Lebanon's Political Impasse Reflected in Chilly Ties between Hariri, Aoun and Berri

Lebanese leaders at the military parade marking Lebanon's 76th Independence Day held at the Defense Ministry. NNA
Lebanese leaders at the military parade marking Lebanon's 76th Independence Day held at the Defense Ministry. NNA
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Lebanon's Political Impasse Reflected in Chilly Ties between Hariri, Aoun and Berri

Lebanese leaders at the military parade marking Lebanon's 76th Independence Day held at the Defense Ministry. NNA
Lebanese leaders at the military parade marking Lebanon's 76th Independence Day held at the Defense Ministry. NNA

The somber mood at a brief parade at the defense ministry on the occasion of Lebanon’s Independence Day was a clear reflection of growing tension between President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

This mood came amid a warning from the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, that Lebanon urgently needs to form a government seen as competent by the people, supported by political parties and capable of implementing deep reforms.

“High level meetings in Washington with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Grave concerns about the rapidly deepening economic and social crisis in Lebanon and lack of proper management of the situation,” Kubis wrote on Twitter.

The top leadership attended the truncated military parade which was relocated to the headquarters of the defense ministry from central Beirut, occupied by anti-government protesters.

A little over a dozen regiments marched before the country´s president, parliament speaker and prime minister, who sat under a red canopy. The three only exchanged a few words and left separately. An official celebration at the presidential palace in Baabda was canceled. There were no foreign dignitaries in attendance and no display of tanks or equipment.

Despite official statements that there have been contacts among political parties to resolve the country’s deadlock, a leading source from Hariri’s Mustaqbal Movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that relations between the country’s top leaders are almost frozen.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.