rift among several political parties.

PSP chief ex-MP Walid Jumblatt said Tuesday that “Lebanon’s interest lies above all considerations.”

He added that his party was ready to accept any procedures in the deadly shooting.

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Arab World

Netanyahu ‘Takes Revenge’ on Macron in Lebanon

 A photo of Netanyahu and Macron during their meeting in Jerusalem in October 2023 (AFP)
 A photo of Netanyahu and Macron during their meeting in Jerusalem in October 2023 (AFP)
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Netanyahu ‘Takes Revenge’ on Macron in Lebanon

 A photo of Netanyahu and Macron during their meeting in Jerusalem in October 2023 (AFP)
 A photo of Netanyahu and Macron during their meeting in Jerusalem in October 2023 (AFP)

Israel’s insistence that France can not be a member of the international committee that will monitor a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon is due to a series of French practices that have disturbed Israel recently, political sources in Tel Aviv revealed.
These practices are most notably attributed to the French judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, who has joined other judges to unanimously issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the sources revealed.
“The Israeli government is following with concern the French role at The Hague,” they said, noting that veteran French lawyer Gilles Devers led a team of 300 international lawyers of various nationalities who volunteered to accuse Israel of “committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
According to the Israeli Maariv newspaper, Israeli officials believe that Devers, who signed the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Galant, would not have dared to do so without having received a green light from French President Emmanuel Macron.
Israeli sources also mentioned other reasons for Israel’s anger at France, such as the government’s decision to bar Israeli firms from exhibiting at the Euronaval arms show near Paris earlier this month.
French officials have repeatedly said that Paris is committed to Israel's security and point out that its military helped defend Israel after Iranian attacks in April and earlier this month.
Paris has so far also refused to recognize the Palestinian state. But the Israeli government is not satisfied. It wants France to follow the United States and blindly support its war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Tel Aviv also feels incredibly confident that France should be punished, and therefore, decided that Paris could not participate in the Lebanese ceasefire agreement, knowing that the Israeli government itself has traveled to Paris several times begging for its intervention, especially during the war on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, an air of optimism has emerged in Israel around the chances for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon following negotiations led by US envoy Amos Hochstein.
But any optimism relies on Netanyahu’s final decision. The PM is still conducting talks with his friends and allies of the far right who reject the ceasefire agreement and instead, demand that Lebanese citizens not be allowed to return to their villages on the border with Israel. They also request that a security belt be turned into a permanently depopulated and mined zone.
Hochstein Talks
Meanwhile, political sources in Israel claim that what is holding up a ceasefire deal so far is Lebanon. According to Israel's Channel 12, Hochstein expressed a “firm stance” during his talks with the Lebanese side. The envoy delivered clear terms that were passed on to Hezbollah, which the channel said “led to significant progress” in the talks.
Israeli officials said that Tel Aviv is moving towards a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon with Hezbollah in the coming days.
The channel said that during his late visit to Tel Aviv, coming from Beirut after talks with Speaker Nabih Barri, Hochstein said, “I placed before them (Lebanese officials) a final warning, and it seems to have been effective.”
Iran Obstacle
Despite the “positive atmosphere,” informed diplomatic sources pointed to a major obstacle: Iran.
Channel 12 quoted the sources as saying that Lebanon has not yet received the final approval required from Iran, which has significant influence over Hezbollah.

According to the draft proposal, the Lebanese Army must be redeployed to the south and carry out a comprehensive operation to remove weapons from villages. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will “supervise and monitor the implementation of the operation.”
Channel 12 said Israel believes that such details could still derail the agreement. It also said that Hezbollah could violate the truce.
“In such cases, Israel would have to conduct military operations inside the Lebanese territory,” the channel reported, adding that “one of the unsettled issues is related to the committee that will oversee the implementation of the agreement between Israel and Lebanon.”
The sources said Tel Aviv “insists that France is not part of the agreement, nor part of the committee that will oversee its implementation.”