Growing Calls In Lebanon to Protect 'Taef Accord'

 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received last Monday former Lebanese prime ministers in Jeddah. (SPA)
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received last Monday former Lebanese prime ministers in Jeddah. (SPA)
TT

Growing Calls In Lebanon to Protect 'Taef Accord'

 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received last Monday former Lebanese prime ministers in Jeddah. (SPA)
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received last Monday former Lebanese prime ministers in Jeddah. (SPA)

Lebanon has lately witnessed more calls for safeguarding the Taef Accord and for protecting the country from attempts to insert Lebanon in the “resistance axis” amid already complicated regional developments.

Those calls were mainly discussed during Monday’s meeting in Jeddah of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz with Lebanese former Prime Ministers Najib Mikati, Fouad Saniora and Tammam Salam.

King Salman stressed this week that Saudi Arabia is keen on Lebanon’s security and stability and the need to keep it within the Arab fold.

Last week, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanese politicians have been holding consultations to establish a specialized council to put a stop to constant violations of the Taef Accord.

“The Taef era ended a long time ago. Unfortunately, we can only be sorry about the situation we have reached in Lebanon and work on preventing the collapse of what is left of the country,” former minister Butros Harb told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Harb said that one of the reasons that led to the collapse of the Taef Accord is the presence of an armed political party outside the rule of the state.

“This party uses its surplus power to enforce its political opinion. What (Hezbollah) wants should pass and what the party does not like should not be accepted,” Harb explained.

For his part, former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said the political settlement that led to the election of General Michel Aoun as president is the step that virtually eliminated the Taef.

However, Rifi is convinced about the possibility of protecting the Taef through steps leading to the establishment of an opposition front with an aim to protect the identity and Arabism of Lebanon and to decrease the influence of Iran, which does not care about the interests of the Arab world.



Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
TT

Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)

Iraq's population has risen to 45.4 million, according to preliminary results from a national census, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Monday.
The census, conducted on Nov. 20, was Iraq's first nationwide survey in more than three decades, marking a crucial step for future planning and development.
Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million.
The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which has been under Kurdish administration since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.